Manufacturing eCommerce Success – with Wesleyne Whittaker

Curt Anderson  00:00

The music going. Hey, Damon. Happy Monday, my friend. How are you doing? I’m

Damon Pistulka  00:04

doing great. Curt. Ready for the week.

Curt Anderson  00:07

All right, let’s tackle it. We’ve got a little little came off a little football right? We got more football today. We’re halfway already halfway through January. I don’t know what’s what like I feel like I was just happy New Year’s yesterday. Do we still say Happy New Year? Are we done with that? Is it like right at the point you start saying? We’re done. We’re not saying Happy New Year anymore. We’re like we’re knee deep into it. I want to give a warm welcome shout out guys. drop a note in the chat box. Let us know you’re out there. You absolutely want to connect with our man. I might even get choked up while Slean Whitaker is in the house today Wesleyne Happy Monday. How are you my friend?

Wesleyne  00:45

I’m good. Happy Monday. Happy Monday.

Curt Anderson  00:48

So Damon let’s go here Hey Inger is here today in your hangar Monday again guys. Man we have we’re gonna have a really special conversation today. And so let us know that you’re out there if you’re not familiar with Wesleyne boy do yourself a favor connect with Wesleyne she puts out amazing incredible content on a daily basis. You absolutely want to connect with her and hate we’ve got another friend here Magna Magana I hope I said that correctly. Happy Monday to you guys. Let us know that you’re out there. Damon I want to I’m gonna I’m little confession on live before we dig in Wesleyne. Are you ready? Are you guys ready? Low confession. So I usually don’t go here on our live show. You know what, Damon? No, I had a little bit of a rough patch man like December was like a little I have a little family thing going on and just I was really really heavy. At some heavy business stuff going on. It was just like, I usually don’t go there. I usually stay pretty positive and Mr. Enthusiasm. It got like a little heavy for me. And I didn’t tell anybody and you know what my friend does eight Trisha is here today. Happy Monday, happy MLK Day. And we’re gonna dig into that in a minute here to Wesleyne completely out of nowhere, sends me a little book. I didn’t know I was going to do this completely on on just unconditional this No, in that you know, wherever you are, you know, with faith or what have you. This is a little it was a Christmas Devotional that Wesleyan sent me physically mailed This to me with a little beautiful, wonderful note thanking me about our friendship, our relationship, our partnership of us working together. Hey, guys, we got a bunch of friends here. Julie is really happy Monday, Julie.

Damon Pistulka  02:32

We’ve got friends here. David, Inger again, Inger

Curt Anderson  02:37

David’s here today. So guys, thank you let us know that you’re out there. And I want to share I want to tell you how much this little book meant to me. And it was a daily devotional. And so what what Wesleyan and I did is we shared these devotions on a daily basis every day through December. And on top of it. This is a little bragging rights for me. I’m sorry to brag. I’m 55. And Wesleyne is texting me music. And I had no idea she and I love the exact same music she shared with me a bunch of new music that I absolutely love. Wesleyne thanks you my daughter thinks I’m a little bit hip now. So prior to you. She’s like, you like the same music as westliche. You’re like, you’re one of the heads. So guys, I want to share when you’re down and out. Or maybe things aren’t just quite going exactly where you want it to be. When you can have this network and the support system and the love that I have with Damon that I have with Wesley Wesley and I’m telling you from the bottom my heart, I love you. I appreciate you. I adore you. I can’t tell you you got me through a really really tough patch. I am eternally grateful and I’m here saying that I’m public. Thank you for that. So thank you. Thank you, man.

Damon Pistulka  03:54

You have more people in here we got John in here.

Curt Anderson  03:57

Oh yeah. John Happy Monday stumbled love the energy. Our friend here Yeah, anger man. I just I knew you would love that story. So this was a in your in Anchorage up a nice note here. Sorry to hear that we trust the Lord is carrying you through it all. And again, thanks, my dear friend Mursaleen. This little devotional we got through everything. And so again, we got more notes here. Little heart from Trisha, you guys keep the comments come in. All right, I’m dominating the show. Wesleyne. Let’s go here today is Martin Luther King Day. What an amazing, incredible day to celebrate what just an American icon hero. Let’s go there share a little bit. What does Martin Luther King Day What does the legacy of Dr. King what does it mean to you? So,

Wesleyne  04:38

you know, in sharing that story, I think it’s a great segue into what this day means for me. Really, this day, it is a really special day for me and when I think about the fact that everything that Martin Luther King did for equality and for us to all live in harmony together. So for me to reach out to my Friends, my brothers, my sisters across gender lines across race lines, and really being able to form partnerships and love and pour into people that at times, you know, you don’t expect it. And a lot of times I do the things that I do because I’m walking in obedience. So I didn’t know that you needed that at the time, but I was like, Oh, I think this may be a nice thing for Kurt. And so when we think about what Dr. King did, he gave himself unselfishly, right he did the things he did to ensure that we could sit here today on this live stream with people all across the world and share things of faith, things of business, things of empowerment, to help everyone grow.

Curt Anderson  05:41

Awesome, man. What? Alright, and boy, the chat, but yeah, I got Makita if I’m saying that all this beautiful word makes me happy. We’ve got Serbia. So hey, and Paul says, Hey, Damon, great show, Paul, Happy Monday to you, guys. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Boy, we appreciate it. We love the comments. Damon turbobit. Martin Luther King, what does what does this Day mean to you?

Damon Pistulka  06:05

Well, to me, I think it’s just and this is this is beyond the civil rights and the things that he did was just absolutely incredible. It was the the peaceful persistence. I mean, you want to talk about somebody that could have got just angry as hell in jest, but he chose love and persistence, and kept that and kept that and kept that and didn’t allow other people even as bad as they were to taint his heart. I mean, that’s to me. I mean, I look at the stuff that happens today. And everybody if you don’t agree with somebody, they get hangry. And look at what he had to deal with. Look what he the people around him how to do it. And he chose love instead. And that is so powerful. It’s like, his his aura, whatever you talk about was strong enough to say, I recognize that you don’t agree with me. But I still love you. Yeah, that is, to me, that’s the iconic thing that never changes about Martin Luther King with me. And it really is, is inspirational to me on a maybe not daily basis. I don’t think of his name on daily basis. But really, when you think of that concept,

Curt Anderson  07:21

it it’s incredible

Damon Pistulka  07:23

to me.

Wesleyne  07:25

And you know, as Damon as you were talking I sent somebody, this this first like Kirk said, I send people stuff all the time, just randomly. And this morning, it was love is patient and kind and it’s not boastful, and my little commentary is Love is an action word, right? So we show love and our actions and so what you said is like he showed his patience, his persistence, his kindness. He wasn’t angry or boastful, right? It wasn’t about him. It was about the people that he was serving. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  07:57

Man, I knew this was gonna be good one. But how about this being Damon, you’re just awesome. Inger I couldn’t agree more guys keep. Share your notes in the comments, you know, let us know like what did Martin Luther King? What does this Day mean to you? I love you know, drop those notes in the chat box. Damon persistence, you know, peaceful persistence. Think of the humility that it takes. Think of the humility that it takes to you know, endure in the insults and the hurt and everything to come with that peaceful persistence in a love to words. Choose. Love. Choose love. Let’s keep the fire burning Westling. How, let’s talk about choosing love. And again, if you guys are just joining us, man, go back and hit that rewind button, because man, Westling just showered me with love and a really difficult time. And just what a blessing you are, how can we? How can we walk like that? You know, you we talked about walking in faith or walk like a Martin Luther King, like, you know, how can we in our own little way, walk in and choose love.

Wesleyne  09:02

When I think about choosing love or walking in that way, I think about being the change that I want to see, one of the things that I am most happy, excited and proud to say is that every single person that works within my organization, they tell me they’ve never worked anywhere like this in their life. And so on one hand, it’s really sad to hear that but on another hand, it makes me so proud. Because I truly practice what I preach. So I’m not just out here telling people lead with empathy leaders, listen to your sales people allow them to be human. I do that within my organization. I send them inspiration. I allow them to be human. Sometimes they just are like, I’m here today, but I just don’t feel like talking right? I send them cards in the mail. I send them stuff so that they understand that you know love is an action and Even today, one of my employees looked at my calendar. She’s like, Today’s a day off. Why are you working? I was like, Well, I was like, because somebody who is really important to me asked me to do this thing. And I was like, I know it’s a company day off. But this is important to me. So I’m going to do it right. And so it’s being the change that you want to see. It’s not just showing up and talking about all this stuff. But it’s when people who see you on the sidelines or people who work with you every day or people who are connected to you, they can say yes, Wesleyan is truly the person that she says she is she’s truly the person like this in every situation.

Curt Anderson  10:40

Damon, all right night, so we’ve got Quincy, Jackson. Hello, happy Monday, Jackson. Trish drops know here out of the mountain of despair of stone of hope. Inger, thank you. Great comment here. Yes, love is a doing word. Church says the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience. But where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. absolute love it. Hey, Afia, if I’m saying that correctly, Happy Monday to you. And so again, Trisha, another great comment. What a great community to gather today. So thank you guys, again, drop your comments. We’re here celebrating Martin Luther King Day, we’ve got Wesleyne, who’s a sales guru. Wesleyan, you know, like, I’m like the proud Uncle, you know, you and I connected number of years ago, we became fascinated friends, we have worked together for three years now. tons of projects together, I had the proud moment of sitting in the front row in September, in Buffalo, New York, at the manufacturing extension partnership, that’s the MEP network, national conference, it was a national conference, there were hundreds, hundreds, I think five 600 People were estimated at this conference, I sat in the front row, and you my fine young friend, we’re standing on stage delivering this wonderful, powerful keynote speech, I just couldn’t have been more proud. I literally had tears in my eyes. Let’s you touch a couple of things. I feel it, as we’ve been talking here, share a little bit with the folks that missed this wonderful event. What were some of the things that you talked about at your keynote this year. So

Wesleyne  12:15

I really dipped into understanding what is necessary for you to have a thriving team. We often think about IQ, which is your skill set it is your ability to do something, you know, okay, I can cold call, I can close I can do this. However, taking that a step further is your EQ which is your emotional quotient, right. So that’s your ability to connect with people on a deeper level, stepping into their world really understanding what their needs are. And this goes for your customers and for your teams, right? We can’t just be in a silo and think that our ways always the right way, we have to have the empathy to understand what it’s like to be in a different area in the world in a different aspect. And what I really tapped in was this is what I call adaptability quotient your AQ. And so what that adaptability quotient is I just talked about love and action, your adaptability quotient is your empathy and action. It’s your emotional quotient in action, it’s your ability to adapt to certain situations. And knowing when you need to push a little bit harder or pull back right. And so a key part of this AQ, is what I like to call assertive leadership. And whether or not you lead a team, or you’re leading yourself, you need to learn how to be assertive, not to be passive, not to be aggressive. You need to learn how to be gritty, which is the ability to take a lick and keep on ticking you need to really understand when to activate which parts of your intellect and your emotions so that you can be a well rounded person that is able to adapt to the changing environment and changing landscape of our world.

Curt Anderson  13:55

Okay, lots of meat on the bone right there in your says Wesleyne true leadership is a calling on choice thank you for embodying that as you lead your team what’s the child boy trying to balance all those right trying to fight you know, my empathetic my too empathetic, my compassion my to my being too passive by being too aggressive? How do we find that balance? Any any tips, advice for folks out there in leadership on that standpoint,

Wesleyne  14:18

the first thing that you must do is examine yourself. So it all starts with this self work. And so when you’re starting that self work, you really think about how do I react when certain situations happen? So for instance, when I am given a deadline, I’m giving something to do at the last minute, what is my first instinct is my first instinct to get upset. It’s my first instinct to just fix it, fix it, fix it, or do I sit and take a moment and say, Okay, this has given me an uneasy response. I feel like I’m in an emotional place. Let me figure out what I can do and what I can do. Right. And so really understanding that self awareness case is really important. And the next step is to self advocacy. So it’s not okay to just say yes to everything, it’s not okay to say no to everything, sometimes you have to push back. And sometimes you have to just do it. And so taking that same example of having your leader or a customer, asking you to do something at the last minute, taking a very passive approach to that would be like, Okay, it’s four o’clock on a Friday, and I promised my spouse that we’re gonna go on a date night, so I’m just gonna cancel on my spouse, I’m gonna sit here and work for the next three hours, that’s a very passive approach, the aggressive approach is telling your boss, I’m sorry, I only have one hour left in the week, and I’m not gonna get this done for another couple of days, just deal with it. So what we have to do is we come in the middle, we say, hey, so I have a very special personal event that I have to attend in a couple of hours. So I’ll be able to get 50% of this done, but I won’t be able to get the other 50% done, I can get that to you next week. Is that, okay? What is the most important part of this project, and then on the other side, telling your spouse, hey, we’re still going to go on this date. And I know what’s important to you, I’m going to be about 30 minutes late. So that allows you to balance your personal and your professional life. I’m not all in on one side or all in on the other side, and I’m using my words and speaking up for myself.

Curt Anderson  16:20

Okay, lots of man. All right. Phenomenal. And I love how you’re describing, like, you know, if you’re feeling worked up, you feel in that emotional state? How do you, you know, if you’re feeling triggered? I, you know, typically, I’m good at that once a while, you know, you know, like, any hockey fans out there, the puck cuts through the past the goalie once in a while, you know, when you feel triggered? And say if you’re engaged or you know, feel if you are I’m a little bit emotional. How do you, you know, how do you get that self awareness that kind of like, wait, I need a pullback here. Any tips advice there?

Wesleyne  16:53

You have to So what triggers you? Right? Yeah. So understanding your triggers, understand, you have to understand your triggers. I am a morning person. And so as a morning person, that means I do my most intensive, the thing that I don’t like to do the most is I do it in the morning. So again, knowing that I’m a morning person, if I have a meeting at five o’clock in the afternoon, I’m going to be irritated because my brain is off. And so I don’t have meetings that late in the afternoon that require me to use my brainpower. So knowing that things that trigger you, what are those points of things that really get under your skin, and it could be just completely innocent, a person could not realize that by showing you a picture of their cute little puppy, that’s going to trigger something in you because your dog just passed away, right? So you don’t just bite their head off. You cut them off. You say, Oh, that’s such a such a nice puppy. But right now, I can’t talk about that. Because I’m going through something right, like so be self aware. Know what gets you there. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  18:01

And then when you hit those trigger points, it’s really, as you said earlier, Wesleyan is understanding how to just pause, rather than just go. I mean, because we’re, we’re programmed to go right. And to get your mind to go, okay, they just said something that whatever didn’t triggered me, right. It’s like, instead of just coming back, it’s like, okay, just, it’s just the like, I say, count to 1010. Yeah, after 10. And it’s not even because you’re angry. But it’s just because you want to think about something for just a second. And go, Okay, what, what is the? What is the best way for me to really respond to this rather than react? Right?

Wesleyne  18:44

Yes. And uncovering. So when we’re in those situations, and sometimes it’s with customers, sometimes it’s with our spouses, with our kids, my team members, like this is a principle that applies to our life, because we’re humans, and we are full of emotions, right? And so, a lot of times when we’re angry, we don’t realize that they’re it, we’re angry, because there’s a difference of opinion, or there’s a difference of thought or that we don’t understand the other person, they don’t understand us. So instead of blowing back with a very declarative hard statement, ask a question. So I just want to make sure I understand what you’re asking and speak it back to them. And if you’re doing this via text, message, or email, this is the point where you need to pick up the phone and call somebody, right? Because if you continue going back and forth, text or email, things get lost in translation. And that’s just a whole recipe for disaster. And especially if you’re like a remote employee, and you’re the rest of your team isn’t around you and you don’t see them often. Not understanding where somebody is coming from. You can take something written and take it the wrong way. And then you hold on to that. And then when you hold on to that, that’s a whole different path that we can talk about what what happens when you hold on to that pain or that bitterness, what actually happens to you.

Curt Anderson  19:59

Okay, Latson cover right there so let’s keep the party rolling so guys you know we’re here with West lean transform sales strongly encourage you invite you welcome you implore you connect with West lean on LinkedIn, check out her website. She has all sorts of great information. She posts on a daily basis, wonderful wisdom nuggets and just bustling isms as we like to call them. Hashtag Wesleyan isms, and just all sorts of information. Wessling I have burning minds burning curiosity. Was it burning curiosity minds? I don’t know. curious minds want to know. How’s that one? I’m gonna go back to your keynote speech. And again, I was there for voice. It was just it was just pure goat. You know, and it’s such a young age to deliver such a speech. We’re here celebrating Martin Luther King Day. And you know, when you think about that, right, it came from a TED talk. So this is not my original thought, you know, I know this came from a TED talk. But Martin Luther, you know, they he rallied hundreds of 1000s of people in 1963, I believe, right? And no social media. Nobody was texting. Nobody was like, I mean, there were like, dude, like it was like rotary phones back in mind and Damien’s day, right? And so, you know, rallied all those troops who you think about, you know, going for that? Cause? Wesley, I saw you on stage, speaking to tons of people, people were so emotional, I talked to tons of people after I was watching the crowd. How did that? How did that change you? And be able to deliver an emotional message and you know, in hug in front of hundreds of people? How did that change you as a person? And what was that experience like for you? For anybody out there is like, boy, I’d love to give a keynote someday, or I’d like to be on stage. What did that mean to you as a person.

Wesleyne  21:38

So going back to what we were talking about before, when I prepare for a speech, and even like, right up until I get on the stage, I stopped, I pray, I said, God, allow me to touch the people that need to be touched, I want to these words, to be your words, I want to be your vessel. So for me when I get on the stage, I know that there are people who are going to be impacted by the words that I say, and there are going to be people that are hearing the message that I need to deliver at the right time. And so when I get the feedback from people, I think, probably an hour or two later, I was sitting in a session. And somebody literally said, he said this morning, as I was getting ready to come to the session, I said, God, I really I feel like I’m in this place of I don’t know what’s next. And I don’t know how to move. So please allow something that I hear today to move me to speak to me. And so he said you were the answer to my prayer. Like, how big is that for somebody? That’s the answer to my prayer. Right? And so when I do what I do, I do it because I know that the way that I deliver messages the way that I show up with empathy and authenticity and vulnerability, it helps people and helps people who haven’t been able to open up before it helps people who are struggling with something know that it’s okay to ask for help. It’s okay to not be a one person army.

Curt Anderson  23:03

Yeah, and you were very vulnerable on stage and you shared a whole you know, a lot of things about your personal life, your journey, your sales journey. And that’s it we’ve got a couple of more comments here. David, we got Muhammad Tjapukai Hey, this everyone this is amazing. Happy Monday to Muhammad Muhammad, friend of ours here says nice and eager. This is my fervent prayer everyday Wesleyne and again, I absolutely love in your thank you for your comments, guys. Keep the comments coming. We’re celebrating a wonderful day and we’re chatting with, Wesleyne Whitaker, Wesley, you are a sales guru. Now let’s I always go here. And so for folks that are new to you, you were this thing called a recovering chemists. I don’t know how many people can claim themselves as a recovering chemist. Can you please describe what was or what what is a recovering chemists? And how did you become such a sales guru leadership leadership Rockstar? How did this happen?

Wesleyne  23:58

So our covering Canvas is a person that used to spend their time with plastics, with chemicals with anything but humans. And that is how I spent about five years of my career. I actually started my career working in the lab working with what I call failure analysis. So understanding why plastic parts that we were making, why they were failing in the field. And so that sparked my curiosity, because anytime the salespeople will come back from their sales calls, I was in the office with my notebook like, okay, so what happened? Why did this happen? How did they use the results that I gave them? Did this change the formulation that we use? Like I wanted to know all of those things? And so that’s how I stepped into sales. And that curiosity is what has served me so well in my sales career. Because I’ve already always been curious. My first sales job they sent me to Germany for two weeks. I learned all about the technical stuff for for what I was selling, and then they sent me back home they said sell I said excuse To me what I don’t like I don’t even know what to do. I’ve never sold anything a day in my life. And so the curiosity I had the same way I used to sit down with the salespeople when they came back from the field. That’s literally what I did with existing customers in our territory in my territory. I went to them and I said, Okay, so tell me how you’re using I sold capital equipment, so instruments that were used in the lab to understand properties. And so I went to them, I’m like, oh, so how are you using this instrument? So tell me about your research. Tell me what else you try. And so they taught me, like I learned from my customers. And that is actually one of the very first things I tell companies they need to do with their new sales employees. Make them talk to the existing customers in their territory, have them teach them how they’re using your products, your services, and that’s going to help them become better salespeople. So really, that’s kind of how I started my career in sales.

Curt Anderson  25:54

Well, absolute love. Hey, we’ve got Kirsten here today. Kherson. Happy Monday. I always, always love listening to Wesleyne Whitaker. She’s truly an inspiration, hashtag Woo. And we’ve got hashtag Wesleyan isms. So Leslie, let’s go there. How now. So you branched off on your own took that entrepreneurial leap? I’d love to, for folks to hear. How do you make the world a better place today, when folks reach out to you and engage with you? How are you helping them hit their goals, talk about your expertise and how you help your clients.

Wesleyne  26:26

What so many people do in the world of sales is they tell people what, go cold call, go hit your numbers go network, but they don’t teach them the how. So my secret sauce, if you will, or my differentiator, is I really teach people that how to do stuff. And one of my greatest inspirations for teaching, the way that I teach is really my kids. So my oldest son, he is identified, gifted and talented, and my youngest son is identified dyslexic. So they learn two completely different ways. My older son, as he’s now starting to take some advanced placement classes, I’m really focused on how he learns, he learns he can sit in class here, the teacher take his test that’s been that’s studying for him. And I’m like, at some point, that’s never gonna, you need more. So what I’m making him do is I’m like, so I need you to watch one additional video a day of somebody who’s different than your teacher. And I want you to just take a couple of notes, whereas my younger son, he’ll learn by hearing. And he’s going to ask you five or 10 questions just in a short time span, because he needs to understand the origin. He’s like, Well, Mommy, why does this happen? Well, Mommy, why does this do this? Why does this happen and then met in 20 minutes, he’ll use something that you’ve taught him in his own application. So when I teach, I want to meet the person like my older son, who can hear it and get it, and the person who’s like my younger son, who needs to understand the origin. So that’s why in the training that I offer, I give a lot of backstory, I say the same thing. And I package it up in different ways. Because I want to make sure that a person who can just read a document or a person who can listen to a 20 minute video, they’re both getting the sales skills that they need. Okay,

Curt Anderson  28:12

so good. All right. So yep. Wesleyan is what transformed sales. What was your What was it like? So you had big corporate career? You’re traveling all over the world? What was that entrepreneurial leap like? So for anybody out there? It’s like, you know, man, I’m working corporate. I wouldn’t mind taking that leap. But it’s a little scary. I don’t know if I have the courage. Can you just walk through folks like what was going through your mind excitement, scared fear? What was what was going through Wesley’s mind at that time?

Wesleyne  28:41

Is all of the above it was the Can I do it? This is scary. This is hard. But my my chemists brain makes me very process oriented. So I gave myself milestones and I was like, okay, in six months, if I’m able to replace the income from my corporate job with my business, then I’ll go out full time and I was able to do that in four months. And then another thing that I like to tell people when you set yourself goals, if you’re starting a business before you completely taking the leap, don’t touch the money your business is making. That is your cushion, literally that cushion money five, six years into the business it’s still there because I never had to touch it. So it’s a mindset thing and a lot of things that we do as business owners it’s mindset same thing with sales it’s a mindset thing we have to get our wrap our mind around what we want to do and how we want to do it and then we execute

Damon Pistulka  29:40

Yep. That is so good

Curt Anderson  29:43

about knowing your audience so I you hit on something that I want to dig in. I’ve had the honor privilege you and I’ve done I don’t know how many webinars workshops and just in Guys and as you can tell, when you do a webinar with Wesley in the chat box is just on fire. So again, keep Comments, keep the questions coming. If you have any questions regarding leadership sales, this is a place to ask, ask Wesleyne connect with Wesleyan on LinkedIn. Boy, she puts out daily posts that are just phenomenal, great tips. And what’s the what? I’ve learned a ton from you about that sales process, that I’m going to go into goals. You really hit home. I like how important it is, I know sounds kind of broad or maybe kind of vague. Well, of course, we need to have goals. But you really take it to the next level. Can you talk to folks about whether it’s their business personal, how important it is for that goal setting? And we saw our new in the year a great time to be thinking about that. Take us there, would you please?

Wesleyne  30:41

When we are setting goals, it’s important to have something that we’re driving towards that we’re striving for, right? So if you just sit down on January 1 and say, I want to make more money this year, it’s great. How are you gonna know if you’ve accomplished it? How are you going to know if you’ve made more money? Like, how are you going to know that you got there. So set a goal, and it can be a moving target, you can say I want to make an extra $10,000 A month or I want to make an extra $10,000 This year, whatever it is. But whatever the goal that you set for yourself, you need to make sure you break it up into small manageable chunks. And when I set goals, and when I do goal setting, I’m actually having a webinar in two weeks, I’m going to talk all about this. So I hope everybody attends. But when we set goals, we set them in three different categories always revenue, because if you’re a salesperson or business owner, you got to know how much money you’re making. So have a revenue goal, have a goal and I call it a professional development goal. How am I going to get better as a salesperson, a business owner, a leader, whatever that is. And then the third one is, as a business owner, as a sales leader, somebody who has variable compensation, whether it’s commission or bonus, you’re making a little bit of extra money, you’re making money that’s over and above what your actual salary and bills are. So what are you going to use that money for? Like, are you going to pay down debt? Are you going to go on a vacation? Are you saving money for college tuition, whatever it is. So in that final goal, that personal development goal, it’s really important because on those slow months, when things get tough, when you’re tired, when you’re like I can’t make another call, I can’t go to another networking event, you know what you’re pushing towards. So really having those goals in those three different categories and breaking them down into monthly manageable pieces. So for instance, if you say, I want to so I had a goal a couple years ago, I said I want to be a paid keynote speaker. So I didn’t just sit on one day and say I’m going to be a paid keynote speaker and do nothing about it. Every month, I said, Okay, I’m going to be on this many podcasts. I’m going to reach out to this many organizations, I’m going to do this many things. And that was each month I focused on that thing that I wanted to do.

Damon Pistulka  32:55

Okay, that’s slow march towards the goals is what what differentiates people over time it’s not you know, you see here things you see things about, do this quick. And there’s very little that happens quick. It’s that’s worthwhile and these things just take that march over time a continuing to do things. Absolutely. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  33:15

You know, you don’t take down a tree on a first swing, right. It’s like kidding. It’s putting in the wraps. I love that Wessling, you know, you set a goal prior about, hey, I want to be a keynote speaker and like intentionally work towards that. So for folks out there, where it’s new to them, let’s do a little recap. So we’re talking about like those revenue goals, those professional development goals, and like just really putting those reps in the the intention to get there as opposed to just like, hey, I’m gonna lose weight, hey, I want to eat healthier, hey, I want to make more money, I want to just you know, very broad, you’re never going to know if you hit that goal or not, is getting very targeted specific. Let’s dive into the sales team. Okay, let’s see if there’s a sales leader out there. Maybe they’re struggling to like motivating their team, or maybe there’s a manufacturer out there, and they don’t necessary, have a sales team, but just motivating the troops, any tips or advice that you have from a team standpoint, or a leader standpoint, on how to set team goals and how to start marching towards those.

Wesleyne  34:13

So as a leader, what you need to do is you need to let have everyone understand that these things are important to them. So on a team meeting, you explain to them hey, this year, this quarter, this month, we’re setting goals in these three categories. You are again, you have to be open, you have to be authentic, you have to be vulnerable. Here are the categories that I’ve said. So this is what I’m working on professionally. This is what I’m working on personally. And then you have each person on the team make their goals, you have them, send them to you by the end of that business day. And then as a leader, you sit down with each and every person on the team and you understand their motivations behind those goals. You walk through that walk it through with them, and the reason why it is so important is because we’ve coached towards our goals. So again, when that salesperson is having a really slow month, you say, Hey, I know it’s really important for you to pay off this credit card that you’ve had for four years, and you’re really close to getting it all paid off, what do we need to do? So you can hit your target this month and pay off this credit card within the time that you have. Right? So it’s not just about the money that they’re making. It’s not just about the job, it’s just about the task at hand. It’s about their motivation, and what’s driving them to succeed and what’s driving them to work. Man, all right,

Curt Anderson  35:39

that is so good diving in. From let’s let’s go here, let’s, let’s see, there’s a small business out there. And, you know, COVID, you know, hopefully behind us, it’s been a little bit tough, challenging getting out of it. They’re trying to, you know, a labor shortage. Hopefully, that’s back on track now. So maybe we’re getting, you know, over the hump on some of these things. How about for that manufacturer where like, maybe they’re gonna take on a new line, or they’re, they’re taking a new leap of faith or something exciting, something adventurous? How do we set some new goals, whether it’s like a new customer, new product line, any advice, any suggestions there?

Wesleyne  36:12

So think about the big audacious thing you want to do at the end, by the end of 2024, we need to be generating a half a million dollars in revenue for this new line that we’ve invested in, right? And then we back calculate, okay, so if we need to generate a half a million dollars, then how many new customers? Is that? Okay, that’s 10 customers at $50,000 apiece. Okay, so now we know we need 10 new customers over the next 12 months. How many proposals do we have to send out to get one customer? Oh, every five proposals, we get one person signing? Again, we’re back calculating again, to get those five proposal meetings. How many people do we need to be talking to? To say, Yes, I’m willing to hear your proposal. Oh, okay, about 20 people. So what does that tell me, that tells me each and every month, I have to identify 20 qualified leads, in hopes of getting one customer to sign for $50,000 each month. And that’s how you take a big, hairy, audacious thing, and you go all the way back. So make sure that you are putting things into manageable chunks. And so if you give your sales team we need 20 qualified people each and every month, then for one salesperson, that may mean that they have to prospect 100 people for another person that may mean they only need to prospect 40. Right, they need to know what their shots at goal are. So that’s how we get it back to that personalized level. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  37:43

absolutely love that shots on goal, you know, you know, reverse engineering team. And that’s we, you know, we’ve talked about that all

Damon Pistulka  37:51

the time. You know, I’m doing it now, with a company now we’re going through the same thing. It’s like, Okay, how many times do you sell the customer? You know, out of what’s your success rate customer? What’s the average sale to the customer. So then we’re back, backing our way into if you want to be at x, this is what you’ve got to drive in the door. And yeah, that’s great stuff.

Curt Anderson  38:14

All right, I’m gonna start winding down. I know everybody’s here. Super busy on this wonderful day. Wesleyan, you are an incredibly busy person saving all sorts of companies. Again, guys connect with us lean on LinkedIn, checkout, transform sales, she does an amazing, incredible job out there. If you’re a if you’re an MEP out there, boy, you definitely want to connect with with Wesleyan, you recognize her from the keynote speech that she gave at the MEP conference. If you are a small company manufacturer, you have a team of sales, folks, you definitely want to connect with Weston, as you can tell, setting up those leadership goals. Setting up sales goals, was saying I’m gonna go here, you love talking about making new behaviors matter making new behaviors matter, right, you know, definition of sanity of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again. Could you take us there? Can you talk a little bit about what are some new behaviors like how, what’s the what’s the book, what got you here won’t get you there? Right? Do I say that correctly? What are some new behaviors that you love to suggest coach Institute for leaders in this world?

Wesleyne  39:18

So I’ll go with what the what most of us know about building habits, right? They say it takes 21 days to make an action that you’re doing a habit. So one of the first thing is don’t give up easily. Give it at least three business weeks, if you’re trying something new, give it at least three weeks to ensure that it’s working. And what I like to say I like to drive behaviors that drives change. So if somebody has so let’s go back to the example that we just use, so we know that we need 20 qualified customers 20 qualified prospects each and every month and you realize that If your team is struggling with that, they’re only getting five or 10. Or it’s like they’re just not doing what we need them to do. We don’t beat them over the head and say, call more people get more people doing this, do this, do this, do this. What we truly need to do, excuse me is we need to understand why. Why are they not achieving this target this goal that we set for them? Is it that they really just don’t know what to say? Like, they don’t understand how to actually make a call. They have anxiety about writing an email, maybe because English isn’t their first language. They are scared of using LinkedIn because they don’t want to get rejected. So understanding the reason why somebody isn’t doing something you coach to the underlying reason why you coach to the thing that is holding them back, you don’t coach to the tactical thing to the tactical action. So if I understand that, you know, you’re scared of LinkedIn because you’re worried if I post nobody’s gonna respond. If I send somebody a connection message, they won’t do it. I equip you with the confidence you need by providing you the knowledge and the skill set for that thing. You don’t feel comfortable writing emails. Let me sit down let’s have a session. Let me show you. How do you compose an effective email? I’ll show it to you you write it I give you some feedback and then I’m like okay, now you go try. So really getting granular and focusing on a thing at a time. If you try to make somebody master LinkedIn master cold calling master emailing all at one time, they’re gonna fail. It’s too much stuff

Damon Pistulka  41:34

much too much. Right?

Curt Anderson  41:37

Right. I love that. All right few comments here. David says, Hey, I love the soccer analogy. shots on goal say that for our soccer friends could been our hockey friends as well. I admire Happy Monday to you my friend and Go Eagles. Hey, Trisha, my dear friend Trish is asking. The summer seminar webinar that you’ve mentioned is where can folks find that what? I

Wesleyne  41:58

will drop that in? I think I can drop it in after the live and I’m excited directly to you Trish.

Curt Anderson  42:03

Perfect. Okay, awesome. And hey, and breaking my goals down to the three week sessions and understand the why I play soccer. I love scoring. Well, Damon, we absolutely love you scoring as well. We want you to scoring all sorts of goals this year, whether it’s personally professionally on a sports field, wherever you’re at Wesleyne, let’s start taking it home. We opened up with Martin Luther King talking about that I shared my deep adequate my admiration my my my love, for you my respect and gratitude for everything that you’ve done for me. As we’re as you’re kind of like looking out over 2020 for who and what is inspiring you to hit your goals for this year. Hmm,

Wesleyne  42:46

let’s see who is inspiring me. Um, when I think about my inspiration this year, I would say my boys are probably my inspiration. So for them to see their mom showing up and loving what she does every single day. And helping people and really allowing people to step into this place where they feel empowered, they feel hopeful, they have a path to hit the revenue targets, they have a path to really improve their sales skills. I would say that that is they are my greatest inspiration. I did this strategic planning session with my best friend who was like my business partner, and we always do a look back to look forward. And so she said, Okay, so tell me about last year, what were the kind of clients or projects that you did that you don’t want to do any more of this year. And I was like, I don’t have any. I enjoy every single person that I worked with. I don’t have a kind of client or business or anything that I did enjoy. Because I finally learned how to say no, I finally learned how to recognize the red flags and say this isn’t a good fit for us. I’m sorry, I’m in like, literally, I don’t chase money anymore. I don’t chase it. Because I know that the right clients will come to me and I do so much better when I’m working with the right fit than when I’m forcing myself into a hole that doesn’t work. And so even understanding that I know that I’m going into this year equipped with knowing who my ideal clients are, how we best serve them, how I can give them great successes. And so yeah, those are my inspirations. Wow.

Curt Anderson  44:33

I love that. And if I’m not mistaken, it might have been a year ago, maybe I’m losing track of time. But I remember you and I got on a call and you had a significant significant revenue client that had come to you a potential client and you knew right off the bat that it was not a good fit in again, my respect for you to politely pass on that opportunity. Because by saying yes to that client, it would have denied you all these other wonderful opportunities, and I can tell you guys firsthand And I have the honor and privilege of working with with Wesleyan at numerous MEPs. You’ve been on site you spoke at keynote speech speech at the MEP conference. You were in Alaska doing a wonderful workshop on site in Alaska. They brought you up there, you and I see firsthand what you do at the Illinois MEP, you’re rated as one of the highest if not the highest third party provider in Illinois. So you just consistently show up you are a huge inspiration to Damon and myself. Our entire crowd here. I love Inger says this thanks for the great conversation wishing and you and everyone tuned in a blessed rest of your week. And we’ve got Diane saying Happy new year you are looking fabulous. Your smile is wonderful. Just brings complete joy completely contagious. Guys we’re gonna wind down and just what a wonderful conversation Damon any parting thoughts your takeaways from today?

Damon Pistulka  45:53

No, I think people listening just really should go back rewind this and listen to what Wesleyan said about you know engaging with your your teams really going back and breaking down where you want to go and turning that into small steps that you can take I mean, there’s just so much value in what you were sharing with us and yeah, just appreciate you being able to be here today Wesley

Wesleyne  46:18

Thank you always my pleasure.

Curt Anderson  46:20

All right. All right guys, we will wind down Wesleyan any any parting thoughts words? It was any last Wesleyan isms that you want to share as we Wesleyan wisdom, right Wesleyan wisdom, anything else that you want to share as we wind down?

Wesleyne  46:31

Yeah, so I am launching on February 1, a transform sales mastery circle. And what it is, is it is a program and a place where all the years and years and years of knowledge and nuggets and wisdom are going to be compiled in one spot and there’s a component of live coaching that people can drop into. And my favorite part is Wesleyne wisdom is now AI. There is an AI tool for it. So you can type something into a chat box and it will actually pull from my videos not the worldwide web chatGPT. And it will give you the answers. So I’m really excited about that. So that’s launching on February 1. So awesome sales mastery server, awesome

Damon Pistulka  47:18

stuff. Great

Curt Anderson  47:19

stuff. And as we close out Trish, thank you again, for your great inspiration. Thank you for providing great content. Thank you for being there. And again, we’ve got a friend here saying great job all the way around. And hey, great job. So you guys, guys, thank you for being here today. Thank you for your comments. We appreciate you more than you can imagine. Happy Martin Luther King Day. And boy like the conversation today. Choose love man, just choose love be just in deep, deep, radical humility. And boy just be someone’s inspiration just like Wesleyan was for us today. Guys. God bless you. We appreciate you. We’re gonna let you go. We have a great, great conversation on Friday, Damon, we’ve got Franz coming from across the pond from from Netherlands. And we’re going to be talking about how to offload your way to success. And it ties in perfectly what was lean was describing the ability to politely say no, so you guys have a great rest of your week. We’ll see you here at Friday Wesleyan. Hang out with us for one second. And have a great day guys. Thank you