Resources in this Episode:

Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hi Gorgeous, this is episode number 070 with Anthony Innarino, and I am so happy to have him back on the show!

Anthony Iannarino [0:11]
Hi this is Anthony Innarino and you’re listening to the Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski, enjoy!

Christine Schlonski [0:20]
Anthony delivers so much value year in year out, and I am so super excited that he is spending more time with us today, and that he’s also a guest teacher at the Sales Mentality Makeover Masterclass. If you want to join this free online event and learn from wonderful outstanding heart-centered teachers who teach about the spiritual and practical steps, how you can increase your sales and create true wealth without losing your authenticity, you will be in the right place. Hop on over to christineschlonski.com, you find the podcast there by the way with all the show notes, transcripts, and resources we talk about, and you also find in the tap the Sales Mentality Makeover Masterclass, a free online event, we are getting started very, very soon. So, put yourself in the guest list today, and you will get an update with all the information you need to join the class. Let’s welcome back Anthony Innarino, an international speaker also and sales leader who publishes daily at the www.thesalesblog.com to help you be more, do more, have more, and contribute more. Well, I’m so pumped that I have Anthony back in the show today, welcome to Heart Sells! Podcast.

Anthony Iannarino [1:53]
Yea, it feels like we just keep doing this, over and over again, don’t we?

Christine Schlonski [1:56]
Yeah!

Anthony Iannarino [1:56]
We enjoy it though!

Christine Schlonski [1:58]
It’s wonderful. We do enjoy it. I love talking to you. I love the way you package sales, you talk about sales, you put your humor and your human being. And, I think people can just feel that you, that you really are about service. And that you know the sale is something that comes totally natural. And, you write a lot about sales as well, in your amazing blog, thesalesblog.com is where people can have a look. So, today I would love to kind of get back to the first conversation on Heart Sells! where we talked about being authentic. And where we talked also about not taking rejection personally, because the other person has a blood sugar problem, right?

Anthony Iannarino [2:49]
That’s right!

Christine Schlonski [2:50]
So if people haven’t listened to it, go back to the podcast 069 and have a listen. So, when did you learn not to take it personally?

Anthony Iannarino [3:05]
The very first cold call I ever made.

Christine Schlonski [3:08]
Wow!

Anthony Iannarino [3:08]
The very first cold call I ever made. So my mom raised four kids by herself. I was the oldest of her four. When I was 13, right in the middle of a recession, she started a business with her business partner, and they didn’t even know they were in the middle of a recession. But, they did well, and I must have been 19 years old, and they decided to start a light industrial staffing division of their recruiting company. And they asked me to open it. And I went down, I start working in this office. And they said when you have nothing to do, call people who might use temporary staffing, and see if you can help them with anything. And I said, okay, I’ll do that. And they gave me this little binder. It was like a little three by five card binder, and it had the scripts for how to ask for a meeting and how to overcome five objections. And that’s what they had for me. And I didn’t have anything to do. We were a startup so, all I could do is call some people. So I started calling people, and the very first call I made was to a company called Snare. And I still remember the company because it was my first call. And I called a guy and I started to read the script, and I said, “Hi, my name is Anthony Innarino, and I’m calling you today.” And he said wait a minute, he said you’re reading from a script. And I said, yeah! And he said, call me back, you don’t need a script anymore. And he hung up on me, he immediately hung up on me, my very first call. And I didn’t know what to do, because I was supposed to be trying to help this guy. So I called my mom, and I said, my mom was a, I mean, she cold-called all the time. That’s what she did to take care of her kids for $4 and 50 cents an hour on a draw, she’s taking care of four kids petrified of the phone. But by that time, she was great. I mean, she’s great with clients and kept clients for 30 years. But I called and I said, this guy just hung up on me, what do I do? And I told her the story, and she said you call him right back and you say I don’t need the script, I need to ask you for a meeting. And I said, but he just hung up on me. She said, I know, just call him back. And so I picked up the phone and I called him back. And I said listen, it’s my first day, and I don’t need the script, what I do need though is to ask you for a meeting so I can come out and talk to you about whether or not we might be able to help you with temporary staffing. And he said, okay, you can come out Thursday. And I was like, that works. And I literally called him right back. And it’s this, how do you get through the fear of you know, somebody says no to me, and then I have to continue to persist. That happened for me on the very first call. And it’s sort of set the tone for me of how do you engage with people? And how do you think about this? He said, no, he hung up on me, well, you call back, and you don’t have to call right back like that if somebody is really in a hostile mood, maybe you give them a little time and try them again. But you just have to believe that it doesn’t mean anything about you. And if your audience is predominantly female, if you’re predominantly women, women tend to be more concerned, I think, with men around some conflict like that. And, and I would tell you, the fact that somebody rejects your offer says nothing about the value you create. So I’m going to say that again because I want to make sure people understand what I’m saying. The fact that somebody rejects your offer says nothing about you as a human being or the value that you create for other people. It says they haven’t yet recognized the value, and you’re going to try to do this again until you win them over time. You are still a whole human being no matter when somebody rejects you, you’re still whole, you have not been harmed in anyway, so you can check yourself like, “Wait, am I harmed in any way?” and check your body, go out if you want to, look at your bank account, know your bank accounts still there, your house is still there, your children still love you, nothing bad has happened. You just caught a person when they weren’t either ready to perceive the value, or they’re, they are really just grouchy right now. The rejection is not anything about you personally. And if it was then you would have the right to feel something about it. But I would tell you, you don’t have the right to feel anything about the rejection because it has nothing to do with you. All it means is they didn’t perceive enough value in the conversation to say yes. So what do you do? Create more value, but that’s the only thing you need to worry about.

Christine Schlonski [7:24]
Yeah, and to call back, not to get hung up yourself.

Anthony Iannarino [7:27]
Yeah, exactly.

Christine Schlonski [7:29]
Give it another try.

Anthony Iannarino [7:31]
Absolutely.

Christine Schlonski [7:33]
So do you remember the very first thing you ever sold in your life?

Anthony Iannarino [7:37]
Yes. I was 15, and I sold a community group, a bikeathon where they would go out and collect money for muscular dystrophy. And they would have people in the community ride bikes and people would give them a donation based on the number of miles they rode, rode the bike. So I think did that when I was 15, that was the first thing I ever sold.

Christine Schlonski [8:04]
How did it make you feel?

Anthony Iannarino [8:07]
Well, I felt nothing about it at that time, because I left that job and I went to work at a skating rink where I was surrounded by teenage girls, and as a teenage boy being surrounded by teenage girls or cold calling, which one do you pick? They begged me to come back because they said you’re the only person that’s ever gotten anybody to do a bikeathon since we started. And I had two going at that time. And I felt good about it, but not good enough that was going to go back and do it again. I was 15!

Christine Schlonski [8:35]
Yeah, I totally agree. So, so you know, some people have like the amazing stories that they, I don’t know, painted rocks and went to the neighbors and try to sell the rocks or baseball cards.

Anthony Iannarino [8:47]
I had a paper route. I mean, I did that. I sold papers.

Christine Schlonski [8:52]
Okay.

Anthony Iannarino [8:52]
But that was something people were buying, and I didn’t really have to sell anything. The bikeathon was a different thing. I had to get people to take real action.

Christine Schlonski [9:01]
Yeah, that’s, that’s I think that’s a pretty empowering feeling when the first person says yes to you.

Anthony Iannarino [9:06]
The first person, well, yeah, that’s right. I didn’t know they said yes, though. They did it like they agreed to it, and then I left and they started afterwards. So I didn’t find out till somebody called me, but it still felt pretty good, like I was successful.

Christine Schlonski [9:21]
Okay, well, cool. And when, when you think about people taking up, you know, their passion and trying to make a business out of it, so sales, in comparison, what I see in the market right now is that a lot of people think the better their social media, then sales comes by them by itself, like, you know, if I have like an Instagram going, and my Facebook is great, and I Twitter on a regular basis and put nice pictures, people will just come naturally and buy from me. How do you see that situation?

Anthony Iannarino [10:02]
I see that as a very, very poor plan. Maybe I see it as a very poor plan. So social media creates awareness, but you have to drive people to act. So, depending on what what you sell, I mean, if you’re selling something retail like you’re selling jewelry or something like that, you still have to get them to some page where you can make an offer. But if you’re selling services, you need a conversation. So you have to be marketing in some way that says there’s a way for me to capture information from people so I can engage with them and call them and ask them if there’s something I can do to help them, or invite them to have a discovery call to see if I might be able to help them where I’m going to give them insights, and you know, every conversation that you have with a prospective client, I think you have to trade more value for the time, then they trade in the way of time. So they have to get the best end of the deal. So that’s even if you have, Christine, even if you have a half hour coaching call with me to see if it might be a good fit, even if it’s a no at the end of that, you’re going to find tremendous value in what we share together. What’s a 30-minute meeting look like for you later this week? I mean, I’m going to have the conversation because you in a service industry, you’ve got to start somewhere. And it’s in that 30 minutes I create value for you, then we can decide whether or not there’s a next step. But I think people are far too passive and they think because I have a website, and because I’m on social media, the clients are going to come and find me. Sometimes they do, most of the time they don’t. You have to work harder. You have to get into a conversation where you can talk to people.

Christine Schlonski [11:35]
Yeah, yeah, I see that people, well I feel that people are hiding from sales conversations.

Anthony Iannarino [11:41]
Yeah.

Christine Schlonski [11:42]
Because the other, the social media advertising looks like more glamorous. And it feels like less work or something they enjoy more to put up pictures instead of having those conversations where it could be a no at the end.

Anthony Iannarino [12:00]
Well, what happens when they see your beautiful pictures and they don’t do anything? Isn’t that still unknown?

Christine Schlonski [12:07]
Yeah, but they, well there’s no direct interaction, so they don’t even know about it.

Anthony Iannarino [12:11]
Yeah.

Christine Schlonski [12:11]
And then it probably doesn’t hurt as much.

Anthony Iannarino [12:14]
I mean, look, there’s 7.4 billion people on the planet. And, and 7.3 billion 990,000 people don’t care about what you do anyway. I mean, so they’ve all said no, already. So who, who, who cares? I mean, you have to find what you call your soulmate. You call them your soulmate clients, right?

Christine Schlonski [12:38]
Yes.

Anthony Iannarino [12:38]
Yeah, that’s what you call them. And that’s right. You don’t need 7.4 billion people, you need to find the, the 32 people that care so deeply about what you’re doing, that you’re going to have a relationship and serve those people. That, that’s what you’re really looking for. And I think you have to find them, you have to engage with them, and you need to talk to them. I’ve been thinking more about more about how, like how many hours of conversation do you need to have to really win a client? And I think it’s far, many more hours than people think it is. And they think well, I have this website, and it tells the whole story. They want to talk to you. They want to hear, they want to understand, they want to connect, they want to be confident that they’re making the right decision. They want your insight, and they want your, your sense of humor, and they want to know that you’re a real person and that you care about them.

Christine Schlonski [13:28]
Yeah, totally agree. So when people get on the phone with you, what are the basics or the most important points that need to be in the conversation, so that you can deliver value? Like if somebody is listening right now and thinking about their sessions, their get to know me sessions or discovery or strategy or whatever you want to call them, what needs to be in those that both of the parties get a pretty clear picture? And then if it’s the right time fit, they can work with each other.

Anthony Iannarino [14:02]
There’s, there’s two things here that I would say, so I have a very, very nuanced subtle view of this concept. So my, my view of this is, if you want to create value for another person, the first thing you have to do is help them discover something about themselves. That’s the first thing. So you have to bring an awareness to wait, there is something here. And then the second thing you have to do is to show them that there’s a better future available to them, and that they can actually make that transformation from where they are, to where they want to be. You have to let them know that it’s possible. And then you have to check and make sure that there’s a fit. Because there are a lot of people who can do the same thing, but might do it in a way that’s a better fit for some individuals. And you might be a better fit for other individuals. And so you do want to make sure that you’re working with people, I like your soulmate clients, I call them dream clients, but I like soulmate too, look, we’re going to be together for a long time, and I’ve got those clients. But you want to make sure that you’re working with people that are going to value you, and value what you do, and where you’re going to have that relationship,and you’re gonna help move people to the better place that they’re trying to get to.

Christine Schlonski [15:09]
Yeah, so would you also agree like, if it doesn’t feel like soulmate or dream, you’d rather let go instead of persuading them to buy from you?

Anthony Iannarino [15:20]
Well, not everybody is going to be a dream client. You know, when you’re starting out, you need to take clients, I would just say don’t take a nightmare client. I mean, don’t, don’t take a client who doesn’t perceive value, who’s not going to understand what you’re trying to do, who isn’t going to do the work. Don’t spend your time with people who are going to, well, let’s call them energy vampires. Right, they bite you on the neck and they suck all the energy out of you, and then you feel terrible at the end of the interaction. It’s much better when you have people where you feel energized after you do the work.

Christine Schlonski [15:50]
Yeah, totally agree. That’s why I call them soulmate client, because I’m totally happy when I see them appearing in my calendar. I’m happy when I log in with zoom, I’m happy when I talked to them. And I’m even happier after the conversation.

Anthony Iannarino [16:04]
We have to find something we disagree on though, I’m not sure what it is, we’ll have to find something over time. We agree on everything.

Christine Schlonski [16:12]
Well, how about? How about,I know that you are working a lot?

Anthony Iannarino [16:17]
Oh, here we go.

Christine Schlonski [16:18]
Right? Probably more than, than the average person like what do you do to have, like the harmony or kind of balance in your life?

Anthony Iannarino [16:28]
What does balance mean?

Christine Schlonski [16:31]
Well, I’m not quite sure with a balance, and I had an interesting conversation around that with Bob Burg, actually. And he talked about harmony, like where everything kind of clicks and flows. So what, what do you do to, well, are you in the state, or are you like a regular human being having good and bad days? Like how do you create that harmony in your life?

Anthony Iannarino [17:00]
I have an amazing ability to get myself into a, an unresourceful state. I have an amazing ability to do that, I can talk myself into a bad mood very quickly. I can say something to myself, like, these people are stealing my time. I mean, well, that sounds harsh, right? It’s, it’s not even that they’re wasting my time, they’re stealing it from me. So how negative do I have to feel about that? Really negative, right? Times the single finite, non renewable resource every human being has, and someone’s stealing it. If I have to wait in a line, I could talk myself into that state. I don’t have bad days, per say because i’m not, i’m not wired for that, I’ve sort of always been wired for some reason, when I ended up here on this planet, I’ve just thought this has been the greatest thing that could ever happen. So I love this whole thing called life. I’ve always loved it. I’ve enjoyed everything that I’ve ever done, I enjoy it. So I feel, I feel that way. But I am able to to get myself into a bad state. But harmony, I mean, you’re a human being so you’ve got all this chemistry going on in this, this thing that we’re stuck in this body, right? So they, like they call them meat covered skeleton, you know, but with a soul inside, that I think that you have this chemistry and you’re going through cycles of things like your energy is higher, your energy is low. The balance isn’t right. And you can not feel good because of that. And you can certainly have bad days. The harmony for me is, am I living in line with who I really am? Am I, am I being more, doing more, having more, contributing more? Am I doing that? Am I making progress? And am I where I’m supposed to be? When I look back, am I going to say, I served people well, and, and did I do the work that I was supposed to be here doing? And that’s the part where it’s harmony for me. So I work a lot of hours. And you’re a little critical, right? You think I should have more…

Christine Schlonski [19:03]
I worked a lot of hours because I love what I do too.

Anthony Iannarino [19:06]
Me too!

Christine Schlonski [19:06]
And you know, as…

Anthony Iannarino [19:07]
But we’re trying to find a way to disagree.

Christine Schlonski [19:10]
All right, well…

Anthony Iannarino [19:13]
So far we can’t find anything?

Christine Schlonski [19:16]
Well, let’s, what do you have to have a point to disagree with a human?

Anthony Iannarino [19:22]
No, but I just think I’m trying to have fun with you. And if we had something that would be good. We could have a really good argument. How many hours? How many hours is too many?

Christine Schlonski [19:32]
How many hours is too many? I don’t know.

Anthony Iannarino [19:34]
Oh my goodness, you’ve got the same illness I have. I’m like 94, is 94 too many?

Christine Schlonski [19:43]
Well, if it’s not too many for you, I’m fine with it.

Anthony Iannarino [19:46]
Ok, I disagree.

Christine Schlonski [19:50]
See, I like, like right now it’s springtime here in Germany. So the sun is out. It’s beautiful. And then whenever I feel like it, I just go and sit outside for a little while, because I just can. I don’t have anybody dictating me, well, these are your working hours. And then because you have some supervision you need to appear like you’re busy.

Anthony Iannarino [20:14]
Right!

Christine Schlonski [20:15]
So I just can go out and enjoy the sun, and then I come back to what I get to do what I desire to do. Right? SoI don’t think there is like too many hours working if you really enjoy what you’re doing.

Anthony Iannarino [20:31]
I love what I’m doing.

Christine Schlonski [20:33]
Yeah.

Anthony Iannarino [20:34]
And that’s why it’s not really ever worked for me. It’s all just how do you do what makes you happy and help other people?

Christine Schlonski [20:42]
Yeah!

Anthony Iannarino [20:42]
Eventually we’ll find something though.

Christine Schlonski [20:45]
We will!

Anthony Iannarino [20:46]
I’ll be in Germany, you know, and we’ll go to dinner or lunch or something like that. And then I’ll say we should go here and you’re gonna be like, I hate that I’d never eat that, we’ll have something. I don’t know what it will be.

Christine Schlonski [20:58]
Well, you know that, you know if you would drag me to have meat…

Anthony Iannarino [21:02]
There we go! Yeah. We’re going to go to a steak restaurant.

Christine Schlonski [21:07]
I’m gonna have a salad and french fries.

Anthony Iannarino [21:10]
French fries? That’s good. No, I forgot about you being a vegan.

Christine Schlonski [21:17]
Yeah, well, vegetarian. I’m not 100% vegan at the moment, but I tried to skip animal products.

Anthony Iannarino [21:26]
It’s a good idea.

Christine Schlonski [21:27]
Yeah, I just don’t want to support the industry. So…

Anthony Iannarino [21:35]
I do, I tend to go vegan for about a year at a time. And then I don’t feel well at the end of about a year. And then I, I feel better. And then I go back to being a vegan again for a while. Yeah, so I like I’ve done it, the longest stint for me is three years.

Christine Schlonski [21:57]
I think it depends like really on the quality of the food, which is also sales related because I see sales as holistic. So if you feel great in your body, then you sell more. Because you just have a different energy.

Anthony Iannarino [22:13]
Well, you, you can do that. I mean, even without being a vegan by just massively reducing a couple things, one, the number of calories you take in. So going longer periods without eating and reducing the calories that you take in will make you feel better, you’ll sleep better, will feel better, you’re better energy. And then for me personally, I feel bad if I eat sugar. So if I eat sugar, I feel bad. And I don’t feel bad for a little while I feel bad for a couple days. And I just reducing or eliminating sugar. And for me bread. And my energy is just way better, so I stay away from those things. No matter what I’m eating, I stay away from those because it will make me feel bad. I did the Paleo diet for about a year. And at the time, my son was probably 15. He’s 21. That’s up six years ago. And we would go out on Friday night to the movie. so I would eat clean the entire week, except for six hours on Friday night. And between six and midnight on Friday night, I would eat pizza, popcorn M&M’s, a coke, a donut. And then I would feel so bad. I wouldn’t be able to even look at that food for the rest of the week. But then the next Friday night, I’d be ready to have another go at it. And then I’d feel awful the whole next day. And, so no more cheat days for me just because just even cheating for six hours, it’s just..

Christine Schlonski [23:34]
Yeah. So you shouldn’t do that before a sales conversation, right?

Anthony Iannarino [23:38]
No. You should be light. Don’t, don’t eat a lot and certainly don’t eat anything that’s going to cause you not to have great energy.

Christine Schlonski [23:47]
Wonderful. So the best advice, have great energy, so people can connect with you, with your smile, your self. And smile.

Anthony Iannarino [23:57]
Yeah!

Christine Schlonski [23:57]
We learned that one, and I really really enjoyed this conversation. So I guess, when I’VE found some questions on how we can disagree. I would love to invite you back on Heart Sells!

Anthony Iannarino [24:08]
We’re going to figure out what it is that we disagree on.

Christine Schlonski [24:12]
We gonna figure that out. Definitely.

Anthony Iannarino [24:14]
And we’re gonna have a tremendous argument.

Christine Schlonski [24:17]
Yes. Good plan.

Anthony Iannarino [24:20]
And it’ll be fun. People will be like what happened to them? They said, they were getting along so well. But then this one thing… Meat!

Christine Schlonski [24:28]
We will figured that out. We promise that to people that we figure it out and have another conversation. And I thank you so much for all the wisdom, the fun you’re bringing to Heart Sells! Podcast , and you have an amazing, amazing day!

Anthony Iannarino [24:43]
You too. Thanks so much for having me.

Christine Schlonski [24:45]
Thank you!

Christine Schlonski [24:46]
Even though Anthony and I did not find something to really disagree up on I hope you had a lot of fun anyway, and you learned a ton because he shared some really, really golden nuggets. So make sure you hop on over to christineschlonski.com, there is a podcast tab. If you click you get taken to the podcast page with all the amazing resources, the show notes, the transcripts, really cool graphics of the wonderful guests, as well as all the social links so you can connect. And as I said earlier, please join the Sales Mentality Makeover Masterclass to learn spiritual and practical steps to increase your sales and create true wealth without losing your authenticity. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I’ve gathered so many outstanding super successful guests who teach you their knowledge and the best news? This class is for free. Once you commit and you show up when it is taught, so you can learn and everybody is sharing their success secrets with you. And I’m so super excited that I have the opportunity to offer this amazing event to you. So hop on over to christineschlonski.com, find in the tab Sales Mentality Makeover Masterclass, sign in and you are all set. Thank you so much for being here. I so enjoy having you. Have a wonderful day wherever you are in this beautiful world. And bye for now.