Resources in this Episode:

Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hi Gorgeous, this is episode number 075 with the outstanding Skip Prichard, who has been labeled recently by the Harvard Business Review as a rare social CEO and a “relentless giver”.

Skip Prichard [0:16]
Hi, this is Skip Prichard, you are listening to Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski . Enjoy!

Christine Schlonski [0:22]
I’m so happy you are here and tuning in because today’s episode is going to be very special. Have you ever wished when you were working in corporate that you would have a really cool boss? Somebody, who is not just dramatically improving results but also improving the corporate culture? Well, that is our guest today. Skip Prichard is an amazing, accomplished CEO, growth-oriented business leader, and keynote speaker. He is known for his track record of successfully, repositioning companies and dramatically improving results while improving the corporate culture. His views have been featured in various media including BBC, New York Times, CNN, NPR, Harvard Business Review, Information Today, Entrepreneur, CEO Magazine and others. The Harvard Business Review labeled him as a rare CEO and a “relentless giver.” Inc. Magazine lists him as a top 100 leadership speaker, and his leadership insights blog has won numerous awards, and I don’t wonder why because he is amazing. So have fun, enjoy the conversations, but before we get started, just a quick note, if you have not yet signed up for the Sales Mentality Makeover Masterclass, to learn spiritual and practical steps to increase your sales and create true wealth without losing your authenticity, then come and join me at christineschlonski.com In the top you will find the Sales Mentality Makeover Masterclass #3, just click, put in your name, your email, and you are all set for the free online event where 20 amazing teachers, leaders, authorities in their market will teach you these practical and spiritual steps. So I hope to see you on the other side and have fun with this wonderful interview with Skip Prichard where we will learn a lot about mistakes, failures, and successes. Hi, Skip. I’m so happy to have you on Heart Sells! Podcast today, welcome.

Skip Prichard [2:50]
Thank you. It’s great to be here.

Christine Schlonski [2:52]
Wonderful, I am so excited about the interview. I mean, you have accomplished so many amazing things and I just can’t wait to share your knowledge with the audience. You have an amazing book out, which I just love the title, it’s called The Book of Mistakes, which should make everybody curious. Who would write a book about the mistakes but you’re talking about success, right? The Harvard Business Review has just recently labeled you as one of the rare social CEOs and the “relentless giver.” Heart Sells! Podcast is all about selling from your heart, being authentic, true to your values, and has a gift first mentality. So I’m so so excited to have you on the show today.

Skip Prichard [3:46]
Well, I’m delighted to be here and happy to talk with you and your audience.

Christine Schlonski [3:50]
Yeah, so fill us in a little bit. Where comes the idea from to write a book about mistakes?

Skip Prichard [3:59]
Well, Christine, I grew up in a pretty odd way and that was my mom and dad had six kids, they were told they could not have any children but they ended up with six. They decided in addition to six that they would take people in from all over the world, all different types of people, but they were all people that were troubled people that were abused or addicted to drugs and those kinds of things. So early on in life, I began to be fascinated why it was that somebody would leave the house and would be successful, maybe go to school, get a job, and somebody else would leave the house and not make it would become re-addicted to drugs would end up back looking for help. What was the difference? Why was it that one person succeeded and one person failed? What I found, as a CEO now, as someone who’s interviewed over 1000 of the world’s most successful people, is it’s not just the successful people that are interesting, it’s not their successes, it’s their struggles. I actually learned as much from a CEO or from a famous rock star or a politician, you name it, as I did from somebody who was homeless, that had barely made it that was just getting off drugs, and was telling me about how their life kind of ended up where it was. You can learn powerful things from people’s successes, you can also learn powerful things from their mistakes. So I’ve always been fascinated with not just the positive and the success, but also the negative and the struggle. I often find sometimes we learn more from the struggle than the success.

Christine Schlonski [5:43]
Yeah, yeah, I totally agree and having interviewed so many people, as successful people, as well, we all see that they are successful because they went through some challenges. So we have a lot of listeners who are solopreneur, who are coaches, who are really, really hard centered and who have a difficult time in marketing or selling their services, because they have to say, “Well, it’s worth something, right? I’ve learned this the hard way.” Can you maybe give some insights, how people can have a look at sales that would make it easier to sell their amazing gifts and talents and monetize and not only just gift?

Skip Prichard [6:34]
Well, there’s so many aspects to that question that was loaded with so many different places that are important. I certainly have been the CEO of several global companies but I actually grew my career up through sales and started early on in my life in entrepreneurial and sales activities. I think it starts with self-confidence, self-understanding, and a real study of yourself. Oftentimes, when you want to give to others, I’ve learned that if you don’t value it, they’re not going to value it. So the advice and the coaching that you’re talking about, if somebody is receiving that for free, I’ve often found that they do not receive it, they don’t treat you the same way. There’s a value, ascribe to each and every interaction. Bob Burg who is my friend, Bob, “Money is an echo of value.” It’s important, I’ve learned even if I’m doing something for someone, maybe I’m speaking, and I may be donating the fee to charity, I don’t do it for free because if I do it for free, I’ve learned long ago, they don’t value me in the same way. So I do not do it for free but I may choose to donate the fee to a charity, the value is still there, I’m still doing it but I choose where I wanted to put the monetary rewards of that value that I prescribed. I think it starts with realizing your value and focusing on that value. If you don’t focus on that there’s no sense in selling it, there’s no sense in even bothering taking it to the world. You have to really understand. Are you making a difference in their lives or their business or not? If you’re not, then you shouldn’t be doing it. If you are, you should be ascribing some value to it and then figuring out the best way for you to market it. It often starts right in your mind to understand this is the value that I’m bringing to the world and failure to recognize that really makes it a worthless endeavor.

Christine Schlonski [8:52]
Yeah, I totally agree but when I look at the people I talked to and the clients I’m coaching, their natural gift come so this ease that they have a difficult time to put a value on it. How can you see your own value, if you love what you do, and you would do it all day long even for free?

Skip Prichard [9:19]
Well, you can ask anybody in any field that’s at the top of their field, ask somebody who’s amazing at any sport and you will find that they may be getting unbelievably millions of dollars, millions of euros for what they’re doing and yet, they would probably do it for almost nothing because they love it. They’re so passionate about it, great singers, performers, etc. I lived and still have a home in Nashville, Tennessee, as well and I know many very famous musicians, and some of them will play at our house and it’s free, they just enjoy it so much and yet, they’re making millions selling out concerts throughout the world. It’s important for you to understand your inherent value and to define your own value. In fact, in my book, the second mistake that I talked about, in The Book of Mistakes. The big mistake that people make who are not successful is allowing someone else to define your value. You have to define your value, in the book, I say that in the US, a nickel is worth five cents, and yet it costs the government 10 to 12 cents to make a nickel. Why is it worth a nickel? Why is it worth only five cents? Because that’s the label we stamp on it. We cannot allow someone else to stamp five cents on our value, if we’re worth 10 cents, we have to make sure that we are defining our value and the most successful people, the most successful entrepreneurs, the most successful businesses, the most successful leaders are always making sure that they define their own value. So if you don’t believe in that value, you need to go to work on yourself. Go to work on you, go to work on understanding your inherent ability, skills, and natural proclivities. But just because it’s a natural gift does not mean that it’s valueless. It may just be your unique perspective, your unique skill, but it’s a gift to the world. You’ll see it and people’s response.

Christine Schlonski [11:42]
Yeah, love it. So people can find more information on skipprichard.com and also get guidance on your book if they want to dive in deeper. So you seem very, very confident and obviously, that’s all you’ve done. You also need that confidence. Is that something that comes natural to you? Were you always confident or was it something you had to learn?

Skip Prichard [12:08]
I think it’s a little bit of both in my case, I do think that some mix of genetics and learning is key for all of us but the key for me is it doesn’t matter where you start, it matters where you’re going. Even though I may have been confident, we’re all confident in different areas. I may be extraordinarily confident in one area because of my experiences because I know that I can do something and then later on in the day, I might be in an area where I am completely out of my comfort zone, I have absolutely no idea what I am doing. The mixture of those things is good. I’m always trying to be in an area where I’m learning where I’m not as confident, where I’m not as comfortable because that’s what stretches us. That’s what pushes the edge of our comfort zone. That’s what makes us grow. All growth happens at the edge of that comfort zone. I’m always working on competence and working on skills. Jim Rowan once said long ago, he said, and I would attend a seminar and he would say this over and over. It just really struck me early in my career, he said, “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.” If you work hard on your job, you’ll make some money. If you work hard on yourself, you’ll make a fortune. He really wasn’t talking about money. What he was talking about, was this magic of personal development. I’m constantly looking at how do I work on me? Skills, the way I’m coming across. Communications. How can I be a better listener? How can I be more empathetic? How can I understand you better because each one of us has a very unique perspective on the world and yet often, what we do is we think my way of looking at the world is the way everyone looks at the world. Well, that’s not the case. So how can I understand different ways of looking at the world? How can I have this experience that gives me this diversity of opinion? The more I opened myself up to that, the more I will develop myself and my own skill. So I think it’s a mixture of all of those things and to recognize we’re on a journey but we’re on a journey, which means don’t stay, still. Don’t stay right where you are, right? How many ways are there for you to be on the journey? You can listen to this podcast, you can read some great books, you can watch some videos. From most of us in the world, that opportunity is unprecedented today than it ever was before because it’s within reach. It’s right in our phone. It’s right there. It’s right at the computer that it’s not far, it’s right at the local library, you can get where you need to go, you can start that journey today.

Christine Schlonski [15:05]
Yeah, I so agree. If you want it, you could go to Amazon and download your book, The Book of Mistakes in a minute. Not even a minute.

Skip Prichard [15:15]
That’s right and they can be on a journey.

Christine Schlonski [15:17]
Yeah, yeah. So what I’m hearing you also say is that you have always invested in yourself, to grow your skills to to grow who you are as a person. I don’t know who to give credit to but there’s a saying that goes, “If you go through hell, keep moving.”

Skip Prichard [15:35]
That’s right.

Christine Schlonski [15:38]
For me, the comfort zone is a little bit like a death zone because if you don’t grow, you die. I mean, there’s really no point and not growing. That’s all what life is about for me. That might be just my personal opinion but I hear so many other people who stretch themselves, who do something. When did your personal development start? When were you really conscious about investing in yourself and taking courses with Jim Rowan and probably other amazing coaches?

Skip Prichard [16:18]
Well, it started out early in my life, my mom obviously had a lot of girls in the house, I had four sisters, and we were taking in people that all had all different types of needs. She signed up for Mary Kay cosmetics which years and years ago, and I guess it’s still around, but she didn’t really do it to sell and grow a business, though, she did a little bit of a business but she really did it because she figured, “If I was a distributor, I would be able to buy at a discount, a lot of makeup and skincare”, and all that kind of thing. Anyway, she went to this conference, and she came back with a cassette tape. Remember what cassette tapes are people don’t even know. Cassette tapes of Zig Ziegler and she said, “We heard this amazing speaker that I think you’re going to love”, and I started to listen to him over and over. I wore those tapes out, I still have them. In fact, I had the privilege of being interviewed on the Zig Ziegler podcast from my book recently. It really was a fundamental point for me that changed my idea of both sales and a personal development. It’s what started me on this path with Earl Nightingale and Jim Rohn and all these people and I went to the library to look and I said I need more like this. I didn’t even know what I was looking for. It just began this fascination with study of sales, of personal development, of psychology and understanding people. I’m endlessly fascinated by people and personality and how they tick and why. Sales to me was this extraordinary way of persuasion, which was all about influence. As a leader now of large global companies. I would say it was the most valuable training that I ever had. I’m a lawyer. I would definitely say that those cassette tapes were far more valuable than my entire legal education because that’s what it’s about, influence. Even in front of a jury, it’s really about persuasion and sales and influencing. Even in front of leading a company, it’s about presentation and influence, and understanding the difference between presentation and persuasion. What are those differences? How do I make sure that I’m about persuasion and not just presentation? You can give a great presentation, “Oh, you’re so entertaining. It’s amazing”, but if I didn’t persuade you at the end, it’s useless. Somebody else could be very boring, maybe dull but everybody’s persuaded, which would you rather be? I’d rather be a persuader than a presenter.

Christine Schlonski [19:13]
Definitely, it will definitely make a bigger impact on your bank account and on the lifestyle and I believe that happy people make people happy, and hurt people hurt people. What do you want to go for in life. I think it’s a decision and having that personal growth, trying to learn each day about ourselves, how we respond, how we react, or if we act. It’s just I believe it’s a fascinating journey. So do you remember the very first thing you ever sold?

Skip Prichard [19:53]
The very first thing I ever sold, I do actually, by my mom reminds me of the story. I was in kindergarten, actually, before going to first grade. I would write little stories and I set up a table in the back of the room with the stories. I then persuaded other kids in the class to sell things in the back of the room. I never forget it because I was called to the principal’s office and my parents were called in because there were complaints that other students in the class were spending their lunch money on the store. I was called to the principal’s office, and he asked me to explain this, and I explained everything. Oddly, I’ll never forget the principal’s name is Adam Bomb. Isn’t that funny? It’s not funny, but Adam Bomb is his name. He opened up this bank that I had that I was stuffing all the money and there was over $100 that I had been made in this little store in the back of the kindergarten. So I do remember that was the very first thing I sold, but he shut my store down. A few years later, I moved to a different private school. I was actually making jewelry at the time now I was in second, third-grade timeframe. I was called back to the principal’s office again, different principal, I don’t remember his name, Cruz, I think his name was. Anyway, he had me put everything out on the table that I was selling. Then he did something very different. He said, “We have a store here where we sell gifts, and you’re competing with our store and so for now on everything you sell, you’re going to sell to me, and I’m going to sell it in the store. ” So I became a wholesaler at that time. I started making everything and selling it to them, and then they would sell it in the store. I had early kind of sales and entrepreneurial blood if you will. It was a fun experience.

Christine Schlonski [22:03]
I believe so, this really sounds amazing. I’m really looking forward to continue the interview with you because time just flies. Let people know again where they can find you and have a look into all of your work.

Skip Prichard [22:20]
skipprichard.com, there’s no T in Prichard. So it’s S-K-I-P-P-R-I-C-H-A-R-D.com and look forward to people connecting with me on all of the social media That’s all off of that site.

Christine Schlonski [22:32]
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much And I’m looking forward to our next interview.

Skip Prichard [22:37]
Thank you looking forward to it as well.

Christine Schlonski [22:39]
Well, I loved every second of this amazing interview, I loved how Skip shared his experience of talking to thousands of people, of learning from success but more from struggle and failure. I love how openly he shared his personal path, of how he got to personal develop man how he started out in sales, what he had to overcome to be the amazing CEO he is today. So I’m very grateful and I’m looking forward to the next interview with him. So you want to make sure you tune in for the next episode. You find all the show notes this the transcript, the key points and obviously all the links to Skip as well as the resources to his amazing book called The Book of Mistakes: 9 Secrets to Creating a Successful Future on christineschlonski.com/podcast. So hop on over there and why you over there, in case you have not yet joined the Sales Mentality Makeover Masterclass, my free online event where I have gathered 20 amazing outstanding authorities, experts, best selling authors, Emmy Award winners that share their knowledge in regards to sales, mindset, money and wealth creation. You still have some more days to go for that free online event. So hop on over to christineschlonski.com. Find the tab Sales Mentality Makeover Masterclass #3 and sign in today. So you get all this amazing information. Thank you so much for joining. Thank you so much for listening and I can’t wait for you to tune into the next episode, where I have the immense pleasure to have Skip Prichard back on the show. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day wherever you are in this beautiful world and bye for now.