Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hey Gorgeous. This is episode number 208 and we have the wonderful Laura Posey back on the show.

Laura Posey [0:08]
Hi, this is Laura Posey, you’re listening to Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski. Enjoy.

Christine Schlonski [0:14]
I can’t wait to dive in deeper with Laura today about planning for success, what she’s doing with her amazing clients because Laura made it to an internationally recognized speaker, author, and consultant by changing her business and life dramatically, as we have found out in Episode 207 with her when she shared her amazing story of how she went to Sedona and had that big epiphany. Laura is also known as The Simple Planning Specialist for her unique ability to simplify and laser focuses her clients to get them to achieve amazing results. Her simple strategic plan is used by over 2,500 companies all in the range from startups to Fortune 100. And also me, I have gone through a program and I loved it. So I’m so super excited to get to talk to Laura even more today. And let’s see what kind of juicy, golden nuggets we will be sharing with you. Well, I am so super excited to have you back on the show, Laura.

Laura Posey [1:24]
Thanks for having me is. This is so much fun.

Christine Schlonski [1:26]
Yeah, and we finished off and you told me that I’m gonna love your story about what the first thing was you ever sold. So almost bursting to find out. I’m so excited. Because knowing you, it’s probably something very interesting, an interesting story to share with us. So what was it?

Laura Posey [1:48]
The first thing I ever sold in my life was I sold extremely expensive knives, going door to door.

Christine Schlonski [1:59]
When was it?

Laura Posey [2:01]
I was 16 years old.

Christine Schlonski [2:05]
You’re going to see like, did you walk around like an eight-year-old?

Laura Posey [2:08]
Yeah, no, no. No, I was never one of those kids that sold stuff in school. I answered this ad because I wanted to make big money and a set of these knives. I mean, this is many years ago, at that time it was $600 or $700, which you to me was a fortune. And so of course, I sold them to all of my friends and relatives, and then I had to go find other people. And so I went and knocked on doors and asked people if I could come in and show them these knives, and we had a whole presentation. And then at the end, I would ask them to spend $600 for a set of knives. And so people did.

Christine Schlonski [2:49]
Do you remember your very first customer?

Laura Posey [2:52]
Oh, yeah, my first customer was my grandmother. She didn’t buy a whole set though. She only bought one for me. She bought one little paring knife from me.

Christine Schlonski [3:03]
How did it feel when she actually gave you the money for it or the check?

Laura Posey [3:07]
Oh, it was, I was super nervous. I mean, I was just quaking in my shoes because I thought, “Oh my gosh, like, this is grandma’s money. I have to be careful with this. Like, I have to be like, super on top of”, because this was the grandmother that was very strict, very intense. She was a great cook, and I thought, “Oh my gosh, I really hope these things are as good as they think they are. And I’ve been selling them and”, so yeah, I was so nervous.

Christine Schlonski [3:33]
But she loved it?

Laura Posey [3:34]
She did. Yeah.

Christine Schlonski [3:36]
Good, good. And what a test because oftentimes, when I talk to my clients, what are they nervous about? They actually worry about their clients or potential client’s money. Which is then in the way. So if you know that you have a product that serves them and that they really needed, then you shouldn’t have those various because it’s gonna bring you off balance.

Unknown Speaker [3:59]
Yeah. I think sometimes when we’re selling services, especially in this service is us, we get nervous and, and we think, “Well, you know, what if I’m not”, all of that head trash that we have, “Maybe I’m not good enough. Maybe it’s not as good as I think it is.” All of that comes into play.

Christine Schlonski [4:17]
Yeah. And it’s great that you talk about it, because I think it’s something typical that every entrepreneur goes through, and to some extent, it’s just something natural. And oftentimes, when you don’t talk to people about your fears, then you’ll never find out that other people have the same.

Laura Posey [4:36]
Exactly. Yeah.

Christine Schlonski [4:38]
Which keeps you stuck with this fear. Because you say, “Oh, I’m all by myself. I’m the only one on this planet. What if I’m a fraud, and what if I can’t deliver? What if they don’t love it?” Just basically in your own way.

Laura Posey [4:54]
Exactly, exactly. Most of us are our own worst enemies.

Christine Schlonski [4:58]
Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And I’m quite sure that most of the listeners too. I forgot to mention in the last episode, I want to do this right now because it’s such an amazing gift you brought us. People can obviously get it in the show notes under Resources. But also, you can just go to https://simplesuccessplans.com/daily/ Tell us a little bit about it.

Laura Posey [5:24]
So it’s our daily success checklist kit. And the daily success checklist is the tool that I use every single day to get all the important things done. Things like playing the violin and practicing Spanish and journaling and meditating and exercising, in addition to all of the big stuff that drives my business forward. And I’ve been using this tool for years. Clients absolutely love it. And so I want to give you a version that you can print and use every day. A version that you can fill in online if you’re a typist instead of a hand writer. I’m going to give you some samples so that you can see exactly how it looks when it’s done. And I want to give you a complete tutorial video that walks you through every single section and sort of why this section is here, how to fill it out and how to use it. The tutorial takes 12 minutes, it takes about a minute and a half every day to use the checklist. The tutorial was much longer than it takes to actually use the tool, but I want you to understand it fully.

Christine Schlonski [6:25]
Yeah, totally. And, you know, I hope that some sales activity is included or activity that drives your business forward making connections, building relationships. And yeah, I will definitely have a look. And I think what I really need to put down is like workouts.

Laura Posey [6:43]
There you go. Yeah.

Christine Schlonski [6:45]
This is something that’s like a flexible piece and flexible, well, it doesn’t get done too often.

Laura Posey [6:52]
Well, one of the things, one of the first sections on the checklist is what we call our success habits. And these are the things that you do every single day that make you a better person, which sets you up for business success. So a lot of times they’re the things that personally. So for me, it’s journaling, meditating, practicing Spanish, practicing the violin, and getting 30 minutes of some kind of exercise. An exercise for me could be I’m just going to go for a walk, or it could be I’m going to go to the gym and swim really hard. It varies, but I just got to get up and move for 30 minutes because it makes me a healthier, better person. And I find that when I do those things, in the morning, before I sit down to work, I am a much better worker, I’m much more focused, I get more done. I deliver better for my clients and my business grows. And if I skip them, I feel it.

Christine Schlonski [7:46]
Yeah, not so good. Yeah.

Laura Posey [7:49]
And they don’t take long. I mean, it takes me about 90 minutes to do all of them.

Christine Schlonski [7:55]
Yeah, it’s not that you have to practice like two hours of Spanish every day, right?

Laura Posey [8:00]
No, I practice like 10 minutes. I’m not, again, I’m not trying to Master Spanish. I’m trying to learn a new skill and get my brain opened up. The violin is for creativity. It uses different neural pathways. I’m a better writer when I practice the violin.

Christine Schlonski [8:22]
Hmm. Wow. That’s pretty cool. Have you always been a person that loved to sell? Or is it something that you kind of grows into?

Laura Posey [8:35]
Oh, I was really shy. I never. I was not that sort of natural salesperson. But interestingly, my mom was a telemarketer for a long time. Her claim to fame is that she, one of the places she worked with, she sold cemetery plots. We call people up and ask them to buy cemetery plots, and she did so well. That she sold all the plots and they had to fire her because there was nothing left to sell.

Christine Schlonski [9:04]
Wow! Well, I quite sure with those skills she found another job without any issues.

Laura Posey [9:13]
Absolutely Oh, my mom can always find the job selling. And she’s just always sold on the phone. And she really helped me understand that selling is this wonderful opportunity to help people get things that they want. It’s not about talking people into things. It’s about talking to enough people to find the ones that are naturally interested and naturally have a problem that you can solve. And then helping them solve that and in exchange, you get paid lots of money. So, you know her philosophy with cold calling was, it’s just a survey. I’m not calling to tell you, you need a cemetery plot. I’m calling to see if this is something that’s on your mind. If it’s something that you’re worried about or concerned about, and if it is, then we’ll have a conversation and see if I can help you. And if it’s not something you care about, okay, great, I’m just going to move on to the next person. That idea of it’s a survey. And I’m just calling to find the people that are naturally interested. It took all the pressure out of it for me and made it really easy.

Christine Schlonski [10:19]
Yeah, I love that. So I’m just going to repeat that. So by thinking you’re just doing a survey, you can basically call anyone without any pressure, because they’re not interested. You move on. If they’re interested, you offer a conversation. That’s it.

Laura Posey [10:34]
Yeah. That’s it. Yeah. And in every single person, if I gave you a list of 50 people and said, “I’d like you to call these people and ask them if they like chocolate ice cream, just yes or no.” Everybody could make those calls and be, “Hey, this is Laura calling. I just have one question for you. Do you like chocolate ice cream doing a survey? Yes or no? Okay, great. Thanks.” If I’m selling chocolate ice cream, then when they say, “Yes, I love chocolate ice cream.” I might say, “Well what’s your favorite kind?” I’m just having the conversation. If they say, “No, I hate chocolate ice cream. Okay, great. Thanks. Next.” I’m not gonna try to sell them chocolate ice cream. Or if they say, “Well, I live in Minnesota. It’s January and it’s 40 below. I love chocolate ice cream but I’m freezing. I don’t want any chocolate ice cream. Okay, great. I’ll call you in the summer.”

Christine Schlonski [10:35]
Yeah, always, always have a plan and make it simple. So which makes simple success plans. What means Heart Sells! for you?

Laura Posey [11:37]
Um, you know, for me, it’s really just coming from a position of wanting to help people. I think that’s what sales is. All of the good salespeople I know sell because they are they’re representing something that they believe in, that they know can help people and they want to help as many people as they can. It’s an emotional event for them. If somebody says, “Well, I don’t want that, or I’m not interested in that”, that’s okay. It just means they’re not at a place where they’re ready for it. And that’s fine. Talk to them later, maybe they’ll be ready later. But it is that that caring about people and coming at it from the standpoint of it. It’s not that I care first about my bank account, it’s that I care first about helping this other person.

Christine Schlonski [12:30]
Yeah, totally agree. And if somebody has difficulties to get that machine started, they’re still afraid of making an offer because it’s what they thought of, it’s like their creation. Yeah. I find it’s always easier to sell something for someone. When I made the transition from my corporate job where I sold high ticket life events, all day long, called people all day long, to actually putting a price Tech on my services, it was a pretty big step to take. Even though I was lucky because I knew what had to be done to make it work. Everybody has a position where they come from over a decade of a sales career and sold millions. So they at least know they are capable of this.

Laura Posey [13:22]
Right, exactly.

Christine Schlonski [13:23]
How can people get started? Like, is there something you did that made it easier for you? Or did you just approach the survey approach? What is it that you have done?

Laura Posey [13:35]
Yeah, when I started this business, I did a lot of networking, just going out and talking to people and finding out like, what are the issues? What are people having trouble with? I was doing sales training at the time for other salespeople for sales teams, and I realized that a lot of entrepreneurs were having trouble selling. And I thought, “Oh, I know exactly what that feels like.” Because like you, I had sold as a career. And then when I had to sell myself it was like, “Oh, maybe I should just offer a discount. I was underpricing for everything.” I really understood what it was like to be in those shoes. So I just talked to a lot of people, found out what the issues were, created a program around that. But I think that the biggest thing that you can do, so often we listen to our own voice, and we listen to our own values. Go out and ask people who know you well. What do you think I’m really good at? What do you think people would buy from me? What do you think people would say I’m really good at? What do you think I should deliver? And they will tell you and sometimes it will really surprise you. And then you can ask, “If I sold it for this, do you think people would pay that?”, and they’re gonna say, “Yeah, absolutely.” Once you start to do the work, pay attention to people’s responses, and write down all the good things that they say about you. I’m a huge fan of. If you’re doing work virtually, record everything, and then transcribe it and go back and highlight all of the places where they said, “Wow, that was really good. Oh, you really understood that. That was a great question.” Gather all of that and put it in a book so that you can see like, “Oh, wow, we really are good at this. This is great. They like this. They like that.” Use that to remind yourself that you are really good at what you do.

Christine Schlonski [15:42]
Yeah, I think so, reminders are very, very crucial. Especially when you have a day that might not go very well. I have a folder where I drop stuff. If it’s raining, I just have a look at the folder and I feel much better.

Laura Posey [15:58]
Exactly. Yeah. We have a whole file of just nice stuff people have said.

Christine Schlonski [16:04]
That just makes you smile. It kind of lifts you up. I just loved the idea.

Laura Posey [16:12]
It’s market research. It’s people telling you, “Hey, you are valuable. I gave you money and you are delivering on your promise.” Don’t listen to that little devil in your head. Listen to what your real clients are saying about you. That’s the truth.

Christine Schlonski [16:29]
Yeah. And they are the ones paying you not the little voice in your head, right?

Laura Posey [16:32]
Exactly.

Christine Schlonski [16:35]
I incorporated not that long ago. But I started to ask people, especially when we have one on one sessions. What was most valuable for you today?

Laura Posey [16:45]
Yes.

Christine Schlonski [16:46]
It’s so surprising what they are taking away that I didn’t think of.

Laura Posey [16:51]
Yes.

Christine Schlonski [16:52]
Where I’m going, “Oh, that’s interesting. Okay, well, that goes into the folder.”

Laura Posey [16:56]
Yes, yes.

Christine Schlonski [16:58]
Oh, I knew about myself.

Laura Posey [17:00]
Absolutely, and it helps them understand the value of it because they have to articulate the value to them and they go, “Oh, you know what, wow, I’m gonna keep hiring this person.” Because there’s value every time we talk, there’s value.

Christine Schlonski [17:15]
Yeah. Yeah. Also, they have to express it. It’s not just, well, this was a great session and then you don’t really know what was great about it. Or this was very helpful, but you don’t know in which way it helped. So like going deeper, I think is really important and it will help you may be with your marketing copy.

Laura Posey [17:36]
Oh, all day long, yes.

Christine Schlonski [17:38]
This will help you with the conversations. It will help you with your self-confidence. It will help you when you design your pricing strategy. That you know you deliver and that you don’t need to feel like a fraud because people have said it over and over and over again that you are brilliant in what you do. I think that’s really important because then everything around in your business for a change, because now you are the one actually leading it and you know what needs to be done.

Laura Posey [18:06]
Exactly.

Christine Schlonski [18:08]
So that’s so cool. If there’s like a parting piece of guidance, what would you love to leave us with?

Laura Posey [18:17]
I think it’s the idea that building your dream business is like building your dream house. You can’t just go to the hardware store and start buying stuff and slapping it together. You really have to step back and say, “What do I want to build?” Get a very clear picture of it. Draw up a plan for how you’re going to build that and then figure out what are the pieces that I’m going to build myself and what is all the stuff that I can outsource? But I’ve always found that if you keep that image in your head of, “My plan is a blueprint for building my business. It’s based on this vision in my mind of what I really want to build.” You can build a million-dollar house with minimum wage labor because it’s got a good blueprint and a good plan. You can build your business really easily when you’ve got a good blueprint. A good plan.

Christine Schlonski [19:20]
Yeah. And you can build it around the lifestyle you desire.

Laura Posey [19:25]
Exactly.

Christine Schlonski [19:26]
That you do not trade yourself another job.

Laura Posey [19:29]
Oh, no, and I’ve learned that this year. I learned that years ago, but this year, I’m getting ready to take about, I’ll be gone for about five weeks. Going to Australia for quite a long time. And then I’m coming back and going to New Mexico for some vacation and my team is running the business while I’m gone. I’m not checking in. I’m not touching anything. They are fully empowered, and they’re contractors. I don’t have any full-time employees. These are part-time contractors but they understand the plan. They know what they need to do. They know how to make business decisions. So you really can have that time, money and location freedom, when you’ve got a good plan and a team that knows how to execute it.

Christine Schlonski [20:12]
Yeah. And you provide us with some daily help.

Laura Posey [20:16]
Yes, yes.

Christine Schlonski [20:18]
With your daily map, tell us to tell us about it. Where can people find it? And obviously, all the links to you will be in the show notes.

Laura Posey [20:24]
Yep. So it’s at https://simplesuccessplans.com/daily/ It’s the daily success checklist kit with all of the templates, the checklists, the samples, the tutorial, video, everything you need to get started in under 15 minutes.

Christine Schlonski [20:42]
Well, that sounds good. And that sounds totally doable. No excuses with overwhelmed. It’s not a 10-hour course you need to sit down and do, it’s really simple. Thank you so much for providing this. I just love it and for the wonderful conversations. I really hope that people take action and get organized so that they can organize their business around their life.

Laura Posey [21:09]
Exactly. Thanks for having me today.

Christine Schlonski [21:12]
Again, such an amazing conversation with Laura, I loved how she reminded us of what kind of questions to ask, to ask our clients, to ask people who are investing in our companies, into us as entrepreneurs to really figure out what are we good at. What do they see in ourselves that we can’t see? And I think if you really understand that, then it’s even easier to monetize your gifts and to give it to the world with the right price tag, with the right emotions, because now you know for sure you are serving and you don’t need to worry about your client’s money or if they are going to say yes or if you will be able to deliver. Now you already know, that is the truth. So hop on over to https://christineschlonski.com/ find the podcast tab and find Laura’s wonderful episode number 208. Also, if you have not listened yet to 207, where Laura and I actually had a conversation around the secret pot of money, you probably want to check that out as well. And once you’re over there, make sure you get her amazing daily success checklists kit, read through the transcript, have a look at the show notes. And if you have not yet subscribed to Heart Sells! Podcast, please do so. And we always appreciate your five-star rating and review. And once you’re over there, and you have not yet signed up for the empowerment notes, that will be also a good place to start, to get empowerment right into your inbox and amazing resources and content that I usually do not share elsewhere. Thank you so much for having been here. Have a wonderful day wherever you are in this beautiful world.