by Admin | Jan 23, 2014 | Culture
As someone reading this blog you are already demonstrating your own willingness to grow and your ‘Thirst’ for improvement. In a former blog post I related my personal experience with cialis my horse of what happens when someone is not thirsty and how it can be life threatening in some circumstances. While this may be an extreme example, if you have struggled with inspiring people in your own organization you may be feeling a little thirsty yourself but not quite sure how to inspire it in others. I thought I would relate an example of a favorite client we have worked with last year in the banking industry and how an innovative leader is creating a thirsty culture. Alterra Bank is a leading bank in the KC lending market. They are a business-focused community bank founded in 2010; by executing on their niche business strategy, the bank has doubled in size since 2010 with plans to continue a fast pace of growth. We have been working with them on finding and on boarding relationship managers who just happen to be lenders and private bankers. One common thread resonated with me as I interviewed their current team that has been responsible for their success to date – they are all highly competitive. As we were looking for relationship managers to connect them to, we asked a few questions: 1) What do you read? 2) What last class/continuing education did you participate in? 3) Tell me about your extracurricular activities. The answers to these questions brought us individuals that who excel on a very fast paced, results driven team. Did it...
by Admin | Jan 12, 2014 | Sales
In High School I had the dream job of any teenage girl. I galloped racehorses. Animals teach you many life lessons and I thought I would share one that has resonated with me throughout my professional career. I was a pretty good rider, and like most kids, had more than my own fair share of self-confidence. I had been at this job for about a month, and my employer had gotten a pretty good handle on my ability, where I was lacking and decided I needed a bit of education. The first thing to realize is that in order to learn, I had to recognize what I didn’t know. One lovely morning at the ripe hour of 6:00 a.m. my lesson began with learning how the racehorse ‘breaks’ from the gate. My teacher for the day was a Quarter Horse gelding named Dust ‘Em. Dusty taught me many lessons in my first few months at the race barn, but on this day it was the importance of humility. The trainers recognized that you don’t put an inexperienced rider on a green horse, you put the green rider on your seasoned campaigner. Dusty had won many futurities as a 2 and 3 year old and was no slouch in the racing game. He knew the drill. And the trainer, Ron, who was helping me get ready for my first experience ‘breaking’ gave me advice that, of course, I didn’t heed as the amazingly talented rider I was then. The specific guidance he gave me to ‘grab hold of the mane like I’m getting launched off a rocket’ didn’t quite register....
by Admin | Dec 30, 2013 | Accountability
I love December! But why does it have to come so close to January? At least it seems like this year has just flown by, but when does time slow down? As business owners and independent sales professionals we have the same number of minutes every year to spend as we see fit. What choices did you make with your ‘bank account’ of minutes this year? The joy of working in outside sales is you have the opportunity to have your own business without the headaches of ownership. If you are a small business owner, you have a chance to become anything you choose to be and wish to work hard enough to achieve. The pursuit of this excellence often has us focusing on the shortfalls which prevented us from reaching our goals. We see what and who we wish to become or achieve, but yet so many things stop us from getting there. Why does this happen? You see where you want to go, so let’s think about why we’re not there. No, Stop right there! That is what we often do, we spend all of our time thinking about why we are not there, so what do we focus on? The obstacles in our path, sometimes we are the biggest one. Have you ever found yourself the victim of a self-fulfilling prophecy? This is what we create if we focus on obstacles-we create more of them! It is interesting how when talking to highly successful business owners and sales people the tone their conversations take. You never hear about what they don’t have or didn’t make. ...
by Admin | Dec 17, 2013 | Change
It’s been a bit of an emotional roller coaster this weekend in the Filbert Household. My husband and I have another business that breeds and raises Dutch Warmblood horses for the Hunter/Jumper show market. Our very first ‘piece of inventory’ was a lovely filly born in 2005 who was named Adame by my Grandmother in one of her last lucid moments with our family before our passing. Needless to say this horse has an emotional attachment as well as representing a significant business asset. Well she decided with the weather changing and all, she just wasn’t going to drink anymore for a bit. With horses this creates all kinds of problems and hers escalated into a life threatening situation called colic. During the 5 hour long surgery as the vets worked to save her life, I had a lot of time to think. This blog post will share with you a bit of insight that perhaps will help you as you look to your career growth or perhaps inspiring your team. We know how critical water is to life, so is growth to human beings. The phrase, ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink’ is a statement we have heard and often counter with something like ‘you may not be able to make him drink, but you can sure make him blow bubbles’. Which represents how often we force new behavior on ourselves or others. Many people are complacent and satisfied with status quo. Others perhaps may want something different, but have no willingness to go through the pain of change. So they...
by Admin | Oct 30, 2013 | Networking
In every presentation I give it is always fun to talk about where people are networking. Many say chamber events, client appreciation events, networking groups and the list goes on. And then I ask about Facebook, Linked In, Twitter and get the look that says – network? Almost like they used to give when asked to go into a room of strangers and introduce themselves. They spent most of the meeting hugging the wall or hanging out by the bar instead of meeting new people (hence the term wallflower). Do you remember your own wallflower days? When you knew you were supposed to go do something but weren’t quite sure what it was? You know now that networking pays off, but figuring out what to do can be a challenge. Or perhaps you’ve mastered ‘working the room’ but haven’t transferred it to your online networking – social media. Where are you at in your growth cycle of your prospecting skills? To put this into perspective I will share with you the 5 stages of growth I learned when I first entered the coaching and training industry Stage 1 – you don’t have a http://www.trevorturnbull.com clue. Stage 2 – you’ve recognized there’s an issue but aren’t quite sure what to do about it. Stage 3 – you know what to do, you’ve learned the new skill, but don’t have the guts to do it. Stage 4 – you do the new skill and revel in your accomplishment Stage 5 – you do it unconsciously, you don’t even have to think about it. Mastery. So with your networking on line –...
