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152 min read

It's Not About the Product!

By: Hamish Knox on Dec 31, 2023 9:53:18 PM

Sales Team Sales Training
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Happy New Year Full Funnel Freedom Followers!
 
This week, we have Dorine Rivers of Alpha81 as our guest! It's not enough to have a great product - you also have to have a great team to succeed. How do you support them, build them, and get the most out of them? Rivers shares ideas and insights.
 
And, if you find yourself struggling to fill out your sales roster, it might be time to give Hamish a call. 
 
You can now also catch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JIPrD9p9Ckg
 
What you'll learn:
  • The Importance of broad knowledge and problem solving skills
  • Why a product isn't enough to win the business
  • How to find and support team members - at any size
  • Why committing to personal growth is important.

Resources:

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World - by David Epstein

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise - by Robert Pool, Anders Ericsson

Brain to Bank: How to Get Your Idea Out of Your Head and Cash In - by Dorine Rivers PhD, PMP

Working Together Alone: The Beauty and Freedom of Outsourcing - by Dorine Rivers PhD, PMP

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8 Fundamentals for Building a Scalable Sales Model - Free Whitepaper

Many sales leaders claim they are eager to build a scalable sales model positioned for growth – a model that will allow them to ramp up revenue dramatically, without causing stress. Is that even possible? The answer is yes... if you have the right processes in place. How do you make sure that happens?

Here are eight ideas we are sharing with our clients.

Download the free whitepaper at fullfunnelfreedom.com/scale

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FFF S01E124 Rivers

Doreen Rivers from Alpha 81 emphasizes diverse expertise, open-mindedness, and customer-focused sales. Highlights importance of relationships, support, and personal growth. Aim for full funnel freedom.



Generated Shownotes

Chapters

0:00:00 Helping Others: The Purpose of Being There
0:00:12 Introduction to Full Funnel Freedom podcast and its purpose
0:00:30 Introducing Doreen Rivers from Alpha 81
0:03:09 The Importance of Broad Knowledge and Problem Solving Skills
0:09:32 Saving time and frustration with robots
0:11:35 Shifting mindset to focus on buyer's needs
0:16:20 Free Offer for Full Funnel Freedom Listeners
0:17:38 Importance of Networking and Building Relationships for Success
0:20:26 Introduction to "Brain to Bank" - Turning Ideas into Successful Businesses
0:24:56 Free Book Recommendation: "Working Together Alone" for Hiring Virtual Assistants
0:28:09 Supporting Others and Setting Boundaries
0:29:33 Ways to Support the Full Funnel Freedom Podcast

Long Summary

In this episode of the Full Funnel Freedom podcast, host Hamish Knox welcomes Doreen Rivers from Alpha 81 as a guest. Hamish introduces Doreen, highlighting her diverse background in adventure sports, education, and business management. Doreen shares her entrepreneurial journey, starting her first business at a young age and subsequently launching and managing various companies in different industries. She emphasizes the importance of having a broad range of knowledge and problem-solving skills across multiple industries, encouraging leaders to tap into their diverse expertise for innovative solutions.

Hamish agrees with Doreen and mentions a couple of books that explore this concept further. They discuss the need for leaders to be open-minded and adaptable in their approach, considering the unique challenges of each situation. They highlight the importance of listening to others and being open to different ideas, as everyone can contribute valuable insights.

Transitioning to the topic of sales, they discuss how technical entrepreneurs should focus on the benefits of their product for the customer, rather than solely on its technical features. The key is to help the customer improve their life, not just make a sale. They also touch on the essential role of a functional team and leadership in the success of a product. They stress the importance of assessing the team and leadership before joining a startup organization, looking for factors such as autonomy, support, and a blame-free culture, which foster creativity and success.

Reflecting on their experiences, they share insights and advice for evaluating opportunities, focusing on the team and leadership dynamics. They caution against joining organizations with controlling and micromanaging leaders while emphasizing the importance of passion for the product. They also discuss the significance of paying attention to the dynamics of conversations, drawing attention to the valuable insights often offered by quieter individuals.

Moving forward, they discuss the importance of taking action and commiting to personal and professional growth. They share their coaching advice for their younger selves, emphasizing the significance of networking, building relationships, and helping others without expecting anything in return, as reciprocity naturally occurs.

As the podcast episode comes to a close, Hamish asks Doreen to provide recommendations for books, movies, or podcasts to the audience. Doreen introduces her book, "Brain to Bank," which guides individuals through the process of turning their ideas into successful businesses. She explains that the book covers everything from marketing strategies to financials and business plans, with real-life examples of mistakes and consequences. Doreen also mentions her pre-book, "Working Together Alone," which focuses on hiring virtual assistants to support new businesses with cost-effective solutions.

In the final moments of the episode, Hamish discusses the importance of maintaining relationships and the concept of reciprocity. He encourages listeners to offer support to sales leaders, founders, entrepreneurs, and sellers without expecting anything in return, while also highlighting the need to avoid overburdening oneself. Hamish invites listeners to share their takeaways on social media and mentions the availability of the podcast as a video on YouTube. He expresses gratitude for the support received over the past two years and provides ways for listeners to connect with him. Hamish concludes by inspiring listeners to go out and create their own full funnel freedom.

Brief Summary

In this episode, we speak with Doreen Rivers from Alpha 81 about the importance of diverse expertise and problem-solving skills across industries. We discuss the need for open-mindedness, customer-focused sales approaches, and the role of functional teams and leadership in product success. We provide insights for evaluating opportunities and emphasize the value of taking action and committing to personal and professional growth. Doreen recommends her book "Brain to Bank" and discusses the concept of hiring virtual assistants in "Working Together Alone." We highlight the importance of maintaining relationships and offering support without expecting anything in return. Join us in creating your own full funnel freedom.

Tags

episode, Doreen Rivers, Alpha 81, diverse expertise, problem-solving skills, open-mindedness, customer-focused sales approaches, functional teams, leadership, product success, evaluating opportunities
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Transcript

Helping Others: The Purpose of Being There


[0:00] You are not there to sell them something. You're there to help their life be better. What does that look like?

Introduction to Full Funnel Freedom podcast and its purpose


[0:12] Welcome to the Full Funnel Freedom podcast. If you are listening to this, you are likely leading a team responsible for generating revenue.
Purpose of Full Funnel Freedom is to support people like yourself and keep your funnels consistently, reliably full.

Introducing Doreen Rivers from Alpha 81


[0:30] Welcome to the Full Funnel of Freedom podcast. I'm your host, Hamish Knox.
Today, I am delighted to have Doreen Rivers from Alpha 81 as a guest on the podcast.
Doreen, or River to her friends, and that's how I will be calling her throughout our episode today, literally grew up on North and South American rivers, rafting wild whitewater rapids, basking in the sun and sleeping under a canopy of brilliant constellations.
River has an undergraduate degree in creative writing, a PhD in business management, investment banking, and general contractor licenses, and a few other degrees and certifications in between.
She is the CEO of Alpha 81, Inc., an Arizona-based firm successfully supporting corporate innovations, expansions, and exits in software, technology, medical life, and health sciences, education, and other industries.
Her everyday motto for living is based on Helen Keller's quote, life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
River, welcome to Full Funnel Freedom. freedom.
Hamish, thank you. This is going to be so fun. I'm excited to be here.
I'm very excited to be here with you as well. I love our previous conversations and I'm excited that our audience gets to witness one today.
So, River, I've given the audience the 30,000-foot view. There was a lot of stuff in that opening bio.
Take us down a level. Tell us more about you, your backstory, and what you do today at Alpha 81 to support your clients.

[1:53] Well, you know, I think as most of your listeners probably can relate to is that people are entrepreneurs at heart.
Even if you're working for someone else, you're figuring out a way to do it your way, to be innovative in doing it, to get ahead of the pack and make a difference. And all those are elements of entrepreneurs.
And I had my first experience as an entrepreneur when I was eight.
And my brother and I were riding our bikes down the street and we saw these lemonade stands and we thought, wow, these kids are making money.
And we want to make some money but we don't want to do another lemonade stand so what can we do so we decided to take those old-fashioned metal ice cube trays kind of kind of crack open like that and we fill them with kool-aid and about halfway through and the trick is to remember halfway through to put toothpicks in them and then they became little tiny popsicles and we We called them Cubesicles.
And we set up our stand. And we sold those for two cents a piece instead of the one cent that everyone was selling their lemonade for.
And by the end of the week, we had everybody's business because we had created a novel product that no one had seen before. And we just went.

[3:05] After it and decided, well, let's just try it and see if it works.

The Importance of Broad Knowledge and Problem Solving Skills


[3:09] And I think that's the mind of your listeners as well, which is, well, let's try this. If it doesn't work, we'll try something else.
And people as entrepreneurs or in sales or any other types of jobs, it's good to think about how to do it differently and how can you create more benefit and features and have your product or your service becomes something that people want. What is that difference?
And we figured that out when I was eight. And then I went on to create other businesses.
And I had companies call me and they wanted to start a business.
And they would call me to come in and actually launch their company.
And I would come in as early as naming the company and setting up systems and processes and logistics and distribution and doing global expansion.
And after a year or two, I'd get their company up and running. They're making money.
And I say, OK, here's the baby. Don't kill it.
And I move on and start another company.
So that's how I have that vast array of industries that I've been in.
And that's come in handy because it offers you different perspectives in different industries.

[4:24] 80% of any company has the same kind of things going on, but that other 20% makes that industry specific.
And that's where you gain the most knowledge is where you're learning those new things.
But those new things end up being ways that you can problem solve down the road in a completely unrelated industry because you've been there and you have this wide expanse of knowledge as opposed to what Malcolm Gladwell talks about in his book, Outliers.
That's 10,000 hours going deep down into one narrow focused area to where you're a genius and an expert in that.

[5:01] But if you read David Epstein's book called Range, it takes the whole funnel across and you get this wide range that doesn't go deep, but it offers you information and problem solving skills in many different areas so that you can tap into those later.
And for the listeners, it's really important to remember that you have lots of different expertise that you've gained over the years.
And those might become the place where you're learning how to do better in sales or how to better present or how to solve a problem with a client.
Maybe you have an account and you might be losing it. How can you keep that from happening?
Something else back here that you've learned will come to the rescue and you can implement that.
I love that. And, you know, there's a great book by Anders Ericsson called Peak, which is where the 10,000-hour rule that Malcolm Gladwell ended up misquoting comes from. And there's lots more nuances to that.

[5:58] And I love this idea of broad and David Epstein's book is amazing as well.
We'll link to all of those in the show notes is I'd love to hear more about your experience about problem solving with knowledge in different industries, because we can, especially as leaders, get very narrow, right?
My background is in accounting or my background is in this.
And so we try to take that hammer and apply it to a screw, except we don't need a hammer for a screw.
We need a screwdriver. drivers. So from your experience, solving problems with different resources, what would you coach a leader to do when they're starting to get really narrow and saying, I know what to do, even though from the outside, you're like, you have no idea what you're talking about.

[6:42] I think that the listeners will most likely agree that when we think we know, we think we know, but we're not absolutely positive sure because you can never be sure you know there are there are biases and lots of things that that interplay into how you think you know what you're talking about i think it's so important to stay open and listening to other what other people have to offer is massively important and even if they don't come up with a solution they may come up with an idea that sparks Mark's a solution that you will come up with.
So listening and, and not deciding that you're right and they're wrong, because that means you're not going to hear anything they have to say.

[7:27] Staying open. If you just stay open to new information, you're, Most people are usually surprised as to what they've heard that they were surprised by and that can now utilize.
Absolutely. And what I'm hearing in that is be open to ideas from different types, right?
We can also get caught in this like, well, they're not a CEO.
I'm a CEO and they're not a CEO.
So, you know, they're a project manager. Why should I listen to a project manager?
Well, because they may have a different idea that actually can accelerate you towards a solution. Now, because you have so much experience in starting things, right?
And then eventually, you know, as you said, handing them the baby and saying, you know, don't kill it.

[8:07] One of the key things that can be a challenge for startups, especially, is this idea of sales, right?
That, you know, they actually have to sell something. People actually have to give them money for their product.
So when you are talking to your clients and you're starting to go down that path of sales, especially with a very technically oriented entrepreneur, what are some of the things Things that come up in those conversations that you would like the audience to be aware of.
So when they're having those conversations internally with a technically oriented leader, that they can be like, okay, I get where you're coming from and we still need to sell stuff.
I think that comes back to the root difference of what's a feature and what's a benefit.
And when you're talking to someone who created it and someone who created the company, and maybe they're the ones that are an engineer and they actually created the product, they are telling you the features.
If you push this button, it will do this.
If you wind this up, then you'll get this result.
And they want to talk about what it does as a product.
That doesn't say what it does for the person who's buying it.
Those are the benefits. fits. So what if you created a robot and it goes across your table and it picks up a pencil and brings it to you and you think that's the coolest thing ever because you created it and you can talk about all the technical things that went into creating this robot.

Saving time and frustration with robots


[9:32] But what is that doing for the person that's using that robot?
And that's what you have to talk about. Well, it's saving this person time and what if the robot goes over and sharpens it and then delivers it?
Well, now Now you've got three pencils there and you break two of them and you still have one. You're saving time. You're saving frustration.
I mean, obviously, this is an extremely small scale idea.
But what does it do for someone else?
If you can't say what's in it for them, which is a really cool book by Joe Polish called What's in it for them, you have to come at it as what does it do for the other person, not what is it going to do for you?
And as soon as you put a dollar tag on that and you're making in your mind of doing the math on what you're going to make if you make this sale, as soon as it's tagged to money, you've lost.
It has to be tagged to the customer.

[10:31] What will it do to benefit them? You are not there to sell them something.
You're there to help their life be better. What does that look like?
Brilliant. Yes, you're there to help the customer make their life better.
And and i remember hearing a story once about when uh powerpoint was being produced by microsoft and one of the beta testers said uh to the engineer so why why can the text fly in and out and all around the screen and the engineer's like oh because we could like well that that's not helpful for our buyer that's you you know showing off your technical prowess so i love that insight around making it about the buyer and that's a big mindset shift for a lot of entrepreneurs and potentially potentially, you know, the sales leader who comes along, because if they're just dyed in the wool on here's what it does, here's what it does, that's going to filter down to their sellers and their sellers are going to go out and commoditize themselves by just talking about features instead of about the things that their buyers actually want to solve.
So Doreen, as we are growing, so hey, we're off the launchpad, we've got a name, we've got a product we could sell.

Shifting mindset to focus on buyer's needs


[11:35] What are some of those next steps that our audience of sales leaders might want to watch out for when they're potentially joining a startup organization to ensure that they're actually joining an organization that has some legs as opposed to maybe just a pet rock.
In all the experiences that I've had over these years, which is 30 plus years of doing this.

[11:57] The most important thing is the team. It is not the product.
If you have a dysfunctional team and dysfunctional leadership, it doesn't matter what the product is.
That company is going to fail and you're not going to be happy there, which means, you know, you're obviously going to be out of a job and looking again.
The first thing to do is look at the leadership.

[12:18] Are they team oriented? Are they cultural oriented?
One of the best books i have ever read and i read it twice in the last two months it's called creativity inc it's by ed catmull and he's the co-founder of pixel and pixar as you know went had a couple different owners and steve jobs was involved and and then uh they ended up uh selling it back to disney and then ed catmull took what he knew about cultures and actually actually taught that to the Disney people who were floundering at that time in animation and the point is this, it was always about keeping the people happy, what do they need, giving them autonomy to spread their wings and try different things, there was never, ever blame if someone did something that didn't work and they're going, oh, he did that and he blew it and cost the company a million dollars and, Never. It was always about giving them enough room to explore and to eventually succeed.
Rarely are people successful in their first attempt.

[13:29] So just know that going in. And so look at the team and look at the leadership.
Are what how do they treat things like that?
Are they going to have a noose around your neck and micromanage you?
Like, I don't know anyone who loves that. that and um but there are still leaders who think they need to do that because they know more they're smarter they don't know you they don't trust you so they're going to make sure you do it their way if that's the case don't even sign up just look somewhere else but look at the team first, then you can look at what they're selling are you excited about the product if that passion does not come through when you're talking to somebody about it, you've got the wrong product.
So those two things are the most important thing. The rest of it just falls naturally.
That's a great bit of advice, River. So what else do you look for?
Because clearly, you've been invited into these rooms on multiple occasions.
I'm sure you've said no way more than you have said yes since you started your business.
What are some of the key criteria, aside from team, heard that, that you look for when evaluating an opportunity with an organization?
I look at where people sit.
I look at who speaks and who doesn't. A lot of times introverts and more quiet people don't say very much.

[14:57] But when they do say something, that's the time to sit up up and listen because they've gotten the guts up to say something in a room and they're not comfortable doing that, but they feel like they really need to say this.
Pay attention to that. The guys that talk all the time.
Maybe what they say every time isn't very valuable, but the more quiet people, I listen to them because I know that when they speak, they really have something great to say.
And I take great notes. And when I write something down that I feel needs to be done, when I get back to my office or my desk or whatever, I don't just leave it in my notebook.
I look at what needs to be done and I put it on the calendar and I give it a date and a time. If you don't transfer that into an action step, you've done nothing.
So it doesn't matter if you wrote it down and it doesn't matter if you even remember it. What are you doing about it? Amazing. Yes.
We say to our clients, sales requires action. Leadership requires action.
So having a great, quote unquote, great meeting and then nothing comes of it, that's not going to advance in the business. And that's also an indication of are these people actually committed?
Because committed individuals, in my experience, actually take action going forward.

Free Offer for Full Funnel Freedom Listeners


[16:20] Free offer for listeners of the Full Funnel Freedom podcast.
Go to www.fullfunnelfreedom.com to get your white paper, Eight Fundamentals of Building a Scalable Sales Model. model.
If you're listening to Full Funnel Freedom, you are wanting your funnel to be consistently reliably full and sustainably scalable.
So go get your white paper, Eight Fundamentals of Building a Scalable Sales Model at www.fullfunnelfreedom.com slash scale.
Now back to the show.
So River, you've had a lot of experiences. You've had a lot of amazing experiences on the water. you've had a lot of amazing experiences in boardrooms, you've probably got a little bit of scar tissue and some bumps and bruises.
If you could go back and coach Younger River, however far back that is, you pick and say, hey, Younger River, you have all these amazing experiences.
You're going to be the CEO of Alpha 81.
You're going to have done all these cool things. You also are going to have a bunch of scar tissue and bumps and bruises.
What would you coach Younger River to do, say or do differently to get to the same place, but with fewer bumps and and bruises and a little less scar tissue.
I'm totally laughing at the two things you brought together.
One is the water and one is the boardroom. It's like, does that mean that I've been waterboarded?

Importance of Networking and Building Relationships for Success


[17:38] And sometimes it does feel like that. The one thing I have not done well because I'm task oriented and, and because I can be rather, uh, not shy, but more inward and thinking and contemplating and getting things done rather than working with people is I have not networked properly.
And I haven't taken the time to extend myself and get to know people and maintain those relationships.
And I have just learned in the last few years, how important that is.
And I'm beginning to literally make myself do it because it's out of my zone of comfort to do that.
But I've decided that I must do that. And it's good for business.
And it's good for relationships.
And it's actually good, good for me to learn how to do that.
Well, so I've joined some groups, and then I have extended myself to people within those groups.
And it's just been a wonderful experience that I have really never had.
And you would think that I would have that nailed by that this time in my life.
But I didn't pay attention to it because I was too busy doing things and not being something to someone else and being helpful to them.

[19:04] And, you know, that brings up a really important concept and core value that I have, which is I don't walk into a relationship thinking, what can I get from you and how can you help me?
As soon as you do that, the relationship's going to be dead in the water anyway.

[19:22] It's about I have these certain skill sets and I know what they are.
And how can I use these to help you move forward in your business?
As soon as you do that number one you feel really great because you help somebody else and two um there's this unwritten reciprocal thing that happens that they feel they need to do that for you and you really need to never even ask for it because they offer it because you've been so great to help them with something they needed and you offered and it's just it's one of those what goes around comes around things and you don't do it because it's going to come back around to you if it just stops with you helping them and that's all the further it ever gets it's still a great thing amen amen totally totally aligned with that uh so this is uh our second video episode ever so our first one was back on our second anniversary in october and we are going to be launching video episodes uh going forward uh it's starting with this one so river congratulations you are our first guest to have a video episode.

Introduction to "Brain to Bank" - Turning Ideas into Successful Businesses


[20:26] And I typically ask the audience, the guest about what have they read, listened to, watched that they would like to recommend to the audience.
You've already recommended a number of books. I also have not asked you about the book that is over your left shoulder.
So in addition to any other recommendations you have for our audience, please give us a quick overview of what is Brain to Bank all about.
Brain to Bank is the culmination of 30 years of helping companies start their company.

[20:57] And it really takes you from chapter one, chapter 17.
If you have it, most people have at least one great idea in their life.
And most people never do anything with it because they don't know where to start.
So this is Brain to Bank, how to get your idea out of your head and cash in.
What do you do with that idea? And just like the previous example I gave about the guy that invented the robot, well, that's a cool little toy.

[21:27] But if you don't have a business to back that and it includes marketing and it includes strategies and financials and business plans and other things.

[21:36] You just have a cool idea. You don't have anything else. So how do you make money with that?
And how do you get to the point where you can offer to others and they can benefit from what you have thought about for 10 years?
And Brain to Bank does that. And it starts with talking about why are you doing this?
And if you don't know why you're doing it and it's not a compelling reason, the first couple of times there's some little glitch and problem in running the business, which which invariably happens, you're going to fold because you're not hanging on to anything.
But if you have a really deep-seated why as to why you're starting this, and it's always way more than, well, I've had this idea.
I want to do something with it, or I need money. Well, what do you need money for?
You've got to dig five layers down before you really figure out why are you doing this.
Well, it's because my dad thought I was a loser my whole life, And I'm going to prove to not him, but myself, that I'm not a loser.
Well, you can hang on to that through a thick and thin, because that's a great reason to prove to yourself and not others that you can really do this.
And that will take you through the tough times.
But there's business plans and there's marketing ideas and there's talking about the logistics and distribution and the legal part of things.
And it's all in there. And I took each chapter.

[23:04] And I tell you, there's a section in each one of them, and it's called another episode in the drama series of I didn't see it coming.
And there are horror stories of companies I've worked with and the absolute dumb things they've done or things they should have done that they didn't do.
And it usually costs them a lot of money and or even their company because they didn't do it the right way.
So i'll show you what companies usually do because they don't know what to do and so here's here's a an example of what not to do now here's what to do then you get at the end of the chapter and it's called action accelerators now you've learned this do this go online start your company you know about entities choose if you want to llc or or an s corp or choose your entity talk to your cpa do this, do this, do this.
If you do each one of those at the each at the end of each chapter.

[24:06] Your company is up and running when you're done reading that book.
And go sell your product, go offer your service, because you've done everything.
And it's just step by step is read it, do it, move on. It's so simple.
And it's laid out all for any anyone that really wants to to do it.
Very cool. We will also put a link to that in the show notes.
So listeners, if you have got an idea bouncing around your head or you're like some of the other entrepreneurs I've talked to where they're like, I built a thing. Awesome. No one cares.
Go build a business and then go sell it because they're not going to beat a path to your door.
River, I've really had a blast chatting with you today. You've shared some amazing ideas and insights with our audience already.
What would would you like to leave us with as a closing thought, a bit of wisdom, something to plug, the floor is yours.

Free Book Recommendation: "Working Together Alone" for Hiring Virtual Assistants


[24:56] I think for your listeners, I'm going to let them know that there's a pre-book that they can have.

[25:03] There's a website called riversfreebook.com. If you go there, you'll be able to read a book called Working Together Alone, and it's how to hire virtual assistants.
Most new businesses or independent people, such as salespeople who are running their own show, the 1099, for example, you can't hire anyone in the very beginning and think you're going to make it and hire all these people to be in-house and have this big payroll.
It doesn't work that way. How can you still get stuff done?
Well, here's how to do it. You hire global virtual assistants at a fraction of the cost.
Here's where to hire them. Here's how to manage them. Here's what to say to them so they understand what you want.
Because a lot of them are foreign and English is their second language.
And here's how to utilize it in your business.
So so that's a free book. book, riversfreebook.com. Go get it, go read it, and it will change how you do business. It'll make your life easier.
Amazing. And again, that link will be in the show notes as well for you wherever you're listening to this podcast.
So River, had a blast. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with the audience on Full Funnel of Freedom.
Appreciate you being here today. Thank you. you.

[26:22] Sales leaders, I had a lot of fun visiting with River today, and I had a bunch of different takeaways from our visit. First one, when you're.

[26:35] Looking at joining an organization. And it could be a startup organization or it could be a very mature organization.
Her insight around, look at the team. Look at the peers who you are going to be associated with.
Look at the CEO, obviously, who we'll be reporting to.
And also, look at the board and the investors. Who are those individuals who you're going to be interacting with on a regular basis?
And are they going to be actually supporting you?
Or is it going to be essentially a pressure cooker that some of us might want to go into.

[27:09] My experience is a lot of us do not want to exist in a pressure cooker.
So really understand and look into that team. And that ties into that idea of maintaining relationships.
I'm task-oriented like Doreen is.
And when I started my first business, I went, oh, you know, I can't just be a hunter anymore.
I actually have to to maintain relationships long-term, not only with my clients, but my team and vendors and strategic partners.
And that idea of reciprocity, you know, my ultimate North Star is to support as many sales leaders, which can be founders and entrepreneurs as well, and sellers as possible.
And ultimately that comes down to giving without the expectation of getting.
And so if we can genuinely go out and talk to our sales team members, or maybe it's a peer on our leadership team or it's a strategic partner or a vendor or a channel partner or even a buyer who says no to us. And we can say...

Supporting Others and Setting Boundaries


[28:09] How can I support you today? That's my daily question. Who did I support today?
And if we can ask that question of the people who are in our world, professionally and personally, how can I support you today? We might not actually be able to do it.
And we might not want to do it every now and then. That's okay.

[28:29] Also, we don't want to overburden ourselves.
This is not a a suggestion to take on everybody's problems that's not our role and at the same time uh we will we will find is as the cliche goes if you give more you tend to get more and i know that's been my experience so let us know what your big takeaways were in the comments on our social media as i mentioned during the pod we are now publishing the full funnel freedom podcast as a video uh which will be available on YouTube.
So you can search for Full Funnel Freedom or you can search for Hamish Knox.
By the way, there's not many Hamish Knox's out there. So that one might be pretty easy to find. Full Funnel Freedom is pretty easy to find as well.
So if you would like to watch the pod, we'd love to have you on YouTube.
And of course, thank you very much for your support over the two plus years.
Until we connect next week on the next episode, go create Full Funnel Freedom.
Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Full Funnel Freedom podcast.

Ways to Support the Full Funnel Freedom Podcast


[29:33] You can continue to support us by leaving us a review and a rating, sharing this episode with a couple of sales leaders in your network who you care about.
I'd love to connect with you. I'm easy to find, Hamish Knox on LinkedIn.
Also, if you'd like a free 15-minute call with me, go to www.hamish.sandler.com forward slash howtosandler.
Until we connect on the next episode, go create full funnel freedom. you.

[30:00] Music.