TEAM Talk Radio Episode 5:

TEAM Talk Radio Episode 5:

Top Tips for Being a More Consistent Professional with International Sales Trainer, Eric Lofholm.

https://anchor.fm/teamtalkradio/episodes/Top-Tips-to-Be-a-More-Consistent-Professional-e3c273

 

Terilee: It is wonderful to be able to chat with you, Eric. Today we are going to talk about consistency. When it comes to practicing consistency—especially for entrepreneurs and small business owners, the more consistent you are, the more successful you can be. For our listeners, I’ve known Eric now for close to 10 years. On the outside looking in, it seems to me that he is one of the most consistent people I have ever observed. Eric, I’d like to start by asking, have you always been someone who’s a consistent person?

Eric Lofholm: Actually no. I went to Community College, which I was supposed to go to for two years. I went for five years and never graduated. I’m still a few units shy of my AA degree. I was applying myself at a one, two, or three in my school work at that point in my life. I was really the opposite of consistent early in my career. It’s interesting now that I would consider myself masterful at being consistent in business now.

Terilee: It’s interesting how we can all grow and change, and that’s the good news for everyone! What would you say along the way was a “game changer” for you?

Eric: Well, I had one really pivotal moment in my life where I had a conversation with Tony Robbins. I used to work for Tony. I was employed by him from 1996 to 1998. I won this trip to Fiji based on my sales performance. I went there, and I had this idea inside my head that he was going to acknowledge me for my results and how far I had come. I was now one of his top producers. We had a conversation, and I asked if he’d give me some advice on how I could be more successful and achieve my dreams. And he said, “Give up on your dreams, Eric, you’ll never make it. Quit lying to yourself…” It was a jolting experience when someone you really respect essentially says you are not going to be successful. Out of that experience, I began to think. Were my actions consistent with my goals, my vision, and my dreams? After the conversation with Tony was complete, I sat with that thought as I evaluated my own performance. The answer was no—my actions were not consistent with my goals and my dreams. Something happened to me in that moment, and I made a decision: I don’t know if I am going to achieve my goals or not, but if I fall short, it will not be due to lack of effort. And that decision was literally a ‘draw a line in the sand’ moment for me.

Terilee: I love that for a lot of reasons. I think we all need to have that “draw the line in the sand” moment. Ours might not come from Tony Robbins, but it’s in those moments when it’s like, what am I going to do here? And it’s all about the action, isn’t it?

Eric, could you please share with our listeners—if you had a top strategy for what helps you be consistent, what would that be?

Eric: I’ve developed a standard how I operate in my business. And on a scale of one to 10, I’ve made a commitment to myself. I play at a seven, eight, nine, or 10 everyday in business. And I’ve been doing that now for over 20 years. That’s my commitment to myself.

Terilee: That is awesome. You’ve worked with thousands of business owners over the years. What are some of the things you share with your clients that help them rise in their consistency and action taking?

Eric: If it really starts with the intention and the decision and then from there you can look at different ways of how you measure it. For me and my business, it’s delivering one speech a day—like what we’re doing here on this podcast. I do one activity like this every single day. And I also do that with prospecting touches and different habits that I have in my business. I just really hold myself to a very high standard.

There’s another concept that I learned. It’s put yourself in a position that demands that you succeed. I have clients all over the world, and I have employees who work for me, and so forth. Failure is really not an option. I have these commitments and promises that I made. The people I have made promises to are very, very important to me. Those are some different techniques that people can do to increase their consistency.

Terilee: I just committed a month ago to publishing content online daily for 365 days. And it’s been amazing. I don’t know if everyone is noticing that I’m doing this, but the fact that anyone might know if I missed even one day pushes me to make sure I get that article published every single day. Also, 21 days ago I went on a “no sugar” detox challenge. What are your thoughts on the power of taking 21 days to create a habit? Do you think that’s true?

Eric: What I heard you were sharing there is you are applying gamification to your business or to your results. There was a period in my life when I was tracking my steps, and I had an app on my smart. Every time I walked, it tracked it. I was walking 200,000 steps a month, and I did that for six consecutive months. Then I decided to discontinue that practice. But if wasn’t for that gamification, that commitment, and the ability to track it, I wouldn’t been able to produce that result. When you produce a single piece of content once a day for a year and you make a game out of it, then you focus on it and the next thing you know, you’ve produced 365 pieces of content. That can really move the needle in your business. I do love the concept of gamification, and it’s something I do regularly in my business.

Terilee: Thank you for that. I guess I enjoy gamification, too. When I think about consistency, I think about in layers. I gain confidence when I’m consistent. When I’m taking action and I start with one thing, and I build on that because it then allows me to move on to other things. Even the action of having no sugar led me to wanting to eat better overall (not just cutting out the sugar.) Then that led me back into more regular exercise. With the thousands of clients that you’ve worked with over the years, do you find as they develop consistency in one area it also works in layers for them?

Eric: Yeah, there’s a compound effect. So now you take sugar out, but it’s not just eliminating sugar one day—it’s sugar every day that you don’t have it. And for every piece of content that you create, that piece of content for that one-day compounds with all the leverage it creates. I think a lot of people out there are focused on short term results and are not thinking about the compound effect. Do you know how I was able to build an email list of a little under 15,000 people? I did that over time. I value small steps. I value small, little progress. I think a lot of people are only looking at, “Does it give me a big enough return on my time investment?” And there’s certainly that viewpoint as well.

I’ve been consistent in my business for 20 plus years, and it has allowed me to build a global business. I have clients all over the world. I’m very much living my dream, although there’s more that I want to accomplish. But I’m very happy with what I have accomplished so far. And it’s been done with the daily consistency that we’re talking about. I ask people, “How many of you recognize that you need to be more consistent in your business by a show of hands?” It’s like almost every hand goes up. Most people don’t view themselves as strong in the area of consistency. And it’s really just that one thought we’re talking about today is a game changing thought.

Terilee: If you had one last tip or strategy to share about consistency today, what would it be?

Eric: I think it goes back to my own personal example of going to community college for five years and never graduating. And if I could go from that to having this self-image of myself as a master of consistency and have you hear me on this podcast on the subject of consistency—If I can do it, you can do it. That’s really the message I would just invite all of you listening in to hear. If you don’t view yourself as somebody who is consistent, your past does not have to be your future. It no longer has to be that way! You literally can just make a decision right now, the moment that you’re going to improve your consistency or possibly master consistency. I want to tell you that does exist inside of you and you can access it if you want to.

Terilee: Thank you so much for that. I always appreciate your words of encouragement! How can our listeners reach you, and what would you like to share about what you have going on in your business right now?

Eric: I’m known for being a Sales Trainer. Really the question I would have you consider is do you want to make more sales? If you do, I can help you in a variety of ways. We do a lot of virtual trainings, and at least once a month we have a free webinar that you can plug into and get some great tips. Just go to www.saleschampion.com and opt in for any of my free offers. This will put you on my email list. I am also very active on Facebook. Send me a direct message if you want to let me know you enjoyed the podcast. I might even be able to do a free coaching session with you if time permits. I’m always happy to hop on the phone with you for half an hour and share some tips on how to help you.

Terilee: Great. Well thank you again, Eric, for sharing about consistency today. I think the more we all take actionable steps and become consistent, the more successful we’ll all be in all areas of our life!