How to Personally Achieve With a Business Coach

In this transcript, Clay Clark (Business coach speaker of choice for Hewlett Packard, Maytag University, and more) and Clifton Taulbert (Pulitzer Prize Nominee) discuss the importance of learning how to achieve personal success on Thrive15.com, the best sales training program.

Clay:    I will say this, every entrepreneur that I’ve interviewed as a business coach, so far, who is a top level, successful entrepreneur, they all begin their day by making a day planner and a to-do list that they put those little small steps on. I know you do that and I know that it’s important that we do that. But do you, just everyday, you revisit your to-do list to make sure you’re getting close? Is that something you do everyday?

Clifton:    Well, I know in the world of technology, thanks to a lot of different people that …

But I have at least twenty or thirty notebooks-

Clay:    Really?

Clifton:    Yeah.

Where, I mean, if a person could actually go back and get my date books and have a fairly good sense of what my life has been like for the last ten years.

Clay:    This business coach wants to show you something that is kind of funny.

This right here, this is my shelf of books. So I go back to 2001 and I have my booklets. I can tell you what equipment I was buying. These are my cold call lists of who I called, I cross them out. I have met a ton of entrepreneurs that …

And again, this is the difference between the successful entrepreneur and somebody who is a bystander like you mentioned in one. But we all tend to write down our goals and dreams.

Clifton:    Because, the writing down literally puts you in the frame of mind that action is required. If you don’t write it down, it slips out of your head and you can blame it on “I forgot it.”

Clay:    “Oh, I forgot.” Yeah.

Clifton:    But when you write it down, you can no longer have that ally. The “I forgot it.” ally.

Clay:    So, [inaudible 00:01:38] my wife is trying to teach me the whole “write it down” concept at home. I’m awesome at work. I write stuff down and I get it done. But at home, you know. She’s “Oh, honey, can you take out the trash?”

And I’m, “I forgot!” Yeah. I just forgot.

So I’m bringing the Day-Timer home now and that’s kind of helping me a little bit there.

Clifton:    Well, that’s good. I haven’t done that yet.

Clay:    And new tazer technology is allowing me to remember as well.

Clifton:    But my wife is like a verbal Day-Timer at home.

Clay:    The verbal. She’ll remind you.

Now, listen to the business coach to learn the art of selling yourself to other people. And, again, we are getting into these here. Now, a lot of people watching this, you might say, “Oh, I will do anything for my business love, but I don’t do selling. I will do anything, but I just won’t sell.” A lot of people say that. A lot of entrepreneurs I know are stuck because they won’t sell. It’s not something people want to do, but it’s something we all have to. Now, I’ve found that I actually enjoy it now. But, talk to me about learning the high art of selling yourself to other people. Thrive15.com can help you do that as a top sales training program.

Clifton:    Well, you know, I don’t really think about selling. I think that everybody out there is buying. And you’ve got to buy something and why not let my something be what you want to buy.

So, rather than looking at it from the stand point “I’m trying to change your mind.” Everybody will be bringing something into their life from another person, another place. That’s the way life works. But commerce of humanity demands that of us. So, when I talk to a person, I may never use the word “I’ve got this to sell to you.” but I may say, “You won’t believe this project that I’m working on.”

Clay:    So, you believe that everyone is already buying. Why not just buy your stuff?

Clifton:    Yeah.

Clay:   As a business coach I have never heard it phrased that way. That’s awesome.

So, now, have a good laugh. Again, this is the science of personal achievement. I see you do this. You’re not a comedian, you’re not a jokester. People who know you, they know you’re sincere. You’re not a guy that tells elaborate jokes, that’s not your gifting. But you do have a little bit of a sense of humor about things. I mean, when things get bad, you kind of can laugh it off sometimes. Talk to me about why it’s important to have a good laugh, even though we’re all focused and so driven?

Clifton:    You know, laughing is a great medicine. I think, even medical science has come to the table, given us reason to reason to believe that laughter is great medicine and is good for our internal lives. It makes for better relationships, because what it does, in my opinion, it releases tension. It helps you to focus on something outside of a problem. It’s like looking at a flower. You know there’s a guy, I think he was a thirteenth century poet named Rumi.

Clay:    Rumi.

Clifton:    Really from Afghanistan. And he said, “I am in search of that, which causes the rose to bloom.” And I love that, because he may never find it, but he’s looking for that wonderful thing that’s out there. That’s what laughter is. You can’t bottle laughter, you can’t buy laughter, but laughter is something that really comes out of your eyes, your face, every pore of you. It becomes a gift, if you will, not only to yourself, but to others as well.