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Writer's pictureSteve Taylor

Collin Mitchell's Sales Transformation Podcast

Updated: Jan 5, 2023



Collin Michell invited me to his Sales Transformation Podcast. We had a great time and I hope you enjoy.

Episode Description from salestransformation.fm:


This episode of the Sales Transformation Podcast with Collin Mitchell features Steve Taylor, Founder and CEO of Thinq HR & Insurance Services. Growing up as a go-getter has proven vital in Steve's extraordinary growth in sales.


From never giving up getting into the best school with an athletic scholarship, to proving his worth as a salesman by being vulnerable, Steve proves that you can reach your goals when you put your mind to it and trust yourself.


He shares how his mentors helped instill the right mentality in him and how we then applied it to the various opportunities laid in front of him. By the end of it, Steve decided to start his own insurance company and provide his customers convenient solutions with an excellent service level.


Notes:


Get your HR and Insurance questions answered here


Book your PEO Audit and have Steve shop PEO services on your behalf here


Learn more about Collin in the link below:


LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/collin-saleshustle/

Learn more about Steve in the links below:


Email: steve@thinqinsurance.com


Transcript:


[00:00:00] In the world of sales, you either sink or swim or breakthrough to the next level. My name's Colin Mitchell. And this is sales transformation, a new kind of sales show designed to bring you through the epic life-changing moments of elite sellers. So you can experience your own sales transformation.


[00:00:25] All right. Welcome to another episode of sales transformation. Today's guest is Steve Taylor. He's the founder and CEO over at think insurance Steve's is so count native, former UCLA track field athlete, and avid guitar player. He may even jam out for us who knows. We'll see, uh, Steve, welcome to the show, man.


[00:00:47] This has been a long time coming. I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I'm happy to see that every day, the sun staying out just a minute longer, so excited for, uh, the summer to come. Oh, I know. I don't, I'm not a fan of winter. I mean, we've got a nice over here. And so Cal though, like if he gets under 60, we start sniffling and getting our jackets out and turning up the heater.


[00:01:11] Yes, but I do, but you know, one thing that's interesting, I lived in New York, so I'm a, I'm allowed to like, say this as a California, 60 degrees in California is like 40 degrees in New York. It's not the same. I don't know what it is about it, but it's just not the same. Yeah. Yeah. I would not do well in the cold, I mean, but, uh, all right.


[00:01:30] So tell me, um, I'm curious, usually we kind of started. Where did your sales journey start? But I want to, I want to go back a little bit before that and maybe, uh, because I think that, you know, uh, people who are, you know, athletes at the level that you were, you know, typically do really well in sales for a lot of different reasons.


[00:01:52] Um, and. And, and so I kind of want to start a little bit more in like, you know, when you got into track and, you know, at what level and, and the sort of like, so take us back like a little bit before your professional career started. Okay. Yeah, no worries. Um, honestly, I started off in track and field. I was really like a basketball player for the most part growing up.


[00:02:14] That's what I wanted to do. Um, track. I was kind of interested in it just because my dad had this, uh, picture of him long jumping in junior high school. And. It just always was fascinating. Cause it's like the fence was here and his legs were way up here. And I was like, oh, that's pretty cool. And I didn't do track until my freshman year of high school.


[00:02:34] And the only reason I did that was because I wanted my second letter for, um, my varsity jacket. I wanted to be the first person to have the Letterman jacket my freshman year. And so I got it with basketball. I got to put the last two games of the season on the team. Um, and. I did track and field because the year prior I broke my leg and I wanted to like get the other letter.


[00:02:57] So that was motivation for me to go. But. It wasn't fast. Uh, I think I ran the a hundred meters, like in 13 seconds or something. It was pretty slow. Um, the 200, I wasn't fast, fast, fast or not. What's fast. It's actually, it's just not, that was like the last, last in the heat. And I was just like, you run it down and make it look like I was running in peanut butter.


[00:03:19] So, you know, one of the coaches told me like, Hey, why don't you try out, you know, triple jump, jumping, long jumping. I was like, I don't know what the hell triple jump is. So, you know, I told my dad about it and he was like, yeah, you might actually be good at it. Then I tried it out and I was okay. Um, it got me off of JV and put me on varsity.


[00:03:35] So I was happy about that. It sounded like.


[00:03:41] It sounds like a little humble there. Well, it was like, um, it was more like, um, I was better than my environment around me, but luckily it's a. Great gentlemen, by the name of, uh, Terelli Davis. Uh, he was our school. I got to watch him. He was a senior when I was a freshman, he said our school record of 47 feet, like right in front of me one day.


[00:04:03] And it was awesome. Cause like I was barely going like 36, 37 feet. So he was going 10 feet further and it was like, man, it was very inspirational to see how much further he was going then than I was. And. You know, then from there, I just started to say to myself, like, that's my benchmark. That's what I'm going after.


[00:04:20] So the following year ended up going like 45 feet. Then the next year I went 48 feet, um, my junior year and then my senior year, I went around like 48, 49 feet. And then, um, then yeah, I mean, even though I was going far in my junior year, I was like top, I don't know, five or six, uh, returning in the state. I still didn't get all the letters from UCLA and from all these different schools.


[00:04:43] So I actually made a list of every school I wanted to go to. And I just called up every head coach and jumped coach. And I wrote a script because I was getting nervous on my first few calls. Hey, my name's Steve Taylor. I'm out of Oxnard, California. I go to Wyoming high school. My GPA is 3.8. My sat score is whatever it was.


[00:05:03] Um, are you guys looking for a jumper? Here's how far. And then maybe they got a yes or no. And my first four calls actually got nos. Um, They're like, no, you know what, honestly, we don't need jumpers. We're looking for distance runners right now. It's like, well, why is that? Well, because the distance runner, they're one scholarship and we could use them for cross country and we can use them for track.


[00:05:27] And I was like, damn, that's pretty smart. Don't blame you. And I was like, well, Hey man, I'm looking. If you, if your 17 year old son was calling somebody up, uh, or 16 year old, cause I was 16 at that time. Um, if your 16 year old son was calling someone like yourself up, w what would you want that coach to tell him?


[00:05:43] He's like call up Georgetown. They need a jumper. And I was like, okay, great. So caught up Georgetown. Cause I was definitely on my list. And then I was, you know, just like went for a run around to different people. And then, um, UCLA, they didn't quite yet have a, a coach in place for the jumps. And um, I kept calling and sending my transcript in, cause you're allowed to call them.


[00:06:07] They can't call you until like, I think it's August your senior year at that time. So in doing that. I mean, I really want her to go to school. I didn't want to go to community college. I had just like always saw myself at a division one school and basketball didn't seem like it was going to be it. Um, so I just kept sending my transcript until the coaches saw it.


[00:06:27] And then one day a coach by the name of Tony Vinny, he calls me up and says, Hey Steve, Hey, w we got all 50 of your transcripts that are all over the floor here in the coaches office. Um, Hey, we got a new coach. He's going to be giving you a call up, uh, here in like the next month. Then all of a sudden, one day I'm sitting there watching like some old track meets from like 1996 Olympics with my dad.


[00:06:48] And, um, it's Carl Lewis and Mike Powell going head to head in the championships. And then all of a sudden I get a phone call and I look at the phone and it's like some Rancho Cucamonga number or something like that. And I'm like, I don't know who this is to me answer the phone. He's like, Hey, Steve is Mike Powell from UCLA.


[00:07:03] And I was like, well, Mike filed a world record holder down, man. That's cool. Um, so when he gave me a call and I heard his voice, I, I mean,


[00:07:15] It was amazing because, um, nobody like three months before that knew about who I was or anything like that. And I kept being told, Hey, they'll come find you if you're worth anything. And I just wasn't willing to hold. You know, people around me accountable to that, I was like, Hey man, you don't know if these people are going to call me or not.


[00:07:34] And I can't blame you a year from now. Hey man, it's your fault. They didn't call me. So, you know, I, I kind of had to act in faith, not by sight and just make those calls and be vulnerable and open. And it ended up working out really well. So. Yeah, man. That was always like a really good, uh, that was that story kind of like really helped me out through life.


[00:07:54] I go back to it a lot of times actually. Wow. Wow. All right. So we're, I'm curious about so many things here, cause like, I mean, One, you weren't letting you, weren't going to wait around for opportunity to knock on your door. You know, you were fighting to get your chance. Um, and so I'm curious on a lot of things.


[00:08:18] One, how many, how many schools did you have on your little. I think it ended up being 200, but after my first five, I think I was just stretching. Cause I was like, I don't know. Who's going to say yes, let me just keep going. And I had this, uh, I don't know. There's some book I forget who comes out with it.


[00:08:36] There's some book every year, like the top schools, um, academically. Went in reverse order with that, including like Yale and Cornell and Ivy league schools, which they wanted me to. But, uh, after I started calling them, but then they told you, uh, Hey, your, your scholarships are based off of your FAFSA, not your athletic ability here.


[00:08:53] So your family should be able to afford $40,000 a year. And I'm like, I don't know what form you filled out, but that's not happening. Wow. Who would you, would you just like come up with this idea or did somebody tell you like, Hey, you know, somebody tell you this is what you needed to do to get your shot?


[00:09:13] Um, or, I mean, there's just not a lot of 16, 17 year olds that are, you know, fighting for their opportunity like that. Um, you know, when you spend every day working out, getting up at 6:00 AM, uh, You know, trying to do things, um, the right way to get the grades and your whole life has kind of ran off of that motivation.


[00:09:38] Then you're only willing to accept the well there's two realities. There's the way you think reality is. And then the way you think reality should be. And when those two things are congruent, you're, you know, you achieve peace of mind. And for me, um, no knowing it or not. If I really felt like I was supposed to do something or I was supposed to be somewhere I did anything I needed to do to get there.


[00:10:04] And the only thing that would guide me or, um, help support me in that were just principles, you know, principles that I learned from my growing up principles that I learned from, uh, you know, my face or, you know, from family. And a lot of those things were that, Hey, you know what, um, there's no one beneath me.


[00:10:25] There's only one person above. And he's not a person it's a holy spirit for me. So when I moved like that, you know, I realized, um, there's no shame in being vulnerable and asking people for what you want. There's no shame in being told. Uh, no, because I'm more afraid of, of. Having to walk around with that voice in my head telling me what I should have done and not honoring or listening that versus getting a note from somebody in the external world, because I know that that knows not even a note to me.


[00:10:56] It's just a note of. Whatever they perceive. My, my action of asking is, you know, um, so that's kinda like the idea just came from just the, um, just like the fear of, uh, it not happening, you know, like, Hey, what if it doesn't happen? I have to go to 13th grade is what I call community college at the time. Now that there's anything wrong with it.


[00:11:16] It's just, I always saw myself going to a top school. For basketball and, uh, and you know, Hey, when I had to pivot and make it track, I was like womb effort. It's track. Let's go. Wow. So yeah, I mean, there's, there's so many things that I love about this, right. Because, uh, Man. Those are some, like, you didn't have skills about like cold Colleen or writing a script.


[00:11:41] Like, you're just like, this is what I want and I'm going to go get it. And at least if I don't get it, I'll know that I did everything that I could and put it all out there to get it rather than kicking myself and saying, I wish I would have, or what if I would have done, you know, more exactly. And I think it always comes from the.


[00:12:02] The one gift. I think my parents gave me was they didn't ever really like, necessarily do stuff for me. Um, but they provided me the opportunity to, um, make things happen. So one thing my dad always asked me at the end of every track meet, whether it went good, bad in between was what did you do your best today?


[00:12:22] I was like, yeah. All right, man. Well, if you, if you did that poorly and it was your best and you did your best and it would give me power. And I was like, okay, cool. I got it. Cause sometimes you go out there and you really do. You put everything you got together and it just doesn't come together and that's fine.


[00:12:37] A failure is okay, that's how you grow. Um, if you're afraid to fail, it's very difficult to, you know, grow quickly. I mean, if you're afraid to fail. There's a good chance. You're not going to do much. You're not going to take much action because man, that fear can demotivate you from doing anything. Yeah. Or like I'm in for me, you know, Hey, like I do have a lot of fears, but you know, the way I, I kind of learned to deal with fear is by like stacking.


[00:13:07] Up on top of each other and then which one's more fearful, you know, I might be afraid to, I don't know, jump across, like from a one building to the next, but Hey, manufa, you know, Oh Wolf or something was chasing me. I bet y'all jumped across that building very quickly. Right. Cause it's it's fight or flight.


[00:13:25] Right. So like learning how to like, uh, how your own mentality works or learning how, um, you know, you honestly work with yourself and figuring out ways around that and using it as a resource. Um, Kind of comes from having the gratitude of being thankful for all your limitations or failures or challenges in front of you.


[00:13:44] And knowing that on the other side of that, um, is something nobody can take away from you, which is you got all the skills to be able to get over that fear. Uh, and that's kinda like the whole point of why it was there in the first place. Um, otherwise you wouldn't fear it, right? Yeah. All right. So you got, you got into UCLA, uh, as a jumper, right.


[00:14:07] And then what, what'd you, what did you, uh, what'd you go to school for there? Honestly, I wanted to be in business. I didn't know what exactly, um, or law, and when I went there, um, you know, like you're a student athlete, but at the same time, You know, when your scholarship is there or, you know, you're on a team you really got to fit around the schedule that you need to have.


[00:14:31] So there's only so many classes that are available. So I ended up, um, going with an English major and the reason I, and the way I made that work was well with the English majors. They didn't have these like required Friday or Thursday lab classes. So I was able to go to English class and not, you know, automatically fail by not attending some classes for travel schedules and all that.


[00:14:54] And there was no, you know, special privilege for athletes, um, for that particular like business economics course. And, um, any of that kind of forced me to become a better writer anyhow. And I figured, you know, what, if I'm going to be a lawyer, I didn't go to a school where they really like, you know, It wasn't the best school in the world.


[00:15:16] Right. I went to Windermere high school and Oxnard and, um, you know, at the time it wasn't one of the best, you know, like education's out there, uh, great people, but not the best curriculum I would say. And, um, my math was very high when I did my entry level stuff, but my writing, it just, it just wasn't really there.


[00:15:34] Um, I remember even getting like a pretty bad grade on my first paper and then just being like, you know what, I'm not going to. Sit here and get bad grades with writing, especially if I want to be a lawyer. Um, so, you know, I just, I just doubled down and learn how to write. And by the end of it, you know, I decided to be an English major and, uh, ended up getting a lot of A's in my classes, which was great, but it was not easy.


[00:15:57] I had to go to a lot of TAs, uh, sessions and ask them like, Hey, you know, you gave me a C minus, like, why is it a C minus? And then they would tell me why it was a C minus, Hey, if I bring it back to you like this, then. You know, like what can we do about the grid? And a lot of times I would get my grades boosted because you know, I wasn't willing to accept the a C minus.


[00:16:17] I just ask them what's the gap. Well, we got to do. And, you know, they would, they liked it. They would help me out. And I got better that way. I mean, there's two things I love about that. Right. It's is one, you know, you, some people would take the easy route, like, Hey, I'm good in math. So, you know, maybe I'm going to focus more on that.


[00:16:37] Right. But you took a different approach. Here's a, here's what I'm doing. That great ad or I'm not as strong at, or, you know, this is what I feel is going to push myself to do better. And that's the path that you took. Right? And, and again, there's this common theme of, of, you know, you not being except. And what, you know, a certain bar that you establish for yourself and, you know, pushing yourself in uncomfortable situations where it's like, Hey, ask him, what can I do?


[00:17:08] How can I get better at this, you know, asking for feedback. And those are skills that a lot of people just aren't taught and don't have, um, and they can take you some great places. So. All right. So I'm curious, you know, what was your, when you, when you after UCLA, um, what was your first, you know, professional, uh, you know, path, career?


[00:17:28] What was the first job you had? My first job I had was actually. Product descriptions for $12 an hour in the San Fernando valley in the heat of the summer. Cause one of my neighbors, uh, my senior year, she gave me an opportunity. Cause you know, she was like, Hey, what are you going to do? I was like, calming.


[00:17:46] I don't know. We just finished track season. Like we went to nationals, then it was like finals and it was graduation. And then it's like, all right, go get a job. And um, you know, Kind of caught off guard on what I was going to do, but I didn't have a car. I didn't have a suit. So the first thing I did was wrote product descriptions for $12 an hour and, um, stayed with my parents for a few months and I saved up enough money to be able to get the car.


[00:18:13] Um, it was like a Honda accord for like, oh, like $9,000 or something like that. And that got me to work. And then the next thing I did was I saved up like, Month or two. And, uh, then I went to men's warehouse and, uh, and got a, buy one, get one free, uh, suit, which I was super pumped about because I was like, Aw, man, they might have a second interview.


[00:18:34] All right. Um, so I got my suits there for like 400 bucks, 300 bucks or whatever, like the cheapest like suits were. Um, and then, um, then I started to interview and, uh, first thing I do is talk to a recruiter and they said, so what do you want to do? I don't know. Um, I do want to be, I've always wanted to be a lawyer, but I often, I just didn't need to go to law school and that's expensive because they don't have a track team.


[00:18:57] Uh, so, um, when I sat down with the loan officer and they told me how much it was gonna cost, I was like, I don't know if I'm willing to pay, uh, like, you know, three or 400,000 to go to school, just to get a job, to make, you know, a certain amount of money. Like how long is it going to take for me to catch up and.


[00:19:16] Then I just kind of like, he asked me, what is it that you really want to do for a living? I was like, I don't know, but I've always seen myself wearing a suit. I'm standing in front of people in a boardroom, uh, pointing at a screen or pointing at something. And then there's tall buildings everywhere. He's like, oh, so you want to do sales?


[00:19:32] And I was like, I don't know what sales means. Then he explained it. And then I went on like 10 different interviews. And when I went on to different interviews, Going with Cintas first aid and safety. Cause they were the only ones who can explain how the hell I was getting paid. I mean, all the other comp plans were just too, uh, complicated to even understand.


[00:19:54] Well, they just, well, it was just like, There wasn't alignment, like the truth and what I saw just wasn't there. It was like, yeah, you can make $200,000 a year here. Phenomenal. Um, what's the base? 27,500. Cool. Um, okay, great. So I spent all day with this guy and, you know, we knocked on 80 different doors. He literally lied to like 40 different people that we talked to about why he was there.


[00:20:20] And I was like, man, I don't, I don't like this. And then, you know, he's like, oh, I got a sale today from our stuff today. So that's one sale. So I'm at, I'm almost at quota and I'm like one sell almost like how much you're getting paid on it. 300 bucks, 300 bucks, one sale, almost that quick. How does that make sense?


[00:20:36] So then I come back and they're like, yeah, you get 300 books, every sale. And, uh, w we require, you know, about like, you know, your first month, first, couple months, one month, or one deal a month. And then after that, it's three deals a month and, uh, yeah, analytics. So, so how do you go from $900 a month and 27,500 to get into like 200 or 300 grand?


[00:20:55] And I'm like, well, it's.


[00:20:59] Got it. How many are people selling here? What's the team at? Because of the team meeting. It said you guys were like 87% of plan as a team. Oh, well, you know, like we're still building stuff. Right. And I was like, so like when I was doing the math, I was like average person who was probably making like 50 grand maybe.


[00:21:14] And then I started seeing everybody's cars in the parking lot. It's just this, this just like, didn't add up and Cintas. Wasn't offering me anything spectacular. Okay, but you got these first aid kits. You go in there, you fill in the band-aids and the, oh, you go do an OSHA safety walkthrough and you see if they need a, you know, an eyewash kid and all these different things.


[00:21:34] And, um, yeah, you get paid 10% of whatever it is you sell each month. And I was like, that makes sense. Let's sign up. Let's do that. Right. So, um, so I did that for like a year, almost like a year and some change, and I was blessed with the old Steve. You're doing great. So, what we're going to do is, um, you've doubled the production of your route, and now we're going to give you double the territory and we're going to put you on a different commission plan.


[00:21:59] So basically from, you know, like optimizing my route, working two or three hours a day, um, like in real life work and going from place to place to all this. 10 to 15 hours a day and getting paid like 10% less. So, um, one of my clients that I was blessed with in that situation was paychecks and a, one of their first aid kits was in the back sales office.


[00:22:20] And I saw one of the sales managers there and it said now hiring outside. And I just had to ask him, I said, Hey man, what would it take for me to be wearing a suit and come to work instead of this goofy first aid uniform I'm wearing. Um, and the guy's name was bill Lynch. And he was like, you know, from like, uh, Northeast, I think Brooklyn.


[00:22:36] And he's just like, Well, seeing you got any sales experience and I'm like, I don't know, sales is about getting results, right? Yeah. And I'm like, well, I ran track and field and I got a scholarship there and you know, if I didn't perform every year, then I wouldn't get my scholarship renewed. So, you know, if all you're telling me, I gotta do is sell some payroll to some people I think I can accomplish that.


[00:22:54] He's like, I think so too, let's have an interview. So then, you know, we had an interview and. You know, he pretty much just told me, Hey, look, man, if you can get into UCLA and do track and field and you can sell payroll, so we'll try it out. Then I remember my first day, I'm excited. I got my laptop, I got my iPhone, my company iPhone, and I got my suit on and I'm like, man, I'm somebody.


[00:23:17] And he was just like, all right, cool. Here's your list. Here's a script. Let me know when you're done with your, uh, with your calls. You want to get to probably like 75. Alright. And I remember I stuck the list up there and I remember just sitting there and my heart's all beating and I'm like, oh, fuck it.


[00:23:35] Know what to do is I just go over to his office and I'm like, Hey man, I don't know if I'm really supposed to be doing here, man. He was just like, all right, I'll sit right behind you. He's like you pick up the phone. You listened to it. It's got a dial tone. It does. Okay, cool. And then you press pound nine and here's the number and just re read the reading the lines, man.


[00:23:55] I was getting like R I got crapped on, I got shitted on so much. It was great. Um, after the first four or five of them, um, A little more comfortable. And then he was like, okay. So, you know, it's going to help you out. Let's do this live. So we go out in person and start cold. Calling remembers his dental office, um, on Victoria avenue in Ventura, I go to the front desk and I'm like, and he's like, all right, son, go in there and, you know, do your thing, just get the four corners of the business card.


[00:24:23] How many employees, who are they using or the semi monthly, weekly, whatever. And then who do we talk to? So I go in there and I'm like, hi, my. And then they're just looking up at me. Yes. And I'm like,


[00:24:41] I just walked out and he just looked and then he just looks at me and he's just like, so what happened? I was like, I just walked out and he was just like, wow. And I was like, I didn't know what to say. And he was just like, what do you want to know? I want to know what I'm going to be doing with this shit today, because this is embarrassing, man.


[00:24:58] I think I might know that person from high school or something like that. I'll come in here asking for some salary for no man. And then, um, and then he was just like, yeah, he's like, you know what, man, just go, I'll go with you. So he goes in there and he's like, Hey look, is he bothering you? And then the lady kinda last, no, he just came in here and like had a goofy smile and didn't say anything and walked out and I'm like sitting there, like while they're having this conversation, he was like, What do you want it to say?


[00:25:23] It was he's new. This is his first day. He's new to sales. He's never done this before. He's trying to look sharp. He probably got his tie from his dad's closet. And you know, you came in here and you scared them off. I need to talk to, I need to talk to the person who handles your payroll and she's like, well, he's like, I need to talk to the person who handles your payroll.


[00:25:43] And they're like, oh, use ADP. Oh, use ADP for what? All like eight people here or something. Yeah. We got like 15 people here in Baba on us. Good. I mean, you know, so like who, who, who, who handles the billing for all that stuff? Oh, that would be our office manager. She'll be in tomorrow at 10. Um, okay. Well, you know, Could we maybe pop in tomorrow and say hello and introduce ourselves.


[00:26:05] She's like, why don't you just give her a call and schedule a time to come in? Like all the other, like, you know, reps do. And he's like, like all the other reps do. Okay, cool. And then he gave me the business card and he left and he's like, you see son, you just gotta go out there and talk to people. So then he had me try the next one and I was still nervous and goofy, but, oh man, I remember sitting there with like, um,


[00:26:30] Okay, look on it. I just told the person that just said, okay, look, I'm new to sales my manager's out there. He wants to see me come out with the four corners of the business card. I don't want to waste your time. Um, I know the product is good. I'm just in the way of the product, but I work at Paychex. Oh, you work at Paychex the place across the way where customers were there is we actually ate, can we talk?


[00:26:47] Cause we want to upgrade. Uh, we got another account. We got to set up. No shit. Right? Like, and then all of a sudden, like that's how I ended up getting my first cell. Um, it was like on like a live cold call, like. And, um, and then he helps so much with the confidence though, right? Like, I mean, being new in sales sucks.


[00:27:08] It's tough. You know what I mean? And if it's a little easier when you're on the phone, right. Cause you know, you get caught up, you know, you can just hang up, but when you're not in person in person, You know, there's some stuff in person, man, you're, you're a lot more vulnerable. Right. And so, I mean, but getting that first sale, having that good first conversation, that goes, well, that is key, man.


[00:27:35] You just got to keep moving forward until that happens. It takes longer than it. Then, you know, it takes, sometimes it takes. For some than others. Um, but once you get that first cell or you book that first meeting or whatever the case is, and you got to take that energy to keep you going, because you're probably going to get your teeth kicked in at least 10 more times before, before you get another positive result.


[00:27:58] Yeah. And then, you know, and that can feel you don't really. Detrimental, you know, anytime too. And especially like when you're changing jobs sometimes too, I don't think people realize, like, you know, you're at the top of the totem pole at whatever company you're at. And then some people don't really realize like, oh, well, like I'm the number one elite salesperson in the world at my company, or.


[00:28:20] You don't know how to get appointments and you don't know how to generate leads and the company isn't feeding them to you. Then I'm not going to say you weren't a real sales person. I'm going to say that you just signed up for a different job. So don't expect yourself to perform there. It takes a little bit longer.


[00:28:34] It's a little bit harder. You can do. Brilliance everybody's created the sales conversation and presenting pretty decks and all that stuff. That, that piece is easy. Cause they're interested. What's hard is, um, figuring out, I don't know this person, they don't know me. I don't know their situation, their time or anything really happening with them.


[00:28:53] And I have to find a way to connect with them and then figure out how I can help them in some way, shape or form. And. What turned for me was like about like eight months in nine months in, I just decided to change up my approach. Um, mostly because this guy said, Hey, why'd you call me with the corny, uh, Dale Carnegie 10 o'clock two o'clock close.


[00:29:15] And I just told him, I was like, well, what clothes do you recommend? Works best to close somebody like you, he was like, I mean, just ask me, Hey, if you're available at 12, then yeah. Then let's do 12. I was like, are you available at 12? Yeah. Okay. Let's do. Yeah. He's like, ah, you got me. Okay. That was good. All right.


[00:29:32] I'll meet with you. All right. You know, so it's honestly like the market disciplined me in a lot of ways. Um, there's told me what to say. I was like my customer telling me, Hey, this is what I want to know. Um, a lot, like the genius around what you're doing with like the podcasting and some of the advice that you've given me in the past, which is, um, Hey, you know, if you interview the people that you would like to work with, Then you really build really great connections with them.


[00:29:56] Right. And in a way that's kind of what I started to do. Just hang out with, Hey, I'm new to payroll. I'm in this area. What would you recommend? Who would you recommend? I go to. Who do you think would need something like this? I know you guys are already set up with whoever you guys are set up with, but who do you think I should go talk to?


[00:30:11] And then they'd start talking about my neighbor. Jim, you should tell him, I told you to go over there and then it's like, then that's how I learned. But most of my learning experience came from yeah, it's kind of full circle though, right? Because you even doing that when you are cold calling school, Right there.


[00:30:25] Like we don't got a coach, we ain't got a scholarship for that, you know, but you were asking them, Hey, who should I call? Who is looking for a jumper? Right. Like you took, I mean, that was something that you had practice with early on, um, that you started using in your sales role. Right. And yeah, I mean, when you're, when you're new, when you're switching to a new role or a new company or whatever the case is, And even if you're not, may your prospects don't care.


[00:30:52] If you won president's club, they want to know what's in it for them. How are you going to help them? Can I get their sales team to president's club or whatever that may be or whatever they're trying to do and get them to the point where they can afford to have, you know, a president's club that would be wonderful.


[00:31:06] Right? Um, yeah, I mean, that's honestly like a lot of, um, a lot of the experience I had to in selling, uh, man, I had all the. Great ideas about like, what would be, it would be so great if we could do this instead of this or our customers really want this, instead of that, how come like nobody's really thinking about this or doing it.


[00:31:26] And then, you know, I started to realize and write down all my frustrations and started to try and learn, like, why are these things happening or not happening? And even talking to executives in the company and stuff about like different things, uh, shamelessly in a lot of ways. I wasn't afraid to DMR CEO at tryna.


[00:31:45] Amen. Hey Burton. Hey, how's it going, man? Blah, blah, blah. And then he would write back sometimes. And sometimes they wouldn't, but you know, I had no shame on my, Hey, I'm making money for you. So if we, if we were going to talk like, Hey, I'd be a great person to talk to or keep motivated. Right. Um, So, yeah, I mean, I, I mean, honestly, it's like, you just gotta be a human, you gotta be a person, you gotta know what you want.


[00:32:06] And then, um, also know if whoever you're talking to, what do they want and then figure out that Venn diagram of how you both get what you guys want. Where's the, where's the little clips, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so tell me a little bit about what you're doing. So, what I'm doing now is honestly, uh, when I was working at companies like ADP Paychex, trying to, and I was selling people, HR and health benefits and all that, I believe market.


[00:32:34] I felt like it was good for him when I was working with them. But the one thing I always really wished I couldn't do was I knew my sales process was a first meeting. Then they have to collect all the data. Then they have to fill out our specific forms, which are different than the other company's forms.


[00:32:49] And then we have to do a demo and then we need to review all this stuff. And I always thought to myself, like, man, I did not want to put my customer through five or six of these different things. You know, like all the time. Cause I feel bad. Like, you know, that's like, you know, with me, they might be spending 10 to 15 hours then we'll for other people they're doing it.


[00:33:05] So when I was kind of thinking about what I wanted to do next, I just like was like, man, you know, I've always wanted to be there for the customer and say, Hey, why don't you just let me go out and shop this stuff for you. Since you a don't really like care that much about what you're insured, what you get for insurance.


[00:33:22] You just want to make sure your people are happy with it. You want to make sure that. If you're buying it, that they're going to use it. And that's the hard part, like shopping for insurance. I mean, if you don't know what you're doing, I mean, yeah. You can waste a lot of money and it, you can't pay people, um, salaries and you can't pay insurance with credit cards really.


[00:33:41] I mean, you gotta pay it with cash. So a lot of the tech companies I serviced, you know, they needed help with this stuff. And I just wanted to position myself where it's like, okay, Let me go shop it for you. So then when I started looking at, um, my relationships with like insurance agents and brokers in the past and CPAs and all the different people, I just decided, you know what, I'm just going to start a HR and insurance services company where I just help people figure out, Hey, should I use ADP?


[00:34:06] Should I use rippling? Should I use, you know, Gusto? What do I use? Well, it really kind of depends on your company's, uh, whole, uh, people's strategy. And HR. So I'm just combining all that stuff together to figure out what's the perfect benefit package for the employees. What's the perfect insurance plan for the company for like worker's comp health, you know, key man insurance life, all those different things.


[00:34:31] And how do we make those bundles of. Exciting for the employees. How do we make it exciting for the company so that they can grow revenue and expand? Um, you know, I'm basically taking something very boring and trying to make it come alive for people, um, without them having to be too involved with it.


[00:34:47] Cause it's not what they do, but something I always enjoyed, it's not sexy, but I like it. Man, this is awesome. Thanks so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. Uh, enjoyed learning a little bit more about your story. Uh, tons of learning lessons there for folks tuning in where's the best place for people to get into your world?


[00:35:06] Steve, honestly, LinkedIn is probably one of the best places to get into my world. Um, but. Based again in my world is, Hey, you can reach out to me either@steveatthinkwiththeqinsurance.com or you can text message me at 8 0 5 8 9 0 2 4 8 3. I've had that number since I was 12 years old. So that's the number I called all those schools from.


[00:35:28] Yeah, you'd be calling the, uh, you'd be calling the infamous infamous phone that. Uh, cold called his way into a, um, scholarship at UCLA. That's it, man. I got to get one of those gold phones that Bruno Mars has his concerts man. And it was a big block. Gold phones. Yeah, the, put it up on the, uh, put it up on the wall.


[00:35:51] There you go. Yeah. Awesome. Thanks again. We'll drop the links there in the show notes for everybody who wants to get connected with Steve. Uh, if you enjoyed today's episode, please write us a review, share the show with your friends. It really does help us out. And then I'm always listening for your feedback.


[00:36:08] Transformation.fm, drop me a voice DM, and I will get back to you. Hey, you stuck around that tells me you're serious about your own sales transformation. If you're tired of doing things the old way and want to get started in your journey with other people on the same. Head over to sales, cast.community and crush your numbers on your leaderboard.


[00:36:29] Yeah. It's free sales cast.community. Send me a DM with your best pitch and mentioned this ad. And I might even give you free access to our best templates.


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