Uncategorized | The Caleb Barney Collection

Solving problems – selling services, not products

When selling, remember that you’re selling a solution to someone’s problems. Your solution will change over time, depending on who you’re serving and what new changes or improvements are made available. You should always be open to changing the physical product that you are currently selling or else be at risk of becoming a dinosaur and going extinct.

For example, Kodak had the ability to create digital photos back in the 1970s, but they did nothing with it. They thought that their product was physical photographs. But, in reality, their product was creating a way for people to store and share their memories. Whether that was with a printed photo or digital photo didn’t matter. But because they were so tied to their ways, Kodak went from being the dominant force in capturing memories to declaring bankruptcy in 2012.

Your solution should not be about a specific product. It’s about the service. Eventually someone will have a better product or a newer product. Eventually they may even sell that product at a lower price. It is up to you to provide the service that solves their problem. Sell service, not products.

Working hard and feeling connected – the keys to happiness

We were made to work hard and to live in a community setting. Money may not bring us happiness, but connectivity with others and productivity will.

Think about it…people win the lottery and are still depressed. But when you have an amazing support group (friends, family, people in your social groups at the gym, at church, or in a club, etc.) AND you are getting things done, you are usually very happy.

I love the feeling of being tired from working hard. It helps me feel like I earned a break to sit down and watch tv or even to do nothing. I can do whatever I want and feel no sense of guilt after a long day’s work.

Money is a good thing. I’m not trying to downplay it. But it should not be our only focus. If you focus instead on growing the depth of your relationships with others and being productive in the most important aspects of your life, you will feel much more fulfilled than if you’re just chasing the next big paycheck. (By the way, if you’re happy, productive, and motivated, you’ll probably be a better employee or boss, which can lead to more money anyways…it’s ironic because once you stop chasing it, that’s when it will come to you easier than ever.)

Building a strong reputation

The best way to be financially compensated is to listen to someone (or a group of people), understand their concerns/problems/issues/pains, find a way to solve their problems, clearly communicate how you plan on helping them, then go out and do it. Bonus points (a.k.a. referrals and/or raises) if you are able to outperform what you told them you would do. You exceed expectations by completing the job quicker, costing them less money, earning them more money, causing them less headaches/frustration than they were expecting, etc.

It’s important to emphasize that you actually fix their problem though. If you can’t exceed expectations, you better at lease meet expectations by getting them what you “sold them” on…It doesn’t matter if you can sell them on your services if you can’t perform. You will only get that one sale and they’ll never be a repeat customer or refer you to their friends. They might even leave you a negative review online or worse, if you fail to perform your obligations in a contract, sue you for breach of contract.

Work on building a strong reputation and it will pay off tenfold in the long run. If you’re motivated by earning the best reputation, where when people hear your name they think of you as a good person with a strong work ethic and an expert in their field, the financial payoff will eventually come. But if you are only in it for the money, people will see through you and you will actually be hurting your long term situation.

Earning confidence

When you work hard for something, when you earn it, it means something. You’ll appreciate your reward more because you understand the effort required to obtain it. You’ll have more confidence in your ability to overcome obstacles, because you’ve already faced those obstacles and defeated them. Having earned confidence, but still being humble about it, is an attractive quality that will lead to more business down the road.

So what do you do when you’re just starting out in a new field and have no experience? How can you transition from a stage of naive confidence to one of earned confidence? I break it down into five tips below.

1. Beware that you don’t compensate for a lack of earned confidence with too much false bravado.

You should be confident in your abilities and be decisive with your actions, but don’t act as if you know everything. People will either see through you or they’ll believe what you say and end up resenting you if you steer them in the wrong direction (because you presented yourself as the “expert” and they misplaced their trust in you).

2. Ask (better) questions.

It’s ok to ask questions to clarify what your customers are asking. If you assume they’re asking about A, but really they’re wondering about B, you’re not doing them any favors by answering something that is irrelevant. And if you assume the meaning behind their question incorrectly too many times, you’ll probably frustrate them and make them look elsewhere for answers.

3. Be ok with saying, “I don’t know.”

It’s ok to tell someone, “that’s a great question. Let me find out and get back to you.” If you present information as fact and it turns out to be wrong, you lose credibility and trust with those you are dealing with – negating any chance to create a repeat customer or a raving fan who would refer others to you.

We do things when we are naive not because we are trying to be reckless, but because we either are trying to prove to someone that we are an expert in our field, that they made the right decision by trusting us, or because we think something is true (even though we don’t actually know). Often, our ego gets in the way. We think the other person may think less of us if we don’t know the answer so we make one up. STOP DOING THAT! You don’t know what you don’t know and that’s ok, as long as you can recognize and admit it. Others will respect you more if you’re honest with them and then work quickly to get them the correct information.

4. Find a mentor

Find an honest, reputable mentor (or willing and able teammate) in your field and rely on them when you’re unsure of something. Even if you‘re pretty sure you are correct, it’s not a bad idea to bounce an idea off of someone who is willing to help and wants to see you achieve success. Just be sure to take notes and be cognizant of their time. Don’t ask the same questions over and over again. Not much will make a mentor want to stop working with you more than if you take up their valuable time by asking questions they’ve already answered.

5. Become obsessed

To have more earned confidence, you need more experience. You can let the experience come to you or you can go get it.

Grant Cardone wrote a book called Be Obsessed or Be Average. I’m not the biggest Cardone fan, but he makes a lot of good points. If you want to be an expert, if you want to earn confidence in a specific field, you need to live, eat, breath, and sleep it. Expect your results to reflect your effort.

Malcolm Gladwell discusses a similar idea with the 10,000 hour rule, saying that anyone can become an expert at something in 10,000 hours. It’s up to you to determine how long it takes to get to the 10,000 hours. Do you want to do it in five years or two and a half? If you want to master your profession quickly, you need to become obsessed with it.

I hope these five tips will be helpful for you today. But remember, you will always have more to learn. Don’t be afraid of the unknowns. The more truths you can uncover, the better positioned you will be as an expert in your field.

Manage your activities to achieve your goals

I have been called a dreamer. I have a million ideas running through my head at once and like to talk about them with Allison (my wife), my sister, or my mom. Most of the time, they’re just ideas…something that I think would be cool, but not necessarily something that I’m willing to put the effort in to pursue.

Early on in our relationship, apparently Allison thought that everything I said was a plan for our future. The ideas were lofty, far reaching, and scattered all over the place. She has admitted to me that it stressed her out at first. (Sorry about that, love!) But now she knows me better and I’ve become a little better, I think, at letting her know when I’m going to act on some of these ideas or dreams.

This got me to thinking…a lot of people have big hopes, dreams, desires, goals. Call it what you will. But while many of us have these goals, it is the actions we take that will actually get us there.

For example, you can say, “I want to lose weight,” but if it’s a vague goal without an action plan in place, it’s probably not going to get done. You have to figure out the specifics first. Why do you want to lose the weight? Is it to improve your healthspan, so you can go up a flight of stairs without being out of breath, to have more energy to play with your kids, or just to impress a guy/girl you like?

After you determine your why, next you need to decide how much weight you want to lose and by what date. This gives you a sense of urgency so you don’t procrastinate. After all, if you say you want to lose ten pounds in six weeks versus ten pounds in six years, you’re more likely to stay motivated with the former.

Lastly, you need to figure out which activities will get you to your goal and measure those on a daily basis. This is crucial and so many people don’t start out with measurables that will actually help them get to where they want to be. Or they start out with measurables and don’t actually keep track/measure them! You have to put in the work to get what you want, and the best way to find out if you’re winning or losing is by looking to see if you are accomplishing the measurables that you set. Again, from our losing ten pounds in six weeks example, maybe your measurables are “I’m going to eat 3-5 servings of vegetables per day, limit my added sugar intake to less than 5g per day, workout 5x/week for at least one hour per session, etc.”

When you manage your activities (by doing them and keeping track of what you did/didn’t do), you are more likely to hit your goals. Focus on that and you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.

By the way, today is our 3-year anniversary! Thanks to you, Allison, for staying by my side through everything and being my number one supporter! I love you and can’t wait to see what we can achieve next!