24 - Your Biggest Sales Obstacle Might be YOU | Grant Winstead

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Selling in the Dwelling, the go-to podcast for the in-home sales and remodeling industry. I'm your host, Alan Langer of the Seven Secret Sales Academy. And once again, as we roll along with one great guest after another, that's not going to stop today as I'm bringing in Coach Grant Winstead in a few minutes. And when we get talked to Grant, we're going to go toward the psychological part of sales, not for the prospect, but for the actual sales rep. So really cool episode coming up. But before we get to Grant, the two quick housekeeping notes that everyone knows about is visit the podcast website at sellinginthedwelling.com. Go there and click on the Ask Alan button. If you click on that button, send me a question, and I wind up reading your question on the air. And we've really got a good question coming up from Melissa later on. You get a free Selling in the Dwelling t-shirt. And also visit our title sponsor, Paradigm Vendo. It's paradigmbendo.com forward slash dwelling. The best in-home software you're going to find for sales success. All right. Well, without any further delay, I want to bring in Grant Winstead, who I've been following on LinkedIn for quite a while now. Really cool dude. And I'm really excited he's here because Grant is really a mindset sales guy, not just a sales process guy. Now, he got to where he is because Grant has spent so many years in the home improvement industry. But before I get to his accolades, Grant, thanks for joining me on the show. How are you, my friend? I am doing fantastic, Ellen, and it's wonderful to be here with you. Well, let's get into this. Let's try to help some of the sales reps out there with their mindset because I saw a study recently, probably about three or four months ago, about mindset and the prof it listed, I think um Dartmouth did this study. It listed the professions that had the worst mindsets, which was kind of interesting. And number one was middle management. People stuck in middle management, I guess, because they they don't feel they can they can advance in their careers. And the number two worst mindsets of any profession in the world is sales. You been in sales, me being in sales, I can see that happening. So just so the audience knows what who we've got here today, Grant was in the uh home improvement industry for four over 40 years. He started uh from door-to-door canvassing. Now he's a CEO and a business owner. And ready for this number? He's been in over 20,000 homes. He's got my ass kicked. I've been in 12,000. He's at 20, so uh I can't even hold a candle to that.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

I'm a little older.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

What's that?

SPEAKER_01 2:55

I'm a little older than you.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

That's all uh 100 million in sales, uh lifetime sales, trained thousands of reps, and uh, and he leads a qualified Romalo top 500 company, and he's really listed as a mindset and performing coach. So back to that study, Grant. Why do you think that is? Why do you think salespeople have such terrible mindsets? What would how would you answer that?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Well, that's a very good question, Alan. And so I would say this here salespeople can see the potential that sales make. It's one of the highest paid professions. And a lot of guys like you and me have gone over and beyond our expectations in the home improvement industry. And the reason why guys struggle is because they see it, but they don't know how to get there. It's an internal struggle. In any type of sales, the fight isn't with the customer, the fight is within yourself. A lot of people think that the fight is with the customer when they're going to homes. But really, it's not. The fight is an internal fight. Unless that is aligned for you to win, you're always going to struggle.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

So when you say the fight is internal, what are they fighting with? Is it is it confidence? Is it a lack of knowledge? What what do you what are you seeing in your life?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

It's a bunch of things. It's it's the philosophy. It's the way that the belief levels, you know, in this industry, Alan, there's three things that that I have learned along the way that separate the for me from being good to great. And the three things that I concentrate on is belief. Belief in company is a must. You don't believe in the company, then you you know, you have to believe in the product, you know, the product which you are selling. But most importantly, you have to believe in your internal self. And what I mean by that is a lot of guys have no problem believing in the company because they're around their peers. A lot of guys don't have a problem in believing in the product, whether it's windows, kitchens, bathrooms. They have excellent training in that. Where most self people fail at is the belief in themselves that they can execute at the level that they're supposed to execute, because they have these internal beliefs that are not even accurate to what they're trying to do. So what happens is they are off a line. They're not aligned up to the belief level of what they can really perform at at the level that they can really reach. They don't believe they can. So that is uh kind of my take on it and what I have seen in the industry.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

You said the three things that make reps from good to great. So it's belief in the company, belief in the self. Did I miss the third one? Or is there something else? And belief in product. Oh, belief in product, gotcha. Okay. Yeah, I mean, you can't if if you don't like what you're selling, you're not you're not gonna sell very many of them, that's for sure. Yeah, but you know, it's it's wild because I've always said this, and I've been I've been training now for a for a while. Sales isn't rocket science. It's really not. I mean, i there there's so many things that you can do to make a customer feel comfortable, but so many reps don't do it because I think they get hung up in the in the process of it, in the in the scripting of it, and they don't really know how to what I call feel the room. You hear the term read like read the room, but I like to use the term feel the room. And and it's been sh been shown now with study after study that the best performing reps have the highest scores on emotional intelligence. And I think emotional intelligence also has to do with how confident you are in the room. Would you agree with that? Oh, no doubt about it. No doubt about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Emotional confidence is so important. You touched on the spot, you know, believing in company and being among your peers, you know, that was one of the greatest feelings that me as a salesperson had. Me being able to learn how to sell windows and that methodology, you know, the 10-step methodology. It took me a while to be able to get it, but once I got it, I got it down in me, it was it was the feeling like, oh man, this is great. I wish everybody knew how to do this. But what I lacked that, and I think a lot of self-people lack at Alan, is the confidence of that, of that whole process there. They lack the internal confidence. They have fight failure, they have commission anxieties, they have a discount mindset. You know, they have a bunch of stuff that's internally stopping them that they don't even know to perform at the next level that they're trying to get to. It's sounded like self-sabotage. They're self-sabotaging themselves because they don't have the philosophy or belief level in themselves to really perform.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

So if I came to you, I'm a rep, I'm struggling. Tell me a little bit about your coaching process. How would you do you start with the discovery period? You find out what I'm going through. Tell me how you start, how you help rep specifically if I came to you for some help.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Great question. So the first thing we talk about is your belief level. Okay. Because belief is where everything starts. You know, if you uh uh Henry Ford said it, you know, if you think you can, you can't. If you think you can't, either way, you're right. Yeah, exactly. So we have to figure out what is your philosophy. And so, you you know, a lot of guys have different types of philosophy. It may be fear of rejection. What if they say no? You know, and they hesitate and don't even know what that where that fear is coming from. So the first thing we work on is your belief level. What is your belief level? Because belief level, whether you realize it or not, the high belief that you have on yourself, that's going to raise your standards. See, I have very high sales standards. My philosophy is high. I don't like the outside penetrate my inside because I know that I am one of the greatest salespersons of all time. I just believe that, right? But that came with skill, that came with repetition, that came with, you know, trial and ear. But now I know, but a lot of people think like they can get in this game and just try to figure out as they go on, and that's where they really fell at. So the first thing we talk about is philosophy. Where did you get the idea that you can sell? Where does that come from? So we talk about that. And then we talk about the, and then another thing we talk about is very important if we talk about the internal self-image of a salesperson. Because my internal self-image is my internal self-image. I wouldn't care um if I was um, I mean, I've been in some houses down in down in the inner city, and I've been in houses that are worth millions and millions of dollars. So I've been in all in between. But it's my internal belief that I have about myself, not the selling process, not the prospect in front of me. To be honest, I say to myself, I'm pretty damn good, and I deserve to be here, no matter where I'm at. So that builds down to self-image, right? But then the attitude, right? My attitude, your attitude has to be great, Alan. If you don't have a good attitude, then the whole thing kind of messes up, right? The whole process of of of that. And then you have to believe that this is where you're at, your identity, but where are you heading to, right? This is where you're at, but we're always heading somewhere, right? I'm heading somewhere, you're heading somewhere. So your identity is very important. But along with the identity of me being uh one of the greatest sales guys in the world, and I believe I am, I had habits and behaviors that reinforce those. Getting up early in the morning time, doing my morning routine, doing my affirmations, I am the greatest. I mean, that's what Muhammad Ali did. That's why he was so great. Absolutely. You know, and then that is how you get the results. That is how you get the results. So a lot of guys miss that part, you know, and a lot of sales organizations miss that part. You know, you can have two guys or three guys come into an organization, and I know you've seen this, you have three or two guys, two or three guys come in, and you say, man, these guys are going to be great. One guy, he he he he goes through the training program, he comes out like a superstar, he fine, he he he makes the cut, he makes a team, he's he's producing. The second guy comes in, same training, same everything, and um he's selling one out of ten jobs. He has some he he has some potential there. He has some potential there, but he's really not meeting our expectations. And then you got one guy that comes in, the same training, same attitude, same same uh lessons, talk, and he goes, he goes back to the company and he doesn't do he he he goes on attendees and sells nothing. So they gotta let him go. But they all have the same training. So what's the difference there? The difference is in the philosophy, the way you think, your standards. One guy had a very high standard about herself. And and in our industry, it's what I call chaotic organization. It's very chaotic, it's fat minute, so you have things going wrong in all different departments, and who gets to blame? The sound person. The south person is the one who always gets to blame. You didn't sell enough money, you didn't do that, you didn't do this, and so what that does is that tears them down and not really builds them up. And that's what I that's what I found out in this industry of my 40 years of being in it.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

The other thing I want to add, I want to get your opinion on this. Sales has such an awful perception in the world. You know, do you never meet a you never meet the five-year-old, the kindergartner who raises his hand and says, I want to be a salesperson when I grow up. Like no one ever really wants to be in sales. It's some, it's it's sort of like a profession that people fall into, or every every time you talk to a successful salesperson, they're like, I I I didn't want to do this. I, you know, my brother was working for a tree company and he had me canvassing, and then boom, that started their sales career. So, but I think a lot of salespeople go into a sales job or they start that training process thinking, ugh, I'm a salesperson, I feel icky. Do you think that's part of it? Because I I've I've met salespeople who are like, yeah, I just I don't really tell people I sell. And it's like, if if that's your your attitude or your or your mindset, that's not you're not gonna be successful, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

So I would say this here. Early on in my career, who wants the canvas? I mean, that is one of the toughest jobs if you ever door-to-door, the rejection upon rejection upon rejection. But the thing about it, when I got into it, I have I had nothing to lose. So I was able to take those rejections and take those doors standing in my face. I was able to deal with that, knowing that I only needed one job to keep me going. And somehow, some way, I was able to get that one job to keep going, to keep going. See, we all have this internal struggle. If a person says to herself, I don't like sales, well, you're probably not gonna like it. Yeah. And you're probably not gonna do good at it, right? Because you're, you're, you're, it's a, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sure. You know, so you have to go around and flip the script on that, and that's how great sales people are born. Because they see the money, they see the opportunity, they see all that ahead of them. I've always seen that ahead of me, right? I always kept that. I didn't know how I was gonna get there, but I knew if I was betting against myself, which a lot of guys do, self-fulfilling for prophecy, if I hate it, then nothing's good gonna come from that. But if I begin to say, I like it, I like it, I like it, I'm making money, and I'm flipping that script, then internally I'm lining myself up to win. A lot of guys gonna do that, and that's why they fail.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

And you and it reminds me of, I think, I think it was Martin Luther said, talked about the pride of taking pride in whatever job you're doing. I remember him talking about if you're a street sweeper, be the best damn street sweeper in the country. If you're if you're uh you know, a window washer, be the best damn window washer. And it's an inspiring thing, he said, because you're right, so many people like uh, uh it's just a job right now. I'll I'll find something I really like. And they have that attitude of like, you know, they're kind of going through the motions. And man, in sales, if you're not a hundred percent in it, um, you're gonna struggle. And then and then the struggling compounds your belief that uh this is not a great job.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

I'm from old school, right? And I'm sure your philosophy is based in old school the Dave Yoho, the Rick Grosso methodology, where you have to learn that 10-step methodology when you went into the house. And I know a lot of your clients that you have are a part of the uh the Dave Yoho group. And so I would say this here that methodology is good, it works. I incorporate it not only in myself's life, I incorporate it into my being because I know it works so well. That methodology, if a person doesn't have a grip on the methodology, they're gonna struggle. And how you overcome the struggle is talking about internally what's going on with you. You know, what's your mindset, what's going on at home. A lot of them they they have these different mindsets going on. They have a victim mindset, you know, but there's nothing I can do about my numbers, you know, uh, and then the opposite, you know, they don't know how that shows up in in results. So there's a lot going on that these salespeople are going through internally that the office or the management can't see, all they're looking at is the methodology in the results. The results come from the person that is internal belief. Like you say, it's hard to believe if a guy's making $25,000 that he can come into a company. You see these ads all the time. $200,000, $300,000, you know, all commission. Yeah. But it's hard for a guy to come in that's used to making $50,000. He'll come into an interview, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah. He has a good sales experience. He'll do fine at the interview. They think this guy is great, they think the company's great. But the moment he leaves the interview, he gets back in the car. You know what happens? His subconscious goes right back to 50,000. Can I really make this money? Yeah. Can I really make this money? They say 250,000, but my subpoint is only 50,000. He doesn't know this. He doesn't know this. So if he gets back into the car, he's saying, Oh, that's a bunch of shit. There's no way I can do this. But I'm gonna give it a try. So he comes in the next day, and they do all the methodology of training him, and lo and behold, just because he thinks he can't do it, he fails out. And that's that is the cycle of the home improvement industry.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

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SPEAKER_01 22:31

Let me add to that. It's really important to realize that if you look at all the top performers, all the top performers that I know in this industry, they carry one straight. They're undoubtedly belief in themselves. Okay. It doesn't it doesn't it's not overconfidence, it's not it's not braggadocious, it's I believe in myself, I believe the 10-step methodology, I believe in the company I'm working for, I believe, I believe it's all belief level. But the lower guys, all they see is guys getting these big checks, but they really don't see the work that that person is doing internally to reach those levels. To reach those, because it's all inside job. It's all inside job. It has nothing to do with external, it's all internal. And if it's an internal thing, you have to work on yourself. And if you work on yourself, there's a famous uh saying, I'm sure you heard this, and I got this when I was a young man by my mentor, and he said, Grant, yeah. It's admirable that, you know, you work for somebody, that's very admirable. But, you know, you can make more money, you can make a fortune by working on yourself. And so as I continue my journey as a younger man, I always begin to look at myself and work on myself. And when I was able to do that, and when I did that, that's when sort of like the heavens opened up and the money just came. So a lot of these guys, they're focusing on the methodology, they're focusing on the circumstances, they're focused on the strategy. That ain't gonna, that can only get you so far. When you start working on yourself, your internal beliefs, that's where the game changes for a person. That's where a person can go from, you know, making a hundred thousand or fifty thousand to a quarter of a million dollars or a half million dollars in this business. The key is this here, it's it goes back to belief, it goes back to your standards, it goes back to your philosophy. And to be quite honest with you, this industry has a very low threshold. All you need is a hammer and a nail, and you're in business, right? That's all we need. That's pretty low bar. Yeah. But the potential is so high. But the problem is that we all came from the fragmented backgrounds. I came from a broken family. Not really a broken family, but there was eight, eight of us in my household when I was growing up. There was never enough food, there was never money didn't grow on trees. All the stuff that was not really mine, that was, you know, grant, you'll never be anything, you'll be a, you can't own a business because you're black, you can't own a business because you didn't finish college, but all the stuff that was pitting me and and and tells people as well, that's not even their belief. So they carry around all the stuff that the mother told them, the grandmother, the father, the aunts and uncles, the carrying around it, and then all of a sudden they think they can make all this money. It doesn't work like that. I wish it did work like that. There's no quick fix to this. The only way that you're gonna make a lot of money in this business is you almost got to work on yourself. And if you're not working on yourself, you'll become like minioca. But you want to be great and make the top 1 or 2% in this industry, then you gotta work on yourself. And that requires work yourself.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

That's brilliant advice. It really is, because you're right. So many reps and even the leaders spend so much time on we gotta get the you gotta learn the process, you gotta get the process right, and you gotta do the methodology, and that's all they're focusing on. But you're right, if they don't have any any positive beliefs in themselves or any type of growth mindset, that they can have the best methodology in the world. There's still gonna be a mediocre salesperson. Brilliant advice. I love it. So let me I want to talk about you for a second because I think your background is fascinating. I want to I want you to kind of take me through the journey. You started in door-to-door canvassing to now where you are. Take me a little bit about how did you get to where you are from where you started? Because I love I love these these stories where people start like that.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Well, uh uh, let me tell you this. I got a Harvard education from some of the brightest brains in our industry. And I don't know how it happened. I'll take you, I'll take you a little bit through the process. I was I'm I'm from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So from a working class time, my mom and dad worked. Uh they were weekend drinkers. They didn't drink during the uh throughout the week, but on the weekends, boy, our house was drinking. A lot of liquor, a lot of a lot of party in our house. And uh my mom had a sister that didn't live too far from us down in the city. We lived out in uh the country, so so to speak. And they used to come out and it was like hell raising Friday through Sunday. Um so that's the environment that I grew up in. You know, I was able to play sports, baseball, football with a team player, but always had this low self-esteem about myself for whatever reason. Uh so after high school, uh, my dad said, You got, you know, you got two uh couple choices here. You can go in the military, you can get a job, or you can go to college. All three of them didn't work out fine for me. I didn't want to do anything. I just wanted to do what I wanted to do. But eventually I met a young man, uh a little older than me, had a lot of gold on, and uh drew the BMW and had a lot of people around him. And I just got the confidence up one day to approach him uh at this restaurant. I used to uh go and have lunch. And I said, What do you do? And I was about I was about 16, 17. And he said, Me and my pops, we sell windows indoors, and uh we stopped by canvassing. He said, You're looking for a job. And I said, Yeah, I'm looking for a job. He said, uh meet me here tomorrow and I'll take you back to the office. And so I met him there the next day. He showed up, and then we went to the office to fill the paperwork out, and basically he says, You're gonna be going door to door. Basically, no training, just go ahead and do it and see if you can find me a job. Now, back then, that was old school. That's the old school 10-man way. Uh, the old school 10-man way is every 10 men that was in a city that, you know, and most of them were either uh different types of ethnicists, they were uh Italians, there were Jewish, they were Polish, and you knew what they were because they had these big Cadillacs and Continentals and these Buicks, and they always had one guy in the backseat. And the one guy in the backseat was the canvaser. That guy got out of the backseat, and the driver would drop him off in the neighborhood, and he wouldn't outdoors. And that's what I did. They dropped me off in the neighborhood, and then I would knock on the door and say, hey, my name is Graham, blah, blah, blah, blah. I would give the pitch and try to get a lead. Once I got that lead, he would come around every hour or so. So he came around that hour and I said, you know, I got a lead. Uh, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, I set the appointment at the door, and I would give it to him. Uh, and then he would confirm the appointment, and he would go in and sell the appointment. Back in the 80s, the commission was the office shared 50-50. So the office would make 50%, and the and and the salesperson would make 50%, and the canvaser will make 10%. So I was making I'm making 10% off that deal, whatever that deal was, off the face of the deal. So back in the day, I was probably one of the youngest canvassers. Uh, most of the canvases back then were 30, 40, and 50 years old because you can see they can make a good living just by canvassing. Just by canvassing, yeah, with 100%. Yep. And I was making, I don't know, I was making uh at least $100,000, $150,000 a year after I got good at it. And I could have just canvassed my whole career in Pittsburgh and had a good life. Long story short, uh, the owner of the company, one of the companies, decided to come to Washington, D.C. I was canvassing for the closure. The closer wanted to come, so we all decided we're gonna come to Washington, D.C. I came to Washington, D.C. I met a man. I used to go get paid on Friday, and I used to see this very sharp-looking older gentleman come Friday. And he wouldn't say anything to me, he would just nod his head. And so one Friday, he was going in and I was coming out. And I bumped into him, and he said, Oh, I hear some wonderful things about you. Here's my car that people want to talk, come by my office. And I I didn't pay no mind. You know what I mean? I said, Well, whatever. Uh-uh. Long and behold, shortly thereafter, another gentleman that was working in the office said, I'm going by to see Mel. When we go have lunch, I said, yes, go have lunch. And he said, by the way, while we were having lunch, if you want to go see Mel, I'll take you in the meeting. I said, Yeah, okay, I'll go meet Mel. And so, long story short, Mel was coaching him. And I just happened to be going and I walked to his, we walked to his office. Oh, Mel said, hey Grant, how are you doing? And I looked around. I said, Oh, this is like beautiful. I mean, he has all his accolades on the wall. Very, very powerful guy in the home improvement industry. And I think a lot of guys that have been a part of the Dave Yohoo group would know him. And then he he gave me his car again and says, you know, anytime you want to stop by Grant, I'd love to have a conversation with you. Slip back up in his office. I got him on the phone. He said, Yeah, come by. And he ended up being my first real mentor. His name is Melvin H. Rosenblatt. He owned seven distributorships, the window siding, and doors. And he was big in the Sears. He didn't own it, but he was a consultant to the guy that owned the franchise of the Sears. You know, back then it wasn't Century 21 or what it is now, whatever it was, but it was Sears. And they were selling Windows. His partner was another guy that came from nothing, uh, which was Norman Rails. Uh Norman Rails, if you know anything about this industry, Norman Rails was the biggest of the biggest of the biggest. He was a billionaire that stopped knocking on doors, sound storm doors, and went on to become a billionaire. So I had them two guys in my life as my mentor, mentors, and I just took in all the information and was able to rise to the highest level of this industry. And then I took a nose dive because I was working on the outside of myself and not the inside. I had all the success: nice house, nice cars, everything. But something inside of me was falling apart, and that was the internal stuff that I'm telling you about was falling apart. And I end up losing that whole company, and then uh me and my son built this one to where we're at. So that's basically my story.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

Wow. I I want to go back to something I think that was critical on what you just said in your story, which is a terrific story, by the way. You said at the very beginning, you saw this guy driving a BMW, wearing all the gold, and you had the balls to go up to him one day and ask him how he did it. And I think that right there, to do that, so many people don't do it. They they want to do it, they want to ask a question, they want to introduce themselves, and they hold themselves back. And it goes back to what you're talking about, the internal fear and all of that stuff. Think about it. If you don't ask that question, if you don't go up to him and say, Hey, what do you do? How did you get to where you are? He doesn't say, Hey, I'm looking for a canvaser, and who knows where your life goes from there. So anyone who's listening, don't be afraid to ask. People always ask me, How'd you get this person on your podcast? How'd you how'd you do this? I said, I asked. I simply asked. You know what? The the only the the worst that can happen is they say no or get out of my face. And you know what? You go on your business. But I think what you just said there, I went up to him and I asked, it that's that's your career right there. That's where it started.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

No doubt about it. In the book I uh in the book I'm writing, I talk about that. I talk about the covers it took for me to, you know, to even uh corrupted that guy. And luckily, I didn't even know. I I my mom and dad brought new windows. Uh I didn't know what that meant, you know. And the guys that came to, I mean, I have two guys in my life, that sales person that came to the house. I remember him. I was about 10 years old, my mom and dad put new windows in. He was immaculate, he has his hair combed back, he had a great smile. I mean, like everything, you look at that guy, and he came out of a GQ magazine. Uh yeah, and he was a home of he was a window salesman. And then I had one guy that was close to the family. Uh, he knew my mom and dad. We knew his mom and dad. He was my older brother's age, a little older than him, maybe, but uh he used to work for Colvin. And I used to go out when I was younger to his house, and he had a beautiful house. Like really beautiful. He had uh he had one that they used to give back in the day. They gave the top salespeople Blue Cadillac Eldorados. And uh, yeah, and he had Gary Glenn Ross right there. Yeah, right. Right. And he had one, and he had one, he had a beautiful wife, a beautiful life. He was a window salesman. So I have those two images when he told me about like we canvas, we stopped at canvasing for windows doors and whatever product that the homeowner needed. But I have those two images in my mind, especially the one that was close to me, like he was doing that life, but selling windows. And then I made a black guy in the inner city to sell windows. And by the way, that vision stayed in my mind of the guy that had the huge success, and I knew if he could reach it, because I was washing his cars, I was doing stuff for him, I was around him, you know, not every day, but I was around him often enough to know like he was very successful. So I had them two images in my mind, and that drove me to once he told me I'm in the window business, in the door business, in the signing business, in the home improvement business, then I was able to connect the two together and say, okay, this is this is good. I never went to him and told the guy, but in my mind, I knew if I stuck out for this long enough, I can get the lifestyle that I wanted and I did.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

Awesome. All right, before we get, we're we're flying along here, before we get to the Ask Allen segment, I want to ask you a question that I I'm thinking the the listeners would be thinking themselves. So you're talking about, you know, the first thing you have to do, you want to be successful, you gotta work on yourself. You gotta have the internal beliefs and all the things that you just mentioned. But I'm listening to this. What would be one or two things that you know what? I do, you know, I'm thinking I do need to work on myself. What would you say, what would be one or two things I could start with tomorrow to help me start working on myself? What what would you recommend?

SPEAKER_01 39:05

There's a lot there, but if I had to recommend something, I would say your belief level. Really, really, do you really believe in yourself? That would be the footpill to tell somebody to work on. And what does that mean? You know, you you you you come into the business and you have all these high hopes, you have all these these these activations, but do you really believe in it? So I would get them to say, get them to start looking at your belief level. Because your belief is gonna set your standards. If you believe you can do this business, deep down inside, it takes work, but that's gonna set your standards. What are you gonna go for? What are you, you know, what are your standards? You know, are you getting up early in the morning time? Are you going to listen to, are you doing the methodology? You know, there's so much, but the first thing I'm gonna ask them to do is believe. And once you get to believe, and look around you, pick out two or three people that you want to imitate. I wanted to be Bobby Polchak so bad. Bobby was the guy that would have the uh the El Dorado, that had the beautiful house, that had the beautiful wife. He got married, he was selling windows, and I wanted to be that guy so bad. I didn't know it that he was, you know, but I kept that in my mind. You gotta find somebody that you can imitate, somebody that can mentor you, someone that you can believe in. And that would be the first thing I would say.

SPEAKER_00 40:50

All right, well, we are rolling along, and it is time, as you heard the choir singing, the time for the ask Allen segment. And this one is one of the best questions we've we've had uh come in. It came in um probably a few weeks ago before I booked Grant, and Grant was made for this question. So um I'm gonna read it now. It's it's it's from Melissa from Little Rock, Arkansas. So Melissa writes, Hi there, love your show so much, it's been very helpful to me as a newer in-home sales rep. A little background on me. I'm female and am just finishing up my first year. Out of a team of 23 reps, I should finish in the top five, which I'm very proud of. However, she writes, as a female, I feel I am constantly dealing with imposter syndrome. Like, am I really good enough to be doing this? I get met at many doors with quizzical looks like how can this woman, and she puts woman in quotes, know what she's talking about. And honestly, it saps my confidence. I would love to hear any strategies you might have with any upcoming guests that can help me have more consistency in my confidence. Thank you very much. Amazing podcast. So, really a terrific question from Melissa. Grant, how would you answer Melissa's question?

SPEAKER_01 42:09

Uh Melissa, let me tell you this here. Uh, being in the top five of the 23, that is no small uh uh. That is uh an enormous point in your life, and you ought to be proud of yourself. I agree. You really ought to be proud. And even and I wouldn't consider myself a man or woman. I consider yourself a top producer. And what you gotta realize is whatever got you there, whatever got you there to the top, the top five, is not an impossible syndrome. You earned it, you work for it. The key is, is you have to study how you got there. And so I believe like the top five out of 23 people, your philosophy is great. If you believe in your philosophy, whatever it is, your belief level, your standards are great. I mean, to be in the top five out of 23, that is like great. Your image, your self-image has to be one of the highest that you know, to be in to be in that category, you have your attitude has to be like phenomenon. Your identity to where you're going has to be like you know where you're going. Your habits and your behaviors are impeccable because the results show all that. So the confidence that you're looking for is in you. So maybe somewhere along the line, maybe it could be your philosophy, you have a little leak deal that you believe that you're not worthy of them to be there. Maybe it's some standards that you have. I will look at those. Your self-image. Being around men, you know, that can be somewhere where you are struggling with. Your attitude when you go into a house or when you're in the office, or even when you're in your personal time. Your identity, the the the person that you're becoming. You want to be number one. You want to be number one out of the five. You want to keep pushing. You don't want nothing to stop you talking about imposter syndrome because you have worked to be there. So there's some habits and some behaviors you might want to change, just a little tweaking, that's gonna get you to the top 102. If you work on those things, you're gonna be number one. You're gonna be number one. And then you realize that you have earned that right to be there.

SPEAKER_00 44:54

And I would I would add, uh, and that's that's an amazing answer, Gran. And I would add to just let I want to put some perspective for Melissa here, I think only six percent of in-home sales reps are female. I think that's the last number I saw. And it's actually a pathetic number. And I and I and I I get why there's so many, there's so few females in the industry, because it's it's how the jobs are posted, it's what the companies are looking for. Females don't think they should be selling in home improvement. All of those things go into it. But I gotta tell you, Melissa, just like Grant said, being in the top five in your first year is a remarkable achievement. But I think the one, and I'm trying to read between the lines here. I I Grant, I always want to like get these people who send me questions. I want to have them on the podcast because I want to, I want to get behind what they're talking about. But if I read between the lines, I'm thinking like, it doesn't sound like she expected to get there. She almost like maybe is surprised by her own success. And I would say, look back on that and harness what you just did. Instead of being surprised about and still thinking you're lacking confidence, like Grant said, you know what? What are you doing right? You're doing so many things right. Look at those things, and that and that should help build your confidence because Melissa, I will say this: you belong there. You belong there, they need more reps like you in the industry. Females, it's been proven by many studies and science that females have a higher empathy quotient than men, which is why they sell more because they they have higher empathy, they have higher higher EQ. And and look at what you're doing right, and that's going to build your confidence. Because I guarantee you, if you do what Grant said and you just you turn this around instead of being, ah, I'm not sure about myself, turn it to I believe in myself, I should be here, I deserve to be here. You will be number one. I I I I I have no doubt in my mind. So hopefully, Melissa, that helps you. Well, that was great. That was great. So, Grant, we're running out of time here. So I love everything. You've got a you've got a website, you have a something called the Internal Commission Blueprint, a sales mastery program. If people want to reach out to you, if they need a little help or just want to check out your stuff, where do they go? They can go to coachgrantwinstead.com. Coach Grant Woodstead. So it's Grant G-R-A-N-T, and then Winstead is W-I-N-S-T-E-A-D. So Coach Grantwinstead.com. It's a great website. You can also find them on LinkedIn. And uh any parting words, anything you'd like to like to end with uh for our listeners today, Grant?

SPEAKER_01 47:20

No, this this is a phenomenal business, and uh the potential is great, and just keep striving to be one percent better.

SPEAKER_00 47:30

I love it. Just keep striving. That one percent can mean an extra, a lot of extra money in your paycheck, uh for sure. All right, everyone. Grant, I want to thank you for being here and also my uh my listeners. I always want to thank you for joining us on Selling in the Dwelling. Remember, check out the website, sellinginthedwelling.com, and send me a question because Melissa's getting a free t-shirt, and that could be you next. And also visit our title sponsor, Paradigm Bendo. It's paradigmbendo.com forward slash dwelling for the best in-home software you can find in the industry. That's it for now, folks. Take care from selling in the dwelling. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_02 48:07

Selling in the dwelling.