Jim addresses the need to overcome internal objections and resistance to becoming an opportunity maker, exploring the power of visualization and positive self-talk in building confidence and pursuing goals. Examine the importance of embracing change and taking risks, as well as connecting with a community of like-minded entrepreneurs. Join us on this journey as we unlock the potential of becoming an opportunity maker and challenge you to lean into the opportunities around you!

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Register for the Premier Partner Meetup at https://www.addevent.com/event/id6732104

About the Host: 

Jim Padilla is the founder and CEO of Gain The Edge - a done-for-you provider of industry-leading sales systems and unicorn sales professionals which he co-heads with his wife and entrepreneurial partner-in-crime, Cyndi Padilla.

Through their unique blend of laser-targeted selling systems, inspirational team-building expertise, and 60+ years of combined sales experience - Jim and his wife have generated over 1/4 bn in sales for a long line of high-level, visionary entrepreneurs.

Jim’s mission is to help purpose-driven thought-leaders untangle themselves from the day-to-day minutiae of seeking leads and sales for their business so they’re free to amplify their impact.

When Jim’s not making dollars rain down from the sky, you’ll regularly find him at the driving range - hitting a bucket of balls. Jim credits his time on the driving range as the main source of his best ideas.

Recently relocated back to California, Jim & Cyndi are immersing themselves in family time with their three daughters & four (soon to be five) grandchildren.

Connect with Jim at https://jimp360.com

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Hey, Opportunity Makers. Welcome back to another amazing episode. So glad to have you on this journey with us. And, you know, if you've consumed the first couple of episodes, then you're just opening the door to the opportunity makers journey, it's a word you're going to hear it's going to be in your brain you're at my goal is that you will always have it there, you'll be thinking about it often, not just from what an opportunity maker can do. But start seeing yourself as an opportunity maker, who is an opportunity makers, this is literally an identity shift that I want to create inside of you. So you see something powerful that you resonate with, and that we are pointing you on this journey. So in the last episode, we touched a little bit on what our business model is, and what we do. And sometimes, as you know, we tend to work with fast movers, big thinkers, Earth shakers, right needle movers, whatever term you want to put in there, those those are the people that we tend to roll with people who want the mountaintop, it's the mountaintop is not just something that would be nice to have. But it's an absolute must have. And usually we're just missing the path or the partner, or the opportunity that can exponentially grow, and it gets you up that mountain. So we don't want to just put some tools in your hands that you have to climb every step to get up the mountain. We want to bring strategies, insights, exponential thought processes, and opportunities in front of you, that will literally exponentially increase everything that's in front of you, we want you always looking for the high side of every opportunity. And understanding that in today's climate, it has never, ever in the history of the world been easier to scale, or exponentially grow your company. And those are two different things, we will will will talk about the differences between scale and growth scale is usually much more about linear and stacking, right, you scale something symmetrically so that it can grow and keep maintain shape and add more pieces on growth is about adding zeros, right. It's about thinking strategically and overcoming hurdles. And obstacles is about acquiring companies, it's about adding revenue streams and so much more. And all of the you know, the interviews of the people we're going to be bringing to you are going to share different insights that are aimed changing opportunities so that when you start seeing this, you'll start recognizing that just a small tweak that'll turn that small hinges, move big doors is real in opportunity maker world, you're gonna start seeing man, I never thought of that. If I just thought of that one thing, this one dial one tweak of the system can change the whole game for you.

And so you know, something that we want to address right now is overcoming I want to challenge your perspective on your your resistance to any of this, because too many times we get caught up going Yeah, yeah, but but I don't know how to do that. Or yeah, but that's good for you. Or that's good for those guys. That's good for Les Brown, or Kevin Harrington, or Tommy Hopkins or anybody that you're hearing on these interviews. But that's not me, right? I'm just getting started or I'm not quite there yet. Or even if you are you're you're a powerful opportunity maker already you see yourself in that vein, there's always a resistance point, because we get very comfortable with the things that we do. And so we have objections for lack of a better term. And I want to, you know, I want you to be really clear that when you're thinking man, you know, I have resistance to this. There's two different ways to approach this. This episode, we're going to talk about what are the internal objections are the things that are going on in your thought processes that can be limiting you from seeing yourself in this light or even understanding it? And then in next episode, we're going to talk about the external objections, and what does that look like. And it's important is the reason I'm taking the time to break these down. Because I really want to, I want to help, I'm going to ride with you on this journey. So you see something different in yourself, both in yourself, where you're going, and the people that you serve, and the opportunities that exist as a result. So one common internal objection, story that happens it's becoming an opportunity maker, is the belief that you may not have the necessary skills or abilities to successfully execute a system or a strategy, right? And this belief can stem from a variety of sources, right, such as past failures, lack of experience in a particular area, right and to overcome this false belief, it's important to reframe it as a limiting belief versus a fixed reality. And this is something we deal with in sales and scaling all the time. Right too many times people resist doing something because they've convinced themselves of something that to be true that isn't and that's when you can reframe it into a limiting belief. You can see this is just something that I have an incorrect perspective on. And that's that's the argument that I'm going to make with your team so I'm gonna share with you okay for those who are need to need to engage it and even if you have even if you're at the place, I totally believe this This is going to be useful to you. So take notes pay attention. And again, right.

So another strategy here for overcoming this internal objection story. I don't know if this is for me, or I'm not sure I need to see more, right is focus on building a strong support network, the more you can get around other people who think the way you are resisting thinking, it starts moving, it starts breaking down those walls and those barriers, so that you start thinking, like the other people in that environment. And I tend to attract a lot of high, you know, high rollers and quality players, people who are kicking ass and taking names and crushing it in business and in life. And the more you get around that, and through this podcast, you'll be gaining community, there's ways to access us and get into, you know, physical community and, and online communities with this. But even just by being part of this podcast community, you are listening, you are hearing the people we're bringing to you, and the people were talking about, and the things that I'm sharing, and when start resonating with you, you're gonna be like, Yes, I can see this happening. And I can start my I want everything we talked about to start just wearing on you and absorbing, you started to absorb it through osmosis, and just start to own it as your own belief set. And because quite honestly, it's in there. And we just want to make sure that you see far more things to lean into powerfully versus things to resist and fight and run from.

Okay, so the other thing that that really lends itself to, you know, as a leader, it, you hear the term that is lonely at the top, and it's real, because as a leader, usually, you know, in your company, I know, in my company, I, you know, we sign the front of the check. And so when you sign the front of the check, then you typically have a very small peer group, because every you know, people on your team can only share so much of the truth, because at the end of the day, you're the guy that signs the check, or the woman who signs the check. And so there's always going to be limits, and there's gonna be so few people inside of your company who can actually think at your speed or, or people that you can really rely on or, or share any challenges with as of now, there may be some people that you are closer with than others. But as a rule of thumb, if lonely at the top, and that's a real thing. So you want a community of people who are on that journey with you who get it who've been down that path, so far down that path, that they've already created a jet stream for you to follow and wait in a week for you to move into. Right. And so we want to make sure that that's what you're you're able to access, right? Additionally, opportunities, opportunity makers, leverage the power of visualization and positive self talk to overcome their internal objections. This is not a fake it till you make it circumstance, this is really understanding the ability to see around corners, the ability to see things differently, see things in a way that other people just cannot. And they'll that's one of the biggest success points that I've seen in people who are winning in business, and in life is don't wait for things to be fixed, and perfect. They literally make them fixed, imperfect by moving by being an action and being able to take action and being able to pivot along the way, right. So we want you to be able to overcome those internal objections that you've got to build the confidence needed to pursue your goals, no matter what they are, and then set bigger goals and set opportunities. And this isn't about having grandiose, crazy visions, and I am not one of those guys that just, you know, we do a lot of training around offer creation, when people hire us to be their sales team or do an event for them, we fix their offer, we fine tune their offers, we usually have to increase their offers, not because we want, you know, I'm not one of those people just say charge more, because you can charge more, you should charge more, that's not the case, it's you need to be profitable, you need to do the things responsible, be fiduciary responsible as a business owner, to be profitable. When you sell something, you should have money in the bank, you should have money set aside to pay your taxes, you should have money set aside to invest in future growth and strategies or to plan for new technology or bringing on teams if you can't just make enough money to collect and keep moving so that you can pay your bills and keep your doors door open and the lights on, you gotta be having more than that. That's what pricing assessments are, if you're the low price leader, then you better sell millions of them. So you're making the winning in the volume game, right? So we want to make sure that you were consistently in a position to be able to sell your services and goods at the highest price that the market will bear or at the maximum assuming at the low it'd be fun to be low price leader that you want to be able to put the maximum amount of units out there. But either way I want you thinking in those terms. And then I want to you know, we're going to challenge you a bit to also start thinking in terms of not just selling products, but how what are what are you selling in terms of opportunity, creating literally creating opportunity, you're gonna hear this word so much just going to be just just the update is going to be part of your lexicon. But when you acquire a business, when you can acquire a company that delivers a solution that you need to deliver for your, for your marketplace, but you don't want to have to go through the r&d and the effort to pull together those resources, build it, try it, test it and put it in place when you can buy or acquire or partner with somebody else who's already got it right and we have episodes that are going to unpack that in greater detail. We've got experts who are going to unpack that with with really exquisite expertise and knowledge. Okay, so overall, the key to overcoming false beliefs is getting over your fears of what is unknown, right. So that is part of the gig here.

So at the end of the day, what is the you know, the opportunity maker, right? Here's the deal. If you're an opportunity maker, you have experience in a specific industry or niche, but maybe facing some challenges and obstacles and scaling your business, or identifying new opportunities in a down market, because that's a very real thing. In a down market, it's easy to focus on what's not working, instead of stepping back and seeing everything that is there, being open minded and willing to learn new strategies and tactics, we're navigating a challenging market conditions, to us to be able to achieve sustainable growth. That's what an opportunity Maker does, you don't just go the tried and true, this is the way I've always done it. Because that may not work anymore, right. So you have to be open to new ways of doing and being innovative and figuring things out. You want to be interested in exploring new ideas, insights and connections from a variety of sources, including expert interviews, case studies, and peer experiences, those are things that we're going to be bringing you here, we're going to share what's going on, we're going to share case studies from our own clients, from our partners and from things that are going on here. So you will, you are going to gain a very wide variety of things that are at a high level, producing great results, right, we're going to be looking to bring you things that are not what typical podcasts are bringing you out, there's a lot of business experts teaching you some simple tactics and strategies, we really want to focus on helping you create a new identity shifting in the world, as that leader that you are supposed to be in the network in the marketplace, in the in the market that you were called to be and where you were you were designed to sit up strong and have people find you because again, never greater opportunities to win at high levels than there are today. Right? So if you're interested in connecting with community of like minded business owners, like yourselves here, and entrepreneurs, and facing similar strategies, then you're in the right place, right? The overall we're all the ideal avatar for the opportunity maker podcast, which is you is someone who is ambitious, motivated, looking to take your business to places it hasn't been right, but facing obstacles and challenges in a volatile marketplace. Right. And by sharing those valuable insights and strategies in connection this podcast can help this audience you write achieve goals and thrive in a down market. Right? How does that sound right in the right place. So let's make sure that we're you know, we're gonna, we're gonna jump in a little bit again, today, we're talking through some of the thought processes that we're going to shake. Before then the next couple of episodes, we're going to be start diving into some more strategic content around strategies around, you know, opportunity, making ideas.

So what I want to make sure you're doing right now is make sure you you're giving us the rate review, subscribe, give us the thumbs up whatever platform that you're listening to make sure I point you to the show notes, because inside the show notes is all our contact information. So you can find us on any of the platforms that that work for you. And let us know what's going on with you. I want to feedback from this, if you like what we're hearing, I want to hear it, if you don't like what we're hearing, I want to hear it. If you if you want to hear something specific, if you say say something that you want us to unpack further, or if you have a very specific thing that you want it that you would like to get some insight on, let us know and we'll build episodes around it, or we'll reach out to you directly and support you around that thing. Because the bottom line is we don't want any requests to go unmet. And so make sure you're reaching out so that we can support you in the way that you desire. Okay, so here's, here's the thing that I you know, it may sound like, oh, this sounds wonderful, and, and pie in the sky. And, you know, let's make some great things happen. What I will say to that is, I get a lot of people who actually object to this, a lot of people who resist this, like, well, you know, either from a perspective of there's, there's already people who are doing it, why why would I be any different? Why would people follow me when they're following other people? Why am I going to be that person? Who's going to show up as the persons that have shifted the market and make a differentiator? Or why do I have to be do I have to create, innovate, and invent something that nobody knows? I mean, almost everything's been invented that old term that there's nothing new under the sun, you know, it's real ish. But it's also every time you turn around, there's a new way of looking at something.

So you don't always have to invent something new. Sometimes you just got to bring a new perspective, or a new way of collecting talent, or collecting perspectives and ideas and insights and you bring that to to your marketplace and all of a sudden you're able to share something that's been in the marketplace for a very long time, from through the lens from a perspective that other people can now buy into because they haven't been able to understand it previously. And understand that there's always new people coming into the market. and new people aren't sold. They're not they're not burned out or sold out on previous ideas. The tried and true is the stuff that you've been hearing for 50 years, the yester years, all of the experts that who have been around forever, when there's new people emerging into the business, a climate at it that you serve, all of a sudden, they're looking for ideas and insights. And you know, it's funny, because you can hear somebody, I will say something here, I guarantee it. I will give you a quote at some point that I heard from somebody else. But the first time you heard that thought was from me, and so in your mind, oh, yeah, that was Jim's idea. And then you'll hear somebody else say it, and it'll wreck you'll resonate as Oh, yeah, I heard him say that. And you'll be giving me credit in your mind for that thought. When the reality is that has been around for decades, it could have been around forever, right? Just like using leveraging 1% of 100 Men's talent versus 100%. Of one, that's a philosophy that I buy into, but it was APG, and NEA who's one of the founding members of Bank of America, who I first heard it from in an article about him. But it's not something that's spoken about a lot. And some for some of you, this may be the first time you've ever heard it. And if I didn't give direct credit to APG in any, then you would give credit to me on it. And you still may give me credit, because it's the first time you may have heard of that perspective. But that's how we build a lot of our business models. That's how our sales force is built. That's how our business strategies live on. We don't put all our eggs in one basket, we diversify a lot through how we grow and scale and those are things we're going to be sharing with you. Right. So but here's the thing is, there's a lot of people who are skeptical, like Yeah, opportunity maker, I don't know, should I just be building a sound solid, fundamental business and selling widgets every day? And into it? Yeah, again, you're gonna want to do that. But you got to be thinking exponentially. Because if not, it's not that you won't win, it's that you're going to miss out on such amazing opportunities to be able to capture market share, capture growth and revenue in ways that you'd never have before. And in a down economy, with all the technology and all the opportunity that exists around us. It is just ripe for you to make exponential gains.

Right now, I'm going to challenge you don't think about how can I make 10% more money this year? How can I make How can I even double my money? That's cool. And that's a big thing. But you know what, I'm going to give you ridiculous things to think about, like, how can you 10x your revenue? How can you add a zero on to what your revenue targets and goals are. Because if you're not even thinking about it, then you won't do anything to start applying the things we talked about or looking for strategies, partners, insights and tactics to be able to make it happen, you first have to start believing that as possible. And so you know, I was actually I was playing around with Chad GPT. And we had a conversation around. What is the argument against becoming an opportunity maker, because we're literally having some people who are challenging this, which is awesome. I love that, because that's where the conversation actually begins. Right? You realize that in a sales conversation, soon as you make an offer? And somebody says, Yeah, I don't know about that. That's where the conversation begins up until then you're just javelin, you're just chip jibber jabber, right. So argument against becoming an opportunity maker, is that it requires a lot of a certain level of risk taking, right a lot of flexibility and resilience. And that not everybody may be comfortable with and that level of capability be capable of. Right. So it also requires a willingness to continuously learn and adapt and pivot in response to the changing circumstances and the market conditions. And that is terrifying to some people, you know, who likes change, raise your hand, if you love change, right? When you change, you got to make a lot of change doesn't just not just changing the force of contact, it's changing everything behind it all the systems processes and, and infrastructure that goes behind it in order to make sure that that change can be last long lasting. And that's scary. And it's hard. Bottom line is you can either change because your business dies out, right or your business, you become the tail at the end of you come the caboose at the end of the train. Or you can make changes because you're doing it ahead of time and you're being strategic and you're doing it on your terms. Right, you don't want to have to be told you have to change you want to be anticipated in for and looking forward as you're making change because then now you're part of the solution instead of person who's dragging the rear. So for some people uncertainty and predictability, unpredictability are of being an opportunity maker maybe too daunting, right? Some people think, man, I just don't need that kind of responsibility. Everybody see me as that person, I don't need that. I'm not aware of it. Right. And, again, I'm going to challenge your perspective. And I'm gonna challenge your thought process. Because you don't there's nothing traditional about you, you are special. You are amazing. You were created for a time such as this. And I'm going to encourage you and challenge you at every moment to start leaning into the opportunities around you. Right. We're talking about this today and one of our training calls with our membership and that you know, most people, if you when we poke when you get poked With a needle pin hot button, anything that touches you, for the most part, causes you to retract. And when you retract, you're leaning away. So because you're trying to be safe, but when you think about this, how many times does something that touches you end up hurting you. And the fact that you're still here means none of it has ever killed you. Right? But how many times is something touch, you end up hurting you? A very small percent of the time. For most people, it's less than 10%. Now, of course, you know, effect thing touching up a car running over the street? Well, you know, it can be different to I got hit by a car when I was six. I'm still here. But the point is, the smallest percentage of time when something touches you, it's going to do damage.

So let's bank on that. And instead of focusing on protecting myself from the 10%, let's lean into the 90% of things that aren't actually real threats, and aren't real danger. And so when things start shifting, and it feels like oh, this could be hurt, this could be interesting, this might be difficult. Just lean in automatically. And don't worry about the fact that it might hurt. Or it might cause a little bit of friction, just lean in immediately for what then find the opportunity. What is the opportunity here? How can I change the game in what I'm doing for the people around me? Right? Because what you'll see is when you when you think about it, that way, you start asking yourself different questions, and you start looking to become the person who can provide the solution when you know what's going on, because you're an expert. And you don't even have to be the expert of the specific thing, you just have to know that there is a gap to be closed, and you know, people who can help close that gap, which automatically makes you the person of influence and relevance in that environment, even though you may not know the solution. Think about that, right? I messing with your brain a little bit. Okay, I want to challenge I don't think I'm telling you anything you haven't heard before. i My goal is just to get you from hearing it, to adapting it and owning it, so that you truly become the opportunity maker. Okay. So ultimately, whether or not to become an opportunity maker is a personal decision. Right. And it depends on your your individual aspirations, strength and Rick's risk tolerance. But I'm here to tell you that you're, you're able to endure far more than you ever thought you could. And you can achieve and accomplish things in great ways that you had not thought about, and I want to get you out there and start experiencing it. Because all you need is the credibility of taking on some new opportunities. And once you do, once you take a risk, and you no matter how small, you take risks, you start building a muscle inside of yourself that says, Oh, I was able to take a risk and sustain and it worked. And it was awesome. pursuing opportunities and risks inherently, you know, involves a level of uncertainty and the possibility of not succeeding, which can be scary. The fear of failure can be amplified by the pressure of constant adaption and pivoting in response to changing circumstances. But the opposite is also true. Right? Those fears get melted away. You know, if you've heard that term, that fear is the only thing that shrinks when you run at it, right? The smaller that you get smaller when you approach it, when you start taking action towards things you literally the reason fear goes away is because you start proving yourself wrong, you literally start demonstrating, wow, I'm actually good at this, I can actually do this, I can actually accomplish the things that I set out to say, and I can hold my word and my promises. Okay.

So you, I want to encourage you to start leaning into opportunities immediately just start looking for different ways that you can win. And not it doesn't mean you got to open new businesses, it just means look for a way where you can make a big impact with small effort. And if you think that frame, everywhere you go, it will start becoming the view of the lens that you're looking through. Always looking for opportunities. But I've always been that way. But in the recent years, I've been now looking for opportunities where I can put in less effort and get out greater reward. Right now, also understanding that most worthwhile ventures may require more effort upfront with little outcome. And then in short time, over distance that you can then start moving to less input and greater output. But start learning to assess certain situations like that from the beginning. So that you don't have to take on an opportunity that you have to move a mountain, you can take on an opportunity that can get you to the mountaintop, right? And those are just different, different. It's all just different perspectives. It's all about how you show up looking and thinking that way from the beginning. And it starts changing how you make decisions, start changing the people, you hang around with the changes the rooms you put yourself in, it changes the partners you take on, it changes the offers and the things that you that you put in front of people because it all matters. Okay. So I just wanted to I really want to encourage you with this. The whole objective here today is that, you know, this is the case again for overcoming the internal objections around why should I play big or why should I see myself as an opportunity maker and at the end of the day? To me it's just it's eliminating the fear of the unknown, right? Ultimately are the argument against Fear of pursuing great opportunities and taking great risks is that these fears are often based on misconceptions and limiting beliefs by reframing them as opportunities for growth and learning. And adopting a values based approach to business building. entrepreneurs and business builders can create successful businesses that align with your personal and professional goals and values. And things change too many times we make it very complicated and business is not complicated. It can be hard, right? And it can be very revealing. But it's not complicated. We make a complicated. My mission with you on this journey as an opportunity maker is to become a new person, shift your identity, create a new identity for yourself. Look for the opportunities here with us on the show, with the experts in the community, and opportunity makers that we bring to you and seek to get into involved in our community. We want to surround yourself with other people who are seeking the mountaintop and just need more encouragement, support, accountability, and, and reframes in order to make it happen and just need some help getting up the path, right? Carve a new path, make something great happen, you're amazing. The people that you serve, are waiting for you. What you do is incredible, and you deserve to be paid well for it. So let's start conquering the world and make a difference. We'll see on the next episode, where we're going to talk a little bit more about some of the resistance points and some of the things you need to be thinking about that may be getting in the way of you thinking exponentially as an opportunity maker.