Where are you going? Knowing where you want to go is vital in taking the right actions toward it. You might go the wrong way without it, even moving forward quickly. The right direction is what knowing your purpose gives you. Whether you’re a leader, manager, entrepreneur, or salesperson, having a shared goal with your team can lead to higher performance. 

In this episode, Ron Karr joins us to talk about the purpose-oriented mindset that can help you and your team. He discusses empathy’s vital role in today’s business, sales, and leadership. With Ron’s help, you can understand the bigger picture of business and leadership, including engaging and understanding how people tick. 

Becoming a better leader is more than just taking action. Listen in to this week’s episode to learn about purpose, empathy, influence, and redefining success.

3 Reasons to Listen:

1. Learn how empathy can make you a better leader, entrepreneur, and salesperson.
2. Discover how taking the time to pause can help you gain more incredible velocity forwards.
3. What’s better, a task-oriented mindset or a purpose-oriented mindset? Find out from Ron and Tim’s conversation.

Resources

• Check out Tim’s new novel, Coach: A Story of Success Redefined.
• The Velocity Mindset: How Leaders Eliminate Resistance, Gain Buy-In, and Achieve Better Results - Faster by Ron Karr on Amazon. Check out the book on Ron’s website for exclusive videos and leadership self-assessment.
• The Titan Principle: The #1 Secret to Sales Success by Ron Karr
• Healing Back Pain by Dr. John Sarno
• Visit our YouTube channel
• Episode’s full-length episode
• Episode’s short clip

About Ron

Ron Karr is an author and a keynote speaker who has impacted over 200,000 people worldwide. He wrote acclaimed books Velocity Mindset, The Titan Principle, and Lead, Sell or Get Out of the Way. His words seek to help you improve your and your organization’s performance.

Ron is acclaimed for his more than three decades of work in sales and leadership positions. Recognized as the leading Sales Success Expert, he has helped clients increase their revenue and achieve their sales goals.

Find out more about Ron and his work as a keynote speaker and author on his website. Reach out and contact Ron here.

Episode Highlights

[02:05] What Does Ron Karr Do?

• Ron helps organizations build high-performing sales cultures. 
• Sales culture focuses on the sales team and the organization as a whole. Altogether, they should support the team.

[03:29] Sales Culture in Today’s World

• Ron would grade the current sales culture of the world a C plus. More and more people develop a self-focus mindset instead of a customer-focused one.
• There are four kinds of customers. Two are the customer who buys the products and services and the employee who serves the buying customers.
• A culture that operates on purpose instead of tasks focuses on achieving an outcome. It drives better decision-making skills and prioritization of tasks.
• Having a clear purpose is critical for the culture. When Ron works with an organization, he first focuses on the C suite to align their purpose and direction.

[06:27] “That outcome invariably drives your decision-making process. And if you're driven by outcome in that task, you will be making better decisions. And you'll do a better job of prioritizing what tasks you should really be working on that are germane to that outcome.” - Click Here to Tweet This

[08:35] Empathy in Mindset

• The unintended conflict between different departments can result from the different mindsets and actions of the individuals.
• Empathy is an essential trait for sales executives. 
• Being empathetic contributes to the right mindset. It improves your ability to create emotional connections and influence.
• A customer-focused mindset uses empathy to get to know the customer's struggles. It helps you present information in the proper context.

[10:16] “The key formula for influence is to present what you can do in context to what's important to the person you're talking to.” - Click Here to Tweet

[13:11] The Importance of Empathy

• 80s leadership had an autocratic approach. It slowly evolved to encourage a team collaboration effort where empathy became a key trait.
• Nowadays, younger generations choose to do what they want instead of following autocratic leadership.
• Empathy means understanding the different ways people see the world.
• It has become vital to creating influence. Creating influence becomes difficult if you don't try to understand what others value and how they think.
• Ron gives a personal experience that showed him the importance of empathy. Tune in to listen to his story about solving the problems between a supervisor and his employee.

[16:34] “If we don't start understanding what they value, and how they think, then how can we create a bridge that will create influence with them?” - Click Here to Tweet

[20:24] Learning to Empathize

• Ron knew he had to learn empathy to create the influence he needed in his career.
• He realized that there are differences in the ways people see the world with the help of his daughter. 
• Through communication, they were able to understand each other’s perspectives better.  They took into account their needs and moved forward together.
• Empathy doesn’t mean agreement. It means taking time to try to understand different perspectives.
• In one of Ron’s experiences, he spoke to an organization facing a big merger. Through conversation, Ron was able to facilitate and learn to engage the members.

[26:52] The Importance of Listening

• Hearing is taking what someone says and shaping it into your world. Listening is doing the same, but this time from their world.
• On stage, a speaker is constantly listening to the audience.
• Reading the energy in the room is vital to address the people. It shows how present and relevant you are as a speaker.
• Ron never gives the same speech in the same way. It is because he’s listening to what the audience’s energy is saying.

[27:10] “Listening is when you put your world aside and you're hearing their words from their world.” - Click Here to Tweet This

[30:30] The Intention of Velocity Mindset

• The intention of the book Velocity Mindset is not necessarily focused on sales culture. Instead, it tackles mindset and leadership because these are part of improving.
• We create obstacles that prevent our progress. 
• Keep the good stories that are positive and motivate you. Rewrite the stories that are negative and can hinder you.
• Everybody is a leader in the different aspects of their lives. The question is if you’re a leader who pushes forward.

[32:56] Behind the Book

• Before writing the book, Ron was spending time recovering from surgery. Ron realized it was time to push past his obstacles and find a way to move forward.
• Velocity means speed with direction. Direction is the purpose that dictates where we’re going.
• Ron’s mission is to help people be sure of their purpose. Having a purpose-oriented mindset can help them make better decisions and accomplish more.
• Being a better leader, manager, or salesperson means improving yourself.
• “Velocity” grabs the reader’s attention. “Mindset” is how your mind operates and sees the world. The subtitle then shares the expected outcome from reading the book.

[37:09] A Holistic Approach

• Velocity Mindset sold well.
• The book has a holistic approach to influence. It paints a bigger picture to understand engagement and gives an insight into people’s actions.
• As a leader or salesperson, you need the efforts of others to go much further.

[39:37] Who Should Read Velocity Mindset?

• Velocity Mindset is for salespeople, entrepreneurs, and managers.
• However, anyone who wants a firmer grasp and direction on their purpose can also read it.
• It can also help those who find themselves held back by obstacles.
• We are all leaders. A title isn’t all that makes a leader.
• The critical question is if you live your life like a leader.

[43:00] A Leader’s Word

• Your employees do more than listen to what you say. They watch your actions and often follow your lead.
• Organizational accountability is the sum of individual accountability. Before you make promises to others, keep the promises you make to yourself.
• Many people aim for perfectionism and goodism. Both of these encourage people to make promises that they may not keep.
• As a leader, it’s important to build people’s trust by keeping your word is essential. Failing to do so becomes an obstacle to progress for you and your team.
• A person who doesn’t keep their word would discourage others from following them.

[47:11] “Our word is so important. You could lose your family (I hope you don’t), you can lose your money and lose your house. You can even lose your hope (I hope you don’t do that). But if you have one thing left intact, which is your word, you can always find someone to take a gamble on you a second time.” - Click Here to Tweet This

[48:38] Pausing for Greater Velocity

• Contrary to what many might think, pausing can help you gain higher velocity. 
• Sometimes, people try and try again only to get the same result. Pausing can help you figure things out.
• Ron’s first sales job was selling copiers in the 1980s. He spends months trying to sell and failing. His repeated rejections caused him to create negative stories and emotions.
• He took time to pause and clear out the negative stories. 
• Once he was thinking clearly, he realized the actions he needed to change to start selling.

[53:34] Defining Success

• Ron states that there is not just one definition of success. It varies per person.
• As a leader, the critical question is how the people you’re working with define success.
• In 1988, Ron faced a difficult time with his family. Both his parents were near death.
• During that emergency, he paused to clarify what success meant in that situation and what actions could lead to success.
• When you’re having difficulty defining success, you can ask yourself what you don’t want to happen. Figure out the paths that will keep you moving forward.

[59:54] Creating Amongst Competition

• Don’t worry about the competition and what they’re creating. Instead, focus on creating different.
• Focus on filling in the gaps and giving solutions to their existing problems.
• It separates you from the competition.

Enjoy the Podcast?

Seek Go Create is for anyone seeking excellence, moving towards success, or creating something new. We share topics, stories, and conversations that allow us to rethink how we live, work, and lead.

If you were inspired and educated by this episode, feel free to subscribe to us on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify so that you never miss another episode. Also, share this episode or what you’ve learned today on your favorite social media platform.

Love to give us 5 stars? If you do, we’d love a review from you. By doing this, you can help us reach more people who want to redefine success in their lives.

Connect with the SeekGoCreate Network! For updates and more episodes, visit our website or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

To growing and becoming all we are created to be,

Tim