In this episode of One Small Change, Yvonne McCoy welcomes Beth Johnston, a dynamic sales trainer with over 35 years of expertise, to share how a seemingly small decision led to a profound transformation in her professional journey. The conversation dives deep into the universal nature of sales, the importance of identifying and standing in your unique value, and busts common myths and blocks entrepreneurs — especially heart-centered women — face around profit and selling. The guest also shares practical advice for building trust, communicating authentically, and reframing selling as serving. Whether you’re struggling to define your target market or hesitant about claiming your worth, this episode is packed with actionable insights and empowering encouragement.

Guest Bio:

Beth Johnston is a veteran sales trainer and consultant with over three decades of hands-on experience helping companies and entrepreneurs skyrocket their sales performance. Renowned for her unique ability to simplify the sales process and foster rapid growth, Beth is a sought-after coach for individuals and businesses ready to unlock their potential. Her passion lies in helping people discover their unique strengths, communicate authentically, and sell with integrity — all while enjoying greater freedom, profitability, and sense of purpose.

Chapters:

00:00 Buyer and Seller Dynamics

04:53 "Initiative Leads to Success"

08:43 Honest Sales Advice Lessons

10:35 "Service, Not Selling"

14:12 "Trust Drives Business Success"

19:40 Entrepreneurship: Defining Market & Value

21:40 "Complimentary Consultation: Discover Uniqueness"

23:51 "Sell More, Gain Freedom"

26:48 "Fueling Growth Through Podcast"

29:59 "Best Wishes for All"

Quote from the Guest:

“Trust is the reason you sold today because the person on the other end of the conversation, on the other side of the transaction, trusted you.”

Link:

Beth offers a complimentary 30-minute consultation to share your goals and challenges when it comes to selling. Schedule your consultation here: https://cal.com/bethjohnston

Welcome to the One Small Change. And as always, I am thrilled that

you're with me to embark on this journey of exploration and

transformation. I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years

of entrepreneurial experience. And I have a passion for discovering

growth through the power of seemingly small change. And

I'm glad you're here with me. And this week I am sharing with you a

wonderful person, Beth Johnston, and she's going to share with

you a smaller, unexpected or insignificant decision

that sparked a remarkable transformation and growth in

her personal and professional life. So, Beth, thank

you so much for being here.

It's an honor, a privilege, and a pleasure, and I look forward to our

conversation. Yvonne, that's great. So, Beth, tell

everybody what it is you do and what was the thing that

made you the best at it makes you better than most people.

Whoa. How much time do you have?

35 plus years as a sales trainer. So my

expertise evolved into being the best

sales trainer, the sales trainer that could bring, which I

did, tens of millions of dollars in revenue and

profit to the bottom lines of companies that I was consulting

with. And in one case or in two cases actually being became an

employee of and also helping individual

sales reps to earn their highest sales commissions.

So it kind of evolved and that's what grew

into my expertise as a sales trainer.

So when did you realize that you had this ability? I mean, what

was it that said to you, I'm really good at this?

You know, first of all, I want to say I don't think there's

anything that does not involve selling,

no matter what we're doing. And I challenge your viewers to come

up with something, a profession, a job title that

does not involve selling. People say doctors, I go,

oh, no, they're selling cures, they're selling prescriptions. Well, what about lawyers?

Oh, no, they're selling advice. Well, what about my preacher? Oh,

no, he's definitely selling salvation. There's always a

sale, which is a transaction that's involved.

Now, what role are you playing in that transaction?

You cannot have a transaction if you don't have both a buyer and

a seller. So think about it. In everything

we do every day, you're playing one of those roles. You are

either the buyer or the seller. And it's the coming together, the meeting of

the minds, if you will, in exchange for what we call

legally consideration, typically money, an exchange of

value in money and or services that actually

constitute a contract. So I have helped to educate

people on the beauty of the sales transaction, the

importance of it the role that they play

not only in their own lives, be they buyer or seller,

and in the life of the person on the other end of the conversation.

So I became aware that I was very good at it

based on the results that I was getting. Now, here's an

example. After 9 11, I was in New York

City on 9 11. And after all of the chaos that

existed in New York City After 9 11, I decided

to leave a consulting job and go back to my home on Long

island, which was still a little chaotic. We had lost a lot of people from

our community in 9 11. And I got tired.

I got bored of not talking to people. So I

went and took a job actually as a sales rep

for a company in an industry of which I really knew nothing about. But

that's okay. You don't have to know a whole lot

about the industry or the profession that you're entering, because

selling is selling. It's a transferable skill.

You do have to learn about the product. You do have to learn about its

benefits, its components, et cetera, to do it well.

So I entered and listen to this

scenario. I was told to sit next to somebody

who was already a fairly successful sales rep for that

company. So I did. And I was listening to

one side of a conversation.

I could hear what she was saying, but I had no idea why she

was saying it. And to whom was she saying it? And in

response to what he had said, and I thought

to myself, does this make sense? So I sat there for

about three days. And on day four

or so, I looked around and I saw some empty desks, and I picked

myself up. I sat at an empty desk and I

asked the sales manager for some leads. A

lesson there, because I asked, I received.

He gave me the leads. And maybe he was wondering, well, what is she going

to do with these? And I got on the phone, I started dialing

people and started having conversations with them.

And within probably two to three weeks, Yvonne I became

the most disliked person in the company

because I was closing more deals and making more money.

So the owner of the company came over and he kind of was like hanging

out behind me, which made me a little nervous. And he listened to me, me,

and he was looking because they worked from scripts. I can't do that.

And he realized that I had a talent, I had a

gift. And people who were angry with me because I

was making more money than they. He said, she can do it

her way because she can do it her way. You can't do it her way.

About a year later he asked me if I could clone myself.

And I said, well, I'm not sure anybody wants to be Beth Johnston, but

what do you mean by that? He said, I think you. And he had told

me previously, I think you could do anything in this company except

sales training. And guess what? Now he was offering me a job as

a sales trainer. And

he said, I'm going to train you. We're going to bring

in a class, I'm going to be there with you. You're going to sit there,

you are going to say nothing. You're just going to listen to me. I said,

okay, you're the boss. We went through a day like that. On

day two, he didn't show up.

So on day two, I started the sales training.

And that class that I turned out a

week to 10 days later was putting up numbers

on the board that everybody was saying, what's going on here?

Oh, Beth trained them. So I became

recognized for the skill that I kind of, I have

to say it humbly and honestly that I just innately

had. I know how to talk to people. But you know

what, that's part of what I do in my workshop. I talk about

unlocking the unique power that you already have. And

so I think people need to understand that, that when

you're in, you know, when you realize what you're good at, you know, or you're

put in a situation where that skill starts to really shine,

right? It really energizes you, it

empowers you, it makes you stand above the crowd.

And I think there's one thing that I kind of want to go back to

that you talked about at the beginning that I think is so important.

So many people, particularly heart centered entrepreneurs,

do not want to put the word profit in the same

sentence as what they do. I mean, it's like I'm

doing this because I want to impact people. No. Yes. But you

also want to make a living, right? You want to, you want to make some

money from what you're doing. And, and it's kind of like they have this feeling

that it's one or the other. Right. And the other thing

that I find is that people do

not look at

the idea if what's in it for the person that you're talking

about? The person doesn't care that you have all these degrees and they

don't care about your process. They don't care about. Which is what. When,

when I hear people networking, one of the things they do is, you know, I've

been in business, I do this I do this, I help you do this, I

do this, I do this. And it's kind of like by the time, whatever it

is that that person may have wanted, they've lost interest by the

time you get to it. Right. And so you always

need to look at it from what is it? You know. And I learned this

lesson when I was in graduate school and I had to, in order to

have daycare for my kids, I had to have a job.

And so I was working in costume jewelry at a department

store and it was the age of the stick pinned and some of

the ugliest jewelry I have ever seen in my life. Right.

And people would come up and say, what do you think? And I always hated

that salesperson that said, hun, you look good in that pink,

purple dotted dress or whatever it was when you knew you looked awful, you

know. And I would say to them, how are you going to use

this where you know, what do you want this for? And they would

say, oh, I want to put this on my silk blouse. And I would say,

oh no, that is way too heavy. It's going to put holes in your

blouse. It's more for a jacket or a coat. And it got

to the place that people came and asked for me. They go,

is Yvonne working today? I want to ask about

whatever. But you know, I never had to, I, I

had to lie because I never would say this is the ugliest thing I've ever

seen in my life. I'd say, why do you want it? Right,

right. And I think that's what people miss a lot in, in what

they think of when they think of selling. Sure. And I

agree with you on so many points that you made there. So the main thing

I say is, wow, honesty truly is the best policy. Yes.

And selling has become, or had

already become that very assumptive,

very. You, the buyer, owe this

to me, the seller. First of all, I want to say a potential buyer

owes a potential seller absolutely nothing.

The seller owes the potential buyer

a wonderful experience. And the wonderful experience

is how did you make the potential buyer

feel about him or herself? You see,

you have to look at yourself and take the word selling and kind of use

it as service. How can I take what I

know and bring it

into your life and solve a problem that you

have or mitigate a problem that's starting to come up.

And if you can approach it from that way, you're never selling.

You're telling, you're telling someone how you can be

of value and benefit to, to them based

on the product or the service that you provide. It's

nothing more than that. It's nothing more than that. But

people in our human nature tend

to want to make everything about ourselves. And in

the sales world, where you're on a sales team and

people have quotas and goals and managers have

quotas and goals, all they're looking at is the

numbers. I will tell you, the numbers will happen.

The numbers will climb up when you approach

it from the right perspective, the right direction. And it is

always, always only ever

about the buyer. It's never about the

seller. And that's why I talk about the client trust

journey if they don't trust you. And that's also

kind of where your unique power comes in, because typically

there are. That you have in common that you can relate to.

Right. So, I mean, you know, I, I recently

started talking about the fact that I lost a lot of weight. And,

and, and I didn't do that before. I was like, you know, but, but

the thing is, there are stories that I can tell people who've lost a lot

of weight, that they get it automatically. And I say to people, you know, did

you ever take a friend to a family dinner and somebody goes, oh,

remember Uncle Joe's 50th birthday? And the whole family burst out laughing.

But that person doesn't get it right because they have

no context for it. But the people who are your right

client, when you tell the stories or you tell

the examples, they get it because they have a lot of the

same experiences that you have, and you're trying to solve a problem

that, you know, that they have, that they're selling. And so there is

common ground. And not only is there facts, but

there's also emotion that builds trust. Sure, sure.

Well, people buy from emotion. People buy in the

moment. And I became known as the queen of the one call close

because I was able to move

people into that level where they realized

that what I said and what I could provide for them made

sense for them, where they were and where they wanted to go.

And I had very, very. I never had people call and say change my mind.

They just didn't. They just didn't do that. No, they did

you. Well, I got good at that, too. I

set up systems for companies for their support so that they weren't

giving back money because. And I called that the second sale.

But I want to go back to the one thing, excuse me, that you said,

Yvonne, about trust. And, you know, we all hear in sales about know,

like, and trust, and they're all Important and they are

kind of progressive. I believe the most important one is

trust and T R, U, S T, I say

T that are reason you. The letter U sold

S today. Trust is the reason you sold today because the

person on the other end trusted you. You can like me, but

say, I don't want to do business with her. You know, I'll go shopping, I'll

have lunch, but I'm not going to spend money with her. There's a difference. And

it is that trust component that is sacred.

And when someone gets to that point with you,

congratulations that you have come to that level

with each other because there has to be that component. I

think first and foremost, trust is the most important thing.

You also said the person you're talking to.

Do you know how many conversations I've had with people say, why were you even

talking to that person? Why were you spending your time?

That wasn't your target market. That wasn't someone who ever was going to

buy from you. Because what you were trying to do convey to

them the service you were trying to provide was irrelevant to them. You have

to talk to the right people.

That just doesn't make sense to me. Taking valuable time talking

to the wrong people. I agree.

I want to go back because I love that

trust. So that is.

I had it.

I forgot. All I remember is today at the end.

Say it again, please. Mine is trust. The reason you

for the letter you sold today, because the person on the other end of

the conversation, on the other side of the transaction

trusted you. And I'm sorry, if you can hear my dog barking, I don't know

why. That's your dog. Oh, my dog. So that's how you know

we're live people, we both have dogs. Yes. You never know. Live tv.

Live tv. You gotta love it. You gotta love it. So

it's understanding the role that you play in anything, in life,

in any relationship. And a buyer, seller,

opportunity is a. The building toward a

relationship. It's about establishing rapport to the point that

you want to continue to talk to each other. There's something there that makes you

want to continue the conversation to the point that you

do trust and to the point that you do want to

exchange. And in a sale, it's typically money

for services. And when you said entrepreneurs go back and say,

oh, this isn't about the money, it's not about the profits. Look in the

mirror. And I want to say to every entrepreneur, get honest with

yourself. Get honest with yourself. Business

is business. Otherwise there's so many

wonderful worthwhile causes in the world and needs in the world.

Go be a volunteer. You'll feel better about yourself

and you won't have the frustration of sleepless nights because you

didn't bring in any money. You have to be honest. It

is about revenue. It is about cash

flow. Otherwise, why are you doing it? Let's be honest.

And you can't help people if you're going out of business.

No. They've waited too long. You've waited too long. And, and

now what happens? There's added

pressure because now your expectation or your need of the

seller is that the potential buyer. You have to save me.

You have to save me. I'm the seller. I'm

here to save. You. Know your role

and stay in your lane. Absolutely, absolutely. And I,

you know, I love

that you're not sugarcoating this. God, no, no,

no. All right, so tell me three things that entrepreneurs can do right

now. Well, as I just said,

get honest with yourself. And the most

important thing, Yvonne, to just about

anything in life,

entrepreneur. And say you're not interested in the dollars.

Then again, you're really not an entrepreneur by definition.

So get honest with yourself, challenge yourself,

and really define, really

define your. Why. Why am I doing this?

I will tell you that I have come across and coached and

many women, mostly women, men too, but mostly women in

my marketplace. Women who call themselves

entrepreneurs or solopreneurs, and it's because they want to have

control. And I would say another thing to

entrepreneurs. Please don't think that being an

entrepreneur demands or necessitates

that you do everything by yourself,

because there's no need for that. There is no need for that.

I have had women tell me that they're going into business because they have a

great idea for a product. And I'm always up for hearing that.

And I'll say, well, what is it? And they'll explain whatever gadget or

gizmo it might be. And I would say,

well, who's your market? I'm going to create a market.

I would say to an entrepreneur, you do not

create a market. You have to define

and discover who your market is, where you're going to find them,

and how the product or service that you wish to provide in that market

space is of value and benefit to them. And if

those are the two primary, like, you know, the. In the

cement that you pour in the foundation of calling yourself an entrepreneur,

you're not going to have a successful or fun

journey in this

business. Because being an entrepreneur, it's like

raising a child. It can be so rewarding and yet so

demanding. It's like we were talking about our dogs. Dogs are

the children that never grow up. They always need us. They're always fully reliant

upon us. That's what being an entrepreneur is. I have

spoken to groups of people want to be entrepreneurs who

didn't understand what it was. And I have said, and I'm quoting myself,

being an entrepreneur is both a blessing and a

curse because you live it, you breathe it.

24, 7, 365. That doesn't mean that you have

to be doing that in a stressful situation or in a

negative mindset. Not at all. If you're doing it

correctly, you are living it 24, 7,

365 from abundance. And you're living it with joy and

fulfillment and satisfaction, knowing that you

have played a very impactful role in the life of

another person. What's more rewarding than that on a nine to

five basis? Nothing. Oh, there is no nine to five. I mean, my

kids always tease me and go, I thought you were doing this so you could

have free time. I'm like, who said that? Who

said that? I. Beth, we have

only scratched the surface. Yes. And I'm sure

there's more. But I want everybody to know what your free gift is

because that's definitely, that's definitely one of the things that they need to

do. That's one of the things. Yes. Thank you so

much. One of the things that I invite you to do, I implore you to

do, is to take advantage of the opportunity that Yvonne has given

to me so that I can give it to you. And that is to offer

you the opportunity to have a complimentary consultation

with me because you are unique.

Honor that you are special. Your product, your

program, your service is unique. And I would love to talk to

you and just help discover, identify what those

unique things are so I can help, perhaps, and I hope, and

in my heart of hearts, I believe I can, to say, here's why

you are very special. Here's why it's work, here's how it might work better.

Congratulations for how well it's working so far and really

get you well aligned with your purpose, your why,

and the process by which

you spend your time, your energy, your blood, sweat and tears

to reach those goals. I would like to help you gain

clarity on where you are, where you want to go, and I

offer that consultation and I thrive

on having those conversations. Thrive on that.

And you also have a free course, an on demand course, right?

I do, I do And I would. Thank you. I would say that that

consultation is maybe a first invitation toward that.

Yes. I did a digital training program

because, you know, after the whole pandemic thing and working

from home and this, that and the other thing and

transitions that I had to make in my own life, I'm a cancer survivor. I

kind of. My treatments and pandemic kind of collided and blew

up my world, and I was kind of taking my.

Beth, I can't hear you.

Can you hear me now? Now I can hear you.

Okay.

But what do we

do? Well, we're good. Keep going. We're good.

Okay. So I created a course because

I felt truly that my joy.

And also, I want to say my responsibility to women around the world

is to say you can have the life you lead and

you can have that free time that your kids were asking you about.

Yvonne. So I did a course, and it's called Sell More

in Less time and with Greater profitability.

So that you do have more free time to do what you want,

when you want, with whom you want. In other words, that you

enjoy the fruits of your labor and live

abundantly because you cannot give away that which you do

not have. So when you're coming from abundance, you can. Now

you have something to share, you have something to give away.

If you're coming from deficit, you have nothing to give. Now

you're asking. Now you're asking. And again, as I said earlier, the

buyer. It's not the buyer's responsibility to fulfill

your need as the seller. So that's what the course does. It teaches you

how to sell more in less time and with greater profitability. Who wouldn't want

that? Who doesn't want that? Okay,

we. We need to round this up. And so the question, of course,

is, always, is when was the last time you did something new for the first

time? Well, right here, right

now. Right here, right now. I've never been

on your podcast before. This is something new. It's something

exciting that we're just having a, you know, girl conversation, a chat

off the cuff. And I love that. I love the

spontaneity of life itself and that, you know, what I

want to say is that in selling,

sometimes based on what we're selling, who we

might be selling for, who we might be selling to, we do

find ourselves doing repetitive work. We

do find ourselves doing saying the same

thing over and over again. Possibly. But

the joy is you're saying it to a different person.

Absolutely. Every time. That's a new experience. So this

is a new experience. For me. And if you're doing the same things over

and over and over again and you're getting the same results, which

are not as good as the results you want that you need.

And I want to say this especially to women that you deserve,

you're doing something wrong. So you might be doing the same thing,

but you can do it in a new way. You can do it in

a better way, a more efficient way, a more

thought, a more practical way. So it's not always

major leaps to be called something new.

Sometimes it's just those tiny little steps. The small changes

and the tweaks. There you go. Hello. Hello.

There you go. It's the small changes. So

I hate to do this because I could talk to you forever,

but it's time for the commercial. And so as the first step, make sure you

subscribe, share, and engage on social media. About the podcast.

The reason I do that is trying to bring people into your world

that are going to help you grow your business. This is my way of giving

back to the community and fueling your quest for growth and impact.

And so I hope you will continue to join me on a regular basis for

the one small change. And let's embark on this journey together.

And you can. One of the things that I do is every quarter I do

a clarity, a quarterly clarity call and tell you what I think are

trends and things that are going on. And so you might want to look at

them as well. So, Beth, what are your last words you want people to take

away?

Define your why. If your why is big

enough, there's nothing that you can't do.

Believe in yourself. Believe that you

can and believe. I want to say this again to women that

you deserve. And then find a mentor, Find a

coach. Yvonne is a great coach. I'm a great coach.

I'm a great sales trainer. I'm going to say that because it's honest and I

can. And I can back it up

underneath. Because you call yourself an entrepreneur and think

that it's a sign of weakness that you asked for help. It's a

sign of intelligence. It's a sign of

authenticity. It's a sign of. Of having

great confidence that you can take the next

step if you're with the right people to guide you through it.

So step up. Honor. Honor yourself and

know that someone like Yvonne, someone like Beth Johnston,

we're out here, we want to help. And I would

say that between the two of us, Yvonne, you know, we have like,

65 years of experience. Oh, my gosh. Does that not make

you a little nervous. We say we have 65 to 70 years of experience.

Experience. I have no sense of time, Beth. Yes,

yes, yes. But what a joy ride it's been. I'm gonna

guess that probably any mistake and every mistake that

could be made between Yvonne

and myself, we've probably made them. We probably.

Probably figured out the solution. We probably have. So let us share

them with you. Absolutely. Be my greatest advice, keep moving forward.

And it is those little steps. Those little steps. Absolutely. I

can't believe. And like I said, we could keep going forever, but

we can. So this is what I want you to remember.

Change can be simple, but it's not always easy. And it

requires courage and resilience and a willingness to step out of your

comfort zone. If you are always comfortable, you are not

growing, and the world is changing around you, which means you're actually

going backwards. You're actually stagnating. So

continue to join me on the one small change as we embark on this journey.

Journey. And until the next time, stay very curious. Beth,

thank you so much for your time. My pleasure. And I just want to say,

may the best for everybody always yet to

come. Bye.