Dennis Collins and Leah Bumphrey kick off the new year by sharing practical strategies for small business owners to improve sales and achieve success in 2024. Topics include the importance of asking questions, listening, and accountability; making agreements instead of having unclear expectations; consistency; and pushing outside one's comfort zone.

Welcome again.

Welcome back to Connect & Convert insider strategies for small business

owners for great sales success.

You know, our motto is it's not what you know, it's what you do.

It's not what you know, it's what you do.

Happy New Year to everybody.

This is our first, um, new podcast of the new year.

I'm happy to introduce myself, Dennis Collins, and my cohort, Leah Bumfrey.

Hi, Leah.

Hi, Happy New Year, Dennis.

2024

is here.

Hooray.

Let's do it.

Let's make it the greatest, let's make it the greatest personal and professional

year for families and friends and our business associates and our clients.

Connect & Convert.

We're here to help.

We're here to help do that.

Anything is possible when you got that blank sheet

of paper that is the new year.

New period, any new period of time, but there's something about a year

makes everything seem possible.

Isn't that a great thought?

A new blank sheet of paper.

I like how you phrase that.

We can write anything we want on it, can't we?

Oh, absolutely.

I always think of when you're painting a picture and I don't know if you've,

we've talked a little bit of painting here and there, but you make that big

wash of the, you know, the base colors and then you start adding in the details.

And right now we're just taking that back.

Beautiful color.

Okay, here's the wash.

This is the sky.

Here's the ground.

Oh, there's a little bit of water over there.

But now then we get to add in all the fun parts.

So do you know who Bob Ross is?

Well, he's the the painter with the great hair.

Yeah Better than mine right now

He's deceased unfortunately, he's no longer with

us, but have you watched that?

What you just said kind of describes how Bob Ross does a painting

Let's put a little tree over here.

How about, oh, we need some rocks over here and we need a little grass over here.

I like the way you said that.

Maybe, maybe we should do painting with Leah.

I don't know.

Hey, that's not a bad idea.

You know, when you think of him or anybody who does painting, you just can't be

afraid to add that little something.

The little line that becomes the tree, or the little silhouette

that becomes That's right.

You can't be afraid of messing up what's already there, because

if you're afraid, then you end up with something that's not real.

That is so well said and and he's never you know, I watched

that show and I said, oh my god Don't put don't make a mark there.

Don't do that.

You're gonna mess up the whole thing.

No, it actually improves it So, that's all about gynecology.

I love painting and I used to do lots of watercolor and lots of painting.

My mom always wanted to and she never had the opportunity.

Very artistic, never had the opportunity.

One day I finally pulled out all my paint stuff and said, Mom,

you're going to paint something.

But I'm going to just show you techniques.

I'm just going to show you that this is how you do this and this

is a wash and this isn't this.

But do not expect to make anything that's going to look like anything.

And so like all, all good moms.

Sure, sure.

So she discounted everything I said.

Painted the most beautiful painting when she knew she, you know, she

listened to get kind of the standard of how and, and this painting of a

bowl of fruit was like someone who had painted for years and years and

years because she wasn't afraid of it.

Finally she was doing it and she just went, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever.

And did it.

It's like the year.

And, and you know what they say, Leah, as, as we age.

Uh, activities like that actually help the brain stay young when you

do creative things, artful things, even though, like you said, she's

never done this in her whole history.

And now in her older age, she does this.

That is amazingly good for the brain, which is a whole topic for another

podcast, but I'm writing that one down.

I know.

Yeah.

Sometimes I forget to write it down, but let's today, I thought we would

share with our viewers and listeners.

Some tips for 2024.

You know, like you said, it's a time to reflect time to look back, but more

importantly, a time to look forward.

Like, what can we do different in 2024 if we decide to just

stay in our status quo zone?

Okay, and do nothing different.

Don't be too surprised on 1231 24.

That you got the same or worse results than you had in 23.

Okay.

Yeah, that's all right.

That's just the way it works So let me let's share a couple things.

You mind if I start today?

I'll start off.

Oh, no, absolutely I'll throw one out and then I'd like to hear one

from you and we can have a talk.

Okay So anybody who's listened to this podcast or anybody who knows me over

the years knows I have several I have several things that I repeat over and over

again, and that is ask more questions.

Ask more questions now as a social style driver, expressive, or

actually it's an expressive driver.

Okay.

My social style.

Is to not ask questions.

The, the, uh, the analytical and, um, amiable styles are much better

at asking questions than I am.

So as a young dude, salesperson, sales manager, I had to force myself

to learn how to ask questions.

And to this day, Leah, I'm still challenging myself to ask more questions.

Don't make a statement when a question can be asked.

And so here is a mantra that I have created for myself and I'm using it in

all my workshops and all my seminars.

A three tiered system that I'm trying to implant in my brain to help myself

remember a, a, a, triple A, right?

That's easy to remember, isn't it?

Triple A.

Okay.

Number one, ask a great question.

Ask a great open ended question.

That's the first A.

Second A.

Actively listen.

Not listen, but listen.

To respond, but listen to understand, listen to really understand what the

other person is trying to say at the third day, ask again, ask a follow up question.

Why?

Because that shows that you are listening, that shows that you're trying to gather

relevant info that you're trying to learn.

It also helps build trust.

So for 2024, 2024.

I will propose to anyone who will listen to me, and even those who

won't listen to me, use the AAA.

Ask a great question, actively listen, base your follow up question on

something they gave you in the answer.

Ask, actively listen, ask a follow up.

How about you?

I, I like that.

And what I like about that is it's easy to remember.

It's something that it's not multi stepped because it, we can get really fancy in

what we're trying to do and what we're trying to, to, you know, make as a habit.

Um, for me, I like, well, before I get to that, what I like about what

you're saying is it also emphasizes something I firmly believe in

and that's being in student mode.

When you're in student mode, it's about listening and, and taking in, you

don't necessarily have to act on it.

People go to school, people learn all kinds of stuff that

they don't do anything with.

It becomes up to the person who's learned it.

But if you learn it, if it, if, if you're asking, if you're thinking

about it, then you at least have a reason as to why you're, why you're

doing it and why, why you're pursuing an option or, or, or an idea even.

Um, I like taking time, especially this time of year, we're talking

about the blank slate and all things being possible, but looking at what

I've managed to become consistent at.

There are things that I feel really comfortable with and

there's things that I don't.

You and I have laughed a lot, Dennis, because technology is

something that I I'm not, it's not that I'm not comfortable with it.

I just, it's a tool and I don't really, I want to have someone like

Boomer in the sidelines so he can tell me, no, push this button, do this.

And, and, and I make no apologies for that, but I want to be comfortable

enough to have a Boomer to ask.

And if I don't, then not worry about fiddling around with it and you know,

just having that recognition of, okay, that's something I'm not great

at and not feeling bad about it.

Not feeling.

stupid about it because as soon as you start feeling stupid about

something then you kind of my tendency is to shy away from it and just,

okay, I'm just not going to do it.

I'm just not going to go there.

Um, I think it makes a huge difference in life to be consistent.

So if I spend a couple of minutes every day, something as simple as cleaning up my

email or cleaning up all those thousands of photos that we take on our phones.

And, and being very consistent doing it a little bit of, a little bit at a time,

then I get something huge accomplished in a month as opposed to going, Oh,

if only I had six hours to do this.

So this time of year, I like to make note of what are those things that right

now I'm feeling pressured about that are maybe worry is too much, but I'm just

feeling like, man, I'm not on top of this.

And how can I?

And that's where you talk to people who are your, your helpmates.

It could be your spouse, could be your best friend, if you're, could

be your manager or the people that you've hired to manage for you.

How can they help you accomplish these things?

And I'm, I'm a huge fan of lists.

I have the list of the 10 things that I wanted to do in 2023 and I

highlighted the ones that I got done and the ones that I kind of got done

and the ones that I just totally.

Did not make the bet on and are there on the list for this year, but having a

process for reviewing that so that again, consistency, I'm able to consistently

go back, look at what I've done and what I'm not doing, what I'm avoiding.

Wow, that's really, really cool.

Could I ask a couple questions about that?

Would you mind?

Oh, absolutely.

One is more of a comment.

The other is a question.

How do you prioritize?

You're to do's.

I've studied this for decades, many decades.

Everybody seems to have their own system.

And so I ask you as a person who I value and treasure as far as

getting things done, how do you prioritize what needs to be done?

What's first?

What's second?

What's last?

That's a tricky question because there's different

aspects of our lives, right?

So for me, I'm a wife and a mom, even though my kids are

all grown up, I'm still a mom.

I am someone who works outside the home.

I have a career path.

I have my own personal things that I love doing, which includes talking with

you and, and writing about this wonder of business and, and, and possibilities.

And then there is the, um, Um, personal side of it, the, the, the Leah stuff

that, which includes everything from, uh, uh, extended family to health.

So I think you have to have a clear idea of doing something

in each of those spheres.

And so I, I, I like making this, my, my husband laughs at me because if I turn

this around and showed you my bookshelf, I've got Journals, different color ones.

And this one is for, for keeping track of, of this.

And this is for keeping track of that.

And I, and we see this kind of thing with our kids.

I have one of my sons and he, man, he has some of the greatest

notebooks with quotes that he loves.

And then he has other with books that he wants to read.

But unless you keep track of stuff, you don't know where you are.

And so the things that are really important to me, if I don't have 'em

written on a calendar, I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna look in April and I'm gonna

go, oh man, that was really something.

I wanted to accomplish and I didn't, I forgot about it.

I, I totally forgot about it.

So I write stuff down.

And it sounds to me like you categorize things in different buckets.

Is that?

Accurate, you have a bucket for personal life, a bucket for social

life, a bucket for business life.

You kind of have.

Absolutely.

Is that what I, yeah,

yeah.

And I, and I think everybody has that because even, okay, let's, let's take

this away from business for a minute, but personal, okay, there's our own health.

There is our, uh, our family responsibilities that's around the house,

keeping things going, making sure that, that, um, uh, you know, the, the car is

clean and there's groceries in the fridge.

Um, then there is, um, whatever is your personal responsibilities, I

have a special needs brother that I take care of and those become huge

priorities to make sure that he's looked after and that we, you know,

move forward with, with his needs.

A lot of us have aging parents.

And also, um, it's not aging kids, but getting older kids

and they need different things.

They still need things, though.

It's not like magically they turn 13 and they don't.

So if you don't have a clear idea of what's important to you to get

done in those, in those areas, nothing, nothing's going to happen.

If you don't write it down, if you don't have a calendar, if you at a glance can't

go, okay, today I have to do this, then you are not treating your employees right.

You're not treating the people that you're working for right, your clients.

And then your family suffers, and then if you're not filling

your own teacup, you suffer.

And then you're just mad at everybody else that needs you to be doing stuff for them.

And that's never good.

That, and what happens first?

People's personal lives fall.

And that, if your personal life falls, then your business life is going to fall.

And then why are we here?

You know, then it becomes a big thing.

So this year, what do you want to accomplish?

If it's big stuff, if it's fun stuff, if it's important stuff.

You need to know what that is, and then you have to break

it down into smaller chunks.

Because in the grand scheme of things, this year, Dennis,

I'm gonna write a great book.

Great, you know how many years I've been saying that?

And I've written some great ones!

I, I, I have great manuscripts, but I get to a point and why am I not pulling the

trigger on, on refining it, on sending it to someone like you to get edited

and, and to give me their input, asking, as you said, asking those questions,

because we get to a point that we have to look at do, how many times am I going

to redo this and redo this and redo this?

Mm mm.

Having the same goal over the last, last 10 years means

you, it's not really a goal.

It's just a wish.

Yeah.

I wish in a goal or two different things.

All right.

So I'm going to hold you accountable this year.

Okay.

Oh, now I'm scared.

This is scary.

And this is, isn't this the scariest part of being vulnerable and being

honest and also the most exciting,

but it blends into my.

The second thought about the new year, you, you, it was almost like you, we wrote

this and we didn't, we didn't plan this.

Who is going to do what and by when, who is going to do what and by when

that means me hold myself accountable.

That means hold people around me who want to be accountable.

You know, obviously they need to want to achieve and be accountable.

Hold employees accountable.

Hold my family accountable.

Yep.

Who is going to do what by when?

Uh, let's talk about the business aspect of that for one second.

You know, I've interviewed over all these a hundred and it's 154

years now that I've been doing this.

, uh, I've switched over, got another year, uh, thousands of small business owners.

There are a number of things that are a pattern.

And I would say one of the biggest patterns that I've uncovered with small

business owners is there is no clear responsibility or accountability for

what the goals of the business, what the stated goals of the business are.

It's not there, Leah.

It's not there.

And it's in their brain.

I mean, they're not stupid.

These are smart people.

They know what they want.

But it's never properly communicated to the people who have to actually

do the activity to get it done.

I, are

you talking emissions?

Go ahead.

Sorry, I'm interrupting you.

Not a mission statement.

No.

Okay, good.

Cause I've never liked those.

Good.

I'm glad we agreed.

I,

I don't, they're, they're not worth the paper they're written on most

of the time, but what I try to get to.

Is agreements with people, whether they be in my family, they be in

my work space, whether they be colleagues of mine, I try to form an

agreement rather than an expectation.

And, uh, Boomer, our First, while producer who is listening to all this,

he and I have had more talks than I can count about expectations versus

agreements that this world Leah is pretty much run on expectations and

most of those expectations are never clearly stated or fully understood.

And then the boss says, Well, wait a minute.

You're the sales manager.

I expect you to know about sales.

I expected you to bring in a 20 percent increase year over year.

Well, that was never discussed.

That's an expectation.

What's an agreement?

An agreement is where we sit down and say, Leah, as my sales manager, Here's,

here are what, here are the things that I believe that you should be doing.

Here's what I will bring to the table for you.

Here's what I need you to bring to the table.

And here's what I need you to deliver.

What are the deliverables at the end of the year, end of the

quarter, however you measure it.

And so, Leah, can we agree that by the end of 2024, we're going to accomplish

these three things, A, B, and C.

Okay.

Okay.

Let's, let's make an agreement.

And obviously it's more complicated than that because I have to explain

a little bit more, but rather than having those blurry, fuzzy, nondescript

generalizations, expectations that are out there in the business world,

so I choose to sit down and make

So I'm going to get you, you're going to make an agreement to write

your book and, and Boomer and I are going to hold you responsible.

We're going to hold you accountable.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Now, but now you've given me, now I have to take some pausing because

I've got too many I want to write.

So now you're putting a lot of pressure on me.

So what do I

do with that?

We choose one.

You can only do one at a time.

There.

And that's exactly it.

Specific, right?

You know what I really like about your use of the word agreement?

It's actually not three A's you're talking about.

It's four A's.

That's, that's kind of interesting.

Thank you.

That's very interesting.

Wow.

There's my

book.

That's, I was just going to say, and because it, doesn't that make sense?

It's the four A's,

right?

Ask, actively listen, ask a follow up question, and make an agreement.

Yeah.

And that agreement can be, well, I mean, I think that that accountability

agreement is, you know, me even telling you that I have aspirations to write a

book is making me accountable to you, but there's also the personal accountability.

Absolutely.

And, you know, back to my favorite PhD, uh, uh, Robert Cialdini.

You know what he says, if you say something publicly and you are saying it

now publicly to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of listeners, you have

just made a public commitment to do your first book of possibly many in 2024.

Okay.

You are right.

And you've got two accountability partners on this podcast that are

producer Paul and Dennis that are going to hold you to do it by a certain date.

Okay.

Now I'm only mildly terrified.

But you see, isn't that part of it?

Isn't that part of knowing that you're on the right path by having that

little feeling where you're going, Ooh, it's like applying for the job

or going for the interview or all of these things that give us that

little, Ooh, that's a zest of life.

To me, it is.

I mean, I, I, I'm friends with a person that Uh, this woman is, uh,

40 years old and she is a triathlete.

Okay.

Do you know what that is?

Triathlete?

I do.

Yeah.

Running, biking, and swimming.

And a triathlon for her is a total of 70 miles.

70.

Wow.

I think swimming is two miles, biking is like 50 miles, and

the rest of it's running.

Okay.

And this woman is, she just got her MBA at 40 years of age.

She wanted that.

She has three or four other things that puts her out there.

Okay.

She wants to be out there.

She speaks on mental health.

She's had mental health issues and, uh, she's overcome them and she now is an

advocate, but she would have never spoken about it before, but now she has the

courage and confidence to speak about it.

So other people don't have to suffer as long and as hard as she did.

Okay.

Mm hmm.

Mm hmm.

She is my hero.

I mean, she, she continues to put herself outside her comfort zone.

Yep.

It's not a, it's not a good day for her if she stays in her comfort zone.

Isn't that wonderful?

That is.

And to have that

realization.

And why do I bring that up?

Because I use her as an inspiration.

My God, if she can do all this.

I'll never be a triathlete, but there are certain things that I have to

challenge myself to do that I can do.

And she gives me the inspiration to just do it.

Don't sit around whining about it.

Just do it.

Well,

I always find you need to have some quiet time to think

about what's important to you.

Think about really what it is that you want to do, not what, what, what

other people are asking you to do.

And that includes people that you work for or with or have working for you.

That includes your, your personal relationships.

It can, you need to know what it is that you really want to make an impact on.

And if you sit down and yeah, and yeah, just power through a list.

You, you make that list and, and pick an arbitrary number,

pick 10 things or 20 things.

And then you decide what is the single most powerful thing that

if you accomplish that in the next month would have the domino effect

in your life that you're looking for.

And we all know it.

We all know what it is, but if you quietly make that list and then

you look and you go, you know what?

If I.

could do this in the next month.

If I pick this one and make, make that impact, that will have a powerful effect.

Well said because, uh, you're, you're absolutely right.

Have you ever heard of a guy named James Clear, C L E A R, Clear?

I don't think so.

He's a well known author, speaker, uh, he, his book is a bestseller many times

over called Atomic Habits, Atomic Habits.

Oh, yes, okay, I'm bad with names, but I do remember

the name of the book, yep.

That's James Clear, yeah.

says he has the science behind what you just said.

Oh, that if you need to make a change in your life.

So you're sitting here at the beginning of a new year, say, I

don't like the results I had in 2023.

Okay.

I want to do something different, better.

How do I do it?

Do yourself a favor and go pick up atomic habits.

I don't get anything for saying this.

I'm not affiliated with James Clear.

I don't get any kickback.

I just like what he says.

Okay.

I like how he says it.

Pick up atomic habits.

It speaks directly to what you just said.

That's interesting.

How do I change a bad habit?

How do I, excuse me, how do I create a new habit?

And you know, the old joke is, How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

Here you go.

And that's what James Clear, he brings the science to it so that, you know, you

know me, I always like to have scientific proof of everything that That I say, and

James will give you that scientific proof.

Okay.

And I

always like to have that heart part of it, that, that

emotion that this is the why and you can't have one without the other.

Nope.

And that's, it's a balance.

It's a blend.

I totally agree.

Uh, the science.

and the emotion meet and make beautiful things happen.

One other comment on what you said.

I am now also reading another book.

I wish there were 48 hours in a day.

Yeah.

So much to read, but it's about asking for what you want.

Okay.

Yes.

And it's just a simple book, but profound.

And the whole theory of the book is just ask.

Men, you know, us men are so bad at asking.

I never

said it.

I

never said it.

No, I'm saying it.

I, fess up.

I admit it.

You know, the old joke is asking for directions.

Well, of course, now with Google Maps and all these other things,

you know, that's kind of the excuse.

I don't have to ask anymore.

I just ask Google.

But, uh, in the old days, you know, I, I wouldn't stop and ask for

directions if my life depended on it.

Who, me?

No.

And that's just a simple example.

But, yep.

I, We'll do another podcast on just ask.

Okay.

Yeah.

No, I would like to.

We're going to do one.

In fact, I think we should do some book reviews on this podcast, you know,

take some books that we like that you like that I like and talk about them.

So okay, well, we are probably out of time.

This is so much fun talking.

Okay.

We have one problem though.

I want something from you.

I've now publicly said, I'm going to be asking you to review one

of my manuscripts before the end of the year to get a book going.

I agree.

Perfect.

I want, I want your, your ultimate goal here.

This is important.

My ultimate goal, huh?

Well, I would love to see this little podcast that we

do religiously once a week.

Yep.

Ex explode.

I would love to see this.

Tons of comments.

Tons of likes.

I vision this at 12 31 24 as being a major, major force.

In the world of podcasting and boy, there's a million

and some odd 700, 000, uh, 1.

7 billion podcasts.

I want our little podcast to be right up there, to be relevant, to be relevant,

to be watched, to be referred to, uh, and it's, it's up to us to make

it such, I mean, it's in our hands.

Uh, we just have to be smart enough, we just have to be smart

enough to know how to do it.

Well, I think we are absolutely interesting and both very attractive.

So why wouldn't it be?

Well, well said on that note, we should, we should probably close.

I think so.

You know what?

I can hear Paul, I can hear Boomer laughing at us here,

but he's probably going nuts.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But I mean, no different than when we're at Wizard Academy.

It's the group of like minded people and that's why we love it.

I was telling Paul before we started, uh, I plan to attend

multiple classes this year.

Now that, you know, COVID is over, travel restrictions, blah, blah, blah.

I am booking trips to Austin, Texas.

Why?

Because every time I go to Wizard Academy in Austin, Texas, I come

back a better person, period.

Transformational is the word I use about Wizard Academy.

Transformational.

Uh, I know Leah and I, Leah and I, uh, you and I, I should say talked about.

The, the pendulum class.

Yes, I'm going.

Excellent.

I will see you there.

Yeah, I, I was there when Roy unveiled the first pendulum.

He did it to an academy class before he even wrote the book.

And I was fascinated beyond description during that class and I will be fascinated

to a point that I can't even imagine hearing his report on what happened.

Well,

wizard academy.

org.

That's where people have to go to check out what's available.

And there's tons of classes already listed for 2024.

Pick one, come down, will see you there.

Absolutely.

Okay, kids, let's sign off of another edition of Connect & Convert

insider strategies for small business owners, sales success.

We'll see you next time.

Stay tuned.

You never know what we're going to do.

Bye.

See ya!