Hi David!

I am the daughter of an immigrant, and my parent’s expectations have always been to make something of myself and to be successful, but I’m now at the top of the income level of anyone in my family and I’m finding myself in a precarious place. I’m stuck and I think it’s because I’m worried I won’t fit in with my family anymore.

How should I think about this so I can break through this income barrier?

Thanks!

You won’t relate on the same level anymore either.

Things that are important to you won’t be important to them and vice versa.

And sometimes they will judge you for your success.

But if you don’t move forward, you’re living a life so they won’t feel uncomfortable.

Recognize that at some level your parents gave you a double binding message.

One was to be successful.

The other was don’t stray too far.

The fastest way to move through this income barrier is to realize that your relationships may change.

Accept that fact, and begin surrounding yourself with other people who WILL support you as you strive to hit your goals.

After all, you get ONE life…who are you going to live it for?

PS: The Neagle Code: Directions for Life is a weekly no-cost program that is open to everyone! Each week, I'll select and personally respond to one question received via the above “The Neagle Code” page that I feel in my heart will help the most people. (You may choose to remain anonymous if you wish, with our full support.) It is my deep, heartfelt intention that ~ in answering your questions ~ I may provide you with the Universal Truths that in committed application, will set you free. Simply submit YOUR burning question at: www.DavidNeagle.com/ask-david to participate.

If you want to influence others to buy your products and programs, you must first influence yourself.

I’ve been telling you that for a few weeks, and now I’m going to show you how.

1. Get Real

The first step to influencing yourself is to get real. You need to be honest with yourself about the ideological prison that you’re in, so that you can influence your ideal prospects to get out of theirs.

For instance, do you believe in abundance or do you believe in lack? Do you believe that if you have the desire, the way to meet that desire is in your life right now? Or are you telling yourself what you can’t afford? Or why you can’t have what you want?

Negative beliefs like these steal thousands from your bottom line every year. They repel high-paying clients and blind you to the opportunities that are all around you.

Fortunately, you can change your beliefs, and, as I said, the first step to that is acknowledging the prison bars that they’ve created for you.

2. Talk to Yourself

Your spouse, business, children or pets all require your attention and have an impact on you emotionally. If you immediately move from interacting with problems or issues to jumping on the phone, you will surely carry reaction energy into your sales call.

If you remember, “reaction energy” is most people’s primary mode, where they just react to whatever is going on. If you carry that energy into a sales call, you have a tendency to use force as a tool. You may reveal too much to your prospects or want to be right or try to make them wrong. Whatever you do, you’re not in your power.

That’s why every sales conversation needs to begin with a conversation with yourself.

Spend 10 minutes before every sales call, asking yourself questions like these:

“What is the desired outcome of this call?”

“What energy state do I need to be in, in order to be influential when I’m on the call?”

“How will I help this person get out of his/her prison?”

“How am I going to influence him/her?”

In those 10 minutes you can totally shift to a place of “influence energy,” which means that you sit in your power with the highest good of your prospects in mind, and direct your conversations in a way that lets the prospects influence ~ and sell ~ themselves.

3. Gain Knowledge

The third key to becoming your own power of influence is to gain knowledge at the level that you want to be, not where you are.

Be willing to stretch your mind and travel to events. If you won’t invest in trainings for yourself, how can you expect your clients to invest in yours?

If, instead, you know in your gut the value of reaching for where you want to be, as opposed to where you are, you can persuasively demonstrate that value when your prospects are huddled in the dank corner of their prisons, afraid to face their fears.

It’s Not Difficult to Do

Becoming your own power of influence is not rocket science, but it is just as transformative for you.

By incorporating these simple mindset shifts, you can totally change your results.
You can empower yourself to impact other people’s lives for the good, while boosting your own income to the stars.

Hi David!

Sales question for you…

The biggest obstacle in my sales happens when I get an email from a prospect that goes something like this:

Hi Al,

I’m interested in working with you. Can you send me a list of your programs and the price for each?

In the past, I’ve always sent the information they were requesting, but then I rarely hear back from them, and since I don’t have their number, I can’t call to follow up.

I’d love to know how you’d respond.

Thanks!

You don’t know if your programs or services can help someone unless you speak with them, AND if they are considering working with you directly, you don’t know if you want to help them.

Also, if they are basing their decision on price, chances are they are not going to choose the program that’s actually going to solve their problem.

Here is an example of a great response that positions you well and is also in service to your prospect.

Dear Prospect,

Thank you so much for inquiring about my services. However, simply giving you a price for my programs without having a conversation to discuss the unique needs of your business, your goals, and your vision is not in service to you and something I simply will not do.

I’d be happy to offer you a 15 min conversation to determine which program might best meet your needs and if at any time, you believe your time is wasted, we can say our goodbyes and move on.

Please respond to this email with 3 times that may work for us to connect in the next several days.

I look forward to connecting with you!

This short email makes a clear statement that you are not interested in working with people who are discount shoppers, and allows you to remain in control of the conversation.

If they don’t respond with dates and time to connect, you know they most likely would not have invested with you in the first place.

PS: The Neagle Code: Directions for Life is a weekly no-cost program that is open to everyone! Each week, I'll select and personally respond to one question received via the above “The Neagle Code” page that I feel in my heart will help the most people. (You may choose to remain anonymous if you wish, with our full support.) It is my deep, heartfelt intention that ~ in answering your questions ~ I may provide you with the Universal Truths that in committed application, will set you free. Simply submit YOUR burning question at: www.DavidNeagle.com/ask-david to participate.

When you have the desire to do or have something, but your personal or financial situation indicates to you that you can’t, you’re in prison.

You want something. You can’t have it. You’re stuck.

As your ideal prospects contemplate buying your service or product, many of them are in a prison of their situation too. They want or need what you’re got, but they think that they don’t have the money or their spouse won’t let them do it or the funds are earmarked for something else.

Whatever their prison is, they believe it. Those bars are very real for them.

If you haven’t integrated the Five Pillars of Influence, their prison may be real for you too. In fact, you’re probably in there with them, agreeing with their assessment or trying to convince them that they’re wrong. Either way, you’re losing the sale while they miss out on the solution that would change their life.

Fortunately, there’s an alternative.

Become Your Own Power of Influence

As I said last time, you need to bring them to clarity to bridge the gap between their prison and your solution, so that they naturally influence themselves. They buy from you and they feel really good about it.

The first step to doing that is Pillar 1: Become Your Own Power of Influence. That means, you learn how to influence yourself.

Think about it, how can you coax someone out of their prison, unless you have coaxed yourself out of yours?

You can’t. To help them, you must first help yourself.

How I Became My Own Power of Influence

Listen, I have been there. When I first started as an entrepreneur, nobody knew who I was. I didn’t have a cultivated market. I didn’t have a website.

I literally started off making cold calls, and, because I was completely broke, I needed to make sales right out of the gate.

The other thing you have to understand is that I was not a born salesperson. I had dabbled in sales, and I was okay at it, but I hated it with a passion. That’s right. I could not stand sales.

Then one day, early in our work together, my mentor asked me why I didn’t like to sell. I told him that I had no idea. “I just don’t like to do it,” I said.

He shook his head and said, “I know why you don’t like it. It’s because you think sales is something that you do to somebody, but it’s not. Sales is not something that you do to someone. It’s something that you do for them.”

In that moment the dots connected for me and my thinking shifted so dramatically that it allowed me to come at sales from a completely different perspective.

I finally understood what had been holding me back. As long as I felt that I was doing something to prospects, sales felt bad. It felt bad to sell to somebody.

But once I realized that I was offering my ideal prospects a solution that they actually need and want ~ I was offering them a way out of their own prisons ~ I came not only to love sales, but became very good at it, and my income skyrocketed.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I had also just taken the first step toward becoming my own power of influence. I’ll show you how you can start doing that for yourself next time.

Hi David!

I have a very practical question I hope you’ll help me with. I recently had the pleasure of listening to your Luxury Workations training, and I’m now in the process of planning my own workation.

Here’s my question. I’m researching locations and am considering renting a luxury home on the beach where my registrants will work and stay. I noticed this wasn’t something you suggested. Is there any reason why this wouldn’t’ be a good idea?

I personally don’t prefer to rent luxury homes for my workations for a number of reasons.

I really enjoy using resorts because there are fewer things my team needs to plan and prep.

1) For example, if you rent a home, you’ll need to bring in outside catering for meals, and outside maid/cleaning service, as most homes do not include daily service in their rentals.

2) You’ll need to think of things that need to be stocked for your guests’ convenience like coffee, beverages, and toiletries.

3) I also love the concierge service a resort provides. They are always a huge help in planning travel and outside excursions and meeting guest requests.

All this being said, depending on the theme of your workation, and the rental properties you find, renting a house may be a very practical idea.

Just make sure you think through all the details a resort normally provides before signing your rental agreement.

All the best to you and your first luxury workation!

PS: The Neagle Code: Directions for Life is a weekly no-cost program that is open to everyone! Each week, I'll select and personally respond to one question received via the above “The Neagle Code” page that I feel in my heart will help the most people. (You may choose to remain anonymous if you wish, with our full support.) It is my deep, heartfelt intention that ~ in answering your questions ~ I may provide you with the Universal Truths that in committed application, will set you free. Simply submit YOUR burning question at: www.DavidNeagle.com/ask-david to participate.

I'm beginning to feel a bit jaded about my work/life… it seems like, regardless of how hard I try, I always only have “enough.”

You see, I want more for my life/business and it seems like, every time I make some traction, I have an unexpected expense (i.e. owing more in taxes, car trouble, family emergency, etc.). From what I read, this is an “abundance” or “wealth ceiling” problem.

I doubled my biggest annual income in just three months earlier this year so I started paying down debt, investing in my business, saving more, etc.; but then I had a few unsuccessful months since then, and now I'm worse off than before (although still making ends meet, for the time being). I'm at a loss. Help!

Based on your question, I do not believe you have an “abundance” or “wealth ceiling” problem.

Looks to me like you may have a focus problem.

Here’s the truth:

You’ll ALWAYS have unexpected expenses. What I’m wondering is what were you focused on as those unexpected expenses began to pile up.

As the car trouble happened, were you focused on the car trouble, or were you focused on hitting your monthly financial goal?

When you experienced a family emergency, were you focused on the emergency or on hitting your financial goal?

The truth is that those unexpected expenses were just distractions created by your sub-conscious mind to keep you from growing.

The key to solving this roller coaster is to continually stay focused on what you want and what actions will take you closer to what you want.

There will always be unexpected expenses, but what’s really important is to master your reaction to them. See them for what they are and DO NOT allow them to take your focus off your goal.

If you need to dedicate time to the distraction, do so during non-work time.

You can break this pattern easily if you’ll stay focused on your goal rather than on the unexpected expense.

Just Believe,^®

PS: The Neagle Code: Directions for Life is a weekly no-cost program that is open to everyone! Each week, I'll select and personally respond to one question received via the above “The Neagle Code” page that I feel in my heart will help the most people. (You may choose to remain anonymous if you wish, with our full support.) It is my deep, heartfelt intention that ~ in answering your questions ~ I may provide you with the Universal Truths that in committed application, will set you free. Simply submit YOUR burning question at: www.DavidNeagle.com/ask-david to participate.

In this new series, I’m going to show you the secrets to closing 80-100% of your perfect prospects in 15 minutes.

Sound implausible? It’s not.

It’s absolutely possible, if you integrate and apply the Five Pillars of Influence, which I’ll explore and explain over the next several weeks.

What Exactly Is Influence?

Influence is simply the capacity to have an effect on someone. In the context of sales, it is the art of equating in the mind of your ideal clients the fact that you have the solution they need.

Influence is not pressure. It’s not asserting or forcing your ideal prospects to buy something they don’t need.

Contrary to what you may have heard or been taught, force is actually counterproductive to sales. It doesn’t work in the long-run. In fact, it often backfires, because it stems from what I call “reaction energy.”

Influence Energy Versus Reaction Energy

Reaction energy is the way most people navigate through life. They react to everything, never realizing the power they have at their fingertips to create the life they desire.

When you’re in reaction energy, you’re not in your power, and you think that force is the answer — the way to get whatever it is that you want. I’ll explore all this again in detail in a later article; but, in short, if you carry reaction energy into your sales conversations, it won’t feel good to your prospects, and they will resist you, coming up with objection after objection, none of which is the real issue at all.

If you’re in reaction energy, though, you’ll just swat at the objections, all the while trying to convince your prospects that they’re wrong and employing all kinds of other techniques, thinking you’re getting somewhere, but you’re actually not.

To get to the sale, you need to come from a place of “influence energy,” which means that you sit in your power with the highest good of the prospects in mind, and direct the conversation in a way that lets the prospects influence themselves. As a result, they feel that you’re trying to help them and are extremely grateful, and they end up selling themselves.

They Already Want What You Have

Influence energy is your best sales tool, in part, because your ideal prospects already want or need your product or service. (That’s why they’re ideal for you.) They may not realize that yet, however, because they’re in a prison of their own situation.

That means, their solution is outside the bars of their prison, and they simply can’t see it.

That’s where you come in.

Empowered by the energy of influence and its five pillars, you bridge the gap between your prospect’s prison and their solution. And once they finally see the solution, you’re right there with it — with exactly what they need and want.

But to get to that place, where you’re harnessing the power of influence, you must first influence yourself. I’ll pick it up here next time.

Hi David!

How does a prosperous business recover from losing a major client?

Let me explain.

So many business owners have a mindset of just getting by, and if they are just getting by, that’s good enough.

Then one client backs out or one setback creeps in, and suddenly they are in crisis.

To have a truly prosperous business you need to consistently be selling MORE than you need, always setting money aside and always looking for that next person who needs your product or service.

A prosperous business has a cushion built in, so that if a major client is lost, the business is not devastated.

If you’re in a business that does not have that cushion built in, and you do lose a major source of income because a major client backs out, your solution is clear.

You must bring in the necessary funds to cover your losses. In most instances this refers to making more sales. Sometimes it looks like taking out a line of credit to buy you some time to bring in the necessary sales to close that gap. It just depends on your situation.

But in all seriousness, the solution to this problem is actually to prevent it from happening in the first place by not stopping when you’re in a place of “good enough”.

Set your sales goals high, build in a cushion, and this will never be an issue.

Just Believe,^®

PS: The Neagle Code: Directions for Life is a weekly no-cost program that is open to everyone! Each week, I'll select and personally respond to one question received via the above “The Neagle Code” page that I feel in my heart will help the most people. (You may choose to remain anonymous if you wish, with our full support.) It is my deep, heartfelt intention that ~ in answering your questions ~ I may provide you with the Universal Truths that in committed application, will set you free. Simply submit YOUR burning question at: www.DavidNeagle.com/ask-david to participate.

Hi David! As an Equine Gestalt Coach, I get to work with a wide range of people in my heart-centered business. However, even though I am always learning about marketing and selling I can't seem to get consistent clients despite my best marketing efforts. I feel like I might be sabotaging myself, but I can't pinpoint what it is I’m doing.

Can you give me any pointers or suggestions on how to identify and correct this?

It could be a sales issue.

It could be a copywriting issue.

It could be an exposure issue.

It could be a marketing issue.

Let me see if I can help you pinpoint the issue so you can narrow your solution.

Based on your website, it appears that you have two completely different and separate groups of clients; corporations and conscious women.

This means you need two completely different marketing and sales plans.

For the corporate side, do you have a strategy for reaching out to corporate decision makers so that when they are in the process of hiring outside providers to help with team and communication issues, you’re at the top of their list?

For the conscious women’s market, do you have a strategy to get in front of large groups of conscious women who are willing to invest in their own growth? Do you speak and/or sponsor events regularly (at least once per month)?

If you answered no to any of the questions above, you have a front-end lead generation issue. Meaning, you just don’t have enough people who know about you and identify you as an expert.

If you answered yes to all of the questions above, you have a sales and follow up issue. You may need in-depth sales training or a strategist to help you with follow up sequences and funnels.

Now you can see what the issue truly is and get specialized support!

Just Believe,^®

PS: The Neagle Code: Directions for Life is a weekly no-cost program that is open to everyone! Each week, I'll select and personally respond to one question received via the above “The Neagle Code” page that I feel in my heart will help the most people. (You may choose to remain anonymous if you wish, with our full support.) It is my deep, heartfelt intention that ~ in answering your questions ~ I may provide you with the Universal Truths that in committed application, will set you free. Simply submit YOUR burning question at: www.DavidNeagle.com/ask-david to participate.

Hi David,

My question is this. Do you help retail businesses? Does your message work for every business? I want to attend your seminar, but I always talk myself out of it because I'm not a coach, etc. In your opinion, is this just an excuse or can you help someone like me?

Thanks, Pam

In fact I think it’s a perfectly legitimate question to ask when making this decision, and I’m thrilled you sent it in to me!

What I’m teaching currently is about becoming a center of influence in your own life as well as the lives of others, and then using specific strategies and lines of questioning to help someone else make a decision.

This is important in ALL business, whether you’re a coach, a CEO, a retailer, a sales person, or a virtual small business owner.

Let me give you an example:

If you are a retailer looking to grow your own business, you must first grow yourself. You must first learn how to influence yourself to do the things that need to be done to grow your business.

After all, your business is your responsibility and only limited by you, right?

Once you begin to be an influence in your own life, you’ll then be able to be an influence in the lives of others, which is why my upcoming training starts there.

In your case, you must be an influencer or leader in the lives of your employees and your customers as well.

And here’s the kicker…you can’t influence people by “telling” them anything. True influence really occurs when you ask questions that lead your employee or customer to make a decision or come to an awareness all on their own.

So I then walk you step by step through my blueprint and give you the exact questions to ask and words to say that will have an impact on whoever is considering your product or service.

I don’t care if you’re selling services or widgets, this skill is essential to the growth of ANY business.

Therefore, all of my scripts, scenarios, strategies and tools can be adapted to any business.

If you have additional business specific questions, PLEASE feel free to give my team a call at 877-776-6364. They’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have!

Looking forward to meeting you in person!

Just Believe,^®

PS: The Neagle Code: Directions for Life is a weekly no-cost program that is open to everyone! Each week, I'll select and personally respond to one question received via the above “The Neagle Code” page that I feel in my heart will help the most people. (You may choose to remain anonymous if you wish, with our full support.) It is my deep, heartfelt intention that ~ in answering your questions ~ I may provide you with the Universal Truths that in committed application, will set you free. Simply submit YOUR burning question at: www.DavidNeagle.com/ask-david to participate.