Tag: The Neagle Code

This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

In a recent sales call, I quoted my price for coaching. The woman (who is a therapist) said, “That’s a little more than what I thought it would be.”

I asked her what she was comparing it to. She said she wasn’t sure, because she hasn’t ever looked into hiring a coach before. How do I handle her objection?

The question I would ask her is, “What did you think the price would be?”

If she says she has no idea—and she’s also saying the price is higher than what she thought it would be—those two statements are completely incongruent.

When someone is concerned about the price, it’s because they’re comparing it to something.

When someone says anything related to the price—e.g., “I’ve never spent that much money before,” or “That’s too expensive,” or, ”I don’t know if I could afford that,” you’re witnessing—in real time—someone making a psychological comparison to something else in their mind.

And they don’t even realize they’re doing it.

This is how the brain works. If the subconscious mind doesn’t have experience purchasing something for that amount, it compares it to, “Well, what else have I done in the past? What else is familiar to me within this pattern?”

It engages a pre-set pattern. But generally, the pattern has nothing to do with the output. It's just trying to keep the person safe.

If she tells you what she thought the price would be—that’s where she’s doing the comparing.

Most people who haven’t worked with a coach before are comparing the coaching to counseling or therapy.

Here’s what to do…

The idea is to get her focused on the result, the value of that result, and how important it is to her.

It’s never about the money. It’s about how much the person values the result.

I’d say to her, “Listen, if you absolutely knew you’d get the result…would the result be worth what I’m asking you to pay?”

If she says yes, you say… “Then it’s not about the money. It’s about… are you willing to commit to doing the work, to get the result?”

How do you guarantee that a person will get the result? Do you have to make a guarantee? It depends on what you do.

When a person hires me for coaching, I guarantee they’ll get the result if they do the work. I tell them, “If you do the work—if you do exactly what I tell you to do—I guarantee you’ll get the result.”

That’s the only way I can guarantee it. Otherwise, I have no guarantee.

If I’m selling you a toaster, I guarantee it’ll work if you plug it in. If you don’t plug it in, I can’t guarantee anything.

It’s about being responsible TO the client, not FOR them.

You can guarantee how you’ll be responsible to them. But whatever work they have to do on their end, you can’t guarantee that… because they’re the ones who have to do it.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

• Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
• Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
• Join me at The Art of Success Summit! This October, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

I’m going through a major sales slump. Normally I sell 25% of the time—or 50% if it’s a high-quality lead. I’ve had 20 leads and not one sale. These people seem price-conscious, saying, “I’ve never spent that much money before.” So, the leads may not be as high quality. Higher-net-worth individuals seem more likely to sign up with me than middle class or those with a job.

How do I determine if this is a problem with my leads, my mindset, or something  else? I’m starting to feel anxious.

First of all, never let an outside circumstance affect you emotionally. Otherwise, it starts controlling you.

Secondly, you shouldn’t ever have slow periods. You have to think resourcefully every time you have a problem.

Based on your knowledge and expertise, ask yourself, “Is there an issue with these 20 leads?” Be honest with yourself about the answer.

The longer you’re in business, the more you understand the quality of different things you have to put in place to generate leads.

If there’s a problem with the leads—figure out why you have that problem, and fix it so it doesn’t happen again. Do you need to hire a new digital marketing company or copywriter?

Make sure you understand what qualifies someone to be a high-quality lead or not.

If there’s no difference in the leads and you’re not making any sales—then something got in your head.

Regarding “price-conscious” leads…nobody’s price conscious.

It’s all about urgency and what they value.

Nobody cares about price. If that’s what they’re communicating to you, it’s because they don’t know how to communicate anything else.

If you keep hearing price objections, understand that that’s your belief. That’s the meaning you’re giving to it.

Higher net-worth individuals understand what they value in life, and they’re willing to pay for more value.

People who are price conscious don’t value the right things in life. They value the fear of making a mistake, insecurity, lack of faith, or what other people think about them.

On a sales call, you have to get the person to see the actual value of working with you or purchasing from you. You have to be really clear on what that value is, and how it will affect their life.

Figure out, what do they want? What’s their desire or need that’s close to their heart? Not the surface answer, but the real need. Stay with that question until you find out what they emotionally want.

Then ask, “What happens if you don’t buy this?” No matter what it is, there’s a consequence if they don’t buy. The size of that consequence will determine the urgency of the purchase.

If the urgency is there, the value is there.

When someone says they don’t have enough money, time, or they have to check with their spouse—it’s because you didn’t find the right urgency in your questioning.

Dig to find the urgency. Don’t move from one question to another in the sales conversation until you’re damn certain they’re giving you an honest answer.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

• Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
• Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
• Join me at The Art of Success Summit! This October, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

I’m an entrepreneur, and my partner is not. I want to build, grow, and see things. He has working class mindset, always working for someone else. But he’s intrigued by everything I’m doing, and he’s open to it.

I feel like we’re going in different directions. When I ask him what he wants, he always says, “I don’t know.” He’s trying to figure that out. I say, “You have to go try things. Why don’t you go for that dream job? Why don’t you talk to people?”

Is that the right approach? How can I help him find his passion? How can we see if we’re on the same page or create a direction? He wants to fit into my life of freedom, but I want him to have his own passions and dreams.

I would sit down, have a conversation and say, “Let’s take a week and decide what we want for ourselves in life.”

Take a week, write down everything you want in your life…and have him do the same.

Then, after the week, come back together and compare notes. See where you are.

Talk about, “What do we want together?” Create a vision for what you guys want together. Break it down to, “Okay, how are we going to create this in our life, so that you get what you want individually, I get what I want individually, and we both get what we want together? And then we make it work.”

That will determine the next steps.

It’s important that you both have the freedom to really say, truthfully, what you want. If you’re hiding something—or you think your partner would be offended or might not want the same thing—or if you’re like, “That won’t work”… you might have a codependency thing going on, where he’s letting you be the leader.

But that never works out very well.

No matter what the outcome is, you have to give each other permission that you’ll be 100% honest about what you want.

Here’s another thing. When someone keeps saying, “I don’t know,” they’re actually giving their brain a command to NOT give them the answer.

Our brain is extraordinarily resourceful,
if we learn how to use it.

Instead of saying, “I don’t know,” he could start saying, ”I know it’s coming. I know the answer is coming. I give myself permission to know what it is.”

Here’s the truth, which I deeply believe:

Humans are not the one species on the planet that was born with no direction. We all have a purpose and a direction. We were just taught to ignore it during childhood (for whatever reason), so that we could survive.

Your partner just needs to start talking. His self talk needs to change a bit. Give him the space to come up with what he wants.

Don’t pressure him in any way. Let him write down whatever he knows that he wants, because you can only start where you are. He just needs permission.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

• Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
• Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
• Join me at The Art of Success Summit! This October, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

What’s the difference between setting a goal and making a decision? I’m struggling with differentiating the two in my mind.

For example, let’s say I want to get up at 6:00 am and take a cold shower. That’s a decision, right?

But then I have a goal that I want to make $X amount of dollars. That’s a goal, right? Can you clarify the distinction of where it breaks from being a decision to just setting a goal?

They’re both part of each other.

When you set a goal, you need to figure out, “What do I need to do to reach that goal?”

The decision is about, “I’m going to accomplish this goal, and I’m making a decision to do it, based on cause and effect of what needs to be done to reach that goal.”

First you set the goal.
Then you make a decision to reach that goal.

From there, figure out what actions you need to commit to, in order to reach the goal.

Here’s an example. If I sat down with my CEO, Steph, and said, “Hey, let’s set a goal to make an extra million this year…” we’d sit down and reverse-engineer what that would look like.

• How do we want to make that money?
• What do we want to do?
• What are you and I going to commit to?
• Do we need to hire someone?
• What needs to be done?
• For how long?
• On what days?

We’d break it down into activities—all the way down to the smallest details.

Set the goal, make a decision to reach the goal, brainstorm how to get there, then commit to taking those actions.

Commitments are just decisions along the way.

If you don’t chunk your goal down into specific activities, then you haven’t really set the goal. You haven’t made a decision.

You have to turn the goal into activities that are based on cause and effect. What is the cause of this goal that you want?

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

• Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
• Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
• Join me at The Art of Success Summit! This October, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

My wife is a working professional and is paid very well. She’s fulfilled with her work, and her income is high, but she’s not an entrepreneur. She’s not tuned into the hustles and struggles of owning your own business.

Many of the things I need to work on—like mindset issues—come more naturally to her. Sometimes I’ll say, “Hey, let’s go to a David Neagle live event,” and she won’t be as into it as I am. But sometimes she’s curious about what I’m learning.

Sometimes she sees me doing this mindset work and she’s like, “Why do you need to do that?” How can I get her and I on the same wavelength, so that we can pursue some non-economic, non-financial ways to grow?

The first thing I’d ask her is, “Why are you asking me this question? What are you actually looking for?”

Because it sounds like she’s looking for something, and you’re answering her question in a way where she’s not satisfied.

So I would find out what she’s looking for, and what the reason is behind her question.

I’d say, “That’s a great question. And I honor and respect your question. But why are you asking me this? What information are you looking for?”

Let’s find out what she wants to know.

Because if you answer the wrong question, she won’t be satisfied.

Obviously, there’s a disconnect somewhere. And we need to figure what it is first.

I’d also say to her:

“I know you don’t have as much interest in this area as I do. But it would really mean a lot to me if you’d come to this event with me, because it’s something I’m interested in. And I’d love for us to work together on our relationship.”

“…AND I’ll totally respect you if we get there and you decide it’s not for you. But it would really mean a lot to me if you’d come see what’s really interesting me, so that we can create dialogue between the two of us.”

I would approach it from that angle.

Sometimes the spouse just isn’t into it.
And that’s totally fine, as long as both people are working to grow their relationship together.

The worst thing you can do is to make her wrong for her lack of interest.

Here’s another thing…A person has to fully embrace the teacher.

She might be curious about the material I’m teaching, but I might not be the right teacher for her.

She might be interested in the content, but maybe she needs to find somebody she vibes with better. That’s always a possibility too.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

• Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
• Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
• Join me at The Art of Success Summit! This October, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

I’m creating content, but it’s falling on deaf ears. I’m making offers in that content, inviting people to reach out if they want help, but no one’s responding. I’m not getting enough sales conversations.

How should I approach creating content and giving people value?

People don’t buy content. They buy solutions to problems. It doesn’t matter what the content is—they never buy the content.

Either you’re not communicating the value of the solution to the right client, or you’re not doing it enough.

In your content—as well as in your sales conversations—you need to help people see what’s causing their problem. Then position your product or service as the solution.

You can’t expect people to see the solution just because you put content up.

You need to mentally walk them through identifying their problem—and link it to the fact that if they do business with you, they’ll get the solution. Then they’ll want to take it further or have a phone call with you.

When I started my business, I didn’t do any marketing or copywriting. There was no social media back then. All I did was cold calling.

On the phone I’d say, “Hi, my name is David Neagle. I’m a success coach. And I want to talk to you about your business.”

They’d say, “What do you want to talk about?”

I’d say, ”Well, I help you fix problems in your business. What problems are you currently having right now, that you’re having trouble fixing?” That was it.

They’d tell me about the problem they were having. I’d talk about their problem. I’d show them, “Here’s what’s causing your problem.” The solution was to buy the seminar, the coaching, or whatever I was selling at the time.

I never told them how to solve the problem. Instead, I helped them understand what was causing the problem.

I said, “Here’s the cause of the problem. Here’s what needs to change in order for you to get the solution.” But I didn’t them how to change it. I linked my product or service to the solution.

Here’s another thing. In your content, people don’t necessarily care about what YOU love. Instead, focus on identifying the specific problem they’re having. Make them realize what the consequence of that problem is. And the solution is to buy your product or service.

You have to articulate it correctly.

Here’s an example. If somebody told me they were having a problem with sales, I’d ask, “What’s the problem you’re having in sales?”

“Well, I’m having these conversations, but nobody’s buying.”

I’d say, “Do you know what’s causing people not to buy?”

They’d say, “I think it’s my product” or, “People don’t seem to be interested.”

I’d say, “It’s not the product—it’s the conversation. You’re not influencing them to get to the position where they want to buy from you. Until you learn that skill, it won’t get any better. I don’t care what you’re selling—nobody will buy your product if you can’t influence them.

For them to solve that problem, they’d need to buy my sales program.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

• Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
• Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
• Join me at The Art of Success Summit! This October, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

Over the past two years, I’ve been having cash flow challenges. We’ve been generating income, but we’ve still had very high expenses. We’ve also had challenges in retaining some of our staff. We’ve found a great hire now, but she’s $1,200 more expensive than anyone I would’ve hired in that position before. She’s leaving the top firm in my country to come to us.

In the back of my mind, with all of our cash flow challenges and debts, I’m feeling overwhelmed and a little guilty. I fear that if she comes on board…what if I can’t afford to pay her? How can I set my mind right about this situation?

I would look at two things:

1. Will she bring in new business?
2. Will she free up your time (or whoever else’s time needs to be freed up) to bring in new business?

If the answer is yes to either of these questions, then this person will be worth the cost of hiring her.

If she’s not going to bring in new business… then consider whether she can free up YOUR time, so that you can bring in new business.

How much work will this person take off your plate? Is that enough time for you to go out and create enough business in order to make it a smart hire? If so, then that’s the decision to make.

People need to realize that if you want good help right now, the help is out there.

There’s a ton of help out there. But you’re going to pay a premium for it.

The only thing you have to make sure is that it makes sense to the bottom line.

Is it going to solve your problem? Is this person as good as they project themselves to be?

I would have no problem making a decision like that, and then making sure I brought in enough business for them to take care of.

The worst-case scenario is… you’d have to let them go because you can’t pay them. And then you’d have to make the money to pay them for whatever work they DID do. But that’s not a bad consequence.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

• Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
• Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
• Join me at The Art of Success Summit! This October, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

Hi David,

I have a copywriting business and a small team of writers who work under me. I write, but I also edit everything my team writes before it gets sent off to the client. It’s my name on the end, so I want to make sure I agree with what they write and that it’s on brand.

I want to scale my business, so I can make more money. But working with more writers takes a LOT of my time, editing. My dilemma is… do I hire an editor who edits like me? Do I hire better writers, so there’s less editing needed? I’m reluctant to hire more writers, because my clients are buying ME and MY writing.

Also, I see other people creating revenue streams like coaching or creating a course. Should I do that instead?

First of all, people are adding those revenue streams, because they think it’s easier… which is ridiculous. Most of them don’t know what the hell they’re doing.

I think you have to look at it from a few perspectives:

1. What is your long-term goal? What’s your vision? What do you want to create, business wise?
2. If you start bringing on another source of revenue, you have to consider the amount of time and attention required to build up that other source.

That’s always a great thing if you’re really solid in your primary business—where you can step away a bit to focus on something else. But you’re not in that place yet. So that concerns me.

I would look at finding an editor. Editing is a huge job, and it’s necessary. They don’t necessarily have to edit the way you do. Don’t get hung up on that. They just need to be a good editor.

The idea is… are you putting out the work that you say you’re going to put out?

If you want to create another source of income, then I’d get yourself to a place where you have the time, energy, and bandwidth to be able to do it. In that case, I’d look at hiring an editor and quality writers.

As far as clients buying you and your writing… I think you need to stop selling you and your team altogether.

Instead, focus on selling the outcome people are looking for. How you get them there, shouldn’t even be their concern.

If you fall into the trap of branding yourself consciously or unconsciously, then it’s a bear to get away from that… because nobody will want to work with anybody else but you.

I’ve seen people do this their whole careers. Even Tony Robbins can’t get out of it, because he branded himself way too much. My mentor, Bob Proctor, who just passed away, did the same thing. He could never get out of it completely, because it was always him. He was the brand.

Don’t sell you as the brand. Sell the outcome.

You can be the face of the company. But psychologically, what people are buying is the outcome, not the person.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

• Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
• Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
• Join me at The Art of Success Summit! This October, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

Hi David,

My question is around goal setting and ‘need versus want.’ I’ve been using Napoleon Hill’s mantra every morning: “I know I have the ability to achieve the object of my definite purpose in life. Therefore, I demand of myself persistent, continuous action towards its attainment. And I, here, now, promise to render such action.”

I love that and have been analyzing what it means. I get stuck at the part that says “definite purpose in life.” That sounds so grandiose and final. I have financial and personal goals… but how do I find my “definite purpose”? Do I need to have a big enough “why” behind the work I’m doing as an entrepreneur?

What I’m going to tell you is very important. You’ve got to find out what inspires you about what you do. And you’ve got to be 100% honest about it, no matter what it is.

Here’s an example. I have a rockstar client who went over two million, really quickly.

Then afterwards… she started screwing around with writing her purpose out on paper. She wanted to say, “I’m doing all of this for my children.”

And I said, “Why would you change your purpose?”

She felt guilty that her children weren’t in her purpose.

I was like, “If they’re not in there, then they’re not in there. It’s not that you’re ignoring your kids. But you have to be honest with yourself about what turns you on about what you do.”

What turns her on is being seen, being public, being on the world stage, and doing what she does.

“If you take that away and allow yourself to feel guilty—then say you’re doing this all for your kids—you’re going to crash your business,” I told her.

It doesn’t matter what your purpose is,
as long as you’re honest about it.

Ask yourself: “What do I absolutely love about what I do, more than anything else?”

If it’s helping people, great. If it’s building a team, great. If it’s having enough money to buy a Ferrari… buy a house… provide for your family… great.

Whatever it is—whatever gets you out of bed in the morning that excites you about what you do—THAT’S the purpose you need to focus on. At least for now.

If you feel guilt or shame around it, remember:

Whenever you experience guilt and shame, understand that’s not your voice talking to you. That’s the voice of the person who installed guilt and shame into your subconscious mind (usually a parent).

You need to tell that person to get the flying f@&% out of your head. Because it’s not you.

We’re not born with guilt or shame. Someone put it into our mind.

So, if you start feeling guilty about something, or you start feeling shame, you have to ask yourself, “Whose voice is that in my head?”

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

• Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
• Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
• Join me at The Art of Success Summit! This October, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

Hi David,

I’ve been focusing on sales, sales, sales this past week. During my sales calls, I keep getting objections around money.

One person knew she wanted to work with me (she said it was a “no brainer”). But before I could tell her the price, she said, “I can’t afford it right now. I just got back from traveling to another country and I’ve spent all my last money on getting home.”

I pointed out that I hadn’t even shared the price yet. She laughed and said she just needs a few months to get her stuff together. How do I handle this kind of objection?

When she said she couldn’t afford it—the moment you realized she didn’t even know how much the price was—your response should have been:

“Do you have any intention of saving the money? Or do you just not want to do this? Because you said ‘no’ without even knowing what the price was.”

You need to get down to what the real problem is,
and cut the BS.

Otherwise, you’re not dealing with the real problem.

This is a person who’s afraid to tell you, “No.” One of the most difficult things for a human being is to tell another person, “No.” You have to give the person permission to say no, if you think that they’re BS’ing you.

Anybody who says “no” or “I can’t afford it” without knowing the price, probably isn’t someone you want to work with anyway.

When someone says, “I can't afford it”—what they’re really telling you is, “It’s not a priority in my life right now.” That just means you haven’t conveyed the correct urgency in that call.

If it’s urgent enough, a person will move it to the top of the priority list in their life.

If it CAN be urgent enough,
your job is to help them see that it’s urgent.

To tap into a person’s urgency during a sales call, it’s very simple.

Ask them, “What do you want?” And get to the core of what they really want. Ask them, “What’s going to happen if you don’t change?” Ask, “How serious are you about changing this right now?” That’s it.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

• Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
• Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
• Join me at The Art of Success Summit! This October, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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