Self Interest, How Transparency Wins The Day

A we suggested in the episode, we want to encourage anyone who is interested and able to contribute to my daughter Caroline’s Go Fund Me campaign in support of documenting the devastation that hit Asheville, NC (where she lives) recently with her creative partners in the form of a documentary. Details can be found here - https://gofund.me/8fcfe6fa

Thanks for your support!!

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Mark introduces the topic of self interest and suggests that it might be valuable to flush out each party’s self interest before engaging another, regardless of the nature of the engagement. Then he tosses it back to Jim before engaging people in conversation.

Jim talks about introducing the idea of our podcast to others and describes how he explains it to people

He then reflects on how everything we do starts with self. He identifies our target market (middle aged men). He shares his thoughts on self interest in particular and how he tries to establish self interest

He feels this helps with transparency and honesty

Mark reflects on his sales journey and how he was coached to hide his self interest. He has evolved into a more transparent approach

Jim chimes in about his sales career and the evolution of how he handles self interest

Both guys reflect on their evolution from selling in the 80’s versus where they on now. They were taught to hold their cards close to the fence

Mark shares his reflection on the movie Glengarry GlenRoss. And Alec Baldwins “ABC” approach

Jim says he doesn’t miss that approach at all

Mark says you can make money with the hard sell, but not long term with the same clients. It’s a churn and burn

Mark reframes how he approaches sales and coaching today. Goodwill and referrals

It used to be “I win if you lose”. Now it’s win win

Jim suggests that our young folks (30’s) today have better bullshit detectors and they won’t tolerate a lack of transparency

Jim’s approach now is understanding how every party can win

Mark tells a story about his dad’s hand shake deal over a loan - there’s always been room for transparency

Jim tells his patent attorney story and how the final bill was much higher than expected - how he resolved the issue with both parties happy and the relationship in tact

Jim shares that both parties taking ownership for the solution was critical to the success of the engagement

Jim says he is much better at establishing assumptions, self interest and expectations before moving deeper into a negotiation or discussion

Marks says we often assume that others see the world the same way we do. He relates a story about his son and “getting things in writing”. Things change post agreement. Nothing is static. Things should be readdressed continuously over time

Jim distinguishes between knowledge and wisdom. Experience breeds wisdom. The world needs wisdom, not knowledge

Mark says most of his wisdom comes from mistakes and failure. He says execution is what he needs most

Jim wants to leave discussions with understanding, not power. He doesn’t know everything. No one does

Mark brings up the topic of what words mean. His example is abortion. He shares the different nuances with this particular topic

Jim jumps in and suggests that “I don’t want to talk about abortion”. Are you having the wrong conversation with the wrong person at the wrong time. “I don’t want to talk about that”. Back to self interest

One has to be self aware about what who wants to talk about

Mark jokes about the pregame conversation with Jim about the topic of health. Jim tells stories about different friends who ramble o. About their own ailments

Mark bring his daughter and he being able to help everyone…but not if they’re not ready. You can’t people who don’t want to be helped

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Jim asks Mark to share his daughter’s campaign to help Asheville, NC recover from the devastation from the hurricane by producing a documentary

The guys try to frame the situation and make a link available to help fund the project

Here is the link again - https://gofund.me/8fcfe6fa