Training Unleashed

Lisa Baker is the Founder of Ascentim LLC, a coaching practice that guides its clients to live more meaningful and abundant lives, and she is the guest on this episode of the Training Unleashed podcast. Lisa spoke with our host Evan Hackel about her unique approach to achieving success.

Why Lisa Left the World of Fortune 500 Businesses and Started Her Own Firm

She chose to leave corporate life so she could pursue her calling to help others reach their peak levels of success. “Outside that corporate world,” she told Evan, “people have more freedom to say and do things.”

Lisa explains, “I’ve merged my executive leadership experience with my greatest passions – faith, family, and financial freedom – to create my coaching practice, Ascentim. At Ascentim, we guide our clients to live more meaningful and abundant lives through an awakening that uncovers who they really are, what they value, and their purpose – using it all to create the career and life of their dreams.”

Lisa Explains Her G.R.O.W. Approach to Coaching

G.R.O.W. is a process and a methodology Lisa created to help people move from where they are to where they want to be.

The four steps of G.R.O.W. are:

·     Gain Insight – This means gathering the information that you need to move ahead toward success. “Many times a person in an organization is struggling to add a new skill or overcome some obstacle, but is blocked and doesn’t know what the blockage is,” Lisa told Evan. “So that person has to strive to understand what is really taking place. What skills do they need? What connections?”

·     Realize New Possibilities – Once you have gained insight, you can start to consider what you can do with the information you have gathered. “Where do you want to go?” Lisa asks, “what is now possible for you?”

·     Overcome Obstacles – This phase is all about planning. “Life always brings obstacles our way,” Lisa says. “We didn’t expect some of them, but there are other obstacles we can anticipate and plan for. “

·     Win – This means winning at life. It’s bigger than just winning in your career. It has to do with your life and your legacy. “Winning is all about defining what success looks like to you,” Lisa says, “and for each of us, that is something different.”

Evan Hackel observed, “Part of the problem is that when people don’t define success, they never feel successful.” Lisa agreed.

Lisa on Helping Younger Employees Grow . . .

“Younger people value the idea of having a pathway for their careers. However, many of them think that path should be very fast, and straight up. So part of managing those people is to expand their understanding of how careers grow.

“It’s not always linear. Sometimes you take some side steps. You might even see it as a step backward . . . and that’s all good.”

How Training Departments Can Support Individual Growth

Lisa says that training departments can incorporate the G.R.O.W. process in their training. “And they can also bring a more holistic approach to training that addresses a broader base of considerations than just their career,” she adds. “One of them is finance.”

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Our Training Unleashed podcast host Evan Hackel sat down with Crista Grasso, the creator of the Lean Out Method, a simple way to grow a business to scale in the right way, by minimizing waste and maximizing efficiencies, and a known authority on helping global businesses simplify and scale. The two discussed the importance of growing your business to the right scale.

What Do You Need to Focus on As You Scale?

Crista says there are four factors to consider: Strategy, Planning, Systems and Team.

One common problem is that when things are not working well, many companies assume they need to add more people. Yet the real problem could be something else: they don’t have the right systems in place.

And if they pause and simplify, many companies find they can stretch their people a bit further and align them with roles that will get more from the business.

Where to Focus as You Scale

If you can focus on your most important goals as a company – where you really want to be and what you really want to achieve – that will help you pinpoint activities where you can reduce your energy and your resources.

Unless you have clarity of vision, everything will seem like an amazing opportunity and you can invest your people, time and effort in the wrong areas. So the first step is to clarify your vision, so you engage in activities that are directionally correct.

On a Bigger Vision of Training

Training plays a critically important role in helping a company grow to scale provided the company asks not only “what are we doing?” but, “why are we doing it?”

Crista’s One Biggest Tip for Members of the Training Unleashed Community

“Have that clarity of vision,” Crista says. “If you know what is directionally correct for your organization, it will help you make the right decisions and help you grow to scale.”

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When you improve sales training, you improve your bottom line. But what kind of changes should you make, and what results can you expect? Host Evan Hackel sits down with Jeremy Miner, sales training expert and CEO of 7th Level, to explore these questions and more in this episode of the Training Unleashed podcast.

Continuous Training

Jeremy asks, “Is training something that you did, or is it something that you do?”

Please take a moment to think about that question. Jeremy is telling us that if you want to sell more, you need to do sales training continually. Top athletes and sports teams don’t only train when they’re young or just starting out. They train every day. And if you want your organization to succeed, you need to do that too.

One Big Hidden Impediment to Selling More Today

Post-pandemic, your customers are more cautious and skeptical about making the wrong buying decisions. Your salespeople need to address that fear.

There is More Clutter to Cut Through than Ever Before

Checking email, for many people, is the first thing they do in the morning—even before they get out of bed or walk down the hall. When they drive to work, they hear ads on the radio and drive past billboards. And at the end of the day before they go to bed, they look at Facebook and other social platforms.

If you can’t find a way to cut through all that clutter and deliver your sales message, you are simply not going to sell more.

Sales Training Needs to Be Virtual

Jeremy points out that kids do not learn to ride bicycles by attending seminars. They learn to ride bikes by riding bikes! In a similar way, if sales professionals are selling virtually, then sales training needs to be virtual and based on real-world experiences of selling to people.

Jeremy told Evan, “If you want to continually hone your skills and actually learn how to apply them, you want to continually hone those skills in virtual sales training every single day.”

Why the First Few Seconds of a Sales Call Are Critically Important

Jeremy says that if a salesperson is only fixated on making a commission, that salesperson develops what he calls “salesperson’s breath,” which can be smelled 100 feet away. And when prospects are confronted with a salesperson who has entered that state, they immediately go into a fight or flight state and cannot be sold to.

Curiously, this can happen when salespeople become too excited about their products. Today, are we learning that if you don’t want to scare your prospects away, you need a calmer approach in which you come across as calmer and more unbiased.

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In this instalment of the Training Unleashed podcast, host Evan Hackel sat down with Dr. Michelle K. Johnston to discuss the shift in leadership style from a “command and control” style to one based on building connections with yourself, your style of communication and your organization. 

What Is the shift in Leadership that Michelle Has Identified?

Michelle noticed this change in leadership style when she realized that executives who were still using a “command and control” style were getting pushed out of organizations and were no longer valued.

The New Leadership Is About Connection, Connection, Connection

Michelle’s research found that leaders who were getting pushed out had failed to establish a deep connection with the people on their teams. Their teams didn’t trust them. Their teams thought they were inauthentic, sometimes fake. They wondered, who is this person?

They couldn’t tell because their leader was putting on a professional act by trying to look like what a leader should be. And she saw that today’s most effective leaders are all about connection.

Listen to the entire episode to hear how connection is the new currency of leadership.

About Our Guest

Dr. Michelle K. Johnston is a management professor, executive coach, and leadership expert helping leaders achieve results through meaningful connection. She is an award-winning professor studying leadership and business communication, and her research has shown a clear link between a team’s effective communication and its positive financial performance. Michelle is a celebrated keynote speaker presenting at conferences and events nationwide. She received her PhD in communication from Louisiana State University and was named to the prestigious 100 Coaches group, which consists of the top executive coaches around the world. Michelle serves as the Gaston Chair of Business at Loyola University New Orleans where she teaches in the graduate and undergraduate programs in the College of Business. She lives in her beloved city of New Orleans, Louisiana, with her daughter, Elizabeth.

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In this Training Unleashed podcast, host Evan Hackel interviewed Tony Martignetti, Chief Inspiration Officer at Inspired Purpose Coaching, trusted advisor and leadership coach. Inspiration is at the core of everything. It’s the fuel that drives people to do extraordinary things. Listen to their discussion on the critical role inspiration plays in helping companies succeed.

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Lee Caraher is the founder and CEO of Double Forte, a national public relations and digital media agency, best-selling author of The Boomerang Principle: Inspire Lifetime Loyalty from Your Employees, and recent guest on the Training Unleashed podcast where Lee shared her proven strategies for building an empowered workforce with host Evan Hackel. Lee is an expert on managing the media, leading people, building an empowered workforce, and a communication ninja.

We know you will profit from every big idea Lee and Evan discussed. Listen until the very end for an amazing offer from Lee for the Training Unleashed community.

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In this Training Unleashed Podcast, our host Evan Hackel interviewed Kimberly Gerber, CEO of Excelerate and executive coach. We know you will benefit from Kimberly’s no-holds-barred insights into what many leaders do both right and wrong as they strive to build successful organizations. Kimberly shares opportunities business leaders should consider leveraging to take their success to a higher level.

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Richard Shaull is co-founder and CEO of a company called Unleashed CEO. Richard has helped hundreds of businesses implement the right systems and teams, enabling them to rapidly scale.

In a recent Training Unleashed Podcast, Richard and host Evan Hackel discussed Richard’s exciting idea that what companies need today is what he calls Chief Everything Officers –leaders who practice the ability to wear many hats at once and unleash the power of their associates.

What It Means to Be a Chief Everything Officer

Richard told Evan that this new kind of executive – a Chief Everything Officer – is someone who sits in an executive seat in a company but finds themself wearing many more hats than they anticipated. They’re spinning more plates than they feel like they can keep going at any one time and putting out fires all the time – forced to live in what Richard calls “a reactive state.”

“None of us wants to own that identity,” Richard told Evan. “But if we’re honest with ourselves in a moment of self-reflection, we’d say, `Yeah, I’m playing Chief Everything Officer. In any moment I could be Human Resources Officer or whatever the need may be.’”

Listen to the entire podcast to hear Richard’s tips that people can use to help build a mindset that a Chief Everything Officer needs.

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Mark Mears is the founder and Chief Growth Officer at Leaf Growth Ventures LLC, a consulting firm that helps companies focus on strategic planning and execution. Mark is also author of the new book The Purposeful Growth Revolution: 4 Ways to Grow from Leader to Legacy Builder.

In a recent Training Unleashed Podcast with host Evan Hackel, Mark talked about using the power of purpose to revitalize your company and unlock new levels of success. Make sure you listen to the entire episode to hear more about unlocking the power of purpose in your organization.

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Because the health of your company is built on the wellness of every person who works with you, employee wellness programs are one of the smartest investments you can make.

But what kind of employee wellness programs work best? Which offer your company the biggest ROI? And how do you engage your employees to take part in them? 

In a recent Training Unleashed podcast, our host Evan Hackel asked Tarin Calmeyer those questions and more. Tarin is CEO of Remote Team Wellness, a company that develops and delivers wellness programs for variety of successful companies.

If you are committed to building a top-performing company, we know you will want to spend time watching this motivating – and very different – episode of Training Unleashed.

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