the thing most people aren't willing to do myself included is to change most people will say Microsoft called and you say how much is the job $400,000 oh for everybody's excited I say well how much are we going to make on that total silence they don't care what the gross sale is all they care is what the net sale is how you talk to people and what you say about yourself this is what demonstrates that you're a pro I'm not really interested and I don't work with people who simply want to make money because making
money to be honest with you is not that hard what happens with entrepreneurs particularly artists is they come out of art school and they know a lot about art and they don't know much about business and just through sheer talent and hard work and willpower they build their business to a certain point and I think that's what Chris and Jesse his wife who his business partner did then they get to a point where they realize that they don't know anything about business and the Very things that got them there the willfulness the determination the working
lots of ours are now working against them I'm not really interested and I don't work with people who simply want to make money because making money to be honest with you is not that hard making money and having a life and having it mean something that part's pretty hard well for some people here in the audience making money is hard too I mean there there are some reasons if if you have the talent and you're willing to work and the the thing most people aren't willing to do myself included is to change a lot of
times people pay me very well and for the first 6 months they tell they every meeting is the same I make a suggestion they tell me why they can't do that I'm sort of like your college professor like I get paid whether you take my advice or not I don't you know it's really up to you my job is to show up so it usually takes people a while if you if you're not willing to change then nobody can help you I'm going to show you this book this guy won the Nobel Prize he's actually
a psychologist and what he was interested in was how can so many smart people on Wall Street make so many stupid decisions cuz they're the best of the best and basically what what they know in Psychology and I suggest all of you know as much about this as you can is that most of us are always on what they call system one we're making uh automatic decisions that we think are well thought out and then there's a famous experiment where they say true or false Moses led the animals 2 by two onto the ark an
overwhelmingly number of people I've sort of prompted you that it's a trick will answer that that's true you think about it's actually Noah not Moses people will always defer to the easiest way out they don't want to really use their brains the other part of their brain because it takes an awful lot of energy so change is enormously difficult let's talk a little bit about then maybe that first conversation that you have with entrepreneurs who may call you up on the phone what do you guys talk about well the first thing that I there's there's
some things that I need to know uh if you hire me I probably will end up knowing more about you than your therapist and your partner because you have to tell the truth if you can't tell the truth I can't help you I want to know what your what you know about your business so the first thing I usually ask is do you have a p&l and a lot of people I've asked that have made millions of dollars actually don't know what I'm talking about and a lot of these decisions that you're going to be
making about your business are going to be grounded in some understanding of how your business operates financially the other thing particularly in Motion Graphics and the kind of businesses that I am most active in right now is do you actualize jobs and what that means is say you sold $100,000 TV commercial do you know how much you spent to make that commercial did you track your money so that you know what your profit is a lot of people make this a mistake and they think when like how much money did you make that's that's a
general question how much money did you make and they tell you what they gross that's not even gross profit the difference between talking to artists and people like yourselves and talking to businessmen they don't care what the gross sale is all they care is what the net sale is most people will say Microsoft called and you say how much is the job $400,000 oh four everybody's excited I say well how much are we going to make on that total silence nobody really knows um if you don't know that you don't know whether you can take
the job as Chris has learned a lot of times you can take a $50,000 job and make far more money as a percentage than a half a million dollar job it's this idea that I'll take this job for no money cuz then the guy will will come back and give me more money that's never going to happen it never happens underline that it never happens you can't go to a car dealer and say well look you want $10,000 for that car but but I'll pay you five and then my next car I'll come back and
I'll buy it for me he's not going to listen to so we've all probably heard something like that probably taken one of those things or more than one we've all done it the promise of work tomorrow for bills that need to be paid today it's the bait that traps you and sometimes we tell that lie to ourselves we say like this is a very promising thing this is a relationship when the client's never indicated anything close to that okay well the other thing is we don't listen very well okay none of us are very good
listeners if you listen closely the client's really telling you what kind of client they're going to be okay so one of the things you need to decide is you know how much pain and suffering is there going to be involved in this if I get recommended to a client where there's something about it I want to do but I know there's pain and suffering I literally double the money every encounter with a client is information but people are listening for what they want to hear you know clients who are evasive who don't know who will
get back to you like it's legitimate to say are you the decision maker because most of the people you work with they're not the decision maker if you want to equip yourself with the right Community training and resources to take your business to the next level I want to personally invite you to check out the future PR group and our membership specifically created for experienced business owners ready to scale what's the worst uh answer you can get on a sales call yes no or maybe and the answer is maybe and the reason it's maybe is
because it wastes your time okay you spend a lot of time you're calling these people you know depending on how how you Market yourselves if you have a no you move on if you have a yes you get the work maybe is the worst when you talk to somebody on the phone in this indust they're so busy they have some interest in you they know they know you're not their new best friend okay you're not friends this is business you can be a friend Chris and I have become friends over the years every meeting that
you go to you have to have a goal and what I tell people is think about yourselves when you're the customer who are you do you want to talk on the phone for 20 minutes to a telemarketer the people you're talking to are the same way they're having a meeting with you for a particular reason your job is to figure out what the reason is so people's time is enormously important don't waste it the whole thing should be geared and that's why you need to have a goal you shouldn't be asking any questions or talking
about things that don't have to do with whatever your final ask is going to be that's why it's so difficult if we look at the websites of those of you that are in the graphics business I can tell you what they all say you're very creative you're storytellers you're great to work with you're honest if Jesus came back he'd be your best buddy you know you're perfect well the way you show that you're a professional and and the method with which you work is how you ask questions and the questions you ask that's what demonstrates
your expertise not saying you're an expert Chris has asked me to do this kind of thing for years and I've always resisted because I have a real problem with people who pose as experts okay I don't think any of us know that much if anything I say to any of you today either here on the internet helps your business great how you talk to people and what you say about yourself this is what demonstrates that you're a pro can I jump in here absolutely because I I want to share with you guys what Kier has
helped me to do and I I have some of the same Hang-Ups I think that you guys have and I think we have this image of what a salesperson does it's very aggressive and it's a big turnoff it's one of the more despised like a car salesman the stereotypical car salesman and so if we ask we feel like we're that person and we don't want to be that person because we're s sensitive and very empathetic what Kier taught me was you can ask and not be crass or rude about it and there's a way to
do it so that's about ability of language and being transparent yeah I would like to say something else too that might be helpful you know I I'm pretty transparent I've I've gone to a lot of therapy and a lot of allanon meetings okay it's coming out now it's coming out here we go but one of the things you learn there is what's called stay out of the results what you owe yourself in a meeting is to to walk out of that meeting saying that you presented yourself and your company in the best way you have
no control over the outcome none there's a great meeting called a movie you'll probably just fine on it's called my date with Drew it's about this guy who's trying to get this date with Drew Barrymore they have all these machinations like you have here in Hollywood who do you know how can I get the contact and she never calls back so of course they're Imagining the whole movie is about what's happening and then in the end she actually has the date with the guy and she says you know I just got your tape your your
thing three days ago because I've been traveling all over the world and it's been chasing me so don't try to imagine why you didn't get the job you can't control that what you can control is you ask yourself did I do the best I could to present my company and what we have to offer that's it that's what you owe stay out of the results e
