Tag Archives: success

D.E.A.D. Principle (part 2)

Welcome back for the second part of the D.E.A.D. principle.

Diving right in, the “E” stands for enthusiasm.  The second component, enthusiasm, builds nicely upon the first which was, desire.  Let’s face it, if you aren’t excited about your products or services, why should your customers be?  In fact, if you are just joining me in this series, you might want to stop right here and go read part 1.  The reason is that if you have read and understood part 1 with regards to desire, then enthusiasm should be a natural progression.

For the sake of example, I will continue sharing the scenario of a car salesperson.  You can adapt the particulars to whatever industry you are involved in.  Remember, it is the principle you are looking to learn.  Once you learn the principle, application will fall into place naturally.  So, if you are following your desire to participate in the lucrative world of automotive sales  you will want to consciously have a very enthusiastic mindset.

How will this look in practice?  As a sales professional you will want to eat cars, drink cars, sleep cars, breathe cars, etc.  You will need to completely immerse yourself in your product in order to gain the knowledge it takes to intelligently communicate their every benefit, feature, and have a command of ever bell and whistle.  You will want to get so excited about the cars you sell that it literally is infectious!  Of course, your enthusiasm will show in terms of excitement and love of the vehicles, but you will also be armed to address every question, comment and concern that comes your way.  Also, you will be so intimately familiar with what you sell that you will instinctively know what is the right car for your customer.

There are so many different ins and outs with this idea that I could go on for pages and pages!  I believe you likely get the idea though.

True success comes to those who diligently pursue it.  It doesn’t just happen.  Making certain that you are following your desire will lead you to a place of proper levels of enthusiasm.  Be a good student of what you are selling, promoting, building, or teaching.  Learning everything you can will be one of your biggest assets in the pursuit of success.  Be sure to be real.  Enthusiasm is a wonderful and contagious thing, but, forced or fake enthusiasm shines like a beacon telling your audience you are not genuine and, therefore, not trustworthy.  Don’t make the mistake of equating enthusiasm with over-the-top craziness!  You don’t want to come across as a clown.

Enthusiasm is best served with a smile, and what I like to call controlled excitement.  You don’t want to explode on people.  You do want your excitement to be leading your customer somewhere.  Think of it this way—if your customer is at an excitement level of a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10 you probably don’t want to come across as a ten!  Stay a couple steps ahead.  Lead them, don’t drag them.

Genuine enthusiasm will ultimately create a follow me scenario where people will gravitate in your direction.  Just make sure your enthusiasm is following your desire and you will be well on your way to following the D.E.A.D. principle.

D.E.A.D. Principle (part 1)

I decided today to introduce you to the D.E.A.D. Principle.  This is an amazing principle that a close friend of mine shared with me a few years ago.  Cliff Maynard of Success Innovations in Charlotte, North Carolina works in the automotive industry and recruits and trains sales and management professionals.

This principle will be valuable to you whether or not you make your living in the sales arena, as the principle applies nicely to all walks of life and therefore, in my opinion, is perfect for everyone who wants to be more successful in whatever they do.

As I’m sure you guessed already this principle is an acronym made up of four separate but complimentary things you must have and focus upon if you are to be a success.  My plan is to break the D.E.A.D. Principle into a series of at least four blog posts.  I think this will serve you best in that it will essentially give you four progressive lessons from which you can learn and apply.

The first “D” is the most basic and, frankly, foundational of the four and it stands for “Desire.”  Rule or principle number one of the D.E.A.D. Principle is desire.  No matter what you do you must have a high level of desire associated with what you are doing if indeed you expect to achieve any amount of success.  If you are a car salesperson, then cars and everything to do with them need to be incredibly important and motivating to you.  They need to get and hold your interest.  You need to want to be in a place where you spend all day long every day learning about them, test driving them, talking about them and so on.  If you don’t have this level of desire, you probably will eventually fail.  Apply this to other fields and you will find the same to be true.  If you are in ministry, you had better not only love studying Scripture, but you need to love people.  You have to care for them, counsel them, teach them and be willing to stay up late and wake up early to minister to their needs.  This must be your overwhelming desire in order to be a successful shepherd.  What about if you have decided to go into the marketing field?  Then your desire must be to study and know your products or clients you are promoting.  You need to love to dig deep and learn about the demographics that would most likely want and need to use your clients’ products or services.  You will have to have a deep desire to work in a fast paced world and make lots of phone calls and send and receive a lot of correspondence and track and measure efficacy of your campaigns.  If not, you are likely going in the wrong direction!

You can easily see how regardless of the situation, the “desire” must be there.  Without this key element you are just fooling yourself.  It is not to say that you couldn’t fake it for a time.  Maybe you are in a place where something you truly desire is not available or even possible.  You may find yourself marking time and collecting a paycheck in order to survive.  My advice to you if you find yourself in this situation is to let the desire for that paycheck be all the motivation you need in order to keep food on the table and a roof over your head.  Simultaneous to this fake or drummed up desire, find the time to seek out, find, or create the position you are truly and naturally passionate about and actually desire.  What you naturally desire is key.  I’m talking about the desire you don’t have to work at or stir up, it is always there!

Are you where you truly desire to be?  If the answer is yes, fantastic!  Let this lesson serve as a reinforcement to what you are hopefully already experiencing.  If the answer is no, then it is likely time to make a plan and set some goals and hold yourself accountable and go after your true hearts desire.In a couple days we will take a look at the “E” of the D.E.A.D. Principle.  Come back and check out part 2

Failure is Not the Problem You Think it is!

I believe it was Thomas Edison who famously said that he had not failed, he had merely discovered ten thousand ways that don’t work. Is that not a beautiful take on perspective and determination?

There are many more famous examples of people who have literally failed their way to success! It doesn’t seem at first glance that the two are compatible, but indeed they are a close kin. Look at it this way, if all we do is dream about what it would be like to do something big, but never take a step towards the dream we are absolutely guaranteed to fail and never realize the dream. Truth be told, if we take a chance and step out in faith towards our dreams there is no promise of attaining the goal or even being any closer to the goal after we try. So why try at all if this is the way it is? There is something so amazing and surprisingly satisfying in our best attempts that makes the effort worth the while.

Speaking for myself, I know that there are enormous heaps of failure in between each success I have experienced along the way. You can say that when measuring the failures compared to the successes that overall I’m a failure right? If we are simply counting the numbers of failures versus successes, then I suppose, but who does that? The runner who competes and fails to place in race after race could be deemed a failure. However, the training and preparation that goes into each race strengthens the runner and puts them in a place where even though they may have lost this race, they are poised to improve the next them they try. Plus, lessons learned through the course of failure refine their approach next time. For some, simply being able to complete a race is reward enough regardless of winning or losing! But just imagine the exhilaration of the day that runner crosses the finish line first! Do you think at that moment they are looking back over their years of failure and accepting that because they failed more than they won that they are in fact a loser somehow? NO! Absolutely not! In that moment the first success is realized, all the failure is now nothing more than mere preparation that lead to this now sweet moment of supreme accomplishment.

I dare say that this scenario applies to me and you no matter what our ‘race’ of choice. It doesn’t matter how many times I got rejected trying to get a job in broadcasting. When I finally landed my first job, I wasn’t crying about all the missed opportunities, but instead, was celebrating the fact I had one now! When I found my beautiful wife and mother of my two amazing children I didn’t look back at all the failed relationships and label myself a social failure. No! I rejoiced in the fact that I now basked in the glorious success of finding the one for me! As an author, I don’t look at all the failed attempts to write a book and think of me as a failed author. No! I look at my book, “Power In Perseverance” and the lives that have been changed and the blessings that have come through the open door of radio & TV interviews because of it, and I see a resounding success!

We have to choose what we focus on. How do you like that? Another visual pun from a blind man! I can choose to focus on failure, but then my negative outlook will feed upon itself and become a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts and I will continue to live in failure. Or, I can choose to focus on my accomplishments and the joy they have added to my life and allow myself to be defined by them instead of the failed attempts.

If this blind, cancer survivor, heart patient can overcome the obstacles in my life, then why can’t you? What is your excuse? What is holding you back? If it is your attitude and perspective that’s easy to change, just make the decision. If it is a disability or other life challenge, that’s ok, you can still overcome it and get to where you want to go. You just need to find someone like you who has done it before. Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun. I believe that! If someone, anyone like you or me has done something before then so can we!

For more information, or if I can be of any further assistance to you, please do not hesitate to reach out. My email is throttleup@jeffgrillomedia.com

Below are some suggested links to help you grab hold of other ‘Throttle Up!’ outlets that will encourage, empower and inspire you to reach beyond your current circumstances and become all you were created to be!

Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/jeff-grillos-podcast/id984981881?mt=2&i=339792930
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YamzUDTAj1w

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