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get instant accessWelcome back to She Sells Radio with your host, Elyse Archer! A question on many people’s minds is this: how do we shorten the sale cycle? The closing process can be daunting, but there are steps to get better. Today’s guest is an expert at this. Rafat Fields 7-figure corporate sales producer, branding expert, NASM certified personal trainer, and USA Olympic Weightlifter. She empowers corporate leaders to convert the potential of their teams into powerful results by building a personal brand that breaks through the noise of competition.
Rafat grew up in the sales industry–down the first job she had out of college. Medical Device is her industry, and she’s dived deep into it her entire career. She’s classically trained and executed her process.
A lot of sales training is designed for men by men and is very linear. This works in theory but can feel limiting to women in particular. Rafat’s first role was almost militaristic in her company’s training programs. Coming out of college into that environment immersed her in that limiting structure. While it was a good starting point, she realized she wasn’t tapping into her full potential due to a lack of soft skills. When she was able to tap into her intuitive selling skills she saw transformative growth. For example, when Rafat notices a customer may be uncomfortable, she can bring that up in leadership discussions. When they allow that customer to go to the problem behind the problem and avoid offering the canned sales pitch, success comes in. Sometimes the language you use in one circumstance won’t translate to another.
Shortening the sales cycle and closing faster is the dream. Sometimes, though, it’s a burn and simmer relationship. For Rafat, it’s all about listening. Not just to what the customer is saying, but about their “inner ear.” Consider what questions you’re asking to identify patterns. Trace those threads and be proactive in delivering information in bite-sized communications over time. Consider what’s behind the ‘no’ and ask questions that will navigate past it. Tackle the objections upfront so as you move through the sales cycle, you can address them while not losing ground. They’ve already done their research and have gotten information from you before this meeting. At this point, it’s about carrying them to the next step.
When you do a follow-up, offer relevant information that will further their journey. In your in-between communications, provide value. The quality of the questions you ask is what will empower you to have an impactful follow-up. Think about the questions that come up over and over again. That’s the content you need to produce upfront. That content needs to be consistent across all channels because you don’t know where the customer’s point of entry is.
Rafat reminds us to lean into who you are. Customers connect with people, not things. Don’t deprive them of the crucial part of the experience: connecting with you. When that happens, you’ll see it in your results. That means bringing your whole self to your social posts, your videos, and your professional connections. In the same way, utilize your interpersonal skills, your observational skills, and your emotional intelligence to marry them with the concrete sales skills you’ve learned.
LINKS
https://www.freebrandcall.com/rf
Rafat Fields on all social media and YouTube
iTunes
Welcome back to She Sells Radio with your host, Elyse Archer! A question on many people’s minds is this: how do we shorten the sale cycle? The closing process can be daunting, but there are steps to get better. Today’s guest is an expert at this. Rafat Fields 7-figure corporate sales producer, branding expert, NASM certified personal trainer, and USA Olympic Weightlifter. She empowers corporate leaders to convert the potential of their teams into powerful results by building a personal brand that breaks through the noise of competition.
Welcome to she sells radio. This episode has been a vision of mine for awhile, and I am so excited to bring it to you. For a number of reasons, you know, one of the questions I get asked the most through my community is at least how do I shorten the sales cycle and how do I close faster? And that is one of the things that for me, I’ve always felt like, and I’ve shared this pretty openly in my trainings and on my social, like, I feel like I’m really good at building rapport generating leads. It’s kind of one of my super powers and the closing process has traditionally not been my favorite part of the sales cycle. Maybe you can relate and I’ve gotten good at it. I’d say good. It’s always an area I can grow. Right. But, okay. I’m pretty good at it over the years.
And I’m always looking to get better. And so my guests today is a real expert at this and navigating long-term buying cycles. She’s also a colleague and a personal friend, which is why it’s been just so much fun to to make this happen. So my guests for you today is Rafot fields. And let me share with you a little bit of background on Rafot. Just so you can understand what a powerhouse woman you’re about to learn from. You know, I first met Rafot she was actually a client of ours first at brand builders group. And she we met each other at a it was a workshop that I was helping to co-host and she came up to me and introduced herself and was just such a Ray of light. And I think she’d been listening to my podcast for a while and immediately I was overtaken by her energy.
And how, just how dynamic, how friendly, how amazing she made me feel, which I think is it’s probably not something she tries to do. It’s just who she is, but I can absolutely imagine. This is part of why she’s so successful in sales. This woman though, like I said, is an absolute sales powerhouse. Let me share with you a little bit of her background. I’m going to share with you just some key points from her bio. Here were five fields is an international executive leader, brand strategist and values based sales performance coach for fortune 100 companies. So she’s working with some big players here leveraging her branding expertise and almost two decades of experience generating seven figure sales revenue, roughly connects C-suite executives to their consumers to generate long loyalty. She is the founder of power to rise consulting. She’s limpic weightlifter and sh I mean, she’s a mom, like she just, she’s an incredible woman.
She’s in corporate sales, in the medical device, pharmaceutical space and entrepreneur working with our team, like doing so many things, but this woman closes seven figure deals. She navigates, you know, 12 to 18 month buying cycles and manages to do it with grace and ease. And so I wanted her to come on to talk about how in the world she does that. So she shares some advice that I haven’t heard before. That’s really, really useful. That’s going to help you, you know, whether you’re trying to close a million dollar deal or maybe it’s a lower deal, but it does involve more of that consultative sales process. She almost flips the normal process that we’re taught on its head and her advice is so good. She talks also about just in between communications and follow up, how do we navigate that? How do we do follow-up that’s impactful that gets people to take action that makes us stand out.
And she has a great, great, just really good conversation about building your personal brand and how to build your brand in sales specifically, so that customers want to work with you so that they’re almost already sold on working with you by the time you connect with them and your life becomes so much easier. So I’m really, really excited to welcome her thought to the podcast today. I will also remind you we’ve kicked off our weekly sales accelerator. And as I record this, we had the first training this week. It was so much fun, so many just cool dynamic women, sales leaders, business owners who are coming on and learning how to sell powerfully as a woman. And that’s really my intention behind this training is to give you fun resources that are gonna help you, you know, really hone your skill and learn strategies that work and learn them in a way that works for you for how you’re wired.
You know, the way we’ve been taught to sell the a plus B equals C it’s not working the way it used to anymore. I think we’re all being called to really tap into a higher level of conversation with our customers into a deeper awareness of ourselves and how we’re wired and bring more of that into the sales process to leverage your own natural gifts. And so I want to help you learn to sell in a way that feels really great to you, to your customer. And that helps you just blast through your revenue goals. You know, the, the woman who I’m envisioning serving most with this program is really looking to break through that first six figures. But here’s what I’ll tell you. And this was what was really cool. The women who were in this training this past week, I know many of them personally, their past that they’re looking to scale to multiple six and beyond. So you’re going to get something from this, whether you are kind of you’re in your earlier stages of your career or your more advanced, and you’re like, I am tired of what’s out there. I’m ready to find a way to sell. That feels good to me. I got your sister. So come join us. You can find out more about that at Elise archer.com/training. And with that, just so excited to welcome my incredible guests to the show for you today. Let’s hear from Rafot fields. Rafat fields. This is like, this is such a happy day for me to welcome you onto the podcast. I feel like this has been such a long time coming, so thank you for joining us.
Thank you for the honor of joining you in your audience and leave. I look up to you so much, and there’s been so many moments where you’ve encouraged me to keep going in my own sales journey. So thank you for the interview.
Love you sister. This is going to be, this is going to be so much fun. So, you know, like I mentioned in the intro, obviously we’re fine. And I know each other, you can kind of hear that it’s worth as we’re talking like we’re colleagues. We’ve how long have we known each other? A couple of years now?
Yes. Couple years. Exactly. Right. Yeah.
Yeah. And it just, it’s been a cool journey and part of what I really like, we were even talking in the pre-chat about just all the different ways in which you’re involved in the sales world, from what you’re doing corporately right now, to even your own personal brand and girl, I don’t know how you do all the things, but somehow you do. So whatever that magic Juju is let it rub off on. But I’m really curious to hear, you know, as far back as you want to take us just kind of into your journey in the sales world and what got you started and kind of bring us up to where you are today.
Oh, I won’t bore your audience with all the details, but know that I grew up in the sales industry. It was literally the very first job out of college. In fact, I did a sales internship during my MBA program. So medical device pharmaceuticals is my vertical. It’s my industry. And I have essentially worked for two companies post-college with another internship company and there while studying, but I have gone very deep on this vertical and have done some iteration of a sales or marketing role my entire career. So yeah, classically trained, studied and executed.
Wow. You know, I’m curious just because you have spent so much time in this space and part of, you know, part of my intention with this show is to help empower women to sell in a way that feels good to them, my own experience coming from corporate sales and then, you know, doing all the, all the programs, really so many books is that a lot of the training out there is very, it’s extremely linear and it tends to be designed by men with men in mind make X number of calls, X number of contacts. You’ll have, you know, this many whatever conversations. And then you’ll spit out this many sales on the other side, which in theory is true and can work. I also found for myself, it felt very limiting. What’s your experience been with that? Has it been kind of the same? Have you found that there’s been more freedom and flexibility in the industries you’re in, like what, just kind of tell us about what that experience has been for you.
Excellent question. And you have to understand my journey. You’d have to appreciate that my very first role. I call them the military of pharmaceutical sales and what I mean by that description and their training program and curriculum is extremely robust. They have a multimillion dollar just training facility that, you know, trays, every single rat that comes through that Salesforce. So it’s very regimented, it’s a very specific process. In fact, the entire training process takes 18 months to complete not many companies invest to that degree in their training curriculum. So the benefit of that coming out of college was it did give me a very solid infrastructure in which I was able to learn the fundamentals of selling from a very technical perspective. And what’s also true is that it was very limiting in my ability to bring my full self into it. And so while it was a really good starting point, there came a point in my career where I realized that I wasn’t tapping into my full potential because the way that those training programs and selling systems are designed, it is it doesn’t allow for some of the soft skills or the things that you can’t translate to on paper to come through.
And what I found here in the later years of my selling career is that while that technical foundation has served me in terms of giving me a framework to process data and make decisions, sound decisions, it also, it wasn’t until I learned how to bring my intuitive selling skills to the forefront, to be able to tap in and marry both that I was able to make truly transformative change and progress on behalf of my customers, which of course accelerated my financial business results.
So now you’ve got me curious. So can you give us an example of a time where you did maybe break the mold a little bit, or you, you tapped into your intuitive just gifts and skills to either close a sale that you were struggling to close or maybe to serve a customer better and it led to something else good. On the other side, I’m really curious to hear about that.
Absolutely. So in the later years I’ve been in a far more strategic account management type of role in which you are looking at far longer selling cycles, of course, and you’re really managing the overall longterm customer relationship. However, as you are, you know, explaining up to your senior leadership team and giving status and progress updates on where your business is, they will sometimes give you feedback on how you should approach advancing the selling cycle. And so there are times where I will have to give them the historical landscape of what’s going on with the customer and based on my, like everyone else, we’ve been trained on these traditional selling systems. What makes sense on paper, maybe approach a, but because I know the customer and I’ve been listening, not only to what they’re telling me, I’ve been watching their body language, I watch where they light up in the presentations and where they draw back and away from the table.
And so I can pull apart and say, they’re saying the problem is a, but I really know the problem is B. And so when we get into those leadership discussions on where to go next with the customer, there are times where I will stand my ground far more than I have done in the past my career. And I found in those meetings where we go in with the flexible approach, where we give that customer room to go farther and deeper into the problem behind their problem, instead of forcing the canned selling system upon them we deliver far greater business impact to that customer and to our company.
Well, I love what you shared there. And I think part of what’s powerful is it seems like, you know how to say things in a way where people can hear them. And I think especially for a woman who maybe is in sales and she’s working for somebody else, you have to almost know how to do that. Dance of really tuning into your own intuition to say, Hey, I know that what would actually help advance the sale along is doing X, Y, Z. However, that’s not what corporate would tell me to do. However, I’m going to position my suggestions in a way where my leadership can hear it. So like you said, I know on paper, this makes sense. However, here’s X, Y, and Z reason why I’m going to suggest a different approach. So it’s kind of it’s that the wisdom of knowing how to present, what you want to do, that may be a little bit against the grain in a way where your audience can hear it. So I love that you shared that.
So, you know what else I’ve learned here very towards the end, you have to keep an eye on your multiple audiences. The things that your leadership team needs to hear are the things that they need to be successful in advancing their own cycles internally. And sometimes that’s very different than the language you use with your external customer. So again, it’s bringing to bear those skills that you have as a sales person and understanding how can you best serve the person you’re selling in that moment. And sometimes you are also selling your leadership team or that company on giving you the resources that you need to take better care of your customer.
Yeah. Oh, that’s a really good point. Yeah. I mean, it is, it’s always a sales job, whether we’re talking internal or external. Right. So, okay. So tell us about, because I know you’re a real master at navigating long-term buying cycles, which I think it’s funny because when I, when I talk with my audience, one of the things that I consistently have heard people want to get more training on is how to shorten the sales cycle and how to close faster, which we all was love. Right. I mean, we would all love to land a deal faster. Sometimes though, especially when you’re in a longer term sales cycle, it’s it is that longer kind of burn and similar. So for some context, before you share with us, some of your, your thoughts here and your wisdom here for you in your corporate sales, what’s an average deal size, and what’s the average length of the buying cycle.
You know, it, it has changed over the trajectory of my career, right? And it’s very challenging to explain because technically, you know, there was a time where I was doing a million dollar plus deals and, you know, that would be for a contract and agreement of anywhere between five and six years and the selling cycle to do something like that is like 12 to 18 months and dependent on when the RFP cycle opens. So it’s like, you’re constantly filling your pipeline and building relationships, but you have to understand the timing of when your window of opportunity is very different constructs. I’ve also done cycles where the average customer purchase is a lot lower. However, you’re dealing with systems of institutions. And so coupled together, you’re still looking at sales of, you know, hundreds of thousands to millions. It’s just the strategic process of getting a sale is a lot shorter. It could be anywhere from 60 to 90 days, but the volume of impact is so much greater. So there’ve been so many different business models. I’ve been very blessed in my career to have the experience of selling and different types of models.
Yeah. So tell us about with that longer term buying cycle, then how do we navigate that? I mean, what are some of the best practices that you found have really helped you you’re? I mean, you’re closing big deals here, right? And that is especially that 12 to 18 months selling cycle. That’s long for those larger deals. Like what, what are some of the best practices that you could share with us?
It’s always going to be about listening and not just listening to what your customer is saying. It’s listening. What I, with what I call the inner ear. When people are giving you an explanation of why they can’t move forward, almost never, until you get to a certain level of trust, are they giving you the actual reason behind the reason they usually give you a far more surface reason? And this is where building that relationship and creating space, showing up consistently and asking the right questions is very important. And as you do that, you start to see patterns, usually in a vertical you’ll start to see patterns. And my advice is to start tracing those breads, understanding what those consistent patterns are and be proactive and delivering that information in small bite sized pieces over time in your in-between communications, because you’re not going to get in front of the customer every single day or every single week, even this is the beauty of the follow-up. And when you do the follow-up, you want to serve relevant content that is going to make impact in their journey. So as you get to understand what those underlying reasons are, this is where you pull from to serve that content and your in-between follow-up communications. That’s how you shorten the sales cycle.
Ooh. So tell us, okay. So I love what you said that you’re listening with the inner ear, the reason beyond the reason, how can you give us some examples of how might we phrase that? If we’re hearing someone say one thing and really we’re pretty clear, it’s not what they’re saying. Can you role play with us a little bit and and, and share like how might we position that in a way that they can actually hear it?
Absolutely. So one of the things that, you know, I’ll give an example and working through a complex contract, because we all know when contractual sales are involved. And one of the challenges you’re almost always going to need to go through is TNCs and legal, right. Getting some internal buy-in. Right. So one of the things is they’ll say something to the effect of, you know, what, we don’t have capacity to deal with this particular category. You know, we are going to delay it until a later point in time in which our team has the capacity. So you, when you hear this, you’re, you’re thinking there’s a resource constraint somewhere, which is true. The customer is not misleading you, right? They’re they’re giving you the easiest answer, the most simplified answer to what’s really going on. You could ask questions like, well, tell me what would make it simple for this to move through your process.
If, is, have you historically had challenges with the contract? Could I bring in any resource from my side that would streamline or accelerate your internal review process? Who could I bring into your team that would help you get this done faster? And of course you could take it in a million different ways, but when they give you that first answer, it’s like, don’t accept that. No, as the, no, take it as an opportunity to understand, well, what’s driving the no, get to the bottom of that because there’s something potentially that you could offer there that would open that door right back up and keep you moving.
That’s great. I love that. And then how many times on average, do you have a target for, you know, you hear like navigate or answer X number of G of objections before you move on, do you have a target number where it’s, you know, I do that five to seven times before I put it on hold or what, what’s your number there?
Oh, that’s a great question. And I, this is where I buck sometimes the traditional selling systems, for sure. Yeah. I’m a fan of coming in early in the conversation, having an objective, giving them a reason to me, but then upfront, I’m asking you what your problems are. We don’t get to the middle of the presentation to get to objections. We get them up front and I will tailor my presentation to address your need and move you to the other side of that. And then once we deal with that, you’re going to give me commitment that that is no longer a challenge we don’t move on until you have given that commitment. And then it becomes a question of, okay, now that we’ve addressed that, is there any other reason that you would have a hesitancy in moving forward to the next step? You know, we take a very systematic approach of you. Tell me what your challenges are. I address it. We move on. I’m not a big fan of going in with giving them like X number of features, X number of benefits, and then leading them to the objection, because I believe that that could take you down a lumpier cycle. I’d rather know what your concern is upfront and start hitting it, head on, and then moving into reasons to believe. Ooh,
I like that. It’s almost flipping it on its head because I do think, you know, I think back to a lot of my traditional training, the objection handling is one of the final steps. Typically that’s taught, you’re getting it all out on the table upfront. And then I would assume as you move through that sales cycle with them, sometimes you can address it right there in that conversation. Other times maybe it does require a follow-up I would envision, but it’s like, you’re kind of moving through step by step until there’s no longer any objections or concerns. And it’s kind of a done deal, right? Am I understanding
You got to keep in mind too, that most consumers, when they’re looking to make a purchase, 60% of the buyer journey is done online. So by the time we get to you for a meeting, they have usually done a fair amount of research. They usually have a couple of questions in mind. That’s keeping them from getting to the other side. So by going right back into like a full presentation, you know, you’re losing the benefit of the work that they’ve already invested in learning about your product. Just carry them to the next step.
Yeah, that’s so good. This is so good. Okay. So that, that leads me to kind of the next piece I wanted to ask you about that in between communications. So you talked about the importance of that value added, follow up, give us some examples of what that could look like in between meetings. And do you have a set schedule that you’re following with people? Do you try to do a touch point every, I don’t know, every week, every month. And if so, like, are you creating your own content? Are you sharing stuff you’re finding online? Are you sending videos? Like what’s, what does that look like? I guess I have a lot of questions around this, but I personally get so interested in this stuff. So hopefully it’ll be helpful for everyone listening too.
Absolutely. So there’s a couple of things, right? I work in a very restricted industry in which we are not allowed to create our own materials. And so in that, but again, the quality of the questions that you ask when you have that customer’s precious time is going to be what empowers you to have impactful follow-up. So if you understand exactly what their questions or concerns were, I’m like, if the customer tells me that training, like in user training is their biggest pain point. You better believe I’m not going to just send them to the website and say, Oh, we have all these resources go download them for free. I am going to go download the PDFs, put them onto my drive, send them in the email to the customer. So all they have to do is save them from their email communication. So all those little tiny touch points, I believe makes a huge difference, right?
So in business models where item not so restricted and like, you know, obviously you have other ventures where I get to create the content all on my own and serve in any way that I want and that kind of model, then it becomes what do customers usually ask me when we get to a discovery call process, the questions that come up over and over and over again, the things that people need to hear to have confidence to complete the buying cycle. You better be producing that content up front because when they’re doing their 60% research before they get to you, how much simpler for them to have already found the resources and the answers before they ever get to your call, that’s how you close in call the degree in which you can get though, those questions answered in the research they do before they get to you means that when you finally get them on the phone, you’re taking a payment. So that’s how I, I strategically plan in process.
Yeah. Oh, that’s I love that. So, and I think that ties in with, you know, another area where you’re a real expert, which is just building your personal brand. And so it sounds like that’s kind of, if I’m hearing you, right. What you’re talking about there, which is just putting out, are you talking like on social media, you’re putting out that content more as lead generation. Are you directly sending them that information before a call that would answer their questions? What does that look like for you?
All of the bug, if it’s inbounds within the rules, in which he gets to play by, there is no one thing you do all the things, but where are you the way you show up in one place needs to be consistent with how you show up everywhere. Because if you don’t know, you gotta, you gotta think about your customer’s journey. You don’t know at what entry point they found you, right? So if you think about in order to take a customer from aware or prospect from awareness, all the way through actual purchase, there are five things that have to be checked off. You can’t guarantee that, you know, they came in through your website and they started at point a, maybe they came in through your YouTube channel and they started with 0.3 and they missed the first two. So it’s really important to be aware of that and understand that you need to have your full process consistently the same and all channels so that when you get to discovery, you just got to figure out what are the pieces that they missed and address those interests.
Okay. I like that. So basically if I’m hearing you, right, you need to get really dialed into whatever your process is for kind of nurturing that customer and warming them up for the call and then make sure that whatever the entry point is somehow you’re, you’re making sure they’re getting all of the information they need prior to the call with you. Is that, am I understanding that? Which seems like it would be easier said than done. Yeah, go ahead.
Well, you can never guarantee that they’re going to get all the points, right. But what you can do is make sure that you have sprinkled all of the elements to what your customer needs to be true to successfully purchased through all your channels so that the probability is far greater, that you’re not going to have to address all five on a discovery call. So, you know, this goes back to, to that question. How do you shorten the buying cycle? Maybe they’re going to get to, maybe they’re going to get three. That’s a lot better than having to go from zero to five in a discovery call. Yeah.
Yeah. That’s a really good point. That’s a really good point. What else would you say for a woman who’s really looking to build her personal brand and her kind of level of perceived expertise in her space in to increase sales, any other words of advice, words of wisdom that you would give to her?
Absolutely. Wayne into who you are. So the sales system, the selling systems, the, the sh the frameworks and the processes, they are helpful. Oh, truly at the end of the day, customers connect with people, not things. And so if you are leaving out who you are or what makes you great at what you do, you’re depriving your customers of a very crucial part of the experience and their ability to connect with you, and that will show up in your results.
So in terms of, so I think this is, this is really good advice. I want to make sure I’m understanding correctly. When you say lean into who you are, are you saying on social media, let’s say I’ve got a LinkedIn page set up. Maybe I’ve got a YouTube channel. I’m creating helpful videos about my space. Like really just bringing all of me. Like, I think about, for example, I did a video to announce the launch of this brand and Jack wouldn’t go down for his nap. So I was like, I’m just going to bring him with me into the video. And it wasn’t, it wasn’t a strategic move. It was just like, I have to get this video done slash I don’t think people hate babies. So it probably won’t hurt me at least if they do, they’re not my customers. And that the engagement I got on that ended up and it gets, it’s not really surprising, you know, babies and puppies, but it, it was, I got people who were like, wow, we love seeing, like, we love seeing him. We love seeing your house. Is that kind of what you’re talking about? Just bringing more of who you are into all the content you’re creating on social media.
That, and you know, when I think of there’s so many reasons why I should not be successful in a sales role by the feedback that I hear from, you know, the gurus, right? I’m a deeply introverted personality. I listen far more than I like to speak. Right. And when you think of all the selling models and all the different techniques and the environments, the team environments I’ve been in, I’m very counter-intuitive to the mainstream. And I think the things that others would say would be challenging for me are my greatest strengths today in my role. And I fought it, you know, I it’s, it kind of, it constricted my ability to grow for so long because I was trying to adapt who I was to be more like the people I found myself around. But when I realized that I was never going to reach my ability full potential to serve my clientele until I learned how to fully be the best version of my gifts and talents, that’s when the thing, the balls and the wheels started moving.
It was I see body language cues that most people miss, because I’m so laser focused on not just what people say, but the way their words show up in their expressions. There’s a lot of power when you marry a facial expression and sales psychology and the drivers of behavior. And you start linking the two together because I had to go on a journey to better understand and perceive my gifts and why I can see things differently than others. Marrying that insight and trusting that intuition is actually what skyrocketed my results. I learned to use my voice and push back against the sales systems that were saying, now it’s time to deliver a close, No, it’s time to deliver a probing question to ask them why they’re hesitant and why they’re not moving forward, why they’re moving back from the table instead of leaning forward. Right? But there are things that you have to train your eye to learn more about, and you won’t get there unless you trust your gifts, your intuition, if you will,
This is so good. And I mean, you created a layout for me, so thank you. Okay.
My goal,
This is from my own journey of learning how to do this. It’s still a journey I’m on, but my goal for myself and my listeners is that we learn how to trust ourselves. I think we have so much innate wisdom inside of us. And we suppress that so many times because we, it doesn’t necessarily perfectly align with what we’re hearing from other people. How did you learn to trust yourself for thought in this process? I know it’s not a one and done type of thing you did, but how have you learned to trust yourself over the years?
Ooh, woo.
That’s a whole other podcast.
I’ll have to come back, but I,
I will say it for me, I’m a very spiritual person, right? There is a point in my life where I became very disconnected. I became very focused on chasing external standards based on what others told me I needed to do to be successful. Then there was a pivot in my life where I, I call it reaching rock bottom, where I had done all the things that I knew how to do. And I still wasn’t in the places I wanted to be. And the only thing I could do was surrender and be broken down and allow this process of understanding who was it that I was always designed to be because she became so buried. She became so lost in the persona. I was projecting to others to be accepted and approved. So when I let go of all of that and I just surrender control and said, you know, this is who I am. It’s either going to be of value to you or not. I’m going to have to learn how to love her and become the best version of her possible. And that process is where I found my voice. It was like a growth from the inside out, if you will. That’s beauty.
Cool. That’s beautiful. One other thing I do want to ask because I think it, and I’m hearing this and I want everyone who’s listening to you to hear this too. Have you ever taken improv classes? You know where I’m going with this question? I have not taken them directly and coaching programs.
[Inaudible] The techniques. Yeah.
Yep. So for everyone listening, I think this is part of why Revit is so good at what she does. You’ll notice this, I’ve asked these questions if, if she has something that not maybe normally someone would say, no, at least that’s actually not what I, or, but what I’m hearing from you is you keep saying, you give me the yes, and yes, at least that works. And, and I would imagine that that really helps in your sales process too, with you deepening that relationship with your customers. So they never feel, we never took this whole interview. You’ve made me feel great. Like I’m really good. And here’s something else that I want to share. That’s so cool. So, but yes, and
Actively made mitigations and that’s part of the story work trading, but I’ve done. Yeah.
I absolutely love that. I love that. Oh my gosh. You’re fine. I love you so much. I, so like we will have you back if you’re open to it, because I do want to hear more about that. The journey you mentioned of learning to trust yourself. I think it’s for many of us, at least, I think it’s a matter of kind of time in our lives before we all kind of reached that point where we’re like, I’ve got to do something different what I’m doing, isn’t working for me. And so I want to hear more. We want to hear more about that and we’ll bring you on for another interview. If you’re open to it, this has been so just helpful and impactful. And man, thank you. Tell, tell everyone, so I know you’ve got a, a cool opportunity where people can connect if they want to talk with you about getting some support on the personal branding side. So tell us a little bit about where people can connect with you, where they can find you on social, all the things, and then we’ll wrap up.
Well, first of all, thank you, Elise. You know, you are a woman I greatly admire and my own journey and learning how to bring your full power into the world and serve others and, you know, build your brand. So for those who are interested in learning more about the techniques and the strategy to launch your brand or use it to enhance the company that you’re building, or you can take advantage of a free strategy call by going to free brand call.com, backslash R F. And I am on social media, the best place to find me as LinkedIn, but you can find me in all the places at Rafot fields.
Mm thank you. Yeah. And definitely follow Rafot. I mean, you’ve got so much good content that’s going out, especially for leaders in the sales space and corporate leaders and all about sales, building, your personal brand empowerment. Like there’s so much good stuff in you’re putting, I see you everywhere. So you were someone who I love following and love seeing your content come out and again, just so much fun having you on, thank you, my friend so much love to you and we will talk to you soon.
Same here at least take beautiful time. Thank you so much for having me with your with your audience.