September 9, 2025 • 39 mins
Many CEOs struggle with stalled pipelines and costly sales hires that don’t work out. In this episode of the Business Roundtable Podcast, host David W. Carr speaks with Christopher Filipiak about why the CEO is the best person to drive revenue—and how to do it with clarity, consistency, and confidence. You’ll learn:
Connect with Christopher Filipiak:
Website: https://christopherfilipiak.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherfilipiak
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-roundtable--6049255/support.
Watch more episodes on YouTube and subscribe here:
https://www.youtube.com/@steward_your_business
Connect with Steward Your Business:
Website: https://stewardyourbusiness.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwcarr
- Why CEOs become bottlenecks in sales—and how to break free
- The hidden cost of outsourcing sales too early
- How mindset and emotions directly shape sales outcomes
- What it takes to build a truly sales-ready organization
Connect with Christopher Filipiak:
Website: https://christopherfilipiak.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherfilipiak
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-roundtable--6049255/support.
Watch more episodes on YouTube and subscribe here:
https://www.youtube.com/@steward_your_business
Connect with Steward Your Business:
Website: https://stewardyourbusiness.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwcarr
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Welcome to the Business Roundtable podcast. I am your host,
David Carr of Stuart your Business. Grateful to have you here,
and we have another brand new guest this week. We're
going to get into it for We've had some episodes
recently on sales, but we're going to get a unique
perspective with Christopher here.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Philip Back.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
We were super excited to have him here and he
is going to just give you blow you away. I've
known Christopher for a number of years. We've been connected
through LinkedIn, shared a lot of different insights and and
so I was super excited when we're talking and was said, hey,
you know, I've been doing this Business round Table podcast
for a couple of years. We've got to have you
on here. So Christopher, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Hey David, good to see you again. Thanks for having
me so thanks for having me on the show. I'm
really looking forward to a conversation and sharing what I
can to help your audience.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Absolutely well.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I I you know, one of the things I wanted
to bring you on here, Christopher, because you have a
diverse background and we're going to get into that here
on the podcast, and I'd love to have you walk
this background because you come from kind of an engineering background,
you're a strategist, you have worked on inter alignment. There's
a lot of different expertise that you bring over the
course of your career, Christopher, and so I would love
(01:46):
to have you just walk us through your journeys as
a business owner, as an entrepreneur now in sales, and
so we always like, I love to do this because
I love having all of our listeners lean in, whether
you're a business owner, you're in a place of leadership,
overseeing a team, or whatnot.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Why they want to.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Listen what they're going to hopefully get some they takeaways
here from you.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Christopher.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah, I'm happy to share my story. And I think
why you want to lean into this show in particular,
and this conversation that David and I are going to
have is that it's going to put more money in
your pocket and save you time and help you feel
better when it comes to thinking about money and making sales.
(02:32):
What's actually required to grow your business and grow yourself
in the process. Business is great, It's an amazing vehicle
for change and growth and helping people. And I think
one of the reasons entrepreneur is certainly why I got
into business is because it was an amazing vehicle for
myself to change and grow and have impact and step
(02:55):
more into my purpose. And sales is a big, big
part of that. I think if you do that well
and start to love sales and and get more comfortable
with what actually moves money in your business, which we'll
talk about today, things are really really fun and really
(03:16):
really good. So that's that's the reason. Tell me an
end today and stay at the very the end of
the show.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
So there you go, Yeah, go ahead, Yeah, no, I
would say what what got you? Because I'm so grateful
you said that, because it is business is a mechanism
to make change in the world. But a lot of
people get stuck hung up on this. So tell me, like,
why is this your passion now?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Christopher?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Like you you told us like we're going to get there,
But what got you to this point? Tell us a
little bit about your journey that brought you today.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah, I think it's it's kind of a circuitous route
to where I am today, But you know it's what
what is Steve Jobs? I think it was Steve Jobs
of Apple said it's hard to connect the dots looking forward,
but they're easy to connect going backwards. Ye, so I
(04:09):
think they make sense. But I grew up outside of Detroit, Michigan,
and fell in love with cars in the motor city,
and it was good at math. So when I was
looking at what I should be when I grow up,
you know, you could go to the library and you'd
pull out those old statistical job descriptions that had like
(04:31):
average salaries, like where you could work, what you could do.
And I was like, oh, well, I'm going to be
an engineer because I'm good at math and cars. And
so I studied industrial and operations engineering, which is the
study of human and machine systems, which is like fascinated me,
and so I started after school. After undergrad, I started
(04:53):
working at Ford Motor Company as an engineer, really designing
manufacturing facilities and helping those facilities run better and help
the people within those feel better, reduce waste, continuously improved
so that we can make better quality trucks and F
(05:17):
one fifties and Mustangs. But I always wanted to be
with the people and the money, David, and I didn't
know what that meant. I didn't know what my engineering
managers didn't know what and you know, at that time,
like the the recommendations from the people around me were
to get an engineering undergrad and then go to school
(05:39):
and get your MBA. I was like, so that was
like in my head and I but I always wanted
to be an entrepreneur and do that. So I ended
up going back to get my MBA. And then I
started working in consulting for a company out of Charlotte,
North Carolina, mid market company selling in the Fortune five
(06:01):
hundred companies, and so we were selling software, marketing services,
data services, and I was a top business development person
at that firm. And what I noticed and kind of
led me to starting my own firm was the contrast
(06:22):
between the level of systems and maturity at Ford Motor
Company and the company that I was working at. And
then when I started started my firm going around in
twenty seventeen looking at even smaller businesses, there was a
huge opportunity to help those businesses organize their systems and
(06:43):
bring a level of maturity to them that they simply
didn't have or underunderstand. So that led me to help
them with their sales directly, help them start to build
out their sales systems and their sales teams. Noticed in
my own journey at that time, and also in the
(07:04):
CEOs and the founders that I was working with, is
that there was a huge gap in our understanding around
how to operate our minds and how to operate our bodies.
We were all strategies and tactics engineered, and we had
all the tools, but we weren't creating the results. And
I started to realize that that was mindset set, right,
(07:26):
And I've come to think of mindset as how you
think but also how you feel, so it's both though.
So I started my own journey in mindset, and looking backwards,
that started to make sense because my mom was taking
me to Jack Canfield chicken Soup for the Soul Soar
and self helps in the eighties and nine, and that
(07:50):
stuff kind of came full circle, right talking to me
about Dwayne Dyer and all that, all that really impactful,
powerful stuff I don't think we were ready, really ready for.
I don't think the general population was ready for at
the time. But I was like, man, like, this stuff
(08:11):
is what's going to make the difference. And so as
I started to study that work, my results started to
shift tremendously. I found it easier to connect with people.
I felt more comfortable with who I was. I started
to do bigger deals, make more money much faster. And
(08:31):
as I bought those skills to my clients, they started
to do the same thing, and they started to become
more comfortable with themselves and more comfortable transforming into a
person that can make sales really easily. Because the truth
is there's nothing hard or difficult or scary about sales
and money. But we were taught that a lot of that.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Is.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
So that went on that rate up like in through
COVID times, and that's when I did some work with
a larger consulting firm and also started doing my own
market research to really dial in my offer, and I
within the period of about a year and a half
(09:19):
two years, I worked with hundreds of small businesses right
some you know, between five hundred thousand, million, ten million
up to twenty million in revenue and really did a
deep dive assessment of what was happening within their sales
organizations and their sales operations. And what that led me
(09:43):
to understand was that those businesses wanted to scale, they
wanted to grow revenue and profit, and so a lot
of them hired sales people to do so, but the
salespeople ended up getting fired and not performing well. Right,
So on average, those founders, those CEOs hired and fired
(10:05):
three point two five salespeople. And it's incredibly expensive. Yes,
you know, the statistics are like, you know, upwards and
beyond four hundred thousand dollars of cost and lost revenue
for a for for that's that that strategy, And I
(10:28):
think why that happens is well, we can get into
what you know there. It's hard and exactly, but the
point I want to make is that I recognized all
that experience and all that observation of what was happening
inside of business is combined with my own corporate experience
(10:51):
and business development experience and watching watching CEOs b CEOs
and writing all the performance for those businesses. I was like, man,
to hit your goals, Like the CEO is the best
position person to drive revenue in the business through their
own sales effort. And I know that's a little counter cultural.
(11:15):
I guess there's you know, there's you know, some a
lot of CEOs I don't think want to hear that,
but they are the best person to drive revenue. And
the cool thing is they can do it in a
short amount of time, right, Like they can start you
as a CEO, you can start making sales today. Like
you're so perfectly positioned, and you have so much knowledge
(11:36):
and so much status and so many good stories. What
you're lacking is what you're typically lacking is the systems
underneath to help you be consistent and the support around
you to help you be consistent. So I started wrapping
my business around supporting CEOs to succeed at their own
(11:58):
sales work. You know, And I'm not anti sales teams.
You can absolutely build a successful sales team, but I
think the way you have to go about it has
to be a little bit more structured and engineered and
thought out than just oh, I'm just going to hire
oh yeah person or a couple of sales purpose and
then you know, start making.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
It rain right.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
That's where I am. That's what I'd love to talk about.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Well, I want to get definitely into it, Christopher, because
you bring up a good point here on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Number one. The reason why I invited you on the
podcast and we're listening is Christopher Pears.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
He has he has the experience, Like you said, you
just That's why I want everyone to lean in and
listen to your your your your own personal journey in
Christopher to so you know that this is a man
that's been doing this, working hard at making it change.
And I think your point, Christopher, I've heard this challenge
of you know, people that are brought into help quote
unquote the sales team. They get them, whip them into shape,
(12:55):
help them get more sales, or they give these sales goals,
and they're not you know, it's there's a disconnect. So
I think you're right on the money in that if
it's CEO or in or the board or the high
level you know leaders in the company are not clear
on this.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
They are a bottleneck. I agree with you. I feel
like they are.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
They're they're limiting what the capacity what you could do
in the in this space. And I think sometimes they
just feel like, well I just need some more tactics,
I need just more tools, you know, And that's not
necessarily it. I mean, the CEOs really do set like
the tone and how we're approaching these organization and and
(13:39):
then you know, then you can take the team and
scale the impact from there. But I think if you
try to go the other way around. And that's something
I was pressed upon me too, because I am not
getting my sales dial in. Very clear, it's really hard
for anybody else to do it better than the CEO.
That you should be able to do it the best, hopefully,
and then you have other people that are going to
do their best to come close to that. But it's
(14:01):
really dangerous in my opinion, to outsource somebody else to
do sales when you're not dialing it in. So maybe
talk a little bit more about your experience and working
with CEOs both you know, the bottleneck and then when
they started the step out of the being the bottleneck.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, I think they start to realize realize something needs
to shift after they like keep having sales people not
work out and revenue not grow consistently. I think that
that that's the pain. Yeah, you know, eeos, I don't
(14:41):
know what I don't know. You know, some most CEOs
know that revenue is important to their business, right, like
they're they're you're growing a successful company. Most of them
have been involved in sales, they've made sales, but they
haven't really mastered it to the level that they that
is a capable right, and so this isn't about like
(15:03):
becoming a sales bro or being on the phone or
being a cold caller or any of that. It's about
an invitation to lean in to your own mastery and
leveling up in your sales maturity. And I think when
you do that, you start to develop a culture within
your company around sales as an expression of love or
sales as an act of love, and you start to
(15:25):
really understand how to create the money you need when
you want and need it. You develop a real competency
around sales. And that means not just that your strategies
and tactics are sales ready, as I talk about, but
your mindset is dialed in and your activity is consistent
(15:46):
so that you are understanding the cause and effect relationship
between money and helping and helping your or between between
money and what causes that money to move in a
business right, And I think that's what I think there's
(16:08):
a real oppy with with that. And I know that
the one the one thing that I see that most
people and CEO struggle with is they're inconsistent with their
sales activity, and that there's some there's overwhelmed, there's fear,
there's stress, there's worry I wanted to get into there's
(16:31):
these emotions going.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yes, So because if Christopher, if I'm you know, if
I'm I'm you know, riding a roller coaster of emotions
and nervous system, and I.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
You know, I feel like, you know, what is you know,
getting them?
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Maybe I'm I'm going to start to self sabotage or
get out of alignment because I'm I'm not recognizing that clearly,
you know. And so do you help CEOs like when
they're you know, with their with their mindset and that
kind of energy that they're bringing.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah, so mindset and managing your body is a real skill,
and there's gaps because it's not taught to us. Sales
isn't taught to us in school. Okay, did you have
like an elementary school where you taught about sales or money?
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Right?
Speaker 3 (17:25):
No? In high school to NBA school, right when the
top NBA schools graduate at the top of my class,
there was not one course in sales. There was not
one course on mindset or managing your body. And I
think those those things are so fundamental to your human experience.
And so I started to think, you know, of this
(17:48):
idea of cause and effect and I talk with everyone
I can about this. But any result that you want
has a cause and effect relationship with your mindset, your
strategy and tactics, and your activity. And when it comes
to your mindset, it's about it's really about knowing what
(18:09):
the truth is, right, so you can step out the
out of the illusion in the programming that happened to
you as a child, and understanding how to think in
a way that allows you to create the life that
you actually want and desire and create the results that
you want quickly. As you were saying, David, is we
(18:32):
also have a body, right, and our body is feeling right.
It's vibrational moment mostly the mad, sad, glad, disgusted, angry,
plus you know, eighty eight other feelings, an infinite amount
of bodies sensations, right, he is, Humans act from how
we're feeling. Our feeling drives our action. So we can
(18:56):
have the very best strategies and tactics in the world. Okay,
but if we're not feeling well in our body right,
we're not going to be We're not going to use
those strategies and tactics. We're not going to behave or
think in a way that aligns with whatever we're trying
to do, and we end up staying stuck, feeling overwhelmed, right,
(19:20):
being activated, not creating what we want, not being clear,
struggling to make decisions, being in lack and scarcity. And
when you when you develop some simple mindset skills, right,
plus a way to manage, metabolize, process the emotions that, right,
(19:50):
you are going to quickly quickly level up as a human.
You're going to become more in touch with who you're
meant to be here on this planet. Your identity is
gonna shift. And when that happens, your money is gonna shift,
and you're gonna make sales quicker and at a higher,
higher level. So and we all get triggered every day, man, right,
like to do that. And in sales, you're getting you're
(20:16):
you're you're putting yourself out into environments. And if you
don't have the skill and the the self awareness and
the conscious awareness to be having that conversation and something
happens that trigger you, because sales is sales is actually
(20:37):
more energetic than it is straes and tactics, because humans
feel each other, right, So we we we talk in
you know, words, writing in pictures, but we also speak
vibrationally to each other, like you can feel each other.
(20:57):
You can hear the tone, the inflection, the body language.
All that comes from mindset and managing your body.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, I love the word that you use, metabolizers, Like
we're getting it in. How do we break it down
and hopefully transform it into a positive?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
But it can also be a negative too, depending on
how we do it.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
You know, we could take in certain things and how
we metabolize it.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
You know, it can be a positive or it could
be negative. And so how how are you?
Speaker 1 (21:27):
How are you going through these things a healthy way?
Is it's not like it's like you said, the triggers
aren't going to go away. They're always going to be triggers.
But how do you metabolize? How do you process that
in a healthy way? Right, Christopher?
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yeah, you got it. The information, especially today, is coming
in so fast and consistently. It's hard to reject it
all and keep it all out. And so you're experiencing
we call it little t trauma you're in. If you're
in a human body, you've had trauma, okay, which just
(22:05):
means that what you've observed in your result circumstances and
environment has not your brain couldn't handle, right, and so
then it takes that trauma that stores it in your body, right,
and then that shows up as distortions in the way
that you're thinking. And if you don't have a way
(22:27):
to process that trauma, feel your feelings, metabolize that energy
that that you're gonna have that distortion going on, and
it's gonna loop where you have a feeling in your body,
You're gonna have a thought that creates a feeling, right,
and there's gonna be this loop that keeps you stuck
(22:48):
and unable to see what the truth actually is and
you can't think your way out of that. That's the
thing is, like, you know, I could tell you what
the truth is, or I could be like, hey, David,
feel better, right, Like feeling good is the most important thing,
but your body right, because it's run subconsciously and it's
that trauma is stored in your body. If you don't
(23:12):
have ways to actually move that m then you just
stay at the same level that you are. But as
soon as you learn or have someone help you with
moving that out, you reconfigure those distortions and then you
(23:32):
can align with more of the truth. And that way
you can make decisions and create the results you actually
want very very very very quickly.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So yeah, well I could. I could see where you're
getting at, Christopher too. There's a lot coming in some
of the things. We definitely have to be more assertive
and blocking out certain things, but we're letting a lot
of things in. And then I feel like, I love
you to speak to this part of it because I
feel like, based on what you're sharing here, I'm saying,
people may be diagnosing kind of sales problems issue and like, oh, well,
(24:04):
need a new sales funnel or there's something else instead
of like you said earlier, maybe it's like a different
filter or a way of understanding things.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
But they're they're kind of like.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Maybe this is simplistic, but my mind is like you're
looking at the symptoms rather than the root of cause.
So you're trying to address all these symptoms that are
coming up, like what's about this?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
What about this?
Speaker 1 (24:24):
And we're being almost sometimes busier, and I say, but
we're not being very strategic, and I feel like something
like you, Christopher, what I'm hearing is you come down
and you break down is more about the root cause
analysis and helping get the business owner or the leader
clearer so they can make you know because it's getting complex, right,
there's a lot of things that's getting muddy. So how
do we break that down so we can have clarity?
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Right, Christopher, Yeah, yeah, I'll speak to that. I just
want to mention, and I want to I don't want
to make it seem like so complicated on the feeling
your feelings. But what I want to do highlight for
everyone tuning in today is like, you know how when
you have a really good cry, or you have a
(25:09):
really good laugh, or you're laughing your ass off, right,
or you get really angry, right, and you you you
punch a hole in the wall, right, and you're just
like whatever that is, right, and then you feel so
much better after, right, But you only do that every
couple of years, right, or every few months, right, if
(25:33):
you're not doing that on a daily basis, or you're
not doing that on a weekly basis. So all that's
building up on under the surface, and it's it's creating
your current results, right, And that's what that's what's happening
in sales and business, right, is you have all this
trauma and all these subconscious roles and patterns that need
(25:56):
to move out. But every time you laugh your ass
off or have a good cry, you're like, oh, I
feel so much better. I know exactly what to do,
and the thing is being angry or laughing or feeling
your fee doesn't they take a long time. It's just
that we resist the shit out of it because we
don't have the skills, because we're not even allowed it's
(26:20):
acceptable to do that. So in terms of like the
systems and the sales thing things and the sales problem,
you know, one of the things early on and it's
still it doesn't happen as often now every once in
a while. But when I was starting out, I got
a ton of people going, hey, will you sell me
(26:41):
for me on a commission only basis? Right, And these
were small, immature companies. If the company was mature enough,
I'd be like, yeah, for sure, like no no problem,
Like you know, it's not it's not a foundational thing.
They just need someone to help scale what's already working,
which is the job of what a salesperson is. But
at these companies and I'd be like, man, there's just
(27:02):
no flip and way that I'd sell condition only there's
just way too much risk and there's just not enough
sales readiness here and your organization. And so as I
started to think about, hey, what are the fundamental components
that are required to actually set a salesperson up to
(27:23):
be successful. And that's where this idea of a sales
ready organization comes in. And it's why it's often why
sales people don't work out, is because there's something wrong
in the system, not something wrong with the person. And
so when I think of a sales ready organization, I
think of it as your mindset, your leadership, your marketing,
(27:45):
your sales, and your project management. Almost everyone has marketing,
sales leadership a little bit. Almost no one brings in
mindset or project management to their approach to sales and
looking at sales improvement as as a Ford Motor company
looks at improving you know, Kentucky truck and how to
(28:07):
make that better? More efficient? Right? And how like, how
do I every day improve my sales readiness or my
sales operations so that we can have less ways, be
more efficient, be more clear, lower sales cycle times, all
of that. And so that I think that that that understanding,
(28:32):
combined with the law of cause and effect mm HM
is super important. And now I'm an engineer, right, so
like I understand like root cause analysis, problem solving, wishbone,
thinking the five whys. But a dear friend of mine,
Sherry Torres, introduced me to appreciative inquiry, and I actually
(28:56):
think that's much more, much more powerful then going, oh,
we have a problem here, how can I solve the problem?
And what I know from a mindset.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Perspective is the problem is attached to the solution and
also the reason why you have the problem is that
you keep focusing on the problem.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Right, so you keep trying to solve the problem, which
keeps your focus and your energy stuck in problem first
thinking right instead of going, hey, what is it that
I actually want? And then understanding the cause and effect
relationship with what it is you want and lining up
(29:41):
those conditions to go and actually create that. So you know,
I was laughed happing earlier today, David, because I still
there's nothing wrong with this and I'm not like it's
solving problems is awesome. But a lot of people I've seen,
like on their business cards are they're LinkedIn profiles, will
be like problem solver or you know, like their titles
(30:05):
like chief problem solver or they're like yeah, like really
good at solving problems or I solve.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
Problem something like that, like man, like I want my
title to be like I don't solve problems like anti
anti problem solver, because I think if.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
You focus on problems, they're trying to fix those things. Again,
it's taking energy and focus away from what you actually
want instead of inquiring, as my friend Sherry would say,
inquiring into what it is you actually do want. So like,
let me give you let me give you an example
(30:41):
from sales, so like, people go. The problem is people
aren't showing up or people are canceling on our sales conversations,
So how can we solve that problem? Right, instead of
inquiring into, oh, what causes the people that do show
up to show up? And how can we find more
(31:02):
of those people? Right, So they're trying to fix the
people who aren't going up instead of what's actually work,
what is actually working right? And the thing what's actually
working right, and going how can we actually find more
of those people instead of how to solve the things
that aren't working or like you know, we were again,
(31:29):
we we're not solving our problem of hitting our revenue
every month, We're not like, how do we solve that problem?
Like it's a problem, like we're we're in a gap whatever,
instead of going, oh, well, what we actually want is
an additional amount of dollars, how can we go create that? Right? Right,
(31:49):
So you're not trying to solve a problem, you're trying
to go You're trying to move from the problem to
what it is you what it is you want. And
the thing is is like, there's a law of polarity.
You can think of it as a stick with two sides, right,
Like everything in the universe like ying yang positive negative,
like the universe, electrons, practice, the universe magnets. The universe
(32:15):
was created with the law of polarity. It's a fundamental law.
You see it in religion, you see it in spirituality,
you see it in physics. And the thing about the
stick is that the two things are connected, right, So,
and you get to choose which side of the stick
you focused on. So no money is connected to money,
(32:37):
and if you're over here trying to solve the problem
of no money, you're on the no money side of
the stick. Right. Where you want to be is over
here on the money side, right, and you don't get
to the money side by focusing on the no money
side or the no revenue. You go like, how do
I actually I just need to create more money? What
(32:59):
are the cause and effect things that create money in
our business? And again, those are going to be the
way you think, your mindset, your energy, your body, your
strategs and tactics, and your your activity right, absolutely, and
that that's when you do that, I think it's much
(33:20):
more powerful. And that's one of the main things that
I helped my clients with. When I started an engagement.
We do a sales ready organization assessment and usually what
comes out of that is a whole lot of things
that they can stop doing. I just go, hey, you
can stop doing that, that, and that, right, And that's
(33:40):
like the easiest way. In engineering, we call that eliminating waste.
And in manufacturing, the biggest waste was overproduction. It was
doing things you didn't need to do right, And that
happens all I see that in every one of my engagements,
people doing things they don't need to do and doing
(34:01):
the things that aren't going to lead to the result
that they want. One of the worst defenders. The two
that come to mind right away is one overworking, Like
overworking is the symptom of doing the wrong thing and
being resistance to doing what's required. And the other is
just an unwillingness to feel your feelings or get some
(34:23):
help feeling your feelings on a daily basis. And so
then you're you're taking action and making decisions from that
distortion and that traumas that are a place of truth.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Wow, man, Christopher, we could definitely go on here. There's
so much here, but I'm hoping as everybody's listening in here,
you have an advocate. I like to deal with the advocate,
somebody that's on your side that wants to help you.
That's so powerful. You just say, Christopher, are like meeting
with that CEO? Or like, what are the things I
can stop doing that aren't really getting the results? Actually
(34:56):
getting me in greater clarity process is the emotion that probably.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Don't even realize how much that they're going.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
And so, Christopher, we're going to put your any any
show notes, any in our show notes information about how
to connect with you. I know we're connected on LinkedIn,
but is there anything that you want to share with
as far as how they find you? What's the best
way to you know, besides you connected to LinkedIn, Christopher,
like where where where are you in the world.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Yeah. So I recommitted to writing and content this year,
and I've been putting out some really powerful and truth
filled articles at my website on my blog which is
Christopher filippiaf dot com. So I encourage your audience go
(35:45):
read those articles. I'll give you a deeper dive and
more awareness around what we talk to today. And one
of in one of the articles I talk about well,
I talk about cause and effect. I talk about the
case for CEO is involvement in sales. I talk about
what a sales ready organization is. And I'm working this
(36:07):
week on finishing up an article on why feeling your
feelings is so important and how some ways to do that.
And in the sales ready organization article, there's a link
to a self assessment that anyone can take on their own,
and I invite your audience to go and take that
(36:28):
for sure as a first step on creating clarity on
what you need need, what you can stop doing, and
what you need to kind of dialed in and also
give you an insight of like what's working, what's not working,
and how you rank compared to other other businesses that
are sales ready. So those are some resources. And I
(36:49):
am on LinkedIn as well, so awest there's or with
slash backslider.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
You can we're connected. So I'm going to make sure.
I'm want to make sure that you guys, this is
a great resource. It's time tested. You know, Christopher is
just walked through this. So are you a sales ready organism?
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Are you? Where are you?
Speaker 1 (37:07):
And your and I'm excited to be able to share
this this resource a Christopher of course, and and and
the writing you're doing, and of course for the podcast,
we'd love to have you guys leave.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Comments and engage here. I'm going to make sure that
Christopher gets them.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
But you know, as we're wrapping up the podcast, Christopher,
I want to give you a last parting words here
of wisdom as you're you're as you're sharing the listeners,
I've we've covered a lot here, but you know, if
they take nothing else from this this conversation today, what
would you really want to impart to our listeners.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
I would love to share two things, which is commit
to mastering your own sales, your own sales work as
a CEO because it's the thing that will We'll set
you free as a human, but also set your business
free as a as an entity and in a vehicle.
(38:02):
And as part of that, learn to feel your feelings, right, Like,
understand that mindset and feeling your feelings is it is
a huge part of the sales.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
I love that, Christopher, because when you win, when you win,
when you your win with those those feelings and getting
through that, You've left us so many great insights.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Chris, thank you for being on the podcast today.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Yeah, thank you so much for having having me. I
really enjoyed the conversation and take take what we talked about,
Take one thing that resonates with you and go change
like change it right now. Like do you hear this?
Like commit to reading one of those articles, so lay
your ass down, feel your feelings, like commit to masterings,
(38:54):
master masterings sales, like do do something with this information.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Absolutely, we're all about not just listening, taking information, but
taking it and putting it in action. So thank you
Christopher for that. We really appreciate it having you on
the podcast.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Yeah, thanks again, Thanks so much to the audience for listening,
and thanks so much for having me on the show.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
David absolutely, thanks everybody.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Of course, we love when you guys leave us comments, subscribe,
and follow along whatever podcast platform that is for you,
whether it's our YouTube channel Let's do your Business, or
your favorite platform. Please share, leave a fire star we
would welcome that. Connect with Christopher or myself on LinkedIn
if you haven't already you want to be a guest.
(39:38):
We continue to have new guests and have roundtables here
every week. Thank you all for again listening. Until next time,
Be well ever you want, and take care
Welcome to the Business Roundtable podcast. I am your host,
David Carr of Stuart your Business. Grateful to have you here,
and we have another brand new guest this week. We're
going to get into it for We've had some episodes
recently on sales, but we're going to get a unique
perspective with Christopher here.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Philip Back.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
We were super excited to have him here and he
is going to just give you blow you away. I've
known Christopher for a number of years. We've been connected
through LinkedIn, shared a lot of different insights and and
so I was super excited when we're talking and was said, hey,
you know, I've been doing this Business round Table podcast
for a couple of years. We've got to have you
on here. So Christopher, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Hey David, good to see you again. Thanks for having
me so thanks for having me on the show. I'm
really looking forward to a conversation and sharing what I
can to help your audience.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Absolutely well.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I I you know, one of the things I wanted
to bring you on here, Christopher, because you have a
diverse background and we're going to get into that here
on the podcast, and I'd love to have you walk
this background because you come from kind of an engineering background,
you're a strategist, you have worked on inter alignment. There's
a lot of different expertise that you bring over the
course of your career, Christopher, and so I would love
(01:46):
to have you just walk us through your journeys as
a business owner, as an entrepreneur now in sales, and
so we always like, I love to do this because
I love having all of our listeners lean in, whether
you're a business owner, you're in a place of leadership,
overseeing a team, or whatnot.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Why they want to.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Listen what they're going to hopefully get some they takeaways
here from you.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Christopher.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah, I'm happy to share my story. And I think
why you want to lean into this show in particular,
and this conversation that David and I are going to
have is that it's going to put more money in
your pocket and save you time and help you feel
better when it comes to thinking about money and making sales.
(02:32):
What's actually required to grow your business and grow yourself
in the process. Business is great, It's an amazing vehicle
for change and growth and helping people. And I think
one of the reasons entrepreneur is certainly why I got
into business is because it was an amazing vehicle for
myself to change and grow and have impact and step
(02:55):
more into my purpose. And sales is a big, big
part of that. I think if you do that well
and start to love sales and and get more comfortable
with what actually moves money in your business, which we'll
talk about today, things are really really fun and really
(03:16):
really good. So that's that's the reason. Tell me an
end today and stay at the very the end of
the show.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
So there you go, Yeah, go ahead, Yeah, no, I
would say what what got you? Because I'm so grateful
you said that, because it is business is a mechanism
to make change in the world. But a lot of
people get stuck hung up on this. So tell me, like,
why is this your passion now?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Christopher?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Like you you told us like we're going to get there,
But what got you to this point? Tell us a
little bit about your journey that brought you today.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah, I think it's it's kind of a circuitous route
to where I am today, But you know it's what
what is Steve Jobs? I think it was Steve Jobs
of Apple said it's hard to connect the dots looking forward,
but they're easy to connect going backwards. Ye, so I
(04:09):
think they make sense. But I grew up outside of Detroit, Michigan,
and fell in love with cars in the motor city,
and it was good at math. So when I was
looking at what I should be when I grow up,
you know, you could go to the library and you'd
pull out those old statistical job descriptions that had like
(04:31):
average salaries, like where you could work, what you could do.
And I was like, oh, well, I'm going to be
an engineer because I'm good at math and cars. And
so I studied industrial and operations engineering, which is the
study of human and machine systems, which is like fascinated me,
and so I started after school. After undergrad, I started
(04:53):
working at Ford Motor Company as an engineer, really designing
manufacturing facilities and helping those facilities run better and help
the people within those feel better, reduce waste, continuously improved
so that we can make better quality trucks and F
(05:17):
one fifties and Mustangs. But I always wanted to be
with the people and the money, David, and I didn't
know what that meant. I didn't know what my engineering
managers didn't know what and you know, at that time,
like the the recommendations from the people around me were
to get an engineering undergrad and then go to school
(05:39):
and get your MBA. I was like, so that was
like in my head and I but I always wanted
to be an entrepreneur and do that. So I ended
up going back to get my MBA. And then I
started working in consulting for a company out of Charlotte,
North Carolina, mid market company selling in the Fortune five
(06:01):
hundred companies, and so we were selling software, marketing services,
data services, and I was a top business development person
at that firm. And what I noticed and kind of
led me to starting my own firm was the contrast
(06:22):
between the level of systems and maturity at Ford Motor
Company and the company that I was working at. And
then when I started started my firm going around in
twenty seventeen looking at even smaller businesses, there was a
huge opportunity to help those businesses organize their systems and
(06:43):
bring a level of maturity to them that they simply
didn't have or underunderstand. So that led me to help
them with their sales directly, help them start to build
out their sales systems and their sales teams. Noticed in
my own journey at that time, and also in the
(07:04):
CEOs and the founders that I was working with, is
that there was a huge gap in our understanding around
how to operate our minds and how to operate our bodies.
We were all strategies and tactics engineered, and we had
all the tools, but we weren't creating the results. And
I started to realize that that was mindset set, right,
(07:26):
And I've come to think of mindset as how you
think but also how you feel, so it's both though.
So I started my own journey in mindset, and looking backwards,
that started to make sense because my mom was taking
me to Jack Canfield chicken Soup for the Soul Soar
and self helps in the eighties and nine, and that
(07:50):
stuff kind of came full circle, right talking to me
about Dwayne Dyer and all that, all that really impactful,
powerful stuff I don't think we were ready, really ready for.
I don't think the general population was ready for at
the time. But I was like, man, like, this stuff
(08:11):
is what's going to make the difference. And so as
I started to study that work, my results started to
shift tremendously. I found it easier to connect with people.
I felt more comfortable with who I was. I started
to do bigger deals, make more money much faster. And
(08:31):
as I bought those skills to my clients, they started
to do the same thing, and they started to become
more comfortable with themselves and more comfortable transforming into a
person that can make sales really easily. Because the truth
is there's nothing hard or difficult or scary about sales
and money. But we were taught that a lot of that.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Is.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
So that went on that rate up like in through
COVID times, and that's when I did some work with
a larger consulting firm and also started doing my own
market research to really dial in my offer, and I
within the period of about a year and a half
(09:19):
two years, I worked with hundreds of small businesses right
some you know, between five hundred thousand, million, ten million
up to twenty million in revenue and really did a
deep dive assessment of what was happening within their sales
organizations and their sales operations. And what that led me
(09:43):
to understand was that those businesses wanted to scale, they
wanted to grow revenue and profit, and so a lot
of them hired sales people to do so, but the
salespeople ended up getting fired and not performing well. Right,
So on average, those founders, those CEOs hired and fired
(10:05):
three point two five salespeople. And it's incredibly expensive. Yes,
you know, the statistics are like, you know, upwards and
beyond four hundred thousand dollars of cost and lost revenue
for a for for that's that that strategy, And I
(10:28):
think why that happens is well, we can get into
what you know there. It's hard and exactly, but the
point I want to make is that I recognized all
that experience and all that observation of what was happening
inside of business is combined with my own corporate experience
(10:51):
and business development experience and watching watching CEOs b CEOs
and writing all the performance for those businesses. I was like, man,
to hit your goals, Like the CEO is the best
position person to drive revenue in the business through their
own sales effort. And I know that's a little counter cultural.
(11:15):
I guess there's you know, there's you know, some a
lot of CEOs I don't think want to hear that,
but they are the best person to drive revenue. And
the cool thing is they can do it in a
short amount of time, right, Like they can start you
as a CEO, you can start making sales today. Like
you're so perfectly positioned, and you have so much knowledge
(11:36):
and so much status and so many good stories. What
you're lacking is what you're typically lacking is the systems
underneath to help you be consistent and the support around
you to help you be consistent. So I started wrapping
my business around supporting CEOs to succeed at their own
(11:58):
sales work. You know, And I'm not anti sales teams.
You can absolutely build a successful sales team, but I
think the way you have to go about it has
to be a little bit more structured and engineered and
thought out than just oh, I'm just going to hire
oh yeah person or a couple of sales purpose and
then you know, start making.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
It rain right.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
That's where I am. That's what I'd love to talk about.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Well, I want to get definitely into it, Christopher, because
you bring up a good point here on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Number one. The reason why I invited you on the
podcast and we're listening is Christopher Pears.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
He has he has the experience, Like you said, you
just That's why I want everyone to lean in and
listen to your your your your own personal journey in
Christopher to so you know that this is a man
that's been doing this, working hard at making it change.
And I think your point, Christopher, I've heard this challenge
of you know, people that are brought into help quote
unquote the sales team. They get them, whip them into shape,
(12:55):
help them get more sales, or they give these sales goals,
and they're not you know, it's there's a disconnect. So
I think you're right on the money in that if
it's CEO or in or the board or the high
level you know leaders in the company are not clear
on this.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
They are a bottleneck. I agree with you. I feel
like they are.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
They're they're limiting what the capacity what you could do
in the in this space. And I think sometimes they
just feel like, well I just need some more tactics,
I need just more tools, you know, And that's not
necessarily it. I mean, the CEOs really do set like
the tone and how we're approaching these organization and and
(13:39):
then you know, then you can take the team and
scale the impact from there. But I think if you
try to go the other way around. And that's something
I was pressed upon me too, because I am not
getting my sales dial in. Very clear, it's really hard
for anybody else to do it better than the CEO.
That you should be able to do it the best, hopefully,
and then you have other people that are going to
do their best to come close to that. But it's
(14:01):
really dangerous in my opinion, to outsource somebody else to
do sales when you're not dialing it in. So maybe
talk a little bit more about your experience and working
with CEOs both you know, the bottleneck and then when
they started the step out of the being the bottleneck.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, I think they start to realize realize something needs
to shift after they like keep having sales people not
work out and revenue not grow consistently. I think that
that that's the pain. Yeah, you know, eeos, I don't
(14:41):
know what I don't know. You know, some most CEOs
know that revenue is important to their business, right, like
they're they're you're growing a successful company. Most of them
have been involved in sales, they've made sales, but they
haven't really mastered it to the level that they that
is a capable right, and so this isn't about like
(15:03):
becoming a sales bro or being on the phone or
being a cold caller or any of that. It's about
an invitation to lean in to your own mastery and
leveling up in your sales maturity. And I think when
you do that, you start to develop a culture within
your company around sales as an expression of love or
sales as an act of love, and you start to
(15:25):
really understand how to create the money you need when
you want and need it. You develop a real competency
around sales. And that means not just that your strategies
and tactics are sales ready, as I talk about, but
your mindset is dialed in and your activity is consistent
(15:46):
so that you are understanding the cause and effect relationship
between money and helping and helping your or between between
money and what causes that money to move in a
business right, And I think that's what I think there's
(16:08):
a real oppy with with that. And I know that
the one the one thing that I see that most
people and CEO struggle with is they're inconsistent with their
sales activity, and that there's some there's overwhelmed, there's fear,
there's stress, there's worry I wanted to get into there's
(16:31):
these emotions going.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yes, So because if Christopher, if I'm you know, if
I'm I'm you know, riding a roller coaster of emotions
and nervous system, and I.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
You know, I feel like, you know, what is you know,
getting them?
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Maybe I'm I'm going to start to self sabotage or
get out of alignment because I'm I'm not recognizing that clearly,
you know. And so do you help CEOs like when
they're you know, with their with their mindset and that
kind of energy that they're bringing.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah, so mindset and managing your body is a real skill,
and there's gaps because it's not taught to us. Sales
isn't taught to us in school. Okay, did you have
like an elementary school where you taught about sales or money?
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Right?
Speaker 3 (17:25):
No? In high school to NBA school, right when the
top NBA schools graduate at the top of my class,
there was not one course in sales. There was not
one course on mindset or managing your body. And I
think those those things are so fundamental to your human experience.
And so I started to think, you know, of this
(17:48):
idea of cause and effect and I talk with everyone
I can about this. But any result that you want
has a cause and effect relationship with your mindset, your
strategy and tactics, and your activity. And when it comes
to your mindset, it's about it's really about knowing what
(18:09):
the truth is, right, so you can step out the
out of the illusion in the programming that happened to
you as a child, and understanding how to think in
a way that allows you to create the life that
you actually want and desire and create the results that
you want quickly. As you were saying, David, is we
(18:32):
also have a body, right, and our body is feeling right.
It's vibrational moment mostly the mad, sad, glad, disgusted, angry,
plus you know, eighty eight other feelings, an infinite amount
of bodies sensations, right, he is, Humans act from how
we're feeling. Our feeling drives our action. So we can
(18:56):
have the very best strategies and tactics in the world. Okay,
but if we're not feeling well in our body right,
we're not going to be We're not going to use
those strategies and tactics. We're not going to behave or
think in a way that aligns with whatever we're trying
to do, and we end up staying stuck, feeling overwhelmed, right,
(19:20):
being activated, not creating what we want, not being clear,
struggling to make decisions, being in lack and scarcity. And
when you when you develop some simple mindset skills, right,
plus a way to manage, metabolize, process the emotions that, right,
(19:50):
you are going to quickly quickly level up as a human.
You're going to become more in touch with who you're
meant to be here on this planet. Your identity is
gonna shift. And when that happens, your money is gonna shift,
and you're gonna make sales quicker and at a higher,
higher level. So and we all get triggered every day, man, right,
like to do that. And in sales, you're getting you're
(20:16):
you're you're putting yourself out into environments. And if you
don't have the skill and the the self awareness and
the conscious awareness to be having that conversation and something
happens that trigger you, because sales is sales is actually
(20:37):
more energetic than it is straes and tactics, because humans
feel each other, right, So we we we talk in
you know, words, writing in pictures, but we also speak
vibrationally to each other, like you can feel each other.
(20:57):
You can hear the tone, the inflection, the body language.
All that comes from mindset and managing your body.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, I love the word that you use, metabolizers, Like
we're getting it in. How do we break it down
and hopefully transform it into a positive?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
But it can also be a negative too, depending on
how we do it.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
You know, we could take in certain things and how
we metabolize it.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
You know, it can be a positive or it could
be negative. And so how how are you?
Speaker 1 (21:27):
How are you going through these things a healthy way?
Is it's not like it's like you said, the triggers
aren't going to go away. They're always going to be triggers.
But how do you metabolize? How do you process that
in a healthy way? Right, Christopher?
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yeah, you got it. The information, especially today, is coming
in so fast and consistently. It's hard to reject it
all and keep it all out. And so you're experiencing
we call it little t trauma you're in. If you're
in a human body, you've had trauma, okay, which just
(22:05):
means that what you've observed in your result circumstances and
environment has not your brain couldn't handle, right, and so
then it takes that trauma that stores it in your body, right,
and then that shows up as distortions in the way
that you're thinking. And if you don't have a way
(22:27):
to process that trauma, feel your feelings, metabolize that energy
that that you're gonna have that distortion going on, and
it's gonna loop where you have a feeling in your body,
You're gonna have a thought that creates a feeling, right,
and there's gonna be this loop that keeps you stuck
(22:48):
and unable to see what the truth actually is and
you can't think your way out of that. That's the
thing is, like, you know, I could tell you what
the truth is, or I could be like, hey, David,
feel better, right, Like feeling good is the most important thing,
but your body right, because it's run subconsciously and it's
that trauma is stored in your body. If you don't
(23:12):
have ways to actually move that m then you just
stay at the same level that you are. But as
soon as you learn or have someone help you with
moving that out, you reconfigure those distortions and then you
(23:32):
can align with more of the truth. And that way
you can make decisions and create the results you actually
want very very very very quickly.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So yeah, well I could. I could see where you're
getting at, Christopher too. There's a lot coming in some
of the things. We definitely have to be more assertive
and blocking out certain things, but we're letting a lot
of things in. And then I feel like, I love
you to speak to this part of it because I
feel like, based on what you're sharing here, I'm saying,
people may be diagnosing kind of sales problems issue and like, oh, well,
(24:04):
need a new sales funnel or there's something else instead
of like you said earlier, maybe it's like a different
filter or a way of understanding things.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
But they're they're kind of like.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Maybe this is simplistic, but my mind is like you're
looking at the symptoms rather than the root of cause.
So you're trying to address all these symptoms that are
coming up, like what's about this?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
What about this?
Speaker 1 (24:24):
And we're being almost sometimes busier, and I say, but
we're not being very strategic, and I feel like something
like you, Christopher, what I'm hearing is you come down
and you break down is more about the root cause
analysis and helping get the business owner or the leader
clearer so they can make you know because it's getting complex, right,
there's a lot of things that's getting muddy. So how
do we break that down so we can have clarity?
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Right, Christopher, Yeah, yeah, I'll speak to that. I just
want to mention, and I want to I don't want
to make it seem like so complicated on the feeling
your feelings. But what I want to do highlight for
everyone tuning in today is like, you know how when
you have a really good cry, or you have a
(25:09):
really good laugh, or you're laughing your ass off, right,
or you get really angry, right, and you you you
punch a hole in the wall, right, and you're just
like whatever that is, right, and then you feel so
much better after, right, But you only do that every
couple of years, right, or every few months, right, if
(25:33):
you're not doing that on a daily basis, or you're
not doing that on a weekly basis. So all that's
building up on under the surface, and it's it's creating
your current results, right, And that's what that's what's happening
in sales and business, right, is you have all this
trauma and all these subconscious roles and patterns that need
(25:56):
to move out. But every time you laugh your ass
off or have a good cry, you're like, oh, I
feel so much better. I know exactly what to do,
and the thing is being angry or laughing or feeling
your fee doesn't they take a long time. It's just
that we resist the shit out of it because we
don't have the skills, because we're not even allowed it's
(26:20):
acceptable to do that. So in terms of like the
systems and the sales thing things and the sales problem,
you know, one of the things early on and it's
still it doesn't happen as often now every once in
a while. But when I was starting out, I got
a ton of people going, hey, will you sell me
(26:41):
for me on a commission only basis? Right, And these
were small, immature companies. If the company was mature enough,
I'd be like, yeah, for sure, like no no problem,
Like you know, it's not it's not a foundational thing.
They just need someone to help scale what's already working,
which is the job of what a salesperson is. But
at these companies and I'd be like, man, there's just
(27:02):
no flip and way that I'd sell condition only there's
just way too much risk and there's just not enough
sales readiness here and your organization. And so as I
started to think about, hey, what are the fundamental components
that are required to actually set a salesperson up to
(27:23):
be successful. And that's where this idea of a sales
ready organization comes in. And it's why it's often why
sales people don't work out, is because there's something wrong
in the system, not something wrong with the person. And
so when I think of a sales ready organization, I
think of it as your mindset, your leadership, your marketing,
(27:45):
your sales, and your project management. Almost everyone has marketing,
sales leadership a little bit. Almost no one brings in
mindset or project management to their approach to sales and
looking at sales improvement as as a Ford Motor company
looks at improving you know, Kentucky truck and how to
(28:07):
make that better? More efficient? Right? And how like, how
do I every day improve my sales readiness or my
sales operations so that we can have less ways, be
more efficient, be more clear, lower sales cycle times, all
of that. And so that I think that that that understanding,
(28:32):
combined with the law of cause and effect mm HM
is super important. And now I'm an engineer, right, so
like I understand like root cause analysis, problem solving, wishbone,
thinking the five whys. But a dear friend of mine,
Sherry Torres, introduced me to appreciative inquiry, and I actually
(28:56):
think that's much more, much more powerful then going, oh,
we have a problem here, how can I solve the problem?
And what I know from a mindset.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Perspective is the problem is attached to the solution and
also the reason why you have the problem is that
you keep focusing on the problem.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Right, so you keep trying to solve the problem, which
keeps your focus and your energy stuck in problem first
thinking right instead of going, hey, what is it that
I actually want? And then understanding the cause and effect
relationship with what it is you want and lining up
(29:41):
those conditions to go and actually create that. So you know,
I was laughed happing earlier today, David, because I still
there's nothing wrong with this and I'm not like it's
solving problems is awesome. But a lot of people I've seen,
like on their business cards are they're LinkedIn profiles, will
be like problem solver or you know, like their titles
(30:05):
like chief problem solver or they're like yeah, like really
good at solving problems or I solve.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
Problem something like that, like man, like I want my
title to be like I don't solve problems like anti
anti problem solver, because I think if.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
You focus on problems, they're trying to fix those things. Again,
it's taking energy and focus away from what you actually
want instead of inquiring, as my friend Sherry would say,
inquiring into what it is you actually do want. So like,
let me give you let me give you an example
(30:41):
from sales, so like, people go. The problem is people
aren't showing up or people are canceling on our sales conversations,
So how can we solve that problem? Right, instead of
inquiring into, oh, what causes the people that do show
up to show up? And how can we find more
(31:02):
of those people? Right, So they're trying to fix the
people who aren't going up instead of what's actually work,
what is actually working right? And the thing what's actually
working right, and going how can we actually find more
of those people instead of how to solve the things
that aren't working or like you know, we were again,
(31:29):
we we're not solving our problem of hitting our revenue
every month, We're not like, how do we solve that problem?
Like it's a problem, like we're we're in a gap whatever,
instead of going, oh, well, what we actually want is
an additional amount of dollars, how can we go create that? Right? Right,
(31:49):
So you're not trying to solve a problem, you're trying
to go You're trying to move from the problem to
what it is you what it is you want. And
the thing is is like, there's a law of polarity.
You can think of it as a stick with two sides, right,
Like everything in the universe like ying yang positive negative,
like the universe, electrons, practice, the universe magnets. The universe
(32:15):
was created with the law of polarity. It's a fundamental law.
You see it in religion, you see it in spirituality,
you see it in physics. And the thing about the
stick is that the two things are connected, right, So,
and you get to choose which side of the stick
you focused on. So no money is connected to money,
(32:37):
and if you're over here trying to solve the problem
of no money, you're on the no money side of
the stick. Right. Where you want to be is over
here on the money side, right, and you don't get
to the money side by focusing on the no money
side or the no revenue. You go like, how do
I actually I just need to create more money? What
(32:59):
are the cause and effect things that create money in
our business? And again, those are going to be the
way you think, your mindset, your energy, your body, your
strategs and tactics, and your your activity right, absolutely, and
that that's when you do that, I think it's much
(33:20):
more powerful. And that's one of the main things that
I helped my clients with. When I started an engagement.
We do a sales ready organization assessment and usually what
comes out of that is a whole lot of things
that they can stop doing. I just go, hey, you
can stop doing that, that, and that, right, And that's
(33:40):
like the easiest way. In engineering, we call that eliminating waste.
And in manufacturing, the biggest waste was overproduction. It was
doing things you didn't need to do right, And that
happens all I see that in every one of my engagements,
people doing things they don't need to do and doing
(34:01):
the things that aren't going to lead to the result
that they want. One of the worst defenders. The two
that come to mind right away is one overworking, Like
overworking is the symptom of doing the wrong thing and
being resistance to doing what's required. And the other is
just an unwillingness to feel your feelings or get some
(34:23):
help feeling your feelings on a daily basis. And so
then you're you're taking action and making decisions from that
distortion and that traumas that are a place of truth.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Wow, man, Christopher, we could definitely go on here. There's
so much here, but I'm hoping as everybody's listening in here,
you have an advocate. I like to deal with the advocate,
somebody that's on your side that wants to help you.
That's so powerful. You just say, Christopher, are like meeting
with that CEO? Or like, what are the things I
can stop doing that aren't really getting the results? Actually
(34:56):
getting me in greater clarity process is the emotion that probably.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Don't even realize how much that they're going.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
And so, Christopher, we're going to put your any any
show notes, any in our show notes information about how
to connect with you. I know we're connected on LinkedIn,
but is there anything that you want to share with
as far as how they find you? What's the best
way to you know, besides you connected to LinkedIn, Christopher,
like where where where are you in the world.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Yeah. So I recommitted to writing and content this year,
and I've been putting out some really powerful and truth
filled articles at my website on my blog which is
Christopher filippiaf dot com. So I encourage your audience go
(35:45):
read those articles. I'll give you a deeper dive and
more awareness around what we talk to today. And one
of in one of the articles I talk about well,
I talk about cause and effect. I talk about the
case for CEO is involvement in sales. I talk about
what a sales ready organization is. And I'm working this
(36:07):
week on finishing up an article on why feeling your
feelings is so important and how some ways to do that.
And in the sales ready organization article, there's a link
to a self assessment that anyone can take on their own,
and I invite your audience to go and take that
(36:28):
for sure as a first step on creating clarity on
what you need need, what you can stop doing, and
what you need to kind of dialed in and also
give you an insight of like what's working, what's not working,
and how you rank compared to other other businesses that
are sales ready. So those are some resources. And I
(36:49):
am on LinkedIn as well, so awest there's or with
slash backslider.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
You can we're connected. So I'm going to make sure.
I'm want to make sure that you guys, this is
a great resource. It's time tested. You know, Christopher is
just walked through this. So are you a sales ready organism?
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Are you? Where are you?
Speaker 1 (37:07):
And your and I'm excited to be able to share
this this resource a Christopher of course, and and and
the writing you're doing, and of course for the podcast,
we'd love to have you guys leave.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Comments and engage here. I'm going to make sure that
Christopher gets them.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
But you know, as we're wrapping up the podcast, Christopher,
I want to give you a last parting words here
of wisdom as you're you're as you're sharing the listeners,
I've we've covered a lot here, but you know, if
they take nothing else from this this conversation today, what
would you really want to impart to our listeners.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
I would love to share two things, which is commit
to mastering your own sales, your own sales work as
a CEO because it's the thing that will We'll set
you free as a human, but also set your business
free as a as an entity and in a vehicle.
(38:02):
And as part of that, learn to feel your feelings, right, Like,
understand that mindset and feeling your feelings is it is
a huge part of the sales.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
I love that, Christopher, because when you win, when you win,
when you your win with those those feelings and getting
through that, You've left us so many great insights.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Chris, thank you for being on the podcast today.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Yeah, thank you so much for having having me. I
really enjoyed the conversation and take take what we talked about,
Take one thing that resonates with you and go change
like change it right now. Like do you hear this?
Like commit to reading one of those articles, so lay
your ass down, feel your feelings, like commit to masterings,
(38:54):
master masterings sales, like do do something with this information.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Absolutely, we're all about not just listening, taking information, but
taking it and putting it in action. So thank you
Christopher for that. We really appreciate it having you on
the podcast.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Yeah, thanks again, Thanks so much to the audience for listening,
and thanks so much for having me on the show.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
David absolutely, thanks everybody.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Of course, we love when you guys leave us comments, subscribe,
and follow along whatever podcast platform that is for you,
whether it's our YouTube channel Let's do your Business, or
your favorite platform. Please share, leave a fire star we
would welcome that. Connect with Christopher or myself on LinkedIn
if you haven't already you want to be a guest.
(39:38):
We continue to have new guests and have roundtables here
every week. Thank you all for again listening. Until next time,
Be well ever you want, and take care
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