EntreLeadership - #189: Andy Andrews—How Small Changes Help You Win

Episode Date: March 6, 2017

What does Napoleon’s defeat, Michael Phelps’ Olympic victories and the discovery of atoms all have in common? Best-selling author Andy Andrews says they were all made (or broken) by the little things. He stops by the studio to discuss the impact of small changes and how they can make a big difference in your life too. Summit Event Daniel Pink Episode Tim Sanders Episode EntreLeadership "Sales Cheat Sheet" Infusionsoft's "Emails to Close a Sale" entreleadership.com/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. Now, here is your host, Ken Coleman. We are broadcasting from the Music City, and this is the podcast of leaders, by leaders, four leaders. Thank you so much for joining the conversation. Our feature conversation is with Andy Andrews. The guy sold millions of books. His new book is Little Things, Why You Really Should Sweat the Small Stuff.

And we're also going to have a visit just momentarily by Daniel Tarty, our vice president of on-trade leadership. We've got our March resources for you, the superselling cheat sheet, and Infusion's Office is bringing you 10 emails you need to close a sale. Well, this is a big treat. It's always great to have the grand pooh-bah of all things, Antre Leadership, Mr. Daniel Tarty, our VP of Entree Leadership. Good to have you back in studio, pal. Thanks for having me. All right, so this is fun. I'm loving getting some insight from you on things we're hearing from customers.

Now, we did this recently. We got great feedback. So we said, all right, what are some other things, pain points that you and the team are hearing on a daily basis with the men and women of the Ontario Leadership Tribe? And I'm really intrigued by this because I think this affects us all. This is a non-industry, non-position specific type thing. And it's the idea of you feel a little brittle, a little rusty maybe, you know? Like maybe you're just not operating with that fluidity, right? You need a little WD40.

I know you're Mr. Handyman around the house. I try to be. Yeah. So you need to kind of get some viscosity, if you will. Right. How do you start that process when you're feeling like? Sure. Well, first I would say, as leaders, we've got to acknowledge that this is natural and this is normal and we're not weak and we're not wimps.

And it doesn't mean that we're weird if we're feeling that way. And the first thing is just to admit, hey, I feel a little bit rusty. I feel like I've lost my edge. If you can't admit that, then you're never going to take the steps to actually get out of that funk. And so what we're really talking about, Ken, is a breakthrough. Something's going to get you to that next level of thinking, that next level of growth, so that you can become the leader you need to be to take your organization to that next place. All right.

So give me a few of those. What do we do? Well, I don't know the formula per se. I know what I do. And this has been a breakthrough that I've had recently. Over the last year, as I've been helping grow and lead the team for entre leadership, I found myself in more meetings about meetings and leading people who are leading people and less and less frontline engagement with.

our customers and with the marketplace. And that's a natural growth thing. As a leader, you start delegating to your team, you start hiring salespeople so you're not on the phone anymore. But you can look up and go, I don't know what's going on. I am a little bit Ivory Tower Syndrome sitting in here where we're talking strategy and we're doing flip chart exercises and a lot of those things have their place and are valuable.

But if you're not talking to customers, which, by the way, that's why you should be in business is to help customers and going, what are you hearing? What are our competitors doing? What do you really need? What is your pain point? What's the problem that we as a business could solve for you through our product or service? As soon as you stop having that conversation as a leader, I think you start becoming irrelevant.

And if you don't acknowledge that and you try to hang on and just continue to manage this internal strategy speak and connect them with your team, but not necessarily on the front lines personally hearing that feedback from the marketplace, I think you lose your edge. Then you start to get rusty. So that's an important distinction here. I want to ask you that. There's a difference between being really dialed into what your team is telling you versus you firsthand hearing it because you're going to have a different perspective than if you get a super detailed report from your team. There's a difference between what the team says versus your perspective on what you're hearing.

I think that's really a big difference. Absolutely. And you need to listen to your team and you need to trust your team when they're filtering information to you. But nothing replaces a live conversation with a customer who's paying your company to do whatever it is you do. All right, that's really good. Okay, another thing that you mentioned, as we were talking about this, is the idea of finding solitude. Now, last time you were in here, you kind of talked about this idea of don't be isolated. Right.

That's not what you're talking about. You are not being a contradictory person. This can sound a little soft. This can sound like, okay, I'm going on some kind of a Zen retreat. What are you talking about here, Tarty? No, I'm just talking about if you don't create space in your week or in your month to get alone with your thoughts and dump all that out onto a, yellow pad and really get above the business and think about the biggest problems and the biggest opportunities. No one else is going to do that. That's your job as the leader. And if you're not

doing it, it's probably not being done for your organization. So I try to carve out about three hours every week where I'm off-site, I've got a yellow pad, I might read a little something, and I'm just really trying to think intentionally. This isn't just go have a cup of coffee and veg out and listen to classical music and have some kind of a spa experience. No, this is very intentional work. It's the deep work that we've talked about before. Although we don't want to poo-poo the spa experience. Well, if you get time for that. To rejuvenate.

You know, get on you. Those are good things as well. That'll be in my talking points on a future episode. Okay. Later on, you can talk about tips for the spa. Yeah. But as leaders, our mental work that we do is so critical. And we tend to dismiss it in our Western culture as, well, that's something you should

just have naturally. Go from the gut. Figure it out, make a decision. Book yourself solid with meetings. But the reality is it's a muscle. We've got to exercise. You've got to go to the gym. Grow your brain.

grow your thought process, figure out how to think at a higher level so you can take your team to the next level. Yeah, and, you know, it makes me think this idea of solitude leads to another point I want to get you to weigh in on. This idea of changing the environment's powerful. In some ways, finding solitude is a change in environment. But what are some other things that you do or your team does to change that environment and ultimately it helps, it really kind of recalibrates our perspective? That's the power of a new environment. Right, absolutely. Well, you know the old atage familiarity breeds contempt. And we're all subject to that. And if we get into a routine and we're just in the next meeting and we're just having the next kind of status quo conversation, we will

start to develop a apathy towards everything. And as leaders, our job is to disrupt. We've got to disrupt our team. We've got to disrupt the market. And the reality is, Ken, we've got to disrupt ourselves, our own thinking patterns. And the best way I know how to do that is to change my environment. Think about the last time you're really inspired, like really compelled to stand up and cheer and charge of hill at some level. I was having coffee with you. No, I don't believe that. I'm not that inspirational, but I do have a lot of fun with you. You know, it was probably at a church service or a sporting event or a concert, somewhere you were out of your normal element and you were in a crowd where other people were excited about something going on on the field or something going on on

the stage. And that's what a live event or a conference can really do for a business leader. That's why we do them. Yeah. Actually, I was having fun with you, of course. But I think you're spot on. I will tell you one of the top five most inspiring moments of my life. I want to hear. Was a concert. It was a Garth Brooks concert in Las Vegas at his one-man show. I did not go in thinking I'm going to be inspired. I went in with my wife and my in-laws and we're going to have a nice evening. And I got to tell you, and I'm not going to break it down, but it was exactly what you're talking about. It was obviously a different situation. I'm on a vacation, yet here I am in a concert. I'm going to sit back and watch maybe the greatest entertainer of all time and just consume.

And he inspired in so many ways. I was literally typing notes off of things he was doing on stage. That's the whole point of this disruption environment. You don't know what an environment is going to do for you. You don't know what it's going to do to you. But it does put your brain in a completely different context. And that is the magic of what you're talking about. And so here's the myth.

I think what lulls us away from live events and conferences is I can get content on demand through YouTube, through online courses. Yeah, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. but the reality is that's not changing our environment. And so you've got to get off the Instagram, get off the YouTube, and get out of your regular status quo, get to a place where people are excited about something new so you can have that breakthrough. All right.

Well, let's talk about our summit event because I think that's a great opportunity for people to really disrupt everything that's going on because of the environment. It's a bunch of people. We're talking over 1,500 high achievers. Yes. An incredible speaker line. We've been talking about it. But I'm putting you on the spot.

How does that event do what you're talking about? Well, let me put it this way. People know we're here to talk about our event, sell tickets to the event. They get it. Oh, you guys are good at marketing and you're here to kind of get us hopped up and inquire about your event. Yes, we are because we believe in it. But here's the real story.

This summit event is the only event that we shut down the whole company and send our entire leadership team, Ramsey Solutions leadership team, 50 of our top leaders. And we say, whatever you have going on that, we cancel it. You're going to this event. You're sitting in this room because we believe in the power of this so much ourselves. And so if nothing else, we're putting on an event that we're we believe in that's going to take our company to the next level and grow our leaders. And so why not do what we're doing and join us in that journey? If you're new to our podcast, it is the

Entree Leadership Summit, May 21 through 24 in sunny Orlando, Florida, the J.W. Marriott Resort, absolutely stunning property. What's even better is the actual content. That's why we're so proud of it because we know what it's going to do. Dave Ramsey, of course, as our headliner, our CEO, The founder of Ramsey Solutions has invited John Maxwell, Robert Hershevik from Shark Tank, Pat Lynchione, Lou Holtz, the legendary Lou Holtz. And by the way, if you've never heard this guy speak, even if you've never watched a game of football in your life, classic. He's going to blow you away, really fun stuff.

And here's the deal, Simon Seneca, who right now, if you look at all those names, all big names, but this guy's ticket right now is pretty hot. Guy is a great thinker, great communicator. He's going to be with us to round out our guest. The leadership guru, John Maxwell, longtime friend of Dave Ramsey. I used to work with John. He's a master communicator. Always delivers the gold.

And of course, Christy Wright, Chris Hogan from our team, great communicators in their own right, will be joining us as well. I get to host this event. A lot of fun. And this is not hype. This is not fake news. This event is going to sell out. It has before. It's going to, again.

That's the truth. So do you want to be here or not? It's worth it. I'm telling you it's worth it. Here's how you get more info and how you sign up. Summit 17 is the phrase. You're going to text that. Summit 17.

It's very simple. Text it to 33444. 3344. You'll get a link back and our team will get with you. And I'm telling you, folks, we really believe so much in this event. We put an entire team, as Daniel said, on the road to go sit and learn. Not just work it, but people that are all. on our team that aren't even in the Entree leadership brand. So there it is, folks. Really good stuff.

Daniel and Tarty, thanks for coming by. Final word on summit. Hey, we hope to see you there and it really is going to sell out. And, you know, when I hear these call to action things, I'm going, hi, if I put my number in, is somebody really going to call me? Our sales team calls you. That's what we do. So you're not going to get the run around. You're not going to get a high pressure pitch. But if you want to sign up and get information and see if this is the solution for your business, you're going to get super served by our team. And that's the best way to do it. May 21 through 24, Orlando, Florida. to see you there. Well, folks, if you've listened to this podcast before, Andy Andrews is not a

stranger to you. Love Andy, Love His Style. The new book is entitled The Little Things, Why You Really Should Sweat the Small Stuff. And folks, I really love this. Many of you know, I worked for John Maxwell for years. And I heard John say something once, and I wrote it down. I'll never forget it. And I want to share it with you because I think it makes this book title and this conversation come alive for you. But he once said that a young man once asked him about the big things. How do you get up every day and do the things that matter? He'd written a book called Today Matters.

The things you should do every day, that's kind of stuff. And he said, I made the important decisions, the big, gigantic decisions of life. I made them early on. I decided early, this is what I'm going to believe. This is what I'm going to do. So, first, I'm going to be committed to my wife. I've made the commitment. Divorce isn't an option.

That's a big one, right? I'm going to be a leader of integrity. I'm going to be honest. I'm not going to cheat people. You know, whatever the big values decisions are. That's what Maxwell was talking about. He said, I made those decisions early, and then I spent the rest of my life managing those decisions. Now, that's breakthrough stuff.

I wrote that down. I said, oh, that's good. Make your big decisions early. You hold to them. You say, I'm not going to waver. So then every day, when it comes to the big, things in life, values type stuff, you're managing those decisions every day. Hey, I've already decided this. So how's it going to affect how I live today? I think that's a great, great thought.

And it really leads us beautifully in this idea in the book that Andy's talking about, the little things. Little things make a huge difference. And if you've already made the decision, as Maxwell says, on the big things in life, then you can spend each and every day focusing on the little things that manage those big decisions. I think this is a wonderful thought, and of course, Andy writes so brilliantly on it. So here he is, Andy Andrews. Well, Andy, it's a treasure to have you back on, and I say that because I have had the privilege of interviewing you so many times, and the way you just distill great truth through stories and observations is such a fun, conversation. And the new book is called The Little Things, Why You Should Sweat the Small

stuff. So let's start there. How'd you get this idea? I know you're the noticeer. You wrote a book on that that went crazy. Is that what made you start to notice this idea of the small things? I got to tell you, it was something that I noticed. Because in a world where people are talking about the big picture, I, and you know, Ken, I tend to look the other way. I tend to look the other way because I'm wanting great results, unbelievable results. And, you know, Ken, I tend to look the other way. I tend to look the other way because I'm wanting great results. You know, I'm just, I'm like this normal person, okay? You know, I haven't got a gold medal. I haven't got a Super Bowl ring.

I don't have a television show. And so when I go in and work with a company or work with a team, I can't afford to have 15% growth or 17% growth. I got to double or triple because I got to have incredible results. Well, to have incredible results, you got to do something just totally different. And so one of the things that I noticed is that. that everybody is concerned with the big picture. There is that mantra out there, don't sweat the small stuff.

It's all of it, you know, keep your eyes on the big picture. But what people forget is that every big picture is created one tiny brushstroke at a time. If you look at Da Vinci's masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, he created that with the smallest paintbrush that had ever been used. To this day, you can't see brushstrokes even. with a magnifying glass in that. And of course, he was creating a masterpiece. And so your own life, when you get to the end of your own life, whatever you have created, whether it's a masterpiece or a disaster, either way, it will have been done one tiny moment, a brush stroke at a time. That's so good. All right. So set us up. We'll get into more detail stuff here coming up.

But I want our listeners, these are high performance people. They're achievers, their leaders. And when they hear this, I think that kind of shakes us a little bit, and I think that's wonderful. So give us an idea what you take us through in this book. What type of little thing should we be laser-focused in on? Give us a summary. First of all, let me just let me make sure that everybody knows that this book, this is not a recreation of stuff I've done before. It's not a recreation of stuff somebody else has done, in other words. There's a lot of this stuff in here that you've never heard before, and there's a lot a stuff, a ton of stuff in here this has never been written before.

And the reason is because it is counterintuitive to what you have been doing. And I understand that everybody listening to this podcast. I mean, you know, Dave's a friend, you're a friend, and I know these people. And everybody on this podcast,

they are at the top of their game. Well, if you're at the top of your game, there is a way things are done. And so, I had to figure out. I mean, you know, I actually have my hand in the last nine college football national championships in a row, working with the coaches, the teams, or them using my material. And I always use the example. You know, you go into Nick Saban or Urban Meyer, you know, what are you going to say to them? These guys are obviously at the top of their game. What am I going to say? Hey, I played football in the

sixth grade. Let me help you out here, right? And so everything I want you to understand, stand will be counterintuitive. I had some unbelievable increases with companies and teams. And Polly, my wife, can you get a kick out of this? She asked me not too long ago, she said, how do you do that with a mortgage company? How are you doing that with a football team? You know, no offense, but you don't know anything about this stuff. And I said, well, you're exactly right. I don't. I know about people, but I don't know about the industry itself. And I said, and here's a curious thing. If somebody came up to me in an airport and said, Andy, we'll never see you again. And we only have 30 seconds with you. And we need you to tell us something that will give us a chance at increasing 15% a year for the next decade.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it because that would require a knowledge of their industry. Because, you know, the best in any industry increase 15 to 20% a year over and over and over again. That's what the best do. And so that requires best practices and industry standards. It requires the knowledge of the industry, so I couldn't do it. But if somebody came up to me in an airport and said, Andy, we only have 30 seconds with you, and we need you to give us something that will give us a chance at doubling our entire company in a year.

Well, I could do that in a heartbeat. I could easily do that because all I would say was, okay, look at your industry. See what everybody's doing. Turn around, go the other way. Because you wanted a chance, right? That's what you want. Is it a chance to double? Okay, look at your industry.

You see anybody doubling? Don't do what they're doing. You do what they're doing. You ain't got a chance to doubling. You want it a chance? Turn around and go the other way. See, these little bitty things are what really make a difference. Like the difference in how and why.

everybody knows how to do something in a particular industry. I mean, in a particular market, people know how. You find the best of these people know how to do it. And they'll do it again, again. They'll teach it and they'll teach other people how to do it. They'll franchise their ideas. They know how to do it. But you will find achievers that they have created organizations

or they've created amazing things that, you kind of don't even know what they do. Is it like, you know, he has a coconut plantation in Costa Rica and he has a furniture plant in North Carolina. And did you know that goat meat was the fastest birth to market meat in the world? Yeah, well, he did. And he made $75 million with a goat farm in Iowa last year. These people have things that you have no idea how they connect. Well, see, here's the thing.

while everybody else knows how, they know why a principle works as it does. You can know how it works and harness the power of that principle. But until you know why a principle works as it does, you will never harness the full power. Because when you know why a principle works as it does, you can harness that principle to work in other things in different contexts that seem to have no relation to what everybody else is using it for. So the key there is, I want to lock in on this, this idea of why versus how. That is a philosophy of the little things to dive in deep, to ask the specific questions, to kind of keep that inner child alive so that we're always asking, why did this work?

Why not? I just want you to stay on this idea of how this all comes together around this idea of the little things, why is such an important tool for leaders? Yeah, it's one of those things that is funny, Ken, that we get this knocked out of us when we're kids, obviously. We said, Dad, why, you know, why is grass green? And dad says, well, because God made it green. But why did he make it green?

Well, I don't know, green was his favorite color, I guess. He didn't like pink grass and he made it green. But why did, look, don't ask me that anymore. Okay. Don't ask me, in fact, don't ask me why about it. anything. And so we kind of grow up with the idea that we're not going to ask why. In fact, if you look at when, see, the when is the key, if you look at when, most of us ask the question why, we ask it when things are wrong. That's when we ask it. We say, no, why is this not working anymore?

We ask why when something's wrong. Okay, now watch this. We stop asking why when we get an answer. Because when we get the answer and it starts working again, then we don't ask why. See, the time to ask why, the time that the question why has the most power

in your business, in your life, your family, the time it has the most power is when things are working. Because that's where you have exponential growth. So the question is not just why is this not working, anymore and then you get an answer and you never ask why again. But to look at it working and go, why is this working like it is? Because when you begin to understand why that prince of words,

it's just like Nick Saban, he knows how to run a certain play. And if it doesn't work, he might ask, oh, why is this not working? Why, well, that guys didn't block and that guy didn't pull at the right time and that doesn't. Okay, and so then they get it working again. But if he can look at that play and go, why does this play work like it does? Because when he can figure out why it works like it does, he can create plays to mimic those situations and start to get... Do you see what I'm saying? Absolutely.

This brings this whole idea alive, because when we keep drilling down, if you will, if you're using the ice pick, the Y is an ice pick and it just chops through that big block of ice and what ends up happening are these little pieces, little things. I'm trying to get this metaphor for folks because this is the genius. You said you've worked with Urban Meyer and some of these teams. And when they're working so well, they've got fine-tuned units and you go in,

it's these little things that Nick Saban notices or that Urban Meyer notices or that you help them notice. And all of a sudden, it's this little nugget that has profound effect. Is that what we need to hear? Absolutely. What I do, Ken, when I work with companies and when I work with teams, what I tell them I do is I help people compete at a level. The competition doesn't know there's a game going on. Oh, hold on. Hold on. That's a big statement. I want you to unpack that real quick.

Before you go any further, unpack that one. All right. All right. So the idea is, I help people compete at a level. The competition doesn't know there's a game going on. The first thing you've got to realize is that everybody competes the same way. I don't care what industry they're in. You know, if you go to an insurance guy and say, okay, we're shopping insurance of the car, he'll tell you the price, the product, you'll tell you the history of the company,

you'll tell you the service, how they service the thing, how they... You know, then you go to another insurance guy, and if you listen closely, you'll realize he's saying the same thing. It's the same thing. It's kind of the same price. It's a different name of the product,

but it's the same thing. So even if you're really better than they are, because you're competing the same way, the best you can usually hope to do is beat them every time by a little bit. However, if you can figure out how to legitimately compete in a way, the other team doesn't know there's a game going on. Meaning, yeah, you've got to be good from the snap to the whistle. You've got to be good at the fundamentals.

But if you can also figure out how to legitimately compete from the whistle to the next snap while everybody else is just standing around, you'll run them off the field. But it requires a shift of thinking. From the big picture to the little things. I'll tell you a very curious little thing on the football field. People get a kick out of. If you looked at the defense in the first quarter, the first game, these guys are leaning in.

Their arms are hanging loose. They're wiggling their fingers. I mean, man, they're loose, limbered. They are ready to fire across that line. But the body language changed. And certainly in the fourth quarter, if you looked at the defense, most of them stand with their hands on their hips. They're exhausted. So we thought, well, what would happen if in the fourth quarter, when all the other team is exhausted, our guys just make the one little shift to appear?

fresh, ready to go, not wilted. It further demoralizes other team because there's like, these guys, I mean, they're not even tired. It's just a little bitty thing that shifts a mental and there are so many of those things I couldn't even tell you. Now, I want to switch gears because you touched on this when we covered the whole importance of asking why. And one of the big themes in this book is the idea of questioning conventional wisdom. You also kind of touched on this earlier when you said, if somebody came to the airport in 30 seconds and said, hey, Andy, how can help us out? And you essentially said what is a big truth in everything that you teach. I've heard it many times from me, this idea of challenging conventional wisdom. And it's not this rebellious, stubborn thing that Andy Andrews is pitching.

It really is a way of looking at things a little different to maybe see other things. And so I want to focus on that, this idea of little things, how they add up to big results. If we use little observations, notice the little things, change some little things in challenging the conventional wisdom. We've got people out there going, okay, Andy, I want to know how to do this effectively, to really, truly challenge conventional wisdom. Give them something practical they can start tomorrow in challenging the process. The cool thing about conventional wisdom is that it sounds really good. But the bad thing about conventional wisdom is it is often wrong. And so it's a thinking thing. And so, Ken, you put it very well in that questioning conventional wisdom is not a

rebellious thing. It is a way to get deeper into the process. And so there's easy ones like conventional wisdom says a rabbit foot is lucky. Not to the rabbit. Right. You know, There's little things like conventional wisdom says that sticks and stones may bring my bones, but words will never hurt me. Well, we know that words can destroy careers. They destroy families. They destroy relationships. You know, what you don't know won't hurt you.

Well, that's wrong. I mean, what you don't know can hurt you and hurt you badly. And so this is why we want to dig in. In business, it is conventional wisdom that customer satisfaction is a key. That customer satisfaction, there is, That is our mantra. You know, we're the home of the satisfied customer. You'll see companies that use that as, use it on billboards.

That's their motto. That's their saying. Here, we care more about a satisfactory, let me just tell you something. Customer satisfaction is the lowest bar you can possibly hit and still stay in business. Because, I mean, think about it. Anything less than a satisfied customer? you're in trouble. And people don't understand that satisfied customers, do you know what customers think about being satisfied?

Here's what they think. I better be satisfied. I paid for it. That's right. And so the greatest advertising in the world is what? It's word of mouth. If the word of mouth is good, competition, well, if the word of mouth is great, if it's remarkable, if it's incredible, if it's incredible, if the word of mouth, with word of mouth is incredible.

Your competition cannot possibly traditionally advertise against you. If your word of mouth is bad, your own traditional advertising cannot possibly pick up the pieces. And so word of mouth is the key. And when you're talking about customer satisfaction, when you're talking about a satisfied customer, here is the sound of a satisfied customer. So, hey, listen, I was just checking, because I'm about to do business with Joe Blow and associates over here, and I know that you just did, everything go okay with that? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it was fine. So you were happy with the way all that turned out? Yeah. So no problems at all? No. No, no, it's good. That's a satisfied customer. And all that does is just keep them in, you know, if somebody's shopping for business or shopping

for a place to use, that just keeps them in the mix, okay? But it doesn't tilt anybody. You're not after satisfied customers. You're after raving lunatic fans. You're after people who take your business and say, hey, listen, I know this is none of my business, but I know that you are looking for different companies to do that and we just went through that. Have you checked with Joe Blow and Associates? Have you checked with those guys? Because I'm just, and I know it's not in my business, but there's a guy there that we used.

And Fred, my kids call him Uncle Fred. Can we stop and see Uncle Fred? It's like, no, we're through with that project. But listen, we loved this guy. So you got before you decide, talk to Fred, tell him that we're friends. I mean, mentioned my name. In fact, here, let me call him on my cell phone. I'll introduce you him on. You see the difference? Mm-hmm. Big difference. And so, so satisfied. Right. So conventional wisdom says you want satisfied customers. If you have satisfied customers, your reward for satisfied customers is you get to stay in business. That's your reward. Okay. I'm going to put you on the spot because A, you can handle it so well. And I love your personal story. Some of our listeners may not know it. But when you turned your life around a big part of it, I've heard you say this, is you begin to read biographies of successful people. Right.

And you notice things and eventually you write a book called The Noticer, you know, all these things. traveler's gift, wild success. And I just want to ask you with this idea of little things, is there somebody that sticks out to you that we might know, but they were very successful in large part because they understood this whole concept of the little things? Something specific that just pops in your mind of somebody who noticed the little things, made the changes around the little things, and then ended up changing the course of history. You know, that's a great question. That's a great question, Ken, because I never thought about this until you asked that question. But, you know, they write biographies. People who have biographies written about them are people who are extraordinarily successful, right? I mean, they don't write biographies about people who have average success. It's extraordinary success that gets the print. It gets the publicity. And one of the first things that popped into my mind was, you know, who's the popcorn guy?

You remember the guy that made the popcorn? Orville Redenbock. Orville Redenbacher. Orville Redenbacher. You remember the secret? It's the moisture content. 14%. I mean, I mean, what a little thing.

What a little thing that created a billion-dollar empire. This guy figured out it was, that there was a certain moisture content in the, popcorn that if you hybridized it to a certain moisture content, I mean, can you think of anything smaller than that? And when it, you know, if you read the Wright brothers, there's a great biography there, the Wright brothers, you will see that, boy, they were in a race. It wasn't that just out of nowhere these guys came up and flew all over the world. It was a competition. They were racing to be the first to fly. And to see how many directions people went in and to see those two guys,

because there were people who had, you know, degrees and who had experience in certain engineering things. Well, Orville and Wilbur were, they owned a bicycle shop. And yet it was a few tiny things that they noticed. about birds that allowed them to be the first and the people that we remember to this day over and over and over again. But because they're little, you got to look. You got to look. And you can look into the lives, into the biographies, and you can find those things.

But I promise you, in your business, in your business, in what you do, And what you are doing for your family, to lead your business, to lead your family, to raise your kids. Let me tell you an amazing little thing that can gain you so much influence and gain you so much business acceptance. And that is to help people with their families. The more that you know about situations, being able to raise kids into great adults, the more. the more you know about solving problems, the more culturally literate you are in useful areas, the more useful you are, and the more valuable you are to people. And people, see, here's a secret.

Here's a very little thing that is a massive secret out there. And I preach this all the time with my clients. And that is that whatever industry you're in, I don't care what industry you're in. The real product is you. Everybody competes with price and product. Have you ever paid more for something than you had to? Yeah. Have you ever gone to more trouble to get it than you had to?

Yeah. We all have. If there's something that trumps price and product, why does everybody compete with price and product? And what is it that trumps it? I'll tell you what trumps it. It's you. Yeah. I want to stay right here.

And when you were talking about this idea that the real difference maker is you and that last statement you made about our own personal value. And I think that's what's so brilliant about this concept and this book. I want to take you to a story that I'm guessing, Andy, that you have shared hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times. You wrote a little book called The Butterfly Effect, and I've heard you share this. You shared it on my radio show many years ago when I had you on. And to me, it's still one of the most valuable stories I have ever heard. So for me, on behalf of our audience, this idea of little things and the value of one person and our ability to actually make gargantuan change.

Tell the story of the former vice president. I don't want to give his name away. I don't want to give his name away because it'll ruin the story. Yeah, I mean, truly, truly, there is nothing smaller than a flap of a butterfly's wings when you think about it. And yet that whole idea, the butterfly effect, it was a doctoral thesis written in 1963 by Edward Lorenz. And it was laughed out of the New York Academy of Science. People thought it was crazy.

And it was kind of crazy. The idea that a butterfly could flap its wings and set molecules of air in motion that moved other molecules of air that somewhere down the line on the other side of the world could create weather patterns. You know, the butterfly, it was crazy. but it was interesting, and because it was interesting, it hung around forever in myth and urban legend and comic books and bad movies, until finally, physics professors in the 90s proved the butterfly effect was accurate and viable, and it worked every time, and not just with butterflies, it worked with any form of moving matter, including people.

So it now has the status of a law, just like the law of gravity. In scientific circles, the butterfly effect is known as the law of sensitive dependence upon initial conditions. And it works every time. And the story Ken's referring to, I know that you're referring to, is the time that I was in a hotel room, about to go talk to some people. I never will forget. I was iron in the left sleeve of a white shirt. The TV was going. I had run in the room.

And it was a Friday night. I know it was Friday night because the TV was on ABC News and they were doing this person of the week thing, which they still do. They talk about somebody and how great they are giving the person of the week award. And so this guy, I'm barely listening. This guy, the anchor says, and so the person of the week forward and he gave the date is Norman Borlaug. Well, man, I put the iron down. My jaw is around my knees. Norman Borlaug.

I didn't know the guy was still alive. I knew who he was. because I had written a book called The Lost Choice, and I'd done some research and went down a rabbit trail, pulled a thread. I found this guy, Norman Borlaug. He actually died several years ago now in Dallas, 96 when he died. But he had hybridized corn and wheat in the 1930s for arid climates. And they had determined that his work, it calculated all across the world,

his work had saved the lives from famine of over two billion people. The guy saved two billion lives. And for that, he was person of the week. So I'm sitting there yelling at the TV because I know, I actually knew that it wasn't Norman Borlaug who was really ultimately responsible for this. It was a guy named Henry Wallace. Henry Wallace was a vice president of the United States under Roosevelt. And a lot of people think, well, wait, wait, wait, what about

Truman. Well, that's true. Truman was the vice president when Roosevelt died, but, you know, Roosevelt was elected four times. This was before presidential term limits, and very curiously, he had three different vice presidents. The middle one was the former Secretary of Agriculture, a man named Henry Wallace, who while he was vice president in the United States, used the power of that office to create a station in Mexico, whose sole purpose was to figure out how to hybridize corn and wheat for arid climates. And Henry Wallace hired a young man named Norman Borlaug to run it. And of course, Borlaug won the Nobel Prize, and Borlaug got a person of the week.

But really, when you think about it, it's Henry Wallace who was responsible for saving the tubing of people, unless, unless you think maybe it was George Washington Carver. You remember Carver, Ken? Sure. Right? The peanut stuff. And one of the things people don't know about Carver is when he was 19 years old and a student at Iowa State University, he had a dairy sciences professor who on Saturday and Sunday afternoon would allow his six-year-old boy to go on botanical expeditions with this brilliant student. And, you know, George Washington Carver was basically this kid's babysitter because it was George Washington Carver who took this six-year-old and put a vision in him about, plants and what they could do for humanity.

It was George Washington Carver who took this six-year-old Henry Wallace, long before he ever thought about being vice president, and put a vision in his life, pointed his life in a direction. And it's amazing, really, when you think about Carver, all the years he spent flapping his butterfly wings with a peanut, 266 things he developed from the peanut that we still use today, all the years he spent flapping his butterfly wings with the sweet potato 88 things we did out from the sweet potato that we still used today and while nobody was even looking he took a couple of weekends with a six-year-old kid and flapped his wings with a little boy and just happened to save the lives of two billion people obviously the point of the story is how far back could we go to show whose move at what time made you know you just save the lives of two billion people, a number that increases as we talk here. And, and,

and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and then how far forward could we go in your life to show the difference you will make with the very little things that you do and don't do, what little things can make a difference and change the entire world, the course of history. Hmm. He is Andy Andrews. and I'm so glad you shared that story, Andy. I don't know how you couldn't be inspired by that. And the book that you've got to go get, run, get it, dive into it. There's so much we didn't even uncover, and it is a must read.

Everything Andy does is a must read. The new book is The Little Things, Why You Really Should Sweat the Small Stuff. Andy, you're a great friend, a great storyteller, your friend to businessman, a friend to just everyday people who want to make the most out of their life. Thank you for your unique gift and for spending your very friend. valuable time with us. We're better for it. We appreciate it. Well, thank you. You know how much I love you and appreciate you very much, Ken. Thanks so much for the time. Hey, if you'd like to learn more about the book or get the book, go to Andy Andrews.com slash little things. Andyandrews.com slash little things. All right, folks, this month we're on a mission to help you increase your sales. So Eric,

the producer and I were talking about some ideas and we went back to the art. I always love when Eric's a producer does this. He went back, pulled some content from my conversations with Daniel Pink and Tim Sanders, both New York Times bestselling authors. Again, these are from previous episodes. And we have, by the way, the links, if you're new to our podcast, in the show notes. If you'd like to hear the entire interview from those episodes, we make it simple. You don't have to go back and look for them. Just go to this episode show notes, and we have the full conversation. But both these guys give you some great insight on sales. How to win. Both these guys get it. So it's great stuff. And then, after that, we're going to give you our two tools, both from Infusion Soft and our Entree leadership team, that are going to help you win big. Don't miss that. But first, here's some insight from Daniel Pink and Tim Sanders.

The most effective has an invitation to collaborate. And that's changed the way that I pitch. I used to think that pitching was you do a little soft shoe number, and they say, that's brilliant. You know, let me take out my checkbook. And that is absolutely not the case. It was really saying, you know, you don't have to be necessarily explicit about it. But, you know, it's sort of, this is what I think.

What do you think? You know, here's the first word. Why don't you contribute the next word and we'll build something together? And that created more effective pitches and ultimately better products. And so it's less of a kind of an attempt to convert on the spot, but more of an invitation to have a conversation. And this research is so good. it really changed how I end up pitching, much less show number and a lot more. Hope you enjoyed that clip from Daniel Pink.

Again, the full episode is in a link in our show notes. You can go get that at your leisure. Now, here is Tim Sanders. What I've learned, though, is that in sales or in account management, especially for entrepreneurs, we're the lone wolf. And quite frequently, we try to do it by ourselves. and we don't work across departments. We don't try to find allies out in the market that can mentor us or partner with us.

And over the last 15 years, what I've learned is if you want to increase your chance of raising the funding or closing the deal or saving the account by 300%, build a team of diverse perspectives. In almost every situation where someone had the breakthrough that led to the next best play that the team put together, they weren't in sales, they were on the edges. Maybe they were an account coordinator. Maybe they were the service manager. Maybe they were the finance manager who came up with a hack around pricing that solved everything. People from the outside, they don't operate with the same constraints as we do in sales where we say that didn't work before. That's not how we do things. And so I think the important thing for an entrepreneur to do is to

create a culture where sales treats everyone else at the company like a partner and not an internal service provider where they're the customer. Hope you enjoyed that from Tim as well. And again, you can get the entire conversation from that episode in our show notes. Eric the producer has a link for you there. All right, folks, I told you that we're going to help you. So what are the resources we're giving you? First, our Entree leadership team has got a super selling cheat sheet.

Now, this cheat sheet is going to show you the right way to sell, right? I mean, there is a process that will help you actually serve your customer, not just sell them. And so we give you a checklist that each call needs to look like, right? So when your team's making calls, what does a call need to encompass? We give you a checklist for that. And we're going to give you a chart on how to sell to each personality style. This is important stuff. It's game-changing.

As you know, we've talked about this, the disc, and the tools we've given you in the past. So a chart will help you sell to each personality style. And then we give you some classic sample closes that still work. Now, again, when you get samples from us, I want to make sure you're using these the right way. It's not saying you have to say it exactly that way. But it gives you context, gives you some handlebars, if you will, that you can grab onto and customize and use for your team. This saves you as a leader a lot of time.

So this is a terrific resource. So this is an amazing tool for all the salespeople on your team. team, use sales managers, sales leaders. Definitely take us up on this. All you have to do is text the word EL sales. That's one word. EL sales, text that to 33-444. That's 33-44. Now, if you want to help your team sail via email, now, I'm not a huge fan of this normally, but I tell you, I looked at this resource. And, you know, there are times where an email cuts through the clutter, and you can really sell on email. You don't rely on that exclusively. But InfusionSoft has come up with an amazing resource entitled 10 emails you need to close the cell.

So it's a part of the process. It's not all relying on email, but it's using email in its context, in its platform to help you close. So when you're trying to close a sale through email, sometimes it's tough to determine what to say, when do you say it, how to not sound pushy, right? Because when you're typing something, there's no emotion on either end of that. You're not sure how it's being said. It's just being typed. And so they give you some really, really wonderful guardrails to use this well. The email marketing experts at Fusionsoft are going to give this away to you.

Ten free email templates that come to you in this resource. So you've got templates again that you can just begin to use massage and make them work for you. You'll also be shown how to use a good call. to action. Avoid being marked as spam. You don't want somebody think of that. That's the death knell for any type of email outreach. And it'll also help you save time by using these emails automatically. You can get it all at infusionsoft.com slash 10 emails. Infusionsoft.com slash 10 emails. All right, folks, unbelievable. We've just kicked off March. I don't know where the time has gone. I want to say a big thank you to Andy Andrews and Daniel Tarty for stopping by, of course, as I always say, but I truly mean on behalf of Eric the producer, our engineer Will Rudder and the entire Entree leadership team.

Thank you for listening. We appreciate you so much. And we'll talk with you again very soon.