High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 620: Develop Your Competitive Advantage with Lynne Jensen-Nelson, Keynote Speaker, Business Strategist, and Business Owner

Episode Date: May 23, 2024

You are here because you want to be the best that you can be. You have high standards for yourself. You want to gain the competitive advantage. That is what Lynne Jensen-Nelson is here today. After earning her master’s degree, she rose through the ranks from front line sales to corporate executive leadership.  Now through her skills in keynote speaking, workshops, and business strategy, Lynne transfers key lessons learned from years of experience to organizations across the country. Lynne founded Conversion-omics Speakers & Consultants to help organizations create true competitive advantage.  Today this company has grown to 90+ professional speakers and consultants who are experts in virtually all topic areas. Her goal is to bring the INFORMATION, MOTIVATION, and INSPIRATION you need to take your event or project to the next level.  In this episode, Lynne and Cindra talk about the: 4 components of Competitive Advantage How to consider your mindset, skillset, and toolset to gain a competitive advantage The 4 P’s of Confidence The 2 most important things you should do for those you work with And, language to use and language to lose   HIGH PERFORMANCE MINDSET SHOWNOTES FOR THIS EPISODE LEARN MORE ABOUT LYNNE AND CONVERSION-OMICS HERE FOLLOW SIGN UP FOR THE FREE MENTAL BREAKTHROUGH CALL WITH CINDRA’S TEAM TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE MENTALLY STRONG INSTITUTE Love the show? Rate and review the show for Cindra to mention you on the next episode.

Hi, I'm Cydra Kampoff, the founder of the Mentally Strong Institute, where we help leaders, entrepreneurs, and athletes play big and achieve their most audacious goals. If you want to achieve your goals quicker, up-level your confidence, and increase your influence, I invite you to sign up for a free coaching call with one of my team members at freementalbreakthroughcall.com. We'll help you create a breakthrough, a moment of more clarity and understanding, and help you practice the high performance mindset. That's freementalbreakthroughcall.com to sign up for your free mental breakthrough call. And you know, you're here because you want to be the best that you can be. You wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you weren't interested in that. And you have very high standards for yourself. You want to gain the competitive advantage. And that's why Lynn

Jensen Nelson is here today with us. After earning your master's degree, she rose from the ranks from frontline sales to corporate executive leadership. And now through her skills in keynote speaking, workshops, and business strategy, Lynn transfers key lessons learned from years of experience to organizations across the country. Lynn founded Conversionomics Speakers and Consultants. I'm one of those speakers in her list to help organizations create true competitive advantage. And today, this company has grown to over 90 professional speakers and consultants. And in this episode, Lynn and I talk about four components of competitive advantage and how you can gain the competitive advantage, how to consider your mindset, skill set, and

tool set to gain a competitive advantage, the four Ps of confidence, the two most important things you should do with those that you work with and language to use and language to lose if you enjoyed this episode we'd love for you to leave a rating and review if you're listening on your iphone for example you can just scroll down and leave us a rating and review there that just helps us reach more and more people each and every week so thank you so much for doing that and if you'd like to see the full show notes and a description of this episode, you can head over to cindracampoff.com slash 620 for episode 620. All right, let's bring on Lynn.

Welcome to the High Performance Mindset. I'm so excited that you're here today, Lynn Jensen Nelson. And if you are not watching us on YouTube, you don't know that we're both wearing our cobalt blue jackets with a floral undershirt. And this is like, you know, our standard and one of the ways that we bond is over our love for cobalt blue. That's true. It was one of the first things we found out we had in common

is our intense love for the color. And shopping and lots of other things. Exactly. So many things. Yeah, so many things. Well, I'm just really excited to have you on the podcast and to learn more about what you've been working on and to help the audience really to have a competitive advantage. And I think that's where we should start, Lynn, is we should start talking about what it means to have a competitive advantage and tell us about what that means to you and how it applies to everyone who's listening. Wonderful. Well, again, thank you so much for having me today. I've been looking forward to this for a long time,

so I appreciate being here and talking with all of your wonderful guests that are fans of your podcast. So, you know, here's the thing. When it comes to competitive advantage, the world is a competitive place. So whether you're an elite athlete, whether you're running a business, frankly, just getting your ideas and your vote and everything else out there, we want to make sure that we're aware there's a lot of noise going on right now. They call it marketplace blur. There's many different options out there. And so really thinking about what do I do? How do I set myself up to differentiate from some of the other options that are out there? So whether you're a keynote speaker, you're a business leader, a business owner, just understanding what differentiates you from the other options that are available.

And what we know about that, when we talk competitive advantage, I always feel like I want to clarify, it's not about bringing anybody else down. It's just making sure that you set yourself up for success in any way that you can. And really focusing on capitalizing on your strengths, understanding the challenges. And I love the concept, and I'm sure that you are a fan, or at least you've read James Clear and that whole concept of atomic habits. And how do I look at my opportunities for improvement and get 1% better? That's really something when it comes to competitive advantage, making sure that we're constantly striving to grow and improve. One of the things I learned early on is that we're all a work in progress. So no matter where you are, every day we're getting better, we're getting worse. Even

when we're at the top of our game, nothing promises you to stay there forever. And so really being able to assess your strengths and weaknesses and work to improve them is a big part of everything that we do every day. Yeah, that's wonderful. And when you think about where should we kind of get started as we're thinking about our competitive advantage? Because I'm thinking about myself, right? I'm a coach. I'm a speaker of a company called the Mentally Strong Institute. And so I'm also thinking about that and how can I make sure that we have a competitive advantage? So where do we get started as we're thinking about this idea? That's such a great question. Here's what I recommend. And here's usually where I start. So this might be an exercise that's great for you, certainly for your listeners. I like to start

with this. And I would say, all right, we're going to grab a piece of paper, right? Piece of paper. We grab something to write with. We draw a line down the middle. And we start by talking about this concept of control. So on the left side, I ask people to write down what is everything that's outside your control. So, Sindra, in your business, you know, again, if you're an athlete, what's outside your control? Your age, you know, how long your legs are. There's a lot of things that are out, you know, what's going on economically, politically, you know, what's happening as far as your industry that you specialize in. So on the left, make a list. Everything outside are controllable.

And there's a lot of things that go on that list. But let's just pay attention to it. And then on the other side, we write what's inside our control. So as you look at yourself and you figure out, OK, this is what I control. And that's where we're going to when we talk later on, we're going to talk about mindset, skill set and tool set. You know, what are those things that we can control? And when I have people go through this exercise, a lot of things show up with that outside my control. Other people, you know,

sometimes it's the weather, sometimes it's attitudes, it's approaches, it's, you know, other responsibilities in my life. How many hours I have in a day, you know, what are the resources being provided by my employer? There's a whole bunch of thing that's outside my control. But really at the top for most people, and probably, Sindra, for you too, if you were going through this exercise, one of the big things that's in our control is our attitude, our approach, how we take care of ourselves, how we set ourselves up for the day, what kind of preparation do we do. And as you know better than probably anyone, being a sports psychologist and an expert on that,

is that attitude is everything. You know, how do we approach it? How do we, do we put the time and energy and effort into setting ourselves up for success? And successful people focus on what we can control. And having that mindset as we go into it just helps us be successful no matter what we do. And that helps us have more of a competitive advantage. But let's focus. And that's something, even with my own team, we always have a saying, every problem has a solution. And I've always said this.

This is just a mindset I always try to have. And I want to be that solution provider. But boy, some days are rough. Some days are tough. And so it's funny. I had a situation recently where it was just a big obstacle. And I thought we'd overcome it. But we didn't.

It came back. And my team member had to kind of prop me up and say it right back to me. Hey, Lynn, every problem has a solution. Let's figure that out. And I find that going through this control exercise really helps us focus on, you know, where do we go from here? What do we need to do? Because we know, and athletes are such a perfect example. Look at the amazing athletes that exist that probably shouldn't have, but they figured out how to control, you know, they were too short, or had asthma or they, you know, didn't have the right physique and they still figured out ways to be successful. And I think that applies just as clearly to the business world as well. Absolutely. You know, even with

the research shows, I was just reading some of it yesterday. I'm teaching an online class called Psychology of Coaching right now. And as I was rereading some of the research and it shows that actually mastery, you know, your commitment to practice is more predictive of your success than your genetics. Right. And so you're absolutely right. And Lynn, when, when you were saying that, I wrote down a couple of things I could control that I think are connected to my competitive advantage. And I, I wrote down, I can control my work ethic and I can control my marketing and I can control my branding and I can control like my risk taking. Yes. Yes. Risk. I mean, you've got to put yourself out there. I'm not a sports expert, but it's that Wayne Gretzky

quotation, right? You miss 100 percent of shots you don't take. And that understanding your comfort with risk. And frankly, right now, people are becoming more and more risk averse. And so, you know, a lot of that deals with COVID. So other parts of success, flexibility, adaptability. When I read that article about Michael Phelps, and I talked about how he trained, and that he trained seven days a week. Like he knows that if you take one day off, which a lot of people do, you take one day off, you actually go backwards. And I follow this training. We're going to talk later that I show horses competitively and I take that training very, very seriously. And, you know, if you fall back every day, you're getting better or getting worse. And if you're not putting yourself out there

every day that you don't post on social media or you don't make that phone call or you worry about, you know, being too pushy or, you know, it's one of those things that actually sets you back. But with Michael Phelps, I loved how he trained that they would he in his training, they would set up things to fail. So like his swim cap would they would give him a bad swim cap that would tear while he was training or they would create extra waves in the pool, or the water would be too cold or too warm, and his glasses would fog up. It was all about, okay, how do I adapt to what's going on around me? And, you know, I hate to bring up COVID. I know you and I are both professional speakers, and they say, don't talk about COVID. But we have to because what we can learn from that is that when COVID hit

that 30-day time span between March and April of 2020, we had 30 years of behavioral change. I'm sorry, 15 years of behavioral change. Sorry, 15 years of behavioral change in 30 days. So what we learned is the businesses and the leaders had to adapt to running their businesses differently, changing how they marketed, changing how they trained, training how they onboarded people. And so if you look at that, such a great example of the importance of adaptability and flexibility, too. I mean, that really is the key to putting it. I love your tie to risk because you got to put yourself out there and and see how do I adapt when I have myself in a situation that maybe isn't the most comfortable. So Lynn what you're saying is that typical 15 years of change we experienced in 30 days. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. No wonder why people struggled. You know like I think about increases in mental health. I during COVID I think about increases in mental health. During COVID, I think about increases of people, you know, drinking and, you know, just unhealthy habits.

It's true. And communication was impacted. You know, our interpersonal communication was impacted in not so positive way. But also it did demonstrate that the organizations that flourished were the ones that could adapt. And I think look at the education system, you know, you and I both have backgrounds working with colleges and just think of what a huge change we've made in our educational system too, because they had to. It's, it's amazing what we can do and we have to do it. And, you know, human beings were amazing creatures that when we're faced with challenges, some people just

step up and figure it out, but some people withdraw and use it as excuses. And I think that's why that adaptability and flexibility, I feel like that's such a huge part of competitive advantage. And again, I'm sure you see that with the professional athletes you work with too. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Flexible, adaptable, being able to move on quickly because there's so many things outside of our control when we're in sports, right? And even in business. So, so far we've talked about part of being, you know, having a competitive advantage is focusing on what you can control and being flexible and adaptable. Are there any other questions or approaches that we can use to think about and gain, you know, a competitive advantage? Absolutely.

So just kind of going in a little more detail is the whole concept of mindset, skill set, and tool set. So this is, I think that's another really good tool. And oftentimes when I'm working with a group or an individual, I ask them. So literally we'd have three boxes, mindset, skill set, and tool set. And we look at what does it take to be successful no matter what you do. So whether you're a professional football player, you're a salesperson, you know, you're a sales professional, you're a business leader, whatever that might be, what do we need in each of those boxes? And so, you know, mindset, we've talked about that a little bit, obviously attitude,

self-care, confidence, being a good communicator, you know, that goes in that kind of mindset bucket, among many other things. Just a few days ago, I was working in healthcare. And so obviously that the mindset in healthcare is very different than the mindset in some other industries. And then when we look at skill set, what goes into that skill set? Again, it could be very different, but really list out all of the skills. I feel like skills are more physical. So if you're a sales leader or a sales professional, you might think about listening, questioning, closing, handling objections, how language affects perception. All of those things might go in that skill set. If I'm a professional athlete, it might be, you know, how do I start? How do I handle, you know, getting tired? It might be throwing, catching, all those types of things. And then we look at tool set.

And oftentimes, I feel like that's actually that's the most recent addition. So we just added that recently because there are in almost all industries, there are certain tools that help us be more effective. And what I find, excuse me, what I find is that for most of us, we have access to a lot of tools, but we're not using them as much as we could. And so whether that is, you know, going back to the James Clear, he talks about the British cycling team and how they did that 1% and they looked at their uniforms, they look at their bicycles, but then they taught them like how to wash their hands properly so that they didn't get sick as often. Or it might be using your CRM, it might be using project management, social media. You know,

oftentimes there are these tools available. So I'll have people write down what are all the tools that you have available. And a lot of corporations have tons of tools available. And then I'll ask people to go through the exercise and say, okay, what percentage are you using them? And so maybe you're using your CRM tool at 40%, or you're using your project management tool at even 80%. And then the question is, why? Why are we not at 100%? And I'm sure it won't surprise you. The number one answer I get, no matter what industry is, oh, I'm too busy. I don't need it.

I haven't used it in the past. And we can't wait anymore. The tools, you know, things are getting more competitive all the time. And we have to move beyond that. I'm too busy to get better because we know every industry, every organization,

every day you're going forward or falling back. And, you know, how do we set ourselves up? And usually what's missing is there's a disconnect in there that I don't understand. And I love to quote one of our team members here at Conversionomics, and he says, in the absence of information, we default to our worst fear. So people don't, I don't know how to use it, but I'm embarrassed to say I don't know. Or, you know, we create this perception of too busy.

And I think going through that exercise and really figuring out, okay, what, why am I not 100%, especially the tools. If even, you know, you invest in a tool, you're like, oh, this is a great idea, monday.com or, you know, Salesforce or something else, but then we don't use it. And, you know, we have to figure out, okay, what are those next steps? How do I get up to speed with myself or my team and make sure that I'm maximizing to work more efficiently, frankly. I mean, efficiency should be the key. Efficiency over perfection.

That's what we try to focus on. Yeah, I like that. And Lynn, I like the idea of like mindset, skill set and tool set, because it makes you and even writing that down. I was just writing down a few things that I was thinking about how that related to me as I was listening. And, you know, even rating yourself on the mindset, you know, how would you rate your attitude on a scale of one to 10? Could that could that grow? You know, how would you rate your attitude on a scale of one to 10? Could that grow? How would you rate your communication on a scale of one to 10? Could that grow?

And I could see then when you write this all out, then you see, well, here are gaps. And here's where I really need to focus in on so that I do have that competitive advantage. It's true. And I love the things that you called out, communication and attitude, 100% within our control, right? Like 100% in our control, how well we communicate is the key to our success. And so oftentimes looking at that, and it's interesting when it comes to attitude, I'm sure you've heard the quotation,

attitudes are contagious, is yours worth catching? And it's interesting because that's been around forever. And lately, that really stuck for me. Because like you, like I'm used to being, you know, I'm on stage, or I'm, I'm working with a client, and I really do everything I can to bring all the energy. You know, I try to emulate the attitude and the energy and the excitement. And frankly, it's just because I love it. It's easy to do. But I found that with my own team, I wasn't bringing that same energy. So with my own team, I was, you know, ho-hum or frustrated. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like if I'm not bringing that to my people that are close, my personal relationships, you know, that was such a disconnect. And as soon as I thought, gosh, do I, because I share that with leaders all the time, because leaders sometimes, and again, I'm sure you've dealt with this And so I had to, that was really kind of a shocker for me. So that was, it was good to have that and

really go through those exercises. Because even as coaches and consultants, and professional speakers, I know you've got a lot that follow you. Gosh, are we are we demonstrating the skills that we're talking about on stage. So that was a good, that was a good eye opener for me, too. Yeah, and sometimes we, we end up treating the people that we're closest with, like our family, you know, our own team, the worst. We don't always, you know, really think about how are we showing up with our energy and our attitude. Lynn, I know you also speak a lot on sales. And so I'm kind of curious as we're thinking about just creating a competitive advantage, how can we create anything, you know, related to sales, like

effective sales tools or anything that could help us create that competitive advantage? Well, I'm so glad you asked, because here's the thing. We're all in sales. Everybody, everybody in every role, we are all in sales. You're, again, selling your ideas, your concepts, you know, helping people become aware of your brand, your identity. And so it's really important, first and foremost, just to accept that fact that that's where we are. But here's a little bit. So when it comes, let's talk business specifically.

So when it comes to competitive advantage, basically every industry boils down to your competitive advantage is tied to these four things. Price, product, people, and price. I'm sorry, price, product, people, and process. Okay. Price, product, people, and process. Got it. So that's what it comes. No matter what industry you're in, when people are evaluating you or considering you for something, whether it's a product or a service or speaking engagement, that's the four things that they're looking at. At the end of the day, the biggest driver to competitive advantage is actually people and process. So what is it like? It is. So people talk about price because we don't know. And the fact is, in almost all industries, our customers, whether you do B2B sales or

B2C sales, so business to business or business to consumer, at the end of the day, we buy from people. So what we really care about is people. We talk about price because we don't know what else to talk about. I mean, think about it. There's a lot of times people come. And in your business too, Sindhara, they come to you like, we know we need a coach. We know we need a speaker,

but we, you know, you ask about budget. They're like, we have no idea. You know, we don't know where to go. We don't.

So it's not, you're not, it's not like shopping for milk. Well, you know, even hiring, I hired someone to come out and, you know,

help with my trees or I hire some, buy a car. I don't shop for cars all the time. So I default to price because I don't know anything else, but people in process are what really sells. And again, we're 100% in our control. So when we talk about people, do you put your best foot forward? And if I may, I'd like to share two of my favorite rules of sales. The number one rule of sales is this, teach your clients to be great clients. Teach your clients, help them understand.

Make sure you understand where they come. Meet your clients where they are. If there's somebody that you've worked with, obviously you build up that rapport, but don't assume your clients know. Don't assume they understand. Don't assume they understand how to create an effective or appropriate budget. Don't assume they understand the steps in the process. Teach them. And that was what was exciting for me. So I came from the world of academia. I grew up in

a little tiny farm town in southern Minnesota where basically everybody was farmers or teachers. I became a teacher. My sister now runs our fourth generation family farm. So I started in the world of teaching. And I found that once I got into being a professional salesperson, that a lot of the strategies applied, you know, teach your clients to be good clients. And rule number two is help your clients feel successful. So what we want to do is when somebody approaches you, set them up for success. I think too often people think sales is about you looking good and you being the expert and, you know, what's it going to take to get you into this coaching program or whatever

else it might be. But really, it's about helping our clients feel good about connecting with you, feel good about buying from you, feel good about working with you long term, feel good about referring projects to you. So I find that applying those, so thinking about competitive advantage that price product people in process, but also applying those rules of sales, like teach your clients to be great clients. I find often when I work with successful sales professionals and leaders, sales and leadership is basically the same. What I say to them will tell me about your clients. Successful people always say, oh my gosh, my clients are the best. Here's why they're the best. They're awesome. And they're, you know, moving and they're changing and they're growing and all of this. And the people who are struggling, like, well, you know,

nobody wants to pay for anything. Everybody's looking for a free speaker. Nobody pays for quality. And so I know that that's one of the breakdowns is that good leaders, good sales professionals set their customers up for success. And the other part of that, and I'll just touch on this briefly, is when it comes to process, convenience is key. So if you're looking at your business and figuring out how do I make it incredibly easy for people to buy, if you think about online shopping, like that's how people go. It's super clear.

I want this. I see a picture. I read a review. I push buy, you know, the button that says purchase. And if we're not doing that, we want to make sure that we create that similar experience. So really convenience, when we say process, convenience is key. Yeah, I love that. I love those two rules.

Teach your clients how to be great clients and how help your clients feel successful and I was thinking about well how could I do that to me like teaching your clients to be great clients that means to me that I maybe set them up from like what my expectations are provide them with the resources that they might have. I'm just thinking about coaching clients that I have, right? And, you know, kind of sharing the importance of being on time or, you know, canceling our sessions 48 hours in advance. Those are the kind of things I'm thinking about related to that. And then help your clients feel successful. So celebrate their successes with them. What else would you add that, you know that would help us everyday people in business and in life and in sport use these two sales rules? Wonderful. Great question. I love you always

ask all the best questions, Cinder. I'm just going to say, you make my heart so happy. All right. So here's the thing. If we have time, we might talk about how language affects perception. So language not only sets you up for success, but creates a successful experience with your customers or your team members if you're a business leader. And there's a certain language that is more successful and drives business. And what you're talking about when it comes to expectation setting, which that is the key, like when I say teach your clients to be good clients, that means expectation setting. How do you prepare? And I'm sure you've learned this in your experience too, but over the years, you know, you can't assume anybody knows anything. Like even saying, bring a piece of paper and a pen to your next coaching meeting. You would like, you know, we're prepared people. So I have a stack of paper in eight pens in case

this one dies. I can throw it and bring in a new one. But there's nothing too small. Make sure it's quiet. Make sure you book time before and after. So expectations is a big thing about it. And how to maximize your investment. That's usually how I tell people to maximize our time together.

Here's how to prepare. But also going back to language, the key is making it easy for people to move forward. So we talk about risk aversion. People are afraid to invest. Their trust is a big part of confidence right now. So always be talking about next steps. What is our next logical step? And again, you're the minimal encourager. What is the next smallest, most important step to take place? And so I like to always outline that. Every conversation with a prospective client or an existing customer, every interaction, whether it's phone call, email, Zoom meeting, face-to-face, every single contact is clearly

outlined next steps. Make the path forward easy to follow. And too often, I'll ask this question to people all the time about their, breaking down their sales process or their onboarding process or recruiting process. And I'll say, okay, so what did you use the words next steps? Because it triggers a part of our brain. It goes from emotional to logical. And so by saying next steps, and how about dealing with conflict or an upset customer or a challenging situation? As soon as you start talking about next steps,

it moves people away from that frustration towards solution. And so getting that in your repertoire, and again, 100% in your control, just clearly outline those next steps is a big part of helping your customers, teach them to be good customers and set them up for success. Yeah, I love those ideas. And I think about different ways that you could even say next steps, right? It's like, here are all the ways that we can work

together. Or after we're done with this part, we can continue to work together in this way. Right? Exactly. Also what I was thinking about. Hi, this is Cinder Campoff. And thanks for listening to the High Performance Mindset. Did you know that the ideas we share in the show are things we actually specialize in implementing? If you want to become mentally stronger, lead your team more effectively and get to your goals quicker, visit freementalbreakthroughcall.com to sign up for your free mental breakthrough call with one of our certified

coaches. Again, that's free mental breakthrough call.com to sign up for your free call. Talk to you soon. So Lynn, you just said language creates perception. So I'd love for you to unpack that a little bit more. And as we kind of think about just communication in general and why that's really important. So what does that mean to you? Language creates perception. So as you and I discussed, so I have a master's degree in communication. And only because I have spent my whole life being fascinated by why do people do what they do and say what they say. So how do I have two sisters? So there's three of us. And I always wonder, like the same parents group in the same house, like how do we have completely different approaches and perceptions about the universe and people in situations? And so that

led me to this studying communication in general. And which is fascinating. I mean, it's one of those things, as I've told you before, it's still considered to be the fourth most worthless advanced degree you can have. It's like, you know, it with no disrespect to basket weaving, art history, philosophy, like I love all of those. Are those the top three? Yes, I think so. But the fact is understanding communication and how every word in this day and age, every single word, and there's so many examples of how saying one thing can go one direction or the other. So really thinking about the language that you use, and I always share some valuable words. So maybe if it's okay with you, if I could share a couple next steps. I'd love to hear that. Okay. I'd love to hear that. This is worth the price of admission

right here, which I know was very low. In fact, I think it's zero. So definitely cover that. Yeah, I think it's free. I hate to use the word free. I think it was complimentary, but yes, I will throw it out there. So here's the thing. If you want to be seen as more influential, more positive, a better leader, a better sales professional, and frankly, just a better positive influencer, the most valuable word you can use is let's. So let's talk about what's important to you. Let's talk about what happened.

Let's take a look at our calendars and find a good time to meet. Let's address the biggest opportunities for us to grow and improve. Let's is the most valuable word for a couple of reasons. One, it shows action, which only action changes things. You'll hear this all the time, action, action, action. And so let's is a word that demonstrates collaboration as well. So a big part of competitive advantage is collaboration, working with others, learning from others, helping others grow and improve.

So let's is the ideal word to use that demonstrates movement and collaboration. Again, if I have a person that is in the depth of a very challenging situation, I can say, well, let's talk about what happened and let's work together to find a solution. How do we together, let's unpack the steps, how we got here so that we can make sure we can improve this process in the future. So Let's demonstrates all of those things. Movement, action, collaboration, partnership. Let's will work with your internal customers, your team members. It'll work with your external customers, the people who buy products and services from you. It'll even work with your significant others, maybe your siblings. It will not work with your children, Cindra, just so you know. Your kids do not want to collaborate with you. I have

tried and I have found that it works on me. My nieces will say, come on auntie, let's go to McDonald's and it totally works on me. But it's one of those words that's really, really valuable and for, especially in sales or leadership for people who maybe aren't super confident, super direct communicators, it's a word that feels comfortable. And for those, for people who aren't, but even those like big, you know, those big giant personalities are like, you know, follow me because I'm the leader by using let's, it really also makes them more approachable. So super valuable. And then just one other term I'll share with you today,

in addition to next steps, so next steps in that group too, is the word solutions. Just being able to say, let's find the right solution for you. Let's talk about a solution, whether that's looking at a mindset issue, whether that's looking at helping someone

purchase something on board, dealing with conflict. When we can start talking about, let's make sure we're focusing on a solution. Together, we can find a solution. Again, it moves more or to the logical part of our brain, and it gets people moving forward, which is usually what we want. And so making sure, also research will show you that when we're listening to somebody or working with somebody who says the word solutions, we inherently perceive them as having a higher value.

So we're not just selling coaching. We're selling solutions to help your business grow and improve or help you improve as an elite athlete. And so the more we can do that, it's just perceived to be higher value. And if I can put it frankly, people will pay more for solutions than they will for products and services. And so being focused on those deliverables and the solutions that you can provide is really valuable. Even if you don't know what they are yet, it might just be, hey, together we'll work on finding the right solution. Yeah, I love that. All right. So the three that you just mentioned is let's, next steps, and then solutions. And as I'm listening, Lynn, I love that. All right. So the three that you just mentioned is let's, next steps, and then solutions.

And as I'm listening, Lynn, I'm thinking about the times I've been on meetings with you, like with a client, right? And you do all of this. I think about how incredible you are at teaching clients to be great clients. And even like in one instance, teaching me and setting me up for success to to engage in the speaking engagement right like I knew exactly what was going to happen and there wasn't any questions and you set everybody up for success because you were really clear on expectations right appreciate that yeah and I know um you say that 85% of our professional success is based on our communication. 85. Harvard Business. Yeah. That's a study by Harvard Business. You're only as good as you can communicate. And what's fascinating is that it doesn't matter what industry you're in. You could

be the world's greatest computer programmer, but if you can't communicate properly to your team or your customers, then it's just lost. All that brilliance is lost. And so really being thoughtful about how we communicate with people, it really is the key to success, no matter what room you're in, what industry you're in. I think about sports, too. Think about being on a relay team and how important. I'm fascinated by that. So like you, I was a runner in high school and, you know, the handoffs, whether it's on a track or it's in business, how we communicate and set each other for success is really important. And so

that's why thinking about language and thinking about timing and responsiveness, you know, when we were speaking earlier about what can we control, responsiveness is really important. And, you know, how quickly do we adapt? I would say bad news is more like milk than wine. It doesn't get better with time. So even just jumping in when there's a challenge is really important. So is there anything we need to consider, you know, not about just like what we communicate, but how we communicate it? Oh, absolutely. As you all know, not about just like what we communicate, but how we communicate it? Oh, absolutely. As you all know, nonverbal is actually, what is it? Verbal is 7% and the 93% is how we communicate. So thinking about things like, you know, eye contact and voice modulation and rate and, and this is something too, because everybody has a different approach, how they

communicate and being really thoughtful and intentional. A big word for me is always about being intentional. How do we approach our customers? How do we approach our team? You know, are we thoughtful and are we intentional in what we do? And I feel like that's a big part of how we communicate too. Well, I think of confidence as so important in communication. And I love talking about confidence on the podcast because, first of all, even elite athletes that I work with and really successful business owners and CEOs, you know, people think that they don't lack confidence. But sometimes their confidence can come and go, right? And a feeling of confidence definitely can come and go. And it's about developing they communicate comes across either confidently or not. But confidence is a skill. So really what we recommend is plan, prepare, practice, and perform.

So what helps you grow with confidence? Plan, prepare, practice, and perform. Because a big part of confidence for most people is preparation, really. You know, and I'll ask people, like, describe a situation when you feel really confident. And oftentimes, it's either a situation they have experience with, it's something they're passionate about, it's something they enjoy. And so take the time to set yourself up for success, too. And that takes planning. I use the example all the time to set yourself up for success too. And that takes planning.

I use the example of the time, we've got the Olympics coming up, which I'm so excited about. But nobody wakes up one day and says, hey, I'm 32 years old. I'm gonna go compete in the Olympics this summer. Like it takes planning. It takes preparation.

And that means having the tools, having the resources. Practicing is so important. And I feel like that everybody knows in the world of sports, you know, you play like you practice. So whether you're my ninth grade niece playing on her traveling basketball team, or you're an elite professional athlete playing in the professional, you know, you know, you play like your practice. But gosh, in the world of business, people all ask them so plan prepare practice perform do you agree yes all right what percentage of the time do you spend on these things and practice is like oh well

I don't have time to practice or I practice while I'm you know working with people and and that just is not a good approach so you do need to practice even the language so I always share these tips on language people like yeah I love that that makes sense But you can't wait until you're talking to a customer before you ever say solutions or next steps. Like you have to put the time into practicing so you can be successful. And then it's a performance. You know, I love, I've heard you talk about that whole flush it down, you know, when something goes wrong, you flush it. And I love that because that's a performance like, and some of your people that you coach, like literally do that because that's part of the performance and, and people want to work with the best version of you. And I think we owe that. I think we owe that to our teams. I think we owe that to our

customers. And when I say performance, I don't mean it's everything should be honest. Transparency, integrity, trustworthiness is important. But boy, I want to make sure what I get on stage, when I get, you know, with my my team or my customers, they get the best version of me, the best version of me, you know, all of that lends itself to the experience. And I feel like that's a big part of confidence, you know, look good, feel good, do good. And so all the things that we can control, we bring that and that also helps drive up our confidence. Yeah, I love that. So the four P's of confidence, that's what we're going to call it. Yeah, and prepare, practice and perform. And there is actually quite a bit of research, like if you look at the research on self-efficacy, that one of the best ways to grow in self-efficacy is different than confidence because it's like your belief in your ability to do one task, right? But our preparation and our past performances are really important, right? So remind ourselves of the times we have been successful. So we've talked about a lot of things so far, Lynn, competitive advantage, communication. I'd love to hear about your

experience just as a woman in the construction industry. That's what you were doing before you started Conversionomics. And I just think about all the things we've talked about really can be impacted by environment. And it's very difficult sometimes for women to be in male-dominated spaces, right? I think about my work with football, for example, or, you know, when I'm speaking as a group of all men. So tell us about, is there anything that we've talked about today that is particularly important for you in this space in construction? And just tell us a little bit about what you've learned from that experience. I appreciate that. So being a woman in construction where I'm still very, very active in certain organizations, but it's not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. So when I was first recruited back in the 90s, which feels like a lifetime ago, it was very common to be. In fact,

when I became a leader in the organization, I was one of the only women. And so what was great and hype, I feel so lucky and so thankful is that I had a great mentor that really taught me a lot. Some of it was kind of tough love. He's the one who taught me to not apologize all the time. So, you know, some of those tough, tough lessons. But I'm super proud to be in the industry. But it's interesting. So even today, I had a week where I did all construction events very recently, just a couple of weeks ago. And on Tuesday, I was in Atlanta, and I was in a room with I think it was 130 people. And of those 130, and I'm on stage doing the keynote and there was two women, me and the event planner, the only women in the entire room. And then I had another event on Thursday, actually here in Minneapolis.

And that was like 50-50. And so I'm like, OK, we're heading in the right direction. And then on Saturday, I was out in Wisconsin and it was actually a women in construction group and it was almost all women. So I was like, it's exactly like how my career has been. And so it is one of those things that it definitely makes you even more aware of how are you communicating? How do you set yourself up for success? Being flexible and adaptable and having thick skin for sure is a part of it because it's just, you know, if it's a different, some people communicate differently, not necessarily male,

female, but just different ways of communicating and in construction. A lot of people are high Ds, very dominant, which they have to be like, they have this vision of the future that doesn't exist yet. They're going to build it. You have to appreciate that. But I've learned a lot. In fact, like I said, the gentleman who recruited me into the industry, I quote him all the time. He was a real gift in my life because he gave me a lot of opportunities and really pushed me. And he's not a pushy guy. He's like the nicest person, but he pushed me to kind of get outside and I wouldn't be where I am without him. It shows how one person can have such a massive impact in your life. And frankly, I'm really thankful because even today, I'm a full-time speaker now and I run Conversionomics.

That's what I do full-time, but I still work. The construction industry does a lot. We build homes for people in need. We work with veterans in need. And we have families. We help families who are going through chemical dependency. And so I'm very, very proud of that background. And I'm thankful for it, too, although it was tough. It wasn't always easy, that's for sure. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, and I bet you learned a lot about confidence and communication, right? And some skills that have now helped you build conversionomics. So we can't end without asking about your role as an equestrian, because there's a lot of athletes who listen to this.

And actually, I know of some equestrians who listen to the podcast. So I know. So tell us a bit about, because riding in mindset is so interesting because, you know, you are when you're one with the horse and how the horse can really, you know, be impacted by your own emotions and really what's going on in your body. So what have you learned about mindset or success or developing your business from being an equestrian athlete? So just tell us a bit about that. I'll do my best to keep it short because, you know, this is my favorite topic. We could have spent a whole hour on that stuff. We could have, yes.

I was so worried you wouldn't have enough to talk about, Cintra. I don't know what we're concerned with. So, yes, so I have been riding horses since I was born, basically. My parents literally met on horseback, So I've been riding my whole life. And here's the thing. I'm not the best rider, but I love. And again, it's a gift. I figure every single, I'm 53 years old.

I don't know how long I'm going to be able to compete, but I'm going to do it as long as I possibly can. And what I've learned over the years, it's interesting because I do apply the strategies to, at one point in my career, I had a huge national sales team and I use the same strategies. With my equine partner, my job is to keep her happy and healthy. And with my sales team, my job is to keep them happy and healthy and set them up for success. And what I've learned is I'm maybe not the world's greatest rider, but I work harder. I work as hard as I can. And I am super conscientious about, you know, what my right now I'm only have one horse now because with my

travel schedule, I just can't I can't do more than that. But I make sure she has the right food. I make sure that she enjoys her job, that the tack fits her comfortably on the day before the event. I'm very careful about how I train. You know, what is it like for her before we enter the arena? You know, is she in a place where she's confident? Does she understand what I want? Communication.

Anybody out here who rides horses knows communication is key. And I see others that assume that they understand. And I think that's the key, is just trying to adapt and, you know, set her up for success. And, you know, set her up for success. And, you know, her self-care is way better than my own. In fact, she has a massage this evening. So, you know, really setting her up. And it's something that what's crazy about it is

it's similar what I do. So I do speed events. So poles, barrels. I've done other things in the past, but that's what I do now. And we have we have we use laser timers. So our runs go to the 1000th of a second. So you can train all year and you can put hours and hours and you can get to that second pole and have a stumble and be immediately disqualified, just like in the, you know, 110 hurdles or something like that. So it is being able to like brush it off and adapt. And I'm trying to, I'm super competitive and I'm trying to like, hey, maybe, maybe a win now is different than a win when I was young. You know, maybe a win now is having a good run and enjoying the day and cheering on my family and friends because it's really a wonderful sport and something

that my mom competed until she was in her seventies. So it's really a cool place. And I want to emulate that. My mom is a warrior. She's a pocket warrior. She's about this tall, but she's amazing. And I've learned a lot from that. I think just that whole idea about paying attention to others and thinking about what do they need and how do I, and adapting. Every horse is different. Every day is different. Every season is different. Every arena. And so really trying to work on that adaptability and flexibility, which doesn't come naturally to me.

I'm a control freak. And so just being able to do that, I think I've learned a lot in my personal life and definitely applied those strategies to business as well. I love that you care so much about your horse and that you're really thinking about your horse and that you're really thinking about her self-care. What's your horse's name? Well, her real, so her registered name is Just Come Unwound, which is a George Strait song, which I bought her when I turned 50 and it seems so appropriate. But her barn name is Spice because she is spicy. She is very, she's all attitude. She's also really, it's the smallest

horse I've ever had. And she is all 100% attitude. So she's spicy. I call her Spice Girl, but she's pretty spicy. I love it. Lynn, we've talked about so many things today, including mindset, skill set, toolkit, competitive advantage. 80% of our communication, right, or of our success is based on our communication. So what have I not asked you? So the very last question that everybody asks me is, what does conversionomics mean? Like, where did that even come from? So I would love to know. All right. So and I love you pronounced it correctly. A lot of people don't. So thank you for that. But, you know, conversionomics, so my personal mantra in life is leave everything better than you found it. So I'm a very eco conscientious person. I try to think about,

you know, people and situations and the park that I ride through or the restaurant I went to. So that concept of leaving everything better than you found it. So conversionomics, the first part conversion, which means, you which means the process of changing or causing something to change or improve, was really important to something I want to be appreciative. And then omics, which comes from economics. So how do you use your resources, whether that's time, intellectual property, money, people, you know, resources is really important. And so that's where we came with conversionomics. Our goal being lead every event or project better than we found it. So being that that constant positive resource for people is really important. And so that's how we came up with it. Well, that sounds perfect, given what you do. And let's talk a little bit about that. I'm one of the speakers listed under conversionomics. Obviously, Lynn is too. But tell

us a little bit about what conversionomics is and what you do and is that people are listening and they are looking for a speaker or a trainer. How can they find out more about conversionomics? Wonderful. Well, please join us. So, of course, we're on social media. Conversionomics is on all the platforms. I spend the bulk of my time on LinkedIn, Facebook.

I'm trying to do Instagram. You rock at that, by the way, Cinder. You were like the role model. And your YouTube is fantastic. So we are there. But our goal is to someday grow to that level. Or please check out our website. It's just www.conversion-omics.com.

And anybody who goes there, that comes directly to me as well. So if you are working on an event or a project, you need coaching, consulting, training, keynote speakers. If you are a speaker and you want to branch out, please reach out. We love partnering. We are a boutique firm, so our goal isn't to be the biggest. It is to be the best. And we do a lot of things differently. So if you'd like to just learn about those options, I'd be happy to set up a time. I love connecting with people. And anybody who's a fan of Sindra, I know you have to be awesome. So please feel free to reach out. Thank you, Lynn. I so am grateful for you to be on today and to share with us your wisdom. And here's my summary of today. We talked about what you can control, what you can't control. Listing that out is really helpful to help you think about

having a competitive advantage. We talked about flexibility and adaptability, mindset, skill set, toolkit. Right. And again, listing that out. And then where are your gaps to understand your competitive advantage? We talked about four P's of confidence, no four P's of having a competitive advantage. There we go. Price, product, people, and process. And then again, the four Ps of confidence. There's lots of Ps today.

So that's why I said that wrong. Plan, prepare, practice, and perform. And then your words to like win, right? And to use is next steps, lets, and solutions. So thank you so much for being on the podcast today. I'm grateful that you're here, Lynn. Thank you for the on the podcast today. I'm grateful that you're here, Lynn. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you.

Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe and you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes and to join my exclusive community for high performers where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can add over to Dr. Sindhra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.