This past week I was in Dallas, Texas at the Create Leads, Close Sales conference. I love attending conferences for three reasons. First, they often reaffirm that I’m doing the right thing, while giving me optics on how to improve things. Second, they give me new ideas to implement that perhaps I had not thought of (or I knew I should be doing, but I just hadn’t yet implemented). Third, they allow me the opportunity to network and meet new people.
The main instructor, Randy Tate, started the conference off with this quote by Mark Twain:
“I live in a state of constant conversation, some of it is with other people.”
Ponder that thought for a moment.
Randy went on to share that so often in life we miss out on the ability to be successful because we are constantly stuck in our own way of thinking. He encouraged us to approach each day at the conference from a place of CURIOSITY. Then he challenged us to approach each conversation we have with others from the same place.
As you are reading this email, you probably already have a preconceived notion about the topic. The same is true when you have conversations with your team members, when you are listening to your clients, when you are having conversations with your spouse or kids, etc… Did you even realize that you had been pre-programed to listen to everything from a place of “RIGHT” or “WRONG” instead of from a place of “CURIOSITY?”
We live in the World of Right or Wrong. There’s a problem with living in this world. It closes our mind to the possibility of why something might be.
Let me give you an example.
If I were to tell you the background on this website was gold, you would immediately look at it and say “No, it is teal.”
We could then go back and forth debating the color of the website. In the end, neither of us would win.
Why?
Because the moment you looked at the background, you looked at it with the intent of seeing the color. When you saw the color, you instantly knew that I was WRONG in what I had stated. Your brain did not approach looking at the website from a state of curiosity — a state which would have allowed you to at the very least entertain the idea that perhaps, yes, the background was gold.
Imagine How This Impacts Your Business.
Now take just a moment and imagine how your ability to change how you listen to things could impact your entire life — and at the very least, your business.
When clients talk to you this week, listen to them from a state of curiosity. Don’t immediately look for the answers. Instead, listen to them. You might just be surprised what you discover when you actively work to change this habit.
