The Profit Builder Unscripted

Blending Fulfillment with Professional Success

• Vicki Suiter • Episode 15

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I just had a really meaningful chat with my old friend Robert Pleasants on the podcast, and it brought up something that might resonate with you, too.

We dug into how sometimes, life demands that we balance our professional drive with our personal happiness—a challenge I know we all face as some point as a business owner.

Robert recounted a turning point back in '94, a deep conversation with his wife that pushed him to reevaluate his approach to work and life.

His challenge was one many of us face as business owners: finding our true purpose and making sure our daily actions align with our core values.

It's a perspective shift that I found incredibly inspiring for anyone looking to blend personal fulfillment with professional success.

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welcome back to the profit Builder unscripted I am super excited about today's interview with my friend Robert Pleasants and we talk about everything from how to improve your uh sales process and your close rate to how do you be more present in life and have a greater sense of joy in what you're doing every day all right let's jump[Music] in I'm super excited to have my guest Robert Pleasant's here with me today um Robert and I have known each other for a lot of years he's a good friend and we originally met in the 80s um when we both worked for a company by the name of LIF spring and so Robert first of all thank you so much for being a guest on the prophit Builder unscripted I'm so glad to have you here thank you thanks for having me it would have been November of 1989 okay that's when we met all right that was just before I left LIF spring actually okay Robert has we're not going to share all the humorous stories Robert has of me from those days um I was a controller and he was a area director in Atlanta uh running that Center but um yes and and we've just developed a great friendship over these years um I have such enormous respect and appreciation and love for you you're an amazing human being and and I was just very excited to have you say yes to to um being a guest because uh I think you're a very interesting person too and I think that you um have this way of just showing up and being authentic and real and uh that's the kind of conversation I wanted to have so um yeah so thank you and before we jump into to my question of you about some event in your life that influenced you would you just share with people a little bit about you who you are and what you do in the world okay so let's see currently right I I'm I suppose I would call myself a consultant um and um as a consultant what I do uh with a couple of my clients right now is um I'm working on the sales and marketing I.E the growth of their companies um one's a bank out of DC and so I'm I'm I'm assisting them and in growing in their growing out their infrastructure and their technology as well as helping them grow uh and then I've got another uh client out here in in Santa Rosa California that um is in a whole another industry something I've never never in a million years would have dreamed I'd been a part of um let's see so that's what I'm doing right now my background is as we were talking um uh met a person that enrolled me in the trainings that you were speaking about Vicki and I did the live spring train trainings in 1988 and uh in that I remember being in the trainings and thinking boy that's what I need to be doing uh you know I saw the people in the front of the room that were the trainers leading the trainings and I just knew that something was calling me that I needed to be there doing that and so uh uh figured out how to get hired after six Nos and going through and jumping through lots and lots of Hoops um it was they were very selective back in the day those days they just didn't didn't just want to turn over a center or or the front of the room to just anyone and so um I got hired and um and and we met and and I did that for a number of years um off and on I would do it for two or three years Sprints at a time and then I'd have to leave and take a sabatical for a while your expertise is in building is in business development and building businesses and helping them position themselves to be able to sell but your your expertise is being able to really amp up that front end of being able to build a business yeah yeah so when I consult basically I'm a Hands-On consultant I like to get in the field I like to learn what they're doing figure out how they're selling what they're selling and see what you know what I can add to the mix okay well thank you for all of that um and uh one of the things that I appreciate listening to you too is that there's like a there's a flexibility in who you've been willing to be in the roles that you've taken and the choices that you've made um about being willing to take the next Hill which may or may not I think it it relates to your story that we were talking about before we started but I'm going to ask my question which is you know what is a moment or an event that happened in your life that sticks out that changed you in some way and positively impacted your life or your business or how you saw yourself that like was sort of this defining moment or this changing moment that yeah that positively impacted you and how you see yourself and and what you do in the world you know I know we talked about one situation U there might be so so we'll call it one a and 1B so onea was obviously doing the live stream trainings I think that was a major uh life event that changed forever the direction uh and yeah and the velocity at which I go through life today uh I just um I had no idea that type of education existed and um and so and you know because I did those trainings I met my wife and U so so the real you know uh the real defining moment for me um would have been uh 1994 is um you know I had uh kind of played at life um played literally played played golf and and even my my my first stint with Lifespring um I I I was you know completely immersed as a student and and and just not thinking of it as a as a career or as a job so to speak I couldn't even tell you how much money I made back in those days it just didn't matter to me What mattered to me was the mission that we were on and and and so in 1994 um I've got a two-year-old and I've got a my wife's eight months pregnant my wife Joan and uh she she's she's about to to give birth any day now to our daughter Zoe and um she sat me down and she said honey I love that you love to have fun I love how passionate you are about all the things that you jump into but we're gonna need to hunker down here and and and think about what are you g to do for your career because we need money um more or less in in her own words um but I could tell the seriousness of what she was saying and and it just kind of struck me as gosh that was the day I figured I had to become an adult and and and do what I decided you know what I'd made up for for you know as a kid that you know being an adult meant you you had responsibilities and you know you you paid all your bills and you made money and all that kind of stuff you know I just kind of drifted through life and and and gotten away with pretty much everything that I needed to get away with and here I was at this particular point in my life where it was like okay time to you know um put your big boy pants on get what that mean when you say like I had to grow up or I had to put on my big boy pants because you know I'm listening to you and I totally get it and I totally like you know I think of my son Taylor Who's 34 now and and he'll have these moments of like I'm an adult now mom like you know I I have like a job and but it's like there's a what shifted in you right like because there's the I got to make a living right I got to take care of my family my wife's eight months pregnant I got two kids like you know your wife's like Hello uh but what what is it that what did you what shifted for you that had because you you have gone on to be uh you know incredibly successful in your life MH that has something more to do with than just with just the number of years that you've been on the planet yeah what changed for you at that moment what what decision I would say Vicky so I've always been really even before then you know before that moment or that time that conversation I've always been um very good at if I see what it is I want I I can organize myself and and just I guess um increase my level of participation and commitment to make sure and get it done um I did that in golf you know if there was if I was going to go play in a tournament or series of tournaments I was really good at uh priority prioritizing my time but really my effort in making sure that I did what I needed to do to get the job done and I had the results of the as a result of that you know I was very confident that what I did there and I did the same thing at life bring the first go around so what am I saying uh I think I just sharpened my focus you know my my desire to to go out there and earn um in such a way that you know there was never a doubt I was going to do it it was just a matter of now I just I just literally went oh focus on this now if that makes sense you know it really is defining you know and H in what what I needed to get done there and and and doing it in a way we talked about this a couple of weeks ago doing it in a way that I didn't felt oblig I didn't feel obligated to do it it was more um more fascinated by it um you know it being whatever my goal is with with any organization you know I love to be sort of propelled into doing something fascinated by doing something you know um en gold in something versus just having to do something because I said I would you know obligated to do something so how is this so how is this moment different because I'm listening to you and I'm thinking okay was it the you went you and Janes sat down and went okay I have this goal like we need to make this much money and you were like all right I'm gonna figure out like now I know where I'm going I'm gonna figure out a plan for that what what I'm trying to figure out as I'm listening to you is what's the thing that propelled you forward I get it that you like you had enough confidence to go if I set my mind to it like you had you've kind of like this this business development Gene of yours has always been in there right like you've always had that ability but something changed in that moment that had you focus it in a different direction what what was it that you had a goal was it that you I I'm just listening to this conversation and I'm thinking um something something was different at that moment for you besides just the conversation with Joan that you shifted in your behavior what was the thing you shifted in your behavior it was um I guess what shifted was it's interesting so the material things in my life didn't make much difference back then and all of a sudden I believe I started to pay more attention to literally money in the bank you know buying a house um you know making sure that everything was taken care of for my kids my family um uh so I know that was part of it too where you know call it much more what's the best sort of a woooo existence prior to that does that make sense say more about that if you so I so I I made decisions as a young person based on how I felt and didn't really care too much about the the ramifications of of whatever Direction I was going um I always knew beat down I could pretty much make things happen but um I I was really really not so much worried about um the trappings of of what I did you know again uh trophies weren't that important to me it was really the the feeling of being in the in you know in an event or playing in a tournament that that was much more important even though I I won tournaments and and and and made money doing it those weren't that was not what really motivated me it was more The Experience if you will um and so I guess when I talk about when I talk about becoming an adult it was um I started to pay more attention to the outcomes and to the results versus just showing up in life so I could do both I suppose I didn't lose the other side but I I I certainly brought you know paying more more attention to the objective to the mix yeah I don't know if I'm answering your question yeah you you are I I will tell you that there's something very interesting as I'm listening to because um I'm in the middle of reading this book called The Four Agreements for the for the probably the third time I read it many years ago and I'm rereading it and um I'm on the fourth agreement which is called it's do your best and what's interesting is he's talking about this whole thing about being completely present in life and no knowing that the rest of it is going to turn out versus having um having like looking at whatever you do day in and day out be a grind looking at it like it's a I have to I have to do it in order to make money and what's interesting about you that I'm just recognizing in this conversation as I'm listening to you is that you are somebody who straddles both of those worlds in A really lovely way like you're very present to what you're doing like when you say I just wanted to be out there playing and that you and I I've heard this in different ways in our conversation today like you just wanted to be out there playing completely all in to whatever the thing is that you're doing and love it and have fun with it and at the same time trust that it's all going to turn out and that in that moment in time when you sat down with Joan going all right like I need to have some measure for making sure that I'm on track to taking care of my family and so on um so it's just it's interesting to me as I'm listening to you because that's kind of the ultimate like that's kind of one of our ultimate goals in life is to be able to be able to be really I I think I'm I'm interested to hear what you think but like for me I go if I can be completely present and joyful in what I'm doing right now whatever it is is MH have a goal know that I'm doing things or taking actions that are in support of what it is that I want to have happen but whatever it is that I'm doing I'm all in like I'm unattached to whatever the outcome is so that there's more presence and joy in what I'm doing right now does that make sense makes complete sense I I I love it that's a great um overview of more less My Philosophy well like I said I like that's my experience of you too is that that's how you are in the world it's interesting and yeah so it so do you think that that moment with your wife was the moment when you were like oh I need to add this other piece but you didn't lose that first part of like whatever I'm doing I'm going to be all in and I'm going to have fun doing it and and I'm gonna make it a fun thing to do which I think that when don't you think that when we do that we're better at it like works for myself when I'm unattached to the like when I'm not trying to control outcomes and I'm just completely present and like I'm like I'm gonna give this all I got and just have fun with it yeah present what I'm doing when you're talking what occurs for me is so there's a uh these are my words but I'm sure I picked them up from somebody but allowing the game to come to you what I mean by that is I've always been really really good at figuring out a way not to get too attached to the results of anything that they Slow Me Down stop me or have me feel obligated and not having fun does that make sense totally yep it does which is a you know as a salesperson is a great way to interact with a sales fund you know I'm not desperate in any way shape or form to get something um you more than once said to sales people going into a big sales call remember we don't need them they need us so you know again all these things are just little bits and pieces of you know um allowing the game to come to me meaning um I don't have to force it just let life sort of happen but with some idea out there about how to measure that is I love that that makes sense I don't know if that makes any sense it totally makes sense can you do me a favor because I I think this whole your mindset around sales because I think a lot of us have like had trash around sales but your mindset around sales is great I think and be and you're really good at it would you just talk a little bit more about that when you're in the in the sales process or how you train and teach people to have that thinking because it's like sometimes when we're so fixated on I got to make the sale we're not completely present and but there's a mindset that you have and you showed this earlier but if you wouldn't mind just talk about that a little bit Yeah so again I'm just going to piggy back on what you're saying right now what comes up first for me is I think with sales people one of the things that I've always impressed upon teams that I've worked with um uh and what I also do when a in the mirror is that I've got a real clear sense of I am not my results I have the results does that make sense you you've heard other people say this I'm sure totally yeah um and so I'm not my results and I learned a lot about that you know way back in my in my golf career and you know when I used to be if I shot six or seven under par I was I was the greatest guy in the world anybody wanted to be around I buying people drinks it was great if I shot 77 though you didn't want to be near me um you know CU I I want I wanted to blame something someone I just wanted to you know punch something um and what I realized was that I'd become my results you know and those two examples and so I wasn't uh I was never able to improve much more than than where I was because I uh the times you want to want to really go back to the laboratory or when you shoot those 77s and you need to fix some stuff and if you're completely you know you can't you can't see the forest of the trees because you're so overwhelmed with anger or whatever it is frustration or or or beating yourself up you know you never get better when you need to get better and so I guess I learned some lessons through the trainings and through some of the work that I've done that I just don't get attached to results that way um I I use them as a as a you know they can tell me a lot about where I'm standing or where I'm coming from as I as as I'm operating in in life in Wood sales um but I'm not my results and so I'm not really attached they don't Define who I am and so in that way there's a lot of freedom there just to to work with whatever is in front of me so that um you know we we can have the outcomes that are that we're looking for that make sense yes totally makes sense yeah that ability something that just came up go ahead I'm sorry no I was just going to say that ability to be able to say I'm not my results has this not take it personally and then we get to be responsible for which responsibility is ability to respond not Shan blame fault but to like when we can get unattached in that way not take it personally we can look at it and go oh like how could I like what action could I have taken different what approach could I have taken um how can I use this as an opportunity to learn and grow versus an opportunity to make make myself wrong in some way absolutely and that's it's been a lesson over and over and over again you know with for myself and for people I've worked with and people have coached and people have managed um that's number one of the number one things we got to do because um you know people people interact with they interact with their results different ways and some people you know and it's always psychological yeah so if we can if we can remove the psychology of it a little bit and have people be able to see the forest in the trees and they can typically learn from their successes and learn from the failures and and and just become more competent at whatever they're doing so I figured out ways to do that for myself um you know as we were talking um at the beginning uh back when we first before we jumped on this particular uh recording um you know I've I don't know where I heard someone say this but you know they said that sales is a transfer it's you know it's my ability to to transfer enthusiasm so when I become really passionate or enthusiastic about something my ability to transfer that to you is really the sales process in a nutshell and I think I've been pretty good at that too like I figure out a way to to to get organized around whatever the product the service the whatever it is that I'm selling um in a way that the enthusiasm um uh comes across uh in what I say and how I just show up and how I follow up and you know everything throughout the sales process all all the different parts that enthusiasm shows up there and I if and if I can't get enthusiastic about something I probably don't do it yeah you so can you just Define when I first heard you use that word earlier when we were talking enthusiasm you talked a little bit more about it because sometimes like I just had a conversation with somebody earlier today that was a client that was talking about this person that she had met with and she goes he's a really nice guy but he's super salesy he's always like trying to like you could just tell he's always trying to sell some and I and I just I think there's were those are two very different things so when you talk about enthusiasm you're not talking about hey it's all going to be great and you're trying to like you know sell snow to Eskimos it's so can you just because there is something else I that that is what do you mean enthusias yeah great example would be here at Armor in out here in Santa Rosa so you know um security guard business just is not the sexiest business in the world however what Eric and his team here are attempting to do is bring some life back to this this this industry if you will kind of he he says it you know giving guards their their their Minds back you know um meaning you know once upon a time in the security world people were you know respected and and and people paid attention to the security guard if they said do X do y do Z that's what you did and in the last 30 or 40 years that's that's kind of gone a different direction now and and so it's a lowcost job that people are frustrated and and and because they don't want to be in that job and so you know but it's the only thing they can get and so there was there was a lot of that and so what these guys are trying to do is literally transform this industry and give the guards some some respect and some dignity and and and so you know when he was telling me this all of a sudden I go now I I I can get behind that that that sounds like something that we might want to do transforming an industry that's that's something that I can I can certainly be enthusiastic about and get some you know some passion about um it's not so much the the the dollars and cents of having a guard on site it's not about the UN forms they wear any that other stuff it's really about you know can we take care of these people you know and can we can we provide them an environment where they can they can grow and Thrive and it's different than anything else that that exists out there in the space and so that's that's what I'm talking about you know I've always been really really good at that you know you know the last company Rhino was was a software company that transformed the way that people were doing one you know clerical function you know you can you can relate to this being given your background is Recon you know reconciling you know escro accounts so basically making sure everything balances you know um when you've got lots and lots of other people's money coming and going in in an account it's it's difficult sometimes to to to know where all the dollars and cents go well this software did it all se you know behind the scenes that plus I was you know I love the family that created it and so it was easy to get passionate about that too and then you know so throughout my career I'll figure out away to become you know really um so you're talking about what I'm what I'm hearing you say is that you're talking about getting in touch with what's the thing that's going to make it an incredible valuable experience for the buyer yep and being able to to be in touch with that yourself and really have an appreciation and understanding of what what great thing can come to that person that organization as a result of having it how can it improve people's lives how can it improve people's businesses that your your enthusiasm is around that and then I would assume that when you have that you first have a greater you have that Clarity of what that is um and then you have the confidence to be able to go have those conversations that have people um be able to experience that benefit from you based on how you communicate about it yeah my yeah more or less yeah it's it's really yeah um it helps us both in the sales process so I've never looked at sales like a tennis match so I'm not going to say x and you say Y and I say Z and you say B you know back and forth you know I've always worked to get around the same side of the of the net as you and say okay now let's figure out together how we can set this call up or this meeting up or this discussion in such a way that you get what you're looking for yeah love that that's why I'm here you know what I'm saying yes yeah nice for you you'd be beating me over the head to get it say it one more time said and and so there's always been a little bit of this in me too where you know if you knew what I knew about what we could do for you you'd be beating me over the head to do whatever it is that that that that I'm selling you well and part of that is that you know your product really well though too right and you know its benefit really well yeah although ATO they never even gave me a a password to the system I I I couldn't I couldn't tell you what was going on in that Software System but I was pretty dog on passionate about everything I knew we could do for it right you know what I mean that's all know you don't need to know all the mechanics of it right I don't need to know how to build a house and how to pour concrete and put up framing in order to know that's going to be gorgeous yeah that's I know we went in a different direction um by talking about that um but thank you because uh you know it's all uh you know and it relates even to back to your story that you know there was this moment when you had this decision when you were talking with Joan about she's like dude you need to go get a job that you brought you know you brought that mindset you brought that mindset of yes I need to set a goal but you also brought that mindset of being really present um to what you were doing so that you could have more joy in it which even speaks to what you're talking about in terms of sales right now like that ability to be able to um be really clear about what it is that um you are the the the offer that being able to have that enthusiasm you have a lot of Clarity and you're super present with what that Clarity is when you're in that sales process with somebody um so uh yeah and that value and what they get from it Romer thanks this has been really fun well you can you just come everywhere I go and reframe what I say because your overviews are fantastic Oh yay well is there anything else that you thank you for being a guest I really appreciate this I know it would be a fun conversation with you any any other thoughts that you want to share before we uh close um no can't think of anything I know we spoke a minute about you know you're you're in in the industry you're in I guess for a lot of the for your clients a lot of time I guess since covid the phone stopped ringing for a lot of those folks it has definitely been different yes yeah and this is election years are always interesting years so it's part of it too everybody's trying to figure out what what's going to H happen economically and yeah yeah yeah rates are going to go back down if they come down a little bit that'll help people yeah the money maybe move move around a little bit it'll help things I'm just trying to think of is there anything that because with Rhino live the phone stopped ringing too and um you know uh it stopped because there was really no sales process and so you know there's no substitute you you know kind of put the sales process in place put the funnel in place then you got to figure out how to fill it and how to manage it right yes yes and then when it starts to fill what to do with it exactly that's that's about all I could add to that particular part ofation I believe okay there's shortcuts it that it you got to got to work to get it the phone to start ringing but I'll tell you once you start doing the actions all of a sudden actions begat actions begat actions and before you know it you got you got people starting to call you again all right top three tips to make the phone ring for a contractor um seriously set up a sales funnel first most people don't do that they have no idea what I'm talking about so Define that funnel can be you you can use you can use something simple as a Excel spreadsheet but you've got a way to list everything that that you know is is that you everything out there that could possibly you could sell something to so know your track your leads and um and know who your potential leads are correct you know um identify you know what what your what what your your best at you know some people in in sales are good networkers um meaning that they they you got people around that more or less are are are selling for them in some ways um when I talk about networkers that's what I'm talking about there are people who are pretty good at at just picking up the phone and and calling cold um you know they're they're fewer and farther between these days there a lot less of those in the market but um but you know again uh that typically will begin to stimulate some some activity out there if you can pick up and start calling people uh cold you you know obviously there's there's different types of marketing that you can do too to to help you know you can do social media type marketing you can do um you print ads and you can do I'm sure that people do mailers and that type of thing maybe in your space and so there's lots of different ways to touch to touch people but you have to follow those touches up and a lot of times that's either go with a phone call email text message in some way and then if you can just create some activity um um in the you know as as far as filling in the front end of the funnel um eventually what will start happening is people will start calling you back and it's just a matter of taking it from there and you know going on site doing whatever presentations you do on site posing whatever you do proposals and then eventually getting into contract before you know you got clients so that part is not a mystery to your clients I'm sure it's the always going to be the front part and there's yeah you gotta get your business cards in somebody's hand somebody's and business cards what are[Laughter] those cool app on my phone I can just basically you know yeah we just touch phones anymore right Robert thank you um super helpful valuable it's so many levels love this conversation um thank you thank you for being a guest thank you for sharing yourself your experience and uh and your wisdom really aw you know it means a lot to me that you invited me on here to do this thank you

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