IAM2279 – Business Advisor Helps Clients Build a Constructive and Profitable Business

Title: Transcript - Mon, 28 Oct 2024 04:37:44 GMT

Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2024 04:37:44 GMT, Duration: [00:16:58.75]

[00:00:00.32] - Diane Helbig

You know, I had an opportunity to teach people how to, how to come out of COVID Really? Right, like how do we network, how do we sell, how do we engage in this hybrid and remote environment and get so people still feel connected to the organizations that they're in. So it was a great opportunity for me to be able to create training programs and offer them out and webinars and whatnot and just really be able to help organizations figure out how to navigate.

[00:00:33.56] - Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO podcast.

[00:01:01.04] - Gresham Harkless

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gretch from the IMCO podcast. I have an awesome guest back on the show today. I have Diane Helbig. Diane, excited to have you back on.

[00:01:09.89] - Diane Helbig

Thrilled to be here. Thanks.

[00:01:11.82] - Gresham Harkless

Super excited to have you on and talk about all the awesome things that you're doing. And of course, before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Diane so you can hear about some of the awesome things she's been working on. And Diane is a business and leadership advisor and trainer, award winning author and speaker and accelerate your business growth podcast host. As president of Helbig Enterprises, Diane helps businesses and organizations operate more constructively and profitably. Diane is an author of Succeed Without Lemonade, Stand Selling and Expert Insights. Diane is a member of NAWBO Cleveland Board of Directors and she also was a guest on IMCO podcast number 406 and she has numerous, numerous accolades. So I just want to share some of those. Corporate speaker of the Year Award 2020 Achievements and Excellence Award 2021 Silver Stevie Award for Female Thought Leader for the year and numerous accolades for our podcast. And she has loads of great information there. But one of the things that really stuck with me is I remember from our previous episode, she always has this ability to kind of see the forest for the trees. And in, in her book about selling, she says successful sales requires the right mindset. That mindset has nothing to do with selling. The more you think about selling, the less you actually sell and the more you will struggle. So, Diane, excited to have you back on the show. Are you ready to speak to the IMCL community?

[00:02:34.43] - Diane Helbig

I am. Let's do it.

[00:02:35.75] - Gresham Harkless

Get it started then. So they kind of kick everything off. Let's rewind the clock a little bit here, a little bit more on what you've been working on, what I call your CEO story.

[00:02:45.09] - Diane Helbig

So what have I been working on? I have been working on doing a lot of training, actually. I've. I've been training, doing a lot of sales training, leadership, customer service training. It feels like ever since we got out of COVID all of these organizations have said, you know, we have got to retrain our people. Like, everyone forgot how to do these things. So it's been great. I love training, so it's been a lot of fun.

[00:03:16.71] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes so much sense. And it's so interesting to even see, like, now, you know, a few years outside of COVID like, how the dust will settle, for lack of a better term. But that's been something where, you know, people have kind of had a, you know, learn how to ride the bike again. You've seen that a lot in a lot of the people you've worked with.

[00:03:33.56] - Diane Helbig

Oh, yeah. As a matter of fact, like, companies are reaching out and saying, you know, our people, they don't know how to shake someone's. Like, they don't have a network. You know, they. They don't know how to lead. They don't know how to communicate because we lost that, you know, ability to be in the same room with. With other people. So, yeah, it's been really. It's interesting that you say you're learning how to ride a bike again.

[00:04:01.00] - Gresham Harkless

It.

[00:04:01.25] - Diane Helbig

It. So there's the younger generation that really didn't learn this stuff. Right. Because they were in college during COVID But then there's the people who knew it. We fell out of it. And it really is about just reminding them what it means to interact and engage with people in a work environment.

[00:04:20.74] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes so much sense. And could you take us through a little bit more on, you know, what you've been able to accomplish, what you've been doing, and how that has kind of helped these organizations when they call and they need training or even that insight.

[00:04:32.56] - Diane Helbig

Sure. Thanks. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna sort of sit on Covid because I learned a lot. When Covid hit, my mother broke her back, and my business effectively ended. Right. So I had to not only figure out how I was dealing with my mom, but reinvent my business. I had to learn how to teach virtually, which is a whole skill set. You know, I took a course. An organization that I was involved with gave us the opportunity to. To take this virtual being a virtual educator course, which is fabulous. But I also so I'm a, I guess a survivalist or something, you know, a real survivor. Because I jumped right on it and said, okay. All of the organizations that, that myself and my associates were engaged with, all of our colleagues, they're all going through this. So what can we do to help them navigate? What can we do to help them figure out how to sell in this environment? Because people are still buying, they're buying differently. You know, we still need to have those conversations. So I pulled a group of my associates together who we were supposed to do a live conference later in the year and that got canceled. I just grabbed them and said, okay, let's figure out how we can do this online and let's reach out and offer it to these organizations that have small businesses as their clients so they can offer it to their clients. We'll present. If they can pay us, great. If they can't, fine. It's not about the money. It's about getting this information out to people. And we did that and it was great because we all felt like we had value still. Right? We all felt like we were doing something that was contributing positively to the business environment when everyone was going through these things. And then because I learned how to teach virtually, I ended up being able to actually teach people around all sorts of things. As we started coming out of it, I also realized that, you know, I had an opportunity to teach people how to, how to come out of COVID really. Right. Like how do we network, how do we sell, how do we engage in this hybrid and remote environment and get. So people still feel connected to the organizations that they're in. So it was a great opportunity for me to be able to create training programs and offer them out and webinars and whatnot and just really be able to, as much as I could, help organizations figure out how to navigate. Right. How to shift what they were doing.

[00:07:41.10] - Gresham Harkless

So, yeah, I appreciate you so much and sharing that. Do you feel like that's something that, you know, you feel like as part of what sets you apart and makes you unique in terms of, like, being able to see, like there is know, opportunity that happens during these disruptions and things that can happen.

[00:07:56.69] - Diane Helbig

So I like to say that my superpower is I'm a pragmatic possibilities thinker, so I can think of almost any possibility. I don't believe in a no win situation. At the same time, I'm pragmatic. So, you know, let's throw the ideas out there and then we're going to figure out what we can actually do. So I'm not like Pollyanna. Right. I'm not going, oh, anything's possible. I'm saying let's just. And then we'll implement whatever we really can.

[00:08:28.87] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, it's really cool to have that whiteboard and have all those ideas on them, but actually say how we're going to implement that, how we're going to put that into our business. Our life becomes so important. Because I feel like, and I'm sure you, you might echo the same thing. Like a lot of the execution ends up being a missing piece with organizations, with people that have these ideas but aren't able to be pragmatic and put them into to actual action.

[00:08:51.38] - Diane Helbig

Right. It's so true. Right. I mean, you can have any idea that you want. The other thing that people do is they have too many ideas. Right. That it's like the entrepreneurial occupational hazard that we have so many ideas and we want to do all of them at the same time. Right. It's like, no, you can't.

[00:09:09.52] - Gresham Harkless

I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or even a habit that you have, but what's something you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:09:19.73] - Diane Helbig

For my podcast, I use two AI programs that are fabulous. I mean, gosh, there's so many tools that I use, but I use Cast Magic because it takes the recording and it just does everything with it. And I use AONIC to put the intro and outro on and fix the sound. I use Chat GPT to write marketing copy because I'm not good at it and I can put all of the information in and then ask it to write whatever it is. Does a great job.

[00:10:06.36] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I appreciate you so much in sharing those three. And one of the things that really stuck with me is you said that I'm not good at it. And I almost wonder if that's like again, going back to that kind of self viralist mentality and understanding. Like there's something that can amplify the things that we're doing that's available, whether it's a person, whether it's technology, AI, whatever it might be, being able to kind of lean into that and realize that, hey, this is not either or. It's actually both and better because it's going to complement my strengths and I know its strength or her strength or his strengths. And us bringing together is really where some phenomenal things can happen.

[00:10:39.37] - Diane Helbig

Yeah, we really do need to. I'm so glad that you brought that up.

[00:10:42.54] - Gresham Harkless

So would you consider that to be what I would like to call a co nugget? So that could be like a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client, mention in your podcast, or if you jumped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

[00:10:56.62] - Diane Helbig

You know, I think it would be slow down to speed up. I know I tell my clients that a lot. I would tell my younger self that if I could go back that, you know, sometimes the best way to actually get where we want to go is to just slow down, take a look at what's going on, reevaluate, create processes, fix processes. Just, you know, there's a little bit of patience that's required.

[00:11:27.52] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I think so many times we don't realize, like, how impactful that is. And to even be more effective and efficient, sometimes you have to know exactly what you need to be effective and efficient about. You have to understand, you have to see what's happening, how the terrain's changing, so to speak. But if we don't slow down, then you don't ever get like that full, at least a fuller vision of what. What you're. What's before you.

[00:11:49.76] - Diane Helbig

Yeah, it's true.

[00:11:51.37] - Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. So now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And our goal is to have different, quote, unquote, CEOs on the show. So, Diane, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:12:02.00] - Diane Helbig

Being a CEO means being a servant leader and being interested in helping not only clients solve whatever problem it is that we solve, but also building people to be their best, to be operating at their highest use.

[00:12:32.62] - Gresham Harkless

Nice. I love that definition, especially that building people part. Because I think so many times when we think of CEO, entrepreneur, business owner, we can so get so locked in on again, forgetting about that people part and how important it is that as a servant leader, we're not only serving the mission and the organization, we're serving the people within the organization. These people are full people. They have families, they have dogs, they have, you know, interests, all those things. So it's so important as a leader, you're locked into that. You understand that you take the time and create space for that, but also that you do see how you, as a leader, as a servant leader, can. Can build that into. To come into fruition.

[00:13:11.82] - Diane Helbig

Yeah, it's so true. You know, we have a. I think we have a belief that we're supposed to be focused on Bringing in business, which, okay, we need to bring in business. But the truth is, when we are focused on problem solving and empowering and building, the revenue comes, the business comes. People are attracted. The right people are then attracted to our organization because they feel that. And so then, you know, growing the business happens naturally. But if you're not building your people, you are not going to be able to serve your clients. Right. And, and I, I've heard it said that how we treat our people directly reflects on how we're going to treat our clients. And it's really true. So building up those folks, empowering them, educating them, giving them the resources that they need, not micromanaging them. There's all of these, believing in them, trusting them all, holding them accountable. Right? All of those things, that's how we grow our business. That's how we serve our clients. So that, that's. I agree with you. I think it is critically important.

[00:14:31.44] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I absolutely love that. And I love that even, you know, that comes full circle, even to that, that quote that I read, that I loved in your book, that sometimes in order to sell more, to not think about selling more, in order to build that business, you have to not think about building the business, you have to work on the people. So understanding that that foundation or the true building blocks that you're doing and being able to kind of see that forest for the trees, like I mentioned, ends up being such a huge thing when you're able to understand it, see it, and of course, do it and execute on it as well, too.

[00:15:00.62] - Diane Helbig

Yep, it's exactly right. That's right. Focus on the right things. Right.

[00:15:05.00] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, Diane, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic. So to spe, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get hold of you. Get a copy of your books, find out about the podcast, all the awesome things that you're working on.

[00:15:21.82] - Diane Helbig

Thank you so much. That, and thanks for this conversation. I really enjoyed it. You know, the easiest thing is just to go to my website, helbigenterprises.com everything's there. You can sign up for a complimentary phone consult. You can find the podcast, find information about the book. You can even find a free chapter or two. I know there's at least one that you can download from the website, so.

[00:15:45.75] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, I appreciate that, Diane. And of course, to make it even easier, we'll have the links and information that show notes so that everybody can follow up with you and find about all the awesome things that you're working on and you're doing. And of course I appreciate so much not just, you know, the time you took today, but just everything that you do and how it kind of is represented in the world that we see. We sometimes don't realize that in order to kind of build and make an impact, we have to be dialed into that human part. And as that things change and as we have transformations, disruptions, all the things in between, it's so important that we're rooted and understand exactly about that human part, because that's ultimately why we're doing the things that we're doing. So thank you so much for doing that, and I hope you have a pleasure.

[00:16:23.45] - Diane Helbig

Thank you.

[00:16:24.39] - Intro

Thank you for listening to the IMCEO podcast, powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at Imceo Co. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Want to level up your business even more? Read blogs, listen to podcasts, and watch videos at CBNationCo. Also, check out our I Am CEO Facebook group. This has been the I Am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkles Jr. Thank you for listening.