I was sitting in a cafe in Sydney recently preparing for an upcoming meeting with a company in financial markets looking to improving its sales performance. I knew half my audience didn't want to take the meeting in the first place, another 25% were on the fence and the final 25% were wanting to drive change. So all up a daunting meeting coming up. Worst than that being a new financial markets client I had brought out the blue suit and tie and parked the jeans & leather bracelet for the day.
Beside me sat a young guy in his early 20's focused on his iPhone and his iPad keeping to himself. Soon he was joined by another young guy and he popped open his Macbook. Then they were going through images from a recent fashion shoot. One turned out to be the photographer and the other the owner of clothing and footwear brand. As they went through each image they were getting more and more excited and animated and soon were high fiving over their coffees, and this was 7am!
I recalled my advertising days and seeing amazing work that the agency created for Nike & Tourism Vic amongst others and how excited we used to get about our work. The excitement at the cafe from the two young guys comes from passion. Passion to get the right shot in their case and passion for exciting their customers and motivating them to take action.
I thought that this is what I was starting to see in my sons who are young filmmakers and creatives. That excitement you get when have a vision and you create a product be it a photograph, a video, a new online learning platform, a new app or a new speech.
This jolted me from my mindset of getting through the upcoming call to one of me thinking, what am I passionate about and how can I bring this alive in the meeting? How can I make this meeting more like the coffee meeting happening beside me? Well I am passionate about helping people through change and was excited for the 25% of the attendees who wanted to change. So my goal became how can I assist this 25% to move the 50% who were on the fence as the first action? This changed my mindset to the meeting and allowed me to re-think my approach which began with ditching the few Powerpoints I had and instead bringing out live examples and working up scenario's on the whiteboard and interacting with the attendees like we were already working together. I also ditched my tie and put a bracelet back on. Its hard to be passionate when you are not authentic.
I have now added to my call plan template to include the question "What excites me about this meeting". This could some insight, a new perspective or an example of new leadership quote or a template - doesn't matter what as long as it connects to you and the customer.
Being passionate and excited about everything you do is not possible (using the CRM or Xero frankly just needs to be done) however passion and excitement in what you do is important in front of customers, and your people if you are a people leader. Crowded House said it well in their song "Where ever you go you take the weather".
So make sure you bring the summer to your next meeting. If you can't on a regular basis maybe its time to reflect and consider when you wake up in the morning are you leading or just accepting your day.
Keep Inspired and Keep being excited by what you do.
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