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In this episode of Mindful You Alan interviews Brenda Maria Sheldrake. Brenda believes that time freedom is much more important than money. When you are present and mindful makes it much easier for people to accept the things like throws at you. We must build relationships with people before trying to sell them anything and the best way to do that is to pick up the phone. Brenda explains how she reaches out to her leads and how to find networking events.
About The Guest:
Brenda Marie is a highly experienced and dedicated Lead Generation Strategist with a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs and businesses effectively generate high-quality leads, build meaningful relationships, and achieve their goals. Her approach is unique in that she doesn't just offer a done-for-you service; instead, she empowers her clients to learn and implement lead generation strategies themselves, ensuring lasting success and sustainable growth.
Find Brenda Here:
About Alan:
Alan Carroll is an Educational Psychologist who specializes in Transpersonal Psychology. He founded Alan Carroll & Associates 30 years ago and before that, he was a Senior Sales Training Consultant for 10 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. He has dedicated his life in search of mindfulness tools that can be used by everyone (young and old) to transform their ability to speak at a professional level, as well as, to reduce the psychological suffering caused by the misidentification with our ego and reconnect to the vast transcendent dimension of consciousness that lies just on the other side of the thoughts we think and in between the words we speak.
Personal: https://www.facebook.com/alan.carroll.7359
Business: https://www.facebook.com/AlanCarrolltrains
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aca-mindful-you/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulnesseminar/
Web Site: https://acamindfulyou.com/
Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the mindful U
Alan Carroll:podcast. My name is Alan Carroll, and I am your host, as
Alan Carroll:we journey together into this wonderful metaphysical land of
Alan Carroll:mindfulness, filled with love and joy, filled with clarity
Alan Carroll:filled with understanding and filled with stillness, absolute
Alan Carroll:stillness. And as we interview our guests over time, often
Alan Carroll:there is a critical, transformational experience that
Alan Carroll:people have, which ignites an awareness, like waking up from
Alan Carroll:something which caused them to change their behaviors and
Alan Carroll:change their life paths. Our next guest, Brenda Murray, she
Alan Carroll:Drake. I met her at the potter Palooza event that I did, where
Alan Carroll:a lot of podcasters get together, we get to interview a
Alan Carroll:lot of guests from lots of different varieties, different
Alan Carroll:places. And Brenda is in the business world. She is over time
Alan Carroll:has become a master of lead generation, getting people to
Alan Carroll:connect with people get people with a community in order to
Alan Carroll:generate more more quality, more quality leads and building on
Alan Carroll:relationships. And being motivated to do that. A lot has
Alan Carroll:to do with her personal story, her personal journey into
Alan Carroll:mindfulness. And so I would like to welcome Brenda to the mindful
Alan Carroll:U podcast. Thank you for being here today. Hello, how are how
Alan Carroll:are you today? Brenda?
Unknown:I'm great. Thank you.
Alan Carroll:Well, welcome to the mindful you podcast. And I'd
Alan Carroll:like to Well, thank you. Thank you, I'd like to start with
Alan Carroll:giving our audience a little understanding of your
Alan Carroll:background. And what where you sort of came from and how you
Alan Carroll:evolved and to where you are today.
Alan Carroll:Brenda Marie Sheldrake: Ah, okay, well, alright, how far you
Alan Carroll:want me back to go back here. But I will let you know that I
Alan Carroll:spent 13 years in a job until the government funding and left
Alan Carroll:me with at 50 with total uncertainty. Most of it was it
Alan Carroll:was I spent, I spent about 20 minutes crying. And then I found
Alan Carroll:my husband and told him that I didn't have a job anymore. And
Alan Carroll:he told me everything was going to be okay. And he was right.
Alan Carroll:Everything was okay. But I wasn't content with sitting at
Alan Carroll:home watching me and in the restless. So I went out, and I
Alan Carroll:found something that I was passionate about. And that was
Alan Carroll:helping people with disabilities. I was helping them
Alan Carroll:with a product was a financial product. And the problem The
Alan Carroll:challenge, though was that when I would tell people about it,
Alan Carroll:they would say, Okay, if this were real, the government would
Alan Carroll:have told us about it. If this were real, then we would have
Alan Carroll:got a letter about it. If this were real, then somebody would
Alan Carroll:have told us and I said well, I am someone and I am telling you.
Alan Carroll:And they said we don't trust you, we think it's a scam. So
Alan Carroll:the the challenge was that I have this great thing that was
Alan Carroll:going to change the lives of people with disabilities. But I
Alan Carroll:couldn't get them to believe me. And then I met a man who said to
Alan Carroll:me, stop trying to sell them your great thing and start being
Alan Carroll:interested in them. Build a relationship with them, and the
Alan Carroll:product will follow. And so I started implementing that
Alan Carroll:system. I started. I love talking to people anyway,
Alan Carroll:talking is one of my favorite things. So I started talking to
Alan Carroll:people and getting to know them and hearing about their
Alan Carroll:challenges and hearing about the things they were really good at.
Alan Carroll:And people started wanting to know more about me and so it
Alan Carroll:opened the door to me telling them about the product then and
Alan Carroll:by then they would have more trust in me. And they would
Alan Carroll:either say well, I need that product or I know somebody who
Alan Carroll:needs that product. Using the system. I generated 3000
Alan Carroll:qualified leads in one year. That was one of the highlights
Alan Carroll:of my business.
Alan Carroll:3000 leads Oh my goodness.
Unknown:3000 leads.
Alan Carroll:That's wonderful.
Unknown:There's one thing about leads, though. Leads are really
Unknown:names and phone numbers, leads don't guarantee business, you've
Unknown:got to have people who are open to hearing about what you want
Unknown:to offer them, we've got to convert. So with the 3000 leads,
Unknown:these people were ready to be converted, because they really
Unknown:knew that they needed the financial help that I was
Unknown:offering. I couldn't convert them all quickly enough, though.
Unknown:So I started handing those leads out to other associates that I
Unknown:worked with. But people always want to know, so what was your
Unknown:close rate? And my close rate was about 90%.
Alan Carroll:Ooh, that sounds fantastic.
Unknown:change the lives of a lot of people change the lives
Unknown:of a lot of families. When COVID hit, it became more challenging
Unknown:to do my business because people didn't. People would take away
Unknown:children with disabilities didn't really want you in their
Unknown:own right, they were afraid. And so what I did, I had people
Unknown:asking me, how do you generate the 3000? Leads? How do you do
Unknown:what you did. And I realized that was a marketable skill. And
Unknown:I started working to help people to generate their own leads, I
Unknown:started working on a course that's launching this September,
Unknown:called Lead Generation and conversion made easy. And I
Unknown:developed a community. And my mission within my community was
Unknown:to ensure that no entrepreneur quit before they received their
Unknown:first miracle.
Alan Carroll:I'm a time a student of the Course of
Alan Carroll:Miracles. So I'm a big fan of miracles. And they seem to come
Alan Carroll:when you are more mindful and more open. And rather than
Alan Carroll:resisting the flow of life, you're open to the flow of life,
Alan Carroll:and all of a sudden miracles appear.
Unknown:Yes. And that's exactly really LM. That's what happened
Unknown:for me. I thought that my job here was to teach people to
Unknown:generate leads. But when my miracle came, my miracle came in
Unknown:the form of time freedom. I don't know if you've ever heard
Unknown:anybody say that this wine. But when you get the call, are you
Unknown:going to be able to step up. It's a very popular line for
Unknown:motivating people to do things. And I used to think that it
Unknown:meant what I have the money to be able to throw at the problem.
Unknown:Two years ago, I learned that money can't solve all problems.
Unknown:And what I really needed was the time to be able to be there for
Unknown:someone that I loved, who was going through a really hard
Unknown:time. And in the end, I spent two years caring for this
Unknown:person, with my sister, the two of us cared for them. And in the
Unknown:end, we had to say goodbye to them. But the time freedom
Unknown:allowed me to make amazing memories. And that's one of the
Unknown:really strong parts where mindfulness came in. Because I
Unknown:was able to look back on those memories, see all the wonderful
Unknown:things that happened for us during those two years. And it
Unknown:made it a lot easier to go through the hard time when they
Unknown:were done.
Alan Carroll:It sounds like it was definitely an emotional
Alan Carroll:roller coaster from contributing and being of service to
Alan Carroll:connecting to somebody and then having that energy disappear.
Alan Carroll:And that empty space that was left. That was a sadness that
Alan Carroll:I'm sure there was sadness and loss and wasn't it wasn't a it
Alan Carroll:wasn't a happy time.
Unknown:It wasn't initially. But your shirt really says an
Unknown:important message there. I see on your shirt, I see stillness.
Unknown:And that was one of the things that I had to do. I had, I had
Unknown:to get quiet. And I had to look at what what the miracle was,
Unknown:for me what the amazing thing, what the gift was a came out of
Unknown:this sadness. And the gift came in the form of those memories.
Unknown:Those memories are what made it so much easier to move on to
Unknown:continue. And to be able to look back on that person at the
Unknown:person was my father. And I was able to I'm able to look back
Unknown:down and be able to remember with love and with happiness,
Unknown:all the good times that we had.
Alan Carroll:And, and being present and being mindful, just
Alan Carroll:made it made the transition even easier for you.
Unknown:It definitely did. It definitely did. And the other
Unknown:thing that it made easier was accepting when dad was trying to
Unknown:tell us that it was time for him to go. Because what I really
Unknown:wanted there was there was this one day and and we'd had a big
Unknown:fight and dad looked at me and he said What do you want me to
Unknown:do? And what I really wanted to say was I want you to fight damn
Unknown:and I want you to stay because I'm not ready to lose you yet.
Unknown:When instead I took a breath I said, I want you to play
Unknown:cribbage with me. And he was he loved playing cribbage all his
Unknown:life, he played cribbage. And he said, Well, I guess I could
Unknown:probably do that. And we got out the cribbage board, and they sat
Unknown:for two hours, and they laughed. And we played cribbage. And
Unknown:true, he couldn't count quite as well as you used to. But he
Unknown:counted perfectly fine for what we were doing. And we had a good
Unknown:time. And I remember my sister walking in the back door and
Unknown:saying, so sound that I haven't heard in this house in a long
Unknown:while, as she walked into the kitchen and found us both
Unknown:sitting there laughing and playing our game. And two days
Unknown:after that, we said goodbye to him.
Alan Carroll:Wow. I like the, the idea that your, your father
Alan Carroll:asked you, what do you want me to do, and you had immediate
Alan Carroll:voice was, you know, get better and fight and stay with me, I
Alan Carroll:don't want to lose you. And so you had that voice on one side,
Alan Carroll:which is more of an ego voice of, you know, identity and me
Alan Carroll:and my well being not your well being. And then you then by that
Alan Carroll:stillness, that taking the breath, you asked you said to
Alan Carroll:yourself, is that the highest vibration I can create right now
Alan Carroll:is that the most loving vibration that I can create
Alan Carroll:right now for my father. And another thought came in
Alan Carroll:cribbage. And, and that's, that's a memory that you have.
Alan Carroll:That will it's a treasure. And most people I find are, are very
Alan Carroll:quick to react to and believe in the egoic voice, rather than
Alan Carroll:pause, take a breath and look at it for what's the highest thing
Alan Carroll:that I can do for the well being of the person in front of me,
Alan Carroll:which is also reflection of you. So when you do those kind acts
Alan Carroll:of kindness for some other people, you're actually
Alan Carroll:contributing to yourself, same time. Wow, that's quite as quite
Alan Carroll:a story about the cribbage. It's very, very moving. So what's the
Alan Carroll:this course you're talking about, you have a course coming
Alan Carroll:up, what's it going to be for people.
Unknown:So the course for people who either think they
Unknown:don't have enough leads, which, here's the secret.
Alan Carroll:Here's the secret. So we got to go slow for
Alan Carroll:secrets.
Unknown:If you have one of these, you have lots of leads,
Alan Carroll:I have one of those, I can see it sorted right
Alan Carroll:here, it's right there,
Unknown:you have one of those. So that's full of leads, what
Unknown:you really need is you need the formula, to be able to take
Unknown:those people out of your phone, out of your LinkedIn out of your
Unknown:Facebook, and have them become open to hearing what it is that
Unknown:you will have to offer. They're not necessarily going to be your
Unknown:customers. But they may become your best advocate who when they
Unknown:go to a networking event and hear somebody saying that they
Unknown:need help. They say Oh, you got to talk to Alan, you've got to
Unknown:talk to Brenda you need more leads, you want to build your
Unknown:business, you've got to talk to Brenda. So the course goes from
Unknown:going to live events and building relationships, then we
Unknown:look at this zoom environment because the Zoom environment is
Unknown:a little different. Some people make the mistake of trying to do
Unknown:exactly the same thing that they did when they were having
Unknown:coffee. So we look at that. And then we go into all the
Unknown:different kinds of social media and how you can build
Unknown:relationships there. Once we've established a foundation of
Unknown:building the relationships, then the next step is that we help
Unknown:people with that conversion process with taking the
Unknown:relationship and getting the person to be willing to listen
Unknown:to what you have to offer. But you have to still use that
Unknown:stillness, you have to be willing to accept. Some people
Unknown:will, some people won't. And that's okay. You can ask them
Unknown:again tomorrow. So that's all covered in the course it's 12
Unknown:weeks in length, and included with the course not only do you
Unknown:get my lead generation course, you also get 12 weeks of access
Unknown:to my biz leads community where I've partnered with a number of
Unknown:experts in many different areas who are helping you to make sure
Unknown:that you stay in business, no matter what Challenge gets
Unknown:thrown at you.
Alan Carroll:That's that's that's wonderful. That's
Alan Carroll:wonderful to be able to have a process that you could follow
Alan Carroll:that will generate the phone numbers and the names of the
Alan Carroll:leads. And then you want to reach out and connect with those
Alan Carroll:people. So when you when you reach out, what would be some of
Alan Carroll:the things that you would you would email text? How would you
Alan Carroll:reach out to these, these these people on your LinkedIn account,
Alan Carroll:so your Facebook accounts?
Unknown:Well, when I go to a networking event, I listen to
Unknown:people sharing. And I pick out one or two people, I don't try
Unknown:and meet with the whole room, I pick out one or two people who
Unknown:are especially interesting to me. Then I go over to their
Unknown:LinkedIn profile. I follow them first I click follow. And then I
Unknown:send them a message saying I saw you, for example, I saw you at
Unknown:pod palooza. I really liked what you said, when you said and pick
Unknown:something specific that they said that attracted your
Unknown:attention. And then I say, Would you be willing to book a one to
Unknown:one? Most people, when you tell them that you'd like what they
Unknown:said, they're flattered. And they're gonna be willing to book
Unknown:that one to one because you're not saying, I want to sell you
Unknown:my coffee pot. You're not saying I have a coaching program that
Unknown:will solve all your problems. You're saying I liked what you
Unknown:said. So then when I meet with them, I talked to them about
Unknown:whatever that thing was. And I talked about two things. First
Unknown:thing I talk about is what are you really good at? What is like
Unknown:I loved when you said this thing, but what's your
Unknown:superpower? And after I talk about their superpower, then I
Unknown:asked them the question that most people don't like to
Unknown:answer. But if you've done a good job at being interested in
Unknown:them and listening, then when you ask them, What is your
Unknown:greatest challenge in your business right now? They may be
Unknown:a little reluctant at first to answer. But they'll probably
Unknown:tell you, they may ask you something like, Well, why are
Unknown:you asking? But they will probably tell you. If they feel
Unknown:that you're asking them so that you can sell them something,
Unknown:they're going to be more reluctant to answer that
Unknown:question. So I always say to them, I'm asking you what your
Unknown:greatest challenge is right now, because I do five to seven
Unknown:networking events a week. And I meet with two to five people
Unknown:every day. I asked them all the same two questions I just asked
Unknown:you. Would you rather look for the solution to your problem? Or
Unknown:would you like me to speed up the process for you? People
Unknown:answer the question. And if you can help them if you can
Unknown:actually give them a suggestion for their problem, then they
Unknown:want to know how they can help you. And that opens the door to
Unknown:being able to ask for what you need help with? Do you need more
Unknown:clients? Do you need more referrals? Do you want to know
Unknown:if they know anybody who wants to practice mindfulness? What
Unknown:are you looking for? Then you can ask for your help.
Alan Carroll:Networking events? How do you find networking
Alan Carroll:events?
Unknown:So I have I have a I look on Eventbrite. And I pick
Unknown:events all over the world, really, because I'm building my
Unknown:business all over
Alan Carroll:the world. So when you look at an event, what event
Alan Carroll:then bright
Unknown:is one of the first places I look?
Alan Carroll:ber it a bright like light bright. Yeah. Okay.
Unknown:And you can put in any subject that you're interested
Unknown:in. So for example, Alan, if you wanted to meet more people who
Unknown:are practicing mindfulness, absolutely. You could search
Unknown:mindfulness and then you would see the different kinds of
Unknown:events that are coming up. Now, one, here's another tip. Don't
Unknown:focus solely on the on the networking event on something
Unknown:that says networking. If there's something where someone is
Unknown:speaking, when you go to those events, watch what's happening
Unknown:in the chat. Because you can message people based on their
Unknown:comments in the chat. If they're engaging in whatever the subject
Unknown:is that you're interested in that you want to talk about
Unknown:more. You're gonna see that in the chat, then you can direct
Unknown:message them in most cases, you could do a direct message If you
Unknown:can't do direct message because they have that shut off, then I
Unknown:just go back to my trusty LinkedIn. And I send them a
Unknown:connection request through LinkedIn, I say I saw you at XYZ
Unknown:event, I'd really like to get to know you better. And there's one
Unknown:thing if you're going to say, I'd really like to get to know
Unknown:you better. Be prepared that in the event, you're going to
Unknown:listen twice as much as you're going to talk. You ask a
Unknown:question, listen for answers. ask the next question based on
Unknown:what they said. It needs to be more organic, it can't be. Well,
Unknown:it's not an interview. It's something organic, it has to
Unknown:flow from what they're saying. And that's how I build my
Unknown:relationships. There is a tool if I can, if I can share a tool
Unknown:a free totally,
Alan Carroll:absolutely, we got another minute, so we can talk
Alan Carroll:another minute.
Unknown:Okay, this is a tool that's very, very useful when
Unknown:you're on LinkedIn, it's called my most trusted. It's a Chrome
Unknown:extension. If you run your LinkedIn on Chrome, you can
Unknown:download this extension, it doesn't harvest any information,
Unknown:it doesn't scrape or do anything like that, what you use it for,
Unknown:we all have content sort of LinkedIn that we've never ever
Unknown:met, they sent us a connection request. We thought it was a
Unknown:good idea we accepted but we've never met them. But then there
Unknown:are other people that we know very well. You put the people
Unknown:you know, well that you trust that you'd be willing to do
Unknown:introductions for, into my most trusted, you let them know that
Unknown:you've done it. So if you and I both install my most trusted,
Unknown:you can see everybody that I trust, I can see everybody that
Unknown:you trust. I can then say Alan, would you mind introducing me to
Unknown:Kimberly Crowe because I'd really like to talk to her about
Unknown:PATA palooza. And you can say to me, Brenda, would you mind
Unknown:introducing me to Jessica Koch, because I'd like to talk to her
Unknown:about being on her podcast.
Alan Carroll:Brilliant. That's great. That's very, very
Alan Carroll:practical, very useful. And it starts the ball rolling, by
Alan Carroll:giving us some practical things to do, especially with LinkedIn,
Alan Carroll:because LinkedIn is available to everybody. But one of the one of
Alan Carroll:the challenges with LinkedIn is that it has like 10,000
Alan Carroll:features. And so you're talking about one of the 10,000
Alan Carroll:features, but we need people like you who can tell us oh, by
Alan Carroll:the way, that little feature right there that might that most
Alan Carroll:trusted piece. Take a look at that one. It was pretty good. So
Alan Carroll:I appreciate I appreciate the tip. Very nice. To conclude to
Alan Carroll:conclude, I like this too. If people want to connect with you,
Alan Carroll:Brendan, where can they? Where can they go to connect with you?
Unknown:LinkedIn is my favorite place. Where do you go? Come
Unknown:find me. I'm Brandon Marie Sheldrick on LinkedIn, you can
Unknown:send me a message and I'll be happy to sit down and do a one
Unknown:to one with you. Or I'm going to provide you with my calendar
Unknown:link. I'm happy with people just hopping on my calendar to ask
Unknown:questions.
Alan Carroll:Wonderful. Well, thank you very much. Wonderful
Alan Carroll:guests, lots of valuable information. I appreciate you
Alan Carroll:taking the time to share your wisdom with our audience. It
Alan Carroll:sounds wonderful. And I really liked the the idea of lead
Alan Carroll:generation and how you can support people in generating
Alan Carroll:more leads to build your business. So thank you very
Alan Carroll:much.
Unknown:Thank you.
Alan Carroll:Bye bye for now.
