Everyone has the friend that is known for interrupting.  You know, the one that interrupts you mid-sentence while you’re telling a good story to tell you ALL about them. By doing this, they think that they’re “relating to you”, while in actuality, what they’re really doing is hijacking your punch line and demonstrating that they’re horrible listeners.

As annoying as that type of listener is, a close cousin to the interrupter is the listener that is listening with an agenda.  When you listen with an agenda, you listen waiting for the person talking to walk you into your Segway to your product pitch or what you want to talk about instead of validating what they are talking about. This is a very common attribute displayed by many people in sales.  All too often, prospective customers feel comfortable enough to start down the path of their real problems, and as soon as the sales person hears the “in” they JUMP right into the middle of the story and hijack the conversation over to the land of products and solutions.  When most of the time, the prospect is wanting to be heard, understood and empathized with, solutions and products might fit down the road, but to start, they are simply wanting to be heard. 

I truly believe that salespeople are not filled with malicious intent when this type of scenario plays out. A lot of what guides this type of behavior is product excitement and a true desire to solve problems for people.  But just like the way you handle a first date vs a marriage of ten years, you ease into it and you “court” her BEFORE you ask for her hand in marriage, and get to know the person before you hop into products pitches. 

The Foundation of any relationship is communication, while listening is truly the juice that provides the flow between two people.  I would argue that the best sales people/business development professionals are the ones that know how to listen and then ask great questions keeping the conversation about the prospect.

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Everyone has problems; have you ever had a hard day increasing sales while providing a safe place for people to talk about their problems? Most people haven’t, because if you help create solutions to their problems by listening, you will have a customer for life.

A very practical and simple way to focus on listening is to make the conversation about the prospect. This sounds simple, but how do you do that? Here are a few tips to hone your listening skills:

Make Eye Contact
By focusing your attention on the prospect, it allows for a calmer mind and increases your listening ability, if you find you drift off, bring yourself back by way of eye contact. 

Practice selfless listening
When you find yourself wandering, think positively about the person in front of you and practice empathy, instead of letting your mind wander to how your products will fix their problems, bring your attention the the literal words they are saying and what the meaning is behind their words. 

Create your own meditation habit. 
Part of being a good listener is having a quiet mind and in my experience the best way to learn to quiet your mind is with a regular meditation practice.  Headspace is a great app that guides you through a wonderful ten minute per day meditation.  Fantastic for beginners or anyone really. 

When you are focusing on evolving your leadership as a business development professional, focusing on listening will help your ability to solve problems. 

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Lindsey Rainwater, also known as Lindsey RainH2O, is a sought-after business consultant, leadership coach, writer and presenter to the fitness and wellness industry. For more information about Rainwater, follow her on Twitter@LindseyRainH2O

Talk about trends... Swipe swipe, click, post, click, type type type, swipe, click, swipe moving at the speed of light...

Last night I went to go see one of my favorite bands perform.  My husband and I settled in once arriving in the venue and chatted while we waited for the opener, we had gotten there way early to ensure great seats, we got them!

To my right was a small group of women in their 20's.  Giggling, smiling and chatting away, I thought, so sweet, girls night out!  Three songs into the opener and I noticed none of them were watching the stage, all I could see was 4 brightly glowing screens out of the corner of my eye.  Taking turns showing their screen where instagram meme's or funny pics appeared, they would scroll, stop, show the others, giggle, scroll, stop, show, laugh; meme’s like “I’m as emotionally stable as an Ikea table” are the types that got the most laughs.  This went on for the entire set of the opener.  I thought maybe it was just that group of girls, I started to look around and to my right another girl, being held in the arms of her man, looking down at her phone flipping through instagram while being serenaded by the most beautiful acoustic love songs.  My heart hurt. As the main event took stage, I thought for sure they would put their phones away and focus on the LIVE experiences.  Nope. It got worse. The focus became the sharing of the show, take a photo, snapchat, click, video, insta, click, image, facebook.  She put her phone away, ope, it’s out again, back to check how many "likes".

I might sound psycho, being able to account this so explicitly but the women was elbow to elbow with me and my peripheral vision gave me insights without even trying.  Here we all were, hundreds of us, gathered to see this incredible band, and she is completely fixated on her mobile screen sharing picture and video after video with her virtual network.  I felt sick, as much as I was loving the performance, I could not help but be distracted by her behavior.  After we left, I got in the car and said to my husband, do you think that’s normal for her? Do you think that is an indicator of how a lot of 20 somethings are behaving? I went down the rabbit hole of "what’s the future going to be like if this keeps up"? Will people have the ability to be happy with an experience, without documenting the whole play by play? Is everything better or more exciting when shared? what is UP with the social behavior around this sharing phenomenon? I totally get a few pics, but the play by play across multiple platforms for four hours straight? 

The underlying thought I have this morning is this: If this is in fact a trend, what does it look like ten years from now? 

I am not by any means undermining social media or the nature of how powerful our new social tools are, what I am wanting to highlight is the dramatic power of this repetitive, twitch-like sharing that takes people away from their present circumstance. Will people be capable of a face to face conversation without interrupting for a pic or post? What does this look like long term?

The pendulum swing has already begun, I have recently noticed a rising number of people taking social “breaks,” deleting apps from their phones and increasing their in-person time with people. The whole topic causes me to wonder, will we have “mobile breaks” built into our future? Is the way people are sharing out of hand?

What do you think? Are people missing the forest for the trees when sharing in such a frenzied fashion? Or is this type of behavior the new normal? 

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Lindsey Rainwater is a consultant and coach to the fitness and wellness industry.  She specializes in business development and leadership. Currently she is working with the Fitmarc Team helping Health Club owners all over the south central region of the united states propel their business forward via group exercise solutions.  For more information about Lindsey, follow her @lindseyrainh2o

Have you ever read an old journal and found tremendous delight in seeing where you were in comparison to your current thoughts? I certainly do and have that same experience when looking through old blog posts. In the way of "trends" having consistency that allows you to track your own growth is totally trendy! check out my own "throwback Tuesday" honoring where I was two years ago, in the writing of this article "The Observer vs. the Absorber. Cheers! -Linds

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The Observer vs. the Absorber

October 28, 2013 BY LINDSEY RAINWATER

I have been thinking about this idea of being an observer vs. absorber, and the power of the ability to flow through circumstances vs. getting stuck.  

Allow me to first provide a description of what I am thinking in this space of observer vs. absorber.

The Observer: Able to flow through circumstances not attaching to any one particular idea. Additionally, not attaching to outcomes or interactions results more so, stays focused on their own truths amidst day to day encounters. Considering all, attaching to little.

The Absorber: Finds identity and fulfillment in learning about others and then taking ownership of fixing or owning those things as their own.  Often sees areas of opportunity and places a tremendous amount of value in correcting those things via others ideas and input instead of their own individual ideas.

I was thinking about this application of thought in regards to a health club operator, when you operate a health club there is a LOT to think about, juggle, and consider.  You are often times in charge of a huge scope and are expected to log long hours, deliver on measurables and have very happy members and staff.  

So which of these two ways of being resonates?  

Do you find yourself walking around with a big backpack on, hearing each request, need and desire from staff and members, putting each one in the backpack and then sitting down in your office to slowly unpack your luggage hoping to figure out how to serve each demand while staying afloat?  This can get very dramatic, by attaching importance to each item in the backpack, you end up spending a considerable amount of time, off the scope of focus and in the drama of trying to  please everyone.

In my opinion, drama is fear dressed up as a story.  A lot of the drama I see happen is wrapped up in unknown outcomes, what if's, and fear of failures- all things we do not have the ability to predict.  Drama, Fear can be side stepped in the position of the observer.  

The observer flows through the day, attentively notices each circumstance around them, without attaching an idea or specific significance to any one item.  Seeing the big picture and plugging critical noticing into the equation they see as the operational plan.  The observer has a lot of time on their hands because they do not engage in the drama or fear of un measurable outcomes, instead they stay focused on the present, keeping the large scope idea of 'where they are going' in mind.  If something does not lend itself to the big picture, it probably shouldn't absorb time in the present.

So I ask, do you find yourself engaging as an absorber or an observer?

Let me know, if you find it helpful to consider a new way of looking at your day to day operations. 

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Lindsey Rainwater is a consultant and coach to the fitness and wellness industry.  She specializes in business development and leadership. Currently she is working with the Fitmarc Team helping Health Club owners all over the south central region of the united states propel their business forward via group exercise solutions.  For more information about Lindsey, follow her @lindseyrainh2o

Have you read the article "you now have a shorter attention span than a goldfish" ? It caught my eye, of course I started to read it and half way through my phone vibrated and I did not finish...  you might be ready to move on right now, hang tight ;-) 

How TRUE and realistic the article is! Goldfish can hold a 9 Seconds attention span, while humans are now coming in at 8 seconds. When I am honest with myself, I am sure that's a realistic number for me too. 

 How many emails I delete or write off if I do not feel inspired in the first two sentences, a lot.

 Based on my own experiences here are my top "TO DO" and "NOT" when communicating in under 8 seconds.

1. DO NOT: Send long winded wordy emails.

DO: Send SHORT emails that fit in the view screen of your phone. If I have to scroll, it's too long. 

2. DO NOT: Send an email about something conversational, text can be misinterpreted. Instead...

DO: Make phone calls to articulate topics that you can't explain briefly. 

3. DO NOT: Rely solely on email to communicate. Instead...

DO: Get to know the people in your life on Social & pick up the phone, text is cool, but not as cool as the warm fuzzy feeling you get after a solid catch up with an old friend. 

Remember S^3 = Short. Simple. Social 

Happy Communicating!

cheers,

Lindsey

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Lindsey Rainwater is a consultant and coach to the fitness and wellness industry.  She specializes in business development and leadership. Currently she is working with the Fitmarc Team helping Health Club owners all over the south central region of the united states propel their business forward via group exercise solutions.  For more information about Lindsey, follow her @lindseyrainh2o

Over the past decade consumer choices have changed tremendously around how to join a Health Club.  In the old days, health club memberships were sold in small closing offices with big contracts, often scary closing pitches and a no way out clause.  Thank goodness those days are over, the softer and friendlier "month to month" agreements are now in place, but now an even more progressive consumer controlled way of joining clubs has come along. 

Check out ClassPass, if you have not already heard of this show stopper of a platform, check it out! 

"For $79, you'll have your pick of classes to choose from, including cycling, yoga, Pilates, barre, strength training, bootcamp, dance, and so much more. Plus, we’re adding new studios and classes each and every week.  

Commitment not your thing? Cancel anytime". -ClassPass

I am not the only one talking about the platform, visionary Bryan O'Rourke had this to say.

"Technology is creating a tsunami of business model innovation and Class Pass is but one example. Competitors in the health club and fitness space should prepare for the opportunities and threats that are arising because significant change is upon us all. We have certainly entered a new era". -Bryan O'Rourke 

I could not agree more with what Bryan is saying here! the traditional health club membership model is changing significantly. As consumers are more and more empowered to have what they want when they want it, as an industry we are going to continue to see consumers create the reality of the market. 

What do you think, how will classpass and membership models like this impact our industry?

Reply here, send me your thoughts! 

And! take a moment to complete the survey bellow.

Cheers,

Lindsey

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Lindsey Rainwater is an experienced consultant and coach  to the fitness and wellness industry.  She specializes in business development and leadership. Currently she is working with the Fitmarc Team helping Health Club owners all over the south central region of the united states propel their business forward via group exercise solutions.  For more information about Lindsey, follow her @lindseyrainh2o