Ep605: Harriet Mellor – Do You Have the Time to Invest and Take Action?

Andrew Stotz 00:01
Hello, fellow risk takers and welcome to My Worst Investment Ever, the stories of laws to keep you winning. In our community, we know that to win in investing, you must take risks but to win big, you've got to reduce it. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives and that mission has led me to create the Become a Better Investor Community. In the community, you get access to the tools you need to create, grow and protect your wealth. You also get our weekly live sessions and most importantly, you get access to the risk reduction lessons I've learned from more than 600 guests go to my worst investment ever.com right now to claim your spot fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz, from A. Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guests. Harriet Mela, Harriet, are you ready to join the mission?

Harriet Mellor 00:54
I am ready.

Andrew Stotz 00:56
Let me introduce you to the audience. One second. Harriet is a sales transformation coach, serial entrepreneur, consultant, and CEO of your sales coach. She is passionate about growing businesses and removing this stigma from sales. Over the past 17 years, she's helped hundreds of top companies around the world, including her own, make more money using simple, powerful and proven sales strategies that work from scaling sales teams to million-dollar business growth. By applying her signature sales success method. Harriet's clients have experienced impactful and sustainable results. Harriet is on a mission to empower 1000 business owners and salespeople to grow to six and seven figures and beyond using simple and well plan processes, with focus on sales activity, and efforts. My goodness, Harriet, take a moment and tell us about the unique value that you bring to this wonderful world.

Harriet Mellor 01:59
Thank you, Andrew, I'm going to say the unique value is based on very much value driven sales methods because one of the biggest challenges when it comes to sales, I get people coming to me asking for non sleazy non patient non pushy, I don't want to sound salesy, I don't want to follow up. Whereas actually, if we flip that around and say, Well, don't sell Don't, don't push anything, just add value, add value always lead with service. And you will see those results. And that may sound wishy-washy, and it probably does at this point. But that team along with some, you know incredible processes, incredible methodologies, you will see success when you lead with value. And I believe that's the value proposition that I bring specifically to this industry.

Andrew Stotz 02:44
So let's give an example. Maybe let's look at one of my courses as an example. It's called the valuation masterclass. And I teach people how to value companies. So thinking about, okay, I lead with value, one of the things I try to do is I try to do videos, YouTube videos, where I value companies, and try to demonstrate and say, here's what I think this company is worth. And here's why. And, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's fun, and I do think that people get to understand you know, what they're doing. But what else I mean, a lot of times, I will talk about my program like we do this, we do that we do this, we do that. And I feel like I need to get better at helping to understand the value that they're going to get by attending the course. How would you advise someone like myself and think about my listeners in general, that you have little businesses, bigger businesses that are trying to figure out better ways to reach the market?

Harriet Mellor 03:42
Yeah, incredible. Incredible. I love I love these questions. Thank you. So with regards to finding that sweet spot of what it is that people are actually going to get from your programs or your courses, we need to get the exact wording and language that previous clients have used. So one of the biggest mistakes I see especially on those sales pages and info pages, is we generalize the outcome because we're trying to reach more people. Whereas if we use the specific language, and wording an outcome and how they fell and the journey they went on, specifically, you will connect with way more people than if you try and generalize what it actually was that they achieved. And the reason for that is because we're connecting, if you can connect with one person that had that outcome, you can connect with 1000 More, that's ultimately you know, the rule out there. And, you know, I guess really tied in with that you've got the way that you're delivering value and content through your YouTube videos will allow you to add value by showing them how you value that business by showing them the methodology or the steps or the thought process you went through to come up with that valuation and if you if you explain that and share that. It sometimes feels counterintuitive to give it all away. But actually People don't value what they haven't invested in. And so therefore, they're not going to necessarily put everything into practice. And the chances are, they'll watch only a handful of videos. But if we can connect very specifically use what it is that our clients have told us before, you're going to connect on a much a much higher level,

Andrew Stotz 05:17
that the point that you made. And you mentioned it before we turn on the recorder was the idea of getting people to complete your programs and all that. And one thing of somebody I was in, I was in Indonesia, in Jakarta a few years ago, and I was asked to give a speech about a book that I wrote about how to start building your wealth, investing in the stock market, and very simple stuff that I was saying, and teaching. And some young students came up to me and they said, you know, if it's this simple to make, you know, to become rich in the stock market, like why are you explaining it? All that, you know, why not just do it and not explain it? You know, because other people are just going to all do it? And I said, I said, Well, it's an excellent question. But I want to ask you a question. And that is, if you go to the library, and you look in the section for weight loss, are there a small number of books or a large number of books? And they said, Well, there's a large number of books on weight loss. And I said, and basically, there's enough information in those books that you could lose weight. Correct? Correct. So my question is, is the world skinny? No, it's not. Because it's not about the information. It's about the transformation that we deliver. And so you just made me think about that. And one of the things that I found was that I always heard this statistic that a typical course, only 10%, make it to the end, if it's not guided or something like that. And I found that myself, and that's why I converted one of my courses, you can still take it online, as like on demand, but I also created the bootcamp. So I call it the Valuation Masterclass Boot Camp, I wear my fancy hat, which is my drill instructor hat, and I get a 70% completion rate, because it's a six-week guided program. I'm just curious, like, what's been your experience about how to make sure that you're delivering the value that you know, you have, and you want to deliver?

Harriet Mellor 07:13
And so I always start with in person, that's how I know the value is there. So and generally, that's my recommendation for anyone because at the moment, everybody's trying to go online, they've obviously gone online, because of the, of the way the world has been over the last few years. But now people are saying, Okay, well, I want to travel again, and therefore I don't want to be stuck to my desk, or to a physical location. And so my first question is always, can you add the same value being online? That's my first question. Because if you can't, let's, let's stop there, let's not have any further conversations. If you can still add value online, then you want to then create a program or create a course, or some form of methodology that you can implement with people physically in person, if that's the way you're already doing it. So I always recommend to test it with your, with your people in person that beat around, and then develop it because what I've seen too, all too often happen is that you create this as what we think, an incredible course. And then we put it online, and then we were like this doesn't make sense. And it doesn't, you know, I've gotta go from here to here to here. And you end up evolving it. And so you spend months trying to create this course. And then you spend months on doing everything that you just did. So my recommendation for that is, will it add value? If it does add value, can you create it in an in person environment, get real life feedback, get people that are actually going to give it a go and give you feedback of where they were and where they ended up at the end. And how they felt the process was take real genuine feedback of what didn't work and what they didn't like, and then put it into an online program.

Andrew Stotz 08:46
So that's great advice for the listeners and the viewers is that, you know, go out and test your material, like a comedian, you know, take your material in the audience. And I'll tell you a funny story when I decided to go online with the bootcamp and think about how I could grow it, you know, globally, rather than just in Thailand, and how I could move my rates from 10% completions to higher. I decided, Okay, let's try the boot camp. So it was kind of during the middle of the pandemic. And Thailand didn't get hit by the pandemic until later. So, but things were kind of shut down. But I basically got seven young people not even young and I have one person, she was a dentist, it was about 40 years old. And I set it up so that everybody reported to my house at 7am five days a week for six weeks, and I think we originally had like eight and we had six that graduated. And once we finished that six-week intense program at my house, it was like all right, this now we've tested it, we can see what we want to improve. We got verbal feedback right there. You know, we could just see what was working what wasn't. And now what Just about to launch Valuation Masterclass. Number six, and I call that one numbers zero. And so we've done six, this will be our sixth online one, and we just keep iterating. So I think for for the audience out there, that's super valuable advice.

Harriet Mellor 10:16
Yeah, because, again, you want to lead with value lead with service. And the only way to do that, that meets your goals personally have freedom of travel of being able to run this business anywhere, and whatever else that may tick a box for, we want to make sure that we're giving the outcome because we do it all based on us. That's where the pushy sales the feeling comes from. But we're also not gonna deliver the value that we that we've been put on this earth to do.

Andrew Stotz 10:40
Yeah, you know, before we get into the big question of this podcast, I can't help but ask more and talk more about sales. Because as a financial guy, sales is hard. And I know I have a lot of financial people listening, sales is hard for financial people. And one of the things that I you know, I had a great read a great book and I, I came up with a story, the story of my transformation from someone who didn't really I studied finance, but I didn't know anything. And I became an analyst here in Thailand in 1993. And 15 years later, I became a number one ranked analyst in Thailand, that took a long time and what I, I tell that story of my ups and downs over that time, and it certainly can, can show the students that I've been there, and I can take you there. But what I realized was missing was that, and this was, this was coming from a guy named Kenan, his book gap selling, he talked about, you know, what you really need to do is identify where your potential client is, and where you're going to deliver him to and help really understand that gap. And he talked a lot more about it. And I thought to myself, yeah, you know, what's missing from that is that there's a lot of people listen to my story. And I'm like, Yeah, well, you studied finance. Oh, yeah. Well, you devoted your whole life to it, or Yeah, you had a certain circumstances, that doesn't apply to me. So then I decided, okay, I would identify four kind of general types, you know, a recent grad, an aspiring financial professional, that's not getting where they want to go. And so I went through four different types. And as we speak, right here, as we're talking yesterday, the day before, and today, I'm creating profiles of these general groups. But then specific students, when they came in, what did they say? Because I do surveys at the beginning. So I have their initial words at the beginning, like, well, I'm worried that I couldn't, you know, whatever. And then, and then we can see the transformation that happens. And then I show, okay, this guy got promoted, this lady got a job. This one got this. And now I'm really personalizing it into that transformation, that the that the potential prospect can say, oh, I can relate to that person. Not relate to me, but relate to the prior customers? Am I it took me a long time to figure this out. But maybe am I am I getting closer to getting better with this? That's my question.

Harriet Mellor 12:59
Yeah, of course you are. And you know, the question you asked me before about how do you connect with more people with your programs, exactly that create the profiles understand who you're speaking to. And again, there's lots of barriers we can put in our way when we're trying to work out what the next step is. And that comes from our ego, it comes from fear. And if we can then look at you and your journey and go, Oh, well, I can't do that. Because I don't have that. I can't do that. Because I have that there's always a reason why we can't have what someone else has got. But actually, when someone else has achieved something, it's just shows us the path shows that somebody else has been there, and therefore you too can do it. And whether you're like me, whether you're like this person, or this person or this person, know that we can have some form of transformation, and your transformation will look different to their transformation. And that's okay. What do you want from this program?

Andrew Stotz 13:45
Yeah, they just love it. Last night, I have someone sign up for the upcoming boot camp. And it's a person I know, a lady here in Thailand is signed up to learn about valuation. And she is a associate professor of medicine. She is a medical doctor. She's an orthopedic surgeon, with a lot of experience. And you think, why is she signing up when not a lot of people come to the course to learn to get a job in finance, but she's not trying to get a job in finance. And then, but the way that I talked to her when she and I talked about it, she's like, well, I don't know if it's for me, and I said, Well, let me introduce you to one of my prior students, his name is not and he is a doctor, a medical doctor. And during the COVID crisis, he was taking the bootcamp and he would show up like in scrubs after treating patients from his hospital to be on the call. And he did all the assignments and he graduated and he got a much deeper understanding of finance and valuation and how to, you know, build his portfolio and now he's graduate and she's like sold

Harriet Mellor 14:48
is the power of storytelling. So if you can sell through storytelling, you're selling a story and you're selling someone else's story. So when you're in an environment where it's one on one, it's you and I having this conversation. You tell me about There are about John about Dave and about Kate, I feel their stories. And although they're not there to tell their own story, your story makes it genuine your story makes it makes it allows me to be able to understand the journey they've been on, and therefore potentially relate myself. And when you choose the right stories based on the fact that you saw that she was medical, the fact that she was, you know, still on the fence. Look, I totally hear you. We had another client, and this is what he did. And this is how he showed up. And this is what he got from it. Does, you know, Can you can you see yourself now doing that can that does that feel like a reality? And it does. And it's incredible. As long as you've again, as long as you've chosen the right story, there are ways where you could choose just the same story every time and it will only resonate 50% of the time. But if you've got you know, a number of stories to work from, and then you understand the client or potential client, and match that with the story, incredible results.

Andrew Stotz 15:50
Yeah. And before we get into the big question of this podcast, what's the best way for people to be in touch with you or to learn from you, you know, where would be the best place for them to go.

Harriet Mellor 16:04
So two places, so I've got the sell IQ podcast, and it's just full of resources and tools and examples and real life real world experiences. And then I've then got a free blogs and freebies resource page on the your sales co website, so your sales co.com. And they can come there ask me questions. I absolutely loved speaking and connecting to people.

Andrew Stotz 16:25
So I'll have links to that in the show notes, ladies and gentlemen. But if you're on listening to right now, you can just go to sell like you, and you will get to the podcast. All right. Well, first of all, Harriet, thanks so much for the discussion on sales. It's a topic that I have to admit, I'm learning. So now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking will be tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to then tell us your story.

Harriet Mellor 16:55
Yeah, and so the worst advice I'm going to share with you today is about investment in personal professional development. I've spent 1000s 1000s of dollars and probably into the hundreds of 1000s of dollars of investments that I've made in me in myself, because I am my biggest investment and my biggest asset, if I invest correctly. However, early on, I made some really poor investments around who I worked with around how I consumed content. And therefore it's quite easy to say, oh, there's a program and this looks good. And I'm someone that's a hell yes. Like I am a like, I want to find something I want to fix something I want to get here quicker. I'm going to invest in that. And I'm going to go all in. And however, what I've noticed is that I've made investments over the beginning first few years of my career, that didn't support me in any way that sat there waiting for me to pick it up waiting for me to actually take action. And therefore I've wasted 1000s of dollars sitting there in these courses in these programs or with people that maybe didn't quite align with my values, because I was all in on the key sales messaging. So I'm like the salesperson, you know, biggest dream. So with regards to the journey, is that what you want me to go into next?

Andrew Stotz 18:15
Well, I think one of the questions I have is like, what's the pain of that? You know, what is it that that? You know, and if you think back to some specific times, like I mean, I mean, I look at some money that I've spent for some different things, and I've looked back and gone. That was a bad mistake.

Harriet Mellor 18:32
Mm hmm. And I hate wasting money. It's, you know, for me, I think, you know, money is the is the ability to unlock opportunities. And if I spend that or put that in the right place, it will accelerate my career or my opportunities. And so I think for me, it's more frustration, but it's also an opportunity to reflect on, on how I value certain content and ways of learning.

Andrew Stotz 18:58
Okay, and maybe you can explain a little bit now about what you've learned from this as you look back and think about it and maybe put it into some context.

Harriet Mellor 19:08
Yeah. So I think now, I mean, I take I take longer to make decisions. But I'm also mindful when I'm speaking to people because again, coming from, you know, teaching people how to sell, you can imagine the fear or, or concern about getting on a call with me that I'm going to sell them into anything. And actually, I'm going to do the total opposite. I'm going to say, you know, is this right for you? You know what will happen? If you do nothing like you know, what, what do you have at your fingertips right now, let's say you invest in a thing. What do you have at your fingertips right now that you could use? Is there something of a free content or free resource or a freebie blog or a podcast episode that I could share with you that will help you get further and so I look at that in the way that I purchase now is that, you know, who am I? What am I hoping to achieve? I can't pin the outcome on the deliverer because I have to Take action, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink is that you know, and again, so for me, my learnings really have been, if I'm going to invest in something, do I have the time to invest and take action? Because otherwise, what's the point? With regards to the investment I'm making from a monetary perspective? What's my expected ROI on what it is that I'm investing in? And therefore, once I get to that point, if it's going to take me six months, or a year or a month to review and implement, where can I be? How will that accelerate my ability or my capability moving forward?

Andrew Stotz 20:35
Right. There's a few things that I wrote down, maybe I'll share a couple of them that you made me think about? Well, the first thing you said I liked is you say I take longer to make decisions. And to add on to that, in my own case, I also involve other people in my decisions. So I take longer, and I involve my team that I work with, say, what do you guys think? And that is super valuable. The only downfall of that is that you end up not doing as many things because you know, you feel like, Oh, I thought that was great. Damn. So that's the first thing. The other thing that you were talking about that I wrote down, I was thinking about, like, part of what I tell people now when I talk to them about like, do they want to attend the boot camp as an example? Is i i just have a look. I don't want you in the boot camp, if it's not right for you. And so I wrote down, you know, this is not right for you. That was like the idea that like, and there's there's something my sister introduced me to called the Sandler sales method many years ago. Talk to me about that. That's just like, trying to basically say, this is not right, you know, getting to the no, like, No, this isn't suitable for you. Oh, no, no, no, I think it could be well, but you know, you're really busy. And you know, all that. And but I think that there is that aspect that I don't need the trouble of someone coming into my courts and then dropping out and bad reviews and all that. So let's really make sure that this is right for you. And I think that's part of what I'm hearing when I listened to what you said. And then the last thing I wrote, I wrote down as I tell you just a quick story is that somebody a friend of mine, they know that I'm I'm into, you know, all kinds of personal development stuff and read all these books, and they come in, they go, Hey, I got tickets to Tony Robbins, in Singapore. Let's go. And I said, not interested at all. Because no matter what he says, What I'm interested in is the execution and the outcome, not the energy, and the hype. I've got the energy, I've got the discipline, I've got the excitement. And I've got good people around. I don't need to go into an event and be pumped up for two days, and then walk out and not execute. I would rather work in a program or with somebody or do something that allows me to see execution happening every single day. So I wrote down outcome, not energy. Those are some of the things I took away. Is there anything else you would add to that?

Harriet Mellor 23:13
Yeah, I would absolutely would. And I'm glad that they that they have been the things that stood out. And I think for me, the piece I want to just really hone in on is the no piece because there's two sides that you've got somebody you can say no to if you don't believe they're going to do it. And that will come out in two ways. One is exactly as you said, is they'll go Oh, no, no, but I will but I'm unavailable. And I'm going to make time. And that's great. Because they're they're going to see you know how they can make this work. You can support them in in implementing that, you know, implementing time to take action. You've got the other side that they then go actually, no, I do want this and you say actually, no, I really don't want you. I really don't want you. But thank you. And so what ends up happening there is that you're then again, you're putting that energy out there and one of two things will happen is they'll go Wow, thank you, oh, they'll go actually hang on a minute, I want this now. And I didn't want it before. And now I want it because you've taken it away. And so it's just making sure that then coming back saying no. I mean, I mean, I'm ready is not just their ego, or you know, their ability to say no, no, I will do it, I will do it. But actually at the end of it, they go no, I'm not going to do anyway. Because again, you're putting this energy out there and you want the right people in there. Because as you said, you don't want the bad reviews, you're only as good as the people that are in your program. So if they are in there and not taking action and not seeing results. And then someone says oh, what was it like working with Andrea with Harriet? It the answer is going to be Oh, all right. But they didn't attend anything. So of course it was just ALRIGHT. So again, it's just making sure that they're they're taking action. And same thing with anybody you know, investing in themselves is making sure that they understand what they're gonna get out of it. Ask the questions, listen to stories, get real world examples and reviews. And a lot of my clients, especially my corporate clients, they will speak to other businesses that have worked with me and get feedback and I had one recently and they said you know if you can get herriott in person that was the that was their feedback. And I didn't know that was the feedback. And until when they came back and said, Yeah, can we add an in person component? And I was like, Yeah, sure. Can I ask why? And they said, Because Brendon said you should. So you know, again, get get those reviews, get those, get those, you know, get that communication flowing.

Andrew Stotz 25:14
So based on what you learned from this story, and what you continue to learn, what one action would you recommend our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Harriet Mellor 25:24
That's a good question. I would say one action, I would say, to map out what they believe they are going to achieve from that, and share that with the person that they are speaking to, or that they are considering investing in and get their feedback.

Andrew Stotz 25:42
Great, great advice, very specific. And it's a communication that if you have that, and the person's a good person and legitimate person, you're going to have a great discussion. All right? Yeah. What is a resource that you'd recommend for our listeners, a resource that you've created podcasts or other things, or something else that has inspired you? Yeah,

Harriet Mellor 26:03
amazing, I'm gonna say, just based on conversations, amis, and there's a resource called replicate your ideal client. And that is a table format, there's information that's on the resources page on the your sales Code website. And so definitely check that one out, that will help you gather that language and get the information that you can support other people with. And in terms of I know, we talked about books before we started recording, and one of my favorite books has been the E Myth revisited. And the foot I'm very process driven. I know you are Andrew. And I think that the the process that the E Myth takes you through the story that it tells about the success, but also the the ability to fail and pick yourself back up again. And I think was great. So definitely recommend that book as well.

Andrew Stotz 26:50
A great book by Michael Gerber, who's now about 84 years old. And I just had an email conversation with him, and come up with the idea of having him on the show to share all that he's learned. So great, great book, one of the best out there, and I think you're given a great, great recommendation. And also, of course, the resource that you mentioned on your site, which we'll have a link to in the show notes so that listeners and viewers can go there. Alright, last question. What's your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Harriet Mellor 27:26
Oh, an important goal. And I'm gonna say do more in person, large workshop events. That's, that's my number one goal. There's been I do a lot of, of in person work around Australia and the UK, which has been great. And obviously this year, that's been ramping back up again. And but I feel like people are craving that in person. And I'm finding that there's I teach a lot of, you know, I'm gonna say short, sharp lessons across maybe half a day on a webinar style, delivery. And for me, I want to get out there across Australia, across the US across the UK, delivering more in person, really value driven workshops that you can implement and see action and take action and see results from over you know, the initial first couple of weeks.

Andrew Stotz 28:12
People are craving that. So I think that's a great one. Well, listeners there you have an another story of loss to keep you winning. If you haven't yet joined the Become a Better Investor Community just go to MyWorstInvestment Ever.com right now to claim your spot. As we conclude, harried I want to thank you again for joining our mission. And on behalf of A. Stotz Academy I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Harriet Mellor 28:42
Now thank you so much. Go out there sell with value deliver with value. Yeah, thank you.

Andrew Stotz 28:47
Great advice. And that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our well fellow risk takers. Let's celebrate that. Today. We added one more person to our mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. This is your words podcast host Andrew Stotz saying, I'll see you on the upside.