Ali Sweeney teaches salespeople meditation and mindfulness to build real self-awareness, not the inflated kind most have. She uses a garden metaphor for unconscious beliefs and shows how mindfulness reshapes them. Host Gerhard credits her coaching with dramatically improving his chess game through less negative self-talk.
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Hi, my name is Gerhard Schwadner and welcome to Selling Power tv. Today we have the great pleasure of meeting with Ali Sweeney. She is an expert in meditation, but also self awareness. Welcome Ali.
Thank you, Gerhardt. I'm so excited to be here.
I'm excited because you're teaching a master class on September 30th at 11am Eastern Time. Tell us what's the title for the masterclass?
It's going to be Self Awareness Mastery for Sales Excellence. I'm sure you've all had moments where your ability to stay centered, be your real authentic self. Totally change the outcome of a sale. And so what we're going to do in this class is really talk about how to build that muscle. We all have growth that we can do in self awareness. Lots of people think that they are incredibly self aware. And the unfortunate news is they're not. Exactly. So what we're going to do in this class is really use meditation and mindfulness. Practical skills you can incorporate with you or your team to help you build relationships. Not just with the people you're selling to, but also with yourself and with the people. The personal aspects of your life and relationships. Part of that will help you create long term goals. Close more deals because you'll be able to differently, let's say read the room right when you have this capacity to sit and respond instead of react. The changes the entire system.
If you're self aware of the relationship and how to adapt yourself to another person and be the equal partner. If you consider yourself unconsciously inferior to the customer then you're going to have a difficult conversation with that customer and you try to avoid speaking with them.
Yeah. And it's amazing how many of those unconscious beliefs and patterns we have. And you really don't know that they're there because they're unconscious until you start looking for them. And it's amazing what happens when you start using that curiosity to look. Once you know that they're there, you can change them. I like to use the metaphor of a garden where we're all born with this blank plot of land and it's beautifully fertile. And then all kinds of well meaning people start to plant beliefs and patterns in our plot. Pretty soon you'll have a full garden. It really creating a mindfulness practice. Being a part of meditation lets you start to look through that garden and and figure out what you want in there. How you're creating your life.
What can people do in the meantime to learn about you? Maybe take a course that you have published on Fuel Inc. So they can prepare themselves for the masterclass.
My business is called Alight Insight, so everything is around that business name. So you'll find my website@alightinsight.com you'll find me on all the socials that way. And I'm an instructor on Fuel, which, if you're not familiar with Fuel, it's an incredible platform for kind of bite size learning opportunities. My course on FUEL is called Meditation for Beginners. So if you are someone who has always thought that either meditation was not for you or something that you cannot do, then this is the course for you. Because this isn't about absolutely shutting down your mind and your brain. It's about getting curious.
I have been coached by you and specifically about chess, which is not your field. However, you may be aware of my shortcomings, my negative self talk while I'm playing chess. And after that session, I have won like 12 games straight in a row. And I analyzed those games later, and I found that I had like five brilliant moves in those 12 games. I had a game this week where I had three brilliant moves in one game. I've never experienced that. And I shared it with my chess coach, who is a grandmaster. And she says I barely have one brilliant move in a week or in a month. What you're teaching really works. It makes an astonishing difference for you.
Something was just under. Under all that brilliance, right. And unfortunately, it was blocking it. And so that's what we do. We just look for what's being blocked. As soon as you see it, then you see through it, right. And it no longer has a hold on you. I'm so grateful to be talking to the selling power audience because I think that there's a lot that we can do in the corporate and the business world to kind of shine some lights in there and say, hey, how are we operating and why are we operating that way? Is that actually what brings you love and joy in this life and, you know, really kind of centering back to what your values are in your work and letting that fuel your work?
Absolutely. Thank you, Ali. And there is going to be a link below where you can sign up for Ali Sweeney's masterclass.
