Joel Weldon: Success Comes In Cans Not In Cannots - I Love Marketing With Joe Polish And Dean Jackson - Episode #170

I'm dean jackson, he's joe polish, and this is the I love marketing podcast. Hey, this is Joe Polish here at.

Piranha Marketing in the Genius Network. And I'm here with Mr. Joel Weldon, who's a fantastic guy, and you're going to hear from him in just a moment. What I wanted to say is our dear friend Martin Howey introduced us, and so this is the first time we've officially gotten together, it's not going to be the last. And we're going to do a longer full length conversation that we'll record and share with you if you like this one. And so here's the deal, Joel. He was the very first Nightingale Conant distributor in 1971. An amazing salesperson that didn't start that way.

And.

And then he also is heavily involved as a charter member with the National Speakers association and the Speakers hall of Fame. And he's one of the people that actually helped create the speaking industry. So, Joel, you've been doing this for a long time. For people that don't know you, what do you do?

Well, as Joe said, I'm a professional speaker and a speech coach and an idea consultant and have a lot of fun helping people improve.

Yeah. Now I gotta share this, that you gave this to me because this was so fantastic. Now, my favorite audio program of all time is Leap the Field by Earl Nightingale. And of course, I've done a lot of work with Nightingale Conant, and as has Joel, and he gave me an original the Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale from 1954. I just have to show you this on, and I'm trying to be careful not to.

Now, that's a record, not a cd, right?

Yeah, yeah, a record. And so let's talk a little bit about this and how it inspired you. Then I'm going to ask you about how you became the top salesperson and what you learned. You had this great conversation with me on the phone explaining the story, and I want to capture it for everyone, because anyone that's out there that makes their living based on your ability to produce results and influence people, I think you're going to learn a lot. This could very much change your life, change your income, change your impact, whatever it is that you're doing. So let's talk about this first. Why is this so important?

The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale. Now, most people today don't even seem to remember who Earl Nightingale was. He's passed on for quite a while. But in 1950s, when this recording came out, it was a Sensation. And my experience came in the early 60s. In 1969, I was hired to sell the World Book and Childcraft program door to door on a commission. And I was in the construction industry. 25 years old, shy, self conscious, no confidence, never been able to talk to people, never gave an oral report. In high school, I could earn my living with my hands, but certainly not with people. And a fellow in our church told me that he wanted to hire salespeople. I was the one he was looking for. It was a straight commission. I didn't know what commission meant. And he said, we pay you what you're worth. I didn't think that was good right away because I didn't think I was worth much. And I wasn't because of that thinking. But I went out and sold this product. Well, I attempted to sell this product, and I telling Joe earlier in his office that I set a company sales record. Because in the first four months, Joe, I made 1200 sales calls and one sale. That's it. And when I went in, fantastic track record there, right? Yes. And I went in to see Vernon Cavill. He was the sales manager. And he was so excited that this young man made his first sale. And he said, how did you do it? I said, well, they just gave me the money. They wanted to buy the books, and they gave me the money. I didn't make a presentation. I didn't handle an objection. I didn't close, I didn't show value. They just gave me the money. And he looked at me and he said, you are the worst salesman I've ever hired in 22 years of hiring salespeople. And you have the worst attitude of anybody ever met. And he said, you can never make it dealing with people the way you are unless you change the way you think and act. And I said, well, how do you do that? He said, maybe this record will help you. And he handed me a copy of the Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale. And I told him. I said, well, I don't dance. And he said, no, it's not a dancing record or music record. It's a talking record. I said, talking record? He said, yeah, listen to it. And I took it home with my wife Judy, and we sat and listened in front of our record player. And Joe, it was almost like the light had come on in a darkened room. I had never heard anything like this in my whole life. Now, as we kick off 2014, the words that he said were the strangest secret. Most of you know. And the strangest secret was this, that you Become what you think about most of the time. And then he said, what are you thinking about? And I realized what I was thinking about was all the things I couldn't do. And then he explained how you can change the way you think. And I listened a whole week with my wife Judy, and we took notes. And then I made a decision. I wasn't going to go back in the construction industry. I was going to learn how to sell. And then I was going to quit and get a real job. And I went out with the same product in the same territory at the same price after four months of effort. And I made two sales the first day with this change in my thinking, and I was suddenly on fire. My whole attitude changed. I doubled four months of effort in one day. And then I started to think, what was the difference? It was how I was thinking. And then my thinking determined my actions. And then, what if I could think that way every day? And people that knew me my whole life said that it was like a life transition. They had never seen anybody change so much so fast. And suddenly I became on fire. And how about in your life? I mean, how many times have people told you what you can't do? Or you tell yourself what you can't do, which is even more devastating? And that experience with the Strangest Secret enabled me to become on fire every day. And by the end of that first year, including the first four months, I became the number one salesperson for World Book out of a thousand Sal salespeople working for Vernon Cavill. Then it made me a manager. Then I was hiring and training people, and I didn't know anything about hiring or training or managing or motivating. And they said, well, what's our training program? The Strangest Secret. Listen to this. Let me tell you what it did for me. And I became very successful doing that. And that was why the Strangest Secret was so powerful to millions of people. It opened their thinking to a new way of thinking about themselves. And then Earl went on to record your favorite program lead. The field was 12 parts that expanded on the Strangest Secret into a how to program. And then I became a distributor for Earl Nightingale. In 1971, I left World Book. And I knew everybody was going to benefit from this. Look how good this is. And then, Joe, this is where our conversation really started. On the phone in your car. Yeah, yeah. Because you were asking about, who do you sell these things to? So maybe you could pick up and then I'll finish up my end of it.

Well, so here's the Deal. For many years, I was told the story about like this great salesperson that sold self improvement tapes and the way that this person focused on it. And I probably told the story wrong, which is why I wanted to verify with Joel once Martin actually introduced us, first via email, and then we finally talked on the phone. And I was saying, I kind of told the story. And he said, well, let me share with you how it really happened. What I would share is focusing your efforts on people that are already successful is the best way to sell how to be more successful advice. Because people that tend to buy that are people that buy it because they have attributes of successful people, they desire it. And the people that need how to success information the most, one of the many reasons they need it is because they actually don't invest in it. And so I kind of shared that with you, Joel, and then you basically told me your story and I said, that's great. We actually have to record this. Because for people that are out there making their living selling, and make no mistake, even if you do not think you are a salesperson, you actually are. Because everything you do in life, everything that comes out of your mouth, every way you represent your company, is either designed to attract or repel somebody. So you're either attracting or repelling. And sometimes when you sell, you know, you do want to repel certain people that aren't a right fit for you, your products, things like that. So that being said, how did you like, who taught you how to become more effective and become that fantastic salesperson?

Okay, so as you're listening to this, based on what I've told you about my experience with World Book, I was a good salesperson. Very good. So I figured now I'm selling self improvement and success of people, I'm going to be even better at this. Which was not the case. And our accountant looked after the first six months of becoming a Nightingale distributor was the end of the year. And he said, you're at the poverty level. You could get government support, you're not making any money. And I wasn't, I couldn't understand why people weren't buying this wonderful program from Nightingale Conant called Lead the Field. And Lead the field in 1971 was $175 for six cassettes and a loose leaf book.

Yeah.

And we had to provide a tape recorder because people didn't even have a cassette recorder in those days.

Yeah. And that's a lot of money back then.

That was a lot of money. I mean, that would be well over $1,000 today in our dollars. And I was calling on people that I knew could benefit from this, and they would listen to it, but they couldn't afford it. They didn't want to spend the money. And in desperation, my wife and I talked. Who is the most successful person we know? And the man's name was David R. Johns. He was a real estate developer, lived in Scottsdale. Member of our chur. Call him up. Said, dave, can I come and see you? I want you to hear something. So I went to Dave's office. I played him the first of the 12 messages. About five minutes. He said, stop. He said, there's more of these? I said, yes. He said, I want them. I said, you want them? You're the most successful guy I know. Why would you want this? He said, well, because I need to be reminded. These are things I've built my life on, but I've forgotten so many things. What this man says is so powerful. Just in five minutes and you say there's 12 of these. I said, well, they're actually 36. There's a whole library, but it's $560 for this whole library. He said, well, I want the library. I said, you do? He said, you must be doing so well at this. I said, no, I can't sell it to anybody. He said, who are you calling on? I said, well, people who are struggling, people having a difficult time in their marriage and they're not making the sales they should. And he said, stop. He said, you're talking to the wrong people. You've got to talk to successful people. I said, successful people? He said, yes. They're the ones that understand the truth of these principles. They're the ones that have already been there. I said, well, how do I find them? He said, they're all my friends, and I'm going to send them to you. And that's what happened. And I started getting all of these referrals from Dave. And I would go see them. Everybody I saw purchased. But they were so excited about the Nightingale material. How do I get my people to use it? I said, well, I'll come in and give them a little talk. So I would go in and give these talks, and I gave a thousand presentations before I gave my first paid presentation in 1974.

There's a huge lesson there, and I can come back to that, but keep going.

So the message for our listeners are that when you're selling success, you call on successful people. When you're selling improvement, you call on people who are committed to improvement. If you look at this gym. I mean, I work out all the time. Who are the people in the gym? Fit people. I just said to the personal trainer I have the other day, we said, you don't ever see any fat people here, do you? No, because they're interested in improvement. They're going to this specialized gym because they want to stay in great shape. And they're the ones that are going to buy more memberships, they're going to buy fitness materials. And the same thing with what you sell and what you represent. Think of the people who are already on board that are on your bus. Those are the ones to talk to.

Yeah, there's such a huge lesson there. For one, selecting the right target market. No matter how great the bait is, no matter how great the product or service is, there's got to be a message to market match. There's a part of, I think people that are compassionate and caring and empathetic that just simply want to help people. And however some people are not willing to be helped, some people are not willing to invest in it. So if you want to do those things, by all means, do it. But I wouldn't put your income contingent upon the people that need it the most being the ones buying it. Because I have learned, even with my genius network, my 25k group, I focus that on selling to successful people that just want to better their best, and they also have the revenue and the income to invest in it. So selecting the right list is critical. Secondly, when you Talked about giving 1,000 speeches before you ever did your first paid one, you were willing to do what you needed to do in order to, for one, get extremely skilled at it. And you created an incredible setup in order to lead to the conditions that you've now built a very successful career around and have helped literally. God knows how many people have been influenced by your messages. But you can find a lot about Joel after we're done with his talk. If you've never heard of him before, if this is the first introduction, I want you to look him up. Joel Weldon, and we'll give out a website and all that stuff. But you have this thing that you gave me, and I want to talk about this. So people have probably been watching me. Karen, what is this can in Joe's hand? And this is one thing that Joel gave me today, which is success comes in cans, not and cannot. So explain what this is all about.

Well, when I started to do the Nightingale programs and were doing all of this training for people who were buying the Nightingale Conan programs, I was in Toastmasters, and I entered a speech contest in 1974 and went to the World Finals. And it was written up. I came in third. And it was written up in the Arizona newspaper. Local young man, 33, comes in third in the international speech contest out of 60,000 members. And I get a phone call from Paul Cronin at the Phoenix Independent Garage Owners Association. Wow. They had garage owners in 74.

That's pretty funny.

And he said, I heard about you. He said, we have a meeting coming up. Would you be our speaker? I said, sure, I'd love to come. He said, well, we have to talk about money. And I said, okay. He said, well, how does $25 sound? I said, well, that sounds fine. Who do I send the check to? And he says, no, no, no, we give you the $25. I said, I get $25? He said, yeah, you get $25 and a chicken dinner. I said, well, that's even better. And I went and gave my talk and they loved it. And a guy comes up afterwards from Discount Tire, and he said that was. Would you. We have a sales meeting next week. Are you. Could you come and talk to my sales people with. That message was so good. I said, yeah. He said, what do you charge? I said, $25. And that year I gave 274 talks in the Phoenix area. $25.

Oh, man.

And my wife said, you know, you're still trying to sell a 90 year program, so you don't have. Let's make it 50. So we doubled the fee. Now, if I knew Joe, then I would have been marketing a lot differently and just through word of mouth. Now, 40 years later, the business that we have is still word of mouth. Yeah. Do a great job. Take care of your customers and find the right people.

Yeah.

That appreciate what you do. And so the can came. When I started to speak, I wanted something different. I didn't want to have a business card. I wanted something people would keep on their desk. And then this great inspiration, success comes in cans, not in cannot. Somebody had mentioned that. It was in a book, just a sentence. And I saw a can. Yeah. And as you teach, you got to put ideas into action. Ideas aren't anything unless you act on them. So I went right to my printer, had a label made, bought some tomato sauce at the supermarket, wrapped it around, and I gave it to somebody. I said, that's great. And ever since then, that's been our registered trademark. And over half a million people have that can. Most of them keep it on their desk. As a reminder of what can I do, not what I. And I remember where I started. All I thought about was what I couldn't do. If you switch that thinking, think about what you can do. This great year of 2014, what can you do? Building on the strengths you have. Think about the cans, not the cannons. That's the purpose of the cans.

Can someone actually. Because you have a website that on here, it says success.

They just have to Google it. Yes, that's our website.

Can buy these?

Oh yes, they can buy them. Yes.

Love it, Love it. So I would highly recommend having listened to Joel and having listened to the wisdom he just shared here. This is a really good reminder. I love things like this. And here's what's so cool about the day and age we live in. You can go to the Internet and you can get this from Nightingale Conant and you can download it and you can listen to it immediately. And the access to success knowledge, the access to this sort of stuff in the past compared to the world we live in today, I mean, it was almost non existent. And you literally are a pioneer. I mean, it's people like you that have made such a contribution. And I'm not saying this to kiss up or whatever, I just think it's really impactful. And when Martin first told me about you, I immediately, I was like, yeah, I really want to meet this individual. Because of course one of the things I do is seek out people that have genius level knowledge in different areas. And so I just want to remind everybody that there's a lot of things that you can put into your head. And this would. He just gave you a strategy of how he shifted, I mean, literally overnight by hearing a message and putting different words, because words are critical. The words that you share in your sales letters and your campaigns and your promotions in the area of marketing, which is where I focus, but the words that you put into your own head. And so today can be the last day of the way you used to be if you want to be a better version of yourself. And that has to do with the type of success knowledge and programming and messaging that you put into your head and put stuff like this into play. Let people that work in your company listen to this. And so, Joel, if people want more of you, where do they find you?

What's the best? Well, I could just go on the web and look up Joel Weldon. Now there's a Christian singer I don't sing. We have the same name, but other than that, we usually be the first one up or just look under successcomesandcans.com and you'll find us. And we've got lots of video and audio programs. And Earl is on one of my programs because the Conan Organization let me put part of the Strangest Secret on. And my sales manager, who's in his 90s now, is on my sales program describing what it was like that day when I came in in 1969 with my first sale and how terrible I was. And when he handed me the Strangest secret, never did he realize how much that would change my life as it did so many other people. That is fantastic. You might enjoy listening to those.

So thank you, Joel. First off, it's great just having this short talk. We're going to do a longer version conversation because there's so much that me and Joel can talk about and that can be shared with you. And so what I recommend is go to ilovemarketing.com that's if you saw this video anywhere other than ilovemarketing.com love to have you make a comment about what did you get out of this message, how are you going to use it, how it's going to apply to you? And if you know anyone that is in any sort of selling position, then share this conversation, this short talk we just did with them and just want to wish you a very successful year and I hope you found this really useful.

So thank you, Joel, and make it a great year. Sam.