Welcome back friends. Welcome to Picture Love. I'm so happy you're here. Thank you for sharing your time and your attention and your energy with me today. And, I have a topic that I think is pretty juicy. I have a background in education and also a background in sales, and I wanted to play a game with you today. Before I get into my motive and the game is selling or serving, and I'd like for you to not think about it too hard, but I'm just gonna rattle off a few different, careers or industries or even maybe companies. And I'm curious to know, if your knee jerk reaction, your first instinct is, are they selling? Or are they serving? And I understand that there's degrees of both in many scenarios. So just play along with me for just a minute all right. So in your mind or out loud, tell me, are they more selling or are they more serving? You ready? Girl Scouts. Girl Scouts parked at a table outside the grocery store selling Girl Scout cookies. Educators, artists. A marketing expert, a hairstylist, a waiter? A flight attendant, a librarian, a coach, a doctor, an evangelist, a podcaster. Hollywood. How about the music industry? How about the car industry? How about all educational institutions? What about Apple? How about politicians, lifeguards, how about your local jeweler, your therapist, your friendly entrepreneur? What about insurance companies and how about your local garden club, okay. That's enough for right now. So I'm, I'm very curious to know what your answers were, and I guarantee you if I had a survey there would not be a clear definite answer for all of them because there are degrees of both. I wanted to talk to you about the differences between selling and serving today because, I was actually in a room overhearing a sales meeting from a company I was, I'm not involved in, but I was, overhearing this and there were, sales executives trying to train their team to sell softly. And my definition of selling softly is selling with the spirit of serving. Not contorting somebody against their will to do something you want them to do, that's not in their best interest. So I believe that there are sweet spots where selling is serving and serving is sales. So if you'll just indulge me a little longer, I'm talking about the teacher who might be actually trying to sell an idea to their class to give them a new perspective on a hot topic. I am talking about a flight attendant whose first order of business is the safety of the passengers and the crew, but also the need to sell products because the airline is a business. I'm thinking about also the times where I've actually tried to circumvent somebody who was aggressively. Pushing a product or aggressively asking for donations, for a cause or for some, some kind of goal that they're trying to meet. And their intentions may have been good, but I was repelled by the very strong, aggressive nature of it. That's just me. Maybe you don't see it that way, but there are times where, It just does not align, doesn't resonate with me, and I don't feel like answering a very angled question that, clearly was meant to get a reaction, do you know what I'm talking about? You might call it manipulation. I, I call it influencing. And there's more than one way to influence things, right? So when we're influencing our audience, what's our motive? And to piggyback on the last week episode of Picture Love podcast, I mentioned one of my favorite books I. And oh yes. Side note, if you missed it, I'm gonna, put a link again in the show notes tonight. So this time on this episode so that you can also share a book recommendation, something that you think is worthy of filling people's heads with. They can be fiction, nonfiction, I don't care. But if it's something that's so good, you wanna pay it forward, please share a title that you recommend. But after that little bunny trail, I, I'm remembering a book that I've read and given away multiple times called Start With Why by Simon Sinek. And, most likely, anybody listening to Picture Love podcast has heard of Simon Sinek. And if you have not, this is a very accomplished author and public speaker. And start with why is not talking about like, how to sell to people. Or how to do something. It's about going to the root, the motivation. What are the intentions beneath doing something? So if we're talking from a perspective of, um, let's say a teacher, you know, a teacher is trying to, get their students to understand the mechanics of how the math works. Hopefully they care about the results of their student. Hopefully they care about their students' learning, and hopefully they care about empowering their students to go further and using that math in life and next steps maybe in their career. And. The influence that that educator has on the class is lasting, and it can be for the better, for the worse, or it could be absolutely forgotten, which I don't feel is like for the better. But my point being that when we have a clear understanding of why we're doing something. Then it makes the ex execution much clearer too, and it, it clarifies the message and I really think it clears the channels for understanding from your audience. So as a podcaster, I'm here to share from my heart and to light the way to maybe. Maybe consider something you hadn't considered before or look at it with a new light, because I really feel like that's where our communities are enriched when we can share insightfully and agree to disagree when we need to, but also challenge good thoughts and make them better and spread good thoughts and encourage each other to dig deep down and find new thoughts of our own. And so. You know, and I do it in a, in a loving spirit. Therefore, the name, picture, love. So my why comes back to, is my audience gonna listen to this and, and am I gonna cause them to have a fruitful, positive thought that's gonna come alongside of them and, and, and help them through their day and help them really picture love better in their lives? That is why. I am a podcaster because I just wanna spread light and love, and sometimes I'm trying to sell you an idea. Other times I'm trying to give you a gift. I definitely am trying to create some engagement because I feel like there are conversations that I can have so much better with you rather than at you and who likes to be spoken at? I know all the conversations I like the best engage me, that's for sure. And it might be just being asked a rhetorical question, then that's all you have to put in your pocket to carry with you and make the day a measure better. So let's return to that thought about selling softly. You don't have to be in sales in order to find resonance with the idea of starting with your why. Why am I sharing what I'm sharing? Why am I doing what I'm doing? Why am I positioned in a place to do this task, you know, an outward facing task that's probably a job or something you're passionate about. And so from that, why? We can figure out what is the best possible outcome and how can we identify our audience's idea of our best possible outcome? Well, by asking, searching questions. By creating something that meets a need that's within your skillset or possibly partnering with somebody else who has the skill that you need or the knowledge or the tools that you need in order to get this end result in place. And I think that's why I am calling in creative collaborations because I just love the idea that you share the best, you know, I share the best I know, and together we create something new that we didn't know. At that level in the end, I find that delicious. So creative collaborations are something I'm calling it. What are you calling it? And let's get back to that. Selling softly. Once we create something beautiful, we have to know who it's for, and we have to know where is that person, where can we meet them in that need so that that person can decide for themselves. If this is on the mark, if this is aligned, or if they know somebody else this is aligned with. That's why I always ask you to please invite friends to listen to an episode. If something strikes a chord with you or makes you think of somebody else that you care about, somebody you could use that encouragement. Somebody could use that little shot of extra sunshine and love and positivity, and not to do it from an artificial place, but from a place of sincere connection, sincere community, lifting each other up because that's, I think that's the best we can do in our communities is to show up as our fullest most, the best version of we can be of ourselves. And we do it with intention. I just, we always level up. Would So if I'm going back, the first legitimate sales job I ever had, and it was in retail when I worked at the Disney store, during my college days and after, and I learned a lot about customer care. You know, they weren't customers, they were guests, they they's just common Disney language. You know, when somebody steps on Disney property, they're a guest. And there's a level of respect and soft selling that happens when you're treating somebody like your guest when they come in the door. And I think I had a lot of success with Disney because when people came in, I believed in greeting a guest. Nobody's gonna come in my house without being greeted. Nobody's gonna come into a space that I'm hosting without a greeting. That's how I always greet you. Welcome back friends. Because that's how I see you or think of you. I loved that. I think everybody deserves to be acknowledged and greeted and if they know what they're looking for, just a simple ask, is there something you're looking for in particular? And if they don't know, I'll say, whatever was new or exciting or a special promotion going on, I would say, oh, I'm not sure if this is something that would interest you, but just so you know, today we are offering blah, blah, blah, blah. And they always said, oh, thank you. Great. And if they didn't need it, they just keep walking and. Sometimes people would say, oh, that's a great deal, tell me more. But I didn't chase'em down the store. I didn't shove a postcard in their face. I didn't run them down like a bull in a China shop. It was just treating them, speaking to them the way I would like to be supported and spoken to. And so that's where selling becomes serving. It's when you are. Offering something that you think offers value, but be willing to listen and pay attention to the context clues. Because there's so much that's said in body language without any language, as you know, and serving to me is. Is giving somebody something that helps them benefit. I don't mean giving the shirt off your back and pouring from an empty cup. That's not what we talk about here on picture love. I wanna encourage all of us to let our cups overflow so there's plenty to give others. We don't have to give at a deficit of our own and deplete ourselves when we can't be of any service to anybody when we are run down to the point of getting sick. But selling is an exchange of energy. You know, somebody gives some energy and receives some energy. The feminine. The masculine and a beautiful reciprocal exchange. And it could be something as simple as a smile reciprocated, and it could be something as simple as taking something up to the register, giving the money and taking the goods, and usually a smile definitely if it's involving Disney, but that energetic exchange. Makes it easier for somebody to get the help they need from a professional. And I know when I have a friend do something meaningful for me, it really matters that they receive my gratitude. So when I say thank you, that is a reciprocation. When I drive my neighbor to work and they say thank you. That's payment. That's an exchange. It's not a matter of keeping score. It's a matter of finding peace in the ebb and the flow, the in and the out, the positive and the negative. And I don't mean in a good and bad way, but I also find that selling and serving at their best come with less expectation. Less judgment, a little depersonalization of the expectations, just letting the money come in and the service go out, letting the service come in and let the money go out and trust that there's always enough, because quite honestly, I think we've been lied to. There really is no lack. There really isn't. There is so much abundance in us around us. Through us. There is so much abundance and it's a matter of adapting, adjusting, and aligning our attention with the abundances. That's when things start to really explode in the best possible way. So I wanna encourage you today notice. Notice some of the routines, some of the things that you do. And notice, are you selling? Are you serving? Are you in that sweet spot? That's a beautiful ebb and flow between the two? When I feed my pets, they don't pay me money, but they thrive and there's a beautiful energy and my home. When I take good care of my pets, you know, when I take care of my body, my body thanks me, I feel better. I wanna encourage you today to serve yourself with love and trust that that energy will always be reciprocated, and it might be in a way that you will never even know in this lifetime. It could be that the way we serve ourselves, give somebody else permission to do the same for themselves, and then they show up in a much better reciprocation with you and the people around them. So how are we selling and serving and showing up as the best version of ourselves? And there doesn't ever have to be an exchange of money for it to be beautiful, fruitful, and everlasting. So let's just. Consider that today, and if you have a favorite book, that you wanna share with us, please check the show notes. Again, I would really love to hear that from you. Until next time, keep picturing love. See you then.