Daniel Tolson Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Daniel Tolson
Daniel Tolson is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots show.
Daniel is a business expert from Australia who has learnt the power of selling.
He is Australia’s No. 1 business coach and has helped thousands of clients manage their time more effectively, remove self-limiting beliefs and make a lot more money.
Daniel’s goal is to show you how to make more sales and a lot more money.
As he says “There is nothing worse than worrying about where your next customer is coming from and wondering if you are going to make enough money to survive and with my proven techniques I will help you to stop worrying about where your next sale is coming from.
You’ll experience less rejection to your offer, customers will be wanting to buy from you immediately and then they’ll refer you to their family and friends!
Now this wasn’t something that of course occurred like magic right at the very start.
This was something built through the life of hard knocks.
As he says “A few years before my birth, my parents lost their farm.
The drought hit, the crops died, the markets collapsed and they had nothing to trade.
They walked off the land with nothing.
After the following years of night shifts packing shelves at the local supermarket and driving buses and taxis, they knew that making a wage would never lead to financial independence.
Soon they found themselves in construction.
Yet the backbreaking 16-hour days quickly took their toll.
How The Dots Joined Up For Daniel
At age 9, I started my sales career as a paperboy.
My uncle gave me the 3-step sales training; “Here are your newspapers, there’s the door, go make sales!”
On the very first sales call, I got my first ‘no’ and the rejection hit me hard.
I took it personally and thought there was something wrong with me.
I heard ‘yes’ a few times but the pain of the ‘no’ was so bad that I began to self-sabotage and procrastinate.
In the early 1990’s when the construction industry changed, my parents reinvented themselves and as a family, we opened up a pawn shop.
We became the local Pawn Stars!
For the first 9 years in business, we were amateurs- a regular, uneducated family doing the best we could. With no training, we were just in there giving it a go and we didn’t know any different.
What you need to know about pawnbroking is that it’s one of the most profitable business models in all of history.
It works like this: you lend your own money against an item of value for a short period of time and you get a 20% return on your money every 30 days.
If the customer doesn’t come back, you keep their goods and sell them.
All profit. Zero risks!”
So how how did he take this early tuition in business and transform his life to where it is today?
And if he could give one big piece of advice to every listener of Join Up Dots what would it be?
Well let’s find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Daniel Tolson
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weight subjects with Daniel Tolson such as:
Daniel shares the “When Harry Met Sally” method of business….I’ll have what she’s having.
Daniel talks about why he “acts as if now”, instead of “fake it until you make it” like so many others.
We share the power of the words of Brian Tracey who advises to grow where you are planted.
Daniel reveals the reasons why most businesses have to change a minimum of four times before they get the good results.
And lastly……………..
Why it is so powerful and important to get clear on who your customer is an understand what they want right from the very start.
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Interview Transcription For Daniel Tolson Interview
David Ralph [0:01]
Once upon a time, there was a guy with a dream, a dream to quit his job, support himself online and have a kickoff live. Little did he know that dream would lead him into a world of struggle, burnout and debt, until he found the magic ingredient and no struggles became a thing of the past. I of course, was that person. And now My dream is to make things happen for you. Welcome to Join Up Dots.
Intro [0:27]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling in Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph.
David Ralph [0:52]
Yes. Good morning, friends. Good morning. And thank you so much for being with us at Join Up Dots. I really do appreciate You coming to us? You know, after six years, you could go anywhere you want, but you still keep on coming back to us time and time again. I appreciate you. Well, I appreciate today’s guest as well. He’s Australian. He’s manly. He’s got that deep baritone to his voice. And he’s a business expert from Australia, who has learned the power of selling. He’s Australia’s number one business coach and has helped thousands of clients manage their time more effectively remove self limiting beliefs, and make a lot more money. He’s goal is to show you how to make more sales and a lot more money. As he says, There’s nothing worse than worrying about where your next customer is coming from, and wondering if you’re going to make enough money to survive and with my proven techniques, I will help you to stop worrying about where your next sale is coming from your experience less rejection to offer customers will be wanting to buy from you immediately. And when they refer you to their family and friends. Now, this wasn’t something that of course occurred like magic right at the very start. This was somebody built through the life of hard knocks, and as he says a few years before my birth, my parents lost their farm. The drought hit the crops died, the markets collapsed and they had nothing to trade they walked off the land with nothing. After the following years of night shifts packing shelves at the local supermarket and driving buses and taxis. They knew that making a wage would never lead to financial independence. Soon they found themselves in construction, yet backbreaking 16 hour days quickly took their toll. Now at age nine I started my sales career as a paper boy, my uncle gave me the three step sales training here are your newspapers vast the door, go make sales and on the very first sales call, I got my first note, and the rejection hit me hard. I took it personally and thought there was something wrong with me Come on, come and meet me know and give something of yourself all the time. Anyway. I heard yes a few times, but the pain of the know what’s so bad, but I began to self sabotage and procrastinate now in the early 1900s To us when the construction industry change, my parents reinvented themselves. And as a family, we opened up a pawn shop, we became a local Pawn Stars. And for the first nine years in business, we were amateurs, a regular and educated family doing the best we could with no training. We were just in there giving it a go, and we didn’t know any different. Now what you need to know about pawn broking and this is this is interesting is that is one of the most profitable business models in all of history, it works like this. You lend your own money against an item of value for a short period of time, and you’ll get a 20% return on your money every 30 days. If the customer doesn’t come back, you keep the goods and sell them all profit, zero risk. And that is where we head into today’s show. So how did he take this early tuition in business and transform his life to where it is today? And if he could give one big advice to every listener of Join Up Dots, what would it be? Well, let’s find out as we bring on the show to start Join Up Dots. With the one and only Mr. Daniel Tolson. Morning, Daniel, how are you,
Daniel Tolson [4:08]
David? Good morning, what I what a wonderful introduction.
David Ralph [4:12]
You You gave me that you gave me that I went over to your site, I looked at it. I can’t do better than that is a real interesting story. And it leads me to my driving question. Now. I’m an online business coach. I teach people how to make online businesses. And one of the things that I love about the coaching business model is you more often than not other products. So you don’t have to create anything and is almost all profit with zero risks. Now, when you get into creating a business, are you aware of that creep of expense that takes away the profits from your clients and yourself so you’re actually supporting the business before you actually get anything in?
Daniel Tolson [4:56]
Huh? It’s very interesting business model. Now pawnbroking versus a coaching business. We’re selling our knowledge and we’re selling our time. And it’s one of the most difficult things to sell because it’s invisible. So the amount of time that it goes into selling the invisible God help anybody who’s trying to do it if there aren’t educated.
David Ralph [5:19]
Now, what I think is that there’s a confidence though, isn’t it? Daniel, there’s a confidence. But I was talking to a guy a little while ago, and he said, in the first year of his business, he said, I think that I didn’t sell enough, because I didn’t come at it with the competence of the belief in the product. And in coaching, there’s a lot of your personal belief, you’ve got to bridge that gap in your self limiting beliefs so that people actually buy into you.
Daniel Tolson [5:46]
That was absolutely true. From my experience as a coach, I believe it’s what I now call the When Harry Met Sally model of selling. And we have to first of all get those results in our life and eventually Our ideal prospect looks across at us and they say, I want what he’s having. It’s like your business, you’ve had to make it a success. And now people look at you and say, I want that in my life. And have you have you seen the movie When Harry Met Sally,
David Ralph [6:16]
you know, I can go even further than that. I can go with the fact that not only is it one of my favourite all time films, but just recently I went into cats delicatessen in New York, and I actually sat at the seat that she did the orgasm.
Daniel Tolson [6:33]
Did you have it as well?
David Ralph [6:35]
I had it. So you know, you almost have to stop me hooting and hollering on buses and trains and whatever so no, I held back at that time but I would have had what she was having
Daniel Tolson [6:47]
one very I’m envious. Give it to me.
David Ralph [6:52]
I haven’t had a mind to say that to me for years. You know, I’m not but I’m you know, we’ve only just met a little bit but with Daniel now in that situation of that, you know, I have what she’s having. There’s a lot of people that create that fake identity. And I’ll be honest, I speak to people through Join Up Dots. And afterwards I think, I don’t totally buy into what you’re saying you’re playing the game of where you want to be, but you’re not actually at that point at that moment. So you see them, you know, doing Learjet photos and super sharp, you know, images of them standing in front of 100,000 people and all that kind of stuff
Unknown Speaker [7:31]
is a fake
David Ralph [7:32]
world, isn’t it, but people can sniff that out. People can see the reality and I suppose the reality comes with the consistency if somebody has been around for 10 years, they likely to have done all that.
Daniel Tolson [7:45]
One of the things that I found if you’re at the start was I did not like the concept of fake it until you make it for me that just didn’t sit right with my ethics and my morals. So what I learned to say was act as if Neil Daniel act as if you are already the world’s best business coach. How would you shop? If you were the world’s best coach? How would you talk to your prospects? How would you manage your customers? How would you deliver a training? How would you speak with the authenticity and I always felt a lot better thinking act as if nail is bringing this
David Ralph [8:23]
the same
Daniel Tolson [8:25]
or faking it till you make it it’s going into the role like store and putting on the fake right it’s putting on the Rolex and doing a selfie with the Rolex on. We’re acting as if now he’s having the confidence to wear your 500 cat $500 Casio and have the same level of confidence now, as if you already had the Rolex. See the Rolex people don’t buy Rolex to till the time they buy it so people understand their level of status in society. But they rely on the watch, where if you rely on your personality in your charisma, you can act as if you’re the world’s best business coach. Now, now When I sorry, was I Oh, yeah, I agree with that.
David Ralph [9:02]
Yeah, go go go for it. Sorry, Daniel. I was so confused by what you were saying I jumped you.
Daniel Tolson [9:07]
Well, when my my uncle you mentioned before he gave me the three step sales process when I was nine, the same uncle hired me again as a real estate agent at age 19. And he said, Jen, Daniel, you’re going to come up against some very big competition out there you said but either know that enthusiasm for outsell experienced tend to one. He said, what you’ll find with these real estate agents is they’ve been doing this for a long time. They’ve been doing it for 1020 and 30 years. They have the results you don’t he said that they tend to rest on their laurels. He said they stand on the heels. But when you go in and speak to a customer, stand on the tips of your toes, show them your energy, your enthusiasm, your will to win. And I learned to do that night at age 19. And within six months of following that strategy, plus, with some really good sales strategies. I was in the top 10 sales people In my entire country, so I had to act as if now I had to act in front of that client, if I was going to deliver the world’s best service, and then I had to live up to that standard. And then I played the game.
David Ralph [10:14]
I like that. I like that I totally understand what you’re saying there. So basically, you reverse engineered the process, you deliver the results. And then how do I make that occur, which is totally different from the fake it until you make it?
Daniel Tolson [10:31]
Well, that’s when your ethics and your morals kick in, is anybody can fake it till they make it. But what you better off to do is you better off to act as if now make that promise. And then deliver on that promise in humans like to deliver on the promise for that for the good part of people. So if you put it out there, you got to live up to it. And every time you live up to it, it becomes your benchmark. You’ve now achieved that in your sight. I have achieved that goal. And then that becomes your baseline and then you take another step up now We think about you,
David Ralph [11:01]
okay, you’re an Australian, you grew up in Australia. And now you informed me you’re living in Taiwan, where you you have moved the bus. Now, where is the old Daniel compared to the new Daniel because, you know, disconnecting from your roots is a big thing to do. And it does free you up and so many of us, I did it myself. I lived in the same town for many, many years. And then I moved, and then I came back to the same town and I’ve ended up raising my kids about five minutes away from where, where I grew up, but to move from your world into a totally alien world, right, Taiwan is, does that make you a different person? Does that make your business operate in a different way? Does that free you up from those anchors of your past?
Daniel Tolson [11:51]
Well, I’ve had a lot of rejection to my offer of years, I’ve had a lot of criticism about what I do. And I thought I’d better have a look into where this comes from. And I found by name Jesus of Nazareth. And I’ve read a passage about Jesus of Nazareth. And it said that a prophet has no honour in his own land. So I thought, what I need to do is I need to venture outside my comfort zone, I need to go live in a foreign land. And in 2007, I moved to Dubai. And I lived there through the 2012. In 2013, I came back to Australia, and I had that rejection, I had that criticism towards what I was doing, and people just weren’t buying it. But that’s interesting. Everybody else outside the country is buying it. So why don’t I go and pursue those markets? So I moved back to Taiwan in my business grew in Australia. And it became very exotic because people would say, how does this Ozzy guy run a big business here in Australia, he’s got interests in the Middle East, in in the UK, and he flies in and out every other week to service clients. So having the advantage of living overseas Part of my unique selling proposition one, I see Australia as a very different place because I’m not in the water with all the other fish. I’m on the outside of the tank looking in. But I’m also bringing this new knowledge, these new concepts, these attitudes and beliefs from other parts of the world. And so my product and service that I offer, which is made is very different to everybody else in the tank with all the other sharks. Yeah,
David Ralph [13:24]
I have heard that many times. But there’s no such thing as a local profit. Why have a person in your house can give you the greatest advice that you ever going to hear, but you won’t accept it? But somebody from Mauritius, you know, oh, yeah, I can totally see what you’re saying. Now. It’s interesting because one of the things that I utilise in my business and the businesses I teach people to build is the power of local search, being the dominant force in your local community before you actually spread out further afield as that held you back then or can you see, as I do, but power of people like people local to them.
Daniel Tolson [14:09]
I was having the same conversation with a author and trainer by the name of Brian Tracy. And he’s a good friend of mine and I hired him as my business coach. And he said the exact same thing to me. He said, Daniel, he said, You’ve got to grow where you’re planted. And he said, I don’t know how you’ll ever be successful being an Australian, living in Taiwan, in building a business in Sydney. So I understood that that was going to be a big constraint on what I was doing. So I had to start to do things differently. And I believe that we’re in a very different world today where we can leverage technologies like podcasts, we can travel in and out of a country very quickly, and we can spread our message locally, or wherever facilities. So in a lot of ways, it does create a problem. But over the years I have mastered that. And now it’s one of my greatest strengths. But anybody starting out, if you’re trying to build a business outside of your local area, you’re going to do it tough. Nobody knows you. So you have to find one place to start and then grow from there.
David Ralph [15:16]
It was something else that Brian Tracy famously says is eat the frog. He is he’s always eating the frog. That’s why you’ve never seen him on an episode of The Muppets, I imagine. Now with Brian, what is it that he brings about because I know his name? I’ve seen his work. And a lot of it seems very obvious. It’s kind of like, yeah, we should be doing that. Anyway, it’s that the the genius of him the fact that he literally says the simplest things because we can’t see it ourselves.
Daniel Tolson [15:51]
Brian Tracy’s philosophy is to give people more practical ideas per minute than any other speaker on the planet. In Brian’s philosophy in speaking is also simplify your message. What Brian does is he takes a very complex concept, and denormalize and breaks it down into strategies that anybody can follow. But the language that he talks in is a language that a 10 year old can understand. And a 10 year old language is the language level of your subconscious mind. So when you hear Brian talk, you say this makes sense. And Brian strategies are simple, yet profound in the results that they produce. He has the ability to speak in a common language, and he’s a true master because he can take something complex and give it to anybody in a three or five or seven step formula. And that’s where Brian success comes in. And things like that frog. courses like perform at your best courses like superior selling skills, he’s taken the strategies of the middle is in the billionaires any gives them to you on a platter. And it’s just 123. And like Brian says, left right uppercut, and you get the strategy and you get a result
David Ralph [17:11]
is it’s fascinating because this ties the I went down the pub the other day, and I met a guy that I used to work with. And I haven’t seen him for a year or so. And I used to work with him about 10 years ago, and now he’s moved into a different job. And then he’s moved into a different job. And I said to him, you know, how are you finding your new job? He said, I’m enjoying it. He said, But I fell out of my depth. And I said, Why is that? I said, because you’ve got all the knowledge in the world. They’ve hired you. They know what they want. And he said, because I mean, board meetings, I don’t understand what they’re saying. They talk in ways but they don’t understand. And I said to him, Well, that’s they’re failing. You know, that’s they’re failing if they’re communicating in such a high level, but people walk out, scared to say, I don’t understand, then that’s a bad thing. And I find that A lot with the people that I talked to, they try to convey a knowledge base of such a high level that they miss a trick or being able to explain it to the, the layman. And I think that’s something that you can do very well Daniel, isn’t it from your background of knocking on doors, selling papers, you understand the different demographics and the different levels of knowledge but has to be bridged.
Daniel Tolson [18:27]
You’ve got to in in selling or building a business, you’ve got to be a psychologist, you’ve got to understand the basics of people’s personalities. To understand the language or converse in any language, you need to know about 3000 words. And what we know is the average adult in England or Australia knows about 5000 words. So they’re very simple people. And that’s for the majority of people. This is for millionaires and billionaires. They’re often very simple people. So when you speak in a common language people say I get that There’s no confusion. I remember, like, last year, I was doing a speech on a stage in Australia. And the speaker before me was a world renowned author. And he’s known globally. He’s spoken to millions of people. And he got up and he spoke about the exact same topics that I did. And when people gave feedback on his talk, they said, he got in my head it was such a high frequency was like my brain was fizzing out. The words were so complex that they couldn’t process them. Now, L. Ron Hubbard, he’s the founder of Scientology. In the start of every Scientology book, he says, if you find a word in these books that you don’t understand, stop and open up your dictionary. Because what happens is if you don’t understand that word, any other content that you hear after that becomes redundant, because your mind is still stuck on that one word. But what I aim to do is I aim to make the country Plex very simple, and I speak at a slower rate. I give people chunks and content and that they can process easily. And I make sure that the people I’m speaking to coming along the journey with me. And if they’re not, I stop. And I check in and ask questions. Because the most important thing is not to impress myself with language. It’s not to impress my peers with my vocabulary. It’s to impress the people who are listening and how do I impress that is that they nod their head and say, I get this and they feel smart, because they shake their head and say, I don’t get this they feel dumb. They disengage in the fight flight or freeze response kicks in. And they
David Ralph [20:41]
even say even though they Daniel they wouldn’t even say I don’t get it, they would just sort of walk out nobody likes to look like they’re an idiot.
Daniel Tolson [20:50]
Nobody likes to feel stupid. Your your job as a speaker as a communicator, is to raise that level of self esteem in your raise that by simplifying the message so they get it and they can constantly feel like they’re having a win. Every time they feel like they’re having a win, they get a hit a serotonin. And that’s nature’s happy drug. So they listen to you. And I actually get this I feel smart, and they become engaged. And that’s that’s how you win the hearts and the minds of the people.
David Ralph [21:15]
Absolutely. Let’s hear from Oprah Winfrey. And we’ll be back with Daniel telson.
Oprah Winfrey [21:20]
The way through the challenge is to get still and ask yourself, what is the next right move? not think about, Oh, I got all of this. What is the next right move? And then from that space, make the next right move and the next right move and not to be overwhelmed by it because you know, your life is bigger than that one moment. You know, you’re not defined by what somebody says, is a failure for you, because failure is just there to point you in a different direction.
David Ralph [21:52]
Now, one of the big findings I made dinu in my business, I can see looking back on it was the fact that I created an avatar, I basically spent about 1015 minutes doing and I kind of Oh, yeah, yeah, I’m gonna go for this person, I’m gonna go go for that person. And I threw it up and I thought that’s my tick box. That’s people told me I should create an avatar. But now I go into it. And I realised that that is the key point. That’s the point form, where product fit comes market share, comm everything by knowing exactly who you’re going after, and what their pain points are, and then how you want to converse with them how you want to speak to them. Now, as I proceeded through, I’m now in a stage but my big thing that I’m really obsessed with is empty scale, where you build the smallest business you can to the most profitable you can, which allows you to have so much freedom and time because you’re not trying to, you know, get more and more listeners, you’re not trying to get more and more followers, you’re not trying to get more and more where 99% of them. Don’t apply. You Is that something that you see as well, but people really at their fundamental, they don’t understand the language and the customer and how to speak to them.
Daniel Tolson [23:12]
Before you start out on any business journey, you’ve got to get clear on who your customers. And if you can’t get clear on your customer, you should never start a business. Because you will make a lot of assumptions about what people will buy. And we have our own personal biases. And if we don’t test our ideas and our thoughts with the ideal person, then you’re going to blow all your money and blow your time. And there was an interesting research lately that it said that 80% of businesses that fail in the first two years fail because of management in competence. In the first thing that they fail to do is to research their people, and they don’t even do a duct tape strategy on what they’re selling. What I teach my clients is if you want to know what’s going to sell is go out and identify your ideal client understand their demographics, understand their geographics, understand this site graphics, but also understand their ethnic graphics, understand exactly how they use or could use this product and service, present to them what you’ve got, and then ask them to buy. And if you go out and you speak to 100 people and they don’t buy, it’s not a good product and service. And so don’t get involved in the business whatsoever. But a lot of people go out and design a product in the service. And then they take it to market. And I saw this the other day, the Facebook ad came up, and a person had invented a backpack, and the backpack when a VBAC and it had a water bottle in the back, and then on the front of it, it had a humidifier. So you walk around in the mountains with this water in this humidifier, pushing out this same in front of your face while you’re walking around. Now that person would have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and 10s of thousands of man hours designing that and marketing it and there’s never going to To be a customer for at all, and I’ll blow their money, and they’ll lose their shirt. So starting out with the right customer in mind is how you build an excellent business. And that’s my opinion.
David Ralph [25:13]
I think your opinion is right. So for the customers out there, listeners of Join Up Dots. How do you do that by sitting in a cubicle and listening to this podcast, they go, right? Where do I find those customers so that I can get that avatar so that I’m not just designing it? Like like I did when I created Join Up, Dots and Join Up Dots and I thought I was being very creative. Beta me about 10 minutes.
Daniel Tolson [25:41]
Well, first of all, in this coaching business, I was my ideal client to start with. So I had to look at how old I was. At that time. I had to look at if I was male or female, I had to make that decision. I also had to have a look at my career status where I was Living in my family status. So I took those things into consideration. And I said, My ideal client is about my age. So we’re looking at somebody at that time, who’s around about 30 to 35, then newly married, but they don’t have any children. They’re running around about 40 to $45,000 a year. I also then started to have a look at the problems that I was going through at that time in my life and what got me into coaching. I had a series of mental blocks in limiting beliefs. I believe that other people could have success, but I wasn’t entitled to it. I thought because I didn’t have an education, that I’d never be as successful as the people who are working in my company. So that was my problem. However, it was an invisible problem. And it was one of those fees and frustrations. So once I started to understand who I was, I just started to look for people within a closed product. Similarly to me. So as Kevin crew that stage, I was living in Dubai, it’s 2008. And I started to talk about my problem to other people. And then I noticed that these people at the same age were going through the same problems. And because I had their problem better than they could add articulate their problem, they just assumed that I was the expert in that field. So I draw a little circle around my business, which was Emirates Airline at the time, and I said, there’s 17,000 people in here, in total. Every time I get on a flight, there’s at least one other person who looks like me who sounds like me, whether it be male or female. And then if I work with 17 people every week, then I’m going to find four of these people every single month, right where I’m at. And so I started to do that I started to talk to these people about my problem and service and I started to get some information that this was the right place to look for, and now using the same language as me. So I started to tap into that psychographic. And that’s that fee or frustration. And as soon as I started to touch that it was like an emotional hot button. And people would say, Daniel, I’m going through that right now. And then simply, I’ve talked to them about what I’ve learned and what I was able to achieve. And that’s going back to that, When Harry Met Sally model of selling, they looked at me and said, Daniel, if you’ve solved that, can you help me? So I really didn’t need to look any further than the career that I was in to find my customers. Once I understood the language of the people that I was working with, I started to talk to the customers on the aircraft. And I was flying on these aircrafts that were worth 450 million dollars. We could get up to 430 customers on the aircraft at any given time. And I just look for other people like me and the other people that I’ve been helping eventually find them. So my market breaks. Search was done in my current workplace at no additional cost to the business that are starting. So you’ve got ready. I love that
David Ralph [29:08]
they that the fact that you’ve got these people who you know, they’re killing time on a plane, you’re solving their issues.
Daniel Tolson [29:17]
I remember I was in dubai airport, and we’d have this briefing. Then every time you went on the aircraft, you set around a big briefing table in you talked about who you are, where you come from, and what your special skill is. And the majority of the people I’m talking 16 at a seven people did not have a special skill. So I would say to them, my special skill is I’m a life coach, and I help people overcome their mental and emotional blockages. You know, some people might have a fear of rejection or a fear of failure, or they might have a belief that they’re never going to find their ideal partner. And when I said that, to the women, about 10 out of 17 became my customers. Now when I got on the aircraft, that started to do the advertising for me. And what happens is Kevin crew you do what’s called gala gossip. After the services down, everybody goes to the galley and talks about their life and that say, hey, the life coach could probably help you with that. And so the word gets around really quick. So this episode in dubai airport, I told the crew that I specialised in fears and phobias. a customer’s walking through the airport, walked on the bridge was just about to step inside the aircraft and the a bridge drop down about six feet. And because it auto adjusts, and at that moment of unconsciousness for her she was thinking about stepping on the aircraft. The platform dropped down and all of a sudden fear flying kicked in. She thought she was going to die. They had people trying to rescue her and her on the aircraft but you wouldn’t get on the aircraft. And then my person said, Why don’t you go get the life coach. So they bought me up from the back of the aircraft. They bought me up the first class. They took me outside the I said, Look, this lady’s got a fear of flying, but she’s in trouble. She’s come from the UK. She’s got a fear of flying in Dubai. And it doesn’t matter where she is now, where she goes, she’s gonna have to fly, can you help her? So I did an NLP induction in the airport in cured her fear of flying, we got her onto the aircraft and flew all the way to China should become my client after that. So these people are right under your nose. It’s like your Nightingale says it’s your acres of diamond, you’re standing on top of it, you’ve just got to learn to look for.
David Ralph [31:31]
Now, one of the things that we hear all the time is you can’t see the wood for the trees and in in everyone we can see other people’s issues before we can see ourselves. So what you say makes total sales but I know that most people will be going okay, that doesn’t apply to me. Are we saying that every single person out there is surrounded by customers business opportunities, they’ve got diamonds under their feet.
Daniel Tolson [32:00]
Absolutely, unless they’re living on another planet.
David Ralph [32:03]
How do we bridge the old Daniel? How do we bridge that that belief that it doesn’t apply to them?
Daniel Tolson [32:10]
The first thing is you got to do is think on paper. And this is some thing I’ve learned over the years is that when you put things on paper you externalise it, see ideas, what we call Air Products, they exist in your mind in there’s no reality to them. So once you start to build out a sales plane, you start to get clarity around who you’re searching for. So you write down, you know, what does my ideal customer look like? You know, that could be a picture of you when you’re going through that problem. And then you use that as a target. You then start to write down what their ages and what you do here is there’s a there’s a law in creativity, it says there can be no CREATIVITY WITHOUT constraints. So if you say your ideal customer is between the age of 30 to 35 What you do is you only look for those people in you exclude everybody else. And you’ve got to start to narrow it down. So it might be 30 to 35, you only speak to those people, if 80% of your customers are female, just delete them in and start focusing on the ladies. And then you got to start to come up with some really good needs based questions. And when you start to speak to these people, you start to ask them if they have a particular problem, or if there’s a particular goal that they’re moving towards, and you should know that. So for example, if I’m speaking to a business, I’ll say, Mister sales manager, because it’s the sales manager that I want to speak to. Do you have anybody in your office who has declining sales, it automatically deletes all the high performance and it leaves you bonds, the declining sales, then I’ll ask a follow up question. Is this person also having resistance to the offer based on price? Now I’m getting Narrow here. So I’m looking for somebody who has declining sales, but also having problems with price objections. And they’ll say, yes, that’s happening here. And then I’ve got the ideal person I’m searching for. So you’ve got to learn to narrow it down. But you got to think on paper. Because once it’s on paper, you objectify it, and you can take a step back. And then what you can do is you can say to people that you know, like family members and friends, I am looking for a female, who’s between the ages of 30 and 35. She lives within 80 kilometres of the Sydney, she’s in a sales role. Her title is a sales manager. She’ll be responsible for a team of about 30 people in the company that she’s working with will be selling real estate services. Who do you know, and they’ll say, Well, I know Jenny down the street. She’s a real estate agent sounds like a then you ask, can you give me an introduction? So you’ve got to put it on paper so you can explain it to other people. And if you can explain it to somebody else, then you are clear on who you’re looking for. If you can’t explain it to a 10 year old, you’re not clear. And you need to start again. And in planning in sales, planning every 10 minutes in planning will save you one minute in execution. So if you sit down and plan out the perfect person that you’re looking for, you’ll save yourself about 100 minutes every single day in lost time, because you’ll be targeted. You’re you know, you all those coaches and people into personal development understand what the reticular Activation System is. It’s a part of mine that constantly looks for a match of your most dominant thought. So everywhere you go, you’ll be very clear on looking for that person, and you will find them and that’s how it works. You gotta think on paper.
David Ralph [35:46]
Now, of course, this all makes perfect sense. But there was a time when young Daniel telson was struggling. There was the time that Daniel was looking around and he’s messaging wasn’t working the right customer. wasn’t coming. How did you overcome that? Because every every business, you look back on it, you think I’ve made this a bit harder than it should be? How did you move through those sort of early fledgling days?
Daniel Tolson [36:12]
Well, I believe in failing fast.
In a field that I work in, it’s called, you know, we do what’s called multiple variations to business model. And if you want to make an improvement in your business model, you’ve got to know your numbers, the average business needs to change their business model four times before they start to get good results. So you got to know the numbers, that most businesses have to make about 30 to 40 improvements in the business model, before it really locks in and starts to work. So what I do is I start with a question, I asked myself, how can I double my sales in the next 30 days, and I come up with at least 20 ideas on how to double my sales. And then what I do is I go systematically through the list and I look at all these items that are high probability and low probability And all the ones that are high probability by go out and act on those immediately. And what I do is I also make a rule, as I say, before I decide if this strategy does or doesn’t work, I’m going to try it at least three times. And after three times, if it doesn’t work, I’ll move on to the next one. And I take what I’ve learned. So after I try something, I asked myself two questions. I asked myself, what worked, because it’s very important is even in failure, you’re going to learn a lot about success. And I’ll take note, and I’ll write down all the things that I’ve learned. Once I’m clear on that, I’ll ask myself a second question, which is, what will I do differently next time. And what happens is I start to pre programme my mind for the future. So if something like that comes up again, already quickly go through the learning curve, and my solution is placed into my mind. So I’ll try the first strategy. I’ll try that three times. If it doesn’t work, I’ll ask myself. What worked What will I do differently next time, I will then move on to the next Reggie and I’ll keep going through collecting information. It’s almost like lining up the dots, what’s working and what doesn’t work. And if I get all the way through to the end and I still haven’t had success, then what I do is I start again, but I might have to make a different variation. In business today, you can specialise in a lot of different areas. You can specialise in a problem. You can specialise in a product, you can specialise in a service, you can specialise in a result or an outcome. And you’ve got to try your strategies in all these different areas. If that doesn’t work, then you got to change the people that you’re trying to sell it to. And this is probably one of the biggest things that I’ve learned over the years is just because I want to sell to a particular customer doesn’t mean that they want to buy from me and the market will quickly tell you if they’re going to buy or not. And if they don’t want to buy except that as feedback Get in front of somebody else, and try your strategy. And you’re gonna have to keep doing that until you find the perfect mix for your business. And in any type of business model innovation, you’re going to need to change your business model at least four times. But you’ve got to be persistent. Because some businesses, it could take up to 40. And that’s how I do it. And I just keep doing that systematically. With everything that I try. I’m always tweaking it. I’m always improving it. I’m always asking customers, why are you buying from your competitor from my competitor? They tell me, I’ll ask them, why didn’t you buy from me? What would it take you and what conditions would have to be present for you to buy this product and service so I’m always collecting information always lining up the dots. I’m always join them up. And eventually, once I’ve got enough data inside of my head, then it works. But I have to collect all the data first.
David Ralph [39:53]
As you hear at the end of the show, I always say I believe that by joining up the dots and connecting our past is the best way to build our future. And that’s what you do over time you look back at what has worked, the stepping stones keep on looking back to move forward.
Daniel Tolson [40:09]
Absolutely. You know, I was writing down some notes before the show today. And I thought, what are some of these things that I’ve done in my life that are really working in my favour today. And when I was Kevin crew, I learned that I was not a very good employee. And I was a very good leader. So when I started my business, I had to make sure that I didn’t put myself in the position to be an employee. I had to set up and build my business around me wanting to be a leader. I also had to look at what was working in my career. And when I was Kevin crew, what I loved was doing the same thing in the job was being Kevin crew. But I also learned something interesting about myself, which people used to tell me was a weakness. But I love to work with different people every day. I like to be going somewhere different Every single day, and so people had told me that was a bad thing. But I realised is that’s one of the things that drives me and motivates me. So as I set up my coaching business now, I live in Taiwan, I fly in and out of Australia. I was looking at my passport the other day, I had 75 stamps from many different countries around the world, just from the last couple of years of flying in and out, doing what I love to do. The other thing is that every day in coaching business, the problem is different. The challenge is different. So I have built a business around what I’ve learned about myself from the past, people told me I chopped and changed too much I just learned how to harness that. So I can be doing exactly what I love coaching, but doing with different people every day, and in the past 40 days, I’ve worked with more than 1100 people. And that’s how I now structure my life but it’s only looking back and saying what do I like and then bringing that forward into the future, setting goals around that and Designing the life of my dream, and not living somebody else’s dream.
David Ralph [42:05]
But let’s play the words for Steve Jobs that brings all this to the fore is Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs [42:10]
Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference.
David Ralph [42:45]
Now, I’m going to take you right back to the early days and as we said in in the introduction when he was doing your paper around the pain of no was so bad but you began to self sabotage how much of that person is still in you today.
Daniel Tolson [43:04]
There’s definitely a lot. There’s definitely a lot of self sabotage because my new goals are so big. And I’m venturing into New Territories mentally and emotionally that I’ve never been in before. So all of that old programming has been laying dormant they are in the future. And I don’t know it exists until I face these new challenges and these new obstacles. So I’m aware that self sabotage is there. But I’m also very much aware is it’s part of human nature. One of the greatest discoveries over the years for me is that the comfort zone once we move in and out of the comfort zone via about 10%, we start to self sabotage. So our body will just say that the body temperature is set to about roughly about 37 degrees. If your temperature goes up by 10 degrees, you go into a state of hypoxia and your body can overcook and you die if your body temperature drops by 10% You get into a hypothermic state, everybody can freeze and you can die. So every time we’re moving up in life, every time we’re spiralling up, we’re constantly moving out of one comfort zone into another. And because there’s a lot of unknown happens is we gravitate back towards the comfort zone. So what I’m very sensitive to in my life is these subtle sabotages. And it often comes in the form of language, where I say, you know what, I don’t really want that thing. I’m not really motivated by that thing. Or I might say, I’m just not feeling it right now. So I’m very aware of what I’m saying to myself in the emotions that are present. I’ve also learned that with the fear of failure, I feel this down the front of my body. So if I get this feeling down the front of my body, and I’m moving into new territories, I understand that’s the fear of failure. And if I give in to that I self sabotage, but I refuse to see there’s a thing called emotional intelligence. There’s five pillars. The first pillar is self awareness. And only about 36% of the population are aware of their thoughts and their feelings at any given time. And those thoughts and feelings produce 95% of your emotions. So I’m getting very clear on catching them out before it turns into a disaster. So there’s nothing wrong with self sabotaging. There’s only a problem is when you allow to continually happen, it will happen and then you learn from it and you say, okay, that’s the behaviour. Now I need to change that behaviour. And you can only substitute a negative behaviour for different behaviours of the negative behaviour, you then have to substitute it for positive behaviour until that becomes a habit. And you know, there’s a meme around that you know, takes 21 days to create a habit. It takes 21 days for a chicken with a brand the size of a pea to sit on an egg and hatch an egg. But it can take a lifetime to develop a habit and some of these things people have developed and stick to for an entire life. So constantly being mindful of those inborn traits, those things that are in nature to humans and not allowing to get in my way so hypersensitive to it.
David Ralph [46:12]
Now, Jeff, before we move you on to the Sermon on the mic, bringing the whole show together, one of the questions I like to ask the majority of people is, where is your big dots? When you look back on your life to where you are now, most people will have a situation it could be a bad situation, it could be a bad relationship. It could be a great conversation that has really kind of got the cogs of your brain working and has led you in the direction can you look back on your own life and go Yeah, that was that was when it really started moving for me.
Daniel Tolson [46:43]
About the age of nine, I started to discover that I had a lot of learning disabilities. And what I wanted at that time of my life was just to be like everybody else, because I had to wear thick glasses. I was getting the D D in the grades in every class, I was kicked out of the room, I was told that I was stupid and I was damaged. I’d never amount to anything. And at that stage of my life, I thought, I just want to be like everybody else. I just want to get along with everybody else. I don’t want to be singled out. But as I’ve grown older, that’s been a defining moment because I look back on that and I say, No, I don’t want to be like everybody else. I want to be more of the person that I want to be come in through having those learning disabilities and that physical disabilities have realised that it’s made my mind think very differently to everybody else. So through those painful moments of my life through the emotional setbacks, through the cognitive setbacks, through the getting kicked out of class and not finishing school and not going into university, I’ve realised that this is my biggest strength. So from a young age, I thought I wanted to be like everybody else. But what I realised now is I just want to be more the man that I am becoming now. And I don’t want to be like anybody else.
David Ralph [48:08]
powerful stuff. Well, this is the part of the show that we’ve been leading up to the bit. We call the Sermon on the mic when we send you back in time to have a one on one with your younger self. And if you could go back and speak to the young Daniel, what would you say to him and what age Daniel, would you like to speak to? Well, we’re going to find out because I’m going to play the music. And when it fades you up. This is a sermon on the mic.
Daniel Tolson [48:54]
If I was to have a conversation with my younger self, the advice that I give myself is To be vulnerable, because when you get older, there is no advantage of looking polished. There’s no advantage to you to have a life that looks like it’s perfect in every way shape or form. Because it’s actually unbelievable and and connectible spend your take the advice of Dr. Ted James that he gave you in 2014 when he failed you for being too good in your NLP, Coach training and certification and realise that to be a very good connector of people. Your job is to show vulnerability. Your job is to be constantly within arm’s reach of your ideal customer. It’s to be able to share your story and to take the painful moments in your life and express it to people. This is how I went from being on centerlink in government support to earning 100 down dollars in 100 days, don’t just tell the highlight the story of earning $100,000. Tell them about the pain and suffering that led you to making that decision. Talk about those common fears that everybody has. Talk about those doubts that go through your mind. Because once you begin to articulate these two other people, they will understand that you are the expert on the problem. Your job is to show vulnerability. It’s not to wallow in the pain of it. But it’s just to show that you’ve also had challenges. This also gives people the vision that they can also make change. It also gives them encouragement that it doesn’t matter what they’ve been through in the past. It only matters of where they’re going to be in the years ahead. Once they join up all those dots.
David Ralph [50:49]
Daniel, what’s the number one best way that our audience can connect with you?
Daniel Tolson [50:55]
If you’d like to connect with me, go to my website www dot Daniel tolson.com
David Ralph [51:02]
we will have all the links on the show notes. Daniel, thank you so much for spending time with us today joining up those dots. And please come back again when you’ve got more dots to join up because as I said previously, I believe that by joining up the dots and connecting our past is the best way to build our futures. Daniel Tolson, thank you so much.
Daniel Tolson [51:21]
Thank you
David Ralph [51:24]
wasn’t a good I there was a lot of stuff there. But I just sat back and reflected because it is it’s all about getting your avatar, understanding their problems getting defined, getting that definition prove the process so that you know exactly the language it needs to be said, the language that makes sales just occur like magic. And of course, when you start building your business, you might have to pivot slightly, but Alicia in the right direction, as were saying on every show of Join Up Dots, we are just about to get the next bunch of Entrepreneurs going through our business coaching where we guarantee within just a few weeks that you will come out with a business that will allow you to time freedom, location freedom, and start paying all your bills get a full time income. Working online, like all our other clients through Join Up Dots is there for you. And I will speak to you one to one to make sure that you’re fit, that you’ve got the commitment. And you really want to make a difference in your life. Having a business that you can take across the world travels with you, and gives you a lifestyle that our guests have had. That’s how business coaching so if you’re interested in that, just come over to Join Up Dots book a time to speak to me one to one, and we’ll see if you are a fit. Until next time. Look after yourselves and we’ll see you again. Bye bye.
Outro [52:49]
David doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant self you are wants to become so he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practice Is including the two that changed his life. Head over to Join Up dots.com to download this amazing guide for free and we’ll see you tomorrow on Join Up Dots.
