Episode 37: Meridith Elliott Powell

Jack Hubbard  00:22

I've had the privilege of being in and around banking for more than 50 years. Lots of changes during that time. We've gone from Ledger's to laptops, typewriters to technology. One thing, however, remains the same. Banking is a people business. And I'll be talking with those people that make banking great here on Jack Rants With Modern bankers. 

Welcome to Jack Rants With Modern Bankers brought to you by RelPro, and Vertical IQ. Each week I feature top voices in financial services from bankers and consultants, to best selling authors and many more. The goal of this program is simple, to provide insights, success practices and to bring new ideas to the table that you can use to maximize your results. 

My guest today is a very, very special friend Meridith Elliott Powell. I met Meredith when she was a young banker in Western North Carolina. From the second I shook her hand and watched her with customers and colleagues. I just knew that she would be a world class consultant before too long. Well, it happened. And today she's on the road 200 days every year bringing audiences her own unique brand of strategic and tactical messages around sales, relationship development, and leadership. I've had her speak for me a number of times. Meredith never disappoints, she is absolutely the best in breed of what she does. 

Meredith is an award winning speaker and her company MotionFirst provides leadership coaching and online courses that focus on sales and the customer experience. She's authored seven best selling books, the latest of which is Thrive: Strategies to Turn Uncertainty into Competitive Advantage. She also can be seen on Sales Logic Live, it's on LinkedIn every Saturday morning at 8am Eastern time, I never miss it. Along with her co host, Mark Hunter. It's a podcast too so don't miss this one. It's really, really good. 

On this Jack Rants With Modern Bankers, we talk about sales and relationship development, and thriving with my good friend, Meredith Elliot Powell. 

I always like to start out these programs with a kind of a thought from my guest about something good. So tell me something good, Meridith.

Meridith Elliott Powell  02:50

Yeah, so I think that, you know, actually, I think people are going to think this is maybe a little bit crazy, with all the uncertainty and all the shifts in the marketplace. But when I look at something good, I think if you are in sales right now, or if you are in the service business, something good is that your customers needs you now more than ever. I mean, this is the time to really be out listening, and engaging with people, when the times become turbulent, we become more relevant.

Jack Hubbard  03:17

That's very, very true and I wanted to dive into that as well. So people know you from being on stage. They probably seen you in larger groups but I know your firm does a lot more than that. Tell us about your company and what you do.

Meridith Elliott Powell  03:32

Yeah, so we do quite a few things. Number one, I've got a little team that works with me that does facilitation workshops, we do coaching, we do group coaching, one to one, coaching, we do retreats, we do speaking engagements, and we do quite a bit of online learning, we've got quite a portfolio of of courses and content, all poised around helping people thrive in an uncertain marketplace, whether it be strategy, sales, or leadership and talent development.

Jack Hubbard  04:06

And you do a lot of speaking and you're out there almost every week outside of banking. What kind of topics you mentioned, you're going to Philadelphia, what topics are people asking about? What do they want?

Meridith Elliott Powell  04:21

You know, it's interesting. So in the last couple of years, I've really been talking so much around how do we get people how do we navigate an uncertain marketplace so I feel like the topics in the last couple of years have been more focused on helping C suite and CEOs figure out how to strategize in a marketplace and it's constantly shifting. Now Jack it has moved to become how do we get our team's future focused? How do we get people to not be waiting for change to happen, but be predicting because everybody seems to be worn out by the amount of uncertainty in the marketplace, worn out by the level of change. And as you can see, it is not slowing down. In fact, it is picking up and it's constant… I mean, I think the biggest myth about uncertainty is that we think there's going to be an endpoint when there isn't. 

Jack Hubbard  05:15

Yeah, I'm going to talk about endpoints. And certainly you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but I know you pretty well. And I feel I can ask this question. You've been doing this for quite a number of years. And you know, I've been doing it for a long time, too. And we all talk about slowing down and I talk about slowing down and I have quite a lot. What is your end point? How long do you want to keep doing this?

Meridith Elliott Powell  05:38

You know, the thing… I do 80 to 100 speaking engagements a year and I've been doing that for quite a while. What I know is that I feel like I am on the crest of what is next in my business. So you know, Jack, you've known me and since I've known you, we've done quite a lot of different things. And, you know, when you were back consulting with our bank and helping us, you probably didn't think you'd be doing this right now. And so what I'm feeling very much is a shift coming in my business. I think if you have this conversation with me this time, next year, I'll probably be coming to a close of doing 80 to 100 speaking engagements a year, just because I feel like the next horizon is there. And I really feel like the next horizon is going more global and more global will mean more online content and more ways for people to digest the things that I'm offering. So I sort of think slowing down for me means more shifting than slowing down.

Jack Hubbard  06:47

It’s interesting. And I'm sure you have that in your mind as an objective or a goal or a strategy. And I listened to you and Mark Hunter recently on your sales logics podcast, which I want to talk about later but one of the things you talked about was what were your goals, and you actually showed a piece of paper that you have for your goals? When did you start that? And why did you write them down?

Meridith Elliott Powell  07:19

Yeah, what a great question. So probably 10 years ago, I had a group of women come to me. It was a women's organization and said, Could you speak to us about how to be confident? And I just laughed, because I thought I have to be the most insecure person on the planet but obviously, I appear confident. And I really started, I said, Yes, I'll speak about that, even though I had no idea what I was going to do. And I really thought about that. And I thought, confidence is something that could be taught. And I thought about what is the most important piece of competence. And what I figured out was its progress. 

And so I wrote down every area of my life that mattered to me, my finances, my health, my family, my relationship with my husband, my spirituality. And I thought, Where am I now? Where do I want to be? And what's one step that I could make to progress towards where I want to be, I'm a passionate believer that I cannot be successful in my business If my marriage isn't happy, I don't believe I can be successful in my marriage if my health isn't good. And so I wrote them down 10 years ago, and I've been looking at them every morning, since then, and again, at least one more time during the day, two if I'm more committed. 

But I am fascinated with how the mind finds what it focuses on, and how just looking at this little piece of paper that I have looked at for 10 years motivates me. Every single morning, like one of my goals this year, under my progress with my relationship with my husband, is to do one thing nice for Rob every day. And that means whether I'm on the road, or whether I'm not on the road, and you'd be amazed how much I would forget to even listen to him. If I didn't write that down. I mean, he's probably the person I take for granted more than anybody else in my life. And so those little just those little triggers. Do that for me. 

Jack Hubbard  09:22

When you and I have done this for quite a while. And you'll do it for a lot longer than I probably will but, you know, there are people who are starting off and saying, you know, I'd like to do what Meredith does for a living, I'd like to do 80 to 100 speeches a year. How do you keep yourself sane and healthy? You must have some routines on the road that kind of help you stay with it.

Meridith Elliott Powell  09:49

Yeah, so again, great question. Number one is, exercise is always first for me. So even this morning, I got up and I didn't Have a lot of time. I had to run to the dentist and I had a lot to do. We had a big weekend. So I'd impact over the weekend but I had a choice where I could get on and answer my emails or I could do a few things but instead, I went downstairs to our gym and I worked out I just, I think my best advice is you need to know yourself, what pours energy in to you. And if I exercise, my mind right, maybe for you, it's sitting down and having a cup of, you know, coffee or sharing a bowl of cereal while your five year old talks to you, I don't care what it is but you've got to learn to manage your energy and not manage your time. 

And so exercise is important to me, my friends are really important to me, making a little bit of time to meditate every morning, whatever fills my energy tank up, is what keeps me sane to be doing really the other thing. So I came across energy management versus 10 minute time management, probably about five or six years ago. And I love it, if I don't spend time with our kids, if I don't make time for my friend, the guilt eats at me, and I'm not productive and so I think people would be very surprised at it. People assume I work 18 hours a day and the truth is, I go at it about 16 hours a day but a good four of those are playing, exercising or spending time with people that I care about.

Jack Hubbard  11:47

It's really important. The other thing you really care about is others and that kind of comes out in your writing. I know you're very active in writing on LinkedIn, and you wrote this amazing book. This is –you've written a number of books. This is absolutely my favorite Thrive: Strategies to Turn Uncertainty into Competitive Advantage. And oh, look, everybody, I got one signed by the author. What went into this book? What were your thoughts in writing this book?

Meridith Elliott Powell  12:20

Yeah, I feel like I agree with you. It's absolutely my favorite book. In all honesty, I feel like this book was the book that probably was the genesis of when I started down the avenue of consulting and speaking and things like that but it really came to add back in 2018 and 19. You know, one of the biggest things that I've learned from you is just listen to your customers, they will tell you what to do and where to go. And in 2018 and 19, the economy was red hot, everybody was doing unbelievable business but everybody I spoke to said, Oh, this uncertainty like everybody was waiting for the ball to drop. 

And I thought Why does uncertainty always have to be negative? And once I started to talk to people about the fact that they said they would believe that uncertainty could lead to something positive. Everybody then said well, okay, I’ll buy into that but I don't know what to do. And so I wanted to write the book that number one, shifted the mindset that made people believe that uncertainty was positive and could lead to something very good in your life, in your business. And then I wanted to take all the guesswork out of what to do with that book. And that's why I wrote the formula. 

The biggest thing to me was, I finished that book, I had it all ready to send to the publisher. And all of a sudden it hit me. I thought uncertainty doesn't end at five o'clock. I mean, the people living in the Great Depression didn't shut the office down at five and go home and life was perfect. So I kept the book for another month and called the publisher and said, I think I need to write this formula so that it applies to your personal life and so I took that strategy, because life is just I think it is fractionally positive, and then a lot of obstacles in your way. And if you can learn to turn those obstacles into opportunity, personally or professionally, you're going to live a life far richer than you ever even dreamed possible but harnessing that is probably the biggest challenge for both professionals and people in general.

Jack Hubbard  14:26

And you mentioned the formula. So I got to ask, what is it?

Meridith Elliott Powell  14:31

Yeah, so it's nine steps. And you know, not surprisingly begins with where we started with that relentless vision. You've got to be relentlessly focused on where you want to go and where you want to have. The second strategy is conditioning yourself for change. Start to think about the shift coming in the marketplace. Don't wait for change to happen. Number three is competition becomes collaboration, probably hardest for people in business today. You're the person sitting next to you who's your competitor. It's not your competitor. It's about How you can work together. Number four is the one that shocked me, know your core values, live your life and run your business according to your core values. Number five is to grow your business from the inside out. Again, like you said, listen to your customers, they will always show you the path to profitability and in your darkest hour is when your customers need you the most. Number six, no surprise, building your network is everything even in a high tech world. Number seven is to strengthen your team. Number eight is shed fast and keep moving, you've got to be productive, not busy. And number nine is rinse and repeat. It's a fluid formula that needs to be done over and over again.

Jack Hubbard  15:41

Look at that you did that without one single note. And I'm not surprised at that at all. I love the one about collaborating with your competitors, I call them “collapetors”. We absolutely live in this amazing world of abundance, even though we're in more challenging economic times. And if you find someone who you trust, that can do a job for you, and either you can't or you won't. Move it on, move it on because if that competitor does a good job for your client or your prospect, my gosh, that floats all boats. And they'll come back to you and say, Hey, thanks for recommending me, what more business can we do together? I'm sure you've seen that Meridith.

Meridith Elliott Powell  16:25

All the time. You know, just before we started this interview, I had a friend of mine call me and we're both out for the same job. And she had the interview first. And she called me, she said hey, I want to give you a heads up, here's what we here's what they're looking for. And actually, I think you'd be a better fit. So I want you to know, because this is what we know, is that, first of all, the better the reputations are in our industry, then the better we are all going to do. The other is the challenges we face. They're too big for one person or one industry to solve, you've got to start to think about how you can work together and how you can work together and how you're going to grow.  

Jack Hubbard  17:08

I'm going to steal something from you and Mark. Every week you talk about the lightning round. So I'm going to give you a lightning round because I know you're busy and you're headed to the airport. So here's a couple of things lightning round. Number one, what are some tools that great salespeople are using successfully?

Meridith Elliott Powell  17:25

Yeah, number one is nobody wants to hear but it's the CRM bar none. It is the CRM. Number two, I think, is the calendar. Really making it really, really ridiculously easy for people to schedule with you. And number three, I would say using AI for research, if you're a salesperson that hasn't started to put your toe into the AI arena, dive in there. I'm gonna throw in number four, just because you and Brynne Tillman do such a great job. But it's this whole idea of social selling. Anytime I see a salesperson that doesn't have a profile that doesn't have a picture that isn’t active on there, I think Wow, you are missing the boat.

Jack Hubbard  18:06

Oh, well, you said the key word missing. And you talk about CRM. What are salespeople missing about this thing? It's so good.

Meridith Elliott Powell  18:15

It's so good. You know, I think that salespeople think that it's cumbersome, and I get that, but the sale happens in the follow up, it always happens in the follow up the chances that you're going to interact with somebody the exact moment they're ready to buy are slim to none. And I don't care how good a salesperson you are, you cannot remember to follow up with all the people that you call on, you can't remember what you talked about and you can't remember specific dates of when they are going to need you or when you should when you should interact with them. So to me, it is like my office, my ultimate administrative assistant. It keeps me straight. It saves me time. It makes me look good and it makes sure that I shorten the sales cycle.

Jack Hubbard  19:01

Absolutely. So you talked about follow up. I'm a follow up fanatic. And so are you. So let's say that you and I were on this zoom call, and I was a potential client for you. What kind of follow up could I expect from you?

Meridith Elliott Powell  19:22

Yeah, you know, I think the follow up is so important. And I think it is the most neglected part of the sales cycle. So let's assume you and I had a sales call and let's assume you were ready to buy with me. I mean, it was a good sales call. And then I believe you and the deal goes cold. You don't respond to my email, you don't respond to my phone call. The number one thing that salespeople do is they assume that no longer Jack is interested. False. When I left Jack's office or I shut off the Zoom call. Here's what happened. Jack's wife needed him to work on the new construction of the house. His biggest client called with him Huge order, and he just found out his best salesperson is going out on maternity leave. 

In other words, bigger things happen, then following up with me. So at that moment, I go into what I call my 70/30. Follow up formula 70% of the follow up, I'm going to do with you is to value add, you're not responding to me is telling me, I haven't made this a big enough priority. So how can I continue to build trust, build relationships? To add value? 30% of the time, when I reach out to you, I am going to ask you, are you ready? Could we schedule another call? Could we talk about the deal that we were talking about?

And the reason it’s 70/30 split is because 30% You need to ask for the business but if you ask for the business too much, you're annoying, you're so annoying. Jack, this morning, I got an email from somebody who had reached out to me about wanting me to buy something from them. Now they've reached out to me and said to you, “You must be busy. Please read my email below and respond.” I'm annoyed. Now I'm so annoyed. Even if I needed the product, I would never ever call them. We need to treat online selling like we would a relationship and realize that people are busy and sales is about timing and we increase our timing by solving the problems that are biggest to our customer and we do that through follow up.

Jack Hubbard  21:30

Amazing. That's amazing. Well, timing in life is everything. And my time with you is running out. But I do have to ask you because I respect you as much as anybody in the sales business. Meredith, look into your crystal ball and talk about 2020 for a little bit from a sales perspective. What do you see?

Meridith Elliott Powell  21:50

Yeah, so in 2024, I am one of those people that I think that the economy is going to become more challenging, I think we're going to feel the interest rate. Shock manufacturing is already seeing signs of slowing down the labor force. While there's still a lot of jobs, the number of hours are being limited and service jobs, part time jobs are really what's in demand more than full time jobs. So that indicates to me that the business market is going to slow a little bit, we're already seeing signs of recession in Europe and things. So with that, I think what is happening with the crystal ball is you better increase your activity, you really need to realize let's circle back to where it started. 

Your customers need you now more than ever. You have moved out of product filling roll into, you need to understand the relevant problems that your customers are facing, and you need to be there at the door, helping them solve those problems. So your value props are going to change the way you reconfigure how you sell is going to change. The good news is the slowdown in the marketplace is going to freak out your competition and they're going to pull back so it's going to be easier to get in front of people. 

But I think it's going to be a really good year for salespeople who truly understand how to sell. Sales does not happen in a good economy, we fill orders. Sales is about helping people achieve their goals, reach their dreams, or transform their industries. That's their biggest obstacle. That's your job as a salesperson. So buckle up, because that's where you're going in 2024.

Jack Hubbard  23:31

I think that's right. And so I got a call from two different people who said, one said, I'm thinking about fractional work in HR. Another person said, You know what, I am a good banker, but I think I can do this in front of lots of people like you do. I'm curious, when was it? Meredith when that trigger went off when you were a corporate person that said, I think I can do this. I'm gonna go for it and when you went for it, what did you do to get yourself ready in case there was some downtime?

Meridith Elliott Powell  24:07

Okay, you're gonna love this because I did this like a banker Jack. I turned 40. And I gotta tell you, I love the age of 40. I love that age, because you're old enough to be taken seriously. And I do think there's something to be said for before you go out on your own having proven yourself. I know not everybody needs to do it but I had just finished writing strategy for First Citizens Bank, we'd had a really good run, the strategy had done incredibly well and I was on a high. I went to my boss and I went to the vice chairman and said, I really think I would like to go out on my own because 40 to me, was I was old enough to be taken seriously, but I was young enough that if it didn't work, it was going to be easy for me to find another job but just like a banker like I had advised so many people before. I did not quit my day job. I left First Citizen but the very first thing I did was I was a fee income strategist. 

That was the last thing that I'd done in banking. And I went out and I offered myself to five different financial institutions, to see who would pay me the most, to write their fee income and income strategy and execute it and I figured it would take two years to do. So that was the baggage that I sold at three banks. One paid me a lot of money for 20 hours a week of work. And I used that steady salary that I knew I had a two year runway, I used that, to use the other hour that I had to basically launch my business. Because my feeling was when I launched my business, I just needed to work. So anybody who offered me anything, I did it, I did it for, you know, not a lot of money because I needed case studies, I needed testimonials, I needed to build my own competence, to be sure that when I pitched a good amount of money out there, I was, I had the competence to do it. 

And so I always tell people that I think you know, in your gut when it's right, for you, it was just, I was on a high in in my corporate environment, I left on really good terms, I knew I could come back, if I needed to my boss really supported what I wanted to do and I had enough there that I could get started but fear is not something good. If you fear how to pay your bills or something, it's not a good way to start a business. So I had to cover my nut, so to speak, that's the professional term for it. Once that nut was covered, then I could get the rest of the business going. So I did that for two years. And the business launched after that. 

Jack Hubbard  27:04

Now look where you are internationally famous. You're out there every single week. And also every Saturday morning. I get up and listen to I don't come but I do listen to 7am Central Time 8am Eastern Time to Sales Logic with Mark Hunter. How did that all get started and tell us about the program?

Meridith Elliott Powell  27:25

Well, you know, we were at a meeting for the National Speakers Association. Mark and I are both members. And you know, it's funny. As a speaker, there's, you know, and as a salesperson, you should be looking at so many different ways to build your brand, right? Get your message out there. I mean, doing interviews like this, it's just, it's just gold. For me. It's priceless. And people get to know you and they get to try you on Perseids. Well, we're listening to –They we're having a session on podcasters. And in fact, it was so important. They did it from the main stage. And one of the most important things they said was that there's a real value in having a man and a woman as co hosts. There's real power in that. 

And so Mark and I basically he was on one end of the room I was on the other we had met at a meeting probably three or four years earlier, and we looked at each other because Mark had just been phenomenal for me and opening doors and introducing me to people. Mark’s so much better to me than I have, to him. He's just a phenomenal giver. And we just said, let's give this thing a try. And the first year we kind of bumped along. We do one here, and we do one there. And then finally about a year into it. We said we need to get serious with our travel schedules. 

We just decided that Saturday morning was the best time. Now we're just relentless about it. I mean, I've been in Hawaii and done it at 3am You know, no matter. So you're gonna look back at episodes and see, I'm not wearing a stitch of makeup. And if you look closely, I got my jammies on but you know, Jack, you know, because you're such you're so great to show up. We have such amazing experts that show up and chime in. They give sales advice that is so good about it. I really feel like it's a community effort.

Jack Hubbard  29:14

It is. It’s great. And then you do a lightning round at the end. And one of the things I really like at the end, too, is that you share a book. So since we're at the end of this program, let me share this. This is really an amazing book, and it's all yellow marked up and I've read it several times. And I need to tell you all from a marketing perspective, so I get this book, and then I get this nice, signed thing from Meredith about the book. You're a marketing genius. Sales genius, and I'm really proud to call you a friend, Meredith. How can people get a hold of you if they want to chat with you about speaking or consulting?

Meridith Elliott Powell  29:54

Well, first of all, I've got to say the same to you, you know Jack and I lost touch for a number review as he was a big influence on my life, early on, I mean, when you showed up in person, and he really changed my perspective on so much, and then I believe we were in Minneapolis, and I walked out of the airport, and we're getting ready to get on a bus or do something I don't know. And I was like, That's Jack Hubbard and I walked up and said something to you. And because you are the king of follow up, you followed up from there, and I don't think we have been separated since that day. But thank you so much, you can always find me at my website valuespeaker.com just the words valuespeaker.com. I tend to live on LinkedIn more than I do any other social, social media channel and I am a passionate believer. If you build your network, it will change your life. So I promise you, if you reach out and touch base with me, I will connect with you.

Jack Hubbard  30:49

And she is exactly right. And Meredith making 30 minutes of time on her incredibly busy schedule is amazing. She's the hardest working woman in sales today, along with Brynne Tillman, I don't know how you do it. Congratulations on all of your accomplishments, Meredith, and thanks very much for being with us today.

Meridith Elliott Powell  31:07

Well, thank you it's been an honor as always, Jack.

Jack Hubbard  31:11

Thanks for listening to this episode of Jack Rants With Modern Bankers with my good friend Meridith Elliott Powell. This, and every program is brought to you by our friends at Vertical IQ, and RelPro. Join us next time for more special guests bringing you marketing, sales and leadership insights and ideas that will provide your bank or credit union with that competitive edge you need to see. 

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