Meeting with Wolf of Wall Street

Today I attended the seminar of Jordan Belfort - that one, a story of whom you might know from the movie "The Wolf of Wall Street" with  Leonardo DiCaprio. If you have not watch movie, read a book, and hear about Jordan Belfort - here we go: one of the most successful brokers in America in 90-ies, in one year he was able to develop a company with a turnover of USD 23 million, got broke and went to 22 months into jail for securities fraud and money laundering. Currently he is a motivational speaker and trainer for sales force. One hour of his training costs USD 100K (for comparison, the price for one-day workshop with professor Chan Kim, Blue Ocean Strategy, is the same and Clayton Christensen from Harvard Business Schools asks for USD 200K for "Innovation DNA").

The difference between rich and not so rich is in the way of thinking as well as having a necessary set of sckills and knowledge.  I wanted to figure out where exactky this difference comes from and understand, which "gaps" I have to "work out" personally on the way of financial independence. And I could not expect that correctly to get the right place with the right speaker to learn about it. The seminar was about priciples of being rich and how to be a great salesman. "We are all in sales today, even if you do not have such a title. We sell our ideas, requests to colleagues, bosses. We want our children to go to bed early or study hard - that's about convincing, influencing and sales!" And I agree with Jordan. Key take away:

rich and successful are those, who act systematically. This systematic activity has two main components: inner world (the way of thinking ) and outer world (skills);

• inner world has four main elements: 1) emotional state management 2) empowering beliefs, 3) vision focus and 4) thermostat/ high standards; 
• outer world - skills and knowledge - als has four main elements: 1) entrepreneurship, 2) online and offline marketing, 3) sales and ethical persuasion/influence; 4) multiple streams of income (MSI);
• each element has its own "weight" and totally creates an "Wealth Index". Everyone in the room was able to calculate her/her own Wealth Index and figure out gaps, which are needed to be working on. The highe is Index - the more successful and confident we are in the money world. 

The second part of the seminar was about main principles of consultative sales skills. Belfort based on his own experience, beliefs that the most successful sales people are those, who can ask right questions, identify values, needs/wants/problems and provide the most effective solution for the client:  

"Great slaes people do not talk much, they ask questions". Jordan Belfort

Jordan told about four-seconds rule. In the first four seconds of conversation you should establish rapport with prospective - if not, then probbaly you will fail. For success you need to 1) shark as a tack, 2) be enthusiastic as hell and 3) expert in your field. You can achieve if through tonality and body language. Here we are back to public speaking. And I mentioned Toastmasters - the great place you can master all these crucial skills. Based on Jordan's "Wealth Index", sales and persuasion skills contains 20% of your success alone! Sucn an important to be able to close!
The meeting itself reminded me Congress Witnesses of Christ Church or Amway Annual Seminar, because we had a lot of choral repetition, like "I am a person of action" or, my favorite of the evening, "I can close anyone who is closable". It was indeed inspiring.

Throughout the seminar Jordan stressed on the importance of bein ethical in sales, do not sell bullshit and unvaluable stuff to people. You will pay the high price. 

Besides new knowledge, understanding of "Wealth Index" system, principles of consultative selling skills, I also did a bit of networking and have agreed to meet for a beer sometime later with one of the participants, an e-commerce consultant. I have some ideas to sell :)