Silencing the Voice of Doubt with Dr. Nadia Brown
Dr. Nadia Brown is a highly experienced sales strategist with over 15 years in the industry. Her innovative Consistent Sales Method is tailored to better cater to clients, ensuring a more personable and meaningful experience through relationship-building. Dr. Brown's understanding of the importance of dignity, class, and grace within the sales process differentiates her from other experts in the field, empowering women to face the challenges of the business world with confidence.
Go HERE for the Show Notes.
Here’s the Transcript:
00:00:00
You. So, welcome to another episode of BOSS™ Talk. I am your host, La'Vista Jones, and today I am joined by my guest and friend and sister and mentor and colleague and mastermind partner and just various other titles that she has. Dr. Nadia Brown.
00:00:22
Welcome to the show. So good to be here again, right you’ve been here before right. So you might need to have a recurring role, like every season we'll see. Okay, sounds good. Yeah, I think we can make that happen.
00:00:39
But for those of you that are not familiar with Dr. Nadia Brown, let me give you a little info about her. So, Dr. Nadia Brown is a sales strategist, consultant, trainer, and a sales firm founder who works with business owners, companies, and corporations to multiply revenue and awaken the consistent closer within your sales team. Using The Consistent Sales Method, Nadia brings over 15 years of experience in leadership, power, conversations, achieving goals, and respect for people to develop a comprehensive sales process to increase closing rates and satisfied client retention.
00:01:18
Nadia's clients have seen massive results, such as raising their rates, decreasing their refund request, and doubling or tripling their annual revenue. And as I alluded to at the beginning of the show, she wears many titles just with our relationship alone. One of her reluctant titles is I call her my coach. She is definitely my sales coach, whether she wants to accept the job or not. And I have actually worked with Nadia before.
00:01:52
I have actually been one of her clients. And I can tell you that just with the work that we have done, she helped me have over a 400% increase in revenue after working with her. So I can tell you hands down, Dr. Nadia is the real deal. If she tells you to do something when it comes to your sales, your pricing, you might look at her like she is absolutely crazy, but do it anyway, because your bottom line will thank you later, I promise you.
00:02:26
So, again, welcome on the show. Thank you. And I'm not your sales coach. See, she tries to fight it, you all. She tries to fight it every single time we have this conversation, and yet she still coaches me about my sales and my numbers on a regular basis.
00:02:43
So what-evs but with that, Nadia, are you ready to share how you were walking out your Boss Talk? Let's talk about it. All right. Let's get into it. Right, so, your bio specifically calls out your Consistent Sales Method.
00:03:00
Can you give us just an overview of how you actually use that method with your clients? Oh, my gosh. Yes. Because I have found that many times, and you may be able to relate. You do all the work in the marketing and getting the leads and getting the people in the pipeline, and then you make a bunch of sales, and now you're busy doing the work, and you stop doing this.
00:03:22
And so we created a method to specifically address that. But then also pieces that I added were definitely around client experience and continued relationship because I find that a lot of the things that I see in the marketplace, there's a huge emphasis on new. New clients, new leads, new this. But what about the people who've already worked with you? And I know from personal experience there are people that I've worked with left for a year or two and I've come back, but partly because they maintain that relationship in some sort of way.
00:03:56
And so that is a big piece, is the relationship piece, positioning yourself as a strategic ally versus being like a salesperson. So relationship and experience are really huge pieces of that actual method. Nice. I love that. And you might be listening, but when she said salesperson, right, she did the air quotes around sales, right?
00:04:24
And I think that part of that is because you have a unique approach to sales. I think that everybody and their mother and brother is out talking about sales and you've got to close deals and you've got to do this and you have to have an assumptive close and you've got to be somewhat pushy and aggressive to actually get the sales done. You take a totally different approach to sales as a whole and you outline so much wisdom in the book, right? Because the last time you were here on the show, I think we were talking about my book, but you were actually writing a book at the exact same time and it is now here it is, Sell Like a Lady: How to Master Sales with Dignity, Class, and Grace. And I wonder if you could just talk to us about what your writing process was in getting this out into the marketplace.
00:05:21
Oh my gosh, this book was so hard. It's not my first book, so I often got caught in the comparison trap for myself. And so it was just like I kept comparing how my last process went for this process. This book took several years, whereas the last one didn't come close to that.
00:05:44
It also really just forced me to kind of face some of my own insecurities. And you talk about me having a unique sales process, but unique. I wasn't always appreciated in the marketplace, especially when it comes to some of the bigger voices that you may hear and methodologies. And given the fact that in my work, I often work with a lot of other sales people and collaborative projects and things like that. And so I'm the kind of that one is like, I probably wouldn't do it that way.
00:06:17
So there was a lot of emotion that came up for this. But as far as my process, I am not a linear writer. That part is consistent and I like to really dive into the stories, but also the lessons. And I really wanted people to read this book and walk away with practical tools that they could implement right now to move their businesses forward. I'm always like, how quickly can we help you generate revenue in your business?
00:06:45
We don't have twelve years to make this happen. Let's get it done. And so that process, it was a lot of research. I'm a researcher client. You're a doctor, for goodness.
00:06:59
There's that part. Yes. So it was a lot of research. There were different stories. Really helping to better understand my own process, my own philosophies, and really being confident in having the courage.
00:07:13
Even though I talk about courage, I had to have the courage to share that and put that out in the marketplace. And yeah, that was quite the journey. Something that you said that having a unique voice in the marketplace is not always greeted, right, with or warmly welcomed or celebrated. Who are you coming over here telling us to do this this way or a different way?
00:07:41
And something else that you said that kind of stuck with me. You were talking about dealing with your own insecurities. Right. And so on the back of the book, there's the description of what the book is about. And I wanted to read something back to you.
00:07:55
And it says, feelings of doubt, fear and inadequacy will hinder your progress if left unchecked.
00:08:06
So, us being friends, I know more about you, probably, than like a normal podcaster. Right. I know from an insider perspective that this book almost did not see the light of day. Right. It's true.
00:08:22
So, ironically, the book itself says that feelings of doubt, fear and inadequacy will hinder your progress if left unchecked. Talk to us about why we almost didn't get this book. Oh my gosh. Because there were so many feelings of inadequacy, fear, doubt. It's interesting because as we talk, and I have friends such as yourself, that remind me of some of my own accomplishments.
00:08:51
And I think that for one, I kept telling my story that it was just a $20 book. I don't know why, but there was this recurring theme in my brain that was just like, it's just a $20 book in the grander scheme of things, of what I could sell or what I have sold, or what I do sell. So that didn't really help. Especially as, you know, because we were in this process together towards the end when we were dealing with so many obstacles and barriers. And I'm like, why am I dealing with all of this?
00:09:28
Because in my brain at that moment, it's just like, Nadia, that's not true. So I had to really shut that down eventually. Thank you. I have many calls with La'Vista back and forth, like, I'm done, I'm over it. We both quit writing these books.
00:09:46
I mean, oh my God, countless amount of times. It was just like, yeah, f this book, I'm going to just post it as blog articles out on the website and like, this is what would have been chapter four. Go read it. Enjoy. I'm not doing this anymore.
00:10:01
God bless. Like, what book? Yeah, there was a lot of that, I think. But a bigger one was this was kind of I had spent many years, I think now close to eight years ish of behind the scenes, and I did not realize how I had gotten so comfortable working in the shadows, because in my work, a lot of times with my client, I'm the person behind the scenes. I'm not necessarily the face of the company or the brand.
00:10:37
I'm just the one behind the scenes that made things happen. Work with clients, enroll them, that sort of thing. I made it rain, if you will, but no one really knew that. And I remember I've had several clients who call me, like, their secret weapon. And while on one hand, it's kind of flattering and it's cute and it's like, oh, on the other hand, that can be very damaging because I also lead a company, and that company needs me to show up in a certain way.
00:11:07
And in this particular season, this book was calling me to step out of the shadows, if you will, and to really have my voice and my perspective heard in the midst of writing this book. I'm still doing my regular day job, if you will. And again, I mentioned it earlier, in some of the projects I work with, I work with a ton of other salespeople who have their own methodologies, their own approaches. We collaborate on a ton of projects together to make big things happen. And there are times that I'm just like, I probably wouldn't approach it that way.
00:11:44
And so there was a part of me that was like, me writing this book and putting my true thoughts and feelings and methodologies and experiences in writing, basically, was kind of like, coming out. Like, yeah, I know we all hang out together, but I call BS on some of the stuff that you guys are doing, or I feel that our approach to sales is actually extremely toxic, and it's not very helpful. Oh, and you probably have found out that I don't really do that. I don't rock the boat. I don't need to raise my hand to have a whole dissertation defense around it in a training, but when I'm having a one on one conversation, I'm not doing that.
00:12:24
So there were definitely a lot of those feelings coming up for me in the writing of this book, and especially as we got closer to the finish line of pressing submit for the world to now know, oh, that's how you really feel. We almost didn't get it. We almost didn't get it yet. It is a powerful tool. Nadia and I have shared this with you, and I'll share it publicly that this book is a key, I think, to business owners, like, creating the foundation of sales and really bringing in the revenue that they want.
00:13:10
I'm big on living life on your own terms. Well, you know what, money is a big part of that, right? Like money gives us choices. It not only gives us choices, it allows us to give choices to our families and things like that. And so it's just like this book, your approach to sales, your philosophy around sales and around cultivating relationships and not just always going like, for the new new, how about taking care of the clients that you have and just kind of building your business in that way?
00:13:44
Not only is this approach refreshing, but I think it's so necessary for those people to hear this kind of fresh perspective when it comes to sales and making money. Because it's not icky, it's not sleazy. It doesn't make you feel like you want to take a shower after you've had a deal with somebody. You do it this way. Thank you.
00:14:08
Yes. And so something that you said. You said that my company needed me to show up in a certain way and to have my voice heard. So another insider, right? We've heard the story around how the book almost didn't come to be.
00:14:25
But by the time this particular episode airs, you will be going into the third season of your own podcast, Straight Talk About Sales with Dr. Nadia Brown. And similar to the book, this podcast almost did not happen. Talk to me about why.
00:14:50
Talk to me about why that almost didn't happen as well. Well, part of it was just logistical because as you know, I was doing regular at that time, weekly YouTube videos that I was sharing on YouTube. So it wasn't that I was completely hidden under a bush, but I just wasn't obviously leveraging podcasting. I think there was still a little bit of fear. I'd kind of gotten comfortable.
00:15:18
Like, I record my video, I post it, it's out there, I put it in a newsletter, and I move on to the next whatever task on my list. So there was that piece of it like a podcast that's going to automatically kind of expand the reach there's, that fear of, oh, crap, like more people. And I think then the other part though was more just practical. Who's going to do that? Because I don't have time to do all the pieces of that makes a podcast work.
00:15:50
And I wasn't going to do it and not do it well. So it was a mix of the two. And it wasn't until you and I had a conversation and you were like, you know, we could take your videos and put it on a podcast. And I was like, that sounds very logical, tell me more. But I also think that the timing of it was key because had we had that conversation sooner, I think my resistance would have been greater because I would have just been like, I don't know if I want that many people to hear it.
00:16:26
Because podcasting is different than YouTube and you can listen to it on a treadmill. I listen to most podcasts at the gym.
00:16:36
I think the timing was great. And then to just have a partner such as yourself to be like, let us handle the logistical side. But let's also leverage this tool to get your voice out to more people, to give it more access. And let's leverage something you're already doing. Like, it wasn't giving me a new task.
00:16:57
I was already doing it and doing it consistently. But now we're just putting it on a different platform. And God help us because now it's out there on the airways doing it. Now it is out there. Yes.
00:17:11
Well, I for one am very excited that we get to partner with you to help you amplify your voice in the marketplace. Because again, I can't really say it enough that I think that your perspective and your point of view around sales, especially for women, it's such a necessary voice for us to hear. You recently did a training that I attended because, see, again, I am a student of Dr. Nadia.
00:17:44
She's a great teacher and I'm a fabulous student. I do everything she tells me to do. Maybe not immediately, not without attitude, yes, not without some grumbles, but I do do it, and I totally reap the benefit. But there was a stat that you had shared for that training around the 12%. Tell us what that stat is all about.
00:18:07
Oh my gosh. That will emphasize why your voice is so needed in the marketplace. It's funny because the stat is on my desk. So I'm going to flip it a little bit and read it how it was written in the study, and then we'll talk about the 12%. So basically, the status studies show that 88% of businesses owned by women generate less than 100K a year in revenue.
00:18:29
So that means only 12% of us make it to even 100K. Like, when you really think about that, it's hard for my brain to wrap around that only 12% of women own businesses because there's millions of us out here. I forget the numbers of how many, but it's a bunch of us that have businesses, and only 12% not hit seven figures, but don't even hit 100,000. And I was just like, we have to shift this. We have to shift it.
00:19:02
There's just so many women who are talented, who make such a massive difference, who operate in integrity and have value that we need to hear. To your point, amplify their voices, give them access, and they need the skills to know how to generate revenue so that they can serve more people so that we can shift this statistic. Yes. Shift it. Shift it, shift it.
00:19:27
And speaking of shifts, in my book, The BOSS™ Shift, I highlighted that implementing a shift requires us to change. We give our attention to and the corresponding actions that we take. And so I'd love for you to share what shift you had to make in order to overcome impostor syndrome. Right. That really that's what we've been talking about, and that was potentially silencing your own voice.
00:19:52
What shift did you have to make internally to kind of get over the hurdles you were kind of placing in front of you for yourself?
00:20:03
One, I worked with an advisor. She's hilarious, and she was such a good, um…
00:20:13
What I call a mirror holder. She would often hold that mirror up, but she also just asked a lot of questions, and one of her favorite questions would be, is that true? Is it true? And it seems so basic, but I would come up with all these stories, which I'm sure many of us do, and she would just be like, Is that true? And then it was.
00:20:34
I remember for one of our mastermind meetings, I was like, you know, I wonder, how much have I done in sales? Because I hadn't been tracking. I talk about tracking. There are things that I track for my business, but I hadn't been tracking, like, client results. And sometimes it's hard, but in certain parts of what we do is easy.
00:20:51
And I remember I think it was last year, I come to, I'm like, Dude, we've already done $1.93 million in sales. And I remember you and I had a conversation. I was like, But I haven't done anything this year. And I'm like, oh, but yet you have. Right.
00:21:09
It's those reminders that you have to shift that internal dialogue. And I think that one story that I kept saying was, it doesn't count if I didn't do it for my business. So I've helped my clients achieve results in their businesses that I personally haven't yet achieved those milestones in my own business. And there are those voices in this particular advisor was just like, Nadia, it's like a teacher like, teachers teach students that go on to achieve great things. Does that mean the teacher is any less effective or amazing in their role as a teacher just because they themselves didn't win a Nobel Peace Prize or become an NBA player or whatever?
00:21:55
Right? Yeah. And so it really helped shift the story, because I kept telling myself that until I personally do all the amazing things that I do for my clients in my own business, that for some reason, that doesn't count when my clients are out here living their best lives now because we've had the opportunity to work together. And do you feel that that narrative that you were telling yourself also played a role in? Like, maybe they don't really need to get this book from me because I haven't done X, Y, and Z yet, or they don't need to hear my voice on a podcast yet because I haven't done X, Y, and Z yet.
00:22:33
Do you think that that narrative pulled through? Yeah, because a lot of things that you often see, at least I've seen how people position their receipts is often their personal receipts. Whereas a lot of my receipts, I have my own personal receipts. We've definitely achieved some great, amazing things in my own business. But I've helped my clients achieve some stuff that we've all sat there like, what?
00:23:01
Right? And it's just been fabulous and amazing. And so I think that I was just buying into the lie that until I personally had achieved all these certain milestones that somehow it didn't count. And yet I have the receipts and I have the clients to show for it, where I've helped them achieve amazing feats and amazing accomplishments in their businesses. And for whatever reason, I would literally be like, oh, that doesn't count.
00:23:28
That part doesn't count because we didn't hit that milestone yet in my particular agency. That doesn't count. Thank God for the mirror holder to ask you, is that true? Right? Is that true?
00:23:45
Is that true? Like, how many people can say that they've done 1.93 million in sales for anybody period, right, in a single year? And honestly, I never, ever thought that that would be me. I remember the first year we hit that after we shifted and launched the agency so that in that following year we did 1.3. And I was like, Hold up, me.
00:24:19
It was one of those, like, I never in a million years I don't know what I was thinking, but one, one I never wanted to be a salesperson. That's part of what that was. But even then, I never thought that that would be my story, that that would be something that I would say that I had accomplished. And yet somehow I managed to convince myself that it didn't count. Interesting.
00:24:43
So we've heard about this advisor, right, and the work that she did, helping you to kind of face, well, acknowledge your amazingness because you are amazing and holding that mirror up to you when you needed it. But what about yourself? How did your self care evolve as you navigated through this shift? Oh, my gosh, it evolved a lot. So, one, I work out more often.
00:25:15
I had to shift my days and it's something I won't say. I'm all the way on the other side. I feel like I'm still actively working through it this notion that I have to be producing, like actively producing or doing something 8 hours per day, five days a week. And so in that I started shifting how early my day would start. So slowing it down.
00:25:41
To take the time to go work out, to take the time to sit on my sofa and sip a cup of coffee, to take the time to just really pause and breathe and build in more white space. To schedule massages and self care, especially around intense project times. Like, I know that this four days is going to be crazy, massage next day. Like, we need to be on a massage table and making that a priority and scheduling it immediately, asking for support. So if there are seasons, especially, like, with writing the book, and I'm going to be pulled maybe away from my family, then I call in our chef friend, and I'm like, girl, I need you to fix X amount of meals.
00:26:26
Here are dietary restrictions. Don't ask me what I want. Just tell me how much to pay you. Right? And it was just really looking at my tribe and having those conversations with my family and setting those expectations.
00:26:39
Like, these days, I'm not going to be as available, but we'll make it up over here and being okay with it, because for so long, I felt guilty. I felt guilt around having a housekeeper or having someone cook my meals. Like, I don't say those things to be braggadocious. I like, my people need to eat, and I need not be the person to have to cook it. Right?
00:27:01
It is a very practical thing. And so those are the ways that my self care have completely shifted. And I see it now with my child. She's like, Look, I need a day. She calls it a lazy lima bean day.
00:27:16
I don't want to get out my PJs. I want you to order me Starbucks via Uber Eats, and I want to stay here on my tablet and chill out. And it's like, okay, because I want her to develop different habits. But it first started with me, and that was definitely a big shift, just managing such a big project, a big visible project, and all the moving pieces that I needed to make sure I was okay. I love that.
00:27:41
I love that as a mom, you were able to do it for yourself, but then also model that for your daughter, because that's huge. Because think about us growing up. When we look at the matriarchs of our families, we see them living totally different lives. We see them living those lives where they're literally working themselves to the bone, to exhaustion sometimes, like, into illness and worse, right? And a lot of that is survival.
00:28:13
They've got to get stuff done. And it's just like, I don't know that that self care piece was modeled for us. And so you're having to basically model it for yourself as you're doing it. But I also love the piece that you're modeling it for your daughter. Yeah.
00:28:32
Thank you. Yes. That's so awesome. And so something that you said earlier. You said you were done working in the shadows, right?
00:28:43
Like, I think somebody you said referred to you as their best kept secret, and I think that our mastermind partner, Pam, she'd be like, so how is that working for you? Right? Like. Girl.
00:28:58
And so I want to read something from my book that goes along those same lines, and it's, I am not just hiding out in the shadows of the work that I do now. My biggest flex is that I'm done playing around with my own potential. I have found my voice. I finally see myself, all of me. And you know what?
00:29:22
I'm a big fucking fan of who I am and who I'm becoming. Yes. So with that, Dr. Nadia, I would love to hear any advice that you would give to a listener that is currently wondering if they have enough receipts to share their voice in the marketplace. What would you say to them?
00:29:45
I would say yes. Emphatically yes. I think that this is something that I have not. I think I know I've seen it in my work even before we started doing sales. And I work with women in leadership that we often do exactly what I did. We discount all the other things if it doesn't look the exact same way.
00:30:05
And I feel that, yeah, there's always more things that we can learn or refine, but if there's something burning in your heart to share, you have a unique perspective, and someone needs to hear your particular perspective. I had a mentor who, when I was again, tripping this is many many years ago, before I started my business. And I was like, I didn't want to be a speaker. I was like, there's plenty of speakers out there, and I don't see why I need to be yet another speaker. We don't necessarily need another one.
00:30:40
And she looked at me and she just said, Nadia, but there are people that need to hear your voice. She was like, I could say the exact same thing. And they wouldn't hear it from me, but they will receive it from you. And that was what helped kick me into gear. And that's the reminder that I need.
00:31:00
And so for anyone listening that is feeling that way, it's not true. And there's someone who needs to hear your unique perspective. I love that. So let this episode be that mirror to you so that you will amplify your voice in the marketplace. We're waiting for you.
00:31:23
We need to hear you. Yes, we do. I love that. So as we wrap things up, I just want to thank you so much for being a guest on the show today and just sharing so openly and letting me switch in between my host hat and my friend hat and kind of telling a little bit of your business. I appreciate it.
00:31:43
And so for those that are listening, please make sure to check out the notes TheRealBossTalk.com for a recap of the strategies and resources that were mentioned in today's show. And Nadia, please tell the listeners how they can connect with you. And tell them all about a quiz that they should all take. So we all have blind spots, and one of them is our sales blind spots. And so we do have a quiz to help you identify what that is.
00:32:08
And then also resources. To support you in acknowledging and being stronger in that particular area. So you can find that at DiscoverYourSalesBlindspot.com it should take you two minutes or less to do it. So check it out and let me know what you get. Awesome.
00:32:24
And of course, I've taken the quiz and the results were spot on. And then I took them to my sales coach, and she told me what to do.
00:32:36
So as we get ready to wrap up, allow me to leave you with this reminder that you can do what you love in the marketplace without sacrificing yourself to do it. Until next time, be sure to subscribe to the show and continue to battle overwhelm with systems of self care and walk out your BOSS™ Talk.