Positive programming and helping other people isn’t just great leadership, it also makes you feel better, said bestselling author and sales expert Mark Hunter.
“As soon as I began programming myself in a very positive way...it's amazing what changes your mindset,” said Hunter, who’s been producing short, positive videos for social media since the COVID-19 crisis began.
“I can't help, especially when I did the first few, I couldn't help but feel better after I did it,” explained Hunter. “I learned this from a CEO and I won't say the CEO's name -- I don't have permission from him -- but he was CEO of a Fortune 100 company and he was incredibly gracious, incredibly nice. He was also very high energy and just very positive. He said, one of the reasons he did this is because he wanted people around him to feel positive.”
Added Hunter, “I want them to feel good, but you know what? It makes me feel better, too. And you know what's interesting? I make better decisions.”
Hunter sat down with an interview with Freedom Media Network founder Curt Mercadante about Hunter’s new book, A Mind for Sales: Daily Habits and Practical Strategies for Sales Success.
Based in Omaha, NE, Hunter travels more than 200 days per year speaking globally to corporations and associations about how to sell more effectively. He previously published High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results and High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
In his book, and in the interview, Hunter shared the story of a church canoe trip as an example of the importance of remaining positive and calm in times of crisis.
“We had 250 high school kids. They were high school kids from church that I agreed to help go on this trip. And we're canoeing down this river. And it's great, it’s got rapids and all kinds of stuff,” he said. “But if you go too far, you hit the falls and that is not where you want to be.”
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Hunter continued, “And we were to canoe down and I was the trailing canoe, I was the last one. And the whole idea was that the buses would be parked, big buses, you'd see them, that's where you stop. So anyway, I come in last in my canoe and people are freaking out. There's about twenty people that aren't there and they're asking me, so Mark, where are they? No, there's nobody behind me. The river is empty, the river's empty.”
Fearing the worst had happened to the missing kids, Hunter’s fellow chaperones started to “freak out.” So Hunter began laughing.
“So we're all huddled again,” he explains. “And of course all the kids are watching us and I just kind of start laughing and I start chuckling and I go, come on guys, laugh with me, laugh with me, laugh with me. And we start laughing and it was amazing how suddenly it diffused all of the tension that was building in all of these kids.”
As Hunter explained, the laughter calmed the situation and allowed the group to make better decisions.
“It's amazing how people take their cues from other people and then yeah, after about 15 minutes, the kids showed up, they went too far. They found a farmer who was able to bring them back up stream,” he recollected. “Everybody lived, no bodies, we didn't fish for bodies. No, no, everything worked. But it was an amazing situation. I mean these kids were starting to freak out and we just started laughing.”
He compared the situation to sports, where the calm, positive teams often are able to create comeback wins.
“You look at the cerebral coaches on the sidelines, the ones that stay calm in the midst of the storm. You look at the players that stay calm,” he said. “What are they able to do? They're able to turn things around. They’re looking at the positive. It's so easy to sink into the sewer. It's easy. And again, you see teams in sports that fall into the sewer and they can't get out.”
Watch Mercadante’s full discussion with Hunter by clicking here.