Marketing Masters Book
How do you get to the top? I was asked that question recently and the once person that stood out in my mind that could help with a profound answer is my guest this week on STRAIGHT TALK RADIO – Connie Pheiff. From Telemarketer to CEO, Connie Pheiff has had an amazing adventure thus far and profound insights into what it takes to transform from a simple job to significant responsibility. We’ll be talking about her new book Marketing Masters and so much more.
To listen to the podcast of this show click here: Connie Pheiff interviewed on Straight Talk Radio
Tired of traditional talk? People pontificating about this or that? The left or the right? Sometimes the truth is just off lost in the noise. Having learned life lessons the hard way, Chuck Gallagher, international speaker and author, cuts through the noise to share truth through transparency!
Nationally-known guests talk about what’s important to you – your life, your concerns and your success. So tune in, turn on to Straight Talk with Chuck Gallagher.
Now, here’s your host, Chuck Gallagher.
C: Hi, this is Chuck Gallagher with Straight Talk Radio and thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy day to join us. You know, it’s always fascinating to have the opportunity to talk with people literally from around the world about things that are relevant to you, and I promise you, today’s show is really going to be really an outstanding show. My guest is Connie Pheiff.
Connie is a nationally-known speaker who has fascinating stories. I guess I will call them–There are kind of a multitude of directions we can go, some of which are going to be kind of personal to me as well and I think something that you want to stay tuned with, but I have a lot of guests on the show. Connie has a unique distinction. She is a former director at the United States Chamber of Commerce, and, Connie, I don’t think I’ve ever had anybody on with that distinction, but if you want to take it further, she’s also been the former CEO of the Girl Scouts and how totally cool is that. Connie, welcome to the show. We’re so glad to have you.
P: Chuck, I’m really glad to be here. This is really exciting. I’m glad to share my stories with you and your listeners.
C: Connie, you’ve been around the block a bit in terms of speaking and having the opportunities to talk with people so perhaps the best way to get started is tell us a little bit about maybe your past, from the Chamber of Commerce to the Girl Scouts to international speaker.
P: Well, that’s definitely been a journey for me, I would say. I’d like to say it definitively was my first time to the rodeo. The US Chamber of Commerce, my role started there as… I started as a telemarketer and worked my way up. I was actually doing training for a telemarketing team and sales team and that lead into coaching the teams into leadership and empowerment. My final role there came when I was tapped on the shoulder to be the director of development working with our leadership team, our executive team, our president and reaching out and traveling the country and asking for a lot of money.
C: Oh, how cool!
P: It was. It was so much fun. I mean, people like Donald Trump or Bill Gates, Norman Lear, I can go on the list of different people that we would get with and that’s how I was labeled the Queen of the Ask because it was just so much fun for me to do that. I remember somebody saying, asking me and saying, “How do you feel talking to people at that level, that prestige?” and I would just tell them, “They’re just like us. They put their pants on one leg at a time in the morning, just the same way we do.” It wasn’t something that I allowed them to intimidate me with.
From there moving back to Pennsylvania where I was from, I did some work there with the local Chamber of Commerce and then I got the role as the CEO for the Girl Scouts and I have to say, bar none, next to becoming an international public speaker, it was the best job that I ever had and I never considered it a job because I just loved working with the girls, I loved working with my team and the programs that we provided and giving back. In addition, aside from the Board from the US Chamber, I was speaking. I was always going out in the community, going to functions and speaking, of course, talking about the Girl Scouts and, of course, never going without cookies.
[Chuck laughs]P: And again I rolled right back into asking people for money and then somebody had asked me why do I find it so easy for me to ask people for money and I said, “I don’t think that I ask people for money.” It’s very creative, very unique marketing that I do where people are picking up the phone and actually calling me and say, “I want to donate to you. I want to give you money. I want to buy more cookies.” [chuckles] That’s really what’s– Unfortunately, in 2006 the Girl Scouts had a major realignment across the country. I’m sure many people have heard about that and I happened to be one of the project managers on that realignment and I was so good at it that I just worked myself right out of a job.
C: You know, Connie, it’s interesting before you get into the speaking side, because I can see absolutely where this is going, I do have to ask you a question.
P: Okay.
C: It’s a fascinating story to listen to, but to say, “I started out as a telemarketer and ended up as the CEO of Girl Scouts,” let’s go the step before telemarketer. There’s something beneath that that says, “Here I am. I’m looking for a job.” I can hear this in my head. “I’m looking for a job, any job. I can talk.” Obviously, you can, apparently my being on the telephone, but most people that would listen to the show would say, “The job of a telemarketer is not exactly the thing that most people aspire to.”
P: Nah. [chuckles]
C: Yeah, you have taken that and turned it into something that’s incredible, which kind of falls into, I guess a thing of mine, which is transforming adversity into opportunity, and this is Transformation Talk Radio. So, what’s the story beneath the story? What was happening that said, “I’ll take a job as a telemarketer?”
P: We’re really going deep now.
[Chuck and Connie laugh]P: Before I became a telemarketer, I was working… Well, I’m going to go back a little bit more then come forward. I got divorced. I was a young mom. My son was only three months old. My daughter was three years old when I was divorced. Initially, and people laugh at me too when I tell them that at that point it was, “Okay, I have little babies. I need a job. Where do I go?” I became a truck dispatcher.
C: Okay.
P: I was working from eight o’clock at night until four o’clock in the morning, driving home, sleeping for roughly maybe two hours. I was lucky if three hours’ sleep and then get up and have to take care of my babies for the day. My brother and his wife, his young wife, they have lived with me, moved in with me, so they were able to stay with them at night time.
I did that for a bit and of course exhausting. Then I started working for a salt company in Pennsylvania, which is no longer there so I guess I could say their name. It was Akzo Salt. It was in Clarks Summit in Pennsylvania and worked there. That was really my introduction into the telephone because we had a full customer service division. I wasn’t in that part, but I was in what we called the Pricing Division and I was doing all the pricing and the analyses and having to be on the phone. Then I became part of the PR team for the company and going out into the community and doing different projects. Again, a part of the community awareness, giving back to the community for the company and they were a great company. Again, giving back to the community. Again, they were bought out by another salt company so that put them out of business. From there it was really a need–
C: Right.
P: A need that I had as a single mom with young children to find a job and I had the opportunity from one of our suppliers that we worked with in the Salt Company had introduced me with the telemarketer of the US Chamber of Commerce and said, “You would be a great fit for this. Why don’t you consider it?” Again, just like you said, telemarketing? And it was straight commission on top of it. My initial response was, “No, I can’t do that,” and that was gone. I went back to school at the same time. My parents had a restaurant and I was working there at night time as a bartender on top of it. [laughs] My poor kids! That’s why I became a telemarketer. It was out of need. It was a job that I had to do.
C: Connie, I understand that. I wrote a book called Second Chances and not that this interview is about that book, but the reality is a lot of opportunity is created out of some intense need and in most cases, there are life-changing experiences that we have. Yours started with divorce. Mine started with a set of stupid choices that ended me up in federal prison so I understand, because in reality I get people today that would call and say, “How do I find my second chance?” And it seems that the answer is, “Do what other people are unwilling to do.” Most people aren’t willing to for a straight commission to be a telemarketer or like me for straight commission sell cemetery property door to door, but there is something about your story that, as we get into close to going time for the break, there’s something about this story that our folks need to stay tuned to.
This is Connie Pheiff. She is my guest. She has been a former director of the Unites States Chamber of Commerce, working her way up from telemarketing to becoming the CEO of the Girl Scouts, which is just cool and I love the cookies.
[Connie chuckles]C: I appreciate you taking the time. We’re going to go deeper with Connie and talk about some things that are significant. Connie has a new book coming out called Marketing Masters. We’re going to talk about that, but before we do that, I also want to plug the book that you also have called The Art of the Ask.
P: Yes.
C: You are a person that doesn’t mind asking and I believe that if you ask, you will receive.
P: That’s right.
C: All too often people don’t receive because they’re intimidated or afraid to ask. This is Chuck Gallagher with Straight Talk Radio. My guest is Connie Pheiff. We’re going to talk about The Art of the Ask and the ability to ask. Stick with us after this break.
[Commercial break]C: This is Chuck Gallagher with Straight Talk Radio. Thanks for sticking with us. My guest is Connie Pheiff. She is an absolutely fascinating international speaker, but before that, she was a director with the United States Chamber of Commerce and CEO with the Girl Scouts. You know, the great cookies, and Connie has written a cool book called The Art of the Ask. Connie, I think you said that [13:11] you were incredibly successful going from telemarketer to director of the United States Chamber of Commerce to asking for and receiving substantial donations. So tell us about this concept of asking.
P: The concept of asking is an art form and it is definitely, definitely an art form. My perception on asking, like we talked about it, if you don’t ask, you’re not going to receive.
C: Right.
P: Again, initially, out of desperation for me, it was okay, we need to learn how to ask and then when I realized that when I asked, people really and very easily said yes. They said even at the US Chamber of Commerce. I mean, we were asking for millions of dollars and people were saying yes. It just became easier and easier and easier. I saw that that that was also true in life. Although the book is about The Art of the Ask: Getting into Your Fundraising Groove, there’s a lot of really neat tips in there about just asking and I give some samples there as well that you could take from your business and really use that in life as well.
I know many entrepreneurs and just people, they want something and they always have that fear, they always have that fear of asking and I always think of my stepdaughter. My stepdaughter has no fear of asking. [chuckles] I remember when she was a little girl. We would get her Christmas list in August.
[Chuck and Connie laugh]P: Initially, I was a little bit set back and was like, “I can’t believe this girl. She gives us a Christmas gift in August.” She would tell exactly what pants she wanted, what store they’re in, she would even get the catalogue number if that was available.
C: Oh, too funny.
P: She was that detailed. Finally, she is of course a young girl now, a young lady and a few years ago she did a project in college about the person who had inspired her in life. She wrote it about me.
C: Aaaw…
P: Of course, I was just touched that she had done this and we were having a conversation and again I could see that coming out of her, again, very direct. “This is what I want, this is what I’m asking for.” I finally had to ask her. I said, “Julie, where do you get this from?” She goes, “You.” [laughs] “I’ve been with you, I’ve seen you,” because I would run to people into the store, in the grocery line that I’ve been trying to talk to to get a donation and to ask for money. Again, I would not hesitate to go up to them, but I would never ask them. I would only have a conversation with them. “This is Connie Pheiff. I’ve been trying to reach you. Let’s talk next week.” I never would actually ask them for anything, but then I would come back later and, again, that’s what I call my creative marketing. That’s what a lot of the tips in The Art of the Ask are about because I want you to build your business and social marketing is great. We really need to include social marketing with what we’re doing with their business, but you have to remember to pick up the phone to reach out to somebody and that’s the art of the ask.
C: Now, Connie, let me ask you a couple of questions. Number one, I have been in businesses where we’ve hired telemarketers and we have hired sales people on straight commission. It seems like that there’s almost two kinds of people. There’s one type of person that, how do I put it, they say, “Well, I’ll give it a try,” almost assuming that it won’t work versus the other person that says, “You know, if they tell me no, what’s just one more step towards the yes, because obviously it works and there are enough people that are successful doing it. I just need to get through the no’s to get to the yes’s so in your roles, especially as you grew those roles, what attributes did you find in people that would tell you they would be successful in asking versus those that you knew would wash out?
P: It really goes back to, like you said, the two examples that you just gave, somebody saying, “Well, I’ll give it a try.” If somebody says to me, “I’ll give it a try,” they’re not on my team.
C: I can understand that.
P: Conversation stops there. If somebody says, “Yes, I will do this. I will be successful and maybe I might need some training.” Okay, you’re on board because everybody needs a little training to understand who you are, what the product is, what the culture is of the organization, but when somebody really and truly comes in, they have a need, they have a why and again you are providing them the tools for what they need to do, they’re going to be successful.
You reminded me of a story back when I was at the US Chamber and this is really what sound-boarded me into becoming a trainer. I remember we all had our little office rooms and our hard walls. There was a dozen or so of us. Everybody was doing the calls and you had to keep track. We were doing 100 phone calls a day.
C: Okay.
P: Then on break we would all go into the kitchen. Okay, who did what calls? We had a tracking system. There was this one guy, I won’t say his name, there was this one guy and he always had the lowest numbers, always had the lowest numbers. I’d say, “What’s going on?” and he’d ask me, “Why are your numbers so high?” It was me and two other guys who were always competing for the high mark and it’s good when you have a little competition going there. So, I went to him and he asked me if I would help him. So we had a conversation. “Okay, why are you here? Well, I need a job.” Okay, he has a need. “Are you comfortable using a telephone? No.” I started writing scripts for everybody in the office. We had binders at the US Chamber. I was a lobbyist so there was always– The one at the time, I remember, it was about the woman who burnt hot coffee on herself at McDonald’s so that was a big conversation. I was writing scripts for everybody. I sat with him, gave him this script, gave him an egg timer, and I said, “You have for the time of this egg timer, turn it over, when this egg timer funnels its way all the way through, you have had to introduce yourself to whomever you’re calling and say exactly what’s on this script. It doesn’t matter if they say yes or no. I just want you to get comfortable on the phone and talking to people.” He would do that over and over and over again and he finally did it. He became one of the top telemarketers [chuckles] in the area, but it still wasn’t for him. He finally left and he’s now a teacher. [chuckles]
C: Right.
P: Telemarketing wasn’t for him. So when you’re looking to hire someone, to bring somebody in, the number one thing is do they have a need to be there? Do they have a want and do they have those skills? The one thing I do now that we didn’t do back then with everyone that I hire I bring on to my team, they have to go through a profile assessment.
C: Right.
P: That helps me read a little bit more into that person and if they are going to be a good fit for the job or not. That really has saved me a lot of headaches because I’ve had some of those in the past with people that came and ended up not performing. Intuitively, when you’re looking at that, it helps you understand whether or not they’re going to be a fit.
C: We’re getting close to the end of the second segment and one of the things that really shook me is you’ve said several times, “What’s your why? Why are you doing this?” and I think I’ve seen over time everybody has a why or an it. What motivates your actions? The question that seems to separate the successful from the unsuccessful is your attitude. Am I a victor over my circumstance? You are. Or am I a victim of my circumstance and do I therefore stay in the whambulance whamming about everything that’s happening? You know, in reality, if you’re going to be successful, you got to get out of the whambulance and step into the victor role because anyone who has had an experience in life that perhaps was less than pleasant can overcome that if they’re only willing to do what’s necessary to meet their it or their why.
P: That’s right. Absolutely true.
C: Now, my guest is Connie Pheiff. Connie is the author of The Art of the Ask and she is the queen of asking, there is no doubt. This is Chuck Gallagher with Straight Talk Radio. Stick with us. We’re going to go a little person in this next segment and I think you’ll find some interesting dialogue and discussion that takes place from Connie Pheiff and myself. Connie is an international speaker, author, a former CEO of the Girl Scouts and this is a great interview. Connie, thanks for being here and stick with us. We’ll be back in just a moment with Straight Talk Radio.
[Commercial break]C: This is Chuck Gallagher with Straight Talk Radio. My guest is Connie Pheiff. Connie is an international speaker, Connie is a coach, Connie is an author and she is an incredible person. She is the author of the book The Art of the Ask and she has a new book that will be coming out here in the next month or so called Marketing Masters. I can tell in the conversation that we’ve had, Connie, that Marketing Masters is going to be something that people will absolutely want to pick up because to have taken yourself from telemarketer to CEO of the Girl Scouts, you obviously have mastered marketing yourself, especially putting you on the stages that you’ve been on.
But I noticed something. I noticed in your video that you talked a little bit about the fact that you were adopted and to start this segment I will say to our listeners, I too am adopted. I was adopted at birth and just as to kind of setting the stage, when I was in my mid to late twenties, I wanted, before my wife and I had our first child, I wanted to know a little biology so I decided I would see if I could find a biology, my biological parents. Ended up taking me six hours, not in one setting, but in over the period of about a week and a half, but it ended up taking me six hours, ended up finding both biological parents. I was shocked at something that took place as a result of it. My mother– Well, first, at the time I was a tax partner in a CPA firm. I found that my mother owned her own business in insurance and finance and I had just gotten my license as a private pilot and found out that my father was a commercial pilot. So I’m sitting there thinking at 27, 28 years old, “Wow! Okay, let me get this: DNA runs deep because here I am in the financial services industry and my biological mother is, and here I am, just finished my pilot’s license and my father was a commercial pilot and test pilot for F16s,” which I would loved to have flown in. I’m sitting there like okay…
It’s fascinating the experience that those of us who have lived in an adopted family can learn from the family we were in as well as we can learn from that, but there’s some reason you included that in your video, so talk to us a little bit about that.
P: Oh, we’re really going deep. [chuckles] First, I do so much agree with you that our DNA does run deep in the same way with myself as well. You learned about it in your twenties. I didn’t learn about it until I was in my forties. It wasn’t over-devastating for me because there was always a thought that there was something different going on in my life, going on around me. I didn’t grow up even in the same household of who I thought was mom and dad. My adoption was a little bit different. It wasn’t an adoption at birth. It was an adoption at the age of 6 so I became the family secret.
[Chuck chuckles]P: What really devastated me the most was that everyone else in my family knew about it.
C: Wow, interesting.
P: And I just, wow! For so many people, because it’s a very large family, for so many people to keep that secret for so many years [chuckles], I give them credit for that, I guess. [laughs]
C: Amazing.
P: When I did learn I, because at that point I was like 99% certain that I just didn’t belong in that family. Anyway, without going into too many details, I did learn that I do have two other brothers and a sister. I have a brother and sister who live in the Detroit area and I have a brother who I’m most close to, who’s back in Louisville, Kentucky, where I was born. He and I have connected and it was like we were never separated for all those years.
C: Isn’t that fascinating?
P: Yes, yes. So that’s been really fascinating and just to learn and to find out about my family and like you said about the DNA. It’s just been so fascinating. Like, my son looks just like my birthfather. I was actually driving down the road and I looked at my son from a side view and I almost hit a tree because [28:28], “You look just like him!” [laughs]
C: Oh, too funny.
P: I mean, other exciting things I found out, Minnie Pearl. She’s a cousin on Dad’s side. Loretta Lynn, she’s a cousin on Mom’s side.
C: Wow! Oh, my Gosh!
P: Yes, yes.
C: Country celebrities. Awesome.
P: And my love for horses, and playing the banjo, and growing up in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, I never understood where that was coming from. That answered a lot of questions for me. That gave me a lot of clarity in my life and like you said before, when there’s something that happens in your life that changes paths, that was one of them. Of course, my divorce was the first one because that was pretty devastating, but then when I found this out, it was life-altering in a positive way for me because I carried a lot of guilt for a lot of years because I was the rebel in the family. Now I understood my role in the family and why I behaved the way I did, why I was so defiant and getting into trouble all the time. [chuckles] That was me. So that answered a lot of those questions.
About two years, it was about two years ago, my husband, he was more concerned when I was found out that I wasn’t, as he put it, that I wasn’t going to become like one [30:03] women and become negative. That didn’t happen to me. It totally changed me, even more positive, even more outspoken than I was before.
We did a little fieldtrip. We went to the Appalachian Mountains. We went to Loretta Lynn’s home and we were at the hollers, got to meet some of the family and then we headed down to Tennessee where Minnie Pearl was from and got to see Dad, where he’s buried. He has passed so I never really got to meet him, but it was just an eye-opening experience for me.
That’s why I share it. One of my platform, one of my speeches is I talk about my story and I talk about my story to adoption agencies, to adoption associations, I speak a lot at the federal woman’s prison system and when I share my story of overcoming some of those challenges and the transformation, and again, going from nothing all the way up again to CEO, owning my business and becoming an international speaker, I just see some of the women just melt in their seats and men as well, men as well. That’s happened too, and that’s why I share it. I share it because I want to help other people. I want people to see that you really need to take control of your life and no matter what happened in your past, let it stay there. Let it go because if you continue to bring it along with you, you’re never going to go anywhere. You’re just going to always, always be stuck.
C: Connie, years ago there was a gentleman that I talked with, have no idea what his name was, which is unfortunate, but it’s kind of those angels that pops into life, so to speak. He made a comment to me. It was very profound and something I’ll never forget. He said, “You may have made a mistake, but you are not a mistake.” It’s so many times, and I think it’s probably true, especially if you’re speaking to women in prisons as I speak to men in prisons or people who have experienced some adversity or had a challenge in life or made a mistake in life. Whatever we have done, it may be a mistake, but we are not mistakes.
P: Absolutely, no.
C: To be able to do what you’ve done is a clear inspiration for so many people because here are two people carrying on a conversation auditorily and via Skype that you’re going to be on the radio, and as we talk about it, we recognize that while we may have had an interesting entrance into this world, maybe not the most normal approach, the reality is we can overcome that, so to speak, and take today and do what’s available to us as opposed to looking at it and saying, “Oh, my Gosh! I was born out of wedlock.” Well, I don’t care!
P: Right.
C: That’s not relevant. The question is, what are we doing with our lives? And for those who are listening on the radio, as we get into our next break, maybe that’s the question here on Straight Talk Radio. Connie Pheiff is my guest. She is the author of The Art of the Ask. She is former CEO of the Girl Scouts and we’re going to be talking about her new book Marketing Masters. Talking a little bit marketing and where we can take that and how that applies in life. Connie, it’s such a joy to have you on this show. This is Chuck Gallagher with Straight Talk Radio. Stick with us, we’ll be back in just a few minutes.
[Commercial break]C: This is Chuck Gallagher with Straight Talk Radio. My guest is Connie Pheiff and, Connie, this has been such a fun interview. For those of you that have been sticking with us for the entire interview, this past segment we talked a little bit about our mutual experience of adoption. Connie, I have to give you the rest of the story, very briefly. When my adoptive mother died, and by the way, she knew my biological mother so the two of them were able to talk, although there was a little friction. There was just that little bit of concern from the adoptive side that I would not respect her and not love her and that was an impossible thing. It was not possible for that to be the case, but when she passed, my biological mother said to me, she said because we had a relationship, she said, “Technically, legally, we’re not connected. You have no legal standing in my life.” She said, “Would you be willing to be adopted again?” And I said, “Yeah, sure, why not?” So we went to the courthouse in Baltimore. The judge said, “Where is the child?” and at 47 I raised my hand so I have been adopted twice.
P: Oh…
C: It’s been kind of an interesting experience and an unusual ride, but it kind of carries us back to the significance of taking the experiences that we have at the moment and making the best of those experiences. Connie, you are an inspiration to people that you speak to. I mean, when you speak, you are clearly acclaimed by the folks in your audience. Let’s switch gears a little bit and I’m really fascinated by the fact you have a new book coming out called Marketing Masters. Tell us a little bit about the book and what motivated it?
P: Well, Marketing Masters, really funny, when I was contacted by a publisher, The Art of the Ask is actually in four segments, four books, two of which are on the bookshelves and amazon.com, two others, which I was in preparation to put out to the public, and they had asked if I would take The Art of the Ask and rewrite it into one book.
C: Okay.
P: As I’ve been writing it, I realized that it’s more than asking, it’s more about marketing.
C: Right.
P: Went back to the publisher and said and I explained to them. It’s really about the marketing and how you get out there to people. They said, “Well, how quickly can you do the rewrite on that?” and I said, “I’ll have it you next week.”
[Chuck and Connie laugh]C: Wow!
P: Rewrote it, the editing, of course, the publisher took care of the artwork and all, but yes, it was a week later I rewrote that book. Their reasoning behind it is really that it’s that marketing piece that so many people forget about when they’re heading right out there. “I’m going to call. I’m going to make a sale. I’m going to step on somebody’s doorstep, but I’m going to make a sale.” It just doesn’t work that way. Whether it’s doing fundraising or whether it’s doing sales because again I’ve done both, I’ve exceeded in both and it was always about the marketing, creating that relationship with people. Like I said before, really connecting with them by picking up the phone and talking to them and that just adds so much credibility to who you are.
And that was the whole reasoning behind the Marketing Masters and why it was launched and it’s to help people grow their market and it’s for entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies and everyone in between because at the end of the day it’s all the same. If you’re going to increase business, you want to increase that bottom line, you need to be reaching people at a personal level. I believe it doesn’t matter what it is that you’re selling. If it’s technology, if it’s a widget, if it’s a service, people are going to work with people they know, like and trust. That really goes back to sales 101, and I know so many people have heard that.
C: Well, that’s true. It’s interesting– I actually have two questions for you. Number one, you’re absolutely right. In listening to what you’ve talked about, so much of it is the real art of marketing of developing that relationship, but I want to ask you a question. Kind of relates to the last segment. It’s a curiosity question for me.
P: Okay.
C: In the family that you felt you weren’t quite a part of, if that makes sense, do you find from a DNA perspective that your family that reared you had this marketing mindset and that were out and open and aggressive, did you learn that or is it part of the DNA that you inherited and what made you kind of feel disconnected?
P: I get a similar question. People asking me where did I come from?
[Chuck and Connie laugh]P: Because they look at the family, then they look and me, like, “Where did you come from?” and that was a question that I got for a lot of years. Again, I’m always stumped on that question because really it came from my DNA, to answer your question. It’s really from my DNA because even when I was younger and, again, the woman I lived with that I called Grandma, she was telling me I was quitting school at 16.
C: Ha.
P: There was no need to go to school, but something inside, deep inside of me said, “No! I will go to school.” I was a B average student, but I would be at nighttime under my covers with a flashlight doing my homework because that was not important to her to do that. For her, in addition to what I was already doing, again, I was entrepreneurial at 10, 11, 12 years old. I was cleaning houses, doing grocery shopping for the neighbors, babysitting, and then again she’s telling me to quit school by the time I’m 16 so I can get another job to help take care of the family. But there was this something deep, deep inside me that kept saying, “No. this is not going to happen. This is not going to happen.”
Now, I do need to say, my mother, my birthmother, she has a lot of that, too. Although she had me at a very young age, she made sure she got her education and she’s a bit philanthropic herself.
C: Okay.
P: I do give her, again that would be coming from the DNA side of it, but yes, she has some of that philanthropic inside of herself. But the other family, no. [chuckles] It’s not there.
C: You know, the thing that strikes me is, and through this entire conversation, first my guest is Connie Pheiff and, Connie, you are so open and honest and transparent and I really appreciate it, but the thing that really strikes me is even with the guy that you said you helped and he improved his skills as a telemarketer, but it wasn’t for him, we all have a role in life. There is something that we’re here on this planet to so. I think it’s significant for those that are listening to this show, Connie has a personality assessment. I want to encourage you to go to conniepheiffspeaks.com. Let me spell it, C-O-N-N-I-E-P-H-E-I-F-F-S-P-E-A-K-S.com, but go to her website and she has a personality assessment that you might want to consider taking and the reason I’m kind of encouraging that is if we can find out what’s natural for us, it’s far easier to create success for yourself when you’re doing what you naturally have the skill to do than being a square peg trying to fit into a round hole.
One of the things that I think, Connie, people really need to be able to walk away with is knowing how to get in touch with you. Conniepheiffspeaks.com, but go to her website. There you can buy The Art of the Ask. Soon you’ll be able to buy Marketing Masters, which I think will be incredibly valuable resource for people who want to really understand that fine art of marketing to build and grow your business, but if you’re sitting back and wondering, “But how does this apply to me? And where do I fit? I feel like that round peg and a square hole, or vice versa,” consider Connie’s personality assessment because, Connie, I know with the coaching work you do, you make an impact on people’s lives.
P: Yeah. Yes, I do, I do. The coaching, we start as business coaching, but we always, always go right into the DNA and where we use stock in, what challenges do you have? The assessment really tells you who you are, why you’re here. Everyone, everyone that takes that assessment comes out and it’s like that glowing light around them. [chuckles] They know what they are here to do and they know their purpose in life and once you know that, anything is possible.
C: Well, Connie, anything is possible and you have shown us a great example of that. This is Chuck Gallagher with Straight Talk Radio. My guest has been Connie Pheiff. Connie, it’s been an honor to have you as a guest on the show. Visit her website conniepheiffspeaks.com. Pick up her book The Art of the Ask or hold out for Marketing Masters or get both. Again, thank you for taking the time to join us on Straight Talk Radio. It’s always an honor and a privilege and remember, every choice we make in life has a consequence. Join us again next week with Straight Talk Radio and we’ll see you then. Bye-bye.
You’ve been listening to Straight Talk with Chuck Gallagher. Tune in each week on transformationtalkradio.com, each Monday at 2 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Eastern, as Chuck Gallagher, international speaker and author, cuts through the noise to share truth through transparency. Nationally-known guests talk about what’s important to you – your life, your concerns, and your success. Visit gallagher.pcgdev.com for more information and turn on to Straight Talk with Chuck Gallagher.
