Episode 50: Celebrating Our 50th With The Top 5 Most Popular Solo Episodes!

Written By Sara Murray

It seemed like a long time coming but we are now celebrating the 50th episode of Prospecting on Purpose! Fifty episodes worth of wisdom and insights from yours truly, Sara Murray, along with different guests across various topics on how to elevate your business and more. In this special episode, Sara Murray looks back on the top five most popular solo episodes that have made a mark in the show. Plus, she takes us on a quick behind-the-scenes tour to show how an episode is created. Tune in now as we relive key insights on the pillars for a confident mindset, overcoming objections, foundations for a growth mindset, the art of relationship building, and the habits to become a rockstar salesperson!

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Celebrating Our 50th With The Top 5 Most Popular Solo Episodes!

Welcome to the show. It is hard to believe but this is the 50th episode of the show. After 50 episodes, I am still learning a lot about this whole thing. One of the coolest things is I'm starting to understand the data behind it. For example, I've shared that this show ranks in the top 3% of all global shows. What does that mean? According to a platform called Listen Notes, 3% of 3,227,546 shows are out in the world globally. This show is in the top 3%. A sincere thank you to you, reader, for contributing to that success. We've got to go for it in 2024. We're going to the top 1%.

This episode is a little celebration episode. I want to share a quick behind-the-scenes on how an episode is created because I get a lot of questions about that. I want to do a roundup of the top five most popular solo episodes based on the data. If you've read every episode, this would be a nice refresher of the greatest hits. If you're newer to the show or this is the first episode you're reading, it's a great starting point because you can get a theme of the big takeaways from those episodes.

A little behind-the-scenes detail, for the solo episodes, I write them ahead of time and record them on Zoom. The reason I use Zoom is that it records the video component for the YouTube episodes, as well as promotional clips and snippets. I used to edit the show myself but between writing, recording, editing, and uploading, it was such a significant time commitment. I work with a production team. They edit the episode and upload it to our show host.

They're many out there. I use one called Libsyn. The audio file and the show notes are uploaded onto Libsyn, which generates an RSS feed. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. The show is linked from Libsyn to all of the different streaming platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio. Those platforms pull the audio file onto their service via the RSS feed. That part is surprisingly easy but creating the content is a time-consuming piece, as you can imagine.

Between Libsyn and Apple Podcasts, I'm able to pull some pretty solid data on where in the globe the audience is reading, which episodes perform best, and which are the most popular. I want to give a quick shout-out to the city of Seattle, Washington, in the United States. That is one of the most engaged audiences. Shout-out and hello to my friends in Seattle. I appreciate you.

In determining which top five solo episodes were the most popular, I'm using two metrics. The first is the number of plays. That's either by readers that subscribe to the show sharing it or people finding it in a search feature. The second metric I'm using is which episodes get played all the way through. There's a percentage calculator there on how far people get in the episode as an average and then that is considered the engagement rate and the listenability data point there.

I'll run through the top five episodes first and then I'm going to give a brief little CliffsNotes version of each episode. If you haven't read all of these, I encourage you to go back because there are a lot more takeaways in the full episodes. They all range from about 11 minutes to 18 minutes, which is the longest out of these five.

Four Pillars For A Confident Mindset

These top five episodes in order of popularity are Episode 20: Four Pillars for a Confident Mindset, Episode 13: Volleyball, Velociraptors and Overcoming Objections, Episode 7: Four Foundations for a Growth Mindset, Episode 21: The Art of Relationship Building in Business, and Episode 2: Three Habits to be a Rockstar Salesperson. Diving into each of these starts with Episode 20: Four Pillars for a Confident Mindset.

I started this episode by giving a brief explanation of the differences between confidence, arrogance, and ego. In short, confidence is feeling sure of yourself and your abilities, not in an arrogant way but realistically and securely. It's a quiet inner knowing that you're capable. One of the four pillars of a confident mindset is understanding our values. If we understand our values, then we naturally have the confidence that the actions that we take are in alignment with our core values. Additionally, if we know our values, then we're more secure in our decisions and we don't spend that time second-guessing.

Confidence is feeling sure of yourself and your abilities, not in an arrogant way but in a realistic, secure way. It's a quiet inner knowing that you're capable.

The second pillar of a confident mindset is understanding our core competencies. What are the strengths that set us apart from others? Some examples here would be, are you a team player? Are you a problem solver, strong negotiator, organized, decisive, flexible, accountable, creative, motivator, or good listener? What are your strengths? Understanding those is going to combine with the first pillar to get to our third pillar here.

The third pillar is paying attention to internal and external dialogue. One of the ways that we can do this internally if we're starting to have negative self-talk is to take a script from the first two pillars. The script is, “I value blank.” Pull from your values list. “My core competencies are blank.” Pull from your strengths.”

If you're stressing out about something like an upcoming meeting or an incoming call from your boss, worrying or being anxious about that is wasted energy. If you can replace it with, “I value attention to detail and my core competency is organization,” then the way you show up in that meeting and conversation is going to naturally be more confident. There are more examples in the full episode but that should give you a quick idea.

The final pillar of confidence is cultivating a strong relationship with ourselves. That includes our dialogue because if we're constantly speaking to ourselves and telling ourselves that we're losers or incompetent, we're hurting our relationship with ourselves but that's going to outwardly reflect in our confidence in others. The way that we establish impact and confident relationships with others is by having a nice relationship with ourselves. The way we establish genuine, impactful, and confident relationships with others is, first and foremost, having a nice relationship with ourselves.

Volleyball, Velociraptors, And Overcoming Objections

Next up is Episode 13: Volleyball, Velociraptors, and Overcoming Objections. If we can understand our most frequent objections and be prepared in our responses or sometimes proactively address those concerns before the customer brings them up, it allows us to stay on the offensive and we remain in control of the sale. It also proves to our clients that we're experts in our industries and we're using objections as an expression of our expertise.

Once we perfect this, we fall in love with that challenge. You'll have to read the episode to get the velociraptor reference but, in a nutshell, I like to think about navigating a sales process or sales meeting like a game of volleyball. Clients are serving us those objections and we're able to return that volley right over the net. In the episode, we break down six steps.

Step one is confidence. Varsity players want the ball to come to them. Step two is asking questions and then listening to the hidden concerns in the client's answers so that we can address them. Number three is to keep an ongoing internal list of common objections that you get and what return volleys use that work best for you. This is a little internal cheat sheet. You can study it. It's a dynamic document. It's going to evolve but a huge piece there is to keep that running list.

Step four, if we can't fix that objection, try to feature it and weed it into the client's business model. Step five is to incorporate storytelling of your common objections to stay on the offensive. If we share a story that proactively addresses an objection without the client bringing it up, it's going to easily keep us in the driver's seat because we identified it, addressed it, and moved on. Finally, in step six, we let those Velociraptors test the fence. This is a Jurassic Park reference. Our confidence is all that's being tested when we get those pings. I already handled that in step one.

Foundations For A Growth Mindset

A recap of Episode 7: Four Foundations for a Growth Mindset. This topic is very near to my heart and I love that it's one of the most popular episodes. I encourage you to read the whole episode. It's only fourteen minutes long. As an overview, the four foundations for a growth mindset are to embrace change. It's the only constant in our life. That first foundation requires us to embrace change for continued expansion.

If we can view change in the unknown as a fun lens, I have a reference in the full episode about the amusement park of life. We're just getting on different rides. It ensures that we stay present while taking steps towards our ideal futures. Number one of this foundation here is to embrace and love change. Number two is a recurring theme here. Pay attention to your inner dialogue because the thoughts that we say in our heads result in the feelings we feel and the actions that we take.

Embrace and love change.

If there's a thought or a pattern of behavior that we don't like, the first step we have to change that is in our brains. Paying attention to our inner dialogue is so important if we want to continue to have that growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset. Step number three here is we need to view it from another perspective because everyone has their lens of reality.

This concept of viewing something from another perspective has changed my life. If we can view things from only our perspective, we're always going to be seeing the situation from a fixed mindset. If we view it from other perspectives, it dissolves egos and instills empathy, which helps us collaborate when we're confronted with challenges.

Number four for a growth mindset is we have to be taking action. Action equals growth. We will never be complete and done. It's constant development. Taking action is forward motion and that forward motion can include major successes, mistakes, or confrontational situations but the art of taking action is the through line that continues to help us practice these first three foundations for that growth mindset.

The Art Of Building Relationships At Work And Business

Our next popular episode is Episode 21, the Art of Relationship Building in Business. It is my favorite episode. It's what I send out the most to people when I'm introducing them to the show or I need them to reference stuff as part of the work that we're doing together. It's a large part of what I teach in my workshops and developing those softer skills. The number one factor in success is mastering the art of relationships and authentic relationship building. That establishes a foundation for our business efforts. The business exchange becomes more organic and seamless.

I get into this more in the sixteen-minute episode as an overview. To quickly establish relationships with your prospects before soliciting their business, we need to bridge the GAP. GAP is an acronym. It stands for Genuine interest. We need to focus on being interested as opposed to interesting. We need to listen actively, focus when people tell us their names, and be present during our discussions as opposed to planning our introductions or vetting the person in our heads to see if they're worth our time.

We need to use icebreakers. That's one easy way we can establish genuine interest and then we actively listen to those answers, which drives us to step two in this bridge, the GAP framework.

The A stands for Authentic relationship building. True connection can only happen if authenticity is present. We need to be cool. That does not mean sporting great fashion or having 20,000 LinkedIn followers. Being cool as a sales professional is someone who energizes others as opposed to draining others. When we do this first step of genuine interest, being someone who energizes happens naturally.

We all know that people do business with people that they like. The biggest way to be likable is by being cool, being your authentic self, and embracing our favorite acronym, ABAV, Always Be Adding Value. Once we have this genuine interest, we've established an authentic relationship. We get to the P, this final piece of the framework that leads to Price clients or price relationships.

This is where we can start to ask for things because we built that initial base of trust and understanding. It's a lot easier to get to the ask. Asking for a meeting, a presentation request, or an introduction to somebody else. All of this becomes significantly easier and more organic if you've taken the time to focus on those first two steps.

Business becomes more seamless with collaborative relationships and it proposes forward with that strong foundation throughout the rest of the sales process. Bridging that GAP is super important. That wraps up our bridging the GAP framework. We get into a lot more details on it in episode 21. Go back and read if you haven't checked that episode out.

Three Habits Of A Rockstar Salesperson

Episode 2 is our fifth most popular episode. It is the Three Habits of a Rockstar Salesperson. Before we get into those three habits, two foundational baselines have to happen. The first baseline is self-awareness. You're only going to be able to improve and stay on top of your game if you're consistently and constantly reflecting, evaluating, and pivoting to improve. The second baseline is confidence. This is the theme. This is what this whole show is about.

Confidence in yourself, your product, your industry, and your ability to provide value to your clients. Now that we have those 2 baselines, we can get into the 3 easy habits that cultivate that rockstar energy. The first habit is to always ask questions and listen. Prep work is important because that's going to give you the baseline of confidence going into your meeting but the way that the business exchange is driven forward is by making sure you're on the same page as your client. You can't do that if you're not asking questions.

Oftentimes, people assume that if we ask questions, it's going to appear that we may not know what we're talking about or we didn't do our prep work. I promise you that your clients are going to appreciate it, maximize the meeting, get the most out of that meeting, and your relationship is going to deepen. It's as simple as asking the right questions and listening to the answer.

The second habit here is to admit when we don't know something. This does go hand in hand with questions but people struggle with this. There's a lot of power in showing your vulnerability. It's not even vulnerability. It's just honesty. When you're honest with your client, it builds trust. We like the phrase, "Fake it until you make it." I use it a lot too but it's okay that you don't know something about your client's business. It's their business. It would be weird if you knew everything about their business. It's okay that you don't.

If you ask questions that you don't know something, that's how you can start to establish confidence in the fact that, “Maybe I don't know the answer but I'm willing to figure it out in partnership with you.” It could be something easy, too. I've never once lost a sale because I didn't have the answer to something. It's easy to pivot to, “That's a great question. I don't think I've ever been asked that question. Let me get back to you. Can I clarify why you're asking? I'm not sure. Let me find out and get back to you.” That gives you an opportunity to follow up, reach back out, and prove that you're going to do what you say you're going to do.

The third habit is to find support in areas where you slip. It’s for the bigger stuff that may require coaching, personal development programs, investing in seminars, reading books, or outsourcing tasks if that's in your wheelhouse or budget. For the little stuff, you hate checking your voicemail and using your CRM system. What can you do to work around it? Can you use an app? Can you hire a virtual assistant? Can you gamify it to ensure that you're focusing on areas that are in your zone of genius, outsourcing, and getting support in other areas where you struggle?

At the end of the day, this is about problem-solving. If you don't know how to do something, that is okay but finding the right resources to help you solve it and figure it out is what's going to make you a rockstar salesperson. Of two honorable mentions that were in the top ten episodes, but I see shared pretty frequently, is Episode 25: The Importance of Remembering Names. It's a great one and it has a lot of good tips. If that's an area where you struggle, it's only about fifteen minutes.

Episode 4: Why Icebreakers Work for Prospecting. This one is a short twelve-minute episode. It's fun and it's going to get you to think in different ways. I get a lot of feedback on this one and how they use icebreakers in different ways outside of a sales capacity. Read it and let me know your thoughts. You're going to have what you think the best bird is. That joke will make sense if you read that episode.

To wrap us up here on episode 50, I want to say thanks so much for reading this and being an engaged reader of this show. Your subscriptions, listens, streams, ratings, and reviews have gotten us this far. I am so appreciative of it. I hope that this episode serves as a nice recap and a nice place to start if someone's new to the show. Please share this episode with your colleagues, families, and friends if you think they'd benefit from it.

In the next episode, I'm going to do a recap of the biggest takeaways and learnings from all of the 2023 guests that we've had in the show in 2023. I've got some amazing guests. Those episodes are a longer time commitment so I'm going to break down my biggest takeaways and how I've used what I've learned from the guests throughout the year in my personal life and the business. Please be sure to tune in. It's going to be a special episode as we round out the 2023 year. Thank you so much for reading. I'll see you in the next episode.

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