Episode 24

Harmonizing Life's Flow: Embracing Presence, Prioritizing Time Freedom, And Nurturing Connections For Lead Generation With Brenda Marie Sheldrake

In this episode of Mindful You Alan interviews Brenda Maria Sheldrake. Brenda believes that time freedom is much more important than money. When you are present and mindful makes it much easier for people to accept the things like throws at you. We must build relationships with people before trying to sell them anything and the best way to do that is to pick up the phone. Brenda explains how she reaches out to her leads and how to find networking events.

About The Guest:

Brenda Marie is a highly experienced and dedicated Lead Generation Strategist with a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs and businesses effectively generate high-quality leads, build meaningful relationships, and achieve their goals. Her approach is unique in that she doesn't just offer a done-for-you service; instead, she empowers her clients to learn and implement lead generation strategies themselves, ensuring lasting success and sustainable growth.

Find Brenda Here:

LinkedIn

About Alan:

Alan Carroll is an Educational Psychologist who specializes in Transpersonal Psychology. He founded Alan Carroll & Associates 30 years ago and before that, he was a Senior Sales Training Consultant for 10 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. He has dedicated his life in search of mindfulness tools that can be used by everyone (young and old) to transform their ability to speak at a professional level, as well as, to reduce the psychological suffering caused by the misidentification with our ego and reconnect to the vast transcendent dimension of consciousness that lies just on the other side of the thoughts we think and in between the words we speak.

Personal: https://www.facebook.com/alan.carroll.7359

Business: https://www.facebook.com/AlanCarrolltrains

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aca-mindful-you/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulnesseminar/

Web Site: https://acamindfulyou.com/

Transcript
Alan Carroll:

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the mindful U

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podcast. My name is Alan Carroll, and I am your host, as

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we journey together into this wonderful metaphysical land of

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mindfulness, filled with love and joy, filled with clarity

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filled with understanding and filled with stillness, absolute

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stillness. And as we interview our guests over time, often

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there is a critical, transformational experience that

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people have, which ignites an awareness, like waking up from

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something which caused them to change their behaviors and

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change their life paths. Our next guest, Brenda Murray, she

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Drake. I met her at the potter Palooza event that I did, where

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a lot of podcasters get together, we get to interview a

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lot of guests from lots of different varieties, different

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places. And Brenda is in the business world. She is over time

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has become a master of lead generation, getting people to

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connect with people get people with a community in order to

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generate more more quality, more quality leads and building on

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relationships. And being motivated to do that. A lot has

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to do with her personal story, her personal journey into

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mindfulness. And so I would like to welcome Brenda to the mindful

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U podcast. Thank you for being here today. Hello, how are how

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are you today? Brenda?

Unknown:

I'm great. Thank you.

Alan Carroll:

Well, welcome to the mindful you podcast. And I'd

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like to Well, thank you. Thank you, I'd like to start with

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giving our audience a little understanding of your

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background. And what where you sort of came from and how you

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evolved and to where you are today.

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Brenda Marie Sheldrake: Ah, okay, well, alright, how far you

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want me back to go back here. But I will let you know that I

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spent 13 years in a job until the government funding and left

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me with at 50 with total uncertainty. Most of it was it

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was I spent, I spent about 20 minutes crying. And then I found

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my husband and told him that I didn't have a job anymore. And

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he told me everything was going to be okay. And he was right.

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Everything was okay. But I wasn't content with sitting at

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home watching me and in the restless. So I went out, and I

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found something that I was passionate about. And that was

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helping people with disabilities. I was helping them

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with a product was a financial product. And the problem The

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challenge, though was that when I would tell people about it,

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they would say, Okay, if this were real, the government would

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have told us about it. If this were real, then we would have

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got a letter about it. If this were real, then somebody would

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have told us and I said well, I am someone and I am telling you.

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And they said we don't trust you, we think it's a scam. So

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the the challenge was that I have this great thing that was

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going to change the lives of people with disabilities. But I

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couldn't get them to believe me. And then I met a man who said to

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me, stop trying to sell them your great thing and start being

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interested in them. Build a relationship with them, and the

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product will follow. And so I started implementing that

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system. I started. I love talking to people anyway,

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talking is one of my favorite things. So I started talking to

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people and getting to know them and hearing about their

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challenges and hearing about the things they were really good at.

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And people started wanting to know more about me and so it

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opened the door to me telling them about the product then and

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by then they would have more trust in me. And they would

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either say well, I need that product or I know somebody who

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needs that product. Using the system. I generated 3000

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qualified leads in one year. That was one of the highlights

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of my business.

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3000 leads Oh my goodness.

Unknown:

3000 leads.

Alan Carroll:

That's wonderful.

Unknown:

There's one thing about leads, though. Leads are really

Unknown:

names and phone numbers, leads don't guarantee business, you've

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got to have people who are open to hearing about what you want

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to offer them, we've got to convert. So with the 3000 leads,

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these people were ready to be converted, because they really

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knew that they needed the financial help that I was

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offering. I couldn't convert them all quickly enough, though.

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So I started handing those leads out to other associates that I

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worked with. But people always want to know, so what was your

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close rate? And my close rate was about 90%.

Alan Carroll:

Ooh, that sounds fantastic.

Unknown:

change the lives of a lot of people change the lives

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of a lot of families. When COVID hit, it became more challenging

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to do my business because people didn't. People would take away

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children with disabilities didn't really want you in their

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own right, they were afraid. And so what I did, I had people

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asking me, how do you generate the 3000? Leads? How do you do

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what you did. And I realized that was a marketable skill. And

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I started working to help people to generate their own leads, I

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started working on a course that's launching this September,

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called Lead Generation and conversion made easy. And I

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developed a community. And my mission within my community was

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to ensure that no entrepreneur quit before they received their

Unknown:

first miracle.

Alan Carroll:

I'm a time a student of the Course of

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Miracles. So I'm a big fan of miracles. And they seem to come

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when you are more mindful and more open. And rather than

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resisting the flow of life, you're open to the flow of life,

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and all of a sudden miracles appear.

Unknown:

Yes. And that's exactly really LM. That's what happened

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for me. I thought that my job here was to teach people to

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generate leads. But when my miracle came, my miracle came in

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the form of time freedom. I don't know if you've ever heard

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anybody say that this wine. But when you get the call, are you

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going to be able to step up. It's a very popular line for

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motivating people to do things. And I used to think that it

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meant what I have the money to be able to throw at the problem.

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Two years ago, I learned that money can't solve all problems.

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And what I really needed was the time to be able to be there for

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someone that I loved, who was going through a really hard

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time. And in the end, I spent two years caring for this

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person, with my sister, the two of us cared for them. And in the

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end, we had to say goodbye to them. But the time freedom

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allowed me to make amazing memories. And that's one of the

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really strong parts where mindfulness came in. Because I

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was able to look back on those memories, see all the wonderful

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things that happened for us during those two years. And it

Unknown:

made it a lot easier to go through the hard time when they

Unknown:

were done.

Alan Carroll:

It sounds like it was definitely an emotional

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roller coaster from contributing and being of service to

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connecting to somebody and then having that energy disappear.

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And that empty space that was left. That was a sadness that

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I'm sure there was sadness and loss and wasn't it wasn't a it

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wasn't a happy time.

Unknown:

It wasn't initially. But your shirt really says an

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important message there. I see on your shirt, I see stillness.

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And that was one of the things that I had to do. I had, I had

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to get quiet. And I had to look at what what the miracle was,

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for me what the amazing thing, what the gift was a came out of

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this sadness. And the gift came in the form of those memories.

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Those memories are what made it so much easier to move on to

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continue. And to be able to look back on that person at the

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person was my father. And I was able to I'm able to look back

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down and be able to remember with love and with happiness,

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all the good times that we had.

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And, and being present and being mindful, just

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made it made the transition even easier for you.

Unknown:

It definitely did. It definitely did. And the other

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thing that it made easier was accepting when dad was trying to

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tell us that it was time for him to go. Because what I really

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wanted there was there was this one day and and we'd had a big

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fight and dad looked at me and he said What do you want me to

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do? And what I really wanted to say was I want you to fight damn

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and I want you to stay because I'm not ready to lose you yet.

Unknown:

When instead I took a breath I said, I want you to play

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cribbage with me. And he was he loved playing cribbage all his

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life, he played cribbage. And he said, Well, I guess I could

Unknown:

probably do that. And we got out the cribbage board, and they sat

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for two hours, and they laughed. And we played cribbage. And

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true, he couldn't count quite as well as you used to. But he

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counted perfectly fine for what we were doing. And we had a good

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time. And I remember my sister walking in the back door and

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saying, so sound that I haven't heard in this house in a long

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while, as she walked into the kitchen and found us both

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sitting there laughing and playing our game. And two days

Unknown:

after that, we said goodbye to him.

Alan Carroll:

Wow. I like the, the idea that your, your father

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asked you, what do you want me to do, and you had immediate

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voice was, you know, get better and fight and stay with me, I

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don't want to lose you. And so you had that voice on one side,

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which is more of an ego voice of, you know, identity and me

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and my well being not your well being. And then you then by that

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stillness, that taking the breath, you asked you said to

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yourself, is that the highest vibration I can create right now

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is that the most loving vibration that I can create

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right now for my father. And another thought came in

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cribbage. And, and that's, that's a memory that you have.

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That will it's a treasure. And most people I find are, are very

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quick to react to and believe in the egoic voice, rather than

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pause, take a breath and look at it for what's the highest thing

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that I can do for the well being of the person in front of me,

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which is also reflection of you. So when you do those kind acts

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of kindness for some other people, you're actually

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contributing to yourself, same time. Wow, that's quite as quite

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a story about the cribbage. It's very, very moving. So what's the

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this course you're talking about, you have a course coming

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up, what's it going to be for people.

Unknown:

So the course for people who either think they

Unknown:

don't have enough leads, which, here's the secret.

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Here's the secret. So we got to go slow for

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secrets.

Unknown:

If you have one of these, you have lots of leads,

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I have one of those, I can see it sorted right

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here, it's right there,

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you have one of those. So that's full of leads, what

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you really need is you need the formula, to be able to take

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those people out of your phone, out of your LinkedIn out of your

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Facebook, and have them become open to hearing what it is that

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you will have to offer. They're not necessarily going to be your

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customers. But they may become your best advocate who when they

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go to a networking event and hear somebody saying that they

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need help. They say Oh, you got to talk to Alan, you've got to

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talk to Brenda you need more leads, you want to build your

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business, you've got to talk to Brenda. So the course goes from

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going to live events and building relationships, then we

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look at this zoom environment because the Zoom environment is

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a little different. Some people make the mistake of trying to do

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exactly the same thing that they did when they were having

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coffee. So we look at that. And then we go into all the

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different kinds of social media and how you can build

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relationships there. Once we've established a foundation of

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building the relationships, then the next step is that we help

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people with that conversion process with taking the

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relationship and getting the person to be willing to listen

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to what you have to offer. But you have to still use that

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stillness, you have to be willing to accept. Some people

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will, some people won't. And that's okay. You can ask them

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again tomorrow. So that's all covered in the course it's 12

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weeks in length, and included with the course not only do you

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get my lead generation course, you also get 12 weeks of access

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to my biz leads community where I've partnered with a number of

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experts in many different areas who are helping you to make sure

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that you stay in business, no matter what Challenge gets

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thrown at you.

Alan Carroll:

That's that's that's wonderful. That's

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wonderful to be able to have a process that you could follow

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that will generate the phone numbers and the names of the

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leads. And then you want to reach out and connect with those

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people. So when you when you reach out, what would be some of

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the things that you would you would email text? How would you

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reach out to these, these these people on your LinkedIn account,

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so your Facebook accounts?

Unknown:

Well, when I go to a networking event, I listen to

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people sharing. And I pick out one or two people, I don't try

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and meet with the whole room, I pick out one or two people who

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are especially interesting to me. Then I go over to their

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LinkedIn profile. I follow them first I click follow. And then I

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send them a message saying I saw you, for example, I saw you at

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pod palooza. I really liked what you said, when you said and pick

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something specific that they said that attracted your

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attention. And then I say, Would you be willing to book a one to

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one? Most people, when you tell them that you'd like what they

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said, they're flattered. And they're gonna be willing to book

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that one to one because you're not saying, I want to sell you

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my coffee pot. You're not saying I have a coaching program that

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will solve all your problems. You're saying I liked what you

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said. So then when I meet with them, I talked to them about

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whatever that thing was. And I talked about two things. First

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thing I talk about is what are you really good at? What is like

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I loved when you said this thing, but what's your

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superpower? And after I talk about their superpower, then I

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asked them the question that most people don't like to

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answer. But if you've done a good job at being interested in

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them and listening, then when you ask them, What is your

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greatest challenge in your business right now? They may be

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a little reluctant at first to answer. But they'll probably

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tell you, they may ask you something like, Well, why are

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you asking? But they will probably tell you. If they feel

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that you're asking them so that you can sell them something,

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they're going to be more reluctant to answer that

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question. So I always say to them, I'm asking you what your

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greatest challenge is right now, because I do five to seven

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networking events a week. And I meet with two to five people

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every day. I asked them all the same two questions I just asked

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you. Would you rather look for the solution to your problem? Or

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would you like me to speed up the process for you? People

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answer the question. And if you can help them if you can

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actually give them a suggestion for their problem, then they

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want to know how they can help you. And that opens the door to

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being able to ask for what you need help with? Do you need more

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clients? Do you need more referrals? Do you want to know

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if they know anybody who wants to practice mindfulness? What

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are you looking for? Then you can ask for your help.

Alan Carroll:

Networking events? How do you find networking

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events?

Unknown:

So I have I have a I look on Eventbrite. And I pick

Unknown:

events all over the world, really, because I'm building my

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business all over

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the world. So when you look at an event, what event

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then bright

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is one of the first places I look?

Alan Carroll:

ber it a bright like light bright. Yeah. Okay.

Unknown:

And you can put in any subject that you're interested

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in. So for example, Alan, if you wanted to meet more people who

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are practicing mindfulness, absolutely. You could search

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mindfulness and then you would see the different kinds of

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events that are coming up. Now, one, here's another tip. Don't

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focus solely on the on the networking event on something

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that says networking. If there's something where someone is

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speaking, when you go to those events, watch what's happening

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in the chat. Because you can message people based on their

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comments in the chat. If they're engaging in whatever the subject

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is that you're interested in that you want to talk about

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more. You're gonna see that in the chat, then you can direct

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message them in most cases, you could do a direct message If you

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can't do direct message because they have that shut off, then I

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just go back to my trusty LinkedIn. And I send them a

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connection request through LinkedIn, I say I saw you at XYZ

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event, I'd really like to get to know you better. And there's one

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thing if you're going to say, I'd really like to get to know

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you better. Be prepared that in the event, you're going to

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listen twice as much as you're going to talk. You ask a

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question, listen for answers. ask the next question based on

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what they said. It needs to be more organic, it can't be. Well,

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it's not an interview. It's something organic, it has to

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flow from what they're saying. And that's how I build my

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relationships. There is a tool if I can, if I can share a tool

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a free totally,

Alan Carroll:

absolutely, we got another minute, so we can talk

Alan Carroll:

another minute.

Unknown:

Okay, this is a tool that's very, very useful when

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you're on LinkedIn, it's called my most trusted. It's a Chrome

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extension. If you run your LinkedIn on Chrome, you can

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download this extension, it doesn't harvest any information,

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it doesn't scrape or do anything like that, what you use it for,

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we all have content sort of LinkedIn that we've never ever

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met, they sent us a connection request. We thought it was a

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good idea we accepted but we've never met them. But then there

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are other people that we know very well. You put the people

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you know, well that you trust that you'd be willing to do

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introductions for, into my most trusted, you let them know that

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you've done it. So if you and I both install my most trusted,

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you can see everybody that I trust, I can see everybody that

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you trust. I can then say Alan, would you mind introducing me to

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Kimberly Crowe because I'd really like to talk to her about

Unknown:

PATA palooza. And you can say to me, Brenda, would you mind

Unknown:

introducing me to Jessica Koch, because I'd like to talk to her

Unknown:

about being on her podcast.

Alan Carroll:

Brilliant. That's great. That's very, very

Alan Carroll:

practical, very useful. And it starts the ball rolling, by

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giving us some practical things to do, especially with LinkedIn,

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because LinkedIn is available to everybody. But one of the one of

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the challenges with LinkedIn is that it has like 10,000

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features. And so you're talking about one of the 10,000

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features, but we need people like you who can tell us oh, by

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the way, that little feature right there that might that most

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trusted piece. Take a look at that one. It was pretty good. So

Alan Carroll:

I appreciate I appreciate the tip. Very nice. To conclude to

Alan Carroll:

conclude, I like this too. If people want to connect with you,

Alan Carroll:

Brendan, where can they? Where can they go to connect with you?

Unknown:

LinkedIn is my favorite place. Where do you go? Come

Unknown:

find me. I'm Brandon Marie Sheldrick on LinkedIn, you can

Unknown:

send me a message and I'll be happy to sit down and do a one

Unknown:

to one with you. Or I'm going to provide you with my calendar

Unknown:

link. I'm happy with people just hopping on my calendar to ask

Unknown:

questions.

Alan Carroll:

Wonderful. Well, thank you very much. Wonderful

Alan Carroll:

guests, lots of valuable information. I appreciate you

Alan Carroll:

taking the time to share your wisdom with our audience. It

Alan Carroll:

sounds wonderful. And I really liked the the idea of lead

Alan Carroll:

generation and how you can support people in generating

Alan Carroll:

more leads to build your business. So thank you very

Alan Carroll:

much.

Unknown:

Thank you.

Alan Carroll:

Bye bye for now.

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Alan Carroll

Alan Carroll is an Educational Psychologist who specializes in Transpersonal Psychology. He founded Alan Carroll & Associates 30 years ago and before that, he was a Senior Sales Training Consultant for 10 years at Digital Equipment Corporation. He has dedicated his life in search of mindfulness tools that can be used by everyone (young and old) to transform their ability to speak at a professional level, as well as, to reduce the psychological suffering caused by the misidentification with our ego and reconnect to the vast transcendent dimension of consciousness that lies just on the other side of the thoughts we think and in between the words we speak.