Each According To Their Gifts!

Happy Friday!   About a month ago, I shared a picture of a band I was in while in college...click here!  I also admitted there was a time I used to imitate Michael Jackson...click here!.  I may have mentioned I was quite the athlete in high school and was the basketball team captain (youngest kid on the team - natural born leader!)...sorry, no click here...can't remember where I wrote that one.   Yes, I am a man of many talents.  Modesty will prevail...in a minute.   What happened, Brandon - You had so many talents you could have done anything you wanted?   Actually, I don't have to tell you what happened.  You know.   This daily email is not a fan club for me being a lead singer on a reunion tour from the 80's.  It is not me talking about the millions of albums I have sold and Grammy's won. Isn't about me getting inducted into the NBA hall of fame.    It is a blog about my gift...sales.  The gift of gab.  The gift of connection with others.   Talent will let you "be in the mix" and get on a sports team as a mediocre athlete.  It will let you sing for a few hundred drunk college students.    But your gift will separate you from the masses.  It will make you special...exceptional even. It is an innate and natural extension of your passions...and purpose.   Malcolm Gladwell in "Outliers" says it takes 10,000 hours to develop a gift.  I could have spent 100,000 hours on my singing and I would still have to lip sync like Milli Vanilli (yikes, that put a date on my tombstone!).  I could have did jumping workouts for 10 summers and never dunked a basketball (Spud Webb anyone?).   Why work on a talent, when you can focus on your "highest and best use" and flow in your gift?   In the 3 Ingredients, #2 one was sticking to your Core Competency...your gift.    It will be counterproductive to knock around in things that you are not well suited for.  That is not meant to be an convenient excuse for not doing the tough things we all have to do (like prospecting) but it is meant to provide laser-like focus on what you do best.   I work with many agents who are tremendous at helping people join Medicare Advantage plans.  Most of these are zero premium plans and offer terrific benefits, but you do no have to ask for a check (to my large Caribbean audience, yes...no premium!)   We have tried to get these agents to cross sell other products.  Many of them struggle.  They have a great gift of rapport building, consultative education and building trust...but some of them do not have the "gift" of asking for money.   One of them finally said, "I will stick with Medicare Advantage...that is my gift."   I could have told her to stick with trying to sell life insurance.  I could have had her role play and ask for money five different ways.  I could have done ride alongs to help her develop the talent to close, but then I thought about something Captain Spock said to Admiral Kirk in Wrath of Khan II;   Kirk:  "Spock, these cadets of yours - how good are they?  How will they respond to real pressure?   Spock:  "As will all living things, Admiral..."   Each According To Their Gifts!   Until tomorrow, I wish you Money, Power, Success!