SeedSeller Academy

Losers Have Goals, Winners Have Systems [Start Your Week]

Scott Adams, best-selling author and creator of the comic strip, Dilbert, says, and I quote, “Losers have goals and winners have Systems, end quote. We’ve all set various goals throughout our lives and have failed to achieve some of those goals. What happens that causes us to miss a goal, any goal? Was the goal unreasonable and unachievable or was the goal just outside our area of expertise? Most, often, that isn’t the problem. The problem is, in most cases there was no plan.

I’ve seen this happen over and over in the seed business. Seed sellers will set a goal for the number of units of increase they want to sell over the previous year, but have no detailed planned how they’re going to get that increase. On occasion, their manager will step in to help create what they believe is a sure-fire way of achieving the goal. They take the rep’s current customer list and indicate who could buy more seed. After that exercise, they make a list of prospects for the rep to call on to get new customers. The rep is then sent out the door to make calls. That entire exercise is a waste of time if there is no step-by-step plan, or system, the rep can follow to get the increases wanted...  

How Many Monkeys Do You Have On Your Back? [Start Your Week]

Are You 10% Better or 10x Better? [Start Your Week]

Are You 10% Better or 10 Times Better?

Astro Teller is CEO of X, a diverse group of inventors who build and launch technologies with the goal of improving the lives of millions, even billions, of people. Our goal says Teller, is 10X impact on the world’s biggest problems, not just a 10% improvement.  

He says, when you go after a moon shot, something that’s 10 times bigger than what you’ve seen or experienced before, not just 10% bigger, a number of things happen. First Astro says, when you’re going for 10% bigger, you’re competing against everyone. But when you’re trying to go 10 times bigger, you’re all by yourself. For example, when your trying to add 40 more years to your life, not just 3 or 5 years, there probably isn’t anyone else out there trying to do that. In fact, most people are doing the opposite, shortening their life spans with their current lifestyles.

How to Use Amodal Completion to Increase Sales? [Start Your Week]

Imagine you’re looking down the rows of a fully tasseled corn field, and all you can see ahead of you is a light brown, furry image, broken into two sections and spanning the distance between three rows of corn. You can’t see a head or a tail. Your eyes can only see two sections of hair among the leaves, and a body divided by the corn rows, but your mind instantly made it into one image telling you, it’s a deer.  Your brain’s ability to join those pieces together without seeing the complete picture, is a process called amodal completion.

The eyes only see fragments, but the brain pieces them all together so you can recognize what you see. Through years of evolution animals gained this ability to see prey, recognize a mate or predator through dense foliage even when the image was only partially in view.  

The concept of amodal completion is the same kind of system my brain uses when I’m qualifying a prospect.  A list of attributes I want in a customer, flash through my head one at a time as I interview a prospect, surveying his farm, the condition of his machinery, how he treats me, whether he appears progressive, is in the age range I want, and so on.  Within seconds my mind pieces together a complete visual of what that person would be like as my customer.  Sometimes I see a potential customer and I continue to pursue him, and sometimes I don’t and I leave...

Clicker Training, A Faster Way to Learn [Start Your Week]

The other day, my 11-year old grandson Logan was at my house for his 2-3 hour time with Grandpa. Every grandchild has his or her very own day and time to spend with me during the week. Logan is a sport expert and I don’t say that lightly. There is no one, and I mean no one his age or even holder who knows as much about baseball, basketball and football as Logan does, including every player on every team, college or pros. This kid is amazing. 

Logan and I were talking about practicing because he practices all of the time. He just finished baseball season and he is getting ready for football to start. I said to Logan, “I love how much you practice because practice is the most important thing.” To my surprise, Logan said, “No, it’s not.” I said, “What do you mean it’s not?” He said, “Perfect practice is the most important thing....."

When Does Acceptance Become Enabling? [StartYour Week]

Have you ever seen people doing things that were against the rules you were taught and the general norms of society? It bothered you didn’t it, especially if those rule breakers ended up creating a new trend.

When I was 8 years old I watched my cousin talk back to his mother.  She told him to take the garbage out and he said he wasn’t going to do it; she could do it herself. My cousin’s younger sister and I stood there in shock as we waited for the hammer to drop and punish him right in front of our eyes.

But it didn’t happen.

His mom just walked away in disgust. Later, the younger sister was told to clean up the mess she had made with her toys. She said, “No, I don’t want to.”

Again, her mom got a frustrated look on her face and walked away. The little girl also got away with talking back to her mother. My aunt accepted that disrespectful behavior and enabled her two kids to learn that it was ok to talk back to your parents.   Acceptance becomes enabling.

If I would have talked back to my parents when I was growing up they would have enabled me to pick my teeth out of my underwear.

Changes Take Place at the End of Your Comfort Zone [Start Your Week]

Roy T. Bennet said, Changes takes place at the ENDS of your comfort zone.  I have to say, no truer words were ever spoken. 

Every morning at 4:30 am, I experience that quote firsthand, waking-up in the comfort of my bed, not wanting to change a thing at that point in time. It’s dark, quiet, warm, and peaceful under those covers, making it the perfect comfort zone. This is the point in my day where I’m not mentally ready to change anything, but instead, stay with the status quo. I’m more concerned about remaining comfortable in my comfort zone. I’m telling myself I need more sleep or I deserve a day off instead of getting up and going to the gym as scheduled. I tell myself no one else gets up at 4:30 am to workout, well ok, Jocko does, but he’s a freak. I’m talking about normal people, especially the ones my age. My mind continues to argue over what I want to do and what I SHOULD. I know what I SHOULD do, but I’m so comfortable in my comfort zone. I really don’t want to do it.

You Can’t Shoot a Cannon from a Canoe [Start Your Week]

There’s an old saying, “You can’t shoot a canon from a canoe.”

To shoot a canon and get the result you want, you need a solid foundation for the canon to sit on.  If you fired a canon from a canoe sitting in water, the shot would be a dud because the canoe wouldn’t provide a base solid enough to satisfy Newton’s law.  Newton’s law says, For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. T

he canoe wouldn’t provide that equal and opposite reaction strong enough to help propel the shell out of the canon to the target, keeping the canon from functioning as it should. You would never hit your target. But if you placed the canoe on the ground, the solid earth would provide the opposite reaction needed once the canon is fired to propel the shell to the target.

There would be an equal exchange of ENERGY between the canon and the ground, putting Newton’s law to work...

How Often Do You Smile? [Start Your Week]

As a young boy growing up on a farm, I learned the power of a smile. I learned that just one smile from someone, anyone, could determine my attitude and how I felt about myself at that time. But the one smile that had the most influence on me growing up was my dad’s smile...

3 Biggest Mistakes You Make as an Independent Seed Seller [Livestream]

As an independent seed seller, you can compete against anyone. You just have to be better than your only competitor, the person selling against you...