Welcome to the Radiant Soul Sisters Podcast!
Episode #15
Today my guest is Cheryl Burget, CEO, Your Sales Genius
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If you want to read the transcript, check it out below:
Susan
This is going to be such a fun Radiant Soul Sister episode. I am excited to have with us today Cheryl Burget. She spent eighteen years climbing the corporate ladder in the financial world and thought she had achieved success by selling $168 million in investment strategies. Until one day that changed. In addition to being quite successful, Cheryl and her partner also did something super fun. Several years ago, they bought an RV and they set out on living on the road. Now doesn’t that sound like a fun life? I heard Cheryl speak at a Driven Business School event and immediately scheduled a call with her. She brings great energy, lots of fun and true meaning to life and helping service-based entrepreneurs put sales at the front of their business with service being the focal point of every conversation. She defined sales as an acronym meaning serving anyone, lovingly, effectively, and successfully. Oh my goodness, Cheryl, I am so glad you’re here today.
Cheryl
I am so excited to be here today, Susan. I’ve been really looking forward to this.
Susan
Thank you. Yes, we had such a great time with our first call that when I was creating the Radiant Soul Sister Podcast, I was like oh, I’ve got to see if Cheryl would hop on it and have a great conversation with me. Cheryl, one of the things I like to talk about or just like to get a little glimpse into our guest background or into their childhood. Can you tell us what is one of your favorite childhood memories?
Cheryl
I can. So let me share with you that we went to the circus, as many people did during that era. I was born in 64. So it must have been in the early 70’s. We went to Ringling Brothers and I remember the clown came up to me and kissed my hand. Yep, the clown kissed my hand. And I was just like, oh, I was so excited. And now I hear people are scared of clowns. I’m like, I don’t get it. But I wasn’t scared of clowns. Anyway, I thought that was just – it just made me feel like I was the only girl in the room. It was just such a sweet gesture. So I was very excited about that.
Susan
I can understand that. And I love that because in that moment, you felt like the princess or the queen, the only girl in that room. How wonderful, what an amazing feeling and what a great story. But you’re right. I think those of us born in the 60’s and even in the 70’s we went to the circus at least one time but probably two, three, or four times. You know so I think that also is one of the reasons we love that movie The Greatest Showman, right. It brings the circus memories.
Cheryl
It’s such a great story. The Greatest Showman is something I use for inspiration. They have a YouTube video of the woman saying “This Is Me.”
Susan
Yes, I have watched that. Yes. Fabulous. Absolutely, fabulous. Yeah. So let’s talk a little bit about business and work life harmony and radiant souls. Tell me why have you chosen to focus and niche your business down to focus on sales?
Cheryl
Well, to be honest, I was thinking about, what was it that I did different than others? Why was it easy for me and not others? And yet, I was working in a very male dominated industry, in financial services, and they did things a little bit differently than I chose to do or thought was the proper way to do it. Now, very successful people. And it could have been my perception at the time. But money is not a sole motivator for me, obviously. When you have enough money for the comforts of life, it’s nice. We have, you know, it’s not I just need to get by. You know, it affects everybody in your life, when you when you make money. And so, while that is a driver, it’s not my number one driver. My number one driver is to help other primarily business women learn the mastery and art of sales. Because I know they’re not able to share their gifts for any period of time if they can’t make money doing it. So it’s a burning desire for me to share with others how to learn sales in a way, that’s not offensive, that’s not pushy, that’s not salesy, that’s really genuinely caring about solving someone’s problem. That doesn’t mean that you don’t ask additional questions, it just means that you’re committed to helping someone else.
Susan
And you know, I think that is something that women are naturally good at. Right? But then when we think we’re out there making a sales call, we go into panic mode. And so I see how you can help women transition into being that service based entrepreneur to helping them create the relationships first and during your sales conversations. And so – go ahead.
Cheryl
No, I was just going to say, Susan, sometimes people think that you need to have a long term relationship in order to bring up business. What I say is you can establish a relationship in literally sixty seconds or less, by being more interested in them than you are interested in yourself about making a sale. And that really is the difference in the energy I feel like my clients bring to the cause. Really looking for a problem that they can solve, not what they can sell.
Susan
I love that. I love that, you know, we we’ve talked about you climbed the corporate ladder, you were very, very successful. And you’ve moved over into the entrepreneurial world. And it is a very different place. Right?
Cheryl
Absolutely.
Susan
So what is one of the biggest lessons you’ve learned, as you’ve transitioned or as an entrepreneur?
Cheryl
What are the biggest lessons I’ve learned? Great question. I believe that it’s that you must have some type of discipline, vision, goal, and I really do believe that you can tell the entrepreneurs who have hired a mentor or coach to work with them, and haven’t relied on a spouse or a friend. There is a huge difference in the level of commitment. And it also teaches you quicker, faster, easier ways to do things because they’ve already done it.
Susan
I agree with you 100%. And there are two things that I would say there about hiring a coach. When I hired my first coach back in the 90’s. It was before coaching was a thing right and my husband looked at me and he said you want to do what now why are you doing that? And I said, just watch my business soar. And he said okay. And then the other thing that I have learned personally and I know I have coaches and you have coaches and we are coaches. But coaches can see something in us or in you that you cannot see in yourself. And when you have the correct coach, they bring that out in you.
Cheryl
It says that we can’t see our own blind spots. So it may be, you know, I appreciate a coach that’s direct. That tells me the truth. That doesn’t placate me and tell me what I want to hear. Oh, you did such a great job. No. Why didn’t she do X, Y and Z?
Susan
Right? Call me out!
Cheryl
Exactly. Exactly. So I think that’s super important. And just shortcuts the amount of time it takes you to get to success, the amount of time it takes you to really start making money. Which is the purpose of a business. And then you don’t have to first of all, you have your competence intact, and you don’t have to go back and get a job.
Susan
Yeah, absolutely. We are there together. Totally there together. What are some of the things that you do to create work life harmony? You know, I talked about in the introduction, you did the super fun thing by getting this RV and hitting the road. And you’ve worked the whole time you’ve been on the road? You’re not on the road, just playing but I have a feeling you’ve got some real harmony in there. Tell me what do you do for work-life harmony?
Cheryl
So one of the things is I’ve learned to schedule, just about everything I do. So scheduling meditations, scheduling outings, scheduling fun and work. Right now, I don’t generally schedule fun during work hours, unless I take a day off. So it’s really keeping that line. A lot of people think that becoming an entrepreneur gives you all this freedom. Well, it does. And it can work against you. Because lately, you know, I It’s so funny, my coach described it this way, Cheryl, and she is talking to the room. “You wouldn’t go out, and you know, you’re gonna go plan to run three miles, and you wouldn’t go out and run a mile, come back, come throw the laundry, and go back out to the track, run another mile, and go and buy some groceries.” Like, that is what entrepreneurs think freedom is. And freedom is, you have set hours, you know, pretty much stick by that. That doesn’t mean that if an emergency comes up, you don’t have the flexibility to do something. But you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Susan
I do and I love that analogy. I’ve never thought about it like that. But a great, great analogy.
Cheryl
There was finally – half the room went, “oh my gosh, like, no, I don’t do that.” Like I have a role. I don’t do laundry during the day. I do laundry at night or on the weekends, right? I don’t clean the house during the day. You know, I’ll pick up my dishes and put them away if I’m at home working and things like that. But I will not take time out to do something that I normally wouldn’t do if I had a job where someone was paying me because guess what, I have a job to myself. My job is making my business work. And so that means putting the time and effort into it. And sometimes, like this next six weeks, I looked at my schedule and some things have come up. One yesterday, unexpectedly and they’re like, can you do these, you know, 30 strategy sessions. And I was like, in what timeframe? Like because I know I’ve got some other commitments. And so the next six weeks are going to be really intense as far as work workload. But I’m going to you know, I’m not adding extra things. I’m making sure that I have time for the things that I’ve committed to.
Susan
Absolutely, absolutely. You know, also, as I mentioned, in the beginning, when the very first time we chatted, there was just such great energy and I can just see the joy and the passion and the excitement about what you do in your face and hear about it in your stories. What do you do to make your radiant soul shine? Is there something you do every day? Or is there something that you keep at the front of your mind that makes a difference in your life and others?
Cheryl
You know, I will truly say that I am, you can tell I’m an extrovert. And although as I’ve aged have become, I have moments where I want to go and be alone and be by myself and do some things on my own. But, I get energized by connecting with people. And that is relaxing to me. That is what brings me great joy. So I had a couple of college friends in town a couple of weeks ago we went to a concert. Just I mean, just hanging out, you know, having a meal together hanging out in the condo just talking to one another. Not on our phones, not doing anything else, talking about, you know, what we’ve been through, what things are happening in our lives. That to me, really brings what matters to me into focus. And I think relationships for me, love, connections, are so important that that needs to be a regular part of what I do.
Susan
Ah, people, people, people and places has been my motto for 2022. And I just love what you said about that. And just celebrating with people or sharing the trials and tribulations makes all the difference in the world for you. Thank you for sharing that with us. And I do have one question left for you. But before we get to that, I believe you brought something for our listeners a freebie or just something fun for them. Will you tell us what you brought today?
Cheryl
You bet. So what I know is that when we mention the word sales, most people cringe. Like 85% of people cringe because they think of the used car salesman. They think they’re being taken advantage of, that no one listens to me. And while they’re still that out in the world, right, that is not, as an entrepreneur, you need to shift your mindset. And so what I did is I created something called the five tips to overcoming your fear of sales. And so putting them in different situations and giving them what to do in order to overcome those fears. And, and so let me you want me to give you the link?
Susan
Yeah, if you’ll give me the link and then it’s going to be in the show notes so they’ll be able to get it that way as well.
Cheryl
Great. Well, it’s really easy. It’s my name CherylBurget.com.
Susan
Easy makes it great for us. So listeners, there you have it. If you want to overcome the fear sales or start working on this mindset, Cheryl is offering you a great piece of advice or suggestions in her five tips. I know you’re gonna want to check that out. So if this episode has you thinking about how to put yourself first while living your work, life on purpose with work life harmony, be sure to connect with me at my socials @SusanCrewsCo. If you’d like to schedule a time to chat, go to my website, SusanCrewsCo.com and schedule a time so we can get to know one another. So Cheryl, I’ve learned so much from you today. And always it’s such a pleasure to be with you. Looking back on everything that you’ve shared and thinking about the woman who is listening today, the business entrepreneur, the person in sales, what is the one piece of advice that you would like to leave us with today?
Cheryl
Wow, that’s a big challenge. You know, I hadn’t thought of that before. So I’m just gonna go with no, go with what comes to you. You know, it’s great. I believe I’m connected all the time. And what I would say is that don’t be afraid that you don’t know. None of us went to school, or took a class that was sales training 101. Now maybe you have, but I’m going to tell you that it’s probably if it’s not been in the last ten years, it was probably very masculine driven, and different than the philosophy I believe, which is you serve first. And you give people suggestions and tips and help them to solve their problems.
Susan
I just love that, you know, I can just also feel the fun and the energy that you use in your coaching and with other people. So thank you. Thank you for being here with us today. And you know if you have enjoyed this episode of the Radiant Soul Sisters, be sure to join us next time as we shine the light on another one of our shining stars. Thank you again, Cheryl Burget Did I say it correctly that time?
Cheryl
It’s Burget, that’s okay.
Susan
I always try to get it right. Names are so important to me. Cheryl Burget has been the amazing guest today. You can find all of our episodes, resources, and community at my website SusanCrewsCo.com.
