MidAmerican Energy Company

I want to take a moment to say thank you to all my new friends I made at Knoxville Entrepreneur Center ! I learned a ton over the last month. And it was great meeting you all, hearing your “whys” and being inspired by your courage to take the next step in your entrepreneurship journey. I’m especially excited to see all the fruits of your labor - I can’t wait to be front row to to see the growth of a barn and farm wedding venue, a local photography business, advisory practice to help local musicians, an interior design consultancy for plant decor, a fractional CMO consultancy and the cool stuff you do Trent Richardson, PhD 🤣 And of course, a huge thanks and shout out to our amazing coach and teacher Kandis Troutman, MA . ! Thanks for the space to learn grow and connect. Best of luck. Wishing you all long term success and prosperity. Thanks for making Knoxville a great community and a wonderful place to grow roots!

Audiobook behind the scenes 🎙️The question to ask here is, how can we shrink and simplify our pitching to only what the buyer cares about? Here’s a short excerpt from Fix Your Broken Sales Calls with a story than any seller or sales leader can learn from. If you have an awesome software with 10 features - limit the start of your pitch to the three that solve the biggest problems for the buyer. If you sell incredible vehicle - don’t show every bell and whistle, start with the few that will serve the buyer the most. Or if you’re a real estate agent, don’t give a 15 point pitch about a property. Start with the top 3 that the buyer will care about. “But how do I know what the buyer will care about? If I don’t showcase the product” Ask. Questions. A simple benchmark for this is don’t begin talking about what you sell until you’ve asked five questions. Here are a few to start with: 1. Walk me through what let to this call/meeting/visit? 2. Was there a specific, memorable moment when you realized (tie back to something they said) was a priority for you? 3. Can you give me some examples of how (tie back to their own words) is affecting you? 4. If you picture a world where (tie back to their words) is no longer an issue for you, how do you envision that changing the day to day?” 5. Just to make sure I’m tracking, it sounds like (use their words) is creating (pain point), which is causing (negative impact) on x, y, z. Am I right in that assessment or is there something I missed? Yes, nuance and massage these to fit your product and buyer. But if you can master these questions before showcasing your product, you will do better than 95% of sellers. And your buyer will feel like you truly heard them.

Extremely close to finishing up this custom basement finish up for a client of ours! The absolute honor and privilege it is to be trusted with our work to be able to meet and help families make more livable space for themselves. Not only does this help with more livable space but once the project is completed, it’s instant equity for themselves! Win - Win for us all 🥇

All of our work with sales teams centers around three words: Strategy - your game plan for every conversation with a potential buyer Standards - the level of excellence you bring to the way you lead a conversation and advance a buyer Skills - the cadence and culture for learning new things and staying sharp as a sales team Each one of these topics could be a multiday workshop. But here's a 30,000-foot view from a recent training. I hope these simple analogies of a bridge, a stool, and red/yellow/green can clear some of the fog in your sales confusion!

One of the things I’ve really come to appreciate working with different organizations is: When resilience is done right, it doesn’t feel like a compliance exercise. It just becomes part of how the business runs. The teams we work with aren’t trying to check a box. They’re focused on things like: • Having plans they can actually use in the moment • Making sure ITDR and business continuity line up with how the business really operates • Building confidence in how they respond and recover when something goes wrong At the end of the day, resilience isn’t just about being prepared for disruption. It’s about keeping the business moving forward without hesitation. Curious, are you seeing resilience treated more like a requirement, or something that actually enables the business?