ASA 70 | Reasons Or Results

 

Are you timely and results-driven, or are you the person who has great intention but also has a lot of reasons for why things don’t get done? When faced with the phrase “reasons or results,” what do you think is the most important word? Alex Mandossian has explored this mindset extensively along with his colleague, T. Harv Eker. In this episode, Alex discusses why ethical influence is built upon results and why you can either have reasons or results. He differentiates a reason from a result and how that clarification can and will change the lives of your clients. Lastly, Alex teaches how to get more results versus reasons for achieving what you want and avoiding failure.

—

Listen to the podcast here:

Give Reasons OR Results?

In this episode, you’ll discover number one, what’s the most important word for the question, give reasons or results. Number two, you’ll learn why the reasons or results mindset changes the lives of the people you coach. It’ll change your life as well. Number three, you’ll learn how to get more results versus reasons for achieving what you want and avoiding failure.

Reasons Or Results Mindset

The year is 2008 and we’re in the heart of the Great Recession. It was global. I remember it. We didn’t know we were in a recession until 2009. We couldn’t figure out why people were not buying like they used to. People weren’t running to the back of the room like they used to at events.

I’m with my good friend T. Harv Eker and his partner, Michelle Burr, in their apartment in San Diego, California. We’re discussing how to generate more monthly recurring revenue for Peak Potentials, which was the company that Harv started in Vancouver. As we’re thinking about it, we wanted to see if there were ways to make more money selling to fewer people. It was evident that fewer and fewer people were buying.

We didn’t know that was the business model. We didn’t know if it was the trainer who was making people run to the back of the room. We didn’t know if it was the offer. What we didn’t know that if we could get those people to stick, as a stick strategy, and create monthly recurring revenue, that would impact the bottom line. We wouldn’t have to let go of any of the employees or team members

For Peak Potentials and as a consultant, friend and partner of T. Harv Eker, he and I discussed, along with Michelle Burr, the opportunity to introduce coaching worldwide. Peak Potentials happened in North America. It was licensed overseas with T. Harv Eker’s signature courses through the joint venture partner, which is Success Resources run by Richard and Veronica Tan.

ASA 70 | Reasons Or Results

Reasons Or Results: If you want to get more results versus giving reasons for your achievement or your failure, then it requires courage.

 

One decision for MRR, Monthly Recurring Revenue, would have a big impact on the bottom line because it would be recurring revenue as if it were a utility. You’d sell once and the sunken cost would be over time, like continuity. The obvious decision was coaching or mentoring. The first thing we did is we thought about what we could offer that would be a little different. It would be direct and within the theme that T. Harv Eker stands for, which is accountability. He likes to call it street smart with heart.

He came up with the name Reasons or Results Coaching. I want you to think about the power of reasons or results. One of the things that he would say when he would sell it from the stage is, “What’s the most important word of that question, reasons or results?” That’s all you’re doing.

You’re giving reasons or results to other people. You’re reporting reasons to someone, whether it’s your boss, colleague or students, that they’re not getting the results that they want. You’re simply demonstrating the results that they, you, or the team have already gotten.

Many people in the audience, when he would ask the question, would say reasons. Others would say results. A few people would say, “Or,” and he’d say, “Stop right there. That’s the right answer.” The most important word in the three-word question, “Reasons or results?” is or. It’s binary. You’re either giving reasons for what you’ve done or you’re reporting the results of what you’ve done.

If you’re like me and you’re a coach, consultant or service professional, you want to be someone who’s always delivering results even if they have not met the expectations of your client. Even if there were some misguided intentions or miscommunications along the way, the reasons mindset isn’t going to serve you, the results mindset will.

Why can the reasons or results mindset change the lives of your coaches, if you have any, your life, if you’re a coach or a consultant, or the lives of the people you’re coaching or consulting? The reason is that once you get a result, then you measure something. You can’t measure a reason, but you can measure a result.

[bctt tweet=”The most important word in the three-word question, ‘Reasons or results?’ is or.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

For example, you can’t measure an excuse, rationalization, justification, alibi, plea, defense or even vindication. It’s binary, you either have a reason or a result. That’s what reasons are. They’re excuses, rationalizations and justifications. They’re not measurable. They’re emotional but they don’t have any logic to them. You can only improve what you end up measuring.

A result is a grade, like in school, or an outcome, good or bad, expected or unexpected. It’s a score, answer, finding, conclusion or review. A result takes courage to report, a reason does not. The best definition of a reason is justification or rationalization. If you want to take it to the extreme, it’s an excuse. If you have a mindset that everything you do either has a reason or a result, then you can tell on yourself when you’re giving reasons.

You know when you’re out of alignment or when you’re not accomplishing what you want to accomplish because you’re giving reasons instead of reporting on the results even if you don’t want to report the results because they are disappointing. You can’t improve something unless it’s a result or an outcome. That’s how it can change your life and the lives with everyone you deal with.

Imagine if everyone in your social, business or family environment were results-oriented. Think about the adult-level conversations you could possibly have. You’ll be disappointed. You may be ecstatic or happy. You’re not going to meet every expectation but you’re reporting on results. For example, it’s the amount of money you’ve made on the certain amount that you’ve put in, we’ll call that interest, or it’s the amount of debt you’re in.

The result is always defining point B of where you’re at. That point B becomes another point A. Point A is where you are now and point B is where you want to be. You can give a reason for that or you can give results. If you give a result and you report it as a grade, outcome, score, answer, finding or conclusion. In other words, if you can measure it in the form of review, it changes the mindset of everyone else involved. They’re focusing on results and not just on reasons, justifications and rationalizations.

Reason Or Result Leadership

If you want to get more results versus giving reasons for your achievement or your failure, then it requires courage. What I want you to do is to look at your own leadership in the way you lead others. Are you okay-ing and accepting reasons or are you seeking results and coaching people to get to the ultimate result of what happened?

In leadership in India, they call that person a guru. A guru in India goes back several thousand years. In Japan, it’s called sensei. In Italy, they may call that person a maestro. In China, it’s called a shifu. In Tibet, a lama. In England, they call it a guide. In France, a tutor. In the US, we call it a coach. Ultimately, it’s a leader.

If you go back to the original Indo-European definition of a leader, it comes down to two words, ‘lea’ that means path, and ‘der’ which means finder. A leader is a pathfinder, which is why it’s the theme of my annual mastermind. I have a Wizard Academy with one of my mentors, Roy H. Williams. I invite other pathfinders there. We find paths for other people.

That’s why I created Clear Path Coaching, or CPC, for $30,000. I’ve had over three dozen clients that have come through that within the last few years because it’s just that. It defines leadership. If I already know the path because I’ve taken it, then I become the guide as they say in England, the lama as they say in Tibet, the guru as they say in India or the coach as they say in the United States.

Sample Company Scoring

Focus on the reason and you will fail. Focus on the result and you have a lot higher capability and probability of succeeding. In my own company, I’ve heard many examples of reasons. For example, if someone doesn’t perform at the level that was expected and we both agreed upon, I hear things like, “Alex, I would have gotten it done except for,” and fill in the blank.

“You don’t understand, Alex. I had so much to do,” and then the reason. “If you only knew my situation, Alex, you would,” and another reason. “Sorry, but,” and the reason. It can be annoying, but at the same time, it requires coaching.

A results-oriented person doesn’t talk that way. In my own company, we have something called IRS scoring. Every time we have a quarterly review, I have a system that’s unique to my company. It’s worked because it’s so simple and democratic. It works for both sides, both me and the team members I’m paying.

The structure of scoring, which is results-based, is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Three is average performance, four is above average, and five is way above average. In other words, outstanding. Two is below average and one is way below average. This is if there’s been a total misunderstanding or total unmet expectation or misguided intention. You don’t get a lot of ones with my company because the people aren’t around. We do this every quarter to keep the score on the results that people are getting.

Here are the things that I do. IRS doesn’t stand for Internal Revenue Service, which is the organization that collects taxes from Americans here in the US. IRS stands for Initiative, Reliability and Speed. On a 1 to 5 basis, five being outstanding, three being average and one being way below average, I ask them, “How do you feel that you did this quarter with initiative in this area?”

[bctt tweet=”You can’t measure a reason but you can measure a result. ” username=”AlexMandossian”]

We talk about what area I’m scoring them on and they look at their own initiative. In other words, personal initiative is where they’ve taken the opportunity to take leadership. I then talk about another area. There’s always a third area that we focus on. I let them give me their score of themselves. I give them the score if I think it’s north or south of their score.

Sometimes, they’ll give me a three and I’ll say, “How can you score it a three? Why did you give yourself the three?” Many times, they’re harder on themselves than they need to be. I tell them, “It was a five and here’s why.” Other times, they’ll say five. I’ll say, “I would agree with you but I’m giving you a four and here’s why.” Even though they’re scoring themselves and I’m scoring them, it’s a dialogue and not a monologue. Many times, I do a 360-degree scoring where they score me in areas of my own leadership.

R stands for reliability. I would say, “In these three areas that we’ve decided to score you on, how reliable were you? In other words, could we rely that you would get the job done?” They would give me a score and I would tell them what my score was. It means I’m paying attention throughout that quarter, which is three months.

S stands for speed. How quickly did you do things? In other words, did you do it on a timely basis? Did you do them before the deadlines that we both agreed on? Speed is important. Money buys speed. Everyone will make $1 million in their lifetime. Some people will take 50, 40, 30, even 20 years. There are a lot of people who do it in ten years. That’s $100,000 a year. The trick is to do it in a year or less. Speed is important because that’s the way you stockpile wealth.

Alexism: Incompetent Person

I hope you adopt the results mindset. I hope you realize that it’s binary. It’s, “Or,” as the most important word. You either give reasons or results. You can’t have both. This mindset will change your life and everyone you deal with. The Alexism for this episode is one I’m borrowing from my good friend and marketing mentor Roy H. Williams of Wizard Academy. Here it is, “An incompetent person with a great attitude is still an incompetent person.”

You could replace the word person with worker, friend or family member. It’s because you’ve got a great attitude that doesn’t pardon you from being incompetent in the business setting. If you’re an incompetent parent, you could be putting your kids or even spouse’s life in jeopardy under certain circumstances.

Here’s a review of the insights you and I both rediscovered in this 70th episode of All Selling Aside. They’ll only work if you apply them. Number one, you learn what the most important word for the question reasons or results is. That’s the word, “Or.” Number two, we made the distinction of why the reasons or results mindset changes lives and coaching. Number three, how to get more results versus reasons for your achievement versus accepting failure. That’s having the results mindset.

As an epilogue, reasons or results made millions of dollars for T. Harv Eker. I recommended several coaches and even had a little to do with the certification of those coaches. It went global so it was successful. Remember, these insights you learned in this episode will only work for you if you work them and if you’re results-oriented, not reasons-oriented.

Please make sure you execute what you’ve learned in all of the All Selling Aside episodes, not only this one. If you do, I believe your future will be bigger. Your future will look brighter. You’ll create your future on your own terms, which is the ultimate freedom and liberation. Is that exciting to think about? I think so.

Speaking of reviews, if you’ve already given me a review on iTunes, thank you from my heart to yours because it helps us go up the ranks. Other people get access to this show by seeing it. If you’ve already done it, then write down your biggest takeaway or a-ha moment from this episode on an index card. If you haven’t given me a review, then go to iTunes.

ASA 70 | Reasons Or Results

Reasons Or Results: Focus on the reason and you will fail, focus on the result and you have a lot higher capability and probability of succeeding.

 

You can do that by typing in AllSellingAside.com/iTunes and write down your biggest a-ha moment or takeaway in the reviews section. Don’t review the show or give me your a-ha moment from another episode. Do it from this episode, unless you feel another one was more valuable to you. It’ll mean much to me. Once you do that, iTunes will ask you to rate the episode.

I hope the result you’ll give me and that I’ve earned five stars as a five-star rating for this episode. Will you write, rate and subscribe to All Selling Aside, if you haven’t already done so? It’ll take three minutes out of your day. What you declare could provide you and the others reading that review a valuable learning lesson. Thank you in advance.

I do have one final gift to give you in honor of this All Selling Aside episode number 70 and that’s a physical copy of my Amazon best-selling book, Alexisms. Most importantly, it’s not just the physical book you’ll get even if you’re overseas, but it’s the free access to the most reliable marketing funnel I know of that can triple what you show on the page for a free offer. If you show $7.95 for shipping and handling and the book is free, you’ll get 3 to 4 times that which makes it affordable.

Everyone loses money on the front end, at least I do, for a book or any other kind of offer you have under $10. That is done through an audio tutorial, step-by-step, of this magic funnel I’m talking about. You can experience it at MarketingOnline.com/book and you’ll get the funnel audio tutorial right after you’ve purchased the book.

This is the show dedicated to making you an ethical influencer and more importantly, give you the result to be more certain into your life. Please do whatever it takes to join me in the next episode because our topic is Getting Quality Testimonials. Do you know how? Do you know how to ask for them? Do you know what to do with them? Do you know where to post them?

[bctt tweet=”An incompetent person with a great attitude is still an incompetent person.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

I encourage you to invite a friend, colleague or study buddy to All Selling Aside because the next topic will be awesome. I think you’ll learn a lot from it and I rarely teach it. I can’t wait to connect with you. It’s super important that you bring a study buddy because it’s more fun to learn with others. I want you to join me then. I can’t wait for our paths to cross again.

Links and Resources: