Surround Yourself with Talented, Dynamic People - in Sales and Elsewhere

As months turn into years, I realize that I've had the opportunity to learn a lot - especially through making many mistakes over time. Seeing others make mistakes and learning from those is also a gift - if only we could learn just from others' mistakes - seems that the lessons are driven home more when it is US in the middle of a pickle of some type.

It reminds me of something I learned through athletics and business - if you surround yourself with people smarter and more talented than you, it takes nothing away from you, and adds to the value you offer the world.  It makes you better.

Recently I had the opportunity to auctioneer in front of a 2,000+ audience, which I had also done the previous year. (for those of you who don't know, I do fundraising auctioneering as a way to give back to the many non-profits I'm involved with.)

It went just fine last year - on my own, I helped raise 42% more than what they did without a professional auctioneer the prior year. But there was something about the audience - my intuition "saw" that there was so much more money in that room. I lobbied the organizers (and followed up throughout the year) to have more than one live item this year, and was convinced that we could raise LOTS more than the $40,000 raised in 2007.

I knew that to be most successful, I could bring in a "secret" weapon - my girlfriend and "mentor" in auctioneering - one of the people I've learned the most from as I've grown as an auctioneer. We've had a fantastic relationship as strategic partners - I've had the opportunity to mentor her in sales and in helping grow her business to a worldwide audience rather than just a local, competitive one. We have both gained.

So imagine inviting someone more talented than you, and more successful than you have been to this point, and teaming up with them? This is a business situation that many biz owners might turn away from. I knew that April Brown, 16-year professional, would knock everyone's socks off - and in fact she did. Our last live auction item, which I thought we'd do together, was auctioned off by her. That one item raised $100,000 and between the two of us and the organization's founders, we raised over $186.000 in just twenty five minutes.

It felt AWESOME. Afterwards, we realized what a special half hour that was - how many women's' and children's' organizations this would impact - - and got feedback from conference attendees over the next few days. You can see some video of April Brown in action - so far I haven't seen video of the rest of the auction - but will be sure to post once it comes in. Can you see why I wanted April to be a part of this?

Bottom line? Don't sacrifice the good of the cause in order to standout on your own. Recruit others - more talented and knowledgeable - you will STILL shine - I'll forever know what a great idea this turned out to be, simply because I chose to expand my horizons and stretch and be part of something bigger.