30 Seconds That Transform Sales Strategy with Eric Konovalov

In this episode, I sit down with Eric Konovalov, founder of The Goal Guide, for a high-energy conversation about the power of 30 seconds. We talk about the 30-second choices that shape our lives, the importance of confidence in decision-making, and how authenticity transforms sales. Eric shares his journey from the Marine Corps to business coaching and offers wisdom on mindset, communication, and serving others. We even touch on the humorous side of leadership, resilience, and human connection. This conversation is full of actionable ideas and inspiring reminders that the smallest decisions can create the biggest outcomes.

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 Laura T.🧡💚💙
Host of the 30 Second Success Podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

So, welcome back to the 30 Second Success Podcast. Today, we are going to have a deep conversation on understanding how 30 seconds can change everything when it comes to sales. Today, with me, I have a good friend, Eric Konvalov, and I'm excited to introduce you to him. But first, I just want to remind you quickly that the Brand Success Hub has amazing resources, training, and teaching available to you that will support you in your growth and your business. So if you are ready to learn more about how to grow your business, increase your brand, and get more eyes on you, whether it's for sales or communication, come hang out with us in the Brand Success Hub. So thank you, Eric, for being with me today. I'm so excited to share you with the audience. Eric Konoval is the founder at the Goal Guide. So, Eric, why don't you share your 30 seconds message with us?

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Wow. Laura, thanks so much for having me. And I wish, I wish, I wish the Brand Success Club existed when I was first starting out. It probably would have saved me so much time and avoid I would have avoided so many mistakes if I had a mentor and coach like you along the way. So thanks for having me. Who am I? First and foremost, I am a father to two incredible boys. I'm a husband to my lovely wife. And at the time that we're recording this, we're about two weeks away from our 19-year wedding anniversary. I'm an immigrant from the former USSR. I'm a U.S. Marine. And today my company focuses on helping people sell better, grow their businesses, and just live a happier life. That's me in a nutshell, Laura.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

I love it. I love it. And you know, one of the things that a lot of people don't realize how people connect, right? So you and I connected a little while ago through someone else who has I think it was the Success Champions group, Donnie's group.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

The hairy.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

It may have been, but I think originally um you were hanging out with Donnie on LinkedIn, and then somehow you and I connected, and we had to, and then we found out that we lived right around the corner from each other. So that was always fun, you know. I it just knowing that you were just a neighborhood away was always cool. Every time I'd go by your neighborhood, I'd be like, who's there? My husband would be like, Who's Aaron? Like, I don't know, I haven't met him yet. Um, so no, it was it was always fun to know that you you and your lovely wife live nearby. So thank you for um just hanging out with me today. So so let's jump in. I love asking my my guests, um, just a real quick question, icebreaker. What's something people are often surprised to learn about you?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

I cry when I watch cartoons. No, I'm kidding. That's not true. I'm just having a I'm just having fun. What's something people surprised to know about to learn about me? Okay, uh, at 37 I had open heart surgery. That usually surprises people because I look pretty fit and healthy. And um, I spend eight years in the Marine Corps, and it's like I'm not the typical guy to have open heart surgery.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

No, that's that's that is very surprising. I would not have guessed that. So thank you for sharing that with us.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

But you have such a big heart, like yeah, they needed to make more space, and so you know, now I have this really cool star slid down the middle.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Yeah, I love it. So take us back to a 30-second decision that changed everything for you. What happened in that moment and what came next?

SPEAKER_01 3:43

So, lucky for me, I've always been a quick decision maker. And uh, I have a mentor that taught me he said, I don't know if I'm making the right decision. I just have enough confidence in myself to know that I can make any decision right. And it's like when you have that kind of belief system that like you don't overthink it because it's really impossible to know if you're making the right decision until you're on the other side of it looking back. Was that the right decision? Was it not the right decision? So I've made some stupid decisions and made some good decisions. I'd say a 30-second decision was during COVID. We weren't planning to buy a house, we were looking to rent. I was living in Maryland, I was looking to rent in Florida and figure out which community, and you know, and then move. And the realtor, and we've lost probably like five different offers. The the market was insane. The second house went up for for rent, people were paying double what the asking price. Anyway, so we we lost probably like five, six places already. So the realtor calls me, it's Friday night, close to 10 p.m. She says, Hey, I got a brand new build. You have 10 minutes to say yay or nay. I know you guys want to rent, but you'd have to buy this, and I need an X amount of dollars of deposit, like ASAP, but I need to know because I got three other people in line. So sight unseen, never being in this neighborhood. I looked at my wife, I was like, we'll take it. And that was probably one of the best 30-second decisions I've ever made because as soon as we signed the contract, probably a week later, the market skyrocketed. You couldn't find any inventory, everybody was moving to this area, and uh, so I'm just blessed. We're still in this house, it's a beautiful home, and I love it. Yeah, and that was a 30-second decision.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

I love that. I love that. We had a similar story when we moved to Florida, and it went during COVID, right before the market went crazy. My realtor was the first one to walk through the house. I said, sir, I'm buying it unless you tell me I shouldn't. And here's my offer.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

That's pretty.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

So I I totally can relate to that. That's awesome. I did not know that. I knew that I just did not know we moved probably about the same time. So um, so obviously that was the right decision for you and your family. Now, I know one of the things about you that I absolutely love is that you do a lot of coaching around sales, typical sales approach. So let's talk a little bit about how 30 seconds can really impact sales conversation.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Yeah. Um 30 seconds to impact a sales conversation. That's an interesting question. I would say in sales, it's that that 30 seconds could could stop you from making a call that you know you should make. Right? You you want to pick up the phone, and then that little gremlin kicks in, it's like, oh, you're gonna be a bother. You probably shouldn't do it. What are you gonna say? And then it's like, oh, maybe I should go and do more research on LinkedIn. And so if we can program ourselves to just like, hey, if I got an idea, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get, you know, take action on that one idea, ASAP, and make the call, you'll notice that one, you start taking action faster, you're gonna put yourself in better situations more often. And um, so that's my advice for 30 seconds. 30 seconds just seems so quick. But then on the other hand, in sales, silence is golden. And 30 seconds can sometimes feel like five minutes of silence. So when you present a price to stay silent for however long it takes, it may be it might feel like 30 seconds, it might be 10 seconds, but even that that's a long time in silence. What we're doing is we're giving people the space to come up with that decision to give us a yes, to give us the next steps without interrupting their thought.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

I love that. And you know, that's the pregnant pause we talk about, right? That you know, that giving people room to really absorb. Like I tell people all the time, just you know, if you're introducing yourself, share who you are, what you do, how you serve, and then shut it. Let it sink in and let someone form a question. So, from that perspective, when you're coaching with your clients, especially from the sales perspective, what are some of the unique things that you coach them on to help them look at their messaging, their communication from the perspective of a having a more successful impact on the conversation?

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Yeah, no, it's a great question. The way the way I coach um my clients is really to focus on their client, right? And one of the one of the analogies I use is a Marine. So if you want to take over a town, you're probably gonna send Marines, but if you wanted to go get Osama bin Laden, you're gonna send the Navy SEALs, right? And those Navy SEALs, they're doing a lot of research, they understand who they're going after, they know their schedule, they know everything there is to know about their target before they ever go in. And so before sending a message, like me and Laura are two completely different people, and the way we like to receive communication that will get us to say yes, no, connect, disconnect is completely different. So it would be it would be silly to have one message for everyone. The best thing that I'd tell my my clients to do is let's do some research, let's look at the their style of communication online. What are they posting? What do they like? What do they say? Just five minutes of quick research. Now with AI, it's even easier to do because you can just type in the person's name, company, say, give me the last five posts, and whenever they were on the media news, something about them, AI finds all that for us. So, based on that, we then draft a message specific to what we believe their style of communication is. So if it's somebody that's you know high D on disk, it's gonna be short, direct to the point, ROI focused. If it's somebody that's a high C, we're gonna give them a lot of details on why we want to get together, what's the benefit for them, how we've done our research, and we know how to solve their problem, right? So we're gonna give them enough data for them to say yes, just understanding the personality style. That's unique. The other thing is that you know, I grew up through the Xerox world. We had to get crafty. And how do you stand out? So, can I just give you an example really quick of one thing I had a client do that got him a really nice size deal? So this, yeah. So this person uh he had a company where they provided physical therapists to nursing homes. Okay, and they would build the insurance for these for for their residents, and the residents never had to leave the nursing home. It was like a win-win-win. Well, he's he kept reaching out to the COO. Nothing. Send them, send them notes, emails, phone calls, LinkedIn, dropped off donuts and cookies, like you name it, nothing. Like the guy just kept ignoring him and was always in the meeting. So I said, okay, here's what we're gonna do go get a trophy that says number one per number one hardest person to schedule a meeting with whatever year it was, and have his name there, right? So he drops it off at the front desk, and as you can imagine, the staff is just dying laughing when they see this trophy come in. It wasn't like a little trophy, it was like, you know, three feet tall trophy. So he he calls me ecstatic after he did it. He's like, Eric, by the time I got in my car and was pulling out of the driveway, the COO called my cell phone, hilariously laughing, and asked me to come back in to have a conversation. So it's never a one size fits all. The approach is always about the other person. Like, what is it that will connect with them? How can we stand out, especially in the world of AI and all the spam messaging that we currently get, right? Hope that answers it.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

I love that. I love that. It's it's great. I I love that's a great example of really showing up with a deep understanding of who you serve and how you serve them. Um, I love the idea of doing the research. And I believe that you actually have given us a free download to share with the audience the LinkedIn prospecting playbook. So we'll make sure that's in the show notes as well. So thank you for sharing that with our with our audience. Want to tell uh tell the get about our audience a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Yeah, but I people are awkward on LinkedIn. Like I, you know, sometimes I'll coach a client and they'll say, and most of my clients is like the expert, you know, human resources person who is retiring and wants to go on a consulting or something along those lines, right? Never sold anything, never really had to use LinkedIn for selling purposes. So they write up these, them plus their friend Chad GPT, write up these elaborate messages to send to somebody as like a first message after they connect with them. And oftentimes they say, look, let's just pretend, let's pretend that you were gonna send this, but you realize you're running late for a luncheon. And you decided, you know what, I'm gonna not send it. I'll go to lunch, come back, I'll read through it, and then send it. You get to the lunch, and the person you were gonna send that message to is sitting at your table. Would you tell them what what your message is? Like, would you verbatim say that? And they're like, no, I would never say that to somebody. Like, great, don't send it then. Well, what should I send? Well, what would you say to them if you sat right in right next to them? Well, I would say, hey, how are you? Okay, great, that's a good start. Well, then what would you say? What brings you here? Great. What else would you say? Um, how's your business going? Or, you know, what do you do? Great. Start off like that. Like if when I connect, oftentimes I target um target, yeah, coaches, consultants. When I connect with them, if it says coach in their bio, send a connection request, the next thing is like, hey Laura, great to connect with you. How's the coaching business treating you these days? Right away, I'm asking them a question, right? So that's what the LinkedIn Prospect and Playbook really is. It's what's the message flow that you should use? How do you connect? How do you get them into a conversation through these quick short messages and asking them questions? And then I give you six tips that really help you boost your chances in getting the meeting scheduled with your ideal client. So that's what that LinkedIn Prospect and Playbook is.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

I love it. Thanks for sharing that with us.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

So quick reminder if you're enjoying the episode, please take a moment to like, follow, and subscribe to the podcast. Your support helps us reach more people with stories, strategies that inspire real connection. So, Eric, what's a challenge that you've helped your audience, your clients overcome? And and I'm sorry, remind me of the name of your group. You have a group that you that you facilitate um with training. Is it the Relentless Goal Achievers? I think it is.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

That's it.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

So yeah, the company is the goal guide. And um, you know, I'm all about helping people achieve their goals, like grab you by the hand, guide you to your goals. So when I was thinking about a membership community where I could work with people on a weekly basis, uh, I called it relentless goal achievers because that that's the type of person that I want in my group.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Yeah, I love it. I love it. And you know what? The the biggest thing is is sometimes it's making choices, it's making the decisions to move forward towards our goals. So in that, in that group, in that in the connection, in the trainings that you do, sales, I'm sure, is a big part of it in the conversation. But what are some of the things that you that you uh share with your members that really help them get out of their own way when it comes to sales?

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Yeah, I think as goofy as I am, um I mean, we've talked about anything and everything, anything from mindset. We've had a study on Think and Grow Rich through the lens of entrepreneurship, my sales process, LinkedIn. Right now, since January, we started uh, I call it BYOB, build your own brand. And, you know, a lot of people are not comfortable with recording themselves and posting videos and creating content, but they're just looking at it wrong. So, what I helped them do is see see things differently. Like we can't see the picture when we're in a frame. And instead of looking at it and looking at it and making it all about you, well, I don't look good, I hate how I sound, I don't have the camera, the background, whatever excuses there might be to not create content. Um, I want them to think about like, hey, if you had, if you just discovered the pill that cured cancer, like you have that pill. And the best way you can help the world is take out your phone and record yourself saying, I found the cure for cancer, and then call it. Would you do that or would you be afraid of how you looked on camera? And they would say, No, I would definitely do that. We'd need to get that out. And I'm like, that's how you got to be about your business. Like, if you don't feel that your business helps somebody solve a problem, why are you doing this anyway? Like, I am on fire for helping people sell more. I just did a sales training about two weeks ago, and the guy left me a Google review. And this was a roofing company, I mainly focus in B2B space, he was in roofing. The Google review said, I've been in sales for 30 years. This is the best sales training I've ever been to. Like, whoa. And I love that. And the reason why it was the best sales training he's ever been to is because it focuses, it gets them to focus on the client. I'm the first guy that's not telling them about the material of their roofing shingles or whatever else training they're getting because nobody cares. So I think that was, I think I'm answering your question. We kind of went off to the left here, but yeah, no, it's good, it's all good.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

I love that you're sharing that because you know, that's one of the biggest pieces, you know, a lot of people don't understand when it comes to the communications. It really is about focusing on your audience. Who are you serving? It's that servant leadership, and I think that is something that you truly are passionate about. That you know, you're who are you serving and how are you serving them when you realize that you are coming from a place of service and helping other people to get what they want? It makes the sales conversation a lot easier.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Yeah, you don't need to sell, you're just uncovering challenges and figuring out where they want to be and helping them bridge the gap with your service or your product. That's all.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Yeah, it's beautiful. I love that. I love that. So, how has your message or your mission evolved because of what you've personally experienced?

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Yeah, I started out with the when I first started out, it was all about um executive leadership training. And then I realized that what holds most people back is themselves. It's the it's their we call it their BS system, their belief system, right? Um they'll never outperform their self-image. And so if when they were younger, they're they had a teacher or they had a parent who was rude or mean to them, or that you know, that's that sticks, and they're still operating from that place. So I kind of got away from the executive leadership stuff, and I started focusing more on life coaching, and then the the term life coach wasn't that great. Um, so I transformed it into sales training because um I just that's what I've been doing for a long time. Uh in even in corporate when I was leading teams, kind of just really good at that. But even with sales training, when people come to me because they want to sell more and learn how to close business, handle objections, 99% of the time we're working on the inner game, we're working on their BS. So the transformation really went from here are the tactics, here's the scripts, here's the things you can do to what do you believe about yourself? What do you believe about sales? What do you really think is stopping you? You know, I could give you all the tactics, but if you think selling bothers people, you'll never make the call. You're not gonna show up confidently. So we got to work on that.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

I love it. I love it that you flip you flip the script to be more about the mindset of sales.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Yeah, but I'll never tell them that's what it's about. At the end of the day, that's not nobody wants improved mindset. Like, at least that's not what they're coming for, they're coming to improve their sales.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

So it's a tricky thing. I think sometimes, yeah, especially for coaches. I don't know if you found this. One of the things is um they they struggle a lot of coaches really struggle with, you know, feeling that worth right is you know, is what I'm offering worth it, or people gonna see the value in it and try to communicate that value. And I think a lot of it comes down to belief and belief in themselves. And you know, so how do you how do you help people? Really see that what they have to offer the world is is magical. I mean, let's let's face it, you know, everybody's so different and so unique, and what we bring to the table can create such a difference in someone else's life, especially when we believe in it ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Yeah. We all have that inner critic that that is really good at pointing out all the things we messed up in, right? And so I become that I help them tap into their inner champion. And sometimes it requires us to really draw a timeline of their life and say, okay, let's talk about the big wins you've had. And they're like, Oh, what big wins? Well, when did you learn how to walk? How how how old were you? Oh, I learned how to okay, let's put that down on the timeline. I mean, you you didn't know how to walk, you learned how to walk. When did you learn how to speak? Right. And I know it sounds silly, but then you get to tell me about your favorite client you helped. And it's like, oh, I did this. When I went through that exercise, literally, my favorite client was someone I helped save their marriage. I was coaching a guy, he came to me because he wanted to improve his sales uh in his vitamin store. He just opened a vitamin store, went to improve his sales. We start working together, he finds out that his wife is having an affair. To the point, like she moved out, he's super angry, and we're coaching. So quickly went from sales coaching to life coaching. And I remember asking him a question, like he's just angry, cursing her out. Like, I mean, they were married for a long, long time, had teenage kids. And I just remember looking at him and I knew, I knew that the way what he was saying was not truly what he wanted. And so I said, What do you really want to happen? And he said, I just want my marriage back. I said, really? And so then through some work, he had to forgive her. He had to forgive her, but not only that, he had to he had to kind of he had to take full responsibility for her actions. And I know it sounds crazy, and man, I know you're listening, you probably think what a nutso this is. The only thing we can control are the things we're responsible for. So, like, if he because he decided that he wanted to forgive her, the best possible thing is for him to take responsibility for not being the type of husband that she didn't want to walk out on. As crazy as that sounds. And when he saw it that way, when he took responsibility, it was so much easier for him to forgive her and then apologize. And now they're in Germany, I don't know how many years, happily ever after. Like, marriage is strong, I'm still connected with him. And um, that was that was just huge, you know.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

And you know, sometimes the sales you think that it's a it's a sales conversation, especially from the coaching perspective, and you do realize that the people trust you, right? People trust you, they come to you, they want to, they need somebody to confide in. And it's amazing that you were able to be there for him. So it it, you know, thank you for that. I I think that's that's a blessing to hear that story that you know that transformation took place because you took the time to hear what he had to share, right? You know, and and really encouraged him to decide what he wanted.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

So well, he's my uh, you know, he was a client of mine, which I could tell you was pro bono, but it was very, it was very, very rewarding, right? So like that's my that's probably my all-time favorite win. And as coaches, we got to do that. We got to create the space that people feel comfortable in.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

Right. Yes. There's a level of trust as coaches, and I think that's something that you and I could probably dive deeper into. Um, we're getting a little bit long-winded here, so so much for 30 seconds, huh? Right, so much for 30 seconds. So if today's conversation got you thinking about your brand message, um, your message or how you're showing up in the world, come check out the brand success hub. It's my on-demand resource center packed with tools, training, and templates to help you get clear, consistent, and confident in your brand. Just head over to 30secondsuccess.com and click on the hub. And I will have some goodies over there from Eric that he is sharing with us. So you'll definitely be able to find um some great things that he's offered to our members over in the hub. Just and I'll see you over there. So, you know, as we wrap up, I would love to ask you um, what do you wish more people understood about leadership and um leadership and growth?

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Yeah, start leading yourself, you know. Everybody, Mother Teresa, I think, is quoted as saying, if you want to change the world, go home and love your your family, right? We're all so quick to point out everybody else's negatives and whatever everybody else is doing. We want to go out and change the world, and our room's a mess, right? Like change, change your life, get healthy, get start being loved by your family, love them back, like worry about you, and then when you improve yourself, your life, your leadership, you'll attract the people you want to attract. Um, that's been the case for me, that's been the case for many, many people. It's like, you know, there's a law of the lid. Have you ever heard of that? John Maxwell talks about it. The law of the lid simply says that if you give yourself a if you give your leadership ability a score of one to ten, let's say you score yourself, and and in his book, 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, he's got like a test you can take to see where you've fallen as a leader. But let's say you give yourself a six, right? Or you're a six as a leader, you'll never get seven, eights, nines to follow you. They just won't. So our job as leaders is to develop our leadership ability. And the way we do that is by leading our life in the way that others want to lead theirs in, and then they'll follow you.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. I love John Maxwell's work. Yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

He's great.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

So, what's the best way for people to connect with you or go deeper into your work?

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Uh, LinkedIn is always good. Um, Eric Konovalov on LinkedIn, reach out to me, connect. I have, you know, download, download the LinkedIn prospecting playbook, click on a link, and you'll you'll get on my email and um we'll connect there as well.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

Awesome. Awesome. So before we go, what's a final thought or encouragement that you would leave for our listeners today?

SPEAKER_01 29:14

This is gonna go a little deep, but this one is um it was a game changer for me. Like I I think we would agree that in in this universe, in our world, there's only there's energy and there's matter, right? Things that we can touch, and then we get what energy is. And so thoughts and ideas are what? They're they're energy. And what we know about energy is that energy always flows from a higher source to a lower source, just like the energy grid for your city. The city has a grid, then energy flows to your community, to your house, and then you can plug in a lamp into the wall and get light, right? Don't the one thing I want to leave you guys with is that if you have an idea, it's because it came from a higher source, whatever you believe that higher source to be. You didn't generate the idea, and the only way that you could ever come to awareness of that idea is that you're you're the person that can transmute it from that state to the physical state. Like, and if you believe that to be true, then there's nothing that can ever stop you. Don't second guess yourself. If you got an idea, take immediate action, visualize it as if it's already true, and go to work. That's what life's all about. You know, I'm 45 years old. I'm not gonna tell you how old Laura is because she surprised me. Let's call her 42. But if my life expectancy is 75 for a man, 30 years, that seems like a long time. But that's only 30 more summers. You know, when you look at it that way, it's like, oh, 30 more summers? That's only 30 more summers with my kids. Like, I don't know. It we don't have enough time to to just waste worrying if something's gonna work. If you got the idea, just go take action, try it. If it doesn't work, try something else.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Love it. Love it.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

That's my advice.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

Great advice, great advice. And and um, I appreciate it. I appreciate you being here. Thank you so much for joining me, Eric. I appreciate you, and I'm sure I'm sure we'll connect again very soon. So, thank you so much for joining us on the 30 Second Success podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss next week's inspiring conversations. Until then, stand in your brand, twist your voice, and remember exactly just 30 seconds away.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Thanks, Laura. Hi, everybody.