What Are The Success Secrets You Need To Know? With Chip Helm

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The success secrets for career and life are more straightforward than you think. John Livesay sits with Chip Helm, a #1 National Bestselling Author & Speaker. Chip talks about how it all comes down to treating people right. When you do what you said when you said you would, money will come. Join in the conversation to discover more success secrets you’ll need. Remember, mentors don’t find you. You find mentors. So don’t miss out on this episode!

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What Are The Success Secrets You Need To Know? With Chip Helm

Our guest on the show is Chip Helm who has expertise in sales in the med-tech world. He’s also the author of two books. We get into a big discussion about how mentors don’t find you, you find mentors. We talk about what soft skills are, not just storytelling, listening, and empathy but also humility. He puts a nice twist on the concept of treating people like they want to be treated. Enjoy the episode.

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Our guest is Chip Helm, an author, a speaker, a sales leader, and a consultant. He has more than 36 years of experience in sales leadership in the med-tech and life science industries. As a National Sales Manager for a multimillion-dollar medical device company, Chip helped seed and grow a standalone business unit from $0 to $50 million. Chip has honed his expertise and sales skills from the ground up starting as a District Manager who consistently ranked number 1 or 2 on the team and delivered $1 million in revenue year-over-year.

He’s worked alongside clinicians practicing medicine in fourteen different specialties and has established a robust network of genuine relationships across disciplines, physicians, associates, and academic institutions. He supported physicians with the development and launch of medical devices that advanced patient care and improved outcomes. He’s a national bestselling author of two books, Everyday Sales Wisdom for Your Life & Career and Bigger than Sales: How Humility and Relationships Build Career Success. Welcome to the show, Chip.

Thank you. It’s an honor, John. We just met and it is quite an honor to be on your show.

I’m glad to have you. You certainly have an impressive career, an MBA from South Florida. You have a quote that I love, which is, “No matter the career you have chosen, you are in sales.” Let’s talk about that as we tap into your own story of origin. Take us back to your childhood or when you decided to major in Biology. When did you come to that realization that we are all in sales?

It’s funny. I started early on that all I wanted to do growing up was be a dentist and orthodontist like my father. I strived on it. I worked hard in high school and college. That’s all I wanted to do. I want to be like my dad. I’ve got lucky. I’ve got accepted to Indiana University School of Dentistry, and the world turned upside down on me. It wasn’t the academic part of dental school.

Success Secrets: It doesn’t matter what you do in your career; you are in sales.

Three years into my dental school training, I found out that I didn’t have good small motor skills. I remember the day. It was June 15th. It was my dad’s birthday. I came home and bought him a card. We sat down together and he opened up the car. He and I cried because I said, “Dad, I’m sorry, I have let you down. I don’t think I can become a good dentist and I’m probably not going to be able to continue in dental school.” He goes, “I never knew.” I said, “I couldn’t tell you because I tried so hard and wanted it badly.”

What was interesting was there was a mentor and I believe that mentors. Like a quote for me in one of my Chipisms, “They don’t find you but you find mentors.” A guy named Bill Armstrong from Indiana University was a mentor and he said, “Chip, you’ve got great communication skills. I remember stories of people telling me that they would come to your dental clinic. The mothers and fathers with these kids, all the way down the hallway around the corner, outside waiting to come into your dental clinic because of your communication skills in a way that you connected with people.” I said, “Really?” He says, “There’s a medical company that would be good.”

I went through the interviewing process. Many years later, I have worked for the same medical company. He made a statement and he goes, “You would be good in sales.” “Into sales? What sales?” Back when I was growing up, there was no sales education. There was no diploma for sales like there is now. There’s nothing like that. What I have learned is it doesn’t matter what you do for your career. I don’t care if you are an IT or in marketing. I don’t care if you’re an entrepreneur. I don’t care if you wash dishes or a bartender. You are always communicating. Everyone is in sales.

You are either selling yourself every day, selling a widget or a concept. For me, I’m trying to sell my wife half the time. That doesn’t work well, so there you go. In a nutshell, bringing that together, I have always believed that no matter what you are doing in your career, you are in sales. The problem is, that is a myth to a lot of people. Most people in this country believe that if you don’t have sales in your title, then you are not in sales. I have been going around for the last few years trying to provide that message to everyone I can talk to. It doesn’t matter what you do in your career, you are in sales.

The irony from your bio is that one of your children became a dentist, is that correct?

It’s interesting to say that. My oldest is an orthopedic surgery resident at UT Houston. My daughter is a veterinarian. Last but not least, my football player, Sam, is in dental school at Indiana University and wants to become an orthodontist like his grandfather.

[bctt tweet=”Do everything humanly possible to help people.” username=”John_Livesay”]

I love that it still runs in the family. We discussed before the show that I also thought I wanted to be a dentist when I was ten years old. I liked my dentist. As a kid, I thought that was a great job and my parents gave me a model tooth. I went into pre-dentistry and didn’t get as far as you did. I thought, “I don’t think I’m good with my hands either.”

I took a Sculpting class. That’s where I first was introduced to the concept of negative space. Between that and the Biochemistry, I went, “I’m out.” It is devastating when you are young because you don’t have a frame of reference. You make a decision, “I’m going to do this,” and you put your nose to the grindstone, and years later, you go, “I have to reinvent myself.”

Little did I know that I would have to reinvent myself much later in my career when I’ve got laid off from a sales job. This concept of reinvention and resilience is something I wanted to ask you about, especially now that you are a parent of grown children and you see this as a sales keynote speaker yourself. How do you help people become resilient? Sales, as we know, is a lot of rejection.

When you become resilient, it’s all in your heart. When you do things with the right intent and in the right heart, most of the time, you will go down the right path. You may not get to where you are going, may not become a CEO, may not be exactly where, God willing, you want to go but if you do things with the right heart and intent, then you will find that resilience. Most people in this country don’t have passions. If you can discover and uncover your passion, I have three and I’m lucky, then you never will have a job.

To this day, my wife’s like, “My husband wakes up with a huge smile on his face and it cracks me up. He wants to get up in the morning and wants to go to work.” It’s not work for me. I haven’t had a job in over 37 years. It’s a combination of uncovering and discovering your passions. It’s also a combination of being genuine, heartfelt, and doing things with the right intent and heart. Hopefully, you come across with that humility, that sincerity to people. You will reach your goal of where you want to go.

In your book, Everyday Sales Wisdom for Your Life Career, I resonated with the concept of how important it is to communicate soft skills. As a storytelling keynote speaker myself, I’m constantly talking to people about how soft skills make you strong. For me, soft skills are storytelling, listening, and empathy. I would love to know if there’s anything else you put into that list. If so, what other soft skills do you see people need?

Everyday Sales Wisdom for Your Life & Career

First of all, it’s not what you say to people. It’s how you say things to people. People don’t understand that you don’t have to have a firm fist. You can talk with kindness and it’s your voice, you raise your tone. It’s not what you say to someone. I like to repeat things because if you repeat things, that means it stays with you. It’s important and you will take adherence to it. You are right in that list of empathy and sympathy. The Golden Rule says, “Treat people like you want to be treated.” Chip’s Golden Rule is, “Treat people how they want to be treated.”

I have a great friend of mine who’s a president of a big car dealership here in Bloomington, Indiana. Here’s how you put it. He goes, “Treat your employees like you want your employees to treat your customers.” You can’t say it better than that. It starts at the top and moves down for any kind of corporation, company or whatever you do for your career. We don’t have enough of what I call humility in this country.

How we look at things and put other people’s thoughts first is the old servant leadership but it’s more than that. Do you care about the other person? Do you want that person to be successful? Do you want to mentor that person? I’m big in mentoring. That’s part of what you are talking about as far as soft skills. I like the word soft skills. There are a lot of people who don’t like to use that word but I believe it’s right and spot on to use soft skills in how you talk to people, what you say to people, how you listen to someone, and how you put them first.

Always think about the other person and learn about that other person. I will leave you one thing and you can continue. One of the greatest leaders that you could ever be is the one that from day one, always wants you to get you from A to Z. If you want to become a vice president or whatever you want to do in your company, that person, that leader is more worried about getting you into that position than they are worried about their own career.

Would you say that soft skills are those three things I mentioned, empathy, listening, and storytelling?

Yes. I would say that as well. You can say sympathy. You can add on whether or not you are storytelling or listening but it’s how you speak to someone. How do you tell someone that there’s a difficult situation? How do you tell someone that you have to fire them or maybe they are not getting promoted this year? Can you do that with kindness, humility, and caring about them in your voice? How do you do it versus using a hard fist on the table with raising your voice or being quick with them?

I have always said, “If they walk into your office on Tuesday and ask you a question and you give me an answer, if I walk back in in your office on Thursday and ask you the same question, you better give me the same answer.” What I mean is being consistent with your colleagues, friends, and employees. Be consistent in how you react to things. That is correct communication.

[bctt tweet=”Treat people the way they want to be treated.” username=”John_Livesay”]

In your other book, Bigger than Sales: How Humility and Relationships Build Career Success, you alluded to humility earlier, we could probably put that under the category of soft skills. There’s so much belief that nice people finish last. I interviewed Tim Sanders who said, “Nice smart people are successful. Nice doesn’t mean you are weak, not prepared or all that stuff.”

What is your thought around people who need to change their beliefs to be a little humble? It’s like, “If I’m humble, it’s a sign of weakness. Buyers are going to take advantage of me and I will be walked over in my career.” There’s so much fear around that you have shown that’s not the case. What advice do you give people on that?

First of all, if I’m dating someone and a girl tells another friend that I’m nice, that’s not a good thing. In dating someone, if a woman told that you are too nice, means I probably won’t end up having a relationship and spending too much time with that person again. When it concerns how you treat people, building relationships, networking, and caring about what you do, the humble part needs to be there, whether you call it being nice. I call it being true to yourself and honest, as a day as long.

I always said two things that I would pray and talk about when I went to bed at nighttime. One is I would say to myself, “Did I not screw someone over today?” In my years in this industry, I have never screwed anybody over. The second thing is I would say to myself, “Did I do everything humanly possible to help the people, my company or the patients today?” Whatever business I’m in. I was in the medical business, so it’s like, “Did I help more patients get back to the community and get back to people?” That’s how I treat it.

It’s funny, what you said is some of the nice guys finish last, smart guys finish last or however you put it. The problem is when you are true to yourself and you are totally honest, you care. You take things a lot more personally than most people. The bottom line is you may not get to where you are going. You may not become what you want to become or what you think you need to become but only the man upstairs knows that. My opinion is, do it right.

A CEO of a company says to me, “Do things the right way and you will be fine.” I have always led my life that way personally and professionally. Maybe that’s why people always ask me about how I came out with the three kids, how they ended up where they were, etc. I don’t know if I answered your question per se but I’m a firm believer in honesty, sincerity, gentleness, and doing things the right way, not screwing people over. I have been screwed over my career and my life, so I do understand both sides.

Bigger Than Sales: How Humility and Relationships Build Career Success

You have also managed salespeople in your career. What similarities do you see in doing that versus raising children?

It’s a great thing to be patient, put yourself in their shoes, be kind, and listen more than you probably would ever listen. Also, sometimes you have to be truthfully honest. I always say this, “You may not like or agree with what I’m going to say but if you want my true and honest opinion, I will give it to you. Let’s leave it at that.”

Meaning, it doesn’t mean we have to agree. We can agree to disagree or you may not like it but I’m not going to tell you something that I haven’t been there, done there, and had taken the test. I’m going to tell you because I have been there, done there, and had taken the test. I’m not trying to tell you something I haven’t gone through already. I’m trying to minimize and lessen your pain to help you.

The old way of selling was always be closing and pushing. I created a new acronym called ABK, which is Always Be Kind. Since you mentioned kindness, you and I are simpatico on so many levels because we approach selling in life in general from that standpoint. It has to start with what we say to ourselves, that negative self-talk. You must have seen some salespeople or even your own children start beating themselves up with some self-talk. Have you been able to notice it and help them not keep doing it?

I have worn a positive blue band for years from Butler University in Indiana cancer patient. A lot of times, even Chip who’s usually mostly happy, a go-getter, and smiling all the time, struggled too with always being positive. I utilize this band a lot and we look down and say, “Stay positive, Chip.” When things get tough, the tough get going. Positivity breeds positivity. Negativity breeds negativity. One solution is you hope that you try not to hang out with negative people. Stay away from it as much as you can. It doesn’t do any good for yourself.

Number two, look at the glass half full and not glass half empty. There was a study done a while ago that most people look at the glass as half empty. That means they are pessimistic. If it rains on Tuesday, they believe it’s going to rain the following Tuesday. I hate to tell the story about my sister-in-law. I love her to death but she had come to visit me, John. By the time I was done, she took me to drink. I had to go upstairs and start drinking. I had to go downstairs and start drinking because I had to get away from the negativity. She was negative. I don’t want to spend too much time around negative people when I don’t have to, at least I’m trying.

There’s this great line about, “We are the sum total of the five people we spend the most time with.” You must have seen that as a parent. If your children tend to get with the wrong peers, that can be a danger for their future.

They drove their goals. There’s never a plan B. I like that in life. I never had a plan B. It doesn’t mean that I didn’t have to change course and go down a different path when I didn’t get dental school but I didn’t have a plan B. They never had a plan B. My older son wouldn’t know what to do if he didn’t become a doctor. It’s the same with a veterinarian. They never talked about a plan B. I believe in going for your goals. I don’t have a plan B but if it doesn’t work in Plan A, something will come up.

[bctt tweet=”Humility is a skill. ” username=”John_Livesay”]

Both of us, our plan A was to be a dentist and it didn’t work out for us but it didn’t mean we weren’t committed. It brings up something that is crucial for everyone reading, whether you want to say you are in sales or not. When you decide to do something, interview for a job, write a book or whatever it is, go for it 100%. Give it your best.

I was doing all this work and effort to get a job and they are like, “You are putting yourself out there. What if you don’t get it? You are going to feel so disappointed.” I would rather do a medium effort. If I don’t get it, I don’t feel bad because I didn’t try so hard. I thought, “What a bizarre way to go through life.” They explained to me that they can’t tolerate the pain of getting a no if they have tried their hardest but they don’t end up winning because they are not giving heart. It’s this vicious cycle.

I told my kids, “If you want to get to medical school or vet school, this job, or you want to get there, there are a lot of things in between that you are not going to like. It’s a means to an end.” It doesn’t matter that everything in between, you are going to like it at all but that’s okay. If you know what the game is and how to get over there to that end result, there are lots of things you are going to do in your life that you are not going to like that much. If you want to get to the end where you are going to like it, sometimes you have to go do it, realizing that you are not going to enjoy and like it but if you get through it, you will get the carrot at the end. It will become your rainbow there at the end.

Any last thought or quote that you want to leave us with, Chip?

I’m big on this. It doesn’t seem to happen across the industry. I’m big about following up. Following through is equal to success. Most people don’t set an urgency behavior because user behavior changes to get back to people by email, text, and phone. People want to be acknowledged. You don’t have to have any answers. They want to be acknowledged and it starts from the top down in any culture.

What I would end with is, do what you say you are going to do and do it when you say you are going to do it. You will count all the money you couldn’t accumulate. The money is going to come rolling in, and you can sit in the Bahamas and count it. If you do what you say that you are going to do and do it when you say you are going to do it, then you are going to win it. It doesn’t matter what you do for your life, your career, what business, and what direction you go.

Success Secrets: Positivity breeds positivity, while negativity breeds negativity.

You helped us reframe what winning is. I love it. If people want to reach out to you as a consultant or a speaker, where should they go?

I have a website, ChipHelm.com. A sneak preview, I am bringing out a new book. It’s going to be more of a business book. We probably talked about a couple of things on the show because some of the things that we accomplished with our kids will be part of that business book, as I think it applies to any business. I’m also accessible by email, [email protected]. People call me all the time at (812) 947-3588. My books are up on Amazon.

I hope they make a difference even if it’s for one person. They are short and easy reads. It sounds like John did his homework or something, and before I came on, I was impressed, on understanding. Probably my biggest thing that connected me to it is what I call KISS, Keep It Simple and Sweet. That’s how I lead personally and professionally. That’s it for me. It’s simple. Sales and careers are not rocket science but we all are in that game of sales. I’m sorry for anyone reading who disagrees.

You remind me of that Einstein quote that said, “If you can’t explain it, you simply don’t understand it.” It’s important. It shows your mastery at something when you can keep it simple and sweet. Thank you so much for joining us, Chip. It has been a pleasure.

Thank you, John. I appreciate you, too.

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What Are The Success Secrets You Need To Know? With Chip Helm

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What Are The Success Secrets You Need To Know? With Chip Helm

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