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Mental Selling: The Sales Performance Podcast is a show for motivated problem solvers in sales, leadership and customer service. Each episode features a conversation with sales leaders and industry experts who understand the importance of the mindset and skill set needed to be exceptional at building trusted customer relationships. In this podcast, we get below the surface, tapping into the emotional and psychological drivers of lasting sales and service success. You’ll hear stories and insights about overcoming the self-limiting beliefs that hold salespeople back, how to unlock the full potential in every salesperson, the complexities of today’s B2B buying cycles, and the rise of today’s virtual selling environment. We help you understand the mental and emotional aspects of sales performance that will empower you to deliver amazing customer experiences and get the results you want.
Welcome to Mental Selling!
[00:00:00] Jen Mueller: The number one thing an athlete wants is to just get it over with. They know exactly what just happened. You don’t have to be rude, but be direct in asking the question. Let them tell their side of the story. In any question that I’m asking, I really need those answers to be easy and obvious. You don’t want to see the deer in the headlights look when you are on live TV.
[00:00:25] Hayley Parr: This is Mental Selling, the sales podcast for people who are dedicated to making a difference in customers’ lives. We’re here to help you unlock sales talent, win more relationships, and transform your business with integrity. I’m your host, Hayley Parr. Let’s get right into it. Welcome to Mental Selling, the podcast where we explore the mindset and skills behind sales success in both sports and business. Winning often comes down to one thing: communication. Whether it’s calling the right play on the field or moving a deal forward on a sales call, success depends on trust, clarity, and the ability to connect under pressure. Our guest today knows exactly what it takes to make that happen. Jen Mueller is a business communication expert and founder of Talk Sporty to Me. She spent 25 years as a sports broadcaster, including 16 seasons as the Seattle Seahawks sideline radio reporter and 18 years with the Seattle Mariners on Root Sports. She’s an Emmy award-winning producer, author of three books on communication, and a master at getting people to open up even when emotions are high and time is short. From maximizing small interactions to making it easy for others to respond—even in tough conversations—Jen helps professionals apply lessons from sports to the business world. Today, we’ll explore how focusing on communication fundamentals can transform the way sales teams connect, collaborate, and close deals. So let’s get started. Jen, welcome. I’m so glad to have you on Mental Selling. How are you?
[00:02:08] Jen Mueller: I am well. I am excited for this conversation, Hayley. It’s going to be fun.
[00:02:12] Hayley Parr: I’m excited as well. Thank you so much for taking the time in the middle of the busy ramp-up to football season. I suppose it’s already started, huh?
[00:02:21] Jen Mueller: Well, yeah. It starts earlier and earlier these days, but it is a really fun time of year getting a chance to reconnect with my guys and get into football seasons.
[00:02:30] Hayley Parr: I’m so jealous. What a fun job. And full disclosure, I am a Packer fan and we’ve decided to overlook that for…
[00:02:37] Jen Mueller: Today, for our friendship and the podcast.
[00:02:43] Hayley Parr: No, it’s awesome. That’s awesome. What a cool role. You’ve had such an incredible 25-year career in sports broadcasting. I’d like to start, if you don’t mind, if you could just tell us how you got started. What drew you to the sidelines in the first place?
[00:02:58] Jen Mueller: I didn’t even know that was a possibility, to be quite honest. When I went to college, it was a high school guidance counselor who pushed me in the direction of broadcast, and sports just made the most sense. I was always an athlete, I was always watching sports, and it was just on the cusp where you saw one or two females doing sports, but it wasn’t a mainstream idea for most folks. So my goal when I was in college was just let me work somewhere in sports. I don’t care where it is. I don’t care what market size it is. I don’t care what I’m actually doing. I just want the chance to work in sports. It was after I got to Seattle, after I saw one of my colleagues on the sidelines and realizing that I might be able to do that too if she had ever decided to move on. I put the 10 years of high school football officiating and my broadcasting background to use, and I have been on the sidelines for over a decade.
[00:03:54] Hayley Parr: That’s absolutely incredible. I was in broadcasting as an undergrad myself, but my broadcast career was isolated to a little tiny radio show and the student news. So to be on the sidelines for some of your favorite teams, what an absolute dream. I bet you have a ton of stories. Any favorites from your time with either the Seahawks or the Mariners that you’d like to share?
[00:04:19] Jen Mueller: Yeah, I mean, winning the Super Bowl is awesome. When you win the Super Bowl and the confetti starts falling down and you realize this is what everybody’s seen on TV and you have envisioned yourself there, that’s really awesome. My favorite interview of all time was with starting pitcher, Felix Hernandez of the Mariners, after he threw his perfect game. And there’s a backstory there. We actually had a falling out due to miscommunication in spring training that year. We had patched things up, but I still had this doubt in the back of my head—did we really get things patched up enough so that if something really cool happens, we are still going to have that moment? Because it’s my job to interview them first. And when Felix threw that pitch and he celebrated and he turns and he sees me standing there, he smiles, I smile, and there’s just a recognition of what that means—not just for him, but also what that meant for us in the relationship. And yeah, that was a really fun, special interview.
[00:05:21] Hayley Parr: That’s a cool story. And you touched on the fact that there might’ve been a small miscommunication that impacted your thought process as you were thinking through that moment and everything leading up to it. The tie between sports and the business world and the role of communication is really interesting to me, and it’s where this conversation started. So I’d like to shift a little bit into how you recognized that your skills in the sports world could be powerful in the business world.
[00:05:53] Jen Mueller: My aunt used to work at KPMG, and so she’s the one who first planted the seed of, “I think the group that I work with could use your help becoming sports fans and really leveraging sports in conversations,” because so many of us look at it as entertainment—and it totally is. I am very clear that I am just here to entertain people. But once I started exploring the parallels between sports and business—specifically in the communication realm—you realize that they’re everywhere. It’s not just about using metaphors and analogies. I sit in press conferences every single day. If you remove football or baseball, if you didn’t know who I was talking to, you would think these guys are running companies, quite honestly, because the conversations are exactly the same. We’re just talking about different subject matter. We’re talking about that home run in the fifth inning last night, or we’re talking about the touchdown—but it is all the same process. It’s time management, it’s being effective, it’s communicating effectively. It’s meeting your deadlines and your timelines and being exacting in how you execute your strategy. It’s everything we need in business.
[00:07:06] Hayley Parr: Yeah, you’re right. It really is those little small moments. I have to ask because I thought of this earlier—did you play any sports growing up?
[00:07:14] Jen Mueller: I did. I went to a very small high school, so it was a little easier to play all four sports there. You just kind of went from one season to the next. Also, before specialization—that’s how old I am—but basketball was my favorite, my best. I was a four-year starter, and I still keep in touch with my high school basketball coach. He will on occasion text me when he sees me doing things. So Coach Hilton, if you’re watching—hi.
[00:07:41] Hayley Parr: Coach Hilton! I bet Coach is so proud of your career. That’s incredible. Oh, I also came from a very small school where if you were a sports player, you played all the sports—because otherwise, you don’t have a team, right?
[00:07:55] Hayley Parr: Gotta love the multi-sport athlete. That’s a skill in and of itself. You touched on in your experience the importance of small moments—because sometimes these sideline interviews, they’re just seconds long. What’s the secret to making those meaningful? Because I think there can be a really interesting tie between making every moment count and how to show up in those moments into business. Because you never know when you’re going to come across the one conversation you’ve been waiting to have—and it kind of comes to preparation on the fly. But what other tips or tricks do you have?
[00:08:30] Jen Mueller: It’s recognizing that your conversations can be measured in seconds, not minutes. And sometimes the win in the conversation is the consistency of the hellos that you get. So it’s not just the interactions on the sidelines that are really short—it’s the networking opportunities that I get too. You don’t get a chance to schedule coffee or virtual meetings with these athletes. You are really talking to them in passing. And sometimes they’ll have a couple of minutes, and the guys that I’ve grown closest to over the years—we will have more extended conversations. Even then, those conversations never make it to 10 minutes. They just can’t. I mean, you’re still having conversations less than five minutes. And so for me, one of the ways that I make sure that those interactions happen is consistently showing up, saying hello, getting them to say hi back to me, and just having them know—I’m not going anywhere. I am going to be here, and I am going to be the same person every single time that you see me. Because now when you see me in that bigger moment, like the postgame interview, you know exactly what to expect because you’ve seen me do it every single day.
[00:09:41] Hayley Parr: That’s really interesting—that consistency and the way you show up in an intentional way so that you carry that recognition through. I can see the power of that coming through in these emails, quick calls, hallway chats on the business side of things.
[00:09:55] Jen Mueller: You’re warming up the lead. You’re warming up the space, right? You expect to see me there—I am there. You expect to see me in your inbox, in the hall, at the same coffee shop every day. When we’re thinking about how do we network and how do we get more people and grow our prospects, sometimes—and this happens in our careers too—we think it’s the number of people that we know. It’s not. They can’t vouch for us. You could have as many people as you want in your contacts list. They can’t vouch for you. My goal has always been to be seen in a space to the point where people do not remember the space without me.
[00:10:31] Hayley Parr: Oh.
[00:10:33] Jen Mueller: Here’s how you know you’ve done this. If that day you don’t show up to the coffee shop because you had a doctor’s appointment or an early meeting, and the next time you go back they say, “Hey, where were you?”—now they have gotten used to seeing you in the space. For me, when I have overlapping sports seasons, I can’t be in two places at once. So when I go back to football practice, they go, “Hey, where were you?” Or if I miss a Mariners game: “Hey, where were you?” And now I know they have grown so used to seeing me in the space—they don’t know what to do if I’m not there.
[00:11:11] Hayley Parr: Oh, that’s so cool. Thinking beyond just showing up with intentionality—showing up in a consistent way. I imagine there are other types of preparation that you do to make those small moments count when they come across your desk or wherever you are in the world.
[00:11:30] Jen Mueller: It is going to sound so boring, but it is preparation. And it is knowing that you’ve got to be strategic and intentional. So during a sideline hit—particularly in an NFL game on the radio—I get 15 to 20 seconds. That equals three to four sentences. So before I even get to the game, I have already prepared a number of things that I want to say. When I know that they’re going to come to me on the sidelines, I’m running through this in my head. Sometimes folks think that the best way to be authentic is to just show up and be in the present moment. And I totally understand what that can do for the conversation. But I can’t be authentic and show up in the moment if I’m not prepared—because there’s just way too much going on, right? There are Gatorade buckets flying at me, and there’s bodies over here, and there’s people yelling over there, and I can’t hear myself think. And so I really need to be prepared with what I want to get out of an interaction and what I want to get out of each specific question that I’m asking during an interview.
[00:12:36] Hayley Parr: So authenticity and preparation are not mutually exclusive. And I’ve never heard it phrased that way, but it makes a lot of sense. A lot of people think to be my most authentic human self, I have to shoot from the hip, I have to go with the flow. And you’re saying a little bit of preparation brings more authenticity into the conversation—because you know that person and you’re able to interact in such a way. Did I capture that correctly?
[00:13:06] Jen Mueller: Yeah, exactly. You could think about it this way too: we have our favorite actors and actresses, and we find their personality comes through on the screen, and we are drawn to them because of the authenticity they bring to a role. That’s all scripted. That’s all prepared. That’s all practiced. It doesn’t take away from how we feel in that moment. And when I advise folks to write a script—which is no different than writing a sales script and knowing what you’re going to say—it’s not that you have to nail every single line of that script or get every single word or even read it off the piece of paper. But if I have the framework and I know what I want to accomplish, I can very easily go off-script and then come back. And when that conversation is done—when I hang up the phone, when the interview is over—I feel really good about where I left things. I’m not walking away thinking, “Ah, shoot, I forgot to ask that question. It was right there in front of me the whole time, but I was just too distracted.” I feel really good. Which then changes all of my interactions after that.
[00:14:14] Hayley Parr: Yeah. And I see that coming through in this conversation here too. You’ve prepared, but we’re going off-script, but we’re hitting all the things we want to hit. That’s incredible, Jen.
[00:14:30] Hayley Parr: Hi there. If you’re listening to this show, it means you believe in making a difference in your customer’s lives and are looking for tools to grow in your career at the same time. At Integrity Solutions, we’re changing the stereotypes about sales training in ways your customers will feel and experience every day. If you want to learn more about how we could help you and your team, go to integritysolutions.com.
[00:14:59] Hayley Parr: One thing that you and I discussed before we started recording today was this idea around when you have a tough conversation, you should make it easy and obvious to respond—or really, in any communication scenario—how to make it easy and obvious to respond. And I think for so many people, they’re so self—not self-centered, but self-centric. They’re only thinking about what they want to say, what they want, their objective for the conversation at hand, and not necessarily framing what they need to say in a way that’s most optimal for a response. And communication is two ways. So how do you remove that friction, and what are some tips or tricks that salespeople can do to make it easier for people to respond to them? Because getting a response is an uphill battle sometimes.
[00:15:38] Jen Mueller: It certainly is. And I would even take that one step further, Hayley, and say that not only are we thinking about what it is that we want to say, we’re thinking about how we feel in the conversation, and we get so wrapped up in our own emotions. And trust me, I know—I get it. I’ve been on the sales side of the conversation and I’ve been in a locker room after a Super Bowl loss, and it is gut-wrenching.
[00:15:59] Hayley Parr: Whoa. I don’t envy that conversation.
[00:16:01] Jen Mueller: It was not—we don’t talk about that one in Seattle. It was not a great day. But if I’m only thinking about my emotions… So the number one thing I would say is you’ve got to reframe the idea of a tough conversation. Because the minute I start thinking, “Oh my gosh, this is going to be a tough locker room,” I am introducing additional emotion. I am now trying to figure out how to make this easier on me, and I am going to spend more time, energy, and effort thinking about me. And if I get wishy-washy in those questions, if I try to ease my way in, I just make it harder on my athletes.
[00:16:34] Jen Mueller: The number one thing an athlete wants is to just get it over with. They know exactly what just happened. Just get it over with and be direct. You don’t have to be rude, but be direct in asking the question: “What happened on the error in the seventh inning?” Just let them talk about what happened. Let them tell their side of the story. In any question that I’m asking, I really need those answers to be easy and obvious. You don’t want to see the deer in the headlights look when you are on live TV—that is not what you want to see.
[00:17:14] Jen Mueller: And so there’s only one answer to the question. And I know that this is a little counterintuitive because I think all of us have been coached and trained to ask open-ended questions because we have been told that is the best way to have an exchange. If it introduces drama or confusion, you are not going to get the answer that you need. So in sports, it’s the difference in asking, “Why did things change in the third quarter?” versus, “What happened in run defense after allowing just 40 yards in the first half?” Now I know exactly what it is that I’m talking about. Or instead of saying, “What happened in the seventh inning?” ask, “What gave you the confidence to steal second base with two outs and a righty in the box?” There’s only one answer to that question. Now, I don’t know what the answer is—but the person who was involved in that play knows exactly what the answer is.
[00:18:15] Hayley Parr: And you’re not leading them toward a response in any way. It’s keeping it to the facts, positive or negative. I would struggle with that because I’m too empathetic, and I would bring my perceptions of what just happened into the conversation. And I’d either be apologetic or really stoked. So keeping that cool—what a skill.
[00:18:37] Jen Mueller: Well, but that all goes back to preparation. And I’ve done it on both sides—I know. And when you hear yourself played back on TV and you realize what that question sounded like, you’re like, “Oh, I need to do a better job.” And quite honestly, that’s where all this comes from. In the conversations that we’re having in our day-to-day lives, we’re not always going to ask the most focused questions. I have heard so much of myself talk over the years because when you do an interview, you transcribe it word for word, and you are listening to it over and over and over again. And so you just pick up on these little things, which is why I get so geeked out and so intentional about how I’m approaching things—because I know it’s going to be played back far more than I would actually like to hear myself.
[00:19:24] Hayley Parr: That’s rough. That’s rough. I’m quite glad no one’s following me around with a recorder all day. Talk about keeping your cool. But what that provides for you is real-time feedback that actually means something and isn’t generic. It’s about as specific as it gets. And I think in the business world, we don’t all have the luxury of getting that specific real-time feedback. Sometimes it comes during performance reviews that don’t happen nearly as often as they should. So this is a great tie to something else you and I talked about, and that was very specific feedback and the fundamentals. Feedback is constant in sports. It’s every play, it’s every game. So what are some things that you’ve learned about giving and receiving feedback that might translate to the business world?
[00:20:11] Jen Mueller: So there’s two things. Number one, giving false praise creates a lot of problems when giving feedback. And sports is a great place to look if you want examples of accurate feedback. And number two, we need to use the full range of our words to give people true value in our positive feedback, which also gives us room to give that feedback on where they need to improve and get better.
[00:20:42] Hayley Parr: Do you think there’s a difference between—you mentioned false praise, where it’s just an exaggerated platitude…
[00:20:52] Jen Mueller: It’s our natural tendency to say “Great job.” It’s the same thing the kids do after little league games, right? “Great job, great job, great job, great job,” as they go through the handshake line. They don’t actually mean it. It’s great that we’re teaching them sportsmanship, but we have that same idea in business. And “Great job” becomes our default—whether you actually did a great job or not. And there is a difference between doing your job and doing a great job. So when you hear a coach after a game—and sometimes it sounds like it’s just word salad—Pete Carroll is one of the best I have ever heard at this. He is never going to say that somebody did a great job if they didn’t or if they came up short. So Pete would say things like, “Yeah, boy, he really battled out there today,” or, “He did exactly what we hoped he was going to do on that play.” Or, if he really did exceed expectations, Pete would heap praise on the effort. That’s the difference, right? Because now you’ve got a range.
[00:21:44] Jen Mueller: And Pete also would choose words where you’re like, “I don’t even know what that means. What are we talking about there?” But if everything is great, I don’t actually know… And look, I’ll take any compliment I can get. But if you tell me, “Jen, you bring exceptional energy to the opening keynote of a conference,” that’s going to hit me a lot harder and really touch my heart in a way that other words might not.
[00:22:24] Hayley Parr: Not to mention, it gives you a really specific idea of what to do the next time. Because, okay, it was at the keynote, it was the opening section, and it was related to the energy that I brought. I can hit on those specific things and I can do that again. Not just a feel-good, but a behavior change.
[00:22:41] Jen Mueller: Yes. Yes. And on the other side of that—because sometimes we ask for feedback, we really, really want feedback. We all want to get better. We all want to set new goals and reach those goals. But just asking for feedback is that open-ended sort of interaction. It really leads people to kind of freeze. And so anytime I am asking for feedback, I want it as a yes/no question, right? “Did you like the content in the material? Did you like the content on the PowerPoint slides?” Yes or no? If the answer is yes, great—I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. If the answer is no, now we’re going to dive a little deeper.
[00:23:40] Jen Mueller: When students send their reels to me and say, “Hey, could you give me some feedback?” I will go back and I will say, “What’s the one or two things you want me to focus on?” Because it could be 45 things. And if I make that answer too difficult or force you to think too much when you sit down to send an email, it’s never going to get done.
[00:24:04] Hayley Parr: I see that coming through in business with unclear definitions of done. And sports—for the most part—the objective is to win. And so there’s a shared goal in that regard. But how do you set these clear objectives so that everyone understands what the expectation is at the end, in a very specific “who does what and by when” type of way?
[00:24:27] Jen Mueller: Yeah, I use a formula called ETA. So ETA would normally be “estimated time of arrival.” It works really well—now, every time you get in the car, you’ll be like, “Oh, did I include ETA in that email?” So here’s what it actually stands for in my world as I created this: Expectation, Timeline, and Action item. And we can accomplish this in one sentence. All three of these things need to be included in every interaction.
[00:25:08] Jen Mueller: So if we are talking about a meeting, let’s say, or we need to get together for our one-on-one, here we go: “Do you have time to have a 20-minute one-on-one meeting to talk about the last six weeks? I can chat in my office anytime on Friday.” So now I know that the expectation is we need to sit down and have a one-on-one meeting. We need to talk about the last six weeks—great. My timeline is 20 minutes and Friday. And the action item is: I can meet you. I could have also said, “You can find me in my office on Friday.”
[00:25:41] Jen Mueller: Here’s what happened when I started doing this—asking for interviews with athletes. I used to say, “Do you have time for an interview today?” And they would say, “Yeah.” And I would think, great—I’m getting the interview. My success rate on that was very low compared to now, when I say, “Do you have time to answer three questions about tonight’s pitching matchup? I can find you after batting practice.” Now everybody knows what they’re agreeing to, when this is going to happen, where I’m going to find you, and there’s no question. And if anybody disagrees to any part of this, they can voice those concerns and offer a solution at the beginning—not after we are six weeks into the project, not until we’re two weeks after the, “Hey, we were supposed to have a one-on-one—how come you didn’t get back to me?” It’s just thinking through what I need to get. And quite honestly, it’s getting the thoughts out of your head. We know what we want—we just don’t say it all the time.
[00:26:14] Hayley Parr: Or we say it in a way that makes it too easy for a no. Versus—I really like the way you broke that down—because they can respond to any element of that, but that’s still carrying the conversation forward. Your foot’s still in the door.
[00:26:29] Jen Mueller: It is still a success and a win.
[00:26:32] Hayley Parr: So this all comes down to great communication in general, and I’m thinking of the ways that leaders can model these fundamentals of great communication. Any thoughts on things like celebrating wins and reinforcing progress? I feel like that’s so important.
[00:26:55] Jen Mueller: Yes. I think it goes back to what we talked about regarding feedback, right? Choose the words that are authentic to you and to your team so that they feel seen.
[00:27:05] Jen Mueller: Right? It is very different—you know what you’re trying to get out of people when they feel seen and they understand how that impacts the greater whole. That will create more buy-in, better camaraderie, better results. When we think about celebrating, I think sometimes we wait until the final outcome in business. And I totally understand why we do that, right? We are driven to reach our sales goals or our revenue numbers—whatever that is.
[00:27:30] Jen Mueller: But here’s another example that sports can help us with: we don’t wait until the end of the game to cheer. You cheer before the game even started, when you saw your favorite player. Your favorite player hit a double—cheers. Turns to the dugout and celebrates with the rest of their teammates. You could hit a home run in the second inning, end up losing the game in the ninth inning, but you still celebrated the home run.
[00:28:00] Jen Mueller: You could think about it the same way when you go to a concert. You don’t sit quiet until they’re done playing. You’re cheering throughout the way. And so just find those moments. There’s also rules in sports—I say “rules.” You might get 24 hours to celebrate a win. We’re not saying that this is your Super Bowl. We’re saying that you need to find those little wins to keep stacking. And if you don’t acknowledge the wins, other people aren’t going to realize that they’re wins to begin with. And in sales in particular—especially if you’ve got capital sales, a long lead time—you might not see anything for 18 months on conversations that you start today. You’re going to have to find those little wins, like: they did pick up the phone. They did respond to my email. Heck yeah—I’m going to play my favorite song and call that my winning playlist. Yeah, let’s do that.
[00:28:51] Hayley Parr: Heck yes. I love that. I love the small wins and bringing those into the wider audience in a more public way—if the person who deserved the wins is comfortable with that, of course. Sometimes as leaders, we forget that we have more of a platform and can help elevate the folks that might be a little more quiet in the room or the hard work that they’re doing isn’t going as noticed. And so just bringing visibility to that in a way that they’re comfortable with—and that’s going to shine light on all the hard work that they’re doing—is really important.
[00:29:29] Jen Mueller: You want to know one of the cool things that I heard to help with that dynamic? And actually from one of the leaders that I’ve worked with in Seattle—they used note cards to make sure that every voice in the room was heard when they were collaborating for ideas. And you can do this when you’re giving praise. You pass the note card around the room and everybody can add to the note card, but it’s all somewhat anonymous. You don’t have to say anything out loud to actually be recognized in a really large way and to have your voice heard or to show the value that you bring without truly putting you on the spot. So sometimes it’s the written communication that helps in those situations.
[00:30:11] Hayley Parr: Oh, that’s interesting. I’m going to try that at my next team meeting. Might get a different answer on a note card than you would get out loud anyway. That’s really cool. We’re drawing to the end, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t hit you with a lightning round. Are you ready?
[00:30:25] Jen Mueller: Yes.
[00:30:26] Hayley Parr: Three quick responses. You don’t have to expand on them unless you’d like to—but fire round. Favorite athlete to interview?
[00:30:35] Jen Mueller: Currently it is Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.
[00:30:37] Hayley Parr: I’ll be watching you on the side from my TV to see how those interviews go this season. Yeah. This is a tough one. If sales was a sport, which sport would it be?
[00:30:49] Jen Mueller: Doesn’t that depend on the day? I’m thinking that it’s like MMA. That’s kind of what I feel like. I feel like it’s just an MMA fight. You’re duking it out in the ring. Maybe that’s just where I am right now.
[00:31:03] Hayley Parr: Well, it depends on the team too. At Integrity Solutions, we’re all about bringing human-centric selling to sales, so we don’t want the MMA fighters.
[00:31:12] Jen Mueller: You would be like the regatta then. That’s what I picture. I picture you as the regatta, right? You’re working together as a team. But it’s nice smooth sailing once you get that team together.
[00:31:24] Hayley Parr: I like that. I was not expecting that sport at all.
[00:31:28] Jen Mueller: You’re full of surprises. Thinking outside the box here.
[00:31:30] Hayley Parr: You’re full of surprises. Okay, I’m working on a playlist for a road trip this weekend, so I’d love to know your favorite pregame hype song.
[00:31:42] Jen Mueller: There are so many good ones, but my favorite is AC/DC “You Shook Me.” Can’t go wrong there. I mean, it’s a classic. You cannot top some of the classics like an AC/DC or a Guns N’ Roses. You can’t. You can.
[00:31:56] Hayley Parr: They’re always going to be there, right? The Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, they know that well.
[00:32:00] Jen Mueller: Yep.
[00:32:02] Hayley Parr: Okay, before we wrap, I’d just love it if you would share with our Mental Selling listeners—if they could take one action this week to communicate like a sports pro and strengthen their relationships—what would that action be?
[00:32:17] Jen Mueller: See how intentional you can be three sentences at a time. You can practice in lots of different ways. Sum up your favorite podcast—like this one. Sum up the favorite show that you’re streaming. See if you can be really good at covering the high points and telling people why they should listen or watch in those 15 seconds. I think you’ll be surprised at how much you can communicate and the impact you can make just a few seconds at a time.
[00:32:45] Hayley Parr: You nailed it. That’s not an easy thing to do, but if you can do it, I think that translates to many areas of your day-to-day. That’s great advice, Jen. Thank you. Where can everyone find you?
[00:32:57] Jen Mueller: You can find me at talksportytome.com. You can find me on YouTube at Talk Sporty to Me. I’m on the socials on that handle. And if you like cooking, I do have a show called I Cook, You Measure. You can find all those episodes with my athletes on YouTube.
[00:33:11] Hayley Parr: Wonderful. I’ll be checking that out. I need some new recipes as well. Jen, it was a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining.
[00:33:18] Jen Mueller: Very fun. Thank you.
[00:33:19] Hayley Parr: Thank you for joining us on Mental Selling. If today’s conversation resonated with you, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network. For more insights on how to go beyond winning deals and build real customer relationships, visit integritysolutions.com. See you next time.