CHOOSING A VIEW: THE VOTTA EXERCISE

Gabriel's Story - Making Money Even During a Recession
​
Gabriel attended my three-hour leadership webinar and realized he was indeed holding onto the common view that people can’t make money during a recession. He did the Votta Exercise, and then he was off and running in a different direction.

Gabriel is a consultant whose area of expertise is leadership. He had already done a ton of professional development, but he knew he wanted some guidance during the difficult time of the pandemic. Gabriel had recently moved from a large corporation to a small business, and he was managing people and selling services at the same time. (Most entrepreneurs know this is how it goes sometimes.)

Seeking clarity about time management and new skills to lead others and still be a high performer during times of economic challenge, Gabriel wanted a different view. He wanted to be empowered to succeed, rather than give up and give in to the commonly-held view that success was impossible during the pandemic.

One of the big a-ha’s for Gabriel came when he saw he was comparing himself to the former owner, and thought success meant being active in a particular business networking group. He realized he was putting a lot of energy into the one networking group because the former owner had experienced success with them. He thought that in order to have similar success, he had to replicate the former owner’s actions. During the exercise, he realized this was not a fact—it was a view. And he didn’t even recognize the difference until he got to step three in the exercise.

After creating a different view and wanting to make the biggest difference he could for his clients, having nothing to do with that specific networking group anymore, he realized that was leaving business on the table elsewhere. When he followed up with the other potential clients, he ended up closing more deals than he had in the entire two months prior, just two weeks after doing the Votta Exercise. For him, it was a huge leap toward meeting his newly stated goal. Even though the networking group seemed completely unrelated to the reason why he did the exercise, the exercise helped him make that little shift, which made all the difference. Instead of putting energy into fulfilling a subcon- scious expectation, he was able to take actions that led to more closed deals. Good job, Gabriel.