Habanero Media

A new venture for the Tao Te Ching of Sales and Sales Babble is Habanero Media,  a Chicago-based podcast production service that produces  podcasts for busy businesses interested in growing revenue, raising their  influence and broadening  brand awareness. They  help businesses find their authentic voice and share it to the world.

According to author Seth Godin, “Podcasting is the new blogging”. It’s a way to personally share your business, your ideas, and earn trust in a competitive market.  Learn more  here.

Sales isn’t what people say about it.
Yes it’s two people agreeing on a deal,
yet uncountable are the steps to get there.

If men and women leaders
could remain centered in Master Selling,
the economy would sing
The workplace become paradise.
All customers happy, well serviced,with referrals and references written in their hearts.

A few years ago I was writing weekly on sales and the Tao Te Ching. But as you know that has mostly come to a halt with infrequent postings here and there. Despite the lack of new content, I’m surprised how many people keep coming to this site. They find value in the message of balanced non-pushy sales. This makes me smile.

In a recent interview on David Fisher’s Beer Beat and Brews  we talked about the Tao Te Ching and how it’s a perfect model for modern business and sales. The discussion motivated me to pen a new LinkedIn pulse based on my recent experiences in China, Thailand and Malaysia.

This is the recently published post:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sales-without-force-pat-helmers

Take a moment to follow the link and share with your friends and colleagues. If you could comment I’d deeply appreciate it.

I’ll add a link when the episode of Beer Beats and Brews is published. Stay tuned.

Yesterday I visited a Taoist Temple in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. They have a practice of inscribing their hopes and fears on a scroll that is both beautiful and practical. The scroll is placed into a fire, symbolizing the ephemeral nature of life. Too often we naively gift  the minutia of each day with too much importance.  At least I do. I should do better.

Lao Tzu wrote:

“Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.”

For those of us in business, this mindset can mean the difference between success and failure.  It is true wisdom.

After years of studying and writing about Lao Tze the time has come to delve deeper. This August I’ll be moving to Zheng Zhou China. My wife Denise, has taken a job as an elementary principal. It’s at a newly create American elementary school with 1st and 2nd grade children. Denise has been a principal for many years and is an expert working with English Language Learners.

Zheng Zhou is a city of 10  million people in the Henan province. Lao Tze was supposedly born and raised there 2500 years ago, 150 years before Socrates.The Henan province is considered the birth place of Chinese society. We’re going to be in the thick of it.

China is not America, it’s world a way geographically and culturally. But it’s also a terrific opportunity to learn about another culture upfront and in person. It provides professional opportunities for each of us. Travel opportunities as well. 

I’m uncertain what I’ll exactly do in China. Certainly the Sales Babble podcast will continue and I’ll keep working on the book “Selling With Confidence for Start-ups” and the “Tao Te Ching of Sales”.  But as Lao Tze wrote “A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”  It’s the trip that matters and the people with you. Denise is the best travelmate ever.

To stay in tune to our travels you can read more at Denise’s blog at Journey of a Thousand Miles