About ten years ago I had a 6:00 am Southwest flight out of Omaha to Phoenix. I was dead tired because I had to wake up at 3:30 am to get on the flight but I dragged myself to the airport. Waiting at the gate to get on the airplane seemed to take forever. All I wanted to do was get on the plane and take a nap. As I boarded the plane I was happy because there were probably about 50 people on the flight which would mean that I would likely have plenty of room to get comfortable and take my nap. Indeed, after I sat down I noticed that in my row it was just me and somebody across the aisle in the other seat that looked like he was probably a frequent traveler. Some frequent travelers have a projection of arrogance to them. Without going into detail, this guy definitely did. Anyway, as I sat there in my seat I started to doze off into a half-conscious state. I could feel the plane pull back from the gate and go through the long process of idling out to the runway. The feeling of the plane lumbering along through the obstacles to get to the runway is actually kind of a soothing feeling, a lot like rocking a baby to sleep. In my half-awake state of mind I could then feel the plane’s full thrust kick in when I was pushed back in my seat. It was obvious we were now making our way down the runway. As we made it down the runway we were nearing the final stage, where you just begin to feel the front wheel lift up as we go airborne. Then, all of a sudden, BOOM! This is the point when my whole world got rocked. It felt like we hit a brick wall as I was jolted wide awake. We were then skidding down the runway as I pulled myself to the window in panic to see where the end of the runway was because we had to be close. I also glanced over at Mr. Frequent Traveler across the aisle, whose eyes were the size of dinner plates. He was looking back at me for confirmation we were going to live, which I could not provide him. He was panicking, the other passengers were panicking and, worse of all, the flight attendants were panicking! What felt like a lifetime finally came to an end. We finally slowed down and got it under control. As the dust settled and we began that slowly idle back to the gates I could hear people sobbing toward the back of the plane. That is when the captain came on the intercom to tell us what had just happened. What did he say? In a very calm voice he comes on and says “Hello folks, sorry about that somewhat uncomfortable take off attempt. As we began to get airborne we had a code tripped that the right side engine was failing so we had to abort our take off. We will have to take you back to our gate and see what we need to do to get you on your way home. We do apologize for the inconvenience and greatly appreciate your patience as we get you home safe and sound.” All of the sudden, with the calm words from the pilot projecting that nothing unmanageable had happened, everything seemed OK! You would have thought that the pilot had been there and done that a million times!
Isn’t it amazing how a few calming words can put you at ease? I had flown hundreds of flights a year up to that point and I knew that this incident was not normal for me or for anybody else. I knew that flight was a near death experience. I knew this, my friend across the aisle knew this, and the flight attendants knew this. Even more interesting is, even though I also knew that it was the pilot’s job to project a sense of calmness even if he knew we all were going to die, it still worked! A lot like when you tell yourself a salesman is going to try to sell you something and you aren’t going to buy it. But yet once you hear the pitch you buy it hook, line, and sinker. The calm reassuring voice of the pilot put me and everybody else at ease even though I knew it was his job. The pilot became an instant hero. As a matter of fact, as we were deplaning I noticed several people hugging the pilot as they walked past.
When we got into the gate I called my friend who worked for another airline who pulled the incident up in his system. He said that incident I had just gone through was indeed a very big deal. He said that the airplane had actually been so far into the takeoff process that it passed what is called “V1” which is basically the speed of no return. He had stated that for the pilot to make the call to abort the takeoff at that point was a tough call because it was a choice between either getting airborne and having the plane fail in the air or aborting and running out of runway and crashing on the ground. Fortunately, it was neither one.
My point is, you are your clients’ airplane captain. When they call you up because they are hitting turbulence in their lives, whether because they are losing money in the market, have a death claim, a long-term care claim, etc., your value in these times lies in the way that you handle the situation. This is your opportunity to become a hero by doing the opposite of panicking and assuring those that are panicking. This is what seven-figure financial professionals do. They project a sense of “I have been there and done that and this is no big deal.” Furthermore, there is professionalism in not panicking in any situation—not just times of crisis. These times I am referring to may be:
- When a client is panicking because of a claim, losing their money in the market, etc. Are you that calming voice even at times when you are also scared for the client?
- When a client asks you a question you don’t know the answer to, do you panic or very calmly say “I don’t know but I will get you the answer ASAP.”
- Getting tough questions in a seminar. Does the audience see you panic or are you calm and cool?
- If your computer or projector goes down in a seminar, do you stumble and panic?
- When a client is critical of you and/or your business, do you panic and get defensive?
When I was getting started in the business there were times where I would get “panicky” because of a big meeting I had to conduct, a bad message I had to give to somebody, or a large audience I had to present to. I had a mentor back then who would always say, “You have done this a million times and have you failed yet? No you haven’t. So why panic now?” He would then go on to say “So what is the worst that can happen if you were to fail? It’s not like they can kill you.” For some strange reason those words have always stuck with me, “It’s not like they can kill me.” We take our business very serious but keeping a perspective of what is really important in life will also help you to not panic when things get stressful. We tend to let the negative trash in our heads believe that it’s a life or death situation if we fail at a task. It is not. This creates fear and fear is what holds us back.
Not panicking is not only healthy for you, it is also healthy for your clients and your relationship with those clients. This is because having a positive mindset is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Meaning, if you are always positive and never panic, clients feel that and will in-turn be positive and will not panic. You are looked at as the “pilot” and therefore the creation of a positive environment is in your hands. Prospects/clients look to your mindset in order to form their own. Again, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
For financial professional use only. Not for use with consumers.
