In today’s episode 5 of the Weekly Hustle I’m answering your questions!

We’re going to talk about dealing with unsupportive friends and family, transitioning from from community to hospital pharmacy without a residency, and how to become a high ticket closer without a high ticket program.

Welcome back to the Weekly Hustle. If you’re new to the Weekly Hustle, I’m doing two things –

1. Sharing cool people, processes, tools, and ideas for entrepreneurial hustlers who want to be GREAT
2. Documenting my process of the long term game of hitting 10 million dollars

This week I thought it would be more valuable to answer your questions. If you want to shoot me a question go to Refugeehustle.com/join and shoot me a question there.

You asked me questions about…

1. How to Deal with Unsupportive Friends and Family
2. How to transition from community to hospital pharmacy without a residency
3. How to become a high ticket closer without money (Inbound Closing Advice)

Also if you want to shoot me a question or even updates on your end feel free to directly to this email or email me here.

Kevin

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Quick shout out from the comments from my Japanese Fruits video:

How to Deal with Unsupportive Friends and Family

Ever have this amazing business idea that means a lot to you, but have unsupportive friends and family?

I remember back when my father passed away I made the decision to leave pharmacy to start up an online business.

After spending 12 years in pharmacy, I was tired of the bullshit. And most importantly? I wasn’t happy and wanted a change.

A few people messaged me told me to quit the business model and that I was making a huge mistake and to go back to pharmacy for something more stable.

You might have these questions like… Do you stop talking to your friends or family? Do you sit them down? How do you deal with it?

Recently one of my readers, David, wants to start a career in digital marketing, but is struggling with dealing with his unsupportive best friend.

Here’s the question:

And here’s the truth – it’s not easy dealing with this. So what do you do?

What makes this conversation so difficult?

It’s not some anonymous internet troll criticizing you. It’s someone that you care about; it’s your best friend. So how do you have this conversation?

There’s a three things you need to figure out:

1. Do you even want to have this conversation?
2. What do you want from this conversation?
3. How to actually have the conversation

So let’s break each of these down.

Do you even want to have this conversation?

Here are your two options:

1. Say nothing, fire your friend, move on, and find new friends
2. Talk to your friend

My recommendation? Talk to your friend. Why?

It’ll force you a better listener, build a thicker skin, and demonstrate to your friend that you actually care about your friendship.

But despite the benefits, it’s hard. Conflict management and communication is tough – especially with friends. If you don’t position the conversation, you could potentially lose and ruin the relationship.

Obviously it’s your choice, but if you want to work with clients and maybe even start your own business, difficult conversations and setting boundaries is part of doing business.

What do you want from this conversation?

Before you start any conversation, you need to know what you want from it. So what are you looking to get out of the conversation?

And the truth is if you goal is to turn your best friend into a raving fan or to change their mind, it’s going to be difficult. You can’t force people to support you.

My recommendation? The goal should be to understand their perspective and set boundaries for your friendship by communicating how you feel about what they said.

The key is to choose things that you can control – not them.

In an ideal world we what we’re looking for is unconditional support. If they can’t provide it, then it’s our responsibility to look somewhere else. And let our friends be our friends.

The truth is just because someone doesn’t agree or support you doesn’t necessarily make them a toxic friend.

As someone who has a lot of variety of friends

• The truth is your friendships will shift as your goals shift
• Some friends will just be your business friends. Others you just enjoy their company – nothing wrong with that.
• Not all friends will have the same views for you

How to actually have the conversation

So now that you know what you want, how do you have the actual conversation?

It’s all about understanding where they’re coming from, feeling them out, and getting them to understand their perspective.

Here’s a step by step of how to have the conversation:

1. Start the convo: Hey _____ – I have something to get off my chest. Is that okay with you? Do you have a chance to talk? (IN PERSON – or video chat)
2. Call out the elephant in the room: So I know we had an argument a few days ago about the whole SEO course and digital marketing course… And it’s really been bothering me since I truly care about our friendship.
3. Set the intention/agenda: We’ve been friends for [X years] so I just wanted to clear the air and take the time to understand where you’re coming from. Does that sound fair?
4. Understand their perspective: I know you’re a good person and we’ve been good friends for awhile. So I’d love to take the time to understand where you’re coming from. And be honest with me – I won’t get mad at you.
5. Don’t interrupt and listen to them (even if it absolutely sucks hearing it)
6. Repeat back: Thanks – I really appreciate you being real/honest with me. It means a lot. It sounds like from your perspective… X, Y, Z… does that sound about right?
7. Take responsibility for your feelings: So the other day I felt disappointed because I was hoping to get your support when I mentioned that I was taking a course to land a digital marketing job. This means a lot to me because of [X,Y,Z]. Even if you don’t agree with me, can you understand where I’m coming from?
8. Getting support: Thanks [name]… The reason why I wanted to go to you is because I care out our friendship. And it’s not an easy career. No pressure – but it would mean a lot if I could get your support? If not – totally cool and we just won’t talk about it.

Here’s the biggest takeaway

The truth is this conversation can either go really well or shit the bed. But the one thing you will find out and test is your friendship with your friends.

Difficult conversations are essential for any long term relationships. And test the true strength of any relationship.

But even if it doesn’t work out, the truth is you will probably find friends that do get it and support you. So don’t fret.

What are your thoughts?

How to transition from community to hospital pharmacy without a residency

So are you a community pharmacist who wants to get out of retail pharmacy and wants to start a new career in hospital?

Recently I was in quarantine, live streaming on YouTube, and I got this comment:

Even though I got burnt out from my career, I was wondering – how are my friends from pharmacy school doing?

QUICK PAUSE – if you want to jump on my weekly streams, make sure to subscribe, like this video, and hit the bell. You’ll be notified when I go live every Sunday at 6 PM PST.

And the results were interesting. I had friends that felt like:

• Felt that pharmacy was soul sucking

• Actually missed working in pharmacy after being a stay at home mom

• Successfully escape the 9-5 chains and transitioned into hospital pharmacy

The truth is there’s a lot of pharmacists who are unhappy

It was interesting seeing my friends experience in community pharmacy. Do some pharmacists love their careers? Absolutely.

But we can’t ignore the fact there’s a group of community pharmacists and pharmacy staff who feel overworked, understaffed, and under appreciated.

The worst part? It’s hard to say anything because the reality is the fear of retaliation and losing their jobs. Corporate politics suck.

So what options does that leave us? We have:

1. Suck it up and hope things will get better
2. Start your own business
3. Transition into a new career

Hoping things will get better is a horrible plan because “hope” isn’t an exit strategy. Starting your own business isn’t easy and let’s be honest – not everyone wants to deal with the headache of running a business.

So that leaves us with option three – transitioning into your career. And the rest of this article is for you.

Should you consider a career in hospital pharmacy?

So I asked my friend – what is the best part about hospital pharmacy. This is what my friend said:

Based of my friend’s experience, the benefits of hospital pharmacy include:

• The role of being a trusted advisor as a pharmacist
• Solving more complex problems with a team of doctors and nurses
• Feeling of impact to healthcare

How my friend transitioned into a hospital pharmacist

I asked my friend – how was the transition from retail pharmacy chain to hospital? This is what she said:

Based off my friend’s experience, she was able to bypass residency by:

• Starting off in a position that no one wants (7 on 7 off overnight position)
• Took advantage of the overnight downtime to build her knowledge on the job
• Building relationships with more seasoned pharmacists

What was also interesting about my friends experience was that she didn’t need a residency to get her job or have to know everything right away – she just had to be resourceful.

It comes down to establishing yourself with a role that few people are willing to take and setting yourself up with an opportunity when one comes up.

There’s no quick shortcut – it took my friends 2+ years to get a day job in the pharmacy without a residency.

If you’re curious about how to transition into new career in pharmacy

Let me know which areas you’re curious about. I’d love to do a full on interview, but the reality is that social media isn’t too keen on pharmacists and puts their jobs on the line so I have to protect my friends and guests.

How to become a high ticket closer without money (Inbound Closing Advice)

So you’re probably out there thinking – I need thousands of dollars to pay for a high ticket program because I want to be a “high ticket closer”.

Not so fast.

There are too many people who “think” they want to do this career, but simply don’t know what it’s actually like.

So there’s a few things you need to know about this:

• This is not “easy” money. It will require hard work and you will absolutely suck at first.
• You are always dependent on your client’s ability for lead flow and quality
• Your biggest barrier will be finding the right client

And the most important thing that you need to know is this – this isn’t a new industry. It’s not a “scam”. I’ve met people who have done this for 30+ years.

It’s just sales on the higher end and the art of communicating value that aligns to your clients goals. Think about it. It’s that simple.

While these things are true, there is a good freaking reason why I quit pharmacy to do this. And it’s not only because of the money.

It’s because I get freedom of location and time independence while impacting people’s lives.

So if you want the same thing – keep reading. In today’s video I’m going to cover three things:

1. How to build your skills (and get good) without a high ticket program
2. How to find the right client
3. How to calculate your earning potential with a client

All right – let’s get into it. FYI – there will be no “affiliate links” to any high ticket program in this video. Only affiliate links to books. If you can’t afford that then you got bigger problems.

If you’re going to call me a sell out for some books, go fuck yourself.

You’re not meant for this business. How the hell are you going to sell other people if you can’t even buy a book?

How to build your skills (and get good) without a high ticket program

Before you worry about how much you can get paid or finding a client – you must focus on being great.

If you suck, it doesn’t matter if you find a client because you can’t fulfill for your client and most likely you won’t be making anything.

So focus on fulfillment first.

The key to any high ticket program to learn any skill is three things:

1. Skills
2. Accountability
3. Mentorship

You must have all three of these things to do well in high ticket sales. Let’s dive into the first thing.

Skills

You need to know what the hell you’re doing. This is where books come into play. They will give you the fundamental breakdown of how the consultative sales process works.

First – buy these three books

1. The Way of The Wolf: Straight Line Selling
2. Never Split the Difference
3. SPIN Selling

Take out your notebook and write down any “nuggets” that you come across upon. You’ll eventually incorporate these in your “script”.

And yes – you will need a “script” in front of you at all time. It serves as an agenda for yourself to say on topic.

Accountability

This is why you must build experience with your client. A client holds you accountable. If you don’t perform, then your client has a right to terminate your contract.

And also since most “high ticket closer” roles are performance based, you don’t receive payment until the deal is finalized.

Mentorship

This is the MOST important thing.

And no when I say mentorship – we’re not talking about an “online” mentor. We’re talking about a real person that’s in the trenches with you.

Do NOT go on your first client by yourself. The offer must be tested. So look at the top sales people – What are they doing? How can you model them? What is their process?

And no – you don’t go up to them and just ask these questions. You need to build a genuine relationship with them.

To secure a “mentor”, you need to throw your ego out of the way. Give them props if they’re absolutely killing it. If they host a training, message them saying how implementing their advice help you.

The truth is nothing can replace experience. And when you have someone in your corner, you can leverage their experience.

How to find the right client

This is tough and where most people will fail.

Remember what I said about building relationships with more experienced people? When you’re experienced you can go to these people when you need a new client.

If you work hard and build a name for yourself, they will help you. They’re like family.

But what do you do when you’re new?

• You can look for gigs on Upwork or job boards using terms like – high ticket sales, high ticket closer, enrollment director, or inbound closer.
• Reach out to people to people’s programs who you’ve bought in the past
• Cold outreach by following the “S-Curve”
• Network with other closers or “agencies” to help you find work

It’s not easy. And really it’s a numbers game. So that’s where you should start. But once you find a client, how do you know if it’s the right fit?

Well that leads me to my last point…

How to calculate your earning potential with a client

The thing that you probably you want to know is – Can I make money for this client ethically, morally, and legally?

Again the reason why I say “make money for this client” is because your role is tied to revenue. If you make them money, you make money.

Here’s the general information I like to find out:

• The type of packages or offers they are selling
• The number of people on the sales team
• Weekly revenue
• Weekly ad spend
• Average number of leads per week
• Commission percentages
• Cost per lead (how much money they are spending to acquire a lead)
• Dollar Per Lead (AKA Revenue Per Lead) (how much money they are bringing in per lead)

Notice I didn’t mention closing ration because it doesn’t mean anything. The only thing that matters is if you bring in profit.

If you’re curious about – how much can you make, you are asking the wrong question. It depends from offer to offer.

Think about it like this – it depends on the your commission percentage, number of leads per week, and packages offered.

You are NOT an employee in high ticket sales. You’re performance based and running your own service based business. You are not given a check. You earn your check when you bring in revenue for the business.

That’s why high ticket sales isn’t for everyone, because it requires more responsibility.

If you want to find out how much you can make, you need to do some math:

The reason why we focus on weekly performance is because a lot can change in a short amount of time (example lead flow).

To give you perspective as a high ticket closer, on my best weeks I’ve made 4K per week, an average week will be about 1500-3K per week, and once in a blue moon we’ll shit the bed with the leads and make 500 bucks in a week. This is all working about 30 hours per week.

I also have some previous clients where I closed and receive recurring commissions of about $300-500 per month as well (also performance based).

You can’t replace experience

I have seen people come and go in this industry. And they fail because of these three reasons:

1. They don’t stick around long enough
2. They focus way too much on making money
3. They aren’t focused on being great

The last thing is the most essential. You can’t just read a book or take a course and be great. Greatness is build through experience and repetition.

So there you go. That’s high ticket sales in a nutshell. Obviously I couldn’t cover everything, but if you have lingering questions, let me know.

Kevin