Our own Brigid McGrath Massie was featured in Susan Cantrell's "Quotable Notables" column published in the Monterey County Herald on Sunday, February 6. Here is an excerpt...

Brigid McGrath Massie is a born saleswoman
by Susan Cantrell
as appeared in the Monterey County Herald on Sunday, February 6, 2005

Born to a naval father, the third of six children, Brigid McGrath Massie learned a lot about selling. Each time the family moved and she enrolled in a new elementary school, she had to sell herself all over again.

"When you go to 13 schools, you're selling yourself all the time," she says. You're always the new kid, on the outside, and you know you're going to be moving on anyway."

Most disadvantages can be turned to advantage. And that's what she has done in her 25-year career as a business consultant, professional speaker and author of the books, "What Do They Say When You Leave the Room" and, most recently, "Selling for People Who Hate to Sell."

"At one point, I was going to write a book, 'Confessions of a Professional Stranger," she says.

Massie's journey to professional success has been an uphill climb. Her parents thought college was for men only, so she worked some 50 jobs to send herself. "I was completely broke in college. I had to go to the library because I couldn't buy books. I'd sell my blood to go to the movies."

After gaining her masters degree in social work, she became a social worker but, eventually, found out she was a round peg in a square hole. She liked her job plenty but the people around her hated theirs. "Most people who worked there would take the calendar and cross each day off."

Massie then earned a masters degree in business administration and began selling her business expertise, as a professional speaker, to organizations and Fortune 500 companies. Along the way, she received the first Business Woman of the Year award by the Salinas Chamber of Commerce. She also co-founded Leadership Salinas.

Massie, looking younger than 55, certainly knows how to sell herself. She is wearing a proper suit in bedazzling purple that matches her eyes. She radiates self-esteem: perfectly groomed, accessorized and organized times 10.

"It's done," is a popular expression of hers. Another one is, "You've got to be open to possibilities."

She stresses that the fulcrum in her life is partnership. It's her husband, friends, former baby sitter and mentors who are responsible for her success.

Q: What are you selling today?

A: To you? Hopefully, hope for women that you CAN have it all. I have a fabulous 30-year marriage, phenomenal children and a more than fulfilling career. I also exercise and donate time to things I believe in.

Q: Are you sure you aren't in denial?

A: (Laughs) I think you can tell when a person is. I see people all the time who have the white rabbit syndrome: "I'm late; I'm late, for a very important date." I take time each day to meditate, I pay attention to what I put in my body, and associate with really quality people.

Q: What do people say when YOU leave the room?

A: They seem to say, "Thank you."

Q: Have violet eyes helped or hindered your sales?

A: (Laughs) I think it's definitely helped.

Q: How important is costume?

A: Costume is a big hairy deal and people should pay more attention to it.

Q: My first memory of selling is:

a) Asking dad for a new car

b) Trying to get into a sorority

c) Attracting a new boyfriend

d) Other

A: Negotiating a bank loan in Spain for a produce company. We were purchasing strawberry root stock. If we didn't obtain the financing it was all over for us. It was my first time there, dealing with an all-male culture in Spanish, and it was a life-or-death deal...

Q: Why is selling so fearsome and when have you sold out because of that fear?

A: I haven't HAD to sell out because of our mutual financial success and longevity. My husband, Dan, is the first one who says, "If it doesn't feel right, don't do it."

Q: You've got a superior partnership, eh?

A: He is one of the most positive influences on my life. He has a gift to live 100 percent in the moment.

Q: Where'd you meet?

A: At Senior Frog's bar in Mazatlan.

Q: Were you predestined?

A: For marriage to work each has to give 60 percent and I really got my math skills from my grandmother...We lived together two years before marriage. I decided I'm gonna try before I buy.

Q: How do you define success?

A: By having daily joy.

Q: What fearsome changes have turned out well for you?

A: Learning to lift weights after I broke my arm. I'd always been a walker but I hired a personal trainer and I love it. Also, (wide grin) I got braces at 40.

Q: Biggest improvisation you've had to make while speaking?

A: It was at Chuck E. Cheese. I've spoken at 143 shopping centers. During my presentation, every seven minutes Chuck E. sang over the loudspeaker and I had to stop.

Q: Regarding communication, you say that rehearsing your response while someone is talking to you only weakens your message. It can also lead to divorce, right?

A: (Laughs) Absolutely! What that does mean is you're NOT listening, being present or observing. You have to keep your mind blank and open, instead of thinking of what you're going to say next. I teach couples to take turns talking and listening. You miss so much when you have this thing you want to say.

Q: You say we're four times more likely to be criticized than praised. How do we handle that?

A: One thing to be successful is persistence. You cannot be crippled by criticism. Listen to it and ask yourself, "What can I do differently next time?"

Q: What is your experience with rejection?

A: It's a fact of life in my business. You win some and lose some. Ninety-eight percent of the time they want to hear me again. Two percent don't. Sometimes it's not a fit, especially at my price point.

Q: Aren't we mostly afraid to ask what we're worth?

A: Get over it! The less you ask for, the less you get. With my one-on-one coaching it comes up every single time. If you establish a really low price point, it's incredibly hard to get people to pay you more.

Q: Did you ever "brown nose" -- a word from your book -- and vacillate on your prices?

A: One reason I diversified was so I could say NO to organizations or clients who wouldn't pay enough.

Q: When are you slothful?

A: I don't do sloth. And it absolutely annoys people.

Q: About what do you procrastinate?

A: I hired a professional organizer for my office (in downtown Salinas). I don't have to procrastinate. I have a system for getting things done.

Q: Biggest threat to your business?

A: Stagnating, not evolving or keeping up, and using old things.

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