I recently attended an event in Long Beach, CA, where I had the privilege of personally connecting with a highly venerated mentor, Tim Sales. Over the past couple of years, his training materials have been tremendously helpful to me as I have worked not only to build my businesses but also to focus on continually improving and nurturing the quality of relationships with my clients, associates, and customers.

Many times I’ve heard Tim speak of being focused on your prospect (or one could easily substitute your client, customer, spouse, etc. here–basically anyone with whom you are engaged in conversation), and I’ve always consciously held this in my mind not to be distracted by other people or events in my surrounding when communicating one-on-one. Despite my intellectual understanding of this, however, I gained an even greater understanding of this simply by being in Tim’s presence.

For the mere 3 to 4 minutes in which we spoke while a line of other eager fans of Tim’s stood nearby awaiting him to sign a book or CD, his attention was focused 100% on me for the entire duration of our conversation. It seemed as if there were a cocoon-like environment created around just the two of us in what was an otherwise VERY noisy entryway to a ballroom filled with people, booths, and activities. I felt as if Tim had all the time in the world to really listen to, understand, process, and give a response to my questions. I know this sounds like a very simple process (and is one he speaks of time and again in his own training materials), but to have experienced his embodiment of this in-person has truly deepened my appreciation of and sensitivity to the profound impact this has on another human being. Thanks again, Tim, for helping me to gain yet another level of understanding through your example… one which serves to enrich both my professional and personal life.