We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Steve A Klein. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Steve A below.
Alright, Steve A thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your business and how did you resolve those issues?
Got into $250,000 debt (on credit cards and lines of credit) by financing client purchases. As a result, every time the phone rang, my secretary was handing “dunning” call. Not only was I in debt, but I couldn’t make additional sales, because my mind was focused on the debt.
I then developed a plan to deal with the debt. I had “50” credit cards and lines of credit. All of the cards were cancelled, except one. It took 8 years, but I paid everything off.
Steve A, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I was fired from my job as a one-man News Director for a small radio station. I was re-hired to sell radio advertising and had to self-teach myself. That got me into understanding how to sell and how to create success.
I currently do keynote speaking in addition to selling “Sales” and “Leadership” training. The difference between what I sell and most of this training is that my clients actually develop a “change in behavior” to increase their success.
I’m most proud of being able to help clients exceed their expectations through “change” with my programs and my speaking.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
My focus is more on “relentless” than “resilience,” though they both go together. “Relentless” is never giving up, no matter what. “Resilience” is bouncing back. Case in point is paying off the $250,000 debt rather than the easy way of filing for bankruptcy.
Being fired from my News Director job and became a salesperson with no training.
Buying a franchise in the self-development business and becoming the number one U.S. franchisee for 7 years in a row out of 500, and becoming number one in the world twice out of 5,000 franchises. It’s a matter of “doing what needs to be done.” “People don’t fail because they lack knowledge, education, or talent. People fail because of what they do not do!”
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I was a “slouch” in high school because I didn’t realize I had and have a learning disability: it takes me a looooong time to learn and internalize anything new. As a result, I tend to overdo almost anything. To pay for college, I worked as many as 3 jobs at a time while taking a full load of courses. I’ve learned to develop tunnel vision on learning anything new and I stick with it, no matter how long it takes, in order to succeed.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://steveaklein.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveaklein/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RelentlessSteve/videos
