Chamber breakfast will pose marketing strategiesBy Amanda Daniels
UNION-TRIBUNE COMMUNITY NEWS WRITER
May 5, 2005
CARLSBAD – Debbie Barnett is used to looking at the world from unusual angles. It helps her close sales and inspire other salespeople to do the same, she said.
Barnett, a yoga instructor and motivational speaker, will be the presenter at the First Friday Breakfast tomorrow hosted by the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. Her topic will be “Sales & Marketing With a Yoga Twist.”
Several chamber members recommended Barnett, said Betsy Bracken, who helps select speakers for the monthly breakfasts. The gatherings attract about 150 people.
In choosing presenters, Bracken said, a main criterion is that they “give tangible information people can apply right away to their business.”
Barnett has built her own company by doing that.
Before starting Conscious Flow four years ago, she was a senior sales trainer and field sales representative with the coaching company Brian Tracy International.
Now, she often brings yoga into her presentations. The strategy helps people remember her points, she said.
In sales, “you have to make an impression, an imprint, a stamp,” Barnett said. “The quicker you can get your point across, the quicker people understand.”
She said part of her mission is to show people how aligning the mind, body and spirit can make it easier to achieve goals. Sometimes she does a handstand while she talks to serve as an illustration.
Barnett drew another parallel between yoga and sales.
“It’s all a practice – flexibility, facing your fears, developing your core strength,” she said.
It was practice that helped her develop her own business. She was not always such a confident speaker.
Seven years ago, public speaking was Barnett’s greatest fear. She joined the speaking club Toastmasters International to conquer her anxiety.
She said she learned that “when you have something you’re afraid of and you walk past that fear, your greatest gift is on the other side.”
A few years after joining Toastmasters, Barnett was laid off from her job as an executive assistant in the savings and loan industry. Public speaking had become one of her passions and she turned it into a new career.
Last month, she won a first-place speaking award at an annual competition hosted by the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the National Speakers Association.
Barnett is based in Huntington Beach. Her other programs focus on health, listening and communication skills. |