Angelique Rewers of ‘The Corporate Agent’: Getting An Upgrade; How Anyone Can Build Habits For Optimal Wellness, Performance, & Focus
Over the weekend, take some time to organize your agenda for the upcoming week. Creating a personal rolling agenda can help you stay on top of everything. Treat it as your work journal where you can drop any important tasks, events, or notes into. This can be used as a reference throughout the week. Your rolling agenda can be used alongside task reminders you can set on your phone for anything reliant upon a due date. Getting in the habit of setting reminders will help your productivity down the road as it will ensure you never miss a task or assignment. Finally there’s time management. Having a personal agenda and timely reminders will definitely be beneficial in strengthening your time management skills, allowing you to delegate time for particular tasks in an orderly fashion.
As a part of our series about “How Anyone Can Build Habits For Optimal Wellness, Performance, & Focus”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Angelique Rewers.
Angelique Rewers, founder of The Corporate Agent, helps small businesses land big corporate clients such as IBM, Intel, HP, PayPal, AT&T, Marriott, Chevron and Major League Baseball. Having successfully navigated all sides of the corporate buying table for more than two decades, Angelique provides business training and advice to thousands of small businesses across 72 countries worldwide on how to secure 5, 6, and 7-figure corporate contracts. She has been called “The Undisputed Champion at Helping Small Businesses Land Big Clients” by Inc. Magazine. In addition to being named an Enterprising Woman of the Year by Enterprising Women Magazine, Angelique has been featured by Huffington Post, Forbes, Inc., Yahoo Finance, American Express, Washington Post, Entrepreneur, ABC and more.
Instagram: @AngeliqueRewers
Facebook: @GetCorporateClients
Twitter: @AngeliqueRewers
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
Certainly! I was born and raised in Dundalk, Md, a low-income, blue-collar, steel town. I’m an only child. And from the time I was one years old, my mom was a single parent. We spent many years, on and off, living with my grandparents. I was their only grandchild as well, which meant I spent all my time around adults. I was probably the only four year old playing Pinochle and Canasta card games.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.
Like most entrepreneurs, there was an awful lot of zigging and zagging. I knew from the time I was in high school that being stuck in an office every day, doing the same thing over and over was not for me. Yet I didn’t see any other options available. Sure enough, after college I found myself in the corporate world, where ironically I excelled. But I wasn’t happy.
Then when I was 25 I had a terrifying health emergency that truly woke me up to the reality that we never know how much time we have. At that point, I began consciously looking at alternatives. At first, I just changed jobs, but that didn’t solve my restlessness. A couple of years later, I was sitting in my corporate office one night, approving invoices from outside consultants and vendors that were working for me on a huge corporate project. My eyes zeroed in on the dollar size of those invoices, and it hit me: I could make more money, working less hours, with more freedom, if I were on the outside versus the inside. About 60 days later, I turned in my resignation and started my own consulting business. Of course, that was just the beginning of the zigging and the zagging.
About two years into my business, other small business owners started asking me how I was landing the corporate and other B2B clients I had, and if I would show them how to do that, too. The first few times folks asked, I kindly declined. But then the requests kept coming, and so I took on a few clients. And then a few more. Before I knew it, we created The Corporate Agent. That was in 2010, so this is our 10-year anniversary. We’ve worked with small business owners across 72 countries, and have helped thousands and thousands of consultants, coaches, service providers, speakers, experts, and diverse small business owners to win corporate clients ranging from the Fortune 500 and Global 2000, to higher education, non profit, mid-market, small enterprise and even government agencies.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?
I really have to give credit to the women of my family — my mother, grandmother and great grandmother. Three incredibly strong humans.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
I really had to think about this one for a minute because I’m a bit like Lucy from the old television series. I sometimes don’t know how I get myself into predicaments.
But there is one that stands out to me. It was a month or so after I was hired by a major defense company to lead the marketing for a key business segment. There was a huge trade show fast approaching. The head of sales, who I had never met before, stormed into my office and proceeded to map out on my office’s white board what he wanted our trade show display to look like. At this point, I was unfamiliar with the acronyms and jargon coming out of his mouth, so he lost me after the word hello. As soon as he left, I called in the company’s external trade show vendor and showed them the white board. They said they understood exactly what he was looking for. So I breathed a sigh of relief. A month later, I arrived at the trade show. There were thousands of business and military leaders in attendance, and I see a crowd gathered around our display. To my horror, they were bent over in laughter. It looked like a child’s art project gone bad. Helicopters were twice the size of aircraft carriers. Submarines were floating mid air. Rope lights, like you’d use for Christmas decorations, were stapled to the boards connecting things together. If I had not been the person ultimately responsible for this disaster, I would have found it hilarious, too. In hindsight, I wish I had a photo because a description just doesn’t do it justice. The punishment for this horror was that I had to stand in the trade show booth for three straight days, as people walked by and laughed.
Fortunately, I have a good sense of humor and I didn’t get fired. And of course so many good lessons. An obvious one is the importance of clear, unequivocal communication. From top to bottom, this was an epic communications meltdown.
The second lesson was that you can turn failures into successes. Even though our display was a disaster, as it turned out, our sales team was busier than ever. People were coming over to the booth to check it out because everyone was talking about it, not in a good way. But that didn’t really matter. The sales team blamed it on me (which was fair), but they had tons of foot traffic. So in the end, it all worked out.
The road to success is hard and requires tremendous dedication. This question is obviously a big one, but what advice would you give to a young person who aspires to follow in your footsteps and emulate your success?
The first piece of advice I would give is this: don’t! By that I mean, don’t follow in anyone else’s footsteps; make fresh ones of your own. Of course, you can always take a few pages out of other people’s books, so to speak. But the biggest thing you need to do is to explore for yourself. Read about entrepreneurs. Look at the different businesses they’ve created. Examine their bigger picture missions beyond profitability. Most young people start out with far too few options and possibilities in their mind’s eye. Yet we can only create that which we are aware of. Awareness precedes manifestation. So, take the time to explore before committing yourself to a path.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?
“The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.” — Oscar Wilde, from The Importance of Being Earnest
This sums it ALL up. If we knew what was going to happen each day, what would be the point of this adventure?
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
We’re in the process of launching a new, high-level mentoring program for our small business owner clients called FireStarter. It’s a bit different than what we typically do because, in addition to focusing on the brass tacks strategies of growing a business and winning corporate clients, this program is also about designing a business model that bakes in social impact. It’s something we feel especially compelled to do on the heels of 2020. What’s crystal clear coming out of this year is that the world needs more entrepreneurial leaders who are making a tangible positive impact on the planet. But to do that, entrepreneurs need the right community and the right strategies. And that’s what this FireStarter mentoring program is all about. We’re really energized and excited about this as we head into 2021.
OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. This will be intuitive to you but it will be helpful to spell this out directly. Can you help explain a few reasons why it is so important to create good habits? Can you share a story or give some examples?
I’d argue that habits are especially important for people who are tremendously driven and living and working at a lightning fast pace. When something becomes a habit, we don’t have to expend as much conscious effort thinking about it. It becomes second nature. That means we’re freed up to think about the more important things, while at the same time helping us not to forget things, or cause otherwise easily preventable problems. All of that translates into less stress, and we all know that stress plays a major part in our mental and physical health.
Here’s a great example. About 10 years ago I started traveling a lot for my business. I hadn’t yet adopted any travel habits, which meant that every trip required tons of decisions, thinking through details, planning, and executing. It was mentally exhausting and time consuming. Then I started putting simple habits in place, ranging from always taking the first flight out in the morning, to the exact seat I booked on flights, to my ritual for packing, to how I handled all the logistics in my arrival city and so on. As a result, everything became faster, easier and less stressful.
How have habits played a role in your success? Can you share some success habits that have helped you in your journey?
Back in 2011, a colleague introduced me to something called the Kolbe A Index. What I discovered is that there are three parts to your mind — your cognitive (or intellectual) mind, your affective (or emotional) mind, and your conative mind. That last part, conation, is something that a lot of people aren’t aware of. I certainly didn’t know about it! At any rate, the Kolbe A Index is the only assessment in the world of its kind that isolates and measures your contative part of your mind — which shapes how you do things. How you take action.
One of the modes of action in the Kolbe A Index looks at your Follow Thru energy, which determines whether or not you innately create systems, and how well you stick to them.
As it turns out, I have very little Follow Thru energy. I’m a 3 on a 10-point scale. Generally speaking, what that means is that my innate strength in that zone is finding shortcuts and cutting through red tape. I actually thrive on NOT doing things the same way more than once!
Once I understood this part of my brain, I immediately stopped feeling guilty about the way I operate. I also stopped trying to implement habits in the same way most habit experts advise. You have to realize that most habit experts are people who have a lot of conative Follow Thru energy! They really can’t relate to someone like me and their systems don’t work for someone like me.
So, the most important success habit, if you will, on my journey is designing my business, my life, and my so-called systems to work for the way that I innately take action. This has removed the resistance I was running into when I tried to apply other people’s systems or habits to my life. Any system or habit I implement starts with first recognizing and honoring my conative M.O. Otherwise, it’s simply not going to work for me or last for more than one day!
Speaking in general, what is the best way to develop good habits? Conversely, how can one stop bad habits?
A lot of it has to do with what I just shared. You have to understand what’s going to work for you.That takes a bit of trial and error. For example, I’ve learned that I do very well with checklists. I’ve also found that automation works very well for me. If I can have healthy food delivered to my door each week, raw juice, subscription food services, etc., then I’ll stick with my healthy eating habits. Whereas, if I have to find the time to do something, my busy-ness will get in the way and I won’t stick with the habit. Same goes for making use of my calendar. If something is on the calendar it typically happens. If I wait and rely on “finding the time,” forget about it.
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Let’s talk about creating good habits in three areas, Wellness, Performance, and Focus. Can you share three good habits that can lead to optimum wellness. Please share a story or example for each.
Wellness: Set some personal time each morning solely dedicated to self care.
Can you help explain some practices that can be used to develop those habits?
Waking up an hour before you usually do helps mentally prepare for a productive work day. Whether you’re meditating, exercising, or listening to a podcast, it’s important to start your day with activities that are aimed at your own wellness. Doing so allows you to rid yourself of the rolling procrastination that can ensue during the work day, since you already had time in the morning to focus on yourself. Getting all the would-be distractions out of the way first thing in the morning can enhance the quality of your daily routine while also increasing productivity.
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Can you share three good habits that can lead to optimal performance at work or sport? Please share a story or example for each.
Performance: Create a personal rolling agenda. Set reminders for your to-do’s. Time management.
Can you help explain some practices that can be used to develop those habits?
Over the weekend, take some time to organize your agenda for the upcoming week. Creating a personal rolling agenda can help you stay on top of everything. Treat it as your work journal where you can drop any important tasks, events, or notes into. This can be used as a reference throughout the week. Your rolling agenda can be used alongside task reminders you can set on your phone for anything reliant upon a due date. Getting in the habit of setting reminders will help your productivity down the road as it will ensure you never miss a task or assignment. Finally there’s time management. Having a personal agenda and timely reminders will definitely be beneficial in strengthening your time management skills, allowing you to delegate time for particular tasks in an orderly fashion.
Can you share three good habits that can lead to optimal focus? Please share a story or example for each.
I’m so glad you asked about focus habits in particular. This is an area on which we spend a lot of time coaching our entrepreneur clients because lack of focus is toxic to productivity, stress and, most of all, business growth. Yet, our modern world is designed to hijack your focus every 30 seconds. From text messages, to instant messenger apps used in the workplace, to emails, to social media notifications, to phone calls, to automated notifications that pop up on our computer screens, it’s a miracle we’re able to accomplish anything at all.
To create focus habits, the first thing you’ll need to do is become hyper aware of what’s sapping your focus to begin with. It may not be what you think.
For example, I came to realize that stopping for a few seconds to glance at my email was not that big of a distraction at all. In fact, given my conative M.O., I can often focus better if I can have mental stimulation from multiple places. Alternatively, however, I discovered that phone calls really zap my focus. Once my brain gets pulled into a conversation, I have trouble returning to the same level of focus on a task that I had prior to that call. So, all of that to say, you need to be a student of your own focus behaviors.
Then, the next step is to make a decision about what’s acceptable to you and what’s not. In my case, it was not acceptable to me to keep losing focus all day with calls, so we only book calls on my calendar for the afternoon.
Can you help explain some practices that can be used to develop those habits?
Many of our clients, especially executive coaches and consultants who work from a home office, and find that it’s their family members that zap their focus. If that’s the case, you have to decide, first and foremost, where are the boundaries? What’s acceptable and what’s not? Until you make that decision, no tip or trick is going to help you form a habit.
As a leader, you likely experience times when you are in a state of Flow. Flow has been described as a pleasurable mental state that occurs when you do something that you are skilled at, that is challenging, and that is meaningful. Can you share some ideas from your experience about how we can achieve a state of Flow more often in our lives?
This is such a great question, and it goes back to what I shared a few minutes ago around the conative aspect of your mind. The amazing people at Kolbe Corp. have done literally decades of research around our brains and how they respond when we are working within our conative modus operandi (M.O.), or outside of our M.O. And not surprisingly, we have nice calm brain waves when we are working in our innate zone of genius.
So the first thing is to understand what your conative M.O. is, and what they means in terms of how you operate best. My zone of genius, if you will, is something called “Quick Start.” I actually thrive in situations that are fast-paced, high-risk, lots of uncertainty, where I’m creating something new. I could do that for days on end and not get tired. Time ceases to exist and I’m completely in the moment.
Not only that, but it’s important to me as a business owner that I actually build in time for that kind of activity. If I don’t I would burn out really quickly. Being in that flow state is what energizes me.
Ok, we are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I certainly hope the movement we are inspiring in the world is helping small business owners and self-employed experts to leverage (in the true sense of the word) the ultimate force multiplier. As a small business owner, the fact is, you have limited resources and limited reach. So understanding how to get your message and work into the world by winning corporate (and other B2B) clients allows you to multiply your positive force in the world by having an impact on each client’s entire ecosystem.
For every “yes” you get from a corporate client, your service or product has the opportunity to serve hundreds if not thousands of people — ranging from employees to customers/clients to vendors and suppliers to the communities that that organization operates in. But navigating these corporate and B2B waters is not necessarily intuitive or just common sense. In fact, sometimes it’s like operating in the upside-down world. So the movement we are leading is to equip the “David’s” to work with the “Goliath’s” in a win-win-win scenario.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)
Ryan Reynolds. As an entrepreneur, the marketing concepts he churns out are absolutely brilliant, but more importantly, defiant. They break the rules of what should work, but they work anyway. I would love to understand how, if at all, he tests those ideas, or if they go entirely on his gut instinct. Also, how he blends personality marketing with brand marketing. And what he thinks is the most important element of making the human to human connection.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
First and foremost, I invite everyone to connect with us at www.thecorporateagent.com, where we have complimentary downloadable resources, as well as valuable videos and articles. Additionally, I’m very active on LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube, and a private Facebook group for small business owners and consultants who work with corporate clients.
Here are some helpful links.
https://www.thecorporateagent.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/angeliquerewers/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/thecorporateagent
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GetCorporateClients
Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.
