Millennial Sales

Ronnie Lott is a Pro Football Hall of Famer and one of the best to ever play the game.   The below is a blurb from the book Trillion Dollar Coach, in which Lott talks about Bill Campbell, possibly the greatest executive coach of our time.  “Great coaches lie awake at night thinking about how to make you better.  They relish creating an environment where you get more out of yourself. Coaches are like great artists getting the stroke exactly right on a painting.  They are painting relationships. Most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how they are going to make someone else better. But that’s what coaches do.  It’s what Bill Campbell did, he just did it on a different field.”  Lott’s first sentence is interesting.  I’ve noticed that most of the successful people I’ve met spend time thinking, obsessing over their craft.  At night, in the morning.   Whether it’s leading your team, being a better mother or being the top salesperson at your company, it’s the after-hours that really make the difference.  The constant thinking, tinkering, 1% changes you can make.   Most people don’t think that way.  They flip on HGTV and watch mind-numbing TV until it’s time for bed.   It’s not for everyone.  But if you want to be the top of the field, you need to commit to the craft.   This post is from our new series, Daily Momentum.  Each morning, we send a short, inspirational post via email, blog and podcast.  You can get it directly to your email here.  You can subscribe on iTunes here .

Two years ago, I was on the road for work and got in an early morning hotel workout before my meetings.  In between sets, I realized there was a new Entrepreneur Magazine with Daymond John on the cover. Something was telling me to pick it up.   The first page I opened had a quote from John in big blue letters that said:  “Don’t ignore all those naysayers in your path.  Put that negativity to work for you.  Let it drive you, even if it’s just to prove everyone else wrong.”  This quote hit me at the right time.  I was in the midst of closing the biggest deal of my life, despite people telling me it would never happen.  I was hitting the podcast trail on my own after working with a partner for the first year.   It didn’t matter.  There are always haters.  There are always naysayers, dream killers, people that want you to fail. There will always be people in the peanut gallery giving you shit and your initial instinct telling you to “forget them.”   But hold up.   Maybe don’t forget them.   Maybe keep them in the back of your mind, or written down in a notebook or put them on your fridge.   Because when things get really tough – we don’t need positivity – we need a kick in the ass that pushes us the last 10% of the journey.  Don’t ignore the naysayers.  Use them as fuel.     This post is from our new series, Daily Momentum.  Each morning, we send a short, inspirational post via email, blog and podcast.  You can get it directly to your email here.  You can subscribe on iTunes here .

Nick Saban is one of the most successful football coaches of all time.  It may surprise you that he rarely talks about his championships, or even about winning.  What he talks about almost constantly is The Process.  The Process has a mystical feeling not because it’s an abstract idea, but because it’s so simple.  It’s so easy that anyone can do it – and the fact that 99% of people don’t do it is what has made Saban so remarkably successful.  What is The Process?  Saban explains:  “Don’t think about winning the SEC Championship.  Don’t think about the national championship. Think about what you needed to do in this drill, on this play, in this moment.  That’s the process: Let’s think about what we can do today, the task at hand.”  When our heads are always in the clouds, we take for granted the small steps required to accomplish our goals.  The next meal choice, the cold call you need to make, the meeting you’re walking into.   These are all part of the process and if we don’t repeatedly make the right decisions and give it everything we have, we can’t possibly think we’ll end up at the top.   As Saban said, let’s think about what we can do today.  The task at hand. Follow The Process.   This post is from our new series, Daily Momentum.  Each morning, we send a short, inspirational post via email, blog and podcast.  You can get it directly to your email here.  You can subscribe on iTunes here .

A few friends and I recently visited a zen garden in Northern California.  It’s a combination of a farm, meditation center and mystical hideout 20 minutes north of San Francisco.   Although we just went for the day, there are people that do a “work-study” at the farm and live there for months at a time.  We met one of these people, Finn, a kind-faced man who left Louisiana in search of mindfulness and had been at the center for the past few months.   I instantly respected Finn for his decision to go against the grain in search of a meaningful life.    But what I appreciate even more are the people that can find their moment of zen within the business of life.  The people who can, after their job of selling software, can zone into a meditative practice.  The mother that wakes up before her child to practice yoga.   One of my favorite books last year was Ryan Holiday’s Stillness is the Key, which explores this idea.  In a speech he gave on his book tour, he confirmed his mission with the book.  Paraphrasing, he said that it’s not about selling everything you own, abandoning your family and moving to the mountains.  It’s about finding your element of stillness – journaling, meditation, a hobby – in the craziness that is life.   A few years ago, I was in downtown Miami with my girlfriend and came across this massive green sign that said “Finding Calm In The Chaos.” Find your calm in the chaos today. 

“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.”    -Seneca    We’ve all witnessed the scene of a well-meaning person walking into a convenience store to buy a lottery ticket.  In my experience, these people are almost never wealthy. In fact, I’ve heard numerous people say they’re living paycheck to paycheck, yet can’t miss their opportunity to buy a lottery ticket.  Here’s the issue with that: you’re asking for luck without putting forth any effort.  It very rarely works like that.   Larry Bird once noted that the harder he worked, the luckier he got.  I think we can all attest to this notion in action.  Successful people don’t play the lottery.  They work hard and get “lucky” when their results reflect the actions they’ve taken.   You make a few extra phone calls and you finally close the deal you’ve been working on.  You donate to a charity and realize that things start falling your way.   It’s not science: it’s life karma.  The Universe takes care of those taking care of the Universe – the harder you work, the better you are to people, the better your life will be.  I don’t give a shit about picking up a penny with its face up or walking under a ladder or breaking a mirror.   I create my own luck.  And I suggest you do the same.    This post is from our new series, Daily Momentum.  Each morning, we send a short, inspirational post via email, blog and podcast.  You can get it directly to your email here.  You can subscribe on iTunes here .

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ―Aristotle In one of my favorite quotes, Annie Dillard said: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”   It’s obvious but undeniably true.  It’s easy to think of life as this abstract idea but it’s really just a ton of individual days stacked up on top of each other.  And the success we have in any area – financial, health, relationships – all come from what we do in each individual day.   Nobody has the same background but we all have the same 24 hours in each day.  How are you spending yours?   No, seriously.  Let’s take an audit.  You’re pissed that you’re not making enough money, but are you really working for it?  You’re staring at that stubborn belly fat, but are you doing the sit-ups required?   There’s a time for positivity and a time to keep it real.   Because the only way we’ll achieve excellence is if it becomes a habit, something that we do each and every day.  Are your habits defined by laziness and excuses or are they building excellence?   Talk is cheap.  We are what we repeatedly do.   This post is from our new series, Daily Momentum.  Each morning, we send a short, inspirational post via email, blog and podcast.  You can get it directly to your email here.  You can subscribe on iTunes here .

“To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight,”    – E.E. Cummings I was an impressionable kid.  I still am to some degree. I remember one day after returning from visiting my family in Indiana, I had started talking differently.  I thought the Midwestern accent that my cousin had was the coolest thing and began using it in my daily lingo.  My mom took quick notice of this.  I forget her exact words, but the message was clear: be yourself, everyone else is already taken.  It’s easy to default to be somebody else.  To follow what the “cool kids” are doing in school or act just like the boss or like Kim Kardashian.  Why? Because it’s easy. Because it’s safe.   Because if people don’t know who you really are, then they can’t possibly dislike you.   It’s a cover.  It’s a protective shell that ends up suffocating us in the long run.  It’s lame, it’s cliche, but it’s true.  Be yourself.  Everyone else is taken.   This post is from our new series, Daily Momentum.  Each morning, we send a short, inspirational post via email, blog and podcast.  You can get it directly to your email here.  You can subscribe on iTunes here .

“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), “Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?” chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.” ― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art   Want to know a little secret?  Everyone is scared as shit.  Warren Buffet’s scared about blowing an investment.  Oprah is scared about fumbling over an interview. Even LeBron shakes a little bit in his head when the ball is in his hands at the end of a game.   Being scared is a good sign.  It means you care, that you want to get better, that this means something to you.  It means you have skin in the game.   The people that are really in trouble are the people that don’t get scared.  They’re complacent, high on their horse, ready for a downfall.   They say to do one thing every day that breaks you out of your comfort zone or that scares you.  I couldn’t agree more.   Sometimes, on those days where my fingers won’t type or my brain won’t fire like I need it to, I’ll re-read Pressfield’s quote and find solace in the fact that I am scared shitless – and that means I’m on the right track.   This post is from our new series, Daily Momentum.  Each morning, we send a short, inspirational post via email, blog and podcast.  You can get it directly to your email here.  You can subscribe on iTunes here .

Perfectionism sucks.  It’s what keeps us from starting the diet, submitting our job application or jumping into the new relationship.  It’s what keeps me staring at the first sentence of a blog post for 30 minutes as Resistance kicks my ass.  In her book, Bird By Bird, Anne Lamott shares her thoughts on the tyrant that is perfectionism.   “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won’t have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren’t even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they’re doing it.” The best way to defeat perfectionism is to begin action.  Pick up that barbell. Start typing. Make the phone call.  You know what you need to do.   It’s easier said than done, but let’s do our best to set ourselves free from perfectionism today.    This post is from our new series, Daily Momentum.  Each morning, we send a short, inspirational post via email, blog and podcast.  You can get it directly to your email here.  You can subscribe on iTunes here .

Today we’re going to do a spotlight on the great Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s longtime business partner and one of the richest people alive.  Here is his advice on how NOT to be successful.    “[If you want to guarantee a life of misery], be unreliable. Do not faithfully do what you have engaged to do. If you will only master this one habit you will more than counterbalance the combined effect of all your virtues, howsoever great. If you like being distrusted and excluded from the best human contribution and company, this prescription is for you. Master this one habit and you can always play the role of the hare in the fable, except that instead of being outrun by one fine turtle you will be outrun by hordes and hordes of mediocre turtles and even by some mediocre turtles on crutches.  “I must warn you that if you [do the opposite] it may be hard to end up miserable, even if you start disadvantaged. I had a roommate in college who was and is severely dyslexic. But he is perhaps the most reliable man I have ever known. He has had a wonderful life so far, outstanding wife and children, chief executive of a multibillion dollar corporation. …you simply can’t count on your other handicaps to hold you back if you persist in being reliable.”    This post is from our new series, Daily Momentum.  Each morning, we send a short, inspirational post via email, blog and podcast.  You can get it directly to your email here.  You can subscribe on iTunes here .