Millennial Sales

I listened to a podcast with Inky Johnson and Ed Mylett the other day.  If you’re unfamiliar with Johnson’s story, you should get familiar .  He grew up in a family that was poor enough that he had to sleep on the floor with a dozen of his siblings and cousins.  Football was Johnson’s way out.   Johnson eventually earned a scholarship to play for The University of Tennessee.  With only a few games...

Here’s a Tuesday Tip for you.  Aaron Orendorff wrote a great article for the New York Times about why your colleagues don’t read your writing (which Elissa Fink, former podcast guest , posted on LinkedIn and caught my eye).  As a salesperson and leader, I write a lot at work.  Sometimes, people respond. Sometimes they don’t. If you’re like me, you may benefit from these tips from Orendorff’s artic...

“Having courage does not mean that we are unafraid.  Having courage and showing courage mean we face our fears.  We are able to say “I have fallen but I will get up.”  – Maya Angelou    Let’s face it: we all have fears .  Maybe it’s public speaking.  Maybe it’s walking into a dark room.  Maybe, like me, you have a fear of heights.   Our professional lives are equally s...

“Give a damn about yourself first, then those who give a damn about you, and then see if you have any damns left to give.” – Kevin Dorsey on Linkedn   The peanut gallery is awfully loud lately, isn’t it?  People can sometimes feel inclined to disrespect you without even knowing you.   But those people don’t matter.   Marcus Aurelius said that “we all love ourselves more than other...

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”  — Samuel Beckett   A few years ago, I interviewed The Wolf of Wall St, Jordan Belfort .  Love him or hate him, there are lessons to be learned by a figure like Belfort, a person who has felt the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.   When he was 23, Belfort went bankrupt running a business selling lobsters.  That e...

“People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.” – Gary Keller   One reason I write so much about habits is that it’s one of the things that we control.   Our background, the weather, other people, the economy – these are things we do not control.  Waking up early.  Speaking kindly to others.  Putting in our best effort. These a...

I wrote an article a few years ago breaking down my process going “Outbound Mode” in sales.  It’s a tactic to more successfully focus on prospecting – calling and emailing potential customers.   The article had four steps: prepare, block off the calendar, distractions, and action.  Unsurprisingly, the one that gets ignored is also the most boring step: preparation.  And that’s my Tuesday Tip...

“Extraordinary benefits accrue to the tiny minority of people who are able to push just a tiny bit longer than most.” – Seth Godin    In his book, The Dip , Seth Godin teaches us about the inevitable dips in our life – when to quit and when to stick.  In any of life’s journeys, there are a lot of rewards that come early in a path .  Take your first job out of college as an example...

A few years ago, my podcast partner and I interviewed James Altucher .  You can label him as an author, podcaster, investor, entrepreneur or – as Forbes would say, “the most interesting man in the world.” Altucher told plenty of fascinating and vulnerable stories on the ups and downs of his life but one concept from this conversation has stuck out to me: 10 ideas per day. I’ve written about...

“A private victory always precedes a public victory.” — Stephen R. Covey   There’s a huge gap between what we see on social media and reality.  Instagram is full of people bragging about someone landing their dream job, sitting on a beach in Croatia or looking great in a bikini.  These are public victories.  If all we do is compare ourselves to public victories, we’re going to miserable.  Wha...

Here’s a Tuesday tip for you:  If you feel stressed, anxious, like life is moving too fast, drop what you’re doing right now.  Just for a minute. Try something call box breathing .  It’s done in 5 simple steps: Exhale slowly for a count of 4 seconds Pause for a count of 4 seconds Inhale for a count of 4 seconds Pause for a count of 4 seconds  Repeat It’s that easy. And before you wave this off as...

“The seeds of remarkable results are planted when no one is watching.”  – Shane Parrish  There’s a great picture of Kobe Bryant that went re-viral after his passing (RIP) of him shooting free throws in his pajamas with his left hand because his dominant right hand was broken.  He was wearing pajamas because it was likely 4 or 5 am when Kobe went to the gym that day.   At first, y...

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”    -Warren Buffet    I’ve written about the importance of planting trees , both literally and metaphorically.  In fact, one of the most important factors of a successful salesperson or networker is planting seeds: doing something for someone now so that it may benefit both of you later down the line. ...

You’re probably on the front lines right now.  You’re cold calling into businesses. You’re preparing the presentation that your executive will give.  You’re doing the grunt work.   You’re dreaming of one day (soon) sitting in the corner office as someone that runs this place.  This menial job is beneath you. Hold up.  Before you ride these tasks off as useless or unimportant, consider that it may...

All-time great basketball coach John Wooden once gave advice to “make friendship an art.”  I have friendships that I hold near and dear but have never considered it to be an artwork.  Have you?  Artists work on their craft every day.  Artists see things in their most beautiful state.  Artists speak their minds and speak from the heart.  Great friends often work in the same way.  They’re there for...

“The difference between an amateur and a professional is their habits.  An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits.”    – Steven Pressfield    Scott Adams famously said that “Losers have goals, winners have systems.”   While I’m a big believer in goals, they’re not the only thing responsible for success.   Anyone can write down on a piece of p...

“Do sharks complain about Mondays?  No. They’re up early, biting stuff, chasing stuff, being scary – reminding everyone that they’re a fucking shark.”   I had that feeling when I woke up this morning.  I heard the egregious honking of my alarm at 4:45 shouting in my ear.  I heard a voice say within me, “Just tap that snooze button, roll up under the warm sheets and get some rest.  Who n...

“Trade your expectation for appreciation.”  – Tony Robbins    Did you know that humans actually have six senses?   Alongside sight, smell, taste, touch and sound, our sixth sense is the vestibular system.  This system keeps us balanced and tells us if we’re moving or staying still. Without it (and there are rare cases of this), we would constantly be walking as if we were on a tightrope...

“It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.”  – Marcus Aurelius   Have you ever been in a situation where you’re painfully self-conscious?   It’s your first time in the gym and you imagine every Schwarzzeneiger lookalike is staring at you, laughing in their head.  You’re giving a presentation at...

“Be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over.  It stands, unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.”  – Marcus Aurelius  Let’s face it: life is chaotic.  From crying kids to an unappreciative client to that stubborn weight you’ve been trying to lose for years.   Bruce Lee once famously suggested that we should “be like water.”  He continues by saying “Empty...

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. Coach...

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 wor...

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...

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...

“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 iss...