The JP Revolution

As your business starts to grow and your client list starts to expand, it can quickly seem that there is just too much to do. Every time a new task pops up, you immediately tell yourself, "I just don't have time to do anything else." While this is sometimes true, more often than not it's your mind playing tricks on you. If you ever take a few moments to break down minute-by-minute your activity th...

There's a lot of truth to the old adage "Pride comes before a fall." However, there's even more truth to the idea that pride can prevent you from having success in the first place. Our ego can get us in a world of trouble when it comes to starting, growing, and maintaining a business. We are terrified of making mistakes and embarrassing ourselves. We worry so much about what other people will thin...

Running your own business or working in sales is an emotional rollercoaster like no other. One day you feel like you are on top of the world (usually after a big sale), the next a sale falls through and you hit rock bottom. Unfortunately, many have trouble climbing out of those emotional low places. In fact, many spiral even deeper into darkness when their self-doubt and fear get fired up. That's...

Over 90% of the conversations we have each day are with ourselves. We talk to ourselves all the time. We even talk to ourselves when we are talking to other people. The trouble with that is that most of those conversations are negative. We tell ourselves we are not very good at things, that we'll never be successful, and the things we want are more than we can ever have. After a while, we actually...

We talk a lot about how our fear and insecurities can often prevent us from doing the things we need to do to be successful. We convince ourselves that some of our dreams and goals will be forever out of our reach. When we do this, it becomes so easy to not even try. What's the point, after all, if we don't believe our goals are achievable. That's the battle we all face when trying to do great thi...

Social Media is a powerful force in today's world. If used correctly it can help almost any business owner or salesperson reach the world. All too often, however, it has the exact opposite effect on a business owner. Instead of being a force for growth, it can become a huge time-suck that stops work from getting down and a tremendous demotivator that makes you think the world is such a bad place t...

One thing we realize as we get older is that time goes by very fast. It feels like, if you blink, another year is gone. Each of us has an average of about 41,000,000 minutes on this earth. That seems like a lot until you start thinking about how much we spent in school and how many minutes we would like to be able to spend in retirement. Take those away and you realize the number of minutes we hav...

Over the next few days, we all get a chance to reacquaint ourselves with the idea of gratitude. Each November, on the last Thursday of the month, we all take time to recognize the things we are thankful for... usually while gathered around a table full of food. If we do it right and really take our gratitude seriously, we can often feel our stress leave us and our worries recede for a while. There...

What are you afraid of? Are those fears real or imagined? These are two questions you need to continually ask yourself when you are trying to grow a business or expand a sales career? Like it or not, it's our ability to overcome our internal fears that will ultimately determine whether we are successful. If we can't, those fears force bad decisions or, worse yet, prevent us from making any decisio...

Do you have goals? I don't mean the kind of vague "I'd like to do.... someday" kind of statements everyone makes. I am talking about the hard-core "Here is what I am going to accomplish in 2022" kind of goal. Most people don't. They tell themselves over and over again that they need to, but when it comes time to actually write them out they freeze up. Goals are scary! What if you set a goal, and d...

When you start your own business or go into direct sales no one warns you about the internal struggles that come with being your own boss. Self-doubt, fear, and indecision quickly consume you if you are not careful. As an employee, you have a boss often telling you what you have to do and when you have to do it. There's usually no room for that inner voice to derail you. When the alarm goes off, y...

Social media has changed the world. It's created amazing new ways for us to communicate and share ideas. It's opened up new marketing avenues so we can reach customers all over the world in whole new ways. However, with the good comes the bad. It's also created avenues of hate and anger that never existed before. Its addictive nature can easily consume your time and cloud your mind in ways that de...

Are you easily distracted when you are trying to get some work done? Do you find yourself closely relating to the dog in the movie UP who completely loses focus when someone yells "Squirrel"? Lack of focus can be one of the biggest obstacles we face when trying to build our sales career or our businesses. The more repetitive, mundane, and detestable the task is, the easier it is for us to let ours...

Each of us is constantly at war in our own minds (good vs. bad, productive vs. lazy, confident vs. insecure, and brave vs. fearful). We cheer on the positive side of that battle, but all too often watch as the negative side wins out over and over again. Unfortunately, our ability to achieve the things we want out of life is entirely dependent on our "good side" being victorious. We want to reach o...

What do you intend to do today to drive your business and/or your life forward? Do you know exactly what you want to accomplish today? Many of us do have goals we hope to achieve. If pressed on what we were planning to do today to move toward those goals, we would give a very generic answer. We'd say something like, "I am going to do everything I can to get me closer to my goals". We'd take a lot...

Most of us have been told since the day we were born that failure is bad and something that we should avoid at all costs. Unfortunately, that belief often becomes so entrenched that it can paralyze our growth as a person and especially as an entrepreneur. The truth is that failure is an essential part of our professional evolution. Success requires taking chances, but fear of failure can easily ca...

When you are building your own business, it can seem like the entire world is trying to stop you from attaining the success you want. It can often feel that you are on an island all by yourself. Your families ad friends have no idea what you are going through and their "support" can often make matter worse. That's why most highly successful people have support partners and/or coaches to help them...

When you decide to branch and create your own business, it scares the heck out of those close to you. Often, they aren't entrepreneurial-minded and just can't see why you wouldn't take a nice safe job with benefits and two weeks vacation each year. Being your own boss just isn't right for everyone. Often your friends and family will inadvertently say things that will rattle your confidence and you...

Do you really believe you can be great? One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from Henry Ford when he said, "Whether you believe you can or you believe you can't, you are right". So many people think they can achieve something great, or perhaps believe it's possible for them. That's not the same as truly "believing" they can be great. Without that absolute certainty, it's way too easy to let...

All salespersons and entrepreneurs have one thing in common. We all hate cold-calling or at the very least hate making that first call. It usually gets better after three or four dials, but some bizarre combination of fear, self-doubt, lack of conviction, and imposter syndrome makes it very hard for us to pick up the phone. There are dozens of ways to contact customers nowadays that don't involve...

I once read that Larry Bird would get up every morning and take hundreds of jump shots in the gym all by himself before anyone else showed up for practice. It's not surprising then that when game time came he was easily able to knock down shot after shot and is recognized as one of the greatest of all time. He simply practiced himself to greatness. The same can be said for just about anyone on any...

It's commonplace to see athletes warming up before a game. In fact, it would be very strange if we ever saw an elite-level basketball player show up at the gym right at tip-off and start playing. We would probably question their dedication and professionalism. We know that in order for an athlete to be at peak performance, they have to warm up. They have to get their body ready and their mind focu...

Running your own business is rewarding and exciting, but it also can be the most emotionally draining thing you ever do. The same can be said if your livelihood comes from sales. Self-doubt, fear, and indecision can not only paralyze our business but can leave us an emotional wreck. To prevent burnout, you have to find ways to recharge yourself. This episode takes a look at the various ways you ca...

If you sell for a living or own your own business, you need to avoid burnout at all costs. That condition can bring everything you are trying to build to a screeching halt. Burnout is your mind's way of protecting itself from prolonged stress. One day you are freaking out trying to get everything done and the next you don't care whether it gets done or not. When you're burned out, it just doesn't...

How many times have you tried to start a new habit that just fell by the wayside after a few days. Perhaps, everything was going great, and then suddenly you reverted back to your own ways and felt like a total failure. It happens to all of us at some point or another. We then beat ourselves up for not having the strength to make the changes we wanted to make. It turns out that, more often than no...