Millennial Sales

I write a lot about gratitude, optimism and staying positive.  Some days (or weeks or months) are tougher than others to stay positive.  I recently came across the below quote from musician Michael Franti.   Maybe we should all take a few gratitude “free throws” today :).  "It's hard to be grateful all the time, you know?  And some days I wake up and I feel like I'm on the wrong side of the bed and I can't appreciate everything that happens around me.  But I believe in practicing gratitude in the same way you practice free throws, or anything else. You can consciously choose to focus on what you're thankful for, rather than what frustrates you.  And if you have positive thoughts, positive words, a positive mental attitude, and positive actions, then eventually it becomes easier and easier to be positive." - Michael Franti   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.

JT McCormick has overcome a lot of obstacles. I mean, a LOT of obstacles.  His mother was an orphan. His father was a pimp and drug dealer. Upon being deserted, JT was forced to live with his father’s prostitutes for years, taking care of his younger step-siblings at the tender age of 8-years-old.  JT received his High School diploma from the janitor during summer school. At one point, he was homeless and lived on a park bench.  Your day doesn’t seem so bad right now, does it? JT got into sales. He was the lowest paid employee and became the President of the company in 2 years.  He is now the President & CEO of Scribe. He is business partners with bestselling writer Tucker Max.  How did he do it? How did the overcome the odds and become an inspiration to everyone he comes from? “Life truly is mindset and choices”  — JT McCormick It seems so simple, right?   It is.  But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.  Though his mindset is strong, JT’s actions separate him from the pack. He didn’t become this way through luck; it was through old-fashioned hard work.  In this interview, he illustrates that his day starts at 3:45 am. He spends the early morning time reading and studying past entrepreneurs and businesses to learn from their paths.  Then he gets a workout in. Once his family is awake, he spends time with them and is off to work.   He’s already learned, exercises and spent time with his family before his “workday” really begins.  Life is full of choices and sometimes that requires sacrifice.  “You have to sacrifice. Don’t run from it — everyone has to sacrifice something”. Take a page from JT’s book. Maybe things aren’t as bad as they seem.  Maybe you CAN change your life after all.   Mindset, choices. 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.

“How noble and good everyone could be if, every evening before falling asleep, they were to recall to mind the events of the whole day and consider exactly what has been good and bad. Then, without realizing it, you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day; of course, you achieve quite a lot in the course of time."   - Anne Frank  Morning routines have been all the rage the past few years.  Wake up at 3:07 am. Jump in your cold plunge, take a hot shower, meditate, pray, read a whole book, run a half marathon and eat only raw fruit and vegetables.  Four hours later, you’re finally ready to begin your day.   All of the morning routine hype has led evening routines to be highly underrated.  But I think we can tap into our evening routine today.  And it doesn’t have to be complicated.   Maybe we just take five minutes and follow Anne Frank’s guide above.  Open up a notebook and write down what happened today. Did you accomplish what you set out to?  Did you move even 1% closer to your goals? Did you spend time with those that you care about? Did you stick to your new diet?  If we do this enough times, we begin to pick up trends.  And understanding those can help us to better understand ourselves and improve.   At the end of the day today, take 2 minutes and review what happened: the good, the bad and the ugly.   Celebrate the wins and learn from the losses.  Do better tomorrow.   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 I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter."  - Mark Twain Last week, I gave some tips from NYT writer Aaron Orendorff on how to get people to read what you write at work.  Here’s a similar tip that can help with writing, public speaking, and presentations.   There is common advice given to novice public speakers: Be brief.  Be brilliant. Be gone.   A lot comes across in those six words, and that’s exactly the point.  The goal is to get your point across so succinctly, so precisely, and to do it in as few words as possible.   If you’re writing an email, it’s 5 or fewer sentences.  If you’re leaving a voicemail, it’s 20 seconds or less. Have you ever done a full presentation with no words on your slide deck?  Sometimes we try to outsmart ourselves.  We think that the six-paragraph email of rambling ideas makes it look like we gave it a lot of thought.  In fact, you can (and should) spend more time crafting the exact words you want to say to someone in just a few sentences.  Two scrolls on an iPhone. Anything more than that, and you’ve lost them.  Maybe George Costanza was right when he tried to leave every meeting on a high note after he landed a joke.  Brevity is key.  Brilliance is underestimated.  Distance creates anticipation. 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.

"Opportunities multiply as they are seized."  - Sun Tzu  The world is abundant.  There is an infinite amount of opportunities flowing through The Universe at any given point.  Money flowing, jobs being offered, people walking the streets that can change your fortune.  Maybe you don’t see it that way.  There are no jobs. The economy is down so nobody is going to buy my product.  My network is worthless and there’s no way to improve it.   Now, I don’t want to be insensitive... but that’s bullshit, right?  The GDP in the US alone is over $13 Trillion.  Over 130 million people in the country were fully employed last year.  Everyone has circumstances, and those definitely contribute to where you are.  And we're obviously going through weird times in the world right now. But don’t get it twisted: the opportunities are out there.  If there weren't, if the future couldn't be better than the past, then what's the point of even carrying on? The issue is that we’re looking for the big win.  The one customer that puts us on the map. Instead, we should be stacking up mini-wins.  Gain some momentum. Get 1% better each day.  Why?  Because as Sun Tzu noted, the more we seize opportunities, the more are created.  A big customer win turns into another referral which turns into an introduction to an investor which turns into a major funding round down the line.  But that doesn’t happen overnight.  You need that first win in order to get the second.   In the 40-Year-Old-Virgin, Steve Carrell comically asks his friend “Is it true that if you don’t use it, you...lose it?" It’s kind of like that.  Find a way to get a win today, and keep compounding over time.  That’s how you find opportunities that change your life. 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.

On Friday, March 20th, I put out a video challenge.  The idea is simple. Despite the craziness going on, I’m seeing a lot of good happening in this world and people rising up to shine a light. I want to spread that positivity. Here’s how it works: 1) Leave a review (or dm me) a bright side you’ve seen in the current situation. 2) Each person = $1 donation from me to a charity in need 3) Ongoing blog post with updates on the good news being shared at MillennialMomentum.net. A rising tide lifts all boats. Let’s make positivity louder. What’s the silver lining you’ve seen in the world?

“If you believe it, the mind can achieve it”  — Ronnie Lott Belief is one of the most powerful drugs in the world. You need to believe in yourself. Believe that you can accomplish your goals. Believe that you are a good person. Believe that you can change the world. Alongside self-belief, being around others who believe in you is vital for success.  This what I heard when I interviewed Jordan Burroughs, US Olympic Gold Medalist Wrestler. Before Burroughs won a Gold Medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, he was an unknown.  He was an underdog. He described himself as “just a small, black kid from the United States”. This isn’t how his coach Mark Manning viewed him, however. Manning viewed him as the greatest wrestler in the world. They would watch tape together before the Olympics and scout the world’s top wrestlers. Manning would tell Burroughs “you can beat these guys”.  Maybe you've had a coach, teacher or parent that promoted this thinking within you too.  The significance of these figures in our lives can't be overstated.  Perhaps even you can return the favor. Confucius once noted that the man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.  Burroughs' self-belief, alongside Manning's coaching, led him to become one of the best American wrestlers of all time.  Don’t underestimate the power of your beliefs and a relentless work ethic.  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.

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 before the NFL Draft, a night that would undoubtedly bring his family wealth, Inky suffered a career-ending injury that paralyzed his right arm.  Johnson, rightfully so, was in shock, depressed.  That’s why people were surprised to see him at practice the next week.  Wait, what are you doing here? He couldn’t play, but he could participate in spirit.  When asked about this decision, Johnson simply notes:  “I told Coach I’d be a great teammate.  That wasn’t conditional. I didn’t say ‘I’ll be a great teammate - unless my right arm gets paralyzed.  I said I’d be a great teammate. It’s unconditional.”  How many things in your life do you give your best, unconditionally?   It’s easy to be a great salesperson, a great girlfriend, a great neighbor - until adversity strikes. Prioritize who’s important and serve them unconditionally.    Keep that in mind when you run into roadblocks 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 .

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 article. Write less often  Use fewer words  Put action words in your subject line  Listen more, “talk” less Don’t answer, ask  Invert the order: lead with the need  Write a people-proof TL;DR Don’t make it about you  You may want to complement this with Tucker Max’s Harvard Business Review article on how to write a cold email.  The better we can communicate our ideas, the better the influence we’ll have over the outcomes of our lives.    PS - Happy St Patrick's Day!  Below is an Irish Prayer to add some color to your day. 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 .

"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 scary.  There are cold calls to make, presentations to give, investments to make.  Sometimes, we have to stick our neck out to the boss. What happens if we mess up?  But being afraid isn’t the end of the story.  It’s what we do with that fear.   A useful strategy to overcome this is Mel Robbins’ 5 Second Rule.  Robbins’ rule is simple. “If you have an instinct to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill it.”  The moment you feel an instinct to take action, move within five seconds.  Don’t let your brain catch up to your body’s decision to make that “risky” choice.  Real Estate Agent Ryan Serhant follows a similar strategy, saying “Ready, Set, Go” to himself whenever he is about to undertake a tough task.  Courage is not about lacking fear.  Having courage is about facing our fears and living life on our own terms.  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 .