Millennial Sales

“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 people, but care more about their opinion than our own."  We only have so many damns to give.  We should treat our damns like money and make sure we’re investing them in the right areas.   Give a damn about yourself - treat yourself well, set yourself up for long-term success, do things that’ll benefit your mind and body.  And give a damn about those that give a damn about you.  Your family, friends, mentors - anyone that’s on your team.  Know who is on your side and be on their side too. Make friendship an art.  And for everyone else - who cares what they think?  If they’re not on your team, ignore them. Or better yet, use them as fuel. PS - Shoutout to my dad.  Happy birthday! 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 .

“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 event was undeniable.  However, Belfort had control of his reaction to the event.  He could have either saw it as a sign that he didn’t have any entrepreneurial or sales skills or he could have seen it as a learning lesson to bring into his next business.   He saw it as the latter and onward he went.  His goal wasn’t to succeed wildly, it was to fail quickly - he knew the odds were against him and it would take a lot of at-bats before he’d hit a home run.   If you’re stumbling - or flat out failing - it’s up to you to interpret the invent.   Should you give up?   Or are you ready to dust off and use it as a learning lesson? 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 .

“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 are in our control.  These are habits.   That’s what Keller means in his above quote.  We can’t just decide our future - a millionaire, successful CEO, visionary.  We decide our habits and that’s what determines our future.   This gives me hope.  To think that I have to do “everything” all at once is overwhelming.  But to think that building the habits of a millionaire is the best way to become one, that fires me up.  Because millionaires (or writers, or actors or great parents) are not secretive. They openly share their story and how they became who they are today.   They say that success leaves clues.  Go to Amazon and order 5 books about people you idolize.  Follow their steps to success. Copy their habits.   THAT’S how you decide your future.  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 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: prepare for your day the night before.  Every day. It is infinitely easier to start working when you already know what you’re working on.  It’s easier to work out in the morning when your clothes are laid out the night before. It’s easier to eat healthy when you’ve meal prepped on Sunday.     But that’s boring.  To be successful, you need to do the monotonous things well.  Decision fatigue is a real thing.  The ancient Chinese military strategist once wrote that “every battle is won before it is fought.” There’s a battle happening today.   I hope you prepared.   If not, you’re already behind.   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 .

“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. Before that, you were probably making little to no money.  Now you have a steady paycheck with more money than you’ve ever had before. You’re meeting new people, you’re learning new skills.  You feel empowered. You feel useful.  Then, you hit the dip.  You’re given more responsibility with no pay raise.  They give you the toughest project that eats up seemingly all of your free time.  It’s frustrating, your performance and confidence are dipping (no pun intended). You want to quit.   Maybe you can relate?  Godin’s advice is that, when appropriate, it will be highly rewarded when we push through this dip.  How?  “You have the power to change everything.  To create remarkable products and services.  To over-deliver. To be the best in the world.”  How dare we waste this opportunity? 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 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 the importance of journaling and some practical ways to do it.  Altucher’s 10 ideas per day is another option.  How do you do it?  It’s simple.  Each day, write down 10 ideas.  Good ideas, bad ideas, terrible ideas, ugly ideas.  Whatever. And the topic can be anything: 10 ideas to change the world, 10 ideas for what to eat for breakfast, 10 ideas for my next 10 days of idea-creation.   This is simply working the muscle of creating ideas and working with the creative part of your brain.   Open up a pad of paper and give it a try today.   You can listen to my full interview with James here.   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 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.  What we really should be doing is searching within for our next private victory. These are the leading indicators of our own next big win.  Before you end up landing that dream job, you may have to spend a Saturday fixing up your resume.  That’s a private victory. Before you have that Instagram-ready six-pack, you may have to struggle through your first week of clean eating.  That’s a private victory. If you want to have a great day, sometimes you just need to take the first step and get out of bed. That’s a private victory.  Don’t compare your “middle of the race” to someone else’s “finish line”.  What private victory can you secure 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:  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 a woo-woo tactic from the hills of San Francisco, this is used by everyone from nurses to police officers to Navy SEALS to calm them and become more focused on he task at hand.  I do this (almost) every morning in the 5-minute process it takes for my coffee to brew.  I can feel the mental treadmill I unknowingly stepped on get taken down a few notches.   Next time you’re feeling distracted or anxious, give it a try.  It takes a few minutes and can give you a huge boost for the 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 .

"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, you might think: that’s cool.  Kobe decided to do that once and there’s a silly yet inspiring picture of him playing basketball in pajamas.  You missed the point.   This was just another day for Kobe.  Someone happened to snap a picture. If you ask any of his coaches or teammates, you’d hear that he had that maniacal drive almost constantly.  There were countless other times when Kobe was in the gym when his teammates and opponents were fast asleep.   John Wooden said that “a true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.”  That’s when you get better.  That’s when you develop the craft.  That’s when the magic happens.   When it’s game time and the cameras are on you, it’s too late.   What do you do when no one is watching?   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 .

“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.  As a natural introvert, I hate networking.  Nothing gives me as much anxiety as going into a conference hall with 1,000 people I don’t know all wearing name tags.   But when I think of networking as simply planting a seed, my mindset shifts entirely.   It’s not going up cold to some important person that’s better than me: it’s just another human.  And I’m just here to plant a seed. I offer something of value - maybe it’s a joke, an introduction, a thoughtful article - with no ask in return.   Will they respond to my email the next day?  Will they even remember me? Maybe, maybe not.   But if you scale this approach out with everyone you meet and give yourself a long enough timeline that those seeds can begin sprouting, your whole world can change.   You’re seen as “that person” - the person that is thoughtful, that helps others, that makes shit happen.   If you gain that reputation with enough people, you won’t even believe the opportunities that arise.  Do your future self a favor and plant a tree 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 .