Millennial Sales

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 give you a huge advantage in the long run.   Tim Grover, who trained Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade and countless other NBA legends, share his thoughts here from his book Relentless:  “People who start at the top never understand what they missed at the bottom. The guy who started by sorting the mail, or cleaning the restaurant late at night, or fixing the equipment at the gym, that’s the guy who knows how things get done. After he’s eventually worked his way up through the ranks, he knows how everything works, why it works, what to do when it stops working. That’s the guy who will have longevity and value and impact, because he knows what it took to get to the top. You can’t claim you ran a marathon if you started at the seventeenth mile.”  Be grateful for the come-up and use it to your advantage.   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 .

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 you any day you need them.  They see you as your authentic self. They don’t hold back.  They can tell you the truth, even when it’s difficult to do.   Too often, we treat friendships as a low priority.  We don’t see our friends for weeks or months at a time.  “Work is just so crazy”, you tell yourself.   But if you don’t pick up the phone enough times when they call, they’ll start calling someone else.   So, how do you treat your friendships? - as a second-hand notion that you only focus on when you want to?  Or is a piece of art that you’re crafting into a masterpiece?    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 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 paper all of the things they’re going to accomplish: the money they’ll earn, the body they’ll have, the life they’ll live.  That’s all good and fair, but Adams’ point is that these goals only get accomplished through a system.   Goals get accomplished - or destroyed - by our daily habits.  We all know the guy who has been “writing his novel” for the past 10 years, with no real work to share or the “diet starts tomorrow” claim on Sunday that ends in several additional days of binge eating.  These people are amateurs.   It’s not enough for Pressfield to have been writing for decades.  The only way the next book is published is through a daily habit of writing.  It doesn’t matter how many businesses Mark Cuban owns, he still needs to pursue a daily habit of growth.  These people are professionals.  What have you done for me lately? The power is yours.  We all have 24 hours.  We all make hundreds, if not thousands, of choices every day from when we wake up to what we wear to how we spend our commute to work.   True professionals take these decisions seriously.  They know that if they don’t make their habits, their habits will end up making them.  The question is, are you a pro or an amateur?   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 .

“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 needs that workout today?”   At first, I gave in.  I hit snooze. I rolled over.   Then I thought about it.  How many people would be GRATEFUL to wake up early to workout?  How many would love to have a job to go to today or even have a bed to sleep in last night?  After a good 8-minute internal dialogue, I turned the alarm off, got out of bed and began the day.  I watched a YouTube video of Jocko Willink the other day.  He’s well known for waking up at 4 am every day (with daily pictures of his watch to prove it).  But he’s not immune to wanting to give in.  You think his bed doesn’t feel warm and cozy when his alarm goes off?  Life is a game of decisions and you get a big one every morning yet drastically dictates how you’ll approach the day.  Be a shark and dominate this Monday.      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 .   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OF06n1jNkM

“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, never feeling safe even on the sturdiest of footing.  Crazy, right? You probably woke up today expecting that all six of these senses would work (if you’re fortunate enough to have all six intact).  I know I did.  But what if, as Tony Robbins said, we traded this expectation for appreciation.   We appreciate the smell of our morning coffee, of seeing the sunrise on our commute, of the warm water we feel in the shower.  Take a few minutes this morning.  Jot down five things you’re grateful for.  It can be as existential as the Lord’s presence in your life or as small as getting a good night’s sleep.  This is a habit that pays dividends in the long run.  An attitude of gratitude is the name of the game.   And if we learn to appreciate the many gifts around us, we will enjoy this life a hell of a lot more.   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 .

"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 work and just know that the woman next to you is texting people about how much of an idiot you look like.  You’re wearing that new sweater and KNOW the person you walked by thinks you look like a doofus.   We’ve all been there.  The truth is that we think everybody is watching us - but everybody is worried about what other people think, too.   They’re too captivated with their own insecurities to notice yours.   There’s something magical about the person who just doesn’t give a shit what people think.  This tends to happen more as we get older and more comfortable in our skin.   But it doesn’t have to.  It can start right now.   Take that insecurity - your southern accent, your new haircut, your passion for Nike shoes - and own it.  It’s people that authentically stand out that I enjoy being around most.     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 .

"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 your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup.”  There is beauty in that. But the issue with water is that it can be harmful.  If left unattested, it can rage and destroy an entire city.  Instead, be the rock that the waves crash over, unaffected by whatever goes on in your day.  Jocko Willink has a great motivational video called “Good.”  The crux is that you should respond to any of life’s challenges with “Good.” Flat tire?  Good, I get to learn how to change one.  Baby woke me up early? Good, I get a head start on the day.  Broke my arm? Good, I get to spend more time reading.   You’re not really excited about those things happening - but you’re training your mind to deal with adversity.  You’re training yourself to become the unwavering rock.  Take that with you today. Be like the rock - or The Rock, if you so choose :).   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 .

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 .