Millennial Sales

Well, folks.  We didn't quite make it.  We fought the good fight in our Ultramarathon mission but ultimately failed.  In this podcast, Tom brings Ryan back on to talk through what the hell happened in the race, our key takeaways, and why you need to pay the price for anything in life.  To everyone that supported us before, during and after the race: THANK YOU and we'll be back.  If you want to check out Ryan's work, hit him up at @WrestlingChangedMyLife and hit me up @TommyTahoe on Twitter and Instagram to let me know what you think of this week's episode.

Pre race podcast, baby!  30 miles, 60+ obstacles for a Spartan Race tackling a mountain in Aspen, CO.  There's not much else to say except the mood is electric and we're feeling good about ourselves heading into this race.  We're 12 hours away from race kick-off and invite you to join us for the thoughts, the laughs and the nerves as we get ready to tackle our biggest challenge yet.  And good news - there will be a post-race podcast coming in a few days once we tackle this thing.  Peace and love from Tommy Tahoe and Ryan Warner.

Rich Stone is back with some absolute FIRE on this week's podcast.  You may remember Rich as our 1st ever guest on episode 1, where he spoke about his mantra of "attitude and effort".  This is an ultimate guide for how to have a successful career.  We talk about the fundamentals of working hard and having the right attitude and more thoughts like playing the long game, which is something most millennials miss. The one thing that really stands out about Rich is his confidence.  His advice?  "The work comes before the belief."  Put another way, confidence comes from doing the work time and time again.  You don't want to miss this one. ***FYI I am being told there's a gap between minute 2 of the intro and minute 5 where I kick off with Rich.  Please fast forward and sorry for the inconvenience!*** Connect with me at @TommyTahoe on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube Connect with Rich at @Rstone57 on Twitter and Instagram

Enemies.  It's an underrated part of finding the fuel to help drive your success.  In this week's conversation, I go solo and talk about why it's important to have an enemy, how famous athletes and musicians have used this to their advantage and how you can too.  I end the episode with a re-read of the best story I've heard in a long long time on the internet.  For 20 minutes of inspiration, give it a play and check it out. For a full written rundown, click here or head to millennialmomentum.net. Hit me up at @TommyTahoe on Twitter or Instagram with your favorite part of the episode!

I recently found the book Trillion Dollar Coach.  Or rather, it found me - and absolutely changed the way I view leadership.  It's the story of a failed football coach that turned into Silicon Valley's greatest executive coach - mentoring folks like Steve Job, Tim Cook, Sheryl Sandberg, Jeff Bezos and hundreds of other successful leaders.  This is a quick 15-minute rundown of what I learned and is a great listen for anyone that currently leads or aspires to lead a team. For a full written rundown, click here or head to millennialmomentum.net. Tweet me @TommyTahoe with your favorite lesson from the book!

What's up, people? The podcast is back and I'm talking about a topic that's been in my head a lot the past few weeks: playing long term games with long term people. Check this episode out to learn more. You can read my full write-up on the topic here. Follow me @TommyTahoe on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Sign up for the weekly Millennial Momentum Newsletter. No BS, All hustle

"Manage expectation. Direct ego. Focus on what you control. Find peace in what you cannot. Enjoy this moment." - Jed Collins If you want to make people feel uncomfortable, there are a few things you can talk about: weight, religion, politics, and money. How much you make, how much to spend, what to invest, how to earn money while you sleep - these topics are, unfortunately, off the table for most of us. Yet half of our waking hours (more for some) are spent working for, you guessed it, money.  While money isn't everything, it certainly is something important. It allows us to afford the quality of life we want, enjoy experiences with loved ones, and ultimately contribute and give back to others who need it more. Despite this, we know virtually nothing about personal finance.  It isn’t taught beyond a very surface level in most schools. Because of its taboo nature, it’s something many parents don’t teach their children.   This leads to our general understanding of money coming from Instagram influencers or movies like The Wolf of Wall St.  Contrast that with the tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars that many millennials find themselves in debt. With role models like that, it’s no wonder that most of us, as the saying goes, “Buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like.”   Insert Jed Collins.  Jed, a recurring guest and friend of the podcast, is a former NFL player turned Financial Advisor on a mission to help millennials understand money and take control of their financial freedom.  He has spoken at Amazon and Washington State, among other locations and has a new book being released this summer: Teach Me Money.” In this episode, Jed and I unpack this topic - the background that makes him so passionate about this topic, why we’re in negative financial positions and small, actionable steps to take towards financial freedom. What’s your #1 financial tip?  Let me know below in the comments. Listen Here: iTunes Google Play Stitcher Connect with Jed: Twitter LinkedIn Also Mentioned: Jed's First Podcast with Millennial Momentum Millionaire Messenger Aubrey Marcus   Sign up for the weekly Millennial Momentum Newsletter. No BS, All hustle

This week, while listening to Jon Gordon's podcast, I learned about a new parable that I believe is timely, relevant and can help a lot of people listening to this podcast. On a stove sits three pots of boiling water. In one pot, the woman places a carrot. In the second pot, the woman places an egg. In the third pot, the woman places a coffee bean. While sitting in the boiling water, the once-hard and confident carrot turns soft. After time in the water pot, the formerly frail egg turns hard. And the coffee bean, despite being the smallest of the three objects, doesn't turn soft nor hard. In fact, it's the water that begins to turn brown and exude an aroma of fresh coffee. Life can feel like a pot of boiling water. Sometimes it's stable, luke-warm, easy to handle. Other times, the pot feels too hot to handle - a metaphor for the harsh battles we each have to fight in life. And trust me, whether it's financial, relationships, job, mental health or some other area of life, we have struggles - likely more than we'd like to admit. So what do you do when the going gets rough, when the pot of water is screaming with heat that could supply third-degree burns to the thickest of skin? Do you turn like the carrot and get soft, mushy, spoiled? Or, like the egg does the world turn you hard and negative? Or can you take the hard road, the difficult path of the coffee bean - that doesn't respond to the world but rather shapes the environment that it's placed in? As Ralph Barsi recently wrote, you're either someone who lights up a room or sucks the life out of it. Which is it and which one do you want to hang around? Listen Here: iTunes Google Play Stitcher Sign up for the weekly Millennial Momentum Newsletter. No BS, All hustle

Talent, ambitiousness, internal drive, potential and a chip on your shoulder.  These qualities have helped to shape the world we live in today. Behind every great invention, idea, man or woman, likely lies some of these traits.   Fortunately, people have said you share some of these qualities, haven’t they?  That you have a natural talent for drawing. You’re the young gun that everyone talks about at the water cooler or the ambitious, hard worker that has achieved impressive accolades.  You’re Tiger Woods winning the 1997 Masters and taking the world by storm. Greed, gluttony, cockiness, and ego.  Equally, these traits have shaped the world we live in today and have torn down amazing inventions, businesses, men, and women.   Unfortunately for you, the abilities that you harbor mentioned above open themselves up to a destructive ego.  That confidence that helps you to conquer obstacles can just as easily transform to the cockiness that leads to your demise.  Pretty soon, you’re the 2009 Tiger Woods, internationally known for a cheating scandal with his wife and have become a battered man. The Greek have a word, euthymia, that describes the process of staying on our path without looking at distractions.  You know what that feels like - you’re up early, you’re working out, feeling good, in a rhythm. Equally, you know how easy it is to get sucked into the distractions - bingeing social media, cheat “days” that turn into weeks, and pure laziness.   Believing that we are on a path to success and fearing the distraction of ego, where do we turn? Ryan Holiday’s book, The Ego Is The Enemy, breaks this process down.  Holiday defines ego, reveals its causes and how he and other historical figures have successfully and unsuccessfully defeated their ego.  Holiday also breaks down the ego into the three times of our lives (hint: always) that we are likely to come across it. As he puts it, the goal is to be “humble in our aspirations, gracious in our success, resilient in our failures.”  Let’s explore. Aspire “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” - Henry Ford Be humble in our aspirations - but how?  As they say, success leaves clues.    After graduating from Wesleyan University, a young man joined the Baltimore Colts as an Assistant Football Coach, making $25 per week.  His strategy was simple: learn as much as he could and do the work that nobody wanted to do, in order to add value. In the football world, this means analyzing film.  Lots and lots of film. He would do session after session of watching film, arriving before others and leaving much later. After a while, not only did his work ethic garner respect, but it also improved his skill set enough to earn more money and be given additional responsibilities.  Funny how we can benefit when we spend less time talking and more time doing. After countless film sessions, setbacks and four decades later, he became the most successful coach in the history of football - and possibly all of sports.  His name is Bill Belichick. In short, say less, do more.  Holiday argues that greatness comes from the grunt work that Belichick was willing to do, that may have been “below” his peers.  Greatness means “you’re the least important person in the room - until you change that with results.” Success “Every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson Be gracious in our success - easier said than done, right? There is a term in Zen Buddhism called “shoshin”, which means “beginner’s mind.”  It refers to having the open-mindedness when studying or working on a subject, regardless of the level of mastery you have attained.   Holiday cites Genghis Khan as a prime example of this.  Though Khan is seen by many as a barbarian, bloodthirsty warrior, Holiday cites that his leadership success came through hi...

“Principles are fundamental truths that serve as the foundations for behavior that gets you what you want out of life. They can be applied again and again in similar situations to help you achieve your goals.” - Ray Dalio Do you have principles that guide your life? No, I don’t mean the “live, laugh, love” quote on your wall.  And I don’t mean the tribal tattoo that you got on your forearm, either. It’s more detailed than a quote, yet more simplistic than a book of rules.  It’s a way to live your life - as a reminder to work hard, treat others well and think boldly. When it really comes in handy is when your back’s against the wall.  For those agonizing decisions that come up in business, relationships, and life. You know, the things you think of at 2 am on a Wednesday night?  The thoughts that make your head race faster than an Indy 500 racecar - Should I fire her?  Is he really the one for me?  Can I really keep going? Can’t I just quit? John Barrows is not your average sales trainer.  He’s a self-described salesperson that happens to train.  I’d describe him as a wise business mind that enjoys selling & training.  Whatever you call him, call him successful. He’s taken over the SaaS Sales Training market and is working with businesses like Salesforce, LinkedIn, Box and my company, TechTarget. Despite this, Barrows has had his fair share of 2 am conversations like the ones I described.  In those teams, he leans into his twelve guiding principles that steer him in the direction he wants to move. 1. Work smart and hard 2. Always ask for feedback 3. Set high but attainable goals and tell people about them 4. Earn everything 5. Be open and honest with everyone, especially yourself 6. Don’t think you’re better than anyone else but know no one is better than you 7. Confidence overcomes most shortcomings except an ego 8. Find your passion or find something else to do 9. What goes around comes around 10. You can learn something new from everyone and every situation 11. Make sure you can live with ‘worst case’ scenario 12. Get at least 1% better every day In this conversation, we talk about sales tactics, the mindset needed to be successful, how to focus on growth over short-term results and what he learned from working with Jack Welch.  But through all of that, the principles still stand out to me as the optional homework that’s not really optional. If you have one takeaway, make it this: take time to be with yourself, carve out your Principles and work towards the “5-year-plan” that Barrows outlines.   What are your guiding principles?  Let me know in the comments. “Stop doing what you’re supposed to do.” - John Barrows   Listen Here: iTunes Google Play Stitcher Connect with John: Site Instagram YouTube Twitter LinkedIn Podcast: Make It Happen Mondays Also Mentioned: Richard Harris GongIO Tony Robbins Michael Gervais Ray Dalio Morgan Ingram Jack & Suzie Welch Sign up for the weekly Millennial Momentum Newsletter. No BS, All hustle