Viva la Resistance!

Hear the full episode #293 “Viva la Resistance” here. 

• Even with persistence, grind, & drive, sometimes we still can’t seem to click to that next level. Why is that?
• In his book, Do the Work, author Steven Pressfield writes that he knows the forces holding you back: Resistance, Rational thought, & Your friends and family. 
• Resistance is hu-u-uge!
• • Resistance is taking the discount of now in lieu of a better tomorrow. (i.e. Blue Bell vs working out.)
• • Resistance is invisible so you can’t detect it when it’s all over you.
• • • Most of us live in the 8th day of the week…Someday.
• • Resistance is insidious. (subtle)
• • Resistance will take on any form. She’ll your best friend one minute and your worst enemy the next.

“Resistance has no conscience-it’ll do anything to get a deal done then double cross you. If you take resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get because resistance is always lying and full of shit. ” ~Steven Pressfield

• Resistance is impersonal and doesn’t care who you are-she’s coming for us all.
• • Resistance never sleeps and plays for keeps. 
• • Resistance is keeping you from your calling.
• Rational Thought is the 2nd force holding you back.
• • There’s nothing rational about breaking from the herd…doing what others say can’t be done & that there’s no way!
• • Sara Blakely  sure didn’t think rational when she converted a pair of pantie-hose.
• • • They laughed her out of their offices..they told her that her idea was ridiculous, but with a net worth of over $1 billion, who’s laughing now?
• • What’s rational about selling books out of your garage, calling it Amazon and now you’re the richest man in the world? 
• • Screw rational.
• • One of the only times you should use logic in sales is when preparing for what steps you need to take today to make epic shit happen.
• Your friends and family are holding you back too.Your family sees you as you are not as you could be.
• • They’re using their own rational thought & resistance to say, “That’s far enough.” “Don’t rock the boat.” “Get a steady job.”

Those are the 3 forces holding you back. Next time we’ll look at the multipliers that’ll sling-shot you forward…and being stupid is one of them.

Subscribe to The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice podcast where we make a point in minutes not hours. Check it out on iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.

You’re w-w-welcome

 Like 230 million other parents who didn’t feel like cooking tonight, I decided to grab my kids something to eat from McDonald’s. When I drove around to the speaker, I noticed the guy taking my order stuttered and immediately my heart bled for him because I used to stutter too. I stuttered so bad that my sister used to have to interpret what I’d just said, so hearing the guy brought me back to the anxiety I used to feel when having to speak…and here was a guy with the same issue I had, working the most treacherous ground one with his condition could work. The drive thru. Initially I was annoyed, “Out of alll the people who work there, why would the manager put that guy in that kind of position?” When I got around to the window to pay, the young man had to partially read my order back to me; obviously it took more of an effort on his part to focus on getting the words out. As I handed him my credit card, I admitted to him that I used to stutter and understood the challenge of having to speak-especially under pressure. When I asked him why the manager had him work the drive thru he said,

“He didn’t put me in the drive thru, I asked to be put here because I figured the only way I was ever going to get better is to force myself to do the very thing that I feared most so why not have to do if for 8 hours a day.”

Can you imagine having to work 8 hours not only dealing with the timed pressure of getting a customer through the line, but also having to try to speak quickly, change an order, deal with rude customers who ridicule you, and slide on to the next order while trying not to let the previous jerk get to you? If you’ve never stuttered before, you have no idea how hard it is to deliver on something that comes easy for so many others. 

“He didn’t put me in the drive thru, I asked to be put here…” That’s a true G in my book.

How many times every single day do you pick the path of least resistance-to take the easy road instead of the long, arduous one? That young man didn’t have to work the drive thru…he chose to. He clocks in and says put me in the toughest possible position for 8 hours because the only way out….is through! 

Hard is a choice…and that’s on you. Do you have to work with customers today? Do you have to call them back? Do you have to offer one more angle..one more thought…try one more approach when they’ve told you no, no, no, a dozen times…yet you persistently try again?

Do you have to…nope…you choose to. 

What do you choose today? What’s your Achilles heal? What do you suck at today…and what do you choose to do about it?

It’s on you….

You don’t strike oil in 3 feet of ground…you gotta dig deep…hit the bedrock of resistance, yet keep on pushing. When your mind tells you, “Wait!” When your experience tells you, “I’ve tried that before and it didn’t work!” When your ego tries preserve what little self confidence you have left by pulling you back so as to not get stung with another No….

Before you have a chance to even think about it….do it. Do the hard thing. Put yourself in the hard position..stutter…stammer…turn red…break out in a cold sweat & hives…feel like you’re about to pass out…do whatever, but know this..

You won’t die…and on the other side, you’ll find out that your career will continue to live long and strong because you chose hard over easy.

Thank you…

 You’re w-w-welcome.

Subscribe to The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice podcast where we make a point in minutes not hours. Check it out on iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.

What drives you?

Hear the (9 min) episode, “What drives you?” here.

• What drives you? Not in a negative way…but in a positive one.
• • Do you see yourself as even driven anymore?
• • Name someone on your social media feed who is extremely driven. (I bet it didn’t take you any time.)
• But the truth is, you have drive too…you’re just not fueling it. 

In his book, The Way of the Seal, author Mark Divine writes that drive is fueled by desire, belief, and expectations.

• You lost your drive because you lost your desire, belief, or expectations- one, both, or all of them.

• You have the don’t wants because you have no desire...
• Desire is an expressed want or crave.
• • Many “want” something, but few are bold enough to express those wants in a way that they won’t let up until they see it manifest. 
• • What do you desire to do, be, have, do, or go?
• • • Don’t worry about how; first get the want…then put some expression on your wants.
• Belief…what do you believe? Do you even believe any more?

What you see right now aint all there is.

• Sometimes you have to make your own belief in order to create your future.
• Don’t base your belief only on what you’ve already seen, if you do, you’re going to live a very limited life.
• Expectations?What are you expecting today?
• • Are you living your life just tryin’ to hang in there…just tryin’ to get to Friday?
• • Are you living up or down to your expectations?
• • I expect every customer who comes through the door to buy…but I know they won’t.
• • If you set your expectations high, you’ll net higher results.
• • Setting high expectations prevents you from just floating from one day to the next, “hoping” something good happens for them.
• • • Hope is not a strategy.
• Your drive: belief, desire, and expectations are all fed by daily discipline. Discipline simply means to be a disciple of something higher.
• • How do the Navy SEALs practice daily discipline?
• • • They’re “front-sight focused” meaning they only focused on the target at the end of their scope; once they hit the target, they focus on the next one of importance.
• • • SEALs “embrace the suck.” All moments-good or bad are temporary, so when you’re in the suck, embrace it-laugh at it, realize that it is only for a limited time. Use these suck moments to build grit, resilience, and mental fortitude.

I told you that you have drive. You just need to fuel it with desire, belief, and expectations…and feed it with daily discipline.

Share your thoughts with me from the podcast.

Subscribe to The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice podcast where we make a point in minutes not hours. Check it out on iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.

Back in the Sales Lab: “Rarity”

Hear the full episode “Back in the Sales Lab: Rarity” right here. 

• Do you know you possess the #1 skill needed today?
  • Don’t be so quick to be envious of those on your Instagram feed…if you’d only realize that you possess the #1 skill in the world.
• What is the #1 skill in the world? Communication
  • The kind of communication I’m talking about is the ability to express and transmute your ideas onto others.
  • Anything we need to know is one Siri command away; but what is a rarity is the one who can articulate and bring an idea to life-so rich, so vibrant that the customer sees what you see!

And YOU possess the #1 skill.

Just saying the words, “I’m a salesperson,” make others cringe, yet you have the ability to embrace the hostility, discover your customer’s concerns, and by the time you are finished, they’re singing your praises. 

• That’s why I say Selling is an Art.

• Customer’s don’t really hate your profession…they’re actually mystified on how you can create magic right in front of their faces-no slight of hand, no mirror or special lighting…just art.
• When retired NBA legend Kobe Bryant first walked into the animation studios, he was blown away how an artist can start with only a few unrecognizable lines and 20 shadings and lines later, the artist brings his character to life.
• (Parents teach your children the art of communication.)
  • Where everyone else is hiding behind a text message, you be the one to stand boldly and communicate your art before a live audience. That is an art!
• In his new book, Carmine Gallo says the art of communication will make you “indestructible” because no matter what happens in your life, you’ll have the ability to get back up, dust off, and keep communicating. (That’s why I love sales.)

Share your thoughts with me from the podcast.

Subscribe to The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice podcast where we make a point in minutes not hours. Check it out on iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.

 

They owe you nothing

Coach Nick Saban tells a story of three baby birds who fell into the ocean. The mama bird was frantic because her babies were about to drown so the daddy bird flies out and scoops the first baby bird up and sits him down on dry land and asks his son, “Now that I saved your life what are you going to do for me?” His son looks up at him and says, “Dad, when you get old I’m going to take care of you,” and with that, the dad picks up his son and drops him back into the ocean. He then scoops up the second son and brings him to dry land and asks the same question, “Now that I saved your life what are you going to do for me?” The second son says, “Dad you don’t have to worry about anything when you get old because I’m going to take care of you,” and with that the dad does the same thing he did with the first son, he drops him back into the ocean and scoops up the third son and asks the same previous question. The third son says, “Dad, I promise to do everything for my sons as you did for me.”

Your children & the people you lead– the ones who came in with bad credit and today they bought their first home; the ones who used to ride a bike or took a bus to & from work, leave today in their own vehicle; the once shy & inhibited one, who can now talk to anyone; the one who turned his life around & is married with children…those people, your people owe you nothing.

Not a damn thing…

And the best thing they can do- the only thing they should do “for you,” is to be a better parent, manager, & leader, for their kids, for their employees, for their community.

Besides what you want from them anyway? I mean when you keep throwing it up in their face when you stood in the gap, bailed them out, and turned them around…how you made sacrifices, worked two jobs, & made a way out of no way.

What really do you want from them anyway? You don’t want to thank you, you want power and the minute they resist you- the minute they push off and stand on their own by making their own mind up- the minute you feel your power slip, you try to get it back by slapping them with a reminder of all that you’ve done for them.

They don’t appreciate that, they resent it. They don’t feel all warm & fuzzy when you re-open wounds and bear their scares of weaknesses & downfalls just so that you can get the upper hand and pull their strings again.

Nothing…they owe you nothing.

The only thing they owe you is to the pay it forward- improving on what was passed down by you when they were passed up by others.

Hopefully all that you’ve done-the long talks, the sacrifices, the discipline, the love…hopefully you did all of that simply because someone did it (or didn’t do it) for you and you just wanted to improve on that.

Catch The Sales Life w Marsh Buice daily podcast. Find it on iTunes or your favorite podcast platform.

It’s not about just you

I had a salesperson that I just couldn’t seem to get her to work with more customers- being she was new, I would repeatedly emphasize to her to work with more customers, but when they would come in, she’d usually fall back & let another salesperson Up (catch) them. I couldn’t figure it out..she knew her product, she was technically sound, & she was used to competing against the boys because she came from a male dominated industry …so what was it? When asked, she responded, “Marsh, I don’t have a huge need- the other salespeople around me have to struggle to make a sale in order to pay rent & car notes- I don’t have a huge need so I don’t need to make much.” Leaning back I asked her, “So what’s your end game…” to that she told me that she planned on being in the car business a long time. “Then if that’s the case, you’re not doing yourself much good- here’s why…

First, you can’t teach what you don’t know & you’ll never know until you first do. In his biography, Arnold Schwarzenegger said the 3 keys to him becoming a 7x Mr Olympia, successful businessman, & one of the highest paid actors at the time in Hollywood were reps, reps, reps.”

Reps weatherproof your career. You’ve got to work with hundreds of experiences, objections, scenarios, & obstacles while fading & maneuvering through thousands of rejections not only so that you can learn, but so that you can pay it forward and help others succeed who are starting out as well. Reps also give your customers the needed assurances that you can help them with their current situation because you’ve helped other customers maneuver through similar circumstances as well.

“This brings me to my 2nd point,” I told her, “When you’re not working with enough customers, not only do you not possess enough of the necessary skills that they desire & deserve, but not working with enough customers means that you’re OK with them buying from an inferior salesperson- if you say that you’re here to help customers, then you’ve got to follow through with actions to those words.”

“Which brings me to my 3rd point,” I quipped, “Do you have kids?” She told me that she had a boy and a girl- Mason & Madison…”Do you want them to do well in life,” I asked knowing she’d say yes. “If you want them to do well, then be their teacher- set the example because they can’t be what they don’t see. The reason why so many struggle as adults today is because, no one played the part…no one showed them the pattern… no one chalked the outline, nor showed them what they could be because no one helped them see…no one showed them more so they’ve accepted less.”

You must do well…you must reach beyond your comfort zone…you must dig deep and get back up…you must set audacious goals & kick the door in when Life tries to slam it in your face…you must reach higher because this isn’t just about you.

It’s way bigger than that…

….but first you’ve got to set the bar.

I’ll see you on the Blacktop.

Humps not Himalayas

 

 

 

 

 

 

Humps, roadblocks, …detours are a part of life, but they’re humps not Himalayas. Sometimes we get to a hump in Life & we turn the hump instantly into a Himalaya- the hump we face goes from waist deep in reality to a 22,338 foot mountain in our minds.

Soooo many things in Life are humps miraged as a mountain. They look that way to us for a couple of reasons: 1) It’s something that we’ve never faced before so we think that we’re no match for it. 2) We’ve faced a similar situation before & resulted in a shit sandwich- so we think we’re about to eat another. It’s all Bullshit.

Isn’t it crazy how we have a Redbox Rental state of mind sometimes?! You know the Redbox rental that’s right outside the store where you can rent a DVD for less than 2 bucks? We rent our problems much the same way- we walk our happy asses to the box covers of Life’s problems & we select a cheap B Flick negative rental and we play that negative movie, over & over in our minds. It’s impossible working for something to positively manifest while thinking something negative.

Look,you may be facing some big mountains in your life- no doubt, but I am telling you that you need to look at your problems through different lenses. First, stop calling it a “problem-” I call them challenges, Eckhart Tolle calls them situations. Whatever you call it, call it something other than a “problem” because often the mere utterance of the word problem stunts us right in our tracks- 1 minute we’re galloping through Life & the next scene we’re like Lt. Dan from Forest Gump, flailing around handicapped with our legs blown off. Try using the word challenge or situation & watch your whole perspective change. Your mind will shift to that of a solution mindset and will begin looking for ways to solve it by tinkering and poking at the situation.

The 2nd thing I want you to realize is that mountain that you’re facing is nothing more than a bunch of humps stuck together- they’re like big words…I tell my daughter all the time that big words are nothing more than small words clumped together. Break the bigness down- declump those ganged up humps…you don’t get to the summit in one leap.

So back to the beginning…

Humps, detours, & roadblocks are necessary in life-they’re needed for you to grow- I mean think about it, would you voluntarily subject yourself to pain, hardship, embarrassment, recourse, and ridicule? Hell my hands would be in my pocket and sure as hell not raised to be subjected to the harshnesses of Life, but we need the stimulation- i.e. kicked in the ass, in order to grow. I don’t like it any more than you do, but I know in retrospect I’ve liked who I’ve become and what I’ve accomplished on the other side of the bleakness. Yes it was painful…yes it was lonely & dark… no it wasn’t fair…but it was necessary. There isn’t a single one of us reading this that cannot look back at some cataclysmic event and not say yes it was hard, but I learned so much.

So I need you to do 2 things: 1rst charge the mountains in your Life one hump at a time..and (2), don’t look at every hump as a Himalaya.

You’ve got this!

I’ll see you on the Blacktop!

(HT to Deepak Chopra)

Fold your clothes

The other day I could tell something was amiss with one of my salespeople. Normally he’s all teeth-smiling and jolly, but today I could tell he was aggravated. When I asked him what was up he told me that not only was he not selling any cars nor did he not have anything working, but nothing was going right at home either-he wasn’t spending time with his newborn daughter, his house was a mess, and he had a mountain of clothes to fold. When he finished, I looked at him and said, “Go fold your clothes…” Now you should’ve seen the look on his face-like, “Dude did you hear anything I just told you?!” But I repeated it again, “Go fold your clothes…because it’ll serve a few purposes…”

First, the act of folding your clothes will get you a small, easy win. No exertion-no sweating, just a simple act. It’ll bookmark a win and stop the erosion of slack and sloppiness in your days. Second, folding your clothes will squelch the chaotic voices in your head. You know the voices that go banging away in your head when you have 684 things that need to be done and you end up doing none of them because you’re pissed off that the day is almost already gone. Taking this one simple act will enable you to regain control over your days. Lastly, folding your clothes will cause you to bleed…one win bleeds to other wins too. Because it was so simple, so easy to do, your mind pings the win and begins to look for the next one. Notching up the wins will lead to incremental and eventual massive gains…one sock at a time.

From the sink to the desk drawer, think about all of the countless tasks that you’ve been putting off that have mounted up and caused you to feel like your days are slipping away from you.

If you want a better day, sales career, and life….go fold your clothes.

Check out my daily podcast The Sales Life w Marsh Buice found on iTunes or anchor.fm.

 

Look what it takes

When Dr. Howard Thurman- philosopher, educator, minister, & mentor to Martin Luther King & Mahatma Gandhi, took his young children back to his hometown of Daytona Beach, his girls saw a nearby playground and asked to go swing. “You can’t swing on those swings,” said Thurman.

He promised them that he would explain more once they got home…Dr. Thurman had to buy some time because he was at a crossroads- a moment that I’m sure every black parent faced during those times (& still in some respects today)…

….how do you tell your children they can’t play on a “White’s only” playground.

Later he sat his girls down and told them that they were important…so important in fact that they couldn’t swing on those “public swings,” because the “public”only consisted of white children. He said, “You’re so important that it takes the state legislature, courts, sheriffs, white churches, bankers, & businesses-it takes the majority of the white people in Florida to keep 2 little black girls from swinging on those swings.”

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Dr. Thurman reframed the racial inequality he and his family were facing. He reframed the hatred and racism and made it a bridge instead of a barrier. He calibrated his daughters to-yes, see the injustice for what it is, but encouraged them to keep on going- to not let someone else’s opinions, narrow-mindedness, and blatant ignorance be the force of limitation for their lives.

Yes… there will be opposition, but maybe you’re facing opposition because what you are doing is of such magnitude- of such great importance, that those who oppose you are so fearful of you reaching your pinnacle, that they’ll stop at almost nothing to see you not succeed.

Importance is not some, Life’s good…I have no problems…kind of seance- no, Importance is recognizing the significance & impact that you are making and not letting up, giving in, throwing the towel, nor raising the flag.

It’s passages like this that remind me that I need to tell my children how important they are- not just to me, but to the whole world. My son is going through his first love breakup and while it’s incredibly painful to watch, I have to sit on the foot of his bed, rub his back, and remind him that maybe his boo can’t handle all of his awesomeness. His importance is irrelevant to the opinions of others.

We’ve got to remind salespeople, coworkers, & family members that some wrinkles in time are due to the fact that Life chose you…not because you’re weak, but because you are strong… Life deemed you worthy to enough-competent enough to fight this war you’re in. Not everyone can handle it…. but you can.

Whatever you face today, never underestimate your importance. The greater the opposition the greater your importance.

….Keep going.

I’ll see you on the Blacktop.

Wipe me down

This weekend is absolutely gorgeous- cool temperatures & blue skies…days like this call for a good chicken & sausage gumbo. As I was leaving to run some errands, I saw a guy wiping down his car. Two hours later, he was still out there wiping down his car. He was meticulous about everything- he even wiped the wheel wells, & the trunk and engine compartment- he spent hours to make sure his car was on point.

What I found interesting is he was such a perfectionist on his car, but when it came to his well being, he was not. With chammy in hand, he had a cigarette dangling out of his mouth, 22 oz. Bud off to the side, & his pot belly was an indication he hadn’t worked out in years- if ever at all.

My question is this…what if he was just as concerned-hell, what if he treated himself half as good as his sports car? If he did, I’d venture to say he’d probably be around longer to enjoy it.

To show the world we’ve made it- that we’re “successful,” we’ll give our health up in the process. Marketers know this…they’re constantly hurling messages at us to wear this, drink that, & drive this one, and we fall right into their bait. We’ll sleep and work out less, work longer hours, extra shifts, swipe a few extra times to impress people we don’t even like.

Treat yourself better than the things you want to buy. Don’t treat your well being like a clearance item- foregoing tomorrow’s security for today’s insatiability.

There’s nothing wrong with having nice things, but at the risk of losing yourself emotionally, physically, and financially, ain’t worth it. Just go to a garage sale- look in your attic, closet, garage, and storage units at all the crap you “had to have.” When dissolving my marriage, I had to do a detailed descriptive list of all of the valuables in my home…by the time it was all said and done, thousands of dollars and years of finance charges, those “valuables” wouldn’t even equal a full month’s paycheck.

You’re already a millionaire. Scientists have noted that if they put a price tag on all of your key body parts it would be valued at over $10 million. Sports franchises know this- why do you think they have the best equipment and dietitians? You damn right they’re going to protect and nurture their multi-million dollar investments.

There are some areas of your health, once taken too far, no amount of money will buy it back. Taking care of yourself is cheap- compared to stints, surgeries, rehab, and big and tall sizes. I know a portly guy who spends $300 for each dress shirt- his flesh only touches the fine labels…me? Man I’ll rock a $30 dress shirt with a $10 bow tie and swag it out. I can pull it off because I work my ass off to look & feel better- and because of the investment in myself, I carry myself with more confidence on the cheap cheap.

Your greatest expense should be on the greatest brand ever created…

Brand You.

Check out & subscribe to my daily 5 min episodes of The Sales Life Podcast