Everyone’s a “then”

For every now, there was a then...

Once it was just Mick, Keith, Charlie, & Ronnie before they became The Rolling Stones. Don, Joe, & Timothy were just regular dudes before they became the legendary band called the Eagles. Andre & Antwan weren’t always Andre 3000 & Big Boi of OutKast. “Luda!” wasn’t shouted by the doctor as he slapped Chris Bridges on the ass in the delivery room.

When you look at people’s now, remember there was a then–many, many then’s in order to become their now. Be patient & work your ass off in the months & years of then’s. Yes, it’ll be thankless @ times; it’ll seem as if it’s for naught often; periodically you’ll feel like a damn fool for grinding on your dream while everyone else seems to be getting ahead except you.

When your days are in the ditch, remind yourself that you’re investing in your then…your nows will come soon enough & the results will pay off.

For “then” just keep working for “now.”

I’ll see you in the Sales Life.

Subscribe to my weekly podcast The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play

You got next

Graham Betchart a sports psychologist & mental toughness coach to professional athletes begins coaching his players w/ 3 plays. These 3 plays set the foundation toward continuous growth that you & I can use…the good news is we don’t even have to run sprints or stadiums to be one of the best!

• Play #1: W.I.N. stands for What’s important now? Simply controlling the controllables. You can’t control the ultimate outcome but you can heavily influence it. Outcomes can be influenced by the 3 things within your control: Attitude, Effort, & Focus. If your attitude is one where you’re walking around blowing your breath in big huffs- looking like a big ass eye roll emoji then you’re going to get back what you put out- negative results. But if your attitude is that of being open minded- in his book Principles, billionaire investor Ray Dalio calls it being radically open-minded, this mindset keeps the channels of your mind open and flexible. Look, things are going to ebb & flow- some things will bounce your way, other times, even when done perfect will not, but you’ve got to keep the attitude and keep plugging knowing things will swing to & fro. If you think about the times that you’re all pissed off, you usually have a rigid, closed mind, don’t you? You’re also in control of your effort- concentrate on giving full effort to each day, customer, & encounter. I find that when your attitude trails off you tend to be more me focused– worried more about what you’re getting & less of what you’re giving. You just give it all you got- you’ll get what you deserve. You also control your focus. Ask yourself, What time zone am I in right now? We live in 1 of 3 time zones: Past, Present, or Future.The only one that’s productively real is what’s happening right now. Stay local (not loco).
• Play #2: Be present. Graham says it’s reeeeel easy to play present when you’re winning and everything’s going right- but can you play when your in the shit spin cycle of Life…can you play present even when you’re in pain? Graham has a saying that I love & use that re-centers me back to the present when I feel like I’m starting to drift into the past or future, “Play where your feet are.” It’s an instant slap back to reality- where are your feet right now? Play there…
• Play #3 Next Play Speed: Athletes don’t have time to get hung up on a blocked or missed shot- Graham coaches his players to hurry up and get into the next play. This prevents them from getting stuck in an action that has already happened. Whenever I don’t do well with a previous customer, I try not to park & bitch about what I did or didn’t have/do- no, I quickly get back in the mix by looking for the next play- the next opportunity or activity that I can possibly capitalize on.

So that’s it! 3 plays is all you have to remember & run today. W.I.N. (What’s Important Now); Play Present, & Next Play Speed.

Blow the whistle- You’re in!

I’ll see you in the Sales Life!

⭐️⭐️Subscribe to my weekly podcast The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play

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.

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I think there are 2 defining moments for a leader: The first one is leading through adversity and the second is leading at midnight. Leading at midnight are those rare moments where it’s just you and a lingering salesperson-no incoming phone calls, no pages to the showroom floor, and everyone else has gone home for the night- the only light left on is the one in your office.  Initially, it looks like he’s just rehashing the day-he tells stories of the objections he overcame, the customer he bumped $40 dollars a month, and the phone call of a rude customer who refused to give his name and only wanted a rock bottom price-he survived another day on the blacktop.  As you tally the day’s numbers, you smile when prompted, and insert the, “oh really’s” in all of the right places, but the truth is, you’re just trying to get home. Then it happens; he comes back in to tell you goodnight for the third time, but this time it’s different. Instead of just walking out, he opens up. In a rare, vulnerable moment, he opens up to reveal what he’s going through in life. His wife has grown tired of him never being home-working long hours for a minimal paycheck; his daughter, limping into 6^th grade, is failing miserably; and he just found out that his mother has been diagnosed with bone cancer. But even though he is terrified and has no idea what to do, you begin to see him come out from underneath the yokes of life; his burdens seem to become lighter, more manageable simply because he is able to talk about them. It’s as if his trials are temporarily suspended-almost as if life has given him a brief reprieve enabling him to catch his breath and reveal even more.

If you ever want to know the hopes and dreams of a child, give her a sheet of paper and a box of colors. She’ll draw a big house that she’ll one day live in, a solid gold car that she’ll be chauffeured in, and she’ll even bring a departed loved one back to life. She doesn’t worry about the messiness of the what and why’s in life, she just colors, unbridled. It is in these late night moments, after the venom of life is released, that your salesperson gets the chance to color. As if a child again, he opens up even more and begins to color his dreams for you-who he wants to meet, where he wants to live, what he wants to do in life and often, it’s got nothing to do with the car business. This is where I’ve failed many times as a leader because instead of admiring the picture they’ve colored for me, I’ve discredited their dreams-tearing them in half by calling them crazy, ludicrous, too expensive, too late-too anything if it had nothing to do with the car business. It’s as if I was insulted that their dreams had nothing to do with selling cars, becoming a manager, or even a dealer one day. I’ve come to realize that my dreams aren’t their dreams and instead of aborting their dreams, I want to give them life.

• Respect their dreams. Respect the fact the fact that they have dreams. Most people go through life drifting along while those who have dreams are purposefully driven. It was Jim Rohn who said, “There’s a difference between making a living, and making a life.” Acorns of dreams, planted in the right soil, given the right nourishment become the mighty oaks of success. Sure their dream may seem far-fetched, insurmountable, downright crazy, but weren’t all great achievements? People thought humans flying through the air in cylinder tube was far-fetched; having an overweight black woman with her own TV talk show, eventually becoming a self-made billionaire seemed insurmountable; using your cell phone as a gateway to buy or know anything in the world seemed downright crazy. But yesterday’s dreams are commonplace today. 
• Dreams need legs.  Give their dreams legs by having them write it down. There are no boundaries-no how’s, just let them color, unbridled and when they’re done, don’t judge the picture- just find a place in your heart to hang it.  They don’t need to worry about creating a best seller; they need to create a crappy first draft. Get it first down on paper; they can make revisions along the way. Use their dreams of tomorrow to fuel their motivations for today.
• Believe in them. Their dreams will meet plenty of resistance from others. Including close friends and family, you are likely one of the few who believes in them. Everyone looks at them as who they are; you need to look at them as who they are to become. The people who try to talk them out of their dreams are the ones who have given up on their own. Give their dreams room to grow; you don’t have to understand their dreams today, you only need to believe that they’re capable of achieving great things. One spark of your belief can ignite the bonfires of their potential.

Some of us treat the car business as a home; others treat it as a highway. Many of us stumbled into our dreams and finally found a career where we could use our quirky skills and talents; others of us use this business as a byway-a detour toward what we feel are higher, loftier callings. One thing is certain, if allowed, this business of selling cars-all of the peaks, valleys, twists, turns, and calamities-all of the doubts, struggles, fights and strains you have to overcome will make achieving your dreams-whatever they may be, worth it.  

You have your dreams, now let them have theirs.

Tomorrows become Yesterdays

It’s been said, “Time flies when you are having fun”… it also flies when you are scratching and clawing to get to the next day, week, or month; before you know it, a new year begins in our hamster wheel of life. We live our lives either coming out of something or racing to our aspirations; it’s as if we either live our lives in the past, filled with regrets, or we are fixated with hopes for the future. We forget the in between moments of our lives; in the blink of an eye, our tomorrows become yesterdays.

I was reminded of this when I received an early morning phone call the other day telling me my neighbor’s 15 year old daughter had ended her own life- 5,677 days prior her parents were celebrating her arrival into this world; now no more tomorrows only yesterdays.

Death has a way of reminding us to live in between the two dates; we all have something in common, we were born and we will all die. The uncommon part of our lives is the dash in between those two dates. Don’t let your past arrest your future; don’t race for a future without learning from your past and don’t ever forget the precious in between moments in the meantime.

Stand In or Stand Out

Many people choose to stand in; those who do fall in line, conversing between the should’ves and the could’ves. When you stand in, you play it safe attempting to minimize exposure of any liability, risk, or mishap- anything that could make you look foolish. When you stand out, you expose yourself to all of the risks- becoming the sole beneficiary of liability and ridicule. Stand out’s understand the liability of such risks but also realize maximum exposure begets the highest payoffs. Nothing worthwhile will be accomplished until you learn to stand out. No cure, no inventor, no entrepreneur, no Nobel Peace Prize winner, no minority president, nor any civil rights activist ever decided to play it safe and stand in; they stood out for what they believed in and left an indelible mark –no feat was too big, no words were too hurtful, no wall too high to scale, they did not allow anyone or anything to stand in their way.  Stand in and allow inaction and circumstances to deliver a paltry future of happenstance-living a life of a slave to other people’s dreams…or you could choose to stand out, maximize your risk, become the heir of liability, and write your own future.  It’s better to have tried and failed, than to never have tried at all. Stand out and ship.

If only…

If I live whispering the words, if only,

I will live a life that bears no fruit and ends quite lonely.

My dreams and fortunes are waiting to be found,

all I have to do is flip those 2 words around.

Going from a wish to a demand,

puts my future back in my hands,

the plane of success only I can land.

If only I had fortune and fame,

I can, only if I develop a reputation and build a good name.

If only I could be debt free and owe no more,

I can, only if I plan for the future,

living for today will leave me poor.

If only I could spend more time with the ones who love me more times than not,

I can, only if I work harder on them than I do punching a clock.

The list of if only’s can go on for years, months, days, even hours,

I can change my circumstances only if I have a heart of desire.

For desire is a feeling of expectation or inclination of wanting more,

I know only I can unlock my future’s door.