How to achieve anything you want in 90 days

“You can achieve anything that you want in 90 days.”

I just don’t know which 90 day cycle it’s gonna be. So at the end of 30,60, or 90 days, I assess where I am & if I’m not where I want to be, I give myself another 90 days.

Brad Lea said “It took me 10 years to achieve any sort of success…but I was always just 90 days away from my breakthrough.”

Make it catchy. I was 70 lbs obese & had quit so many times because it seemed like it would NEVER happen for me. At the beginning of 2013 I created the slogan “40 for 40.” I set out to lose 40 lbs by the time I was 40. 7 months seemed too far away (& I’d probably quit), but “40 for 40” didn’t, so when I’d get down or discouraged I’d say, “40 for 40.” I achieved it in 5 months.

Stay forward driven by chunking your goal down into a cycle of 30,60,90 days to achieve. ie Losing 100 lbs is overwhelming…chunking 10 lbs toward the 100 is not. So when I was 270 lbs…”10 in 30” would be my slogan- I had to be 260 by February 25th.

In the 08 recession I always believed I was just 30 days away from having a better month. “Just one more month to survive,” I’d think. @ the end of the month, I’d look up, assess, & give myself another 30 days.

Think in chunks not in years.

Never settle keep selling your way through life no matter what.

The advantage you have over professional athletes

I hate to tell you this, but chances are real good that you’ll never play for an NBA, NFL, nor any other professional team. Chances are even better that you’ll never sign a multi-year mega-million dollar contract either. When we hear the news, we day dream & talk at length about the massive contracts athletes sign in the off-season. In an effort to win a championship, teams lock up key players by inking them to multi-year, mega- million dollar contracts. Some of those deals you think are no-brainers…others you say, “What in the hell?,” to, but in either case, I guess hard work really does pay off, huh?

Or does it?

Because the following season after the player signed for instant wealth, they just don’t seem to run as hard, play through the pain as much, nor magically pull out a win the same way they did before they got caked up- which makes you ask the question, “What happened?” The response is always the same, “Oh, he got paid,” but that’s supposed to happen right? Aren’t you supposed to be paid for all of the hard work and sweat equity that you put in? Why doesn’t the athlete play like he used to? Why, if he’s making the most money he’s ever made-more then most of us could ever dream of, why is he so disruptive in the locker room & headlines?

What happened?

And there’s your answer…and your advantage. It happened for them & I hope it never “happened” for you. They realized their full potential and you have not. See, once these guys reach that max contract deal, it signifies that they’ve reached the top- all of it and then some- the problem is, when you think that you’ve reached the end, you cease working for new beginnings. Playing now switches from proving to protecting. Instead of playing & proving they’re worth the investment, they instead play not to get hurt & lose what they’ve contractually won.

So while yes, they should benefit from all of their hard, work, max deals should never equal max potential. See, if there’s no longer a bar to look up to, what would you reach for? Think about this, if I sat and wrote you a check for $1 million saying, “I think this is your full potential,” what would you do next? Would you look at it as a start or finish? Would you lay up & buy a bunch of shit or would you look at it instead as a down payment & parlay that monetary gain to make it work for you. Would you move the bar of potential up or would the bar just go away because now you’ve reached a certain status?

Contrary to athletes, no one is going to pay you in advance for what they think that you’re worth, you have to push the barriers of your potential every day, and as you do, you’ll earn not only monetarily, but also you’ll amass experience, wisdom, grit, & resilience along the way. And when you reach or even exceed your wildest expectations, because you’ve put in the sweat equity and kept moving the bar up, you’ll realize that you may have exceeded your expectations, but you have not exceeded your potential.

With each notch up, you get a newer, broader perspective. Your eyes are opened wider & what seems impossible to others, is i’mpossible to you. So you push even harder, higher, & broader in all directions- some days you don’t know if what you’re doing even matters…only to discover years later, it mattered and now here’s the meaning.

What was once the finish line now becomes the new starting line of so much more. Yes, have a destination, but I hope you never “arrive.” Play to your full potential today, but I hope you never reach it so that when you fight your ass off to reach your summit, you discover that you may have reached a summit, but not the summit because when you get to what you thought was the highest peak you could possibly climb, you look around & realize there are millions more higher mountains waiting to be climbed….by you.

Never stop climbing.

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

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.

What you miss becomes your momentum

It’s sooo frustrating to put in the hard work only to wind up empty handed. You work with a customer for hours, days, even months only to finally catch them on the phone and discover that they bought somewhere else.

Or what about the video or blog post that you worked on for hours only to have one viewer? (Hmm I wonder who that could’ve been.)

You tried out for the team…you put in the application…you submitted a proposal…or you finally got the chance to set up a meeting, but you ended up scratching.

No jersey with your name on the back; no new fancy title; no gabillion dollar new account; and the meeting got canceled while you were sitting in the waiting room.

You could stop by the local gas station and buy that $9.99 bottle of Yellow Tail to drown your sorrow…

You could blame the man for always keeping you down…

Or you could realize that you didn’t miss anything, because what you “missed” actually becomes your momentum. 

One of my favorite phrases is, feed the machine – meaning, constantly feed your action… relentlessly feed your effort… because if you feed it, the results will show.

Maybe the results don’t show up in the way that you’d like for them to, but they always show.

Sometimes they show up in winning results…

But they always show up in feedback.

The problem is we rarely take stock in feedback.

Yes or no…deal or no deal…”Congratulations,” or “Thanks, we’ll pass,” use the feedback to tweak and refine your next approach, phone call, meeting, or submission. REGARDLESS of your immediate result. 

Because…

Feedback isn’t valuable…it’s priceless. 

Feedback is your return on effort.

Musicians know all about feedback…

When they get on stage to do a sound check, sometimes their mic gives that deafening ring – that’s feedback and the sound engineer makes the necessary adjustments so that the sound comes out clear and crisp when they get ready to perform…your process needs to be the same way.

When you step onto the stage with a customer-hell, when even you step onto the grand stage of Life– your initial feedback may be ear piercing, but keep making the necessary adjustments….

Musicians don’t just walk off stage due to the initial foul sound.

They make the adjustments- not once, but all throughout the performance.

So should you…

Whether you’re slaying it today or just flat ass bombing, make the adjustments with the feedback that you are receiving – don’t personalize or internalize it, just keep adjusting…

And if you “miss” the result, keep in mind that you made the momentum. Make the adjustments and keep on rocking.

Stay in The Sales Life!

-Marsh

 

The Dyslexia Of Your Goal

“Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.” Friedrich Nietzsche German Philosopher

How many times have you set a goal only to let loose of the idea the minute adversity hits you? As Nietzche relates, the reason why you don’t accomplish your goal is because you’re inflexible in your path yet flexible on your goal. For instance, let’s say your goal is to break out of your 8 car shell and sell 15 cars this month- a few days later you  find yourself backing back into your 8 car garage again. Like putting your hand on a hot stove, the reason why you’re stuck in your career is because you’re inflexible to your comfort zone-the minute you feel the discomfort,  pain, and setbacks, you immediately drop the notion of doubling your sales output and fall back into the warmth of familiarity.  

If you want the taste of success, then you must become dyslexic in the way that you eat it- flip your inflexible/flexible mindset around. Be tenacious and lock into your goal, yet remain adaptively flexible to the adversity that comes against you. Like everyone, you’ll have setbacks, rollbacks, turndowns, rejections, and misfortunes this month-every month for that matter, but what separates extraordinary salespeople from ordinary ones is that EXTRAordinary salespeople don’t allow adversities to have any permanence in their career. Ordinary salespeople hold onto unforeseen, uncontrollable circumstances-thus letting go of their goals and sinking their month, while extraordinary salespeople handle the adversities by learning how to manage the setbacks (flexible) while still moving forward toward their goal (inflexible).

Don’t adapt the goal to the path; adapt the path to the goal. 

I’ll see you next time on the Blacktop!

  

Treat Your Strengths As A Weakness

Why do we alienate what we have and covet what we don’t? We’re quick to ignore what is in our search for what else in life–always longing for the shiny balls of strengths that everyone else seem to possess-ignorant of our own. You have strengths that you do not fully utilize, why?  Because your strengths aren’t painful-and when it doesn’t cause discomfort, when something comes so effortlessly, so naturally, it often gets taken for granted.

For some people what may take them months to read a book, you complete it in a few hours; while some unsuccessfully try to cram into memory a blur of stats, facts, reviews, rebuttals and closes, you’re one and done-thanks to your photographic memory; where some find meeting new people very awkward, you have the uncanny ability to get a complete stranger to open up and share their whole life story with you in minutes. You have dozens of strengths-strengths that others could only wish for, yet years later you still find yourself standing in the familiar rut of, average at best, on the way to your grave of untapped potential. Like a dog faithful to its abusive master, your strengths are present, but underserved.

In the absence of tension, strengths morph into weaknesses. You can’t walk between skyscrapers on a loose tightrope; you won’t win the Tour de France with slack in your chain; you’ll never be able to play like Hendrix with loose guitar strings, and you’ll never realize your full potential without the tension. Your greatest opportunity for growth comes from the tension between complacency and discontent.

Many of your greatest strengths were unearthed during your weakest moments in life-all thanks to tension. When there were moments that you were physically, mentally, spiritually, or financially at your rope’s end, it was tension that tied the knot enabling you to hold on. You weren’t focused on the realities of what couldn’t be done-you were too focused on the possibilities of what had to be done. And like the tenacious jaws of a rabid dog you refused to let go- narrowing your focus, upping your intensity, and stretching your resolve…until tension finally broke the obstacle standing in your way. And that was during your weakest, lowest moments in life. Just think if you treated your strengths much the same way?

Instead of using your strengths as a crutch, limping into the kingdoms of Just Enough, what if you used it instead to vault into newer, higher realms of possibilities? If you did it when you didn’t think you had it [in you], then why, when you know you have it [in you] don’t you use it to do more?

 In the sport of pole-vaulting, the faster you run the higher you’ll go. Energy is transferred from the runner’s feet to the pole, vaulting him over the bar. Your energy is found in your strengths, the problem is you’re not running fast enough. It’s time to stop strolling and start running. Sure, adding tension causes discomfort, soreness, and fatigue, but that’s where the growth is found and that’s precisely the point when most people let up-when it begins to hurt.  We may not always like the effort, but we always enjoy the results. Keep you lines of success tight by dripping tension as needed.

If you plan on going higher, you’re going to have to run faster. Set the bar and lace up.

I’ll see you on the Blacktop.

The best goal setter

A child learning how to walk makes the best goal setter. Without permission or opinion, he will crawl toward that of the interim and pull himself up. With steadied determination, in spite of his quivering legs, he will then push away and begin to walk toward his focus which is just out of reach. Only when he becomes distracted does he fall short of his goal. The art of the start is in the risk of the walk.

You won’t be needing that where you are going…

There are no high-rise corporations erected here. No new patents are being filed, no risks wagered. Not a single life-changing speech nor future bestseller is being written in the graveyard. It is written, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.” Make reservations for your destiny and check in-you might as well because even if you’re a no-show, your life’s Visa is being charged anyway.

Like it or not, life’s adversities, unfairness, trials, and tribulations will only debit your account. What you did with each day-the opportunities seized or how fast you acted to recover when you lost; what you stood for, and who you mentored is what credits your legacy.

Just because we were born naked, helpless, and ignorant doesn’t mean we have to depart that way. Leave nothing in reserve-the only thing you can take with you is regrets.