Can you write your symphony?

Charlie Munger said,

“A man who can play all instruments can write his own symphony, but a man who can play one instrument is limited to just playing his part.”

The world is full of one horned players…rare is the one who can play all instruments…

That’s the man who can write his own symphony.

Munger is the long-time co-billionaire partner to Warren Buffett.

Munger’s symphony is investing, but he doesn’t invest one way in only one field of business. He specializes in investing…broadly.

But he won’t invest in businesses until he’s learned how they play their instruments.

Munger doesn’t run with the herds of people proclaiming, “this company is hot…” “invest here…” “here’s a sleeper!”

Munger learns for himself…

He’s a learned man who reads over 600 pages per day not to just get a feeling, Munger wants a deep understanding in what the business’s culture & ethics are as well as how each one profitably operates, & what its earning potential is.

The businesses that Buffet & Munger invest in become an instrument in their symphony of investments.

A symphony is a collection of horns, flutes, drums, cymbals, xylophones, woods & brass. They’re all unique, but equally important in creating a rich, powerful sound…

A collective art…a symphony…

It’s not that Munger can run every business he invests in-his symphony is not in day-to-day operations…

His symphony is investing and he has deeply learned the mechanics of what the business is, does, & where it’s heading.

Here’s where I’m going with this…

You can’t have a symphony by just knowing how to play one instrument.

And you can’t amass a symphony without knowing how each instrument is played.

What is your symphony?

For the salesperson, Sales is their symphony, but what are your instruments?

It’s not just the customer who walks through the door…

you also need the instruments of knowing how your products relate to each of one your customers.

As a salesperson, you need to know what new products/ features are being introduced & which ones are being discontinued.

You need the instruments of body language…

relationship building, asking for referrals, servicing sold customers, new business creation, phone skills, follow up, marketing through social media…

and you need instruments of empathy, persistence, grit, & resilience.

I know you know “of” these things…

but do you have such a deep understanding that you can play each one of those instruments?

If you can, then you can write your own symphony success.

20 hours…

That’s the amount of hours novices do something before giving up. The guitar gets shelved, the blog gets abandoned, & the podcast fizzles out…

about 20 hours in.

Then it’s back to the same ole way of doing things & existing in life.

Can you write your own success?

If your knowledge is so deep that you can explain it in detail…

That’s learning how to play each one of your instruments..

& writing your own symphony success.

What areas in your life are you playing only one instrument?

How many instruments are you willing to deeply learn in order to write your symphony of success?

Weight loss, financial freedom, millionaire?

Can’t achieve mastery by only playing one instrument.

Stay in The Sales Life.

~Marsh

Sales Lab: Feed the dog

Which dog will you feed?

Hear the full episode

You’re gonna have your days of momentum…

& your days of Whoa-mentum…

When you’re running with Big Mo, life’s good! The money’s rolling in; the lunches are fancier, & it seems every customer is picking up what you’re laying…hell even the customers you wrote off & forgot about are back to buy!

Life’s so good, it’s as if you live in a big box of Lucky Charms- horseshoes, rainbows, & magical unicorns.

And then there are those other days…

Days of Whoa-mentum…

Days where no matter how prayed up, curse-free, and helpful you are, nothing is coming together. The last 5 customers couldn’t buy & the customer your manager just gave you told you an hour into it that they’re still in a bankruptcy. 🤦‍♂️

Oh and service dropped the ball on your customer who had an appointment scheduled for a month…

& you have another customer blowing you up wanting to return their purchase.

Days you just say, Whoa!

Think of Whoa & Mo as 2 hungry ass dogs.

They’re both hungry, but you can only feed one.

Which will you feed?

You feed ole’ Whoa, complaints & stories of lies, almosts, & strike me dead tales. You feed it by being selective with which customers are deemed worthy of your precious time & expertise.

And those who are worth your time better prove that they’re ready to buy right now or they’ll get flipped over to a green pea.

Or you can choose to feed the other one…

Big Mo eats & eats & eats- its appetite is insatiable! Big Mo eats so much you’d swear it has a tapeworm or something. You keep feeding Mo, effort, processes, leads, follow ups, referrals, & optimism.

Until…

Boom!

you reach that tipping point & Mo unleashes a flood of results so much so that you need help to keep up.

No matter the day… always feed the right dog.

Mo will test your patience, commitment, & grit…

But it’ll never let you down.

Stay in The Sales Life

-Marsh

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“Excuse me, but do you have any change on you”

Listen to this & 350+ episodes of The Sales Life with Marsh Buice.

You know when you’re walking into the convenience store & you can see the guy out of the corner of your eye standing on the edge of the building, just out of site of the cashier?

As you’re walking into the store, he walks toward you and calls out, “Excuse me, but do you have any change on you?”

If I looked like him…tired…dirty…wearing threadbare clothes two sizes too big…

I’d bet he wouldn’t ask me for a quarter.

People are watching you in ways you wouldn’t even imagine. Some even create social media accounts not to post but to pry in other people’s lives, hoping to get the tea on everyone’s relationship & personal trials.

Others watch you from afar & just like that man on the outside corner of the building, they’re questioning,

“I wonder if they have any change?”

See, if you look just like them…you complain about the present administration or you’re waiting for someone to give you permission…

If you’re always complaining that you’ve got more month than money & that no one is willing to help you…

People watch you & if you act just like them, they say to themselves, “Nah…they don’t have any change.”

Crabs in a bucket…

Change…

Your change isn’t done by making a declaration first on social media…

It isn’t done by running from person to person pleading that you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired…

Your change is started by f’ing making a decision & then just do.

It’s the early morning & late nights…

it’s saying No when your emotions are screaming Yeeesssss!

it’s binge learning while others are laying on the couch binge watching.

It’s pushing through the soreness, tears, & fatigue…

It’s grabbing fear by its braids saying, “I’m here bitch!”

It’s being so steadfast & committed that when you’re pressed…you don’t blink nor do you flinch…

That’s the kind of change I’m talking about.

The kind that when people see you & try to size you up all they see and sense is change on you.

The kind of change that when people haven’t seen you out nor have they seen you post, they stop mid pleasantries and say, “Something’s changed about you…”

You got any change on you?

Damn right I do…

Do you?

Stay in The Sales Life 💪

~Marsh

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Catch 350+ episodes of The Sales Life with Marsh Buice podcast. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play

There’s an unedited version too

It may take me 10+ takes to make a 2 min video…

The same is true when I’m recording my podcast…

Some days are tougher than others because I just can’t get what I want to convey to flow right.

But you don’t see all of that…

You only see what I want you to see…

The edited version.

But there’s an unedited version too…

It’s full of takes & retakes; stumbling & slurs; trips & cursing rants.

I get pissed off…

then I get focused.

I try again…

and again…

and again.

Until the final version reveals itself.

All of the jumbled thoughts & efforts become refined and simplified through the try after try after try.

If you thought I was still talking about videos & podcasts you’d be misled.

I’m talking about Life.

Life is full of miscues, redo’s, rants, stumbles, and stalls.

You only see the edited version-the one others want you to see.

But there’s an unedited version too.

ALL of us have an unedited version.

So what you wish, envy, gawk, & wow about are edits.

It’s the version they want you to see.

You see the results…

but what you don’t see is what it took to get there.

The unedited version.

Everyone has an unedited version & I keep telling you this because I want you to realize that what you’re attempting to improve or change in your Life will not be accomplished in one take.

So don’t compare other people’s screens to your lens.

Their screen is the results.

Your lens is your effort & if you keep looking through your lens hoping to see their screen you’ll quit too soon.

Because you’re still editing.

It can be frustrating to see others vacationing while you’re figuring out how to pay the rent.

It can be overwhelming for him to be publishing his 7th book and you’re just trying to write one page.

Damn right it’s hard to show up at the gym in a size XXL and workout next to a slim, fit medium.

The new house, luxury ride, best schools, or padded bank accounts …

That’s the highlight reel.

Don’t compare their reels, highlighting their life, to your life, low-lighting your real fights, bouts, struggles, deficits, & adversity.

Just like you, they have an unedited version too.

You don’t know their full story…

Besides…their story ain’t your path.

What you see from them is possible…

but it’s not all that’s available.

Keep editing. Your screen is coming.

Stay in The Sales Life.

-Marsh

Catch ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Sales Life with Marsh Buice podcast. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play

Get your row on

There’s a Latin proverb that says, “If the wind will not serve, take the oars.”

It’s crazy how we just let the wind do whatever-I mean we see the direction we’re heading & we don’t like it, yet …

(Whoosh)….

We just allow the winds of Life to push us towards doom while we just sit & watch.

We shrug and say, “I can’t help it…the wind is blowing me there!”

Your credit card debt is piling up- all you make is minimum payments & when you do chunk it down in months, you max it back out in minutes for that outfit you had to have…

Your clothes are fitting tighter as your weight creeps back up. You worked so hard last summer to get that weight off before going on that cruise…

You say you need to get back to the gym, but it never becomes a must.

Every day seems to get a little worse for you at work. As a matter of fact, you saw them conducting interviews the other day, yet you didn’t know there was a position even open.

“I wonder if they’re about to run me off,” you whisper to yourself.

Your sales numbers aren’t just down this month…

You’ve gone from a slump, to a rut, to a damn grave. Everyone around you is smashing their objectives, yet you couldn’t make a deal with your customer if you agreed to buy it for them.

(Whoosh)…

The winds are always blowing in our lives…

Some days the winds feel like hurricanes and catastrophe looks eminent.

If the wind will not serve, take the oars.”

An oar is a pole with a flat blade on the end that you use to move & steer your boat in a certain direction.

So here you are sitting in your boat, The SS Life, drifting along waiting for the next gust of wind to push you even further in the direction that you don’t want to go.

More debt…

You’re getting fatter by the second…

No sales…

and you just sit there waiting for the wind to blow favorably…

Hell if the wind did blow in the right direction, you’ve waited so long & have been pushed so far off course that you’d need 4 years of continuous wind to get you back on track.

If you don’t like the direction you’re blowing, get to rowing.

Grab your oars and start rowing.

Damn right you’re gonna face headwinds.

Keep rowing…

Does it look like you’re about to go over the waterfall of bs?

Pivot your blade as you row to adjust your course. You didn’t get here overnight so you damn sure won’t get elsewhere with one row of your oar.

Keep rowing…

Are you getting your ass kicked in sales? Are you about to go up in size in pants? Do you have more month than money?

Row…row…row…

You’re not getting the bad customers, you’re working less & the ones you do work with, you selectively chose because you thought they were the buyers & not the liars.

Joke’s on you.

I get that you’re sore and seeing no results. You’re so tired you couldn’t even lift a pen much less do another squat.

Keep rowing…you got more in you.

When you think you can do no more, you’ve only reached less than half of your capability.

“I can’t go any further,” only means that you’ve reached rock bottom of your comfort zone.

Keep rowing….

Welcome to the grit factory…

Row…

This is where warriors are forged…

Row…

This is your gladiator moment…

Row…

Anyone can paddle in calm waters.

Paddling is satisfying…

Rowing is exhausting…

When the shit gets tough…

Row…

I’ve got to…

because the wind isn’t serving me.

It’s go time…

It’s row time…

Get your row on.

Stay in The Sales 💪ife

-Marsh

If you didn’t “have” to…would you?

Salespeople want to be a Top Producer…

Some want to be an entrepreneur & others want to run a company.

Many people want to have millions…

But few are willing to earn any of it...

When’s the last time you heard someone say, ” I’m going earn $200,000 this year…I’m going to earn the Million Dollar Producer distinction…”

That’s because when you say the word earn.…

That one word puts the whole load on you. 

Earn eliminates the excuses, blame, reasons; justifications and unfairness.

Those kinds of words are reserved for people who say they want to…

but don’t…and here’s  why _________, __________ , _____________

Powerless, defeated words become chapters of excuses, blame, reasons, justifications, and unfairness that fill up the blank pages of our lives.

Earn is that psychological downshift, shifting from 5th gear of coasting on “good enough” down to 2nd gear of grinding and improving for more.

Earn is a fight.

Earn is what separates you from the herd of Wants.

Earn is that slow burn…

Earn is a grind…where you get no where fast.

And even if you wanted to go faster you couldn’t, because the load is too heavy…& the burden is too taxing.

So all you can do is earn the next step..and then the next.

Earn is where you unlearn what you’ve already learned because what got you here won’t take you there.

Earn is shifting mindsets from try to do.

Earn is the grit you develop when you skid across Life’s floor, yet pull yourself back up.

Because you gotta earn it.

You don’t get what you want in Life, you get what you negotiate.

You could just sit there with your wants and accept what Life scrapes into your bowl….

or you can show back up today and say, “I’m back and placing my bet, because I’m not done.”

Earn is not a finish line…it’s an evolution.

Want is the certainty you see in the natural…

Earn is the uncertainty you face, yet step out in faith, not knowing where your foot will land, but wherever and however it lands, you’ll make it work.

It’s earnings time…

Will “Willdabeast” Adams was asked on Tom Bilyeu’s podcast, “Why do you go so hard? You’ve risen to the top and achieved massive success yet you still go hella hard…”

Willdabeast answered,

“I go hard so that I never have to again.”

If you didn’t have to….would you?

You say you want to arrive, achieve, obtain, and accumulate massive success, but if you did accomplish your “all,” then what?

Is that it?

What would you do if you no longer had to?

What would you stop doing?

Where would you slack?

How often would you take the day off and just lay up?

You think about getting to the summit, but have you ever thought about what happens after you reach the summit?

Have you not thought about it because you really don’t believe you can or are you waiting for someone to give you permission?

Earning is that Next mentality.

Win…Next…

Lose…learn…Next.

Today is all you got…

And whatever you get, is because you earned it.

Take notice where you are…

But take stock in where you need to be…

And go f’n earn it.

If you’re getting up today because you have to make ends meet, you’ll forever be making ends meet because no matter what level of success, it’ll always be just barely enough. 

Or you can stop rationalizing and just go hard…

…so you never have to again.

Earn the next step…earn the next reach…earn the next breath…earn the next crack of opportunity.

Earn is next…no matter the result.

Win or lose….setback or comeback…trial or triumph…

Whatever the result today, you earned it…

Next….

Some results hurt…some outcomes are embarrassing…some may even blindside you and slap you backwards.

..whatever… you earned it.

Own it…

Dust off, recycle; improve…

And always look for Next.

Go hard so you never have to again.

Stay in The Sales Life.

-Marsh

 

 

 

It‘s not called First Replier

Million dollar real estate broker Ryan Serhant observed that one reason why you may not be finding success is because you are replying and not responding. In this automated, ever-growing commoditized world, your greatest asset as a sales person is differentiating yourself by responding instead of replying.

In this automated, ever-growing commoditized world, your greatest asset as a sales person is differentiating yourself by responding instead of replying.

We salespeople often reply when the customer we’re currently working with is the cherry to our crap-filled month. Nothing’s been going right & no one is buying, so it’s no surprise this one isn’t either. While everyone around you seems to be swimming in deals, you just so happened to have caught the one picky customer who has NO CLUE what they want; or the customer who seems to be 11 yrs out from buying; or the customer who you just don’t seem to jive with… In defense, we shut down mentally and lay up lame ass replies to their questions & concerns. Replies are words placed in the right order, said at the right time, yet void of any emotion.

We had a customer come in recently who was all busted up. Her life was turned upside down. She left her abusive husband while he left her with bad credit and a repo’d car. Obviously she was an emotional soup-crying, confused, & no idea what to do from here. A tuned out salesperson would’ve pulled her credit & replied with, “Sorry, your credit is too bad I can’t help you,” but a tuned-in salesperson would respond by saying, “Look, your credit has taken some hits, so which family member can we get on the phone right now, to get you back on track? Today is going to be your new birthday!” The responding salesperson aligned with her emotional state & offered a specific course of action.

Think about it…they’re not called First Repliers, they’re called First Responders because they come onto the scene, asses the situation, & work to get you to safety. Customers need that from you. They come in with a range of emotions & need you to asses and respond in a way that aligns with their emotions & the results they need to see. The one they do business with is the one who responds best.

That might as well be you. 😉

I’ll see you in the Sales Life.

⭐️ Catch The Sales Life with Marsh Buice podcast. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play

How do you re-weld your broken world?

The broken places become the strongest points when re-welded. What components do you use to re-weld your life.

What’s the 1 thing?

After losing 70 lbs many people ask me how I lost the weight and although I was excited to tell them all of the thoughts and methods that went into my no pill, no surgery weight loss, I found that I would lose them in mere seconds. At first, they were eager to hear, but when I exploded into my passionate ordeal, their eyes would glaze over with information overload. So now when people ask me the “how’d you do it” question, I keep it simple by saying, “Just do one thing..”

I had a friend who was frustrated because she couldn’t seem to shake the baby weight off and everyone she asked gave her conflicting advice. One person says more cardio and less weight training while another says less cardio and more weights; one says to eat more fruit another person says eat bacon and cut out the carbs. She had no idea who to believe so she ended up doing what most of us do…nothing.

She ended up joining a gym, but ended up never going because her days were overloaded with taking the kids to & from school, dropping them to karate and dance, rushing home to cook, take baths, and do homework so by the end of the day she was too exhausted to even cry. The thoughts of what she should do made the situation even worse, “I know I should work out, but I’m just too tired and hate myself  for not going,” she said. Her frustration led her to smoke more, eat worse, and sink even deeper into misery.

All I could do is smile because we can all relate to her story.

My advice to her? “Just do one thing…”

The reason why resolutions don’t work is because we try to change too much all at once. We vow to not eat fried food and never look twice at Blue Bell ice cream again. We swear that we’re going to get up early and not stay up late…someday…just not today, because we’re too busy running on the hamster wheel of Life.

Studies show that if you try to change 3 or more things at once you’ll have a 5% chance of success; if you try to change 2 habits, you’ll increase your chances of success to 30%, but if you just try to change 1 habit, you’ll have an 85% success rate. If you’re trying to lose weight, pay down debt, or be more productive or knowledgeable, just do one thing to nudge yourself in the right direction.

In my friend’s case I asked her, “What is the one thing that you could put into your already hectic life right now that wouldn’t disrupt everything else?” She stared at me blankly unable to mentally find the overlaps in her time.  She told me that she didn’t like to wake up early; collapses in bed exhausted every night, and her lunches are crammed with having to run around town and pay bills. Her only constant was her three 15 minute smoke breaks every day. “Give me 1/2 of each one your breaks,” I told her, “The first 8 minutes are yours to do whatever you want to do-smoke, gossip, drink soda-do whatever, but the other 7 minutes I want you to walk around the outside of the building. On the next break do the same thing except go into the bathroom stall and knock out as many air squats as you can in 7 minutes. The last break go for another walk and bang out some push-ups in an obscure location or do lunges the full length of the hall way.” The truth is we all have spare moments, but the fallacy is that we think the moments are too insignificant to see any real, meaningful results…so we end up doing nothing, but beating our self-esteem to death.

Without changing anything in the course of a normal, chaotic day, she just found 21 minutes to change the course of her life.

Can you write a book, master a craft, or have a beach body in just 21 minutes? Not in “a” day, but you sure as hell can “per” day.

The problem is we want the results, but haven’t yet built in the consistency, so taking 7 minutes a few times during the day will do just that. These micro-wins cauterize the depression and negate the self-sabotage and as you win more, you’ll find that you’ll challenge yourself to more too. With a fresh perspective, you’ll find more windows of opportunities to increase your success capital. Early into my weight loss quest, instead of mindlessly scrolling through social media while waiting for my son’s practice to end, I jumped rope while he took snaps. At games, during half time, instead of running to the concession stand, I would sneak off to a secluded part of the parking lot and do a 15 minute body weight program from the Fitness Blender channel on YouTube instead. This is what James Clear calls habit graduating; putting 1 habit into your day, becoming a mf’ing boss at that tiny habit, and then graduating with a little more along the way. My 7 minutes, led to 15 minutes, which parlayed to 1 mile that ended up in a half marathon and along the way, I ate better, thought clearer, and produced more.

The slights got you to where you are today…and the slights will take you where you need to be in the future…but first start with just 1.

I’ll see you on the other side and can’t wait to hear about your results.

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.

 

Sometimes you just make it work

 Subscribe and listen to this episode of  The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice right here.

I ran into my old college football coach the other day and we reminisced like all old, has-been’s do about yesteryear…we scoff about how good the players today have it versus the little we had to work with back in the days. Teams today have the luxury of shoe and apparel contracts that we didn’t. We practiced with threadbare shirts-so thin that you could see right through the shirt when you held it up to the light; we taped up our cleats not because it was the fashionable thing to do, but because they would fall apart during a game if you didn’t; every Sunday the game jerseys were sewn back up-by the end of the season,  you had so much patchwork that it looked more like grandma’s quilt than a jersey. Our dorms had asbestos ceiling tiles and nutria rats as roommates-at night you could hear them scratching around and you’d lay in bed hoping they wouldn’t fall through the missing ceiling tiles.

Twenty-three years removed from playing, Coach opened up and told me that he would be on his hands and knees pulling weeds out of the flower bed in front to the field house so that it wouldn’t be an eyesore to visitors. There was no money in the budget for anything-literally. Coach had to dig into his own wallet and give the grounds crew gas money so that they could mow the knee-high grass; some days Coach would have to mow the fields himself before practice. Just before we were to report for the upcoming season, Coach ran around town scrapping up enough money to paint over the rust in the weight room & lay down some cheap outdoor carpet because he wanted it to look a little more aesthetically pleasing to us.

Seeing the disbelief on my face, Coach said, “Sometimes, you just make it work, Marsh.” I had no idea the struggles he and his staff were facing. We had no clue what lack we were dealing with- and he kept us out of it because Coach knew we had a job to do and our only job was to make the grades and play ball…and that we did. I have 3 rings to show for it.

The people you lead don’t need to know all of your struggles. They don’t need to know what you don’t have, can’t do, and have no support of. They don’t need to know all of your struggles because they have struggles of their own and standing around  bitching about it won’t accomplish anything anyway.

Sometimes, you just make it work and collectively, as a team, you draw on whatever resources you have and fight to win. 

As weak as your struggles make you feel, there’s actually strength within them-not only for you, but for others as well. Struggling develops your sense of competence and confidence. When you’re pushed to the brink-where your only option is to figure it out…you do things that you had no clue you were capable of accomplishing. Every setback increases your resilience…every win forges your confidence and you become an example not only to others, but a higher-level example to yourself.

And when you scrape, stretch, and scrimp to just make it work, you and your team find a way to succeed…because all of you do what it takes to W.I.N. 

To do What Is Necessary.

Listen to this episode of  The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice right here.