Lab Time

Before recording “The Moment” podcast, Brian Koppleman met NBA player JJ Reddick for a shoot around…

Koppleman remarked how chill Reddick was before they stepped foot on the court, but once he laced up, he became intense…

“That’s because the court is my lab,” Reddick admitted.

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When you show up to sell, show, lift, or present, do people notice a difference in you?

They should, because your “court” is your Lab…it’s not a time to slack off and chill…

It’s time to go to work…today sets the table for your future.

It’s lab time.

Square the Circle…don’t Circle the Square

When I’m pressed for time, I’ll run a quick 2 miles around the road that circles my house. (4 laps = 1 mile)

Because I had to force myself to hit the road, I try to hurry & get it over with by cutting the corners instead of fully rounding them off.

At the time, it seems like I’m getting around the circle quicker, but after eight laps, mentally I’m trying to pull up, but my watch tells me to keep running…

It’s not yet 2 miles…

Come to find out, because I cut the corners, I end up having to take needless, extra steps.

An extra 100 ft doesn’t seem like much, but if I add that extra 100 ft up over the next 52 runs, I end up adding a mile’s worth of steps for the same “2 mile” run.

Sound familiar?

You’re tired…sore…frustrated…& the month’s been grueling…

Nothing seems to be going your way…

So you cut the corners…

In an effort to “save time,” you rush through customers, quickly assessing if they’re buying or not…

You take extra days off to rest from last week’s leg day at the gym…

You jump from one relationship into the next proclaiming, “this is the one…”

You “put it all on the card” or renew the loan this month and gamble on figuring out how to make the payments next month(s)…

You cut the corners…because it seems like it’s the quickest way to make your lap that day…

Hurry & get it over with seems logical…

But it’s costly…

Because this is a long race you’re running & you’re needlessly adding extra steps to achieve a decision…outcome…or goal.

Run the full mile you’re in…

Today, I know you don’t feel like it…I know it’s been rough…I know the extra weight of frustration, fatigue, & anger make your run slower & harder…

But take the steps now…

All of them…

Because you’ll take fewer in the long run.

When I’m on that hard ass, “don’t feel like it” run & feel like cutting the corners…

When the voices are banging in my head- screaming that no one will know that I’m cutting the corners…

I tell myself, “Square the circle…don’t circle the square.”

See, the road around my house is a circle, but the parameters are a square, so if I stay on that parameter, eight laps is two miles…

But if I circle the square & cut the corners, that same two miles ends up costing me extra steps..wasted energy & time.

Square the circle today….

When you cry to yourself, “ I don’t feel like doing this-I’m just going to round this thing off!!!”

Don’t, because it may feel like it’s quicker now, but remember your life isn’t a lap…it’s many, many miles…

Today’s lap may be hard…but in the end the steps will be efficiently fewer…& it’ll all be worth it.

Have an amazing day…

~Stay in The Sales 💪ife.

Quit reading

Evan Carmichael said,

“Reading doesn’t have to be your top priority, but learning should be…”

So maybe reading’s not your bag, but just because you don’t like to read doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t learn.

You’ve just got to find the way that works better for you.

I get it…

Reading may feel like a chore.

You may fall asleep after 5 minutes of reading or you just can’t seem to stay focused.

That’s cool…don’t beat yourself up because you don’t read or that you’re slow reader.

Beat yourself up because you don’t learn.

🔥Not liking to read is not a reason to not learn.

You’ve got to figure out other ways that you can learn.

I love to read, but after 10 years of voraciously reading I’ve gotten burned out-so much so that I read very little.

But it doesn’t mean that I don’t learn.

I learn through podcasts & I’ve subscribed to YouTube premium where I can listen to YouTube (w/out the screen being on.)

I think ways of learning are seasonal…

There are seasons I like to read & other seasons I prefer audiobooks, podcasts, & YouTube more.

I may stop one, but I never stop learning.

Find what works better for you to keep progressing.

Your 5th grade teacher wasn’t right.

🔥Reading’s not the only way to go, but learning’s the place to be.

Make learning a top priority & it doesn’t have to be in a book.

Have an amazing day.

~Stay in The Sales Life 💪

Be unmeasurable

You know, you can measure a man up pretty quickly if you know the point where he’ll quit…

where when it gets hard, he quits & turns back.

But what about the man who just keeps showing back up? Who keeps driving? Who keeps pulling himself back up?

🔥How do you measure the “unmeasurable?”

You know, if you think about it, when someone says, “I didn’t know you had it in you!” That’s because when you walked into the hard…when you walked into the heaviness…

they tried to measure you up…

They pulled out the tape and they thought to themselves, “THIS is the point where he’s going to quit…give up & turn back.”

And when you kept going…

…and made something out of nothing

🔥that’s the point where you became unmeasurable

Be unmeasurable every day…

Where you’re willing to keep coming back,

go another round,

& lay another brick.

Where you’re willing to hang in there another minute, another hour, another damn day.

To push beyond yesterday’s “far.”

To stretch beyond yesterday’s “hard.”

To make yesterday’s “finish line” today’s starting line.

Unbothered of the obstacles…

Unmindful of how close or how far away you are from the goal…

Just unmeasurable…

~Stay in The Sales Life 💪

Oooh you’ve got a big ole but

“I love you…but”

“I want hire you…but”

“I want to buy from you…but”

🔥The buts negate everything.

& you only hear what comes after but.

Your skin color, neighborhood, family, your past, present circumstances, nor the fact that you didn’t graduate high school nor go to college…

They’re not holding you back…

It’s your “buts.”

“I want to lose 20 lbs but I’m a single parent raising 2 kids, working 2 jobs, & have too much to do…”

“I want to sell 30 this month, but I haven’t been here long & am new to the area..”

“I want to make $100k this year, but only make $50k. There’s no way for me to double my income.”

You’re right…because your “buts” affirm your excuses.

🔥Keep your buts…

Buts can negate…but they can also give you permission.

🔥When you use the word “but” today as an excuse of why something can’t be done…

Use “but” to give you permission instead.

Use whatever time & resources you have RIGHT NOW to move forward.

🔥I want to lose 20LBS, but I have 10 minutes, & a floor where I can do pushups, planks, & burpees.

🔥I want to sell 30 this month, but I’ve got to get in front of 65-70 people.

🔥I want to earn $100k this year, but I’ve got to strengthen my knowledge, techniques, & give all my creatives away for now.

Don’t give me that but…give me that but.

Stay in The Sales Life 💪

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Subscribe to 400+ episodes of The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice podcast on iTunes https://tinyurl.com/y35ln2fk or Spotify https://tinyurl.com/y2qvdsd8

You’re good…as of today

Whatever is considered “Best in the World” today is going to be obsolete tomorrow.

Technology is changing…

& if technology is changing so are tendencies…

& if tendencies are changing, so must your techniques.

Oh I get the fact that you’re all that and a bag of hot Funyuns…

You’ve exceeded your wildest expectations…

Making more money than you would’ve ever dreamed of…

You’re good….as of today.

🔥”Laurel” may be a good name for your dog or daughter…

🔥but it’s not a good strategy for your life.

When Kareem Abdul Jabbar broke the NBA all time scoring record, Wilt Chamberlain said, “Had I known anyone would come close to breaking the record I would’ve put it out of sight…”

Laurels…

Wilt was good…as of that “today.”

The sad thing is he knew there was more…

Even sadder is, he could’ve put it out of sight…

but didn’t.

Setting the record made him the “Best in the World….”

🔥Had he kept going…he could’ve been the best ever.

Oh you’re good…as of today.

~Stay in The Sales Life 💪

“Unbelievable” right?

“Unbelievable” right?

You see a salesperson who seems to create deals out of thin air…

He revives what looks dead & creates magic.

…all you can say is “Unbelievable!”

& you’re right…

🔥It’ll always be unbelievable until you test the believable for yourself.

Boldness is disguised as “crazy…”

You say, “There’s no way I could say or do that…”

Saying that you’ll forever be banging away at average.

🔥Take their unbelievability & make it your own.

When you feel the urge to pull up…

Push forward…

Initially it’ll all come out wrong…

You won’t say it right & will probably do it even worse…

But keep testing it…

Over & over…

& the more you test…pushing & repackaging…

The “Un” will drop of the “Believable.”

You’ll stand in amazement & be proud…

Not because they did it…

Because you did it….by yourself.

“unBELIEVABLE” right?

Not anymore.

Stay in The Sales Life 💪

_______________________

🔥Subscribe to 400+ episodes of The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice podcast on iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app & learn on the go.

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Hope is not a strategy…but it is an ingredient

I’ve often said that hope is not a strategy…

But it is a key ingredient.

Rebecca Solnit writes,

“To have hope is to embrace the unknown with the unknowable…you must acknowledge that you don’t know everything & you don’t know what’s going to happen. And that’s the only way to keep going. To be open to the possibility and allow yourself to be changed.”

Think about the times when the only thing that got you through was hope…

When you had no money & no credit…

When you had no friends to lean on or no family to turn to…

& there were no nets to catch you when you were falling…

It was just you and hope and somehow you made it…

Or better yet…

hope made you…

Stronger…

More fierce…

More determined…

More resilient…

Grittier…

Was hope the only thing you needed?

No…

Because you still had to do the work…

You still had to get back up…

You still had to feel the stings of the world judging you…

The embarrassment & the shame…

But hope is the ingredient that got you through.

You can you can have chocolate chips, milk, & eggs, but if you have no flour you have no cookie.

The flour pulls all of the ingredients together…

That’s what makes it all rise…

That’s what hope is to you…

The key ingredient…

To embrace the unknown with the unknowable….

I know you have no clue how this is going to end up…

I know, you have no clue how this is all going to turn out…

You don’t even know what the fuck you’re doing right now…

I get it…

“Is it working for me or against me,” you ask.

Will it even work?!

Will I even survive?

Will I even come through this?

I don’t know…

All you have right now is hope.

You to have hope…

& acknowledge that you don’t know everything…

You thought you were ready…

You thought you were hard enough to say, “Bring it on!”

No, no…

The only thing you know right now is that you don’t know.

Yet you go anyway…

You embrace the unknown with the unknowable, remember?

So you don’t know if you can…

You don’t know if you can stand up in the murky waters of doubt…

You can’t even see the bottom, yet you jump anyway.

How long will I have to tread?

How far is it to the other side?

I don’t know…

Hope is the only way to keep going.

Hope is what keeps you open to the possibilities…

But it’s the unknown that makes people sit…

It’s the unknown that makes people turn back…

Those are the people who fearfully use hope as a strategy instead of an ingredient.

When you have hope as an ingredient, you leap and figure more along the way.

You surrender to what is…

“I can handle it..”

No matter what…

“I can handle it.”

Hope is an ingredient in your strategy, but it is not the strategy.

Your strategy is to be a beast…

You may be beaten…

You may be battered…

You may be wobbling & don’t think you can go another inch because you’re so tired…

Hope is what gets you up…

Hope is what gets you through..

Your strategy is more…

Your strategy is there’s better.

That’s what’s in your mixing bowl.

More…

Better…

Hope is what glues it all together.

Read this or listen to the podcast when you need it most.

Put the Rocky theme song on if you have to.

Push off…

Push up…

Dust off dust off.

No matter what’s happened…

Hope is your ingredient today and the rest of your f’ing life.

Stay in The Sales 💪ife.

~Marsh

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