Why didn’t I think of that?

Have you ever used a product or an app and thought to yourself, “Damn, why didn’t I think of that?! I mean the idea was so simple – it’s been sitting there in plain sight my whole life,” slaps forehead), “Why didn’t I just see it?”

You didn’t see it because you’re not trained to see it…

VC firms have what’s called Idea Flow. Masses of people line up & pitch a continuous flow of ideas & projects to the VC members. If they like the idea, these firms will invest millions of dollars in hopes of reaping multiple millions if not billions of dollars in the future. Fewer than 1% of these ideas make it through the next stage, but some go on to become Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, and Twitter (Waitr an online food/grocery delivery app based in my hometown named sold this past summer for $308 million.) (Slaps forehead again)

Now I know what you’re thinking, I don’t have millions to spend nor years to invest, but you & VC firms share one thing in common, you both have “idea flow.”

In the book Disrupt You!, Jay Samit challenges his students to write 3 things that you notice that could be improved every day. He says that at first it’ll be easy, but as the days roll on it’ll become more and more challenging, but if you discipline yourself to do this every day it’ll cause you to become more introspective and more observant to the world around you.

Anything… Everything is up for grabs… “How can this be improved?” Recently Tesla founder Elon Musk looked at the bottleneck of Los Angeles traffic & posed the idea of building an underground tunnel were people seamlessly commute in a capsule. Will it come to life? Who knows, but that’s one of hundreds of ideas that Musk spitballs and asks, “What if?” Instead of taking life at face value, why not generate your own idea flow? When you’re standing in line, ordering, shopping, or just taking a piss, ask yourself, “How can this be improved?”

Think about Poo-Pourri, a small bottle that you can drop into the toilet bowl after you take a crap at your friend’s house to hide the stank… “Why didn’t I think of that?” (Quickly slaps forehead.)

Even on your job…what’s the bottle-neck? What can be improved? How can this be disrupted? Frustrated? Good! The more frustrated the better, because frustrating times are prime opportunities for you to take notice and ask, “How can this be bettered?” See, while the rest of the world stands around pointing and bitching, you’re strategically thinking about capitalizing on disruption. Uber took the status quo taxi service and flipped it upside down. Airbnb, which started as an air mattress on the floor and breakfast in the morning, disrupted the entire hotel industry.

Not all of your ideas will come to life, but you need a continuous flow of them for the best ones to rise to the top. Three ideas per day, that’s 90/month-that’s 1000/year. Just imagine if 1% of those ideas disrupted your life for the better? Change starts with an idea.

Try it this week and let me know how it goes.

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

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.

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.

Agreeing is better than admitting

photo: Andrew Seaman

Think back to when you were a kid when you did something wrong, instead of getting you to fess up, your mom just filled in the blanks for you by saying, “Look, accidents happen all of the time…it happens…you spilled the orange juice on my rug didn’t you?… Honey, you tried to clean it up, but I just need to know what happened…” And what did you do? After a little more coaxing of a few different It’s ok scenarios, you cave in…with eyes watering & mouth quivering, you agree with your psychic mom. In the end, you get to keep your street creds because you never admitted to the wrong doing, all you did was agree with what was already said. Getting children to agree is a psychological superpower that parents have known & used forever, it worked for them and it’ll work for you in sales.

Getting your customer to agree is way easier than getting them to admit. For instance, say I have a customer who seems tense; judging from their body language I can tell there’s something that they’re thinking, but they just won’t say what it is.  Instead pressuring my customer to just come out and say what’s on their mind-which usually makes the situation way worse,  I’ll say what they’re thinking instead by saying something like, “You know a lot of my customers feel they need to shop around in order to make sure that they’re getting the best deal…” and I’ll let my voice fade off.  Here’s the superpower part; if my assumptions are wrong, they’ll correct me and if I’m right, all they have to do is agree and once they agree, the rest of their fears normally come out too. In either case, whether my assumptions were right or wrong, once I can get the conversation out of their heads and into the open, I can then address their fears and concerns.

Customers don’t like to admit because they don’t want to fight…they don’t want to throw out an objection and then have to defend it. Many times they’re objecting because they’re terrified of the consequences of making a mistake or they’ll say No with no real defense to support the rejection, so they’ll keep it inside instead to save themselves from caving in to being sold.

Try getting your customer to agree instead of admitting. It’ll keep the mood light & conversational instead of dark & confrontational.

Check out The Sales Life w Marsh Buicepodcast.  A podcast for the busies that makes a point in less than 10 minutes each day. You can find it on iTunes or your favorite podcast platform.

We’ll wait for you

While on the set of Deliverance, filmmaker John Boorman walked up to actor Burt Reynolds and said, “Stop acting. Just behave…we’ll wait for you because we can’t take our eyes off of you..” Boorman didn’t want an actor…he wanted Reynolds playing the role of Lewis Medlock.

When our performance is based on conformance, then we just blend into our environment & lose ourselves in order to take on the character that we think society, family, or our boss wants.

We act and cease behaving…

As told by Ryan Holiday, George Clooney initially struggled as an actor because he tried so hard to fit the character the producers were looking for until one day he got the realization that he shouldn’t try to fit the role…the role should fit him.

It became clear to him that the producers needed him more than he needed them.

& if the audition didn’t pan out, Clooney could go on dozens of other auditions…

he had options, while the producers were desperately seeking the one. 

Armed with his newfound knowledge, Clooney began showing up to auditions projecting that he was The One for the job.

And because he projected so much confidence..

…because he didn’t walk in reeking of desperation…

because he showed himself approved…filmmakers made a way because Clooney behaved his way into the roles.

Many times we take on or inherit positions and continue playing the position the way that it’s always been played.

We run alongside of the way that it’s always been done..we conform…we act…

when Life needs you to behave.

When you act you blend in…but when you behave, you stand out.

When you act, you’re cast in black, white, & grays of usual…but when you behave..

when you bring your “You”…

when you bring your flair…

your flavor…

your uniqueness…

your quirks…

when you bring your How I do to what you do…

when you Be AND Do-not just do…well, you become the red umbrella walking through the gray crowd….

And you know what….

We’ll wait for you because you embody what we’re looking for.

There’s too many actors in this world and not enough Be-ings.

Beings behaving in such a way that we can’t help but get out of your way…to clear our schedule..to make room…hell to create a whole other column just for you.

And let me tell you how liberating it’ll be for you…because you cease acting & start behaving, you get to be you & because you’re no longer burning the emotional currency of acting, you’ll feel more complete…more in control of your most valuable asset…

…that asset is You…

So rest easy. Don’t worry about missing out…just behave…we’ll wait for you because we can’t take our eyes off of you.

Stay in The Sales Life

————–

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

The Heavy Box Mentality

Marcus Luttrell wrote a book that went on to become the movie titled Lone Survivor…& Marcus has a Heavy Box Mentality- he had to have one in order to become a Navy SEAL-the best of the best,  but he also needed to have a Heavy Box Mentality when he was recovering from his injuries and surgeries…

Even though people were urging him to join a gym, he refused… he didn’t need a gym-he had a gym right there in his mind and in that gym was his Heavy Box. Even though there were days that he could only do one push-up against the sink…even though there were times when his progress skidded back down to the bottom… that Heavy Box was right there. Luttrell pushed that Heavy Box into the corners of his mind, out of the way, but still within view- he kept it right there because he was determined to work towards picking that Heavy Box back up.

We all need a Heavy Box Mentality… a Heavy Box Mentality  is the gap of choosing between doing the easy or taking on the hard…that 5 seconds when you can make a choice to slide by with the routine or make that split second decision to yank the heavy box… you’re Heavy Box.

See, the reason why most of us don’t pick… the reason why we won’t choose the Heavy Box is because a Heavy Box Mentality is strictly voluntary… it’s not mandated… it’s not a prerequisite… it’s voluntary and most of us won’t step up and volunteer-to do what is hard in our own lives.

We pick the light box instead…

 So what are they heavy boxes in your life right now? What are the hard choices – the one staring right there at you…

The ones that trip you when you’re dark… the ones you stub when trying to find light… the ones you elect to go around instead of going through…

 I get it… going through causes you to sweat… causes you to strain… going through may cause you to admit that you can’t lift your heavy box…it means you’re defeated…

… but only temporary.

The fact that you stepped up, squared your shoulders, got a wide base, and wedged your fingers underneath…

…the fact that you yanked on your Heavy Box is a start and like Luttrell, it starts with first trying, then testing your limits, then-even if it’s at your base camp, working your way back to the Heavy Box ever so present in the rooms of your mind.

That heavy box is there, we all got ’em. That Heavy Box where you can take the easy dollar $1.69, 10 piece Burger King nuggets or you can grab that salad from Wendy’s that’s four times the price. That box that you can numb the differences through silence and alcohol or that Heavy Box where you sit him down and say, “We’re” done, this ain’t going to work.” That box when you sell just enough to cover your $3000 monthly bills or the Heavy Box where you say I need to make $3000, but I’ll make five and next month I’ll make seven..then you do the math- you break the numbers down to a daily plan and go to work on your box.

The box with no sweat, no strain, no fatigue or the Heavy Box where there’s no way out but through… 

It’s voluntary…

…and you got five seconds to decide. Always pick theHeavy Box. 

Don’t forget I have a weekday podcast The Sales Life w Marsh Buice found iTunes or any of your favorite podcast stations.

Dear World,

Dear World,

We’ve been through a lot together over the decades you and I-marriages, births, deaths, fulfillment & disappointment, war & peace, good times & hard times. There were days when you were more generous to me than I could possibly have deserved. And there were days when you cheated me out of things I felt I was entitled to. There were days when you looked so achingly beautiful that I could hardly believe you were mine, and days when you broke my heart and reduced me to tears. But with it all, I chose to love you, whether you deserve it or not. (& how does one measure that?) I love you because I like who I am better when I do. But mostly I love you because loving you makes it easier for me to be grateful for today and hopeful about tomorrow. Love does that. 

Faithfully yours, 

Harold Kushner

This beautiful letter came at the end of Kushner’s book “9 Essential Things I Learned About Life.” 

(Hear what this letter means to me on my podcast The Sales Life

Strange how Life can be a mixture of such vast emotions right?

…some days there aren’t enough words to express just how wonderful things are…other days there are no words that can adequately describe just how broken we’ve become. One day we’re on high…other days we’ve painfully discovered rock bottom has many levels.

Whatever it is…however it is…it’s your world…love it no matter what. Hard to do some days I know…but it’s the only one you’ve got…and you’ll be better when you do.

Just  remember it could always be better…but it too could be much worse.

The Two You’s

Earl Nightingale said that every person really is two persons.

“There is the one person who has achieved a level of performance adequate enough to earn his pay … and sometimes he’ll get a promotion or pay raise,  but his proficiency become‘s habitual – unconscious and he uses these habitual patterns as a benchmark of measurement for his success time and time again. This is the person his employers, family, and he himself knows…”

But Nightingale goes on to say there’s another person too… “the person that he could be – the person that if strongly motivated and equipped with the right information, could narrow the gap between his habitual performance patterns and his much higher potential.”

Imagine yourself standing inside of the chalk outline of your considerably larger self…that outline represents your highest potential & and where you stand inside of that outline – the gap between the two you’s represents your untapped, unexpressed potential.

In order to narrow that gap between who you are today and who you could be, you must do a few things.

First, you must constantly study  because what you don’t know is so much larger- why anchor your Life on what you already know?

Narrowing the gap will also take self examination – sometimes it will be painful, but if you honestly look at the loops that you continuously play back and assess who or what you allow into your life you’ll begin to compress the margins between the two you’s.

Lastly, it takes the application of your talents and abilities. You could own a whole Walgreens store of medications, but none of them will work unless they’re taken off the shelf & applied– the same is true for your Life.

If you’re willing to do those 3 things, Nightingale says that you’re in rarefied company.

Now that’s for you…

But let me tell you about others….

I think so many businesses are warped with only focusing on driving up the bottom line, but what they fail to miss is that the lowest cost method to driving the emotional and financial health of a company‘s bottom line is the development of its people.

And getting more out of someone isn’t some form of manipulation-no it’s the company benefiting because they first invested in others.  

The problem is that many leaders are fearful of sharing what they know for fear of being replaced and if that is your fear, that is an indication that you’ve stopped growing. I tell my people all the time, I want you to replace me – take this chair because if you take my chair, that means I’ve moved up. Why keep all you know to yourself anyway? Why not give it all away? If you can teach it, then it deepens your awareness of truly understanding; when you teach to others you invest in not only their future but yours as well; and if you empty yourself out, you’ll have more capacity to refill & refuel with more rapidly changing information. 

Exposing others to more will cause them to have to reach deep into the reservoirs of their ability…with your guidance, skills and abilities they never knew they were capable of are revealed and brought to the surface.

In the book It’s Not Where You Start But How You Finish, entrepreneur David Schwartz says, that at McDonald’s, “the workers’ best standard is going to be the managers’ lowest acceptable standard.

The skillful manager needs to be able to stretch his employees’ capacities by setting the high bar and encouraging better performance.” When they do, others will be able to think more confidently, independently, and produce better results, resulting in better team members & human beings in the process… and your greatest payback is knowing that you had a thumbprint in their development.

Yes, in reality every person really is two persons – the person today and the person he can be tomorrow…

…but maybe there’s a third person too…

Planting your skills and abilities into the lives of others so that they too can begin to narrow the gap between who they are vs. who they can become in the tomorrow’s that lay ahead.

Stay 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.