Nelson Mandela said; "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."
I tend to think that resilience is the same. A resilient person does not notice the pain, but acknowledges it and keeps going in spite of it.
For any small business owner, being able to sell is a must. It is also one of the hardest parts of the job. Why? Because we didn't leave our jobs to be salespeople. We left to do what we love.
Here's the problem though. Without clients, you don't have a business - you have an expensive hobby (more on this here). Sales is also hard because we were never trained in selling. We have training in our respective professions, but not in selling.
Here are three laws to help guide your mindset when it comes to your sales activity. They are laws because, while you can break them, the penalties are severe (more severe than just bending some rules).
You know how it goes. You met at a networking event, or through a mutual contact. There is potential. Now you need to find the time for a more official meeting to start talking business. So you email this person and ask when is good for them.
No reply.
You leave it a few weeks, and then followup with that "Just checking you got that email" email. Still nothing. There are many reasons why this can happen. These range from lack of interest, through to (genuinely) not getting that email. The lack of interest reason is one for another post, another time. Let's focus today on how to increase your chances of getting that appointment.
If you're reading this, then you probably have an interest in improving your sales skills. If so, you've come to the right place. It turns out selling is hard. Why? There are two main villains at play.
The first is a lack of clarity. We can read all the books we want but when we actually go to 'start', a little voice in our head asks, "Where?" Starting the sales process for our own business is like wrestling with the proverbial roll of sellotape - we cannot find the end. This means we are much more likely to just not start - after all, there are emails to send, business logos to sketch and websites to build...
The second villain is actually a collective of individuals. This lot are pervasive and insidious, and are very effective standing in our way. They are called Performance Barriers. Performance Barriers are unhelpful thought patterns that stop us from executing on our big ideas. There are some common performance barriers when it comes to selling.
Here are a few big ones. Which is your biggest performance barrier?
Most of what I know about sales I learned backwards. I was a sales trainer before a salesperson. However, what set us apart from other "experts" was that we would go out on sales calls with the Reps with whom we worked. One such visit with a rep from our client company stands out in my mind as the worst sales meeting I have ever had. But it taught me a valuable sales lesson. Here it is.
Some people a scared of sales, others love it. Some consider public speaking worse than death, and others make it a career. For some, the idea of working freelance is impossible. Others would have it no other way. Of course, some fears are rational, and helpful. But most aren't, as my eight-month old daughter taught me just the other day.
When we see someone performing at their best, in business, sport or the arts, we do not see someone being busy. We see someone committed; to the moment, to the task at hand, or to the mission they are on. We see them do exactly what needs to be done - no more, and no less.
So how do we achieve high performance across an organisation? We need three things. We need the right mindset, the right skills, and the right culture. Let us use the analogy of a garden. Think of skills as the seeds, mindset as the soil, and culture as the sun.
By showing up, day in, day out, you will get to where you want to go. Because in doing so you are taking the first step on a longer journey. That journey cannot begin until you take that first step. Our ability to decide to show up (or not) is the ultimate control. We may make up reasons or excuses. But whether we show up for the commitments we have in our life is ultimately up to us.
Vulnerability is not some squishy threat to good old-fashioned hard work, grit and resilience. It is the key to it. Real opportunity lies in looking the fact of our imperfection in the face and accepting it. Remember, acceptance is not approval. You don't have to like it or be happy about it. But you can't make a plan to get to where you want to be unless you acknowledge where you actually are. The opportunity is that if we accept that we don't have all the answers, we start asking better questions. And once we start asking better questions, we can find better answers, and do better work.
Being a Dad is teaching me many thing. The job is full time, the stakes are high and real, and the lessons are thrown at you, ready or not. The two latest are around imperfection, and potential.
I can always tell who is great at what they do, and who is not. I can tell by the way they talk about what they do. There seems to be no need to 'warm up' or get in the zone. In the zone of their chosen field is where they live. What they do is a part of who they are, an extension of their identity. I've wondered for a while how to explain this difference in people. That sets them apart? You know they will succeed. You know they are great at what they do. It is because their business is their Craft.
We live in uncertain times - now more than ever. A great deal of life we cannot control. But we can control our Mindset. How we think is how we view our world. With a High Performance Mindset, we can overcome bigger challenges. We can achieve greater things.
These are some of the Principles of the High Performance Mindset that are being trained as I navigate the wonderful world of Fatherhood.
The approach I take with clients is to build the mindset they need for the levels of high performance they want. After all, be it in work or in life, everything starts with the right mindset. Of course, high performance is a nuanced yet potent blend of more than mindset alone. In this article I’m going to suggest four components of high performance and how they interrelate; Body, Mindset, Soul, and Environment.
A person's values as their 'Rules of Engagement'. A clear set of Values are that person's guide to answering the question of "how will I be?". Values are the person's character - how they will go about working on their life's purpose. Values are one of the components of a person or organisation's Framework for how they go through life. This stuff seems wishy-washy, but it isn't. It is powerful.
Clear values are what separate those living their best lives from those who aren't.
We all face stress in life, but how can we keep it from getting the better of us?
Resilience is the ability to be comfortable being uncomfortable. I don’t consider myself to be the most resilient person on the planet, but compared to where I was 5 years ago the improvement is vast. There are many factors that have contributed to this process, but if I had to choose one thing that got me to my current level it would be getting into sales.
A word like “Purpose” can be perceived as very squishy. It does not fit comfortably into the language I call Business Speak (spoken fluently in most workplaces), and when it does appear, it is watered-down in a bland and generic mission statement. It might seem squishy, but it’s not. Purpose is the renewable energy source that keeps you pushing on when things get tough. It is the magnet that pulls the right people to your business. It is the reason people buy what you’re selling (or not).
Discipline is a Mindset Skill that comes up a lot in conversations with the teams and individuals I work with; the discipline to do what is necessary to achieve their larger goals, and not just easy/expedient/fun right now. The discipline to stick to an exercise regimen or healthy diet after the initial interest and motivation has burned out.
My idea is that to make sticking to something easier, it is better to control the input, rather than the response.
The story is always the same. We plan out the perfect and most consistent work schedule. We buy chicken breast and broccoli stems by the truckload. We set up the brand new guitar and buy a lifetime’s subscription to the latest guitar-learning app.
For the first week of the year, everything is great — we’re well on our way, taxying down the runway of achievement. By week 2, we are erratically multitasking at our desks with a phone in our ear and a pen in our hand, we’re in the nearest Five Guys with a burger and Fries, and the guitar is still very much brand new. We never quite seem to take off. Why?
This article is about why your New Year’s resolutions aren’t working now, and about how you can right the ship if you want to.
The first and most immediate benefit of a BJJ class is the chance to let go of a bad day at work. I think of sparring as a ‘mental palette cleanser’. But Brazilian Jiu Jitsu’s most valuable benefit is less obvious and more pervasive. It provides the opportunity and environment to practice key life skills in a tangible and practical way.
