In November of last year I was sitting at my 3rd company awards banquet watching the usual suspects win the sales contest (again!). And as happy as I was for my friends (Andrew C., Gregg D., and my mentor Michael F.) I couldn't help but wonder what it was that kept these same 3 guys winning sales contest after sales contest.
Anyone who's been in any sort of sales environment knows how common this scenario is... the top guys stay at the top, month after month, year after year, and they make it look so easy!
Now let me explain right up front (I know what you might be thinking)... I'm in Direct Sales, not MLM, and the sales contest is based entirely on individual production. In other words, your "position" or "rank" or "entry date" has no bearing on your results. No one has any advantage over anyone else in one of these sales contests.
It's literally "anyone's game" every time out so why do the same 3 guys keep winning?
What is it that separated them from me? Or anyone else for that matter?
And I asked my mentor, Michael, that exact question later that night.
His answer may strike some as haughty, but it was brilliant in its honesty. And once I had really processed it everything about my business had changed.
Michael F., my mentor"It's mental, we're competitive and we expect to win... It's not a question of if we'll be top 3, just which position..."
"We're not doing different things, but we are thinking differently while doing the things. While other guys aim to burn calories we aim to maximize leverage."
"It's all the same stuff... taking risks, conversations with people, placing ads, building our brands, and testing everything... but we are putting more in on the front end and slashing more on the back end."
"We put it all on the line... time, money, and energy. Then if it's not producing it gets cut. If it's a drain of time or energy it gets cut. If it whines it gets cut. If it gets outperformed by something else it gets cut. If it's lazy it gets cut."
"At the end of the day we just take more risks than most are willing to, because there's really no risk at all when you already know you've won."
That last line... Wow! Such calm confidence. Such clarity of thought.
And most of all...
Such simplicity.
What I was hearing him say was that being successful in this business is really not that complicated.
It's all about how you think and who you decide to be every day in your business.
JJ, the voice of our communityAnother one of my mentors, John J., describes it as "Who are you going to show up as TODAY in your business?"
I thanked Michael for his valuable time and said simply to myself "It's time to think as big as they do..."
In the next few months I began approaching my business metaphysically - leading with my thoughts.
Through additional reading and self-reflection I slowly became less and less attached to the results I was getting and more engrossed simply in the process and who I was within it.
The results, I decided, were already written (I was going to be a top 3 finisher!), so why worry about it?
I began trying to do just as Michael had said... seeking leverage, taking more risk not less, and demanding more from myself and others. And above all, being brutally honest with everyone I met on or offline about what this business takes (just as Michael had been with me).
And I quit worrying about the numbers. Whatever they were would be good enough. It was already written.
The key was honesty, which is the core of self-mastery.
I could not demand more of others if I did not first demand more of myself. And to demand more of myself I had to be totally honest about what was really going on in my head.
Being honest with ourselves - not the easiest thing to do!Why wasn't this or that project getting done? Why wasn't my team duplicating like I wanted? Why wasn't I meeting my income goals?
And usually the answers weren't pretty.
But I knew that if I was going to have a chance at achieving my real goals (which are bigger than I'll ever admit) then this process was just a warm up and I better do it right.
So for the next 4 months I put one foot in front of the other, avoiding the temptation to look out to the horizon, just focusing on walking a straighter line, because I knew the straight line ended on stage.
I was the mapmaker AND the navigator.
Unless I was wrong of course about all this grandiose metaphysical stuff... then I'd look sooo foolish.
There was this nagging temptation to second guess myself and my new outlook, and to worry about how it would appear if I fell short.
Maybe I should start preparing myself to not be up there? Maybe I should be more realistic?
I realize that most people (myself included) are truly afraid to dream big. Afraid to see themselves in the spotlight. Afraid to aim too high.
4th place just wasn't cutting it...Because they might fail. Or they'd look foolish if others found out. Or they'll be the ones that others are gunning for if they win the prize.
For me it was this last one that kept surfacing... not wanting to be the one others are trying to knock off.
It's so much easier to come in 4th. Or to win the peripheral prizes, rather than the the grand sales prize.
You still get some accolades but you don't end up with a target on your back.
But I had won those prizes - the leadership awards, the newcomer awards, the consultant of the month... I had come in 4th and 5th and 6th place.
Every month it seemed to be the same top 3 guys plus a group of us "contenders" nipping at their heels. And it wasn't cutting it for me...
It wasn't about beating them it was about what they showed me about my own business:
I knew they were achieving more than me by thinking bigger than me!
How could I demand more from others when I knew that I was not giving it my all? The fact that others were taking the same opportunity that I had and extracting more from it was proof that I myself could be doing more.
Look, I want everyone to win... And I'm not a person that needs to be numero uno.
But the fact is in a business where consistency and determination are the primary variables, and the internet is the leverage multiplier, then if others are accomplishing more it means they are more consistent, more determined, or have more leverage.
None of these were or are acceptable to me!
"Just walk the line, do the work..." I told myself. Every day.
And I began to figure out an important truth - when you focus on the work rather than the outcome the work becomes more fun.
Little things like getting a capture page just right, or writing a blog post, become rewarding in and of themselves.
You see the forest for the beauty of each tree.
You feel time in the effort of each singular moment rather than the weight of looking backwards.
And you stop obsessing about daily results. The results come from doing the work, not the other way around.
And so went my journey... a slow daily metamorphosis from a Top 10 guy to a Top 3 guy.
It may not seem like much but the difference between top 10 and top 3 is a huge mental shift.
It took almost 5 months but it worked. I placed top 3 in the 2 most important competitions in our company - one for personal sales and one for team sales (duplication).
 3rd Place, Sales Contest, Spring 2010 |
 3rd Place, Team Sales Award, Spring 2010 |
The second award held special meaning for me as it meant that my new attitude was contagious and my team was making more sales than ever... There really is no better feeling than helping others!
Important note... I realize that by conventional wisdom I am saying things that are liable to get one labeled as a huge narcissist... ie, that placing top 10 in a company of 30,000+ consultants doesn't cut it.
But that's what I learned about taking a metaphysical approach - what seems crazy when viewed through the lens of reason is perfectly normal when thoughts are shaping reality rather than the other way around.
The existence of humans as a species is an infintesimally improbable reality. That the entire universe doesn't explode or implode is only through a precise balancing of seemingly unrelated properties. The fact is it's all a miracle whether viewed practically or otherwise.
So why shouldn't your life or mine be as well?
To conclude, let me summarize what I learned in the last 5 months:
Being top 10 is about working really hard.
Being number one is about thinking really big.
So now the question... Who are you going to show up as for the next contest?
It's up to you and the time to decide is now.
See you there :)
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Last Friday I did a photoshoot for Home Business Connection magazine.
Who DOES # 2 Work For Anyway?Mike Myers!
