ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER'S MINDSET AND HOW TO APPLY IT TO B2B SALES AND SELLING

Hey, before we get into the interview, I want to make sure you're aware of the other podcasts I put out there. Sales Questions, Brutally Honest Answers. So, if you're looking for more of a daily Q&A, tips and tricks type of show, that's the show for you. Also, check out our friends over at brevitypitch.com. Brevity Pitch is an AI product that allows salespeople to practice their sales conversations without anybody eavesdropping. on you or judging you. It just lets you warm up and then develop your skills. Because we can think it, we can plan it, uh, but until we open our mouth and practice it, it's a different thing. It's like watching somebody play golf. You gotta play golf to become good at golf. That's what brevitypitch.com does for you. Tell them Brian sent you. Here we go.

So have you been hearing a lot of interviews with Arnold recently? Or he's been on pretty much everyone's show.

Funny enough, I'm actually a lifelong Arnold fan. I grew up loving his movies, even though a lot of them were sometimes a little bit, a little bit corny at times. But I grew up being a big Arnold fan and just being an action hero and all that. And then as the older I got, I realized that Man, he had so much success in 3 different, completely different spectrums, bodybuilding, being one of the most famous actors of all time, and then being the governor of California. And now he's kind of recreating himself again. So maybe even a 4th act. So I've always thought he was great. And then a lot of the things that he talks about, especially recently, I think are very relevant to, to sales, business, and life. So I'm a huge fan and I, I love what he's been doing recently too.

Yeah, I heard him on a couple of podcasts and then I heard him on Stern and I always enjoy listening to him. Likewise, when I was a kid, I remember going to see Pumping Iron when it came out and everything. And me and my brothers, we were all into lifting weights and stuff. So when you're a teenager, That's kind of the body you probably want, I guess. I don't know. But I think that his story is so interesting because when you think of this guy who grew up in Austria, the son of a cop, and picks this obscure sport at the time, you know, because this is what, '70s, I guess, late '60s, early '70s. You know, so it doesn't speak English and wants to pursue this sport. And his parents are probably like, you crazy? Why are you doing this? And he pushes through all that. It was his dream, what he wanted. And he set out and modeled other people and systematically went through it. What You know, then I try and think of like, how do you apply this to sales and pretty much anything? You know, his philosophy or approach is you create a goal and then you visualize it and then you dissect it and pursue it relentlessly and don't let the failure stop you. You let the failure feed you. And I go, well, that fits sales pretty good, you know, doesn't it?

It does. Yeah. He has an amazing story. There's a lot of key takeaways from those recent interviews, but I know something he talks about a lot is not being afraid to fail because he, even him and all that success, he's failed many times where he didn't get first in that bodybuilding competition. He had multiple movies that were flops and terrible out of the gates. And then he had a time, I think when he was governor, where he had like a 20% approval rating in the first couple of years or something. So he had all these times where he was failing. And then, I mean, in sales, you're getting told no pretty often. You're failing probably multiple times a week with deals not working out or getting told no or messing something up. So I think it's embracing that and understanding if you want to take it to the next level, if you want to keep getting to a certain peak kind of potential, then you're gonna probably fail a little bit. Now it's good to learn from other people's mistakes too, but you're also, if you have that go-getter mentality that you're trying to do some big things like somebody like Arnold, then you're gonna fail. So you have to kind of embrace that and, and kind of be open to those risks to, to do that. And the, the other thing that stands out is kind of that mentality of just always getting better. I mean, no matter how successful he was, he was So, I mean, he was obviously very confident in public, but I think behind the scenes he was very humble and knew that he had to keep working and had to keep better and keep doing things daily. And then he did have some setbacks too. So I think he had this constant, like, improvement mentality, which is— could be related to habits and just doing stuff daily to keep moving forward. And even when you have a lot of success, not getting too cocky and still being a little bit humble and And working hard, which seemed to work out very well for him.

Yeah, because he was hypercompetitive. And on the failure side, he really used the analogy of lifting weights and the whole objective is to go to failure. It's not to just be comfortable lifting the weights. It's no, do the 10th rep. If you can do the 10th rep, you keep going until you can't do a rep. And I remember reading his book on weightlifting and he'd say, well, we go out into the woods and we bring these weights and we do calves all day long. And everyone else would go home crying and they couldn't walk. And he would just like wear them out. And I like that mindset and the competitiveness, but playful competitiveness. It wasn't malicious or— Diabolical competitiveness. But on Stern, what really got me, because when I read these things or I hear them, they are inspirational, they're motivational, but that's not how people work. People just don't hear, you know, this message and then their life has changed. Most people, they get a little pumped and they go for a week or two and then it drifts away. What he talked about was his routine was so consistent, and he was telling Howard Stern about this. He goes, you know what? I couldn't go— not go to the gym. I'd get up in the morning and, you know, even if I was sick, I'd find myself on the bicycle going to the gym. It was just so ingrained in my identity and my lifestyle. that I could not avoid it. And I go, that's really, that's the habit part. You know, everyone thinks it's motivation and discipline, but if you've done it for 10, 15, 20 years, it's hard not to do it. And I think this is what people don't get because this is the boring part of success. The fun part is talking about, you know, the story, rags to riches. But I mean, that's a long time between— he started lifting when he was, what, 15, 16? And I don't think he came to America until he was in his mid-20s. So a good 10 years. And he lived with roommates in Venice, California. He was not wealthy in any way. So it was really just a terrible sport, meaning that it doesn't pay well. No one knows what it is. Everyone thinks it's a medical issue or something, body dysmorphia. And so, and there wasn't on TV. I, I don't think I would've even heard about bodybuilding if it wasn't for him. I mean, he basically made the sport. And, and now you see this guy who's been doing this for now 60 years. You gotta imagine his mindset.

Mindset's at a whole nother level. And then habits are, are definitely the key. I mean, I, I've never gotten to the, the Arnold level by any means, but I started playing sports when I was a little kid, lifting weights in junior high. I do remember reading his book too in, in high school and trying to mimic some of that stuff, but I just got so used to working out in some form or fashion for the last Geez, 25, 30 years since I was a little kid. And now I don't feel normal. Like if I don't work out for 3 days in a row, I feel terrible. I feel like I've just completely lost control. And that's a good habit. There's also the bad sides of that, but I think if you can translate that to sales and work, it's great. And a lot of those healthy habits you do, like working out, will translate into sales. All the best salespeople typically are doing something Some type of personal development or working out or some routine, so you can see the parallels. The other thing he talked about a lot too is I don't think you know he he got brought up pretty rough. I think his father was in like Nazi Germany and had all kind of PTSD stuff, so he had he didn't have like a great upbringing and he didn't have much of anything. But he wasn't blaming other people for his situation. He wasn't having that victim's mentality as well. So not only did he have the good routines and habits, but he wasn't pointing fingers even though he. Got put in some tough situations, I'm sure, and then he kind of figured out a way to get to America, figured out figured out a way to do all the bodybuilding stuff even when it wasn't a big sport at the time. So he he talks a lot too about that victim's mentality and being accountable and not pointing fingers but taking ownership yourself with with what you're doing. And that really stood out to me with with him as well because there's no way he'd be able to accomplish with everything that he has by pointing fingers and blaming other people. So the habits plus the accountability, I think, were huge for him. And those are also great parallels for sales because if you have good habits prospecting, whatever it may be, you're accountable, not pointing fingers, you're probably gonna do pretty well, especially if you do it consistently over a long period of time.

Yeah. And I think if you, if you're looking for a personality to emulate, because the Netflix documentary is also pretty good because it, They break it into 3 acts: bodybuilding, actor, and then politician. If you look at all of it but the politician side of it, he's a very likable guy. He knows he has a charm that he's developed that has both humor and a big smile without being— because most politicians just tell you what you want to hear. He knows how to break the ice.

Yeah.

Say something funny, change the subject, get people to think his way, which is sales, right? That's pretty much sales.

Yep.

And he's very approachable and knows how to build rapport very quickly. And I think those types of things that we can emulate, and I think too many people think, oh, he was born with great genetics, which he was, you know, because I bet if he never lifted a weight in his life in his 20s, he'd probably be in great shape. Probably be more muscular than I am. But that, but to get to that level, the amount of training that he went through, and when you hear Howard ask him, so you said you spent 5 hours a day in the gym.

Yeah.

What could possibly take 5 hours a day? And he goes through it and he goes, he goes through each muscle group and each set that he would do for that muscle group. And here's the part that I really liked about sales. He'd become a student of the game. He'd get to one level and then go deeper, get to that level, then go deeper. See, most people are just happy. Oh, how do you do a bench press? Oh, how many reps? How many sets? I'll do that. No, he wanted to get deeper and deeper. And on the bodybuilding side, where he went and studied ballet to get his posing more symmetrical, he did that. And then he was best friends with his arch competitor, Franco Columbu. They used to build brick walls in LA. For work. That's what they did. That was their job to pay for all this because, you know, bodybuilding doesn't pay. Certainly not at the beginning. He did, you know, supplement ads for Weider and stuff eventually, and then started buying real estate with his winnings and his acting. And if you look at any of his early films, they're terrible. No, they're not just bad. They're just terrible. You know, Pumping Iron, he's playing himself, and probably the first film that people think of is Terminator, where he doesn't say much at all. Mm-hmm. But he really took up acting, took up English when he came to the country. Imagine going to another country not knowing the native language of the country.

Crazy.

That's just intimidating. I don't even want to travel. To countries that I don't know the language. I remember being in Europe for the first time, and I was with somebody who could speak natively, but I couldn't speak but a handful of words. And it's intimidating. You can't read the signs, uh, you can't read the menus. People are chit-chatting really fast. You have no idea what they're saying. And then live there, forget it, because every day would be this struggle. And I think in sales, we're constantly facing these things of we got to learn new languages with each account. You know, each account's got their acronyms for department names and project names and initiatives. And we go to another account, same thing, different acronyms and names for everything. So we have to become really adapted at this. So I really admire that part of it. And, you know, I didn't like so much of the focus on the things that everyone knows, like visualization, hard work. Everybody knows that. I'd like to just take that and put it into a daily routine in sales. You know, how do you apply this daily into sales? Because I think too many people would read the book or hear the interview and say, oh, I get it now. But getting it means doing it. There's not much from it that you do every day.

Yeah.

But if you took that same mentality of going to the gym every day, because that's 5 hours of working out, it's not 5 hours of sitting at a desk watching someone work out. But I mean, look at what we do in sales. I mean, can you think of anything that's more emotionally draining than sales?

No, I can't. Besides maybe having your own business, which is basically doing sales as well. So it's, it's pretty similar. And yeah, it doesn't have to be 5 hours. Obviously he, he's on the extreme end with 5 hours working out, but just imagine if you just spent 1 hour a day really focused on prospecting or planning for the week and sales or whatever it is that drives the needle, just 1 hour a day or even 30 minutes. I mean, that can make a huge difference. So he's at the extreme with everything he did because he was working out, taking English classes at night. I mean, going to the full end of the spectrum. But for those in sales, if you just spent 1 hour a day really focused on things for work and maybe some things outside of that, That could make a huge difference. And that— but you're not going to see it right away. It's going to take weeks, months, maybe even years to see that pay off. But over time, you can see that fruition. And then the other thing I like that he talks about that I've always picked up recently, and then over the years, is every time he was doing all those new ventures, people told him he was crazy. They were like, you shouldn't do that. You're going to be— there's no way you're going to be an actor. You can't even understand what you're saying. or his parents were like, you shouldn't, you can't be a bodybuilder and go move to America. You need to be a teacher and stay here in this town. And then you can't, you're from Austria, you can't be the governor of California, like the 5th biggest economy in the world. So every single time he was doing stuff, people would, he would call it the naysayers would be telling him not to do it. And it just like fueled him even more to get it done. And I think those are again, extreme examples, but I think And whether it's changing industries, maybe you're in sales and you're like, man, should I change it up and do something different? Once you get to a certain point, it's really hard to change. There's a lot of people that are gonna be telling you just to stay safe and stay there, or a high base type job and a bonus sales job versus going to commission where you maybe have more upside, but then it's uncomfortable because you have nothing guaranteed. You have naysayers when you're trying to close deals that are gonna pop up and try to mess things up last minute or throughout it. So You do have a lot of naysayers in sales and different ways. So I, I really love the fact that he kind of embraced that and, and used it as fuel to kind of make things happen.

Yeah, because you gotta think it's 3 lottery professions. When I say lottery, I mean one in thousands, if not millions.

Yeah.

Like, you know, even though bodybuilding wasn't that popular, he became the, the top for like 5 years straight. Took a huge break, came back, and then became the top guy again, just out of spite.

Okay.

Think of that. You became the number one guy in any sport, no matter how obscure. Then you go into acting, and his job— his goal was not just to be an actor, because he could have played the extra or that, you know, the weird guy. In one scene, but he didn't want that. He wanted to become the leading man. And imagine any friend of yours saying, "Hey, I want to become an actor." Can you think of a harder profession where everyone wants it? There's a few tiny roles, and to get paid enough to live off of it, and then. When he became successful, he took the risk with Twins. I don't know if you know the story about Twins, but it was his first comedy. And he took no salary. He took all the backend. And he ended up making $70 million off of that movie.

1988, too.

It's insane.

Yeah.

You know, because— and that's what a movie takes, what, 3 months to make? I don't know, 3, 6 months, I guess. But he bet on himself. And then he goes into politics. And he doesn't work his way up, he goes straight for the governorship at an opportune time. And I remember, you know, talking to my brother about it, I go, I feel like I'm Rip Van Winkle sometimes. I wake up and, you know, here's this guy you knew as a body builder and then an actor. Now he's a governor of California. And I thought it was going to be a— no, he was a good governor. You may not agree with his politics, but his arguments are solid, well thought out, well presented, and he got a lot done. And there was even talk at the time of changing the Constitution just so he could run for president. So, I mean, that type of determination and sole focus is critical. And I think a lot of people say, well, what if I do all that stuff and I don't get the outcome? I go, that's, that's part of the process, right? That's not— everyone's going to get the outcome. But would you rather become that person or be the person you are today?

And it's not gonna be easy. I mean, all those things he did, none of it was easy and it didn't happen overnight. So I think there's this whole mentality today that people want that instant success and instant gratification for sales or whatever they do, and then they give up after a couple months and then they stop doing it. So they, they do stuff for maybe not even a couple months. They probably last for like a week and a half, whatever new prospecting routine or whatever it is. And then they give up and then they expect these results to happen right away, but it's going to take months, years to really accomplish bigger goals, especially with what he was doing. But, you know, even when I've changed industries, in my head, I'm like, I want to be instant success, but that's just not realistic when you're going into a new industry or a new job or new role. You have to, it's kind of a buildup over time. And then you get to year 2 and then it's like, oh wow, you really got that snowball effect. So. But you have to be putting in the work every day and doing those hard things, having the tough conversations, constantly competing against yourself. I mean, he was obviously very competitive with other people in a playful, not, you know, cynical way that, that you mentioned, but constantly competing with yourself from the year before and trying to get better every day and, and challenging yourself. Like he, every time he accomplished something, it was like nothing was ever good enough. He just wanted to keep performing and kind of having that performance mentality and mindset.

Yeah. And in the movie Pumping Iron, everybody does the same thing. And this reminds me of sales. They ask them, you know, what do you eat? How many reps do you do? Because they think the secret is some supplement or some quantity of this food or that food or some mysterious exercise that nobody knows about. And it's clear it's not. Well, the secret is the determination, the consistency, and that constant focus. And that's what people don't want to do because they don't see the outcome immediately. And that's why it's so hard for people to become good at sales because sales, like a lot of things like weightlifting, losing weight, it has the same kind of formula. You work hard, you see no results for a long time, and then all of a sudden one day you start to notice it. But most people give up before they start noticing it. And I think that's what happens in sales. Everyone's, what's the secret? Well, there's certainly a lot better ways and smarter ways than doing it than other people are doing it, but you still have to do it. And that's where people get stuck. Why did, why is the diet industry so big? Because everyone thinks there's a secret. Everyone thinks that there's some little, oh, if I just eat grapefruit for a week, I'm gonna lose 30 pounds. You're gonna lose something. And then as soon as you stop, that's why Ozempic or whatever that drug is today is so popular. It's, Effortless results. Okay. Well, you know, in bodybuilding, that's the steroids, right?

Yeah.

Well, there's some side effects with that crap.

Yeah. It's, it's like with sales, what's the best email subject line or, or how do you get people to, yeah, exactly. How do you get that conversion rate? So it's, it's, it's funny how that, that works out, but Yeah, no, it all comes back to consistency, habits, discipline, mindset. I mean, he obviously has an elite mindset, that kind of performance mindset mentality where he's— he had to perform all the time. I mean, he had to be on the big stage in Hollywood. He had to perform on these massive stages for bodybuilding. And then, I mean, being a governor, that's got unbelievable pressure to perform. So he constantly kind of had that performance mentality, which I I like that as well. And then, I mean, he talked a little bit too, I don't know as much in the recent interviews, but I mean, he definitely doesn't have an— I mean, he has regrets in his life for some personal things and whatnot, but as far as like, I mean, he went after it, right? So I think if you get to that point where you really went for it with all those different things, you feel good about it and you don't have those regrets. So I think I always think about how can you limit regrets in life and then in business too. I mean, you have to take some calculated risks in business and sales. And you don't want to look back and be like, man, I wish I would have went for that, that new role or that new job, or I wish I would have taken that commission opportunity, whatever. Or like his gamble on Twins, you know, you would have looked back and be like, dang, that movie sold $500 million and I decided to take a $2 million salary.

So it's—

you don't want to go back and look and have regrets. Obviously, we're all going to have some, but I think he did a good job of like going for it, which is probably a good feeling.

Yeah, because think of the number of times you've heard a salesperson, oh, I can't get that job because I don't have a degree. How about if you don't speak English? Or how about you're 250 pounds of nothing but muscle and everyone's, you know, you dwarf everyone you're working with. You know, you don't look like, you know, who was a leading man back in the '90s, you know, Mel Gibson or Clooney or whoever, you know, they don't have all those. If you put a woman next to him, they, they look like a different creature. They don't even look like the same species, right? So the directors are like, what do I do with this guy? And sure, you get like the barbarian-type roles, but that's not what he wanted. He wanted to be part of the whole industry. And if he believed any of the crap that he heard, he would have given up in a second. And so having that kind of unstoppable mindset— and the thing is, you know, he didn't have any guru, he didn't have any magic supplement or anything. It was just his pure determination. And has a way of handling failure.

And he's willing to kind of break the rules a little bit. There's always like a gray area, but everyone was telling him there's all these rules of like, oh, you can't do this, you can't do that. No one's done that before. But he was willing to kind of challenge the status quo and break the rules, which I think you need to do if you want to be successful. It's really hard in sales these days. I mean, I think the last few years have made it even tougher. So if you don't kind of be different and change it up and push back a little bit, go against the status quo, not do what everybody else is doing. I mean, he was sort of breaking rules that helped him kind of get to the next level. So I like that mentality as well. And I think you have to in sales. I mean, within reason, right? I'm not saying doing something crazy, but you have to kind of do something different because everybody's doing the same stuff. So if you're not standing out, then you're never going to get anywhere.

Yeah, because it was creativity. It was, you know, I'm gonna do it, and if it works, great. If it doesn't, that's okay. And if you look at the— because I think the acting thing was so clear, because I think that's closer to sales than bodybuilding is, or even politics, because you're trying to get a role, you're competing against a lot of people, and you're not the type, right? He's not the type for— I mean, even with Twins, he was an exaggeration, you know, because they could have used him in— if he was 190 pounds, could have played that role, never mind 250 or 240 or whatever he is. And when you first talk to him or hear him, do you— does the word comedian come out, or comical actor? It's like, it's more like stiff construction worker or You know, immigrant, whatever, you know, personal trainer or something. It's not comedic actor. And he's very funny. But that's sales, right?

Yeah, it's like, you know, people think you have to be the life of the party to be successful in sales. And that helps you get in the door, that helps people like you. It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. But there's also other ways to do it. And I mean, people That's kind of what he did. He was like, you don't have to be that George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, whoever it was back then. You can be something different. And he kind of like basically started the whole action movie industry, I think too, with, with like what he was doing. Because then Stallone and all that started coming up. So yeah, I mean, he basically changed the game and broke the rules and did something a little bit different and was creative, which is what you have to do in sales too.

And to become great at sales, the best way is to model somebody who already has become good at sales and to hear other people who have become great at sales and the journey that they're going through, the false beliefs, the misnomers, the mindset issues, all of the stuff that gets in our way between Where we are and the income that we want. Let's face it, we're in sales because we're money motivated, we're competitive, we want to be better every day than we were yesterday. And how do we do that? Um, just really, you know, read a book, uh, listen to a podcast. That's good, good start. I like it. But then you have to take action, and then you want both tactical and strategic. ideas. You want mindset. You want strategy. You want to understand how companies buy. You want really deep content and examples, case studies, so that you can learn from other people's mistakes.

That's what I'm here for.

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