HOW THIS SALES LEADER KEEPS HIS TEAM CRUSHING THEIR NUMBER IN B2B

In sales, we often talk about the results of bad lifestyles, bad choices, but we don't talk about the cause so much. And looking at sales and being a salesperson holistically, because we are people and people are biological creatures. And if we don't take care of one element of our life, it tends to affect Other elements, including our professional life, our sales ability, our energy. And certainly the last 3 years I've been hyper-focused on this. And clearly, and it's no surprise, the better you feel, the more energy you have, the better outlook you have on life reflects in how you interact with other people, how you show up, how you feel. about your job. Isn't this all important? And I think too many of us, certainly when we're young, tend to ignore that. We just want the outcome so bad, we're willing to sacrifice other things to get it. And that can work in the short term, but not so good in the long term. Let's get into this interview. This is a sales leader that has a much more holistic view of What salespeople should be doing to become great at sales. Because why do you want to become great? It's not to become the greatest in the world, but because all the money, all the rewards are at the top of the profession. And you may say you don't need to be the best, but who wins the deal? There you go. That's why. And if you really want to become great at sales, Learn how to start conversations with strangers, get deals that could not be closed otherwise. Go to b2brevenue.com right now and check out the courses. Here we go. Hey Trevor, thanks for joining us. Today is Way of Getting Started. Give us a little background on yourself.

Good morning. Good morning. Uh, yeah, Trevor Lewis here with, um, In-Store Design Displays. So what we do here at In-Store Design Displays is, uh, predominantly working with CPG brands as well as a lot of agencies predominantly around designing, developing in-store solutions. So everything from design development through production through the logistical management all the way through the final execution. We work with brands to, you know, help elevate and tell their story inside retail. Background-wise, I've kind of been in this design-build space my entire career. I cut my teeth in selling trade show exhibits early on, but it was very similar to what I do today in today's world. But a lot of the difference is just the scale. So instead of designing, deploying one booth that would go to a large national trade show event, we were designing and developing, you know, thousands of displays that have to be executed across, you know, large retailers such as Walmart, Target, etc.

How'd you get interested in this?

You know, I think it kind of found me in a way.

Knocked on your door.

Come on out, Trevor. Yeah, I definitely loved doing something different every day. So there was— that was some of the, you know, the things that I was looking for. And I loved working with clients to kind of bring this idea that they had to life in a physical setting in which they could kind of tell their brand story. I love doing it in the trade show world. And so what had happened is I wanted to kind of take that next step. And within the trade show industry, it's quite a bit different because, you know, these companies are not buying these assets every year. So within the retail industry, that's one of the big differences is they're typically allotting, you know, budgets for displays because they've got to continue to, you know, sell things inside retail. And that business model was a little bit more intriguing to me than just staking in the, the trade show arena. And so I made that change and started going into working with brands and developing more POP displays, more signage, and I really just loved it. I've loved working across all different types of categories from, you know, consumer electronics to sporting goods to, you know, health and beauty category. I love working with emerging brands, you know, some brands that are, you know, looking to compete against the folks of Procter Gamble or Kimberly-Clark as an example. And I love just being able to understand their kind of little story of how they've got to that position and what can I do to potentially impact them in a positive way and help grow. So ultimately what we do is, is we help organizations drive sales and then help maintain that retention through the customer experience. And I've just loved that. I've loved every aspect of it, and I'm definitely fortunate to find a career that I'm excited to come to every single day.

Cool. And What's the hardest part of the sale? Is it—

You know, it's the complexity. It's understanding all of the different milestones that need to be achieved across the course of a project from, you know, the initial stages are they have an idea, right? They have an idea and they may have a meeting coming up with a Walmart buyer as an example. And so these buyers on the retailer side are continuously looking for new innovative products that they can sell inside their stores, but also what are these brands doing to help drive sales, right? So what are they doing on the marketing side? What are they doing on, you know, TikTok? And what are they doing on some of these other channels to create enough awareness so that if a retail buyer says, yes, we want to sell your products in our store, that they can actually have sell-through? And so that's the first piece of it. But whenever they're going to those buyer meetings, they often need to understand and be able to articulate what they're going to do to help support their brands inside those retailers. And so that's kind of when we start to enter the equation, when we start to do some design development on understanding where the products are going to be sold, what category we're at inside the store, and how can we start to tailor what this overall shopper experience might look like from different signage to different displays to different interactive components. And we work with them in the very beginning stages and they go into that meeting and often that's when the buyer starts to become involved and understanding, yes, no, here's kind of what I'm thinking. We would give you some feature space. And then there's a lot of just dialogue. So we're talking, you know, just deal timelines for large national program rollout, 12 to 18 months from kind of start to finish. And so you can imagine there's a lot of different milestones that have to be achieved in order to execute a program, you know, very successfully. And a lot of those details you don't really understand because they don't, they don't teach you how to do these things in school, right? These are you know, you're gonna spend $1 million plus on a program, you don't understand that some of the most important details of executing that program are the labeling on the outside of the box so that it can be scanned into certain DCs and can be rerouted all the way to the show floor or to the floor. And people have to identify that and find that. And so you can do a lot of great things all the way leading up to that kind of last 1%. But if this display doesn't successfully get executed on the retail floor, We've wasted a whole bunch of time and resources and money. And so, there's so many different milestones that have to be checked, ship testing, and where we do extensive testing just to make sure that this can withstand going through a FedEx or UPS or being hit with a forklift. And so, that's a significant piece of what we do to make sure that it's going to be successful when it gets rolled out. So, a little detail like that. It's tough to, you know, tell that story on a website, for example. But, you know, clients really trust in our ability to execute. And that's just the project. They also need to make sure that we can maintain confidentiality. And these products are often not in the marketplace. And so being able to maintain, you know, confidential, you know, confidentiality, make sure that we're not, you know, creating any risk for our clients, that we're managing these assets, you know, very strategically, but just making sure that we're limiting You know, who's exposed to these? So those are just a few of the elements that I don't think, you know, most people would realize whenever we start to engage with them on a new scope of work.

Okay. And do you do this all at risk until they place the big order?

Yes and no. I mean, there's definitely, you know, investments that need to be made at different stages along the way. So, you know, and oftentimes clients will approach our creative services as a standalone service request. So they don't necessarily really have a production need yet, but, and so we may need to just sell a creative service package to them just for design development. And that's one way that we, we can help kind of achieve the client's needs, also manage the risk on our side, because those are a lot of resources being allocated for just design development. So there's different ways that we can, you know, impact a client, but, but definitely, yeah, it ultimately comes to Hey, you know, a lot of our clients need, you know, they're large organizations, so they have, you know, net 60, net 90 terms. And so it's important that we, you know, understand the timelines and execute as quickly as we can. Because as you can imagine, that's from an operating standpoint, that's a lot of cash that's, you know, outlaid out there. And so we got to be able to execute and move these programs through as quickly as possible, certainly.

And is it a standard persona at these companies that owns this responsibility, or is it all over the map?

It really is all over the map. I think you can segment it, you know, based on certain account types. So, you know, our blue chip, which in our world, that's an enterprise-level account, you know, they have, you know, a lot more dedicated teams that we would work with and some of their personas align to that. So it'd be someone like a trade marketing manager or a shopper marketing manager. So there's a few different folks that are involved, but it's pretty defined within a certain, you know, they're in this department often. You know, as you start to tier down to your mid-markets and all the way down to your, you know, more of your SMB or emerging, you know, hypergrowth CPG brands, that org chart starts to flatten out quite a bit. And so ultimately, there's typically someone in marketing that's involved and often sales as well. So those 2 teams are pretty intimate with what we're doing from start to finish. The larger organizations will often have an agency of record. And so they often get brought in and, you know, are part of the overall project as well, just because a lot of what they're doing is going to be on the digital side. And so our timelines need to line up, the messaging needs to be on, you know, consistent brand being positioned effectively. And so we work a lot with a lot of the agencies as well.

And how hard is it to get a new client? I gotta imagine it's a long, arduous process.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it definitely is. I mean, what's unique about our business is, you know, retention is great because there's— you're fostering so much collaboration and building so much rapport with these individuals that they typically keep coming back to you because, you know, there's trust, a big trust factor there. And that's great, but it also makes it tough whenever you're looking at going and getting net new business as well. And which they may have an existing supplier in place, an existing relationship in place. And so just moving that is quite a bit of risk in our clients' eyes. You know, they— that relationship might not be perfect, but they have a general understanding of what works, what doesn't. And so they've kind of figured that out within that given supplier if we're looking to knock somebody off. And so it's important that we, you know, build trust early on, we validate through, you know, past experiences. We, position ourselves to being innovative because all of that definitely helps them, you know, lower that risk factor of moving to a different supplier. But it's very difficult. It's very difficult to— if that other supplier is doing a good job, right? And so, yeah, definitely a difficult thing to do. But over time, if we can continue to add value, we can start to get smaller opportunities. And then for us, it's a land and expand model. So if we can just take— identify one problem and help solve for that, that's typically our path forward. If we can solve the small one, we're going to put ourselves in position for them to experience our process, experience how we're, you know, that customer service, and then hopefully put ourselves in position to, you know, win larger programs for them as well.

And what makes a great sales rep in this space?

You know, discipline and health is critical. Health. What do you mean by health? You got to be alive? You know, you You have to be, you have to, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a great time, but there's a lot of emotions. There's a lot of highs, there's a lot of lows. So being disciplined and, you know, making sure that you're physically healthy, you're mentally healthy, because it's going to require a lot. I mean, this isn't, you know, this is tough things to do. It's extremely enjoyable. It's extremely beneficial, but it's going to take some time. There's some time. It's also going to take some commitment and it's going to take, you know, building a book of business in this industry is going to require you to be extremely disciplined. Because you're going to— a lot of it, our clients are not in an open buying stage or phase per se. And so a lot of it is nurturing, right? A lot of it is positioning for when they do come in that, you know, buying phase that you're top of mind. And so that's going to require that you do a lot of activities and behaviors that may not make sense to you today. It may not make sense to you, you know, 6 months from now. And so that level of discipline of just staying the course is critical in our space.

And was that something that you learned from mistakes or did somebody kind of mentor you on that? Because most people, it's effort, reward, effort, reward, as opposed to effort for not a lot.

You know, I would like to say that I've definitely, you know, all of the above, right? I've definitely learned the hard way, but I think what I can kind of associate having this, you know, behavior, mindset around just, you know, staying consistent, being disciplined is a lot about my upbringing, right? And so for me, it's being raised by a single mom and just seeing her be extremely disciplined and, you know, be able to put me in position to, you know, go on and find success in different aspects. But a lot of that was in wrestling, and I grew up a wrestler. And I think if you know much about wrestlers, that's, you know, it's— It's very unique because it's not— it is a team sport, but it's a lot of it you're going out there and it's an individual, and then you can score team points for the team. But, you know, it's a lot of showing up. It's a lot of showing up on, you know, day in and day out. You don't just all of a sudden become a, you know, a great wrestler. It's a lot about what you're doing, um, in the offseason, a lot of what you're doing day in and day out to put yourself in position to be— have an opportunity to be a great wrestler. And so much of that's around discipline. And I think having grown up doing— done that, I can look back and I played all of sports, but I can look back and there's clearly one sport that stands out amongst all the others when I, when I think about what has impacted me today in my career. And it's a lot of the things that I was taught, you know, in wrestling. And that was just consistency and discipline will ultimately put you in the best position to, you know, perform well when that time is there.

And, and wrestling has a high coaching component to it, right?

Absolutely.

Because nobody would do all that stuff if they were left to their own.

It's, it's, again, it's, it's one of the— it's the most unique sport for me when you think about, you know, what are the elements I'm doing today. And yes, it's definitely a high coaching component. It's also you're in under an immense amount of pressure and stress. And so, um, you've got to be able to make critical decisions quickly while listening, um, and performing in real time. And so, you know, that's so much of, you know, leading sales teams and leading go-to-market teams You know, we're dealing with a global pandemic, and so that's going to force you to make some critical decisions that you've, you know, you've got to place some bets on, but you've got to be able to stay disciplined in those arenas as well. And then be able to coach the team and lead the team through kind of the unknown, right? And a lot of that is, you know, where I kind of pull from and look at that wrestling background because it's very similar when you just think about what you're going out there to do and perform. And definitely have to be coachable and listen and learn and understand the situation as well.

Because I always kind of map learning to become great at sales to doing something that you're doing physically because our brain kind of learns at the same pace our body kind of develops. You know, you go to the gym one day, you come home and you weigh yourself, right? You expect, oh, I'm down 10 pounds, right? You gained a pound.

It was the water.

Yeah. And because everybody thinks that, you know, I did, I took a walk, I'm gonna have lost weight, right? How long did you wrestle?

I wrestled growing up. So I think it was around 5 or 6 years old to around 15. Then I took a small break kind of in that, in that high school to really kind of prioritize football. And then I went back my senior year because, you know, I, where I went to high school at, we was known for wrestling. And so, you know, kind of Growing up through the youth and then taking a small break, I was itching to get back to it. So I was able to get back into it my senior year as well.

And I take it you were trying to get to a certain weight as well?

Yeah, definitely trying to get to a certain weight and then also just maintain, you know, I wanted to help the team. We had an opportunity. We did not actually, you know, accomplish this, winning a state title as a team, but we had a great opportunity to go and do that. I definitely wanted to be be a part of that. Um, and, you know, growing up in a wrestling community, uh, is, is definitely exciting, but it comes with a lot of expectation, um, which is, is definitely, uh, interesting when you think about my, you know, where I'm at in my career here now as well. Um, and yeah, I'm just so thankful that I had those opportunities to learn what I didn't realize then, but to learn, uh, some of those foundational elements.

And how does that structure help you in sales?

You know, I think it's how you set up your day is as simple as that, right? You know, a lot of it is what are you doing this hour? And, you know, are these, you know, if it's, you know, if I'm coaching, if I'm actually, you know, a player, I live in a player-coach role. And so I'm often doing the same activities that I'm evangelizing and coaching to our reps do as well. And I, but it really comes down to what are the activities I need to be doing today that I have full control of and prioritizing those, but making sure that you're starting there. So I'm a big believer on, in sales, there's, you just gotta continuously focus on what you can control. At the end of the day, I think that's where that mental piece comes into play as well, that if you just stay consistent and hey, what I control here in this daily, then multiply that by weekly, monthly, quarterly, then you're gonna put yourself in a good position. But it ultimately comes down to what am I doing today? And then managing that time and making sure that it's going towards, you know, things that will have a big impact.

And let's say a rep comes to you and they're not having the success that they want. What's the process you take them through?

You know, it's, it's really just looking at— so one of the things that we actually have here is a daily activity tracker. And so that gives not only visibility to, you know, me as the leader of the sales team, but also gives them visibility to their peers and how their peers are performing. As well from a daily activity standpoint. And so, you know, anytime that I'm looking at there, one of the things that we're always looking at is the amount of quality conversations that we're having. And so that's a KPI that we look at. And then we look at what are we doing? What are the channels that we're exploiting to impact the amount of quality conversations? And a channel would be LinkedIn, phone calls, you know, handwritten notes, you know, all of the different activities. And so we can just look at there and we can understand, you know, not everyone's number is going to be the same. You know, I have some reps that are really big. They're, you know, they're, they drive a lot of their quality conversations through leveraging LinkedIn. Some of my reps drive a lot of their quality conversations through leveraging, you know, out, you know, cold outbound activities like phone and email. So it's not a, you know, one size fits all, but I think we can look at what is— there's a quantity-quality factor that we always looked at. And I'm a believer that quantity leads to quality. And so we can just make sure that we're looking at those numbers and we're getting very close to, are these having an impact? And so that would be one thing that— that's one thing that I do now is whenever we're looking at coaching our reps, it's really back to the basics. It's, hey, you know, we're at 10 dials a day average. We may need to turn that up, right, based on what you're trying to accomplish, which is the amount of quality conversations. We may need to send more LinkedIn DMs as an example. But understanding the numbers is where we would go to first.

And the numbers are easy. The quality, how do you do that? That's subjective.

Yep. You know, the quality is the way that, I mean, and again, everyone's quality is definitely subjective. But when you look at just one of the tactics that we deploy, which is, you know, producing content online, LinkedIn. You know, over time, I think that's big content specifically in a sales arena is where I really focus on quantity leads to quality. It's very unlikely that right out of the chute you're gonna start to post content on LinkedIn that all of a sudden your buyer persona starts to engage with and converts on, right?

Yeah.

And so over time, you want to, you know, look at some of the, you know, lagging indicators on. Are there any, is there any engagement? And those are some of those vanity metrics that you can look at as lagging indicators. But that would be just one area where, hey, we've got to be able to get a frequency of posting every day. And that quantity and establishing that behavior will ultimately have impact on the quality of the content that you will start to put out. But until you do the work and understand quantity, it's really going to be difficult for you to get to what the quality of that content needs to be. And that would just be how we would, you know, coach or educate specifically on quantity quality in that one arena. Same thing. It's a, you know, and the other terminology is at-bats, right? I think there's just a number of at-bats that you've got to get picking up the phone before you understand, okay, that was a quality conversation because I started it this way. I did this as the next thing. I dug for this pain. It's going to be difficult for you just to pick up the first time, first phone and all of a sudden you're, you, you've nailed the conversation and you had a great conversation, you had a quality conversation. That's probably unlikely. And so that's where we kind of look at that quantity and quality factor.

And what's the hardest part about leading a team like that? Because you seem very open to people being different.

What's difficult is, you know, it's, it really comes to managing them, right? And that's where it's, you've got to manage them to their You've got to understand how to— it's very much— I'm a huge football fan. Obviously, here in Kansas City, we love the Chiefs, but I really manage it. I manage our team like a, you know, like I would if I was the GM of the Kansas City Chiefs. So, I've got to understand, hey, you know, they don't ask Patrick Mahomes to go and block the D-end, right? They understand his skill set. And so, that coach's job is to put him in the best position possible based on his skill set, what the team's needs are, and help him be successful. And that's what you do. I take a very similar approach with our sales reps individually. And so, you know, we do weekly one-on-ones where that one-on-one is slightly different because than doing a team meeting. That one-on-one's where we can kind of really help that individual level up some of their skills or some, offer some coaching specific to some of their challenges that they're having. But they're humans, so they're all inevitably going to be different. They have different wants and needs. They have different levels of what they think success is. And so we really just try to tailor it to them, but make sure that we understand that we're clear in our expectations as well on what this role entails. And so it's always trying to put the, you know, the players in the best position to win. But it really comes to, is your manager able to do that? Do they recognize that? And it does take more time, right?

Yeah.

And so I think as a manager, you would love to be able to send one coaching message that, you know, fixes all of the players' problems, right? But that's not really how it works. And so we've, there's some, you know, we believe that repeatability leads to scalability. So there's some within the process that we need them to be consistent, but their, you know, go-to-market approach or how they drive net new conversations really is going to come down to their personality and what works best for them. And then making sure that we're giving them the tools to be successful.

And what do you see separating the very best reps that you've ever worked with or met from the okay reps? Is it a characteristic? Is it a skill? Is it work ethic?

Yeah, I'd say it's definitely work ethic. And it's, you know, work ethic, discipline, consistency, you know, all those are kind of in the same arena. But, you know, the ones that are successful in our business today are definitely ones that are very consistent. They come to work at the same time. They do a lot of the same behaviors. Day in and day out. They don't get too high on their supply, they don't get too low. They don't necessarily have the happy years because they, they're very due diligent with doing their upfront contracts on any new conversation. And they have a way in which they can conduct their day. It's not just madness all day long. It's pretty strategic, it's pretty consistent. And I think once— if I'm looking at, you know, how do I go and recruit someone that I think is going to be a good fit here, I'll, I'll definitely look, hey, are they consistent on LinkedIn? Do they post the same time every day, right? That's a consistent behavior that I can recognize from outside these four walls. You know, do they are they in do they prioritize their health, right? And some of those things are definitely you know the folks are are successful in our business today prioritize their health, but they're extremely consistent and their days planned. They don't just you know wake up and say I'm going to do whatever today brings me. They're very strategic and with with their plan. And I think that's what we look for, but that's also what we coach to.

Yeah. And is your business quarterly driven or?

Yes and no. I mean, from who we're selling to in certain categories are definitely their seasonality, right? You know, we do a lot in the pet space. And so in pet, you know, oftentimes it's whenever the temperature starts to warm up, they're typically deploying more different displays, right? So there's a level of seasonality in the different categories that we sell into. But not necessarily a lot of seasonality into our overall business. It just depends on, you know, where we're focusing at. And we try to make sure that we are fairly diverse with those categories. So yeah, that we're not extremely busy in Q4, but, you know, because we have capacity restraints here. And so making sure that we're spreading that out, you know, there's only so many, you know, displays that we can work on at one time per se and can fill our facility at one time. And so we try to definitely make sure that we're focusing on the right categories to, to help balance some of that so we don't get real, you know, lopsided on within one quarter.

And you're probably the first sales leader I've heard emphasize health, which is surprising. What happens if you don't prioritize health in your experience?

Uh, you know, I think in, in our business, but in, in, in life, um, I think if you don't prioritize health, you're letting a lot of people down. And, you know, I think not only— and it starts with yourself, right? I'm a huge believer of, you know, it's progress is the process. So whenever you're going, when you think about your health, everyone's journey can start differently, but as long as you're making progress, that's— I can get behind that. And so, you know, in anything that we do, I ultimately want the— a lot of the things that you may be doing in a day-to-day may not be the funnest thing that you're doing in your life, right? There may be some, you know, I'll call it grind, right? There may be some things that you gotta do that—

It's work.

Sure, there's work. In order to enjoy, in order for it to make sense while you're doing it, I think you need to be healthy. And so I think that ultimately you have certain goals and things that you wanna accomplish. And, you know, some of it may not, you know, feel the greatest today, but you can think about, hey, once I'm doing it today so that I can, you know, whenever I'm in this moment, I can truly enjoy it. But I just think it's very difficult to enjoy anything if you're not healthy.

I agree. And what you often see is that roller coaster where it's like whether you're monthly driven, quarterly or annually driven, you know, when the deadline comes, you, you work your butt off, you hit the deadline and the goal, and then you have a siesta for a while, take vacation break. Which is kind of the opposite of consistency, isn't it?

Yes.

As opposed to, you know, having a solid day every day. People look at that as boring, but it's like, well, it works.

It does work and it's balanced, right? Like it— yeah, absolutely. I'm, you know, and it's again, I think, and I can just only look at myself, right? And so Whenever I think about what I can control in a day, if I can wake up and, you know, prioritize my health, I walk out of the door winning, right? I— there's a lot of things that could— and I'm a pretty emotional person. And so when there's a lot of things that can come in and impact my emotions, I've got to be able to recognize that. And a lot of the way that I can— that I've been able to recognize that and control my emotions is through being healthy. And, you know, doing it in the morning versus, you know, at the evening is one simple thing that I have to do. So that I can walk in the environment and I can be what I need to be in this environment. And so much of that, you know, requires me to be extremely, you know, have a lot of clarity, uh, you know, make decisions, you know, thoughtfully, um, you know, prioritize, you know, being a human being in our business and making sure that I can do all the things. I have to be a healthy person. Um, and so that's just one thing that, you know, I, I'm just a big believer and I'm going to continue to place bets And if somebody says, well, I don't have time for that, what's your gut reaction to that? Yeah, I mean, it's— I think you could probably imagine what my gut reaction would be to that.

I like to hear other people's.

But ultimately, it's going to be like, look, we've got to find time. We've got to create time. There's nothing more important than creating time to prioritize your health. And so how can I help you do that? How can we work to do this? And that would be the approach that I would take is I'd let them know that it's extremely important, not only to me, it's important to our organization, it's important, but more importantly, to them. And so anything that I could do to help them understand that and then help support them in creating time and supporting that, I would definitely do anything I can to, you know, help put them in a position where they see how important it is and then help support them as they kind of go down that Great.

Hey, Trevor, I really appreciate your time today. Where can people go to connect and follow you?

Yeah, I think the easiest place is just, you know, find me on LinkedIn. You know, we're— I'm very active there. Our organization is very active on LinkedIn as well. So In-Store Design Display, and then my name is Trevor Lewis. And so you can look me up on LinkedIn, send me a message. I definitely will respond to you. No question at all.

That was a great, great sales leader. Wouldn't you like that? Somebody on your side who keeps an eye on your health, both mental and physical. And are you keeping an eye on that? It's critical, literally critical. And you may not feel this way right now, but that's like everything in sales. You have to do it before you need it. You have to build relationships before you need them. You have to build your network before you need it. You have to build trust before you need it. Sales is a prevention profession. And it's really hard when you don't look at it that way. When you look at trying to take money out of the bank that hasn't been deposited yet, that's really hard to do. And that's why— Why everyone's looking for the magic bullet, the silver bullet, the, the secret to selling. Well, it's an open secret. It's how do you get yourself to do it is the hard part. It's not the knowledge. The knowledge is there. Getting yourself ready to absorb and believe the knowledge, that's the hard part. So why not create a little mini habit on your consumption of what you eat and drink. Cut down the good— the bad, increase the good gradually over time so it isn't a diet, it's a lifestyle. Think about the bad things that you put in your body. Ask yourself, you know, is this better off in the trash or in me? I had that recently. I I made the wrong decision and I paid for it, and we all pay for it. But if you make the right decision, you get the benefit from it. And then a little bit of exercise, a little walk, a little bike ride, a little, you know, stroll through the woods clears the head. And all of a sudden what you find out is that all these things are interconnected. I'm reading a book right now called Brain Energy. Where these doctors are coming up with, well, all this stuff is tied together. Mental health is very much connected to physical health, which is connected to what you eat and what you do. And your physical health is connected to your mental health. What you think about affects your body. Now, this is blatantly obvious, but do we do anything about it? Well, what can we do? Small things every day. Create the person that you want to be. That you control what you put into your body. You may not feel that way, and at times it doesn't feel that way. I had these cookies delivered, and I love cookies. They're sweet, they're delicious, they give you that cookie— that sugar rush right after you eat Did I know they were bad for me? I know they're bad for me. I try to keep all processed sugar out of my house so I'm not tempted. But am I in control of what people send me sometimes? No, I'm not. And they're being sweet. They're being nice. And I do appreciate the gesture. And inside of me, part of my brain was like, eat that cookie.

It's delicious.

The other part of my brain is, you know what happens. It's just gonna go straight to your gut. You're not gonna feel good. You're gonna crash after you do it. But I still was compelled to do it. And did I learn anything from that?

Yeah.

I knew all of that going into it. I should have donated the cookies to somebody else, dropped them off. There's homeless people that live near me. I should have just given it to them.

Yeah.

They can afford the calories more than I can. But my point here is that there are temptations all around us, and I think putting up as much resistance to the bad stuff and as little resistance as possible to the good stuff— what's working for me right now, I'll share, it's like when I get up, I've kind of built a morning routine, you know, because you do certain things in the morning naturally, and And that's, you know, we get up, brush your teeth, whatever it is, shower. But why not put in a couple of minutes of this, a couple minutes of that? And after a month, it's pretty simple. I almost do it automatically. And it takes very little energy. And it feels great doing it. And now I'm stacking things on top of that, that makes it even easier. Like every 2 weeks, I stack on another thing, but I don't make it hard. Make it intentionally easy both in time and effort so that the change becomes minimal. Now think if you did that consistently over, let's say, a year. And you can think, oh, a year is an insurmountable amount of time. But is it? Think back a year. Since I've been putting up these year calendars in my office and I've I've got probably 5 of the old ones from past years hanging around in the entrance to the office. The time goes by pretty quick. And when you start focusing on time and understanding how long things both take to do and take naturally to complete, you get a better sense of of how much effort things take. So that, that might be something you want to apply to and try and build a routine, whether it's morning, evening, and it doesn't have to be a lot. I'm not talking about an enormous amount of time, nor am I talking about getting up at 4 or 5 in the morning. Get up when you normally get up, but add something that will increase your health, your mental health, The quality of your life that you want, that you would love to have. And understand that if you do it for a couple months, there'll be a noticeable change. But keep the patience that it will take a couple months. Losing weight takes a long time and it's hard. But once you make the change, you get rid of the bad stuff in your house, And maybe when somebody asks for your address to send them a gift basket, ask them to send it to maybe the sales reps at their company. Because it's a sweet thing, but it's not healthy. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening. Check out the other show, Sales Questions, Brutally Honest Answers. If you're on YouTube, all my videos are stored there. Just search Brian Burns Sales. And we'll see you next time. Thank you.