Kevin 'KD' Dorsey lays out GERMS: Gratitude, Exercise, Reading, Meditation, and Sleep. He argues that three daily gratitudes, 15 minutes of reading, short meditation, regular exercise, and prioritized sleep rewire your perspective and boost sales performance.
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Welcome to the live Better Sell Better podcast with your host Kevin Dorsey of Inside Sales Excellence, the number one Patreon group and YouTube channel for tech sellers and tech sales leaders, where we dive in deep for tactical advice on how to book more meetings, close more deals faster, and lead sales teams to success. But we don't stop there. We also focus on the person in salesperson. We talk about mindset goals, time management, and so much more. So thank you for listening and if you're interested, head on over to patreon.com InsideSalesExcellence now with that, grab a notepad, get ready, and let's dive into the good stuff.
What up, y'? All? KD here one on one time with kd. Let's dive in today. I'm pumped for today's topic. Just around, you know, this whole podcast, you know, the premise of this idea of Live better sell better. Live better sell better. I do. I have this weird idea, right, that if we took better care of ourselves, if we lived better, that the sales would improve as well. Because if you think about what it takes to be great at sales, you know, consistency, drive, motivation, resiliency, creativity, being a great listener, being empathetic, creative, all of that requires energy. All of that requires being in a certain state of mind in order to pull that off. There are so many things, y', all, that we know how to do, but we just don't do because we're not in the right state of mind. And so I wanted to talk today, really about some of the things that I personally have found the most impactful and helping me stay in the right state of mind to achieve the things that I want to and need to achieve. And I had a Mentor tell me this a while back, and it has stuck with me ever since, because I'm sure some of y', all, you know, can resonate with this idea, especially, like, in leadership, right? Of, like, you know, we. We give everything to everybody else, right? Like, we just run ourselves in the ground. We. We fall on the sword, we go above and beyond, and we do all these things. It actually hurts our overall performance because it's not taking care of us. And so when he said, the better you are, the better you can make your team, the better you are, the better your results will be, that was really a big light bulb moment for me, because it's true. If I want better results, I have to be better. It's not always about working harder. It's about being better, having more energy, being happier, being more positive. Those are the things that really drive it. So I want to walk through some of my favorite things that every single time y', all, if I get away from them, I can tell within a matter of two to three weeks, I can tell I am less positive. I'm more irritable. I'm not as good of a husband, a father, a worker, a thought leader, whatever the hell those my title is anymore. Like, when I get away from them every single time, it's not immediate. Just like most things in life, it's not immediately that it's like, oh, I'm off. Few weeks later, and it's like, okay, what's happening? Why am I. Why can I not get into mode? Why am I not thinking of things? Why can I not do things? And it almost always comes back because I've gotten away from some of the things that really, really have helped me. And so I created an acronym for this a while back called germs. Now, I created the acronym GERMS before this pandemic. Before, germs were like, ah, we. We don't want to talk about germs. But I'll walk you through germs today because these are the things that, when I'm doing, everything is better. Quite literally everything. My relationships, my kids, my happiness with my wife, my results at work, problem solving, relationships with people at work. Like, all of it is better when I'm actually following germs. So germs, the first letter, G, stands for gratitude. Every day, every day, I'm writing down at least three things that I am grateful for. What am I grateful for? What am I thankful for? Starting the day with gratitude. And interestingly enough, y', all, there's actually a lot of science behind this too, in terms of gratitude, helping rewire our brain to see the good in the world. There is plenty of bad going on in the world. And if that's all we look at, that's all we see. Whereas if you start to find things to be grateful for, it changes your perspective on the world. Right. It makes you a more positive person. And positivity drives results in all areas of our life. So the first is gratitude. Every morning, two to three things. What am I grateful for? And being serious about it as well. So from the G, then we go to E. E is for exercise. E is for exercise, getting up and exercising, whether that is a 30 minute walk. Right. I've gotten into rucking. Right. So putting on a heavy backpack and walking on the incline. Trainer, resistant bands training. Right. Like whatever it is, we know, we know it. When we exercise, we feel better. When we exercise, our stress levels come down. When we exercise, we have more energy. Right. And the energy it takes to be good at anything in life is huge. So the E is for exercise. But find something that you enjoy doing. Right. It doesn't have to be a CrossFit class. It doesn't have to be like throwing heavy weights around. It doesn't have to be a super intense spin class. How about just 30 minutes of stretching where you just chill out for a little bit. Right. But it still counts as exercise. Right. So the G, gratitude, E, exercise. Then we get to the R. Reading. Reading, right. Every single day should be reading for at least 15 minutes every day. Because if you can make the habit of reading for 15 minutes, or my other favorite is 10 pages. 15 minutes or 10 pages, whichever one you prefer. Because if you read 10 pages a day, that's 300 pages a month. You're finishing maybe two books a month if you go that route. Right. So reading, what are you reading? And like read, you know, things that inspire you, read things that motivate you. Right. It can be a blend of biographies, history. Yes. There's sales books and business books. That's great. But also nonfiction. Things that just get you creative, puts you in a different state that makes you happy. Right. So reading every single day should be reading. Now, quick call out here. There is a difference between reading and audiobooks. So when I say reading, I do mean reading. Audiobooks are great for awareness. They're very poor for absorption because almost always when you're listening to an audiobook, you're doing something else too. You're walking, you're driving, you're exercising. Right. It's very rare that we're sitting and giving it our full attention, which is why absorption tends to be very bad for audiobooks. So if it's something you're really trying to take in, reading is first. So I read the things that I want to apply. I listen for things that, like, hey, like, I just want general awareness of. But if I'm really digging it, then I go buy the regular book so I can read it. So the R is reading. Then we get to the M. M is for meditation. Meditation, the science behind meditation is, like, comically positive. I. True story, y'. All. I went to my HR team one year and said, can I make meditation mandatory? Can I make meditation mandatory for my team? Because the science behind it is so overwhelmingly positive. It's like, why not? Why can I make cold calling mandatory but not meditation? Right? Meditation reduces stress, improves happiness, improves problem solving, improves creativity, improves eq, improves empathy, improves your listening ability, improves sleep. Meditation improves all of those things. And so getting into a meditation habit and no, this, y', all, this doesn't have to be 30 minutes in a dark room with candles lit and you going and chanting, and then. No, no, no, no. Five minutes of you just being present with your breath. Five minutes of just letting thoughts flow through as opposed to paying attention to every single thought that comes through. There's apps like Calm Headspace, right? Are great ones to get started with. 10% happier with Dan Harris. Like, get into a meditation routine. Ten minutes a day. I promise you, after a month, you notice the difference. You notice the difference, right? You meditate because it makes everything else easier. It gets us into the present moment more as well, which is the only thing you can control. So often we're scared. You know, we're thinking about the past, thinking, trying to predict the future. And we wonder why we're never happy in the now. Meditation helps solve that. Then the last S is sleep. Prioritizing good sleep. This is probably the biggest bio hack you can possibly do. Most of us do not get enough sleep, and even the sleep that we're getting is not quality sleep. So having a nighttime routine, we're getting away from screenshots for at least the last hour before bed, where you're dimming the lights down, right? So your body can start to adjust. Sleeping in a cool room is very, very important. Alcohol, right? If you're having drinks at night. Okay, cool. I'm known to like a good whiskey. Try to have it at least an hour and a half before bedtime to give your body chance to process and run through. But prioritizing sleep and making sure you're getting enough of it right now. Everyone varies. Everyone varies on how much sleep that they need. Some people only need six. Some at seven. Some it's eight, some it's nine. You need to find that sweet spot. And there's tools that can help you track this. Whereas the oura ring, the whoop bands, there's cool apps out there like Rise Sleep. I actually got my entire team a subscription to Rise Sleep during, like, you know, early Covid, because I could tell people were just off. So, like prioritizing sleep. So these are the things y'. All. This to me is like the foundation of live better is germs, gratitude, exercise, reading, meditation, and sleep. You do those five things on a regular basis for 45 days, you are a totally different person, which then allows you to be a totally different and improved husband, wife, mother, father, son, sister, vp, sdra. Because who you are is starting to improve. So those are my foundations. When I'm doing them, I can tell. When I'm not doing them, I can tell. So hopefully this gives you a foundation to work with. Start with 1 and add in the others as you go. It's been one on one time with kd. See you on the next one.
