Mastering the Inner Game with Anthony Natoli
21 Nov 2022 · 39 min
Anthony Natoli, a Strategic Account Executive at Lattice, talks about building mindset through meditation, journaling, and therapy to improve sales performance. He shares concrete tactics: time-blocking daily prep, a 2 accounts/10 prospects account-selection framework, and front-loaded multi-channel sequences that adapt based on engagement signals.
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What's up, kd, thanks for having me excited to dive in.
So let's go right to it, man, because you've kind of said it before we started recording, right? Like your own journey. So like, let's talk about when did it really click for you that the inner game was actually where you had to focus more versus just the external. Go, go, go, go, go. Like, when did that switch for you?
Yeah, so I think early on in my sales career I was very focused on like making a ton of money, being a top of the leaderboard. And those external end outcomes were really driving how I felt about myself as a person. And it actually dictated how I showed up with prospects and it forced me to like grind my way to the top. And as a result, I, I didn't feel great outside of work and a lot of things spilled over into my personal life and I started to, you know, execute on very self sabotaging behaviors. And I got to a point at 26 where my life was just completely unmanageable. I was seeing success at work, but my personal life was complete, utter chaos. You know, I was 60 pounds overweight, I was six figures in debt, so I was making good money, but I was spending it all, you know, gambling and partying and all this stuff. And I had this narrative about myself that if I didn't perform well at work, then I wasn't good enough. And so, you know, I got to a point of like this rock bottom where, you know, I lost a couple of deals. And I realized that the way that I was showing up with prospects was super needy. I was insecure. You know, I would get those emails that would be negative and I would, you know, I would react in a way that was from a scarcity mindset. And so that moment for me was really when my life outside of work was just complete and utter chaos. And I realized that I had to think and live in a different way. It just wasn't sustainable for me anymore.
Was it a rock bottom moment or a light bulb moment? Like, did you hit bottom? And it was like, oh, should I have to change things? Or did you like read something, hear something that made you go, oh, like, this is a better way to approach things? Like, what was that trigger?
Yeah, it was definitely a rock bottom moment for me. That was the catalyst for the light bulb to go off. I kind of sat there and said, wow, I had no idea how crazy that my life had gotten. And I knew that I needed to take the steps in order to think and live a different way. And so I I viewed it as like, I had two choices, right? I could go down the path that I had been going down and get the same results, or I can go down that uncomfortable route that I had always, you know, removed myself from and actually take that first step to, you know, making change. So I, I think of it in three simple words. It's awareness, acceptance, and courage. So you have to have the awareness that there's a area of your life that is not up to standard. And then you need to be okay with saying, hey, I do have this problem. Then you have, you need to have courage to ask for help. And so then I started reading the books. But I wouldn't just read the books, I would talk about it with people and I would get perspective on, hey, what does this mean? And then I would implement it right in my life, whether it's, you know, in therapy with a family, family member, with a friend, you know, is not only reading the books or, you know, going to therapy, but actually doing the work and taking action, which is where.
I wanted to take this next. Right? So it's like, okay, so you have, have the moment, you have the realization, you start to leave. Like, let's talk about some of the action steps you took then to start to turn things around, to actually, again, work on that inner game. Because it's one of those things that I do. It just gets talked about a lot, which is great. But then it's kind of like this vague like, okay, but now what? So let's talk about the different things that you did take action on that you felt really helped craft that inner game for you.
Yeah. So I think for anyone that is going through anything or has made it out the other side of adversity, you start to have this different perspective and this gratitude about where you're at because you don't want to go back to where you were. So for me, what I did is I literally wrote down how I felt and the characteristics of myself at the time when my life wasn't up to standard. And I wrote all those things out, right? And then I wrote down what is kind of like my year, my five year, my ten year plan, and who is that version of Anthony? What, what characteristics does he embody? How does he show up with his family? How does he show up on prospect and customer calls? And who is that person? Like, what drives him? And then I started to, little by little, try to embody that future version of myself every single day. So that was the first thing, you know, meditation that I'm huge on. Because I wasn't comfortable sitting with my own thoughts. And I think a lot of times we push down those thoughts and those feelings and those emotions, and then we tend to explode. So I have become really big on getting comfortable with my feelings and going deeper on what they actually mean. And so, for example, like, two weeks ago, I had this comparison nightmare, right? I was comparing. Comparing myself to other people as I. As I've been ramping up at Lattice. And instead of letting that dictate how I showed up with my manager, my teammates on calls, being super needy, and letting. Letting that dictate how I showed up, I took a step back and I really tried to understand, like, hey, is this just a story that I'm telling myself or is this reality? And so I think the meditation helps with that mindfulness every single day. And then I journal every. Every morning. And so what I do is I take personal. I call it personal inventory. Right? What happened yesterday, what am I focused on today? And then all of those days for me add up into weeks. And then I can reflect on the weeks, and then I can reflect on the months. So I think those are three takeaways that, you know, really helped me start. And. And how I continue to show up with that. With that inner game first.
And then let's flip it real quick for people. Listening is like, then when this happened, what did happen externally? Right? So, okay, so you started working on this. You start doing your journaling, start doing meditation. Did you notice a change in your results or were the results the same, but you were just better as a person? Like, what happened then externally?
Yeah, so what happened was my relationships with others got better. The results ended up really just taking care of themselves. So I thought about it like this. It's like I had been so focused on trying to control the end result that I was ignoring the things that would actually get me there. Right? And so I reversed it. I started focusing on the controllable inputs and letting go of the outcome. Because I realized from my experience that I can't control if a deal is going to close. I can't control if someone's going to be rude to me on a call. I can't control if I'm going to get an email that says we're not moving forward, but what I can control is how I respond. And so what happened was not only did I feel more calm and more at peace and more serene in how I showed up every day, I got on discovery calls. And now I wasn't so focused on, like, this needs to Move to a demo or my manager is going to think I'm going to suck. I was focused on, hey, is this person even the right fit? What's going on in their world, and how can I actually be here to serve them rather than serve myself? So it flipped from me worrying about what mattered to me and what problems I needed to solve and versus what problems can I help others solve? Right. And that changed the game for me completely.
Got it. Yeah. Because I think that's the key in this, too, is, like, they're definitely connected, right? You know, one leads to the other. And so, like, talk. Talk about the relationship side because I think it's important that people understand this. When you say, like, your relationships got better, what does that mean?
Yeah. So I was known for being very chippy, right. I took things super personal, and I was not pleasant to be around because I was so insecure with who I was as a person. And I seeked validation from others constantly because at my core, I had childhood trauma that led me to believe this narrative about myself that I just wasn't good enough. And so I needed energy from people, and I drained it from them to give me that validation. And so when I say my relationships got better, I all of a sudden realized that take all the external out, out of the picture. I'm good enough at my core. Right? And so that completely changed how I showed up with my family, my loved ones, my friends, my prospects, my customers, because I wasn't showing up in that needy, insecure way. I was just comfortable with who I was. And people feel that energy. They feel when someone's comfortable with who they are, and they want to be surrounded by those type of people. So that's really what changed for me.
I love it. I love it. So let's keep going down this, right? So then once you start to work on the inner game. So we've covered, you know, meditation, we've covered journaling, We've covered, you know, it sounds like, you know, therapy as well to, you know, work through the different things that, you know, go. Go on there. What did you start to do differently at work because of this? Right. So did it lead to any behavior changes there? So you've mentioned, like, how showing up. Right. And going through that. But then, like, what actually changed? Because how you show up, it's not like a prospect if you ask them the same questions you did before, but you ask them the same questions now, but now you're just a little bit more cool that the results change. Like, what changed in your actual Work behavior that then started to lead to the results.
Totally. So I think the number one thing that comes to mind is how I switched from winging it to being super intentional with how I spent my time. So previous state was Anthony would wake up and completely wing it, right? There was no plan, there was no intentionality. I would kind of just show up on these calls and the mindset would be, well, it's move to the next stage or bust, right? Or I think I'm going to prospect today or I think I'm going to take the day off. I'm prospecting, right? There was no rhyme or reason to what I was doing. And so current state is I'm super intentional with my time. I actually say, I actually say no to things more than I've ever done in my entire life. And it's actually like increased my productivity obviously. Right. And so I was, I was a yes man in my, in my previous life, right. I was saying yes to everything and I wasn't making time for myself. And so now I'm super intentional, like I said, with how I spend my time. I don't just put a prospecting block on my calendar, right? On Monday morning from 8 to 8:30, I'm putting five new people in a sequence from 8:30 to 9, I'm eating the frog. I'm doing the tasks that I hate to do. The most I'm doing the or I like to do the least is I'm making my calls from 8:30 to 9. It's not just a prospecting block. I'm being super intentional with my time. Because what happens is if you just have like a random prospecting block on your calendar, you still give yourself time to negotiate with yourself. What do I do? Prospecting means a ton of different things. So I try to time block my calendar super specific and make it very niche with what I'm actually executing. So when that 8:30 time block comes around, I know I'm making 35 dials. And at the end of the day I have to have a very honest conversation with myself to say, did I actually execute the controllable inputs right? And if I know, my experience tells me if I execute those 35 dials every single day, that outcome that I used to care about so much will end up taking care of itself.
So keep going down this in terms of like how you actually prep for the day. So I think this is, I have yet to find and I have, you know, I've led 150 person sales hours, I've dabbled with I've tried all the different things. I have yet to find anything that boosts productivity more than calendar blocks and a prep sheet, anything. And I've tried it all. But like, when you come into the day with the 50 names that you are going to call ready to go in a list and you can just work through them, like, I've seen nothing boost productivity. So talk about that prep time. Because a lot of people come into the day and then try to prep for the day and then it's like, okay, I got this prospecting block and then they're trying to figure out what they're going to do in that prospecting block during the prospecting block. So, like talk about how you actually prepped for your day. I think this is a really good point for people.
Yeah. So as it relates to, you know, prospecting, because this relates to AES and SDRs, the reality is all AES want more pipeline, yet they hate prospecting because they don't think they have the time, which I call BS on and I'll tell you exactly why. So this number I'm about to throw out was specific to me as an AE in my role. Now, it's not a silver bullet because everyone has a different segmentation. They go after a different number of accounts, but just use it as a North Star. When I worked at Outreach, we had something called the 2100. And this held me accountable to no other standard that I've ever experienced. And what it was is that every week since we were responsible for 30% of our pipeline, shout out Mark Costagolo, we would have to select two new accounts to go after. Every week we'd have to create an account plan the week prior that we would actually go and execute our prospecting task against them. And so what we would do is we would select two accounts and 10 new prospects across both accounts. So that's five new prospects at two new accounts. So that's the two and then the 10 and then the zero is at the end of the week, zero overdue tasks. Now, an AE that maybe has more accounts than the 100 accounts that I had, you may do like a five by five. So like five new accounts per week and five new prospects at each account which would be, you know, 25 new prospects across the entire week. So what that allowed me to do was be super intentional, keep myself accountable and be hyper specific on who I was going after. Now if you're an sdr, you may be doing five new accounts per day, but the whole goal here is to have a Specific number to hold yourself accountable every single day. And that way, on Monday, you already have the accounts that you're going after. You've already sequenced them, and so now you have your specific time blocks and you're. All you need to do is actually execute. And, you know, there's obviously tools out there to keep you and your manager. Honestly, are you actually executing on the activities or are you just putting people into a sequence? And put them into a sequence. Right, so it's actually executing the activities every single day. That's going to move you closer to that end result.
Yeah, I think that's the key. And it's like, it's the. What's the word? Specificity in all this, right? Like there's a number, right. 20, 10, right. Whatever that is. Like knowing exactly what you're trying to do. Because one of the things I talked about with my teams a lot was this phrase of, like, is that enough is enough. And oftentimes enough is enough is used as a negative term. Right? Enough is enough. Anthony, go to your room, whatever. Where I tried to flip it the other way. Like, enough is enough. This is what you need to do on a consistent basis to get there. That's all I'm asking for. And that is enough. Right? If you do your five and you're 10 and you're 40 per day, that is enough. You want to put in 60, 70, great, do it. But you just can't be below that number. Right? And having that specificity of like, this is what it's going to take to succeed. Now put that into practice. Right? And so touch on the AE prospecting part real quick. Because again, I. For all my every AE team I've run, they've prospected all.
Yep.
No exceptions. Right? And so that's part of it, right? And you called out one of the classic things of like, well, I don't have time to prospect. And I'm always like, how many demos are you running?
All right?
Because until you're running like two, three demos a day, you got time to prospect, right? We got AES out there running six, seven demos a month, being like, yeah, I don't have time. I'm like, okay, stop it. That's not real. So how did you make that time and still manage all the other duties of running the demo, prepping for the demo, disco calls, follow up, all that? Like, how did you manage those different processes?
Totally. So I think a lot of times people talk about time blocking and it's like your day has to look exactly the same Every single day. And that's just not true. It's not realistic. So I have a time block on my calendar that's literally called from 4 to 5:30, reflect and prep. Right. So I blocked that time. My SDRs can't book meetings during that time. And what I'm doing is I'm reflecting on the day because I think it's super important to take inventory. Did I actually execute? What did I learn? Right? Because a lot of times people just shut their laptop and don't even reflect on what happened. And I think that's a huge missed opportunity. So I'll reflect and then I'll prep for the next day. I talk to so many sellers, even SDRs, who just come in every day and wing it because they're not prepping for the next day. So I'll prep and I'll look at my calendar and then I'll find the white space on my calendar and make time. I'll make time for it. Right. You know, I think a lot of AES that probably start their day at like 9, 9:30. I don't have a demo until 2. Like, I'm good. I'll just, you know, I'll prospect on Wednesday when I don't have any demos. It's like, no. Like from 8 to 9:30 you can do so much. Like I can make 35 calls in 45 minutes. Or if you got a dial, you could probably do it in less time. Right. I remember last week I had a call and five minutes early and I made five dials. It's like, find the time to do it because these are your potential future customers. Right. So at that 4 to 5:30 time block, I'm literally looking at my day and I'm finding the time to at least get some prospecting done. Right. It doesn't have to be emails, calls, LinkedIn, adding new people to a sequence. Find time to at least do a little bit of prospecting. That's going to help you move the needle.
Yeah, I think that's just so important because that is especially like for the teams that that's part of your job. Remember it's part of your job. Like that's, that's always what's interesting me is like, it's part of your job and people still don't do it for the ones where it's not specifically part of your job block. You will win. You'll win. It's what I always tell my SDRs. That's why I always tell my AES, like in the. If I could Change the sales dev title. I would, I'd change it from sales dev to professional prospector because people treat sales dev like a title, something to move away from. Whereas professional prospectors, it's a skill set and if you never lose it, you'll win. Because if you and I are going head to head and you know how to prospect and I don't, you're gonna win. You'll beat me in the long run because you're producing those three to four extra opportunities per quarter every quarter, quarter after quarter, you're gonna win in the long run, you're gonna have more at bats there. And so let's go into this. You know, some of call it like tactics or techniques you used as an AE to produce pipeline. Right. So for the AES, listening, going like, all right, yeah, you're right, I probably should. But it's been a minute. It's been a minute since I've done this, Anthony, like, how do I start? Like, what are some tactics or techniques to produce more pipeline?
Yeah. So I think it's my foundation starts with like selecting the accounts and having the why. So you'd be shocked at how many AES I talk to that don't prospect with the frame of how they actually sell. So we all know that people buy based on solving problems, but people still prospect with feature dumping. It's like so backwards. And so for me, I like to identify my top three Personas and what problems do we solve for these people. And then I, I dictate my messaging based on those. Those problems. Right. So it's finding the accounts. And then my goal when I'm researching is I'm trying to find relevant information that relates to the problem that we solve. I'm not trying to figure out where KD went to college or if he likes dogs or what sports team he likes, because that doesn't relate to the problem that we solve and it doesn't help the prospect connect the dots of why I'm reaching out. So for me, I view it as, you know, I think a lot of AES are trying to find this personalized piece of information, but really it's better to find relevant information that ties back to the problem that you solve so that you can help the prospect who has no idea who you are most of the time, connect the dots of who you are, why you're reaching out. Can you help me or not? Right. So many emails that I see, whether it's on LinkedIn or pissed off prospects posting on LinkedIn about bad SDR emails, which is A whole nother conversation. It's like first line of the email is like, saw you where you went to college. And then they go into like a feature dump. And it's like, that's not real personalization, right? And so when I'm doing my research, after I've selected my accounts, what nuggets can I find to relate to the problem statement that I'm reaching out about, right? So then what I'll do is I'll put them into a sequence where it's very front load heavy. So on the first day I'll do a LinkedIn view to confirm that I have the right phone number, the right email, little data check. Then I will execute a phone task, I'll send an email and then I'll do another LinkedIn view. So I call it like the triple touch. Everyone's got their own iteration on it, but it's three touches on the first day. Second day is another call, right? No, no, voicemail. I'll do a voicemail on the first day. Then I let a day go by. And then on the other day after that I will do a relevant bump email. So it's not just any thoughts, it's taking the research and the piece of relevant information I found and tying that to my bump email. So it's like, hey, any thoughts on this Considering I saw you were hiring SDRs, right? So not just like giving them more work to do to figure out like what the hell is this guy talking about. Put the relevant information in there in the bump and then I'll call them again and then I'll do a connection request. And the connection request, all it says, hey, I sent you a couple emails, so just wanted to put a face to the name. 90% of the time my sales engagement tool tells me they opened the email and now I can call and my opener changes. My opener now isn't who the heck is this guy from Lattice, it's hey, this is Anthony with Lattice. That ring of bell. Because now the engagement has increased, right? They familiar with who I am? That problem statement I mentioned in that first email, and now I could have a more impactful conversation where I'm not just catching them out of the blue. So just to sum it up, it's selecting the accounts, doing research that relates to a Persona based problem statement that you already know it's relative to them because you've solved it for other Personas like them, right? Then it's actually executing with relevant messaging email, LinkedIn phone, and then you change your messaging based on prospect engagement I'm not sending an email to someone who's never heard of us in the same way that I'm sending an email to someone who had a closed, lost opportunity with. So you need to change your messaging based on that prospect engagement. So those are like the first three steps that I would take that anyone can go implement.
And how do you craft that problem statement? Because I think that is key. Right. It's like most. I've made a post about this actually, like just the other week of like, no one seems to really know the problems that their product solves.
Right.
It's like they know what their product does. Oh, saves time, increases pipeline, organizes your data. They don't know the problems that it solves. So how do you go about crafting that problem statement for the Persona?
Yeah. So I think it goes back to really understanding, like the last deal you closed, what was that problem? Right. So I'll. I'll make it really easy because there's a lot of sales folks, they understand this, that are probably listening is like forecasting for sales leaders is a nightmare. So that's my problem statement. And then I think about the symptoms of that problem. Right. Forecasting is a nightmare because it takes 68 hours of time. That's what keeps people up at night, right. Is like, do I have an accurate number? I'm coming down on my team. It's taking time away from me actually managing my managers or doing coaching. Right. So that's like a big problem that I either a know sales leaders have a solution for already, which is fine. That's good information for me to find out. Or number two, if they don't have a solution for it, I know that process is a nightmare. So I'll craft that up. Right? And I'll say something like, sales leaders that we work with tell us that forecasting could be a nightmare because of it taking six to eight hours of their week, X, Y and Z. And then I would say something like outreach can give you visibility into your forecast with the click of a button open to learning more. Something like that. Right. And that's my phone script too. After I get them to tell me, let me explain why I'm calling. It's like, hey, you're a sales leader. I'm not sure if this, this is relevant for you, but a lot of companies that we're working with right now are telling us that forecasting is an absolute nightmare still using spreadsheets. And when you. When you approach a prospect with a relevant problem, two things happen. They either say, hey, we're using a solution for this. Or you know what? I didn't even realize that there was something out there to help me get out of my spreadsheets. And you can take the conversation to where you want it to go in both scenarios. Right. So all you're doing when you prospect with problems is you're getting them to validate if they have that problem or not.
Yeah, and it's funny, man, because it's. That's all it is. And when you're prospecting, I just started training on this last week. You're looking for agreement before you're looking for a meeting. And so many people are just trying to book the meeting. Can I get 30 minutes? Here's my calendar. Link all of this. It's like, no, no, no. You need them to agree they have that problem. And I think more and more, what I'm seeing starting to work and even that I'm testing personally is, like, you can start to get pretty direct. Like, not direct in terms of your tone, but like, hey, Anthony, real quick, do you struggle with this at all? Because if not, like, I'll take you off my list. Like, it's almost that straightforward.
Right.
And what I'm noticing tested a sequence with this type of language month where the language literally was like, hey, Anthony, Relevant personalization. Like, you know, a lot of people are struggling with this right now. Are you struggling with this at all? Because if not, let me know and I'll take you off my sequence. And that flip. What has happened? The response rates have gone up significantly, and you're getting a lot of, yeah, buts, which is, okay, now we're at least into a conversation like, well, yeah, we do, but budgets, tights. Or, but, you know, we don't have time for this. Or, but we already use somebody. Or, but. But now at least we're in a conversation now at least we have, like, that. Because I think that takeaway potential, like, because if you don't struggle, tell me and I'll take you off. Kind of creates this world now in the prospect of, like, all right, well, if I don't tell them, they're gonna keep reaching out. But I do struggle with that. So I should let them. Like, it's. It seems to be working really well of, like, because if not, just tell me, just tell me. Stop reaching out. It's fine. But if you don't tell me you don't have this problem, I'm going to. I'm going to keep coming because I'm going to take that silence as you do. Have this problem, and I'm just trying to help you.
Yeah. And there's so many ways to take this. But two things come to mind, I think, when you reframe the goal of prospecting to, I just want to find as many people as I can that also have this problem. I'm not here to, like, feature dump on you. I'm just trying to figure out, hey, we work with a ton of CROs that had this problem. You're also a CRO. Do you also have this problem? And then you know what happens, too, when you approach prospecting with problems, you don't get ghosted as much because how many times has an SDR booked a meeting to book the meeting, and they just asked for 30 minutes, they didn't uncover anything. Prospect has no reason to show up. You haven't uncovered a compelling reason for the prospect to show up. And so I think there's so many benefits with this approach. And once you get them to confirm the problem and what's in it for them and that you could actually help them, they're more likely to show up to the meeting, and then you have a better discovery call. And if you're an SDR and you're paid on meetings, move to Pipeline, or you're an AE and you actually want Pipeline, your chances of converting that meeting to a real deal cycle increase. Otherwise, person just showing up and like, yeah, I want to learn more because I don't really know why I'm here and what you guys can help me with. So there's a lot of good things that come when you kind of reframe that simple mindset.
Yeah. The scripting and framework that I work with my team on is it goes against what a lot of people, like, preach in terms of, like, you know, I use a lot of soft words and it works really well. Like, possibly potentially not. Sure, it could. Let's see. And it works way. Like, there's all that. The LinkedIn fodder around. Like, you should never use those types of words. I'm like, whatever, y'. All. Because truthfully, in one call, we don't know that we can help them. And so we shouldn't sound like we can. It should be very, like, you know what? There might be something here. Let's keep this conversation going. Let's see. Because when. When people forget this, when you ask someone for a meeting, what goes through a prospect's head is, this person's asking me to buy, and now they're starting to go through, am I even ready to buy? What Would this like to be budget? Do I even have budget got what happened last time I tried to buy something. That's, that's, that's why people tell you no. To be clear in the prospecting process is they're already thinking about buying and because they don't think they can, should or could they say no. Whereas if you pull that off the table, it's like look, just see. Let's just see if it's even worth looking into. Let's just see if there's any potential here. It shifts the whole dynamic there. Right. And that pulls way more people in than this. You know what? Yeah, this will be a great fit for you. Let's get 30 minutes so I can show you how. It's like, whoa, pull it back, get a little bit softer. So, so as we start to wrap up here, what But I got obviously my last main question for you, but what else are I'm prospecting any other tips around this that you would give? You've nailed some problem messaging relevancy in your messaging. Kind of like that high call it front loaded sequencing. What would else would be a parting thought in terms of prospecting before we start to wrap up?
Yeah, I think switching up your messaging based on prospect engagement is huge. And with that, don't just use your sequence as a magic silver bullet. If someone's opening your emails, don't wait until the next step to call them. Like don't wait until two days later to call them. Do one off tasks in between. Right. So especially as an ae, when you're being more specific and more targeted, if someone's opening your email two or three times, pick up the phone and call them. Like, you'd be surprised at how many people I hear that are just kind of letting that sequence run and they're not paying attention to actually the engagement that's happening. Right. Those are, those are signals of interest and you should take full advantage of that. And there's a ton of data out there to take advantage of, whether it's website data or third party intent data. Use that to your advantage to figure out who you're reaching out to and why. Right. So make sure that the messaging is relevant, it's tied to a problem statement, and that you are switching up your messaging and your call openers based on prospect engagement. So again, what I said before we touched on it briefly is that I won't use a phone. A cold call opener for someone that I had a closed lost opportunity with a year from now is the same as I would for Someone that I'm reaching out to, like, cold. Right? Same goes as, like, a previous customer at a new company. Like, you need to change your messaging based on where they're at in their buyer's journey. So there's no one size fits all approach. For every single prospect that you're going after, you've got to be intentional with who you're reaching out to, why you're reaching out to them. That, to me, is the simplest way that I can put it. And that being the parting thought on the prospect release.
Yeah, no, I love it. I mean, it's all about intention, man. It's my favorite word is intention. Actually, our team theme for 2021 was execution with intention. Like, that was the theme because for the most part, we tend to not succeed because we just don't execute. Like we know what we're supposed to do. We just don't do it. And so execution is the first part, but then execution with intention. Are you running that demo with intention? Are you prospecting with intention? That's what then really changes the results throughout all of this. And so cool, man. Well, let's wrap up on this because, as you know, the name of this podcast is Live Better Sell Better. And we've dabbled on it a little bit in terms of, like, these Live Better kind of processes. But, you know, I have this weird idea that if we took better care of ourselves, we had more joy and energy and fulfillment, that inner game, that the results would be better as well. What would your parting Live Better advice be for people listening?
Yeah, I thought about this, listening to your podcast, what my answer was going to be. And I think it's this. It's that burnout anxiety. I used to think that it was caused by, like, working too hard, but I soon realized that it stemmed from my actions not being aligned with my why, my core values and my goals. It also stemmed from me focusing on the things that I couldn't control. And so my advice to anyone listening is understand the things you can control. Understand the things that you can't control. Do your best to let go of the things that you can't and have the courage to actually focus on the things that you can. Because oftentimes it's really hard to let go of that big, scary outcome and not try to dictate your energy focused on it. And so anyone listening, it's, you know, make sure that your actions every single day are aligned with what you actually want out of life. You want to lose weight. Your actions today and the choices that you make have to be aligned with that goal. If you ignore and procrastinate on those actions, you are not setting your future self up for success. Right. If you want to have a big pipeline, you have to make the choices and take the action today that's going to help you build a big pipeline. So that's my parting thought there on the topic.
I love it, man, and it's so true. It's just, I wish I could give that to people. I just wish, like if, if you felt it, if people understood one, how great they could be and two, like what? Truly setting real goals and adjusting who you needed to be to achieve them, like how they could just change their lives. It's just, I wish I could just.
Plant that in people.
If I could inject that in people, I would because it's just, it's such an amazing feeling when you, you figure that out and you let that guide, guide your life. So, my dude, this was phenomenal. Where can people get more of you? Where are you putting out content? What do you got for the people that want to go a little bit deeper on these types of topics?
Yeah, so I post every single day on LinkedIn. For those of you don't know me, just go to my LinkedIn, go to my website. I have a free weekly newsletter at anthonynatoli me where I drop one prospecting tip every single Friday that you can read in under four minutes. So that's the best place to find me.
Dude, under four minutes. That's all it takes, my friend. That all it takes. Awesome, dude. Well, I appreciate you. This was great. We'll include those links in the show notes for everybody. But thanks again, man, for your time, energy and insights.
It was good stuff. Appreciate it.
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