Proper Habits Boost Work Efficiency and Productivity with Ian Koniak

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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 InsideSalesExCexcellence now with that, grab a notepad, get ready, and let's dive into the good stuff. What up, everybody? Welcome to another episode of the live Better Sell Better podcast. This is your host, Kevin Dorsey, AKA kd. And today we're going to talk about getting more done in less time. We're going to talk about getting more done without running yourself into the ground. We're going to talk about working hard and smart because I do not believe in the old analogy of work smarter, not harder. I believe you can do both and both are actually required in order to get you to where you're trying to go. But harder does not mean longer. Harder does not mean scattered. Harder does not mean running yourself into the ground. And that is why I'm so, so excited to have Ian Koniak on the show with me today. He is the new dean for Enterprise Sales School for Pavilion. He's the founder and president for a sales coaching company and was also one of the top producing sales rep at multiple enterprise companies and roles. And we are going to be diving in today on how to work smarter and, and harder without burning yourself out at the same time. Ian, my man, welcome to the show.

I could not think of anybody better to have this conversation with than you and I'm so glad we're going to talk about it. Thanks for having me.

I'm pumped for it. Because this is a topic where you'll, you'll hear it get brought up often, right? Time management, you need to better manage your time. But then, just like so many other things in sales, we never actually teach people how to do it, we just talk about it. So let's start diving into this a little bit around the idea of like, you know, focus and attention and better managing your time. That topic, where does it take you first?

Well, the first thing I think of is the ADHD brain, because I fundamentally am not alone in this. A lot of people in sales have what I call the ADHD brain, which is like trying to do a lot of things at once. Trying to multitask, there's noise coming in. You're just trying to figure it out. And the traditional kind of sales route where you start, maybe with high activity, high volume, maybe starting bdr, I started going door to door. You have very clear metrics, you have very clear goals, and it's very easy to just work and work and hustle. And as you evolve in sales career, as you take on bigger strategic accounts, you have a lot more white space and a lot more time available in your calendar. And for many salespeople, that can be very hard to manage. Managing the white space, I like to say white space is dead space. So when I think time management, I have a golden rule of time management, which I love. What you said, work smarter and harder. But my definition of effective time management, this golden rule is simple. The quality of the time you work determines both the quality and quantity of time you have outside of work.

Say that one more time.

Say it one more time. The quality of time you work determines both the quality and quantity of time you have outside of work. Okay, and I'll break that down very simply and what it means if you're working hard in the hours that you're supposed to be working on the right things, you can leave work and be fully present with the people you love because you got the shit done that you needed to get done, and you're not carrying it with you to your family, to your friends, to your weekends, to your nights. And you're going to have a heck of a lot more time available because you're working efficiently and you're making a lot more money, which is going to let you do a lot more things and not have to work as much. So it really is work smarter, not harder, and make sure you're working when you're supposed to on the right thing so that you can free up your headspace for full presence in all other areas of what you're doing in life.

Now, one of the things I talked about with my team all the time, right, we had this little quote that we'd go through is like, you'd be shocked how much work you could get done at work if all you did at work was work.

I love it.

And like, we joke about it, it's like, y', all like, I don't want you working at home. I don't want you working on the weekends. But it's like, we don't get the work done at work, which then forces us to do work outside of work, which Then makes us take our foot off the gas at work and it becomes this game. Right? So let's talk about. Because that's why I didn't like the work, you know, smarter, not harder. It's like when you're working, work hard, work.

Yeah.

But then apply the smart. So let's go another layer deeper here of like, okay, so what are some tactics or what are some things that have helped you or the teams you've worked with get more done at work? Right. Like you to get into that deep work stage.

So, so I'm going to give you so many because I teach this and I. If there's one thing that, that makes a big, biggest difference in someone's sales career, I want to take a step back before I get into tactics. So as part of my sales coaching business, I'm half therapist, half coach. Okay? So people open. And one of the things that I asked them in the very beginning, Katie, is how much are you really working during a workday on revenue generating activities? And when I say RGA's revenue generating activities, what I define that as is two things, very simple. Either advancement of pipeline or creation of pipeline. Everything else is noise. Okay? So when I ask that question consistently, what do you think I get from an 8 hour day? What do you think? Most people tell me in confidence, knowing that I'm not their manager, knowing that they would never admit this to anyone else.

So in confidence I'm going to say.

An hour I get consistently two to four hours.

There's no way it's four, but I'll give them the two. There's no way I'll give them the two.

And I said, well, what would happen if you actually work the full eight hours on revenue generating activities? Okay. And administrative stuff could be revenue generated. Let's talk doing a proposal. Absolutely. It's revenue generating activity. Okay. Sending an order to a client to get signed, of course that's a revenue. I'm talking true RGAs and we define it that way. I say what would happen if you were doing that? And they said I would double triple my results. I would feel way better. It's because I have distractions and noise and I'm not prioritizing. So this is something everybody faces and you're not alone. If you give that one hour, two hour, three hour, maybe they're being generous and saying four. But frankly, when you work a full day on the right things and you actually execute what you plan and accomplish, everything you set out to do, there is no better feeling in the world. And you can sleep well at night because you know you're doing all you can. And I think you and I both live by this principle and that's why we take so much on. And frankly, I do it so I feel good. I know if I mess around in the day, at the end of the day I feel guilty and I'm not present and I just beat myself up and I'm just tired of that. I did that long enough. So I said, okay, this is something I need to work on. I stopped taking Adderall and I started intensely studying time management and applying it and really have spent the better part of the last couple years since I got off Adderall, learning to master these principles. And you never stop learning and going. So, couple principles I'm going to teach. Number one is you have to set boundaries for the time you work. That's the number one thing I do. Now there's a Parkinson's law. It says that work will expand to the time allotted. So if you don't have boundaries, you'll work 70, 80 hours a week. And that's just stupid. I don't want someone working that many hours. That means they have no life and they're not going to be a cool person because they're not doing other stuff outside of work that's going to make them well rounded. So fundamentally, if you only give yourself two hours to get something done, you will work way more efficiently, you will work way more focused. And that's why people work well under deadlines or when there's a meeting coming up, because, you know, they're finally like forced to do it. So if you can set that boundary every single day for yourself, I think that's a foundation. So for me, my boundaries are eight to six. Okay? So I'm not working after six, no matter what I have left to do, because there's always going to be stuff I didn't get to. I'm stopping at 6 so I can be present with my family. I also have another boundary from 12 to 1. Every day I go in and have lunch with my wife. I work in the back office. I go in and she texts me at 12:02, she's like, you coming? So even she's on it because she knows that's our sacred time. So by having that lunch hour, it forces me to work super efficiently in the 8 to 12, in the 1 to 6. So that's one technique is really set those boundaries. Now there are going to be times you have some big project or occasionally you might have to Work a night or a morning. I try and do that when it's not interfering with my family. So I'll wake up early on the weekends if I got something big. And by the time I'm done, it's 9am, my family's getting up and there's no impact to that. So you know, for the most part it's 8 to 8 to 12 and 1 to 6, Monday to Friday. Occasionally if I got stuff on the weekends, I'll do it. But for the most part that's made me work. Really efficiency, that's the first thing. So know your boundaries, set your boundaries and stick to your boundaries.

Okay, so actually real quick, I don't want to brief past that. How do you stick to it? Because I think like, I don't want to breeze past that because people do this, they'll set a boundary, they'll put it on their calendar, they'll say this. But when you say boundary, what do you mean? Like, how do you actually stick to that 6pm rule, how do you actually stick to that noon rule?

I think the first thing is accountability. So for me, telling my wife that I'm committed to being in the house by six so I can help take care of the kids, we have a, he's 20, 22 months old, so he's still, you know, he's still very much a toddler and then a six year old. We got young kids and she needs help with cooking and taking care of the kids and nighttime routines and all that. So for me, telling her I'm going to be from 6 to 9 with you and with the kids and you know, really 6 to 10 because my little one goes to bed late. But she knows that's a little party animal. He really is. So fundamentally that's key is I have that accountability. She can be texting me if it's 6:05, 6, 10, she's like, you coming in. So you're keeping your word, not to yourself, but also to someone else. That's why accountability partners are really, really helpful. I think the other thing to stick to the boundaries is you have to have consistent routines outside of the boundaries. So for me, if I'm going to start work at 8 but still stick to my morning routine, which is also very important for me in terms of my exercise and getting my personal stuff done in the morning before I start work, I need to go to bed by like 11. Okay? So if I'm going to wake up by 6, I want to get my seven hours right. So having those boundaries around when you go to bed, having those boundaries around when you go get up enables you to not be tired, to not be ineffective with your work hours, because if you're sleeping four hours, you're not going to work efficiently. So for me, having at least seven hours sleep, making sure I get my exercise in and making sure I have my morning routine allows me to be super efficient with my time because I'm already alert, I'm fired up and I'm energized from what I'm doing in my morning routine. So again, accountability and then really like making sure you're priming yourself so that when those hours hit, you're not taking 30 minutes to get settled for the day. So when I say I start at 8, what I'm really doing is at 7:45, which is my tactic. Number two is I'm planning my day. Okay? So I will go through. I use a system, it's called the 12 week year. And it's really simple. I have it here, it looks very busy, but it works for me. I print out basically a weekly scorecard at the beginning of the week and I do this on a Sunday night or a Monday morning. And I write down here are my top revenue generating critical activities for the week. Okay, so for me, I'll have 15 things written out and then I prioritize those from 1 to 15. So rather than every day trying to figure out what I'm going to do, how I'm going to do it, and making a ton of decision, I've already done that once in the beginning of the week. So at 7:45 or whenever I start my day, I will look and I will actually look at where I am on my ranking. Maybe I'm number three, number one and two and then I just pick up on number three, pick up on number five. Now there's going to be things that come in throughout the day. I'll talk to you about how you deal with those. But fundamentally you have to plan your week and you got to plan your day. So for me, the act of writing down the critical things I want to do each week, ranking them, makes it really easy to plan my day and to task block and put those critical things I need to get done in my white space. So literally every minute of the day is accounted for and a lot of times the week, in some cases where it's a busy week and I only have a little bit of white space, so that makes the decision fatigue, having to figure out what I'm gonna do when there's a two or three hour block in the calendar, completely obsolete. I already know what I'm gonna do. Cause I took the time to plan it out.

I love that. So I use like uggmonk, right? So I've got my daily cards right? Of like here, here's my top 10. If there's a top 10, it's like, no, sometimes there's top five, there's a top six. Of like, this is what needs to get done. How do you prioritize? Or you mentioned that pretty quickly, right? Of like, all right, I've got my 15 things, but I'm also ranking them because I think this is an area that, you know, salespeople struggle with often too is like they maybe they make the list, but they're working on the wrong things. They're not prioritized. So how are you prioritizing those tasks to make sure you're getting the right things done?

Yeah, so it's a little different now because I am a full time entrepreneur. But what I typically, what comes first is if I have a big engagement. For example, the pavilion course that I'm teaching for enterprise Sales School, right. If I know I'm teaching that on a Thursday. Okay. And this goes for any workshop I'm doing or any kind of engagement. I'm always blocking off prep for that particular engagement on the calendar and that's already blocked off, typically a day or two before the actual meeting. Right. So prep for upcoming meetings that are on the calendar is typically like what I call in the bucket of advancing pipeline or you know, making sure I'm performing and showing up for the deals that I have. So advancing pipeline always gets priority versus creating pipeline when you have existing pipeline because deals can go south and frankly time kills a lot of deals. So for me it's truly important if you got a deal. These are things like setting up the next meeting, getting the contract out, getting the proposal, having the tough conversation, picking up the phone and seeing why they didn't get back to you. I look at my pipeline every single day, okay. And I say, what are the deals? Next steps on those deals. And I execute and put those things first. Okay. After I've done those things, it's all about creating pipelines. So for me, my creation of pipeline is frankly very different now as a whatever influencer than it is for, you know, than it is for being a sales rep. So my pipeline is make videos. So anyone who follows me on LinkedIn, you'll see the videos and the content are coming out rapidly almost every day. And for me, that's just part of my, what I call my prospecting activity because I know if I create videos and build a brand people I'm getting inbound for my coaching and for my other my businesses. So frankly that goes on my calendar as consistently a buffer blog. So I buffer time for making my videos, for posting them, for commenting on LinkedIn, for responding to DMs. Right. That's more creation of pipeline activities. So to keep it super simple, look at your deals first and do whatever you need to do that advances the deals. But don't run circles when there's nothing left to do. That's when you move on to creation of pipeline activities. And then third priority is admin stuff. So I have some stack of papers. I don't know if this is going on video or not, but I have a few things I got to go through. This gets pushed off. Okay. It's not perfect but my, my strategy is to automate as much as I can. So everything from scheduling of meetings to you know, auto pay in my, in my, all my bills to outsourcing my landscaping, my housekeeping, my, you know, nanny care. Like I try and make it so I am fully spending all my time on RGAs versus things that frankly are not high value activities for me. So there's a lot of strategies I do, but generally if I can prioritize something that actually saves me time later, I will take the time to do that now. Okay, so if it's something I need to put like a widget or a plug in or maybe even a keyboard shortcut, like I'm sending the same note on LinkedIn. I have a wait list right now for, you know, my coaching and I'm like here's the link to the wait list. Make sure you're on it. So I can reach out like I was finding myself typing that out like I'm just put a keyboard shortcut for that and I did that today. Things that you can do to like that are repetitive and you see yourself like figure out how to automate those, that those are high priority as well because they're saving you time later and you, you can put that off forever if you don't have the right systems in place. So those are kind of the three buckets that I think about is like what will save me time later and then what will create pipeline? What will advance pipeline with number one priority advanced pipeline. Then probably things that'll save me time later. Then probably creating pipeline which is just always, you're always doing consistently.

Yeah, 100% now I have keyboard shortcuts for my calendar link, for my emails, for my four different zooms that I have for my registration link. I got all those shortcutted, right? So just like, all right, two letters.

There you go.

Send it off.

I'm thinking we're very similar in this because I saw your post, and it's like, so. So the other thing I do is I task. So I genuinely. At the beginning of the day, I have all my white space blocked off. And. And it's. Yeah, it's. It's really simple. I do the stuff that, like, needs to be done. Like, I have a meeting tomorrow. I got to prep for that. I got a customer that needs a contract. I got to set that out. I got an invoice I got to send out. That's something I should be outsourcing. But I still do some of my invoicing. So I send that invoice out, right? So things that are like getting the money, getting the money, getting the money, those come first. And then. And then it's like, create the pipe. And then again, anything that you're doing that's just repetitive, like, automated. Just take the time and get the automated system in place. So yesterday I was. I have this new mastermind that I'm running, and I'm looking into, like, AI tools to do a transcript so people can see it. So that's. That's a great example of, like, oh, I just need to do that. So I'll do that this afternoon is look into zoom transcript so I can give that to my people who miss it, and they can, you know, jump to the right sections of the recording to see, you know, what we're talking about. So little things like that always are coming that I'm looking for ways to improve efficiency.

No, I love that because there's. It's the eye for saving time, right? Because it's not how a lot of reps think. It's also not how a lot of leaders think. Right? Leaders, like, oh, do all these things. They never take into account maybe the prep that needs to go into it, Right? Something even as simple as, like, all right, I want my team making 50 dials a day. And I go, great. You know what you need in order to make 50 dials a day? 50 names?

Yeah.

How long does it take for them to generate those 50 names and to make 50 dials a day consistently across a month? How many names do you need? How long does that take to do? Right? And, like, they don't have the prep time align. Like, it's well, we taught with because we taught time management to my team. So we had literally like four sessions in onboard about time management. One of the things I walked them through was called the Two Hour Solution, which is one of my favorite time management strategies from a book called I'm blanking on Something for Success. I can't believe I'm blank. It's blue, it's Roger Seep. I can't even remember the name of it is right now, but I'll find it. But it talks about green time versus red time, green time versus red time. So the green time things that you're talking about, right, that's actually having the meeting. The red time is the prep. And one of the things it talks about is oftentimes reps will spend time in red where it feels like an rga, like I'm preparing for this meeting or I'm doing some research. But it's not really the revenue generating action. It's preparing for it, making sure you don't spend too much time red. So now let's flip this another direction. What happens if you get thrown off? Yeah, that's fine, Ian. All right. Plan my day to the media, like to the minute and all these tasks. But then it doesn't always work that way. How do you get back on track? How do you pull yourself back if things do go haywire?

It's all about, I mean, you got to give yourself grace. I'll say that first is progress over perfection. Making sure you're realizing like these habits have been ingrained with you for your whole life. So you're not just going to be able to flip a switch and turn into a robo productive KD or cognac right out the gate. Right. I've been spending years and years trying to get to this place where I genuinely am exhausted at the end of the day. And I've only worked eight or nine hour a day because it's intense work and that's how it should feel. That's a good thing. Okay. That shouldn't be once a month. I feel great. No, that should be every day. That's how you become very successful. So fundamentally, if you get out of sorts, if you've been out of sorts forever, that should feel normal for you because that's just your norm. But if you're actually real quick, I.

Actually want to jump in there real quick. Don't lose that thought. Where should someone start? I actually think this is very important because if you've been out of sorts for a while, which is most People, if we're being honest, where do you recommend someone starts with what you're talking about right now? Because I think sometimes it's not even overwhelms people the idea of getting organized and it becomes too much. All right, I've been chaotic for most of my life. How do I start doing some of the things you're talking about?

For me, what I started with, well, it started with getting off Adderall and I'm like, oh my gosh, my brain is going crazy going all these directions. I got to do something. So yeah, that's a different story. But, but I would, I would start with some, with some books. Honestly, there's a couple really good books because time management and habits are intertwined. It's time management is good habits of planning and consistently execute what you plan. Okay. And making sure you're planning the right things. A great book to start is Atomic Habits with James Clear, one of one of my favorites. Another great book is the Power of Habit. Now you know, the atomic habits is like, you know, really like tactical. Here's what you need to do to start building good habits and build upon Power of Habit is more like, more I'd say theoretical in terms of like what causes us to go into bad habits. And it's typically when we're doing things or we have to do things that we don't like doing or don't want to do because it's very easy to jump on a phone with a client if you're in sales and talk to them, have a great conversation, talk to your boss, talk to your friends because you're social potentially and that's easy for you. It might be a lot harder to do deep research on a strategic account that you're trying to crack into. Right. So. So the cool thing about the power habit is it really does help understand what are the cues and the triggers that cause us to go to the bad habits and how can we actually fix our patterns in that place. I know for me, I used to go to Bad habits or procrastination when I had a big project and the story I would tell myself about that was like, this is going to be so hard. This is going to be so hard. And I would make it hard because I basically built it up and I would procrastinate and then I made it really hard and I pull an all nighter and that will never happen again. So just understanding why we do things, a lot of times we're just resisting things that we don't feel like doing. And success means consistently doing the things you don't want to be doing. So that truly is. It's not all glory. You know, when you're an entrepreneur, when you're in sales, right, there's parts that are glorious, but a lot of it's just showing up every day. So fundamentally, I think a great place to start are those two books. And then. And then the seven Habits of Highly Effective People is also a fantastic book on habits, time management, prioritization. If you're going to take one tactic to start with, I would say this. For me, what I really, really value is just before the day starts, do your single what are the critical things to get done? And then block it off in your calendar. And so it's staring you in the face and you see it and what will happen naturally is maybe you don't execute, maybe you still procrastinate even though it's blocked off. Okay, but then you do it again and you're going to get pissed at yourself and say, I don't feel good. I said I was going to do this. I'm going to keep my word to myself. And then maybe you do it halfway and then the next day you do it again. And eventually when you keep planning every day, you get better and you grow and all of a sudden it becomes a game for you. Now, for anyone who wants to Gamify this, the 12 week year is a great way to do that. The 12 week year is a system, it's a book. And that's what I use, where you actually score yourself at the end of the week and you see how many of these critical tasks that I get done that I set out to do in the week and you're trying to get over 85%. I know for me that's always a battle to do what I set out to do. But books and books are great resources to start. And then accountability partners are also great resources because the 12 week year, you're part of a weekly accountability meeting, a wham. With a few people doing it together. And then you could actually have some buddies or friends that you can share your score. And if you scored 20% and only did two of the 10 things you set out to do, that's going to be embarrassing if you have to go tell your friends about it. So you do it 12 week strikes, you're going to be a different person. So that's something I have all my clients on is the 12 week year. Because it forces that discipline, it forces that planning, and frankly, it's just like anything else Once you get in the habit of discipline and planning, that's your norm. Your norm isn't procrastination anymore. Your norm isn't retreating and just avoiding the stuff you want to do. It's actually going and doing the hard things. Because it's not hard anymore. It's just normal.

No, I love that. And I remembered the book by this train your brain for success. I was like, how did I forget that book? Like, I've recommended it a hundred times. But I love, like, train your brain for success also, like, the Pomodoro method is a great one. Getting things done by David Allen's a good one of just, like, how to get tactical with this time management. Because it is. It's like you can get so much more done and then it does. It frees you up. Right? Because you've mentioned this around boundaries and it sounds like this is how you're thinking through it. Like, I would often ask my reps or managers, what would you do if you couldn't work from home? Like, and when I say work from home, I mean after hours, right? Obviously, we all work from home now, but it's like, all right, what if, quite literally, you got locked out of all systems after seven hours? What would you spend your time on in those seven hours? Like, and helping that prioritize? You only got seven, versus to your point, we fill that day up. Like, it always concerned me when I would hear reps like, oh, I'm working like 10 hours a day. And I'm like, on what? Yeah, like what? You can't work for 10 hours a day and actually be doing it on the right things. Where is that time going? Right, so then how else does this then ingrain other places? Because you made a post recently about, like, you know, work life balance, work life integration. Like, kind of how that works. Like, how does this lead on to the personal side, too, around, like, focus and intention and everything there?

I think when you build the identity of being a hard worker, that is an identity that needs to stay with you in all areas of life. You don't just stop becoming a hard worker. So I'm a hard parent, right? Not hard as in strict, but, like, I am really trying to be present with my kids. I'm trying to. Yesterday, it's a Thursday night, we went on a bike ride and took them, you know, took them hiking. And then we went to dinner together as a family. And my wife was super happy. And I'm happy the kids are happy. He maxed. My son's like, this is the best day ever and it was a Thursday. So you can't be, you know, fundamentally so strict where you're like in this stressed out mode all the time, Monday to Friday and then turn it off and then be a different person Saturday and Sunday. It doesn't work that way. So if you're a hard worker, you're going to be hard working in all areas of your life. It means doing the dishes when you feel like sitting down because you want to get. Get it done and have a tidy house. It means you're not just taking the easy street for your personal life either. Okay. It means you're managing your finances, you're doing your investments. It looks like exercising on. You know, they say if you want something done, give it to the busiest person. Right. How do you manage to have a family and go to all the kids events and run a business and teach the side? Right. It's because you're efficient in all times in all areas. So for me, again, work life integration is just being efficient on my weekends too, and doing it in the right way. Like doing it with, okay, I'm not just sitting around the house doing nothing with my family. I'm in the, you know, we're doing the gardening or we're furniture shopping or we're going in this week, we're going up to Lake Arrowhead. So we're going to be gone for three days and hiking. I mean, but. But we're always doing something right? So I see people that have a double life and they're trying to work hard in the week, and then the weekends are just totally checked out or the nights are checked out. They hit the bong the first thing and they're just gone. It's like, this is my relaxed time. But that is literally identity conflict. You can't be both. How you do one thing is how you do everything. So for me, work life integration means being consistent in all areas of your life and staying true to your values. Right. If you're a hard worker, if you have tough conversations in your work life, you're going to have to have tough conversations in your personal life. It means showing up authentically, you know, for your friends and your family and your customers the same way. It means being the same person everywhere you go. Whether you're on Katie's podcast or whether I'm with my wife there, you're getting the same version. That's what I mean by work life integration.

No, I like that because it's like who you are is who you are and leaning into that and owning that is important, right? Like my biggest thing with all this is just intention, right? Like, what is my intention right now? Right? Because is my intention to relax then. Okay? But I'm actually doing relaxing with intention, right? Just vegging out on the couch watching Netflix for five hours is not actually relaxing with intention. That's not recharging in any way, right? That's just vegging out. And then you wonder why that energy doesn't come back. And I just think that's so, so important. As we start to come up on time, what else, what haven't we talked about yet around time management and focus management and energy management that you've seen work very well for you and the people you work with and coach?

I will say this. The big thing that I think fuels efficiency and working and actually executing the day has nothing to do with time management skills. It fundamentally has to do with optimizing your energy. Okay? And when I say this, I mean I am lean, I run, I eat, I drink a shake in the morning, an energy shake with enzymes and probiotics and greens. I drink a shit ton of water, I get rest every night no matter what. You can't work efficiently if your brain is foggy, okay? And so for me, the component of self care in truly making sure that I'm connecting my body, my mind and my soul to what matters is how I get my energy. So that's a combination of, you know, my physical health, it's a combination of having the right connections in my family and making sure the home front is going well and addressing things because if I have shit on my mind that's personal and fighting with my wife, whatever, that's going to come into work. So you have to take care of the holistic. It's like your body's a car and you've got to give it the premium gas and make sure you're fueled so you can perform right. And you're going to run out of gas eventually if you're just driving and not taking care of, not maintaining the car and not putting the right fuel in it. So getting the routine consistently that consists of things that fuel your body, your mind and your soul, I think is so important. So for me, again, having my spiritual routine, my daily prayer, or whether it's journaling or meditation or whatever you do to fuel that kind of true purpose, that inner self of knowing who you are and connecting to that, that's key physical exercise and of course, the people connecting with people that give you energy on a consistent basis when you do that you are primed and you're going to feel good when you're working. And, and frankly you're going to work a lot more efficiently. Efficiently. So that's, that's what I would add as a final is like take care of yourself so you can take care of your work.

I love that. Right. And the same idea, we talked about this a lot with my org is like, you know, work life integration or work life balance. Sounds like that. It makes it sound like work and life are on two opposite ends of a teeter totter. It's not how it works. Try having a great home life if work is awful, if. And try having a great work life if home is awful. It doesn't work like they bleed into each other 100%. And so doing that. And I love the call out to energy, right. Because I've talked about this a lot. I think there was a post you saw, right. So such thing as time management, you can plan your time, but management actually comes down to focus and energy.

That's right.

Where do you focus your energy? Right. Like that's what you're actually managing is how much energy do I have and where am I applying my focus and what bleeds into the time. So as we wrap on this, I should get to flip the question because normally at the end of the podcast, you know, this is live better, sell better. What's your live better advice? This whole session has been on living better. So I get to flip it with you and say what's your sell better advice? Before we wrap up because you've done amazing things in the sales world too. So everything we just talked is like this applies everything, sales, life, whatever on time management, focus management. What's your parting piece on sales like? Selling better. What would be your parting thought to people listening there?

Yeah, it's really, really simple. And that is this. And I'm going to steal. I think maybe it's from Zig Ziglar, his quote, but he says if you help enough people get what they want, you're going to get what you want. And it's really simple. Don't make it about you. Right. When my ego is shining in a meeting, when I'm making about my goals and what I want, I'm doing the talking. I am always repelling the customer. But when I'm genuinely trying to help and being curious and just having conversations geared around understanding where they may need help and if they even need my help in the first place, and then coming up and sharing how I can help them, everything else works. So help others get what they want. Don't make it about you. And watch the sales, like really shine. Just it's all about other people, not yourself. I love it.

Zig Ziglar. You can get anything you want in life as long as you help other people get what they want first. And that was the opening line to one of his sales books. And I've always loved that since. So, em, I mean, where can people get more of you? Where are you putting out content? What are you working on right now? Like, where can people get more of what you're putting down right now?

Yeah, I think best place is LinkedIn. Connect with me on LinkedIn for sure. If you're interested in sales coaching, go to untapyoursalespotential.com. there's a wait list there. We're closed for the year, but you can get on the wait list. I'll let you know when the new cohort comes out. Untapyoursales potential dot com. I got a YouTube channel. Ian Cognac is the name. And then I have a newsletter. So if you just connect on LinkedIn, I'll get you all those resources. Shoot me a DM. We can chat there and let me know how I can support you.

Hell yeah, my man. Well, we'll probably do for a part two on this for sure. So I'm sure we'll team up on some stuff here. But I appreciate you, man.

Thank you.

Thank you for the energy and insights today, man. It was really, really good.

Thanks for having me. And I love chatting with you and love what you're doing too. So let's do it again for sure. Oh yeah, my man.

We'll make it happen.