Limiting Beliefs in Door-to-Door Sales: Avayda Pest Canada Keynote and Q&A

Thank you for having me today. I wanted to say thank you to James, to Rob, to everybody else who made this possible to have me come in. You guys are a special group of guys. I was talking to Shawn about this before I started. I do a lot of door-to-door sales training for a lot of different companies, and door-to-door has the stereotype of like guys that are too cool to learn, or like They're hotshots and they can't be told anything, like they know it all. That is not the vibe I get from this room at all. A lot of you guys are hungry, a lot of you guys are really freaking humble, and I get to work closely with James. Where's James at? Just want to give a shout out to him. Very, very humble, very, very hungry, produces at such a high level, but you wouldn't like know that this guy's like a killer on the doors because he'll come up to you and just give you the massive hug. And so just I love that that is part of your guys' culture here. You guys talked about producing like some of the top performing sales reps and building a solid foundation. You guys will do that as long as you're hungry, as long as you're humble, and then you set a good example for those that you're leading. Who'd I talk to before this? I was like, are you married? Was it you? Alright, Tomas, this is not a call out to you. I want— I just— something that him and I talked about beforehand that I was planning on talking to you guys about today. But who wants to have like the biggest freaking year of their life? Raise your hand. Okay, so this training that I did with this company is all going to be on my course, where if you just pay $100 a month, you'll be able to have access to everything that I said, all of the sauce. So yeah, there's a little bit of free stuff here, and if you've liked the free stuff, you're going to freaking love the stuff that's on the course. I hold nothing back on the course. I was at a very similar event like this years years ago, it's when I first started in door-to-door sales. My door-to-door sales story is very, very unique. I got into door-to-door sales and I did solar. If there's anybody in solar here? Nope? Okay, it sucks, okay, don't do it. So solar absolutely sucks, it totally destroyed my confidence. I got into door-to-door and I was dating my wife at the time, I'm like, listen, We're gonna be filthy rich, you're never gonna have to work a day in your life, I'm gonna bring so much money in, and that was 'cause I had this perception out in Utah that these door-to-door guys made stupid money, and I started knocking doors for solar and my heart was broken, like I struggled so bad, I struggled to even close a sale, it was these really big ticket stuff, if I had just started in pest control, my life would have been so much easier, but I came home, I bawled my eyes out, I told my wife I'd never do door-to-door sales ever again, and I wasn't one of those quote unquote sales bros. I eventually was forced back into door-to-door because I couldn't get a freaking job at Costco. Y'all know what Cracker Barrel is down in the South? Okay, I'm from the South. We got Cracker Barrel down there. And y'all ever heard of Waffle House before? Okay, cool. I almost applied at Waffle House. It would have been a way better story. But I applied at Cracker Barrel, Costco, Home Depot, couldn't get a darn job. I could not find any work, and so I was forced back into door-to-door, but not out of inspiration, out of pure desperation. Inspiration. Who is here right now out of pure inspiration, like, "Dude, I'm stoked to be here, I'm gonna make a lot of money." That's a good answer. Who's here out of pure desperation, because that's the only reason I ever got into door-to-door? There we go, we got one guy who's being honest. Everybody else?

Huh?

Nothing else.

Cool. Listen, all you know how to do is knock doors, right? That's all I know how to do. What did we say over here? I can't drive. I can't drive. That's all good, man.

Don't worry.

But you can sell, bro. You're the guy that stood up for all that preseason rev, right? This guy can sling, OK? So you're in a Golden Door last year too. I think I saw you at Pesci's, right? There we go. OK. So long story short, I was forced back into door-to-door just out of pure desperation, guys. I didn't necessarily want to do it, but I had a family to provide for. And I needed to level up. When I came back home to tell my wife that I was gonna do door-to-door sales, guess what? It wasn't like, hey honey, you got this. Guess what she did? She looked at me dead in the eye, she was like, dude, go do it, but just don't come home crying this time, please. Like she was not like cheerleader there, she was pretty stern with me. She's like, I don't want to have you come home again crying, we need you to figure this thing out, okay? But that first season, I was sitting in a kickoff event just like this, The CEO of the company that I was working for told me and told the entire group that the best way to level up in sales, I'm gonna share a lot of technique with you guys today, but if there's one thing life-related that I want you guys to internalize and implement, it's just to commit to the thing that you're scared of doing, okay? And that has everything to do with your guys' goals. Like maybe you've got that dream to hit a Golden Door and you're like, oh, one day, one day, one day. It's like, no, no, no, how about today you commit to do that? Okay, or maybe you're married or you're dating— I'm sorry, maybe you're dating a gal and she's like the love of your life and you're like, no, I'll push that out down the road. No, just freaking commit. Okay, life is better when you go all in and you commit and when your back's up against the wall. So for me and my wife, I went to this kickoff event with my wife and at the time it was like, do we have kids or do we not? And for me, like, if anybody knows me, okay, they know that I love my daughters, but there was a moment in my life where I was terrified of becoming a father. And so when I went to this kickoff event, my CEO said, "Do the thing that you're scared to do. Commit to the thing that you're afraid of doing, and then your life will just start to go crazy." So my wife and I were like, "Cool, we're gonna have kids." Scared the hell out of me, okay? But from that point on, my sales career just went insane. When I had pressure, when my back was up against the wall, I had to perform. I will never forget, like turning the, you ever seen those little gender reveal things where people turn the poppers and the confetti comes out? I was selling 2 or 3 a day, right? 2 or 3 a day before we'd had our gender reveal. I had all this pressure and everything. We do this gender reveal. And all this pink smoke comes out, and I swear I turned into a monster on the doors. Like, nobody told me no because I had to provide for my baby girl. Juan knows how it goes. Hey, Juan's a dad. Okay. I promise you guys that if you commit to the thing that you're afraid to doing, whether it's not— whether it's to go hit another Golden Door, whether it's to get married, have kids, buy the house, do the thing that scares you, Life is so much better when you're all in. Don't half-ass life. It's just not worth it. Go all in on what you want to do and you'll be so much more excited. I want to open up the floor a little bit. What's the thing that you're afraid to do? Somebody just be vulnerable, authentic. I'm not a big surface-level guy. I like to get real and raw pretty quick. Go ahead.

Technology, like using calendars.

Really bad. Like Google Calendar?

Yeah, like so bad at like booking appointments and like scheduling calls and I leave everything last minute.

Cool, we can talk about that afterwards. That's an easy one to implement. I can talk to you about it. Like, no, that's actually for real. Like, you just kind of willy-nilly kind of go about the day?

Yeah, I'm just like really unorganized.

Okay, that's an identity shift too that we can talk— we'll talk about that here in a second. But like having an identity shift is going to be huge for you. Okay, but like implementing systems to have better time management. Am I hearing you right? Better systems. Okay, great. Okay, anybody else? The thing that you're scared of doing?

I think being a rookie again, you know.

Okay.

Being willing to like go out there and then struggle again and then do whatever it takes.

Okay. Okay, cool. Anybody else?

Falling short of like a goal again.

So expand on that more. What do you want? What is the thing that you're scared of committing to then?

Like on like the year, like I'm more scared about like if I'm gonna hit my goal or not.

Okay, what's your goal?

300.

Okay, what's your shirt say?

My what?

What's your shirt say?

Faith over fear.

Okay, cool. I think so a lot of times we struggle to commit this stuff because like what if I fail, right? And that's typically the fear of what do other people think of me, right? Because if you, and this is like when you guys commit to things, thanks for bringing this up, thanks for being vulnerable. Okay, when you guys commit to something, isn't there kind of that imposter syndrome of like, who's gonna— who has like a massive goal that they're kind of scared to hit right now? Cool. Okay, one of my mentors, Ben Kerr, you guys ever heard of him before? Go watch his movie, it's called Stand Out. Okay, but he calls these goals diaper goals because you set them and you better have a diaper on because you'd be pissing yourself. Okay. Because they better scare you. Okay? And if you— these diaper goals, like these goals that scare you a ton, like it's okay to be a little afraid, but then have faith and you can have faith to be able to navigate through that fear. But dude, a lot of times we operate from the past and we're printing the past on the future. Because I failed once, it means I might fail again. Has that ever popped up in your head?

Yeah, a little bit.

Okay, cool. It happens to everybody in this room. It happens to myself included. Okay. My first ever sales camp for Maser Sales Training, absolute train wreck. Wreck, okay? And then afterwards I had to constantly like— I doubted myself. Could I do this again? Could I? And I did. I figured it out, dude. So $300K, right? Okay, so what's holding you back from just committing again aside from that fear?

Well, I'm like, I'm pretty sure I'm committed, but it's more just like, uh, like I'm more just like more like having the stress on me where it's like I said I was gonna hit a goal last year and then I didn't do it, or like my rookie year didn't do it, and then last year didn't do it. And so this year it's like, I know I'm committed to it, but it's more like the stress about like, am I actually going to do it? Am I going to do what I said?

Okay, cool, dude. I would just say like, it kind of goes back to him, like implementing systems. And we can talk about that tonight afterwards. I'll kind of do a Q&A a little bit about this, but like, open— like, create systems in your life that allow you to excel, okay? Um, and then also, dude, like, the past is the past. If you're not setting big enough goals and you fall short every now and then, Like, it means you didn't have big— like, you have big goals and that's good. So now we just have to change your inputs. Don't change the goal, dude. Change your inputs to be able to go hit that. Are we cool on that? Okay, don't change the goal, change your inputs. Cool. Anybody else that have something they're scared of doing they need to commit to?

I'm scared of losing motivation. That's my biggest fear.

Okay, what happened? Why is that a fear of yours?

I feel like my rookie year, I feel like there was a time where I really questioned is this worth it? And even after the season ended, I was like, is it worth it to come back? You know, dude, if I, if I come back, I have to commit to it, and I have, I, I have to put in like my 100% effort.

Okay.

And I just feel like I just didn't have like good whys, like why am I doing this?

Okay. Has anything shifted since then?

Uh, my work ethic.

Okay.

I feel, you know, I, uh, made a huge commitment. I dropped my athletic career that I had.

What'd you play?

I was a swimmer.

Cool.

Yeah. And yeah, now I'm like fully committed to this, but I'm just afraid that it's just not going to be enough.

Were you half in, half out before, like doing swimming and doing selling type stuff? Okay, dude, I promise you, if we let fear be the thing that drives us, we typically like get pulled back towards that. If we think about— and this is what I want to focus on just a little bit right here, okay? Where focus goes, energy flows. Write that down in your notes. Where focus goes, energy flows. So what you think about is what you're more likely to get out of life. So, and this goes, it ties exactly back into what you were saying before. Dude, I promise you it's worth it. I promise you're sitting in the right room. Everybody here right now is sitting in an opportunity that will take them to their goals so freaking fast if you let it. But if you're half in, half out, what up dude, good to see you, you won't get the results that you wanna have with this. So guys, with this, go full tilt, okay? The reason why I'm standing in front of you guys today is 'cause I decided to go full tilt for a year, knock out 1,000, or like you Canadians say, bang out 1,000. You guys bang out 1,000 accounts, okay? Banged out 1,067 accounts, 4 and a half months, and now it's opened up so many opportunities for me in life. You guys gotta go full tilt, and then opportunities will start opening up a ton. One of my mentors said, put your nose to the grindstone. He called me right before I started speaking with you guys, super special moment for me. But he said, put your nose to the grindstone now, And then you'll look up in a couple years and doors will be open to you like, like crazy. Like so many doors will open up to you in life, but you've got to go full tilt. You've got to go all in. About 15 months ago, guys, before I started this, I was in a hospital having what I thought was a stroke. It was actually just a panic attack because I went all in. Scared me to death. But dude, it was way more exciting to go all in than it was to be half in, half out. Okay. A lot of good stuff has come from this, but it's going to be through identity shift and then through setting big goals. Okay, so vision boards. I have an assignment for everybody here. If you do not have a vision board for exactly what you want out of life, you need to make one like immediately. So the burnout— you talked about losing motivation, right? Instead of thinking about what if it doesn't work, what if it doesn't work, what if it doesn't work, how about we say this is what I'm looking for, this is what I'm working towards. Do you have that on paper yet? Like clear, crystal clear goals. This is the house I want. This is where I want to live. This is how much I want to make for a year. Yet, do you— I need you to get it. That will resolve most of your problems. Okay. Your why, but also your vision for your life. Where focus goes, energy flows. If I worry about, hey, I ain't going to get it, I ain't going to get it, I ain't going to get it. What am I not going to get? I'm not going to get it. Okay. Versus if you're, if you're focused on what you're going for, then you're going to have a way better outcome. We cool with that? So everybody write down in their notes, make a vision board. Okay. I want to challenge you guys for the— I want to make a challenge for you guys. Don't make this some freaking like Stonks, Lamborghini, and ripped body. Okay. I want it to be like, great. It's okay to want to be ripped, but like, be specific. I want to weigh X amount, have this body percentage. I want to have X amount invested. I want to make X amount per year. Are you guys all cool with me on that? 'Cause I can see like, a lot of guys will make their vision boards for door-to-door. Knock if you're with me, knock on your chair. Okay, cool. Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up. Cool. We're just gonna do that to make sure people are awake. Okay, hands up if you're with me. Cool. This is called keeping people engaged, okay? Make sure you guys have that vision board, 'cause there's a stereotypical vision board where it all looks the same. But guys, like right now, I'm living in my vision right now. It's so freaking dope. But I had to put it on a vision board in order for this to happen. Okay, so identity like goes back to systems that we talked about earlier. You guys need to make sure that you have some sort of routine that strengthens that identity that you are a top performer. If you guys go out and you just kind of fiddle around after correlation, go to a gas station, and you're not— you don't have much urgency, number one, it's probably a lack of vision. But number two, like doing that sort of stuff is not going to give you the desired results. If you guys want to be ripped and shredded but you eat McDonald's every day and you don't go to the gym, there's some— there's There's some problems here. Are we cool with that? OK. If that makes sense, say yes. Yes. All right, cool. My wife does that. She works at Burn Boot Camp, so they do all these. If that makes sense, say yes. OK. And I have another one to keep people engaged. When I say aru, you say aru aru. You ready for this? Ready?

Aru.

Aru. Do it like aru aru. OK, ready?

Aru.

Aru aru.

There you go. Cool. We might do that occasionally to get people excited. I like Spartan logos. They're fun. OK. It looks like an M. So that's like a little bit of my business. So that's a little bit of the mindset I have for you guys. I really, really, really want you guys to commit and go all in on the thing that you're afraid of doing. Are we cool with that? And I really, really, really want you guys to create a vision for your life. Are we okay if we turn, like, turn just a little bit and go into technical stuff right now a little bit? What's my time cutoff with you guys? No time. 10 o'clock. Dude, you let me rip. All right, cool. Let's go. Okay. I like this. Okay. First thing I want to go over, like, on the technical side, are there any questions before we jump into a little bit of technique stuff that will double your guys' summers. Okay, go ahead. Just a quick one.

Do you ever get your focus on your goals shifted, not because you're not sure about it or because of your fear, because you're not sure which goal to go after, but you start getting like options now?

Oh, explain to me more. Do you feel like you like set too many goals?

Maybe if you get into recruiting more and you're like, okay, I'm spending a lot of time with my guys and I know I put a lot of effort in it, but I know that I have to take away from that a bit to take, like, maybe if my goal is to sell whatever it is next year, okay, I have to take away from that.

So there will be times in your life, like, I feel like faith, like, the way I kind of measure my life, and I'll share, I'll share a story with you, maybe that will help, okay? And then I'll answer your question. So there was a time in my life where I was struggling a ton in my sales, and I'm like, dude, what's going on? I have no clue. Like, I'm I'm used to selling 7, 15, 20 accounts. I can sell 20 accounts in a day. I'm like, what's going on? And the same mentor that I just talked to you guys about, I messaged him. I'm like, dude, what's up, man? I'm a thousand— this is after my thousand account year. I'm like, dude, I'm a thousand account rep. Why am I struggling to sell 2 or 3 accounts in a day right now? And he sent me a text message. He's like, dude, I'm gonna ask you a couple things. This is how you check yourself in life. He goes, how are you with God? How are you— how's your relationship with God? How's your relationship with yourself? How's your relationship with your wife? How's your relationship with your kids, then your community, and then work? And so he asked me, I'm like, yeah, I'm good with God, man. I'm going to church, I'm praying, I feel great. He says, how are you with you? I'm like, I'm doing good, man. I'm eating good. I go to the gym. He goes, how you doing with your wife? I was like, oh, not— I mean, we bicker a lot, right? And so that was like the bottleneck for a lot of my sales. So there's a lot of— like a lot of you guys think you might have a sales problem. This is a Doug Cartwright quote, but a lot of you guys think you have a sales problem. A lot of times it's more of a personal problem that's holding you back from having a big sales breakthrough. Okay, so ask yourself what that is. Like, go through that audit. If there's something wrong with like whether or not you're religious or not, your perspective on the world and spirituality and the universe, how are you with yourself? If you're not confident in yourself, there's no way you can sell anybody on pest control. From what I hear, these people didn't wake up wanting pest control. Am I right or am I right? This is like people don't think about it. You need to be sold on you if you're going to sell something that people weren't sold on having when you showed up to the door. Relationships with girlfriends, who's ever had a fight with a girlfriend or a wife? If you don't have your hand raised, you're probably lying. Or you don't have a girlfriend yet, but we'll get you there. If that happens, it's really hard to sell at a high level. Answering your question now, will there be time periods in your life where you need to go full tilt in certain categories? Absolutely yes. Do you think that I was going on date nights like all the time with my wife and I was doing 1,000 accounts? Hell no, dude. We were on the doors like my wife expected me to be knocking until 10:00 at night. We got in fights over that.

Okay.

She was like, dude, you can't be out there knocking. Who's ever seen Breaking Bad? Raise your hand. Okay. You guys know that the scene where they get in a fight and she's like, you can't be doing this. He's like, I am the one who knocks. Like that argument has happened in our house. Okay. Where he's like, if I go, if I, if I don't do this, a company the size of, you know, is going to go under. So like, we've had that argument, but the point is this: you've got— you need to go full tilt sometimes, but also set, set a season and set the expectation that you will go full tilt in a certain category for a certain amount of time. And then after that, you can like obviously live a more like harmonious life. But if you guys— who's doing a Golden Door this year? Raise your hand if you're doing a Golden Door this year. Like, raise them high. None of this like T-Rex arms. High. Stand up if you're gonna do a Golden Door this year. Okay, cool. So like, you guys— rather than plus. Okay, cool. So these guys, all you guys have done one before in the past, correct? Okay. Was it a little bit scary to stand up and commit? Okay, be honest with me. Okay, cool. That— this is what you need to lean into a little bit more. Okay, so I'm not going to make you guys commit on the spot right now, but how freaking committed— I mean, let's do it. Okay, let's have some fun. How freaking committed are you to doing this? How— you're in?

Okay, cool.

So this guy's— come up here, come here. You guys know my marketing stuff, like a little bit like fun. This guy is Golden Door or Bald. Okay, are you committed? I'm committed. Come on, Golden Door or Bald. OK, James, I don't want to make you have to come all the way up. Are you Golden Door or bald? The man button.

Uh.

Hey, are you Golden Door or bald? Am I Golden Door or bald? Yeah, do you know what that means? Bald.

Bald.

Like me.

If I don't hit the Golden Door. I'm nothing.

So hey dude, Golden Door bald.

Yeah, like I'll shave every single last hair on my body.

I don't want that. Okay, so we got Golden Door balls. James, are we Golden Door balls? Okay, round of applause for these guys. Okay, okay, take a seat. Good job. Okay, so actually you shave, um, shave here a little bit. Both you guys are a little scared. You guys haven't hit your Golden Doors yet?

Not yet.

No.

Okay. Dude, it's gonna take like, the Golden Door of Balls is kinda funny, your hair grows back, okay, except if you're me. Your time never comes back, okay, when you lose your time, it's gone. So this is committing all in. It takes a lot of cojones to stand up here right now and commit to doing a Golden Door. And these guys are leaning into that, there's a lot of systems that you need to have in place and you're going to be able to get it done, but just round of applause for these guys. Good on you, okay, good job. Take a seat, take a seat. Okay, so they're gonna need to go full go full tilt, like they might need to delegate some other responsibilities this summer. They're gonna be managers, gonna be helping, but they might need to go full tilt into selling this summer, and that's okay too because what's gonna come from that is they're gonna be able to impact more people. You guys are like the leaders in this room. What you guys do, this is another reason why you guys need to commit to go all in. What you guys do, these rookies that are gonna be in the room tomorrow, they look at you guys. You guys are their lid. Like, they look at you as like, oh, if that guy can do it, maybe I can do it. So you're not doing yourself a disservice when you don't go all in. The people underneath you that look up to you, like, you're doing them a disservice if you don't go all in on life. I was doing my family a disservice when I didn't go all in. I wasn't very motivated. I wasn't very excited about life. I wasn't the best husband. I decided to go all in. My life got a hell of a lot better. 'Cause my wife's actually like, oh my gosh, my husband's driven. He's got goals in his life now. So yeah, whatever it is, go all in. Are we cool with that? You can go full tilt sometimes as long as you know it's for a season. Are we cool with that? The guys who just go full tilt all the time and they never take a break off of work and they're just full tilt like psychopath obsessed all the time, their family life typically sucks, okay? That's why we see like divorce, not present fathers. Like, that's not my brand, dude. I want to go full tilt. I want my kids to know I'm going to go full tilt. And there's going to be a time period when that ends. Right. And there's a different season for to be, to be all in on family. If I'm with my kids, it's really hard to get a hold of me. Some of you guys already know that. Okay. That answer your question at all? Full tilt sometimes. And then, you know, I think we're like seasonal creatures. We can go full tilt and then go full tilt somewhere else in a different time— season of her life.