660. Don't FREAK OUT! 3 Legs To Your Stool Of Success

Tell me of a time recently where you freaked out, you panicked and you didn't handle yourself well, and I know it's probably a place that you don't want to go back to, but if you want to minimize the likelihood in freaking out again and handle yourself poised and confident in the next situation, then there's three areas that we need to address that will reduce the likelihood and you ever freaking out again, if you're tired of settling. Then we better get the selling welcome to The Sales Life All right, TSL. Let's get it. Welcome to another episode of the sales life. I am your host, marsh Buice I'm super pumped and super grateful that you are here because out of the millions of episodes there are to choose from. You chose this one. So if you've been here before, thanks for coming back. And if this is your first time here, well, welcome These episodes. They're not super long. We're going to get you in and get you out so you can get on with your sales life. So let's talk about something that is all too familiar for all of us. And that's panic when panic sets in and Panic sets in, in three kinds of ways, a you weren't prepared B you lacked experience or C you didn't apply any reflection to it all. No wonder you freak out. You have to think of success. It's three legs on a stool in each one of those legs is being prepared. It's experience and it's reflective thinking. And I don't think we dissect the instances when we didn't handle ourselves well, or we freaked out because we just think sometimes man is just gonna one day kind of fix itself. or we get into the woe is me land where we say, I'm just, I'm just not meant to be, but walk with me, we're going to break each legs of these stools down. So that way you can apply these legs back to your stool and you'll be sitting pretty. So the first thing is, you gotta be prepared. Yes, you do have to be prepared. You cannot go throughout your life. You can't expect to do anything well, professionally, if you don't have some sort of level of preparedness, so stop winging it. Now I will say this. If you're prepared. There are instances where you can wing it because there are gonna be instances that you come into that you're unfamiliar, but because you're equipped, you can handle yourself in the situation. May not be perfect. May not be silky smooth, but you can still handle yourself and get through that layer which causes you to have experience, when it comes to preparedness. Think about it like this. I live in Southwest Louisiana. I'm just a few miles. I like I'm a jog away from the Gulf coast. Well, what happens in the Gulf coast last year, we were rocked by category four. Hurricane just devastated our city. And recently new Orleans, three hours away from me was rocked with a category four hurricane. So strong. In fact, it went all the way to New York and wreaked havoc. That's how strong these storms are. But every, I don't know, June to November is hurricane season. And so during the season, I gotta be prepared. See, I don't let the storm hit me. And then I'm like, okay, what do I need to do? It's an hour away now. I gotta be prepared for it. So being prepared means I gotta have water. I got flashlights batteries. I gotta have a generator, big gas cans, extension cords, some money. because the ATM maybe out and then I gotta have the insurance policies, make sure they're all up to snuff. Make sure I've read them and know what's covered. What's not covered some containers to take clothes and stuff with me above and beyond what a normal suitcase would be, because I'm probably gonna have to pack heavier. See, this is all about being prepared. So when the storm comes. I can take action. I'm not trying to figure it out on the move. I've already prepared. I've got these things segmented to head out now prepared doesn't mean that you're fully complete. And I think sometimes people, I don't know, they use preparedness as a crutch and they think, oh, I just, I kind of do, you know, a little bit more, I'm going to prepare a little bit more. That's really a crutch that they're just terrified of getting out there. So I've got salespeople that are like overly prepared and they'll camp out going land by line of trying to know everything. I said, dude, it's impossible to know everything. You need enough to be equipped to handle yourself and the rest of it. I'm going to have to teach you on the job. OTJ. To teach you on the job. I got to teach you on the fly. Cause some of this stuff, man, you've got to roll it into experience. Many times people over-prepare and they think that they have to read a hundred books before they start a podcast. No read a hundred pages. And when, one of the ideas bubbles up, run with the thing, go. Because even if you're fully prepared, if you lack the experience is not going to come out the way that you think it is anyway. And what you think is a masterpiece 10 years from now, you're going to listen to it and be like, it's kind of like my daughter, the other day, she had school pictures. And so she was wondering, should I wear my hair up? Should I wear my hair down? Should I, you know, she's got big poofy, beautiful curly.hair And she was like, should I leave it? I call it the lion king mane . Shall I leave it like that? I said, baby. I said, she's 13. I said, it doesn't matter because whatever hairstyle you're going to go with, you're going to look back at this picture, this school picture 10 years from now and be like, I can't believe I had that hairdo. So don't give it so much thought getting back to what we're talking about. Be prepared, but equipped enough, just to take action. You're never going to fully know everything. I don't. I'm 23 years in sales. I'm 48 years in life. I don't know everything, but I'm ready because every day. I'm a little bit more prepared. Now we've got to push it off because now that you're prepared, that's only one leg of your stool. That's only 33% of your success. Now comes the bubble guts time, where you a little queasy, you got to get out there, get some experience underneath, right. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the key to his success was reps, reps, reps. The reps got to take reps . You're a battleship in the battleship was not made to sit in the dock and welcome tourists. No, the battleship means that you get out there and the tumultuous waters of life and you get slapped around a little. You get backhanded a little bit, you get knee capped a little bit. You get two legs taken out from underneath you, and it means that you take some losses, you take some hits, but because you're prepared, you can power through with the little that, you know, here's, what's interesting. You came in bringing whatever level of experience, even if the experience isn't the same situation. As before you, you're able to carry some sort of baggage of experience over. And so now here's, what's beautiful about life is you come out the other side. And gain more experience. Now you're even a little better. You may not like the result. You may not like how you handled yourself, but you're better, but you won't be better and you won't realize you're better until you apply the last leg of your stool. And that's reflective thinking. This is where people mess up. Man. Most people prepare themselves they get experience. They get their ass handed to them a little bit and they go right back in to find it more experience, experience, experience, experience, experience. And they wonder why they have diminishing returns and then they throw their hands up and they go back to their old mediocre job in the mediocre neighborhood, hanging out with old mediocre classmates and say, well, I tried it's because you didn't apply reflective thinking to your situation I cannot stress how important reflective thinking is. And this is like your homework. You know, in school the teacher says, Hey, we're going to go over some things in class. There are things that we didn't get to that you're going to have to take home and I won't be in front of you. And I need you to sit down and think and wrestle with it a little bit. And figure it out and come up with an answer and we'll check it tomorrow. I think many times we take the same approach to our lives as we did the homework in our classes. You didn't like doing the homework, you put very little effort in. If at all, and you just hope you're not going to get a grade for it. You always like to pick the teachers that don't grade your homework, and if it's not graded, then that means I don't have to do it. That's what we do in our lives. And we say, oh, I'm not getting a grade for it. I'm not getting paid for it. So we show up the next day a new assignment comes. Tuesday Wednesday. And then we're like, I don't know how to do this because you haven't trained yourself to give some reflection, to do some homework in the offline hours where you sit down and you wrestle with it a little bit. So, if you don't apply reflective thinking to your life, it's like you're trying to sit on a two legged stool. It's just wobble. I mean, I mean, I got to balance myself when you got another leg right there. You've already prepared. You had some experience. But then, people just roll right into the next experience. But if you apply that last leg of your stool and give some reflection to what went right, what did you do? Well, what did you not do so well, if you apply some reflection to that, you got a 99% chance of success because you got all three legs of your stool. When you apply reflective thinking, you'll make it personal. You won't take it personal. See, when you don't apply reflective thinking, you don't think about. The level of preparedness that you had, you don't think about the experience that you just went through. You just roll into the next thing. Well, that's what causes you to take it personal and you say, oh, life's conspiring against me. But if you apply reflective thinking, this is where you make it personal. And make it a fabric of your success. You take some of those losses and you make it into more wisdom and you apply it as a part of your preparedness. Think of your reflective thinking as a, I don't know, like a game film of sorts. So in sales, you do a mental game film of how you did with the last customer. Get some reflection to it. You prepared, you knew your product. You've been working in sales for a year. But this one just didn't come out. Right? Give some reflection to that, even if it went perfect, you made a sale reflective thinking. So give some thought to it. How did you handle it? What were the disconnects? What were some things that they ask you that you could not answer? How did you handle the phone call? You got off the call and you didn't have a call to action. They said, oh, we'll let you know. And you hung up. Give some reflection to that in the moment while it's still red hot. And you say, I didn't have a call to action. I didn't even set up the next phone call. Like, like I'm just expecting them to call me back, see that's reflection. Or if you didn't handle the interview, right. You walked in thinking that you're going to interview 1 on 1 and you walk in and there's a round table full of executives. That are peppering you from all kinds of different directions, of questions. And if you don't give any reflection to it, you're going to take it personal. Hire me. They already had somebody chosen anyway, but if you give reflection to it, it pulls the emotion out of it and you make it personal you break it all down. Bob, over here. Hit me with a question. God, no, I knew that answer. I just clammed up. I just didn't think about it. Here's the answer. And you may come up with a thought of a follow-up. How different would that be? You follow up with the HR director, say Mr. Sanders asked me a question the other day and I don't think I answered it properly. Is he around where I could tell him? Or would you mind if I told you what that answer is? Cause I know the answer it's reflective thinking. Out of the reflective thinking comes a recycle of sorts because now what you're able to do is you've given it some thought you've broken it down. This is what went right. This is what didn't go well, so you roll it into preparedness, just, just that area right there. You get it ready? You get it. Silky smooth. You handle it better and you roll it into the next thing. Or it's more polished. It's more thought through. Boom. And then you push it off to the next experience and as you do this, you apply these three legs of your stool. That 1%, that luck luck favors the prepared, the experienced and the one who gives reflection to the experience. That's when luck can kick in as the ignition of like, why can't I get lucky because you're not prepared? What can I get lucky? Cause you won't take on any new experiences. Why can't I get lucky because you give no reflection. You just shrug it off and move on. When you do this, when you roll these things over and over again, just imagine this, you keep recycling. You keep reinvesting those dividends oh, my gosh, this is what makes you RFA ready for anything. See, I have RFA badge I'm ready for anything in sales. There is not anything a customer can ask me that I'm not ready for. Do I know every answer? No. Am I ready to give an answer? Yes. So I'm ready for anything. And when you ask me that question, I'm going to be able to handle myself. And confident. And even if it's not the exact answer, it's enough to push through poised and confident and we can figure it out along the way. I show RFA. You want to be ready for anything. It's how you do it. You make sure you have three legs to your stool. And then you reinvest that over and over again. This is what's going to weaken the intensity of your freakouts of your panics. Now the first time around using your stool. Preparedness experience. And now you're going to apply some reflection to it. You'll realize that you survived, ah, made it, and you'll be less helpless. Three to five times around. You're going to be better six to 10 times around. Oh, you're going to be confident. 12, 24, 36 times around making sure that all three legs of your stool of success or attached. Oh man, you'll be unstoppable because you'll be tighter in your thought. You'll be more concise, more decisive and you won't freak out. That's the thing that customers want to do business with somebody who is like that. That's the thing. That's going to get you promoted. That's the thing it's going to make that HR managers say they don't want to have all the qualifications, but there's something there. I I'm going to go with my gut on this one. We're going to hire you. So let's crack open the TSL tool chest. Let's make sure we got all your legs attached. Three legs through your stool. What are they? Go ahead. I'll wait, let me help you prepare experience. What's the last one reflective thinking, rinse and repeat over and over again. Now tell me of a time. that you freaked out recently and which one of those legs were you missing? Let me know which one of those it is. And speaking to that, I'm not just saying that, you got a way that you can connect with me. Now, go to marshbuice.com. I'm gonna spell it for you. M a R S H B U I C E. It looks like juice with a B in front, but the Uis silent . So it marshbuice.com You will find over 600 episodes of the sales life. You'll also find all the links where I hang out on the socials in the top right-hand corner. You'll also find the link for the YouTube channel. So that way, if you want to watch this episode and so many more, then you can click on that. It'll take you right to the YouTube channel. Be sure and subscribe if you hang out there. And then also in the bottom right-hand corner is a microphone. Well, you can leave me a voice message. I'd love to hear from you, how you progress is going, what's been going on in your life. And also if you have a book recommendation or some ideas for the sales life, I'm all ears. I'm no hair, but I'm all ears. And I'd love to hear from you on that. So let's get out of here remember this, the greatest sale that you will ever make is to sell you on you because you're more than enough. Stay amazing, stay in the sales life.