Start or Wait… What Should I Do?

0:04 Thank you for joining us on the Winning and Selling Podcast. I'm Bill Hellkamp of Reach Development Systems, and with me is Professor Scott Plum of the Minnesota Sales Institute. And together we have founded Franchise Sales Pro with a commitment to work with franchiseers and franchisees to drive sales and boost revenue. Have you ever been torn between jumping into action or holding back to wait for the perfect moment?

0:27 Today we explore the tension between taking immediate action and practicing delayed gratification. You don't have to wait another moment, as Bill and I pause to discuss start or wait. What should I do and other sublime statistics on Episode 676 of the Winning and Selling Podcast? Well, I think that's a grave challenge for many of us, is that desire to wait too long. So I'm excited to hear what you have to say about that.

0:58 But everyone, did you hear the different opening? Scott and I have started a more specialized offshoot of our sales training called Franchise Sales Pro. And our mission is to work with franchiseers and franchisees to drive sales and boost revenue. So we're kind of excited. Scott had some contacts in the franchise world and we saw that as an opportunity. It's really starting to blossom and it's exciting to continue to commit what we do but see a special focus on how we can really offer something very unique that's not being offered right now.

1:28 And I think the other thing too, Scott, is we've had just such a great response to Jason Talley's interview. Last week, I mean just the activity on LinkedIn and the number of downloads. And if you haven't listened to that, that's something to listen to. If you're a proponent of our podcasts and you do training for your own people like Jason does, let's talk. Maybe we'd like to interview you as well. But we talked to people who are using the ideas out in the world, out in the real world.

1:59 And also they pick up what they learned and what they apply and what works too, which is just the goal of the podcast. Always be relevant. Well, that's what we're trying to do is put this information out in the world and let people use it. So we're excited to hear when they do. That's why we had so much fun. Well, before we get into all those details and we start talking more about should I wait or should I go? Should I stay or should I go?

2:24 Should I go on the career? Yeah. Yeah, on my career and we spend too much time staying in the place we shouldn't stay at. But anyway, our book club, we're getting close to the end of sales perspective by Jimmy Zugsworth, Jimmy Z. We're going to do chapters 12 and 13 now. And chapter 12 is called How to Be Welcome Anywhere, Be Part of the Solution. And as I read this, Scott, I mentioned this earlier for Jimmy. He is the personification of Dale Carnegie for salespeople.

2:53 And this last two chapters kind of wraps that up and talks about some of these, I guess they would call him Dale Carnegie principles. That Jimmy has adapted for himself. So number one, be an encourager. Be the type of person who's out talking to people and saying you can do it. And that's what I think optimism and having a good attitude and a good outlook really has a tremendous influence. And if we don't think good of ourselves, we're not going to think good of others.

3:23 You can't outperform a negative self worth. So if you think you're a two, you're going to perform it a two. When in reality, you should feel like you're a 10, you perform it a 10. Well, I think it helps when, you know, we all have this thing in the back of our mind saying, I'm not good enough. I wasn't prepared. We see our own faults much more than other people do because we knew what we intended to do. And then what we didn't do, we see as a failure where other people might see that as a success.

3:52 So it is nice to have other people around us who can reflect that real vision of us because ours is so distorted. So encourage other people. I've never had somebody who was encouraging that I didn't want to see. True. Oh, yeah. Very true. All right. Number two, he says, bring a different game. Don't be like everyone else. Can you be creative in your sales process? The challenger sale talked about this. Our whole sales process is, can I bring new ideas?

4:23 Can I do it a different way? One of the things that Scott and I found is a different way to not be like other people is we do a lot of assessment work beforehand, which is valuable to our clients and valuable to us. So we have much more success in our training. And then we're doing long term coaching along with the training. And both of those things have been really catching for people that we weren't. Yeah. All right.

4:49 Number three, he talks about first impressions. And we've all heard how important a first impression is. I got out of this. He says pay attention to people. Learn their names, which is the Dale Carnegie principle. It's like number one person's name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language. So learn people's names and then learn about their children, their families. And then here's an important thing.

5:16 Remember what you've learned. So have you made that part of your selling to really develop that relationship? I do write down the names. I think Jimmy talked about when he's sitting at a table and he meets everybody. He writes their names down in a format that tells where they're sitting so we can call upon him. And I've seen you do that when we do a class bill, you lay out the sheet of paper and where everybody's sitting.

5:38 And you do that really, really well. I'm remembering everybody's name. I do not make a commitment to it. So I do not do a very good job of that. Scott does better with long term memory than I do. If I see those people again, there's no way I'm going to remember their names. For the purpose of a class, I might have 40 people in there and I will spend time. You will. Eating them all beforehand, writing down where they sit and trying to call them by name.

6:04 Sometimes I screw it up. I had one class that everybody was a J. John, Jonathan, Jeremy, Jackie. I couldn't get them all straight. But I do think that people appreciate that they are important enough for us to learn their names. So I think that's really, really cool. And I got that. I was a Dale Carnegie trainer and that was something that I learned there. And number four, he calls the turnaround. And this was a story about how he turned around somebody who was upset.

6:32 And he did it with the ability to, and you talk about this, Scott, he listened with the intent to understand, not the intent to answer. Right. We got that from Covey when we did that book, Seven Abbots. That was a great book. Great lessons in there. Number five, be part of the solution. Don't make the situation worse when somebody's upset. Listen to them and we're going to get into this again with lasting relationships.

6:57 But don't make the situation worse. Try to help make the situation better. We all are dealing with challenging situations in our life and our business. We appreciate people who help us and make the situation better. Mm hmm. Yeah, definitely. And then finally he finished with the power of a smile. I always heard a speaker say, are you happy? And people said, yeah. And he said, well, then notify your face. And I've always liked that.

7:24 Notify your face. Look like you're happy. I had a buddy of mine in college. He was a pianist and he really loved to play the piano, but he always looked sad when he concentrated, looked angry. He was playing the piano. He said, I know that's a problem. But when I concentrate, my face falls into this, this scowl. So you can practice smiling in front of the mirror until you have a smile you like. Right, right. Exactly. It makes a big difference on your outlook too.

7:52 It's amazing. Yeah, you feel better, don't you? There are studies done on that. The muscles, the hormones, everything. When you smile, you just feel better and your outlook is more positive and it overcomes a lot of disgust and adversity. Well, can you jump out of bed in the morning and go, hey, listen, I'm excited to get going, or do you? Some people do. Do you crawl out like Scott does and go, oh, got it. Oh, got it.

8:13 Other day. We got three alarms going and snoozing and I'm in a zone for about 45 minutes. I usually wake up before my alarm and then I'm ready to go. So I sleep pretty good. All right, Chapter 13, build lasting relationships. We're going to have times we have to go through these pretty quick. But hey, if you haven't read Jimmy's book, get the book. It is a very good sales book and a good read. People read how you feel about them.

8:37 So if we talk negatively, and I've talked this for years, Scott, don't talk negatively. Don't talk negatively about your customers. Because if you do, when you get with them, those negative feelings are going to come across. I talk about the water cooler talk. I learned this when I was in retail. We would talk about sometimes how stupid our customers and whoever the next customer is, we treated them like they were stupid.

8:59 Yeah. So how you talk in the back room, it's going to be how you treat your customers. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, good advice. You talked about how to deal with angry customers, three-step approach, listen to them fully, let them get it out of their system. Talk about popping the pimple or letting the volcano go. And then once they're done with their anger, then you help to solve the issue. And don't give it to someone else.

9:26 I'm going to pass you off to Larry over here. You might say, look, I'm going to bring Larry into our conversation, but I'm going to stay here because I'm going to be the person who's going to shepherd this problem through. My wife's been dealing with some issues with the company and everybody passes her off to someone else and nobody has an answer. But all they're doing is getting her off to somebody else, driving her crazy.

9:49 You have to deal with angry customers sometimes? I do, but I think about me being the angry customer. He'd be being on hold for 45 minutes. Talking to somebody who's supposed to be helping me and then claiming that they're going to transfer me to another person and then the call gets disconnected. And then the middle. That's one way to light me up and transfer. That's right. Yeah. Well, you want to make them angrier, pass them off.

10:16 Right. And then number three, and the last point he makes, trust is the cornerstone of a relationship. And Scott has talked about trust a lot. His two examples are be honest. What you can and cannot do, you might as well say it up front and then do what you say you will. And then those are the two. What are some of your advice for building trust? I think there's a difference between being honest and being transparent.

10:42 And I hear this kind of term tossed around a lot these days as being transparent. And that's sharing all of the information, not just being honest with the information that you share. And sometimes context is important when you are creating a situation and you want to tell a story. You need to have some context as to some of the other options and what you ended up doing or saying at that time. And that's giving all of the information on the transparency.

11:05 I think Scott that it didn't say be brutally honest. True. There's a big difference between brutally honest and honest. And just because I used to have a guy that worked at a computer store and my computer repair guy, his first question was what did you do to it? Oh, yeah. And the second question was, is it plugged in? And both of those were valid questions because usually it was something the user had screwed up. And oftentimes the computer wouldn't turn on because they'd kick the plug out of the wall or something.

11:39 So he was right, but how he said it was too brutally honest. Instead of saying, hey, let's check a couple of things. First of all, sometimes they get unplugged. They'd check to see if it's plugged in. And just how you approach things can be honest or can be brutally honest. So I think maybe that's that transparency that you talk about it. I agree. Sometimes it's not just an answer. It's an explanation, a story, something that provides some context.

12:05 So we are getting close to the end of sales perspective by Jimmy Z next week, chapter 14 and the wrap up. And after that, we have got Mitch Larson and he is going to be talking about the power of purpose. So if you haven't gotten that book, the power of purpose by Mitch Larson, go do it now. Yeah. Looking forward to that. So the topic today is start or wait. What should I do? And there's a contrast and a conflict between two philosophies.

12:33 One is the action philosophy and the other one is the delayed gratification philosophy. And I learned about the action philosophy. I read the greatest salesman in the world, the book by Augment Dino. And scroll number nine says that I will act now. And that's based on action. And then we did the book, The Magic of Thinking Big, David Schwartz. And his line was the way to combat fear is action. So when we think about these two quotes and when we get fearful or we get hesitant or we're not confident or unsure, sometimes action and just doing something gives us something to work with.

13:12 Otherwise we have nothing to work with. And in your life, Bill, has there been a time where you can share a time where you took action, even though you weren't 100% ready? I think I often take action. I can't wait for everything to be ready. I've always heard you can't go downtown if you wait for all the lights to be green. So you've got to deal with an idea. We mentioned this franchise sales pro that Scott and I have started together.

13:41 We didn't wait for everything to be right. We're kind of fiddling our way through it. We've got a big show next week that we're going to be at. We had to learn a lot of things in order. So we committed to the show. And then all the things we had to do to make that be successful we're working on right now. If we had waited to work on all the things we wanted to work on and then said we can't commit to a show till we have our business cards and our follow up material and our speech written and our, you know, church printed or whatever.

14:15 Well, we would be waiting forever because we wouldn't have gotten those things done. But by having the deadline of the show, Scott and I have gotten on our horse and gotten things done. So you need to make now, we also didn't commit to the biggest show in the world, right? Right. Where it's something local, something we can handle, but it's forced us to make decisions and learn and figure out what our process is. And I was with a group that before we were trying to work together as a team.

14:41 And this group wanted to have the website perfect and they wanted to have the brochure perfect and they wanted to have everything done before we made a phone call. And I said, maybe you should just make a phone call and see if you can have appointment. And then when you have the appointment, you'll figure out what you need to take to the appointment. I like that thinking, but I've had that thinking about it. I can't go out and make sales calls. I don't have my business cards yet.

15:02 It's just true foolishness. Right. Right. So we... Not on the website yet. Okay. Okay. Well, you're not going to, and you make that phone call, you're not going to meet that person for two weeks anyway. Right. So everything will get done in the meantime. And if not, you know, we don't even use business cards anymore hardly. So it's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So it took away with this action philosophy is action builds confidence and momentum and when in doubt, take action, you know, just do something.

15:30 Well, that's a, you know, Nike, right? Just do it. Yeah. Pick up and do it. And I heard a speaker once that when he has something hard to do, he says, the, the, the, the charge. And then he goes out and he does, he kind of gets himself revved up a little bit. I've had to stand up to make phone calls. Yes. Yes. Sometimes sitting down, it makes me too relaxed. So if I stand up, I'll start to do it. And I stopped thinking about it.

15:56 Like I get a lead. Don't think about it. Call him. Right. Don't think about it. Don't think about all the questions that you're going to ask. Just call him and you already know the questions. You've prepared it. Happened for you. You know what the question is. Only done this for 30 years. Scott, if I can't figure out the questions, I can't. Anyway, yeah. Just do it. Get going. Take action. Anantarian belief to this is, is the laid gratification.

16:18 And this comes from the marshmallow experiment. Remember the marshmallow experiment? I love that. That's a video. If you haven't seen the video, the marshmallow experiment, look it up. It's a study that was done at Stanford. I think it was in the 80s. Oh, it's the 60s or 70s. Oh, a long time ago. Yeah. And basically the experiment is you've got two kids or a kid in the room and you say, if you want, I can, you can have one marshmallow now or you can wait 15 minutes and when I come back in the room, then you can have two marshmallows.

16:51 And the kids then get to decide what they want to do. And the kids that waited and got two marshmallows were able to postpone the evidence and they had more confidence in this gratification and they learned, they studied them over time, but these people were more disciplined. They had more confidence in making goals. They achieved the goals. And here was what really was interesting when I read the study again lately is that these children had more faith than adults because they trusted adults to be able to fulfill their gratification.

17:20 And when an adult said something and the adult followed through, they had more respect for adults. That's the interesting thing watching that video, watching these poor kids, like they would lick the marshmallow and they would smell the marshmallow and they would touch and they're trying to delay themselves. But the more they focused on it, obviously the more desirous it became and the ones who were able to delay were able to put their mind someplace else and think it 15 minutes is a long time to a child.

17:50 But I looked it up. It was 1970 they started. Okay. Right. And it was two kids in a room too. So you had peer pressure about what they were going to do. They would support each other or discourage each other. What they were going to do is fascinating to see how it all unraveled. But that was that delayed gratification. So what should we do? Do we take action or do we have this delayed gratification? And thinking about the delayed gratification, it feels like we're not doing anything, especially when we're action oriented people.

18:18 But we need to really reframe this message to say that delayed gratification is not procrastination. It's a strategic patience. It's planning. It's looking forward out into the future and looking forward to something out in the future. So sometimes things just kind of work themselves out. So the delayed gratification. So you don't have to do anything. So they go away. And sometimes others just need to feel the pressure on taking action themselves.

18:44 And then your delayed gratification on wanting to help them, they end up figuring it out. And both people win in that. And it takes the pressure off of you. And this is kind of supporting my philosophy of stop helping people start working with them. Well, I think we're talking about two different time frames here. I don't think delayed gratification has anything to do with whether you start or stop. Right? Delayed gratification says, because I started, so you and I, again, I'll use an example of starting franchise sales pro.

19:18 So we've started it. And the expectation that we would have sold something in the first five minutes or we're going to stop doing it. Right. Is not is saying that that's delayed gratification. Knowing that we're going to, we have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of people to meet. We have a lot of conversations to have. We have a lot of proof that we can do it that has to happen. And then eventually we will have people start to come on board because we've shown that commitment over time.

19:46 We've talked about that a lot. How important that commitment is. So, so delayed gratification says, I know this work has to be done before I get what I want. It's not I get what I want. And then I'll do the work. So, so it's, it's both of these things happen in have to be there for things to work. I can't start if I believe that I must have immediate gratification for it. Here's an interesting thing. Large companies are paying people daily.

20:22 They get their paycheck every day or two days after they worked. They can't even wait a week anymore. Wow. To get their paycheck. I heard there's a company there that will pay you in advance for your paycheck that's coming. I'm sure they take a nice cut of it in order to do you that favor. Crazy what kind of and and and I think what you're talking about is absolutely true. People do not know how to wait. Credit card debt is skyrocketing because what was it you were talking about the commercial because I deserve it.

20:58 Yes. I deserve it. I deserve to have I haven't worked for six weeks, but I deserve a vacation. I'm going to I'm going to put a cruise on my credit card. You're nuts. Right. You don't deserve anything. You feel better when you earn it and then greater fulfillment when you earn it versus having the attitude of it. And you know some people work pretty hard. They don't treat themselves well and they do deserve it. There's a unique population that does that too.

21:28 But yeah, we over we over delay. So we never enjoy our lives. Right. And some people you know just have this martyr attitude too. That's not what we're talking about in this. Well, my mother could teach that. Yeah. So I've got seven steps on how to really create a success path of right taking action and practicing delayed gratification is first is that you need to build a defined goal. If you can't describe the goal, you don't know when you're arriving.

21:57 You don't know where you're going. You don't know the speed, the direction. And a lot of people I think are reactive versus proactive and proactive means that you have got to set a goal and you have to know where you're going and a timeline to get there and think about the resources that you need. But it starts with first defining the goal. What is the goal? Everything else is irrelevant or everything else is a distraction.

22:21 But think about what is the goal and what are the small steps. We've talked about leading and lagging indicators. So if the goal is I'm going to sell X, Y amount. The steps to that goal is the number of appointments, the number of calls, the number of activities I have to do, some of which will fail, some of which will succeed, but all of which will lead me to that greater goal. And I think you're absolutely right. You have to start with that goal, but you have to be realistic and step it out and say, okay, when can I, when do I need to achieve it?

22:56 That timeline is crucial. Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes realistic goals create complacency. So if you put a little bit of a stretch goal in there, maybe at 5% or 10%, strive for that. And it's amazing how good you feel when you end up achieving that. But always try to push yourself more to live up to the potential and the gifts and the ability that you have when you set that goal. A little stretch. Never hurt you. Yeah. If you're already going to get it anyway, why set the goal?

23:24 It's like, okay, I don't have enough customers. Exactly. They're buying from me every month that I'll plan it safe. I don't want to discourage anybody that I didn't fulfill the goal. So I play a second. The next is, yeah, believe in it. You know, confidence attracts creativity. You need to act as if you won the lottery. And you believe in what you're doing so much that you don't really think about some of the expenses.

23:49 Now you have to be realistic in the expenses. I'm just talking about an attitude that you're not looking at in a commitment to a certain amount of confidence. And it's amazing the creativity that comes out of that when you really envision a future with all the resources that you need. What do you mean when you say act as if you won the lottery? Money is not a problem. Money is not a hesitation. I think sometimes we can look at money as being a limitator on some of the activities and goals that we want to make.

24:19 I think about getting in a rut and being very hyper-focused on something that I'm committed to. And I stop doing some of the other things that really are enjoyable to me that add some creativity. Today, you know, it's going to be a beautiful day. I want to go out to the driving range this afternoon. I have not been to the driving range for five years. But if I go to the driving range today and I create a new experience, I'm going to create a new memory.

24:46 And I'm going to separate my old life and my new life based on this experience that I have. Some people do this with a vacation. But it can be just as simple as going to the driving range, get a bucket of balls, hit the bucket of balls and go back to the desk and get back to work again. But you're creating this break in the day and you're creating this memory through an experience that you have. I think that's important.

25:07 I think we need to be careful when we say act as if you won the lottery. Because I think there goes we go back to that same discussion of the people who spend before they earn it. Yes, that's true too. Right. And so that's why I don't like that. And you and I I won't call it conflict, but we're finding out that our different personalities and how we value or how we see money. Nothing wrong with it. Scott tends to be much more putting money out there as an investment.

25:36 I'm much more close to that. So we're having to I won't say battle it out, but we're having to make decisions about how we spend the limited resources that that we've decided to invest in this new new venture. And we're causing each other to think a little bit differently. So I think that's a good conflict to have. It's a good values to be looking at and make both of us a little bit stronger. But be careful when you act as if you won the lottery.

26:06 He doesn't mean spend it. Right. And we've even dealt with I've even dealt with it, especially in the insurance field. Sales managers that will encourage people to buy cars they can't afford homes they can't afford take vacations they can't afford put themselves in great debt. So then they have to go out and perform in their in their industry. So be careful of that. I don't believe that kind of pressure is is positive.

26:30 So sorry off on a screed there. No, totally agree with you, Bill. And you know relating to your story about you and I working together on on spending or investing it's number three is that involve others. So gain support and feedback before starting your journey. And I think the way you and I work together is not your way. It's not my way. It's a better way. I think we learned that when we did the Covey book. When we talk about our perception of value and we want to look at an expense or an investment, our perception of value.

27:01 It's going to maybe have a different formula. But I've never regretted an investment or an expense that we made together. It's always worked out well. And I'm glad that you know it was you know more economically safe for both of us too. Well, I think too. You know, when we make the investment and we made that decision, we thought it through. And and and it's a good chunk of money like a like a show might be. Then we are committed to having activities during that show.

27:30 You know, we've all been when someone else was paying for the show. We're like, okay, well, if I talk to some people, that'd be great. We're not going into it that way. We're like really prepping up for this. I remember a client I once was working with and they had been to a couple of shows and six months later, they still hadn't called back the leads from the show. And I said, and they said, well, we started to call them back and they already bought. I said, yeah, yeah, yeah.

27:58 What a surprise. But anyway, all right, let's move on. All right. Number four is expect adversity. Challenges will arise and using this delayed gratification to stay the course is going to be helpful. So have a reputation of being positive and optimistic and kind-heartedness. And this will change the intensity of the adversity if it involves other people. So if you're involving people and people are on your side and make that kind of the default that you're a positive, kind-hearted person and you're dealing with adversity, you know, relates to people, then I think people are going to be a little bit more directive, a little bit more compassionate.

28:38 And I don't think that adversity is going to be as harsh to really interrupt the path that you're on. But expect diversity, you know, adversity. I don't think in most cases, Scott, we're judged on the fact that adversity happened, judged on how we react or respond to that adversity. Do we get met? You know, people are watching you. And I had a friend of mine, a boss of mine, who told the story, he was a big golfer and he had missed a putt.

29:08 And he just kind of threw his putter down to the side and discussed. Two years later, he was going to work with somebody and they said, no, I don't want to work with that guy because he's a hothead. He had been one of the guys he golfed with. This guy was anything but a hothead. But he saw how he reacted to something and that skewed his vision. So when the adversity happens, I think this is what Scott's saying. Expect it because then you can react and respond to it more positively than if you think everything's going to go perfect.

29:36 Nothing in life is going to go perfect. So take Scott's advice, have a great attitude about it and know that adversity happens and then see how you're going to deal with it and get excited about dealing with it. Yeah, and prepare to respond. I mean, you think about a reaction is just a prepared response that is not emotional. It's intellectual. And then you're able to process and solve it a lot easier too. Number five, adjust as needed. Ask yourself, you know, does the path need to change? Is the gold need to change? Is there a better way?

30:07 So evaluate the challenges and ask yourself, you know, is this valid? Is this adversity valid? Where's the evidence that this is valid adversity? And sometimes we make things up. We worry about things that are never going to happen and we don't spend as much time wondering what could happen. And we think about how much we spend our time of worrying and how much we spend our time on wondering. It's amazing, you know, that we struggle with optimism because wonder happens when we think of change and growth.

30:37 We have wonder. I wonder what it would be like to live in a house like that instead of saying, I could never live in a house like that. It's a completely different mindset and outlook and how you talk to yourself. You know, this is a, this is a screed I've been on before, but I think our whole education system is built around failure. And it's taught by a lot of people, not all, but a lot of people who expect perfection of you and, and don't know how to deal with adjustments as needed.

31:09 And I think that's really crucial that we need to know that life isn't going to be perfect and it's the successes you have. You know, remember the paper you got back, it didn't say you had a hundred questions on it. It said minus five. Didn't say plus ninety five. It didn't say you did ninety five percent. Great, great job, Billy. It said minus five. Fix the five you screwed up and you'll be perfect, which is all we're looking for.

31:32 Business doesn't work that way. You know, in sales, if I can get 10% of my phone calls to actually talk to me, that's great. That is. And if I can get two or three percent of those people to have an appointment, that's great. That's a that's a failure rate. Ninety percent failure rate is a great failure rate if you're doing something. So your advice to adjust is needed. Fix it as you go. You can't prepare for everything. Fix it as you go.

32:02 Right. Right. Yeah. Number six is know when you arrive. So clarity at the start ensures the celebration at the finish. You know, what does done look like? Stop procrastinating. It doesn't need to be perfect. It doesn't have to be perfect at this time. I think we procrastinate because we want it to be perfect so we never complete it. No one you've arrived. That's right. And small gifts along the way. Yeah. Right. So you're talking about going on to the driving range.

32:31 Okay. I made my fifteen or twenty phone calls. I did my three pieces of work. Now I'm going to go out to the driving range and I'm going to enjoy it because I'm done with the things I wanted to be. I wanted to be done with today and then tomorrow's a new day and I'll start over and I'll give myself what maybe it's a bowl of ice cream. I don't know what it is. Right. But give yourself that little reward for the little things that you've done that you've accomplished.

32:51 And that's number seven is celebrate the results. I got ahead. I got ahead. Oh, that's all right. You just step right into it, Bill. I mean, it's like you've adopted this process. You step right into it. Celebrate the results. Celebrate the results. Reward the behavior. We know Kit Welchland and I've known Kit for many, many years. What a great guy. What a generous guy. His that he got and that he taught me that line. Celebrate the results. Reward the behavior. And he said what he does is he has frozen little Reese's pieces in the refrigerator.

33:22 And every time he makes a call or every time he feels, you know, feels a sense of completion, he goes in the freezer and gets a little frozen Reese's pieces. And that's how he rewards himself. Reward the behavior. And it's it's very self gratifying when you set a goal. You go through the discipline. You overcome the adversity. You achieve the outcome. And you can feel good about yourself. And you made a difference in your day. And hopefully within that, you made a difference in somebody else's day. So celebrate the result and reward the behavior.

33:53 Great advice. Love that. I go through them all again. Seven. I learned this from you, Bill. I repeat them all now. So number one is define the goal. Number two, believe in it. Number three, involve others. Number four, expect adversity. Number five, adjust as needed. Number six, know when you arrived. And number seven, celebrate the results. This topic came from a chapter in my book, which is taking off into the wind. If you wanted a link, I'll have a link in the show notes to this particular blog.

34:28 And you can go through and read the seven steps. And in closing thoughts, just look at encouragement. The time to start is never perfect. But every journey starts with a first step. When was the best time to contribute to a retirement account? Probably 50 years ago or 40 years ago, when's the next best time today? And we can commit to it today. Number two, is called action. Pick one project that you've been hesitating on and take the first step.

34:57 So create that strategy of delayed gratification, sharpen the axe and be committed to your choices and the actions that you take. So take action. And then the final tagline and thought is, make change your choice, not someone else's. Nothing changes until you make a choice or somebody else does. And sometimes in our life, change occurs because somebody else makes a change in our life. So be in charge of your life and decide what choices you're going to make and commit to them.

35:23 Well, yeah, are you going to let life kind of wander you through like a river? Or are you going to start climbing up that hill? And John Maxwell says, everything good is uphill. So everything Scott's talking about is pushing yourself to that next level. It's not going to happen by accident or because you hope. What's that hope is not a strategy. Taking action is a strategy. So thank you, Scott. Great topic. Let's wrap up with our golden nugget. This is from Mike Puglia. I think he's a marketing guy of some kind. Establishing trust is better than any sales technique.

36:01 Do you build trust with the people you're talking to? Or are you just trying to do your sales process on them? Right. You're doing it on them. Are you doing it to them? Exactly. How are you doing it with them? Very common. Yeah. Great. I like the sales journey. Maybe we'll have to change our talk to the sales journey and set the sales process. I'm a process guy, but I'm willing to learn. It's the analytical side of your brain. Everything we talked about is going to be at winning at selling.com. So check that out.

36:32 Information show notes are all there next week. Jimmy Zuggs words sales perspective. Final chapter 14 wrap up talk. And the topic is should you respond to an RFP? And I picked that up from our conversation with Jason Talley in show 6.75. If you haven't listened to that. Please subscribe to share the podcast with your colleagues and on your social media. If you're so inclined, give us a five star review. This is episode 676. Go out and get better one skill at a time.

37:02 Joyful selling.