Meridith Elliot Powell:
I do believe that some people are naturally optimistic, but I believe you can train yourself to be it. And you just have to decide first and foremost
Speaker 2:
Sales logic with Mark Hunter and Meridith Elliot Powell is brought to you by
Speaker 3:
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Meridith Elliot Powell:
Hey, this is Meridith Elliott Powell, and here we are at Saturday morning. And this time for sales logic, this should know where we dive into the strategies, discuss the steps, everything that you need to know to well sell logically. And I’m here with my co-host Mark Hunter.
Mark Hunter:
Hey, good morning. It’s always great to start off Saturdays with you. We’ve got some good things happening, not only with the show, but Hey, you got your new book coming up pretty soon. Yeah, it’s cool. It’s great. Yeah,
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Yeah. Yeah. I, I love the fact that we do this show on, um, uh, Saturday, because you know, the thing is people always say, should you sell on Saturday? And I think this is one of those competitive advantage type of, uh, type of opportunities. So those are with us, those of you who are with us this morning, get ready, cuz we’re about to discuss a really, I love today’s show. I love the, uh, topic. I wish I, I had come up with it, but it was Mark’s, uh, turn this week. So before we dive into what we’re gonna be discussing today, I’m just gonna give a quick overview, like I always do of how the show works. So each week mark and I come to you for no more than 20 to 25 minutes. And we put the show into four sections. Um, we have a topic of the, of the day.
Meridith Elliot Powell:
We have have a question from you, our listeners. So that’s right. We want you to get involved in this show. So if you have a question for us, please go to sales, logic, podcast.com or just post it on social media, hashtag sales logic. Then we discuss a book, something that we are reading or we think should be top of mind and last but not least, because we want you to get return on investment. We finish a up with a lightning round things that you can put into place immediately to be more effective. So mark what’s on tap for today. Well,
Mark Hunter:
What’s on tap and let’s tease people because we’re also coming out with sales, logic, focus 30. Okay. That’s all I’m gonna say about it, but Hey, stay tuned. Sales, logic, focus 30. I think you’re gonna like it anyway. Okay. The topic for today, what does it take to stay motivated and be an optimist? Ooh. Okay. We’ve all been hit by that one. Got a great question. The question comes from Tim in Dallas and he asks, Hey, my boss is negative and much. My sales team is negative. Is there anything I can do? Or should I just leave? Okay. We got a great book. We’re gonna talk about, and we’re gonna do a lightning round where we give you some fast things with which you can use right now. So before we jump into the topic, let’s go back to Tim in Dallas. Tim is waiting for us in Dallas with his response. He says, my boss is negative. And much of the sales team is negative. Is there anything I can do? Or should I just leave?
Meridith Elliot Powell:
You know, I always hesitate to tell somebody to leave a, um, to leave a job because I don’t know your financial situation and I don’t know what your opportunity’s out there. But number one is I think that we should all always be looking for a job and exploring opportunities so that when you get into a situation like this, you always have a choice, but let’s talk about some immediate things, um, that you can do. The people that you’re surrounding yourself with. If your team and your leader are negative, you need a support system that is not negative. Remember every mentor and every coach and every peer does not need to be inside the walls of your organization. You can look outward for, um, for other people that you can connect to, to, um, to be positive. Hey, welcome Patrick. So glad you’re here.
Mark Hunter:
Hey, it, it, that is so easy for people to become negative. When you hang out with negative people and sometimes you know what your most positive voice is a customer out there. I’m gonna say, Tim, I bet you’ve got some customers out there that, you know what you just need to be connecting more with and let them be positive. Here’s the whole thing. Negative people pull you down. Why? Because they don’t like to see you being positive. So you know what? You just need to cut them off the need. You need to really reduce your time in the office, reduce your communication with your boss. And here’s a quick technique. Don’t have communication with your negative boss. First thing in the morning, because you know what, that communication’s gonna get you down. You wanna have communication with positive people. And as Meredith said, find somebody outside, find somebody outside at your company, outside your business, connect with them on the telephone, connect with them on text messaging, whatever it is, but you need some positive influences.
Meridith Elliot Powell:
You know, I think mark just gave you such a great tip. I remember this years ago when I worked in, uh, corporate and it wasn’t that everybody was negative, but it was just always meetings meetings. After meetings, after meetings and meetings drive me nuts because I feel like I accomplish nothing. And if I can’t accomplish anything, then that feels negative to me. But what mark said was plan time with customers. I think there is nothing better to motivate you than going out and making a sales call. And so maybe you start off in the morning and you have to go to the morning. And the morning huddle is just the sales leader being negative and people complaining. They can’t hit their goals. Plan a call right after that, leave the building or pick up the phone or get on a zoom and infuse that energy back into you. There are things that you’re gonna have to do when you’re in a negative environment that are just, you know, you can’t get out of them. There’s meetings, there’s reports you have to do, but you can balance that with things that infuse energy into you. And one of those really critical is the moment that I focus on a customer’s problems, their challenges that just excites me because that’s where we’re really good at salespeople
Mark Hunter:
And keep your eye open for what’s the positive thing that you’re going to see today. In other words, what I always say is start the day off by taking piece of paper, writing down three or four things that you’re thankful for and write down three or four things that you expect to look for today to create motivation in your life. It might be, Hey, I’m looking forward to this call with this person. I’m looking forward to connecting with this. I’m looking forward to reading this, but when you set your sights on the optimistic things that you’re gonna find in your day, it’s amazing how the negativity and one piece that I, this hit home with me. I remember I was in an environment and you know, I drink a lot of coffee, which you gotta go to the break room to it, coffee and let tell you something. This company, the break room was so negative. I wound up bringing coffee from home to avoid the break room, because even though I needed coffee, I’d go in there and you just, it just seeps into you, the negativity. And I just began bringing a big Thermo of coffee from home. So I could avoid that negativity out there.
Meridith Elliot Powell:
You know, our listener, Patrick Tinney says mental health is worth more than money and it, and it certainly is. So number one is, if you can’t leave this job right now, go ahead and shift your mindset around it. Tell yourself that this is your growing edge. Can I stay positive in a negative environment and start to do things to fuel your own opt some, I mean, I start my day, every day with a little meditation and focusing on my goals, the things that I want to achieve that gets me really motivated. I would say you probably need to listen to a video or somebody that’s going to infuse a little bit of energy into you, but take control of what understand yourself of what it takes to motivate you and then seek that information and, and, and infuse it into your day. But I love this idea of shifting, you know, anytime I’m in a situation I can’t change or a situation that upsets me. I tell myself, it’s my growing edge. If I can accomplish what I need to accomplish in a less than ideal environment, I am going to grow. And so if you can stay positive in a negative environment, your optimism is gonna go off the chart.
Mark Hunter:
And in the words of Zig Ziegler, you’re not a tree move. <laugh> move outta that negative environment. And I’d say, Hey, cuz you’re in Dallas. I don’t know what job you’re. Well, I do know cuz you did fill me in on that. Your job. It’s pretty good down there. You may want to be thinking about looking for a different job, but I, I, again, I, I don’t want to push anybody out anybody’s door. Hey, we should jump into the topic cuz the topic lends itself right with this. What does it take to stay motivated and be an optimist. But Hey, I’m gonna ask this question first. Meredith, are you an optimist? I
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Have definitely an optimist. I’m so obnoxiously optimistic. I probably annoy myself. What about you mark?
Mark Hunter:
I, I am. And you know what? It’s funny because isn’t it amazing how optimistic people hang out with optimistic people. It’s one of the reasons you and I do as much to get because we are optimist optimist do flock together just as pessimist flock together. Hmm. Something there on that one.
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Yeah. Um, I think one of the things that, um, if you wanna stay optimistic, if you want to stay motivated, I think the first thing that you need to decide is that it’s a choice. You need to make a decision, um, that, that this is how you’re going to behave and what you’re going to do. It’s so funny. I just had a conversation with a friend of mine about this yesterday saying whether it’s nature or nurture. Um, you know, I do believe that some people are naturally optimistic, but I believe you can train yourself to be it. And you just have to decide first and foremost.
Mark Hunter:
Oh, I think without a doubt you can train yourself cuz I’ve seen some people who are in very difficult situations, situations that you would just, I mean, it, it appalling and yet they’re still incredibly optimistic because I really do believe it’s a mindset. And here’s what I found when you’re optimistic. It’s amazing how many more opportunities will come your way? Do customers want to have a negative person appear on their front door? Well, right now people don’t want anybody on their front door. But I mean, do, do, do people want to hear from negative? No. They wanna hear from optimist. They want to hear from motivat. Here’s one of the ways that I find myself getting motivated and that is, I always look at the long picture. You know, the valleys are never as deep as you think they are and the mountain tops are never as high as you think they are. And I found one of the best ways to stay motivated is to think at the think long term, there’s always gonna be things that don’t go, right? Like you made the comment, something goes wrong, you learn from it. That’s okay. That’s okay. I keep my focus on the long term picture and I keep my focus on my goals. And as long as I’m inching my way towards my goals, I’m gonna call it a great day.
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Yeah. I think it’s so important when you talked about, um, inching your way, because I think one of the most important ways to stay motivated is to focus on progress. You know, so I have my little to-do list every single day and my list is massive. But what you’re looking at here is the things I’m going to accomplish today versus my massive to to-do list, which is behind this, which is huge. Now this depresses me. I can’t get all this done on a Saturday, but I can get these things done on a Saturday. So shorten the list and make sure that you’re making progress. I don’t think there’s ever anything more, but thanks, scratching something off the to-do list and looking down at your list and actually realizing you accomplished what you needed to accomplish. So progress. I just really believe that progress is where motivation comes from.
Mark Hunter:
Well, and, and you touched on something there that I find so powerful. I love you. You, you get up in the morning and you jump into something difficult. You jump into one of your most difficult task is the question I want to ask myself is come 10:00 AM, have I delivered value to myself and my business? Have I delivered value? No. And there’s something magical. What I can say that I’ve delivered value and I’ve done something significant by 10:00 AM I go? Yeah, that’s great. And here’s another piece that I tell people if you’re having problems, getting motivated, just like you do with your list, set yourself a very small goal. Mm-hmm <affirmative> that you can accomplish early in the morning when you accomplish a goal early in the morning, it’s amazing how you get, Hey, a little more motivated. You get a little more momentum, momentum creates momentum and it’s amazing at how things accelerate.
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Yeah. I also think that you need to, if you wanna stay motivated, you need to look at all the aspects of your life that motivate you. We’re not just talking about work. I mean, you know, if, if you look at the way that I structure a day is S around my health is structured around my family and friends. It’s structured around, um, uh, my business and it’s structured around, uh, my finances. And so those are areas of my life and my spirituality that matter to me. And so every day I need to make a little progress in each particular area. Now, the reason I think that’s important is cuz if I sit at my desk for 15 hours and work like a dog and I do not pay attention to my family and I do not pay attention to my friends, there’s some kind of guilt eating away of me. And so to stay motivated, it is about a balance of your, you know, entire life. And you need to think about it. I don’t do leave. You can be motivated by being good at work when your finances aren’t a disaster or, you know, and so it isn’t about the fact that every point of my life is perfect, but I am inching away at the things I want there and balancing my life out. And I think that’s very important to stay motivated.
Mark Hunter:
I think you have something else in your life that motivates you. That’s Jackson, your new puppy. I do. I have a feeling Jackson motivates you and yeah. You know, see, this is what’s interesting when we surround ourselves with just something, those little things, okay. Jackson’s not gonna be little for long, but when we surround ourselves with little things, it is amazing how it can very much turn the tide to how we look at things. And this comes back to something else with regards to motivation. We talked about it in a question, you know, with Tim, who is the person in your life that you can call on who’s that person that you can, that you can bounce things off of. And what I found is is if you have this peer set, this mastermind group, like what you and I are in, we have an ability to, to help each other and lift each other up. And so doing, we lift each other, we lift ourselves up and it’s amazing. The most motivated people are also the most giving people the most optimistic part, giving people.
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Yeah. I, I agree with that. You know, mark earlier, you had said, um, you know, that if optimistic, you’ll find opportunity and years ago, I read an article about neuroscience where they actually have, have proven the fact that somebody who is optimistic, their brain fires differently. And I think Tony Robbins is famous for that. You know, little story about if you buy a red car, then, um, you know, all you’ll see for the next week or red cars all over the road, because what you look for you find. And that’s why I think if you wanna stay motivated and you wanna be optimistic, what you read and what you take in first thing in the morning is critically important. I mean, you heard mark say that if you have a negative boss, try to stay away from them. First thing in the morning, now you’re going to need to interact with them probably later. But the reason he was giving you that advice is because what you take in first thing in the morning is going to determine how you feel the rest of the day and what you find the rest of the day. So be very protective, especially in that 30 minutes as to what goes into your
Mark Hunter:
Brain, that also applies to every time you make a sales call, regardless whether it be a zoom meeting teams, whether it be an email, whatever phone call, whatever it’s amazing, your thought going into to picking up the phone call is going to determine the outcome. And if you go in thinking negative, if you go in thinking know there’s enough thing to be found here, there will be nothing. But if you go into thinking that, Hey, there’s gonna be something that’s gonna come out of this. Something’s gonna come out of this. I, I, I did a deal the other day that this was an event that I really wasn’t expecting anything, but we got done with it. It was a real quick kind of webinar podcast thing. And we got talking. I was like, wow, we created a really cool next step because I went into that thing saying, okay, this is small. This is little, but you know what? We’re gonna create something. And we did your, your mental mindset is gonna shape the outcomes that you create.
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Yeah. I love what, uh, Patrick says here, eat a bucket of frogs. First thing in the morning, it frees the mind to get looses a goose. And that is when the sales magic. Um, <laugh>, that’s when the sales magic happens again, what, who you surround yourself with, what you focus on and making sure that you are focused on what matters. Um, mark and I have a friend by the name of bill Backrock and I, he sent me this little diagram, I don’t know, couple months back, but it’s you, you do two circles and you have those circles intersect in one circle, you put the things that matter. And in the other circle, you put the things that you can control and where those two circles intersect is where you need to put your time and where you need to put your energy. And I am just amazed from interviewing and talking with successful people who are optimistic and motivated is that they’re very on what they can control. And they don’t Sweatt the small stuff.
Mark Hunter:
Wow. Without a doubt, because you see negative people and they consume themselves with media, they consume themselves with news. They consume themselves, and it just becomes this, this spiral of continuously going down, you control your environment, do not allow yourself to be a victim, rather be the Victor.
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, mark. We should probably talk about the book,
Mark Hunter:
The book. Hey, the book is, boy. I tell you what this has been out for a long time. In fact, it’s funny. I went, I went to my library. I can’t find my hard copy. You know, I realized I loaned out. So I had to get the, the paperback version that is literally yellowed and everything. <laugh> it’s Stephen Covey, seven habits of highly effective people. Now, anybody over the age of 45 has undoubtedly read this book, but here’s the thing. If you’re under the age of 40, I want you to read this book. This book has been out for 25 years. It is still as relevant as ever because you know what? It talks about habits. You wanna be motivated. You want to be focused. This book is gonna absolutely bring you home on
Meridith Elliot Powell:
That. My husband, uh, is on a, was on a board here in town where they work with the school systems and they started to take those books into the school system and adapt it for kids. The impact it is, it is just, it is having is amazing. And I think that, you know, it is really, it’s not a complicated book. It’s simple, you read it and you think, wow, that isn’t rocket science, but those habits really put it into place are gonna take you to a whole nother level. I think it’s a good book for anybody over 45 to pick up and read again.
Mark Hunter:
Yeah. Seven habits of highly effective people by, uh, uh, Steven Covey. It’s those seven habits are so good. It took him 20 years to come out with his next book. The eighth habit in
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Co <laugh>. Well, okay.
Mark Hunter:
No, I, I think that says something. So anyway, Hey, let, let’s jump into the lightning round. The lightning round. Are you ready? Hands on the buzzer. Are you ready? Tips to stay motivated? Go.
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Um, number one is I think you need to fake it. I think even <laugh>, if you’re not feeling motivated, fake it, and eventually the emotion will take over.
Mark Hunter:
Always keep a list with you of what, what are things that have gone, right? What are things that you’re thankful for? What are things that you appreciate?
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Yeah. Focus on progress. I love that. What mark said about, um, trying to accomplish something of value before 10 o’clock in the morning, creating momentum. So set a little goal before you leave the office at the end of the day that you can accomplish before 10:00 AM. The next day,
Mark Hunter:
Create a peer set of people who you can reach out to, and you can connect with on a regular basis who are also optimists and also motivated,
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Decide and get to know yourself. What motivates you. Mark said, you know, my new puppy Jackson motivates me and nothing makes me happier than to take a break from work and go down and, you know, throw the toy or something for him. So no. What motivates you and work that into your day, infuse energy into you. It will pay off by helping you accomplish more work,
Mark Hunter:
Know what you can’t control and what you can’t control. Don’t worry about it. Spend your time 100% focused on what you can control.
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Yeah. Treat negative people as you’re growing edge. And if anybody is old enough to, um, remember the pink Panther movies, when the detective would enter the room, he would always get jumped by his servant. And I always think of negativity or obstacles as that servant jumping me. And my goal is to win. Think of it as your growing edge and welcome moving, staying motivated, even in a negative environment, take it as a challenge.
Mark Hunter:
Look for each activity you’re about to do as a learning opportunity, regardless of what it is. Regardless. Every opportunity you find yourself in each day is an opportunity to learn,
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Be realistic of about your whole life. If you wanna stay motivated at work, you need to feel good. From a physical standpoint, you need to be infusing energy into your family and friend, um, relationships. And you need to have your finances, right? Motivation is a holistic, um, feeling and emotion
Mark Hunter:
At the end of your day, celebrate your success. You may not have had much success at all, but certainly there was something. Take a moment, celebrate that success. And on a high note, yeah,
Meridith Elliot Powell:
I would say that, um, you know, really look for things that motivate you like a book or a quote or a video and start and end each day with
Mark Hunter:
That. I love that approach and we’re gonna do one a I’ll share one more. You do one more and then we’ll shut things down. Keep your eyes on your long term goals. If you haven’t written 25 year goals, write 25 year goals. It’s amazing. You’ll be able to accomplish.
Meridith Elliot Powell:
I just thought everybody might like to see Jackson and I put him on the podcast. <laugh> all right. My last one is that I like to study success full people. And because when you look at anybody who has accomplished a lot, they have failed so many times they have had so many obstacles and I really get motivation from the fact that failing or challenge are just part of the journey. So study people who have been successful and it’s going to motivate you
Mark Hunter:
And I’ll throw in one more, get a puppy named Jackson. Hey, we wanna say thank you for listening to sales logic this week. If you like what you hear, subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcast app. If something we’ve said has earned you a single dollar, consider telling a friend about our show. It’s how we grow to help you grow. I’m Mark Hunter. I should say I I’m not
Meridith Elliot Powell:
I’m hunter. That’s right. You still motivate me mark. And I’m Meredith Elliot Powell.
Mark Hunter:
Remember when you sell with confidence and integrity,
Meridith Elliot Powell:
Uncertainty suddenly becomes your competitive
Mark Hunter:
Advantage and the sale becomes logical and Jackson will go outside to relieve himself very shortly.
Meridith Elliot Powell:
All right, guys, that was an awesome show. Thank you so much, Patrick. Appreciate the comments in the, uh, kudos. We will see you back here next week for another show, another topic at everything that you need to know to sell logically. Now, mark, I, before we jump off here, I think we need to tell people about the focus 30, the sales logic focus 30.
Mark Hunter:
Oh yeah. Cuz I teased them right up front. We are starting Meredith and I are taking individual subjects and drilling down deep on them and doing it in a 30 minute video session. And these are gonna be appearing very shortly on our website sales logic podcast. You’re gonna wanna make you are gonna wanna make time to watch them. Sales, logic focus 30. You’re gonna start seeing the first one up here in the next week or two. All right,
Speaker 3:
We’ll see you. Next week. Most people refer to vanilla soft as the solution. It’s the solution to ensure, see sales reps make the right number of attempts for every lead across all channels, including email social on the phone. It’s the solution to serve the rep the next best lead. Every single time you need to get your solution@vanilla.com.
