Season 1 – Episode 13: As Your Attorney I Advise You – E

by Jon Dwoskin

Speaker 1:    Thank you for joining us for another episode of the Seven Minute Sales Minute Podcast. Your bite-size and easy-to-digest guide to jump-starting your sales career and putting you on the road to gaining more prospects, more clients, more business and, ultimately, more income. Scott: Good morning, Jon.

Jon: Scott, good morning. How are you today?

Scott: Doing great. Ready to record a podcast again.

Jon: I know. Me too. Me too. We had some great stuff for our listeners today. Six pieces of advice that have really shaped and in many ways changed our lives for the better. We’re going to share them with you. Three of mine and three of Scott’s.

Scott: Right. These are a piece of advice that we’ve been given over the years that have really, like Jon said, shaped our business and taught us quite a bit on how to, not only, act but how to move forward and how to gain more business.

Jon: Right. And, not only in business but really also in just our lives, in general. I’ll start. I remember always growing up and my parents giving me this piece of advice, which was critical and it was very simple: Don’t ever be jealous of anybody. Don’t be jealous of what people have. Don’t be jealous of people’s success. Be happy for them. Your time will come as long as you’re doing what you love to do. I really can’t remember a time in my life where I’ve been jealous of someone. It’s all because my parents told me that it was a dangerous, dangerous thing to be jealous. As I look around and see jealous people, it is. Because people act crazy when they get jealous. What do you think about that, Scott?

Scott: I think that’s great and the fact that I’ve known you for, now, nearly 30 years, which is crazy; but yeah, I’ve never known to be a jealous person and that is a great trait. You’re always just kind of your own man.

Jon: Right.

Scott: I think it’s huge that your parents instill that in you at a young age because I see it, it can ruin careers. Absolutely.

Jon: Yeah; and ruin lives; and ruin lives. Alright. Next. Scott?

Scott: My first bit of advice that I’ve been given is huge, I think. In sales, it’s a high stress job – it’s a high pressure job at times – and I think the big piece of advice that I’ve been given that always hits home is losing your grip. When I talk about that, what I mean is really, if you ever play golf and you squeeze the club to tie, Jon?

Jon: I do that all the time.

Scott: What generally happens is the ball gets shanks to the left or the right or somehow you just hit the ground or you miss, right?

Jon: Or my biceps are killing me after and that’s not how golf should be.

Scott: Exactly. As a hockey player, I struggled with this for years and it was until literally a few years ago when I realized, gosh, I don’t actually have to just squeeze the club, like squeeze a life out of it. I actually started hitting the ball well. It’s the same thing in business. If you stress out and you start to think like, if I don’t get this client, if I don’t obtain this person’s business, my life is over. You stress out about your month, your day, your week, your year, whatever you’re doing, you’re never going to succeed. You have to actually loosen up and know that you’ve been before and know that you can be there again; and just go about your day and go about the business. Swing lightly and it’s amazing where the ball will go.

Jon: Right. It’s amazing too when you watch the golfers, especially the old timers, they have such a loose grip and they hit it further and more consistently than anybody. When you’re losing your grip … When you tighten your grip, it’s too easy to be jealous of everybody: because you want what everybody else has, especially in sales. And, I know I’ve worked and I know you worked, Scott, with people who make hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. And, when you’re tightening your grip, it’s hard to get out of yourself and be jealous of those people. But, don’t be jealous, loosen your grip and move forward.

Scott: Right. Basically, get out of your way with that. Jon, I know you got another good one over there. What you got for me?

Jon: This is one of my favorites. This is something I also got when I was younger, from my parents as well. It’s amazing when you listen to your parents, the advice that you get. They always would say to me, “You can learn something from people older than you and younger than you.” That is so true. You can learn … I have a 12 and a nine-year old. I learn as much from them as I do people 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years old. I’m always open to learning from as many people as I possibly can. That has been a huge tip. I remember working in environments where I would say, maybe in older people that I have worked with, didn’t share that advice and you see them becoming dinosaurs because they’re not connected to the millennials, they’re not connected to the next generation and they lose their umph.

Scott: Right. They’re not adoptable. They don’t actually continue to grow, for sure.

Jon: Yeah.

Scott: I’ve seen that quite a bit as well.

Jon: Yeah. What about you, Scott? What’s a good one for you?

Scott: This one is a … It’s a good one. I have to live by this one every single day because for some reason I am a little bit sensitive sometimes, as you know Jonathan. This is one and it’s not to be confused with any Jessie songs and it’s get that chip off your shoulder. What I mean by that is really you have to not take things personally. If you walk around and you think that anything someone says is a dig at you or is some sort of an attack on you, you’re never going to succeed; because you’re always going to be that person that is always going to be negative and dwell on the negative. Getting that chip off your shoulder is huge because that chip can certainly become a wedge pretty darn clear. I think I talked about this earlier in an earlier podcast where you kind of have to be a golden retriever and you have to be that puppy that’s not going to care what someone says or does to them. You’re just going to like everyone and kill everybody with kindness. Definitely getting that chip off your shoul der is huge.

Jon: Huge. One of my favorite books is called The Four Agreements and one of the agreements is don’t take anything personally. It’s a great book. I highly recommend it. I’ve read it about six different times at different places in my life. It’s a tough book to read because every sentence is so deep and gets you really thinking; but it’s worth the read. I agree, don’t take things personally. It will really hurt your day.

Scott: Right. Yeah.

Jon: Great piece of advice, Scott.

Scott: Thank you, Jon.

Jon: Thank you. You’re welcome. My last piece of advice is that … This one gets me going everybody. I love it. It is, if it’s been done before, it can be done again. That’s something I got from Anthony Robbins and Jim Rohn back in the day when I was 18 years old listening to their tape sets. But, it’s so true. And, Brian Tracy. It’s so true. It always gives me that kind of that hope that I need and the faith that I need. When I have an idea and I know that I want to do something and I think, “God, it seems impossible right now and I don’t know the steps to take in”, but I think to myself, “If it’s been done before, it can be done again.” As long as I put in the effort and surround myself with the right people, then I’m going to keep on chugging along. Something that I’m passionate about.

Scott: Jon, you said you listened to that on a tape set?

Jon: I did. My dad, when I was 18 years old, gave me a set of tapes that’s by Brian Tracy, The Psychology of Success, and he said to me, “I think you’ll learn more from these tapes than you will in college. Not that you’re not smart and want to go on college but the lessons you’re going to learn here are going to be great.” I used to take the cassettes and go for a run and listen to Brian Tracy. I’m dating myself myself, for sure.

Scott: This is the funniest side and is definitely does date us but one of our friends and his 11-year-old kid found a cassette tape in one of his old boxes of stuff. He said, “Dad, what is this?” He said, “There’s music on this, son.” He said, “Where do you plug the headphones into it?” It guess it does date us a little bit. So yes, Jon, you had a tape set in 1990. That makes sense.

Jon: It was not in a track, or 45. Right.

Scott: There you go. Okay, good. Lastly, my last thing is real simple. Don’t let your highs get too high, and don’t let your lows be too low. I think it’s pretty self- explanatory. But, what I mean by that is when you’ve a really good day, don’t go on and celebrate. Don’t buy a Ferrari pop champagne and act like you’re a rock star because you had a good day. When you have a bad day, don’t try to check and make sure the window still opens so you could jump out. It should be a little bit of both. You should never get too excited because if you get a touch down, you should act like you’ve been there. One of my favorite player is Barry Sanders. He never did an end zone dance. The reason being is, he said, “You should always act like you’ve been there before.”

Jon: Right.

Scott: If you’re letting your highs get you too high, you’re just in for a huge fall when you do have that bad day. The bad day, no big deal. You’ve been there before, you’ve written business before. You’re there.

Jon: You’re there. Right. I think that’s one of the best advice ever; because living on the plateau may seem boring but it will keep you consistently moving forward. I mean, enjoy yourself, have fun for a couple of minutes and then move on.

Scott: I like it.

Jon: Yeah.

Scott: Folks, we’ve got a couple pieces of information here for you. First and foremost, again, we’re very grateful for the reviews and feedback we’ve gotten. I know there’s a few of you that have enjoyed and subscribed to the podcast, but haven’t yet dropped us a review on iTunes, so we want to implore that you actually do that for us. We really appreciate that. One more big piece of information that we’ve got is, we’ve got a sponsor coming on. Yes. After the first of the year, when we start Season 2, we do have a sponsor that’s going to be working with us.

Jon: That’s exciting.

Scott: It is exciting, isn’t it? Jon, you’ve got one more piece of information that you want to do announce today?

Jon: I do. I do. In future episodes, we’ll be talking a little bit more about what Scott and I do in our everyday jobs. But, as far as the Seven Minutes Sales Minute, we are taking on our first two clients. If you are interested in working with Scott and I collectively on growing your sales and your business, then please reach out to us. You can email me at jon@jondwoskin.com. We will enjoy talking to you and look forward to starting our first two clients and growing your business and growing your sales and you’re having the best 2016 ever.

Scott: We’re super-excited, folks. Once again, thank you for listening and have a great day.

Jon: Have a great day and a great week.

Speaker 1:    Thank you for listening to this episode of the Seven Minute Sales Minute. For show notes and worksheets pertaining to this week’s show, check us out at the sevenminuteslaesminute.com. Take today’s strategies and run with them. Increase your sales and increase your income.