It's the 19th February, today I've got something prepared from Epictetus. Do you mind? I'm hungry. Let's do it. Remember to conduct yourself in life as if at a banquet. As something being passed around comes to you, reach out your hand and take a moderate helping. Does it pass you by? Don't stop it. It hasn't come yet. Don't burn in desire for it, but wait till it arrives in front of you. Act this way with children, a spouse, towards a position with wealth.

One day it will make you worthy of a banquet with the gods. I like that. You know what it reminded me of? we went to different primary schools, but I'll share a story. I remember the the do you remember the spell binder? Did he come to your school as well? Mate, he came to my school proper. So the spellbinder used to come and he'd tell these stories that make you feel like, that was magical. He was amazing at telling stories. And I think he told us this story about all these people, kings and queens. They were all in a room.

And there was this massive feast and they all had six foot spoons and they were trying to feed themselves, but they couldn't. But then they worked it out. They'd feed the other people and you'd all feed each other. And as a child, I just thought that was brilliant because obviously like a six foot spoon sounds sick. But as an adult, I think there's a lot in it where actually putting other people first and helping other people gives you that satisfaction. But

Talk to me about the Feast of Life. What does it mean to you? A few people have called me a six foot spoon in my life. I know they have. I think this one is really interesting because what it's basically saying is don't be trying to force things. Don't be trying to push everything. And definitely in sales, there's going to be times where people are really pushing to close the deal. They're going to be doing everything. But actually, you don't really need to push and focus in then on I'm going to chase them down. Like, did you read the email yet? Did you?

Did you get time to talk to your board of directors and suddenly, I'm all right with this, the prospects thing and it's too much pushing, too much pressure. And what I've found is really clear next steps are amazing for this, right? So what I mean is at the start of the conversation, laying out, look, if you like what you hear in this conversation, are you happy to talk about some next steps? Yeah, I'm happy with that. Equally, if you don't like what you hear,

Are you happy to just agree it's a no? I don't want to be chasing you and I'm sure you don't want to be chased. Yeah, of course that makes sense. So I'm giving these two lanes and I might throw a third one in, which might be if we get to the end of this and you think I've got to go and think it over or it's a maybe you're not quite sure. Nine times out of 10, what do think that really means? Yeah, it's a no. It's a no. Okay. So let's agree we're going to do a yes or a no. Now at the end of it, maybe there is some next steps that have to happen.

but let's put in there an agreed right Tuesday. You said you can get back to me. Let's say we'll put some time in the diary. Would you be comfortable with that? Yeah. Yeah. 10 o'clock. Okay. And if you see that pop up in your diary, you've gone in different direction. You don't want to have the conversation with me. Feel free to just email me the word no or cancel the meeting altogether. That makes sense. So much so it was making me think about, we were looking at tools, SAS tools, and we got entered into a cadence. Do you remember? And it was, it was like, right, cool. We can have the catch up call in a couple of weeks, but in that time we got put into this cadence of like, here's some value, here's some information. What are you thinking at the moment? Have you had a chance to look at the proposal and you just all the way through the process. I'm like, I actually just tools at tools aside, they're pretty similar. They both do similar sort of things, but actually the way you've made me feel through this process is very needy. I'd rather not.

You just want to step away from it. Exactly. And that's that reactance piece is that someone pushing on you and trying to persuade you. It feels completely wrong. So again, we've talked about this in one of the other days, but this is sticking to your process, regardless of the outcome or the pressure or the size of the opportunity, just sticking with things the same. I've found definitely, you know, you might have the SME style business that's come to you and okay, I'm happy to just treat that the same.

as always, but when you get the huge mega opportunity, you're to come in on the board of directors meeting. Can you still stick to it then? That's the real test of the salesperson's credentials of the minerals. Yeah. That you kind of lose it because well, it's Coca-Cola. I imagine this will be, this will change my life. This will change the company's life. So then all of a sudden the systems go out the window and Coca-Cola can feel it. Yeah. And it, and it doesn't work. Like I have.

I've had two and this is how rarely it happens. The amount of discovery we probably sit at least between five and 10 new business meetings a week. And I've had at least two opportunities in my life. And I still remember them because they came in and they're like, I'm just ready to do it. I'm just ready to do it. Like we just need to like cross cross the eyes and dot dot the T's and I'm like, all right, easy. The process went out the window. I let them. Oh, I didn't let them. I was in control, but I just went cool. Yeah, don't worry. Here's what you need to know. Yeah, cool.

Ghosted. There was no follow up. There was no procedure. I just lost my game because it felt so easy. And it's about sticking with those processes no matter what happens. Yeah. And that's a good one. There's the amount of times where I've spoke to one who there's they're giving it the there's definite there's definitely something in this, but I need to go away and talk to a few people and do. And when I say to them, I'll tell you what, I'm going to put you in the no pile. If you come back to me, it'll be a happy accident, but I'll just say you're not going to do it. Are you comfortable with that? The amount of times we've gone.

Yeah, yeah, let's just do that. Yeah. Really it was just lip service. What's it for you? It's a no. But the, the scarcity mindset comes from not having choice, doesn't it? Not having choice and not feeling confident that you will get there. And if you don't have enough choice, I say like, do more, do more top of funnel, do like, do whatever you have to do to make sure there's enough on the table, bring enough to the face so you can eat. Wow.

I've been Jack Frimston. I've been Zack Thompson. Remember you would die. Is that a candle in the corner? Are you just happy to see me?