This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius. I think if it's your birthday today, you'd be an Aquarius. I don't know if that's a fact, and I'm not going to check it. It's the 9th of January. Wow, thank you so much for that intro. I, um, wasn't sure how to feel about you today, but you've cemented it in my mind. Okay, I don't like you.

Okay, uh, some things are in our control while others are not. So I can't control whether you like me or not, so I do let you. Okay, uh, we control our opinion, our choice, our desire, aversion, and, in a word, everything of our own doing. We don't control our body, property, reputation, position, and, in a word, everything not of our own doing. Even more, the things in our control are, by nature, free, unhindered, and unobstructed, while those not in our control are weak, slavish, can be hindered, and are not our own.

Epictetus.

Wow. Wow. Thank you for the reading there. It's good, isn't it? Really good.

The whole thing for this month is control. I think salespeople get so hung up on things that happen to them that are out of their control. So, one thing that probably a lot of people don't think of is they have a great conversation. They're 12 minutes deep in a conversation, and the signal goes on the other person's phone. Sometimes I hear it and go, "I was just about to book a meeting! I was just about to close!" And they get so frustrated. That's not in your control.

Okay, it happened. I mean, I don't know if I'm going to set you up for you not to want to share it, but you crashed your car a couple of years ago, and I always think that you're one of the most stoic men I know because the story was brilliant when you told me after it. You want me to tell it?

Please.

Okay, I just had a tattoo done, and I was driving home. I live in a little village in Dorset, and I was coming around the corner, probably singing a bit of Mariah Carey to myself or something. I just freak chance happened to clip the little side of the road at the top of this massive hill down into my little village. It'd been raining. The car flipped over straight onto its roof, and it was flying down the hill right on the roof the whole way down. I could smell the car burning. Weirdly, I'd been reading so much stoicism at the time, and obviously, this month is all about control.

What had happened was, as I was going down, my brain was just telling myself, "Well, it'll stop in a minute. The car will stop. I'll be fine." As soon as I got out of the car and looked at it, I was like, "Oh, well, let's get that sorted." My wife actually thought there was something of a concussion. She thought I was so concussed because I was just too okay with the whole thing. But I was fine—not a scratch on me. It was just a very strange thing. But it shows how these sorts of thinking can quickly get into the psyche and start telling yourself a better story, you know?

Yeah, I love that. Tell yourself a better story. So, what you could have been telling yourself is, "We're all going to die! We're all going to die!" which isn't helpful.

No.

And not necessarily true.

No.

So you've told yourself a better story. And if something awful had happened—and I'm glad it didn't, because I respect you—but if it had happened, then the thoughts before wouldn't have controlled or done anything or added to it. So, like, by remaining calm in those moments...

So when you're in a sales environment, if something bad is happening or something out of your control, okay, well, if the signal goes, well, if they are interested, I'll call them back another time, and they'll pick up, and it'll be fine. Tell yourself a better story.

So, when it comes to being adaptable to change, my big advice for salespeople is: pick a process. We have a process that we stick by, and it's our Bible. You might have different processes that are better suited to you, but pick something and stick with it. Once you've got enough evidence, then you can go back and tweak it. So it's about sticking with something but also being adaptable.

What you don't want to be is, "Okay, today I'm getting on the phones. I'm trying this. Tomorrow I'm doing this. Today I'm trying this, and tomorrow I'm doing that." Then you're just changing. There's no evidence, and you're not learning anything. So stick with something but actually be interchangeable as well within it.

I think about... I've worked in several businesses where it's all about relationships. That's the mantra. So what they're doing is they're going out, and they're meeting people just kind of for the sake of it. You know, once a quarter, keep them sweet. Maybe they'll spend more money with us next quarter. That just isn't my style. It wasn't. It felt wrong intrinsically for me to do that. But something else felt much better that might not have worked for them. So I'm quite happy to have lots of conversations with strangers and get to yeses, noes, but I'm not happy to drive an hour to go and have a coffee with someone and just get to know them in hopes that if we build a big enough relationship, something might happen down the line.

That is probably a skill set that some people have made lots of money on. It just isn't mine. So I'd say, if that doesn't work for you, find the one that does.

Yeah.

Yeah, one of the other things—and I think it probably comes from stoicism—but it's like not getting, um, kind of brought down by the opinions of others. But there is something important when it comes to feedback and getting better. The opinions of others can be helpful if they're people that you know, like, and trust. So if it's people within your team or inspirational sales leaders or people that have done what you want to achieve, getting their feedback...

As human beings, as we know, ego is the enemy. We can go into these situations and be like, "Well, actually, I want to do it my way."

Here is the revised text without timestamps and with added punctuation:

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius. I think if it's your birthday today, you'd be in Aquarius. I don't know if that's a fact, and I'm not going to check it. It's the 9th of January.

Wow, thank you so much for that intro. I wasn’t sure how to feel about you today, but you’ve cemented it in my mind. Okay, I don’t like you.

Some things are in our control, while others are not. So I can’t control whether you like me or not, so I do let you. Okay, we control our opinion, our choice, our desire, aversion, and, in a word, everything of our own doing. We don’t control our body, property, reputation, position, and, in a word, everything not of our own doing. Even more, the things in our control are by nature free, unhindered, and unobstructed, while those not in our control are weak, slavish, can be hindered, and are not our own.

Epictetus.

Wow, wow, thank you for the reading there. It’s good, isn’t it? Really good. The whole thing for this month is control. I think salespeople get so hung up on things that happen to them that are out of their control. So one thing that probably a lot of people don’t think of is they have a great conversation. They’re 12 minutes deep in a conversation, and the signal goes on the other person’s phone. And sometimes I hear it and go, “I was just—I was just about to book a meeting! I was just about to close!” And they get so frustrated. That’s not in your control.

Okay, it happened. You—I mean, I don’t know if I’m going to set you up for you not to want to share it, but you crashed your car a couple of years ago. And I always think that you’re one of the most stoic men I know because the story was brilliant when you told me after it.

You want me to tell it? Please.

Okay, I just had a tattoo done, and I was driving home. I live in a little village in Dorset, and I was coming around the corner, probably singing a bit of Mariah Carey to myself or something, and just freak chance happened to just clip the little side of the road at the top of this massive hill down into my little village. It had been raining. The car flipped over straight onto its roof, and it was flying down the hill, right on the roof, the whole way down the hill. And I could smell the car burning.

Weirdly, I’d been reading so much stoicism at the time, and obviously, this month is all about control. What had happened was, as I was going down, my brain was just telling myself, “Well, it’ll stop in a minute. The car will stop. I’ll be fine.” As soon as I got out of the car and looked at it, I was just like, “Oh, well, let’s get that sorted.”

My wife actually thought there was something of a concussion. She thought I was so concussed because I was just too okay with the whole thing. But I was fine—not a scratch on me. But it was just a very strange thing. But it shows how these sorts of thinking can quickly get into the psyche and start telling yourself a better story, you know?

Yeah, I love that. Tell yourself a better story.

So what you could have been telling yourself is, “We’re all going to die! We’re all going to die!” which isn’t helpful.

No, and not necessarily true.

No. So you’ve told yourself a better story. And if something awful had happened—and I’m glad it didn’t because I respect you—but if it had happened, then the thoughts before wouldn’t have controlled or done anything or added to it. So by remaining calm in those moments—so when you’re in a sales environment, if something bad is happening or something out of your control, okay, well, if the signal goes, well, if they are interested, I’ll call them back another time, and they’ll pick up, and it’ll be fine. Tell yourself a better story.

When it comes to being adaptable to change, my big advice for salespeople is: pick a process. We have a process that we stick by, and it’s our Bible. You might have different processes that are better suited to you, but pick something and stick with it. And once you’ve got enough evidence, then you can go back and tweak it. So it’s about sticking with something but also being adaptable. What you don’t want to be is: “Okay, today I’m getting on the phones. I’m trying this. Tomorrow, I’m doing this. Today I’m trying this. Tomorrow—” and then you’re just changing. There’s no evidence, and you’re not learning anything. So stick to something but actually be interchangeable as well within it.

I think about—I’ve worked in several businesses where it’s all about relationships. That’s the mantra. So what they’re doing is, they’re going out, and they’re meeting people just kind of for the sake of it, you know? Once a quarter, keep them sweet. Maybe they’ll spend more money with us next quarter. That just isn’t my style. It wasn’t—it felt wrong intrinsically for me to do that. But something else felt much better that might not have worked for them. So I’m quite happy to have lots of conversations with strangers and get to yeses, nos, but I’m not happy to drive an hour to go and have a coffee with someone and just get to know them in hopes that if we build a big enough relationship, that something might happen down the line. That is probably a skill set that some people have made lots of money on—it just isn’t mine. So I’d say, if that doesn’t work for you, find the one that does.

Yeah. Yeah.

One of the other things—and I think it probably comes from stoicism—but it’s like not getting kind of brought down by the opinions of others. But there is something important when it comes to feedback and getting better. The opinions of others can be helpful if they’re people that you know, like, and trust. So if it’s people within your team or inspirational sales leaders or people that have done what you want to achieve, getting their feedback—as human beings, as we know, ego is the enemy, and we can go into these situations and be like, “Well, actually, I want to do it my way, and I want to do that...

Getting feedback from other people is amazing. It is a bit of a life hack, but actually just the thing that we've done is: I'm going to ask you for feedback, Zach, on all of my calls, and I'm just going to say, "Thank you." Okay, or I'm going to ask for feedback on my sales style, or I'm going to ask for feedback on my management style, and I'm just going to say, "Thank you."

So we do this with our team maybe once a month or once a quarter. Just get feedback on, like, "Give me some honest feedback on how I'm running the room, how I'm leading you," because I don't know my blind spot. Because, like you say, I'm biased, and I only see the good in what I do because of ego and human emotions.

So just by sitting there and saying, "Can I get some honest feedback? I'm not going to argue. I'm not going to get defensive. I'm just going to sit there and say, 'Thank you.' And then I'm going to reflect on that."

Really good. Yeah, I didn't either with my team. Bit of an audit of what could we all be doing better, and it's for the whole team, and you're part of it as well. One of the things that I got was: When you give me technique advice or sales advice, sometimes when you give it to me in the room, it's hard for me to concentrate on it because I'm thinking about everyone else judging me because I'm having to get that advice.

And they were saying, "When I feel it better is when you maybe type it to me in a Teams message, wow, or save it till the next day or save it till the break time peace."

And that's great. I'm happy. I'm happy to take that on board and deal with that. You want the best from people. You don't want what shows you in the best life.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good. And then the last thing is about, like, mindset. And mindset is a big word, and we can break this down, and we're going to break it down over the year.

But just, like, focusing on what you control, but also, like, being prepared. So you're a salesperson; you know that you're going to come across a lot of "no's" that might leave you feeling deflated or rejected. We talk about a little thing called the first aid kit.

So it's about preparing things when time goes wrong. So in most offices, there'll be a first aid kit, because if anybody cuts themselves, they fall over, they need to slap a plaster on. Well, you've got it. You've got it there. You're prepared.

So what do you keep in your first aid kit, metaphorically, for when you get rejected or you lose that big deal? What's going to bring you back to life and remind you?

So it could be a copy of, like, stoic quotes. It could be a Mars bar. It could be your favorite Mariah Carey song. Like, what are some of the other things that you could do to help yourself so that when you get to those moments of frustration from rejection and losing control, that you can actually bring yourself back to it.

You're fine. That everyone's got a number. It's kind of a magic number. It's quite strange, on average, how many "no's" do you need to get to get to a "yes," right?

So I can think of someone on our team who their number is 26. So if they get 26 "no's," they tend to get a "yes" that follows.

So if you're on your seventh "no" of the day, it felt particularly rough, and you feel, "Oh, that's knocked me a bit." If you've got a little tally, you know that number. Yeah, like, "Well, of course, I got rejected. There's that acceptance because I'm nowhere near the 26."

A little tally down, I'm one step closer, rather than it totally knocked me. Using a bit of logic in defense of the emotion.

I like it. And is there any truth to the rumor that you've got a little statue of Triple H in your first aid kit?

Uh, he's not Triple H. I've got the Undertaker in there, but it's not the Undertaker as you imagine. It's the Undertaker giving me a little kiss, all right, from Co-op Funerals.

From Co-op Funerals.

Beautiful.

H. I've been Jack Frimston. I've been Zack Thompson.

Remember, you will die.

Sh. You might wait the oine.