September 11, 2023 • 18 mins
Imagine the power of taking breaks.
It’s not just about work-life balance but a mental rejuvenation that can significantly boost your productivity. In our latest podcast episode, we take a deep dive into the often overlooked aspect of outside sales – the strategic importance of time off. We share insights on how breaks can prevent burnout and why it's essential to mentally reset. Hear us out on why planning for meetings and time off need a thoughtful process and why your mental exhaustion can directly impact your performance.
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Connect with Mike:
Website: Mike O'Kelly
Mike@survivingoutsidesales.com
LinkedIn: Mike O'Kelly | LinkedIn
IG: Mike O'Kelly - Sales Builder
______________________________________________________________________
If you are in outside sales and have had any of the following:
- New to Outside Sales
- New to an industry, new product, new territory - any type of change
- Experienced, but have lacked training and business development
- Seasoned but feel like you have hit your ceiling and need a reboot
If any of those descriptions sound like you or someone you know,
If you want to have a conversation about:
- Scheduling a strategy call for your next move
- Help building your business or territory
Reach out to me:
Schedule a FREE consultation
or https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-o-kelly-44ba352b/
mike@survivingoutsidesales.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Surviving Outside Sales podcast, hosted by Mike
O'Kelly, presented by SalesBuilder Academy.
The goal is to survive andthrive all phases of outside
sales, whether you're getting in, dominating or getting out.
Surviving Outside Sales.
Now on with the show Okay, I'mjust surviving outside sales
(00:28):
podcast and your host, mikeO'Kelly.
With Fourth of July coming upnext week, there's a topic that
I don't think I've really talkedabout before on the podcast,
but that is taking time off.
Okay, now you do need to getout there and you need to work
and you need to put in the hours, you need to be as productive
(00:48):
as possible, but you also haveto understand your limitations.
Okay, you're going to havephysical and mental limitations.
If you just have your foot downthe pedal nonstop, 24, seven,
eventually you're going to crash.
Okay, and we don't want you tocrash, we don't want burnout.
That is probably the first 10years of my career was just
(01:08):
going 100 miles an hour.
Just, I didn't have two speeds,I had one speed and it was all
out.
And what usually would happenis I would take a lot of my time
off as sick days, and it wasn'tthat I was quote, unquote sick,
I just literally was soexhausted, I felt horrendous,
and you need to recalibrate.
(01:29):
You need to have time foryourself, you need to allow your
body to rest, you need torecover mentally.
So taking time off, though, isthe exact same thing as planning
for meetings.
It's having a process.
You need to understand why areyou taking time off?
(01:49):
There's a couple of things,psychologically, that happen
when you schedule your time off.
You start to look at the timein between as a sprint, and
that's okay, because you can seethat there's going to be a rest
and there's going to be arecovery and a restoration
(02:10):
period that's coming up.
So, for instance, if you have avacation coming up next week
for the fourth, you know it'scoming.
You know that whatever you'regoing through right now is going
to be short term, becauseyou're going to have a break and
you need to take breaks.
I'm not talking about work lifebalance, okay.
(02:30):
I think that that phrase peoplehave used that phrase to talk
about things that really don'tmatter.
In other words, well, I want tomake sure that I have plenty of
breaks during the day.
I want to make sure that thejob is as easy as possible.
It's not about making your lifeeasier.
Okay, because you still need togo out and sell.
(02:52):
What it's talking about andwhat you're needing breaks is
about is mentally resetting.
The body goes where the mindleads and if you're mentally
exhausted, your body is going toshow that, your body language.
We in the sales world are inperforming arts.
We are performers.
When we're in front of people,they're looking at everything.
(03:14):
They're looking at our handgestures, our eye movements,
what we're doing with our face,our smiles, how we present
ourselves, how we're dressed.
Are we clean, shaven?
Are we unshaven?
Is our hair messy?
Are our shoes dirty?
Are we not prepared?
(03:36):
Are we fumbling?
They notice everything and whenI get tired, what happens is I
just start, I just forget things.
I'm kind of tired right now.
I'm gonna be 100% honest.
I'm gonna struggle to getthrough this.
I am exhausted, okay,absolutely exhausted.
I've been burning the candle atboth ends for the month of June
.
I am going to be taking off,just decided I'm gonna be taking
(04:01):
off Monday.
So I'm taking off Monday as apersonal day, right before the
holiday, july 4th, which is alsogonna be a day, but that's
gonna be a family day.
So I'm taking Monday for myself, okay, and I'm gonna recharge,
I'm gonna recover.
I will go to one of my favoriteplaces, restore Hyperwoundness.
Shout out to Restore.
(04:22):
As everybody has been listeningto the podcast, I'm opening
Restore Hyperwoundness inRockhill, south Carolina, this
fall and that is one of myentrepreneurial journeys.
That is really weighing on meBecause it is a lot of work and
I think I'm gonna talk aboutthat journey tomorrow before the
(04:42):
break.
But I've made a decision thatI'm gonna do zero podcasts next
week.
I'm gonna take a week off fromthe podcast.
I'm gonna take a week off fromthe show.
So if you're listening rightnow, I'm just gonna take a week
off period and I'm going toallow you, the audience, to also
kind of take a break as well.
You don't feel like you'remissing anything or you have to
(05:03):
catch up.
And I was talking with somebodyat a networking event back in
May and they said, man, that'sso many episodes I don't know
how I'm ever gonna catch up.
And I said well, you don't needto.
You don't need to listen toevery episode.
I'd love for you to listen toevery episode, but I'm telling
you right now you don't need to.
What you need to do is you needto do what is ever in the best
interest of you.
You still gotta put the work in, but you gotta take some time
(05:26):
off.
And if you're gonna continue tojust push through and push
through and push through, thenyou're gonna be in a world of
hurt.
And I've been pushing through,I've been pushing through, I've
been pushing through and it'snot like it's a lot of time,
it's just one day.
But you stack that with thefact that I'm also going to be
(05:47):
off on Tuesday.
Now I'm gonna be with my family.
It's gonna be a lot of time.
It's gonna be, you know, paradein the morning, it's going to
be time at the pool with friendsand then the evening getting
together with family.
So that day is gonna be chockfull of stuff.
But you piggyback off ofSaturday, sunday, now Monday and
Tuesday.
You now have four days in a row.
(06:08):
And I saw this on Instagram.
This guy had a beautifulexplanation of what you should
do with your PTO and I thoughtyou know, that's a really great
idea and I wanted to share thatbecause I don't know if
everybody knows who this personis.
But he said wrap all of yourpersonal time off.
So let's say you get 15 daysoff a year.
(06:30):
So you get 20 days off a year,whatever it is, let's just say,
15.
I think 15 is basically thestandard.
Now if you're new to theindustry, you're probably
getting 10.
That's just how it works.
When you're new, you gotta workmore, but if you want to pair
around holidays, that is one ofthe smartest things to do.
Because one of the mistakes Imade in my earlier career was I
(06:53):
took a lot of Fridays offbecause it was pointless in the
industry that I was in,especially with dermatology.
When I first started indermatology back in 2008, a lot
of dermatology clinics were notopen past noon on Fridays and I
thought, well, this is juststupid for me to be out Not a
(07:15):
lot of my clients are open andit's just a waste of my time.
So what I started doing was Iwould start taking Fridays off.
So I'd get about 10, 15 daysoff a year and I would just take
maybe one Friday off a month.
I didn't travel a lot.
I didn't do a whole lot earlyin my career.
I mean, I did go to Vegas abunch.
I take that back.
(07:36):
Actually.
I did travel a lot, but it wasvery sporadic.
It wasn't like a cyclical hey,every spring I do this, every
summer I do this, and so I wouldprobably use I'd say maybe six
to eight of my days off, justrandomly on Fridays, and what I
found was even just that threedays was not enough.
(07:56):
They say you need at least fourto five days off for you to
cleanse your mind of anythingwork related, and so if you've
been listening to the podcast,you know that I've talked about
I've taken very few seven weekvacations.
In fact, when my family and Iwent to the beach which in May,
(08:17):
that was the first seven dayvacation and actually was nine,
because it was two weekends withfive days off that was the
first time I'd ever done thatsince my honeymoon, and before
that I had never done that In myentire sales career 20 years.
I had never taken a full weekof vacation before Because I was
(08:37):
always in work mode, I wasalways wanting to.
There's always something to do.
Okay, and that's another thingtoo.
Allow yourself to not be busy.
You can always find somethingto do in your business.
You can always find an email toreply to.
You can always find somethingto continue to work on your
business, even on vacation,don't.
If you want to talk aboutwork-life balance, that is what
(09:03):
you should be focusing on.
You make the decision to taketime off, take it off.
That doesn't mean when you gohome you clock in, clock out.
There's sometimes you're gonnaneed to do business at night.
You're gonna need to respond toan email.
You're gonna need to createcontent for the following day.
You're gonna have to reviewyour plans.
I hear that all the time.
Oh, work-life balance.
(09:25):
You are a professional.
If you wanna be a sales rep,sales reps are concerned with
how much time they have off.
And it's five o'clock.
Don't talk to me.
I'm not responding to emails,I'm not doing anything.
Sales professional realizesthat work when they get home is
not the focus.
But sometimes, in the rareoccasions, they're gonna have to
(09:48):
do some work, just like aprofessional athlete.
Even in the off-season trainsevery single day.
They don't wait and then showup to camp, add a shape, and
they haven't done anything forthe last three to five months.
If you wanna be a salesprofessional, you have to
understand that.
But when you take your time off, you take your time off.
(10:10):
I mean, shoot, I'm such aworkaholic.
There was a.
I was on my bachelor party inLas Vegas and I did a phone
interview with a districtmanager that I had been referred
to and I'll never forget it.
Stephanie Silverman shout out.
(10:32):
Stephanie was great.
I was in Las Vegas.
I remember it was a Fridaymorning.
I did two things that morning.
So it was a Thursday morning,maybe.
No, it was a Thursday morning,I think.
So I had gotten out there and Iremember I was outside of the
Pepper Mill I believe it's thefamous Las Vegas diner divine
(10:52):
famous Las Vegas diner and and Idid act for selling my condo.
And then, about 20 minutesafter that, I did a phone screen
in the parking lot.
I told my brother-in-law, Itold a couple buddies that were
there with me for breakfast.
I said I gotta go.
I got this job that I'm tryingto get.
(11:13):
So I'd been referred to thiscompany.
Long story short, I got the job.
But I was willing to do that.
Even on my bachelor party, Iwas willing to do some work.
Some people would say, no, I'mon my bachelor party.
And when Stephanie found out,she was like oh my gosh, I had
no idea.
I'm so sorry.
I said, of course you didn't,because I didn't tell you.
It's no big deal, that's justwho I am, that's just my DNA.
(11:35):
The opportunity was there,presented itself.
It wasn't really hurting methat bad.
It was a 20 minute phone call.
I was eating breakfast, not abig deal.
Now, you don't have to do thatall the time.
Now, if that becomes habitual,then that's like okay, I can't
do that.
But the whole point of this isyou have to allow yourself time
(12:00):
off.
And one of the best ways goingback to what the guy said on
Instagram, which was reallysmart plan out your time off in
advance, leave a couple wildcards in case something pops up.
But let's say, you've got 15days off, schedule 10.
Schedule 10 and lock them in.
(12:24):
The great times to do that arearound major holidays Okay, like
4th of July.
4th of July falls on a midweek.
Now what do we know about 4thof July?
It's a big travel holiday,which means a lot of your
customers and your buyers arenot gonna be around, so you're
not really losing a lot ofground.
Don't think to yourself well,almost every rep is not gonna be
(12:45):
in, so therefore I'm gonna bethe only one and I get a chance
to talk.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
I'm telling you right now.
I don't care what anybody says.
I've done this long enough.
July 4th is not a great time.
In and around July 4th is not agreat time to try to sell
somebody if they haven't beensold before, if they're not
already a customer.
It's not a great time.
(13:05):
You're not gonna close dealsright before July 4th.
People are distracted.
So take that time off.
Take time off around MemorialDay.
Take time off around Labor Day.
If you take off the four daysfollowing Labor Day, you have a
nine day break, including theweekends.
Do you realize how rechargedyou're going to be for your Q4?
(13:31):
If you take nine days off inSeptember, yes, you're gonna
take now.
When I say nine days off, Imean like Friday, saturday,
sunday, monday, tuesday,wednesday, thursday.
You know you're not takingseven full days off.
Now, remember Labor Day.
Nobody's working, so you'reonly missing four days out of
the field, but you're gettingnine days benefit.
That's kind of what this guywas talking about.
(13:53):
I think it's brilliant Fourdays off, nine days benefit.
Do the same thing with Fourthof July weekend.
Take the four days that wraparound July 4th, take them off
and you get yourself a nine daytime off.
I thought it was absolutelybrilliant.
(14:13):
And then sprinkle in so you cando that's four days and five
days, or four days and four days.
That's only eight days.
You've now turned eight daysoff into 18 days consecutive, or
18 days off with two periods ofnine days.
Imagine what that's going to dofor your body.
(14:35):
Imagine what that's gonna dofor your mind and then imagine
what that's gonna do with yourfriends and your family.
Even if you don't have family,imagine what that's going to do
for yourself.
You have to have self-care and Iknow that's a word and I know
that's phrases talked about, butyou really do have to take care
of yourself.
When I was in the AtlantaBraves organization, their
(14:57):
roving hitting and structurethat year was a gentleman named
Franklin Stubbs.
Now, if you are a baseballfanatic, you know who Franklin
Stubbs is, especially if you'reolder than me.
He was an all-star, played withthe Cincinnati Reds.
I played with like four or fivedifferent ball clubs, but I
knew who Franklin Stubbs was andI said what's the best piece of
advice you could give me?
(15:17):
And the first thing out of hismouth if any hesitation is take
care of your body.
Your body will go first.
Okay, physically you're notgonna be able to do things in
your 30s.
You can do in your 20s, and sowhat happens is people People
don't take care of their body intheir 20s.
I can tell you right now, ifyou wanna have a long career in
(15:39):
sales, you need to take care ofyour body and take care of your
body early.
You need to have rest,recuperation, recovery.
Just think about it if you'regonna be in the car all day long
, the things that's gonna do toyour back, it's gonna do to your
legs.
Your poor blood flow in yourlegs I mean especially the back,
the back, the neck it's gonnaaffect your body.
(16:03):
Take breaks and let your bodyheal, let your mind be laser
focused.
If you have 15 days in thefield that are laser focused in
a month, as opposed to 20 whereyou're hanging on by a thread, I
think you know where mostpeople are gonna fall and it's
(16:24):
pretty self-evident.
You're gonna wanna do the 15days laser focused.
You've gotta be laser focusedin the field and that's one of
the biggest pieces of advicethat I would I'd even give my
younger self in sales plan outyour breaks.
I very rarely planned outbreaks.
I didn't take long vacationsand I did get burned a couple of
(16:48):
times.
I'd get mental burnout,physical exhaustion, just tired,
just absolutely tired.
And weekends are not enoughsometimes.
So that's one of the tips,especially with Fourth of July
weekend coming up, think abouttaking it off.
Think about taking Wednesday,thursday, friday off.
(17:13):
It's the beginning of a quarter.
It's not a great buying week.
I know some people are gonnahave anecdotal stories.
Well, I sold this.
Look, I've been in it longenough.
It's not a great week.
If it ranks it, probably, ifthere's 52 weeks out of the year
, this is probably in the bottom10%.
(17:35):
It's probably one of the worstfive weeks of the year to sell.
So you might as well take itoff.
So thank you so much forlistening.
I really do appreciate it.
As a reminder, I am gonna betaking off all of next week for
the podcast and we'll get backat it the following week.
(17:57):
So the following week will be afeatured guest on Monday, so
that'll be really exciting.
So that'll be July the 10th.
So we're gonna take off untilJuly the 10th, so that'll be
after tomorrow's episode.
So thank you so much, really doappreciate it and we'll see you
(18:19):
tomorrow surviving outsidesales.
Bye-bye.
The Surviving Outside Sales podcast, hosted by Mike
O'Kelly, presented by SalesBuilder Academy.
The goal is to survive andthrive all phases of outside
sales, whether you're getting in, dominating or getting out.
Surviving Outside Sales.
Now on with the show Okay, I'mjust surviving outside sales
(00:28):
podcast and your host, mikeO'Kelly.
With Fourth of July coming upnext week, there's a topic that
I don't think I've really talkedabout before on the podcast,
but that is taking time off.
Okay, now you do need to getout there and you need to work
and you need to put in the hours, you need to be as productive
(00:48):
as possible, but you also haveto understand your limitations.
Okay, you're going to havephysical and mental limitations.
If you just have your foot downthe pedal nonstop, 24, seven,
eventually you're going to crash.
Okay, and we don't want you tocrash, we don't want burnout.
That is probably the first 10years of my career was just
(01:08):
going 100 miles an hour.
Just, I didn't have two speeds,I had one speed and it was all
out.
And what usually would happenis I would take a lot of my time
off as sick days, and it wasn'tthat I was quote, unquote sick,
I just literally was soexhausted, I felt horrendous,
and you need to recalibrate.
(01:29):
You need to have time foryourself, you need to allow your
body to rest, you need torecover mentally.
So taking time off, though, isthe exact same thing as planning
for meetings.
It's having a process.
You need to understand why areyou taking time off?
(01:49):
There's a couple of things,psychologically, that happen
when you schedule your time off.
You start to look at the timein between as a sprint, and
that's okay, because you can seethat there's going to be a rest
and there's going to be arecovery and a restoration
(02:10):
period that's coming up.
So, for instance, if you have avacation coming up next week
for the fourth, you know it'scoming.
You know that whatever you'regoing through right now is going
to be short term, becauseyou're going to have a break and
you need to take breaks.
I'm not talking about work lifebalance, okay.
(02:30):
I think that that phrase peoplehave used that phrase to talk
about things that really don'tmatter.
In other words, well, I want tomake sure that I have plenty of
breaks during the day.
I want to make sure that thejob is as easy as possible.
It's not about making your lifeeasier.
Okay, because you still need togo out and sell.
(02:52):
What it's talking about andwhat you're needing breaks is
about is mentally resetting.
The body goes where the mindleads and if you're mentally
exhausted, your body is going toshow that, your body language.
We in the sales world are inperforming arts.
We are performers.
When we're in front of people,they're looking at everything.
(03:14):
They're looking at our handgestures, our eye movements,
what we're doing with our face,our smiles, how we present
ourselves, how we're dressed.
Are we clean, shaven?
Are we unshaven?
Is our hair messy?
Are our shoes dirty?
Are we not prepared?
(03:36):
Are we fumbling?
They notice everything and whenI get tired, what happens is I
just start, I just forget things.
I'm kind of tired right now.
I'm gonna be 100% honest.
I'm gonna struggle to getthrough this.
I am exhausted, okay,absolutely exhausted.
I've been burning the candle atboth ends for the month of June
.
I am going to be taking off,just decided I'm gonna be taking
(04:01):
off Monday.
So I'm taking off Monday as apersonal day, right before the
holiday, july 4th, which is alsogonna be a day, but that's
gonna be a family day.
So I'm taking Monday for myself, okay, and I'm gonna recharge,
I'm gonna recover.
I will go to one of my favoriteplaces, restore Hyperwoundness.
Shout out to Restore.
(04:22):
As everybody has been listeningto the podcast, I'm opening
Restore Hyperwoundness inRockhill, south Carolina, this
fall and that is one of myentrepreneurial journeys.
That is really weighing on meBecause it is a lot of work and
I think I'm gonna talk aboutthat journey tomorrow before the
(04:42):
break.
But I've made a decision thatI'm gonna do zero podcasts next
week.
I'm gonna take a week off fromthe podcast.
I'm gonna take a week off fromthe show.
So if you're listening rightnow, I'm just gonna take a week
off period and I'm going toallow you, the audience, to also
kind of take a break as well.
You don't feel like you'remissing anything or you have to
(05:03):
catch up.
And I was talking with somebodyat a networking event back in
May and they said, man, that'sso many episodes I don't know
how I'm ever gonna catch up.
And I said well, you don't needto.
You don't need to listen toevery episode.
I'd love for you to listen toevery episode, but I'm telling
you right now you don't need to.
What you need to do is you needto do what is ever in the best
interest of you.
You still gotta put the work in, but you gotta take some time
(05:26):
off.
And if you're gonna continue tojust push through and push
through and push through, thenyou're gonna be in a world of
hurt.
And I've been pushing through,I've been pushing through, I've
been pushing through and it'snot like it's a lot of time,
it's just one day.
But you stack that with thefact that I'm also going to be
(05:47):
off on Tuesday.
Now I'm gonna be with my family.
It's gonna be a lot of time.
It's gonna be, you know, paradein the morning, it's going to
be time at the pool with friendsand then the evening getting
together with family.
So that day is gonna be chockfull of stuff.
But you piggyback off ofSaturday, sunday, now Monday and
Tuesday.
You now have four days in a row.
(06:08):
And I saw this on Instagram.
This guy had a beautifulexplanation of what you should
do with your PTO and I thoughtyou know, that's a really great
idea and I wanted to share thatbecause I don't know if
everybody knows who this personis.
But he said wrap all of yourpersonal time off.
So let's say you get 15 daysoff a year.
(06:30):
So you get 20 days off a year,whatever it is, let's just say,
15.
I think 15 is basically thestandard.
Now if you're new to theindustry, you're probably
getting 10.
That's just how it works.
When you're new, you gotta workmore, but if you want to pair
around holidays, that is one ofthe smartest things to do.
Because one of the mistakes Imade in my earlier career was I
(06:53):
took a lot of Fridays offbecause it was pointless in the
industry that I was in,especially with dermatology.
When I first started indermatology back in 2008, a lot
of dermatology clinics were notopen past noon on Fridays and I
thought, well, this is juststupid for me to be out Not a
(07:15):
lot of my clients are open andit's just a waste of my time.
So what I started doing was Iwould start taking Fridays off.
So I'd get about 10, 15 daysoff a year and I would just take
maybe one Friday off a month.
I didn't travel a lot.
I didn't do a whole lot earlyin my career.
I mean, I did go to Vegas abunch.
I take that back.
(07:36):
Actually.
I did travel a lot, but it wasvery sporadic.
It wasn't like a cyclical hey,every spring I do this, every
summer I do this, and so I wouldprobably use I'd say maybe six
to eight of my days off, justrandomly on Fridays, and what I
found was even just that threedays was not enough.
(07:56):
They say you need at least fourto five days off for you to
cleanse your mind of anythingwork related, and so if you've
been listening to the podcast,you know that I've talked about
I've taken very few seven weekvacations.
In fact, when my family and Iwent to the beach which in May,
(08:17):
that was the first seven dayvacation and actually was nine,
because it was two weekends withfive days off that was the
first time I'd ever done thatsince my honeymoon, and before
that I had never done that In myentire sales career 20 years.
I had never taken a full weekof vacation before Because I was
(08:37):
always in work mode, I wasalways wanting to.
There's always something to do.
Okay, and that's another thingtoo.
Allow yourself to not be busy.
You can always find somethingto do in your business.
You can always find an email toreply to.
You can always find somethingto continue to work on your
business, even on vacation,don't.
If you want to talk aboutwork-life balance, that is what
(09:03):
you should be focusing on.
You make the decision to taketime off, take it off.
That doesn't mean when you gohome you clock in, clock out.
There's sometimes you're gonnaneed to do business at night.
You're gonna need to respond toan email.
You're gonna need to createcontent for the following day.
You're gonna have to reviewyour plans.
I hear that all the time.
Oh, work-life balance.
(09:25):
You are a professional.
If you wanna be a sales rep,sales reps are concerned with
how much time they have off.
And it's five o'clock.
Don't talk to me.
I'm not responding to emails,I'm not doing anything.
Sales professional realizesthat work when they get home is
not the focus.
But sometimes, in the rareoccasions, they're gonna have to
(09:48):
do some work, just like aprofessional athlete.
Even in the off-season trainsevery single day.
They don't wait and then showup to camp, add a shape, and
they haven't done anything forthe last three to five months.
If you wanna be a salesprofessional, you have to
understand that.
But when you take your time off, you take your time off.
(10:10):
I mean, shoot, I'm such aworkaholic.
There was a.
I was on my bachelor party inLas Vegas and I did a phone
interview with a districtmanager that I had been referred
to and I'll never forget it.
Stephanie Silverman shout out.
(10:32):
Stephanie was great.
I was in Las Vegas.
I remember it was a Fridaymorning.
I did two things that morning.
So it was a Thursday morning,maybe.
No, it was a Thursday morning,I think.
So I had gotten out there and Iremember I was outside of the
Pepper Mill I believe it's thefamous Las Vegas diner divine
(10:52):
famous Las Vegas diner and and Idid act for selling my condo.
And then, about 20 minutesafter that, I did a phone screen
in the parking lot.
I told my brother-in-law, Itold a couple buddies that were
there with me for breakfast.
I said I gotta go.
I got this job that I'm tryingto get.
(11:13):
So I'd been referred to thiscompany.
Long story short, I got the job.
But I was willing to do that.
Even on my bachelor party, Iwas willing to do some work.
Some people would say, no, I'mon my bachelor party.
And when Stephanie found out,she was like oh my gosh, I had
no idea.
I'm so sorry.
I said, of course you didn't,because I didn't tell you.
It's no big deal, that's justwho I am, that's just my DNA.
(11:35):
The opportunity was there,presented itself.
It wasn't really hurting methat bad.
It was a 20 minute phone call.
I was eating breakfast, not abig deal.
Now, you don't have to do thatall the time.
Now, if that becomes habitual,then that's like okay, I can't
do that.
But the whole point of this isyou have to allow yourself time
(12:00):
off.
And one of the best ways goingback to what the guy said on
Instagram, which was reallysmart plan out your time off in
advance, leave a couple wildcards in case something pops up.
But let's say, you've got 15days off, schedule 10.
Schedule 10 and lock them in.
(12:24):
The great times to do that arearound major holidays Okay, like
4th of July.
4th of July falls on a midweek.
Now what do we know about 4thof July?
It's a big travel holiday,which means a lot of your
customers and your buyers arenot gonna be around, so you're
not really losing a lot ofground.
Don't think to yourself well,almost every rep is not gonna be
(12:45):
in, so therefore I'm gonna bethe only one and I get a chance
to talk.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
I'm telling you right now.
I don't care what anybody says.
I've done this long enough.
July 4th is not a great time.
In and around July 4th is not agreat time to try to sell
somebody if they haven't beensold before, if they're not
already a customer.
It's not a great time.
(13:05):
You're not gonna close dealsright before July 4th.
People are distracted.
So take that time off.
Take time off around MemorialDay.
Take time off around Labor Day.
If you take off the four daysfollowing Labor Day, you have a
nine day break, including theweekends.
Do you realize how rechargedyou're going to be for your Q4?
(13:31):
If you take nine days off inSeptember, yes, you're gonna
take now.
When I say nine days off, Imean like Friday, saturday,
sunday, monday, tuesday,wednesday, thursday.
You know you're not takingseven full days off.
Now, remember Labor Day.
Nobody's working, so you'reonly missing four days out of
the field, but you're gettingnine days benefit.
That's kind of what this guywas talking about.
(13:53):
I think it's brilliant Fourdays off, nine days benefit.
Do the same thing with Fourthof July weekend.
Take the four days that wraparound July 4th, take them off
and you get yourself a nine daytime off.
I thought it was absolutelybrilliant.
(14:13):
And then sprinkle in so you cando that's four days and five
days, or four days and four days.
That's only eight days.
You've now turned eight daysoff into 18 days consecutive, or
18 days off with two periods ofnine days.
Imagine what that's going to dofor your body.
(14:35):
Imagine what that's gonna dofor your mind and then imagine
what that's gonna do with yourfriends and your family.
Even if you don't have family,imagine what that's going to do
for yourself.
You have to have self-care and Iknow that's a word and I know
that's phrases talked about, butyou really do have to take care
of yourself.
When I was in the AtlantaBraves organization, their
(14:57):
roving hitting and structurethat year was a gentleman named
Franklin Stubbs.
Now, if you are a baseballfanatic, you know who Franklin
Stubbs is, especially if you'reolder than me.
He was an all-star, played withthe Cincinnati Reds.
I played with like four or fivedifferent ball clubs, but I
knew who Franklin Stubbs was andI said what's the best piece of
advice you could give me?
(15:17):
And the first thing out of hismouth if any hesitation is take
care of your body.
Your body will go first.
Okay, physically you're notgonna be able to do things in
your 30s.
You can do in your 20s, and sowhat happens is people People
don't take care of their body intheir 20s.
I can tell you right now, ifyou wanna have a long career in
(15:39):
sales, you need to take care ofyour body and take care of your
body early.
You need to have rest,recuperation, recovery.
Just think about it if you'regonna be in the car all day long
, the things that's gonna do toyour back, it's gonna do to your
legs.
Your poor blood flow in yourlegs I mean especially the back,
the back, the neck it's gonnaaffect your body.
(16:03):
Take breaks and let your bodyheal, let your mind be laser
focused.
If you have 15 days in thefield that are laser focused in
a month, as opposed to 20 whereyou're hanging on by a thread, I
think you know where mostpeople are gonna fall and it's
(16:24):
pretty self-evident.
You're gonna wanna do the 15days laser focused.
You've gotta be laser focusedin the field and that's one of
the biggest pieces of advicethat I would I'd even give my
younger self in sales plan outyour breaks.
I very rarely planned outbreaks.
I didn't take long vacationsand I did get burned a couple of
(16:48):
times.
I'd get mental burnout,physical exhaustion, just tired,
just absolutely tired.
And weekends are not enoughsometimes.
So that's one of the tips,especially with Fourth of July
weekend coming up, think abouttaking it off.
Think about taking Wednesday,thursday, friday off.
(17:13):
It's the beginning of a quarter.
It's not a great buying week.
I know some people are gonnahave anecdotal stories.
Well, I sold this.
Look, I've been in it longenough.
It's not a great week.
If it ranks it, probably, ifthere's 52 weeks out of the year
, this is probably in the bottom10%.
(17:35):
It's probably one of the worstfive weeks of the year to sell.
So you might as well take itoff.
So thank you so much forlistening.
I really do appreciate it.
As a reminder, I am gonna betaking off all of next week for
the podcast and we'll get backat it the following week.
(17:57):
So the following week will be afeatured guest on Monday, so
that'll be really exciting.
So that'll be July the 10th.
So we're gonna take off untilJuly the 10th, so that'll be
after tomorrow's episode.
So thank you so much, really doappreciate it and we'll see you
(18:19):
tomorrow surviving outsidesales.
Bye-bye.
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