Reshaping Your Career: The Transition from Stagnation to Outside Sales | SOS Ep. 352

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Are you rising with the sun, eager to tackle your workday or are you caught in the churning tides of stagnation? 

As your host, I, Mike O’Kelly, discuss the powerful question of when it's appropriate to consider a career change. If you're not bounding into Mondays with drive and vigor or if you're not excited about initiating positive changes for your clients or prospects, it might be time to cast a wider net. Chasing money alone won't lead to fulfillment; it's just as crucial to challenge yourself, to grow, and to constantly evaluate if you're escalating or sinking in your current position.

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______________________________________________________________________
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/
[e-mail]

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Surviving Outside Sales podcast.
I'm your host, mike O'Kelly,just got back from a seven day
vacation and I tell you what Iam more exhausted than I was
before I left, but the mind isdefinitely recharged, the body
not so much.
But we had a great vacation.

(00:22):
We were at the beach, there wasa pool at the house we rented
and it was a good time.
It was a good time.
I thank you to everybody who'sbeen listening and reaching out
to me.
I'm getting back into work modethis week, but I'm excited to
get back.
You know you don't want to stayon vacation forever and that's

(00:44):
kind of the topic today.
Today's gonna be very brief,just a couple minutes, because I
don't need to belabor the point.
I've mentioned this before,talked about it on social media
and especially LinkedIn, butwhen you know it's time to move
on, it's one of the hardestthings to know in your career.
So I'm going to make it verysimple for you.
Okay, if you are not lookingforward to Monday, if you are

(01:10):
not looking forward to being achange maker and a solution
maker for your prospects, yourclients, it's time to move on.
At that point, if you're notexcited to bring change about in
someone else's life, in someoneelse's business.
It's time for you to findanother opportunity and it's

(01:30):
time for you to move on.
Life is too short to stick inan opportunity that you don't
want to go to work, you're notexcited about it, you don't have
passion for it.
Okay, there's tons ofopportunity out there, all right
.
So if that is you, if you'relistening right now and you're

(01:51):
thinking to yourself man, Ireally do not want to come to
work today.
And if you have that more thanonce, sometimes you're just
tired.
But if you really are thinkingto yourself I don't want to be
doing this anymore.
It doesn't matter how good thepay is.
Okay, you're really robbingyour future self from
opportunities that might present.
And it's interesting, you haveno idea if the opportunity that

(02:14):
is out there waiting for youcould bring you 2x, 3x, 4x the
compensation that you'recurrently stuck with right now.
If you are in an opportunityright now where you're not
making good money but you justthink, hey, it's a steady
paycheck, it's consistent,that's the wrong mindset, that's
a limiting mindset, and I thinkthat you really need to examine

(02:38):
that mindset.
So how to know if you're in theright role or not, if you are
excited about changing otherpeople's lives.
If you really believe that whatyou're doing is making a
difference, that's how you knowyou're on the right path.
The difference between makingyou know 300,000 and 200,000 is

(03:02):
a lot, but what's the tradeoffif you're making you know, let's
say, 300,000 and you'reabsolutely miserable?
What's the tradeoff?
You get some bills paid.
You have plenty of incomegenerating gears in the future.
There's not a limited amount ofmoney out there in the universe

(03:24):
.
You can have side projects.
You can have 1099s.
It's a topic I talked aboutyesterday.
There's other ways to havemultiple streams of income.
It's not limited to just yourW2.
So what I would do is I wouldjust examine am I excited about
what I'm doing?
Am I passionate about what I'mdoing?
Do I want to be the change inpeople's lives?

(03:45):
And if you're saying no to anyof those, that's how you know
it's time to move on.
Also, besides that, when youare no longer challenged at your
job, it's time to move on andfind a challenge, because when
you aren't being challenged,your skill set is actually
declining.
There is no such thing asmaintenance.

(04:06):
I'll tell you a quick story.
When I was in high school, myhigh school strength and
conditioning coach was RobertBlanton.
Bob Blanton worked out withArnold Schwarzenegger and
trained with him back in the Iguess was the 70s and our
strength coach was a powerlifterand famously, back in the 80s
there was this television showcalled the Wide World of Sports

(04:29):
and the Wide World of Sports hada saying and it was the thrill
of victory in the agony ofdefeat and for two and a half
years him failing to do apowerlift was the agony of
defeat clip in the video fromthe 70s.
And he said the most powerfulthing to me when I was a senior

(04:57):
because I had gotten myprepackage from William Mary for
the strength and conditioningand on the top it said William
Mary's maintenance strengthprogram.
And coach Blanton looked at itand he said he shook his head
side to side and he sighed.
And I said what is it, coach?
And he said, mike, I'm going togive you some advice.

(05:22):
In this world, you're eithergetting better, you're getting
stronger, you're getting faster,you're getting smarter or
you're declining.
Whatever skill you're trying toimprove, you're either
improving it or you aredeclining.
There is no such thing asmaintenance.
In essence, you can't freezeyour skill set.

(05:46):
You are declining if you arenot pushing yourself to get
better.
There is no maintenance.
It doesn't exist.
You can't just get to a certainlevel and say, well, I'm just
going to keep my skill set here.
And the reason why you can't dothat is because the industry is
moving around you.
It's elevating and you need toelevate with it.

(06:12):
So you have to ask yourself thequestion am I in a position
right now where I'm challengingmyself?
Am I getting better?
Or are you just floatingthrough the day, just trying to
get to the weekend, just waitingfor that next paycheck to hit
the bank so you can pay morebills?
That's not a way to live life.
That's my opinion.

(06:33):
You might disagree with it andthat's perfectly acceptable if
you disagree with it, but Ithink my plan is better.
I think my 10-year plan isbetter than your 10-year plan.
If that's what you're going todo, you're going to wait it out.
So if you want to know as arecap, if you want to know if
you're on the right path, areyou being challenged?

(06:54):
Do you get excited to solvepeople's problems?
Do you get excited for meetings?
Are you dreading Mondays?
Are you dreading the work week?
Are you just trying to get tothe weekend.
If the answer is yes to eitherof those, it's time for you to
examine what you're doing inyour career.
If you would like to bounce someideas off of me, I do a free

(07:15):
strategy session for any singleperson who wants to Just reach
out to me on LinkedIn.
Just shoot me a DM and say,mike, I would like to take you
up on that free strategy session.
I've done that for shoot closeto 50 people.
I've met a lot of people alongthe way.
I've heard stories.
I'm here to help.

(07:35):
I'm here to help any way, shapeor form I can for outside sales
professionals, especially in mywheelhouse, which is the
medical sales world.
But if you're not in the medicalsales world, I've talked to
people in advertising.
I've talked to people inchemical sales.
I've talked to people in paintsupplies.
I've talked to people in tiresales, bev sales, wine sales,

(07:57):
car sales you name it.
It's not just that.
The show is called SurvivingOutside Sales.
I've had a lot of people reachout to me, or you can go to my
website, mikehockellycom, slashconnect, and you can reach out
to me that way.
So hope everybody has a greatstart to their week and we'll
see you tomorrow.
Surviving Outside SalesHejeking.

(08:19):
So then I relax to myself.