We've talked about mindset time and time again. You know that adjusting your mindset can do wonders for you professionally and personally as well.

So how does a race car driver stay positive? We'll give you a little hint. It starts with the letter "G". Check out this clip to learn more!

Carole Mahoney:

So what are some of the ways that you stay positive?

Michael Hurczyn:

So it's funny because I've just recently been enlightened to, in order to be grateful, you have to practice gratitude. And so you can't just think that you're thankful that your wife made you dinner or think that she looks pretty, but you don't say thank you, you don't say that you look pretty. And same thing at work. You could be happy with your employee's work or you could be thankful that they did put in some extra effort, but if you don't actually tell them that, they don't actually know that you're thankful.

And so for me, just openly and actively practicing gratitude... It's hard for me because that's not my natural tendency. I'm kind of like keep to myself and not like to share feelings, but I've come around to the fact that you have to do that openly.

So for me, that's been the biggest, I'd say change in my life is going through and just looking around me, being appreciative for what I have and expressing that to people openly.

Carole Mahoney:

I think that's really important for salespeople to hear because one, you can look at it in one of two ways. You can look at it as I have to talk to people every day and overcome the possible rejection or the need for their approval. All of these kinds of things that torment us in sales, that make sales a hard job. But on the other side of that coin is I get to talk to people every day who can share cool things that I can interact with. I can have that kind of a connection. I can decide what to do with my time and get the direct effort from that. I love what you said too though about actually, we all think of things that we're grateful for, but how do we actually practice that in gratitude?

Whether it's you saying it to someone or saying it out loud or writing it in a journal or sending thank you notes. I think practicing gratitude is such an important thing for us to maintain that positive attitude that we so desperately need in sales to be successful day in, day out. And I think it's something that doesn't get talked about very much either in sales. That we talk about overcoming the fear of rejection, but we don't really talk about how can we do that.

Michael Hurczyn:

I think a lot of people complain or whine about different things and it's kind of like a toxic attitude. And you mentioned you're the combination of the five people you hang around with the most. And if there's one toxic person in that just by proximity because they're on your team at work or they're constantly complaining about they haven't made the sale or these leads suck or whatever that is, that is just not a healthy environment and you should remove yourself from that environment as quickly as possible.

So I mean, I think it's easy to look at, well, woe is me, woe is me. But if you think about it, usually, you're not controlling the scenario.

I mean, I get, I don't know how many cold calls or cold emails to me saying how they can increase our revenue and this and that. And we're in a weird, fortunate situation where we don't want more revenue, we are so at capacity, we want more profit, we want more inventory, we want more space to hold our inventory. And so just blindly coming in and promising that we can have more revenue, it doesn't do me any good. And so, I mean, I reject people all the time or I just ignore them or what have you.

Carole Mahoney:

We all do.

Michael Hurczyn:

Yeah, and so I would say that if somebody took the approach to get to know the person or somehow get an in to at least start the conversation, be grateful that somebody is giving you the opportunity to start the conversation. Once you start the conversation, understand what their world is and if you can't help them, that's okay. Be thankful that you learned something and move on to the next one instead of, ya know, these leads suck or whatever the excuse is.

Carole Mahoney:

I recently had a conversation with a colleague of mine and we talked about a case of the shoulds. I should have this, I should have that. I should be this, I should be doing that. And it's very counterproductive to actually getting anywhere because you're always comparing yourself to something that you're not. And while it's good to know where you want to improve, it's detrimental to actually being able to take those steps as you're just beating yourself up for no reason whatsoever and it's out context.

Michael Hurczyn:

Absolutely. Seth Godin wrote about this yesterday morning I think, and having a surplus, operating in a surplus and if you're always trying to compare yourself to the next salesperson, to the next company, to your competitors, whoever it may be, you're always going to be chasing something out of anxiety versus giving yourself a little bit of breathing room, a little bit of space or slack and then trying to innovate, trying to come up with something that is going to be a little bit more positive impact for your future instead of trying to chase something that may or may not be realistic for you.

Carole Mahoney:

It's the reason why I put so much emphasis on doing personally meaningful goals for salespeople and having their personal goals aligned to their professional goals because instead of I should be this, it's what do I actually want for my life? What do I actually want it to look like? And it's not I should be something that I'm seeing, it's, what do I see that is for me and my family and my best sense?