Master Mental Toughness

[0:00] Because today we talk about the one true differentiator that will make not only you elevate as a leader But make your people even more successful you understand that greatness lies before you.

[0:12] Music.

[0:17] Welcome to the full funnel freedom podcast if you are listening to this you are likely leading a team responsible for generating revenue revenue. Purpose of Full Funnel Freedom is to support people like yourself and keep your.

[0:30] Music. Welcome to the Full Funnel Freedom podcast. I'm your host, Hamish Knox. Today, I am delighted to have Matt Phillips as my guest today. Matt is a leadership and mental toughness coach and the founder of Matt Phillips Leadership Coaching. He helps business leaders show up the right way to have the right impact on their company and team focused on the one true differentiator, mental toughness. Matt is a former professional baseball player and a Division I college baseball player in the United States. If you don't know, Division I is the highest level of athletics in the United States. Matt, welcome to Full Funnel Freedom. Oh, fired up to be here. It's about time. It's a long time coming. I mean, we talked I feel like months and months ago, and now we're here, we get to pour into your audience. Super excited to be here, thanks for having me. Yeah, you're very welcome. I'm so glad that we get to share your ideas and insights with the Full Funnel Freedom audience today. Matt, I've given the audience the 30,000 foot view of who you are and what you do. Take us down a level, tell us the story of Matt from where you started to how you got to where you are today.

[0:30] Funnels consistently, reliably full.

[1:41] Oh, my goodness. You know, I'll start with the athletic side. I think that's important to provide some context, right? Because when people hear mental toughness, especially from like a sales perspective, when we talk about leadership perspective, everybody's like, oh, my gosh, like, I need that. I want that. And so, but I always have to start with the sports, because otherwise, you're like, how did you get to that point, right? Talking about leadership and mental toughness. this. So I grew up in Colorado in the United States and I had the great opportunity to go play division one college baseball. And I'll give you the quick kind of short story of it. I wish I was one of those stories that I was recruited by all these, all these schools. And I got to picket shoes. I wish, you know, you know, NIL was alive when I was back then. I made my millions back then, but that didn't exist back in my day. But listen, I went off to Creighton University in Omaha as a walk-on. So I was not recruited by Creighton, went there for a family history. And I was a walk-on not once, but twice. Short story, I was cut my freshman year after two days. I went through pretty bad depression, started making poor choices, things like that. Very fortunate through faith and friends just to pull out of that really quickly. And then on a dare from a friend my sophomore year, a dare from a man named Eric Groen, I decided to try out again, had not touched a baseball for one year since the last tryout.

[3:00] But I got to this point because I think a lot of times when we talk about dealing with rejection, right, especially in the sales world, we hear it all depends how you handle it, right? And I know it's a great thing because it's getting you quicker to a decision, all these sorts of things. Well, the no was extremely painful for me.

[3:18] And I decided, though, because I'd worked on myself, I'd worked on my mindset, I'd worked on just defining who I was that freshman year, that I came to this conclusion that what's the worst thing they're going to do to me sophomore year? Like, cut me again after two days? Like, okay, that's the worst they're going to do? I've already defined who I am, what I'm about, what I'm going to do here at Creighton and beyond. And lo and behold, I end up making the team, playing for the next three years. That opens up a professional opportunity overseas for me. And so when I look back at that athletic experience, I just talked about it, right? It was what's going on in between my ears, right? And, you know, I struggled with confidence. I struggled with that emotional control side of things. I struggled with my energy at points, that comparison to other people. And I started to work through that over time. So, you know, you get past the baseball career and I went into the corporate world. So I got my master's degree at University of Virginia, went into the working world and everything from audit and accounting. sounding like, you know, don't judge me, but, um, but, uh, no, I was kidding. I was, uh, the necessary evil for a bit though, in the auto world, but, um, in the United States over in Switzerland for a number of years, I worked and consulted for numerous fortune 500 companies and everything from again, operations, business development until I started my business about 12 years ago.

[4:33] And, um, you know, that journey, you know, I got to that point in the corporate world where I knew there was something bigger, better, grander, I was supposed to do, right. I won't go too much into that today. And that's why I left the corporate world and started this business. And I'm very fortunate to work with great companies in a variety of different industries, heavy on those sales leadership side, but cross-functionally within organizations to focus on leadership.

[4:55] And within that, the ones who differentiate are, as you mentioned in the intro, which is mental toughness. So that's just kind of a quick journey of how I got to where I'm at today. Very cool. Well, go Blue Jays. And that's Creighton for anyone who doesn't know. I was a sports journalist in many previous lives ago. And yeah, back when you played, if the coach bought you a cup of coffee, you'd probably lose your eligibility. Exactly.

[5:18] Things are very different now in the collegiate athletics world in the United States. So let's look at mental toughness because mental toughness is a giant bucket. It's kind of like talking about marketing. It's like, okay, that's awesome, but where are we here? So from your perspective, mental toughness, it can get a little bit overused, right? Mentally tough. So when you're talking to sales leaders and sales leaders have imposter syndrome and they have self-doubt, what is one of the core areas that our audience of sales leaders would want to start with mental toughness? Because it can go in a couple of different directions that are maybe not that positive. Where do you encourage sales leaders to start on their mental toughness journey? I have a couple of thoughts to that question. Question one is we have to start by first defining like what it is and putting context around it. Yeah. Because, again, it's like you said, a hootie-falootie thing. It's like this wishy-washy like, yeah, I get it. Like it's no different than, you know, be a great leader. It's like, okay, like I'm on it. Or be a great dad or be a great mom or like whatever we want to put. Like we use these statements. We know what they mean but not really. And so that's where I always start. It's like how are we defining that? What behaviors are we trying to drive, right? What are we trying to overcome as.

[6:33] We kind of boil it down to these five different elements that we talk about. And so the first is confidence, right? Especially when you talk sales, like confidence is everything. That's foundational, I believe, to everything. Whether you're hitting a baseball, hitting the slap shot of a puck, or making that cold call or follow-up email, whatever it is. But it starts with that confidence piece, right? That 100% self-belief. and admits the nose admits the maybes admits the you know I don't know where budgets coming out that we still maintain that level of confidence right because you lose that we can derail really quick so that's the first element I'm the second element we say is focus so it's like what am I focused on why my folks not like where am I putting my energy right how am i avoiding distractions so I could be scrolling Instagram you know a little bit and you All of a sudden, an hour goes by. Again, we know this. I'm going to get to this point here in a minute. But that focus, how we maintain just that leisure focus. The third element is what we call control. And what we mean is I'm very type A. So I don't mean controlling everything. But I mean emotional control. Got it. Right? And so when you look at the best athletes, when you look at the best salespeople, salesleaders, they have this ability to take whatever that emotion is. It could be happiness. We always think of negative stuff, right? Yeah. But I can get off track either way. hey, if I'm super happy, close the deal. Well, how are we leveraging that? Because I could derail and not pick up the phone for months.

[7:59] Just like sadness and anger and frustration, it's like how do we channel those into something that's going to move us forward? The fourth element we always talk about is energy. So I always say one of the simplest rules of success in leadership is just show up with more energy than the person next to you, across from you, on the Zoom from you, on the podcast with you. Like, just show up with more energy because it's infectious. And then the fifth element is all about what we call consistent action. Here's the key point, right? So when people ask what I do, I say I help come build leaders who are unbelievably confident, focused, emotionally in control, have the energy they need to perform, and stay committed to that intentional, consistent action. But it's one thing to say it. Yeah. The whole of the thing to do it. Yeah. Right. To apply and master it. And that's where when we have this context around it, that's great. Right. We may have a leadership framework that like, okay, we know, we know how to talk about it better now. Right. Which is one of the things we do, but how do I apply it and master it? And that's the difference, right? Is having the tools that you teach yourself as the sales leader, but also teach your sales team to give them the tools where, you know, when we're off track, cause we're going to get off track. I think One of the misconceptions that you brought up was when we hear mentally tough, I used to interpret it as show no fear. Never show weakness.

[9:20] Never give up. Never give in. And I've realized as I've matured, I'm like, that is the furthest thing from the truth, right? Here's reality. Now, I don't have to go around having a sad pity party like that, I guess. But the reality is that we are going to get derailed. I have yet to meet a person who does not get derailed. And if anyone listening knows that person, please send them my way. Because I've never met them. And I don't think I ever will. But we're going to get off track. And so when we talk about this concept of mental toughness, it's that we're going to have bad days. We're going to have bad moments. We're going to get the no's when we want it, yes's. Like all these different things. How quickly, when we get off track, can we get back on? Yes. That's it.

[10:05] Simply think about it like that. And if I have the tools to do that, then I can accelerate me getting the train back on track. And now that rejection isn't, yeah, it's going to hurt, it sucks. I mean, come on, call it what it is. It's not like, oh, another no, that's awesome, way to go, let's go to the yes now, that's one more step to yes. Sit in it for a minute and be like, that sucks. But I'm going to choose not to sit here for very long. Yes. I'm going to be like, okay, what did I learn? What do I assess? And then how do I get back on track and move forward? Totally. Totally. It's something about if you're going through hell, keep. I forget the rest of it. Exactly.

[10:47] Something like that. Anyway, what you're sharing there, it reminds me years ago, my coach, John, who I've been working with since I started my company, he said to me once, I could see when you were kind of going off a cliff and like you were going to go into a pit. And he said, now those are kind of like little dips in the road for you. You're just kind of like, yep, oh, and you're starting to anticipate it. And so I love this idea that you're sharing about having the tools to rebound quickly because it recognizes that we're all humans and we are going to go into dips and we are going to have feelings and things are going to suck every now and then. And, you know, it's also that cliche about business would be great except for the people or something like that. And as leaders, that's a challenging thing. I'd like to pick up before we get the tools on something you talked about with energy, because sales leaders, especially in my experience, once you come out of a technical background. Right. So they were an engineer. They were an accountant. They had technical training and then they got elevated into a sales leader role. Now, maybe they went directly from where they were to sales leader, or maybe they went to sales and then they got elevated.

[11:56] That whole energy thing, the feedback I get is like, hey, Hamish, listen, I'm not a cheerleader. Like, I'm not there to pat him on the head and tell him everything's going to be okay. Like, do you want me to show up with pom-poms? Like, what do you mean energy? So, Matt, I'm sure you've had similar type feedback over the course of your work with your clients. When someone pushes back on this idea of energy and showing up with more energy, how do you help them understand that showing up with more energy does not mean they have to do cartwheels across the meeting room when they're showing up with more energy?

[12:30] Such a great question, because first and foremost, you have to be you. And you're not there to be an actor or actress. You're there to be authentic, right? And so it starts with that. I think sometimes what I see in leadership, and this is something I, you know, when I look back, when I first took on leadership roles, it was very reactive, right? Because I was thrown in the role, watch after these people, and I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing. and then I'd read a book and then I'd go, you know, implement that thing. Right. And over the years it's refined, but it starts with this kind of understanding of like, what's my style, what's my philosophy. And we have this kind of four step processes that we take people through to make sure they come out with like, here's your philosophy. Here's how you talk about it with your people. Here's how it's not only just how you talk about it, but what it's going to look like in motion. So when I say I have energy, this is how it's going to show up for you. And it starts with With that understanding, I think that's where people get that, again, misconception of, well, I have to be like this or I have to be like him or her. No. No, you don't.

[13:38] It first starts with the understanding of your goal. And I'm not telling anyone something they don't know right now. Your goal is to help make the sales team successful. Yeah. I think that's kind of a common, like everybody gets that when they go into a leadership role, right? Yeah. How you do that is going to be unique, right? Right. You and I may come in and we're more just bold, like, what's up, everybody? How are you doing? Stuff like that. Or we may not be. But it's making it very clear of like, first of all, this is what's important. This is what I think is going to make us successful. And then just starting to get to know our people and have a feedback of like, what do you need and how do we push you and where do we pull and do all these things, which is an art. Right. There's scientific stuff behind it, meaning like there's tips and tricks, but there's an art to it. You've got to know and study and really pour your energy into how do I motivate my team and each individual's difference. So I can be super bubbly with you because we're on the podcast today.

[14:35] But take someone else on your team. I may have to, as the leader, switch my approach to get the most out of them. And so it's kind of those two in conjunction that I think when you put them together and study it and pour energy into it, like you show up yourself. And again, it's not – I always joke with people that – and I always tell them, like, you know, don't take offense to this, which usually something offensive is coming after. 100%. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait for it. How is he going to offend me? No. But I make a comment of like, you know, this whole leadership thing has nothing to do with you.

[15:12] And that's where the study and pouring your energy into, like, the art of, like, motivating and influencing others becomes so critical. And you start spending time there. My gosh, like, the relationships you form, the way you're able to talk to people, communicate, like, get more energy out of them, it's incredible. But at least for me, I've had to learn to set my ego aside. As hard as it is, it is not easy. at least but to set the ego aside and say okay this is this is about them yeah what do they need right now and how do i pour into them and it just changes the whole conversation i i love how you phrase that and sales leaders who are listening like take take matt's words to heart in that it's not about us it's about them and so showing up with energy may is going to look different for different people because he and i are fairly energetic human beings right and that's that's That's one of the things that we connected on. And we both work with individuals who are, let's call it, less energetic.

[16:12] And if we show up as that super energetic that we're being here, we're going to blow that person away. And they're not even going to be able to listen to what we have to say. So keep that in mind and reinforce. And this is something else that I want to circle back on, Matt,

[16:27] is I've heard several times in our conversation already today, translating to action. I've heard it a bunch of times for you, translating action. So please share with our audience today about this idea of translating to action. Why is that so critical as a sales leader to not just be able to speak it, but be able to demonstrate it? I think just for us.

[16:53] Time in society, we're talking too much and acting too little. Keep going. And I see this, you know, I've got one side of my business you and I talked about, but dealing with athletes. Right. So I actually have a, I work with athletes from the Cubs and Braves and all sorts of cool teams. But also we launched a high school student athlete program to teach them about the mental side. Cool.

[17:17] And I found it at all levels where we keep talking about it and people are like, yeah, I get it, I get it, I get it. Here's the deal. They don't get it. And I didn't get it. And so we've got to take these kind of words and say, how do we speak less? Ask more. How do we speak less and act more? And again, it's these tools. It's the little things of how do we get them to reflect? So as a coach, right? Cause all your sales leaders right now, your, your coaches, and I don't know if you guys consider yourself a coach, but you kind of do the same things that we do. You coach people, right? And the best coaches you've heard and you know, but if you thought back, I want you to think back right now, like who's the best leader you've had and who you'd consider a coach, a mentor, like whatever label you want to put on it. And I imagine if you recall some of the conversations, he or she was really good at asking questions. And the questions were prompting you to do something. thing, right? Yeah, I remember when I was back, I was really overwhelmed one day in a role I had, and I wanted in my boss's office, and I told her, I said, I'm really overwhelmed today, and she goes, what's going on? I'm like, I feel like I have so much to do, all this sort of stuff, and she goes, have you made a list of all the things? I said, no, I haven't, right? What a simple question.

[18:41] She goes, I want you to go make a list. And then, you know, like we've talked before, just start, pick one and chip away at it. And I made the list and I started chipping away. And lo and behold, what happens? I'm done with the list before, like, really quickly. Love it. So it's, again, those things of like, okay, well, I know you're overwhelmed. We talk and talk and talk and talk about it. Instead of like, no, how do we get them to accelerate to action and say, what question do I need to ask now to get them to take some sort of even a silly action like making a list? Yeah. And maybe you're sitting there like, your audience is like, Matt, come on, man. That's step number one. You should know how to do that. But I was in my head at the point. And I couldn't get out of my head until she challenged me to do that. And so for me, that's where for our kids, for the young generations, for the old generations, we're just at this point where it's like, Matt, action is going to get us where we want to go. And the quicker we realize that as leaders, that's where amazing things can happen. So if I'm a sales leader and I sit there and I have someone in my office who's just struggling and maybe she or he feels like they're not getting any momentum in the funnel and I don't feel like it's big enough. You know, that's every salesperson's nightmare, right? Of like the funnel is not big enough. Funnel is not big enough.

[20:00] And they just can't see the forest or the trees at the moment, right? Of asking questions such as, well, let's think back to a time or tell me about a time where you felt the funnel was like really full, like you felt good about it. Yeah.

[20:16] And then they'll start recalling some of those things. And then it's like, well, what was going on? What were you doing? What was working? Who were you talking to? Right. So it's question after question after question to remind them of the actions they were taking to get the funnel full at that point, which, again, could be repetitive going forward. But it's to get them to not only talk about it, but also write it. Yeah, I'm such a believer. And again, the brain processes things differently. One thing I love about the mental side of things is is the neuroscience. Neuroscience right and getting to understand like how the brain and body work and in conjunction with each other and how you know there's points where people will and again maybe it's this situation the perfect one where they're they feel like they're not pulling their weight all these sorts of things they're overwhelmed and all of a sudden you give the the most perfect answer as their leader you give them the solution you're like here on the platter like here you go and it's like they're not even paying attention to you. Well most likely they're in fight or flight response and when that happens, the prefrontal cortex shuts off and the prefrontal cortex is the logical part of the brain. It literally turns off because it's just trying to protect, it's trying to make sure I can fight the tiger. And they're threatened right now. But by slowing them down, there's all sorts of tricks that you can do to get them out of that, turn their prefrontal cortex back on to have a conversation so they even just see the solution.

[21:43] But that's where right now as leaders, we have to ask the right questions to get them to take the action. It's so huge across the society right now.

[21:52] That's brilliant because it goes into survival mode, right? When someone's in survival mode, although I did laugh a little bit because I literally had that conversation with my eldest daughter who's 12 where she said, hey, dad, what's this? And I literally gave her the answer. She said, I thought it was this. And I said, but I just gave you the answer. Like you literally, you asked me what two plus two was. I said it was four. And then you're like, I thought it was five. Like, no, it doesn't matter what you thought, because I gave you the right answer. However, as leaders, and we have to recognize and not get frustrated by that fact, right? Because when someone's in survival mode, they may just be pushing back and pushing back and pushing back. And eventually, we might be like, listen, just because I said so.

[22:28] And so I love this idea about like staying present, asking the right questions. And what it ties into for me is, and it is like children, right? Right. So we grow up however we grow up and we're like, my parents were amazing. I'm going to be just like them when I'm a parent or I hated my parents and I'm not going to be like them at all. And from experience, this is the same thing when we get into leadership roles. Right. Oh, my boss was amazing.

[22:52] I'm going to be them or I hated my boss. I don't want to be anything like them. So as you're working with sales leaders that you coach, how do you help them make sense of I'm the sum of everything I ever met? Yet i do not have to repeat the past or go completely away from the past yes it starts with asking questions so the first of those four steps is we ask questions because we need to understand the good the bad and the ugly right we need to understand and have that as the basis for what do you want to develop for yourself because you are unique and you're never going to be like perfectly like that that person whoever that you have in your mind totally or the opposite of that person that you have in your mind. But it's coming to a point of like.

[23:36] The good leaders have some flaws, but you want to take the good. The bad leaders have some flaws, obviously, but then they have some good stuff too. But how do you start recognizing that and letting your brain pull together? What are the kind of best of both worlds that I want to mesh to become who I am and who I want to be and how I want to show up? That is the first place that we start, honestly, with everyone is we have to recognize and make it our own and have fun with it, right? I, you know, in 95% of cases, people either do not have an answer because they've never really thought about it, which is not bad because guess what? You can't think about it. Totally. Yeah. Or I get these very cliche answers. So I'll get something in the fact of like, well, you know, I have an open door policy. And I'm like, okay, I know what you mean. And that's great. I thank you for saying that. I appreciate that. But everybody says that. And what is that going to look like? Like if you were to create a movie and it's act one, scene one, or scene one, act one, I never know which is right to say first. But I should probably look that up. But it's like this is what it's going to look like, right? So my door is shut and I want you to open the door and come hang up my phone when I'm on it. Like what does open door policy mean, right? Again, we're using too many general statements. I was with – so I work really close with my son's hockey team.

[25:01] And they've had two tournaments the past two weekends it's been a lot of hockey to start this is right at the beginning of the season so they're tired they had weird i don't know how many on here are familiar with hockey but they in between periods they will zamboni the ice right so they'll basically melt it so it freezes again um anyway they had this weird zamboni break where they do at the beginning of the game and then literally halfway through oh so like in eight minutes 30 seconds into the second period they'd stop players would leave and then it was just the tournament rules whatever fair enough so the first half oh i the energy was so low for my son's team okay it was like they were sleepwalking out there and we went into the half halftime which is weird to say in hockey down one zero okay that happens right and you can tell they were visually frustrated like you could see it so we walk in and the coaches are talking and then it was my turn and I look at him and I go I asked him I said are you guys frustrated right now, because I was genuinely curious are you guys frustrated I could be saying something wrong are you frustrated and literally every head was like yes like we're frustrated.

[26:14] I said, here's how it looks. I want to show you how it looks. So because of your frustration, it's tanking your energy. And I said, what I'm seeing when you're skating off the ice is this kind of head down and this like skating off to the side. And I know some of you listening can't see me, but picture a penguin walking right now if you would, right? That's how they're skating off the ice. And I said, do you think that is going to help increase your energy when you go back out for your next shift? Or is it going to decrease your energy going out to the next shift? And they said, decrease energy. Of course. Yeah. But I said, we have to describe this is what it looks like. Yeah. Because they tell them, like, raise your energy. Let's go. I did that at the end. But I wanted to show them, like, this is what it looks like. And I could have pulled up film. I know you can't do that in the business world necessarily. necessarily, but you can describe what it looks like. You know, you lose a deal or this happens or make these phone calls. Like this is the behavior I see. And then they'll start to be like, Oh my gosh, I get it. Right. And that's where I think it's so important. Like once we, I define like, this is what we're looking for. This is how I'm going to show up. This is how I expect you to show up all these things. We have to start painting this picture for people of, you may think it's this way, but I'm telling you and I'm showing you it's this way. Totally. And how do we bridge that gap?

[27:39] Totally. That's brilliant. Thank you for sharing that with our audience today, Matt, because it's making the abstract concrete. That's absolutely incredible. And especially, like you said, in business, yes, we do have call recordings and we have video recordings and all that. We have a little bit more data than we used to and a little bit more film. And we can't literally sit on every one of our sellers calls or be in every one of their discovery meetings because otherwise we don't need them because we're doing the job that we hired them for so matt as we're wrapping up because you and i could literally rap about this all day long yes and uh both of us have have clients to support so we're not going to do that today uh a few questions for you before we wrap up first one being uh if you could go back and and coach younger matt so go back as far as you like and go hey younger matt in the future you'll have had this great college baseball career, professional baseball career. You're going to be this, you know, incredible leadership and mental toughness coach to not only leaders, but also high performance athletes. You're also going to have a lot of scar tissue and bumps and bruises. What would you coach younger Matt to say or do different to get to the same place with maybe a little less scar tissue and a fewer, fewer bumps and bruises?

[28:52] Two things. Stop comparing yourself to other people. Oh, nice. And focus on maximizing your gifts and talents to their fullest every day. That's hands down the first thing I would say to myself. The second thing I would say to myself, advice I would give is asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness. Yes. and the quicker we learn to do that not that we can't figure out stuff on our own and we should have that diligence and tenacity to do some of that stuff but there are circumstances when you know you should ask but we hold back because it's gonna we're gonna be we feel like we're gonna be perceived a certain way like we should know that or i explained this before well maybe you go into it with this attitude of like you know what i'm gonna ask because i'm confident in myself and I want to accelerate my growth. And this time I'm going to write it down.

[29:54] Nice. But I'm going to go do that. Those are two things I tell myself. Awesome bits of advice. Thank you for sharing that with our audience today. The second question I have for you is what have you read, watched, or listened to either recently or in the past that you would encourage our audience to check out to further their own development?

[30:09] So a book, it was recommended to me. I'll grab it and show you. Please. I'll say it so people can have listening. but I had a good friend of mine show me this book so winning the war in your mind who as by Craig Greshel I probably just butchered his last name and I apologize Craig right away but again it says change your thinking change your life right and again it's what I like about it there's practical practical action items that you can do and that that's what it's about I love it so So that's a book right now. I'm enjoying them probably a third of the way through. Very cool. Thank you for that recommendation for our audience. Last question for you. You have given us already so many amazing ideas and insights around mental toughness and how to develop it and how to make it real to you and your team. What do you have as a closing thought, final bit of wisdom, or something to plug? The floor is yours.

[31:05] When I think about getting that question about what would you tell your younger self is so powerful. And, you know, I go back to this concept of the mental side or resiliency or mental toughness or however you want to phrase it. The best athletes, the best business leaders, the best sales leaders, the best even politicians in certain cases, well, they've taken this understanding that the mental side.

[31:35] Is worthy of your time. Because it's one of the most undervalued because it's tougher to touch and feel. And I can show that I sent an email or I can show you the record. I can show you the data that I did that. I can't necessarily show you the data that, you know, me spending time literally like researching and figuring out how to motivate my team and influence my team. I can't perfectly tie that to like a sale. Or a perfect example of how I help that person. But over time, it adds up significantly. And so we have to kind of know thyself, right? We have to take an understanding that the quicker that we, within ourselves, work on our confidence, our focus, our emotional control, our energy, and maybe the action we're taking consistently or not, as a leader, as a mother, as a father, as an uncle, as an aunt. All these different areas of life, the quicker we start to dive into that and work on that, the quicker we're going to be able to benefit our team and our people.

[32:45] I've seen it. You read all the stories about Michael Phelps and Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. I know I talk a lot about sports just because I have that background, but you look at the greats, they understand that this is the true differentiator. And that's what gets me so fired up and excited to do what I do every day, is to come alongside you and make you great leaders, but with those elements tied in, right? Understanding that we're getting off track, but we're going to get on back quick together. And then you're about to teach your people how to do that together because we're stronger together. Absolutely.

[33:17] Absolutely. Matt, what a great way to wrap this up. Thanks for being a guest on Full Funnel of Freedom today. Thank you for having me as always. Can't wait for the next chat. Sounds good to me.

[33:29] Sales leaders, I had an absolute blast chatting with Matt. Clearly, he and I are very much on the same wavelength as it relates to mental toughness and coaching. And there were a few things that really stood out to me that he shared with you today. Number one being make the abstract concrete. And so we can get caught up in cliches. We can get caught up in gotta sell more. My door is always open, like Matt said. And what does that look like in practice? Like what is the specific observable measurable activity or behavior that we can demonstrate to our sellers or that we want our sellers to be doing with their buyers that actually indicates that we're moving towards whatever that that cliche or that abstract idea might be. The other thing that I really appreciated Matt talking about is this importance of asking questions. And for me, I'm really interested in how does someone think about things? How does someone get to where they're at? And you may have heard on previous episodes the idea when a seller comes to us and says, you know, I just can't get in front of this buyer or this opportunity is never going to close or we've got to lower our prices in order to get this business.

[34:45] I believe that if we get into the content of their question we're actually not addressing what the real what the real topic is because it may be legitimately true that we need to discount in order to get that the business from this buyer however that's not the real issue so question that I really like asking when someone initially brings me a problem or or an opportunity to look for support on is help me understand how you got to here right help me understand how you got to we need to discount in order to earn this business and by that we're actually opening up a really powerful line of questions and a line of conversation that's going to take us away from we're not we don't give discounts uh for this size of a deal or something that's going to end up in a fight we end up in a much more successful place and it may be legitimate that we're going to end up discounting in order to get the business for this particular opportunity.

[35:44] And the last thing that I really appreciated from that, among many things I'm summing up here, is this idea of what would you say to your younger self? What would you go back and tell your younger self to say or do differently that would get you up to that same place and visualize that person you want to be? So you can even do this ahead of time is you could imagine your future self coming back and talking to you. It's actually something I do every morning that also helps me stay motivated and keeps me going when things are maybe not producing results as fast as I want them to. Because especially in a sales leadership role, we are not going to be directly connected to a sale, as Matt identified about that idea of motivating a team. So we need to have a way to keep ourselves on pace that allows us to continue moving forward and supporting our team, even though we may not actually be getting the tangible results or seeing the tangible results that we ultimately want. I'm very curious to hear what your big takeaways were in the comments in our social media. Let us know there. And until we connect on the next episode, go create full funnel freedom.

[36:54] Thanks for listening to today's episode of the full funnel freedom podcast. You can continue to support us by leaving us a review and a rating, sharing this episode with a couple of sales leaders in your network who you care about. I'd love to connect with you. I'm easy to find Hamish Knox on LinkedIn. Also, if you'd like a free 15 minute call with me, go to www.hamish.sandler.com forward slash how to Sandler. Until we connect on the next episode, go create full funnel freedom.

[37:27] Music.