Costa Rica Newsletter

When I was younger I thought things like affirmations, visualization and manifestation were pretty cheesy.

I played sports so I could appreciate the concept of a golfer shutting their eyes and visualizing their shot going on the green before they hit it, or a basketball player doing the same before a free throw.  

But visualizing your life and talking positively to yourself like Stewart Smalley?  That seemed a bit far fetched for me. 

As I sit here in Costa Rica and have some time to reflect a bit on the past few years, I'm realizing the power that those “cheesy” things have had on me so thought I would share some perspective in this week’s newsletter.  

SALES FROM THE STREETS: GOALS NEED A VISION

TACTICAL TIPS: EATING A S*** SANDWICH 

SALES RESOURCES: NEW JOB ALERT TRIGGERS

SALES FROM THE STREETS 

Goals need a vision

I’ve always been a goal setter but the idea of visualization and manifesting my future never really clicked for me for some reason. 

That is, until I saw a video of Jim Carey’s interview with Oprah a while ago where he talked about how he wrote himself a check for $10M, put a date on it for Thanksgiving 1995 and gave himself three years to cash it.  

He got the role in Dumb and Dumber and was able to cash that check a few days before Thanksgiving 1995.

That seemed a bit extreme to me but it piqued my interest enough to start exploring the topic in more detail. 

I started to see examples of successful people who talked more about visualizing their success than they did about simply setting goals. 

Here’s a video from Jim Kwik on the topic with some great examples.   

A few years back, I started to think about what retirement looked like for me as an entrepreneur of a service based company where I was the product.  There’s not exactly a huge IPO in my future.  

I knew I didn’t want to be working as hard as I have been my entire life for the rest of my life but I also know it’s just not in my DNA to “retire” and do nothing or play golf every day.

Since my wife and I have always loved playing the role of hosts and entertainers, I had this vision of us owning a boutique hotel on some Caribbean Island and running it as a Bed & Breakfast.

I couldn’t get that thought (vision) out of my head so I shared it with my wife who loved the idea.  

We started talking about where exactly we would want to live and have the hotel.

Costa Rica was always on our bucket list to visit so we decided to take a trip one year to check it out. We fell in love with everything about the country and the people so it became the focal point of the vision.

I printed out a picture I found online of a hotel in Costa Rica that I liked and pinned it up on my wall and wrote “$10,000,000 by 2028” next to it.

Late last year we visited Costa Rica again, this time with a goal of evaluating the different areas we might want to live in. 

We found a location we loved in Playa Potrero and decided to look into some houses just to see what the options were, especially since we didn’t have the money to buy a hotel (yet).  

We found a few places we really liked but didn’t make any commitments while we were there. 

After coming home and running some numbers, we determined that investing in property in Costa Rica was a better bet than leaving it in the stock market, so we put in a low bid on one of the houses we loved.

One thing led to another and before we knew it we owned a house in Costa Rica. 

It’s been 5 months since we bought it and this week is the first week we’ve physically stayed in our own place. 

We haven’t reached my full vision of the boutique hotel yet but it’s closer than it ever has been and I’m now a big believer in the power of goal setting AND visualization.

By the way, I have an evolved vision that I'll share with you since you might want to join me in a few years.

It just so happens that my good friend Kevin Dorsey has a house about 2 blocks from ours, my other two good friends Scott Leese and Richard Harris do their Surf and Sales retreat here in Costa Rica and a few other sales trainers/”influencers” are looking to buy property here as well.

With the potential of 4-5 of us down here, there’s a new vision of creating an absolutely epic Sales retreat/destination for SKOs, Presidents Club and more. Stay tuned :). 

TACTICAL TIPS 

Eating a Shit Sandwich 

Staying on the topic of goal setting and visualization, so many reps right now are coming to me frustrated with their current job/role/company and asking for my advice on what they should do next.

My first question to them is a simple one but one that most don’t have an answer for -

 what’s your plan? 

We’ve all gotten the “where do you want to be in 5 years” question in an interview at some point in our careers. 

I used to think it was a stupid one since the answer was always some canned version of “I want to be a manager/leader here in the organization blah blah blah…”

However, now I think it’s a really important question we all need to ask ourselves.  

It has less to do with where you want to be at your company, and more to do with where you want to be in your life.  

What type of lifestyle do you want to be living? Do you want to have a partner, house, kids, travel, etc?

Once you have that vision of where you want your life to be then you can start backing into the type of money you need to make to live that life and therefore the type of job you need to make that money to live that life and so on.

I tell people all the time that I will eat a shit sandwich if it’s going to get me to the next level that will eventually allow me to reach my goal. 

When I say “shit sandwich” I mean the fact that I will wash the floors, take out the trash, make 400 cold calls a week (all of which I have done) if it’s going to help me get to the next level.

But, if I don't have a plan or a vision for my future then I’m just going to go around looking for better tasting shit sandwiches and they’re all going to taste like shit. 

The tactical tip I have for you this week is to look out 5 years and paint a vision of what kind of lifestyle you want to be living, create your vision board or whatever you want to do and then back until how you are going to make that happen.

If you’re not setting goals and don’t have a vision for your life then you’re just along for the ride and someone else is dictating your path.

SALES RESOURCES

My Favorite Trigger to help you achieve your goals 

In order to achieve the goals we set and the vision we have for our lives we need other people to help us get there. 

It’s critical to do good work for good people and leverage your network to get to where you want to go. 

The majority of the business I've been able to drive for myself recently is from people I’ve worked with in the past.  

That’s why people moving into new roles or changing companies has always been one of my favorite “triggers.”

But, there’s a catch. 

It’s only a good trigger if these people have had a positive experience with you, your solution or your company in the past.  

I don’t know too many executives that are going to invest in a new technology or service provider that they’ve never heard of before as one of their first decisions as a new employee at a company.  There’s too much risk involved.

They’re most likely only going to bring in the solutions and vendors they’ve had a positive experience with in the past and they know will produce results for them. 

I wrote about this in a previous newsletter and how “past company” is my favorite filter in Sales Navigator.

Now, with Clay, it’s gotten even easier.  

I know they’re a sponsor but this type of functionality is the reason I’m such a fan and this one is free for you to check out. 

Check out the ability to create a table in Clay that can alert you any time someone moves into a new role: https://www.clay.com/new-changelog/job-changes-signal

Here’s a link to a free table you can use to track your own Champions and people you want to get alerted about when they change roles. 

Try it out and let me know what you think!

ADDITIONAL WAYS YOU CAN LEVEL UP YOUR SALES GAME 

• The JB Sales Membership is where you’ll get access to my live training, workshops, AMAs and OnDemand catalog so you can level up your sales skills every day!  3000+ Sales pros have already joined. Are you next?

• The industry-leading Make it Happen Monday Podcast where you’ll get insights and inspiration from some of the most interesting and influential people in the world of Sales and business. (this is where you’ll hear the Guy Kawasaki episode on May XYZ)

• The JB Sales YouTube channel with practical tips that you can apply immediately to drive results along with interviews and content that is guaranteed to get you to think differently.