Fix Your Health. Make The Sale.

Ahhh, sales. Once you made the decision to start selling something, chances are you never looked back, right? That perpetual, undefinable carrot, forever dangling in front of you, reminding you that the thrill of the chase is equally exciting as the close. We are all salespeople at some point in our lives, no matter what our official title is. Seriously, the greatest salesman I know right now is my three year old…he closes a deal with me every night allowing him to stay up later than his bed time. He’s killin’ it.

I’ll admit though, it’s definitely not for everyone. Over the last ten years I have seen an army of people try to make it in sales and fail miserably. I have also seen those who have made it their lives’ mission to be absolute killers; a beautiful sight to see.

However, throughout my years selling and managing salespeople, I was always shocked to see the vast majority of employees and even those who managed them, in the top five percent, in the bottom five percent, and everyone in between, completely disregard their health… and it floored me.

It started about five years ago. I became obsessed with my health the moment I started a family. After many years of ignoring my own body’s cry for help, I started experimenting with different techniques to give me an edge at work and at home; both widely used and some, very extreme. I experimented with everything from intermittent fasting, blocking estrogen for energy enhancement and Testosterone production, strength and mobility training vs. power-lifting, and supplement-timing. I would test different ways to digest food more easily, carb-cycling according to workout routines, and even compare results from walking mediation and transcendental meditation. No matter how difficult it was to get in touch with my feelings, both physically and emotionally, I would do the research, collect the data, and test as much as I could. I soon found that a byproduct of all this obsession was not only feeling and looking good, but also an increased ability to be sharp at all times and having an influence on others to do the same.

I won’t lie, there is something extraordinarily intriguing about longevity and maximizing your own life expectancy. Whether you are afraid of the unknown or in love with the life you have, I believe we are close to a breakthrough in longevity that would make Ponce de Leon tip his hat in approval. Having said that, I was and still am focusing on the present moment and making sure I try my best to be the sharpest tool in the proverbial shed. How else can I compete with the best of them? Roll up the sleeves and polish the mind and body...daily; that’s all.

Call me gluttonous, but I wanted it all. In my line of work, staying sharp and performing at the top of my game at all times is absolutely necessary to be on top of the hill. In order to keep the family and the house I built for them and setting us up for a future of happiness, I was determined to be better every day. While I watched others stroll in ten or twenty minutes late, take an hour just to “wake up,” and nod my head in amazement at all the yawns I saw on the floor around 3:00 p.m, I began to see the true value in how much personal health played a part in business.

Getting healthy is generally a reactive decision. We tend to want to make a change because we gained too much weight, our doctor gives us unfavorable news, or we have a life-changing event. Sometimes we just want to feel “better” by stuffing our faces with sugar or taking weekends to sleep all day. Rarely do we use health and nutrition to make us better performers, both in the office and home. Athletes do it, so why are we any different? We both want the W at the end of the day. We only see what’s in the mirror, while ignoring how it can put more money in our pockets, create more value for our networks and companies, and simply make us better humans.

I’m no guru when it comes to anything. I can only tell you what’s worked for me. I don’t have a degree in nutrition and I worked my way up from the bottom of the sales floor. The knowledge I have comes from direct experience and a personal obsession with learning and curiosity. We are only at the beginning of a long journey into the science behind health and nutrition and how it impacts our minds and performance in the workplace. In the past, I had always held on tight to these little snippets of information that would aid in my ability to succeed. Today, I want to share more and more with people who were like me five years ago; looking for that missing piece to move them into an alpha category. The edge that makes them the hunter and not the hunted.

Here are three things you can start doing right now to start feeling better, getting sharper, and winning the race to the top:

1.Pick a routine and stick with it. There may be nothing more important than our body’s reaction to a disciplined routine. Waking up and going to bed at the same time every day, eating at the same times, assigning specific days to exercise, decompress, or even have quality family time are all ways to configure a healthy routine. Your body adapts and eventually becomes a learning machine. Once it learns your rhythm, it spends less energy trying to figure out what you are doing and more energy on how you are doing it. The byproduct of your new routine will be a profound change in your time management skills in the office and home. Everyone wins here.

2. Floss. No excuses! Flossing your teeth after lunch or right before bed can seem like a chore that’s easy to ignore. However, the correlation between oral health and overall health/life expectancy has been widely studied to provide insight on just how important keeping your pearly whites healthy actually is. There is a strong link between bad oral habits and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, however, there are more reasons why flossing is important. One of, if not the most important biological systems in our bodies is the gastrointestinal tract. It is responsible for the uptake of key nutrients we get from the food we eat. We need these nutrients to operate at a superior level. Our mouths are the first step in a series of events that allows us to gobble up all those nutrients that balance our energy, make us elite performers, and stay sharp like cheddar. When bacteria builds up in our mouths, it disrupts that process and doesn't allow our microbiome to flourish in a state of optimal nutrient uptake. Our digestive system spends more time trying to ward of the “bad” bacteria and less time soaking up those key nutrients. This is why you might feel sluggish although you might eat the right foods…plus, it helps with bad breath should you be face to face with a potential client! I also personally understand how embarrassing it can be to have kale stuck in your teeth while talking to someone.

3.Opt for the stairs. I know, I know. The escalator is right in front of you and they are holding the elevator door to let you in, but taking the stairs instead will provide health benefits that not only can add years to your life, but will allow you to maximize your exercise habits in the busy, fast-paced environment that most of us go-getters find ourselves in every day. Some people don’t have the time to get to the gym before work or have obligations after; enter the STAIRS. Just a half hour of walking up stairs is equivalent to one hour of running on a treadmill or outside. Think about it, the five minutes it may take to climb 7 or 8 flights is the same as an intense 10 minute run. Do this on the way to work and you are priming your central nervous system to handle anything that comes at you. You get your heart rate up and since your using the largest muscles on your frame (legs), you get the maximum jolt of Testosterone possible which everyone knows is the single most important hormone for energy production (don’t worry ladies, a little T wont have you growing a ‘stache anytime soon, just closing more deals).

In short, if you are falling behind or looking to revamp your production, take a look at your own habits. This might be the very key to unlock limitless potential. There is nothing I love more than helping my fellow community with health hacks or sales tips, so feel free to reach out if you have any questions or if you’re struggling with optimizing your energy…we can get after it together!