My daily bread
I sell cars for a living. I am a used car salesman. I have been a salesman for many years and I have sold many things (life insurance, solar panels, Costco memberships, attic barrier installations, windows, even advertising space on the back of pharmaceutical bags) but I have yet to experience a job more mentally and emotionally taxing as selling used cars.
I love it.
Because it is all a show. I don’t know a whole lot about automobiles, don’t have to. It’s a show. Not a smoke and mirrors show but if I have a mother with three kids and another one on the way and she needs to buy a van but is nervous about the purchase my job is to help her through that transaction. Everyone loves to shop but hates to buy.
Except for car shopping. Everyone hates that. But the formula is simple; get a customer excited about something enough and she or he will buy it.
Because selling is, quite simply, the transfer of emotion.
And that is what I do. All day, everyday. Everyday. Except for Sundays. The dealership is closed on Sundays. Which means that I have to be on my A game all the time 6 days a week and honestly, it took me a while to figure out how to do that. I’m a pretty naturally upbeat guy but I could write 10,000 words about the emotional roller coaster that is high end retail sales. Maybe one day I will. Not today though.
I struggled when I began selling cars. It’s a commission only job so when I struggled I really struggled. I was a new father with a newborn baby and I desperately needed money. It took me about a year to understand that the most important part of my job, where I needed to focus the most and put the most effort in, was inside my head. I needed to counteract the roller coaster with a killer mindset.
But how?
I used to watch motivational sales videos all the time. Everyday. Before work, at lunch, before bed. Motivation, motivation, motivation. Never worked. I’d be buzzed on a video for 15–20 minutes and then back to the bee hive of pandemonium in my brain.
How do I get a customer? What do I say? Do I look professional? What did that customer from yesterday want again? Did I call that one guy? Why is my manager up my ass again? Did I eat today?
Then one day it all came together. I discovered the formula that would change my game. I went from taking out bank loans to pay the bills to paying the bills and putting my money into the bank. And for that I have to thank renowned psychologist and best selling author Shad Helmstetter.
And Ric Flair.
Shad Helmstetter wrote the book that changed my life. It’s about how to phrase the sentences that you use when you talk to yourself.
And lets face it. You talk to yourself a lot. More than you talk to anyone else.
The most important conversations you have are with yourself. And you are always listening. You hear what you say even when you aren’t talking to yourself. Even when you don’t know you are talking to yourself you are listening.
So wouldn’t it be beneficial to know how to speak to yourself in the most effective manner possible? The answer is yes and Mr. Shad Helmstetter was nice enough to write a book about that for you.
More on this later. On to the 16X World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion.
I have a ritual that I do every morning in the parking lot of the dealership when I pull in. I take three deep breaths and then I pull out my phone and turn the volume all the way up. Then I watch this one minute video:
I don’t need sales motivational videos anymore because this is all I need. Something about his energy just moves me. I transfer of emotion from this man through my eyes and my ears and I absorb it. Because he is amazing.
He wrestled back in the day when pro wrestling was very territorial. No Pay Per Views. No advertising. It had just started getting onto television. And there was a lot of competition for those television slots. It was a tough business to be in. He wrestled seven days a week and twice on Sunday all over America. And that is how he acted. All the time. And that is how he became one of the best to ever do it.
He said “To be the man you have to beat the man” And he was the man. No one could out-work Ric Flair.
So I park my car and I watch that video. Then I have a brief conversation with myself the way Mr. Helmstetter taught me to. I say the same four sentences to myself every morning out loud.
I am eager to meet new customers and help them find a vehicle they would like to buy from me today.
I am energetic all day. I fuel my body with the proper nutrition, hydration, and I keep a positive mindset.
I am a motherfucking sorcerer.
Then I get out of my car and I say a big Ric Flair “Wooooooo” as loud as I can.
Because I need to get pumped for the day. So I do the same thing every day. I don’t care how my day starts before work, when I get to work that is what I do. I don’t care if I got in a big fight with my girlfriend on the way out the door. I don’t care if I had to take my daughter to school before work and she cried the entire way there. I don’t care for customer called me last night and wants to cancel on a deal that I made earlier that day. I don’t care if he calls me on the way to work and wants to cancel it. I don’t care if I get a text message from my manager bitching about something on the way to work. Before I begin work that is what I do.
It’s gotten to the point where everybody knows that I do it at work. Some of my coworkers greet me with a Ric Flair “wooo”. Sometimes they ask me to give them a “wooo” if they are having a tough day. Sometimes I ask them to give me a “wooo”. Sometimes I will spontaneously “wooo” for no reason.
I do this before work everyday because it works for me. Something about those words and that level of charisma sets my daily foundation. It is my daily bread.
Try it. Maybe it will work. Maybe it won’t. Maybe it only works for me. I don’t know. But one thing I do know is that your mindset will determine your future. It will determine what you accomplish today. It will determine how you spend you next hour. Your next minute.
So find what works for you. Find your mindset. Set it.
Then go get it.
.
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