In the last three episodes we've been focusing on the power of mindset as a strategic differentiator for sales professionals. To round out your mindset foundation for the year ahead, we're pulling this episode from Craig Ballantyne back up to the top of your list. Originally recorded in September 2020, it's essential listening if you're wanting to win in 2022.

Join Craig and Luigi as they explore managing anxiety, barriers to success, balancing your work and home life, splitting your identity from what you do, and Craig's formula for success.

🔗 LINKS

Connect with Craig on LinkedIn, at his website, on Instagram, or via email. Find his books here.

Find Luigi on LinkedIn.

If breaking your quota is your goal for 2022, Sales IQ's Create Pipeline program should be too. 

And I think if we all look, it's already February, right? So we've already, the first month is almost down before we know it. We're going to be a mid-year and time does seem to be going faster and faster. And that's why have brought back an older episode with Craig Ballantine because he is an incredible high-performance coach. If you haven't listened to the episode, don't stress because we're going to play parts of that episode today.

And he's going to talk a bit about kind of how you break some of the barriers down. Look, how do you look at fear and anxiety? How do you create a more balanced approach and fundamentally, how do you really set yourself up? How do you give yourself from a planning perspective, the best opportunity to maximize results in the time that you have?

And I think this is a really important topic for us because we do see the data that says salespeople are spending around 36% of the time actually selling. That's the main, the other percentage of time is going on wasted stuff. People aren't actually doing anything. There's probably a whole range of tasks, admin tasks, all this stuff that our bosses are saying, Hey, we need you to do A, B and C that's impacting that, but I definitely believe there's an opportunity to get a little bit more out of the time that we're spending and actually spend less time.

And there was another episode with Brandon and I had the opportunity to interview him for our community this week. And if you didn't hear the episode, it's Brandon talks a bit about how he was able to earn a million dollars in commission.

And Brandon's absolutely when it comes to managing his time, managing his energy levels so that when his energy levels at that peak level he's able to do the high payoff tasks that require that level of energy. And that's what I thought I'd bring this episode today because I just think, you know, as sales professionals and you hear me say this over and over, there are many things we just can't control but we do need to be bringing more in off control.

"So, my name's Ellis, I work at DocuSign as an ABR. And the reason I started Sales IQ was because I really needed that guidance and that training to make sure that the outreach that I was doing was hitting the nail on the head. So I was lucky enough to start the program early on in this role and since then I've been pretty successful and last quarter. So I finished on a hundred nights and 5%. So I've I've seen huge results by adopting the principles.

Our next cohort is starting soon. So to learn more, go to www.salesiqglobal.com, or if you have a team of sellers, talk to us about our in-house offering. Control your pipeline, control your destiny, with Sales IQ.

So, this is

So Craig, welcome to the sales IQ podcast, mate. This is gonna be so much fun.

We'd love to learn a little bit more about you, how you started in the world of sales and business.

And I love the fact that a lot of the stuff you talk about is around mindset and building that level of resilience. And sort of when you talk about that story of anxiety, when did you get to that point where you realize. That anxiety was going to stop you from achieving your goals and you really need to make that a focus.

And you just think like, oh, I'm a die or, oh my goodness, am I actually having a heart attack? Or if I do something or strenuous, I am going to have artifacts. So for those six weeks, like there was no other option than to try and overcome them. And I, I learned a lot through breathing techniques, yoga, meditation, Tai Chi, Qigong, all this.

Each of them were incrementally helpful. None of them were like thug, big aha breakthrough. And then also two trips to the emergency room where they kind of did some testing on me, said physically I was okay. And that really was helpful to my head to go, okay, this is all something I can control here. And then I started going down the path of putting in many, many guard rails to allow myself to be very much high-performer, but also without.

And I was always willing to do. And, but there was a lot of things where, you know, I didn't talk a lot about my problems that other people, I think set my ego aside and ask for help. I just kinda muscled through it. And you can do that in your early twenties and up to 25, 27, 29. But then I also is, you know, like a lot of Aussies and a lot of Canadians, binge drinking and you know that stuff on the weekend.

Yeah. You know, you get your you're physically and mentally fatigued from it. And then you had physical and mental fatigue from work. And there was a period of time when I had the anxiety, it was around the holidays. And so, you know, you're late and all that stuff but then up early attending to work for most of it.

And that caught up with me and then it was the physical manifestation of it, but was able to only endure it for six weeks before.

Even things like normal routine has changed or I'm homeschooling at the moment. And I'm not a teacher for kids. Right. So homeschooling. I think there's levels of anxiety. That for some, I know some of the people that I coach have differently shared this with me, that they weren't anxious people, but just the, the, the current conditions is creating a level of anxiety and a level of unknown.

And, and so this has been our own version of it in this weird way, with all the other stuff that comes along with living in the 21st century of, you know, seeing other people. Even though, you know, everything's falling down around us and we still see other people on social media having a great time. And so it is very, very stressful.

There's really a ton of pressure on people. And so no one should, should feel bad about it because there's a lot of inputs upon us. And there are certain things we can deal with and certain things we can't. And then when you can't deal with them, then you need some remedies.

Doesn't define who we are. Right. There are, there are things that are happening that impact us. And so you work with a lot of entrepreneurs, you work with a lot of business owners and help them with various strategies. And I know that you've written a couple of books around planning and being very, very focused with your time.

Talk to us about why. Planning and actually being focused on key tasks is a key for entrepreneurs because our audience we've got a lot of salespeople, but the reality is entrepreneurs are sellers, right? Whether they're selling VC or they're trying to get their startup off the ground. So we'd love to see how you plan and.

You'll formula for success.

Like, Hey, I don't know. We started with, well, I don't know. I thought you were going to come up with the song. It was like, okay. You know, that's obviously an extreme, ridiculous example, but what did they do? Well, obviously they have a set list and everybody from. The lighting guy to the roadies, to all the, everybody knows the setlist in advance.

This is how the show's going to go. Same with whether you want to talk about you know, football in America or football around the world. Like the teams have set place they've planned and practice the place. Nothing, none of this stuff at the highest level is ever made up and their sales person just goes in.

I don't know anything about this person. I'm getting on the call with right now. I'm just going to go and I'll just make it up as I go along. Like, obviously that is not the way to do. And yet, yet how many people do that with their days and they wonder why they end up stressed out. So, so planning and preparation is just a way of, of you know, releasing the pressure valve a bit.

And so one of the things that I recommend people do, I'm not a big fan of like 5:00 AM club or anything like that. But I am a big fan of like, you have a little bit earlier, like gimme five minutes earlier than everybody else in the house. Just to let you collect your thoughts. 15 would be better, you know, get a cup of coffee, sit down and just relax and go and exhale and journal, or bring you down for something like that.

You'll feel a million times better and you won't be chasing the world is, you know, if you hit snooze and the kids are up before you, and now you gotta go and you're all reactive, you want to be proactive. And so the three steps at the highest level. So I have a, I mean, there's always this one female entrepreneur that I've worked.

That comes to mind. When I start talking about this planning and preparation, she has five kids, a multi seven figure business with her husband, and she works from 7:00 AM until 2:00 PM. And the more prepared she is for tomorrow at 1:55 PM, you know, before she quits for the day. The more successful. She is not just in having good days and getting done on time, but growing the business.

So they go through everybody that I coach goes through. These three steps. The first step is a brain dump. You can use a scrap piece of paper. You can use the. Whiteboard, you can use the little scripting pads that we give to people and in our coaching, and you just write down all the things in your head, you know, I got to call this person, I got these free calls.

I gotta run this errand. I gotta go to the gym. I gotta go to F 45. I gotta, you know, whatever it is. Right. You've got all these things. 18 things are on the list. But when you do that, you go, all right, I'm glad that's out of my head. Now. It's kinda like, it's kinda like, have you ever played Legos with you?

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, so what's the biggest Lego set you bought?

Right. But as entrepreneurs, busy parents, we're walking around with 4,000 pieces of Lego in our head, all jumbled up. Right. And so it's a very unclear. The brain dump is like taking the Lego and spreading it out over the table are very much like when I was a kid, you know, I did play with some Lego, but also played with jigsaw puzzle, you know, things and you take a thousand pieces out and it's like, okay, it's still a mess, but at least it's, now we can organize and start putting it together.

So step number one is. It's not number two is now we organize it into a priority to do. If you're doing your two lists to do list in the morning, you're already too late and that's why people are stressed out. You need to do your to-do list the night before, because first thing in the morning, you have the greatest willpower, discipline and intense.

The greatest willpower, discipline and intention, which means if you have to write a new sales script or you have to read chapter for your book, or you have to do hard, hard work doing it, first thing in the morning is a greatest chance for you to do it. But most people, what they do is they wake up and they do gratitude, journaling and yoga and meditation and exercise.

And then they do their to-do lists like, okay, well now you've been up for an hour and a half and you haven't gotten any work. So do the to-do list the night before. And then when you wake up. Go to your hardest activity as quickly as you can. And you'll make more progress, which will Luis more of the pressure belt.

So that's the second step is taking those 18 things. Identifying your top two or three really important tasks. Making it very clear that you're going to attack them in priority order and then also scripting out your day so that yeah, you pick up the milk and you get the F 45 and all that stuff, but you attack the day.

And then the third thing, cause most, most people who are good to get there, but they missed this third thing. And the third thing is something that I stole from chip and Dan Heath and their book switch, which was all about habits. And they said you want to make the path to success as smooth as possible.

So for example, like if somebody listening to this has ever tried to take up an exercise habit and you're not a natural exerciser, you've probably heard all, you know, I wake up in the morning and I'll go for a run, but you wake up in the morning and you're like, oh yeah, I don't know where my shoes are.

You know? I dunno where my workout clothes are and kinda, you know, it's kinda cold out there, but it's warm in bed. But if you put the exercise clothes and the shoes right beside the bed, you put them on. And, you know, half the gone this half done as Mary Poppins once said. So, yeah, so there it's the same sort of thing with our work.

If we know what we have to do, and then. Like, like I'm a writer. I read two books. So if I like, if I say, okay, my number one priority for tomorrow morning is to read chapter two and then I wake up and I open this computer and there's nothing but a blank document staring at me. I'm going to go I don't know.

And wow. If you do that, you will triple your productivity, which means opening up more time for either homeschooling. The kids are finally getting that exercise or being able to have a little bit more sleep, getting to bed early or whatever it is the night, the next night,

And they're like, I'm just going to skip it tonight. And so that's the thing that stops people is actually. Right. It sounds so simple. Everything sounds so simple though. You know, like, like if you're a religious person, you know, read the Bible every day, but, but I have so many clients who are very faith-based that don't, they're like, oh my gosh, this is like one of the most important things in my life.

And I never find time for it. So you never find time for it. You never, ever find time. It's like, time is not hiding under the bed with your app rocker that you bought off an infomercial, you know, you only can make time for what matters. So the has to be an alarm at 4 45 or whatever time it is, where it's like, okay.

As soon as that alarm goes off, I'm stopping whatever else I'm doing. And I'm going into planning tomorrow. I absolutely have to. It's non-negotiable now here's the thing is you don't have to do it as a very last thing in your work. Some people do it after dinner. And some people will do it as early as lunchtime on that day because they know they're not going to be able to do it in the afternoon.

Like I had one client, he was an online marketer of supplements and he had a. Three week old baby. And he was like, Craig, I'm not doing the thing, but you know, at the end of day routine anymore, I'm like, we'll do it at like two o'clock. He goes, you can do it then I'm like, yeah, yeah, it's totally fine to do it.

You pretty much know what tomorrow needs to look like by two o'clock in the afternoon. So that's the biggest mistake is people don't do that. And that's the problem is is you miss it. Once you end up missing. 50% of the time and that's where it all breaks down.

So it's amazing how, just a simple habit of just spending a bit of time planning enables you to have a productive day the next day. I want to find out as well, because I know for a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of salespeople are in the. Work-life balance. It's a constant challenge, right. And, you know, finding time in the business and then finding time for self.

And I know there's a post that you put out which constantly talks about, you know, mindset. How can one person, especially now with the days are connecting, you know, we're, we're at home, we're spending a lot of time at home now. It's easy to fall into a, not the best routine and working too many hours.

What can people do now to sort of create a more balanced approach to work and life?

The mission is to, you know, take the hill or assassinate the person. If somebody's got. Or it gets hurt and we can't save them or we can't carry in our long lead alone. The mission is the most important thing. If you get, you know, a part of your leg blown off, but you can still crawl. The mission is the most important thing.

And you just keep on going. And now that obviously that's pretty extreme thing, but here's the. Is, you have a mission and you can either allow yourself to get distracted by it. Or you can say I'm an operator and, and I am going to have a lot of non-negotiables non-negotiables quitting time of five o'clock.

That is like, that is non-negotiable. And if I work past five o'clock, there must be a punishment for me for doing that. So this is where I tell people, a lot of people struggle with being caught on know on social media late at night, I say, great, great. This is going to be an easy game to fix you.

You tell everyone, you know, that anybody catches you liking sharing, commenting on a post after certain times, say seven o'clock, eight o'clock at night. You're them $50. The first person. You think you think that your behavior is going to get corrected pretty quick? Sure. It is like everybody does all the things wrong in life because there are no immediate consequences, right?

Like if we're all speeding until we see the cops. We all are because there's no consequences when there's no cops around. But when we see, oh my goodness, that's a cop up ahead. Hit the brakes hard, you know, get back into this thing or, you know, here in Canada and the U S. They had, when you're going into a zone, they show your speed and you know, that triggers people to slow down.

So there's, you just need these things, these boundaries that you've put in place. And I teach people to do that and I teach people to put their life boundaries on first. So you plan your family life first. If, if you're not giving your family enough time, like if you're not giving your family enough time, you're actually choosing to not give your family.

Like, you're the one in control of your. You are the one who chooses what to do and whatever. There is nobody holding a gun to your head. And so you then need to think, okay, what really matters? What am I actually committed to? What am I giving lip service to? What am I saying? Like, oh yeah, you know, family's the most important thing, but you got 12 hour Workday and two hour round trip commute.

How is that to grew up with your, your beliefs? It's not. So we, we put the blocks on and say, okay, I have to fit all my, especially if I'm an entrepreneur, I have to fit all my work into this amount of work. And I'm not allowed to work outside of it. When I'm at home, I put my phone away, you know, all these things and you just make a commitment to it.

So it was a combination of having non-negotiables with consequences for acting outside. And it's a combination of changing your identity as James clear talks about and atomic habits. So I don't swear. I am not I'm. I just gave it up like several years ago because I wanted to see if I could do it. And so I did do it.

And now when I'm out in public, everybody, everybody apologizes when they, when they're around me and they swear, which I don't care if people swear, I'm just saying like for a personal thing, I don't sweat. And so. I'm known as the guy who does not swear. And if I'm known as the guy who does not swear, then I'm not going to swear because otherwise people would look at me as a hypocrite and being a hypocrite.

It's one of the lowest forms of the human population. The mean some criminal activities are, are seen as better than being a hypocrite, you know? So you don't want to be a hypocrite. So when you change your personal identity, you change your behaviors. In addition to having consequences for acting outside of behaviors that you want and that'll fix your.

Right. And I think that, that there is for me and has been the challenge, right? Because I'm a, I'm a, I'm a single father of two, and I'm trying to demonstrate to them good habits, work ethic, et cetera. But in saying that when you not working, sometimes you kind of go, well, what else. You know, how else do I define who I am?

And I think a lot of, and I'm not breaking this up to male or female, but I think a lot of miles fall into this category of, well, I'm defined by what I do. Not who I am.

But a lot of it is ego. And you know, when people ask me if I have hobbies, I still don't really have hobbies the way some people have hobbies, but certainly don't work as much as I used it. And when things don't go right when things went wrong and one of my businesses a long time ago, and then it was, you know, please, I tied my identity so much to it that, that I felt like, you know, it was very embarrassing, but none of my, I didn't care about my friends.

Like none of my friends are my friends because of what they did. They were my friends because they're my friends. But for some reason I thought people liked me because of my success, not because of me. And that really caused me a lot of problems. And sometimes like losing things is the best reset because when I lost it, A little bit of my success early in life.

And, you know, I had went through a little bit of pain. I then came out the other side and realized like, okay, you know, you're walking down when you're walking down the street, you're not as successful person, you as a person walking down the street, you know? And so we need to remove ourselves from that.

Another thing that got me into trouble was when you are a person who is an entrepreneur and. You're in a, you're always working. You're always thinking about business. And then you're given an, a, like a block of time becomes available. Like Thursday night, you don't have anything going on. All of a sudden you don't know what else to do with your time.

And you fill that time, that void, that vacuum with work. And when you do that, it only reinforces things. And actually. Puts you into more of the spiral. So you have to break it by having non-negotiable. So you, you know, I talked to a lot of entrepreneurs and I joke that we have to plan flux fun into our lives.

Most people don't have to plan fun into their lives, but we have to like actually plan fun into our lives. And maybe eventually you won't have to, but at first you may have to break the cycle of working.

I want it to be number one, sales person in the world. Okay. The company I was working at and I got it, but what was the consequence? I lost my marriage. Got it. Right. So, you know, I, it was, it was and you said, what you said earlier was right. It's a choice. Nobody was holding a gun to my head. I was so fixated on this goal. I attacked it with the level of intensity, but it affected other parts of my life. Right.

And obviously. There's too many stories to count where that led to problems. So you, then you, what you need are some outside eyes and somebody to give you some counsel. And the more that I talked to, very wealthy men over the age of 60, the more eyes like, I don't know, too. I know a few of them that wouldn't change things, but most of them would be like, I would change a lot.

But I don't know if you can actually change somebody until they get to that.

Physical clutter, that's be unstoppable. book.com and then just hit me up or you can, anybody can email me. I actually like email I'm one of those people so Craig@godfather.com is my email. So you can also hit.

Okay. And what that means is the big lesson for that is your morning routine. Get yourself, get your partner and get your kids on a morning routine that is control. When you have control, you have less anxiety, so that will help there. And then my second book unstoppable it's. Action, beats, anxiety, motion, beats meditation, and work beats worry.

And what that means is I'm not attacking meditation, so don't take it wrong. What I'm at, what I'm saying is, and I deal with this every day because I'm an entrepreneur and I go up and down, up and down, like every entrepreneur does and you know, with good things about things, good things, bad things. And when I have a bad.

I know the only way I'm going to fix it is by taking an action in a positive step. So my Facebook ads aren't working and I'm all frustrated sitting here and being all frustrated about the failure of my Facebook ads is only going to send me down a negative spiral. But if I go, okay, here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to reach out to all my friends who are successful with Facebook ads. I'm going to bring them into our team meetings. I'm going to, you know, buy a course for my team. I'm going to do this. Oh, okay. I feel a little bit better because I know that we're moving ahead. So action. Beats anxiety action.

Taking action. Don't just sit there and stew get out there and do

This episode was digitally transcribed.