“I just need to vent.”We have all heard those words from a friend or family member. As a matter of fact, most of us have said them on more than one occasion. I know I have. Sometimes life (or more accurately, the people in your life) can frustrate you to the point that you need to vent or you might explode. I get it. But you need to stop. Seriously.Complaining, especially the kind followed by no action to fix the problem, is an epidemic today. It seems like everyone today is a “keyboard activist.” They have opinions and complaints about everything while they are behind the keyboard. But in the real world, they do nothing about it. Here are 3 reasons why you don’t want to be “that person.”1. The World Doesn’t Care: It’s not that the world is full of un-caring people. That’s not what I am saying. But each of us has our own burden to bear. Most of the time, we don’t need to carry yours too. This is especially true if your complaint is trivial (and often it is). 2. It Creates a Mental Pattern: The science behind this is simple. When you do things over and over, it creates a pathway in your brain. This makes is easier to repeat the behavior automatically. This is how habits are formed and how you become “excellent” at certain behaviors. This is why it’s important to be mindful of your patterns. It can become a habit. Do you really want to be the person who habitually complains? 3. Most Have It Worse: There is a term called “First World Problems.” It’s based on this simple concept. We complain about things that are comical when compared to the rest of the world. The fact is, most of our problems are barely that at all. I am reminded of a friend’s story about “worst jobs.” We all went around the table telling our story about the worst job we had had in our lives. All of us telling the story with great detail about something we had hated doing. Then we came to him.“I was in the military in the desert. We had Porta-Potties there and could not leave the ‘remains’ in country. So we had to dispose of them. This was done by adding diesel fuel to the mixture of feces and urine. But you could not just leave them to burn, otherwise it would settle. So for three weeks, I had to stir this mixture of diesel fuel, feces and urine in the desert (average temperature 126 degrees). I still remember that smell.”Wow.I am sure there are worse jobs than that. But I have not had one. So for today, I will not complain about mine.
Want to keep up all the time? Make sure to join our VIP List! Our VIP’s get an email with the latest content…and other special offers as well. Join here. Oh, and if you are in sales and want our Sales Playbook, click here and sign up…we will send it over!
Last week I had the opportunity to drive to Lenoir, North Carolina to work with one of our newest Account Executives. Jim Duncan, who joined us just a few weeks ago, has been a longtime friend, and I am excited to have him aboard. As you might expect, we each had a list of things we most wanted to go over. I wanted to talk about some product training. Jim wanted to spend a great deal of time talking about our software. Together, we discussed the power what we do, and how we can help organizations. It was a great day.But one theme kept coming up over and over as the training day went on. We would cover a topic and go back and forth with questions. After I felt confident he understood the material I would say something like, “As you do this more and more, you will get comfortable. It’s about the repetition.” As the day wore on, I must have said that a dozen times.It’s like that in all areas of our life. If we want to get “good” at hitting a baseball, we have to spend lots of minutes in the batting cages. If we want to be “great” with the bat, we have to spend hours and hours. When we are teaching others to hit a ball, we know this. But sometimes when it comes to our professional lives, we lose sight of this. We think that if we are “good at talking to people” we will automatically be good at sales. Um…no. You still have to put in the work.The challenge, I think, with putting in the work as an adult, is we are hesitant to fail in front of others. Let’s face it, if we stumble on a sales call, we (by definition) are doing it in front someone else. In the batting cage, no one might see us whiff the ball. But the rules are the same. If you want to become a “sales champion” you have to put in the reps.
Want to keep up all the time? Make sure to join our VIP List! Our VIP’s get an email with the latest content…and other special offers as well. Join here. Oh, and if you are in sales and want our Sales Playbook, click here and sign up…we will send it over!
Please allow me a “proud dad” post here. But I think you might get some value out of it as well.
My oldest daughter Skylar Hasseman is an aspiring dancer. She just finished her Freshman year at Kent State University (and did very well) but it struggling with the idea of whether to return. Like many young people (and not so young people) she is trying to decide which is the best path for her to reach her dreams and goals. So in working to build her own personal brand, she has decided to create dance videos that showcase her dancing and her choreography skills. (You can subscribe to the channel here).
Her first video went up last night and (again proud dad here) I think it looks great. You can check it out here.
But what does this all mean to you? Great question. I think she is battling with what many of us work on. How do we work toward our goals? How do we stand out in a loud world? What if no one likes what we are doing? You understand. If you are like me, you have heard those voices in your head.
So here are 3 Lessons you can learn from my daughter and her video.
1. She Chose Herself: Dance is something where you can wait your whole life waiting for someone to “choose” you. You go to auditions. You are judged at competitions. You wait to get chosen. She decided to take a different (or maybe just an additional) path. She created an opportunity to showcase her skills on her own.
2. She Took Action: How many times have you said, “I have an idea…” only to let it go because it might be too hard? It’s those ideas that you need to take action on if you want to stand out.
3. She “Shipped:” The project is never done until it’s out there. She could have waited to get one more shot. She could have continued to work and edit and wait until it was perfect. Instead, she pushed it out into the world. I am proud of that. This first project can be deemed a success. That’s great stuff. Now, if she wants to really take this path, she needs to create more and more consistent content to build her brand. Whether or not she does that is up to her. But what’s cool, is that she knows that now.
As I write this I have a basement full of young ladies that will be on the local soccer team. Yesterday they had a long day of scrimmages and today they are sharing pizza and watching the video of the games in order to learn. I listen to the coaches going over lessons of strategy and positioning, and I know that today will make them better. They are bonding and laughing and questioning and learning. But it goes on outside of the spotlight. It’s not big. It’s not the sort of activity that ends up in the Under Armour commercial. But it’s the little things (like this one) that success is built upon. The same is true in sales and business (and the rest of life). We always celebrate the crowning achievement. We all want to get the kudos and the trophies and the recognition (and we should). But so much of success is built upon the days when you are just alone (or with our team)…getting better. They are built on the days when you make “one more sales call.” They are built on the times when you choose to read a book instead of watch a reality show. They are built on doing the work no one else sees.And it takes time.I don’t know if our girls soccer team will be great this year. And frankly, that’s not the point. What I do know is they are learning how to succeed. What they need to understand now, is that you have to do it every day. The same is true for building sales or content or a business. You can’t stop because it’s hard. You can’t quit because it’s inconvenient. It’s about doing the work that most people don’t see. Every day. Over time. And when you do, some day (years from now) someone will marvel at how you “came from nowhere” and are an “overnight success.” But you will know different.
Want to keep up all the time? Make sure to join our VIP List! Our VIP’s get an email with the latest content…and other special offers as well. Join here. Oh, and if you are in sales and want our Sales Playbook, click here and sign up…we will send it over!
(Coshocton, OH) Coshocton based marketing firm and promotional products distributor Hasseman Marketing & Communications is excited to announce the acquisition of Paparazzi Promotional Marketing.Paparazzi Promotional Marketing, based in Southern California, was founded by Marty Hagerty in 2011 as a creative, design, and branding services promotional products distributor.Hasseman Marketing CEO, Kirby Hasseman said, “Marty has a great creative mind and has built a business with a great reputation. We are excited about partnering with him to make both teams even stronger.”Marty Hagerty says, “Hasseman Marketing is a thought leader in the industry and a leader in content marketing as well. I am so excited to partner with them to increase our footprint and serve an even larger client base.”The Hasseman Marketing team in Coshocton, Ohio will take over the logistical operations of the business and allow Marty Hagerty to focus on the creative side of growing our clients business. To get in touch with Marty you can call him at (949) 735-4034 or you can email him at [email protected].Hasseman Marketing is located at 432 Main Street in Coshocton, Ohio. Hasseman Marketing is a full service marketing company that provide marketing campaigns that include promotional products, video production, social media, and graphic design. They can be found online at https://hassemanmarketing.com. In addition, you can follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/hassemanmarketing.
