Why We Fall Short - Dillon Buck

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

This is the Elevators Podcast. We discuss all things elevating your life, work, and relationships as you are building your business and yourself. Here is your host, yours truly, Dylan Buck. Welcome back to The Elevator's podcast. Today, we're diving into something that everyone wrestles with. Why do people fall short of their goals, even and especially when they start with big dreams and solid intentions? In this episode, we're unpacking three core reasons. Attitude and belief, how your mindset shapes your ability to overcome setbacks. Efficiency, the difference between moving with purpose or drifting into rational lies. and consistency, the true secret weapon of high performers. So whether you're crushing it or you're clawing back into rhythm, this conversation is about reclaiming your fire, fighting back with your mind, and showing up like the outcome depends on you, because it does. Let's lock in and level up. Here we go. I am excited to share a few things that I think will be helpful. Hopefully, you're clear on what you want to accomplish, what your dreams are, your goals are, what your visions are that you want to live into. It's extremely normal if you're not tracking for those things to get mentally lazy about them. I want to talk about the reasons why people fall short of their goals. Three big things. Number one, attitude and belief. The first thing that we know is that there must be a decision made if you're going to accomplish anything of significance. There must be a decision made. So what are some of the things that could get in the way of you accomplishing your goals? Some people are like, nothing! But have you thought about those things? Really? Because there will be things... that we all experience in a day, a week, a month, that will rattle us or shake us, and they can begin to make us rationalize, whether it's a lack of motivation or a rude interaction or a hard day or a hard week. And your ability to respond is going to play a major factor in how you do this year. Your ability to fight back with your mind will make all the difference. So mentality, be excited about adversity. I remember my first day ever in direct sales. I talked to 112 people. 112 people, and I didn't make a single sale. I was bad. I remember my first or second door that I knocked on. This was back in my door-to-door days. The first or second door that I knocked on, I was like, oh my gosh, this is going to be the longest four months of my entire life. What the heck did I sign up to do? And I've immediately recognized the thought of quitting that was in my mind or the thought of the rational lies or the terrible stories that I started to tell myself. And I shook them out of my head and I was like, nope, I just need to go focus on getting 30 demos today, right? Back in the days, it was 30 demos in a day, not 30 demos in a week. I had to do the things that were challenging me in the moment. I'm so glad that I had the thought of quitting because about three hours later, I stepped onto the porch of a prospect. Right when I stepped on, I startled a dog, leaped out towards me. I tried to backpedal as fast as I possibly could, turn and run. He was getting close to the end of his rope. Right before he did, he jumped out, got a part of my leg, punctured my punctured a hole in my leg and i started just squirting blood blood out of my leg the the owner of the house come out came out and she's like oh my gosh i'm so sorry i'm like no no it's my fault yada yada yada and the immediate thought that i had after i got bit was this is awesome right i had i had come to the realization earlier on in the day when i had oh i had the thought of like oh my gosh what did i sign up for what am i doing that I was like, man, I want to come out here to have stories. I want to have an adventure. I want to do something that is memorable. I want to be stretched. I want to do things that challenge me. And three hours into my day, I had a story. I was like, this is awesome, right? And then the biggest kind of victory moment that was sealed in, like, all right, this is what I'm supposed to do. This is a great way for me to grow and level up in life and in business and my mentalities and my confidence and everything. My second day in the field, I remember walking up to a house. It was a greenhouse in the country. There weren't too many houses around. I walked over to the porch. There weren't any stairs up to the porch. I climbed up onto the deck to knock on the front door, climbed back down, stood side profile, waiting for them to come out. Immediately when I knocked, I had there was a whole bunch of dogs that started like, you know, just that terrifying sound echoing through the walls of the house. And, uh, I start sweating. I'm like, oh my gosh. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Just stay calm. Just stay calm. Stay calm. And the woman opens the door and she closes it really quickly right behind her. So the dogs didn't come out. And I give my approach as low and slow as I possibly can. And I'm trembling. And, uh, for whatever reason, I wiped my feet in there, you know, in the muddy grass. And I asked for a place to sit down and, uh, she was like, You're not afraid of dogs, are you? And I go, no. And she's like, all right, we'll come in. Just don't make any sudden moves. And I'm like, oh my gosh, what am I getting myself into? What am I doing? What am I doing? But I, you know, against my better judgment, move forward, walk into the house. You know, all these dogs are surrounding me. There are literally 17 pit bulls in this house. I kid you not, 17 pit bulls. pit bulls. It's a decently nice house. It didn't smell nearly as bad as you would expect it to, but there were 17 pit bulls. I walked to the end of this really long table. I sit on the seat at the end. She sat down next to me. I start sweating my way through this presentation. Dogs are barking around me with those scary dog faces. I'm like, I'm not going to die, right? She's like, no, just stay calm. There are a lot of bark, not a lot of bite. Again, I'm trying to get my way through it. She ends up being my first customer of my entire selling career. First day, dog bite. Second day, first customer comes from sitting down with a woman who has 17 pit bulls in her house. I'm thinking they all can probably smell the drool from yesterday. I'm going to get bit again. This is how it ends. This is how I die. I walk out of there just on cloud nine, elated. Again, I don't share that story to say, hey, if you walk into a house with a bunch of scary dogs, you're probably going to protect a family or make a sale. I do share it, though, because that was such a defining moment for me in being willing to overcome, being willing to face my fears. When I came out, I was like, man, I think I can do anything. I'm here to attack this summer, screw the problems that come up, screw the fears that I face. Let's go. Again, it was so helpful. I'm so glad that I had the thought about quitting the day before because I decided, again, this is what I'm here for. I'm here to have stories. I'm here to grow in confidence. I'm here to grow myself. When I got the bite, I got excited. When I had the dogs and all that stuff come up, I just was willing to face my fear. I remember the first few weeks that I was in the field, we were staying in a moldy basement and I would wake up with my eyes glued shut every single morning. Again, life is 10% what happens, 90% how you respond. I would wake up and my eyes would be glued shut and I'd be like, this is awesome. Like this is one of those experiences that my dad would always tell me stories of when he was growing up with his brothers and this crazy stuff would happen. I'm like, I am getting life experience that will help me forever that I'll be able to tell my kids about in 10, 20 years, whatever. And I developed a delusional sense of positivity that led to lots of problems solved and lots of success by the end of the summer. So when problems come up for you, Are you still going to be okay? Are you going to adapt? Are you going to stay committed to your goals and get more excited because you faced a problem versus letting the problem tear you down? Okay, maybe that's starting a new territory. Maybe you were working in an area where you really had a lot of names rolling, you had a ton of momentum, and now you're starting from scratch. How are you going to respond to that? Are you hoping that problems don't come up? Are you excited to face the ones that do? Because you know that the friction that they provide will allow you to level up. Bring it. If you have a good week, month, or year that just kind of rolls along normally, that's cool, but it's not going to be memorable. That's not going to shock people. That won't be something people talk about for years or generations to come, but you have some cool problems that are thrown in there. And you choose to succeed in spite of the emotions, fear, frustration, anger, complacency. And you think, man, am I really going to be able to do this? And you fight back with your mind. I will overcome this. I'm going to make family heritage headline news. I will be great. Let's go. Be an example for your family when you're in the field. Can you overcome challenges? And can you overcome setbacks like a champion? Or do you just let them push you forward? onto the path of mediocrity. You having a great approach and a great demo is a great thing, and it's important, but it's not ultimately what leads you to long-term success because everybody knows the same sales conversation. That's just piece one to a three-piece puzzle, habits, skills, and attitude. So you've got to learn to overcome You've got to learn to overcome and how to be strong and how to fight back with your mind. The people that you've partnered with here will teach you this by showing you how it's done. They will lead by example. They're not just going to tell you to do it or tell you how to do it. You watch a top producer in the field and nothing's a big deal. 10K a day? Yep, makes sense. Zero day? It's rare, but it happens. Numbers are on our side. Rude person? Yep, makes sense. Flat tire? Nope. It happens. Set a timer and gamify the inconvenience and see how fast you can fix it. Problems make us better if we are a bigger problem to the problem than the problem is to us. Problems, zero. Business owner, one. It's gonna be a great day. You start really leading the right life and not being phased by less than ideal circumstances, you're gonna start jamming in this business There can be stuff that comes up that you don't love, and that's okay. Get scrappy. You start not being phased by hard things, and you start to believe that you can do anything. All right, so that's number one is attitude and belief. Number two is efficiency. We all have the same amount of hours in a day. Those of you that learn how to spend your time the wisest are going to win. Have you really made the decision that you're going to move? And get some more energy in your step. You not physically being lazy will make it so that you're not mentally lazy either. You'll be sharper with people that you talk to and just more on point. Kick up the urgency. Fast in between prospects. Slow with prospects. Some call it rocket snail. Some call it weed and speed. Or whatever sticks. Just make sure you don't get it backward. Some people are, you know, they're rockets when they're with prospects. And then they're snails when they're in between prospects. Make it fun. If your instincts tell you that you're not talking to a buyer, let the speed kick in and get the heck out of there. And don't let the snail kick in at the wrong times either. Sometimes you'll be hyped and fired up to move quick and hit your goals and help families. And other times your brain will try to keep you temporarily comfortable and make you rationalize your goals. Your mind is going to tell you rational lies. Goal is to earn$150,000 in a year, but you let the weed kick in at the wrong times. I don't really need to write$150,000. I'm moving slow, but if I just earned$100,000, that'd still be pretty good. If$150,000 of personal income is what you're capable of and the results are simply feedback for who you're being and you truly care about being the best you can, then fight like hell to rip that mediocre thought out of your psyche and replace it with something that will help you actualize your potential. The most successful people have doubts all the time. It's part of what it is to be human. They just don't focus on the doubt. They focus on the goal and the next necessary step to get there. So my antidote to the doubt that I experience is I'm a loving, service-minded, courageous leader. I just don't really feel like myself. I'm a loving, service-minded, courageous leader. I'm a loving, service-minded, courageous leader. Attention goes where energy flows. So I switch up the energy by using my breath, by changing my volume, to shift my physiology all the time. Now, I don't care how strong you are. There will always be something that comes up that will cause you to rationalize or at least tempt you to rationalize Why your goals are not as important as you once told yourself that they were. I remember back in my door-to-door days, also, I knocked on this door, approached a mom, came in, sat down, started walking her through what I was doing. And about 10 minutes into the conversation, we start hearing footsteps come down the stairs. And she's like, you need to go. Like looks very concerned, very nervous. And he's like, you need to go. And I'm like, oh, is that your husband? She's like, yes, you need to go. And I was like, oh no, that's awesome. I'd love for him to be involved. You know, we can see if this is something that makes sense for your family. Another reason why I'm so grateful that we do B2B. But she's like, no, no, no. And he comes downstairs, looks at me in the eye and I'm like, oh, I need to get out of here immediately. But I try to make light of the situation because I can tell that he's angry. And I'm just like, oh, who's this guy, right? Right, talking about myself. Um, try to acknowledge the, the elephant in the room. And he's like, you need to leave now. And I'm like, all right, yep. I'm just, you know, yada, yada, yada. And he's like faster. And I start packing up everything, trying to do it as fast as I can. He's like faster. And he comes over to me, picks up my bag. I look to my right, there's a gun on the table. I'm just like, oh my gosh, this is terrifying. Um, you know, this apparently he was a cop, obviously not a super cool one. And, uh, he takes my bag, goes out to the front door and throws everything, uh, onto the lawn and it scatters across their yard. And I'm shook up. I'm startled. I'm like, man, what the heck am I doing? Why am I out here doing this 80 hours a week, middle of nowhere, dealing with stuff like this? And I could have slowed down and I could have sat in my car thinking about that for a terrifying amount of time. And I'm so grateful looking back on that, that there was something in it that fired me up. I was like, And I started sprinting. Like I would usually jog from my car to houses so I could move quick and move with a sense of urgency. But I just started sprinting from my car to houses, knocking on doors, going low and slow. And I just, again, my energy shifted. I was like, I can overcome hard things. I can endure challenges. This is just one thing. This is one thing that's going to make my story great. That day, I'm grateful to say that a lot of times stories like this do not end up with positive results, but that day there were. It was my best number of sales made in my entire prior selling career. I had nine customers that day. I had zero before I went into that house and the guy threw my stuff onto the lawn. I had nine customers after that. So I learned a very valuable lesson for myself that day is action is the most important thing. Action is the most important thing. We get to move quick to protect our minds and move quick by trusting your instincts. So it was very obvious in that situation that I was not sitting down with a buyer, right? The mom seemed like a buyer. The dad clearly was not. Um, but something that you'll get better and better at the longer you're in the business is trusting your instincts and your instincts will get very, very good. And when you think that there are, you know, times where you're not sitting down with a buyer, you need to get out of the situations. Now you might be wrong sometimes, but you'll be right way more often than you're wrong. So I'll pose a stupid question. If you're trusting your instincts consistently, and that would lead you to missing out on a but would also allow you to generate a couple hundred more sales per year. As a result, would you take that? Of course you would. As we've talked about in prior episodes, one hour wasted or used appropriately daily leads up to six weeks of either waste or addition by the end of the year. Do not let yourself spend a couple hours daily with people you feel are not with you just to get a demo. If you can tell they're not a real interested prospect, get out of that situation. Don't just try to say, oh, I need to get my six demos today. That's not a real legitimate demo if you can tell they're not going to buy five minutes in and you're just going through the motions. Do not let yourself spend a couple hours a day with people that you can tell are not Let the speed kick in and get out of there. Because two hours daily is either 13 weeks added to your productivity or 13 weeks taken away from your productivity by the end of the year. Big results are an accumulation of a bunch of small decisions, mostly relating to how you use your time. Guys, we do a really good thing. And some people are so timid about approaching people in this business. They're afraid of bothering people. You came here in part, I hope, because you believe in the product and you want to make a difference. You will never make the impact that you're capable of having without an unapologetic conviction in what you do. Some people worry about, again, bothering people. We work with the best people in the world. People are lucky to get to speak with you. We sell the best product on the marketplace. People are fortunate to get to be introduced to it. So be more concerned about how bothered people will be if something happens and they don't have a backup plan than how bothered they'll be by being approached by a really cool person with a really cool product that has a really good buying atmosphere on, hey, if this isn't for you, that's okay. Okay, that's important. But this is also important, okay? Making sure that the snail portion comes in at the right time. Because a lot of the time, people will rush through the introduction because they know how good the product is. And they're just like, if they could just see the product, then they'll understand it. But they're missing the objective. Selling is a transference of emotions. We sell an idea. We sell peace of mind, which is all made clear in the introduction. The demo is just the proof. So don't rush into the demo. Spend your time with the introduction, building the need, asking your questions, and listening to your prospects. And when it comes time to set up your demo with the buying atmosphere, get really, really good at helping people agree to making a decision. And comfortable. Help them feel comfortable making a decision. Slow down and pay attention to how you're communicating the message. Quick yeses and quick noes will help with your efficiency. Maybes happen, but we want to limit them and emotionally count them as noes every single time because we've all fallen into the trap into putting all of these maybes into this emotional bank account of things that could potentially come to fruition, and it's exhausting because very rarely do they ever. Emotionally count them as a no, and if somehow, someway, sometime they come through, That's a bonus. That's a win that we never expect. But that's also why the art of the follow-up is so crucial. And number three, consistency is king. The most exhausting thing about our career is inconsistency. It takes so much more energy to build up momentum than it does to keep momentum. So if you're always stopping and starting and taking unplanned time off, you're going to be exhausted as an entrepreneur. But consistency has its own bag of frustrations that you also have to be prepared for. Before I got my first 10,000 hours in sales, my consistency was very frustrating to me because my weeks were constantly good, but they were very rarely, if ever, great or those showstopper weeks that everybody was recognized for. Fortunately, that eventually turned into a pride point for me because I would still beat the people that were occasionally great. It took me a long time to really start having those blowout weeks, but I had the foundation of being consistently good, and then I could still run up the score and have the great weeks when it was time. And so can you, but you get to learn consistency first. Consistency is so powerful. Journaling and visualization are some of the most impactful tools that I use to stay consistent, specifically journaling and visualizing what-ifs. This is part of the process that I remind myself of constantly, and especially midweek or midmonth or midyear. What if I hit my goals by Tuesday? What if I'm still far from my goals going into Thursday? What if I get some cancellations in the middle of a really, really good day, or more importantly, in the middle of a really, really tough day? What if I run out of territory? What if there are other agents that have stopped by recently? These are things that happen. And what happens, happens to everybody. But if how we respond is what really makes the difference, don't you think it'd be a smart thing to think about how we're going to respond when they do? So that when those things happen, we can respond the way that we want to rather than how we feel like responding in the moment. Now, another thing to be aware of is consistency can make you feel like you've said the same thing a thousand times because you have. Challenge yourself to not get stale. If selling is a transference of emotions, don't transfer staleness to your prospects. Make every presentation feel like it's the first one that you're giving. It could be the only time they ever see this. Every time you read a claim, understand that even though you've maybe read it a hundred or a thousand times, it's the first time they're hearing it. Transfer conviction with enthusiasm. Now, enthusiasm doesn't necessarily have to be over the top, like so excited and freaking out. Sometimes enthusiasm is just the facial expressions that you make or the tone in your voice where they can say, wow, or they can see that this is clearly impactful and meaningful. Show up as your best self. You deserve your best and so do your prospects. So as we bring this to a close, I want to summarize a couple things. With attitude and belief, when you plant a seed in the ground, there is only one type of plant that that seed will grow. And if you want something else to grow in its place, you have to rip it out from the roots and plant something new. When you plant a thought in your mind, there's only one direction that thought will grow. If you don't like the thought or where it's taking your mind up, root it and replant a new thought that's helpful. When it comes to being efficient, act your way into healthy thinking. Mr. Mediocrity is mentally fast but physically slow. When you're moving quick, he or she cannot keep up. Learn to trust your intuition the way that you trust your sight. Believe it or not, It's even less deceptive. If they're neg, shake a leg and get out of there. And when it comes to being consistent, inconsistency is exhausting. The people that are consistently good are gonna enjoy this career so much more and do so much better than those who are occasionally great. And if there's anybody that hasn't chosen that path yet, it's up for grabs. You just gotta choose it. So I wanna encourage you today, Refocus, re-energize, and recommit. Whether you're killing it or you're just starting to find your rhythm, your success this week will come down to three things. Attitude, belief, your efficiency, and your consistency. Problems will show up, that's guaranteed, but how you respond is what will define you. Decide right now that no challenge will rattle your belief in your potential. Move with urgency. Trust your instincts. And don't let your foot off the gas. Stay sharp, transfer passion, and show up like each interaction could change a life, because it might. The people who win are the ones that stay mentally and physically in motion. So rip out those limiting thoughts by the root, replace them with something powerful, and operate today like failure is impossible. Control what you can, accept what you can't, And do your dead level best to consistently acknowledge the difference. We'll see you next time. This has been an Elevated Podcast production. Thank you so much for tuning in. Be sure to check out our Instagram page at Elevated Financial. Like, share, and let us know what you want to hear more of.