I’m going to dive in. As you guys have known, I’ve kind of had this theme, “The knock life” recently because, I believe everybody has opportunities and they just have to go knock the door and get it. I used to have a team named grit. Back in my first year at Vivint, 2012, me and a guy named Nick Hanson, co-managed a squad. We named our team grit. Which stands for grind, relentless, improvement, and teamwork. We came up with this acronym and, you know, I want to kind of dive into this concept. I think the door to door world and the direct sales world has some of the most gritty people. When Jordan Belfort came to speak at door to do con a couple years ago, he was like, wow, like this brought me back to my roots.
Be Doers
He used to sell meat door to door, and then he also lived in the stocks and stuff like that. But, what’s cool is a lot of people that see door to door people, and know them for what they are, they see an element of like, oh, I couldn’t do that. Or you will hear them say that would be way too hard. When people say that I almost kind of perk up and I’m like, yep, I am in a hard job. I am doing something that’s tough. I am proud of how good I am at it and how hard I work at it and how much I’ve practiced to be great. It is like they are showing me there is an element of grit that you don’t have that I do. I’m willing to hustle for what I want to make. There’s a bible verse I love, James 1:22, it says, be doers of the word, not hearers, only deceiving your own selves.
There’s this element of false hustle that I don’t want you to get trapped in. When we get trapped in this, I’m working so hard, I’m doing the things I’m saying the right things or whatever it is. There are so many times where we’re talkers and hearers and learners. And you might be like, I watch all of Sam’s videos. I’m like, that’s fantastic, but you don’t do the work. I was talking to a friend the other day. You know, I’m out knocking a lot, still. I was like, man, it’s so crazy to see how many people go through all of our stuff, get training, get support, and in a great opportunity and just, they don’t knock. You’re never going to get paid if you don’t put in the work. I mean, it feels good to be part of the team. It feels good to be on like on the roster and have a Jersey, but you don’t get paid by just being apart of the team. A quote I love is,“Well done is more powerful than well said.” Isn’t that great?
Limit Your Availability
Really productive people, they’re not that available. Why? Cause they’re being productive. You know, very rarely will I answer my call when you call me. That’s because I’m in a meeting. That’s because I’m on the doors. That’s because I’m doing something, and oftentimes like a good, a good litmus test is if people call you a lot and you’re always available to answer the phone, there’s a probably good indication, you’re not doing the work. And so, you know, he would always play pickleball and basketball and um, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s almost like you call him and he is like, oh yeah, I’ll be right there, I’m like I’m three weeks booked out. If you are like, Hey, can we hang out? I’m like, yeah, maybe in October. That’s just my schedule. Like I love doing, I love the grit, and I love the hard work.
Don’t Get Frustrated, Get To Work
Do I like that fun? Heck yes. I like that fun. But, the reality is I’m spending so much time doing the thing, not just visualizing the thing. I think there’s an element of manifestation, that’s so powerful in today’s talk, but I’m like manifestation that doesn’t meet action is just a dream and you’ve gotta put the two together. Sometimes, I don’t know how to explain it. Like, a productive or a really high achiever in business or sales, sometimes they get frustrated. And so, I want you to ask yourself if you are around really high achieving people. Do they get frustrated with how much I talk about being successful versus I’m just doing the actions. It’s like, when you’re playing sports and there’s somebody that’s like, oh yeah, man, like I got you like, oh dude, I’m on a streak. I’m hot right now. Like, and then you’re like, you haven’t scored a bucket. You can’t play defense. You know, I play a lot of basketball and it’s just like a lot of times there’s just so much smack talk. I’m like, cool. I don’t really do that. It is just not my personality type. The grit inside of me is like, you guys can talk all you want, I’m just gonna let my points, do the talking. And if I’m losing, I’m gonna shut my mouth and be like, cool, I’m losing. I own that. Or if I’m winning, I’m gonna shut my mouth and just be like, yeah, I’m putting in work like scoreboard. And the same thing applies is too often, we get so emotionally attached in the talking of the smack talk that we forget that we’re actually playing the game.
Focus On The Sales
There’s a principle and this is for business leaders and business owners. I caught death by business cards. It’s when you’re printing out business cards, like you start a business and you’re like, oh, I gotta get business cards. I gotta get a website. I gotta get a logo. I gotta get shirts. Oh my gosh, we’re gonna have this super cool marketing thing. My social media’s gonna look so good. You get so obsessed with your own brand and your own logo and your own act, like your own image. And because you think those things are really important to be successful in business. And so, any advice I give a business owner right out the gate, cause I coach a lot of businesses, is I say, go get your first 10 deals. Then you can make a website. Go get your first 10 deals. And then I’ll let you go get some business cards.
I bet you statistically, it’s more often than not that people make business cards before they even make money. Then they never end up making money. So, they have these useless business cards living in a drawer. I guarantee you that’s actually really common. Or they spent five grand on a website or 500 bucks on a website, whatever. I’m like, nobody ever went to your website and maybe you shared it with your mom. You’re like, oh yeah, mom, check out my new company, check out my new website. And I’m like, cool, but, go get some deals. That, to me, is grit. Like, somebody that doesn’t care about the website, they care about the deals. Eventually, I promise you’ll make money and you can afford some websites and stuff like that.
Learn The Element Of Work
I remember I was eight years old and this is really my first experience in sales. I remember I’d go to my parents. My parents were well off and, and they really liked the element of teaching me how to work. So, ever since I was probably four, I spent four hours minimum on Saturday in the garden. We lived in three acres up in the mountain. So, weeds were abundant and we would spend literally four or five hours every Saturday before you could go watch cartoons, before you could go play with your friends, you ended up dirty as dirty and you just pulling weeds and I hated pulling weeds. And so, when I was eight, I was like, okay, I’m going to make some money. I never got allowance. You know, all my friends are getting like 20 bucks a week, or whatever. I’m over here just like, oh, my chores are my rent payment to live here. My food payment is work hard on Saturday. And so, I wanted my own money and I go diving for golf balls and I go find a bunch of golf balls. I get a big bin. I wash ’em all off and I started selling golf balls at the golf course. And then, the Marshall was like, dude, you can’t do this. And I was like, oh, okay. I didn’t know. So, what I did is the grit in me was like, all right, I’m gonna go on the street where cars drive. But, it’s the cross between two holes where the carts have to cross across the street. I was like, well, I’m on public property. Like, he can’t tell me to not sell lemonade and golf balls on the street. I’m actually shocked that I was intuitive enough to think of that. And so, I would go on busy days and they would be stuck kind of waiting for the first group to go ahead of them. And so I then was like not getting a lot of people to stop. Like they just drive right past me. And I was like, screw that. They’re stopping up there at the tee. So the grit inside of me was like, okay, I’ll walk up there with my bin and some chips and some lemonade and I’ll sell these to them. They’re awkwardly standing there. I’m like, Hey, you guys obviously are thirsty, hungry, and you probably need some new balls. So, would you guys be interested? Or whatever my pitch was when I was eight. I’m sure it wasn’t that smooth. They would always buy. So, I came home with almost a hundred bucks one day and I remember my dad looking at me and he was like, what? What eight year old comes back home and had made a hundred bucks in a day. Like, what is this?
Be Willing To Get The Sale
I just remember it was the willingness to go knock on the tee box and say, I will come to you. I’m not going to hope that you stop your golf cart in the middle of this drive, as I think was like a, a big lesson. And it always cemented into me. Like, if you want somebody to go knock it and the grit is going to survive, that cockroach is gonna say, I will always be the survivor.
