Fuentes Fridays Season 2, Ep. 001

Here is your end-of-the-week insight into what I see going on in the business world, what I’m thinking about, and what I’m learning about. Forward anything that you feel inspired to share.

What I’m Hearing From Sales Leaders/Professionals

Between Christmas and New Year’s, I didn’t hear much. Just kidding! I had lots of fun and interesting conversations with founders, executives, and sales professionals. Many of them had ZERO agenda, but all of them were enjoyable.

One conversation did stick out to me. Actually, it was one question during one conversation: What is the best business advice you ever received?

Whoa! That’s a BIG question, but the question itself is not what stuck out to me. What stuck out to me was the quickness with which I answered. My answer surprised me.

Hidden deeply in some part of my brain, where I store important information that I never consciously think about until some random moment, was the advice that my first manager at Best Buy gave me:

“If you want to be successful, DON’T treat every customer like you would your mother. I am sure you are very nice to her and love her, but she loves you unconditionally and accepts less than great from you [he was right—my mom was not a tiger mom]. Treat every customer like MY mother. My mother loves me and wants me to be successful. If you treat every customer like my mother, who, over family dinner, will tell me about her experience with you, good or bad, you will be successful.”

I had not thought about this advice for a long time, but he was right. I know he was right because I often find myself saying to G (my son), “What do you think Coach would say if he knew you did/said/etc. X?”

After reflecting on the question and my answer, I started to think about how I applied that advice during my retail career. I remember being on the floor with a sense of purpose and energy. I wanted to make sure every customer got treated like I would treat my boss’s mom. And on the days when I did not like my boss, I would just say, “It’s not her fault she raised an asshole.” Hahahaha.

What is the best piece of advice you have received? I would love to highlight it!

What Made Me Laugh

This comic just about sums up my feelings about Teams:

This Week’s 40/20

For every 40 hours of work, I believe you should spend 20 (additional) hours mastering your craft. This is how I spent some of my 20 hours this week.

I love the Hiten Shah newsletter. He does a great job of finding relevant articles for entrepreneurs and does an even better job of categorizing the information. If you have not subscribed, you should. This past week, he linked to this blog by Ben Yoskovitz (early-stage investor) that outlines the 16 questions he asks founders when investing. It is worth a read if 2025 is your year to go after your dream. Also, worth a read if you are interested in learning how early investors make bets.

Potpourri for 800

Potpourri (shoutout to Jeopardy!) is a category that covers a variety of topics.

One of my favorite shows of the past few years is Bad Sisters on AppleTV+ (or whatever it is called). The black comedy follows the Garvey sisters, who are the epitome of “blood is thicker than water.” The show is well-written, funny, captivating, and easy to watch (even the characters you don’t like are so well-written that they are interesting). It looks like we are about to get an Arctic blast across the US, so if you want to avoid going out and freezing, this is a good alternative. Also, Apple whatever has a free trial this weekend.

Quote for My Son

Every day, I leave my son a note with a quote. This was my favorite from this past week:

“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” Stephen King.

You can get weekly helpful information for sales professionals by following my company’s Maestro Mastery blog here.

Let me know what you think about this week’s edition of Fuentes Fridays. Which section was your favorite? How can I make this better? Shoot me a message on LinkedIn @willfuentes.