How Writing A LinkedIn Article Changed My Life

In late 2016, a LinkedIn article I wrote caught the attention of an old friend with whom I had not spoken in quite a while. It was called CMO Challenge 2020: Disruptive Growth . I wrote this article to add value to my network based on my beliefs surrounding the challenges that were coming upon us marketing and sales types. As it turned out, the article also boomeranged back some massive and life-altering benefits. Here is that story:

LOST 30 LBS/IMPROVED MY HEALTH

After reading the article, my buddy picked up the phone and called me to tell me he thought I nailed it in my characterization of the new digital playing field. In the process of catching up on our lives, I learned that his son, a recent college grad, a friend of my son's and former D1 college athlete, had become a fitness and nutrition expert. Since he wanted to lose weight after bulking up to play college football, he dove deep into learning about how to do this and after successfully getting himself in phenomenal shape, decided he wanted to share his expertise with others and started a business to do just that. In the process, he helped my pal (his Dad) lose over 50lbs.

What a great story I thought but also I asked if I could meet with him as I had struggled with my weight for a solid couple of decades. After a consult, I was able to shine a light on my not so great eating habits and inconsistent workout regimen. The recipe for the Dan Sixsmith project was simple on paper.

Healthy eating combined with exercise.

Yeah, heard it before, read it a billion times, tried it before, but never made enough progress and then typically wound up sliding back to my old ways. But this time was different. Now, I was working with an expert. I was accountable to myself but also felt I needed to make it work since he was his investing time to help me. In addition, my buddy had lost the weight. I'd feel like a fool if I couldn't commit to it too. Oh yes, in addition, my son had treated me to this service for Christmas and I was now accountable to him as well!

After getting started, I quickly realized that I had not been pushing myself enough physically in past efforts. The exercise program was intense and frequent and I struggled mightily initially. Similarly, the diet change was at times draconian in terms of sacrifice and portion sizes. I had to make major changes in the times I ate, the type and the amounts of food I consumed. I started feeling great, though, after the initial wave of angst. I made a major commitment to making it work and started seeing some nice results. In short, I felt better now than I did 25 years ago! No article. No incredible physical transformation.

MORE REVENUE STREAMS, BABY!

After a few months of kicking my ass into shape, I felt like a new man. A natural offshoot of this makeover was evaluating my business life. Like many of you, I always believed I could do better and needed to improve.

However, it always comes down to execution- the doing vs the talking; the pavement pounding vs the strategizing; the dialing vs the dreaming.

Since both my pal and his son (my fitness guru) lived on the opposite coast, I decided to take a trip out to celebrate my initial successes in physical transformation. I had some good quality time to take stock of my business life with someone I trust and admire and picked up numerous new ideas. I became a massive consumer of podcasts and used them to aid in my learning, motivation, and business skills. Along the way and as part of my ongoing Dan Sixsmith renovation plan, I was encouraged to launch my own podcast. And in June of 2017, Sales Is King was born.

I enjoyed talking about Sales, which I have been in and around for 30+ years. I have published 100 episodes and still going strong. Next, with video continuing to explode in terms of engagement and now the undisputed king of content (by 2020 will represent 82% of all content consumed), I decided I needed to get in on the action and start sharing Vlogs and video content on LinkedIn.

Then, about 3 months into this new arsenal of content production, something quite unexpected happened. I began receiving inquiries to come in and help companies with their sales teams. To teach, consult, train, coach. Amazing-I had never even considered doing something like this. So the Sales Is King Sales Consulting business was born. Bang!

Lastly, I started (trite cliche omitted for your convenience) leveraging some of my teachings to develop deeper relationships with current customers in my other businesses, branching out into new business opportunities and seeking to help many more people. It is still a work in progress and a very long way to go, but the needle is moving strongly in the right direction.

So, my message is not 'look at me, I'm great,'

Rather, it is that we all have the power to create significant change in our lives.

At any stage. At any time. You just need to take that first step. Your life is squarely in your own hands. If you are not pleased, get up tomorrow morning, look in the mirror, accept responsibility for your circumstances and commit to change. Seek out the people whom you admire and ask for their help. Commit to improving. Change your beliefs, your behavior, your actions. Commit. Commit again. Write an article, you know? Put yourself out there. Be vulnerable. Step out of that comfort zone.

So, Buckle up! And as I say at the end of my videos, "DO IT!"