Newsflash: Nobody cares about you.

That's right. Nobody cares about you.

Not your coworkers, not your boss, not your competitors, not your customers, and certainly not your prospects.

Sorry, but that’s the truth.

They don’t care if you feel a little down.

They don’t care if you didn’t get enough sleep and can’t pay attention or make enough calls.

They don’t care you’ve been eating too much junk food and feel sluggish throughout the day.

What they DO care about is results.?If the results aren’t there, you won’t be either.

But you can completely turn it around on them.

How do I know this?

Because this was me.?

Feeling down turned into full-blown depression.

A little sleeplessness turned into anxiety and insomnia.

My sluggishness from what I was eating, turned into high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol.

In 2008, after 20+ years of selling and leading a company that earned its way into the INC. 500, I hit the wall and was diagnosed with burnout and clinical depression.?

After a great earnings career, I was hemorrhaging cash.?

And I had four growing children who depended on me.

Worse yet, I didn’t know what to do about it.?I had tried all the business things I could think of:?Reduce staff, make more calls, pressure clients.?Didn’t help.

Toward the end of my rope, I decided to look inside.?

Were these problems of mine, really mine to control?

Could I change things about ME, that would change my circumstances?

I had to explore.

I read everything I could about the mind, the body, and our spiritual selves. I found one successful entrepreneur who chucked it all and started publishing book summaries of great thinkers: everyone from Socrates to Dale Carnegie and combining those philosophies with modern science.?It was very revealing.?I was not alone!

It’s never easy to admit you’re going in the wrong direction.?That your beliefs were wrong.?That you’ve been asleep at the wheel.?But I had to if I was to get better.

One of the best pieces of advice I got during my depression was this:

Simplify.?

During a crisis (and I was in a crisis) focus only on the essentials – which I now call the Fundamentals.?Eat right.?Get enough good sleep.?Learn to breathe correctly to relax and energize. Meditate to increase focus.

So, I jumped in.

I built a set of tools, based on the Fundamentals, which I learned and practiced every day.

Slowly but surely, things started to turn around.?

One step at a time.?One day at a time.?One breath at a time.

I left the business and went to work for other people so I could focus on my Fundamentals and take everything I learned about a successful sales and business career, to help others.

Fast forward to today.?

I’ve had more than a $600k positive swing in net worth and all four of my children graduated from 22 years of public and private education without any student loan debt.

I took my knowledge of selling and created a 588-page course, two online training courses, and a proven sales system, Sales In a Box which has practically everything you need to do to build a successful B2B sales team.?

I was happier, healthier, and I was making more money.?I was on a role.

Then, another setback.?Or, what seemed to be.

My doctor told me a couple of my heart valves had worn out.?My heart was strong, and I had no clogged or blocked arteries.?But I was 69 and the valves were just wearing out.?I needed open-heart surgery.

On June 17, 2021, my chest was sawed open (literally), and my heart was stopped for over two hours, while one valve was repaired and the other replaced.

On June 18, 2021, things were different. Physically, mentally, and spiritually.?

So, I made another decision:

Whatever I do going forward, if it doesn’t bring me joy or make me a better overall person, I will not do it.? And I was filled with gratitude for the life-extending surgery.?

I had another chance and didn’t want to waste it.

There are plenty of good books and courses on the proper techniques and strategies of selling.

But nobody pays enough attention to the well-being of the salesperson – or the career of any public-facing person, for that matter.

I've been trying to change that starting with my Sunday Starter. Each week I share something I've learned that helped me get back up and thrive, which hopefully can help you. If you haven't please check it out here.

Abraham Maslow, the father of self-actualization said, “What one can be, one must be.”?

Let’s make this the year YOU close the gap between where you are and what you can be.?

Onward!