My mind was blown after watching the Tony Robbins video below.
Overnight Upgraded Media (the company behind Salesman.Red, the Salesman Podcast and the Sales School) instantly doubled in turnover.
This has been the biggest game changer for my income since reading Tim Ferriss’s social norms shattering book ‘The 4-Hour Work Week‘.
My life and importantly my bank balance will never be the same again…
Where the food on my table comes from
So I own 100% Upgraded Media and I’ve freelancers on board but no full time staff.
I pay myself a very small wage from the business each month (barely enough to cover my rent, never mind my bills…) and a commission based on the amount of advertising space I sell here on the blog, the podcast and very soon on the video content we’re going to be putting out.
I put myself in a position of pain at the start of each month financially for two reasons –
- It forces me to both produce content and sell ad space. It’s very easy for me to get into a routine of content creation and neglect the sales side of things.
- As I’ve actively selling, I can confidently talk about the sales process as a practitioner, rather than as a ‘sales guru’ that hasn’t sold shit in 10 years since they gave themselves that title.
Until I watched the Robbins video, a good month for me consisted of –
- Seeing good growth of the number of views on the blog (50,000 more views month on month or so)
- Same with the podcast (1-2,000 more downloads per episode)
- Bringing in enough ad deals to cover my rent, food, car, costs of rock climbing and mountain biking, with a little left over
Therefore I set up my own sales targets (I know, seems like a dream scenario for anyone with a sales manager who is reading this) to allow me to win this game.
At the end of the month if I hit it I’d high five myself, treat myself to a meal out or some take out food and start things over.
In hindsight all this is dumb.
If I’d have watched the video 5 years ago I’d have been retired by now.
Why?
Because my standards are just too low!
Setting my standards
I’ve always been a slight over achiever. If everyone in my class was getting B grades I’d get B+.
When I used to skateboard, my friend would learn to kickflip and so I’d force myself to learn how to 360 flip.
If the average medical device salesperson earned £45k, I’d make damn sure I’m earning £65k.
I would do whatever it takes to jump to that next level but then I’d stop.
Why?
Perhaps I was scared of moving too far a head of my friends or colleagues and they’d then resent me or stop being my ‘friend’ (whatever that really means).
Perhaps I was frightened that once I jumped two levels above where I was, I’d then feel pressured to jump 3, then 4, then 5 levels further.
Would it ever stop?!
Each step up requires more time, effort, dedication and so the stakes become higher.
I became comfortable in allowing my environment (the performance of the people around me) to shape my stands of living.
What I didn’t realise until watching this Tony Robbins video is that I’m in control of my standards.
I can create my ‘set-point’ of where I want to be consciously.
This is so powerful and it allowed me to double my commission bonus because…
You achieve your MUSTS not your SHOULDS
When most people create a new years resolution it’s a ‘should’.
I should go to the gym. I should spend more time with my family. I should double my income.
Should’s are bullshit.
So you don’t go to the gym that one day because the Foo Fighters are in town and you don’t want to miss them.
Then…
Well you know the rest. We’ve all set goals and not achieved them.
The difference is when you set your standards they become part of you and you can’t not achieve them.
For example, I believe I’m a good person.
Therefore if I walk by an old dude who is struggling to cross the street in front of my house, where the traffic is crazy I feel bad.
Like deep inside bad. Like I’ve just offended my Mum bad.
I HAVE to help. I can’t not do it.
Now what if you raised your financial standards so that you see your currently life like it’s like living on the streets. Something that even in the worse case scenario, most people are not be willing to do.
You would find a way to live at your new standard no matter what.
Putting this into perspective
The average wage in the UK is around £26k a year. My personal standard is to always slightly overachieve and so when I’m earning £50k a year I’m ecstatic!
Wow, I’m overachieving on my need to slightly overachieve.
I freaking kill it!
Not quite son.
Of course, I’m a sales hustler, I always want to earn more money. I’d set myself a target of earning 10% than last month and I’d crush it.
Same again next month.
But then 3-4 months later I’d be back down to the level of income I’ve always been comfortable with.
I’d settle back into my place as a slight overachiever.
Where do you settle?
After watching Tony’s video I went to work rewiring my brain to raise my standards.
I leveraged two things –
- The fact that I’m 29, I don’t have kids but they will come at some point
- That I want to become financially free
Does my current status as a slight over achiever give me enough income to support a family? Perhaps.
Does it allow me to become financially free at 33 which has been a goal of mine for the last few years? Nope.
So what happened next?
I wouldn’t settle for less
Once my standard, the lowest acceptable place for my life financially, was to have enough passive income to support a family and only work if and when I want to everything changed.
I wasn’t asking myself how do I earn slightly more than the average wage any more.
I was asking myself how can I double, triple, even 10x my income!
I was instantly charged with more energy.
What really took me by surprise was that on my next sales call I added 30% to the pricing structure of the ad space I was selling and the prospect didn’t bat an eye lid.
I had been underpricing myself the whole bloody time!
I had been letting my need for X amount per month to dictate the companies pricing, not the market.
I’d been wrapping my ego up with the product because of the levels of my standards.
Finally, here’s the video
Hopefully I’ve not hyped this video up too much. It’s not a 2 minute tip or a list of bullet points.
It’s perhaps something that you will need to watch once a week for a month or so before it really sinks in.
But here we go –
Want to know the most crazy thing?
My income doubled since I began to raise my standards but I’m still not where I’ve set my financial standards and so there’s still work to do.
It will take some time but in a couple of years I will likely reach this place and feel fulfilled for a little while.
Then they have to be raised again.
“It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfilment, it is in the happiness of pursuit.” -Denis Waitley
“People want riches; they need fulfilment.” -Robert Conklin
“Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of travelling.” – Margaret B. Runbeck
Hopefully I’ll come back to this post at that moment, read through it and it will pressure me to raise my standards once again.
But you want to know the craziest thing…
The secret that the world doesn’t want you to know?
The standards that your life is adhering to right now. You didn’t set them.
*SPLAT* Mind blown *Brains dribble down the wall behind you*
They’re set by what your parents tell you is possible.
They’re set by the environment you grow up in.
They’re set by the marketers that implant in your brain that unless you drive a brand new, latest model BMW, with all the optional extras of course, you’re a worthless human being.
Your whole life so far has been made up of other people’s dreams and aspirations.
Now how are you going to up your standards and change it?
