Cold, schmold

Warming up is an underrated thing. Do you always warm up before engaging in something taxing? I have to admit that I don’t. Probably most people don’t, but that doesn’t mean it is smart.

I am your typical Type A personality that is always about one minute late for everything. This is more stressful than it sounds. When you are running 15 minutes late, you know there is no way you are going to be on time. You resign yourself to being late and make the calls to apologize in advance. However, when you are running one minute behind, you think you might be able to make it. If you just hit every stoplight and traffic is just right…but it never works out that way. You just end up being very stressed before you get there.

So, I tend to shirk my warm-up responsibilities both in business and exercise. However, if you do take the time to ease into your performance zone, you find that you perform much better. You then wonder why you don’t always do it that way.

For example, today I was traveling for business in NYC, and it was my day to spend on cardio exercise. I went down at 6:00 a.m. to the hotel gym and saw way too many people clogging up all of my favorite cardio equipment. I resigned myself to 45 minutes on the stationary bike. However, after 15 minutes, I was bored out of my skull. I looked out the window, and it appeared to be sort of warm. There was no wind blowing, so I grabbed a sweatshirt and went downstairs for a run. I was stopped along the way by a doorman who asked, “Do you know how cold it is outside?” as he looked at me in my shorts. I hesitated for a second, but I was too close to the door to turn back now. So, off into the brisk morning air I went.

It was cold: 25 degrees to be exact according to a bank sign. That made it colder weather than I have run in since I was much younger and quite a bit tougher.

Believe it or not, the adrenaline and 15 minute warm up kept me going for the fastest two mile run I have done in years. I credit this entirely to the warm up on the bike I had done just a few minutes before. I ended up getting a fantastic run in while admiring the sights of NYC before it gets crazy in the morning rush hour.

Keep this in mind when you start your next workout. Cold is entirely in your head and can be conquered if you have the right attitude and take the right steps to prepare yourself. Remember this in business development as well. If you start cold with a dialing for dollars appointment initiative, it is painful. So, make a few warm up calls first to current clients, referral sources and colleagues. Do these calls first before tacking the harder ones to prospects or problem accounts. You will find that once you have the right mindset and are in the groove by warming up first, the effort is much easier---and more fruitful.

"Clink" is sometimes as satisfying as "clank"

When you are beginning to make progress, whether it is in business development or exercise, it is very invigorating. There eventually comes a "tipping point" where all of your efforts seem to have a snowball effect. Small changes start to mushroom into large gains.

For example, today I was doing some high intensity sets of free weight, 45 degree leg presses. About 15 months ago, I had minor knee surgery, and the slow progress I have been making to get back to my previous workout level has been extremely frustrating. Incidentally, to the chagrin of many physical therapists out there I am sure, it wasn't until I took my training into my own hands that it really started to get better. In short, my personal technique was to go as heavy as I possibly could without enduring excruciating knee pain to regain my strength. It has worked wonderfully, and I feel stronger now than I have in almost two full years.

Bear with me while I expand further on this. For months, I have listened to my trainers who insisted I take it easy and go with exercises and weights where there was absolutely no pain involved. However, it is mentally taxing to constantly struggle with resistance exercises where using 30 pounds was considered a hard day. Recently, I saw a TV show that showed an elite athlete going through intense therapy to get back into playing shape after surgery on his knee. Watching him made me decide to change my approach.

In short, there was no "nice and easy" involved here. There were plenty of grimaces that shown through the veil of sweat that covered his face. He fought for every single rep, and it looked like no picnic. He looked very happy to be done despite the egging on of his trainers to squeeze out "just one more rep." However, I think the happiness and relief that I saw was partially due to his sense of accomplishment. He was battling through the pain--and winning. That athlete is playing again and having a record year. Did he take the nice and easy approach? Absolutely not. So why should I?

I have been religiously recording my progress and trying to up the weights every time I get into the gym, even on the days where I felt like I had nothing to give. But, if you want champion results, I think you have to be prepared to give champion effort every time. However, sometimes a clink is better than a clank.

What do I mean by this seemingly meaningless phrase? Well, tipping points have to be properly managed. They can give you a false sense of security and make you start to believe in your own invincibility. Today was just such a day for me. I got caught up in the moment of a series of ever increasing workouts and dramatically increased my weights by 20%. This felt good for a set or two, but after that, I realized I needed to ratchet my weights down to a more human 5% increase from last time I hit the leg press. The results were much smoother and in control. It felt great to hear the "clank" that accompanies sliding another 45 pound plate on each side of the machine (and any regular free weight lifter knows exactly what that sound is). But, I traded that clank for the "clink" that goes with adding a smaller weight to the load. In the end, I was still lifting more weight than I had in months. That was a great accomplishment, and I will try to improve upon it yet again next time.

Tipping points, where things seem to get dramatically easier, can encourage taking shortcuts to a level you are not quite ready for yet. Remember one thing when tacking your business or exercise functional reserve: there are no shortcuts. You only end up sacrificing your fundamentals along the way. Manage your gains in an incremental fashion, and they become permanent. But, if you try to leap past your current level, you will get sloppy and lazy.

Keep this in mind when your business development efforts start to pay off, too. Just when you are starting to get results that are tangible is not the time to start ignoring your plan towards ultimate success.

For example, if you are now able to get new business from improving your closing rate from 15% to 20%, it is now time to try and learn the skills, and do the leg work, that raises it to 25% rather than expecting 50% is the next step for you.

You should use today's accomplishments as the base for tomorrow's gains. Be satisfied with the fact that the next step, a clink, will pay off more in the long run than the temporary rush of a clank.

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever burn a bridge

I got a all today from a friend who once held a similar position to mine. Through no fault of his own (he worked for a real group of SOBs), he was let go. Brilliant guy, 20 years experience, and he is someone you just naturally like.

He called me today to catch up. He is working on projects as a free lancer, but looking for a full time gig. We talked for a little while, and I told him I would keep an eye out for him in my industry. Three things struck me after the call.

First, I looked back and saw it was almost 90 days exactly since the last time we talked. That is discipline. I bet he made 20 calls today to old contacts to check in and keep his pipeline open. Good for him (and that is why he is good at marketing and business development).

Second, he offered me some tips for a sales call I have coming up this week. He had a scoop I did not know about, and it helped me immensely. Now, I had nothing to give him in terms of job leads, but he offered his info without strings. Think I will try harder now for him? You bet.

Third, I was genuinely happy to hear from him. It is rare that people keep in touch that aren't try to sell or push something on you. I know he had some other motives, but shop talk was kept to a minimum.

Neglecting a bridge that can help you in future business objectives is the same as burning it. As Harvey Mackay famously says, "dig your well before you are thirsty." So, if you have contacts that you think are honest, genuine, trustworthy and are good to have your name associated with, you should work hard to stay in regular touch with them. You never know how they might help you in the future when your back is to the wall.

Momentum is a wonderful thing

Ever notice that the first few steps you make, in any activity, are the hardest? But, once you get moving, keeping going seems easier. Try this the next time you are doing your favorite cardio exercise: go 5% faster. Not 20% or even 10%, just 5% faster. You will find that it is easy once you get to that level and even easier to keep it there. You can use your own momentum to keep things moving. In addition, you have just reset your standard of performance to a new minimum level.

By the way, try slowing down to about 10% less than you usually go. It's harder, isn't it? You actually feel like you are trudging along. Remember that you are now going what you used to think in the past was possible. However, now it feels slow and arduous. It is a great lesson in how maintaining and adding to your current level of effort is much more satisfying and a lot less effort than you thought it would be.

Keep this in mind when you are also practicing business development. Momentum has its place here as well. When in doubt of how many appointments, meetings or contacts you can achieve, keep going at your present level and push it UP 5%. Over time, you will incrementally increase your effort, and you will be dissatisfied to drop down to a lower level.

However, keep in mind that diminishing your effort, even 10%, becomes overly comfortable. But it is a real pain to get back to that new standard. So, keep pushing the bar higher...

Just getting started...

So, why am I here? Better yet, why do I expect others to come here and take time to read my postings/opinions/rantings/etc.? While I cannot speak to what may cause people to listen to what I have to say, I can take the time to try and explain what I hope to accomplish.

Whenever I have interviewed people for job positions where I have the fortunate role of being the "chooser" rather than the "choose-ee", I have always asked a standard question that tells me a lot about the nervous person sitting in front of me:

"Tell me about something you do with PASSION that you do not get paid for."

Frankly, I do not care one bit what that activity might be. It might be gardening, scuba diving, investing or even spending time with their kids. What I am looking for is the raw ambition to achieve something where the experience of accomplishing it is just as important as the ultimate destination. It usually is something they have always done on the side, and if they could find a way for it to make them lots of money, they would do it full time. If the answer is nothing but stunned silence or some corporate-speak BS answer that resembles a good "butt kissing of the interviewer", that is a BIG red flag for me. Anyone can work hard if I pay them to, but they can be fickle. I want people who work hard because it is an ingrained part of their being. Sadly, the answers I would get from most people is sorely lacking of any substance.

My passion is harnessing the power and pleasure I get from intense training--both physical and mental. I believe that each of us are constantly being challenged by our functional reserve (FR). FR is a simple concept I had described to me the first time I became a Certified Physical Trainer over 13 years ago. It is the difference between what we are truly capable of doing and what we think we can do. The key to success in business, physical training and life is making sure we make our personal FR as small as possible.

For example, let's say your body is actually capable of running 5 miles. However, now that you are 40 years old, you think that 3 miles is the most you can do. After all, you have been told that running is hard on your joints, you are not the spring chicken you once were, and that comfy exercise bike is "just as good as running" according to your peers. So, you end up only running three miles because you have set mental limits that have physical manifestations. The power of your self-imposed limitations may actually make you feel "exhausted" after that 3 miles of moderate running. Your functional reserve is that 2 miles.

However, I bet that if someone changed the mile markers or lied about the length of the track, you could do more. Perhaps 4.5 miles? If you did accomplish such a feat, does it mean you became more fit in just one day? Of course not. You fought against your functional reserve--and won. Now, in this case, you tricked yourself. Perhaps you could do it more consciously by positive thinking and not setting self-imposed barriers to your success.

Likewise, in business, I train people to perform up to their ability in business development (a.k.a., sales). Many professionals do OK, but they are hindered by quotas (from their managers or themselves) as to how much revenue they can produce, appointments they can attend or relationships they can build. Sometimes, it is even influenced by their peers ("well, I go on more meetings than most other people in my company..."). Is there any logical reason a professional can only grow their book of business by a single digit percentage per year? How do you explain those that grow their book by 20, 30 or even 100% in a given year? Are they gifted? Maybe. Perhaps they just have not set artificial limits on themselves.

In these cases, I counsel people that they should focus on shrinking their functional reserve. For example, what if someone could has time to meet with great prospects 10 times a week, but they are currently only meeting with 8. The key to success is to get 2 more meetings (not 10). Ten might be too big a goal for them, but two is easy. It might require more training, less screwing around or many other factors. But, they should focus on shrinking the FR--then raise their goal to 12! The money will quickly follow.

So, this blog will concentrate on Rainmaker PT (personal training). As a twist on the usual blather you hear about rainmaking (the art of generating business for you and others), I will address issues of business AND physical fitness. Why? Because I argue that they are closely linked. Rainmakers are competitive, goal oriented and usually Type A personalities. However, they are also a little bit older and set in their ways. In addition, I believe that people that are physically at the peak of their ability have a better self-image, have more energy and feel they can take on the world. Show me a rainmaker carrying 50 extra pounds and a few years away from their first major illness, and I will show you someone who cannot possibly be achieving all they actually are capable of. They may be successful and even wealthy, but they can be richer, smarter and happier.

By coupling physical ability, intestinal fortitude and mental toughness, everyone can be truly strategic in their approach to life. The betterment of the body is the learning device that unlocks the brain power and energy that is holding them back.

So, if you would describe yourself as a former athlete or competitor (personal, weekend warrior or organized) that has become successful in business (a rainmaker), but feel you may have lost a step or two over the past few years, this blog is for you. You might feel you are missing that little spark to go to the next level. Honestly, the difference between good and great is just a few percentage points worth of effort. If you want to be great, keep reading.

You will see a mix of postings on business development and physical fitness. And, since even Michael Jordan needs to practice free throws every day, I will spend a lot of time on fundamentals. Some of the articles may seem like they do not relate to each other. How can running my multimillion dollar business and spending time exercising relate to each other? Think of it as mental fuel to shrink your functional reserve. You CAN achieve more than you ever thought possible---if you just would allow yourself to do so.

By unlocking the physical power state of your body and achieving goals to lead a healthier, happier life you will be better prepared to take on clients, competitors and naysayers. Why? Because you will have the energy and the belief that nothing can hold you back.