Hey Folks!  Tommy “Tahoe” Alaimo here.  Welcome back to The Weekly Six-Pack where I share the six best things I’m enjoying, thinking about, and experiencing each week.

Quote of the Week

“The frog in the well knows nothing of the mighty ocean.”

– Japanese Proverb

 

Weekly Six-Pack
Here are the 6 things to check out this week:

  1. This week, I had Justin Welsh on the Millennial Sales Podcast. Justin talks about how he survived getting fired from his first 3 sales jobs, how he built PatientPop from $0 to $50M+, and growing his personal brand on LinkedIn to 60,000+ followers. Subscribe here on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.
  2. I’m currently re-reading Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. I felt I was lacking some discipline and needed to get back in the game.
  3. I’m also listening to The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck by Marc Manson. This one has been a bit hit or miss for me.
  4. My guy Jake Dunlap dropped the definitive guide to multithreading on The Sales Engagement Podcast.
  5. If you want to smile for 2 and a half minutes, watch this young kid rap the ABC’s of careers.
  6. Who To Follow: Josh Braun has been dropping gems lately about removing fluff from your sales outreach.
  7. A rare number 7. Did you see Millennial Sales was named a Top 41 Sales Podcast?! For the love of God please subscribe and leave a review to help your boy out.

 

This Week

A few Fridays ago, I was feeling lethargic.

I had a tough week: prospects hanging up on me, deals getting pushed, some negative personal news happened.

I did when I normally do when things take a turn for the worst, I dug in. I worked harder, got up earlier, tried to do more, more, more. Ironically, the harder I worked the worse my performance was.

Maybe this sounds familiar?

They say that if you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you should do is stop digging.

Take a step back. Assess the situation. Breathe in, breathe out (Shoutout to Kanye).

But I didn’t do any of that. If I did, I wouldn’t have anything to write about right now.

I did decide to take a step outside and go grab a coffee. As I stepped outside, I realized it was the first fresh air I’d gotten in a few days – quarantine can do that to you.

For me, there are few greater joys than a good cup of coffee. I wanted to try a new spot a few blocks away. It looked like one of those cool hipster places that charge $8 for a cup so strong that you’re awake for 2 days. This oughta turn things around.

It wasn’t quite that.

The place was sketchy. In the corner was a desktop computer with an old dusty printer that you could pay $2 to print something from your email. There were day-old muffins wrapped in plastic on the counter that looked like cardboard. The coffee tasted like an old batch from the Holiday Inn you stay in on a business trip to Santa Fe. It sucked.

So here I was. Even my good friend, coffee, had betrayed me this week. But as I was walking back to my apartment to crunch through the rest of my Friday work, I got a rumbling in my stomach. Some inner voice telling me to make a few phone calls. Not for work, not to network, but to serve. I decided to surrender to the impulse.

I called a young salesperson that asked me for advice on LinkedIn (hit me up). I called an old colleague of mine to see how his new job was doing. We talked about life, death, challenges, and successes. After hanging up smiling, I realized that after all of the hours I’d spent cold calling, emailing, and Zooming with people all week, this was one of the only real human interactions I’d had that week.

I called and texted a few other people to just wish them well. And hot damn, the more calls I made, the better that lukewarm coffee in the paper cup tasted. Before I knew it, I was on a roll and ready to end my Friday on a high note.

I’m not saying you feel like shit right now.

But you might.

If you don’t now, you probably will soon.

And it may be a sign that you’re spending too much time wallowing in your own situation and not spending enough time connecting with and helping others.

Skip the cheap coffee and go pick up the phone and have a real human interaction. It’s becoming a lost art in the days of COVID but it can absolutely turn your day around.

Let’s get it this week.