[00:00:00] Luigi Prestinenzi: Welcome. This is the Sales IQ Podcast my name is Luigi Prestinenzi, and I'm on a mission to help salespeople be the best sales professionals they can be. Each week we will bring you a different message from thought leaders around the globe so we can help you master the art of selling.

Have you ever set a goal,a big, hairy, audacious goal that when you set it, you looked at it and thought, oh my God, how am I going to actually achieve this? That it frightened you a little bit?

Because that's what this week's guest did. He set a goal. He set a target that for many would say it was unrealistic. He set a goal to achieve a million dollars in commission in one year. Well, that's massive when you actually think about it from a sales perspective, that's huge. That's not how many sales he's going to make. That's how much commission. And obviously he's getting a percentage of the sales that he's making. So the actual number of sales that he needed to make was massive. But it didn't just do it once. He's done it multiple times. And that's what this week session is all about.

We're going to talk about what Brandon did to build a pipeline, to enable him to make a million bucks in commission. And it sounds wild. But what I love about this episode is Brandon talks about why hustle, why you've got a hustle less and focus more, and why the bro culture, why the culture of, you know, working all night and, and working 18-20 hour days as a badge of honor is not the way in which you need to approach things.

This really did connect with me because I am, I get a bit obsessed sometimes when it comes to working towards a target. And I do struggle when it comes to balance. And what I loved about what Brandon shared is, is Brandon shared some of the unintended consequences that occurred for him when working in his career, trying to achieve a particular target and why he needed to make a shift and really focus on health and focus on thinking differently about the world of selling.

And I think for any of us who have experienced some highs or lows, this is going to be an incredible episode with so many incredible takeaways, especially as you're working towards your plan or your building, or you've already done your plan thinking about 2022, and how you going to go about building on the success that you've achieved in 2021.

Brandon's going to share a little bit about the journey that he's been on and how he came up with his formula to achieve such incredible results.

Welcome to the show Brandon.

[00:02:39] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah, thanks for having me Luigi, glad to be here.

[00:02:41] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yep. I'm pretty pumped. I mean, we've obviously had a bit of our dialogue before the episode started. But for all of our listeners tuning in, and also watching just before we get into today's episode is going to be a really cool episode on how you can make a million dollars in commission. Cause I think that's a really unique episode for most sellers who are, who are out there trying to achieve a particular number. You background. The turn tables. You've got an incredible set up. Tell us what are your passions outside of selling.

[00:03:11] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah. So I, I really learned to teach myself how to DJ out of necessity. Back when I was living in New York city, so many moons ago before earning millions of dollars in commission, I had to supplement my income just to pay the rent. I was working two jobs at the time. So my sales day job as an account manager, and then I would spin records until two or five in the morning, depending on the night, just to pay my rent. Which was often late, by the way.

So as a young 20 something I got into it out in necessity, but really actually fell in love with it. Funny enough. It it helped me with my sales role. 1) The company where I learned to DJ, this was Scratch DJ Academy is my homage toJam Master Jay of Run DMC. He co-founded a DJ school called Scratch, and I learned to DJ there and I would just go and I think you could pay like 20 bucks for an hour, just like practice. Cause I didn't have my own turntables. So it was the only place where I could go practice. And then I just became friendly with some of the folks there cause they started hiring DJs to DJ department stores like Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom's and they started booking me once I started getting halfway decent.

And then I eventually landed a job there as a, as an account manager, trying to sell music marketing solutions to the likes of Gucci and Royal Caribbean cruise lines and other brands.

So it helped me very specifically get into sales and then 2) just how to read a room. Cause I'm, I'm more introverted in nature. So being able to like, sit back, listen, observe and see what I need to do to kind of bring people together and bring them onto the dance floor. It actually, ironically was a sales skill that I honed from that.

[00:05:00] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah. That cool story. You know, like going from part-time job. Getting the actual becoming a DJ and then connecting that that cause you're right, because the whole premise, especially I think in enterprise sales specifically, if you're not able to bring people together and bring them on a journey and gain alignment and consensus, it can become very difficult to get the deal across the line, right?

[00:05:25] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly right. Yeah. You can't do it alone. You got to bring people in with you. And like you said, I think it was a perfect description. So journey just like you're deejaying throughout the night, early in the night, you know, while people are having their drinks and just getting, getting, getting their feet wet, you need to warm up.

You need to almost tell a story. It's the same thing in enterprise strategic sells. You've got to tell a story, but you got to do it in front of the right audience. Say the right things at the right time.

[00:05:53] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah. And so. You know, you mentioned that you had a second job. When did you realize that sales was going to be a career that would really shape your journey and your life to help you achieve some of the things that you've achieved in your journey?

[00:06:09] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah, that's a good question. I would say that it was actually after. You know, so my girlfriend at the time, who's now my wife, she had been living in New York city for a while. I've been living in New York city for awhile. We were young and knew we wanted to take that eventual next step and get married.

So we were like, why are we living in New York City? She grew up in, in Sarasota, Florida. That's where we live now. And we left to just try it out for a year. It was a year's experiment. And then maybe go on to somewhere else like California, but the economic, the first economic crisis hit in 2008.

And for me it was all upside. Cause I didn't have any money at the time we were sort of rebuilding and we didn't, we've never owned a home. So it was our first time to like buy and get a home after the housing crisis. And at that point, I was like, okay, like I amdedicated as a career in sales, because I've got to make things happen. We've got to pay for the home. Like, you know, as we want to start a family one day, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

So yeah, that was my first time, but I had to start over leaving New York city and going to a small town in Florida. I had to completely start over in my sales career. So I cut my chops in selling $45 print ad space in like one of those local little papers that told you about the events going on.

So I was selling to bars and, you know, small, medium sized business owners. And then and then just had to work my way up the ranks to eventually small and medium sized business to mid-market to you know, enterprise. And then, you know, now Fortune 50 level.

[00:07:49] Luigi Prestinenzi: Wow, pretty cool transition from transactional sale, right through to enterprise sale.

[00:07:54] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah.

[00:07:56] Luigi Prestinenzi: What was it like, hope you don't mind me asking, but obviously you, you were into sports kind of early in your, in your days, and then you've migrated across to, to deejaying and then selling. And when did you realize that enterprise sales, because there is, it is different, right? I mean, what are type of deals you've put together from an enterprise sales perspective, the size of them?

[00:08:21] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah, seven-eight-figure deals, they're transformation deals, they're you know, multi-year type of deals, that help, like I said, a Fortune 50 level company to fundamentally change their operations. And it's, it's going to be a phased rollout to, to achieve that.

So a major airlines, major healthcare companies you know, major restaurant chains. Brands that people would recognize from Delta Airlines to Chipole to United Healthcare. Those are just a handful that I can publicly mention. So working with those level of types of companies selling into them and, and selling transformations.

[00:08:59] Luigi Prestinenzi: Tell me, right? Like I've, I've had some experience personally selling that type of size deals in transformation, and it can be difficult, right? It can be a very difficult journey, especially when they've got potentially dozens of stakeholders you've got to engage with over a period of time. Is it the commission that you did it for? Or was there another motivation, like another intrinsic motivator that was driving you to really work through this?

[00:09:26] Brandon Fluharty: I think there was something intrinsic that I didn't quite know how to describe it personally at the time. I think I have a better grasp of it now that I've reached this milestone, you know, been able to earn seven figures a year, multiple years in a row, and finally getting to that place and realizing is this what life's all about? Is it just about the President's Club? Is it just about a big bank account? And the answer is no. But you know, you see what I post on LinkedIn. I use those things as an invitation to get folks in the door, to get them curious, but anybody who knows me and knows my content, they know it's about scratching a level deeper and, and finding more meaning with, with what we do.

And I think I had a part of me that again, just didn't know how to explain it. And I was chasing at, at certain points in my career, I was definitely chasing a leaderboard. I was hyper competitive. I wanted to be number one. And that caused sort of this angst and anxiety and like mental you know health struggles that like my whole identity was being, you know, number one on the leader board.

[00:10:37] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah, interesting. So often, because, and again, for those that aren't following you, we're going to make sure we put in the show notes where they can follow cause your content on LinkedIn, personally, I love it. Because you talk about, you know, the less bro culture, less hustle and grind, and more about the focus and what is required to achieve a certain number. And I think that's really important, right? Because, I can't talk about other professions because I've only worked in sales my whole career, but there are unintended consequences to success in sales, right?

[00:11:08] Brandon Fluharty: Yep.

[00:11:09] Luigi Prestinenzi: It can impact your health, your marriage, your other relationships. And there's also consequences when you're not performing because it can impact the way you feel about yourself, your confidence levels, et cetera.

Before talking about the time you hit that, that commission level, that seven figure commission level. What was the low point in your sales career that made you stop and really think about what is the mindset required to achieve the success that I want to achieve?

[00:11:37] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah. There were a few, I mean, there were, there were moments of like wanting to give it all up. On life. Like, I, I struggled with mental health issues early in my career. It's just kind of like asking myself what's this all about? Like, how do I fit into all this?

So I think another low point physically, you know, landing in the hospital after having a stroke, a mini stroke. I lost my part of my vision and I didn't know what was happening. And after doing, like being in the hospital overnight, getting a battery of tests and trying to understand what the hell happened, I was diagnosed as somebody who had a stroke and it affected my vision for a long time.

Usually when a young person has a stroke, it's because they have a hole in their heart, unbeknownst to them to find, you know, a hereditary condition, that didn't occur or heavy drug use, that wasn't me. So it, the, the only thing I could sort of point to at the time was I was just working around the clock. I was wearing a lack of sleep as a badge of honor. Hyper-caffeinated at all times and just hustling and grinding around the clock. So that was a wake-up call for sure. Of like, well, some things need to change.

[00:12:48] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah. And so the health trigger.

[00:12:51] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah.

[00:12:52] Luigi Prestinenzi: Triggered you to change?

[00:12:53] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah. Unfortunately, like I, I didn't do it right away. And I fell back into bad, some bad habits. And, and it really wasn't until the pandemic hit that we were all forced to change our schedules. But at that time I wasn't on a plane every week or every other week where it was common to just travel across the country, to have a one hour meeting face-to-face turn around and fly back, changing the time zones, you know, and you know what it's like, you can't eat well and your sleep is a wreck.

But when the pandemic. It reminded me of when we didn't really talk about this, like early in my career, I was trying to be a professional footballer. And I spent a year and a half in Europe primarily a year in Romania with a professional club over there trying to earn a contract.

And when we went to bed, when we woke up, when we trained, when we ate, how much we ate, all those things what we visualize all of that was sort of mapped out for us. And we got support on that and we had to make decisions in our own time, like, okay, you know, no drinking alcohol and, and, and, you know, watch what we eat and go to bed at, at a, at a reasonable time so that we could perform well the next day. Cause you wanted to earn a spot. You wanted to win that contract.

So that when, when the pandemic hit, it reminded me of that. So I doubled down on things like, you know, looking and becoming aware of my sleep and so forth. And I try to correlate that to my sales performance. I realize things like getting proper sleep helped boost my performance and actually celebrate deals.

[00:14:22] Luigi Prestinenzi: You know, I think I'm really enjoying this conversation, Brandon, because I'm connecting with a lot of the stuff you're saying. Because you know, I think in my career, the bad habits happen quick, and I've got to be hyper diligent on making sure sleep. Cause for me sleeps, one thing that I always erode my sleep.

Because I think it's one thing that I can erode to actually focus on other things, and short term sure I can get more done.

[00:14:49] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah.

[00:14:49] Luigi Prestinenzi: But I often find though, I see some things starting to happen, like my moods stars to get, to get a bit frustrated about things. My, my resilience levels drop or my actually, maybe not my resilience levels. My ability to cope with certain situations I find gets a bit harder.

[00:15:06] Brandon Fluharty: Yes.

[00:15:07] Luigi Prestinenzi: Then all of a sudden I'm finding it harder from a negative self-talk perspective. So I'm because usually I'm a pretty positive person. But then on, on occasions, I'll find holy crap. Like for some reason now, that negative self-talk is getting harder.

So I have to combat more with the positive, as you know, it can become a real challenge, right?

[00:15:25] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I was going to say, you know, just to piggyback on that, it becomes, you know, a vicious cycle. It takes more energy to combat that. That self negative self-talk like you said, it can creep into your relationships, whether that is being snappy in front of a customer or a prospect, or, you know, in your home with your, your spouse those things play out and, you know, it's, it's such a simple thing.

But you're so right. It's, it's hard to do, especially when you are fed this pressure of hustle culture. And you even see it from some of the top founders of, oh, I'm in bed by midnight still firing off emails and I'm up at 4:00 AM for my workout. And you're like, well, that's obviously the path to success is, is, is operating that way.

[00:16:16] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah, and I think, you know, this is why I think we, it's not even just sales professionals, right. We as individuals, cause this is why I've cut off Facebook because I wasn't liking the curated feed and I created that curated feed by the way, right, so I can't blame anybody because that's there based on the things that I've been engaged with.

But even Instagram, I'm noticing you like a few others are pushing this, you know, building, the only light on, and I connect to that, right, because I'm more than happy to put the hours in to get a job done. We all know that sometimes you've got to be up late. You've just done a discovery call or whatever it might be you go shit. I've got to get my notes to them because this has got momentum and I've got to jump on it. Right?

[00:16:53] Brandon Fluharty: Exactly, yeah.

[00:16:54] Luigi Prestinenzi: But I think there's a difference between going, I can do what I need to do to get the job done versus I'm going to completely forget about everything else that matters and just focus on this one thing.

[00:17:07] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah,

[00:17:08] Luigi Prestinenzi: I think that's a dangerous path that we can go down. Right. And the high-performers I think, cause I consider myself a high performer, especially in sales. And I say this, I can't say it in other areas because I have very struggle with balance. Right. But I consider myself a high performer and I think that's the, that's the reason in you get a bit, not addicted, it's probably wrong word, but it can be consuming.

[00:17:37] Brandon Fluharty: Yes. Yeah. You can get obsessed with it. I was obsessed with that, those results. I was obsessed with those, those things and you're absolutely right. So everything that you outline there, it's just like anything, there are going to be cycles.

There are gonna be cycles where you have to sprint and not to over index on the sales and sports analogies, but, but it really is, I try to look at it like a marathon and especially in enterprise and strategic sales where it's a long sales cycle. Yeah, absolutely. There are going to be moments. There was last December, an 11 day cycle where I went hard on closing the deal in literally 11 days and we could get it done by the end of the year. They were motivated to do it. We were motivated to do it.

And, you know, I wear things like WHOOP and so I could see what's happening with my sleep. I'm getting in the red zone, but I had the conscious thought to say, Hey, you know, after this deal is done, I need to recuperate and rest. Just like if you were running a marathon, nobody at this level right now, could sprint a marathon.

But at some times, hey, if it's coming down to the finish line, you might need to sprint to win that marathon, right? Or you need to ebb and flow throughout the 26 miles so, same thing, we, we need to go through those ebbs and flows.

But if we can align ourselves more with intrinsic motivation, something that's got a bit more motivational factor that will help us last through life, not just a sales cycle, a deal a month, a quarter, even a year. If we can sort of start to push away the clouds and find something our true north star personally, that's when you can start to become unstoppable.

[00:19:22] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah, this is such an awesome conversation, Brandon, and I think, you know, the key thing we're talking about how to make a million dollars in commission, but so far the key tactic that you've been speaking about is mindset. Is setting yourself up with the right environment and foundation, and really being conscious about how you're going to be spending your time. Yeah. And setting yourself up for, so for success.

So let's now talk about, I think this is a great segue into, again, you talk about the fact that it's not a hustle mentality, it's a focused mentality. There are, there are ways in which you've designed your schedule to allow you to achieve seven figures.

[00:20:02] Brandon Fluharty: Yep.

[00:20:03] Luigi Prestinenzi: Do you mind talking us through that recipe that you've designed for yourself, that's allowed you to achieve that success?

[00:20:09] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah, so I, I call it again, sales doesn't need another acronym, so hopefully you and the audience will forgive me and throw in another one out there, but there are like four pillars that I live by and, and I try to just keep things super simple and I call it PREP. And it stands for Plan, Rest, Effort, and Perform.

So that first one is, and then I looked at it on a micro level, like earning a million dollars could be super in commissions, could be super intimidating. Like, no, no, no way. Like actually when I first entered the seven-figure earners club, I had an aspiration, I had a goal, of earn a half a million dollars for the year. Like that was my aspirational goal.

Ended up earning a million and a half dollars the first time I'd gotten into the seven figures club back in 2019, And, and when I look back and I like deconstruct that and think through, like, what was I doing? I actually started to realize less like it's not about earning a certain amount. It's, it's about doing things in a very intentional way.

And so I look at the, the, the micro efforts is the single day, the single unit of, of focus that really we should, I don't want to call it obsessed about, but be hyper-focused on, is a single work day. And so what I like to do is the last thing I do before I end my work day is plan out tomorrow.

[00:21:34] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah.

[00:21:35] Brandon Fluharty: And just by doing that simple exercise, I make life easier tomorrow. That way I can hit the ground running and execute. And by also planning, I get things out of my head so that they're not consuming me at night. I have to see my inbox. I've planned out all the tasks that are important to me.

Everything's in a project. Every account that I'm pursuing is a project. It's all brain dumped so that when I do spend time with my wife my mind isn't elsewhere. I'm not emailing that clients at night, I'm not slacking with my CEO. I'm actually present. And then that foundation will help me to rest easy. I can rest at night, I can sleep well.

And then, and then that allows me to put a hundred percent effort into executing my plan. And then I just measure my performance. And, and when I measure my performance, I try to take the emotion out of it. And think about being like a scientist. I want to be curious and I want to use the, the data points and I can point to things because I'm tracking it like, oh, my sleep was seven and a half hours and I was in four hours of meetings. And here was my big win for the day. How do I replicate? And I'm feeling good and I'm, I'm satisfied, motivated. How do I keep that going every single day? You do that, a natural outcome is earning a million dollars in sales.

[00:23:00] Luigi Prestinenzi: That's awesome, man. I talk a lot about prospecting to people. Like your in the top 1% I would suggest, or I would assume. You're going well, hey, I'm at the other end, but there are a lot of people that haven't got, like they're stressed out because they're not, I think we see the data like 60 to 70% of salespeople aren't meeting their quota, right? But people that haven't got the stress of "I'm overachieving, I'm working too many hours to get my target." Others are like, "I haven't got enough pipe." It's a different stress level. Right? I think when you haven't got enough pipe, it's a completely different stress level.

I talk a lot about the metrics, you know, know your metrics, know what, what activities you need to be doing to achieve your target. What you're doing is you're breaking that even further to go. Actually, let's have a look at the habits. Let's have a look at what are the things, how do I structure my day on top of those activity metrics that allow me to achieve the number. And I love that. You helping me, I'm actually going to go away because I do the nighttime before big tick.

I think though my biggest challenge and you really helping me sort of realize that I need to focus on it over the Christmas, is that detachment, yeah? Then my daughter said it to me yesterday, my 19 year old daughter, she said, well, I was talking to you yesterday and you weren't listening. And I'm like, you know what? I wasn't listening. I'm thinking about everything else going on. And I'm not listening to my daughter. Who's 19 years old who wants my attention.

[00:24:22] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah, exactly. And just like the hustle culture and wearing a, a lack of sleep, like a badge of honor that becomes a vicious cycle and it's perpetual anxiety and this fear, and then you start making decisions based off of not you, but you're getting the pressure of like, oh, just discount that deal. Let's get it done before the end of the quarter. And you start to feel out of control, just like that's a vicious cycle.

The prep helps you to, you know, have a flywheel it's, it's the momentum because it's coming from you, it's coming from an intrinsic motivation. And just as if you're having a great relationship and you're in the moment with a spouse, or your daughter, because you're fully present, well, that's going to play up the next day when you're in front of a C level executive, who's pushing back and questioning what you're putting in front of them, as far as an ROI.

Well, you'll be, because you're well rested, you're feeling good about your life because you've worked, you've integrated work and life together, and it's not about not working hard, it's definitely about, you have to have a strong work ethic and you have to be smart about how you work.

But, it's also being present when, you know, you need to be present at the right things at the right time. And so just again, living by like these four core pillars of planning and resting and putting in a hundred percent effort, concentrated effort, deep work, I'm a big fan of that.

And then measuring your performance through curiosity. You know, do that every day consistently. It's just like investing it's it's compound interest that will pay you back and you focus less on the leaderboard. You focus less on president's club. You, you focus less on your earnings. Those will just be natural outcomes and you'll become more fulfilled from the inside.

[00:26:10] Luigi Prestinenzi: And then fundamentally. That will even further when things do get to be tough because you've got that, that inner joy, right?

[00:26:19] Brandon Fluharty: Yes. Yeah. Because you can always come back to your system. You can come back to those things like your morning routine and your evening routine. And, and those are, you know, showing things like writing one thing you're grateful for, or reading every day, learning something new every day. That you fall in love with, and that's your system. That's why I talk about it's so important to I don't talk about like sales, tactics and techniques. I talk about developing a personal operating system that allows you to operate at an elite level consistently.

[00:26:53] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah. And I'm connecting with you so much, Brandon, and I think again, because it's right, because that's that operational rhythm that we need to drive. And I often find that and I, and pandemic for me, was it brought the best out of me, it brought the worst out of me. It was like a, a dichotomy. Right. And I found myself because the gyms weren't open because overnight I run, I run and I try to keep fit. Like, that's something that I've, I've, I've had to make it a focus of mine for a long time.

And I found that all I was allowing the pandemic as a reason why I didn't have to train oh well, the gyms aren't open. I'll go for a run. I'll start early today and I'll run later today. And then by the time you get to later today, I can't be fucked going for a run, it's seven o'clock at night, I've got to have dinner, I'm not going for a run.

And then that was, which was a non-negotiable for me, because become started becoming a negotiable. Yeah, the minute I allowed that to become a negotiable, it became it wasn't in my top priorities. Right. And I felt, even though I'll look I didn't put on any weight or anything like that, but my mental focus actually shifted, I found myself a little bit, not fatigued, but my ability to focus actually changed.

[00:28:06] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah.

[00:28:06] Luigi Prestinenzi: And I did notice that the minute I made it again, a non-negotiable to train, you know, five, six days a week, all of a sudden I had more energy.

[00:28:14] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah

[00:28:15] Luigi Prestinenzi: I felt better about myself. I had more clarity on calls. I was getting stuff done in shorter periods of time. It just had a domino effect.

[00:28:24] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah. I think one of the things lacking, and I think this is the best exercise anybody listening to this can do is take the time and write down your guiding principles. Just write down those, those non-negotiables for you. Write down your rules of, of how you exist. It could be simple things like. I exercise at least for 30 minutes every day, I don't consume caffeine in the afternoons after noon, literally noon or you know, more aspirational things you know, whatever it is.

That's a really powerful exercise because you can always rely on those. We do it as companies, right. But many individuals lack that exercise, but in sales, we're our own mini CEOs. We need to treat ourselves, not just like the athlete, not just like the agents, but the agency and the sports franchise. Like all of it we need to, to take ownership of.

And if we can just take the time and reflect and understand what's important to us. Then, like I said, you start to move the clouds and you start seeing that north star and it starts to shine brighter. And if you work on it every day, deliberately and intentionally, you keep the clouds from coming over and covering up that star.

[00:29:42] Luigi Prestinenzi: This is incredible advice. Look, I think most of the stuff you're saying, like we, we know it, like if you've got some books over here from Zig Ziglar and Og Mandino and even Paul J Meyer, and some of the things that you're talking about, like they're messages that have been around such a long time, but I think knowing it and executing, it are two different things.

What advice would you have for somebody that's sitting here while they're listening to this? They might be on a run, in the car going, yes. I know. I've got to get it done. But every time I try, but I can't, I don't hold myself accountable. I can't I get it done? What advice could you give them? That's allowed you to move from that point of, you know, there was that moment in time where you are unhealthy, you've really bad habits.

How, if I want to make a shift, how do I make it happen? And how do I, hold myself accountable

[00:30:35] Brandon Fluharty: Getting help to be accountable is really important. So I accelerated my career once I started not only getting one coach, but you know, I've had great mentors built into my role. Luckily knock on wood. I've had some bad ones too throughout my years, as we've probably all faced, but I'm getting outside help, you know, investing in a specific sales coach, investing in a mindset coach who helped me battle through imposter syndrome. Because as I was having these, you know, C-level executives with a fortune seven company, Like, that's an intimidating thing from, from somebody who felt internally, I don't deserve to be at this table.

So getting help, getting a coach, getting a mentor all of those things can, can help. So that's like advice, piece number one, piece. Advice piece number two is those things don't have to come out of your pocket. You can also, we're in the amazing explosion of the creator economy, that the knowledge era, the, you know, whatever you want to call it where you can download a a free ebook or you can go watch YouTube, but do it systematically, do it intentionally where you can just carve out, and one of the biggest things that I did, I carve out 25 minutes to something that's important to me every morning as a part of my, I call it the daily start routine. My morning routine before I give my first email away. I give my first slack away. I give my first time for a meeting away. I give to myself first. And I think that it's the most unselfish thing you can do, even though ironically, it's, it's selfish. But give to yourself first, because then that puts you in a better place to give to others, your prospects, your coworkers, your leaders, your family members, and friends

[00:32:20] Luigi Prestinenzi: That's killer advice. So I think, you know, I think we've got another couple of episodes in this episode, Brandon, cause we've kind of gone down a few areas here. I can summarize some of the things that I've took away from this, you know, that, that whole, that gratitude, I can see that you are grateful. You're sitting there reflecting. Reflecting is a big thing. And you're planning the day before, which is really key. And you're fundamentally designing a platform for yourself. A rhythm that's allowing you to kind of be the best you can be. And the sales tactics are secondary and that you'll sales execution is secondary to the mindset that you create for yourself.

So this has been an awesome episode, Brandon. Mate, before I let you go, cause I, I could literally talk to you for hours. What's one thing. No one knows about you that you'd love to let the world know in 2022.

[00:33:07] Brandon Fluharty: Oh, wow. I plan to retire from the corporate world at the end of 2022. Yeah. So this journey of becoming a seven figure earner every year has put me in a position to really again, think about what's important to me. And it's it's, it's not the money. I want to be in a place to help others. I know that sounds like cheesy to some people, but doing this, putting myself out there on LinkedIn, it's been amazing. Getting the feedback, talking to people one-on-one and just helping people. That's now my north star and I want to, I want to systemize that. I want to be a content creator around that. So I'm working on that transition plan over the next year.

[00:33:51] Luigi Prestinenzi: That's awesome. I love that. I love the intrinsic motivator. I love the fact that you want to give back. You know, it just goes to show why you've been able to achieve to success because there's more than just the money for your Brandon.

So mate, obviously people can connect with you on LinkedIn and we'll make sure we put the show notes of where they can connect with you. Is there anywhere else that they can find you and engage with you?

[00:34:09] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah. So just my website, brandonfluharty.com. I have a biweekly newsletter. I deconstruct how I've earned seven figures. I'm actually going to be putting out my first ebook to the public sphere in early 2022. And those subscribers will get that at a discount when it becomes publicly available.

So yeah, you can find me there and, and get a bunch of cool knowledge. And as, as well as that ebook.

[00:34:34] Luigi Prestinenzi: Awesome. And we'll make sure when the ebook goes live, we're going to buy a bunch of copies. So we can give to our subscribers, Brandon. So just want to say, man, look, I actually personally enjoy like very much enjoy your content. It really makes me stop and consider things that I need to consider. And I think that's, that's really strong content when it makes somebody not just go. "Yeah. Okay." But when it actually goeshey it's hitting at a nerve. Some, I want to say thanks for the contribution you're making to our community. Because we need more people like you that have achieved success. You're a practitioner. You're not just a, somebody that's putting out theory. And you're ultimately giving people a perspective on why they should be thinking about what they're doing and the impact it can have on them across multiple areas in their life.

So I just want to say thanks for coming on the Sales IQ Podcast.

[00:35:22] Brandon Fluharty: Yeah. I appreciate that. And thanks for giving me a platform to actually put a voice to it.