Channeling Enthusiasm Amidst Adversity with Morgan J Ingram

[00:00:57] Speaking of hinge moments, I couldn’t help but think of a [00:01:00] conversation with Rob when I was talking to today’s guest. His name is Morgan Ingram. He’s the director of sales execution and evolution at JB sales. And he’s also the host of his own show called the SDR Chronicles, which provides motivation, tactics, and skills for all aspects of the SDR journey.

[00:01:18] Morgan is a natural public speaker and a great motivator, but he hasn’t gotten to where he is by happenstance. Morgan’s story is one of perseverance and preparation, and you will hear at the top of the conversation, those traits came in quite handy during an unexpected conversation with a stranger.

[00:01:35] Let’s listen in as he tells us about the moment that changed everything.

[00:01:41] All right. Today we have Morgan J Ingram, who is the director of execution and evolution with John burrows, JB sales training, host of the SDR Chronicles and voted LinkedIn top voice for 2019 he’s the former manager of sales development for Terminus. And [00:02:00] a Dawg with the University of Georgia. So I’ve been a long time follower of the SDR Chronicles and I’m excited to have Morgan on today.

[00:02:08] Morgan: [00:02:08] Excited to be here, Brad.

[00:02:10] Brad: [00:02:10] All right, well, let’s get into it. So I’m going to lay a little bit of groundwork. Okay. As I was prepping for an interview that I’m getting ready to do this afternoon with Scott McGregor, the writer of standing Oh and standing out Encore, short biographical stories of gratitude for life lessons.

[00:02:25] I came across a really interesting story. That Morgan had done and he talked about having a business setback. Comes out of college, has a business setback. Parents say, Hey, you should go see your uncle in Dallas. He’s had some entrepreneurial success and Morgan gets on an airplane to fly to Dallas, and something really interesting happens. So I’m going to have him tell me that. Tell us a little bit about that.

[00:02:49] Morgan: [00:02:49] Yeah, so this was his. Biggest life changer that happened to me. And so we ended up happening is, you know, [00:03:00] as we’re going through this expert and Scott’s great, you guys are gonna love him as well. I in college, started a company and I was hosting video game tournaments on college campuses.

[00:03:11] And I was always big into e-sports, like background on me when I was in, this is funny, when I was in high school, I was, I was a professional gamer. Those little notes,

[00:03:21] Brad: [00:03:21] That’s what my son wants to be.

[00:03:23] Morgan: [00:03:23] Now. Now it’s legit. Before back then, like everyone was laughing at you like that’s not a real thing. But it was a thing.

[00:03:28] So there was a thing called MLG, majorly gaming. I played halo two and I just played so much that I got invited on a team and I didn’t really know. I didn’t realize how serious it was. I did practice before school practice, after school. I was like one of the few people who actually was still in school.

[00:03:44] Everyone else was like older and they were in college or they were just working and they, this is what they did on the side cause you could still make money and things of that nature. So I remember that the reason the story is, and I was like, well I can do this. In colleges, there’s so many people who play games.

[00:04:00] [00:04:00] There’s a lot of bars and restaurants in Athens, Georgia, university of Georgia where I went that people don’t know how to host tournaments and also these gamers, they don’t go outside. So I was like, Hey, I’ll bring this foot traffic to your business. You guys want this? And so it was such a unique value, value prop that that’s how people.

[00:04:18] Came to our events. That’s how we got great sponsors. The big marquee sponsor that we got was Dave and busters. And so I was doing a lot with that business. But obviously as with any business and being 21 at the time, uh, you really don’t know what you’re doing. So, and I had people on my team that were from college, and so they wanted to go do other things.

[00:04:36] And so. When I put that business away, my mom was like, and my dad was like, Hey, go visit your uncle in Dallas. And so I bought a ticket to Dallas and I went on a Southwest flight. And the reason that’s important is because you know what? The Southwest flight, you can choose any seat that you want. So it’s crazy how all this happened.

[00:04:57] I wanted to sit in the way back cause I just wanted to read my book. I got a [00:05:00] window seat and the sky sat in the middle next to me. And he picked the middle seat, which is weird, right? Nobody should pick the outside seat, but he chose the middle seat.

[00:05:09] Brad: [00:05:09] As a real violation of the man code.

[00:05:12] Morgan: [00:05:12] Exactly. Like, yo, why are you like, why are you rolled up on me like this?

[00:05:16] What’s happened? Like why are you just in the middle seat? So obviously there was interest there and he said, Hey. The book you’re reading is great. The book I was reading at the time as law of success by Napoleon Hill, if you guys haven’t checked that out, I highly encourage it. And so he was talking about how he had read, think and grow rich, which is what most people know.

[00:05:33] And I was talking about, well, this is just a bigger book. It goes a little bit more detail about how you go about your life and see success. And next thing he said to me, he’s like, Hey, look, I have a message for you. I don’t know this guy at all. So obviously I’m freaking out. I’m like, did I do something wrong?

[00:05:51] Like yo, like what’s happening? And I was like, okay, what’s your message? He’s like, Hey, right now, you’re not moving towards the light [00:06:00] that you’re being called to do. You should be doing public speaking and you should be putting out more videos. You should be impacting more people in the community. And I was like, alright, that’s been on my mind for a while.

[00:06:11] I’ve been thinking about that, like what do you have? And so in that moment on the entire flight, and I still have the notebook we mapped out. How do I get in front of people? What does public speaking look like? What courses do I need to take? What videos do I need to watch to develop and hone this skill that I had and I neatly, I always knew I had public speaking skills.

[00:06:31] I did public speaking class. I got an a and I didn’t really try. Obviously when you don’t try things, that means that you’re probably good at it. We all have that within ourselves. And so throughout that conversation. He was giving me so much tips and advice and I was just getting blown away cause this is what I’ve been praying for.

[00:06:47] And after that conversation I was like, how did you know to come to me? Like this is like divine fate. This is crazy right now. And he’s like, yeah, I just felt like. Spiritually, God told me to come talk to you and you [00:07:00] needed this conversation. And so from there I was a completely different person coming off that flight.

[00:07:05] I came back to Atlanta, which is where I’m from, a different person, and I realized my mission was to impact people through my videos, through what I have to say. And I was always afraid to do that. But you know, when you get the call and you got to answer it. And so that’s why I continuously been pushing out content for.

[00:07:21] How many years I’ve been doing it now and why I’m, I hop on all podcasts, why I do the public speaking, why I’m always making content. Because that one video, that one post, that one talk could change someone’s life. And that’s the gift that I’ve been given. And I don’t want to put that to waste cause that’d be selfish.

[00:07:36] And so that was, that was the spark for me. And that’s how I’ve been rolling ever since.

[00:07:40] Brad: [00:07:40] I want to, I want to do a quote. I’m totally going to go out on a limb here cause I don’t know the total timeline, but there’s a quote by Barbara Corcoran that says, my best success came on the heels of all my failures.

[00:07:53] Where’s Terminus fit at in this? Because you, you, you’re doing the gaming, you work on the, you’re, you’re getting on the [00:08:00] airplane. We’re, how’s Terminus? How’s the transition from gaming determinants go, go, go down.

[00:08:07] Morgan: [00:08:07] Great question. So after I went to gaming, I came back and I immediately wanted to go into public speaking.

[00:08:14] So you know, you think that you could just start getting thousands of millions of dollars public speaking. Obviously that’s not the case and there’s no path. I’ll tell you how to do that. So I started off really ground roots, Brad. I was going to. High schools, middle schools, doing public speaking for free, because I knew I had to build my brand and the only way I was going to do that is by getting in front of people and getting some testimonials.

[00:08:40] So I was like, all right, got in front of people, did talks, got video testimonials, got a lot of recognition for that. And then as I developed, I started to get more comfortable in how I deliver and captivating crowds. And then after doing. 2030 free talks on that. Like [00:09:00] that 30 of talk. I finally got a paid talk and then from that paid talk, that just really resurged me to like a whole new level because every talk that I did, there was always some who came up after me and was like, okay, cool.

[00:09:12] We want you to go here, we want you to go here, we want you to go here. And it really caused that snowball effect. Now in that, at the time of me making this money, I wasn’t making a lot. Right? I was only getting like. A thousand or $2,000 per talk. So that’s not a ton to really live off of. So I realized that I needed to get a skill behind my public speaking.

[00:09:33] And what I mean by that is. I can talk and get people motivated. But if I can’t tactically get you somewhere, that’s not gonna be helpful. And that’s a big decision that I made. So anyone who’s trying to aspire to be a public speaker, it makes sure that you have a skill that you can give somebody when you’re speaking.

[00:09:50] So it can be impactful, not just motivational. That’s really key. And so. I went to go be a sales rep, SDR at Terminus, and that’s where it comes in the picture, because I [00:10:00] knew if I could understand how to prospect and sell, that’s what I could speak to people about. Use my skill of public speaking that I learned, and then put it behind something that’s viable that people can go do.

[00:10:11] That’s what I realized is the next step. And so Terminus was a great opportunity for me. And really the failure, the adversity, Brad, that you’re talking about. I felt that in the first three months of the role, I was terrible. I sucked. I was really bad. So cold calls, getting rejected, emails getting bounced.

[00:10:33] I couldn’t hit quota like I was like, this was a dumb decision. But the, my VP of sales, I talked to her. And I said, Hey, look like I don’t want to do this anymore. I want to go do something different, maybe marketing, et cetera. And she asked me a very important question and she said, are you giving this a hundred percent and I realized I wasn’t.

[00:10:52] I wasn’t giving the role a hundred percent and if I’m not going to give a hundred percent it’s not going to give me the results that I was looking for. It’s for the next month. [00:11:00] I focused all in on sales enablement prospecting. Talk to people, talk to top reps, reach out to people. And then I figured out how to get a process in play that worked.

[00:11:09] And so from that step, from that standpoint that that moving forward, I hit quota every single month and didn’t look back. And in that was I was hitting my quota. I created. The YouTube channel called the SDR Chronicles, which is what put me on the map in terms of personal brand and LinkedIn and how I got my job today.

[00:11:26] And so all that was for the, for the context, for everybody, it was a documentation, a journey of me as an SDR. And I posted every single day for six or seven months while I was in that role. And then when I became an SDR manager, I still posted, and even today, I still post, but it’s not as consistent as it was because I wanted to show people that you can still create content.

[00:11:47] You could still hit your number, you could still share your story. And it doesn’t matter what your experience is or what your role is, you can still get people to listen to you if you come from the right place. And that’s why I created the sr Chronicles and that’s what I did. But if I didn’t face that three [00:12:00] months.

[00:12:00] Three months of adversity and challenges. I don’t think the content would have been as strong. I don’t think I’d be able to train the way that I train. And I don’t think I’d be able to coach the way that I coach because I, I, I’ve felt those struggles. I felt those failures. And I know what I’m like, okay, you need to tweak it here. It’s because I went through that same struggle now.

[00:12:19] Brad: [00:12:19] So something I want to share with you. So there’s a characteristic that I think is really important to success, particularly in sales. And I think it’s a characteristic based on my interaction with you. What I’ve read and the podcast and videos that I’ve seen.

[00:12:33] You seem to be really, you haven’t  which I think is key in really the cornerstone of success because it allows you to move from one thing to another thing with no dust off your shoulder. You know? I think, I think enthusiasm’s defined is the glue between what allows. When to work hard and not quit. So you seem to have that.

[00:12:56] Where do you, where do you think you got that from? Is that an, are you just [00:13:00] enthusiastic about everything?

[00:13:02] Morgan: [00:13:02] So I’m not enthusiastic about everything. There’s some things where I’m like, I’m not really that fired up about it. For me, where I believe I got my energy from was when I was reading the law of success.

[00:13:15] One key thing it talks about was perspective. And your enthusiasm, and it talks about how if you’re enthusiastic, other people could feed off that energy and they want to be around you. They want to collaborate with you because that’s very rare to have positive, enthusiastic energy, especially with what we’re in now.

[00:13:33] And so I always was energetic about things that I liked. But I sometimes would be whatever and apathetic towards things I didn’t like, so to, to keep myself enthusiastic. As much as I can write on the same, not every minute I am, but as much as I can. His perspective is being grateful about where I’m at. I can see, I can talk, I can walk.

[00:13:58] I live in a nice place. [00:14:00] Everyone I know in my family is healthy. I’m able to do things that I love and I have been given the ability to do those things and also the opportunity to do those things. And that’s what keeps me excited and energetic. And when I started traveling internationally, I got more energetic because I saw what was happening out there.

[00:14:19] Brad, I’ve been to India. I’ve been to Philippines, I’ve seen how people live and they’re still grateful and they’re still excited. So why would I not be excited if I have internet and I can still do anything I want in this world? And so that’s what keeps me energetic. That’s what keeps me enthusiastic.

[00:14:34] And then I always try to do things that I’m passionate about. I’m really passionate about coaching people. I’m really passionate about public speaking. I’m really passionate about prospecting. So I try to always games, right? I always try to focus on things that I’m passionate about, so I’m always have that energy.

[00:14:49] If we were talking about. Cats, like, I’m not that excited about that. Right? It’s like, I’m really not going to be jacked up out of my mind about cats, other topics I will be in. So I’m [00:15:00] always enthusiastic because I focus on things I’m excited about. Not things that like I don’t really care about. Um, okay.

[00:15:05] Brad: [00:15:05] So, so in that same, that same vein, the one thing that I hear you saying, maybe not, maybe not verbally, but she, you have a really good understanding of what makes you tick. I think you referred to it as your, as your why, but you have a really good, um, idea of your strengths and weaknesses based on what, based on what I can tell.

[00:15:28] So you have let, what you can’t do stop you from doing what you can. Can you talk to me a little bit about that?

[00:15:35] Morgan: [00:15:35] Yeah, so I did a very unique thing coming out of college. So right now everyone’s in quarantine. The reason a lot of people right now are freaking out about quarantine is they’ve never faced themselves in the mirror.

[00:15:49] They’ve gone out on the weekend, they’ve partied, they’ve hung out with their other friends. They’ve traveled, but they never sat in silence. Look [00:16:00] themselves in the mirror and ask themselves, am I fulfilled in what I’m doing? Am I doing the things that I really want to do? Am I just following everyone else’s lead?

[00:16:08] These are real questions. And so after college, all right, I read a post, it was like on Instagram and it was about, Hey, go talk to the five closest people in your life and ask them, what are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What do they really love about you? What are they? What do they not like about you?

[00:16:32] Brad, this experiment sucks. This experiment is terrible. This is not fun. However, I did it and I got some really great feedback on who I am and what turns people off from me. And I haven’t asked my parents this. So the big thing is that, like I took that information and I self quarantined myself for a month and a half, two months.

[00:16:57] I didn’t text anyone. I didn’t call anyone. I [00:17:00] didn’t text. Do anything, and that was really big because I was able to understand what my strengths were. I was over understand what my weaknesses were, and it allowed me to be in a continuous phase of reflection to figure out how I can get better. I’m not saying that I’m perfect.

[00:17:18] That’s not what I’m saying here. I’m just saying I’m in continuous reflection. Mode. So I’m like, wow, okay, that’s off. And then now as I become more open to this, before I wasn’t, I’ll reach out to people that, Hey, look, I’m struggling in this. I need help. And I know the people I’m reaching out to have the words of advice to help me.

[00:17:38] And so how I was able to navigate those strengths and weaknesses is I wrote them down. I wrote down the weaknesses, I evaluated it, and I figured out what careers, what. People do I need to surround myself with so I can maximize these strengths and then also cover up some weaknesses as well. Cause I believe in doubling down strengths.

[00:17:57] So that was more so what I did for myself. [00:18:00] So this corn gene right now is. The quarantine I did for myself. So I’m, I’m cool in this quarantine, but again, we don’t take the opportunity to face ourselves. That’s a big miss. T

[00:18:11] hat’s, that’s

[00:18:11] Brad: [00:18:11] awesome. Um, let’s transition the conversation a little bit to adversity in, in sales and the importance of mental toughness.

[00:18:19] Now, I really lucked out because I listened to a. Video that you had done on the salesman’s podcast, and I think you were still at Terminus when you did this, but you mentioned in the podcast or in the, in the interview that you decided to take the SDR role at Terminus because you felt like it was a good, you know, it was like bud Bud’s boot camp for sales.

[00:18:42] Talk to me about that. What was going through your mind?

[00:18:45] Morgan: [00:18:45] What, yeah, so I went after AE roles first. And I had a lot to do with ego. I think everyone has, everyone has an ego, right? If you guys have read the book, ego is your enemy, right? We all have a [00:19:00] certain degree of ego. My definitely was super high and can definitely be selfish from time to time.

[00:19:04] I’ll definitely admit that. That’s probably another additional weakness that I have. I think like, yo, I can do this, whatever, but you know, every role for eight, I got rejected, so I was like, all right, I’ve got to start somewhere. The SGR role, Brad, answer that question there is where I started and as I was interviewing for the role, and I talked to other people that are STRs.

[00:19:21] I realized that the your, your job is to prospect. That’s it. You don’t close deals, you don’t do any of that stuff. So I realized if I can get through an SDR role and do this for the next 12 to 13 months and do it at the highest level, and my only thing I have to do is prospect. And it’s like the hardest thing to do is wake up every single day and cold call.

[00:19:42] That mental toughness is going to help me any, anywhere in my career moving forward. And so that was the decision that I made is if I can do this, I can do anything from a mental standpoint. And so that was, that’s when I locked myself in the decision of like, I’m going to do this role. And then [00:20:00] I continuously hunker down, buckling down to make sure that I could get better at that.

[00:20:05] And that was like the key factor that I had because I knew if I could get that mental toughness from the SDR role, I could prepare myself for anything in the future. So we’re in that space. So I understand how hard it is, but why do you think the role so tough? You’re going into your job every single day knowing that you’re going to get rejected.

[00:20:26] You’re contacting strangers that didn’t want to talk to you in the first place, and you get no celebration when you hit that quota or you get that meeting. So you think about a E, right? They close a deal. They get a pretty big commission check for the most part. You get the hit the gong, right? This is exciting stuff, so that gets you moving to go do it again and SDR.

[00:20:49] You hit quarter. It’s like, cool, go do it again. It’s like that’s can be grueling when you’re out there cold calling, you’re out there emailing, you’re getting rejected and you have to get better [00:21:00] every single moment and prospecting changes every single day. And so I would say that is what makes the role so hard because.

[00:21:09] People are expecting relevancy on every touch. You’re coming into it. And this is essentially that they see it as an entry level position, which I feel like it’s more than that, and you’re not getting those celebrations like an ag does and so, and you’re not getting paid the same way in ag does. Right. So my sense all that makes it so much more difficult. At the end of the day.

[00:21:30] Brad: [00:21:30] Now, do you feel like your time as an, as an SDR prepped you for the role that you have now?

[00:21:36] Morgan: [00:21:36] Absolutely. Because especially right now, I know the skills to spark a net new conversation, and that is the most critical skill that you could have because if you go look at HubSpot study, they say the number one thing that.

[00:21:58] Rhett struggle with is [00:22:00] prospecting and year after year, it’s always number one is prospecting. And so if you’re able to master what that skill of prospecting is for you, that’s going to help you out so much moving forward. And so that role is an SDR equipped me with the structure. And the skills and the tools to prospect through anything that’s happening, because I’ve done it over and over and over again, and pipeline is life at the end of the day.

[00:22:26] So if things are going bad, I know, okay, cool. Let’s just go spark up net new conversations. I’ve done this thousands of times, so why not now? And so it helped. It’s helped me out tremendously when it comes to B sales because it’s given me a lot of add backs to get better at my skills, sales skills, and my discovery skills.

[00:22:43] Brad: [00:22:43] How, how much of the role do you think his skill, the SDR role specifically, how much of it do you think his skill versus mental?

[00:22:50] Morgan: [00:22:50] Yeah, we’ve had people that were high skill and low will and they were, they were really good at the cold call. They’re really good at the emails, but they didn’t consistently [00:23:00] do it.

[00:23:00] And that comes down to will. So how I really see it at the end of the day is it’s more of that mental then the skills you can teach anybody skills. You can’t teach, and Nate fire and Nate motivation, that’s a come from you through maybe something you’ve seen, something that motivates you, whatever that is.

[00:23:23] And so that’s what we realized. We can’t give people the fire. We can show them the fire, but I can’t give it to you. And so I’ve seen that. The mental, if you have that and you have the aptitude, if you have more, so a chip on your shoulder. That’s where you’re going to see the success. And you know, let’s point a couple people, right?

[00:23:40] You think about the Michael Jordans of the world, you think about the tiger woods of the world. You think about the M&Ms of the world. The reason that there were so successful is yes, they have the skill, but they had that mental edge that they had to just crush everybody is what made them so great.

[00:23:56] There are people who probably had the same skills with them at some point, [00:24:00] but what took them to the next level was that mental. Right? So RFP and your mama mentality, that’s what you have to have there to see that success.

[00:24:07] Brad: [00:24:07] So last thing, as it pertains to this section, you have a lot of mental toughness qualities, whether you see them in yourself or not.

[00:24:15] I’m sure you know that they’re there because you’ve gone through the process of trying to understand your strengths and weaknesses, but what do you think is attributed to that? It appears that you have the ability to really move from one thing to another thing without there being little, little friction.

[00:24:30] And you seem to have a propensity to action over anything else. Is that a natural thing? Do you think you were born that way or is there a specific event that occurred in your life that made that all cognizant to you?

[00:24:43] Morgan: [00:24:43] Great question. I feel like there’s a seed that’s there. That has helped me grow this, but I don’t think it was as natural as it is for me right now.

[00:24:53] I definitely let events in the past affect me emotionally with relationships with certain things that happen. You know, when I got [00:25:00] cut from like basketball, it seems like I emotionally felt that and sometimes it would weigh on me so much because I’m a. I’m an empath, so I feel emotions on a greater level.

[00:25:11] And so because of that, like sometimes I get weighed down, but I always had a seed because something’s just in bother me. So how I was able to elevate that, and now there’s not a lot of stuff that really bothers me now is I always looked at people’s first videos or autobiographies to see what they went through.

[00:25:30] People were way more successful than I am, and I saw the stuff that they went through and how they overcame that stuff. And so when I read those autobiographies, when I looked at those first videos, so where they’re at now, and all of the feedback that they got, well, that was not crate feedback. How they got made fun of.

[00:25:47] I was like, why am I letting this event. Take hold of me when people face way more difficult situations than I have, and the situation is not uniquely to me. People have gone through this before, so I’m able [00:26:00] to take things in and what I always tell people is that, yes, sit in the moment, but don’t let it drown you.

[00:26:05] So I don’t let moments, Jami, I sit in it for maybe a day and I’m like, man, that sucked. And then I’m like, okay, let’s pick it up. Let’s move on. Let’s learn from that and let’s keep going. Because if you let the moment drown you. You won’t see success, but if you can just take it in and be like, okay, that’s where I messed up, you can use that as a lesson to act on moving forward.

[00:26:22] Brad: [00:26:22] That’s, that’s great stuff. I’m so glad we had you on here today. This was, this was wonderful. Um, alright. Power play. So I’m gonna throw, I’m gonna throw a question out at you and then just tell me the first thing that comes to your mind and then we’ll wrap up and, um, ask anything that we haven’t asked and we’ll, we’ll go from there.

[00:26:35] So, Morgan, are you ready for the power play? I’m ready. Let’s start it. Let’s do that. How do you define success?

[00:26:43] Morgan: [00:26:43] I define success as what you were looking to fulfill in life. What is fulfillment? So that can mean you have a really nice car. Maybe that’s success. Maybe it’s, Hey, I got two kids in my family and they’re all healthy.

[00:26:54] That’s success. Maybe it’s, I want a million dollars. That’s success. Success is different for everyone, but that’s seeking your fulfillment, and once you [00:27:00] get that, that’s what you see as success.

[00:27:01] Brad: [00:27:01] What’s your biggest regret?

[00:27:03] Morgan: [00:27:03] You know, this is a, this is a question I reflect on a lot. I don’t have regrets. And the reason I don’t have regrets and I don’t like to think about it is because every decision that I made, if I think about it, like maybe that was a bad decision.

[00:27:15] However, that decision that was bad taught me a certain lesson that allowed me to have a great. Impact or success moving forward. And so I don’t really think about what was my biggest regret. I just think about like, that was probably maybe a bad decision at the time, but it helped me learn this lesson that now allows me to interact with people in a certain way and then now able to flourish relationships moving forward.

[00:27:36] Brad: [00:27:36] Awesome. Alright. Born mentally tougher, made mentally tough?

[00:27:39] Morgan: [00:27:39] Made mentally tough. And a perfect example. That is Goggins David Goggins. If you guys check him out, he’s hard. He’s so hard. That’s made Millie tough. He was not born that way. That’s why I said that dude is a special breed for sure. Last question.

[00:27:56] Sales harder. Easy, hard. Cause it’s such a, [00:28:00] it’s such a mental game. It’s one of the hardest professions that. Is out there. However, if it’s done right, it’s one of the greatest professions out there that, you know, we believe here at JB cells is what we talk about. But it’s definitely a hard profession cause like you’re facing so much rejection every single day and you gotta be able to handle that.

[00:28:23] It’s hard

[00:28:23] Brad: [00:28:23] to listen to Morgan and not feel fired up. Right. I want to dive into a few things. Morgan cheered, but first I want to welcome our producer of the show and director of marketing at monster connect. Kiel Hauck.

[00:28:34] Kiel: [00:28:34] Hey Brad, Thanks for having me on.

[00:28:36] Brad: [00:28:36] Hey, great.  Well, Hey Kiel, I wanted to have you on this afternoon.

[00:28:39] I thought you, uh, you know, sitting sidesaddle on the podcast. I thought you’d have some nice insights, so I wanted to bring on and talking about it.

[00:28:45] Kiel: [00:28:45] Yeah, definitely. I think sitting in on these conversations has been really fascinating to me. I feel like, you know, the things we’re talking about on the show, like mental toughness and overcoming adversity.

[00:28:54] Those are things that, um, you know, certainly I feel strongly about, but it’s areas that I [00:29:00] know I can improve a lot as well. So I think, uh, being able to kind of listen to the different perspectives that are being shared here, um, has really been great for me. And I’m excited to kind of talk it out with you just on, you know, what we’ve heard.

[00:29:12] Brad: [00:29:12] Yeah. I’m excited to talk about some of the stuff that hopped out and Morgan’s interview. Um, I know the first thing that I was really blown away by, even prior to getting on the interview was how intentional he was about understanding his strengths and weaknesses. He seemed to really be tuned in to what he was good at and what he was bad at.

[00:29:31] And I laughed when he said, um, man, that was really a, the exercise of asking your friends and family what your good and bad at was really hard.

[00:29:41] Kiel: [00:29:41] Yeah. No kidding. I mean, I think all of us kind of know that that is a one quick way to approach having a better understanding of, you know, some of our personal areas that need improvement, but it’s not easy.

[00:29:55] It’s not easy to ask those questions because, you know, getting that feedback. [00:30:00] Um. You know, the truth can hurt. Right? But, uh, Morgan’s approach to it has been like, just so levelheaded and logical and focused, even though he admitted that it was hard for him as well. But I was thinking about how he’d mentioned how he kind of self quarantined himself, uh, during this time to, you know, really kind of to work through these things.

[00:30:20] And, you know, you think of all the time that each of us has had recently to sort of be locked in. I mean, I, I definitely can’t say that I’ve been. Using my time as a maybe intentionally as he did there, but gosh, when you think about it, I mean, what, what better time to really doing a self, a self evaluation.

[00:30:39] Brad: [00:30:39] Yeah. I think this time we’ll definitely put a lot of people in front of the mirror to sort of figure out what they’re good, good at with and not good with. And then also. Um, you know, as all these people were getting laid off, I think they’re coming kind of coming sober in terms of where their strengths and weaknesses lie.

[00:30:56] So I think he was right on with the self quarantine. [00:31:00] Um, I know his, one of his big strengths, I think it came out, I mentioned it was his natural enthusiasm. How do you think that’s impacted his success? I mean, it does appear that that’s helped him really move from one thing to another thing. I mean, he failed at the, or he says he failed at the gaming thing, but he seemed to be able to really move into another. Um, line of work with, with little to no impact.

[00:31:27] Kiel: [00:31:27] Well, I think that he made a really great point when you were talking with him about it. He’s not going to be enthusiastic about something that he’s not enthusiastic about, right? Like he, he intentionally goes after things and opportunities that he knows, uh, he’s passionate about.

[00:31:41] And that kind of lets his enthusiasm shine. And I think it’s, um, you can see it throughout. I mean everything that he’s done. I mean, being a public speaker and a motivator, if you listen or watch the SDR Chronicles, I mean that, that’s a place where his enthusiasm really comes through. And I think a really powerful way in terms of communication.

[00:31:58] But what was [00:32:00] most interesting to me is thinking about like, he obviously has this. You know, natural enthusiasm as a, as a part of his personality. But being able to harness that in such a way that makes him successful in the right ways, at the right things was really fascinating. And it all kind of started with that hinge moment that you guys talked about that started the conversation on the airplane.

[00:32:20] I mean, I think without that moment in that conversation, um, I mean, clearly. That had an impact on thinking about how he could channel those natural gifts that he had in a way that was going to be successful.

[00:32:34] Brad: [00:32:34] Yeah. I think it always helps when somebody else highlights that and uh, obviously we don’t know the nature of their conversation, but the guy was able to pick up pretty quickly, um, either innately or externally that Morgan was a gifted, you know, had some communication skills.

[00:32:51] And so I think it’s always good when you hear from somebody else. That you’re good at something and being able to step into that.

[00:32:57] Kiel: [00:32:57] Yeah. And it kind of goes back to that first thing we were talking [00:33:00] about, like certainly the people closest to, you know, your strengths and weaknesses and can communicate that to you.

[00:33:05] But how often do you have an encounter with somebody that maybe doesn’t know you quite that well, but they’re still able to kind of intuitively see something in you? Um, and I know that’s happened to me before where I’ve kind of brushed it off of like, Oh, you know, that person is just being nice or trying to say a nice thing.

[00:33:20] But not like really kind of focusing in on like, gosh, maybe I should think about that more. How can I take that thing and put that into practice in a different or better way in my own life? I think a lot of times those moments happen and we kind of let them pass by without really listening to what’s being said and thinking about how we can apply that in our lives.

[00:33:40] Brad: [00:33:40] Yeah. I think especially if it keeps coming up, I mean, if it can be considered flattery, maybe the first time. But if you keep kind of hearing that same message, then you definitely gotta gotta tune in on it. All right. Well, Kiel, thanks for joining us today.

[00:33:54] Kiel: [00:33:54] Absolutely. It was a fun.

[00:33:56] Brad: [00:33:56] All right, well, good deal.

[00:33:57] Well, that’s all for today’s episode. [00:34:00] Remember, if you’d like some further reading on how to grow in mental toughness and become a better salesperson, you can download our mental toughness playbook or get it for free by going to monster connect.com/podcast and remember to subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

[00:34:14] And leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Until next time, don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can.