Sourdough and Beach Balls

After last week’s 2000+ word mini-manifesto, I thought I’d keep it a little lighter this week and share a few of the ideas that have been rolling around in my brain recently.

Some of these are fleeting, while others will get a more thorough treatment in the future.

Weigh in below if there’s something you’d like to see me really dive into.

Selling is all about keeping the ball in the air

Imagine a beach ball being batted around in the bleachers at a baseball game or on the hill at a summer concert.

The longer it’s in the air, the more the crowd gets fired up.

When it hits the ground, everybody boos… 😂

I think that’s actually a great sales analogy.

So much of the sales process is just keeping the ball in the air; give them a reason to keep talking to you or give yourself a reason to go back and see them.

Eventually, there comes a time when it’s either clear to move forward or it’s time to move on.

I swear, so many deals are lost because of those tiny breaks in momentum.

But even more deals are won because reps find ways to keep a conversation going, even when there is no logical next step.

It’s an art form more than a science, but if you adopt the mantra of “How do I keep this ball in the air?” with all of your active deals, you’ll find your win rates going up.

Is this the most efficient way to win? Hell no.

But if you’re in a new role or even a slump, find a way to stay in the game.

Sourdough and Sales

I’ve been messing around experimenting with sourdough over the past few weeks.

Admittedly, I’m a bit of a sales sicko, but the whole process of baking a great loaf of bread reminds me a lot of selling.

The formula is simple- only a few ingredients, and time and temperature are the only other factors.

But what you do with those factors makes all the difference.

How much tension can you create?

Are you willing to let the dough rise?

Do you give it enough time to mature?

Are you trying too hard and overworking it?

There are so many ways to do it right, only a few ways to really screw it up, and when you’re done, you always feel like you can do a little bit better next time. 😂

I haven’t figured out exactly how this fits into the analogy yet, but it’s worth mentioning that none of the handful of loaves I’ve made have come out the way I wanted them to.

But it was all damn good bread.

Talent will only get you so far

I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past few months and alluded to it last week.

If you’re reading this right now, you’re talented. I’m absolutely certain of it.

One of the risks of being talented is the effortless success you’ll occasionally experience.

Sometimes, it allows you to take things for granted, even things that are foundational to most people’s success.

What you may find (I certainly have) is that your talent will only take you so far before you have to re-evaluate (and often rebuild) your foundation.

It’s a tough pill to swallow (one I’m working on myself).

Keep following along if you want to know how it goes because it’s one of the primary purposes of this weekly newsletter.

Burnout is one of the scariest things I’ve ever dealt with

Yeah, I know… another seller talking about burnout.

Gimme a break, right?

When I was let go last summer, I got a chance to sit still, and I forced myself not to dive into anything right away.

By week two, I didn’t want to get off the couch, and I was worried that I’d never want to work again (I haven’t earned that right yet…).

Slowly, certainly, the urge came back, and over the next few weeks, I realized that I was recovering from… burnout.

It was hard to admit. I was supposed to be above that (don’t we all feel that way?).

Until I realized I wasn’t.

As I’ve said for a long time, the truth is undefeated, and once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

I can talk about it now, and this newsletter's creation every week should prove that I’m back… mostly.

There are still moments when I’m just out of gas and can’t get going, even first thing in the morning, on a full night’s rest.

It’s… weird…

Having never dealt with this before, the really scary part is that I don’t know when I’ll be all better.

It’s like when a toddler scrapes their knee up for the first time while playing outside.

Their instinct tells them they’re never going to heal, and they may very well bleed out right there on the patio.

We adults know that’s not the case because we’ve been there and lived to tell the tale.

I know this won’t last forever, I know I won’t die from it, and I’m still doing very good work.

I just don’t know when my capacity to do a ton of it will come back.

All of this underscores what I wrote about last week.

It’s imperative that you have your priorities straight.

Burnout doesn’t allow you to be sloppy and inefficient.

It makes you double down on what’s important, and there isn’t much time for anything else.

Are you guys into these little vignettes? Want me to go deeper on any of them?

Use the poll to let me know!

AI Corner

One of my primary intentions for 2025 was to get WAY more involved with AI, and I can confidently say that my experimenting has gone very well so far.

I’m actually working on a piece for a couple of weeks from now where I talk about how I’m using ChatGPT for practice and role-playing.

But on a more regular basis, I want to give you a snippet of how you can specifically use AI to be more productive in less time while having more fun.

I’ve been using ChatGPT Plus to review some of my writing, check for places where I could be more specific, and check for others where I need to be more succinct.

I’ve even trained a ‘JBGPT’ on some of my content so it can pick up on my tone and recurring themes. It’s almost spooky how well it works.

It works well as an editor, it’s a great writing partner, and I also have it review my proposals before I send them to clients just to make sure they’re thorough.

On the surface, it’s nice to have my work feel more complete.

Deeper than that, the suggestions I get light my brain up with creativity and possibilities.

I think that’s the underrated aspect of all of this. I can’t help but be optimistic when I use these tools.

GIFs! Polls! 1200 more words!

I threw a lot at you this week in what was intended to be a shorter post. 🤷‍♂️

Was it too busy or just enough levity to keep things interesting?

I love the possibilities and creativity this new platform encourages, and I love that you read this far.

Let me know what you think!

One reader did this just a few days ago, and it inspired next week’s post.

Cheers,

JB