How Elite Performers Manage Pressure Before the Moment with Dr. Michael Gervais

0:10Welcome to the Revenue Builders podcast hosted by John Kaplan and John McMahon. Dr. Michael Gervais joins us today, a performance psychologist who works with elite athletes, world-class teams, and senior leaders operating in a high-pressure environment. In this clip, Dr. Gervais breaks down what happens when pressure rises before a critical sales moment, like walking into a meeting with an economic buyer after months of working on a major deal. He explains how to understand your level of activation, how to tell when nerves are working for you or against you, and why awareness, breathing, and self-talk need to be trained before the moment arrives.

0:45For revenue leaders, this is a practical look at the mental preparation required to execute when the stakes are real. Let's dive in.

0:54Dr. Michael Gervais: so post-traumatic stress disorder is the name for what happens after trauma but it's actually not a great description of it because what happens when people go through traumatic experiences they reorganize their lives to protect themselves from being re-traumatized so it's a protection of re-traumatization is what we should call it and what that does is it keeps oftentimes it keeps people at a distance because for the most part, humans also are predatorial. And so events can change us, but also the disappointment from other people in the way that they behave during those events or even the cause of those events.

1:36Dr. Michael Gervais: So we protect ourselves and we feel like we're alone. That type of trauma can be an amazing laboratory to get down to wait, hold on, how do I work through this. Oh, I got to figure out how to take care of myself. Okay. When I work those psychological school skills and practices, I feel a little bit more together. And then I can't just be by myself in this world. I need to figure out how to be great with other people. So that's kind of level two. And when this starts to emerge, those folks that have experienced trauma and work through it, they're the best teammates. Yeah. They are flat out the best because they've embraced the fragility.

2:17Dr. Michael Gervais: They've looked the dragon in the eyes and wrestled it down and become friends with the dragon. So now they go out into the world with the dragon and it's awesome. They are the best of the best of the best teammates, but the ones that don't do the work, the ones that are still thumping their chest to say, I'm a alpha, whatever, don't trust them. Do not trust them. They haven't done the work to know what they really stand for. But the ones, again, who have wrestled with the dragon in their own life, and they've come and they can talk about it, and you can feel that they are not whipped around by the external world because they are governing by their values and their principles.

2:59Dr. Michael Gervais: They've got some purpose that's bigger than them. Those are the ones you want in your life. Those are the ones that will have your back. Those are the ones that you want to partner with because you go further when you work with other people. And that's the essence of elite sport. That's the essence of great teammates in great companies. Talk a little bit about, I'm getting ready to go into a meeting with an economic buyer. I've been working on a sales situation for nine months. It's a multimillion dollar deal. And I feel nervous, even though I think that I've definitely prepared, but I care so much.

3:34I'm nervous. At the same time, maybe there's this fear of failure, fear that I'm not going to get the deal. How do I determine if I'm really scared and fearful or if I'm just a little nervous because I want it so bad? Cool question. I'm prepared. Is that a decent question? Is that a what? Is that a decent question? Good question.

3:59Dr. Michael Gervais: Great question. That's a great question. you're speaking right to the heart of what activation so it's a technical term in high performance psychology which is arousal and that arousal state is really talking about your level of internal activation and if you think about a normal distribution curve right where you've got like a inverted u as as the model would suggest that um and if you break that up into three sections. You've got the low part of the curve, the 1, 2, 3, 4. You've got the 4, 5, 6, which is the highest part of the curve, the top of the U. And then you've got the 7, 8, 9, 10, which is on the right side.

4:41Dr. Michael Gervais: And go back to what our grandmothers likely taught us, which is the porridge is too cold, it's too hot, or it's just right. And when you lay that framing with activation, that is the same type of thing, is that there's an activation level that's uniquely right for you, right? And if you're too high on that activation, maybe you've got a little tremor, maybe you've got a little cotton mouth, your breathing's changed, maybe you're racing up in your mind about distractions and what ifs. That's like a 7, 8, 9, 10. You can do fine at a 7, but you're not in that kind of strike zone where the porridge is just right, where your body's switched on, you're then at four, five, six mode, where you've got an activation, but you're harnessing it.

5:25Dr. Michael Gervais: You've got butterflies, but they're working in formation. You've got that energy, but you're able to capture it and drive it with the right type of calm intensity. And then again, on the lower part of the scale is like you're yawning, you're bored, you're just kind of lame, if you will, from an activation level. So how do you discern if it's nervousness or it is, what's the word? Danger. Yeah, so one way is like, what's my number? Man, this feels like an eight, okay? Oh, well, this is like a four. This is like a six. So I'm in the sweet spot, four, five, six. I'm in the sweet spot. I just want to back it down a little and I'm pretty good.

6:08Dr. Michael Gervais: I need the skill to know how to back it down. So the skill of being calm comes from one place and one place only, which is breathing. So when you breathe, you back down your activation level. But to know, you first must be aware of where you are and to know, how do I calibrate? Is this an eight or is this a four? Is this a seven? And then you need the psychological skills to be able to bring it up with intensity or back it down with intensity. And so it's awareness is always kind of first. And then breathing is the big lever to back it down. by the way on the world stage i don't know any athletes that need to bring it up um and when they start talking about like i need to bring it up like that they're all kind of on their way out like there's other stuff happening but for the most part it's about bringing it back down and then the third lever mental skill is self-talk so awareness breathing and self-talk working with yourself to back yourself to coach yourself yeah and you put those three skills together.

7:10Dr. Michael Gervais: And that's kind of like the most powerful dynamic skills you can use. Now, last, last part on this, John, is that if you are about to go on stage or into a boardroom, or you're going to make a pitch to an ex-co and you're like, oh, I remember I'm supposed to do those things. I'm supposed to be aware and breathe and self-talk. And, and you're hoping while you're waiting in the, in the lobby that you're going to get those things, right. That's not how it works. right you need just like elite athletes front front load their physical training they front load their technical training they also front load their mental training in modern athletes so that when they get tested they've got real skills that they can play with so we we're in the gym we're in the mental gym meditation breathing self-talk stuff mental imagery and then we're also doing technical stuff on the field.

8:05Dr. Michael Gervais: And that's what I would suggest is happening for the avant-garde enterprise companies. Big sport is about 10 to 15 years ahead of big business when it comes to investing in the performance attributes of their people. Because in big sport, the only asset is the person. And again, like, I don't know, 20 years ago in big sport, they're like psychology get out of here that's for the week now that's changed yes that's totally changed but big sport i'm sorry big business is about 10 to 15 years behind and that's why i'll give a plug for my business here really quickly is that we're we're so fortunate to work with senior leadership at microsoft and you know um salesforce and companies like that to help them train their minds to be their very best and then to cascade that throughout their organization.

9:03Dr. Michael Gervais: The same way we work with athletes on mental skills training, they're investing in their people in that same way. We just got back from London working with WPP who's just having a real shocker in where they are in the industry. And you can feel there's a swell happening because they're investing in their people for their psychological skills to be world-class. Those are the companies that I'd like to pay attention to. Thanks for listening to today's episode. If you enjoy the content, please subscribe, rate, and review the show to help us reach more people. This show is brought to you by Force Management, where we help companies improve sales performance, executing the growth strategy at the point of sale.

9:44Check out forcemanagement.com for more information.