The Grind Behind The Greatness (Money Monday)

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1:18This is Jeb Blunt and it's Money Monday on the Sales Gravy Podcast.

1:33Welcome back to the Sales Gravy Podcast. This is Money Monday. I'm Jeb Blunt Jr. and I'm filling in for Jeb Blunt today. And I remember sitting in our corporate conference room a few years back. COVID lockdowns had gripped the world and sales gravy was right in the middle of a massive white hot pivot. Just a year prior, Jeb had poured nearly a million dollars and a mountain of sweat and probably a few tears into the building that would become our world-class recording complex in Thompson, Georgia. It turned out to be a prophetic move because by March of 2020, literally nobody else could do what Sales Gravy could because we had a virtual learning experience that no one else had.

2:16And suddenly we dominated the market. I mean, we were lean, mean, a virtual training machine. It was an absolute boom. We couldn't have stopped working if we wanted to. In the morning, our teams were up before the sun to capture the European market. And late at night, they were still in the studios training teams in Japan in Australia, Hong Kong, and India. Life was great. I mean, it was stressful as hell, but it was great. The company was becoming a far cry from the spare bedroom I watched Jeb build this business in when I was just eight years old. Right in front of our eyes, Sales Gravy was becoming a global beacon in the sales training world.

2:55Jeb and Kerry, our COO, decided that it was time to grow. They brought on new trainers, account managers, marketers, and producers. And by 2021, we were making massive leaps in operational capacity. But with any massive growth comes massive growing pains. To capitalize on the people that we had in the business, we needed a true executive leadership team. Jeb and Kerry made a big strategic hire. This was supposed to be the corner that we needed to turn. It was someone who was going to be put in place to make sure that we could actually capitalize on those folks that we had hired so that we could increase our capacity, train more people and bring on more clients.

3:37And three weeks later, that strategic hire walked away. No explanation. They just walked out. And I'll never forget going into the conference room after a really big brainstorming session. And Jeb was sitting in there alone. His eyes were glued to the floor and it seemed like the weight of the organization was on his shoulders. He looked up at me and he just said one sentence. Maybe scaling this company isn't the right move. It's too hard to do here. When people visit us today at our headquarters or they see our books in the airport or they watch us facilitate keynotes at global sales kickoffs, they think that we have some kind of magic, some formula that's made us this immensely successful organization.

4:17And they think that it's always been pretty smooth sailing. Even our own people wonder. Because those who weren't here for the growing pains or more of the growing pains, they think that we've always been exactly what we are today. At our Pinnacle Club trip, one of our top account managers looked at Jeb and asked a question that felt really obvious to me, but I really appreciated him saying out loud what many people were probably thinking. He asked Jeb, how did you do all of this? And Jeb looked at him and said, the part you don't always see when building an organization like Sales Gravy is the pure grind, the blood, the sweat, and the tears.

4:57Now we're past the early days where we were completely broke back when we had to come to work and fight every day just to survive. But the work ethic hasn't changed. Carrie and I pretty much never take a day off. We work seven days a week constantly because we are dedicated and driven to our mission. And if you want to know what it takes to build something great, It's really just this. You hit a wall, you fall down, you get back up, and you go again. I remember the days of sitting at the foot of my bed, Jeb said, completely distraught. But you can only allow yourself to live in that self-pity for about two seconds.

5:33And then you say to yourself, nope, we've got to reload the gun, get up, and go try again. That's what it takes. There's no secret formula. It's simply hitting a wall, recognizing that it hurts, getting up, shaking it off, and hitting another wall. You just keep going. Hearing Jeb's answer about Sales Gravy's story makes me think about my own journey and what I deal with on a day-to-day basis. As an ultra-high-performing sales rep, it's easy to follow me on LinkedIn and social channels and on Sales Gravy and on this podcast and assume that every single day is a success. But the truth is that I wake up and some days I make cold calls and I get cussed out and rejected and nobody likes me just like everybody else.

6:21And some days I walk into sales calls and I couldn't ask more wrong questions. I don't get anything advanced. These deals die on the vine. I forget to do things that give me a higher percentage chance of win. And the reality is that I could let those things overwhelm me. Sometimes failure can be easy to fall into because of the momentum it creates. It is harder to do the right things than it is to do the wrong things. When I look at the successful people that mentor me, that we work with at Sales Gravy, that work in the organizations that we train, that are ultra high performers, those people don't experience pain or rejection or failure any less than anybody else.

7:07they simply are able to push through a little bit further. They're simply able to pick themselves up off the ground when it matters most. Look in the mirror right now and face this uncomfortable question. When you hit a wall, do you look for an excuse to sit down and complain? Or do you immediately look for a way to reload and get back up? Thanks for listening to the Sales Gravy Podcast. I'm Jeb Blunt Jr. If you've gotten this far and you haven't given us a five-star review, go ahead and do that right now on Spotify, Apple Music, or iHeartMedia, or anywhere else you get your podcasts. And we'll catch you next time on the Sales Gravy Podcast.

8:04Look, dog, don't be playing with my paper. I need every red cent. That's why I brought my little scraper.