 For more than 15 years, Allen Stein Jr. worked with the highest performing basketball players on the planet, including iconic superstars such as Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and Kobe Bryant. He is here today to share proven strategies on how you can utilize the same mindset, habits, and routines that elite athletes use to perform at a world-class level. Using proven principles from his book Raise Your Game, Allen has worked with global brands such as American Express, Pepsi, and Starbucks, as well as championship caliber sports programs like Penn State Football and Yukon Men's Basketball. He is excited to provide you with a series of practical, actionable lessons you can implement immediately to improve organizational performance and achieve higher levels of personal influence, impact, and significance. Allen is a passionate father of three, and he never lets his kids beat him in anything, ever. Please help me welcome Allen Stein Jr. Back in 2007, Nike basketball flew me out to Los Angeles to work the first ever Kobe Bryant Skills Academy. Nike brought in the top high school and college players from around the country for an intense three-day mini-camp with the best player in the world. And for any of you that don't follow basketball, just know that in 2007, Kobe was the best player in the game. Well, an important fact about me is basketball was my first identifiable passion. I fell in love with the game at four years old, and here, 40 years later, basketball is still a major staple in my life. While having grown up in this basketball bubble, I had always heard the urban legend of how insanely intense Kobe's individual workouts were. Well, when I found myself on his camp staff, I figured this is my chance. This is my shot, so at my earliest opportunity, I walked up to Kobe and asked if I could watch one of his private workouts. He was incredibly gracious and smiled and said, sure, man, no problem, I'm going tomorrow at four. Well, I got a little bit confused, because I had just got done looking through the camp schedule. And the camp schedule clearly said that the first workout with the players was the following day at 3.30. Well, Kobe recognized the confused look on my face, and he clarified that with, yeah, that's four AM. Well, I couldn't think of a reason on why I couldn't be somewhere at four in the morning. So I had basically committed myself to being there, and I figured if I'm going to be there anyway, I may as well try and impress Kobe. I may as well show him how serious of a trainer I was. So I came up with the plan to beat him to the gym. So I set my alarm for 3 AM. The alarm goes off. I jump up. I get myself dressed, and I hop in a taxi, and I head to the gym. Now when I arrive, it's 3.30 in the morning, so it's pitch black outside. And the moment I step out of the taxi, I can see that the gym light is already on. From the parking lot, I could faintly hear a ball bouncing and sneakers squeaking. I walked in the side door. Kobe was already in a full sweat. See, he was going through an intense warm-up before his scheduled workout with his trainer started at four. Well, out of professional courtesy, I didn't say anything to him, and I didn't say anything to his trainer. I just sat down to watch, and for the first 45 minutes, I was shocked. For the first 45 minutes, I watched the best player in the world do the most basic footwork in offensive moves. Kobe was doing stuff that I had routinely done with middle school age players. Now, let's not get it twisted. This was Kobe Bryant, so he was doing everything in an unparalleled level of intensity, and he was doing everything with surgical precision. But the stuff he was doing was incredibly basic. His entire workout lasted a couple hours, and when it was over, once again, I did not say anything to him, and I did not say anything to his trainer. I just quietly left, but my curiosity kept nagging away, and eventually it got the best of me because I just had to know. So later that day at camp, I went up to him again and said, Kobe, I don't understand. You're the best player in the world. Why are you doing such basic drills? And he flashed that million-dollar smile, but he said with all seriousness, why do you think I'm the best player in the world? Because I never get bored with the basics. Kobe Bryant, the best player on the planet, and someone that has truly mastered his craft, said his secret is that he never gets bored with the basics. And as obvious as that may be to you right now, this was a pivotal life-changing moment for me. In this moment, I realized that just because something is basic, it doesn't mean that it's easy. Those are not synonyms, and yet people often use those words as the basis for the basics. And yet people often use those words interchangeably. Just because it's basic doesn't mean that it's easy. If it was easy, everyone else would be doing it. And you all know we live in a world that tells us it's OK to skip steps. Tells us we should always be looking for a shortcut or a hack. But when you do so, you're making a huge mistake because the basics work. They always have, and they always will. So the very first step to improving your performance in any area of your life, it doesn't matter if it's personal or professional. It doesn't matter if it's individual or if it's organizational. The very first step is to admit that the basics work, but it's also having the humility to acknowledge that implementing the basics every single day is never, ever going to be easy. Now, I'm so thrilled to be on this virtual stage with you all right now, and I'm here for one reason. And one reason only, and that is to add value to your lives. And the way I can best do that is by sharing with you some practical strategies on how you can skyrocket your sales performance. See, I've been very fortunate in my career that I've had an opportunity to work with the best basketball players in the world. I've also had an opportunity to work with some of the best brands and businesses in the world. And I've helped them raise their game. And I'm going to do the exact same thing with you. Now, in order to raise your game, you have to be willing to commit to the basics. You have to be willing to commit to the fundamentals, which is what I'm going to be sharing with you today. But I need to warn you, most of what I'm about to share with you, you've heard before. Most of what I'm about to share with you, you already know, either intuitively or intellectually. But I need to caution you. I need to caution you not to roll your eyes and think, I already know this. But instead, I want to challenge you and empower you to lean in a little bit closer and ask yourself one of the most important questions you can ever ask yourself. And that is, how well am I actually doing this? See, there's a difference between knowing and doing. And there's something called a performance gap. And that is the gap between what you know you're supposed to do every day and what you actually do every single day. And my goal today is to give you the tools that you need to close your performance gap so you can skyrocket your sales. But this will also be the same template for you to share with your customers so that they can close their performance gaps as well. Now, there is absolutely no question that LifeVantage's product line is vastly superior to anything else out there. I mean, it's revolutionary. It's remarkable. I mean, it is unparalleled. However, as distributors, I need you to understand that you are not in the product business. You are actually in the relationship business. And as soon as you can look through that lens and understand that you are in the relationship business, that will be the first step to skyrocketing your sales. And in fact, there are three key relationships that you need to focus on to be the best sales professional that you're capable of. The first is often the one that's most overlooked and undervalued. And that is the relationship that you have with yourself. Are you self-aware? Are you self-disciplined? Do you exercise self-compassion when you make a mistake, which, of course, is inevitable? Are you able to move to the next play? But more importantly, are you doing what you need to do to show up every single day, even if that means showing up virtually, as the best version of yourself? Are you making time to fill your bucket? Making time to fill your bucket mentally, physically, and emotionally? Here's an exercise that I want you to do, and you don't need to do it right now, but you can kind of write down the instructions and perform this later. I want you to make a list of four or five things that you know fill your bucket, mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually if appropriate to you. What are the four or five activities that every time you do these things, you feel more confident? You feel energized? You feel alive? Maybe it's taking a spin class or a yoga class. Maybe it's meditation or prayer. Maybe it's going for a long walk or a jog. Maybe it's listening to classical music. But whatever it is, what are the four or five things that when you do these things, you feel alive and you feel energized? Then in a separate area of your notes, I want you to make a list of how you start and end each day, the bookends of your day. How do you spend the first 60 minutes after you wake up and how do you spend the last 60 minutes before you go to bed? And I'm aware that every single day is not the same, that there's a difference between a Wednesday and a Sunday in your schedule. But I also know that as human beings, we are creatures of habit. And there's a very good chance that most of what you do on Wednesday mornings and most of what you do on Sunday evenings are very similar. And I want you to script out your morning and your evening routine. And then to complete this very important self audit, I want you to compare your two sets of notes. I wanna see, are you making time to do the things that you know you need to do in order to show up as your best self? If you do this honestly and with full humility, there's a very good chance you're gonna start to see some performance gaps. You're gonna immediately say, hey, when I do these things, I'm my best self, but I'm not making time to do these things as often as I should. And just by taking the things on the list that you know you're supposed to do and with great intention and purpose, start integrating those things into your morning and evening routine, you will start working towards being your best self. And that is absolutely the first step to skyrocketing your sales performance. The next relationship you need to focus on is your team. And your team is anyone that's wearing that Life Vantage logo. That's certainly the folks here at Life Vantage corporate. That's your fellow distributors and your business partners. And anybody on your internal team, if you have an admin assistant, but it's anybody that's on your team. And as a leader, and that's exactly how I want you to view yourself, as a leader, are you doing everything that you can to empower those on your team? See, if you wanna raise the ceiling, you need to help raise the floor. So we need to make sure that you are filling the buckets of everybody that's on your team. Do you go out of your way to make sure you're filling the bucket of a fellow distributor, of a business partner, of someone that's an admin assistant on your team? Are you doing everything you can to stay connected to corporate? If they are on the Life Vantage team, then as a leader, you need to make sure that they are a priority and you are pouring into them. And then the last relationship to skyrocket your sales is probably the most obvious. And that's gonna be your customers. That's gonna be prospects, so future and potential customers, but that's also gonna be your current customers and your preferred customers in VIPs. And there's a few things that I want you to think about when it comes to your relationship with your customers. Are you doing everything you can to show them that you value them as a human being first and as a customer second? Do they know that you care about them and their wellbeing more than you care about a sale? And when you're initiating these relationships and building and fostering this relationship with your customers, I wanna encourage you to not think of it as sales, but I want you to think of it as solving. So don't think sales thinks solving because ultimately what you're trying to do is solve their problems. See, they're not here just to buy products. No matter how great your products are, that's not why they're here. They're here because they have a problem that you and the Life Vantage product line can help solve. So when you're initiating this relationship, do less telling because that's not the key to selling. If what you're trying to do is initiate by going through the amazing features and benefits of the Life Vantage product line, that's gonna be short-lived at best. What's better for you to do is ask as many insightful questions as you can so you can really get a feel for what their needs are. And the more questions you ask, the more they'll come to the natural conclusion that the Life Vantage products is exactly what they need. See, you should never, ever have to convince a customer to buy anything from you. What you need to do is build a relationship and ask the right questions of the right people and they will come to that conclusion on their own. Jay Billis is a longtime friend and mentor and Jay was kind enough to write forward to my book, Raise Your Game. If you don't follow college basketball, just know that Jay is the face of ESPN College Game Day. Well, back in 2010, in early December, there was a tremendous amount of buzz around an early season game that was gonna pit Duke versus Butler. And the reason there was so much hype around this game was those were the two teams that met nine months previously in the national championship game, which Duke narrowly escaped with the win. And it's very rare in college basketball that the two teams that meet on the biggest stage meet each other in an early season game. So there was so much buzz around this game. Well, Jay, being a Duke alum, he went to watch Duke practice first. And Duke was led by Hall of Fame coach, coach K, the all-time winningest coach in the history of college basketball. And Jay sat in on their pre-game practice and coach K said, guys, we're going to be fine tomorrow against Butler if we stick to the script and stick to the game plan. We're going to be fine because we are bigger, stronger, and more powerful than they are. We're gonna pound the ball down low and get easy dunks and layups. We're gonna box out and out-rebound them and we're gonna contest every shot they take. If we stick to the script, we will be fine tomorrow because we clearly have the competitive advantage. Well, Jay left that practice and was thinking, this could be a bloodbath. Coach K, the best to ever blow a whistle and hold a clipboard, has clearly told his team why they have a competitive advantage. But Jay needed to do his due diligence, so he went over to watch the Butler Bulldogs practice. And at that time, Butler was led by Brad Stevens, who is the current coach of the NBA's Boston Celtics. And coach Stevens is one of the brightest basketball minds I have ever met. And coach Stevens was talking to his team and he says, guys, we're gonna be fine tomorrow against Duke because we clearly have the competitive advantage. We are smaller, quicker and faster than they are. We're gonna get a ton of points in transition. We can put on a full court smothering press and there is no way their big guys can get out to our corner shooters. If you all stick to the script, we will be fine tomorrow because we clearly have the competitive advantage. And Jay left that practice and was thinking, I got no idea who's gonna win this game. Both of these Hall of Fame caliber coaches had with great clarity the team awareness to know what gave them an advantage, what gave them an edge, what their keys to victory were. And I tell you that story for two reasons. One, I wanna make sure that you are always up to date with the Life Vantage product line. And you know what it is about each and every Life Vantage product that is different than everything else out there. What is it about your products that give you and give Life Vantage the competitive edge over all of the competition? But two, which is just as, if not more important, I want you to give a tremendous amount of thought on what makes you unique. What is it about you that gives you the advantage? You know, gives you that competitive edge because I can't say it enough. People are not just here to buy the Life Vantage products. They are also buying you. And whatever you figure out that makes you unique, I want you to double down on that. I want you to invest in that. I want you to lead with that. Because people are not just going to be loyal to the products, they're also going to be loyal to you. And with that said, I wanna make sure that we are looking at this from the same vantage point. That just because we are, as I said, we're looking through the products, I wanna make sure that you understand that you are definitely in the relationship business. So the more you can focus on these relationships, the better. I was very fortunate early in my career to be mentored by some high-level coaches. And they taught me three relationship mantras that are true in sport and they're true in business. These can make up the foundation of every single relationship in your life. And the first is, every single day when you wake up, you can't ever forget that being a leader and being a sales professional, your mindset needs to be, it's not about me, it's about you. It's not about me, it's about you. If you wanna skyrocket your sales, make sure you understand. It is not about you getting the sale that it's important. It's much more important to make sure that you are solving the issue for the other person. Now with that said, we have to learn how to speak the other person's language. When I was a child, you could put every single kid into one of two categories. There were kids that could swallow a Tylenol pill and there were kids that had to have a Tylenol pill smashed up an applesauce in order to take it. And full transparency, I was one of the applesauce kids to an embarrassingly old age. And the reason I share that with you is, I want you to think of that analogy every single time you're meeting with a prospective customer or a current customer. I want you to constantly think, how would this person take their Tylenol? Can they take it straight and direct? Or do I need to give it to them with a little bit of applesauce? And the reason this is important is, because it doesn't matter how you can take your Tylenol, all that matters is how they prefer to take their Tylenol. And as a leader and as a sales professional, when you can make sure that you are always delivering the Tylenol in a way that's best for the person you're speaking with, then you'll be able to create the connection required. The next mantra that I learned was you need to connect first and coach second. And the reason I have coach in italics is you can substitute the word coach for anything else that you want. Instead of coach, you can substitute the word sell. You need to connect first and sell second. You need to connect first and lead second. You need to connect first and advise second. But it's all about creating that connection. I mentioned it before and I'll mention it again. Every single customer that you have, they need to know absolutely unequivocally with great clarity that you care about them as a human being first and as a sale second. And how do we create that connection? Well, we go back to the first arrow and we make sure that they know that we're aware of the fact that it's not about us, it's about them. And the last mantra is simply be the type of teammate that you'd want to play with. But I want you to just think of this concept as a whole and think even bigger because this is not just about being a teammate. I want you to think about being in their shoes and the customer's shoes, which is by definition, empathy. And I want you to be the type of distributor that you'd want to buy from. And if you can do those three things to forge these relationships, you will see your sales skyrocket. Of all the basketball players I've had an opportunity to work with and meet, Steve Nash is by far my favorite. And back in the early 2000s, Steve Nash won back to back MVP titles. And the first year that he won the MVP, Steve Nash only led the league in two statistical categories. The first, as you may have guessed, was assists. He likes to share the sugar and pass the pill and get other people involved. He likes to set his teammates up for success, which is certainly the trait of a great leader and a great teammate. But the other statistic that Steve Nash led the NBA in were touches, high fives, fist bumps and pats on the backside. Well, how could I possibly know that Steve Nash led the NBA in high fives, fist bumps and pats on the backside? Well, it just so happens there was a research team from UC Berkeley. And they were conducting an official study to see if showing signs of enthusiasm actually led to more wins on the court. So they hired an entire team of researchers to count every single time a player gave a high five, a fist bump or a pat on the backside. Well, the Phoenix Suns, who Steve Nash played for the time, were so enamored with this study that they hired a full-time intern to count just for Steve Nash. And in the very first game that the intern counted, Steve Nash delivered 239 high fives, fist bumps and pats on the backside. He was a furnace of human connection. Now in sport where physicality is appropriate, it's been physiologically proven that you can transfer energy through physical touch. You can actually raise someone's game and improve someone's mood with a well-placed high five, fist bump or pat on the backside. Just to make sure I'm clear and most certainly both HR compliant and compliant with everything going on with COVID and this global pandemic. I'm not talking about giving physical touches right now. What I want you all to do is think about what would be the emotional equivalent of a high five, a fist bump or a pat on the backside. What are some things you can do for both your teammates and for your customers that will give them the same feeling as a high five, a fist bump or a pat on the backside? This is where technology can be a huge asset. This is where a well-placed direct message or text message or email or FaceTime call can give the same feeling as a high five, a fist bump or a pat on the backside. So with that said, here's a challenge for you. I want you to adopt a mindset called 10 assists and here's what you do. Every single morning when you wake up, I want you to put 10 rubber bands on your left wrist and every time you give an assist to a current customer or maybe a prospective customer and an assist is anything that you do that goes above and beyond what you're supposed to do, above and beyond what they're expecting you to do. And any time you give them an assist, you take one rubber band off of your left wrist and you put it on your right wrist. But here's the rub. You can't go to sleep at night until all 10 rubber bands are on your right wrist until you know for a fact that you've done nothing short of 10 tangible things to wow one of your customers. 10 tangible things to fill their bucket. 10 extra things that they were not expecting. And if you can make sure that you do that, every single day you'll see your sales continue to skyrocket. Back in the early 2000s, I was the performance coach at Montrose Christian which is a small high school right outside of Washington DC. And it was the dog days of I believe February or March and we were getting ready for a normal practice and I was down in the locker room and I got myself dressed and I walked up to our court and I opened the door to the gym and I was standing 10 feet away from my idol. I was standing 10 feet away from my hero. I was standing 10 feet away from the one person in the world that I wanted to meet more than anything. I opened the door and I was standing 10 feet away from coach K, the head basketball coach at Duke. And I don't wanna be over dramatic but he was glowing like he is in that picture right there. And I don't believe that I had the awareness back then that I'd like to believe that I have now because coach K and I talked for about 10 minutes and I don't remember a single word that either one of us said, but I'll never forget how he made me feel. Coach K made me feel like I was the most important person in that gym. I wasn't. The kid he was recruiting was the most important person but he made me feel like I was. He had great eye contact and kept a constant smile. He'd nod an acknowledgement when I'd say something. He had very open and warm body language. He made me feel like I was the most important person in that gym. I was raised very old school. I was raised that when somebody does something extra for you you should hand write them a thank you note. So I went home that night and I hand wrote coach K a thank you note. Dear coach K, you have no idea how much this meant to me to get a chance to meet you and talk to you today. Thank you so much for everything. Wishing you and Duke continued success. And I put a stamp on it and I sent it off to Durham, North Carolina. And I just figured that would be that. Well, three weeks later I go to my mailbox and coach K sent me a thank you note. Basically saying, no, thank you Alan for your time. I enjoyed speaking with you and learning from you and I'm wishing you the best. How long do you think it took him to write this handwritten note? Maybe 60 seconds even if he's slow. Can we agree that over the course of our entire life 60 seconds is a little thing. Well, this little thing made a big difference in my life. This little thing is the reason that every single day when I wake up I am relentless in returning voice mails, text messages, emails and as many social increases I can. Cause I figure if the greatest coach in the history of college basketball can make the time to return a handwritten note to me you better believe I can call you back. You better believe I can return your email. It's the same reason that I wake up every single day and want to have an attitude of gratitude. My goal every single day of my life is to tell as many people as possible I appreciate you because I figure if the best coach in the history of team sports can have that attitude of gratitude and can show me a sign of appreciation then I can do the same thing for others. So this little thing made a big difference and I don't want you to forget that. You have to realize that the little things you do every single day if you do them consistently they will add up and they'll have a big impact on your sales performance. Now I mentioned at the beginning of my presentation about a performance gap, the gap between what we know and what we do and our goal every single day of our lives should be to close that gap for ourselves but also exercise the leadership to help close that gap for our teammates and for our customers. This will lead to an obvious question of why would a group of high performers and I hope you guys know that as life vantage distributors you guys are the Kobe Bryant's of what you do. You guys are high performers and high achievers. So the question is why would a group of high achievers and high performers not do the things that they know they're supposed to do? Well it's because it's not easy guys. Doing what you know you're supposed to do every single day is not easy and more importantly it requires you to make a change and change is always going to be difficult. It's inevitable but it's going to be difficult and I want you to start having a better appreciation and mindset around change but first I need you to understand that there are two types of change. First is the change that is imposed on you. The best example I can think of is the global pandemic that we're experiencing right now. This type of change and it's changed the business landscape. It's changed the way you communicate with your customers. It's changed just about everything in your business but this was not a change that we were seeking. This is one that was imposed on us but the other type of change which I do want to make sure you pay attention to is the type of change that you initiate and I want you to start leaning into and seeking out change anywhere and everywhere that you can and these changes are also you'll be coming closer to becoming self-actualized but just for a moment let's talk about the imposed change because even when this pandemic is over I can promise you there'll be more imposed changes coming at you all of the time. Anytime change is forced upon you you need to have a winner's mindset. You need to wake up every single day of your life and simply say I'm gonna do the best I can with what I have where I am. I'm gonna do the best I can with what I have where I am. Whatever limitations are placed upon you because of this imposed change you're not gonna focus on that. You're gonna focus on doing the best you can with what you have where you are and when you do that you'll eliminate complaining, blaming and making excuses because those three things there will drain your bucket. Those three things will undermine your ability to skyrocket your sales performance. Now I use absolutes very sparingly but I can promise you you will never, ever improve your situation or make things better by complaining, blaming or making excuses. I mentioned working at Montrose Christian and when I was with Montrose Christian I had an opportunity to work with Kevin Durant and Kevin Durant taught me something about seeking out and going for an initiating change and this is something again I want you guys to be cognizant of every single day of your life. See I got to meet Kevin Durant when he was 15 years old and I watched him play basketball for just a couple of minutes and a few things became really obvious to me. One, this kid loves to play the game. He was playing as hard as he could but he was smiling the entire time. Two, he was very fundamentally sound. Kevin had perfect footwork and perfect shooting mechanics especially for someone of his age. Three, he had a very high basketball IQ. Even at 15 years old, Kevin understood the game of basketball on a cerebral level that would rival most coaches. But four, and this one was blatantly obvious to me, he was let's say slight of frame. Kevin used to get real irritated when I would call him skinny but he was certainly skinny. So it was obvious to me that the only thing that could hold this young man back from being an elite level player would be lack of strength and lack of power. Well as a basketball strength and conditioning coach and performance coach, this was music to my ears because I knew I had what Kevin needed. That I had the keys that could unlock what he needed to get to that next level. And it took a few months of convincing before his wonderful mom, Wanda, allowed him to come in for a workout. But when he did, I got so excited to work with this young man that I went a little bit overboard because within the first 30 minutes of that workout I absolutely hammered him. He was laying in a pile on the gym floor about 20 minutes into it. And I say pile, Kevin was almost seven feet tall and was 180 pounds at the time. So he was more coiled up like an old garden hose but he was laying on the floor and he was twitching and sweating profusely. Kevin's always been a young man of very few words. So he didn't say anything throughout the entire workout. So I had no idea whether or not he even liked it. So I just asked him and he looked up and as serious as can be. He said, no, I didn't. But I know this is what I need to do if I ever wanna play in the NBA. So when can I see you again, coach? I remember being blown away of the maturity of this 15 year old to lean into change and to understand that he was gonna have to make the personal sacrifice of being incredibly uncomfortable but he needed to make this change in order to get where he needed to go. And I want you to think about that that any time you make a change it is going to be a prerequisite to you becoming more self actualized. See the goal to you raising your sales performance is to raise yourself, is to become the best version of yourself. Those two things will go hand in hand. And never forget, if you keep doing what you've been doing you will keep getting whatever you've been getting. And if you don't like what you've been getting then you need to change what you've been doing. And in addition to leaning into change I wanna make sure you all understand that you have to choose to win. W-I-N, which stands for what's important now. This is the definition of mental toughness. No matter what's going on in your life no matter what's going on in the world I need you to learn how to get hyper focus on what's important right now. By definition this means you'll be living in the present moment. See everything that I've shared with you so far about mastering and paying attention to the basics especially during those unseen hours. About what you need to do to foster the three most important relationships. Those mantras that you need to live by. The ability to dish out ten assists every single day. All of these things can only be done to the best of your ability if you live in the present moment. And the short definition of living in the present moment is learning how to be where your feet are. Wherever your feet are you make sure that's where your head and your heart are as well. If you want to skyrocket your sales performance you need to learn to be in the present moment especially when you're with a customer. So let's unpack what it takes to live present. First and foremost you have to learn how to move to the next play. No matter what happens in life you need to be able to quickly refocus your lens and move to the next play. See when I'm working with elite level basketball players inevitably they're gonna turn the ball over they're gonna miss a shot or the referee's gonna miss a call. And I need them to quickly move to the next play. See the longer they dwell or pout or have poor body language about missing a shot about turning it over or about the referee's missed call the more time they spend in the past and not being in the present well they're undermining their ability to be as effective as they can be. So no matter what happens in your life no matter what happens with a customer maybe you have a technology issue during a Zoom call. Maybe for whatever reason a client a customer doesn't receive a shipment whatever it may be you need to refocus your lens on the next play. See in order for you to win the moment you have to be in the moment which means next play is vital. The next component of living present is learning how to focus on the controllables. There's only two things in this world you have 100% control over, 100% of the time. That's your own effort and your own attitude. If you want to skyrocket your sales performance you'll learn how to block out everything else and stay hyper vigilant on your own effort and your own attitude. When we look at effort I'm sure most of you would admit that giving a great effort is a choice and I would agree with you but then I also need you to acknowledge that if working hard is a choice well then not working hard that's also a choice and yet what happens when most people get held accountable to not giving their best effort they go back to that trilogy that I mentioned earlier. They blame, complain or make an excuse. Your effort is always a choice and if you want to be a high performer and skyrocket your sales you will choose to give your best effort as consistently as possible. Well the other half of that is going to be our attitude and this is how do we respond to all of the things that happen around us and all of the things that happen to us. See if you want to continue to be a high performer and continue to be a high achiever and grow your sales then you need to make sure that no matter what happens to you and no matter what happens around you you choose a response that will move you forward and improve your situation. And please know let me make this disclaimer every single thing that I've shared with you all thus far and everything I'll share with you in the next couple of minutes is very basic and principle but none of this stuff is easy. I don't want this to get lost because I know that I deliver all of this material in a very a matter of fact tone but please know that I know none of this stuff is easy. When things are really really challenging and adverse to choose a response and have an attitude that will allow you to move forward and make things better is really really difficult to do but you still need to do it. And the last component is you have to trust, respect and appreciate the process. See I know you all have outcomes that you desire but in order to get to those outcomes you have to build some micro steps and a process that will greatly increase your chance of reaching that desired goal. See once you have that North Star and I want you to have that North Star now it's a matter of what can I do today that will take me closer to that North Star? What can I do right now that will inch me closer to the goal I'm trying to reach? So we have to trust and respect and appreciate the process. Back in the summer of 2017 I had an opportunity to run an endurance event at the home of Jesse Yetzler and Sarah Blakely. Jesse is a incredible entrepreneur and ultra endurance athlete and a fellow speaker and author and Sarah Blakely is the owner and founder of Spanx and at the time she was the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world. And they invited 70 of us up to their home in New Fairfield, Connecticut and we had a task that day and as you can see from the backyard of their beautiful home and just to put this in perspective their backyard was 85 yards long almost the length of a football field and was at a 40 degree slope. Most gym treadmills, conventional gym treadmills only go up to 15% and if you've ever put them up to 15% to go for a walk you feel like you're gonna fall off the back of the earth. So this was an incredibly long and steep hill and our task for that day was to run up and down that hill a hundred times. The event was appropriately called hell on the hill and that it was. When I got to about rep 70 I was fried. I was done. I was ready to quit. I could feel blisters forming under my big toes. My knees and my back were throbbing and I apologize for this uncomfortable visual but I had some chafing going on that was absolutely out of this world. I was miserable and I didn't think I could keep going but I'm very thankful that I had a good friend that was doing the event as well. His name is Steve Wojachowski and he is a Duke basketball legend and he's the current coach at Marquette. And Steve was about on the same pace that I was and I guess just to commiserate in misery I asked him how many reps he had left and he smiled, which certainly irritated me and he said, I've got one rep, one rep. There is no way that you've only got then he finished his sentence. I've got one rep 30 more times. That's the definition of living present. That's the definition of being where your feet are. That's the definition of choosing to win. So you don't worry about rep number 100. All you worry about is getting up and down that hill one more time. You don't focus on your toes and your blisters and your knees and your back and your chafing situation. You focus on your own attitude and your own effort. And although math was never my strongest subject even I know that you cannot get to rep number 100 unless you go through rep 71. And his reminder to me to live in the present moment is what allowed me to finish. It took me just over four hours to complete all 100 reps. When I started my presentation about 40 minutes ago I told you guys about the Kobe Bryant Skills Academy. What I didn't tell you was there was a college counselor there and this young man did not have the physical stature or the resume of all of the other college counselors but there was something about this kid that was different and it was palpable. The most impressive was at the end of the first workout and understand that we did two workouts per day for four straight days and these were long, strenuous, challenging, tough workouts. And at the end of the very first workout just based on proximity, we had never been formally introduced. He tapped me on the shoulder and he said, coach, will you rebound for me? Cause I don't leave the gym until I swish five Fritos in a row. Swish five Fritos in a row. For any of you that have never shot a basketball yourself please know that is an incredibly high standard. A swish by definition is the perfect shot. It doesn't touch the rim, it doesn't touch the backboard, it gets its name from the sound it makes by going nothing but net. And this young man was not gonna leave the gym until he swished five in a row. Which means he could swish four in a row, hit a little bit of the rim on the fifth one, it'd still go in, he's still five for five, he's still mathematically perfect but that wouldn't be good enough for him, he would start over. And if memory serves, it never took him longer than 12 to 15 minutes to swish five in a row. That young man was Stephen Curry. And Stephen Curry will go down in history as the greatest shooter that the NBA has ever seen. And it's not by luck and it's not by accident and it's not even because his dad played in the NBA. It's because he's willing to hold himself to unparalleled standards. He's willing to have an unparalleled mindset. He's willing to have unparalleled habits. And that's the thought that I want to leave you all with right now. I want you to ask yourself this very, very important question. Are the habits you have today on par for the dreams you have for tomorrow? And if you can close that gap and make sure there is alignment between the two, you will see your sales performance skyrocket. With that, I will take a virtual bow. Hopefully you can see my contact information. If there's ever anything that I can do for any of you, please don't hesitate to reach out. It would be my honor. And I want to thank each and every one of you for your attention in the present moment. Thank you.