Consistently Investing In Yourself Will Net You Greater Success

As we finish out 2023, yes it has gone by that fast!  I wanted to send a special post about investing in ourselves if we want to have future success.

Investing in ourselves is a crucial aspect for our success. Just as stagnant water becomes foul and unpleasant, when we stop investing in our development, we limit ourselves for future success. We will explore the importance of consistent self-investment and how it propels us forward. We'll draw an analogy between investing and filling up a body of water, highlighting the necessity for movement and growth. Additionally, we'll discuss how budgeting serves as a financial tool to prepare and prioritize our self-investment endeavors.

Investing as Filling up a Body of Water: Imagine a pond without any movement or fresh water source. Over time, it becomes stagnant, emits an unpleasant odor, and loses its vitality. Similarly, when we neglect our personal growth and fail to invest in ourselves, we risk becoming stagnant in our skills, knowledge, and ambitions. Consistent self-investment ensures that we continue to grow, learn, and adapt in a rapidly evolving world. Just as a flowing river keeps a body of water fresh and vibrant, investing in ourselves fuels continuous growth and success.

Consistency is key when it comes to self-investment. Just as a single drop of water cannot fill a pond, sporadic or infrequent investments in ourselves will not yield significant results. Consistency allows us to build momentum and compound our efforts over time. It is through consistent actions, whether it's dedicating regular time for learning, seeking new experiences, or honing our skills, that we achieve sustainable growth. By making self-investment a regular habit, we create a foundation for continuous improvement, unlocking new opportunities for success.

Areas of Self-Investment: Self-investment encompasses a wide range of areas, tailored to our individual goals and aspirations. Some common areas to consider include:

• Education and Learning: Invest in acquiring new knowledge, skills, and qualifications that align with your interests and career goals.

• Personal Development: Engage in activities that enhance your emotional intelligence, leadership abilities, and personal effectiveness.

• Health and Well-being: Prioritize your physical and mental well-being by investing time and resources in exercise, nutrition, and self-care practices.

• Networking and Relationships: Cultivate meaningful connections with like-minded individuals, mentors, and industry experts who can support and inspire your growth.

• Personal Finance: Develop financial literacy and invest in sound financial planning to secure your future and create opportunities for wealth accumulation.

Budgeting plays a crucial role in our ability to allocate resources wisely and prioritize our investments. By establishing a budget, we gain clarity on our financial situation and identify areas where we can trim unnecessary expenses. A well-thought-out budget allows us to allocate funds for personal development activities such as training programs, courses, conferences, books, or coaching. It provides a framework for financial discipline and enables us to make deliberate choices that support our growth journey.

Consistently investing in ourselves is a fundamental pillar of personal and professional growth. Just as stagnant water loses its vitality, when we neglect our development, we limit our potential for success. By embracing self-investment as a continuous process, budgeting wisely, and prioritizing growth in various areas of our lives, we set ourselves on a path towards lifelong learning, fulfillment, and achievement. Remember, like a flowing river that keeps a body of water fresh, consistent self-investment fuels our growth journey, leading us to new horizons of success.

Take time before the start of 2024 to find an area where you would like to grow yourself so that the future self will thank you.

Happy New Year and we will see you back in 2024!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with the best customers and top employees.    How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  How can we land and keep top talent in our organization with the salary wars.  Kevin teaches your sales and leadership teams how to build the key ingredient to be successful with their relationships and take your goals to the next level with high levels of engagement.

Kevin’s website: www.kevinsidebottom.com

Kevin’s email: kevin@kevinsidebottom.com

The Sales Process Online Membership Site 

https://www.kevinsidebottom.com/pricing-page

The Sales Process Uncovered Book 

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8XUM4QL2RC6M&keywords=the+sales+process+uncovered&qid=1673274567&sprefix=the+sales+process+uncovered%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-1

Why You Need The Three F's

When I am on stage speaking, I bring the audience in to where I began in sales.  I was working for a 6-foot 5-inch ex-Navy Seal.  He was a successful driven business leader.  He was intense and was always moving forward.  He also flipped my thought process upside down.

Growing up in my blue-collar family it was always pressed to do my best and do it perfect.  I am also a “one” on the Enneagram so I naturally trying to make things better and as close to perfect as possible.  I was devastated when I got into college and my best would however only generate B’s and C’s.  Highschool was easy to obtain A’s, but college was a whole different ball game.

I was failing to get A’s and I was pissed off and angry throughout college.  I graduated with an electrical engineering degree and had a great job right out of college, but I always looked back that I was not perfect in college.  It left a feeling that I was not good enough back then.

In reality no one is totally perfect.  We all have flaws.  No one can do everything perfect the first time either.  What we do is Fail Forward Fast.  Fail Forward Fast is a phrase that navy seal operators use quite often in training.

Navy seals as I was taught by my mentor are okay with set-backs.  Fail Forward Fast works like this.  Apply action -> review -> apply action for a constant loop for improvement of whatever the situation is.  Failure is not about making a mistake; failure is giving up. 

It’s okay to have a set back and learn from it so that when you are attacking the same activity the next time you move through it more efficiently.  The cool part is that the action does not have to be a massive game changer.  It is small incremental adjustments as you go through the loop.  

Another benefit from this small action is that doubt is eliminated through action.  Figuring out the next small step will keep doubt from tackling us from behind and stopping us from moving forward in our process.  How awesome is that!  A small step of action puts doubt on its butt and allows us to move forward.

Do you remember riding a bike without training wheels for the first time?  Most of us as children would fall, get back on the bike and moved a little farther, fall again, get back on the bike and moved farther and farther each time until we were riding the bike without assistance from anyone.  It took a progression and learning how to balance while pedaling and occasionally stopping before running into something.  It is rare for someone to just jump on a bike for the first time and get it perfect. 

I love the Fail Forward Fast because when I am working on a project and the “Have to be perfect” phase pops in my head, and I am able to remind myself that it is okay.  Sometimes I also find out that the desired outcome that I had was not the one I needed to be shooting for.  I am able to pivot towards the better desired outcome instead of coming to the end of the experience and learning that I am nowhere near where I truly need to be.

Fail Forward Fast is essential in all growth and I have applied it to my life so that I can keep going when tough times happen.  Sometimes we just need to focus on one small step at a time to keep moving forward instead of looking at the long path that is ahead of us. 

I hope this blog is helpful to you.  If it is, please leave a comment below of how this or another blog post has helped you!

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Fit people Are Very Productive

I have met with a great deal of very successful people in my life.  Those that are success business professionals, owners, pastors, non-profit leaders, and heads of their family.  One thing that is common with all of these successful people is that they take time to invest in their fitness lifestyle.

By being disciplined with fitness and taking care of their bodies, people are fueling themselves.  I know this sounds counter intuitive as working out and fitness is expelling energy, but things happen when we work out.  Our brains release chemicals that help our moods, mental capacity, and reduces the effects of stress. A study out of BYU helps us understand the benefits of fitness.

I have been working out disciplined for well over a decade.  Now I don’t have the 6 or 8 pack abs that trainers show off on their Instagram, but I do have a greater mobility and strength than I did when I was younger.  I am in better shape now than I was in high school and college.  I have been disciplined on my working out and stretching.  

What has happened is that I have been able to be more focused on other things, have more endurance when tough times happen, be more resilient, manage stress better, and by more disciplined in other areas of my life as a by-product.  

One of my mentors when I was getting into sales who was a successful business man and ex-navy seal always made time for fitness.  He worked about 90 hours a week on his business, but still found time to fitness.  He had hobbies, but was very disciplined on his fitness.  As a result, he was able to make clearer decisions and take risks that he was able to analyze better with more focus.  

In downtimes of our economy, he was able to take advantage and grow his business.  He was disciplined in the fitness area that also allowed him to make more mental decisions without the doubt that comes along with the stress.  

We need to make sure that we are disciplined in our fitness if we want to excel in our lives.  Without being disciplined in this area, we will have a harder time being disciplined in other areas of our life.  I know that some people will say that they just don’t have time to set aside for fitness, but if we read that article referenced at the beginning of this post, you’ll see that we don’t have time not do focus on fitness.  One quote that I am always reminded is the one below from Tony Horton, “The joy of discipline, or the pain of regret, which will it be today?”

Focus on fitness and let that bleed over into other areas of our lives and we will see ourselves improve, have better stress management, longevity, and have great levels of mental capacity.  

Keep in mind that fitness does not mean running a marathon, or doing an ironman, it is getting physically moving and strengthening in small increments over time.  It’s not great leaps, but small steps over and over that will achieve the greatest results.  

Maybe its taking a walk outside, or picking a fitness program that has been put on the back burner, or maybe it’s just paying with kids more so you can get started.  Either way start today and finish stronger! 

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

How Are You Managing Your B-Word?

I have posted multiple blog posts and Youtube videos on the B-Word.  That word that people often think about as a curse word, but one that used properly will help you succeed.  Yes, I’m talking about budgets.

Using the B-word sounds like it is taboo and most people don’t talk about it much.  The issue is because people don’t like talking about how much money they have.  They don’t want to risk others looking poorly on them because they make more or less than the others around them.

People do however like to talk about their cars, extravagant vacations, large homes / kitchen renovations, and other stuff.  They like posting to social media about all their stuff and experiences, but not how they are paying for it.  Budgets have become a taboo word just like talking about paying with cash.  People talk about cars and reference their monthly payment instead of the total cost.

I used to do this too to impress all the people that I didn’t like just to show my status.  What I found out though is that the really wealthy people actually use fundamental financial terms when they talk about doing things.  What is the budget for doing thing?

The really wealthy don’t even reference the financial part of budgets.  They refer to the time investment for this new venture.  The really wealthy actually talk about time as a part of their investment criteria.  Time is one of those things that no matter how much money we have, we can not add, or multiply time.  We can not add more time.  We can minimize the time required for a venture, but not buy more time.

We should be using budget into our vocabulary if we want to get to a better quality of life.  Whether it is a time commitment, financial investment, or energy commitment, we need to make sure we are budgeting for all aspects.  This will help us understand if the cost is worth the investment. 

I recently detailed my wife’s and son’s vehicles.  Total investment on a nice warm Saturday was about four hours.  Their vehicles are smaller than my truck and are easier for me to do.  I decided that I would work on their vehicles because combined it would cost me about $250 for five hours of my time to do both.  The cheapest detailer I could find would cost that much for one vehicle.  

The investment of my time was good and my son actually helped so it was a teaching moment.  For my truck that would take me at least four hours to do, I am going to pay to have that done.  The reason being is it will be able to be done while I work and the trusted individual doing the work will do an amazing job for me.  

I grew up with not a great deal of money so I value being able to do things with my own hands, but as I have gotten older and make more money I am realizing that by outsourcing some things it will free me up to do more meaningful tasks that will provide me a better return on investment. 

I will be allowed more quality time with my wife and kids by having someone else do some of the work as well as possibly skipping the potential for a harmful accident.  Another example is cutting down a large evergreen tree in my back yard.  I have the tools to do this, but paying someone to drop the tree that is in a tight spot will likely cost me a great deal less than dropping the tree on the neighbor’s fence, sending me to the emergency room, etc.  I would gladly pay someone the few hundred dollars to avoid a ride in an ambulance and potential to damage property.

Just because we can do something, does not mean we are less of a man or woman because we chose to let others perform the work.  By using budgets to figure out the payoff and decisions we will be able to make the most impact with our resources.  

We need to use budgets in our vocabulary in order to get to a better place.  

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

How Good Is Your Why When Goal Planning?

Ever wonder why 80% of new years resolutions fail?  Ever wonder why your team just doesn’t seem to hit goals?  Why do most people not even set goals?

The main reason is that growth whether it be personal, professional, or physical is painful.  Growth is not easily achieved which is why there are so few people achieving the next level results. 

I recently took my son to the orthodontist to start his journey for a better smile while getting braces installed on his teeth.  He asked me what it was like since I had them twice.  Yes, it typically takes me double to achieve results than most people 😊  I told him that the initial process is not very hard as they apply the torture devices to your teeth, but that he should expect to have a 6 out of 10 on the pain scale for his teeth for the following few days.

His response was that he was okay just not getting braces.  He didn’t care that it would improve his smile, or fix some issues in his mouth that would help him.  He just wanted to avoid pain and discomfort.  It dawned on me in that moment that I am not alone.  I don’t always want to do the hard things because it will cause me discomfort. 

Most individuals will avoid pain at all costs to live an comfortable lifestyle.  What I’ve learned is that nothing worthy is every easy.  There is some level of pain and risk associated with any worthy venture. 

If we want to grow financially for most cases, we need to gain education, work hard, and budget.  None of this seems fun or comfortable either.  My mother always said, “ nothing ventured, nothing gained.”  I added to that that no pain, no gain.  Okay I may have borrowed that from some weight lifter somewhere. 

If we want to grow, we need to put in effort and accept levels of discomfort / pain.  When we want to gain muscle, we are actually ripping apart muscle strands during weight lifting exercises that repair themselves when we are sleeping that increases their size.  The same is true with anything we want to grow in.

We must accept that we will have some levels of pain to grow ourselves in whatever venture we take on.  We need to review our why and figure out the cost of achieving that why.  If the why is not greater than the costs, then we will have no chance at success. 

We should be adding to the process of goal setting what our why is next to each of our goals to decide if this is a good goal or not.  Otherwise, we are just hoping that we will make it and likely will fail to hit that goal. 

Over the pandemic I had to review quite a few things I wanted to do with my business and had to go through quite a few pain points when I created all my videos, online trainings, marketing ideas, and personal decisions like losing weight.

Each and every one of these things required me to sit down and figure out my why.  If I had a great why I have achieved my goal, but if my why was small or something superficial, I did not achieve that goal.

If you have a goal for yourself, it is a great step to review your why before setting out the goal.  Yes, we need to make goals that are easy to understand and measurable, but we also need to make sure we factor in the pain level we will have to endure to make these goals possible before we set out.  We risk a higher levels failure when things get tough if we have not done this planning.

As we are heading into the fourth quarter of 2021 lets start reviewing our goals that we created for the year and understand why we failed at some and why we succeeded at others.  The why will be a great area of focus. 

If you’re curious I did lose quite a bit of weight during 2021 by dieting which was very painful, but worth it!

If you have any questions, or would like to discuss this topic more, feel free to reach out, I’d be glad to have that conversation.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com