Outbound Sales Lift

#79: Listen as Joe Sponcia, lifelong sales professional turned entrepreneur, discusses the differences between selling for someone else and selling for yourself. He examines what it takes to be an entrepreneur, how a career in sales set him up as a business owner, and what matters most in both situations.

Show Notes

Click here for full episode show notes, transcript, links, and more!


Don’t feel like listening? Read the Episode Cliff Notes instead below:

Having A Plan (0:22)

A lot of stress comes with entrepreneurship, but being in sales and leading territories teaches you many things about becoming an entrepreneur and how you could eventually start your own business. Sales is a great place to start.

Writing out a business plan teaches you if the business is viable and to put it all on red and risk everything and do. It’s always good to have a plan. 

It’s hard when you have dreams in your head, but you can see them on paper when you take the time to write them down. Then you write a plan, and then you go, “oh crap. I’m actually going to have to do this.”

There’s a lot of pressure there, and that’s not taught in schools.

Crossover to Sales (6:14)

Salespeople, in general, are the most risk-tolerant in a company, which comes in handy when opening your own business. It’s an individual decision. 

If you’re this great hunter that can always open new accounts, what’s a blessing becomes a curse. 

Many folks think you’re only as good as your last quarter and sales. So you always have to be a student of your craft, but you also have always to watch your back because the pressure gets high as you succeed. 

You always need to be talking to people. You always need to have mentors. You always need to be in front of people and their advice. 

Everyone needs to be well-educated on money.

Salespeople have a lot of guts to plan their day. They have to be disciplined with their schedule and time, and they have to fit everything in between many sales jobs. They also have to have customer service components.

The anxiety of Sales and Business Ownership (14:28)

Owning a business gives you flexibility and control that you otherwise wouldn’t have in sales, but things happen in life. You’ll get fired, you’ll get territorial realignments, etc., so control is an illusion.

Anybody can do entrepreneurship. 

Always have those conversations, always investigate, and look at businesses. Understand how they’re run, how financing works, how profit and loss works, and all the business components because it will help you be a better salesperson.

You can’t run off your natural ability all the time; you have to hone your skills. And if you want to start your own thing, it’s certainly a path to do that. 

Joe’s Bio:

Joe Sponcia comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience from a varied background including, Sales, Sales Leadership, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship.

He has worked in small, family owned companies as well as large, corporate entities, and has packed all of his experience into the three companies he now co-founded: Holston Logistics, Sunshine Transit Group, and Mobile Wrench Works.

His goal is to help people who want to make the leap into being a business owner, not so daunting.

Important Links:

Joe Sponcia’s LinkedIn Profile

What is Outbound Sales Lift?

Explore the human side of sales and business with host Tyler Lindley. Leaders in their field share a dose of inspiration through stories about life and business. Sales professionals provide tactical tips you can put into practice today. It all comes together to help you chart your path forward.

Achieve your goals on your terms — get inspired by stories from extraordinary people, elevate your performance with the latest outbound tactics, and find the lift you need to take your career to the next level.

The Sales Lift Podcast
Episode #79
Building a Better Life with Sales w/ Joe Sponcia
Hosted by: Tyler Lindley

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[00:00:00] Tyler Lindley: Hey Sales Lift Nation, it's your host, Tyler Lindley. Today I have Joe Sponcia on the podcast. Hey Joe, how's it going? Hey, did I get the last name, right? We didn't even talk about that. Did I pronounce that correctly? Pretty

[00:00:15] Joe Sponcia: close with.

[00:00:16] Tyler Lindley: Sponcia okay, perfect. Joe is the CEO and founder of actually three different businesses.

Holston Logistics, Mobile Wrench Works and Sunshine Transit Group. And Joe has been a lifelong sales rep now turn entrepreneur. And that's exactly what we're gonna talk about on today's show the differences between selling for someone else. And I guess, selling for yourself selling when you're actually a business owner, an entrepreneur.

It's something that you and I both have in common, we both sold, we both been entrepreneurs. There's a big difference between the two Joe. And I'm curious to hear that evolution that you had and you started out selling and now you've evolved into business ownership. What was that journey like for you?

How did you make that trend? That's

[00:00:55] Joe Sponcia: a very broad question. I'll try to hit the high points of it. When I went to college, frankly didn't know what I wanted to do. And I think that's the case with a lot of folks. They change majors multiple times. I changed two or three times. I remember my father-in-law said.

You can make the most money with the least education, because I was a physical therapy major before that. And I looked at all the schooling I had to do. And I just said, man, this is not for me. I was a C student in high school, C student in college. Not because I was dumb, but because I worked all the time, I worked 40 hours a week, typically during college and 60 hours a week in the summers to pay for my school.

So I didn't leave a lot of time to study, but I knew I had to get that piece of paper to get out. But that was really an impetus for me getting in the sales and exactly what my father-in-law told me back then come true. It was, and still is the most entrepreneurial position in any company from a place where you can pretty much write your own ticket, you're determined and have that desire.

Also lot of stress that comes with it, but being in sales and leading territories, leading people over time. It teaches you so many things about becoming an entrepreneur and how eventually you could start your own business. I think if you're a 5% leaning that way at all, as a personality type, I think sales is a great place to start.

[00:02:10] Tyler Lindley: I totally agree. It sounds like you were thinking about entrepreneurship a lot throughout your sales career. How long were you actually doing sales? And then at what point did you make that pivot and how did you know when you were ready or did you know you were.

[00:02:22] Joe Sponcia: I didn't know, I've written 13 business plans most for 60 to 80 pages, long, very detailed.

And the 14 to one was the shortest one I've ever written. And that it's the businesses that my business partner and I have now. And it just made sense. Everything else, actually writing out a business plan teaches you if the business is viable and if you want to put it all on red and risk everything and do.

And it's always been in me. I think my root, my first one at 23 years old, right out of college. And over time I've looked at business. I always look at businesses, but these were something that I thought, man, this is something that I could do. The promise sales though, is it's a good problem. And I guess a tough problem to deal with is typically we make pretty good.

We have to deal with a lot of stress, but if you're making good money, you're not working 60 hours a week and the working environment is pretty good. You go, why would I ever get off this train? The problem is though things change. You get territory realignment, you get giant quotas, you get a new boss.

I've been through mergers acquisitions the whole bit and things change over time. So if I could ride the train out when I was 24 and 32, and some of the jobs I've had and the way they structured. Maybe we wouldn't be on this video call now, but the fact is things do change and companies change over time.

It's always good to have a plan.

[00:03:41] Tyler Lindley: We were talking about that before we started recording. You mentioned having the end in mind where you think about where do you want your life to be when you're 50, 67 years old and you're maybe near retirement or just near the end of your. Do you think a lot of sales reps or entrepreneurs, anybody that we're talking about for that matter?

Do you think a lot of folks go through that? I know you said a lot of people reach out to you for help planning and goal setting and those kinds of things. Do people have the end in mind when they think about their sales career or their entrepreneurship career, whatever. I

[00:04:09] Joe Sponcia: will say the vast majority.

Don't think that far ahead. It's frankly, depressing to think that far ahead for some folks. And I've taught goal setting for gosh, over 25 years. And I think the great majority of folks have a really hard time, even with the methodology that I've taught with actually sitting down right. Things down and embracing.

It's really hard when you have dreams in your head, those are okay. When you actually take the time to write them down, you see them on paper, then you write a plan and then you go, oh crap. I'm actually going to have to do this. There's a lot of pressure. And that's something that. Frankly, it's not taught in schools.

Most parents don't teach that to their children, but something that I was fortunate to learn early in my lives through Tony Robbins of the world. And with his book, unlimited power Ziglar talked about that in the early nineties, Tom Hopkins, Stephen Covey, all those folks had sections in books or tapes.

At the time I used to ride around the car with tapes and they would go through goal-setting and that always. Stuck with me. So to come full circle, we talked a little bit early before he started recording the number one thing I get with folks as far as advice goes is how do I transition from becoming a sales rep to owning my own business?

What does that look like? And the very first question I always ask them is. Where are you now? Where do you want to be? And what does 65 look like for you? And pretend you lived another 15 years after that. What does the 80 look like? And most people, frankly, they're ill prepared for it. That's the process that I want to help them work through so they can make sure, Hey, if I worked for a company, this is what it looks like.

Here's what I need to save. If I want to do my own thing, how do I do it? And how do I translate?

[00:05:48] Tyler Lindley: Yeah, my mind. I'm thinking I'm ill prepared for that. So maybe I need to have some of those conversations with myself or with you as well. We're talking about sales reps and maybe making this transition to business ownership.

Is that a seamless transition? If you're in sales and you have a territory are doing well as an individual contributor or sales manager, do you have the right skillset or mentality needed to be a business owner as well? Do you see that as a path that a lot of sales reps should take or is that dependent on the person?

And

[00:06:14] Joe Sponcia: I think it's risk tolerance and let's just broadly say, I think salespeople in general are the most risk tolerant in a company. So the ones that I've met in my lifetime have come out of the sales ranks overwhelmingly they may have climbed up to director or vice president, chief revenue officer, but overwhelmingly those people are the ones that I see that do.

It's really an individual decision. And with folks and I relayed stories, at least on LinkedIn all the time, I grew up very poor. My parents were 16 and 17 when they had me and a good athlete in school, I did more than to play golf until I was 20 years old, hung out my college baseball spikes. And I remember meeting people and they said he really needed to learn to play golf.

And I was like, no, it's a rich guy's for. What people that can't play basketball, football, and baseball, it's what they do. So it's not really athletic. But through that, I met so many great people. And out of all the meetings, I eventually joined a country club. Again, something I never would've dreamed of, but in those conversations led me lately to repost some of those things that was a lot around, Hey, who's the most happy at the club who's beside you?

That, how did they do that? And the number one thing that I kept hearing it. You're good at what you do, you believe in yourself, you put out good results. Eventually you're just going to have to put it all on red and you're just going to have to do it. I don't know when it's going to be, but that's what everybody does.

[00:07:36] Tyler Lindley: Gotcha. We talked a little bit about it. You can make great money in sales, a lot of sales reps, like you mentioned, they have that risk tolerance. It is can be a stressful and anxious environment to work in. However, if you can manage that, you can make a great living. Do people want to transition from being a sales?

To a business owner. And you think of mainly a financial decision or is it more about control? Why do you think people even want to make that transition? Because you can do great in sales. Why even try to make that. For

[00:08:03] Joe Sponcia: me personally, it's freedom. It's freedom to start my work at five o'clock in the morning.

If I want to it's freedom to go to the gym at 11 o'clock in the morning. If I want to, it's free to work at six to nine o'clock because my operation, our operation runs 24 7 all the time. We are always shipping something so I could work anytime I want. I can also not work whenever I want as an option. I think as it relates to sales, I'm 49 years.

I have worked straight commission have worked with very low salary with high commission. I've had my pay plan change seven to nine times over a 25 year career. I've had mergers. I've had acquisitions. I've had buyouts, I've been quoted. Everybody has quotas. I've had giant leaps and quotas. I've had territory splits.

I've had all kinds of things over the years. The thing about sales, and if you've done it for 10 years, your journey is going to be like mine. It looks like a mountain range because as soon as you do great, there goes your quota or, you know what? We've got someone else that's going to come behind you and take all the land that you've plowed and we're going to give them that.

And you're this great hunter that can always open new accounts and what's a blessing, becomes a curse. A lot of folks, I think you're only as good as your last quarter and sales sometimes. It's like sports. If a Scottie Pippin back in the nineties suddenly had a bad season, will they'd trade up. They do this with players all the time in sports leagues, and they do it with sales folks too.

So you always have to be a student of your craft, but you also have to always watch your back because as you succeed, the pressure gets high. And eventually you'll either go with the flow and continue to arise, or there'll be frustrating, especially with new bosses pay plan changes. There's just a million things that can happen.

And I've been through every

[00:09:48] Tyler Lindley: one of them. You mentioned earlier thinking about having that plan B because of all the volatility, should everyone in sales have a plan? Should they be thinking about either other sales opportunities that they might need to transition to or transitioning to owning a business themselves.

You definitely were with 13 business plans before you actually started your own business. Was that healthy for you to have those thoughts and thinking about those things or was that distracting from your sales? It's a great

[00:10:14] Joe Sponcia: question. It was not distracting for me when I was 18, 19 years old, I read Tony Robbins, unlimited power.

And the very first chapter in the book, he talks about finding people that are already getting the results that you want and copy their playbook. And it gives examples of multiple people in multiple industries that have done that. And when I was 21, 22 years old, and my hometown, I grew up in a small town and I had friends who had successful parents.

Yeah. Were presidents of banks, vice-presidents of big manufacturing plants. And I would call them and have lunch with them as a kid and offer to buy their lunch. And naturally they never made me pay, but that habit that I stumbled upon because of Tony Robbins' book led to all the conversations that were all over.

You always need to be talking to people. You always need to have mentors. You always need to be in front of people. And their advice was always, Hey, if you're asking questions, you're asking down the road, these are things you need to keep in front of you. So business for me coming a business owner has always been in the back of my mind.

But again, And when you're 32 years old and you make $185,000 a year and the early two thousands, it's great money. It's very money today. And you work 30, 30, 2 hours a week. You take off half a day on Friday to meet your friends for golden tea. And around the golf life is good until it's not good until all the things that I mentioned happened.

And so I think everyone needs to be well-educated on money. And I think everyone at 25 and 35 and 46. It needs to do the math needs to do the math on what 65 looks like and what 80 looks like. And that will give you begin with the end of mine. That will give you the, oh my goodness. I'm behind. Or am I goodness, I'm on track and this is cool.

Yeah,

[00:11:56] Tyler Lindley: exactly. You mentioned books a few times, Joe. It sounds like books played a key role in your life and your development as a sales professional, as a business owner. Talk to me a little bit about what do you read? Why do you read what role of books played in your.

[00:12:10] Joe Sponcia: I probably can't stress enough how important reading has been in my life.

But I would say without a doubt between probably 20 and now I'll read between 10 and 15 books a year. I always have a massively introverted. So I enjoy reading books anyway, but most of my books are self-help and psychology, but. In the early days though, we had cassettes and the cassettes were Tony Robbins.

They were Ziegler. They were Tom Hopkins. They were Steven cubby, Wayne Dyer, Brian, Tracy, all those folks. When I was in the car, I was always learning when I was at home. If I had 30 minutes, I would discipline myself to read for 30 minutes because there's all kinds of ideas out there. And I was frustrated because college, when I went, they only taught me how to work for other people.

They didn't really tell me how to do what I'm doing now. And so all those business. Books business leaders always talked about owning your own business and profit and loss and what it would be like. So again, those books were a lifeline to someone that was poorly educated and basically raised by children and my parents being so young.

You

[00:13:13] Tyler Lindley: mentioned college taught you how to work for other people. It sounds like a lot of the things that you learned. Throughout the year sales career has now positively impacted the businesses that you own these days. What skills do you think from your sales background really help you now as a business?

As simple

[00:13:32] Joe Sponcia: as it is, I think salespeople have a lot of guts that have to plan their day. I'm not saying people that are accountants or folks that are in customer service, they don't plan their days. I remember at an early age and I still do it today. I start my day off with a piece of paper. I write what I've got to do, and I crossed it off.

And as caveman as it is, you get in the habit of that. You make a big list and it's got 20 items. If I cross off half the other half goes to the next day, if it stays for a week, then it's not. Those habits are something you have to have in sales. You have to be disciplined with your schedule with your time, and you have to fit everything in between a lot of sales jobs, frankly have customer service components.

They have prospecting in between. So it's not all, uh, meeting people and having a shrimp cocktail at lunch and having a round of golf and impress and flesh all day. A lot of it is auto rejection, as we all know, but I think those habits, those things translate really well. Again, back to businesses.

[00:14:27] Tyler Lindley: Yep.

That makes a lot of sense. You and I have talked a little bit about some of the downsides of sales, or I guess in, it would probably impact business owners as well. It can be stressful. We've talked about that a few times, the mountains and the changes and the risk tolerance, the anxiety sales is a hard career as owning your own business is also difficult as well.

Sometimes between the years, I'm talking about the mental aspect of being in sales, running your own show. How have you tried to remain balanced over the. I

[00:14:53] Joe Sponcia: think you can wear yourself out. You can sell for 60, 70 hours a week. If you want to, what joy does it bring you at the end of the day? Money is a way to keep score money as a way to sometimes feed your ego.

For me, money was always about freedom. It's the things that I could do with money. So it was never. To become wealthy and sales. Michael was sales was I've been remote, really OJI remote since the mid nineties I've barely worked in office the entire time. Part of it was by luck. And part of it was by the first two companies I worked for.

They didn't have an office that I could go to. So I had to learn at an early age how to do this and my thing, because I didn't grow up super close to my parents. When I met my wife in high school and college, our goal was maximum time with. And one story. I remember I'll share with you a quick one. I went down to Orlando to a conference.

It was in the late nineties, I recall, or maybe 2000. And I was in my twenties at the time. And there was a topic that was basically young. People are lazy and they don't have the same work ethic and phones were just starting to come out. And it was like this old school lunch pail, 60, 65 year old callous.

Business owners are like, these kids are lazy and we hear the same thing today. It's always been the case. These kids don't have the work ethic. And I remember it was basically the topic was bridging the generational divide and the old guys started off with complaints. And I remember to this day, there's a young kid that impacted me to this day.

He got very teary eyed and he said, you know what? You're exactly like my dad. All you cared about was money and cars and a big house. And the only thing I wanted to do when I was a kid was having my dad play catch with me in the yard and he was never there to do that. And you're exactly like my dad. And that's why I don't want to do extra for you.

That's why I am the way I am because money and time mean more to me than. Being at a job breaking rocks all day and the whole room cried. The old guy cried. It was just a really impactful moment. And that's been my theme. My whole life is maximum time with my wife, with my children and work was important, but it never defined who I was.

And it was never a number one thing. Full circle. Work-life balance was always recharging my batteries with working out, getting outside, spend the time going on dates with my wives on a Friday, spend an individual time with my kids, individual dinners, doing activities with them that makes me. And I think everybody frankly, is happier when they have that kind of wives and is actually way more predict.

[00:17:23] Tyler Lindley: I totally agree. It's funny. I was having a conversation last week with a newer sales rep. I coach a lot of new sales reps and we're having the conversation about how many hours should we be working on working? 60 70 hours, 80 hours, just to try to stay at the top of the board. And I was trying to give him the advice that probably not sustainable.

Long-term it's fine. If you want to push it and that's what your goals are, but eventually you'll probably burn out and I asked him, same question. You just says, why are you doing it? What are you sacrificing to give that extra 10, 20, 30 hours? And I think it's an important conversation. And I think it's one that frankly, we don't have enough.

And how was your weekend? And what'd you do. Here we go. We're going to grind for the next five days. And I think it's an everyday kind of conversation that a lot of sales leaders and reps and business owners out there don't have enough to me. I can see it a little bit more now having kids and wanting to be there to throw the ball or to coach the team or whatever it might be.

They're only going to be this age once. That's our barometer for decisions that they'll only be this age once there's always more work to be done, but there's only one.

[00:18:27] Joe Sponcia: It reminds me. I think that people, I heard this quote a long time ago, it was things to appreciate over time and memories appreciate over time.

So when you're on your computer, you know, look back on your phone or your computer and kind of look back at the old pictures, the pictures where you're with your children, or you were doing a pretty cool activity, sometimes a mundane activity. Those memories always appreciate over time and the rewards that I've spent, things that I bought over time, they give you the quick pay.

I earned the. But then they go away pretty quickly. So

[00:18:58] Tyler Lindley: I think as sales reps, you do have a certain type of freedom probably depends on your situation. Depends on how well you're doing. What did you do for me last quarter? You have a level of autonomy and freedom and sales, but do you feel like you have way more control over that owning your own business?

And is that for you? The key difference? The key driver.

[00:19:14] Joe Sponcia: Yeah, again, it goes back to freedom and it goes back to control and that as you get older, you learn, uh, my personality type was as a child and usually perfection. I was first born. So a lot of it, if you study birth order, it tells you a lot about human traits, but I grew up first, only my brother's 10 years apart from me, I've got a sister that's 13 years younger, and first of all, and only lean heavily perfectionist, heavily analytical or drivers.

When that's your personality. We sometimes create this perfect life in our minds and sales. It's about control. We have more control over our lives. And as you grow older, I shared with you earlier. My wife passed away in 2007, left with two kids. She was 32. I was 35. Things happen in life. You'll get fired, you'll get territorial realignments, you'll get all these things.

So control is an illusion. I think the sooner that we learn that you can control some things, but a lot of things are out of your control. You live a happier life, but I will say by and large, as a business owner, you have a lot more control over your life. You have. Kind of stress though, that comes in on a daily basis.

That's a good stress because it's stress. If you've chosen, it's stress that when your sales rep, your CEO is saying things 1824 months ahead, and you get them 90 days ahead, you'll get a note or a message or a conversation that Hey, things are changing. Well, they know, and I know what's coming down the pike.

Early on. I actually try to convey that to our team as early as possible. But you get the further out vision when you own your own business. I don't want to come across as working for someone as the worst thing ever. It's not a lot of people do it. A lot of people are happy. I just want folks to message me individually.

They always want to learn how do you do it? How do you make the transition? How do you become an entrepreneur? And I just want to give people. Option the discussion that it can be done by anybody. I am medium intelligent. I have really no special skill set other than doggedly determined on learning things.

But anybody can do that when it

[00:21:14] Tyler Lindley: sounds like that determination has driven a lot of the things that you've done in life. Talking back about the books and the learning, the professional. The situation when your wife passed and when you were early on at young kids, what did that change for you? What did you do differently after that situation?

You talked about control as an illusion. Did you change the way that you approached your professional career, your family, your life

[00:21:37] Joe Sponcia: smelly 17 years in 2005, she passed away in 2007. In 2005. I made great money. It was very stressed. I remember I was forgetting things. I leave my keys. I would leave my computer at odd places.

Couldn't find it, leave my wallet. I play golf and leave golf clubs and have to drive back to the golf course. I was just all the time. And I went and my wife said something may be wrong. So I went and at the time went to see the doctor and the doctor said, I think it's stress, but let's do an MRI. And so I went downtown to Knoxville, had an MRI, and that took about a week and a half to get the results back.

And I remember that was in Nashville, Tennessee at the time was seeing a customer is about 11 o'clock in the day. And I got a message on my phone that the nurse said, Hey, we got the results of your MRI. We found some things on there. The doctor needs to discuss call us when you can you get a message like that.

You're like, what in the crap is going on? So I was frantic. I was. I'm dying. And I remember that day, I went downtown the Nashville, a place called the Parthenon and got on a bench and I wrote 12 pages out. I thought, man, if I die in the next year, these are all the things I've got to convey to my children, my wife, that exercise.

And that scare changed my life. And when I talked to the doctor five o'clock, I said one, that was the worst message to ever leave on my phone. And to the doctor said, you've got to benign cysts. So don't fight don't box. Don't do football on the weekends. And I was like, cool, we're good. But that exercise, or that scare put me in the situation that the end was actually going to happen.

And when my wife passed away two years after that, And prepared for that, but in a way I was so out of that, for me personally, I've been a voracious reader, but also have always written things down, essentially made me take reams and reams of notebook, paper and things on my computer, a little ideas, and basically write a book to my children.

I had a big following on Tumblr when tumbler was the thing at a time and almost got a book deal out of it for advice to my children. And the dice that are right on LinkedIn. I try to catalog that and organize that for my children. And basically it's what I've learned is most people don't know anything about their great-grandparents past their great grandparents.

It's two sentences. Maybe once I'm gone legacy, we're not going to be here to understand the legacy means anything or not. But I wanted to have something that my great-grandkids or those other generations could know about me and the things I've gone through. That they could learn that they could apply to their own lives.

Instead of reading Tony Robbins version or Stephen Covey's version, they read great-grandfather Joe's version of what he went through and maybe they learned something from it. And maybe that's the most self-absorbed thing to say ever, but it's something that I would give a lot of money to have conversation with my great grandparents that came over from Italy and what they went through and to hear them speak.

And we just don't get that. And that's what happened out of those experiences with. I wrote all the time and I still write all the time. I think that's

[00:24:34] Tyler Lindley: something that is a healthy exercise. When you just write in general, write down advice, write down what happened today, whether those are just notes for you or whether you could turn that into something else.

But those ideas, we have to capture them. We have to capture them because our brain loses them. It's important whether you're in sales or you're in a business, them at what line of work. Those ideas they're going to get lost. If we capture them lot less likely that we'll lose them forever. Joe, any parting words of advice for our audience, for sales reps out there thinking about business ownership or just for any other sales advice before?

[00:25:04] Joe Sponcia: I think what I touched on earlier was sales career to this day, still the most entrepreneurial position you can have in any company. I would just advise people to always look at things, never turn down a conversation with someone that's getting a result to wish you had. Always have those conversations, always investigate, go to your local, buy biz, sell website, and look at businesses, understand how they're run, understand how financing works and how profit and loss works and all the components of business, because it will help you be a better salesperson when you understand those.

And some of the decisions that your leadership sometimes comes out with, it seem a little funky. Sometimes they'll feel like they're directed at you. A lot of times they are things that change in just the nature of business. So always look at things, never turn down a conversation with someone that's getting a result to wish you had. Always have those conversations, always investigate, go to your local, buy biz, sell website, and look at businesses, understand how they're run, understand how financing works and how profit and loss works and all the components of business, because it will help you be a better salesperson when you understand those.

I think you look at a guy like Tom brown. I'm sure he still hits the gym. I'm sure he still works on his craft. I'm sure. Before he goes, I know before games start still practices the plays and still has a good off season. I think as sales reps, if you're not constantly learning, if you're not feeding your brain, if you're not practicing you, can't just show up and use your natural, amazing athletic or to run what the analogy.

If you can't run off your natural ability all the time, you have to hone your skills. And I think the time that you spend honing your skills. Pay off and dividends as far as pertaining care of your family, advancing your career. And if you want to start your own thing, it's certainly a path to do that.

[00:26:51] Tyler Lindley: If my listeners want to find out more about you online, how can they do so

[00:26:54] Joe Sponcia: LinkedIn?

I hate to say it. I don't do a lot of social media, but I love LinkedIn because I love like-minded people. I wish they'd connect with me on LinkedIn and send a private message. I told you over the phone earlier, I do two hours of coaching. As a way to pay it forward and give it back. And a lot of people take me up on it.

It's not really advertised, but if they want to reach out and just like, I'm lost, please help me. I'm happy to give them time because so many people helped me in the past. So fellows, they messaged me on LinkedIn and connect that way. Perfect. And

[00:27:22] Tyler Lindley: we'll link to Joe's LinkedIn profile in the show notes. So feel free to connect with Joe there, Joe.

Thanks so much for coming on. Really appreciate the conversation. Thank you very much. Me too. Thank you. All right.

[00:27:35] Joe Sponcia: Thank

[00:27:35] Tyler Lindley: you so

[00:27:36] Joe Sponcia: much for listening to today's show, you can find all the links discussed and the show notes@thesaleslift.com. That's the T H E sales S a L E S. Lift L I F t.com have questions for me. Email me@tyleratthesaleslift.com. We look forward to seeing you back here next week, and we hope today's

[00:27:59] Tyler Lindley: show brings you the sales lift.

Your business needs.

[00:28:03] Joe Sponcia: Remember ideas. Plus action equals. You've got new ideas. Now it's time to take action and the results will follow. See you next time. .