The Work Is Finding The Work

Onsite at a Multisport Canada Triathlon Race. Photo - Mike Cheliak

I'm extraordinarily lucky - the Work of Race/Event Announcing and Sports Commentary, does not feel like work. An entire day - that starts in the dark at 6am, at a big running, cycling or triathlon event and ends late in the afternoon, when the last finisher is across the finish line, and the awards all done - goes by VERY fast for me. I LOVE doing this. The work is finding the work!

I spoke recently with someone in the music business, and they said that it's the same for many bands and musicians. Not every band and musician is U2 or Beyonce! When those lesser known bands/musicians are performing, most of the time it does not feel like work - they are very passionate about their music and their performance - that's why they are so good. They could keep going on and on! The work is finding the work!

Thank goodness for my back-ground and experience in Sales. My phone rarely rings for Race/Event Announcing or Commentary work. I have to make it ring, and treat finding new work, as a classic B2B exercise. That means lot's of phone calls, cold-calls, email reach-outs, and networking/connecting via social media - I'm a big fan of both LinkedIn and Twitter for this.

There are lots of dead-ends, no-responses, "No's" and "No thank you's" - occasionally, you get a few "Yes's". It sounds pretty bleak, but that is B2B Sales work. You just keep going! The work is finding the work!

My "Off-Season" of working to find work has been reasonably successful for this year (2018), I've re-booked back in with many existing clients ( a hearty and grateful, Thank You), and have found a number of new clients who I will be working at this year ( a BIG Thank you to all of you).

In addition to the Live On-Site Race/Event Announcing my Live Stream Commentary work continues to grow - I'm REALLY enjoying doing this.

All-in, I already have over 33 gigs booked in for the year and have already started the year with a series of Indoor Track and Field Meets doing Live Stream Commentary.

With apologies for the pitch - remember, the work is finding the work(!), but if you are in need of a Race/Event Announcer or Commentator, please don't hesitate to contact me at stevefleck61@gmail.com or 416.888.7324

See you at a race or event soon!

Sales & The Long Distance Endurance Athlete

The picture above is of the start of the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii this year. Are there similarities between what goes on here, and in the world of business and sales?

I have, for my whole working life, worked for very small businesses and companies that essentially lived or died, based on their Sales. If you did not sell anything, the company received no business and no money, and me, the salesperson received no money - or significantly less money! It's always been a pretty straightforward relationship. I have very often thought of the parallels between working in sales and being an endurance athlete. There are more than a few similarities.

Good salespeople need to look long term. So does the endurance athlete. It's not so much the training that you do today, that matters, it is the training you do over the course of six months to a year, and year over year, that's really key. It's the same in sales - you need to often keep at it for long periods of time, to see real results. It's rare to hit the home-run in business right away, and it's rare if not impossible to win a running race or a triathlon with little or no training.

Good salespeople need to get focused on a routine. So does the endurance athlete. Training for a marathon or a long triathlon is not rocket science. It's getting out the door and getting the training done. It's the same in sales - what you do is not that complicated, but you need to be focused on what you are doing and your routine every day and keep repeating it over and over and over and . . . . . you get the picture! Training for a marathon is not about the runs you did last week. It's about the 6 months to a year of steady run training you put in.

Good salespeople need to be able to deal with set-backs. Not everyone says, "Yes". In fact, more often, people say, "No". Even deals that you think, for-sure will happen, sometimes don't. Same for the endurance athlete. There will be days of training and races that are disastrous - where nothing will go as planned. Both the salesperson and the endurance athlete need to keep going, and know that it will get better. There will be bad patches. You need to deal with them and move on. It will get better.

Good salespeople know that they are often in a real race - a race with their competitors. Few companies operate completely in a vacuum, without competition. It's hard, because you rarely if ever see your competition, in business - you only hear about them. It's more or less the same for endurance athletes. If you are serious about your performance at some level, you know that on race day its . . . well . . . . . it's a race. It's a competition. The finish line is there for a reason. In training, you may never see your competition. You may only hear that they are training hard, or slacking off, or whatever. You don't know for sure. What you do know, that come race day, it's game-on, and it's going to be competitive!

Good sales people know that their are certain techniques and tools that can be very helpful - they know that other techniques and tools are not that helpful. The successful endurance athlete also knows that certain techniques of training really do help, and that some tools are good at advancing performance. However the athlete also knows, just like the salesperson that certain training techniques and tools are useless, and that others are much more effective in yielding good results over time.

Good salespeople know that technology will only help, and get you so far. It's the same with endurance sports training. There is some technology that is helpful, but really it's about getting the hours of training in. In sales, for example, there is a tendency to rely too much on modern communication technology. However, at it's roots business success is about relationships. At some point, you need to go beyond the Blackberry, the email and the phone, and really get to know who you want to work with. With endurance training, there are all kinds of fancy tools, like heart rate monitors, and power meters, and fancy training machines to help you with your training, but these only monitor your training, you still need to get out there and do it!

So there it is. The marathon runner and the salesperson - one and the same! Who would have thought. However, as someone who has experienced and lived deeply in both worlds I know the parallels and similarities well.