Meghann Misiak

I love this question, and it definitely blew my mind in the beginning, because I had never been asked this. I think you could approach this question in a few different ways. I think of it as quick wins, dream clients and exploratory projects. So, this applies, no matter if you're starting as a sales rep in a new territory, or if you're even a CSM, a customer service manager who is looking at their client list, or if you're a product person figuring out product-market fit.

1) Quick wins. For me, I started my company a year and a half ago. I was like, “Okay, who are the clients that are coming to me?” The inbound leads. Those are typically early adopters and there is going to be a very different sales and marketing strategy for them.

2) Dream clients. I feel like a lot of people get really stuck with only those inbound leads, but I really urge people not only to focus on those quick wins. Those can be great for business, great for just getting your foot in the door, but we need to keep an eye on that longterm goal of bringing in those dream clients, whether it's larger deals, the corporate clients, one client that makes up the majority of your revenue, or the majority of your quota. Really helpful.

3) Exploratory projects. And, we need to make sure that we're also balancing that with exploratory projects. Maybe it's not the quick wins. Whether it's new products, new industries or types of clients, we should always be bringing a level of innovation to make sure that we're continuously growing our product offering as well as continuously taking on clients that really could open up new streams of revenue and new types of audience.

It was hard to limit it to only three.

1) I just started my own company. So, I have such a new appreciation for anyone who is a founder. So starting my own company, the biggest part was leaving the stability, and the structure, of a full-time role.

2) Forming the process. One of the hardest things about it was just forming the process. That's kind of the number two hard problem I'm dealing with. I tell people, “Starting a company is like staring all of your weaknesses in the face, or in the mirror, on a daily basis.” Your weaknesses definitely catch up with you. I had this really crazy vision of all the things I was going to do, and the only limitation is myself, and that's hard to deal with.

3) Leveling up. The third problem, or challenge, I'm struggling with is: once I formed the process for year one, it's leveling up. I feel like this is something a lot of people do not focus on. We are so comfortable with the status quo, with the, “Hey, like I finally feel stable.” And, in order to level up, a lot of times you have to completely change your process. You have to get uncomfortable again. For me, getting comfortable being uncomfortable is one of my core values, but it doesn't make it any easier to break those habits and to get to the next level.

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Whew. So I'm covering from burnout, still, after a year and a half, and it's taught me so much about everything. About life.

1) Learning to not do it all. I honestly have realized that one of the main roadblocks that I'm dealing with, because of burnout, is just learning to not do it all. This is such a hard thing for top performers and for overachievers, like myself.

2) Being able to say no is really hard, but it does help me make sure I'm focused on the right things. Whether it's saying no to clients that don't align with the things that I'm doing, or saying no to projects or partnerships that would take away from my focus on the right things, it's really important. But again, it is such a hard thing because of my people-pleasing tendencies.

3) Being flexible enough to pivot. The third roadblock, apart from recovering for burnout being included in that, is just being flexible enough to pivot. To not only say no initially, but to say no when maybe taking on a client that doesn't align and you're like, “Oof, I need to be flexible enough, and live in my values enough, to realize when something isn't aligned. Saying no can be a little bit easier in the beginning. Saying no in the middle of a project is really hard. So, learning when to pivot and learning when like, “Okay, I tried something, but this is not what I want to do.” That's been a roadblock, but a fun challenge as well.

I feel like all of mine are pretty aligned right now, and they're very radically different after recovering from burnout.

1) Essentialism. It's a book. Check it out. It's life-changing. But, it really goes to understanding your priority. What is the one thing, like the one goal, that I'm working towards? My north star. My big “P” Purpose, and making sure that everything I'm working on is working towards that.

2) The why. Some of my coaching clients hate me when I do this, but I do this exercise which is called, “So what?” It's basically just challenging them. They're like, “Yeah, I'm working on this…” and I'm like, “Okay, tell me the so what? Like, why is that important? Why does that matter?” And, you can do this, whether talking to clients about what they want to achieve and you're like, “Okay, well, tell me why?” It's really frustrating, but it's critically important. So really getting to the why behind things, whether for me, it's like, “Why am I doing this training? What do I want people to get out of it?” If you're launching a product, it shouldn't only be cool and awesome and exciting, but like, “Why is it important?”

3) Meditation. When I'm stuck on those two things, the third mental model is meditation. I meditate on it constantly. Whenever I'm stuck. I've learned now to not just push through with more work, but to truly just take a pause. Meditate. What I find is that taking that break is incredible, like what clarity opens up for me.

So, these are not tactical:

1) More companies need to think about their big P purpose. Not only for the team. I feel like so many companies are like, “These are our top 20 priorities!” If we can really rally around one big goal, for example, “Top clients. Our focus this year is bringing on these top clients. And this is why.” Or, “This is the revenue goal that we're working towards, and the why is because we're working towards IPO.” We should have a big P purpose, that everyone in the company knows, can articulate, like you stop someone in the hallway, or on a Zoom call, and you're like, “Hey, what's our big P purpose?” And they're like, “Yep. Here it is.” We need to do the same thing for our employees as well, because their purpose is, a lot of times, not necessarily at our own.

2) Radical transparency. I also believe in radical transparency when we think about moving towards that big P purpose, really understanding, and being comfortable, talking about what's working, what's not working. A lot of times, our teams are just defending themselves. Right? A lot of times in marketing, it's like, “Well, this isn't working because we haven't tried hard enough,” or, “It is working. We need to give it more time.” There's so many excuses in go-to-market teams today. We just need to make it okay to admit failure. Make it okay to talk through the challenges transparently.

3) Saying no to things. We need to be able, for leaders and ourselves as team members, to say “no” so that we can actually do meaningful work and dive into really important projects.

Ooh, I love this one.

1) “So what?” So I've mentioned one of my favorites is. “So what?” It is the most annoying question because a lot of people are not prepared for it. They don't know why they're doing things or why it's important. They don't know, even when a client gives them a question or gives them a goal, asking, “So what?” and, I don't mean just asking “So what?” This question could come in a few ways, like, “Hey, tell me why that's important to you. Tell me why that matters. Tell me what you're hoping to get out of that.” But, it is one of the most critical questions in sales and in business. So many times, we're just throwing things out and we don't know why we're doing it. The core question is “Why?”

2) “How is your day going?” I really like “How is your day going? How is your week going? How was your weekend?” Especially with Zoom, we've lost a little bit of the water cooler talk. This question is a really great rapport builder for the beginning of calls. So many times we just jump in, or we say, “How's the weather?” Or, with personalization and relevance we’re like, “Hello, I see that you're in this location. Like, tell me. I've never been there.” Awesome? Cool? Just keeping it simple can be a really great way of building a relationship.

3) “What motivates you?” So many times, companies are trying to motivate us with the numbers and goals, and it’s so simple to simply ask people, “What motivates you? Why do you do what you're doing?” And most of the time, salespeople that I work with have never been asked this question. So I think it's a question that I would love to see more leaders, and more people, asking themselves

So, three questions. Three of my favorites. Hope that helps.

This was the toughest question of all of these.

1) Brandon Fluharty is one of my favorites. He is actually a million-dollar seller, which is like a huge goal for a lot of people. Just released an incredible e-book that talks about a lot of the things I mentioned in terms of not doing more, but doing better, and really aligning habits with your big P purpose, forming, and bringing in, a lot of strategies that will help you get there.

2) Jason Bay is someone I work with very closely. He is the king of outbound. He's a great prospecting trainer and he has a program called Outbound Squad. The results speak for themselves. He has a lot of incredible followers and is a great trainer.

3) Jordana Zeldin. I love her so much. She runs a few projects. My favorite is called The Practice Lab, where it actually gives people an opportunity to practice their sales pitches and learn through doing, not just by training.

So, three of my favorites.

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