When salesmen speak, I question everything they say. I question what their real name is, their truths, their product, their intentions, how genuine they’re being, and if they’re speaking to truly help or to add to their wallet. There’s too many manipulative people in the world of sales that will speak to simply hear themselves speak or to get you to buy a large amount of whatever their selling. I’ve seen it for years now and although there are a lot of great salespeople out there that just lay out the facts and shed light on something from a different perspective, there are far too many that will tell you to tilt your head back and open wide so you can drink their snake oil.

Shit, think of the ones that you’ve met in your lifetime. They’re dressed to the 9’s, they smile with all-too-white of teeth, and they’re a smooth talker. They’ll charm the ever living fuck out of you just so you listen to them and hang on their every word. They could be selling the most useful product that you’ve ever seen but yet, you can’t give them the time of day just because the heavy scent of their cologne takes over your ability to think. The entirety of your attention goes to your nose. While you should be hearing them out, all you can think about is spraying them down like Pepe le Pew.

They’re just not real. Their disingenuous intentions ooze out their pores. Whatever is coming from their mouth is irrelevant. You sense who they are. They’re not in it to help you…they’re only in it to better their disposition in life. Whether they’re trying to hit a quota, they’re trying to deepen their pockets, or they just love the clout that comes with “having the most sales.” It sickens me. I physically feel ill just thinking of these slimy people. All we want is someone to be honest with us, lay out their convincing argument, and let us know where the potential pitfalls are and how to avoid them. That’s. It.

From someone who works on the inside of a sales job, it’s seen all too frequently. Because of that, I’m overly cautious of who I invest my time with. If you’re selling something, okay… I’d hate to pass up a good opportunity, but nothing’s free. You’re taking my time. Now you better make good use of it. Plain and simple.

This morning into the early afternoon, I met a gentlemen that was exactly this – he was dressed up, full of energy, an extremely smooth talking salesman talking to a large group of salesmen. Okay, I guess no one ever said that just because you’re highly presentable you’re untrustworthy. Just because you’re eloquent doesn’t exactly mean that you’re selling a broken Kirby vacuum. Just because you’re likeable doesn’t mean you’re going to rob us of our time and money. Okay, what gives?

This man, once the room cleared, spoke to me for an hour. I later found out that an hour of his time was worth $1200. He didn’t tell me before, where I would have had to pay, he just kindly let me know at the end of our discussion. Supposedly, it was because he believed I was worth speaking to. Either he wanted to make me blush, get in my pants, or he just felt like handing me a complimentary reason as to why he spoke with me for 60 minutes of his valuable time. He said he knew that I was someone that was looking to do something with their life.

30 people whittled down to just 2 – him and me. Everyone had better things to do than to suck up knowledge from a very successful, very positive, and very inspirational man, named Al. Al stood about 5 foot 8″, he had piercing blue eyes, and he had energy that made a coke addict look like a couch-locked stoner. Not that he was overly caffeinated (he carried this energy for 3 hours straight), but he was passionate and you could feel it. He was passionate about life and about helping people chase their version of success. It was things that he learned from other mentors that he passed along to others, all because he genuinely wanted to help the people that wanted to be helped.

We spoke about everything from habitually goal setting to his past solar successes. He heli-snowboarding on the mountains of Chile. He raced Ferrari’s in Vegas. Hell, he put solar on Alec Baldwin’s house. He talked about how 20 plus years ago he walked on coals in Tony Robbins’ backyard. Al talked about how all of his goals started to come true… just from consistently writing them down and then writing all the action steps he would consistently take to reach his goals.

Now, I’ve said in the past that I’m not a huge goal-setter. It’s not that I don’t believe in the practice (especially now), but I always found that habits, passion, and consistency superseded a lot of the “I want to have X amount of money in the bank by blah blah blah age.” To an extent, this still remains true, but from what I learned…it’s just a matter of making the two practices align.

When you write down your goals each morning and you then reread them aloud multiple times before going to bed EVERY DAY for at least 26 days, he said that something happens to your cells and your mind. They start to become a part of you. When you focus on action steps for the most important 2 goals, the other goals will start to follow suit by osmosis. What else happens, is that because you CANNOT look at your piece of paper from the day before, the fake goals… the ones that you thought you want but you don’t… .they fade from the equation. You’ll forget them because you’ll find that they weren’t important to begin with. Then, little by little, you’ll get closer and closer until one day it’s achieved. And the wildest part is that sometimes, it’ll be the universe that helped you. The law of attraction will start to work in an exponential manner in your favor. Synchronicities that will blow your mind will start to happen.

Never judge a book by it’s cover. Take the time to have the conversation and see if the opportunity is truly there. How can you have a life altering lesson if you can’t have the conversation? Don’t drink the snake oil, keep your pants on, don’t hand over your wallet… but at least take a listen. You never know what you could be missing…