Solutions Oriented

WFH Tips:Have a dedicated work area in your home.Plan out your meals to avoid stressing out over food.Really dedicate your lunch hour to actively taking a break, using the time to recharge.Wake up at least 30 minutes before your first meeting or task to get breakfast coffee and get your mind running to avoid being a zombie in meetings.Have virtual, time-boxed coffee breaks with your colleagues to stay connected.

Full show notes and references can be found on on my blog.

For full notes, check out the episode article on my blog: marcwernicke.com

For the full show notes, head over to my blog! http://wernicke.live

Full show notes can be accessed at my blog!

In this episode, we dive into feedback from the millennial perspective - why it's so important to master the art of giving and receiving feedback, strategies to absorb feedback and Marc's recommended approach to giving meaningful feedback.

To view the full notes, check out the blog!

Today I'm going to talk about sales and why I believe that many of you should get your first job in sales. So if you're interested in starting out in sales, or you did what I recommended in my last episode and figured out what kind of first job you want, and it happens to be in sales... this one's for you: I'm gonna sell to you the upsides and downsides of being in sales early on in your career, and hopefully get you interested in that kind of job. [1:00] When I was in my early college days, my main motivators in picking a career path were related to money and opportunity - I come from an expat family, so a lot of my youth was spent traveling the world. I wanted to have the same kind of job that my dad had... So the first thing I did was look for careers that paid a lot. The careers with the highest average salaries were all things that didn't appeal to me: sports, medicine, piloting, engineering... except for being an executive somewhere. I didn't even think about entrepreneurship at this point, but we'll talk about that topic in a future episode. My dad's quite high up in the corporate hierarchy nowadays, so when I asked for his insight, he told me that the one job that has the ability to out-scale executive salary was - you guessed it - in sales. My next step was to research sales - really research it - and this is largely what led me to double down on developing my leadership and speaking skills while in college. Why? Because I think sales gets a bad reputation, when in reality it can be a really fun, engaging and high-paying job. [3:55] I feel the need to talk about this because there are a lot of misconceptions about what kind of work "sales people" do. First and foremost - everyone is in some way, shape or form, in sales. Marketing people sell. HR people sell. Finance people sell. Ops people sell. Entrepreneurs live to sell. In my experience, when people talk about sales casually in the Philippines, their mind goes to that "financial advisor" trying to sell you the most expensive insurance plan on LinkedIn, that dude sweating his dick off in an ill-fitting suit trying to sell you a condo in a mall or that telco agent calling you in the middle of a busy day, trying to get you to sign up for a more expensive post-paid plan. Those are all types of sales people, but not the kind of sales people I'm talking about - they're largely B2C sales people who work on 1% or lower conversion rates. The kind of sales people I want to talk about are the ones that are selling to a more specific audiences - so generally more B2B sales. Business to business, because that's where I have the most experience. My B2C sales experience is more in the context of leadership - selling ideas to receptive audiences and developing them through those ideas. [7:20] The obvious benefit: Income proportional to effort (developing discipline) The thing I love the most about sales is that you can take the advice you see on the internet, try it out, and see results immediately. Whether it's a pitching tactic, whether it's a networking idea, whether it's something to improve your relationships with people - you're have the opportunity to try those immediately and see possible results in your next commission check. In a lot of other jobs, you can apply concepts such as "working harder and working smarter" all day, and yes, those will have a significant impact down the line. They'll make you a better, more effective employee and therefore raise your value and likelihood of getting promoted... but that could take years of time until you see an impact. In sales, you get that immediately. You'll develop discipline. Sales people tend to have a fairly average base salary, but the commission is where it's at. [10:15] Teaches people skills and strong communication Sales is all about communication. When I have to really boil down my job, it's "I talk to people until they buy something or until they have no other questions" You'll master all forms of communication: on the phone, via email and in person - the basic business items that range from a proper handshake all the way to making those follow-up emails to move a lead along your pipeline, you'll learn to read people. Public speaking and presenting information - you'll frequently find yourself making proposals, pitch decks, powerpoint presentations to illustrate the values of whatever you're selling... after spending a few long nights making slides, you'll quickly master the ways of presenting information. Negotiation is something that all sales people learn over time - you'll be able to tell when a potential client is low-balling you, how to do your research into who you're dealing, understanding what exactly the customer wants for you to be able to justify your pricing - those are all key skills that few people outside of sales develop. [13:46] Develops a network rapidly, which provides opportunity The best jobs you'll land in your career likely won't come from job ads. They'll come from your network - people you've met at events, clients you've sold something to, relationships you've established with other people. My LinkedIn network and stack of calling cards grows by like 25-40 people per month, depending on how actively I'm attending events and how many potential clients I meet. All of those are potential referrers for my next job, or potential clients for when I build my own company in a few years' time. [17:00] Allows you to get hands-on with all business functions - from marketing to sales to ops to finance A common misconception among people that aren't in sales is that sales is just about convincing people to buy - WRONG. Sales is about building relationships and bringing value to your customers. You're not just selling them a product, you're also selling them the experience they get with your company, which includes you making sure that the operations teams are delivering properly and that your client is getting a high quality experience. You're even going to be involved in the invoicing and payment process - because you're going to want to make sure that your client pays on time so you can get your well-deserved commission. You'll understand the challenges of marketing, because they're one of your primary sources of leads, so you want to push them to give you the best leads they can, and feed them with insights from customers to enhance their strategies. Hell, you'll even touch on HR at some point. Recruitment is always going to be a thing, and vetting new sales people should be done by existing sales people, to see if they're a good culture fit, understand the product and have the right mindset to represent the company. This all leads to personal/professional development and opens up more career paths down the line In sales, product knowledge is key, and you'll rapidly learn about the industry you're in and associated with, very quickly This is a great way for you to determine your career path - perhaps you noticed you liked working with marketing more than anything, so you can shift to a marketing role. Perhaps you realized this industry isn't for you - great, you now have a skillset you can bring to almost any industry.

Graduating from university or college? No idea where direction to start your job search in? This one's for you. Using 3 simple questions, Marc illustrates his thought process in choosing a career path and what you can learn and copy from his experience. Here's a quick summary of what's discussed this episode: Picking the "right" career can be one of the most intimidating things we do when we finally get our degrees. A bachelor in something like psychology could lead into hundreds of different career paths - and it wasn't any different for us, either. How do you determine where to start? 1. What do you like doing? This seemingly innocuous question is probably the most important you should ask yourself today as it should largely determine the type of work you sign yourself up for. There's more than enough research to prove that doing work that you don't enjoy is the a significant cause in burn out, mental health problems and ultimately, leading an unhappy life - so you should probably start by figuring out what kind of work you like doing. Don't forget - as a fresh graduate with little experience, you're gonna eat a lot of shit in your first jobs, so it becomes a matter of finding which kind of shit you like eating the most. What's the kind of work, feeling or activity that's going to make eating that shit worth it? Identify it, write it down, and move to the next question. 2. What're you good at? This one's a bit more challenging, because you can't figure this out entirely on your own. Getting feedback from the people around you is a massive boon. Ideally you're going to want to identify whether the things you enjoy doing are also things you're good at doing - if the answer is no, your next step is to figure out how you're going to get better at what you enjoy doing. Having something you both enjoy and are good at are pretty much prerequisites for finding something worth doing. Being good at something means you're going to be confident doing it and you'll have a drive to improve and continue being good at whatever it is you're good at. It means you can supply yourself with feelings of accomplishment and provide tangible value to whoever is hiring you - it's a marketable skill for yourself. 3. What's feasible & realistic? You're a fresh grad. The bottom of the food chain. Acknowledge it, embrace it, become it. Set your expectations accordingly. You're going to be paid fuck-all and you better get ready for it because not doing your homework and expecting something like a livable wage are the first two steps to getting a rude wakeup call when you get your first job offer. Consider factors like commuting, distance to work, benefits such as flexible time/space when picking your first job. Don't be too picky, but don't get a job that's a 3 hour commute away when you could get a job just down the road. Identify the kinds of things you want to learn and grow from because they're kind of essential to developing while on the job. You want to develop a network? Get a job that's conducive to that. You want to be mentored and taught new things from someone senior? Take the time to vet your potential boss - nothing will make you leave faster than a toxic boss. Got questions or suggestions for the next episodes? Drop me a line! -Marc