He went from $70K in debt to $70M in sales!

I'm 39, all this debt, looking for a new job, and then the uncertainty of what would happen to my my little girl. So, I was in a dark place for a while. I felt broken, like I was a broken human being. I was s literally sitting at this desk. I remember looking out this window and watching cars go by and it literally went through my head like when I finally put my foot down and drew a line in the sand and said, "Enough's enough." That's when everything changed. So once I got the biggest commission check of my life a few years ago, we went to Disney World. I mean, I was a puddle. I had to carry around tissues. I I was just like, "This mindset [ __ ] actually works." Like, I've actually turned this around. What changed in your day? What changed in your mind? What changed in your habits? I want to know the new blueprint that took over.

Welcome everyone to this month's Fireside Chat and happy new year if you're tuning in for the first time this year. It is the perfect guest for 2026 because we have none other than Mike Sullivan. And I learned about Mike through one of our coaches, Amber, who was also coaching um coaching him privately. And and uh she said, "You have to meet this guy. You guys are so aligned." and um we did and we hit it off and immediately I wanted him to come on as a a fireside chat. So, a little bit about Mike. Um he's a top enterprise sales rep at uh Trinet X in Boston. He sells data and technology to large pharma companies and helps them get their drugs to market faster with his software. Uh his performance has been among the most consistent that I've ever seen in software sales. He has delivered over plan um for six years in a row um not just over plan but crushing it. He he took his income he averaged most of his life about 150k. In the past six years he's been averaging over 600,000 per year every year. Not one year at a million and the other two at 200,000 but every year over 600,000. And this year is or 2025 was one of his biggest years ever. sold over $12 million. So big numbers, but that's not actually why Mike is on on this conversation. It's actually his story that that's um inspiring. So at 39 years old, um Mike kind of hit a rock bottom. He was massively in debt and he shifted his identity entirely and reprogrammed his brain to be successful on his own. I want to emphasize this. Mike, how old are you? How old are you now? >> 48. >> You're 48. So, this is like nine years ago. So, he was in debt. He couldn't afford coaching. He hasn't been in my program for nine years. He did this on his own. He didn't work with Amber then. And that is very rare to see. So, I want to this is going to be inspiring for people who um who want his, you know, his tips, but also may not be able to join a program like Untap and need to know that the playbook is. and and that to me is is really really powerful to be able to have the strength to make these changes without getting the help from from other people. Um his message is simple. The only way to transform your results is to first transform your identity. And so today we're going to figure out what the heck he did and what that really means to transform your identity. So Mike, welcome. It's so it's so good to see you.

>> Yeah, thank you so much. Ian, happy new year to you. Happy New Year to everybody. Shout out to Amber for introducing us. Um I I mean everyone in sales has followed you forever, Ian. Right. So to be on your fireside chat is is um it's life's come full circle I feel like. So it's tr it's truly an honor. That's no not just saying that. It's I'm very very grateful to be here.

>> well I'm doing I'm doing what you're doing right now. Right. When I started it was just hey I've learned some stuff. I want to help other people and I started just giving content away. and you're doing the same thing. I saw you at the sales success summit with the got speaker of the whole conference which is awesome. You're coming on here. So I I'm just thank you for sharing sharing what you're going to share today. And um maybe a good place to start is if you want to talk about the headline right of of your story. What would that be for for people just the highlevel you know headline or message you want to share with other people?

>> Yeah for sure. I would say um it's it's never too late right? It's it's never too late to transform your life. And it all starts with a with a decision that you make. Literally, you can make this at at any moment. And I don't mean this to be like guru speak. And people have heard this stuff before, but it's true. It's true. You just have to make the the decision. And I'm a big believer that success in sales in anything, it it's such an internal game. I've got my uh my Gary Vee poster on the picture on the wall here, right? That could not be more true, right? It's literally all between our ears. And my story is proof that that anyone can turn it around. And I'm going to go really deep on on my story. But as Ian said, at 39, I was in a crisis, but it's really what led up to that point. I mean, I was a massive underachiever. Selfidentified as a loser for a long time. Lost my job, was fired, the debt, called a loser, but my back was pushed up against the wall, which I'll talk about in a few minutes, and and really none of that mattered. Um, when I finally put my foot down and drew a line in the sand and said, "Enough's enough." That's when everything changed. And I went on this journey. Um, I'm not a, you know, I was raised Catholic, but I'm not like super religious, but it was like a spiritual journey that I had to go through to rewrite my story. Um, and the reason I'm here with you all is just to to be an example for others who are struggling. I have the same I'm still an active full-time seller, right? So, I'm in the same position. How the hell am I going to hit my quota this year? How am I going to duplicate what I've done just because I had that success for six years? I'm still like impostor syndrome. I can't do this again. How the hell am I going to build my pipeline? Right? I have the same challenges.

>> well, what I what I >> what I hear is like never again. Like that that's what I'm hearing is like you got to a breaking point where you said [ __ ] this, never again. I'm done. And you make that decision. And I' I've been there twice in my life, two times. One was professionally and one was personally. And and that often is what it takes. You make the decision that you will never go there. So let let's >> never go back really. So let's talk about that. Let's take us back to that point, like where were you? If you can kind of dive into like where you were before this decision and maybe what led up to it, um that'd be helpful.

>> Yeah. And if it's okay, I'll probably take a few minutes to go through this because I think it's it's helpful context.

>> Um so at 39, that was the like the rock bottom, the second rock bottom actually, but that was the true crisis moment, but it's helpful to kind of rewind a little bit in terms of what led up to that. So my career for the first 15 years was pretty much a joke to put it bluntly. I drifted. I played it safe and I suffered the consequences. I I had a business degree from Babson College. I was in the graduating class with the founder of Ring Camera. >> Okay. And I chose to do manual labor. I chose to work at a golf course, work retail, sold used cars. Okay. got into recruiting, got fired after 3 months. I couldn't make a job order call. I was fine talking to candidates because I loved building rapport, helping people, but to pick up the phone and ask for a a job order, frozen. Didn't make one call in 3 months. Got fired. Had to move back mom and dad's basement, 32 years old, unemployed for 6 months. So, I was very depressed. Felt like a failure, felt like a loser. Eventually got back on my feet. I started working for a small IT services startup and I was there for eight years was doing okay a project management role became a sales role I got married started a family the company wasn't doing too well and eventually went under so that's when I lost 90k in backay and commissions >> I was taking personal loans out to put food on the table that I wasn't telling my wife about to the tune of 80 grand so

>> Pause for a second. So, your company owed you money, but they couldn't pay because they weren't doing well. So, you had to take on debt because you thought you were getting paid back from the company and then that payment never came. Okay. Continue.

>> Yeah. Yeah. It was the first like stable job that I had where I was like decent at it and we'd we'd forgo paychecks for like weeks at a time. My wife would be like, "What's going on?" I'd be like, "Oh, we totally got it. I was working on this deal with Cerner, big EHR company." And I was like managing the whole thing. They were maybe trying to buy us. So I was like, "No, we got to stick it out. We got to stick it out." And then I mean just living to pay paycheck to paycheck became the norm. And so I took out my first 40k loan to bridge me. Another year went by, same situation, took out another one.

>> And I was just kicking the can down the road, right? I was too ashamed to share how thin the financial ice was with my wife. I had three kids at the time, right? So, career, financial stress, and living on unemployment check.

>> Did she Did she work or were you the soul bread? >> Okay. >> No. So, now the as tough as she didn't work. We made the decision when our first job. >> Did she work in a job? I know parenting is work. So, for that's a harder job than we have to be to be candid, but she wasn't work. She wasn't employed. at that time, right? She was um when our first child was born, she we made the decision. She was a nurse. So, >> my dad supported my family on his own and I was like, "Oh, that's what I'm supposed to do. I'll it it'll just all be on me. I I'll take care of it." And the fact that I was failing and I looked up my father was an incredible role model, worked for himself his whole life. That's who I thought I needed to become and I was failing at that. And that was painful as all hell. So to make it harder, I mean, you know, financial, career stress, we can get through those things and overcome them. But my daughter was diagnosed with autism and then so I had all this piled at me at once, right? I'm 39, all this debt, looking for a new job, and then the uncertainty of what would happen to my my little girl, right? So I was in a dark place for a while. I was s literally sitting at this desk. I remember looking out this window and watching cars go by and it literally went through my head like should I jump in front of that truck because then my wife can cash out the life insurance policy was literally a thought that I went through like I didn't get really into suicidal thoughts but that went through my head at one point I was just I felt broken like I was a broken human being but reflecting on it back I realized that I needed to literally break myself down in order rebuild into a new human. And that's what I started to do. But the catalyst was really my daughter and getting that diagnosis cuz it it was no longer about me and my little ego. It was about I needed to turn this around because my family, but this little girl who I'm going to take care of for the rest of her life is going to be relying on me. So that's when I started to, okay, no one's coming. [ __ ] this. Like you said, right? Took extreme ownership like Joo Willink style. I didn't have a plan. Like I just made the decision, drew a line in the sand, turned my pain into power, and I was uh I got a job as a new AE, but I was still scraping by. I was making like a buck 50-ish,

>> and I was fed up with my situation one day at work, and I was prepping for a demo. I was selling this super boring software. I'm sure many people can relate. And I knew of this company, Try NetX. So, I sent a cold LinkedIn DM to the chief commercial officer. They weren't hiring, but I knew about this company. I admired the company and he responded. They brought me in for an interview. And something felt different when I was going through that interview process. Like I was this whole time I was like listening to Joo, listening to Gogggins, reading Think and Grow Rich, like reprogramming, you know, feeding my, you know, the information diet that we talk about. I was feeding myself all the right things,

>> saying mantras, you know, reading all the right information, the books. And

>> Were you doing that before you started changing or was that right after? Were you already kind of into the personal development and you just weren't applying it?

>> Yeah. When I was when I had this job as an AE, I had an hour commute to and from work. Okay. And I knew I had this hour, it was like an hourglass was over my head and it was cash running out. I had this these loans that were bridging me, but I knew they weren't enough to >> provide, right? So, I was like, how do I turn this around? So, I started to just reprogram and and just get control of the inner dialogue that was running rampant in my mind. And yeah, I got this enterprise role and then my first six months I closed 3.8 million. And that's when I just turned my income and turned my life around. Um, I'm grateful for what I went through because it proved to me that I can go through really hard [ __ ] and come out on the other side. Uh, but that's my journey in a nutshell. It's not a path I recommend to anyone.

>> So, so I want to I want to I'm not letting you get away with that, Mike. Just just,

>> oh, I had all this horrible years and this and all of a sudden, oh, I just made 3.8 million in revenue. So, so walk me through >> what changed when you had your daughter and what you did differently and what what changed in your day, what changed in your mind, what changed in your habits. I want to know the new blueprint that took over and what you were doing. And then the second part of that is is how I guess you you you stayed consistent or how you made the change. So, what was it? And how did you just reprogram to be able to be consistent with >> the Gogggins and the Jock that's that shit's not easy. I know I know about I know about it. I follow and watch and >> love Napoleon Hill and Gogggins. So, so tell tell us what the new routine was and what the changes were and how you actually changed.

>> Yeah. Yeah. So, the >> Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. The breaking point was definitely all that career and financial turmoil, but something triggered and switched in me when my daughter got that diagnosis and and something just shifted. Something said, "Screw this. No more. You've got to figure out a way to get out of it." So, I started to reprogram my mind. One of the things I used to listen to this um one of the authors of the book The Secret, this entrepreneur, John Asaraf, if if anyone's heard of him before, he's got this video, how to program your brain to make more money. So, I've got this 1-hour commute going to and from work. I'm just binging all just positive information, how to turn your life around, how to, you know, make more money. So, it was a video literally how to train your brain to make more money. People should should Google it. And he says, "If you want to train your brain to make more money, tell your, you know, pretend essentially that you're in the moment making that amount amount of money." So for me, it was 300K. I thought 300K would be the most amount of money any salesperson could ever make in their life. I'll dig myself out of all of my problems. So I used to say to myself multiple times a day, I'm so grateful that I make 300K. It allows me to pay off all that debt and take my family to Disney World. That was like my dream. So I have two girls, right? there. Gianna is 12 and Al is 10 and Cole is eight. So, my girls were younger at the time. I thought that was like my dream to take my girls to Disney World, but there was no effing way I was going to be able to do that, right? It's really expensive to go to Disney World. But, I started to do that. And what I was doing was reprogramming my reticular activating system, right? My prefrontal cortex. This is not all woo. was all this neuroscience as as you and as Amber will attest behind all of these tactics, right? So, I was looking for opportunities, training my brain to spot opportunities where I could make 300K,

>> started to network with the right people.

>> They put that bug in my ear about Trinetex and enterprise sales role is what I was looking for, right?

>> And that's what I started to do. So it was really I can go deeper into like what I do today. I still do these activities. I wake up every morning and I've got this like prayer that I say. It's not a religious prayer. It's not even like a it's sort of an affirmation. It's sort of a mantra. It's like a meditating. But I have this thing that I say to myself and I used to say to myself every morning when I wake up. I still do that

>> because I'm scared shitless of the doubt coming back. That's I sort of like preemptively block the impostor out, block the fear out by like priming my mind right when I wake up in the morning.

>> Mhm.

>> What do you say to yourself while you're on it just for everyone?

>> What's that?

>> What's the prayer? Do you do you have it memorized? I'm assuming.

>> Yeah, it's it's five it's probably five minutes long and it's memorized. I I'll post about it, but it's very personal. It's very raw. Um, one of the things that I say is sort of like your mind is like a radio. Just like you can change the station to a different song you choose to listen to, your mind's the same way. You can change your mind to a different station to a different thought you choose to listen to, right? So, I just am constantly trying to, you know, catch and replace what I mean, everyone has shitty thoughts that come in their mind, right? I've got three kids, a kid with autism. I'm worried about hitting quota just like everyone else on here this year. But when I try to observe and be present and catch those limiting beliefs or those doubts or those fears when they come up

>> and and replace them consciously replace them,

>> realize that negative thought isn't serving me and replace it with something else.

>> Then take action. Working out has been a huge component of it too which

>> I wanna I want to stop you because you're giving like so many nuggets but each one warrants its own kind of >> deeper dive. So I I I got three already, right? One is this particular activating system which is um I want to I want to dive into the second is is this this priming prayer for anyone who wants to hear it. If you're okay with it, we can record offline. I can put it in the show notes or put it at the end for people. It's really up to you your comfort level, but I think that kind of thing is is very helpful. Um,

>> and the third is is the how to program your brain. We'll put that in the show notes, too. But let let's talk about a few a few of these things. So, first is this this idea of once you decide what you want, the universe or God or whatever you believe is going to put that in front of you because you are more open and receptive to seeing it. Can you elaborate a little bit more on that because you kind of glanced upon it but there's a lot there.

>> Yeah, absolutely. And you know this just as as well as anyone, right? But

>> it's basically so so the RAS the reticular activating system. It's within your prefrontal cortex and it's like a filter. You can think of it I mean you can go deep into like the neuroscience. I'm not an expert in neuroscience so I'm not going to go there but I think of it like a filter. So, an example is um think of a a car that you want, right? So, like I'm I I don't have a truck. I still drive a Honda Accord, a 2019 Honda Accord. It's one of like the things that I'm proud of that I can buy a new car, but I'm like, "No, that's discipline. Stay in the car that you drive. It's

>> I'm with you, brother.

>> But I really want a truck, man. I really want a freaking truck really bad." Right? So I I see you and when I'm driving out there, I see trucks everywhere. There'll be 500 cars and I'll be like, "There's one truck there, one truck, there's a Ford, there's a Chevy, there's a G." That's your reticular activating system. So you're spotting the things that you're focusing on that you're thinking about.

>> Um, and you're also kind of blocking things out that aren't going to serve you as well.

>> Can I pause here? So, so this year, so I'm old. I'm going to be four. Well, I'm younger than you, but I'll be 47 in March. Um, we're both old, but but like

>> I have more grays. I have more gray. Do Do you use the that touch that touch of gray or

>> my grays in my beard? I wear it properly. There's nothing here. For some reason, it hasn't there yet. Um,

>> I don't use the coloring or anything.

>> My my fear legit, and this is something it doesn't keep me up at night because I like my sleep. But if there was one thing, it would be relevancy. How am I relevant? All my stories are now getting four or five years old. my big wins, my techniques. I'm like, well, you know, is this really work now? You know, we're in a different age, different era. And so, I I made a commitment. I proclaimed that this is the year on uh memberergenerating content. Member generated content. And it's like, well, how are we going to find memberergenerated content? I want our members who are making north of 500K to start sharing what they're doing just like you're doing today, but within this community. I announced that yesterday and no less than three people who I didn't even realize came up and said, "Hey, I've crushed it. Here's what I've done. A guy just wrote me. I made a million dollars this year. Last year I did 650. Here's how I did it without working long hours." Like, "Oh, here we go. Here's our member." So, it's like you you set that intention and then boom, everything comes

>> to to to support that. It I cannot tell you how it's worked. I know it's spiritual. I know it's quantum field. I know there's, you know, an energy associated, but this is very real. It's not woo. It happens to me every single time I set an intention. Then I'm I'm presented with

>> it's like when your when your why is big enough, your your how is going to appear or or the how will work itself out. It's that kind of thing. So, has that been the experience for for you continuously? And maybe another example besides just the job of Trinet because this this law of attraction thing is the thing that stood out for when we talked before. So so just elaborate.

>> Yeah. Yeah. I I mean I couldn't agree with you more. It's um you know from a from a a work perspective. I mean I mean I was in a really dark place guys, right? Like I I had no evidence of turning around. I was 39 and had no evidence of making over 200k, right? And no evidence of of just being able to succeed and support like my family comfortably like paycheck to paycheck with debt, a ton of debt in the bank. Like I wasn't doing it. I was I was failing. So, I had to reprogram and like I had to break myself in half and rebuild from the ground up. And

>> you said that you started thinking as if you were already making 300K. Did that change how you operated as someone differently who was already making 300K? And if so, what did how did your actions or your energy or the way you connected with people shift by as a result of already reprogramming your brain to think you're making that much money before it really happened?

>> Yeah. So with so with that with those visualizations and with those you know what that work that I was doing, I was spotting opportunities, right? So I reached out to someone I worked with at the company that folded and I told him I shared with him what I was going through and he said he put the so the company at now tryetics. He put that bug in my ear cuz I was talking to him about hey what do you think about this company and he said oh what about TREX and I said oh that's interesting. So the fact that I was doing this you know energy work and and reprogramming my mind it got me into action. And I started to back that up with reaching out and networking. Um, getting the name of Trinetex. And look, if I didn't send that chief commercial officer, that DM, his name is Brian. Um, he's one of my good friends. He's not there anymore, but we still text all the time. Like my I could I would have maybe had to sell my house. It may have ruined my marriage.

>> Um, I'm I'm not sure. So that one action,

>> right? Like I in my gut I was like about to prep for a demo, sitting down this boring software and I went to the chief commercial officer just cold DM'd him. It took a few minutes but that courage that I had for a few minutes changed the entire trajectory of my life. If I didn't send that I don't know where I would be right now to be honest. And then

>> that energy of like Disney World, right? So once I got the biggest commission check of my life a few years ago, we went to Disney World and I've written about it on LinkedIn a few times. I mean, I was a puddle. I had to carry around tissues. I was like, I actually did this. And my daughter with autism, we went there for her 10th birthday. We ate at Cinderella's Castle. And I have chills still when I I've told the story a few times, but I still get chills when I tell when I say that. I I was just like, "This mindset [ __ ] actually works." Like, I've actually turned this around. I gave this to my family. I used to keep a picture of Disney in like Evernote when I was going through debt and going through crap. I had this like little visual uh vision board. I used to look at that picture of Cinderella's castle and I was like, "No [ __ ] way I'll ever be able to do that." But I pretended like when I was with my kids, like the joy and happiness they give you, they keep you grounded. And I would kind of visualize here and there like,

>> man, if I could do that, it would be amazing. So then I did it.

>> It was just it was crazy. I proved to myself that I could do those things.

>> I love it. So that was the first thing you said is like seeing it before it happens, which then brings courage and action to make it happen and invites people into your life that can support that vision. The second thing you said was was catch, own, replace. So let's give an example of that. Um, one of my buddies, close friend, Chris Doris, actually teaches some of that for those who are at the mastermind. But you're you're thinking, you know, new year, ah [ __ ] I just missed my number. [clears throat] Not you, but you know, or or I have this big ass quota that's been handed to me. How am I going to do it? My pipeline's empty. New year, not again. What am I going to do? So that voice is probably prevalent for a lot of people. What's an example of when that voice comes to you, which you said it still does. H how do you um replace that? What does that actually look like in practice?

>> Yeah. So, the catch and replace. So, there's this this book um called The Power of Now by Echert Tol.

>> Yep. I've read it.

>> It's one of these books where you can't read more than two pages at a time because it is like heavy.

>> Oh, man. It's heavy as all hell, right?

>> But one of the things he talks about [clears throat] that was so helpful for me is this concept of like the silent watcher. It's basically like self-awareness, right? Being like the silent watcher of your thoughts like

>> like looking down through being up here, operating from up here and like looking down through your your head, right?

>> Yep.

>> And not judging your thoughts, just just observing them, you know. Um, and catch and replace is basically like have self-awareness. Observe the thoughts that are going on. Don't judge them because it's very easy to have that thought and then it creates the feeling, oh my god, and then the dread and then the doubt and then you just you go into those spirals that we've all been in, right? So catch and replace is basically catch it. Catch the limiting belief. Say, hey, you know, this doesn't serve me right now. You know, almost like have a conversation with it. Like get the hell out of here. You know, like I literally have these conversations with myself sometimes in the bathroom. My wife will be like, "What what are you saying?" Now she's gotten used to it like, "Oh, Mike's talking in the mirror again." Um, but she used to think I was crazy, but I'm b I was basically replacing those with empowering thoughts. So, one example might be like,

>> you know, we all have call reluctance, right? Oh, I don't want to make this cold call again. I've been rejected the last 10 times. Whatever.

>> Replacing that with like, hey, remember that call I had with whatever XYZ company three months ago that was killer. you know, this next dial could could go that same way. Or I'm the type of person that shows up when it's hard, right? That's like James Clear Atomic Habits, right? I'm the type of person who goes to the gym when they don't want to. So, that's sort of how I've done it is like be very self-aware and catch and replace them and and do that kind of brain training, you know, saying that morning mindset mantra or prayer that I say every morning. I still do it, right?

>> Yeah.

>> And I'm in a different place. I still say pretty much the same thing because I'm proactively preempting or derisking because the doubt and the fear tries to come in early morning. We wake up, we're groggy, we have kids, we didn't sleep well, we think about our day, we start with the dreadful thoughts. So I'm I'm like, "No, that shit's not coming in. At least not right now." I try to gain control of my mind. Ultimately, it's like, does this serve me? This this stuff, guys, this mindset stuff is really really a a a daily practice. It never goes away. So, like, if you if you think to yourself, I don't want to make this call. This sucks. How are you going to feel? You're going to feel discouraged. What are you going to do? You're going to avoid it at all costs and do something else, right? If you think,

>> right, remember that call, that cold call that went really well that led to this big deal. Oh, here's another opportunity. you feel at least excited or at worst neutral but not discouraged and then you make the call and your energy is better for the call because if you think the other thing and you do the call anyway they're going to feel your energy and they're not going to want to talk to you because you're already defeated before you even started. So like the power there's a couple books. The power of positive thinking um is is one that that can touch upon this very very well. And as far as like observing the thoughts, the one you mentioned is a heavy read. I think for people that want to know how to kind of listen to the the voice from a higher place in observer. The one that I would recommend is The Untethered Soul by by

>> Michael Singer. It's my favorite book on how to listen without judgment and how to observe your thoughts. It's it's actually really easy to follow, but um it's the same idea. It's like you're untethering your soul from your mind. So your soul is like truth. It's it's what's real and the mind is like fear and scarcity and you know um survivor survival mode. Uh so I I think this is work that you know meditation can help with. I don't know if you do meditate or if you you do um any type of practice to kind of disassociate from your mind a little bit, but for me that's been that's been helpful just to practice observation. Um, but it really does work. And the other one is stay above the O line, right? Which is like observe your thought and and then change your thought. Like it's it's all the same. It's all this this shifting of of what the mind because the mind's always going to go to criticism. The mind's always going to go to the negative. It's just how we're wired because we're wired for survival.

>> Yeah, exactly.

>> The the third thing you said is is this um exercise and habits. And I'm curious kind of you got >> you got a pretty good track record, but I'd love to know kind of what your routines look like as far as exercise, prayer, meditation, any kind of practices to keep yourself cool and calm. um versus the old identity of like panic and beating yourself up. Um especially with with an autistic daughter, you know, that I'm also in in that boat. So, there is a lot of patience needed when you're when you're parenting a a special needs child. So, I'm just curious kind of >> what your habits are and and what your life looks like to be able to show up consistently um at work, but also outside of work.

>> Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And then, you know, it was sort of like an identity shift that I went through. Like the old identity was underachiever, loser, wasted talent, not smart enough, can't support my family. That's how I identified. And it was like a quiet a quiet suffering, right? That was like my my state, right? Tony Robbins talks a lot about like your state. That that was my state. And I didn't want to admit that suffering. So to my wife cuz it was too much shame, you know? um just it's a very hard thing to deal with. So the the brain training we've we've gone through that a lot, right? But the the [snorts] physical training has been just as as important, right? So I've I grew up in like an old school meathead gym. This that was my first job, World Gym back in in 992000. It was one of those old school meathead kind of Gold's gym type of places. And um that's where I fell in love with working out. So, I always sort of worked out throughout throughout my life. When COVID hit and the gym shut down, I was like, "Oh, what what the hell am I going to do?" So, in my disgusting basement, I've got this corner in my basement. It's probably 15 by 20 ft. You know, there's insulation hanging, concrete walls. I started buying dumbbells, buying a squat rack. I've got all my stuff down there. And that's where sort of my weakness goes to die. I'm I'm down there like every day. Amber's post was incredible today and very timely about working out and and and all the progress you made, Amber, is is crazy. And that's like those are the benefits. It I'm a better it comes before anything.

>> Mhm.

>> And I'm not [ __ ] you. Like it comes before my family. It it comes before work. I put working out at the top of the list because I'm a little bit crappier of a husband when I don't work out. I'm a little bit crappier of a dad. I'm irritable. I'm not as confident at work. One of the deals I closed last year, it was like a 12 call uh kind of sprint with this large pharmaceutical company's uh procurement and legal team. I used to get on the airbike be like an hour before the call. Like I knew like what my talking points were, but I had my chief commercial officer on, had leadership, legal

>> and I got on the airike because the airbike sucks more than anything. I don't know if anyone does it. Um, it sucks. And so when you choose to go into pain and put yourself into challenging situations like going on a long run or a pelaton weight training, which which is what is my passion,

>> you're armoring yourself for what life will throw at you. Like when you consciously choose to do hard [ __ ]

>> when hard [ __ ] comes at you, you know how to deal with it because you're like building armor and it's connected the mind every

>> Well, it's interesting. There's a clip now. I'm gonna have to get a bunch of show notes. I Isaac, I hope you're taking taking some notes, but there's a clip with um Huberman and Gogggins where they talk about the anterior singling.

>> I know the exact clip. Y

>> So there's if it's not hard for you, it doesn't build it. So if you love running,

>> if you love running and you're saying, "I'm running to make it hard." No, it's not hard. It's the thing you don't want to do. So the fact you brought up the airbike which you hate that's that that part of the brain is associated with willpower and also longevity of life and um you know anti-aging interestingly and and the um

>> yeah it's why I had a trainer for for two years because I hated it and I

>> it sucks. It's s [laughter] but it's one of those things you show up and do it like the but the confidence you built right for anyone on air you know you can do anything when you do that. So so that was kind of the second thing that you that you mentioned as far as um

>> you know as far as the the strategy right and and the third thing I want to dive into is like what your what your sales I mean you're killing it in sales too. So we talked about mine we've talked about habits and you know what you're doing regularly. Um any other habits that you do before I jump into skills and and selling? Um any other kind of

>> big Yeah. You said the affirmation or the daily prayer that you're that you're saying the working out? You do weight training or running or what's the

>> Yeah. Weight training. Weight training. And like like like psychotically I I my wife yelled at me like on Christmas like I I my off day I I'll do like a hardcore workout and I created this gym in my basement like if I'm on a boring work call where I'm not talking mute off camera. Hope my boss doesn't watch this back. But you know those calls where you can sort of like you're just listening. I'll I'll get it in no matter what. If I have to get up super early if I have to get it in. My wife was yelling at me on Christmas. You cannot work out today. I'm like, "No, no problem." I went and did like abs in my bedroom before I took a shower cuz I've like like James Clear mindset, right? You're you're proving to yourself that you show up all the time. And like you said, and that that Gogggins, we've got to pull that Gogggins

>> and Huberman clip

>> when you do it, when you take the action when you don't want to, you're literally like building new neuropathways. It's like

>> there's crazy neuroscience behind that. So that's like

>> Mhm.

>> number one is is kind of the physical aspect. But the other thing I'll just mention is one of the strategies that I do is is um what so what I've done for this year and sort of like I love James Clear's um identity based sort of like behavior change. If folks have read Atomic Habits, I'm sure many folks have. He's like start with your identity, right? And don't start with the outcome. Don't start with like what you want, right? Everyone wants to Who here wants to make a million dollars this year in sales, right? We all do. I do. That's like always the goal. But you can't start there. You've got to start like

>> with your identity. You know, I'm the type of person who

>> goes to the gym when they don't want to. I'm the type of person who does their follow-ups, makes their calls, does their strategic planning, whatever it is. Like, start with identity. So, that's what I start with. Like I write down I make like two lists like this is who I don't want to be anymore, right? I don't want to be someone who doomscrolls. I don't want to be someone who fill in the blank. And I crumple that list up and throw it in the trash. Um or you can light it on fire, whatever it is. But then I make a second list of like this is who I'm becoming. And that's like the center of it. It deeper than that is sort of like your why and your values. But then it's like it's concentric circles, right? Identity drives habits drives outcome. So I try to focus on

>> identity and habits. Not so much like the big goal or the leaderboard. It's like just me against me mindset trying to be better every day is sort of the other thing that I' I'd throw in there.

>> I love it, man. And and again it it's it's all connected. It's all interconnected. When you start with this identity, then any opportunity or incident or situation in which that identity is compromised, you think and react differently to how you would normally do it. So that's why again I'll give one more example. Um I I just joined a program with Dan Sullivan. Uh for any entrepreneurs, you probably know him. He wrote 10X is easier than 2X, the gap in the gain, who not how. So I joined his coaching program this year and it's all about building a self-managing company. So the identity is I only work on activities that bring me joy and value to other people and that I love. So as I'm doing things that I don't love, right, I say, well, who can do this better than me? And it just happened. It happened twice actually in the past day where I was, is this my new identity? So it's like it starts with defining who you are and then it changes what you decide to do and that changes your outcome. So, the last part of this and then I want to open it up to the group because Mike, I mean, I could spend hours with you easily and I want I'd love you to >> to support this community. We can talk about it offline, but like you have a lot I'd love to, man. I'd love >> you have a lot of a lot of wisdom and and you're practicing in the field and I love that.

But tell me what habits changed at work. Tell me what you did differently at work that helped you go from 150k to over 600k every year. Like where do you spend your time at work and what changed there? I think it's really important for people to hear.

Yeah. So, when I This is really interesting. When I started this role, I didn't know how to close big deals like at all. And I lucked out with this company because it was the right timing. It was the right product market fit, but the leadership were just awesome. And I've gone through like I've been here almost eight years coming up in a few months, right? I've survived going through another one right now. Another leadership change. I've I've they've all been great. All the folks who have left and who have come in have just that's like the number one thing in in your role. Um it sucks when you don't have the right leadership, but in in this company, I've been blessed with the right leaders that have have mentored me in the first um VP of sales that I had, Tim, and our chief commercial officer, Brian, they kind of took me under their wing like this is how we get bigger deals done. And I learned very quick. I mean, I had to learn. I was in It's funny when when your back is up against the wall, like especially when you have other mouths to feed and especially when you have a kid with special needs to care for. You'll you'll you'll do anything. You will do anything. So, I was like, there was no failure was not an option for me. It it just wasn't. So, I was doing everything in my power to succeed. I learned very quickly, I had like 50 accounts. I learned very quickly that, you know, going at it the oldfashioned way um of just, you know, um spray and prey type of approaches, the things that don't work anymore weren't working. And we had one RFP going on. It turned into a multi-year deal. um 1 million ARR was 3 million total. And I just watched the way that um Tim and Brian helped me negotiate that and I was like this is this is incredible. Like I thought sales was it was like straightforward. Um it wasn't like all that complicated. I was like I can totally do this. So I started just focusing on like the bigger deals, right? That's how I've always done it. Like one you you talk about this Ian in your content, right? It's like it's a couple singles and a couple doubles are great, but if you want to make north of 500 or seven figures, you've got to be going after or landing a one or two big multi-year deals, right? So, that's like been my laser focus. It's also stressful because you're not going to have a full pipeline of all those deals typically. I mean, you might add

what's your what's your close rate look like on the bigger deals. So you're you're focusing and you're spending more time on fewer but larger opportunities. That is the playbook. There is no there is not a single person I know.

Yeah.

That I've ever coached or run across that's made over a million dollars that has done it with spray and prey or large volume. It's always been 8020. It's focus on get to executives. So has that been your experience when you've made 600k? Like a few deals very large but make sure you win them and execute and bring up your team. Like give me a little more.

Yeah. Yeah. I've I've done it with um I've done it with selling a a crapload of of doubles, like hitting a couple a crapload of doubles, like deals in like the 4 to 600k range. Um

but I've when I've made I I had a seven figure year a few a few years ago and that was like one was a you know a three-year deal, a two-year deal, another three-year deal and just focusing that was like my pipeline. Right. And like the the singles and doubles I would I would try to, you know, delegate to other folks on the team and just spend the 8020 rule like you said, most of my time on the on those bigger deals.

Mhm.

And and getting those across the line. Um and last year we did one um it was a 7.8 million three three-year deal where we had to build a new API and you know use new AI technologies. we didn't really have the the product. We had we had to build it for this uh large pharma company. Um but I had a lot of experience under my belt. Um and the way we put it together was was pretty unique. There was there was a lot of internal resistance at the beginning. Sort of like what are we doing? This isn't out of the box. And

um we we adopted the slow is smooth, smooth is fast sort of the customer wanted how much is this going to cost? how much it's going to cost in like May. And we didn't deliver the proposal until like September because I was like, "Everyone slow the f down. Let's figure out what's being asked and let's put together a true narrative uh proposal." So, I've I've worked with Brandon Flu Hardy, one one of your friends, right, for 18 months now. And he really coached me along with developing more of a narrative proposal, not not using the slide deck that is on the shelf, right? Um

yeah. But again, I'm I'm stressed as everyone is about this year. Uh, yeah. I don't know how I'm going to duplicate. Now you got that.

Now you got a reputation and a track record to uphold.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's tough. It's It's stressful, but I know how to deal with it. You know what I mean? Um, it's just, you know, got to put in the reps, got to build the pipeline, and everyone knows the drill there. So, hopefully we'll have a good outcome at at the end of the year.

I love it, man. Well, I want to leave leave time [clears throat] for questions. Um before we open it up to the group, I want everyone Yeah, raise your hands. There we go. We got them coming. Um I want everyone to know like if they want to follow you or um have get in touch or have questions, what's the best way to get a hold of you?

Yeah, my best friend Amber is going to post in some links, I think, for me, right? Oh, she already did. Love you, Amber. Thank you. Yeah, so please uh you know, connect with me on LinkedIn. That's number one. Um, I wrote something called the comeback code, which is like my 10 things that I did to transform my life. It's on Substack. You can you can grab a copy of it. I've talked through a few of the things that I did on the call here, but you can grab a link to to the comeback code. And then if you want to book additional time with me, I I've just um I've just started coaching. I've got a few hand a handful of uh clients. I'm a full-time seller, right? But if anyone wants to follow up, you know, obviously not stealing you away from Untapped, but if you want to go deeper on this stuff, I I just love it. I love talking about it. It helps me as much as it helps you. I'm happy to offer like 30 minute sessions if anyone wants to go deeper. So, you can hit one of those links and book additional time if if if you want. I'm happy to do that if folks want to go.

We'll put all the links in the show notes for everyone listening. And uh let's let's open it up to questions. We got uh Frank. Uh first question, my man. You can you can take us away.

Cool.

What's up, Frank?

What's up, Mike? How you doing, man?

Good. Yourself?

Been uh this has been great, dude? Yeah. Um I guess my my question to you really is you you mentioned earlier on not focusing on really the the uh endgame or or you know, uh you don't have a number in mind, right? So do you do you figure out your identity first and then you know eventually you put a number on it and and try to reverse engineer it from there. So I mean I guess what I'm asking is is there you know is there a point in your process where you put you know a n like you know you set a specific goal

or do you just focus just your identity?

Yeah. Yeah. I've gone back and forth with goal setting. I have like a lovehate relationship with with goal setting. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. I

last year at the end of uh 2024 going into 2025, I spent like a full day, you know, going through all my goals, itemizing them. Ian, by the way, I'm going to your goal setting thing which is coming up, right? I'm

Yeah, it's a Thursday the 15th for anyone listening.

Yeah. So, I'm pumped to to uh attend that. So, I I in the past I have like I've got a little OCD in me where I'll go through my goals and then I'll forget what I and I'll spend so much time going into them and then I won't look at them like ever again, right? And then I feel shame like what did I write down? I didn't even Right. Like like 90% of the people out there who don't follow through. Um, so this year I I picked like three key things that I want to do this year.

One, make a million dollar in sales because that feeds my family and it will I can make the right investments into my coaching business or or whatnot. That's number one. Number two is I want to write consistently on LinkedIn. It took me a long time to and Taylor Johnson who I've worked with, Amber who I who I've worked with work with, Brandon who I work with, have coached me and you guys have helped me so much like you got to tell your story. Don't worry about fear of other people's opinion because I'm an active seller. I was like, what if I say the wrong thing and get fired or it was always like and Ian is

well you already said you just like mute it and you and you turn off your camera and you're just working out during your internal meeting. So, you know what? Mark. [laughter]

Yeah. Ian and Brandon and and others, you guys have paved the way. But to answer your question, I'm I'm going all over the place, is like I start with my why, which is always like my family, my kids. There's an exercise called the seven level why. You can Google it. Um Darren McKe, who's on LinkedIn, um he turned me on to it. It It's really helpful. It's hard. It's like, "What's your why?" And then you answer and it's like, "Well, why?" It's basically like why is that? Well, why is that? And you go deeper and deeper.

It was really helpful for me to start there. I did that a few months ago,

remind myself what my values are and then build like what are the habits. I I have a vision and a goal of course and outcome, but I don't I disassociate with it, right? Like you talk about Ian, right? You're you're not your quota. You your famous talk from the summit uh a few years back, right? It's like that's hard to do because I've got the same problem, you know, internally. It's how you going to hit your H1 plan, how you going to hit your end of year number leaderboards, right? It's like don't compare yourself. That's a killer is comparing yourself to other people. It's it it's a killer, right? Compare yourself to who you were yesterday. Try to get better every day. Start with start with your why, your values, your identity. I'm the type of person who fill in the blank. So atomic that's a James Clear atomic. I'm the type of person who fill in the blank. I'm the type of person who fill in the blank. Set set your your uh compass to the outcome you want. But that it can change like be okay if that goal ch it will change right as you start to go down the path. So hopefully that's a helpful answer. It's not a it's not perfect, but Ian, you've got a lot to say on this. Now, you can go to the the webinar next week. We're going to go through the process of goal setting. But the purpose of a goal is not to achieve it. It's who it forces you to become in order to get there. So, we did this yesterday. We had a client who wants to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. And it's not because she wants to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. That's that's an endgame. It's because she wants to get in the best shape of her life, take care of her body, eat healthy. And so, that's going to be a forcing function for discipline, for diet, for exercise, for sleep, right? So it's like that that's the process, right? So who who would you need to become to make a million dollars? How would you need to show up? Where would you need to focus? How would you spend your time? It's it's that that is the daily operating routine. Not the number, but the identity of what does that person do every day, right? Just like I run a self-managing company. What am I doing if the company is self-managing? It gets you to think differently. So if you're a million- dollar earner, you're not going back and forth on demos with a 10K opportunity. That's for sure. So, it it's it's it's it starts there. I hope that that helps. But it's all about process process thinking in terms of focus on the process, not the prize. And the process is what you're doing every day that leads to the prize. Um let's take uh Cole next.

Nice guys.

Hey there, Mike. Um man, you sharing your story and everything. It's really inspiring.

Um got a quick question for you then. um during that mindset change that you kind of went through after being at rock bottom, what was the biggest challenge of you kind of getting in that state of mind of being that 300k earner and like how did you kind of tell yourself every single day because I'm sure it wasn't just overnight and

what was the challenge that you had to face and how did you overcome that?

Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic question. It was not overnight. I mean this took it takes a long time. I I think mindset is is just like physical fitness, right? You can't work out once and be in shape. You can't work out for a year and be in shape for the rest of your life. It's a it's a lifelong commitment, right? You got to train your mind in the same way you train your body. And I think it just like it takes a if you're doing it the right way and you're committing yourself to be physically fit, it t it takes a long time. It's a lifelong commitment. That's how I view like mental toughness or having a strong mindset. And I don't view mental toughness or positive thinking as like you're impenetrable, like nothing affects you. You know, I get affected triggered, you get affected, you get triggered. But the key is like to jump back into um that positive state fast, right? Not to spiral for hours and hours and days. Like it's okay to spiral for a little bit for a few minutes. It's different for everyone. But just have that awareness, replace that thought, and get back on your horse and take action. As long as you get back on the horse and snap back into it quick.

Um, but it took me a long time, man. Yeah, it took me several months. I had this commute going back and forth, as I mentioned, and I was just feeding my mind the right stuff. I was doing this brain training. It It takes time. It's it's definitely not overnight, but what can be overnight is the decision. Like foot in [snorts] the ground, line in the sand, [ __ ] this. And this is the way it's going to be from now on. Defining your identity and then proving it every day with the actions you take. If anyone on here wants to make a change, write it down tonight before you go to bed. Starting tomorrow, take one little action that proves that new identity true. Whatever it is, want to eat better, write it down tonight. I'm going to eat better tomorrow. Make yourself a healthy breakfast. That's all it is. It's stacking the evidence every It's boring, right? The secret is there is no secret. It's faking boring as hell, but that's what's been that's what's effective in my experience at least. Yeah. Ian, what do you think? I was thinking you have to have the new identity anchored every day. You're talking about you started saying things to yourself. I'm the kind of person who does these things. I'm already making 300K. I'm making you know that is a habit that you're practicing every day. So, I'm looking at my my mission statement now. My family is calling. My family is calling. And it's it's about being patient and present and loving and and it's like if I don't look at this [ __ ] every day, I default to being impatient and I default to being short-tempered. Right? So it's like you have to program your brain daily or it will default to the natural um the prior state that that it was in. So I I really

that is a habit. the listening the daily prayer you do Mike and the daily affirmations or mantras are the new identity that you're reminding yourself of every day that then programs into your subconscious so that you start taking the right actions. So I would that's the thing that I would start with is like either an I am statement or a mission statement or an affirmation or a daily prayer to like this is my higher self. this is the person that I want to show up as and then everything out of integrity or out of alignment with that is going to be more visible and obvious because you're literally doing the opposite or you know of what you say your new identity is. So it's like it's like the example I said about building a self-managing company. Every time I'm doing low value activities or ads I'm think wait a minute is this the highest value? So it force it becomes a forcing function for the decisions you make because there's going to be a lot of friction if you're in congruent with who you say you are every day to repeat to yourself. So I really think that time alone defining and affirming who you want to be. This this new identity is is is the consistent practice that you must take in order to shed that old identity. It it starts with just reminding yourself who you're becoming. Otherwise you're just going to go back. So it takes it takes that intention and that that's the one thing I heard has it's been consistent for you for nine years, Mike, is that daily affirmation of or daily prayer.

Yeah, 100%. It probably goes back 30 years. I remember high school basketball sitting in the locker room like doing this saying things to so it started like way way way back. I thought I was a freaking weirdo. Like what am I freaking weird? I'm talking to myself and stuff. But then I started to listen to Hubberman. I was like oh wait I was doing this neuroscience stuff. This is interesting. So

yeah. Yeah. You're programming your brain. You're programming your subconscious and and that leads to actions. So what you think determines what you do, what you do determines how you feel. How you feel determines your results. And and all of it's kind of intermingled as well. So So do the thing you don't feel like doing and then you train discipline and then you get the right actions and and the right results. Um I don't see any any more questions and I know we're at the top of the hour. So, um, Mike, I I just want to say, you know, thank you for coming on. Um, I would love to again plug you in more and get you connected.

Yeah, man. I would love it. This has been so fun. This has been so fulfilling. Um, you know, followed you for a long time and Tanver's on here. Your your video earlier this week, Tanvir, about 247 um was just so freaking spot on, man. Yeah, I interrupted you, Ian. Sorry.

Any any words for someone who is down in the dumps? anything that you want to impart for someone who really is in that place you were in that you want to leave them with?

Yeah, that's a great question. I would say don't don't quit. Just don't quit. We we all all go through I think of life now as like seasons. You know, I think we're all in a season at at we're we're either in a season of growth, a season of pain. It's like leaves on a tree, right? They grow, they turn brown, they die, they fall off. It's the same thing with life, right? It's tough to see when you're in the season of pain, but as long as you don't quit and as long as you keep going, as long as you surround yourself with people who have been there, um, you know, Ian, Amber, just get people who who understand it, other folks who are going through the same stuff. Um, talk to someone if you're having dark thoughts. Um, for sure. But, you know, don't give up. Just keep going. There's there's always an answer. Um, and and that's what I would say. Just just just keep keep going and don't quit.

And it can change just like that. Never again. No more. I'm done. Those are the most powerful words you can say to yourself. And, you know, and and and I I I have the same story, Mike. I I misqued three years in a row. I remember the last day and I looked in the mirror and I said, "Never again." I didn't use those words. It was a lot harsher, but that was it for me then. And I never

never looked back. So, so it can happen in an instant when you're ready to change when you really decide no more than the right the right people and the right um mentors are going to appear when the student's ready. So, thank thank you Mike for coming and I I know our last conversation. I think we'll be deeply connected and and I'm looking forward to seeing more of you. So, all right, everyone.

Thanks so much, Ian. Thank you. Thank you, Amber. Thanks for setting us up.

Bye, guys. Thanks so much.