5:57am: Have slept on a plane two days in a row. Waking up three minutes before the clock. Tired but wired.
6:15am: Shower. Shaved. Dressed. No time to waste have to make my time count. Take a thirty minute walk, pacing, practicing the material for the full day in my head. This is the last practice run. It’s time to perform or be taken down a peg. Luckily the first meeting is a warm up.
7:15am: Head out the door, food on the go, jump in a car and we’re on our way.
7:45am: If you’re early you’re on time. If you’re on time you’re late and if you’re late you’re dead. Good timing as emails flow through that need responses before the jump at 8.
8:00am: Cold meeting, no one reads those presentations anyway, we chat and triangulate future needs. Feels like a solid future relationship, unfortunately introductions mean nothing without future tasks that generate revenue.
9:00am: Important meeting number one. The client seems to be in a good mood from the progress over the past few weeks. I can feel the lack of sleep kicking in so I do what needs to be done to stay awake. There is no time for error in two hours. We go back and forth and it looks like everything is going well, phone starts vibrating and it looks like we have an issue with another client that is looking for information. Wrap up the meeting as fast as possible.
10:30am: The pain is beginning. Juggling a hectic client and flight to catch. Bad timing. Make time or lose money. Handle the call in a muffled voice during the drive to the airport and its a short flight to the most important meeting of the day. I’m sweating, emails keep rolling in and need to respond before getting onto the plane. Unlike a normal flight there are no lines, you walk quickly, board and you’re gone in minutes. Is my time worth this much? We’ll see by the end of the next meeting. If not it’s back to the grind.
11:00am: Board the plane. Continuously responding to emails and catching old emails from earlier in the morning.
12:35pm: Land and run quickly. Running a few minutes late would be unacceptable. The meeting is close and the last 15 minutes are spent memorizing the numbers I need, the flow of the ideas and of course triple checking to make sure I have all the necessary items. Presentation, miniature mirror and all important contact information.
1:00pm: This meeting drags on. The most important part regarding valuation is approaching. This can turn into a large fee if we can add value, a concept still foreign to the ninety nine percent. The numbers flow back and forth in a casual conversation. The range of values come up and I get a quick read on where the price would work out. The high end isn’t going to work and luckily his language is telling me he doesn’t expect it. I think I’ve got enough information on where the bid/ask will be drawn.
How do you quickly read the language you may ask? The answer is in the pocket mirror. I place it just below the desk to catch the angle of the client’s feet. Without maximum information on a person’s body language (read the book) you’re getting half of the story and your life is made tougher, remember unlike what you’re told in the media, this is a sales job.
3:00pm: After a late lunch and long meeting I’m feeling some belief in the range to provide. Place a few phone calls and begin quickly writing down every detail from the meeting and what I believe to be an appropriate deal structure. Running numbers and answering phone calls on a dead brain. Pain today or regret tomorrow. Have to make this day count.
3:30pm: Head to the last set of meetings for the final two hours of the day. Back to back to back trying to gather more information on sprouting relationships. I can feel myself fading more and more luckily there is a 35 minute drive to the next flight.
5:45pm: Knocked out cold to the airport.
6:30pm: Rush through security, no reason to waste time and money on multiple private flights. I have not earned the right to. Flight delayed. I’ve got an hour. Reviewing the notes from the most important meeting of the day it is time to do back of the envelope calculations for delivery to the team tomorrow morning. Staring at the glaring light I finish up just in time for boarding.
7:30pm: Its going to be a jet lagged flight won’t be arriving until early the next morning. Pop a Pill I’ll be out in 15.
Blackbook Notes: Every time a day is about to end I attempt to write down important personal thoughts for the day. Today is a big question about time. Unlike broke people or losers I don’t have time to degrade the accomplishments of my superiors. How much money is my time worth? How much money is your time worth? Can we really insult a man who can add millions of dollars in value for spending an extra few thousand dollars to add such value and save valuable time? We can’t. For better or worse I saved a landing photo from the trip to remind myself of the opportunity to generate real value. If I fail, it will be back to the grind, if I succeed… It will be back to the grind. No matter what, the photo will be hanging on my bathroom mirror as a reminder of effort and hard work. Life is about a positive feedback loop and this is why you’re consistently growing or you’re consistently dying.
