This was supposed to be a Sunday morning Newsletter

Don't be a Dummy Like Me

Author

Brian Hammond
November 5th, 2023

 

You know the type. You pour a cup of coffee, crack open that inbox, and your read your favorite newsletter to begin this 7th and final day of the week before you start fresh tomorrow. 

What’s better than getting your synapses firing on a Sunday morning as you take your brain into a mindset for learning and growth?

Its the same reason why shows like Meet the Press, The 700 Club, and Face the Nation have always held court on your the screens on Sunday morning.

Before of course all of the football that you can handle dominates the airwaves and ushers in the Sunday afternoon stuff your face and drink some beer mindset. 

Anyways, so like I said, this was was supposed to be a Sunday morning Newsletter.

So what happened?

I messed it all up!

Let’s rewind back to April 2023 to explain everything…

There I was sitting around at home with my partner and I decided it was time. After 20 years of working for other people, and some fantastic other people at that, I was ready to start working for myself. My father who has a 22 year head start on me was 5 years into his own business venture and I could see the yellow brick road he was paving for himself.

Freedom, entrepreneurship, challenges. All are things that I love about my current career, but have very little control over. 

So despite being a successful leader of several sales teams at a fast growing financial consulting firm, I knew deep down inside I was not getting my message out to enough people. Sure, after creating a LinkedIn page for the first time in my 20 years of work I had some followers.

But, I wasn’t getting My Voice out to enough people.

So, what was my voice? 

I had an idea. I was going to start pushing out content to help other sales people grow their revenue, achieve their goals, and live a better life.

Then, I was going to launch my company… 

The Selling Collective

I know, sick name right? 

It was going to be great. I would parlay all of my experiences in the 20 years of sales and management roles I had held, into a platform to help other sellers achieve more.

It would truly be a collective too!

We would have memberships and contributors from all types of sellers. Each providing a unique viewpoint on the many but similar challenges we all faced. 

And the best part?

When this thing took off like I had planned, I could step away from the corporate world and enjoy all of those things I desired. Freedom, travel, no schedules to adhere to.

Boy was this going to be fun. 

Okay, so if your are reading this then you know this newsletter is not called The Selling Collective. And you definitely didn’t subscribe to learn sales tips.

So what does this have to do with Win Some | Learn Some?

Well, I messed it all up.

Learning from our mistakes is an essential skill that we all must have to grow i life. I went for the idea that was hot at the time that I had some expertise in, but it was not core to my mission.

Every other post on LinkedIn said, “Sales is dead” “AI will replace sales people” “Cold calling doesn’t work” 

And even though I knew this was wrong. Even though I knew that I could help. Even though I knew that there was an opportunity for me to step in and show the world what I could do.

This was not my mission.

So it all stuttered. I lost momentum. I lost passion.

Like I said above, I messed it all up. I wasn’t meant to talk about sales strategies. I was meant to talk about something totally different.

And I was meant to share it here with you.

Back to today

6+ months after I bought a domain called, thesellingcollective.com (still there if you want to look at its tombstone) I am ditching it for good. 

Why? It was a good idea. The sales world needs fresh voices to show us a different path to success. 

But that is not MY VOICE. It is not what I truly can bring to world. To help others. To make a difference. 

And so, if you are still reading this, you know that this probably landed in your inbox Sunday evening.

If you are making coffee to enjoy while you read this, you are a monster.

So why did it not go out on time. 

Because after I learned my lesson walking down the wrong path with The Selling Collective, I went ahead and messed up again by writing a long winded story about how Oprah Winfrey overcame a bunch of adversity to create here media empire. 

All of the time I spent wiring about Oprah was for nothing. Because at the end of the day, it was not MY VOICE.  

MY VOICE has been built over many years of winning and learning. I chose pathways in life that most would not choose.

I dropped out of high school. I never went to college. I never listened to others when they said I would be good at this, or that I should try for that.

I needed a path that I chose and that the only education would come from my experience trying.

So here is the real deal. You will get an amazing newsletter every Sunday morning starting next week.

One that you can enjoy with your coffee and whatever else greases those brain waves after a long week. 

This will be a newsletter for learning. For growing. For putting yourself into a Learn Some Mindset each and every day, so that when you do not win (because nobody wins all the time) you can still learn!

This will be fun!

See you next Sunday! I’ll brew the coffee ☕️