Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the daily grind on today's episode We are sitting down with Ian Comiak. Ian is a strategic account director at Salesforce.com But not only that he's a sales leader content creator and coach. Hope you enjoy today's interview Today's episode is brought to you by eBay, Canada. eBay, Canada continues to help retailers bring their businesses online quickly through the up and running program When you sell on eBay as a retailer you can continue to serve your existing customers while gaining access to more than 180 million buyers in 190 countries Allowing you to stay local yet sell global.
This up and running program is incredible and as a Canadian business seller You gain access to no listing fees on up to 200 listings per month Where you only pay fees when you sell access to the eBay community group where you can get real-time advice and inspiration from experienced sellers and eBay team members Powerful selling tools and insights and access to eBay's 180 million plus buyers around the world. eBay, Canada is here to help you They've been supporting Canadian small business retailers for 25 years and launched this up and running program to meet an urgent need today So if you're a Canadian small business retailer or you know someone who is visit ebay.ca forward slash up and running and get started with this today Again, that is ebay.ca forward slash up and running So today on the podcast everyone as I mentioned we're sitting down with Ian Konyak who has worked in B2B technology sales for 18 years at 500 companies such as Salesforce and Ricco as an individual contributor sales manager and director of sales with over 100 million in career sales And numerous finishes at number one nationally Ian currently works on the enterprise sales team at Salesforce For he partners with the largest customers to help them drive growth innovation and success on the salesforce platform Be sure as always everyone you have a pen piece of paper sit back and dive deep in today's interview with Ian Konyak Enjoy Ian Konyak welcome to the daily guide my friend. How are you doing? Great.
How's it going? I am great Ian. Uh, what's new? How's life?
Life is crazy right now. I got a four-week-old in the house With my mom and my wife and I have a four-year-old who also needs us I'm on paternity leave I've been on paternity leave for about a month and I'm taking 12 weeks to Recharge with my family and it's been anything but recharging. It's actually been more work than running a business and You know having a full-time job. So I definitely am looking forward to getting back in a normal routine But I think it's going to be a while with a new board who refuses to sleep now He just sleeps literally on top of one of us.
So it's just rotating and non-stop chaos in my house right now That's awesome. Well for people who are being first introduced to you Don't know much about you if you wouldn't mind just kind of explaining a little bit as to kind of who you are and what it is that you do in? Yeah, that's great. Um, so my background is in sales.
I've been selling for 18 years I'm currently a strategic account director at Salesforce.com What that means is I manage our largest enterprise accounts And I'm responsible for maintaining the global relationships with Fortune 500 companies as well as I have a large sales team That's under me. Salesforce owns a bunch of companies and there's a lot of sales reps that sell different products in a portfolio It all ultimately rolls up through me So I'm responsible for setting the strategy setting the direction and making sure Salesforce is aligned to their C-suite and really supporting You know their top initiatives from the CEO on down and then I have a small army at Salesforce that really helps with the day-to-day execution That's my full-time job and on the side I run a coaching business It's eenconiac.com and I do sales coaching and training. I've been selling at high level for 18 years But also I've managed sales teams and ran sales organizations and you know about I would say almost two years ago I had a near-death experience And it just kind of woke me up into you know Hey, if I die tomorrow what I'd be happy with the life I lived and the short answer was no And the reason why is because I wasn't giving back enough I really felt like I had a lot of gifts that I was using to better myself and my income and my family But I certainly wasn't sharing this with the world. So I started you know about two years ago Really starting to have my own business focused on sales training and coaching really it's media It's producing videos that are sales videos and it's kind of morphed and grown into A lot of people that watch the videos need more help They love the information, but they need help with application and applying it So I've been doing that on the side for almost two years But really in the past year it's taken off quite a bit So I've been doing guest speaking and podcast and I do a lot of the training at Salesforce as well So I've just been my whole entire life has been kind of a devotion to continuous improvement Really maximizing my own potential and now I'm teaching others how to maximize their potential through my coaching business So yeah, that's that's a bit about me in a nutshell I'm also a father of two kids and a husband and a man of faith too So got a lot going on interesting.
So you mentioned a near-death experience Can you share a little bit more about that and maybe kind of how that that shifted maybe your mindset and what you're doing a little bit? Yeah, well, I've had a couple actually In my life. Yeah, one was when I was 26 years old. I really it's not the more recent ones I won't spend a lot of time on it But I had the addiction in my family for a while and I kind of was living this crazy High-flying lifestyle in my 20s where I was working really hard and playing really hard and unfortunately I had a drinking problem and I crashed into a tree When I was 26 years old and nearly died I probably should be dead because I was going 50 miles an hour but my god's grace I walked out of there and You know fortunately turned my act around in that department having been drunk driving a very very low alcohol consumption for a long time But more recently was December 28 2018 so almost two years ago And I'm very afraid of heights and I always like to push myself a little outside my comfort zone and do what I'm afraid of And so I decided to go to Six Flags and go to on a ride called Tatsu I live in Los Angeles This is at Six Flags Mountain and that ride in particular is very afraid of because it's a flying coaster So a flying coaster is a roller coaster where you're not sitting on top of the track the track is actually above you when you're suspended You're suspended hanging Straight down so instead of just sitting it actually bends you forward and it simulates flying so it's called a flying coaster So the tracks above you and I'm like well, this this is crazy because I'm staring at my dad So I decide to go on that ride and not just go on it but go false the walls and you know sit in front row Right, so you really don't see anything in front of you and I'm with my brother and we get to the top It's chugga chugga chugga chugga getting all the way up Peak point of the ride is about 180 feet or 18 stories high And so right when we're about to do the drop we hear a creek and then a bolt and all of a sudden instead of going down The ride completely stops.
So I'm suspended hanging down upside down Forward because the ride is about to drop and it stops And we thought it was part of the ride or something happened You know you wait a few seconds and then the ride didn't stop and to make a long story short I thought I was going to die and I say near death because I truly in my heart believe I was going to die So all of my weight was hanging on this little harness and you're all of your weight 100 So that thing drops you drop. So I thought the harness was going to give out because it was sitting up there like that And you know I ended up being stuck up there for 30 minutes and How long did I feel like you're up there for? I don't know. I mean it was timeless really when I was sitting up there because I was staring every time I opened my eyes I'd see this massive drop to concrete 180 feet now We're above the trees and I can if I can share my screen and show you a picture because I've used this in keynote a few times but the The gist of it was I started breathing heavily and then there were people that were passing out behind us like people because of blood rushing People passing out like we can't do anything.
We can't do anything. We're working on it and people are just panicking and I start kind of hyperventilating And I'm just like I practice meditation before I'm just like close my eyes pretend that none of this exists and just keep breathing So I breathe I breathe and I'm like oh Okay, close my eyes and breathe because I didn't know what else to do because I was literally the point people were passing out and you got blood rushing your head and so um You know the the The main kind of takeaway there is I started praying hard in that moment and I said god I know I've been keeping my gifts to myself. I know there's a bigger purpose for me I know that and I was never I would say spiritual or religious person in any sense until then Um, but I said, you know, whatever is that I meant to be doing. I'm not gonna wait anymore I promise I will do this I promise and then I swear to you I will do this in that moment I said that that's when it started going and that's probably the fifth time in my life that something crazy serendipitous where I pray the exact thing happened Right then and there that I was praying for so um, you know, I took it seriously and that propelled me on this This mission where I didn't really know where my business would go or what I would be doing But I knew I'd be serving people so I said well, what can I do?
Well, I've always been a good speaker I've always led a lot of trainings and stuff so I'm like why don't I just start producing videos? And so I got on instagram I didn't even have an account at that time and I knew instagram was kind of blowing up for visual and videos And so I said I'll do a 365 day challenge and I'm gonna make a video every single day for 365 days Even if it's a short one minute or whatever, I'm gonna that's my commitment. I'm gonna do it every day Um, and I did I started making these videos that were motivational videos personal inspiration sharing stories doing some sales training and whatnot And that kind of propelled me, um, I got following there and then I expanded to LinkedIn and then people started wanting more and they wanted consulting and they wanted help Or they wanted me to speak or whatever and so it's kind of evolved naturally into the coaching business I have today, but it all started with just thinking I asked myself the question if I was gonna die tomorrow You know what I'd be happy with the life I led and the answer was in the sounding no And so I'm happy to say if it happened tomorrow if something got you know terrible happened and I passed away Obviously, you know, I got a family and I wouldn't want that But I would be happy at least because I'd taken steps towards fulfilling my mission and purpose in life Which I wasn't doing before I was just kind of floating by and not having any passion I was selling a boatload, but I wasn't driven by a mission and now every day I'm driven by a mission and that's made all the difference for me And what is that mission? It's truly to live my best life by serving other people and putting other people first and doing it the right way So with regards to service, it's not just about um serving You know, it's not just about serving my clients in sales.
I'm not out to make better sales people That's great. That's certainly it's about helping people realize that um anything is possible and they can if they get out of their own way and truly Um, you know eliminate what's what's either distracting or holding a back or those roadblocks be a mental or other things in their life Um that anything is possible and you can't achieve your greatest dreams And and that goes that's kind of on the business side on the on the um personal side My mission is to be the best husband and father that I can be um as I mentioned I struggle with addiction my father passed away when he was only 53 I have addiction in my family and I've seen relatives male relatives passed away very young including my cousin who was 47 and I've just Unfortunately, um seen a lot of the downside of living a high flying life cycle or not life cycle High a high flying lifestyle and it's really for my my son's. It's it's about um personally Becoming the best version of myself that I could be and always striving to improve that so on the personal level It means you know the reason I'm taking 12 weeks off is because I'm trying to put my family first and make sure that I'm committed to Um their success right and that means quality time and it means presence so um being the best father and husband from a face perspective It's trying to live by the standards that God sets for us and the bible sets for us Which is living honest life being a good person giving back truly um, you know Having more self-control and more gentleness than the intense crazy lifestyle that I used to live and on the on the work level It's truly is um, you know fulfilling your mission and not being confined by what society tells you you need to do Showing that anything is possible in terms of if you stay true to yourself You know where you're going and you put in the right work. You can you defy all odds because um, you know the reality is too Many people are just skating by life.
They're comfortable They're not you know, they've settled and they're not living a passionate life And I want to show people through the way I live being by example that you can have the life in your dreams And anything is possible if you um get out of your own way and if you step into the person Always meant to be and for me personally, that means I've had to give up a lot of the things that it used to hold me back And now I'm helping others do the same thing. So I hardly watch any television. I hardly drink I stopped smoking pot. I stopped looking at porn.
I stopped doing everything that used to take up time that wasn't advancing before So it's been you take someone who was addicted to probably 10 things right in terms of gambling addiction or Everything from alcohol to weed to sex the gambling you name it to traveling. I lived in Venezuela for a year I lived in Australia for a year. I was always I needed something to keep me So so for me to go to that lifestyle and now being a family man and just mellow and just truly living I would say a I'm not gonna call it normal because by any means not normal But uh, honest lifestyle righteous life cycle every day trying to be a good person to do the right thing Even if it means, you know, um sacrificing little things that make my ego happy is a massive transition and I'm doing it I'm doing it now in a way that I've never done before so I just feel like, you know life for me The mission is always get better set yourself out to go after challenges conquer them and go after the next challenges Because that's what makes life exciting and it inspires other people It's really about they can see someone and they can see parts of themselves and you and they can say no I struggle with that too and I see this all the time I see it with my addiction groups that I'm in I see it with Salesforce and people that are trying to be the top rep I see it with entrepreneurs that are trying to follow their dreams and own their own business, right? They have these ambitions, but they don't have a mentor they don't have an example They don't have somebody they can relate to that's been through the bullshit that they're going through that they can actually look up to and that has overcome those same challenges So for me, it's about full transparency and being open about the challenges and the struggles that I've had in business and sales in life and family So that I can inspire and help others to realize that you know what there is hope on the other side of whatever you're going through right now So as you made that transformation and those listening or trying to make that transformation themselves Whether it's starting a business or whether it's getting rid of something bad in their life Everyone has something right like everyone who's listening has something they want to stop They all might still be by the way, there's no perfection, but get rid of the big bad ones So like how would you to those people who want to stop those cycles and create new ones?
What are some things that they can work on? What are some things that you've seen worked for people? Whether it be habits or whether it be just little daily things that you do? What are some things that really work?
Yeah, I'll get ready because I have a bunch. So I'll start off by framing it. Beat your focus and starve your distraction What does that mean? Right?
What does that mean? So I actually did a video on this Which it's really a focus quadrant I can show you because it's right behind me because I have this Just from last week, but behind me there's a little whiteboard And it's it's really simple to see but the whiteboard shows The there's a quadrant right there's an x-axis and there's a y-axis in the x-axis on the left side It says work and on the right size. It says personal above the the x line is focus and below it is distraction So you have four quadrants so you have your personal focus areas and you have your work focus areas Then you have your work distractions and your personal distractions So I actually came up with this and I'm calling it the focus quadrant and it's basically the goal is to say okay You feed your focus you spend the time above the x-axis And you avoid and eliminate the stuff that's below the x-axis and work and in life So I'll give you a couple of examples really quick where they where they focus areas in my personal life Well, it's family. How do I feed that while I spend time with them?
I block off lunch with my wife every single day I'm cooking the dinner. I'm spending time helping my son is on the autism spectrum with his therapies, right? I'm basically making time making your priority to be with my family spirituality. I'm making sure I go to church every single Sunday I also pray every morning So you have the areas you want to focus on but then you need the actions behind how you fit it into your calendar So it's just part of your cadence, you know what?
It's real simple for me when I'm running I'm also multitasking. I'm listening to a podcast on personal development or addiction recovery or I'm reading a way of the superior man right now Which is a really really cool book that is all about how do you feed your mission and be the family man and the lover you want for your for your partner Which is you know what I'm working on but that is going whenever I'm working out or whenever I'm taking a walk So I have like this multitasking thing so I have personal development that means listening to podcasts It also means reading books and then I have friends, right? You know taking a walk meeting up with a friend Yeah I would say that if you have healthy areas in your focus areas and you make them in your calendar what that does is it eliminates a lot of Distraction so it's both it's not just hey, I'm gonna stop drinking so I'm not hung over on Saturday morning So I can get get the garage clean and do the stuff I want to do which I wouldn't do if I was hung over It's also I'm going to calendarize what I'm doing on that Saturday morning I'm gonna have a goal sheet every day of what I want to do and I realize that these distractions have no place in the man I'm becoming the person that I want to be so the distractions I have here are all the addictions It's all the alcohol, right? It's it's gaming.
It's browsing the internet watching YouTube videos mindlessly. It's social media It's TV. It's Netflix. It's a pornography.
It's everything that basically when you do you say man I just waste the time. Why did I do this? I'm not happy with myself and I think it's a little controversial because no one talks about this stuff No one really goes in and says these things are bad, right? If you're drinking people know what's wrong is a problem You know what I still drink but I don't get drunk.
I might have two drinks maximum once a week, right? I still like to socialize I think you can't be extreme I'm cutting this off without having healthy substitutes for yourself now in the work realm There's something I call RGA's which in sales it stands for revenue generating activities. Well, same thing as an entrepreneur So not knowing you know what makes you money for me in my side business. It's taking sales calls It's basically talking to people or potential clients or it's delivering the work.
It's doing the coaching It's also producing videos because I get leads from that and going on podcasts. Those are my RGA's for my personal business For salesforce. It's about setting appointments meeting with customers advancing opportunities The distractions in my personal life or you know, basically maybe You know for my business if I have someone who's not qualified who's a kid at a college not gonna be able to afford as a coach I won't talk to them to take a pre-sales call so my distraction would be calls with unqualified potential clients And my salesforce business is sitting in front of my email. It's doing admin work It's doing customer service issues when I have customer service people.
It's working on small deals I'm devoted to working on multi-million dollar deals which means there's no place for small deals So if you know what your focus areas are in your personal life and in your business If you know what your distractions are the simple act of writing it down is awareness So when you're actually doing those things, you're like, holy shit I feel bad about myself because I just labeled this I shouldn't be doing this but I'm still doing it now if you are still doing it You know, it's bad, right? There's some practical things you can do number one is um, I would say for anybody less secrets things in the closet We all do that they're not proud of um, I this is this is one of the things I'm in 12 step communities So I know about this but um addiction drives and secrecy So if you do shit behind closed doors when no one's watching that you're not proud of whatever that is Right whether it's substances or online shopping or gambling or gaming or just things that you're not proud of right And you don't tell anyone about that that thrives that festers when you open it up and say you know what This is something I want to get rid of and you can get an accountability partner or other people there's groups for everything people working on it They're it's amazing how just how many groups there are for anything you could think of right Via um just support groups or friends or circles So I think having accountability in the things that you struggle with most is a big bonus because reality in the first step in the 12 step Is that admitting your powerless that you can't do on your own, right? But when you have other people that inspire you when you have other people that you're accountable to Whether it be your family or friends or um in in addiction recovery It's 12 step groups, right? So that is amazing because you see you're in a group and you lift all of each other out It could be the church you could be in a bible study you're trying to follow the principles Whatever it is that you're focused on find people that also share that same focus area And it will help you lift you up from the key areas Other things you can do is just the way that you use your calendar at the beginning of your day If you set goals and you block it in your calendar my day today Already I know exactly what I'm doing and it's not a boring lifestyle.
I'm also I'm also people say well That's crazy. It's too intense. It's not I'm gonna be hanging out with my family my brother He's turning 45 today is coming over. I got an order sushi I gotta get the outdoor backyard ready for them to be over.
I also am on your podcast I also have two contracts. I gotta send over to two clients that want coaching while I'm on leave I also need to take the baby and let my wife run some errands. I also have to get stamps to send out our announcement card So it's like it's all there when you and I don't mind wonders So if you know exactly what you're doing you're committed to action and not letting your mind wonder idly You are going to see that those distractions and those things that pull you away If you're if you're doing one thing you can't be doing another So if you're sitting watching tv for three hours, that means you're not going to do work on your side business You're not going to start that entrepreneurial endeavor that you want it to do You're not going to spend that quality family time So those things are time stealers and time-wasters and they will suck you dry because you're not thinking You're just tuned out and I think that's where most of our country lives Unfortunately, it's a lot of where my clients live and I'm helping them to get rid of those things and realize look You don't have to be on the street to have a problem You don't have to do with your head and ditch to know you need to stop drinking I have people that watch hours of Netflix and tv and they have they complain because they're not making more money Or they can't start this business Well, who's fault is that when you think when you think you have time to do that You have to be wired to produce and wired for action and that is what the secret is And I think it starts with the focus quadrant just identifying focus areas and distractions for personal and for work life And who would you say when you're working with clients one-on-one? Who's your ideal client?
Who's the one who's the avatar so to speak that you're looking to help? Yeah, I mean, it's interesting because I have two CEOs that I work with better startup clients I didn't intend to coach CEOs, but a lot of them they just need help with the mental game, right? Because it's just so stressful So it's like what can I do? Oh, I forgot one tip self-care is huge Right just making sure you make time for exercise and for sleep Which I'm a hypocrite because I'm not sleeping now, but that's because I have a newborn You know, if you're in a good positive energy state where you feel rested Will you eating the right things and your your body is charged you're going to be able to produce it much higher level You're going to have the right energy, which is contagious for people So, you know from a from a perspective of like ideal client I want people who are frustrated or want people that are doing their best But they feel like they're just grinding it out and they're tired of the grind Specifically salespeople or entrepreneurs that are trying to you know build their business and need coaching for sale strategies Right because I teach sales and how to sell at a high level But it also I teach mindset right and how to live a lifestyle that is conducive to high production high quality high performance right that's really it's performance coaching and it's sales coaching Because because I find a lot of the salespeople that aren't selling have personal shit that they need to work through And that's holding them back right and then they become in a bad mood or you know the clients Consents that a mile away and they become desperate or they have financial problems that they're trying to live a certain lifestyle and You know, it's all driven from ego.
They want to be it's the quintessential sales person That's like all about the money and you know that's not what I teach right when I coach salespeople It's about how do you impact your clients and make their lives better? How do you understand what a business wants to do the challenges they're facing and align your product or service to help their business thrive? So it's about getting out of your own self selfish desires and getting away from the commission breath and focusing on service Serving your clients the reason that my business is doing well It's because I want to help my clients and feel happier feel better sell more and live better lives and they come back And they were new and they refer and so it's kind of like okay I'm not trying to sell that look if you want to work in the great come work with me If not no worries, I'm gonna full book of business as a weightless So it's like that's how you have to approach your clients as well in the business world It's like look I'm here to help you I researched your company I know you're having these challenges you said publicly what you want to do my products and service can help you get there Let's have a discussion if I can't help you no worries at all But I can tell you based on what I've seen so far that we're really gonna be able to make an impact So I want people who are used to kind of transactional selling grinding it out and they're trying to get more strategic But trying to up their game because they're tired of the grind they're tired of just grinding it out sales is a brutal industry It's very hard It's a rollercoaster and I want people who want to get off that rollercoaster and really make an impact and feel like they're they're worthy And feel like you know, it's more to life than just hitting your quote and hitting your commission every month because that's not what it's about That was my story for the bulk of my sales careers I felt only as good as you know my performance So I was when I was hitting my numbers I felt great and then it was like what if you don't for me lately I had no like sense of self in my worth wasn't based on who I was as a person and who I was as a father and a husband And that's why again, I struggle with addiction is because it was like this work hard play hard like go hard life It was not sustainable and I don't want to end up, you know Like my father ended up less than entrepreneur He owned a business and he died very young and went bankrupt and you know, bless the soul He was a great person He definitely did not take care of himself and that caught up with him same thing I have a cousin who was a big big shot wall street guy And he also struggled with alcohol and health issues and he died in his 40s So I've seen the other side of this and what I tell anyone is you can't Be a great salesperson until you're a great person So you've got to look inward and look at like what kind of person you want to be and then that translates into being a great salesperson And I just again live that life and because I live it authentically I can teach people and help people authentically because I'm doing the work myself I'm not preaching and talking about it. I'm actually doing it And I think people really resonate with that message So I want people that are just frustrated that know there's more I want high performers I want that salesperson making two 250 who wants to get to 500 who wants to get to a million, right?
I want somebody's doing well But knows they're capable of a higher level and knows they can do more and just needs that extra juice, you know To tap into to set themselves free Interesting. So we'll stick with your kind of your coaching business because I know you have sales force Which is also full-time you're doing two things full-time As you're looking to kind of grow that business, you know when it comes to getting clients because you said you know You have people on the wait list, but you're also probably focused on growth yourself How do you balance that and then say for as you're focused on like things that currently are working How do you manage to stay consistent with that while still looking at innovative ways in order to grow your business Whether it be bring on new clients or make things easier for you in the long run? Yeah, yeah, that's a great question I mean, I think I have a luxury because I'm not doing my business full-time my coaching business I do it I take on one client a day So I'll do one hour of private coaching per day But again, it's it's something that pays very well and I only take you know top-performing clients So from a from a growth perspective, I'm actually not trying to grow right now So I'm actually trying to I'm telling clients that come in the wait list Hey, it could be a while now for you know Just the general question of how do you be strategic with your growth while also running the day-to-day business? I think I have to do that more than anything in my side business because if I just went on If I decided to advertise for example or if I decided to launch a course on the internet or if I decided to You know to do more public speaking gigs the demand whenever I do something like this The demand shoots up quite a bit so I could be doing a lot more But I think it's about really knowing where you want to be as a business in knowing your focus area So for me the current business model that I have is I can do one hour of coaching per day And as long as I'm at Salesforce right on the top producer at Salesforce, I can't take on more because then it comes at cost I can't keep my integrity and continue working at Salesforce without performing I know if I take on more clients in my coaching that will impact my performance Which for me feels a little hypocritical if I'm teaching people as self and I'm not currently performing at my highest level Then it doesn't feel authentic me.
So I said well, I'll take one hour a day max I'm doing a few more with paternity leave simply because I have a little more capacity But not much with all the other stuff So I think the key areas is I'm going to identify what makes you money and make sure that what you do is targeted towards what makes you money Right, so whatever you do if it's a distraction if it's going to drive growth and you're at your capacity You need to hire you to hire more people so if I'm doing coaching for example and I know coaching makes me money I get to a certain point where my hours are filled, but I want to still growth I'm gonna have to hire coaches under me and maybe they get a lower rate in terms of what they're paid But I still have my program that they can be part of so you need to know your limits first of all It needs to know what you're willing to say no to so I'll say no nine and ten times for things that come my way You know versus versus saying yes, just simply because I know that that my limits I know my time I only have so much time in the day And so I think the same thing is just being comfortable with what your business model is So if I say okay behind I have the coaching business plan So the coaching business plan there's three ways to make money, right? It's really a subscription service that I have you can subscribe to me to get weekly coaching And I do a three month minimum I do 12 sessions one session a week for three months and I have five clients at a time So that's kind of my we'll call it platinum level But when I leave Salesforce because I can't do this with Salesforce Because I just I know it's not going to be possible because the demand is very high I'll have a subscription model where you have a four a four tiered subscription So Ron's level will be self-service So at $100 a month and I'll put out a training portal where they can consume my training and take a course on strategic selling and mindset and habits If you have a hundred a month for a year and it's hands-off You don't get access to me, but you get all my content, right? So real simple real affordable anyone can do that the next level will be group coaching So pay $4.99 a month and you have a group coaching program where they get all the portal stuff But then they get group coaching every other week with me in a group if they pay $9.99 They'll get the group coaching the portal and one session a month with me Or they can pay $4.99 and get a session with me every week and all the other stuff as well So depending on the client I'm serving it's the same amount of work for me I'm doing my videos no matter what so that portal will hit everyone regardless of the tier my group coaching I'm already doing it's twice a week But then I can get 10 20 people in the group 30 people 40 and scale that no problem Right because I'm already running the WebEx trainings every other week for them as well as the office hours The one on one is where I can't scale so people still want one on one and I so the reason I'm sharing this is I have a business model I'm only going to take 10 private coaches private coaching clients in that platinum Sure, I can take a lot more for 1500 a month But I don't want to because that'll impact all the other things I'm doing right So you have your delivery of the work which makes you money and then you have your business development and sales activities Which makes you money? So my delivery of the work is the coaching the group coaching calls the individual coaching and the building and in the distribution of portal and The maintenance of the portal and keeping up content that makes me the money the business development activities are going on podcasts doing keynote speeches doing trainings Basically having my own podcast potentially, which is something on the radar Well, I haven't done any of that right now because I know it's gonna impact sales force and I'm not fully vested in sales force Yeah, I also have a very good territory and big clients that I'm servicing So the reason I mentioned all this is because you need to know what are the core activities in the business development side that move the needle and What are the revenue generating activities?
When I tell people to be focused on a few things do that very very well rather than doing 10 revenue streams really shitty So my business model Yeah, you know what I can do keynote speaking and you make 10 grand a pop for hour for an hour keynote speech I'm not doing that right. I'm doing just the portal the coaching group coaching individual and I go full time right now I'm just doing the individual coaching in addition to keynote I could be to be I can sell my portal to other businesses who want to License the whole portal access for their sales team. I'm not doing that. So when I start it's like, okay Here's what I'm starting and then we're not successful then I'll take on more keynote Then I'll take on more B2P sales because everything you take on is gonna be it's gonna have to be supported It's gonna have to be a great job So I'd much rather pick a few things doing really well and be content with that versus trying to rule the world and do everything and not doing anything Well, so you get to the point where you know, it's not enough and you want to grow and you want to impact more people sure I'll scale But that's not the way I'm looking at this if your mission is truly to help and serve people That's very different than scaling to a nine-figure business, which is not my mission It's really just to put out content and help people in the ones who want more help They have access to me via one of my coaching programs So I think that's that's the key for me interesting So I mean there's a lot of people who are listening who are maybe in that certain situation where they have a side hustle currently They're in a job and they're wondering maybe in the same way You're wondering what time at what point is it the right time to move forward with my side business full-in?
Like so for you, how do you balance that decision in terms of because obviously you're doing great at Salesforce, but your business is always great It seems like you have a real mission for that. How do you balance knowing when the right time is? Yeah, man, I wish that would save me a lot of That question Colin I tell you what it feels right. You know when your gut when the time is right You've got a trusted gut, right?
If you have the utmost well taking a step back right if you have a cushion right as an entrepreneur I'm fortunate because I've had a almost 20 year career in sales. I've been able to save money I've been able to you know Establish income streams and revenue streams that are gonna keep me fine with with stocks and real estate and that type of thing So I could go tomorrow and be fine on a business for a 10-year run rate with zero revenue, right? Because the same I put in that's not most people most people do not have that luxury So I think that's the first thing if the look at is how long could I survive with my business Knowing the savings that I have because I don't want to take investor money I don't want to take any any other money I want to use mine to fully find and be in control of my business So if you have at least a year run right ideally two years I think that's a good place to start So you're not totally stressed about the financing and putting the people that depend on you in jeopardy with with your home and your family and your Financial obligations right because that would be a miserable existence even if you're following your dream So if you can check that box if I can then you say okay Well, what about lifestyle right is my lifestyle where it needs to be right now where I'm happy And I can do a little bit of what I want to do I'm getting fulfilled in that way But not to the point where it's like I have to do it right away So if the calling is so great where you can't do your day job anymore You hate your day job and it's like I feel miserable I need to do this You'll know it I'd say the time is if you have that savings and you have that like deep passion that deep calling that you need to do it You're just like floundering eight hours a day miserable Get the hell out man figure out away and really get your business plan straight and know your revenue streams Before you do it, but don't put yourself to misery You don't have to do that you don't have to endure that you need to be be smart about when you start So have the savings and also like if your side business is not making money I don't do it right show proof yourself you can make money doing what you're doing Ideally at least half of what you're doing your day job at least half by the time you go in full time Right, so if I'm making half a million bucks in my day job I want to make 250k with my recurring coaching business before I go full time Right or have enough savings where I don't care about that because I know I'm gonna go through a burn Right, but I'm comfortable with that knowing that I'm scaling the business up really quickly So I think that's the second thing is prove out the business model a little bit So I know right now that I can coach full time because I have the demand it pays 300 now or it's very you know good for Aside business and I do it 20 hours a week and be fine You know for a while as I build up the other parts of the portal But the reason I don't do it which is the third point is that lifestyle right so once you know you have the money You know you have a business plan that's sustainable you say do I want the lifestyle of an entrepreneur right now I have a four-week-old and I have a four-year-old who especially means it needs me and I have a family that needs me And like I said man, I made some bad choices earlier and I'm on a path of redemption with my family So if I go become a full-time entrepreneur and give up something wonderful right now I think that you know it's a fear But I think it's legitimate that will create its own set of stresses and I know how I am I obsess and I'm very driven and I know once I go in on this it's gonna blow up And so I'm like am I ready for that yet? The answer is no because my family really really needs me So with Salesforce they give me 12 weeks per turn to leave I can do a little coaching which fills my soul keeps me happy keeps me in touch with the business that I want to go into But I still have you know, I'm happy there, right?
It's not like if I was miserable if I if they took away my accounts if they stop paying me what they paid or mess the compliment I'd be like bye-bye tomorrow, but it's very hard to leave And I also have two years of stocks that's invested So I would be walking away from half a million dollars if I leave you know two years early And I just don't I'm not ready to do that because I'm getting my soul filled by doing the coaching that I'm doing And that's what I would leave for any entrepreneur that is thinking if it's in your head and you're not doing anything You're on a side hustle you're doing it so minimal you're not making money or it's really actually lucrative Then you're not doing enough do more to that point while you're doing a full-time job and figure out how you can do that And still prove it out, but to me, I'm in a place right now where I am doing it I have clients and I have a full book and I'm happy with it So I think you know once I'm fully done at Salesforce I would you know if anyone's Salesforce listening, I apologize in advance But I think that I think my cutoff is two years I would be shocked and they've approached me and I said, you know, why don't you become a VP and we're on a sales team? It's just not what I'm interested in if I'm gonna say train sales people I want to train all sales people not just a small team So, you know, it's it's one of those things where if I do leave it's to go full-time, you know In sales for in my own business not to go to another company or take another leadership position in Salesforce And so I think it's just knowing what you want Colin It comes down to knowing what you want And what I want to do is to do this full-time to continue to succeed at Salesforce To be the best husband and father I can be and to still live my mission and have the the balanced life that I have today Even though it doesn't sound balanced, it is because I make time for self-care, I make time for family I make time for all these other things because I'm not taking on too much either Salesforce or in my current job So I think that lifestyle piece is really important Like are you ready to go all in because once you go all in it's gonna mean sacrifice in other areas And right now I'm not willing or you know ready to sacrifice my family Including the stability that Salesforce is providing through the benefits for my special needs And having a baby and the paternity leave and all the other things that they're giving me in a very uncertain world So I think there's a little bit of comfort to be candid I probably can go all in right now But again, like I said, I like Salesforce I like the job and I'd say for anyone who hates it and is trying to figure out to do it full-time get out sooner than later Get your plan going because that that's no way to live right if you're just how dream that you're not fulfilling That's that's a miserable existence. So I hope that answers your question. It does If people wanted to connect directly with you learn more about you reach out.
Where's the best place everyone can go in? Yep two places first is LinkedIn. So just search me in cognac. I am KON IAK This should be a note on LinkedIn.
I'll get you on the list for my newsletter every week I send out a video with sales training content whether you're an entrepreneur or a salesperson It's all about how to sell more and grow your revenue in your business I'll get you on the newsletter to shoot me a LinkedIn message or you can go to my website Which is www.enconiac.com and just hit the subscribe to the newsletter button. If you did want to see any of the content I have I also have a YouTube channel. It's in YouTube slash in cognac all my videos are there And I also have all of my podcast appearances posted under the speaking tab on my website So plenty of content to consume or feel free to go on my website subscribe to my newsletter shooting LinkedIn That's definitely the best way to reach me. Awesome And I'll share all those in the show notes section to make it super simple for you all to connect And Ian I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your super busy schedule and coming to sharing your insight with the audience today Awesome.
Thanks Colin for having me. I appreciate it You got it And there you have it everyone. We hope you enjoyed today's episode if you did smash that subscribe button share this out with one person who Feel like a truly benefit from today's episode We'll be back next week with another one until then call him working signing off and always remember to keep on grinding Thank you again to sponsor eBay visit eBay Canada by going to ebay.ca forward slash up and running today