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The Fundamentals of Focus, with Andrus Albi (Sales, Leadership, Estonia, Time Management) · The Action Catalyst

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  Adam Outland: Today we are pleased to welcome to the show a leading sales practitioner certified
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  sales leadership coach and a partner at Southwestern Consulting, Andrus Albi joining us
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  from Estonia. Andrus, you manage a truly global team spread between Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
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  And I think Finland and Switzerland as well, have I missed any?
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  Andrus Albi: We have clients we are selling in most European countries, we have at least a client
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  or two and obviously, in some couple of 100. In Europe, I can I can take the morning flight and
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  still sleep in my own bed in the evening. So I have a couple of post potential prospects in
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  Australia. But I'm like, No, I don't like in some point, if you have an error, you have to go there.
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  And I'm like, that's a long flight. So I might pass that lead on to somebody, somebody there.
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  Adam Outland: So I want to start today's conversation off on the topic of focus, how do you
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  create, maintain focus for yourself individually, and then also when leading these international
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  teams?
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  Andrus Albi: Sure, let me start with a story. I was never diagnosed with ADHD, but I'm pretty sure
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  in nowadays I would have been, like I was the kid, my mom used to say, like Andreas, if you wouldn't
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  be attached to yourself, you would lose yourself. Like literally, you would come home without your
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  own body, because you would lose yourself somewhere. And I never like I was the kid who I
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  had a brain, I was pretty bright. And I was able to talk my way out of everything. So which means
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  in middle school, high school, I never really paid attention that much. And then I went to Starbucks.
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  And if I'm really honest, I didn't pay attention and selling books as well. My first year, I
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  actually the only year that I wasn't the top producer in the top 100 was my first year I was as
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  average as it gets on my first year. And I still remember like, this is kind of the defining moment
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  where this came into play when I was in. This was my first so my second summer I went back there,
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  right I did my first summer I was average, I wanted to be better, I realized that I need to be
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  better with people. And I need to learn the sales thing, because I realized that I'm although I was
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  bright, I wasn't bright enough to do science or anything because I didn't pay attention. And I was
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  never a guy who will make stuff with our hands. And I hated myself behind the computer. So I
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  always when I was in high school, I always thought that if I will be good at anything, it will be
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  with people, and it will be good with business. Then I went to sell books. And it turned out that
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  I was pretty average at selling books as well. So my second year, I went out to really change that I
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  was like if I suck at this as well, there's a big statistical chance that I actually might, you
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  know, the average. And I still remember it was a middle of the summer day in Estonia is actually a
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  national holiday. And everybody has a barbecue that day. It's like, like an Independence Day in
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  in us. And I remember daydreaming sitting in my car between the houses in Orlando, Florida. 100
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  degree heat. And I remember daydreaming about being in Estonia having a barbecue. And looking at
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  the mirror. I literally slept myself like, like, Italy. And I was like Andreas, if you wanted to
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  have a barbecue with your girlfriend in Estonia, like you could have, you put all this effort into
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  get here. And now you're dreaming about not being here. So maybe that was the first where I slept
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  myself during that summer. I did you know, probably a couple laundry times. And I think that
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  was kind of the turning point where I maybe I can say the first time I felt actually paid attention
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  of it. And so I have the same thing still now. So when you go to the second part of the question now
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  about leader and personal production, leadership recruiting, so I kind of look at it the same way
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  like I make a plan, like you will make a schedule. And I think one of my biggest strengths is that I
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  would try to be at work when I my schedule says to be at work, everything that is going on with
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  personal life, put it that on side and just focus on serving clients that because that's needs to be
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  done as well. So a couple of things that really helped me is the schedule like I talked about, I
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  actually plan out I even plan out my evenings, like when is gates more evening when his wife's
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  morning, evening. And then I have a to do list. Whenever I have an idea in my brain that doesn't
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  fit the plan. But I remember that I needed to do something, then I have a to do list open in most
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  of my in every device that I have. And I can add it there and come back to it. So long story. But
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  basically, that's what it is. It's just sticking to the task at hand. One of the first things we
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  teach to people is that everything that happens to you falls into three categories, right things you
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  can control things you can influence. And then there is a heck a lot of things you have to
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  accept, you only focus on the things you can control. You don't really worry about even the
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  influence part, but you definitely shouldn't spend a single second, worrying about what you can
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  control. I feel that you can control really what you can control is your actions and your mindset
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  around it. Like I guess my best analogy with this is that is on dirt bike track when I go on a dirt
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  bike track and I want to start focusing on I need to be the fastest or I need to have my test time
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  or whatever. Usually I'm not the best by far like Yeah, but you should actually write worse than I
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  usually do. Because I start I get too tight. I start focusing on the end result instead of the
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  the track and me and the bike. I start pushing the bike to do things that is not supposed to do. If
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  I'm trying too much, I'm usually not the fastest. Now, if I'm going to the other extreme, if I, if
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  I'm not trying at all, if I'm not paying attention at all, then you definitely shouldn't be on a
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  motocross track because you will hurt yourself. So the best place what I've noticed to be is the
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  place where I am focusing on doing the best I can in that situation, and not really even worrying
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  about what will everybody else do, we'll do like, you will be your best and let the bike do whatever
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  the bike needs to do, I can bring that same analogy to the marriage, right? If I desperately
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  tried to make sure that my my wife is happy, I actually might make it worse. Now, if I also turn
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  around and go, I don't give a crap. That definitely means trouble, right? So the perfect
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  way I can look at it this, I can try to be the best husband, I can. And she has to do her part.
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  And hopefully this will work out right. Same thing with sales. If I drastically try to sell on a
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  client, you will lose your buying atmosphere, you start pushing the client to buy something, and
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  usually not good things will happen. Even if they buy they end up canceling. But if I did go in
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  there and go, I don't care if they buy, then that's even worse. So the perfect sweet spot in
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  the center is you focusing of you doing not just doing the activity but doing good activity, doing
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  focused activity, the best activity you can on that problem. Practice doesn't make perfect,
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  perfect practice makes perfect. So I think that it is pretty relieving. When you kind of really look
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  at it closely and decide what is under your control and what is not. And when you decide that
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  everything you can all like I've literally done this with coaching clients, we will put into
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  columns, like which like this thing annoys me just my, my, my mom is sick right now. Right? What can
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  you do anything besides like? will only thing I can do is go and visit next? Like I can see I can
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  go and visit, right? You put that in? And then I put it either in a column of which column it is,
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  can I control it or not? And if I can do anything about it, then I'll put it in the schedule. Where
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  will I do it? Right? I put it in the plan, but a heck of a lot of stuff when you just look at it.
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  Like that's the things that we constantly worry about. There's nothing to really do about it the
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  best you can, you know, the global warming really worries me but at the best, what I can do is that
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  I'll buy a bit less plastic bags, right? I will do my 0.0000001% of the problem. And you can of
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  course you could, but I mean, it's like but you also realize that you probably won't solve it on
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  your own and definitely not today. So you might as well put it in the non controllable category and
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  focus what you can do today. So first thing is just kind of looking at what can you do the other
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  things you can control what is the what's the plan when you focus. And then the last step is putting
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  it into the schedule. Like I literally had, I had a coaching client, who's a really high end lawyer
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  in here in Estonia, and she came to a coaching Colin's last Congress, there's so much like this,
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  I need to do this, I need to do that there's these problems, these problems. And we literally spent
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  the whole 45 minutes of a coaching call, making a to do list deciding what's important and what is
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  not. And the things that were important when we scheduled our next two, three weeks when she will
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  do them. And she literally ended the coaching call going. We have couple of other lawyers from that
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  company in her team. And she's like, Could you teach that to them as well. So sometimes it's just
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  I think a lot of things that you get from coaching, this is just he's focused on somebody
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  helping you to see the perspective and just helping you to build a plan that okay, this is how
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  I will tackle it. One of my first mentors in time management was Estonian man called Christian
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  ottoman, he didn't call it a planning list, he call it it's like this translate straight
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  translation would be clear in your mind list. And basically, he said, Write down everything you need
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  to do like everything, even the ideas that you have, like even the random stuff that you're
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  thinking 20 years from now, like, literally in the training, he had us make a full list. And then he
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  was like, now prioritize what needs to happen this year. So and I still do that, like I literally,
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  this gives me the confidence and the communists, and the focus is because this allows me to calm
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  down and go, I'm not forgetting anything. Like I just literally write down in my to do list
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  everything. Then I prioritize, then I bought that. And then I when I see the to do list, and I go
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  when and then I look at my schedule, and I'm boarded in well, I can do this part here, this
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  part can wait, this part can happen there. So it's clear in your mind list even not even more than
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  just a planning question. Now there is a caveat to that one. The only way it will that work is if on
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  the next day, you're in the habit of looking at your to do list, right? If you just write a list
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  there and you never pay attention to it, then that list becomes a monster that list becomes a problem
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  on its own. Because you're like, holy crap, I don't know what's in there. And what am I
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  forgetting that is in there. So you have to work through that list. But you don't have to always do
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  everything from there. You can reschedule them, you can re plan them, but you need to have the
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  control of that list.
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  Adam Outland: Yeah, it really is that simple. So what would you say to people listening right now
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  who are trying to reach You go and they are controlling their controllables. But they're using
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  the uncontrollables to justify why they can't get something done, or why something is impossible for
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  them or their team. How do you break that mentality?
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  Andrus Albi: Well, I would like to say usually that in every single workshop that we do for
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  salespeople or managers, we say that the top guys find a way, not an excuse, right? Finding a way
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  Anyway, like this is I think the biggest thing is learning new ways all the time, being willing to
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  try new things, I think is the biggest thing, and there's so much good, this is a good time to test
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  things. And even if you don't hit your goal, make sure that you build a foundation that you can hit
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  goals next 12 or 13 years of economic growth that will be ahead of us so so it's I guess, I mean,
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  the mental side of it, you know, again, back to the controllables, what the heck can I do in here?
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  Like, if you have the attitude that this is the situation what I'm in, and then you go, What's the
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  best thing that I can do about it? Like, if you have the attitude, first that I'm done, this
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  doesn't work, I can't hit my goals, then you will, right? After you think you can, or you can die
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  right away. Right. So that's, I think the first if you have that part, then the second part is seeing
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  what can be done, and learning from others, like in your own company. But I think one of the main
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  reasons I love my job right now is because I can coach and work with people from different
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  industries and different countries and different cultures, which allows me to see that well,
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  manufacturing does it this way. And then I'm thinking often in my brain, I'm going so could you
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  do that in when you're selling law services, for example? Or the lawyers do it this way? Why or or
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  even like in us, right? Like us real estate does it this way Estonians though, why the heck not?
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  Like is it a cultural thing? Is it a law thing? And like you're in just kind of figuring out like,
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  that's what I feel is so exciting. So I guess if you have that attitude that there has to be a way
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  if there's, if there's a will, there's a way, right, then you go well, so what are the options?
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  How many options there can be there has to be something right? And not everything I have that
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  when my clients, sometimes they go under this is to American and I go I know. And I don't think you
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  need to take it one on one, like go and be an American in Estonian sales situation. But I also
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  think that if you go this is American, I don't need it, you will miss out. Because there are some
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  things that you can definitely transfer over to we need to adjust it for sure. But same thing with
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  industry wise, like I have, you know, managers going no, no wonder if you don't understand this
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  doesn't work in my industry. And I oftentimes go I know, but have you wondered, why not? Like, good,
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  we play with this ID I know nobody's doing it. But I mean, the lawyers are doing it successfully. Why
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  Can't We? Or this country is doing it successfully? Why can't we like I love the like,
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  that's what's exciting about it. That's actually fun. And it's a lot more fun than just making
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  money or, you know, it's actually like grading something. So I don't know, that fires me up in
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  that sense, figuring out the way, how and what the learning from everybody else.
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  Adam Outland: Absolutely. So many people get frustrated, so many people get angry. But what
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  they really need to do is get curious and look for the lesson. Do you have a tip or question that
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  listeners can start asking themselves in order to start those curiosity wheels turning?
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  Andrus Albi: When you're getting stressed and burned out, find a way to recharge, like I used to
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  start doing business because I really wanted to have money to buy a motorcycle. Now I ride
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  motorcycles because it helps me do the business, like finding a thing that calms you down and even
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  a bit. Having, you know, go running, they don't go running desperately because I need to be in shape
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  I go running because it calms me down. So that's one of the things. But if you have that part, what
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  are the others doing? Like? Maybe that's where would I go? What are the other industries doing?
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  What are the other countries doing? Which industries are doing? Well, that's always how I've
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  been able to, I have no definitely not the most innovative guy in the world. But I am really good
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  at this. I see the guys will do it. And I go, Well, why can they and I can't. Because like I
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  this is how I sold books. I've my manager was really good at selling books. And I was like,
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  well, he's not desperately better looking good. Okay, well, he was probably a bit better looking
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  than I was. And His English is a bit better, but not not that much better. But he also told me like
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  30 times, that's our right so I was like, Well, I can be 30 times worse looking or better or worse
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  in English, like something has to something has to give basically there has to be something else.
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  Adam Outland: Excellent advice to close on. Andreas, thanks for taking the time.
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  Andrus Albi: Thank you for having me.