Geoff Blades

“Geoff Blades You Suck”

You’re absolutely right…

Plenty of people might say that about me…

And I guess what really matters is…

Do I suck less than you want to learn a powerful, simple, two-step method to…

Destroy Objections?

Many people think they already know how to sell.

They speak eloquently.

Are fine at persuading people.

So they figure, that’s the craft, they are good at selling.

But in one question you can expose their faux skill—

What, specifically, is your process for destroying objections?

To be sure, if you lack a process for destroying objections, you lack a process for selling.

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“I Don’t Have A Breaking Point”

They push you until they find the point which you break.

They can’t break me.

I don’t have a breaking point.

Says CIA operative Valerie Plame in the movie Fair Game.

Harder Than CIA

You may remember the story of Valerie Plame.

A covert CIA operative in some of the most dangerous theaters in the terrorist world.

When she and her husband got on the wrong side of politics, questioning the obviously questionable existence of Iraq’s WMDs…

Overnight, by our own government, her cover was blown.

Career ended. Friends shocked.

A life of secrets exposed, she and her husband didn’t back down.

They stood for what is right and pushed forward into their new life.

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“I Can’t Afford To Be Slower, Weaker…”

“If I can’t build this business faster I fail,” a startup CEO wrote me.

From my time in Silicon Valley I know it’s often true.

Get big fast is a mantra because in a world of innovation there’s no rewards for slow.

“Unless we get harder, better, faster, stronger, we lose,” he echoed.

Clarity…

Is a beautiful thing, right?

See, one of the reasons I’m so deep into these topics is because when I began asking, How do you get what you want?

I had no clue what I was looking for.

People say, you’ve gotta have goals.

OK. Great, but what if you don’t know what you want?

And once you’ve got goals, how do you make them happen?

You’ve just gotta keep working at it.

Real helpful, thanks…

I wanted a method.

A simple and powerful approach I could put to work every day in getting what you want.

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Giving More Thanks

Ultimate Days

On Thanksgiving we went around the table and talked about what each of us are most thankful for.

Everyone had lots of good stuff to say.

I shared some things that were on my mind, but afterwards I realized I was missing something big.

Actually, it was more like I was missing many small things.

What Are You Thankful For?

I hope you too had a happy Thanksgiving.

Or if you’re in another part of the world, just a happy Thursday!

Thanksgiving here in America is a special holiday.

Not just an American tradition.

But there’s something special about giving thanks, isn’t there?

Whether it was Thanksgiving or just Thursday where you are, what is thanks-worthy for you?

What do you most give thanks for?

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Do You Even Know What You Want?

What Do I Want

Was a question that started all this for me.

It seemed such a strange question at the time.

Before, I thought I knew the answer.

But when I started thinking differently, it wasn’t like a bolt of lightning, some epiphany.

More like over time my brain kept coming back to my question…

What Do I Want?

What really matters to you?

What’s your life about?

Is this what you dreamed it would be?

What you want it to be?

Who you want to be?

Do you even know?

Back when I started asking these questions I had no clue.

And even less clue where it would lead me.

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“Bad Focus Is A Disease”

That’s right…

An awful, debilitating disease that so many kids are born with.

There is nothing we can do about it other than jack them up on speed.

That’s the ONLY solution our medical profession prescribes.

They’re Right, It’s A Disease…

Of bad thinking.

The mind at dis-ease.

Swinging around like a monkey in the trees, unable to focus on one thing.

Well, all but some things…

How many kids who suffer this awful dis-ease struggle to focus on video games?

Or watching TV?

Or doing something engaging and fun?

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When 100 Workweek Isn’t Enough

You’ve just gotta work harder.

Hustle, hustle, hustle. 

Grind, grind, grind. 

No, it’s not just about working harder, it’s about working smarter…

Ugh, whatever.

We’ve heard it all before.

What If There Are No More Hours?

To work harder?

To work smarter?

And you’re still not winning, what do you do?

That was the problem I faced.

Working hard is easy for me.

100 hours a week, whatever.

I’ve worked 7 days since I was 16.

Working smarter. Duh!

But what if it’s still not enough?

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“But How? What Do I Say?”

Over time it becomes more obvious to me where we often get stuck.

It’s in the small steps.

Is this the case for you?

That there’s something you’re looking to do.

Like prepare for a meeting.

Make a job change.

Even just get done something small.

You have a good idea of what to do.

But there’s some small step that gets in the way?

Two Months Later Haven’t Done It

A friend is looking to make a massive career leap.

In many ways he knows what to do.

He’s got a pretty good sense of the opportunities he’s targeting.

Has some inroads.

Yet as he said to me last week in two months he’s failed to make any real progress.

It wasn’t that he didn’t have a handful of things to do in moving forward.

Something small was blocking him.

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Intel 3

My best learnings on the mind are called Intel 1-4.

I can’t say where I got this intel, only that these are the most important commandments I follow.

Intel 3 describes the endless cycle of thinking and doing that keeps humanity stuck on the treadmill.

Ultimately…

As you see in the diagram, this cause and effect circle jerk goes—

  1. Our thoughts merely reflect the energetic state of the body-mind machine
  2. The computer-like thinking mind computes we need to do something to change it
  3. So we can achieve a result
  4. So we can feel different
  5. So we can have different thoughts
  6. Which only circles back to our thoughts are based on energy

Hence, if we succeed in changing our energy, our thinking changes.

But, as tends to be the case, ultimately the thinking machine reverts back to its energetic set-point.

And so we go…

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“I’m Lovin’ It”

Hmm, is it wrong for me to use that headline after the CEO of McDonald’s just got fired for McLovin?

I guess it’s all about context, right?

A wise mentor at Goldman once taught me you’ve gotta be careful how much lovin’ you do in the workplace.

At least with other employees.

But is there any limit to how much you should be lovin’ your job?

Lovin’ It?

Too few of us adults seem to be lovin’ it.

A kid laughs some 400 times a day, when us oh so serious adults are somewhere around 12.

Even many adults who are doing what they love.

Having reached the highest levels of business, achieved ridiculous success…

How many are lovin’ it?

After a first meeting with a new client she found herself smiling, beaming, walking the streets of Manhattan.

People kept looking at her, as if to say, what are you so happy about?

Nothing. Nothing had changed.

She’d simply unlocked an awesome feeling and was lovin’ it.

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Even Princesses Unfulfilled

Ultimate DaysA girl can’t dream anymore.

How many young girls dream to be a princess?

To be swept off her feet by a ginger prince charming?

Only to discover as Meghan Markle has…

Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be

I’d say she’s looked pretty unhappy since she woke from the first kiss.

No surprise; his Mum was too.

Like Cinderella, there’s lots of baggage that comes with putting on that slipper.

Today not even a princess can fly private without the social justice warriors slaying you.

Your royal family out-PC’ing you flying discount coach.

No princess dreams of flying in the back of the bus, do they?

Sadly it seems, not even reaching the peak of human society is all it’s cracked up to be.

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3 Life Saving Skills (Especially For Your Kids)

Focus Tools

I’ve been studying for a competition.

It has the type of questions that require simple memorized answers like—

What year did the Yankees win their first world series?

“Gnome” is my answer.

That’s 23…

In a system I learned nearly 2 decades ago for quickly memorizing numbers.

You turn the numerals into letters and then words that you associate to the content.

2 being N. 3 being M.

It’s a phonetic system, so the vowels are silent as is the “G.”

To link the number to the question, I see a Yankees player beating the heck out of a garden gnome.

You could do this a million different ways, and ultimately, the more “memorable,” the more it sticks in your brain.

I haven’t done this type of memorizing for years.

Nor used this memory technique so deliberately.

But it’s still stuck in my brain.

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This Holy Experience

Ultimate Days

Our lives are full of ups and downs, aren’t they?

Sometimes things feel as good as they can be.

Other times, well, life can feel real hard, can’t it?

As the Buddha put it, life is suffering.

These bodies and minds we’re born into, deteriorate.

Respond to every drop, curve our roller coaster world goes into.

Yet tossed around on the surface of the ocean, we can still remember the calm deep that lays beneath.

Alive And Breathing

In Parabola, Tool sing—

Twirling round with this familiar parable

Spinning, weaving round each new experience

Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing

The chance to be alive and breathing

Point being…

No matter what life tosses at us, we have this one chance to experience each moment.

And depending on your beliefs, something far deeper beyond.

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Yay, Democracy!

Combating Trump

Headline—”Democrats See Weak Spots in 2020.”

They’re only just seeing that?

I pay as much attention to politics as a headline that flashes across the TV I see on the ab bench at the gym.

I’ve never watched any of the candidates speak…

Just from their t-shirts and headlines it’s obvious they lack winning campaigns.

But everyone knew that, right?

Really, Who Believed This?

The article wrote—

When the 2020 Democratic presidential contest kicked off earlier this year, the massive field was hailed as the most diverse in history, with candidates who spanned the ideological spectrum and offered enough in a broad buffet of options to entice any voter. But after 10 months of campaigning and 15 hours of nationally televised debates, another emotion is rising: anxiety.

Seriously?

Did anyone ever see the stacked Democratic field full of contenders?

Everyone I’ve talked to on the left and right saw 20 odd distractions, with 2, maybe 3 candidates.

As I wrote before I got bored of myself on it—No Hope. No Choice. No Fun

It’s a bizarre way for a team to go after the championship.

And with all them attacking each other, so not fun for a party.

But in all fairness the shallow field is just like 2016.

Back then it was a few others I bet you can’t name, with a distant Bernie and Hillary the only choice.

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“You Probably Think That You Are Better Now…”

Better now…

They’re the only lyrics worth me citing from Post Malone’s track Better Now. 

As you know I only use lyrics about personal development.

When his song deteriorates into the typical love you girl pop.

If I were writing for Post I’d say, man you can keep getting better now.

Coz, well, who wants to be…

Worse Now…

Worse now…

None of us want to sing along to that, do we?

No parent has a bumper sticker—My kid failed 4th grade.

Or My son was dropped from the synchronized swimming team.

No adult brags—I’m into personal stagnation, operating at a fraction of my potential.

No one proudly posts a picture on LinkedIn with their little glass award for worst performer in the company.

Everyone likes to sing how they’re better now.

But how many of us actually are?

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The Topic of Topics

Is how many highly successful people are unfulfilled.

Not to name names.

But even some of the most accomplished leaders will never be satisfied with what they’ve achieved.

Never escape the feeling of lack.

Feeling there’s something they didn’t do.

Need to do.

It used to be shocking to me how few winners feel like they’ve made it. 

Now I Get It’s

Not a problem with us humans.

Our lack of perspective.

Being ungrateful.

Missing purpose or meaning.

Failing to honoring our success.

Giving more.

Achieving that next thing.

In fact it’s not about us at all.

But how we’ve been wired.

And conditioned to think and feel.

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Failing To Be Stronger

Not many people aspire to be weaker, do they?

Yet, how many are willing to do what it takes to be stronger?

Physically, emotionally, mentally.

More capable.

Requires doing things many are unwilling to do.

Risk Failing

You don’t get stronger lifting a puny weight.

In the same way you fail to get stronger doing things that are easy for you.

We get stronger doing hard things that challenge us.

Push us beyond our old limits.

You test the capacity of a truck by loading it up and seeing where it buckles.

And us humans must test our limits the same way too.

Sadly, terrified of buckling, many of us fail to risk getting stronger.

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“Does Anyone Make Real Sh*t Anymore?”

Raps Kanye in his track, Stronger.

Sampling Daft Punk’s, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.

In my ears they’re both preaching personal development.

A craft that is easily confused with a motivational speech.

Cool sounding TED talk.

Podcast. Inspirational tweet.

Is REALLY about getting harder, better, faster, stronger.

Isn’t This What We Want?

How many of us strive to be—

Softer.

Worse.

Slower.

Weaker?

How many of us pick up a self-help book for fun?

Watch an inspirational video or podcast coz we can’t think of anything better to do?

We do it because we’re looking for more in our lives.

Yet, how do we?

Get beyond the noise and actually get harder, better, faster, stronger?

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Make Every Second Count

Ultimate Days

We often talk about living our greatest life.

But what does this even mean?

When I get here. When I get there. When I get it done.

Looking forward. Looking back.

It’s all too far in the future.

Your greatest life is right here.

Right Now

Minutes. Hours. Days. Weeks. Months. Years.

Are too long.

Living your most amazing life you live inside the seconds.

Every second is your life.

Why wouldn’t you want to make every second count?

This life of ours can never be lived then.

The only moment you can be living your most amazing life is now.

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