114: Turning Your Mentality into Your Reality with Constantine Johns

0:00 Scott Ingram: This episode is brought to you thanks to the generous support of Outreach, Proposify, and Vidyard. You can learn more about them and all of our sponsors at top1.fm/sponsors. Oh, and there's a little bit of language in this one, so if you have young impressionable ears around, you may want to grab some earbuds or headphones.

0:27 Scott Ingram: You're listening to the Sales Success Stories podcast, where we deconstruct world-class sales performers to provide insights and strategies to help you improve. To learn more, visit us at top1.fm. Here's your host, Scott Ingram.

0:42 Scott Ingram: Today on the Sales Success Stories podcast, my guest is Constantine Johns. Constantine is the top relationship partner at Bloomberg Industry Group. Welcome to the show, Constantine.

0:53 Constantine Johns: Thanks so much for having me, Scott. Happy to be here with you.

0:55 Scott Ingram: Yeah, man, I am super pumped to dig into this, and I owe a huge shout out to DeJuan Brown for bringing us back together and telling me about how well you've been doing and how well you've been doing it. So thank you, DeJuan. And Constantine, I know you're a fan of the show. You know how this works. So let's kick things off like we always do with that immediate value and talk about the top 3 things that you believe have contributed the most to your success in sales.

1:20 Constantine Johns: Awesome. Yeah, let's dive right in. So yeah, I'll just echo quick shout out to DeJuan. Love, love. I mean, just a huge inspiration both to yourself and to me. So I'm glad that he was able to get us back in touch. And so for our audience, I mean, really, Scott, what I attribute a lot of my success to and really values that I try and live my life by really boil down to genuine curiosity, a deep dive into passion and service orientation for what I do, and then self-awareness and self-development. So those are, those are my 3 pillars that I can really throw many aspects of my life into, into those buckets.

1:59 Scott Ingram: Yeah. Well, why don't we unpack each of those? And I think at one point or maybe multiple points, I think we'll be able to connect this back to DeJuan's. For those who aren't familiar, he was a very early guest on the podcast. But let's start with the order you gave me was, was kind of the curiosity first. So I'm curious about your curiosity, for lack of better words.

2:20 Constantine Johns: Yeah, I think, Scott, for me, it's something that really started for me at a young age. Curiosity. And I will add on top of that, genuine curiosity is something that really really feeds in, in sales and in life. I mean, I want to know people. I really want to know what, what makes them tick. Why, why are we having this conversation? Why are we doing what we're doing? And so I remember from a very young age, oh, one of my earlier memories, I was back in kindergarten and my teacher at the time, Mrs. Patterson, at like our parent-teacher conferences, she would always tell my mom and she's like, he asks a lot of questions. He never, he never shuts up. He just keeps asking questions. And so that was, I mean, kind of a, theme that I had at a young age, always trying to understand how do things work, why does it work this way. And throughout my entire career and professional, personal career, I mean, really just asking those deep questions, not only of other people, Scott, to understand where they're coming from, but more importantly of yourself, of myself as well. And that will lead into that third value I was bringing up, that self-awareness and self-development, but genuine curiosity really spiderwebs in so many different ways, Scott. As you know, I mean, you yourself are a quota-carrying individual and, and have been for many years and are incredibly successful in that. But the definition that we have of sales from a very young age really is kind of like that sleazy car salesman. And I'm just trying to get this transaction out of you and kind of further along in my career. And so that was what I grew up with and what I knew for, for a very long time. Until I started asking those deeper questions and still until I started uncovering, well, why does it have to be that way? Why is it just a transaction? And really that's what shifted a lot of my mentality and a lot of the way that I approach my partners and my engagements is this is really a partnership that is based on co-creation and co-creation doesn't happen, Scott, until you are genuinely curious, until there is empathy, reasoning, Really trying to meet the other person where they are and co-create vision together. So all of that said, I mean, really does stem from questions that, that no one ever thinks to ask in a typical quote unquote sales engagement.

4:51 Scott Ingram: Man. So we're going to come back to that. I'm really curious as we start to dig into your background and history in sales, where that inflection point was that you went from being the sleazy car sales guy approach to, to this, this more enlightened approach that you're using now. And I guess that really is kind of the second thing, right, is this more passionate, enlightened thing. Talk about that. What is that? How are you thinking about sales today?

5:18 Constantine Johns: Yeah. So I'd like to switch, switch the narrative a little bit in this, Scott. I mean, so, so much in today's day and age is, is yes, we still, we still talk about it as sales. But as I said before, it's really the, the piece of education that we're all taught. I mean, You could look at the movies, you've got the Glengarrys, the Glen Rosses, you've got the always be closings types of perspectives and all of that, which is great. I mean, hey, that is… there are those stereotypes for a reason. I'm not downplaying that. But really where… and it leads into our second value here is passion. And I think passion really is a big differentiator, at least for me. And it's similar to, I know, how DeJuan operates as well. And that's really serving other people. I've spent a lot of time looking at my North Star, my purpose, my, my vision of why I do what I do. I mean, we could talk about Simon Sinek, Start With Why and all that stuff, but really it is the passion. And like anything worth doing is worth doing well to me. So I'm always going to give it my all. I mean, you, you look at sports, you look at the people who are successful in our industry. Of course, they're always going to talk about give it your all, give it 110%. But I mean, I try and live, live by that 100% of the time. I mean, it is passionate. And I think one of the things I hope your audience and our audience understands today and they can hear it in my voice is I care about this a lot, Scott. This is something that I live and breathe every single day. It isn't just a profession to me. This is how I operate in my day-to-day life. I have a lot of friends who come to me and they're like, Constantine, you are one of the most transparent people that I know. The way I'm talking to you, Scott, is the way that I talk with my, with my clients, with my family, with my friends. I'm Constantine. I'm the same frickin person that I am any day of the week. So it's, it is a passionate thing that really drives my engagement.

7:24 Scott Ingram: Yeah. And that was the thing that DeJuan really called out. So I'll give a little bit of backstory for folks who maybe don't know DeJuan because you need to. And he has been… I think he just informed so much of the direction and the culture of what the Sales Success Community is about. So DeJuan was the star of episode 6, nearly… not nearly, over 4 years ago. So that was late 2016 that I talked to DeJuan for the first time. And then when we did the first Sales Success Summit, DeJuan was the first speaker at the first summit, and he talked about servant leadership and this idea that taking care of people and doing the right thing and all the things that you're talking about are not at odds with success and performance, right? They, they're actually in great alignment with it. And again, that theme has been so… I've just seen it over and over and over again in the top performers that I, I talk to in this stereotype-smashing way that you've described, right? This is not the person who is the most manipulative, the most ego, self-driven that ends up on top. It's actually almost always the opposite. It's, it's the one who's the most selfless and interested in helping their customers get what they want. So I'd love for you to talk about that a little bit more, maybe in the context of, well, 2 things: servant leadership, which I, I think is probably a driver for you, but also What does that actually look like? Like in a, in a day-to-day conversation orientation approach, how does that actually show up in your actions and what you do?

9:19 Constantine Johns: Yeah, no, I think, and you bring it up. I mean, DeJuan's episode, I mean, I knew DeJuan obviously before he was on the episodes with you, but I mean, his, his episode, Creating Value Through Seeking, Seeking to Serve, was something I remember. I mean, years and years ago now, DeJuan and I were driving in Virginia. We were going on calls together. DeJuan and I obviously worked for the same company at this time, and just receiving and listening to him was, was such a tremendous experience for me. At the time, DeJuan was, was number one in our organization, and I'm sure he'd be happy to know that I've followed in his footsteps and exceeded his expectations and certainly mine as well. But I got to keep the number one spot rightfully where it should be. But we learned so much from each other. DeJuan and I connect to this day and go back and forth. But really, that, that servant leadership aspect of it. I don't know, Scott, it to me, and this kind of goes back to changing that narrative from… for me, it's not, it's not sales. I don't look at this as sales. I look at this as influence. I look at myself not as a salesperson, but a person of influence. And that to me gives me so much more purpose, so much more fulfillment in what I do. And I think it does go back to the stigma, the negative stigma that a lot of people say, oh, well, you're just in sales. I mean, yes, we're giving power to a word. But for me, it really is influence that I'm focused on. And, and with that, it dives into, to that servant leadership aspect. In school, I went to the University of Denver. I was part of the Pioneer Leadership Program, which is a minor. I received my minor in leadership, and an entire quarter we were dedicated to servant leadership. So we talk a lot about, I really what it means to serve and lift the ground up. On our kind of little pre-call here, we were talking about those leaders that I'll never do something or I'll never ask anything of someone else that I'm not willing to do myself. I am in the weeds with them. I'm fighting, I'm grinding, I'm battling it out. That to me is servant leadership and being willing to get down on your knees, get dirty, and help everyone else and lift, lift the collective up. That to me is servant leadership. It's meeting someone where they need you to be. And this ties back to, to our curiosity is like, I don't know where you are, Scott. I don't know where any of my clients are if I'm not willing to ask them and understand at a very deep level and lift that together. And that ties into what I was sharing before, the idea of co-creation. And that is one of my main pillars that I share with my partners all the time is, hey, Scott, this is not just a transaction. Transaction. That's a one-way street. This to me is a partnership, and partnership with, with Constantine really is one that is based on co-creation. So if we don't have an understanding of what you're looking for, what I'm looking for, this is not going to work. So I mean, the types of questions that I ask really help understand and foster a strong relationship, a strong partnership that is based on, like I said, that servant, servant aspect.

12:42 Scott Ingram: If you're a fan of this show, then hopefully you already know about what our sponsor Outreach does. You can learn more about that at top1.fm/outreach. But the reason I wanted to talk about them here is because of their culture and who they are. At Outreach, they're fond of saying, we've got your back. And I've seen them live this in the way they treat each other and also in the way that they treat their customers and the broader sales community. They are servant leaders. Check them out, top1.fm/outreach. And now back to my conversation with Constantine. Yeah, I think I've talked about this a little bit on the podcast before. So one of the epiphanies that I had last year in playing the sales game was this just deep understanding that at the end of the day, sales is leadership. And this is actually a perfect transition because I'm really interested in your kind of self-development journey that you've, you've been on here of late. My focus from a development perspective, almost my sole focus this year, is to develop as a better leader because I know that that's going to serve me in my sales role. So talk about that component, kind of the self-awareness, self-development. Kind of walk us through your journey, how you've been approaching it, what you've been learning, all kinds of stuff.

13:59 Constantine Johns: Yeah, the interesting thing, Scott, and as I think about this more and more, I mean, it is something I, I think about on a daily basis, multiple times a day, and it really for lack of better words, and this is… I mean, everyone already knows this, but it all starts with you. I can't be the number one professional. I can't make impact within my organization. I can't do anything else worth living for if I haven't focused on me, if I haven't gotten, for lack of better words, if I haven't gotten my shit together. That is the big piece that I try and focus on and I pitch to my teams and as I develop and try and figure all of that out. So I think, and I'll backtrack, and this is going to be some, some good background. So probably, so I mean, I started in sales, gosh, when I was, well, really young. I was in Boy Scouts. I'm an Eagle Scout and I was selling popcorn from a very young age. I remember in middle school I was selling magazines and stuff like that, but college is really where I got into sales. But fast forward through college and everything like that, I mean, I've joined, I've been part of multiple mastermind organizations. And that really opened up my world to, to self-development, Scott. And that shifted everything. And one of the things I know you spoke about and one thing that I really believe is, is surrendering the control. And you know this, Scott, but I mean, for our audience, I don't have control over my quota. I don't have control over the pandemic. I don't have control over 99.999% of of anything that happens in our life. The only thing that we can control is us, is our perspective, is yourself. The sooner you come to grips with that, the better your life is going to be. I guarantee it. So, I mean, nothing, nothing will change until you accept that. So when you understand and you can surrender your need for external control and you start focusing on you, everything else just becomes a byproduct. Scott, when I stopped worrying about Quota, again, not anything that I could focus on or not anything that I can control. And I just focused on being the best version of me, the best version of Constantine. Everything else became so easy because I'm not having to worry about, oh, it's this number, that's a really big number. It's like, well, who, who does Constantine need to be to make that vision or that goal become a reality? And that really was, was the foundation, the building blocks for my development journey. And I know we'll get into the deeper weeds of it here in a bit, but I just kind of wanted to start with that.

16:51 Scott Ingram: That's fantastic. That's helpful. And actually, why don't we do a little bit of the contextual work and then come back to that? So you started to hint at how you got into sales and you said you got into sales in college. How did that happen? What was that role? Kind of walk us through the rest of the origin story.

17:09 Constantine Johns: Yeah, so it's a funny experience. So, so this was my freshman year, Scott, 17, 18 years old. I mean, I remember all over our business school's bulletins, they're like, oh, it was the career fair, the fall quarter career fair, whatever it is. And I'm a freshman, so I'm like, okay, cool, this sounds good. I have no idea what college is supposed to be like. So I'm like, I'm just gonna go check it out. And I'm walking through and meeting people and I walk up to Mike my then turned into be my boss, Annie Wilkinson at University Directories. And the first question that every recruiter was asking, though, Scott, was, hey, what year are you? I'm a freshman. So of course, hey, I'm a freshman. They're like, oh, we're looking for juniors, seniors, like people who are well-established in their career. I had no idea. I had no, I guess, perception that that was what a career fair was supposed to be. But so Annie took a chance on me. She's like, hey, love to interview you. Long story short, got the job. University Directories was the largest campus publication company at the time. So if you remember, I mean, I know, I know you've got kids here, Scott, but I think they're probably more on the younger perspective that they don't always have their student planners or their student directories that are in print. Everything, as you know now, is online. But my role, my job was to sell print advertising for universities in Colorado, Wyoming, kind of the Midwest, or what we called at the time the Frontier Region. So I got the job. I remember going home and telling my parents and being the amazing parents that they are, of course, always supportive. I've got a tremendous tribe behind me and I owe a lot of my success and my attributes to, to my family. But at the time they were like, oh, that's so great, you're going to do awesome, blah, blah, blah. Later came to find out that they were a little bit hesitant, a little bit skeptical to say, Constantine, you're getting into sales, you're going to get knocked on your ass. So I was like, all right, cool. I mean, I found that out later. But long story short, Scott, I ended up being number 1 in the region. I ended up being 5th in the nation out of roughly 750 students. So I did really well. At the University of Denver, we operate off of a quarter system, and this was a big driving force for me. So at the quarter system, I started… I mean, our selling period was really the summer, just getting, getting advertising in student planners before school started. So I started probably 3 weeks behind every other student that was part of a semester system. So they started selling the beginning of, of May and I started middle of June. So I always saw my name at the bottom of the list, Scott, and I was like, damn, I suck. Like, I've got zero sales and everyone's just getting sales left and right, blah blah blah. That was a huge driving force for me, ended up being number one. But that was kind of my first toe in the water into sales, and it was fun. Like, I knew for me my purpose was, hey, I'm helping these, these small businesses, attract students, gain more business, all that stuff. So it was a, it was a good toe, a good deep dive in. The second year, my sophomore year, I was brought back on as an area sales manager. So I got into the leadership aspect of that. And really that was my springboard to Bloomberg, Scott. So my, I guess my bosses at the time at University Directories, they were career partners with Bloomberg. So again, going back to a career fair at University Directories, I got to meet our VP of sales at the time, Rick Montella at Bloomberg. And mind you again, Scott, I'm 18, I'm 19 years old. I have no idea what I'm doing with my life, but I had done well at University Directories. And I'm walking around and I meet Rick and he's like, Constantine, you've done really well. We want you to come work for Bloomberg. And I'm like, thank you. I'm flattered, of course, but A, I have no idea what I'm doing with my life. I don't know what Bloomberg is. So like, thank you. Let's, let's stay in touch. Fast forward two more years after that, I interviewed all over. I was, I mean, feeling out where I wanted to go. And long story short, after graduating two days after I walked across that stage, I was on a flight out to DC and starting my career with Bloomberg. So it was a wild. It has been a wild ride, but I've I've appreciated every single second of it.

21:30 Scott Ingram: Yeah, and then bring us into the current day. So talk about Bloomberg. Talk about your role. What are you doing?

21:36 Constantine Johns: So I've been with Bloomberg going on six and a half. Years now, I believe. So it's, it's been, it's been quite some time. So through college and starting my position, and I'm extremely grateful for what was called the START program, Scott. And so this was really, it was built for, for college grads to get in and start getting into sales and everything like that. So I started kind of in your customer service role. I went through all of the back, the home office stuff. So like understanding how do we interact with our clients, what's going on, what is the invoicing process. So a lot of that kind of minutia. So that was a great foundation for me. Then I got into some of the training, the product support, product development. Then I got into inside sales and I knew I did not want inside sales. I mean, I know none of you can, can see me on this podcast, but like, I love being in front of people. I mean, use that. And now we're obviously we're in a pandemic, so everything's virtual, but I loved being in person. So inside sales and And then finally it was an outside sales territory. And that's when I moved from Washington, D.C. out to Portland, Oregon, which is where, where I still am. And so I started as an account executive. And so this is… I mean, we've gone through a lot of changes here at Bloomberg where I was covering the entire state of Oregon and all different types of businesses, Scott. So some of my proudest accomplishments and some of the one or partners that I was able to work with are organizations like Nike, Adidas, Columbia, FLIR, some of the largest companies in, in the nation, in the world. So that was a huge opportunity for me. And then from there, probably about, I guess, 2 years ago now, transitioned from an account executive. I mean, we changed all of the names to what, what is called a relationship partner. But my I guess the feather in my cap is I was tapped to be the, the top 100 tax and accounting firms relationship partners. So you think of organizations like KPMG, Deloitte, EY, etc. That was my niche. That was my specialty. So they're like, Constantine, you've done very well over these past couple of years. We want you to hit the big boys now. So I was like, okay, cool. So I've done that and have continued breaking all of the boundaries or the expectations that we've had. And we'll kind of get into some of the numbers here in a little bit, but I've continued to just kind of define and redefine what this role was to this organization and now what I've created it to be.

24:20 Scott Ingram: Perfect. Well, let's talk about that. Let's talk about the numbers and what have you done and what does it take to be number one at Bloomberg?

24:27 Constantine Johns: Yeah, I'm glad that I'm allowed to speak to this. I know that you only speak with the top 1 and the top 1%, so I'm very grateful for this opportunity, Scott. It wasn't ever really about being number 1. Again, this goes back to that self-development and self-awareness piece. It was being the best that I could be. And I knew that, that I was better. Like, my biggest challenge, my biggest target is always myself. How can I be better than my previous year self, whatever it is? So I've been again with Bloomberg going on 6 years, 6 and a half years, as I said, I've, I've hit every single year, I've hit over 215% of my quota. So that's a big deal for me. Like my, my standard of excellence, Scott, is I have to hit over 200. That's it. Like 100 to me, like being, being the best I could be is 200. So that was always a goal that I had set for myself last year, I guess. Well, excuse me, 2 years ago, 2019, I was the number 1 rep. 2020, I again, I was the number 1 rep. So, and I know in our podcast we talk about not only being the top 1, the top 1%, but it's also consistency, Scott. And that to me is a, is a huge piece of why I do what I do. I remember, so when I was number 1 back in 2019, I got my Sales Excellence Award and we were at the award ceremony. This is back when we were able to, to meet in person and have conferences in person. But my VP of sales comes up to me and says, hey, Constantine, great job. You did an awesome job. I'm like, thank you, thank you. And he's like, you know, it's only really impressive if you do it again. And I sat there, Scott, I don't even know what the look on my face was, but I was like, huh, interesting. So I was kind of taken aback, but I mean, I've said, okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. But it was a great challenge. I was like, okay, cool. I'll prove you wrong. I will show you that I can do this not only for myself, But also another cool thing is I did it through a pandemic, Scott. Like, we've… I'm sure… I know for a fact you've seen a lot of different struggles, as we all have. But that was a huge piece of why I did what I did, is like, I'm gonna show you, show myself that I can do this consistently year over year over year. I mean, 5 years in a row that I've sold over 200% of my quota is nothing that I, I guess, ever really imagined, but is something that I expected of I love that.

26:59 Scott Ingram: I love that, you know, 100% is like, yeah, that's, that's about halfway. We're, we're, we're, we're well, we're well on our way. I'm curious about in your quest to be the best Constantine on sort of that 0 to 100% scale, because I won't let you go over 100%, like how far do you think you are into your like full potential, your full capability?

27:21 Constantine Johns: Oh, that's such a good question. And I know you actually, this is one of the areas that you were talking about with, with Steve in one of your, your more recent podcasts too. Is like you're seeing yourself as a master. So I look at this, I'm like, a master is one who never sees himself or herself as a master. This to me, Scott, is a lifelong journey. I will never achieve my fullest potential, if you will. I remember when I joined one of my first mastermind organizations, and this is really what got me into that self-development piece, is the types of questions they asked me, Scott. They're like, well, Constantine, on a scale scale of 1 to 10, where are you in, in your purpose or your fulfillment or your happiness in life? And those are questions that I had never been asked before. So from that point, I was like, holy shit, like there's, there is more to this. I need to really dig deeper. And so that was something I was, I don't know, just awoken to. So when you're asking, hey, well, where are you, Constantine? I mean, I mean, have I done well and, and have I delivered on a lot of my, my purpose and my potential? Hell yeah. I mean, if I'm at like an 8, I will never be at a 10. I will tell you this for 100%, Scott, I will never be at a 10. And that's something where I always have to be chasing. I always have to be developing, being better. There's something that we can always be learning. So that's that, that carrot that's always hanging in front of you that keeps me going harder and going further than, than anyone else.

29:01 Scott Ingram: Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's funny. I would put myself in a very similar number, right? It's like there is no 10, right? There's always better. There's always something to be able to improve and refine and do something better. One of the things that I've been actively working to improve is my proposal game. Proposify has helped me to see that this is an area I can make some serious improvements. And if you'll click over to top1.fm/proposify, you can get their annual State of Proposals report that distills data from more than 2.6 million proposals. Some of the insights in this report are really eye-opening. There are a couple that are pretty counterintuitive, and it's definitely worth checking out and thinking about your own opportunities to improve your proposal game and improve your win rate. top1.fm/proposify. I want to come back and dig deeper into this self-development journey that you've been on, right? So maybe talk a little bit more about the masterminds and the other things that you have done, the areas that you have worked to improve, how you've done that, what's worked, what you found to be like, yeah, that, that wasn't helpful.

30:09 Constantine Johns: Yeah, no, I mean, I think so. My first year at Bloomberg Scott, when I started, I was doing well. I had just moved out here to Portland. I was cold-called. I was approached on LinkedIn by this organization at the time that was called Epic Impact. And they're like, hey, Constantine, we're reaching out to top sales performers, blah, blah, blah, trying to make you better. And this is the conversation I was alluding to earlier where, I mean, the questions I was asked, I had never thought of before. Long story short and fast forward a little bit is I accepted their intro immersion, flew out to San Francisco and started to dive in and kind of unpack what this was. And it was so much more than just a sales development. Yes, they were, they were reaching out to top sales performers. And I will call out one of our other guests here on the, on the podcast, Ian Koniak, one of my very good friends from Salesforce. He's a top performer at Salesforce, which is unbelievable. And he has done such a tremendous job. Ian and I met through, through Epic Impact and now, now is called Abundant. But we were on this journey together of just developing, yes, our sales skills and how we can be better in that. But it was so much more. And that goes back to what I said before, Scott, where it all starts with you. If I can control the one thing I can control in life, me, then everything else will become a byproduct. So when I got into this, that's kind of when I was introduced to things like meditation. Visualization, journaling. You and I were talking about earlier Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, the power, the sheer power that we have in our mind. Like, I mean, I just get excited talking about it, Scott. It's like there's so much untapped potential that we have within us. So why are we not… I mean, we talk about Tim Ferriss, we talk about Tony Robbins, we talk about Ed Mylett, we talk about all these people, Brendon Burchard, who have countless numbers of amazing books and tips and tricks of how you tap into this, whether it is journaling, whether it's meditating, yet we don't do it. And why, why don't we do it? I mean, I don't want to say we don't. I mean, there are a lot of people who do. But for me, getting introduced to that, Scott, was a, was a door that was just broken wide open. And I was like, damn, this is just something that can infinitely produce or be a catalyst to my potential. I know, and, and speaking about like, hey Constantine, like, have you always had this fire? Have you always had this desire? Yeah, it was there, Scott. The way that I look at it is like, if you think of like a fireplace and you've got that pilot light on, like it's there, but until you, you turn it on or until you spray some liquid, liquid fire on that or ignite fluid on it, it's not gonna burn. And that, for me, that's what self-development was. It's like turning that on full blast and you're like, all right, this… I'm, I'm in it. I am ready to go. So my, like, my routines now, my catalysts for doing this, and almost like an ignition of, of your intuition, of your self-development, of what you trust within you, has been created because of, of my, my meditations, my journaling, my visualization. And that's been a huge foundation for my success.

33:42 Scott Ingram: What are the things that you have worked on the most or have had the most impact as you've worked on them?

33:48 Constantine Johns: Oh, I think one of the things like is so sacred to me, Scott, is, is my morning routine. And we talk a lot about this. You and I were talking about meditation before, is, is how powerful our, our mornings are and how powerful, like, where we choose to give our energy. So to me, like, Constantine, where do you spend a lot of your energy? First, let me backtrack and say it is all a choice. Everything in life we have is a choice. Could I choose to do something different on Friday night versus listening to podcasts or reading self-development books? Absolutely. I could go out with friends. I could… well, maybe not during a pandemic, but you kind of get the picture. But long story short, Scott, is it is always a choice. So for me, like, that power of choice is very important. So my… and I'll explain a little bit about what my, what my morning rituals look like. So for me, I will not look at my phone for the first hour. I mean, whether it's Brendon Burchard, every single successful person probably preaches about this. So I will add to that. So hopefully the more people that you hear say this, maybe you will start to do it. I do not not look at my phone. First thing I know I need to do is fill myself up, Scott, so that I can in turn serve others. And this goes back to what we were talking about, servant leadership. I can't be a good leader, Scott, if I'm not first leading myself. I know that 100%. So I wake up, I take 10 deep breaths, kind of have like my power poses, drink my water, and then I get into… I get into journaling. So for the past 2 and half, 2 and a half years, I'd say I have journaled every single day. And journaling is, is something different to other people. And I'm not saying this is, this is what it has to be for you, but I speak about gratitude. What am I grateful for that day? I speak a lot about manifestation. And this kind of goes back to, again, Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, is like the power that we have to think about this. And I'll I'll call it out. Like, I journaled about my time with you here today, Scott. I was like, I want to show up as powerfully as I possibly can for, for Scott and for our audience today. And I'm, I'm call… I'm speaking that into existence. And the crazy thing is, like, that shit happens when, when you focus on that. Your mentality becomes your reality. I believe that wholeheartedly. So I journal quite a bit. I journal every morning. I whether it's… I mean, whether it's 2 minutes, whether it's 5 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever it is, I silence myself. I breathe. I let go of all possible outcomes. And the thing that I'll add to it, Scott, is like outcomes both negative and positive. And that's one thing I don't think a lot of people think about. Like letting go of the negatives is like, yes, I know that clouds your brain. And you're tied to that, you feel anxious, blah blah blah. But it's also letting go of the outcomes that are positive. We get attached so much to oh this I I need this I need this and I I look at it kind of like from a sports analogy. It's like you want your team to win. I know you're you're out in Austin, so I don't know if if you're I guess a Dallas Cowboys fan or I don't know I guess your your best teams are maybe more of a Texans fan, but you've got some people that are so wedded to an outcome saying, ah, I want this team to win, or I'm gonna get this deal, or I'm gonna do that, that you lose sight of your intuition and it clouds your judgment. So I'd add to, to what I was saying before, let go of both the positive and the negative outcomes and let your intuition speak. So there are rituals that I have to really focus on my intuition and igniting that So that's really what I believe and trust.

37:49 Scott Ingram: Nice. When does all that start? I mean, we've already started to head down the morning routine path, so let's, let's keep going there. So you get up. When does that process start? When does it complete? How do you then kind of transition into the, into the workday?

38:02 Constantine Johns: So that's as soon as my, as my head gets off the pillow, Scott. I'll add to it, and I didn't really bring this up before, but a dream journal. So one of the things I've been reading a lot of books on intuition do come from your subconscious, your unconscious. When you can trust more of what your body, what your intuition, what your unconscious is trying to tell you, and you let that guide you throughout your day, throughout your life, things are just going to become easier. At least that's what I believe. So I wake up, head gets off the pillow. I'll quickly just in my sleep daze, I will try and jot down my dreams so that I can come back and revert to that and say, well, what, what was this trying to tell me? I'll have my water, I'll do my 10 deep breaths. Then I'll get into a more conscious journal of what I'm grateful for, what I'm doing. So, I mean, I usually try and wake up around 6:00, 6:30, start my day because, I mean, I cover the entire nation. So there are, there are days that I've got meetings on the East Coast which will start 9:00 their time, maybe 6:00 my time. So I have to get up a little bit earlier. But for that first 45 minutes to an hour, Scott, that is Constantine. Time. That is uninterrupted Constantine sacred, fill my cup up before I then can serve others.

39:22 Scott Ingram: Nice. And then how does the transition to the workday work and happen and how are you structuring that?

39:28 Constantine Johns: So usually from there, I mean, I'll kind of… I mean, I'll have a little bit of activity in there. I'll do a little bit of a workout and get my heart rate up and then I'll come down. I mean, our commute isn't as as great as it used to be. So I'll come down, walk down 2 flights of stairs, I'll get my water, get my Super Greens on, and then come down to my office and I'll start my day. Usually I, I have a meeting usually right around 7:30, 7:45, 8. So I'll hop on that meeting and I'll, I'll dive right in. And the rest is, to be honest with you, Scott, is back-to-back meetings all day long. So I know again that if I'm going to up as powerfully as I can for, for you, for anyone else, that I need to charge myself. So that's where… that's one of the reasons why this, this morning ritual is so crucial to me and in turn to my partners and who I'm speaking with.

40:22 Scott Ingram: Yeah. You talk about the leadership piece a lot. Is that a direction that you're looking to move into, or how do you resolve that and the role that you're in today, which is more of an individual contributor role?

40:36 Constantine Johns: Sure. So I mean, I, I look at it, Scott, as… I mean, individual contributor, or I know as, as you call it, an intentional individual contributor, is… I mean, I remember I was talking with our CEO Josh Eastright, and we were talking about some of the most impact that you can have is as an individual contributor. So I believe in leading up. I don't have to have the title, the manager, the VP next to my name to do that. I know with 100% certainty that I am a leader within our organization. I have my own mentees within Bloomberg. I've got other people that I coach. So while I might not have manager next to my name, I absolutely am a leader. I've got my team. I'm part of kind of like our what we call our TAG, Tax Accounting and Government team, where I do lead groups within this team. I've got We've got like our Monday mindset sessions where I've led a number of those and try to uplevel the collective. So to your point, yes, leadership is a, is a huge passion of mine, but I've tried to disconnect myself from, I don't know, from that stigma of needing to have those letters, that name, or those words after my name to be associated with a leadership role.

42:01 Scott Ingram: We certainly share that. I like the way you said it. You lead up. I always think of it as leading from the field, right? I think there's so many ways that you can impact the organization. And to your point, I don't need the title. I don't need the direct reports. It really comes back to your concept of being a person of influence, right? I don't need to be your boss to impact what you do.

42:21 Constantine Johns: No, I agree 100%. The cool thing with that, Scott, and I'll dive into this just real quick, is because leading up can different in so many ways. I remember when I first started my personal development self-awareness journey, my boss, my manager at the time, Glenn McCray, was like, Constantine, what are you smoking? You're meditating, you're journaling, you're doing all this stuff. And that is so different from what we were used to in sales and what the stigma in sales was. I mean, he had joined me on a few ride-alongs and my, my line of questioning with my clients 360'd. He's like, what are you doing? Like, this is, this isn't what you ask. I'm like, no, Glenn, this is, this is what I ask. This is what I do now. And so I think he was skeptical at the start and I'm glad that he was because it really made me dig deeper into, into my journey of self-development. Fast forward to now, Glenn is one of my, my biggest allies, my biggest advocates, the one that I go to and I'm like, Glenn, let's, let's do this with the team. Let's do that with the team. Let's, let's challenge the process. Let's make sure that everyone has a different mindset journal or not making sure that everyone does that, but really invite them to consider and bring them, bring them to the game. And that is, I'd say, actually one of, one of my proudest moments is being able to influence so effectively that he's joined mastermind organizations, that he now journals on a regular basis and meditates. And I don't know, it's just, it's cool. And I get so passionate about how you're able to, to lead up in that way.

44:13 Scott Ingram: Yeah. Was that the pivot? So we teased before kind of this change from the stereotypical approach to the deeper question kind of co-creation approaches. Is that when it happened? And like, what triggered that and what does that actually look like and sound like?

44:29 Constantine Johns: I wish I could like put my finger on it because the thing, Scott, as I was saying before, I really think it has always been within me. I mean, we talk about kind of like growth mindset versus fixed mindset. So I know that internally, intrinsically, I've always had this desire to serve, to grow, to be the best version of myself. I know it's always been there. As I said, I mean, I think I would attribute a lot of that, that catalyst being the mastermind organization, being a part of Epic Impact and Abundant, because that opened my eyes so much quicker than if I never joined it at that time. I was 20, 21, 22 years old. So it was a huge door that had been opened for me and only just catapulted into I mean, having conversations with you and having deeper conversations with DeJuan. I remember at one of our national sales meetings, DeJuan had me come on as a speaker with him to lead a, lead a session about prospecting. And I said, DeJuan, hold up, let me… I'm going to change the vernacular. I'm going to change it from prospecting again. And you've heard me say this, I'm not looking at it as sales, I'm looking at it as influence. I'm not looking at it as prospecting, I'm looking at it as what I call finding people to serve. So I changed that narrative, and I remember going to people, I'm like, well, why, why does prospecting have to be a, I've got 100 cold calls that I have to blast through and I have to do this and that and, and get to, get to this number? It's just, to me, that just sounds exhausting. Just saying that, Scott, sucks. I just feel grimy doing that. But when I changed my perspective and invited others to look at this with me and change that mindset. Finding other people to serve is just like, well, Scott, I'm gonna call on you and I'm gonna call on other people, and I, I want to learn how I can better serve you and how I can better develop and how I can co-create. I'll come back to this again… how I can co-create a vision with you that serves your organization better than you could have ever imagined. And that, I don't know if, if, if I I just put the point on the map and say yes because I was part of different mastermind organizations or whatever, that, that was the, the starting off point. Yeah, it probably was a diving board, but I know in my heart that it was always there and has only just continued to grow.

46:55 Scott Ingram: Love it. And what did you talk about? Like, what is your approach to finding people to serve?

47:01 Constantine Johns: Oh, it's, it's, it's getting curious. I mean, I listened to so many of your episodes where I mean, talk about like Vincent, who is one of the, the most crazy sales SDRs. I mean, his Twitter feed, his, his LinkedIn outreach, his emails, all of his stuff is so creative and so awesome. And I try and do, do a little bit of that. I can't necessarily do all of the Twitter stuff that he does, but, but I mean, I try and be very creative in my outreach. I use one of your sponsors, I use Vidyard, I use a lot of different video outreach just to try and be, be different. Scott, one of the things that I told my team when we were pitching at NSM, National Sales Meeting, was you got to try everything. You really do. I mean, you don't know what's going to work, what's not, if you don't at least try it. One of the things I always tell my peers, my colleagues, anyone getting into any industry is fail fast. Fast. Fail fast. Figure out, try everything, understand what works and understand what doesn't. But you will never figure that out unless you try. So whether it's using different videos, outreach, your, your different talk tracks… I know Dale Dupree does a great Sales Rebellion and talks about the different… got it, what is it… the email subject lines and getting really creative that way. So I don't know, I just, I invite people to get scared to try different things. And I think that's really where, where I try and specialize and encourage a mindset shift, a mindset change, because we are so ingrained in our ways. And until we take that, that leap of faith, that next step, Scott, you're always going to be in the same rut. One of my, my favorite quotes that I look at all the time is from Tony Robbins. If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten. I'll say it again. If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten. Like, just let that sink in, because if you're going to continue doing the same thing, nothing will change. And that's what I am so passionate about, Scott. And I admire and respect why you're passionate about it too. The best time to change is when things are good, not when, oh, I, I'm struggling to hit my number, I need more inspiration, more admiration, whatever it is. No, change when things are good. That's when you're gonna continue to double down on your commitment and the compounding effect really comes into play.

49:43 Scott Ingram: Since Constantine just gave me the opening, I'm gonna take it on behalf of Vidyard. If you haven't yet tried Vidyard, you need to. The impact of adding yourself to your emails with video is so powerful, and you can get Vidyard for free. Just go to top1.fm/v to get started with the Chrome plugin and give it a try. Challenge yourself to do something new, whether things are going well for you right now or you need to innovate to break through. top1.fm/v. That is profound. I will have to think about that one a little bit more. I'm curious about, so as you came into Bloomberg, how long was it before you felt like you kind of hit your stride and had things figured out and got to this 200% type performance level?

50:34 Constantine Johns: Well, my first year was really that training year. And then ever since, I mean, my first year out in the field, Scott, it was, it was that standard of over 200%. So So when you say hit my stride, I mean, I think maybe, I don't know, maybe year 2, year 3 is when I really felt like, man, I've got a good grasp on this and I'm dialed in. Like, I know how I want to show up. And this goes back to the self-awareness piece. I am so aligned with what my brand is, Scott. Like, I remember, so I'm part of what we call our Leadership Development Initiative program. It was launched this year here at Bloomberg, and only 10 professionals out of our entire organization were selected for this. And I remember we had a session and I was talking about your self-brand and your self-identity and how important that is. And we had a little challenge where everyone like type a sentence and send it to the group and everyone's going to try and guess who said what. So I had my brand sent that out there and everyone's guessing, oh, this is Bob and this is Sally and this is Jim and this is Jeff. Whoever it is, and my one was the one that everyone guessed for me. And that was a cool light bulb moment when I know I am so transparent and so authentic in the way that I show up. And maybe it's everyone just knows oh Constantine's the weird one who who talks about his clients as his partners. I remember that was one thing that I started saying that at at our national sales meeting with DeJuan. And everyone's like, Constantine, what the hell are you saying? And I'm like, guys, they're not, they're not clients to me. They are not to me. And it's, it's again, it's a word thing, however I look at it. But I call the people I work with, I call them my partners because they really are my partners. So I don't know, hitting that stride, having that authenticity and, and that true vision of who I am and how I show up day, that's really where I knew that I was in a groove, Scott.

52:47 Scott Ingram: Yeah, I love that, that alignment. What is that sentence? How do you describe yourself?

52:51 Constantine Johns: Oh man, I'd have to go back and give you the exact wording. But long story short, it was like my brand is… I think I said something about servant leadership, but like my job is to show up as the authentic version of myself and empower my partners to make the best decisions for their business in every single interaction. And I'm going to be there as a partner, as a co-creator. Leader every step of the way. It just, it felt good. It felt really good.

53:20 Scott Ingram: Yeah. Yeah. Now I know you're, you know, 6 years into your work with Bloomberg. If you could start over knowing what you know now, what, if anything, would you do differently?

53:31 Constantine Johns: I mean, I would say, Scott, like not even just with Bloomberg, I wish I had the insight and the introspection, the ability to look inward God, from such a young age, a much younger age. This isn't even… and that's why I really want to put an emphasis, and I know why, why you do too as well, Scott, is like, this is not a professional sentiment. This is a personal, this is a lifestyle sentiment that I honestly think everyone should be made aware of. And that is having that introspection, having the ability to look inward and say like, well, Why, why am I thinking this way? What is growth for me? What are the pitfalls? What are the roadblocks? It's going to take time and it's going to be hard to fight the desire to stay complacent. But a good life is not determined by chance. It's by choice. If I choose to look inward and if I choose to figure out like why I think this way, to me it's so enlightening, Scott. Like, I just wish I knew that at such a much younger age. Age to be able to look at it from a growth perspective versus a, a fixed mindset, or just the ability to look inward. And that's what I would encourage everyone to do, to be completely honest.

54:55 Scott Ingram: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, it's a massive theme that I have noticed in, in these conversations is just that level of self-awareness and seeking to understand yourself and questioning why you're doing what you're doing and how you're doing what you're doing and these things and, you know, coming back to some of the language, right? Just, just changing from clients to partners and changing from prospecting to finding people to serve. I was having a conversation with Matt Du Pont yesterday and he was talking about his practice and I'm like, God, I love that. That's how we're starting to talk about this. And it was really kind of Evan Kelsay who brought that idea about that, you know, every other profession. Sees their work, describes their work as a practice.

55:40 Constantine Johns: Yeah.

55:40 Scott Ingram: Why aren't we practicing sales professionals and working on our craft? So I think those things are, are so, so important. I would love to hear a story about… maybe put this in terms of what does the partner experience look like? Well, you know, what's one of your favorite engagements that you brought to life and how did that all play out? And just, you know, give us… walk us through a deal.

56:06 Constantine Johns: Oh man, there's so many awesome highlights that I have in my career, Scott, that I give so much gratitude for. Like, I love absolutely… and I think our audience can tell this… I love what I do. I've got so much passion for what I do and really do have a tremendous amount of gratitude for the partners that I've had over the years, which is many. I've Worked with some of the largest corporations here in the country, and it's just it is cool when you when you see the influence and the impact that you do. So I'll highlight two of them if that's okay. If if our audience will indulge here in two sessions or two two stories here. So one of them was just just starting. I guess I I probably was first introduced to this firm. This is a tax firm here in in Portland, Oregon. They were one of the first firms that I was calling. On, God, when I started back in 2016, 2015. And so at the time, they, they were with my competitor, one of my competitors. I was always okay with that. And I was told, I mean, when, when I started with the organization, don't… you don't need to knock out the competition. We can just be an add-on. We can be kind of part of this. And that was, that was how I was coached. Fast forward forward to this past year. So 3 years, 4 years later, I'm still calling on them. I had never, never won the deal. I didn't get it yet, but I was still calling on them. I was still serving them, still showing up. Hey Scott, I know this tax season is coming up. Let me help you. Let me send you this. Let me get you that. Always providing value without ever expecting anything in return. And I'll put a caveat on that. And that's really important is the way that you show up, whether it's in a relationship, whether it's in a business transaction, provide value 100% of the time. Disconnect yourself from ever expecting anything in return, and I guarantee you your life will change dramatically. So with that in mind, that's… that was how I operated. That's how I wanted to show up to this firm. And so fast forward again to 2020, I was having conversations I was like, you know what, Ken, I think we really need to look at this from a how can we serve you standpoint. Coronavirus is having a huge impact on your business. My competition wasn't doing the best at that time, and I really feel like we've got a good alignment here. What is your vision? I mean, these are the types of questions that I was asking and goes back to that genuine curiosity is like, Scott, what do you want for your firm, not only for yourself but more importantly for your clients? And I know this is how Ian Koniak approaches a lot of his sales as well at Salesforce, is bypass of course the immediate transaction with whoever your quote-unquote your client or your partner is, but also think about the end user. If my person, my partner, is the middleman but I also want to impact the end user, the end End result, that just makes things that much more impactful. So that was again the approach that that I take in in every sort of interaction that I have. So I keep working on this. We go through contract months and months and months of contracting, and I don't know if this is gonna work. And we have they actually had both of my competitors in there, and we're like, oh well, we're locked into a contract, and da da da. Every objection that you could possibly throw at me, Scott, and. Again, my, my unwavering desire to serve helped me stay grounded. I knew in my hearts of hearts, like, hey, this is, this is what's going to come through. And so me working on with my contracts team and my pricing team and them saying, hey, I don't know if this is going to work, that's going to work, I knew like this is what's going to happen. And I knew I was equally okay with walking away, Scott, if they said no. I was totally cool with that. Totally cool with that. But long story short, we ended up getting the deal, 3+ years. It was a huge dollar amount for me and just a wonderful win just of knowing how to show up and how to serve. And I could tell you, I mean, already into this year, they're looking at adding on more content with us because they know, A, how I show up for them. And that was one of the biggest things that I'd also add, and people are like, Constantine, why are, why are you good at what you do? What makes you different? Why do they choose Bloomberg? Yes, I stand behind my product 100%. I, I can confidently say that we have the best products in the industry, but I also know that I am a huge difference maker. That is why these firms choose to, to go with, with me or go with Bloomberg, is because they get Constantine along with it. They know how I'm going to show up. I ask them those questions, Scott. I remember asking, asking one of the partners, and this is one of the, the things that my boss at the time, Glenn, was like, Constantine, what are you, what are you smoking? Why are you asking this in a client meeting? I'm like, Scott, how do you want me to show up for you? I know it's different for every single firm, but how do you want me to show up for you? And then I shut up. I just let them… I let it sink in. Usually 99% of the time I'm gonna get very odd looks and they're gonna be like, what, what, what do you mean show up for me? And from that, I mean, I, I explain, I'm like, well guys, you expect X, Y, and Z and, and this company expects ABC, so what do you want from me? It's going to be different. And that's where it goes back to that co-creation. So that win was, was instrumental for me. I mean, really, again, kind of hitting that Groove, and I've replicated that into, into other firms. And the other story I'll, I'll add real quick to this, Scott, is that while the wins are important and, and getting it, but it's also keeping everyone happy, that the testimonials and the partnership really, really starts once the deal has been signed. And that is the biggest piece for me. So you, you could look at my, my LinkedIn, you could look at I mean, I've got a, a list on my computer of the, the emails, the testimonials I have that say, Constantine, the way that you show up, the way that you've supported us, supported our firm, is unlike anyone else. That's why I do what I do. It is like, that is my driving force, and it is so crucial to me to kind of… and, and this is, this goes into, I mean, a little bit more of the personal aspect, and maybe I should I shouldn't tie so much of my validation in the external, Scott. And it's actually kind of like a hard thing for me to swallow or disconnect from. And it's something that I really look inwards on is like, why do I value that so much? Why do I value someone saying, Constantine, you're so great, or you did this for us? And I don't know. And that's kind of a whole therapist conversation. But when I've got video test testimonials and all that stuff. I mean, it just makes my day, it makes my whole year, and I know that's why I do what I do.

1:03:25 Scott Ingram: Well, let's continue with that theme. If you'll just lay back on my couch, I have some questions for you. What are you most proud of?

1:03:32 Constantine Johns: It's being who I am, Scott. Like, I know, I know I am on a path, on a trajectory that I really could have never envisioned before. Like, I mean, yes, I knew I was going to be great. I knew anything that I was going to get into, I was going to give 100%. I was going to be the best that I could be. But it is cool to say I'm number one at Bloomberg. It's a great feeling to say that you are on top of your game. But the most important thing and what I'm most proud of is who I've become along that journey. So this is one thing that I really want the audience to understand is appreciating the journey along the way. So much of what we're taught or what we think of is the outcome. So my outcome, my end goal was being number one. And yes, I've achieved that. But too often we completely ignore the journey. I want us to appreciate the journey. I'll quote Martin Luther King, faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase. I did not see the staircase to number one. Yes, there were paths and I've taken a million different loop-de-loops and turns and twists and curves and all that stuff, but I have appreciated every step along the way. Has it been easy? Hell no. Hell no. But I've appreciated the journey. And the important piece is, is not having that tunnel vision, Scott. It's understanding that that kind of outcome blurs the space in between. So when you can really understand one of my old friends, she used to tell me like, you grow through what you go through. And what we're going through or what I've gone through right now has helped me grow into Constantine, has helped me grow into who I am today. And so that's, that's what I'm most proud of is who I am, how I show up, how I love, how I interact with you, with my partners. It's a good feeling, Scott. It really is. And it's a humbling feeling because I've I've got such a tremendous support group, tremendous family, tremendous friends that have supported me along the way through the good times, the bad times, and everything in between. But they've, they've held me grounded of like, well, who are you along this path?

1:05:58 Scott Ingram: Yeah, yeah. The journey piece was most interesting for me. That's actually how I have been using my journal a lot lately, is just kind of capture some of the journey because I find it's, it's kind of fascinating to be able to go back and look at like, what was I thinking when that was going on? Like, how did I come to that conclusion? Like, how was I processing that particular experience and some of those challenges or that opportunity or what have you? Constantine, what about the flip side? What do you struggle with the most?

1:06:29 Constantine Johns: Oh man, I knew you were gonna ask that one. I'll quote this the way that I say it, and, and I guess we'll probably have to put explicit on this, but, but I am human. I'm human as fuck. Like, that is the thing that I, I want everyone to know is like, Constantine's not some, some godsend that he does everything perfectly. I screw up all the time, Scott. And that was one of the things I was, I was saying before is like, and we're in the therapy session now, so, so now we're really opening up the the wounds. But I think I still, I do struggle with the external validation. And I look to that of saying, well, I need to show up so big for Scott and so big for everyone else that I sometimes lose sight of the me. One thing that I will say I struggle with is, and I know, I guess from what I was saying before, that it really wouldn't make sense, but it is also taking care of me. I can confidently say Scott, like if I put in half the effort that I do into my, my partners or my work, and if I put that back into myself, my life would be extraordinarily different for the better, I would argue. So finding more time, I will say I need to find more time to give back to myself for the self-care. Yeah, I've got my mornings, but there are days, Scott, where I've got 8, 9, 10 meetings that are, that are back to back, that I skip lunch, I skip breakfast, and I don't take the necessary time to disconnect and, and fill myself up. And that is an internal struggle I have trying to understand, is like, Constantine, well, why is everyone else so important but you can't, you can't just take 15, 20 minutes to have lunch and just disconnect. So that's something internally I try and work on. I know, I know Dale Dupree speaks a lot about mental health and how important that is in every aspect of life. But as I said, I mean, it is, it is something internally that I struggle with on a daily basis. I've got like my CSPs, my client services partners, and my BDRs and my SAs and all that stuff. They're like, Constantine, take a freaking break, dude. Take a vacation. I mean, I know my parents tell me this too. It's like, Constantine, disconnect and enjoy, enjoy the journey, as I just said. So I think I need to probably practice a little bit more of what I preach from the internal perspective, Scott. And that is a big, big thing that I'm putting importance on for me this year.

1:09:09 Scott Ingram: Nice. You've talked a couple of times about having a very full calendar. What are those meetings? How are you kind of structuring and, and operating through the workday? How did all of those meetings get there? Why us through that?

1:09:22 Constantine Johns: Oh, I mean, I wish it was easy. I have, and I'll add this to my struggle list as well, and I'll continue to humanize myself. I struggle with letting go of the control of, quote unquote, of delegating, Scott. And I think that's a big thing in sales, at least that I struggle with, is I know my output. I am very confident if I know I see things through from A to Z, this is the outcome that we're going to get. I do struggle with letting go and saying, all right, Scott, you take this piece of the deal and, and we'll see where we go. I struggle with that. So kind of, I mean, letting go of the control and, and having my SAs, my sales associates, or, or BDRs or anyone else, and have them set up a meeting or them do a follow-up email, it's, it's hard for So, I mean, my meetings are… a lot of them I do set up on my own because I know like, hey, I've spoken with Scott, this is what we're going to discuss and this is what we're going to get out of it. So, and I set that framework on my initial call or initial email if we have that much engagement. But also like when I get on the call, it's setting that preframe much as you and I would do on a call, Scott. It's like, hey, Scott, I just want to understand and get on point here and on the same page. This is what we're going to discuss today. If we're aligned to do, to do business, great. If not, that's great too. There's no, there's no attachment to the outcome. Is that still okay with you and your agenda? Yeah, Constantine, that's awesome. So initially, I mean, it's, it's getting that buy-in and it's understanding, okay, we're, we're on the same page here. We're, we're already in that container of co-creation. So that's usually how, how I start meetings. A lot of my meetings are demos, are under… well, I'd say more interactive demos. It's going through, it's okay, well, tell me, Scott, how are you doing things right now? A, why are you meeting with me? Why is this important to your business? I think that's a crucial question, is why is our time important enough to be spent together rather than you doing something else. And that's part of, part of the job of sales, or I'll say it more so, is influence. I have to influence you, Scott, to be like, hey, your time with Constantine, as, as we did today… I think DeJuan probably did more selling than I did, but DeJuan had to influence you to say, you know what, Scott, you should, you should spend some time with Constantine. So I'm again, shout out, thank you, DeJuan. But it's making sure that we're on the same page there and that I am providing value. If you're giving me 15 minutes, if you're giving me 30 minutes, if you're giving me an hour, that I have to show up and I have to provide value. So that's how the meetings go usually. As I said, it's, it's back to back. I've got meetings that are usually… I mean, 45 minutes to an hour is a, is a typical meeting length, and then running from, from one firm to the next. Before the pandemic, Scott, I was traveling every single day. I kid you not. I was on a plane every day of the week. I remember one of my craziest weeks, I was in Portland on… well, here on home on Sunday. I was in San Francisco on Monday, then out to Chicago, then Mississippi, then Florida. And then I think I made it back to Portland. And that was a hell of a week. Burnout was real. I mean, when, when I was so accustomed to having in-person meetings, that's how it had to be. I was cross-country every single day, a new airport, a new hotel, a new firm, a new business, etc. So in a weird way, Scott, the pandemic for me was a blessing in disguise in, in certain ways. I mean, I do miss having those, those in-person meetings, but, and I think my computer is probably sick of me talking to it and speaking to it all day long. But now I'm able to be meeting with my East Coast clients, my Midwest clients, and my West Coast clients all within one day. So technology is, is certainly amazing in that. And I would have never been able to hit… last year I hit over 300% of my quota, so I would have never been able to hit that number had I still had to be on a plane every single day. So I mean, the routine piece now is, is certainly different.

1:13:46 Scott Ingram: So you were actually more effective because of the pandemic and the need to stay home and just the lack of efficiency and having to be on planes so often.

1:13:56 Constantine Johns: Yeah, I know it's weird to say, and I know everyone has their own perspective about the pandemic, and it's something I think you and I actually spoke about or were engaging on LinkedIn about this too, is like I chose to look at this. And again, this is a perspective shift, a perspective change. Change. The pandemic, I could look at it as a horrible thing and my life sucks and all this, or I could look at it as a learning experience. And, and how do I get to grow through this? Again, going back to we grow through what we go through. So I learned how to, how to adapt, how to change, how to have virtual meetings that were as effective, if not more effective, than, than if I was there in person, where people were like, oh well, I have you in my office. And I mean, a lot of my, my sales tactics before were like, Scott, meet with me, I'm gonna be in Austin, so you should meet with me. Now it's like, well, I can't use that as an excuse anymore, so I'm having to give you more of a, a better excuse to be meeting with me. I mean, influence you to say, hey, the value that I'm gonna be providing in our 2 hours here is going to be worth your while. That was a big piece piece of it. And one of the things I'll share, I mean, you, you were bringing this up before, is like a language reframe, the difference between have to and get to. I'll say it again, have to and get to. And I found this very apparent during the pandemic and during quarantine. So I have to be on these calls or I have to, I have to go to work, I have to sit in traffic, I have to have this meeting, whatever it is. If you subtly shift that to get to… I get to meet with Scott, I get to show up powerfully for my clients, I get to spend more time with my family now because I'm in a pandemic. Had I not have done that before, I was traveling every single day of the week, Scott, and I bought my house here in Portland back in end of 2019. I didn't get to really enjoy my house because I was traveling. So I get to enjoy being at home in my new house every single day. It was a blessing to me. So when you shift from a have-to versus a get-to mindset, a get-to perspective, I don't know, to me, and I would assume to you as well, Scott, it is a more powerful frame of mind. I mean, if you can't change your circumstances, which none of us can or could here during the pandemic, change your perspective. Change that fricking perspective.

1:16:35 Scott Ingram: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, lots and lots of stuff in there. You know, I love the, you grow through what you go through, right? I've been talking a lot about my favorite way to talk through about this time. And Jeff Bajorek and I talked through this very, very, very early in the In the pandemic, we had a conversation about what are we supposed to call this? What is this time? Because we all, you know, we have this need to label it. And I said, I like the word challenge because with challenge, challenge is what brings growth, right? You don't get stronger in the gym because you went in there and just sat there. You know, we get stronger because we challenge ourselves and we push ourselves and we apply pressure and you just get into a situation where like, I get to figure this out.

1:17:17 Constantine Johns: Yeah. Well, you have to. It's not…

1:17:20 Scott Ingram: well, I was trying to do your reframe there.

1:17:22 Constantine Johns: No, no. And I, I agree with you 100%. I mean, it is… you could be in that comfort zone and you could stay kind of stagnant where you are, or you could choose to go into your fear zone, your learning zone, your growth zone, go to your gym. We do it physically. We go to the gym, we work out, we stretch, we break our muscles. But are we doing that from a mental perspective? That's the big question here, Scott. And I think that was one of the most important things during the pandemic is, are you growing internally? Are you growing personally as much as you're spending your time in the gym to, to get better muscle definition or tone or whatever it is? Are you also doing that Mentally.

1:18:09 Scott Ingram: Yeah. Yeah. And I'll tell you this, this is kind of a fun, simple story, but I know that this is exactly when my mindset really shifted around this. As we were getting ready to put together the Sales Success Experience Kits that we put in the mail to everybody who registered for last year's Sales Success Summit, one of the things that I had intended to include in that, and they're available again now. So if folks want to look this up, actually, we'll put it into the show notes as well. I had found on Amazon these yes/no paddles. So on one side, I have one here sitting on my desk. On one side, it's green. It has a big thumbs up. And then on the other side, it's red. It has a thumbs down. And I thought, hey, this will be a great tool for us to kind of enhance our experience. And as we're on calls together and as we're in our networking environment, to be able to visually kind of share this response without having to type into the chat, type yes, you know, we can kind of do this visual thumbs up or thumbs down. Type of thing. And as we were putting that together, those things sold out. I'm like, well, of course they did, because I, I put it off. I didn't order them right away, and we got into the beginning of school. Well, every teacher on the planet needed something like this because they're going to teach virtual classrooms. So I couldn't get these things. I thought, oh my gosh, I'm screwed. This is one of like the core pieces of this kit that was going to make this thing really, really cool, right? And what we ended up finding is we found a way that we could get similar kind of paddle types of things, but then we could design them ourselves. So instead of it being a generic thumbs up, thumbs down, we used our script, our logo, and on one side it said yes and it said sales success. And then the other side it said no and it said sales fail. And I recognized in that moment as we were able to, and we solved that in 2 hours. You know, it was, oh my God, I've got this huge problem. What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Found something that would solve the issue and then started co-creating around it. I was working with my design team on this, like, okay, well wait, now we've got a blank canvas. What can we do this? How can this be better? And I recognized through that process, I was like, these types of things were happening constantly, especially at that stage. Like we've already had to make this massive pivot. And we've got to turn this event into a virtual thing. And after that, and I still do, I look forward to the challenges. I'm like, oh, bring it on. Because every single time that we were faced with something like that was an opportunity for us to generate an even better outcome. And I think if you think through your deals that way, you know, I developed some really great mindset training when I was at Bazaarvoice, one of the things they talked about a lot was we typically in an ordinary deal are going to be told no or hear no 3 or 4 times. Yeah. So one, understanding that you're going to hear no and it's just part of the process. It's not the end of the game. And those are the opportunities to dig deeper and understand like, okay, well wait, what's behind that? What's creating that challenge? Now we get creative. Now we fix that, we keep going. And so it's completely shifted everything in the way that I have approached things. And I don't think I would have that mindset had we not had 2020. You know, like my personal growth and development accelerated orders of magnitude more than had we just kind of stayed on the course that we were on. And if we'd all been able to get together in Austin and it would have been great, it would have been fantastic. Fantastic, but it wouldn't have pushed us to get that much better.

1:21:45 Constantine Johns: No, I agree. I mean, it's stretching those boundaries, Scott, and that's what you bring up. I mean, it's it's the challenges that make us who we are. I mean, we're defined by I mean what we do every single day. I mean, what is it? So I'll share maybe more more personally. So my brother's name obviously I've I've got a pretty unique name. My heritage is Greek, but my brother's name is Aristotle, and another one of my favorite quotes are we are what we repeatedly. Do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit. So if you look at these challenges that you're facing, Scott, and then how we react to them or how we plow through them, that defines us. That makes us who we are. So I love… I mean, I love what you've shared. And obviously 2020 showed a lot of challenge to us. So how we picked ourselves up by the bootstraps and made it through really does… I mean, to me, 2020 is a defining year for humankind. How do we develop? How do we grow together? How do we foster community? I mean, the Sales Success Summit that you had virtually was phenomenal. Phenomenal. I loved seeing… I've got one, actually, one of my partners, Camille Clemons, she works at Cohen and Company, was one of the speakers. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I get to see Camille. She was giving her wonderful speech about about her team, like what is team to her. So like seeing the community, the tribe, the collective that you have created, Scott, and to see that only continue to grow through, through a pandemic, it's mind-blowing. And that just shows the strength that this community has and why I'm so grateful to be a part of it as well.

1:23:31 Scott Ingram: Yeah, awesome, awesome, awesome. So what does your information diet look like? What are you reading? What are you listening to? What are you watching? When does that happen?

1:23:40 Constantine Johns: Yeah, so I listen to you, so, so thank you. So a lot of podcasts really, Scott. So podcasts, audiobooks, and then reading. So part of my rituals is at least 10 pages of reading a day, and that's, that's physical reading. So one of the books that I'm reading right now, I, I was kind of alluding to earlier is about igniting your intuition. And those… it's a book about… I think it's literally called 21 Rituals of Igniting Your Intuition. I don't know the author, so I'm sorry. I will put it in the link. I'll send that information over to you, Scott. But that's been huge for me to again lean into my subconscious, my unconscious. So that's something that I read in the mornings and in the evenings when I wake up and when I go to bed. Then during During the day, I mean, I'm on calls, so I'm not… I mean, the only information I'm getting is from my clients. So that is a big information dump in the evening. So usually after work is kind of when I'll do my longer workout. So I enjoy running. So I'll usually go for a run, 3 to 5 miles, something like that. And usually I'll throw on a couple of different podcasts. I listen to, God, a lot of people. As I said, I listen to you. I listen to Brendon Burchard, Jay Shetty, Ed Mylett. Oh gosh, Jeff Bajorek. I mean, so many wonderful leaders that we have in our industry. So podcast is big for me because like you, and one of the biggest purposes of this podcast is, is to learn from the doers. So I mean, seeing people who are, are more successful than me, I don't want to say necessarily more successful, but, but have different perspective or have different insights. That's how I learn. That's how I stretch. That's when I quote unquote go, go to my dojo gym, you know, and grow and stretch that way. So, so usually I'll do podcasts while I'm working out, while I'm kind of downloading, and then I come back and I'll kind of just download a little bit and I'll journal about it or I'll write some of my key takeaways. So that's a big piece of it. And And then on the weekends, I really like to have a self-care slash a self-development day or half day where I'm getting into the weeds of really… I mean, having either a podcast with you or I'm doing a, a masterclass and I'm learning something, or I'm taking a, a course that I've signed up for, or a session or something like that, a conference. So those are really big, big to me to continue growing, to continue expanding. Because if I'm, if I'm stagnant, if I'm not doing anything, and this is where what we were talking about before, if I'm not changing when things are good, I'm in trouble. Those are kind of the important rituals for me.

1:26:27 Scott Ingram: Nice. I think it's fascinating. Something I need to work on is the fact that you have a little bit of processing time after listening to that, right? So it's kind of taking some notes and what were some of the key takeaways and, and how does that apply, I think is pretty fascinating. Let's call out kind of a couple of things that, as always, we'll have epic-level show notes around this. So everything that we have talked about will be linked up. You've already dropped some, some pretty crazy good quotes. The last one that you talked about around the habits and such was, I think I need to frame that. That is very much a driving part of how I think, right? It's, it's just the consistent execution and what you do is what says the most about you. So, and let's just say the last year or so, what is the book that has impacted you the most? What is the course or the webinar or the event that has most impacted you?

1:27:16 Constantine Johns: Oh man, that's a tough one, Scott. Oh man, it was a reread for me, but it was, it was instrumental. I went through kind of last quarter of 2020, I went through a tough breakup and it was really hard for me to kind of get through and sit with and understand, hey, I'm not attached to what I thought was going to kind of be my future. And one of the books I had read before, I mean, years ago before and kind of reread recently was The Four Agreements. And that is, if anyone hasn't read it, it's not a sales book. It's a life book. It's something that we should lead in every aspect of our life. I would argue, I would say, I mean, that's one of them. And if I can add another one, Scott, it would be The Go-Giver. Now, I read The Go-Giver. I would actually say, and now as I, as I think back about this, Scott, The Go-Giver was one that I had read before I was joining Abundant and Epic Impact. And that was an eye-opener for me. And that was one that really shifted my perspective of, I mean, it's a play on the words of, of a go-getter and it's Go-Giver. The book is by Bob Burg and, and John Mann. It was a mindset shift. I mean, those books have kind of been instrumental in how I approach my everyday life. Again, these are not sales books. These are life books that I think should be on everyone's bookshelf. And another one, just, you're just making me think about all the great books I've read. High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard is another one just to kind of better understand the way that I think about things and the way that high performers really go through their day-to-day.

1:29:00 Scott Ingram: Love it. Love it. Yeah. Bob Burg and The Go-Giver. I read that, I think when it was new, it's been out, it's been out for quite some time. And in fact, I'd reached out to Bob recently, last couple of months, and asked him if he would contribute to Daily Sales Tips. So I will use this as a prompt to remind him of that. What about the kind of course, webinar, event side of things? What stands out there?

1:29:21 Constantine Johns: Yeah. So I loved being part of the Sales Success Summit. That was a big one for me. I think my coursework that I was getting into over the past year, year really kind of was more on that, that self-discovery level and more so in my, my current mastermind. And this is actually an Austin company. So shout out to Fit for Service. Aubrey Marcus is the leader of that and he's in Austin. So shout out to our Austin folks. But Fit for Service is a recent mastermind organization that I joined and really dealing kind of with the internal and the structure between the energies of, of the masculine and feminine. And that's something that, that we all have internally. So it's my, my perspective and how I've been diving into this personal development and current self-awareness, Scott, that's, that's really opened up different doors for me and kind of different blind spots that I would have never been, been privy to before. And again, I know we're going away from sales, which I think is a good thing for everyone to understand is that it's not just sales development and, and how to make better cold calls. But for me, at least, as I, as I've said numbers of times, is how can I be the best version of Constantine? And then everything else becomes a byproduct from that.

1:30:41 Scott Ingram: Yeah, that's, that's fascinating. I mean, we, we're actually working on creating some similar type things with, with a little bit more of a, of a sales focus. But the work that we're doing in our peer accountability and growth groups, which is more of a facilitated, kind of a mastermind, but much more facilitated, a little bit more structured, really driving towards the outcomes of those participants. And then something I'm working on that once we finish the recording here, I'm going to have to completely interrogate you about. I'm working on building a thing called the Fundamentals of Sales Success, because I think there's, there's a lot, a lot, a lot of content out there around the tactics and the things you're supposed to do and say and all of that stuff. And I think that's great. Right? And I think you have to kind of go explore and find what resonates with you and what fits your style as you're going about your finding people to serve. But this is, this is, I think, much more aligned with a lot of the things that we have been talking about because the things that I hear from folks like you who've been on this podcast, there's some underlying things that are really core to setting yourself up and building a great foundation to be successful that have nothing to do with what is in your subject line.

1:31:56 Constantine Johns: Absolutely.

1:31:57 Scott Ingram: Any of that kind of stuff.

1:31:58 Constantine Johns: No, I think… I mean, you bring up such a crucial part here, Scott. And to spiderweb off of that, like, your why is the important thing here. So yes, there are fundamentals and there are our passions and purpose of why we do what what we do. But that's where… I don't know, that to me is the biggest distinction. So if you don't have your why, if you don't have your passion, no growth will come from that. So being very curious, asking yourself those, again, those tough questions of why are you doing what you're doing, why are you in sales, or why are you in influence, etc., that's really what leads you, what drives you. So I think it's so important for people to have that, that introspection to understand what they're doing.

1:32:45 Scott Ingram: Yeah. Well, and it comes back to this whole idea of self-awareness and self-development and figuring this out because there is no one way. There is no set formula. You just have to do the work and figure this out for yourself. And one of the other things that, that DeJuan mentioned as we were talking about you and this interview is Because, you know, I think Bloomberg has become aware and now they're trying to put Constantine in a bottle and share that across the organization. But the challenge is with anybody that has been on this show is you have found your way. Yeah. That's not necessarily going to be my way or anybody else's way, right? You just… we have to create the opportunity for people to figure this out for themselves. I think that's really been the thing that's missing in the way that we're onboarding people and enabling people and doing all this stuff. Because again, it's, it's so focused on the tactics or the product knowledge and all of these things, but we're not focused on the you knowledge, right? And giving you the tools to learn and understand who you are and what's your superpower and how do we bring that out and help you leverage that and create a space where you can, you can fail. You talked about that, right? Like this, this is not an easy process. Like there's a lot of bruises and bleeding and blood that's going to happen before you kind of figure out like, Scott, you're going to scare people away from sales.

1:34:17 Constantine Johns: They're going to be like, oh, it's bloody. It's gory.

1:34:20 Scott Ingram: But here's, here's the thing. And I mentioned this to you before. So I was, you know, it's here we are talking on a Saturday. And I was down a pretty strange YouTube rabbit hole around just kind of the guru class that is out there. And they were talking like, okay, here's the model, right? They talk about all the epic success that you can have. So if I were going to be like, I want to be the sales success guru, I wish I could… I'd written this down because I would read through the playbook, but the playbook is like, first we have to show people the examples and what possible, right? So I'm gonna, I'm gonna show people like Constantine, say, hey, if you do what we teach, you're always gonna be over 200%. Maybe you'll have a 300% year. You're gonna make massive 6 figures. You're gonna make 7 figures. You're gonna do all this stuff. And then you have to put it all on them. So if they do it or not, it's their fault. It has nothing to do with the teacher and the program and anything else. And they're just like, oh, all the other stupid stuff that goes with that. Like, oh, we have to have a free webinar and we have to get people in and they got to listen to the stuff and then we have to have this hard sell and we got to bring them into our program and then we have to ladder them up through our masterminds. And then, you know, over time you're going to pay $50,000 a year and like, okay, look, here's the deal. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the reason I do this show is I can't stand that garbage and the people who are in that space infuriate me. And you and I talked before, like my guiding principle is I'm much more interested in learning from what the doers do, what actual salespeople who are having success are doing, and not what some consultant is telling people to do, right? I'm more interested in what the doers do than what the sayers say. And it just comes back to… now there is an element of it is up to you. You do have to do the work. And I think you have to be really, really choosy about what are those influences? How are you going to go through this process? Do they care about you and your development and your results and what you're going to accomplish? Or is this just, look, you're going to pay me $10,000, and then whether or not you're able to make it work or not, well, that's on you. That's messed up. Yeah, messed up.

1:36:37 Constantine Johns: I agree. And that's kind of the unfortunate piece of, of what society or what what we're kind of accustomed to seeing nowadays. And that's again why I so appreciate what you do. And I mean, to that point, you've got what we're on podcast 112, 113. I don't know what episode this will be, but you've got 100+ people that you've interviewed, Scott, and I know much, much more. But from this podcast perspective, that these are the doers, these are people who are putting into practice of what's going on. So this is where we should… and like I say, why I so appreciate and agree with your perspective of it is like, let's walk the walk. Let's talk the talk. Let's, let's actually do this. So I don't know. I agree 1 million percent.

1:37:21 Scott Ingram: Yeah. Yeah. What are the tools and the apps that you can't live without? Like what, what does your tech stack look like?

1:37:28 Constantine Johns: So, I mean, podcasts. I mean, so I'm, for, for all those haters out there, I am an Android user. So I know we've got a lot of Apple people. So I am, I'm on like Google Podcasts or Spotify. So those are, I mean, those are crucial. To me just because I need that every single day for my development. I'm trying to think. I mean, not that it's crucial, just… I mean, it's crucial by way of business, but I need my email. I need to be able to get in that. I need to be able to make sure I know what's going on. I do use… gosh, what is it called? Insight Timer. And that's what I usually use for my meditation. So it's got a bunch of guided meditations and different themes and stuff like that. So that's what I use for meditation personally. And then I will say I'm… so I'm a big adventurer. I'm a waterfall chaser. If you follow me on Instagram or social, you'll see that I'm usually outside climbing some mountains. So AllTrails is a huge app for me to find new places along with Google Maps. So I'll also give the shameless plug to Instagram is I look for the coolest places around me me and I'm like, Scott, I need to go chase that. I need to go find that. So those, those are things, I mean, they just, they did, they make me happy. They give me purpose. They give me fulfillment. So those are crucial.

1:38:48 Scott Ingram: Nice. What about on just during the day and in the job? What are you using?

1:38:52 Constantine Johns: So I've got my, my Salesforce app. We use Salesforce for our CRM system. I've got Outlook for my email. Again, another plug for one of our sponsors here, Vidyard. I use Vidyard for a lot of my outreach. I also use Drift. Drift Video is another one. Those are kind of the apps I'm trying to think. I mean, online, trying to think of like different plugins that I've got on Chrome, like ZoomInfo is a huge help for me. Those are the main ones, Scott.

1:39:20 Scott Ingram: Nice, nice, nice. Now, do you subscribe to a particular sales philosophy?

1:39:25 Constantine Johns: You know what, I'm gonna say no. I have to make it my own. So yes, I mean, we've, we've talked about people who influenced me and people that I learned from and, and the amazing coaches that I've had in my life, Scott. But I, I think about this and kind of going back to what we were referencing before. I mean, Bloomberg has seen a number of number one people. DeJuan again was one of those number one professionals here at the company. But I wasn't trying to be the next DeJuan. I wasn't trying to be number one because DeJuan was number one or Angela was number one before him. No, I was going to be the next Constantine. Just like I'm not trying to be Napoleon Hill or Brendon Burchard or Tony Robbins. I'm not trying to be them. I'm trying to take a little bit from everyone else. I'm trying to take from the doers, as you've said here, Scott, and make that my own. So I mean, really, my answer is no, I don't.

1:40:23 Scott Ingram: Yeah, I usually ask about motivation and, and what motivates you. But I think in your case, you've mentioned your why a few times, but I haven't yet asked what is your why.

1:40:34 Constantine Johns: Yeah, I would say it really is just to be the best version of me, Scott. I know, so right now that vehicle is at Bloomberg and is serving others. So my motivation to be, to be the best version of me comes in, in many different forms. So being the best version of me means that I can show up better than anyone else and that I can show up and serve you better than anyone else. So in a weird way, yes, it is in service of others, but that middleman… before I can do that, I need to be the best me possible. So whether you're like, well, Constantine, that's really, that's really fucking selfish, is like, no, I mean, everyone has their own why. And that's why I said before, everyone needs to get curious to better understand what they're striving for. Because I'll give us the analogy. I mean, you look at, you look at New Year's resolutions, okay? I'm gonna go to the gym every single day. Cool. Like, that's a great resolution, and I'm sure everyone has had that in one, in one point of their lifetime. But the reason why so many people fail is their why isn't strong enough. So if you're just saying, well, I want to go to the gym every single day because I want to get stronger, for some people that is a strong enough why. But we don't lose the motivation, we just… the why isn't strong enough. So I encourage and I invite everyone to consider what it would be like if your why was so unwavering, so grounded, so strong in your integrity and your alignment of who you are as a person, that your boundaries would not let anything get in the way. And that for me is why I believe I've seen so much success, is that my why is so strong.

1:42:27 Scott Ingram: Scott, I love it. I love it. All right. I've been looking forward to this part. Is there something you believe that the average sales professional would think is crazy?

1:42:36 Constantine Johns: Oh, it's the famous sales success story podcast. Podcast, we've discussed it and we've skirted around it this entire session. And I guess it's hard then, Scott, because I think you agree with it too. So it might not necessarily be something that no one else believes, but for lack of better words, it all starts with you. That is the foundation. I'm not successful because I do this or I do that or anything like that, but it has to start with you. The theme that we've discussed throughout this entire podcast here today is that self-development, that self-awareness, that mental health, the self-talk that you have. I attribute a lot of my success to that. So when you have your own moral compass, your own values, your virtues that lead everything else, I believe that your success will just infinitely grow from there.

1:43:31 Scott Ingram: And what about flip side. So what does the average sales professional believe that you think is crazy?

1:43:37 Constantine Johns: That it's a numbers game. That, well, and yes, there is truth to that. Sure. I know, like, if I make more calls and do this and I do that, that yes, I'm going to get more people. So yes, there is validity to that. But to me, again, it's, it's not, it's the things that we don't control. And I guess I'll switch the narrative. Like the crazy thing that everyone believes is like, ah, it's all about the quota. It's all about this. It's all about that. It's like, I don't I don't have any impact over the external. So the sooner that we can control the internal, the better.

1:44:11 Scott Ingram: So what advice would you give to somebody that is just starting out in their sales career? Maybe they're just starting as an SDR, maybe they're a full-cycle rep and this is kind of their first role, or they're early in their career. What do you tell them to help lay lay just a great foundation for their success?

1:44:29 Constantine Johns: I think it goes back to what we were kind of just talking about, Scott, is like finding their why. So like, what are they here for? I remember when I first… when I was first interviewing with Bloomberg and the VP of Operations at the time who was interviewing me, Rick Montella, was like, why are you in sales? Why are you doing this? And for many people, I mean, a lot of people's reasons are, I just want to make money and I want to do that. And for a long time, Scott, I prided myself on not having that perspective. Because I remember his reaction was like, you know, you're not here to make money. Like, what the hell are you doing? So it was, it was something different that, that I really prided myself on. And it was serving others. It was being genuinely curious. So that was something that, that I had set for a very long time. So I would ask that of anyone is like, what are you here for? What are you trying to get out of it? And if it is money, that's great. Be confident in that and understand that's what you're striving for, because if that's your why, then great. So I would… I mean, if I would say to anyone, it's get clear, understand what you're doing, why you're doing it, and then go back to… I mean, what I said before is fail fast and understand what works and what doesn't.

1:45:41 Scott Ingram: Yeah. And I would say, I mean, if the why is money, you need to ask the why question another time or two.

1:45:47 Constantine Johns: Yep, absolutely.

1:45:48 Scott Ingram: Because like money to have money is sort of pointless, right? So what's the purpose behind that that you want to have the money for? I think also this is one of those things from like an old-school sales leadership perspective, and when we're interviewing, to your point, I think there's a lot of sales managers who have this perspective of, well, if you're not money-driven, then you're not going to be great. And I'm reflecting back to a post on LinkedIn. This is a little bit old. I'll try and work with my team to get it into to the show notes. But my friend Bilal talked about, he's like, I'm not money-driven. And he's an extraordinary, high-performing, incredible sales professional. And again, this is like a really common theme. I think about the money is just a, to me, is kind of a side effect. Like if you're great at serving people, then the money takes care of itself.

1:46:40 Constantine Johns: Absolutely.

1:46:40 Scott Ingram: But hopefully there's something more that is sort of driving that or fulfilling that. And what happens when you get to a point that you're like, okay, well, that's kind of enough money. Are you not motivated anymore? Yeah.

1:46:54 Constantine Johns: Right.

1:46:54 Scott Ingram: You're like, okay, well, cool. I'm like maxing out my 401. I'm like, all the bills are getting paid. We're able to go on vacation. Life is good. So is that, are you done then? Do you stop growing? Do you stop pushing? I think there's a risk in being money motivated to a degree.

1:47:10 Constantine Johns: I agree with you 100% on that, Scott. And that's why, I mean, I mean, you see different levels of success and success is a subjective word. Okay. So what does that mean to us and what does money motivated mean to us and all that stuff? So it's really just like I said, getting, getting very curious. I mean, and you can't expect to be curious with anyone else if you don't do that with yourself first and foremost. So I mean, and your relationship to money is a whole nother conversation that we could spend hours and hours on as well.

1:47:40 Scott Ingram: It's actually one of those topics that I think fits into the fundamentals of sales success, because it's one of the… we don't talk about mental health and mindset enough. Yeah. And nor do we talk about money. Right. And money in this role is, oh my God. I mean, there's just so much about it, right? Just the psychology and the motivator or demotivator that it can be. And just the, what are you supposed to do with it? Like, nobody's talking about any of this stuff. And it matters. You should be thinking about this type of stuff. But let me come back to kind of this, this line of questioning, because my follow-up is always what advice you have for somebody that's a little further into their career that is looking to kind of take things to the next level. And I have to imagine, given the consistency and the, and the overall performance that you've had, you probably get asked this a lot by your peers inside of Bloomberg. What do you tell them?

1:48:32 Constantine Johns: It's a lifelong process, Scott. I mean, this is, this is a journey, and we, we spoke about this before is it doesn't stop here. And you and I were kind of, I mean, agreed to this point. There is no such thing as a 10 in our life.

1:48:47 Scott Ingram: Yes.

1:48:47 Constantine Johns: Have I quote unquote hit the ceiling in Bloomberg of being number 1? Yeah. That's the top from an individual contributor standpoint that I can hit. Yes. But I mean, it's, it's a lifelong process. We're ever evolving. And so that's something, I mean, I've Folks who have been with Bloomberg for 16, 20 plus years that are like, Constantine, what are you doing? Like what was working back then obviously does not work now, and what's working right now will not work tomorrow. And that's what I was saying before. I mean that that Tony Robbins quote again is like what we've always done. Well, I mean if we do the same things that we've always done, we'll get what we've always got. So it's continue to learn, continue to develop, continue to ask. These questions. And that's why it's so important that, that people listen to the doers and challenge themselves and try new things. That is just so crucial and instrumental in life, in personal, professional development, whatever you want to look at it as.

1:49:50 Scott Ingram: Yeah, I love that you've listened to this show as, as much as you have. So when I ask you, what would you want to know of other top performers in other organizations that I don't already somehow usually get to in the line of questioning that I have for this show.

1:50:05 Constantine Johns: I love… I mean, I love how you ask about rituals and you ask about routines because I think that is very personal and very important to each individual and how they show up. But even digging deeper, and I think obviously we're doing that here today, is the conversation of self-development, of like, Okay, well, what does development, what does growth mean to you? I think it's very interesting, Scott, to speak with other high-performing individuals. I mean, I mentioned a few people that I'm very close with that have been on, on your calls. Ian Koniak, DeJuan Brown, Camille Clemons, all of these amazing individuals. But getting curious and understanding, well, what is development? What is growth? Like, how do these things show up in your life, not only from a professional perspective but also from a personal perspective as well? And I think the two bleed into one another. So it's understanding that self-awareness leads to self-development. But I think, I mean, getting more curious and, and more diving deeper into those would be, would be pretty cool.

1:51:14 Scott Ingram: So let's come up with as much as we can sort of a generic one-size-fits-all. If, if somebody's like, you know what, you're right, I need to develop a self-development program for myself. How should they think about that? How would they lay out a curriculum for themselves if you were to develop their self-awareness and develop themselves?

1:51:34 Constantine Johns: It really does start with questions and getting curious to understand things like, where are you right now, Scott? And you could use scales, you can use wherever And I mean, where are you right now? And we could ask this in, in different mediums… is in your happiness in life, in your fulfillment in life, in your purpose in life, in your desire to do better? I mean, give those numbers. Understand where you are right now and where are you going. But also then asking the question, what would it be like if you shift from a… say you're at a 5… what would it be like to take that from a 5 to a 6 and get curious on that? Have them explain, well, if Scott's at a 5 and then he's at a 6, how does the 6 Scott… how does he act? How does he show up for himself, his family, his business, his podcast, whatever it is, and become that person? So that's where I mean gaining clarity, creating clarity around who you are right now, who you would like to become, and just, just become it. I mean, one of the things I like to look at is if you have no idea of who you're being, you will never know who you're becoming. And to me, that is, that is instrumental.

1:52:57 Scott Ingram: Dude, that's good. That is again profound. There's so many things in these that every episode I go back and listen to, sometimes more than once, you know, know, some… sometimes I have to listen to these a couple of times to pull out the nuggets, even though I pay somebody else to pull together the show notes. So I don't have to go back and listen to it. I already heard it, right? I was here for the dang conversation. But there's so many of these things that I think it makes sense to go back, really understand, especially the episodes and the people that resonate with you. And I think there's a lot of alignment, you know, for folks that, again, here we We're probably in the neighborhood of the 2-hour mark, which means it's a great episode. If you're wanting to go deeper, go listen to DeJuan's episode. Go listen to… I think I probably set it up as a bonus. I mean, DeJuan has been a pillar of this community. So not only was he the star of episode 6, there's his presentation at the 2018 summit. Is that the math?

1:53:53 Constantine Johns: I think, I think you're right.

1:53:54 Scott Ingram: Yeah. Oh my gosh. So yeah, top1.fm/videos. Is where you can get to all of the videos from all of the summits. DeJuan also contributed to the book, and so there's stories in there, and a number of those I have shared as bonus episodes. That's a great place to start. Listen to Camille's episode, watch Camille's presentation, listen to Ian Koniak's presentation. And in fact, that's one of the things I'm going to be doing today. So Ian and I both presented as part of Sales Hackers Beyond Quota, kind of virtual sales kickoff thing they did earlier this week. So now I'm dating our episode, but now you kind of know where this stands in time. And I haven't had a chance to watch Ian's sessions yet. He, I think he presented twice. Guy's so good, they had to give him 2 presentation slots. And what's funny is he and I were actually trading emails this morning, which was, it's just funny that you guys know each other and come from this space. Here's my thought. You know, we're working on kind of developing a couple of things to help people through this path. And maybe you want to explore that. Like, it doesn't exist yet, but if you join the listener list at top1.fm, you'll, you'll find out when it does exist. We do have our peer accountability and growth groups, but for me, the thing… and it's, it's included in our peer groups, it's part of that offering… but for me, the pinnacle of this is just coming together in the summit. This is where our people… if you're here and you've been listening for 2 hours, it's a pretty good sign that you are our people, because those who aren't aligned with this, they probably gave up an hour and a half ago. And Constantine's going to be there. DeJuan's going to be there. Camille's going to be there. Ian's going to be like, all these folks are going to be at the summit. And this, it really is this opportunity to learn from the doers. I am so anti-guru because what I guess what I'm supposed to do is charge you some extraordinary amount of money and then I'm supposed to have all of the answers. Truth is, I'm still figuring this out. I'm still working to get better at this. And these are the people I learn from. These are the folks that I'm having conversations with throughout the week and over the course of the quarter to dig deeper into what they're doing and what's working for them beyond even these podcast interviews. So again, if you're still here, seriously, take a very hard look at the Sales Success Summit. I've set it up, you can make monthly payments. The dollars should not be a thing. Not that it ever gets very expensive, right? The value of this thing is through the roof. And we're all about not only our own developing. I attribute so much of this to DeJuan. I wonder if this would have happened without DeJuan having been the first presenter at the first summit. He set a tone. And I think it probably would have happened Anyway, but the fact that we started with this idea of servant leadership, the fact that you called out the book Go Giver, which I love as a book, right? What this community is about is helping each other get better. Yes, this is a super selfish effort for me. I, once you finish listening to this episode, know that Constantine and I will probably have talked for another hour. And, and are going to absolutely geek out on some stuff. And that's the magic and that's the power. And so again, if this speaks to you, if this is your stuff, you are the type of person that I want to be at the summit because what makes the summit great is who is there. My job is just to find the greatest people I can find and put them in a room together. Really what happens after that, the way that I build the program, the way that we try and build an amazing experience, frankly doesn't even matter that much because the magic comes from all of the conversations and all of the interactions and just this, this level of caring and interest and service. And I'm going to get off my soapbox. Come to the summit.

1:57:52 Constantine Johns: So if I may, just to quickly add a plug to that, Scott, I mean, the community aspect of it that you have created, I mean, that is the reason why, why we do what we do, why you have, the podcast following that you do, the Sales Success books and events that we have, is because there are so many other people that are committed to this journey. So join us, please, please.

1:58:15 Scott Ingram: Yeah, yeah, love it, love it, love it, love it. So last thing we always do is we've talked about a ton of stuff, we have covered a ton of ground. What would you challenge our listener to do over the course of the next 1 to 2 weeks before the next epic-level episode comes out to improve themselves and improve their results?

1:58:33 Constantine Johns: You have to take a step. You have to take your first step, Scott. To anyone, I guess I'll speak to the listeners. You have to do it. Nothing's going to change until you change. I mean, we talk about so much. I mean, one of my favorite quotes goes something like this. Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself or herself. So take a step. Do something. I'm not saying that again, and this goes back to Scott and I's agreement of the hate of guruism, if that's even a word, but do something. If it means asking yourself one deeper question a day before you go to bed or when you wake up, if it means journaling and just writing what you're grateful for for that day, if it means signing up to come to the Sales Success Summit, Great. Do something for you. Do it. Just do it. And I guess you might have to… I said that multiple times, so you have to put Nike in there. But no, this is where you guys really need to take a step, take a stand. Nothing's going to change unless you do. So if that means, again, reading, adding one of the things that I spoke about, or just getting more curious with yourself or asking deeper questions to your clients, if that's what's going to help you, I hope something of today… Scott and I spoke about a lot. I hope a lot of it resonated, but I just want one thing to sit in, and that's what I hope you guys will take from it.

2:00:01 Scott Ingram: Love it. And I will add to that, having listened to this and having been issued that challenge, you probably know in this moment right now what that thing is that you need to do before you start the next podcast episode of whatever you're going to listen to, whether it's it's another one of these episodes or another show, it doesn't really matter. Press pause and take an action towards that thing you need to do, like right now.

2:00:26 Scott Ingram: Thanks for listening to the Sales Success Stories podcast. To be sure you never miss an episode and for an invitation to our Sales Success Community powered by Influitive, subscribe to our newsletter at top1.fm.