Clean Energy Vs Dark Energy

About six months ago, I starting finding certain periods within the month where I would feel really good and certain periods of the month where I would feel really bad. So I began studying energy and energy levels. We have several people on our sales team now which is amazing. Some of them are really motivated only by setting records. They just want to be paid. That's the only thing that wakes them up in the morning. They just want to be paid. And then we've got other people who are really, really motivated by stories, client success and all of those things.

Clean Energy

There are really two types of energy. If we segment everything down the middle, there's clean energy and then there's dark energy. Once you know clean versus dark energy, you can rate yourself in the middle of the worst week of your life and know how to pop out of it. It's crazy. Some descriptors of clean energy are difficult to exhaust… smooth… less emotional. Clean energy gets excited about how you're impacting other people.

We have one sales guy in particular who just was burning out every three weeks and He would set records for three weeks and he would burn out. When we really got into it, he didn't have enough clean energy sources. He wasn't focusing on impact, wasn’t focusing on service. A phrase you may have heard me say is “all the spoils of victory come from service.” All the spoils of victory come from service.

Clean energy is less visceral, less emotional. It's excited about how you're impacting other people.

If you are more of a visual learner picture clean energy as this pure, clean, white, steady, inexhaustible type of energy. Clean energy is good for long stretches of energy, high, steady output.

Dark Energy

Have you ever met anyone who has a chip on their shoulder and they've had it since they were young? Then they go on to build one of the greatest companies of all time. Dark energy is volatile. Emotional. Think about red bull versus water. By the way, pro you know, practical tip for you, if you ever feel like you're burning out in the middle of a huge project if you drink like a liter of water, it goes away.

Dark energy is very choppy. It's very emotional. You're going to have a crash with dark energy.

It's like a Red Bull. You're gonna take it, feel a little bit better, and hyped up for a minute. Dark energy gets excited about the darker things. Beating other people. Setting records. If the goal is just to “win” then the drive will be lower. But put someone with dark energy driving them in a competition…motivation increases. The visual for dark energy is a smoldering fire, hot, right? It's very explosive and dark energy is good for leverage points.

Leverage Points

A leverage point is a moment where you can actually capitalize on the pocket of momentum and spread it out through a rut. Here are some examples of leverage points: Monday mornings, the first of the month, eight o'clock in the morning on a Thursday, it doesn't matter. These are the leverage points.

What happens if let's say you have all of your close sets come in at six o'clock at night. You close, go to dinner, and then you go to bed. What happens to the momentum you just got from that close? Nothing. You just go to bed. That energy, that momentum has been wasted. You want to use your darker pockets of energy to win your leverage points. For T&F our teams have been stacking Mondays. Mondays are a leverage point. If you win the leverage point, you’re more likely to win the race.

Changing Energy States

If you want to get into a clean state of energy, you focus on the wins of other people. How often are you actually setting aside times and thinking about how you're positively impacting other people? Do you read through personal and client wins? Do this every day and it's a tap of clean energy. How much of your morning formula is about who you're becoming rather than what you get? Some people's morning formulas are like  “I live in a five-million-dollar mansion and have a beautiful Lamborgini. That's going to be a darker source of energy because it's actually about us winning as opposed to being about becoming what I'm doing for other people.

So if you look at my morning formula, like the first half page has nothing about what I have or own. It's all about who I am, how I’ve impacted other people, what my clients have because of me. Think about the things that you've been able to buy for others as a byproduct of your business. That's still clean energy because you're thinking about what you're able to do for someone else. To leverage the dark side focusing on your records, focusing on setting a record, a little bit of competition is very healthy, it brings out a little bit of the dark side. You can even motivate yourself by setting rewards for records. If you are in a very clean state of energy all the time, set yourself a goal, a competition, a reward you're going to get yourself. Get emotional about destroying those targets.