How to Beat the Stress and Reach Outrageous Success

Sales and marketing is a high-stakes environment where the pressure to perform is relentless. 

Meeting targets, managing client expectations, and staying on top of industry trends can exert a hefty toll on one's mental and emotional health.

Amid all this whirlwind, it's easy to get trapped in a web of stress and pressure.

But the show must go on, and so must our lives.

Therefore, the burning question then becomes: How can we manage stress in our lives, move past the chatter in our heads, and implement the discipline we need to be highly successful?

To help us with this incredible topic today, we have Dan Waldschmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Panzura, kickass dad, ultra-runner, B2B tech nerd, and author of "Edgy Conversations: How Ordinary People Can Achieve Outrageous Success."

‍

Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering Stress

‍

1. Turn Stress into Your Superpower

Dan's journey is a powerful narrative of battling burnout and mastering stress, a journey that began with his transition out of a CRO to a new CTO role and was triggered by a personal health crisis.

Having been previously working 100-hour weeks for two and a half years, everything has become a mess, from health to personal relationships.

Hello, burnout!

Managing stress has become not just a wish but a necessity.

But where to begin?

What Dan quickly understood is that coping with stress is not enough; you have to master it by recalibrating your attitude, actions, and behaviors.

‍

2. Journal and Let Go

Where should you start with mastering stress?

A different person might have a specific solution.

For Dan, it's all about journaling. You can borrow his method.

Why journaling?

“There's something about the transfer. It's from your head to your heart to your hand, whereas you write out something and say, I'm letting this go now. What I do is I'll fill up a page, sometimes with a bunch of notes. Leave them there. The next morning, I got up. I'll skim them. Rip out that page 10 pieces. Some people say Burn it, but when you live in an apartment, that's probably not the smartest thing to do. Tear it up to pieces and throw it into a trash can.”

Journal to process and then transfer all your thoughts from mind to paper. Then, surround yourself with reminders of what truly matters.

‍

3. Get to Know Yourself

Are you genuinely feeling stressed or simply overworked?

Having a clear, objective, and correct answer might literally save your life.

But how can you be sure which one is true?

By knowing yourself and your limits.

The key lies in working hard, smart, and with intention, understanding that stress often derives from feeling out of control.

Dan advocates for self-advocacy, encouraging people to seek alternatives if their current roles do not align with their happiness or potential.

Next comes the courage to follow what truly fulfills you.

“You should always push yourself to do more. You should always push yourself and be more productive, effective, and efficient. Sometimes, that means more work in short bursts of time. Sometimes, that means you know that you're spacing it out. So part of this is knowing yourself and what you're capable of.”

Remember, it's about controlling what you can: how you start and end your day, your health, and how you manage conflict.

‍

4. Turn Stress into Success

“The things that I'm stressed about, the fantasies I imagine to be possible of all the bad things that are happening, might only be in my head when, in reality, the person on the other end of the transaction is just experiencing life, not the horrible things that I think are out there.”

As famously said by Eleanor Roosevelt, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

That's the stance you must take in life; that's when stress becomes the fuel to your greatest realization.

But let's see some of Dan's practical steps:

1. Embrace the power of mindset shifts, prioritization, and effective time management to transform stress into productivity and creativity.
2. Adopt simple but impactful routines like writing your top daily tasks to align with your core job responsibilities and leveraging tools like Sunsama to integrate emails, tasks, and calendars for better organization. 
3. Take time to self-reflect and incorporate quiet moments into your schedule for introspection and creativity.
4. Practice forgiveness and gratitude, not just towards others but also yourself, to end your day on a positive note.
5. Start your mornings with brief meditation, physical exercise, and affirmations to set a positive tone for the day.
6. Lastly, cultivate habits that foster resilience and prevent stress from undermining your achievements.

‍

At the end of the day, we all should identify personalized methods of dealing with stress.

So, don't be afraid of experimenting and learning from each experience.

And if you don't know where to begin, Dan's insights are a great starting point.

‍Now that you know how to effectively manage stress in sales and marketing, check out the full list of episodes at The B2B Revenue Executive Experience. If you enjoy the show, instructions to rate and review it are found here.