Episode 304: Beat the Stress and Reach Outrageous Success with Dan Waldschmidt

GUEST: Dan Waldschmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Panzura

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Sales and marketing professionals often find themselves dealing with immense stress and pressure.

Achieving sales targets, meeting customer expectations, and keeping up with industry trends can damage their mental and emotional health.

However, work must be done, and life must go on.

So, the question of the day is:

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."

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How Can You Turn Stress Into Your Superpower?

Dan shares a powerful journey of overcoming burnout and mastering stress, sparked by his transition to a new role and a personal health crisis after enduring years of intense work pressure. For him, the key to stress management is not just coping but mastering it by recognizing and adjusting your attitudes, actions, and behaviors. Two practical strategies that have been critical in his journey were journaling to process and release stress and surrounding himself with reminders of what truly matters.

“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 get up. I'll skim them. Rip out that page to 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”.

Dan Waldschmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Panzura

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“Are You a Sprinter or a Marathon Runner?”

How can you recognize the difference between feeling overworked and genuinely feeling stressed? According to Dan, it starts with knowing yourself and your limits. The key lies in working hard, smart, and with intention, understanding that stress often stems from feeling out of control.

Dan encourages self-advocacy, considering alternative employment if your current role is misaligned with your happiness or potential. He highlights the importance of courage in pursuing what truly fulfills you, whether it's staying in a comfortable job or venturing into something new. It's all about controlling what you can: how you start and end your day, your health, and how you manage conflict.

“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”.

Dan Waldschmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Panzura

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From Stress to Success

Embrace the power of mindset shifts, prioritization, and effective time management to transform stress into productivity and creativity. As famously said by Eleanor Roosevelt, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Adopt simple but impactful routines like writing your top daily tasks on sticky notes for a sense of accomplishment, reprioritizing tasks to align with your core job responsibilities, and leveraging tools like Sunsama to integrate emails, tasks, and calendars for better organization.

Take time to self-reflect and incorporate quiet moments into your schedule for introspection and creativity. Practice forgiveness and gratitude, not just towards others but also yourself, to end your day on a positive note. Start your mornings with brief meditation, physical exercise, and affirmations to set a positive tone for the day. Also, cultivate habits that foster resilience and prevent stress from undermining your achievement. 

“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.”

Dan Waldschmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Panzura

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‍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.