Are you a baby boomer? If so, you have, on average, held 12.7 jobs through retirement? A Gen-Xer? Your average work tenure is 5.2 years. Were you born after 1990 but before 1996, meaning that you are a millennial? Your average work tenure is a mere 2.75 years. Gen Z? The data is still raw for these youngsters. They are at the most volatile time of their work career. Presently, they have been on the job for only 2.25 years.
Let’s change tack. What if you flunked out of college in the first year, worked as an electrician and a welder in a shipyard, performed music on Bourbon Street, acted as an editorial assistant for Billboard magazine until you received your first record contract. How many more jobs would you need? Well, if that record sold only 324 copies. Hear that again. Your first record sold only 324 copies. Well, you might need a change. Perhaps a change in latitude. Goodness. That one was too easy.
Welcome to Swimming in the Flood; a podcast where we develop the resilient leader’s mindset by navigating difficult currents in business. My name is Trent Theroux.
Jimmy Buffett was a failed country singer. He was scraping to get on as an opening act in Nashville, Tennessee in the late 1960s and was performing on the street to help pay his rent. Jimmy signed a two-record deal with Barnaby Records and released his first album titled Down to Earth in August 1970. It sold only 324 copies, two of which were probably to his mother. How does one move on from there? The master tapes for his second album were mysteriously lost so that one wasn’t even released.
Jimmy moved to Key West and found some traction in their local bars with his developing Island Tropic style of rock. During this time, he worked on several boats but the main part of his transformation was that he changed the style of his music to suit his new audiences. The Key West crowd was thrilled to sing along with songs about drinking, smoking, sex, and warm sandy beaches.
I am now going to give you my unscientific, non-peer reviewed, resilient leader theory on finding your path. Are you ready? Got your pencils out? Here’s it is. Changes in Aptitude. You heard it. Changes in Aptitude.
The theory is simple.
I was at a bar in Newport, Rhode Island in 1990. It was three weeks after I quit my job at Bank New England as a mortgage forecloser. (Constant listeners will remember my time there in episode 111. No Empty Threats.) I quit my job foreclosing mortgages without any plan. I didn’t have a job lined up. I was spending my days playing basketball and whiffle ball. (Psst. It was a great life at 23.) Anyway, I was sharing a beer with a few guys at this bar. The stereo system was playing a different type of music. It was kind of like rock n’ roll but every now and then there was a steel drum, or a steel guitar thrown in. The bar crowd was singing together about eating cheeseburgers in paradise and drinking margaritas. The music infected the crowd, and the beers helped me enjoy the music.
The guys at the table told me the artist was Jimmy Buffet and asked me a few qualifying questions to see if I could participate in the singing. Fred McCoy, who appeared to be the alpha of this group said, “Trent, Jimmy Buffet’s music is about four things. Do you like drinking?” “Holding up my beer) yes!” “Do you like smoking? “Not really.” “Do you like sex?” “Of course,” “And, do you like the hot sun on a Caribbean beach?” “Never been there.”
Fred looked at the rest of the guys at the table and told me, “We can fix that?” How would you like to come down to St. Croix with us for the winter and sell timeshare? Now, it may have been the four beers helping with my thought process, but here is what was running through my mind. It was late December, the cold New England weather was just around the corner, I was always up for an adventure, and did I mention I was four beers in on an empty stomach? “I’d love to go!”
Two weeks later they flew me to St. Croix to begin my new career as a timeshare salesman. There was one small problem…I never sold anything in my life before. But, like most great salesman I had an overabundance of unwarranted self-confidence in my abilities. Tell me where to start!
I was given an hour or so of training, mostly about how to tour the resort and where the forms are kept. They told me about the numbers game in selling. And I am a master at number games. Here they are. I would get four qualified leads per day. My close rate should be 25%. The average sale price is $15,000. My commission rate was 4%. So simple math told me that I should earn $600 per day, $3,000 per week. That was amazing money! When do I get my first qualified lead?
The next morning came, and I met my first qualified lead – A young couple who was looking forward to the free rum we were giving away to people who took a tour. I gave a great first tour. I showed them the boundaries of the island, how to access the beaches, what the sample rooms looked like, where the restaurants were and the calendar board of events. Then…I gave them a receipt to pick up their rum and said goodbye. After they left, Fred McCoy asked me why they were going when I didn’t even ask them for the sale. Oops. I don’t think that was part of the training. So, they retrained me.
Armed now with sales training, I worked my magic on more qualified leads, but none bought. Let me rephrase, the qualified leads didn’t just say no on the second day. They said no every day. I did not make a single sale in the three months I lived in St. Croix. Zero. It was frustrating to me because I could tell a descent story. I’m reasonably personable and a nice enough guy. Why weren’t qualified leads buying from me?
I went to the Kasha Klub one night and sang along to Jimmy Buffett. The bar was belting out (Why don’t we get drunk and screw). At this point, two of my favorite things in life. The most successful salesperson at the resort sat next to me. His name was Whitney. Whitney said, “do you know what your problem with sales is?” Trust me. I could not wait to learn this answer. He said, “No one ever listened themselves out of a sale.” It may have been the rum shooters I was imbibing but his advice sure sounded a lot like I talk too much. He said, “The secret to sales is listening and, boy, you don’t listen too good.”
I left St. Croix a week or so later mad at Whitney for giving me the wrong advice. Sales is about convincing people. You have to talk to convince them. It would take me years to understand that I was wrong. My aptitude for sales was non-existent in my early 20s. I bounced around from sales job to sales job thinking that sales was about talking and I could talk. Hmmm. For a Caribbean timeshare salesman, I turned out to be a descent accountant.
It wasn’t until I found a profession that suited my aptitude that I was able to see meaningful gains in my career. Jimmy Buffet wasn’t a welder or electrician. He was a musician that just needed exposure to a new environment to realize his talents. Gen Z and millennials are now moving through jobs. In fact, six have left while listening to this podcast. Changing jobs is healthy. It helps you grow. But I implore you to be a little more like Jimmy Buffet use the skill set where you excel, even if it needs a little tweaking. Then, Come Monday, it will be alright.
Folks, thank you for listening to Swimming in the Flood. Resilient leaders face challenging currents, and it is tough navigating, but with one tack or another we can get there together.