189. Coaching Sales and Football: Press Through Your Comfort Zone

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Adam Boyd

Adam Boyd, a partner at Market Sense, Inc. in Austin, Texas, is a sales and management development expert. He works with owners, CEOs, presidents, VPs of sales and salespeople to help them overachieve in their sales production. Typical clients are frustrated with not hitting forecasts, deals taking too long to close, and insufficient sales pipeline. He also has a passion for coaching football.

How Did You Start Using Your Talents?

Returning to Austin, Texas after college, where he wanted to be, Adam was coaching high school football, a passion of his. An English major, he found a business school, the Acton School of Entrepreneurship, that promised students, “You’ll learn how to learn; you’ll learn how to make money; and you’ll learn how to live a life of meaning.” Adam says, “All three of those really called to me.”

The Most Impactful Turning Point?

Seeing the sonogram of my unborn son. We’d been married three or four months when my wife tells me she’s pregnant. A game-changer. But it doesn’t really hit me until we get the sonogram. I had vision boards above my desk that sort of motivated me, but when I saw that sonogram I realized, ‘Here’s the only thing I need to look at to motivate me.’ So I took down all the other vision boards and I put above my phone the picture of my unborn son.”

The Most Powerful Lessons Learned?

“The joy comes when we press through our comfort zone and develop skills, and become adept at something. A lot of people don’t want to press through and really become good. They want to find that thing that’s just naturally easy for them. But there’s no growth without some discomfort and pain. A friend of mine has a card on his office wall that says, ‘Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.’”