Welcome back to another episode of our James Picks Brains series, this time we’ve got our very own Morgan J Ingram on as the guest. James digs deep into Morgan’s inspiration in sales and tackles the work/life balance debate. This episode was shot just after the tragic passing of Kobe Bryant, so standby for an emotional tribute to him from Morgan as well as an in-depth look into Morgan’s new morning routine and tons more.

Here’s your next episode of James Picks Brains…

Daily Routine

James: What’s your average day look like?

Morgan: So as of late, what I’ve done is in the morning I don’t immediately go for my phone. I have a journal where I write: three things I’m grateful for, what my main goal that I want to accomplish for the day, and then the three targets that I want to get done.

Next, I do a visualization exercise. I got this from Mel Robbins, so you guys should go check it out if you want to. It’s basically just like, what do I want my day to look like? Like, I did really well on that call, I did really well on that training, I didn’t really get a conversation with John or James or all the other people that aren’t our team and visualizing what I want for the future.

Then depending on the day, normally I’ll go and work out and when I come back I have breakfast, if it’s Monday, it’ll be Monday for the CEO’s Westminster, because know what that’s about. Then I’ll pray and meditate and then I’m off to the day. So normally around that time, it’s like eight-nine o’clock so from eight to about six o’clock seven o’clock it’s calls, social making content, following up on deals, and then from there pretty much is downtime.

So that’s messaging my girlfriend, getting with my friends, playing video games that completely compressed because I believe, especially in sales, you need some type of escapism. You just can’t be continuously moving. You’ve got to get that energy out somewhere. Mine happens to be video games. That’s where I get my release and everybody’s different. So that’s my routine.

Work-Life Balance

James: What are your thoughts on work-life balance as somebody that is hardcore out there for everybody?

Morgan: I told my friends about this the other day and they were just like, “Oh you need balance, you balance”. And I was like, no, it’s never balance; it’s flow. What I believe in is in a flow state because I never turned it off really. I’m just not actively doing something about it. But I’m always thinking about prospecting. I’m always thinking about brand. Always thinking about content. I’m always thinking about that. It’s just who I am. I can’t not think about that.

But I will turn it away to not have that conversation with you but it’s always on. So turn it away cause I’m not going to press it in a conversation someone, but it’s on because it’s in the back of my head. Like I see stuff and I’m like that’s content, right? That’s someone I can go prospect right now. I’m always thinking that. So really I believe in a flow state. I can float throughout the entire week. I could work seven days a week if I really wanted to because I’m always in flow state.

Like I sometimes have to leave my apartment and go walk around because I’m just so accustomed be like, “Oh man, I have a great idea” and then I sit on the computer for like four hours and I’m like I’ve gotta go, I gotta chill because I’m just in flow state. And the thing is, the reason I’m in flow state is because I still can enjoy my life. I’d know when to go hang out with my friends, call my girlfriend and go play video games. But I’m always in a flow state cause I’m always prepared for that moment cause that’s who I am.

Before 9AM

James: What have you done before 9AM every day?

Morgan: It goes back to that morning routine. One thing that I used to do is I grabbed my phone, answer emails, start working cause I was like I don’t wanna waste any time. That use to be me like two and a half years ago. I was like I gotta get to work and then about a year ago I realized “why am I rushing”? Let me take some time and I just changed it up. Now I suddenly got into the journal thing, but before I would just like to take like 30 minutes, meditate, take an easy workout, and ease into it.

Now with the journal, it’s completely changed everything. Waking up and being grateful about what’s happening in your life gives you a different perspective and it slows things down. I’m reading a book right now called Stillness Is The Key Around Holiday and it talks about how great leaders and great people, athletes even, slow things down because when things slowed down that means that you’ve grasped on what’s happening and you control the situation. When you’re moving too fast you have no control. My thing is I had no control. I was so excited to go work and go execute, hit my goals. I’d wake up and rush to the computer and start going. That’s not helpful.

So now let’s take a step back and all write my three things I’m grateful for. I got my goals in place, I got all the things I want to get done. I’m being thoughtful, visualizing, working out, and I come to work with so much intention and focus. I’m way more productive by taking that hour or two to do that morning routine than me jumping right into it and it’s been a crazy difference and I feel it and I have not felt better than I do now ever since I started this one.

Influencers

James: Who are your influencers and people that make Morgan who he is? Who’s your inspiration in sales?

Morgan: Before I give this advice and tell you who I model myself after, do not become them.

I think a lot of people were like, “man, I want to be Gary V”, so then you start making Gary V videos. You’re not Gary V so stop doing that. You use it to follow a model. So the thing is, I have people that I model myself after based on their framework.

Another person, if you follow me, you know this is Travis Scott. The reason I like Travis Scott is because he’s willing to be creative and he’s willing to break the mold of what a traditional track or anything is like and I’m the same way. I like to break the mold of what’s happening. Still give you that advice, but do it a little bit differently. So for me that was a big model piece. So that’s one person there.

Kobe Bryant. Kobe was a lot for me because Kobe was the reason I started playing basketball. Most people don’t know that. He was a hero for us and the people that I played with. I was able to adopt that mentality and a lot of the stuff that I even do today when it comes to business and continuously just putting myself out there, he was the staple for that. And we didn’t really have anyone else growing up that was like that so that piece of me was just incredible.

Another model would be Deion Sanders. To me, he’s the embodiment of confidence in the most professional manner because if you talk to people that work with him, it wasn’t that he was super cocky and things of that nature. He was just so confident in his ability that obviously was showing off to other people, but on top of that, he was so professional about how he went about things and for me that’s just incredibly important.

One of the last models is is my dad. You know a lot of people are always going to put their family members in there, but my dad for me has been incredible because he’s willing to give me the real advice that I always need and I would definitely put John in there as well. I’d see John like my uncle to some degree. Then like my dad is like right there because they are always willing to give me that real advice when I need it and sometimes I can get caught up and overthink things and go way, way above the fold and they can bring me back to “no more” and focus on these things, you gotta prioritize. And I need that cause sometimes I can get all over the place.

That’s a wrap. Join us next time

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