Ask for Change—Becoming Unbeatable When the World Won’t Sit Still

Change isn’t just coming—it’s here.

The rules rewrite themselves while you’re still learning the last edition.

Markets shift, buyers evolve, technology accelerates, and your calendar somehow finds new corners to fill.

The easy response is overwhelm or nostalgia.

The uncommon response—the one that creates outsize outcomes—is to ask for change and then partner with it.

So grateful to be a recent guest on “Ask for Change” with Meridith Elliott Powell, CSP, CPAE as we dove into all of these topics as well as my brand new book, UNBEATABLE.

I didn’t arrive at this viewpoint in a moment of quiet clarity. I earned it the hard way: layoffs, missed promotions, deals that slipped, days when the inbox looked like an avalanche and my best self wanted to punch a clock and coast.

What saved me wasn’t a perfect plan. It was a set of simple disciplines I could do in any storm: shrink the bubble, invest in the glass, listen harder than I talk, and refuse to quit when quitting felt rational. This chapter is that operating system—my playbook for turning uncertainty into an advantage and becoming unbeatable.

“Enjoy the journey and learn every step of the way.”

You can’t control the pace of disruption, but you can control how prepared you are, how you show up, and what you do with what happens. That mindset is rocket fuel in volatile times. When change hits, most people burn cycles resisting. I redirect that energy into response: prepare relentlessly, show up fully, and repurpose every outcome into learning. Win or lose, I want the rep.

Practice: After every major call or decision, capture three lines: What did I prepare well? What surprised me? What will I do differently next time? The repetition builds compounding advantage.

“Shrink the bubble.”

When demands stack up, I consciously narrow my focus to the relationships and responsibilities that matter most: my wife, my kids, my team, my leadership, and my customers. If that inner circle is solid, I have the capacity to expand outward and tackle the fires.

The Bubble Drill

List your top five relationships/commitments.For each, write the one action you’ll take today to strengthen trust or move the ball.Do those first. Everything else can wait an hour.

This is not about neglecting the rest of your world. It’s about defending the center so you can lead the edges.

“Some balls are rubber. Some are glass.”

Life and work are constant juggling acts. The mistake is treating every ball like crystal. Glass balls—health, core relationships, integrity—must be caught. Rubber balls—most emails, many meetings, even decent opportunities—bounce. I literally picked this up recently from a conversation with one of my mentors, Quinton Feltner.

Triage Questions

If I drop this, does it harm trust, health, or integrity? (Glass.)Will it matter in ten days? Ten months? Ten years? (Many won’t.)Am I the critical path—or can I empower someone else?

You’ll never have enough time; you can always make better tradeoffs.

“Before you feast, you have to set the table.”

Everyone wants results; few are willing to stage the room. In my world, setting the table means doing the unseen work of relationship equity, cadence, clarity, and follow-through. When the market tightens, buyers don’t stop spending—they become more discerning. Sellers who invested in trust and consistency are invited to dinner.

Table-Setting Checklist

Map stakeholders: who decides, who influences, who blocks.Establish a weekly rhythm: update, next step, ask—minimal friction, maximum clarity.Share value before you pitch: benchmarks, lessons learned, intros—even to competitors when you’re not the right fit. (Yes, I’ve done it. Trust compounds.)Document outcomes and make accountability visible.

Do this long enough and you’ll find yourself “lucky” in Q4.

“Listen first, not pitch.”

In an AI-shaped world, knowledge is cheap and attention is the currency. My job isn’t to recite features; it’s to understand risk, legacy, and constraints from the buyer’s point of view. People aren’t married to their current path—they’re allergic to mistakes. If you don’t understand the risk they see in changing, you haven’t earned the right to ask for change.

The Three Asks on Every Call

“What problems are you under pressure to solve—really?”“What would make this change safe for you and your stakeholders?”“What legacy do you want this initiative to leave behind?”

When you align to those answers, you stop selling and start shepherding.

“Go to where the puck is going to be.”

The rise of AI and automation is an industrial-revolution-level shift. That’s not scary; that’s directional. Study your buyers until you can predict where their needs will be next quarter, next year. Move there early. Bring them with you.

Futureproofing Moves

Inventory your team’s AI literacy; run monthly “use-case show-and-tells.”Translate hype into workflow: What gets faster? What gets safer? What gets measurable?Prototype with customers who trust you; measure outcomes and publish lessons.

Skate forward and you’ll meet less traffic.

“You become the greatest by refusing to quit when everything in you says walk away.”

I keep a copy of the only bad appraisal I ever received. Not to wallow—to remember the feeling and the choice. Like Rocky getting off the mat, greatness is often one decision past exhaustion. Napoleon Hill said most success is found just beyond the point where others give up. I believe that.

The 24-Hour Rule When you take a hit—lost deal, missed promotion—allow yourself 24 hours to feel it. Then transmute it:

What did I control that I didn’t maximize?What was outside my control that I can design around next time?What small action can I take now to reassert momentum?

Pain becomes data. Data becomes advantage.

“If you can sit with your customers in the storm, they will walk with you in the sun.”

When budgets freeze and priorities wobble, be there. Be responsive, transparent, and helpful—even when there’s no PO in sight. I’ve referred prospects to competitors when they were the better fit. That’s not charity; it’s strategy. People remember who protected their interests when things were hard.

Storm Conduct

Communicate early, especially with bad news.Offer options with tradeoffs, not ultimatums.Keep a living risks/assumptions log—shared and visible.Celebrate small wins to sustain belief.

Trust built in headwinds becomes tailwind.

“Do a personal inventory—build a life portfolio.”

I keep a simple wheel posted in my office: health, marriage, parenting, finances, career, spiritual life. You will never be a 10 in every domain at once. But neglect in one leaks into all.

Monthly Inventory (15 minutes)

Rate each domain 1–10.Identify one micro-habit per domain (10 minutes or less daily).Choose one domain to intentionally over-invest in this month.

Balance isn’t static; it’s stewardship.

“Control your controllables.”

My best mornings start with practices—exercise, reflection, planning—before I open the floodgates of email and meetings. If I check the inbox first, my nervous system tries to write the narrative. When that happens, I pause and ask: What story am I telling myself? Who would I be without that story? What am I grateful for? Then I pick the next right action and take it.

Momentum is a choice disguised as a task.

“UNBEATABLE is a love letter to sales.”

Vincent Scott—the protagonist of Unbeatable—was born years ago, but he’s the composite of every seller who’s been counted out, overlooked, and underestimated. He is proof that the point is not the fall; it’s the decision to rise, to serve, and to keep learning. That book is fiction; the lessons are not.

For Every Vincent

Keep the note—the bad review, the rejection, the passed-over email—not as a wound, but as weight on the bar.Work your fundamentals: reps, reviews, role-plays, relationship equity.Obsess over people and process; the number takes care of itself.

We don’t need perfect conditions. We need persistent decisions.

https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=7056269561423531272&li_theme=lightAction Playbook: Turn Uncertainty Into Your Advantage (30 Days)

Week 1 — Shrink & Listen

Define your bubble (5 relationships). Do one intentional act for each.Run five discovery calls using the Three Asks. Summarize risk, legacy, constraints.

Week 2 — Table-Setting

Publish a simple weekly cadence doc for your top three pursuits (owners, milestones, risks).Share two pieces of value with no ask (intro, benchmark, lesson learned).

Week 3 — Future Moves

Host a 45-minute internal AI/use-case roundtable. Pick one workflow to pilot.With a customer, co-design a tiny proof of value (one metric, two weeks).

Week 4 — Portfolio & Persistence

Complete the life inventory and start one micro-habit per domain.Apply the 24-Hour Rule to one setback; write and execute your rebound plan.

Daily — Momentum Minimums

20 minutes learning, 20 minutes pipeline crafting, 20 minutes relationship touches.Field Notes & PromptsPrompt: Which ball am I catching today that should be allowed to bounce?Prompt: What would make this change safe for my buyer?Prompt: If I were acting as if results were inevitable, what would I do in the next 10 minutes?Note: Direction beats speed. But once you’ve got direction, speed compounds.ASK FOR CHANGE!

You don’t have to predict every wave. You just have to be the kind of professional who can ride any of them.

Shrink the bubble. Catch the glass. Listen first. Set the table. Skate forward.

And when everything in you says walk away, refuse.

That decision—repeated when it’s least convenient—turns uncertainty into your competitive advantage and you into someone buyers, teams, and families can count on.

Become unbeatable. The world won’t sit still. Neither should you.