You’re Not Chasing the Money

How to break free from the grind by changing your focus

Launching our Times Square billboard for the Marketing Hall of Fame in NYC. I’ll be emceeing the event this Wednesday at Universal McCann HQ. This week’s Substack is coming to you slightly later than usual—blame the timezone!

Remember your “why”

In the whirlwind of commercial life—sales calls, marketing meetings, targets, customer events, LinkedIn scrolling, another Zoom, another proposal—it’s easy to forget why you’re even doing all this in the first place.

And I don’t mean why you work. I mean why you sell this product. Why you chose this company. Why you’re putting yourself on the line to bring it into the world.

It’s a question that quietly slips through the cracks of our calendars. We move from one commitment to the next, one number to the next, one quarter to the next—and somewhere along the way, our purpose gets flattened into performance.

It’s no wonder that, eventually, it all starts to feel like... a grind.

The Subtle Trap We All Fall Into

Here’s the slippery slope:

In the rush of deal-making and campaign execution, we start thinking it’s all about the money. It’s not like we admit this out loud. But internally, subtly, we shift focus toward the final reward—the PO, the signed contract, the revenue. We tell ourselves things like:

“I just need this one to close.”
“If I hit target, I’ll finally feel okay again.”
“Let’s just make the number. We’ll sort everything else out later.”

It sounds logical. But it’s a trap. Because it puts your emotional state in the hands of others.

Sales is Waiting. A Lot of Waiting.

Here’s the thing nobody tells you early in your rainmaking career:

Selling and marketing involve a lot of waiting. You do a ton of work—and then, you wait:

• You wait for the customer to open the email.

• You wait for procurement to review the contract.

• You wait for the CFO’s approval.

• You wait for the invoice to get paid.

It’s a weird job in that sense. You’re often dependent on actions that need to be done by others—that understandably seem outside your direct control.

And if you’re not careful, you’ll start believing you’re just waiting to get chosen. That your entire success hinges on someone else deciding to move. That you are merely the effect of the customer’s world.

And that, right there, is how stress creeps in. That’s how rainmakers get anxious, resentful, or burned out—because they feel powerless. And all this stems from an unhealthy obsession with the stuff that, factually, can only be done by others.

Reclaim Your Power

So how do we flip this?

How do we reclaim that sense of control and purpose?

We go back to the beginning. We ask the question that gets buried under the pipeline review:

Why am I doing this? Why am I selling this product?

This isn’t just about believing in your product. This is about knowing why you’ve chosen to share this offering with the world in the first place. Whether you’re a founder, a rep, or a marketer—it’s not enough to say “it’s my job.” That’s how the grind begins.

When you connect to your why, your focus shifts.

You stop obsessing about the money coming in, and you start getting obsessed about the value going out.

Outflow Before Inflow

Let’s keep it simple. In commerce, money flows in as a result of value flowing out.

You don’t get paid for wishing. You get paid for giving—for solving, serving, educating, moving.

So if you’re not feeling strong in your role right now, don’t focus harder on closing deals. Focus harder on flowing out value.

You see, rainmakers lose their way when they:

• Wait for things to happen,

• Start seeing themselves as victims of customer chaos,

• Forget their own power to move the market.

But the fix isn’t mystical. It’s this:

Refocus on what you can give. Not what you’re trying to get.

That shift—from inflow to outflow—restores your power.

A Real Example

Back when I led a sales team at Microsoft, I introduced a simple but game-changing definition of a seller’s outflow:

“Your job is to educate prospects so well that they know why they want and must get our product.”

That’s it. Educate. At scale. With care. With precise relevance to the customer’s needs.

If a seller did that, and did it in volume, we knew the money would follow. That’s just math, no matter how good or bad a seller’s win rate was. More education = more resonance = more response = more revenue.

And the beauty of this mindset? It flips the game:

• You’re not sitting around hoping to be picked.

• You’re putting something out there, every single day.

• You’re contributing. You’re creating. You’re evangelising.

Suddenly, your work isn’t about chasing a commission. It’s about building belief.

How This Changes Your Day

Let’s say you sell a B2B SaaS product. If you’re unclear on your why—eg. “I help CIOs eliminate risk for their people, bringing immense peace of mind”—you can start by asking:

• How am I helping my customers understand their problems?

• What am I creating or sending that flows value outward?

• Am I showing up with relevance, or desperation? What does relevance look like?

And here’s some tangible examples of what you can flow out:

• Sending an ebook that explains the cost of legacy systems.

• Building an ABM campaign with tailored insights for each account.

• Sharing a case study that shows how a similar company solved the same pain point.

• Recording a 2-minute video walkthrough and dropping it in a LinkedIn message.

• Or simply picking up the phone and educating one prospect at a time, clearly and personally.

In every case, you're not really “pitching.” You're teaching. Guiding. Inspiring.

And the more you do that—in volume, with quality—the more the math starts working in your favour.

You Are Not the Effect

If you take only one thing from this piece, let it be this:

You are not at the mercy of your customers. You are at the mercy of your own outflow.

So go back to your “why.” Get clear on your value. And then flow it out—with consistency, with conviction, and with care.

When you do, the inflow will come. It always does.

You’re not selling. You’re sharing something you believe in.

You're not waiting. You’re working your why.

See you next Tuesday,
KG