How Elite Performers Manage Pressure Before the Moment with Dr. Michael Gervais

Welcome to the Revenue Builders Podcast hosted by John Kaplan and John McMahon. Dr. Michael Gervais joins us today, a performance psychologist who works with elite athletes, world-class teams, and senior leaders operating in a high pressure environment. In this clip, Dr. Gervais breaks down what happens when pressure rises before a critical sales moment, like walking into a meeting with an economic buyer after months of working on a major deal. He explains how to understand your level of activation, how to tell when nerves are working for you or against you, and why awareness, breathing, and self-talk need to be trained before the moment arrives. For revenue leaders, this is a practical look at the mental preparation required to execute when mistakes are real. Let's dive in.

So post-traumatic stress disorder is the name for what happens after trauma, but it's actually not a great description of it because what happens when people go through traumatic experiences, they reorganize their lives to protect themselves from being re-traumatized. So it's a protection of re-traumatization is what we should call it. And what that does is it keeps, oftentimes it keeps people at a distance. because for the most part, humans also are predatorial. And so events can change us, but also the disappointment from other people in the way that they behave during those events or even the cause of those events. So we protect ourselves and we feel like we're alone. That type of trauma can be an amazing laboratory to get down to, wait, hold on, how do I work through this? Oh, I gotta figure out how to take care of myself okay, when I work those psychological skills and practices, I feel a little bit more together. And then I can't just be by myself in this world. I need to figure out how to be great with other people. So that's kind of level two. And when this starts to emerge, those folks that have experienced trauma and work through it, they're the best teammates.

Yeah.

They are flat out the best because they've embraced the fragility. They've looked the dragon in the eyes and wrestled it down and become friends with the dragon. So now they go out into the world with the dragon. And it's awesome. They are the best of the best of the best teammates. But the ones that don't do the work, the ones that are still thumping their chest to say, I'm an alpha whatever, don't trust them. Do not trust them. They haven't done the work properly. to know what they really stand for. But the ones, again, who have wrestled with the dragon in their own life. And they've come and they can talk about it. And you can feel that they are not whipped around by the external world because they are governed by their values and their principles. They've got some purpose that's bigger than them. Those are the ones you want in your life. Those are the ones that will have your back. Those are the ones that you want to partner with because you go further when you work with other people. And that's the essence of elite sport. That's the essence of great teammates in great companies.

Talk a little bit about, I'm getting ready to go into a meeting with an economic buyer. I've been working on a sales