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Why You Need to Develop Positive Risk Tolerance with Patrick Tinney, Ep #260

Nn 260 patrick tinney

Pat Tinney has been in sales and negotiation training for 14 years. Before that, he worked in Media Sales, Product Development, and Training and Sales Management at Southam Newspapers, Hollinger Newspapers, and Canwest Newspapers. What did he learn in 20+ years in sales? Sometimes you have to take risks to reap the rewards. Pat works with people looking for unique perspectives on sales, negotiations, and a way to be above average. In this episode of Negotiations Ninja, he shares how a positive risk tolerance was a game-changer for him.


Outline of This Episode

  • [3:03] Learn more about Pat Tinney
  • [4:09] Pat’s latest book—The Bonus Round
  • [7:51] The concept of positive risk tolerance
  • [19:13] The creativity component
  • [24:53] How to connect with Pat Tinney

It’s important to differentiate yourself

While at Canwest, Pat was the first sales rep in Canada to become a certified print production practitioner. He memorized the textbook and got 93% on his final. After completing the certification, one of his senior managers called him in, worried that he was leaving the company. The rest of the sales team was focused on marketing, and he went his own direction because he didn’t want to be like everyone else.

He told his manager he wasn’t leaving, but management wanted to know “why.” Pat wanted to be able to speak intelligently with his customers. If something went wrong, he wanted to be able to explain it in the moment. He didn’t want to run to someone else, wait to get an answer, hope it was right, and then take it back to the customer. And he told his manager that.

Differentiate yourself by building your risk tolerance

Pat looks at any industry as an ecosystem. When he worked at Canwest, he wanted to see how many different ways he could repurpose what they already made. That led him to launch “Print, Plan, and Distribute.” As a newspaper, they were one of the biggest printers in Canada. When his concept went to market, their first order was 6 million pieces across Canada. His initiative led to millions of dollars of revenue for his company.

But the only way you get to that point is by building your risk tolerance and understanding how much pressure goes with it. You can push back at senior management if they want an early launch when things aren’t ready. You want your concept to be so ready to go that people know it’s bulletproof when you say ”go.”

You can build your risk tolerance in unexpected ways

Pat grew his risk tolerance by playing no-limit sessions of poker. One year, his wife bought him a tour to play at Caesars. He rolled a natural royal flush at Bally’s. The odds of that are 1 in 2,598,960. He won the house prize and collected $2,500.

The longest session he ever played was 20 hours—most people can’t stay focused that long. But it trained Pat to stay in a risk bubble. You have to understand what’s happening at the table and observe how people deceive others or hide their emotions.

Pat has put real money on the table over and over, and he’s done it with his company, too. He takes gigantic risks that other people wouldn’t take. He believes that “You can never be called a fool for daring to try.” You may fail several times, and that’s normal. Pat prefers to call failures iterations. Edison failed many times, but he kept trying until he got a lightbulb, right?

If you can go to the marketplace with a new idea that gives the customer an advantage for four weeks, they will not let you leave the room. They want that idea before their competitors. That is positive risk, creativity, and—in Pat’s words—“being the box.”

Resources & People Mentioned

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