The Relentless Pursuit: How to Build a High Performance Mindset in Sales

Introduction

What truly separates high performers from the average? According to Maria Kirby, Executive at the Elliott Group and sales powerhouse, it's a relentless pursuit of growth and a refusal to settle for mediocrity. In a recent episode of The Nathan Newberry Podcast, Maria shared her remarkable journey from making $15 per hour at a veterinary hospital to clearing $700,000 in just her second year in sales. Her story isn't just about financial transformation—it's about the mindset shifts and hard decisions that fuel extraordinary success. Whether you're looking to elevate your sales career, break free from a complacent 9-to-5 mentality, or simply want to understand what drives top performers, Maria's insights offer a blueprint for creating breakthrough results in business and life.

Defining High Performance: The Relentless Pursuit of Growth

For Maria, high performance isn't just about achieving results—it's about the mindset and attitude you bring to each day, regardless of your current circumstances.

"A high performer is somebody who just doesn't give up, someone who has a relentless pursuit to go after whatever it is that they want," Maria explains. "I don't think that it actually even equates to money, but money does end up being a byproduct of most high performers."

This definition challenges the common perception that high performance is only measured by financial outcomes. Instead, Maria emphasizes the qualities that lead to those outcomes:

• Relentless attitude and consistent effort
• Positive energy and coachability
• Showing up fully even on difficult days
• Rejecting comfort in favor of continued growth

"The people that are looking for a level of comfort are the ones that will eventually not be a high performer anymore," she notes. "The true one-percenters are the ones that just don't ever stop and have no cap."

What makes this perspective particularly compelling is that it applies regardless of your starting point. As Maria's own journey demonstrates, high performance isn't reserved for those with advantages or specific backgrounds—it's available to anyone willing to commit fully to their growth.

From Zero to Success: Overcoming Personal Obstacles

Maria's path to success wasn't lined with advantages. Coming from a challenging background with parents struggling with addiction, she had to forge her own way without guidance or role models for high achievement.

"My real dad's an alcoholic and addicted to pills, my mom early on she was addicted to heroin... and my stepdad's addicted to crack cocaine," Maria shares candidly. "They didn't teach me how to be a top performer. It was just something that was inside of me."

Despite these challenges—or perhaps because of them—Maria developed a strong internal drive. She paid her own way through college, working three jobs and never taking out loans. Yet even with this work ethic, she found herself frustrated in traditional employment:

"I would get so frustrated because I'd do them for a year or two and honestly—I'm not trying to sound like I've got a big ego—but I would just get good at them and then I got bored."

This pattern continued until she found her place at the Elliott Group, where her potential could be fully realized. Her transformation was remarkable:

• Went from $15/hour at a vet hospital to clearing $700,000 in her second year in sales
• Transformed from being shy and timid to a confident leader
• Overcame her fear of judgment and learned to embrace failure as part of the growth process

What's particularly striking about Maria's story is how she had to reconnect with her authentic self—the direct, driven person she had been before she started trying to fit in with average expectations.

"As I got older, I started to bury that version of me. I started to bury that confident version, the one that was direct, the one that had a lot of drive... I buried it because it didn't really get along with average people."

The Mindset Shifts Required for Extraordinary Results

Maria's success didn't come from simply working harder within the same mindset. It required fundamental shifts in how she approached her life and work.

Eliminating Distractions and Excuses

One of the most powerful decisions Maria made was to eliminate anything that was preventing her from reaching her potential:

"We drank a lot of alcohol and it was a huge distraction... I realized that that made me feel tired all the time. I wasn't wanting to get up and go to the gym and take care of myself."

As her commitment deepened, she took even more dramatic steps:

"I literally at one point ripped all the TVs off the wall. I still don't have a TV on the wall. I ripped everything down. I was like, 'We're doing whiteboards and all we're going to do is study and train 24/7 because otherwise, it's going to take us five years to get where we want to, and I want to get there in a year.'"

This level of commitment separates those who make incremental improvements from those who create breakthrough results. It's not just about working hard—it's about eliminating anything that competes with your most important goals.

Finding a Purpose Beyond Yourself

Initially, Maria's drive came from wanting to prove she wasn't like her parents and could create a different life for herself. This "angry fuel" propelled her forward initially, but eventually burned out as she achieved some success.

"There was a period where you start winning and you almost are like, 'What am I fighting for now? I'm not angry anymore.'"

This is a critical juncture many successful people face—what happens when the chip on your shoulder is gone? For Maria, the answer was finding a larger purpose:

"What I realized was that this is much bigger than me... It's about leaving an impact and a legacy for everybody. I believe that within the US, we're just brainwashed... that you have to go do the 9-to-5, that you have to work till 65... and that's so wrong."

This shift from personal achievement to making a difference for others provided renewable fuel for continued growth. As she puts it: "I don't owe it to myself any longer. It's not about me. It's about the rest of the world."

Intentional Planning and Consistency

Unlike many who approach each new year with vague resolutions, Maria and her husband take strategic planning seriously:

"We don't start in January. We start usually in December... We have our whole year planned out. We already know what our goals are, we already know what we need to do, all the way down to what are we going to do on a daily basis."

This planning extends beyond setting goals to identifying specific daily actions and potential obstacles:

"You can't walk into 2025 and say, 'I'm going to do this, this and this' without having a game plan of how you're going to get there. It's those little actions day in and day out that compound."

Maria challenges the common pattern of inconsistency that creates "summer lulls" or seasonal dips in performance:

"A lull to me is self-inflicted... You ramped up the end of the year and got excited for what the new year was going to bring. You did all the actions in Q1... but then you were like, 'Oh, we're doing good,' and you probably stopped doing some of the things that you were doing."

The Truth About Sales and Leadership

Maria's insights about sales and leadership challenge common misconceptions and offer a fresh perspective on both.

Redefining Sales as a Path to Freedom

While many view sales negatively, Maria sees it as the ultimate path to personal and financial freedom:

"If you go online and type in 'What's the top skill that I can learn to make a lot of money?' it's going to tell you sales and communication. And so regardless of what business you're in, what your niche is... you could be the best basket weaver in the world, but if you can't talk to people, no one's buying your baskets."

She identifies two types of performers in the sales world:

1. "Lions in a zoo" - Capable performers who wait for leads to be delivered to them
2. True top performers - Those who can generate their own opportunities and "never go hungry"

This distinction isn't just about sales techniques—it reflects a fundamental difference in mindset between those who take ownership of their success and those who depend on external factors.

Self-Leadership Before Team Leadership

When asked about becoming a better leader, Maria emphasizes that it begins with leading yourself:

"I had to self-lead first, and I wasn't a very good leader until I started self-leading. There's a big difference between a leader and a manager. A manager comes in and manages people, and they're there for a salary. They clock in and they clock out. But a leader truly doesn't ever stop."

True leadership, in Maria's view, isn't about titles or declarations—it's demonstrated through actions and presence:

"People know whether or not you're leading or not by the way that you carry yourself, by the way that you walk into that room, the way that you have a conversation with someone, the way that you care about people."

This perspective on leadership connects back to her definition of high performance—both are fundamentally about consistent actions aligned with values rather than sporadic efforts or external validation.

Conclusion: The Choice to Change

Throughout the conversation, Maria returns to a critical truth: change only happens when someone is truly ready for it.

"An addict's not going to get clean until they're ready to get clean, and that person that's in that 9-to-5, you can't take them and drag them out of their 9-to-5. You can't drag them into discomfort."

This insight applies to personal development, sales, leadership, and virtually any area where transformation is desired. The people Maria and her team can help are "the ones that are ready to change, are the ones that are ready to grow, are the ones that are ready for another opportunity."

For those who are ready, Maria offers hope and support: "If they're scared, I'll share my courage with you. I'll let you borrow courage. I'll let you borrow courage, and I'll show you what it looks like to step into some light."

Her journey from a challenging background to extraordinary success demonstrates what's possible when someone decides they're built for more and commits fully to their growth. The path isn't easy—it requires eliminating distractions, finding deeper purpose, planning strategically, and developing valuable skills—but for those willing to embrace the journey, the rewards extend far beyond financial success to personal fulfillment and making a meaningful impact.

The question isn't whether this level of performance is possible for you, but whether you're ready to make the decision that starts the transformation.