Ad 00:06
Pronto is more than a messaging app. Today’s door-to-door organizations and sales teams demand better than what free messaging apps can offer. Enters Pronto. A single communication hub for your entire organization with a clean design that elevates your brand and doesn’t require any training. With real time direct and group messaging, video conferencing announcements, unlimited file sharing and storage, administrative capabilities and more, pronto will help your organization communicate, collaborate, recruit, train, retain, and be more successful. So swipe up, try for free, win more.
Mia O’Neill 00:45
Hey guys, how’s it going? My name is Mia O’Neill. And this is Alex Hoffman, owner of Protek. And today we’re bringing you a new kind of D2D podcast that is for the streets. So here with the streets, we’re going to be interviewing different people from all around the nation from tons of different companies, and giving them a new idea of reps, and also owners who may have some interesting stories. A lot of times on the podcast, we have some of the top performers and it’s super inspiring. At the same time, a lot of people are going through harder things in life. And you might be out of place in your door to door career where you’re not really thriving or things are hard or you’re going through something tough. And you’re just at a place where you might feel unrelatable. And like you’re not sure how to get from where you’re at now to where you want to be in the future. So with the segment, we’re going to be interviewing different people from around the nation, and just showing a different side of the story. A lot of people you look at them, and they seem so normal and cool. And they own these companies and they’re doing so well. But what they’ve been through is insane. Like you would never guess it just talking to these people in the first few conversations and like not until they really opened up when you get to see what’s really behind the door. So with that. So with that I’m going to dive in. And if you or any of your apps or any people that you work with, you know of any really good stories, please submit them to the, to the experts on Instagram or to Sam Taggart himself. And we’ll be kind of doing a collection of stories over time and hopefully helping people to find relatability and inspire them from the beginning to the end. And also just so you guys know the tour is coming up. Tickets are selling super fast it is may 17 to June 18. And we’re going to 10 states and 10 events, it’s going to be incredible tickets are only $40. So definitely take advantage of that it’s not our website, the door to door or the D city experts calm it’s an opportunity for you to bring your entire team which is so sick because like think of is you know, the whole summer ahead of you, right. And you’re just the beginning, they’re gonna be with you all summer like these people are with you, and you’re with them all summer, like they’re gonna be hearing your correlation, hearing your training, hearing your same motivation. So this is an incredible opportunity to not only get some of the best sales training in the entire world for door to door from Sam Taggart himself, but also to hear a new kind of perspective training and motivation, then they’re going to be used to for the rest of the year. So this really sets the tone. And if you go in strong for the summer, then every single day, every single cell is going to be so much more efficient, effective, and it’s just going to be a way more productive summer and also season, even if it’s not just a summer program. So definitely check that out. Also, we have boot camps coming up summit, all sorts of things. And if you have not been to one of our events, they are so fun. I’m obsessed with them. He’s been a blast even just two days ago. Yeah, amazing. Yeah, we just got back to sales summit. How cool was that?
Alex Hoffman 03:56
Epic, there was training workouts competitions, door pitches, it was amazing learn so much still processing that to implement come in this week and this month, so
Mia O’Neill 04:10
yes, love it. It seriously, it was so fun. So I highly encourage you to go to our websites schedule a demo call with our guys and I don’t know come to whatever is next because I promise you it will change your game and your life. All right, on that note, this is Alex Hoffman everyone. He is the owner of pro tech roofing heating and air. Do you want to say a little something about yourself?
Alex Hoffman 04:38
I’m Alex Hoffman. I’ve been in kind of contracting industry for the past seven years started on the air conditioning side. took on roofing started pro tech about a year ago now. We’ve done some scaling been working with Sam and the experts on door to door and sales training in general and then all aspects of the So we’ve come a long way in the past year. And, you know, now we, we’ve got, I think 12 employees now we’ve got a team of wraps, and we just had a storm hits. We’re all pumped here.
Mia O’Neill 05:14
Sweet. I love it. And so the reason I asked Alex to do a podcast in the beginning, we were actually at the sales summit. And we were just sitting down for dinner. He’s part of the circle, right, which is the elite mastermind at Sam’s house, it’s a lot of owners of different companies and the door to door or sell space. And we have some legends in there, like Michael McDonald is in there. And I mean, a ton of people like all these different companies. So when did you join,
Alex Hoffman 05:44
been in the circle now, like, three, four months that we joined, so relatively new, but yeah, I’ve already gotten immense value out of it, we hop on, you know, zoom calls, every month, we do challenges and assigned reading that we all do, and then talk about. So it’s, it’s been huge. As far as like, just the accountability of really high level people, you almost you raise your own bar, when you’ve got those people around you. So
Mia O’Neill 06:11
totally, circles, you just want to Sam’s favorite things that we do. And it’s cool to like, just this weekend, like all of the expert guests that we had come train, a lot of them after we’re like, stoked all of them. Like they came to train all the guys that came. And every single one of them was like that was so cool, dude, like, how can I get more involved? Like, what can I do like anything you need? Like, if there’s more training events, I can come to like, whatever it is, like, please involve me. And Sam’s answer to all of them was like, do join the circle. Yeah. Like, it’s such a cool group of people. It’s such high level minds within it. And then just adding more and more of the experts, like who, and all these guys own companies, and they’ve done hundreds of millions in sales. And like, they’re just the baddest in the biz. They’re all joining the circle. So very lead, but I mean, I don’t know if you would qualify for that. But it’s definitely worth the call. And if not, we have other programs that you could be a part of. But yeah, it’s cool that that’s how you got into all this. Was it just before DDD con, or How’d you find out about it,
Alex Hoffman 07:14
About the circle. That was we bumped into Sam at a conference in Orlando, like a roofing conference, we went into one of his breakout sessions, and then just kind of started talking with him afterwards. And the first event first you ever heard of Sam, no, we’ve done some, some training with SVG, you and then like Sam was featured on there back when he had his long hair. And, you know, we had saw him and like his training on there was epic. And then we saw him at the roofing conference and got to talk with him and then flew out to Utah got involved, reached out. Just the cool part about it is like this bunch of people who you know, are always open to learning and want help. But it’s also people that, you know, are willing to take help and give out. So it’s kind of like, facilitates and goes with our culture of like, everybody teaching and learning at the same time. So it’s like, that’s the kind of people that we attract, and the kind of people that we want to be so
Mia O’Neill 08:13
I love that. Yeah, it is true. It’s like not only is it people that want to grow, and then they grow their own businesses, but it’s also like, experts in the field that join for exposure. And for more opportunities. Like I know that a lot of people in the circle spoke at DVD con this year. And a lot of people in the circle spoke at sales summit, like different things I want to give back as well. And like help others is where we get a lot of our so so and so cool. So yeah, shameless promotion right there. It truly is such a cool opportunity. Oh, man. Yeah. So now So as I was saying, the reason I asked him to do this podcast, so we were sitting at dinner, just chatting, I was having our buddy, Mark, and we’re just like, talking and I don’t even know how this got brought up. But he has a pretty insane story. So like, like I mentioned before, like you see him now like I see you and I’m like, oh, like normal? Yeah, like pretty well put together. Well put together dude owns a company like Oh, he’s chillin, like, it’s probably pretty like vanilla. Like, I don’t know, just kind of assuming, you know, and that could not be further from the truth. So I don’t even know the best way to dive into it. Like, I guess kind of a brief history of like,
Alex Hoffman 09:34
yeah, so I’ll, I’ll just kind of give you a brief history of me and my story. I’m kind of go back to what you said at the beginning of where, you know, there’s some people that you see and watch all these experts, you go to all these meetings, everybody’s very like, high level and this and there can be some disconnect some because some people are at different places in their life. So some people that are down there’s, you know, not much relation for someone that’s kind of operating on a higher freak See, and really like crushing things, it’s it’s tough to find there. So we’re getting from that downplays so that up plays is something that we all kind of can struggle with at some points in our life. So that one for me was a very big step as far as coming from down here to up here, because the person that you see now is not the person that I always was and rewind, you know, four and a half years ago, I was in college, went to Florida State University in a brief, you know, a brief history of my past and, you know, I was, you know, as a kid, I was, you know, a smaller kid, a little bit of a chameleon or never really could relate very well to people, you know, I was felt a little bit out, but someone who, you know, I’d always tried always try and relate to people and blend in and fit in, but there was some disconnect, I didn’t really always feel like a part. You know, I think a lot of people can relate with that, at least at some point in their life, is it really feeling a part and that’s one of as humans, something that we always strive for is connectedness. You know, I think even Bert was talking about the tribe, like, like, primally, like we want to belong. So with that, not really ever feeling comfortable, I kind of turned in college towards like drinking and partying as a as a way to kind of ease that. And you know, those, whatever unsettling feelings inside or not belonging, like alcohol, drinking, partying all made that better. And that’s what I turned to as my solution. But that quickly kind of spiraled into, like, an unhealthy way of solving a deeper problem within myself, you know. So, through that experience, what kinda ended up happening is, I would, you know, pretty much I was still maintaining grades. And, you know, I was always very smart. So that was easy Park. On the outside, everything looked okay. But on the inside, like, I was not content, I was not happy or anything. So as I started getting deeper into the years in school, I started turning to alcohol pretty much daily to help ease whatever problems I was experiencing externally. With that, came a, you know, a bevy of other problems such as, like, I was getting into fights at the bar, I was, you know, slacking in classes, I was, you know, treating relationships very poorly with people is very selfish, self centered, how I feel was the most important part of it. So very ego driven lifestyle. With that kind of, I had a few events that took place that took me to a pretty dark place where this was what I would call like, a bottom or like, that low level that I was talking about, some people can kind of be sitting in more very life is very much just like spinning of the wheels, you’re not going anywhere, you’re not growing anywhere. You’re just kind of stuck. So what happened was, is a couple of times, as it got worse and worse is that would get into bar fights, nothing would happen. And one night, I got into a scuffle with a buddy of mine, and like six other guys, and we ended up getting into it. One guy got hurt, not like severely or anything, but enough to where it became, you know, an issue with the police and the law. So three days later, I had the police knocking at my door. So I was just like, whatever kept moving.
Mia O’Neill 13:24
Dang, I thought it was like that night,
Alex Hoffman 13:26
three days later, they came knocking out the door. And then they arrested me with a battery charge, like, heavy felony battery charge, which, yeah, carries like five years in prison, but got a good attorney, got everything kind of like slap on the wrist, no problem moved on. But still, I didn’t change who I was, you know, inside, I didn’t change my habits or drinking or anything like that. So it’s still solving that problem with unhealthy solutions. After that, I ended up violating the probation, which news to me is you can’t, you know, Bond out on one of those. So I ended up going to jail for six months of for discharge, okay. And it was, you know, four and a half years ago, since I couldn’t find out it was either up to the judge to reinstate my probation or to send me to prison with the original charge. So it was like a very scary point where it was like, out of my hands, and I could have been in a very dark place. So six months in jail, my was interesting experience, but one that I look back on and in gratitude is I find that I learned so much from that experience, that it’s not something that I would ever want to take take back. Because I truly believe that like whatever path we’re on is what we need to be learning or where we need to be to grow into the people that you know, we have to become so the situation in jail was interesting because as you can see, I went into it with a positive perspective perspective. And this was kind of the first step in the understanding of how to approach life in a way that made my experience the best possible in the now, if that makes sense. So, what happened was, I turned into a bit of an entrepreneur in jail, I started I started cooking jail wine out of fermented oranges for like the entire jail. So after being in there while I started making wine for all the people in the pod, and entreprenuer Yeah, so then I started selling it. Yeah, I started selling it. I started making it and then, you know, distributing it to the pod. But it also led to me still drinking in jail every single day, because I was still uncomfortable, always. And I always needed that I notice. No, I don’t think it was a little bit different. I didn’t really care. Like it’s some some of the people knew didn’t care. It was just, you know, like, don’t ask, don’t tell it. We’re just there to punch the clock and do their job to like, yeah, so they don’t really want to, like, start anything. But so anyways, this kind of drunk everyday. Yeah, just about like, at least a good buzz. It’s hard to get really drunk off for like fermented orange juice, but you know, who take down on Monday, I do not take fermented oranges. And then like, you know, we’d have people in the kitchen like steal sugar, and like, people like wet in the kitchen, like add it to the fermented orange juice. And then it kind of starts the fermentation process in terms of Did you get a Did you have a job in jail? No, my job. I just read a lot of books. And then like, worked out there was also third gym? No, all we have is a basketball court like, so it was just a basketball court and like nothing else. But still, like, you know, go do push ups and burpees. And like, similar to the workout, we do it so so. But
Mia O’Neill 17:09
yeah, and that video will be coming later. So if you’re curious what a jail workout is, just make sure you check out our sales summit, outdoor workouts the exact exact same, but
Alex Hoffman 17:21
kind of in this in this very dark place that I was in, when I was still maintaining, like my drinking inside of jail. And then like, in the moment you don’t really notice like, it’s hard to look at ourselves sometimes and see a problem like insight can be a difficult thing. So it’s important to have like really good people around you that can keep you accountable, but also like, help you look in the mirror when you don’t really like see or want to see something that is wrong with you.
Mia O’Neill 17:47
So what really are reflections, like we’re all reflections for each other. And like the shiny ear of a mirror you can be the easier it is for other people to see themselves. But sometimes people don’t like that. It’s powerful, though.
Alex Hoffman 17:59
Yeah. 100%. So, yeah, having people that were around me, being able to kind of see this in me was an important one because anybody else’s brain, but mine’s really good at justifying some of my own stuff to myself. Where, yeah, you know, a lot of us like, type a sales personalities are pretty good at like, coming up with quick answers, and especially to ourselves. So being able to have people that that can see that stuff and call you out on your own is good. But
Mia O’Neill 18:30
why the question really fast? And how did you feel in comparison to the other people that were in there? Like, did you feel like oh, I’m nothing like these guys. Like, I got popped on the weird thing. Like, I shouldn’t even be here. Like, these guys are this. I’m not like, Did you feel like oh, I’m just one of the guys like, Here I am in my element?
Alex Hoffman 18:47
No, I mean, I felt a little out of place, obviously. Like, I was a college student raised in suburbia. Like, you know, I’ve never really been in a situation like that. So I did feel a bit out of place. And, you know, everybody else thought I was a bit out of place to, like, it’s not hard to do that. But that was kind of initially and then there was kind of a point where February 21 right when you went in? Yeah, cuz you turn 22 in jail. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe I had a nice birthday in there. But no, there was a point in there where you can always like point the finger and be like, oh, like I don’t belong here. Like, you know, this is just a fluke, or this is my fault. So at that same point in there, I had to also start taking some ownership as far as not pointing the finger at other people. And this also happened at the time it was Christmas Eve, I think of 2016. When, you know, I had that I was cooking wine for everybody. I had, you know, five cells that I was training like, guys in the gym so I could use their cells. And then oh, like a give and take Yeah, it was like a give and take so like, these guys would come in and like I would do like pretty regular workouts. I would show them How to do it. And then also they’d let me like, you know, kind of hide some stuff in there. So. So then like on Christmas Eve, we’re like bringing down like a lot of this jail one for everybody. And then somebody had said something to one of the guards and it turned into a whole, like braid where they came in, were in like the plastic mass plastic shield, like out of a movie. And they came in and we had like, all this Jln. So we’re like, what do we do? So we chugged all the wines so that they couldn’t like give us like another charge. And then, like, at that point, I ended up going to like solitary confinement, because they’re like, that’s like jail inside of jail. I didn’t even know those a thing until this weekend. But so then, like, at that point, I realized, and it kind of like my attorney, like one of those people around you that’s like, can kind of help you look at what’s going on and who you are. He was like, dude, like, you know, you’re in jail, you’re in jail, you’re in jail for drinking. Now you’re in jail, in jail for drinking. It’s like, like, something’s got to change here. And like, I had that realization, that ownership where it was like, Yeah, like, so was it at that point? Or was it already kind of setting in before that? It was like setting in but also not not consciously, you know, it was like, but there was like, steps that were being taken. Prior to that were like, I had like, some internal belief that, okay, like, something’s off here. Like, I’m obviously not in a place where I want to be like sitting in jail. But then it all came to kind of a precipice at that point. So there was like, a little bit of a build up to that. But then there was like, I was like, right? Yeah, we got a problem here.
Mia O’Neill 21:35
Did you realize like, while you were drinking, was it something? Was it ever something where you’re like, I don’t want to be drinking. I want to be sober. Was it always? Oh, yeah, let’s go. No, yeah,
Alex Hoffman 21:44
it was never like that. For me, thank God, I never really got to that point where it was, like, I like I can’t stop but I want to it was and some people get there. You know, that’s huge. That’s lucky. A lot of people get they’re grateful that I like, that’s why I say I’m grateful for this experience in general. Because Yeah, you probably you might have to keep on that path. So once, so then that was kind of being able to nip it in the bud. And then from there, this chain of events that kind of like put my life together was all a result of like that ownership and that realization and the understanding that like something needed to change, so there’s always a point where it’s like, Alright, something’s gotta give and then you take ownership and then you make changes because it doesn’t really just happen accidentally. You can look for the signs around you that say like, this is it but that’s when it happened for me. So then after that fast forward,
Mia O’Neill 22:43
so what did happen so they rated it you chunked it all together into a solitary confinement. Yeah.
Alex Hoffman 22:49
Hammered drunk got taken down to solitary confinement shoved in there. You come out like once a week for an hour and you’re stuck in itself.
Mia O’Neill 22:57
Oh, yeah. Like a cement bed. Yeah, it was pretty miserable. So it’s toilet in there. I’m thinking like all jail movies.
Alex Hoffman 23:04
Exactly like it. But with that being said, it was like, Merry Christmas. Yeah. Merry Christmas. Yeah, it was Christmas. Day Come on over. So yeah, it’s not good. But it was also like
Mia O’Neill 23:16
it definitely got a lot buckle like needed it. Yeah, I needed I guess that is like a Christmas miracle.
Alex Hoffman 23:22
So and the other light I see in that side of it is like I was deprived of just about everything, right. Like, I couldn’t wear my own clothes. I couldn’t see the sunshine. I couldn’t even breathe fresh air. Like, I couldn’t sleep until one day when I wanted to sleep. They wake up at 4am for breakfast every morning. It was like, almost like a psychological torture, but like you sleep and he wanted to know though, like the wake you up like pretty much every two hours for like, you know, changing your clothes or like eating breakfast at 4am. It’s just like, just to mess with you. Yeah, just make it uncomfortable. Right? When you were late, you go to bed. I mean, you could stay up late, you go to bed like seven. Okay, yeah. But it was just like, a whole mess. And then, but so it also the experience gave me a new, like definition for gratitude or I was able to like really like until I like, didn’t have any of that stuff. It was all taken for granted. So then, with that experience, I was able to be grateful for you know, sunshine for fresh air and like the small things that we all take for granted. Like being able to wake up and express gratitude for those things that we take for granted for you know, for granted every single day is another factor that just like was able to propel my life forward. Because like when you’re living in that gratitude and that positivity, it’s just like, you’re unstoppable As you’ve probably found out. Probably a lot of people have found Yeah, amen. Yes. So it of gratitude. So yeah, and being able to realize and look back on that and see like, this is exactly what I needed to like, become the person that I need to be like I needed everything to be taken away to be grateful for what I have. So That that was the big experience for me as far as like in the transformative portion.
Mia O’Neill 25:07
I love that. So, you’re in it, you’re in solitary confinement. And then you said you got let out for rehab. Right? So it’s kind of interesting. That was like, What got you in? And what else about you out? Right? Yeah. And like, how long? How long are we supposed to be in?
Alex Hoffman 25:24
It was it’s like kind of undetermined. It was, there was no like set sense, it was pretty much you’re there until the prosecutor decides whether they want to let you back out or whether they want to charge you with your original charge. So it’s like, I could have been there for five years, I had no idea if I would get out tomorrow or in 20.
Mia O’Neill 25:45
Oh, my God, that’s insane. That’s honestly, its own punishment is like, I feel like anyone, like especially salesman, or not just salesmen, but like you said, you can justify things in your head. Like, if you’re like, Okay, it’s five years, then it’s five years. And you can almost say goals, like, what do I want within this five years and like, make a routine of it? Or it’s like, okay, it’s just left in limbo, like, not knowing that’s torture, that’s truly torture.
Alex Hoffman 26:12
But also, like, in the moment, perspective, is everything right? So, you know, I wake up every day, and I would just, you know, remind myself that, whatever I want the day to be like, I could either come at it, like, low and make it horrible, or make the best way to do push ups, training people help people. You know, I would like trading for like, you know, hard boiled eggs and like, make food and like, yeah, so it’s like, whatever you make of it, regardless of where you’re at. Interesting.
Mia O’Neill 26:44
So, so then you got out. So then you went to rehab for two months. What was the next thing after that?
Alex Hoffman 26:51
Yeah, three months, I, they got out, they took the deal. And then I ended up going to rehab, which was also a huge experience, like, all this started, and then I moved to talk with some great counselors, therapists, like, do good treatment was introduced into meditation was introduced into, you know, daily morning routine of meditation, physical activity, prayer, things like that. The favors like Miracle Morning. Yeah, exactly. So it lines up with like, a lot of the same things that we do today that I was introduced to, in that program, as well as some of the other things like making amends with people, you know, pulling up some of our character defects addressing them, and, you know, fixing all that. So, all that was kind of huge and transformative. At the same time. I also picked up reading, and then read a great book, it was letting go by David R. Hawkins, which kind of talks about removal of negative emotions, and then like, surrender, as far as just like, letting what is is and not really like, you know, fighting what’s happening, just kind of going with and then knowing that you’re on a path that like you need to be on, and helping others and like, all these principles started to kind of come together to where, after this came into practice, my life went from like, down here to up here rather quickly. And it showed like, to where I had like nothing. And then I was presented with opportunities to sales job, the same principles that were super successful in life, applied directly to sales and being authentic, and then people very trusted that broke every single sales record at the company I was at by, like, 3x, you know, Wow, really new trophies. Yeah, it was like, Oh my gosh, I just learned how to do it was a year into it wasn’t like I was a master of the craft, I didn’t have any formal sales training, there was no really formal training on anything, they’re like, you know, go out there and get it. But I just applied the same principles that I was using in my life at the time, which were honesty, integrity, being authentic with people, and then just a general raised energy level or like letting go of like, guilt or shame and all those things that kind of hold us down, being able to address and let go of those allowed me to really connect with people and people pick up on the authenticity that comes with the raising of your vibration or you know, the addressing of some of these issues in the letting go. Like I believe that as humans we kind of have an innate sense or know whatever we call that gut feeling whatever you want to call it or whatever however you want to feel emotion intuition a lot of people call it different things. So it’s it’s our innate ability to kind of pick up on someone’s frequency I would say or pretty much be able to assess kind of primal Yeah, very primal. So like, when your true there’s instinct, yeah, some people they can fake it, you know, until they make it they can fake that they can be really smooth talkers. But like, there’s a deeper sense of where I would never fight for a deal when I was like, when I’m in that place or in that vibration, it’s just like people know that I’m not there to like sell them or bullshit them. I can’t say that, but I’m there to provide service and, and help. So that’s kind of where where my life shifted at that point.
Mia O’Neill 30:13
That’s amazing. Yeah. How cool. So you’re there for three months? So that’s like a pretty hefty amount of time to. Yeah. And it sounds like it was a really positive experience. Yeah, absolutely. So what point were you like, oh, alcohol is not the move, I need to move away from this.
Alex Hoffman 30:31
At the point of, you know, after kind of forcing myself to live without it for 30 6090 days, like, every day that went on, it made more sense, as I got better naturally, at interacting with people or dealing with my emotions is that became, you know, that was a solution to everything. So when I had to live with that, it was only when I figured out how to live without it. Yeah, Yeah, it does. So living in that, it also turned into pretty much teaching myself social skills over again, because I’ve been using a crutch, you know, for that, since I was 15 years old, when you know, you start drinking with your friends in high school or something. So removing that crutch, and then re learning all these, you know, social interactions over this. It’s hard at first, obviously, but then as you get better and better at it, you’re like, it’s not a you know, it’s not, alcohol is not the move, it’s like, you really never needed it to begin with. It was just kind of a shortcut to like actually learning how to deal with your emotions, deal with other people interact and like, be able to handle what we call life for our experience.
Mia O’Neill 31:41
Wow. How did you feel when you started to detox? Because I mean, you had so much alcohol in your system, and it is a toxin. So like, over time, like how did you start to feel? Were you like surprised by your self? Or what?
Alex Hoffman 31:56
Yeah, so like, through that time, and I’ll show you pictures and don’t show you guys pictures, but like, I was very overweight, like really inflamed, almost like everything was, you know, I was not in a good place physically, mentally, spiritually, anything was all misaligned. So when that happened, it also, you know, I dropped 40 pounds pretty much immediately after I stopped drinking. I’m sure that felt good. Yeah, started picking up other habits for you know, kind of restoring some good chemicals in the brain that our brains looking for, you know, good chemicals that can you can get through working out, you can get it through other experiences, aside from drinking alcohol. So after that happened, physically, my life increased. Spiritually, my life increased. Mentally, I felt clear. Without the toxins, as you said, you feel better, just generally, your energy levels are higher. Pretty much everything builds up with that, or for me, it did.
Mia O’Neill 32:50
Yeah, totally. Wow. That’s amazing. So how did you then get into roofing.
Alex Hoffman 32:57
So my transition to roofing and once again, like, on this path through the sales side, my sales background was in air conditioning, where I started moving into roofing when I was working for a different company, I joined up with Anthony. And pretty much I don’t look too deep into decisions, or people that I make decisions with, because I think we talked about it a little bit is I feel that people come into my life, especially when I’m at like, where I need to be energetically like, or frequency or vibrational level. Like when I’m in a good place, the people that like I need in my life, show up the people that don’t probably start fading off and like I don’t have to, like really worry about that it kind of handles itself when I’m in a good place. So Anthony and I bumped into each other, and we’re talking about it, and he wanted to start a roofing company, I wanted to start an air conditioning company. So then we were just like, let’s, you know, do it under one roof. I have experience in sales, air conditioning, but I’m also a quick study. So I learned roofing very quickly. And then we put it together created protect, and been doing roofing ever since. I love that.
Mia O’Neill 34:10
And one thing that he was kind of saying so we were talking about this and it was really your thoughts. But if you’re just like if you are just totally, like totally authentically yourself, and you make these decisions, no matter if it’s good or bad for anyone else, it’s just you and like you’re honest and you live according to like what you feel is right intention to Yeah, like you’re not doing it to please anyone else. It’s just like what honestly feels good to you and what you feel is right. A lot of people it doesn’t align with right, and those people will move away from you. Which is awesome.
Alex Hoffman 34:43
In the moment. It can seem like a bad thing. It’s making way as we said for the people that need to be there. Yeah.
Mia O’Neill 34:50
creating space for what is right to come in. I love that.
Alex Hoffman 34:56
Yeah. So good perspective shift on people coming your way. Your life is yes. When you’re in a good place, people that are meant to be there. They’re the people that don’t remove themselves.
Mia O’Neill 35:07
And I love that so much. It’s so true. Like my favorite quote that I live by, is rejection is God’s redirection. Yeah. But it’s so good. And it’s so true. Like, I’ve had so many times in my life where I’m in relationships, or I’m in jobs or anything. And I just know, I’m like, some of these things are not right. And I’ll just pray and manifest. And it is insane. Like those people in those situations like literally removed themselves, and I’m just like, Well, that was easy to do. Just like happens, and you’re like, cool. Well, thanks.
Alex Hoffman 35:43
Sometimes we try and fight it like now I’m like, Yeah, no, this belongs or that belongs and we fight it. But the other day, we always find, like, yeah, sure, just let well enough alone, right?
Mia O’Neill 35:55
Seriously, I’ve I’ve had enough of that, like, back in high school. In college, I had tons of people in my life, especially like that high school college age, like around like, 18 1920. So many friends where I was just holding on to that for dear life. Like, you’re my best friend. We were meant to be best friends. And like, no matter what went on, I just like refuse to believe that. Like, they weren’t right in my life. Until finally life like, this is one of the this is a great quote from one of Sam’s friends who spoke at our elite summit. I think his name’s Anthony. But he says like, either gives you feathers, bricks or trucks, like semi trucks. So it delivers a message with a feather first. You don’t listen, then it’s a brick. If you don’t listen, then it’s a semi truck. Which I love that. Yeah. Semi Truck, and then a train. Like, semi truck. And then like the train. Train game. You got a problem? Yeah, that’s true. Yeah. So I prefer feathers these days. Yeah, I started listening pretty quick. Yeah. As it happens, more and more intuition to especially like, it’s such a beautiful gift when something terrible happens in your life. Or like you lose someone you love so much. And then it like redirects you it’s like such a massive form of rejection. And then you get redirects, redirected, and then you realize how much better that path is for you. Exactly. It’s like life isn’t usually what you think it should be like, you have this idea of what it should be. But like, as you like, what you’re really like, need to become the person you need to become, yeah, to do the things you need to do to achieve the things you were here to achieve. Yeah,
Alex Hoffman 37:30
we try and do life for what we want. But then like life gives us what we need. And ends up being way better anyway. Like, yeah, you start running the really cool people. And you find out you don’t have to try. It doesn’t have to be a struggle. It doesn’t have to be so hard. Yeah, you can you can flow and achieve the same things and meet people and surround yourself with so many Yeah,
Mia O’Neill 37:52
yeah. And it just feels so good. When you do get into like a good flow of life. And like, like, even like the hard times, like the worst things you’ve ever been through is like, dang, like how strong I am? Yeah, like, look what I’m capable. And like, if I can handle that, like you, I’m sure you feel that way. Like anything happens with prototype, you’re like, well, I’ve been through worse Exactly.
Alex Hoffman 38:12
There’s really nothing like, you know, I’ve been through the experience we just talked about two years ago, I lost my dad, and I didn’t have to turn to anything, you know, negative, I knew how to handle that situation. I was like, I was ready. But you know, life always is gonna throw stuff at it. But it’s how we respond is what’s going to be our experience. And that’s really what defines us, right? You focus on what you have control over, right, which is our response to everything external, which is out of our control. And the less we try and like change or control the outside like, and control what we can control. As far as our response, the better and easier it’s going to go. So true.
Mia O’Neill 38:51
And it really is like so incredible to witness your external world is a reflection of your internal state. thing. Another thing I just live by is so true. Like, like we said, life is near, like life everywhere on every angle. So when you’re so like, the people that show up in your life are there to teach you, right? teach you a lesson. And like, the things I love this too, like you can’t see in someone else, which you don’t possess in yourself, right? So it’s like, if something annoying that drives you crazy, it’s probably because it triggers something you don’t like about yourself. On the contrary, if you see something, you’re like, wow, they’re amazing. They’re this and all these things. It’s like, Well, guess what, like you have that in you? And it’s just like a inspiration to pull that out of you.
Alex Hoffman 39:30
Yeah, I agree. And when it comes to like, once again, relating this to business and sales is everything is so much easier when you have an understanding of that and then it’s not such a struggle or a fight to sell something or sell someone it’s just kind of you’re there providing your service. And then things go with it. You know, people deal with people they want to deal with and people don’t want to deal with negative people that kind of bask in that Yeah, whatever you got going on, it’s like true learn to let that go. And the success, the sales, all that things follow.
Mia O’Neill 40:09
So true. And like everyone says, I mean, sales really, it’s just a transfer of energy. And people don’t really buy what you do. It’s like who you are paid by the person that’s doing it. And that’s a big reason a lot of the guys on this podcast and in our industry have so much success, because they’re just charismatic, good, guys. And that’s easy to feel it’s easy to see. And like, it’s like, I don’t know, if I needed an air conditioner or new roof. But I like you and I want to work with you. I
Alex Hoffman 40:37
trust you. That’s what I’m in. But once again, like I’m living in a state of honesty and integrity, as well as it’s like, they don’t have to question it. I don’t have to question it. And I say there’s, there’s more honest money out there than there is dishonest money, they quickly catch on to that. And there’s plenty of wireless money out there. That goes to show with, you know, everything I’ve done as far as Awards Won, I’ve never had to lie to anybody or feel like I got over on somebody at all, just, you know, yeah. happened. So
Mia O’Neill 41:08
Oh, cool. So I guess, final question, just with like your story was in rehab that you just got sober, because now you’re years sober, right. Like how long, four and a half years,
Alex Hoffman 41:21
I haven’t drank or done any drugs or anything. So yeah, that’s four and a half years. But that decision, you know, it’s a tough one to make on your own, you know, so like, I had to be in like, solitary confinement to like, start, and then I had to be transferred into rehab, where they kept you accountable. So that transition isn’t an easy one to do, and you’re on your own. And sometimes you have to reach that, you know, low level, it sucks. But if if we can’t make that decision on our own, and truly understand it, and see the other side of it, and make it that, you know, 90 days where you start learning how to live without it, it’s tough, but that’s what I’m grateful for the experience to, you know, that I didn’t get to a point where things got worse or things like that. So for people out there that struggle with it, and they’re not at a point where, you know, they intuitively are deep down, they know, like, This isn’t good for me, or like, I need to make a change, and we can kind of rationalize ourselves out of it. But if you’re in that place, and you never hit that point where you’re forced to, that can be tough. So you know, you have to kind of try take a leap of faith, see, see what happens on the other side. And it’s scary, honestly, for someone that’s relied on that to feel comfortable, and feel happy and be okay. That’s some of the scariest things in the world. But that is scary. Overcoming that fear. And like in everything we do is, is also how we get to a place or grow, right? No matter what we’re doing. It’s so empowering, we go up to knock on that door. And it’s, you know, we got those butterflies or whether you decide that anxiety stopped drinking or make a big change or start working out.
Mia O’Neill 42:59
Yeah. And I know for me personally, I’ve never been an alcoholic, but just kind of unsure with like depression and anxiety, different things. Like for me, I didn’t really feel in control, or like, it was up to me if I was going to need antidepressants or anti anxiety medicine again, until I really got my diet and exercise and meditation practice, like, locked in. And then I was like, Oh my gosh, like I’m in control. I can control these things. And like it is my diet and my exercise and my like mental well being that determines like my mental state. Yeah. So now it’s like I forget sometimes and I like eat crappy food and stuff. But then I remember like, after a few days of eating crappy food, I start to get anxious. It’s hard to get a little like, down feeling. I’m like, Oh my gosh, like my diet, my anti depressant medicines, whatever you’re consuming, whether that’s what you’re consuming, and like this, my lifestyle is my answer depression, or it is my medicine. So it’s not gonna be super empowering. I’m presenting, I
44:01
dealt with all that, like, while I was drinking my anxiety and depression were like, through the roof. And then like, as this transition started, the meditation started, the physical activity started, the reading started, is all that stuff kind of started to dissipate. And I felt okay. That’s so cool. Two, four and a half years later, here we are. We on pro tech, we have employees underneath us that love working for us and show up and help me every day and have people in my life that you know, helped me learn from I grow with and that would never, you know, want to get rid of them. They all didn’t come by me like, you know, fighting or, you know, trying to try and find people to be there. It all just kind of showed up. So that’s pretty cool. What happens when you start living in higher state
Mia O’Neill 44:48
is pretty cool. Pretty cool. So there you have it, anything else you wanted to add? That’s it.
Alex Hoffman 44:57
I hope whatever I said can help anybody and if you ever Have any questions for me? Feel free to reach out. I’m Alex Hoffman. And I can provide you advice or direct you in a place to where I can help. Yeah,
Mia O’Neill 45:10
I love that. And also one more thing. I heard about AI when the storm there’s actually a program called roofers in recovery. But it’s a nonprofit. And every single month, they have a fun that sends, like, I think it’s like two to four roofers to rehab. Because I know that that industry has a lot of issues with that. And a lot of people need help
Alex Hoffman 45:31
contracting. And generally, you kind of find a lot of it with people like that, and don’t have the knowledge or know the options to be able to kind of fix how they feel without it. So it’s true.
Mia O’Neill 45:41
Like, you’re not alone, there’s so many people going through this stuff. And there are, there is a light on the other side. Beautiful, beautiful things on the other side, as well. So that wraps it up for today. Please, I hope you enjoyed it, leave some comments, share it, if it was helpful to you or inspired you. Make sure to follow us at the DT or it’s at D to the experts on Instagram. We have a epic Facebook page. It’s called D dizzy tribe, with tons of people from all the industries will give you all sorts of knowledge and tips and tricks on so many things if you have questions, and then also follow at the Sam Taggart. And if you guys have any questions or want to like check out our events or what services we offer, please go head to our website, www dot the D to D experts.com. is so many things coming up and check out the tour. It’s coming to a state near you. It’s going to be so epic and so incredible. Highly recommend that. Yeah, me too. Let’s do that. See? Well, that’s all guys. Have a good one. Peace out.
