Ad 00:06
What’s up everybody? Hey, this is Sean Bingham with Adventure Hunt. I am happy to be on the podcast. Sam had me on once before we do the really fun teambuilding events and corporate retreats. So when you’re doing, like your sales incentive trips for you guys, we do an absolutely epic trip to Panama, Bocas Del Toro, which is on the Caribbean side of scuba diving zip lining, five-star luxury resort. It’s absolutely incredible. We were on Shark Tank. We’d love to have you guys check us out www.adventurehunt.com. You can also email me sean@adventurehunt.com.
Sam Taggart 00:37
Hey, everybody, this is Sam Taggart and I’m here with Robert Owens, and we are here in Newport area. And we’re doing this live, literally Robert, I’ve already been excited like off camera. It’s so funny like half the time when I do this podcast. I’m like, oh, shoot, we should have recorded the last 30 minutes. That’s a lot of common friends but he is the oldest to do, I guess you have a couple elderly citizen discount. Yeah, I was like, Hey, listen.
Robert Owens 01:11
I’m 63. It is disrespecting.
Sam Taggart 01:17
It’s gonna be great. So how do you say that you’re the oldest person to run a lot of different cool races. I mean, you’ve been in leadership training. I don’t I like I didn’t know how to intro you’ve done the spark.
Robert Owens 01:28
Here’s the fun part. Yeah, this isn’t true. But Joe de Sena, the founder of Spartan games, declared that I just bought Chuck on a podcast at Dodger Stadium, Spartan games, that I was the fittest and mentally toughest 66 year old in the world.
Sam Taggart 01:43
There you go.
Robert Owens 01:47
He goes Joe, Joe. Joe. He goes, dude, you’re stupid. There’s 20 year olds that shouldn’t do it.
Sam Taggart 01:53
Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to get out. Like, oh my god, you say that?
Robert Owens 01:56
So like so I say, but I coach 20 year olds and so I gotta be in the game. You know? They’ll call me old.
Sam Taggart 02:01
Yeah, so I don’t want to use that word.
Robert Owens 02:03
But I like the elderly.
Sam Taggart 02:05
I’m like wise the age and have a good life experience. And there you go. The most experienced, that’s probably a better term. So guys, he is ran the seven and seven. So seven marathons in seven days in seven continents. The Sparta was like 230 some miles 238 and eight days 230 miles and eight days. He is that ironmans you’ve done the the cocora of the 12 Iron Man’s 12 vironment but the hardest was this Navy SEAL seal fit thing. Okay,
Robert Owens 02:38
Seal for puts on an event, a 12 hour non stop CrossFit Games, a 24 hour and then the big dog is called Kokoro. And it’s 50 hours non-stop
Sam Taggart 02:49
All back to back or the core is just one thing. That’s an event. Okay, so you did the Korea which is a 50 hour non stop event which is a consisting of what
Robert Owens 02:58
It’s all CrossFit game stuff, but in and out of the ocean. So it’s all your air squats, or lunges and your crabs and your everything done in soft sand and wet. They keep your wet night for the buds training desert. And it’s a but it was designed for those guys that want to be navy seals.
Sam Taggart 03:15
And then like Hartman’s much harder than the badam, isn’t it? No, what
Robert Owens 03:19
happened was, Commander Mark Devine was asked by the Navy SEAL commander, Mark Devine was asked by the Navy here, if he would do a pre Navy SEAL course to help guys get ready for what they’re going to go into. And so for 10 years, he was assigned by the Navy to say, put the course together that will get these guys because we’re losing too many guys. And you had a 95% rate that if you could get through marks
Sam Taggart 03:47
50 you’re probably gonna pass but
Robert Owens 03:48
You’re probably gonna pass because psychologically, you didn’t this fun. The kids usually break at the 50 hour mark. Interesting. If they can make it pass. This starts Sunday night at five o’clock. And if you can get to Wednesday night, and you’re still in the game. They do stuff your Wednesday night. You’ll probably make it Friday. So they have a psychological barrier at a certain place of being cold and wet, broken. All that. That can they’re yelling at
Sam Taggart 04:17
you. They’re they’re beating you down mentally. That’s a whole other conversation. Yeah. So So I guess, and we’ll dive into this. So in this podcast, guys, this is exciting.
Robert Owens 04:29
So this is an elderly podcast. It’s been gracious. Yeah. Allow me to hang with him.
Sam Taggart 04:34
No guys, I ran my first marathon Saturday. So this is what’s so cool. Like, I am like, more excited because I can appreciate like, there’s one thing when somebody says seven marathons in seven days, like oh, that’s really cool. Go run an F and marathon and then told me to wake up the next morning and run a marathon. I was telling him I was like, I did it back to back marathon. The first marathon was 26 miles. The second marathon was 26 episodes of all America. Sunday. Well my legs. Yeah, like my mind. I’m like, I woke up. And this is me on Sunday. This is literally I wake up. I was like, Hey, I go to the bathroom, I roll over, my legs didn’t roll over with me. I was like, oh, where my legs go. And they felt like 300 pound rocks. Like I was like, COVID can’t move. So I can appreciate to a very microscopic level. You know, I’ve never done the hour endurance thing or a 230 mile or like, that’s like, we’re talking a 66 year old David Goggins people like this is like, you and David run in. It’s like, what actually
Robert Owens 05:36
When I go sweet, occasionally I get introduced as an old guy
Sam Taggart 05:42
No, you are the elderly. Yeah, you’re like, oh, David
Robert Owens 05:48
Davis, my hero. Now I watch all of this stuff. And I just go, I want to be like, David, my wife goes, “you’re 25 years older than me”.
Sam Taggart 05:55
Yeah, can’t hurt me. No, I love it. So obviously, there’s got to be some crossover there. You know, doing the sill fit and doing some of the you know, Navy SEAL type training. You were in the rescue pair rescue when I was an Air Force Special airfares, Special Ops, which is explained kind of what that means. Because a lot of people probably don’t know what that is. I didn’t
Robert Owens 06:19
know what that meant. Army, Navy, Marines are office. Yep, we’re defense. When they get hurt, they call us and we can rescue and get them out. Okay. On our baray it says that others may live. So our mental beat down is will you ever quit on your man and say driving in the ground, to see if you’ll ever quit on rescuing someone because they’re putting their life in your hands that you’re going to show up. And you’ll never ever give up. You’d rather die than come out without your man, but others may live. And so because it can be very easy to get selfish or buckle and be like, I’m not going into the fire to say that dude.
Sam Taggart 07:00
And you know, I mean, like, it’s Oh, that’s got to be super mentally trained into you to like one. Yeah, like, that’s a whole nother mental game. Man. I’ve got so many tangents. I’m like, my brain is going down. I’m excited for this. We’re gonna I’m gonna ask a lot of your questions. So keep going. Keep going.
Robert Owens 07:17
Anyway, so most people don’t know about pararescue. We’re called the silent heroes, because we get in and get out and they get all the newspaper clippings and all the stuff. But when you’re around Navy SEALs or Rangers and stuff, and somebody says, What’s a pair of rescue? I’ll go ask him. He’s the guy that saves my life. Oh, yeah. He’s the man. Because when our medics are shot, they can’t do half of what these guys do. So we just put our life in their hands that have we’re in trouble. We called her rescue couldn’t guess. So we’re always going into firefights and stuff, saying, what’s the issue? What’s the problem? Who’s hurt? How many are hurt. And I hope all of you out there watching this. There’s a movie you need to watch. It’s called last full measure. last full measure. Abraham Lincoln said, the Gettysburg Address. The greatest thing a man can do for his brother is give his last full measure give us life. Oh, like that. And so there’s a movie that just came out with Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Plummer, and some other guys. And it’s our Air Force, Medal of Honor winner. So the Navy has been a lot of winners like Michael Murphy from the lone survivor. Our Medal of Honor is a guy named pitsenbarger. And he was called in to save an ambushed army unit in Vietnam. So their medic got shot, that no one around there ambush 500 to 120. And they said somebody comes saves. So they called this one PJ and the Lord Himself on a rope because
Sam Taggart 08:55
you guys are solo. You’re like we’re so you’re one man bands. That’s what’s cool about that. So this guy gets loaded on rope
Robert Owens 09:01
And gunfire everywhere. And he saves all these men’s lives. And that helicopter keeps saying, “Come up, come up”. They’re closing in on you the outcome. And he says, No, he saves all these army guys. He goes out and drags guys in and then he gets shot fighting. That was the medic who just
Sam Taggart 09:20
ruined the end of the story.
Robert Owens 09:22
But the point is, is that he didn’t know any of their names. It never met any of them. He just came down and said, I’ll take over and he took over. And all these army guys said whatever you say, because he just came in and took over and they just got baskets. He got baskets, baskets. So finally, digit ttttt violated and so they all went home. And they lobbied that he had the Medal of Honor, because that he saved their lives. And for 32 years, there was a political thing on Did this guy get the Medal of Honor? Anyway, Clinton finally gave the Medal of Honor to his parents. And it was 32 years after he gave his life. And the whole room was filled with army guys. Look at this Air Force guy and say, he’s the man and worlds and and then what’s really neat is the credits at the very end, the different army guys that are now in their 90s. They this is what he did for me, this is what he did for me was that we saved my life. And you start crying. I mean, the whole whole audience like oh, my God, you know, I made my five kids go. And they would, that that rocked me. My daughter said she couldn’t talk for three hours after the movie. She just said car
Sam Taggart 10:42
probably gave her a lot more appreciation for what he did. Like, here’s an eye into my world. Yeah, we’re not talking about like it’s navy seal, or a Green Beret. Right? Interesting.
Robert Owens 10:52
So it’s a fun, it’s a different personality. I was a beach lifeguard in high school, and ski patrol, you know, so I’ve always sort of been rescuing and blah, blah, blah. But they say, you know, you want to go to the big leagues in rescue. Yeah, like what? Come with us? What are we doing? parachute and mountain climbing, scuba diving, you are going to be trained to rescue anybody, anywhere in the world. So it’s desert, mountain, ocean, Arctic, trees, urban. Wherever a pilot can get shot down. You got to go get them anywhere in the world, or one of the combat units is in trouble. You’d have to have all of the survival schools of Arctic and desert and ocean.
Sam Taggart 11:35
That’s cool. That’s fine. And then
Robert Owens 11:36
You parachute into your guys. Take your drugs, your knives and stuff cut and so get them on a helicopter or whatever getting it. I pull guys out on dog sleds up in Alaska, you know, 20 below zero. Just just any place that got me in trouble. You just go fix it, find them fix it, and just fine because you feel good with you. Sounds like
Sam Taggart 11:55
I hope to never need you but I’ve razoring one time, and I felt like I was like what happens if I flub this clip? Like, I can’t just like pull my razor out and I’m done screw the other day, like I was like, this is probably gonna be I need to get helicoptered out of here. Probably if I make one wrong turn anyway. But yeah, there’s probably a lot of moments where you want to hear one. Yeah, yeah. I’m curious. That one taking bodies
Robert Owens 12:18
Off not the kid, right. And there’s a guy. There’s a guy that’s real famous because he hiked Mount McKinley, Denali,
Sam Taggart 12:25
And not one of the most dangerous isn’t that a harder SK to Mount McKinley Mount McKinley is a tough one isn’t.
Robert Owens 12:32
It’s the biggest one in the Western Hemisphere. It’s 20,300 feet, okay, but what makes it hard as it makes its own weather. And you never know, it can be clear blue sky, and then three hours later to blah snowstorm. So you never know what you’re hiking into. This guy jumped up, or climbed up and took a hang glider and jumped off the summit, and went all the way down. So he became Mr. Alaska. He was always famous guy, Alaska. And so I get a call on Sunday afternoon. You know, hey, there’s there’s a medic blah, blah, blah. And I said, Where is it? An army will tell us blah, blah. So anyway, they put me in a helicopter and I go over this cliff and I looked down, I see this, this deal. He was in the bushes. And what had happened was is he had jumped on a Sunday afternoon on his hang glider. But he had a downdraft that took him upside down to take you back into the cliff. Oh, and they slid down the face of the cliff all the way to the bushes down below. And so I got a chopper and lowered, lowered down you don’t crawl my way through the bushes stuff got this guy. And he was he looked dead. I mean, you look like blue, purple and bloated or broken neck and all this stuff. And I get up there and I get to him, you know, and I I say to him, all it’s good. We’re ready to get out of here.
Sam Taggart 13:47
Because you’ve got to play the whole, like, let me call them they’re probably in shock, like,
13:52
and so he looked at me said, and I said, No, you’re not. You’re gonna you’re going to defy radios, your helicopters right there. Let’s get you fixed as you do basket, this stuff he goes. And then he just went crap, he just died. And so I begged him over and I gave him out the mouth. And he threw a ball, his blood, my mouth, oh, broken back. And he just went, Oh, no. And I gave him CPR, mouth to mouth and he was gone. And he was the most famous hang glider in Alaska. But that Sunday afternoon was not his day. You know, any day something could happen. But I remember just this blood all over me. And I just went, I like this. This is not what I wanted to do to Sunday afternoon. And it just, it hurt me that this guy was so such a legend. And he had to die that Sunday afternoon. But he had a downdraft. And on any given day, you never know what’s gonna happen in life. Yeah, but yeah, you have stories like that all the time with things and so let’s dive into the principles obviously
Sam Taggart 14:58
over this paradise. You, and then you work for john Maxwell for 10 years and help coach leadership, you had a 20 year television show of leadership training you’ve done speaking and book writing, you’ve wrote the book, beyond average, and you know, author and you’ve obviously pushed yourself still pushing yourself at the age of 65. I think a lot of 6566 year olds are probably sitting there going, I’m retiring from trying to grind, you know what I mean? Physical mental business, whatever that is, I think I look at a lot of people and they’re like, I did my time. It’s now time to play some golf. And it sounds like you’re just finding your edge. It’s like, what’s my new edge? What’s my new edge? What’s my beyond average? 66 year old version of me. And I think everybody has their version of them. That’s their edge. Right? And so I’m, I have like, a million directions I could take. Yeah, that. So let’s, let’s, let’s take this elder here. Yes. You have a dog in a cage. Like I’ve got a ball. Now so here’s the question. Let’s Let’s slow this back. Being a Perrier rescuer. What were some of that, like when you say I took over, and I came in as the rescuer. I look at that as like a life principle in a lot of different ways. Where in the life, we probably need rescuing, who are some rescuers that you see as important. You know, people or situations that you’re noticing and leadership to maybe somebody is not reaching their full potential or struggling like what like, give it like, how do you tie your pair rescuing to like, where do you see that show up in business and sales in life and like, you know, like, got it. So
Robert Owens 16:44
when I was here in Newport going to Orange Coast College, I was getting a master’s degree and irresponsibility. surfing, skiing, partying, just as fun, you know, in the early 20s. But I admired these pair rescue guys who were also reservists out here, Air Force Reserve Bank, but they were lifeguards. They were cut above. They walk different, they look different, their stature. And I was just looking to say, What did what did you get that? And they’d say, pm pair rescue? I went what they do you just grow up? You won’t be one? I will know.
Sam Taggart 17:27
Yeah, you don’t know if you’re ready to grow up. And I think that’s where a lot of people are like, hey, I want to make $100,000 I want to make a million dollars or whatever that is. And then if somebody is making a million bucks, that’s like, do you really want to make a million dollars? Do you really want to make six figures? Like, do you want to, you got to grow up
Robert Owens 17:43
Years of thought, your charisma and talent can take you places that your character can’t keep you there
Sam Taggart 17:49
you go, lava get jam on that go, I love this. Well,
Robert Owens 17:54
Everybody’s got issues. And the guy that says he doesn’t have issues is a liar. Yeah, there’s no perfect guy. There’s no perfect family. Everybody comes in this life with stuff. Poor, rich, educated, poor self worth. The blob, big brother beat me up or, you know, we all come in with our stuff. And what we do as we play the peacock and go, like a hot em, yeah. And we Bluff, fake it till you make it, we bluff that we’re good. But the guys that are really mature, are not afraid to say I need help. When we work with navy seals, a range of stuff. We say with PTSD, ask for help. But those guys can’t ask for help. Because they can’t show weakness. So they drink or do whatever they do, because they’re not going to let anybody define them. And we say to them, if you were mature, you wouldn’t be insecure. you’d ask for help. Because mature men not as immature men don’t. So I have ingrained in me that I always needed a mentor. But it wasn’t weakness. It was smartlist to go find somebody who can help you and not have to make all the mistakes. They’ve asked me to mistakes I don’t want to do I don’t have to make them and learn it. Or can I watch somebody else make them and learned? Yes. And so when I wanted to grow leaders, I mean, anyway, I got in the Air Force and they grew me up. And they made me responsible. But my Sergeant says to me one day, you know, I’m hiding in the background, keep my eyes down, you know, stay out of his way, you know? Because he wanted to crush me and kick my butt. And he knew and I knew it. He told everybody how to crush it all one word.
19:50
And one day he called me to his office. He
Robert Owens 19:52
Says, You sit down at a desk and he’s got a big wad in his mouth chew you know, Copenhagen. No was leaf And he’s sitting there you know, what is World War Two? Oh wouldn’t bear thanks. I can expand attention you know, scared to death. What am I doing this office? How to screw up on what that half yeah sergeant. Glad to be here sorry. And he spits into his cup. He slides up around his desk walks slowly up to me. I’m 23 he’s like 45. And he spins into his cup again. And as this were this close, and then he moves in. And he puts his nose on my nose. Talk about invading your space. Yeah, you’re like,
Sam Taggart 20:45
you just crossed the line that Sergeant ought to do you know? Yeah. And he
Robert Owens 20:50
Just any breath net COVID his teeth, you know? Any goes? Oh, it’s too I own you yet. And I start crying. You know, hot tears to kind of hurt going down. Yeah. He told me. What do you want from me? He told us nose off me. spit in his cup. So I want you. He turned around with backwards death, sat down, spit this cup. He said, I want you to be the leader that you’re called to be? Why are you hiding? I said, not hiding sir, as like, I just tried to stay away. That’s all it is trying to keep my head down, stay in the game, you know, he goes, you’re responsible. You’re punk. You’re a leader. And I expect you to start leaving. Now tomorrow, this team is yours. And they’re your responsibility. And you’re going to take off and go to the pipeline. The pipeline is nine to 12 months of training. To scuba medical jumps by the by you go for classic. When I was at Hill Air Force Base. That was my medical school. Anyway said, the next nine months, these guys are yours. If I hear that one of them gets in trouble. And I knew these guys, these were wild guys. If one of these guys gets in trouble, I’m going to have your apps you understand? I’m going to fly to where you are. I’m going to have your ass. They’re standing. Yeah, sir. He says don’t get out of here. They’re yours grow up. In one second. I grew up. It’s crazy how fast that can happen to. And I didn’t want to grow up. I want to be a leader. I want to hang with my dope spoken friends, my party friends, whatever friends and all sudden, you have responsibility. And when that happens for me, and maybe something like that could happen, or hopefully not like that to your listeners. I just became a different guy.
Sam Taggart 22:55
But the nice happened to a lot of listeners and he’s have know, me and I think everybody needs to have those conversations more often. I honestly think too many people walk around with their head down going, I hope I’m just trying to fit in, I’m trying to, you know, not get kicked out like you know, I mean, they’re just trying to like, play suit like you were showing up prior to that conversation. That’s right. And somebody the sergeant wherever your Sergeant is, should have that conversation with you. And I am so
Robert Owens 23:20
Fortunate that a man’s stepped into my life. And just took control and said, grow up and I had to grow up. And this guy is known for raising hundreds of guys like me. He was the Commandant of the school. And he was known as the shaper of men.
Sam Taggart 23:36
That’s awesome name who don’t put that in your obituary.
Robert Owens 23:40
So I get out. I I’m trying to grow people. And I read a Maxwell book. And I go, where did he get this? And back then it was I forgot your day or something. But he he just wrote written develop the leader within you. And he was in San Diego. So I just hopped on a plane and flew to San Diego. I said, I’d like to have lunch with john Maxwell pay him $100 to to eat lunch with me because that’s what he had done. He wrote the book previously. And so I said maybe this will get attention. I’ll pay 100 bucks to the Secretary for this guy flying from Reno to on a 728 years old, my nine years old. And john took it took me up on it. So who is this kid? So he said, I want to eat here and pick me up above. We spent two and a half hours. Of course he didn’t take the 100 bucks. And he said, Why don’t you just flat out or let them be with me? Well, I said, I will do it. And I started spending time and I said Teach me everything you have because I’m trying to work in a city with guys that don’t have a lot of character. And I have a tough time getting them to produce and stay stable. And he said sure. And then the awkward part was he said I want you to Where you’re working to come work for me. And I said, I can’t I’ve made a commitment all these people that I’m going to stay, I just can’t bail on everything I told him to come run with you. And he said, Well think about it I never want to work for. And he said that you can travel with me. So we started traveling around the country, and I handle his book table or I do this, we do that this and that. Anyway, those 10 years of finding a mentor and saying, I want what you have going down, unasked. You kind of have some some gumption. You know, I want this, you got something though. I want that I’m going to get it. Yeah. Anyway, that worked out and I had another mentor that I went after. And those guys always said, You should have someone under you that your your mentoring, you should always have somebody overview that are mentoring. So you can stay in that lane. And it’s not weakness to ask for help love them. So that when I got to my kids, you know, I, my dad didn’t teach me a lot about money. And so I found a guy that was really prosperous, and money. So would you mentor me? Can we have lunch once a month and use mentoring? And tell me about money? Tell me about stocks and bonds and all kinds of you know, accounts, just not? Sure. Now, if another guy said, You have really good kids, would you mentor me on how to have a good family? He said, Sure, who’s vice president University. And he said that stock. So every month he gave me a book, he gave me a salon work assignment, I do it this way. His son was a doctor, a lawyer and an attorney, Doctor, attorney and dentist, crate family. And I said my wife, we’re gonna have great kids, I don’t know how to do it. But I’m going to get it we’re going to find a mentor. That’s awesome. So we find that the guys that can’t ask for help, who can’t show humility, who are not teachable? Who are always acting like they’re hot? They need to grow up. And it may be their day, it may not be their day, do you find
Sam Taggart 26:59
that that like when because now you mentor? You know, in the Air Force, you find the same Antonio and still are involved in this whole training process of these young new candidates, right? Do you find that it’s a transfer? That’s an actual quality look for when you’re kind of sifting through candidates? And those are going to make what’s that coachability it’s that humbleness or humility to? Like, you know, I mean, did you see that that’s a common thing. Even in some of your students, you
27:29
ill have a class of 150 or four Special Warfare guys. And I’ll go in maybe in the past on the separate week, because they’re scared to death the first week, but only thing they won’t remember, the second week, they’re settling into an eight week thing. And I’ll come towards the end maybe to see how they’re done. And you know, it’s sad because they don’t understand how they’re perceived by their, their own class. And I had two young guys that were just yappy just all the time, you know, hey, you know, so one guy comes over and sits next to me at breakfast 430 in the morning. And he says, Do you think it saved me? I said, I said to him, you know, you got a little bit complex.
28:16
And you’re mouthy. And you’re the kind of person I would not want to be deployed with.
Robert Owens 28:21
You know, your buddy over here, you’re Cuban, from Miami, and you know, your Rhode Island, Roman Catholic guy, he’s happy to. And all of a sudden, so you go here, you to, you need to grow up. I like you. I love you. I’m for you. But I’m just telling you, you talk too much. And you don’t serve anybody else. You’re taker, you’re a taker. Come to find out, they have to go through that whole thing. And then they go into an assessment and the assessments 18 straight days of work, guys with black, or sunglasses have clipboards and they just assess 8,10, 12,15 hours a day, these guys, the instructors put them through it. And I bet you guys sit there just assessing Wow. And then they do 360 reviews on and they say to these kids, maybe they’re 30 left, who do want to be deployed with get the top five guys won’t be deployed with a good question. Who are the top or the bottom five guys who don’t want to be deployed with?
Sam Taggart 29:22
What a good question. And
Robert Owens 29:27
The class couple classes go, I want to there were 15 guys who’d done everything physically, everything physically, but they were not allowed to continue. Because
Sam Taggart 29:42
So, because I like that peer. I like this. I like this peer assessment. So if I’m like a sales team, right, so we deal with sales guys and sales teams, and there might be teams of five there might be teams of 20 3060 and 70 main teams That would be an interesting, silent vote or silent, anonymous submit your names, activity. You know what I mean? It’s like, hey, if you had your dream five like that, you’re going to go into a sales competition with pick your five. Or if you had your people you had to go break off and start your own team with, who would they be? Who would be the not? And I think it’d be, and why maybe even have them describe? Explain why you choose these kind of people? Like, is it their leadership, their tenacity? Is it their loyalty? Is it their sales ability is that their you know, and I think that that’s like a that’s an interesting feedback exercise, you can have a piece of paper, check the boxes, I’m gonna stick in here, I’m gonna stick and do this with my mastermind group like we did I take a bunch of CEOs to Costa Rica in a couple of weeks. And we’re supposed to be there like couple weeks ago, but stupid COVID? How many do that exercise? Because I think it’s a very interesting feedback. Yeah, keep going. I like
Robert Owens 30:56
With type a CEO types. Yeah. When these kids don’t get picked up, they said, Well, you mean, well, nobody wants you, you have to go back to the bigger Air Force. The sad part was, they didn’t know that the whole time. They were working out with these guys, that they were being tolerated. They felt will buddies. But there’ll be tolerated. And there’s a lot of bosses that are tolerated. You’re one of the guys, but they’re being tolerated. And there’s nothing worse to have a group of people go, we tolerated you. We don’t want to be with you anymore if we don’t have to. And those guys don’t even don’t even see it coming. Because they’re so they’re so into themselves. Yeah, team. They’re not team guys.
Sam Taggart 31:40
Oh, and when you’re the leader of that, or you’re the CEO, and that hits you, what a good reflection. You know, if you’re listening to this, I want you to ask yourself, yeah, you can’t you can’t ask yourself, you can’t give yourself that feedback. There’s no way you have to have somebody from the outside perspective, play ball with you, then give you the feedback of I don’t want to keep playing ball with you. Like you don’t I mean, but most of the time they tolerate it because it’s either they’re employed by them, or, and they’re too afraid to go somewhere else, because they’re worried about trying to get employed somewhere else. And they’re just stuck. They’re just like, yeah, I’m tolerating is the best word. I love that I literally wrote that down.
Robert Owens 32:21
There was a, there was an article out, is your boss a jerk? Yeah. So they listed what jerk bosses are like, You know, these guys are going well, that’s not me. Yeah. And then somebody goes, No, this article was written about to you. But I’m in the corner office, and I make the money. I’m the gun and of stud Look at me.
Sam Taggart 32:44
Interesting, I’m doing this. So if you’re in the circle, and you’re watching this, it’s coming. I’m sorry. Yeah, I want to do so I actually want to do some challenges that almost create team activity. So you know, this is an interesting one, we’re gonna shift gears a little bit, and then I have another we’re gonna shift back to the school Super wildtangent. Just follow me for a second. With a lot of these managers and owners always have the idea of like, I love doing team building activities. I like doing, you know, things that challenge us and build unity and build camaraderie like, you know, what, what are some cool activities that you’ve done leadership courses to, you know, army stuff to even like, what are what are activities or exercises that have created good unity, good team, building good mental toughness type things that maybe some of these companies could do as exercise activities to kind of create that as any cool ones that you’ve seen implemented in the business?
Robert Owens 33:38
You know, when I get when I get hired to go in, to a company, I my questions are, What’s your goal? What’s your timeframe? What’s your budget? Can you do it with these people? What changes need to happen for this to happen? And then they tell you all that stuff. Yeah. Leadership always tells you something different than management. Okay? Because they see the world differently. Yeah. And the employees see everything as the end of the tail has been whipped around by these guys. And more times than not, when I get into this thing, they say what the hell’s wrong with my company? And they’re looking at middle management and the normal Kaveri workers. The problem is the leader. And so we do team building on be anonymous your what is the one thing you always want to tell someone that you didn’t do it? And we do. be anonymous here. You frontline workers, what do you dislike about management the most? And we ask questions like that, that open up automaticity authenticity and the leader has to sign off I’m going to do that. Because he doesn’t, he just wants to do their job. And he’s the problem. Because everything that the leader models magnifies. And there’s no humility, no honesty, no teachability, no could contrite, this is all about me and my vision and my stuff and yours, you should worship Me and my, my upper group who you think you are, you’re always going to have two cultures, the spoken culture and the real culture. And the real culture is always what really is going on behind the scenes.
Sam Taggart 35:34
I love that I literally just did a training for this company on culture. And I was like, culture is such an overused word. But there’s an unspoken there’s this real culture, that me as an outsider coming into your company can fill in essence that’s given off through the organization as a whole. So if what you want that you can say we are this, we’re integrity, we’re hard workers. We’re not like, I can be recovered and have the people who show up on time. Like, I’m like, What are you talking about? Like, there’s a smell, like you said that all sniff out fast. And it’s, it’s interesting, you’re saying this, because it’s like you asking these hard questions and saying, being anonymous being 100% authentic, and you’re the leader, you’re the one paying for these trainings, you’re the one that’s asking for it. So if you can’t take it, then obviously, you’re not a good leader, like you got to be willing to be able to accept the feedback, and then do something about it with that feedback.
Robert Owens 36:24
I’ve seen guys just break down crying. Making seven figures, because they thought it was cold. But they’re tolerated. Wow. And nobody wants to be targeted.
Sam Taggart 36:35
Wow. So let’s shift gears a little bit on that. Okay, so let’s go down to the sales rep who just beat the leader, you’re listening. You’re the owner, you just got smacked in the face. Now we’re gonna smack the sales guy in the face. The Army Air Force, right. So you’re doing these buds training? You did this kuroko What is it called? Cora Cora close. They’re yelling at you for 50 hours trying to break you mentally. Door to Door sales and direct sales. I look at that as like, you are literally getting broken mentally by the consumer. hour after day after door after door you’re getting rejection. And and I think that there’s this, you know, I’m interviewing for a sales sales rep. Right? And half the time are you like, that guy like, looks good on the outside. I can’t test his mental toughness right there, which I care like, dude, you’re a smooth talker out the wazoo. You look the part. You You’re very sociable. But I don’t know if you’re going to be any good in the field. Because when you go to have to get your face kicked in door after door after door. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re gonna be good in this job. Like, yeah, you can talk to me all day, because I’m not the one yelling at you telling you No. So like, I’m curious. The correlation between sales and mental mental toughness? And, you know, how did how do you assess somebody’s mental toughness would be my first let me Let’s go question by question. As you’re interviewing somebody, for a candidate for a position from the Air Force or whatever, how do you really test somebody’s mental toughness, when you’re just sitting there like him? The only thing that produces is pressure. Okay, so you’ve got to put them in a pressure situation. So even in like an interview, it’s almost like do a roleplay or spontaneity or, or send them out there? Or, like something to say, interviews don’t tell you about the real person. Yeah, cuz I’m like, I could fake something for an hour. I mean, dating is like that. You date your girlfriend for three months. And she could be somebody totally, she’s not. Because she can put on a good first impression, like, you know, and that’s what I found in sales all the times. You’re like, dude, I just got this stud. And then
Robert Owens 38:35
it’s like, so in our world, all these guys are great into putting in a pressure in that pressure, they morph. They leak? Who really is inside there, because they can’t keep it in anymore. Because that person with the mental pain comes out. Yeah. And then we say, Are you a follower or a leader? And in that pressure, can you make decisions for your team to save their lives?
Sam Taggart 38:58
So can you can you create scenarios that pull that leakage out of them like to kind of sift out some of the phoneys? Like, is there certain things or tests or, or scenarios that you can put them in that is pretty quick. Like I can quickly identify like, Who’s gonna really be a man not like, it’s not supposed to be a man be a man but you know, they
39:20
can they can they handle the pressure that your group is producing? Yes. And for door to door. I ran for state legislature. I’m not going to 4000 doors.
Sam Taggart 39:32
He’s got a guy’s 30 tribe
Robert Owens 39:35
From May 30. to November 1. I walk six hours a day and knocked on doors as a Republican candidate. And had 2000 doors almost get slammed by face from the Democrats.
Sam Taggart 39:50
Just because I have. Yeah, you’re representing either party.
Robert Owens 39:54
and I had to know that I could go in there and say, say whatever you want to me. I want to get to know you. I want to know what you’re feeling. I wonder what you’re thinking. And when I won the election with the least amount of money. They said, How’d you do that? I said, because I had to enjoy having the door slammed in my face. I had to relish in. That’s interesting. One, how’s she feeling? probably have a bad day. Think about this, that dog was, you know, causing problems. They’ve been angry republicans all their lives because their parents, okay, and it was a game. I never took it personally like, and this is really hard. If you you
Sam Taggart 40:39
just ran seven marathons in seven gluconate. Like you’re mentally had gone through the wringer your whole life through them. No, no, no, listen, listen. Okay, so I’m,
Robert Owens 40:47
I’m not your stuff. That’s why the book is called average. Okay. Someone said to me, there’s more talent you than you think. And I went for self worth. I can’t, I’m raised in a menza family. My dad’s a Stanford Phi Beta Kappa undergrad, grad school 4.0. And I got to be his life. My mom four point out of UCLA, my sister’s four point USC, I’m going to adopt a kid, I don’t feel like if you compete with them, just didn’t feel like I had the mental. The conversations were a little bit above my head sometimes, you know. So I had I had issues. When someone said to me, you can do more, I said, back so he goes, if you’ll do what I say this was in high school, if you’ll do what I say hard work can beat better talent. And I’m going to prove to you group that you can smoke some of these other teams with lake water polo swimming, right down here at high school. But I was being coached by an Olympian that the story is said guys, a Hungarian Olympian, and it comes over here can’t speak English, and we wouldn’t have a coach. So we our school offers him a job. And he’s on the 1956 Hungarian Olympic team. And when they got done with Sydney, the Russians have invaded Hungary 1956. And all those people were told that they go back to Budapest, they’d be arrested. So as the boat pulled out of Sydney at night, with the whole all the teams, they all jumped ship and swung back and asked for asylum. The coaches players blog, and then they’ll spread out around the world. He came over here, got my high school. He couldn’t say, You idiot, you call me an idiot. He just, you know, but he said, You don’t understand. You can do this. We both and also we have two guys on the Olympic team from high school at five all Americans. I was around all this talent. I didn’t have the same talent. I was a three year swimmer. They’re all age group, guys. It started six years old, seven years old. Yeah, I came in late. He said, oh, let’s do it. I say I’m going to mind you. We’ll dig it out of you. When I got through that. I went Wow, I survived him. All my guys were all the guys were beach lifeguards. And I would be beach lifeguard because they’re all beach lifeguards, but I was too young, a 15 and a half. And up 16 I’ve lifeguard for the city of San Clemente. This is Newport. That’s honey. That’s all these beaches have guards. So I said, I’d like to see what it’s like to go do that. This will just go down. You’re too young, but it’s okay. And I said those guys are pool schoolers that are coming to try out. That’s different than a beach guy. A water guy ocean guy is different than a pool guy. So I said to my mom, she goes you’re not getting good grades. I said I’ll do anything. Take me down there and let me practice. And so she took the analogy surf the place I was going to try out get to know the tides, whitewater, bla bla bla all this stuff. Came that morning with 50 guys UC San Diego State UCLA, Junior College swimmers High School swimmers all show up on a cold morning. foggy we have speedos on no goggles, no fins can’t see the pier. It’s just cold. Three events, swim around the pier. And then run swim run and then a run swim Rusk rec picks up Yeah, I’m probably 140 pounds of 510 I’m not, I’m not your stud material in sophomore year. I’m the kind of guy he asked a girl out she says no. And the girls that you do ask out you don’t really want to go out with them. But they’re gonna say, yeah, I’m not your, you know, Mister whatever. So I go down in the morning, but I spent three months studying that thing. first race. I got a first second race. I got it first. And the third race I got a third. And I’m only 15 and a half. And I’m going to guess 20 to 23 year olds. And it’s just such a bizarre deal. They would clap for like Who’s he? You know, I get the popsicle stick back the other way. Hold on. So they call me inside your vehicle. Who or what’s the deal with you? And the older guards go. He’s from our high school. He’s, he’s one of us. Oh, you’re from an animal with kosher ban check. Yeah. What do you do? I said, I came to I trained. And I figured this thing out. And the tides have figured out to be the buoy though. advisor Faster, faster swimmers, blah, blah, blah. So okay, well, you’re too young. So that was on a Saturday on that next Thursday, they called me up and they said, Would you like to be a lifeguard? I said, I’m too young. We have gone to the city manager and got a waiver for you. We want you to come down to be a guard be with us. So I become the youngest lifeguard ever hired for the city of San Clemente. And there’s only one death that year is with me at the pier, have a kid bleed out, severs a ordered detail, I mean, my arms the same. When I got that, when I got that, when I ran back to my water polo team, guess what they’re all just like you, you are the epitome of what we teach her, which is, you can do more than you think you got 20 times more potential, you wouldn’t have the term back then. And they all celebrate everyone League, blah, blah. Our coach left what the Long Beach State became the head swim coach of Long Beach State, left there after making a national program with the University of Michigan, won national championship University. And now he’s a Hall of Fame US Olympic coach. So I saw him the other day at three. And I had lunch with him. And he goes, Oh, my God. And I go, because I like your book, man. I told you it was more new than you thought. You know, that’s 50 years later, you know. And he’s followed both he because he loved developing kids and pulling out of things, things that they didn’t think they could do when you put the pressure on. And he put pressure on you say you want it bad enough. You want to quit? Are you? Are you happy with a third place? Do you have to come to work out if you don’t want to get a second place? Yeah, just just say mediocre? Because you’re lazy, you’re weak.
Sam Taggart 47:07
At all awesome is
Robert Owens 47:09
the keyboard of your head. Take the longest angle bang on your head, you got what I do. He goes, don’t worry about it. Just swim and just play with your head. So when I got an you know, maybe a pair rescue and I’m average, and I got snakes in my head, I can’t do it. Just do what I say. One guy do what I say if you do this for five months, and we shut everything else out. And if you just focus, I’m telling you, you can do this thing. I said, Okay, no chips, no drinking the partying though. Anything. Eating, sleeping, working out. He wants to see my calluses every week. How much blood are in my hands. He says because they’re mentally break you. I’m thinking as I’m telling you this about door to door sales. So when I go in the same thing, they bring the pressure door to door sales is can you look at those folks like him if they still slam the stupid door? Yeah. And can you go believing that one out of 10 doors are gonna buy it. So you have to have a nine slam in your face? Yeah. So bring it.
Sam Taggart 48:17
Yeah. I love that. No, and
Robert Owens 48:21
it’s just once you get that mentality, then, you know, rejection is not a real bad thing. We just thrive on it.
Sam Taggart 48:28
When you have to condition yourself. I mean, there’s a whole team’s and and we’re out of time. But there’s a whole Keynesian of like, you know, to get to run seven marathons, zoom candidates in seven days or to do a 237 mile race, like there’s a conditioning level, physically and mentally that you have to keep breaking through. I mean, I run this marathon,
Robert Owens 48:50
You keep breaking through, which means it’s a lifelong learning. Yeah. mental pain, rejection, fear, and breaking through those things. And you know, you don’t go to one day, no, it’s a lifelong journey. You didn’t
Sam Taggart 49:03
wake up one morning and say, I’m going to go run a marathon like I like, it’s been fun going through this training for last four months, because four miles was the most I’ve ever ran in my life. And when I ran five, I’m like, man, I ran five miles, seven miles, eight miles, 10 miles, 20 miles, you know, I mean, it just kept getting more. And it’s like, now I look at like, I just ran 26 cents. Like, I never ran 20 miles tomorrow, like I could go run 15 miles like I just ran 26 Why can I run 15 that once it’s in your bank? Yeah, it’s in the bank. Now it’s like, you know, you can continue to move forward as long as you kind of keep conditioned. Right. And so I think that there’s a mental element to that for sure. And it’s your choice. Yeah,
Robert Owens 49:46
how much mental element you want to keep compounding. Yeah, because you know, if I could do one, I could probably do too. I do too. I could probably do three. I could string seven in a row. That’s weird thinking. No, it’s not You just get used to pushing the
Sam Taggart 50:01
envelope. Nothing’s too crazy. Yeah. And I just, if you’re listening to this, like, my challenge to you would be, you know, what do you want them to take away from this? Yeah, that’s what he says. So like, the the challenge or the takeaway would be threefold is if you’re a leader, one, you know, pay attention to like, are you? Are you being tolerated? Are you tolerating your people? Are you, you know, bringing the best out of people? I think that that’s like, are you Who are you mentoring and who is mentoring you? I think so many people, I, especially in our industry, do you guys making 200 grand, and I think they’re like the shows I said, I like guys make 60 grand, and they’re driving their beamers and they’re like, I’m the richest 21 year old kid I know. And I’m like, like, stop, like, you know what I mean? Like, you know, I just, I watched these egos get into our space, and it irks me, because I’m like, guys, stay humble. Like, find mentors, like be be the person who’s coachable, but then also not would be only a taker, because I get hit up all the time, right? Like people are like, saying, we have this, this and this, I’m like, What are you getting, like, offer something like that? And I’m not saying that has been me, I’m just saying like, like, there’s people out there that you should be serving, because it’s gonna let you sharpen your saw, but also be asking for help. And I love that. And then the next piece is like, just how you this whole mental toughness thing. Like, I think that there’s not a lot of consciousness around the toughness that the individual has, like, I think a lot of people are gone mentally tough, I work hard. I have integrity. I’m a, you know, maybe somebody that’s gonna be like, I’m not a hard worker. Like, you ever asked me like, how hard of a worker are you? Like, no, I’m definitely not a hard worker. Like, that’s not their initial response. Everybody’s gonna think there are everybody’s gonna, like, say they’re mentally tough. My question is, like, if they’re gonna put you in that Navy sales training, like maybe you’re physically fit, you’re not there physically. But I would say, can you make it mentally, so I can’t my body won’t let me right now. But my mind is staying sharp, my mind can take it. And I think those are the guys indoor sales, that when it’s like, you can suck at sales. But if your mind can take you through a full day’s worth of work and getting your face kicked in, and maybe blinking that whole day, making $0 and getting up the next day and doing it again and getting up the next day and doing it again, until maybe the day five, you’re like finally made a sale. Those are the guys are gonna make it. Where are the guys and you won’t know what to put them out exactly. Like, don’t shoot. talk’s cheap. So I yeah, anyway, so those are those are like just a few of my takeaways. I don’t know, if you have any, like one last little, like, quick little piece of advice to the audience. I mean, you You’re, you’re full of wisdom. And guys, if you go get his book, it’s called Beyond average. Where else can they find you? Like, is there a website website is just Robert Hamilton own stock calm, Robert Hamilton. owns.com. But
Robert Owens 52:46
but to your guys, I have people watch these things. And they actually contact me. Yeah. And I say What’s up, and I start these relationships with them. And like I told you, I mentor these different guys who montanan caucus, then I just go there sweet. They actually have the guts, the balls to reach out to reach out and talk to me. I will bite and there’s a lot of people that want to help people. You know, I’m thrilled that people want help. And so I think more people should ask for help 100% on
53:18
my last closing thought as this is a grandfather thing. We teach in the teams. This is a coin. And this coin has two sides hesitates.
53:33
The higher that the glass, the higher the beamers and the cars and the women in the stuff. The gold chains the posses the posturing, the higher the posturing on this side of the coin, always on the outside of the corn is the depth of the insecurity. So guys drive up to me with their beamers their stuff, they flash, they talk Hey, dude, if I go, Okay, we’ll see. Because it’s not hard to understand them because they have nothing on the inside. So they have to have all on the outside. I give them validation. I was with a guy that day, who’s a single dude was in a $14 million home in Beverly Hills. And I’m like, What are you? Like, what
Sam Taggart 54:24
do you mean a $14 million home by yourself? Like, you know, I mean, I’m just like, geez, like, you know, and I’m not calling him by his buying status. Yeah, I’m like, what, what he like what’s underneath? And and I think that’s interesting. Like, I’m always like, dude, I drove a kid totally the year or two ago. Like I could care less. I’m driving a Prius. Yeah. Like, I like you. Like when you should open their shoe. You’re like, I’ll put on my shoes as a kid. Like, I’ll take my shoes off because I’m like, I want you to understand people. Yeah, you know, it’s just like I got it. I see. 100 of you. So my, my question is, are you doing this job? To fill an insecurity with material things? Or are you doing this job to push your limit and say, what’s my inner potential? And this is just a cool vehicle to test that. You know, I mean, that’s what’s cool about sales. It’s like you literally have a measuring stick on. How big of a day can I get? How big of a week Can I get? It’s not about like, some people are like, oh, once I sold 10, I can go buy this. I’m like, No, no, I only do 10 just to I can say the 10. Like, that’s it. Like, I’m just playing a game just to get like what you’re doing with getting votes. It was like, I’m just trying to serve my customer, the hustle, play a game with myself to say, what’s my level? And that’s, you know, I was in the top point 01 percent of the industry and, you know, everybody asked, like, what did you do different and I was like, I didn’t look at the like, I just competed with myself at a different level. Like if I compete with everybody else, I would have been sucked into that pool. I just, I didn’t care about the cars ain’t care about was that as you see any tattoos on me. When you do 12 hour minutes, you’d only see an Iron Man tattoo. Interesting. Meaning like I did it like
56:09
Yeah, I was doing an Iron Man. Like I had an iron man on his chest and they had eight stars around it. I said, hey, did nine huh? He goes, I did. I got sweet. Congratulations. He looked at me. You know? What’s your to nothing? He goes for your what do you do all you
56:31
young
Robert Owens 56:32
or the elderly? And he goes, how many I said, have been 12 eight is what I said. But I don’t need tattoos. That’s awesome. Because I don’t need that doesn’t. That doesn’t validate me? Yeah, that’s not I don’t mean that. That isn’t me. Oh, it’s a whole nother podcast. Okay, we got to wrap up. There’s no, there’s no air force pair rescue. Yeah, nothing. Yeah, it’s not that isn’t me. I just thought I do. That’s not I’m bigger than that. I need you to buy, simmer,
Sam Taggart 57:08
simmer on that. Sleep on that. That’s a good
Robert Owens 57:10
one. Don’t be a fad. chaser and love that be contrary, there is going that way. Go this way in a nice way. Let them and then 10 years when that fads all over? You’ll still be sitting there going. That worked for you. Yeah. And the thing is, he was swinging this way. You watch him get fatty this way. All right. See a few years. You go down the middle like this. You don’t think you’re boring? And you go I don’t need to do what you do. I don’t need to drive what you drive. I don’t need to say I don’t need because you know who you are. You’ll just buy the tire the code the shoes the car. What do you
Sam Taggart 57:44
mean? Like we Yeah. Hello. Okay. You guys are awesome. Thanks for listening. If you got some value, go follow. Follow Robert omens. And listen, listen, but if you contact me, be kinda mad. Don’t call me elderly, please. Oh. I’m nervous and I don’t pick a fire at the end because I’m a marshmallow. I love it. Thank you guys for listening. And I appreciate you being on the show. Man. This was good. This was fun.
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