Ad 00:06
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Sam Taggart 00:19
What’s up guys, Sam Taggart here with the D2D podcast. And this podcast will be cool on leadership. And I had a client of ours in our elite mastermind coaching group, Dan Lilla stall who had reached out because he had been reading a John Maxwell book.
And if anybody had seen John Maxwell speak at D2DCon last year, and read any of his books, he talks about how he was really hungry to become the best leader possible. And in my opinion, he is one of the greatest leaders and written more leadership content than anyone in the history of leadership. And he would ask a lot of people, these sit down lunch interviews or call out leaders that he aspired to be. And he’d asked him five simple questions.
And so Dan reached out to me and said, Hey, will you help me with these same five questions I’m trying to, you know, he runs a roofing company, Minnesota, and, you know, he’s just aspiring to be a better business owner.
And so I figured in this podcast, I would dive into, you know, these five questions and just kind of answer these for everyone, not just Dan. But I’ll direct them to you, Dan, because I love you. And I, anyway, so like, I think of leadership is just such a journey to mastery.
Like, it’s never anybody’s like, I’ve made it, I am the ultimate leader. And you think of like the great leaders in the world, like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King and Gandhi, and, you know, Moses and Jesus, and, you know, you look at presidents and you look at religious leaders, you look at, you know, people that have even like Hitler, like, phenomenal leader, because he convinced so many people to do so many things that, you know, upon his command, and you’re like, well, he didn’t lead for the good, but he still had something saying leadership qualities. And so, what’s cool is we teach like a leadership bootcamp.
Every month, we host a business and leadership Boot Camp, where for two days, and this is where Dan came and really kind of interacted with us the most was, you know, for two days, we teach business systems and strategies on building teams and training systems and accountability and motivating and culture. And it’s something that I’m super passionate about. A lot of people see me as the door to door guy, but I’m like, no, no, I teach businesses way more than I teach single reps. Because if I can help the business owner and the leaders, they can then disseminate the information down to their people.
And it’s about, you know, leadership is what you do and how you show up. Not like, oh, I, you know, I give this to my people, because Sam is going to be the guy who’s going to teach them I’m like, No, I need to teach you to do it, so that you can then teach them and do the right things and show up for them the right way. So the first question is asked is, when did you first see yourself as a leader?
And you know, I played sports growing up and I thought about this question. And I was captain soccer team. I in high school, I was six men on the basketball team. So I moved from Park City to California after my freshman year. And that sophomore year, I put in a high school basketball team were in Fresno, we had like, over 3000 students at our high school was huge. And you definitely had taller, more athletic people than you did in Park City, a little ski town, Utah.
And it was fun, because I’ve always had this kind of like Coach mentality to the point where my basketball coach would get so mad, because I would always make suggestions. I’m like, why would we do this? And why would we? Why don’t we do it like this? Like what? And then he got to the point where he started calling me coach Sam.
And they made a hat for me that I would wear practices that literally said, Coach, Sam, Utah, I probably could find that somewhere. And just because it became the running joke as I love to kind of orchestrating and being like, Okay, you guys and you guys almost the point where I, I enjoyed that more than having to start having to be the all star player. I was good. I just wasn’t like the all star center that attention. I felt more excited about coaching and more excited about strategy more excited about doing things more efficiently.
And that’s when I started to kind of really realize like, Oh, I’m leader, and that same year, I started the government is what we call that business and I spray painted shirts and we I didn’t I don’t think I ever set up an LLC but I got about 11 of my friends convinced them all to go paint addresses on the curbs. So that’s why we call ourselves the government because we were always spending our time in the gutter.
And I would divvy out area I divvy out I had multiple stencil kits and and I managed the money and things like that I ran a little business and I found that as I could help other people make a lot of money I also started making a lot of money and I look at early days in, you know, my childhood, I’d host these cool epic skate parties, bring all my cousins and friends and we’d go rollerskating or, or skateboarding, skatepark, and I loved hosting events, I loved creating experiences, I loved being the loud one in the room.
And so that’s kind of what I mean thinking back to like, early days is when my dad would always say, Hey, you were born different than the rest of the kids. And you always would say, you’re meant to be a great leader. And, you know, I gotta get my dad props. And my mom is because they just, they almost like treated me different. I don’t know. Like, I’m not trying to throw anything on the other sibling of six siblings, but it was almost like they, they knew I was built differently. And I saw things differently. And they said, You’re destined to be a great leader.
And that that, to me, is probably almost like created this responsibility to say, Okay, I can’t let them down. And I need to live up to like, what God’s potential was for me on this earth. So the next, the next question is, what are some of the greatest challenges you faced as a leader now? And I continue to face challenges. It’s funny, because a lot of people think like, oh, you’re now like, the sit on the throne.
You’ve got all your team below you. But reality is, there’s so much more emotional turmoil that comes through leadership, then being the individual being the rep, being the solopreneur.
And you know, I was just studying the this book called the infinite Atonement, and it talked about Christ when he atone for our sins, He just brought a bigger cup, how did he was, then how did you hold up all the sins and all the turmoil and all the agony that every soul pre and post Christ had ever gone through. And as we elevate our consciousness, and as we expand our understanding, knowledge, spiritual, mental physical capacities, we are able to bear more burden of others.
Too often people can’t lead themselves, and they can’t, you know, they, they can’t seem to even withhold themselves were leaders that lead big tribes, big organizations, big teams, they’ve been able to withstand so much, individually. And with a small team than a big team, that a big organization, then a culture in their movement, that you look at, like the hardships become even harder, like the feeling the opposition, the goods, and the highs become even higher, because you have bigger stages, bigger audiences, bigger paydays.
And the lows become even lower. And that’s an important principle to understand when you think of the biggest challenges. So one that stood out a couple of stood out to me was when I would hire friends or people in my own network, you know, I was always scared, I’m like, I don’t want to hire a friend. And then it goes south. And sometimes it does, like sometimes they end up, end up having to fire him, and you’re like, hey, I love you as a human, but you suck as an employee.
And those are hard conversations to have. And I’m a avoid conflict natural tendency. And, you know, when you have to let go of key people that are you built relationships with, and you’ve had to make some hard judgment calls, and you have to look at simple data, and you’re like, Dude, it’s so cool having you around. But that doesn’t mean I need to write you a paycheck every every every week like that. We can still be friends on the weekends.
But I don’t need to fund your life for not producing the return and value. And then another one is bad ethics. I remember hiring certain people, where you would think they would see it as stealing when you advance them money. And you know, I remember paying this guy, 30,000 bucks, he came with all this promise, and I vetted it and it was legit. And then two weeks later, he quits. And you’re just like, well, I need my 30 grand back. And for some reason, he feels he’s justified to keep the $30,000 And you’re like, what, In what world? In what universe? Can you go to somebody take $30,000 off the shelf. And then two weeks later, be like, Ah, just kidding. And then keep the thing you know what I mean? Like there’s no fair transaction there. And that’s happened to me countless times. And that’s like, the ethics and standard in which people see and do business has been shocking and the deeper ingrained in companies and organizations in way people’s make decisions is greed.
Fear, there’s so much lack of responsibility, you know, people just saying like, yeah, it was my fault. I will own up to that. Here you go. And then there’s a lot of times where people just don’t own up to their own shit. It’s like, frustrating. And the third thing that I found is the greatest challenge is just Nobody gets you, when you’re alone, having a jam on emails that till midnight, or you’re, you know, dealing with like, people yelling and telling you you’re suck and businesses sucks, and this and the review of this, and there’s times where you’re just like, only I can feel this, and only I can take responsibility for this. And only I can fix this. So when you’re like, hey, I look to delegate as much as I can, as a leader, it’s like your time is your biggest currency.
And when you know, you have to spend certain time on money, or you have to spend certain time fixing a customer problem or complaint, or use, you know, you have to spend so much time on something. And you’re like, I wish I could call somebody and tell them to do it. Like, but but as a leader, like there’s certain things that you just have to pick up the scraps. And I think when I think of the biggest challenges, I think of the days where, you know, I run billing, or I had to go update CRMs.
And I had to go, you know, recalculate a ton of these little transactions, and you’re just like, I don’t normally do this. And this is so hard. And it’s not like what I want to be spending time on and you just have to do the things that you don’t like to do. And that is a huge challenge of leadership. And too often people see leader because they get a lot of the highlight, like the opposition here is the greatest. But they forget that they go through all the shit too. And money has been a challenge. Like when I started D2D, a lot of people don’t realize I spent a year and a half, paying other people’s payroll and not taking taking a single dime, considering the fact that I’m the one that’s people are paying to do all the work.
I’m the one doing the consulting, the videos, the training the products, and I didn’t even get a check. And that was a challenge for me. And I’ve almost had to rewrite my brain the last year to be like, Oh, it’s okay, Sam, you can take a paycheck. And that’s been a hard rewrite. Just changing my own identity to keep up with like the evolution of a leader that I’m becoming. And that’s common for people to run into. The next question is what contributed to your growth as a leader.
I mean, a lot of things. But the first one is coaches, masterminds and mentors. I look at books as one way to be mentored. But I also see that as like, that’s just like the consistent drip that needs to kind of always happen. Kind of like an email campaign. Every week, I get an email from some company, cool. Every week, I read a book or every month I read a book. And I’m just always keeping my mind and alert, right. But but the main thing is, I paid a lot of money to coaches. I mean, I literally was never afraid to be like, I need a speaking coach, I need a business coach, I need a financial coach, I need a spiritual coach, I need to like whatever that is like, you know, you pay to go to the dentist, keep your teeth clean. If I’m trying to say I want to be the best leader, I’m gonna pay the leaders I aspire to be like, and have them teach me to be clean, and to do things right. And keep me in alignment. The biggest thing is like, there’s been many times I’ve wanted to throw rocks, I want to throw in the towel. I’ve wanted to sling mud and be like, Dude, did you guys not see these guys, I’ll just screwed me like, that just cost me 500 grand.
And, you know, I went through a lawsuit multiple lawsuits that I’ve had to sue companies and be like, Okay, you didn’t pay or you have this over. And it’s frustrating. And you want to just be like, there it’s shit. Like, they suck. And I want to spit that in front of 12,000 people on my Facebook group, but I want to put it on a podcast get 1000s of doubt. Like, I just don’t say the shit. Like I just I’m like, I don’t need the validation from all these people. And coaches have helped be like, and does, who does it serve? How does it how does that affect you and get you farther and your right dry? Okay. So that to me is helped me really remember the leader that I want to step into. And then the trial by fire?
I mean, I think that, like what’s developed me is I’m always constantly looking to stretch my leadership. So it’s like, Where can I step into lead something that makes me a little bit uncomfortable. So for example, we’re hosting the Ultimate Sales bootcamp I’m doing with two juggernauts on social media made way more money than I probably made. And you’re like, oh, wow, I’m going to go speak and co host with them, and they’re going to be analyzing every little thing I do and how I do registration, how I do this and how to do that.
And I’m like, great, I get an opportunity to stretch myself great. I get an opportunity to, to step into a greater position of leadership and a bigger stage and a bigger audiences. And then, you know, I also think of like, you know, like this next question, it’s like, what are you doing to currently grow as a leader and it kind of pushes me in I am always looking for higher quality people to lead. So, for me, it’s like how what am I currently doing to grow is I’m putting myself in bigger High Net Worth people. And then I’m saying, Can I be seen as a leader to them? Do they look up to me and say, I love what he’s doing? I love how he operates. I love how he shows up, I love his content. I feel inspired when I’m around him. And you’re like, wow, like me. And a lot of times, like, brilliant, like, you’ll look at me, right? Just like Yes. And, like, when I allow my own internal like child like that little boy, that’s kind of the insecure like, oh, like, I want to be like them one day, when I allow them when I allow that to be like, oh, there is no like hierarchal element of, they’re so much cooler than me. And I just look at all things as even playing field no matter how much income fitness accolades they have. And I say, there’s only one Sam, a SAM as a SAM, a lot of competitors are starting to come into this DDD training world and I just go, great.
They’re not me, that’s phenomenal. And what people pay me for is me, what people are led by is by me. And if they choose to be led by someone else, then phenomenal. I have an abundant mindset around it. But my whole mentality is like a SAM as a Sam. And I will influence those that need to be that need to be influenced by me. And I will show up as my highest self, and that journey to my even higher self. And I will inspire millions of people. That’s what I choose for. And I hope you choose that same thing as a leader.
And the next thing is I just like I’m branching out of my comfort zone and other elements. I own two software companies, I rarely talk about vanilla and recruiter Matic and this journey over the last three years developing tech, developing tech systems and tracking. And all of that has been such an interesting journey. I started an E commerce business few years ago that I had to find inventory marketing, influencer marketing, to all these different things to do a baby romper that we invented, and, you know, different side projects to put myself on buying a commercial space here now and mobile home parks and just trying different things that Now stretch your you know, you’re usually you get one track minded, I know how to lead a door to door sales team really well, like great, but do you know how to lead investors? Do you know how to lead tech people? Do you know how to lead a developer Do you know how to, you know like all these different elements and then you can compile and say wow, there’s likeness amongst these categories in life.
And now I’m becoming a well-rounded powerful leader without being distracted from my mission. Everything would align for my mission, but it’s like how am I really diversifying my opportunities to lead is another piece in this what is the biggest piece of advice that you’d have for someone who aspires to be an effective leader. huge thing for me is have systems and organization. So the first system I’m going to talk about his and I’ll show you my system. So this is my Evernote, I would highly recommend using Evernote and what I’ve done is I’ve created notebooks that all have the category categories of content that I would consume so for me being a leader is Being a teacher being somebody that can transmit data and education and knowledge to someone else so that they feel more educated and confident.
And so you’re like great in door to door we have sales leadership and growth and so if I go to growth I’ve how to how to retain how to prospect how to interview how to how to sign people, you know and these all have subcategories if I have sales if you know sales general how to do referrals nonverbal presenting, prospecting, objection handling closing, you know and then you come in here and you’re like cool anytime I learned something cool on closing, you know, take a tire McAllister spoke at Door Door con I rewatch this thing I liked where he talked about this and then manufacture deadlines Miko Donald talked about this. Chris Voss when I, when I was doing a reading his master listening to his master class talked about this. And so I’m compiling a very organized way to recall data, because we could read all the books that we want, if we can’t teach anything from that book, then great if we could interview all the leaders that we want go to all the seminars that we want, but if there’s no central way that I can see the data, and train and transmit this back to somebody else, then it didn’t serve me because it wasn’t implemented. It wasn’t taught wasn’t used for the good.
So you know, you go to this and, you know, I’ve taken excerpts and screenshots of books and articles and links and you know, I put in stories and you can see that Like, I draw analogies and every time I learn something every day, my goal is to add to my library of Sam’s nuggets, I call it the next one V calendaring. It’s like if I’m trying to help somebody, it’s just proper planning. It’s like I look at I color coordinate things based on certain things. You know, even like when I want to write in my book, when I want to run when I want to do this, and this and, and having a really structured, proactive calendar is going to be huge. I do a weekly planning session every Sunday. And then another just another system, there’s just systems, so like organizations, so this is like a content calendar, I use a tool called Air table.
And, you know, you look at like, when videos are going to be produced, what podcast goes out what you know, testimonial video, where it goes, who’s in charge of it. So if you, you know, you, let’s go to like one of these, it’s actually been like, in production. So like, this is a podcast I did with Moe. And here’s the recording that I did, here’s what’s going on. And then I have my team members like Christian and Brett and Dallin, and different things being made from this content. So it’s like, I have a really structured and organized way of getting a lot done by leveraging team assignments, accountability. And that way, I know there’s a central place that I can take my vision, my ideas, and turn it into action. Because a leader that doesn’t know how to transmit his, like ideas and vision into action, in my opinion, isn’t leader, they’re not somebody that can can take idea into reality, therefore no one would follow them. The biggest way to be a be followed is they see you come up with a vision, they see it come to fruition, and that’s been habitual. So they’re like, Wow, I want to surround myself with this kind of person that’s actually doing something that’s challenging themselves and actually accomplishing the challenges. And that, to me, would be a huge piece of advice for somebody who really wants to be an effective leader. Everybody can say, I’m a leader, but ask yourself how many people are following and that’s your true indication of how good of a leader you are. So hopefully you got some leadership tips out of this podcast. And Dan, I love you and I think you’re amazing. I hope you’re coming out to the recruiting summit September and love you guys so if you got some value out of this, send this to your leader if you’re not a leader if you’re a leader struggling hopefully this gives him or her some love. And I hope everyone looks to aspire to be the best leader that they can be. Thank you guys hope you guys liked it. Leave some comments or review I love to hear you guys on the next episode.
