Speaker 1: (00:02)

Bill, Can I help you?

Speaker2: Hey listen up, I’m bringing you the best content to ever exist in the door to door industry from sales leadership, recruiting, impersonal development.

Speaker 1:

Why would I need that?

Speaker 2:

Because never before have we been able to collaborate with the top experts in their industries, sharing their secrets and techniques and what makes them the best.

Speaker 1: Wait, who? Who are you?

Speaker 2:
I’m your host. Sam Taggart, creator of the D2D experts in D2Dcon. Is there a place we can sit down?

Speaker 1:
Well come on in.

Speaker 3:

Vanilla is the fastest way to increase your Google and Facebook reviews through text with a 98% open rate. Vanilla reviews is the simplest cheapest way to interact and engage with customers. Visit us at vanillagood.com for more information.

Speaker 2: (00:48)

Hey Everybody. This is Sam Taggart, your host with the D2D podcast. And we are alive. Coming at you from what is it?

Speaker 4: (01:07)

South Dakota. Never been to South Dakota. Tomorrow we’re waking up to, what’s that? Six I don’t know. I haven’t really even looked to show you that this out. We are going to Mount Rushmore together.

Speaker 5: (01:16)
I’m on a rushing jam being circled brothers. Not How you think.

Speaker 6: (01:26)
No. So we are la anyway. So

Speaker 4: (01:34)
that went back. Okay. So we, we are in the expert

Speaker 5: (01:39)
circle together. So we’re going to Lake Powell in September and we do some cool stuff. And anyway, we are out here. Where’s the company? But what was I going to say?

Speaker 6: (01:49)
Oh, so Jay, let me tell you about Jay. This is the start to mind. I love that. They’re all great.

Speaker 4: (01:57)
There’s some that are really good and we can already tell it’s 11 something o’clock at night. So this one’s definitely going to go. If you’re watching this live Kuda Kudo, you don’t go to bed because this is going to be one of the most interesting. No, but if you’re listening,

Speaker 5: (02:10)
did Jake, Jake has eight years in the experience in, in pest control. He manages several hundred or a hundred plus people. He’s getting 10,000 accounts, um, in pest control, uh, active phenomenon. And uh, anyway, once some of the cool stuff though, like we’re talking about, he’s gone through some physical and emotional, just craziness in this job, which I think is a fair story. You know, we’re in Mexico, the DD circle and Jake literally puked maybe 10 times a day.

Speaker 4: (02:44)
Okay. No, not that much, but know better a fair amount, you know what I mean? Three to four puking, like Fugi how much, how much weight did you lose?

Speaker 5: (02:52)
Okay.

Speaker 4: (02:52)
Do the whole thing or in Mexico or just crones disease. He just got diagnosed Crohn’s disease,

Speaker 5: (03:00)
but it was like, what, six months? How long was it like you were going through? Hell?

Speaker 6: (03:06)
Uh, so I had a flare up

Speaker 4: (03:07)
that just, yeah, knocked me on my butt. And that was four Jay’s man. Yeah, five months. I mean, I still have a little bit of lingering, you know, stuff from that, but full blown, like five months. You couldn’t even function. No, I barely made it. I barely made it to that trip.

Speaker 6: (03:23)
Yeah. The fact that he’s literally in bed 50% of time, kind of like, I’m a trooper, I’m here. He’s like, Sam, you really haven’t seen the fun side of me. So then he’s like trying to win me over. So he gets up some karaoke had to make you say he’s like passed out and fell over the whole time. Yeah, like I’m all talk right now. I’m all talk. So, and the no, so I was impressed with his karaoke skills of course. But anyways, so we’re going to jam on going through hard stuff

Speaker 5: (03:53)
like going through that and still having to manage a hundred plus people and be a top performer and sell lights out and then thriving in all essence of the business. Like I think that oftentimes we, we don’t really thrive. Like, you know, we survive and it’s so funny today we kind of jammed on that with these guys. It’s like the, the thriving aspect is so different than I’ve got. I got food, I’ve got a shelter, I’ve got my needs are met. But that doesn’t mean you’re really thriving in life. So anyway, if you’re, if you’re interested in learning how to freaking thrive, stay tuned. Here we go. So tell us a little bit about how you, how you thrive.

Speaker 6: (04:39)
No, no, that’s free one. That’s a terrible first question. So hardest things you’ve done in door to door. Let’s jump on that for a second place because that’s a good place because you know, it wasn’t always easy for you, right? You weren’t the kid that was like out the gates. Do your 501st year. No, not 501st year. Um, I did two 50 my first year stuff. Um, we’re not have to

Speaker 5: (05:02)
d two fifties. The new hundred

Speaker 6: (05:06)
two and a half times better. Yeah, no. Um, yeah, I mean that, it was a really great summer. Yeah.

Speaker 4: (05:11)
And I was really motivated because, you know, adaptive, that’s the, that’s the bare minimum you need to do for management. And so I was hellbent on making that happen my first, my first year. And um, you know, something that I can say is no, I didn’t sell 500. I didn’t break the rookie record. I’ve never had a Bagel day though. I don’t know what that’s like. You’ve never had a never failed. I’ve never bagel now,

Speaker 6: (05:33)
now that you can send out today and didn’t even Bagel troops unintendedly true technically true yeller and roofs. But, um, you know, that’s great and all this

Speaker 4: (05:43)
today. But in reality, while I’d rather be like, you know, bring them Lindsey, you know, he, I know he’s had some Bagel days, you know, in there somewhere, but he, the dude sells 1200. I’d way rather have that cool thing to say than saying, Hey, you know, I’ve never bagel. Yeah. Which is anyways. And so, yeah, I did well my first year, but not, not, you know, insane, insane level. And then ever since then it’s just been an improvement. Every year it’s been growth. It’s been, but that’s what’s funny is, you know what I was just telling my teams about this, what is hard about this job is always hard about this job. And, um, you know, one of the guys Brenner’s said, you know, if you don’t look for comfort in this job, you won’t find it here in Oga. Yeah. Well that’s Brynner down.

Speaker 4: (06:30)
So that’s, that’s his N***a. But, you know, embrace, embrace the struggle, embrace the challenge. And, uh, you know, I love that. And so this job, you’re presented with that continuously, I mean, not nonstop. This job hits you financially at times. This shock hits you, you know, in the gut, emotionally hits you with your family, hits you with your psychology, you know, your, your mental ability. It nails you in every single way. But people don’t rebound in all those ways. They, they, you know, the consistent thing is people try to rebound financially. You know, that that’s always the priority above everything else is to make sure that that’s clicking. But they neglect other parts of, you know, what it means to thrive. What it means to thrive is to, is to exceed, um, vigorously is what the definition says. And there’s, there’s, it depends on what definition you’re looking at on, on the Internet, but I think it’s the Miriam Webster one, but it says there’s three different definitions.

Speaker 4: (07:26)
And the last one says something to the effect of, to succeed, um, despite or because of challenges. And I love, I think it’s, you know, they didn’t even mean to, but they dropped a nugget in there. You know, that’s whenever we think about overcome one more time despite or because of challenges. Yeah. And it’s a lot of people might brush over that exact, so keep going. Sorry. Yeah, no. So it’s the because of, because we’re always so focused on man, it was raining today, but I still went out and worked and still got some sales or man, I wasn’t feeling that great and I still went out worked and this happened and I’m proud of that. So it’s, it’s always, despite, despite, despite the challenge, I still succeeded, but it’s a whole other, it’s an elevated mentality to look at, okay, I succeeded because of my challenges.

Speaker 4: (08:20)
You need challenge, you need things to be hard, you need things to rock you, you know, and it’s because of those things and your ability to see, see the growth, to get through, you know, to get thicker skin and thicker height and to evolve as a person. It’s the concept of the happiness advantage, you know, in that book, I just finished reading that. I finally read it for the first time center class. It’s such a classic that I have never read, but I’ve finally, I paid my dues in a reddit. It’s good. And it talks about bouncing forward. It’s the exact same principle. Whenever people talk about bouncing back from something, they’re always saying, okay, well you know, this thing happened. The way to bounce back. Like the warriors almost bounce back. Thank goodness they didn’t. Hey go raptors. That would both did it. That was wait close.

Speaker 4: (09:07)
Um, but they say, hey man, way to bounce back. Hey, I know what happened. I’m sorry about that. Way to bounce back. But that same year you get back to where you started, where you started from. So there’s no growth. So you want to bounce forward. You don’t want to bounce back and arrived right back at where you were with no benefit. You want to get knocked down, come back, and then more you want to bounce forward, not bounce back. So that’s all part of the thriving, the thriving mentality. So anyway, think things that have happened. I mean, everyone has stuff happen. I don’t want to just like go through all the things that are hard, but they’ve taught me all different things, you know, and I could say three years ago, and it was three years ago now, a lot of people that I work with that active, no, this one because it makes everyone sick to their stomach.

Speaker 4: (09:52)
So, but um, I was out so I, I bought a house or we’re going to build a house, right? And I was so excited about that and now I’m on the line for a ton of money to do this house. And also I need to have a down payment ready, you know, by a certain date and all this kind of stuff’s going on. So I go out to go sell and lead a team that summer. And on the way to Houston, Texas, we stopped in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which I’m sorry if you’re from there, but screw them. This is the worst it is. I have no comments. Okay, well I don’t, I don’t have to stay neutral here. That places the worst it can go to than old Mexico’s is. We parked at a hotel and I went out in the morning to go walk my dogs and we had been broken into, and I think I’ve told you this story, but I’m interested.

Speaker 4: (10:46)
Yeah. So they shattered the back windshield to my wife’s brand new jeep grand Cherokee, shadowed the whole thing and took our entire life out of it. We had that thing filled roof to weather, the winter. It was literally you’re going to the summer like your, well not only that, but we are, we moved out of our place to get it rented because we’re building a new home. So we had everything, everything. I mean some stuff was in storage, but so they took my laptop, they took two iPads, they took my apple watch, a to go, pros to took my wife’s wedding ring. They took my, did she ever wedding ring off? Well, because when she’s driving she doesn’t like to wear it and so she had it in the cup holder. Well that’s dangerous. That’s a terrible habit to create. When I tell her to tell her.

Speaker 4: (11:31)
Why is that? Like the common thing was SkySYM. Why do you, what do you, what do you let your wife put a wedding ring in the couple now I know. I know. Don’t worry. When I tell this story, you’re going to think that I’m a complete idiot and that’s fine. No. Okay. I’ve accepted how stupid. No, just wait. It’s stupid. It’s a lot. Spitter so they took all our clothes, they took these shoes, I created, all this stuff was taken. Okay. But the real, real bad one was what we call black box. And it was just that a black box. And it had all of our important documents in it because we had moved down and we wanted it to be with us and not at someplace at home and Utah. So it had our social security cards. It had both our birth certificates, it had our marriage certificate, it had our passport, it had our banking information.

Speaker 4: (12:18)
It had all the way down to my dogs vaccination records. We’re in this thing and it was just yanked right on the back of that car in Albuquerque, New Mexico. So we were feeling pretty vulnerable. And I don’t know if you’ve ever been broken into or been robbed, but it, it feels like you’ve been violated. Oh, it is a personal personal feeling when it’s the fourth time in the probably a month and a half span in your home, you start putting signs that are like, we don’t have anything left. Just like, you know, come on over here and see what happens. And these are putting pictures of Jesus on the windows and you’re like, he’s watching. Yeah, I’ve been there. Yeah, go go. Yo Are you, can you understand? I understand you feel violated. And, and I had to be on the doors the next day. The next day I was supposed to get to Houston, get all, you know, worked in and be on the doors.

Speaker 4: (13:11)
And so now I’m thinking, oh my gosh, my whole identity, there’s priority 35 Jake things walking around Albuquerque, you know, driving in there for hours and chargers. Yeah. Like little did they know they hit the jackpot with us royal flush with anything that they could have taken. So that was hard. That was hard to start a summer that way. That was pride at the beginning, you know, it was to start like that and I’m feeling like my bank accounts going to compromise their goes to the house, there goes all of our money, you know, all, all in one NRF. Then in come credits come Nielsen pulling a prank. That was just good. Just praying, just praying. Yeah. But no. Um, anyways, so that was, that was hard to start a summer like that. Everyone knows that it’s hard to, you know, your mentality right at the beginning of the summer is huge.

Speaker 4: (13:59)
How you start is really important in that momentum. How locked in you are, how dialed in and committed to what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it is really, really important. And to start like totally having the rug pulled out from underneath us and us to scramble with like protecting our literal identities was, was tough. But man, I can tell you I learned a lot through pushing through that and my wife was supposed pregnant at the time and we have both our dogs with us as well. And then take the dogs. They didn’t take no cause they were in the hotel with me. And just a side note, if anyone’s interested, I went out to take them in the bathroom like 1:30 AM we looked at the cameras in the hotel. They were there like 1:50 AM the Chins is a, I missed him by 20 minutes.

Speaker 4: (14:42)
Yeah. Which is wild. Anyways, so you know, there’s things like that that will, will happen and that’s the thing guys is like how we bounce forward. Yeah. Like stuff. Stuff’s always going to happen. Like it’s not going to be this smooth. Life isn’t like that. And what I’ve been telling my teams a lot recently is, this is my mantra. It’s been for years and years and years. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain. You know? And there are so many times, you know, you know it day to day in the job where like, oh, this thing’s hard. I’m not feeling really good on this. I’m in a bad mood. Let me wait for the storm to pass this little storm. You know, before I throw myself all the way back into it, let the dust sort of settled. I want the weather to be a little bit better and then I’ll go into it. Or you know, some big choice in their life, this school or this job, whatever, but it’s not, you can’t do that. Like there’s always going to be a storm and so the thrive, you can’t wait. It’s not thriving. You cannot wait to succeed and go for it and throw yourself all in. You have to learn to dance in the rain. You have to learn to enjoy it and I definitely just had to,

Speaker 5: (15:51)
I think a lot of people are always looking for the storm of door to door to pass. You know what I mean? It’s like, Oh, when I’m a third year veteran, I’m going to just be on autopilot and make $100,000 or whatever. You know what I mean? And it’s like, no. Like we still like after 10 years and 12 years or 15 years, amen. It’s the same. Sometimes it gets harder in some ways because you almost are like, wow,

Speaker 6: (16:19)
another another year, you know, here we go. Yeah.

Speaker 5: (16:24)
You know, and sometimes there’s certain aspects that do get easier 100% so I feel like it’s, it doesn’t get easier than this. Like there are definitely certain aspects it gets easier. Yeah. But I think a lot of people just don’t realize like, like you said, it’s Saturday a dance in the rain in this. And I think the people that learn how to dance in the rain, this, they tend to love door to door and they find a niche for it. They find a kind of a, I could do that for a while and I can, I can make a career out of this. And even though it’s writing and, and the benefits of dates and then the rain and owning it is what thriving is. I love that. I love the term, you know, despite or because of hardship. I love that. Be the cause of Rep. So then you get Crohn’s disease. Where does that kind of throw you off for the rocker? Are you sure it’s Crohn’s disease? Nevertheless,

Speaker 6: (17:20)
Sam doesn’t know what’s wrong with me. He pretends to care. I’m like say how you doing that meniscus thing you ah, same thing. Yeah. Same thing. Never had an eminent, you know, Chrome’s disease.

Speaker 4: (17:35)
So yeah. I was actually originally diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. And that’s the tougher name that maybe you were thinking.

Speaker 6: (17:42)
Oh, I would’ve definitely, I know I was called to hold back. I knew were going to talk about it. I knew I had some weird title. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I actually had

Speaker 4: (17:50)
my first flare up, um, my first year ulcer mini like butthole thing, like an ulcer. I don’t even know what that is. And ulcers and all. God, you dropped out of med school. Really? I don’t see it. I don’t know. I never took him. Me, man. I never client is, we have like a lot of ulcers in your colon or a similar colon as the butthole ish where you’re looking for. Okay. It’s not about all my anyways. Yeah. Wow. This is incredible. She listen to this profession. You’re welcome. Enjoy it. You’re learning something. You’re learning alternative client is huge. And, um, I had my first flare up, my first year team leading actually, and we didn’t know what it was at that time. And so my vision would cut out. I was driving one day and my vision just cut out. Like, like this whole portion of my vision was just gone.

Speaker 4: (18:51)
I had to, like, I didn’t, I like hopped as hard as I could and slowed way down and just like drifted to the side of the road, like straight up, like almost blind, really bad driving. Oh No. You know, in like a, you know, you see stars or something like that. It was that my whole bottom right half of my vision, it was just gone like out of nowhere. And so they actually don’t even know why that happens, but it’s related to, and I have a flare up, my addition to it goes in and out. And so, um, anyways, I’ve been battling with that through all of my summer sales career. So ever since. I mean that was after my first year of team How often do these episodes? I’ll have smaller ones that are more mild. My vision goes out and you know, I’d say once every month and a half or somewhere in there and there’s snowboarding, you know it’s come. It’s happening. Yeah, that’s exactly what happens. I’m just standing there talking to someone. I’m like, okay, half of you is gone. So we’re just going to keep going. Like I can see what’s going on right now. It’s pretend. Let’s pretend with me. Yeah, I’m every like puked on the door. Have you pooped your pants at all? This is dumb.

Speaker 4: (19:59)
No, I haven’t. I, okay. I have paid myself, which has nothing to do with anything. That’s okay. I just have a small bladder. Definitely. I peed my pants on the doors by that. Everyone, everyone knows this fuck guys. Yeah. Is this legit? No, but I mean it’s deployed. The, you chose the topic. We’re talking about. Hard Shit is saying, let’s do it. And this is what’s funny is because a lot of people think like, oh, Jake Bennington, oh, this guy. You know what I mean? And it’s like, no, I buy him. That’s embarrassing. I peed my, well, you know, or, yeah, because, and you even said something to me one time that I’ve, I’ve believed, but I didn’t realize how much I believed until you put it in words, which is, you know, we’re on a call one time when you said the people with the most influence in a room or the authentic yeah.

Speaker 4: (20:48)
And the most genuine, sincere, but really the word he meant is, you know, as authentic is when you sat. And I’ve always believed that and, and, but, but I haven’t always lived it in certain ways. And so, you know, in the industry there’s such a, an expectation for anyone who is a manager, especially to just be this incredible example in every way, shape and form. They try to, they strive for perfection in a lot of ways that truly important. And that’s great. But when it comes to being vulnerable and showing that you do have weakness and that you do have things that you battle and overcome, that’s important for your guys to see. You know? And it’s so, it’s so, uh, critical because if someone wants to aspire and say, I want to be like Jake or for me, I want to be like Kyle, Kyle Nielsen, you know, my, my manager, the guy who was with me so much love much love.

Speaker 4: (21:40)
Um, it was, it was hard sometimes as think, how can I ever be like Kyle? Or how can someone be like me or like you if you seem not to have the same weaknesses or struggles that I do. You know it. Okay. That’s just as, that’s just Sam. Like Sam’s over here, I’m over here with a lot of other people. Jake’s over here, Kyle’s over here, whoever. Right? And so they don’t strive and don’t feel like you can relate. They can’t relate to you. And so when you’re able to say, hey, I struggled with this. This is hard for me guys, this thing that’s hard for all of you, it’s still hard for me. I struggle with that every day, you know, then you’re able to relate a lot more. And so with, with, with ulcerative colitis and all the other things in like my wife and I struggling with infertility for years, you know, and that being such a hard thing for us, you know, years of tests and heartbreak and tears and, and shots and pills and this thing and other things.

Speaker 4: (22:33)
You know, I hit those things. I really did because I was just obsessed with this idea. It’s like I’m broken or I’m like, if I tell them maybe they’re going to look at me. It was like lesser of a man, like yeah, did that kind of, and not that I’m broken, like I don’t care about that. It was just like, how do I be the most stud example that I can be and have nothing ruined that in. And that’s, that’s a mark on the image potential. Exactly. That’s what our perception of it is. And how often are we actually

Speaker 5: (23:05)
ineffectively leading because we want to put off the persona as if we had no marks. Yeah. And it’s like, no, hello. I have marks just like you do is what I bounce forward with those marks. Yeah. How do I respond to them? Arts? How do I, it’s what I do about it is what makes me different. It’s not that we’re the same, it’s just I’ve taken a little bit more harder action and some difficult moments are, my storm is different flavor than your storm. I’m dancing in the rain. Do Yeah, come dance with me.

Speaker 4: (23:37)
Yeah, exactly. It’s not like you’re in the storm and I’m over here with rainbows. Right. Then people want to see that. That’s a leadership principle that

Speaker 5: (23:46)
I’m very passionate about. You know? That’s like where I’m like, you think like what I do is I’ll rainbows or it was like, oh see I’m tired. And I’m like,

Speaker 4: (23:52)
dude, I mean if he’s always so happy, yeah, I might just, life must be so great. Yeah. Go try to travel

Speaker 5: (23:58)
well and two 40 states this 12 months and all these, you know what I mean? Like, yeah. And lived the life and balanced and you know, you’re like tar. Like there are times where your wife is like, what the hell? What are you doing? You know what I mean? And you do. And it’s like, I would love to be home right now. You know? And I think it’s just being open about that. So like, yeah, no, everything’s great man. We’re crushing it. And like, it’s like, no, this is business businesses in just a rainbow. It’s freaking in the storm and you’re dancing in it. And I love that. I love, I’ve never heard that quote. You’re like, oh, I’ve just heard this.

Speaker 6: (24:31)
Oh really? Oh, okay. Yeah, no, no too.

Speaker 5: (24:39)
No, but anyways, so what, what would you say is a way to help people thrive in this? So think about it like, you know, from all equities as the life, right? Like, you know, I think a lot of people struggle. Maybe they are thriving in the business side of things, but they struggle. And I’m not saying I’m perfect, are you? But I’m saying, do you have any kind of hacks or things that you’re like, hey, this would be my 2 cents on thriving outside of work.

Speaker 4: (25:08)
Hmm. Well, you know, the universal rules always be grateful and always to, you know, not take things for granted. But, so to go back to the Crohn’s thing actually for a second, I mean this is every offenders. Well yeah, but I mean it goes w it goes with that is that, you know, I had this recent flare up and it was, it was so awful that it was so much worse than any other one I’ve ever had. All of them combined. It was, it was worse and I lost 50 pounds, you know, I mean, thankfully I guess thankfully I had a dad bod, you know, a pretty decent one. And so I had, I had the weight to lose, but after a certain while I didn’t, and I was in like high school, like cutting weight for wrestling days. I got down to one 36 you know, and that’s crazy. It’s craziness. And so, but with that, I was bedridden for three weeks. My wife is bringing my food to me. She’s helping me out of bed to go, you know, have diarrhea for four months in the bathroom and walked me back to my bed. It was awful. I remember call where you do the, it’s coming out both sides. Give it a sec.

Speaker 6: (26:12)
Do you know what a double dragon is? Because I had four double dragons in Mexico alone. So it’s not a good time. But my point with all that is saying mean,

Speaker 4: (26:21)
you know, I had taken even my dad bod for granted and I was way out of shape and all that kind of stuff, but I still had so much more health than so many more people in the world. And yeah, I was squandering it and I definitely didn’t appreciate it. And so when I was now bedridden and I had lost all this weight and I had no had no energy to play with my daughter, you know, and even like entertain her or anything at all. I had this moment where I was like, I give anything just to be right back where I was. And so when Hell’s finally started to come back, no things to a silent fast in Mexico. That’s again, that was Joe who stuck him in the jungle. Yeah. Literally dropped me off in the chair in the jungle at the height of this sickness.

Speaker 4: (27:06)
Um, but you know, when, uh, when the health started to come back, I had like this renewed fire to, you know, make sure that I took care of my health better than I had and to workout and, and to treat it right. Um, and, and everything like that. And so sometimes you, there’s a difference between being humble and being humbled, right? I mean, clearly everyone knows about that too. You know, the, the, the life pursuit is to be humble. That is the life pursuit. And that is a noble one. You don’t want to have to be humbled. You don’t want to have to broken down by an ailment, by a tragedy, by a situation. You want to be a proactively humble, which means you need to be grateful.

Speaker 5: (27:48)
Which on that note, something that was interesting in one of our calls that stood out to me, that you’re, you’re like, yeah, I’m at the gym. I’m trying to get back into shape and bounce forward. Right. Yeah. And tell him kind of your experience, you know, just kind of this whole embarrassing, humble

Speaker 4: (28:07)
yeah. Kind of. That’s an understatement. Yeah. Like, tell him about the yeah. For all the muscles that are listening cause some sales and muscles seem to go hand in hand or the gym. Anyhow, I so I, you know, I helped coach a high school wrestling and so you know, typically in season I’m in shape and I, you know, I’m strong and all that kind of stuff. But I had been so withered down by my sickness that when I got out to the summer, which having faith is a lot of hard, I’m not saying necessarily in religion or anything but in something because I drove out to Orange County, California this summer. Terrified, like shaking in my boots. Terrified because my sickness was in no way resolved, you know, and I was in terrible, terrible pain. Crohn’s disease, when you have a flare up it feels like someone is stabbing you in the center and it is so painful and it just doesn’t stop that.

Speaker 4: (28:57)
You have to display that you can’t talk, you can’t look at anybody, you can’t do anything, Blah Blah. And then you have this horrible diarrhea and you can’t eat a single thing and you throw everything up. And so I was heading out for a summer like that. I was just a doc, you know, it’s like, oh, I can’t just find a Bush and poo four times today. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. Which I did. And I did poop in central park in a bush. That did happen. That’s a story for another day. I don’t know why we’ve been focused around the back end of things. Hey, so much. Anyways, so that was another time I started to summer and like the worst way ever, you know? And um, so the point is I got, I got to Orange County and I was like, okay, like I feel like crap, but I need to start like making some, some, uh, effort and progress here one way or another.

Speaker 4: (29:43)
And it’s like I got to the gym and since the beginning of the summer till now, I’ve missed three days, which I’m really proud of that, but, uh, cause I’m not a morning person, but I’m becoming one that go into the gym. I’m going with my wife and I’m like, okay, here we go. Let’s go to the gym, let’s get back into this. And I can’t even bench the bar. And that, that moment brought actual tears to my eyes because it’s one thing to see your body shrink down and it’s one thing to feel it, but it’s another thing to be like, wow, you know, try and do an exercise that used to be a breeze and I can’t even lift the bar. And it was an assisted Bart, you know, it’s just, it was an assisted bar and I couldn’t, I literally could not even bench that at eight times.

Speaker 4: (30:29)
My wife had to finish the set for me and that was, that was humbling. I came off that. But there’s just, you know, tears in my eyes and I just, I cannot believe how far I’ve, I’ve lost everything, you know, this is my health, this is my literal body. Like all my clothes are falling off of me. And so that was really, it was discouraging for a second. It was like, I, how do I come back from this? I can’t even look. I can’t even bench the bar. It’s such a joke. And, but it was just, you know what? Like it’s the right thing. It’s the right thing for my body. If I’m going to be grateful for the Progress I’ve made so far, then you got to pursue it. And that’s where a lot of people stop. They see some progress and they start to come back from something from some affliction or some tragedy or some hardship, and then they turn their back on, you know, that progress and they stop, uh, sticking to it or whatever.

Speaker 4: (31:20)
So I was like, I got to see this thing through. If I really was grateful, wow, let’s put my money where my mouth is and keep going. So since then, I’ve added 90 pounds to my bench. And so that’s taken like so much like patience and dedication to that. And, but anyways, so to answer your question increased by 90 pounds, I mean, okay. It’s, it’s not actually saying like, Oh, I’m strong now. It’s just mainly saying how weak I was. No, but the still like, it’s incrementally increase. It’s not just like a, it’s not just like a boom, I got 90 pounds more strength, like it’s gotta just take like, okay, let’s spend some more 10 times now let’s add 10 pounds on it. Oh, I have to start with just two and a half, two and a half pounds on each side. I felt there are other people in the gym looking over. I’m just like, fuck, there’s those. Like is he faking this? Like yeah. Yeah. They’re like, what? And I they see me like, like shaky on no breath. They’ll go viral. Funny Video. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, that’s crazy. So I think we’ve got, we’re running out of time so, but I want to like,

Speaker 5: (32:23)
I want bring this home too. Yeah. I think a lot of times people don’t really get humbled yet. They never hum. They never are humble and then maybe you do this job out of ego and they never fully hit their potential, but they never really fully hit the bottom. Then they just kind of stay in this like middle ground of like just the pack. Like they’re in the pack. But I think it’s like oftentimes when you can really humble yourself and find these moments of difficulty and look at them as the gift and say, what’s the gift and how am I progressing and how am I bouncing forward? How’s that breaking me down to make me a stronger person is when you can do that. That’s when these top performers like you and others I’ve noticed have really thrived. You know what I mean? It’s, it’s, they allow the breakdown to bounce them forward.

Speaker 5: (33:18)
They allow the humbling moments to say what an awesome learning opportunity to move forward. You know, like one of their coaching clients, Cody, he had an interesting situation in his office and he was like, dude, I don’t even want to do, like, it was like an absurd one of those like one on one. You’re just like, holy cow, I’ve never even heard of that. And I was like, what a cool opportunity for you to practice leadership. You know what I mean? He was like, wow, I guess I never looked at it that way. Like most people never even would have had that opportunity of a crap situation where, you know, one random one off, you’d never think about it. Now you get to deal with that. And he was like, oh, I, I get to deal with that. Yeah. Yeah. And he started wrap his head around it and I’m like, how much that’s the thrive mentality.

Speaker 5: (34:09)
You get to deal with that. Like, Oh cool, you get to deal with chrome zs and guess what? You’re going to speak at door door con or you’re going to have this part. Like you get to inspire people through saying, I now can not only bench the bar, I can put 45 blades off in there and you know, I know, but it’s like I’m moving on knowing that I could be pooping or throwing up on any doorstep and lose my vision and pass out. Yet I’m still out there saying, let’s go. Yeah. Yet everyone else is like, what’s your excuse? And you’re not, you’re not even knocking like you’re, you’re just, yeah. I can’t even get you to go out and knock and you have nothing wrong with it. Yeah. Yet they met there. They’re in the pack. They’re just floating. Yeah. But they never had those serious moments that helped them bounce forward.

Speaker 5: (34:57)
Which I think is so interesting around top performers and peak this peak performance that I’m studying podcasts. You know what I mean? All and that’s why you know when you, when you talk to all these people on your podcasts or all the really cool people that you get to meet, I mean there’s a path that has, it’s a pattern. That’s why I’m saying this is, that’s why I’m connecting all these dots cause it’s not like, like I looked through my past, it’s like I broke my ankle mid summer, the summer I was number one, break my ankle. Then any other reps like go fetch. I’m going to get passed up with all the people in my tail cause I had to take six weeks off. I’m like sweet Ada, knock on crutches. And that’s your in three, that same day

Speaker 4: (35:38)
where you, where you changed your story from? Well, everyone’s bet. Not everyone, but there are a lot of people who can say, I was the number one rep in my company this year, but you’re the only one that can say,

Speaker 5: (35:48)
I did it with a broken ankle for six weeks. And I thrived because of, yeah, because of, right. And it’s like, maybe that’s why maybe it was the chip on the soldier that made me want to work harder. I don’t know. But I look at like, that’s just one little moment or one opportunity I could share that. It’s like not everybody breaks their ankle on, fricking bounces forward from it. What’d you do anyway? Fall. Ultimate Frisbee.

Speaker 4: (36:15)

Oh wow. No, but I mean,

Speaker 5: (36:17)
but dude, it’s, that’s the point. Like, I think if you’re listening to this, hopefully you’re looking at this as like, oh, like I can thrive and I can play in that ready and I can, I could probably step up and change my story. Yeah. It’s changed your story.

Speaker 4: (36:34)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What I always say is move or be moved like life or will pass you by and literally, you know the storm, if you’re waiting it for it to pass by, like move or be moved, like life. It’s not neutral. There’s nothing neutral about life. It’s gonna pass you right on by or you’re going to get out in front of it, you know, and ahead of it. But when it comes to thriving, you know, you got to think people are so hellbent on making sales, sales, sales, money, money, money. But everyone knows that eventually money fails you. Like that’s not enough motivation. It’s a hard enough day. Things have kind of stacked on top of each other. You had two jerks in a row on the door, you know someone’s calling you and your family’s in the hospital. You have all these things going on and suddenly like, I’ve made good money.

Speaker 4: (37:20)
Yeah, that’s, that’s a conversation I’ve made good money. Like today I’ll survive, I can chill, I’m surviving, I can coast a little bit here. But to thrive is to have a higher purpose. It’s an evolved mindset. It’s that continuous search of like, how do I shed my skin? Like snake? Yes. Like how do I shed that and come out glistening and uh, you know, healthier and fresher than ever. You know, let’s leave this past me behind. And so on those days when you know that, who do I want to be in when the summer’s over? Who do I want to do long term? You know, where do I want my spirituality or Zendesk to be yet where do I want my psychology and mentality to be? Yet where do you want all these things to be at? And if you can thrive and succeed in all of those, that’s when you thrive. To me saying, thrive is not you. You cannot succeed in one thing and thrive. That’s not, to me the definition of thriving. You’re succeeding. But if you neglect all the other aspects,

Speaker 5: (38:16)
physical, spiritual, emotional relationships, spirituality, you know what I mean? I think a lot of people, especially in the summer, just let that go. Okay.

Speaker 4: (38:28)
Yeah. Oh No, for sure. It’s crazy. They neglect part to themselves that would actually feed right back into their success. Yeah.

Speaker 5: (38:34)
And it’s like you’re, you’re, you’re

Speaker 4: (38:36)
going and maybe you’re succeeding, but I wouldn’t call it thriving. Right. So anyway, let’s end on that. Like, um, I, I think a lot of people should go home and put some soul search right down. Like, here’s your challenge. People write down a few things of scale on a 10 my thriving in this. And if it’s less than a 10, what are the things I can identify to change? What things do I need to let go? What stories do I need to change or have a store I need to create? What time efficiencies do I need a better to thrive? And I think those are a few of the questions you could ask yourself walking out is,

Speaker 6: (39:22)
it sounds like we just got shot by the go pro, but yeah, I think that, I think that’s what a,

Speaker 4: (39:28)
that’s, that’s your homework.

Speaker 5: (39:30)
So anyway, do you have anything else you want to share or add to that? If not, like

Speaker 4: (39:35)
I just, I think we’ve all met somebody who we view as clicking on all cylinders clicking. Yes. You know, and I think that’s the ultimate goal. And so I’m just saying you’re stepping over a dollar and picking up a penny. If all your focus on this industry is sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. So if you don’t have a vision of how it’s all coming together to make you, you know better than you’re selling yourself short, you know, that’s a whole wing of motivation that you don’t, you know, you’re not giving yourself and your reps, this is really big for your reps. You know, for guys who can go out and crush it and sell lights out. Like you say, it’s, it’s important. It’s not as prevalent immediately, but with rookie reps, you get all that working together and that’s, that’s concert. Love

Speaker 6: (40:19)
music to my ears. Thanks Jake Bennington. You heard it first. We’ll be seeing much more, Jake, by the way, and a much love share this. Give him some love. Let us know or thoughts, comment below like, or a heart share or a frowny face. One of those. There’s a reason aren’t this till we love you guys much love

Speaker 7: (40:46)