Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right, there's no
sitting back, at least as it
relates to what I can become,what things I want to accomplish
, who I have to overcome interms of my own self, and what
life we live, what kind ofexperiences we create now.
Is it just, you know, overnight?
No, but it's.
What can I control?
The reason why I'm so urgent inmy time is because my mom
(00:27):
passed away from cancer, like Isaid earlier, and she didn't get
a second chance.
She was 32 years old, right,right.
And so here I was, right aroundthe same age.
Here I was saved, not so muchas scarred, hurt, injured at
that time when I was partying,going crazy, driving drunk home
(00:48):
I can't even count countlessnights, not even as so much
pulled over, thrown in theslammer, not a reminder.
And you know, obviously you havea belief in certain things.
But I was like, hey man, mylife was spared.
And now what would I be if Iwas cheating the time that I was
allowed on a second attempt orthe third attempt, whatever
(01:09):
number that is.
But my mom didn't get it Right.
So now I operate from thatplace of it's go time, it's
fucking go time.
Right, there's no, there's nositting back, uh, at least as it
relates to what I can become,what things I want to accomplish
, who I have to overcome interms of my own self, and what
(01:30):
life we live, what kind ofexperiences we create.
Now, is it just you knowovernight?
No, but what can I control?
I can control my approach, myenergy, my effort, the things
that matter, like that, so thatI don't feel that I am not
leaving it and laying it all onthe table Right.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So but, yeah, man.
So in that case you talk aboutmaking that change.
You know, once again, 29, sober, doing these things, and you
talk about the no regrets andand hey, not waiting.
But, um, you know we all get tochoose between.
You know, discipline and regret, and you you're choosing right
(02:11):
to make a change and be betterand grow and and and push
yourself.
Um, and you brought up anotherinteresting thing is you talked
about, um, you know thoserelationships, putting yourself
around people or the gentlemanon the stage.
You're talking about thespeaking aspect and recently had
(02:35):
read an article talking aboutHarvard University and a long
ongoing study they had doneabout and talking about how 95%
of success and failures aredirect relation to those you
spend the most time with.
So you surrounding yourselfwith people that were doing the
thing right and learning fromthem and striving to want to
(02:57):
replicate that and growingyourself obviously allowed you
to succeed.
Um, unlike hanging around allthe people, that was the bad
influence and doing the thingsand partying and, once again,
that that took you down thatpath right, I succeeded at
getting high yeah yeah, yeah,there was success there, but, uh
, yeah, not the kind of you'reexperiencing today.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah, so definitely,
definitely the mentorship that I
have in my life is unbelievable.
I mean, it is the network thatI've employed that are playing
at a high level is stillsometimes a surprise to me and I
pinch myself.
And it was hard for meinitially to decide that I was
(03:43):
going to help with sales,because I didn't want to be
looked at as a sales guy.
I didn't want that to be partof the branding.
But then I looked back and Irealized that a current mentor,
slash partner, is one of thebest sales professionals and
individuals that has sold tensof millions of dollars worth of
(04:05):
his own products on stage, offstage, online.
And then I have another mentoris a dear friend of mine we're
writing a book together rightnow who is one of the top B2B
sales trainers in the world andhas one of the largest channels
and followings in sales fromoriginal deployment of their
brand and so forth.
(04:26):
And so then I have working at acompany here in Vegas with
another very big businessinfluencer that is known as one
of the top closers in the world,and it's like it goes on and on
and on.
And so here I am talking about astory, right Again, being
around the right people.
So when I go to you and you'retrying to figure out why you
(04:47):
should hire me and you'rethinking about, well, can you
help me?
And I'm sitting here tellingyou like, hey, man, this is what
I've done.
Number one here's where I'vebeen.
Number two and here's who I'vebeen around.
Number three Right, right,right, right.
I mean, if you go back, I meanI remember, I think, distinctly
sharing that on one of that,those original calls that we had
with that group, the peer group, which was, you know like, tell
(05:08):
us about yourself.
And I'm like, well, you know, Iknow I can sell, I know I've
sold a lot and I know I've beenaround the best in the business,
so I think I know some stuff.
You know kind of like that uhversion of it and, um, yeah, you
just realize like, and again,that's that kind of inward
battle you're going throughwhere you're not calculating
(05:28):
perspective properly and I feltvictim to that.
I don't like to use that word,but the reality is.
I fell for the illusion that'sthe better way to say it.
That's the better way to say it.
I fell for the illusion ofthinking that and letting my ego
drive this idea that, oh, itwould lower me.
It was such an inconclusivedecision-making process that
(05:56):
prevented me from taking fasteraction on the sales concept that
, because I was avoiding it andhaving such a hard time, I
created other stresses in mylife for over a year or two
years maybe, versus if I knewthis ahead of time, it would
have just been decisive andwe've been gone way before.
But but this is the point ofalways on the grow for me, which
(06:18):
is the concept of us always andnever, ever giving up on
figuring out that next versionof ourselves, which is constant
progress, which means, well, Ijust had to overcome some of
that stuff.
That's some of that purging ofthat identity in there that
doesn't support you and it's notfun, it's hard in the moment,
(06:38):
it's like you want to quit, youwant to give up, you think it's
time to put in the white flag,but you're like no, I've
committed to something, tofiguring this out.
And because I committed to that, over time it started purging
itself out.
It started sweating itself outsweating itself.
Now I can't turn you guys awayfast enough.
Man, you guys want to throw meall your money.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Well, you know, the
essence of life is growth.
You know, and you can talkabout the continuous growth,
always on the grow.
Do the best you can when wetalk about always learning,
always growing.
If you look at a tree, how tallwill a tree grow?
(07:20):
As tall as it can.
Right, it doesn't stop at myheight and say, okay, I'm done.
No, it grows as tall as it can.
It could have other treesaround it.
That holds it back, right?
Sure, yeah, doesn't get thedaylight, doesn't get some of
the nourishments.
But you know, once again, youknow it goes back to you.
(07:42):
Take those out of the guy.
It's going to continue to wantto grow, it's going to grow,
it's going to take off that's it.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
And you know, we,
funny enough, we had a tree
right here out in front of ouryard as of as of maybe two
months ago now, that that son ofa bitch was getting big, it was
becoming a nuisance and I'mlike okay, and so then, not long
after that, because we have areally amazing uh, property
management, and association herethat takes great care of our
neighborhood.
It's pristine and, uh, I'mthankful for that standard.
(08:10):
But they came in and theystarted pulling that son of a
bitch out of the ground anduprooted it and it was out.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
I'm like oh, I didn't
even know you were doing that.
They don't tell you, by the way, because this is their land.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
They just do what
they want, um, and so he ain't
there no more.
So unless you uproot the thingright and and and and take it
out like that, you know, in thatcase he's done because he ain't
got no more roots down there,but if he wasn't, he probably
would have grown all over thisplace.
Yeah, they just keep going,they don't stop.
But to your point.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
That's a great point,
man yeah, so turn things back a
little bit.
You touched on, uh, the 18months of of restaurant
ownership, which sounds amazingand fun.
It's, especially at that age.
What was the biggestcontributor, do you believe um
sort of take out the partyingaspect to the demise of those
(08:58):
three businesses?
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Sure, that's a great
question.
I really didn't know what I wasdoing operationally.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
That's.
I think you figure that out.
So I was glorified in the ideaof owning the business rather
than being the business ownerand figuring out how to actually
(09:32):
be that person.
Obviously, I wasn't that person, right?
So there's just no chance.
There's no chance.
I mean, you have you, even inthat case, man with my identity,
the way that it was, forexample, the night before we
opened our milkshake shop, uh,for friends and family, I'm
talking about the night beforeI'm at edc las vegas, the
(09:54):
biggest carnival for fuckingelectronic dance music with the
biggest DJs in the world, andI'm fucking high as a kite.
And, to make matters worse, Iremember very distinctly on
Sunday morning or, sorry, mondaymorning, because it goes Friday
, saturday and it's Sunday, andSunday goes until midnight 5 am,
5 am.
(10:14):
It closes.
Monday morning I popped a mollyright around 5 am to finish,
and that night we had ourfriends and family for the
opening of the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Goodness.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Shake shop.
So you just you don't know whatyou're doing when you're
running the business.
You're not learning to figureit out, you're just running in
circles.
I'm running a muck out in lasvegas.
I mean it was a host ofdifferent things, right, um.
But again, man, I mean I forgetsometimes, and my wife would
(10:49):
even tell me she's like you know, and, and you know because in a
newer level of life, I stillfeel there were some versions of
those scars that haunted me andtaking steps in this now modern
day, and I realized that therewas a very big value in a lot of
(11:13):
the things that I did, becauseI did hire people.
I had a great team of peoplethat loved did hire people.
I had a great team of peoplethat loved coming to work.
I had a great energy there.
You know, we had people thatcame in that loved our product.
We had a variety of things thatwere working well, that kind of
demonstrated the things that Iwas good at and so, uniquely,
that's not everything you need,because you know, again, it's
(11:37):
just one of those unfortunatesituations that business just
kicks your ass if you don't knowwhat you're doing and so, yeah,
man, I mean there's no way topinpoint it, outside of the fact
that I was not yet the personthat I needed to be in order to
run and build and hold on to asuccessful restaurant.
(11:58):
There's no other way to look atit.
You can look at the actualdisease, or you can go look at
the fact that there's a symptomcoming out from the disease and
you can try to put the bandaidon the symptom, or you can go in
and you can, like the tree,take the damn root out, right,
and so for me, the root was justhey, I wasn't who I needed to
be.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
No, fair enough.
Fair enough, I was just kind ofcurious, you know, if it
reflecting back at that that youpinpointed, and it sounds like
there was a few things,obviously, that influenced that.
And you know, um, and yeah,it's been a couple of years,
right?
So you know, you touched on too.
You always had this desire,this entrepreneurship desire,
and and in, I thinkstatistically I don't remember
(12:41):
the exact number, but I knowthat it's a large chunk, this,
you know, maybe it's 35, 50percent or whatever they have a
kind of intent of desire to bein business or be an
entrepreneur, but yet todaystanding, I think it's somewhere
around six percent they areactually entrepreneurs.
Um, so you are obviously umpart of that minority.
(13:02):
Today, not only did you thatdesires, as those that did, but
actually you've done it multipletimes, right, you continue to
say this is what I want to do,um, I'm going to be in business,
I'm going to control my destiny, and I commend you on that.
You, you know, obviously younever given up.
You're always trying somethingdifferent.
Um, you touched on um currentlyco-authoring a book.
(13:25):
Um, this sounds like it's inprocess, but you also mentioned
in the past um about a book aswell.
So what was this book that youwrote in the past?
How long ago was that and whatwas it about?
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, that was right
when I came out.
So you know, when I started myjourney of sobriety right after
that, when I told you I wantedto become the speaker sort of
the gateway or what I was soldor told was the you got to have
a book right and it's kind ofthe door opener.
I bought into it, I'm like allright, great, let's go, you know
.
And then then shortly afterthat was oh, podcast.
(13:55):
I'm like, wow, I can start apodcast.
So basically they kind of cameback to back the book, first
podcast, second, um, but at thetime I I just took my story man
of of uh, it's actually it'sright there, okay, wonderful so
Las Vegas.
Las Vegas.
So it's four, part Right, andso it's.
(14:18):
It's.
It's if you can see there, andI'll read it out loud so if
you're listening you can hear it.
But part one was the struggle,and then part two was the
discovery of fuck, my life's amess.
Part three was the reflection,going back in time to look at
all the things that I had tothink through, work on
understand, and then part fourbrought us back to the moment of
(14:41):
the present, and so in that Ibasically just documented all
the crazy stories, told peoplewhat the journey was like and
then shared with them what itwas like for me to come out of
that and then what I startedworking on and the new
perspective that I had and, yeah, man, it was a great experience
.
I was very proud to write thebook.
Obviously, that was the firstbook and so a lot has changed
(15:04):
since then.
There's still a lot that wewant to accomplish.
Obviously, a book is a book,you know again.
Now, in the world of sales, youknow nothing is to get to its
potential without a sale.
So you know, obviously you wantto sell a lot of books.
The book writing world is great, but the book selling world is
even better, because if you cansell a great book many, many
(15:25):
times over, well then that's awhole different ballgame.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
And we all know
there's millions of books out
there.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, right, exactly,
yeah.
Only a few have been sold,right, right and so yeah.
So the next one is revolvingaround creative sales and
communication.
To really think about theprocess differently, and I'm
fired up about this book.
This book is going to be likeanything, or should I say unlike
(15:52):
anything anybody's ever seen.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I personally have
been through your sales appeal
program.
Or course the book will tieinto the sales appeal, or is it?
Speaker 1 (16:09):
something totally
different is a parlay of skill
sets and experience that mymentor one of my mentors has
taught me has lived, has madehis fortune off of, and we took
that course.
(16:29):
I recorded it from the angle ofit being mine hours at the time
, cause he's like go for it, youknow, cause we, we basically
have this opportunity.
So let's, let's do somethinggreat with it.
Cause it's go for it, you know,because we, we basically have
this opportunity, so let's,let's do something great with it
, because it's great material,obviously, you know that.
So that's a, that's apartnership, that's a separate
product.
And then I have my own, what isnow evolving method that I've
(16:53):
created, based on a lot of otherthings that I've experienced
and what I find to be my sweetspot, my wheelhouse for how I
sell and how I get out into themarketplace.
So they definitely they'reindependent, but I'm very much a
user of both methodologies,because both methodologies have
been a part of everything thatI've done.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
So you think they
would complement each other,
then, as far as once, it's yeah,yeah, absolutely.
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