January 14, 2025 • 52 mins
Leighton Campbell, the dynamic owner of First Allegiant Insurance, joins us to unravel the mysteries behind his soon-to-be-released book, "Your Happiness Equation," launching on February 4th, 2025. Leighton takes us on a journey through his unexpected career path in commercial insurance and how it informed his unique perspective on finding happiness. You'll gain valuable insights into the complexities of commercial insurance, covering essentials like liability and property, while also exploring Leighton’s reflections on balancing a successful career with personal fulfillment.
Our conversation takes an inspiring turn as we share stories of growth and resilience through the Southwestern book program, a transformative door-to-door sales experience. Leighton and I recount the emotional highs and lows of facing rejection, and how these challenges sharpened our perseverance and emotional intelligence. These anecdotes illustrate the vital role of community support and resilience in achieving personal success, with a focus on the importance of maintaining emotional balance in the face of adversity.
In the final segment, we explore the creative journey behind "Your Happiness Equation," sparked by heartfelt discussions with Leighton's children. The book delves into universal themes like gratitude and authenticity, encouraging listeners to embrace their vulnerabilities and passions. Leighton shares his experiences with practices like men's retreats and breathwork, offering a roadmap to personal transformation and true happiness. Don't miss the chance to pre-order the book at www.yourhappinesseq.com and join us on a quest for genuine fulfillment.
Call: (954) 290-5392
Visit: https://www.yourhappinesseq.com/
Follow: https://www.instagram.com/yourhappinesseq
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, hello.
Hello there, everyone, andwelcome back.
So we are coming off the heelsof 2024.
We have arrived, everyone,happy New Year.
Hope you had a wonderful 2024.
And we are in store for somegood stuff in 2025, for sure.
Today I'd like to welcome tothe show Leighton Campbell, and
(00:33):
Leighton and I actually havesome shared history which we're
going to get into.
But Leighton's here today topromote a new book that is being
launched February 4th and it'scalled your Happiness Equation,
and I want to get into the bookand talk all about it because,
like everyone else, I'm lookingto be happy and if there's an
equation for happiness, sign meup, baby.
(00:54):
So, leighton, welcome to theshow, brother.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Jeremy, thanks for having me on.
I look forward to ourconversation.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, likewise, man.
So before we kind of dig in andlearn all about this book, this
equation for happiness, if youwill, I thought it would make
sense to kind of dig into thejourney that led you to this
point in your life where youdecided to write a book, because
most of us don't wake up oneday and say, you know, I think
it's a good time to write a book.
Oftentimes this is a lifelongwork in progress.
(01:22):
So many different things haveled you to this point where you
decided to release this into theworld.
So why don't we first startwith?
I know that you mentioned youown a commercial insurance
agency and on the Good Neighborpodcast, this platform is
typically a place where we havelocal business owners to talk a
little bit about their businessand their backstory.
Why don't we start there?
(01:43):
Tell us a little bit about yourcommercial insurance agency
First of all, what's the name ofthe agency?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
First Allegiant Insurance.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
First, allegiant Insurance.
Okay, so for everyone out thereI mean, everybody deals with
insurance, we all have our ownpersonal insurance but I think
for most people when they hearcommercial insurance, that might
be something that they don'tknow a lot about, because they
don't typically deal withcommercial insurance unless you
own a business or that kind ofthing.
So start there, tell everybodya little bit about what
(02:12):
commercial insurance is, andthen we'll dig into what you do
and how you help people.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yeah.
So commercial insurancebasically is similar to
homeowner's insurance, but it'sjust for a business.
So the same things you may needas a homeowner, business owners
also need, for example,liability.
If you look at it in terms of abusiness, if someone comes on
the premises of a business andslips and falls and hurts
themselves, or they hurtthemselves or alleged that they
(02:40):
hurt themselves with theirproduct, a business would need
liability insurance to defendthem, hire attorneys, pay court
costs and so on.
So general liability is usuallythe foundation of pretty much
any commercial insurance program.
So that's one thing.
If the business has propertywhether it's the building or the
(03:04):
machinery contents inside thebuilding they're going to need a
policy for that as well too.
If they have workers, they'regoing to need workers'
compensation insurance.
So if an employee is injuredwhile they're working, they need
a policy for that.
That's Florida law.
If you have above fournon-exempt employees, or if
(03:27):
you're in the constructionindustry if you're in the
construction industry and youhave even one employee that is
not an owner, you are requiredby Florida law to have a workers
comp.
So that's something that's alsovery important.
Then you get into commercialauto.
So if the business has vehicles, if you're a contractor and
you're a contractor and you'resending your guys and girls out
to do service calls and thosekinds of things.
(03:49):
You're going to need protection, of course, for the auto, but
God forbid you get in anaccident.
Or when your drivers gets in anaccident and God forbid does
injury to someone or property,then you're going to need
liability protection for that aswell.
And then you get into theboutique coverages like cyber
liability and errors andomissions and it just kind of
(04:10):
goes on from there.
But that's kind of the gist ofcommercial insurance.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Now are you typically servicing?
I know that for insurancelicensing is done by state, so
obviously you're licensed herein the state of Florida and I'm
assuming you probably provideservice to all Floridians.
Do you also have non-residentreciprocal licenses in other
states?
Do you provide servicenationwide?
Where's the extent of yourclient base?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
no-transcript in other parts of the country as
well too.
So we're not actively outprospecting or networking in
other parts of the country, butif we get a great opportunity
and it's a fit, then we will getlicensed there and take care of
that.
So we're licensed in probablyabout five or so states, but I
(05:26):
would say 95%, if not more, ofour business is done right here
in Tri-County South Florida.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
And how long have you had the agency for?
When did you start it?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
13 years, started it in 2012.
Yeah, it's been a wild ride2012.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, it's been a wild ride.
Yeah, man.
So why commercial insurance?
What was it that led you up tothat?
But prior to opening the agency, I'm assuming, but I never like
to assume, but I'm assuming youwere in the insurance space
what led you to the commercialspace?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, I always told myself I would never be in
insurance growing up.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
I know right, we don't grow up and go to school.
When I grow up, I want to be aninsurance agent.
Let's do that.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Yeah, my parents, they had done life insurance
when I was not all the time, butpart of their career path
involved life insurance and Ijust saw that sale as a really
kind of a tough, emotional sale.
Now I also sell life insurance.
Now it's not that sale as areally kind of a tough,
emotional sale.
Now I also sell life insurance.
Now it's not a big part of whatI do, but it is part of what I
do.
And I know other people whosell life insurance and they do
(06:33):
very well at it and they'redoing a huge service for people.
But my first exposure toinsurance was like that really
kind of a tough, emotional overthe kitchen counter table sale
and I'm like man, that isexcruciating.
I don't want to do that with mylife.
So you know, I went to school.
(06:53):
I actually graduated fromCooper City High School.
I went to University of Floridaafter graduating Go Gators.
Woo Gator too, also.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, man Nice.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Nice, nice.
That little book man from US,oh wow, that's even man.
We go real super deep.
That's awesome.
So after school I majored infinance, minored in economics.
I went to work for MorganStanley and I did that for four
years and that was really notprobably an industry that was
(07:25):
kind of aligned with how I am.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
For one thing Hold on back up a second there.
When you say Morgan Stanley,did you get linked up with
Morgan Stanley throughSouthwestern at one of the
career fairs that they had at UF?
Because I remember when Igraduated I went to one of those
and they had all the differentvendors and a lot of them were
former book people.
Did you link up with themthrough there?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
No vendors and a lot of them were former book people.
Did you link up with themthrough there?
No, but of course Southwesternimpacts everything that I've
done in my life since being inthat program, but kind of how I
ended up.
One of the ways I ended up atSouthwestern is, I think in my
freshman year at UF I went to acareer fair and I kind of felt
(08:05):
like I wanted to be a financialadvisor.
So I went to financial advisorsI don't think they were with
Morgan Stanley.
I said, hey, I want to be afinancial advisor.
What do you recommend that I do?
And he said you need to go andget sales.
This wasn't a Southwestern guy,this was like a regular
financial advisor.
You need to figure out how tosell, get sales experience and
(08:27):
so on.
So it kind of stuck in the backof my head.
It's like I don't know how todo that.
But lo and behold, a recruiterfrom Southwestern.
One of the student recruitersgot a hold of me.
They're like, hey, you're goingto get the best sales
experience you possibly can getin in college in this program.
(08:48):
And I was like man, I think Iprobably need to really check
into this.
So got into that, did the wholeprogram and so on.
And then my ability to sellcause I sold for four summers.
I'd love to go into foursummers under your belt.
Yeah you, how many?
Two, two.
So you got to do it.
Well, one is good, one is good,two is like super respect
(09:11):
because you're going back.
You go back to something thatyou know is like really good,
back into the belly of the beastExactly, exactly One.
You don't know what you'regetting into and you can survive
.
And I have a ton of respect forone summer book people who stay
.
I mean that's critical.
But if you go back for a secondsummer, that's pretty hardcore.
Bring a little team with you.
I did A very small team mysecond summer and then in my
(09:37):
fourth summer I had my largestteam, but it still was
relatively small because I neverwent all in in the recruiting.
I kind of dabbled in it.
I think I had a four-personteam in my last summer, but yeah
, but my book experience isdefinitely what landed me the
job at Morgan Stanley.
When I spoke to them aboutselling books and what I did,
(09:58):
it's like you're blowing awaythe person that's interviewing
you Like man.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
I don't think.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
I could do that, yeah , so that's interviewing you
Like man.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
I don't think I could do that, yeah, so that's quite
the experience.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Now, when were you at UF?
Because I remember going backin the way back machine here.
I remember your name from whenwe were selling books, but I
don't know that we were outthere together at any point or
we were actually linked upthrough Keon.
So Ke was your, was yourmanager.
What years were you at uf?
When did you sell?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
so, okay, I started uf 96, so I would have been
before me 97 to my last summerwas in 2007.
98, 99, 2000, because I soldfour summers.
When did you sell?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
so I was at UF 98 to like oh, I saw the last two, I
think the last two summers.
I want to say it was 2000, 2001.
So I must've my first summerwas either your last summer or I
came out like right after youfinished, but I remember the
name Layton Campbell forwhatever reason.
I remember the aura of LeightonCampbell.
(11:05):
It must have been Keon that wasbuilding you up for some reason
.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
It could have been, but I also had a brother and
sister that sold two summersafter I did Like my last summer.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Oh, your sister came out with me, I think.
What was your sister's?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
name Leneen Campbell at the time.
This is all coming together now.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
You know what I mean.
She sold.
That's why we heard so muchabout leighton campbell, other
than the fact that you were aseasoned decorated book man but
your sister was there.
So kian would always talk aboutleighton.
He's the best.
Okay, it's all coming backtogether love it.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Yeah, yeah, I'll have to let her know.
Uh, she lives here locally toodoes she nice?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
and you went to cooper city high look, this is
all coming full circle here.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
This is crazy yeah, my, uh, I'm pretty deep in
cooper.
My kids went to Franklin.
We go to church in Cooper city.
My business is not, I meanDavey, but right on the border,
so it's all kind of like rightthere.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Nice, Nice, All right .
So let's go back.
Let's go back and giveeverybody some context for the
books, Cause you mentioned thatthis experience through
Southwestern kind of set thestage for everything.
This was the thing that gaveyou the experience.
And about the sales advice thatyou got getting to sales, I
mean that's pretty much true foranything you do in life.
(12:14):
Right, it comes back tocommunication, really asking
good questions.
But the Southwestern experience,this is an interesting one, and
I just had a guest on thepodcast several months ago who
just moved to Cooper City.
He's a local realtor.
He also went through the bookprogram about a decade after we
did.
I don't know, you probablywouldn't have heard the name.
He's Nick Sproul.
You ever heard that name?
(12:34):
No, I have the real estate, allthese different businesses they
built.
So he is actually the leadbroker down here in South
Florida, Really really motivated, driven guy, obviously a little
(12:55):
younger than us, but greatthings on the horizon for him
and we talked a lot about theprogram and also, yeah, for me
this was one of thoseexperiences where, goodness, it
really made you realize whatyou're made of and that if you
just put your head down and getto work and really bust your ass
.
Anything's possible and you knowI went through the ringer.
(13:16):
I think everybody that goes outand sells books has many
defining moments in their life,so why don't you tell everybody
a little bit about thatexperience for you?
Well, first of all, talk aboutSouthwestern like the book
program.
What is the program?
For those that haven't heard,Tell us a little bit about the
Southwestern company.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah, so Southwestern is a company that's been around
since the Civil War.
They actually started out byselling, I think, bibles
door-to-door back during theCivil War.
And then over time it kind ofevolved and changed.
And when I was in the programand similar to when you were in
the program it was more aboutselling educational books
(13:58):
door-to-door, primarily throughcollege students, primarily
through college students.
And what they do is it's aprogram that helps college
students gain experience, salesability.
You really, like you said, findout what are you really made of
and can you handle hard thingsand survive.
So it's very intense.
(14:20):
But they've really figured outhow to do the program, how to
train people, and I've been,I've worked for some of the
largest fortune 500 companies inAmerica and I got better
training at Southwestern than Idid in anywhere else I've ever
been, and that is a hundredpercent true.
So the training phenomenal andso on.
(14:43):
So they recruit kids fromcollege and when I say they,
it's usually other college kidsrecruiting other college kids,
and then sometimes you havepeople who went through the
program, who are moreestablished, they may have
families and so on, and they'relike full-time recruiting teams
and so on.
(15:03):
So there's that part of it aswell too.
So for me they recruited me outof University of Florida.
You go up to Nashville,tennessee, for I think it's a
week of sales training, and thenthe craziest thing about this
job and it's still crazy to meto this day is you're assigned a
(15:24):
territory in a part of thecountry you've probably never
been to and you know no onethere and no one is expecting
you to come, and then you haveto go, knock on doors to find a
place to live.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
That blows my mind to this day, and the craziest
thing about it is that it alwaysworks.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
And the craziest thing about it is that it always
works.
You have about four people whoare assigned a geographic
territory.
So if your listeners are kindof like you know, tri-county
Florida area, I think like aheadquarters, is like four
people and they would have thesurrounding area.
So I would think, probably likeDade and Broward might be like
(16:04):
a headquarters, that they wouldkind of split that up between
the four people there and thenthey would work that area all
summer and um, so yeah, you knowyou're out there.
Um, it's the summer so it's hot.
Um, people generally don't likedoor to door salespeople, just
generally, uh, you have youdon't say I used to.
(16:26):
I got.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I got warm welcome every time I knocked on a door,
especially eight in the morning,or what do we work like eight
to ten?
Speaker 3 (16:32):
yeah 14 hours, yeah, eight to ten, and sometimes a
little earlier, sometimes alittle later.
If you, if you had to get thetrick was always to set.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Then they taught you this to try to set as many
quote-unquote appointments asyou could in the morning and the
evening, because if you hadsomewhere to go where people
were actually expecting you inthe morning, it took a lot of
the pressure off rather thanjust cold knocking first thing
in the morning.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
That gravy time where you're doing a lot of
pre-approach in the day.
A lot of times families are out, the dad's not home, the mom's
not home, whatever the case maybe.
So you're just kind of layingthe foundation for what your
after five period is going tolook like.
And then after five was what wecall gravy is like it's house
after house of people you knowhave children who are kind of
(17:18):
expecting you and um well, and Iknow you've had this too, cause
it's like everyone's experienceis kind of similar.
You get a ton of rejection andyou have people who are super
mean and sometimes nasty to you,but you also meet the best
people middle of absolutelynowhere at like you know, it's
(17:47):
like 10 o'clock, it's my lastsale and these people have given
me dinner, they've given mestuff to take with me in terms
of like drinks and food and andthey just love on me.
And then when I see themthroughout the rest of the
summer, they're always waving tome Like it's it's really
amazing.
So it's like it's.
It's kind of a crazy experience, cause you see like I wouldn't
say the worst of people, but youdo see kind of a a negative
(18:08):
side of people.
But then you also see like areally amazing beautiful side of
people and that was pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah, you do get the full spectrum in dealing with
this program and I think a lotof the people out there that are
very kind to the book peopleare the people that have, I
think, a lot of entrepreneurs,right, people that have been out
there hustling and understandthe grind and have a deep, deep
respect for going out there andpounding the pavement and really
, really getting after it.
(18:35):
It's funny when you weretalking about finding out which
homes had children, it gave me aflashback to when I used to
walk around with my map and haveall the houses, the houses, and
I'd have like the names of thekids and I'm like walking around
the neighborhood, like I know,I'm like, yeah, I was just
talking to Jane next door withlittle Bobby and then and it's
just a wonder that more peopledidn't call the police on us
(18:55):
canvas in the neighborhoodasking about children.
But no, it works.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
It works.
It works.
And once people know you knowthat you've been to all these
houses and you know I've sold,I'm sure you've sold chief of
police and the mayor and youknow all types of names get on
your list and you start droppingnames with people and they're
like those people bought fromyou and you're like, yes, they
bought.
And it's like come on in andyou, you know, know, sell the
(19:23):
bag or whatever.
But yeah, it was, uh, it wasgreat, but it was the.
There were those tough momentsand I I allude to like a bunch
of them in my book, but one ofthem is like anytime I meet an
alumni, um, we usually alwayshave an experience where you're
like really close to quittingand it's like you're probably
under a tree.
Well, it's the proverbial tree.
(19:44):
Sometimes it's not actuallytree, but it's the proverbial
tree.
Sometimes it's not actually atree, but it's the proverbial
tree.
You're under the tree andyou're crying.
You're you're pretty much anadult at this point because
you're over 18 and you're cryingbecause it is so hard, it is so
hot.
All your friends are back homehaving the summer of their lives
, probably, and you're in themiddle of nowhere being yelled
at and dogs chasing you.
(20:07):
Why did I do this?
To myself?
I just want to go home but theuh, all the commitments that
you've made, cause they know,they know what the people who
are training for this they knowthey, first of all, they've been
through it themselves andsecond of all, they know you're
going to go through it.
So they prepare you for that.
And it's like you've given yourword to so many people.
Like I told my mom, I'm notcoming home Like I don't care
(20:30):
how bad it is, I'm going to stayout here.
I may cry every day and neversell anything, but I'm not
quitting, and I've told that tomy student manager.
And then you have first you haveyour own recruits that are out
there and it's still not easyjust because you've done it
before.
Sometimes it's harder and it'slike you can't quit when you
brought people out there.
So it's such a tough, toughthing, but you know it really
(20:54):
builds character, which isreally the product that
Southwestern is creating.
They're creating people ofcharacter that go out into the
world and hopefully do amazingthings or good things, at least
For sure, for sure.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Speaking of teams, I remember my second summer.
I brought out a small team andone of the guys on my team I
remember when I recruited him Isaw I think it was in Turlington
Square handing out those littleyellow slips.
And I was there with anotherbook guy and we saw this one kid
.
He just looked like a book stud.
He was.
He just looked like somebodythat'd be good and we both saw
him.
We were like I, hightailed it.
I got his information.
He came out on my team and hewas actually doing pretty well,
(21:40):
he was making sales, he washaving some good success and he
was actually living with me.
And probably a month I forgothow long several weeks in a
month in he came to me, said I'mleaving, and even though he was
doing well, he couldn't handlethe rejection.
He just I guess he grew upbeing told yes a lot and the no
was killing.
I had that conversation withhim.
I was like you can't, don't runfrom this now.
This is something you need toconfront.
And he ended up leaving.
And then I had other people onthe team that weren't doing so
(22:01):
well.
That stuck it out and it reallywas for me as well.
Just such a transformationalexperience gave me so much of
the groundwork I have now in mylife, from going out to sell
books.
I want to, I want to share withyou a funny story about my, my
challenges, um, and then maybeyou could share one about yours.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
I remember, remember suicide calls where you've
already done the demo, done thedemo to stay.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Let's say, a stay-at-home mom forgot to cover
the husband objection.
Okay, anyway, so my firstsummer no-transcript.
(22:59):
But I showed him everything andshe absolutely loved it and I
thought it was going to be asale.
And then she's oh, I just gotto have my, my husband, check it
out.
Can you come back later?
Could you come back after five?
Whatever it was?
Oh, yeah, sure I'll come back.
This is going to be great.
Set up a meeting to come backat five, went about the rest of
my day, struggled through thatday and then knocked on the door
(23:21):
at five and I'll have you guesswhat happened.
What do you think happened?
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Of course I'd be surprised if you made it in the
door.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yeah, husband answered the door.
Hey, we're not like.
You didn't even.
Let me get a word out.
He's like yeah, we're notinterested.
Let me get a word out.
He's like yeah, we're notinterested, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
And.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I was.
So I remember the feeling ofdefeat because I had it in my
mind you know, rookie sales guy,they love it, of course they're
going to buy.
I just had it in my mind thatthis was going to be the same
and it just crushed me.
And I remember leaving andwalked away and I called my
mother.
I said, mom, I can't do this.
(23:56):
This is hard, I don't know whatto do.
She's like I remember I'llnever forget what she told me.
She was like, jeremy, you knewthis was going to be challenging
, you knew this was going to behard.
Just get out there and sell,sell, sell.
And Leighton, I tell you, man,it was supposed to motivate me
to go actually work, but it didthe exact opposite.
In that moment it was alreadythe end of the day, or the end
(24:18):
of a normal day, right, not fora book day.
We should still be working.
But I remember walking.
I think I had anotherappointment and I walked right
by that appointment and therewas a little bowling alley,
close to where we were staying,and I remember walking just
straight to the bowling alleyand going to the bar in the
bowling alley and trying todrown my sorrows and I drank a
(24:39):
bunch of beers but I came out ofthat evening and out of that
night almost renewed I don'tknow what it was, and I was able
to come through that experienceand really have a killer summer
and get through that fear ofrejection and all that.
So that was an interestingexperience I had.
Looking at your journey, wasthere one experience that you
(25:01):
had in that process of reallyreally wanting to call it quits
and then you pushed through it?
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I mean, there was definitely a moment.
I can't put my finger on it,but I've had a similar moment.
I've done suicide demos in myfirst summer and had the same
response as you did and we wereboth warned not to do that, but
we did it anyway because you'relike.
This one will be different.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
But it never will be different.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
But a weird kind of an interesting story is um, this
was in my second summer, so Ihad a really good first summer
and I was off to a great startin my second summer.
And, um, I woke up one morningand I forget I know the the
areas I sold books in, but Iforget the order of of them.
But, um, it was a one of themost beautiful days I have ever
(25:58):
seen.
The sky was, there was not acloud in the sky, it was perfect
.
And I woke up that morning andagain I had been killed.
I killed it my first summer,for a first year, great start to
the second summer.
I got a crew of people thereeven my recruits are doing well
and and I looked, I was like I'mgoing to sell so many books
(26:19):
today.
This is going to be thegreatest day in the history of
Southwest.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
I'm going to hit the president's club in one day or
more with them.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
If I had to put money on it, I would have put money
that that was going to happen.
So I was so excited so fired up, happen.
So I was so excited, so firedup, I went out there and just
guns blazing all day, working,working, working.
I didn't really do too much inthe uh in the morning time like
setting up grave or anythinglike that, but I was out, you
(26:49):
know, getting you knowpre-approached to know who I'm
going to go back to, had all mylists.
So pre-approach comes around Imean not gravy comes around.
I got all my families lined up.
You know, they know I'm coming.
I haven't done my demo.
It's not suicide calls, butjust they have you know mom, dad
will be there, they have kids.
You know these are legitpotential buyers.
Line them all up and I'm goinggoing, going in in gravy and
(27:10):
it's like I'm not having soldanything yet all day.
I think I zeroed two times or soin my first summer and I never
zeroed in my second summer.
We're getting close to the endof the day and it's nine o'clock
and I'm still on zero.
(27:32):
I'm like what is going on?
On zero, I'm like what is goingon.
So I like I, this is supposedto be the best day ever.
Like I, there's got to be.
There's a pony story, like youknow there's.
My pony is in here somewhere.
I don't know if your peopleknow about pony stories, but so
I'm like, okay, I didn't get ityet, but I know that it's there,
(27:53):
I just need to keep working.
So 9 30, still on zero, andthat it's there.
I just need to keep working.
So 9.30, still on zero.
And now it's getting kind oflate and now it's kind of the
awkward time of like youknocking on people's door at
9.30 at night.
It's like kind of uncomfortable.
10 o'clock, I'm still on zeroand I'm like all right, this is
my last house.
Like it's either this house ornothing.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
So I'm in there and I need the sail.
So bad.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
They can feel it, they can smell it on me that I
can say exactly and I zero thatday, I zero that day and it was
a day I should not have zeroedbut I did.
And to this day, anytime I see acloudless sky, I'm like I
prepare myself, like I don'tknow what this day is going to
bring me, but I'm prepared forthis to be a very, very
challenging day.
And my son knows I told himthis story and it's true, man, I
(28:45):
see cloudless, blue skies, thatare just perfect days and I
like kind of prepare myself, forI don't know what this day is
going to bring, but I'm going toenjoy the beautiful day and if
it brings anything crazy, I'mgoing to be as prepared as I can
for it.
But that was a really tough day.
I went back home and all myguys were like well, how did you
do?
I was, like you know, built alot of character today, but I
(29:06):
finished up with a relativelygood week.
It wasn't anything spectacular,but definitely finished up the
summer, great summer.
That was my last zero dayselling books and I had like two
summers after that.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
So I bet you learned more about yourself in that day
than any other day out thereeven though you didn't sell
anything.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Yeah, I can't.
I can't even tell you the daythat I had my best day.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
I don't even remember and I know that day was
probably the one you remember,the one where you zeroed, where
you put 14 hours in and didn'tsell a damn thing, didn't sell
anything.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
That that day.
I'll never forget it and Icherish that day because I've
learned so much from that.
I'm glad I had that experienceand it also kind of ties in a
little bit to one of the themesof the book.
It's like you kind of got to.
It's hard to be on theseemotional.
When things are great you'rejust on the top of the world,
(30:01):
and when things are horribleyou're just super, you know, in
a low state.
It's kind of better to as muchas possible kind of take that
through line where you're not onthese emotional roller coasters
of emotions, because that canreally make life a lot harder
than it needs to be.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
So yeah, Absolutely, and that's that's one thing for
me that I've noticed ever sinceI turned 40, really in the last
four or five years I've been on,I would say, a spiritual
journey of self-awareness andself-development, and I think it
tends to happen on the Northside of 40 for a lot of folks
and that's one of the thingsthat I've gotten a lot better at
(30:33):
is really bridging the gapbetween the really highs and the
lows.
And I still have, you know,we're still human beings, I
still I still ride the highs andthe lows, but I find myself, um
, especially on the low moments,evening out a lot quicker,
Whereas in the past somethingmay have happened that I would
allow to affect me for hours,sometimes even days, that doesn
(30:54):
doesn't really happen anymore.
It's more I'm able to kind ofcatch it in the moment.
The things that are deepest,that affect me from childhood,
from the longest things, thelongest running things, are the
ones that tend to trigger me forthe longest.
But the everyday bullshit thatcomes up now I'm usually able to
look at that and laugh at itand brush it off.
(31:16):
So I think that's a good segueto get into the book.
Right, your happiness equation.
So talk a little bit about theimpetus behind the book.
When did the idea come to you?
When did you decide look, Ineed to write a book
specifically about an equationfor happiness.
(31:38):
I'm interested to get into this.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yeah, so it started from a conversation that I had
with my kids.
We were sitting around and Iwas like, because we have all
types of crazy conversations andadventures, I've taken them
across country.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
How old are your?
Speaker 3 (31:55):
kids.
So my oldest one is 17.
He's graduating high schoolright now.
He goes to Western.
I have a 14-year-old daughter.
She goes to West Broward.
I have two 13-year-olds One ismy stepson and my son, and they
also go to school in the area.
(32:17):
So this was about probably threeand a half years ago, yeah,
because the book project hasbeen that long.
So I'm sitting around, we'retalking, we have all types of
crazy conversations and I waslike, hey, guys, let's uh see if
we can come up with an equationfor happiness.
And they're like they were gamebecause we've we've had, you
know, crazy, you knowtheoretical, sometimes really
(32:43):
deep conversations.
And they're hanging in therewith me and they're throwing out
ideas and whatnot.
I'm kind of moderating and, um,at the end of it, I look at it
and I'm like, man, there'ssomething here, right, and they
that we kind of agree.
So I like, okay, that thatthat's interesting.
So, um, at the time I was theeducational coordinator for my
bni chapter, uh, familiar withbni, heard of them, know of them
(33:04):
okay, indeed okay so I was.
I've been in bni for as long asI've owned my business uh, so 13
years I've been in bni.
I've been educationalcoordinator probably seven times
, um, so that's 50 times a yeardoing an educational topic.
All right, so this particularweek, like a week after I have
the conversation with my kids, Ihave a chance to kind of think
(33:26):
a little bit more, read a littlebit more kind of polish the
equation a little bit more, andI do a presentation in front of
my group about the happinessequation and I start my salesman
.
Because you have to sell that,I mean you're there at a meeting
.
It can be sometimes our BNI ispretty lively, but business
(33:48):
meetings generally can sometimesbe boring.
So to capture everyone'sattention, I say today we're
going to talk about the mostimportant equation in the
history of humanity, and I'm notjoking, that's what I tell them
.
So like I have their attentionright, yeah.
So then I go through theequation and after almost
(34:12):
everybody in the chapter eithercalls me, texts me, comes up to
me and said Leighton, I can'tbelieve you spoke about that.
I've been thinking about someof these things, um, some of
them open up to me about verypersonal things.
I have pretty closerelationships with these people,
um, but they were opening up ina way that they had never in
(34:33):
the past and it was like kind ofblew me away.
So I was like man, I probablyshould do something with this.
And three and a half yearslater, the book we just had a
book tour last month.
We drove all over the countrypromoting it, been in the
pre-sale process of it nowgetting the word out.
(34:53):
It's been quite the ride, quiteamazing and definitely a great
experience and I'm glad to havecome upon it.
But that's the origin story.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
I love it.
So go back to when you werewith your kids and you mapped
out this happiness equation.
What did that look like?
Because obviously you sat down.
I'm trying to picture in myhead what a basic framework for
happiness.
Obviously, you got to get intothe book and read all about it
to learn more.
But, like give give us anoverview of of what that looked
(35:25):
like.
The Genesis of the happinessequation.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
So with the kids again, it was a very rudimentary
version, so it was me askingthem and me volunteering, like
things that I thought wereuniversal, so that.
So that's part of the equationis that the things that are in
the equation I feel apply topretty much everyone on the
planet.
I try to not include anyvariables in the equation that
(35:52):
were like unique, to just like ahandful of people or excluded,
like millions and millions ofpeople.
So everything in therebasically applies to everybody
on the planet.
So I would ask them so, heyguys, what do you guys think
would go in there?
And they would throw outsomething.
I'm like I don't know.
I would think say something Idon't know, but then things like
gratitude came out.
(36:12):
It's like do you thinkgratitude would be somewhere in
the equation?
Okay, yeah, we should probablyput that there, but where?
Where?
Where should we put it?
So we're all we're having aconversation about, uh, like
happiness, but we're also havinga conversation about math
because, um, we have todetermine where in the equation
to put it and, depending onwhere it is in the equation,
(36:34):
it's going to have more or lessweight.
So like, for example, theultimate position of gratitude
gratitude.
We ended up putting it as anexponent.
I don't know if we did it inthat moment, but in the polis
version it is.
It's an exponent now because Ifeel gratitude touches all the
other variables and it has a wayof just igniting happiness and
(36:58):
and joy in your life.
So we wanted to have a veryprominent place for that.
Then we talk about other things, like family.
But I was like, well, family istricky because some people have
complicated relationships withtheir family and it's like, does
that apply to everybody?
And so it was like maybe it'snot family, but it's like other
people, like a group of people.
(37:19):
Like if you have a group ofpeople in your life and you're
nurturing that relationship,you're getting something out of
it, you're giving and gettingsomething from that.
Like that can be an importantthing.
So that made it into theequation and so on.
And a group can be as small astwo people.
It can be larger, of course,but the American College of
(37:46):
Psychology defines a group astwo or more people that have
shared goals and they have normsand rules on kind of how they
operate together.
And so if you're in a groupwith at least two people and
that's important to you, I thinkthat can definitely contribute
to happiness.
So those things.
So that's kind of how we cameup with the rudimentary version
(38:08):
of happiness.
I also spoke with a lot ofpeople and and read a lot also
and it was like man, Ioverlooked some things that I
had to put in.
And then we got into the Xvariable, which is like
interesting because the variableis, I mean, the equation is
what it is.
But I will talk to people and Iwas looking at I just posted
one of the interviews that I did.
(38:29):
We were in I think we were atPurdue in Indiana and we're
talking to a student and she wasawesome because she challenged
me.
She was like well, all thosequestions you asked are great,
but I get a lot of satisfactionand joy out of art and I'm not I
don't think she's like aprofessional artist and I don't
(38:50):
think she was an art major.
She just liked to do art and Idon't discount that at all.
I think if that is important toyou, then you should nurture
and develop that as much as youpossibly can.
But I would say those fall aslike X variables.
It's like not universal toeverybody, but it's important to
you and the same way that youcan look at the other variables
(39:12):
and get kind of, you know, tryand optimize them.
You should take your X variableand optimize that as well.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
So that's interesting , because interesting because
happiness obviously does meandifferent things to different
people, but, like you alluded to, there are some common
variables that transcendeverything, like this idea of
gratitude, but people havedifferent passions.
I think so many people livetheir whole life without tapping
(39:39):
into their true potential.
I think every human being,every person on this planet,
really really has a potentialfor greatness locked within them
and fortunately, due to manydifferent factors and external
factors, internal factors,decisions people end up stuck in
the rat race, if you will,working that nine to five job
(40:01):
and never really taken the risksnecessary to explore themselves
to the point where they can tapinto that true potential.
And it's a shame really, andI'm finally finding that within
myself you see the guitar in thebackground I played.
Speaking of art and creativity,I've played the guitar now for
30, probably 30 years, maybeeven more, and for the majority
(40:24):
of that time I never exploredsinging, I always just played,
and I would play for a couplemonths and then I'd lose
interest and I'd stop playingfor a while.
And it was like that for prettymuch the duration of my musical
career, if you will, and overthe last several years as I've
gone through this spiritualjourney of personal growth and
(40:44):
development.
I've really done a lot of workon myself.
I've learned to let the guarddown and start expressing myself
and really start working hardat getting better at singing and
playing while singing.
And what I find is that themore work I put into it, like
anything else, the moreconfident I get, the better it
starts to sound, the moreobsessed I get with it, the more
I want to play, and I reallyhaven't put the guitar down now,
(41:04):
for like every day it's atleast an hour to two hours I'm
sitting down just drilling out,practicing singing songs, and I
don't even get it.
I used to tell myself, like thegoal of like I want to be, I
want to put something out therethat's, that's amazing, and
become famous and all this, andlike none of that shit really
matters anymore to me.
I mean it does to some degree,because we're humans and we want
(41:26):
validation.
But I'm getting more and morealigned with the idea of it's
just about expressing myself atthe deepest level and putting it
out there and trying to sharethat with everyone else.
And if, if, what comes out isgreat and it resonates great.
If not, I'm fine with that too.
And the more attuned I get withthat.
It seems, the better the musicis, the better the creative.
(41:47):
The more creative juices, themore divine downloads come to me
, the more I let go ofexpectation and trying to be
good and all that bullshit and Ijust kind of let myself out,
and then I think that's wherethe magic happens.
That's where the true geniuscomes in is when you finally let
your guard down and becomeincredibly vulnerable and just
not give a shit about whatanybody thinks, and then when
(42:08):
those walls come down.
I think it alludes to what yousaid earlier about at your BNI
group, when you shared this ideawith people about sitting down
with your children and talkingabout the happiness equation and
really sharing something sodeep, so deep and vulnerable.
Making yourself vulnerablehelped open everybody else up
and they heard that from you.
You're like I want more of thisand it's just like the law of
attraction.
You put that out there andpeople like like, yeah, so I
(42:30):
love that man.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
Yeah, it's, it's, it's true, just like any of the
other variables in the equationwhich are universal, like if you
started to neglect somethinglike your pursuit of music and
your creativity.
There, you know it's, thatcouldn't end up.
Um, first of all, it soundslike it's a great source of joy
for you, if, if I'm here, it'shard, I'm sure, and, as you know
(42:52):
, some of the best things inlife are very challenging, uh,
to attain, you know, andsometimes they're lifelong
pursuits, but the results youget from, from going after it
and pursuing it, you know theyproduce these benefits that are
are are kind of priceless.
So, yeah, a hundred percentagree.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Yeah, priceless for sure, uh, and, and I still.
It's funny because even withall of the effort that I put in
and the time and work, I stillhave a hard time performing for
people.
And I have a, I have a gold.
I want to do an open mic nightand I want to make record videos
and do all this stuff, butthere's still that, that thing
(43:32):
within me that that is isholding back from letting it out
there, but I'm inching closerand closer and closer.
I do a lot of, like I said, workon myself, transformational
stuff.
We do men's retreats.
I like doing things like breathwork, ice bath, cold therapy,
(43:55):
all these different modalitiesto try to enhance, and when we
go on these retreats and we workwith plant medicine I've done
ayahuasca things to enhance.
And when we go on theseretreats and we do, we do we
work with plant medicine I'vedone ayahuasca things like that
and that's a place for me whereI'm able to sit around the fire
and really kind of let the guarddown and express what's truly
inside.
And I'm trying to, I'm workingtowards trying to be that way in
(44:19):
every moment in life, towardstrying to be that way in every
moment in life, and this idea ofworking towards trying to be
the most authentic version ofmyself possible in every
situation.
It's like what you see is whatyou get.
So many of us go out and we putmasks up when we meet people
and then we end up gettingpeople in our orbit in our life
that really shouldn't be therebecause we were pretending when
(44:40):
we met them.
It's like the goal would be tokind of be the most authentic,
like whoever I am.
If that resonates with you andyou want to be around, that
great.
And if not, then don't.
And what you'll find if you dothat is that you'll be
surrounded by people thatappreciate you for who you truly
are, and it just feeds offitself right, the more of that
you convey, the more authenticyou get, and just that's a goal
(45:01):
of mine, and I still feel myselfin many situations.
I feel like I have to have thatmask on in social situations,
but come a long way in thatregard for sure.
So you said February 4th, right, the book is being launched.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
Correct, yeah, so go ahead.
Yeah, I had written a bookprior uh, probably 10 or more
years ago and it um, it learneda lot.
But one of those things, Ibuilt a lot of character.
You talk about putting yourselfout there on in a creative way
and just not knowing what toexpect.
(45:35):
But that was definitely acharacter building uh project
because it did not gocommercially successful and it
really didn't have the impactthat I wanted it to have.
Where you know, with thisproject, of course I want to
help people and that is the thegenesis of it.
But it is good to kind of feellike the validation of people
(45:57):
like this.
People find value it.
It kind of gives you themotivation to keep going and to
push through those hard times,because there are hard times and
this project has been a lotmore expensive than you would
probably imagine, like all thethings that it takes to make it
successful, successful.
(46:24):
But it is again one of thosethings where, if you're putting
yourself out there and you'rebeing vulnerable, you're really
and the book gets into very I'mvery open in the book.
I'm literally an open book and Italk about pretty much all the
formidable things that happenedin my life that relate to the
variables, and I use things thathappened in my life as ways to
make points of the things thatI've done great that seem to
(46:47):
work out and the things thatI've done not so good that seem
to consistently have like theopposite effect.
So it's very personal, but Ithink just in having these
conversations with people, theresponse that I've gotten and
people's willingness to open upto me and share things with me
and for them, like a lot oftimes when I have these
(47:07):
conversations I can see, eventhough they haven't read the
book because the book is not outyet they're thinking about the
things that we talked about andI can just tell and the people
that I'm in relationship with,who we do talk.
It's not like a person I meeton the street, we do an
interview and then they we neversee each other again.
The people in my life have cometo me and said, leighton, that
(47:29):
thing that you mentioned, likeI've really been working on it
and it's really been helping me.
So it's been a really amazingexperience.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
Yeah, sounds like it for sure.
I was just thinking about.
I kind of lost my train ofthought.
So if it comes back, it comesback.
So February 4th, where is thebook going to be available?
Is it tell us about how wecould find it, where we could
order a copy?
I'm assuming we could pre-order.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
Yeah, ideally, a pre-order would be great.
So definitely trying to helppeople on this project and
that's like the main goal, butI'm also trying to uh, you know,
get the, the title ofbest-selling author.
I have a lot of other booksthat I want to write and, um,
for a regular guy it's it'sreally impossible to some degree
to break into the world of likeliterature and get a mainstream
(48:18):
publisher who you know willgive you a shot, or even a
literary agent.
But if you've kind of provenyourself on your own, it would
potentially open up other doors.
So I would encourage anybody,if you like any of the stuff
that I said or that we touchedon today, I would encourage you
to not necessarily wait till thelaunch date and pre-order the
book, just because of the waythat the industry is set up.
(48:40):
If I have a bunch of sales thatland on the first day, it just
helps with the algorithm and howthey do the metrics for all of
that.
But beyond all that, if I getit, great.
If I don't get it, it's fine.
I think I've already touchedpeople and I think it's just the
more people that do hear aboutit is is just going to be
(49:02):
impactful for them.
But yeah, I would say pre-order.
The way that you can pre-orderis you can go to our website, um
, wwwyourhappinesseqcom, sothat's our web address, and then
our primary social media uh,place place where we post pretty
(49:23):
much everything first isInstagram and that's at
yourhappinesseq, so check us outat both those places.
On the website, there's a linkto buy the book.
On Instagram, there's a link inthe bio to get the book, and I
regularly post and a lot of myposts have links to get the book
(49:49):
, and right now it's availableon Amazon and that's where we're
directing people to go.
That's where all the links takeyou to.
Is you buy it on Amazon, soit'll be super quick.
It's a really quick purchase.
Right now it's $11.99 inpre-sale.
You to is you buy it on Amazon,so it'll be super quick.
It's a really quick purchase.
Right now it's $11.99 inpre-sale, so it's really not a
bunch of money and I'm notreally doing this project to
make money per se.
Again, it's trying to get theword out, trying to help people
(50:11):
and kind of lay the foundationfor future projects.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
Yeah, spread the message.
I love it.
We will, of course, put linksin the description to your
Instagram page to the pre-ordersite on Amazon.
We're going to make itextremely easy for you guys, if
you're interested in picking upa copy, to pre-order.
So take the time now.
Man, you got one here.
I mean, I'm all in on this.
I'm really excited to dig inand get a copy and look and
(50:39):
learn and get a look inside themind and all these topics are
are are really, really keen onmy mind right now, and so I
really can't wait to take it inand I hope all you out there
listening got something fromthis today and I hope you go out
and you get the book, supportLayton and everything he's doing
and you know, sounds like it'sgoing to be a really, really
(51:00):
good read, for sure.
Speaker 3 (51:02):
Yeah, getting a great response so far and, yeah, it's
exciting to see where it'll goand I appreciate you having me
on and your support and all thatso much appreciated.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
Of course, I'm always , always happy to have a fellow
book man on the show.
I mean, do so many of theseinterviews.
It's always nice to havesomebody that has a shared
history and then to see the workthat you're doing here and to
learn that you're here, local inthe community.
We definitely got to gettogether go out and have lunch
and continue this conversationinto the future and, who knows,
(51:31):
maybe we'll have you back on theshow after the book launches
and we'll talk about some of thesuccesses.
That'd be awesome.
Would really appreciate that.
All right man Sounds good.
Thanks so much, everyone fortuning in and we will look
forward to seeing you next timeon the next episode of the Good
Neighbor Podcast.
Everyone, take care and stayhappy out there.
You only got this one life.
Let's make the most of it.
(51:52):
Everyone, take care, have awonderful 2025.
Catch you next time.
Speaker 1 (51:57):
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast
Cooper City.
To nominate your favorite localbusiness to be featured on the
show, go to GNPCooperCitycom.
That's GNPCooperCitycom, orcall 954-231-3170.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, hello.
Hello there, everyone, andwelcome back.
So we are coming off the heelsof 2024.
We have arrived, everyone,happy New Year.
Hope you had a wonderful 2024.
And we are in store for somegood stuff in 2025, for sure.
Today I'd like to welcome tothe show Leighton Campbell, and
(00:33):
Leighton and I actually havesome shared history which we're
going to get into.
But Leighton's here today topromote a new book that is being
launched February 4th and it'scalled your Happiness Equation,
and I want to get into the bookand talk all about it because,
like everyone else, I'm lookingto be happy and if there's an
equation for happiness, sign meup, baby.
(00:54):
So, leighton, welcome to theshow, brother.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Jeremy, thanks for having me on.
I look forward to ourconversation.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, likewise, man.
So before we kind of dig in andlearn all about this book, this
equation for happiness, if youwill, I thought it would make
sense to kind of dig into thejourney that led you to this
point in your life where youdecided to write a book, because
most of us don't wake up oneday and say, you know, I think
it's a good time to write a book.
Oftentimes this is a lifelongwork in progress.
(01:22):
So many different things haveled you to this point where you
decided to release this into theworld.
So why don't we first startwith?
I know that you mentioned youown a commercial insurance
agency and on the Good Neighborpodcast, this platform is
typically a place where we havelocal business owners to talk a
little bit about their businessand their backstory.
Why don't we start there?
(01:43):
Tell us a little bit about yourcommercial insurance agency
First of all, what's the name ofthe agency?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
First Allegiant Insurance.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
First, allegiant Insurance.
Okay, so for everyone out thereI mean, everybody deals with
insurance, we all have our ownpersonal insurance but I think
for most people when they hearcommercial insurance, that might
be something that they don'tknow a lot about, because they
don't typically deal withcommercial insurance unless you
own a business or that kind ofthing.
So start there, tell everybodya little bit about what
(02:12):
commercial insurance is, andthen we'll dig into what you do
and how you help people.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yeah.
So commercial insurancebasically is similar to
homeowner's insurance, but it'sjust for a business.
So the same things you may needas a homeowner, business owners
also need, for example,liability.
If you look at it in terms of abusiness, if someone comes on
the premises of a business andslips and falls and hurts
themselves, or they hurtthemselves or alleged that they
(02:40):
hurt themselves with theirproduct, a business would need
liability insurance to defendthem, hire attorneys, pay court
costs and so on.
So general liability is usuallythe foundation of pretty much
any commercial insurance program.
So that's one thing.
If the business has propertywhether it's the building or the
(03:04):
machinery contents inside thebuilding they're going to need a
policy for that as well too.
If they have workers, they'regoing to need workers'
compensation insurance.
So if an employee is injuredwhile they're working, they need
a policy for that.
That's Florida law.
If you have above fournon-exempt employees, or if
(03:27):
you're in the constructionindustry if you're in the
construction industry and youhave even one employee that is
not an owner, you are requiredby Florida law to have a workers
comp.
So that's something that's alsovery important.
Then you get into commercialauto.
So if the business has vehicles, if you're a contractor and
you're a contractor and you'resending your guys and girls out
to do service calls and thosekinds of things.
(03:49):
You're going to need protection, of course, for the auto, but
God forbid you get in anaccident.
Or when your drivers gets in anaccident and God forbid does
injury to someone or property,then you're going to need
liability protection for that aswell.
And then you get into theboutique coverages like cyber
liability and errors andomissions and it just kind of
(04:10):
goes on from there.
But that's kind of the gist ofcommercial insurance.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Now are you typically servicing?
I know that for insurancelicensing is done by state, so
obviously you're licensed herein the state of Florida and I'm
assuming you probably provideservice to all Floridians.
Do you also have non-residentreciprocal licenses in other
states?
Do you provide servicenationwide?
Where's the extent of yourclient base?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
no-transcript in other parts of the country as
well too.
So we're not actively outprospecting or networking in
other parts of the country, butif we get a great opportunity
and it's a fit, then we will getlicensed there and take care of
that.
So we're licensed in probablyabout five or so states, but I
(05:26):
would say 95%, if not more, ofour business is done right here
in Tri-County South Florida.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
And how long have you had the agency for?
When did you start it?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
13 years, started it in 2012.
Yeah, it's been a wild ride2012.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, it's been a wild ride.
Yeah, man.
So why commercial insurance?
What was it that led you up tothat?
But prior to opening the agency, I'm assuming, but I never like
to assume, but I'm assuming youwere in the insurance space
what led you to the commercialspace?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, I always told myself I would never be in
insurance growing up.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
I know right, we don't grow up and go to school.
When I grow up, I want to be aninsurance agent.
Let's do that.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Yeah, my parents, they had done life insurance
when I was not all the time, butpart of their career path
involved life insurance and Ijust saw that sale as a really
kind of a tough, emotional sale.
Now I also sell life insurance.
Now it's not that sale as areally kind of a tough,
emotional sale.
Now I also sell life insurance.
Now it's not a big part of whatI do, but it is part of what I
do.
And I know other people whosell life insurance and they do
(06:33):
very well at it and they'redoing a huge service for people.
But my first exposure toinsurance was like that really
kind of a tough, emotional overthe kitchen counter table sale
and I'm like man, that isexcruciating.
I don't want to do that with mylife.
So you know, I went to school.
(06:53):
I actually graduated fromCooper City High School.
I went to University of Floridaafter graduating Go Gators.
Woo Gator too, also.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, man Nice.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Nice, nice.
That little book man from US,oh wow, that's even man.
We go real super deep.
That's awesome.
So after school I majored infinance, minored in economics.
I went to work for MorganStanley and I did that for four
years and that was really notprobably an industry that was
(07:25):
kind of aligned with how I am.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
For one thing Hold on back up a second there.
When you say Morgan Stanley,did you get linked up with
Morgan Stanley throughSouthwestern at one of the
career fairs that they had at UF?
Because I remember when Igraduated I went to one of those
and they had all the differentvendors and a lot of them were
former book people.
Did you link up with themthrough there?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
No vendors and a lot of them were former book people.
Did you link up with themthrough there?
No, but of course Southwesternimpacts everything that I've
done in my life since being inthat program, but kind of how I
ended up.
One of the ways I ended up atSouthwestern is, I think in my
freshman year at UF I went to acareer fair and I kind of felt
(08:05):
like I wanted to be a financialadvisor.
So I went to financial advisorsI don't think they were with
Morgan Stanley.
I said, hey, I want to be afinancial advisor.
What do you recommend that I do?
And he said you need to go andget sales.
This wasn't a Southwestern guy,this was like a regular
financial advisor.
You need to figure out how tosell, get sales experience and
(08:27):
so on.
So it kind of stuck in the backof my head.
It's like I don't know how todo that.
But lo and behold, a recruiterfrom Southwestern.
One of the student recruitersgot a hold of me.
They're like, hey, you're goingto get the best sales
experience you possibly can getin in college in this program.
(08:48):
And I was like man, I think Iprobably need to really check
into this.
So got into that, did the wholeprogram and so on.
And then my ability to sellcause I sold for four summers.
I'd love to go into foursummers under your belt.
Yeah you, how many?
Two, two.
So you got to do it.
Well, one is good, one is good,two is like super respect
(09:11):
because you're going back.
You go back to something thatyou know is like really good,
back into the belly of the beastExactly, exactly One.
You don't know what you'regetting into and you can survive
.
And I have a ton of respect forone summer book people who stay
.
I mean that's critical.
But if you go back for a secondsummer, that's pretty hardcore.
Bring a little team with you.
I did A very small team mysecond summer and then in my
(09:37):
fourth summer I had my largestteam, but it still was
relatively small because I neverwent all in in the recruiting.
I kind of dabbled in it.
I think I had a four-personteam in my last summer, but yeah
, but my book experience isdefinitely what landed me the
job at Morgan Stanley.
When I spoke to them aboutselling books and what I did,
(09:58):
it's like you're blowing awaythe person that's interviewing
you Like man.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
I don't think.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
I could do that, yeah , so that's interviewing you
Like man.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
I don't think I could do that, yeah, so that's quite
the experience.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Now, when were you at UF?
Because I remember going backin the way back machine here.
I remember your name from whenwe were selling books, but I
don't know that we were outthere together at any point or
we were actually linked upthrough Keon.
So Ke was your, was yourmanager.
What years were you at uf?
When did you sell?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
so, okay, I started uf 96, so I would have been
before me 97 to my last summerwas in 2007.
98, 99, 2000, because I soldfour summers.
When did you sell?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
so I was at UF 98 to like oh, I saw the last two, I
think the last two summers.
I want to say it was 2000, 2001.
So I must've my first summerwas either your last summer or I
came out like right after youfinished, but I remember the
name Layton Campbell forwhatever reason.
I remember the aura of LeightonCampbell.
(11:05):
It must have been Keon that wasbuilding you up for some reason
.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
It could have been, but I also had a brother and
sister that sold two summersafter I did Like my last summer.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Oh, your sister came out with me, I think.
What was your sister's?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
name Leneen Campbell at the time.
This is all coming together now.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
You know what I mean.
She sold.
That's why we heard so muchabout leighton campbell, other
than the fact that you were aseasoned decorated book man but
your sister was there.
So kian would always talk aboutleighton.
He's the best.
Okay, it's all coming backtogether love it.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Yeah, yeah, I'll have to let her know.
Uh, she lives here locally toodoes she nice?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
and you went to cooper city high look, this is
all coming full circle here.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
This is crazy yeah, my, uh, I'm pretty deep in
cooper.
My kids went to Franklin.
We go to church in Cooper city.
My business is not, I meanDavey, but right on the border,
so it's all kind of like rightthere.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Nice, Nice, All right .
So let's go back.
Let's go back and giveeverybody some context for the
books, Cause you mentioned thatthis experience through
Southwestern kind of set thestage for everything.
This was the thing that gaveyou the experience.
And about the sales advice thatyou got getting to sales, I
mean that's pretty much true foranything you do in life.
(12:14):
Right, it comes back tocommunication, really asking
good questions.
But the Southwestern experience,this is an interesting one, and
I just had a guest on thepodcast several months ago who
just moved to Cooper City.
He's a local realtor.
He also went through the bookprogram about a decade after we
did.
I don't know, you probablywouldn't have heard the name.
He's Nick Sproul.
You ever heard that name?
(12:34):
No, I have the real estate, allthese different businesses they
built.
So he is actually the leadbroker down here in South
Florida, Really really motivated, driven guy, obviously a little
(12:55):
younger than us, but greatthings on the horizon for him
and we talked a lot about theprogram and also, yeah, for me
this was one of thoseexperiences where, goodness, it
really made you realize whatyou're made of and that if you
just put your head down and getto work and really bust your ass
.
Anything's possible and you knowI went through the ringer.
(13:16):
I think everybody that goes outand sells books has many
defining moments in their life,so why don't you tell everybody
a little bit about thatexperience for you?
Well, first of all, talk aboutSouthwestern like the book
program.
What is the program?
For those that haven't heard,Tell us a little bit about the
Southwestern company.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah, so Southwestern is a company that's been around
since the Civil War.
They actually started out byselling, I think, bibles
door-to-door back during theCivil War.
And then over time it kind ofevolved and changed.
And when I was in the programand similar to when you were in
the program it was more aboutselling educational books
(13:58):
door-to-door, primarily throughcollege students, primarily
through college students.
And what they do is it's aprogram that helps college
students gain experience, salesability.
You really, like you said, findout what are you really made of
and can you handle hard thingsand survive.
So it's very intense.
(14:20):
But they've really figured outhow to do the program, how to
train people, and I've been,I've worked for some of the
largest fortune 500 companies inAmerica and I got better
training at Southwestern than Idid in anywhere else I've ever
been, and that is a hundredpercent true.
So the training phenomenal andso on.
(14:43):
So they recruit kids fromcollege and when I say they,
it's usually other college kidsrecruiting other college kids,
and then sometimes you havepeople who went through the
program, who are moreestablished, they may have
families and so on, and they'relike full-time recruiting teams
and so on.
(15:03):
So there's that part of it aswell too.
So for me they recruited me outof University of Florida.
You go up to Nashville,tennessee, for I think it's a
week of sales training, and thenthe craziest thing about this
job and it's still crazy to meto this day is you're assigned a
(15:24):
territory in a part of thecountry you've probably never
been to and you know no onethere and no one is expecting
you to come, and then you haveto go, knock on doors to find a
place to live.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
That blows my mind to this day, and the craziest
thing about it is that it alwaysworks.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
And the craziest thing about it is that it always
works.
You have about four people whoare assigned a geographic
territory.
So if your listeners are kindof like you know, tri-county
Florida area, I think like aheadquarters, is like four
people and they would have thesurrounding area.
So I would think, probably likeDade and Broward might be like
(16:04):
a headquarters, that they wouldkind of split that up between
the four people there and thenthey would work that area all
summer and um, so yeah, you knowyou're out there.
Um, it's the summer so it's hot.
Um, people generally don't likedoor to door salespeople, just
generally, uh, you have youdon't say I used to.
(16:26):
I got.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I got warm welcome every time I knocked on a door,
especially eight in the morning,or what do we work like eight
to ten?
Speaker 3 (16:32):
yeah 14 hours, yeah, eight to ten, and sometimes a
little earlier, sometimes alittle later.
If you, if you had to get thetrick was always to set.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Then they taught you this to try to set as many
quote-unquote appointments asyou could in the morning and the
evening, because if you hadsomewhere to go where people
were actually expecting you inthe morning, it took a lot of
the pressure off rather thanjust cold knocking first thing
in the morning.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
That gravy time where you're doing a lot of
pre-approach in the day.
A lot of times families are out, the dad's not home, the mom's
not home, whatever the case maybe.
So you're just kind of layingthe foundation for what your
after five period is going tolook like.
And then after five was what wecall gravy is like it's house
after house of people you knowhave children who are kind of
(17:18):
expecting you and um well, and Iknow you've had this too, cause
it's like everyone's experienceis kind of similar.
You get a ton of rejection andyou have people who are super
mean and sometimes nasty to you,but you also meet the best
people middle of absolutelynowhere at like you know, it's
(17:47):
like 10 o'clock, it's my lastsale and these people have given
me dinner, they've given mestuff to take with me in terms
of like drinks and food and andthey just love on me.
And then when I see themthroughout the rest of the
summer, they're always waving tome Like it's it's really
amazing.
So it's like it's.
It's kind of a crazy experience, cause you see like I wouldn't
say the worst of people, but youdo see kind of a a negative
(18:08):
side of people.
But then you also see like areally amazing beautiful side of
people and that was pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah, you do get the full spectrum in dealing with
this program and I think a lotof the people out there that are
very kind to the book peopleare the people that have, I
think, a lot of entrepreneurs,right, people that have been out
there hustling and understandthe grind and have a deep, deep
respect for going out there andpounding the pavement and really
, really getting after it.
(18:35):
It's funny when you weretalking about finding out which
homes had children, it gave me aflashback to when I used to
walk around with my map and haveall the houses, the houses, and
I'd have like the names of thekids and I'm like walking around
the neighborhood, like I know,I'm like, yeah, I was just
talking to Jane next door withlittle Bobby and then and it's
just a wonder that more peopledidn't call the police on us
(18:55):
canvas in the neighborhoodasking about children.
But no, it works.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
It works.
It works.
And once people know you knowthat you've been to all these
houses and you know I've sold,I'm sure you've sold chief of
police and the mayor and youknow all types of names get on
your list and you start droppingnames with people and they're
like those people bought fromyou and you're like, yes, they
bought.
And it's like come on in andyou, you know, know, sell the
(19:23):
bag or whatever.
But yeah, it was, uh, it wasgreat, but it was the.
There were those tough momentsand I I allude to like a bunch
of them in my book, but one ofthem is like anytime I meet an
alumni, um, we usually alwayshave an experience where you're
like really close to quittingand it's like you're probably
under a tree.
Well, it's the proverbial tree.
(19:44):
Sometimes it's not actuallytree, but it's the proverbial
tree.
Sometimes it's not actually atree, but it's the proverbial
tree.
You're under the tree andyou're crying.
You're you're pretty much anadult at this point because
you're over 18 and you're cryingbecause it is so hard, it is so
hot.
All your friends are back homehaving the summer of their lives
, probably, and you're in themiddle of nowhere being yelled
at and dogs chasing you.
(20:07):
Why did I do this?
To myself?
I just want to go home but theuh, all the commitments that
you've made, cause they know,they know what the people who
are training for this they knowthey, first of all, they've been
through it themselves andsecond of all, they know you're
going to go through it.
So they prepare you for that.
And it's like you've given yourword to so many people.
Like I told my mom, I'm notcoming home Like I don't care
(20:30):
how bad it is, I'm going to stayout here.
I may cry every day and neversell anything, but I'm not
quitting, and I've told that tomy student manager.
And then you have first you haveyour own recruits that are out
there and it's still not easyjust because you've done it
before.
Sometimes it's harder and it'slike you can't quit when you
brought people out there.
So it's such a tough, toughthing, but you know it really
(20:54):
builds character, which isreally the product that
Southwestern is creating.
They're creating people ofcharacter that go out into the
world and hopefully do amazingthings or good things, at least
For sure, for sure.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Speaking of teams, I remember my second summer.
I brought out a small team andone of the guys on my team I
remember when I recruited him Isaw I think it was in Turlington
Square handing out those littleyellow slips.
And I was there with anotherbook guy and we saw this one kid
.
He just looked like a book stud.
He was.
He just looked like somebodythat'd be good and we both saw
him.
We were like I, hightailed it.
I got his information.
He came out on my team and hewas actually doing pretty well,
(21:40):
he was making sales, he washaving some good success and he
was actually living with me.
And probably a month I forgothow long several weeks in a
month in he came to me, said I'mleaving, and even though he was
doing well, he couldn't handlethe rejection.
He just I guess he grew upbeing told yes a lot and the no
was killing.
I had that conversation withhim.
I was like you can't, don't runfrom this now.
This is something you need toconfront.
And he ended up leaving.
And then I had other people onthe team that weren't doing so
(22:01):
well.
That stuck it out and it reallywas for me as well.
Just such a transformationalexperience gave me so much of
the groundwork I have now in mylife, from going out to sell
books.
I want to, I want to share withyou a funny story about my, my
challenges, um, and then maybeyou could share one about yours.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
I remember, remember suicide calls where you've
already done the demo, done thedemo to stay.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Let's say, a stay-at-home mom forgot to cover
the husband objection.
Okay, anyway, so my firstsummer no-transcript.
(22:59):
But I showed him everything andshe absolutely loved it and I
thought it was going to be asale.
And then she's oh, I just gotto have my, my husband, check it
out.
Can you come back later?
Could you come back after five?
Whatever it was?
Oh, yeah, sure I'll come back.
This is going to be great.
Set up a meeting to come backat five, went about the rest of
my day, struggled through thatday and then knocked on the door
(23:21):
at five and I'll have you guesswhat happened.
What do you think happened?
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Of course I'd be surprised if you made it in the
door.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yeah, husband answered the door.
Hey, we're not like.
You didn't even.
Let me get a word out.
He's like yeah, we're notinterested.
Let me get a word out.
He's like yeah, we're notinterested, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
And.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I was.
So I remember the feeling ofdefeat because I had it in my
mind you know, rookie sales guy,they love it, of course they're
going to buy.
I just had it in my mind thatthis was going to be the same
and it just crushed me.
And I remember leaving andwalked away and I called my
mother.
I said, mom, I can't do this.
(23:56):
This is hard, I don't know whatto do.
She's like I remember I'llnever forget what she told me.
She was like, jeremy, you knewthis was going to be challenging
, you knew this was going to behard.
Just get out there and sell,sell, sell.
And Leighton, I tell you, man,it was supposed to motivate me
to go actually work, but it didthe exact opposite.
In that moment it was alreadythe end of the day, or the end
(24:18):
of a normal day, right, not fora book day.
We should still be working.
But I remember walking.
I think I had anotherappointment and I walked right
by that appointment and therewas a little bowling alley,
close to where we were staying,and I remember walking just
straight to the bowling alleyand going to the bar in the
bowling alley and trying todrown my sorrows and I drank a
(24:39):
bunch of beers but I came out ofthat evening and out of that
night almost renewed I don'tknow what it was, and I was able
to come through that experienceand really have a killer summer
and get through that fear ofrejection and all that.
So that was an interestingexperience I had.
Looking at your journey, wasthere one experience that you
(25:01):
had in that process of reallyreally wanting to call it quits
and then you pushed through it?
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I mean, there was definitely a moment.
I can't put my finger on it,but I've had a similar moment.
I've done suicide demos in myfirst summer and had the same
response as you did and we wereboth warned not to do that, but
we did it anyway because you'relike.
This one will be different.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
But it never will be different.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
But a weird kind of an interesting story is um, this
was in my second summer, so Ihad a really good first summer
and I was off to a great startin my second summer.
And, um, I woke up one morningand I forget I know the the
areas I sold books in, but Iforget the order of of them.
But, um, it was a one of themost beautiful days I have ever
(25:58):
seen.
The sky was, there was not acloud in the sky, it was perfect
.
And I woke up that morning andagain I had been killed.
I killed it my first summer,for a first year, great start to
the second summer.
I got a crew of people thereeven my recruits are doing well
and and I looked, I was like I'mgoing to sell so many books
(26:19):
today.
This is going to be thegreatest day in the history of
Southwest.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
I'm going to hit the president's club in one day or
more with them.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
If I had to put money on it, I would have put money
that that was going to happen.
So I was so excited so fired up, happen.
So I was so excited, so firedup, I went out there and just
guns blazing all day, working,working, working.
I didn't really do too much inthe uh in the morning time like
setting up grave or anythinglike that, but I was out, you
(26:49):
know, getting you knowpre-approached to know who I'm
going to go back to, had all mylists.
So pre-approach comes around Imean not gravy comes around.
I got all my families lined up.
You know, they know I'm coming.
I haven't done my demo.
It's not suicide calls, butjust they have you know mom, dad
will be there, they have kids.
You know these are legitpotential buyers.
Line them all up and I'm goinggoing, going in in gravy and
(27:10):
it's like I'm not having soldanything yet all day.
I think I zeroed two times or soin my first summer and I never
zeroed in my second summer.
We're getting close to the endof the day and it's nine o'clock
and I'm still on zero.
(27:32):
I'm like what is going on?
On zero, I'm like what is goingon.
So I like I, this is supposedto be the best day ever.
Like I, there's got to be.
There's a pony story, like youknow there's.
My pony is in here somewhere.
I don't know if your peopleknow about pony stories, but so
I'm like, okay, I didn't get ityet, but I know that it's there,
(27:53):
I just need to keep working.
So 9 30, still on zero, andthat it's there.
I just need to keep working.
So 9.30, still on zero.
And now it's getting kind oflate and now it's kind of the
awkward time of like youknocking on people's door at
9.30 at night.
It's like kind of uncomfortable.
10 o'clock, I'm still on zeroand I'm like all right, this is
my last house.
Like it's either this house ornothing.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
So I'm in there and I need the sail.
So bad.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
They can feel it, they can smell it on me that I
can say exactly and I zero thatday, I zero that day and it was
a day I should not have zeroedbut I did.
And to this day, anytime I see acloudless sky, I'm like I
prepare myself, like I don'tknow what this day is going to
bring me, but I'm prepared forthis to be a very, very
challenging day.
And my son knows I told himthis story and it's true, man, I
(28:45):
see cloudless, blue skies, thatare just perfect days and I
like kind of prepare myself, forI don't know what this day is
going to bring, but I'm going toenjoy the beautiful day and if
it brings anything crazy, I'mgoing to be as prepared as I can
for it.
But that was a really tough day.
I went back home and all myguys were like well, how did you
do?
I was, like you know, built alot of character today, but I
(29:06):
finished up with a relativelygood week.
It wasn't anything spectacular,but definitely finished up the
summer, great summer.
That was my last zero dayselling books and I had like two
summers after that.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
So I bet you learned more about yourself in that day
than any other day out thereeven though you didn't sell
anything.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Yeah, I can't.
I can't even tell you the daythat I had my best day.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
I don't even remember and I know that day was
probably the one you remember,the one where you zeroed, where
you put 14 hours in and didn'tsell a damn thing, didn't sell
anything.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
That that day.
I'll never forget it and Icherish that day because I've
learned so much from that.
I'm glad I had that experienceand it also kind of ties in a
little bit to one of the themesof the book.
It's like you kind of got to.
It's hard to be on theseemotional.
When things are great you'rejust on the top of the world,
(30:01):
and when things are horribleyou're just super, you know, in
a low state.
It's kind of better to as muchas possible kind of take that
through line where you're not onthese emotional roller coasters
of emotions, because that canreally make life a lot harder
than it needs to be.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
So yeah, Absolutely, and that's that's one thing for
me that I've noticed ever sinceI turned 40, really in the last
four or five years I've been on,I would say, a spiritual
journey of self-awareness andself-development, and I think it
tends to happen on the Northside of 40 for a lot of folks
and that's one of the thingsthat I've gotten a lot better at
(30:33):
is really bridging the gapbetween the really highs and the
lows.
And I still have, you know,we're still human beings, I
still I still ride the highs andthe lows, but I find myself, um
, especially on the low moments,evening out a lot quicker,
Whereas in the past somethingmay have happened that I would
allow to affect me for hours,sometimes even days, that doesn
(30:54):
doesn't really happen anymore.
It's more I'm able to kind ofcatch it in the moment.
The things that are deepest,that affect me from childhood,
from the longest things, thelongest running things, are the
ones that tend to trigger me forthe longest.
But the everyday bullshit thatcomes up now I'm usually able to
look at that and laugh at itand brush it off.
(31:16):
So I think that's a good segueto get into the book.
Right, your happiness equation.
So talk a little bit about theimpetus behind the book.
When did the idea come to you?
When did you decide look, Ineed to write a book
specifically about an equationfor happiness.
(31:38):
I'm interested to get into this.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yeah, so it started from a conversation that I had
with my kids.
We were sitting around and Iwas like, because we have all
types of crazy conversations andadventures, I've taken them
across country.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
How old are your?
Speaker 3 (31:55):
kids.
So my oldest one is 17.
He's graduating high schoolright now.
He goes to Western.
I have a 14-year-old daughter.
She goes to West Broward.
I have two 13-year-olds One ismy stepson and my son, and they
also go to school in the area.
(32:17):
So this was about probably threeand a half years ago, yeah,
because the book project hasbeen that long.
So I'm sitting around, we'retalking, we have all types of
crazy conversations and I waslike, hey, guys, let's uh see if
we can come up with an equationfor happiness.
And they're like they were gamebecause we've we've had, you
know, crazy, you knowtheoretical, sometimes really
(32:43):
deep conversations.
And they're hanging in therewith me and they're throwing out
ideas and whatnot.
I'm kind of moderating and, um,at the end of it, I look at it
and I'm like, man, there'ssomething here, right, and they
that we kind of agree.
So I like, okay, that thatthat's interesting.
So, um, at the time I was theeducational coordinator for my
bni chapter, uh, familiar withbni, heard of them, know of them
(33:04):
okay, indeed okay so I was.
I've been in bni for as long asI've owned my business uh, so 13
years I've been in bni.
I've been educationalcoordinator probably seven times
, um, so that's 50 times a yeardoing an educational topic.
All right, so this particularweek, like a week after I have
the conversation with my kids, Ihave a chance to kind of think
(33:26):
a little bit more, read a littlebit more kind of polish the
equation a little bit more, andI do a presentation in front of
my group about the happinessequation and I start my salesman
.
Because you have to sell that,I mean you're there at a meeting
.
It can be sometimes our BNI ispretty lively, but business
(33:48):
meetings generally can sometimesbe boring.
So to capture everyone'sattention, I say today we're
going to talk about the mostimportant equation in the
history of humanity, and I'm notjoking, that's what I tell them
.
So like I have their attentionright, yeah.
So then I go through theequation and after almost
(34:12):
everybody in the chapter eithercalls me, texts me, comes up to
me and said Leighton, I can'tbelieve you spoke about that.
I've been thinking about someof these things, um, some of
them open up to me about verypersonal things.
I have pretty closerelationships with these people,
um, but they were opening up ina way that they had never in
(34:33):
the past and it was like kind ofblew me away.
So I was like man, I probablyshould do something with this.
And three and a half yearslater, the book we just had a
book tour last month.
We drove all over the countrypromoting it, been in the
pre-sale process of it nowgetting the word out.
(34:53):
It's been quite the ride, quiteamazing and definitely a great
experience and I'm glad to havecome upon it.
But that's the origin story.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
I love it.
So go back to when you werewith your kids and you mapped
out this happiness equation.
What did that look like?
Because obviously you sat down.
I'm trying to picture in myhead what a basic framework for
happiness.
Obviously, you got to get intothe book and read all about it
to learn more.
But, like give give us anoverview of of what that looked
(35:25):
like.
The Genesis of the happinessequation.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
So with the kids again, it was a very rudimentary
version, so it was me askingthem and me volunteering, like
things that I thought wereuniversal, so that.
So that's part of the equationis that the things that are in
the equation I feel apply topretty much everyone on the
planet.
I try to not include anyvariables in the equation that
(35:52):
were like unique, to just like ahandful of people or excluded,
like millions and millions ofpeople.
So everything in therebasically applies to everybody
on the planet.
So I would ask them so, heyguys, what do you guys think
would go in there?
And they would throw outsomething.
I'm like I don't know.
I would think say something Idon't know, but then things like
gratitude came out.
(36:12):
It's like do you thinkgratitude would be somewhere in
the equation?
Okay, yeah, we should probablyput that there, but where?
Where?
Where should we put it?
So we're all we're having aconversation about, uh, like
happiness, but we're also havinga conversation about math
because, um, we have todetermine where in the equation
to put it and, depending onwhere it is in the equation,
(36:34):
it's going to have more or lessweight.
So like, for example, theultimate position of gratitude
gratitude.
We ended up putting it as anexponent.
I don't know if we did it inthat moment, but in the polis
version it is.
It's an exponent now because Ifeel gratitude touches all the
other variables and it has a wayof just igniting happiness and
(36:58):
and joy in your life.
So we wanted to have a veryprominent place for that.
Then we talk about other things, like family.
But I was like, well, family istricky because some people have
complicated relationships withtheir family and it's like, does
that apply to everybody?
And so it was like maybe it'snot family, but it's like other
people, like a group of people.
(37:19):
Like if you have a group ofpeople in your life and you're
nurturing that relationship,you're getting something out of
it, you're giving and gettingsomething from that.
Like that can be an importantthing.
So that made it into theequation and so on.
And a group can be as small astwo people.
It can be larger, of course,but the American College of
(37:46):
Psychology defines a group astwo or more people that have
shared goals and they have normsand rules on kind of how they
operate together.
And so if you're in a groupwith at least two people and
that's important to you, I thinkthat can definitely contribute
to happiness.
So those things.
So that's kind of how we cameup with the rudimentary version
(38:08):
of happiness.
I also spoke with a lot ofpeople and and read a lot also
and it was like man, Ioverlooked some things that I
had to put in.
And then we got into the Xvariable, which is like
interesting because the variableis, I mean, the equation is
what it is.
But I will talk to people and Iwas looking at I just posted
one of the interviews that I did.
(38:29):
We were in I think we were atPurdue in Indiana and we're
talking to a student and she wasawesome because she challenged
me.
She was like well, all thosequestions you asked are great,
but I get a lot of satisfactionand joy out of art and I'm not I
don't think she's like aprofessional artist and I don't
(38:50):
think she was an art major.
She just liked to do art and Idon't discount that at all.
I think if that is important toyou, then you should nurture
and develop that as much as youpossibly can.
But I would say those fall aslike X variables.
It's like not universal toeverybody, but it's important to
you and the same way that youcan look at the other variables
(39:12):
and get kind of, you know, tryand optimize them.
You should take your X variableand optimize that as well.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
So that's interesting , because interesting because
happiness obviously does meandifferent things to different
people, but, like you alluded to, there are some common
variables that transcendeverything, like this idea of
gratitude, but people havedifferent passions.
I think so many people livetheir whole life without tapping
(39:39):
into their true potential.
I think every human being,every person on this planet,
really really has a potentialfor greatness locked within them
and fortunately, due to manydifferent factors and external
factors, internal factors,decisions people end up stuck in
the rat race, if you will,working that nine to five job
(40:01):
and never really taken the risksnecessary to explore themselves
to the point where they can tapinto that true potential.
And it's a shame really, andI'm finally finding that within
myself you see the guitar in thebackground I played.
Speaking of art and creativity,I've played the guitar now for
30, probably 30 years, maybeeven more, and for the majority
(40:24):
of that time I never exploredsinging, I always just played,
and I would play for a couplemonths and then I'd lose
interest and I'd stop playingfor a while.
And it was like that for prettymuch the duration of my musical
career, if you will, and overthe last several years as I've
gone through this spiritualjourney of personal growth and
(40:44):
development.
I've really done a lot of workon myself.
I've learned to let the guarddown and start expressing myself
and really start working hardat getting better at singing and
playing while singing.
And what I find is that themore work I put into it, like
anything else, the moreconfident I get, the better it
starts to sound, the moreobsessed I get with it, the more
I want to play, and I reallyhaven't put the guitar down now,
(41:04):
for like every day it's atleast an hour to two hours I'm
sitting down just drilling out,practicing singing songs, and I
don't even get it.
I used to tell myself, like thegoal of like I want to be, I
want to put something out therethat's, that's amazing, and
become famous and all this, andlike none of that shit really
matters anymore to me.
I mean it does to some degree,because we're humans and we want
(41:26):
validation.
But I'm getting more and morealigned with the idea of it's
just about expressing myself atthe deepest level and putting it
out there and trying to sharethat with everyone else.
And if, if, what comes out isgreat and it resonates great.
If not, I'm fine with that too.
And the more attuned I get withthat.
It seems, the better the musicis, the better the creative.
(41:47):
The more creative juices, themore divine downloads come to me
, the more I let go ofexpectation and trying to be
good and all that bullshit and Ijust kind of let myself out,
and then I think that's wherethe magic happens.
That's where the true geniuscomes in is when you finally let
your guard down and becomeincredibly vulnerable and just
not give a shit about whatanybody thinks, and then when
(42:08):
those walls come down.
I think it alludes to what yousaid earlier about at your BNI
group, when you shared this ideawith people about sitting down
with your children and talkingabout the happiness equation and
really sharing something sodeep, so deep and vulnerable.
Making yourself vulnerablehelped open everybody else up
and they heard that from you.
You're like I want more of thisand it's just like the law of
attraction.
You put that out there andpeople like like, yeah, so I
(42:30):
love that man.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
Yeah, it's, it's, it's true, just like any of the
other variables in the equationwhich are universal, like if you
started to neglect somethinglike your pursuit of music and
your creativity.
There, you know it's, thatcouldn't end up.
Um, first of all, it soundslike it's a great source of joy
for you, if, if I'm here, it'shard, I'm sure, and, as you know
(42:52):
, some of the best things inlife are very challenging, uh,
to attain, you know, andsometimes they're lifelong
pursuits, but the results youget from, from going after it
and pursuing it, you know theyproduce these benefits that are
are are kind of priceless.
So, yeah, a hundred percentagree.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Yeah, priceless for sure, uh, and, and I still.
It's funny because even withall of the effort that I put in
and the time and work, I stillhave a hard time performing for
people.
And I have a, I have a gold.
I want to do an open mic nightand I want to make record videos
and do all this stuff, butthere's still that, that thing
(43:32):
within me that that is isholding back from letting it out
there, but I'm inching closerand closer and closer.
I do a lot of, like I said, workon myself, transformational
stuff.
We do men's retreats.
I like doing things like breathwork, ice bath, cold therapy,
(43:55):
all these different modalitiesto try to enhance, and when we
go on these retreats and we workwith plant medicine I've done
ayahuasca things to enhance.
And when we go on theseretreats and we do, we do we
work with plant medicine I'vedone ayahuasca things like that
and that's a place for me whereI'm able to sit around the fire
and really kind of let the guarddown and express what's truly
inside.
And I'm trying to, I'm workingtowards trying to be that way in
(44:19):
every moment in life, towardstrying to be that way in every
moment in life, and this idea ofworking towards trying to be
the most authentic version ofmyself possible in every
situation.
It's like what you see is whatyou get.
So many of us go out and we putmasks up when we meet people
and then we end up gettingpeople in our orbit in our life
that really shouldn't be therebecause we were pretending when
(44:40):
we met them.
It's like the goal would be tokind of be the most authentic,
like whoever I am.
If that resonates with you andyou want to be around, that
great.
And if not, then don't.
And what you'll find if you dothat is that you'll be
surrounded by people thatappreciate you for who you truly
are, and it just feeds offitself right, the more of that
you convey, the more authenticyou get, and just that's a goal
(45:01):
of mine, and I still feel myselfin many situations.
I feel like I have to have thatmask on in social situations,
but come a long way in thatregard for sure.
So you said February 4th, right, the book is being launched.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
Correct, yeah, so go ahead.
Yeah, I had written a bookprior uh, probably 10 or more
years ago and it um, it learneda lot.
But one of those things, Ibuilt a lot of character.
You talk about putting yourselfout there on in a creative way
and just not knowing what toexpect.
(45:35):
But that was definitely acharacter building uh project
because it did not gocommercially successful and it
really didn't have the impactthat I wanted it to have.
Where you know, with thisproject, of course I want to
help people and that is the thegenesis of it.
But it is good to kind of feellike the validation of people
(45:57):
like this.
People find value it.
It kind of gives you themotivation to keep going and to
push through those hard times,because there are hard times and
this project has been a lotmore expensive than you would
probably imagine, like all thethings that it takes to make it
successful, successful.
(46:24):
But it is again one of thosethings where, if you're putting
yourself out there and you'rebeing vulnerable, you're really
and the book gets into very I'mvery open in the book.
I'm literally an open book and Italk about pretty much all the
formidable things that happenedin my life that relate to the
variables, and I use things thathappened in my life as ways to
make points of the things thatI've done great that seem to
(46:47):
work out and the things thatI've done not so good that seem
to consistently have like theopposite effect.
So it's very personal, but Ithink just in having these
conversations with people, theresponse that I've gotten and
people's willingness to open upto me and share things with me
and for them, like a lot oftimes when I have these
(47:07):
conversations I can see, eventhough they haven't read the
book because the book is not outyet they're thinking about the
things that we talked about andI can just tell and the people
that I'm in relationship with,who we do talk.
It's not like a person I meeton the street, we do an
interview and then they we neversee each other again.
The people in my life have cometo me and said, leighton, that
(47:29):
thing that you mentioned, likeI've really been working on it
and it's really been helping me.
So it's been a really amazingexperience.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
Yeah, sounds like it for sure.
I was just thinking about.
I kind of lost my train ofthought.
So if it comes back, it comesback.
So February 4th, where is thebook going to be available?
Is it tell us about how wecould find it, where we could
order a copy?
I'm assuming we could pre-order.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
Yeah, ideally, a pre-order would be great.
So definitely trying to helppeople on this project and
that's like the main goal, butI'm also trying to uh, you know,
get the, the title ofbest-selling author.
I have a lot of other booksthat I want to write and, um,
for a regular guy it's it'sreally impossible to some degree
to break into the world of likeliterature and get a mainstream
(48:18):
publisher who you know willgive you a shot, or even a
literary agent.
But if you've kind of provenyourself on your own, it would
potentially open up other doors.
So I would encourage anybody,if you like any of the stuff
that I said or that we touchedon today, I would encourage you
to not necessarily wait till thelaunch date and pre-order the
book, just because of the waythat the industry is set up.
(48:40):
If I have a bunch of sales thatland on the first day, it just
helps with the algorithm and howthey do the metrics for all of
that.
But beyond all that, if I getit, great.
If I don't get it, it's fine.
I think I've already touchedpeople and I think it's just the
more people that do hear aboutit is is just going to be
(49:02):
impactful for them.
But yeah, I would say pre-order.
The way that you can pre-orderis you can go to our website, um
, wwwyourhappinesseqcom, sothat's our web address, and then
our primary social media uh,place place where we post pretty
(49:23):
much everything first isInstagram and that's at
yourhappinesseq, so check us outat both those places.
On the website, there's a linkto buy the book.
On Instagram, there's a link inthe bio to get the book, and I
regularly post and a lot of myposts have links to get the book
(49:49):
, and right now it's availableon Amazon and that's where we're
directing people to go.
That's where all the links takeyou to.
Is you buy it on Amazon, soit'll be super quick.
It's a really quick purchase.
Right now it's $11.99 inpre-sale.
You to is you buy it on Amazon,so it'll be super quick.
It's a really quick purchase.
Right now it's $11.99 inpre-sale, so it's really not a
bunch of money and I'm notreally doing this project to
make money per se.
Again, it's trying to get theword out, trying to help people
(50:11):
and kind of lay the foundationfor future projects.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
Yeah, spread the message.
I love it.
We will, of course, put linksin the description to your
Instagram page to the pre-ordersite on Amazon.
We're going to make itextremely easy for you guys, if
you're interested in picking upa copy, to pre-order.
So take the time now.
Man, you got one here.
I mean, I'm all in on this.
I'm really excited to dig inand get a copy and look and
(50:39):
learn and get a look inside themind and all these topics are
are are really, really keen onmy mind right now, and so I
really can't wait to take it inand I hope all you out there
listening got something fromthis today and I hope you go out
and you get the book, supportLayton and everything he's doing
and you know, sounds like it'sgoing to be a really, really
(51:00):
good read, for sure.
Speaker 3 (51:02):
Yeah, getting a great response so far and, yeah, it's
exciting to see where it'll goand I appreciate you having me
on and your support and all thatso much appreciated.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
Of course, I'm always , always happy to have a fellow
book man on the show.
I mean, do so many of theseinterviews.
It's always nice to havesomebody that has a shared
history and then to see the workthat you're doing here and to
learn that you're here, local inthe community.
We definitely got to gettogether go out and have lunch
and continue this conversationinto the future and, who knows,
(51:31):
maybe we'll have you back on theshow after the book launches
and we'll talk about some of thesuccesses.
That'd be awesome.
Would really appreciate that.
All right man Sounds good.
Thanks so much, everyone fortuning in and we will look
forward to seeing you next timeon the next episode of the Good
Neighbor Podcast.
Everyone, take care and stayhappy out there.
You only got this one life.
Let's make the most of it.
(51:52):
Everyone, take care, have awonderful 2025.
Catch you next time.
Speaker 1 (51:57):
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast
Cooper City.
To nominate your favorite localbusiness to be featured on the
show, go to GNPCooperCitycom.
That's GNPCooperCitycom, orcall 954-231-3170.
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