DREAM THINK DO | Motivation, Encouragement & Strategy

My guest is Brian Scudamore. Brian is the founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK. Brian and his team have grown 1-800-GOT-JUNK into the world's largest junk removal service. Not only that, they scaled that bad boy and started three more home service brands. He's got his eye on $ 1 billion. He's living the DREAM THINK DO life… so let's get to this! Listen To The Podcast: Resources: Brian's Book: WTF?! (Willing to Fail): How Failure Can Be Your Key to Success Find out more about Brian: Click here Interview: Brian Scudamore: Thanks for having me, Mitch. Mitch Matthews: Let's talk about how this got started. Brian Scudamore: There I was looking for a way to pay for college. But my college education took a back seat when I realized I was making more money and having more fun and learning way more about a business by building a business versus studying in school. So, I had a conversation with my dad, who's a liver transplant surgeon. Three years into my degree in college. I said, "Dad, I got some awesome news for ya. I said I'm quitting school and…" Mitch Matthews: Get ready, dad. Brian Scudamore: He says, "how is that good news?" I gonna learn so much more about business running one, instead of studying from textbooks, from professors that have never started a business in their life. While my dad did not get the good news train, 10 years later he sat down. He said, yeah, Brian you did the right thing. Mitch Matthews: Good, good call. But obviously this willing to fail was something you were willing to do early on. Would you say that ... At what point would you say this started to set in that being willing to fail was key. Brian Scudamore: I think I've always been a bit of a risk-taker as an entrepreneur. I grew up with grandparents who had a small business. Now they ... It was an army surplus store in San Francisco. I used to work there every summer and Christmas vacation. I don't think they took a lot of risks. But I enjoyed the game of business and was fired to take that entrepreneurial leap. Maybe it was just a part of my DNA. I don't know. But I found myself whenever I was starting a business, I didn't mind putting myself out there and making some mistakes. It just felt like the fastest and easiest way to learn. Brian Scudamore: Five years into my business, to the half a million in revenue, I felt good about what I was building. But not good about the people on board. That old phrase of one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. I probably had ... Nine of my 11 employees were bad apples. It was a leadership moment for me to get rid of the entire crew. I brought all 11 in and I said, sorry guys I've let you down as your leader. I have not given you the love and support or found the right people and fired everyone to only start again. But to take that leadership lesson of, okay I failed here. This hurts. I've gotten rid of my entire company. Yet starting again there was that valuable lesson and it got better. Mitch Matthews: Not bad. Well, That's ... I love that story in the book. That took some guts. As I'm sitting there, here you had to be thinking, oh gosh this is rough. This is embarrassing. Also, you had to look down the barrel of running the business solo for a while, too until bringing on the right people. But, that's the kind of thing where that took guts at the time where you needed it, right? 'Cause you could have just kind of tried to maintain it with status quo. I'm guessing you would have been a completely different place today. Brian Scudamore: Yeah. We learned or I learned that day 'cause it was just me, that building a company is all about finding the right people and treating them right. The company would not be what it is today. Today will ... This year we'll do $440 million in revenue. There's no way we would have come anywhere close to that hadn't we found this important mantra of finding the right people. For someone like ourselves heavily branded in everything we do,

My guest is Tom Ziglar. Among many things, Tom is the proud son of Zig Ziglar. He's also a bestselling author and international speaker. Listen To The Podcast: Resources: Interview: Mitch Matthews: Tom is also now the CEO of the Ziglar Corporation. Tom joined the Ziglar Corporation in 1987, but he started at the bottom. In fact, he started in the warehouse and routed through sales that went on to management then moved into leadership. He also speaks around the world and hosts the wildly popular Ziglar Show podcast. So you should check that out. He carries on that Ziglar philosophy. "You can have everything in life you want if you just help enough other people get what they want." I love that. That was a life-changing quote for me. His new book coming out is called Choose to Win: Transform your Life, One Simple Choice at a Time. When I heard about it, I knew I wanted to have Tom on the show because he's the real deal and he's all about getting you strategies that actually work. So let's get to this. Tom Ziglar, welcome to Dream, Think, Do buddy. Tom Ziglar: Oh man. Mitch, thanks for having me. Mitch Matthews: Absolutely, this is an honor, my friend. I've been following you for a while in a good way, not in a restraining order kind of way. Tom Ziglar: Are you stalking me? Mitch Matthews: Yeah, in a positive stalker kind of way. So yeah, take that however you want. I love it. I'm sure you get questions like this a bajillion times over, so I apologize, but I just have to ask, what was it like to grow up in the Ziglar household? Tom Ziglar: I'll tell you, it was amazing. I tell people all the time as good as dad was on stage, he was even better off stage. He was just ... When you think of, gosh, what would be the ultimate earthly father. Mitch Matthews: Right. Tom Ziglar: I think Zig Ziglar would be that. And then my mom, the redhead- Mitch Matthews: The redhead. Yes. Tom Ziglar: Dad said he never would have heard of Zig Ziglar if I hadn't been for the redhead. And so just to grow up in that family and Dad was always ... He never put the pressure on. He never said you're going to be in sales or you're going to be a speaker. He always said, hey, whatever you want to do, whatever your passion is, whatever your why is just ... I want you to pursue it with 100% effort and 100% integrity. And so, when you're raising kids, I mean what better message could you have than two parents who set the example. They're always there to talk and then they're behind you 100% as long as you're doing it with integrity and effort. I mean that's ... You can't ask for more than that. Mitch Matthews: That's a beautiful thing. It is amazing and it's ... I've had some other folks that had famous parents and it's interesting how that's not always the case. Sometimes that outer appearance is wonderful, amazing, but when they get home, they're a different person. So that's not surprising, but it's beautiful to hear. Well, one of the things I wondered about too was, what was that conversation like when you're deciding, hey, I think I want to come and work for Zig ... the Ziglar Corporation. What does that ... what does that conversation look like? Tom Ziglar: Well, I'll tell you what, it was pretty simple. I played golf in college and my goal was to be a professional PGA golfer and I graduated from college and I needed money to support my golf habit and I needed flexibility. Mitch Matthews: Yeah. Tom Ziglar: And dad was behind that 100%. And so I started off in the warehouse working [inaudible 00:04:49] depending on the time of year, 25 to 35 hours just there packing boxes and doing production work. And then I was playing golf 40 to 50 hours of practice and playing. So I had the flexibility, which is great to have that flexibility. And then I realized that those guys out there are really good after about a year and some injuries and I thought, you know what? Golf's not my future.

My Guest is Rock Thomas. He's a self-made millionaire, bestselling author three times over. He became one of the top 50 realtors in the world. He studied with some of the greats like Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield, and Wayne Dyer, one-on-one. But most importantly, he's taken up a personal mission to help those who have been beaten up by life and he's helped them to retrain their thinking, find their self worth and also often help them to grow wealth and abundance in the process. He's definitely living the Dream Think Do life. So it's about dang time we had him on this show. Listen To The Podcast: Resources: Website: https://rockthomas.com/ Twitter: @rockthomas Instagram: @rockthomas FB: RockThomasOfficial Interview: Mitch Matthews: Rock Thomas, welcome to Dream Think Do, buddy. Rock Thomas: That's beautiful, man. Not only do you have a beautiful voice, but you articulate as well. So I'd like you to send me that recording and I'm going to put it on my phone first thing every morning when I wake up. Mitch Matthews: You got it. You got it. Tell you what I always say a good intro is my gift to my guests. You know, you deserve it for crying out loud. And yours, yours is so easy. I just, I really was blown away and I don't want to shortchange your story. I want to start with the story that really you covered in that goal cast video. Just so Dream Think Doers can know a little bit more of kind of where you came from. Take us back to your, to your childhood because this was, this was not an easy story. Rock Thomas: You know, I think we all grew up with a dream and then somewhere along the line often it gets crushed. And if you don't have the wherewithal or the resources of the guidance or the encouragement to revive it than most people live this life of quiet desperation and just trying to avoid pain, quite frankly. And I, fortunately, somehow, I think maybe through reading, I didn't grow up with the TV. I was, my parents got divorced at five and funnily enough, my sister and I grew up when I was around one and three, my mom adopted two other kids. So I was actually the youngest of four kids in the house, you know, back in the days when moms were raising kids single and dad worked, you know, till 7:00 at night. Then we got divorced and I lived with my mom for a while and I wanted more attention. She was a gypsy. So I didn't get that. I set things on fire and I fought with principals and I was that kid who was skinny but went into the new school and looked for the biggest kid and kicked him in the shins and said, what are you looking at? And- Mitch Matthews: It was a survival strategy, right? Like something you learn. But- Rock Thomas: Yeah, it's like if I can take on the biggest kid, who else is going to take me on? But after a while that got old as we changed, my mom had to relocate me from school to school and she finally shipped me off to my dad, my dad, my dad had remarried and now I was the youngest of seven. So my entire life was this battle of can somebody sees me, I got the hand me downs that are torn. Is there any food left? Can I say something? And my father's wife had married a guy who ended up in an insane asylum. So they treated her children in a special way because they were afraid that they had some mental issues. So they got away with things while I was always told to toe the line. So there was this separation. And I think that happiness in my experience comes a lot from connection, from feeling you're one with other people, you're around the fireplace at Christmas time and you're having a good time when you feel safe. And I never really had that. I always felt like I was about to be attacked or bullied or there'd be no food left. Mitch Matthews: Wow. Rock Thomas: So somewhere along the line I just started reading the books that were in my dad's library and I read this one book called, by Vernon Howard, Do What You Fear and It'll Disappear.

My guest is Laura Gassner Otting and her new book is called "Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life." In the book, Laura interviews highly successful globe changers and has uncovered strategies to help you get unstuck. Laura's background spans this world's of successful startups and non-profits as well as political and philanthropic landscapes. She's coming to us after being interviewed on the Today Show… so we're excited to have her on! Listen To The Podcast: Resources: The Book: Limitless The Assessment: limitlessassessment.com/DTD Instagram: @heyLGO Twitter: @heyLGO Interview: LauraL Hey, hey out there to everyone in your Dream, Think, Doer Universe. I love that. I love people who are dreamers, thinkers, and doers. Mitch: Right? It's a great crew. And as we talked about before we hit record it's an awesome, awesome crew. We tend to totally offend grumpy people so there's just a lot of love here 'cause that's what we do, I love it. Laura: Fantastic. Mitch: I could go through the list of successes that you've had in your life, I mean you were appointed by President Bill Clinton to help shape AmeriCorps, you've helped grow startups and non-profits, you've been interviewing globe changers for this book, it's a bestseller, all of those things, but somebody might look at you and go, "Wait you've never felt stuck." How about you? What's a time in your life where you Laura personally felt stuck? Laura: Boy where do I start? You know it's really interesting this idea when people look at you and they go, "Oh she's got it all together. He's got it all together." Cause I really do think that people see us as the fully formed person we are today, and number one, I hope that I'm not fully formed, I hope there's still evolution and change and growth that's going to happen, because boy it would pretty boring to stop here, right? Mitch: Exactly. I'm done. Laura: Been so fun so far. Mitch: I'm done. Laura: I'm all done. So number one, A, I'm not fully formed and B, it's not that I came into the world as this I'm just maybe five or 10 or 25 years ahead of the person who's looking at me. I'm just the future them, and they look at me as this unachievable thing when in fact it's completely achievable if they dream, think, and do. So a time when I felt fully stuck was probably when I was at the big traditional gold standard search firm that I was at, and I was supposed to be happy. I had done all the right things, I had checked all the right boxes, I went to the right schools, I got the right jobs, I got the right promotions, and there I was as the youngest Vice President at this very well known search firm, and I wasn't happy. And I couldn't understand why I wasn't happy, and I thought about the thousands of people that I'd interviewed for jobs who were all at the top of their game, who all were successful, and not all of whom were happy. And I couldn't figure out why that was until I realized that I wasn't happy either. And then I looked around and I thought, "Well why am I here? Why did I join this firm?" And I joined this firm because it was the very top firm in the country, in the world that was doing specifically mission-driven non-profit executive search, and I thought I was there to change the world. Mitch: Yeah. Laura: But then I realized that I was actually there to create profit for the owners of the firm. So my job was to sit on one side of the table with the firm and on the other side of the table as my client who wanted to cure cancer, or save the whales, or feed the poor, or create educational access, or anything else that it might be. And in between us silent unspoken was the elephant, the profit, and loss statement of the firm. And it turned out that I had two masters. I was serving the firm, and I was also serving my clients, and the truth is I wanted to be on that side of the table with them and not on...

My guest is Eduardo Garcia. Eduardo is chef, entrepreneur, filmmaker, outdoorsman and philanthropist. I came across this story when I was checking out this amazing video series by Yeti called "The Hungry Life." I started to dig in and it took me down this amazing rabbit hole of inspiration and incredible stories. And great food too. Listen To The Podcast: Resources: www.montanamex.com www.chefeduardo.com www.chargedfilm.com Instagram: @chefeduardogarcia, @montanamex Mitch: The short version is that he grew up in Montana hunting, hiking, exploring and at about the age of 15 started to work at local restaurants. He uncovered this love for creating amazing food. He went on to culinary school, wound up becoming a chef for the uber wealthy on yachts and in private homes, pretty cool. But after about 11 years he decided to come back home and launch a natural foods company called "Montana Mex" with his friends. But around that same time tragedy struck and I want him to tell you the story himself. But needless to say he battled back from some incredible odds. And when you hear the story you will know exactly what I'm talking about. Incredible odds sells it short. But Ed not only survived but he's thrived. He's created this incredible life. He is truly living the epitome of the dream think do life. So I had to have him on. I can't wait for this episode. So let's get to this. Mitch: Eduardo, welcome to DTD. Eduardo: Hey Mitch, I'm excited to be here. I'm super ready. Mitch: Exactly I love it. And you are sitting outside beautiful Bozeman, Montana where I used to live. So once I found that out I'm like oh my gosh... He's got to be on dream think do. I just wanted to come to your house though and do the interview. So we'll do that next week. Eduardo: Next time. Mitch: Yeah, exactly right. I love it. So you grew up in Montana. Did you grow up with a love for the outdoors or was that something that came on later in life? Eduardo: Yeah. I think when we moved to Montana I was six years old and it's kind of one of those things I think there's nature and nurture and where I was living was mountains and four distinct seasons. Yellowstone River a stones throw away and it was my sandbox. So I had no other options nor did I know any better and then of course through programs like Boy Scouts of America and then your community and your friends and your peers, you grow up in the outdoors. You grow up skiing. You grow up hiking. You grow up fishing. You grow up. This is your hood. This is the peaks, the valleys, the streams, the meadows of the Rocky Mountain west. Mitch: Yeah. And then you just dive in and have at it, right? Eduardo: Yeah you have to. They always say to live in a place like Montana especially you know if you do not take advantage or engage with the outdoors in some way not only are you missing out on one of the greatest boons of being in a place like this geographically, but you're probably going bonkers. Because there's nothing to do here. Mitch: Exactly right. Eduardo: And I mean from an outdoors man's perspective, I have a calendar that I call my recreational calendar and it's every month of the year this is where my focus is from an outdoor perspective. Mitch: And doing activities outside different types of activities and that kind of thing. Eduardo: Yeah. You know snowboarding and snow sports, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, picking up antlers, mushroom foraging, fly fishing, floating the rivers to then hunting in the fall, putting the garden away, and then all of a sudden you're back into winter and snow sports. So it's like. Mitch: Yeah I'll never forget we lived out there for a number of years. We had a friend visit and he showed up on a Friday morning and that night my wife got home from work and I said, "What do you want to do?" and he's like, "Well what do you guys want to do?" I said,, "You want to go to the mountains. He's like yes.

My guest is NASCAR's Jon Housholder. Jon is a two time Emmy awarding winning producer at NASCAR Productions. He produces, he directs, he edits, he features race open trailers, commercials, the whole thing. He's also worked on several nationally televised sports documentaries during his time at NASCAR. One of the most recent is Unrivaled: Earnhardt versus Gordon. That was pretty good. I think I hurt my throat. Listen To The Podcast: Resources: Interview: Mitch: Hey there and welcome to Dream, Think, Do. I'm Mitch Matthews. I've got an awesome interview for you today so strap in and get ready. Today we are talking to NASCAR's own Jon Housholder. Jon is a two time Emmy awarding winning producer at NASCAR Productions. He produces, he directs, he edits, he features race open trailers, commercials, the whole thing. He's also worked on several nationally televised sports documentaries during his time at NASCAR. One of the most recent is Unrivaled: Earnhardt versus Gordon. That was pretty good. I think I hurt my throat. Jon: That was incredible. That's incredible. I'm very impressed. Mitch: All right. So I have to admit that I am a total newb when it comes to NASCAR. But even when I saw that trailer my heart rate increased, my adrenaline went up, all of that just watching the trailer one time. I was like dang it. So it's obvious Jon and the team that he gets to work with, they do an incredible job so whether you like NASCAR or not you're want to go check out some of his work. It's incredible. In addition to producing documentaries, Jon also wrote and directed an award winning short film called "Withdrawn in Trepidation." Which appeared at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival awards. Prior to working at NASCAR Jon worked at Menards in their corporate broadcast advertising department where he developed weekly advertising plans and created television and web advertising. Jon is the proud graduate of Wartburg College. What's up Wartburg? In Waverley, Iowa with a degree of public relations and electronics media and a leadership minor. While he was there he was also student body vice president and a two sport athlete. Football and track if you're interested. Jon is originally from West Des Moines, Iowa. But currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife Liz. He is truly living the dream, think, do life. So it's time to have him on the show. Jon, welcome to Dream, think, do, buddy. Jon: Mitch Matthews. Thank you so much for having me man. Mitch: This is crazy cool. Jon: This is very cool. Mitch: I mean I love all of my guests but some I love a little bit more than others, man. And we've known each other for a long time. Jon: Yes we have. Yes we have. Mitch: Yes so your dad is Mike Housholder, the pastor of the church that we've been going to since 2000, I think. 2000, 2001. So we've been a big fan of you and your family for a very long time. I kind of got to see you grow up in production arts. I remember you doing films when you were in high school. Jon: Oh yeah. I used to have the... I would help the production team every now and then at my dad's church. And that was always a great learning experience. Mitch: Oh yeah. No joke. And it's always kind of, I would imagine with NASCAR it's like you got to get a big project done and it's got to be done in three hours or less, all that. I'm sure that some of the lower budget church stuff that had to be done, turned around all that stuff probably was great great ground to get to work that. So I love it. So with Dream, Think, Doers now that you're listening in I want to give you a little road map of where we're headed because I'm going to talk with Jon a little bit about day to day because he does some really cool stuff. Long hours, but amazing stuff. So I want to get a little taste of that. But then we're also going to go back because he's got this great story of getting this position.

My guest is venture capitalist Greg Sands. Greg is the founder and managing partner for Costanoa Ventures, an early stage VC firm based in Palo Alto, California. I can tell you I've met Greg and he's got passion. Passion for life and passion for entrepreneurship. Listen To The Podcast: Resources: Twitter: @gsands, @costanoavc Website: costanoavc.com Interview: Mitch Matthews: He worked, even as he was growing up, worked in a community bank, so he started to get to know the ins and outs of entrepreneurship early and up close. In college, he even co-founded a micro enterprise incubator in East Palo Alto. Before founding Costanoa, Greg was a managing director at Sutter Hill where he had a number of huge successes. Plus he was the first product manager at Netscape Communications where he helped to write the business plans. He even coined the name Netscape and built SuiteSpot a business unit. That unit went from zero to $140 million annually. Amazing. No schlep either. He went to Harvard for his undergrad, Stanford for his MBA. But most importantly, he's the proud father of four, and apparently around Palo Alto, he simply known as Sara Sands' husband. I know what that's like. I love it. Hey Greg, welcome to Dream, Think, Do, buddy. Greg Sands: Thanks. It's great to be here with you. Mitch Matthews: I love it. So, okay. Many, many facets to venture capital. How do you describe specifically what you do? Greg Sands: Well, our job is fundamentally to find extraordinary entrepreneurs working on important problems and then make an investment and support them through the entrepreneurial life cycle and journey. It's extraordinary work. I honestly feel grateful to do it everyday. Mitch Matthews: I bet. And I'm sure peaks and valleys, adventures and horror stories all go along in that. Again, as we got to interact even in Jefferson, it was just obvious you are in a sweet spot where you're really truly getting to do something you love. Now we've got a lot of different people, as you and I have talked about, we got a lot of different listeners to Dream, Think, Do, but a lot of younger listeners also just anybody that's kind of also trying to find that sweet spot in life. So I love to ask some questions about that a little bit as well. When did it start to sink in that maybe this was your gig? This was your jam? Was that at an early age as well? Or was that something you uncovered over time? Greg Sands: No, uncovered over time. I mean it's interesting. I would say my career has not been one that's been planned very top down. I tend to be bottoms up and kind of sense of direction and push towards it. So I was working at a consulting firm out of college. I was working with pharmaceutical R&D and environmental technology and I basically decided to go to business school at Stanford because I wanted to put myself in the middle of Silicon Valley. And I didn't know that much about it, but it felt like the right direction for me to focus on smaller organizations and entrepreneurial organizations and technology driven organizations. Greg Sands: And so I just throw myself into the middle of it. And then within that ecosystem just started exploring. And so I happened to be introduced to Jim Clark as he and Mark Andreessen were founding Netscape. So some of that is right place, right time, as you mentioned. Got to write the first business plan and shipped the first products and build the suite of Internet server software. And in the end, by virtue of being in and around that ecosystem, playing a hands on role first as a product manager and software business and in and around the emergence of the Internet, actually got a call about the venture capital business. And I hadn't really been thinking about it. But as I spent six months talking to people, exploring, getting to know the team at Sutter Hill, I came to to think that it was a place that would use a lot of my skills that would move some of my passions and the...

My guest is Melissa Johnson-Matthews. That's right! My bride is back and we're talking about the 5 Love Languages! Listen To The Podcast: Resources: https://www.5lovelanguages.com/profile/ Interview: Melissa: Hello Dream. Think. Do. family. Mitch Matthews: Absolutely. We had such great feedback from our episode right around Christmas time, where we were talking about prayer, I hope you guys enjoyed that. We heard back from so many of you. In fact, a number of you reach out to ask if we would dive into some different subjects, one of which being how do you dream together as a couple, how do you go after goals together as a couple, all of those things. And that's gonna be something we're gonna dive into in a future episode, so stand by for that. Mitch Matthews: But what we realized was, before we start talking about going after dreams and goals together and all of that, we need to talk about laying that foundation of love. Since it's Valentine's Day week we thought what a perfect week to dive into that conversation. And specifically we're gonna dive into one of our favorite tools to use to help us love each other better, and that is a book that was written by Dr. Gary Chapman called The Five Love Languages. Now we read the original book, now there's like 50 different iterations of this concept, but we're gonna be talking about those love languages that Gary Chapman talks about in his book. We're gonna talk with you about what they are, but more so we're gonna focus on application, because a lot of you, you're readers, you're smart people, you're all over this stuff. So there's a very good change you're already well versed with The Five Love Languages. And if that's the case, awesome. Mitch Matthews: We're gonna do a quick overview of what those five love languages are, and what they are individually, and kind of what they are globally. But more importantly we're gonna focus more on application. Now we do all of this with a caveat, in that, we first read this book how long ago do you think? Melissa: I bet probably 10 or 12 years ago. Mitch Matthews: Yeah 10 or 12 years ago, that seems like a long time ago. But I was grateful for it at the time, and I've been grateful for it ever since. We've actually had the chance to teach on these concepts many, many times. And every time I'm grateful for it because it's a great refresher course, because we all need to be reminded of these concepts. And so I'm grateful for this opportunity today, and again, we're doing this not from the standpoint of we are experts and we have this all figured out. Melissa: Absolutely not. Mitch Matthews: That's right. More so we do this from the standpoint of, we are scientists, and we are continually experimenting with these concepts. So today we're gonna be learning together, and we're gonna be talking about these together. Now just before we get started or dive into just a quick overview of the love languages, how would you explain them just broadly Mel, like not necessarily individually, but broadly? Like the love languages themselves. Melissa: Well the love languages are a way of speaking, they're almost like, you know how in the South there's a Southern accent, in the northern United States you sound like a Norwegian, yeah, sure. And that's where I'm from so that's why I sound like that. You know, if you're from Boston you sound like you're from Boston. If you are from Southern California you sound like you're from Southern California. So there's some accents. And the love languages are kind of like that too, it's your way of speaking, and it's your way of interpreting life. It's also kind of a lens that you see things through. Melissa: And so it's important to know that when you love someone, whether it's your spouse, your child, any significant other, any person that's in your life, they are going to feel love in different ways. And it may be a completely different way than you feel love.

Intentional Identity Statements with Mitch Matthews I'm Mitch Matthews and we're doing a deep dive into something we call Intentional Identity Statements. Listen To The Podcast: Today… it's just you and me… that's right. It's a deep dive… and we're talking about… Identity Statements. Okay… let's do this. Identity Statements. We all have them. Most are just not intentional. Identity statements are those statements you say about yourself… the things you believe about yourself. Most of us say them all the time… but we don't realize it. I'm a worrier. I'm always late. I'm so unorganized. I never win those things. My money always seems to run out before my month does. Ever said… or thought something like that? Well… that's an identity statement. What's crazy… is that our beliefs tend to shape how we see the world… right? So… if you believe… and say… "I'm a worrier." How do you think your subconscious it going to react to that? More importantly… if you've said that about yourself for years… which… by the way… I did… so this is why I know it's true… "I'm a worrier." "I always worry." "That's just who I am. I worry." Well… if that's what you believe. If that's what you say. Your brain… and your heart… are going to stick with it. So… even if you read a book… or go to a workshop… or… commit to making a change about worrying less… unless you deal with your underlying identity statements… you're never going to have success. That's why we're going after this concept… in our year of no fear! I know a LOT of you have responded to challenge I issued in episode 209… declaring this… the year of no fear. We're going to beat back fear and worry… and make this our best year ever. So we're digging into this concept! And hey… the upside… is that if you deal with worry… this will help! BUT you can also apply this concept of Identity Statements to other areas of your life… like losing weight and getting in shape… or developing a new skill… or launching a business… or growing wealth… or growing in your faith. Yup… this strategy will help. And by the way… it's not magic either. I do not believe… and I'm not saying… that as you create your identity statement… that then "poof" a perfect world will all appear in 30 days or less. Nope. Not saying that. BUT… I am saying that it's incredible to see how this does play out… in regards to what you see… and how you perceive the world… AND your place in it. It can infuse your thoughts with hope… it will help to keep you inspired and motivated… and keep you moving forward. And… if you're someone where faith plays a role in your life… INTENTIONAL IDENTITY STATEMENTS can have a HUGE impact on your prayer life and your faith walk… but more on that in a bit. So… here's our road map for this episode. WHAT. HOW. and WHEN. We're going to dig just a bit deeper on WHAT an Identity Statement is… but more importantly… we're going to clarify what it might mean to YOU. Then we're going to talk about HOW to do it… and how to NOT do it. We'll talk about WHEN to apply it too. Lastly… as a bonus… I'll add some thoughts on how to do it from a faith-based approach. If that's your cup of tea… awesome… stick around for it. If not… that's cool too. You can bail before I get rolling with that part. Don't forget to head over to mitchmatthews.com/213… and grab the free download to help you apply all that we're talking about. Mitchmatthews.com/213. So… let's do this. Okay… a personal identity statement. What is it? It's interesting. It's a term I've heard more over the past few years… but in some ways it's still relatively new. How do I know? Well… because there's not even a wikipedia page for it yet. HA! So… we're going to define it as a set of beliefs you INTENTIONALLY recognize and repeat in order to shape the way you see yourself and your world.

My guest Cameron Herold. Alright. I've got a little word association for you. I'm going to say a word and I want you to note, be aware of what words come to mind immediately. Are you ready? The word is meetings. Okay. How are you doing? What words come to mind? Is it dread? Is it nasty? Is it barf? Seriously, what comes to mind when you hear the word meetings? I mean, it's so sad but it's a necessary tool of modern business, the meeting, but why does it cause us so much angst, why does it cause us to run and hide? It doesn't have to be that way. Meetings do not have to suck. In fact, my guest is here to help. We're talking with Cameron Herold and he's written a book called Meetings Suck: Turning One of the Most Loathed Elements in Business Into One of the Most Valuable. Cameron is a guy who can speak to this. He's the mastermind behind hundreds of companies' exponential growth. He was entrepreneur basically from day one at 21. At 21, he already had 14 employees. At 35, he had built 200 million dollar companies, his first 2. He's gone on to do more. At age 42 Cameron helped engineer 1-800-GOT-JUNK's spectacular growth from 2 million to 106 million in revenue and he did that in just 6 years. Listen To The Podcast: Resources: Cameron's Podcast: "Second in Command" Cameron Herold on Amazon Interview: Mitch: Lots of tools, lots of leadership tools, effectiveness tools in his bag, but one subject that I really want to tap into, especially when I saw this book was how do we make our meetings not suck. Let's get to this. Cameron, welcome to Dream Think Do. Cameron: Hey, Mitch. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Mitch: Absolutely. I got to ask, I mean, I love this and we could spend so much time on so many of your other successes and I mean, I know you've had them and I know you got a number of other books out there, but why decide to write a book on meetings? Cameron: It's interesting. One of my clients, who is a YPO member, Young Presidents Organization, he's from Tampa, Florida, his company's called BlueGrace Logistics. I started coaching him when he had about 60 employees of the last 4 years and now, it's about 700 employees. I was talking to him about a year ago and he was complaining about his meetings. He was saying, "You know, our meetings really suck. Can we start getting some coaching on our meetings?" I went, "Well, wait a second. Meetings don't suck." He goes, "No. Ours really suck." I'm like, "Okay." Mitch: No, you got to understand, ours really suck, yeah. Cameron: I said, "Have you had any training or has your management team had any training about how to run meetings?" He said, "No. I don't think anybody's ever been trained on how to run them." I said, "Okay. Have any of your employees actually had any training on how to show up and attend or participate in meetings?" He goes, "No. Nobody's ever been trained on how to show up in them." I said, "Well, the problem isn't that meetings suck. The problem is that your team sucks at running them and your team sucks at attending them." I said, "It's not any different than little league baseball." Mitch: Yeah. Cameron: You would present our kid of as an eight-year-old to little league baseball without showing him how to hold the bat and how to hold the glove and how to catch a ball. We'd at least give him the basics- Mitch: Yeah. Cameron: If you don't give him the basics, they'd come back from the first day at little league and go, "Baseball sucks." Well, baseball doesn't suck at all but my kid sucks at baseball. Mitch: Right. Cameron: I decided to codify, in a very simple format, so that every employee at every company, for $15 would know how to show up at meetings, participate in them and how to run them. That was the Genesis of the book, Meetings Suck, was my client, Bobby Harris at BlueGrace Logistics. Amazingly, they just raised $255 million last year from Warburg Pincus to continually scale their gr...