Dan Waldschmidt's Blog, page 31

Debi Lowery: No Regrets. [Podcast]

We are all running from something.

Fears from our past. Frustration in the present. Unrealized expectations for the future.

It can be all-consuming.

The thought that no matter what you do it’s not good enough. The fear that you might never get to where you want to be. The regrets of failure from the past.

It’s all too easy to miss out on the possibilities of the future when you’re drowning in the regrets from your past.

You have to manage those regrets.

But how do you get past your own failures and mistakes and be productive even when you don’t feel like it?

You might look back and only see a series of things you should have done better.

People you should have spent more time with. Projects you should have put more effort into. Ideas and goals you should have attempted.

If you’re not careful, you can spend an entire lifetime making mistakes in the present because you’re reliving  every regret from your past.

It’s a waste of your life.

You have to find a way to manage what goes on inside your head — to channel your energy into efforts that matter. When you least feel like it.

Today’s episode is an interview with Debi Lowery and her husband Scott. She tells a story that is all too familiar for us — death, recovery, regrets, and living life to the fullest. It’s been a journey for her. Thousands of miles running. Hundreds of hours recovering.

Listen in as she shares her story about find a life forward with “no regrets”:

FOLLOW DEBI:

BEHIND THE SCENES:

I have known Debi and Scott for some time now. But I didn’t really understand the depth and passion of her story until we did this interview. It was a moving few hours we spent together.

That initial interview turned into several more sessions — one where I found myself running alongside her and Scott with Matt jogging on front of us holding expensive recording gear. Nothing got dropped.

I’ve listened to this interview and the many minutes of our interview that got cut. It’s an interview that has brought me to tears many times. I feel it. It’s raw and personal and painfully honest.

This is an episode that you need to save and listen to again and again and again. It will pick you up and give you hope. One step at a time.

The post Debi Lowery: No Regrets. [Podcast] appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

You’re Not Winning Because You’re Not Willing To Give Up.

If your goals matter to you, you’re going to have to do things in the short term that aren’t comfortable.

If you want radical change, you’re going to have to sacrifice.

It’s going to hurt.

You’re going to have to give up sleep. That means you’re never going to feel like it’s the right time to get out of bed in the morning. You’re always tired.
You’re going to have to give up money. That means you’re going to have to spend money on being uncomfortable rather than on things that make you more comfortable.
You’re going to have to give up friendships. That means that instead of hanging out you’re going to be busy working. Busy training. Busy doing things that matter more right now.
You’re going to have to give up your ideas about fairness. That means that you know not everything is going to work out the way you think they should — and yet you persist.
You’re going to have to give up being right all the time. That means you’re going to have to get used to trying and failing and trying again.
You’re going to have to give up your addiction to entertainment. That means instead of watching your favorite television series or binge watching Netflix, you are hard at work.
You’re going to have to give up your need for safety and consistency. That means you’re taking a risk and trying new things and disrupting your old, stale agenda.

It’s about sacrifice.

To change your life you’re going to have to give up things that seem crazy to give up.

It’s uncomfortable and unnatural.

But when you’re serious about getting to where you want to be — making more money, getting healthy, building better relationships, or finding the breakthrough you need right now — it’s the best chance you have.

It’s the only chance if you’re being honest with yourself.

The post You’re Not Winning Because You’re Not Willing To Give Up. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

You’re Not The Only One Who Is Right.

Perspective matters.

You don’t get the opportunity to see the entire picture.

You see the part you’re looking at right now. You feel the emotions you’re having right now.

That’s not the entire story.

You’re not experiencing the entire situation. You’re just getting a piece of it. Your perspective.

It’s important to remember.

Because your opinions are based on your perspective. Your facts are based on your perspective.

You don’t see what everyone else can see.

You are you and they are them. And no matter how hard you try to be fair and unbiased, it’s just not entirely possible.

Just being aware of that helps you navigate more efficiently through life.

It makes you more effective in your personal dealings. More powerful in your decision-making process.

More empathetic and discerning.

There’s not just another side to the story. There are countless other sides to the story.

People change. Time changes. The environment, the economy, your business, family, and friends — they all change. You change.

And as you move and evolve, improve and experience new things, you gain additional perspective. Another side to the story. Another vantage point from which to see the future.

Have strong opinions about where you want your life to go. Believe in yourself at all costs and refuse to back down when you think you’re right.

Believe that your effort makes a difference.

Don’t let other people’s negativity rob you of the momentum you need to achieve greatness.

Don’t let your own negative perspective rob other people of their momentum.

You’re not the only one who is right.

The post You’re Not The Only One Who Is Right.  appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

The Time Before Awesome [Podcast]

Just because you have to grovel and grind right now doesn’t mean you’ll need to do that forever.

Just because you’re tired and beaten down from the battle you’re in right now doesn’t mean there won’t be a day soon where you feel refreshed, motivated, and inspired by all the progress you’ve made.

It’s easy to get discouraged when you’re doing all you can and you still feel stuck.

It’s hard to imagine that what you’re doing matters. That you’re making progress toward your goal. That things will get better if you keep your head down and continue to grind.

All of your instincts tell you that you’re doing the wrong thing.

Every successful person has had to go through that valley. They felt the exact same way you do — discouraged, frustrated, angry and depressed.

You look at their life and imagine that they had everything all together. That their plan worked the first time they tried. That they don’t have the same obstacles that you do. That for some reason they were lucky and you just aren’t.

The truth is that they had their “before” years too.

You don’t often hear about the “before” years. The time before success. The moments before breakthrough. The struggle before triumph. The desperation before inspiration.

Maybe what you see as “never working out” is really “hasn’t worked out yet.”

In today’s podcast, we share the simple “before” stories of some of the most successful people alive today. It might surprise you how beaten down and unsuccessful they were at one time in their life.

BEHIND THE SCENES:

Almost a year ago I wrote a post entitled Before You’re A Somebody Too that became crazy popular. We turned it into a YouTube video and a poster to hang on your wall (both free).

You can read it in less than 2 minutes, but that particular article took almost 3 months to write.  I had to research each person,  figure out if there was a backstory and then write a succinct description.

I get more inspired each time I read it. Hope you do too.

The post The Time Before Awesome [Podcast] appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

How To Survive As A Sales Manager [Interview]

I still remember the first time I was made the head of sales.

It was a small company and I was far-and-away the best sales person there. Almost 85% of the revenue of the company came from me and my efforts.

I was a superstar sales guy and it made all the sense in the world that I should be the boss. The guy who create other superstars.

Accept that’s not how it actually went down. I was an utter failure as a manager. I sucked at it. Really bad.

I couldn’t understand sales people who didn’t have enough drive. I didn’t get along with the team members who just showed slow and steady progress.

I made mistake after mistake after mistake.

I change my mind every other day. Rules? Who needs those? We had my own unspoken rules.

It was a huge learning curve — and almost a huge disaster.

It finally hit me that while I inherently understood sales and deals and people, I was wildly unprepared to manage salespeople.

That was a scary moment for me. It was also a challenge. Could I figure it out? What did I need to know in order to manage sales people and get the results that we so desperately wanted?

So I tried to find resource material for sales managers.

Surprisingly, I couldn’t find any.

There were books about sales and selling and strategy. There were books for leaders, CEOs, and executive management. But there weren’t any books for a new sales manager.

That was almost 20 years ago. You might be surprised that until a few years ago that had not changed.

My good friend Dave Brock just released a tremendous book that every sales manager needs to read. It’s called Sales Manager Survival Guide.

He tells you how to coach your team. He writes about how to build a plan for success. He talks about sales process and communication, working with other departments, how to spend your day, and the best way to recruit top talent.

It’s the book all of us have been needing.

And I was able to spend a few minutes with him over video talking about some of the personal details that didn’t make it into the book.

Consider it a bonus.  Now go to Amazon.com and buy the book for yourself.

The post How To Survive As A Sales Manager [Interview] appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

How You’ll Know.

If you don’t try, you never know.

You’ll never know if you could have accomplished that goal.

You’ll never know if your big idea was meant to be.

But just because you try one time doesn’t mean you know.

You don’t know.

One try means nothing. It’s not a predictor, a sign, or a trend. It’s just your first attempt.

More ceremonial than anything else.

Your first try is the starting line.

A new beginning. Starting something new.

Working towards a new goal.

Nothing amazing had ever been accomplished on the first attempt.

Robert Goddard designed two hundred ideas for rockets before he got one to fly into space.
Henry Ford went bankrupt five times before his automobile manufacturing idea started working
Fred Smith was giving a failing grade by his Yale professor because his idea for FedEx “wasn’t feasible”.
R.H. Macy went broke seven times before his clothing store caught on in New York City.
J.K. Rowling shopped her book thirteen times before a publisher would take a look at the first Harry Potter book.

So get started.

Try that first time.

Greatness is found long after trying has become interesting or fun.

You’ll never know unless you try. You still won’t know after that first try.

You’ll only know if you keep trying.

The post How You’ll Know. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

Why You Have To Care Even When It Hurts.

You think that you want to avoid failure. That anything other than success is the enemy.

But the truth about life is that you will always lose more times than you win.

If you’re keeping a tally, you’ll find yourself feeling like a loser more times than you feel like a hero.

And that hurts.

Avoiding that acknowledgment of imperfection can be all-consuming.

Admitting that you’re not as awesome as you want to be can add a lot of stress to your life. It can seem like the enemy.

But failure isn’t really the opposite of success. Apathy is.

Not caring is the enemy.

That’s because success isn’t really a moment in time. It’s a process. A series of stops and starts, tries, failures, and recalibrated attempts at getting it right.

You don’t achieve success overnight. You won’t get it right the first time.

Even the simplest goals demand refinement and improvement over time. Which is why apathy is such a deadly attitude.

It hurts to lose.

It hurts you even more to not care enough that you lost.

So while it’s frustrating to not be where you want to be, celebrate knowing that you’re not content to be where you are right now.

Appreciate that caring makes you better each time you try.

Whatever you do, don’t wish away the frustration you feel.

It’s helping you.

Don’t regret the emotion that you’ve invested.

It’s the best leverage you have to be guaranteed you end up where you want to be.

It hurts to care. It hurts to try because you care — and still lose.

That’s just the cost of being awesome eventually.

The post Why You Have To Care Even When It Hurts. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

Rick Sabo: Justice Fighter. [Podcast]

Progress requires a struggle. Success demands a fight.

You won’t get to where you want to be without standing your ground and pushing back against the obstacles in your way.

But just because you fight doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to win.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people.

Sometimes the guy doing the right thing isn’t the guy who ends up as the hero of the story.

That’s not a reason to give up. That’s not an excuse for backing down.

It’s just the harsh reality that winners have to go through.

To stay focused on the fight you have to have a reason to continue. It’s got to be a higher calling. A bigger purpose.

A motivation rooted deep in your soul.

That’s the story of Rick Sabo that you’re about to hear. A man whose family was brutally pushed around by the insurance mob. Family members harassed, threatened, and taken out.

It cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to do the right thing. No one believed in him. Success cost him everything. Winning wasn’t as glorious as you might think it would be. He did it anyway.

This is the story of a man who thinks he is fighting for justice. The ending is guaranteed to surprise you.

BEHIND THE SCENES:

Rick was the most researched and prepared of all the people that we interviewed. He had boxes of evidence from his days fighting the mob — countless newspaper clippings and financial data.

He sent us reams of paperwork from his undercover operation as well as video highlights from TV, notes from the ongoing investigation, and countless pieces of evidence he had scraped together over the years.

Matt and I spent over 5 hours talking with Rick for this interview. He didn’t embellish and it often took me two or three tries asking the same question different ways in order to get him to harness his emotions about what he went through.

I still remember when Matt came running into my office after the twist in the story with eyes wide open: “Dan, you’re never going to believe what Rick just told me.”

I knew in an instant that I had the story all wrong. The new story was so much more interesting.

The post Rick Sabo: Justice Fighter. [Podcast] appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

You’re Not Ready, But So What.

You’re always going to be afraid. It doesn’t get any easier.

You’re always going to feel inadequate. That’s because success is hard.

You’re always going to need more time. Especially if you are short on resources.

In truth, it’s never the perfect time to pursue your dreams.

There is always another obstacle.

Always a legitimate reason why you’re not the right person to pull this one off.

You’re never as prepared as you want to be. Never as confident as you need to be.

That’s not going to change as long as you keep dreaming. And working. And trying.

That’s the cost of progress. Complete emotional investment.

All you have. And then some.

You think you’re ready to do whatever it takes.

You say you’re willing to lay it all on the line. But when you’re in the thick of the battle, it’s easy to see things differently.

You’re tired and beat down, low on courage, and scared you could lose it all.

Just remember that’s how everyone else feels too.

You’re not alone.

You’re not doing this all by yourself.

Every brilliant discoverer, every magnificent inventor, every mind-blowing business innovator — they all felt the same way as you do right now.

But instead of slowing down or giving in to their emotion,  they put their head down and made forward progress.

Small steps. Each day. Doing things that matter.

Regardless of the obstacles.

They refused to make excuses. Refused to accept failure as final.

What’s the lesson? Do work.

When all seems lost, do work.

Make progress. Move forward. Will yourself to do one thing that matters. Today. And the next day.

Until you get to where you want to be.

If you wait until you feel like it, you’ll never get started.

The post You’re Not Ready, But So What.  appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...

Success Is Hard [Podcast]

The question I get asked the most is: “How do you do it all? What’s your secret?”

The context is usually around the different businesses that I own or am a part of, the blog that I write, the events that I speak at around the world, training as an ultra-runner, and spending time with my family. That can seem like a lot to some people

The answer is one that most people don’t want to hear.

I work more. I sleep less. And I obsess about how to make each moment matter.

There’s no secret other than that.

Not for me. Not for any massively successful person you’ll ever meet or read about.

For some reason that question usually makes me angry.

It’s a perfectly fair question, but often the tone of the question infers that I’ve had it easier then everyone else. That what I had to experience to get to where I’m at was a journey with a little bit more luck and fewer obstacles.

Which is completely laughable.

And probably offensive.

If you knew how many times I have screwed up over the years:

I dropped out of Seminary after it took me 3 years to realize I was wasting my time
I lasted only 2 years studying International Politics at George Mason University
I lost over $250,000 when I chose a shady business partner
For many years my marriage was the absolute worst kind of disaster
I lost a $750,000 home to foreclosure when a business deal went horribly sideways
I tried to commit suicide multiple times over the years

Even though I still struggle with depression, I have learned the secret to making progress — doing the hard things.

Even when you don’t feel like it.

One morning about 18 months ago, I got frustrated after being asked this question for the zillionth time and sat down to write an article entitled: “You Have To Do The Hard Things.”

Over the next few weeks it would be read over 30 million times and republished in Forbes, Vanity Fair, Wall Street Italia, Business Insider, and countless other places. I even got an email from Mark Zuckerberg’s sister asking to talk with me.

So listen in. Add it to your iPhone. Set it as your morning alarm. Share it with your team. Get motivated to do the things that pain you:

BEHIND THE SCENES:

The audio on this episode still upsets me. It was our first recording with a medium range, off-the-shelf high-definition microphone. And it was not the best quality.

A few weeks into the creation of this podcast project, we spent an outrageous amount of money on shotgun microphones (like they use on a movie shoot) — and a few other gadgets.

Somehow, we never felt like it was right to go back and re-record this first episode. Call it sentimental attachment. This is where we started. This whole podcast was a series of hard things.

That seems to be the way it works for us at The EDGY Empire.

The post Success Is Hard [Podcast] appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt: Author of EDGY Conversations.

Copyright by Waldschmidt Partners Intl... Not sure that all that legal stuff really matters. If you want to share this material, do so. Just don't charge for it and don't tell people you wrote it. Both of those are uncool.

Other than that, all rights are reserved to you to change your life. If you are ready to be amazing, now is the time to get started. Onward...