TAKING ACTION:

• Want to know what’s keeping you from doubling your sales in the next 12 months? Take our quick QUIZ to get answers: Howtodoublesales.com
• If you’d like to have a profound breakthrough in your business, schedule your breakthrough call with a LIVE expert here: Chetholmes.com/Breakthrough
• Claim your FREE chapter 4 from the top 10 most recommended marketing and sales books of all time! Visit: Ultimatesalesmachine.com to find out how you Create 9X More Impact from every move you’re already making to win clients!

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL: Instagram.com/UltimateSalesMachine Facebook.com/UltimateSalesMachine Twitter.com/ChetHolmes Linkedin.com/company/chetholmesinternational/

TRANSCRIPT:

*this transcript was mostly generated by AI, please excuse any mistakes

Gene: [00:00:00] The other thing that this book talked about is that a lot of the pressure we put on ourselves says, let’s just say business leaders. If you’re in sales, you’re a business leader. If you’re a parent, you’re a leader. And if you’re in management leadership, which most people listening to this right now are, are and what he said is the only true way that you can measure yourself is not looking forward on.

Numbers or goals or things you put out there, because there’s a lot of things that’s gonna happen between now and three years or five years. The only true way for you to measure yourself is to look backwards and number one, Remind yourself of all the successes that you’ve had.

[00:01:00] 

Amanda: Welcome everybody to the c e o Mastery call, and I am so happy to have Gene McNaughton here. If you were unfamiliar with Gene, I don’t know how you could be. He is. He’s been around our world for man, over a decade, obviously, because you worked closely with my father.

Uh, 

Gene: that, that would be, that would be 19 years, by the way. Oh 

Amanda: my gosh, that’s so good. So, so for those of these that don’t know, gene, he introduced, I found out about Gene, the way that he explained when he was working with. Um, I’m looking for a gateway. When he was working with Gateway, whenever a company would start to falter or not produce what it needed to produce, they would send in Jean.

Cuz Gene was like the Superman. He would just come in, ship it all, put it all in together, and then it would grow in sales and they would all be amazed and he felt like he was being somehow, um, Like penalized for all the [00:02:00] great success. Cause you just, yeah, punished because you just kept being put into these situations where it was so difficult and yet you managed to succeed.

And that’s where you get those reps in. So, and that was one of the reasons why my father then said, oh, please work with us. And I know that we have so many great success stories of, you know, I tell the one of you and Tom Shaft with the 950 clients and how you recommended that they fire like 930 of them and only keep 13 of them.

Cuz those were the only ones that were really profitable in growing the business. And only go after one. And that one doubled their sales. That story, for those of you that hear it, I always say yes. Uh, Tom, chap and Gene were a part of that, that consulting deal that led to this huge growth from just one client.

And everyone goes, oh, I would love to double my sales with just one client. Are you kidding me? I’d love to fire 900 of my. Clients that are breakeven are just not really making much. Uh, I could [00:03:00] keep going. Homex. Oh my God. That was a several hundred million dollar turnover there and you really gave a lot to that.

I mean, you were in Mexico, right? You, you were the one hands on the ground in Mexico for homex. 

Gene: Yeah. Touring Mexico, going to all of their sales centers in their big cities and doing sales bootcamps, teaching them Dream 100, teaching them sales process, teaching their managers how to hire, how to build the right comp structures.

Your dad was overseeing everything. I was the, the feet on the street doing the work. And you learn so much when you’re the one doing this stuff, but you’re under the guidance of an expert with exactly what happened. That’s really was the launch of the, the, the Business Breakthrough International Consulting Division.

It was Homex that that started and was, yeah. 

Amanda: Wow. And then that. Took its way. And I know you’ve written books, you have all these courses, and now you’re in, uh, back [00:04:00] in, in the field again. President of Geo Bear as 

Gene: well. Mm-hmm. Yep, a ground engineering company out of Europe. And I decided like, gosh, I’ve learned so much about business and I’ve had a chance to work directly in the tutelage of both Tony Robbins, Che Holmes and Jay Abraham.

And when you get that much experience in that many diverse environments, You start to see the patterns of, of what works. Cuz they all, they all had similarities and they all had their uniquenesses che, the core story. Chet, the dream 100 Time Management Secrets, Tony, the Psychology, Jay Abraham, the multiple ways to grow a business of which, you know, with Homex directly are indirectly all three of those.

People were involved, and that was a company that was publicly traded. So you can’t make up numbers in terms of a publicly traded company because it’s online, right? And within, we started with Homex in 2008, 2009 in September, [00:05:00] and then we brought them to the first Business Mastery because they had grown from a 900 million company to 1.7 billion now, woo.

Mind you, you gotta understand, they were selling the same products, homes in the same markets all over Mexico against the same competitors. No changes in the economy, no changes in the broader economic terms. They outsold, outmarketed and out managed everybody. Yeah. And that became, yeah, that became the signature story that then.

At that First Business Mastery and we, we, I talked through that story and we had this lineup of people with their business cards. I need to talk to you. I need to talk to you. And Chet said, you’re the president of our consulting division. Congratulations. And I Okay, great. And, uh, Carrie Warberg, I know you’re friends with Carrie Warberg.

She was in that group. Oh, and I’m sure you’ve talked about what she’s done with Earthkind, her company, shoot, they were 800,000 when we took them over. And I know they’re [00:06:00] well over what, 20, 30, 40 million. Now they have sold 

Amanda: 60 million of those pouches that everyone said, no way can you do an all natural rodent repellent.

And she said, watch me. So, yes, so many great stories, but today, today we’re talking about something a little different, which I love that you’re bringing this to the fold. 

Gene: Well, this is mental health. This is mental health awareness month and. You know, I, I, as I really started thinking about it, you know, I always thought mental health issues were reserved for those people that were, you know, I live in Southern California, the people that are in the tents on the streets, uh, living in campers that were walking around saying crazy things.

And you know, in hindsight, you know, I know what it’s like to lose a parent. Very devastating scenario. I know what it’s like to U Lose sisters to Cancer, two sisters of Cancer, losing my mom. To cancer. Losing my dad [00:07:00] really over a broken heart. He was married to my mom for 65 years and just decided he wanted to go.

I get emotional talking about it. I know what it’s like to go through divorce. I know what it’s like to be in a very difficult financial situation with, with somebody that you loved and trusted explicitly to, to manage your money. Only to find out in hindsight that they weren’t managing your money. They were planning their getaway and didn’t pay the taxes and kept the money.

And I had to dig my way out of that. Wow. You know, I know what it’s like to, to start something that doesn’t work. And I’ve been through a lot of experiences. You know, if you see anybody online, you see their Facebook reality, which is not all the, the highlight reel of their life, but really, you know, understanding that mental health is a real thing.

And here’s why I say that. I started with this company, a wonderful company with a great leader to launch the, this, this division here in the United States. And I, with my optimistic viewpoints and I can do anything. And you know, in working with [00:08:00] your, your dad, we, we consulted, I mean, in the trenches for more than six months, so at least a minimum of a six month relationship, over a hundred companies.

And then after his passing, I moved on and just. We were able to be able to get clients myself and consulted another 59 companies, all of which were successful. No, no complaints. Nobody didn’t grow, nobody didn’t feel like they didn’t got their money’s worth. So all these great highlight reels. Yet I started to find myself being less happy.

And especially as I’m building this company, and you know, anybody who says, you know, being an entrepreneur, launching a company is fun and it’s amazing. Well, that might be their highlight reel, but if you’re launching a real company, there’s, if you just win, I, I, and I don’t, I, I suppose that could be great, but the reality is it’s freaking hard.

And especially when you’re going into an industry that you know nothing about in, in a very technical industry that I’m in. They always say that you should [00:09:00] always be the dumbest person in the room cuz you learn the most. And I’m like, I don’t argue that, but, but, but when you are that person over time it gets pretty hard, you know?

But I’m talking to people with doctorate degrees in soil engineering and they’re arguing and come to me for a decision. And you know, I have to use my best techniques. Well, let’s, let’s, which one has most risk? Which one has the least risk? What do you think? And, but eventually you gotta make a decision.

But here’s the moral to the story. I had put so much pressure on myself saying, we’ve gotta do a million our first year, then we’re gonna double that to two, then we’re gonna double that to four. And that psychology worked for me, and it did well in most cases in business. Even back to the gateway days, you know, mindset.

But I went through a period for over a year where it wasn’t working as fast as what I thought. And I started thinking, okay, well we’re okay. We’re gonna shift, we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna shift, we’re gonna do that. We’re gonna, we’re gonna add this element. [00:10:00] And it felt like the harder I worked, the tougher it got.

Your dad used to say, the harder it gets, the tougher I get and I get the result. And I had that mindset, it was wired into my head until, you know, it got to a point where, I wasn’t sleeping. It got to a point where I was rarely present with my kids or Jennifer or friends. I could be sitting in the car and Jennifer telling me something really important and were no radio on.

And she’d be talking for like three minutes and I’d say, can you just repeat everything you said? And she’s like, what is wrong with you? And I’m like, I don’t know. Cause I couldn’t stop thinking. About this business. Mm-hmm. And laying awake at night with thought after thought, after thought after thought of basically saying, well, what if this doesn’t work?

Well, maybe you’re a fraud imposter syndrome. I know you’ve talked about that on this podcast. I started having these thoughts that I couldn’t, I couldn’t figure out how to get outta my head. And I think we all know how important sleep is and when you can’t [00:11:00] sleep. And then your brain is spinning and then you start stressing out that you’re not getting sleep.

And then you say, if I don’t get sleep, I’m gonna have a crappy day. Just think about how it manifests itself. Yeah. It started having these, this, whatever you call it, anxiety. It, it really, I was starting to read some stuff about mental health. And do you ever experience this? Yes. Do you experience this? Yes.

Oh my God, yes. Yes, yes, yes. And I’m like, there might be something going on here. Mm-hmm. And Jennifer is a nurse, and I finally confided in her and I’m like, there’s just something not right. I cannot stop thinking about this. And it’s not, and I was passionate, but these were not, these were, what if it doesn’t?

They were moving away from thoughts. So her natural inclination is, let’s go see a doctor. So I did, and the doctor said, oh, I’ll give you some medication for it. And I’m not a medication type of guy. I’m five years sober. I don’t drink alcohol, try to live a good, clean life. And so I tried it and about four days later, that was absolutely, [00:12:00] positively not the answer for me.

I just was not gonna do that. It just didn’t work. And I just knew there was something not right. I, I struggled being happy. I struggled laughing. I struggled watching a movie without having to look at my phone and wonder if something was going wrong or sideways. And, Realized that I, I had a problem. And then there was a trigger event, which was a, a good friend of mine that I’ve known since I was in kindergarten, suddenly died same age as me.

And, and one thing I realized about that death was that everybody else in my family close to me that had died, there was, there was an illness, there was, you know, time to like, oh my gosh, what’s gonna happen if they don’t make it? But there was time to get faires in order. Say your goodbyes. Tell them you love them.

And move on. And this was a case where that didn’t happen. And I, and that was like a trigger point of like something, something’s not right. My brain was just not thinking the way that [00:13:00] it should. And Tommy Shaft, who you mentioned earlier, had given me a book for my birthday and he said, this book will change your life.

It’s one of the best ones ever. And. I got the book, but I hadn’t read it. And I realized like something I had learned from Tony Robbins, from Jim Rhone and from your dad is like all the answers that you seek, every problem you have, somebody else has experienced that and somebody else has probably written a book about those specific things.

Hmm. And it just so happened that book that Tom gave me, it was called, it’s called Be Your Future Self Now. Have you heard of that one? No, I haven’t. Okay. Highly recommend it. Hmm. But it’s written by a guy that is a professional at studying mental health, but for high performers. So we think mental health issues are just reserved for those other people, not us entrepreneurs.

Not US salespeople, not US business leaders, cuz we can get through anything. And I started reading this book and going through this checklist. I’m like, I am [00:14:00] experiencing some of those same things. Hmm. And the book goes on to say that entrepreneurs, business leaders have higher rates of, of suicide. They have higher rates of alcoholism and drug abuse.

They have higher rates of divorce than just regular, you know, regular people. And it dawned on me like there’s something in here. So I continued to read that book. And radical, I have 

Amanda: data, I have a data point for you because you were saying all of these things. I just have to drop one, that the average c e O lives five years less than the average human being.

Gene: Very interesting. Now, what would be the draw into that? Um, maybe happiness, maybe stress management. Yeah. Here. Here’s one thing about stress is when you’re an achiever, stress is just part of the game. Stress is not a surprise. You learn to manage through it. Yeah, [00:15:00] and I, that’s what I had always done throughout my career.

I can work through it. I can be present, be a good dad, be a good husband. And I was at a point, you know, 12, 15 months ago where. All those things I knew weren’t working until I started learning how to think different. And if, if you want to talk about some of the things I’ve learned on this Yes, please.

Situation. And if somebody out there that’s listening right now, and I’m describing anything it is that you may be experiencing, then maybe this can help you. What this book see be your future self now is about understanding some of the same things you just said. Why is it that high performers, high achievers have.

Some, some negative, uh, patterns in what the data says, such as dying earlier and again, going back to the suicide, drug addiction, alcohol, divorce, all those things. And some, a lot of it is the amount of internal pressure that we tend to put on ourselves. Now, this isn’t necessarily external pressure of somebody that’s your boss or a board of directors, [00:16:00] although their job is to.

Get a return on their investment and push whoever their business leader is to perform more. We get that. And whether you’re on the board or you’re under a board or you’re a sales leader working for a sales le, a bigger sales leader, that’s their job is to get the most out of you. So not denying that that’s how business goes, but the internal pressure that I put on myself, To create something super fast and cuz I’ve always been able to do that.

Hmm. Well this time it wasn’t working. It wasn’t going as fast. You know, when you start a business, you all gotta put together a business plan. And part of business planning is you’ve gotta have a forecast, a one year, a three year, a five year at minimum. You gotta have a plan. But the truth is, if you don’t have any type of data of which to look at, that is relevant data.

Now, I could look at data from other countries. I could look at data in China. I could look at data all over Europe, which is where this company was from. But they had been in that market [00:17:00] for, in the European market for more than 20 years. So their marketing data was not. Truly realistic to, you know, really what could happen when you’re brand new with a brand.

Nobody’s ever heard of different situation, so I thought, you know what, I’m Gene McNaughton. We, we can probably get close to that because of all these. You know, things I had in my head and it didn’t go as fast and it became, began to be frustrating. And the more frustrated I got, the, the more hours I put in, the more intensity I put in.

Little bit later, you know, working during the day, maybe get some family time, some exercise back on the computer, 8, 9, 10 o’clock at night. And I’m not denying that. We have to work hard and we have to grind whatever you believe about that word. But grinding is saying you continue to go until you get the outcome.

But when that becomes unhealthy physically and mentally and emotionally, you’ve gotta know when to take a break or shift your psychology. What this book be your future self now [00:18:00] taught me was like, M here. Here’s my pattern. Every year, as you probably know Amanda or anybody that’s studied my work first, you know, end of the year, beginning of the year, I get a new journal.

I write out all my goals for that year, money, career, finance, health, relationship, vacations, things I wanted to go buy or certain net worth things I wanted to accomplish. And then I would go hard for that year and then look at it and say, wow, look at all these things I did. Let’s start over next year. And you know, Tony says this, we, we, we, what is it?

Uh, we can do more in a year. Most people, most people expect it what they can do in 30 days. Um, it never happens. But over a year we can get a lot of things done. But I had never thought further than the year, even though I’ve been to seminars that talk about that. And he said, what about 20 years from now?

Like if you really start to get clear on your ideal self 20 years from now, and if you’re driving right now, I mean, it’s easy to think about [00:19:00] this. It doesn’t mean you have to, you know, commit with blood that you’re gonna do these things, but you look out 20 years and you think about what’s, what’s really important.

This is where my buddy passing away all these things came together. Was that. All these things he did. He was a good guy. And you know, he suffered from some alcohol issues and so forth, but you know, at that funeral, seeing all the people show up, and we were in a tiny town in the middle of Iowa called Anah, Iowa.

It’s not easy to get to no matter where you live. It’s it’s way out there. And the number of people that showed up. And the number of great stories that were talked about and, you know, talking to his mom and his cousins and his aunts and uncles and, you know, really realizing how many people love this guy.

And, and, and also realizing that, that, you know, what, what really matters? Nobody was saying. Yeah, I remember when he got that promotion. Then I remember when he bought that fancy, nobody talked about that fancy car or the watch he was wearing. No, but not even mentioned. It was all about his, [00:20:00] his essence and his friendliness and how he could make people laugh and how he’s, everybody liked this guy.

He was a good guy. He was very fun to be around and I was like, I am, I am like putting my. Mental being on the line on this one situation, being successful.

And yes, that has served me in the past to, to create some pretty big things. 

But I realized it was becoming unhealthy. 

But once I started thinking 20 years out, what really matters?

20 years out, I’m 55, so I’d be 75 in 20 years. You know, I started thinking about, well, I certainly want to be healthy. I, I wanna be able to have energy to play with grandkids. I would love, I, I think I, I want to coach a sport. Every one of my kids, I’ve coached their baseball team, basketball, uh, football teams up until they were like fourth or fifth grade.

But I love that. So I need to have the energy to do that. And I also said, look, I gotta have some financial numbers put together so I can go. Cuz I don’t ever see myself stopping working. I know that [00:21:00] at that stage I’ll, I’ll still be speaking, I’ll still be out consulting, uh, advising, mentoring, coaching, what, whatever that may shape into.

But I love to teach like you do Amanda, and probably many people listening right now, sharing my experiences, sharing my failures so others don’t go through the pain that I went through. I, I know that I want to be married to somebody I love. I know I wanna live where I wanna live or the, or multiple places, you know, depending on the seasons.

And once I started getting really clear about 20 years out and then kind of reverse engineering it, I, I thought, God, this, this weight of the world went off my shoulders because I had time. And as I looked at it that way, instead of a year being this long period of time, 12 months to get these things done, you know, the, the, the year now looks like the sprint.

The, the month looks like a micro splint sprint. But once I got super clear and I kind of wrote some things out and anybody can do this, it took this weight off my shoulders and I thought, you know what? I’m gonna do everything in my [00:22:00] power for this company to be successful, and I believe it will. And in 20 years, is it gonna matter in 20 years?

Losing that deal, is it gonna matter in 20 years? This whatever program you’re trying to build, maybe it’s not going the way you want it, is it gonna matter? Or will this osmosis of you trying something that may not be working actually leads you to something else or a breakthrough or a strategy? 

Because it likely is.

The other thing that this book talked about is that a lot of the pressure we put on ourselves says, let’s just say business leaders. If you’re in sales, you’re a business leader. If you’re a parent, you’re a leader. And if you’re in management leadership, which most people listening to this right now are, are and what he said is the only true way that you can measure yourself is not looking forward on.

Numbers or goals or things you put out there, because there’s a lot of things that’s gonna happen between now and three years or five years. [00:23:00] Economy, politics, we had Corona a few years ago, or Covid a few years ago. I mean, think about all these things that happened that were completely out of our control.

Yeah. You said the only true way for you to measure yourself is to look backwards and number one, Remind yourself of all the successes that you’ve had. Now, if you would ask me, like, you brought up Homex and you brought up, uh, CBE companies out of, uh, out of, uh, Northern Iowa, uh, Kerry Wark, like, I forgot. I don’t think about that stuff, even though they’re amazing success stories.

Amazing. But I can tell you down to the, you know, down to the dime on certain deals that I thought I was gonna win and I didn’t. Like, I remember my failures. More than I remembered my successes. Okay. And that’s probably not the healthiest way for anybody to think. And he said, look back on these things that you’ve done and and exemplify your own track record.

Then of course, we’ve all had very difficult, challenging things [00:24:00] happen in our life, and he said, how can you find the gratitude in those situations? How can you find the, what came out of it and what made me better out of those situations? And when I started doing that, especially to some scenarios, especially like losing my friend.

I was so sad. And then it then when I got around everybody and we started telling these stories and I was laughing for the first time in months, like gut belly laughing on something he did when we were 22. We played football together and things that happened and it just brought back this joy. And, and I started going, I’m so grateful.

I knew this guy and all these great things, and it changed my attitude about it, the financial situation. You know, I had a lot of harbored negative feelings about that person. That how, you know, I, I can honestly say I’ve never screwed anybody over in my life and I was feeling like I got screwed over. I’m a victim.

I’m gonna get rev [00:25:00] revenge, whatever, all the stupid things. But then I look back and I’m like, you know what? That person taught me a lot, and I have two beautiful kids with that person and I, I met that person’s family, one of the greatest families ever, and have great friendships with people I have, have met because of this person and I, I began to look at it with finding the gratitude, even in these bad experiences and this weight, slowly started to come off my shoulders.

And everything became, when I focused on it, a learning experience. 

And as we all know, what we focus on expands what we focus on. Love of attraction. You attract more of. And if you’re in that gratitude world, and I know we see all the snippets all over Facebook and Instagram and but, but to really get into it and, and make, and make and, and enjoy the process of even taking your nav negative experiences in the past and reframing them in a way to say, what was the lesson?

What, what am I grateful [00:26:00] for? Of this situation, this person, what? What did losing that deal teach me? And it all becomes a learning lesson to get you where you are. And if you look back at your successes enough, you’ve developed a track record. So what would make you think after reviewing that track record that you couldn’t go out and do that or even more in the next 5, 10, 20 years?

Now we all know that we’ve gotta have a a north point. We’ve gotta have a end goal. But as I said, I was, I was always in this one year, one year, one year, one year. And that served me very well. I realized 90% of people don’t even have written goals. But if you started to really ponder. 20 years and you know, we gotta get our money right.

We all know that and I’ll just leave it at that. You gotta get your money, right? And in 20 years you can do a hell of a lot of things by starting really small, even a little bit of money for retirement or getting, get rid of that credit card debt, whatever it is. You can, [00:27:00] once I started getting very clear on this, I, it started to have direct impact on things I do health-wise today, such as, instead of drink, my favorite drink is, uh, diet Mountain Dew.

So I’ve said, okay, water’s better than Diet Mountain Dew. Now I carry water with me everywhere. That’s easy. That is easy. Exercising every day really is easy. Now, going to a high intensity, uh, monster workout every day, that’s a different story. But let’s face it, we can all walk for 15 minutes. No, we can all.

Do breath work for 10 or 15 minutes. We can all meditate for two minutes. Or Amanda, I’m assuming you would meditate a little bit longer than two minutes a day? I do 

Amanda: about an hour. I started so many meetings today cuz everyone looked so stressed. I sang to them like in four different meetings. Today I started the call with a song because I could see how stressed they were and it just, you know, it’s a pattern to interrupt.

Gene: It’s so, oh my gosh. By the way, we have other podcasts we should do. When you were playing the guitar in [00:28:00] Fiji, and I mean so many memories I have, but the, here’s what happened. 

I started to make some transformative things internally, and as a result of these things, this happiness started to come back. Now I still got a lot of work to do, don’t get me wrong.

I’m not perfect, but. I knew there was something wrong. If you’re somebody that’s experiencing anything like that, first of all, know that the, the answers that you’re looking for to the problems you have, somebody’s written about ’em. And ask your friends. Now, it’s very hard for for me to call my buddies and go, yeah, how you doing, gene?

Well, I’m kind of struggling. Can we talk about my feelings? I mean, it’s just not normal for guys. We’re gonna talk about the ballgame or whatever my friend is into, if they’re into business and personal development, we’re gonna talk about that. If they’re into sports, we’re gonna talk about that. If they’re into health and working out, we’re gonna talk about that.

But we’re not, you know, women usually have a or, or men with feminine energy can. Easily express themselves. I have to say that. [00:29:00] 

Amanda: Huh. I do have to say one thing on that, that, uh, I went to a grief counselor after my father passed, and he and my grief counselor told me that normally there’s two different ways that you grieve.

Either you want to talk through your emotions or you just wanna do shit. You just wanna get things done. And usually women want to talk about their emotions, and men just wanted to get things done. Mm-hmm. And they told me that I grieved like a man. And it was very confusing to me cuz my brother grieved, like my mother did.

And they were more on the feminine kind of side. And I was like, what is going on with these people? I can’t even relate to you because I don’t wanna talk about it. I just wanna get shit done. So I resonate with what you just 

Gene: said and it, and it, what does it boil down to? Whatever works. But, but let me tell you what didn’t work for me, doing nothing.

And, and that’s what I was doing. I, I thought, I have, I know the mindset of success. I’ve studied with Tony and John Asaf and some of the greatest mine experts. If I didn’t work with them, I’ve read their stuff [00:30:00] and I had gotten away from some of the normal things, the basic functions. What? What are some basic functions?

I mean, I look back here. Here’s a habit I was in. Get done with my work. 9 9 30 and one of Jennifer and I’s favorite show is Datelines. We’d watch a Dateline going to sleep. Now we all know that the last few things you do before you go to sleep has direct impact on your sleep. And I had allowed myself to get into this habit wondering why I couldn’t sleep well.

I just watched a show about death and deceit, whatever, like, and I made one little switch. Okay. Lights out by nine 30. I’m a, I like having a Kindle cuz I can open a Kindle at night and put it in night mode and I can read books and I can highlight and do all this stuff. 15 minutes of reading, five minutes of.

Um, I had taken a class with Deepak Chopra on primordial, primordial sound meditation, so I can do that. Oh, mm-hmm. Anybody, I mean, even if you, you the basics. Me, just, you [00:31:00] just follow your breath, but try to clear your mind and those, that little 15 minutes and, and. Putting away things that weren’t serving me.

So for example, BJ Fog wrote a book called Tiny Habits, another one I recommend. So Good. And one of the things he said is him and his partner, they love ice cream and they love soda. And I’m like, whoa, that rings a bell. That’s me too. He said, and we didn’t quit it, but we just have an agreement that we don’t keep it in the refrigerator.

And that way if we want one, then we’ve gotta get in the car and we’ve gotta drive to the store and we’ve gotta buy it and we’ve gotta come back and nine times outta 10, it’s not worth all that hassle. Let’s just drink some water. And doesn’t that make so much sense? I know for a fact I’d go down, it’s nine o’clock, I’m going to get a water, and there’s ice cream sandwiches in the freeze freezer, or there’s leftover brownies or leftover whatever, and it was just a disaster.

And these little habits that changed. Um, morning routine. Very simple. Morning, morning routine. I have an app, um, called Daily [00:32:00] Stoic Ryan Holiday, if you know who that is of him. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s, it, I think the app is like $30 a year, and every morning you get some prompts about what are the three things you want to do today?

What, where are your focuses? Is it, you know, on a workday it’s different than a weekend. It’s gonna be family, exercise, healthy meal, whatever. It, it, it’s five minutes. And when I was in that funk, all of these little habits, these are easy things to do. Everybody we’re gone. I just, via osmosis, just stop doing the little things that I knew.

And meditation is another great one. I don’t know of anybody, Amanda, that’s very successful that when you really study them, I don’t know if any of ’em that don’t meditate. Mm-hmm. I dunno. Any of ’em that. Yeah, whichever way they do. Uh, Ray Dalio was the one that reminded me. He does primordial sound meditation and I’m like, shoot, I’ve got a mantra.

I went to the seminar. I’ve had to go find my book. Oh, there it is, [00:33:00] Amma. I can do that for five minutes. That’s mine.

I remember, I 

Amanda: didn’t even know 

Gene: that. How great is it? But it’s, it’s application. And you know this, obviously this is not a scripted podcast or anything. We’re just talking and hopefully whoever’s listening, this helps you. If you’re struggling, just think about some of the basics. You can do more water, you know, lights out by, you know, 9 30, 10, uh, sat.

Magali, another great new guy. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him. He’s just so good. He, he has this 3 21 method. He uses no food three hours before bed, no work two hours before bed, no phone or Facebook, one hour before bed. How simple is that? So 

Amanda: good. 

Gene: How simple, and I don’t consider reading something in, you know, what is personal development or, I, I enjoy reading the new version of Ultimate Sales Machine.

Mm-hmm. I don’t, I don’t cons, if I’m putting [00:34:00] something good in my brain, that’s different than, than my 93% of people scroll on Facebook or Instagram before they go to sleep. Sabotaging their subconscious mind. You know, I think it was Einstein or somebody, somebody said, you know, let, the last thing you do before you go to sleep is ask, ask the universe or God what it is you want, and plant those seeds in your subconscious mind.

Amanda: You know what I do before I go to bed, and I learned this from my guru, is she told me to say this prayer of like, um, while I sleep, Grant myself permission to understand all the blockages that are stopping me from living a rich and full life. So when I wake up, I will have all the answers that I’m seeking.

That is what I say before I go to bed every night. 

Gene: Yeah. And these little things are like raindrops, so Good. Good. 

Amanda: Anybody can do’s. So many good ones too. This is very, yes, 

Gene: yes. Good Jean. Well, what this is, I think the timing’s right, it’s Mental Health Awareness Month and, and I think most of us, anybody listening to this [00:35:00] podcast is an achiever only achievers listening to podcasts and personal development stuff and high achievers are listening to this one because you wanna learn the double sales.

You wanna learn to, you know, the dream one hunt, all the great concepts that will stand the test of time. Lot of books have come and gone, but very, very rarely do you see a top 10 business book that this one’s not on it. In fact, never. And in the meantime, let’s make sure we’re enjoying the journey.

Because you, if you have kids, you know, in the blink of an eye, they go from, you know, you’re reading books to ’em and putting ’em to bed, to, I got my license to, I’m outta here. I’m, I’m moving out, going to college. It is a blink of an eye. Don’t miss that stuff. Don’t miss that time with the people you love, love because in the end, that’s what’s gonna matter.

Not, not the deal, not the promotion, not the title, not the car or the watch. Those things are all nice. I think [00:36:00] we all like those things and in the end, it’s not gonna matter. In the end. What’s gonna matter are the people you love. You know what the, the love you’ve given, the people you’ve positively impacted, and if you can set your sights on that and work backwards, it’s a pretty good feeling and I’m gonna enjoy it.

I’m gonna enjoy every darn minute of this thing and not let one thing get me so distracted that I can’t enjoy the fruits of life. 

Amanda: And there you have it with Jean Aught. This is so wonderful. I’m sure. So everybody that listened to this, what was your one take away that, from what you heard from Jean, that you actually think, oh yeah, I think I can implement that.

And is there something else that you do that you think would be really valuable? You can make comments whether you’re listening, watching it online somewhere, or. Write us an email about it. Cuz I want to hear this is, this has been such a refreshing topic from my weekly 

Gene: escapades. Good. And that’s [00:37:00] what, when you were, we were talking about what we were gonna talk about.

I’m like, well, we can talk about all these great deals. And a lot of ’em are written about, or not in this in Chat’s book, but they’ve been echoed over and over and over again. And we can have, I’ll get on as many times as you want to talk through these, some of these clients that had really. Out of this world results with the integration of your dad’s work.

I remember. And you know, cuz reading about it, you know, reading about the Dream 100 makes all the sense in the world until you are the person that is, okay, you gotta write the letters and what’s the trinket we’re who’s gonna stuff the envelopes? Who’s gonna put stamps on it? How are we gonna get it out?

How am I gonna be able to track if my sellers are doing the calling? You know what I mean? Knowing it is the first step. Doing it is the next one. And I know that you’ve got programs, Amanda, somebody can coach and account help people accountable. And I, I don’t know if you still have that program where it’s like, we’re just gonna bring our executives in and we’re gonna do it for you.

We do that as [00:38:00] well. Yeah. Those are the ones that get the, I mean, working with your dad and me was, was, was majorly expensive. Like Carrie Warberg, that was a. Monster investment for her. And she said, I know it’s gonna be worth it. And she had the faith. And I’m not trying to pitch anything. I don’t, I’m doing my own thing here.

I’m not trying to pitch Amanda’s stuff, but I was there and I, I have the real life experience of the ex and she did it. But, you know, the Dr, the Dream 100 for Carrie Warburg, she was, she was selling her mouse pouches out of um, I think vans of people going from to small town to small town in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Iowa.

And I’m like, why isn’t this in Home Depot? Why isn’t this in, uh, what’s the other hardware store? 

Amanda: Lowe’s. Low’s, Lowe’s, home Depot. She’s in Walmart. She’s in Target. All, well, 

Gene: there was a point where, well, she wasn’t in any of ’em. Yeah. So we got the core story, we built the brochure, then we figured out it was Lowe’s we were going after first.

So we, [00:39:00] we started making the calls, myself included, writing the letters, and they said, oh yeah, it’s, we’re all decentralized. You gotta go to every single store. Individually. Imagine that. Yeah. And then we had the ideas like, we don’t need to send them some special gift. Let’s send them the mouse pouch.

Let’s send them the actual thing and say, if you got mice, put this in your house. If it works, call me. It was that simple. Oh, I love that. That one. And then it just became this overtime snowball from a a, a, a, a business leader in Carrie that knew she had something to give to the world and she had the discipline to keep going and the rest is history.

I love watching her. Gosh, she was with what? President Obama like called for the Executive Council of Entrepreneurs like, holy moly, this is a farm girl from North Dakota. I know we’re way over our time, but I miss this. I miss having these conversations and if you ever want to come back and dissect some of those things of, I would, I will [00:40:00] take you up on that because I was there.

I, I was, I was the guy that, um, was doing the stuff under your dad’s guidance and I got a chance to witness some pretty cool stuff. I would love 

Amanda: it for another day. Until then, thank you so much, Gene. It’s been such a joy. 

Gene: Thank you very much. Good luck everybody.

Troy: Hey everybody. It’s Troy from Che Holmes International here. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you’d love to be a part of a group where people are taking the actions and the strategies that you just learned about and putting that into play, come take a look at our working group called Dojo.

Go to dojo dot ultimate sales machine.com. Book a call with me. Let’s see if it’s right for you and your business. Thank you very much.