59. Anthony Trucks: Find Your Identity, Find Your Success

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Hey. Hey. Welcome back to Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neary. Each week I sit down with abundant thinkers who are kicking ass in life and we deconstruct the formulas they have used to have success in business and in life to help you unpack your life, your business, so you can do the same. So put a smile on, grab a pen and a paper, get ready to take a ton of notes because you, my friend, are about to go on a wild ride. Here we go.

Hey. Welcome back to Bullpen Sessions. This week I'm actually sharing an interview from the past. I had the chance to sit down with Anthony trucks about 10 or 11 months ago. It was actually before I even had the Bullpen Sessions podcast. I was doing a video interview series called Major League Mindset where I sat down with former professional athletes and who are also now having a lot of success in business. And we just talk about the mindset they had as an athlete and how they tie that same mindset, their business career. And Anthony is the definition of somebody who had success on the athletic field and is now having success in business. Here's just a short list of his accomplishments. He's a former linebacker at the University of Oregon. Now for the die hard college football fans out there, this is before the fancy uniforms, before Chip Kelly brought the innovative offense to the Ducks. He then took his football talent to the next level. He spent few years as a linebacker with the Washington, formerly known as Redskins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. But when his NFL career was over, his athletic success did not end there. He's actually, get this, he's actually the first NFL athlete to ring the bell on America Ninja Warrior. Now, in the business world, Anthony's had the same amount of massive success as he had on the football field. He is the owner or founder of Identity Shift. He's an international speaker. He's the best selling author of Trust yout Hustle. He's a father of three. I mean, the list just goes on and on and on. And this episode is all about identity shifts. And Anthony has had a lifetime of them. His journey is fascinating. From making identity shifts as a child to making the shifts he needed to make on the football field and now to making those identity shifts he's made in his marriage and his business career. So if you're sitting out there right now and you're in sales, if you are struggling or you've had a lot of success but you are trying to take it to the next level, it is going to require mindset shifts and identity Shift. And that's what this episode is about. In fact, if you sit tight and you hold on and you listen to the end of this episode, I have a special gift for you. For those that are going to listen to the full episode, that's my gratitude for you staying with us and staying throughout this entire episode. Couple takeaways from the interview. 1. You got to enjoy the monotony of success. Anthony and I talk about this. Most people can't endure the monotony of success because that's they can't stay consistent enough to be successful. What you create creates you. It's another thing we talk about. And most importantly, you got to enjoy the journey. If you are just focused on the destination and you are only going to be happy if you get to that destination, you're not going to enjoy the journey at all. And Anthony and I definitely dive deep into that because he has had one hell of a journey that I'm excited to share with you. So grab a pen, grab a piece of paper, buckle up. This is going to be a fun ride. This is an amazing episode and it's going to change your career. Here we go. Shift your mindset, Anthony. Welcome aboard.

Hey, man, how you doing, man?

Good. I am. Again, thank you for taking the time to be on the interview today. So, Anthony, take us back. If you don't mind filling in the audience of people who may not know who you are. Tell us a little bit about maybe your upbringing and really, you know, what has led you to where you are today, which is helping people get through the shifts in their careers, in their mindsets with the coaching you provide today.

You know, where is the biggest thing for me is I help people make success their second nature. I think it's kind of the thing I figured out how to do it. So really a lot of it's mindset. A big. It's like mindset is a subsection of identity work I do, but I started this by accident. I think life happens that way. You start these things. You don't know what you're doing or going through, but it creates this human. So years ago when I was three years old, I was given into foster care and you deal with a system that does not care about you. It's what's called a paycheck. So long as I didn't die, it was all good in the world. So I was beaten, starved, torso, man. There's a lot of crazy things put into a family. That's my family. This day it's an all white family. So I Had that weird identity of like, who am I? Where do I fit in? The foster kid, all black kid. Then I got adopted 11 years later. So I was in the system for a lot of years with a lot of instability. Went through like five different homes. Never knew that I would wake up on this pillow and for sure go on to that one again tonight. Until I severed my mom's rights at 14, finally got adopted. My biological mom was no longer in a picture. My adoptive mom got diagnosed with Ms. So I have this sick mom. I'm the son of a sick mom. I'm this athlete trying to play football for the first time. So I'm really out of my depth there. I'm not good, but I love this sport. The only black kid, all white family. I went to schools. I was the only black kid still the foster kid. And I'm only adopted. So many different weird parts of who I am. I think a lot of us step in a space, especially like the sales word you step in and just. Just discomfort. It's like, I don't know what I'm doing. A little bit off. And you never really know where you quite fit. And so that was me. Like, that's the root of Anthony. And I wish did. I wish that was where it ended. Oh, man, it does get crazier.

So, I mean, go ahead. No, no. Let me ask you, if you don't mind asking a question quick. I want to take two parts of your life and put it into one question, please. You talked about life happens often in ways we don't intend, which for sales professionals. Not a lot of people often get into sales by design, especially in the industry I've come from, which insurance. But then you also had that hit that at that part of your life where as the only African American kid in the elementary school, you felt out of place again, very commonplace. Salespeople find themselves. Can you go back and think about the mindset you may have had at that time that really helped you get through and move forward through those times in your life?

Yeah, man, it was just survival. I mean, you're talking. This is up to like 15 years old. It wasn't much more than like, I don't like how I feel right now. I gotta do something to feel better. And it's that simple. I mean, it's like a lot of us, like, we will accept that the poison and the evil, like, we believe in this thought that the evil we know is better than the evil we don't. So we just accept this weird discomfort. And I just get okay with it. I get accustomed to it. And I'm a guy that's like, no, I don't want any of that in my life, man. Like, I don't. I don't want any of that. I want to figure out how to feel very comfortable in this. And then over time, it's not discomfort. It's normalcy. And when you can do that thing that really moves the needle for you, when you can do it like it's nothing. Like, it's a breeze. But it used to overwhelm you or scare you. Now you get successful. It's the people that, like, will sit back and enter sales and say, man, how does Jim do that? That's a lot. Like, it's overwhelming. It's scary. Like, oh, I could never do that. But Jim does it like he's eating breakfast on a Tuesday, you know, like, what in the world? So. But when you can get to that point, that's how you can actually become incredibly successful. And that's. That's what I learned over the years. Cause, like, after I get adopted, I try football, and I suck at football. I try to figure it out, and I get to this point, I'm like, you know what? I don't want to suck at this anymore. I want to be great. And I worked my tail off to be a better athlete. I didn't get better at football because I practiced football. I believe, like, there's this process inside of if we don't own that's who we are, then we end up not doing the things necessary to succeed in that over time, it drains us. Like, we may try it and it may kill our soul, and then we just don't do it right. So what I found is, like, what you create creates you. Like, literally, when I created this faster, stronger athlete in the weight room and running routes and just reading, like, little stuff, it gave this, like, chip my shoulder of confidence. Like, I'm the dude. And I would go into the football field, I'd show up, I'd battle, I'd make plays. I'd get the praise and the praise got the pride. Like, boom. Feel good about myself, chipped in the shoulder. And that comes from what I did in the face of not feeling very comfortable. And that was one of the biggest catalysts, one of the biggest. And I teach people in my realm, it's like that you really have to step in and create something not for the end destination, but for the internal destination. I'm building this thing. It's going to be painful. I'm Going to try these things. They're going to suck at first. I'm going to suck it first. But if I just stay the damn course, I'll eventually get to the point where I step back and say, you know what? I put too much time and energy into this to walk away and not feel like I'm that person. I'm that person now, and that person does X, Y, and Z. It's now, Jim, doing these things that were overwhelming and scary to you, now they're who you are, and they happen on autopilot. Effortless effort. Boom. I kill it. And that's what I learned.

What you just said there, Anthony, that I want to hear every. I want every sales professional to understand is you said you did not get better at football by just practicing football. Nope. You realized working on yourself, probably more with mind than physical, to become literally think yourself into becoming that football player is what helped you become that football player.

Yeah.

And so when I hear sales professionals all the time, yes, you need the product knowledge, you need. You need to practice those sales skills. But at the end of the day, what sales professionals can do to really take their sales to the next level is start by working on themselves and putting themselves in that right mindset of I am a great salesman, and if I just work on the fact that my mind knows I can do this and I will eventually become this, eventually all that stuff I see all my peers doing, it's just going to become second nature for me. So I want to take you go back to that spot about, you're in high school, you're playing football.

Yeah.

Obviously there came a point where you realized, I'm pretty good at this.

When was that? And do you think a lot of it had to do with the work you put on with your mindset? Do you think all the mindset work you did off the field is what truly elevated your play on the field?

Yes. Yes and no. I mean, I realized I was good like my junior year when I started getting people looking at me. Right. And to be honest, what it was is this aspect that because it was who I was, I would protect that with my actions. And this is where a lot of people don't grasp because we just talked about, like, the chip on the shoulder. And what it is, is like you have this ego. Everybody says ego is a bad thing. I don't think it's a bad. I call it everyone's greatest obstacle, but once you overcome it, it's everyone's greatest opportunity. And the reason is because imagine like you have this, like, this stick in the ground, there's this orb floating around it. Anything that gets close to it, it shocks it and keeps it off. Well, this stick in the ground is your identity and who you believe yourself to be. And the orb is your ego and your actions. And it shows up in a way where if I'm this person, I will protect that stick with my actions. And so it's like saying, I'm a phenomenal football player. Well, what does that football player do? My ego will make me lift weights, make me eat the right food, make me practice, make me train, make me learn. Because those actions are going to solidify the identity and protect that. Right. Same for a great mom. Same for a great salesperson. I am a great salesperson. What are the actions I do to protect that? I feel that way about myself. And so what happens is a lot of people don't get what I call the ideal identity dialed in that pike, that stick that has the ego. It's the ideal identity. And the stronger that is, the better the actions are. And the way you get that is you have this overlapping. Imagine like a Venn diagram. Literally, like, yeah. The very top will have your beliefs, which you believe is possible. You'll have then your thoughts and your reactions. Where your beliefs and your thoughts overlap is, in fact, your mindset. It's like, if I believe this to be true, but then I'm like, but should you. Are you smart enough? Can you. I had this weak mindset stepping out. Like, because your thoughts aren't in line with your beliefs and what you're capable of doing. So the mindset's weak. And then you have this stage. Oh.

So then wherever that belief and thoughts overlap, that's your mindset. The mindset's stronger. Great. But then you have the area where it's another overlap, which is going to be your actions and your thoughts. So I think I should be doing this, but I don't do it. Then I'm out of commitment. I'm out of habits. If I don't have my habits in line, I can't succeed the way I know I'm supposed to succeed. Like, I can't be great for this week and then not good. This. I can't put a certain amount of calls in this week and then not do the same next week and expect to have results. That person I want to be doesn't do that, then the big one that really matters, it's the belief in the actions. If I believe I'm supposed to do this and my actions don't follow suit. I fall out of commitment and pride for myself. And this is where a lot of people falter. You're talking about the football player that I felt I was if I was a salesperson, right? I do that, and I step up strong because I know it's who I am. And I don't care what you say. You can't challenge me there. But if I fall out of commitment somewhere and my character is a little bit off, my mindset's weak. I don't have that strength. I lose the chip on the shoulder. And here's the big thing. A lot of people, they'll take a few actions, but if they lose that action in line of where the belief's supposed to be, what happens is think about a person that you don't like, love, or respect very much. Like, you may not show up for them if they need you. Hey, I really need you to show up, man. I don't care about you, bro. I'm not worried about you. But my loved one, my wife, my kids, my family, they need me. I got you. Because I love respect these people. I'm gonna show up and do overwork. I'm gonna go, and I don't even feel like doing it. I'm gonna do it now. If you have a belief in action where you overlap and you miss a little bit of pride or you lack that character and, like, greatness about yourself, you don't care and love yourself. Like, there's not the same kind of respect. So what ends up happening is you don't show up for yourself in the actions necessary consistently. You don't do it when you don't feel like doing it because you're like, I don't know. I don't even know I'm supposed to. I missed it yesterday. I'm not that great. And all these things are becoming top blowing your heart. So the biggest thing is when you look at how to become that person. I did in football was literally, I created a guy who didn't miss workouts every day. I had to catch a football 500 times. That was the commitment. That was the action. So that when it came time, I had this chip. My sort of like, you don't have the right to beat me. You don't get the right to outsell me today. Like, this is what I do, right? And the mindset's strong because I believe I'm great, and my thoughts keep telling me, yeah, bro, you put the work in. You are great. The mindset's strong. The habits are strong. The pride's strong. I show up. The actions of my ego are effortless effort. Now I'm not this football player trying to do what the great football player does, which becomes soul draining. But I'm the one that does that. And here. Oh, dude, here's the beautiful piece of it. I didn't even get to the great part yet. Here's the great part and what people need to grasp this one. If you get this sinking, you'll get it. A lot of the time what we don't realize is a problem we run into is the things that we're supposed to do to have success, they become overwhelming. We're always just like, we always decide things, you know, our brain has. And maybe they don't know this, but your brain is like a decision gas tank. We'll call it like based on like your like neuroscience. It shows you can make a certain amount of decisions before you're just like, I don't want to think anymore. Right? And women are always choosing things. I think it's why, why they can't pick dinner because they make choices all day long. Like, you pick dinner. I don't want to. So this, it happens. You get to. If you're a person who's like deciding, do I get the workout? Do I make the calls? Do I write that email? Do I follow up? Do I have this conversation? Do I? Do I? Do I? By the time you get to 2 o', clock, you've made so many decisions, you're done, man. Like, you just sit there and hold your thumbs the rest of the day. Whereas the person that says, I'm the person that gets the email out, that makes those calls, that writes those emails, that makes us those conversations, that's who I am. It just gets done. I'm not deciding anymore. So by 2 o', clock, I still got a half a tank ready to roll. And now I can go into the rest of the day killing it. Because it's not something I'm trying to do and deciding, should I? It's who I am and I'm protecting that and it's the pride I have for this individual. And that's how you become great at literally anything you do well.

And I know you'd agree with this, Anthony, this is how, you know what I do with my life. There are some things I call those non negotiables. And so working out for me every day is a non negotiable. And I, some people might think that selfish, but my point to them is, listen, if you want me to Bring my best to you. You need to let me do what it takes to. So I can be my. And so I want to go back to something you said because that was so good. So good. It could be argued that people in sales often equate success purely to money. Yeah. And I see a lot of people in my industry and other industries with sales, you know, involved, where you may look at somebody and say they're super successful because they make a lot of money. However, when you. If you were to do a macro view of their entire life, you would see they're probably lacking greatly in other areas of their life, whether it's being a good husband, a good wife, a good parent, taking care of their body. So the question I ask is, are you truly successful if you are making a lot of money, but you're letting everything else in life fall to the wayside?

Yeah, I did that.

And my answer to that is no. Money is just one piece of the avenue of the overall. Call it metric of success. But you said something I want you to hit upon again, if you don't mind that I preach all the time. And I'm so glad you said that. Is I read a book once called the One thing, if you ever read that book, but they mentioned in there that most people cannot handle the monotony of success.

Yeah, they can't.

Which is you see the overnight successes or who you think is an overnight success, but what you don't realize is the daily boredom, the daily monotony they go through to be that success you see today. So if you don't mind taking the audience through this, because NFL is a perfect example as a player at the Division 1 college level and then in the NFL, what are some of the things you had to do every single day that the people who watch on Sunday don't see, but if they watched Monday through Saturday, they'd be blown away.

Yeah. Every day you have to. I mean, the thing is crazy, every day was. Was all the small things that make you great. I did say anything you just talked about. Coach Tomlin was with the Steelers, was really big on. We're going to be masters of the small things. Then the big things take care of themselves. And so what you don't see behind the scenes is every day dealing with the pain and anguish of knowing that you might not have a job tomorrow. Now I go in sales. It's kind of the same thing, right. It's a little bit similar, but literally, like, you won't get to live in this town. You'll have to move, you know, like that's, that's like an everyday thing you have to deal with action wise. Every day you have to get up with this ball in the pit of your stomach and go and give your absolute everything. And that showed up in being consistent in areas where no one questioned your ability to do your job. That's how football works. A team effort, just like a sales team, you're part of a team effort. So if I question whether or not you can do this thing, I'm not going to lean on you to get stuff done. So it diminishes your ability to have value for me. And so what we did as teammates was every day I'm at the weight room every single morning, Dan, reading the exact same breakfast, same weightlifting session from what time to what time. From there we go to our morning meetings, which were our special teams meeting. Special teams go to defensive team meeting, defensive team meeting goes to linebacker, position meeting. From position meeting, you go get lunch, you go to practice. From practice, you watch more film, you go home, you get to sleep, you get back up and do it again. Is the role throughout the season. And it's just like clockwork. It doesn't move, doesn't change the same tempo, same beat. Same tempo, same beat. And you get to a groove. It's almost like you just kind of, you flow and I promise you, I couldn't tell you what day of the week it was, month it was, it just you flow and people look at it like these guys are like, oh, they're killing it. I promise you, when we're in the middle of season, I don't know what month it is. I just know it's like week 16 or week 12. Like, it's all I know. It's weird. So when I take the things that I've learned from football and apply to the businesses that I run now, which I've been able to make seven figures as a coach and a speaker and author and just all these cool things. A lot of it is I get to a groove so I don't have to base my success off of feelings. I think a lot of people are trying to feel a certain way before they do something and feelings are fleeting. You can be great today and gone tomorrow. And it takes that one, that takes that one binge of, you know, like eating ice cream and your weight, whatever weight you lost back on, you know, so the same thing happens, success. So for me, it's like I don't binge eat on the process. I have these things I have to do. And I don't have to think about them anymore. They're not decisions. They just have to get done. And I set my life up this way to where it makes it much smoother. And like you said, success is. It's a consistent climb. And I think a lot of people, they leave the mountain early, they head back downhill because I don't think that people grasp. A lot of people are looking for the destination. I want to make this amount of sales this week. I want to make, you know, I want to make this much money to buy this kind of house. I want to take a vacation here. I want to do that thing over there. I should stick my head down and do this stuff and, like, hate it. ARR. And then I'll get there. I'll be happy, you know. And what I realized, like, what if you think about, like, taking a trip somewhere? If I get in a car to go on a trip somewhere, and the car's late to get to the airport, my flight's delayed, I got to take another flight. And then I had this crazy trip, but sitting next to a baby who's crying. I land, I get lost in this weird city. I lose my wallet, I my movie, my camera gets destroyed. And, you know, then I just. I get to this hotel. It's amazing hotel. I don't walk in, like, I had the worst trip. Oh, my God, I'm so happy. I'm in this amazing hotel now. Like, I don't just flip it. Like, I'm happy because all of a sudden I had this hotel. So the destination doesn't always give you joy. However, if I have the smoothest ride, the flight gets there on time. I had to sit next to this fine lady and, you know, if I was single, I'm talking to her, have a great meal, get a nice nap, finish my book, I got work done. If I show up, my room's messed up and it's all crappy. Like, hey, it's cool, I'll wait. I'm still happy even if it's a crappy hotel. Like, I'm at a good. I'll make the most of this, right? So what I tell you all of that to say the destination is not the destination. The destination is the journey. Because then I love every day. Then I have everything operate smooth. My perspective and filter are great. And now I enjoy every level of my day and my life. It becomes joyful to me. The other stuff just happens. That's why you see people are successful. It almost like it looks easy. Like, why is it so easy for them because they didn't make it easy to get there. They made it easy to enjoy the process to get there.

So many, so many good lessons there. Because people would laugh, Anthony, if a college football player went to a scout and said, tell me a hack that I can use to get to the NFL. Yeah, it's obvious it's going to be work your butt off.

Yeah, it's a hack.

And it's so amazing how many people, whether it's in sales, it's in marketing, you name it, they want that silver bullet, they want that hack, right? To grow that seven figure business. And the other thing you said which is so, so important is if you're in sales, the stuff that's boring, picking up the phone, even if it's all the way down to getting on social media and inviting 10 or 15 new connections into your community so you can interact with them, you have to have. That has to almost become second nature to you. Enjoy Monday through Friday, if not Monday through Sunday. That to your point, you don't even know what day of the week it is that you just get up each and every day, you rinse and you repeat and go, Yep, that's just what I have to do today to make it a successful day.

I agree. I think a lot of people are looking for this strategy. Like you said, the hack too, the strat. Look at it this way. I try to like give like aha moments. This is an aha moment for you guys to grab. Grab this one. I always, I was like, why do we seek these strategies and hacks? It shortcuts the process, right? Which is true and it can. But then I'm like, well, who usually gets those? And a lot of people get them and do nothing with them. We get shelf esteem. I buy the book I put on the shelf. I never read it, but I feel good because I bought the damn book. And then I started thinking like, well, where does come from? How does that operate? How did this strategy or software tool come to be? And what it was was somebody of a specific ideal identity had a problem, decided to figure it out, had joy along the way, got some great success with it, said, hey, that's what I did. Come take the same path. So what if we, instead of being a person that's always consuming, be a person that, consume that and apply it first, but then be a person that creates it. Like that's the secret the hack is be the person that creates those things. Because that is like you have to master things and when you have to Master it enough to teach it. Oh, damn it. You've mastered it. And now it becomes normalcy.

You just hit it on the head. I tell people all the time, quick, taking so many notes, start taking action, figure it out. And the more action you take, out of action comes creativity. And all of a sudden, you're the one who created the hack that you were looking for in the first place.

Exactly.

That's it. And so it's interesting. I got a question here for you that I want to throw out there. Directly related to mindset. When I was in pro ball, Anthony, you know, there was a huge jump in talent from the high school level to college level.

Right.

But what I think people don't realize is then there's another big jump to the minor leagues for baseball. But even between triple A, the highest level of the minors, and major league baseball, there's a huge jump in gap in talent. Yeah, you made that jump from the college football to the NFL. And I always laugh when people say, like, this year, the Dolphins, Alabama could beat the Dolphins. No, they couldn't.

Never.

There is a huge gap in talent between the best college football team and the worst NFL team.

So vast.

But somebody who's in sales, who's already doing well, and now they got to take it to the next level. That's to me, like you going from Oregon and now here you are with the Washington Redskins. You're at the highest level.

Yeah.

What mindset shift do you think somebody like that, whether it's a football player in the NFL or a sales professional trying to take it to the next level, what mindset do they have to have to make that happen?

It's going to be speed of embracing overwhelm. Because the thing is, what speed first and then speed of embracing over them. Because it's going to go fast. Literally in football, it goes faster than you ever thought. Like, if I sat back, there's times that I remember high school like, oh, it was so fast. And then college, like, this is way fast. And then I go to the NFL. This is hella fast. To the point where I go back to high school, I'm like, this feels like they're moving in quicksand. Why are they so slow? You know? And so what ends up happening is that. And the way that you get to that speed is you just embrace the overwhelm. A lot of us, we try to fight what's going on. We back ourselves out of the problem because it's overwhelming. We make excuses to sleep at night. We just can't. I Don't want to lean in. And when I was a kid, I did a stupid thing as a kid. I didn't torture animals, but it may sound like it. My mom, we'd have kittens, and we would have these kittens that my mom were like, I don't know why. We always had some damn kittens, man. It was like kittens and puppies, like, every month. I don't know what was going on.

She wasn't the crazy cat lady, was she?

No, she wasn't. I think we had, like, stray animals and we'd seen in the backyard. We were poor, and we had, like, weird holes in the backyard. It was awkward. So we had this hoe of a cat. She used to go get pregnant, I guess. I don't know what. Anyways, we're going off a tangent. So the cat, I would. I would have his kittens. I one time put a sock over one of the cat's heads, and the cat, they will run backwards all over the place. They'll run off clips. You put a nice little clip, they'll just back out of it because it's a different problem. But if the cat was to stop and put its hand on the sock and lift its head up and come out of the problem, and so what a lot of us are doing is we have this problem. How fast can I get out of this problem? I don't want to back out. I'm going to leave them. And they just go backwards and they fall off cliffs. They ruin their lives. But we're smarter. We're smarter than cats. Stop. Put your hands on a sock, figure out to lift your head up, do the work, and see where you're standing. Like, right, I'm great. I'm okay. And so I think that's what happens when you look at the speed of overwhelm. People do not find out how to handle this overwhelm and lean in and embrace it. And all you have to do to overcome overwhelm is just do the work. Don't remove yourself from the fire, because you'll eventually you'll figure it out. But when you stay in it, like, you get the skill set to stay in it and then also this. You then separate yourself from the 99% of people who find a way to back out. That's why it's the 1%. They just didn't back out of the craziness. So when you're in a space and you go to the next level, lean in, man. Embrace the fire of it. Find a way to, like, stick in with the gut of you that handle that overwhelm. And in doing so, you'll just learn to survive and be able to thrive.

So if there's one takeaway from today, I want everybody on this show to take away. When you get uncomfortable, when you hit those problems because you're growing, don't hit the reverse button or don't shove it into reverse. Just grab the damn sock.

Yeah, man.

Right? Lift your head out. So I want to be respectful of your time, Anthony. I know you're a busy man now here you are. You played in the NFL. There was a time that came. The NFL was not in your future. And unfortunately in your case, it was due to a shoulder injury. Quickly take us. You know, where was your mindset when you realized that, you know, the NFL is no longer going to be where I take my talents? And now you knew you had to take your talents to something else in life.

It was a mess up. Difficult one.

Yeah.

I mean, it's always difficult because you get this thing you've been doing for so long that it's who you are and then your identity is stripped from you. Yeah, like that for me was difficult part. It's like, who is Anthony without this thing? And I had to rebuild a new thing. And so I didn't even know how to repurpose what I had. A lot of us at athletes don't know how because we know how to be able to take the physical nature. And I can go tackle you, but I can't get paid for that anymore. People. I have to pay money because I go to jail. Right. It's a total different thing. So in the day, it ends up being this. They were to figure out how do I repurpose these intangibles? And so what I did was I went into the real world and I messed my life up, man. I came out, I got this, you know, this gym opened up and almost went bankrupt in the first few months. Had no clue to do sales or build a business. Ruined my marriage, got divorced, ruined my fatherhood. I wasn't a present father anymore. So I did all the things that you shouldn't do it. I neglected everything to try and find myself again, to find a sense of pride for who I was when the reality was I was always the person that created those things. But I thought I had to have a thing to be the person. So ass backwards. Excuse my language. And so forget that for a point. I got this level. I was like, all right, well, you know, I almost fall apart. Almost. Honestly, almost took My life, man, I got to like a super bottom. My wife had the fair, like that was bottoms. And it's taken me probably almost eight years now since those moments in time to climb out and really take a backwards look and say, like, how did I get to that level? How did I fall off? How do I get back on the horse? How did I create this crazy cool life I have now? Fast forward from then. I was divorced for three years, custody battle, craziness, remarried my ex wife in the most weirdest turn of events that honestly, like, if I had to go, our marriage is incredible. If I had to go through that stuff again, I'd go through it twice. But then I get where I'm at now. Like, it's amazing, right? And a lot of it was the mindset of it all. Who am I? Who do I want to be? What beliefs do I have about myself? What actions need to be taken consistently to be able to have me this guy? How do I build myself back up in that character pride standpoint? Like, what's the belief after my life? What are the actions I'm taking on top of that? And then what are the thoughts that I have and the actions and habits I have to have that commitment that aligns with who I want to be to build up over time. And I just spent the last probably six years now just rebuild an entire new human man from the intangibles of what I had, how I think, what practices I have that I'm really big on. The physiology changes your psychology, right? So what am I actionably doing? What strategies am I applying to my day, to my life? And then what are, you know, where are the areas where I need to show up more that I'm not showing up? Like, there's days that I'm not still the best father. I'm a solid dad now. Kids are now, like, we do great, but there's days where I'm, you know, I'm not the best dad in the world. Days when I mess up, you know, parts of my wife needs me to do it, I'm not the best husband. You know, days when my just my habits fall out, or I'm like questioning, like, I know I'm damn good at what I do, but like this person didn't sign up. Am I that good? Right. These things are normal and natural. However, I'm very cognitive and conscious of what's going on on a daily basis and realizing I'm in control of all of it. I think that's one of the things.

That most people don't get well and that's it, man. Not that I ever want somebody to have to go through what you've gone through, whether it was as a child or after the NFL career. But what I heard you say, and I think it's so important to repeat, is you had a lot of what could be perceived as losses. And it's so easy for people, salespeople. Right. They lose every day. And it's so easy to take those losses personally or let it actually define the rest of your life. And in some cases, I see people even getting out of sales because of that. But I think what you need to realize is because you're. When you realize you have to love the journey, those losses are no longer losses. They're learning lessons all day.

One more of them.

And so I always tell people, you either win or you learn. If you, if you look at things that way, either win or you learn, life's going to get a whole lot easier and you're going to enjoy that journey a hell of a lot more than you may be today. Because your life, Anthony, is a beacon for that of somebody who has shifted their mind so many times because of what they were faced with. You're a true inspiration, man.

So appreciate it, man.

I'm going to leave this. This final. One final question on mindset for the audience is if you were. You do a lot of keynote speaking.

Yeah.

If you're just speaking to an audience of sales professionals. Let's think of younger sales professionals, people who may be newer to the business. What would be the one tip on mindset or the one mindset idea you would want to pass along to that audience?

Well, I think the way I look at this is when there's going to be a lot of things they're faced with that we're going to naturally have excuses to bear and to bring forward because at the exact same time, it's going to be difficult to do this new thing. It's all abnormal. We, and here's what ends up happening. We in those moments feel very weak and helpless. Like, I don't feel like I can do this. Therefore why give effort? Why do the X, Y and Z? And so we end up having all this, this power stripped of us because we think we have no control. And here's usually happens in life, when it comes to the mindset in my life now, things that go wrong, things that go great, like it's always my fault or my responsibility somewhere. And what I started doing is whenever I was faced with something, something went wrong. I wanted that lesson you talked about. I had to take that pain of acceptance because with it comes the power. The power to make a change for the next time. The power to apply this lesson right. If I have a loss and I think I'm helpless and I have no part in it, why am I going to get back up and lose again? Because nothing I do, I'm never going to win no matter what I do. That's a horrible place to have your mind. So for me, my mindset's big on. All right, damn, I took an L here. What did I do to take this? What was my fault? There may have been 10% of it, 2% of it was me. Maybe 98. Somebody else put it, damn it. Where was mine? And when I have to eat that, like, ah, it's painful, but I'm like, all right, though, But I got some power. Next time I could change a little. Something I did in my relationship. I thought for the longest time, all her fault. You did all this. You made a horrible. How could you make. Have an affair? And then I realized, like, I was gone 6am to 10pm and I was neglectful husband. So I realized was, yeah, you made a crappy choice. But it took two people to get to a point where she felt she needed to make this choice. So in that I'm like, ah, damn. I had to take that pain of like, yeah, it's not, it's not the right reason. It's not a good one. It just is what it is. But, dude, you had a part to play. So take your power back. Be right. Take that damn lump with it too. Life gets places now.

Life gets so easier, Anthony, when you just own your problems, right?

When you own your shift.

Own your shift that, you know, and I, that one punched me in the gut because I can look back at my previous, you know, my career over the years, and I'm guilty of blaming other things, right? Blaming my house. When I got released from baseball, Anthony, I blamed it on my size, the fact I didn't throw hard, the fact I wasn't a high draft pick. But at the end of the day, it was me. I. I had to own that. So thank you for saying that. If you're out there right now, guys, you're struggling with sales, you're sitting there pointing fingers at your team, at the market, at the product you might be selling. You have to own every failure. And trust me, life will get a lot easier when you do the last, last thing here, Anthony. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna Provide a little gift here at the end if you're cool with it. If somebody wanted to reach out to you and get a hold of you, what are the best channels, best ways to get a hold of you, to reap.

To actually get a hold of me.

Or they wanted to follow you on social media?

Yeah, yeah. So social is the best asset I use to be able to contact and communicate with my people. So Instagram is where I spend a lot of time. I personally I'm there answering messages. I do a lot of voice message because it's faster than typing. I can hold it and talk while I'm driving. That's the best way to reach me there. If somebody wants to get insight on the work I do. And like how this actually applies, how to make this shift we're talking about. If you go to Sloworgo co, you can take a quiz and lets you see if you're a slower go identity. And then my team allow you to kind of figure out how to be able to uplevel that whether it's to go from a slow to a go or to go to the next level of your go identity. Because here's the biggest scary thing a lot of people don't want to accept those who are already having some kind of success, a go identity they don't grasp as another tier. Just because you aren't the next one doesn't mean there's something wrong. Like I'm a go identity, but I'm not like the rock level go, you know what I mean? Like it's a whole different level of go. So there are some tiers you could work into in this world.

But that's a good point. For anybody who's in sales who's already having success, there's usually a next level to go to. And that's often where people get stuck is they're having the success they are having today and it can easily allow them to get complacent and they need to find that next level. So I know, I'm intrigued guys, but I'm going to go to slow slower go co and check it out. Here's the gift I want to leave. Anthony, if you're cool with it, you also wrote a book that I failed to mention called Trust your Hustle.

Yes.

So for you listeners listening to this right now, and you have stuck with us throughout this entire interview, the first 10 that send me a direct message on LinkedIn and just type in Anthony Trux T R U C K S. I'm going to mail you a copy of Anthony's book for you.

Oh, man, I appreciate that. Can I get one? No, I'm kidding. I got a whole bunch right here. But thank you, man. I truly appreciate that.

So if you guys. With that being said, Anthony, thank you again. This has been an unbelievable interview.

Very well.

If you're out there listening your sales again, I hope you took a lot of notes like I did. This was absolutely mind blowing. And if you're out there right now, guys, whether you're struggling with sales and you're thinking about switching your company, selling a different product, whatever it might be, or you're having success and you're just trying to figure out how to get to the left next level, just remember, you are always just one mindset shift away from greatness. So that's it for this episode. Anthony, thank you again. Until next week. Make it an awesome day.

Hey, I just want to say thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode. If you're finding bullpen sessions to be valuable to your business and your life, do me a favor, please go to Apple, please subscribe, give it a five star rating. And if you have anybody else in your life, whether it's in your personal tribe or in your business, that could also be impacted by listening to these episodes, do me a favor, share the bullpen sessions with them. I'd be extremely grateful. And until next time, go out, make it happen today. Put a smile on your face and have some fun.