Ken Walls

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The true power that we all have exists in that gap between our thoughts.

Yet attitude means how can I proactively change the way I think? How can I proactively increase my life? How can I proactively create better relationships and better work situations for me to enjoy it and welcome to the Live Gap, the Get Attitude Podcast. The Gap Bridging the gap from who you are to who you want to become and from where you are to where you want to be. Hello, my name is Glenn Bill, founder of the University of Attitude, keynote speaker and author of the international best selling book the ABCs of Attitude. And I've been fortunate enough to help tens of thousands of people Get Attitude, the secret formula in your life and in your business. And our podcast is is something that will help you get yours. So let's get some and I want to welcome everyone here. We are actually live streaming our very first podcast. We've been in the studios, we've been being very traditional with the podcast and I met this guest, the podcast king, Mr. Ken Walls. I want to welcome Ken. I want to first of all ask everybody to please subscribe to our podcast, rate it and review it. Today is the last episode on Attitude Booster Number five or whoops, Attitude Booster Number six, which is Control youl Emotions. And Ken's history and his story I think will come in very, very handy for some of you that are sitting around in your life going, I've made some mistakes, I have some things that I want to do. I'm not as fulfilled as I want. And maybe some of those mistakes came because you weren't necessarily in charge of your emotions. So we are just honored to have Mr. Ken Walls here. He is the CEO and founder of Client Solution Innovations. He's a number one best selling author of Walls of Wisdom. He is the creator of Breakthrough Walls Pod Show. It's a podcast and a show. He has coached and served people like Grant Cardone, Mark Victor Hansen, the great Jeffrey Gittamer who brought us together the Zigler family and Glenn Munshower who was Agent Pierce, I think in the 48 hour show. So Ken, it is great to have you on the Get Attitude podcast. Welcome to our show.

Hey. Very, very grateful to be here. Thank you. And Glenn Morshauer was in the TV show 24.

Oh, that's what. Yes, Glenn, yes. Yeah, 24. They just don't make them like that anymore, do they?

They don't.

I've been waiting. You know, House of Cards was about as close as it got, but that was Netflix. But boy, 24. Oh, we love that thing.

Yeah, it's a great show. Great show. Yeah, man, I'm. I'm. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.

Yeah. Well, we're, we're grateful to have you, and we're grateful to have you in with our gappers, and that's what we call our folks that listen into here. And we're here to talk about this attitude booster called Control youl Emotions. But, Ken, what I'd love to do is maybe just first of all understand what is your thought when you think about attitude? How would you define attitude? And where do you think you developed your attitude?

I would say that my attitude was developed from pain. That's why the subtitle of my book is called Turning Pain Into Profit. And, you know, I was raised in a home that was not much fun, a lot of bad attitudes, and eventually became an alcoholic. And after doing that for many years, at 34 years old, I got into recovery and became a recovered alcoholic and now have almost just shy of 18 years sober and recovery. And so, you know, I've learned along the way, Glenn, that that man, a bad attitude and all of that anger and all of that, that anger that I had inside was, was really hurting nobody except for me. And, and so I decided a long time ago that I'd rather just have a good, positive attitude with, with everything that I'm doing.

The. When you said I became an alcoholic, now some people say, well, no, you're born an alcoholic. Do you have a thought on that?

You know, it's tomato, tomato. I don't know if I was born one or not. I do know that once there's a saying, once you become a pickle, you'll never go back to being a cucumber. So. So, you know, I know that eventually, eventually I crossed the line. I would say by the time I was 12 or 13 years old, I was in full blown alcoholic mode, though.

Well, congratulations on your recovery and your commitment to stay sober. That's really admirable. And certainly when we talk about controlling your emotions, and I'm guessing you've studied addiction. And our last guest Talked a little bit about addiction. What's your thought when you think about urges or when you think about why people fly off the handle? What's the main reason? And maybe you can just refer to yourself, but look it, you've done 2,000 live streams, you've interviewed a ton of people, and I know you have an enormous amount of information. What's your thought on why do people fly off the handle? Why do they lose control of their emotions and what can they do to reign that in?

Well, I don't think that, you know, for. I can't speak for other people, but I can speak for myself. And for myself, normally, if I am flying off the handle, which I don't really do, I mean, I get a little ticked off here and there, but, you know, I. It's generally because I am focused on myself. And when you're focused on yourself. And you're worried about what you're not getting or what somebody has done, you're literally just living in fear. And when I dissect it and I go, okay, you know, there's a book called A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson, and it's about, like, A Course in Miracles, which is another giant volume of a book. And, you know, when I'm out of control, when I'm feeling that fear, which is what's going to trigger the anger and everything else, it's because I'm. I'm not living in love. I'm living in fear. And, you know, everything we feel or experience as human beings as a result of. And I don't mean to oversimplify it, but you're either in a place of love or you're in a place of fear. And personally, when I. I mean, you know, look, I've done technology stuff for 26 years. That doesn't mean I know everything about it, because I don't. But I know a lot about it. And I know enough to do my thing, and I know enough to help enough. You know, clients of mine do their thing, but there's times when. When I'm challenged or whatever, and. And I mean, when I get to a technical challenge that I can't figure out, and I get frustrated because I like to have the answers, man. I like to know what I'm doing, and I'll get frustrated, and then what I do is I just go, okay, you know what? I need to meditate. I just need to. And honestly, 17 years ago, somebody introduced me to the idea of meditating, and I said, okay, I'll try it. You know, first I Was like, how do you meditate? So I started watching some videos and listening stuff. Well, what I eventually learned is there's no learning to meditate. You just do. And so I've meditated every single morning of my life for the last 17 years. And I will be late to a meeting. Before I miss meditation.

Talk to us a little bit. Meditation, big thing. Could do a whole podcast on it. But for our listeners today, if you want to get into meditation, maybe, like, what is step one, two, three? Or what are just the three. You know, that some people don't know how to meditate, so let's teach them in three quick steps. What's the thought?

It's simple, man. You're already meditating. Whether you think you are or not, you are. Because the average human being has 60,000 thoughts per day. And I don't know if you've heard of Dr. Joe Dispenza or not, but I love Dr. Joe Dispenza. And Dr. Joe talks an awful lot about, you know, meditation being the answer to everything that's troubling us. But. But, you know, he. And I'm trying to. I'm trying to think how to put this. Like you're already in your mind all the time. You're already in your thoughts all the time. What meditation does is it. Literally all I do is I sit and I focus on the breath coming in and out of my nostrils, and that's it. And I do it for 15 to 30 minutes every morning.

So you basically focus on breathing. You get inside your head, you try to, what, push out the bad? Hold on to the good? Is that 1, 2, 3.

I try to release all thoughts, good or bad. I just try to get in. Dr. Wayne Dyer talked about the magic in a song. The magic exists between the notes, that silence in between the notes.

Wow.

And so the true power that we all have exists in that gap between our thoughts. That's where, you know, any. Any religion across the world refers to, you know, God in different ways. But it always comes down to all of the answers are there. They already exist for you. They all exist in that silence. God is right here with all of us. That energy, whatever. I don't want to get too new age or. I'm not like that. I just, you know, I just. I believe that we have all of the answers already.

Yeah.

And if we learn to. To just stop. Like, when I get frustrated, I. Sometimes I'll shut off the lights in my office. I'll sit back in my chair, sitting straight up, and I'll Just close my eyes and focus on breathing for 2 minutes, 5 minutes, just so I can. And the answer always, always, always comes to me. It always comes to me.

Right.

100% of the time. And then what's there to be angry about?

Nothing.

Right.

What? Did you ever have any trouble, like sleeping, insomnia, anything like that?

No, I like to sleep.

Okay, well, that's good stuff.

I enjoy sleeping.

When you think about standing at the edge of the bridge, right, maybe where you were, maybe that 18 years ago, and then bridging the gap to what you've become today, which is, you know, obviously a best selling author, a CEO, a producer of your own show, what's the attitude? And obviously you've already hit on love, but were there other attitudes or were there other influences that triggered you walking across that bridge, bridging the gap to who you really have want to become?

You know, I had to surrender to who I thought I was to become who I am today. And I mean, I wasn't that far. See, I think that everybody has this burning intuition inside of them that's already telling them, like, hey, this is who you're supposed to be. But we allow other outside influences. Preachers, teachers, parents, parents, siblings, all these other influences from childhood on up into adulthood. You know, here's the sad thing to me, Glenn. I think that a lot of people get to their grave at, you know, 80, 90, whatever years old, and they lived an entire life based on what they thought somebody else wanted them to do instead of what they wanted to do.

Yeah.

And I think that anybody that's experiencing anger about something like life's not going the way that they want it to go, I think it's because you're not being who you're supposed to be.

Right.

Like, you're not being your true self. And when you learn how to just surrender. The book, Power vs. Force. Amazing book. I mean, absolutely incredible book. And it talks about. I'm summarizing it, this is a terrible summary. But he says, he says anytime that we're trying to find force, anything, anytime we're trying to force anything, we automatically create resistance in the universe.

Amen on that. Yeah.

True power comes from just surrendering.

Right. That was in one of Oprah's super Sundays. I forget who the guy was. Black guy, long dreadlocks, hair, has the church in California.

Yeah, that's. That's, yeah.

Awesome book. I forget his name. He's.

Well, Dr. David. David Hawkins wrote the book Power versus Force.

Okay, okay.

Dr. David Hawkins, you're talking. I know exactly who you're talking about. And I can't.

He's tough to forget, visually. I can't remember his name, but I watched that and I actually sat and took notes through that because so many people, and especially people that aren't achieving, people that aren't bridging the gap, people that are going, why not me? Why me? Why isn't this happening for me? Why is my life stalled? Why am I stuck in a ruthless. It's because truly, they're trying to force it. And then that in turn creates all that energy back towards what you're trying to get to. So I totally believe that. I totally get it. I'm sure we're not as eloquent as the author and the preacher, but you should look it up. And I think it's a. If you're sitting there as a gapper, wondering those questions, it could be that, you know what? Maybe you're forcing it. And I see it a lot in sales, too, when salespeople try to force a sale. It ain't gonna happen. Right, Right.

Yeah.

You have trained and been with some pretty powerful and influential folks. If we can, I just would love to get your take and share with our audience. Right. Some of the best stuff that they've given you. And I know that the concept you just talked about. I was watching the Glenn Morshauer. Was that his name?

Yeah. Ken and Glenn show with a guy named Scott.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he talked about what you just said with the hospice experiment. Experiment. They interviewed 100 people. 97 of those people said their biggest regret was living the life of somebody else's dreams. Yeah. So. So we got Glenn. But let's talk about, you know, Grant Cardone just, you know, blew out. He had a huge event before the. I wonder if anybody in that audience had the pandemic. He just rocked it. Give me one or two of Grant Cardone's big messages to you that. That really influenced you or that you said, wow, that's powerful.

I'll give you the biggest one. And this is what changed my life completely and totally forever. Wow. And that is. He asked me. I sat with him in his office one on one for three hours, and he coached me. And he said, I won't say it. We'll keep it PG rated. But he said. He said, what in the blank are you hiding from? And I said, I'm what? I'm not hiding from anything, dude. I'm sitting in your office. What are you talking about? He goes, your Facebook page. I can only see it if I'm. I'm friends. And you're. You're not. You have no fan page. You have, like, why? And I go, well, dude, I'm a website developer. What, like, what do I need a fan page for? He goes, dude, I buy real estate. What do I need one for? I go, oh, good point. So. So, you know, I started a fan page, and Now I have 61,000 people following me on my fan page and constantly at the 5,000 friend limit on Facebook, the personal page. And you know what the biggest thing he taught me was? Money follows attention, period.

Right?

Money follows attention, right?

The new economy. Attention. The attention economy, right?

If you're not getting attention, you're not making it. You're not making it like you can't sit. And I literally had. I was a guest speaker this morning with the Ohio chapter of the National Speakers association, and they had me on to speak to their members, and there was only a handful of people there this morning. But I said, look, you know, you can't say, I want to change the world and I want to have this positive impact on the world and stay hidden. They don't work together. You can't stay in hiding. You got to come out, man. You got to come out of obscurity. So, you know, that's one of the things that people are like, you've done over 2,000 live streams. I'm like, yeah, I think it's actually approaching 2500. But, like, you know, I've done a lot of live streams, right? And I've had people complain about it. And I'm like, bro, block me, then unfollow me, unfriend me. I don't care. You're not my people. Get the hell out of here. Pardon my language, but, like, leave me alone. If you like, if you want to make a difference in the world, if you want to make a difference in your life, come out of hiding.

Right, right. Powerful message from Grant Cardone for sure. And I think it's the biggest, you know, look at there is. The new normal is different. And all this live streaming, right? And Ken has a course on live streaming and social media that you can get to if you go to his website. Kenwalls.com I'm guessing. Correct. You can see it or just direct message me, because I think I just became an affiliate for the course, so I'll go ahead and sell. Yeah, I think I. Hopefully I did, but I have been through the course, and it's really good. But, yeah, you know what? There's a lot of People that say I'm too humble. I don't want all that. And I think it's okay. Right? Not everybody has to be Ken Walls or Glenn, Bill, or do what they want. But those of you who have a burning desire inside of you, those of you that have a passion, those of you who say that there's more for me, there's more influence for me to put out into the world, you're gonna have to get over yourself. You're gonna have to come out of hiding. I mean, that's basically what it is. And there will be haters, and there will be. We're unfollowing them guys on too much, and that's fine. But guess what? Welcome to the new world, right?

That's it.

Is your time okay?

Yeah, I'm fine.

Okay, cool.

All kinds of time.

All right, so then let's go to Mark Victor Hansen and his wife. I mean, very, you know, the most published author, right, in the history of the world. Million books or something insane. What did Mark.

That's the number. 600 million books.

That's just crazy. What did. And, man, please try to make that happen for the Gap. We'd appreciate it. What. What did Mark Victor Hansen teach you?

Well, you know, I'm. He's a. He's a new friend. And quite honestly, most of it is me helping him out with technology stuff and. And live streaming. He is one of the most brilliant people on the planet. But I can't say that I can put my finger on exactly what it is I've learned from him outside of what I already knew. It's just more of a reminder, like, who you're connected to, who you surround yourself with is so incredibly important. It's so important. And asking, you know, him and his wife. May I show their book real quick?

Of course.

So I. I've helped them launch this. This new book of theirs called Ask the Bridge from youm Dreams to youo Destiny. Phenomenal book, by the way.

They totally belong on the Gap. That's exactly what we're doing. Yes. We're gonna get them Gappers.

I'll get them on. I'll definitely get them on with you. But so, so they. They. You know, they wrote this book, and it's all about learning how to ask. How to ask God, how to ask others, and how to ask yourself. Look, you made a statement again a minute ago about, you know, there's people that maybe they don't want to be, you know, and I gotta say, I had a conversation this morning with somebody that said Well, I don't. I, you know, I've always said, I don't want to be famous. And I'm like, well, let me ask you a question. Do you want to help people? And he's like, well, yeah. I said, do you want to help a few people or a whole bunch of people? And he said, well, a whole bunch of people. I said, well, cool. Do you think you'd have a better shot at helping a whole bunch of people if you were famous? And he goes, well, yeah. And I go, so why don't you want to be famous? Is that somebody else that taught you that?

Right.

Because he's hiding and boom, light bulb.

Right, right, right. Love it, Love it. How about our good friend gitamer? What did Jeffrey. I mean, I know there's a whole week we could do the whole podcast on Jeffrey, but one or two nuggets for from the gitamer and our gitamer fans. Jeffrey's the one that got me started on this podcast. Jeffrey's the one that helped create what we're doing right now. So, yeah, would love to hear that.

Jeffrey Gittamer is one of my dearest friends in the world. I've had the honor of staying at his house couple of different times. I, he's, he's an amazing human being. And gosh, I, that's one of those things. Like, I don't, I don't know exactly what it is.

Well, what just came to your mind? What was the first thing?

Like, he's the first person I call if I, if I need input on something. Right. Because he's, he's really good at dissecting a problem or a situation or he's just real. His, his mind is. He's, he's maybe one of the smartest people that I know on this planet.

Yeah, that's cool.

But to say that I know exactly what it is, you know, I mean, years ago, when I first read the Little Red Book of selling, his. The best selling sales book on the planet.

Yes.

Of all time. Like, he sold over 5 million copies of that thing. But, you know, like, I, you know, people don't like to. What. What's. His.

People don't want to be sold, but.

They don't want to be. They love to buy.

Yeah.

That gave me a totally different perspective on selling.

When you look back on, I don't know, your relationships or the people that you've interviewed, is there one person that, when you think of attitude, that a story comes to your mind that you go, gosh, I was. You Know, I was interviewing this one person and where they all the. Everything was against them or possibly, yes, I want to hear that story.

Do you know who Andy Frisella is?

I do not.

He had the number one business podcast in the world called the MF CEO Project, and the MF does not stand for more. Fine. He is the. He is a. The guy does $400 million a year. He's incredible. I mean, the dude is absolutely unbelievable. And he's the CEO of First form with a P H, P H O R M First Form. And he was on my show and he's partnered with Ed Mylett, if you know who Ed Mylett is. He has the. They have the Arete Syndicate together. And this guy said. I said, andy, a couple of things, if I may.

Of course.

Number one, I said, andy, you've got this. This just freaking drive, man. Like. And he seems really angry, but he's not. He's got a heart of gold. The dude is amazing. But I said, you got this drive, man. Like, this unstoppable drive. And what is that? He goes, honestly, it's because I was picked on so much as a kid and bullied. He goes, I think that just drives me. It just drives, sure. And then I said, you know what? Where was the. I said, because I knew his story already. I knew part of it that he had been through, you know, years of not making any money. I mean, none, zero. And I. And now he's doing three, four hundred million dollars a year. I said, what? Where was the. I said, was it a mental shift? Was there like this one day you woke up and you went, you know what? I'm tired of being broke. I'm going to be a multimillionaire and own. He owns 35 different cars that are all valued over half a million dollars a piece of. He lives in General or President Grant's old house. He bought the whole property, everything in St. Louis. And it's a mansion, giant. Unbelievable. And so, like, I go, was there. This. Was there a moment? And he goes, actually, there was. I was like, thank you, God. Thank you. Here it is. Here comes the answer. Here it is. He goes, my business partner and I had a store selling fitness products, you know, vitamins and. And health. Fitness stuff. And he said this, this. He said, we had gone for 10 years. In 10 years, I made $55,000. Total. Total accumulative, 5,500 a year. I said, dude, you could have made more money flipping hamburgers at McDonald's. He goes, I know. I literally. That's what the point. He goes, I tell my business partner, we're sitting there going, should we keep this store open? Should we shut it down, just go get jobs? He goes, I always wanted all the women and all the money and all that stuff, but, like, it just wasn't happening, bro. And he was.

He was. He was forcing it, right?

Well, yeah. Hang on. He says, you're exactly. He says, After 10 years, I was just pissed off, and I was tired of it. And I look at my business partner, I said, look, dude, we got to figure out what we're doing here, man, because we either. We either need to shut this down or figure it out. And. And he goes. And right in the middle of our conversation, this woman comes walking in the store. She was there to buy some more of these. These pills or whatever, the capsules. And she started telling us that she had lost, like, 50 or 70 pounds or something and was how much better she was feeling. And she started crying, talking about how much she loved our products and appreciated us being there. He said, and she walked out. And I looked at him and I said, you know what? I don't care if I ever get rich. It doesn't matter. That right there is why we have this business, that right there. And if I can just continue to help other people, I don't care if I ever get rich. He goes, dude, the next year, our business was literally 20 times bigger than it was at that moment.

Yeah.

The moment that I said, I'm just going to help people and not worry about whether I ever get rich or not, just help people. And that, dude, that was. That was such a powerful story.

Sure, sure. There's a. And I think that's a great, powerful story to get us to our sponsor and to end this first session of the Get Attitude podcast. You know, it's all about not forcing it, but it is truly all about helping people. And I hope that everybody who's listening to the Get Attitude podcast, listening to our great friend Ken Walls, is getting helped. They're getting helped. Understanding through these stories, the power of controlling your emotions, the power of reinvention, and the power of stability. Starting over. Jason, are we good to go ahead to commercial break? This Get Attitude podcast is sponsored by the Ken Walls Podcast Show. We'll be right back. Right on. How about that, Ken?

That is awesome, man.

That's how. That's how you give to other people.

That's it, man.

Promoting your podcast on our podcast. And I'm going to be fortunate enough to be a guest on Ken's podcast next week on Tuesday. So if you like hearing me as your host, maybe you like hearing me as a guest. And we look forward to that, Ken. That's a great intro, Jason. We're gonna need to beat that and send it to him. Are you into that?

Deal?

Deal.

Good luck.

Yeah, good luck. Awesome. Awesome. Hey, so, Ken, what we do to finish our show and part two of every single one of our podcasts, we do this thing called Knowledge through the decades, and we just kind of take you through your life. You're a little bit over 52, and we want to ask you the.

Oh, I'm not 52 yet.

You're 51. I'm not 52 yet. I'm 51.

In July, I'm 51.

Dude, when's your birthday?

July 17th.

Oh, my God. We're both cancers. I'm July 20th.

For real. For real.

We're three days apart. How crazy is that one? That is too big.

Yeah. I'm older than you. Respect your elders.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir, I will. So hopefully this won't stump you too much, but you're pretty creative and you're pretty thoughtful, so I think you'll be able to do this. So knowledge through the decades is just a technique that we've done on the gap with every single person that we've done it. And I'm just going to take you through each decade of your life and ask you what the attitude lesson is. So I want you to think back to when you were born. Now, some people actually remember the day they were born or claim to, but I'd like to know the attitude lesson that there is when you either look at an infant or when you were an infant, if there is an attitude lesson. And again, Jeffrey's definition of attitude is the way you dedicate yourself to the way you think. We expanded. That is, we always believe that it also creates. It also involves some emotion. Right? That's our definition of attitude. And so, you know, when we talk about thinking and feeling together is what we believe comprises the attitude. What you think affects how you feel. What you feel is probably because of what you're thinking. That's what we're looking for, or just whatever the hell you want to say. But when you think of a newborn baby, what's the attitude lesson of that newborn baby?

Man, the first word that comes to mind for a newborn is the innocence. They're not yet programmed.

Ain't that the truth? And then when you think about people that you've been in touch with, when you think about Innocence. Talk to me. Who replicates that for you? When you think about somebody, which is almost impossible, right, to be the age we are, that is innocent. Where does innocence manifest itself after birth, in your experience or as you look around this world? Where do you find it most or other than that.

Wow, you may have stumped me, dude. I like, I mean, I don't. I think that we all have that side to us. I don't think that ever goes away.

Cool.

Yeah, yeah, I think we all have it.

I think the message there is to really how many of us act on our innocence? How many of us live in our innocence? How many of us meditate in our innocence? I mean it may be the truest form of who we are and I think enlightening. We really haven't had that answer before. But I think, you know, what if people focus on really truly being an innocent person and what that means to the people that we meet? I think that's a great lesson for the gap. So I hope our gappers listen to that and focus on that maybe for the next week as they go through that is how, how am I showing and exuding my innocence? Okay, so I can only imagine, I can only imagine you in third grade when you were 10 years old. I want you to take yourself back to being 10 years old. I believe that's third grade. I want to know if you remember your teacher and if you remember the attitude lesson from being 10.

10, it was fifth grade. The only reason I know that is I have a nine year old that's getting ready to turn 10. This in June, fifth grade. And she's going into fifth grade. So. But you know, at. No, I don't remember the exact teacher and, and you know, the home I grew up in was a very violent drug infested alcohol. You know, so there's probably a lot of things back then I was just trying to fly under the radar and hide from. And you know, so there wasn't. I don't recall a lot about 10 years old.

You shut down, you tried to survive and you went into hiding until you met Grant Cardone is what it sounds like.

Well, I, Yeah, man, I mean. Well no, I mean I've been, you know, I was a national sales trainer at one point. But, but I beef way before I ever knew that Grant existed. But, but it was, it was. Yeah, dude, I, I was, at 10 years old I was already drinking, right? I was drinking and smoking cigarettes and, and being a little hoodlum, man. I was all about that. I don't know Man, I. I was. I thought I was the Fonz. You remember the Fonz?

Of course. Of course. Yeah. I was known to smoke a cigar, drink a beer at 10, too. We had some similar. Similar experiences at very young ages. I'm sure. I must ask, this national sales trainer for what company?

My own. I was in the home security industry. Oh, wow. And so I had the largest home security dealership in all of West Virginia at one point, and one of the largest in the United States.

Wow.

That was in my mid-20s.

Wow. I spoke at PSA Tech. Did you ever attend PSA Tech or. That was probably way too far ago.

What?

Who taught you sales?

Zig Ziglar.

Zig was your man. So Zig. Zig did have sales training, just not a motivational speaker. Yes.

To what?

Zig did have sales training. He wasn't just a motivation.

Oh, yeah, man. I mean, I say that, but I also studied Brian Tracy. I also.

Yeah.

And that's the crazy part about looking over my life is. Is like, I'm friends with Zig's kids.

Yeah. How about friends?

I'm connected to Brian Tracy on LinkedIn. You know, it blows me away, man. Like, it just blows me away.

So go ahead.

No, I don't know. I answer your question.

Yeah, you did. We got to 10. We got to 10.

Okay.

And the attitud lesson was is that, you know what, when you were. When you're 10, there's innocence and then there's vulnerable. Right? I mean, that may be. That may be it. I was vulnerable and probably acting out as what you saw. So now all of a sudden, you grow up and you're 20. I don't know if you went to college or if you graduated from college. But number one, do you remember your 20th or 21st birthday and what was your attitude lesson when you were that age?

Well, just before my 20th birthday, around the age of 17, they called me into the high school. Guidance counselor called me in my senior year and said, hey, by the way, you didn't get a biology credit in 10th grade. And I said, yeah, that class sucked. I hated it. And he's like, well, you need that to graduate. And I said, why? Who needs that? Like, that's dumb. And he's like, well, that's the rules. You have to have a biology credit to graduate. And I said, well, again, that's dumb. And. And so, long story short, they wouldn't negotiate with me. So I walked out. And I did not graduate high school. I did not go to college. I did not Graduate high school. However, that following year I made more money than any teacher in that high school made. So I don't know what the, I don't know what the gauge is, but I've employed a lot of people that went to college.

I like it. And then what was your. When that all happened.

At 20?

Yeah, when you said you made a bunch of more money.

I went to work at the Honda factory building cars.

Wow. No kidding. And what was, let's talk about the attitude of a Honda factory worker. What's your thought there?

For me, it was horrible. Remember I was in the throes of being a full blown alcoholic, man. So I was, oh God, I was a horrible human being and I was, I was just a bad person. And I don't mean bad like out Robin Banks. I was just an arrogant little jack wagon that, you know, I was, I was so arrogant, so into myself, so self centered and like, it was terrible.

What about, what about your peers on the line? Like, you know what, what were what? Your co workers? Did you not mingle with them?

You just went, yeah, ye, we did. I mean it was, it was, it was a party fest, man. You worked super hard. I've always had this incredibly strong work ethic. And, and, and so, you know, I would work, everybody else would leave, we'd, the, the last bell would ring for the second shift at one o' clock in the morning and I stayed and worked until 4 in the morning almost every night so I could get in all that overtime. That's why I was making crazy, crazy money at 18, 19, 20 years. I mean, crazy money, right? I mean back then it was, you know, 50, 60,000 a year, which is like 140,000 now. It was crazy years ago, you know, and so at that age, making that kind of money, I literally thought I was Elvis. Yeah, I literally did. I thought I. All I needed was some blue suede shoes and I was good to go, man. And so, so I was just, at 20 years old, I was, I was a real butt head.

And so that whole next decade, obviously you drank your way through, probably didn't.

Remember much, yada yada, but I made millions of dollars in my 20s, man. I made a lot of money.

That's good. I mean it's good, but you know, it is what it is.

I drank it all away.

Yeah, there you go. Got rid of it all. And you're probably not the only one. When we talk about the Get Attitude podcast and bridging the gap from wasteful to wantful, and so you so you hit 30, right? And that's obviously then or close to. Then a little after you hit what they would call rock bottom, where you said, holy shit, things need to change. Love to hear about that experience. Or in a soft way, if you're not comfortable, that's fine. But like what was the very.

I'm very comfortable. Yeah.

Well then, then go ahead and tell us, you know, what was rock bottom? What did that look like? And what's the attitude lesson when you said, shhh, I am in trouble.

Yeah. So I lost my business in. And, and the house, the relationship, all the toys. I mean I had everything, man. And, and, and I lost all that, moved back to Ohio, ended up in Seattle at one point as the, as a vice president for this company, trying to just get a job and not, not work for somebody. And, and I mean go work for somebody. So I moved to Seattle, ended up telling a billionaire that I worked for, for with a B that he didn't know his ass from a hole in the ground. And because he was, I mean, it was kind of indignant with me. He was, he calls me and he's like, Ken, hey, I noticed that you, you're showing up to the office at 11 o' clock in the morning and you're like disappearing at 2 o' clock and I gave you that company phone and you're turning it off and you're driving a company car and you're only here for a few hours every day. What's going on?

Right.

I go, your problem is you don't know your ass from a hole in the ground.

Right.

Not. I was the problem with a drinking problem that wanted to go drink in the afternoons and not be bothered with the CEO's crap. So, so, you know, I ended up becoming homeless, sleeping in my car. Seattle.

Wow.

And was like that for a while. I've been homeless by definition. I've been homeless four times in my life. Wow. Where I had to stay at somebody else's house. I just, I was at rock bottom for whatever reason. But this, this last time, at 34 years old, man, I was sitting in a. I had a Mercedes, still had two Mercedes, the big house had it all. And my ex had confronted me and asked me why I showed up to her girlfriend's house with a 12 pack and apparently some ideas. And, and I said, I, I don't know what you're talking about. She's like, you know, and, and I'm like, I, I didn't remember it because I was in a blackout, sure. But, but I, you Know, and I'm not proud of that, but it. It takes. Look, man, it takes every single last bit of pain to get us to where we get to. And, you know, would I change some things? Sure. I wouldn't hurt as many people at all, but, you know, in the end, it only hurt me. So I was sitting on this bar stool, had my Mercedes in the parking lot, had my seventh beer. I could walk a straight line. I'm eating Tums like they're going to quit, making them just a Rolaise to kill the heartburn. I'm smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Back then you could still smoke in the bars. And so I. I'm smoking two packs a day. I'm eating Rolaids like crazy. I'm once in a while, just for fun, puking up a little bit of blood and. And life's great, right? Not even close. So this guy sits down next to me at the bar and he's like, hey, man, I put in my two week notice and I'm. I look at him, he looked familiar. I go, congratulations, dude. Thanks for sharing what I'm trying to drink here. What the. What do you. Why you thought. Why are you bothering me? He's like, I go, cool, man. And, and he goes, so. So yeah, I'll be able to start one. Blah, blah, blah. And I go, start what? He goes, start working for you? And I go, what are you talking about? Start working for me? What are you high, dude? What's wrong with you? And he's like, what, you don't remember? You don't remember that? And I go, remember what? What are you talking about? He goes, you told me to put in my notice that I could come and be your head installation technician.

Oh my God.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I go, oh my gosh, I know. I go, dude, we didn't have that conversation. He goes, and I'm not going to tell you everything. He said, yeah, because it involves a lot of swearing. But he said, you know what, dude? The only person around here that doesn't know that you're nothing but a worthless drunk is you.

There you go, right?

And I was like, whatever, dude. And he goes, go get some help. Go to an AA meeting or something. And he got up and walked out and, and dude, I sat there and it's. This is a high end area. I mean, Jack, Jack Nicholas here in Columbus, you know, the famous golfer. I was in his neighborhood, right? And, and so, so I was like. I just, I remember like looking around, like thinking, I hope nobody else Heard that, you know, I was like, that was some right there. I can't believe he just said all that, right? And. And I said, and then something happened, man. And I just said, oh, my God, he's right there. And I paid my tab, left half a beer sitting there, paid my tab, got up, went back to my hotel room because she had thrown me out for hitting on her best friend, right? And I turned my phone off, I laid on the bed, and I just started crying. And I said, God, if you're real, I need your help, because I cannot do this. I have no idea how to turn this off if you're there, I need your help. The next day, I went to a meeting. And then many, many, many, many Years later, here, August 10th, I'll have 18 years. If I make it, I take it one day at a time.

Good for you.

And now today, I don't live for that, man. I live to help other people. That's it.

Yeah. Well, that's it. An inspiring story and probably a relatable story to people that listen to it that may not be alcoholics, but know them. Everybody has that. And for you to share that is courageous, number one. But it's the ultimate act of giving, and we appreciate that here at the Gap. And certainly I know that even in my own life, I've sat there and said, oh, my God, why did I do that? Why did I say that? What did I say? And my guess is there's more people than not that probably share that experience. So now you're clean for eight years and you're 40. Tell me what happens. It sounds like 40 may be reinvention or something. Do you remember your 40th birthday and what was going on with you at first? 40. At 40 years old, the attitude lesson, the lesson from being 40.

I'll tell you that between the age of 38 and 40, I was in. I had, you know, I had spent so many years thinking that another human being, meaning a woman, would be what makes me happy. If I could just find the right woman, get married, have kids, settle down. That's what's going to make me happy. That's what's going to. And. And so, you know, I'd been. I.

Look, a lot of people think that, right?

A lot of, oh, every 90% of the world thinks that their happiness is dependent on somebody else.

Right, Right.

Maybe more, maybe higher percentage. I don't know. But, you know, regardless of what other people are going through, that's what I was going through. And I was like, you know, I had been. Look, I've been married four times. I'm on my fourth marriage now. This one. We've been together for a long time. We've been together now over 10 years. We've been married 10 years. And, and. And so far, so good.

But you're probably a much better husband would be my guess.

Oh, my gosh, man. I'm way better. I'm not perfect, trust me, but I'm. I'm much better of a person. But, you know, so at that age, right around 36, 37, 38, I found myself out of another. In another divorce situation. And I just. I knew that I had to have some time alone just to find out and not date, not do anything. Just focus on becoming a better version of me.

Awesome.

And I didn't know what that meant, and it was scary as hell to me, but I took the leap, man, and I just stayed steady and I meditated a lot and I read a lot, and I focused on becoming a better version of me. And that's where I would say around 4, 40, 38 to 40, there was a rebirthing of a better, way better version of me. Even with four years of. Four or five, six years of sobriety.

Right.

I still, you know, and it's an ongoing process, dude. Nobody's perfect. I'm not going to be perfect until I'm dead.

Was there one book or one person or one leader that when you were 40, that you go, wow, that. That really got my mind different.

1,000%. Yes.

And who was that? Or what was it?

Scott M. Scott Peck.

Really? What did he do?

The Road Less Traveled.

Okay, there you go. The Road Less Traveled.

Road Less Traveled. That book and then many others. You know, Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankel, everything Dr. Wayne Dyer put out.

Yeah, he was ridiculously good.

Oh, yeah. He wrote a book called There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem. And that book rocked my world, man.

So cool. You've given us a great reading list through this podcast, so. No, it's wonderful. I mean, again, if you're listening, I hope that you re. Listen and listen for those books, buy them for your library, and continue the journey of personal development and mimic the brave one who we are with today, Mr. Ken Walls. So, hey, you know what? Last year was your 50th. Why don't you just sum up basically, what was your promise to yourself? Or what was your thought? Man, I hit 50. I can't believe I made it. I know. I always thought I'd be dead at 40, right?

I thought 25.

So I know that you're about giving. I know that you're about love. I know that you've evolved. And you stood at the bridge and said, this is who I am. You bridged the gap and said, this is who I am now. And I think you've given us a great demonstration of that. I think you've given hope to those people who can relate to your stories as you've walked through your life. I know there's people that, you know, maybe they're at 40, but they're going through 40, which you went through at 20. Right. I always, always love to say it's not the age, it's the mileage. People are like, I don't get. I'm like, I got some mileage on me. So I guess, in closing, what's your thought on the attitude that you possess now at 50? And what would you like our listeners to take away that you haven't already said or feel? Feel free to say it. But what's the message that you. The message of hope, hopefully, that you want to give our people about what they think, how they feel, and, you know, how to inspire them. Any inspiring thought that you'd want to give us?

You know, I would say that I'm guilty of this in a big way. And that is I always, I always want what I want, and I want it now. And if I don't get it, I am, I am capable, perfectly capable of throwing a massive tantrum and, and back.

To, back to controlling your emotions.

I'm kidding. But I can, you know, I can. I. It's not as, as, as, as much today, but I'm telling you, man, there's been times in my life where I will throw a tantrum.

Right.

You know, if you ask any married couple who's. Who's worse to be around when they're sick, the husband or the wife, it. The man.

No question. Yeah.

Yeah. So, so, you know, I think that here's the thing, man. At 50 years old, I realized. That is probably when I realized the most that life is really about helping other people. It really is. And to the degree that you're willing to go out and invest in other people and help those other people to that degree, that will be the degree of, of, of wealth returned to you, not just financially, but happiness and everything else. And so I, I look at this like, like this life is a process. It is not an event. It's not an event. Like there isn't this, this moment where, like, hey, I'm 50 that means I'm going to be rich now? No, it just means that you're 50, dude.

Right?

Keep working, keep going, keep doing the best you can to help other people. And sometimes, look, I get up in the morning, I say my prayers every morning, every night, and I get up in the mornings and I'll say, you know, God, give me the ability, bless me today with the ability to help another human being. And if, if, if I don't have that opportunity, for God's sake, please, at least don't let me hurt one. You know, I don't want to hurt anyone, and I do want to help other people. So. Dude, it's an event. Or it's not an event, rather. It's a. It's a. It's. This is a process. We're all going through the same process.

I love it. Ken Walls, you were a rock star guest on the Get Attitude podcast. I think if you. If everybody took the one line, let's just do no harm. Let's not hurt anyone in the period of a day, the world would be a much better place because people are hurting people constantly. And if you look at social media feeds, sometimes I throw out social media things and I put, this is not political. And then the pain and the hurt and the distortion and the lack of being able to control your emotion is evident. And I'm sitting there going, man, people are just getting off on hurting other people is really what it is. So I just think it's such a great way to end this, this month of control your emotions with the great Ken Walls. I think his story was very personal and very appreciated. I think there's a lot to learn, and I just want to thank you for your candor and honesty and our new friendship. And I hope that we get to meet in person soon. And you were just a fantastic guest. Ken, thank you so much for being on the Get Attitude podcast, Glenn.

Thank you for having me, man. And, hey, we only live like two and a half, three hours apart from each other, right?

We'll meet in Richmond.

Buy an rv, Right?

Right. We'll go to a KOA camp and hang out, read books, read personal books. I love it. That's funny. All right, buddy. Well, it's good to see you and thanks again. Ken Walls, you are rock star and we love you, buddy. And this is Glenn, Bill for the Get Attitude podcast. We will be talking with you next week when we tackle Grow or Die. We will do the intro to that next Tuesday. That will drop. And I know Grow or Die, we have the great Jeffrey Gittamer, who will actually be interviewed on that topic, the great Jen Gluckow. And I think we got a couple others that I need to look at. So this is Glenn Bill signing off for the Get Attitude podcast. This podcast is a part of the C Suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.