S2 #36 - Todd Bookspan

What is the roadmap to defeat self sabotage, negative thinking, and learned helplessness in these unprecedented times? You must get connected, get growing, get certain and Get Attitude. The Get Attitude Podcast. What is up Get Attitude Podcast Nation? This is Glenn Bill, your host, keynote speaker, international best selling author, and host of the Get Attitude Podcast. And today we are so fortunate to have a rock star guest who is an entrepreneur and creator of something called Win by Noon. And this Win by Noon concept is something that I know every Get Attitude Podcast listener, especially our entrepreneurs, but really for parents, grandparents, students, Win by Noon is a concept, guys, that can change your life. Have you ever finished your day and realized that it was entirely spent reacting to Cris and other people's problems without accomplishing the most important priorities for the day? Well, I'm here to tell you something, Gappers. I'm in that situation right now. I've been running around all day. I haven't gotten the most important things done. And so you know what I have to do? I have to search out people that have the clarity, that have the leverage, that have the knowledge to help you win your day by noon. And if you're somebody who is overwhelmed, if you're somebody that is over task ridden, I just, I just posted this on LinkedIn this week. We got a guy that's going to help you through that. So if you do not have enough time and if you have way too much stuff, you are lucky to be talking and listening with Mr. Todd Bookstan. Mr. Todd Bookspan, our guest. Is that. Did I get that right? We'll edit that, don't worry.

Right?

Todd Books fan.

You got it right. I'm so excited to be here, Glenn. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Hey, my pleasure, Todd. Sorry, I was rambling there for a little bit and then I'm like, hold on a second. Okay, I got it right. Well, hey, it's good to see you and welcome to the Get Attitude Podcast. You and I have done so much work together in the past, and it's an honor to finally have you as a guest on my show. And I appreciate all the stuff that you've done with me and for me throughout the and now it's time for you to pay me and my Gappers back.

Love it, love it. It's way overdue and it's all my honor. It's my pleasure to be here and I can't wait to unpack whatever it is we're going to unpack today to hopefully make people a little more productive and a little more proactive. And a little less reactive and hopefully we'll have some fun.

I love it. Now, Todd, let's go ahead and maybe give people just a brief history of how you bridge the gap from where you were. I don't know where you were, but you're probably. Wherever you are now is probably a far cry from where you were. So maybe give us a brief little history and then if you can remember, let's tie it up with what is your definition of attitude?

All right, that is awesome. Okay, so my background is in the mortgage business and I was pretty lucky. I had almost a 20 year career in the mortgage industry before I ventured off into the coaching space and into Win by noon. And along the way, I had set a pretty big goal for myself. I wanted to be a $100 million producer, which at the time was kind of a big deal. There weren't very many of them in the business. And I think a lot of you can probably relate. You set a goal and then you kind of, at some point just level out. You kind of get stuck. And I got stuck at a pretty good number. I was doing about 400 units a year, about $80 million in production. I'd done that for three straight years. But I felt stuck. I was excited because it was great income and I was impacting a lot of people'. It wasn't the goal that I'd set for myself. And I thought, you know what? This is a little bit of insanity, right? The definition is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result. And so I had to do a deep dive into myself and say, what? What can I do differently? Where am I really getting stuck? And after doing an evaluation of my own time, right, Doing an audit check, I realized that the biggest thing that got in my way is I'm like a lot of people that I have a lot of energy in the morning, I'm super excited, I'm really focused, and then wake up with this great to do list and get to the end of the day, realize I didn't get it done. And at the time I had an assistant and I had a business partner and I worked with my wife and I had a business development manager. And, you know, everyone scheduled things for me whenever it was convenient for them, which was typically during my best time to actually get the most important things done. And so I decided I was just going to block my calendar off from 9:30 to 11:30 and so literally just said call block and it was blocked off and you were not allowed to schedule for me. And if it was really, really important that I might make an exception. So I would drop my daughter at school at. Not at 8:28 or 8:29. At 8:30 exact. And then I would zoom off and I would initially hide out at a burrito place or at the coffee shops or restaurants right near my office. But I basically blocked that time from 9:30 to 11:30. Of course everyone's like, well, it's win by noon. Because when by 11:30 didn't sound very cool. But ultimately, in the end, by doing that, that next year, I grew my business 44%. I closed over 550 loans for about. Almost $115 million. The only change I made, the market where I operated, which was Phoenix, Arizona, sales were flat year over year. I didn't get a new builder or some big huge team that. That was going to be more efficient. But what I did was I did those important things that I knew I had to do to be a successful loan officer that I just didn't do consistently. And so by blocking that time, it really forced me to do it. And as I transitioned from there into coaching loan officers, what I realized was that they said, gosh, you know what? You are doing more than I did. What's the difference? And as we walked through it, one of them one day said, oh, you won by noon, coach. And I'm like, yeah, you know what? I did win by noon. He's like, if you could package that for me, I think I could turn it into a little more successful mortgage career. Lo and behold, I did that. We sold a lot of them one month into it, everyone's like, where's the real estate agent version? Which came out the following quarter. And off to the races a few thousand subscribers later were impacting lives every day.

That's good. And I think you also have an insurance win by noon too. Correct?

We do. We do. Cause again, insurance agents were starting to use it as well. Cause they work with real estate agents and loan officers as well as an executive planner, which is really for anyone. Anyone in sales.

Yeah. That's cool. Cool. And my guess is not only. And I know it's probably most efficient and most effective for business, but is there a win by noon formula for people's personal life for the mom sitting at home for somebody that's in medicine, whatever. I mean, I know it's very specific, but is there a formula for somebody outside of the people you coach and what's your thought to help those people who may not be in those three industries that listen to us because we have a very, very wide aud.

You know, I think it's applicable to anybody who's struggling to get those most important priorities done. Because ultimately in the end, you know, 80% of people are early morning or mid morning people, and there's always a 20% roll their eyes when I say win by noon. Because they think I'm saying you got to get up at 4 o' clock in the morning to do this, which you don't. And even the people who are afternoon and evening people really tend to find that when they stay laser focused on scheduling the most important things first. Right. I mean, we've all had it where, you know, you get this little thing out of your pocket, it looks like a little, little phone and you, you know, responding to texts and emails and those are other people's priorities, not your own priorities. And so really in the end, if you've got a system in a, in a focus around doing what is your top activities, whether it's your top two or three personal activities, your top two or three professional activities, or it's 25 activities you're trying to get done, but if you say those are really truly what's most important and you make a commitment that, hey, I'm going to commit to getting these things done, I would say you have to write it down. Yeah, it can be on an electronic calendar as well. But you know, I believe in the whole idea of writing it down and then, you know, marking it off so that you can move on to the next, but, you know, absolutely applicable whether it's in a, you know, a personal life. I've got a lot of students who kind of use that philosophy now and getting their homework done. I've talked to, you know, people in healthcare industry who are trying to figure out how do I better stay organized to serve the people that I'm trying to serve. And in the end, it's just really the whole idea of if you can be laser focused on owning your calendar and setting a letter, letting instead of letting it own you, you're going to be, you know, happier, more productive and live a less stressful life.

Okay. And so then this thing boiled down in a nutshell. You need to time block two hours, just two hours for the most important tasks or goals of your day. Is that the simple definition of it? Is that what happened with you?

Yeah, absolutely. And it doesn't necessarily have to be two hours. It's really however much time you need to get those important things done first before you start reacting to everything else. I believe that's where people make them mistake is they say, oh, real quick, I'll just check Facebook. And then, you know, 20 minutes later they've, you know, liked a bunch of things and watched a bunch of puppy videos, but they haven't done those most important priorities where they say, oh, you know, let me just check my email real quick. And then they're responding to things that are important but not urgent. And then they realize, oh my gosh, I got to go to my next meeting or my next appointment. And I didn't get that done. And so if you have a, you know, a schedule for doing your most important things first, then you're not going to get to the end of the day saying, oh gosh, I didn't quite get it done. And people who do that, I mean, who actually prioritize their day and just use it as a calendar, guess what? They get more done. It's also got business planning tool built in for all the industries that we mentioned, where it actually will talk you through, you know, doing certain things, certain days in order to make sure that you can increase your conversion rates as well. I mean, there's definitely the business planning piece of it that has been really fun to watch. Primarily the loan officers and real estate agents who use it, you know, get, you know, get this accelerated growth because of the fact that they took the time to get focused not just on their time, but also on the numbers and the activities that produce results. Because we all know it. Success leaves clues if you take the time to actually look at what you did today and say, huh, all right, did I get the results I wanted? Yes or no. And if you didn't, then you probably need to do more of those things or maybe, you know, follow you and take your courses and get better scripts and, you know, better things to, you know, make you a little more efficient and effective in what you do and say. But in the end, the bottom line is anyone who's going to take the time to more dialed in, more focused, more serious about owning their schedule versus letting someone else is going to grow regardless of industry, regardless of personal or professional.

And so when you talk about the most important items in a day, I have a number that I got from the old Tom Hopkins days. Do you when people say, okay, this is the most important stuff for me to do in a day, because when I do it, I can give you a whole 14 inch yellow page pad of 38 things, right? So then you got to go through in the prioritizing process, is there a minimum number that you go, you know what, look at if you did X amount of important things a day, what's that number in your mind?

You know, I'm, I'm a big believer that it's not one size fits all. And but I promise you this, if you did the 38 things on your Tommy Hopkins list, you're going to be successful, right? I mean there's no doubt that the more you do with something, whether it's calls or whether it's follow up or you know, checking in with your database, all the things that, that we know in business are really important that you're going to be more successful. And so my belief is, is that if you actually prioritize and say, okay, my number one thing is to, is to call leads and convert leads and then if I'm a loan officer, maybe my number one, number two thing is to call applicants who have not gotten me all the documentation I need in order to get their pre qualification out. That should be number two. And then maybe, you know, one day it's update calls to make sure that I'm calling everyone who's in process so that it's going to result in a five star review that I know is going to help me get more leads down the road. Or maybe it's, you know, Thursday and I'm going to call my real estate agen, check in with them proactively ahead of the weekend so that on 5 o' clock on Friday night I'm not getting the oh my gosh. Can you please qualify Glenn Bill for a loan? Because, because he mysteriously just flew in town today and I didn't know he was going to be here, but I need to put an offer in for him. And so again, by being proactive, you can own your schedule and you'll get it done. But I tend to find that, that it's really just a matter of taking the time to look at those activities and see what's going to get you the highest level of results. And then, you know, you know, you're all about attitude and energy, right? What gave you the most energy, right. Do more of that and then hopefully hire someone else to do the other things that you know, have to get done in business as well that may not give you that, that you know, big flow during the day that we're all looking for.

That's cool. And so yeah, the, and I'm sure our gappers have heard this before. The, the Tom Hopkins things was the six most important things I must get done today are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, so his number, what I was getting at was six a day, certainly. Can you do 18? Sure. Can you do just one? Sure. And so listen to Todd and what he's saying. And, you know, my goal for this is I know that I can boost your attitude. I know that I can help you get a better attitude when things are out in front of you, when they're in paper and when you, you know, you can see them, you can cross them off, you can check them off. May sound like a bit old school, but let's be really honest, guys. I would guess that 90% of the people who are listening to this podcast right now have too much to do. They're not written down. And part of the. An anxiety that you're walking around with and part of the thing that can affect your attitude is just this whole lack of clarity that comes on. So when we started the show, I like to, I always like to ask, what is your definition of attitude? We never got around to that. So, Todd, tell me what your definition of attitude is.

You notice I was trying to avoid having to answer it because I'm sure it's not nearly as great and thorough as your definition.

There's no wrong answers here.

I would say it's, how do I approach. My attitude is how I approach life. And whether I approach it with a glass half full or a glass half empty, ultimately, in the end, to me, my attitude is how I get up and how I view the world and how I make things happen or not.

Cool. And so how do you approach life? If you had to, I guess, describe that, how do you approach life?

You know, I would say, well, first off, my kids bought me the half that says half full. So I like to think that because I own the half that that's, you know, that's how I am. But, you know, I'm a, I'm just an abundant thinker. Right. I feel like, you know, the more people that I, that I connect with and I learn about them and I ask the right questions and I, and I build that, that, that deep, connected relationship and figure out how I can help them grow, then, then I know that's going to help, that's going to help me grow. And, you know, I found when I was doing loans that, you know, connecting with a person on the other side of the phone or across the desk who has fears and is stressed out about what it is, if I can help them understand what it is they're getting into, then, and they, and I made that experience a little less mysterious, then they were going to feel better at the end of it. So my goal is if I can be positive, if I can ask good questions and connect with people, then I can help them move forward through their life in a way where they have less stress themselves, where they feel better for having the opportunity to have that time spent with me. And I'm certainly not the best communicator, I'm certainly not the best connector, but I try every it harder every day to become better.

I like that attitude. Booster number 10, be a part of something bigger than yourself. That's certainly what it sounds like. One of your favorite boosters might be. You really opened things up in this past year with the Modern Mortgage Summit and the Modern Real Estate Summit. If I remember, those are the two different things you're doing with our good friend and former Gap interviewee, Mr. Dave Savage from Mortgage Coach. Talk to us a little bit about the concept of the modern day Real Estate Summit and the modern day Mortgage Summit. Like how did that happen? How good has it been for you? What were the biggest challenges? Maybe just walk us through, what is it? Why did you do it and how have the results been?

You know, it was such a crazy time, right? I mean the whole health situation we were in and you know, people not having that opportunity to go out to seminars and learn and you know, you mentioned our mutual friend Dave and you know, Dave Sat Savage has become just really one of my best friends over the last handful of years. He and I do one or two at least our live webinars every week in the mortgage community. And we have had the gift to have just a couple of you real estate agents who are rock stars who come in and educate our team and all of our players. So one of the things that we decided to do during the whole time where people weren't traveling was really how do we educate people in a way virtually when everyone's already tired of Zoom and all of that. So we started off with the Modern Mortgage Summit which was ended up being a lot longer than we thought. It was an eight hour action packed day with micro content where we had over 50 presentations of really the best of the best loan officers around the country, presenting most of them in six minutes or less with about a half a dozen 18 minute TED talk type keynotes. And so it was just really fast paced. We had a guy who I think is great, maybe I don't know if you know Rene Rodriguez at all who does amplify, but Rene is a great guy. Rene was our MC and, and it was just a well reviewed event. We had over 10,000 people on the first event and it was just a great opportunity to do things slightly different because most of the stuff that we were seeing live at that time was 30 minute maybe, but mostly typically hour long keynotes. And that's just a long day for people who are trying to move through things and learn a best script, learn a best system, a best process. So that was such a big success. And just like with Win by Noon where I had it, we did it for loan officers. Everyone's like, hey, where's the real estate agent version? We rolled out in the spring with the real estate agent version and had really similar success. And then since then I've done another mortgage and another real estate agent version of it. And so when people bought access to the event, they either bought 30 day or full year access to be able to go watch it later. And then there's bonus content and all of them. So it's been really fun to see. We've had over 20,000 people between all the, you know, between all four events that have purchased tickets and been able to go in there and watch. And we've had, you know, obviously great people like you and then, you know, big celebrities and that are like me and you combine. Ryan Sirhant, the world's most followed real estate brand, was our keynote. And it's just really fun to get and rewarding to get positive feedback from people saying, gosh, I didn't think I wanted to go to another virtual event, but yours was different because of the micro content. And so we just had a blast being able to do that. We did it live with the prerecorded content and it was just something I'd never done before and I look forward to doing it more. I think we'll probably bring some live events together in the future, but I have a feeling that the real estate event will probably stay virtual, you know, for the, for the foreseeable future. Because I think that it's a great opportunity to provide great content at a low cost that's easy to access and that you can actually access again and again.

So when you were coaching, I know you coached some pretty heavy duty successful people. Some of the top los in the country, some of the presidents of the biggest mortgage companies in the country. You have been with the successful people. What I'd love to know is when you think about those top clients that you had or even anybody that you've coached or yourself, what do you think is the, maybe there's a story like what are the Biggest challenges that those folks had, Right? And maybe more specifically, what are the biggest challenges that you saw when it came to their attitude? Right. We always define attitude as the way you dedicate yourself to the way you think. So what I always try to search for when I interview people is when you've been around, you're an networker, when you look at people or whether you're coaching them, not coaching them, hell, maybe you're getting gas, what do you think the biggest attitude problem is with the people that surround you or who are in the mortgage and real estate business with their thinking? What's their biggest challenge? And then to follow that up, what have you seen them do to alter that, to change it, to improve it? In other words, let's present the problem and then tell me what the solutions be been.

I was pretty, pretty fortunate to, you know, to coach so many, you know, high achievers and, you know, most of them had a really super positive attitude. But what I tend to find is even the most positive people have negative thoughts throughout the day, right? You've got that little voice, that little person sitting on your shoulder. That's that negativity voice that comes in. And, and I think that for most, at least for me and for most of them, and maybe some of you who are listening, is that, is that negative voice is some days it's pretty quiet and other days it's pretty loud. And if you think about just walking down the street, if you're like, oh, look at that bozo. Or you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that person just cut me off, or oh, I think that that's a terrible person. And really, for me personally, and what I really encourage them all to do is, hey, how quick can I turn that negative voice back positive, right? Because if I'm not choosing a positive voice, then by default, I'm actually allowing the negative voice to come in and be the one that's in charge. And I found that oftentimes who were super successful, right, the best of the best still struggled with that whole idea of, hey, am I worthy? Do I deserve this? You know, and allowing that negative voice to take over. And I found that when they were more aware of the fact that, that their negative voice is stepping in more than they, than they would like, then they were able to, to be more positive, to overcome it and really try to put that voice to quiet it down. Because even if you, you just think negative thoughts for, you know, a minute, you know, 10 times a day, you know, that's still 10 minutes that you spent today, right? That's still, you know, over an hour a week. And by the time you add that up, you know, throughout a year, I mean, you're spending days in negativity, and nobody wants that. And so we're here. You're all about having the best positive attitude possible. So my coaching always to them was how, what can we do together to eliminate that. That negative voice and then push that positive voice to the forefront, you know, as much as possible.

And then, so what's. What strategies came out of that? Do you have a strategy on how to do it? I mean, I'm sure, you know, it could be as simple as changing your state and saying a word right out loud. But anything that you found that was really useful or surprising from the folks you've talked to?

Well, the number one thing was being aware, right? Because when I first had someone tell me that there was, you know, like, there's people who like the best. The best who can spend, you know, an hour a day in negative thought. And so when I started paying attention to that, that was number one, is just think about it, right? When you think a negative thought, think about it. And then the strategy for me is, how quick can I turn it into a positive thought, right? And so, you know, there's a couple of ways to do that. It could be a positive thought about that jerk who just cut you off. You know, I remember hearing Simon Sinek in an interview, actually, I think it was with Dave Savage, and he said, you know, we've all been there when you're driving down the road and, you know, there's that guy who cuts you off right before the free exit ramp. You know, we've all been waiting in line, and he just cuts in at the end and he's kind of like, all right, you blankety blank. And then he said, you know what? I'm going to choose instead to say, hey, I'm really glad I let that person in because they were late for their most important interview of their life. And they said, or they could just be a blankety blank. But I think it's a whole idea of have that ability to reframe whatever that negative thought is and something positive. And so either you're going to think through with that person and say, okay, that person's just late, and I'm really glad I let them in because it was so important that they get there, or you could just be a standard default. Something positive, some positive, positive memory that you have with your spouse or your kids or Some place that you went that you loved, and just how quick can I get to that other positive thought? And if you have a couple of default positive thoughts, then it's really easy to implement that and make that be what you're going to think about now. And then you can read different stuff on it. It's anywhere from 10 to 20 seconds of just thinking positivity. Then you can push away that negative piece.

Yeah, I love that. That's really, really good. Thanks, Todd. We are with Todd Bookspan. He is an entrepreneur, executive coach, and the win. He's dropping bombs with us on what it means to be an entrepreneur, what it means to win by noon, and how to stay positive in a negative world. Let me ask you this. I'm guessing you've started several businesses in your time here on Earth. What would you tell the entrepreneur that's listening now that's considering starting a new business? What would you say are the three to five most important things they should do right now when they're thinking of starting a new business?

That's such a great question. And you know, I definitely, as an entrepreneur, from the time I was a kid, you know, selling skateboards and T shirts from my bedroom, you know, those kinds of things, you know, for me, always. And it's like cliche stuff, right? I mean, you've got to have a plan and you've got to have a vision. Most of the time I find that when I talk to an entrepreneur, they've got a vision for what they want to grow, but then they don't actually have a plan. And I know it's super boring, I know it's super basic, but you've got to have a written plan to go along with the vision. So the vision is going to help you see where am I trying to go. But the business plan is really how you can figure out how to manage the priorities, right? That's the to do part of it. That's where we started this conversation, talking about what do I have to do today? But if you don't really know, what is it I have to do? You know, what are those? Those step by step, you know, here's the. Here's the five things I've got to do today as a business owner to build my business, to make sure that I get there. That's where I tend to see that entrepreneurs fail. Because most of the time, you know, they get into it because they have a passion for it, not because they've got the experience of running a business. My previous careers, getting in the Mortgage space. I actually owned bicycle stores for 10 years, and I had a blast. I was really fortunate that in the first year, I was recognized as by my peers in the industry as having one of the top 100 bike shops in the country, which I was the newest bike shop and the youngest bike shop owner at the time to ever have that. But I had no plan. I just actually gone through the entrepreneurship program at the University of Arizona, and I still had no written plan of what I was doing. And so what I found was when I finally sat back and said, okay, I know what my vision is. It's to have a great bike shop to serve the cycling community, but what do I actually have to do to get there? And then I think the other part is surround yourself with great people. We all know that, right? I mean, that's what I love about spending time with you, Glenn, is you're so positive and you're so great at leading and mentoring and getting people to go down the right path. But I tend to find that people don't really put enough thought into the hiring of the who versus the what. And I think that's just where you've got to get crystal clear on what's my process for whatever it is I'm going to do or build or get going, and then then figure out within that process what do I want to do. Right. I talked about it earlier. What gives me energy, what am I really great at? And figure out how to hire and build around the rest. And I tend to find that a lot of times entrepreneurs hire their mirror image who is the same person who likes to do the same thing that they want to do. And then they wonder why the two of them aren't getting those other things done that need to get done. Because unfortunately, in most businesses, you still need someone to mop the floor if that's not your thing to do. Right. I was a leader. I was the guy who swept the floor, and I did those things. But I also hired people eventually who could do those things for me once I was, you know, I don't want to say successful enough, because that sounds pretty cocky, but once we hit a point in where we financially could afford to have, you know, to have people come in, you know, and do those things. And so I would just start there with, with the basics if I was an entrepreneur and I would just get crystal clear on my vision, I would have a business plan, and I would figure out who are the people that I need to get there, and I get really laser focused on what, what Is it that person needs to do so I can figure out to get the person, the people hired and get them on the right seat of the bus so that we're not sitting a year from now looking at ourselves wondering, huh, how come we didn't get where we wanted to go?

Man, that's so good. Thank you for that. I know that helped me and I know it's going to help the people that are listening. Let's just dive back into the rabbit hole a little bit. What was the name of the bike shop and why do you think you had so much success?

You know, I was a little bit crazy because I actually opened up two bike shops at the exact same time. It was called Racer's Edge. It was in Tucson, Arizona. And then I also. It was out put out to bid by the university, a repair store, which was called. We called it. I competed against a couple national companies and a lot of the bike shops in town who were established. And I won the. I won the bid to. It was a repair store to. That was in the gym at the U of A. But I prided myself at the time. We were the first privately held business on the campus. We paved the way for, you know, Domino's and McDonald's five years later.

Wow.

And. And it was, you know, it was again, it was a great opportunity for a young kid who thought he knew everything to, you know, learn through the school of hard knocks. You know, we did a lot of things great we. That we got lucky with. We did a lot of things great that we had planned on and we did a lot of things wrong. Thankfully, not enough things wrong that, you know, we're able to have a good time with it for quite a long time. And, you know, it transparently just got boring after a while. At some point you realize, you know, I loved. I grew up racing bikes and I loved bikes, but in the end, I didn't have time to ride bikes because I was so busy running, running a business. And, you know, now I know so much more and I can look back and be grateful for those days. I met so many great people. I had so many great team members and I learned so much that now has helped me, you know, as a. As an entrepreneur going forward.

Now, are. Are you still in Phoenix or are you in Tucson?

I'm in Phoenix, but I lived in Tucson for about 12 years. I went to the U of A down there and then I came up here and got my MBA at ASU.

And did. You didn't graduate in like 90 or 91 did you?

I. Technically, if I had graduated on time, it would have been 1990.

Okay. Because my cousin Mike Bill's down at the U of A. I'm surprised you don't know him. Everybody knows my cousin down there and he was there from 86 to 90. Funny.

He was probably. We probably crossed paths and. Yeah, we opened up the bike shops in 1990 and I technically had one last class. I opened the bike shop. My wife and I were supposed to take it together. She was good student. She finished it up in the summer of 90, and then I actually finished it up in 2000 because I had to get my degree to go on. And the school cat's a perfect example of being nice to people all the time. The school catalog had changed and so at that time, when I first was going to go to. To the advising, someone told me that I was actually to take a full year worth of classes to be able to get my degree. And then luckily Angie was the assistant to the head of that department. And somehow I bumped into her in the advising office. And I knew Angie because she was the bank teller at the bank of America and the business side where I used to make my deposits for my bicycle store. And she said, todd, you were one of the nicest people to me. People were always in a hurry. They were always grumpy. They hated waiting in line. And you were always so polite. You always asked me how I was doing. And so she basically talked to the head of the advising and lo and behold, I had to finish that one class and took it and got my degree.

Tell me what. Well, that's good. I'm going to be coming to Phoenix. We'll talk off air. We're going to be doing a big event in Phoenix, so maybe we can collaborate on that for real estate agents. That would be super.

Oh, love that.

Tell me about the most. You've interviewed a lot of people. I mean, you're out there interviewing people who is either the most famous or the most impactful person that you have ever interviewed or that you have ever networked with. That really made a difference for you and your attitude?

You know, gosh, we've been really fortunate. You know, we've done over close to 300 interviews now, if not more, you know, over the past, you know, five, six years. And, you know, I would say that there's. There's certainly a handful of them that, you know, that stand out. So we're mainly interviewing people in the mortgage space. Sure. And what I tend to find is, is that the interviews that we've had in the mortgage space that are the most impactful are the ones where someone has had a crazy past or crazy challenges and they overcome that adversity, you know, and so from, you know, from that perspective, it's always kind of a, you know, an interesting story to hear. But I can think of one guy, he's a good friend, Josh Metal. And Josh, he tells a story about when he was at the grocery store and they as a kid and he heard them announcing something over the loudspeaker, you know, from the cashier stand to get help. And that's when he realized that his family was on food stamps. And just how the fact that he, when he realized that they were poor, financially poor, that he had never known that his mom had protected him. And then, you know, you roll that forward and, you know, now he's one of the top loan officers in the country and how just that whole idea of being poor as a kid has impacted his views of money and how he teaches money to other people and why he's so passionate about something as boring as a mortgage to be able to turn that into something super positive that he can use to help other people grow wealth through retail.

That's awesome. And that's Josh Metal with D's or T's.

T's, M E, T, T L E. He's out of Salt Lake City, Utah.

I'll be dog gone. Well, good. Well, we should look him up. And if people want to get the win by, is it winbynoon.com is that where they go to find your product or is it toddbookspan.com winbynoon.com youm know.

We try to keep things simple here, Glenn. You know, so we've got cool things that, you know, the planner is certainly the. What we're really known for. And then we've got these cool, you know, shirts and stuff like that to remind you to have that right attitude. So even if you don't use the planner, you can still participate and focus on the lifestyle because ultimately in the end that's, oh, there you go. There's the picture of all the fancy clothes we've got. But, you know, in the end it's. It's all about how can I keep my attitude focused on the right things? Which I believe if you focus on winning by noon, I mean, there's just nothing better when you get to, you know, whatever time of day that it is. It could be 9 o', clock, could be 11 o', clock, and even it could be 1 or 2 o'. Clock. But if you really know that you've accomplished those most important priorities and can take a deep breath, smile and then react to everything else, that's a pretty dang good day.

That's a real good day. Now, is there any secret sauce in, in the Win by Noon calendar that you haven't told us about? Obviously, you know, prioritizing, blocking time is good. Is there, I think you had mentioned there's some business planning and stuff that goes in there. Is there any other little either? I won't call it a sales pitch, but I call it secret sauce. Is there motivational quotes in there? What else? Why else should people go right now to winbynoon.com and buy that planner?

Well, you know what I always tell you, and I know that a lot of your listeners are in the real estate world is I always joke if I can help you get one more transaction done, depending on where you live in the country, if we can close one more transaction because I helped you be a little bit more organized, then the planner pays for itself for like 25 to 40 years. So, like it's inexpensive, it's an easy way to improve your life. And yeah, it does have motivational quotes in there. You know, the biggest thing for me is the whole idea, you know, this idea of an ideal week is design out your ideal week and just spend a little bit of time, time looking at what does my calendar look like visually? Because it's hard when you're just looking at it on the phone or on your computer to really see, you know, what does it look like, what is, what do I already have scheduled? That's not going to help me achieve my goal at the end of the year. And I tend to find when people spend a little bit of time looking at it, then they tend to miss less things. Like, it's crazy how many people I talk to like, oh, I was supposed to, you know, call this client at 3 o' clock yesterday and I forgot. Well, that's because you didn't have it written down, you didn't have it put in there. But ultimately it's the whole idea of setting that North Star, like, where am I trying to go this week? And then looking at it saying, oh gosh, you know what? I got this three things over here that people have allowed scheduled for me that I've allowed that really aren't going to drive me towards my mission. And you just have to at some point be the protector of your own time if other people aren't going to do it. So we've built all that in there, we got lots of free content, quick start that gets you going. So without me going off on a rambling sales pitch, the bottom line is, is my goal is to help people reach their potential, whatever they believe it to be.

And then that when by noon it is for the period of, it's a 12 month deal.

It's you get a subscription, either pay monthly or you pay annually and then you get a new plan or every quarter. So it's, you know, just kind of keeps you on track and in the end it's a, it's a low bar way as long as you're okay with old school writing things down, of making yourself more productive, getting more done and hopefully less time. But even if you got more done in the same amount of time, hey, that's a pretty dang good day.

I'd love there to be a study because you know, Callanly I can't get it done. I hate I have to write things down for me to absorb it and to remember it. And I just know everybody that's 50 or older. Got to be the same way. I'd love to see us get a sample group of 20 to 30 year old workers and then put them on a win by noon handwritten calendar compared to their computer iPhone thing to see if productivity and follow through actually comes up because of the written word. Are there any studies, do you know anything like this or is this something that you and I need to undertake to find out?

We probably need to undertake it. You know, I continue to hear of these, you know, studies but most of the time when I, when I research a study, someone says it's not really that study, it's something that's that similar. But you know, I think it's, it's intuitive, right? We know that people who actually take the time to write out stuff tend to be more productive. What tends to happen with the people when they're carrying around their phone? It's the distraction of it, right? It's the fact that most people just don't have the blinders on that you need in order to make sure that you're getting stuff done. And so what I tend to find is when someone's like, oh, oh, you know, I can find that on my phone. They pick up their phone and then they see the text from their spouse or from coworker and they look at that text instead of remembering why they picked up the phone in the first place. So it's really the whole idea that you've got These other things pulling for your attention and the fact that, you know, in the end, that's where it is. We've all done that test, right? So I've got a realtor. He runs a $150 million team. I think there are $200 million, you know, here in the. In the Phoenix market. And I recently talked to him about how he uses the planner with his team. And he uses it different than I used it, different than I teach people to use it. But now I teach his way, too, because it's cool. He just. He says, well, my phone has on it what I intend to do. It has on there that I'm going to lead, generate for two hours a day. And then, you know, all the other things he's going to do. And he actually uses the planner and he writes in there on the calendar side what did actually do? So he can go back there and review. Oh, cool. See? Okay, if I'm not hitting my goals, why not? And he tends to find it's because he got distracted and didn't do what it was he thought he was going to do. And then I would just say it's also faster, too. I mean, if I got my. My planner sitting out there and I see what. What my calendar looks like, and you call me and say, hey, Todd, can you do this podcast? It's a whole lot faster for me just to look at it or flip a page, you know, since it's got a bookmark in it, versus trying to figure out and flip, flip through my phone and do all that. So it's also typically faster for most people.

I love it. I love it. I can't wait to get mine. I am from the old yellow pad. I literally have yellow pads like, this high on my desk.

That's awesome.

You just gave me a new trademark. Death by notification. My wife's always like, so where are we going on vacation? And I pick up my phone, and then I'm like, what the hell was I looking for? Right? I mean, gosh, it happened to everyone, especially with the people that we love the most. What do you see is the biggest challenge for the Entrepreneur, for the 1099 sales associate, for that business owner? What's the biggest challenge that you're seeing going into the next five years?

You know, there's just too many distractions, right? There's too many opportunities. And it's like everything else. Go back to when you said about your Tommy Hopkins 38 Things to Do, and you got to narrow it down to six. I mean, I feel like Most of the time, there's so many things that we think we could and should do, and we just need to knock it down to, you know, 1, 2 or 3 and get those things done and done great before we move on to the next one. And I feel like, you know, even with Win by noon, that's, that's been my distraction because people are like, hey, why don't you do an executive plan? Or why don't you do, you know, a student planner? Why don't you do these other things? And you know what? It's been really hard for me just to stay laser focused and do what I've done that's working and continue to improve that before moving on to, you know, the next one. And then you're like, oh my gosh, should I be buying bitcoin today? Or oh my gosh, I heard Tesla stock went down. You know, all these things that are pulling for our attention. And at some point you've got to figure out, what is it that I'm designed best to do, what is it that's my most important priority, and then be okay with it. But take those other ideas and write them down, right? So I've got an idea list, I call it. It's in the, it's right in the, in the second page inside of Wind by noon. And so my idea list is for that. When I'm walking down the street and I'm like, oh my gosh, there's a bird. Oh, no. There's the most brilliant idea that I think I've had today where I can actually come in and write down that idea. So that later on, when I, when I've got that stack of 38 IDE and I'm trying to figure out, well, what are the 1, 2 or 3 I'm going to implement now I can go back to that list because just because I thought it was great back in mid October doesn't mean that it's actually still what I think is a great idea today. So it's the whole idea having a placeholder to put something in there. But I think that's really what gets in the way. People, you know, entrepreneurs and salespeople, is they're just not mission focused. They're not, they're not looking at what's the most important thing. They're just going, oh, you know, oh, I, I heard about this other thing over here. I heard about this other thing over there versus just finishing the thing that they started and making sure I. That they're great at it before they learn the next one.

I love it. We are with Todd Bookspan. He is the creator of Win by Noon. If you are a realtor, mortgage person or insurance agent or really anybody that is in sales or 1099 business, I highly recommend that you follow Todd. Check him out. You've been doing this new thing called 30 CMAs in 30 days, which I came on and talked a little bit about. And I just love that concept because you know, what there is is one I think when we talk about. I love this question for entrepreneurs. What is the one thing you can do that is the most profitable thing you can do? And certainly that CMA A day program in my book is probably one of the most important things you want to just share with our LOS and Realtors that are listening real quick what that is and if they want to join, how to.

Yeah, absolutely. So where you would join it is just go to the Win by Noon user Mastermind group on Facebook. Just say I listed you on, on Glen Bill's Get Attitude podcast. I'll let you in the group. You don't have to be a. There's nothing to buy. You don't have to be a Win by Noon user. I'll let you in there and let you do it. But ultimately found that the, the realtors who are committed to doing that comparative market analysis for a client, one a day, two days better, but at least one a day because we all know that's the most important thing, right? There's been so much, you know, you can jack the news, right? There's been so much talk lately about Z flow and how, you know, they're no longer buying homes in a lot of markets and this estimate and all these things. And everyone's always saying that that's not a good thing. But in the. But you're not actually necessarily as a real estate agent helping them with what is most important, what is, what is accurate. And ultimately it's just picking up the phone and following up with your clients to give them what they care about the most, right? They go online to those websites to see what the value is of their home. And now you've got an opportunity where you too can go and you know, you can do a, an emailed version of it to them. You can put a video on it, and then you pick up the phone and call them to remind them that you're their valued expert. And so for real estate agents, it's the CMA A day for loan officers, it's a TCA A day for mortgage coach, our good friend Dave Savage's Total Cost Analysis. Again, the same thing. Loan officers know that they're real, that they're. That their clients care about. Do I have the best loan? It's just a. They kind of are the match they go to. You know, they go together there to help people go through it. And if you're in some other business, there's probably something that your clients come to you for that they see you as the expert. And I used to, you know, try not to be a jerk when I get up Glenn in front of an audience, but I used to always say, you know, why do you know, why do your clients go to those websites, to realtors? And they'd say, oh, to look at values. And I'd say, well, if they're going there for the value and not calling you, then who do they view as the expert? You or the website? And they would all drop their eyes, and then they would all hate me. So I realize you don't want to insult people, but ultimately, we know it. We know that they're going there for that. And so it changes. Challenges me to challenge you that if that's what your client is seeking, why don't you be the person who gives it to him versus making them go somewhere else to get a number that you believe is inaccurate.

Yeah, I love that. I love that. Okay, well, Todd, what we're going to do now is finish with our knowledge through the decade segment of our. Of every podcast that we do where we walk you through your life and ask you to give us the attitude lesson that you learned throughout each decade of your life. So don't worry about. Although we are live on some of our streams right now, but we can always edit it. But I know that you know how to think on your feet. You're an intelligent and thoughtful guy. And so we love to just do this exercise with all of our guests because it really gets some great, great feedback. It gives us some great ideas. When you think about the childbirth or being born or starting somewhere or beginning again, what do you think the attitude lesson of childbirth is? Or being zero?

Being zero. Shoot. Isn't just, you know, scream out and get what you want.

Yeah, scream and get what you want. See how easy this is? This is a very easy game, right?

So far, so good. No whannies yet.

Yell and it comes to you. I love it. That's like the. I think that's the beginning of the book the Secret. Just scream and get one. What you want. I want you. You grew up in Phoenix, correct?

Yes, sir.

I like It. So do you remember being 10? We always love to honor our third and fourth grade teachers. That's where you are when you're 10. What was the attitude lesson? Was there a story? Did you get in trouble? Did you accomplish something? What was the attitude lesson you got at 10 years old when you were that age?

Well, my fourth grade teacher was Mr. Wagner, and he used to play ABBA on a record player just to date myself in. In our room. And, you know, from an attitude perspective that at that age, you know, I think everyone's just so awkward and nervous about making friends. And, you know, his philosophy was, if you had a smile on your face, then you're. Then you would be easier to connect with and more people would want to be your friend. Wow.

I love that. Haven't had that one. I think that's good. He sounds like one hell of a teacher. So then 10 years goes past and you end up at the U of A again. That's in Tucson. U of A is in Tucson. Arizona State is in Phoenix.

Correct.

Right. So you're down in Tucson. You're 20 years old. What's the attitude lesson you learned then?

You know, I was racing bikes, and I was coaching the U of A cycling team.

Wow.

I learned a couple of things. You know, number one is, is that the winners knew how to win. And what I meant by that was there were some people in practice, we would go out and they could. They could win at practice, but when they got into the race, they couldn't win. It's. It was all up here. The mental idea was that. That they just didn't have that what it took. And when I could get them to visualize what it felt like to win, then they learned how to win. And so for me, that was always it. Winners, winners know how to win. And then the other part that was really interesting was, is that the best cyclists on the team were also the best students. They had the best skills to manage time to study, to do the other things. And not that they were smarter than everyone, El, but they were more disciplined than everyone else, and that discipline is what paid off.

That's crazy. So you were a Division 1 cycling coach?

Well, yeah. I don't know if I called Division one, but you know that my last year we had the number one at nationals. We got, I think, third. But if you subtracted out the women's points, because we didn't really have enough women on our team, beat by CU Boulder, and their women's team just crushed everyone. But if you subtracted out the women's points and just looked at the men's points. We were the. We would have been national champions. We had a great cycling team. It was a lot of fun. And I was the rider coach just by default because no one else wanted to be almost like a club coaching people. I loved helping people figure out how to be better.

And so I just want to talk a little bit. My guess is you were probably around some. Really, you were either around, raced against, or were in proximity to some legendary riders. Maybe they were USA cyclists, maybe they were national, whatever. Any attitude lesson from some super cyclist that you might have been around or heard from or studied, you know, we.

Were pretty fortunate because the salaries in bike racing back then weren't what they are now. And so, you know, in high school and college, my father promoted some of the national cycling races when they would come to Arizona. So you'd have the best of the best. And they had to stay at people's houses. So they'd all stay, you know, with all our house and our neighbors houses. Oh my gosh, really got to see people who, you know, Olympic gold medalists and just to see them how serious they took it, but at the same time they were willing to unplug and have fun. So, you know, to see them just having a blast, you know, the gold medalist playing with the next door neighbors remote control car in his front yard. He didn't take himself so seriously after literally six months before winning a gold medal, he's still there playing with kids and having fun. And, you know, the first North American to win, you know, wear the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, you know, got a new pair of rollerblades and he's ripping down the street. They're just, they were, they were nice, generous people and they didn't think that just because they were super successful that they didn't need to be nice. And, you know, he may be controversial. You know, when I opened up my bicycle store before he won his first Tour de France, a good friend of mine was good friends with Lance Armstrong, and he had come to Tucson for a charity race that was being dedicated to him and he's getting ready to go back to Europe. And I said, hey, you guys should stop by on your ride tomorrow. And my friend Jonas said, oh, I'll just do one better. We'll just all meet at the shop. So all the really cool people who are in town for this race all showed up at my bike shop and my friend locked himself out of his room. Lance Armstrong showed up and was basically in my bike shop for an hour by himself, waiting for all these people. And long story short, he was super humble, super gracious, and people just wanted to ask him questions and talk to him. And he's played by the media as a jerk, and certainly you can criticize him for what he did, which was, unfortunately, what everyone was doing at the time. But in the end, what I saw was a person who genuinely wanted to ask people questions and connect with them. And in that hour showed me that he ended up becoming, obviously the best in the world at a time where the whole playing field was rigged, and he was just rigged the same as everyone else and beat him out all at their own game. But ultimately, at that time where he was a big deal, he was making a lot of money as a cyclist, he still was willing to step back. He didn't go out and say, I'll just be back in an hour and go ride around. He just sat there and talked to people and engaged to learn about them and why they were there and what was important to them.

And I know that's gotta be tough. I've been fortunate to meet some pretty great people that are famous as well. And I'm sure you were pulling and rooting for Lance and then having to constantly adjust. You probably said, all right, I'm not even going to tell anybody that I kind of got to meet him, right?

Yeah, it was a crazy one for sure.

So let's go to age 30. What was going on with you at age 30? What was your attitude lesson?

You know, funny, age 30 was rediscovery for me because that's when I sold the bike shops and I got. I was getting my MBA at night. I was going to be this high powered business consultant, and my buddy convinced me I should be in the mortgage business. And so for me, it was this discovery because I was able to, as weird as it sounds, because, you know, no one needs an mba. But what I did was I learned from a textbook perspective where my successes and failures came owning bicycle stores for 10 years. And so for me, that was just a lot of fun, that whole discovery to figure out, you know, what did I do right by accident? What did I do wrong by accident? And then really, how do I take that and move that forward in life?

Yeah, very cool. And then age 40, what was the attitude lesson for you?

You're not as good as you think you are. You know, you become a highly ranked loan officer, you speak on some of the biggest stages, and you think you're, you know, you think you're a big deal. And then, you know, the financial crisis comes around and tells you, you know what, you're not as good as you thought you were. And so ultimately, in the end, it's, it's the humility piece. Right. Really, to be, to be humble. And, you know, I was fortunate enough, I think I was highest. I was ranked, was 23rd in the country for the number of loans I closed. And that was right before I left the business to become a coach. And I really, I really learned that there's. I could learn so much from the people who were ahead of me, but more importantly, I could also learn from those who were behind me. And that's really where coaching helped me when I was coaching full time for a couple of years. See the insights into, you know, where people struggle and really taught me to be a better listener. But, you know, ultimately, in the end, it was definitely humility with him in the 40s.

Yeah. And that's something. And so, like, when you said you spoke on big stages, were those like a big mortgage conferences and things, things like this?

Yeah, I mean, I spoke, you know, probably the biggest one outside of the mortgage space was I spoke at gary Vee's event, Agent 2021. He had me on a panel there, which was really a great experience. And then, yeah, I've been really fortunate to speak at most of the biggest mortgage conferences in the country, you know, many times, and really have the opportunity to share my story in an effort to hopefully impact people, to grow their businesses.

Wow, that's cool. And do you get to talk to Gary anymore or is he just off the radar?

You know what? I'm off the radar. You know, I just saw he had, you know, Zuckerberg on there and Tony Robbins this week, so I just not quite, you know, Todd, Tony, you know, Zuck, it's not quite the. Not quite the same, but, but I'm thrilled to be here with you.

Hey, that's. Yeah, they, they, they don't know what they're missing. They should be on the Get Attitude podcast. All right, and then lastly, we'll close the show with your attitude lesson at 50 and. And we'll just complete combine that if you want to meld it into. We always love to just have you give your message of hope for anybody that's listening here that's going through a financial reversal, that's starting a new business that's maybe not as successful as they want. Give us your attitude lesson at 50 and then give us your message of hope for our GAP listeners.

You know, I would say that you absolutely, whatever you believe your potential, you can reach it. You just got to figure out who's that one person. What are those couple of things I need to do. What is it that. What is it that? If I actually, once this podcast is over and I decide I'm going to actually take action, what are those next steps I can take that are going to push me down the path towards reaching that potential? And what I have found is that people who take the time to figure it out, people who take the time to be intentional and get on that path, because ultimately your potential should always be going away. Right? It's like the horizon when you're driving down the freeway, heading off to whatever state you're going to head off to for vacation, it's that horizon continues to stretch out. You never quite reach it. But if you figure out what are the couple of steps I need to take now, who's that one person? And what I found in life, that's been the biggest thing for me is that I can make one connection. I can be interested in someone else and I can figure out what it is and then hopefully learn whatever it is, whether it's a. Yeah, I got to sit in a room with Gary Vee. I've learned more from the books I've read about him and listen to his podcast than I did in my. In my time sitting with them. Because there's so much, you know, coming on. And so I just know if you're listening to this, if you've listened this far, hopefully I've had an impact on you. And I just know that if you look around you, there's probably someone in your world who can help you achieve those goals. And you just have to figure out what are those next couple of steps and take them and take it all. Give it your all and make it happen.

I love it. Well, Todd Bookspan, you've been great. Thank you so much for the gift of your time and your knowledge and your experience. I hope that our gappers listen to some of these great antidotes, some of these answers. I know that you gave us some great ideas on how to improve attitude, and we thank you, Mr. Todd Bookspan, the creator of Win By Noon. Go check him out. And you know what's gonna happen when you do. You're gonna get some attitude. This Glenn Bill, I will see you on the next Gift Attitude podcast.

Thanks, Glenn. Thanks, everyone. This podcast is a part of the C Suite Radio Network.

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