Episode 467: The Sooner You Can Get On With Your Life the Better with Dennis Vaillant

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind, where we get real world insights on winning from people who have accomplished amazing things. I'm your host, Larry Wydell. And let's get going. I'm talking with Dennis Vet. And Dennis is in business a long time in marketing, sales, management, development all over the country. And we were talking. He's right. Closing in on 100 offices. Is that right?

It is, it is. It's. It's exciting to be able to get close to that milestone, that's for sure.

And, you know, about half of the United States. All over. All over Canada. And so talk about how you got started and how you got your business. You know, what, why did you go into business and what were you motivated about coming up? You know, I think, you know, it sounds like you were motivated like I was. Sports.

Absolutely. Larry, again, I appreciate you asking, as I was born and raised in a community called Thunder Bay, Ontario, which, for those that don't know where it's at on a.

On the.

From the US side, it's about seven. Seven hours north of Minneapolis St Paul. Okay. About 50 miles from the United States border. And I played. Like most kids growing up in Canada, he played hockey. And I was fortunate. I played some college hockey, and then I played a little bit of. A little bit of minor pro hockey to learn that I really wasn't good enough to play in the NHL. And the positive about that, Larry, was that allowed me to get on with the rest of my life. I didn't have to sit in a bar and think them, you know, I could have, could have, would have, should have. I attempted. And it didn't take. Not from a lack of effort. I just some, you know, in sports, as you know, Larry, you need to. Need to be blessed with talent. Hard work only gets you so far. Okay.

And growing up, what kind of. Did you have jobs? I played sports all the time. I never had time for a job except in the summer. You know, things like that.

Yeah, I did. I did, you know, a paper route. And really the story behind that is that our family struggled financially. My dad had major health issues, and the actual money that I made actually paid for powdered milk. Okay, right. Powdered milk and bread and anybody that's never had powdered milk. Okay. You know, but that. And I was very proud of that. I was like 13, 14 years old and proud to be able to, you know, because if that, if, if I didn't make that money, we didn't have, you know, bread and milk to eat for a family. So that was a big deal.

So a lot of pressure on a young guy was that. Were you the oldest?

I was the oldest male. Okay. I have an older sister and some younger sisters. Right. And my dad was old school, so I was the oldest male.

And so where did the. How. How quick was that transition early on, you know? Cause you're out there playing sports, you know, you're carrying the world, except, you know, competing, trying to get better, out with the. Out with the guys. And then all of a sudden, shift.

Yeah, that was about 10 or 11 years old. That's when my dad had major health issues. And then he unfortunately couldn't do a lot of the things that he had been able to do in the past, so that he asked me to help out. So from that standpoint, so. So. But at the same time, I'm still playing sports, still getting after it.

Right. Well, the thing about the paper out is you can do it early in the morning or something like that. Right.

Right. In where I lived, it was actually, believe it or not, was an afternoon paper. So.

But.

But it's still. Most places aren't like that, just a different part of the country. But. But same time, you're. You're correct. I was able to get that. Get done what needed to get done and still be able to do what I needed to do. So it all worked out.

And so that's a little bit of an entrepreneurial situation. Paper routes. I mean, we all, Many of us had paper outs. I had a little operation going on at that age of my life. I take all the leftover paper. I had my normal paper out, then I take over the leftover ones and go into the hospital there on the base and sell them up and down the ward. And I was very popular.

Absolutely.

You were a wanted man.

They were looking for Larry.

So as you came up through school, now you get on your own. The realities of making money are right there. And I'm sure your hopes were pinned on the NFL, but as soon as that, it's almost like the sooner you can get on with your life, the better to get the. What's going to be a real possibility in terms of making money and what's a fantasy? The sooner you can get clear on that, the better, wouldn't you say?

Very much so, yeah. So when I finished my. I was fortunate, right. I got my university degree, and then I could mention I played a little bit of hockey. And then it was time to, quote, unquote, right. Get a real job. And so I got involved in the air Freight business. And you know, I saw a lot of success in that in a very short period of time. I was fortunate. So I worked hard at it and was able to be in positions of leadership earlier on in a corporate environment and you know, ran into the corporate situation. So that was positive too because that happened very early. So I understood that that wasn't going to be my long term.

So how did you move up to the ranks? Talk about how you moved up, what you did that made you stand out. One of the, that has really occurred to me that I talk about and try and put in the spotlight with people lately is the fact that decisions you make drive your activity. We know that, but it's your activity that how you separate yourself from the pack and it's the activity that's going on when nobody's watching. You're out there grinding it. Nobody's watching. Somehow you gotta, it's really hard to coach yourself through that when you're in a startup mode, either as an employee or as a new business owner. There's a lot, you know, there's pressures everywhere. It's not easy to be an employee either. And so talk about when you got in there, how you established yourself and moved up through the ranks.

You bet. Larry. Well, what I did do is I started my own personal self development plan right where I was reading books. Read a lot of books, listening to tapes. Okay. This is my early 20s.

Why did you do that? Now you're just working in a warehouse. And so what triggered you? Like I'm working in a warehouse, I've just got a job job, but I'm headed for bigger and better things and I'm going to start a self development program. I'm going to educate myself basically on what we're talking about right now. I'm going to educate myself on winning so I can set myself up with winning. Thought patterns, schedules, activity, things like that. So somehow that came to you probably from the sports, but you probably, I guess, had the light bulb go on that there's a lot of things I don't know about setting myself up for success. And, and so the quicker I can get into my head, the better. What is that what drove you?

Yeah, very much so. You know, what I learned is the more that I thought I knew, the less I actually did know.

Yeah.

Okay. And, and I also knew that, you know, success leaves clues, of course. And I know that when you, you know, if you read about successful people, okay. Then that's going to help inspire you, number one. Also at the same time okay, right, that, that, that there's also certain things that they followed or certain, certain principles, right. So if I, if I did the same things they did, okay. And applied those same principles, then why wouldn't I become successful? And it didn't matter what my background was because, you know, the two greatest countries in the world, the United States and Canada, so you know, you have that opportunity to be able to excel if you so choose make that choice.

Right. And so how, how did that evolve and how did that go and how did that translate into your performance at work, moving up through the ranks there and basically hitting the ceiling on the possibilities in that situation?

Pretty simply, I just thought worked everybody else, as simple as it sounds, right. And that was it. I was in the air freight business and that was, I was in a sales position, okay? So the simple thing was that, is that not everybody in that business, I learned actually worked that hard. Okay? So if I just did what you're supposed to do, then that in itself, as silly as it sounds, just did what you're supposed to do when you're supposed to do it. That separated you from everybody else. Then you, right. And then you just followed up, followed through, because most people don't do that. And when you do those things, good things happen.

Yeah, it was a light bulb for me early on and I probably got it from a reading and tapes and this, that and the other or you know, some of the sharper people I was around that like most, you don't really realize this growing up, but the fact that most people are lazy, that's really not. That's because especially when you play sports, everybody's out trying to hustle so they can play, get on the field, you know, and get on the ice, get on the court. And so you don't run. Plus you got a coach that's gonna throw you off the team, you know, if you don't hustle. So you know, when you're in that world, you expect hustle is expected. But when you get out in the real world, it is kind of a shock that, hey, most people are lazy and most people, they might not be dumb, but they act dumb. And the fact that you can beat 50% of the people just by working hard is like a real eye opening when you got. So you get in the real world, experience those first formative things, job, real jobs with real money and everything is when some real learning takes place. And it's. You give yourself a super advantage to be focused right from the beginning because you don't do the Floundering. You know, the floundering is, it's hard to find advantages from floundering. We all have had floundering periods in our business. It's one thing when you have your own business and you're working hard and the results flounder, you know, you're not getting the results and you can say, well, I floundered for years. Yeah, but you're probably working harder than you ever had in your life. And that hard work behind the scenes that caused you to come out of that up and down period. But when you're an employee and you're just starting out, you can't, you know, the floundering that comes from not working hard is not going to do anybody any good. And you have a real advantage of having that lesson that I got to make. I got to find a way to make money and I got to make myself stand out in the world. And if I get a job, I got to work hard. And so the whole idea of moving up was in your mind, can you, what would you say is your number one motivation at that time of your life?

Well, put it simply was making money because I didn't have any growing up.

Yeah. And that, you know, mine was I wanted to make, you know, early on, you're not at the point where you can say, well, I'm going to make millions by the time I'm 30 or 25. It's like some people have that, but, you know, I didn't have the exposures that caused me to do that. But one thing I very clearly, Dennis, and you probably relate to this, I very clearly wanted to make more than most, you know, and I did. I learned early on that the lowest paid people were treated the worst for some reason and had the least respect. And I did make up my mind at 17 in a summer of part time jobs in the hot summer up there in West Hampton Beach, Long island, it's like, you know, carrying roofing up ladders in the hot sun over on the dune road and the beach. It did dawn on me like, I don't care what I've got to do. I don't even know what I'm saying to myself, I don't care what I got to do, but I'm going to go to school, get educated, do whatever. I'm going to do whatever it takes so I can be in any company among the highest paid. Because that seems to be where the most fun is, basically the biggest rewards and also the biggest respect. You know, the good, good things go with the people at the top. So I don't know how you get to the top, but I had. It was just working like a dog that gave me that kind of insight. And so as you came into this thing, what your, you know, I didn't want to make all the money in the world, but I did want to make enough, provide for the family, have extras where you could accumulate money for a down payment on a nice home. And, you know, it's obvious, if you think about it early on, because we've got a lot of young people listening to these things, that it's going to take more money than you expect. Don't start. Think, take coupon thinking into your job. You know, like, I can get by on the coupons. No, you want to have an abundance, you know, plug into. You know, somebody's going to get the top jobs. You know, it's crowded at the bottom, but there's room at the top, and I'm going to find my way to get up there. And so what. What was the critical point that marked the ending of your first stage there of getting out of that? Because I'm sure you were good at it. It was kind of a secure situation, and there were some, you know, benefits and all, but something happened where you. You bounced against the ceiling and said, I got to move on. Yeah.

That was a twofold thing, basically. Right. And, you know, I, you know, I wanted to have my own business. Okay.

Right.

And I was looking for the right thing, and I didn't know exactly what it was, but I could tell you, like a lot of people, I could tell you what it wasn't going to be.

Yeah.

Okay. Right. And that brings clarity in itself. And then I just, I learned. I got involved in the financial services industry, and I learned a very key lesson into different financial service products and how they worked. Okay. And then I learned from my own family situation that my family had been disadvantaged, and especially the things that had happened with my family growing up. Okay. And that really opened my eyes, and I wanted to be able to educate others. Okay. In a big way. In addition to that. Okay. Right. I saw an opportunity where I could be an entrepreneur. Okay. Myself, personally, by teaching and educating and being able to be passionate about what I was doing and making an impact. And as exciting as that was, I could also teach, educate, and develop others that wanted to be entrepreneurs. Okay. And it wasn't solely based on what they used to do. It was more based on what's inside their heart and their passion for. Want to make an impact in their community.

Yeah. And you know, usually when you, you find things, you're going to get a business of your own. Either going to be making something or you're going to be offering some kind of service. And it's either going to be the service, things are going to be related to machinery and repair and computers and plumbing and electric and things like that, or it's going to be with ideas and where it's in a education, educational type mode and there's big opportunities there that a lot of people are not exposed to. Was it a light bulb for you to realize that you, you know, this, this could be a job.

Like it was a light bulb moment to see it could, it could be an opportunity, not a job.

Yeah. Right.

From my standpoint. Right. That it could be. And I, and the great news is, Larry, when I did see it, I knew it. And although I, I had no success track, I knew I was going to be successful.

Yeah. Well, that brings Dennis, what that does and the point, it's a good transition point for us here that when the right place for you shows up in whatever it could be, words, could be, you see it, could you see it in another person or magazine TV or whatever, but when that right thing comes for you, your gut responds. You know, maybe your mind doesn't, but your gut will respond. You know, there's stories of people who are professional golfers today that were on vacation with their parents and sitting, you know, and somehow someone turned on the TV and they saw a golfer at 2 years old, they saw a golfer on TV and like from that point on, they're swinging whatever they could get. You know, the parents come back in the hotel room and the little two year old swinging around like a golf club is like, okay, he saw it on tv, he likes it. You know, and so you've got to find. And in that, you know, Mark Cuban correctly says, find the thing that you can develop a marketable skill at, you know, not just something that you love your dream, but, you know, tie it into something that has some kind of logic and you know, it'll be. Everything's a long shot to go to the top of it, but something that'll really be worth it, something really get excited about. And you saw, you were probably surprised when you saw that in the financial services side and the teaching and type, working with the public. And that is probably a surprise for you because that was probably not what was in your mind growing up.

Not even in my wheelhouse. You can absolutely. That was not on my radar at the same time as we had talked earlier that I was preparing myself by developing myself. So when the right situation appeared, then I was ready to make that move. Right?

Yeah. And that's the old Bobby Knight thing. Everybody has the will to win, but they don't have the will to prepare. And so you were doing a lot of the right things to put you in a position to where when you saw it, you got the go signal from your insides. And that's got to happen. You know, the one thing that we can end on is that's got to happen, folks, for you. You got to prepare in advance, you've got to get yourself thinking about possibilities. You got to be flexible and open minded. But when that opportunity comes, it should speak to you. But even then it's only going to start to become a reality if you give it everything you've got. But you find you can't give it everything you got if it's not something that really lights a match inside of you. And that's what you're doing telling us that happened when you saw this thing. So thank you, Dennis for that insight because a lot of times people, what's interesting about this, Dennis, a lot of people grow up, they know what they want from the beginning and they have an idea and you know, sometimes, you know, the two year old, five year old things occur to them, they come up with one thing. But some of us just grow up, we want to make money. You know, we, you know, we, we don't have any entrepreneurs in our family. And you know, like in my background, my father was Air Force. You know, my uncles were farmers and appliance repairmen and mechanics and things like that. And they weren't running their own business, they're working for somebody else doing those kind of things. And so.

It'S.

Eye opening when you get out there and start to meet people and these possibilities coming. You see the people who run the companies are really no different than anybody else. And you can become one of those if that excites you. Thanks so much, Dennis. Great insight.

Absolutely, Larry.

That wraps up this episode. Consider leaving a rating and review if you like what you heard. In addition, I have a free video for you and it contains my best insights from 20 years of running my own business and also coaching million dollar earners. You'll find it at whitelowinning. Com Webinar. Thanks for listening and do it big.