139. Jason Wolbers | The Power of a Positive Mindset

Hello, Book Thinkers family, and welcome to our personal development podcast, Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books. During each episode, we interview one of the world's top authors, and as a listener, you can expect to discover new books, new mentors, and new resources that you can use to achieve more and live better. In today's episode, we have the pleasure to interview Jason Wahlbers, author of The Power of a Positive Mindset. Jason began his entrepreneurship journey fresh out of high school at the age of 18, going into a sales job where he became the top salesperson within a year. He is a husband, father, positive influencer, author, and sales pro. This was a great conversation. Jason was so kind to let us in on some of the ongoing struggles with anxiety and depression, how he works on overcoming these, and his bigger mission in life to spread the power of positivity. In this episode, you'll learn about the importance of cultivating a positive mindset, how the way you think influences your life, why morning routines are important, and how you can overcome even the toughest obstacles by showing up and doing the work. Now get ready to learn and enjoy this incredible conversation with Jason Wahlbers. Jason, welcome to the Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books Podcast. We're so excited to talk to you about your book and talk to you a little bit about you. I'd love to kick off the podcast with going back in time and you're fresh outta high school. You don't have any plans for college, but instead you decide to take a sales job where you would end up becoming the number one salesperson at the age of 18. Number one, why did you decide to take a sales job instead of pursuing college and why were your parents so supportive of you taking this job?

Okay, cool. Well, my dad was in the business that I was getting into. So I would be— I'll just start back to when I was like 8, 9, 10, 11 years old, right? My dad had this car that was kind of loud. So when he would get home, I could hear the car coming from about a half block away. It wasn't a clunker or anything. It just had like a powerful engine. You could hear it. I would run upstairs, look out the front window, and watch my dad get out of his car because he was like an in-home salesperson, right? So he went into people's houses. Selling high-quality fire protection. And that's what I still do to this day. Right. So at any rate, I'd run up to that window and look out the window and see if my dad had any empty boxes to throw away, because if there were empty boxes in the back, I knew that I got to go downstairs and have a conversation with him about how his sales day went. If there were no empty boxes, Luke, I was not going to talk to him about the business that day. I just was intrigued with what he did. I loved that he always liked what he did. And they encouraged me to go to college. Don't get me wrong, they really did. My sister went to college and graduated. My brother started college, didn't graduate. My twin and I, neither one of us even started college. In the intro to my book, I write about this. You probably remember this. I told my parents it'd be a waste of my time and your money if I went to college. And so I just said, would you— I really did. I had to ask them, would you allow me to join your company and see how I do? And we'll take it from there. I'm not opposed to a higher education at all, but what I ended up doing, guys, is I ended up getting the best education I could have ever gotten. Thousands and thousands of hours of guys like Zig Ziglar, Grant Cardone, I mean, Brian Tracy. You know, I've got— I've just listened to thousands of hours of those guys. I have a PhD, but I just have it in sales.

Yeah, I love that. Well, you mentioned a couple of people that have been on this podcast. So you're sharing some air with some good people, Brian Tracy and Cardone. So I'm curious, do you think, I mean, you referenced 8, 9, 10, 11 years old kind of looking out the window when your dad got home. Were there other opportunities for you to explore this idea of entrepreneurship or sales? Like, did you ever set up a lemonade stand? Were you into anything like that?

Oh yeah, absolutely. First of all, my mom and dad both taught us good, really, really good work ethic principles. My parents still to this day are hard workers. They're in their 70s and my dad's still fully involved in the same business that I am. And he works all the time. He's our regional director. He's, he's an awesome leader. Okay. But, but yeah, they taught us good work ethic and it's not just me. It was my twin brother, my older brother and sister. We always did something to make extra money. You know, my— we were raised in the '80s. I was born in '76, raised in the '80s. It's like it was different then. It was weird. It was like it seemed like none of my friends' parents had money, you know. Now like everybody's got some money, at least a little bit, right? But it's weird. I just feel like we had to do things, okay, like a paper route. My brothers and I had like 4 paper routes between the 3 of us because we knew one of us would oversleep, you know, and the other 2 would end up doing the rest. So we needed to have, you know, we We needed to have plenty of work to do. We picked tomatoes as kids. We picked corn on a farm over in Illinois. I'm from Iowa originally. We would literally go to this farm, pick corn by hand, sweet corn and potato— or not potatoes, tomatoes, right? I had all kinds of jobs. I worked at a shoe store talking to people, taking off their stinky shoes and putting on new ones. I sold shoes in high school for 2 and a half years. I've always been a people person. I've always been attracted to the— you know, if I see people and they're smiling, I'm going to stop and talk to them. And yeah, I really Sales was just perfect for me and dealing with people was just the perfect opportunity for me. But yes, I've worked since I was about that age. No joke, literally, you know, before the legal age of working, we were like doing paper routes and stuff like that just to make some extra money.

Sorry.

So I'm curious, do you— I'll wrap up this thought real quick. Do you think that selling and entrepreneurship, kind of running a business, is that more nature or nurture? Do you think that you were born Somebody who is interested in doing this, or do you think it was cultivated because of what your dad was doing and that you had supportive parents?

Well, I think it was both, to be honest with you. To give you the best answer I can give you, I personally was born with some God-given talent to talk to people. You know, my mom always used to tease me and say, Jason, you were born with a golden tongue. I said, Mom, stop it. But the bottom line is I've just never been afraid to talk to people. You know, and but at the same time, I was nurtured. You know, my parents taught me the power of a positive mindset. You know, the name of the title of the book—they—they taught me those things as a young person growing up. I was very fortunate to be in an extremely loving home where they did believe in these same principles that my wife Tara and I believe in today, and they were instilling those in us. So by nature, God gave me the gift to gab and talk to people and just not be—not—I don't embarrass easily. You know, the. really good traits of good salespeople, right? Stick your foot in your mouth, don't get embarrassed. It doesn't really matter. You just move on. So nature, yes, but nurture probably more so than anything because I've seen a lot of salespeople, Nick, in my industry that don't have it by nature. They have it by nurture and they're doing just fine. You can do it both ways.

Yeah, that's, that's pretty cool. And I think that's, that is like the dichotomy of life, right? We can have that nature, we can have that nurture, but it doesn't matter where you come from or who you are, you can achieve great things. And that's kind of the message of your book anyway.

Right.

I'd love to, you know, did you, working from such a young age, I actually worked from a young age too. I grew up in an entrepreneurship like home and everything else, but there was a lot of my life that I had a very negative view of work and I look back and I'm very thankful for it now. But there was a lot of my life that I was like, oh, I hate this. I never want to have to do this again. Like, but I felt like I always tell people by the time I was 13, I felt like I was burnt out on work already. But did you ever have a, negative mindset around all that hard work that you were putting in, or was it always just like you knew what you had to do and like you were good with it? What was your, your headspace at that time?

I personally was always good with it, but once again, I was taught to set goals, to have deadlines on those goals. I constantly had something I was shooting for. Now, when I would get quote unquote maybe burnt out, maybe a term that you're sort of alluding to. Believe me, I've probably been burned out in 28 years of sales about 28 times. You know what I mean? Like that one month a year where you just catch yourself going a little bit too hard and you gotta slow yourself down intentionally, maybe even go on a little getaway weekend or something, you know, to get away from it all. So I would say that I've had some burnout times in my life where I had to slow myself down, reset. Usually it's 'cause of my, like, we built our house back in 2021, I think. We moved in. Yeah, we've been there 2 years, built our dream home, moved into it. Well, I start— I started feeling a little bit empty because that great big audacious goal was achieved. So I would, I would say, to answer your question, for me, it wasn't really burnout. Probably I never really got burned out by the work ethic side, or I never really hated work. Okay. Or like looked at it in a bad— but I did have to slow myself down intentionally, probably 28 times in 28 years. I hope that's a good answer for you.

It is. Yeah. We love exploring that subject because I think our audience, it's a lot of very young, motivated professionals and they're always balancing doing too much.

Yes.

You know, versus kind of like what's enough.

I get it.

So I've been, I've been asked this a lot recently as I've been going through the interview circuit for my book. So I'm curious for you, people have been asking me, hey Nick, have you always wanted to write a book? Like when you started consuming all this information, did you ever have that dream? And so I'm Curious, Jason, like you mentioned, you got a PhD or whatever, you know, a degree, but it wasn't from college. It was from personal development material.

Yes.

Brian Tracy and all of these guys. Did you want to write a book kind of from early on, or is this something that you only realized recently?

Okay. As you guys have probably experienced in talking to all these different authors that have wrote books, yeah, I wanted to write a book in the back of my mind. I always had. And like, Tara's like the only one that I would ever tell it to though. Tara's my wife. You guys met her down there. In Columbus. But, um, she kind of knew that I wanted to. I always knew that I wanted to because I loved reading and listening to books and stuff. And I was like, man, it would be really cool to be an author. But my fear was the fear of rejection, the fear of like my peers being like, you're writing a book? You know, I know what you're like when you're not on a podcast, for instance. You know what I'm saying? Like, I've seen you at your worst. And you think those thoughts. Like, so if anybody's considering writing a book, Do it. Don't be afraid of any of that stuff. Who cares if it sells? If you want to write it, write it. It was therapeutic for me, guys, to write that book. It really was. It was probably as good for me as it's going to be for anybody that's ever read or going to read the book ever. But yes, I wanted to, but I didn't know when. You see what I'm saying? I never really— it was like that. It was more of a dream than it was a goal up until about 3 years ago. Then it became a goal, and then I did it.

All right. We're going to get a little vulnerable if you're up for it. When you— because this is an exercise that I've been going through as I've been interviewed too, and I think it's valuable to share these things. So, when you say you thought you would be judged by your friends and family, people who have seen you at your worst, what does that mean? Like, who's Jason at his worst and why does he not align with the book?

Well, Jason at his worst cusses quite a bit. Okay, that's all right. You know, I do. I like drinking beer. You know, I don't always— right, I don't always eat the healthiest diet. So, you know, diet and exercise is in the book. I talk about both of them. So it's that kind of stuff, like the little things, like, you know, the Jason that they know doesn't make church every single Sunday. I do go to church, but I do skip weeks. And that's just the thoughts that would go through my head, like, oh, I don't want people thinking that He's a hypocrite. Well, in reality, they— no one is perfect, and there's no real good time to start really doing anything if you think about it. But so the time is always going to be now.

Yeah, Luke is perfect, but other than that, I don't think anybody— yeah, I'm just kidding.

What I know of Luke, he's a very perfect young man. I would agree.

So, so perfect. That's exactly what I wanted to chime in and say. I was like, well, I don't know what you guys are talking about. I am perfect.

I love it.

Oh no, it's actually really interesting. Um, I'm gonna be performing a poem, uh, this Saturday, this coming Saturday at a, at an event, um, in Ohio, which is really cool. Uh, but it's actually about this exact subject, which is that almost that fight inside of your head, which is, who am I to do this thing? But I wanna do this thing. Am I the best? Am I the worst? Like this, dichotomy that we just manage in our minds constantly. And I do think it's just the, it's just that part of being human, you know, like you're getting very vulnerable by, by sharing something like through your book, you're getting very vulnerable and saying, hey, I know these things really, really work. And still I'm not perfect. I'm still working on these things every day. And I think that's really cool that people can show up and do that. So what is like, what is, you know, we're talking a little bit about struggles, but what is one, one or two things that you feel like you have really struggled with and like continue to struggle with that you, you maybe have a hard time overcoming entirely? But like, what's one or two things that are like that for you?

Okay, that's an easy one for me. Anxiety is one big one, and the second really big one is stress management. Those two are things that I'm constantly working on. Now, the anxiety, I've got that pretty well whipped, but right when you think you got something whipped, I just had a bout of anxiety. I think it was Monday night or Tuesday, Monday or Tuesday night, whatever it was, late night. I woke up, I had this major anxiety problem and like almost a small attack, and I hadn't had one of them in a long time. So those 2 things for sure. I think the anxiety loop's creeping in right now because I'm running my business full-time, and I'm also trying to promote this book. And you find out it's real hard to serve 2 masters. That creates anxiety, and that, that's created a little bit of extra stress in my life. So those are the 2 things. But I do have methods that I use. to reduce those, both of them. And they are effective. When I get stressed out, I'm able to calm myself down really fast.

Yeah, it's pretty impressive that you can do that. Because a lot of people, you know, they use that, those things as a crutch, and then they can't overcome them. And I think it's really important that, you know, you keep going despite having that, in spite of having that anxiety. You talk a lot about your wife, Tara, and how she is a really positive person in your life. And I've heard you mention it more than once as She's one of the most positive people, you know. So I'm curious, like, how her positivity and her part in your life has influenced you and encouraged you to keep going and do things like write a book and run a business. Like, how has that relationship helped you?

Well, the biggest way that she's always helped me in my life is she's always been willing to support me no matter how crazy, stupid, or audacious the goal or idea is. Okay, like I teased her a lot. I said, Terry, and I used an editor to edit my book, but I told her, I'm like, you were also an editor because every time I'd get done, she probably got a little bit tired of it after a while. Like, hey, we read this. I think it's really good today, right? So she, she, it's like little things like that that she does. But the first thing that grabs my attention with my wife, Tara, is her smile. She's always smiling. She's always happy. And everyone that knows her says that about her. She's a really big positive influence, not only to me, but to everyone around her. But the biggest influence she had on me with this positive journey and writing this book and like becoming the man that I am today, she started studying some of this stuff, not really before me, but at different times than me, if you will. Like, I'd be big into it for a while. I'd slow down reading. She'd pick up. You see what I'm saying? Well, she really got into That Secret. You know, the book in the—

Rhonda Byrne. Yeah.

Yeah, Lewis talked about her a little bit. Maybe we'll see. You know, we'll see about that. But yeah, that book, and then we've watched the movie The Secret. She's probably watched it 50 times. That's no exaggeration. And I've probably watched it 10. And our kids have watched it probably 5 or 10 reluctantly, you know, the kids. But she made them watch it several times. That movie and some of the other books that spun off of that. Movie. She started believing in that concept of the gratitude journal. Now, Kristen Butler, we mentioned her before. Kristen, we use her happiness journal, by the way, every day. I use it in the morning and I do it all the time, every day, twice. Okay? But that has the gratitude in there, the 3 things you're grateful for in the morning, the 3 things you're grateful for at night. That is probably the biggest thing that Tara taught me even before Kristen wrote that. That changed the way I thought. So you asked me about her influence. That was a big thing because she pushed that. She kept pushing it on me and saying, you need to do this. She said, you talk negative too much. You know, this was before my major transformation, right?

This is—

I went through a very dark period in my life, guys, that I don't talk about all that often. But I did. I went through a lot of it. Like, the anxiety was very real for me. So was depression. Okay. But she knew. She needed to give me a kick in the butt. So, she just kept on me and I finally started doing that gratitude journal. So, if people are listening, please, it's in the book too. Do a gratitude journal. All you got to do is— Kristen has you do 3 in the morning and 3 at night. So, I just adopted that. I do 3 in the morning and 3 at night. And you know what? Sometimes the same person, place, or thing is on there in the morning and at night because I'm just that damn thankful for it that day. But she's just a smiley, happy person. And a lot of the success that we've had is indirect. It's directly because of our relationship. She's very supportive. I'm, I'm extremely supportive of her. I'm just the one with the big crazy ideas and she's just like, okay, well, let's do it. And, but she is just so, she's very smart too, like smarter than me. She runs our finances. Or I probably wouldn't have a place to sit here. Okay. So I hope that answers your question about Tara. She's, she means the world to me. We've been, we've been married just over 25 years. Yeah, she's amazing. And yeah, you guys know what I'm talking about. You got supportive wives as well.

Oh, absolutely. And I, that's, you know, I wanted to bring her up for that reason because I know like seeing you guys together and like at the event, it was just so, it was so cool to see how you guys interact with each other and you can just tell that that love and that support for each other is there. And it's a very rare, unfortunately, it seems like it's a very rare thing to see these days. So it's really cool. And it's inspiring to see people like you just love it, love on each other and have other success, not only relational, but, you know, business and everything else, which is really cool.

Can I say one more thing on that, Luke?

Yes.

I don't know if either of you knew this because I'm not sure if I pulled you to the side and told you or not, but Tara's mother passed away 3 days before your event. Yeah, that people that are watching this, that's support. She made a decision. Her mom was sick for a while in Iowa, 8 hours from us, and Tara spent the better part of the last 60 days of her life in Iowa. She came home Wednesday night at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and we left to go to Columbus at 6:30 the next morning because she was committed. That's a committed spouse. We made a decision that we were going to the Book Thinkers event. We made a decision that we were going to Lewis Howes, and her mom's funeral wasn't a until the next week, and we said, you know what, it was she. That was— it was all on her. I did not have any influence on that. I told her, I will do whatever you want me to do. If you want me to call these guys and let them know we can't— she said, no, we're going. That's how supportive she is, Luke.

Wow, that just, uh, made me tear up.

Goosebumps. Holy smokes. Yeah, that's, that's, that's love, and that's marriage. You know, that's what we're supposed to do for each other. And her family wanted her to come too, just so you guys know. Everyone was in support of us coming to the Book Thinkers event. They knew how important it was to us and they wanted us to go.

Wow. Well, you know, that's a— that's, that's really amazing. And, um, we are so thankful that you both were there for sure. You— I mean, wouldn't have been the Book Thinkers event without you guys. And hopefully we'll continue— you'll continue to be able to come to, to many, many more.

Absolutely.

Oh man. I gotta gather myself. Oh, you're fine, brother.

It's, it's life. It's real life, man.

Yeah, I'll jump in. Jason, something that you've mentioned a couple of times, you mentioned you have some tools to settle yourself down when anxiety starts to boil up. And then you mentioned you went through a dark period where the anxiety seems to have been pretty dominant for you. So what are some of those strategies that you use today to sort of calm yourself down when you start to feel anxious?

Okay. I'll just tell you just a little bit of a story real fast, and then I'll get into the— what, what I did to fix it.

Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Plenty of time.

When I was at my rock bottom and my worst, it was because of, like, stress that led to anxiety that then led to depression. You guys have probably heard the whole bit. Everybody that ends up with anxiety probably got it from stress, or some people just have it. They just— it's unfortunate. Some people are just kind of that way. It's their— they lean in that direction where they get real anxious about everything. That's not the kind of anxiety I had. I had anxiety that was brought on by stress from sales, basically from being in a difficult career that was all commission-based. I've never had a guaranteed paycheck my entire life. Okay? So, and with the book, you guys know full well you don't have any guaranteed paychecks there either, do you? If you don't sell books, you don't make any money. So I've never really, and I don't care about that. I like that lifestyle, but it did get stressful at times. Especially when the kids came along. I got stressed, led to anxiety, which led to further, deeper depression. Well, so one night I'm laying in bed, it's late at night, Tara's already asleep, and I'm watching some whatever I was watching, probably couldn't sleep. That happened a lot to me. So I'm watching this thing and this infomercial comes on. And I don't know if you guys have ever heard— oh my gosh, I can't think of his name— David Goggins' story or not.

Oh yeah, can't hurt.

Similar story. Yeah, he's watching TV and the Navy SEALs, you know, like commercial comes on. Well, I was watching TV and an infomercial for the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety came on. I'm not kidding you. I'm laying there anxious. My chest hurts. I'm just feeling like I'm dying, basically, you know? So I'm like, screw it. I didn't have the $500. I think it was $500 to buy this program. And I'm like, I don't care. I'm willing to try anything. So I went ahead and slapped it on a credit card, bought the program. Learned a lot from. I'm not necessarily promoting or, you know, that program today. That's not what this is about. That was 20-plus years ago. I don't know if that type of program would still work today or not with the different types of anxiety the younger generation's dealing with. Mine was a little bit different, but it worked for me. So to answer your question now directly, the story behind how I got that way and how I got out of it was mindset. Period. Plain and simple. I probably will write a book one day titled How I Overcame Anxiety and Depression with No Medication, because I do think that's a message the world needs to hear too, because I did do it with literally no medication. None. The only medication I had is a daily dose of breathing exercises. That's so to answer your question, lots of breathing exercises. Breathing in deeply, three, four, five seconds, and then exit through your nose, and then exhaling through your mouth. That really does slow your brain down. It calms your system down. The reason anxiety is so bad is I've learned it. I've studied it. It's because your body goes into like the same reaction. You're just sitting there. There's nothing going on, right? But your body thinks you're dying. Your brain—you're not your body, your brain. So it gives you this drowning. Or, you know, you're fighting for your life, but you're sitting there and you don't have anything to do with the energy. That's anxiety. And it really screws your system up. So you have to find ways. In the book, I talk about changing the channel. You have to find ways when your thoughts— and I do talk about what-if thinking in the book. So these are some exercises I use. So when what-if thinking starts to enter my mind still to this day, Nick, and it does. It does enter my mind. I start thinking, well, what if, what if the Book Thinkers guys are a bunch of jerks when I get there? You know, I'm just teasing you, but like little things like that. Not necessarily that thought, but what if they're uppity? What if they don't accept me and Tara when we go down there? That was a little nerve-wracking, right? That's one good example. But instead of that, we said, what if they're the greatest people in the world? Which you were. What if they're awesome? What if we have a great— what if the Lewis Howes event We don't even like it. We don't even decide to go back for day two. We'll have a great weekend in Columbus, right? What if instead of saying what if it's bad, say what if it's good? What if it does work? What if this book does happen to sell a bunch of copies? What if someday I got a million copies sold? You never know. So the what if thinking was huge for me. I always went negative with my what if thinking back then. Now I go positive. I do breathing exercises. And I take care of my mindset first and foremost, every single day throughout the day.

And so I would love to, you know, you talked a little bit about your different habits in the book, but maybe you can tell us a little bit about your, your morning habits, your morning routines. I would love to learn a little bit about how you start your day.

Oh, and I nerd out on this subject.

Yeah, I know.

What's that?

Oh, I was saying I nerd out on this subject. Like, I just, I love morning routines, evening routines. I love, I love these.

So this right here, it doesn't matter to me what brand you use. This one's a Tim Hortons coffee from Canada, right? We have Tim Hortons here, you know, the Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks. We got them all. I don't really care what brand it is, but I love coffee in the morning. So one of the first things I do at my house is I get a cup of coffee brewing. I like the smell of it. It makes me happy. It makes me feel good. But before I even do that, I wake up and I get out of bed. I usually will say just a little prayer like, you know, thank you, God, for another day before my feet hit the ground. I do get on Facebook, believe it or not, but I don't scroll. Yeah, I get on there because I have more of a following on Facebook right now than I do on Instagram, believe it or not. I'm working on the Instagram. It's getting better. But I go on Facebook and I put a question out there for the community that follows me, whatever the question might be, like one positive habit that you do each day. Well, it makes me think, what's one positive habit that I want to do today? So I pose a question every single morning before I even get out of bed. I do that real quick. Then when I'm brushing my teeth, I listen to The Power of a Positive Mindset on Audible every day, ever since it's been written, ever since the Audible was done. I listen to it over and over again until I'm done brushing my teeth and getting ready. I just listen to one day and I just keep repeating it, repeating it, repeating it. I want to get as much positivity into that head before I leave that bathroom, right? Then I go out and I'm very, very ritualistic in the morning, you guys. I grab a banana. That's when I do my coffee and I eat a banana and I drink my coffee while I fill out— Kristen's going to love this podcast— while I fill out Kristen's happiness journal after I've already read this book. And then a lot of times I'll pop on some music while I do that, something chill, some country music or some contemporary. I like contemporary Christian music. It's just uplifting and it's fun to listen to for me. So I'll turn some of that on, listen to a little bit of music, and then Tara's usually sitting on the couch. I'm at the table. And we just have a conversation. I love on my dogs. We have 2 dogs that we love. I do that every day. All those things. I always walk over to our little puppy. She's a year and a half. I grab a hold of her. I love on her for a little bit. It just makes me feel good. Those little fur babies, right? If you don't have any, you should get some. They make me happy. So I make them a part of my morning. But the biggest things that people could take away from what I'm doing is reading. We're listening to a book, positive one though. I mean, I wouldn't recommend getting into something too deep in the morning, you know, not that early, at least not when you first wake up. Listen to something that's just gonna jolt your brain a bit. It doesn't have to be this one, but it could be. You know, I do that one because it's written in a daily format. So I just do— I'm doing a group right now, a 90-day group with a bunch of friends of mine, and we're just going through the book. We're on day 32 right now. So that's what I'm doing. I'm just listening to that so I can get that knocked out. But that happiness journal is huge. Then Tara bought me this book. It's The Power of a Praying Husband. So I pray for her out of that book right after I'm done with Chris. It's like very ritualistic, you guys. It's kind of boring.

Oh, I'm the same way. So I think this audience is primed for exactly what you're talking about.

Okay, good. And that's the kind of stuff that I do. And by that point, by the time I go out, I'm already ready for the day, just so you know, like before I drink my coffee, I'm, I'm ready to go out. I got that from my dad. He never left his bedroom. Ever. Still to this day, he never leaves his bedroom in the morning without being fully dressed, teeth brushed, hair done, showered, everything. I'm the same way. So I do a lot of, a lot of stuff in the bathroom, like listening to music. And it's not just this book. I listen to other stuff too. I'm just listening to something. Okay, then I go out and do the written stuff. And her journal takes— it literally— she promotes it as a 3-minute— it's 3 minutes. That's all it takes. And guys, I fill the whole thing out. I even fill the notes section out.

It doesn't—

it only takes 3 minutes and it, man, it just— what are these things I want to get accomplished today? Like 3 to 4 things and I write them down and then I get— every damn day I get those things done. I always get those done because I know, Luke, I got to come back later and I got to write down what I got done. So I want all 4 of those to be at least accomplished. So writing down a few goals too, Nick, to answer your question, I'm writing down a few little to-do goals for each day too in that journal. She just structured it so well, I can't help but promote it.

I love it. She, she is amazing. And it was fun to see you guys kind of dancing that last night at the event and everything. Like, you were like, oh, Kristen's coming to the event. Like, I wonder if we'll be able to rub elbows a little bit. And I'm like, you will be.

So, uh, we appreciated that too, by the way, the introduction.

Oh yeah, of course. I'll, I'll just make a quick comment because I think this is an interesting thing that I've learned recently. Hello, Book Thinkers family. A quick word from today's podcast sponsor. Today's episode is sponsored by Audible. Audible is the leading provider of spoken word entertainment and audiobooks ranging from bestsellers to celebrity memoirs, business, and my favorite, personal development. And as part of Audible's partnership with us, we're actually offering listeners a free 30-day trial. This trial includes one credit good for any premium selection titles you'd like on the whole platform. So that's pretty much any book, including the one we're talking about today. That book is yours to keep even after the trial is over. Now, this trial also includes access to Audible's Plus catalog of podcasts, audiobooks, guided wellness programs, and Audible Originals. You can listen all you want, no credits needed. Now, everyone on the Book Thinkers Instagram knows that I love physical paper books. There's nothing better than having a book in your hand and Scribbling notes everywhere in the margins. I kind of tear those things up, but I've been completing an additional 20 to 30 books every single year using Audible by listening when I'm in the car, doing chores around the house, or while I'm on my morning walks or runs. You could take advantage of this free trial by clicking the link in today's show notes or going to www.bookthinkers.com/audibletrial. You will not regret it. Now, back to today's episode. Routine. A lot of people, when they hear routine or ritual, they think complacent. You're just doing the same thing every day. But when you think about a routine as a route, it's a journey. It compounds. Those same little daily actions are actually actions. They're movement. They're creating something better for your future. So, I encourage everybody to get a morning routine and an evening routine. I think if you can bookend your day, You can control the morning and the evening. You can control the middle, the chaos a little bit easier. So, I just wanted to make that comment. And Luke, I'll kick it back over to you.

No, I love talking about morning routines and things like this because I think we get overtaken by negative emotions so quickly. You walk outside, you get in your car, somebody cuts you off. It's so quick to where we can just fall back into that negativity. But if you strengthen this thing, the thing between the ears, every single morning, every single evening, that does compound in a positive direction. And even like, I know, like, I've done a lot of that kind of work over the last 3 to 5 years. And it's insane how much better I am now than I was 3 to 5 years ago, just in my headspace. Like waking up, I'm like waking up and not dreading the day. It's like I'm actually ready for it. And I'm like, okay, there's gonna be negative, there's gonna be somebody that's gonna hurt me, there's gonna be an email that I have to answer that's negative, whatever.

But There is.

If you can work on this thing between your ears, like, it works wonders. So I appreciate you sharing that. I want to also talk about, I have this quote from you that I wanted to read, which is, to me, a life without dreams would be taking a trip without knowing where you're going and where you will end up. So I wanted to ask, like, what is your dream right now? Like, what are you working towards? What is your— what is— you talk about goals. Like, what is that big goal? What are you working on?

Well, I have a lot of goals. Okay. So, but most of them are, you know, stepping stone goals to get to the ultimate goal. I do have it written down as a great big audacious goal. I have no idea how it's gonna happen. And I don't even know if it, like Vanessa Van Edwards at your event was telling us, you know, her first 4 books didn't even sell. It may not be this one. But I do have a goal to sell a million books. A million. I've never been afraid to go, you know, why not? Why couldn't I? Other people have done it so many times. Why couldn't you sell a million of yours? Either of you, if you— if and when you write one. And I know that, Nick, you already have. Why can't you sell a million? See, that's my thought process about everything. Why couldn't I? If Vanessa Van Edwards can sell hundreds of thousands, and she was being humble at your event, by the way, I think she sold a Few more than she said.

I know, I was trying to get her to say it, but she wouldn't.

It's a lot, isn't it? I mean, but she was so down to earth. She's a human being just like us. And, you know, she obviously didn't know which book was gonna go big. She, she got back on that horse. So that's a great big audacious goal that I have. And then in my business, I have a goal to be a regional director. Right now I'm a divisional director. That's the second director from the top of our company. And that just means I need to hire more distributors. It's not network marketing or anything, and I'm not going to get into that with you guys today, but I have a goal to be a region, and I'm probably a couple years away from that right now. You get to be my age, guys, and you start hitting these pinnacles and you're like, god dang it, what kind of goal can I set next? You know, my dad's a regional director. He's been that way for a long time. You can't go any higher in this company once you're to that level. It's like, so that's, that's why I'm excited about stuff like this too, for the next Part of my life. Does that make sense?

Yeah, absolutely. And I love that, you know, you also like, it reminds me of, you know, you're talking about, oh, I'm writing books and I'm doing these, all these other things. And during the pandemic, you started a, and I forget the name of it. I've had it.

Positivity Central.

Positivity Central. Yes. So can you tell us that story? Because I think that's like who you are, right? You're always building these new things and these bigger goals, which is really cool. So if you could tell us about that, that'd be awesome.

I can't. So the good news for anyone that follows that is that I once had anxiety, bad depression. So what I was seeing is I was seeing like my son was a senior in high school, you guys, when that went down. He got pulled out of school never to grace the doors again. That was really sad. It was sad for Tara and I. I think Dylan liked it at first, our son, but then eventually he's like, you know, I kind of want to see my friends again, you know? And all kids were suffering with that, not just Dylan. But the seniors that year were robbed of their graduation ceremony. They were— now, we told Dylan, we spun it in great, you know, who else gets to do a virtual graduation? They did a parade in our town where the kids lined the streets, and it was like a reverse parade. We drove through the middle and congratulated. It was neat. So they did some cool things, but still, you missed out on the in-person stuff. So that was, that was 2020, right? And I just decided I was like, you know, and I look back at some of those videos. I went back and deleted a whole bunch of it on YouTube because I'm like, I wasn't good at it by any stretch. I wasn't. But I was just speaking from my heart, telling people like, you know, don't give up, keep going. If you feel down today, you know, do something to change your mindset, whatever. And I was just trying to do whatever I could do with positive posts and messages. But that is exactly why I did it. I did it because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I started seeing things. I started seeing people that were depressed more and anxious, and I still think that's carried on to today. And I think that there's a big, big opportunity for anyone that wants to teach people mindset and how to overcome those kind of things in their lives. So I still do that. Um, I definitely still do that. I don't push it super hard as far as I'm, I'm getting followers and stuff, but I'm not like pushing too hard to do that. I'm just putting content out now.

Good. That's how you grow. You just provide value constantly and consistently. So I love it, man. Well, we're getting towards the end of the podcast, so I have 2 final questions and then we'll kick it over to Luke for his famous final question. So question number 1, if somebody's been listening to today's podcast and they're like, Jason's a cool guy, you know, I'm somewhat interested in this book, That he's written, but I'm not sure if I wanna go through that 90-day process yet. Like, what would you say to them? What, you know, what's the expected outcome of, of choosing to read your book and go through your program? Like, what's the kind of the final word here?

Okay, good. That's a good question. Here's what I would tell anybody that doesn't— that's not sure. I'd say pick up a copy, do it because it takes less than 5 minutes a freaking day. If it doesn't work, give me a bad review on Amazon.

Oh, we've never heard that before. That's a good point.

If it doesn't work, you can give me a 3-star instead of 5 or 2. If you think it was too basic for you, give it a 3-star. I need more reviews one way or the other, Nick, right? I'm just saying, I'm pretty confident in it in that sense. Of course, I am confident that they would give 4 or 5 stars. But if If you don't like it, if it's not for you, that's okay. But you're never going to know unless you try it. And I'm telling you right now, it does work. I have friends and family and a whole lot of people that I know that have bought the book that is working on their mindset. I've watched people in my business go from average salespeople. They started doing this every day. And by the way, every one of them that would buy this book, I bought them Kristen's Happiness Journal and mailed it to them. All the guys on my team. So a bunch of those guys are doing that. So I got them doing both. I got them doing my morning and evening routine, and these sales numbers are spiking. It's crazy. I was just telling them that on a Zoom call the other day. It is working for people that are doing it. I'm seeing it work. So my answer to that would be give it a shot. What in the world? I mean, it's $19.99. It's $20 for the rest of your life. And I— it takes less than 5 minutes a day. I guess that's my challenge. How hard is that? You don't have to be a reader to read my book.

That's a good point.

No, I love it.

And listen, $20 to get decades of your life experience and positivity packed into a few hours of consumption broken into 5-minute chunks daily, like there's no better ROI than that. So, you know, I'm a big fan. Here's my second question. What book have you gifted the most? Other than your book and Kristen's books. So over the last 10 years or so, what book have you gifted the most?

Oh gosh, that's so easy.

Seller Be Sold. Geez.

Seller Be Sold by Grant Cardone.

Uncle G. I love it, man.

The reason, real fast, I'll make it quick, is because that— Grant's gonna love this if he watches it. I've been in sales a long time, you guys. I'm a pretty good salesperson. I'm a pretty good sales trainer too. When I'm done here, I'm going in to train a young lady. I'm telling you guys something. I know a lot about that business right there that he's talking about. That's a perfect book for an intro salesperson that's new in the business and they're new in any kind of sales industry and they're trying to figure out the basics of sales. And I don't know if that's why he wrote it or not, but it is a very good book for people to learn that no matter what you're doing in your life, you're selling. I don't care what it is. Every day, all day long, we're all selling. That's the premise of the book. That's why I give it away even if people aren't salespeople.

Yeah, I agree. I love that book. Such a classic.

I think I got about 6, 7, 8 copies right there behind me.

Well, we've interviewed Kristen and we've interviewed Grant a couple of times on this show. So like I said before, you're in good company, man. I love it.

I know. I think that's awesome too. Some of the people that you guys have had on here are really fascinating.

Wow. Yep. All right. So this is my final question and that is, it's like you're ready for it. You're ready for it. I love it. Let's go. You pass away and all the information that you put out, the books, the courses, everything that you've put out disappears, but you can leave the world with a single piece of advice. What would it be?

That is so easy for me, boys. If you're writing notes today, write this down. It's very hard to remember. We become what we think about, period.

So good. So good. And it's like, it is, it's so simple too, but it is, it's just, it's like we need to hear it every single day. Like you're doing your morning routines, reinforce it every single day. All right. So, last question, which is For those in our audience who want to find out more about you, where can they go and what can they do?

Thank you very much for that opportunity. They can go to jasonwolbersmotivation.com. They can go to Facebook, Jason Wolbers Motivation, Instagram, Jason Wolbers Motivation. Okay. LinkedIn, Jason Wolbers Motivation. And I think that one has a tag of The Power of a Positive Mindset on there as well. Okay. They can Google The Power of a Positive Mindset. They can Google my name and this book comes up immediately. But you can only buy the book for right now on Amazon. I did self-publish it. You can only buy the book on Amazon. So if you're looking to buy it, go to Amazon. That's where you'd find it.

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for coming on our podcast. We have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. We've learned a lot from you. Can't wait to share this with our audience, and I'll make sure I link all that stuff in the show notes below.

Sounds good. Thanks, guys. Appreciate both of you.

That is a wrap. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books. It would mean the world to us if you could write a review and share this episode with a few of your friends. I mean, these books truly have the power to change people's lives, and by reviewing or sharing our podcast, you're helping us make an impact. If you have any recommendations for future guests, or any constructive feedback for us on how we can improve our show, please feel free to submit a form on our website, www.bookthinkers.com, or send us a direct message on Instagram @bookthinkers. With that, I am signing off, and I hope you have a wonderful day. Don't forget, go read something.