EP 518 – Sales Success Champions With Donnie Boivin

This is the no Closer show where you get the latest developments in distressed note investing and learn the secrets of how you can control millions of dollars worth of property for pennies on the dollar. Get educated and entertained by someone who has closed thousands of deals and lives to support you in achieving the same. Now, here's your host, CEO of We Close notes, Scott Carson.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everybody. Welcome to this episode of the Nook Closure Show. As always, Scott Carson, your host today. Excited to be here with a very special guest. A guy that I met a few months back. Just hit off, same mentality, guys, just say, no bs, no bloat, smoke, blowing up your skirt or pants kind of guy. And he's absolutely just doing an amazing job out there, not only with this podcast, but also being a real leader. And I'm talking about my buddy here, Donny Bovin, joining us all the way from up into the Fort Worth, Texas, Dallas area, which is kind of rare. Most of my people we have on are outside of Texas. But for those that don't know Donnie, he is, first of all, an ex Marines. We gotta give him big kudos.

Thank you for that. But as former. Former Marine, let's get it right.

What did I say? X. Oh, I'm said former. My apologies.

I love busting people's jobs because I really don't care. But just for that, never an X1.

You're always one.

Yeah. Once a Marine, always a Marine is. So like, when we were getting ready to get out, was once a Marine, always a Marine, So why the hell would I need to reenlist? Yeah. You know, I've already done it.

Thank you for that correction, my friend.

Good.

Donnie's really doing a great job out there changing the game of business development. He's got over two decades of sales and business expertise under his belt and one of the top podcasts in the world. And so I'm excited because I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready to get my fire lit. Welcome to the Nook Show, Donny.

Hey, brother. I really appreciate you having me here. I've been looking forward to this. Like I said, we met at that conference, same vibe, same thing. And I just love it when I get around my people, and I mean, my people, it's the people that are a little bit larger than life. When we walk in the room, everybody fucking knows we're there. I love that because once they get up, I get up and we feed off each other and just some really, really cool things happen. So looking forward to this kid. And I promise I won't make you cry as we go through this, or at least I'll do the best I can.

So there you go, everybody. If you've got a weak skin, you probably want to log off, get you some tissue, right? Call up your cuddling partner to cuddle with you. That's a real thing now these days, cuddling partners. I'm like, what the heck?

Anyway, dude, as long as I'm the big spoon, all right, you know, there.

Won'T be no cuddling going on here, everybody.

Thank you. Thank you.

So in the Marine, for you to say, let's dive in a little bit here so we don't lose our audience in the first 10 minutes. So let's talk about your background a little bit, Donnie. Talk a little about some of the things that kind of let you be where you're at today.

Well, you already said I was a marine, so I got out of the marine Corps and luckily I found a job pretty quick with my best friend and his dad and got heating and air conditioning in Texas, which was the stupidest thing in the world. I was literally the guy who crawled under the houses, you know, and in the attics in the summers of Texas. Oh, I hated it. And I was getting ready to quit and my best friend's dad, Jerry's like, look, dude, before you quit, why don't you try sales? And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. I am not a sales guy. He's like, well, just give it a go. And long story short, I took that company from a residential only H Vac to a multimillion dollar commercial H Vac. Company wasn't a natural knack. It's because I didn't give a shit and I just didn't care what people thought there. I got pulled up to a company in St. Louis to sell franchises. We were end up bought out by a Fortune 5 and I got corporate downsized because I didn't play the corporate politics game. I'm never a guy that really fits in. Well, I was called a black sheep when it came to the sales type of things because you're not going to manage me. It's one of those things you just point me in a direction and see where I go. So I came back home and I thought just being a stud in the sales type arena and doing all this stuff, that I was going to find a job. Well, I couldn't find a job because I was still a young punk kid with a chip on my shoulder. So I was blowing Interviews and not doing really well, that all my friends from high school were bartending and wedding tables. So I became a bartender. And then I enjoyed the life that comes with being a bartender.

A little too much every night. You're the one of money there. Years of having web feet here as well too, back in the day.

Right, right. And then I was hired out from behind the bar from one of my lunchtime regulars. And they didn't drink during lunch because they were very proper, but they got to know me, got to know my story. I always kept my resume underneath the bar top. This was after two years of bartending. I don't want anybody to think that I got in and got out really quick, but went and worked for her company. She was the vice president of the company doing commercial printing. Took that division to a $6 million division from zero. And then the economy crashed. All that stuff happened. The company went from a $40 million company to, I think we were right about 11 when I left, I lost almost 5 million of my book of business. And then I was flipping through LinkedIn trying to figure out what my next move was, and I saw this thing came up that said a sales training company needed a sales guy. I'm like, well, fuck, I think I could sell anything. So I called the guy up and I said, look, I don't want to be a sales trainer. I just want to go sell. He goes, good. I don't want a fucking sales trainer. I just want somebody who will sell. I'm like, cool. A year into the company, he pulled me aside and said, dude, you've got to start training because I can't handle how much work we have coming. I'm like, fuck. So then I became the trainer and sales guy was on the verge of buying that company out. We're going to do a seven figure deal over five years and buy him out. And he said a great phrase to me that I will remember for the rest of my life. And what he said was, I'm so glad you're my retirement plan. And it was for the first time in my life, 40 years old, that I realized that I'd been living somebody else's dreams. And I at that point, fricking said, you know what, I appreciate it. Fifteen days later, I walked away from it all. Not a real game plan. I thought I was going to be like this Tony Robbins type thing, you know, and where are you going to.

Be going to this.

That's so awesome. I launched my company that was September of 2017, and the skinny of it Is I ran my business straight into the ground because I had no idea how to be a fucking business owner. And I found podcasting in April of 2018. A guy heard me speak on stage and he said, I love your energy, I love your vibe, I love what you're doing. Come talk to me on my podcast. I said, what the hell is a podcast? And went on a show, picked up a client from being a guest on the show, and I went, wait, I can go on other people's podcast and pick a business, hold my beer and watch this shit? And crashed. It launched my show. And now the success champions has been born and we're transforming lives and really helping people do what I did. Quit living other people's dreams, grab life by the horn, chase your own shit, make your own money, go fuck up a lot, get punched in the face, and then wake up and do it again and again and again. So that's how we got here, brother.

Well, and that's the people think is life is never straight and narrow when it comes to being an entrepreneur of any sort. You've got all sorts of ups, downs, backwards, retracts, backtracking, getting off the map and going that route. And everybody has a different story. And I think some of the most. Actually, I know that most of the most successful people out there are the ones that had to go through the most amount of upheaval, turmoil. And actually the only reason they're more successful is because they made a whole lot more mistakes along the way, right?

Yeah, 100%. I can tell you that out the gate. I hated all the trials and tribulations. I hated all the screw ups, I hated all the backtracking because my thing was always, let's just sell our way out of this. And it's not that easy when you're the full business owner because there's so many more moving parts. So I had to learn to embrace the screw ups. I had to learn to enjoy the fuck ups and mess ups and everything else that happens. Because if you don't embrace those and chalk them up is, wow, what a cool way to learn something. You're out on your ass. Because if there's not challenges and stuff going on your business, then you're not going for it.

Yeah, that's what we always like to say here. Hashtag, embrace the suck.

You're welcome. That comes from the military, so you can have it.

Yeah.

And it's really that. Because if you don't suck it up, buttercup, and get after it, this world will eat you up. Very, very, very, very quickly.

So let's talk a little bit about that with success champions, because you get a great movement going. You got a great Facebook group, a lot of people doing some great stuff for our listeners out there, because we've got people that are in the real estate industry, we've got stuff in the known industry. We have entrepreneurs that listen to this, people that are working the 40 year plan, you know, the 40, 40, 40 plan. Now some people enjoy their job. That's great. Other people, hey, it's just not cut out what it's meant to be for a variety of reasons. But with all the people that you've helped over the past few years, the people you've talked to, and the feedback from your podcast, what would you say is probably the two or three biggest kind of hurdles or mine blocks that you see with entrepreneurs or wantrepreneurs, as I like to say a lot of times as well.

No, that's awesome question. So I believe everybody should be the champion of their own success. And I think the number one reason people don't find success is because they're not really betting on themselves. They're taking that same mentality they had as an employee and they're trying to run a business with that same mindset. And I love telling people, when I became an entrepreneur, I really got to enjoy some amazing freedom, choose my own schedule. As long as I picked the 90 hours a week that I wanted to.

Work.

Right, I could do whatever the hell I want as long as I hit those 90 hours. And it's not that extreme. But what most people don't do is they don't flip the script and become a business owner. Jim Rohn, who is a motivational speaker, was kind of the mentor to Tony Robbins, right? The guy Tony stole all the shit from. But what I love that Jim said is there's an old tape that I used to listen to, and he's standing in front of the crowd and he's like, if I were to hand you a million dollars right now. Well, I'll ask you, Scott, you answer this. If I hand you a million dollars right now, what's the first thing you have to do with it? Well, maybe in your case, if I hand you $100 million, what's the first thing you have to do?

I got to put it somewhere and see.

And that's where everybody goes. They're like, you got to get a lawyer. Your CPA put. The answer is not that. The answer is you mentally have to become a millionaire.

That's True. That is so true. Right.

Because if you don't change your mindset, then you take all those bad habits and all that shit that you've been doing. And the best way he said it is if you were an alcoholic before you became a millionaire, you're still going to be an alcoholic. You're just going to drink more expensive.

Instead of Montezuma tequila, you're drinking 1492.

Right? Exactly, exactly. So I know that most people, when they're launching their business, be it real estate or whatever there else is, if you don't mentally become a business owner set of visions, do your milestone settings have a purpose, have processes, systems, teams, people in place to run it? Then all you're going to do is continually try and work a job. And the job mentality is very task oriented, meaning this is what needs to be done, let me get it done. Where the business owner goes, this needs to get done. Who can I find? What's the process or system I can put in place so I'm not the guy doing it? And that's what I see most times is most these people because they've never run a business. And this is why I ran my business into the ground. The buck stopped with me, so I had to do everything. And what I found is if you're in that mentality, you're not out doing sales and business development, you're constantly in the muck of doing all the, well, let me get my website right, you know, let me get my LinkedIn profile right. Let me do all this stuff versus out and growing the business. The second thing I see is they're flat out not out doing sales, they're not doing business development, they're not getting their brand out there and becoming a household name. I tell everybody, if you're running your own business, then you better fucking become a celebrity. You better become and work towards becoming a household name. Because whatever you sell, when that deal comes to the table that you don't know about, your name better come up first. So whatever it is, you've got to be top of mind at all points. And I learned this when I did sales training because in my town of Fort Worth, dude, if you talked about sales training, my name was coming up first because of all the local speaking, all the events I went to, and all the sales and companies I, I worked with. So those are the two biggest things that I see for people, is they're just not running a business, they're trying to recreate a job for themselves which never allows them to go out in sales and do business development.

I don't want to stop your role here, but one of the things that I'm a big proponent of is that while everybody needs to be in sales, I think one of the biggest things, I think that you realize this when you got your sale off the podcast, is that we're all really in the media spot now. Like you say, you got to be famous or whatever, niche famous. A lot of times, like you said, if a deal comes up or something comes up, you want people to think of you first and foremost, which is huge, very powerful points. I want so many people to listen to that again is the fact is that you got to know that you got to set yourself aside apart from everybody else and be yourself. You can't be the Scott Clarksons, you can't be the Donnys out there. Be yourself and be proud of that. Right?

Yeah. And I want people to understand that if you're not in a niche, if I don't know down to that minute thing that you do, I can't refer you. Right. I can't open that door for you. So let's say you're a lawyer. If you don't tell me your specialty, that you do a very particular type of law, I don't know how to refer you because I'm not just going to send somebody who needs to set up a business to a divorce attorney. Right. So when you're picking your niche, it's not just about you getting laser focused on your business. It's also about you being able to be referred business to. So you're top of mind for that specific thing for individuals. And everybody wants to serve everybody, which is the stupidest fucking thing you can say or do in business. Because if you're a master of all that jack of all trades guy, you suck. You literally don't have anything because nobody knows one, how to do business with you, which is a surefire way to close your business down. If nobody knows what you do, you're out. Right. And two, nobody can refer you because they don't know how to tell others what specifically you do.

Mm. We see that happen in real estate all the time. People run from fix and flip events to wholesaling events, to owner finance events, to notes events, and they're trying to do it all. And I say, I'm like, listen, you can't do that. Pick a niche, pick a lane and stick to it and you'll find success a whole lot faster. It's like that whole parental principle. 80% of your success comes from 20% of your activities. Well, if you can make your 20%, 100% of that one activity, you'll make quadruple five times the amount of money.

Yeah, I tell a lot of business owners that made the leap and they're trying to figure out how to scale the business. Take one product, take one service, take one thing and take it to $100,000. And the reason I want you to take it to $100,000 is because you're going to break so much shit along the way. You're going to force to learn how to run a business. And then once you get to 100,000, let's take it to a half a million. Once you get to a half a million, let's take it to a million. And all along the way, what you're learning is that may not be the product and service that you get your rocks off on, right? That may not be the thing you're passionate about and want to continue doing, but you're going to learn so much about running that business that even if you walk away, it's still a revenue stream in your business. So pick a path, pick a lane and fricking go after it and fuck shit up.

Well, it's because once you put the things in place, now you're able to go and replicate that a lot faster, a lot more streamlined the systems in place. You know what to avoid, you know, the landmines out there and can really rock and roll and go from there.

Well, that's how you see all these successful guys that are, you know, household names from Bezos jobs. All these guys is they screwed up so many things. They ran other businesses that didn't work. They did all this stuff and all they did is applied those principles they learned along the way to the business that finally took off for them. And that's what a lot of people aren't looking at. They're looking at, I've got to pay my bills versus let me go help see how big I can take this so I can learn all the things I can do so I can really go build what I want to build along the way. It's really wild to watch people, but I was the same way. I didn't know any better when I launched the business. So I was a yes man. So if somebody said, hey, can you do? And before they even said what it was, I was like, absolutely, I can do that. And the problem with that mentality is your business becomes so diverse because you're in so many different directions that you never Become the expert in that thing. So you never give people that level of business. Here's a theory of mine. I don't think the deal is closed until you've delivered everything you've said you were going to deliver. And they open a door and introduce you to somebody else, right? And if you can get to that level of relationship with somebody, holy hell, you're going to have one badass business.

Well, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Your little buzzers and shit crack me up. He's got to have both hands.

Gotta love sound effects, brother. Gotta love sound effects. I'm a big believer. That's a big sign. People will refer you. Business people will send you, hey, talk to this person. That's a really good sign. If people deliver the minimum, the bare minimum to get by, that's what ends up being a lot in people's business. What's the minimum that I have to do to be successful? And if somebody's got that mindset, because we get that a lot here, I'm like, look, no offense, this is not for you. People get upset. Like, look, if you're trying to do the bare minimum, get by. Go do something else. Yeah, don't waste my time.

It's funny, sometimes people don't recognize that that's what they're doing because that's just their ceiling belief system kicking off, right? That's as high as they can go. What I want people to do is understand, without risk, there is no reward, right? So if you're not going in, you're not going big, then you're gonna lose in this game because there's too many other people out there that a hell of a lot more hungry than you are, right? And if you're not getting after it, you're gonna get your lunch tore up. Because this is not an easy game. Being a business owner is by far the toughest thing I've ever done in my life. And you're talking to a guy that spent four years in the Marine Corps, right? In 20 years as a straight commission sales guy, so. And running a business is 10 times tougher than all that because it's you, right? Until you get to that point where you can start bringing on teams and everything else, it's 100% on you, and you better be damn good at taking it on the chin. Best quote in the world, Rocky Balboa. It's not how hard you can hit, it's how hard you can take a hit and keep moving forward, right? And that's what it is to be A business owner. And if you're not creating that business relationship where people want to open doors for you and you're just going to that good enough, get out of the game. Because all you're going to do is create these transactional sales. And any sales game that is transactional, you lose. Because especially in the real estate games, if you've burned a relationship, it's not just that relationship you just burned, it's all the relationships that could have came with that business deal and making it right.

That's very valid points. I agree with every one of those out there, for everybody out there. As you can tell, he's not spewing today. DEFCON 5.

So usually when somebody introduces me, they're like, let me tell you about Donny before he comes in here.

This is great. This is great. But one of the things that I think a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with is that they're going down this path, they're making the decisions, and they're growing into that 100k earner or growing into that millionaire mindset. I mean, it was funny. I saw an article the other day where two people, a couple, were arrested for breaking into like five or six homes. And literally three years ago, they won the lottery. They want.

Oh, wow.

They spend it all and gone that route. But I think one of the biggest things I think people struggle with is as they're doing things, they're marketing out or they're getting their stuff, they're getting a lot of great positive feedback. But a lot of people, though, will have friends or family members and say, oh, you can't do that. What are you doing? Or, hey, you're not a sales guy. I mean, or you're not a sales gal, you're not a marketing girl or gal or whatever like that. And I think a lot of people have a tendency to listen to those minority voices. Not color skin, but that small number in our database of people that like to throw shade. Would you agree to that?

Yeah, 100%. That's the reason we formed the Success Champions group, right? Because being a business owner, entrepreneur, anything like that is fucking tough. And like my family, there's nobody I can go talk to. There's nobody in the generations back that ever launched their own business. So I don't have anybody to lean on and say, okay, this is what I'm facing as a business owner. So I went to find a community, and I didn't find a community of people that I could lean on, so I created it. And what I know is if you're taking advice from people who have never done what you're trying to do, it's going to be bad advice because it's all based off of theory and not practical application. So when we created Success Champions, what I wanted to do is teach people how to be the champion of their success. But also I wanted to create that community where people felt safe to come in and ask the questions, I'm doing this, I'm working on this. And get other people's advice and opinions. And also I wanted that environment where people could level up their game and celebrate those wins together. Because oftentimes we forget to celebrate wins. And if we're not celebrate the wins, we don't start stacking wins. And that's when the big money comes from stacking those wins. So instead of listening to all the people that are around you that don't know what the fuck they're talking about because they've never had the guts to do what you're trying to do, then find a family of people that are all in the same game and going for it, right? Find a couple people that have carved the path before you and then go follow what they did. I love telling people, don't listen to Gary Vee now. Go back to when Gary Vee was just starting out and in the grind. Go listen to that shit, right? Because that's where you need to be listening to. Not the level of success he's gotten to now, because you'll get in the comparison game. Go back and listen to the stuff that he was talking about when he was first getting in the game. A lot of people is find those people that are going to lift you up, push you up, and then push you forward. Not the people that, like I said, didn't have the courage to do what you're doing in the first place.

Such great advice. Actually, let me rephrase it. Great counsel is. Advice is like assholes. Everybody has one, right? But what you want to seek is counsel. My words of my buddy Greg Reed, who's the author thing Grow Rich Three Feet From Gold, Napoleon Hill foundation and stuff like that. He's coming for saying it, hey, don't seek advice, seek counsel. Because counsel comes from people that have walked in your shoes, have been down that road before, who are where you want to be at. And it can give you the best counsel to truly help you avoid those minefields. Because I look, the people that are in our field that are ahead of us and things like that most of the time are willing to really help give you that counsel. Say, hey, don't do this, do this. This is why, you know, they want you to avoid that because, hey, a lot of people have eaten, have gone through this shit, and don't do that. Right?

Yeah. And one thing I want people to realize is there's difference between finding somebody who has gotten to where you want to go and having that conversation. And then somebody walking up to you and say, hey, if you pay me $10,000, I'll get you to where you want to go. Right? So a lot of times the guys who have already carved the path and the trail, they'll reach out and say, hey, ask me a couple questions. I don't mind. I'll help you out. So be very leery of the guy who stands in front of you and says, I will make you into something. Most times it's because they just want you to buy their course, their plan. There's something other crap that's out there. Instead, seek out the guys that you know that are doing it. And here's my favorite thing. This is how I learned a lot of my business is I started buying these guys lunch. I would call up these guys, these mentors, these other things that had already done the things that I'd want to do, and I'm like, can I just pick your brain? I'll buy you lunch, I'll buy you cocktails. It's on me. I just want a few minutes of your time. And every time. And I learned that in the sales game when I started with a new company, I'd always go to the top sales dog and go, okay, how'd you get here? Cool. Hold onto your ass. I'm coming for you. And there's only one guy I never outsold. It pisses me off to this day. He's a great dude, but that fucker could sell his ass off. But it's about giving up your time to get them to give up their time. And you're asking for advice. Buy them a simple lunch, because those guys are busy as hell. They're running and gunning, sitting down and having a lunch and having somebody else pick up the tab and not wanting anything from them, not trying to sell them anything, but merely pick their advice. They love giving back to that kind of stuff. So just be very weary of the guys that want to turn you into an influencer or whatever else. It's just nothing but trouble that aren't doing it themselves.

Yeah, that's the biggest thing. You want to walk. You want to learn from people that have been there, been through it. And they'll save you countless hours and times and save you a lot of money, too. But I mean, coaching isn't free. That's the thing, too. You know what I mean? You've got people's time is valuable, especially if they've done it for years. Lunch is a great way to get that first start. And not a joint venture, but somebody, a mentorship or peer that you could reach out to on a regular basis or maybe even accountability partners for that.

Aspect of things, or even finding a badass mastermind. I mean, they're very powerful. Sitting with a group of individuals that are basically coming together as a board of directors is freaking killer and will help catapult you into the stratosphere. So for me, it's always make them put their money where their mouth is. They're telling you they can get somewhere. Make them prove it right? Have them show the skins on the wall of what they've done. I'm really tired of the Instagram millionaires that are out there right now. Drives me nuts.

Yeah, oh, I made 10 grand. I go get a hundred dollar bills and lay it out in my head. I don't see anybody who's really making money doing that.

Right, right, right.

That's the thing. I don't know if you're a boxing fan, but Floyd Mayweather, you know, he likes to show his table stack because he doesn't put anything in the bank. And I'm just like, yeah, you got $20 million, you got punched in the face. It's awesome. But that's really.

Well, my favorite thing is when he fought Conor McGregor and he was throwing the bills, all they were was dollar bills. He wasn't actually throwing, like, big bills. And guys, anybody that's got a flash do show off their shit. Odds are they don't have it right. They're trying to get validated by showing it off. I mean, at least Conor McGregor's got the balls to go punch some random dude out in a bar.

I mean, you know, dolly through a bus window.

Right.

He's a bit of a loose cannon sometimes, but still, he knows how to work the media for sure.

Yep. But that's the game, though, is I'm not telling people to go punch people's alley lies out or throw a chair through a fricking window. But if you can get exposure, it so opens a world up to so many more opportunities and hell, and at this day and age, if you're not trying to start a podcast or get on them, you're playing the game wrong. Guys, it is such an easy thing to get into. It's a lot of damn work. Don't get me wrong, this is why Scott and I both have teams behind us to make these things successful. But it is a great platform to get your message and brand out there. And look, there's like something like 700,000 shows in a marketplace right now. Only 200,000 of them actually produced an episode in the last month or so.

Less than that.

Really?

Less than like 18% have produced an episode in like the last year alone.

Isn't that crazy?

Doesn't surprise me. I mean, pod fade. And when we teach a workshop or a class, less than 10% we know are really going to do the take the action to make it happen.

Well, I had a guy, one of my mentors explain a really cool rule to me that I didn't know. And it's the 85, 10, 5 rule. And it's whatever you put out there, 85% of the people just want to buy your shit, right? They're never going to do anything with it. They just want to buy it. 10% of the people are going to go halfway through it, right? They're going to try it, they're going to go halfway through it. Less than 5% of that 5% are the ones that are actually going to apply. Do what you're trying to teach them. Take it and run with it. And you know what he told me? That blew me away. Make the shit for the 85%. The 5% will rise to the top. I was like, holy shit. It was a game changer in my business because I was focused on how do I get to the five. I only wanted a five and I was losing out the revenue in my business by not making something that the 85% could buy. So think about it. In your business is what's that thing that people who are into you, your story, your vibe, your thing or everything else? What's that low hanging thing that they can be buying off you? And what you're going to find is people that self qualify through the process and come up and be your 5%. And those 5% are glad to pay your high price. Ticket items, you know, the things that cost them a fortune of money because they've already applied everything you've put out there. It's work and now they want more. And you can grow an amazing business by building out that kind of model.

What's the middle 10%, Donnie?

10% is the. Yeah, so it's 85. The middle 10 is the people That'll go halfway through it, right? So they'll start it and then they give up halfway through. What's funny is, interestingly enough, those are usually the people that badmouth your shit and it's because they didn't go all the way through to make it work. And it's funny is we were talking about this before. If people aren't hating on you, then you're not going for it. But those ones that are usually disgruntled and say this system doesn't work, that the other. They're the ones that never put in the time in the first place.

Because those that put the time in are the ones that are doing the extra bit. They're doing the extra 5%, the extra 1% each day, making extra sales, phone call, writing that one more email blast, record that one more video, doing it on a daily basis, doing it and doing it and doing it. Well, LL Cool day for you out there to really rise to the top. And that's the thing is this. No matter what you're doing, your business is going to evolve. Markets are going to change. So you've got to be constantly kind of moving on that rock and ship to kind of stay on top. What's going on? You can't do the same things you did two years ago or three years, four years ago. You and I both see that a lot with people out there teaching stuff that they did two years ago that doesn't work in the market today.

Yeah, absolutely true. You know, there's two thoughts that popped in my head when you were talking through that is one, the person you are right now is not the person you need to become to get where you need to go. Right? You have got to be evolving on a daily basis, which means you're trying new things, testing new things. The second thing is something I learned from the only guy that I was in a company that outsold me. And I finally got pissed off one day and I walked up to him and I said, dude, how do you continue to beat me? I said, I am putting in the time. I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do. And he laughed. And his response was, there's always time for one more. I said, what the hell does that even mean? He goes, I see. When you leave, you'll leave here. Eight, nine o' clock at night. You're crushing it. When do I leave? I'm like, you're usually right out the door behind me. He goes, what do I do right before I leave? I go, you're always on the damn phone. He goes, yeah, there's always time for one more. And the reason I continue to beat you is because I've always put in time for one more. Well, now then, I made it a game of I'm not leaving until this leaves the place. So I doubled my sales that year trying to beat this guy. Yeah, he almost doubled his sales to stay ahead of me. That's why I always tell somebody, find your freaking Mustang. Find your person that is just crushing it that you can chase and follow and see how far it'll take you. But for most people, do the one more. There's always time for one more email, one more outreach, one more phone call, one more interview, one more. And those one mores will stack up and help you find the wins.

Yeah, it doesn't take too much to see the bell curve of if you do 1% more than the other person, it adds up over time to the point you look back 30, 60 days, and it's a whole lot more stuff in your pipelines, a whole more stuff closed. It's a bigger audience. And that's the thing. You never know who you're going to talk to. We're all one conversation or one phone call away from something major happening in our businesses. Right, Donnie?

Absolutely. Absolutely. You know what's funny is people don't take that into account. And I think the third thing that really destroys people and has popped in my head is the word patience. You're building an empire, man. You're building a legacy, if you will. And this shit's not gonna happen overnight. There's no such thing as an overnight success. A buddy of mine named Cody Jenks is coming really big in the country music world. We bartended together back in the day. So I love telling the story. If anybody ever saw the old Walker Texas Ranger with Chuck Norris in it, there was a bar in there called CDs. Well, that's the White Elephant Saloon in the stockyards. And I bartended and bounced there, you know, after I came back from St. Louis. Well, Cody was a bartender there with me. And that's where he started his whole music career and all that. Well, people are now, because he's really starting to break a list. They're like, cody's an overnight success. I'm like, that dude's been sitting on bar stools for a number of years in dive bars and shithole places. He's just now coming loose. And I think for a lot of people, if they don't have the patience in what they're trying to Create. Because I know when I launch my business, I'm like, why am I already in front of crowds of 10,000 people telling my stories? I'm like, I've got some badass here. Well, you hadn't taken the licks to be able to get there. I mean, I'll be in San Antonio later this year doing a keynote in front of 1500. And I'm stoked about it because I'm finally starting to break into those bigger arenas and stuff. But that's taken me two years to pull that off, guys, to get to that level. And it's taken me that much time to screw up enough to where that particular event. I didn't even fill out a paperwork or anything to get on there. One of my clients actually was going to be attending this event, saw that they were looking for a keynote speaker. She went to my website, pulled all my stuff up, uploaded everything, submitted them a freaking video of mine, and then went and talked to them to get me on there to be a keynote. I didn't know I got the keynote for the event until they sent an email that said, congratulations, you're the keynote. And I'm like, oh shit, I hope I have time on my calendar. If not, I'm moving some shit. But that's the kind of things that'll happen when you have the patience to continue to push forward. And a friend of mine said it this way, the people that make it are the ones that are too dumb to quit. And it's because we're. I don't know how you were when you were launching my business, but there's been a lot of times where I've been stacked up against it going, holy, what's my next move here? How do I keep this thing pushing forward? And it's those times that I know at some point that I'm going to look back on and go, the reason I'm still here is because I hung on through that, right? And I'm still feeling a lot of.

That, especially with what we're doing with our distressed debt stuff, buying with borrowers and trying to help out, work with them. But I was that way in 2009. We're coming up on 10 years, over 10 years now. Ten years ago, I sold everything I owned in Austin, Texas and jumped in the truck and hit the road. What I thought would be 30 weeks turned into three plus years of traveling. And that's what launched me because I was willing to do something that nobody else is willing to do. And that's what I think you've got to do is do that extra phone call and give, have patience, celebrate the victories even no matter how small they are. Celebrate those. Because a lot of times I think so many people get, oh, I didn't hit my big number. Well, you exceed your numbers from last month. Great. Or did you have something happen that you can celebrate? It's a tough road to hoe as an entrepreneur, right?

Yeah, it really is. I mean, the stupid phrase that always gets thrown around, this is easy. Nobody would do it. I mean, anybody would do it. But the truth of the matter is you're trying to create that freedom lifestyle for you. And whatever freedom means to you, I think that's for success should be defined, is getting to freedom. And if you're trying to get to that level of freedom, that level of success, then, dude, you're going to have to bet on you get in the game and stay in the game. And those who handle going through the shit and the muck, right, those are the ones that all the fun quotes and memes you send out there, the people that made fun of you before you started, the ones that be working for you later. It's all those people that held on through the shitty times when their friends and family are like, dude, go get a job. Get out of this, do something else. It's those that have the ability to hold the on until it starts to break loose and then make sure all the systems and processes are in place to keep it moving forward and are diversified enough in their business. Because there's a ton of mistakes. But one of the ones that I did early on is I was trying to do just one thing and then that one thing went away and I'm like, oh, shit, what do I do now? But you got to keep pushing forward and keep moving forward. Take the hits, keep moving forward.

Here's the thing. I was watching Rocky the other night, and when you mentioned the quote there, it's not that you can take the hit and keep on moving forward. You can get up off the mat.

Yep.

We can use all sorts of testimonials or quotes and stuff like that, but that's what's really it comes down to because everybody has hits. Even the most successful people have hits. Yeah, I think a lot of people think about Warren Buffett or Steve Jobs and you think about the number of big hits that are really cool, cripple most people starting off, but when you start building up, your hits get a little bit bigger and you just gotta keep rocking and rolling.

Okay, yeah, absolutely. I was doing a LinkedIn, no, Facebook Live the other day, and this is a great point that I love telling people. And during the live, a 72 year old lady that just happened to be tuning into my stuff reached out to me. She goes, donnie, I've launched my own company, but I'm wondering if I'm just too late to the game. And I said, and I paused everything that I was fixing to work on and I was going to take them through in a live teaching on those. And I said, darling, look at this for me. What I want you to understand is you're not too late, you're just getting started. And we went back and forth as she was chatting, typing in the chats back and forth to me and brought up guys like Ray Kroc and these other guys. And here's what I want everybody to hear is if you have that desire to jump in and run your own business and do your own thing, start right, get in the game. There's two great times to plant a tree, right? One was 20 years ago, the other one's today. So get in the game and start. I'm not telling you to walk away from completely from whatever you do. Start it as a side hustle, start it as a side game, but get in and start betting on you. Because a factor I learned when I did sales training is I would get guys come up to me that were on the street looking for sales jobs and I'm like, why should somebody hire you? And they're like, I got 20 years sales experience. There's two things I know. A great sales guy is never on the street, right? Because a great sales guy is always kicking ass and taking names. And if he feels like something's going south on his company, he's going to have another job and take a book of business with him, right? So the second thing I know, if you're on the street and you got 20 years experience, what you really have is year one repeated 20 fucking times. You've never evolved and you've never leveled up and you've never fully bet on yourself. So take a chance. And business ownership is a bitch. It is tough, it is not easy. But the biggest thing I was not prepared for when I launched my business was how much I was going to discover about myself running this fucking business. I've spent more time diving into what makes me tick, finding my own strengths and building me up. That's the beauty of running and owning your own business, because it's all on you. This is your baby, this is your dream. Nobody's Ever going to find passion about what you're creating as passionately as you are, they maybe want to be part of the team. They may want to come along for the ride, but at the end of the day, this is your baby and you're going to have to make it work. Which means you set the vision, you set the goals, you set the milestones, you create it all and then you help people come along and help you on that ride. But go for it. Jump in, have some fucking fun, and watch what happens when you fully unleash and just blow up this damn world by going for it.

No true words were ever spoken, my friend.

Thanks, Brad.

What's the best way for people to plug into more of what you're doing, Donnie? What's the best way for them to reach out to you?

Thank you for that. If they will send a text to 817-318630, send the word success.

Hang on. I want you to repeat that number, but a little slower. We got some people that are driving or people listening, so let's, let's repeat it slower twice for me, if you don't mind.

If they will send a text to 817-318-6030 and send the word success to that number, which is 817-318-6030. I'm going to send them a free download for five major tips to get a work life balance. Because one of the struggles I had early on was I was spending the family time working on the business and not spending time with the family. So I came up with this whole program to teach people how do they actually find this work life balance ratio? How do they spend family time with the family so they can work and continue and run the business that they've been trying to run? So that's the easiest way to get in touch with me on everything.

There you go. And then what's the name of the podcast?

Yep. So come find me Success Champions. Wherever you listen to podcasts, I have fun interviewing some of the household name. But I really get my rocks off interviewing the up and comers that are in the trenches going through it. And I really enjoy being the guy that introduces them to the world. So that's a lot of fun trying to die over here. If you're in the trenches and you're going for it and you're trying to find a tribe of people to come hang out with, come hang out with us in success Champions Facebook group. Just go to Facebook. Go up to the top in the search box. Type in success champions, click on groups. We'll be the first one that pops up. Guys, that group, we're at almost 700 members, 90% engagement. I'm so freaking proud of that group. And there's just a lot of badass things coming out of it. And as a collaboration family of people that'll be rooting you on and cheering you on to success. So reach out. I love meeting people and hearing their stories. So come say hi.

There you go. One of the things that I need to send you, though, is something that you would like. It's probably a little side thing here. It's 16 different ways to say the F word.

I love it. I definitely need that. I love it. I love it.

Well, Donnie, I want to thank you for being and just giving your heart, man. Giving some great, great knowledge bombs. There some great counsel to people out there. Not everything is easy. Not everything is a piece of chocolate cake. You got to go out and bake it. And sometimes you got to make the flour to go along with it sometimes. And as Donnie said something that was really, really big, I want you guys to realize, think about it. Bet on yourself. Bet on you, because nobody else is going to. You've got to be the person that drives it and really takes whatever your goals home. And you got to grow into that person, and that's self development and reading things like that and really taking things to the next level for you, right?

Yeah, brother. I mean, that's it, dude. It's been my honor. It's been a hell of a show. I love what you're doing, man. I love your brand. I love everything about you. And, dude, guys, if you don't understand, he's over 500 fricking episodes. That is patience. That is drive. I mean, that's a beautiful thing that somebody can stay in the game that long, and it shows a dedication and a passion to what they do. So do me a favor, guys, if you guys get any value out of this show whatsoever. The bloodline of a podcast is reviews, is shares. Tell one person to come listen to this show because it does everything to be a game changer for him. And, yeah, I promise you, if you leave a review, it helps other people come find this show because all the platforms want to show more people, because this shows that people are interested. So Deuce got a favor and go get other people into his show. This is a great thing. Thanks for having me on, brother. I really appreciate it.

Thanks, Donnie. The check is in the mail.

It better have a lot of zeros.

Damn it to the right of the decimal point, not to the left.

Yes. Yes.

Thanks, brother. Hey, go out, make something happen, and we'll see you around. All right, brother.

All right. Thanks, dude. You say all right, guys.

Hey, that's gonna wrap it up for this episode of the Note Closure Show. Like Adani said, go check out Success Champions. Shoot him a text message that numbers top five points on having a work life balance aspect of things. Always important to do. But check out his podcast, too. Guy just rings it all the time. And yes, he does a great job. So go out, take some action, everybody, and we'll see you all at the top.

Bye.

Sam.