Navigating the Rhythm of Success and the Power of Curiosity

Have you ever been faced with a challenge that seemed like a fortress wall, impenetrable and daunting? I'm Corey Berrier, and on the Successful Life Podcast, I'm your fellow traveler on the journey of turning life's toughest moments into milestones of success. I open up about my own struggles with a DUI and addiction, and how seeking wisdom from those who've been in our shoes can illuminate the path to personal triumph. This episode is a treasure trove of insight for anyone grappling with what seems like the impossible—whether you're recuperating from past mistakes or striving for excellence in your field, join me as we uncover strategies to reshape obstacles into opportunities for profound growth.

As we march forward, I lay out the importance of honoring the process and respecting the procedures laid out by those who have charted the course before us. Whether you're a technician mastering your trade or a salesperson closing that crucial deal, there's a rhythm to success that's echoed through the experiences of seasoned pros. Listen closely as I underscore the value of each learning experience—triumphs and stumbles alike—and how curiosity paired with the right questions can unlock doors to a wealth of knowledge. This week's session is not just an invitation to learn, but a rallying cry to arm yourself with the resilience and informed strategy needed to craft your narrative of victory.

Chapters

• 0:56 Overcoming Challenges for Success
• 18:07 Embrace Experience, Follow the Process

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:57

Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I'm your host, corey Barrier, and today we're going to be talking about how challenges are often seen as setbacks. Challenges are often seen as obstacles and lots of times, as human beings, we can't get past those obstacles. We get stuck in a mindset of failure. And look, you can overcome failure. It's just an experience that you've had in the past, but you don't have to replay that experience over and over and over. And look in my life, this has been a catalyst for me achieving a lot of the things that I've achieved in my life.

Speaker 1: 1:52

I want you to think back to a time when something happened to you a significant situation, maybe a divorce. Something happened to you a significant situation, maybe a divorce. Maybe you were drinking heavily, maybe you were in trouble with the law, I don't know and you thought my life is never going to get better, my life is never going to change because of this thing. This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me, and now I want you to replay that for a moment and think about it. Really wasn't the worst thing that's ever happened to you. It did seem that way at the moment. It certainly seemed like it was going to be an impossible situation to overcome. You know, for me that's been many things in my life and I, you know, lots of times we go to the absolute worst case scenario we think about well, you know, I got pulled over for DUI and I'm never going to drive again or it's going to be on my record forever. I'm never going to be able to get another job. Who's going to find out? My life is over. But the truth of the matter is that's just a moment in your life and what you do with that moment decides what your future looks like. You can stay in that downward spiral of everything is gone sideways and I'm never getting better. Or you can build from that situation and make improvements. I'm not suggesting that making the improvements are going to be easy, because usually they're not improvements. I'm not suggesting that making the improvements are going to be easy, because usually they're not, but the payoff of making those improvements are tremendous. And so if you look at the challenges that you've had in your life and you reflect back on what you did to get out of those challenges or, better yet, to overcome those challenges because you did to get out of those challenges or, better yet, to overcome those challenges because you did something or you wouldn't be here right now.

Speaker 1: 4:06

Listen to this podcast, so I'll tell you for me. You know, drinking was a big challenge for me. Many, many years ago. I stopped drinking. I've had some other things going on in the past years that felt like I was never going to be able to overcome it, and the reason I felt like I was never going to overcome it is because I was depending on my experience to coach myself on how to get out of these things, and I can tell you it wasn't a great plan.

Speaker 1: 4:43

That plan was tough because you can only pull from your own experience. You can't pull from Well, better. Yet how about this? You can pull from other people's experience. That's what I had to do, and so and I would encourage you to do the same thing People that maybe are older than you or people that have been around the industry a little bit longer that example a moment ago, they figured out a way to navigate out of that situation.

Speaker 1: 5:26

But you've got to overcome the fact that you have all the answers, because you don't. You only have the answers from your own experience, and lots of times, if you ask other people for their experience, they're happy to tell you. Lots of times, if you ask people how they did the thing that you're going through, they'll tell you. And I know it's tough to ask those questions sometimes. Believe me, I've been right there. Sometimes I still have a tough time asking questions, but the result of me asking good questions with people that have had experience in the thing that I'm trying to do usually results in a different perspective, usually results in a different outcome. And if you want a different outcome, you want to get a different perspective, and so you got to be strategic about who you're asking for their experience, because if you're asking someone who doesn't have experience in the thing that you're trying to overcome to overcome, it's probably not a great plan.

Speaker 1: 6:41

So I want you to think about, you know, the how did? How did you adapt after that situation happened? How did you adapt after you lost that big sale that you knew was going to come through? How did you adapt after that divorce? How did you adapt after the challenges that you've been through in your own life? And how have you applied those lessons to enhance your performance now in your either sales position or if you're a technician in your either sales position or if you're a technician, because if you replay those old experiences lots of times, what happens is you get those same experiences again.

Speaker 1: 7:33

If you tell yourself I'm no good at sales and I've always done it this way, or I'm just a technician, I'm not a salesperson, or I'm a sleazebag salesperson and all I'm out for is the money, all those things are going to be true because you keep telling yourself the same story and so your story matters. I talked about this either last week or week before, I can't remember. But you've got to take to maintain a different mindset, and the way you're going to do that is ask other people about their experience with the thing that you're trying to change. So I would ask you what has been some of those experiences and how did you overcome those experiences? How did you overcome those experiences?

Speaker 1: 8:34

Because, look, you wouldn't be here right now if you haven't been through some hard things, and every one of those hard situations in my life have fueled me to make a different decision, make a better decision, to get a little bit better every single day. And I would encourage you, if you're in a sales slump, like, guess what, it's getting hot outside. It is getting to the point now where the sales are going to come a little bit more frequent Shortly. They're going to be a lot more frequent, so you're going to have more opportunities to fail. You're also going to have more opportunities to succeed. Which one are you going to choose to do? Are you going to choose to be more successful this summer or are you going to choose to be the same as you were last summer, or less? Because it's really just a decision that you have to make and nobody can make it for you. They just can't.

Speaker 1: 9:37

And so I was working with a guy about a year ago and he was a technician. And look, a lot of technicians don't enjoy the sales aspect of their job. But I would argue, if you don't sell the job, you can't do it. So it is a crucial part of the process. And so I was working with a guy about a year ago and he said you know, I'm broke, I hate selling, I can't do it. I'm really good at my job, but I really suck at communication.

Speaker 1: 10:16

And just listening to that negative mindset made me think how am I going to help this gentleman overcome this negative mindset? And so here's how. Here's exactly how we overcame that he is successful today. So if you think about. If you think about sales as sales that negative connotation that a lot of people have around that word sales you're probably going to stay in that negative mindset. But if you look at it like you're customer focused, you're not focused on yourself you're going to have a better outcome. So I would, anyhow.

Speaker 1: 11:05

So what we did is I had him tell me about what he was passionate about did is I had him tell me about what he was passionate about. And this gentleman was passionate about hunting and he you know I have zero interest in hunting, but he got so passionate and so convicted about why people should hunt and the feeling that he got when he was sitting up in the tree stand at four o'clock in the morning and then the anticipation of that deer coming through the woods, and then he explained the feeling that he got from, you know, from taking that shot, the focus that it took to be successful at killing that deer, and it was like he lit up, his eyes lit up. He got animated because that was something he had experience with and enjoyed in his life. That's something that he believes everybody should do and if you go into your next sales call the same way, it will 100% change how you sell to that customer, because really, what we're talking about here is we're not selling anything. You're providing solutions. You're providing an experience so that customer has a better experience in their own life.

Speaker 1: 12:43

And I would argue that if you approach it that way, if you can think about what is it that you enjoy doing? What are you passionate about? Whether that's basketball or hockey or shooting deer or working on cars Doesn't really matter, church If you think about how you would try to explain to someone why they need to do this thing that you are so passionate about, and just transfer that same energy into your conversation with your customer, it will change the outcome of your sales. It'll change the outcome of that repair. It'll change the outcome of whether they buy that additional IAQ package or whether they don't. Because if you believe breathing clean air, for example, is important and it should be because if you don't have clean air, you're going to be filtering that stuff out through your lungs and let's just be honest, nobody wants to filter out anything through their lungs. It's not clean. Well, unless you're a smoker, maybe. So listen you just.

Speaker 1: 13:59

The goal here of today's show is for you to think about how you think about how you think and look. One thing that I'll tell you you don't always have to believe everything you think, because everything you think is not true. We're programmed from our outside influences, whether that's television that you watch, whether that's television that you watch, whether that's the radio you listen to, whether that's the music you listen to, whether that's this podcast, my goal here today is to hope that you think about how you think about things, because your mindset is crucial to your success. If your mindset is I'm going to fail, you're probably right. If your mindset is I'm going to fail, you're probably right. If your mindset is I'm going to win, you're probably right.

Speaker 1: 14:46

But that's a decision, and you can make that decision today. You don't have to wait till tomorrow. You don't have to wait until next week. You don't have to wait for anything. You just have to make that decision, and that decision will give you a better life, a more successful life. That decision will give you a better outcome. You're going to make more money. You're going to build more relationships, and that's what this is about is building relationships. The money will come. So use the challenges in your life to fuel your mindset. Use those obstacles that you thought you would never get through to have a better experience today.

Speaker 1: 15:34

Because if you really think about those things that you've been through in your life, there was just a moment in time where maybe you made a bad decision, or you just, yeah, you just made a bad decision and at the end of the day, it's in the past. It doesn't really matter now, does it? But you can replay and recreate that situation over and over and over if you want to. But you can also tell yourself a different story. You can change how you view your perspective on life.

Speaker 1: 16:14

If you have a desire to become a more successful human being, lots of times that's all it takes. You have to put in the work for sure. You can't sit around and meditate and think things are just going to work and work themselves out, because that's just not the case. Meditation is important, but you're not going to be able to meditate your way or think your way into a better situation. You've got to take action, you've got to move, you've got to do something different, and I think that's what you want. I think you want to do something different.

Speaker 1: 16:52

If you listen to this show, you do want to get better, you do want to improve, and so don't just listen to the show and then don't go do anything. Make a slight shift today. Change one thing that will improve your life tomorrow. One thing and that could be eating right. That could be, you know developing a better process with your sales. It could be just following the process, because if you don't have a process, then you're for sure failing. Look, this goes with everything in life, every single day.

Speaker 1: 17:37

If you create habits that are process-oriented, whether that's in your job, whether that's in your life, whether that's in your relationships, you're going to be more consistent. And I don't know about you, but I like consistency. I like for things to be the same. Sometimes it feels good when things are a little crazy, but at the end of the day, I'm a lot less stressed when things are consistent. I'm more confident when things are consistent.

Speaker 1: 18:08

And if you have a process that you're supposed to go through in the home, whether you're a technician, whether you're a sales guy, follow the process because it works. Because people with more experience than you have developed that process and they've used it. They know it works. Because people with more experience than you have developed that process and they've used it. They know it works. And so don't get a bunch of big ideas that you're going to change a bunch of stuff and it's going to be miraculously better, because likely you're pulling from experience that you don't have, and so ask questions. If you ask good questions, you're going to get good answers, but make sure you're asking from someone who has experience in what you're asking about. So use your past experiences to build on a better life. Use your, Use your successes to also build a better life, because we all have them. We all have successes, we all have failures, and it's what you do with those. So, guys, I appreciate you listening today. Have a great weekend and we'll see you next week.