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Successful Life Podcast
The Successful Life Podcast, hosted by Corey Berrier, is a globally recognized show that ranks in the top 2% of podcasts worldwide. It offers expert insights tailored for contractors, focusing on business strategies, sales skills development, and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the industry.
Successful Life Podcast
3 Ways to Mastering Sales and Personal Growth: Sam Wakefield's Journey from Addiction to Entrepreneurship Success
Unlock sales mastery with Sam Wakefield, a renowned sales trainer with over 20 years of experience. In this episode, Sam shares transformative insights on achieving entrepreneurial flow, overcoming new obstacles, and avoiding complacency. Discover his no-nonsense approach that has revolutionized businesses nationwide, blending personal and professional growth for lasting success.
Learn the art of balancing life’s priorities—business as a bouncing rubber ball, and family and health as fragile glass. Through personal stories, including Sam’s journey as a recovering alcoholic, explore the importance of breaking unhealthy patterns, prioritizing relationships, and maintaining presence in all aspects of life.
This episode also highlights the game-changing event Relentless: The Ultimate Sales Transformation and the launch of Inner Revolution. Hear inspiring stories like Clark Manwaring’s $5 million HVAC success in one year, and gain powerful lessons in sales, mindset, and leadership—plus exclusive early-bird offers to elevate your game.
Relentless: The Ultimate Sales Transformation
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/close-it-now-relentless-the-ultimate-sales-transformation-tickets-1083623921319?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl
Inner Revolution
https://tinyurl.com/5hur957j
https://www.audible.com/pd/9-Simple-Steps-to-Sell-More-ht-Audiobook/B0D4SJYD4Q?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=library_overflow
https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Steps-Sell-More-Stereotypes-ebook/dp/B0BRNSFYG6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1OSB7HX6FQMHS&keywords=corey+berrier&qid=1674232549&sprefix=%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1
https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreysalescoach/
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I'm your host, corey Barrier, and I'm here with my friend Sam Wakefield. What's up, brother?
Speaker 2:Hey, glad to see you today, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good to see you, as always. So I'm really happy. So you've been on the show before and always so great to talk with you. I think very highly of you as not just you know. I think very highly of a person, but I also know the changes that you make in businesses with your sales training. I mean, I was fortunate enough to, you know, sit through some of that here in Raleigh at a local company and see kind of how you run your sales training. And one of the things that I thought I would point out is like you're no bullshit dude, like you're super nice guy, but when you're doing your training, like you don't really put up with any bullshit, like it's right, like you're there to work, and so that was um, that was refreshing to see. Um, but, sam, maybe for folks that don't, folks that don't know who you are, can you give a little background?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and thanks for the kind words, man. I definitely did owe back to you. Man, I love what you've built with the podcast and staying connected. It's cool when you find somebody that you resonate with and you just know in life you find people that have your back and you have theirs and no matter what happens, it's cool to form those bonds and so I definitely appreciate that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so a little of my background. I've been in the HVAC industry 20 years and in home sales for a long time. Not just HVAC, of course. That's branched out into a lot of things Solar and home performance and insulation and you name it. We've been involved in sales and a lot of things, but a lot of it has been through growing. I've been involved in two exits along the way. I've been sales manager, sales trainer and helped quadruple the size of an organization in Austin, and then for the last six years I've run the Close it Now sales training podcast.
Speaker 2:It's mindset, it's, you know, all things about being someone worth buying from. You know the focus is on personal growth and sales training just happens to be the sideline, the way it's really interestingly become. And you know, travel all over the country helping companies. You know, multiply their numbers and we have a huge virtual presence as well, you know, for you know, individuals that you know want to that maybe not have a support group or a company to support them. We really are there a lot for those individuals too. So that's the. That's where we've been. We've got a couple of things happening this next year, and so that's a little history of who I am and it's been my definitely an honor and privilege to get to help a lot of people really change their lives.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd also encourage people to join your close it now Facebook group. Lots of value added in that group. Like, I don't know how you do it, but well done, Well done.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I appreciate that. It's definitely. It's not only just what I do, it's my passion. You know, when you're an entrepreneur and you find that thing that just absolutely lights your fire or a better way to say it is when you, when you get into flow, it's not working at all. It's just literally, that's what is who you are and what you become, and it's just an extension of that. So that's a yeah. The facebook group is a great. We do a ton of training in there. Um, I've got it. We can get into some of those details later, but it's a lot of fun. It's a great community. We've almost 3 000 people now.
Speaker 1:Dang, yeah, it's grown yeah, it's growing well, so it's interesting. So you mentioned flow, but you know and and I understand exactly what you mean by that it's almost like it feels effortless, but sometimes, especially running your own business, things feel like they stop flowing from time to time. Right, and then you have to change. Yeah, it does. What's been your experience with that?
Speaker 2:oh man, you know it's. That's an interesting question and I appreciate it. You know, analyzing this last couple years was a huge, huge growth movement for a growth moment, for close it now was a huge, huge growth movement for growth moment, for close it now. And at the same time, when you hit new levels I heard an expression years ago every new level has new devils. And basically it's like when you hit those new, when you feel like you're getting this place of mastery in a subject or a topic or whatever it is, and you find out the new thing, well, the new thing is oh man, I'm back to square one and I'm an amateur again and this sucks.
Speaker 2:Well, that's what happens a lot of times and that happened recently, the last few months, with me and with the company, and I realized that when I started really analyzing it and pulling it apart is, if it's to be, it's up to me. And there's another expression if the fish stinks, it stinks from the head down, and I realized it exposed all of the new levels in my life that I've got to tighten up and it's really. It's interesting how closely it correlates to something that I absolutely live by is how you do anything, is how you do everything and when you open a door into complacency or laziness or trying to take the easy route in one area of your life, even if it's not related to say, the business there is no, just a little bit, it's all or nothing. So that complacency in another area of life will absolutely bleed through to everything you do and you don't even realize it until you have to make some serious course corrections sometimes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, and I went through something similar recently as well. You know I have been doing. You know I've been doing sales, been doing a lot of things for, for, for who hire, and you know it's interesting because when I started, you know the, the, the hot leads that were coming in, they were pretty much hot all the time and so I found myself thinking everything was going to be a hot lead and then I was handling all of those sales calls like they were hot leads and they weren't hot leads. They weren't hot leads and I had to really look at my sales process and really evaluate how you know the things that I was not doing right and I had to really make a massive course, correct and change and go back to the drawing board and like follow some scripts and like.
Speaker 1:It was very humbling for you know for me to have to do that, but it needed to happen. And you know I'm grateful to be open to. You know my way is not always the right way, you know, and I'm totally fine with that. If somebody has got a better way of doing something, I'm totally good with that.
Speaker 2:But it is painful, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's interesting that you mentioned it. I went through the same thing. You know, when you're out in the field and you know you're after so many years of winning the top achiever awards in not just your own company but across networks and you know you hit that like I was talking about, you hit that level of mastery right. So I'm, you know, I was out there as the top dog at every single HVAC company I ever worked at and then became the sales, you know, growing the sales team and all these things. And then I, you know I stepped into selling coaching. Well, yeah, at first, for the first 12 months, every single thing that came in to close it now was that insanely hot lead. But at this point we've kind of worked through them most and I'm not too big to admit that I sucked at selling training and I had to relearn how to sell stuff too. So I'm in the same boat with you.
Speaker 2:It's really interesting this comparison, but that's it what I've learned through the process and I'm working through that. What I've learned in the process is the system is the same, the conversation is the same. Initially I was just treating it like oh well, here it is, here it is, it sells itself. You want it? Well, no, that's not how things work. That just means there was something done on the front end before we talked to warm them up and get them to a buying decision before we talked on the phone. So then when you unpack that, it's like okay, well, every single buying journey, it's not just a yes or no, it's that every single person has a buying journey. How do we grab their hand and lead them down that buying journey? And we've got to find out where they're starting from in that journey, and so we know how, how many steps we have to walk with them to get them to the purchase decision. And that's uh, it's humbling, but it's also thrilling and exciting to be learning something new and different than what we've always done.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, 100%, 100%. So tell me about you know I always like to ask. You know, I remember you and I having, you know, several in-depth conversations about some personal things you were going through. If it's all right, I'd like to just dive into a little bit of that. Uh, if it's all right, I'd like to just dive into a little bit of that. Um, you know, we, you both have kids, whether they're ours or whether somebody else's, you know, either way, we've got kids that live in our house and there's, you know, there's challenges that come. Are they biologically your kids?
Speaker 2:Uh, so I have two that are mine and three that are not Okay.
Speaker 1:So there, there's so, so I I've none that are mine and three that are not Okay, so there's, so I have none that are biologically mine, and so here's the here's the benefit and the challenge of that is I don't, you know, everything's kind of black and white with me, like I just see it for what it is, and there's very little emotional or, if any, there's very little emotional attachment to my decisions.
Speaker 1:There are my, or how I see things, rather, which you know, in my previous marriage it was the same way and, uh, you know, I would see things in my previous marriage that you know just blatantly, like I mean, like I'm like, if you can't, it doesn't, it doesn't make sense to me how you couldn't see it the way that I was seeing it, because it was so clear to me. But when you have to, when you attach that biological component to it, there's something there that's different from me not having that biological component. And so, with you, you went through, um, some things, and I don't know if it was your biological kids or the other kids, but you went through some tough times recently and I'd like for you just to talk about that for a minute how you, how you overcame that yeah, that's, uh, that's a good one.
Speaker 2:Actually. I'd like to camp out on the difference in biological and I hear you when you're talking about seeing things very black and white and no emotion attached. When they're not your biological children, it doesn't mean we love them any less. Both in a house and this happens if you're not intentional about it and sometimes you're very unaware is the same exact logic and black and whiteness that you use with your non-biological children. Somehow that disappears when it's your own and you don't even realize it, and so your tone is softer. You're making decisions based on a whole different perspective of empathy and sympathy and things that you realize that you should be making the same parenting decisions for the non-biological kids. And boy, that's a big wake-up call when you realize, oh damn, I'm not treating people equally. Right, there's special favors here and I didn't even realize it was happening, type of moments, right? So that's always a journey when you first everybody gets dumped into a house and it starts to shake it up and like how does it fall out? So if I could say anything to the listeners, if you're in this complex, this mixed family type of a situation, just analyze yourself. Right, are we treating everyone the same. Kids are kids. They don't know any better. They respond to our leadership. What are we showing them by our leadership, in the way that we parent? So that's kind of part one to that.
Speaker 2:But getting directly to your question, yeah, we had some interesting journeys this year. You know, my second oldest, you know, came home one day and said I don't think that I want to live on this planet anymore and I was 11, which was oh my gosh, what in the world is going on? So you know, at first it was disheartening. But you know, at the same thing, anytime something like that happens, you know, if we live this life of radical responsibility, then we that means I was like, okay, well, it's my fault, how do I, what do I need to learn here and how can I, what changes can I make or what can I do to affect the situation Right? So, taking that responsibility, that to have letting this happen now, of course, that's there's a lot that's, that's a that's weeks of episodes to unpack that on its own.
Speaker 1:But but now when?
Speaker 2:you just interrupt, you really quick.
Speaker 1:So were they. So is it fair to assume that there's a split custody with the children? Or were they living? Were they living with you the whole time, or was it they living with the other parent? How did that was that? Did that have anything to play with it?
Speaker 2:You know it's interesting, there's a lot of complexity there. So it's two houses this one was living and then the older one was 13, were living with at the other house, with mom, and you know there's a lot of things going on, a lot of things not going on, a lot of things I just didn't know about. And, and not to push anybody under the bus, there's not necessarily any negativity going on, there's no abuse necessarily or anything, but it was much more of a situation where, you know, there just wasn't much going on and so, you know, left for you know, just a long time being. You know, when a kid's left on their own for good chunks of time, the mind wanders right and so and don't hear what I'm not saying what I'm saying is, you know, is a parent was always there. We just get busy with life and realize that we move through.
Speaker 2:We have so much going on, especially me building a business, and in this launch phase the bandwidth is so limited with our kids that I found myself really, really lacking in that and as a consequence, you know, my, my second oldest, all of a sudden it was like having these moments of just suicide, and so we recognized real fast that one.
Speaker 2:It's a cry for help and attention. So we put it, put them through some programs and basically the decision was made that when summer started, they all moved in with me in my house and school started in the fall. The oldest one moved back over and everything's good there and things are much, much better and it's happy to report that it's like a completely different person now and my son Ray he's absolutely blossomed and just grown into becoming the person that, really recognizing the difference and experiencing the difference in outlook, and we focus on gratitude and being thankful for things and it's just been a fun journey. Thanks for asking about that, though that's, you know, not everyone has the Instagram life right and I think it's important that people that listen to the podcast and stuff don't just hear the highlight reel podcasts and stuff, don't just hear the highlight reel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I want you to go back for a second. Um, I've often found it challenging to decipher between a cry for help and a cry for intention, and it may be the same thing, I'm not sure, but it does.
Speaker 2:It feels like there's a thin line there yeah, I, I feel like, at least from my experience, going through this and then, of course, having what that does too in a family of so many people, right, then that means we definitely have to have the conversation about what's going on with everyone else in the family. So the rest of the family is, of course, the 13-year-old, but also eight-year-old and six-year-old twins, and they're insanely curious and wanting to know what's going on and why all these changes. So you know that really you have to be intentional about having that healthy conversation with everybody involved. And from my experience I would tell you I I would say that a cry for help and a cry for attention is almost the same thing. If that cry for attention is left unmet long enough, it will turn into a cry for help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, makes sense. From what I've seen, especially from this last few years, holy cow is absolutely and it's kind of kind of the same thing with us, right, we do the same thing. And I mean, hell, this translates to business. All you gotta do is replace kids or family with team or employees, and it's the same thing, that that cry for attention, long enough, will turn into that cry for help. And if it's an employee, well, by then it's they're down the road, probably at another company. If you could let that go too long.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, and I know you'll agree with this I think we've actually probably had conversations about this, I don't remember specifically.
Speaker 1:You know, when things are hardwired to really start to really repeat those same habits over and over and over and they're almost impossible to break unless you've done a lot of work.
Speaker 1:And for you and me, personal development work has really broke through a lot of that. And without personal development, I don't know if those things and for me, I'm a recovering alcoholic, so it's a whole different story but I've had the 12, well, I've had recovery steps to, you know, to get to help me with like seeing other perspectives, if you will, and I think that's what broke the patterns for me, a lot of that, and then a lot of medication and and you know all the other things that we do to grow on a personal level. But, yeah, so if those things are unresolved, I mean, you know, I think that you know they do show up and they show up in our adult life and lots of times, you're, you know lots of times, you're, you know lots of times people, you know when they're pitching a fit about something that's just really their, that inner child, so to speak, that was never really attended. You know that was never unresolved issues is what I'll say oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I heard a. I've got a guest on my show recently. We're actually doing a four-part series on a lot of family values and things like that, and some of the main concepts are really just absolutely mind-blowing. And one of the ones that hit me so heavy the other day is in life, especially as entrepreneurs and as business-minded people and growth-minded people. As entrepreneurs and as business-minded people and growth-minded people in life, we're jugglers. We juggle three balls. Two of the balls are glass and one is rubber.
Speaker 2:The good news is, our business is the rubber ball. If we drop that ball, it'll bounce back. We can regrow a business I mean every. I can almost guarantee you you're not going to find a billionaire on the planet or a multimillionaire that hasn't had horrible tragedy in their life or and, or their businesses have gone broke and they've been bankrupt or all these things. Right, that's right. The business closed and they had to start something else. So the the your business is the rubber ball.
Speaker 2:The part that hit me so heavy is your family and your relationships is a glass ball and your health is a glass ball. If we drop that ball, it shatters and it's insanely more difficult to put that back together. And so when you marry that with this idea of taking radical responsibility for everything in your life and the if it's to be, it's up to me mindset, wow, that hits so heavy and it really, really immediately helps us to. I love these awareness moments because it instantly causes change in our life, and to not change then we have to intentionally go back and avoid it, and so, man, the awareness moment that hit me immediately reprioritized what is important in my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's really easy to lose that in the hustle and bustle of daily life. And I've got to do this, I've got to get on this call. And it's real easy just to push those because it's really simple to say, well, I've got calls and I'll eat when I want to eat, when I can, you know, because we think, well, I got to make the money. Now the only person is going to remember that you stayed up, you know, all hours of the night and working is going to be your kid when they're older and you can't really fix that then right, yeah, exactly, it's like the things I want them to remember is I was there, right, it's like they don't care, they're not going to remember the stuff later.
Speaker 2:Right, right, remember stuff. Yes, no, you know, and you know, I was the only child growing up and I ever but all of my friends said, man, you get all of the crazy stuff. You know what I remember? I remember the times that my parents were there and I remember the times that my dad worked away for a year and I never saw him. Those are the things I remember as a kid. I don't remember all the stuff. Who cares? Right, and we were all like that. We just we don't really correlate it, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ask anybody that's made a gazillion dollars on their deathbed and they always say I just like to like. I wish I had just done these things differently, not I wish I had made more money still a hard concept.
Speaker 2:I wish I would have had more time with my family and more you know, built more memories and, yeah, that made a better lasting legacy, not of the money, but of leaving the wisdom that I have to my kids and grandkids, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100 percent. So, yeah, you know we could talk about this all day and I really enjoy getting into stuff like this because it really you know there's people that are listening that this will hit home with and it's just not talked about as much as I feel like it should be. So I appreciate you sharing that story. I mean it's, and I'm really glad to hear that. I don't know, we want to say the kid's name. I'm glad he's doing better. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I appreciate that so much. It's, it's exciting in the transformation and also it's talk about a learning moment, too, right, and we have these moments of in very transformational moments in our life that will instantly direct everything that happens from that point forward and how we see things. And so talk about instant awareness of what to look for in not only kids but everybody around me, of signs of and I've asked deeper questions to everybody. I know now, how are you doing? Okay, no, how are you doing? I don't just want a surface answer. I truly care now, gloss over this, because you know I I despise losing people in my life to things that are very preventable and this is one of them, right, and so, uh, we've got it for everybody out there check in on your people, check it in all of your relationships. I challenge everybody send one, one or two messages right now to one, appreciate somebody and also see how they actually are doing, and and truly with care. So that that's my challenge to everybody listening yeah, like that's right.
Speaker 1:I mean, look, I, you know I lost my mom this year. We weren't super, super close, but she's still my mom, right. And so you know, you don't realize the things that you don't realize. These things are going to be gone. Until they're gone, like she didn't, she didn't die a death that was like expected necessarily.
Speaker 1:I'll give you another example my uncle. My uncle got killed like two weeks ago, like pulled out in front of a vehicle and like that's it like done, like it's just like happened immediately. And so you think you wake up in the morning and you wake up just like everybody else, and you know the way I see it and it is a slogan in the recovery community one day at a time, but really we can't plan on anything else.
Speaker 2:Right. Oh, man, I love, I'm sorry For one. I'm sorry to hear that. That's definitely my condolences. My family has definitely had plenty of fair share of auto accident tragedies in an instant.
Speaker 2:It really helps us realize and this is something I typically do in my trainings is we start talking about how time is kind of an illusion, not just kind of how time is an illusion. That's right. If we think back to anything in the past, everything from five minutes ago to this morning to yesterday, it's a memory. It does not exist right now. It just doesn't exist. Time does not exist. Anything in the future is imagination Two minutes from now, because all we have is now and it's gone, and now and it's gone.
Speaker 2:So what is our life? Our life is a combination of our daily habits and if we want to get a different direction, it might take a long time to change the destination, but it takes just an instant to change the direction. There's a really famous Jim Rohn quote and man, our habits are literally what build up every single thing in our life. What are we doing and what are we not doing? What are we saying yes to and, more importantly, what are we saying no to? Yeah, I agree, the Power of Now is one of my favorite books on the planet.
Speaker 1:What are we not doing? What are we saying yes to and, more importantly, what are we saying no to? Yeah, yeah, I agree, the Power of Now is one of my favorite books on the planet. Like I just think it's. Maybe I need to read it. Oh, dude, it's crazy, because we do. We think about. You know, if we're thinking about what happened yesterday or thinking about what's going to happen tomorrow, you're not present, you're not in the now. And he very clearly articulates that.
Speaker 2:So it's interesting, I'm glad you mentioned it. So one last little point this actually is a great segue to tie back to what we were talking about with my kids is, looking back in my life, I could probably point to a couple years of constantly being focused on the goals and the future and what we're growing with the business and what we're doing that I was not living in the present. So even when I was in a room with my family, I was not in the room with my family, because I was constantly doing business or checking messages, or even if the phone was in a different room, computers in a different room, my mind was focused on all of the things I had to do out there and not being present with them, and so I I take ownership and responsibility.
Speaker 1:That's yeah, it's my fault, so I did, doing what it takes to change it well, and how many of those things sitting in the living room that you were thinking about in the other room could you control?
Speaker 2:zero, nothing, none nothing at all. No and, even worse, I don't even remember what we were doing in the room with the family either. So it's like right, you literally are. You're stuck in this limbo of no, not able to affect anything, and it's, it's just a horrible place to be yeah, I agree, I totally agree.
Speaker 1:So let's shift for a moment. You've got, um, you've got some, some pretty exciting things, a couple of exciting things that I want to talk about. Yeah, let's talk about the one in april. I think it's april. I may have messed that up is it in april? Okay?
Speaker 2:let's talk about that one, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's talk about the event. I am so excited about this event, you know, to set a little bit of context, you know the trades have something I've said over and over Anything that's been done the same way for 50 plus years is ripe for revolution. That's exactly what is going on in home services and in the trades right now. The landscape of all of the home service industries is completely changing right now again and I definitely feel like it's for the better.
Speaker 2:It had hit this plateau of stagnant that was getting really, really gross. So the first part of that is one of the things that we're doing with the, so the event is called Rel is one of the things that we're doing with the, so the event is called Relentless the Ultimate Sales Transformation. It's going to be April 29th, 30th and May 1st in Boston, massachusetts, and the one of the foundations for Close it Now in general is you know, I'd been in the in the trades long enough and been to enough conventions and standing around at the bar after the convention and listening to all of the speakers and all these guys that have grown these. You know, 50 million, 100 million, 200 million dollar a year companies. The running joke around most a lot of them, not all of them, of course, but the running joke in the trades is how many heart attacks have you had and how many wives have you had while you're growing your business? And it's always rubbed me the wrong way. It's grossed me out so much because it's this idea that in order to grow a successful business, it's one or the other, not both. And I'm here to absolutely say to everyone, and I'm here to absolutely say to everyone you can have both. It's not mutually exclusive. You can have this life. Sometimes things, yeah, go intentionally out of balance where more time is invested in one or the other, but you can have both.
Speaker 2:Bit of this is spring, is the springboard from that hit me years ago. It was a picture of a looking into a ferrari with a convertible ferrari with a top down, looking into the seats, and it was one of the the little bit bigger ones that actually had has the little bit of a back seat, and in the back seat is a ferrari, completely just kick-ass, branded baby seat, car seat in this Ferrari, and just that's the whole idea is you can have both at a very high level and that's the foundation for when I built. Close it Now is to let's A rising tide raises all ships, let's fix our industry, but it happens by helping people become better people. So that's the context for getting into the event and just everything we do. So what taking us to the event? That means that in order to get different results, we have to do different things and close it now as anything If's not completely outside the box, if there's this box that the HVAC world is in we literally live outside of it.
Speaker 2:The trades are in. We live outside of it. So this event is going to be really, really different than anything anybody's ever experienced in the trades. In fact, people recently have been calling us the Tony Robbins of home service training experience in the trades. In fact, people recently have been calling us the Tony Robbins of home service training. And we are leaning into that because we're about transformation. We're about helping people become someone worth buying from. Yes, we're going to cover sales skills. Yes, we're going to cover scripting. Yes, we're going to deep dive into that, but there's so much more to it than just that, and so the this event is going to be three days of deep dive and let's be that person, and we're going to, we're going to lead people right into it.
Speaker 1:You know, one of the things that comes to mind when you say out of the box is the fact that you door knock. As an HVAC person, I mean like right, it's such a common thing in other industries, but ours not.
Speaker 2:that's not so much yeah, you know I love that. You mentioned that. Um, let's talk about a boots on the ground way to to go to market. You know, I'm I'm actually working with the guy right now. He was just on one of my recent podcasts, a guy named Clark Manwaring. He was responsible for growing the largest door-to-door team in history. He had a team of 15,000 people across the country on the doors and insanely successful. He owns a heating and air company. This is the little piece that blows minds. He owns a heating and air company. This is the little piece that blows minds. He owns a heating.
Speaker 2:We started talking real close to the beginning of 2024. Well, he had just started his company. Now we just talked the other day. Less than one year he's spent $0 marketing his HVAC company. He's only recruited and had people door knocking for his HVAC company and this is fun. Everybody that's listening, because Corey doesn't know the stats that I'm about to drop. I can't wait to see how he responds In less than a year, strictly on door to door, his HVAC company is going to do $5 million year one.
Speaker 1:That's absolutely absurd, right Knocking doors, knocking doors.
Speaker 2:This is how it works right. This is why all the HVAC companies blows their mind when they hear all these other industries. You know windows or solar or roofing, how companies go from 10 million to 100 million in a couple of years. This is not through some insane partnering up with the PE group that dumps cash into your SEO and your digital marketing and all of these things and brings in a million different systems that you never had before. That's happening in HVAC right now, to some good and some detriment. This is roots on the ground, organic. This is growth, because the company is a company worth working for and with and it's the most effective way to get in front of more people. This is the other part of it. You were talking about something you got me on my TED Talk because I get so passionate about this. This is the other piece of it.
Speaker 2:Before we started recording, we were talking about some big organizations. For example, let's say, let's throw out a number like Carrier right, carrier Enterprises they're what? $7 billion with a B right. That's just one of. We start to combine all the different HVAC manufacturers, we've got a pretty seriously huge industry. The piece that blew my mind is every bit of that is built on the backs of 5% of US households 5%, 5%. Other than new construction, that's a one-time thing for our residential right. So we're talking about residential, obviously residential yeah, we'll pull out all the commercial side of it. So it's going to shrink the numbers. To be realistic with this, I'm not just inflating things. But when we talk about the residential market, it's such a small demographic of people who build all of our industry for the day-to-day, the maintenance plans, these crazy company growths that are residential. It's not the commercial market.
Speaker 2:When we hear a company go from 50 to 100 million 5% of the houses in the United States because something has to be broken or wrong for them to pick up the phone or click on the link or go to your website, do the search, so what is everybody doing with the other 95% of 100 million homes in the United States? Doing with the other 95% of 100 million homes in the United States? Nothing. The way to reach into that market is by doors. We're going to just introduce ourselves and say, hi, I'm a professional and I'm here to help. I mean it's insane that. And HVAC is the only need based thing you can possibly knock a door for really. I mean, you can knock for other stuff, but everything else we think about it. You know alarms to pest control, to solar, to. You know internet cell phones. I literally just changed my cell phone plan from somebody that knocked my door the other day because she was a professional.
Speaker 1:Absolutely I've been with Verizon for 14 years and I changed to AT&T cell phones because I had an incredible door knocker at my door and the offer was too good to refuse. You don't even think.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't think, I would even thought that cell phone companies would knock doors. At&t has one of the largest door teams in the country. You're kidding me? No Fiber and so cell phones, internet, cell phones and internet. At this point, it's huge. It's a huge industry, right? We just didn't think about it. So, as Google, google Fiber has a huge door team, they're expanding into markets, putting fiber in. They put people on the boots and this is crazy For everybody. That's like really, all you have to do is step outside of the trades and you'll learn something new. For a company like Google to use, their very first move into any market is to put door people.
Speaker 2:Wow success leaves clues.
Speaker 1:Yeah, makes sense, that's nuts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's what we're doing. We're putting together a ton of coachings for and we're really putting together some cool stuff. And it's funny that you mentioned this, because one of the packages that we're putting and building and it's like almost complete, it'll be ready to roll 2025, is recruiting and training and then some fractional management of a door-to-door team for companies that want to reach into the market at a fraction, companies that want to grow, companies that want to grow fast and do it at a fraction of the marketing dollars to do it a new client acquisition. So there's cool tools like who hire that we're, you know, partnering up with you guys to incorporate into this program. Because, man, if we can shortcut anything we can do to shortcut this process, to get on the street with the right people. It's going to be insanely effective to do so.
Speaker 1:So I can imagine the question of a lot of people. It's like where do you find people there? Because where do you find these door knockers? Well, I think what you just said, there there's a solution, right, you don't have to find them. We have people you that can find them for them, and you're saying, I think, the yeah, you're totally right, you know we can.
Speaker 2:It has to start with a culture within the organization of recruiting. We're not talking about hiring, you know, we're not talking about a job posting and then hope for the best. The culture has to be recruiting, which is a different mindset than just hiring people, which is a different mindset than just hiring people. So that's the first shift is we have to always be recruiting. When you have a waiter at a restaurant, that's incredible. Start the conversation, get their information, ask them if I can show you a way to multiply your income by doing what you're already doing and what you're really good at, would you be open to more information? They will always say yes, get their information and then have a meeting with them. That's an easy word track for anywhere you're at. But you've got to start with being a culture of recruiting and then, when you add tools to speed that process, then you're on the right track if you try to make that shift. Otherwise it's a really clunky, clunky way to get there and then something happens and you don't even know. You know the basics of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that makes complete sense. So I know that we're getting close on time and I do want to ask you you're coming out with a new book.
Speaker 2:I am yeah. Oh, let's wrap up the event real quick though.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:This is fun because we'll go right into the book, because the event kind of is the in-person version of a couple things that we put together for the book. So the sales transformation it's going to be incredible for everybody. Reach out to us, get your teams there. We're literally changing lives at these events, as well as going back and changing the complete face of your organization, for culture, for just urgency, for intensity, and people are just happier because now we're helping them really get back to the fun of the trades, the fun of helping and serving people. It should be fun, right? If we're not having fun along the way, we got some other problems. So thanks, yeah, that lands us right at the book. The book is called Inner Revolution. It launches December. Let's see, I'm going to make sure we get the right number on this, because I actually said the wrong date the other day. I'm like, wait a minute, this isn't. That's not right. It launches in December and it is going to be the 6th and 7th and so we do have a. Well, I'll make sure to get you the info to get in the show notes. We do have a pre-release, kind of a sign up for everybody that wants to get on the list for the book. It's called Inner Revolution.
Speaker 2:It's a book that I co-authored with 19 other authors and the entire purpose is when someone is ready to go in that inner growth journey. This is going to be a really key book because I talked about the power of language, and not only internally, but also how to see results. In fact, the title of my chapter is Change your Language, change your Results. And then everybody else in the book wrote that they really talked about their specialty, which is some people it's health, some people it's nutrition, some people it fitness, some people it's more of a relationship focus, some people it's a romantic relationship focus. All of these different people came together because we know a top salesperson or a top business person or anybody growth-minded, especially with sales. It's more than just the sales skills, it's everything else that makes that top performer. It's especially with sales. It's more than just the sales skills, it's everything else that makes that top performer. So I'm stoked about the book. It'll be my first one to actually come out.
Speaker 2:I've put together a couple of gifts for it and it's okay if I go over what the launch gifts are, sure. So this is fun. I love to talk about this because I want to hear your opinion. There's another piece that I don't know that I've mentioned to you that I've done with it. But so for the first two weeks, once the book launches, this is the big gift and it's only two weeks. So you've got to get the book and you've got to sign up. I'm doing a free coaching session for every person who gets the book that wants it. So it's a one-hour coaching session. Normally that's $1,000. But I'm giving that away with the launch of the book. So for everybody listening, sign up and get the one-hour coaching session. We will work through something and you will see some immediate results because of whatever we cover. So every single time we've done that, everybody says, wow, this is incredible. So free coaching session for the first two weeks.
Speaker 2:The other two things that come with the book and this is forever, for perpetuity One is a quote book I put together of some of my favorite quotes for top performers. We've got some Gandalf in there, but they're very much impactful. And I had to get in my local hometown homie, matthew McConaughey. We got his all right, all right, all right in there, but at the end of the day, that's a big one, right, we've got to be all right with everything before we move forward.
Speaker 2:This is the one that I'm the most excited about. I recorded a hypnosis for top sales performers because, like you and I've talked actually, I think we talked about this on our last time we were together our internal belief system and who we think we are and how we see ourself determines our success, and so this if you don't like the word hypnosis and I'm not no, I'm not going to you know, programming you to instantly turn into the serial killer or bomb Africa or bomb Russia or anything like that, like all the old hypnosis movies we've seen no, it is just mindfulness, it's just a meditative. In fact, let's turn this around, corey. Tell us a little bit about hypnosis, meditation, mindfulness and that self-image and how it relates. So I'm excited about this. It's for top performers that want to see themselves differently.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when you think about it's really reframing how you currently think about whatever the thing is, whether it's every time I walk up to a door they're going to say no, or they're not going to buy, or they're going to say this, or they're going to say that you reframe and retrain your brain to stop thinking that way before you get into the house, and if you can do that, then you're going to have a different conversation and really that's what it comes down to.
Speaker 1:Hypnosis is not I'm going to make you walk like a chicken, like you see in movies. It's just ridiculous. I'm not saying that maybe some people could do that, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about a mindset shift for a different result, and if that's what you want, then I do believe this will help, and I've had my experience with hypnosis and and I think it's really cool that you're doing that I mean there's a lot of power in repetition, a lot of power in well, in your words, as you said, there's change your language, change your results, and I I agree with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's so powerful and that's the things that we're doing different. I think it's really one of the reasons that our results, especially when we do on-site trainings with companies that have us out or we're doing our virtual I think that's a huge, huge, huge part of why the results from Close it Now are pretty dramatically different and much longer lasting than other trainers in our industry. Nothing against any of them, but they're training the boots on the ground here. Say this, then say this. If they say this objection, you say these words and you just got to work harder and go grind your face off. And we're here saying you don't have to work harder, let's work smarter.
Speaker 2:We can dramatically change results and at the same time, it all has to do with what we do internally. First, we're flipping that back on, flipping it on its head, because most people think, well, if I do, then I'll have and then I'll become that person. And that's opposite. It has to be be, do, have. We have to become the person first and that takes the inspired action and then you'll get the results. Any other way is not a lasting change type of a formula.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, you know, I totally agree with you. I think that mindset is and look, it's not an overnight thing, that's for sure. But you've got to take a step in the right direction if you want to change the direction of your life. And it's just that simple. Has everything come easy to me or to you? No, it has not of your life, and that's just that. It's that simple. Like you know, have every? Has everything come easy to me, or do you know? It has not, but it's taken a lot of work and a lot of uncomfortable shit to get there. You know what I mean. You know there's. Do I want to sit in and listen to book? Well, I do kind of like to listen to books, so that would have been a bad analogy, but I haven't always right.
Speaker 1:Stratum University, right? I mean like, I listen to books all the time because I want to constantly feed my mind with different information. So I have you know Jonathan says this things are good or bad by comparison. I like comparison. I like to see what this salesperson is saying in this book and what this. Maybe it's the same shit, but it hits different sometimes. And I listen to books sometimes two and three times, because I always hear something different, because I may be doing something while he's saying you know, I may be in the middle of something and maybe I miss a piece, right, and I don't want to miss anything.
Speaker 2:So you know I love it. In fact that's funny. You mentioned that I actually started the sales boss this morning. So for everybody that doesn't know, jonathan Porter Wissman, his book is called the sales boss and it's how to you know grow, not just you know hire, recruit and grow sales teams. It's much more. So far it's been really awesome because it's again starts internal.
Speaker 2:What are the components of a great sales, a great leader of a sales team, and how to think differently? And you know, like we were talking, started talking about that conversation, I realized that I am a killer top performer and the new, the new devils at this new level are okay, I've never, really never, start grown a coaching company before, right. So what are the pitfalls? What are the things along the way? One thing I can definitely say is the immediate ninja trick, super quick ninja tip for everybody out there.
Speaker 2:When you say you're going to do something, like, hey, I'll get you that as soon as we're off here, I'll get you that email that'll have this and this and this in it. Just do it. Don't instantly let your brain shut down into procrastination mode and wait a couple of days later. So this is for everybody. Sometimes and I'm being the visionary total ADHD salesperson. That's a hard skill for me. To sharpen that that when you say you're going to do it immediately, do it because so many. I'm the world's worst. I have changed my information. In the past I've been the world's worst procrastinator. I'm currently incredible implementation right. So that's my new affirmation, but I know that it's a journey to get there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, I am a terrible procrastinator, meaning I don't do it Well, I just don't do it. Well, like I look, atomic habits was a big, big thing, right, if I'm going to whether it's when we get off the call, I need to do this thing, I need to do that thing. Right then, if I'm going to fulfill my word. Otherwise you're not getting it and I'm going to have to say sorry, dude, I didn't get it to you. I'll get it to you tomorrow, and then I'm not going to get it to you tomorrow.
Speaker 2:So I just have to stop what I'm doing, whether it's put a note in, whatever it is, and I have to make sure it's done right then and there, or it's not going to get done. This, that's so true. This is a big one and you know, don't forever listen, don't be the person that hears this and then then doesn't do it, because I will tell you, if you let this go long enough, your lesson will have dollars attached to it, and then, if you let it go again, those dollars get bigger and bigger. And I can absolutely tell you, man, talk about transparency. I mean, we lost close it now.
Speaker 2:We lost 70% of our revenue a few months ago, was it? I mean, was it necessarily because of that exact thing? No, but I can tell you that had I been way more disciplined with that in my life, maybe things would be different. I don't know Right, but you know I recognize those moments of you. Know, what type of lessons do we need? Let's get our lessons early, when it's when the consequences are small, before we start talking about six figure lessons.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100 percent. The small, the small things matter, dude. They may pile up and you don't get to the big things unless you do the small things. It's just that simple yeah.
Speaker 2:So, man, there's a there's a years and years ago. The last quote I just, I just love quotes and like literally my brain is a collection of incredible quotes from people that I've read or listened to for over the years. That like turns into whatever this is, but one of the things that I heard really early on that hit me real heavy. I was in network marketing for a long time and several different companies and there was a leader, his name was Bradley Hager and he said and I don't even know that he originated this, but this is the first place I heard it is leader of one, leader of many. If I can't lead one, I can't lead any. And it hit me so heavy I'll say it again for everybody to hear it Leader of one, leader of many. If I can't lead one, I can't lead any. Talking about myself and the second boy, that's that Talk about radical responsibility.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, sam Wakefield, my friend, I appreciate you coming on today. It was fire like always, and if you could really quick, where can people sign up for the event and where can they get the book?
Speaker 2:Yep, so they can. The book will be. I'll make sure to get you all the links, but first of all go join the Close it Now Facebook group. We'll have every bit of that posted in there. Email me directly, sam at closeitnownet, and go to closeitnownet, to the website, and fill out the form there. That is the way and then put in the notes what you want to know about. Fill out the form on the website or email me directly and we'll get you the links and the information for the book. We'll get you on that pre-order list.
Speaker 2:We're still in super, super early bird for the event, which means it's 33% off right now, so we're doing it a third of the cost. So right now, until the end of the year, until the end of December 31, 2024, it's $1,000 off per ticket, which is going to be a huge discount, especially if a company wants to bring some teams. So email me directly. I'm sure if you reach directly out to Corey he'll write you to me as well, and Corey is in the Facebook group if you want to hang out with both of us in there. And so join the Closet Now Facebook group. Email me, sam at closetnownet, or go to closetnownet and fill out the form there. We'll make sure to get you the info.
Speaker 1:Thank you, brother, appreciate you.
