Choose your words carefully. Especially the words you tell yourself.
This week on The Info, Bryce Curry is joined by D2D Experts Founder Sam Taggart.
D2D Experts is a sales training and coaching company that has helped countless sales professionals improve their skills and increase their success rate. Taggart focuses his sales coaching on the principle of self-discipline and positive self-talk.
Taggart founded D2D Experts after a successful career in door-to-door sales, in the episode, Taggart unpacks his years of experience in D2D selling, and coaching and how to create discipline in your career and life to start manifesting success.
Check out the episode on YouTube or where you listen to podcasts.
YouTube | Spotify | Google | Stitcher | iTunes
Taggart and his team offer a range of training and coaching programs that cover everything from sales techniques to mindset and motivation. Their programs are designed to help sales professionals at all levels, from beginners to seasoned veterans, to improve their skills and achieve their goals. If you are interested in learning more about D2D Experts, visit their website. You can catch up with Sam Taggart at @thesamtaggart.
Prospect door-to-door smarter. Subscribe to Cole Information and start having conversations with the right people.
Best Practices for Door-to-Door Prospecting with Sam Taggart | Episode 6
AUTOMATED TRANSCRIPT
Bryce Curry:
Pushing yourself is hard. Think of a time mentally you thought you couldn’t, physically feeling there’s just no way to keep pushing. What do you do? Sit on a couch? Turn on Netflix and push whatever it is till tomorrow? At a human level, we often wake up each day with a whisper of, “I can’t.” Welcome to The Info, a podcast that encourages and equips sales leaders to prospect smarter.
Hi, I’m your host, Bryce Curry, VP of Marketing at Cole Information. Sam Taggart, the founder of D2D Experts, public speaker, author, and consultant, has created something special. In this episode, Sam and I talk about how to find and create discipline in your life. This was actually a very encouraging episode for me, and I hope you connect with Sam’s tips to unlock your potential. It’s time for you to get moving and not sit and wait for it to just happen.
Hello, everybody. Today, my guest on The Info Podcast is Sam Taggart. I would say the leader, the North Star for the door-knocking industry. He’s the CEO of the D2D Experts and founder of D2D Association. He started at a conference called D2D Con, which we will talk about here in a second. Author, podcaster, public speaker, dad, a guy that you need to be following on your socials. Sam, thanks for taking some time out and joining me today on this episode.
Sam Taggart:
Oh, super honored to be here. It’s been fun to be working with you guys for the last six years. You guys were at the very, very first Door2Door Con, and it’s been fun to see the support and you guys have been absolutely awesome with us, so thank you.
Bryce Curry:
Yeah, absolutely, and I’ve had a chance to attend the Door2Door Con events, and I got to tell you, I’m not just saying this because you’re on this episode. We talk about it all the time internally in our meetings. Our company attends a lot of different conferences across our industries, and what Sam has built with D2D Con is really something that… I would use the word “special.” Obviously, it’s focused. There’s intentionality with specific industries like solar and pest control and alarm and getting out there and knocking doors and closing sales, but it’s an event that I got to admit, I’ve walked away from some of your speakers crying, energized, motivated, and convicted to some degree all at the same time. I always go away from those events, and we’re there as an attendee, but also as a sponsor capacity, and get so much out of those events. I got to ask you, kind of like what sparked that idea of creating a conference like that?
Sam Taggart:
I was on a… I mean, it’s a weird answer. Most people are like, “Oh, you know, strategy and want to start a business.” I’m like, “I was into sales, running a solar company,” and I went down a three-day meditation retreat in the desert and I just… It was like a solo, drop you off on a rock, only drink water. See you later.
Bryce Curry:
Yeah.
Sam Taggart:
Day two, I had this vision and it was me speaking on this big stage and it was this… I was like, “Where is that?” I kept asking, “What is this? What is this?” God’s like, “You’re going to start a conference.” I’m like, “No, what do you mean?” I was like, “I’ve never even been to a conference, let alone started one.” It just kept like coming and coming and it was like, “Do this thing.” I’m like, “Really? Like a door-to-door conference?” I was like, “No, that’s never been done.” Everybody’s like competitors and I don’t want to bring more bad to the industry when they like rip each other’s heads off and… You know, so-
Bryce Curry:
Sure.
Sam Taggart:
… I just was like, “Well, all right.” Then, finally it just was so strong that it’s like, “You have to do this,” and so I was like, “Okay.” I launched the first one in… This was like summer 2017, and we had our first event January 2018. It’s been a roller coaster ever since. I mean, it’s been a fun journey to see the impact it has made because the mission still is the mission is to unify, up-level, bring honor and integrity to the door-to-door space. I feel like we’ve really been pressing forward with that.
Bryce Curry:
When I talk to our real estate agents, we have tens of thousands of real estate agents that use one of our products, and I’m like, “You got to check out this conference because I know at first you might read about it and it’s going to talk about some other verticals or industries that don’t apply to you. The stuff that Sam is talking about, the stuff that he is bringing through his platforms applies.” I was reminded of this actually indirectly. I was talking to one of the top real estate, well, he’s an agent-broker, but he’s a team out of San Diego, a couple of weeks ago. One of the elements of their teams that they implement is actually going out in the neighborhood, knocking on doors, introducing, staying top of mind. It’s super effective for him even though he’s in real estate, right? And-
Sam Taggart:
Well, here, we’ve helped a ton of realtors that are the carnivorous realtor, and I think that there’s the herbivore, meaning they’re just waiting for somebody to call them because they happen to have a card out or they happen to have friends who know they’re a realtor. That’s one way being a realtor, but we really do well with those that are hunters and/or saying, “Hey, if you want not to just wait for your phone to ring and you want to actually learn how to proactively to attack your market, door-knocking or cold-calling and getting aggressive and kind of this coming-for-you mentality is huge. It takes a different muscle that, I think a lot of people need to awaken in today’s real estate market. It’s like you have to be aggressive. You have to be somebody that’s willing-
Bryce Curry:
That’s right.
Sam Taggart:
… to be different than the average mom that’s a realtor.
Bryce Curry:
Right, right. Sam, our podcast, like I said, is across all kinds of different verticals, primarily real estate, insurance, and then home services, but we do have C-level of large insurance logoed brands and stuff like that that listen. I think about… They’re thinking about the different strategies. They’re coming out of Q1, looking at Q2, 3, 4. They might have heard a little bit about door-knocking, but one of the things I did want to ask you just to kind of unpack a little bit was, what are some… If I’m a district manager for P&C logo company, State Farm, Allstate, all of those, how do I kind of think about door-knocking and its application to my agents?
I might have a group of agents that are just new and starting out versus established book of business and I’m evaluating different sales channels. Is there maybe a couple, three things, two things, five things that they should kind of think about if dropping some people into a neighborhood is impactful?
Sam Taggart:
I’d say first off, change your mentality, meaning I think a lot of people have this stigma to door-knocking and they’re like, “Oh, I don’t want to be seen as one of those,” or. “I’m going to get a reputation as one of those.” It’s like, “First off, just have this mindset of like, ‘Proud to be a knocker. Yes, it’s the best thing. Yes, we love it,” and not be ashamed of it because I think some people in an interview process or whatnot, they’re afraid to talk about door-knocking. They’re afraid to even go there, and you can spin it in a couple of different ways. You don’t have to say, “Oh, you knock doors.” You can say you’re going out and finding potential distressed properties, or you’re looking for these types of homes.
It’s like the only way to do that is go out there actually talk to them. You can phrase it however you want, but at the end of the day, first thing is just have the mentality of, “Hey, we’re hunters.” The problem is the guy that’s the district manager forgets the roots in which he started to become the district manager. I think a lot of times it’s monkey see, money do. What they do is the new people come in and they see these people that have been there for three, four years working a pipeline and referral base and all this stuff, but they forget like, “Okay, they don’t have a pipeline. They don’t have a referral base.” Your problem is like if you as leaders aren’t in the trenches and you’re not leading from the front and you’re not like kind of praising the initial contact, the initial hunt, then they never really get a good flavor, a good taste of what that should look like.
You’re like, “Yeah, you go do it. We don’t really do it anymore because we’ve got this pipeline,” but it’s like, “Go do it.” To tell your people to just go knock is like suicide. Its like, “Really? You’re going to send me out to the wolves by myself with no tools, no training, no support?” We have D2D University where we have like online training and stuff. That’s one thing, but having in-person training is like a big other part of that. Somebody willing to go out there, willing to get their face kicked in, willing to go beat the streets with them, it, one, builds camaraderie and influence, and two, it helps them see what realistically the result of door-knocking could do.
Bryce Curry:
Mm-hmm.
Sam Taggart:
Whether you’re in insurance or real estate or whatever, it’s an avenue of contacting more people. Maybe it’s a less conversion of a hot lead that came in inbound, but if I only have one hot lead a day, then it’s like, “Cool, you want to work for an hour a day? Congratulations.” Like I don’t any [inaudible 00:09:32] that’s like it. That’s what happens with selling and commission-based jobs is they really pretend they’re productive for seven hours of the day when realistically they made three phone calls, they had two followups, and then they’re like, “Well, let’s work on the website or hope our phone rings.” Then, it’s like, “Come on.” If you schedule out… The next thing would be schedule out non-negotiable time to go out and prospect.
That could be on the phone, that could be in the streets, that could be whatever, but non-negotiable, don’t schedule any meetings, don’t schedule any whatevers. We’re going out and hitting the streets for two hours, for four hours, for six hours, whatever that is. It’s like you can go mob mentality, take the whole team with you. You can disperse everybody, go find their turn and you assign it. There’s many different… I mean, this is a long-winded answer, but I could go for days on that, but the real thing is, is it your schedule? A lot of people get afraid kind of as a district manager talking, “Hey, you need to do this when they’re 1099.” How do you build a culture where it almost feels W2?
It’s like, “We all go do this. This is the standard of being part of my brokerage or this is standard of being on my team. You can go work for anybody else, but they just don’t perform like we do. The standard of being a part of our group is we all go hustle for three hours. We go all hustle for this and that’s just part of the requirements of being here, but look, my guys make 10 times more than everybody else that’s in this industry because we actually go hun.” Having kind of that culture is another big thing as a manager.
Bryce Curry:
We were talking a little bit pre-show or just before we started recording. I follow you for personal inspiration, and so I’ve been a marketer for 20-plus years for different corporations and stuff like that, kind of behind the scenes and delivering campaigns and stuff like that and leads to the sales team. One of the things I’ve been thinking about a lot and wanted to have you on to kind of talk about this because when I see your content, when I’ve been at your events and even some of the stuff that you post on Instagram, I think about like, “Man, Sam is motivational. He’s a motivational person.”
You’re authentic. You’re out there in the streets or on the curb with some of your clients or even for yourself. I mean, you’re out there showing what you’re teaching. It’s not just, “Here’s this curriculum. Go figure it out.” What’s some of the stuff that your team or yourself could provide? If I’m a real estate broker and listening to this and being like, “Hmm, this is kind of interesting, but I need someone to help me navigate that,” what kind of services do you guys offer?
Sam Taggart:
Yeah, I mean, I appreciate you asking that, Bryce, but I think the first and foremost piece to answer, and just to speak to what you said, is door-knocking should never be beneath anybody. I’ve always had that mantra, meaning I made a commitment when I moved from VP of Sales over to a consulting and coaching role, I was like, “I never want to be that guy that was like, ‘Oh, I couldn’t do, so I teach.’” I’m like, “No, I do. I’m good at this-
Bryce Curry:
Yeah.
Sam Taggart:
… “and teach.” That’s why I think we’ve had success. From a, how do I help a realtor?”, or, “How do I help a brokerage?”, we had the top real estate brokerage of Utah come to our business boot camp and they were mind-blown. We have a… Once a month, we do a two-day event here in Utah where it’s an in-person. We dive into how to really create this structure of a door-knocking culture, whether it’s recruiting, training, onboarding, culture, motivating, pay scale, all the structures. I think a lot of realtors are like, “Well, that’s foreign to me,” so this would be the place you’d come for two days and you just pick my brain.
We go through an 80-page playbook and we just go through it, a really intimate group. Usually there’s 20, 30 people in the room, and we dive into it. I’ve done that with a few different real estate brokerages. We’ve had insurance there. We’ve had probably 20 different industries come through, pergolas to windows to, I mean, painting, random. I think anybody that’s kind of trying to say, “Where do I start? What do I do? How do I be better at that?” Then, we have other events like Closer School Live coming up April 28th and 29th in Vegas with Bradley, Cody Askins on the insurance side. You have Carlos Reyes on the real estate side, so like Bradley, Andy Elliott and the car side.
I’ve put together kind of, how do we get a versatile group of speakers, me on the door side, that can teach sales? I just think there’s a low level of sales training out there that is more… There’s tons of marketing training. You as a marketer, you probably see every effing funnel and every agency pop-up, how to start an agency. How do you do [inaudible 00:14:16]-
Bryce Curry:
Yeah, right.
Sam Taggart:
… [inaudible 00:14:17] the Instagram [inaudible 00:14:18]. Not many like, “Let me teach you to beat the streets. Let me teach you scripts and psychology and NLP and how to really handle objections. How do you stay motivated when you’re effing defeated all day? How do you manage people?”
Where you’re a marketer, you’re just like behind the scenes, like ad spend, conversion ratios, metrics, XYZ. It doesn’t hurt when it’s like, “Dammit, nobody watched my ad.” You’re not like, “Aah.” When somebody sprays you with a hose and calls the cops on you and is like, “You’re a piece of shit,” like-
Bryce Curry:
Yeah.
Sam Taggart:
… you don’t go home the same. You know what I mean? You’re just like, “Aah-
Bryce Curry:
Right.
Sam Taggart:
… “I am all right.”
Bryce Curry:
Right, right. One of the things you said, I kind of want to springboard off of and talk about psychology side of it. There’s a human level to sales, to prospecting, obviously, really to anything that we do. What’s some advice? When you’re out there hustling, when you’re out there talking to somebody that might feel defeated because you’re exactly right, our audience has to be motivated because they might have got hung up on. They might have been told whatever name in the book that someone could think of. How does a person dig inside, deep inside psychologically and break through and create… I’m going to use the word “discipline,” habit-forming. You got to get out there. You got to start doing it, but what’s your thoughts around like the discipline side of just getting out there and doing stuff?
Sam Taggart:
Yeah, I mean, that’s a really great question, and I’d kind of put it into three categories. Discipline, first off, it’s like it comes from the word “disciple” and it’s like discipline, it’s like, “You’re my disciples. I’m disciplined.” Then, you’re like, “Wait a minute, is there a positive or negative.” A lot of people think, “I’m disciplining my kid.” Well, it’s like, “No, I’m discipling my kid.” There’s this element of you’re not disciplining. We have a negative context to it. It’s like, “I need to be disciplined,” and I’m like, “No.” It’s like aligned would be a better word in my opinion, meaning, am I aligned with my highest self? I think there’s external factors that tend to really try to knock us off our external self or internal self.
I think when it comes to checking in and saying, “Where is my highest self?” That would be step one. It would be like, “Okay, my highest self,” or think of like you and you’re completely aligned with Jesus Christ. I think… Let’s just not take religion out, but just like he was supposedly perfect, right? You’re like, “Okay.”
Bryce Curry:
Right.
Sam Taggart:
He played at the highest level, and you think of other people like Gandhi or Mother Theresa or whatever, it’s like they play at such a high level, their frequency, and that’s what made them iconic. You kind of have to say, “Okay, what’s the iconic version of me? How would it show up?” Then, stress test that with each action that you’re doing today. You’re like, “Would my highest self quit the gym early today or finish the full workout? Would my highest self push a little bit farther today?” Or is it like, “Where is that highest self?” I found that man needs to be pushed 3 to 4% just beyond its edge.
If you’re not pushing just beyond its edge, then you’re at… you have this atrophy, you have this, “I’m declining,” and this going backwards, and so it’s like the next stage would be… Firstly, check in, stress test it. Stage two would be like find opportunity to be mentally tough in other areas than just going out knocking or going out and selling and getting your face kicked in. Yesterday, today, get into like my 35-degree water in the backyard water in the back yard and did cold plunge. Today, I did workout and yesterday I did a workout, and then I fasted 24 hours on Tuesday, and I’m intermittent fasting now. It’s like, what’s things that you can do that are hard, that you’re kind of forcing yourself to be under a harder pressure so that then the other pressures that come don’t seem as hard?
You’re like, “Well, it’s not as hard as a cold plunge, or it’s not as hard as running 12 miles.” I did an Ironman and it was simply just like stress test like, “Where is my physical limit?” I found when I was training for an Ironman or training for a marathon, for example, my business did better, my health was better, my this was better. I think a lot of times we think we have to juggle one element of our life and sacrifice the other. It’s like, “If I want to be good at relationships, I’m going to be bad at business,” or, “If I’m going to be good at business, I’m going to be bad this,” or, “If I’m going to work hard here,” I’m like, “I think there’s an element that they all bleed into each other. It’s like when I’m winning in one, I change my verbiage to I’d be winning it all, which is another category of self-talk.
Impeccable with your word would be the way that I would say, “How do we combat this kind of friction that comes through adversity, rejection, whatever?” I would say just by your ability to speak things not from story, not from victim, but to speak things with very choice words, meaning you said I can’t, right? It’s like I just took that word out of my dictionary. I’d say, “I choose not to.” I won’t because then I’m more decisive. I haven’t been able to so far, meaning like, “Up until this point, I have not been able to,” versus, “I’m not saying I can’t. I’m just saying I haven’t done that yet.”
A moment in my life was like, “I can’t dunk. I can’t jump.” I kept telling myself that and I finally was like, “I’m 30 years old.” I’m like, “No, I’m 5’10”, white. Is it possible that a 5’10” white dude at 32 dunk?” Yes, I just have never been able to touch the rim, so therefore I believe myself. Of course, I’ve never been able to dunk, so I said, “Let’s put this to the test.” I trained and I said, “Let’s do some jump training and see what’s out there.” I learned how to dunk and I was like, “Wow.” I saw improvement, but we get stuck in the story of, “I can’t,” and I’m like, “That is just a story we tell ourselves. Whether you need people in your life to call you out and be like, “That’s a story, dude, stop telling yourself that.” I just say those things like stress test against your highest self. Find opportunities to enforce discipline and stress on your body and lean into the uncomfortable. Find calm in the chaos, and then change your language patterns, I think it’s so important how we talk to ourselves.
Bryce Curry:
Yeah. I think there’s so much wisdom in those three points, and at the end of the day, I like endurance sports like running and cycling and stuff like that. I think that I equate it to like if you’re out there running a marathon or a half-marathon, you know, looking to start, you got to look for a pacer. Someone that can kind of help you pace to meet your goal, but also encourage you along the way. I’ve been one of those before, and I think in sales, I think that everyone needs to some degree a pacer, too, so I think there’s that external factor of encourage. It’s just so important and can be for the positive, especially if you’re learning a sales team. That can be kind of infectious across them.
Like you see this rep over here doing, just meeting all his goals and being an example, it’s hopefully a contagious kind of thing. One of the things you said is really important, and I’m just going to put myself out there in this is that self-talk and the brain. That gets into the specifics of the mental side of things of where you kind of have that whisper of, “You can’t. I can’t.” You know, “I could start my own business, but I can’t,” or something like that. The things that you’re talking about are really important, and that self-talk kind of naturally can put you in that default state where you just don’t know-
Sam Taggart:
Yeah-
Bryce Curry:
… and then-
Sam Taggart:
… and that [inaudible 00:22:33]-
Bryce Curry:
… that just kind of seems to spiral.
Sam Taggart:
… that bleeds into anything. If you’re like, “I can’t run a marathon,” I’m like, “I bet you you could.” You know?
Bryce Curry:
Right.
Sam Taggart:
“I can’t.” Then, you’re like… Well, they’re probably saying that somewhere else in your life. If you’re listening to this and you’re like, “I can’t do that.” Well, you’re not just using that can’t mentality or victim mentality in other categories in your own life. Like, “I can’t knock doors.” It’s like, “No, knocking doors is not hard. You walk up and you use your knuckles and you go like this. That’s it. I think everybody-
Bryce Curry:
Sure.
Sam Taggart:
… should do that. I mean, I was in a wheelchair and I still did. I broke my ankle one summer and it was like, “No,” and the doctor’s like, “You got to wait six weeks.” I’m like, “Eff that. Give me some crutches or something. I’ll figure it out.”
Bryce Curry:
Right.
Sam Taggart:
There’s very few things that would stop you from knocking on doors, so don’t say you couldn’t do that. It’s just you’ve told yourself that, and then it’s like, “Where else are you telling yourself that?”
Bryce Curry:
That well of motivation that powers you, I mean, that’s got to go deeper that just sales strategy and tactics. I mean, that’s getting into you as a person. I think about individuals that we talk to, and especially kind of like our new… the new agent segment, not to pick on them, but they’re coming into real estate or insurance as brand new. They want to give it a shot. They maybe were successful at something else and trying to see if they could make a pivot. Obviously, with the last couple of years in COVID and stuff, we’ve seen kind of a migration in different professions and stuff like that, but sales is tough. I mean, it’s hard.
Sam Taggart:
[inaudible 00:24:04].
Bryce Curry:
Right? You got to have, in my opinion, a pacer. You got to be listening to stuff like what Sam’s talking about, but that’s why I wanted to also have you on because call it a coach, call it a mentor, whatever it is, you got to have somebody that’s going to help you maybe internally in your own structure, your manager, hopefully, that’s pacing you along. We also have individuals that are it’s just themselves and they’re out there trying to make that deal count. They put a goal of 30 transactions for a year or something like that, so the have to really did deep into that self-motivation and-
Sam Taggart:
Yeah.
Bryce Curry:
… I just think it’s key stuff because it’s so easy to, “I got yelled at. I made three calls and I got yelled at,” and just call it good, right?
Sam Taggart:
Yeah.
Bryce Curry:
Just kind of [inaudible 00:24:52]-
Sam Taggart:
No, I’d say find a community like… If you’re kind of a lone wolf and you’re just getting in and find a community. We have a Facebook Group called The D2D Tribe. It’s got a bunch of knockers in it and you’re just like post every day and just be like, “Hey, here is what I did today. There’s some accountability for you.” Or whether it’s, “Listen to my podcast every single day or this podcast.” You know what I mean? It’s like on my way to area or have your fricking wife. I don’t care. Have somebody in your corner that’s pushing you, but willing to call you out on your shit. Like if you come home at 6:00 and you told yourself you’re going to be out till 8:00, then have some true accountability there. Then-
Bryce Curry:
Yeah,
Sam Taggart:
… I love that you said pacer in the sense of like everybody like… It was funny. I’m going to do a keynote. I do a lot of like keynoting and I was down in Ohio this week, or wait, what is today? Yeah, yeah, this week, me and Phil Heath, the seven-time Mr. Olympian, spoke.
Bryce Curry:
Yeah, sure.
Sam Taggart:
She’s like… I went from going on a cruise, so flying from Miami to Ohio, and I’m in the line in Miami and the guy’s like, “What do you do?” I was like, “I don’t know, I travel a lot.” He’s like, “Wow, you do.” He’s like, “Are you some like motivational speaker or something?”I was like, “I guess. I’ve never called myself some motivation speaker.” I was like “Yeah, I guess I am.” Then, Dee’s like, “Well, how do you motivate people?” She’s like what motivated you when you were out selling a lot? I really had to dig deep. She really quizzed me on that question because I was about to go give a keynote and she’s like, “You need to motivate, blah, blah, blah.” I was like-
Bryce Curry:
Yeah.
Sam Taggart:
… I’m like, “I’m going to sprinkle motivation on you.” I’m like, “It doesn’t work like that.” I was like, “You know what got me was I was like I hated losing.” When I had somebody that I knew that I could beat and compete against, and like you said, a pacer, that naturally was like if they’re beating me… It’s so funny, when I have competitors today that come into my market, like there’s new events that have popped up since mine and-
Bryce Curry:
Sure.
Sam Taggart:
… there’s been copycats and there’s been knock-offs. I’m like, “Cool. I’m so grateful for you.” Why? Now I have somebody to kick their ass because I pioneered my own little mission and I had nobody that was I was playing with. Now, I’m like, “Ooh, cool. I created an ocean and now people are swimming in my ocean. Let’s go.
Bryce Curry:
Yeah, absolutely.
Sam Taggart:
It’s game [inaudible 00:27:02] so…
Bryce Curry:
Well, I mean, you know, you can define leadership in many different ways, I suppose, but I think one that’s always been true to… that I’ve always kind of aligned to or looked for in leadership is quality is people that… are people moving towards this individual, and that comes on the shoulders or practice of authenticity. Are they practicing what they’re talking about? Are they executing it? That stuff happens all the time, and in our competitive market as well with our products and stuff. We see that too, but it’s super important to have that internal motivation that we’re talking about and it’s really something I wanted to focus on with you because we’re a part of your group. I’ve been at your events and the type of nature of speakers that you surround you with and the different events, I mean, it shows an authenticity there around being a… Let me put it very bluntly to our audience.
Sam is somebody that you should be following. I don’t care if you’re in a boutique-type industry, we have a pretty wide reach just with our 70-plus years of being in business, but I can tell you that he’s an individual that’s been out there doing it. You need to take note of some of the stuff that he’s talking about and the people that he surrounds himself with because I always… I have a personal mentor that talks about who’s your personal board of directors? I’m not going to ask you on this podcast necessarily to get into like your personal relationships and stuff like that, but you mentioned the people that you surround yourself with.
If you’re going to surround yourself with a bunch of just duds that want to sit around and just, I don’t know, not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with video games, but if they just consume you and they take over your time of where you could be out there actually achieving and progressing… I think at the end of the day, what we’re talking about here, Sam, is yeah, there’s success through making money and commission in that drive that has a place in it, but personal progression to break through, I don’t know. I think there’s probably a psychologist that’s way smarter than me that could tell us, as a matter of fact, you had one at the event here a couple months ago that there’s probably a chemical reaction that you can… Once you feel that, it’s’ like a runner’s high. Once you break into that, once you break through to that, you will find that a level of motivation that awakens every day.
Sam Taggart:
I love that point, and that’s why I’m like, “Ask yourself,” and you can have categories of friends. I have a couple friends, it’s like we never talk about work, we never talk about anything other than just like I just want to shoot the shit and just be me, right? Like-
Bryce Curry:
Yep.
Sam Taggart:
… that’s okay, and I-
Bryce Curry:
Right.
Sam Taggart:
… spend by time as much as I choose to with that. It’s not like every day I’m hanging with that group, right? It’s like-
Bryce Curry:
Right.
Sam Taggart:
… yeah, every month, once a month we get together and we just do stupid stuff. Then, it’s like, “Who am I?” A lot of people have a lot to pay. Phil Heath, I meet him on Monday and I was like, “Dude, homie, let’s be friends.” Now, I book something with him and we’re doing a collaborate on this. I’m like, “What does he want?” I figured out like how to be his friend and connected well with him.
I left an impact on him to where he is calling me the next day being like, “Wow, you’re different.” I’m like the one-percenters, they want to hang out with the other one-percenters. They want to say, “What can you bring to the table? What can I bring to the table? Where’s their win-win?” If you’re just always talking about who won the Bachelor and what’s the next football game, and it’s like, cool, everybody else and their dog can watch ESPN or regurgitate some stupid information, but like I’m over here like… I’m winning. I’m talking about winning. I’m talking about strategy. I’m talking about value. I’m reading books. I’m adding value.
A lot of the people I’ve built relationships with, because Phil Heath was like, “Oh yeah, Tim Grover.” I was like, “Oh yeah, I could call Tim.” He’s like, “Yeah, Tim’s my coach.” We create affinity. It’s like we hang out with similar people where I had to pay Tim Grover and then I had to build a relationship. I had to make an impact. I look for opportunities to be like, “Who am I associating with? How do I make a lasting impressions with them to where they’re like, ‘Yeah, I respect. I’ll pick up his phone call and if he needed something, I got his back. I know if I needed something, he’d have my back.’” Yeah and-
Bryce Curry:
Yeah.
Sam Taggart:
… it’s huge.
Bryce Curry:
That’s key… It’s huge stuff. I mean, even just in like a personal network for things, I know I have to lean into a certain network for parenting if I [inaudible 00:31:33] or run something by, and then sometimes I walk away from those conversations. There’s a little bit of relief like, “Okay, I’m not the only one.” There’s that human level, but then there’s also this professional kind of level of always trying to progress. I think that that… and it goes a little beyond the focus of what The Info Podcast is about, but that message is something that in a lot of factors needs to be heard is whether it’s younger generations or different personas or however you want to look at it, is… There is a place for the hustle culture, but there’s also this progression and surrounding yourself around excellence that care about you, that are in your corner is super important. There’s a lot of people out there that want to tear you down for whatever reason, especially in competitive kind of nature types of things, right? It can-
Sam Taggart:
Yeah.
Bryce Curry:
… wear on you.
Sam Taggart:
The higher you get up, the higher you get up in life, the more you’re going to feel that. The more people are like, “Wait, wait, wait, wait for me. Where are you going?” You’re just like-
Bryce Curry:
Right, right.
Sam Taggart:
… “I’m on a mission to Mars, brother, you can com. I want to put something else on that. I think a lot of people… A lot of the successful people that put on some face, one of my missions would be like, “Dude, I’m still quirky, goofy. I call myself Sea Otter Sam. My energy is so weird. If you probably hung out with me, you’d be like, “Really? This guy?” I’m the first one up on the table dancing at a club. I’m the one that’s just like goofy as goof. I think so many people lose themselves in the sense of like, “I have to be this certain thing to be successful and I go to button my shirt up and I got to do this and I got to do-
Bryce Curry:
Sure.
Sam Taggart:
… that. I’m like, “Dude, authenticity is like one of the key elements of influence.” If you can still be you and not lose who you are and go after and personally aggress and… I’m literally making fart jokes with Phil Heath and I have people looking at me like, “This is Mr. Olympian,” and he’s over here just laughing his ass off because he’s like, “Finally, somebody that’s willing to talk like a human.”
Bryce Curry:
Yeah, right.
Sam Taggart:
Instead of be like, “It’s this guy that’s got 5 million followers or whatever.” It’s like-
Bryce Curry:
Yeah, right.
Sam Taggart:
…”Dude, just I’m gong to be me. I don’t care if your name’s Donald Trump or me.”
Bryce Curry:
Yeah, yeah, right.
Sam Taggart:
I’m just going to be me.
Bryce Curry:
Yeah, messed up. Well, that authenticity is important, and it definitely shows through all the different things that I’ve been exposed to with your firm, even down to like some of the… At the events, your family will stop by and talk and just there’s a sense of purpose and genuineness that is throughout your whole organization with whoever we work with. I’m looking at my daughter’s notes here, and she said something to the effect of, “Ask Sam about like, how do you break through the impossible?”
That’s a big question, and I was trying to think about like in her brain what she kind of means by that. I asked her and she’s like, “Well, you guys do marketing stuff and sales stuff, right? Most people delete emails and different things like that.” I thought that was kind of interesting from my little conversation with my daughter of like… You know, she wouldn’t have said it this way, but that next knock, that next phone call that you make that someone answers, or that next appointment that you go to, there’s the possibility it could be life-changing.
Sam Taggart:
You’re always one door away from a new life. You’re one door away from a millionaire. You’re one door away. I mean, that’s the thing people don’t realize. When I say one door, I mean you could randomly meet one person that then connected you to one person that was like your million-dollar commission deal. You’re like, “Oh wow, I didn’t even know that was coming.” How to break through the impossible, it’s first being able to manifest and design what’s impossible. Design and visualize beyond what your possible is. We all have our own possible that we’ve created through our own lens and our own story. New book coming out, self-less plug, April 27th, we’re launching The Self Experience, and you can go to my website at samtaggart.com, you can preorder it. It’s basically about how to break outside of your own box.
We all were put into boxes, and those boxes are what created possibility for us, and so when you can conceptualize beyond your own box or beyond your impossible, so like thinking of just even ludicrous like I want to do design… I wanted a Ferrari, but I’m too cheap to buy one, and I’m like-
Bryce Curry:
Yeah.
Sam Taggart:
… if I got a Ferrari and it was from free money that I just somehow somebody gave me and hear like, “What, that’s impossible? How’s somebody just going to give you 290 grand or whatever.” I was like, “I don’t know. I’m the one designing it, so eff it. If God wanted to design something like that, I’m sure He could whip it up. He made kangeroos and giraffes and stuff, so can I get a free Ferrari? I just started thinking different, and all of a sudden two weeks later, I get a check from the ERC that was 290 grand. I was like, “Damn, free money from the government.” I was like, “What the heck?” I didn’t even know that was thing.”
It’s like… I think people, we underestimate the power of creation, the power of what’s out there, and I think we are the ones that creating our own impossible. It’s like manifest your ideal client, manifest your own ideal partner, your idea employee. I’ve done those practices over and over and over again for the last 10 years. I’m like, “I’m going to draw up my dream house.” Three years later, lived in the dream house. I’m going to draw up this, I’m going to draw up that, but it’s like, where are you putting… What are you calling impossible? Then, now really imagining because reality is, yeah, somebody gave me 290 grand. It happened to be the government, and everybody said that, “Well, that’s impossible. Why would you just get free money out of nowhere?” I’m like, “I don’t know. I’m just testing this principle of breaking through the impossible.”
Bryce Curry:
One of the things that I thought was interesting that you talked about, I heard you speak, and I kind of want to close out the episode with this, is I know for me personally, I’ll start with this, I drive a lot of motivation from my parents and a lot of what drives me is things that they’ve passed on. I heard you give a very passioned speech at this last D2D Con here earlier this year about your Dad and what he meant to you and his example. If you would, just unpack that a little bit. I mean, I know for me, my parents both, and I’m sure it’s the same for you, are a big reason of the makeup of who I am and what kind of motivates me. I want to make them proud and stuff like that, but I think that there is definitely a legacy that also kind of motivates us at times, too, right?
Sam Taggart:
I love my parents. Then, still have a phenomenal relationship with them. Hanging out tonight, it’s like I think having a relationship, whether they were shitty parents, great parents, whatever, is very important. Mend that if you haven’t, but luckily, my Dad was an entrepreneur. I mean, I grew up in a family where it was a roller coaster. It was he’d try to invent something and then it wouldn’t work, and then he’d do land development and it would work. Then, he’d buy these houses and it would work. Then, he’d start this other thing and it wouldn’t work. It just kind of went through the roller coaster of like success and not success and success and not success.
He started a company called OGIO Bags, which was a big hit, and then sold that. Then, he started a company, or he did big land development projects and they got rocked by the 2008 crash. Then, he had another crash, and then he… He had like three loses in a row that lost him everything. He’s 60 years old at that point, and he’s like… I just remember looking at him and he’s like, “Sam, you can’t get a normal job when you have a debt payment of 25 grand a month or something.” You know, again, and I’m just like-
Bryce Curry:
Mm-hmm.
Sam Taggart:
… he’s like, my interest payment alone is 25 grand, so-
Bryce Curry:
Yeah.
Sam Taggart:
… it’s like you can’t just be like, “Hey, hire me for this thing.” He’s like, “You have to hit a home run at that point.” He just always had this mentality of, “I’m going to win. I’m going to figure it out, and I’m going to not lose my family and my value systems on the way.”
He’s always about priorities. He’s always about put first things first. It’s like God first, family, and then go hustle. Go make it happen. He had amazing relationships that’s he’s been able to cultivate over the years and put himself in networks that helped him slingshot to success. Then, he launched a company called PMD. Super successful, It’s a microderm abrasion tool. Completely off the top. You know what I mean? It’s like totally different and-
Bryce Curry:
Mm-hmm.
Sam Taggart:
… and… but [inaudible 00:40:18] just the respect and the values that I learned from him was always motivating. It was kind of like he laid a pathway. He was a pioneer to wealth and success in our generation, and I can never be thankful enough to just have a father that was able, and Mom, too. My Mom is freaking badass. She’s always like, “Sam, don’t say that. Take that post down.” She’s always watching shit. She’s like, “Sam, you realize you’re a brand man.” She’s like… She was like, “Yeah, that was a seven,” when everybody else is telling you like you’re a 10 and wanted to tell you what you’re hearing. She’s like, “I think you could have done better,” and just motivating and like-
Bryce Curry:
Yeah, absolutely.
Sam Taggart:
… super… I couldn’t be more grateful for them, so they’re awesome.
Bryce Curry:
Yeah. That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing that, and I totally connect with that. How can our audience kind of learn more about you? What’s your Instagram handle? How can they find you?
Sam Taggart:
@thesamtaggart, so @thesamtaggart, or @D2Dexperts. We have two, and then you can go to thed2dexperts.com and, yeah, we’re always doing cool stuff. Like I said, I’m taking a group of high-vibe people, if you people want to come to Africa in the summer, August 7th through the 17th. Just open to cool people. We just vet you and just make sure you’re high vibe and aren’t going to be like old pansy when we go to jump with cage dive with great whites and safari-
Bryce Curry:
Right, right, right.
Sam Taggart:
… [inaudible 00:41:42] so like, you know-
Bryce Curry:
Yeah, absolutely. Right? Yeah, yeah.
Sam Taggart:
We’re always doing cool stuff, and so thed2dexperts.com, and thesamtaggart.com. Follow those two Instagrams and that would probably be… YouTube, we’re on all the platforms, but reach out. Would love to help, love to support anybody that’s on there.
Bryce Curry:
Sam, you’re making it happen, man, and we are privileged to have you as a partner at Cole, just as a mutual kind of like partnership of trying to help people navigate and build their sales pipelines, but also be successful. I appreciate the hour of your time today, and I know I took a ton of motivational stuff from it and encouragement. I want our audience, keep Sam on your radar, follow him, follow his crew. They’re making it happen. It’s authentic stuff.
That’s one of the things and the purposes of this podcast is just because we’re a 70-plus-year brand, we have a lot of different perspectives and different people we talk to. One of my goals of this podcast is to kind of filter out I’ll say the BS out there. There’s a lot of out there. Follow Sam, follow D2D experts and get connected in whatever way fits best for you. Sam, thanks for your time.
Sam Taggart:
Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you guys.
Bryce Curry:
I hope this episode provided value to you as a salesperson. If you enjoyed our content, please like, subscribe, and leave a review. Make sure to join us for the next episode of The Info by Cole Information.
