Have you ever laughed so hard at a quirky hotel incident that it illuminated the importance of camaraderie in your work life? Join us as we sit down with John Stauffer of TC Backer, who'll share the humorous side of business trips and the powerful lessons learned from his remarkable climb to Director of Sales Training Operations. His story isn't just a typical career advancement—it's a narrative woven with becoming a better father, husband, leader, and human, all recounted with a relatable sense of humor.
The heart of our conversation beats to the rhythm of leadership and the art of putting others first—a challenge that has shaped John into the figure he is today. We take a leaf out of John Gordon's "The Energy Bus" to unpack the traits of positive leadership, revealing how to become a 'Chief Energy Officer' who fuels motivation and drives inspiration. Listen in as we share the pivotal moments that have tested our limits and catalyzed growth, affirming that the journey of learning truly never ends.
Capping off our dialogue, we discuss everything from the paradox of dealing with mediocrity within a team to the refreshing jolt of a cold shower on a winter morning. You'll hear why emotional availability trumps material provision in family dynamics and how even simple lifestyle adjustments, like facing the shock of cold water, can reinvigorate your body and mind. Plus, for those musically inclined, we strike a chord with insights into guitar music theory. So, tune your strings and join us for an episode that resonates with laughter, wisdom, and the sweet sound of personal growth.
Have you ever laughed so hard at a quirky hotel incident that it illuminated the importance of camaraderie in your work life? Join us as we sit down with John Stauffer of TC Backer, who'll share the humorous side of business trips and the powerful lessons learned from his remarkable climb to Director of Sales Training Operations. His story isn't just a typical career advancement—it's a narrative woven with becoming a better father, husband, leader, and human, all recounted with a relatable sense of humor.
The heart of our conversation beats to the rhythm of leadership and the art of putting others first—a challenge that has shaped John into the figure he is today. We take a leaf out of John Gordon's "The Energy Bus" to unpack the traits of positive leadership, revealing how to become a 'Chief Energy Officer' who fuels motivation and drives inspiration. Listen in as we share the pivotal moments that have tested our limits and catalyzed growth, affirming that the journey of learning truly never ends.
Capping off our dialogue, we discuss everything from the paradox of dealing with mediocrity within a team to the refreshing jolt of a cold shower on a winter morning. You'll hear why emotional availability trumps material provision in family dynamics and how even simple lifestyle adjustments, like facing the shock of cold water, can reinvigorate your body and mind. Plus, for those musically inclined, we strike a chord with insights into guitar music theory. So, tune your strings and join us for an episode that resonates with laughter, wisdom, and the sweet sound of personal growth.
Welcome back everybody to behind the tool belt, episode two zero nine. We will be discussing our wins, our losses, our lessons learned, along with our next year's goals. Stay tuned. Welcome back everybody to episode two nine. Today we have a special guest, john Stouffer of behind the tool belt and TC Backer I know, you do a lot for us too.
Ty Backer:So I guess, yeah, what do you mean by special? Well, you're very special. You know that in many different ways, especially professionally, but, yeah, john. So John is now what you're doing, the we're gonna, we're gonna give you a title here real quick, because most people, I think, that watch this show, that that work with us, tend to find out like what their new job or task are going to be by watching, and that's why they tune in each week. So I think we're gonna call you director. We're gonna start with the big D director of sales training operations, whoa and something else. I love it. Does that work for?
John Stauffer:you. It's perfect, okay, good. Is this also where the guests find out what they're? Next Question might be Career move is going to be yes, I love that too. Yeah, career move.
Ty Backer:Yeah, yeah, it's a shuffle. It is a shuffle, but I was super excited today to bring you on the show, and one of the reasons why I wanted to bring you on the show was is because, obviously, we've worked together for for quite some time now and I would say, especially over the past three years, I've watched you exponentially grow, not just personally, but professionally as well, and have worked on yourself to become a better human being, a better father, a better husband, a better co-worker and, especially, a better leader. So I thought it would be kind of cool to listen and ask you some questions about, maybe, how you did that, some things that somebody might be able to take away from listening to how you've achieved as much as you have in such a short period of time because really, three years, how long have you worked here?
John Stauffer:Two years, Two years and how long. On January 3rd it'll be two.
Ty Backer:Okay, january 3rd it'll be two years. It feels like a lot longer. How long have we worked together? Probably six, seven years, six, seven years, I think, but we've known each other a lot longer than that. Yeah, how far back does that go? Well, let's go 2009-08.
John Stauffer:Ish.
Ty Backer:Probably. Yeah, yeah, it's been a minute. It's been a minute when you were a guest at the executive referral network.
John Stauffer:Yeah, that's where I first met you. That was cool.
Ty Backer:Yeah, yeah. And then you said, I attended some Chandler.
John Stauffer:Yes, you did attend some Chandler training Of you. Were a guest of Jack Lair.
Ty Backer:Oh, that's right. Yeah, that's right. I forgot about Jack. Jack, we should get Jack on a show sometimes. So, jack, if you're listening, yeah. You're next contestant.
John Stauffer:Have you seen what he's doing?
Ty Backer:Oh yeah, he's doing a lot. He has a podcast as well. Oh no, I didn't know that. Yeah, it's called Something Lair Jet Jack's Lair Something, something That'd be funny, yeah, something like that. But anyhow, let's dive into this. So I broke out some questions here for you and I actually jotted them down and didn't share them with you intentionally, because I really want you to think about some of these questions, which I know some of them you should be able to fire right off. But but they're really just general questions. And the first ones what were the highlights of this past year for you personally, professionally and both?
John Stauffer:Wow, wow. The highlights the highlights.
Ty Backer:The highlights.
John Stauffer:The highlight.
Ty Backer:Yeah.
John Stauffer:I'd say the first thing that came to my mind was a reflection of our conversation we had about a week ago. I was thinking of the Roach Motel during the Eagles Super Bowl. This came to my eyes. I was like, wow, I got to spend more fun with Tyrus than anybody else gets to have, where we had a faux pas at a hotel and had to keep driving to get to the next one I think we were going to wasn't Roof Con, but something similar. Yeah, one of them. Yeah, one of them. That was personal highlight.
Ty Backer:Was that a been roofing process? Were we on our way to Orlando Because we were driving Usually we drive east coast yeah, so that had been a roofing process this time last year Actually, where we stopped at one place, said hell no, and then went to another place and stayed in the same room together, and that was definitely a highlight of the trip. Yeah, at least Right. So just those of you that know or don't know, john does not like to sleep with the TV on and I like to sleep with the TV on. I have to have that noise, and no, sooner you go to turn it off, I wake up. Whatever reason, I sleep with the TV on, but as soon as you turn it off, I wake up. So I woke up several times with John lurking over me because I had hidden the remote. So he couldn't yeah, he did. He couldn't figure out how to turn the TV off, and then I think I yelled at him maybe once or twice. I tend to do that much sleep.
John Stauffer:No, you were very nurturing when you said I'll get that in seven minutes.
Ty Backer:Did you like how precise I was?
John Stauffer:It took me. I was like I can deal with seven minutes. Then 48 minutes later I had to find the remote again to try and turn it off.
Ty Backer:Couldn't find it.
John Stauffer:Yeah, so I went up on the TV trying to find the button on the TV. Yeah, and that woke me up too.
Ty Backer:And then you woke up and you just went click yeah, because I think I had to shit you waking me up. I think that was that was the case. I did yeah. That was definitely a highlight. Now, what was the highlight of the highlight?
John Stauffer:I think that was it Really Getting to spend a night in the room with you.
Ty Backer:Okay, yeah, okay, over the entire course of the year. I'm assuming that's professionally.
John Stauffer:Well, no, that was a personal goal. Personal goal yeah, I wanted to stay in a hotel room with you.
Ty Backer:Oh, and there it went yes, and that will never happen again.
John Stauffer:I know we both did. You see my strategy, though. No, what was your? What came of it? You said we will never sleep in the same room together, I made you buy your own hotel rooms.
Ty Backer:after that, I think yeah.
John Stauffer:Well, no I volunteered.
Ty Backer:Great, great strategy. Yeah, okay, yeah, anyhow.
John Stauffer:Let's get on to something more.
Ty Backer:My highlights. I mean, I've had numerous highlights and you are included in a lot of that, and I would say and Vic and Ippy and Abby could probably agree with me our highlight of 2023 and some of 2022 was all the traveling that we did. Yeah, and mine started pre-2023. It started in 2022. We did a little bit of traveling with Jen Silver and some other.
Ty Backer:I'm trying to think of some of the other events that we man Paul Reed and Eric O had one in Denver, Colorado, that Joe Salowitz assisted me with With behind the tool belt there. That was pretty wild. We did several other stops too. And then I think door to door con was like our first. I don't know if that was in December or was that in January, but I think that that moment I realized we were like, okay, we're going All in on this. And then our equipment never showed up when the first one that I thought we were going to go all in on. But we did bring flight cameras and a backdrop and stuff from traveling with Jen a little bit there with her little stuff that she did and not little stuff. She actually was pretty good, pretty cool stuff actually.
Ty Backer:But anyhow, that all of that behind the tool belt, traveling and stuff. There was a lot learned there, A lot of lessons learned, a lot of wins. We stacked a lot of wins. It was very tiring. This year, I think we're going to be a little more strategic on the events that we're going to attend, Because we'd like to go all in either all or nothing. So behind the tool belt was big highlight, a lot of growth, a lot of growth with behind the tool belt, and I could go on and on and on. I was going to ask you could you share any specific moments or experiences that stand out as a significant learning opportunity for you?
John Stauffer:I would say RoofCon was a boatload of eye-opening leadership learning. Probably my favorite part was when he did your breakout, watching you pace back and forth the stage and tell your story again. And you could tell that same story 100 times. I'd probably get something new out of it every time you say it, thank you.
Ty Backer:Thank you. What did you learn from it, or anything from RoofCon? It doesn't have to be something that I did, yeah.
John Stauffer:I don't know if I learned anything, just did. Watching you command an audience the way you did, the confidence, the message, it's pretty inspiring, thank you. It's kind of like that one sales meeting where Skyler turned to me afterwards and he goes holy crap, he's pretty fricking, charismatic, inspiring. I was like, well, get used to it, that's cool. I love that about you, thank you. Every time we go on a trip or even hang around each other, just pick up stuff from you recommended. I ought to listen to John Maxwell's leadership 101 or whatever book you happen to be Reading yourself. I try to glean something from that, yeah.
Ty Backer:Through reading these books and what has been probably one of the biggest nuggets that you picked up from reading these.
John Stauffer:I would say putting others first, above yourself, which that's pretty big challenge for me because I have a history of being kind of a selfish guy, self-centered, what have you? Although? My journey for more selflessness started with the Sandler training I took a decade and a half ago. It's kind of like super reinforcement from being around, what you profess and guide me with. You mentioned how I've grown in leadership, etc. Maybe you're here I've seen it myself.
Ty Backer:Yeah, I was just getting ready to say that A lot of times we don't see the growth ourselves right away, but others can see that in them and you may be at that stage right now. But I'm sure if you thought about it hard enough or long enough and if I would have prepared you for these questions. One of the reasons why we did this is because this morning when I went in I saw Vic. He had things all set up, it was all pretty and stuff like that. I knew I was getting ready to drop a bomb on him and I was being kind of cute about it. We test each other, whether you know it or not, where it's like okay, we're preparing ourselves for adversity and putting ourselves continuously in uncomfortable situations. I explain this to Hunter when we were down at Hunters, I don't know, a few months ago, ken was there, hunter was there, diego was there, there was a whole room for Stephen, spence was there and they're all like what are we going to talk about? They wanted this script or bullet points or something like that or whatever. I looked at Steve. I said Steve, you're going to be the host tonight. He's like no, I'm not. I'm like yes, you are, you're going to be the host tonight. He's like why would you do that? It's because those guys are the. You know the sum of the five, that some, what is it? You're the sum of the five that you surround yourself with. Well, we push each other, whether we know or not. So, anyhow, long story short, I knew it was going to piss him off, but I knew he could do it. He had to tear all the equipment down and move it into the larger room because I was like what's John going to do? Is he going to just zoom in? And he was like oh shit. But the other word, the F word I am trying to clean this up, I don't know if he actually said it or I've read his mind. I think. I felt that, oh, blank, blank. And so I walked away.
Ty Backer:I went up and I went into your office like hey, are you ready at 12 o'clock? And you're like for what? And I was like, well, you're going live on behind the tool belt. You want to list questions? You're like yeah, I was like, no, so one, I knew you had that training because you had said something to me about it, I think last week, the sales training that you presented today to the team. So I knew you had that, I knew you were going to come live today. So that was me trying to push you outside your comfort zone and coming onto the show and sometimes I think a lot of people think that I'm being a dick. But really what it is if you really think about it. If anyone questions somebody who doesn't necessarily co-sign their shit or push them outside their comfort zone, like those aren't your friends, like people that co-sign your shit all the time, like oh, as long as you're happy, that, as long as you're happy, friend, really, truly, I think, don't really love you.
John Stauffer:I mean like just I accept you the way you are, keep being mediocre.
Ty Backer:Yeah, as long as you're happy. I don't know how. Have you heard people say that to other people like, as long as he's happy, well, they'll love you to death that?
John Stauffer:way. My wife set me straight when we first got together. She said you know, this is no unconditional love scenario where I love you no matter what you do. I have expectations of you and you better meet them. There you go. She set me on right from the start.
Ty Backer:Yeah, if it's the best thing, that's ever happened, Absolutely, and if we're not holding each other accountable or raising the bar or trying to level each other up, but meanwhile we also have to make sure that we can cash those checks that are ass-wrote too. So you said about you know, reading books and stuff like that. I actually read a book twice over the past three or four days and I do that and I may end up reading it again. It's called the Energy Bus by John Gordon. Awesome, Phenomenal, Phenomenal. It talks about a bus energy bus and it talks about being a CEO and creating other CEOs, which is kind of cool, because I love listening to a book and it's kind of when you listen to it, some I'm like, oh shit, man, I've never heard of that, I really like it. I'm going to start implementing that. And then other books that you listen to. It's kind of like, oh shit, we do kind of do that, but we weren't super intentional about it. But now I can be, because it actually is telling me how to be more intentional, or things that I've left out and didn't realize I was leaving them out because you don't know what you don't know until you hear, listen or learn it. And a CEO is a chief energy officer. So what we've tried to do is create other chief energy officers, right, and most people have two dogs in them. They have a negative dog that they tend to feed, or they have a positive dog in them that they tend to feed. And it talks about feeding that positive dog, right, Like not staying stuck in the problem but rather find the positive in something or go straight to the solution. Doesn't matter who did it or how it happened. Necessarily, Yep, you got five minutes to talk about that because obviously you need to know what happened. But after that, what's the solution? Right, and it doesn't necessarily talk about that, but it elaborated more about feeding the positive dog, and it's really good.
Ty Backer:Chris Markey turned me on to it and he's got a couple other books too that talk about the bus. And you talked about enthusiasm, right. Well, enthusiasm gets people on the bus, right, and we've done that. I think we've been able to attract good top talent, high performing. Next level, wanting to level, wanting to continue is to learn kind of people, right, but the hard part is is retaining the people. And how do you retain the people? And you do that through love, right, and that's what I mean by like, yeah, we do that, but, like, how do you do that Right? And it's like and I started reflecting on how do we do that around here, and and it touched on some other facets of things that I never really thought of before of expressing love, and it's not about hugs and kisses and patting each other on the ass, it's it has a lot to do with accountability, set expectations and you're only as good as what you tolerate as far as leadership goes, kind of stuff like that. So it's a really good book. I encourage anybody out there that's trying to do and this is what's cool about too. It also applies to your personal life as well, too, like being at home, being present, being emotionally present at home with a positive attitude, where people want to be around me and they want to feel that love. You know, because when it gets, when it gets right down to it, most people that's just what that's. All we want as human beings is. We want love, right, and and and.
Ty Backer:Going in down another rabbit hole in the Gary Chapman, you know he he teaches you how to read people's love languages. So it was. It was a good book. I needed it at the time. That's why I read them actually on a third time reading it right now. It's a short book, Very easy read, very easily retainable. So again, I highly recommend John Gordon the Energy Bus. So, Chris Markey, if you're out there listening big shout out to you and his son who turned him on to that book, so yeah, I got honorable credits. I'm going there, you go there, you go, there you go. So, speaking of challenges and obstacles, what challenges or obstacles you know have you faced this year, not next year, but this year and how did you overcome them? And these questions are personal and professional questions. So it doesn't. You don't have to think just professionally. You know. If you feel like being vulnerable, tell us a little bit about your, your personal obstacles.
John Stauffer:Well, I did think professionally right off the bat where just a relationship here, and then the within the team, where I felt as though I was tolerating mediocrity and it took me a little while to get on with expressing my thoughts to an individual who ultimately decided this wasn't for them. So I just realized that was a challenging part of, you know, my psyche was okay, I'd try to lead by example or, you know, do the best I can at what I do to show like, hey, I'm in it, and that just didn't seem to be enough to overflow into my, you know, teammate.
John Stauffer:So yeah, do you find sometimes that situations or individuals dampen that creative runway at times and I think so and I try to remind myself to be fully accountable for myself, and I believe it's as a result of my settling, or tolerating, and settlement to tolerate me in mediocrity. That was like a direct effect on myself. You know, I can't say, well, it's their fault that creativity is a little low this week or this month or whenever. You know that originally it stemmed from me not expressing, you know? Hey, let's talk about why we're not engaged here. Yeah.
Ty Backer:No, that's a very good point, especially when it comes to leadership. You know you, it sounds like, and we've had discussions on this before too and I think a lot of people are always trying to find that scapegoat or push the blame on something or someone else. And the one thing that I've noticed about you, john, especially over the past two years, is that that exponential growth of you know. Going back to you, know how you said that you were selfish and I never looked at you or thought that you were ever a selfish or self-centered person. But I think, naturally, as a human being, I think we have, we're all born a little selfish, you know, and self-centered. But when it comes to leadership and what it is and why we're placed here and put on earth, is to serve others, and I think a lot of that. That's probably the differentiator of one differentiator of the difference between good leadership and great leadership is that, the more that you can put yourself to the side and there's two parts to this because you have to take care of yourself in order to take care of other people what are you doing to take care of yourself so you can help push people to the next level, right? So let's not get. Let's not take this out of context, but when it comes to leadership, of giving credit to others, especially when credits do. But the most painful part is sometimes, at least for me, and this is going back into selfish and self-centeredness, probably is giving credit when credit's not so do right, and then educating people and being patient and tolerant with them and then watching them grow, getting more joy. It's almost like Christmas morning. When I was a kid, it was like my favorite thing to do was tear the presents open, and but today it's the exact opposite of that. Right, like I get more joy out of it and the family's bitching at me because they're all done opening presents and I still have a stack of presents next to my chair. It's because I've been watching everyone else open their presents and we got to watch Sky. Not that Skyler didn't open presents last year, but this year was just an amazing, an amazing year to watch her. And then, going back into how we as human beings are selfish, she was like that's all. You know what I mean, which is very cute, natural, yeah, cute and but natural, but as human beings. But anyhow, john, I've watched you put yourself last many times. You have definitely been a rider die.
Ty Backer:And speaking of that particular weekend excursion, that we had to stay in the same hotel room, which we'll never fucking have it again. By the way, if I didn't mention that already, that's a good footnote. You, your team, the Philadelphia Equals, were in the Super Bowl, so it was either stay home watch the Super Bowl or drive to Orlando, florida, with Ty Bust and my balls the entire time to go to roofing process last year. So and that was probably a last minute 12 hour notice Maybe like hey, guess what, you're going to Orlando with us, type of situation. But again, that's that put you and your family your actual family, you know on the back burner was like, hey, you know, yes, we're going to go down here and I'm going to expand my mind so then I can come back home and teach what I've been taught. You know what I mean, and that's that just goes to show. And that's one of many things that you've done, that I've watched you do over the course of the past 24 months, but it seems like a lot longer than that.
Ty Backer:But anyhow, what are some other obstacles?
John Stauffer:I don't know. I was thinking of the given credit where in credits do, and then given credit when it's not do. I probably would struggle with that. And I recall being sort of called out by two little league ladies sitting behind me on Ty, my son Ty. He hit a double and he ran off past the second base and got tugged out and they were like all gone Nice try Ty, nice try. I was like what are you talking about? It was a nice fail, he didn't try, it was just totally poor space running and little leaking. If you will and my son appreciates when I'm honest with him, we have good candor that way, right? So I thought, well, that's, I'd have a hard time saying, yeah, nice try on that one. So it just reminded me that when you said give credit when it's not do, I thought uh-oh, I might be guilty here or something.
Ty Backer:Yeah Well, and I think you have to pick and choose on that too, right, because there was a lesson to be learned there. So that was one of those moments where you had mentioned candor, where you have to learn how to navigate kind candor.
John Stauffer:Well, I'll rescue myself. I think I encouraged him to do better the next time. Yeah, I didn't give him credit. I said oh, you know, here's your lesson.
Ty Backer:Did he ever do it again?
John Stauffer:No.
Ty Backer:Yeah.
John Stauffer:So when, when? Don't know if he ever hit another double, I don't know.
Ty Backer:Yeah, I don't remember. Well, I think that that's a learning experience both for the parent and the child, right? If you may have handled it poorly, lesson learned, no, I still think I was right. Okay, well then, maybe it wasn't, but I'm sure you can think of other times where you've handled situations very badly. Oh, yeah, right, and hopefully you can identify them a lot quicker today than you could maybe back then when Ty was in, literally yeah, yeah, let's talk about something like that. Let's let's talk about a time where you have failed and then, but another time where you have succeeded.
John Stauffer:Wow, it's hard to go through the library. How about most recently, most recently, a failure?
Ty Backer:and a recovery, yeah.
John Stauffer:Yeah, I don't know. It'd probably be more with my wife than with my son as far as how often I fail to do.
Ty Backer:It could be professionally or personally. It all, at the end of the day, blends together.
John Stauffer:You know I usually, if I find myself slacking or doing you know, not being attentive or engaged, I'll end up, instead of calling myself out on it so much, I'm just calling her out on it and go what the heck did I do? That's pissing you off. So we get to talking about it and somehow I get to the answer, and then I make the corrective choices and behaviors and actions.
Ty Backer:Yeah for sure. Okay, cool, what's something that has gone on for a long time that you were oblivious to and then, like a light bulb, went off. Or it could have been a train of thinking, and I'm going to give you an example about that. Sure, so when I was sitting here listening to you, I thought, you know so for many years and again this could be taken out of context as well but so for many years, you know, I worked hard 12, 16 hour days and thought that that was the right thing to do. I thought, you know, missing first days of school, getting them on the bus, not being emotionally available, emotionally present, you know, answering the phone at all hours of the night and day, and I thought that was the right thing to do. And I know a lot of people probably listening, thinking, oh, why would you do something like that?
Ty Backer:There was a lot of things that used to go through my mind. I thought, you know, I need to make up for lost time. I'm providing for my family. At least he's got the nicest shoes. Whatever I was telling myself at the time, you know, I just thought the harder I worked and nicer things that the family could have, the better life that they would have, and that's just kind of the things that I thought. You know, the harder I worked, the better our life would be right. And it's funny how, as time goes on and for the long, I thought that for the longest time and still doing, I'm still guilty of it and it's something I'm still working on right.
Ty Backer:It's a skill to be emotionally present and emotionally available. And what I mean by available is if Jana called me right now, would I answer the phone. Maybe not now is a good example of that, but I'm just saying like throughout the course of the day, right, I would actually not red button her, but I wouldn't be like, hey, hold on, my wife's calling me. Like I've heard people say that in the past and I think to myself, and not recently, but in the past years ago I'd be on the phone with somebody and they're like hey, my wife's calling me. I was like and I'd think to myself really, really, like you're going to put me on hold, like you just can't call her back. Well, the difference is is that he's emotionally available for his wife. She could have been having a bad day. She needs help. Can you pick the kids up after work? Blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, jana wouldn't ask me, wouldn't have asked me to pick the kids up or anything like that, because she knew and she thought and this is what's crazy about it is that I actually trained my family into thinking the same way that I was thinking, and Jana is still to this day is my ride or die and still does that for me and allows me to do what we have to do for the family. But now it's my job to maybe like retrain them and or train myself and the way that I think. So it's like I know that when I'm home, I need to be emotionally available and emotionally present in the time. I need to be where my feet are at the time.
Ty Backer:And again, this is something that goes against every grain, every fiber of my being, because I'm so fixated on work, because I don't want to let people down, whether it's my coworkers, whether it's a client, whether it's a homeowner, it doesn't matter. Don't want to let them down, because then I feel like I'm letting my family down. If I missed that call, I didn't get that lead, we didn't make that sale, we didn't complete the job. Do you know what I mean? Like I had my priorities screwed up for so long and, at the end of the day, what makes me the richest man is is that I was with my entire family this past weekend. That's what made me the most wealthiest man and what made me feel so rejuvenated this morning to want to come on this podcast and probably talk about that. And I'm not ashamed to talk about me having my priorities mixed up, because I don't think we would really and this is where I don't want anybody to take this out of context, because I think some of the problem is especially with early entrepreneurship, is that people don't really want to put into work, they don't want to do whatever it takes to get to a certain spot.
Ty Backer:But I think at some point in time, whether it be five or 10 years into it, you need to realize that you need to let go and surround yourself with people that are smarter than you in those areas anyhow, and then realize, come to realize that you're just mediocre at everything, because now you got yourself spread so thin and you can't excel.
Ty Backer:And we've talked about that before. And we become the bottlenecks at home and we become the bottleneck here at work, because shouldn't your family be growing as well, mentally, spiritually, physically. You know what I mean. Like if I'm doing things for myself, my son should also be working out, my significant other should also be working out. If I'm growing, they should be growing. Maybe they're not necessarily working out or doing those things, but because my thinking is healthier, in turn, their thinking becomes maybe healthier, but then I've also noticed too that they don't change. It's my thinking that's changed and all of a sudden I think that they're doing things differently, but they're not. But it's the way that my perception of things is what it is. For sure I was going down a rabbit hole that I shouldn't have probably went down for a second, because nothing's changed at home.
John Stauffer:What's changed is the six inch between my ears, well, and if there was sacrifice in the past on their behalf of missing out on Tyra's time. Much love and appreciation and thanks for their indulgence in that, because I wouldn't be here sitting with you today if it wasn't for them, no doubt, no doubt, janna, and Rocket and McKenzie, you'll be funny she called right now, if you're listening, janna.
Ty Backer:I'd probably answer. But no, that's the thing. That's like our children. Sonny Hill, that was a question. Have you experienced anything for over a decade or two that you were doing? But now, today, you're thinking. Your mindset's different today.
John Stauffer:I would say probably keeping an eye on what I put into my body and say that it's been doing for a decade or so. It's different now.
Ty Backer:It could have been a year. Yeah, okay. So diet and exercising health is something that you didn't care about, or you thought maybe if I ate these, this was good for me, but have come to discover that eating popsicles laying in bed before you go to sleep is not conducive to my health.
John Stauffer:Yeah, yeah, I've kind of gone through cyclical through my life of, well, I gained a lot of weight and I kind of lost a lot of weight and I kind of gained a lot of weight and lost a lot of weight, I don't know. Something about a year and a half ago. I think it came from some of the things we did at RoofCon or somewhere, just in watching other people be more healthy with themselves and more intentional on what they're doing, I went on that once a year long, skipping of bread and shattered sugars and dairy, whatever else. That little plan. I had the bamboo porridge I'd make for lunch every day.
Ty Backer:Yeah, by the way, you look amazing, which I know. You know that it's a little better.
John Stauffer:Yeah, I'd say I suffered over the Christmas holidays. Thanksgiving through Christmas with a couple of cookies. It's kind of like I can afford some because I'm doing so good. Back on it now, yeah, good yeah.
Ty Backer:That's good. That's good. Okay, let's change things up here a little bit. Have you developed any new skills or hobbies this year? How have you? How has that impacted your life?
John Stauffer:Probably the newest hobby would be listening to books, something I really didn't do a lot of when I was doing Sandler training a decade and a half ago. I'd listened to their CDs that they provided and went through that, but since then it was kind of like no books or no real regular motivational inspiration learning. So that's probably the newest hobby, if you will.
Ty Backer:How has that affected your life and how have you applied it to your life?
John Stauffer:Well, I'd say the leadership books anything from the Simon Sinek to John Maxwell, to the reasons of other authors, even the Garrett Gunderson's money book focus a lot on hey, love the people you're working with, your teammates, your family of course, and you know, just focus on that. It seems to be the most major message I've been getting over the last couple of months and it seems kind of weird like, okay, I got to keep love at the forefront, even with new people that I don't really know. And how do I do that? Well, I just maintain a level of interest to the degree I can, and not force anything as far as you know, like a personal conversation or what have you, and more so the caring for their success.
John Stauffer:You know, with our new sales guys here, we just embarked upon the six-figure blueprint of how can we get them to earn $100,000 in their first year with us, and it's added a whole new level of focus to what I'm able to consider outlining and preparing and guiding so they can do that. Turns out, all you got to do is make two sales a week, averaging $15,000 per sale. Yeah, it's not that difficult. Oil down to the. You know the logistics of it, but what's involved with that is, you know, teaching them the sales process, how to communicate well, which you know. I may struggle with that myself, but when it gets down to a sales process, I'm pretty good at at least explaining it as somebody more professional would.
Ty Backer:Okay, well, explain, explain to us that process a little bit. Let's talk a little bit about that.
John Stauffer:Well, it starts with bonding and rapport. Just every sales process you'll hear says you know, get to be comfortable with, have the person you're negotiating with be comfortable and do that by matching and pacing and mirroring their communication style. You know, if you were to get together with me and be all, hey, let's go, come on, let's move, I better respond with all right, I'm ready to go, let's do it, I'm going to go with the same thing. But if you're going to quiet down on me and be, be gentle and calm and slow and nurturing, then I'll do the same thing, just so that we're communicating well. Then the next step after that is to set the agenda for the conversation you're about to have regarding what their pain is, what they're hoping to accomplish issues, challenges, frustrations. What their budget or investment level is, what the time, energy, effort, resources and money is going to be required to resolve their pain, what they're hoping to accomplish issues, challenges, frustrations and then have a finish the conversation about what their decision-making process is, who and who, besides yourselves, will be involved in making this decision, what is your timeframe and if you're letting them know, that's what you're going to talk about. You say we may discover at the end of this conversation that you know one we might be a fit to work together, and that's great. But you know even more, so we may discover that it might not be a fit and it could turn into a no. Is that fair? And then you can acknowledge that. If it is a no, comfortable hearing it. And once you make the outline of that conversation, you can then go through a really good adult-adult conversation about what their concerns are, how much of a budget they're willing to invest, and then what timeframe do they need it and are they actually able to make the decision? Or do we need to go get you know Uncle Louis who's going to put half the money into this project?
John Stauffer:So once you have that great conversation, determine that, hey, it makes sense to go ahead and look at all of our solutions. Then you can present your solutions, find a deal and you have yourself a sale. Otherwise you say, oh, we discovered. You know, hey, anytime during this conversation, if you get a sense that there might be a red flag or any reason why we shouldn't do business, call a timeout on me, we'll acknowledge it. See, if it's something that you know, maybe we would be finished. Even a yellow flag comes up. You know, call a timeout, we'll talk about it. Or to determine that, hey, if it's any reason we shouldn't do business, then we shouldn't. Some will, some won't, so what? Someone's waiting next. I'm just spitting out standard language.
Ty Backer:That was so good. That was so good. I hope that our viewers and listeners are getting or I hope people are just listening to this, because this is really good stuff here Beck.
John Stauffer:Well, it's copyrighted materials, really.
Ty Backer:That's the whole point of it In trouble. You know, when we listen to books or read books or study something, the point of it is is to be shared, you know, and I think a lot of people don't want to share stuff because it's like, well, that's not my own stuff. Well, if you really, if an individual or a human being would really think back, it's like none of this stuff that I'm coming up with is mine. It's all recycled, you know, rehashed, recircled, regurgitated stuff that I've got to experience, I've got to witness, I've got to learn everything from someone else. Now, what I have done, not by choice usually, but I interpret things a little bit differently maybe and I put my own spin on it, but for the most part I don't think anyone really comes up with like you know stuff I mean other than like we were just out I think it was yesterday. Jenna and I went out someplace and there was a Winston Churchill picture or portrait that was on the wall, and where he would have gotten this from, I have no idea. It says it says he said success walking from failure to failure with no loss. Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. Now, I don't know where he would have heard that at before, and maybe he was laying in bed one night, and not that we don't come up with our own metaphors or our own little sayings and stuff like that. I would say at least 70% of the stuff that we regurgitate is we heard something somewhere. Whether we're saying it the way that it was written or we put our own spin on it, the point is is that we heard it someplace else. So don't feel bad about regurgitating Chandler's sales system process, because that's what it was designed to do.
Ty Backer:What you read was a basic text. You're reading from a basic text. What that means is that it's made to be studied and it is made to be taught. For sure. Yeah, so no, it's good stuff. It's good that you've taken the time where so many people won't read that. There's a book. I know they got a book out. I know that there's that training which took you how long? How many years?
John Stauffer:Well, I bought a lifetime membership, like in 2005. It was $10,000 at the time. My wife reminded me this morning. She said you can let them know that you yourself doubled your income in the first year once you started taking the course. However, I mean that's all good news, but we had Tuesday morning classes for about two and a half hours and then lunch class on Tuesday for an hour and then Friday workshops for about four hours. I did that every week for five years without missing a single session. The Tuesday sessions were repeated, eight week long course that just repeated over and over. It was offered to people that they could take just the eight week course and be done, but I recognized that if I wanted to be half decent at any of the sales process, I needed to go More often. Yeah, it took me five years to say okay, I think I can decrease the amount of attendance I do. I should go back just to brush up, because what I'm doing now.
Ty Backer:Yeah, let me know I'll go with you. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Yeah, that's okay that you've taken that time to invest in yourself because, really, if you think about it, that's probably the most valuable, one of the most personal, valuable investments that you've probably ever made in yourself, and how valuable it is to now to so many other people that you get to share that knowledge with. So that's a win, bro. That's another reason why you should consider yourself one of the wealthiest people I know is because of the amount of knowledge that you have and the amount of inspiration that you want to cast onto other people. You know what I mean, so that's kudos to you.
John Stauffer:I'm glad you said it that way, because you know I want to yeah. Whether I've been successful yet will be determined.
Ty Backer:Yeah, yeah.
John Stauffer:Amen.
Ty Backer:No, all good stuff. So we're about 49 minutes into this. So, before we move on to next year's goals, what advice or insight would you give your past self at the beginning of the year?
John Stauffer:Well, I would say, take cold showers every morning.
Ty Backer:Yeah, do you still do that?
John Stauffer:Well, I just started up no-transcript. I did it effortlessly and we did the Fearless 44 the last time I was in it I just didn't get the point. I mean I got some point like okay, be uncomfortable. But I learned more about it more recently. I guess my son said something about this Wim Hof fella. He explained a little more about some of the supreme health benefits to it. So I'm just starting that up again.
Ty Backer:Good, that's good. Yeah, that's good. I know Jan and I have. We've done them, man, I would say, at least for the past two years, and it is definitely something I would not go without. And I am very disappointed when we go someplace else and the water doesn't get as cold as it does at home, because the cold water at home is literally it hurts, but it seems like the colder that it is, the more beneficial that it is. Whether it be for man, inflammation, my metabolism you know what I mean I can tell when I start to slack off on it. My metabolism tends to slow down my energy level, especially in the mornings.
Ty Backer:If I'm half ass in the cold water. You know what I mean. And what could be half ass to me might be extremely cold to you, but a few weeks ago I went back to no hot water period and for at least a good two minutes, but I've caught myself staying in longer and then hitting those areas under my arm here. If I can get cold water in there and then on my lower back and let it run down, those areas tend to be the most beneficial to me because by the time it hits my head and gets down to my lower parts. It warms up, whether you know it or not, especially if you're just taking a cold shower. But if you bring your knee up and let it, you know what I mean Like you're stretching in the cold shower. It's much more beneficial that way too. I'm trying to get as much benefit out of it as I possibly can, instead of just like standing and letting it beat on my head or my chest or turn around and let it hit my shoulders. I really try to be super intentional.
John Stauffer:Yeah, yeah, this Wim Hoffelley said take it at your own pace, Just feel it, do it. If you need to start out easy, go ahead. I would find myself you know I'd just do it one side and it has to be done. Like now, Lillian, I'm going to spin the whole year round if I can get it everywhere. Yeah yeah, Just try to control the breathing.
Ty Backer:Yeah, but Pertain, that you're trying to rinse the soap off and that's another benefit to it too is because it's just like when you're doing dishes. I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but you should always wash dishes with cold water, because if you're trying to rinse the soap off with hot water, it doesn't rinse very well and there's always a film on it Until you turn the cold water on and then it rinses it thoroughly. Well, imagine what it's doing to your skin and your hair and everywhere else that soap might hide and not be rinsed off. Because, let's face it, yes, some soaps are better than other soaps, but having those, you know, like the grease build up or whatever in your hair and on your skin and stuff like that, a lot of that has to do with just poor rinsing, and if you're trying to rinse with hot water, your pores are getting clogged with gunk. So that's another huge benefit of cold showers. Nice, yeah.
John Stauffer:Bonus for the immune system building 100%, yeah, yes, 100%.
Ty Backer:There's so many things to list the benefits of taking cold showers. I know it's been a game changer for me, especially for inflammation, because I enjoy doing it. The second time in the day when I take one is after I work out. You know it, just yeah.
John Stauffer:I'm just looking into it, just from what I've learned so far, that people have reversed cancers and immune system deficiencies and eliminated the need for doctors. And check out Wim Hof and it's cold therapy. Nice, talking about that. Okay, wim Hof, wim W-I-M-H-O-F. Okay, he's known as the Iceman. Okay, never heard of him. He's started this new cult, okay.
Ty Backer:Nothing wrong with that. Okay, On that note, let's go into the following the new year that is so quickly, rapidly upon us here. So what are your goals or aspirations for the upcoming year, both professionally and personally?
John Stauffer:Professionally, I want to be the best sales guide or that I can be. I mean, we've got a lot of good people up here Brian and Ben and we've got Ken on the team and a lot of the more veteran sales guys are pretty darn good at their sales process and would be able to teach a lot. So I'm just hoping to do the best I can with where I've been going with this sales process training. Ultimately, my goal would be to have everybody in the sales team producing $100,000 for themselves or more for next year. Love that. Personally, I could see getting back to a little more music recording and sharing of the visual guitar process, that I put together videos for helping guitar players understand music theory a little more for those who don't know much about it. Yeah, so that's it Cool.
Ty Backer:It's been a lifelong passion of yours. You wrote a book. Yeah, let's talk about that.
John Stauffer:It's called Visual Guitar Music Theory, okay, and it comes with companion videos. You can read it for free, because I'm giving it away at johnnystarcom if you want to go there.
Ty Backer:Okay, what is the book and tale?
John Stauffer:Well, it has graphics and descriptions of all of music chords and, I think, the guitar sewing that you do.
John Stauffer:They're all built from Do Re Mi and how to simply visualize that. Looking at the guitar looks pretty complicated, but just to simplify it, to say, look, if we play Do Re Mi the notes of Do Re Mi, all the way up and down the neck, you'll find that all the chords are built on that. If you make a map out of that Do Re Mi all the way up and down the neck, you skip a few notes along the way, so it makes an unusually shaped pattern and we can describe how to play that pattern by visualizing parts of it and then seeing that your chords lay right on those same notes and they also sound and are built like Do Re Mi. If you play all the chords in one key, you will hear the Do Re Mi and then it shows you visually how you can be aware of that and then some guided instructions on how to break it down and play that all the notes of Do Re Mi up and down the neck with one simple little pattern. Nice, that's about it.
Ty Backer:I love that. I actually looked at it. I don't know if I want to call it. I read your book or I looked through your book and it did seem to be in pretty good layman's terms for someone to understand the notes on a guitar neck a lot easier. Like you said, it helps you draw that map, that visual aid in your mind. Great job on articulating that. I haven't spent a minute since I looked at it but yeah, good job.
John Stauffer:It was designed for guitar players who have played bar chords and are familiar with playing guitar solos, but just don't have all the pieces together how it ties together in music theory kind of terms, right on, I'm impressed that you made it into the book at all, because it could look like a lot of gibberish. Yeah, I know.
Ty Backer:Yeah, that's good, all right. Well, we got to be nearing our one hour mark here. We got about two one and a half minutes here left Before we get off. Why don't you leave us with a nugget or something that our listeners and viewers can take away and apply in their life today?
John Stauffer:I would say love everybody, get your run into as best you can, as often as you can, and don't think that it's anyone else's fault for where you are in your life, because you are where you are because of all the decisions you have made. Amen.
Ty Backer:Right, we're hung around different Great frickin' episode. Great job, vic, good boy, to set the studio up twice today. You're the man, the myth, the legend, the man behind the scenes. John, thank you for everything that you have done here. You are an inspiration and you have grown leaps and bounds since we started to work closer together. So kudos to you to want to continue to keep leveling yourself up, and thank you for everybody for tuning in and listening to us and in hopes that we've been able to inspire you in one way, shape or form, to want to level up your game. Don't forget to check us out on Spotify, google or Apple, and if there's any topics that you guys would love to hear or listen to, please post them in the comments. Until next time, we will see you guys. And what is it? Happy New Year to everyone out there. Thank you guys for tuning in. Special thank you to Tyrus. You're welcome, thank you, thank you, thank you.