Stories That Move
We've been dreaming about this for a long time... and now it's finally here!
Get a first look at DreamOn Studio's brand new podcast, Stories That Move!
When we create videos for our clients, there's often incredibly rich narrative that we can't include in the final cut. Being behind the scenes, we're fortunate to hear the depth and full context behind each story.
So in this podcast, we want to pull back the curtain and allow you to experience the extraordinary stories of extraordinary people we've been honored to connect with.
Go on an adventure with us.
Gain a new perspective.
Learn something new.
Be challenged.
Feel inspired.
www.dreamonstudios.io
Stories That Move
Keith Sampson | Change the World
Discovering the catalyst for transformation within the threads of adversity, Keith Sampson's journey from the brink of despair to the forefront of entrepreneurship is nothing short of inspiring. As he opens the vault of his experiences, Keith takes us from the pivotal choices in his youth to the launch of his ventures, Cloud 9 Multisport, and Surv Payments. His tale is a masterclass in the art of customer experience, community engagement, and the belief that businesses can—and should—be powerful agents of social change.
What does it take to turn personal challenges into professional milestones? This episode answers that as Keith recounts his transition from a kid hustling neighborhood jobs in Maryland to the founder of multiple successful businesses. He doesn't shy away from sharing the tough times either, including the emotional toll of his father's illness and the invaluable lesson in choosing growth over stagnation. His insights on the role of gratitude, resilience, and long-term strategic thinking in crafting a fulfilling life and career are particularly potent, providing listeners with actionable wisdom to apply in their own lives.
Our conversation doesn't stop at past victories. Keith also lays bare the agility and innovation required to adapt to an ever-changing world, like the pivot to virtual events during the pandemic. He's candid about the discomfort of personal growth—the kind that led him to a life of autonomy and impactful public speaking. Whether you're looking to ignite your entrepreneurial spirit, refine your resilience, or simply find balance in the hustle, Keith's story is a beacon for continuous self-improvement with purpose at its heart.
Join us for an episode that's as much about the inner work as it is about external achievement.
Keith Sampson
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamkeithsampson/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamkeithsampson/
Surv Payments
Website: https://www.survpayments.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/survpayments/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/surv_payments/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/survpayments
Cloud 9 Multisport
Website: http://www.cloud9multisport.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cloud9multisport
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cloud9multisport
And this is what I consider my second watershed moment in life and my cousin Ray pulls me off to the side hey, keith, how you doing and I'm like well you know my dad has a terminal illness.
Speaker 1:Besides that, I'm doing pretty good and he goes. You know you have two choices. Neither one of them is wrong, but what you decide can determine everything, and I remember sitting on the carpeted steps of that house and consciously deciding I'm going to choose to grow through this, and that was my start of what I now call a growth mindset journey.
Speaker 4:Welcome back to Stories that Move everyone. I'm Mason Geiger and, as always, I'm here with my co-host and business partner, Matt Duhl. How are we doing today, Matt?
Speaker 2:It is always a great day when we get to dive into an inspiring story, and today is no exception. We're excited to bring you an interview with an incredible entrepreneur and a big supporter of DreamHunt Studios, Keith Sampson.
Speaker 4:He's the driving force behind Surf Payments and the owner of Cloud9, a high-end retail store for athletic wear and running shoes. Keith's journey is nothing short of inspiring, From his innovative approach in the point-of-sale credit card processing industry to his passion for community and health through his retail ventures. There's a lot to unpack here.
Speaker 2:Not only is Keith a great business fan and an incredible communicator, but he also played a pivotal role in the very existence of Dream On Studios.
Speaker 4:Yes, he did. I cannot wait to share that story.
Speaker 2:So today we'll get into how his vision, life mission and entrepreneurial spirit have impacted his industries and the communities around him.
Speaker 4:It's going to be a great show, so, without further ado, let's dive into our conversation with Mr Keith Sampson.
Speaker 2:Welcome back everybody to Stories that Move brought to you by Dreamline Studios. I'm Matt Duhl. With me, as always, my co-host and business partner, mason Geiger.
Speaker 4:How's everybody doing this? Morning or day, whatever time, you're listening to this.
Speaker 2:Exactly Doing great doing great. And today we have a guest that's going to be such a blast, a just huge friend, fan of ours. We're a fan of him, mr Keith Sampson. Keith, thanks so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you so much. This is a truly a blessing to be able to be here with the two of you guys. Like, honestly, like this is this is this is a moment, it is a moment.
Speaker 2:It's a moment for all three of us and, honestly, we wanted to dive into that right away, I mean let's just get into the thick of it. So, for our listeners, keith is the matchmaker between Mason and I, so we wouldn't exist. Dream On wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Keith Sampson. So first off, me and my family says thank you. So, man, tell us that story from your perspective. We've talked about it a ton of times, but I'd love to hear it from your perspective.
Speaker 1:Oh, man, uh. So at the time, um, I was working, uh with PayProTech and North American Bank Card uh, and got thrust into some corporate projects and one of those was putting together for the first uh partner conference for NAB and its associates that they'd had in quite a while and they wanted to have a corporate video. And it was okay, keith, you know blah, blah, blah and I kind of was thrown into it and I had a vision in my head and they wanted us to look at some companies in Detroit and us being located. You know, matt Hoskins and I are here in Warsaw. We were kind of in charge of this and we're like, oh, we don't know those people. We don't know those people.
Speaker 1:I said I have an idea and I had a vision of how this thing would need to play out, how it would look. And there's this amazing person that does this. And there's an amazing person does this. What if I took those two amazing people and asked them if they would work together for this project? And that's what we did. So we had the two of you guys go up to Michigan and do the filming, do the editing, and produce an amazing corporate, uh, corporate video that we launched and shown there at that, at that at the partner conference.
Speaker 1:And yeah, I mean, it was I guess this was birthed from it and uh, you know, I mean it's kind of one of the fun things about just being in the place that I get to be in and the and the perspective that I get to have is just, sometimes it's all about connections. It's people you know, the relationships you have and then going, hey, this might work, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, seriously, we can't say thank you enough, Cause it was one of those Matt and I like we'd talked a little bit like before and we came back from that trip and we were just like that was a lot of fun Like we should do more of that. And then here we are. What, five years, six years later?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that was a fall of 2018 that we did that trip. So, so it was amazing, because you saw in us just some of the different strengths and abilities and you know even, potentially, some of the weaknesses that we have been able to come together, and so I mean, that's what we found, you know, through that trip and through that project, is you know? Oh, you enjoy this. I enjoy that. I hate doing this.
Speaker 2:You like that and just really brought us together. So thank you for your vision and, uh, just, you know the networking that you did there, absolutely yeah, so so cool, so cool. Okay.
Speaker 2:So, now that we've set the stage with that tell us about you, what's going on in your life? Want to hear about your businesses. I got to tell you. If someone goes to your LinkedIn page, they might feel like did this guy forget to put an end date on something? He's got a lot of things going on, ceo of multiple things. So tell us about what you're doing.
Speaker 1:All right. So, as of today, I own and operate three different companies, three different LLCs. They all, in a unique, different way, kind of compliment each other, and that's one of the ways that I help make it work. The other one is like the reality is it's not like I have 500 employees or anything. So you know, my first company, trident Business Group LLC, or my DBA's, trident 21,. I wrapped that up, rolled that up as my client services company. So I started that back in, I think, founded in 2010,. Really started utilizing it in 2012 with a passion to be able to help other businesses that I'd identified when I was spending my time at Wildman. There's a lot of small businesses that struggled with just strategic thought. There's a reason why a lot of startups, whether it's restaurant, retail or otherwise, fail within the first what three to five years, and usually it's not because the person doesn't have passion, it's not because they don't have a vision they want to execute on. Sometimes they're just missing those pieces right, maybe it's self-awareness of some of their weaknesses. Sometimes it's just not able to break down and go okay, where do I want to be five years from now? And then build a plan backwards strategically to help me get to that place, and so that was the launch of that was just that passion and heart to help other small businesses grow and be successful. But in that business I then that's when I jumped into payments back in 2012. And yeah, so that business now rolls up as my payment processing point of sale business growth tools. I do. Any of my corporate training, consulting, professional speaking all gets kind of lumped into that client services business and it is. It's a company of one, I mean, so it's not like I have other employees on that aspect of things. So there's that one.
Speaker 1:And then in 2022, between you know, I always pick a year or not a year, I pick a word for the year, and that started during COVID. During 2020, when COVID hit, I realized, like this is the year for value, like forget everything else. How did we just bring value to people and give without expectations and really kind of settle into we don't know what this is going to be like If we do the right things and the right things will happen down the road. And then so fast forward. 2022, the word for that year was opportunity. So I tried to build on these. So when I started out 2022, the word opportunity meant two different things. It was am I putting myself in a place to seize the opportunities I want to as they present themselves? And number two, am I taking steps, playing the long game to create opportunities for myself in the future?
Speaker 1:And having that mentality, that mindset, when I got an email in the morning of February 6th that green earth multi-sport was closing and moving to Colorado, it just hit. I'm like, okay, I have this idea like our community can't lose the place for somebody to get properly fit for shoes, and I have a passion for fitness and healthy lifestyle and I kind of immediately started. This idea started morphing. So, long story short, I ended up founding Cloud9 Multisport LLC. I literally went from my idea on February 6th to sitting in my bed that Friday jumping on LegalZoom, setting up the LLC, grabbing the domain, all the handles and stuff on Instagram, facebook and secured the building, got the keys that April 28th and, you know, soft open June 4th, I think it was, with the grand opening July 1st. And having never done retail, I didn't have a business plan, I had a vision, but all the experience of this stuff. I had this like mental checklist of like here are the things that just need to be done. Experience of this stuff. I had this like mental checklist of like here are the things that just need to be done, and a lot of that, too, also is definitely um, a lot of background, things needed to happen in unison, from my painters having one job canceled and being able to get in there to paint I mean, it was just a lot of things that made it happen. A lot of people involved to help do that. So so now you know that opened up um July 2022uly 2022.
Speaker 1:Um, that's my retail business. That's going absolutely phenomenal. It's like a gigantic business and social experiment. Um, because one of the things I speak on is the importance of creating an incredible customer experience. In fact, one of my keynotes is called create an incredible customer experience or die, and it's really around the idea of how do you thrive in the experience economy. It taps into human behavior, buyer behavior, and so I'd been giving that for a while and I teach that. So I'm like maybe it's time to execute on that myself and show that it can be done. So that business.
Speaker 1:Now, when you look at that, our first full year was last year, in 2023. We haven't spent a dime on traditional marketing not a penny, like I've sponsored some local races or done some like donations and different things. That gets our brand out there. That's not the why that we do it. We do it because it's good and we get that positive benefit. Um, and yeah, so like if we look at 2023, I'd set a pretty aggressive goal. Again, not knowing retail and not I mean, we're in a smaller area of like 402 in sales. We ended up doing 460. And already this year January is 30% over January of last year. The power of consumer engagement through digital aspects we drove a massive sale with a single text two days before and so we doubled our sales for February in four hours on that day. So again, it's these different components that if you strategically focus on the customer experience being the core of the business, then you stack everything else on top of that. The power in that's amazing. So, like we did, I think it was 177% this February over last year February. So yeah, it's, it's, it's a ton of fun and the real value.
Speaker 1:And like what I tell people is cloud nine is not a run shop, right, we're a lifestyle store. Our mission is to help people move into a happier and healthy lifestyle. We pay the bills by selling shoes. You know what I mean Like. So that's the culture, that's the. What our my team is building around is that experience and truly the heart of helping others. And when we do that, the other aspects are going to come with it. So that's business number two.
Speaker 1:Business number three is, through my consulting in the payment space, the opportunity to get involved with one of my clients that needed to exit the space has created the opportunity for a new company, a new serve payments. So I launched Serve Business Solutions LLC just in February. I had started that up as a partnership with another individual over the summer amazing, amazing individual in the space Michael Nardi, who owns Electronic Payments and Sigma and Exit Touch and we kind of joined forces to help relieve this person of that portfolio. But then, through that process too, we also kind of got that cleaned up but realized we both still had very different styles and ways that we want to do things in different visions. So I think that's one of the qualities of when you have good human beings that really have the same best interest of others, you have the ability to say, hey, this is working and this is not working. So, in a different format where you guys came together to build something, michael and I had to realize, hey, we have two different skill sets, we have two different things and two different visions. Let's not do something that's not meant to do. Let's find a different way to work together. So that has launched.
Speaker 1:Then serve business solutions LLC.
Speaker 1:So, where I took the brand and stuff that I'd built from June on, I was able to keep some of those assets starting from scratch.
Speaker 1:I have a few employees on that and, yeah, it's a wild ride, but that serves the payment space at a higher level.
Speaker 1:So think of it more as a wholesale hybrid distributor.
Speaker 1:So I tell people like I just had this conversation several times at a trade show in Vegas it's like owning the wholesale distribution as well as having my own retail store as well for the similar thing.
Speaker 1:So it's like, hey, I have a wine distribution but I also own a liquor store that sells the wine I distribute. So that's kind of serve payments and Trident gets to kind of feed that. But then, with that serve payments, I get to bring a different approach to the payment space, one that really focuses on a couple different programs dual price, which I'm recategorizing as modern pricing, so it's looking at moving beyond having a price and rate conversation, the payment space and more of a customer experience and pricing strategy. And still going back to that original passion of how do I help businesses grow and perform better and bring solutions to them, like what I'm doing at cloud nine with text engagement of customers and like really sit in there and having a different kind of conversation, bringing a different thing to the market, uh, and attracting hopefully a different sales partner that want to do they want to ultimately do right by the merchant and in doing that they're going to change their trajectory and all grow. Yeah, wow.
Speaker 4:Awesome.
Speaker 1:It's a mouthful, I know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so how many? How did you get more than 24 hours in your day? All right. So God made me weird for one thing.
Speaker 1:I fully embraced that. Okay, so there was an I and I don't. I can't say what all it was, but I used not to be a morning person at all, and anybody that worked with me from 2000 and before to 2012 can attest to that. I was late to every morning meeting. I'd be falling asleep at a seven o'clock meeting keyed out a meeting at Wildman, or something. I was not a morning person. I was late to every morning meeting. I'd be falling asleep at a seven o'clock meeting, key data meeting at Wildman, or something. I was not a morning person. I could sleep till 10 or noon on a Saturday, right I, eight hours was like minimum that I needed. Um.
Speaker 1:And then in 2012, life changed. Um, corporately, my life changed as well. I think that relieves some stress. But then, uh, I think it was the power of God saying okay, you're entering a different phase, you need a different thing. But also, I started drinking this drink, zija XM Plus. It's made from the moringa plant, which is the most nutrient-rich plant on planet Earth. I started that in like March of 2012. And I remember it was probably April. About a month in from drinking that, I'm laying in bed and I open my eyes and there's the sun's kind of coming through the windows. I'm going look at my clock or whatever I'm like it's six o'clock.
Speaker 2:Why am I awake right?
Speaker 1:now. I went to bed at midnight Like why am I awake and why do I feel like I just need to get up and start going? And it's been that way ever since. So I I right now, since 2012, I sleep six hours a night, sometimes less, and I perform at a hundred percent capacity. And I know I got a cup of coffee here. I very rarely drink coffee. I mean, I'm one of those crazy people that can wake up at six and I can be in front of my computer at a hundred percent at six, 10. And so when I look at the balance of having three kids, three businesses, the fact that I can fully perform on six hours of sleep a night. So when you break that down, if most people need eight, let's say so I'm getting two hours a day extra.
Speaker 1:That's 160 hours a month more that I have to use in a beneficial way than most people. That's two extra 40 hour work weeks, right. So when you really think of it in that aspect, and I don't waste time, like I'll chill at night and like throw a show on and have a glass of wine and maybe like still do a little bit of work after the kids go, like whatever it is, like I don't really vet. I mean I've had you out, but I don't really waste time. And so that's number one. Number two it's I have a constant list, and Emily, who's my admin assistant, can attest to this.
Speaker 1:She's entered the crazy brain of Keith over the last several months. But like I have a constant, what are things that I can do? So like, even while we're waiting for this, oh, I need to pay my kids school balances and to put more money on the lunch. I jumped over there on the computer and knocked it out Like so there's all these five to 10 minute tasks that we constantly have in our life. Yet we sit there and do nothing with those five to 10 minute windows of time. So I constantly have here's things that I can do, and if I'm sitting there waiting for an appointment, I'm getting two or three things done, and maybe I'm firing off an email, even starting a draft, or making a note in my phone or putting something on my calendar. It's, it's, it's crazy, dude, that's love it yeah.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, I'm a 4 am early riser and it was the same. I did the math on like how many extra hours you can get in your day, and then you start to like span that out over the course of a career. It's like if you can stay consistent with that, like the years that you are adding into your life, like it's unreal. Um, yeah, the power of like maximizing those mornings and um, so what? So the question I like how, how do you recharge? Because a lot of people, when they hear that they're like, oh, I'd burn out, like I could do that for a couple weeks, and then it's like, if I don't have like rest or like like a full stop, it's like I'm not gonna be able to sustain that. So how do you, yeah, sustain every once in?
Speaker 1:a while, stop, it's like I'm not gonna be able to sustain that. So how do you sustain? Every once in a while I hit a wall, like you know what I mean. I'll hit a point where I'm like I'll sleep for eight to 10 hours Like I've just done too much, I've had too many nights with things going on Maybe I only got five and my body says, okay, you need a hard reset.
Speaker 1:But aside from those moments, I like again, I have a passion for physical fitness and active lifestyle when I can get out and run. Uh, and I am not, I have a love-hate relationship with running, like I didn't really start, you know, running for like entertainment, whatever you want to call it, right until about 2012 as well, um, so I had to develop like a passion for it, but it is. It's a recharging thing, whether it you know, and there's a difference between hitting the gym and running. So when I'm running, I can listen to an audio book, like last. Last year, I consumed five books, one by paper and 24 by listening. So, whether I'm driving against maximizing the time right, challenging those inputs, and how am I doing it? When I'm running, I can consume a book or a podcast or anything else. When I'm in the gym, that's a lot more difficult to do.
Speaker 1:You know you need music and you're doing different things, so running, or sometimes I'll just not listen to anything and I'll be free with my thoughts and I'll be running and be like Ooh, and I'll open up my notes and dictate a note into my phone while I'm running to kind of circle back on or whatever. So running it's great for the body, it's great for the brain, it gets the blood flowing, it's that you can, you know. Same thing with working out. It's that release of stress. Um, you're, when your body's performing at a higher level, your mind's going to perform at a higher level as well. So for me, that's one of the ways that I, that I decompress and do another.
Speaker 1:Um, I travel quite a bit and there are times, depending on the trip, depending on the amount of days away.
Speaker 1:I will pack an extra day on or even an extra afternoon. I'll grab a later flight and get in late to have five or six hours just to sit and, honestly, sometimes I'll just sit by a pool, read a book, maybe knock out some emails, because I know if I take that time to do that, I'm showing up as the best version of me the next day, especially for my kids, right? So the times where I don't get that and I'm landing and I'm right back into it like I'm tired, I might have all these things floating through my head that I need to get done and they're not getting the best version of me because you know, I have this list in my head, I've got it. You know what I mean, so I can't focus on them. So there's, I need to start working that in a little bit more and I'm trying to. But I do these micro days, so I take one day here, half a day there and that recharges me Interesting.
Speaker 2:Interesting. Okay, so we've established that you have a lot going on, a lot of amazing things that you're doing. You operate at a totally different clip than most people, which is great. It sounds like 2012 was a huge transition year. You've mentioned that a couple of times. We want to back up though, talk about the origin of Keith Sampson and kind of build back to who you are today. So tell us, where are you originally from? What did life look like for you in the beginning?
Speaker 1:So I'm originally from Maryland, outside of Washington DC. I grew up in Prince George County, College Park, Atlanta. My dad was a pastor. My mom and dad both worked full-time ministry, so I grew up in that perspective, In that line of work and in that area we grew up. I mean poverty level.
Speaker 1:I mean so in the 80s and 90s, when you have a combined income of you know two adults that are working but in ministry, plus three boys and you're living in between on in between 25 to $30,000, like it was hand-me-downs. It was no name brand stuff. My first job was like I started raking leaves and like hustling when I was younger, but my first official paycheck was from copying products incorporated. I was 14 years old, so I still have the original pay stub. It was like I pay like 323 an hour or something and, uh, you know, cleaning, copying parts and cleaning the office and making coffee or whatever needed to be done. Um, so you know one. It was an amazing childhood. Um, our vacations, we didn't get it. I never went to Disney until I was way older. I was a human adult.
Speaker 1:Our vacations were awesome and it was people that my dad knew, like his best friend, bill Cadoux, who's been. Him and his wife and family have been missionaries over in England now for a long, long time. His dad was, at the time growing up, an exec at Exxon and they had a place on Gibson Island on the Chesapeake Bay like a private island, gated community and stuff. So we'd go there once a week in the summer to vacation and it was free you know what I mean and it was an hour from our house, but it was a massive escape and I have some amazing memories of that. Or we'd go up to upstate New York and stay with my aunt, uncle and cousins and we went to Cooperstown. So we found ways to do family vacations that besides just some travel expense, we didn't have hotels, we didn't have planes, we didn't have park tickets and everything else, and that was great. That was completely fine, because we have amazing memories.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I decided to come out here to go to Grace after visiting it and having friends from youth conference and stuff like that. So fast forward then to my sophomore year. Uh, when I was home in between my freshman and sophomore year, uh, my dad was starting to develop some things that we didn't know what it was. You can literally physically see his muscles twitching while he's sitting there watching TV or we're hanging out and everything. And we didn't know. We started going to the doctor and stuff and as progressively was just getting more irritating for him.
Speaker 1:So then that Christmas break of it would have been, you know, Christmas of 96, we go home, I go home for Christmas, and it's been getting worse. So he's got appointments set up at John Hopkins Hospital, and so I remember knowing when something was really really bad, because when they took me back to the airport and this is back when parents, whoever could walk all the way to the gate, you know what I mean you could go to the gate and hang out with people until they boarded the plane, and so we were trying to get to my flight on time and my dad could not keep up going through the airport, which is, I mean, here's your idol, your former baseball coach and everything else, your idol.
Speaker 1:You know your former baseball coach and everything else and he literally couldn't keep up going through the airport. So my mom and I got to the gate. He finally arrived and I just at that point knew, okay, this is just off, like this is not right. And uh, so he had that appointment at john hopkins hospital and I was wait, patiently waiting, and we had some suspicions, uh. But I remember sitting at grace college's cafeteria on january 27, 1997, waiting for notification and my pager goes off Pagers right.
Speaker 1:And so I go up to two flights of stairs, grab that tan plastic phone off the wall, dial my extension to get out and sit down on the bricks below it and my mom answers. I'm like, hey, mom, what's going on with dad? And she goes let me put him on the phone and let him explain. So he gets on the phone, hey, they diagnosed me with Lou Gehrig's disease. So that moment you never forget hearing that you know your dad has a terminal illness. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I don't remember much after that. Like the rest of the conversation is like Charlie Brown's teacher Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. And I remember going back downstairs and connecting with some of my friends and we went to a Bible study that night and prayed and just really trying to wrap life around it. So now fast forward March, and again they're in Maryland. I'm in Indiana, roughly 650 miles away, and trying to figure out, like, do I go back home? Do I stay here? Like, how much time does he have? And there's still so many unknowns at this point.
Speaker 1:And I go back home for the first time in March, and this is what I consider my second watershed moment in life. And my cousin Ray pulls me off to the side hey, keith, how you doing? You know, ray is an awesome person and I'm like well, you know, my dad has a terminal illness. Besides that, I'm doing pretty good and he goes. You know you have two choices. Neither one of them's wrong, but what you decide can determine everything. And he goes. Are you going to go through it? Are you going to grow through it? And I remember, because a lot of it I talked about my upbringing. I kind of already knew the direction that I was settling in immediately from that question, but I really let it sit for about 24 hours and I remember sitting on the carpeted steps of that house and consciously deciding I'm going to choose to grow through this. And that was my start of what I now call a growth mindset journey. Now, I've never read the book growth mindset.
Speaker 1:I kind of don't want to because I have my own whole aspect of it definition, experiences and everything else Right and uh and I know people that have experienced that. It's amazing, but this is, I call it, the start of my growth mindset journey, cause what I found was, by stepping into that choice to grow, growth and anger can't coexist right. So we were not happy, obviously, with my dad's situation, but you can still find joy in it. You can still find opportunities to use the stories to bring value to others. Everything became a lesson. It wasn't. It wasn't. Yeah, we were sad. I mean, trust me, like it took him in a year and a half, which was incredibly aggressive. So when we were kind of rewind it, he had it for years before and now, knowing you can kind of look back and go oh, that's why he was slowing down at practice, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like there, there were things of that nature, um and it, but it really moved through and progressively quick and through that process too it was he was maybe hoping to have five years and it was like, hey, don't put your life on hold. You know, we prayed about it and knew that my place was in Indiana and not going back to Maryland and I'd go home as much as I could and it was like this massive digression each time. But, um, but yeah, he, he, he went on to be with the Lord on July 27th 1998. And um, and even even that, like the lessons again, when, when you're in that growth mindset place and you're trying to pull all the good you can from it and you're trying to pull all the lessons, uh, he was in the hospital, um, and he, he as a pastor and stuff, he was praying. All right, god, take me before I have the ability to speak. Wow, okay.
Speaker 1:He's like because he felt I won't have worth if I can't at least verbally use what I'm going through to highlight him, to enhance his kingdom. He thought that's when my value would end. So that's what his prayer was. And he lost the ability to speak, if I correctly, sometime around, like clearly speak I want to say like in between march and may of 98. So he went on for quite a while with the inability to speak and um and uh. So here he was and uh, they went into the hospital to have feeding to put in.
Speaker 1:My mom is just a rock star. She took care of him and and did all this stuff and they were supposed to go home and she's in the room packing up all their stuff and, um, you know, she goes to wake from drool away from his face and there's no response. He'd passed away, wow, and so most people that pass away. Lou Gehrig's disease passed away from suffocation because it affects your, your diaphragm, okay, and uh, he passed away when they did the autopsy stuff. His heart had stopped and ALS does not affect the heart. So it was like at that point God was like all right.
Speaker 2:You're good yeah.
Speaker 1:Sorry, you've done your job, yeah, and like, it took me years to understand why, because, again, it wasn't a why in a negative way, it was a why in like how can I learn from this way? And there's a very big difference in asking why right To understand why. God let him go from the time he couldn't speak all the way through and Bill said it at his funeral he goes. Lloyd taught us one final lesson. He showed us how a follower of Christ should die, and that started to hit me. But it was years and years and years later I'm sitting with Chuck Yeager at Boathouse and he'd lost Tracy, right.
Speaker 1:And you know, the question's always like why do bad things happen to good people? Well, number one, we live in a sinful and broken world and nobody's immune from it. And when you understand and know that, again, how can you really blame anybody? It's just, it's what's going to happen. But number two, my dad died at 51, okay, and you know his testimony was I got saved at the age of eight, promptly wasted 20 years of my life, I mean dropped out of high school, eight years in the Navy, vietnam lived the Navy life After he got out he started, or towards the end of being out. That's when he met my mom, when he was a military police officer and really started focusing on Christ again and, you know, became a pastor.
Speaker 1:Over 500 people showed up for his funeral and so it's like wow, he did so much in this short period of time. What more could have been done with the rest of his life? And I'm sitting there with Chuck and we're talking about this and that's when it hit me Like, hold on a second. What if his story, even dying at the age of 51, could do more to impact the kingdom of God, more to bring value to people, more to impact humans than the rest of his life could have done? And then the follow-up question is how does that happen? And it's people like myself.
Speaker 1:We now have a responsibility to tell that story, to use those experiences to bring value to others. So if you think about that, you can have 10 people who my dad impacted, let's say, or even just one, like if I'm able to use the story to take the stage and impact the lives of more people than he could have. What if you 10X that right? But I think oftentimes many people don't enter into that place to understand the gift that we're given in grief, the gift that we're given in tragedy, the gift we're given in the ability to grow and bring value to others, and it doesn't get realized and that story then ends instead of being used in a way to possibly impact the lives of others.
Speaker 1:So that was another major like aha moment through part of that journey, but that's why I refer to it like that was my second watershed moment in life. I've had five, but that was a continuation of that and for those that don't know what a watershed is, it's where water either goes this way or this way. It will never end up. You know, once it goes this direction, it will never end up in this body of water over here.
Speaker 1:And it's a similar. We have these moments in life that are fundamentally life-changing based on a choice, and once we make that choice we will never end up back over. You know, it might end up doing some things we could have done in a couple of different ways. I'm talking life-changing decisions, this, that choice to grow through it instead of go through it. It changed my life personally, changed my life from business I mean absolutely everything. It added a filter that I cannot exist and function without it running through.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow. Thank you for sharing that. That's incredible, absolutely incredible. So, taking that watershed moment um moving forward, uh, forward, uh, so that that all transpires for you late 90s, what's next for you? What's the next in the storyline? Yeah, um.
Speaker 1:so I graduate, uh, college still very, uh, young, immature, and everything else. I started working at Wildman in 2000. Another major component of what shaped me, steve Bryant, was the CEO, and he recently passed away as well, and he's the second most influential person in my life short of my dad, right, and the 10 plus years I spent there, also professionally and personally, developed me in in big, big ways. Uh, steve played a massive role in that. The other one was just being around in a company of just like great people, right, great human beings, and so, um, I consider like my third watershed moment in life is really where you know what kickstarted my change. The world is my, why, right, what I have literally tattooed on my arm can't't escape it. So when I started working at Wildman, I'd been friends with Josh and you know wakeboarding and going on Youth Price Street Chips, and I knew the Wildman family a little bit and I knew they did quote good things with the money they made from the company. I had no idea of details and stuff.
Speaker 1:But as I worked there and started in sales and became sales manager, we doubled the size of the company in three and a half years. It was a five-year strategic plan that we finished in three and a half years and we had a celebratory meeting at the upper room at the Boathouse restaurant and we went through the numbers right, and I again I can't tell you all the numbers and everything. I can't remember most of it, but at one point Karen got up and said hey, as leadership, we want you guys to know some of the good things that's happening around the world because of the job that you're doing and the Wildmans, as I know you guys know them they're very private individuals.
Speaker 1:They don't ever want any kind of like pat on the back aspect of things, so they'd always kept this stuff very, very close to the chest and they went through and talked about the well-dwelling trucks in Africa with Water for Good, which I kind of knew a little bit. They just went into more detail. But then there was one story where they had supported an orphanage in Romania. Again, kind of knew about that, and through that, though, they found out. Now remind you, this is back in 2003. And I don't know where Romania sits, sits today, but at least back then their government was much more I don't call it bad in Romania, and so the laws in Romania are way different than you know, obviously adoption rules, all the different stuff, healthcare and everything. So they had found out and what the way it was back then is that a woman could come into a hospital and give birth to a baby, leave the baby and just leave Right, just I mean like abandon the baby. So if you Google like child abandonment in Romania, you see it's still a problem, but it was way more rampant back then. So now you have this child abandonment issue at this hospital and then you combine that with the lack of resources and healthcare. Um, and then you combine that with the lack of resources and healthcare, so what the Wildmans had found out through this orphanage that they supported, that a hospital would take these abandoned babies that they didn't have the resources to care for, and then they would wheel these abandoned babies into abandoned wing in the hospital on Friday and then Monday morning they had opened up the doors and whichever ones are still alive, they'd bring them back in and care for them. Okay, and this would go on week after week, step and repeat until you know, as the, as they got old enough, they'd then go to orphanages, and that's kind of one of those things you hear and you can't unhear, right. Well, they stepped into that and said you know, we have the power to do something. So wildman, as a company, started paying wages, supplies and everything else to take care of those abandoned babies in that abandoned wing of the hospital.
Speaker 1:And in that moment that's where it hit me Like there was the idea of like you can do good through business, but then you can have purposeful awareness that you can change lives and I remember looking. It was one again. That's why I call it my third watershed moment. I remember looking down at the carpet, the yellowish, beige walls, and going, oh my gosh, I'm not out here selling uniforms, napkins and mats. I'm saving lives, wow.
Speaker 1:And it forever changed what I felt when I went to work and I also, almost instantaneously, had that passion ignited in me to say I want every single person to feel this too, from the janitor, the CEO, right. We all do the exact same thing one time a day. We all all wake up, swing our feet off to the side of the bed and our feet hit the ground and in those split seconds we're either happy and excited about what we're going to go do or we're not. And the power that comes with purpose and fulfillment through the workplace can change all of that. And you know and that's really what started to ignite the idea that businesses, in my opinion, is the greatest untapped vertical for personal fulfillment and purpose.
Speaker 1:And so if businesses can create opportunities to feel what I felt in that moment, that's an absolute game changer. And when you really understand that, it improves performance, all your KPIs, it decreases turnover, I mean, it gives it's all the reasons what companies are looking for today, to how do I retain and attract top talent. People want more than a paycheck, so how do you give it to it as a fundamental piece of corporate culture? And so you know, that's, that's the way I have changed the world. And so it can be on a micro level, from putting a smile on somebody's face that needs it today, or having a conversation or opportunity like this that somebody hears and goes oh my goodness, we can do that in our business. And the residual trickle effect I may never even know, don't care, don't need to. It's why I do what I do. Wow, so that you know. But even that was 2003.
Speaker 2:So there's still a lot of like momentum and springboarding that takes place.
Speaker 1:But again it all goes back to that choice to grow through it. If I don't think I chose to grow through it back then number one I guarantee you I'm not sitting here today. Number two I don't even know if I would have experienced that moment with the filter that I had to understand and realize that impact. Does that make sense, Like so?
Speaker 1:these things kind of stack on each other and that's why, like when I do speaking, and even whether I'm talking about customer experience or sales performance or leadership development, it's all anchored in that choice to grow through it and identifying five key characteristics of people that are on that journey and, like, like, it impacts absolutely everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely no. This is why we love doing this, Right Cause it's like I've known you for years and I've I've, you know watched up close at, sometimes watched from afar through social media, and I've seen how you operate and the ways that you communicate and this constant idea of growth, mindset and change the world. And now I understand why. You know all the way back to that moment, you know in the late nineties, of go through it or grow through it, and now it's like it just gives me this lens to understand you in a way that I really hadn't before.
Speaker 2:So, incredible, absolutely incredible.
Speaker 4:Well, and it's so great to be able to take, yeah, your story, your life journey, and be able to, like, look at that in ours and like, do we filter? You know our lives as we hear that story, because there's a lot of people who may listen to this and they're like you know, that's awesome, that's not my story, or it's like that's not. You know, I haven't gone through something. It's so easy to take that like mindset of yeah, it's great, you get up as early as you do and you do all these things.
Speaker 1:That's not me, yeah, well, and here's the the amazing thing about that you don't have to wait for tragedy.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And that's one of the things that I speak about Like I could. I could be on stage, talk to hundreds of people about that and in that moment, that person sitting in the seat has the power to say I'm going to choose to grow through the rest of my life or I'm going to choose to go through the rest of my life. You don't have to wait for a tragedy or this momentous thing. And like what I found is like when people choose to grow through it. I think it provides a balance where the lows in life aren't so low and the highs in life aren't so high.
Speaker 1:Like we've all seen that Somebody experiences that Superbowl moment and they crash because they're not at this balanced place to take it on.
Speaker 1:They do experience the worst day of their life and they're not equipped to handle it, and it can spin off in a hundred different directions. It's kind of like one of those trick questions I like to ask an audience of people is, by show of hands, how many people have experienced the best day of their life? Right, and then I saw the flip side how many of you guys experienced the worst day of your life? And what's funny is not everybody's hands gets raised in those two questions and it's kind of a trick question. And I go back to them and say, at this point in time, you have experienced both.
Speaker 1:Okay, it doesn't mean, if I asked you that same question 25 years from now, that both of those days will be the exact same ones you're thinking of today. Guarantee you, you probably will have a worse day for most of you in the room than what we've had. Are you prepared to handle it? And it doesn't matter where you are in life. Maybe you've never had a loss of a parent or a child or somebody super close to you. You will at some point in time.
Speaker 4:Yeah, man, so good, how, yeah, how, would you incur, like someone wants to take that like active step? Cause that is like I mean that's a, that's a. I mean you talk about a filter, it's a mind shift of like looking through what are some of those like tangible for you, like cause. You still have those days where you feel overwhelmed, ill-equipped, like man, like I don't know if I have the energy to grow through this today. It's like what are some of those things that you've found in your experience?
Speaker 1:So, again, this comes from years of kind of stacking stuff onto it. So, like I said, I've identified five key characteristics of people who are on that journey. Okay, and those are some of the things that help. Number one continuous learner. Like you really enter into this humble place with confidence of like, until the day I die, I'm going to be learning. Like, until the day I die, I'm going to be learning. Like the people that kind of think, I know it all and I and you know whatever you're limiting actually your opportunities to grow and everything right, because you're not seeing different things happen before your eyes because you're already there. Okay. So number one characteristic is being a continuous learner.
Speaker 1:Huge Cause, even when I enter that day, I'm like, okay, what can I learn from this? Okay, what can I go draw on as a resource to help me get through it? Number two rooted in gratitude. So people that are on this journey enter this place of, like, extreme gratitude, ownership, and I it took me a while to get there and there's some days I don't feel that, but one of the easiest steps that somebody can do is just start a gratitude journal and I did that back in like 2012. Again, that's one of the things I did, was I just every single day wrote down three things I'm grateful for. Try not to repeat it, but it could be as simply, as simple as like the sunrise this morning. It doesn't have to be magnificent and like huge and deep. Just what three things impacted me today that I can say I'm grateful for that moment, I'm grateful for a conversation, grateful for dinner tonight, whatever it is right, access to water, like all these, yeah, yeah, so many things.
Speaker 1:And then usually like, hey, one thing I want to think about or pray about, Right, and so I did that for months and that really helped shift my mindset to being in a more thing and being able to might find automatically, without having to do it, little things throughout the day that I'm grateful for. Uh. The third thing is uh, so I'm trying to go off top of my head here without having any of my notes in it. The third thing is resiliency. Okay, so people who are on this journey develop a resiliency and I know resiliency is thrown out a lot.
Speaker 1:It's really really important from a lot of different perspectives, but because of those other two and because of the idea of growth, resiliency isn't, in my mind, the same as people that say I'm resilient. It's the understanding that, no, I'm not just going to stand there and take it. It's understanding I am going to get knocked down and when that happens it's not a matter of if it's when that happens how am I getting back on one knee, how am I getting back on two feet? You know what I mean, and having the knowledge and the strength of like that will be me. When it happens, that will be me. The fourth thing is understanding how to play the long game, and this is the number one thing. If I could go back and have a conversation with the 16 to 22 year old Keith for five minutes, it's not who wins the Superbowl like Marty McFly or anything else like that?
Speaker 1:right, like it's literally going I want to ingrain this into your head how to play the long game and what that means. And so people that are on this journey start. Whether you consciously think about it or not, they understand like I'm at this point. I'm 46. I expect to live to be in my nineties Okay, and as medicine continues advance, who knows what that can be.
Speaker 1:So when you lay life out as a timeline and you go from here to here I did this and we talked about, like you know, in the nineties and 2012, like I can wake up tomorrow and be like I hate everything I'm doing and I want to become a lawyer and I could go back to law school and I could have an awesome law career for 20 years. Like life, like everybody thinks, and it creates this immense amount of unhappiness, of these expectations that I have to be here at this certain time. Man, you have such a long game in front of you and when you lay that out again, that really helps bring balance. That, yeah, today kind of sucks, but the reality is it's like this microscopic blip and as long as I don't do something that really derails me for what I can do in the future, like just get up and do it again the next day.
Speaker 1:So understanding how to play the long game and having that perspective. And then the fifth thing is really understanding the power of influence. And the power of influence, I think, is absolutely critical because that is it kind of coincides a little bit with continuous learning. So the what I consume, how I challenge my inputs, what I choose to put in right, is one of those things of understanding the power of influence. But it's also understanding I have the power to influence the lives of others and others have the power to influence the lives of me. So who am I choosing to surround myself with? Who are the people that I have? If I were to be in a foxhole when it hits the fan like, who do I want in there with me? Who are my closest circle of people?
Speaker 1:And I think those are the things that when you do experience those days that you just don't quite feel it and you have the freedom and flexibility to pick up the phone and call one of those people and they're there to help lift you up. Man like, understand the power of that is absolutely incredible. So those five things kind of really help move that journey. And how you do you deal with the hard days, you deal with the great days with more balance and more long game perspective. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, definitely, I always think about like the seasons of life and it's like you're going to have and sometimes those seasons, it's yeah, it truly is a season. Sometimes you have multiple seasons in a day. It's like it truly is a season. Sometimes you have multiple seasons in a day. It's like you can start your day and it's you come out of a first meeting or something that's rough and it's like OK, is that going to define the rest of my day or am I going to be like, yeah, I'm going to grow through this.
Speaker 4:I always, yeah, gratitude is my huge thing, because it's you can't, it's so. I mean, I'm going to say it's impossible to be like in a negative headspace whenever you're practicing gratitude Absolutely, and so, anytime, whenever I'm feeling it's like rundown stress, it's like where you start to feel that way, it's just like trying to flip okay, what am I grateful for? What are those little things today that like yeah, that it just flips that mindset that starts to get you thinking of like, okay, how am I going to grow through this? Um, so, yeah, that's.
Speaker 2:I love all those Awesome, awesome. So you, you started your career obviously you're with Wildman for a number of years. That had a huge impact on you. And then you know, I know you were with PayProTech working for other people. I remember a conversation with you where you said I'm kind of pushing all the chips in and I'm betting on myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so in in in 2022 as well, actually kind of really started in 2020. Okay, Um, when COVID hit and everything kind of got reset, Um, I at the time I was working for North American bank card and I was in charge of, like the partner, some different partner programs and the partner experience, and I was doing training events and everything, and so one of those events, uh, it would put together these roadshows. It was in Atlanta and literally in Atlanta when everything started really turning sideways. We were almost going to go to the last NBA game that night. Okay, so here we are in Atlanta doing this event. I have 25, 30 partners there and the NCAA tournament's getting canceled. We don't know what's going on. And this is a big part of my job, right, and I'm going. Okay, in April I have this event in Miami I have another one in Vegas.
Speaker 1:What if events start getting canceled? What do I do? How do I continue to bring value to others? What does this look like? And it kind of started wrapping in my head and I realized it was either sitting in the airport or on the plane, because I was taking notes in both. I remember doing that, going hold on a second. Do I have to be present in the room to bring value to others?
Speaker 1:And I started mapping out what it would look like to take these in-person road shows virtual. And I'm writing this stuff on the airplane and we have all of these different vendors and people who would sponsor and participate in these. And I drafted this email that I then sent the next day saying, hey, we don't know what's going to happen, but if this looked like something that we could put together and start doing virtual events, would that be something you'd be interested in? And it was this massive, overwhelming yes from all like 40 different companies I sent this to. So then I'm trying to go okay, I've got to approach my boss at this and sell them on the idea. And at this point, yeah, like St Patrick's Day is canceled. I mean, we're talking like we're at this moment.
Speaker 2:Right now you know what I mean, Like four years ago.
Speaker 1:And, um, and we're going into it and I have to like sell them. On this whole idea of I can do this virtually and at this point things are getting, but I had jumped on Amazon and bought like a $200 light kit with a backdrop and another, you know, webcam and a microphone and like some basic stuff to do what it would take before you know, eventually it all sold out. It couldn't buy, it couldn't buy anything for virtual experiences for like months. Uh, and we're now on lockdown and I get and he gives me the green light, uh, to go. Yeah, go for it. So, um, I grab. At this point you're not like everything's closed, you're not going anywhere. I'm in my garage grabbing two by fours and old curtain rods and fortunately I'd grabbed the backdrop from our sales conference and I had that.
Speaker 1:I make this set in my basement and literally the first one, I mean I'm using a, uh, like a Brio two camera like webcam, and I've got two different cameras up and using, go to meeting and so in a matter of like I think it was like 10 days I got, I've organized this, I don't know if, and please, if somebody corrects me when I'm wrong, I'm totally fine with that it was the first ever virtual sales conference, at least in the payment space. And so on April 7th and 8th and we did it for free because they was like you're going to charge, I was like no, and and we did it for free because they was like you're going to charge, I was like no, and this is really where I started getting into that value, value, value aspect of things. Nope, we, everybody's at home. We just give this to them. We have people that don't have anything else to do. They're sitting at home. We have a captive audience.
Speaker 1:And so on April 7th and 8th, uh, did a two day sales conference and, if I remember correctly, we had over 350 attendees. We had, I think it was like 19 sessions with 14 outside companies. And then I did the other ones and then two keynote speakers also that did it for free as well Robin Phillips from Brains on Fire and the amazing Ryan Estes, who was our keynote at the conference in 2019. So it was. I mean, you look at the virtual things that people do now and stuff like this and stages. Like you, if artists, if you were to look at that content and like it's so amateur out, but the but the impact was real, right, and the value is real, and that's where I and I and I walked away from that going.
Speaker 2:I'm actually kind of good at this.
Speaker 1:Like and getting virtual it's. You know, it's one thing to stand up in front of 20 people and hone that skill and then 200, but to then get on camera and knowing on the computer there's 300 people on here but you're not seeing any of them. It really helped me step into embracing this authenticity of who I am, and it doesn't matter whether you're looking through a camera or you're in front of 1,000 people. You can do this. And then that kind of springboarded some opportunities to be on some podcasts and I started doing a whole virtual events once a month, doing a virtual roadshow, and then eventually we went back face to face. Those became hybrid and and so. But in 2020, I realized I'm like, I love this, like I have a passion for bringing value to people in a bigger way than just my job. What does it look like for me to eventually be able to walk away from this and I'm not talking in a negative way or anything else, just like. What does it look like? What do I have to do to say it's time for me to just do this? I knew my potential and I speak a lot around the idea of maximize your potential. Through that growth mindset journey, I knew my potential was capped as long as I worked for somebody else. That journey I knew my potential was capped as long as I worked for somebody else. But I also knew not quitting tomorrow. Right, I like there was going to take steps on this. So it really started a two year process of what does it look like to continue to invest in myself from an education perspective and different opportunities to bring the best that I can to every single thing I'm doing for my corporate employer to both improve on me hit my integrity of doing what I'm doing to get paid for and then some but also understanding that, as I did, that that would build equity that I could cash in outside of it, right. And then also financially preparing myself to be able to pay the bills when I take that step potentially preparing myself to be able to pay the bills when I take that step. So that's what happened in 2022.
Speaker 1:I hit that point and I remember the moment I was in it was April and I was out in Arizona for the Global Leadership Presidents Gathering and I was talking to a gal and she oversees like a bunch of the international youth stuff and we started talking about like this growth mindset and she's like you know, would you ever be interested in potentially doing some content for us and which, unfortunately, I have not done? Life is just a little bit too crazy and I'm not. I have some stuff I'm working on that hopefully will be accepted someday. But, as she asked me that I'm going, this is amazing and I want to say yes. But I have zero margin to say yes, like here's everything that I want to do to be able to bring impact and value to other people. And in that moment I knew I'm like it's time, it's time, it's time to start to make that, to make that exit. So I resigned in July of 2022. My last day was in August and, yeah, so that's when I made that conscious decision to go in, all in on me Right At that point I just opened the store and so I was able to step into that, instead of employees doing it and focus on the consulting, really step into that speaking training.
Speaker 1:And in my own portfolio, I tried at 21 and just let it go. Let's see where it's going. And in 2021, that October it was my first real. I talked about investing and even while I was a corporate employee, investing in myself. So things like the Global Leadership Summit and taking know and taking those opportunities to put that type of content and development into myself.
Speaker 1:And then I chose to do my first ever professional speaking bootcamp and the group is now Impact 11, but it was Three Ring Circus back there and back then and I went to. It was it cost me eight grand between the bootcamp travel and hotel, um to attend this two day bootcamp in Nashville, tennessee, and it was amazing. It was absolutely amazing and what it did was it? Uh, from a speaking perspective, it showed me how much work I still had to do and like in so many ways like wow, I'm way further off than I thought I was, but in other ways it was like I'm actually closer in some ways. But I now have this action plan. I have this runway that I feel is shortened, but because of the other things in life, again playing the long game, it's not like I have these expectations. So I even talked to Ryan Estes, who was there. I said I now have an action plan. I'm gonna know when.
Speaker 1:I was able to do a keynote for a group in Hawaii and then I did a keynote talk for EPI at their impact conference in Orlando and you know 400 people in there and it was founded against the Growth Mindset Foundation, plus then applying it from the payments perspective in a certain program. And when I walked both in while it was in process and walking off that stage, it just felt so clean. I could feel the impact that was happening in the room Right. And when the CEO and Mike walks up and goes man, that was so good. He's like I'm so glad I don't have to go. After that, it was that like all right, it's time. And I'm literally five minutes later texting Ryan and I knew that because I get emails they have another bootcamp and masterclass in Scottsdale in December. I'm like so Scottsdale?
Speaker 2:huh, you know.
Speaker 1:And so I invested again in myself, joined the community from Impact 11 and went all in on that, attended bootcamp and masterclass, just to continue to develop myself, not just as a speaker, not just as a speaker, not just as somebody to bring value to others, but I also can apply it to other businesses because the concepts I just did a masterclass in San Diego with Peter Sheehan and you know he's dropping some bombs and I'm I'm applying that as more than just a speaker. I'm like that's applicable over here, that's applicable over here as well, with the different things that I'm into and uh, yeah, it's. It's such a fun, fun place to be able to recognize my goal of being the best version of myself continues to move forward. You know I'm the most I'll be people go. You know flaws. I'll raise my hand, I'll stand at the front of the line.
Speaker 1:I am so far from perfect. I am a sinner, I am broken, I fail every single day. I fail some of the closest people that have been my life. You know what I mean Like. But part of that self-awareness, I think, is absolutely critical and it's just. But I want to continue to take those steps to be the better version of me.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean you're, you're growing through those failures.
Speaker 4:It's like you know that we're going to fail. That's just part of life, but we're going to continue to grow through that. And yeah, I, I get excited thinking about, like as you're, you're pouring into like the self-development. It's not just for you to be a better you know, just for you, it's because you know that you're gonna be able to impact other people and pour into their lives.
Speaker 4:And it's just this like, yeah, the cycle of making the world a better place, changing the world, yep, amazing yeah, it's like you know, this year my word is a discomfort. Okay.
Speaker 1:And uh, yeah, I kind of said I started settling into that uh a little while ago. But, like to, what you're saying is to make the world a better place, to bring value to other people, to stretch yourself, to be the best version of you, to do that Guess what. It's not going to be comfortable and uh, I was consuming Mike Todd's book A Crazy Faith as I was praying for my first half marathon. I'm running a seven-mile run on the strip back in this would have been April of 2022, right, yeah, and I'm listening to it, and he has a line in that book nothing great comes from being comfortable and that was really kind of that springboard into. Okay, I like that and that's very, very true. Fast forward through. Like last year, I read David Goggins' books and one of them I did twice.
Speaker 1:I pushed myself. In my second half marathon, I really started embracing discomfort. And then the last book I consumed was Sterling Hawkins' book Hunting Discomfort. That was my last book for 2023. And as I finished that book, I'm like that's my word for 2024. For me to continue to move into stuff I have to purposely hunt and embrace discomfort. Welcome it, find it, because he has an amazing line in that book. It goes something along like on the other side of discomfort is not only growth but life's greatest experiences. And when you think about those memories, some of discomfort is not only growth but life's greatest experiences. And when you think about those memories, some of those things that you do, it is, it's in the face of discomfort that pushes us and makes it through. And when you do it, when you accomplish it, it's those foundational core experiences that you have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so for people listening who are, you know, maybe at this place of I want to take a step of development in my life, or maybe I'm at this intersection of this watershed moment, like you described. We can go one way or the other. Yep, what's your?
Speaker 1:encouragement Don't run from it. Number one I think that's the easiest thing to do is, again, it's that idea of's, that idea of discomfort and people being used to wanting to be comfortable.
Speaker 1:I think when you have those moments, you are going to feel uncomfortable making that choice. What is it? The road less traveled, that path less traveled, is traveled by few because it can be a little bit more difficult. So I think that's kind of one of those first things is, if you really want to step into the idea of I'm going to grow through life instead of go through it, you've got to be with the understanding that guess what? Yeah, it's not going to be comfortable a lot of the times and it may get really darn uncomfortable at moments.
Speaker 1:I was listening to a book recently and like and I had this great analogy and like, if all you do, if you and your friends hang out and drink, right, they're the friends you hang out with when you're outside drinking, hanging out, and all of a sudden you decide I'm not going to drink anymore what usually happens in those types of circles right, you kind of dissipate off Guess what. That may move you into a better version of yourself and that's going to be incredibly uncomfortable. I'm using that kind of as a way. I'm not saying that you know, hey, man, I'm a fan of good tequila and wine and stuff. So I'm just using that as an analogy of how life can change, even in your social circles and everything else, when you say I need to make a choice to be a better version of me, whatever that looks like. So, number one, understand that that's going to be uncomfortable. Number two the sooner you can get a little bit authentic and vulnerable with somebody that you can trust whether it's even a therapist or whatever to have that person in your corner to where you feel the struggle that will exist. Like find that person, like community is such such a critical thing for personal development and and you know, I've got different communities in my life based on some of the different things that I'm doing and having that support structure will help you deal with imposter syndrome, the feeling of like I don't deserve a seat at this table or I don't belong here, I'm not good enough, or you know. Help realize that comparison should never exist. Like you're on your own journey, like having a community around you is really really important for those steps.
Speaker 1:And then I would say the third is just understand, like that idea of the long game is don't put the expectations that you need to be somewhere at any given time on a certain timeline. It's why I love goals and not expectations. And so to clearly define that, an expectation is like, let's say I want to be here Great, that's a goal. I want to be here by this time. That's an expectation. So what happens if you get 90% by that time and you don't hit it?
Speaker 1:The natural side of expectations not realized is disappointment. Disappointment breeds unhappiness. Unhappiness and growth can't coexist. You could have been another month and you would have been exactly where you wanted to be. So the idea of having goals without the expectations means allow yourself that time to grow. Don't put the expectation of like I'll go, I'm choosing this. This means I should be here by this point in time and then here, no, no, no, no. Let that course take itself, because the truth is there's variables that happen in our life that are way outside of our control, and if you add expectations, it leaves no room for those variables to take place. Wow.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think of like, yeah, the I mean from running and like races and stuff. It's like you set an expectation of I'm going to show up to this race, I'm going to run this time, and then you have a bad race, yep, and it's like how many people quit at that point Because it's like they had an expectation that didn't hit it. But whenever you have that long, long-term mindset, that's just another, that's another learning experience for the next race, for the next like it's.
Speaker 1:You're gonna have these ebbs and flows and ups and downs and yeah, or an injury, yeah, I mean like I had that recently I just did my first marathon and I you know my three goals didn't have an expectation on time, this is my first one finish don't walk across the finish line and enjoy making the memory, and I ended ended up managing the race really well. I was super happy with it. My last five miles are my strongest. I never hit a wall. So there were tons of because I didn't lay those expectations and try to be at a certain point man goal number three of enjoying the memory absolutely hit and along the ways.
Speaker 1:I did different things, but my second event was supposed to be the Vegas Spartan 10K and because I did my first Spartan 10K last year and loved it, so I had five different ones I put on the map. So you know, in January I hyperextended my right elbow With that injury. I literally can't do pull-ups, I can't do anything overhead. I'm nursing this thing back. It's a slow recovery and, yeah, I was hoping to get to a place where I could start training for that. And then I just had to realize, like I'm not going to go run a race where I'm going to have to, like, run the penalty laps on, like almost all the obstacles, you know what, accept it, you couldn't control it, made the cancellation instead and jumped into San Diego impact 11 bootcamp, which is way better choice anyways, and just moved on.
Speaker 1:You know, like accepted, like okay, there's a variable to happen. I can't control it, it's going to impact this. Just move forward.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, so good. I mean I had a recent experience with I mean I'd been battling you know the flu multiple times. Like it was a rough start for me in 2024. Coming from someone who takes pride and like I don't get sick, that's just not my thing, yeah. And then getting humbled by that, yeah, starting off this year. But I mean I had the big I was planning on doing unbound, unbound xl 350 mile bike race biggest thing like I've ever taken on, super excited for it, and then get sick and just training takes a huge hit.
Speaker 4:And I went through the dark like like man, like do we even enjoy cycling? Like I'm never gonna get back into this. Like I had this like whole, like, yeah, your mind goes through all those tricks. I, I'm like no dude, I still love riding my bike. I'm just like this isn't, this isn't the season for this.
Speaker 4:And so, yeah, I had to make the tough call to pull my name from the start line, cause it's coming up, you know, in May, and I'm like there's no, there wasn't a point where I could get to the start line and feel good about it. It's like the sacrifices and time and commitment and what like we've got going on at work and everything and at home I'm just like this isn't the season, but it doesn't mean that it's not a future season. Is that yeah, shifting back into that long-term mindset of like, hey, how do I enjoy and, like, just fall in love with being on my bike again, um and so yeah, so I definitely I can relate to that because it's, yeah, sometimes those, those are some tough decisions whenever you have an injury or things come up that you're not expecting.
Speaker 1:But yeah, choosing to grow through it, yeah but I was just saying it's that filter, right. It's like having that filter in place, whereas I've seen plenty of other people that may not have that filter in place. It's something that happens and it rocks them. You know what I mean. And I've talked about like yeah, it changed my life personally and professionally, but it's like, like I said, it's all aspects. In fact, one of the things I've been toying around with to help emphasize this on stage is the idea of having a pitcher of water and two bowls right, and then having two different screens like a filter and talking about hey, with some people who aren't on this journey, and you pour your water through the filter that exists today and it comes out clear the other side there's no change, right.
Speaker 1:And then having I got to figure out how and somehow have like that filter, have like some kind of blue dye in it. And the idea of pouring that pitcher and as it runs through the filter, it fills the bowl in blue. You know what I mean. And the idea is like this is the filter, life is going, is the water, life is going to happen, and the filter that you apply it through changes what comes out on the other side.
Speaker 2:That's so good. You mentioned a moment ago imposter syndrome. And that's something that we all struggle with to some degree. So four years ago, you're turning on a webcam. You know starting your, your first virtual thing to now. You're standing on stages for hundreds of people, Talk to me about that imposter syndrome and and what that looks like for you and how you navigate through it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I mean, the reality is and Peter Sheehan said it, uh, at the San Diego bootcamp, like new studies show, all professionals experience some form of imposter syndrome. Some people might just try to lock it in a closet right and that can become unhealthy, absolutely. So, understanding that, all professionals I don't care where you are, what you're doing, entrepreneur to a salesperson, to a clerk, it doesn't matter we all will have because the reality is human nature wants to apply comparisons and compare. Comparisons are really, really unhealthy. John Acuff has a line that says don't let the start of your race be somebody else's middle, and I love that because, like, that's the easy thing for people to do, and so if you allow comparisons to creep in, that's really sets the start of that imposter syndrome, like.
Speaker 1:So here I am at the San Diego bootcamp, I'm at the start of my professional speaking career and there are people like Smiley is sitting next to me, dude is awesome, like, and he talks all about belonging, I mean his positive energy, like I could easily compare myself to him and be like I don't belong at this table. I mean, you look at Peter Sheehan, I'm up here giving a masterclass on this and the quality of the people, thought leaders, authors, you know, any one of those experiences is some of the best I've had in the last couple of years. I could easily sit there and go this, this is my room, like I don't belong here. No, I belong here. I'm just in a different place in the journey. And that's an incredibly powerful thing to do because you and especially in a community like that that literally is helping everybody move along forward on their journey.
Speaker 1:It's, you know, it's something to behold, and I think competitiveness in a lot of industries, a lot of spaces, creates unhealthy aspects of it. I think you know when, when people feel like, like I said, I'm turning on my camera, like, or, like you said, I'm turning my camera. Four years ago, for the first time, I was also at a place of like well, if I kind of screw this up, it is what it is, you know I have a little bit of that like sometimes nerdy uh, just go with it you know kind of a.
Speaker 1:Thing.
Speaker 1:Uh, so that kind of helps, but no, it's still. Stepping on stages is like, oh my gosh, I it. But a big piece of that is not making it about yourself, and I and I and I've watched this on a regular basis I'll see not speakers like from impact 11, like part of that is like, and then an understanding, like when you're taking the stage, it's not about you, it's not about your story, it's not about attention on you, it's about using those stories, using your message to impact the lives of others and move them forward, and the difference between a quality speaker. We could probably, if you're listening to this, you could probably think of people that I've seen, heard or whatever, and realize that was the difference. They got up there and made it about them instead of making it about the people in the audience.
Speaker 1:And so, like, even that first time, turning on the camera, I'm in my basement. My son helped me build a stage Like this is not about me and it's about bringing again value to others. And, same thing, you take that stage and whether it's 10 people or a thousand people, it's the same message because it's coming across with passion and and the desire to impact those lives. So it the audience size at that point doesn't really matter, because you're doing it with the right intentions and you're doing it from the right place.
Speaker 2:So good man. I love that, absolutely love that Gosh. Well, keith, this has been amazing as, as we kind of wrap up our time here, um, talk to us about future. What are you excited about? What are you dreaming about?
Speaker 1:Oh man. So, like, the here and now is actually a little bit stressful because of having, like, especially serve, being in the startup phase and being like okay, I got this capital investment, I just chose. You know, I just signed on to this CRM, I'm investing money and it's got. You know what I mean. There's, there's pieces of that, so, but that's reality. You know, if you're going to again, it's uncomfortable. You know I'm stepping in and embracing that discomfort in the season of this. So the future of me is continuing to be able to say yes to the opportunities of the right ones, but also understanding that there are going to be times I have to say no. And.
Speaker 1:I think part of and this goes into the customer experience side of things too. I teach and tell people if you want to provide an incredible customer experience, you have to know who you are. You equally have to know who you're not, and when you do that, you have to be able to say no. So the future for me, it has to be a little bit more strategic on what I say yes to and what I say no to, because I have so much going on right, I can't. I have to keep some margin. I have to, especially with kids and life and everything else. I have to keep some margin in place and life and everything else. I have to keep some margin in place so I can break it down to where again, the Trident, the client services that consumes in this season the least amount of my time. Cloud9, I was able to develop that within 11 months to where I can run it without being in it. I have an amazing team, so I work in there on certain days. I still do the marketing and the ordering and overall, but I don't have to be in it for them to execute on the amazing experience that we're doing. The majority of my time right now is the serve side of things, but then it's also when you go back to the speaking and some of the other stuff is.
Speaker 1:I'm entering the season of intentional reps, and by intentional reps I mean making sure that I'm out there finding opportunities to give this story with intention, whereas the last couple years hey, do you want to speak about this topic? Yeah, that sounds great. Hey, do you want to be on this panel? Yes, that sounds great. And you're getting the reps in to help strengthen your onstage experience and skills and the eloquence of it all and exposure to now being like, hey, I need to do this with intentionality and working in that growth mindset story, even if I'm like being invited in in a payments thing to speak about a certain topic, how do I still filter it through that with intentionality and really kind of move into that next phase of that career? Because you know, five or six years from now, the Keith that can take the stage then is going to look very different than the one that does it today. So how are the things that I'm doing today, like putting that Keith in a better place to have more impact? On the lives of others. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, so good, awesome, awesome. Man, how can our listeners engage with you, connect with you? What's, what's the best way? Linkedin.
Speaker 1:I'm most active on LinkedIn and Instagram and so on Instagram I've got a few different profiles, but the I am Keith Sampson one. That's the professional one. That's where I throw the value out. I do my Monday minute or fives on both of those and you know that was one of those things. Again, it started from the intent of bringing value and I did it in a closed Facebook group and then I made the mistake a couple of times on flipping like audiences instead of just the Facebook group.
Speaker 2:So hit like my personal.
Speaker 1:Facebook. And then I started getting comments, not realizing it like this is so good, but I'm like, oh, maybe I just need to start doing this for like everybody. And again it's you know that, that idea of stepping into that discomfort. I'm now throwing a piece of content out there for the world to see and open the doors for judgment or whatever else. But when you do it with the intention of I don't care about the likes, I don't care about the haters, if one person finds value from it, just one man, it was worth it, it was worth anything that could come from it to bring one value. When you're doing it from positive so I mean when I travel I may be off a day, but I've been doing it every single Monday now, I think, for like three years, and it's just, you know, a Monday minute or five. So it's essentially it's like around a minute, usually around three, but it's always less than five minutes just of a thought or a way to bring value. So, yeah, jump on Instagram, linkedin, you'll find me there.
Speaker 4:Perfect. Yeah, we'll definitely. We'll put those in the show notes. But yeah, I mean I can personally test that. I mean I've texted you on some of those. Be like man, like so good Cause it's, yeah, you never know where people are at. And so like you just just being consistent and constantly is putting out to like you are touching people's lives and hitting them and it's going to get used. So, uh, yeah, I appreciate your uh consistency and attention to keep keeping that going, cause it's yeah, it's fantastic.
Speaker 4:I've been in a couple spots where it's like a dark day or something kicking it off the week and I see those pop up and it's just life-giving and it's always good perspective, so I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:That's why I do it on Mondays. One of my things is Mondays is my favorite day of the week, and that usually is counterculture. Everybody wants a Friday or Saturday, right. I look at Mondays, as being like I get to set approach today determines the rest of the week and if you have a great week and then you go into the weekend after a great week come on awesome, yes, awesome.
Speaker 4:Last thing I want to ask real quick yeah, yeah is so. You said last year you had 25 books. Yeah, so what favorite read and what are you currently reading?
Speaker 1:okay, so currently and again, this is a fun thing about consuming books. Sometimes things hit with the timeliness of it, right. So right now I am reading, uh, consuming, uh, think ahead by craig rochelle. Okay, and that one in the season of life, like personally, and some of the other stuff, has been a like really I didn't want to hear this but I'm really glad I did. I mean that one has been a freaking home run, like where I'm at in my season life from a couple of different perspectives.
Speaker 1:Favorite read last year, I would say the most impactful one, because when it came to business and what I was doing through with serve and everything else was, um, uh, working geniuses, okay, yeah, that that one was great. And then I said that I got to throw a shout out again to Sterling Hawkins that last book, and it was on my list to want to read. And then I met him in person at the masterclass in Scottsdale and I'm like, all right, I've got to hurry up and finish these other books. I'm going to add this one to the end of the year and I did and I'm so glad I did.
Speaker 1:But I mean I consumed Ryan Leak, john Acuff, like there were so many good books. I don't know if I can like really go. This was the best one last year because they all, they all played a role, right. You know, uh, comfort Crisis, like again, all of those different things, like if I hadn't done Comfort Crisis and David Goggins's books then I wouldn't have had the filter I did when I read. Uh, you know, hunting, hunting, discomfort. You know what I mean so like they all build on each other.
Speaker 1:And when you're constantly consuming content like that and doing it in a way through the continuous learning like filter, that, like I, have always ways to improve and learn. I'm not just doing pages to say, hey, I finished another book.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I'm like constantly trying to be better. They do, they stack and they change the filter of how you perceive them and everything else.
Speaker 2:No, I think that's the key, being that curious mindset that I'm always learning. I mean that just sets you up for so much success. So, Keith, we love you man. Thank you so much for spending time with us sharing your story. I know it's going to have an impact and continue to have an impact. So thank you for the way you live your life. You're a huge part of our story and forever will be so. Uh, we really appreciate you.
Speaker 1:Likewise, guys, you keep crushing it and uh, keep telling people stories, keep creating amazing content and doing doing the work for others. It's, it's needed.
Speaker 2:Awesome. All right For all our listeners. Thanks for joining us today. Check out Keith, find him on social media and we will see you next time on Dream On Studios. Stories that Move. Thanks so much. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Stories that Move brought to you by Dream On Studios.
Speaker 4:Make sure to subscribe so that you don't miss the next episode. And remember, if you or your organization have a story you're eager to share with the world, Dream On Studios is here to bring that story to life.
Speaker 2:Don't hesitate to reach out. You can find us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or visit our website at dreamonstudiosio. We understand how overwhelming it can be trying to bring your vision and story to life, but that's why we exist, and we've walked alongside hundreds of clients doing that very thing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we believe every story has the potential to inspire, to move and to make a difference. Let's make yours heard.
Speaker 2:Until next time, keep moving forward and keep telling those stories that matter.
Speaker 4:Take care, everyone. We'll see you next time on Stories that Move news.