Exploring the Power of Networking and Goal-Setting with Mike Van Pelt

From discovering iconic restaurants to encounters with Bill Clinton, Mike shares insightful stories and reflects on event security changes. Additionally, we touch on networking for introverts, pushing boundaries, and the impact it can have on personal connections. With amusing anecdotes from his business ventures, spiritual journey, and consulting work, we delve into the coaching realm and how Mike differentiates himself through his podcast and networking. Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!

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Mike’s Links:

•  LinkedIn | @mikevanpelt

•  Website | https://truemanlifecoaching.com/ 

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GOLD NUGGETS:

(04:14) - The Beacon and Life Experiences

(14:52) - Networking and Nonprofits in Atlanta

(19:34) - Coaching and Networking for Business Growth

(33:50) - Overcoming Entrepreneurial Challenges and Crisis

(38:46) - Overcoming Crisis of Confidence in Business

(45:59) - DIY Nightmares and Customer Service

(52:37) - Podcast Progress and Motivation

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Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Beth Miller, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!

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If you loved this episode try these!

• Exploring Epic Vacations, Military Tales, and Home Remodeling Journeys | Dan Weidmann

• How to Launch Your Business to the Stratosphere with Chris Hanks

• Reshaping the Tech Industry With a Customer Experience Mindset

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Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!

From the Zoo to Wild is a book for entrepreneurs passionate about home services, looking to move away from corporate jobs. Chris Lalomia, a former executive, shares his path, discoveries, and tools to succeed as a small business owner in home improvement retail. The book provides the mindset, habits, leadership style, and customer-oriented processes necessary to succeed as a small business owner in home services.

Chapters

• 0:00 Small Business Safari With Mike
• 4:14 The Beacon and Life Experiences
• 15:50 Networking and Nonprofits in Atlanta
• 20:32 Coaching and Networking for Business Growth
• 34:48 Overcoming Entrepreneurial Challenges and Crisis
• 39:44 Overcoming Crisis of Confidence in Business
• 46:57 DIY Nightmares and Customer Service
• 53:35 Podcast Progress and Motivation

Transcript

Mike Van Pelt [00:00:00]:

And I started doing some business consulting. And it was at that time I met a gentleman at a networking group by the name of Paul Bailey. And we were at this networking group, and we met afterwards and had lunch, and we said, man, there sure are a lot of takers in that group. Just a lot of people ding a lings that want they want to lead, but they don't want to reciprocate, right?

Alan Wyatt [00:00:23]:

We call those leg hump humpers.

Mike Van Pelt [00:00:26]:

That's one way to put it, for sure.

Chris Lalomia [00:00:28]:

Thank you. That probably won't play on the True Man podcast, but it definitely plays right here. Welcome to the Small Business Safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls, and dangers that lurk when navigating a wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there, and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in, adventure team, and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountaintop. Here we go. Small business safari. And here's the episode title. I don't know where this is going to go, but we might as well give it a shot. And Mike says, well, I'll follow your lead. I'm like, hey, don't know if you want to do that just yet, big guy, but we're going to do it anyway.

Alan Wyatt [00:01:24]:

Let's do it.

Chris Lalomia [00:01:25]:

All right, we're on. So we've had quite a day getting ready for this. So we got a cheers.

Alan Wyatt [00:01:29]:

Cheers. We earned this one.

Chris Lalomia [00:01:32]:

Yeah. Between a water leak in the house, chasing away feral cats, and then busting a couple of beers wide open, we are now ready to rock and roll. It was your fault.

Alan Wyatt [00:01:42]:

The cardboard was a little soft. I pulled a twelve pack out of your fridge and it just on the ground.

Chris Lalomia [00:01:48]:

I love that. He goes, isn't it a total kid response right there?

Alan Wyatt [00:01:51]:

I didn't do it.

Chris Lalomia [00:01:51]:

My fault. I didn't do it. But the cardboard was what?

Alan Wyatt [00:01:55]:

No, I did it.

Chris Lalomia [00:01:56]:

Okay?

Alan Wyatt [00:01:57]:

And I'm still spitting out glass out of my beer. But you know what? No, I did it. I made a huge mess.

Chris Lalomia [00:02:02]:

Isn't that funny?

Alan Wyatt [00:02:03]:

It really feel bad.

Chris Lalomia [00:02:03]:

Have you ever chipped a bottle at a bar and you're like, I'm still going to drink it?

Mike Van Pelt [00:02:06]:

Because there were probably about 8910 places in there I could have said, that's what she said. And I held back the entire time.

Chris Lalomia [00:02:13]:

Awesome. And there he is, Mike Van Pelt from the true man podcast. Not the false man. I almost was. True, man. I didn't tell you the total Truth Man. He's from the true man podcast.

Alan Wyatt [00:02:24]:

The vague man.

Chris Lalomia [00:02:25]:

The vague man. So, Mike, welcome to the show. Looking forward to digging in just kind of seeing where we go, and he said he'd follow our lead, so here we go.

Mike Van Pelt [00:02:35]:

The last time somebody told me that on my show, it didn't work out so great.

Alan Wyatt [00:02:40]:

Anyway, we dig.

Chris Lalomia [00:02:42]:

So I had a chance to go on Mike's podcast quite a while ago now, a year and a half ago.

Mike Van Pelt [00:02:47]:

And I had was on St. Patrick's Day a year ago, actually.

Chris Lalomia [00:02:51]:

That's right. And he said, Man, I really enjoyed this is good. I said, all right, I'll get you on my podcast. So here we are a year and a half later. I said, hey. Oh, Mike, I have an opening. No, I did.

Alan Wyatt [00:03:01]:

I've talked to everybody.

Mike Van Pelt [00:03:03]:

You're making me feel really important right now.

Chris Lalomia [00:03:06]:

Oh, gosh.

Alan Wyatt [00:03:07]:

Everybody I know said, no. Can you please come on?

Chris Lalomia [00:03:11]:

And then we also told her, right before you get on and by the and we were sharing stories about you got to be an interesting guest, guys. You guys are all listening in on this, and you're maybe in your cars, maybe you're going for a walk. Maybe you're hitting hard at the gym, listen to the podcast, which don't ever do that, but you're listening. You got to have some fun. That's why we're here, right? Have some fun with it. So what we said is, Mike, if you're not fun, it's a hard out of 25, buddy, so let's make it fun. He's like, okay, no pressure.

Mike Van Pelt [00:03:35]:

I'm feeling a lot of pressure right now. Yeah.

Chris Lalomia [00:03:39]:

Mike, before I get going, where the hell are you from originally?

Mike Van Pelt [00:03:43]:

What's funny? I grew up in central Iowa. I grew up in Farming country. Now, I was a city kid, believe it or not, in a little town of 13,000 people, if you can call that a city kid. So I grew up in Iowa, bounced around a little bit. My wife and I, after we got married, well, I went down to Arkansas, spent three years down there going to school. Went back up to Iowa, met my wife, and then we got married and left there. Went to Texas for nine years, landed in South Carolina for 14 years, and now I've been in South Carolina. Yeah, spartanburg. Greenville. Spartanburg area.

Chris Lalomia [00:04:18]:

Nice area, man.

Mike Van Pelt [00:04:21]:

Yeah.

Alan Wyatt [00:04:22]:

Have you been to the Beacon?

Chris Lalomia [00:04:24]:

No. What's? The beacon.

Mike Van Pelt [00:04:26]:

It's like the varsity.

Alan Wyatt [00:04:28]:

Well, except for it's the Varsity on steroids, in my opinion.

Chris Lalomia [00:04:32]:

All right, so for our listeners in Australia, all 15 continents, you should probably.

Alan Wyatt [00:04:38]:

Flesh this out a little bit.

Chris Lalomia [00:04:39]:

Yeah, I know it 15 continents. I love that. I do add a lot of continents to it. All right, so what is the Beacon?

Mike Van Pelt [00:04:46]:

Well, it's a heart attack on a plate. It's one of these real I've only been there once, believe it or not, after all those years I was there. I went there because the food is not so healthy, but, I mean, it's.

Alan Wyatt [00:05:04]:

Still it's not healthy at all.

Mike Van Pelt [00:05:06]:

No.

Chris Lalomia [00:05:07]:

Excuse me. No, you ain't Brian.

Alan Wyatt [00:05:09]:

It's this massive building. And by the way, it is big.

Mike Van Pelt [00:05:14]:

Yeah.

Alan Wyatt [00:05:14]:

Presidential candidates that come to South Carolina stop at the Beacon, and they used to have this guy did you ever go there when there was the guy?

Chris Lalomia [00:05:24]:

JJ.

Mike Van Pelt [00:05:25]:

Was a guy's name?

Chris Lalomia [00:05:25]:

Yeah.

Mike Van Pelt [00:05:26]:

He would shout at you if you didn't get your order in right away.

Alan Wyatt [00:05:31]:

Not Waffle House at the varsity. There's the whole line of people, and they're going, what do you have here? The entire line funneled through JJ.

Mike Van Pelt [00:05:39]:

Yeah.

Alan Wyatt [00:05:39]:

And he had his own language because he'd been working there for 50 years. So you would order I'll have the fried shrimp platter and fries. And he would turn around and say something that you had no idea what he said, but the crew knew it and it was part of the deal.

Chris Lalomia [00:05:54]:

I love it.

Mike Van Pelt [00:05:55]:

He was blind, too.

Alan Wyatt [00:05:57]:

Was he really?

Mike Van Pelt [00:05:58]:

Yeah. I don't know, his whole life, but towards the tell end of his life, he couldn't see, but he was still working till the day he died.

Alan Wyatt [00:06:04]:

Really? You got to go to the beach.

Chris Lalomia [00:06:07]:

All right. I can't tell you how many times I've been agreeing.

Mike Van Pelt [00:06:09]:

I mean, any restaurant that has on their menu a plate of plenty, you're filling up on something.

Chris Lalomia [00:06:18]:

So I would ask you what your proudest moment is, but everybody blah, blah, blah, my kids, blah, blah, blah, my marriage, whatever, come on. You know what? Give me something unique. And Mike has a unique, really cool thing that he did. He mentioned I was in Arkansas.

Alan Wyatt [00:06:31]:

Is it being the international bestseller?

Chris Lalomia [00:06:33]:

He is the international bestseller, but he is an author. I guess I could say I was an international seller.

Alan Wyatt [00:06:39]:

You're an international seller?

Chris Lalomia [00:06:41]:

I'm just missing the best part. I did sell a couple of books in Spain and in England. I know that because they contacted me, but not exactly best. All right, here's what Mike, you just said. I happened to be in Arkansas for just a couple of years. So, Mike, did you go to the University of Arkansas?

Mike Van Pelt [00:06:57]:

I did go to the University of Arkansas.

Chris Lalomia [00:06:59]:

And what did you do there extracurricular wise, besides studying and drinking? Blah, blah.

Mike Van Pelt [00:07:04]:

Yeah, well, that was right there in lies the problem. No, I was down in Arkansas during the early ninety s, and I was a manager on the basketball team while Nolan Richardson was there, and so spent three years basically with a top ten college basketball program.

Alan Wyatt [00:07:26]:

They went back to back, right?

Mike Van Pelt [00:07:27]:

Yeah. Well, listen, here's the funny thing. I did not get to go to a Final Four, so I was inches away from a Final Four. The first year I was there, we played Kansas in the Elite Eight to go to the Final Four. The one thing that sticks out in my mind is before you play that game, you have your practice, and then they take you in the locker room and they measure you for a ring, which is nice if you get one, but if you don't get to the Final 40, they give you this nice NCAA watch.

Chris Lalomia [00:08:01]:

Yeah, you didn't get measured for the watch.

Mike Van Pelt [00:08:03]:

Yeah, but no, we led that entire game, and then with less, I don't know, less than two minutes left to play, kansas came back and beat us. So I didn't get to go to a Final Four, but I was at the Elite Eight and got to experience three NCAA tournaments, which is pretty incredible. In fact, I was there when we transitioned from the Southwest Conference to the SEC. I was on the actual last Southwest Conference championship team. And then the year after we came to the SEC, we won the SEC, the first Southeast Conference championship team. How about that?

Chris Lalomia [00:08:43]:

I just thought it was cool because I was in Charlotte at the time, where Arkansas went to the Final Four and they came and my buddy was working in the Ad department and got me a ticket to the championship game when Clinton showed up. And I was able to and that's the first time back in the 90s. Now it's the security we all just expect. But when you didn't expect and you had to go through all this stuff, and here I am, this little college kid, and I got a ticket. I was up in the bleeds, but I was there. And I remember Nolan Richardson and the Arkansas Razorbacks. Yeah, it was cool. Clinton was there. I mean, again, I thought that was cool, too. So, anyway, I thought that was pretty interesting.

Mike Van Pelt [00:09:23]:

It was a good experience.

Chris Lalomia [00:09:27]:

That's why it was three years. I thought maybe he just accelerated and studied through quickly. No.

Mike Van Pelt [00:09:34]:

Yeah, that's a whole other I actually went back later in life and completed not only my undergraduate degree, but got my master's degree. I did that a little later in life when I decided to wise up and mature.

Chris Lalomia [00:09:48]:

Nice. Well, that's good. I'm still working on that part. The wisdom up and maturing. Someday I'm looking to be like that.

Alan Wyatt [00:09:57]:

There's still time.

Chris Lalomia [00:09:58]:

Chris. So, Mike, now you're doing business coaching. You got the true man podcast. And so why don't you tell us all a little bit more about that and then we'll back up a little bit and how the heck you got to that anyway.

Mike Van Pelt [00:10:11]:

Well, I'll have to tell you how I got into it in order to tell you why I'm even doing it. Really? Will that work for you?

Chris Lalomia [00:10:19]:

Sure, let's do it.

Mike Van Pelt [00:10:21]:

Yeah. I had several years of sales and business experience, and there was a certain point where I wasn't really feeling totally fulfilled in it. And I was in insurance and financial services for a while, and I went to a leadership course that they put on. It was over six months, and it was absolutely fantastic. And when I got done with it, I was like, what the heck do I Want To Do. And then I looked around and realized you keep telling your kids that it's important to get a good education. And you didn't complete yours because you were having way too much fun at practice in the bars when you were in Arkansas. So I went back, worked with somebody, and I decided to go back and complete my college education. And then once I got my undergraduate degree, I tried to go back out in the workforce, and everybody was like, well, you've been a stay at home dad, and you're in this little town of Spartanburg, South Carolina, I don't have anything for you. And I had been doing tons of stuff in the nonprofit arena. Very active in my church, and I love nonprofits. I love what they do and what they bring to the table. And I thought, man, you probably headed down the road of becoming an executive director of a nonprofit. But what are those guys? What do the executive directors have that you don't? And I'm like, Well, I got to get my master's degree. So I went back and got my master's degree, just to further confuse everybody in the workplace. And I was really not having any success. Spartanburg, South Carolina. Wonderful place to live. Heavy manufacturing, home of BMW North America. Heavy Manufacturing. I'm not a heavy manufacturing guy. Right. I need more white collar stuff. And I was really not having much success. And it was during that time I said to myself, you got the knowledge and the skills and the ability to do this on your own. Just do it. Just take the leap. And I started doing some business consulting. And it was at that time I met a gentleman at a networking group by the name of Paul Bailey. And we were at this networking group, and we met afterwards and had lunch, and we said, man, there sure are a lot of takers in that group. Just a lot of people ding a lings that they want to lead but they don't want to reciprocate. Right.

Alan Wyatt [00:12:44]:

We call those leg humpers.

Mike Van Pelt [00:12:47]:

That's one way to put it, for sure.

Chris Lalomia [00:12:49]:

Thank you. That probably won't play on the True Man podcast, but it definitely plays right here. Yeah, it does.

Mike Van Pelt [00:12:56]:

It's okay. It's okay. I'm with him.

Alan Wyatt [00:12:58]:

On your leg and you can't take it off.

Chris Lalomia [00:13:00]:

I just had one of those to get him. Dude, we got to stop Afflac. I got it. I know it. I've already said no. You just started your business. The last thing I'm going to do is go with somebody who just started at Afflac that I don't even know. Right. All right. So you met Paul Bailey, who is.

Mike Van Pelt [00:13:16]:

Not I met Paul and we decided we were going to start our own networking group. And strangely enough, we didn't even get that off the ground. And he's like, hey, maybe we should do a men's small group. I'm like, you know, that sounds really interesting. So we decided to start a men's small group. And honestly, that's really where my life began to change, because we were having these great intimate conversations, and it was really when I went away to a retreat weekend. I'd never gone to a retreat in my life. And I was at this retreat weekend with 300 other men in Virginia, ghoshian, Virginia. And it was a Saturday morning, and the guy comes out and says, we're going to play three worship songs this morning and think of these songs being sung to you from God. And so they played a song by Josh Grob, and I'd never heard before called Your Loved. And it was really in that moment I heard God speak to me, and my relationship with him began to change, and my life began to change. And what I realized by being involved in men's small group and going to this retreat was that a lot of men are just walking around, just lost, trying to figure it all out. And I looked around the air. I was not a huge fan of calling myself a coach, I'll be honest, because anybody can do it, but they can't. That's the problem. They can't. And I didn't see a lot of guys supporting guys, and I'm like, you know what? That's what I'm going to do. And so I started to head down that path, and then we had this wonderful thing called COVID jump in the middle of everything, and that one really threw me a curveball, I got to be honest. But in the middle of that, my wife lost her job, and we had to make lemonade out of lemons. And I happened to meet somebody online who had a coaching company, and I'm like, this is what I really want to do. I like what you're doing. And so we started talking. I went through his training, and he said to me, hey, have you ever done a podcast? And I'm like, no, but we've joked about it. It seems like a good thing to do. And so I started the podcasting before I actually ever started the coaching. I didn't start the coaching piece of it until we moved and relocated to Atlanta, because anybody that's ever moved knows that it takes a lot of work to get that done. And that was kind of what I headed up so my wife could start her new job. So that's how it all started, how it all came together. I love it.

Chris Lalomia [00:15:54]:

You mentioned the nonprofit thing. We had a guest on Paul Sanson, who was the boys and girls CFO, boys and Girls Club of America CFO for three years. He said, did you know that Atlanta is a hotbed and a place for nonprofit organizations? And this was something that Atlanta intentionally did, not only through the chamber, but through the companies that are here. So Sun Trust, banks where I worked, coca Cola, Ups, all got together and they said in home depot, the blanks and bernie marcus. So we're going to start to attract nonprofits down here. And sure enough, there are a lot of nonprofit companies that are headquartered here in atlanta doing their operations.

Mike Van Pelt [00:16:34]:

Yeah, that's funny you just say that. I've noticed that, of course, boys and girls clubs right down in is it midtown? I think they're headquartered there. It's interesting, my wife and I both had been involved in a lot of nonprofits back in south carolina, and we moved here. I'm like, holy cow. How do you even maneuver an environment like atlanta and do anything? And interestingly enough, I met a gentleman, I live in kennesaw, met a gentleman who said, hey, have you been to the north cobb rotary? And I had people talk to me about rotary before, but I never moved on it. And I went to that group and absolutely fantastic growing group of people that are really involved in the community. And I thought, well, there's my way to get involved in the nonprofit community. That was one of the first things I did when we moved here, is join north cob rotary. And I'm so glad that I did. Just tremendous people, and I think we're up to almost 80 members in our group, so we have a nice size group. So that's been good that way. I kind of keep my finger on the pulse of what's going on in our own community.

Chris Lalomia [00:17:48]:

I think a big point that again comes up and it's a common thread we've heard is that when you're trying to start your own business, okay, in this case, we're talking about coaching or speaking or perhaps launching a book. The way to do it through networking, we got to get out. Obviously, you listen to mike. He's got a personality. He doesn't mind pressing the flesh and talking to people. But getting into the rotary, trying some other things, getting with other people, that's been a path to success. And it goes back to the old trite phrase, it's not what you know, to you know. But that does ring.

Alan Wyatt [00:18:22]:

It does. And mike mentioned something just a second ago that's really resonating with me. You went to that retreat, and there's all these guys that are lost, and there's some pretty staggering statistics out there as to how few close friends men have today. And just compared to, like, 1990, the number, so most guys don't even have three or four close friends anymore. And so if you're thinking about starting a business and you don't even have a personal network, and I think with COVID didn't help, and social media doesn't help, and so people are just getting further and further isolated. Networking is a huge thing, and it's not the easiest thing for some people to do.

Chris Lalomia [00:19:06]:

No, there's a great book out there, networking for the introvert. I forget who authored that, but it's so important because you get that group and you actually just hit on something. You're right. I skipped right over the fact that he got closer to God and I was a small thing.

Alan Wyatt [00:19:21]:

God noticed.

Chris Lalomia [00:19:22]:

Yeah. All right, well, at least he did. I didn't want to step on that one again. True, man's.

Alan Wyatt [00:19:27]:

Water leak and the beer leak and the hissing cats. What more sign do you want?

Chris Lalomia [00:19:33]:

Chris this has been one of those days where he's like, hey, buddy, perhaps it's time to go back in person to church, as opposed to watching the 30 minutes mass on mornings. So I get so used to that. This catholics, they have the morning mass on Sunday mornings now for 30 minutes. I'm like, oh, I love this.

Alan Wyatt [00:19:52]:

I told my dad, do you play it at one and a half speeds?

Chris Lalomia [00:19:54]:

No, but check this out. That is the best cup of coffee in bathroom break I've ever had. If you've ever been to a Catholic mass, you know, when we go, the kids are always like, I got the bathroom. Oh, this 1 hour. All of a sudden, bathrooms, it's like rampant, right? And they're gone, and they're like, what'd you do? Get lost? No. You know what you're doing. I'm like, hey, listen, kid, I went to Catholic school all my life. I know the drill. All right, back to Mike. Sorry. As you're getting out there and you're getting coaching clients, you're starting to build that book of business and get going. One of the things I'm very interested in, for people thinking that, hey, man, coaching is for me, it's just really easy, right? I just put my shingle out, and boom, people come to me, and then what I do is I just sit there and I go, no. Tell me how you feel.

Mike Van Pelt [00:20:47]:

No.

Chris Lalomia [00:20:48]:

Okay. Make money. Okay, that'll be $10,000 for the month. So people just don't come to you. So tell me how you're attracting clients. What are you doing to grow your business?

Mike Van Pelt [00:20:55]:

They don't. And here's the thing about coaching. There are too many coaches out there that are trying to fix people. That's not what coaching is. Coaching is having the ability to actively listen and ask good questions. I'm a firm believer that everybody has the answer inside of them. Your job as a coach is to help guide them and ask deep enough questions that they can develop those answers and bring them out on your own. The one thing that I hate about the coaching industry is you got too many people that are out there trying to fix things, and then you got some can I say they're weirdos. I mean, you do have some what's your language there?

Chris Lalomia [00:21:48]:

Yeah, I prefer whackadoodles.

Mike Van Pelt [00:21:50]:

Whackadoodles. I was on a networking call one night, and this lady goes she goes, Mike, I love working with men. I bring them out here to the farm, and we go smoke this is exactly what she we go smoke dope, and then we come back and I'm like, yeah, that's not at all what I do. I've never been so turned off in all my life. And I'd have to say, if there's one thing about the coaching arena that there's no way to filter anybody out, like, anybody can call themselves a coach.

Chris Lalomia [00:22:26]:

And low barrier of entry to the type. Yeah.

Mike Van Pelt [00:22:29]:

I always say, do your homework, but.

Alan Wyatt [00:22:31]:

There'S certification that you have to get right.

Mike Van Pelt [00:22:33]:

Well, you don't have to get any certification, but I'm not looking at getting a certification. How am I differentiating myself? So one of the things that I do is well, the podcast was a great way to differentiate myself right off the bat, because I show up every week. As you guys know, anybody can start a podcast, but the average podcaster doesn't get past seven episodes because it turns out it's work.

Chris Lalomia [00:23:02]:

Whoa.

Mike Van Pelt [00:23:03]:

Yeah.

Chris Lalomia [00:23:03]:

I did not know that. Hey, baby. We're actually coming up on 100. Mike's going to be in the 90s.

Mike Van Pelt [00:23:09]:

I'm slightly ahead of you there. I think I put out 106 today.

Chris Lalomia [00:23:14]:

Yeah, you're ahead of us. Well, I did not know that.

Mike Van Pelt [00:23:17]:

Yeah, it's like, seven episodes, but it's not very many episodes because they find out that there's work involved in it.

Chris Lalomia [00:23:26]:

You don't immediately get a spotify contract for Joe Rogan and get into Austin with $100 million contract.

Mike Van Pelt [00:23:31]:

No.

Alan Wyatt [00:23:32]:

Yeah, that did hurt a little bit, didn't it, Chris?

Mike Van Pelt [00:23:34]:

But the beautiful thing that came out of that, when you talk about networking, Chris, is that you start meeting people, and it's awesome. You build these natural relationships. I've had some strategic partnerships come out of them. I have a very significant company that I'm working with right now that is I don't even know where to begin with how big that is, but just by sitting behind a microphone, what happened was a lot of people were saying to me, what do you speak? So the natural thing is to become a speaker. But in my case, what happened was I had somebody ask, hey, would you like to be in a collaboration book? So hence this book over my shoulder called The Art of Connection. I had a couple of pages in there. The book went international bestseller. So now that's how I get to call myself an international best selling author, right? Yeah. I have some tips for you, Chris. I can help you out. So what happened was I started down the road of writing my own yeah, I started down the road of writing my own book in the middle of that. This is how things work in the networking world. When you put yourself out there. People like attract likes. Right. So Jim Britt contacted me on LinkedIn. Jim Britt's, I considered one of the top 20 speakers of all time, and he's a guy that found Tony Robbins. Tony Robbins got his start.

Chris Lalomia [00:25:08]:

I always thought it was Jim Rome.

Mike Van Pelt [00:25:11]:

Jim Rome. It was Jim Rome. And then Jim Britt was Jim Rome's head sales guy. So they're all tied together. And so Jim had reached out to me.

Chris Lalomia [00:25:26]:

Just for the record, that's called the Erdog connection. Little plug for the book.

Mike Van Pelt [00:25:29]:

I'm just doing a little shameless plug for you. What happened was I was not looking for anything at that point. But Jim's like, how would you like to be a part of my collaboration book? You get a whole chapter. And so that book, Jim does it, along with Kevin Harrington of Shark Tank and then Tony Robbins endorses that book. So I get a whole chapter in that book. My book is going to be coming out on that in. I believe July is the last, he said. And then my personal book that I've been working on probably towards the till end of the year. But what I have found as a result of doing these books is you begin to differentiate yourself a little bit more, and then as a result of working on some of these topics, now they become speaking topics. And so I'm looking at, how can we take that out and start doing more speaking? Because quite honestly, guys, what I found is there's so many people, what's your purpose? You lost your identity? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I have those all on my website, too. But here's the problem, as you guys probably know, can't come respect. Men don't like to ask for help. I mean, we will bleed out before we ask somebody for help.

Alan Wyatt [00:26:46]:

100%. Won't ask for help. Won't admit weakness.

Chris Lalomia [00:26:51]:

We heard that earlier.

Mike Van Pelt [00:26:55]:

I'm good.

Chris Lalomia [00:26:58]:

Yeah, you're right.

Mike Van Pelt [00:27:00]:

What I looked at, because we redid the website and all this stuff, because everybody's like, oh, you got to know your customers pain points. And you do that's correct. However, I can't help you with a pain point unless you have some magic words that you want to say, like, I need help.

Alan Wyatt [00:27:19]:

Help me.

Mike Van Pelt [00:27:20]:

And so what I've been really working on a lot lately, and what my chapter was dedicated to in Jim Brick's book, The Rich Code, is the power of asking for Help, because it's so critically important to ask for help. A lot of guys don't do it out of shame, out of fear. We don't want to admit that we don't know what we don't know. Even as business owners, we do this in business all the time, right? You don't want to admit that you don't know. But the reality is I'm weak on technology. Well, turns out you got to know technology pretty good. I mean, if you're going to do a podcast, you got to know how to do social media, et cetera, et cetera. I don't like social media, and I can't figure it out. And now all of a sudden, they're throwing all this AI stuff at me, and I don't even know what that means. What does that mean? How do you beat that?

Chris Lalomia [00:28:23]:

I can explain it's artificial. Intelligence. Thank you. All right. I'm just cracking codes here, baby. That's all I'm doing. You know what? I'm breaking down barriers.

Alan Wyatt [00:28:32]:

I'm going to yield your brain like a club.

Chris Lalomia [00:28:34]:

Come on. No, but you hit on another thing, and that the power of asking for help. As a small business owner, that's the one thing I learned, to ask for help. And then I realized I could ask for help from people who I thought were competitors. And when you talk to them, you find out, they'll tell you everything. And then we had Dan Wideman, who clearly not a competitor based on the remodeling space, but great referral partner. But there's other guys like Dan out there that I will cooperate with and do some work, but I'll also compete with him in other areas. But yet we'll sit there and talk all day long about the Troubles and how do you do these things. So the power of asking for help or just asking the right questions to get good answers is so key.

Mike Van Pelt [00:29:17]:

Well, yeah, but a lot of times you have to be invited in. That's an important part, and that's also an important part of coaching. I commonly even with people I know very well, I may ask them, do I have permission to speak into this? That's important because, quite honestly, some people don't want you to speak into things, and all of a sudden, if you do, it may be an opinion that they don't want to hear.

Alan Wyatt [00:29:47]:

Isn't that part of coaching, though?

Mike Van Pelt [00:29:50]:

Is it part of coaching?

Alan Wyatt [00:29:52]:

I mean, isn't that part of being a good coach, just telling people what they don't want to hear?

Mike Van Pelt [00:29:57]:

If you have permission to do that, I wouldn't just naturally pop off and go, well, you you suck at podcasting today.

Chris Lalomia [00:30:07]:

Whoa. Oh, hey. That's a little too close to there's.

Alan Wyatt [00:30:10]:

Some more tires to flash, Chris.

Chris Lalomia [00:30:12]:

I know, right? You know what, Mike? We work in kind of somebody, and I have nail guns, if you know what I mean. Okay.

Alan Wyatt [00:30:19]:

He shot himself with it many times anymore.

Mike Van Pelt [00:30:21]:

Not anymore. It is a part of coaching if you have permission to go there. I mean, you just don't meet somebody randomly. I mean, we live in a world right now where jokingly. My dad and I were having a conversation one night, and he was just talking about how blunt everybody is these days. And I said, dad, do you remember when people used to talk behind your back? He goes, yeah. I'm like, now they just throw an F bomb to your face. Right. That's where we're at. But in a coaching relationship, it's all about guiding and trying to get it out of them. Are there times when you have to have hard conversations? Yes, but you also have to know who you're talking to and how to have it. I have a very good friend that went through a very difficult time, and I had to give him some very hard advice, and I didn't hear from him for a couple of months, and he finally called me back and said, I apologize, I was wrong. So it's important to know who your audience is when you're speaking into them.

Chris Lalomia [00:31:39]:

That's true. I mean, coaching is obviously it's a one to one thing. How do you find coaching prospects? Is the podcast luring them in, as it were?

Mike Van Pelt [00:31:49]:

Well, isn't that the million dollar question? So the podcast is helpful because what I love about the podcast is, for me, we talk about a lot of different men's topics, how to be a better man, how to be a better father, how to be a better husband. I even had a lady on this week, Karen Abrahams, and we talked about how should men behave in the workplace. Is it okay to open the door for a woman? Is it okay to compliment her on her hair or what she's wearing and not have HR show up at your door? How do you handle those things? And I think those are all important topics to have. So I talk about a lot of different things. But the podcast allows people it's that no light trust factor, right? If I hear this guy and he sounds halfway competent, this may be somebody that I want to do business with. So the podcast becomes a great you can't wait to get in front of people, and I do the podcast on Voice, and then I put the video out as well. So there's that. I think what I'm learning about authoring and the potential of speaking is going to naturally build my audience. And just the podcast thing is an art, I got to say. You guys know this and how you do it and going out on other people's podcasts, it's all social media. Having one on one conversations, I never stop talking about what I do because it's really part of my goal is to impact the lives of a million men. If I can impact the lives of a million men, I can impact their families, I can impact their communities. I can impact so much more than that.

Alan Wyatt [00:33:46]:

That's a pretty lofty number.

Chris Lalomia [00:33:48]:

That is a big number. I like that. I had another guy on his podcast. He told me, he said, my goal right now is to impact 10 million people. I said, that's huge. He goes, Think about that for a minute. But even a million, just for a minute, just think about can you impact a million people? I have 44 employees. We worked in over 15,000 houses in 15 years now, and I have not even scratched the surface on impacting a million people.

Alan Wyatt [00:34:15]:

How will you know when you've done it?

Mike Van Pelt [00:34:17]:

I'm sorry, what?

Alan Wyatt [00:34:18]:

How will you know when you've done it?

Mike Van Pelt [00:34:23]:

That's a great question. Here's one way I'm going to know. One of the things that happened by doing a podcast was I connected and and built a strategic partnership with with a gentleman who's been working on a business model now for 30 some years. And it's way above what I had the possibility to do on my own. So I'm partnering with him, and I'm partnering with other people because I can't get there on my own. I need the help of you guys. I need the help of somebody down the street. I will know based on a wide range of numbers that I'm working on, whether it's with the podcast or whether it's speaking. There's a lot of things I'm working on right now.

Chris Lalomia [00:35:16]:

Yeah, man, you are busy. You can tell. Yeah, that's a lot shaking. So as you put your brand out there, the True Man, we're coming kind of towards the end of this. You put the True Man podcast out there. You have your brand. You were in two books, two collaborative books. You are now the second person who has told me about that. We had another guest on who later on eventually got into a book. Barbara is also, oh, boy, I need to plug her book. And we'll stick it in the show notes. But it's along with Mike's stuff, but it's collaborative. It's basically women in business, immigrant women in business.

Mike Van Pelt [00:35:53]:

Oh, wow.

Chris Lalomia [00:35:54]:

That's because she came from Germany. Very niche. Right. And so I thought that was cool. But I love that. So you got the podcast going, obviously. You're doing your local networking, you're doing your book, you're doing your personal book. You're doing another collaborative book.

Alan Wyatt [00:36:08]:

Just seems like writing books is easy.

Chris Lalomia [00:36:10]:

It does seem easy.

Mike Van Pelt [00:36:11]:

Oh, my gosh.

Chris Lalomia [00:36:12]:

In fact, I had somebody begged.

Mike Van Pelt [00:36:13]:

I beg to differ.

Chris Lalomia [00:36:14]:

I did. I just had somebody say, are you working on your second book? I'm like, not yet, dear big Guy, I'm still waiting for the first one to take off. From the zoo to the wild, by the way. From the zoo.

Alan Wyatt [00:36:24]:

Good insertion.

Chris Lalomia [00:36:25]:

Don't worry, I've already got the commercials going with it anyway. But I'm kidding. Actually, I'm not, but I have a question. Yeah, go. Yeah.

Alan Wyatt [00:36:33]:

So I want to give our listeners a nugget from Mike. So I was looking through your website. Great website, by the way. Everybody should check it out. So you can plug it now if you want. And I think it was in the Frequently Asked Questions or there's areas of weakness that you could self identify.

Mike Van Pelt [00:36:51]:

The twelve challenges of men.

Alan Wyatt [00:36:53]:

Yes.

Mike Van Pelt [00:36:54]:

And we came to that. You know why? We picked twelve.

Alan Wyatt [00:36:58]:

Sounds biblical.

Mike Van Pelt [00:36:59]:

There you go. It was very strategic.

Chris Lalomia [00:37:04]:

Does that mean that 13 and 14 kind of got cut out? Because you always wonder that was it. Why is it only twelve?

Mike Van Pelt [00:37:09]:

They actually did 14.

Chris Lalomia [00:37:11]:

You're like, you know, guys, you're not making a cut.

Alan Wyatt [00:37:14]:

You're out.

Mike Van Pelt [00:37:14]:

They actually did. Apostle Steve, you're gone in the end, Chris. The reality is I could have gone all day. We picked the top twelve that we felt were there. Will I adjust over time? Probably. But again, I don't think that those are important as just the whole seed of asking for help. Somewhere in that scale of twelve men shake out. Alan yeah.

Alan Wyatt [00:37:44]:

The one that caught me, Mike, was confidence. And when you think about entrepreneurs, everybody that gets in business, they're just brimming with it. And then at some point you have, where are they? Well, it could be false confidence, but at some point you get this crisis of confidence.

Mike Van Pelt [00:37:58]:

Yes.

Alan Wyatt [00:37:59]:

And then this is how highbrow of a man we're dealing with. He has a Thoreau quote on his website.

Chris Lalomia [00:38:07]:

Whoa.

Alan Wyatt [00:38:08]:

And so let me quote go, the mass of men live oh, God, I can't remember writing, the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation. Yeah, that's pretty pithy. So let's give our readers a nugget. Let's talk about when you have that crisis of confidence. Walk us through. How do you like Chris just said, you're an entrepreneur, you're by yourself, you don't have this network. What can you say to people to help them get through that?

Mike Van Pelt [00:38:45]:

I know the crisis of confidence intimately well, because it was something that I walked through in a while. I mean, here I was doing all this volunteer work. I felt like I was really high in demand, felt like I was doing everything right. I was getting certifications, I was getting degrees, and yet it felt like nobody wanted me. Right. And so my confidence suffered like, well, I must not be worthy to be a w two employee or something. And I went through quite a period where that was the case. And so did it have anything to do with my ability? No. I have the same knowledge, skills and ability now that I did back then. I just internalized all those no's. And I think what also happened during that period of time was I was feeling a lot more isolated. And this is something that I think small business owners and entrepreneurs happens to them a lot, is they isolate themselves and they try to figure out everything on their own. It could be because I don't know who to ask. If I ask somebody, they're going to charge me an arm and a leg to get help. And those are things that you have to weigh the risk and the reward on. But again, I think it goes back to asking for help. If you're isolating yourself and you don't know what the answers are to get your business to the next level, you're not going to succeed.

Chris Lalomia [00:40:10]:

Yeah, I think here's the next takeaway I'd say there is that if you're listening to this and you're like, no, that's just not me. I can't do it. It needs to be you. I mean, get outside of your comfort zone. You hear that so often. My sales process at our company right now, we're actually revamping I wouldn't say totally revamping it, but definitely getting my guys in there. So we brought a sales coach in, right, to work with us, and he said, here's a line. I want you guys to work on it. And he says, Go ahead and try it. I tried it with a customer. I mean, I absolutely fumbled. Fuck that shit. It was the worst, and I'm a good salesman. And I was like, oh, my God, this was so bad. I had to come back and just regroup, and I almost had to apologize. That sounds so bad. And I came back and told him that story, and he just started dying. He said, I meant role play it.

Mike Van Pelt [00:41:00]:

I'm like, don't do it live. You know what's funny, Chris? When I first started down the entrepreneurial trail, I thought, well, I'm going to help people with these simple one page business plans and help them get what I found is. And that was not a good fit for me. That was not a good fit for me, per se. And there are a lot of business coaches, a lot of business consultants out there, and a lot of sales coaches out there, and they do a great job. But here's what I found fits for me. Those people can come in and put an amazing system in your business, but if you're the type of person who hasn't looked in the mirror and done the deep work on yourself, I don't give a damn what system they put in there. I mean, if you think the world sucks, it sucks. So it doesn't matter what the sales process is, because as you guys know, especially when you get into sales and customer service, if you have a shitty attitude, you're going to pass that on to your customer, and then you're done. Now you lost the customer. And so much of what we do is about our attitude and how we carry ourselves. And so much of us, we all are wounded. We're all wounded people. We all have some kind of baggage going on. Do something about it. Take action on it. You don't have to live like that. And there's a better way to live, and you can overcome anything. That's why I love comeback stories and pivot points and second chances, because they give people hope in a world right now where it doesn't feel like we have a whole lot. I don't know why we did this. I know why. We were watching a show, and the news came on last night, and I think the first ten minutes were dedicated to who's killing who, right? And we were sitting there looking at each other going, Why are we watching this? And if that's what you're watching, how are you going to have a happy life? There's no way you could be a great business owner and watch that kind of hoohah.

Chris Lalomia [00:43:00]:

That's a great point, because I heard this from another guy who said, 30 minutes of negative news turns into an entire day of you trying to unwind and get that out of your head. 30 minutes of negative thinking and not negative. I said news, he said negative thinking. It's proven point that it takes you the entire day to unwind that negative 30 minutes. If you spend a full 30 minutes, no question, but self doubt talk, self negative talk your entire day, you're trying to regroup and get rid of it, and by the time you're back to a place, you got to do it's time to go to bed. And I was like, that's a great.

Mike Van Pelt [00:43:33]:

And here's a mistake. I recently heard they were story about a guy, they were doing a study on him, and he said his best, most relaxing 30 minutes of his day were when he was watching the news. Now, interestingly enough, they were monitoring his heart rate and his stress rate. And during that time period, that was his highest level of stress. And they were like, they measured him throughout the day, but he said that was the most relaxing period, but yet they were running these tests on him, and it proved false. It was actually the most stressful part of the day. At the end of the day, it sounds so cliche. You are what you eat. You are what you watch. You are what you read. You are who you surround yourself with. So you better be careful.

Chris Lalomia [00:44:27]:

I agree. Got to be thoughtful and purposeful on it. That's great. All right, Mike, we're coming to the end and we've got to go. First I wanted to do is let's pitch the website and the books. Let's get that out there. We'll put this all in the show notes, and if we say it so.

Mike Van Pelt [00:44:42]:

The website is truemanlifecoaching.com.

Chris Lalomia [00:44:47]:

There you go. And the podcast, trueman podcast.

Mike Van Pelt [00:44:50]:

Trueman podcast. Actually, if you go to True Man podcast, it'll take you right to my website. I'm on all major channels. But we did see now there's a little for anybody who's getting into podcasting, make it a URL and put it on your website. So little business trickery there. Actually, we redid the website and we're building it out to add more stuff so we keep people on the website. That's how you do that business on your website stickiness.

Chris Lalomia [00:45:19]:

All right. And then the books, so you can.

Mike Van Pelt [00:45:23]:

Find the book that I'm working on is actually listed on my website. That's something that I'm still working on, cracking the Rich code. I don't have that promotional information at the time of this podcast because we don't know when the books are coming out yet.

Chris Lalomia [00:45:40]:

Nice. Well, good. This has been enjoyable, but I've got to go to our now top four questions.

Alan Wyatt [00:45:46]:

Alan, you act like it's so new.

Chris Lalomia [00:45:48]:

It's not so new.

Alan Wyatt [00:45:49]:

It's not new.

Chris Lalomia [00:45:50]:

No, it's always been four. Well, okay.

Alan Wyatt [00:45:51]:

Let's recommend a book for our listeners who are thinking about starting a business or new in business.

Mike Van Pelt [00:46:00]:

I'm going to go back to an old faithful because I was just looking at this book the other day and found a lovely little note in there from my daughter. She must have been five or six when she wrote it because she called me dit, not dad but 21. Irrefutable laws of leadership from John Maxwell is an oldie but a goodie. And I just had that one probably sitting behind me on the bookshelf back there. As you can see if you're watching this on video, I have no shortage of books around here. But that one is an oldie but goody.

Chris Lalomia [00:46:31]:

I like that one. I have that same book. I love it.

Alan Wyatt [00:46:33]:

They do make you look smarter because we've got just bourbon bottles behind us, right? You've got all these books.

Chris Lalomia [00:46:38]:

We're in the bar, baby. We're in the bar.

Mike Van Pelt [00:46:40]:

The bourbon bottles are off to the.

Chris Lalomia [00:46:42]:

Side and empty, but we'll keep going. All right, next question.

Alan Wyatt [00:46:48]:

Number b.

Chris Lalomia [00:46:50]:

And we have four part questions. And so, B, what is your favorite feature of your house?

Mike Van Pelt [00:46:58]:

It's kind of funny you would ask. We just got done with about a six month remodel on our house. When we bought the house a couple of years ago, it needed to be updated, but I have to say the keeping room is probably our most favorite part of the house. It's just a very comfortable place to hang out and watch a Braves game and have a couple of drinks maybe.

Chris Lalomia [00:47:24]:

Right? Hey, I know about that. And go Braves. Love that. Yeah. Having a good season. 2023. This might be another one. We'll see what happens.

Mike Van Pelt [00:47:31]:

Going to stay healthy, go into a.

Chris Lalomia [00:47:33]:

Couple of games, but definitely a fun thing for me to do. All right, the next question is when you're out there getting customer service, you're out there maybe going to a restaurant, you may be going to oh, boy, he's already so give us a customer service pet peeve of yours because we are customer service freaks. Let's go, man.

Mike Van Pelt [00:47:52]:

You brought up restaurants. Put a smile on your face. Say hello. Talk to me. Build a relationship. That's where great salespeople are born. Being waiters and waitresses and so many people just like walk up to the table. Hi, I'm Jim. I'm your server tonight.

Chris Lalomia [00:48:14]:

Right. Jim's not going to get the same tip as hey, my name is Rachel. How are you guys doing today? Where are you guys from? Okay, let's go ahead and get started. Wow. Rachel, I'm going to tip you more. I like you. All right. Yeah, you're right. I love that. Put a smile on your face. We actually tell our ladies in the office to smile when the phone rings. So when that phone rings, they can hear that smile. Hear it through the phone. That's right.

Mike Van Pelt [00:48:37]:

Absolutely. That phone call right there, when those people come in and they're thinking about your service, that's the first person they hear. That is the first and best representation of your company, and if somebody's not.

Alan Wyatt [00:48:51]:

On it, it sets a really bad expectation.

Mike Van Pelt [00:48:56]:

Rather bad.

Chris Lalomia [00:48:57]:

All right, now, this is our favorite one, my favorite one. And we want a DIY nightmare story. I don't want to hear about beer bottles busting your buddy's basement. It was a cement floor. We're going to get over that.

Alan Wyatt [00:49:08]:

No feral cats.

Chris Lalomia [00:49:09]:

No feral cats. I want fire. I want water. I want mayhem. I want locusts. I want something.

Mike Van Pelt [00:49:17]:

We have had our share of issues since we bought the house, but I'll give you water. Oh, man. Here we go. We were in the house two weeks, and we had a backup from the master bedroom, or Ensuite, if I'm being politically correct. So the guy comes out, he takes care of he says I don't even know why he said he's like, this happens again. We might have to do a little digging on the outside. So two weeks later, we get the backup again. He goes, man, we got to start digging. Something's not right here. So we've been in the house less than a month, and the pipe leaving the house.

Chris Lalomia [00:50:05]:

Are you on sewer or are you on city sewer? Yeah, I mean, sewer or septic? Sewer.

Mike Van Pelt [00:50:10]:

Sewer. Yeah.

Chris Lalomia [00:50:10]:

Okay.

Mike Van Pelt [00:50:11]:

So they start digging, and the pipe is basically collapsed. It's laying on the ground, and so we have to replace that. And then we just continue to have these toilet problems. And this guy comes over.

Alan Wyatt [00:50:23]:

Maybe you need to eat more fiber.

Mike Van Pelt [00:50:25]:

Yeah, right. Exactly. That was our thought initially. That was definitely what the plumber said.

Chris Lalomia [00:50:32]:

I'd recommend a new diet.

Mike Van Pelt [00:50:36]:

He comes over and he takes the toilet off, and then he set it back down. He didn't follow you guys? He told us not to use it. Okay. My son's bathroom is immediately above us, and he starts taking a shower, and I don't know what happens. I'm up here in my office. I come downstairs, and there's water all over the bathroom floor. So everything that came from his shower came up the toilet and all over the bathroom floor and down into the basement. Anyway.

Chris Lalomia [00:51:15]:

That's a good one.

Mike Van Pelt [00:51:17]:

That was a bad one. Just because.

Alan Wyatt [00:51:21]:

It'S a matter of perspective.

Chris Lalomia [00:51:23]:

Yeah, well, it's like the kids today. That's sick. Well, no, that's good. No, that's what it means, dad. That's good. That's bad. I mean, it's a good nightmare DIY story. Yeah.

Mike Van Pelt [00:51:35]:

I'm just going to say that company and I went with them. Right? Because here's the challenge. When you use certain companies, now all of a sudden you have something in your house, and they warranty it for a year. So you keep calling them back. The problem is, every time I've had a problem in the house, I've had to call them back two or three times. Now everything's calmed down. They're done.

Chris Lalomia [00:51:59]:

All right, that's great. This has been fun. We've enjoyed this. Mike, you picked a lot of stuff up here. Number one. If you're going to go to Arkansas, go when you're going for national championships. Right, that's partonburg. Go to the Beacon. If you're going to Spartanburg, go to the Beacon. Or maybe it's more about find your true purpose. If you're lost, if you're doing it, ask for help. Go ahead. It's all right. It's okay. You can even ask us for help. You can ask Mike for help. But this has been great. Keep making it a great day. Keep going up that mountaintop. Running your own business is hard. I just got done talking with some other folks the other day. Remember, man, one out of ten businesses succeed. One out of ten. And we just heard the average podcast only makes seven episodes. And so, if you're listening to this, you're actually up in the 90s with us, which we're always going to be behind Mike, because he's at 109. He let us know about that international bestseller.

Alan Wyatt [00:52:51]:

Bestseller.

Chris Lalomia [00:52:51]:

I heard that, too. But don't worry, I'm going to have a little self talk with myself after this, and it will be all negative. No, I'm just kidding. We're going to make it positive.

Alan Wyatt [00:52:59]:

Quote throw.

Chris Lalomia [00:53:00]:

I'm going to quote through. Here we go. Thanks again for coming here. This was awesome. Let's get out of here. Let's go. Make it happen, everybody.

Alan Wyatt [00:53:06]:

Cheers.

Chris Lalomia [00:53:07]:

Take care.