From Military to Sales Leadership: Finding Purpose After the Uniform - Shawn Porter

Life can pivot on a single decision — sign the contract, board the plane, lace up before dawn.

Shawn Porter’s journey spans a family legacy of military service, deployment to Iraq, and now leading one of the largest sales districts at Edward Don & Company. He shares what it was like returning home to a world that hadn’t changed — while he had — and how he learned to replace military structure with self-discipline in business.

We talk about transition, backplanning success, thriving in uncomfortable rooms, and why veterans often excel when persistence decides the outcome. Shawn also reveals how running 100 miles — including the Leadville 100 — became his training ground for leadership.

The lesson: choose hard on purpose, so unexpected hard doesn’t own you.

Whether you’re a veteran navigating transition, a salesperson building momentum, a leader developing people, or someone chasing a goal that feels just out of reach, you’ll walk away with practical tools for structure, accountability, and resilience you can actually apply. Zero reret living.

Resources:

W3 Shop - https://w3salesonline.com/collections

Mission Roll Call - https://missionrollcall.org/

Outdoor Adventure Therapy for Heroes - https://www.thewarriorskeep.org/

Transcript

Opening & Sean’s Background

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Confessions Beyond the Food. I'm your host, Nancy Redman. Let's dig in and get inspired. Today's episode is one I carry with a lot of respect. My guest, Sean Porter, serves as district sales manager at Edward Dawn, leading one of the largest districts in the company. But his leadership story began long before sales. Sean served in the armed forces, part of a family legacy of service. He lost his father when he was just six months old, and from an early age, resilience was not optional. It was inherited. In the military, structure defines your day. You're told where to be, what to do, even what you'll eat. But what happens when that structure disappears, when every decision becomes your own? In this conversation, Sean speaks candidly about that transition, about perseverance, setting personal goals, learning how to communicate in a completely different world, and how the discipline of service prepared him to handle difficult people and hard seasons. He also shares how running quite literally saved him, how choosing to do hard things on purpose shaped the leader he is today. And when I say hard, I mean like a lot of miles, and I'll save that for his confession. This is a story about living without regret, about earning your next chapter, and about honoring where you came from while deciding who you'll become. This is confession, and this is Sean's story. Hi, welcome back to Confessions Beyond the Food. I've got Sean Porter here with me with Edward Don. Hey, Sean.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Hey, how's it going?

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Good. I'm super pumped to have I consider him like a brother in the industry, my industry brother. So we have a lot in common. Sure. And I was really thrilled that to have you here today.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Well, thank you. I'm excited to be here.

Deployments & Life Overseas

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Yeah, so let's jump into it. So take us back to a time in the army. What drew you to serve?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

So for me, most of my family was in the military. My grandpa was in the military, most of my uncles, my dad, my mom was in the military. So I just knew at some point in my life that the military, I would either be in the military or serve somehow.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

That's great. I have generations of family in the Army, Marines, Air Force, and I've shared with you my brother is a Marine. So this is very near and dear to my heart. So what were you doing during that chapter of your life? What did your life look like?

SPEAKER_00 2:43

So man, I got right out of high school. I had a partial scholarship for soccer that didn't pan out. You know, I was young, I didn't have college to look forward to, I didn't have a job at the time, and it was time to be out in the real world, you know. So, like I said, I always knew I'd be in the military at some point, and I thought that was the direction I needed to go in at the time.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

So when you knew that chapter, um, so you were in the army and you served. And did you go overseas?

SPEAKER_00 3:14

I did. I was overseas in the OIF three and four. So I was there for about a year.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

What does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 3:20

So operat Operation Iraqi Freedom.

unknown 3:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

So I was in, I landed in Kuwait, and then we went to a little camp called a Takatam or TQ. And it was basically the Air Force for Saddam that we had taken over, the Air Force Base. So yeah, I was there for about a year and we did route security, fob security, just about anything you can think of.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Did you see some crazy stuff?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

You see, we I mean, crazy, I don't know, but different. So it's like stepping back into the stone ages. Like you you see rock houses with no roofs, or if they have a roof, it's straw, you know. I mean, it's it's not what you consider here. I mean, if you went over there, you would think that these guys lived in extreme poverty, but they didn't see it that way. So that that was the biggest striking difference to me was just just the difference in living situations. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

And so you probably made some friends for life.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Oh, for sure. I I I've got plenty of friends in the military that, you know, once you serve together that close, I mean, you're never gonna forget those people. Those are your battle buddies. So yeah, I I and I tend to make relationships like that now, even in my older life, just they're not they're rare, but you can still find them.

Coming Home & Communication Shifts

SPEAKER_01 4:38

That's great. So as your service was ending and you knew that chapter was coming to a close, what scared you the most?

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Uh you know, being overseas, your your fight or flight is really high at all times. Plus, you're you're you're living with hundreds of men that talk to each other in a different way. So when when I spoke over there is direct and to the point, because it's not always life-saving or or you know detrimental, but most of the time it's life or death situations over there. So when you say something, you say it directly and you say it, you know, to where everybody can understand you so they can take it, they can that they can really take that in really quick and make a decision to move. But when you're out of the military, it's a little bit different. First of all, you can't talk to the people the same way you talk to a hundred guys. Your language is a lot different, you know. I mean, we'd have a whole sentence of cuss words and we'd know exactly what we're talking about. But when you get back, people don't enjoy the directness as much, you know. So people tend to think I was upset with them or I was mad, or but that was never the case. I'm just a very direct person. So that was the that didn't necessarily scare me, but it's something I really had to change when I got home.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Were you nervous, like, or did you know what you wanted to do coming right out right out of the army?

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Well, I kind of, I mean, I had already got a position. I was hired, Pete Angina actually hired me before I went overseas. And then I went to a drill that night or a couple of nights after I got my offer letter and found out that I got stop loss and had to go over to the military. I had to go back to, well, had to go back into the military and go over to Iraq. So I had to call Pete when I got back and said, Hey, unfortunately, I can't take the position. I've got to go overseas. And he just always said, you know, well, that sucks, but you know, keep in touch and let's see what happens when you get back. So I would email him and I'd email John Budd all the time to say, Hey, I hope everything's going well. You know, and then when I got back, I I called Pete and I was like, hey man, I'm ready to go. So, and and thankfully there was a position open for me when I got back.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

So transitioning from the army into sales in particular, what was that transition like?

Stop-Loss, Returning, And First Sales Role

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Well, it was it was really tough at first because being overseas and being in the military, uh most of the decisions are made for you. You know, you know what you're doing all day long, you know what you're eating, or maybe you don't know what you're eating, but somebody else has already made that decision. So it was just getting back and really trying to make my own routines and and you know, try to to do everything for myself. I mean, I know that sounds weird, but when you haven't made a decision in a year coming home and everybody's like, oh, what do you want to eat? What do you want to eat? And you're like, can we just eat something? You know what I mean? So I had to start making a lot of the decisions I wasn't used to making. And then, you know, I had to start pointing my life in the right direction and make sure that I was going to become something, you know?

SPEAKER_01 7:53

I never thought about it that way. I mean, because that's very true. I mean, you don't have to think about, you know, little things like getting to work or yeah, angry customers angry customers, you don't you don't think about that. And that especially the decisions, I think that's really, really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

So I always said that we only had one mission in life when we were overseas, and that's to to stay alive and to keep your buddy alive. So if you know you were laying in bed that night, you you finished that mission. You know, so that was the one thing that I really had to to do, you know. Everything else was already done for well, I hate to say that it was done for me, but it was already chosen for me. So uh yeah, that that would be it for sure for me.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

So out of those things of the decision making and being direct, you know, being having different communication styles, was there anything harder than you expected in civilian life?

SPEAKER_00 8:51

For sure. I I think patience was something I'd I still am working on patience. And that was 20 something years ago. Uh I feel like, you know, I I want to tell somebody something and I want to be direct. I don't want to fluff it up and I don't want to beat around the bush because that's not my style. That's not that's not who I am. I struggle with that quite a bit because, you know, well, first thing, just being in sales, you want it and you want it now. I mean, that's just how sales guys are. We want show me the money because I want the money, and we want it right now. And that's how I I've been about everything in my life. You know, you push and push and push until you get it, and you don't stop pushing until you get it. And then, you know, especially having sales reps and the sales assistants and then customers, you just you learn that not everybody is moving at your speed, and not everybody wants to, and that's fine. Um, but you know, I choose the people that like to go at my speed for the most part because I I need to be moving in uh a good direction. I can't I feel like to stop is to die. You know, I I don't like having an idle mind. It's just there I don't I'd like to be busy, I like to be doing something, and I'd like to be moving in a direction. Patience is a skill, and I I'm still trying to learn. So I I work on it every day. I mean, I try to anyways.

Rebuilding Routine And Patience

SPEAKER_01 10:16

I think that's true for everybody in their professional journey because we all are made so differently in the our speed, our pace, the way we communicate with people. There's just it's I think understanding that, like, because I think in our 20s, for me at least, I'm just thinking about how I do it. I'm doing it the best, you know, I'm doing it the right way, and everybody should serve me. But you know, in your 30s and 40s, you really start thinking about, I think that's professional maturity and that takes time.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

So that's probably right.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yeah. So I think everybody kind of goes to that to some degree. So was there anything outside of money that appealed to you about sales?

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Uh for me, especially with Edward Don, it's the the freedom to control your day and to really be able to harness your own strengths and and to really schedule your own time. I am very big in routines because sales isn't a routine thing. So I have to have my routines in the morning, my routines at night, and I have to do certain things just to make sure I'm in the right headspace for sales. And it was having time with my wife and my family, and really a lot of the people I met were super cool. You know, I feel like once you get into the restaurant industry, either as a waiter or whatever you start as, you realize that it's a it's a really cool group of people that are into this industry. And when you leave it, which I left for a little while, it's just it's not the same. It's you're not having the same conversations. Um, I don't know, it's just different. So I really enjoyed the freedom of Edward Don, and I really enjoy the customers.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

So how did I think this will really help people that are vets getting into the industry? So, how did sales help you translate military skills like discipline? You kind of talked about that accountability and relationship building.

Why Sales Appealed Beyond Money

Translating Military Skills To Sales

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Uh the military made me extremely accountable. And it's not only accountable for yourself, it's accountable for the things that are going on around you. But the thing that I learned in sales with that accountability is you can't hold yourself extremely accountable if you don't hold other people accountable as well. So that's something I'm I work on to this day is just trying to keep other people accountable for their actions as well. Um, but that's one of the major things. I think also discipline for sure, organization. You know, it's funny I wasn't very organized as a child, and probably wasn't that organized going into the military. But uh and it took me leaving the military in a couple of years to realize that, oh, I really do like to be organized, and I really do like a certain way for certain things, and I do like routines, and I do like having a certain way things are set up and done. So that that taught me a lot, and it translated into sales very well because you know it's all about uh military is all about backplanning. You know, you know what your what your final stage is, whether it's to to capture somebody or to take something over, whatever that is, and then you backplan from there. I think that's helped me out a lot. You know, of course, everybody wants to be successful, but if you can you can really pinpoint what that success looks like and start thinking about it, you know, I always thought that if you can see it, you can do it. And I tell all my guys that if you can, as long as you make your goals clear and concise and you say, oh, well, I'm gonna land this customer and I'm gonna do this, and you can see that in your brain, it's gonna happen. But if you you're putting these outlandish goals that, you know, I I just want to be rich, well we all want to be rich, but how what kind of rich, you know, what is it from? Where how did you get there? Those are all the things that you've got to start thinking about and backplanting from that goal. So I I I've done a lot of that, but truly it's just discipline, organization, and just being accountable to myself. Because one of the things I was talking about on a friend on the way here, you know, I told him that, you know, if somebody asks me to do something or if there's something going on and I know I'm gonna regret not doing it, I make myself do it. Because I don't want to be, you know, he was talking about his kid who's 10 years old and he didn't make the high school team because he did this and that. And I said, well, sometimes he's gonna, he's gonna grow older and he's gonna realize that he missed a great opportunity. I'm trying not to miss those opportunities. So I try, you know, when something comes up to me and it's maybe something I don't want to do, but it says, you know, will I regret this in the future? And if there's even an inkling that I'm gonna regret it, I'm gonna do it. Because I don't want to regret it, and you know, I feel like I've known that life is short from a very young age. You know, I lost my dad when I wasn't even six months old. So, and then I've lost a lot of family members and I've lost a lot of friends. So that plays a big part on me every single day, is that I know that every day is not given. You know, I try to be grateful on my first, my my first mile of my run every morning. I try to take the music off, and I try to think about all the things I'm grateful for, even if it's just I woke up in a warm bed this morning. I mean, some people don't have that. So that I don't know, that's the some of the things that I think about and some of the things that the military instilled to me and that I still, you know, use to this day in myself's career.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

And honestly, that's what inspires me about you, Sean. I mean, you just your tenacity, and you see something and you go after it, and it's contagious, I mean, of to the people around you. And so, and I think all those things that you mentioned really led up to your success. I mean, with with Edward Dawn. I mean, you got many accolades at Dawn. So, is there any other secrets outside of that success that separated you from the pack?

SPEAKER_00 16:12

You know, I think if you ask most of my friends that really know me, they'll tell you that if you need somebody to run through a wall, it's me. I'm the guy that's gonna keep on pushing and keep on pushing until either the wall's gonna fall or we're gonna run right through it. So I I just think you have to, if you really want something, you really have to go for it wholeheartedly. Or you're gonna regret it. And I don't want to live with regrets.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

No regrets, no regrets. So you were in in street cells, like I was, and so at some point you're like, hey, leadership is calling me. So what tell me about that?

No Regrets And Outworking Obstacles

SPEAKER_00 16:49

So I've always felt kind of drawn to leadership, even as a kid. If we were picking teams or whatever, for some reason, even though I was standing in the back, they'd be like, Oh, he's a captain. Maybe it was because I was the smallest guy, I don't know what it was, but I was always picked to be the captain or this or that or the other. So I always kind of was drawn to it. But then I worked retail sales in my earlier years, and I was a manager there, and I really enjoyed it. And then, you know, in Ed Radon, the thing for me is that, you know, it's like an altar race. When you're standing at the end of an altar race and you see somebody do a hundred-mile run, just the look of just pure I don't know, I don't even know what you'd call it. You just see something different in their eyes. It's a brightness. It's it's almost like their heart is just out coming out of them, and you can just see all this happiness that they actually accomplished something. That is one of the the most awesome things you can see in your life. So when I got into leadership, it was because I wanted to have a hand in somebody else's, you know, and either lifting somebody up or helping them out. Because, you know, when you see that moment, or you know, when they go, Oh my God, I just did that, just being there and being you you get like a part of that energy comes off and you get to soak that in. And I don't know, there's something about it when you see just when you see that. I mean, you you I mean you've probably been to a 5k, 10k, or whatever, and you see somebody that's like, oh my god, I could barely take a step two days ago or you know, two weeks ago, and now I'm doing a 5K. That's just to see the amazement in somebody's eyes, just that does it for me. It just makes my soul happy.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

That's awesome. People are lucky to have leaders like you that want to come alongside you, that want to just not win for themselves, but win together.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

That's right. Well, and I think you if you you know my team, I've got a great team, and I think they all embody exactly what you just said.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Yeah, you have an y'all, he has rock stars. Rock stars. I mean, the biggest one of the biggest territories in the country. Yep. So I mean, this these guys do amazing, amazing things. Quick pause to thank W3Sales for sponsoring this episode. If you're looking for inspiration and food service, from the details that shape the space to the products that elevate the experience, W3Sales new online catalog is built just for that. Explore and shop anytime at W3Salesonline.com. So um I want to get into a little bit back to veterans and in your history. So why would sales be such a powerful entry point for veterans?

Choosing Leadership And Lifting Others

SPEAKER_00 19:48

I think for guys, well, guys and gals that were in the military, well, you know, sales is a lot of uncomfortable moments. You know what I mean? And if you can make it through uncomfortable moments, you'll be better for it. And most of the guys in the military, girls in the military, they they've had to go through, you know, getting somebody pointing their finger, telling them how bad they're, you know, they suck. And they've been they've had to go through all these different situations, which has made them a stronger person, even if they don't know. And that's a big part of it. I I think I was just able to walk into something without fear, because I'd had drill sergeants tell me I'm small, I've had people make me do push-ups, I've had all of this stuff. You're gonna live. So if you can just tell yourself that it's just a bad moment for a second, and that's what you do in the military, okay. This is a bad moment, but it'll pass. So I think for for people in the military, you've already got the organization, you've already, you know, you've you've got the repetition of a lot of this stuff, and you've already had people yell in your face. So if you can continue to show up over and over and over, eventually they've got to stop yelling. They're like, what does this dummy want? He keeps on coming back. And I I tell you, when I first started this job, I went back every week. Even people that told me I had one customer that told me, if this person doesn't work out, what are we gonna do? And I was like, I'll be back. And I was back every single week with all my customers, and eventually I either want them over or they just retired of seeing me and started giving me stuff. So I was just like, this is what I'm gonna do. I just sometimes you got to bulldoze through some stuff.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

I didn't even really think about that. About the I mean, you guys, the drill sergeants, and just, I mean, you get dressed out. And in in sales, I mean, and particularly I think in food service sales too, these chefs, I mean, they can make you feel like this teeny, tiny, small, and just feel really beaten down. And customers can say they never want to see your face again. But you just have to keep showing up. And so I think that's really, really, really good advice as an entry point. So what skills do vets already have that sales organizations should value more?

Sponsor Message

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Well, I think tenacity is be one of them. I think organization for sure. Um just the ability to come back day after day after getting knocked down, I think that's that's one of the biggest things I think. Well, it's one of the biggest things a person can have, right? I mean, you're gonna get knocked down over and over and over. And if you quit, you'll never know what you could have been. So I think it's for me, it's always there's this saying that I have that what's past what's beyond the hard stuff. You know, sometimes you you you're up against the wall and you're you're banging your head on it and you're like, oh, I'm never gonna get past this. And some people quit. But if you don't quit, what's past that wall? Sometimes it's something amazing.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

And something you never expected.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

So when you look back at the person you were when you took off your uniform, what would you tell that version of yourself today?

Why Sales Fits Veterans

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Uh for me to chill out a little bit, you know. Really, I would tell myself that everything's gonna be okay. That truly there's other people going out, you know, there's other people that feel the same exact way. Um, I'm not great about talking about myself or my problems, but uh, one thing that helped me is I was just I buried myself in running and athletics and the health because I felt that if I didn't have anybody else to to talk, because I don't have a whole lot of veteran friends, but uh the ones I, you know, I don't talk to a lot of the guys anymore, but I needed a way to express myself and get all this energy out. And the only way I could do that is through running and and working out. So I think a person I would tell, I would tell myself just to to be easy on myself. I can be very hard on myself, but that's another reason I'm I'm so driven. But that I'm safe, you know, that I'll be all right, and that as long as I work hard and have a good worth ethic, that I'll be just fine. I still have problems with that a lot, you know.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

We all do. It's gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

That's right. And you gotta tell yourself that you're gonna be safe, you're gonna be fine. And sometimes uh, you know, it's it's all about what you tell yourself in your mind. You know, sometimes we have a habit of telling ourselves that, oh, you're not doing great, or oh, you're sucking today, or whatever that may be. And you gotta stop listening to that guy and turn it around, and you gotta be like, hey, this is gonna be a great day. If something bad can happen in a day, something great can happen in a day. So it's just it's just a mindset, really.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

One thing I learned during my recovery when I went through recovery at my church was about just capturing your thoughts and writing them down.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

And then once you and then putting the truth down.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

I like that.

Tenacity, Rejection, And Showing Up

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Who you really are. And I think thoughts and you know, the world can give you a lot of awful messaging. I mean, it might appear to be nice messaging, like, oh, this person, you know, this person has everything. They have a great personality, they're so fun, and they're killing it in sales and all the things. But that person has struggles too. That's right. We all have struggles. And I think that capturing those thoughts has really, really helped me. And and and that that doesn't determine my self-worth too. So, what's the hardest truth you had to accept about yourself during the transition from armed forces to z civilian life? And how did it ultimately change you?

Advice To His Younger Self

SPEAKER_00 25:55

There's a couple of things. One of the hardest things that I really had to come to grips was that it's weird what you become accustomed to. You know, we were overseas for a year, and I had to train up for a while before that. So I was accustomed to being overseas and to being there and to knowing my job every day, and to, you know, for the the lack of I didn't have to worry about traffic or I didn't have to worry about my friends having this or that, you know, these kind of problems. That was really hard. But the even harder part, I think, is that you know, I was gone for a year and a half. Life changed for me in drastic ways. It didn't change for anybody around me. So it was really weird. It's like time stood still for everybody else. Because when I got back, they were all doing the same things, all talking about the same stuff, and I was like, man, I I'd just been gone for a year and a half, and I just come back and we're all doing the same stuff. It was really awkward to me. I was like, man, uh that year and a half changed my life in dramatic ways. How are you guys still working the same dead-end job, doing the same dead-end things? Uh it didn't compute with me. So that was my biggest transition is just knowing that, man, I felt like I had a purpose. You know what I mean? My all my family was in the military. My dad had been overseas and in Vietnam twice, my grandpa. I mean, so I to be, you know, I thought I should still be there. And I to this day, sometimes I have those feelings because that's, you know, and it's hard. I had a real long talk with my wife, and I was like, man, I belong there. And it took me a long time to feel like I don't belong. Well, not that I don't belong there. I listen, I could go there tomorrow and I'd be just fine because uh that's just who I am. But it was just very difficult thinking that, man, I just came from this hard situation, and I'd rather be in this very difficult place than be at home where everything's easy. It was extremely it was just weird. But then you get here and you're like, well, this ain't easy. Life is not easy. So then I don't know, it's just then you wonder, oh, well, should I re-up? Should I go back? Should I do these things, you know? And then luckily for me, I had a wife that talked some sense into me, and she said, Hey, uh, I don't want you going back overseas, so hey, how about you chill out with that stuff? So we figured it out, and I got on with Don and you know, a lot of its history from there, but that was that that was the hardest thing, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

I just remember, and we talked about it before we started, just my brother coming back, and just it was so hard for him. I mean, he had really severe PTSD. He just couldn't rationalize what had happened to him and the trauma, what he saw. And, you know, like you mentioned before, people just having what they thought was everything.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

And we would think as nothing.

The Hardest Truths About Transition

SPEAKER_00 28:58

That's right. And to come back here and everybody has everything and they treat it like nothing. I remember the first I mean, this is right when I got back from Fort Hood. My wife was driving because it wasn't going to do me good to drive at that point, because I was always looking for something in the streets or in the bridges, or I was, you know, so I'd always be like, hey, watch out for that, watch out for that. Oh, there's something on the bridge. So you're always looking for that. And I remember the first thing that happened to me is my wife and I were driving to a restaurant or something, and somebody threw out a piece of trash out of the window, and I came unglued. I was just like, Oh my gosh. I've been to a country that's, you know, that's for lack of better words, was nobody cares what they do with their trash, and it's a trashy place. And here I come, I'm back home, everybody has everything, and this guy right here is going to trash it. My wife is like, oh my gosh. But uh that was the first thing I remember. I was like, oh my gosh, if I'm gonna go off about something like this, you know, I I've really got to uh figure out what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

So if a veteran is listening right now who feels lost, unsure, or like they don't fit in anywhere, what do you want them to know about themselves that they might be forgiving?

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Uh well, I think for one thing, everybody's going through the stuff. Everybody. If if you need somebody to talk to, there's veteran groups out there. There really is. I actually just got back from a hike a couple months ago. First veterans group I've ever really joined in doing anything. Of course, I was the oldest guy there, but it was great because everybody had the same problems. And you're walking around day to day thinking about all these things up in your head that nobody understands, and then you go to this place where everybody has the same problems and you can talk about it. It it actually helped me out a lot. It changed my perspective on some things, and it actually made me not be so hard on myself because, you know, like we said earlier, it's the way you talk to yourself. And if you, you know, there's bullies in life, you can bully yourself. And there's a lot of times that I have negative things in my head, and sometimes it's just best to talk to somebody else that's been in those same situations. But I'd find a veterans group. I I mean, this is some of the other things that I did, it was just I ran a lot, you know, and and just I went from you know partying and drinking as much as I could to okay, I gotta figure this out. This is not healthy for me. Where's my life? Where do I really want to go in life? So I I quit drinking and I started doing 100% on my health and what would make me healthier. Then when I felt like I got to a point where I was the healthiest I've ever been, I was like, well, what's going on with my brain? If I'm this healthy inside and out, I mean, I'm still having all these thoughts, which are normal people don't have these thoughts, you know what I mean? It's I was so rough on myself. So um, you know, I I turned to running. I mean, I ran. I I still do it a lot, but I find that for me, doing something extremely difficult that I'm making myself do sets me up for the day. So I can mitigate a lot of that negative talk and a lot of these things that go through my brain just by getting up, having some kind of routine and putting myself through some kind of hell that I'm putting myself through. That way I'm set up for the rest of the day.

PTSD, Triggers, And Perspective

Finding Support, Routine, And Running

SPEAKER_01 32:35

That's really good advice. I think that this is just so inspirational, I think, for vets that are out there that are maybe don't they don't think of themselves as salespeople, but I mean, you've really shown and demonstrated through this conversation that all I mean, the salesperson I would want to have is everything that you're talking about. Somebody that can handle hard problems that doesn't run way away, doesn't run away from things. They are accountable, they're team players. And I mean, I think those are all great characteristics for a very successful salesperson. And I think it's really important for hiring managers and people that who have not served and that work alongside our vets is that we do understand where they're coming from. And we do take that and that we do consider that. And maybe their approach might seem a little different, but um, but and I think it is good with everybody in life in general, but I think that you know, we shouldn't discount their feelings and what they've been. And ultimately, they have paid the biggest sacrificial price for us. And so I'm very thankful for your service to our country and to all the vets out there that have served our country and that are in our industry and food service and beyond. So it's just I'm very, very thankful. So do you have a confession of for me? Well, we got to end with this.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Okay. My confession, uh I mean, most people know me, I guess. Well, if you don't, I like to run. And my confession is that I run 100 miles for fun.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

Okay, I want you to repeat that. How many miles do you run?

SPEAKER_00 34:25

A hundred miles.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

That's crazy. When you first told me, I was like, I think I heard him wrong. I know I'm getting older, but tell me that again. Yeah, it's a hundred miles, y'all.

Hiring Veterans And Shared Understanding

The Confession: Running 100 Miles

SPEAKER_00 34:37

Yep. So a quick story. I used to, I started running and I was running the half marathons and full marathons, and I just thought that was it. You know, there's no way, you know, I'm just gonna get good at halves and fools, and I'll just be able to do that. And then I met this guy, Mike Rouse, at Frisco Running Company, 70, I mean 70 something, had written a book, had been running his, you know, his whole life, and he does something called ultra running. And at the time I was like, oh, this sounds interesting. What's ultra running? And it was basically the definitions, anything over 26.2 miles. And I was like, okay. So I like running. You know, this just puts a different aspect into it. So now not only do you have to figure out how you're gonna run that far, but you got to put a game plan behind it. You got to know your calories, how much water, how much all of these things that you need and that you're gonna, you know, possibly it might rain, it might be cold, it might so there's it's more than just going out and and just gutting it out. Now you got to really think about a process and really put a plan behind it. And that's what really excited me. I was like, hold on, this is a whole, this is a totally different, totally different race. I can go out and and and you know, run as fast as I can for 13 miles or 26 miles, but I can't run as fast as I can for 50 to 100 miles. So there's there's got to be some different planning. Then I the first one I looked at was uh I did a 50 miler and did pretty good in that. And then I started doing a couple hundred K's, and then finally uh I worked up to 100 miles, and I my goal was sub-24. I I missed it, but I was okay with it. I finished 100 miles, which is a great accomplishment. But one of the biggest races I had ever since I heard about ultras, I've heard about this race called Leadville. So I'd go on YouTube and I would look up Leadville, and it's a hundred-mile race across the mountains in in Colorado. So it goes from 10,200 feet to over 13,000 feet. So I've been watching this for years and years and years, and just watching all these ultras, and I've been participating in a bunch of them here locally, and I've been doing all right, but man, I needed a big goal. I told you earlier that you've got to do things that scare yourself in the morning or things to put yourself through it. Well, I've got to have very big personal goals. And so I told my wife, I was like, hey, I need a really big personal goal. I wanted to run Leadville 100. I'm gonna get on and I'm gonna see if I can't sign up for this thing. So, you know, there's a they you go in, you sign up, but they draw your name out of the hat. So I was training, training, training. They drew my name out of the hat, and I was like, oh my gosh, this is it. So, you know, if you know anything about Texas, we're flatlanders. I mean, we're not I can run for a month and not get a thousand feet of elevation around my neighborhood. So I I went from doing flatland at, you know, we're at 700 feet of elevation right now to going up and down elevation, you know, anything from 9,000 to over 13,000 feet. So I had to figure out how I was gonna handle the elevation first. And so I bought a uh uh like a sleep machine, and it's basically like a tent that pumps, you know, nitrogen or cuts out a lot of the oxygen. So you're sleeping at I was sleeping at 20,000 feet for a couple months. Then you had to figure out, okay, how am I gonna get so much elevation? You're either gonna have to run on a treadmill or you're gonna have to find places. So I did that, and then I went out to Leadville once and stayed in Twin Lakes and did Hope. I mean, I stayed out there by myself, went and did Hope Pass a couple times by myself, and then yeah, I I watched all the videos, and then it was time. I I got I I had the Leadville race, and then yeah, my wife and I went a week early just to be out there in elevation, took our van, hung out, and then went and got my mother-in-law and her sister, my wife's aunt, and then I had a couple friends come in, and then they were my pit crew. So every, you know, every 10 or so miles, 12 miles, there's a pit stop. They would be there to give me my soda or whatever I was doing. And then yeah, so it was incredible. I mean, it's absolutely incredible. The pictures are incredible. I got over Hope Pass and I had time, and then I got back at the top of Hope Pass. It started raining and started sleeting, but on the off in the back, you could see like a rainbow coming right out of the draw where I just came from. I mean, it was all amazing. It I'm getting chills just talking about it. It was so cool. It and this one is like we're all the elite runners. I mean, everybody that's anybody in running knows what Leadville is. So that was my last 100 mile, not that it's gonna be my last, but that was the last one I trained for and the last one I did. And it was just it was amazing. I mean, I can't wait till the next one, really, but it just so much training and and so much of that kind of stuff that you gotta do. So yeah, I mean that's my confession, really, is that you know, most people hate to run, or they think is running as uh some kind of a punishment or whatever. Whenever I'm down or whenever I'm blue, or whenever I'm having a bad day, I run. Whenever I'm happy, I run. Whenever I'm sad, I run. It's just it's a part of me, and it's just what makes me me.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

It's so important to have an outlet in your life like that. And like you said, personal goals, you know, and outside of maybe your children or your job. And I think that the coolest part of this is a rainbow. Oh, it's how do you even taught that?

Training For Leadville 100

SPEAKER_00 40:19

It was amazing. Well, the the coolest thing is even after that, so you're running. I mean, it's a 30-hour race, so you're out there for a long time. Another cool thing was just being out in the pitch black in the middle of this the the forest, and just how clear the sky was. I mean, you can we saw a shooting star at some point. I mean, the the whole journey was just amazing. I mean, the people were great. It's just I can't say enough about it. If you ever have a chance to go run or just to go support somebody at a run, especially at a finish line, or you'll see that change in somebody, uh it's amazing. I mean, it's funny because my mother-in-law and her sister had never been to any of my events, and they saw that race and they both cried and they were like, oh my gosh, I never knew it could be like this. I mean, so it's just not even just for the people running and for the spectators, it's it changes their lives. I mean, just something about seeing the human spirit be able to adapt and overcome to something that crazy and to come around and smile about it. It's or cry, whatever. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

Yeah, well, that's I mean, you're an amazing human being, Sean Porter, and we are all blessed today for like listening to you and just I mean, feeling I'm feeling encouraged. I hope you are too, guys. But I really appreciate you joining. And we thank you guys for joining us in our conversation, and we look forward to seeing you on the next podcast. For more inspiration, follow our social media at W3Cells. Please like, comment, and subscribe. You know, all the things we would love to connect with you.