Turning Setbacks into Strengths: Patrick Engasser on Overcoming Adversity and Achieving Success

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In this empowering episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we welcome Patrick Engasser, a motivational speaker, leadership coach, and sales expert who has turned his greatest setback into a remarkable strength. Born blind, Patrick has defied the odds to build and lead a seven-figure sales team while inspiring countless individuals to overcome their limiting beliefs and achieve extraordinary results.
Join us as Patrick shares his incredible journey from aspiring radio broadcaster to successful sales leader, revealing how he transformed adversity into opportunity. He discusses the pivotal moments in his career, including the struggles he faced in his early days of sales and the invaluable lessons learned along the way.
In this episode, you will discover:
- The mindset shift needed to view adversity as a superpower
- Key qualities that differentiate top sales professionals from the rest
- The importance of leading by example and mentoring others
- Insights from his book, *If I Can Do It, You Can Do It*, which offers practical tips for overcoming challenges
- Upcoming projects, including a new sales course and a follow-up book focused on scaling businesses.
Patrick’s story is a testament to the power of resilience and the belief that anyone can overcome their challenges. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that will motivate you to take action and pursue your dreams, no matter the obstacles in your path. For more information on Patrick and his work, visit www.patrickengasser.com.
www.talkwithpatrick.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Living the Dream Podcast with Curveball. If you believe, you can achieve.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast. Today's guest is a guest that proves that your greatest friend. He failed leaders become leaders that people want to follow. And if help people build businesses that promote the world and freedom. So we're gonna be talking to Patrick about his career and everything that he's up to and gonna be up to. So Patrick, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Curtis, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Sure. So it's an honor to be here. I uh I was born blind in Buffalo, New York. Um so yes, that's where the the story starts. So as as you mentioned, uh then I'm blind, but I'm also been blind since birth. Um so similar journey in some ways to you. And I would I'd say the ending up in sales was not something that I really planned on doing, right? It's probably not the career that people start out when they're seven years old, watching the uh neighborhood insurance sales professional and going, that's what I want to be when I grow up. So that was not not the case. I wanted to go into radio broadcasting, um, sports pregame, post-game specifically, being from Buffalo, New York, I was always been a big sports fan. It's kind of it's kind of in the DNA if you grow up in that community. Um I live in Defson, Florida now. So I'm my wife and and my almost four-year-old son and I moved here a little over a year ago. Uh, but the whole the whole rest of my life was in Buffalo, New York. So sports is just kind of built into who I am. And uh after I graduated college with a degree in communications and radio broadcasting, my goal was to get into, like I said, sports talk show, um, sports radio. I graduated in 2009 during the not so great 2008-2009 economy, or as I usually call it, the economic apocalypse, that most people remember what that was like during that time. So, so I got a job in a call center while I was still looking for radio jobs. And it's the one thing I really did that in my life that I didn't like doing. Um, working at it was actually a collections job. It did a couple of really good things for me that I did not at the time see as good things, but it helped me build thick skin and it taught me what I definitely didn't want to do. And it because of that, I had what I call my opportunity radar turned on. So a lot of your listeners and you probably know exactly what I mean by that. I was open to opportunities, and because of that, I was looking for them. So I had my antennas up, and a lot of times we miss opportunities because our opportunity radar isn't turned on. So we're just kind of just going through the motions, doing what we do, and then once we start to become aware, that's when we realize that there's opportunities around us. So I ended up bumping into the district sales coordinator, district manager of a Fortune 500 insurance company who I met at the gym was introduced by my then uh personal trainer. Both of us are being trained by him. We had never met, even though we both gone to the gym for a couple of years. Um, and I he, you know, I wasn't sure that insurance sales is what I wanted to do, but I just knew it wasn't what I was doing. So to me, it sounded like a good, a good opportunity for a change of pace. And thankfully he uh his name was Greg. He did not prejudge me and was willing to give me a shot. And so I called him the next day and he called me right back, and we set up an interview and the rest is history. So I ended up um starting in the insurance industry, struggled for the first two years, and then hired a business and sales coach at the end of my second year. And that's where that was the big turning point for me. So I went from in the 500s out of about 615 agents in terms of new business clothes to the top account closer the following year, about 14 months later. So that turned my whole career around and changed things. Um, and then after that, the year after that, I was promoted to district manager. So, and that's kind of uh it's funny if I hadn't hired that business and sales coach, I've thought about it many times. Um, Steve, who I worked with for a couple of years after that. Um, I don't know that I'd be now now I'm training corporations bring me in to train their sales team, which is kind of funny to think about. After the first two years, I'm like, I'm not, I would have laughed at you if you'd have told me, hey, someday, you know, 15 years from now, you're gonna be saying training sales teams. Corporations are gonna be bringing in and pay paying you money to train their sales teams uh and build training and development programs on sales. I'd have been like, yeah, that's funny. Um, but it actually it actually has happened. So it's kind of funny sometimes the way the way that you know God uh sets you up and sometimes the way that that life takes a turn. And it's just kind of are you willing to invest in yourself? Are you willing to make the changes and upgrades you need to make in order to get to where you need to go? So and then just kind of keep taking the next step in front of you. So that's kind of my story.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Well, I know you live by the philosophy. If I can do it, you can do it. So talk about the uh life experience that make that makes you uh believe that philosophy.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Yeah, it's it that's the title of my book, but it as you said, it's also my life philosophy that I want to share that message with people as often as I can, that everybody has challenges, right? I don't know everybody in your audience. You probably don't even know a lot of some of the people in your audience, but because you have a very large audience. Uh, but I would just say that one thing I do know about everyone in your audience and everyone listening who can hear my voice, whether they're, you know, short, tall, you know, younger, older, uh, male, female, whatever the uh color their skin is, doesn't matter. We all have one thing in in common, and that's that we've been through adversity in our life. Maybe if we're two years old, we haven't yet, or been through a lot of it. But for everybody else, if you're an adult, you've made it through challenges and adversity in your life. And as long as you're if you're gonna live, you know, a handful more years, I can promise you you're gonna live through more. And that's the case for all of us, myself included. So for me, my challenges are very obvious when I walk in a room. It's very obvious that I'm blind, right? I walk in with a guide dog or a weight mobility cane. So it's not something I can really cover up. And so it's easy for me to have that conversation with people because people are curious about my story. And because when I speak, people want to hear that part of how did you overcome blindness to have the success you've had. For a lot of a lot of you or a lot of us in general, our other challenges or the challenges that aren't blindness may not be as obvious to the world. And so sometimes people don't share those things out loud or they don't walk around talking about the adversity they're going through in their business or the adversity they're going through in their relationships, or the adversity or challenges that they're going through in their sales career, or as a leader, if they're in the corporate world. Um, but they have them. And so my message is that whatever it is that's your challenge, if I can get through what I've been able to get through, overcome those challenges, still have success, then you can too. And that, that uh, that topic or that philosophy is what's I think resonates most with people. Whether I'm training a group of sales professionals on a sales team that I've been brought in to do a half day training or a workshop for, or if I'm doing ongoing, excuse me, or if I'm doing ongoing training for a corporation, um, or if I'm doing a motivational talk, or if I'm doing one-on-one coaching with an entrepreneur who's an owner-founder and wants to scale and get to the next level. That message resonates with everybody because we've all been through challenges. And a lot of times the reason someone hires a trainer or a coach or brings someone in to do leadership or sales training is because there is adversity. There are challenges they're facing right now, and it's how do we get through that? And sometimes it's yes, strategy is important, right? But sometimes the first step is just awareness that, hey, it's possible. We can get through this. We have to believe it's possible, and then we have to start taking step one to get to step two.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Well, speaking of adversity, many people see it as a limitation, but you see it as a super superpower. So talk about what mindset shift people have to undergo to see adversity as not a limitation but superpower.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Yeah, I love this question. So for me, you know, I did see blindness as a liability for a long time. It's not something I was born with where I'm like, hey, I just have a positive attitude. My parents did, thankfully, you know, just raised me like my other my two siblings, my brother and my sister. They didn't know I have all the answers as to how to overcome the things I was gonna face. Um, they were open with me about that as I got older, but they also were very supportive and and told me that, hey, if you're willing to work hard, put in the work and do the extra work when it's required and work with the people you're gonna need to work with to support you, you can have you can be as successful as you want. And so they didn't say, hey, you know, you're a victim, uh, life is gonna be, you know, miserable and there's nothing you can do about it. Uh, so because they didn't do that, because they didn't put a lot of limitations in my brain, that gave me the ability to tap into that over and over. But then you go through middle school and high school and you get picked on because you're not like everybody else. Um, you know, and you're not the you're not the person that all the girls want to go to the dance with, or you know, guys, in my case, it was girls. But so, you know, in that case, I was, you know, it does a little bit to your self-confidence. Um, so I did kind of see my blindness for a period of time as a liability, as you mentioned. Uh, I did flip that script once I got into sales because I realized that if I was going to have success, my bigger disability was not my blindness. My, my, I, you know, at some point I stopped seeing that as a disability and started seeing my excuses as a disability, because that's the big disability we all have, right? If we're making excuses and not taking responsibility, that's the one that's going to hurt you the most because excuses are expensive. And the problem with excuses is not just that they're expensive, but the invoice often shows up later. What I mean by that is we don't even realize how expensive they are until often days, weeks, months, or even sometimes years after we make them. So eliminating those as much as I could or catching myself when I was making them was a challenge in itself that I had to overcome, that I was making excuses I wasn't taking responsibility. But once I actually started to do that and I started talking to business owners, I realized I'd walk in for an appointment with a decision maker in the business-to-business sales world. And that I had a dog, you know, I had a guide dog that was going with me to my appointments. And uh I realized he was a he was an asset because people wanted to talk about him. People were excited to see him. Not everybody, but I'd say eight or nine out of 10 people were. And that made that was a differentiator. So I could sit there and believe that there was a neon sign flashing my forehead that sent a blind salesperson approaching. And this was a liability that I had the dog with me, and that gave away my cover, so to speak, right away. Or I could sit there and be like, hey, this is an asset. Same thing was true for you know, going and taking the bus to my appointments and then taking cabs once I had the money. Originally I thought this was a huge liability that I couldn't drive. And I realized people were giving me uh really additional, I would say, I don't say respect, but that people were looking at me differently because I was willing to go out there and put in the work. Like, hey, I'd like to do business with this guy because he's putting in the work and he's actually trying and things are probably harder for him. They wanted to know my story. They, I think, appreciated the fact that I was willing to do whatever it took to be successful. And so I still had to know my stuff. I still had to be able to present in a way that would make an impact and that would get them to see that the product or service I had, uh, the insurance products I had would solve their problems. But they were willing to give me a shot because I was someone who was, you know, willing to overcome that adversity and it was kind of physically visible to them that that's what I was doing. And then, you know, there were software things I had to overcome in terms of compatibility between my screen reading software and the enrollment platform. And I just eventually embraced it and realized that, hey, I don't have to, I don't have to look at all the screens where I don't have to fill something in. I just count the tabs, memorize the applications, and so I can tab through these this parts of the application that I don't need to fill out faster than anybody else. So it really is how you look at it. You know, that we've all heard the quote when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. I think it was Wayne Dyer who said that. And uh it's very true. And I I chose to eventually I chose to turn my liability or perceived liability into an asset. And my what I what this means for everyone listening, what it means for you is you have something in your life that's challenging or in your business or in your career or in your relationship, something that's challenging. We all do. So, how can you see that obstacle as an opportunity? Because chances are, if you can overcome that obstacle, if you can get around it, if you can get through this adversity, it's going to make you stronger. Most of the time, we get strongest or build the most character during a time of adversity. We don't recognize it sometimes until we're out of the adversity. But looking at the obstacle in your life and saying, how can I use this as a springboard rather than an obstacle? How can I turn this into an asset for myself? And just kind of look at it. Step one is even just looking at it from a different mindset and a different uh use you said shifting your mindset, really looking at it from a different point of view. Because if you can do that, uh you really you really can start to leverage that that perceived liability as an asset and start thinking of it that way.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Well, I know as a sales professional, you've uh built and led a successful seven-figure team. So what what's that separates the top five percent sales professionals from everybody else?

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Yeah, I think that's I think the biggest thing is how they how they think. Um just they they look at things differently. They don't uh it's funny, you hear a lot of people talking about closing a sale. And you can use that terminology if you want. That's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. But the top top sales professionals that I have coached and that I've mentored both as a business and sales coach and also and a sales trainer, as well as when I was, as you said, a district manager training sales, you know, individuals on my own sales team. The thing that separates the people who are really successful from the people who are average is really the way they think. And one of the biggest things is they're there to solve a problem. They're there to help a prospect who already has a problem, a pain point, if you will. And they're there to either help that person remove that pain or to move toward a more positive or pleasurable situation. There's two things that human beings will make, will make changes for, and that's one to escape pain or you know, get away from pain and remove pain from their life. And number two is to move toward pleasure. And people will typically do a lot more and take more drastic action and make changes in their life to escape pain. So it's really helping to uncover that pain and then helping them solve the problem. That's what top producers do. The average salesperson goes in and says, I'm gonna pitch this person. I need to make my presentation really great. And that doesn't mean you shouldn't work on your presentation. I'm not saying that. But if your goal is to come in with a script and pitch somebody rather than to ask questions and help them uncover what their problem is that you can help them with, and it's probably a pain point they've been that's that's been frustrating them for a while, uh, how can I take that, the solution that I have and help you remove that problem and take care of it? Because once that happens, the rest is fairly easy. It's just walking them through step by step through the process, but really showing them that, hey, here's where you are right now. And then building a bridge over to where you want to be. So going from the pain to the pleasure. And a lot of times the average salesperson will sell the features of their product or their service rather than selling the outcome, which is, you know, as I always jokingly say, jokingly uh talk about selling the vacation rather than a TSA line. You know, a lot of salespeople are are selling the process of you got to go through TSA, you got to take off your stinky shoes and put them in the bin. You got to take everything out of your pockets, you got to take out your gels and your creams and your laptop and your tablet. Then you got to get on, put your shoes back on, go through them after you go through the medical detector, you go on the airplane. Then you got to transfer to another airplane. No, that's not what the person wants to hear. The person wants to hear, here's where I am. It's 25 degrees where I am. It's February. I live in a cold place. Tell me about the beach, because that's where I want to be. Well, here's how we can get you to the beach. You can be there for a whole week. You can sit there, you know, with your favorite food or beverage on your lap or in your cup holder, and you can sit there with your toes in the sand, listening to the sound, or watching the ocean waves come in. That's what they want to hear. Most people don't sell that outcome. They sell the process. And people don't buy the process. They buy based on emotion and they buy the outcome. So that's really one of the biggest things that separates them. The other thing that I would say separates them is usually their the way they start their day and their overall habits. They have really good habits that actually help them to grow and actually keep them doing the things that that keep consistent success happening, keep that flow of consistent success happening. So average people are all over the place. Sometimes they have good days, sometimes they don't. They don't really have great habits. A lot of times they fall back into really bad routines. And a lot of times that starts in the morning. They don't have a successful morning routine that gets them started in a way that builds healthy habits for the day. I can think of a coaching member of mine, his name's Mike, um, and he has just a we've worked on this together, but he was successful before we start working together. He's tripled uh the size of his of his mortgage business since we've been working together in his mortgage sales, but he was already having success and we started working together. And the way reason he was able to scale is because he's created such great habits, right? I I've certainly, I think, helped him with some of that, but I can't take credit for it because he's really just put in amazing work to make it happen. But one of the biggest things he's he's done is just create an amazing morning routine that gets the fire lit early in the morning and gets the day rolling on the positive note. And his habits throughout the day are ones that put him in front of prospects and move the needle in a positive way. So, you know, he's just one example, but I think that top producers, when you work with them, you'll notice, or even if they're not top producer yet, that they're willing to build habits and do things other people aren't willing to do.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

Well, what's the biggest lie that entrepreneurs believe that keep them stuck working in their business versus building a business that actually works for them?

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Ooh, I love this question. This is one of my favorites. So most entrepreneurs believe that every customer is a good customer. And right, the customer is always right. And if you have a customer, obviously you're your customer client, take care of them and do what you say you're gonna do, keep your promises, be a person of integrity, of course. I'm not saying I don't want anyone to misunderstand me when I say the customer isn't always isn't always right. But when I say that, I'm not talking about the customers you have on board. I'm talking about the potential customers. I feel like a lot of, I know that a lot of entrepreneurs I've worked with started out with with kind of a very incremental quantity over quality mindset. And it's bring on as many customers as we can as fast as we can, regardless of who those customers or clients are. I see this a lot with coaches that I that I you know that I work with and that I coach, right? They want to have a coach and they're like, hey, what can I do to change my business? Well, number one is treat it like a business. A lot of coaches, unfortunately, they're they're really good at coaching. They really have uh a heart for mentorship and they actually do you know have great technique at being able to help people get unstuck. They just have trouble getting unstuck in their own business because a lot of times they're not running it like a business, right? They just believe that, hey, if I learn, if I get these certifications and I learn everything I need to learn to help others, business is just going to come to me. And a lot of times. That's usually that's not the case, right? We've got to go out and find it. We've got to have a marketing strategy on how to do that. Um, but beyond that, I like I said, quantity over quality is the biggest lie that I think that most entrepreneurs believe early on. I believed it early on. I'll be the first to tell you. Um, but it the problem with quantity over quality is it's usually in some models, it has to be the case in certain industries. Like sometimes your product is a $50, $30, $50 product. There's nothing you can do, or there's less you can do, let's say, to create quality over quantity. It's still possible, but we have to do it in a different way. But I've I I'll give you an example. I have a good friend of mine who's uh been a coaching member of mine for several years. Um, and when I started working with him, his name's Dan. When I started working with him, one of the biggest things uh he was focused on was just working with anybody who wanted to work with him. And he's got a uh credit card processing business, really, really passionate about what he does and about helping people, a person of great integrity. But the challenge was I'm like, Dan, you're working with people who are, you know, their account is paying you $20 a month. And then you have these other clients who you can't help because you don't have time to work with them because you've got all these $20, $30, $50 a month clients that aren't paying the bills. You're basically working as a volunteer, putting in all this time working with these clients that are very demanding, that aren't really paying you a lot. And then you have other clients who are doing, you know, so much business that they're paying you a thousand or two thousand dollars a month. How do we duplicate these quality clients and stop going after these $20, $10, $20 a month clients? And once he did that and shifted that, and he didn't just go in and say, hey, all you, all the rest of you, I'm not going to work with you anymore. But he stopped going after those clients and changed the mentality to quality over quantity. As soon as he started doing that, he was able to go on more vacations. He was able to invest more time with his kids. He was able to enjoy his work again because he was working with the right types of clients. And he was specifically marketing to those clients, networking with those clients, going where those fishing in the lake where those fish actually were, instead of being like, Yeah, I'm going to go fishing, you know, this little creek that's just got sunfish in it. And I'm not going to be able to feed my family on those. So a lot of it is quality over quantity and understanding if you want to scale, you have to really figure out who your ideal client avatar is and tap into ways to get in front of those clients, really finding a niche and and going after that niche rather than just everybody's a good customer because they called me.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Can you share a moment where you wanted to give up and uh talk about uh what that experience was like and what kept you moving forward?

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Yes, I do. I did have one of those moments. I've had a few of those, but the biggest one that I can remember was about six or seven months into my sales career. Um and you know, I had one later right before I hired the coach as well, but this is the one that's most vivid in my mind. I was out with my district manager, we were stopping into businesses because this is the type of uh sales, you know, outside sales where you're you're walking into businesses, introducing yourself. And I remember that day, I remember saying to my district manager, I'm like, I don't know if this is gonna work out. I actually verbalized that out loud. I'm like, I don't know if this is gonna work out. This is for me. I've you know, I've had 10 or 11 businesses in the last month that have look sounded like they were gonna move forward. I thought they were gonna move forward, and then they didn't for some reason. Now part of that was me and not, you know, really fine-tuning and and and laser focusing in on their problem, making and then helping them make a decision. But I was too wishy-washy and not really moving people to action and guiding them to the finish line. But, you know, I remember his words like I was like I was sitting in the car next to him yesterday, even though this was you know 14 years ago, and he he said, Patrick, I don't know why this is the case, but every new agent in this business is faced with this at some point. I don't know why it is, you can call it whatever you want. But you know, I can promise you that if you stick in this business with your you know, strong I will, you know, because I had a very strong I will. I really believe that I could do this and I wanted it badly. And he's like your desire, your why that you have, you can be successful at this, but you're just gonna have to gut it out and get through this part. And you have so many opportunities between a yes and a no. You really just need to keep following up with them, stick with the plan, keep doing what you're doing, and not quit before the blessing. And if you do that, I don't know why it happens this way, but mark my words and remember this. You're gonna end up closing three or four accounts all at the same time. And I went home and went, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, whatever. But I I didn't really believe him, but I believed him enough, or at least was willing to listen to his words enough because he sounded like he really knew what he was talking about. And he gave me some examples. So I couldn't argue with what he was saying, but there was definitely some doubt still in my head. But I didn't quit, obviously, or the story would have been far different. Uh, and I'm glad I didn't. But he was right. About a month later, in a two-week period of time, I closed three new accounts. Three businesses said yes and moved forward. And um, I got the largest payout and commissions that I had up until that point, about eight months into my business. And that was really a turning one of the turning points that kept me in the game long enough to hire the coach to actually learn the skills that I really needed long term to become the the sales professional that I would become rather than the amateur I was at the time. So, what that means for everybody listening is when you have that moment where you're like, this is this feels like, especially for people in sales or in business or coaches who coach people and they're trying to figure out how to, how to, you know, how to make their business work, don't quit before the blessing. If you're doing everything right and you you're sitting there going, what am I doing wrong? I feel like I'm doing everything right. Yes, look for other things that you can do to maximize your business as much as possible. But really, if you know you're doing the majority of things right, keep doing those things. Don't stop because chances are a breakthrough is right around the corner. You've just got to keep doing the things that you're doing. Because if you take your foot off the gas pedal, it may not seem fair, but you got to start all the way up, you know, down the mountain at the bottom again or close to it. So don't take your foot off the gas, just keep doing what you're doing if you know you're doing the right things.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

Well, what are the uh three qualities that every great leader must develop today?

SPEAKER_00 30:11

Three qualities. I would say number one is they have to lead by example. I don't care if we're in a world of AI or in the world of you know quantum computing or whatever we end up, technology happens to be there 10, 15, 20 years from now. Bottom line is this is still a people sales or business in general, entrepreneurship, or anything where leadership plays a role, could be in the military, doesn't matter. This it's still a people business, we still live on a people planet. And until that's not the case, which we won't know because we won't be here, but is until that's not the case, you've got to lead by example. People don't do what you say they do what you do. I know that because if I tell my son, who's almost four next month, if I tell him to do something, but I do the opposite, he will do what I do. And I'll say, hey, don't don't say that. You know, because that's that's not something you should say. And guess what? He'll say it again. Why? Because he watches me do it. So if I want to change the way he talks or I want to change the way he acts, I need to change my behavior to make sure it's in alignment with what I'm telling him. I'm not saying don't tell people or say what's the right thing or tell salespeople how to be successful. But if you're not modeling that and you're saying, hey, go do this instead of let's do this together, that's what that's number one. Then they're not going to do it, or they're not going to do it to the level that you want them to. You know, I think the second thing that the great leaders do is they they're mentors, right? They pull, they, they've they find people within the organization who really want to be more successful, who really want to learn the game or the business that they're in or the industry. And they pull that person aside and say, hey, I'm gonna, I really do want to mentor you. Or even if they don't say those words, they invest time with that person. Right? They're investing time in their team and they're and probably investing financial resources as well. It's one of the things I say as a business coach all the time. You know, people drop $10,000 on their next vacation, but they won't put 10 bucks into their business in terms of investment. A lot of times, people, it's it's the funny to me that the people who hire me as a business or sales coach are usually not, or bring me in as a sales trainer or leadership trainer, usually not the people who need it the most. It's the people who want to get better, who are already doing pretty well. I always, I'm always looking for the sales company that wants to bring somebody in or the business that wants to bring in a coach because they want to get better, not because they're a mess. Because usually the ones who are a mess, they don't want to do anything about it. It's how they got there. They're they'd like it to just magically happen, but they're not willing to invest in it. So invest in your team and mentor people who you know could be your next leaders. Don't be afraid of the fact, hey, oh, they might take my job away. No, take that person who's the next leader so that you have tiers of leadership within your organization and actually mentor them and help them be more successful. Um, and and help have that because that's the person you're going to delegate to. That's the person you're going to lean on, especially if they look to you and say, hey, this person helped me. They weren't afraid of me being successful, they actually just helped me spread my wings. And the third one, which I think is most important, is you know, I believe that leaders, I've I've worked for a number of managers over the years, only a couple of leaders. A lot of managers are a dime a dozen. Nobody wants to be managed, and hopefully nobody wants to be called a manager because leadership, as you mentioned, Curtis is really where it's at. Uh, the leaders who I've worked with, all of them had this quality. And that's that they, when things went wrong, they took the responsibility or took the blame. Even if it wasn't them who did it, they they ate it and they said, Hey, you know what? I've got to do better, right? I've got to, I've got to, I should have done something differently. Even if it wasn't really 100% their fault, they were willing to absorb it and have their teams back, or the person on the on the team that, you know, as long as that person didn't do something like unethical, then obviously they're not going to be there anymore. I'm talking about like they made a mistake. It's like they own it for the team. And then the other thing is when the team is having success, they don't walk up in front and go, yeah, it was all because of me. Look at me. I'm the leader. If it wasn't for me, this wouldn't have happened. Instead, what they do is they give credit to their team. They get up in front of the room and they say, Hey, I appreciate this award. I appreciate this recognition, but it really wasn't me. It's this amazing group of people I work with. Because everybody wants to work for that person. Everybody wants to follow that person. Hey, when I when I made a messed up and made a mistake, that person, he, she had my back and took the blame, or at least took a majority of the responsibility

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SPEAKER_00 35:30

and didn't throw me under the bus. And when things went great and they actually played a huge role in that as the leader, they didn't take credit for it. They pass it on to us. Everybody wants, everybody wants to work with that person. And that's how you get people to willingly follow you, not just say, hey, you have to do what I said because I have a cute title next to my name that says manager.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

Well, let's talk about your book. I know you uh mentioned that. So talk to listeners about that book. Tell us where we can expect to read it and where we can get it.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

Sure. So the book was uh if I can do it, you can do it. It's inspiration for eliminating excuses, overcoming challenges, and

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SPEAKER_00 36:07

succeeding in business and life. You can find it on Amazon or my website, PatrickNgasser.com, E-N-G-A-S-S-E-R. Uh, but the you know, easiest way is just go to Amazon, type in my name, or if I can do it, you can do it at Patrick, and it'll pop up. But the biggest thing I I hope that you know, my prayer is people get out of the book is that that, you know, obviously if I can do it, you can do it. I you can overcome the challenges in your life. But the the nice thing about the book is it's designed to be practical. It's designed to be, you know, it's 25 separate tips. You could start on tip 23 if you want, or tip 17. It doesn't have to be tip one. They are designed to be in order so that there is a kind of build upon itself, one on top of the other tips. But any one of them you could read on its own. You could just one day wake up and say, I'm gonna read tip 15 first, and it would still make sense by itself, you know, as its own tip. But all 25 are tips that have made a huge impact, not only in my business and my sales career, but in my life in general. And every one of those individual tips uh is designed to be something you can put into practice right now, whether it's a morning routine, it's called breakfast for your brain, is one of the tips, uh, how to create a morning routine, what that might look like, some building blocks to that. Uh, or if it's really how to shift and change your mindset to be more successful, or if it's how to find a good mentor, or if it's how to network successfully rather than what most people do, which is go out and throw business cards around the room uh to everybody and then never follow up. So all of it is in there. And every one of those tips is supposed to be something that's you know that you can implement starting right now, today, or tomorrow morning at the latest. It's not something that you have to, you know, go back to school to learn or, you know, some of it's gonna take some time, but you can start the implementation process right now. So that if you take even five or 10 of these 25 tips and start implementing them today to your business, your life, your relationships, um, your sales career, your leadership position, you're gonna be able to start really your your career shouldn't look or life shouldn't look anything like it does today. Um, you know, four, five, six, eight, ten months, but certainly a year from now, that would be the goal, is that this could be an action guide for you. It's not just a book that's theory, as you mentioned earlier. It's a book that's designed to be an action guide.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

Tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Yeah. So as I yeah, right now I'm I'm coming out with a sales course that's called If I Can Do It, You Can Do It in Sales. Um, so that'll be coming out in the next month or two, along with another book, which is has the same title, If I can do it, you can do it in sales. So right now I'm working with a lot of a lot of companies um building training and development programs for their sales companies. So that's really the the main focus. I still do a lot of a number of leadership trainings and keynote talks as well as a motivational speaker. So I yeah, I'm not saying that if somebody has one of, you know, has an opportunity for that as a company or as an as an association, then I won't do that by any means. But the focus has really been sales training and leadership training related. So if that's something that uh anybody out there has a need for, uh, or entrepreneur coaching, I'm always doing that. My first book and my second book include a lot of case study stories, especially my second book that's coming out now this fall on coaching members I've worked with, not only in sales, I know the title says in sales, but also entrepreneurs on, as you mentioned, how to scale their businesses. So that's always that's always one of that's always gonna be a passion of mine that's never gonna change being a serial entrepreneur myself, is helping individuals grow businesses that create freedom. So even though my focus right now is on sales training, that's uh for companies, that's never gonna go away. Like if I have the an opportunity to work with a great entrepreneur who wants to find freedom or create freedom using their business, and they're like, hey, I'm I'm working hard, but I'm not, I got into this for freedom and I don't have that freedom. So how do I create that by scaling and creating a system? That's my that's my baby. That's what I love to do is uh help people do that. So um talk withpatrick.com if someone wants to set up a strategy session. That's the easiest way to do it. Um strategy session for anyone on your podcast, if they put in the comments uh or in the email that they're from your from your podcast, just say you're with the Curtis Jackson podcast. Um that that it's free. So I waive my my fee for your your audience specifically. Talkwithpatrick.com and they can set up a strategy session. I would love to have a conversation about how I might be able to help you build an action plan to take this thing from where you are to where you want to go. I'm sure you're already doing great, but you know, let's go from great to outstanding if we can, always looking to grow because human beings are not meant to stand still or meant to be human doings, which means we should be always taking action toward the next thing that we want, creating more freedom and building the life that we want and helping people and making an impact on the world as we do it. So talkwithpatrick.com. Love to hear from many of you. And uh, you know, my goal is out there is to make an impact, whether it be with the book, with coaching, with mentoring people, with doing sales or leadership training, is how can I make an impact, just like what you're doing here, Curtis, with your awesome show is making an impact, making a difference, inspiring and motivating people to live the life that they want and make a difference.

SPEAKER_02 41:43

Yeah, when you go to talk withpatrick.com, uh be sure to tell them that you know you found it on a live in a dream with Curve Bowl Podcast. And uh so close us out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

Yeah, I would just say that the biggest thing is that you're most of our limitations, right? We talked a lot about challenges and adversity. Most of our limitations are up here in our head. Right? They're between our, they're in that six inches between our ears. It doesn't mean there aren't any real limitations in the world. It doesn't mean that you know, that there aren't real tragedies that happen that hold us back or set us back. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that so many of our limitations or our beliefs, our limiting beliefs that we have are from either our childhood or something that somebody put into our mind or an experience put into our subconscious mind or our subconscious is like, hey, the last time we walked across the room and said hi to somebody and uh tried to ask them for dinner, it didn't go well. So let's not do that again. When in reality, it was just the wrong fit, right? It wasn't the right person on the right day. So maybe it wasn't that conversation that was wrong. It was the fact that it was the wrong person. Maybe the fact that you think you're bad at public speaking, you're really not. It's just when you were seven years old, you got up in front of the room and you know, fell on your face and in front of everybody and they laughed at you, and your brain's like, Yeah, we're not gonna do that again. So, my challenge to you is don't listen to those limiting beliefs, but start, as something I help coaching members do all the time, start shifting that mindset and really building a new paradigm in terms of your belief systems and your habits and ripping out those old, those old belief systems and that old programming and reprogramming your brain for success. Because most of us need a reprogramming in some area of our business, our life, um, our career, our relationships, whatever it is. And so that's one of the things I help people do and that you can do. I'm here to give the give you the good news that it is possible to do because I've done it. And I'm just a, you know, statistically speaking, I'm just an average guy. I'm an average dude from Buffalo, New York, who's happens to be blind as well. So if I can do it, you can do it. There is no doubt that that's possible. And the other thing I would just say is think about the at the end of your life. I'll just end it with this. At the end of your life, which is kind of a sad, morbid thing to think about. So I don't want it to sound that way. But just as you get into the sunset years of your life, what do you want to be remembered for? What impact do you want to leave on the world? What legacy do you want to leave behind? And that isn't something that I know we can work every minute of every day toward, but you want to be putting time into that on a regular basis of becoming the person that you want to be remembered for or that you want to leave an impact and make change in a positive way in the world. And that doesn't have to be in a huge way. It could just be, hey, I want to be the best parent that I could possibly be. So the one, two, three, four, however many children you're raising turn out to be incredible human beings who touch the world in an amazing way. That, hey, if that's what you do, that's often sometimes the biggest impact we can make is raising, you know, small mini humans into amazing, you know, adult humans and having some impact on the people that we're gonna invest the most amount of time with if we're parents. Maybe it's, you know, I'm mentoring somebody who I know is a special person and I really want to work with them uh to help them get to the next level. Maybe you're a you know, Boy Scout, Girl Scout leader, you know, or some other organization where you help young people and you want to make an impact there. It might not even be in your career, your job, but think about how you want to be remembered, the mark you want to leave on this world and in a positive way. And then take steps every day toward becoming that person even more than you already are, working toward doing things, taking action. Because we all talk about talk. Talk is cheap and talk is fine. We need to do it. We need to talk especially to ourselves in a positive way. But the do matters, right? You've got to actually take steps, take action steps toward what you want. And if you do that every day, um you're gonna be able to look back on your life and say, man, I, you know, we rode this thing until the wheels fell off, and I'm really proud of the impact that that I made. Um, and you're gonna when you're when it's your time to graduate from this world, um, on this side of eternity, you're gonna you're gonna they're gonna pack them in the place and it's gonna be standing room only. Why? Because those are the number of people that you made an impact on. So that's my dream, that's my goal. So I appreciate you having me on, Curtis. It's been an awesome conversation. Thanks so much.

SPEAKER_02 46:24

Well, I appreciate you for coming on as well. And for more information, on Patrick, visit patrick and geyser.com. Or if you want to set up a strategy call with him, talk with patrick.com. Mention that you got you heard him on the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast to get a discount. Follow rate review, share this episode to as many people as possible, and to keep up with all things living the dream, visit www.curveball337.com and share the website and the show to everybody you know. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. And Patrick, thank you for all that you do it. Thank you for joining me.

SPEAKER_00 47:05

Thank you so much. And if I can do it, you can do it, and keep living the dream.

SPEAKER_01 47:09

For more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast, visit www.curveball337.com. Until next time, keep living the dream.