Warrior to Wealth with Jonathan Berryhill (Episode 269)

Speaker A: Foreign. The sales game, the podcast, helping sales professionals and sales leaders ditch those outdated, icky sales tactics and learn to build real relationships, to become a trusted partner, create client advocates, and close more deals fast. Amen to that. I'm your host, Connie Whitman. Thanks for joining us this week. So today's episode, you're going to discover many things, but the top three, um, I kind of took from the notes from my guest and is the first one is why you feel stuck even when maybe you're working so freaking hard. Two, that discipline beats motivation and how to build it into your life. And the third one is how to break generational cycles if you didn't grow up with the right examples and so much more. Now, to support that context of those three big, um, discoveries, I chose a quote to set the stage for my guests to my conversation. And the quote is actually a Japanese proverb. And it, and this Japanese proverb says, when you are backed against the wall, break the wall. Now, my guest today, he's very interesting, is Jonathan, uh, Berryhill. Jonathan is a former US army infantry sergeant, law enforce enforcement officer, and multiple entrepreneurs who built multiple seven and eight figure businesses. After confronting the identity that held him back after nearly losing his marriage, he built his life through faith and discipline. Now focused on real estate, he scaled to three brokerages and seven figures in five years. And helps men take ownership and build lasting success. And we're going to add women to that list, Jonathan.

Speaker B: That's right. That's right. I don't leave anyone out. It just, you know. Yeah, so I lot, A lot of guys, you know, I'm an ex military grunt, you know, uh, was deployed to Bosnia, infantry guy, played college football as a linebacker for the University of North Alabama. So a lot of guys, you know, seem to come to me and ask me, but I have coach and mentored women. So, yes, I am not excluding anyone.

Speaker A: Good man.

Speaker B: Anybody can learn from anybody. Ms. Connie's already taught me some stuff this morning or this afternoon.

Speaker A: Gosh, I demanded something.

Speaker B: Coach Connie. That's what I'm calling her.

Speaker A: Cracking me up. All right, so here's my first question. You believe, um, or what, What? I know you've said warrior to wealth. What does that actually mean for you?

Speaker B: So warrior two, wealth is. That was the identity that I had to create. I had to create an identity that, you know, got me through hard, uh, times. You know, I was raised up in a broken home. Uh, we were very poor. My dad, um, you know, was an alcoholic. I love my dad, but he was a rough man. You know, got in some trouble. My mother and him divorced when I was a young age. Uh, was. It was a horrible childhood. Um, I've been on my own, So I was 15 years old, practically living with friends and buddies. And, you know, my grandparents were always there for me. And so, um, you know, I was a drifting young man, let's just say that. And so, you know, over time and joining the military, getting out, getting into law enforcement, I was drifting real bad. And so when I realized that I was about to ruin my marriage, I had one child at the time. Um, I woke up middle of the night, and it was like, you know, God put this idea in my head that I'm going to be living worse conditions than my parents were because I wasn't doing, you know, I wasn't in trouble with the law. I was actually a law enforcement officer at the time. But, you know, my marriage was on the shambles. I, uh, was unfaithful. And so, you know, I was like, wait a second here. You know, I have been a warrior. I've been to combat. I've kicked in doors, doing search warrants, I've chased bad guys that escaped from prison, all these things. And I'm allowing something that's so precious to me to be destroyed. I have got to fight for this. And that's where the warrior mentality came. Fighting for things that we love, fighting for things that we value. And so then you think of wealth, and a lot of people think of money. No, I wanted to be able to spend more time with the woman, ah, of my dreams, my high school sweetheart and my children. We have six children, and now we have four grandsons.

Speaker A: Oh, God.

Speaker B: I wanted to spend, you know, more time with them. And as we had more children, I wanted to spend more time. So wealth, in my ideas, is life on your own terms. And so I had to fight for that. So warrior to wealth. That's where it comes from.

Speaker A: It's interesting. My. I have two boys, uh, 20, almost 27, almost 30. And recently we were talking about, what does wealth mean to you? And both of them said, and freedom, that was the other word. What does freedom mean to you? And they both said that we have to have enough money to be able to live life on our terms. So that's the amount of wealth, but also that's really the freedom. And they said they're willing to work and do what they have to do, right? To be able to. Exactly what you said, live that life. So if they want us, they're not married yet or have Children. I don't have grandchildren yet, which is really not nice. But all in good time, right, Jonathan? All of the good times.

Speaker B: That's right.

Speaker A: They, they really feel exactly what you said, that I want to have the opportunity to do what I want, when I want, but also be able to take care of family and self and all of that and be responsible. Um, but not at the cost of. Right. Giving up everything in life. So, yeah, young men, but they're, they're very wise. And how you just said that was just so beautiful and eloquent. Why do you think that? And I, uh, see my kids questioning that. So this is another really good question for you. Why do so many people stay stuck even when they're just working so hard? It just doesn't seem to break for them.

Speaker B: There's a couple reasons. Number one, they do not know who they are. They haven't, they haven't created their identity. So, you know, or the, the, the second thing, which actually is probably reverse is your why. You know, people say, what's your why? In the military or in law enforcement, we had missions, so what was our mission? And so a lot of times they don't know what they're fighting for. You know, a warrior, A warrior knows who he's fighting, why he's fighting.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And that's probably what they're dealing with, is they don't know who they are as they are identity. So I always ask men and women, hey, give me the three things that describe you. Tell me about those three things. And what's amazing is those three things are the least things that they're focusing on. And that's because their identity is so that. And that's their identity. That's who you know. So me, if you ask me, it's my faith in God, then it's going to be my family, wife, then my children. And then the third thing is entrepreneurship, you know, mentoring and coaching. I love to mentor and coach veterans and ex law enforcement guys, but I'll coach and mentor anyone. That's just the field that I served. And I loved serving with my brothers as an infantry sergeant and, you know, kicking indoors as a narcotics officer. You know, the camaraderie you build, you know, the blood, sweat and tears. I, uh, love that. And so I love to take those guys and help them get their dreams. And, and it's just, number one, it's finding your mission, you know, creating forging that identity and then building your legacy. And so that's why they're stuck, because

Speaker A: they don't see clearly what that mission is like. You're right.

Speaker B: They're just working.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And they don't know why they're working and they don't know who they are. You know, you ask people, hey, what's the three things that identify you? Oh, it's, it's my faith. It's, uh, it's my wife and my kids. And I go, okay, how intentional are you with each one of those things? Can you tell me? You know, when you sit down to dinner, when you sit down, you know, this is one of the big robbers of time, I always say. You know, um, my wife and I, when we go to dinner, no cell phones.

Speaker A: No phones.

Speaker B: We go on. When you go on date night. You know, when we were dating in high school, in the 90s, we didn't have cell phones. So guess what? We went to dinner, we spent time, and then we came home. And guess what? Our parents never wait. My parents, you know, we're not around. But her parents didn't worry about us. We just, you know, it's, it's. And so, you know, to me, it's those type things can rob you of your intentionality of sitting there looking eye to eye with someone and just pouring into them.

Speaker A: You know, it's funny because the cell phone, computers, we live in so much fast paced, everything is coming at us. And now even more so, right? With AI, everything is just so fast paced that I think we have to be intentional about slowing it down. So you're right. When you have dinner. My kids knew we would go out to dinner. You know, after hockey game. My kids played hockey, the friends, we would take them out to dinner. And I go, no, the phones go away. Let's talk about school. What's going on? As they got older. Tell me about your girlfriends. And you know what's funny, Jonathan, fast forward. They. They knew we always had the downstairs for the kids, their own space with the TV and what have you, so they could watch hockey games and whatever sports was happening. And I remember the kids would come and I go, come on, come in, let's chat for five minutes. That's all I wanted. What's going on? How school has mom and dad, right? Catch up with them. Fast forward another men. They come to my house first thing. They, I still have a downstairs for the space for the kids. They come upstairs. I have to say hi to your mom and dad. They will sit down for a half hour to 40 minutes and have a conversation with my husband and I because they know we care, we're interested. They don't pull out their cell phones. We actually sit and talk. So what you're, what you're saying is we have to go back, I think, to what was, what was in our generation, younger than me. But you know what I'm saying, what was. And we have to start getting control and intentional. I like that word that you use because I think in life, in business, we have to be intentional, otherwise we're scattered.

Speaker B: That's right. And so, you know, a lot of folks, when they're out working, um, I'll, I'll talk with some of the guys and gals that I have mentored and mentoring, and they'll tell me all these things and I'll say, those are great, but what have you intentionally done to back that up? Like, thinking about something is not the same thing as doing something. And a lot of people get so tied up with. I'm just so busy. Uh, you're just thinking about it really. You're not really doing anything. But, uh, I've been there before where I just have so much in my head and I think, well, I'm so busy. And I stop, I go, wait. I'm absolutely just entangled up here in my head. Let me just, let me stop for a second, take some deep breaths. Let me start writing down some tasks here and then put it into action. You know, when you start writing, you're being intentional. You're writing these things down. And so, you know, intentionality is a huge, huge thing for me is making sure, you know, if I'm with my wife and with my children now for my grandchildren, you know, being intentional. That's why I love horses. We've m. Me and my dad, my wife, I bought her her first horse. We were 17 years old. She always wanted a horse. You know, when you're riding a horse, you better be intentional because if that horse spooks or does something, you're going to be off or whatever. But, you know, I love riding horses and you know, we do a lot of horse type stuff here on the farm and bring people out. We're actually fishing to do our first ruck and ride for veterans on our farm in February. We're super excited about that.

Speaker A: That's beautiful. So you think it's so funny because you are really, uh, a serial entrepreneur and. But it comes place of goodness and for sales. You saw my introduction. I think sometimes we chase the money instead of chasing whatever you're selling. Right. You're. You believe, hopefully you believe in it. Right. I was a financial advisor for 20 years before I started my business, you know, 25 years ago and I would help people with budgets because if they bought insurance or they started to invest and then they needed to pull out, they could have lost money, they didn't protect their family, if, God forbid, something happened premature, that they died. Right. That they didn't have the life insurance. So I wouldn't make money because I would help them with budget. And then when they had the budget, we would do the life insurance and investments. And you know what happened? I got more referrals from that because I did the right thing. Right. I shared. Hm. My heart, my knowledge, my experience. And then the business comes and you do the same thing, which I think this my salespeople listening, they have to hear this. Right. If you believe in what you're selling and you show up to help whoever that person is and make it about the person, like you just said, we're going to run our first. I'm going to say rodeo. You didn't say rodeo. Yeah, but the writing for the veterans, it's something out of love and I guarantee you'll make money out of it because people are going to show up and want to honor you. Right. Money is nothing more than an exchange of what we're putting out there. So I love that. I think that's just beautiful. Yeah. And, and horses are very therapeutic, um, as well.

Speaker B: For sure. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I'm a big firm believer in giving back and, and doing for others. You know, my whole goal when I became an entrepreneur was, um, my wife and I, this has been 10 years ago, we would say, how many more people can we help and create success? And so, you know, I, I've got a lot of good friends, uh, and even family members that we've helped become entrepreneurs or help them in their business world that are now successful. And, and you know, uh, anytime we have an event, anytime we do anything, they're our number one supporters. And so, you know, we're constantly supporting them back as well and you know, um, networking and getting around other good people, you know, just the synergy that's, you know, I love doing that and have learned a lot by just getting around good people and doing the right thing. And that's why it's important to know who you are, you know, who.

Speaker A: Who.

Speaker B: Hm. You know, what your identity is.

Speaker A: Agree. So that again, that's the intention.

Speaker B: Identity before income. That's good saying.

Speaker A: I like that. Identity before income. I'm going to use that now. I know you've said that. Discipline beats motivation. How do you Actually build that into life so that we can create this intentionality.

Speaker B: So let me give you an example. You know, I showed up at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1996. I wasn't motivated about that. Okay? I wasn't motivated to. To, uh, get out of bed at 4:00am um, and have drill sergeants and Ranger instructors, you know, yelling at me and screaming at me. Um, that's called discipline. I got up and I did it anyway because I knew the outcome was going to be good. I was going to become a good soldier. And also I was creating somewhat of an identity because I had to lean into that. And so a lot of people, you know, um, you can either lean into what you're. You definitely want to lean into your identity of who the three things you are, four things you are, whatever. Um, but part of it, if teaching me that was I saw guys that joined the military that didn't lean into it, and it was like, well, why are you here? I don't understand. If you don't want to be the best soldier, then why did you join? And so I leaned into it, and, uh, it wasn't about motivation. You know, there's a lot of mornings I wasn't motivated to get up and go run, you know, five, six miles. But I did it because of the outcome. I was going to be the, you know, most fit soldier, lean soldier, you know, and it's those type things to where I've learned over time that it's great to be motivated, but that's going to go away. And it's the discipline that we have built that says, hey, it's hard today, but I'm still going to do it. It's hard. I, uh, uh, woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. My son this morning, no joke, okay? This just happened this morning. I'm out doing some, uh, some. Some of my therapies in the morning out here, uh, poolside, and my son comes out. She says, mom sent me out. I go, oh. He goes, yeah. She says, I'm in a bad mood and I need to come talk to you. I said, hey, bud, we all wake up on the wrong side of the bed some mornings. And I said, you know what you need to do? Go outside, take some deep breath, and start talking about gratitude, things that you're thankful for. I said, it's amazing of how your mind will start changing because you're being intentional in your controlling your thoughts and not letting your thoughts control you.

Speaker A: Did he do it?

Speaker B: He did. He did. He went back and apologized to his mother.

Speaker A: That is adorable. That is absolutely adorable.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: You know what's funny is I agree with that because I think motivation could be very short lived. Right. How many of us have been on diets? We're gonna do it. We're stoked about it. We're doing it for a wedding or whatever. And then the next day we go back to our old heating eating habits. That's not discipline. By, by really creating a healthy lifestyle, we could do more. So, yes, it's hard initially, but we're going to be able to do more longer term. Like with your grandkids, if you were unhealthy, you wouldn't be able to get on the floor with your grandkids and play. And then that legacy. Right. You're losing that piece of, of whatever that future is with your grandkids. So I do, I agree with discipline. My dad came from Italy. We were raised on discipline. Let me tell you, whether we were motivated or not didn't really matter. But that discipline, you know, I, I do, I laugh about it now. My dad's still alive, uh, 95 and a half years old. God bless him.

Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker A: Yeah. Isn't that cool?

Speaker B: Is that for the red wine?

Speaker A: It's been. Oh, man, I make my own red wine, too.

Speaker B: Ah, red wine. Yeah.

Speaker A: But, but yes, the, the discipline. He raised us with that. And I think it has served my husband and I certainly in our life. But also my kids, like I was saying before, that they're very aware of things because of that discipline in the house that, you know, you couldn't play hockey if you didn't get good grades. When I would come home, they knew if I had assigned something because I worked. I was a working mom and business owner. You know, my kids were little. You. You need me to sign something? It better be out. You forget, I guess you're not going on that field trip. I didn't save them. You make a mistake, you're going to learn from it. So we were very disciplined growing up. Not in a mean way, but in a very, uh, structured way, Constructive way. Yeah, that's a good word.

Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker A: I want to talk about losing your marriage, almost losing your marriage, because it sounds like you have a wonderful family

Speaker B: and I have a wonderful marriage, so.

Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. What did it teach you about success and identity?

Speaker B: Um, that that's not who I was. That was. I was allowing things to control me. And I wasn't controlling, you know, my environment. I was allowing environment to control me. Just like some, A lot of times, I'd say, majority of the world, we allow our thoughts to control us, and we don't control our thoughts. And so, you know, there's a lot of things that we do. It's just like, like you said, fitness. If you don't go work out, you're not going to. You're not going to be fit, you're not going to have muscles, you're not going to be in shape. And so we have to do that not only physically, but mentally, spiritually, all those things. And then. And then you can just start adding on to it. If I want to be a successful salesperson, what are the things I need to be doing on a daily basis? So, you know, my marriage was, uh, taught me that, you know, um, I was very selfish, and I learned, uh, to be selfless. And it just taught me that I have to fight for the things, uh, that I love. And I heard, uh, I think it was Kirk Cameron one time at an event said, you know, is. Is this the love worth fighting for? And I knew that Hannah was my love worth fighting for, that I had allowed in my environment to control me and the, uh, stress and the other things instead of me controlling those. So I started getting those things right, and I started putting up boundaries, and I started setting up, you know, like I said, being intentional. Uh, and she was in Hawaii. I called her. She was in Hawaii with her sister. Because we were separated, we filed for divorce. And, uh, I called her and I said, hey, please take me back. You know, I will do anything and everything. I'm going to give you a life that you've only imagined. I don't know how I'm going to do it yet, because I was a police officer at the time, not making very much money, by the way. This is in the early 2000s. And I said, if you'll just take me. And she says, uh, uh, I've been waiting on you. And my wife is such a saint. And, uh, she said those words. It just, you know, made me crumble. And, you know, I started, you know, praying and I started just looking for opportunities. And it was just like doors started opening because I was looking. You know, people says, man, I've done all I can do. I'm like, I hate. I hate when people say that I've done all I can do. Are you serious? Like, have you really, like, go open some to find some doors to open? So I just got out there and I just started looking. What can I do? And so one thing led to another. Uh, I got into medical Device sales. Um, I got to create my own company off of a, off of something that we didn't have with the company I was doing. So it was like a need. There we go. Um, I saw a problem and so I provided a solution. And that was my first company. I ordered, uh, ordered started, uh, and, uh, within the first few years, I sold it for a few million dollars. And off we went. Off we went. And, uh, that was, uh, 16 years ago. And, uh, we've just been growing other companies, starting companies. I think now, I think we have five real estate brokerages now. Uh, we just opened up a new and not too long ago, and it is booming. And so our government contracting side's doing well. Our healthcare side, medical device, durable medical equipment. It's doing great. So right now, you know, we're just, we're literally living our dreams. My wife and I know that we just got back from a trip down south. And, um, we're just, uh, living here on the farm. Uh, my wife, uh, my daughter and her husband and two grandsons live on the farm in a house. My son and his wife and two grandsons live here on the farm in a house. So, uh, we're literally living on a family compound, few hundred acres here in North Alabama, southern Tennessee. Um, literally working hard and playing hard and giving thanks every day.

Speaker A: I was going to say. And that's what life is. And you know, I see it in sales all the time. Not enough leads are coming in. The company's not doing, you know, enough advertising. I, you know, I don't know how. I don't know what to do next. I, you know, and, and it's the. I can't, I don't know what, I don't know how. And you're right. Make a list of the things that, you know, you be the discipline. What are the things I need to do, and then do them so that you can move forward and create the success you want. I mean, you're, you're, you're from, Think about it. From going to war to becoming a police officer and saying to your wife, I'm going to create this. I'm not sure how, but isn't that how life goes? We don't know what the next step is per se, but you have to have faith, number one. I do believe in that. But also, you have to look for the opportunities. How do you find opportunities? You got to move. You got it. You got to do out there, right? And then opportunities absolutely find you. I agree with that. If you. Thousand percent.

Speaker B: Yeah. You don't have successful people out there. How many successful millionaires, billionaires are out there going, I've done all I can do. I don't know what else to do. You don't hear them say that. Yeah, successful people don't say that. So if you're saying that, quit saying that and watch what happens. Start doing.

Speaker A: Yeah. Start doing. Yeah. Uh, uh, movement creates, I think.

Speaker B: Create something.

Speaker A: Yeah, it really does. It really does. Now, I want to talk about, because you came up, came through a pretty tough upbringing, right? How did you break or how could someone break through those generational cycles if maybe they grew up with not the right example, Kind of like your situation.

Speaker B: A vision. You know, I read in the Bible to where it says my people perish because lack of vision. And, and, and I didn't have a vision. I just said, uh, oh, I think I want to do this when I grow up. Oh, I think I want to do that when I grow up. When I met the woman of my dreams at 17 years old, you know, I told you, I'm 48. I'll be 49 this year. We've been married since we were 19. Um, uh, I had this vision. I started developing this vision of, um, a successful marriage, number one, um, raising kids on land and a farm. I started creating this vision, had no idea how I was going to get there. And then I was in the army, then I was in law enforcement, but I always had this vision. And so I always tell folks, look, if you want more in life, create a vision. You know, if you want to call it a dream, call it a dream, that's fine. Because if you're not dreaming, you're dying. And so create a vision and start figuring out steps, reverse engineering, to figure out how you can get to that vision. A vision, a dream. You know, you've heard people say, do these, um, what do they call them? Dream boards or whatever they call them?

Speaker A: Vision boards.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, vision boards. Um, I did stuff like that and I posted things up, uh, everywhere towards, especially once I got my marriage, uh, back in order because I knew I wanted to give more. I heard a great saying, um, I used to say it a little different, but, uh, I'll give this credit to Mike, uh, uh, Sea Rock. I don't know if you know him, but, um, I was on his podcast the other day. I was in Vegas with them, um, weeks back, and he said it, and I said, oh, my gosh, I've heard it said many ways about this. Quit carrying the junk in your trunk and put it in the fuel tank. And so everything in your past and that you're living with, that you're carrying around in your trunk, get that stuff out and put it in your fuel tank and use that for your fuel to get you to the vision that you want.

Speaker A: I love it.

Speaker B: And so, you know, that's. That's how you break it. You just got to say, you know, what stops here? Today is the new day, and I'm not going to let up. And that's where the discipline is going to come in, because in 90 days, you're going to want to resort back. How many New Year's resolutions do we have? And then come March 1, them things have faded away. And it's because you were motivated. And then the discipline. So creating that mission or your why, the why, um, it's got to be so big that it won't let you quit. That vision has to be so big that. No, I can't quit. I can't quit. I owe it to her. I owe it to my children. I owe it to my grandson. I owe it to myself. You know, that's the things you have to keep, because that's what's going to get you up each and every day. That's what's going to break those cycles. And any. If I can do it, uh, old country boy from Alabama, anybody can do it.

Speaker A: It's interesting because they say if you heal, like those generational wounds that you have, right, as the person, those, those. That healing goes back seven generations, and it goes forward seven generations. So the healing that you've done, think about the real legacy that you're leaving for your kids, their kids, and then your great grandkids that are yet to come. So the, this healing matters. And I, I think it matters because if we can create self worth, right, the wealth within it creates wealth externally. Right? It's. It's a game. It's really a game when you think about it, right?

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And so, yeah, I'm getting to see that now. My son went and played college football. I have four sons, two daughters. Um, and so this is what's great. This is what's cool. This is, this is. This is the dream part. Every one of my children from the age of 19 and, uh, up work for the family. One of the family businesses.

Speaker A: Nice.

Speaker B: And my, My daughter's husband runs one of our family businesses. And my oldest son, he's running one of the family businesses. So we all get to meet together, discuss the business, we travel together. We actually went to Italy for two weeks every One of us, uh, and it was one of the most amazing trips. Last summer. We went for two weeks. We went to. We flew into Venice, we went to Rome, Tuscany. All those areas. Love it. Listen, if it's wine, it's got to be from France or Italy. I'm sorry. That's the only two I drink. I love French, um, and Italian wines.

Speaker A: Me too. They're my two favorite. And red.

Speaker B: But, yeah, absolutely. Red, for sure. Unless there's a pairing and the chef says, oh, you got to try this white. I have had some good whites. I'm not going to lie. There's some good ones, but I'm. I'm a red guy, for sure.

Speaker A: I know you have five pillars, and where should someone start? Like, people are listening. They're going, all right, dude. Yep. I'm feeling stuck, though. I understand the vision. All right, all of this. What would you tell them? What are your five pillars? To get them kind of get their mojo going.

Speaker B: So it kind of goes back to when I say, hey, who are you? What is your identity? You know? And then what are you trying to get out of or escape from? Like me. Uh, there was multiple things. Number one, I knew that I had to get my faith strong, you know, my faith with God. I knew that I had to build my relationship with my wife back. And then I wanted to be a good father. And then from there, I started adding on the pillars of I don't want to live paycheck to paycheck. You know, I've got to have my identity. I got to know who I am when I walk in a room of strangers to where my. My confidence is so big because I know that I'm a warrior to wealth. No one's shutting me down. I'm not going to. I'm so. I don't care who you are. And so, you know, uh, you've just got to have that confidence. And I think, oh, um, I can't remember. What was his name up there at coach in Colorado, he said, don't let my confidence upset your insecurities. And so you have to be super confident with who you are. And so it's all about building the pillars, because a pillar is what holds things up. And so you have got to identify your. Your mission, your identity, and what you're trying to escape from. And then again, a warrior knows who he's fighting, and he knows why he's fighting, and he knows who he's fighting for. And so those are all about building a pillars of who you are and who you want to become. And um, I think Napoleon Hill said it great, is, you know, you need to become. Everybody wants to be, they want top level results. The question is, have you become the top level person yet to, to receive those top level results? And so we've got to become who we want to be. And it's all about building the pillars. It's like building a house. Houses don't build themselves. You know, they put the foundation in.

Speaker A: Do people have different or pillars? Are the five pillars different? I understand that structure, but they're different for everybody, right? You have absolutely four or five pillars.

Speaker B: Absolutely. And everybody's identity is different. Not everybody's going to be a warrior to whelp, so to say. But there's some identity in them to where they say, you know, um, there was a basketball player, um, LeBron James maybe, uh, so don't quote me on this. But he, he had to create this, um, this, um, uh, what was it called? Anyway, he called himself the Black Mamba. So when he stepped on the court, he turned into the Black Mamba, uh, alter ego. That's what it was. And so sometimes you have to create these alter egos to where, hey, John, I, John is a warrior to wealth. Um, I know what I'm fighting. I know who I'm fighting. I know what I'm fighting for. A lot of times I'm fighting myself because I'm having to control my own thoughts and, you know, things that want to rise from the past. I go, no, no, no, not today, buddy. We're shutting that one down. Let's put that in the fuel tank.

Speaker A: Yeah. It's so funny. I have, you can't see it behind me on my, my, the credenza behind me. But Wonder Woman, um, because I'm tall, I'm 511 and dark, you know, dark curly hair. So I say I'm Wonder Woman because, you know, I, I battle. Got the wristbands, you know. Yeah, I have the wrist. I have to get the wristband. But yeah, so I can battle. Because I, I think that I, I, I fight for the underdog. When people tell me they can't, I say, oh, you can, Let me show you. Just don't know how. Right. Let. It's kind of what you do too, from that coaching and mentoring perspective. If you really want something, I think you have the ability to do it. Right. If you really, really happen, you have to find it within yourself of how to make that happen. Is it education? Is it coaching? Right. Is it, um, learning how to ride a horse, what, Whatever it Is. But I think that we have to create our vision. I love it. The vision, your own identity, your why, and everybody's why is different, too, right?

Speaker B: Absolutely.

Speaker A: Mine is. Absolutely. Family was always, um, number one for me, so. But that doesn't have to be. And there's nothing wrong if family isn't number one for you. Right?

Speaker B: So there's a lot of single people out there. So listen, your why could be. Maybe it is a future family, you know, and you want to fight for them today. You want. That's your vision, and that's what you're creating. Maybe it's. You want to leave a legacy. You know, you don't want to get married, that's fine. Maybe you want to leave a legacy. Um, maybe you want to be the best, you know, outdoorsman or outdoors woman or whatever it is. Just create that vision and start. Start that direction, you know, Quit looking backwards, quit looking left or right and just looks forward and keep growing. Focus, Focus. I think Tony Robbins says we live the life we focus on. There's a lot of truth to that.

Speaker A: I totally agree. And I agree with what you said earlier on in the. In the show that we get distracted and we think we're busy. And I hear this all the time. We're too busy. I'm too busy. And I, uh. When. When people say that to me, Jonathan, I think if they knew what I did in a day, their head would explode. You're busy. You're busy doing what? And they're in meetings. And I remember my husband came. He's in corporate. He's in finance, but he's in corporate. Came home one day, and he goes, do you know this week I totaled up? I was in meetings for 36 hours. I said. So I said to him, well, when do you get the work done? Meetings? What are we doing? So I think, especially in sales, what is your job? Your job is to be out on the road. You're out meeting people. You're networking, You're. You're encouraging people to do better with whatever it is that you're selling, right? You're hopefully the solution for them. But if you don't believe that, you're the solution because you have to do paper, paperwork, stop doing paperwork. And the companies are now yelling at me, don't listen to her. Because paperwork has to be done. Um, we have to be in compliance.

Speaker B: Compliance officers are going now.

Speaker A: Don't listen to Connie. Step away from Connie. But I agree with what you're saying, and I think it really goes back to, what are you Busy doing. And I think we have to analyze that. And does it meet our vision? And what you said at the onset, too, that when you ask people what are the three things that they're really. It's in their soul, right. Who they are, uh, and they're not focusing on that in, in work or

Speaker B: in their life, they're getting the leftover.

Speaker A: We're. We're. We're literally living these dual lives. And the life. The life we're living oftentimes isn't filling us up right. So that's dangerous. So especially for salespeople, if you feel depleted, you're not helping your clients, you know.

Speaker B: Yeah. And sometimes there's a sacrifice before you get what you want. And so we have to remember that, you know, we. Me and my wife, I remember we had no money in the bank and we were wondering how we were going to, you know, uh, what we're going to eat next. And because I was sacrificing, going out to try to find a business, or when I became an entrepreneur and I started a business and we had no money, it was just a fate thing. So, you know, there's going to be a sacrifice time. Majority of the time, there's some sacrificial time. So, you know, you may have to give up a little now to get a lot later. And so, you know, we just have to remember, um, you know, there's those things that sacrifice is not always a bad thing. You know, it can be the stepping stone to something amazing. And so you m. Sometimes you gotta get a little uncomfortable, like going to the gym.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Get that physique.

Speaker A: I'm telling you, my Pilates every day. Um, now, you wrote the book. Can you tell everybody what the book is?

Speaker B: The book is Warrior to Wealth by Jonathan Berry Hill. So it's, uh, find your mission, forge your identity and create your legacy. It talks all about, you know, what I've came through. It's not about me. It's not about money. It is literally about stages that I went through in personal life, in childhood with my marriage, um, going to. Being deployed in the army as a, you know, combat infantry, uh, man, um, all the way up to law enforcement, having to pull my gun on people and all this to create this warrior mindset, to create wealth of having and living the life on my own terms. And so, um, you know, the goal is to someone to read it and it inspire someone and say, this is what I needed to hear. Um, hey, if that guy can do it, why can't I do it? Because if you're saying I've done all I can do. That's not true there. You have not. I've been there. I said it before, you know, when we couldn't pay our car payment. Babe, I'm doing all I can do. No, I wasn't, I wasn't doing all I could do. I was distracted, I was drifting, my mind was here and there. And I'll tell you a funny story real quick is I had all these businesses going on years ago and I was approached with an MLM multi level marketing company.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: And my wife and I said, you know what, we like these products. Uh, I met the CEO. I really liked him. And you know what my first question was? Uh, I'm so busy. And I stopped myself when I said it and I said, did I just say that? I said, oh my gosh, I don't say that. And so because I said that, I said, yes, I'm going to do this. Isn't this the craziest thing? In six months time, we were at the, one of the top levels of this company and we were on stage with this company and I said I didn't have enough time. I was running five companies at the time. And I said, you know what? I do have time. Ah. My thought when I said it made myself mad. So I made myself do it. I disciplined my, said, I'm going to do this. Then literally we were bringing. It was crazy. And so we did it. And uh, we're still involved with the company today. Love the products. But I had to prove, I had to prove to myself and I did it. We did it. We became an ambassador for the company. We won. So, um, we went on trips, we were talking on stage, all because I was like, did I just say that? Now I'm going to make myself do it. And so my wife and I did it.

Speaker A: This is interesting. I think sales leaders should buy your book for their team so that they could find whatever that inner warrior is for them. Right, Whatever. Because it's, uh, you think about the culture that they could bring within the organization for sure. But I'm responsible for my team, right. If I'm a sales leader. So think about what they can bring together. And that is a mindset shift. What you just said is I'm too busy. I hear that all the time. I'm too busy. I can't fit that in. We don't have time for that. We have to start changing our own internal mantras because there is always time for, for something that's truly worthwhile. Um, we're all busy, but absolutely, if you're busy doing the right things, all the other stuff becomes insignificant. Somebody said to me once, I have a thousand things on my to do list. I said, well, that's ridiculous because you're never going to get all thousand done. I said, you know what's going to happen? You reprioritize every day and then some of those things are just going to disappear. So don't tell me you have a thousand thing on your to do list. That's ridiculous. Of course you don't. Right.

Speaker B: It's not logical. That's right. One of the exercises we do with our sales teams now and some of our real estate agents is when they come to me and they say, all right, John, I need help or I need this. I'll say, here's what I want you to do for the next two weeks. From the time you get up to the time you go to bed, I want you to write down every hour what you're doing. It's going to take time. I don't care if you keep it on your phone.

Speaker A: Yep.

Speaker B: I want to see your schedule. I want to see exactly what you're doing and listen. Three days in, I'll get phone calls. You're right. My schedule is I have plenty of time. I'm not managing my time appropriately. My thoughts are controlling me. I'll say, quit thinking about things and start doing things. Here's what you need to do. Boom, boom, boom. Let's start there. And so it's funny, you want, you want to. If you have a busy schedule, start writing down from the time you get up to the time you go to bed, everything you're doing and then go back and look, go, oh, waste time, waste. I've got some extra stuff. I can, I can get my real estate license and go sell some real estate with John. And we're in a few states and we're opening up in more states. So holler at me. We may put you to work, but I've got a lot of part time guys and gals that are trying to get to the next level. Uh, I've had some that's come on part time and now they're full time. They come on part time to make some extra money to be able to create a business. And one gentleman in mind. He was 49 years old. He got his real estate license, came on board with me. I have an agent blueprint playbook that I give all my agents. I actually sell it on my Instagram page. John.BerryHill But I gave it to him, Connie. His second year he was making over 180,000 commissions. Um, and so he was like, he did it for a part time gig. Well, now he's doing it full time and, and this year he is crushing it. So you don't know what you don't know.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's. And there's resources out there to help you for sure.

Speaker B: Absolutely.

Speaker A: Yeah. My sales leaders really, I think this would be such a cool internal project as a leader to, to inspire your team to just think a little bit differently and take some of these habits that, that Jonathan just clearly articulates. And now he has a book that really gives you the. It's like a playbook. You're getting the playbook, um, through the book. So here's the deal. I hope today you discovered why you may, may feel stuck even when you're working so hard. Okay, so maybe you're doing the wrong things. The discipline beats motivation and how to build it into your life. Discipline every day for sure. And how to break those generational cycles if you don't grow, um, up with the right examples. Jonathan gave such so many great examples of that as well. So here's the deal. Go to the show notes. If you go to the website, the book's on the website, right?

Speaker B: John, we're releasing the book the end of July. So we're still in the editing phases. Um, and so it should be. But if you go on to the website, you can put in your email, you'll get some email updates from me. You'll get some motivational, inspirational, hopefully things that will just. It's real life stuff that you're going to get. That's, I think it's pretty good. I mean it's got me to where I am today. So go put your email in and uh, for all the sales guys out there, I've went and talked for some sales teams. You know, hit me up. You know, maybe I can come talk to your sales team. We can work something out. Uh, I was in Dallas not too long ago talking to a bunch of salesforce. Um, but yeah, go to the website, put in your email. We're shooting for July 31st. It may even be before then because I think we're getting to our final stage in editing.

Speaker A: But Yep, we're in 2026. For the future listeners, it might already be out. So It's July of 2026.

Speaker B: That's right.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: We're.

Speaker A: Yeah, because see, we're right now speaking, but people are listening. You know, a year from now. So go to, uh, johnberryhill.com I will put that in the show notes. If you have a question, specifically something John said to your, Jonathan said to you that's moving you, please email him. You see how delightful he is. His email is john@johnberryhill.com. um, I know you will respond. You are just truly a special human. So thank you so much.

Speaker B: That's J o n, not J o h n J o n B e

Speaker A: r Y. I keep it very easy. I put it in the show notes. People want to click and go. They just want to click and go.

Speaker B: That's right, Coach Connie. I got you.

Speaker A: Have you learned nothing from our previous conversation?

Speaker B: Sorry, sorry.

Speaker A: You are too cute. Thank you so much for coming on and just sharing your story, being vulnerable with us. Sure. And every salesperson listening or sales leaders. Buy the book. Use the disciplines within it. Um, you might have the best year you've had, um, ever by just using some of the strategies that, um, John discussed with us today. So thank you again for coming on, my new friend. Um, I had so much fun with you today. You're. You're amazing. Thanks for being on.

Speaker B: Thanks, Connie.

Speaker A: Yeah, a real joy. And I hope you will join me weekly as we question build to discover no matter where you are on changing your sales game or changing your career, you know, my guests and I, we're here to share ideas, strategies, stories to help you move the needle for whatever you're trying to change in your sales or in your career as well. So again, buy the book. That is your call. I always have a call to action too. Another habit I'm going to teach you. I think you're pretty good with that already. But, uh, the call to action is go to the website, get on the list, get those inspirational, um, pieces of information. It really could change your life and make more sales, um, at the end of the day. Thanks for tuning in to changing the sales game with me, your host, Connie Whitman. I am honored that you joined my guest tonight weekly as we discuss hopefully good business sense, good business ideas and sales tips that could get you to the next level of your career. Call to action, Go to the website johnberryhill.com that's a Jon. I will put it in the show notes, um, and join his email list so that you do get those quotes, um, and that inspiration from him as well. I love you all. We'll see you next week. Have a great one, everybody. Thanks again, John.

Speaker B: See you. Be sure to subscribe so that you don't miss a single episode and while you're at it, please leave a rating and review and share it with your friends. Tune in every week for more exciting insights and strategies on increasing your business's roi. And always remember, lead with with heart and your sales will follow.