I’m having a lot of fun this year.

Part of this new fun is coming from not dealing with all the Doom and Gloom, which is how the last 2 years started out. The other half is from getting to do new things in new places.

The Past…

While the world is equally as crazy as it seems to have ever been, I think I have developed a way to deal with every day having the potential to throw something completely new in your face. Every day has a different set of challenges in the world. If we wind back the clock to two years ago, it was the beginning of Covid – everything was shutting down. Going back last year was all the anger and violence in the country coupled with shortages of everything from people to products. Now, we have record inflation, $7 gas, and the brink of a world war. But the ability to keep things in check and remain calm when everyone else around you is flipping the hell out has become something I enjoy.

It could be because I have matured (that’s what my father Mike said), but I totally doubt that as I’m still as much of a mess as I was when I was a teenager. Maybe it’s because I have already hit so many goals that I set when beginning my career that I thought it would take to the end of my career to hit – and now those are all in my rearview mirror, and I am realizing whole new heights to set my goals. Or maybe it’s because I have seen that bad news can’t kill you. Only a bad attitude can.

Whatever it is, it sure makes every day seem like a breath of fresh air.

The New…

The New is very fun. Going to new places is a lot of fun. Through all my years of travel, every time I go to a new area it makes me feel somewhat like an explorer. I’m not the first person to step foot in any of these areas – let me assure you. But there is a cool factor from going to someplace new for the first time and getting to see it.

The other part of the new is getting to meet new people. People make the world go around, especially my world go around. I’ve always gotten to walk a line between making clients happy and making employees happy. As the year has brought new faces on both sides of the arena, it sure makes for a fun day.

There is no earth-shattering conclusion to this message, only that I am really happy and having a whole lot of fun.

“It’s easy to complicate things, but the hardest thing in the world is to keep it simple.”

This phrase has been firmly planted in my brain by my dad. If I have heard it once, then I have heard it one thousand times. It’s great advice, and now it seems I only hear it when I need it the most.

From time to time I call and ask my dad (Mike) for his advice on things. Sometimes I just call not really for advice, but because some really crazy shit just happened, or someone I know just did something really stupid and the call is as much for comic relief and humor as anything. But when I find that I need advice or want someone else opinion on something, he is always a tremendous resource. He has taught me the art of performing simplicity to perfection, and it is a trait that I am really glad to possess.

Complex problems can always be dumbed down to a very simple common denominator, and that is usually the best way to go about solving a problem. Far too often, people make problems even bigger than they are because they do not know how to keep it simple. And keeping it simple is generally the easiest way to solve a problem. Not that life is chock-full of problems, but usually when you come across something in your life that is not quite right – this is your best solution.

When I think about all the things in my life where I do keep it really simple, here are a few that stand out:

• I focused my business on doing one thing and doing it extremely well. Automotive Marketing for Automobile Dealers.
• I am really good at one aspect of my job, and that is getting in front of clients. So for almost 20 years, that is where I have spent almost all of my time.
• I don’t invest money in things I don’t know and completely understand.
• My hobbies are narrow, but what I enjoy doing I do a lot of, i.e., hunting and fishing. I don’t golf, play tennis, ride bikes, play poker, or do a lot of other things my friends and peers do for fun.
• When I undertake a large project like buying a business, building something, or things outside of my knowledge base, I don’t try to become an expert at it – I go find an expert and hire them to take care of it. There is no reason to ever think I can teach myself what they already know, and why would I want to.
• I know the warmest way to greet someone is with a smile.
• I believe a great attitude is the key to all success in the world.
• I subscribe to the rule that if people aren’t happy together either in work or in life, then there is no reason for them to be together.

As complex as things appear around me – they really boil down to a few very simple things.

Keep it simple in your life, and you will see just how clear your vision can be – and you can enjoy the world around you.

The New Year has brought on a new mantra for me. I have started using the phrase “Keep Moving” and am telling it to myself multiple times a day. In fact, this new mantra is part of the reason why I have blogged so little about things going on in my life. I have found myself moving so fast that there is very little time to stop and do things like writing a blog or spending time reflecting on things that have just happened.

The ”keep moving” mindset has been a fun way to start the year and makes sure that you will never have a dull moment in your day if you are constantly in motion. I listened to a guy give a speech about how to effectively keep yourself mentally sharp and focused as you progress in your career. (In other words, he was telling people in their 40s and 50s how to still be as vibrant and excited as they were about work when they were in their 20s and 30s – which really made me start to feel old). The context of the speech focused around the question of who do you want to be when you grow up and was aimed at making sure you had some purpose in your life, that there was something meaningful so you didn’t get to the end of your life with any real regrets. Part of what helps to get you to this point is to always be in some form of motion. People who sit down all day become their own worse drain of energy while people who will stand up and move around from time to time are able to stay alive and energetic more so than their peers.

The locational aspect of “keep moving” had an impact on me but also reminded me that it was time to put my feet in motion and get back to being aggressive about travel so that I could put a lot more things in motion. Since 2020 and the pandemic brought on a lot of restrictions, it has been easier to not attend every client meeting or call a meeting in by doing a Zoom call, which does get very boring if I am just being honest. So a big part of “keep moving” for me has been to get back to being gone a little more. I love being home and around the ones I love but there is also something that makes me want to get out and see the world. Therefore, some part of me will always be in motion as I “keep moving” around throughout my career.

The last part to me of the “keep moving” approach has been to cram more shit into my life than I can even imagine. I fully reinvested myself to grow my company from a revenue and ability perspective, so I have mentally recommitted to working my ass off to build the business bigger. This includes working at night after everyone is in bed, working on the weekends when I can find time, working from a treadmill or shooting house – anywhere I can find a spare moment. I just decided it was time to work more to build something bigger. If building a business wasn’t enough, I decided after putting it off for years that it was time to build a house. Building a house wasn’t enough, so I decided my kids are going to need a place for hunting and outdoor recreation just as I had growing up, so I decided to build a farm. If building physical structures wasn’t enough, I decided it was time to build more memories, so I have more trips planned with Amy and the kids than we have ever had before. With all this building, it is requiring me to stay in constant motion and to “keep moving.”

I can say that so far this year it has brought me to a point of exhaustion, but that was only twice. And lastly, I can say that I am having more fun while I “keep moving” than anything I can recently recall.

There is something about the new year that always just gets me excited. Every year, while a good portion of the world is out partying and waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square, I always find myself sitting at home, by the fire and waiting with bated breath for the next day to dawn. New Year’s has started to have a whole new meaning in my life over the last decade because it has allowed me to focus not on a celebration, but on a time where – for once – you can wipe the slate clean and begin a new game.

Ten years ago, I was right there with everyone else. Toasting to a great year, enjoying the company of others, being merry in the moment – but those days for me are long gone. Now, I spend New Year’s in deep thought. Thinking about all wins/losses from the previous year. Thinking about all successes/failures from the previous year. All the while, thinking about just how much more I can do in the coming year. It is one of the heaviest thought times in my year as I set goals and thoughts about what is to come. I guess you could say I have become very “anti-social” over New Year’s because that has become time reserved for myself, with no other room in my head for anyone besides immediate family. Anyone who wants to occupy my time has either already done so for that year or will have to wait till the new year.

Every January, at least for me, is a time to start over. To set my sights on even greater challenges and think bigger about opportunities that I will face. It is a time to take a breath. While not in the middle of a couple of 12-18 hour days of work, I can focus and reflect on the past – and then let it all go, because once the clock strikes midnight, it is all over with. The turn of the year has truly become a special time for me in my career.  This is the time I will always set my goals, and I am not a believer in waiting until the new year to start working on my goals. By the first day of the year, I like to wake up already with my goals clear and on paper. There is not a minute to lose because the clock is ticking.

Some people may read this and think, wow – what an intense person. But it only stems from the deep belief that sometimes all you need is a fresh start to accomplish more than you ever thought possible. Also, it takes a special kind of person to wake up in a new year already frustrated over not being where they want to be. But even I have to remind myself sometimes that it is only day 1.

It’s December 16, 2021, and it’s midday. I am flying somewhere between Nebraska and North Carolina, looking out the windows of my plane at the wide-open country. I see large fields, rivers, small lakes, and it is one of those bluebird kinds of days where there isn’t a cloud in the sky.

After coming off a couple of days of being very sick this week, I decide to look back through my calendar and see where all I had been over the last few months. (Yes, I still keep a physical calendar that folds up inside my briefcase so I can look and write down everything that I need to be doing). Starting with July, I reviewed just what all had happened the in the 2^nd half of 2021 for me, and a quick smile came across my face because I remembered why I named this collection of stories “Catch Me If You Can.”

The following is what all I have done according to my calendar in the last 6 months:

• Traveled to 24 different states
• Added 18 new clients to the company roster
• Received 7 different I.V. treatments due to fatigue
• Taken 2 family vacations
• Taken 2 weekend trips with just my wife
• Gone on 2 separate hunting trips
• Been on 2 different fishing trips
• Managed 2 different construction projects
• Missed 2 days of work due to physical exhaustion
• Been so exhausted I had to get steroid shots just to be able to travel
• Landed in a plane sideways that damn near crashed (last night)
• And have done all this while helping raise 4 kids, being a good husband, working out 5 days a week and growing a business during an unprecedented time in history

If this seems like a lot, guess what – it is….

I have brought myself to the point of exhaustion on a daily basis, many days in a row. Hell, sometimes I am exhausted just after working out in the morning before the workday even begins. But no matter how I feel, I have to keep moving and there isn’t anyone or anything that I am going to let stop me.

Sure, some people love to talk about me and probably even hope for my demise, but it isn’t going to happen because they simply cannot catch me.

Of all the things in my life that have value, what I have learned over the years is that I value time the most.  I hate it when people waste it. I love it when it is well used and enjoyed. And if the stats above don’t show it – let me tell you I enjoy every minute of it.

December 2nd was a day that I used to always remember, as it was the birthday of my good friend, Hal Steinke. But about two weeks ago, Hal suddenly passed away. From this point on, I can assure you that December 2nd will be a day I never forget and never forget the purpose of.

I met Hal when I was 28 years old and he had just bought (at that time a very small) dealership after coming from running a very large group of dealerships. From the very beginning, Hal Steinke was the guy who made you better. He made you better just by being in his presence. He made you better just by how intentional his conversations were with you. He made you better because he wanted to see you do better, and he would ask more of you and be tougher on you than a lot of people you have in your life will.

Hal was a client for almost 15 years, but most importantly, I’m glad to have called Hal one of my good friends. He was the kind of friend who, no matter what kind of day you were having, could make you smile. Even if you were having a really crummy day, he could make you laugh. He was the kind of friend who, when you came to see him, didn’t make you rent a car. He demanded that he be there waiting to pick you up. He was the kind of friend who always wanted to take you to eat, just so that you wouldn’t leave a meeting with him hungry. Hal was a great guy and a brilliant automotive dealer. He had struggles throughout the years, but he had so much success trapped into way too short of a time on this earth.

For all that I ever did, I always in the back of my mind wondered what Hal would think about it. And Hal was one of those guys who, if you asked him, he was going to tell you what he thought about it. He’d even tell you what he thought about it if you didn’t ask his opinion.

All that to say, today would’ve been Hal’s birthday. And upon his recent and untimely death, it’s a day in my mind that will always be remembered as Hal’s Day.

One of the most influential things I have ever been told in my life happened 23 years ago.  At the young and pretty wild age of 18, a guy who worked for my dad gave me a pearl of wisdom that has forever since changed my life.  The quote was this:

“There are 3 types of people in this world:

Those who make things happen

Those who watch things happen

Those who wonder what just happened

& you always want to be in the first group”

That saying has been repeated over in my head thousands of times and used in more meetings than I can ever remember. But while in a meeting today, I was reminded of it when someone used the saying “It Doesn’t Just Happen.”

My 9-year-old daughter Lilly Grace has been learning this firsthand over the last few weeks.  For the last 4 years, she has been in a holiday performance of the “The Nutcracker” and enjoyed it so much.  She started out at 5 with a very small part, but as parents, we admired her bravery and willingness to put herself out there without anyone pushing her to try something new.  She grew in her roles in the performance over the last few years and now has elevated her position to have 3 different parts, all requiring hours and hours each week of practice.

She broke down last weekend and cried because she was so exhausted from the week’s practices and was missing out on time with friends over the weekend because of a Saturday practice that was going to literally take up her whole day.  While trying to console/motivate her, I wish I had used the phrase “It Doesn’t Just Happen.” Instead, I used the old tired line, “things easily acquired are seldom valued” – which made me sound like I was justifying the price of college tuition or something.  But what I should have said is, “Lilly Grace, it doesn’t just happen, if you want something this big you are going to have to go make it happen.”

Now, as I reflect on this situation just like a lot of situations going on around me, it is a great reminder that “Nothing just happens” on its own.  Warren Buffet likes to say the famous line “Someone is enjoying the shade from a tree planted a long time ago” as he refers to his massive wealth from a long-term investment strategy in very solid companies, and I think there is a great lesson to learn from this.  We live in an instant gratification world.  You want to buy something, it is now as easy as going on your phone, finding the product, hitting a few buttons, and then your product is on its way and soon to arrive at your home.  That is such a remarkable way to be able to live.  Everything is in an instant.  We have trained and conditioned ourselves that it is the way things are supposed to be.

But is it?

Lilly Grace cannot just go on a phone, press a few buttons, and magically be onstage minutes later in the Nutcracker in full makeup and costume.  It takes months of preparation and planning to be in a position to achieve this feat.  Someone can’t build a business or invent a product and then boom – with the click of a button – have achieved all their personal ambition in life or financial freedom.  Yet sometimes people believe that it is that easy.

When I was starting my career, just a few years after hearing the quote mentioned at the beginning of this article, I worked like an absolute dog.  Still do to some extent, but it used to be absolutely gruesome.  Never stopped working for lunch, in the office at 6:30 am, leaving the office at 6:30 pm or later, no social life, no dinners, no drinks – it was all work all the time.  I would take the worst accounts, the smallest assignments nobody else wanted, and even offered to go pick up the mail, or answer phones, go get my boss a newspaper.  I didn’t do all this because I was a suck-up (if you know me, then you know that is not even close to how I am wired) but instead, I did all this just to try to make something happen.

I think the instant gratification world has changed the way a lot of people think about how much effort has to be put into something to accomplish their goals.  People seem less loyal, want everything to happen faster, and far too many of them are standing around and wondering, “what just happened?”

Nothing just happens in life.

If you want it, you have to go make it happen.  Don’t ever forget that.

Lately, it seems a lot of people have told me they thought I had it made. They see the places I get to go, things I get to do, experiences that I get to have, and probably think it is all fun and games. It is true that lately the candle has been burning at both ends with a feeling brought on through the events of Covid last year that life really is short and you better enjoy it while you can. But for everyone who says, “man you really do live the life” let me stop you and tell you about all the shit I have missed. My career started about 20 years ago and for 17 of it, I have run my own company. The stress in that alone has been nothing short of exhausting. Of the past 20 years, I really have been out pounding the pavement and running the roads for about 16 of it – there is nothing like being hungry to grow something when it is your own. And of the past 16 years of running hard, I have been married for 12 of it with my oldest child being 9. Now, that is a lot of numbers, but this is a hope that it will tell a story that will show that, while it may look glamourous, there have been hundreds of thousands of moments missed along the way. For everyone that reads this that says, “man, he must have it made,” let me tell you the other side of the story.

Everybody talks about the first year of marriage being total bliss. Well, mine was anything but that. Amy and I got married on January 31, 2009, when it was probably the absolute bottom of the 08-09 recession. My first few months of being married were spent with many sleepless nights wondering what it was going to take to stabilize my, at the time young, business.

Then, that crisis was over and we began to start our family. Let me tell you how sad it was to miss all those doctor’s appointments hearing first heartbeats and getting screenshots of ultrasounds through text messages. Then, there was the joy of having a child, which I basically took a day off for the birth and worked in my office a half day the next day, not catching a break for weeks to come. Then, there was the birth of my second child, which again I was there for, but she was born on a Sunday and I had to shower in the hospital, put on a suit, and leave town for a meeting on the following Tuesday (my wife really is a saint).

Then, there are birthdays and anniversaries. I turned 30 in the Dallas airport while catching a connecting flight. No party or cake, just me and myself flying from one city to the next. My 35^th birthday happened in Iowa at a client meeting – but at least they were nice enough to know it was my birthday and bring me a cake. All followed by birthdays 36 – 38 all being spent on the road in some random town getting ready for some random meeting. The rule in our house was to attend all kids’ birthdays except for the first couple where they weren’t going to remember anything anyway. Well, they didn’t – but I sure do. All I remember is that I wasn’t there. Luckily, I have made most all anniversaries except for 1 or 2. This is mostly because when we picked out a wedding date, we decided on the last day of the month, which in my business is almost assured to be a day that you are not going to travel to be in any city or dealership.

Friends… well, that’s another story. Luckily, I have some close friends that have realized the fact I am not around much during the week, so whatever we do gets done on the weekends. Weeknight hanging out, watching games, going to concerts or events has never been existent for me. After a certain point, they just quit asking – because they knew the answer that I would be gone. So now as we get older we hunt, fish, hang out on weekends all while trying to cram in the family time.

Now, comes the sucker punch. Missing your kids’ activities is next level. My oldest daughter has taken ballet for 5 years now, 2 years at the same place. We went and dropped her off for practice for her upcoming Nutcracker performance on Saturday, and it was the first time I had ever been to her studio. I didn’t even know what side of town it was on. Missed weeknight baseball games, church and choir performances, and so on. The final miss that caused me to write this and think about all the shit I have missed was Tuesday night. I specifically stayed in town, even though I had to travel early Wednesday morning, to see my daughter cheer in the last football game of the season. I had missed every other game this year because they were all on Tuesday nights, and that happens to be one night of the week I am almost always gone. She was so excited. She called me several times that day just to make sure I was still going to make it. Well, I made it alright, but she didn’t. She fell off a stool while eating dinner, hurting her leg, and couldn’t walk – let alone cheer. We went to the game anyway to see if she would be able, but she wasn’t. It absolutely crushed me. I felt like I got picked up and cut in half.

I tell you this now because both on Monday and Tuesday of this week, I had people come up to me and say, “man, it must be great to be you.” Yeah, it honestly is – I wouldn’t trade or change one thing in my life. But when you judge me based on what you think I do – you have no clue about all the shit I have missed.

So I had some time today on a 3.5-hour flight today to really get ahead. The plan was to reread all old emails, type a bunch of new ones, prospect for some new clients, and send out some texts that were long overdue. Yep, I was going to be as efficient as a well-oiled machine while flying out to the West Coast today. Somewhere, about 20 minutes outside of Atlanta, my plan got derailed when I received the “Wifi Error” message on my computer.

Being an avid flyer, although not much commercial travel anymore and probably the least tech-savvy at things like wifi, smart TVs, passwords and apps, I am no stranger to wifi woes while in flight. Some of the highlights that prove I suck at tech are as follows:

1. The time I had three different monthly wifi subscriptions all thru Delta Airlines because I could never remember a password or an account.
2. The time I locked my computer up so it literally sent the same email dozens of times to the same recipient (still don’t know how that happened).
3. Or the last time I had this much struggle and the flight attendant felt bad and let me use her phone as my wifi hotspot on a long flight because I couldn’t connect.

So when things were obvious that it wasn’t going to be a good day in the friendly skies for my world wide web, I just shifted my direction.

I put my computer away, got out a notebook, and just started making notes.  Once done making all of my tasks for the week, I started to stare off into the sky and occasionally look back at the monitor in front of me to see where the plane was over land. As we kept going, I would see cities and in just about every one we flew over, I had some experience or story that came back in my mind about it. Some of these places I hadn’t thought about in 10 plus years but it was just so amazing to think about everywhere my feet have traveled and all the time I can now reflect on.

As the hours passed, so did the memories.  Mostly were good and positive ones, mixed with a couple of bad times and a lot of times that just made me laugh. The further west I flew, the more the sun faded, and the more I started seeing cities that I hadn’t yet been to and experiences I haven’t yet had, which shows excitement for the future.

All in all, this wifi error really turned into a blessing. It gave me time to reflect. It gave me time to think about the future. It gave me time to be humble – realizing I can do a lot of things, but airline wifi isn’t one of them. And it just gave me time to breathe.

Life is like a suitcase. You only need to pack what you need. I’ve learned this over the years, and it has really perfected my ability to both pack a suitcase physically as I go on trips, and pack one mentally as I go on a trip through life.

This came to me one day while thinking about everything I needed to pack for the day. It was early in the morning, and I had just worked out. I was on my way back home to pack. The trip had a lot of different parts and pieces. Some of it was work, some were pleasure and relaxation. Anytime I have to go on a trip like that, packing is always an abnormal challenge. But as I started thinking about it, only packing what you need is a metaphor for how I’ve decided to live my life in general. Some things aren’t worth taking with you, mentally or physically. And sometimes, you think you’re going to need a hell of a lot more than you actually will need for your trip.

When I came up with the thought, Life is like a suitcase; you should only pack what you need, what I really thought about was the idea of leaving problems behind you. You leave people behind you, in some instances. Not everyone is going to go with you on your journey. Sometimes, whether it’s problems, issues, situations, or even an extra shirt you don’t need for your trip, it is okay to leave things behind.

I’ve really developed that lately in both how I pack my mental suitcase and my physical one. Only take with you what you need, leave behind what you don’t, and don’t worry about the rest because every day is a new adventure.