Justin Stoddart 0:00
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show I'm Justin Stoddart. Oh my goodness, I am fired up thrilled, excited. There were a lot of adjectives right there about how I'm feeling about this episode, and really what this content has done for me in my life. And I'm thrilled to have today's guest. Before I introduce him, let me just reiterate, the purpose of this show is that when we start to think bigger, we begin to act differently. And as we act differently, our businesses grow. And as our businesses grow, the options in our life and the impact that we can have in the world also grow. And that's my passion is to help inspire people that want to impact the world, in greater ways. So I'm thrilled and want to thank today's guest, Geoff woods, Vice President of the one thing for being with us today, Geoff, thank you for being here.
Geoff Woods 0:47
It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Justin Stoddart 0:49
Yes. For those that don't know, Geoff, and your story, like let me back up by just saying the book "The One Thing" if you haven't read it, your heads probably been in the sand. It's been a best seller for a long, long time, on all the major path platforms, right, New York Times, USA Today, Amazon, on and on and on. It has has been a remarkable catalyst for a lot of people to change the way they look at things. Geoff, how did you find out about the one thing
Geoff Woods 1:15
I just and I was in medical device sales at the time, and I remember it was our national sales meeting, I walked into this big ballroom, we probably had 1500 people at the meeting. So lots of chairs, and on every single chair was a copy of the one thing, and I remember picking up the book and looking at and go, Oh, this is cool. And then out on stage was Jay Papasan, and who co-authored the one thing with Gary Keller, and for the next hour, he proceeded to just blow my mind. And I remember Justin, I was at this point in my life where I was ready to make a change. I, in medical device sales, had enjoyed a great living and great quality of life, but I was lacking fulfillment. And prior to this national sales meeting, two things happen that really forced me to make a change. The first was a colleague of mine had a stroke when he was 35. And I remember my wife and I had just bought a house in Orange County, we just had our first child and she made the decision to become a stay at home mom, and my colleague has a stroke. And I remember thinking, Justin, wow, if that happened to me, what happens to my family, and that really rocked me. And then A few weeks later, my company had to make a change to our commission structure to remain competitive in the marketplace. And as a result, I lost 40% of my income. And when you take those two things back to back, all of a sudden, I had a lot of pain in my life that made me realize I've actually got to take control of my future. And I heard this Jim Rome quote that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And I remember looking at my five and feeling a lot of gratitude because they were great friends, but they weren't actually already where I wanted to be. And so I was hunting mentors, and here's Jay on stage blowing my mind and I'm going, Oh, I got to get into a relationship with this guy. But then all the limiting beliefs started to set in like, what could I say to him that would make him interested me Look, the give him that would make it worth his time. And when he came offstage, I just realized, now's the time, I gotta go, I got it. I got to talk to him. I basically sprinted down the side of the hall, I wanted to be the first guy to talk to him. And I basically tackled him and asked to interview him for a podcast I was hosting at the time called the mentee. And I just kept following up with him asking what he and Gary were focusing on. And every single time I asked, he had an answer, whether it was looking for more exposure for the book. He said that a bunch of times, and the third time, I followed up and asked, after having delivered each time he had a request, he said that he and Gary were looking for a CEO for a publishing company. And I remember thinking, well, I knew three people that were publishing CEOs that might be a great fit. And I offered to make an introduction, said, that'd be great. And I said, Well, before we before I do that, why don't we talk so you can tell me who you're looking for. So I make the right intro. And when we got on the phone, Justin, he really surprised me. Because the person he described was not anybody in my network. He described me through my name in the hat. And you fast forward, November 1, 2015, I moved my family from Southern California to Austin, Texas. And for the past three and a half years, I've been turning the book into a company that changes the way people do time.
Justin Stoddart 4:13
Really interesting. I don't think I've ever heard that story. I've heard bits and pieces of it, but not the whole story. And a couple of things that really stand out to me, Jeff, that I would hope that the audience would maybe get from this, at least that I'm getting from it right, is that, in fact, one of my mentors teaches that you don't have to be like, super courageous all the time. But there are points in your life where you have to be like 10 seconds of absolute courage. And for you, it sounds like it was that like, I need to go talk to this man like that, what he's speaking and impact he's having on the world. That's kind of what I like. That's, that's somebody who I need to know. And it was it probably took a lot of guts didn't it to like, say, I'm going to go introduce myself, right?
Geoff Woods 4:54
Absolutely, absolutely. I remember when I was going down the road to surrounding myself with people who are light years ahead of me, and all the limiting beliefs that pop up when you want to approach these people. But the truth is you gotta approach. And I remember I've asked several of my mentors. Why the heck are you even talking to me? And one guy who was on the founding team of priceline.com, I remember him saying to me because at one point in time I was in your shoes. And there was somebody who reached back, grabbed my hand and help pull me forward. And they didn't ask for money. They didn't ask me to wash their car. All they asked is one day I pay it forward. And this guy was now in a position where he was wealthier than he could ever imagine, had everything that he could possibly want. His life was now about impact. And he wanted to help the next generation of entrepreneurs. So it was in that moment that I realized that when it comes to the mentor-mentee relationship, the mentee actually has more power than the mentor. Because while the mentee thinks, Oh, I'm getting so much value from this person who's pouring into me, you're actually giving more value to them, because you're giving them a sense of purpose. Wow.
Justin Stoddart 6:05
Wow, super interesting. I am. I found that when you really want something and kind of going back to another point that you made earlier, is like you recognize at one point that I'm not exactly where I want to be. And this, this path that I'm on might not get me there, right. Like I have a brother in law, actually, who's in medical device sales. So I know very firsthand, kind of vicariously through him watching what happens that world right? As soon as you make a certain amount of money, which is like, yes, this is where I want to be. They're like, No, you can't make that much.
Geoff Woods 6:33
Yeah, they change your territory, they switch the comp plan up it just,
you know, always Yeah.
Justin Stoddart 6:40
And I think you know, the difference between, like, with, what you've done is you said, Look, ...
