Ryan Roberts | How to push forward in the face of adversity | #38

I know the person that I want to be and in those moments it it's pretty easy just to think about yourself in that moment welcome to hello Grill the number one growth podcast in Utah I'm Court Brady and today I have Ryan Roberts on the podcast with us stok to have you Ryan Hey stoked to be here I'm excited so I've known Ryan I've known you since you were 16 years old and now you're 23 MH you've lived a long and intense life you've had a lot of things happen to you and you've done a

lot of things and and caused a lot of change in the world in a short period of time you've done door to-door cells you've done solar cells you had covid hit in the middle of a mission experience for your church M and while you were doing solar cells you had tragedy strike and your twin brother Max passed away in a in a boating diving accident which I'd love to get into in the podcast we'll talk about about different archetypes of solar and pest cells the things that you did you what you overcame what you overcame

during CO as a missionary and then what Max's experience was like what your experience was like in that and how you responded how you wish you would have responded if there's any difference between those two what other people said what you wish they would have said and how people can respond to to those going through tragedy and then you went back and did door to door cells which I feel like is the hardest job someone can possibly have that's why people make that are that are good at it make a lot of money doing it

because it's so unbelievably difficult from a mental and emotional perspective so to be able to have the grit and gumption to go back and doing something like that after such a hard tragedy I want to figure out like I want to dissect your brain what what makes you tick how did you figure that out and where you at now a year into it yeah is that right yeah let's get into it okay so just to kick it off tell me uh let's start with your mission you're in Argentina and it's 2020 March Co hits and

like how long into the mission are you and what happens what's the experience so I was about 6 months into my mission um and that's the point where missionaries start to start figuring it out a little bit you could speak Spanish now a little bit at that point yeah I wish I could say I could speak Spanish fluently at 6 months but that's not the case I feel like it took my whole mission to to really learn Spanish um but that's when you start to figure out how how it works to be a missionary um

and unfortunately the the church sent me home so it kind of just stopped my progress there um but I was home for about 2 to three months until the church reassigned me to a different Mission um during my time home that's when I I contacted you and I wanted to do door to door Sals I heard a lot of things about door door um goodlooking tall exactly basketball player all those things were in your favor people are just going to say yes yes that's right that's what they told me during recruiting um but yeah I

met with a couple of different companies um you luckily put me in contact with um some good people and I did pest control for about a month until I was reassigned to a different Mission um and I loved my experience selling Pest Control I feel like I learned a ton um you know I went and sold with my twin brother Max and some really good friends and we just had an incredible experience and that kind of opened my eyes to what door to door could be and kind of you know what I wanted to do

after my mission at least for the the beginning where were you reassigned to I was reassigned to Baltimore Maryland so and how long were you in Baltimore I was there for about 9 months until I was sent back to Argentina so I finished the last six months of my mission in Argentina what a whirlwind then so you're 18 to 21 in this range cuz you had some breaks some gaps in there what advice have for somebody that is thinking about going and serving in any capacity in the face of adversity you know it kind of

depends what you're doing if you're serving a mission you should just know that it's going to be hard um or if you're going to be doing sales or doing anything else I think it's it's always a safe bet to assume it's going to be really hard um and if you just go in with that mentality it's it's going to work out a lot better um just because you're going to have to prepare yourself beforehand and just with that preparation you're going to learn a lot and you're going to have a lot more success so you

said the way to prepare is it's going to be difficult and just realize that it's going to be difficult and that makes it easier so is your method to just say yes it's going to be hard and grin and Barrett or do you have some tactics or mindset that was was helpful and helping you get through that yeah um you know it's funny one piece of advice that was given to me before my mission um for my uncle actually was and I forget the wording he used but he said if you can picture it in

your mind you're going to be able to do it so if that means you're giving a talk or you're giving a sales pitch or if you're doing a trick on the wakeboard whatever it is um if you can visualize yourself doing it in your mind beforehand you're going to be able to do it or at least you're going to get a lot closer than just going for it so for example serving my mission I just knew it was going to be hard um I pictured myself going door too um trying to speak a language that

I didn't know beforehand and I feel like that just gave me you know a little bit of an edge on other people that just went out there not knowing anything if that makes sense yeah totally so you get back from your mission and what month was it when you got back from from Argentina the second time oh I don't even know um it was September September so the Summer's over so you have some y so you talk to some people you make a decision to go do solar this next year can you talk us through

that decision for sure um I was 100% set on doing door to door but I just didn't know what I wanted to do um I knew a lot of people that had a lot of success in pest control and smart home security and solar um so I just thought I would meet with as many different compan as possible talk to as many people as possible and just base my decision off of that you said on solar I decided solar and the reason for that is I talked to a lot of solar companies I think I

talked to four solar companies and their numbers were just almost unbelievable um and the reason why I decided on solar was I just I had the thought process of even if what they're saying is half true that's incredible that's better than these other guys um cuz you know how door to door is there's a lot of companies and a lot of people that kind of overpromise and underd deliver um but you know even if these companies under underd delivered it would still be better than these these other companies and these other options that I had

um and so I decided on solar I decided on a specific company and it was even better than I could have thought it was awesome so they over promised and overd delivered yeah it was awesome I love that so you get out to Florida and you quickly find out that there's some differences between Pest and and solar what are the biggest differences somebody going into making that decision is there a different archetype for a solar guy versus a pest guy so it depends what position you're going to be um with Pest Control everyone has the

same role you're going to be going door too the entire time um with solar I wanted to close from the beginning usually you have to be a Setter then a closer then a man manager and there's just a process that you have to go through to move up um but the company I decided to go with we worked out a deal where I would close right away um but it was because I had Pest Control experience and Part of Me closing the first year I would have to close 10 deals by myself meaning I would

have to go knock doors set 10 appointments and close them myself it's kind of prove myself yeah um and if which is not an easy thing no it was not easy um um and if I was able to do that then I could be a full-time closer and and that was the number the numbers I was looking at um when it came to commissions because those people were making the most money so that's just what I wanted to do so I went I went for it and what did you have any quick realizations of the

difference in what's needed for a pest cell versus a solar cell yeah so the pest cell is quick um you know you can do it as quick as 5 minutes um and the solar sell you know the average sell is probably an hour and a half to 2 hours so you really have to get to know your customer you have to be good socially you have to um you have to really sell you have to really sell the the product to the customer um and it's a bigger commitment so you really had to show the

customer that you were a trustworthy person um which which I don't know it it it takes a lot um I've seen a lot of people do really well in solar and seen a lot of people not do too well and I think it just comes down to how well you're able to become friends with a person or in this case a customer and how quick you can do that because at the end of the day you know if somebody doesn't trust you it doesn't matter what you're selling or what it is um it's just not

going to happen and so so you have a longer period of time to build that trust with that person yeah but you have a longer period of time but it's you have to build more trust a lot more trust with solar they're signing up for sometimes it's $50,000 to $100,000 loans and they don't even know you you're just a in my case a 21y old kid yeah so I just did my best to you know show the person that I'm a trustworthy guy what I'm saying is the truth um and so yeah and you guys

crushed I don't want to downplay how well you guys I remember going to getting lunch with you after your first summer and you didn't give me exact numbers but I asked you some Ballpark and and you guys killed it you guys you guys did really really well yeah and that was in Florida your first year right and so you decided you've gone to Florida the two years since then as well right yeah last three years in Florida so you guys build a team um tell us how you structured that the cities that you went into

the next year yeah so I went into solar with my brother Max and um a couple of other friends and we all did about the same we did really well um which is that's that's probably why we did well as we were all competing against each other um the next year we wanted to manage and the plan was for me Max and my friend Adrian to manage together um and it got to the point where we were recruiting so well where we knew it was better for us to split up um you know it' be

better financially and just just better all the way around um and so it was kind hard to decide on who goes where who takes which recruit but we figured that all out um and I managed a team in basically the same spot we were selling the year prior and then my brother Max and Adrien managed a new team about an hour north of where we were at that's a good problem to have when you're in door door Sals that you've recruited so many that you have to split the team yeah it was unexpected but but

it was great so you guys go out the summer progresses and Summer's going well mhm just like like the previous summer um and then you get and I don't know how deep you want to go into this but um you get a phone call about Max yeah um so yeah that summer I mean to start off from the beginning that summer was tough I still considered myself pretty new to door too yeah um you're 23 22 at the point I was 22 I only did one month of pest control and then a full summer of

of solar and then I was managing a team of of 30 people and even though we were in the same area there were so many differences that it was just hard to figure a couple things out and so I was a young kid trying to figure out how to manage a team um still trying to figure out how to sell solar in the best way um so there's a lot of trials with work and then just to top it all off um I got a call and my dad let me know that um Max had

passed away um and that obviously trumps everything that was a pretty hard experience to go through um but yeah I don't know how how deep you want me to dive into ex moment totally up to you bro I would love to know some of the emotions that you're experiencing and what your experience was like you're welcome to share what happened or we can just go to what your experience was like yeah um you know it was tough um I remember it was just a normal day and my dad called me and just let me know

that Max had went spear fishing um and you know I talked to Max throughout the summer but it wasn't you know every day I wouldn't know what he was doing on a day-to-day basis U but yeah my dad called me let me know that Max um was missing and they couldn't find his body um and he just told me that that he was gone he even though they hadn't found his body he told me that they that he was gone um and I immediately got in my car and I I drove to where I thought

he'd be to what Pier I thought he'd be at um but yeah that was a was a pretty tough time obviously not for me but or not only for me but my family as well so I have a bunch of questions around this do you care if I for sure I asked some of those um walk us through some of the emotions in that first 24 and then 24 hours and then subsequent weeks after that you know um you know that's a tough question it's it's hard to even describe the feelings that I was feeling

um at the beginning you almost don't believe that it's happening like you don't not only do you not want to believe that that actually happened um but you actually don't believe that it's happening and I just couldn't help but think about Max and where he was actually at and there's so many emotions at one time that yeah it it's hard to describe you know one certain emotion you fast forward to today what are your what are your emotions what does a typical day look like now oh it's tough um you know it's only been it's

been about a year and a half since he passed away um so I definitely experience a lot of waves of of different emotions um I miss him every single day obviously and um I think one thing that's really helped me is just thinking um with an internal perspective thinking in the bigger picture um when something like that happens it's it's pretty easy to go down the path of how you're feeling in that current Mo that current moment um and not wanting to leave that moment you know you're you're sad and you you almost want to

feel sad and you don't want to do anything else um but by thinking in an internal perspective in the bigger picture that kind of helps you realize you know what life's about what's what's actually important um and it helps you um how can I even put this in words it just helps you move forward if that makes sense I don't know if that that makes any sense what I just said yeah how do you do you have any strategies did you have any strategy I mean that first week I'm sure that was just everything is

happening your mind's not able to focus probably on anything just the super traumatic experience and then you go back and I can imagine the world has still stopped for you and then everyone after the funeral I'm sure you're getting texts I'm sure you're getting people that are reaching out but they continue to move forward with their jobs their careers their kids or schooling but life is never going to be the same for you again what strategies did you put in place to continue to move move forward you know um it's it's hard especially at the

beginning you you don't really sleep a lot um and it's hard to think straight when you're not getting good sleep um and luckily for me I have really good support I have awesome neighbors um my family's incredible um so we had really good support um we felt like we had or I personally felt like we had the whole Community praying for us um which which is an awesome feeling and I know that made it easier you know there wasn't a specific strategy um I got a lot of advice from a lot of people um you

know people recommended that I would meditate for 20 minutes a day or I would read for an hour a day and you know I did do those things um and those things definitely did help but there wasn't one specific thing that you know changed my whole outlook or you know made me better because that that just didn't happen that's something that I still struggle with today um but but yeah overall it was just spending more time with my family um I realized that relationships that's the most important thing is having good relationships with with your

loved ones and and that really helped me get through those times you reminded me of something from Max's funeral I was going through my journal this morning and preparation for this conversation and read some notes that I wrote down from quotes at Max's funeral and one of them was that there's no price on love and relationships and that relationships give life meaning I don't know who said that at Max's funeral or if it was a Max quote that that ended up getting said you probably know I think I I recognize that quote from Max's Journal

um we're somewhere in his scriptures he had a lot of good quotes and and that's one thing I I was able to take away from from Max while I was here on this Earth um is just how much focus and attention he put into relationships nobody nobody could be someone's friend better than Max um and so yeah that that quote defines Max perfectly I also love coming out of there with maximize life what was that maximize life was a big was a big takeaway for me yeah how do I maximize it yeah so how did

people respond to you Ryan and there's probably responses that were really positive and some responses that were well intended but weren't what what you needed yeah could you talk a little bit about some of those you know it's hard and I have a lot of compassion for people um that tried to give me advice even though I don't consider that advice good because at the end of the day everyone had really good intentions um but you know we had a lot of people telling us that it's going to be easier or um everything's going to

be okay and that just wasn't the case that wasn't something I wanted to hear um I didn't want everything to be okay or for everything to be easier um I just wanted my brother back and um I I do remember there was one piece of advice that I got um from a girl who had a similar experience and she just brought that up she's she came up gave me a hug and she was just like I wish I could tell you it was going to be easier that's not um it's just a matter of she

she put it in a way where um do you describe it as having a hole in your body like there's just a a piece of your body that's missing um and you shouldn't wait until that hole's filled it's just a matter of learning how to live life with that hole still being there um and so at the end of the day I just I didn't really care about life getting easier or my emotions going back to what they used to be it was just a matter of dealing with what had happened and and moving forward

what advice do you have to somebody that's going through a situation like that currently I would say that same thing I said I want to hope for it to be better um it's just a matter of figuring out how to move forward with that still being with you can you talk about the how how do you move forward with that still being a part of you and I want to say that in the context if you have a world of options you still have a world of options you can choose to um immerse yourself in

academics you go to school full-time you could take some time off work be very Justified and and just say you know what this this mentally taxing emotionally taxing I'm just going to take some time you've probably made enough money where you could go and just travel for a couple of years and be alone with your thoughts and have some experiences you could um numb all of it with substances or um media and have all of your time taken up and that so I'm curious to know how you how did you choose to do something so

hard like how it just you impressed me to such a large degree that you went out and did something so incredibly hard and continued to move forward and I know how hard your job is outside of something so difficult yeah no I appreciate that uh um I think just by thinking of the bigger picture and like we were talking about earlier thinking with an internal perspective um you know I I know what I want to accomplish in life um I know the person that I want to be and in those moments it it's pretty easy

just to think about yourself in that moment and you're feeling sad you want it to be resolved immediately but by thinking about the bigger picture it forces you to keep moving forward um you know like with with going back and selling after Max's funeral um I I genuinely thought about staying home and just taking it easy spending time with my family and um you know just doing easier things but by thinking with an internal perspective and thinking about the bigger picture I knew that wasn't going to help me progress and at the end of the

day it would have only made things worse if I you know stayed home or if I took time off of of school or you know I did other things that weren't helping me progress in this life it would have only made it worse there's a quote that came to mind while you're speaking that is choose the the shortterm hard to make the longterm easy yeah I love that and you would have been completely Justified 100% supported and surrounded with love here is as well if you would have stayed home and um taken some time off

school whatever you would have chosen to do and you still chose to to go and do the hard what you've talked about this long-term perspective Eternal perspective but you also talked about the bigger picture here on Earth what is your bigger picture that thing that you envision and the the life that you're creating yeah um from you know with who I want to be I I want to be successful I want I have a lot of good role role models what does what does that I mean we're going to dive into what success how you

define success yeah that's a great question you want to go into that right now or well you keep going with your answer I sorry I interrupted you what the bigger picture looks like and you might hit hit on it when you talk about the bigger picture yeah um you know the bigger picture for me especially you know for the last couple of years was just make a lot of money and get through school I feel like if I could do that in four year four years I'm good um now it's a little bit different it's

more of being a good person um trying to be like people that I really look up to um you know in our w we have a lot of great people um there's a lot of people I look up to and and the bigger picture is basically trying to become like them and learning from what they did um and yeah I'm I'm kind of losing my train of thought there no you're good bro so when we talk about the finding success so bigger picture for you looks like making a lot of money getting through school but

that's pivoted to being a good person being like those role models that you have yeah what does success in the long term look like 10 20 years from now yeah um for me it's it's having strong relationships I would love to be 20 years down the road and just have really strong relationships with every one of my family members um with the people in my neighborhood um you know with my with my close friends that that's success to me um before if you would have ask me that it would be to have $20 million and

be living I don't know on a beach somewhere you'll probably have all of those relationships the money and the beach I don't know hopefully but but yeah to to have good relationships and just be a good person and and someone that people want to be friends with I think that's a a good definition of success we both know Tony horse really well Tony I think that's how he defines it yeah that's the only thing that matters in this life is is relationships it's all about relationships yeah agree you must have been talking to him I've

talked to Tony quite a bit I've learned a lot from him Ryan is is there anything you gave some really good advice the advice that girl gave you and she had gone through something similar um if you were sitting across from end of June or early July 202 three Ryan what what do you wish you could have told him um yeah I um I think it would be able to get into that mindset earlier um the mindset of of figuring out what's important um um and thinking again from a an eternal perspective um you know

after losing after losing Max it was it was hard you know thoughts come into your mind of I'm not going to see my twin brother for the rest of my life I'm not going to um be able to see his kids or I'm not he's not going to be able to see my kids those thoughts you know just just flood your mind um but by thinking eternally you realize that he's still here and that this life is just a short period of time and I I think if I could have figured that out a little

sooner it probably would have made everything a little bit better um so yeah thanks Ryan yeah for sure if you can um Channel future Ryan if time is just a construct that we have to live through and Ryan 12 months from now if you're able to Fe to uh Channel September 2025 Ryan what's the piece of advice that he would tell you that's a good question um I hope that that advice would be something along the lines of have fun focus on the good in life and probably not put too much focus on on what's

not going your way that's great advice yeah love you bro thanks for being being on the podcast this has been amazing thank you so much for having me such a treat for me that was fun you've been watching hello grow the world's number one growth podcast I'm courland Brady I'm Carlos sza if you've watched this video so far it means that you like the content that we're putting out and the people we're interviewing we're putting together a community of Business Leaders entrepreneurs and sales leaders you liking subscribing and sharing this content helps us reach those

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