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Glenn Mattson
Welcome back to the Building Blocks of Success. Today we'll be taking a look at season two with episode eight, we're gonna be taking a look at this phenomena that we call Campers and Climbers. And working in the business for 30 years and taking a look at helping individuals climb and become the best they can become. It's been a passion and a love for a very long time. But I want to walk you through in essence what we really take a look at with regards to individuals. Now, when you look at individuals, you've heard me speak an awful lot about self-esteem and self-worth and etc. When we look at these individuals’ self-esteem, for instance, right? Most people walking planet Earth are categorized really into three groups when you look at self-esteem. Remember, self-esteem is your perception right? Your view of yourself, right? So it's up how you how you value and how you look at yourself, how you feel about yourself. So when we look at individuals, and I'm going to categorize these, I'm gonna put them into some buckets. Realize we can talk more about this at a different time. But let me just walk you through these three buckets. It's a theory been around for a long time, I'll try to do all this and implement it.
Glenn Mattson
So when we look at it, just imagine everyone in life is together. And we're all sitting there in a parking lot. And staring in front of us is a big old mountain that we got to climb up to life. Some individuals will look at that mountain, look at people climbing it, look at some people falling down from it. They can see all the trials and tribulations in front of them and then what they decide is you know what, that's not for me. I'm going to hang out in the parking lot. I'm going to hang out right here. And many of those people really have very little drive. They have subpar quality in terms of themselves and of the work that they do and the quality of the work that they do. A lot of them lack vision. They really have no faith in the future. When challenges or roadblocks pop up, they run faster than you could imagine. They really shy away from challenges. Many of them honestly are a bit resentful and bitter. And the reason being is is that they live in the world that I can't. They live in the world of I won't. They live in the world of it's not worth it if even if I try. They live in the world I tried but, or I tried, but this happened, and they have a whole litany of why it doesn't make sense to try. I love this one. They use this a lot. Well, I could do it if I wanted to. Oh yeah, these individuals that decide not to climb life, not to experience life, not to participate in life, but because they don't want to participate. They actually experience a lot more pain by not climbing than they ever would have experienced if they decided to climb.
Glenn Mattson
So what we call these parking lotters or psychological non winners, whatever terms we want to use, there is a chunk of our population about 20% that walk around that are okay being not okay. I had a friend growing up that would fit this picture very well. And even in my other jobs when I would hire him, it would take me about 30 days or so to get his mind straight and mind back into the right spot. And then of course, I'd have to fire him, and then I'd hire him back and fire him again. But this individual, I talked to him probably every year or two years on his birthday, he's moved away to the west side of the country years and years and years and years ago. But he was one of my good friends growing up. Now, Eric, currently works at a supermarket. When you go in and you ask to have some ham cut, he's the one with the hair net, cutting the ham or the cheese behind the countertop. Nothing wrong with that by any means. I'm not saying that negatively. Now, Eric, and the snow came. Eric would say and I talked on the telephone last week. How are you doing? How are things going? They have it in for me. Who has it in for you? Corporate Development, what does that mean for the man? What are you talking about? People of authority. Going? Sure enough, with Eric leaves out, is that one morning he woke up. The snow gods answered his prayer and snowed. He decided to get in his van, drive to the mountain. That was 5:30, 6 o'clock in the morning to escape. Because it was amazing snow, and it needed to be skied. So he skied. Then he stayed over and had some fun in the pub that night and decided to ski the next day. And decided to ski the next day. Then he went home.
Glenn Mattson
What we don't realize is those three days that he decided to go skiing he was actually supposed to be at work. They're supposed to be the one doing the meat. But he never called, never showed up, but if you ask Eric, what were you thinking? What? The snow guys called me; I had to go skiing. I mean I had to. It made no sense to him that he should be at work, or should we call to let them know. So when he showed up after skiing for three days and he walks into work like nothing changed. They fired him. And if you ask Eric why, it has nothing to do with the fact that he wasn't there, at all. It has to do with the fact that they had it in for him.
Glenn Mattson
So, some of us have this desire to not to climb. Eric's convinced that it's not worth it. And the all the repercussions that happen because of it, is not his fault. Someone else's fault.
Glenn Mattson
So then we get into a camper. And by the way, a camper is 60% of the population. A camper is someone who will climb, and they do climb and they have guts, they have fortitude, they have tenacity, right, they have determination. They have a tenacity which is fantastic. Then all of a sudden, a camper earns what they think they're worth. So they will bust their catookish to get a job worth $80,000 and once they hit $80,000, they've made it. Stop busting their butt.
Glenn Mattson
Take a person in commissions. If they think they're worth 100,000, and their average monthly commission, for instance, is 6,000 and they have a base. In the month of January, they only did 4,000. And in their head like I gotta make it up. What would happen if that individual didn't do 6,000 worth of business? They actually did 9,000. The middle of the month, the 15th they already did their six. They have three more appointments. Now they're at 9,000. They have one week left of the month and they're already 50 percent ahead of where they've ever been, right? It's one of the greatest months they've had. What does the average person do next? Same thing if you have three papers that you have to do. You aced the first paper; you aced the second paper. The teacher tells you that we're going to do an aggregate of your two to get your grade, or each one's worth 30, you know, each one's worth an even amount. The average person will sit back and say I get two A's. And they will figure out the math of what they need to get just to get that grade that they were looking for.
Glenn Mattson
So a camper, I want to make abundantly clear, a camper will work hard until they get to a certain level of achievement, certain level of income, and then their desire, this is important to remember, their desire to grow turns into a desire to protect. I see this happen 1,000s and 1,000s and 1,000s of times a month easily all the time. One of the things that we coach people out of. One of the things that we help people coach to. We meaning that don't be a camper. So there's a couple rules to remember by campers, in human nature, we all have a number inside of us of what we think we're worth. And what I mean by worth air quotes is $1 amount. It's 10,000. 20,000. 80,000. 150. 300, 500, 800, a million, 3 million, 6 million, 9 million. They're just zeros.
Glenn Mattson
But what do you think you're worth? And it's amazing that once you achieve that number, the average person stops climbing, and they turn into a camper. They set up a campground. Right, now listen. You work hard, you have your house, you work harder, next, you know, and you save and etc. You do all the right things, and you buy a little nicer car. And now you may have a second house, you go on nice vacations, you say to yourself, you know, I'm making good money. More than I ever thought I was gonna make. I'm working five days; I can cut that back. I got a gorgeous house. Gorgeous life. I have two homes, take nice vacations, I'm happy. So therefore, that individual will stop growing will stop climbing. Because they're content in what they have. Now they want to protect what they built, not to continue to grow. Many of them are afraid they can't rebuild what they've done. Many are fearful of why push hard, I may lose what I have. Even though they're the ones who built it.
Glenn Mattson
Campers have two major attributes. One is they live in the world of adjusting. Adjusting means that if they're doing better than they expected, they will slow down. You're supposed to recruit seven people. And it's April and you've gotten five, I can almost guarantee you the average person would stop recruiting until September.
Glenn Mattson
If you're running around a lake to get prepared for something and you're way ahead of everybody else, instead of busting it to beat the clock you slow down a little bit to recuperate until some people get close to then you start running again. That's called adjusting. You adjust your behavior when you outperform your expectations. Let me give you the definition again. When you outperform your expectations, you will adjust your behavior. You will slow it down. Again, you're supposed to make that 4,000 or 6,000 the average and you bring in 9,000. You're doing great; the average person would slow down. They'd say oh my god I just did January and half of February already and by the end of January, I can wait. I can relax, I can go to bed a little later, I can get up a little earlier. I can go take right my son or the daughter to this or this I can spend more time. The things that that you did that got you where you are. When you finally get to where you want to be why the hell would you stop doing the things that got you there? Doesn't make any sense.
Glenn Mattson
The other thing that campers, major attribute, is failure. I spent a lot of time on failure, we talked about this. But a camper looks at failure as a negative. They see failure as a bad thing. They still have it ingrained in their head that if you're a failure, you're a loser. Failings bad, failings bad, failings bad. You can only understand how successful you can be in life and how happy you could be in your life if you just let yourself fail, and then learn from your failures, so you don't do it again. But hell if you do it again, who cares? You got to know the lesson as long as you get a little better each time, you're making progress. Right, energy, effort, time. So will make you successful. So a camper looks at failure as a negative thing. So therefore, they don't usually take big risks, and the risks they do take are only if they're gonna win.
Glenn Mattson
Now think like a third group. Third group is a climber. The third group is someone that wants to grow. Wants to get better. A climber believes that failure is a necessary component of success. Look, a camper doesn't like failure. A climber doesn't like failure. I don't like it, no one really goes towards failure and says, ooh, let me do that again. No, the difference is a camper is afraid of failure, a camper moves away from failure. A climber on the other hand, understands that you have to fail to succeed. A climber understands the more you fail, the more you will learn what not to do, so you have a better chance of doing it right. So a climber doesn't like it any more or less. They just understand that failure is an absolute necessary component of success. So therefore, they don't take it personal. They don't take it where it kills him for a day. They don't run away from it. They don't like it, they're not afraid of it.
Glenn Mattson
The other thing about a camper and a climber that's different is things like challenges and setbacks. A camper will turn around his challenges and say, man, is this gonna be worth it. If I put all his energy and effort into it. What's going to happen? Right? What's gonna look like? Yet a climber looks at setbacks, and challenges and they embrace it. They look forward to it. They don't run from it. They don't sit there and say, oh, I wait until I get a roadblock. And this is going to be great. No, but when it occurs, they don't sit there and say why me? I can't believe this was happening. I finally had things going in the right direction and this just happens. No, they turn around, say, alright, what happened? How do we get around it? What do we have to do to fix it? They don't get stuck on the why it happened. They focus on how moving past it. Once we get past it, we can reevaluate on what happened.
Glenn Mattson
Now, this is a big one, I think this really important is that most campers are motivated by materialistic goods. Their goals are things that they want to achieve. And there's nothing wrong with that. Don't get me wrong. And that's a great motivator for a lot of people, it was for me. A camper is someone that's motivated by X. But the problem is once they get X, they stop. See a climber, what they're motivated by is how good can I really be? They're motivated by the power of the journey is more important than the destination. And trust me, climbers have a lot of materialistic goods, they have a lot of toys. They do. But they don't buy a toy to make themselves feel better. That's what a climber does. They buy what they have, just because they have the money, it's a byproduct. So, if you ask a climber about one of the things they love, they're going to tell you they love the journey at work. They love the challenges. They love figuring out how good they can be. Remember what I just said they focus on how good I can be. So they bring in $100,000 and it takes them 60 hours to do that. A climber will say alright, how do I do more in less time? Now they're doing 180,000, right? They're doing in 60 hours. They may turn around, say, okay, how do I do a little more in less time, more bounce? So a climber isn't also focused on small stuff. They understand the journey is the most important piece. They have a tendency to be persistent, resilient, tenacious, for sure.
Glenn Mattson
But here's another thing that I find that campers and climbers differentiate themselves. A climber will live in a world of why not? Why not make? Why can't I do that dollar amount? Why can't I do that dollar amount in less time? Why can't I talk to that person? Why can't they be my client? Why can't I have that car? Why not me? They break down the fence posts. They don't have territories in their mind. They look at a camper or a camper puts fence posts around themselves. They say things like well I can't do that because I'm not smart. Or I can't have that because I didn't go the right schools.
Glenn Mattson
A climber doesn't live in a world of why, that's a camper. Climber lives in a world of why not? What makes them better than me? Nothing. It may take me more time and energy, but why not me? So when you look at these three different people, right 20% are parking lotters, 20% are climbers, 60% are campers. You know the crazy thing is when you came out of the water slide of life and whoever your doctor was right? Little Johnny Ben's caught ya, picked you up, showed you to mom and dad, cut the umbilical cord. For all intent and purposes, unless something was physically wrong. You're a perfect baby. Great little kid. When they put you in the box and they put you in the dirt, you're passed away and you're done. Kinda perfect there, too. Right? Right before you die. As a human, you're a perfect human. So if we look at it, your womb to the tomb, that our bookends are perfect, meaning 10s. Zero 10, you're a 10. The interesting thing is we're all born tens. We are. On a scale of zero to 10, a parking lot person is the one that goes from zero to four. Climber believes in self-esteem, right? That they're between a four and a six. A climber believes that they're a seven to 10. Cause they believe they're a seven to ten, they will perform as a seven to ten. And at least here because they believe there are four to six will perform as a four to six because the second they start performing as an eight or nine, they just back down to a four or five again. Because that's where they believe they belong.
Glenn Mattson
You earn exactly what you think you're worth. You call on if you're in sales, you call on exactly the level inside the organization, that your psychology, your self-esteem let. Your average case size, the average deal that you do. If you're in sales, the average commission you make has more to do with your self-esteem than it does your skill. Your average case is $1,000 and you're talking to someone and the second you find in air quotes $1,000; the average person will stop looking. If your average is 5,000 and there's only 1,000 on the table, you're gonna keep looking until you get your 5,000 or more.
Glenn Mattson
Isn't it interesting that what we perceive as what we want. That's what we usually get. Campers will typically have less of what they want than a climber. As you look at yourself, remember you were born a 10. You're gonna pass away a 10.
Glenn Mattson
Why would you let all the crap that happens? The beginning of your life to change the fact that you were born a 10 and you are a climber. The problem is you're choosing to listen to scripts in your head and unfortunately to your dame friends and other people in your life, socially, that will make you think you're less. That is why it's so adamant that they spent the whole podcast talking about your friends, your influences, the noise around you. Campers hang out with campers. Very rarely find a climber hanging out with a bunch of campers. Climbers have a magnetic pole to other climbers and so on. So when you're looking for a job, you're at work. Look for the climbers. Realize you are a climber even if you're a camper. Get outside your comfort zone. Push yourself to do one more. Use what we call the attitude behavioral journal. The great technique to have one attitudinal goal per day and one behavioral goal. These are baby steps. Always push yourself to be better than you were today. You're exhausted, you're tired from your journey. It's okay. Climbers, they take rest. Of course, they do. Campers take rests, of course they do. But the problem is a camper will camp for an average three years. You look at someone who makes $100,000. The next year, they may make 110. The following year, they make 104. And then the following year they make 136. In the next year, they make 125. And then make 138. And then boom 160. That's a camper, someone whose income is about the same, the last three or four years within, you know, 15,000 $20,000. Give or take. Pretty consistent. Because a camper, at some point, not always, but at some point, will turn around and say, I can do better than this. This is getting easy. And that's when they step it up. And when they get to that next plateau, like oh, this is good, this is success. They set up their camp again. The average camper who also likes to climb, will entertain climbing every three years. They will climb, they'll have growth, and they camp again.
Glenn Mattson
So, realize for everyone listening in, your choice of being a camper is yours. You're adjusting, and you're accepting failure as a negative thing because that's your beliefs. Choose to change them. You're a climber, keep climbing. Take your time, make sure that you are getting rested, sleep, water, vacations, etc. But if you are a camper, find the climbers inside your organization. Go towards them. Be connected to them. They think differently. They act differently, especially in times of stress and anxiety. You're looking for a mentor, find a mentor who is a climber. If you are someone who's in business and sales and you're doing what's called joint work. Make sure that joint work partner that you have is a climber. Never learn how to be successful, if you can, do not learn how to be successful from a camper. They're going to teach you how to be mediocrity, right? They're going to teach you how to be mediocre, not your best self, not your best version of yourself. For every day. Look yourself in the mirror before you go to bed. Ask yourself, what could I have done better? What could I have done differently? What do I have to do more of? What do I have to stop doing? And what should I start doing? Those five questions are magic to make sure that you're getting to be your best version of yourself. Enjoy.
Glenn Mattson
This is the Building Blocks of Success with Glenn Mattson.
S2E2 with Glenn Mattson: Dreams and Goals - How to Set Up Your Goals
S2E5 with Glenn Mattson: 6 Motivational Factors and Billable Time