Bryan Paul Buckley
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Host – Bryan: 00:00 Episode 78 of the elite road warrior podcast. Welcome to the elite road warrior podcast, where we believe you can leverage the road to transform your work health and home life while on business travel to ultimately master the business, travel one. If you’re a road war and a great chance you’re on the road right now then this podcast is for you.
Host – Bryan: 00:30 Welcome to the elite road warrior podcast. I’m your host, Bryan Paul Buckley, fellow road warrior husband of one, and a father of five and enjoying a little bit of a break from the road right now. But no matter where I am, I’m always committed to each and every business trip to becoming and remaining an elite road warrior. And I’d love nothing more than for you to join that master evil plan and jump on that road trip. Well, I was introduced to our guest here, Jake Thompson through a mutual friend, Alan Stein, jr. And man, this guy has got a great book and a lot of energy. So let’s meet Jake Thompson. Jake Thompson is a professional speaker and the chief encouragement officer at Compete Every Day, a brand, he started in 2011 by selling t-shirts out of the trunk of his car, love that entrepreneurial spirit. Jake works with organizations and individuals around the country, teaching how they can develop accountability, mental resilience, and leadership skills in order to make bigger impacts in their careers and in their life.
Host – Bryan: 01:29 It’s through his experience in research that he’s discovered how people who harness a competitive mindset against themselves can reach their goals, commit to action over motivation and step into the leader they were created to be. Jake is a third-generation entrepreneur, the youngest strategic advisory board member at the University of Dallas’ college of business, and a graduate of both Texas Christian University with a BS and the University of Dallas with an MBA. Well, in a moment, I’ll be asking Jake the following questions. What is the overall book theme of Compete Every Day? What does it mean to never let the hard days win? How do we embrace the process? What does building a winning starting lineup look like? Unpack the phrase, lead with your actions, not your lips. And lastly, what brings you energy and drains your energy on the road and as always so much more
Host – Bryan: 02:43 Live with Jake Thompson. First of all, where are you and how are you, man?
Guest – Jake Thompson: 02:48 Fantastic is the first answer. Uh, and I am based in Frisco, Texas, which is the northern suburb of Dallas, Texas. So the home of a hundred degree summers and 60 degree winters.
Host – Bryan: 03:01 And it’s not far from a brand new stadium. That’s opened up for your Rangers and I’m sure you’re excited to see that at some point
Guest – Jake Thompson: 03:09 Oh my gosh. As a kid growing up, going to the ballpark, the one thing that excites me about that is the actual covered stadium and retractable roof because June, July, August tat the ballpark are miserable once I got past the age of 16, sitting out in a hundred-degree heat to watch a game is awful. I can’t imagine it on the playing side. So now the brand new stadium, the covered roof, uh, so incredibly excited. And now we just gotta get the team back to where we were about a decade ago.
Host – Bryan: 03:39 There you go. Well, you’re speaking to a Chicagoan. And so I’ve had quite a few runs in certain aspects of our sports here in Chicago that are the less than desirable, but, uh, you know, how about them boys for you? And, uh,
Guest – Jake Thompson: 03:51 So I’m actually not a Cowboys fan. So that’s, uh, I’m in enemy territory for football, but everything else is ours. I’m actually a Panthers fan, Carolina. I was a snot-nosed 10-year-old kid when they announced Carolina and Jacksonville. And my dad is a big Cowboys fan. I was like, I don’t want to be a Cowboys fan. I was like, I’m going to take one of those new teams. And so I’ve been with them since day one. Uh, but yeah, stuck in the middle of Dallas. It makes for annoying sports talk radio half the year. Well,
Host – Bryan: 04:20 It could be worse. You could be an Eagles fan and have to listen to that all the more
Guest – Jake Thompson: 04:24 That’s true. At least I’d have a Superbowl in the last few years though.
Host – Bryan: 04:27 That’s true. I know. Right. I know. Right. Well, it’s gonna be a great interview, man, because you’re a sports guy and I mean, we have a lot in common. Actually. We have a common friend/enemy. there you go. I’ll do credit to Alan Stein jr. And he was actually way back on episode number 10. So hopefully I’m a lot better and hopefully, he is as well on there, but it was an awesome interview. So when I found out about you and the ability to go through your book Compete Every Day, man, I was super, super stoked to have you on the show. And ironically, man, I just consumed literally your book in a short window of time. And thankfully it was something that I wanted to read and I enjoyed. And I learned from so otherwise, I’d have been a really bad gig for me having to consume something that didn’t work for me.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 05:13 We would, and we probably would have been talking, you know, Cubs and Bulls and Bears and not really, you know, life on the road.
Host – Bryan: 05:22 Exactly, exactly. So, well, speaking of that, what is the premise Jake of your book? Why’d you write it? And what’s the overall premise of this? Give us a little bit of context as we kind of dive into these main questions.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 05:33 Yeah. So the biggest reason I wanted to write the book and share the message is the fact that I spent the first part of my career with this just mistaken mindset. I believed that as a sports fan and a guy that grew up playing sports, and that was one world and life was completely different. And then in sports, if you train hard if you worked hard if you were consistent, you knew the playbook, you were a great teammate. Like you could play could Excel. You may not win the championship every year, but you have the opportunities to get on the field, excel, and have success. And for some reason in life, I had this just completely different perspective that it was about, you know, who you were born into, what your name was, lucky breaks that fall in your lap. And as I started going through the early parts of my career and seeing these opportunities I was missing out on because I was waiting on things and this mistaken self-limiting beliefs, almost of where I thought opportunities and success would come from, I started to see the parallels back to sports.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 06:30 And I started to realize that the things I grew up learning in sports and learning about in sports actually applied to life. And if I start taking those same lessons and concepts and applying them to my career, get a whole new level of success and really begin to thrive in that area that I thought, you know, was about a lucky break was something like that. And so I wanted to share that because I think especially with the rise of social media, with everything that goes on in the world on a weekly basis, we lose focus on what actually gets us to where we want to go. And if it doesn’t get us all the way there, it gets us a heck of a lot closer than anything else than some magic bill or waiting on it is going to do
Host – Bryan: 07:10 Well. That’s a great context of that. And I can completely see that in your book. And I’m going to reference this book over and over listeners here. Compete Every Day. One of the things I really, really enjoyed, you did two things. One thing that was specifically unique, Jake, that I really, really enjoyed was you kind of broke down within kind of these Not to secrets if you will, career personal life and health and fitness of how you apply that specific content into that context. So super kudos to you for those of you who enjoy a book, that’s easy to consume it has a lot of, a lot of content in there. Um, I found that to be very, very helpful along with kind of those chapter takeaways at the very, very end.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 07:48 Well, Thank you. I, I appreciate that. And, and obviously that ties into so much of the work that you do and the messages you share those kind of key areas of life. And part of the reason for adding that was when I, when I first started the brand Compete Every Day, everybody was always like, it’s just fitness. It’s just, you know, CrossFit or weightlifting or whatever. That’s all this is about. And my whole philosophy from day one, as I know this is life, this is your career. This is every part of your life. And so I wanted to make sure as people were going through the book, they had this lesson and maybe the stories I told were about my experiences or sports or a famous example or something along those lines but when they got to the end and they could see, Oh, this is how I can actually apply this principle to what I’m doing at work or in my relationships or with my health and fitness that maybe I’ve neglected. Or maybe I haven’t realized that it works there too. Just so it added a little more, I guess, concrete integration into your life versus like, Oh, this is cool, cool lesson, outwork, your talent. Uh, you know, and I’m going to go about my day. No, this is how I’ll actually, I can do it because need those takeaways. It’s like, you know when we speak and train and work with people, you need takeaways that people can run with.
Host – Bryan: 09:01 Absolutely. Especially for those of us who were on the road. You know, I mean, things are moving fast and we need to be able to have something that is a quick bite. So before we get to four of these knots of secrets, that really stood out to me, there is a part in the chapter called why competition matters. And one of the subheaders really, really struck me. It says, through discomfort comes growth, and you’ve got this line. I want you to unpack a little bit, Jake, why you put this in here? It says in our ability to view discomfort as a growth opportunity, instead of a threat, it’s an, our ability to view discomfort as a growth Instead of a threat. Why’d you put that in there? Cause I love that line.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 09:41 From honestly personal experience of doing it wrong. Uh, it’s that, that pit in our stomach, we get, you know, going into something new, getting out of our comfort zone, trying out for a new position at work, or taking on more responsibilities. Maybe we’re traveling more and we feel this like pit in our stomach sometimes. And a lot of people will be like, Oh, that’s just that’s fate telling you don’t do that. That’s your intuition saying, avoid that at all costs. And I believed that for a while, and what I saw looking back was like, no, that was just fear of doing something I’d never done before. That was me being uncomfortable with something new. And I was losing out on opportunities and growth because I listened to that pit in my stomach, instead of just saying like, Oh, this is actually a signal that this is something new. And so that I think is the most important. And that’s kind of the beauty of competition is you step on the field. You’re not guaranteed to win. You’re not guaranteed to get that goal. And so it is uncomfortable to put yourself out there, but that’s the only way we grow and get better is by taking that chance, betting on ourselves and stepping out there.
Host – Bryan: 10:47 All right, that’s perfect. So let’s dive into, there were four that really stood out to me. And the first one I really, really liked, which was never let the hard days win. And your first sentence in this chapter was great. It says bad days are inevitable in life, letting them break you is completely optional. So unpack this chapter or the concepts into never let the hard days when a man that’s a bunch on the road, one more traveling for business
Guest – Jake Thompson: 11:13 There there’s a time. And really the core takeaway in this is the power is in how you respond and what you do next. That is kind of the core tenants of it. Okay? So the core tenants of it are how you respond to that challenge, bad adversity and what you do next, because the most important part, isn’t the failure. The thing that happened to you, that’s out of your control or that you caused, it’s how you respond to it and what you do next. And so we think about life on the road, like miss flights, it’s stuck in traffic, a hotel overbook doesn’t have a room for us. I mean, any number of things we drive to the wrong airport, which I’ve been known to do before everything. I have been that guy that’s done it once before and never again. Uh, but yeah, it’s, it’s that thing where bad things are going to happen.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 12:04 We’re going to have challenges. Sometimes we bring them on. Sometimes other things bring them on to us. We can’t control that. But what we do control is how we respond to it. Are you going to be the person that you’re running late for a flight because you got stuck in traffic, you’re going to be rude to every single person going through that airport because you’re annoyed that you’re late, or you just going to be like, I was late. I didn’t plan the schedule, right? This didn’t happen. I’m going to be cheery. I’m going to go on. I’m going to be nice to those stewards and stewardesses on the airplane. I’m going to be cordial with the TSA guy. Probably isn’t enjoying his day either. Like we get to choose how we respond and what we do next, which is the most important it’s once you get out of traffic, once you get out of that delay, you sit down on that plane or you land and get to your hotel…
Guest – Jake Th…: 12:46 It’s training yourself to let go of what has already happened. So you can focus on what you need to do. And I know with your work and with mine if we’re traveling and we’re having to present or host a workshop or train, and all we’re thinking about is the previous 10 hours that has not gone according to plan, then we’re not going to be present during that training. And those people that are in that audience are not going to get our best. They’re not going to get our best work and we’re going to be robbing them of an experience to get better because we’re so consumed about the bad day or the things that happened behind us instead of what’s most important, what we do next, being present, delivering to the best of our ability and just rolling with it. And I think, you know, as travelers, we have to be flexible and able to roll with some of those punches. And when we do that, by just kind of maintaining that mindset of, I can control this, can’t control this, here’s what I’m gonna do.
Host – Bryan: 13:38 And that’s so good, Jake, because at the end of the day, that customer, that client, that audience doesn’t really know or doesn’t really care, to be honest with you, how hard your day has been. And so if you let that hard day win then to your points, it’s beaten us. And it’s beaten, hopefully, who were there to serve. That kind of goes into one of your chapter takeaways was avoiding adversity. Never makes us better overcoming it. And I thought that was cool.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 14:07 That’s the only way we grow. You think about at the very basic level you plant it, you plant a seed, it fights its way through the soil breaks through and then starts to grow. There’s a struggle process. When we lift weights from our fitness standpoint, it’s not lightweight. We’re putting ourselves under heavier and heavier weights, straining ourselves to build the muscles. And the same thing applies to our life. That audience doesn’t know what we did to get to that point. They don’t know if it was a bad day, but as long as we show up perform at our best, do our absolute best work. If they ever find out later what we went through, then we have a talking point to teach them. Yeah, it’s okay. Here’s how it responds. You get an opportunity to inspire others,
Host – Bryan: 14:48 Which kind of leads into a second of the NASA secrets, which was embraced the process. And I want to put out one quote that you add, man. I thought it was a great life. Doesn’t award metals for how good you look at the starting line. It awards them for how strong you run the race. So that leads into this, embrace the process. So once we don’t let the hard days win, then we’re moving in to embrace a process. Unpack that.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 15:12 Yeah. So a couple of key pieces for this chapter, especially it relates to traveling and being on the road is the idea of just embrace the process of traveling of the opportunities of the experiences. And the second piece is choosing progress over perfection. And so this first piece talking about embracing the process, it’s the idea of sometimes it’s tiring to be on the road when we can be worn out when we’re constantly traveling and hotel to hotel cab and airplane, it’s exhausting on, but what are we doing to take advantage of that experience? What are we doing to talk to the person next to us on the plane and maybe make a new network connection, make a new front? What are we doing to when we go to a local city trying a local restaurants, seeking out something new, seeing something that we’ve never seen before.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 15:58 That that was a big piece to me of the first time I was traveling for work. I’d be in and out as fast as I possibly can. I would stay in the hotel. I’d never been sure out. And then after a year or two, I was like, man, I’m, I’m going to some pretty cool cities. I’m missing opportunities to see things to embrace this. I’m already here. Why don’t I learn to love the process of traveling as much as I do delivering the work. And so I would try to find local restaurants or for me, it was kind of a donut shop hunt was the fun thing. I would do a finding fun, little, little off the beaten path spots, going to see different things, making time out to try to embrace this thing. And then I found that travel was still as exhausting as it was before, but I had so many more experiences and stories and interactions, which changed my entire perspective on the process. And then the second piece of progress over perfection, every social setting we can be in is all about how perfect can I, how can I make sure I have it all together? And a lot of times when we take that perspective in life, we fail to try anything new. We fail to grow and push ourselves because we’re worried about not looking perfect. We’re worried what other people might think. When in reality, we need to learn to build and grow and focus on how we’re just going to get better instead of what other people are thinking about. Our biggest fear of what other people are thinking about us is always so funny because we always to a degree struggle with it. But everyone’s thinking about what you’re thinking about them. They’re not thinking about you as much, and if they are, it really doesn’t matter, like you just put your head down and get better. And one of the examples in the book is about standup comedians and how they go on stage and tell bad jokes.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 17:38 And they just work their material in these tiny off beaten path clubs, just to get better, to get good enough, to get great, to have their Netflix special. Like they worked that process and they’re not worried about the bad night or the bad jokes. They’re just saying, how do I get better today? And so for us, when we’re on the road, you’ve got pillars that you’re teaching people on how to fight. You may not hit the mark every day, but if you wake up the next day and say, how am I going to do better today with this? How am I going to be more intentional with that? That’s how you really lean into building that winning process and embracing it every step of the way.<
Host – Bryan: 18:11 But it’s so much good stuff there. And I mean, I enjoyed it. Actually that example you had given of Kevin Hart in the, in the actual book, you know, the story of that and his willingness to work and work and to enjoy the process. So when he finally does nail it, how good it turned out. So that one’s awesome. So let’s unpack building your starting lineup.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 18:28 Oh man. There’s a lot. You were about to say something because it’s a big one.
Host – Bryan: 18:33 No, no, no. I’m gonna let you roll, man. These I’m just going to say your words so might as well hear them from you.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 18:38 Ah, so this one is one that I don’t think we think about far too often. When we think about building your lineup in sports, we think about putting the right players on the court, having the team. When we think about business, if we’re the hiring manager, we want the right people in the office, but really the context of this chapter is about who’s in your life. And I, and I referenced the Jim Rohn quote of you are the average of the five people you spend the most time. And a lot of times, if we want to be the top dog in our group, and we’re the only one excelling and the only one achieving more, the four other people, five other people, we spend the most time with aren’t, but they’re eventually gonna drag us down. If we’re only traveling with the same type of people and doing the same type things, eventually they’re going to drag us down.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 19:20 And so how are you intentional with who you invest your time, who you intentionally go out of your way to see and spend time, not just family, but friends, coworkers, you know, you, you can’t control sometimes who you travel with from a work setting. It leads back to the three. I mentioned in the book, uh, to avoid the yes, men, the envious, and the excuse-makers. And you’re going to have these types of people that you’re going to travel with work. You’re going to have these people you work with, but what you choose to continue doing with them is up to you. Are you going to go have a drink with them at the end of the day, are you going to go out to dinner? Are you going to invest more time with the people that are honestly not adding to your career, your life they’re draining?
Host – Bryan: 20:04 That’s your main, you’re right on it? Especially with even people that we don’t know. I mean, when we are around other business travelers when we find out the flights delayed and we’ve got those five people around us and how quickly we can, all misery loves company, or we know all those different things right in there said, man, Jake, that is so spot on because it really does. We have the choice of that. It’s easy to go to the downward spiral with them, or we choose to do something different. So what are some suggestions, you know, not to fall with the excuse-makers or the envious or the yes men.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 20:36 Honestly it is to be aware of who they are and start to identify them and then adjust that if you catch yourself in that airport lounge, and everybody’s kind of in that bad mood at the bar about something, choose then to intentionally, walk away, go to another area, sit down, don’t want a podcast, start reading a book, answer some emails, doing something to remove yourself from that situation. And just the same. If you find people that are there that seem to be building each other up, that is enjoying the moment that is not draining each other intentionally, put yourself there, go out of your way. Hey guys, can I sit down? Hey ladies, do you mind if I sit here, that’s a big one. The other part is to be kind of that leader who stands out a little bit, um, when you’re on the airplane and you’re sitting on the runway, which we’ve all been, and you’re waiting to get to the gate and there’s a 30-minute delay or an hour delay.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 21:23 There’s an evitable, someone in a bad mood, that’s audibly complaining, and they’re just going to keep complaining every time. And it’s your opportunity in that moment. Hey, stewardess how can I encourage you today. Hey, listen, man, I know we’re all frustrated right now. Can, can I get you a drink or something? Just calm down. Like everybody’s frustrated. Let’s just kind of get through this together. Um, is that your opportunity to show what it looks like to be that person that encourages to be one of those positive attributes in the book? And so the intention and the importance of who you spend time with at work at home in your social time is paramount to how quickly you’re going to succeed in life. Because those people aren’t challenging you, encouraging you. Most importantly, if they’re not reminding you of the type of person you say, you want to be the type of coworker, you say you want to be, they’re letting you down as a friend. And so you really have to learn to evaluate those relationships.
Host – Bryan: 22:18 You just literally hit. My favorite quote in the chapter was we need relationships that encourage us, challenge us, and remind us of who we say we want to be what you just said right there in order to continually grow and be sharpened. And a man, I just, I love that quote. And you did a great job, Jake, in the examples, remember we talked about where you’ve got the career health and personal life, personal life. Those categories have some really, really solid examples of how to build that starting lineup around or using the go back to the Jim Rohn quote. You know, the people were putting around us with their, or choosing not to be around them and choosing to put somebody good in my life. You get the point of view on a podcast, whether it’s yours or mine, something that is positive. That’s going into my head right there in the midst of that. I mean, my Bose noise, canceling headphones are my AirPods. Pro are my best friends when I can escape, you know?
Guest – Jake Thompson: 23:06 Yeah.
Host – Bryan: 23:07 Anybody that is around me, but then what I’m going to put in is absolutely solid on there. Alright, man, I got so much here. I want to ask you, so let’s move on to lead with your actions, not lips, cause this can get personal. This one here with road warriors.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 23:21 The best takeaway to talk is cheap. Uh, how are you setting the tone and the behavior in your action? So if you had other coworkers asking you for tips to how to excel on the road, if you’re listening to this podcast and people are like, man, I need to find a way to make time to work out on the road or I’m always burnt out or whatever. And you tell them one thing and then they travel with you and see you do something completely different. You’ve lost all credibility. The true sign in the book that I laugh. And the one I see on a weekly basis is the person that leaves their shopping cart alone in the middle of a parking lot. When the rack is maybe 10 feet away or 15 feet away. And all you had to do is take an extra minute to walk it over.
Guest – Jake Th…: 24:00 The idea of leading with your actions is you set the example in what you do. And, and for those that are road warriors that have kids, your kids they’re watching, what you say is far less important than what you do. And so, especially when you get home, how do you immediately address their mother or who you’re dating? Do they see you interact with, how do you put your phone down, computer down and go invest time with them versus immediately going back and doing more work. Even though you’ve just been on the road for a week, we know there are demands. We know we get off the road. Sometimes there’s always more to do, but the people watching us, how are they seeing our actions? Because our actions tell them our priorities. And so for us, it’s not about, Hey, I love you. I’m glad to see you, but I need to go do this.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 24:44 It’s I love you. I see you. Let me spend some time with you first and then I’ll deal with this later. And so this one’s paramount, especially with relationships and for when we’re gone on the road. And for me, I mean, especially when I was dating my wife, uh, you know, it was, I would be gone on the weekends sometimes traveling, you know, Thursday through Monday and she’s off work on Saturdays and Sundays. And so we’d miss a little bit, but when I got home, it was like, I have a ton to do, but it needs to go up. I need to invest time with you undivided attention because those actions matter more than me just telling her, Hey, I miss you while I’m on the road or anything like that. They want to know I’m here when I’m here
Host – Bryan: 25:21 And that’s rich. And I think to your point, it’s so easy to just talk, you know, um, especially on the road and our ability here to be able to lead with our actions, no matter what, or even if we think people are watching us or not. Let me give you an example. I started this, this is what’s called flat kiddos. And I took the concept of flat Stanley and I, I cut that out and I put some poster board in the back of that. I had my kids color them. So there’s flat Caitlin and there’s flat Caleb to my age-appropriate kids. So I take them on the road and initially I was just like, oh, I’m gonna just kind of do this thing. And I was like, self-conscious and I thought, I don’t care. I’m never had my dad always say to you, you never know what I mean.
Host – Bryan: 26:01 People are never going to see you again and you just might make their day. And so I would get these little flat kiddos out Jake, and I would put them in whether it’s in the airport or whether it’s on the airlines or whether it’s the restaurant right there. And I would take a picture of them because my kids really didn’t care about dad’s fancy rental car or his cool hotel. They did want to see themselves in there. That’s why we do that. It was yours, to your point, how many people would sometimes go in and Hey, tell me about that. Or, you know, road warrior be like, no, that’s a really cool idea. You know, how’d you do that? What can you do first? Now I have a product that’s called flat kiddos. You know, they’re flat toddlers and they’re flat grade-school kids. Did to be able to do that. And for them to be able to see that. But again, it was good deciding I’m going to do it because it always does the right thing. Not just the easy thing, a Buckley quote, you know, in our family. Oh, do the right thing. Not just the easy thing, because people are watching at the end of the day. It is so easy just to talk. So, and that was an absolute rich one on there, Jake.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 26:55 Well, I want to, so I want to add, because when you telling me that story prompted this for those listening, that don’t have kids that are like, cool, what, what do I need to do? Who’s watching this guy, Mike [inaudible], he’s a fellow keynote speaker does a lot around culture. I spent some time working with him. Mike will pick up postcards at all the airports he goes to when he travels. And he has aged this database of past clients, friends, mentors, people in his network. And he will literally, every time he travels, he’ll grab two to three postcards per airport. And then while he’s on the plane, he’ll just send a quick note to someone in his network. Hey, traveling here, thought about you and thought about you and your team. Hope y’all are doing well and send it. You talk about like today, our email inboxes are overloaded. Then suddenly you get a postcard from somebody in Lincoln, Nebraska. I don’t know anybody in Lincoln, Nebraska, and you turn over. You’re like, Oh, this guy I’ve done business with before. Like that’s pretty cool. He sent me this card on the road. So that’s another leadership action that you can take to really invest in walking the walk and not just talk.
Host – Bryan: 28:00 That’s a great idea. I absolutely love that. I’m really glad you brought that up. So let’s change gears a little bit about kind of your road life. So you’re a communicator you’re going in and helping companies tell me, Jake, what brings you energy and what exhausts and remove your energy while you’re on the road.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 28:18 Yeah. So when my career early started, about 10 years ago, I was driving all over the US as doing trade shows, apparel trade shows, expos, and events. And for me, the drain was the drive alone. Being at the events, being around people energizes me through and through, but the actual setup breakdown goes nowadays as the speaker, I get to fly into cities, go places and fly back out. And, and so honestly the drain for me, you know, I, I think it’s really not one. I think usually it’s the cab ride after the event for me is the drain because it’s usually when I just finally relax because I come in, I’m focused. I have to really control my energy levels before an event, do the event, do the Q and A, kind of network, a happy hour afterward with the attendees. And then when I get in the cab to go, that’s kind of the grind part for me, because at that point it’s, I don’t have anything to look forward to except going to the next city or going back home and mentally I have to decompress, but energy for me is being around people, being on the stage.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 29:27 I’m an extrovert through and through. Um, and so I, I love that aspect of the road life. Um, and fortunately now not driving everywhere. I’m incredibly a little more energized on the road than when I was in the car for 18 to 23 hours on some trips where you’re just like, Oh my gosh, what am I going to drive this another Dairy Queen or McDonald’s.
Host – Bryan: 29:52 Yeah. So let me ask you one last question. I’m gonna see for any closing thoughts, what is an area that on the road, and I’m catching you off guard here that you feel like, man, I just, I got improve, you know, whether it’s sleep or nutrition or, or, you know, movement or, or, you know, checking in with the family. What is an area where you feel like, man, I could, I can up my game in this area.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 30:16 Yeah. For me, I would have to say it’s probably the nutrition for two factors. I’m usually pretty cognizant of what I’ll eat, the day I speak, if I’m speaking that morning or that evening, I’m very aware because I’m obviously going to be on stage. Don’t want any emergency. But if it’s the night after an event, I don’t fly out to the next day. If it’s the night before and I’m in a new city, my thought is I want to go try a new restaurant. I want to try something. I haven’t done it yet. Give me something local Chicago. Like it’s, I’m thinking pizzas. And like, like you’re trying to find the local stuff. And so I’m not normally going to stick to eating healthy that evening. And so I know that’s an area where it’ll get me, but I’m very aware and intentional that I make sure I don’t do it.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 30:59 Pre-event pre-presentation, usually it’s that night afterward, I have to do that. I’ll go have a, try a speakeasy and have a drink to unwind, have some dinner, things like that because that’s kind of where I’ve had to find, uh, just the outlets of like, this is part of embracing the process. Let me try new cities, new things. Uh, but being aware of like, okay, if I know I’m going to eat bad tonight, let me have a couple of deviled eggs in the morning. Let me make sure I’m smart throughout the day. So it’s just not splurging all day long.
Host – Bryan: 31:28 And that’s great. And you can almost use that as a celebration, kind of like, Hey, I made it here. But what I do like is the context, you know, the food is fuel, fuel is energy, and you are there to perform at the highest level. And it’s energy habit. Number four is perform. That’s why we’re on the road. So we’re going to do everything we can, hopefully, it’s going to bring us energy so we can be on the top of our game in your case with your book. So we can compete every day in this case at the highest level. So I do like just your awareness of what’s going to bring you energy. But I think also too, to the back end of that, it’s like making sure I’m not like overkilling it on, I’m trying something, you know, am I, and I should be an abstainer or am I a moderator? And I find sometimes I’m better off just not doing something. Cause I’m just going to be like one means five. You know, that one little bite is I’m finishing up, hide the women and kids, you know what I’m saying? And learning that about herself. So that’s, that’s awesome. Jake, any closing thoughts is to kind of wrap up here, the conversation and the road trip we’ve been on together.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 32:22 Yeah, yeah. You know, I think the biggest one for the listeners is we tend to just get in a routine of getting up, going to the airport, hitting the road, seeing the client, coming back, doing it all over again. It becomes very routine for us. And really what I want us to keep in mind is the importance of enjoying that process. Like there are a lot of people that they look to roadwarrior life and they’re like, man, I would love that job. I would love to be able to do that. And I hate the idea of sitting at a cubicle, being on my desk, all of that all the time. And so really leaning into that, I think is something that listeners can get more out of and maybe even shift their entire perspective on the work they do in the travel they get to do. But just learning to enjoy more of the grind of it that maybe they overlooked sometimes as being important.
Host – Bryan: 33:14 Well that’s well said and you know, Jake, it leads back to what you said there earlier about embracing the process. And I think so many times road warriors get stuck into this, this travel triangle. What we call at elite road warrior group, which is the airport.
Host – Bryan: 33:27 And then we go to the hotel or the boardroom. And depending on the opposite of that, it’s, you know, hotel, boardroom, airports or hotel boardroom. And, it’s just, we get stuck in that travel triangle and we miss the opportunity of what we have on the road and to allow us to grow, grow so compete every day, phenomenal book, highly, highly recommended. You’ll get a deeper dive into the four main points we discussed. Never let the hard days win. Let me see. Remember embracing the process, building a winning starting lineup, and um, lead with your actions, not your lips. So love it. Love it, love it. So how do we find out more about you? How do we follow you if we want to be able to work with you, Jake what’s give me all things. Jake Thompson here.
Guest – Jake Thompson: 34:09 Bryan man. Thank you so much. So the best place to find me is competeeveryday.com. Every social media channel is compete every day. You can search Jake Thompson on LinkedIn. That’s probably where I’m most active there. Instagram say, hi, the book is available. Right now on Amazon in audiobook and Kinde and then as well as the book at competeeveryday.com has paperbacks that we’re shipping out daily. Man, this has been a ton of fun and really appreciate you having me on today.
Host – Bryan: 34:38 Absolutely honored. And I’m glad you said audiobook because most of us on the road, we’re listening and we’re moving on there. I know where I put my audiobook came out three months after my regular book came out. It was amazing how quickly that bypass regular sales because we’re listeners on that. So well, Jake, man, honored to spend some time with you. And I hope all of us were designed to be elite road warriors going to take this content and, man get this book and let’s make some things happen. So Jake, thanks for the time man.<
Guest – Jake Thompson: 35:06 Appreciate it. Bryan.
Buckley Kids: 35:07 You’re listening to our dad on season two of the elite road warrior podcast brought to you by the Buckley kids. This is Trey. This is Kole. This is Kaleb. This is Kaitlyn. This is Austin. Make connecting with your family a priority on the road.
Host – Bryan: 35:30 The road can be hard. It can be difficult to be both productive and effective to stay healthy and in shape and to stay connected with those you love back home, but it doesn’t have to be this way. The elite road warrior book, six energy habits to transform your business travel life is now available. If you’re a road warrior and just tired of where you’re at in your business travel life, or, you know, you have more in you than this book is for you. The print version, digital Kindle version, and audiobook is now available on Amazon. Pick up your copy and continue your journey on becoming an elite road warrior. I’d like to thank Jake Thompson for his time and the massive amount of information he provided for us and challenged us to become elite road warriors. I couldn’t encourage you more to go on and get his book Compete Every Day, whether it is the paperback, the Kindle version, or the audiobook, and find Jake and learn from him. You can find everything referenced in this interview in the show notes at www.EliteRoadWarrior.com/078 along with the free resource 10 business travel hacks guide to help you become an elite road warrior. As always wherever you are, do something, anything just, not nothing to master the business, travel life, leverage the content from Jake Thompson’s interview today to become and remain an elite road warrior. You got this.
