Breaking the Chains of PTSD: Greg Birch's Journey to Renewed Purpose

Join us for a powerful episode of Breaking the Chains of PTSD, featuring Greg Birch's inspiring journey to renewed purpose after facing adversity. This episode delves into the importance of PTSD recovery, mental health, resilience, and personal growth.

Overview: Greg's Path to Renewed Purpose

In this compelling episode, we explore Greg Birch's story of overcoming the challenges of PTSD and finding a renewed sense of purpose in his life. Through his experiences, we gain valuable insights into the importance of mental health and the power of resilience in the5 face of adversity.

The Challenges of PTSD Recovery

Greg opens up about his struggles with PTSD after serving in the military and its impact on his daily life. He shares how he felt lost and disconnected from his loved ones and the steps he took to confront his condition head-on. By incorporating relevant anecdotes and insights, you'll feel inspired by Greg's journey to regain control of his life.

Finding a Renewed Sense of Purpose

Discover how Greg transformed his life by focusing on personal growth and finding a renewed purpose. From seeking professional help to nurturing his spirituality, Greg's story exemplifies the power of resilience and determination in overcoming life's challenges.

Greg's Advice for Others Facing Adversity

Throughout the episode, Greg shares valuable advice for others who may be facing adversity, particularly when it comes to mental health and PTSD. He encourages listeners to seek support, embrace vulnerability, and take proactive steps toward healing and personal growth.

Take Action Today

Listen to this inspiring episode now and discover how to break the chains of PTSD and find renewed purpose. Don't miss out on Greg Birch's incredible story of resilience and growth on Breaking the Chains of PTSD: Greg Birch's Journey to Renewed Purpose.

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Transcript

Breaking the Chains of PTSD: Greg Birch's Journey to Renewed Purpose

[00:00:00] Ryan: Hey guys, Ryan DeMent from Chasing Financial Freedom Podcast. I hope you guys are having a great day. Today on the podcast we have Greg Birch, veteran sales and leadership coach, podcast coach, podcast host. I need more coffee guys and speaker Greg, welcome to the show. 

[00:00:18] Greg: Ryan, 

thank you so much for having me, man.

It's a pleasure to be here with you. 

[00:00:22] Ryan: You're more than welcome. If I can get my coffee in me, we'd be a lot better. So I see you're Dr. You're sipping on some too. I was. So I've been up since four Arizona time, so my brain is a little frazzled right now, but we'll get through this. So tell me before we jump into what you're doing today, just a little bit about yourself and your background.

[00:00:40] Greg: Yeah. I am a prior Army officer surfer. 11 years, went to both Iraq and Afghanistan. I was married and we have kids. We have four kids together. Got a divorce, marriage, military can be hard on, on marriages. And it changed my perspective of the military. So I always believed I was gonna serve like my entire life.

I really loved what I did, but missing time for my kids changed everything for me. So I ended up getting out and I, I decided to take my cha to try my hand at entrepreneurship, at working for myself. And like most entrepreneurs, when you start off, I had a tough time and it was real rough.

Man. I sure you're laughing, you're shaking your head. You're like, yeah, I know it. I, there's a couple different ways that you could look at, especially when it comes to sales entrepreneurship. You have what I've seen, there's two different types. You have the one person that comes in and they're not good at all, and they're, and they go through that school of hard knocks, and they, they learn the right way. It's sometimes it depends on, on, how fast they learn. It depends on their mentorship and the people around them. That's why I think it's so key the people that you surround yourself with. But then you have the other person that comes in really quickly and has some success and then they think, oh, I got it.

I'm good. And then the chargebacks start rolling in and the cancellations and it starts to get real rough. And they're like, wait a second, this isn't what I thought it was. Maybe this isn't for me. I was the second person oh, I came in and had some really good success. Came in just like lighting my company on fire with sales and I had some good help with me.

And I just I started in October of 2017 and they had started a competition across the entire company of Hey, everyone that's a new agent for the first two years of being here they're enter automatically entering this competition and it's to see how well they sell. And I got the number one position in the entire company and.

[00:02:38] Ryan: If I remember right, you were selling insurance. 

[00:02:40] Greg: Yes, I was selling life insurance. Okay, perfect. And I had a lot of really good support and help and I leaned on a lot of my expertise and things that I'd learned in the military. Tactics and strategies just for discipline and being able to communicate with people effectively.

Cuz I was an interrogator and a source operator in Afghanistan, and I'm used to like talking to people and influencing people to get me to do things, so gimme information. I had that success and then I left that company and went to another one, just do the leads and there's some stuff that I didn't that was going on there.

And that's when the challenges started to hit and I started to have, it was like it was hitting a wall and and then I started and I actually got worse and worse and worse. Because I wasn't doing the fundamentals, the soft skills. I call, you know what we know as in sales, I wasn't doing those basic fundamental tasks on a daily basis that keep me sharp, that keep me accountable, that keep me disciplined.

And I struggled all of 2018 until the end of 2018 when somebody I had a conversation with this top producer and and he was crushing it. He was like doing, 10, 15, 20 k a week every week and just killing it, and I was doing like, Three k a month in comparison. And so he we connected and he used to fly out to Fort Worth every once a month and go run business.

And so he flies out to Fort Worth and we sit down and I took him he drove over to the Dallas side cuz he told me, he's Hey, I'm in town. I just finished my business. It was a Saturday night. It was the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Still remember this? It's a, it was clearest day. And he's Hey man I just got on my appointments.

I've been here since Thursday. I'm done, but I don't fly until tomorrow. You wanna link up? And we had a conversation on the phone one time prior to this, and he knew I was in the area, so I was like yeah let's link up. So he drove over on the side. We went to a place called Sirius Pizza.

We had some, had a couple slices of pizza and some beer on a Saturday night. And I'm like, dude, what do you, how'd you do? And he was like, yeah, I finished the trip at 36,000 and I was like, 36,000. That's what you're at for the month. The end of the month. He was like, He's no, bro, that's just for the trip.

And I was like, so for three days, for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, you're running business. You sold $36,000 of insurance. Dude, bro give me the skinny, can I curse on here? I don't know if it, oh yeah, sure. Okay. I was like, what the fuck are you doing, bro? Just tell me. And he was like yeah.

He's sure thing, man. Let me ask you some questions. See, and see, how I can help. So I was like, yeah, sure. So he starts to ask me questions and I'm tapped dancing the answers, man. And all the questions are like, Hey how's your schedule? Are you controlling your schedule? Are you putting everything, your er, Hey, how's your leaflet flow?

Are you buying leads every week? Hey, how's your calls? Are you locking down your dial days and scheduling and setting the appropriate amount of appointments every single day? Hey, how's your metrics? Are you checking your metrics and like how many appointments you're setting versus sitting versus closing?

Hey, what's your goals? Hey are you going to training every single week? And I was tapped dancing through all of these. And he finally stopped and he looked at me and he got real close. He was like, Greg, I know what you prop is bro. And I was like, what? He was like, you think you're special and you're not?

And dude, it was like a dagger to the heart. Cuz there's this guy who I've never met in person before, who, by the way, he was a Russian American. He only had his American citizenship for one year. One year. He sounded like, he sounded and looked like grew from despicable me, but not even kidding.

And I'm like, dude, I've led soldiers in combat, bro. I am special. You know what I'm saying? And but he was right and I stopped and I looked at it and I was like, dude, he, I need to start listening to people that are doing better than me. And so I. I took everything he had to say. I shut off my mind, stopped trying to like, recreate the wheel, make things easier on myself.

And I started implementing these things. And I went from, in 2018, I was at the end, 2018. In all 2018, I sold about $75,000 worth of life insurance. And I made about 60,000 in 2019 by applying the things that he told me to apply, which is just basic fundamentals. I sold 425,000 of life insurance deposited like 375 and made a massive difference.

And and that was how I stopped making the same mistakes and started to learn and grow. And I learned a lot from that experience. But the most basic thing was the fundamentals was controlling in a disciplined fashion. The things that people don't think are sexy, in sales everyone thinks that it's, you gotta have the right script.

You gotta be fast on your feet, you gotta have the silver tongue, and it honestly, if you are scheduling your stuff out every single day, if you're controlling the things you can control, like how many contacts of clients you're doing how often did you're attending training surrounding yourself with the right people setting up goals tracking your metrics.

A lot of people don't even track their metrics. A lot of times I'll have agents that'll call me and I'm having this issue or this, that, the other. I'm like, okay, tell me your metrics from last week. And they're like what do you mean? How many dials did you do last week? I don't know.

How many appointments did you set? It was, and they're starting to tap dance just like I was, and I'm like, what trainings are you going to on a weekly basis? Are you reading daily? Are you like growing your mind and growing yourself professionally? And I go over all these things. I tell 'em the same thing that I was told.

I'm like, Hey, you know why you suck? It's because you think you're special and you're not following these basic things. And these aren't, these are like non-negotiables. And I tell my ages all the time and anyone that I've, that I coach, this isn't like a good Hey, this is a good idea, like a good practice.

This is a requirement. If you want to be excellent in sales, it's there. There is no other way. And go ahead. It sounds like you're 

[00:08:19] Ryan: no. You're going into a bunch of stuff and we could talk about a bunch of things. So before I go down rabbit holes first, I know I told you on our pre-call, but thank you for your service cuz that's a big deal to me cuz you went out and sacrificed your life and your family and everything to that extent to protect us.

So thank you. One. Yeah. Two. When you said you're not special, when he told you that, what was your first reaction? Just point blank. Ego. What was 

[00:08:43] Greg: it? Ego. I literally, the first thing I thought was like, fuck this guy. That was the first thought in my head. I was like, this guy is adult. I am special. I was just like, I was sitting and that was my ego mind kicking in.

Dude, like I've got two bronze star medals. I've led col, I've literally led soldiers in combat operations. I've been shot at, I've had a grenade thrown at me. No, whatever. And then I stopped and I let that kind of simmer for a second and I was listening to him and he started going into and he was like, the reason why I'm doing some well is because I'm not special either and I realize that.

So I have to follow a system that works for everybody and here's the system. And he broke it out. And there's beauty in that. And there's beauty in, in, in being, in taking away your ego and saying, you know what? I'm not special, but you know what, neither is that guy. Neither is Elon Musk, neither.

And dude, we all got the same 24 hours in a day and we can all do the same things. It's just how productive do you wanna be and with your, with the time that you have allotted. 

[00:09:46] Ryan: Let me ask you an inverse question cuz it's a little different cuz I'm dealing with this today and it's somewhat like that.

So my day jobs are real estate investing, affordable housing, and we also do some private lending. You would be amazed when you reach out and speak to realtors or mortgage brokers, how taboo and I, that's just the best word I can think of when you talk to them about private lending. Cuz private lending, God forbid it's, it's shit is what they say.

But you'd be amazed once you have that conversation with them and be able to get past, they're not special. You just made me think of this and I have to ask a question. If your customer thinks they're special and they're above and beyond what you're trying to sell, how do you work with that? And I'm not just asking for me, I know there's other people that are in this space that struggle with this too.

Yeah. And there's some days I just want to tell 'em to go pound salt. It's do you really think because you've got a realtor's license makes you special? Anybody can go take the test if they want to. Yeah. I'm not downplaying it. But at the end of the day, if you don't understand a concept, you don't shit on it.

[00:10:46] Greg: Exactly. No that's a good question. Also In the past two years, I've done a lot of marketing research. I don't know if you've read any of any of the books like Purple Cow by Seth Godin, any of Seth Goden stuff. I've 

[00:10:59] Ryan: read some of this stuff. Not all of 

[00:11:01] Greg: it. Yeah. Seth Godin's fantastic.

But one of the things that they talk about when it comes to marketing, probably the initial concept that you have to learn is your ideal client avatar. And this is the person that, that understands you. That if you look at what's called the law of diffusion of innovations, like this bell curve, right?

And so what happens is that at the beginning of the Bell Curve, the first 10 to 12% of your market is your ideal client avatar. These are what's called early adopters and early innovators, and these are the people that. Sing your praises from the rooftop. These are the people that like when you say, Hey, this is what we're gonna do and this is what we sell.

They're like, we love it. They stand in line. These are the people that, for Apple will stand in line for a week outside before the launch of a new phone just to get, just to say that they were the first to have it. Yeah. Do you focus all of your effort on your, on the early adopters and early innovators because it makes your business more seamless.

It makes it to where you don't have to convince or really drag people along the process because they align with you. And so if you're, if you spend your time talking to people, trying to like, get them to believe in the same thought process as you, especially if these are clients you're doing business with and you're spending a lot of time with that, you're constantly hitting track or or losing traction.

You're hitting opposition constantly. It makes it to where your business doesn't, can't go fast enough. Now, a lot of people will see that and they'll be like, yeah, but I can sell to everybody. And it's not that you can't, you can, your product may be okay for every single person, but you really want to like hone in on.

Who's the best client for you, and what's the easiest, most seamless sales process? Because what's gonna happen is that you can provide the best service to them and just be undeniably great. And then they will do the marketing pass, what's called the the the chasm, which is that small piece of percentage between the early adopters, early innovators, to getting into mass market, and when it hits mass market, it's boom.

It ha it, it hits hard, but you don't do the marketing to get in mass market. Your clients do the marketing for you just by you being so great at what you do. And they feel stupid not telling people about it. And this happens all the time, right? There's a book, really good book called Contagious that talks about, this specific concept of, and it does it for multiple industries. It does it for the restaurant industry, it does it for retail, it does it just for ads, all kinds of stuff. But when you have something that's contagious, people feel obliged to talk about it because it makes them interesting. So if you went to, a simple example is if you went to a restaurant that was like a five star restaurant and everything about it was completely unique to you, like the way that the service handled you from the time that you walked in the door, the ambiance, the wait staff the manager that comes over and checks on everything the cook that comes out and delivers the food to you and the food is top-notch, everything.

And then you look at the bill and you think this is gonna be out way outside the private range, but it's not, it actually surprises you and you're like, dude, not only was this like, not as expensive as I thought it was gonna be, but this is also the best experience ever. You would feel obliged to go tell people about that.

And you just do it naturally in conversation, right? That's why they do those kinds of things. Like really great businesses will do that. Knowing that you're going to tell your friends, tell your family, and be like, you need to go check this out, X, Y, Z. So when you're working and then you can do this in an industry, it just takes a little bit of a thought process of like, how can I be so great and do things unique that will get, that will help in the retention process of the sales process after I've made the sale to get them to bring more clients to me without me having to ask.

They just do it. They feel obliged to do it. Now, it's a lot easier to do that process if you're working with the right clientele that you don't have to drag, push, pull, cross the finish line just to get that sale. Does that answer your question? 

[00:15:17] Ryan: Oh, yeah. I totally get it. Because going through the realtor population is I would say it's difficult, but one of the things I've been able to do is being able to find data on specific realtors that I think potentially could be that avatar in being able to drill down to their clients that they've sold houses to and understand what that client looks like.

Because I have an avatar that's the end user of private lending that, works very well. It's typically a person that is a long-term renter. They've been left behind with the behind in the financial or credit markets to where they, one, don't trust it, or two really don't have very much credit.

Not bad credit, they just don't have very much. And then three, they're typically blue collar, hardworking individuals where they're making, 50 to $70,000 a year and they still have mattress money. They literally have mattress money and a couple realtors that I'm working with, I got turned onto this about six or nine months ago.

I went to one of their open houses and literally a gentleman with his family walked in with a duffle bag of cash and said, I'm ready to buy the house. And I'm like, holy crap, what are you gonna do with that? That was $60,000 worth of cash. Yeah. And you can't do anything. There's so many laws and regulations about that.

And of course he couldn't qualify because he didn't have any traditional credit. So then we got turned on to private lending and be able to go through that whole process. And I'm like, why am I not doing more of this? There's more of these people out there. I just have to find the end user and then back pretty much backdoor it through a realtor.

So I'm trying to figure that out still. 

[00:16:51] Greg: Yeah, no, it sounds like a little bit of a pickle with, and I don't know that industry very well I know enough to. To have a conversation openly, but that's about it because I know it's, yeah. 

[00:17:01] Ryan: No. It's just it's just relatable.

So it's, I'm not trying to look for advice. It's just, it's relatable and it's been an iteration for six months of just trying to find the right ways. And the two that I have we're working with do a very good job of bringing people to us. It's, the industry is all about following the letter of everything in the industry.

So you go out and get clients and you do that. And if they don't qualify for traditional mortgage, you don't work with them. That's the biggest step there. They don't see that, and they don't, they think that they can, they just have to walk away cuz there's more people. Now all of a sudden the market has shift or shifted, excuse me.

And guess what? Now you got almost 30% of realtors nationwide walking away from the industry because they can't afford themselves, they can't afford their lifestyles anymore. So they gotta go get a nine to five job. If you ha if you have this additional tool that you can still put people in houses and still make a commission, it could potentially keep you in that position longer or maybe even keep you in the industry.

[00:18:03] Greg: So he thinking about it, this is what I would do if I was in your position. I bet you there's probably Facebook groups or LinkedIn groups that have that talk about private lending as an option. That you could go join and just look and see what realtors are in there and start making connections through there.

And just ask questions like, Hey, I saw you in the group. Hey, have you been using private lending successfully for your clients? And just, and start that conversation organically. Yep. If you can't find them, then you can create them yourself. You can create that group on Facebook and you can create that group on LinkedIn.

And what you can do is just start targeting realtors and inviting them to the group, the ones that will actually accept the invitation. Are gonna be the ones that probably are open to having that conversation. 

[00:18:49] Ryan: Yeah. I'm in some private lending groups on LinkedIn and that's where that whole process has started.

Yeah. And that's how I'm learning more under, pretty much underneath the hood of why they don't accept private lending. And it's, yeah, it's just a, I don't know how to describe it. They're just so staunch in what they're doing and they only wanna work with their provided lender or somebody else, but a private lender doesn't work, so it's just a whole process.

But no it's something I go after. I enjoy it. It's fun. And it's a challenge for me because it's something I truly enjoy and I'll figure it out. It's just, it's life. It's, I love what you, and I digress, but I love how you talked about is that no one is special and you have to find a way to work with, those individuals, but yourself too.

So when you had that going and you finally figured out that, hey, I'm not special, The light bulb turned on. What did you do to start, turning your sales around the following year? 

[00:19:41] Greg: Yeah. So first and foremost is I just started investing in leads and I was afraid to invest in leads.

And there's a couple ways that you can get, and when you own insurance and sales you can buy leads or you can do warm market, or you can do friends and family, right? Or you can just get free data and just go door knocking, right? But that's gonna be a grind. It's gonna be time. And you only have two resources when it comes to this.

You can have time or you have money, like Yep. And my time is, I can't, I, it's finite. There's only so much of it money I can make, and I can u and I started seeing it in that perspective. So I just started testing all kinds of leads and I started, and what that did was it, Put me in a position where, cuz I didn't have the money, to be honest.

I started overextending on credit and stuff like that. But it put me in a position where I had to get to work because I was so fearful of if this doesn't work out, I'm not gonna make any money and I'm in debt. Like it. So I had a lot of things that held me accountable and then I started tracking all my metrics.

That, that evening when I got home from Eden, that pizza with him, I literally went home and said, cuz he had a a picture on his phone and he showed me, it was like his goals, his goal, he had written out for 2018 and it was a screensaver on his phone. And it was that it was his first year in insurance and he wanted to write $400,000 in insurance.

In his first year, he wrote 650,000 that first year. Wow. And this was my, this, I was going into my second year, so I was like, Hey, I went home, I wrote on two pieces of paper. In 2019 I'm gonna write 400 issue, pay 400,000 of life insurance and I'm going to build this big of a team, right?

And I took a picture of it. It was my screensaver or my, my, my lock screen and my home screen for my phone. So I saw it every single time. I looked at my phone and it was a constant reminder I gotta get to work. But I also put it, I put one cause I wrote it out twice. Put one on my fridge and I put one on the wall beside my bed.

So I saw it every single morning. I woke up, I saw it every single morning for I went to sleep. I already so evening for sleep. And then tracking my numbers, tracking my metrics and making sure I had the right amount of appointments every single week, like doing some of those simple things.

And then I started going to every single training. I didn't even care. There was times at the time I was trying to date somebody and I was in between dating people and I would be like going over for a date and we would have a call training where we'd have to dial in on a free conference call.com.

We'd have a call in and listen to it, and I would dial in and I would be like, I would be on my car speaker and I'd be like, driving to a date and I'd be picking them up and also be going to like the restaurant. And I'd have it in and then I would listen to it. I would finish it before I started and I'd be like, Hey you gotta understand I'm doing this for work.

I'm very, I was like super disappointed, less like focused. Nothing's gonna derail me. But those things, Add up. Those small little daily disciplines add up and they force you to be more controlled and more consistent with your business and your business eventually gets predictable. And so what happened was that I knew with a specific lead type, I got to the point to where I was like, Hey, if I get 10 of these leads, I'm making $6,000 by, with these 10 leads by the end of the week.

I already knew the conversions in my head cause I did it so many times. And it's just getting in the reps, right? If you think about it with anything in the world, think about the first time that you did anything. First time you got on a bike and you rode a bicycle, I could sit here and tell you all day long what it's like, how it's gonna feel, how you're gonna balance yourself.

But until you get on, you're gonna and fall a couple times, you're not gonna know. It doesn't matter what your age is. But once you do it after a while and you do it consistently and consistently, and you're practicing it daily, eventually you're riding around doing wheelies. And riding around on one wheel and like doing all kinds of crazy stuff because you've gotten so used to it and it feels normal and natural, but it takes time to get to that unconscious competence.

And so I got to the unconscious competence eventually where I got really good on my script. I got really good on the phones. I started leading trainings. I was getting asked to do things right because I had made this massive shift. And I started having agents reach out to me that would be like, dude, what are you doing different?

You're so much better, blah, blah. And I was just like, and I, and that's how I started coaching. That's how I started coaching on sales. It was just by happenstance. And I would sit down and be like, okay, break out what you're doing. And I would literally go through everything with them and I'd be like, okay, I'm gonna tell you the same thing.

I was told, you're, you think you're special, you're not. But let's look at where we can tweak some stuff. Hey this piece right here. I want you to completely get rid of the stop doing this. Instead, I want you to replace it with this. We're gonna make small changes over time. Do this for the next week.

Call me back at the end of the week. As long as you do this. We're gonna talk about the difference in, in the differences in your numbers, right? And then they would do that. They'd come back and back. Holy crap. That was a big difference. Okay, so now we're gonna push the gas on this. You've already made that change.

We're gonna change one more thing. And I would like piecemeal out their entire, all their activities over a day and a week. And look at it from that perspective and change slight things to help increase their performance and their production. And it seemed like I had a, like a I think it's maybe the military in me and the way that the military teaches and trains.

Cuz I always have agents, but no one's ever explained it to me like this. And I was like it makes, it makes sense to me. That's just how I break things down. I'm very much dude, gimme a checklist. Let's knock this thing out, just checklist this stuff off and I'm good to go.

So 

[00:25:12] Ryan: do you have a morning routine at all that you start with 

[00:25:14] Greg: daily? I do. I do. I think morning routines are super powerful and it's and I didn't then, to be honest, I didn't then I just got up and was just like, get up and just 

[00:25:24] Ryan: trying to even in the mil in the military, you didn't have a morning routine at 

[00:25:26] Greg: all in the military?

I did because you, because we would go to PT in the morning every morning. Yeah. So I was getting up at a specific time, waking up, making my coffee, going to. Going to the the PT field, showing up, doing formation, doing pt, coming back, eating breakfast, stuff like that. But it wasn't, it was out of necessity and there wasn't a lot of thought to it, right?

Whereas now I have a morning routine that I've prioritized and scheduled in a specific way that feeds my day, and it also feeds my discipline. And it's the small things like doing, getting something productive, done. First thing when you wake up, it gives you that little tiny win, that little w And then I just stack a bunch of W's consistently.

And by the time it's like I get up at 5:00 AM every day. By the time it's seven, I've stacked so many winds that it fuels the rest of my day. I already feel like I'm crushing the day. So like I wake up, first thing I do when I wake up is I do 50 pushups. So I do a thousand pushups a day, by the way.

Wow. I do it in sets of 25 and 50. And so first thing I do is I wake up, I do 50 pushups, and then I have I, then I weigh myself, I wanna see what I went, I wear myself every morning, and then I Dr. I chug about 30 ounces of water. I have a cup of water, a bottle of water that's by my bed.

I chug it and then right after I chug that water is I do meditation. So I do the silver method meditation. So I do a meditation for about 10, 15 minutes, I pray, and then I go and write out all my gratefuls, and I have a journal where I wrote it, write out, Hey, these, this is the things that I'm grateful for that happened yesterday that I reflect on all day, all morning.

But I write all those things out and then I journal. I get ready for the gym, I go to the gym, I come back. I read, I do reading every day. I read and I take notes on what I learned and I do my posts, my morning posts. So by this time I've probably done three or four stories to capture all the things that I'm doing on a daily basis just to inspire or coach or teach other people.

But just doing those things every single morning really gets me in the right head space and the right mindset so that the rest of my day is completely scheduled out like I have and I also have an evening routine. So in the evening I make sure I write out, Hey, here's the tasks I have to do tomorrow.

So I have everything written out. I know what I have to do. It makes it where when I get done with my morning tasks, I just go, I execute. I already know what I'm gonna do and it keeps me on a roll cause I've already started doing stuff. It's easier to keep that momentum going throughout the day.

And then as long as I accomplish my tasks for the day, which is a non-negotiable for me, it's okay, I got these four tasks I have to do tomorrow. I'm gonna get them done and it's, and I'm, my work's not done until they're done. And when they're done. That's awesome. Anything else that comes in, I have to handle it.

I will. But those four things have to get done or those five things or those three things, whatever it is that I have on my list, running my schedule like that on a daily basis. It just, it, what it does is it gives me so many little small wins that over time I'm stacking all these small wins until a large win.

Yeah. And that's what a lot of people don't realize is the consistency factor of doing the right things consistently and being disciplined in that when they look at anyone in any industry influencers, famous people, whoever it's not, and they think, oh man that's awesome. They did this massive thing.

But you don't, what you don't realize is that massive thing was actually comprised of all the small daily wins of all the small, like getting up, going to practice and doing two practices a day, getting up at 4:00 AM eating the right stuff. Every single time that they go against that's a loss.

And the losses come with interest, and you don't realize that. So you wake up and think, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do Greg's thing. I'm gonna change tomorrow. I'm gonna get up at five. I'm gonna do my 50 pushups, five o'clock alarm hits. And you reach out and you're like, man, I'm tired. And you hit that snooze button, think it's just 10 minutes loss, and then you hit the SNOO button again.

Loss. Then you hit again, loss. Now it's 5 45, and you're like, oh man. I'm gonna do the pushups, but I'm not gonna meditate cause I don't have time. And then it's like loss. And it's all these losses that you're not realizing you're doing. And what it does is you make these small compromises and as you make those compromises, you will compromise other things throughout the day.

So it's I had to do these four things, I'm gonna start this tomorrow, so I'm gonna do these two things. That way I could still, I got, oh, I forgot, I got, birthday party. I gotta go to the store. It's gonna take me a while. I gotta go get their birthday gift or whatever.

And now you've compromised your way out of having a successful day and getting all those wins. And that happens to all of us all 

[00:30:17] Ryan: the time. But for some reason and let me back up really quick before I say that. I love what you're doing. I'm with you on the whole morning routine and making sure that you have a system in place. I'm, I've tweaked mine over the years and I'm back in tweaking mode again. I'm up between four and four 30. I have a dog named Moose. We go out for a walk and I come back, and then I had a guest on this show, Daniel. He created an app called the God Walk app.

And I'm like, eh, I don't know about this. And he came on and he walked through what this app is. So basically every morning you go out and you take a walk and this app walks you through some questions that you need to answer. And it's really to the point about what crap you need to get done. And it's helped me really focus on what I'm trying to do.

So it talk, the very first thing is what's today's walk about? What are you trying to focus on and what's coming in, into your mind. The next thing is, what are you thankful for? And then the next one is it really talks about what shit do you need to be held accountable on?

What am I doing wrong that I need to get myself and my act together? And you really need to hold yourself accountable on those things. And then that is translated to changing my whole morning routine after that. Cuz when I come back, I journal I do some, I have some inspirational reading that I do le read a little bit of the Bible and then I write down a bunch of stuff that I wanna accomplish.

But then I do it in a second layer. I then look at it and say, okay, these are all a bunch of pieces of nuance that it's great, but what do I really need to get done today? Those small steps to give me some wins. And then I break 'em down even further. And then I have a little section in my journal called Daily Idea.

An idea pops in my head and it's okay, today, it's, today. What I put down in there is my buy and build statement. I'm looking to buy existing businesses because we have a generational issue going on. And I just, I'll say it really quick. There's 12 and a half million baby boomers that have no succession plans whatsoever.

Their kids want nothing to do with their businesses. Their businesses are pretty much ready to go, and they've been around 12, 15, 20 years and they have no one to pass 'em off to. I wanna buy four of those. That's part of my goal setting. I wanna buy four of those in the next, I think I've got three years is what my goal is.

Cause I keep on changing, just depending on what it looks like. Yeah. But three years I'd like to have four solid goals. They're, and they're not crazy businesses. Car washes, laundry mats some type of service businesses. So I've got these statements that I go after. But the other thing that ends up in all this is the journaling piece.

And I know. I'm probably older than you. I'm pushing 50, but writing pin to paper does something for me that has changed how I take those wins in the morning and can translate 'em through the day. If I don't consistently journal daily, it really screws me up. And so that's been a change in my life for the last about 18 to 24 months.

And that has truly allowed me to take the small wins, build them up, and when I do have a loss, that loss becomes a winning moment for my journal. So I can grow and expand my thought process. But better yet, I go out and I share it either on a podcast or a reels or whatever, and people think I'm crazy because I'm sharing my losses.

And it's you know what? That's who I am. I'm real. But at the end of the day, losing doesn't mean that you completely lost it. Losing means that you are learning, you're putting yourself into another atmosphere, another position to gain that knowledge and move forward. 

[00:33:50] Greg: You man you're hitting on so many key points right now.

Pen to paper, bro. Writing, write, that's a skill I think with most people. I don't care what industry you're in is effective communication both written and verbal. Yes. And the only way that you're gonna get better at writing is by writing daily, but also by reading daily. That's how you learn more. 

[00:34:14] Ryan: I read, I left reading out, but yes, I do read daily also.

[00:34:18] Greg: Yeah. And it's like doing those two things every single day. Just those two are going to increase your vernacular massively. And your ability to influence people either by written communication or verbal. And I'm the same way, man. Like I have to write out. And the other thing is the, thinking about being intentional, about what are you thankful for?

What are you grateful for? Because a gratitude is an action. It's not something passive. Too many people are like, oh, I'm a really grateful person. Okay. What was the last thing you wrote out or thought out that you're grateful that you really took the time to meditate on and focus on? And most people don't take the time to do it, but I, you can't be grateful and unhappy.

It's impossible. No, you cannot be grateful and unhappy. And there's too many people. Anxiety is the number one mental disorder that's treated. 45% of Americans, of adult Americans, 18 to age 55, 40 5% are treated with anxiety. You know what I'm saying? That's crazy. Disgusting. That's disgusting.

And it's shot up. It's shot up with the invention of the smartphone and social media. 

[00:35:28] Ryan: Now we can go down, we can go down a rabbit hole with that. Social media has gone crazy. And the funny thing is my podcast, were started as. Pretty much just ta they were just, I was happy to do do them on a daily basis or a weekly basis, I should say.

And now all of a sudden now they've become outreach and I have guests like you coming on, and I get a lot of messages during the weekend. It's a consistent message. How are you getting out there and putting this out there and getting the views and getting the likes. And I said, it's been a nine year journey.

And it's still, it's evolving journey. And that, and it's been the persistency and the consistency in my life that have got me there. Believe me, I've made a ton of mistakes along the way. And one of the things that I learned coming out of, and I don't know if we talked about it in our pre-call or not, is I'm a two-time failure at entrepreneurship.

I had two businesses that failed, got me into a hundred thousand dollars of debt because I thought I, and I'm gonna use your words, I thought I was special. I thought I, I knew something more than anybody else and had to go back to corporate America with my tail between the legs and reinvent myself. And that is, that's probably one of the most daunting tasks I've ever done in my life.

And it really sucked because I had to go back and say, sorry. Very humbling. It is very humbling, and I learned a lot from that process. But the one thing I did learn is corporate America never taught me to be a fisherman, to have food on my table and be able to protect myself. It never taught me that. And you having the military gave you some of that.

But in corporate America, man, we lack that. Corporate America lacks those skills, and I think that's one of the biggest pieces we miss. When we transition from corporate America to being our own business, our own owner, entrepreneur, whatever you wanna say, those skills need to be taught and learned before you make that leap.

[00:37:15] Greg: Yeah. No, and I being able to be somebody that you can acknowledge your failures, I think is a, is pivotal and that accountability piece, I'll tell you. You know when I started crushing it in 2019 and started doing successful, started coaching a agents and selling at a high level I'm, you're not immune to ego because in 20, in 2020, guess what happened?

I started sliding backwards. Cause I was like, yeah, I got it, I got my goal. I know how to do this. And I ended 2020 with what I thought was a much better production. And then when I saw the end of year numbers, they were disgusting to me. I did 220,000 in 2020. Now, I was also, there was other things I was doing.

I was trying to like ramp up a new program and I was doing things cuz if C O V I D and I was doing, I was transitioning to doing remote sales. I was making this whole remote sales program. There's a lot that was going on, but I was still selling and I thought, man I probably got about 350,000.

I thought I was around there. I. I wasn't, it was two and 20. And I was like, what the hell? What is going on? And I was, and I was like, and I realized, I started getting away from fundamentals. I stopped going trainings all the time. I stopped getting, doing the things I knew I had to do because I thought I had it down and I didn't.

And so that was one factor of what was going on. The other factor was that I was also battling with massive depression, ptsd, depression, anxiety, and From the outside looking in, I look like this successful person making money, doing well in sales, helping agents, all this stuff. But what people didn't know was that on a daily basis, I was struggling.

I was unhappy. I felt like I was living a lie, and I wouldn't feel like I was living up to my potential. The biggest issue that I had, was dependency issues growing up. Being in the military, I was married when we were in college. I'd been with somebody my entire adult life until we got a divorce.

And when we got a divorce, she had cheated on me while I was on deployment. I found out about it. I cheated on her thinking like, I'm gonna get you back. And, which is a terrible way to, to act as a partner, but it caused the eventual divorce. And from that point on, I had never been alone as an adult.

I'd never not had people around me, and I needed that. And so I started seeking relationships in every single person that I could find any remote connection to, and latching onto it. And it caused this vicious cycle of toxic relationships of over and over again. And I had, I got to the point at in 2018, just before I changed everything and I started getting really good at sales.

I had a point where I started having suicidal ideations. The, my, my girl, my ex-girlfriend, and my girlfriend at the time she was also my fiance. We got into an argument about something stupid if somebody I wasn't even happy with, I didn't want to be with, but she said she started threatening to leave, and I started getting that fear.

And next thing I'm holding a gun to my head and she's calling the cops. Cops are coming. And I was spiraling outta control. And so I felt like I had no control in my life. And the cops ended up coming and they talked to me and the cops were very kind. They saw that I was a veteran.

It's all that I served. They're like, Hey man, did you go to seek the va? And I was like, no. And they're like, you need to, like you brought some shit back with you. And I started seeking treatment. I started going to counseling. I started getting better, but I still was having this perpetual cycle of bad relationships.

And what I found was that at the end of 2020, I had another bad relationship that ended. But it wasn't so much on my side. It was more on her side. But it was just like, man, these things keep happening to me. Like at what point? And I just I realized, I was like, dude, I'm the problem. I'm the common denominator here.

And I, instead of going and just jumping into another relationship, I said, I'm gonna be single for a while and I'm gonna start doing work on myself. And I'll tell you, in, up, up until that point, from the time that I got divorced in 20 15 up until the end of 2020, I had not been single longer than three days.

Wow. I'm not even, I'm not even kidding you. 

[00:41:24] Ryan: Sorry. I don't mean to laugh, but that's crazy. 

[00:41:26] Greg: Three days was the max before I was in our relationship. And then when I got in a relationship, it was like we were going strong. We were going like in like it was the, when I was with somebody, it was like, it was gonna be long term, like six months or longer.

Boom. Done. Wow. And yeah I spent the next five months single. And just really working on myself. And I spent that time really examining the, my thoughts, how I spoke to myself, the dark places of my mind. I started working on my discipline personally and who I was as a man, as a human being.

And I I started to do daily disciplines. I went back to my military roots and I started looking at I was always fascinated with the military training cuz they can take somebody, all these kids from across the nation, from different parts of the world, different parts of the country, different ethnic backgrounds, different religions, different socioeconomic statuses.

They can bring 'em to one place, break them down to base and turn 'em into warriors and to killers. And it's how do they do that on, in mass? It's pretty simple. They control their environment, they control, they make them clean. They control what they eat. They make them work out, they make them learn and read daily.

They make them get up early. Yep. And it's non-negotiable. So they can, they have all these controlling factors with disciplined action, and by the end it changes the person. Anyone that's been through basic training I promise you, and you'll agree that from the time you started basic training to the time you graduated, you're a different person.

You're just a different person. So I was like, how can I take that concept and apply to my life because I've already done this before. I understand this concept of discipline and what it can do for your life. And so I started to implement certain things. It wasn't until this time that I started reading every single day and writing every single day and making sure I watched exactly what I ate every single day.

I removed alcohol from my life if I stopped drinking, it was a hindrance. I started working out every single day and when I did that, I, those things combined, compounded, had massive impacts in my life. And I ch I literally became a different man. I became a different human being and people started to realize and so one of the things that happened is this transformation was just phenomenal.

It was un it is unlike anything I've ever gone through in my life. But I had this one day I started to be, I started to realize like I'm saying no to too much in life. Like I need to start having, experiencing life at its fullest. I'm gonna start saying yes to all these opportunities. Cause I watched the movie Yes man.

And it was one of my favorites. And so I was like, I'm just gonna start saying yes to everything. I had this epiphany. I'm like, dude, like it changed his life in the movie. And so it is, and it's also based off of a book that's titled by the same. It's a really great book. If anyone and hasn't read it, you should go check it out.

But. I started saying yes to these things. And I had a coach that I was working with, and he was one of my mentors, and he was like, all right, so let's go ahead and do this. And he started saying, Hey, let's go ahead and let's start doing a hobby. Do something that's like that fuels you or fills you another side of you.

And he's what do you wanna do? And I was like I've always wanted to like do MMA again. Cause I haven't done MMA since I was in military or do ballroom dancing. I want, I like to dance, I wanna learn. He's which one do you wanna do? I was like let's do mma. He was like, all right, go start doing it.

Literally that day I was like, yep. I went and paid for a year membership for mma, for a local place done. And then he was like, you know what? You should start going back to church Greg, and start, being consistent with that. Yep. Started going to church. Hey, you know what? You should start tithing.

Yep. Started tithing, never tied before my adult life. He was like, all these agents, I was crushing in sales. Like I started to break sales records because my, I was so in my flow state and so focused that everything became easier. And it wasn't that I was getting better at sales as I was becoming a more exceptional human being.

Yeah. I was just listening better, I was speaking better, I was, all these things were, I was putting out a better vibe of better energy. And so ages would come out to me and I was having the same conversations and he was like, you know what? You should start recording this and just putting on YouTube and sending people to your YouTube channel.

That's how I started podcasting. It just started as that started as some simple way to provide sales coaching tips for people, for free, for agents in the industry so anyone can learn. And then that turned into what my podcast is today to be the Difference podcast. So all these things start lining up well, I'm in church one day and every single day in charge we'd be taking sacrament and I would start repenting for the previous week.

Oh, I should have done this. I could have done this better. I shouldn't have done this, X, Y, Z. And I'm repenting. And I have, it was like this voice, almost like it was me, but it was speaking at me. And it was very clear. It's just you have more to repent for Greg. Like I got done and it was just like, Nope, you're not done.

You got more to repent for. And I started working backwards and I was like, you know what? The previous relationship that had just edited in 2020, the previous year, I had a lot of anger from that, from the things that she did. But then I started looking at it from a different lens. There's things that I did and if I hadn't done those things, is it possible that she wouldn't have done those things?

Is it possible that I could have had a better relationship? And so I looked at it from the lens, not what she did, but what I did and what I could have done differently. Cause that's all I can control. And I started to repent and apologize and take accountability for all the things that I had done.

And then I felt good. I felt, I was like, that felt healthy, right? I'm done. Nope, you're not done yet. You got more to, and I started working backwards in every single relationship that I've been all the way back to my marriage and back when we were in college together. And I started to take accountability for every freaking thing.

And I realized this, so it's yeah, my wife cheated on me at the time. My ex-wife cheated on me when I was deployed, but I didn't have to cheat on her. I didn't have to come back and get upset and cheat on her. That was on me. That doesn't make, that doesn't justify it too wrong. Don't make her right.

If I had done, if I had done else something else, if I had worked with her, if I'd been a better man, would I still be married? Will I still have my kids with me? Probably. And and I realized through this process, it was, dude, it was difficult. I was crying in jerks, to be honest.

I was, it was very difficult to look at these things and take accountability. But what I realized was that I was my actions that I had been doing in the past, they were not in line with the person that I knew myself to be in my heart. And being able to release those things to, to actually face them and then forgive myself and release them.

It stopped that cycle. It stopped me doing those same bullshit things over and over again so that I could have a more fulfilling life. And I literally walked outta that church that day. Dude. I felt like I was like 20 pounds lighter. I felt happier. I felt healthier. I was just like, dude, I don't know what that was.

I don't know who spoke to me just now, but I feel great. And it was like all this time I've been holding onto these things and blames people, but I was like, it doesn't matter. I can't control other people. I can only control myself. I control four things. What I think, what I feel, what I say, and what I do.

And I can't. I can't worry about what they do. I can only be the best version of myself and show up as that every day. And man, this huge transformation happened. And people started to realize and started to reach out and be like, dude, you look different. You feel different. Like you talk different you're more like there's a positive energy about you.

What's going on? And so I was like, dude, I'm telling you like. You gotta start doing this stuff, right? And I started helping people and coaching people and it was through physical fitness that for me was the gateway into becoming a better person. To align myself both physically, spiritually, and mentally to get that alignment where I could increase all three and truly become a better person.

It started with being consistent in making daily changes in my physical fitness, cuz that's the easiest thing for people to change. Anyone can change your body, move more, eat less, drink more water, take alcohol out. It's pretty simple. But most of us need accountability, right? Like we just have to have someone accountable to us to say you do this, here's the plan and make it dummy proof for us.

And simple. And that was how I started my coaching. That was literally cuz I started just changing lives and helping these people. And I was like, it was all insurance agents that knew me and I was like, this, there is a lot more people. That have been where I've been. There's a lot more people that are facing a lot more men in the world that have anxiety and depression, that feel unhealthy and un unfulfilled and are feeding themselves in devices of overeating, overconsumption of alcohol, too much sex running around with women and trying to fill a void.

They're probably new cause they're trying to fill this void in their heart that they feel lonely like I did. And I was like, I knew what was going on, but it was hard to, I, it was hard to identify. And when I got rid of those vices, man, I became a different human being. It was it, I'm telling you.

It was like transcendent and man. So now my passion is honestly just helping people to go through that same process that I did and literally just change their life for the better. That 

[00:50:36] Ryan: is so cool. But when you do that, and we're coming up top of the hour, so we're running outta time here, but I wrote two questions When you did that.

How did your life change in the, in personally and professionally, or you, either or whatever. And then I've gotta ask a follow up question. Whatever happened to that guy that you met with for pizza? Where's he at today? Okay. 

[00:50:57] Greg: Okay. Yeah. That guy that I met for pizza, I'll start with that one.

Cause that's quick. The guy that I met for pizza, he's still in the insurance industry, so he's still crushing it. He's still he's, and 

[00:51:04] Ryan: he's still crushing it. Do you guys stay in, connect connect with each other? 

[00:51:07] Greg: We haven't stayed really in Connect cuz I left that company. I created my own company, which is the follow up to my second que.

The first question is, what did it do for my business? So I completely revamped my entire business. I ended up creating my own imo, Delta Financial, which is an IMO that I run. And I started my own podcast to be the Difference podcast. I have guests on all the time from different industries across the world, really that are entrepreneurs that are providing great information, and I've learned a lot through it.

I've been able to coach, dozens of clients to really change their life, but it changed my life massively. I ended up breaking a record in sales. I did something no one's ever done, which I sold $200,000 of insurance in one month. Wow. Yeah, I did 200,000, I did $200,000 in one month. It was actually a two 20 that I sold.

And and I did it all from my house. I did it all remotely and I wanna show it could be done. And I was like, I'm not special. Anyone can do it, but I wanna show it's possible to really break the records and see what can be done. And that just catapulted me as a sales trainer, as a coach, but also as a thought leader for within sales in, in, within the industry.

And it helped me to start Delta Financial, which then I then started my coaching business, which is Delta Fit, because my Delta Financial's all about Hey, being the best version of yourself, I don't care about making you a better salesperson. I care more about making you a better person and making you happy and healthy in all areas of your life.

Because when that happens, you're gonna be more productive in sales, period. It's just gonna, it's a natural secondary course of action. And then with Delta Fit, it was, I just want to help people to get rid of these vices because I see it when I look and think of the 45% of Americans that are actually being treated with anxiety nine times outta then, it's not that they really have anxiety, is that they're unfulfilled in their life.

That they have zero passion, zero purpose, and they don't know what to do about it. And they spend all their time scrolling, screen sucking, watching Netflix, eating crap food and all these little things. They do have an impact on your mind and on your soul. Yeah. And so if I can have, if I can help even a small percentage of people to change that's, I feel like that's my purpose now.

Cuz I've walked through that change and I know what it's like, and I don't mind going back into the darkness and helping somebody out of that darkness because I've been there. I'm intimately familiar with those places, so I. 

[00:53:34] Ryan: There's so much we could do and so much more we can talk about. You've opened up Pandora's Box, but we have to end it here.

Yeah. So before we go, what is the best place people can get ahold of you? So if they wanna change their lives and do something that has passion for them, how do they get ahold of you? 

[00:53:49] Greg: Yeah. So you can go check out the Delta Fit website, which is delta fit life.com. Delta fit, l i f e life.com. Okay.

You can schedule a one-on-one call with me. You can see all the different plans. I'm super open and transparent about, Hey, this is how my system works. It's basically what I call is progressive discipline, which is what I developed through my time in the military. And then doing my own personal development journey is, I think discipline's the key and a lot of people, if you put on too much it really, it can overwhelm you.

So I start off with small building blocks that we progressively increase over time, and then they can check out my Instagram. So I do a lot of content in Instagram. I try to put out as much information and really help people with inspiration or motivational content. And that's my Instagram is Gregory a birch underscore, and it's Birch, b i r c h, like the tree.

[00:54:39] Ryan: And we'll share both those links in the show notes so people can get ahold of you. Sir, thank you very much for coming on and being able to be part of the program, but also sharing your story. Pleasure. It's a powerful one, but two it's inspirational because I feel like I've got a bunch of stuff I can do.

Now, takeaways I'm gonna go probably take and read the Purple cow. I, oh, it's, 

[00:55:02] Greg: you're not gonna, you're not gonna be disappointed. It's a great book. 

[00:55:05] Ryan: No I'm reading rereading really quick, 10 x by Grant Cardone for probably about the 10th time Uhhuh. And I'm just about done with it. So when I'm done with it, I'll go get the purple cow and I'll read it and we'll chat about that.

Dude, 

[00:55:17] Greg: if you ever wanna chat about different books I've been reading, I've read like 20 books this year so far. I like breeze through them now cuz I started off 10 pages a day, but now I just breeze through them. I got some pretty phenomenal books I can recommend.

[00:55:31] Ryan: That's awesome. I started reading 20 pages a book. I saw a quote by, I think it was Warren Buffet that talked about if you read 20 pages a day, you'd actually end up reading 30 books a year, I think is what it is. Something to that extent, close to that. So I started with that and now it's just, it's 35 to 40 minutes every single morning that I read.

And then I do the same thing at night and it's just keeps on going. 

[00:55:52] Greg: Yeah. It's a great way to compound knowledge. 

[00:55:55] Ryan: It is. Sir, thank you for coming on. Thank you for sharing. It's been a great conversation. Thank 

[00:56:00] Greg: you, Ryan. I appreciate the opportunity. 

[00:56:02] Ryan: Not a problem.