Summary
Travis Chappell shares insights from his journey in sales and entrepreneurship, emphasizing the importance of self-discovery and unlearning limiting beliefs. Growing up in a hyper-religious environment in Southern California, he initially pursued a career in ministry but found his passion in door-to-door sales during college. Despite achieving financial success in sales, he recognized that he did not want to remain in that field long-term, prompting him to explore other avenues, including podcasting.
Chappell discusses the clarity he gained through experience, noting that understanding what he did not want was as crucial as defining his goals. He highlights the significance of investing in oneself, arguing that skills and knowledge are the most reliable assets one can possess. This investment can lead to greater confidence and the ability to take calculated risks in business. He encourages listeners to focus on developing skills that can yield substantial returns, rather than relying solely on traditional investment avenues.
Throughout his career, Chappell has navigated the challenges of sales and entrepreneurship, advocating for a mindset that embraces learning and adaptability. He reflects on the balance between the simplicity of sales roles and the complexities of running a business, ultimately affirming his commitment to entrepreneurship while recognizing the value of sales expertise.
Show Notes
On this episode, producer Eric shares a clip from Travis Chappell's appearance on the Closers Network podcast. Travis grew up in a fundamentalist Christian community in Southern California and earned a ministry degree. Then he found out he loved door-to-door sales and made six figures selling solar in his early twenties. In 2017 he moved into podcasting. Since then he has coached, consulted, and run communities, courses, software companies, and a done-for-you production and guest-booking agency, and his own show now has more than 1,500 episodes. In this conversation he talks about the biggest missed opportunity of his career, the limiting beliefs that kept him thinking like a "sales guy" instead of an entrepreneur, and why investing in yourself is the best return you can get when you're just starting out.
On this episode we talk about:
How Travis went from a ministry degree to door-to-door sales, and then fell in love with podcasting
Finding clarity by doing things instead of thinking about them, and the "look at the 46-year-olds around you" test
Travis's biggest career regret: leaving solar too early with a sales-guy mindset instead of an entrepreneur mindset
Unlearning limiting beliefs, and the real trade-offs between a career in commission sales and running your own business
Coming in neutral every day so you can crush today whether yesterday went badly or well
Why your first $10,000 should go into your skills before the stock market, real estate, or crypto
Top 3 Takeaways
You find out what you want by doing things. Don't spend 90 days researching a path. Try it for a week, and look at the people one stage ahead of you to see if you want their life. If you don't, change course now, because it will probably never be easier than it is today.
Show up to each day with neutral positivity. Bringing yesterday's bad day or yesterday's big win into today will both throw you off. Look at your results over months and years, and put your energy into getting a little better.
Invest in yourself before you invest in anything else. If it took you a year to save $10K, no stock or property is going to turn that into $100K in 12 months. A skill you can sell, like sales, copywriting, ads, or operations, can. Your competence, your connections, and your content stay with you even in a downturn.
Notable Quotes
"You find out what you don't want to do by just doing stuff."
"Every new business needs cash, and the fastest path to cash is sales."
"You gotta figure out ways day in and day out to keep that mindset ready to go so that you can crush today without thinking about the fact that you sucked yesterday."
"Everything is limited by the knowledge that you have or the skillset that you have."
Connect with Travis Chappell:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travischappell/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travischappell/
Other: Travis Makes Money Podcast | Travis Chappell Website |
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