Daryl Dittmer: From Drugs at 13 to a $10 Billion Exit

Daryl Dittmer and Dwight Heck on the Give A Heck Podcast

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What does it take to go from a 13-year-old already deep into drugs and alcohol to becoming the second-largest shareholder in a company that sold for nearly $10 billion? Daryl Dittmer joins Dwight Heck to share the origin story, the sales career, and the daily discipline behind it all.

🎤 Give A Heck Podcast

Real conversations and solo episodes about purpose, financial stewardship, mindset, leadership, and intentional living.

🔍 Episode Overview

Daryl Dittmer grew up in a blue-collar family outside Detroit, working as a farmhand for $1.50 an hour before he was even a teenager. By his late teens, he was facing a crossroads of his own making, one that forced a choice between getting help or walking away from his family.

He landed in sales almost by accident, talked his way into a small firm, and quickly became its top producer. That performance eventually earned him a real ownership stake, enough to make him the company’s second-largest shareholder by the time it sold for close to $10 billion.

Since then, Daryl has built and exited several businesses of his own. He now runs Show Up Coaching and the free webinar Show Up, Built to Win, both built on the same principles that got him there. He is also the author of two books, When I Stop Fighting and When You Stop Fighting: The Road You’re On Is Your Own Asphalt, and he hosts his own show, The Show Up Podcast.

This conversation covers Daryl’s origin story, the unglamorous discipline behind his sales career, the role faith and community played in his turnaround, and the honest, ongoing work of showing up every day long after the motivation runs out.

📚 What You Will Learn in This Episode

  • Why Daryl believes the most crucial lessons come from what you decide to jettison from your past, not just what you collect
  • How a crossroads at the end of his teens forced a choice between getting help or walking away from his family
  • How he landed in sales almost by accident and became a top producer at a small firm
  • How performing consistently earned him real ownership, eventually making him the second-largest shareholder in a company that sold for close to $10 billion
  • Why the unglamorous, repetitive work of showing up every day matters more than talent
  • How faith and community helped him find his tribe and shift his perspective
  • Why your past does not get final say over your future unless you let it

📵 Chapter Summaries

[00:00] Teaser and Intro

Dwight opens with the persistence-story hook, then introduces Daryl Dittmer and previews his journey from addiction to a $10 billion exit.

[02:53] Welcome and Origin Story Setup

Dwight and Daryl open the conversation and set up the origin story to come.

[04:33] Growing Up Outside Detroit

A blue-collar family, a tough but not abusive father, and a mother who carried her own difficult history.

[10:35] The Crossroads: Get Help or Walk Away

Daryl’s parents force a choice at the end of his teens: get help, or leave the family.

[20:00] Rock Bottom at the New Year’s Eve Party

Alone in a crowd of 200 people, the night Daryl considered suicide and found his turning point.

[23:00] Addiction Isn’t Just Alcohol and Drugs

Daryl broadens the definition of addiction to any behaviour used to avoid feeling something.

[28:24] Falling Into Sales and the Persistence Story

How asking four or five times for a shot turned into a $30,000 draw and, eventually, becoming the top producer.

[33:39] You Don’t Have to Stay Stuck

Why being on one path does not mean you are stuck on it forever.

[38:00] Discipline Creates Freedom

Reframing discipline from a cage into the thing that actually frees you to live.

[40:23] Building Trust

What actually earns trust with clients and the people around you.

[46:00] The 70/30 Principle

Daryl’s framework for balancing structure with flexibility.

[51:57] Finding His Tribe

How community and church helped Daryl rebuild a support system around himself.

[57:27] Faith as a Guide, Not a Scoreboard

Moving from a punishing view of faith to one that simply asks for today’s best effort.

[01:04:13] Living in the Present

Why the only thing required of him is what is in front of him right now, not the past or the future.

[01:10:48] Writing When I Stop Fighting

The doubt Daryl had to work through to put his story on paper.

[01:20:53] Meet Jimmy: Stay Small

The old timer who filled everyone’s coffee, and the lesson that humility is another word for teachable.

[01:30:10] The Power of One Person

Why reaching even a single person is enough reason to keep doing this work.

[01:35:23] Where to Find Daryl and Closing

Daryl shares where to find his books, his podcast, and how to reach him directly.

🎯 Key Takeaway

Talent did not build Daryl Dittmer’s career, showing up did, day after day, long after the motivation ran out. The same is true of getting free from a difficult past: it is not one dramatic turnaround, it is the accumulation of small, honest, repeated decisions to do the next right thing.

💬 Continue the Conversation

If this episode resonated with you, here are related episodes to explore:

Another guest’s story of rebuilding after years of struggle.

A parallel story of resilience and starting over.

On rebuilding purpose after success takes an unexpected toll.

Dwight’s own reflection on resilience, from the other side of the conversation.

Dwight’s own story of reinvention, echoing Daryl’s own career pivots.

🔑 Key Themes Discussed

  • Origin stories and what shapes us versus what we choose to let go of
  • The unglamorous, repeated discipline behind real sales success
  • Earning ownership through performance rather than waiting for it to be handed over
  • Faith, community, and finding a tribe of people who reflect who you want to become
  • Living in the present rather than the past or the future

👤 About Daryl Dittmer

Daryl Dittmer is an entrepreneur, sales and life trainer, and author. Raised in a blue-collar family where work ethic was never in question, he was working as a farmhand before he was even a teenager. By his late teens, he faced a crossroads of his own making, one that forced a choice between getting help or walking away from his family.

He landed in sales almost by accident, talked his way into a small firm, and quickly became its top producer. That performance earned him a real ownership stake, eventually making him the second-largest shareholder in a company that sold for nearly $10 billion. He has since built and exited several businesses of his own.

Daryl now runs Show Up Coaching, a one-on-one coaching practice built on the same principles that shaped his own career, and hosts the free webinar Show Up, Built to Win for salespeople looking to break through a plateau. He is the author of two books, When I Stop Fighting and When You Stop Fighting: The Road You’re On Is Your Own Asphalt, and he hosts his own show, The Show Up Podcast. Daryl lives with his wife, Kristina, in the mountains of North Georgia.

🤝 Connect with Daryl Dittmer

🤝 Connect with Dwight Heck

🎧 Listen and Watch This Episode

💭 Final Thoughts

None of what Daryl built came from talent alone. It came from actually doing the unglamorous work of showing up every day, long after the motivation ran out. His story is a reminder that a difficult past does not get to define what happens next, unless you let it.

📣 Call to Action

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💬 Want to check out Daryl’s work?

📝 Full Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Daryl Dittmer: I’d love if you could gimme a shot. You know, and I probably asked him four or five times. And, and the reason I’m saying all these things about four or five times is because there’s nothing that beats persistence, um, in terms of moving things forward. And so I kept asking him, and finally he said, okay.

[00:00:20] Welcome to Give a Heck. I am your host, Dwight Heck, and for much of my life, lived my life in quiet, desperation wondering how I was going to pay the bills, take vacations, save for retirement, and one day wondering if I would get off the hamster wheel of life and have purpose, a life that most of society lives, which takes us to work, then home, then repeat, and pays us hopefully enough.

[00:00:44] Just to survive the harsh truth that most live with more months than money and have no idea how to live life on purpose, not by accident. This ensures the mass majority are living not just financially broke, however, emotionally and mentally as well. Due to financial pressures and each episode, I will introduce you to thoughts, ideas, and guests that can help you to learn how you too can live life on purpose, not by accident.

[00:01:15] Dwight Heck: What does it take to go from a 13-year-old already deep into drugs and alcohol, to becoming the second largest shareholder in a company that sold for nearly $10 billion? And what happens when after building all of that, the real work turns out to be something much quieter, showing up, telling the truth, and doing it again the next day.

[00:01:39] Welcome back to the Give a Heck podcast. I’m your host, Dwight Heck, here to help you live life on purpose and not by accident. My guest today grew up in a blue collar family where work ethic was never in question. He was out working as a farmhand for a dollar 50 an hour before he was even into his teens.

[00:02:00] And by his late teens, he was facing a crossroads of his own making, one that forced a choice between getting help or walking away from his family. He landed in sales almost by chance, made a case for himself at a small firm, and quickly became its top producer. That performance eventually earned him a real ownership stake, enough to make him the company’s second largest stakeholder by the time it sold for close to $10 billion.

[00:02:32] He’s since built and exited several businesses of his own. And today he runs a sales training programme show Up Built to Win, built on the same principles that got him there. He’s also the author of two books When I Stop Fighting and When You Stop Fighting, and he hosts his own Show The Show Up podcast.

[00:02:53] Daryl Dittmer. Welcome to the Give a Heck podcast. Thanks for agreeing to come on and share with us some of your life journey.

[00:03:01] Daryl Dittmer: Dwight, thanks so much for having me on. I really appreciate it. Looking forward to our conversation.

[00:03:06] Dwight Heck: Yeah, I am too. That was, uh, very intrigued. Um, one of the things I never mentioned before we hit record, one of the, the service that you and I were talking about.

[00:03:17] I get inundated with requests. And as I’ve done this now for five year, over five and a half years, it’s gonna be six as of November, actually, I literally, I, I look at people’s little blurbs and I get attracted to certain things, right? And I think for me as a God frame person, it’s God tugging me saying, you, you need to talk to this person.

[00:03:38] And you were one of those people. So I’m blessed to have you on and thanks for investing some of your precious lifetime with us, right? With my listeners and viewers. So, Daryl, I always like to start at the beginning because our origin, origins act absolutely shape everything. Uh, people discount them.

[00:03:55] They don’t get there. Don’t take them very serious. But I do. I believe our trials and tribulations are the reasons of where we are today, how we’ve shown up in our lives. How have we, what are the little things and nuances from our earliest recollections that made us maybe pick up a book or do different things, changed our path away from the learned behaviour of our families, or made us dig into our family because maybe our family was, was where we needed to be.

[00:04:24] So if you could do me a favour, Daryl, and please share with us your origin stories and whatever you feel comfortable with, I’d appreciate

[00:04:33] Daryl Dittmer: absolutely. You know, it’s funny ’cause when you say that about origin stories, I’m like, that is absolutely everything that happened to me is what shaped me into, into the person that I am now.

[00:04:48] And, and it either either informed what I wanted to do or what I wanted to jettison for my life. And, and I think those are the most crucial lessons. And I think probably, probably the most crucial lessons are what I wanted to jettison from my, from my life. And, and, and, you know, I believe we’re all, when we come on to this planet, you know, we collect the junk, we collect the things that we need to get rid of and, and, and that’s so much of the journey.

[00:05:23] But, and I did a lot of collecting, you know, when I was a kid, I collected a lot of junk and a lot of things that I needed to, to let go of, which, you know, most of those things I did. So, so I was born in, in Detroit, Michigan as a matter of fact. And, uh, and up until I was about 13, I was in a suburb of Detroit.

[00:05:47] And then my family decided to move out to the country. And, you know, my dad was, was, uh, he was a mechanic, he was a, a, a veteran of the Korean War. He was a pretty tough dude and, uh, and definitely someone that we didn’t want to upset. Now, you know, was I a abused or anything like that? No, I, to my knowledge, I don’t believe that I was, but was I, uh, disciplined and, you know, sometimes.

[00:06:18] Uh, very convincingly. Yes, yes, I was. Um, and, you know, my mom was, was also, and she, she took care of us kids. I have an older brother and a younger sister, and, and she, she made sure that, you know, it took care of the house and the bills and all of those things and, and made sure we had what we need. But my mom was also, you know, from a, from an origin story perspective, she had a tough life.

[00:06:44] Her dad died when he, when he was 19. There were some other, you know, very traumatic things that happened to her in her life when she was younger. And, and even before she was born, there was a lot of sort of family dysfunction, uh, on that side of the family. So, you know, everybody carries their stuff into, into the game, you know, and, and, and then they have kids.

[00:07:09] And then the kids, which, you know, I was their kid, one of their kids, I have what I have, you know, and, and whatever that is and whatever, they’re sort of passing on to me. And, and so I had to deal with those things. But, but when I was 13 years old, I got into drinking. I got into drugs, and that progressed actually pretty quickly.

[00:07:31] And I was born Lutheran. So, so that was the religion that I was, that I was involved in when I was a, a younger person. And, and, you know, they brought us to, to church every Sunday and all those sorts of things. And, and, but I started drinking when I was 13, and I remember loving it. I remember the feeling of man that just felt like it took some weight off of me because I, I, for whatever reason, you know, and, and I can’t say, I can’t say exactly why other than, you know, there was a lot of pressure in my family to perform, whether it was in sports or in grades or in manners or in, you know, all of those things.

[00:08:17] There was pressure to perform and I felt like I didn’t necessarily understand what that did to me until probably later in life. And I’m not blaming, there is no blame. It’s just, you know, hey, when I look back, how did I get to the point where I felt like I needed to escape? And that was a big part of it, I think.

[00:08:40] Because, because I felt like if I did really well. I was loved and if I didn’t do as well or well at all, or I quote unquote failed, maybe I wasn’t as loved. And that wasn’t, that wasn’t necessarily the truth and that wasn’t how it sort of played out in my life. I knew my parents loved me regardless, but that’s how it felt to me.

[00:09:07] Like I had let somebody down. And so as I started going on with drinking and drugs and it progressed pretty quickly and I got into a bunch of different drugs. And, and I don’t wanna belabour this part because I, I think a lot of people who are in recovery, sometimes they spend a lot of time on and, and it’s okay, but I don’t need to spend a lot of time on where I came from.

[00:09:31] I, I guess, you know, as far as the drugs and the drinking because, and I like to sort of joke that I didn’t get, you know, too being put into a drug and alcohol treatment programme. ’cause I ate too many Cheerios. It is because I was doing, I was doing a lot of drugs. I was drinking, I was getting in trouble.

[00:09:48] But the worst part of it was what was happening inside of me, because I still had that wanting to be good and perform and do the right things. But as I was going down that path with the drugs and the alcohol and the trouble and the, you know, some of the friends that I chose and that sort of thing, I was incapable of doing the right things.

[00:10:13] I wasn’t doing the right thing. So I was getting kind of ripped in half and wanting to do it and not being able to do it and, and not doing it. So I was, I was heading this way much more than I was heading in the right direction. And when I was 18 years old, my parents said. You know, we want you to go. It was, it was like an intervention.

[00:10:35] Um, my parents said, look, you know, if, if, if you don’t go talk to this drug counsellor, we’re gonna set up this appointment for you. You go talk to him. Or honestly, we don’t really want you around. You know, you’re, we, we’ve had enough. And, and so that was a really frightening time for me because of what I just explained about getting ripped in half and emotionally and mentally, and, and, you know, for whatever reason, because I could have taken off, I could have said, all right, fine, I’m out.

[00:11:07] But I didn’t, and I think there was a part of me that wanted my life to be different because I knew that I was, something in me knew how miserable I was, even though every ounce of me tried to deny that. But I was, I was miserable, excuse me. And, and so I decided to go see this drug counsellor and, and what happened with him the moment I walked in and I was planning on, you know, lying to him and, and just, you know, trying to sort of, even though I thought like maybe I wanted to my life to be different, my way was the lying and the cheating and the stealing.

[00:11:50] And that’s what I planned to do. I was, I was trying to get out of it, even though I decided to go to it. And he said, look, you can’t lie to me. You can’t BS me. You, you know, just don’t, because I’m in recovery. I’ve been there, I’ve done it. I’ve done exactly the things that you’ve done probably worse, and please don’t try it.

[00:12:12] Or I’ll kick you out and you’ll be in the same place you were before. And so I told him to the best of my ability, I was as honest with him as I could be at that time, which I don’t know exactly how honest that was because I don’t remember what I said to him. But I do remember that fact. I was as honest as I could be at the time.

[00:12:32] And we got to the end of the session and, and, and I remember this, I remember saying, okay, what do you think, doc? And he was like, we need to get you into treatment. And, and so there was a 60 day inpatient programme that he wanted me to go to, but they were full and he wanted to get me into a programme. So I went into a 30 day inpatient programme.

[00:12:54] Um, and that’s, honestly, that’s where I look at my life as beginning. Um, and, and because, because I was introduced. To a completely different way of life, even different from what I remember than what I was brought up to embrace. Um, so I, I’ll leave it there, Dwight, if that makes sense. And, and, uh, I, there’s a lot of years that I haven’t covered, but, but up until getting into recovery is a, I think a good spot to No,

[00:13:29] Dwight Heck: it’s, it’s a great, it’s a great spot.

[00:13:31] I, I appreciate you being vulnerable and sharing. Um, it can help those listening or watching that could, you could be that just from sharing that part of your origin, that could be a catalyst for awareness, because you talked about falling into addiction and, and being torn. A lot of times though, how can we fall into addictions?

[00:13:54] Because we don’t want, we want our brain to stop. We don’t want that aware because the awareness principle of what we’re experiencing, we’ve never been taught how to really accept it or to understand where to go because our brains are so immature. So addiction is easy to fall into, to separate us from reality.

[00:14:15] Right. So getting to that point and everything you shared. You know, my dad, same thing. He was, he never abused me. He was firm though. It, it was nothing for him. If you were doing something wrong to get a kick in the ass, right, kick in the pants, whatever you want to call it, but it didn’t mean that I was abused.

[00:14:34] It was hi was the way that he dealt with stuff. It, if I looked at how his father, again, my dad was one of 18 kids, so he got, they, they, uh, it was a lot different back in the forties and forties when he was growing up and how they were treated. Um, so I was blessed to only get a little bit of a, you know, smack or whatever and no real abuse.

[00:14:58] It was just like, you know, smarten up, like think a little bit, right. So whether it was good or bad, um, you know, I appreciate you sharing that, but pressure to perform, I think that’s something that, you know, I don’t know about your family. My family, my dad was very type A personality, not lazy, was always, you don’t stand, still find something to do.

[00:15:21] Even in his own personal life, it was always go, go, go, right. You, you, you literally, he always pressure, you could see the pressure he put on himself to perform and never not show up. And that’s how he treated me as well. So, and my sisters, um, I like how you put though you’re honest as you could be. Well, a lot of that has to do with your age, right,

[00:15:45] Daryl Dittmer: for sure.

[00:15:46] Dwight Heck: Right? Yeah. Like how, how, how honest can you be with, as somebody that’s just finished telling you that they had it possibly worse than you or did worse things than you and they weren’t gonna listen to any of your, your, your, your guff or any of your fabricated garbage. Right? So I like that. Um, even your awareness of it from way back then.

[00:16:11] I, I, I bet the older you get the more you appreciate that person.

[00:16:17] Daryl Dittmer: Absolutely.

[00:16:18] Dwight Heck: Right? Absolutely. They made a huge, made a huge change in your life. Um, so when you look at your, your earliest memories, you know what the, and when you hit your late teens, you were at a crossroads. It forced you to, as your parents said, either you go to, you go and get help or you’re gone.

[00:16:40] Right? How many people would’ve gone the other way? Was there one specific thing? So you say you were scared, you know, at that potential of that happening. What do you recall back then, as a teen though? What was the biggest fear? Was the fear of not having a place to live? The fear of your family shutting you out was a combination of other things.

[00:17:03] What was the actual, what was going on in your brain that made you decide to take that leap of faith?

[00:17:11] Daryl Dittmer: You know, I would say it was fear of being rejected, fear of not being loved. Um, fear of being found out ’cause they didn’t know all the things that I was doing. Um, and so I, I think that was a big part of it that I, I didn’t wanna be exposed.

[00:17:32] And, and that’s really hard, you know, when the spotlight is shining on you and, and, and I’m not, you know, it’s funny ’cause my whole life has been spent as sort of a non spotlight guy, even though I do what I do now, right. I do a lot of things where, where the spot’s on me. But, but, and I don’t do it for, you know, the reasons that maybe I would’ve done it in my younger years.

[00:17:58] I do it because I want to help and, and that’s a very different, uh, place to come from. But, but yeah, that was, that was tough. And, and I wasn’t worried about, you know, where I was gonna go or if there was, you know, I, I was worried about, and I’ll tell you a quick little story ’cause this one kind of encapsulates it.

[00:18:19] But, um, and because I hadn’t formulated at that point, you know, I, I knew I was going into treatment. I didn’t really know how much help I wanted to get out of it, or if I wanted to change, or, I mean, I bought a big bag of dope before, like two days before I went into treatment. So, so, you know, I wasn’t certain, I was kind up and down back and forth.

[00:18:50] I didn’t know what was on the other side. And that’s what I think a lot of people struggle with, with addictions and, and you know, just to put it out there, the only addictions are not drugs and alcohol. There’s food, there’s social media, there’s gambling, there’s, there’s everything. There’s comfort, there’s convenience, there’s a lot of things that people go toward to make life not feel as difficult as maybe it can feel.

[00:19:21] But then life’s gonna be difficult anyway, so, so rather than try to go around, you know, let’s, let’s go through those things. But that’s a, that’s another, uh, topic for another day. But I was, it was December 31st, 1984. And, and I was at a New Year’s Eve party, and this was before I went into treatment, but I knew I was going into treatment and I feel like this was, that turning point for me, um, is I was at this New Year’s Eve party, probably around a couple hundred people, you know, somewhere between 102 hundred bunch of people.

[00:20:00] I knew a lot of people I didn’t know, but I was the most lonely, isolated, scared I’d ever been in my life to that point. And by that time, I had just turned 19 and, and the thought came to me, might it be better if I wasn’t on this planet? And I thought about killing myself. I thought about taking myself out and, and that was a really, uh.

[00:20:34] Pardon the pun. It’s not a pun sobering moment for me. Um, because I was, I was in that rough of shape at that age in here, and, and that’s what went through my mind. So that’s, that’s probably where I sort of, you know, dare I say, bounced off of that bottom and just like, okay, I, I’m, I might be ready to change.

[00:21:01] Dwight Heck: Were you an introverted kid?

[00:21:03] Daryl Dittmer: Definitely.

[00:21:05] Dwight Heck: I, I, myself the same. I went through challenges and issues with drugs and alcohol too. It’s not about me, but I can relate, right? I can relate at that early age, same, similar situation, 12, 13, and feeling alone in a room of a hundred people. And I talk and coach people to about that today, the amount of adults I deal with at all age categories from their twenties up to their seventies that walk into a room can be around people.

[00:21:35] They know a lot of people, but they still feel isolated and alone. And I found that’s more prevalent, obviously, in my experience with people that are introverted and they grew up introverted. And I like how you mentioned too a few minutes ago about how you, you know, you now, you’re the person with a spotlight on you.

[00:21:55] But I think it’s because we realise that if we don’t take ourselves out of our comfort zone and assist and help others by being in the spotlight. You know, there’s gonna be so many people that are left behind. And, and I, I know personally, I don’t want that for others, and I believe you don’t either. So we force ourselves to be extroverted when needed.

[00:22:17] I don’t know about you, and I’m kind of curious what your response is gonna be for this after a three hour event or after I’m at a conference for a weekend, I can’t wait to get back to the hotel room. I can’t wait to get off a stage. I can’t wait to leave, uh, a hockey game. I, I’m a huge NHL fan. I, I have a season ticket holder.

[00:22:37] I, after a three hour hockey game, I can’t wait to escape that rink. Not because I didn’t enjoy myself. My body can only absorb so much of that before I need to be isolated. I need to escape into myself. And, and I don’t know if it’s a healing thing or just whatever it is, but I can see why so many people are jump into addictions and I appreciate you sharing the fact.

[00:23:00] I do tell people addictions aren’t just alcohol and drugs. It can be sex, it can be addicted to anger, addicted to sadness, addicted to controversy, addicted to the news. It can be addicted. You can be addicted to whatever to escape your suckage. Right? What you don’t like about your life, right? What’s your suckage level?

[00:23:22] I I ask people, I say, what? How, how, how, what has caused your life to be? So everything I talk about with origin and, and appreciate you doing that. I do that with my clients, my financial clients. That’s how we start our relationship up, is to understand their monsters in their lives. So I appreciate you sharing some of what was your monsters from your past, and those listening are watching.

[00:23:45] I reach out to Daryl, like, unbelievable story. Go check ’em out. Um, we’re gonna talk more about, about you. Obviously as we proceed, we’re gonna dive into talking about your books as well. So thank you so much for, for sharing. You are not gonna be the first or the last person that 19 years of age, right? At a party in a New Year’s party that’s not gonna, that, that hasn’t felt isolated, felt like a loner, right?

[00:24:13] So thank you for sharing that and, and being relatable. So you landed in sales almost by chance and turned yourself into a top producer to small firm. How does someone go from that to owning a stake at the second large being the second largest shareholder in a company that’s sold for close to $10 billion?

[00:24:31] Tell us that journey.

[00:24:34] Daryl Dittmer: That’s quite a journey. Um, so when I, I never would’ve gone to college. Nobody in my family ever went to, uh, graduated from college. Um, and, and so I ended up going to college after I got outta treatment because I really wanted to, um. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to experience something in life that was sort of outside of where I grew up, and there was nothing wrong with where I grew up or how I grew up or anything like that, but, but I decided to go to college and going into college, I don’t know how I knew this, but for me it was, I needed to get that piece of paper so that I could open some doors.

[00:25:14] And, and it’s funny because when I got out of college, I, I, I have a criminal justice degree with a minor in English, and, and I wasn’t really planning on doing necessarily anything with the criminal justice degree. It was just what I was most comfortable getting because I didn’t understand marketing, I didn’t understand business, I didn’t understand finance.

[00:25:39] I didn’t understand any of those other, you know, majors that they put in front of you. And, and my brother was a police officer. My grandfather on one side was a police officer. My grandfather on the other side was a firefighter. So criminal justice just kind of made sense to me, or at least was a little more comfortable.

[00:25:59] So. So anyway, I got, uh, after college, I still decided that, you know, I wasn’t ready to go try to find a job. I thought, oh, maybe not. I mean, obviously I had to have a job, but, but I in, in my sort of field. So I said, you know, I, I know framing. I’ve done framing. I would do that, you know, for a couple of summers.

[00:26:24] And I took one year off school where I did it. And, and I knew a guy who would hire me and I could make good money. And so I decided to be a framer after college. And one day, um, a friend of mine comes up to me and he is like, Hey man, um, you know, I’ve got this sales opportunity you ever consider getting into sales.

[00:26:42] I was like, no, and I’m not considering it now. And he asked me probably four or five times, and I can be a fairly direct dude. Um, I, I was just like, no. And he asked me a few more times and then he said, I’ve got this video. I want you to look at, you know, VHS right from back in the day. I want you to look at this VHS tape.

[00:27:05] You can’t believe the money these people are making. And he gave it to me and I just kind of set it aside and I didn’t watch it. And anyway, I watched it. People are making money. It’s the hype, it’s all the stuff. And I didn’t know anything about this stuff, but it was a, it was a network marketing scheme, but people were making money and they were selling water filters.

[00:27:27] And I was like, all right, I’ll give it a try. So, so I gave it a try. I would say I did it for maybe a little over a year. I did okay. You know, I, I paid the rent. I, I did what I needed to do, but, but it kind of dried up, you know, once I went through everybody that I knew, I didn’t know anybody else. And that was my entree into sales.

[00:27:48] So, to make a, a long story short, I was asked by a guy that I went to, uh, to college with. He said, you know, I’ve got this sales opportunity. There’s this inventor, he invented 3D virtual reality sound. However, we’re gonna need to go out to Boston and sell these things to the clients of this behavioural therapist that we’re working with because they were delivering weight loss, smoking cessation, and stress management programmes through this virtual reality sound.

[00:28:24] So they would, they would record the behavioural therapist and it just kind of felt like you were right there with this behavioural therapist in the room on these recordings. So I said, fine, I’ll do it, whatever. And I was mid twenties and, and went out there and, you know, it, we sold a few programmes to, to corporations, to, you know, a couple of towns out there and did the presentations.

[00:28:51] But, but little did I know, I didn’t know anything about investors at the time, but we had investors for this company and, you know, at some point they’re like, look, you know, we’re not getting anything out of this. We’re spending a lot trying to do it, putting up these guys in Boston and, you know, paying, you know them a certain amount every month to sort of get this thing going, but we’re not getting the return.

[00:29:12] So everybody went back to the Detroit area. I decided I was gonna stay in Boston and, and I was doing carpentry, I was doing side jobs, I worked at a commercial window company. I was doing estimating. Um, and, but I met this guy at the gym and I said, Hey man, I, you know, I have some corporate sales experience.

[00:29:34] I’d love if you could gimme a shot. You know, and I probably asked him four or five times. And, and the reason I’m saying all these things about four or five times is because there’s nothing that beats persistence, um, in terms of moving things forward. And so I kept asking him, and finally he said, okay.

[00:29:54] And, and so he said, all right, I will pay you $30,000 a year, but it’s on a draw, which means if I don’t make up that money with revenue, you know, in sales commission, I owe that money back to the firm. So every single year, first year, if I don’t close a deal, I owe him 30 grand. Second year. If I don’t close a deal, I owe him 60 grand.

[00:30:15] So that was how that worked. So that was some pressure, and that wasn’t, you know, as fun as everybody likes to tell you is, you know, you’re going into debt as, as you’re learning a craft. And, and it probably took, you know, a good two or three years for me to start to get good at that. And, and I got good at it and I became the number one producer in that company.

[00:30:42] And I asked him, and I, I actually, once I became valuable and I had business, I said, you know, I’d love to get some, some ownership in your company. And he said, you know, he told me he would do that. Meanwhile, he sold the company and I had no idea, he decided he was gonna sell the company. So he sold it, but he sold it to a little bit larger firm, not that much larger.

[00:31:07] It probably doubled the size of the, the firm that bought it. So a little over a million bucks, maybe in revenue, not that much. Um, small company. And, and I became the number one producer in that firm. And I said to the guy that, that owned it at the time, I said, look, you know, I’ve, I’ve got this book of business.

[00:31:29] Uh, you know, I, I’d love to get some ownership in a company. And that’s another thing that I would, uh, impart to people regarding businesses. Always ask, don’t be afraid to ask. Even if you get, no, it doesn’t matter. Um, so I asked, and, and he talked to the previous owner. ’cause I said, look, this guy, you know, told me I was gonna have ownership.

[00:31:51] And, and then he sold and he talked to the previous guy, and the previous guy said, yep, that was, that was the deal. And so that made me an owner in the company. And then, you know, as time went on, I earned more ownership in the firm to become the, like the second largest shareholder. But again, we were small.

[00:32:12] So, you know, we grew organically. You know, I was kind of the number two guy, uh, became national sales director for the company. We grew and expanded and grew. And then we started, um, we, you know, we grew organically, but then we started doing acquisitions, and then we brought in, you know, funding money to be able to, to finance larger acquisitions, to the point where, um, actually in, and I, I, uh, I didn’t stay at the company the whole time, but the company eventually sold for, like it said, almost $10 billion.

[00:32:50] And, you know, being the second largest shareholder, it worked out well, uh, for me financially.

[00:32:57] Dwight Heck: Oh, absolutely. It would. Um, I, I listened to your, your story and I think to myself, how many people don’t just ask. Right. I always tell people, you know, the, the worst you can get is a no. Right. The more nos you get through, the quicker you’re gonna get to your yeses.

[00:33:17] Right? It’s, it’s tough though because we’re not really trained when we grow up by our families necessarily, or, or college. Like, look, you went through, you went through criminal, uh, in college to doing construction after the fact and not even doing really what we go to school with. And the reason I bring this up, people that are listening are watching.

[00:33:39] You don’t have to be stuck just because you are on one path. You can take the fork in the road multiple times until you find your calling. And, and I enjoyed the fact that criminal justice, I wrote down framer and then you went into an MLM. How many people listening here watching you’ve ever tried an MLM, right?

[00:33:59] Have you learned anything from it? Did you, did you I know, I myself, I did not necessarily where I wanted to be, be the rest of my life, but there’s different stepping stones and, and I appreciated how you shared those stepping stones too. You just were persistent. You didn’t give up and, you know, become number, number one in sales.

[00:34:21] Like, and just the different journeys that we have in life to sit back and appreciate your journey, the way you share it. It’s, I hope it’s, I hope people listening realise that, you know, it’s never too late to give a heck about your life. It’s never too late to show up, right? It’s never too late to make a difference.

[00:34:41] I don’t care what age you are, right? Just take that baby step. Maybe you go from, from criminal justice to framer, to MLM, to being a top salesperson of a company, being the second largest shareholder. You never know, right? And if it doesn’t work out, guess what? Learning lesson. What are you telling yourself?

[00:35:02] Don’t tell yourself that word failure. Remember you mentioned that earlier too. Like, that’s something we get stuck on. Oh, I’m not gonna take another chance. Remember I failed on this last thing. I failed on the thing before. That’s okay. Failure’s a stepping stone to a yes. Right? So thank you so much for that.

[00:35:20] Um, you teach a lot of what you learned through your show up to build win sales training. If you had to boil it down, what actually separates the reps who make it from the ones who don’t, when it comes to sales.

[00:35:36] Daryl Dittmer: I teach that there are five steps to, and I think this is really important because, because the same principles that apply to a sales career also apply to your life.

[00:35:50] And number one is owning. Well, I’ll say number one before, number one is you gotta get right with your why. You gotta understand why you’re doing it. And your why has to be big enough and strong enough and sturdy enough to be able to handle all of the rejection and all of the no’s and all of the difficulty that you absolutely will have if you try something difficult.

[00:36:15] And, and I always say to people, if you, you know, there’s, making money is one thing, and, but money in and of itself is very shallow and very hollow and, and it doesn’t produce anything in here. At least for me, that was fulfilling. I can pay the bills, excuse me, and that’s great. I can put food on the table, I can have cool stuff, whatever.

[00:36:42] But the greatest things in life are how are my relationships? How are my commitments? How are my interactions with other people? How do I feel when I go to bed at night? Am I content? How do I feel when I wake up in the morning? You know, am I waking up in the morning with a smile on my face? Or am I waking up in the morning saying, oh man, not this again.

[00:37:03] So, and I know this is a long way around Dwight in terms of your question, but so keep it

[00:37:09] Dwight Heck: going. I love it.

[00:37:11] Daryl Dittmer: Whatever. The five things that I, that I deem most important, and, and that the number one before we get to those is your why. You gotta be able to lean on that when things get tough. But owning your experience is number one, no excuses.

[00:37:28] You’ve got to build yourself and you have to own that experience. And, and owning either success or when you fail and when you fail, isn’t permanent unless you quit. The failing is just temporary. And, and you said it, Dwight, and, and I like to expand on it a little bit, but, but in sales, whoever gets the most nos is also the person who gets the most yeses.

[00:38:00] Because you’re going through the most, you’re asking the most questions, you’re, you’re with the most people. And that’s what sales is. Ultimately. There’s a lot of people who are great at sales, but the greatest people at sales are the ones that completely own their experience and go out and see as many people as possible.

[00:38:21] So number one is own the experience. Number two is lean into the difficult stuff. You build confidence by doing things that you don’t want to do. That is so, so crucial doing the things you don’t want to do. And, and it’s easy to say, you know what, I, I don’t really feel like making calls today. I better, you know, I better organise or I better shape up my prospect list or, you know, I better take out the garbage, whatever it is to keep from getting rejected.

[00:38:52] And that’s going around the difficult stuff. Making the calls is going through the difficult stuff. And when you go through the difficult stuff, you get to do more things. If you keep going around, you’re gonna keep going around like a rotary, you know, like a, that, that, that’s just how it works. You’re just gonna keep going around and around and around trying to avoid.

[00:39:15] You have to face the fir. The third thing is build your disciplines. You have to start to develop habits and at least start to do some things differently. And, and people always say, you know, oh, discipline, you know, that makes me feel like, like, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m like, you know, in jail, like I’m in chains, I have to do this stuff, you know, and it’s, it’s, oh man.

[00:39:42] And, but disciplines will have created the most freedom I’ve ever experienced in my life. Because, because when I do the things that I need to do to set the foundation for my life every single day, I don’t have to worry about me. I don’t have to worry about rejection. I don’t have to worry about, oh, I better do that.

[00:40:08] Or, oh, I forgot to do that. Or, oh man, like I, if I’m just doing the disciplines, it frees me up to live if that I, and I hope that makes sense. ’cause that’s a really a hundred percent important one,

[00:40:22] Dwight Heck: a hundred percent.

[00:40:23] Daryl Dittmer: Building trust is the next one, which is, how are my relationships? You know, am I, am I walking into my relationships in life only worried about me?

[00:40:35] Or am I able to put the emphasis on other people? And there’s an old saying in sales, and it is, there’s two of them, but I’ll give you the first one. People don’t care how much you know, they wanna know how much you care. And everybody’s trying to prove how much they know. And very few people are showing people how much they care.

[00:41:00] So Zig Ziglar used to say, you have five holes in your head. Four of them are for receiving information, only one of them is for giving information out. So, and, and what I mean when I say that is you are going to learn exactly what you need to do to sell a prospect what they need. Or in your, in your life, life outside of sales, you’re gonna find out what, how you can help people and how you can be good to people and how you can treat them the right way.

[00:41:37] They will absolutely tell you if you take the time to listen. And then the fifth one is drive enduring success. So, so what are my assets? My assets are time, energy, health, perspective, and quiet. How am I using those things? And one of the things I like to say in sales and in life, you can’t mess with time.

[00:42:08] Time wins. You have to utilise your time as well as you possibly can all the way through. You have to take care of your energy. You can’t, you can’t have toxins all over your life. Whether it’s toxic people, toxic situations, toxic circumstances, toxic environments, those just drain your energy. Health. You have to take care of your health.

[00:42:35] You have to take care of your perspective. You know, how am I looking at life? Am I looking at life like, oh man, this, this sucks. I don’t wanna do it. Or am I looking at life like I can’t wait to start another day and then quiet. And I think quiet is really important and something that. Something that a lot of people don’t necessarily understand or, or consciously move toward.

[00:43:04] And if we look at life right now, as the most noise humanity as ever experienced is right now, social media, 24 hour news cycles, everything on, and just, you know, chirping and barking at us and, and drawing us in and, and addicting us and making us pay attention to it. All of those things, I have to balance that.

[00:43:34] I have to learn how to balance that with some quiet, and you and I were talking about it, Dwight, before we hit record, walking in nature, you know, finding an outlet, being on the, on the lake, paddle boarding, hiking, you know, and maybe sitting next to a, a glacial lake or something and just experiencing quiet.

[00:43:55] Because if I don’t balance all of that noise with some quiet, and I do anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour a day in the morning, usually that reverberates through my entire day. So I don’t get caught up in all the noise. And if and if I get noise, I don’t have to be drawn into it. And that is absolutely crucial.

[00:44:21] So. It was a long-winded answer, Dwight, to your question, but, uh, no, it’s, it was perfect that I teach. It’s, those are the things I try to

[00:44:31] Dwight Heck: help people. It’s perfect because there’s no to find answer. What have I expected? I, I pr I appreciate all those five steps because then it answers to the viewer or listener, and to me, who I’m the number one student of my podcast to wanna learn, to enhance and grow.

[00:44:49] And constantly for those watching, I’m constantly smiling. And, and I, I listen to all this and realise that I’ve gotten to where I’ve gotten because of these five steps. I may refer to ’em differently. I may do ’em differently, but without awareness in my life, without gratitude. If I don’t wake, if I wake up in the morning.

[00:45:10] And the first thing I don’t, if I don’t, if I’m not grateful and welcome for me, welcome God into my life, right? And grateful that I even my eyes. And then I’ve developed processes and my core values where everything filter through. I’m very much aware of my, of the people in my life, the things I listen to, the things I watch.

[00:45:33] I’m careful about what, um, I pre present to my human being. Self, my body, my mind, my spirit, my soul. Because it’s so easy for, like you said, all the social media, all the things that suck us in. It’s just they’re energy vampires, every single one of them. Um, you know, and one of the principles I believe in is, is always looking at and being aware of all the things in my life.

[00:46:00] And I apply it against a principle I call 70 30. I won’t get into explaining it, but anything gauging 50 50 in my life is gone. Because if I have to, if, if 50% of the time it’s good and 50% of the time it’s bad, it’s bad, it’s not good for my life. I, I need to, I need to have at least a 70%, um, satisfaction guarantee, I guess.

[00:46:23] And when it comes to what I’m associating with, who I’m associating with. So I really appreciate those five steps. And it’s easy to see what separates the reps, reps from the question who make it to the ones that don’t. They don’t have that, um, those five steps, right? Owning it, leaning into it, building it, building your disciplines, building trust, driving enduring success.

[00:46:47] They’re not following those steps. And I guarantee anybody in sales that if you get lazy and you skip steps or you skip your values, your core values or your filters, you’re, you’re not gonna succeed. You’re gonna have maybe you think to yourself, oh, I had a terrible month. I guarantee you forgot something along this of what you’ve trained yourself to follow, to succeed.

[00:47:10] And gratefulness would be the number one thing that I see with my clientele when I talk to them, when they start having failures. Um, ’cause I train, you know, you talk about, um, structure and getting things in place. For me, it’s the same thing like teaching clients that they have to the taboo thing of budgeting and understanding their numbers.

[00:47:33] I have multimillionaire clients that get it and we talk about their inflows and out fellows. But yet a person that can barely pay, pay attention, barely pay, pay their bills in life, think it’s a taboo thing to hold them back. It’s not, it’s a structure. It’s something that can help you live the best possible life that you can live.

[00:47:55] Right. So there’s lots of commonalities of what you said that are really appreciated. It, it answered the question beautifully. So thank you for that. Is there anything like else you’d like to share before we move on?

[00:48:08] Daryl Dittmer: No, no, no. That was, I, I’m, I’m glad you relate so much to it. And I, and I love that. Oh, that’s

[00:48:14] Dwight Heck: awesome.

[00:48:15] Daryl Dittmer: That success is, is fairly uniform in terms of the process. Right. Which is, which is a pretty cool thing because there’s a lot of different things to call, you know, the five steps that I’ve developed, but it’s very similar to someone else’s, you know, 10 steps broken down a different way, or seven steps that, you know, might be explained a little differently or whatever.

[00:48:38] It’s generally it’s all the same things.

[00:48:41] Dwight Heck: Oh, of course. You know, like, I released a, a podcasts that released today is a three part series. ’cause I do do solo podcasts. I don’t always have guests on, and it’s, it’s all about one pillar of a seven pillar system that I’ve been teaching for 24 years now. Right.

[00:49:01] But that one pillar alone is, without that, the rest don’t work. You know, it is that one to seven, you have to finish one first, and, and it is about awareness. It’s about being honest with yourself, right? It’s about doing those little things that develop habits and being grateful even when the things don’t work.

[00:49:23] Because it, if it didn’t work, maybe that is an awareness point for you to fix your course, to adjust your rudder so that you’re going in the right course so you don’t end up somewhere wrong in life. So I really do appreciate you, um, as I mentioned earlier, those that come, that come onto the service or that, email me, certain ones speak to me.

[00:49:47] God’s telling me that person’s meant for you to communicate with, to have a great conversation because there’s commonality. Your listeners are gonna love it and you’re gonna love it the most. So, you know, it just confirmed to me after you went to those five points that we were, we were destined to have a conversation.

[00:50:06] I like how you added earlier too. That’s another con I like when people say, oh, we could go into this, but that would be another conversation. I’m open to that, just so you know. Mm-hmm. I have, I have many guests on more than once over the last five years because we just connect, right? There’s so much more that we can learn from one another.

[00:50:24] It’s not even the fact that I’m learning from you, um, my listeners and viewers are learning from you, and then that conversation opens up so many doors for everybody. So thank you again for coming on. Um, I’m gonna get into faith. If you don’t mind, right? Not at

[00:50:40] Daryl Dittmer: all.

[00:50:41] Dwight Heck: You were raised inside a fairly religious, religious framework and you mentioned Lutheran.

[00:50:45] I, I born and raised, went through all the sacraments of being Catholic, and I’m still Catholic. I’m a practising Catholic. And I tell you this because I, I consider myself a buffet Catholic. And for those listening who are watching that have been long term followers of my show, they understand what I mean.

[00:51:02] But for you, I’ll give it in a very synopsis. We go to a buffet, we try something, we might take something, ev everything to try, we go back for the things that we really satiate us, the things we don’t like, we leave. Right? We may be, uh, aren’t necessarily satisfied when my, in my faith, there’s, there’s things that I don’t necessarily, because all religions are organised.

[00:51:24] Religions. They’re created by, they were created by man and then decimated or made better or whatever by interpretations of the Bible or whatever their interpretations, whatever form of organised religion. So I stayed in my faith. I continue to practise it. I go to church every week, but I’m buffet Catholic in the sense that I leave a, I leave the negativity or I leave the doom and gloom part of what can happen in a sermon or from individuals with inside the congregation.

[00:51:57] And I’ve grown my tribe of people. I walk into the church, they see me. We hug one another. We have really honest conversations. We, um, realise that we’re human. We’re grateful for stuff, and we leave all the things that we don’t like. And the reason I mentioned this is I have so many friends and clients that go from church to church to church trying to find the answer when the answer is within themselves, right?

[00:52:24] The, the answer is within themselves. I use my, my organised religion, my faith in the Catholic Christian faith to go to church, to be closer to Jesus, to closer to God and my, and that’s how my faith has been cemented. I don’t need to have somebody tell me, and I get it all the time. Oh, come check out our Christian Church.

[00:52:44] Come check out Protestant church. Come check out. You know, every, every form of faith I’ve had somebody that’s a client, right, that wants me, that theirs is defacto standard. And I, I tell ’em, I’m, I don’t need to. I figured my place within my, my structure of my current faith of what and well my life, faith, really not even current.

[00:53:06] So your by your own account, your relationship with God looks very different today than it did back when you were, you know, your parents dragging you to church. I had that same sort of experience. What actually changed between the faith you were raised in and the faith that you hold now?

[00:53:27] Daryl Dittmer: Yeah, a a lot. Um, and it’s been the most wonderful journey of my life, quite honestly, um, in terms of how that has shaped over time.

[00:53:40] And so when I got into treatment and got outta treatment and, and you know, there, there I, I’ve been involved or I, I had been involved in the 12 steps, which, you know, is, is for me, it was AA at that point. Um, and I probably spent a good eight, eight or nine years, you know, really going and, and trying to figure this whole life thing out, which ultimately boiled down to figuring this whole Daryl thing out, right?

[00:54:12] So that’s, that’s the, that’s the process. And, and the second step of the 12 steps is, um, you know, came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity and, and, you know, the insanity being, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, you know, which we sort of all know that, but that’s what addiction is.

[00:54:38] And so I had some real reconciling to do at that point in my life because, you know, I was at an age, nobody was dragging me to church anymore. And, you know, nobody was recommending I go to church. Nobody was saying anything about church. And I had this idea of God that was, you know, this, this, which is what I grew up with, which was this guy with, you know, the big white beard.

[00:55:01] And he is got a white robe and he’s got a chalkboard and he is writing down all the stuff that I do wrong. I don’t remember him writing down any of the things that I do right? As far as, you know, what I was taught. It was just stuff I do wrong. And if I do enough things wrong, which I wasn’t really clear on what all those sort of wrong things were, I may go to hell for all of eternity.

[00:55:26] And I’m like, man, that’s intimidating, that’s scary. That was scary to me. And, and so. I was introduced to a person who became a mentor of mine, and he handed me a book by Emmett Fox, which was called The 10 Commandments. And you know, nothing happens by accident, right? So, so I, I get this book and I’m a freshman in college, just, you know, not that, not even a year out of treatment.

[00:55:59] And I start reading this book and, and the way Emmett Fox talks about the Bible and the 10 Commandments is not from a religious perspective or from a, you know, sort of fundamental, here’s your Catholicism or your Lutheranism or whatever. It was just, he just talked about the 10 Commandments and other ways to understand them.

[00:56:22] And one of the things that he talked about, and I’ll just say for example, I’ll give a couple of quick examples, but, but one was, thou shalt not kill. And some people may need to hear that, Hey man, you’re not supposed to kill people. It’s wrong. And other people at a different level of understanding that, you know, got the whole don’t kill people thing a long time ago.

[00:56:43] They’re, you know, it’s like, well, maybe don’t talk behind your neighbor’s back. Maybe don’t, maybe don’t say something bad about a person and assassinate their character. You know, maybe, you know, that sort of thing. So different levels of understanding, because I think the prevailing thought process, you know, for most of humanity is we know we shouldn’t kill someone.

[00:57:04] So is there a different way of me for me to understand that? And another one I thought was very interesting, and I I, I love the book. I’ve read it many, many times. Where it talks about honour your father and your mother and well, yeah, I’m supposed to be respectful to my mom and dad and, and, you know, and, and that you will live long on the earth.

[00:57:27] You know, the sort of the, the last part of that commandment and, and one of the things Emmett Fox talks about is, you know, okay, everybody gets that sort of basic understanding. But what about, you know, your father’s side being your sort of, you know, more, uh, technical, brainy, emotional or non-emotional side and your mother’s side being more of an emotional way of looking at life and dealing with life and, and nurturing and those sorts of things.

[00:57:58] And that I need to honour my father and my mother because I need to honour my thinking side and I need to honour my feeling side, and I need to lead my life from not just one of those sides. I need to honour both of those sides. And how do I do that? How do I, how do I live my life in that way? So, so, so my, my perspective started to change.

[00:58:25] My perspective started to morph. And then, you know, and one of the things I put in my first book is I had a very hard time in, you know, in thinking back about my religious upbringing with. Okay. You tell me God is omniscient and omnipotent and omnipresent and all of these things that I just can’t comprehend.

[00:58:51] Right? I can’t get my head around all that ’cause I’m just kind of this dude down here doing his thing, but he also has qualities where he’s angry and jealous and, you know, and, and one of the things I say in my book is, well, I can’t define my God with the same words that I would also use to describe my neighbour or somebody I work with because it’s God beyond all that stuff.

[00:59:22] And so, so that was kind of, you know, I, I would say this, and I’ll, I’ll sort of wrap it up with this, is that it expanded my ability, not ability. It, it, it just expanded inside of me. My, my relationship with, with God became this giant sort of beautiful, um, peaceful and powerful relationship that included me.

[01:00:02] That it wasn’t just imposed upon me. And, and the other thing is, you know, when, when, when Moses goes and, and is, is, you know, meets the burning bush and God says, I am that I am. And, and what that means to me is the less I define God and put God in a little bubble and just let God be that I am, the more expansive God can be within me and within my life.

[01:00:44] So that’s, that’s, uh.

[01:00:49] Dwight Heck: That’s great. It’s

[01:00:49] Daryl Dittmer: succinct.

[01:00:50] Dwight Heck: Well, yeah, it’s succinct as I can be. It’s, it’s, oh, that’s great answer. Um, at the end of the day, for those that are listening or watching, faith for me has been my rock, right? And, and it continues to be a rock. It’s helped me through the most difficult, darkest moments in my life.

[01:01:12] And I agree with you, Daryl. Don’t put God, don’t, don’t put God in a little compartment in your brain and, and figure that you understand. Just give it up to God. That’s what I tell people all the time. When I’m struggling and hurting, I pray a lot, but I give it up to God. I give away my anger. I, you know what?

[01:01:34] Empty me, fill me. Use me is what I, what I say to myself constantly. When I feel a angst or pain about a circumstance, about a person. And at the end of the day, those listening are watching. People don’t deserve to live rent-free in your head unless it is something that’s joyous and, and gratefulness and it’s tied to our God, right?

[01:02:02] At the end of the day, you even mentioned earlier something happened to you. Well, things happened to us, right? Intentionally, we don’t always understand the meaning of why you got handed that book even. Right? But you took it, you accepted it, you moved forward, and you learned from it. And, and that’s the journey, the journey of life.

[01:02:24] We just got to give it up, right? Realise there’s better out there and we deserve it. Doesn’t mean there’s not gonna be some hills and valleys. The valley of despair doesn’t mean we’re not gonna get camped once in a while. It’s just, what are you doing? What are you feeding yourself to continue on the climb of life?

[01:02:44] Because until I take my last breath, I don’t know about you. I’m always gonna be learning, seeking and accepting my, my frailties and accepting my, my, uh, good things, my greatnesses. But it’s all because of one person or one entity, whatever you wanna call it. That’s God. So I really liked your sharing.

[01:03:07] Anything else you’d like to share about that? We’re running outta time, and I want to get into your books here yet too. Is there anything else about faith that you, you feel the listeners would, you know, accept or need to learn?

[01:03:20] Daryl Dittmer: Yeah. One quick little thing, and, and because I didn’t touch as much on faith, but I’ll just say this real quickly, is, you know, there’s, there’s absolutely, you know, evidence in my life and, and I put much of it in my books and I’m putting it in another book that I’m writing right now.

[01:03:39] But that once I have some faith and I develop some faith. The journey opened in front of me and, and I was led to different things. And I was led to that book and I was led to my mentors and I was led to places that I could learn different things. And the only thing that I needed to do, and this is the beautiful part of faith, is that the only thing I need to do is what’s in front of me to be done to the best of my ability.

[01:04:13] Because I can’t go to the past and I can’t go to the future. All I have is what, you know, I can do right now. And that’s all that’s required of me. And it takes a lot of the heat off. And that faith allows me to move forward with. Doesn’t mean fear is absent, but it means I’m being led and I’m being shown.

[01:04:36] And, and that’s a beautiful way to live.

[01:04:40] Dwight Heck: No, I love it. You know, if we had more time, I’d love to dive more into the faith, but I outta respect for you, I, we we’re gonna wrap up the show sooner than later. Um, one of the things that will answer, or pardon me, not answer, but state is I have lived by a little motto and my whole life, fear knocked at the door, faith answered, and nobody was there.

[01:05:03] And that gives me comfort. And maybe it’ll give somebody that’s listening or watching comfort, right? It’s a very simple thing to think about. Again, fear knocked at the door, faith answered, and no one was there. Faith can be your shield. It can be your armour for those difficult moments in your life. You don’t have to understand where you’re being directed.

[01:05:24] You just need to show up. You need to put in the effort, you need to put in the energy and realise you might have some character building moments, never to find your life by having bad days. Define it by having character building moments and having faith. And you will find your centre. And who knows what your timing’s gonna be for success and what’s your definition of success Goes back to what you talked about.

[01:05:48] You need to know your why. Alright, so this has been an amazing conversation. I want to have you on again. Definitely. We only got a few minutes left, but I definitely want to touch on your book. Hopefully we can squeeze a few more minutes outta you here before we wrap up the show, if you wouldn’t mind. Um, so one of the things I know when I wrote my own book, I haven’t had the pleasure of writing two, and now you just mentioned you’re on your third.

[01:06:14] Congratulations on the first two and congratulations on being writing a third. My book, when I wrote it You’re Welcome, was very cathartic. Um, I found that I was patting myself on the back, kicking myself in the pants, having smiles, having cries, five and a half months of dealing with editors. And it was so emotional and very gratifying and, and raised things in my life that I hadn’t been grateful about, I was aware of, but it, it, it laid everything to bear, if that makes sense.

[01:06:47] Right? It put out everything and made me really connect, and it helped me refocus my why. It helped me refocus my business. It, it did so much for me. What did writing these two books and now your third book do for you? What, what did you learn through the process of the, of writing?

[01:07:06] Daryl Dittmer: Number one was that I love it.

[01:07:10] I love writing. Um, you know, I really do. It’s funny ’cause about 20 years ago, uh, as I was telling my wife and, and I was 20 years into recovery, or 18 or so when I met my wife, and, you know, so, so I was pretty far down the road in terms of just, you know, being pretty solid, insecure and all that sort of thing.

[01:07:30] And, and, uh, and I was relating stories to my then, you know, girlfriend or fiance, not quite wife, about, you know, here’s this dude I used to be, and, and she’s kinda looking at me like, really? Like, you used to do that? I’m like, yeah. And so she’s like, I just don’t see it. I, I just don’t see you being that guy anymore.

[01:07:53] And I’m like, well, I’m not, I’m not that guy anymore. Um, but those are the stories. And I said, I said, remind me to write a book someday. So, so she would sort of, you know, prod me a little bit here and there. She, she wouldn’t prod too hard. She’s just not built that way. But, but anyway, a few years ago I decided after COVID, I’m like, you know what?

[01:08:14] Let’s just, let’s just do this. So we had some business interests. We, I was living in Massachusetts at the time, up on Cape Cod, and, and we had some business things going on, and we said, you know what, we’re gonna just, we’re gonna switch it up. We, we sold a business, we sold some properties, you know, we got, we just kind of pulled our horns in, you know, and, and said, we wanna find a place up in the mountains, which is, we didn’t want to be cold nine months out of the year.

[01:08:41] So we didn’t go to Colorado or Wyoming or Montana. We ended up down in Georgia in the mountains where we get seasons and, and you know, the mountains certainly aren’t as high, but it’s a, it’s a beautiful place. And, but it was a perfect place for me to start to write my first book. And, and I freed up a bunch of time to do it.

[01:09:00] So, just like you said, Dwight, cathartic, it was very healing. It was very, it was, it was a, a reenactment of my life to that point, which I had never taken the time to do because I was just doing life. And to be able to stop and sort of recreate that, um, that in the entirety of my life from just, you know, thinking about and feeling, being a little kid and how my mom was, and how my dad was, and, you know, some of the stories and things that came up.

[01:09:40] And I did the same thing. I laughed, I cried, you know, all kinds of stuff. And, and I’d be up at three in the morning, oh, I gotta write about this. And I’d write all day. And, and so it was, it was amazingly, um, illuminating and, and it helped me slow down a little bit. It helped me. Take stock of where I’ve been and, and I, you mentioned gratitude a few times and I’m, I practise gratitude every single day and it, and it leaks into my life in everything I do.

[01:10:20] And, but at that time when I was writing the book, I was like, I was like, man, I’m really grateful that I came from where I came from and I am where I am now. And, and again, going back to faith, I don’t take credit for it other than just doing what’s in front of me to be done. And, you know, the rest is, is.

[01:10:48] Is God. I mean, quite honestly, it’s, it’s being led in different places that align with my why. Um, and so very powerful stuff. And if we run a few minutes behind schedule, honestly Dwight, it’s not gonna, not gonna hurt anything. So don’t worry about it. We’ll just, we’ll just go.

[01:11:07] Dwight Heck: Fantastic. So thank you for sharing that.

[01:11:11] It’s yours. I wrote mine during the pandemic. Um, you wrote yours after the pandemic. Um, at the end of the day though, it was, I never realised I had thought about my whole life writing books. I wanted to write children’s books. ’cause you know, a single, single parent. I raised five kids as a, as a full-time as a single dad.

[01:11:33] And I used to always make up. They get tired of the stories, the ’cause every night I, we’d pray together and then I’d say stories with them when they got a little bit older. It would be group, everybody would pick a room and everybody would jump in the bed. And I’d tell everybody the same story, like read books or it would be individual.

[01:11:49] But then I started getting challenged by a couple of the younger kids, you know, we’re tired of these, let let you know, let’s get some different books. I said, well, how about I start making up some stories and we’d start making up stories and I’d say, well, gimme some things to talk about. What would you like to hear next on, on night two of what we talked, you know, and, and it would become a series, right?

[01:12:10] And it was, it was just a connection thing. So when I got older, I poo-pooed it. I didn’t like, ah, I don’t need to write a book. And when I had a friend, actually, I ran into him. Um, I went down hiking in the Narrows in Utah. And I, I ran into the, a bunch of business people. We all got together, had a little bit of business conversation, had some speakers.

[01:12:33] We did a lot of hiking together. And this one of ’em was a publisher. And he says, he starts finding out about me. He says, I’ve talked to, uh, Tony about your life and, and I’ve listened to some of your, your videos that you’ve done. I think you should write a book. And we started talking about it. And I, at first was like, no, I don’t think so.

[01:12:53] Who wants to hear anything I have to say? And he said, you’d be surprised. And the person that needs to hear it the most is you. I was just like, what? What do you mean? I need to hear it the most? He says, you need to hear your own story and be grateful for it. And, and go through that. You’re gonna go through a journey.

[01:13:11] He told me and I, and I didn’t believe him until I started doing it. And wow. And the reason I say this is I recommend anybody that’s listening or watching, if you have a story to tell, put it down. There’s pe Even if you’re not the best writer, there’s people that can cr fix your set and structure or whatever.

[01:13:29] Get your thoughts down. It was one of the best mental health experiences I ever went through. And I talk openly about mental health. I’ve had and, and speak to people even today, right? Mental health’s important, but. In order for mental health, for you to heal, you need to accept the journey you’ve gone through in life.

[01:13:52] Wouldn’t you agree?

[01:13:53] Daryl Dittmer: Yeah. Hugely important. Absolutely. And then make sure that, that, you know, many times you decide that you’re gonna do things differently, not just the same things.

[01:14:05] Dwight Heck: Yeah. Like people doing the same thing over and over again. Expecting different results is the definition of insanity. I, I tell people, you know, it’s okay to make mistakes.

[01:14:16] What it’s not okay to do is to acknowledge it. Give it up. Set your course differently, right? But there’s, I look at how many people in my life, even businesses that I’ve sat down with people and helped them set up their businesses, and how many of them failed because they thought they knew it all. And if they made a mistake, they ignored it and just kept on putting the wrong, wrong processes in place, which had already just failed.

[01:14:45] They weren’t willing to accept that their course was, was broken or was fractured, that there needed to be some adjustment. And, and it always went back to them. Right? Being humble is, uh, for me, a strength, being tenacious is a strength, right? So tenacious, being, having tenacity and never giving up is something that too many people don’t have.

[01:15:10] And I’ve seen business owners and I’d see their numbers and I’d see their business and they’d fail. Yet they were months away from being one of the biggest successes. I could see it from the outside, they couldn’t see it, and I couldn’t get through to them. So don’t give up those that are listening or watching.

[01:15:28] If you have a story to tell too, write it down. Even if you just get into journaling. I started with journaling years ago, right? Doesn’t have to be complicated. I don’t know if you, what your thoughts are on that. I just use bullet points. I’d write things down. It didn’t have to be a long sentence. It was something where my brain could look at it, it could activate my file retention access, right?

[01:15:52] It was, it was a great thing. It helped me internalise, it helped me stay out of the valley despair as much. And then when that person said to me, you need to write your book so that you understand your life before others do it. It was just, it was amazing. So what other things that did you experience when you, you wrote the two books.

[01:16:12] So when I stopped fighting and when you stopped fighting, what was, did you know you were gonna write the second book once you had finished the first book?

[01:16:22] Daryl Dittmer: I didn’t know. I, I, I suspected, as I continued to write the first book, I’m like, there’s just more in me. You know, there’s, there’s more there. And, and so what I did was, I, I finished the first book, but in the process of writing the first book, I had a lot of notes, you know, either written down or up in here and, and it was the, uh, the fodder that I needed to write or at least start my second book.

[01:16:52] And so, so my first book is basically a memoir. Uh, my journey, my story. The second one is, you know, can I help you look at your story and can I help you understand your story and maybe where you’ve gotten stuck and where you can continue to struggle and, and what it might look like. Um, if you. You know, changed your perception, maybe change some of the things that you do and embrace a different way of doing things and, and what that can lead to.

[01:17:28] So, so it went from my story to how can I help you with your story? And, and the third one is, is, you know, helping people with their sales and business journey. But at the same time, if they apply those principles to their life, they’re going to lift the entire boat of their life, not just the sails or the business part.

[01:17:55] They’re gonna help their relationships and how they feel about themselves and how they relate to the world. And so it’s kind of bringing both of the first two books together, culminating in that third book. And I’ve got a fourth one in here, but I’m not sure what to do with it, so I’ll finish.

[01:18:14] Dwight Heck: You know what?

[01:18:15] He’ll reveal it to you.

[01:18:17] Daryl Dittmer: Yeah, for sure.

[01:18:18] Dwight Heck: Right. So, uh, so what I hear again, it’s what we hear your first book was what you learned, the process, your journey. And then it was, I want to be the teacher, right? Your second book is, I’m gonna teach you, I’m gonna, you know, help you find your story. I’m gonna help you go through and do what I did with my first book.

[01:18:42] I’m gonna now be the teacher to help you go through that process. And your third one is, okay, now you’ve got this, this is what I did to get the materialistic side of life to go through that journey of accumulation of money or whatever. But in order to be satisfied with three, I had to go through one, two, and now I’m going on to three.

[01:19:04] Right? And I, and I think that that breakdown of that journey is, is great. I like the titles of the book. They’re very simplistic, but yet they’re very powerful. And is there anything specific you would want to share about either of the books that really would be impactful? Not to say that the rest is, not to say that it’s not all impactful, but what would be something that we would bring up?

[01:19:29] Daryl Dittmer: So I, there’s a story that I love and it’s in my first book, but I, but I, I think it’s indicative of what we can develop within ourselves as we go along that journey. And, and so the story takes place probably, you know, the first couple of years I’m in recovery and, and I’m going to 12 step meetings and I’m going to sometimes two a day because, because I’m kind of a wreck, you know, I’m trying to figure this whole life thing out.

[01:20:05] I’m trying to figure this whole recovery thing out. I’m at an age where most people are getting really into drinking and all that sort of stuff, and I’m getting out of it. So, so that was, you know, that was a, a difficult time for me. And, and I had accumulated some friends in the 12 step programme, you know, and, and meetings around the area that, uh, you know, we just kind of hang out.

[01:20:30] So there was this one meeting on Friday night, and it was at a community centre in a, in a neighbouring city. And so I would go to that meeting on that Friday night, and a whole bunch of my, you know, quote unquote friends would be there. Some I was closer to than others, but we were young people. And, and this meeting, there were also older people and old timers, people that had been around for a long time.

[01:20:53] And, and, and some of the people were really serious about it. I was very serious about it. And some people not so much so, so there was this older gentleman, his name was Jimmy, and he at that time had been about 40 years in recovery. And, you know, he was an older guy. He walked a little hunched over. He was kind of small in stature, but, but he had a presence and it was, it was a very cool thing.

[01:21:22] And, and so Jimmy was kind of like this deity, you know, somebody who’s been sober for 40 years, we’ve been sober for six months or nine months, or a year or whatever it is, and struggling. And, you know, Jimmy’s not struggling. Jimmy’s Jimmy’s in pretty good shape at that point. And Jimmy, but Jimmy was the only guy at that meeting who would get up in the middle of the meeting and when he would go fill the coffee carafe and he’d walk around that meeting and fill up, you know, warm up people’s coffee.

[01:21:56] And I watched that happen and I’m like, man, it should be one of us clowns, you know, one of us young people who, who are doing that sort of service work and, and, and that, that sort of humble nature that that allowed him to do that and, and, and, and made him sort of be that type of person. And, and it was beautiful to watch, but one thing Jimmy used to say, and I’ll never forget it in those meetings, and it was indicative of, of his service work, but, but he said, if you wanna be successful in life, and he is not talking about money, he is not, he’s talking about being contented and fulfilled and having great relationships and having that kind of success in our lives, which is by far the most meaningful success.

[01:22:48] He said, you have to learn how to stay small. And I kind of thought about that when I was younger and I’m like, I think I know what it means, but I’m not sure I know what it means. And now I’ve known for many, many years when he was talking about he’s, you know, you have to stay humble and, and humble is another word for teachable.

[01:23:12] And the more I think I know what’s going on, the more I’m gonna get my butt handed to me. And the more I think I am, you know, like I’m all this and all that, the more life is gonna show me that I don’t. And so opening myself to life, opening myself to learning, opening myself, to serving other people is how I stay small today.

[01:23:40] And, and that’s one of the greatest lessons of my life.

[01:23:44] Dwight Heck: Wow, that’s powerful. Um, we talked about a little bit earlier, being humble is something that so many people don’t have a clue what I do. They don’t have a grasp of the term, so it stays, you know, stay small, be humble, be teachable, is back to what I had mentioned earlier, learning till the day I take my last breath, realising that there’s always somebody out there that can teach me.

[01:24:10] It can be a little child, it can be a, somebody that’s in their nineties. Through that whole gamut of range of age, there’s so much to learn out there. There’s so many people that have had discoveries or those aha moments that I can learn from. There’s commonalities, but their story, their vulnerability is precious, right?

[01:24:33] It’s precious to that, to that lesson that I can learn. So being humble, being small, um, I’m gonna take, take that and run with the rest of my life like I’ve been doing. Um, I appreciate that story though. And that gentleman being a, um, you know, somebody that serves, I’m a big, big proponent of the five love languages.

[01:24:56] I’ve had people on and, and interviewed them that have written other books about the Five Lo love languages and created games around it. And I’m not saying it’s a de facto standard, but when it comes to, um, the five level languages, one of mine is acts of service. I’m one of those people that wants to serve and make people smile.

[01:25:18] Um, all also those that are listening. When you have a love language, that’s usually the love language you appreciate back too. So your strongest ones are what you’re looking for too. So I, I’m not a person that’s acts, you know, has to have gifts, but if somebody does something for me, I am going to fall on a sword for them.

[01:25:39] Right. If they gimme a little bit of acts of service. So listening to you tell that story about a man giving people coffee and you being, having that awareness, how many other people had awareness like that? You were at that place in your life where it was a great, powerful awareness for you and you sharing it the way you did.

[01:25:58] I appreciate it. Um, anything you’d like to talk about in regards to, um, this, this, you know, when you stop fighting and when you and the discoveries of you helping any somebody yourself.

[01:26:13] Daryl Dittmer: You know, that’s, that’s quite honestly been my life for a long time and, and, you know, never wanted to get paid for it or, or be, you know, sort of in the position where I helped people for anything other than just helping them.

[01:26:29] And, and I’ve worked with hundreds of people, uh, over the course of time and, and it’s just over the last couple of years that I’ve started, you know, being a little more official about it and, and developing it into, um, you know, true sort of programmes and that sort of thing, which I love because, and I, and the reason I say this is because, you know, there’s you, you mentioned the appreciation factor and, and a lot of times people will take, you know, whatever I have to offer and maybe not appreciate it and they appreciate it sometimes more if they have to pay for it.

[01:27:14] And, and it’s absolutely true, and I hate to say it, but it just is. And I want it to be meaningful. You know, I, I, I want it to fall on ears that are we ready and willing to listen. Um, so, so I’ve done, you know, a tonne of work with folks, but, but the greatest thing somebody can do for me is to say, you know, what you said really helped me, or What you wrote really helped me, or your book really helped me.

[01:27:46] And, and I’ve gotten a lot of those things over the years and I’m, I couldn’t be more grateful.

[01:27:52] Dwight Heck: Oh, that I love it when I have that happen. I’ve had, I had a high school kid where her dad introduced her to my book and we’ve become good friends. They live, they, they live down in the us. She’s now engaged to be married.

[01:28:06] She’s outta high school. It’s been like five years since my book come out. And some of the things that her dad sent me about how, how my book, when he bought it for her and for him, he bought two of them. Um, I’d never met him. Just, we were on social media. And then I had another gentleman that I met at a conference and gave one of my books to, he reached out to me, he said it helped him through his divorce.

[01:28:29] It helped him start up a business. He lives in Texas now is one of the most successful high performance shops in the state. And it, it makes you, and it’s not, I’m not telling you these stories to put myself in a pedestal, but the warm and fuzzies I got when they told me this stuff and how like there’s so much details to what it did for them, it did so much for me.

[01:28:52] A sense of warm and fuzzies. The gratefulness I had that. The God above, give me the ability to put that on paper to be able to share it as an introvert, when I would’ve rather have just, you know, I was the type of person that could never go on camera. I’d run across the street and avoid cameras, I’d avoid interviews, I’d avoid all that uncomfortableness, when really by charging straight on into those things that I was fearful of, having faith changed people’s lives.

[01:29:23] And it changed my life, I think, more than they even realised it. Um, and I, and I hear that from you too. It’s changed your life. Being able to help hundreds of people hearing their testimonies about what you’ve educated them on your support. Maybe it’s indirect. Maybe some of these people are giving you comments or testimonies that you’ll never meet.

[01:29:46] But it’s just all I, all I tell people is I just want to help one person at a time. For every person I help, I’m grateful. And hopefully they share it with others and they make a difference now in other people’s lives. And that’s how one person can make a difference. Those listening, when you think that one person can’t make a difference, they absolutely can, right?

[01:30:08] Daryl

[01:30:10] Daryl Dittmer: one person is honestly the only thing that makes a difference, truly one person at a time. And we’re helping one person at a time. And I, I’m absolutely powerful.

[01:30:20] Dwight Heck: And the gratefulness that you feel though, right? I lay in bed at night. I have, I do gratefulness exercises a few times during the day, especially if I, if I’m struggling, I, I’m, I, I sit back and think, okay, I look outside or whatever.

[01:30:33] What am I grateful for in my surroundings to ground myself? But when I go to bed, you know, some nights I forget and I don’t sleep the best. I sleep better when I’ve had gratefulness. I’m grateful to, to God for everything he’s presented. Right. This morning, I thought about you never even met you, yet grateful, because you’re giving me some time.

[01:30:53] I’m gonna learn some great information today. I don’t know what exactly. I have a synopsis, a bio of you, but I don’t know exactly what I’m gonna learn. And I’m never disappointed When I have that gratefulness, I get up with that attitude. I go to bed at night going, thank you, Lord. Wow. Daryl was such a great conversationalist.

[01:31:13] He’s so honest and sincere. His information touched me to my core. Please Lord, I know it did. But please make it so that it touches other people. Once it, they listened to this episode and it gets released, please make it, make it have a difference in their lives, because it’s already made a difference in mind.

[01:31:33] And that gratefulness is so underestimated by people. Be grateful for what you have. Don’t always be looking for that next shiny bobble, right? Sometimes you have everything you need around you. You just gotta be aware and be grateful for it. Excellent. I really appreciate it. So, one, we’re gonna get into the closing question here.

[01:32:00] Um, you know, at the end of the day, you spent years now helping other people build the same discipline and honesty that turned your own life around. What has the work taught you about what it truly means to give a heck and never give up?

[01:32:17] Daryl Dittmer: Excuse me. The only, the only way that I can move my life into a place that, that I love and where I’m good for other people is to give a heck. I mean, truly, there’s, there’s. There’s not anything else. Because, because if I decide at some point that, you know what, I, I just, I think I’m done. I, I think I’m not going to give a heck anymore and, and I’m going to, um, just let the waves of life toss me around and, and I’m not gonna do my disciplines and I’m not gonna, you know, take care of the people that I’m, I’m charged with taking care of and I’m not gonna give of myself anymore.

[01:33:10] I might as well just cut it off. What’s the point? Truly. And, you know, if I’m just serving my own selfish ambitions and needs and desires and all that sort of stuff, I might as well be doing drugs and drinking again, because that is what that gets me. And, and if I’m in it, you know, it’s funny because people say in it to win it, this just came into my head.

[01:33:39] But if I’m really in it to win it, I’m in it for other people and I’m in it because I want them to have a beautiful life. And, and by helping other people have a beautiful life, I am graced with a beautiful life. And I, and I truly, truly mean that. So, so to me, that’s what giving a heck is. And I don’t think there is anything more important.

[01:34:03] Dwight Heck: Oh, absolutely. I appreciate that. Um, I, I tell that to people all the time. For every person that I serve, I was put on this planet to serve others. And if I serve others well, God serves me. He brings me what I need. Right? Does it mean that what I get there isn’t an, isn’t some hills and valleys getting to there?

[01:34:27] No, God never said he’d make it smooth out all the, all the bumps and all the hills and valleys and make everything just flat. He’s there for me. But I gotta prove that I’m there for others. So I really appreciate that ending, that ending comment. So Daryl, thank you for coming on. Um, your insight, your stories, your vulnerability is so appreciated by me.

[01:34:52] Uh, I’m sure the listeners and viewers feel the same. What comes through in everything you’ve built, the sales career, the training, the books is that none of it came from talent alone. It came from actually doing the unglamorous work of showing up every day long after the motivation ran out. That’s a message of a lot of our listeners need to hear today.

[01:35:17] Daryl, what’s the best place for people to reach you, to get your books to connect with you?

[01:35:23] Daryl Dittmer: Uh, the best place to find me is on my website, which is daryl dittmer.com, and that’s D-A-R-Y-L-D-I-T-T-M-E r.com. My books, my podcast, uh, little bit more about me, um, my training, my coaching, helping, you know, salespeople, all that sort of thing.

[01:35:43] It’s all there and, and places to find me and reach out are there. And I always say this to folks, you know, if you wanna just shoot me an email if something struck you, if you wanna, you know, talk further, whatever. I am not, uh, one of those people who, you know, I don’t have somebody handling all my communications or anything like that.

[01:36:04] I handle everything myself in terms of, you know, answering emails and all those things. So if you wanna reach out and, and chat, I’m, I’m open. Just let me know.

[01:36:13] Dwight Heck: Fantastic. And I would agree, your website is good. I went on to it and I’ve checked it out. It’s a one stop shop people. Um, for those new to the Give a Heck podcast, just go to giveaheck.com, go to the top, hit click on podcasts.

[01:36:26] You will see, um, picture of Daryl, and you’ll see very detailed show notes. And what I mean by that, you can go in and read chapter summaries to see what specifically you’ve listened to. If you want to go to that specific area, uh, as well put in all of Daryl’s social media, his website links, um, how you can connect with him, as well as their full transcript for the show will be there as well for you to, some people like to go and specifically read about what you, you and I have been talking about.

[01:36:56] So again, go to giveaheck.com. Is there anything else you’d like to share before I wrap up the show?

[01:37:03] Daryl Dittmer: No, Dwight, just wanna say thanks so much for having me on. I very much enjoyed our conversation.

[01:37:08] Dwight Heck: Yeah, me too. Thank you so much, brother. Uh, I’d enjoy having you on again in the future, uh, maybe after you release your third book.

[01:37:17] Daryl Dittmer: Sounds good.

[01:37:18] Dwight Heck: Um, so to our listeners and viewers, thank you for investing your time with us today. We do not take that lightly. If this episode resonated with you, please share it. When you share an episode, it helps this message reach more people so they too can give a heck and live with purpose and intention.

[01:37:35] Please subscribe to the Give a Heck Podcast on your favourite platform and leave a comment or review. It helps to show grow and allows more people to discover conversations that challenge ’em to step up and live intentionally. Until next time, live life on purpose and not by accident. And remember, it’s never too late to give a heck.

[01:37:58] Thank you for taking time outta your day and listening to Give a Heck if you find value. I’d appreciate you sharing with your friends and family so they too can learn how to live life on purpose, not by accident. So you do not miss the next episode. Please subscribe on your favourite podcast platform and please also post a review.

[01:38:18] I look forward to reading your comments. This has been Dwight Heck. If you want to check out other podcast episodes or today’s show notes, please check out my website. giveaheck.com, and until next time together, let us all strive to give a heck.