The Jimmy Rex Show

Guest Bio:
Jon and his wife Mary Kaye have seven children, including two adopted girls from China and India, and eight grandchildren. Their two sons are graduates of the US Naval Academy, serving as active naval officers. Jon’s favorite hobbies in life include music, where he’s played keyboard in numerous bands over the years, and riding motorcycles, a passion he’s had for over 50 years. Particularly motocross, which remains his favorite sport.

Jon Huntsman began his career in public service as a staff assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He has served each of the five U.S. presidents since then in critical roles around the world, including as the Ambassador to Singapore, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Asia, U.S. Trade Ambassador, U.S. Ambassador to China, and most recently, U.S. Ambassador to Russia. In all Senate confirmations, he received unanimous votes. For his service abroad in two of the world’s most difficult posts, Huntsman received the state department’s highest honor, The Distinguished Service Award.

Twice elected governor of Utah, Jon brought about strong economic and historic tax reforms, tripled the state’s rainy-day fund, and helped bring unemployment rates to historic lows. Historically Huntsman was one of Utah’s most popular governors, reaching approval ratings as high as 90 percent. During his tenure, Utah was named the best managed state in America and ranked number one in the nation in job growth. Recognized by others for his service, Governor Huntsman was elected as Chairman of the Western Governors Association, serving nineteen states throughout the region.

Jon served in numerous leadership capacities within the Huntsman Corporation. Previously he served as Chairman of the Atlantic Council, and on the boards of some of America’s greatest corporations, including Ford Motor Company, Caterpillar Corporation, Chevron Corporation, and Hilton. Jon also served as Chairman of the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. He has been a trustee of the Naval Academy Foundation and the Reagan Presidential Foundation.

Guest Bio:
The Squatty Potty Story begins at the home of the Edwards Family — Bill, Judy, and their son Bobby, the inventors and creators of Squatty Potty toilet stools and the owners of Squatty Potty, LLC, a small family business in Saint George, Utah.

Although the family had always been very health conscious, they were dealing with some problems that most families are too embarrassed to discuss — constipation and hemorrhoids. In 2010, in search of relief, Judy Edwards consulted a therapist, who suggested that squatting might improve her condition by helping to relax her colon.

Though unaccustomed to the practice of squatting to poop, Judy was desperate to try anything, and squatting did seem to be the more natural way to do one’s business. After all, people had been squatting to poop since the dawn of humanity, and three quarters of the world’s population still swear by it.
As would be the case, Judy’s home in southern Utah was equipped with a modern, western-style toilet. While she found relief with the squatting position — raising her feet on a step stool while sitting on the toilet — it was very awkward and uncomfortable.

Short of strapping on stilts, she tried everything to place herself in the proper position to ease her discomfort — different step stools, books, buckets, and other easily procured household items. One was too high, another was too low, and none of them felt just right. The clutter also blocked the path to the most urgently needed household appliance, resulting in numerous incidents of stubbed toes, especially in the middle of the night.

Fortunately, about 35 years before this story began, Judy had given birth to a baby boy, Bobby Edwards, whom Judy and Bill raised to become a successful designer and contractor. When Bobby caught wind of his mother’s plight, he quickly realized that the standard stepstool could be redesigned. Working in the family’s garage, Bobby built several prototypes until he found one that worked — a platform of optimum height and width for assuming the squatting position and U-shaped to tuck conveniently out of the way when not in use.

The device worked so well, the Edwards built several more to give to friends and family at Christmas, and the gift was such a hit, Bobby launched a website in 2011 and started marketing and selling the product online. Squatty Potty was born. Online sales were a resounding success, with the home-based business grossing over $1 million in its first year. In that year, the Edwards had shipped their product to every state in the U.S. along with 17 other countries.

In 2012, shortly after moving production from their garage to a local warehouse, the “Dr. Oz” show called. Bill Edwards answered and thought it was a prank call from one of his kids, but he soon realized that the call was legit, and he shipped a Squatty Potty to the studio, so they could film the segment. When the segment aired, orders started pouring in.

Guest Bio:
Ryan has been involved in a very successful Internet marketing company since 2001 when the Internet began! Promoting everything from supplements, biz opp, and lead generation. With his twin brother Jeff Gardner, their affiliate network (with only 3 other employees) did over $25M+ in revenue in 2010 driving traffic. Ryan and Jeff also saw that social media was trending and started their own Social media agency in the beginning of 2015.

Eventually, Ryan and Jeff realized it was best to promote their own offer and products.

His involvement with Deer Antler Spray began before it became headline news with professional sports. Ryan purchased the domain name DeerAntlerSpray.com in 2013 prior to Ray Lewis getting accused of taking it before the Super Bowl and sales exploded overnight. Ryan says it was "Right Time...Right Place" and attributes it to being blessed and by working smart and hard. Shortly after the Super Bowl he got Deer Antler Spray into GNC and sold thousands of bottles a week for the next two years. Ryan, with the help of Jose Reyes who owned his own GNC, came up with the idea to launch a Pre Workout. Despite the wishes and threat of being "grounded" by his parents he purchased BUCKEDUP.com for $1500 and named the first pre workout "Bucked Up". With a great logo, flavor profile, right ingredients, and a non proprietary blend the company has never looked back and making waves in the supplement industry.

Guest Bio:
Since 2008, Thomas Wright has been the president and principal broker of Summit Sotheby’s International Realty. Since stepping in as the managing partner, the company has become the top brokerage in the Park City resort community and a leading brokerage in Utah. Summit Sotheby’s International Realty’s gross yearly sales volume has grown from a healthy $135 million in 2008 to $2 billion in 2018.

To achieve this market position, Thomas has brought his relentless work ethic, creative thinking and vision, and an invaluable understanding of the real estate brokerage industry. While he demands a lot from his agents and employees, Thomas is very quick to credit the success of Summit Sotheby’s International Realty to his incredibly talented team of approximately 200 sales associates in 13 offices statewide, incomparable administrative staff of about 50 talented individuals, and the support of the remarkable Sotheby’s International Realty brand.

Thomas also believes that a less obvious aspect of the company’s success comes from their unique take on the definition of luxury. To quote Thomas, “It’s not about a price point, it is about providing every client with an exceptional customer service experience”. The impressive success story of Summit Sotheby’s International Realty has caught the attention of the Sotheby’s International Realty network. As a result, Thomas has become a nationally-recognized speaker and advisor. His frequent topics include improving individual agent and brokerage profitability, sales associate recruiting, new development marketing, and brokerage management. These significant achievements and leadership responsibilities have not hindered Thomas from being of service to his clients. He continues to be a top-performing sales agent specializing in Salt Lake County.

Born and raised in Utah, Thomas attended Quince Orchard High School in the greater Washington, D.C. area. After graduating, he spent two years in Eastern Europe. When he returned to the States, Thomas’s overseas experience inspired him to learn more about Ukraine and Russia and its culture. He graduated from the University of Utah on a full-ride golf scholarship with dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in both Russian and Marketing. Through his experiences and education, Thomas has grown to appreciate cultural and perspective differences, confirming that good ideas and people come from all walks of life. This is a philosophy he extends to the communities and organizations he now serves, including each of the agents that represent Summit Sotheby’s International Realty.

A civically-minded person, Thomas is proud to have served in a number of different capacities with several key organizations in his community -- United Way of Utah and Dixie State University Board of Trustees. He currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the Utah Symphony/Utah Opera and was appointed in 2017 to the Utah State Board of Regents by Governor Gary Herbert. Thomas is the co-chairman of the Utah Debate Commission and has twice been elected to serve as volunteer chairman of the Utah Republican Party and the Salt Lake County Republican Party. He is currently a member of the Republican National Committee (RNC) where he was elected vice chair by his western region peers.

With all of his responsibilities, Thomas considers the most important to be his family. He currently resides in Salt Lake City with his wife and their four children. His greatest joys are being the resident breakfast chef and attending the many dance recitals and sporting events his kids are a part of, never missing a Friday night football game where his daughters are cheering and dancing. Thomas also enjoys golfing, fishing, traveling the world with his family, and the more recent adventure of being the assistant golf coach at his son’s high school.

Guest Bio:
Lyann Nguyen or as most people refer to her as the credit ninja, has one of the most fun and outgoing personalities that you could ever meet. A real spark of life. When I found out what she does, I knew I needed to bring her on the podcast. She helps people to restore their credit in a unique but effective approach as well as she has a very unique story. She went through some hell when the real estate market collapsed and had to find herself in a position where she herself needed to kind of start over again and re do her own credit. And it was then that Lyann really discovered what she enjoyed doing and why she wants to do that for other people.

Guest Bio:
Dean Graziosi is well-known around the world as being a leading success coach, business owner, entrepreneur, real estate expert, author and speaker. Based in Scottsdale, AZ, Dean has written multiple New York Times best-selling books and has touched the lives of millions of people around the world with his powerful messages and remarkable education. His new run away smash hit book Millionaire Success Habits has made its way to over 100 countries worldwide and his flagship education courses are changing the lives of thousands of entrepreneurs on a daily basis. It is with a true passion to help others that Dean has been able to positively impact the lives of millions of people and cement himself as one of this generations leading experts in success, wealth and abundance.

Guest Bio:
Dan a couple years ago essentially ran into some issues. He was a captain in the military special forces, Green Beret, and he noticed while he was in Afghanistan that one of the leaders of the Afghani troops that they had partnered up with had taken as a sex slave a young boy, and tied him to his bed. And long story short, this unfortunately happens quite a bit in Afghanistan. It's not really frowned upon on their culture. It's almost like a badge of honor. And Dan and a couple of his fellow military friends just decided they're going to do something about it. So they approached the man. And I am going to let Dan tell the full story. But long story short, they took care of it because of that. Dan had some issues with staying in the military. And it's just one of those stories as I hear this is everything that we aspired to be as Americans, to protect those that can't protect themselves, to be able to be a hero to somebody in that day. That's what Dan was. That's it. To Dan is.

Guest Bio:
Chance Allred wants to live in a world where everyone thinks two or three generations down the road, where businesses actively invest in humanity’s future, and where people have a say in how they create and consume electricity.

As Chief Sales Officer at Vivint Solar, Chance is at the forefront of the residential solar power revolution, where has grown his team of 1,500 sales professionals into a world-class sales organization that specializes in direct-to-consumer, retail, and inside sales channels with a lower customer acquisition cost than competitors in the industry.

With a compound annual growth rate of 225% between 2011 and 2015, Chance’s sales organization vaulted Vivint Solar from startup to the second largest residential company in the U.S. in less than four years, enabling Vivint Solar to go public with an IPO of $1.5B in 2014. SunEdison announced its intention to purchase Vivint Solar for $2.2B in 2015.

When Chance isn’t out building winning sales engines, you can find him constructing solar-powered huts in third-world countries, chumming with his friends and family, or obsessing over whatever sport he is currently playing.

I try not to ever talk too much real estate on this podcast. Again, it's not a real estate podcast. I just that's what I do. That's what I'm an expert in. And so when I come across somebody like Matt, who's truly exceptional, I want to share his story. And Matt owns over a hundred real estate properties. He's 41 years old. And Matt, very much like myself, loves to do extraordinary things with his life. I've run into Matt multiple Tony Robbins events and multiple sporting events like the World Series in the Super Bowl, stuff like that. And he's always doing fun things. And real estate is the vehicle that's allowed him to do that, much like myself. And so me and Matt just sit down on this episode. And again, originally it wasn't going to even release it on this podcast, but there was so much good information and we really kind of broke down how you how anybody can start investing real estate and why it is absolutely the best vehicle to create wealth for the long term.

Guest Bio:
Vess Pearson is the CEO and co-founder of Aptive Environmental, a provider of environmentally responsible residential and commercial pest solutions. Pearson founded Aptive in late 2015, and within just three years the company rocketed to $137 million in annual revenue. Today, Aptive services customers in more than 3,700 cities across 26 states and it ranks as the 8th largest pest control company in North America out of more than 20,000 competitors.

As a leader, Vess places a heavy emphasis on Aptive’s core values and unique employee culture, which has led his organization to win awards such as GlassDoor’s Top 100 US workplaces for 2019 - the youngest company to make the list - and Entrepreneur Magazine’s Best Companies in America.

Prior to Aptive, Vess was instrumental in building Alterra Pest Control, the sale of which allowed him and his business partner, David Royce, to build the fastest-growing pest control company in the industry.