In this episode, Nick speaks with Troy Stephens about the wisdom he’s learned from his years in the military and technology space and how to connect with and manage people best. He also shares some funny stories and insights throughout.

About Troy Stephens

Tory has over 18 years of experience working with technology companies, starting in 1998, when he first worked on Microsoft’s Technical Support team. He then served in the U.S. military from 2002-2005, with one tour in Iraq in 2004 as an E-5. He was medically and honorably discharged in January of 2005.

Since leaving the military, Troy went back into the technology space, gaining valuable opportunities to manage teams in both the software and hardware sides of the industry. At work, he takes pride in growing and developing CX teams to provide top-tier support by keeping up with best-in-class trends for supporting customers. It’s his mission to leverage technology to allow CX teams to truly get back to working with people.

Troy has taken part in architecting client platforms, enabling SaaS enhancements, and managing growth and customer experience for small-to-medium sized businesses, helping foster growth from $20-30 million in revenue to $100-300 million in revenue. Troy has also used his passion for video production in a few commercials, items for Imagine Dragons, and Real Salt Lake. Outside of work, Troy enjoys spending time traveling and enjoying all the things his home state of Florida has to offer with family and friends.

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Your Friends at “The Mindset & Self-Mastery Show”

00:00:08:17 – 00:00:33:04

Nick McGowan

Hello and welcome to The Mindset and Self-mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. And on this show, my guests and I unpack the stories that shape us and the lives that we lead on our path to self-mastery. Today on the show, we have Troy Stevens. Troy has an incredible way with people and seems to always have a great story to help someone understand a topic, a point or a situation.

00:00:33:18 – 00:00:53:21

Nick McGowan

He’s currently a VP at a tech company in Florida and has been in tech since getting out of the Marines in the early 2000. We discuss the wisdom he’s learned exploring over the years, being in the military and tech space about how to best connect with people and manage people. They share some funny stories and insights throughout. So let’s not wait any longer.

00:00:53:28 – 00:01:01:02

Nick McGowan

Let the games begin. Troy, welcome to the show, man. How are you?

00:01:01:10 – 00:01:02:24

Troy Stephens

I’m doing great, man. How are you doing?

00:01:03:09 – 00:01:19:27

Nick McGowan

I am great. This has been a long time coming. I know this is basically our second swing at this. We were going to do this a couple of weeks ago, but things have just been crazy for you. So thank you for jumping on even in the midst of the craziness that I know we’ve talked about before we hit record.

00:01:20:06 – 00:01:24:21

Troy Stephens

Yeah, no, I appreciate it. Appreciate the opportunity to be here, Matt. Appreciate the update for the conversation.

00:01:25:09 – 00:01:45:09

Nick McGowan

Absolutely. Well, dude, I always love having conversation with you. And typically you and I are having conversation with some sort of adult beverage in our hand or something else and enjoying those things last time we actually hung out, we grab some tacos, had great conversation, and ended up on the back porch of my place, just drinking a couple of beers and getting in deeper conversation.

00:01:45:09 – 00:01:53:18

Nick McGowan

That actually led to us doing this episode, so. Sure. Troy, why don’t you kick us off? Tell us what you do for a living. And one thing that most people don’t know about you.

00:01:53:29 – 00:02:13:01

Troy Stephens

I’m a VP of Customer Experience. And with tech companies, that’s that’s what I’ve done my career for since I’ve been out of the military, basically. And one thing that most people don’t know till they get to know me a little bit better is that I am terrified of bears.

00:02:13:01 – 00:02:14:29

Nick McGowan

So why?

00:02:16:02 – 00:02:34:15

Troy Stephens

Well, you know, the truth is, I mean, it comes up. I started when I was a kid. I don’t know. I just bear scary. But as an adult, I, you know, I can put some words around. The feelings of bears are bullshit. I mean, if you think about it like like a giant cat or a, you know, the big lion, right?

00:02:34:15 – 00:02:51:16

Troy Stephens

What are they going to do? They’re going to come at you. They’re going to jump at your throat, rip your throat out. And your dad right? Well, it was the movie Revenant showed. Every person on the planet. Any person who ever watches that movie. Why you should be terrified of bears. Because bears don’t want to kill you. They want to maim you.

00:02:51:16 – 00:03:26:14

Troy Stephens

They want to break you, and they want to just leave you in a hobbled mess so they have a toy until, you know, until you eventually die. So I just that just sounds that sounds terrible. It sounds just like torture, just, you know, bears. So but as a kid, I would see bears at a zoo and I would like I’ve just, you know, this undescribed fear of just heart rate kicks up and just the scary so and I’ve seen a couple in real life on motorcycle trips up to Yellowstone and stuff when I lived in Utah and just seeing them are my nope I instantly can’t enjoy my life.

00:03:27:22 – 00:03:35:20

Nick McGowan

Now so that had to have come from somewhere. It’s not like you popped out of the womb and you’re like, Hi, Mom, fuck bears. Bears need to.

00:03:35:20 – 00:03:56:25

Troy Stephens

Go. That’s what I mean. Like, I feel like, you know, like a phobia that anybody might have, right? So anything that people, you know, I’ve met people who have a phobia of spiders, and spiders are fairly innocuous. Is there some that are poisonous and they bad? But, you know, 99% of the spiders you run into are not going to be a thing.

00:03:56:27 – 00:04:08:04

Troy Stephens

But people are terrified of them. So I don’t unfortunately, I don’t have a unique story where, like, I was at a zoo, I fell into a bear enclosure, the crap out of it, you know, my dad had to jump in and say I would.

00:04:08:04 – 00:04:08:22

Nick McGowan

Do it, that.

00:04:09:07 – 00:04:47:19

Troy Stephens

That would definitely do it. I wish I had a good a good story behind it. It’s also why not a ton of people know that, because I don’t have a good way of describing or explaining it. And so, you know, it’s just there’s just something about them. I mean, now where some of my friends have taken this to an extreme is a good buddy of mine got one of those once a lifetime opportunities to go Kodiak bear hunting in Alaska was able to after their 10th day was able to was able to get a bear and ended up having it stuffed and had it delivered it took a year and then it got delivered.

00:04:47:19 – 00:05:07:14

Troy Stephens

We’d hang out all the time, got delivered right, like right in the midst of COVID. And so we’re having house parties not really going out. And then he gets this Kodiak bear delivered and I mean even stuffed. I could I, there’s a couple of pictures I have next to it and I’ve had to use it to face my fear.

00:05:07:14 – 00:05:24:07

Troy Stephens

But I didn’t. I stopped going to their house. We stopped being friends for like two or three months. I didn’t go over there anymore. And then if I did, I would always just go around the back of their house but hang out by the pool. And I wouldn’t go outside. And something about bears, they’re just terrified.

00:05:24:07 – 00:05:35:06

Nick McGowan

I mean, when you talk about them just kind of kicking your ass, kicking you around and just manipulating your body parts so just like. Right, yeah.

00:05:35:13 – 00:05:58:07

Troy Stephens

That’s an interesting way to put it, but for sure. Right. And it’s I think it’s, you know, I can kind of correlate it to my desire to, I guess, see control, right? Being able to control my environment and and bears are just one of those things. If there’s something big that just comes and kills you, you’re dead and there’s nothing you can do about it but a bear, you know, they’re most of the time they’re not just going to aggressive.

00:05:58:07 – 00:06:15:02

Troy Stephens

They’re going to show themselves. They’re going to be like, hey, this is my space. And it’s not like you can be like, cool, I’ll leave your space. Like, No, I’m going to come and I’m going to destroy you. I’m going to beat you up and take you back to my cave. Like that’s a, I think another good movie, you know, without a paddle.

00:06:15:07 – 00:06:23:21

Troy Stephens

While they took the funny side of it as it know, Revenant took the evil side of it, you know, they took the fight. It’s still terrible. Terrible bears are just worse.

00:06:25:06 – 00:06:41:10

Nick McGowan

Bears kind of open up the rest of this conversation because that thing, whatever, that phobia or whatever, that problem is, you think about your buddy who has no problem with it at all, to the point where he went and killed one and was like, I want you to stuff shit into that and then send it to me.

00:06:41:11 – 00:06:56:26

Troy Stephens

And he’s well, he wants to go back with and go with the spear. So he went rifle and he’s like, No, it was bow. He went with a bow and he’s like, honestly, he’s like, I even feel like that was cheating. And he’s like, I think if I’m going to go face a bear again, he’s like, I need to go with the spear.

00:06:56:29 – 00:07:02:18

Troy Stephens

And that’s as close to and I’m like, Man, if you’re gonna be a real man, go bare hands. You know, like, you know.

00:07:03:16 – 00:07:05:03

Nick McGowan

You go get your buddy killed.

00:07:06:21 – 00:07:24:29

Troy Stephens

He he brought a bear home. Of course, you know, he deserves it now. It’s but yeah, no, there’s, you know, like, like anything else, right? A bear can, you can translate that into any beer, any type of thing. Hold this back from now. I think my fear of bears have really held me back from a lot of activities I want to do.

00:07:25:13 – 00:07:27:05

Troy Stephens

Sure. But, you know, but.

00:07:27:20 – 00:07:32:01

Nick McGowan

We also live in Florida, where our bears don’t normally come out. And, you know.

00:07:32:10 – 00:07:42:16

Troy Stephens

I thought that and then we’re cruisin around and there’s signs you get up to like just pass the Newport Richey, you go up to which you watch. Are you in that area? Black bears. Black bears.

00:07:43:13 – 00:07:52:27

Nick McGowan

Yes. That kind of makes sense. I’m used to like the beach area, Tampa, Clearwater, where we have bears, but they usually hang out in clubs and hit on people birthdays.

00:07:53:06 – 00:08:00:20

Troy Stephens

And that’s that’s also why I live in St Petersburg. Right. That one of you there does not downtown St Pete does not have a lot of black bears all around.

00:08:01:18 – 00:08:01:28

Nick McGowan

No.

00:08:02:20 – 00:08:06:16

Troy Stephens

A couple Bears fans, but that’s about it. And that’s and there’s only like two.

00:08:07:06 – 00:08:11:13

Nick McGowan

Exactly. They’re they’re all converting to Tampa Bay Bucs fans at this point.

00:08:11:20 – 00:08:13:22

Troy Stephens

That’s right. Who is it? I mean, come on. Come on.

00:08:14:27 – 00:08:31:16

Nick McGowan

I mean, you know, I’m a Philly fan and I hated Tom Brady for the longest time, only for the reason that he took a Super Bowl away from us. You really didn’t. He just they just beat our asses. And Donovan was kind of drunk, and T.O. was a diva, but that’s a different story.

00:08:31:18 – 00:08:36:18

Troy Stephens

And he was on point. I mean, look, when the goat shows up, you know, you want a bear, but you didn’t have one.

00:08:37:05 – 00:08:51:27

Nick McGowan

You know what? But let’s think about it this way. Here’s. Here’s the saving grace for Tom Brady. Like it fucking matters to him. Yeah. The guy who beat him, the team. But the leader of that team who beat him, his name was Nick, so I’m good with that.

00:08:52:14 – 00:09:16:24

Troy Stephens

Yeah, that works. And my dad’s, you know, my dad’s from Pennsylvania, right? So I mean, I grew up a Steelers fan. I grew up, you know, it’s Pittsburgh Pirates. You know, it’s all it’s all Pennsylvania love. But yeah, and I’ve lived so many different places now, you know, I lived in Seattle and I’ve, you know, I was down in L.A. and I’ve been out to you know, I’ve lived in Nevada, which now you got the they’ve got the Raiders.

00:09:17:29 – 00:09:18:09

Nick McGowan

Now they.

00:09:18:09 – 00:09:41:05

Troy Stephens

Do. And I lived in Baltimore now being a Steelers fan, living in Baltimore, living in inner city Baltimore, that was a that was a rough time. There was one time I walked out with a jersey and that night my car got broken into four. So like it was. Yeah. And I lived, I mean, I lived, I don’t know, mile away from the stadium downtown.

00:09:41:25 – 00:09:53:08

Troy Stephens

So, so yeah, it was, it loved being down here, being, you know, with the bucks. It’s a, it’s, it’s fanfare kind of fun, but, you know, oh, yeah, it was black and yellow. Let’s go, steel.

00:09:54:20 – 00:10:14:25

Nick McGowan

Screw you. Black and yellow. We’re bleeding green here. So on a different topic, let’s actually jump back a little bit. Give us some context. So you’ve lived in different areas. You’re now in Florida, you’ve been here a number of years. But take us take us back a little bit. Where did you come from? How were you raised? And basically what led you to where you’re at now?

00:10:15:25 – 00:10:37:25

Troy Stephens

Oh, man, who’s going back? All right. So I mean, I was born in Utah at the time. My dad was still in the military. So he was he was army is an artillery, airborne artillery still one of the funniest things I thought of just drop a cannon out of a plane and then you just jump out with it wherever you land, set up or blown stuff up, right?

00:10:39:18 – 00:11:07:00

Troy Stephens

So I was born in Utah, my dad was stationed in Alabama, so I was in Utah for like two weeks. My mom was visiting family, went to Fort Rucker, Alabama there till I was six, and then back to Utah. I’m the baby is six kids and you know that that has its relevance a little bit, I think in my life story one being the baby, you know, we get all the we get all the love and all the attention according to my siblings.

00:11:07:00 – 00:11:45:18

Troy Stephens

Right. But but really, it’s, you know, it gave it’s the unique perspective that you get coming from a large family. Utah is predominantly LDS. And my parents at the time when I was born, were active in that religion. LDS Mormon Church. But by the time I was four or five, they kind of stopped going to church. So the whole religious aspect of what, you know, the culture that I grew up in was kind of shielded in a sense.

00:11:45:18 – 00:12:11:28

Troy Stephens

You know, my parents always raised us and it was the conversation was it doesn’t matter what someone believes, where they’re from, as long as they’re not trying to cause you harm or trying to hurt you, then love, accept them and move forward. And it was an interesting perspective to be raised with because when you raised I don’t know I don’t know if you spent a lot of time with heavily Christian based groups that believe that their what they what and how they do is right.

00:12:12:23 – 00:12:51:05

Troy Stephens

Acceptance is usually one of the most challenging things to get it to get. But, you know, I grew up there, grew up in Utah, and I’ve always just had kind of a gypsy soul watching my older siblings kind of go through life. Oldest brother’s about ten years, so that’s the spread. So watching them go into the traditional world of you go to college, you know, for, you know, it was on a mission, come home, go to college, get married, have babies, put money into a41k, buy a house, live there for 30 years, pay it down and retire.

00:12:52:13 – 00:13:15:15

Troy Stephens

And that was you know, that’s kind of how my dad grew up in the sticks of Pennsylvania. And so he grew up without money and he was, you know, kind of worked his way through life challenges to kind of get into that, you know, middle class kind of space. And bought a house and worked this job, clocked in Monday through Friday night, five and Saturday.

00:13:15:15 – 00:13:37:10

Troy Stephens

He took care of his yard Sunday he watched football. Monday, he went back to work, you know. So it’s that, you know, present absentee that kind of scenario. So just I would say watching that and watching my siblings go through that. One of the things I used to say as a kid all the time, as a grown ups always look miserable.

00:13:37:10 – 00:13:54:28

Troy Stephens

You know, it’s as a as the responsibility kind of stacks on and and you’ve got all of these things that you have to take care of all this responsibility. It, you know, it weighs on you as a person and especially as a man. I was so raised in that concept of, you know, no matter what you do, you have to be a provider.

00:13:54:28 – 00:14:17:14

Troy Stephens

You have to you have to provide, you have to take care of it. Is your it is your role, your responsibility to be the person in your as whatever family you go on to create, that you have to take care of everything. And so it was seeing that the same people miserable. It was just it just didn’t speak to my soul.

00:14:17:14 – 00:14:44:26

Troy Stephens

So I wonder lost my my wonder wander luster. It was very, very, very prevalent as a kid. And I’ve always been insanely outgoing, so very much the detriment. If I was born now, I would be kidnaped instantly, like I just because I would I, I would just wander off with people. I mean, I, there, there were times we’d go on family vacations and I would just be gone and I’d disappear.

00:14:44:26 – 00:14:56:12

Troy Stephens

And I, I, you know, I was found my way back, but I would just take off, like, you guys seem interesting, and I would just walk and listen to their stories and and talk to people. And my mom’s chasing me around, you know?

00:14:56:12 – 00:14:56:26

Nick McGowan

You still.

00:14:57:08 – 00:15:02:08

Troy Stephens

I mean. Yeah, I know, I do. Yeah. Now I’m just a little bit bigger and I can kind of I can keep.

00:15:02:08 – 00:15:05:22

Nick McGowan

Up easier to see you was a six foot five guy that’s talking to somebody.

00:15:05:22 – 00:15:27:09

Troy Stephens

Yeah, yeah. Let’s I’m like, hey, I’m over here. But but yeah, yeah. You know, doing that, living in a place Utah is, is such a unique place. I tell people for years it’s it was a bubble that was anywhere from 2 to 5 years behind kind of the rest of the world. And, you know, I go back to visit.

00:15:27:09 – 00:15:55:03

Troy Stephens

I got a lot of family there. It was pretty much the same way I get there. And it just it’s almost like you’ve just kind of dropped back a couple of years in time and it didn’t really sink in until I started moving and leaving the state. But since I’ve been 18, I’ve had 60. I’m in my 61st address right now.

00:15:56:07 – 00:16:21:25

Troy Stephens

And as an example, I mean, I’ve been in Florida for five years now and we’ve had eight, eight addresses and we’re gearing up here in the next couple of months, we’ll probably be moving again. And so I moved around a lot. I mean, I a really touch base on a lot but it’s I don’t know as we talk about this I think to expand on my life it just you know so there’s 40 years to unpack, right?

00:16:21:27 – 00:16:53:22

Troy Stephens

Sure. Um, I would say one of the key things though. Yeah, I’ll say one of the key things. I will say this, that something that was said as a kid sitting on the on the bed of a truck hanging out with a friend in a driveway, you know, we smoked a little bit as a kid. And I still remember just saying, you know, all the old people that I’ve talked to even then and you talk to people now, it’s what do they regret when they’re dying?

00:16:53:22 – 00:17:26:02

Troy Stephens

What’s their regret? You know, and it’s a people, you know, you hear the phrase like you, you regret all the things you didn’t do. And and at the end of the day, for me, it was I didn’t want to be 60, 70, 80, 90 and not have a story. So I kind of made a promise to myself as a kid that, you know, I was even watching, you know, at 13 and 14, I was seeing my 24 year old brother going through school to get his Ph.D. and just it didn’t look happy.

00:17:26:16 – 00:17:45:27

Troy Stephens

And I try to talk to like, well, hey, what did you do? Like, what’s going on? Like you’re doing the super cool HD stuff, like doing the super cool stuff. Tell me about it. You know, it’s just the thing sucks. So I made a promise that I’d be kind of like a yes man. I would want to live life, to be able to have a story to tell.

00:17:46:27 – 00:18:11:06

Troy Stephens

And at the end and then just in the core of that was but also try my best to be a nice person. People have a good story to tell that has a positive message that not anything like, Oh, we’re going to go change the world. But it’s, you know, it’s try to do no harm, try to leave things better than where you started or they started when they came into your existence.

00:18:11:22 – 00:18:13:02

Troy Stephens

And that’s my goal.

00:18:13:24 – 00:18:37:29

Nick McGowan

And I love that you you naturally just like to talk to people and want to learn and hear other people’s stories. You and I joke about the stories that we tell because we know that stories help you sell things. They help you kind of get the point across a lot easier psychologically. It just makes sense that people, they eat things in stories like, Oh, I get this great, I can run with this thing.

00:18:37:29 – 00:18:57:14

Nick McGowan

I love that you are one of those people that can just talk to anybody and you’re open to have those conversations. My brother’s the same way where he’ll just kind of wander off and he’s like, Hey, I met these people. They do these things, and there are a lot of people in the world that don’t ever allow themselves to be able to do that right.

00:18:57:16 – 00:19:06:28

Nick McGowan

Like they don’t even look up when people are walking by where you typically look to see like somebody’s looking at me, are we going to fucking talk? We’re going to have a conversation.

00:19:07:23 – 00:19:27:20

Troy Stephens

As I know that you have lived all the years of this life, that you’ve been on this planet. And so you have stories. You have stories and you have perspectives and things that I could I could not fathom or understand and I want to hear because I think it’s I’d love it. I mean, a fun one. This is this is a fun story that happened recently.

00:19:27:21 – 00:20:00:07

Troy Stephens

Right? I don’t know. I mean, this is just we’re we’re getting we’re getting a hot tub for one of our rental properties and found a hot tub someone’s given away for free. Reach out to the person. And like anything else in Facebook land, right. You put something and you get a thousand messages, right? This guy just kind of randomly schools scrolled through and picked he I think he picked my message because my Facebook profile has some like whiskey barrels in the back that I had bought one day.

00:20:00:07 – 00:20:21:21

Troy Stephens

And I turned him into a dartboard. And and I had a question that wasn’t just like, hey, is it available? Right. I just asked if it was 110 or 220 and short. The short of the story is go to pick it up. Two different groups failed to come and help me get it and I contracted that too to show up while talking to the guy.

00:20:22:14 – 00:20:47:24

Troy Stephens

He’s having a barbecue event happened last Saturday that we got invited to. That was like his birthday party. So I went. I smoked a brisket and a pork shoulder and went and showed up at the party. And just 70 people we don’t know at a meat fest, that idea that this guy has been doing, he’s called it deemed as meat fest that he’s been doing for seven years for his birthday and made a new friend.

00:20:47:24 – 00:21:05:19

Troy Stephens

And so they’re planning on coming out to the beach with us. And one of these days and it’s just and the stories that we got to listen to while we were there were fantastic. We met a bunch of people that, you know, just good people. That guy does tile work. So he is probably going to end up doing some tile work on a remodel or a bathroom and.

00:21:06:09 – 00:21:06:22

Nick McGowan

Awesome.

00:21:07:00 – 00:21:08:19

Troy Stephens

From picking up a free hot tub, you know?

00:21:09:00 – 00:21:27:28

Nick McGowan

Yeah, but it’s really from you stepping out and doing that thing. So one of the things about the show and the people listen to the show, they’re they’re like you and I, they’re ambitious. They’re doing things, but they’re working to be better at what they’re doing. And in certain ways, they’re working to not be as bad as they were the day before.

00:21:28:09 – 00:21:45:01

Nick McGowan

So I think that’s one of the great lessons for people to be able to take is just take that first step, some of it just the action of going to do their thing. What is it? If you had to kind of encapsulate that and share that with somebody, what sort of advice would you give to somebody to be able to kind of have that skill?

00:21:46:28 – 00:22:11:12

Troy Stephens

You know, some of the stuff, you know, I’ll relate, you know, I relate a lot with it with the question. My, you know, my wife is immigrant from Mexico. And you came here after college, wasn’t she? You know, being being my age, being 40, you know, computers. She didn’t see a computer until she got to college. And just it’s where she grew up.

00:22:11:12 – 00:22:35:26

Troy Stephens

And she got her degree in industrial engineering. And just, you know, people have never really been her forte. It’s never been you know, she just people are always just don’t around. And we talk about it a lot as a skill or a thing. And and maybe if if it boil it down to a skill, it would just be to give it a chance to be open.

00:22:36:27 – 00:23:06:27

Troy Stephens

But the truth is that everybody or I can’t say everybody, right? You know, platitudes of everybody. But most people want to connect. Most people want to tell a story, be heard, be valued, know that, that their thoughts and their existence matters in a big way, that that happens is somebody listened. So it’s the you know, you think, oh, I should say hi, I don’t want to.

00:23:06:27 – 00:23:30:18

Troy Stephens

And then all of the secondary thoughts come in as to what you why you shouldn’t. And they don’t care. There’s no reason. And then all those questions come out. If you just speak and say how I then your brain has to shut down all of that second guessing. And so those are one of the exercises that I’ve worked on through with actually my wife in that concept of making friends.

00:23:31:02 – 00:24:01:05

Troy Stephens

And I would say, well, as listeners, we all know as an adult, making friends is just weird, right? It’s it’s a weird experience, you know, it’s because you’re just like, yeah, you live for however many years you’ve been alive. Like, we should just hang out, you know? But that, that idea just to open up and say hi and be open to the tour response and if you’re proven right, then guess what?

00:24:01:06 – 00:24:22:09

Troy Stephens

You just get validated that you’re that you were right. When you’re proven wrong, you get to hear a story. And that’s and from that, that connects to me that connects to almost all people as well is to hear a story, hey, how’s it going? No, for real. How’s your day? Just one crazy thing about the day. I feel like.

00:24:22:09 – 00:24:43:16

Troy Stephens

Oh, well, you know, here’s what’s going on at some people be like, I don’t know you. I don’t want to talk to you. Right. You know, and I don’t I wouldn’t say necessarily to just go running up to strangers on the street, but when you have that, I should say hi to it. And that’s and that’s a part of that, you know, that first step, right?

00:24:43:16 – 00:25:08:23

Troy Stephens

It’s kind of the, you know, building habits, all that extra. You could read so much about how to how to win friends and influence people do this that I always boil it back down to the core of everybody is actually pretty cool. And so like there are interesting and you’re an interesting person you’re interesting I’m interested everybody is all seen just crazy, crazy, crazy things.

00:25:08:23 – 00:25:31:06

Troy Stephens

So say hi and see what happens. And that’s and I think that more people would be surprised at the more of the kindness. And then I, you know, then I can take it into when you’re getting thrown a ton of hate filled with kindness. And I can put a post on, on Facebook today that I’ve just got a slew of hate about.

00:25:31:19 – 00:25:50:06

Troy Stephens

And from it talked to two people who are now trying to have a do or do business together. They are are you suck you’re these these isn’t a you’re the worst kind of person. I’m like, yeah, that’s cool. What do you do for a living? It’s and so I don’t know, like it’s being open and that’s I think that’s an extreme level of it.

00:25:50:06 – 00:25:58:12

Troy Stephens

But boiling it all back down to that one piece of advice is be open to your own curiosity and say hi when you think about it.

00:25:59:17 – 00:26:16:14

Nick McGowan

Yeah, that’s such an awesome thing. Then I actually I subscribe to what I call the Rule of three that if something pops into my mind like, You should go talk to this person the first time, I might be like, Man, I don’t want to rush it off. Second time it comes back, I’m like, I know you came here before, but I told you no.

00:26:16:25 – 00:26:43:29

Nick McGowan

And the third time it comes back like, All right, I should do something with this. I kind of think of that as a little bit of a guard nod, but that whatever way we want to look at it, you know, if something comes back to you a couple times, that’s a reason for you to go do it. And it seems like you’ve actually done that a lot to the point, maybe not that specific three, but you’ve done that to the point where now it’s just part of your body and it’s ingrained or you’re looking for those things.

00:26:45:05 – 00:27:07:24

Troy Stephens

Right. And, and I would say I heard a I heard a quote the other day, and I unfortunately, I went to actually go write it down and know who it came from. So this is not from me, but it talks about like a good way to look at the human mind is it’s just a forest and the habits, you know, when we go through thought electricity, you know, it tries to go through the path of least resistance.

00:27:08:10 – 00:27:29:04

Troy Stephens

And if you think about a forest, you go hiking, you think about getting out to nature. You if you go, you can see where there’s a clear path and then there’s just forest. We’re creating new habits. What we’re deciding to do is to kind of cut through the habits. Don’t don’t take the road, always travel. Don’t take that path.

00:27:29:04 – 00:27:53:22

Troy Stephens

That is, you know, something that we know we need to fix because we know where that path goes. We’ve got to start cutting a new path. And if we only go there once or twice, what happens? Right path gets overgrown. But if we continually go there, then it becomes the path. And the scary part about it is you don’t know for sure where it goes, but I do think that habit I have formed the habit of being open to people.

00:27:54:04 – 00:28:17:18

Troy Stephens

So there’s still I still have my reservations, especially now as an older man. You can’t just go randomly talking to everybody, right? You know, kid, it was a lot easier today, you know, and then it was more like it was weird for them to be talking to me, you know, not the other way around. But but now I just it has, it is to form that habit of being comfortable with that stage, of being uncomfortable.

00:28:18:02 – 00:28:27:14

Troy Stephens

But then it that uncomfortable becomes comfortable. It’s I’d rather ask the question, say hi and have the chance of a story than not say anything and know for a fact that I won’t get one.

00:28:28:01 – 00:28:49:21

Nick McGowan

Yeah. You never know who you’re going to connect with, you know? You never know what’s behind that face. Somebody could have a story that just really relates to you, but if you never actually step into that conversation, you have no idea. And I think what you’re talking about there is like the reps where like you do that so many times that it’s just part of what you do.

00:28:50:09 – 00:29:06:22

Nick McGowan

But it’s interesting because there’s also like I remember being in your office because Troy and I used to work together, I was in your office, and at one point you’re like, Yo, dude, I can’t do what you do. You take all these no’s and just bullshit with sales and I don’t want to do any of that. I was like, Really?

00:29:07:04 – 00:29:23:20

Nick McGowan

Because you basically do that constantly anyway just by talking to people. So it’s some of the stories that we tell ourselves of like what you do and what you don’t want to do, even back to the bears. Like if I told you, Yo, Troy, I need you to go into this room. There’s a bear in there. You’d be like, Fuck you, I’m not going in there.

00:29:23:20 – 00:29:25:02

Troy Stephens

I’m going to have a what.

00:29:25:02 – 00:29:42:02

Nick McGowan

If it’s a little stuffed animal bear, a little teddy bear, would you? It might be a different story, but just knowing at that point, like what it actually was, if you knew beforehand, that’s a teddy bear, you be like, Fuck off, don’t screw with me. You know, whatever other stupid teddy bear throw it at you.

00:29:42:05 – 00:29:46:08

Troy Stephens

Yeah, I’ll tell you, literally temperature. My heart rate might go up a little bit, but I still thought they were you.

00:29:46:26 – 00:30:05:25

Nick McGowan

Yeah, but if you don’t know that, you don’t know. So it’s the fear of the unknown. And I think that’s what stops a lot of people, even just people in general. So look, as we get older and we try to make friends, that in and of itself can be weird. But now people are working hybrid, they’re working from home, but sort of at the office.

00:30:05:25 – 00:30:17:21

Nick McGowan

And some people are changing jobs. So you’re relatively new at the position you’re in, but you have new people that are coming through. And how do you guys manage that and how do you help your team kind of manage their mindset through that?

00:30:18:00 – 00:30:37:19

Troy Stephens

Ultimately, as I go throughout, as I actually look back on my career and some of the things that I that I’ve tried to tackle and the my perception and my perspective has always been when I say I say the cliché thing of people first and but for me, what it means is that I really am interested in the story of people.

00:30:38:12 – 00:30:56:25

Troy Stephens

So everybody is motivated differently. Right. And when it comes to work and it comes to what we do and I and I’ve had positions when we work together where I take over a team, a team of people that have worked together, they’ve worked together for years. Some in some cases, you know, I have individuals that work for me right now, their work for the company.

00:30:56:25 – 00:31:21:18

Troy Stephens

For 18 years I have been here, their adult their entire adult life, first job out of college and work. This is where they’ve been. So their entire work experience has always been here and the people that have come in and out of it, my belief, my unique perspective, which maybe not unique, but is that every person we live in just the world, the story in the movie that we’re in.

00:31:21:18 – 00:31:38:11

Troy Stephens

And so I most of my time and how I motivate people is by getting to know them because I there’s no way I could walk in. And I’ve seen this and I’ve been part of it where I could walk in and say, Look, here’s the ten rules. You follow these ten rules, you walk in every day, you do these ten things, and that’s what you get on.

00:31:38:11 – 00:31:58:03

Troy Stephens

Giddy up, don’t do it. That’s fine. Here’s the review. Check, mark off, check, mark off. No raise for you and get the hell out. Right. That’s one way of that is one way of trying to lead something my way. It takes a lot longer because I spend a lot of time just spending time getting to know people. I do.

00:31:58:06 – 00:32:29:23

Troy Stephens

I have a couch in my office just so people can come in, sit down, be comfortable and talk and get involved and hearing what their story is, is where throughout my years of managing, leading people and again, probably a unique thing, being able to lead people in a war where decisions were being made, where someone might have to go and die, is a lot easier to make a decision where someone might have to go out and send an email or get yelled out by a customer.

00:32:30:18 – 00:32:31:09

Nick McGowan

Way different.

00:32:31:09 – 00:32:52:13

Troy Stephens

No. So way different scenario. But you can still tackle each of those things with grace because just because that might have been my experience doesn’t mean that that’s that person’s experience. But my comfort level with being able to communicate and listen to the story as was hers was is a lot higher because of those experiences in my world.

00:32:52:26 – 00:33:13:09

Troy Stephens

Yeah, but listening to what people have to deal with, what they’re dealing with in their home life, and how they perceive the work that they’re doing allows me to kind of cut through and communicate the way that they need to hear a story and then tell stories that allow them to hear what they need to do so they can kind of catch the vision and that excitement.

00:33:14:12 – 00:33:30:09

Troy Stephens

Also, you know, a lot of people who have worked for me in the past and I’ve worked with will also tell you that most of the first person to be like, hey, you need to not be here anymore because you’re not living up to your potential, your your choosing to come to a place. It’s obvious that you’re not happy.

00:33:30:24 – 00:33:50:29

Troy Stephens

Let me help you find a place that’s different than here. It’s scary, it’s new. But let me help you find that new place, because you have, at least here, you know for a fact you’re unhappy there. You might have a chance. And it’s not that the grass is always greener, but if you’re playing in the mud to look for, go look for some grass.

00:33:50:29 – 00:34:12:17

Troy Stephens

Right. And that’s and that’s and that’s just kind of how I’ve tackled all of my leadership is doing everything I can to try to understand. And, you know, obviously I can see it now. I could probably go through and find a bunch of past employees and kind of put that out on my resume as my references of, you know, did I really genuinely want people to know.

00:34:13:03 – 00:34:42:29

Troy Stephens

And with that, you find the right way to motivate people. Everybody’s motivated different. Once you once you know how to motivate somebody, then you know, then it’s easy to go through and say, okay, here’s the project. We’re going to work on. And you can you learn how to work with those all those personalities. And, you know, it’s kind of to your point earlier when I said, you know, going through all the no’s there is it’s it becomes easier for me in the in the space in the customer experience world.

00:34:43:08 – 00:35:12:18

Troy Stephens

It’s not that I won’t get yelled at. I will get people to say no. But I get a lot more time to get to know a person and get to hear their stories and their and eliminate the walls that way. Then as much as you do and like that hunter sales role, right where it’s a B, I’ve got to quickly get in and do something and I’m more of the it’s okay the here’s that long game and that’s you know my perception right from a customer experience to a sales course I’m told all time I’ll do sales.

00:35:13:26 – 00:35:16:21

Troy Stephens

I’ll do up sales right.

00:35:16:21 – 00:35:38:08

Nick McGowan

I, I think that’s where, you know, you and I are kin in certain ways where we really like to be able to settle in, get to know somebody and have those conversations. I’ve shifted that mindset, at least in the company that we worked with, at least in my division, to have them understand that it’s not just a dial for dollars sort of situation, it’s a relationship.

00:35:38:08 – 00:35:58:23

Nick McGowan

Think you need to build the relationship with these people. You need to be real with them. There are certain people where I’m like, Yo, I appreciate where you’re at. This is not going to be the right fit for you. Let me help you find something different. Similar, like what you’ve done with different employees at the same time. If you can, you can connect and you can actually speak with those people and get to a real level.

00:35:59:12 – 00:36:15:02

Nick McGowan

I’ve seen you done you’ve done that with actual employees. Before we were joking a little bit before we hit record about sitting in your office shooting the shit and somebody coming in and be like, Hey, I want to ask you about this thing. And you’re like, Let me tell you a story now. Like, I fucking want this answer.

00:36:15:11 – 00:36:19:16

Nick McGowan

You’re like, Yeah. And I’m like, I know you.

00:36:19:16 – 00:36:21:06

Troy Stephens

Do, but if I tell you, yeah.

00:36:21:24 – 00:36:46:24

Nick McGowan

That story was always leads them to figure out, Oh, I need to do this thing because of what you said, the story. And you’re like, Yeah, so what about this? And that would just lead off to them going, Oh, I got it. Thanks. And it’s almost like they came up with it on their own. I think that’s really because you knew those people, like you actually sat down when you got that job to figure out who the fuck are you, why you work here, what’s your deal?

00:36:46:24 – 00:37:16:11

Troy Stephens

How do you work here? What motivates you? What were you what is your what is your real life like? Right. There’s there’s this work life and and you’ll hear me you’ll hear me say it a lot. It probably when we worked together, you probably heard me say it a lot where it’s leverage technology to give back the people because we need, you know, despite all the direction that we’re going, validation, connection and everything that we’ve all the technology, we’re building the ideas to try to build connection and communication.

00:37:16:25 – 00:37:37:07

Troy Stephens

And while it misses the mark in a lot of cases. Right, that’s the that’s the goal. That’s the dream. That’s the connection we want to connect. And sometimes it’s that challenge of you put technology down, but I’m just a person. I’m on my phone all right. I remember when cell phones came out. I remember text messaging first was created and I got it.

00:37:37:07 – 00:37:44:03

Troy Stephens

I got a job for a place so I could get a phone and I could send text messages. And I was sending like 5000 text messages a month.

00:37:44:17 – 00:37:46:10

Nick McGowan

I cost you a lot of money at that point.

00:37:47:06 – 00:38:15:17

Troy Stephens

Right? That’s. Who would you send? You have 5000 things to say. One door, yet you’re out of your mind, you know, like that’s that’s ridiculous. And it is I think the the being able to connect with people is in a lot of ways why my career has taken off and done what I’ve done without the educational background or even the the, you know, the a solid understanding of the technology that we could work through because it wasn’t about it.

00:38:15:17 – 00:38:35:22

Troy Stephens

It did what it did. It’s an input output. That’s what it does, period. It either or it doesn’t it’s either online or it’s not online. And that’s really easy to communicate. Everything else is about, you know, even with technology, the software that we have, it’s not about the it’s about the people who are using the software to get to know those customers, get to know those people.

00:38:35:22 – 00:38:58:11

Troy Stephens

If you do that, it’s really easy to say, oh, we have this technology, we have this thing that solves this problem. And I kind of tackle it self-mastery, right as we talk about that. That’s how I see a lot of the things too, is I seek stories to find relatable experiences to validate what I’m trying to accomplish. Right.

00:38:58:11 – 00:39:23:26

Troy Stephens

So if I can talk to two people like you, put something out so people can tell you that’s the worst thing ever. It’s really easy to be like, Oh, those terrible. But there’s also 7 billion people with 7 billion perspectives. Right. And and so the idea is that you start talking to people, you start hearing more stories. Someone’s just know or just direct answer.

00:39:25:04 – 00:39:44:13

Troy Stephens

There’s so much that’s behind that know that it’s not a no, it’s a story behind all of the no, it’s a story behind the bad response. Right. It could be, you know, like I driving down the road and someone cut you off. So the next person ask you a question, it doesn’t matter. Now who you are. Oh, right.

00:39:44:14 – 00:40:01:04

Troy Stephens

I just just had a bad day. So now you’re asking me a question. I don’t have the time to put the energy into it, but that story is that is the piece that answers that for you. So that’s what I that’s what I kind of look for. And I bring that all into business and kind of all the aspects of my life.

00:40:01:25 – 00:40:12:09

Nick McGowan

So how do you coach the the current staff that you have to be more of that and be more people focus to then produce results?

00:40:12:09 – 00:40:46:17

Troy Stephens

I think part of it, you know, I would turn around to go through and say by example, right. And there’s plenty of times without example of has this failed? But as you know, as I take over a team or I take over a new task and responsibility be in a way it’s it’s it’s giving back, right. But it’s a because I’m trying to seek and understand who they are without trying to dictate what happens, even though as a boss, my job is to dictate the flow of of how the business how the department runs.

00:40:47:26 – 00:41:10:00

Troy Stephens

I then just encourage it how you’ve run things in the past. I don’t know how you’ve accomplished things in the past. Here’s how I’d like you to try. Let’s try accomplishing it this way. Just take 15 minutes and listen. When was the last time that you picked up the phone? Was the last time that you had an employee that felt comfortable calling you because they had a flat tire.

00:41:10:00 – 00:41:24:27

Troy Stephens

And, you know, I use the friend analogy all the time at work is, you know, a random stranger could pick up the phone, call you and say, hey, I have a flat tire. I need you to drop what you’re doing and come and come help me out. I’d be like, I don’t know who you are. I have my own life to live.

00:41:25:01 – 00:41:39:06

Troy Stephens

Why are you calling me? How did you even get my number? Like, Oh, I talked to Bob. We talked to Frank. And your number was posted on a Wal-Mart call. But if your friend calls you, you’re going to you’re going to turn around and you’re going to go try to find a way to help them, because there’s things that are less important.

00:41:39:09 – 00:42:06:02

Troy Stephens

Right. And that’s how I try to instill that and use use those stories to go through and explain like this is what I expect, because if you lead people this way, that’s leading people with kindness, leading with openness. And that is what opens doors. That’s what changes the entire mood and mindset for everybody. And sometimes, you know, it takes years of practice, I guess, and sometimes it’s a little bit more natural.

00:42:06:29 – 00:42:28:09

Troy Stephens

But I know it’s telling, telling stories and bringing people in and just just asking those questions like, Hey, how’s your day? We had an employee today. I walked in my office, said, Hello, Mike, hey, come on and have a seat is like, Oh, what’s going on as you do so well? And then we got onto a long conversation.

00:42:28:09 – 00:42:51:04

Troy Stephens

His brother just got down here. His brother’s a marine. He’s still here. He’s got four brothers. And it just I learned a lot and 15 minutes and, you know, God’s talking about when his brothers to Afghanistan where it was and so it’s that person again leaves feeling heard instead of feeling shut down. And so they carry that on to the next interaction and the next interaction.

00:42:51:05 – 00:43:11:12

Troy Stephens

And that’s my hope, right? And that’s what I push and I kind of teach and I and it’s more of the time and examples where, you know, almost always it’ll be a I’ll get that message from a manager, from a supervisor, someone who a director that reports to me that says, I got it, I get it. I see.

00:43:11:17 – 00:43:32:20

Troy Stephens

Yes. Your stories annoy the hell out of me, but I. Okay. Yeah, no hundred percent. I can see the total difference in how everybody behaves and acts now because people are feeling heard, they’re feeling valued. And then then it’s get to work, you know, then it’s a here’s the project that we’ve got. Yeah, now here’s the project that we’ve got.

00:43:32:28 – 00:43:54:12

Troy Stephens

How do we knock it out of the park? And everybody’s engaged not just because they’re engaged with the company, but they’re also engaged with the team. And I’ll not throw all that back to military, right? You know, the military, you go it it’s about your team, it’s about squad, it’s about the group to train with it and who you’re you’re protecting the people around you.

00:43:54:24 – 00:44:17:00

Troy Stephens

And it can be kind of the same. Not that work is the enemy, but that the the projects are there to overcome and doing everything. So many hands make light work, right? So if everyone’s rowing in the same direction, all these cliche things to say, I think the way that we truly get there is through stories and through that communication.

00:44:17:00 – 00:44:22:10

Nick McGowan

You got to be you got to be a good person. You got to be able to people with other people.

00:44:22:22 – 00:44:23:04

Troy Stephens

Right.

00:44:23:12 – 00:44:44:04

Nick McGowan

I love that you’ve always been able to do that. I actually had a conversation with somebody yesterday who I haven’t talked to in seven or eight years or something like that. These to work together at a company years ago. And I remember when he left the company, the owner of the company was sitting right next to him and like hounding him about something, just being a dick about like all things.

00:44:44:17 – 00:45:04:29

Nick McGowan

And this guy at one point it said something in Spanish and up and walked out. He is in no by no means Spanish at all. He’s wider than I am. And he just stood up, said something in Spanish that was basically like, Fuck this, I don’t need this bullshit. And walked out. I’m out. Yeah. So when we were talking about it, I was like, Man, every once in a while that pops into my head.

00:45:04:29 – 00:45:35:29

Nick McGowan

And he was like. I just remember thinking how much of a jerk he was like, This is what the guy was saying about our our boss and the owner at the time and how he just didn’t care about us at all. That was the point to it, the fact that he felt as an employee that the owner didn’t care about him at all, so that none of it mattered if he had a feeling that, Look, I care about you at least a little bit and maybe some of it would have mattered.

00:45:36:18 – 00:45:50:07

Nick McGowan

But the fact that he didn’t, he said in that moment he was like, I just realized that and thought, well, I don’t need this shit. And just walked out and I’m sitting in the cube next to him watching all of this being like and there he goes, Hey.

00:45:50:29 – 00:45:56:21

Troy Stephens

You sure you’re taking a break or are you coming back, sir? You’re going to be back soon. Yeah.

00:45:57:25 – 00:46:21:00

Nick McGowan

And I could see him in the courtyard walking out. Flip me off. Maybe that was somebody else. Don’t get it. Yeah, but the fact that you love on people and that you care about people is the reason why you get so much out of people. I saw it with the team that you led when you worked with us before, where those actually cared and they had more respect for themselves because they knew that they were being respected by the person who led the team.

00:46:21:18 – 00:46:37:20

Nick McGowan

And I have appreciated sitting some of those meetings. I wasn’t on your team, I was in another team, but our offices are right next to each other. So it was easy to just like round of me like, Hey, man, you got 5 minutes of this bullshit. And when people come in and just to see some of those interactions.

00:46:37:20 – 00:46:52:23

Nick McGowan

So I appreciate that. But Troy, I want to ask you because I ask everybody that’s on the show what’s one piece of advice that you would give somebody that’s on their path towards self-mastery? Oh, man.

00:46:52:23 – 00:47:14:12

Troy Stephens

You know, it’s what’s so linking, right? This is like an got it right more to see. It could ever be seen more to do than could ever be done right. So the idea of limiting the idea ever that we have in our minds that, all right, I can’t get better at this, I can’t achieve this. This is this is it.

00:47:14:13 – 00:47:37:10

Troy Stephens

This is where it goes, right? Just just remember that there’s there’s always more to do. More to see and more to accomplish. And it’s just a matter of, you know, that first thought of I should go say hi, go say hi, take those opportunities to to interact with people, be open to the story and be open to yourself.

00:47:38:17 – 00:48:03:18

Troy Stephens

And as soon as you start listening, you’re kind of to what you have to say. Just do your own stories as you can. That first question, let’s talk about where are you from? Oh, man. Who how you can really start to think about like, here’s this whole world, any man. I barely even scratched the surface. Right. I talk about 15 states, three countries, 60 moves from 18 to 40.

00:48:04:08 – 00:48:29:04

Troy Stephens

And I haven’t even come close to being I’m so closed in right. To be open and, you know, listen listen to that idea that there’s more to do and there can be. And so if you’re feeling stuck, if you feel like it’s not working right, just take a step back and there is more that can be done. There’s more that you could do this for the see and it’s and it’s fantastic.

00:48:30:28 – 00:48:51:21

Nick McGowan

As good stuff, man. I think that’s a great lesson for us all to be mindful of. And that’s a clear growth mindset because if you’re looking at things of How do I learn from it, how do I grow from it? Instead of just the opposite side being fixed and saying, Oh, it’s not not for me. I don’t want to do these things too matter of taking those steps.

00:48:52:05 – 00:48:53:29

Nick McGowan

Troy, appreciate you being on the show today.

00:48:54:20 – 00:48:57:24

Troy Stephens

Absolutely. I appreciate the time. Appreciate the conversation. It’s good time.

00:48:58:07 – 00:49:00:24

Nick McGowan

Definitely, man. So tell us, where can people connect with you?

00:49:02:04 – 00:49:23:28

Troy Stephens

I mean, you know, social media, almost all of my stuff is open, right? So reach out, say hello, anything on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, all that is there. I guess I’m not on Twitter. Maybe with Elon Musk taking over, maybe that’s the time. And then if you’re ever in Saint Pete, Saint Peter, Tampa Bay, you know, look me up, say hello, send a message.

00:49:23:28 – 00:49:28:15

Troy Stephens

Let’s go have a drink. Let’s go out, have some dinner. Let’s go hang out the beach, man.

00:49:29:03 – 00:49:34:29

Nick McGowan

Or even if other people are going to take you up from that, I’m going to take you up on that. At some point we will go out and have dinner again.

00:49:35:26 – 00:49:37:23

Troy Stephens

Absolutely. Absolutely. Let’s make it happen.

00:49:38:09 – 00:49:40:03

Nick McGowan

All right. Well, thank you so much for being on the show.

00:49:41:00 – 00:49:42:06

Troy Stephens

Yep, thank you. I’m going to.

00:49:50:28 – 00:50:16:25

Nick McGowan

Another great conversation on today’s episode of The Mindset and Self-mastery Show. Have you ever heard the term people over profit? But Troy really lives this and I’ve actually seen it firsthand. Bring in more profit because of the people’s passion for their work. They actually care about what they’re doing because they were understood that life is an adventure in whatever way we want it to be.

00:50:16:29 – 00:50:38:22

Nick McGowan

And I think Troy summed up the conversation really well with Just be open to it and explore. So let’s take this as a challenge to ourselves. Let’s be open to learning about others. Be open to truly being interested in others and their stories. And be open to what incredible people with incredible stories are doing in their version of reality.

00:50:39:10 – 00:50:55:18

Nick McGowan

So what did you think about today’s episode? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topics and what we got into, and if you enjoyed the episode, please jump over to iTunes and subscribe. Great. Leave a five star review and if you really enjoyed the show, go ahead and share it with somebody that’s close to you. I’m sure they really appreciate it.

00:50:56:01 – 00:51:18:01

Nick McGowan

You check out the show notes for more info. Contact info for Troy and check out other episodes on the Mindset and Self-mastery Show account as well as our YouTube channel. Just go to YouTube type in the Mindset and self-mastery show. Hit Enter and there you go. Thanks again, Troy, for being real, for being honest and vulnerable with us.

00:51:18:19 – 00:51:40:02

Nick McGowan

And thank you to you for being part of this.