Episode 195： 10 Most Embarrassing Moments as an Entrepreneur
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Summary
As an entrepreneur, you will laugh at some of the most embarrassing moments you'll ever have. As an Entrepreneur, I promise you, you're going to laugh and share some of these embarrassing moments with other people. Here are 10 embarrassing moments I've ever had as an entrepreneur.
Transcript
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30 seconds. One time for the underdog. Ignition sequence start.
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Let me see you put them up. Reach the sky, touch the stars up above.
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Cause it's one time for the underdog. One time for the underdog.
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I'm Patrick Bedev, your host of Valuetainment, and today I want to share with you the 10 most embarrassing moments I have had.
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As an entrepreneur, I promise you, you're going to laugh and share some of these stories with other people.
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So one day I'm giving this speech in my office back in 2006, and I'm trying to sell everybody on what we're doing,
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and it's very important for me to get everyone's attention. Everyone stay focused.
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And as I'm going through it, one person walks out.
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Right after this person walks out, I had to set the tone.
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I said, listen, I kind of need all your attention.
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I'm not going to walk out, but I need 45 minutes of undivided attention.
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If you do need to use a restroom and you're pregnant, that's totally okay.
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But if you're not pregnant, please stay here with me.
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20 minutes later, this lady gets up and she starts walking out.
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She had a pouch, and I said, you know, it's no problem.
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I said, she's okay to walk out because she's pregnant, ma'am.
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And she looks at me with the biggest look of frustration and disappointment and anger.
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The look on my face, I wanted to find the smallest hole in the room to just hide in.
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Somehow, someway, I regained the group and everybody kind of started feeling bad for me,
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If you haven't done something like that, I don't ever recommend you using that.
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I was in Bermuda just recently, and I'm getting there to celebrate awards ceremonies.
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A big negotiation was going on with a $4 billion company.
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But one of the nights, I was walking across the stage and being recognized for the production
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So by the time the luggage arrives, we leave the next day.
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And by the time I'm going to go get something, I don't have anything.
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I don't have any shoes my size to buy, so I'm wearing flip-flops.
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I was the only guy in the awards ceremony room walking around with a suit and flip-flops
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Walking across the stage, people are looking at me saying, look at that Middle Eastern
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People are taking pictures of it, and I even have proof of it on how this thing happened.
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I'm trying to make a fashion statement here since our bags are still in Miami.
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Number three most embarrassing story as an entrepreneur.
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The Lakers are facing the Celtics, and it's game seven.
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Finally, an attorney sells me these nice tickets for $6,000.
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I said, what are you, he's a big diehard Lakers fan.
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He gets in this yellow Z06 that I have, and we're flying.
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On the way there, the 210 freeway, which is known for having a worse reception because
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And by the way, if you don't know, I have the reputation for having run out of gas in
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Pastor Dudley Rutherford is making fun of me saying, how does a AAA guy know you by your
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Now, I got a reputation in the San Fernando Valley as a business guy, as an entrepreneur.
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I got some enemies, I got some competitors, but I'm building a reputation, right?
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It's been built, but it's getting bigger and bigger.
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He says, listen, I want you to come to service because I got a story.
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I want you to be sitting front row, all this other stuff.
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He said, I want to tell you a story about a good friend of mine.
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You know, it's kind of like, oh, hey, I'm thinking this is like, this is a great business
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And he said, Patrick offers to take me to a Laker game.
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And let me tell you what happens on the way to a Laker game.
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He said it at five different services and it doesn't stop there.
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He writes a book with a major publisher and the title of the book is God Has an App for
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If you buy the book, chapter number one tells you vividly how I ran out of gas.
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And at the end of the book, he has a link on his website for you to see how I ran out
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of gas while he's recording my yellow zero six.
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Now, keep in mind, the rest of the time in Valley, every time I went to somebody, people
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But on the other side, it became one of the best conversation starters in San Fernando
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So thank you, Dudley Rutherford, to tell the story of me running out of gas.
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Okay, so when you're coming up in business, a lot of times you want to impress the people
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that have money for them to think that you are also serious.
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Let me tell you how much money I had in the bank.
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And everything with my credit cards, I'm hoping there's enough left.
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So this client, if I sell this client, I'm going to make $6,000.
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So I go and I say, listen, dinner's on me tonight.
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I borrow one of my friend's cards and I give the credit card.
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Your machine's broken because sometimes these things happen.
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I said, listen, don't you ever embarrass me in front of my clients here.
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Can we do business together and all that other stuff?
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But that happened to me multiple times in my first year of running a business.
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And if it happened to you as well, it happens to the best of us.
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So one time I recruit this new agent and I'm really excited about what this guy's going
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He's a killer, big personality, salesman, a lot of gravity.
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You know, just one of these guys that I think is going to do good.
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And we're driving in my car, Escalade to an appointment, and we're in Tarzana, California,
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And he's been following me for like five minutes, like four exits.
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He pulls me over and he, you know, gets out and he's got his hand.
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I mean, I know I had one of these Escalades with the black wheels, you know, 20-inch wheels.
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He said, sir, do you realize your license has been suspended for eight months because you have 16 speeding tickets?
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That guy that I recruited, I'm excited about, is listening to his mentor getting arrested for having 16 speeding tickets.
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While I have my handcuffs on my arms, the guy says, he's getting a report.
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They're screaming, emergency, you got to come over here right now.
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The cop has a bigger emergency to go to than me.
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But you got to go and get this thing knocked out of the way.
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He says, just go get your license squared away because your license is suspended.
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A year and a half later, I had to go to court in Palm Springs to fix this thing because my license was suspended.
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You're going to get lucky sometimes, like I did.
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When you do, take advantage of it because that was a lucky day for me.
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When I tell you beautiful office, it was a one and a half, two million dollar lease.
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So that lease, I didn't like being in LA County because you would pay taxes for being in LA County in California.
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Gave you benefits if you were in Glendale, Burbank County because that was outside.
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While we're going to Burbank, Glendale, I find an office I'm about to lease.
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So I leased this one out to a guy that did very good for himself.
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But in between the office, this next one falls through.
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And the building comes back and says, the number you negotiated, someone's willing to pay 20 cents more than yours.
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So because we never signed a contract, we can do that to you.
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For 90 days, we rented a shack where all my employees are working out of a small shack on top of each other
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where every day they wanted to kill each other and every time somebody wanted to come and deliver business to us,
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We laugh about it now, but for three months, our headquarters was based out of a kitchen for three months.
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We're at a big office now, but at one point, our office was a kitchen.
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And number seven, this one's got to be one of the most embarrassing ones.
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I was invited to an office to speak, and I was supposed to give a very intense talk
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because that office needed somebody to challenge them, right?
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So I come up, and I'm speaking, room packed, 150 people.
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Front row, there's four people sitting here, two girls, and they're just like trying to smile,
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And all of a sudden, I pass, you think this is funny?
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And they're like, we do, but can I whisper something in your ear?
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So I step over here, and she comes, and she whispers in my ear.
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Now, at this point, I'm like, I'm looking around to see who else is making eye contact down here.
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I go like this, and you hear that magical sound.
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Half the room starts laughing because apparently everybody knew my zipper was down, and I'm
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Let's just say this was a difficult one to get everybody to be serious.
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Afterwards, everybody said, this was one of your best talk.
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It was so great because we felt like you're relatable because your zipper's down.
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If you've ever had an embarrassing moment like this where you're given a sales pitch or you're
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talking to your sales force and your zipper's down in the back of your head, just know
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Okay, so one thing about the insurance industry.
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If you ever turn on the TV and you're watching a golf tournament, you're going to see some
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kind of a life insurance commercial being done there, which means if you're going to
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stay in the business and you're going to be very successful, you're going to be invited
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So for me, I avoided it for years until all of a sudden I couldn't avoid it because
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I'm performing with the bigger guys and I got invited.
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They said, Pat, you've been selected to golf with these executives.
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So I'm like, oh, you know, golf is not going to be a big deal.
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Right before it, I gave myself, I said, one day I'm going to go warm up at the ball club.
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One day is plenty for me because I'm naturally an athlete.
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All these guys are like the top guys above everybody.
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Think about the most embarrassing moment anybody could have in golf in one day.
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I don't think anybody's day was more embarrassing than mine.
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Afterwards, the country club came and said, we're hiring for somebody to mow the lawn.
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If you're willing to take the job, I turned it down because the money wasn't good.
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And everybody's trying to say, oh my gosh, you're getting better.
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And then inside, they're going whispering to each other, laughing.
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By the time nine was in, I said, listen, guys, you go on the next nine.
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So in reality, sometimes you're going to get involved in certain industries that you have
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to play certain sports, whether you like it or not.
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If you get into insurance, get ready to golf with somebody someday.
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So one day, I'm sitting in the sales appointment.
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And typically, an appointment sales appointment would take me an hour, hour and a half.
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I said, listen, I can't sit next to somebody that smells this bad.
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I said, how does somebody have the audacity to not even take care of themselves when they
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I said, buddy, I got another call I got to make.
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I've never done an appointment with a guy that smelled this bad.
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And when I go to the bathroom, and I look at myself in the mirror.
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And when I had my kids earlier, on my tie is poop all the way on my tie.
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And the person who smelled like shit was this guy here.
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It was embarrassing, because the entire time, the man was so kind, so nice to me.
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I promise you, moving forward, I will never have poop on my tie ever again.
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But if you've ever done a sales appointment, and you're worried about having one of these
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things in your teeth, you know how when you look at someone's got to take that thing
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Nothing's going to be worse than having poop on your tie.
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Okay, so let me tell you, I'm running the sales office back in 2005 in Granada Hills.
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I could really strategize and write stuff down to know what I'm going to be doing the
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One Sunday, I go in, and I'm like, wait a minute.
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This is not a place you park the car on Sundays in Granada Hills, right off the 4 or 5 freeway.
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And by the way, there was a way for you to always sneak into the office on Sunday.
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Because if you had one of those, you know how you put the ID stuff in the door?
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And the door opened, so there was a way to sneak in.
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And the moment I opened the door, I was like, you know when it's like too late when you see
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And this couple, boyfriend and girlfriend, they're going at it as if they're shooting a
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And I'm watching these guys, like the sound, cha, cha, loud.
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I'm like, and you look at me like, you know the whole look immediately, you cover yourself.
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It's like, everybody's doing one of these things, right?
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But Pat, I live with my parents and he lives with his parents and our car is too small
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And I said, listen, finish off and just tell me when you guys are done.
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The next day is the best day because next Monday morning, we have our Monday full-timers
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We got about 50 people in the office and I get up and I spot him.
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I said, oh my gosh, I got to have fun with this.
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I said, listen, let me tell you guys something.
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One of the things that impresses me the most is when I see people show up on Sundays to prepare
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And let me tell you who showed up this Sunday to the office to prepare for the week.
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I said, listen guys, these guys were here on Sunday strategizing on what they're going to
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I said, I just want you to know I'm very proud of you guys.
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This is one of many, many, many stories like this.
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Because when you run a sales office, crazy things happen.
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If it's happened to you before, it's happened to many other sales offices as well.
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But my recommendation to you, find another place to get it on.
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It throws everybody off and makes it very awkward.
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So if you're watching this and it was you, we have a special connection together for the
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I've had a lot of embarrassing moments and I'm not really worried about it.
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You're going to have embarrassing moments, scary moments, or dumb mistakes you're going
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But the key is to keep going and not let it slow you down.
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And by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so.
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And if you have any questions for me that you may have, you can always find me on Snapchat,
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And I actually do respond back when you snap me or send me a message on Instagram.