What Mindset Shift Transformed W.T. Hamilton’s Life?

Jon Coogan (00:11)
Welcome to Mindset Mavericks. I'm your host, Jon Coogan. And today I'm joined by guest WT Hamilton. He's an award winning author, entrepreneur and business consultant known for his cheat codes for success. And he's used these strategies to turn personal impossibles into reality and now shares them with clients and audiences worldwide. So welcome to Mindset Mavericks. Thank you for being here.

W.T. Hamilton (00:32)
Thank you, Jon Excited to be here.

Jon Coogan (00:34)
Thank you. And I think just in that little intro alone, there's a few things I'm really looking forward to speaking to you about today. So cheat codes for success is one of the particular things we're going to speak about and also a little bit about your book as well. So if you are going to give me an insight into what you do now, how would you sum it up?

W.T. Hamilton (00:52)
So I really help people achieve their personal impossibles so they can take their ideas and dreams and turn it into a tangible reality. And that's really what I focus on helping people to do by overcoming some of the roadblocks and stumbles that they have to be able to do that.

Jon Coogan (01:11)
Fantastic. I know you've had an impressive journey from business management to becoming an award-winning author. Can you share some of your prior experiences which has led you to where you are now? I'd to find out a little bit about the person.

Okay, I'll do that question again. I know you've had an impressive journey from business management to becoming an award-winning author. Can you share how your previous experiences led you to where you are now?

W.T. Hamilton (01:37)
Yeah, yeah, so I started out probably as everybody does, working in a job. I was working a job I really loved. But really I wasn't in control of my career. I wasn't in control of the way I made my money. Everything was dependent on somebody else making good decisions and hopefully having my best interest in thought when they were making those decisions. And so in 2008, the company I worked for.

suddenly went bankrupt. was a big housing market crash in the US and we got sucked into that. So I found myself all of a sudden not knowing what I was going to do and part of my status was my job. That's part of how I introduced myself. This is who I am. This is what I do. When that disappeared, I like, well, who am I and what do I do and how do I fix that?

Jon Coogan (02:25)
Yep.

W.T. Hamilton (02:32)
And I discovered at that time my mom was into law of attraction. And so she introduced me to that. And I wasn't really into the spiritual part of it, but the mindset part, the way of thinking and actually achieving things that you think about and using focused thought to achieve your goals. That really made sense to me because up until that point, there was some things like I started a rap reggae band when I was a teenager. And it was just from an idea.

deciding to do something and making it possible. I started looking at, I've already been doing some of this stuff, but now I understand there's techniques to it. So if I start learning the techniques, what could I actually do with that? So those kind of experiences of deciding to do something and then every time you decide you struggle at the beginning and then understanding how do I find the solutions, how do I get over these hurdles? That's really what enabled me to start.

Jon Coogan (03:11)
here.

W.T. Hamilton (03:29)
building the confidence to be able to crazy ideas that probably shouldn't on paper be able to do.

Jon Coogan (03:36)
Yes, it sounds really like you're in a sense forced into that first change if you're in the job you love and then that's essentially taken away from you. It sounds like in the beginnings it was kind of forced upon you.

W.T. Hamilton (03:51)
Yeah, yeah, and I find a lot of the significant change comes from crisis is because we we love to be comfortable and just have everything kind of an autopilot because it's secure. But that security also keeps us stuck. We're only ever going to go as high as we already are because there's nothing challenging challenging us to up our skills, up our knowledge, up our experience.

Jon Coogan (03:57)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I can completely relate to that feeling of when you are in a job that you identify with, that you enjoy, and it does become part of who you are. So yeah, I can imagine that's destabilizing when that does get taken away. And is that where the idea of the personal impossibles was born? Is that where that first kind of entered your realm of thinking?

W.T. Hamilton (04:41)
No, no. So at first, I was really just understanding how thinking on purpose works and how when you have an idea, how do you develop it into a tangible thing? So everything was about me and how can I achieve the goals that I want to achieve? It wasn't about teaching or sharing with other people. But what I was doing was writing down things that were working, things that weren't.

Jon Coogan (04:58)
Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (05:11)
and starting to really have a diary and understand what are the techniques. And from there, my mom, because she was in law of attraction, said she was writing a book about the spiritual side of law of attraction. said, well, I've been really tampering with the focused thought, the practical side. Because I come from management, and after the management, I got into sales. So it was all about, how do I increase my sales? How do I use this stuff to create a career?

where I'm in control of my time and my money and how I make my money during the commission sales and all these different type of things. So I shared that with her and that became our first book that we co-wrote together. And that really started the journey of, now I have to actually teach this stuff. Once you write a book, people, I want you to come and talk about it. I want you to elaborate on it. And that was a personal impossible for me.

Jon Coogan (05:54)
OK.

Yes.

W.T. Hamilton (06:09)
I don't want to speak in front of people. I don't want to teach things. I just want to hide behind a computer, write books, and then here's the book, read it. Go do what I tell you. It's got actionable steps. Go do that, and then you're good. People are like, no, no, You need to hold our hand and guide us through this.

Jon Coogan (06:23)
Yeah.

I've got so many questions about just that section already and writing a book with your mum and what that experience must have been like. But is there one particular thing that you feel you've learnt during that period? One piece of advice that you could pass on from that experience of losing your job and trying to find your way?

W.T. Hamilton (06:48)
Can you repeat that? it froze up for a second.

Jon Coogan (06:51)
Is there, from that period of kind of losing your identity and then going through this learning journey with your mum, so one particular piece of advice that you can think of from that period that you can share?

W.T. Hamilton (07:04)
So the thing that I learned was everything is temporary. So your situation that you're in, it's temporary and there's a solution to be able to move forward. But you have to first have the confidence to understand that it's not gonna be easy and then start to look at the solution and figure out where do I start? What piece do I need to start with? So for me it was because of when he

I lost my job, I started to build up debt. And it's like, okay, now how do I deal with this debt? Because money is something that will shackle you, stop you from being able to do a lot of things if you don't have good control over your money and a good vision of how you're going to navigate through these hurdles and these struggles. So really it was that. was just learning how to focus on not just the situation now, but

Jon Coogan (07:37)
Yep.

W.T. Hamilton (08:03)
what I'm trying to build. How am I going to get out of this situation? And by learning that skill has really helped me with taking chances and taking risks on different ventures that I've been doing.

Jon Coogan (08:17)
Yeah, I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of people listening who've been through similar experience of either losing their job and having to find the next thing, or if it is something where they want to pursue a new business, for example, and they've got a secure job at the moment and they're worried about leaving it. So how do you start? What do you need to do to be able to, I don't know if it's confidence or what practical things people can do to try and get in the right mindset to succeed?

W.T. Hamilton (08:45)
So what you gotta look at is, before you hit that big struggle, before that big crisis happened, what were your talents? Why were you in the position you were in? What did people like? What are people looking for? For me, was I was good at building relationships, good at listening and solving problems. And that's why I was a good manager. And then I was able to use that for sales. It's like, well, listen to what the customer wants.

use my communication skills, both in writing and in verbal skills, to come up with solutions that are going to help them and build that relationship so they build that trust that they want to come back and talk to me more. So I really asked, what is my talent? What am I good at? And then I looked at, OK, what am I not good at? is there things that I can improve? Or is some of that stuff things I should stay away from? if the job is accounting,

I don't want to do accounting. I'm not good at accounting. So I want to do things where I can speak to people and help people. So it's really understanding what is it you're good at? Because a lot of times when you're in a money crisis, you're just looking at how can I make money? And if you're going to get into something that is really hard, do you have to learn a lot of skills that you don't have? It's going to struggle. You're not going to enjoy it. If you can use your natural talents.

Jon Coogan (09:48)
Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (10:12)
and all you gotta do is fine tune those natural talents and apply them to that new thing. It's a lot easier for you to build success. I always talk about, you setting yourself up for success? So how do you do that? First of all is your natural talents, because those are yours, you own them. And they're gonna be unique to what other people bring to the table. So once you know how you add value to a situation, now you can start to fine tune that and really utilize that.

to excel in whatever you're doing.

Jon Coogan (10:43)
And from what you're talking about, you seem to know exactly what your talents were at the time, what your strengths are. Did you seek out other people's opinions to identify those, or were you quite confident in what your skills were? How did you go about identifying those skills?

W.T. Hamilton (11:02)
So it was from experience. was from when I started at the company that I managed, I didn't start in management. I started on the shop floor. I was turning bolts and learning how to build the product. And I really became a sponge. So I wanted to learn everything about how to do it. And I was always looking at ways to do it better. And so people would come to me, and they would ask me for, even though I wasn't a leader or anything, they would ask me for advice.

Jon Coogan (11:16)
Hmm.

W.T. Hamilton (11:31)
the management would see that and they kind of promoted me. So I knew I was already naturally good at helping people at solving problems. So by the time I became a manager, I really owned it. But it was something that I didn't start out just going, yeah, I know everything. I'm really good at everything. It was a learning growth, but I went into it as a sponge. I okay, I don't know anything about this. I want to learn as much as I can about this because

Jon Coogan (11:49)
Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (12:00)
I know that knowledge sets what you're worth. So the more that you know, the more that you're worth when you're going for a job, when you're working with other people. It's really the key thing in self-evaluation for how much should I charge for my time? How much should I look to make when I go to a job? It's like, what do you bring to the table? And the more that you bring to the table, the more that you're worth. And I tell my kids that all the time.

You know that from experiences and from building skills. And lot of it is not just reading books and going to seminars, but actually applying what you learn and then seeing the result. And getting that experience is worth money because a lot of people might not have that experience. So that's really how I did that assessment.

Jon Coogan (12:49)
Yeah, no.

But now I'm big advocate for lifelong learning and I've done some weird and wonderful things in the past from massage to nutrition courses to counseling courses to cryptocurrency. Like I say, just trying to whatever it is where you've got a challenge, try and learn a little bit about it, even if it's just so can take everything on yourself. But if you're going to direct others or ask questions of others, it's best to know a little bit about that subject at least and to try and keep that curiosity for, I say lifelong.

W.T. Hamilton (13:23)
Yeah, exactly. And I tell people too is even if you're going to hire somebody to do something for you, if you know a little bit about how much effort and time it takes to do it, then you know when they give you a quote, are they charging you too much? they undercharging you? They don't really know what they're doing. So even just for that with especially hiring people to market your business or to help you to grow your business, if you don't know anything about that, how do you know how to measure them? So you have to.

have a little bit of knowledge, even accounting, if you know a little bit about accounting, then you know, okay, it's worth me to pay this guy X amount of dollars to do my accounting because it's taking a bunch of stress and problems off my plate. So yeah, being a student is the best way to go when you're doing anything in life.

Jon Coogan (14:12)
Yeah and with that in mind if you've got any current projects where you're looking to learn something at the moment?

W.T. Hamilton (14:19)
So what I'm really looking at doing now is learning how to do virtual workshops. I've done workshops, but I really need to learn how to do virtual and how to host them. So that's something that I'm currently learning. And I'm probably behind the eight ball in that compared to a lot of people. But it's something that to increase my business now, I need to start doing that.

Jon Coogan (14:26)
Okay.

Yeah, might say just a whole new skill set doing it virtually than it is in person. And just one particular learning side of it. So you've mentioned that you've written this book, co-written this book with your mum. And I'd imagine communication skills came in a lot when you're co-writing something with somebody, especially when it is somebody so close. So how was that process for you?

W.T. Hamilton (14:50)
Yeah.

It was pretty easy, but it was challenging at same time. So what we used was Google Docs, so shared docs, because we live in two different cities. So we were able to, plus I would write my chapter and she would write hers. So it was kind of like you'd bounce back and forth. She would write the spiritual part of that, whatever it was we were doing. Then I would write the practical application of it. But where the challenge was, was once we'd written the book,

the marketing. That's the part where neither one of us really wanted to get in front of people or even go on podcasts and talk. So we both had to learn that. I ended up doing that a lot more than my mom did. And she liked more the behind the scenes thing. But that's more the challenge or setting up book signings and going to book signings, that type of thing. That was a little bit more challenging. So was really the marketing. The writing of the book was a lot easier than selling the book.

Jon Coogan (15:45)
Yep.

Yeah and in terms of was this the first book that either of had written? Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (16:13)
Yeah, it was. And it was something that we didn't really plan to be writers. We started out with just writing in blogs, and then there was a demand that people were looking for to go deeper with the book. So we kind of jumped into it naively and not really understanding everything that it would entail, which really is the marketing and promoting.

Jon Coogan (16:41)
Yeah, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, I don't think. If you're going in a little bit naive, then you're not worried at that time about the challenges and what you're to come up against. So think sometimes it can be a good way to get started. And in terms of how you actually got that published, I'm intrigued myself. I'm actually in the process of writing a book that's due to be released in December this year. I love hearing other people's journeys who've done similar things. And did you self-publish that? Have you got a publisher or what route did you go down?

W.T. Hamilton (17:10)
Yeah, we did self-publishing, but we did it through, the first one was through Boboapress. It was a division of Payhouse. So that one worked good as a first dive in because they do a lot of stuff for you. And then we started doing true self-publishing where we would use Amazon and put books on Amazon. We've done both. We have a couple of books that we've done through the...

Jon Coogan (17:16)
Okay.

Hmm.

W.T. Hamilton (17:38)
It's still self-publishing, but it's through a publishing company. And then we've done, I've done all the bonds that I've done by myself for through Amazon, just publishing directly on Amazon.

Jon Coogan (17:42)
Yeah.

Actually I did mention at beginning of episode you're successful author. So what books have you done to date now? How many have you done now?

W.T. Hamilton (18:00)
My Amazon thing profile I think is around 20

Jon Coogan (18:04)
Wow.

W.T. Hamilton (18:05)
Yeah, there's, so I created a one chapter series, a book series, where each book was only one chapter long, and it was just solving one entrepreneur problem at a time. And so I have a few of those, and then I have a few of the, you know, just chapter books. But mainly, they're mainly about, you know, achieving your goals and the different challenges, mindset challenges that you run into.

Jon Coogan (18:25)
Okay, just if.

W.T. Hamilton (18:34)
and different aspects of achieving your goals and developing your business.

Jon Coogan (18:39)
Yeah, and there's never an end to the amount of challenges you have as an entrepreneur and business owner. So yeah, I'm sure there's lots of topics to cover for you. In terms of if you were to kind of summarise what people can learn from your books, what would be, I know you've mentioned about some of the challenges, but what some of the themes we can expect to see?

W.T. Hamilton (19:00)
So one of the books is really about where do you start. it's the million idea, million dollar idea. And it's looking at how do you actually take that idea and get that first few steps going. Because a lot of people will jump ahead and they'll miss the first few steps. And as they get going, they're overwhelmed because they didn't build that foundation. So that book is about how to really get your idea started as a business. I have one called The Harsh Truths, which is all about

Jon Coogan (19:08)
Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (19:31)
the real realities of being an entrepreneur and how to navigate when people are not supporting you or they don't get what you're doing and you're trying to develop this business and the struggles of being able to really get that business going without support from other people. Another one is a soul opener, which is about working on your own, working remotely and how do you find support in

How do you build things when you're all by yourself and you don't have anybody to talk to? And those are all one chapter books. And then my latest book is really more about the mindset and how manifestation works and how you can use different aspects of shared reality in your reality bubble to create the path for you to be successful.

Jon Coogan (20:08)
Yeah.

I think there's some great topics in there and one I'm particularly interested in is around building business on your own. I've had businesses now as a solo founder, I've had co-founders and I can definitely see the the advantage of having co-founders. So there are a lot of difficulties in starting a business on your own and like I say, just not having people to speak to, there's not really anyone to relate to or bounce some of those struggles off, whether it is around cash flow.

paying staff members or whatever it might be. So if there's some, what tips could you give people who are looking to start a business who are running a business on their own?

W.T. Hamilton (21:06)
So what I did was get into a network where there's other entrepreneurs that are doing the same thing and try to find two or three people that are in different time zones in you. So like say I'm in Canada, you're in England. So that when you're working late at night, you can reach out, okay, I would have somebody on the west coast of Canada that I can reach out to whenever late at night or early in the morning, somebody in England or somewhere in the UK.

Jon Coogan (21:19)
Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (21:34)
Europe or UK that I could reach out to so that, and that there, some people that I had on my list, they were in the same stage as I was, and then there were some people that were a few steps ahead of me that could help guide me. So by networking like that, and then you're also giving them insight, sometimes you're thinking they know everything and you don't know anything, and they're asking you certain things and you would be able to help them as well.

Jon Coogan (21:46)
Hmm.

W.T. Hamilton (22:04)
really great way of being able to network with people and you're both learning and without having that person as part of your business. And they're not really your mentor, but they're kind of a sounding board and sometimes an advisor.

Jon Coogan (22:21)
Yeah, I love that tip and it's not something I'd actually thought about consciously, but it makes perfect sense. You never know when ideas come to you or if you're going to be kept up. Like I say, just can't sleep at night. You've got a problem with your business. You're worrying about it and it'd be fantastic just to be able to reach out to somebody, whatever time it is, whether it's one in the morning to somebody on the other side of the world. But now I think that's a great tip there. And one of the things, the other topics you did mention was about actually getting started and

I'm guessing what it would be as personal impossible, somebody who's got an idea wants to start and they skip out some of those first steps which makes things more difficult down the line. So in your experience, what would those first steps be?

W.T. Hamilton (23:03)
So really it's taking that idea and then seeing if it's marketable, if the market is hungry for that idea or not, and if it's hungry for that idea right now, or if it's something that you think is going to be ready a little bit down the road. And then start to talk to people, not your friends. So this is the problem. People talk to their friends, talk to their family, and everybody's supportive. that's a great idea. Yeah, I love that.

But then when you launch it, they're not around, because they're not your customers. Your customers are the people that have the need for the solution or the product or the service that you're providing. So you need to go and find those people, see if it resonates with them. Because I've had things where I thought, everybody wants to learn how to do this, this way of making money, and come to find out, no, they don't want that at all. They want to know the mindset of how to get over the self doubt.

Jon Coogan (23:37)
Yep.

W.T. Hamilton (24:04)
And that wasn't a part of what I was doing. So then you have to redo everything, your website, everything. Because people will start with a website. They have this idea and they start with a website and they say, don't do a website. At the most, you can do a landing page, but don't do a website until you know that there's a demand for that thing that you're wanting to do. Because you're going to spend all kinds of time and energy and money building something that nobody wants. And then you're going to tell you what they really wanted from you, what they thought you were going to do.

And you might not have any money or mental or emotional energy left to develop that new thing. So it's really in making sure what you think people want is what they actually want.

Jon Coogan (24:48)
Yeah, I think there's also the other side to what you've just been speaking about. You're talking about where people are very encouraging, friends, family, essentially big you up and tell you, great idea, crack on with it. But leading into the mindset side as well, you also get the opposite situation where you're told, no, that's not going to work. You're not going to be able to do it. It's too big an issue to solve. And when you've got that going on and you're being essentially beaten down, how do you...

build that resilience and mindset to carry on anyway? Or should you even, should you listen to what they're telling you?

W.T. Hamilton (25:23)
No, I tell people all the time, less people know, the further you're going to go. Because as soon as you start telling people what you're planning to do, they're going to give their opinion. And a lot of times, their advice, they're trying to protect you. Because they think, you're going to fail. You're going struggle. It's going to be hard. I've seen so many people that tried that and failed. But they don't know what you're thinking. They don't know what your vision is.

So I say don't tell people what you're actually doing that are around you that are close to you. That's why you reach out to potential customers, people that you think have that problem, because they don't know you. They're not trying to protect you. They're just going to tell you whether, yeah, that would have really helped me or no, why would I need that? I'm trying to figure out how to do this. So I think the less that people know that are around you that what you're doing is the better for you and the better for them.

Jon Coogan (26:06)
Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (26:23)
They're, like I said, they're trying to protect you from failure. But you can't succeed unless you try something and start to understand what works and what doesn't work. So if you're trying to figure everything out and be perfect, you're never going to do anything.

Jon Coogan (26:39)
Yeah and even sometimes it's if it's not asked for you'll still get these people telling you they can't be done. If you got any tips or actionable things people can do to try and protect themselves from that and to build that resilience.

W.T. Hamilton (26:53)
Yeah, it's really, so what I tell people is you have to build your goal as a vision and the vision of what it is that you're trying to achieve as a celebration. Like when I wanted to become an award-winning author, I was nowhere near being a award-winning author caliber, but I had this vision in my mind of winning an award, walking on stage, having like my wife there to cheer me on and the cameras.

flashing, know, that whole experience. And so that's that became my GPS became the goal that really kept me going forward when people were telling me they doubt because I had doubt too. We all start with doubt. We have this fantasy and it's like, OK, how do I turn that fantasy into a reality? It's by doing little things to build your confidence. And as you build your confidence, the doubt starts to shrink.

and the belief starts to grow. So for that, it's really looking at what is working. And it's the tiny little things that nobody else cares about. Those are the things that if you start to realize, hey, this is building a little bit of momentum, this is actually working. I got one person that liked what I was doing. Now let me find more of those version of that one person, because that one person it resonates with. So now I have the person that I need to talk to.

Now let's start talking to many of those versions, different versions of that person. And by doing that, you start to surround yourself with positive feedback. So even if you're getting negative feedback, it's from the people that are never gonna buy from you anyways. Why are you trying to cater to them? And even if they're into the same thing that you're doing, they may already have their person that they resonate with. You're looking for the person that needs to hear your voice.

or needs to your product or service. And that's how you ignore the other people, the negativity. But also how you start to squash the negativity that you're telling yourself is by doing those little steps and starting to see what's working, where that momentum is, and acknowledging it and celebrating those little things. Because every little piece of momentum is moving you forward.

Jon Coogan (29:15)
And in terms of your book, you've spoken a little bit about it there and what that was like, but how did that journey work out for you in terms of going from a first time author, quite or very inexperienced, to slowly building that confidence and winning an award? What did that actual journey look like for you?

W.T. Hamilton (29:35)
So a lot of it was when we would write a book and we would get feedback. So we would send it to book clubs so that we could get unbiased feedback. We don't know who these people are. And then they would start saying all these highlights that they liked about what we were doing. And when I was doing my own books, the highlights of what I was writing. And then they would give me the constructive criticism of things I could do better. And because I was writing one chapter books, the next book I could put out.

pretty quickly with all the improvements on the things that I could do better. And so it was like a growth of learning how to become a better writer, learning that skill, learning how to tell a better story, to be more interesting. And once I started to accumulate a few books with great reviews and starting to see, now I'm starting to master this craft. Then I decided, now I'm ready to

really put a lot of effort into writing a book that's long enough and that's creative enough that I would feel confident in putting it into these book award competitions. So it was building up that confidence. That process probably took about two and a half, three years of putting things out, getting feedback, writing blogs still and getting feedback, and starting to build up the belief.

Jon Coogan (30:54)
Yep.

Hmm

W.T. Hamilton (31:03)
without a doubt that I was able to win an award. Because until it was, the belief was built without a doubt, until I shrunk the doubt to zero, I wasn't feeling like I was ready to win an award. So it was really getting that mindset.

Jon Coogan (31:19)
I'm not too much.

Yeah, I'd imagine it books are quite personal thing. You'd invest your time, your energy and has a lot of thought that goes into it. So if you do get that critique coming back, how easy was that not take it personally? Were you able to do that quite easily or was it? Did it feel personal?

W.T. Hamilton (31:42)
So because I went in there knowing I wasn't the greatest writer in the whole world, so I looked at it that these people are helping me to write a better book as long as they listen and I don't attach it to my ego. But I didn't go in there thinking, I've written the best book. There's no book that's better than this one. So by doing that,

Jon Coogan (31:58)
Hmm.

W.T. Hamilton (32:08)
I was already kind to myself. I've already allowed myself to have the room to grow. But if you go in there with that, the attitude that, this is really great. I don't care what anybody says, this book is brilliant. It's the best book ever. You're never going to be able to, like the editors even, when the editor comes back and says, no, you need to change this and this, because you work with an editor, especially when you're in a publishing company, that can be aggravating.

Jon Coogan (32:15)
Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (32:38)
Like, they don't get it. They don't understand what I'm trying to do. But if you look at it, OK, wait a minute, if I tweak it and do some of this stuff that they're asking, is it going to be better? And if the answer is yes, and it's not taking away from your authenticity, then it's probably a better move. And so then when you're starting to get feedback, if you look at it that, this person is just trying to help me write a better book, you know, they're going to buy the next one because they're going to see

if the next one's better than this one that I wrote, which it has happened. Where I've had someone review a book, a couple of books down the line, and really enjoyed it, and maybe gave it a four or five star review, where the first book they read, they gave it three star review. So they see the progress and growth as well. But it's by not taking it personal, because unless it's your family or your friends, that can be personal. But if it's somebody you don't know,

Jon Coogan (33:20)
Mm.

Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (33:37)
Why do they care how you feel? They're just trying to say, hey, this was good, but you could have done this better. So then just do that better next time.

Jon Coogan (33:45)
Yeah, I think it's really just leaning into what we said a few moments ago about having that growth mindset and being open to change and constant learning. And it's just always knowing that there can always be improvements. And it sounds like you've definitely learned from that and you did go on to become an award-winning author. So what was that experience like? You described what you imagined it like at the beginning of the process. How did that match up to reality?

W.T. Hamilton (33:56)
Yeah.

Yeah, so when I won the award, I got an email, first of all, saying that you've won an award, and then you get invited to an award ceremony. Well, that in itself was surreal. Is this really really won an award? Because I had put the book in, I think, a couple of competitions, and the one competition I won, the other two I didn't get anything. I'm like, is this a mistake? this right? So I still didn't feel like I was really an award-winning author.

Jon Coogan (34:30)
Yeah.

Thank

W.T. Hamilton (34:37)
Then we had to fly to Miami and the award ceremony was a couple of months after the announcements So you get to promote it on social media everything we flew to Miami Which was another bucket list dream I had is to be able to walk down South Beach in Miami I don't know why I had that but for me, I guess it was when I was growing up I was watching this show called Miami Vice and it was really cool. So always wanted to yeah, so I always wanted to go to Miami so

Jon Coogan (34:55)
Yeah.

yep, yep remember well.

W.T. Hamilton (35:05)
That was kind of surreal for me. My wife was there, my mom and dad came with me. And then going up on stage and just experience it all, it was like after it was all done, it was a moment where I reflected in it. This was very, very similar, almost exactly how I imagined it to be and to feel. And because it felt the same, was like, it's because I focused on this and I basically was able to.

to make this happen, was able to manifest it through my focused thought, through the things that I'm talking about in my books. it was a great feeling. But I still didn't tell people I was an award-winning author. I didn't use that as part of my status, because then the next thing I decided was, OK, let me write another book and see if it can win some awards so that I can really feel like this wasn't a fluke.

Jon Coogan (35:49)
Mm.

W.T. Hamilton (36:03)
And so I wrote the very next book and it won two awards. It wasn't in the same competition. I didn't even put it in that competition. They put it in two different competitions and they won awards. then at that point I said, yeah, this is a legit idea. I can start telling people I'm an award-winning author.

Jon Coogan (36:08)
Wow. Yeah.

But yeah, it's fantastic and I'm intrigued though as to how your mindset changed from deciding you wanted to win an award because sometimes if you reach a goal you can feel flat afterwards. It's like what do I do next? Did you have any of that feeling or did you immediately start that new goal of trying to win more awards or what did that process look like after winning first time?

W.T. Hamilton (36:47)
Yeah, after winning it's like, I want to do this again. So it was, cause it's a little bit of a competitiveness. It's like playing a sport. You win the championship, you want to see if you can do it again. Because it's like the first time, okay, yeah, the first time you did it, maybe you got lucky, but is there a process? Is there a system? Can I do this a second time? Can I repeat it? So that was really what I wanted to do. And I wanted to challenge myself with writing it even a little bit more creative than the last one.

Jon Coogan (36:50)
Yes.

W.T. Hamilton (37:16)
So that second book I wrote, was about doing authentic sales, how to engage the audience. And so I wrote it in a scene. It's a one chapter book, but the scene is it has a mentor, and so you had a seminar, and he's teaching you these different ways to market and different ways to grow your business in an authentic way. And so it had a little bit more of a story to it, even than the...

Jon Coogan (37:21)
Hmm.

W.T. Hamilton (37:44)
the one that I won the first one, which was The Harsh Truth. And so when I won that one, because I knew I took a little bit more creative risks with it, I felt like, okay, now I understand how it works, what the audience is looking for, and how to write a book that can win an award. And then the newest book I wrote, it's won two awards, and I a ceremony to go to in Phoenix next year in February.

Jon Coogan (37:47)
Hmm.

W.T. Hamilton (38:13)
receive the award for that. So now it's like, okay, I really know what I'm doing and how it works and what resonates with people, resonates with critics, what resonates with judges. But it's because once you understand it, if you win, you want to win again to make sure that your actions are repeatable. Because once it's repeatable, now you own it. You do it forever and ever for rest of your life.

Jon Coogan (38:20)
Hmm.

Yeah, and it sounds like a lot of those topics you are speaking about is exactly what our audience would be interested in, particularly talking around authentic sales as well. what strategies or tips can you tell us about authentically selling? So it's difficult, especially with so much social media and trying to put messages out and it can feel difficult to have an authentic voice. So what tips can you give us?

W.T. Hamilton (39:04)
So first is to be yourself. So when I was learning how to speak, I would go to Toastmasters and I was learning how to speak. I was trying to figure out who am I? Am I this energetic, in-your-face type of person? Am I more of quiet person? How am I? And so I would wear these different masks and try out these different personas. And what I found was,

When I'm at home or I'm at the grocery store or I'm at the beer store or wherever I'm at, that's who I really am. This person that I'm being on stage, that's not the real me. But then if somebody sees me, that see me on stage and they see this completely different person, they're going to be confused. So I said to myself, no, I have to just be me, who I am, own my flaws. If I'm not that energetic, that's just the way I am. I'm kind of laid back. But I don't want to

have to be this character in my business and then be somebody else when I'm not in my business. So that was a struggle. But once I understood that, then I could start to use my natural voice in the way that I do things. And what I do is I don't really consider myself a salesperson. I don't sell. I'm not going to sell you product. I'm not going to sell you a program. What I'm going to do is help you to find solutions. And I'm going to build a relationship.

Jon Coogan (40:28)
Hmm.

W.T. Hamilton (40:29)
So once you understand that you're selling a relationship and you're selling solutions, you're selling something that is going to help somebody improve their life or help somebody in whatever way, fill a desire, fill a want or a need, when you start selling that way and you're selling with your natural voice, then it's a lot easier because you don't feel like you're asking for money. The money part is the fruit of what you're doing.

But what you're really trying to do is help somebody. And if you give them a solution, sometimes you give them a solution for free, they're going to come back and you can charge them a fee. They're going to ask for more. And then you can create whatever it is that you need to do for them. But they're going to be your person. They're going to resonate with you and look for you for solutions first, even if there's other people offering the same thing, because they know that, hey, this person's not about

How much money, how much money can I make? How many people can I get into my funnel? They're just looking at, I wrote these books, they can help you. I got these videos, they can help you. I got this, I got that. Here's all the things I do for free that you can take if you want to go deeper. Here's what we can do. So yeah, authentic sales, I think, because it doesn't feel like sales anymore. It's just fun and you're helping people. When you're in service of others,

More money comes to you than it does if you're just chasing money.

Jon Coogan (42:00)
Hmm. Yeah, it's a great lesson to know. It's like I say, just actually helping people. One, you learn a lot by helping other people anyway. And you do just get so much from helping other people, but that does come back in other ways anyway. And I'd say people want to work with you or want to buy into your programs, buy your books, and just sharing that knowledge actually comes back tenfold.

And one of the things I wanted to ask about, because it sounds like through your journey has been a few times where you've had some self-doubt, just whether it's like I say trying to work out who you are on stage when you're speaking, if it's trying to be loud or trying to just be a bit more authentic, or also when you lost your job all those years ago. So do you still have those moments of self-doubt now or is that something you've managed to conquer?

W.T. Hamilton (42:50)
would love to be able to conquer it forever. But no, no, think part of the doubt is if you're taking risks and you're challenging yourself, you don't know for sure how are you gonna do it, how long it's gonna take, or what skills you actually have, because you're going in there thinking you know a lot about something, but until you experience doing it, you don't know what pieces you're missing, what little pieces of knowledge or...

Jon Coogan (42:51)
Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (43:18)
what experiences you haven't had yet that you need to have to be able to give you the wisdom to really own that solution or own that idea. So I think unless you're finished challenging yourself, then you're going to have no doubt, but you're only going to go as high as you are right now. If you want to go higher and you challenge yourself and you're taking risks, you don't know exactly how to do it. You don't know if you're going to fumble and stumble, but making some of those mistakes,

teaches you how to be better at that thing and really master it. So I think as long as you're challenging yourself, at least for me, as long as I'm challenging myself, I always have a little bit of doubt. I have a lot of confidence, but I don't have complete confidence. I don't go into anything with zero doubt. Unless it's something I've done many, many times. It's kind of autopilot. If it's something new, which is what I'm always trying to do, there's just gonna be doubt.

Jon Coogan (44:11)
Yeah.

think self doubt is actually quite a healthy and positive thing. think if you have got self doubt, you know you're pushing yourself outside your comfort zone. And when you do it, that's where the growth is. You're becoming better, improving and learning when you've got self doubt. So it's definitely something that should be leaned into and embrace it. And I think that's really just to having a different perspective on self doubt and seeing it as a learning and growth opportunity.

W.T. Hamilton (44:43)
Yeah, and if you go in there with the right mindset, then the doubt, like I said before, it's only there until you start to believe. And as you get momentum in this new thing, the more momentum that you get into it, the bigger the belief, the doubt starts to shrink. And it shrinks into the point where you know without a doubt that you're be able to achieve something. But you have to start out with some doubt.

Jon Coogan (45:06)
And yeah, definitely. just we're talking about some of successes you've had as well. So can you discuss any of the unseen challenges that comes with success?

W.T. Hamilton (45:20)
Yeah, so I tell people the easiest thing to do is become successful. the hardest thing to do is to stay successful. Because you can get successful by luck sometimes, by accident. But knowing how to repeat it and keep it going is a lot more challenging. As you start to get more money, you're paying more taxes. Now you have to work with your financial advisor, with your accountant more to understand

How do I navigate this so that can keep as much money as I can in my pocket? you know, marketing, you have to market more. You have to understand time zones and what different rules, different rules for different countries. And there's a lot to it. And you have people demanding your time more. And then you have to hire assistants. So now you've got employees. There's a lot to...

being successful that is unsexy, it's not so fun, it's work. You work for your business, depending on what you do, like for what I do, I'm the product. So I sell books, but I also do coaching and mentoring. So I'm the product. now, if I want to let people know what I do, I have to come on podcasts like your podcast and talk to people in these different markets.

Jon Coogan (46:33)
Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (46:49)
I don't have somebody that I can just say, okay, you go promote over here, you go do this. So you have to understand when you're building your success, what are the actual work, the actual jobs, the hats that you gotta wear, how many of them are you gonna wear? You're gonna wear all of them at first. What ones can you let go and trust that somebody else is gonna handle that piece of your business for you?

How do you check on them and make sure that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing while you're still focusing on maintaining what you have and then looking to grow? What is your growth strategy? are the next challenges that you're going to do while you still have this other piece? Kind of on autopilot, but you still got to manage it. You still got to make sure that it's not slowing down or it's not losing money or losing momentum.

Jon Coogan (47:42)
And she did ask a pertinent question, how do you choose it? So how do you choose what tasks you let go of and what ones you should be outsourcing? Have you got any formulas or tactics that you use to decide?

W.T. Hamilton (47:55)
Yeah, so there's two. is, again, what is your natural talent? So what are you already good at that you really want to hold onto and you don't want anybody messing with? And then the other thing is time, time energy. How much time energy and emotional energy do you have to put into all these different buckets? And if you're trying to do all of these things and they're sucking a bunch of your time energy and emotional energy,

Do you have time left to do the thing that you're really good at? So if the accounting is taking away too much of your time, the part that you're really good at, you should farm that out. And you should understand, okay, now it's worth this much money for me to farm out because I don't have the time to do it anyways. If it's editing videos and you're not great at editing videos, maybe you get to a point where, okay, I'm gonna film this stuff and hand it off to my...

teenage daughter, to my son or my nephew or whoever, let them do it. Or your social media. Maybe you don't have all the kinds of time to do social media. But if you're really good at that, you hold onto it. If your authentic voice is through your social media, you don't want somebody else speaking for you and trying to sound like you and maybe messing it up. So it's really what are your natural talents are and then what are the things that maybe you're good at that you want to hold onto and what pieces.

Just in time how much time do you have that you can put into this business? And Where is where are you losing time? Where's what's the vampire and those vampire things you need to find?

Jon Coogan (49:35)
Yeah, the time is definitely the most difficult thing to manage. So in terms of, obviously you've got your consulting side of your business, you've got your books. How do you divide your time or decide how you can divide your time between those two aspects?

W.T. Hamilton (49:50)
So there is difficult sometimes it depends on what it is that I'm doing but I'm able to compartmentalize my consulting. So I know that when I'm doing the consulting stuff I can get a lot done in a small amount of time. because I'm isolated I work on my own when I'm doing that stuff. So don't have people bothering me asking me things that are nothing to do with what I'm trying to do. I set tasks.

and I put time limits on how much time am I working on certain tasks. So with the books, it's the creative time. So for me, early in the morning is my creative time, that's where really thinking. So I work on the creative projects in the early morning. In the middle of the day, that's where I'm just task-orientated. It's very simple task things that I'm doing. Then in the evening, I leave it for whatever planning and you know.

thinking about things and really seeing what I want to do next is kind of where I do that. So it's understanding your rhythm and flow of your day and where are you creative, where are you best to do your tasks, what parts of your business, if you're doing two different businesses, what business do you want to work on in the afternoon, which one do you want to work on in the evening, and then really sticking to those buckets. And if you have a plan like that,

And it's easier, it's not easy, but it's easier to be able to manage your time properly and make sure you're not spending time doing task things in your creative hours. And creative hours could be different for each person, so you really have to set it up to the rhythm of your day and the way that things flow and the way that you think and the way that you work. But if you set it up for you, you're setting yourself up for success.

you're trying to copy what someone else is doing like I see some people they get up like five o'clock in the morning because somebody else it's up at five o'clock in the morning I say then what are you doing are you meditating you can meditate whatever you're reading you can read whatever or are you doing something creative in that time is that your creative hours or is it the best time for you to still be sleeping so go say figure out what works for you

Jon Coogan (52:07)
Hmm. But yeah, it's, it's, say exactly. It's very personal depending on your lifestyle, whether you've got kids, if you still got a day job and doing things in the evening or whatever that might look like. So yeah, it's definitely very personal. But one thing that everyone does love is a cheat code. And I you've developed some cheat codes for success, which I'd love to hear about.

W.T. Hamilton (52:29)
Yeah, so a couple of cheat codes. One is I realize that as long as you decide that you want to do something, it's possible for you. So it's impossible until you decide that you want to do it. Once you decide, things start to fall into place, opportunities, circumstances, ways to learn. You just start to see that you're opening up this whole vision of what you want to do. So the first cheat code is just decide that you want to do something.

put a little bit of action into that. Put a little bit of action to bring it to life. Because once you do that, you're going to start setting up yourself for a journey of either learning something that's going to help you with continuing that, or you take that first step and it actually shows you something else that you didn't really see that you would never see until you... So the ideas that you have, you got to put, decide to put some action into them.

The second cheat code is really, it's just that as you learn things, you build confidence. So understand that you don't have to have all the confidence in the world to start. You start and you can start to build that confidence. the other big cheat code is there's all kinds of people that know how to full time. And full time is when you talk to somebody,

Jon Coogan (53:28)
beer.

W.T. Hamilton (53:57)
and they've already done what you're trying to do, they can give you insight into how to do it faster and easier. And so if you reach out to people and build up your network, you're going to be able to achieve the thing that you want to a lot quicker.

Jon Coogan (54:13)
What I'd love to hear is can you tell me an example where you've used one of these cheat codes in practice and how it's turned the situation around for you?

W.T. Hamilton (54:22)
Yeah, so really when I wanted to learn how to speak, went to, so I went to Toastmasters and kinda, that was like my first step is how do you actually learn how to speak? What is it you're supposed to do? But what I found was, what really helped me was when I went to an event and seen people speaking, I actually went up to the people that were speaking and they asked me, how did you get into this? How did you start doing that? And you magically,

They want to help you. They're excited to tell you what they did. So I started realizing that when you have conversations with people, you interview them and they'll give you feedback on how you can actually do what they're doing. They don't look at you as competition. They want to help you. So the first cheat code was if I wanted to learn how to speak so that I could promote my books and I could become an award-winning author, I

and learn how to promote and sell these books. The first thing I was doing was talking to people that were already doing the thing that I wanted to do and find out what it is that they're doing. And that was, it would start to build my confidence, because then I could start to see, can do that. They're doing that. They started out just like me. Or maybe they started out with less skills than me. And they're at that level right now. So that was one of the things that really helped me to be able to

achieve my goals and dreams. And then really networking by getting some people, like I said, with being so open-air, getting people that are trying to do what you're trying to do. And then they're giving you insight on how to do things. it's like holding time. Instead of having to learn everything yourself, you're talking to people. Maybe you get a mentor and they help you as well. But they're helping you to navigate some of the easy hurdles that

you don't have to go through it because there's some things that you have to go through to gain experience. There's a lot of things that you don't really have to go through if you learn to speak with people and have confidence to speak to people. But that in itself, that takes a bit of confidence just to be able to go up to someone you don't know and then yourself and ask them how they got to where they're at right now.

Jon Coogan (56:33)
Yeah.

I love the example of Toastmasters. I'd imagine that lot of people you are approaching, so you've attended as a new wannabe public speaker, to Toastmasters, you're approaching these people who are experienced, seem confident, look like they know what they're doing. I'd imagine a lot of those people did exactly what you did, turned up for the first day at Toastmasters, and you can resonate with what they've been through to get to where they are.

Like you say, taking that first step is the hardest one, but if you can see where you can end up if you just take that first step, then it's quite empowering.

W.T. Hamilton (57:23)
That is.

Jon Coogan (57:23)
So how long did you do the Toastmasters for?

W.T. Hamilton (57:28)
I did that for, I think it was roughly two years, but I think after like the first year and a bit, I was kind in my comfort zone, but I wasn't really gaining anything anymore. And so what I had to do is eventually leave that and I started, I was going to these events in Toronto where they were having these speaking events every month and I was really networking with the speakers and then eventually they,

Jon Coogan (57:33)
Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (57:56)
It took me into going up on stage and doing my first speech in front of a big crowd. But it was really, after a while, your thing that wasn't your comfort zone becomes your comfort zone. And if you stay there too long, you start to feel kind of burnt out and like it's not really doing anything for you. That's the sign that it's time to step up. You got to level up now and get out of that comfort zone into a

Jon Coogan (58:09)
Yep.

Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (58:25)
a new situation that's not comfortable.

Jon Coogan (58:29)
And sticking along the same themes really, so if there's one mindset shift that you've had that's been pivotal for you, what would that be? Because we've talked about a lot of things you've learned working with your mum and speaking to your mum, but is there one mindset shift that you feel has been pivotal for you?

W.T. Hamilton (58:48)
It's a big one and I talk about it in the book The Harsh Truth as well, but it's nobody cares what you're doing. So if you do something and you embarrass yourself, people are gonna laugh for a minute and then they're gonna move on. You're gonna hold on to that and it's gonna bother you for maybe years. But the people that were there and experienced it with you, they've forgotten about it. They've probably forgotten about who you are. So I realized that

Because nobody cares, you can just do what you want. You don't have to ask for permission. You don't have to worry about how it turns out. All you have to do is focus on improving and doing the next thing. It's a key to being successful because now you're not holding yourself in shackles thinking I have to impress this person and I have to be perfect when I go do this thing. Instead, you can just do what you want and realize that

A month from now, nobody's going to remember what you even did.

Jon Coogan (59:49)
Yeah it's quite liberating, quite freeing to know that. What I'm going to do is move on to a quick fire round shortly but before we do that we've discussed quite a few topics but if there's one key thing that listeners should remember and take away from today's conversation what should it be?

W.T. Hamilton (1:00:06)
I really think the key to getting started is creating that goal as an experience. I think that was the biggest thing that I did, the big breakthrough that I did was really creating that as an experience that I knew what it was going to feel like. I knew what it would look like, what it would sound like to actually achieve that goal. So I set it up as an event, as a celebration, and then I focused on that all the time.

lived that in my mind as a movie starring me succeeding. So it got to the point where I just had to do that. I promised myself that I would do it and I was going to focus on it and stay focused on it until I achieved that event.

Jon Coogan (1:00:52)
Yeah, so just really strong visualizations, picture what it's going to look like, what it's going to feel like, the smells and all of that and just really embrace it. Yeah. What we're going to move on to is very quick fire round and this is just closing five questions really, just some short sharp questions, some quick insights about WD Hamilton. So what's the first thing you do in the morning to set your mindset up for the day?

W.T. Hamilton (1:01:23)
So when I wake up, I don't get out of bed. I think about the things that I'm going to do, the immediate things I'm going to do that day. Like for today, I was thinking about this podcast interview and how I was going to get prepared for the podcast interview. And then I go through a little mental gratitude of the things that I'm grateful for that are on autopilot that I don't have to actually do that work for me without me having to do anything.

Jon Coogan (1:01:44)
Hmm.

W.T. Hamilton (1:01:53)
I really appreciate those things because those are things I don't have to have on my list. So that's really how I start my day and then I get up and start my day.

Jon Coogan (1:02:02)
And is that something you're able to share from today? Can you give us examples of the grateful gratitude that you felt today?

W.T. Hamilton (1:02:10)
Yeah, so I'm in some speaking summits and I've been doing a guest tour for podcasts. So I really appreciate that I have all these people that I don't know necessarily that are helping to market me. And I'm marketing their stuff, but there's marketing going on even though I'm not doing any marketing. So I really appreciate that. I went through my gratitude of

all the people that are keep buying my books because I, every month they get Amazon royalty checks. They get deposited in my, and it's, I don't know who these people are that are buying the books, but I'm graded, have gratitude because that's something I don't have to work at, but it just kind of flows. And then I was, you gratitude for the garbage collecting guy came today. I don't have to do anything. I just put the garbage bins out the night before and all I have to do is bring the empty garbage bins back in.

Jon Coogan (1:02:45)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (1:03:08)
I don't have to go to the put them in the truck, drive around the smelly truck and then go to the dump. So little things like that. Maybe it's not a big deal for other people, but for me it's like, I'm glad I don't have to do that.

Jon Coogan (1:03:22)
yeah just anything that makes life easier or just more enjoyable so yeah and had great little insights thank you and what was your what's been your biggest failure and what have you learned from it?

W.T. Hamilton (1:03:34)
So I don't know about my biggest failure, but one of the things that I really wanted to have happen that never happened was I had this merch line and I had done it first with a partnership with actually a guy from England. And then it just kind of fell apart. We were on the same page. And so I thought, okay, it failed because the other person. So let me launch my own and see if I could do it. I launched my own and it just didn't resonate. really.

Jon Coogan (1:03:57)
Yeah.

Nice.

W.T. Hamilton (1:04:04)
I sold a few shirts but nothing where I could be successful. And I had put together a landing page and I had a Spotify shop. And that really just, it was something that everybody was saying, it's so easy. just get some logos, get these shirts, and everybody will buy them. And I make all this kind of money every, and then was when I realized that the reason it failed for me is because it was all about money. It was just about making sales and making money.

Jon Coogan (1:04:06)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (1:04:32)
it wasn't really authentic to what I do so but it was a big failure because I really thought I can become this I can have this merch line and and still do this other stuff too so it's still something that I'd like to be able to fine-tune at some point but I knew it just wasn't wasn't the right time for me right now with the other things I was doing

Jon Coogan (1:04:40)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Yeah, now I'm seeing, as you say, all sorts of programs offering free drop shipping stores and making everything sound so easy on Shopify and that's just not how it works. Yeah, there's a lot more work. Yep, you never know, could be another future endeavor though. And on the flip side of that, how do you keep yourself grounded when success starts to feel overwhelming?

W.T. Hamilton (1:05:06)
Yeah, yeah. a lot more work.

So I always look at it, and it's something I've kind of done my whole life, but I always look at, I put my pants on one leg at a time. I got to sleep when I'm tired, eat when I'm hungry, so I'm not special. just might, know more and have done a little bit more than somebody else, but I'm not higher than anybody, but also nobody's higher than me. So we're all kind on the same level. Just what I do makes me more money.

Jon Coogan (1:05:32)
Yeah.

W.T. Hamilton (1:05:52)
my value is worth a little more than someone else, it doesn't make me better than anybody else. So I always have to tell myself that. Even when you're getting lot of positive feedback, remember, yeah, it's what you do. It doesn't mean that you're better than anybody else. It's not who you are. It's just, this is what you do to contribute to the world, right?

Jon Coogan (1:06:13)
Yeah, yeah and I think like you said earlier it's just that realization that nobody cares. So in six months time people aren't going to remember what you've been doing today. So yeah, yeah so think that's definitely a good way to keep grounded. Can you think of an unconventional piece of advice that's made a difference in your life?

W.T. Hamilton (1:06:35)
I don't know if it's unconventional, but I had a boss one day that told me the person with the most paper wins. And basically what he was saying is the most information that you have about something and that you can defend, that's, it's all about knowledge, right? It's like then you're, when you're working in a company and there's other people that, other departments maybe that point your fingers and stuff, and you have all the

documents and all the paper to back it up. So what it told me is that as long as you you're confident in what you're doing and you you gather all the information, know, be the sponge, gather the knowledge, then you're going to be fine in whatever you're doing. And that's really served me well in everything that I've done.

Jon Coogan (1:07:25)
Yeah well today WC you've given us given us plenty of advice and amazing takeaways and insights so really really pleased for you to come on. I thank you for being here. Just if anyone wants to follow find out a little bit more about you or follow your journey where's the best place to find you?

W.T. Hamilton (1:07:41)
So there's two spots, mindsetforsuccesstraining.com is my website, and then wt.hamilton on Instagram is another great place to connect with me. Thank you, thank you a lot Jon.

Jon Coogan (1:07:54)
Yeah, fantastic. Thank you very much for coming on. I appreciate it. Cheers.