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Conquering Challenges: Jaccob Dean's Path to Personal Growth
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What if there was a program that could turn your life around? That's precisely the journey Jaccob Dean underwent when he joined a life-repair program run by co-founder of The Competence Institute, Mike Tyler. This episode unravels Jacob's transformation from a troubled teenager to a director-level professional. It's an inspiring tale of overcoming the potent pull of substance abuse and embracing self-improvement.
Do you ever wonder about the power of confronting challenges? In the second part of our conversation with Jaccob, we traverse this daunting topic. Jaccob shares his experiences with 'The Way to Happiness' book and the profound impact it's had on his life. He outlines how he has applied these tools to his everyday life, from shipping items nationwide to making a real impact through estate sales liquidation.
Lastly, we examine the essential role of literacy and learning in personal growth. Jaccob's story underscores the importance of understanding words and their meanings, a key to unlocking success. Coupled with the teachings from Mike Tyler's program, the power of literacy has guided Jaccob in his career with confidence. We wrap up our conversation exploring the positive influence of surrounding oneself with inspiring individuals. Join us for this insightful discussion rich in personal experiences and invaluable life lessons.
Access our FREE special report 'How to Learn Anything'!
Click here now for instant access.
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Ryan: Alright, hello everyone! Today I have with me Jaccob Dean, who's created quite a success story for himself, and he wanted to share a little bit of what he experienced working with Mike Tyler many years ago, and what was going on before and after, and I'm looking forward to hearing the full story myself - I have not, so - Hey Jacob! Thanks for being with us here today!
Jaccob: Hey Ryan, thank you so much for having me! I'm really glad that I got introduced to you and that I'm here and - a little bit about my story. This all this happened when I was about 17, 18, 19 years old. So if I would have maybe gone down this path a little bit sooner, maybe when I was in my early teens, maybe I wouldn't have had some of the things that happened to me, but that being said, I was in four high schools in four years.
My mom's a physician and she does all natural medicine. And she was kind of in her journey, finding the right place for her to land and learning different techniques. And the fastest way to make friends is - that it seemed like to me, in a new place, being in literally a different high school every year - was to party and be a part of the scene and part of that partying was drinking and doing drugs and - I paid attention in school but I didn't really care and I always got passing grades and I got my high school diploma but I didn't want to go to college and I was just kind of figuring out my life and figuring out what I wanted to do next.
I knew I wanted to do something with people because I really want to help and I like helping people, but I got to a place where I was smoking weed every day and I wasn't really being a part of - a valuable part of society at 18 years old and - I was living with my parents, planning to move out, but my mom, being a doctor - I was hiding all these things from her - found some marijuana one day, and she was like - Man, this is not okay, like, I'm a physician! Like, it's either out of my house, or you have to go do some sort of program.
I had no idea who Mike Tyler was. I had no idea what the program would be, I just knew that it was going to be some sort of a life repair type situation and I was down to do it because I didn't want to lose my family.
The way that I like to describe it is - one of the first things that Mike said to me was that everything that's happened to you up to this point is canceled - and it was done so well that I was then able to move forward with a new frame of mind to just - to just go.
So, we started there - started my program. My program - I like to describe it that I didn't do a 180, I didn't do a 360 - I talk about it doing a 540. I mean, I'm literally turned and turned and then - and then turned into this new person. I just - the things that I realized during this entire process really helped me clarify and eradicate some of the false information that I had and some of the things that I believed. I had many misunderstandings on how things should be or why things should be.
There was just - there was missing data. And when - once these, these gaps and holes were filled in with the program, I had a new perspective, a new perspective on life. And since then, I have done some - some pretty awesome things. I'm definitely more competent, more ethical - don't do drugs. I mean - have champagne at a wedding toast or something like that.
I stay pretty healthy, but I'm, but I'm focused and that's all because of this program. And I - there's other things that have happened along the line, but now I - I've, I've worked my way up all the way, going to a director level of companies, managerial type positions, and helping people is really what I like doing.
I personally am in, like, the sales realm, so communicating and talking with other people and helping them achieve their goals using the product that they're interested in is, is my key, and key items that I like to do.
And I just - I really - I mean, there's so much more that I could go over because this - this was 20 years ago, okay - so we're on the same page. When I was 18, that was 20 years ago. I'm 38 now. But it's just been - I just know that I wouldn't be where I am today without the program. And I might be dead, in all - in all reality. I mean, drugs are a serious thing. Alcohol is a serious thing. People are driving on the road sometimes when they do these things.
And I just know that I could be dead if it wasn't for Mike and it wasn't for this program. That's a hundred percent the truth.
Ryan: Wow! That's incredible, Jaccob. That's really amazing stuff - very inspiring!
Jaccob: Good! I mean, I hope so! I mean - because everybody deserves to, in my opinion, deserves to live a life, a life that they deserve, that they want, that they create.
Um, but sometimes there can be these blinders that are on, you know, and you can't see what you're able to create. And I was able to take those blinders off to a degree, and I'm not perfect. I still have stuff that I work on. I'm continually trying to improve. It's not like I just did this program and all of a sudden I was like this amazing - I mean, I was totally different, but I mean, I still face challenges and I still have to overcome those, but now I have the confront, if you will, to be able to stand up to those things, learn about those things, and see how I can climb over that mountain and get to the other side, instead of essentially using a drug or alcohol or something to, to, to cover up the fact that the mountain's there and then never climb it at all.
Ryan: Right, right. No - absolutely. Absolutely. Awesome! Well, I want to ask you about some specific things that you brought up that are just like super interesting and make me - make me think about what we're going to be working on and how it can help people. So, you mentioned filling in gaps and clearing up misunderstandings. Can you speak to that a little more? Like, what was the process and how that changed you?
Jaccob: Sure, yeah. So, one thing - there's this little booklet. It's called The Way to Happiness and there are some precepts or rules - if you don't know what precepts means - in that booklet that really just go over basic happiness and ways to be happy.
There were items in there that definitely filled in some gaps for me. Again, I had misunderstandings on how some things should be. There was also in the realm of - like, ethics and essentially doing the right thing.
There's some basic factors that really play - like, why is a criminal a criminal and doing what they're doing? Why are they doing criminal type activities? Why are they breaking the law?
And there's - there's some really basic and key items that lie in there that are just, that are - they're true for me, and I don't know if they'd be true for everybody else, but I have a feeling that for most people, they could understand one way or another how they're true.
And for me, but again - filled in those holes and those gaps and those misunderstandings that I had and really gave me clarity and then I was able to move forward in my life, knowing those things and making decisions based on the new knowledge that I had.
Ryan: Love it! So awesome! Okay, great! And I know in The Way to Happiness, one of the things it goes over - and I think you're a great example of this - is competence and being able to look, handle, and execute, and that type of thing. Did you notice any gains from that aspect of The Way to Happiness?
Jaccob: Big time! Yeah, there's that thing, that word that I said before, I think a lot of us don't - I know I didn't really realize it, but the word confront - let's just be honest, people are scared. I'm scared of stuff sometimes. It's not like I'm this, this - some crazy Superman type person, but you can have Superman type qualities if you just - if you confront something.
I remember being on a ship, and part of my program that I was doing to handle material items was - was get down in this, in this diesel engine area and, like, clean - like, basically with, like, a toothbrush - to get the oil off of certain parts of the engine room to make sure that it was clean and spotless and - or hanging off the side of the ship and cleaning windows - but I have a team, I have a strap on and I'm on this board, but I have a team - and I have a team that's helping me.
I would have never been able to even go do that program if I didn't have the competence to confront and - and be a part of something like that and be a part of a team, but these things have - and definitely The Way to Happiness is a super, you know, item - it's very basic, it's easy to understand, and then you can use that on a gradient level to continue to improve.
Ryan: Awesome! So, I also know that you are exhibiting the qualities of flourishing and prospering right now. I've heard some great stories about good things you're doing and where you're going in life, and that's always exciting.
And I know that kind of the wrap-up of The Way to Happiness is all about how to use this book and these precepts or rules to flourish and prosper. Can you speak to how that influenced your journey?
Jaccob: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, once you can - I know I keep coming back to confront because like, typically when somebody can't confront something, that's when they, they, they hinder or they step back or they - or they stop or it impedes them from going forward.
But once you have some of these general rules and you have the ability to confront, you can move forward. And for me, that has been using the tools to, to move up and, and conquer new things in my life that I want to. And for me, that has been - I mean, starting as a salesperson, moving up to sales manager, moving up to director, and then now I'm running a $36 million logistics company, for example.
Ryan: Wow!
Jaccob: I did that for about four years. It took eight years to get there - or it took four years to get there and then I did that for four years. And then I decided that logistics was something I wanted to use, based on the items that I was shipping, to move into a different industry, which was the furniture industry and the furniture industry was one of the main things that I shipped all over the nation to offices and then help to the company that I was with, and then install them into the into the units.
Covid happened and with - there wasn't too many people working in offices, so with that happening, I then found a company that has - we do estate sales, so essentially really well-organized garage sales, and we sell everybody's - we liquidate their personal belongings inside their home when they're downsizing. The point of saying all of this is that anything that I'm doing is, is helping others in this universe in one way or another.
People don't realize when you're shipping something on a shipping container that might be coming from overseas, it has to come overseas, it has to then get off that ship onto a truck, the truck has to take it to a place, the place has to take it to another place, it then makes it to its final warehouse, it then after the warehouse, gets distributed to the local place, and then it makes its way onto the shelf.
You and I just walk in and we get it off the shelf, right? So that was a huge thing for me. And then also there's, there's 10, 000 people retiring right now in America every single day. And there's a huge portion of people that are moving into assisted living from the baby boomers and - or independent living.
And that means the, the 2, 000, 3, 000, 5, 000, 8, 000 square foot home that they live in is now - they're going to be going down into an apartment that's like a thousand square feet. You can't take everything with them. They want to sell the home for as much as humanly possible and in order to do that you have to liquidate all the items in between.
Somebody could definitely do that on their own. I don't know how profitable it would be when using a professional service that can get it done. But again, helping people and that's the - I think that's the keynote of being able to confront and then and then use that to like really, really help people.
Ryan: Yeah. I love it. Help is such a key factor in everybody's journey, I feel, so...
Jaccob: For sure.
Ryan: Yeah, great! Well, I'd like to ask you a little bit about something that Mike and the program specializes in, which is the study technology, increasing literacy and ability to understand so you can then apply in life. Did you work on that or experience something with that?
Jaccob: I did. Absolutely. I would highly, highly recommend everything that has to do with this because even though we're going into a digital age where we may not be reading as many physical books, I still recommend reading as many physical books as possible, but it's going to be - it's imperative, whether we're learning online or learning through a video or learning - however we're learning nowadays, to make sure that you understand all the words, because if you don't understand a word in a sentence, you're just going to go blank.
Like, you're not going to understand that sentence. You're not going to understand what comes after that because it's just not going to make sense. There's several examples that you could go along with this, but - and that goes along with - how do you look up the word? I mean, how do you use a dictionary?
What - how do you find the right definition? Where did the word come from? What, what, is it a verb? Is it a noun? Is it an adjective? Like, these things are imperative, because if you don't have basic literacy, then - and the way, the ability to get that literacy by understanding how it works, then you just don't - again, it's inadvertently, and we don't even know this, but we will separate ourselves from a subject if we don't understand it.
We will find a way to make an excuse or make a reason of why we don't understand that subject, and then we move away from it. So, like, if you're not good at math, and you don't understand math, and you don't understand the symbols, for example, then, then you're not going to be good at math, because you're going to choose that you're not good at math.
And it's literally only because you don't understand - there's a misunderstanding there. So, that being said, whether you want to be an accountant, or a lawyer, or a doctor, or if you want to be a janitor, if you want to be somebody that is a dog walker, or you want to run some sort of business of any sort, you're going to have to put together policies and understand why things operate a certain way and how you can improve them, and all that has to do with basic - applying knowledge from literacy.
And I can just - I just - I've seen the statistics personally. I don't have any to give you right this second but I'm sure we can look up in an area where literacy is low crime is probably high, and then if we go in and we get literacy in, crime goes down and it's just it's just a fact - it's true to me.
Ryan: Yeah - no, absolutely! Me too. I've experienced it on in many different ways, that phenomena. So I totally agree. Now, learning and working with Mike on improving your ability to understand words so that you can really duplicate them and apply the knowledge from them - how did that change your life? What happened?
Jaccob: You're doing a program, or I was doing a program anyway, and I'm learning some of this stuff, I'm looking at my words and I'm getting all these, this new data, and I'm thinking like, okay, this is cool. This is helping me understand right now.
And now, fast forward 20 years later - I've been using it the whole time! I mean, if I truly want to understand something, I need to be able to look these words up. And I need to be able to get the full understanding. And the only way to do that - and you don't think about that.
So if somebody's thinking to themselves, like, this is a great program maybe for right now - you have to think about the after-effect of going through a program like this. I did apply myself. I did want to get better. So I took everything in the program for what it was, and it - you know, did it to the fullest that I could.
And I think I'm that type of person in general, but I - but I also had the determination to want to do that because I wanted to get better. But that being said, it's so important to be able to just look up a word and know how - understand how to do that. Why it's important, get full conceptual understanding because if you understand something you can move forward and then like I said, I've used that my whole life. And I know also because of that technology, when I'm not tracking with something, I'm not and if I'm not tracking, I'm like, there's something I don't understand here. Either - there's only a couple factors that play into where I, where I went astray, and I'm able to locate that spot, and then I can find the spot, find what's, what's happening, whether - if it's a misunderstood word, find out what that word is, I can then restudy, and then I can understand and move forward, instead of saying, you know what, I'm just gonna give up.
Ryan: Right, right, yeah, absolutely. And to speak to that, you have very successfully navigated different types of careers. I mean, they seem like they're somewhat related, but very different areas of knowledge. and understanding, in order to have great success. So, did being able to course-correct and having this ability with literacy and study and application, did you find that played a key role in that?
Jaccob: Absolutely. So I built my resume through the companies and I was at every company for two to three years until I found the one that I'm with now. And this is my - everybody's journey is different, but I did everything from tool sales, traveling tool sales around the country, I did vitamin sales, I sold aloe products while I was doing the vitamins.
And that was all virtual, and that was back in 2010 and 11. And then I moved on to selling plants and flowers wholesale all over the Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio tri-state area for a wholesaler, plant wholesaler. So again, traveling sales. That moved into selling vacuums. I sold vacuums door to door for two and a half years.
That was an amazing experience - took a lot of confront to be able to go to somebody's door and knock on it and ask them if you could give them a demonstration of your product. That moved into logistics for almost a decade, basically, and logistics, in general, moving auto parts and refrigerated items and other items, anything in the spectrum, big pieces of machinery, silos, helicopters, government materials, all the way to then furniture and being in the furniture industry, specifically in logistics, and now helping people liquidate all of their items in their home, doing an estate sale. So, I wouldn't have been able to be successful in each one of those roles if I didn't have the ability to learn about each one of those things.
Logistics, especially, is something that's super technical. I mean, all of them are technical. Tools are technical. Vitamins are technical, aloe products and how to help people with eczema is technical. Plants - plants are super technical. You have to have certain types of lighting, certain types of watering, different plants do different things, the root systems, all of that. And so then there's that.
And then moving into logistics - I mean, it's insane. There's so many DOT - which is Department of Transportation - regulations and rules and laws. There's only so far - your calculations of how far your driver can drive. The furniture - how are you going to pack that furniture into the truck so then that it can come off? And then I'm delivering that semi into a busy downtown area. How am I going to get my semi - do I need an escort, a police escort? Do I need to call the police department? Do I need to pay for these things? I mean, it's all super technical.
And then you get into an estate sale. Somebody can have something from the Victorian era in their home. And how do I know what that Victorian piece is worth? I don't know unless I do the research and all of this is a circumference of having the knowledge and being able to obtain the knowledge and having the willingness to - to get the - have the competency to confront these things, which is, in my opinion, is the, the educational realm of this whole thing.
And if you don't - learning how to learn is literally a process. And if you don't get educated on learning how to actually learn, you're just going to get stuck and you're going to be memorizing things and then you're going to not be able to apply them as well as if you actually learn them.
Ryan: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And in our - unfortunately, in our modern education system, there's not a specific course or teaching that goes over exactly how to learn. So you end up with that kind of gap in there and it sounds like, by doing this, you filled that and then some.
Jaccob: For sure. And I have continued my education by choice as well, but this program was absolutely the start of my want as an adult to do this and make this a part of my life so that I could project myself forward.
Ryan: Awesome. You've brought up several times this concept of you, you as a person are driven and you have a desire to improve yourself and to go and make things happen. Would you say there was anything in the program you worked on with Mike that helped create that for you or take it to a new level?
Jaccob: Yeah, because there's two sides of every story, right?
There, there's, there's also going to be people out there that are, will say that they're not driven and they just don't care, right? I was definitely that person also, before this program. Wandering aimlessly through life, not really sure what I'm doing, not really wanting to confront anything, just about having a good time - a lot of the societal things that are portrayed in the social, or the veneer, or the covering, or the coating of what society is.
But when you get down to the realness - there's, there's just something about - for me anyway - the program and how it allowed me to pull out some of the things that I was doing that were unethical, that were wrong, that I shouldn't have been doing.
And once I was able to pull those things out, allow, you know, somebody within - the whole program is totally confidential, right? I'm deciding to share my story because I want other people to have the same success that I had. I want other people to have the same wins. I want people to rehabilitate themselves.
But the program's confidential. So there's things that I, that I talked about or wrote down or went over in this program that Mike was able to see. And there's some phenomena, that when you're writing something down on paper then and you're confronting it and then you allow somebody else to see it and it's then known - that it changes something in you. It did for me anyway.
So that whole thing that we were just talking about - for me it was, it was huge to go through the program and have light shed on some of these things that I was doing, and then I - at the same time, not only do that portion, but also learn why. I was getting to that point and why, and then I decided why I didn't want to go back there and have it happen again.
For me, those things were huge factors. And then again, I've had ups and downs in my life since, since the program. It's been 20 years, but I had this basic knowledge and I've had the ability to pull myself back up because of these items in the program - super vital.
Ryan: Very cool. Very, very awesome! Very amazing! Yeah, so well, let me ask you this - if you were to if someone were to come up to you and say, Hey, I'm thinking about working with Mike, I'm thinking about doing this whole program, but I'm kind of on the fence. What would you say to that person?
Jaccob: I would say, whatever the cost is, work it out. Because these are life skills that you're going to take with you forever. It's one thing to go to school to be a doctor, or be a lawyer, or be a dentist, or be an accountant, where you have to have the applied material, but if you don't learn that material, then you're not going to be a good lawyer, you're not going to be a good accountant, you're not going to be a good doctor. If you don't have the tools, I guess is what I'm saying, for success, then you're just not going to be successful. And what I would say is - a hundred percent, dive in and do this.
And if you can get it done, just get it done because you will see that Mike and his team won't allow you to go on without there being some sort of - the end phenomena that they're looking for has to be achieved also for the person to - to graduate, essentially. And that's - I know that was true for me and Mike never gave up on me.
There was just utter care and abundance of love to help me improve in my life. And the point of this whole answer to your question is that somebody should absolutely take the plunge and do it because if you care about the person that you're thinking about purchasing the program for - I mean, you're going to get a product that is going to be exchanged with you in abundance.
It's just, just knowing Mike now for - we've become friends, we've stayed in contact over the last 20, 21 years, and it's just - there's a heartfelt person and a heartfelt reason why they're doing this. And you want to be a part of it.
Ryan: Awesome. Awesome, Jaccob! So awesome! Thank you so much for sharing this with, with us today and with me. I'm, I'm inspired here now. I feel like, wow! Tis is amazing! Really great stuff! So I really appreciate you sharing all that.
Jaccob: You're so welcome. I'd love to speak sometime at - live at an event. We can do another interview, whatever, whatever you want, because I want as many people to know about this program. I want them to know about you. I want them to know about Mike.
People that are trying to make a difference in this world mean a lot to me, because I think we're - we could all probably agree there's a lot of negativity in this world. And my point of saying all this is that it can be really easy to get sucked into the negativity of the world, and making sure that you're surrounding yourself with people that are winning, people that are achieving new things, people that are helping this world be a better place, are the people that I want to be around.
And I just know that Mike is one of those people. I mean, I can tell, Ryan, from getting to know you a little bit today before this interview, that you're one of those people. Those are the type of people I want to be around because those are the people that are taking one individual at a time and they're going to help improve their life, to make this world a better place.
And that's what it's all about.