Former NBA Player and Successful Businessman Devin Durrant On Values Blaze The Trail To Success (#231)

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Devin Durrant is the owner of multiple real estate centric companies. After succeeding as a Consensus All American at Brigham Young university. And a two time academic All-American he played for the Indiana Pacers. As an elite athlete, Devin learned how important values were for team and individual success in real estate Devin's work and philosophy [00:02:00] centers around adding value to his employees and properties. 

An inspirational public speaker, Devin has spoken around the world for over 40 years. 

Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast, and really excited because today we have an author, thought leader, a fellow business owner, even an elite athlete. At one point in time, we have it all, but I'm gonna stop right there. Devin, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast.

An absolute pleasure to have you with us. And Devin, there's always a story behind the story. What's your story, Devin? What got you to where you are today?

[00:02:34] Devin Durrant: Well, Thank you, Jeffrey. I look forward to visiting with you today and sharing with your listeners. My story is I grew up loving the game of basketball and I was fortunate to have some wonderful coaches, wonderful teammates through my younger years and into college and for a brief time in the NBA.

But the day came when I was faced with reality where I had to get a real job and [00:03:00] had to leave basketball behind. But I realized that some of the things, the values that I had embraced as an athlete that helped me be successful in that world, translated to the business world. I used that basis to try to find success in investment in real estate primarily.

But over time I realized, yes, it's important to add value to assets to physical assets to property.

That was a path to success. But I realized more important than that is how could I add value to other human beings? How could I help them make a positive difference in not only their personal life but their professional life?

And I've come to the conclusion that as we focus on our values and those things that are most meaningful in our lives.

Find greater happiness and greater meaning in life. And also enjoy the benefits of that come out on the bottom line. That's a brief summary of where I've come from.

[00:03:52] Jeffrey Feldberg: That's terrific. And Devin, I have a question for you because on the podcast we've been very fortunate. We've had athletes, we've [00:04:00] had coaches who cross really the spectrum of different sports who have all come on that are now in the business world. Everyone has a little bit of a different take.

But for our listeners, whether they have children, they're wondering, should I put them into sports or looking to hire someone who comes from the sporting world? What did you find, Devin? So, if you went from the sports arena to the business arena, what did you take from the sports arena that gave you that competitive edge on the business side of things?

[00:04:26] Devin Durrant: The first word that comes to mind is resiliency.

[00:04:29] Jeffrey Feldberg: Oh, our favorite word here? 

[00:04:31] Devin Durrant: You take some hard knocks. There's good times, there's bad times, but you have to be able to bounce back quickly if the coach gives you a good stern talking too.

[00:04:41] Jeffrey Feldberg: Yes.

[00:04:41] Devin Durrant: You can't soak. You can't put your head down. You've gotta bounce back and respond in a positive way. In the business world, you're gonna have some struggles. Things will be difficult at times, but again, you have to keep fighting, bounce back and embrace that value of resiliency.

[00:04:58] Jeffrey Feldberg: And so from the sports [00:05:00] arena into the business arena and now into the world of books. You authored a book, The Values Delta, and for our listeners, we'll have in the show notes as we always do, we'll have links there, so you can point and click. It doesn't get any easier than that, and I really encourage you to go out and pick a copy of Devin's book, the values Delta, but big picture wise, and we'll go into this more Devin.

For our listeners who are gonna be looking at your book, The Values Delta: A Small & Simple Way to Make a Positive Difference in Your Personal & Professional Life. What's going on with the book? What's big picture wise happening with that?

[00:05:36] Devin Durrant: The book is generally speaking it's hopefully a motivational tool for people who are looking for an added burst of energy in their life.

[00:05:46] Jeffrey Feldberg: Oh, I love that. Ah-huh.

[00:05:48] Devin Durrant: How can I take the next step? How can I find even in small and simple ways I wanna make a positive difference? And the book is a series of stories that highlight my priority [00:06:00] values as a model for them as they discover what their priority values are, what they value the most, and how they might, through a focus on a value, impact some of the things that are most meaningful in their lives.

Jeffrey, if I might add, we also provide some tools there that help them through this process so It's a pretty fun and easy read, but hopefully it can help you make even a small difference in your life in a positive direction.

[00:06:29] Jeffrey Feldberg: And before we jump into, because I love what you said in creating Delta two questions, we'll get to those two questions, so a little bit of suspense for our listeners. But right off the bat, in the book, I mean, you talked about the why behind the book. You talked about the delta, your values, but you also spoke about your father.

And I wanted just to circle back on that and for our listeners who perhaps are already a father or they're going to be, what's going on with that? What really inspired you, Devin, to put your father right up [00:07:00] front and in the book, the reader of the book will obviously see that and read all about that before our listeners who are new to you and your work.

Perhaps you can share that with us.

[00:07:07] Devin Durrant: Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Think about at what point do we really determine what our values are in our lives? And my response to that is at a very young age, that was my case because I can remember back even as a young boy working side by side with my father around the house in the yard, and he would invariably say after we'd worked together, he would say. Devin, having you help is like having a man helping me. And can you imagine what that did for a young boy? To think my father believes in me. My father is teaching me the value of hard work and how those values translated because now I had confidence and I could go into other arenas I knew my dad and certainly my mother believed in me and that was really the start for me of path of believing in myself and hopefully using that model [00:08:00] even today as well. Years ago, as I interacted with my children and now as a grandfather, what values can I instill in my grandchildren.

[00:08:09] Jeffrey Feldberg: And speaking of grandchildren you're no stranger to that. Why don't you share with our listeners, you have quite the number of grandchildren, but I'm gonna stop there. I'll let you share that with our listeners of how blessed you really are with the grandchildren that you have. What's going on there?

[00:08:23] Devin Durrant: Yes. My wife and I now are the grandparents to 17 little grandchildren and the joys of our lives, as you might imagine.

[00:08:33] Jeffrey Feldberg: A small village going on there, Devin. Just with the grandchildren alone and so for the listeners, as we look from the personal life, even onto the business side, when you look at the role model that your father was, what he taught you, what would you say would be some takeaways or some strategies that we can apply to perhaps our team members, otherwise known as employees?

When we're mentoring them, we're coaching them. How would you go about that, given how your [00:09:00] father blessed you with some very early lessons on to really get you to where you got to what, what would be some takeaways for our listeners on that?

[00:09:06] Devin Durrant: You know what, where I would start is let's use the team as an example in the workplace or in the sports world. But for me, the first step is to gather everyone together, sit down and have a conversation

And ask the question, what are our values? And we can define that by as a person, just simply say, I am a person of blank. Fill in that blank. Or we are a group of blank. And fill in that blank and come up with four to six or eight values that are meaningful to that group. And then the second question is, what do we value

So, as a team, we might say, you know, we value our teammates. And the value we might highlight is simply unselfishness.

So, if as a group we're focused on being less selfish, how is that gonna impact the overall team, the spirit of the team, the chemistry of the team?

And then monitor that, monitor that for a while. And how is that gonna manifest itself in what [00:10:00] ways can we through actionable items make a positive difference or positive delta? By being less selfish and we monitor it for a week or two or a month, we come back together as a group and ask ourselves, did we create delta? Or in other words, did it make a difference? By everyone striving to be more unselfish and through that simple action it's cyclical.

We can focus on unselfishness one day and the next day it may be on self-discipline or another priority value that's been defined by this group. And I believe over time those small differences add up and can make a very meaningful differe.

[00:10:42] Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And really a terrific segue, Devin, because you did cover off there. The two questions to creating Delta, what are your values and what do you value? And for the benefit of our listeners, ask that questions, journal it out, and Devin, immediately after that, in the book, you talk [00:11:00] about four simple steps to really bring that together.

So, you write out, you get to know, okay, what are my values and what do I value? So, once we've established that, can you walk our listeners through your system of the four simple steps of what's involved with that?

[00:11:13] Devin Durrant: Yeah. Primarily it is an opportunity to sit down and say, okay, what are the actionable items here? How are we gonna make this happen?

And how are we gonna assess that process? At the end and then by that, there's actually a mathematical formula, very simple, you basically give yourself a grade at the beginning and monitor it.

Then you give yourself a grade at the end, somewhere to the GPA system in college. And so you might start out with a particular value and maybe your value is, let's say, communication.

And you think, I need to be a better communicator. And right now I might give myself a 3.0 grade. And then over time through different steps that or different actionable items, let's say, these are the things I want to focus on. And then in [00:12:00] the end, we reassess and maybe I'm a 3.5 on GPA what I call my VPA, my values point average.

And in the end, the Delta's 0.5 that's a nice increase and a meaningful increase, and it may be something that I want to continue to focus on or I move to another value.

[00:12:18] Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific and so with that system in place. Why don't we jump into some of the values that you highlight in the book and part of your system and not surprising, one of the first values that you decide to talk about in the book is really all about optimism and I'll call that mindset and here at Deep Wealth on a nine-step roadmap.

Welcome to the art side of business because mindset and optimism all those good things for us are huge in growing the business, adding value to the marketplace, creating a market disruption upon that. But for our listeners, Devin, talk to us about optimism. That's one of the first things that you're talking about in the book, and why that was so important for you and an [00:13:00] actionable takeaway for our listeners.

Having heard you talk about that. What does that really mean for them? We hear all about this, people talk about it. I think really from a societal standpoint, we've lost our North Star through social media with some of that it's so easy to get caught up in cynicism and just the negativity that you see out there.

So, where's it at for you? With optimism? Why is that so important in your view of the world Devin your experience?

[00:13:23] Devin Durrant: Well, a beautiful setup to that question, Jeffrey. I share your feelings that it's so, easy to be dragged towards this pessimistic, the skepticism, as you outlined, and you know I'm gonna turn back the clock just a little bit. When I was in high school, somehow, some way, I came across a poem by Christian Larson, and it was titled The Optimist Creed.

Now, just a series of statements, things that it's called Promise Yourself, and a series of promises that you would make to yourself to keep you in an optimistic mindset.

And that poem had such an impact on me that I had a [00:14:00] wood shop class at the time, ended up building a nice bookcase and the centerpiece of that bookcase above my bed was this poem, promise Yourself by Christian Larson.

And one of the points in there, it's about 10 points, but one of the points is promise yourself to look at the sunny side of everything. And make your optimism come true. That's just a brief taste of that poem, but that's the spirit of it. That we're always striving to see the bright side, the sunny side, and I so, doing mentally that to actually see that come to fruition in so many different ways by choosing to be optimistic and it truly is a choice like I said the temptation often is to be sucked into the negativity. But as we focus on that value of optimism, it'll rise to the surface and can become a very important part of our lives personally and again in a professional settings as well.

[00:14:55] Jeffrey Feldberg: And in so many ways, optimism is really a lost art because on the [00:15:00] one hand, at the one end of the spectrum, it's complete negativity and we all know where that leads to nowhere good. And on the other hand, it's having your head in the clouds and everything's just gonna be great. Everything's gonna be grand.

And that too much of anything is not great at all. And in the book, in the chapter on optimism, you shared a fable or a story. It's one of my favorites that really highlights optimism. And I'll have you, I'll set this up, I'll have you explain it to the listeners, but you talked about the two salesmen and the shoe story, which I know when I first got into business and heard that it really made a difference for me and even looking back on my own business career, having that optimism, choosing not to take the easy path and choosing what's right often isn't what's easy and how sprinkling in the optimism made the difference. But the shoe story, and there's a number of stories that you put in that chapter, for me anyways, a shoe story really resonated.

So, for our listeners. Maybe they're familiar with it, maybe they [00:16:00] haven't heard it. What's going on with that shoe story and optimism and why that's so important, not just on the personal side that you highlighted, but also on the business side when we wanna create a market disruption, grow our business, make a difference out there.

I would love to hear that.

[00:16:14] Devin Durrant: Beautiful. This story, I love this story. It's a simple story about two salespeople and they're asked to go spend some time in Africa and assess the market opportunity for shoes in Africa.

So, the first goes in, spend some time there, comes back and gives his report, and he says, yeah, there's no market there. He says, no one wears shoes. And so, the second salesman goes and assesses the marketplace and comes back and he says, tremendous upside.

He says it's amazing what we might be able to do there because no one wears shoes.

[00:16:45] Jeffrey Feldberg: right?

[00:16:46] Devin Durrant: So, they both came to the same conclusion that no one wore shoes, but one saw no opportunity, and the second saw tremendous opportunity.

[00:16:54] Jeffrey Feldberg: And goes right back to optimism and how you view the world [00:17:00] and what and we all know where the negative salesperson in this fable, where that's gonna go, which is really nowhere. And on the flip side, the fellow who's, oh my goodness, send more shoes. No one here is wearing any shoes. We all know where that's gonna go.

And you're going out there, you're trying your best. It may not always work out. But at least you're trying and there's gonna be lessons learned in there. And we're gonna jump around here somewhat, but from optimism, you go to kindness. And again, the values that you're picking. Devin, in the book, when I look at today, and where things are at, and really we all have to take responsibility for our own actions.

But I'm gonna put social media front and center. It just seems that these values have gotten lost. And to me anyways, it seems like with social media, we're in a society where it's all about me. I'm gonna do what's good for me, forget everyone else. I wanna live the life and have all those grandeur pictures of all the luxury and success and everything else that's going along with that, but really losing sight [00:18:00] of what we're all about in the first place anyways.

And kindness is certainly a key piece of the puzzle for that. So, from your perspective, Devin, you're talking about kindness. This is a value that you're promoting out there. You even share another great story with being in the restaurant and the server, and we can talk about that, but why is kindness for our listeners out there, why do you think kindness is so, important for them?

Because today it's so easy to overlook and not be kind.

[00:18:26] Devin Durrant: Yeah. well said. You know, from an outsider, they might think kindness, everyone knows that we should be kind,

[00:18:31] Jeffrey Feldberg: Right.

[00:18:32] Devin Durrant: but when's the last time you've actually focused in on being more kind. How could I be more kind to my spouse, to my children, to my coworkers, and make a concerted effort to be kind?

I tell a story in the book of just a young girl sit in the park and sits next to a stranger and she's with her mother. And her mother, not sure what her little daughter might say to this stranger. And [00:19:00] she simply says that I like your hat.

And how often do we take time and take the opportunity simply to make a nice comment?

And we can certainly do it through social media outlets. To take a kind approach or as we interact with people personally can you take a minute and find something somehow some way to just to share a sincere compliment and to focus on that simple value of kindness.

[00:19:26] Jeffrey Feldberg: And what's interesting, Devin, we've had guests on the Deep Wealth podcast, also authors and thought leaders or even business people, and they've all talked about how one comment from someone, a comment of kindness, it took 30 seconds, a minute tops, how that forever changed their trajectory for the better.

It put them on a different path because somebody was kind, someone believed in that person where perhaps they felt no one else did up until that point. And you're not just throwing these concepts out here that this is just theory. [00:20:00] You give some very practical tools with it. And for a kindness. Two of the tools that you talk about in the book, the Kindness Grade, and Kindness tools.

So really tie this in all together, so, for our listeners out there, what's going on with that? What is the kindness grade and the tools that go along with that so, that we can implement this to be a daily part of our lives?

[00:20:22] Devin Durrant: Yeah. With each chapter I invite you. I'm sharing my priority values throughout the book, but really not saying, hey, you need to embrace my priority values. I'm inviting you to define what those might be for you. And then with the each value, I invite you to give yourself a grade.

We talked about this a little bit with the grade point system using a value point system, but take a minute and give yourself a grade so, we're using this value of kindness. What might be my grade today?

Then I want to give you tools to make it actionable. I think what I see a lot is [00:21:00] if you walk into a company, you'll see the values of the company on the wall.

But how do we take it from this nice image on a wall into things that we can do on a daily basis? And the kindness tools are simply some ideas different ways that you might implement the value of kindness or the value of service, or the value of humility. And those are the ideas that are included at the back of each chapter.

To help you take it from a nice, enjoyable chapter to something that can bless not only your life, but the lives of the people that you interact with.

[00:21:37] Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure and from kindness. What I really like about all this, it's a foundation because really one supports the other, and I'm gonna put myself out there and say, when we're kind to other people, as much as we're giving to them, We're also getting back for us in terms of how it makes us feel. And that's really a wonderful segue into the next value that you talk about gratitude and what I [00:22:00] liked with the gratitude chapter right off the bat, you vulnerable, you share a very personal story when you're being drafted for the NBA what was going on and how that really had you look at the world and looking back at it now. 

I'm not going to have any spoiler alerts here. I'll let you tell the, it's a beautiful story. I'll let you tell the story and gratitude what's interesting, Devin. Today science is showing what the ancient wisdom and the ancient. Peoples over the eras have known about gratitude of what that does in terms of how it makes us feel, the chemicals that the brain releases when we're showing gratitude, when we're feeling it and what that means.

But let me stop there and if you could for a moment, indulge us with you going into the NBA draft and what was going on with that and obviously that was so transformational and pivotal for you, but let's hear it straight from the source.

[00:22:51] Devin Durrant: Thank you. It was 1984 and I had just finished my senior year at Brigham Young University, and I was waiting [00:23:00] for the draft. I was fortunate enough to be named in All American in college so, I had high hopes and hoping to get drafted in the first round. I'd visited with some teams. You remember the 1984 draft was a very strong draft, and the first pick that year was Sam Bowie out of University of Kentucky, and then Olajuwon was number two.

The most famous person from that draft went number three by Michael Jordan so during this time, I was back in New York City waiting and hoping to be drafted and my name wasn't getting called. 

And so as time passed, my high hopes started to dim and I thought I might get picked by the Utah Jazz. I think they had maybe the 14th or 15th pick, and they picked kind of an unknown player at Gonzaga fellow by the name of John Stockton.

He turned out to be a fairly good pick.

[00:23:56] Jeffrey Feldberg: I would say so.

[00:23:58] Devin Durrant: A great player [00:24:00] so, I continued to suffer, hoping to get my name called and finally the first round finished and I hadn't been selected, but my misery ended when I was the first pick of the second round, the 25th pick. The thought went through in my mind that I wasn't very grateful.

I wanted, my expectations were different. And here I was in the NBA and I was moaning a little bit and again, not as grateful as I should have been. But that was an interesting experience because sometimes we experience in gratitude as a way to help us understand and embrace.

How much we have to be thankful for and how grateful we should be and how grateful I should have been at the time, simply to be able to have the opportunity to play in the greatest basketball league in the world. But it was a good lesson for me that, has stuck with me, even in tough moments we can always look around and see so much, so much to be grateful for.

[00:24:54] Jeffrey Feldberg: And for our listeners out there, to put this in perspective, Devin's being incredibly modest here. And [00:25:00] firstly, Devin, I wanted to thank you for being vulnerable and you put that out there in the book for our listeners to become an NBA player, at least today. I don't really think it's changed over time. Perhaps it's even more difficult back when you're drafted Devin, there's a 0.03% likelyhood of someone getting drafted into the NBA so think about that. It's not even a full percent, it's a 0.03% of actually getting into the NBA. And here you were, the 25th pick of the draft and right along with some very notable players like yourself who we've all heard about and we all know.

And that's a lot to be proud of. And from there it's really a wonderful segue into what's often talked about in the world of business and even on the personal side, but so, often overlooked and it's all about the value of service. And in the book you use a Spanish saying and you talk about really how important service is, but different than what most people are [00:26:00] likely thinking.

I'm not gonna, again, have any spoiler alerts here. I'm gonna have you talk about what that little difference is and why that's so important on the service side, but what should our listeners know as they look to either start a business or they've been in business for decades? Let's remind them, Devin, of what it's all about when it comes to service, because you have some terrific, heartwarming stories that really bring the point home.

[00:26:22] Devin Durrant: I'd like to share that story about Kung Gusto. This was a interaction I had with a young lady and I was serving as a missionary in Madrid, Spain for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints and so, I served closely with this other missionary and we had so many opportunities to share the workload.

And whenever this particular person was asked to provide a service in one form or another, her response was always just two words. She would always say kung gusto

And translated that means with pleasure and so, all of us in one way or another. With our small businesses and with our interactions, [00:27:00] we have opportunities to provide service.

 And it gives us an opportunity to reflect on what is our attitude towards service? Because it's not always, there are times when we'd probably rather do something else than provide a particular service. But this young lady, she took it above and beyond and her attitude was, I'm gonna give service, but I'm gonna do it with pleasure.

I'm gonna do it. And initially we teased her a little bit about this until we recognized the value of what she was trying to teach us. Not only just providing a service. But doing it with pleasure, with a smile on our face with enthusiasm. She was a great model and I've embraced that teaching, done the best I could.

So, always try to give service and do it.

[00:27:45] Jeffrey Feldberg: And I know there's some terrific business examples that you give of organizations that truly embrace that service. How it sets them apart, how it's made the difference for them, for a listener who's saying, okay, Devin, yeah, I heard you on that, and. Everyone [00:28:00] talks about service and with pleasure. Okay, sure, I get that.

What would be an actionable strategy or takeaway, Devin, that on service, big picture wise, what we could do today in our business, whether we're maybe not even doing it or we're doing it, but we can take it to the next level, do it better. What would you suggest on that front?

[00:28:18] Devin Durrant: Again I'm always hesitant to tell other people how they should apply a particular value. What I love is, if you took a few minutes and reflected on that, how in your world could you provide better service?

In what way? It's a little bit like this is an old example, but there's a gas station that I go to, and in today's world, and as I pull up even today a young man or young lady will pretty much jog out to my car, ask me if I would like them to fill up my tank with gas.

And, generally I say no and I fill up the thing myself, but it's so, meaningful to have [00:29:00] someone provide a little bit of extra service with a smile on their face, even when I don't need it. But I'm gonna go back to that particular gas station because the of that elevated element of service and in all of our businesses, there's an opportunity to reflect and say, how can we better serve our customer?

In what ways, in our particular sphere of influence can we provide additional service that's gonna make a difference for our customer? I'll give you one more example, is I needed to get some new tires last week and they said we'd be happy to drive you to any location as you wait for these tires to be taken care of.

That meant a lot. I could have called someone to take me. I could have grabbed an Uber, . But this particular company wanted to provide a heightened level of service, and that meant a lot to me.

[00:29:53] Jeffrey Feldberg: And so, often in business, we tend to overlook or neglect a few things. Number one, how much it [00:30:00] actually costs to bring on a new client, and it's human nature. We're really enthralled by the new and shiny things. Oh, we'll just go get more clients and we'll have a new campaign and we'll do this and that.

Not realizing the cost to onboard a new client. How much more profitable it is to grow the business with that client. And also today, with technology through the internet, competition today is more than it's ever been, and we can all relate to this as customers, ourselves, as clients, we have choices. More choices now than ever before that we can really take our business elsewhere and for the organizations who take that attitude of service and they instill it from the frontline employee all the way up to the CEO in my e-learning company, Embanet Devin, before we sold that, very early on we ran bootstrapped and as a cockroach startup.

And the mindset of a cockroach startup is, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to live another day. And when it came to service, one of our mantras in the company was, [00:31:00] Treat every interaction with a client, like the company depended on it because it does on that one interaction, and that's how companies are built and eminent went on to grow, change lives, create a market disruption.

And it is really also a terrific segue into the next value that you talk about, which is integrity. And Devin, you're really walking the talk because when I asked you a few questions back how would someone implement. You showed integrity. I don't really want my way to impose on somebody else's ways.

What really works best for that person, what works for me doesn't necessarily work well for another person. You have to choose something that works well for you. so, with integrity, what's going on with that? Because a, again, I'm gonna throw that out there as a value that I feel we've lost our north star.

And it's so easy to play the short game instead of the long game. Lemme just do what's best for me. I'm never gonna deal with this person ever again. Anyways. What does it matter? Let me get that prime advantage and work things out from there. Just putting myself front and [00:32:00] center. So, what can you share with us on integrity and doing what's right.

[00:32:04] Devin Durrant: Well, I start this particular chapter talking about my mother and how what a good fit the word integrity is with my mother. I never saw her let her guard down in any instance, to be a woman of integrity. She was such a great model of that. And another story I share in the book is as I mentioned earlier, I played basketball and after I was shown the Exit door from the NBA, I played in Europe for a little bit and I was playing in a game in the country of Spain and during the game, we had the ball and the ball went out of bounds and it was clearly out of bounds on my team, but the referee signaled that it was out of bounds on the other team.

And so our point guard, they threw the ball into him. And he recognizing that the official had made a mistake, he simply threw the ball out of bounds, so the [00:33:00] other team could have it so he corrected the official's mistake. And I had never seen that happen before. I'd certainly seen mistakes by officials as we all make mistakes, but never seen an athlete. The mistaken, an official by simply throwing the ball out of bounds. And initially I thought, what are you doing? Why would you give the ball back to the other team when the official had awarded it to us?

But he was a man of integrity and he didn't want that kind of advantage and took that opportunity. Love him. Cavi Rodriguez was his name and I'll always remember that simple example of making things right when they weren't right at the time.

[00:33:40] Jeffrey Feldberg: And as you share that story, Devin, I'm reminded of a good friend of mine and he always says, Jeffrey, I can't put a price on peace of mind. And for me, doing what's right and having that peace of mind when I go to bed at night and I'm reflecting on my day, and I have that peace of mind, and I did the hard thing.

It wasn't easy, but it was the right thing. That's where [00:34:00] life is at. Why have to always look over your shoulder because you took a shortcut, maybe did something that's questionable in a gray area, or maybe completely offside. To use a sport analogy, I don't want any part of that. He says, I want that peace of mind.

I can't put a dollar value on that. And so instrumental. And speaking of that, in your next value, I'm gonna lead off with a quote that you put in the book really spoke volumes to me is all about communication. And you quoted Oliver Wendell Homes Senior and you said, speak clearly. If you speak at all, carve every word before you let it fall, and some wonderful rhyming going on with that.

Speaking of choosing the right words, but there's a powerful message that's coming out of there and you give a number of stories from your niece and onwards of. What happens when we don't communicate? And I'm gonna take that a step forward today with instant messaging, with texts, with email.

It's just so easy to dash off these half thought [00:35:00] out messages or when we're speaking to someone, it's just again, a whole lost art so as we look to ourselves personally, as we look to our business. What's going on from your point of view, Devin, when it comes to communication and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. His quote, what's the takeaway for us here?

[00:35:18] Devin Durrant: I love that quote. Thank you for sharing that. I found that this is probably one of the my priority values that I spend the most time thinking about. How can I communicate more clearly? How can I speak more clearly, so, that my message that is heard is the message that I wanted to convey because oftentimes I realize I'm just not communicating clearly.

So, I'm always striving for that, and I'll share this story that you mentioned that was kind of painful for me. That's a reminder of the importance of striving for clear communication.

This story took place years ago. I own an [00:36:00] apartment. And as it turned out, I hired my niece to be the office manager there.

I've always been a little hesitant to hire family for different reasons, but I thought, I'm gonna take a chance here. This is a wonderful young woman and I think she'll be a an excellent office manager. She's very personable. She's a hard worker. And I could go on about what a wonderful young, lady she is.

But there came a time when we were in the middle of a snowstorm and she took the initiative to go outside and leave the office and to start shoveling snow, create a path for our residents to be able to walk safely on. And I was so impressed. Here she was out in the middle of the snowstorm clearing a path and I walked by and she's got her hat on.

And, I said, no one shovels snow in a storm like this. And meaning hoping to compliment her. Wow. I'm so impressed that you're out here shoveling snow. She heard it a little [00:37:00] differently. What she heard was you must not be very smart because no one shovels snow in a storm like this. And so, what I meant to be a compliment because I wasn't clear. turned out to be a something negative. And as it turns out, she shared that with her mother, who was my sister-in-law, who shared it with my mother-in-law, and eventually made it back to me. And I was quite embarrassed, but at least it got back to me, so, I could take steps to correct it and share with my wonderful niece my true intention that didn't come across just right.

[00:37:34] Jeffrey Feldberg: Wonderful story and so, much in there for our listeners. And oftentimes when we're pointing a finger at someone, as that expression goes, there's three fingers pointing back at us. And more times than not, we're the ones we're the root cause of something because we didn't communicate clearly. And something to think about of taking that extra time, that extra minutes, two minutes, 30 seconds, just to outline things of how it should be clear for everyone so that [00:38:00] they know what our intentions are, can make all the difference. And what's interesting, Devin, it again you're walking the talk here when you're sharing the story about your niece, you had the humility, which is your next value. You had the humility to go back to your niece and say, Hey, I was really not the best communicator in that. Here's what I really meant. It didn't come across that way. And you straighten things out. And when it comes to humility, two things really stood out for me in the chapter one. I love these quotes, Devin, that you found and you give a George Bernard Shaw quote, and I'm gonna quote it.

It says, beware of false knowledge. It is more dangerous than ignorance. A lot to be thought of that. And then what you also did was you shared a number of stories in there, but you also turned to a study that was done by Cleveland State University and they're talking about resumes and job candidates.

And I'm not gonna give the spoiler alert here, but there is two identical resumes, except there's one difference for one of the comments on the resume, one of the letters that was there, and it was a candidate who showed humility by being very open for some things to [00:39:00] be said, so, I'm gonna stop right there.

Hold the listener and suspense I'll have you talk about humility and perhaps that story of why this job candidate who showed humility actually stood out and in the study was more likely to get the job than the other candidate who, again, exactly everything's the same, except for that one comment of humility.

So, over to you, Devin, on that.

[00:39:20] Devin Durrant: This is just a simple example of let me back up just a little bit. As we go out and we seek opportunities, say we want a new job, we always put our best foot forward.

Those resumes become a little bit too glossy and simply in this particular instance, there was an opportunity to share an imperfection.

And sometimes when we let people see that, hey, maybe we're not the ideal candidate but here are our strengths, but we do have a weakness or two that tends to make us more believable at we offer as we show some humility. It makes it more believable and easier to embrace because those who are making those hiring decisions, they also have [00:40:00] vulnerabilities.

They also have weaknesses and when we recognize that kind of honesty or humility in others it makes them easier to embrace.

[00:40:09] Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And for our listeners out there, a huge takeaway here, particularly with social media. Now people wanna know that you're human. They wanna know that what's your kryptonite? What's going on with you? I wanna know that you're not perfect because otherwise I can't relate to you and show me that you're a strong enough person to say I'm weak in this area.

Because that shows confidence. It shows strength, it's also gonna show how you're gonna send out from everyone else. So, what? Just a terrific story and a wonderful takeaway and so, for our listeners as you look to yourself. How are you with your employees, with your team members? With your clients? Are you the one who is perfect all the time?

You're always getting it right because you're omitting the times that you're not. Or are you open enough to say, hey, I really blew it on this one. Let me share that with you. Let's have this as a leadership moment or a talking point of what not to do on my expense, so, [00:41:00] that you can be the benefactor of that.

[00:41:02] Devin Durrant: Yeah, I just wanted to interrupt you for a second I really appreciate what you just highlighted, which was one of the goals of my book is to invite conversation about what our values are. And you just gave a beautiful example of that with the value of humility is part of that is how can we have more discussions about what values are important to us and recognize, hey, in this situation we didn't get it right. Maybe here we got it right. Have those conversations. I think those are so helpful in advancing what we're trying to accomplish by focusing on our values. So, thanks for sharing that.

[00:41:43] Jeffrey Feldberg: Oh, thank you. My pleasure on that. And then as we wrap things up here on the eighth value that you talk about, and again, this is so overlooked that as people, we always just say, you know what, ah, it's just another day. What's a big deal? I'll do it another day. And I have this long runway [00:42:00] ahead.

So, you talk about the value of initiative and you talk about five years to live, and you have a number of really heartfelt stories that's going on with that. But as we begin to wrap things up here, Devin, and before we head into our wrap up question here, what would you like the listener to know about the value of initiative and the five years to live?

[00:42:19] Devin Durrant: Well, In the case of five years to live I tell a story about Melanie Day. Great basketball player. And she was diagnosed with cancer and they gave her five years to live. And then we just shared some of the things that she did and the initiative that she took with the outlook that she was given.

This all took place in 2013 and Melanie Day is alive and well , doing great things with her life and certainly this has extended her life. And I think a lot of that had to do with her attitude and her willingness to take initiative to accomplish things that others may not have been.

And it's a value that I think applies to each of us in different ways that how can [00:43:00] we through our own actions, again, through small and simple steps, make a difference in our life by taking that initiative? I share a story in the book. It's an old basketball story, but I think it's relevant for all of us.

We were asked as a team to make 20,000 baskets each one of us between two seasons back in college. And how everyone reacted to that. This was an invitation, but we all had to take the initiative to make it a reality, and all went out and we're gonna report back at the end of the summer.

And as we came back, we had that gathering with all the members of the team and the coaches, and went around the room and, okay. How many of you made your 20,000 shots that you were asking. And several of us could say we did it. And others had different excuses for why they didn't do it. But one member of the team, a guy named Mike Maxwell, he reported that he made 100,000 shots that summer.

He wasn't satisfied with just [00:44:00] accepting the invitation and fulfilling it. He wanted to do more. And we all knew that Mike Maxwell had indeed made a hundred thousand shots because he was so dedicated. He embraced the value of initiative and was an amazing shooter. Unfortunately got slowed down by an injury.

But his example always stood out in my mind that maybe I can do more than what is just asked of me.

And maybe that's an internal motivation. That may be an external invitation, but taking that and building on it, taking the initiative to do just a bit more and the difference that can make in different aspects of our lives.

[00:44:39] Jeffrey Feldberg: And back to a comment that you made earlier, Devin, which is so true when it comes to initiative. Really everything in life, small steps every day, taking a small initiative every day, but done day over day adds up to huge results, tremendous results. We often tend to overestimate what we can achieve in a year and [00:45:00] underestimate what we can achieve in a day or a week or a month.

And on that, Devin, we can just go on with these wonderful and heartwarming stories that you share in the book. That said, though, it's time to wrap up this episode and have the privilege and honor for every guest on the Deep Wealth podcast to ask this question. And so here it is for you. When you think of the movie Back to the Future, let's think about that magical DeLorean car.

That could take you back to any point in time. So, Devin, here's a fun part. Imagine now it's tomorrow morning. You look outside your window and there it is. The DeLorean car is not only sitting there, but the door is open and is waiting for you to hop on in. So, you can now go to any point in the past, Devin, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be.

What would you tell your younger self in terms of life lessons, life wisdom, or, Hey Devin, do this, but don't do that. What would that sound like?

[00:45:52] Devin Durrant: I would say life is so good. You have many wonderful opportunities ahead of you, and you have it in your [00:46:00] hands to make the future, whatever you want it to be. And I can go back to any point in my life and think this is a great point in my life and I look forward to the future.

And with coming back to the spirit of the book, I think any point in life as I turn back the clock, one of the questions I wanna ask myself, What are my values at this point?

What are my priority values and what's most meaningful to me at my life? Embrace that moment and focus on those values to make that moment meaningful and continue to build on that over the course of my lifetime. When you started to ask that question, one of the thoughts I had was, I don't wanna go back.

I love where I'm at and I feel like I'm a very blessed man with six children, 17 grandchildren, as we mentioned, and a bright future ahead.

[00:46:55] Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific wisdom, a wonderful takeaway, and also a terrific value as well. Devin, I'm [00:47:00] gonna put that into the value boat here of how you're looking at that. And so, for our listeners, Devin, we're gonna have everything in the show notes, including the link to the book, The Values Delta: A Small & Simple Way to Make a Positive Difference in Your Personal & Professional Life.

That said though, Devin, if a listener wants to reach you online, they have some questions or they want to learn more, where's the best place online that someone can reach you?

[00:47:23] Devin Durrant: Please take a minute and come to my website, thevaluesdelta.com and also, if you'll come there, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, there's a video link there.

It's a video that's a 13 minute video. It's called No Tracks: The Value of Quiet Service. It's a story that my father wrote that's been animated.

And it has a Christmas theme to it. But come and check out this short video. It'll bring a tear to your eye and warm your heart. And I look forward to interacting with you in the future.

[00:47:55] Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. And for listeners, we'll also have that link in the show notes as well. But take him up [00:48:00] on his offer there. Go to the website, interact, become a member of the community, pick up the book, read it, you'll be the better for it. And Devin, on that note, a heartfelt thank you for taking part of your day and spending it with us here on the Deep Wealth Podcast.

And as we always say, please continue to stay healthy and safe.

[00:48:17] Devin Durrant: Thank you, Jeffrey. 

[00:48:18] Sharon S.: The Deep Wealth Experience was definitely a game-changer for me. 

[00:48:21] Lyn M.: This course is one of the best investments you will ever make because you will get an ROI of a hundred times that. Anybody who doesn't go through it will lose millions. 

[00:48:31] Kam H.: If you don't have time for this program, you'll never have time for a successful liquidity 

[00:48:36] Sharon S.: It was the best value of any business course I've ever taken. The money was very well spent.

[00:48:42] Lyn M.: Compared to when we first began, today I feel better prepared, but in some respects, may be less prepared, not because of the course, but because the course brought to light so many things that I thought we were on top of that we need to fix. 

[00:48:58] Kam H.: I [00:49:00] 100% believe there's never a great time for a business owner to allocate extra hours into his or her week or day. So it's an investment that will yield results today. I thought I will reap the benefit of this program in three to five years down the road. But as soon as I stepped forward into the program, my mind changed immediately. 

[00:49:20] Sharon S.: There was so much value in the experience that the time I invested paid back so much for the energy that was expended. 

[00:49:31] Lyn M.: The Deep Wealth Experience compared to other programs is the top. What we learned is very practical. Sometimes you learn stuff that it's great to learn, but you never use it. The stuff we learned from Deep Wealth Experience, I believe it's going to benefit us a boatload.

[00:49:44] Kam H.: I've done an executive MBA. I've worked for billion-dollar companies before. I've worked for smaller companies before I started my business. I've been running my business successfully now for getting close to a decade. We're on a growth trajectory. Reflecting back on the Deep Wealth, I knew less than [00:50:00] 10% what I know now, maybe close to 1% even. 

[00:50:02] Sharon S.: Hands down the best program in which I've ever participated. And we've done a lot of different things over the years. We've been in other mastermind groups, gone to many seminars, workshops, conferences, retreats, read books. This was so different. I haven't had an experience that's anything close to this in all the years that we've been at this.

It's five-star, A-plus.

[00:50:29] Kam H.: I would highly recommend it to any super busy business owner out there.

Deep Wealth is an accurate name for it. This program leads to deeper wealth and happier wealth, not just deeper wealth. I don't think there's a dollar value that could be associated with such an experience and knowledge that could be applied today and forever. 

[00:50:48] Jeffrey Feldberg: Are you leaving millions on the table? 

Please visit www.deepwealth.com/success to learn more.

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