Compete Every Day with Jake Thompson, Keynote Speaker

Jake Thompson is a keynote speaker and Chief Encouragement Officer at Compete Every Day, a brand he started in 2011 by first selling t-shirts out of the trunk of his car.

Jake works with organizations and individuals around the country, teaching how they can develop the focus, habits, and culture in order to grow their businesses and their individual lives.

It’s through his entrepreneurial sales experience, client work, and research that he’s built a proven CE³ Model to help people build their grit, better block out distractions, and create more influence as an impactful leader.

Jake is a third-generation entrepreneur, the youngest strategic advisory board member at the University of Dallas’ College of Business, and a graduate of both Texas Christian University (B.S.) and University of Dallas (M.B.A.). He lives in Dallas/Fort Worth with his wife, Elena and their three dogs, Sugar, Biscuit & Donut.

In this episode, Jake and Cindra talk about:

  • What it means to Compete Every Day
  • His “CE3 Model” 
  • How our choices determine our fate 
  • How we can “Outwork our Talent” 
  • His “Midnight Rule”
  • Why Discomfort Comes Through Growth

HIGH PERFORMANCE MINDSET SHOWNOTES FOR THIS EPISODE: www.cindrakamphoff.com/539

FOLLOW CINDRA ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/cindrakamphoff/

TO FIND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT JAKE: Jake Thompson | Motivational Speaker on Grit, Mindset, and Leadership (jakeathompson.com)

FOLLOW CINDRA ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/mentally_strong

Love the show? Rate and review the show for Cindra to mention you on the next episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-performance-mindset-learn-from-world-class-leaders/id1034819901

http://thehighperformancemindset.com/

 ‘We have to grow through the days, not just go through the days.’ -Jake Thompson @Mentally_Strong
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‘Your talent and potential doesn’t matter. It’s all about what you do with it.’ -Jake Thompson

 @Mentally_Strong

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Cindra Kamphoff: Jake. I’m so excited that you’re joining us here on the High-Performance Mindset Podcast, how is your day going?

Jake Thompson: It’s fantastic. Great start to the week, incredibly excited to be here, especially as we finally got to meet in person after years of zoom and social media. And so i’m stoked to hang out with you today and honored you asked me on.

Cindra Kamphoff: Absolutely. So Jake and I just saw each other in San Antonio. We were at the National Speakers Association, Winter Conference there, and I was like. I know you. And then there was really cool, because some of your fellow chapter members was like Jake is crushing it as a member. So they had so many great things to say about you. So i’m excited that you’re here joining us today. Thank you. Yeah, No excited for the conversation. You’re someone who I continue to learn from and love watching everything you’re doing. So this is a treat for me.

Cindra Kamphoff: Well, awesome. Well, Jake, just to get us started. Just so everyone can learn more about who you are and what you’ve been up to. Tell us what you’re passionate about right now, and what you’ve been up to.

Jake Thompson: Yeah. Passion, I think, is a pretty easy one for me is all around competition. And really the lens of how do we truly have the discipline and mindset to compete with ourselves? And so that has been something from me since the youngest of ages grown up in East Texas. Friday night lights everything. I love this idea of competition, but I had a really unhealthy view with it for so much of my life. And so over the last, you know. 1011, 12 years running my company, it’s been. How do I actually reframe that and help others? And so anything competitive. It gets me going whether we’re talking about cornhole boards or watching march madness, which is going on right now. I just love the thrill of competition and what it does for us. But more importantly, what it can do for a lot of other people.

Cindra Kamphoff: I love it. So, your book Compete Every Day. Here we go. I got it with me. Tell us what it means to actually compete every day.

Jake Thompson: Yeah, it’s waking up, making the choice to be intentional and look for opportunities of growth. And I think that’s sounds easier than it actually is, because we know one growth is uncomfortable. We know to. It’s really easy to get caught in the busy schedules. The soccer practices, the meetings that we just start going through the days instead of intentionally trying to grow through the days. And so it’s really waking up and saying, how am I going to push my comfort zone a little bit? How am I going to force myself to find an opportunity to be back.

So that I give tomorrow something to stack on top of, and so that’s really it is intentionality, and a little bit of forward movement every single day.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, I love it. And I think about what you said about competing with yourself. That to me means. You know. How can I be better than I was yesterday? And how can I learn and grow? Well maybe learn more about myself, or learn more about my trade or my field.

Jake Thompson: Yeah, it does. Because let’s think about this. You talk about this all the time, like we only control us. We can influence. We can respond to other things, but we really only control how we show up. And so, when I look at it from a competitive standpoint, teammates rivals on the sports field. They push us to a new level because of the opportunity at hand. But still it is our choice of. Do we rise to the moment? Do we? Do we push ourselves harder when we’ve got that person next to us or not? And so learning to do that with yourself, and learning to kind of almost imagine yesterday’s version right alongside of you, and say, how am I going to be better than you today? Puts us into a consistent state of growth, and I think that’s very different than a lot of people have this idea of burning out of like exhausting to always compete it is if you’re always chasing other people because you’re never going to catch up there’s always someone ahead of you. There’s always someone behind you, and so it’s great to have targets ahead to say, what do they do? Well, how can I improve? How can I get to that level on certain things? But understanding it’s really about how am I competing with myself? Which is kind of what we laughed about. You Got your CSP. Which is freaking, amazing as a speaker, and looking back at all of the reps you put in along the way of like, and I can crush it now. I even thought I was good when I started, like we are like we go on the first stage. You’re like, okay. That was fine. I did it. And now you’re looking back at it like, look at all these reps, I put in. That’s what it’s all for me.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, absolutely. And so, before we hit record. I just got certified speaking professional, and most people outside of speaking probably don’t know what that is, but it means that you’ve done 500 speaking events in the last 5 years. So basically 100 a year and a you know, part of this is you have to submit videos for other CSPs to watch, and you have to get meeting planners to give you get feedback about you, and you also have to submit. This includes, like really comprehensive spreadsheet of all the things you’ve done, and it actually improved my confidence, because I thought well, you know. So even you and I sometimes can. Our confidence can be shaken, and it’s. It’s helpful to know that. All right. Just look at progress, and that’s what i’m hearing is what compete every day is.

Jake Thompson: Yeah, it’s all about progress and to your point right there, I think when we fail to write it down, it’s like when we go to work out, and we fail to actually track what we’re lifting, or how fast we ran over time, we start to kind of take it for granted, we think. Well, i’m not making that much progress. I’m not getting better versus when we write it down, we can always look back. Say, here’s where I was. Here’s what I’ve gotten better at. Here’s how I handle that difficult conversation at work that 3 years ago I walked out of it was like. Oh, why did I say that this time I’m walking in with confidence, and so to your point, where we can track things where we can set targets daily so crucial for us in the long run of mental health, of understanding where our progress is made, and being able to really more than anything is as you talk about, as much, enjoy the journey, enjoy the process as much as we do. The outcome, which is what, unfortunately most everybody tends to focus on, instead of who they’re becoming in the process.

Cindra Kamphoff: Absolutely. And so, Jake, when you, as a keynote speaker, and you go on and you speak to different associations or conferences or corporate organizations. I know you speak on this idea of this CE triple. Oh, tell me if I got that right. C3 model. All right. Tell us about what that is, and how you would describe it.

Jake Thompson: Yeah. So what I did is started looking at what could give us competitive advantages in life. And how does that break down? And so that competitive edge model is 3 big picture pieces of like our inner game. The outer within our company, and then kind of our side peers. And then internally, really a lot of my focus from my keynote speaker, is it’s the mindset the focus on the systems like we have to adjust our belief system and our mindset. We then have to learn how do we focus on the right things, such as being mindful, focusing on what’s in our control, setting the right targets. And then last, creating those systems to help build and reinforce that. So what do our habits look like? What is our time management look like? And then, really, the big piece that I love is the accountability. What are Our accountability systems in terms of externally, internally with ourselves, is also with the people we run with, so that we’re truly setting ourselves up for success. And so that’s a lot of the keynotes we focus on that of like, how do you shift your mindset? How do you shift where we start focusing? And then how are you linking arms with the people on your team in your organization, instead of doing what’s so easy of like, let me just focus on my silo, my work. Let me not talk to anybody else. Let me keep my guard up, and that’s really where companies can start to thrive is when everybody lets that guard down just a little bit, and starts talking and collaborating and working together. Because, you know, we see it in sports, it doesn’t matter how great one person is. It takes a team to win. And so you need everybody on board linked arms. And so that’s where I start to talk about that advantage, because we become more and more as a society about me, me, me, me. And what we understand like, we do the work individually to bring a better me to the we and the we starts to work the other really cool things start to happen for us personally as well as collectively. Our teams.

Cindra Kamphoff: I love it. And so, when you think about accountability, and how that works with the best of the best, could you give us a tip or two on how we should work that into our lives. And this idea of what competing against you know the last version of ourselves, and having a person in your life that you can utilize, and it’s a free app.

Jake Thompson: What I actually do with clients have Some people in our community is set 2 to 3 daily habits, and it could be a drink. A gallon of water could be to make 3 sales calls. It could be spend quality time with my spouse or journal, and then, when they check in, they do the activity they have to check in, and it sends me a notification so I can immediately see every single day. Did you hit the mark, or did you not? And if I see you miss it? 2 in a row, I can say hey, what’s going on how, what, what’s happening here. I see you miss this a couple of days talk to me about it, so what it does is one. It ties in somebody in your life that wants to see you succeed. And then it creates a really easy way instead of me having to go every day in text check. Hey? J. To go work out today. Hey, you go do this today. It’s hey? I’m gonna own it. I’m gonna take accountability for my actions. I did it. I didn’t. But what I found is knowing somebody else is counting on you to send. It increases your level of accountability. It’s like if we were going to get up and go work out this morning at 6 am. And sure it’s really cold up in Minnesota. It’s a little chilly here in Texas today. What 70 degrees, you know I mean, we’re like in the fifties today, but it’s like, you know my bed so much warmer, and then you’re like No, I have a somebody’s waiting for me. I have a workout partner that’s at the gym counting on me, and so that’s the best one I love to do. If you’re trying to start a new habit, get somebody who’s also trying to do it with you, or who already does, that. The other piece on the accountability is, as we know, your teammates really determine your trajectory in life, and so are you hanging out with the people that have the habit or building the habits that you desire.

Jake Thompson: If you are someone that maybe in January you wanted to do dry January because You’re like. I’m having too much wine at holiday parties I need to cut down, but everybody you hang out with is still going out still doing Happy are still drinking on the weekends. You’re going to have a really hard time breaking that habit, because everybody around you is already doing it. They can’t really hold you accountable as easily because they’re engaged in it versus if you’re like, hey? I’m hanging out with people who just don’t really drink, or maybe they just have a glass of wine once every so often it’s more likely they’re going to be able to hold me accountable. And so, having tips like a habit shared to where you know somebody’s counting on you and being intentional with who you’re surrounding yourself with is so crucial for that, because it’s really hard for us to hold ourselves accountable. It’s a lot easier if we know other people are counting on us in that path.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, love it. So that app is called habit, share good tool. And I think, as we think about just continuing to push ourselves to be the best version of ourselves, right. There is something in the beginning of your book that you talked about, and you said through discomfort comes growth, and I’ll read for those who are listening. A few sentences where you wrote discomfort sets in when we experience something we’ve never felt before. We move outside of our comfort zone into the unknown, and our body response is, if it’s threatened. Success lies in our ability to mentally manage the discomfort and still lean into it.

Cindra Kamphoff: So tell us a little bit about Jake like how discomfort, you know, you know, moving towards growth. How does that relate to competing every day, and being the best in in your opinion.

Jake Thompson: It’s something when I was young. I wish I better understood. I thought, when you got that pit in your stomach, that it is assigned to run. To avoid that situation. And what happened is, I ended up walking away from goals and dreams that I had, because I was too afraid in that moment of that pit in my stomach versus realizing this is a signal that you have a growth opportunity. And so every single day we’re presented with moments of discomfort, and our bodies. Our brains are going to tell us of what Don’t talk to that stranger. Don’t. I know there’s like 10¬†s left on the clock at the gym. Why don’t you just coast? Because we’re really tired right now? Versus how do I push for 10 more seconds? How do I have an uncomfortable conversation with a co-worker, instead of trying to sweep it under the rug and so we we’re presented with these moments every day, and what we find is when we avoid it. When we do always what’s comfortable. We never build that new skill. We never start to develop. When you ever get stronger. We could pick up a guitar today, and I don’t know about you, but I’d be horrible at it’d be, and I would not want to play it in front of people. I’d be terrible at the skill I would have to spend every day 30¬†min a day working at it watching YouTube videos hiring a coach doing things that I’m not very good at that are really uncomfortable. Figuring out how my hands work on that guitar over time. I’ve become a lot more comfortable with it, and I may never get to the point where I’m. Gonna play as well as Metallica or Eric Clapton or somebody like that. But if I could play a song or 2, and my hands get more comfortable in that position, then what I’ve done is expand that initial discomfort that my body doesn’t move this way to something i’m more comfortable with and can perform, and it works that way in our relationships.

Jake Thompson: Our thrive relationships can’t drive without those tough conversations, and so we have to be willing to lean into discomfort to have them. We don’t get stronger in the gym. If we’re always going super light, and we’re never getting our heart rate up, we have to push ourselves out of our comfort zone. And so that’s why I think it’s a really important part of life, and the visual always give folks is the idea of, you know, a bamboo tree, and we know the bamboo tree. You plan it, and you look above the ground. You see nothing for years all the while it’s forcing and fighting and growing, calling through the dirt and soil downward. And eventually it starts to shoot sky high, and everybody thinks for like 4 or 5 years something happened. But in that fifth year the bamboo tree shoots out of the ground, and so it 60 feet or so in the year.

Jake Thompson: All the while it was growing deeper and deeper into the ground to build stronger roots, to be able to support its upward growth. And our lives are a lot like the same way. The discomfort is like our roots growing into the ground, forcing its way through soil and rock to be able to sustain us. And where we’re trying to go long term. And so that’s always the visual I go back to especially talking about like. Did you break some soil today? Did you get to that idea of pushing a little bit of dirt to try to strengthen your foundation, so that who you become that soaring through the sky is much higher, and you have more opportunity to fulfill your potential.

Cindra Kamphoff: I love it. I completely agree. I like what you said about that. You wish you would have known earlier that that that feeling in your gut means that you shouldn’t just throw on the towel. You should move forward regardless of how you feel right, and I think about how courage isn’t the absence of fear right? And I know there’s a famous quote, I think, by Teddy Roosevelt. It’s like it’s the rather the assessment that something is more important than the fear, right? So courage can start us in. A new habit can keep us going, and no one can be courageous for us. It’s really up to us.

Jake Thompson: Yeah, no. But nobody can make that decision for us. And the beauty to your point is without fear. There is no current, and there’s always a fear. Sometimes it’s our for your failure. Sometimes it’s a fear of other people’s, opinions. And what I love as we were just talking earlier of, like the track record of all the talks and the confidence in that reminder. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves, when we’re going through that discomfort, that this is a courageous choice.

Jake Thompson: And just this simple reminder versus like i’m scared. I don’t know what i’m gonna do. What if I fail? What if i’m? Not even very good at this? What if we just remind ourselves? I’m putting it a rep and becoming more courageous in this moment, and reframing that discomfort as a chance to build courage, and we know nothing great in life is built without courage, because nothing great is done without some sense of fear that has to be overcome.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, absolutely. And the way I think about courage is like a muscle, right? The more i’m courageous the better I get at it, and the more I can do it in the moment when I do this, the fear. Yeah, there’s some there’s several points i’m gonna make in your book, and one of my favorite things that you shared was about this idea of like outworking our talent. And you provided some examples. If you look at the rounds where the top 15 all time quarterbacks are drafted, and I like football. Jake. Okay. So I pull these out, and how many others were drafted ahead of them. So you give an example of Tom Brady. He was the pick 199, 6 quarterbacks drafted ahead of him. Joe Montana was picked 82, 3 quarterbacks were drafted ahead of him in Brett Farve you know pick 33 3 quarterbacks drafted ahead of them Tell us a little bit about how you see people what you know you, Tom Brady, Joe Montana, Brett Farve, who

you know people like that. How do you see them respond to this type of adversity. And what does it really mean to outwork our talent?

Jake Thompson: Yeah. So I love football too, as a football guy for me too played quarterback like that. That is a passion point. But what I see is out-working your talent is talent. We don’t control. We do not control our own ability. We do control what we do with it. And every year you see this, I see this. There’s phenomenal football, basketball, baseball players who you look at them physically and think that’s magical talent. But it’s wasted because their work ethic, and their consistency is in the dumps. They’re not consistent. They don’t show up. It’s the things in our choices that are more important in the long run. Angela Duckworth talks about this. I know the topic grit so passionate for you. But in the long game in the in the big picture it’s about your effort, and your consistency is twice as important as your talent. And what that always spoke to me is a smaller athlete, is I was never going to be the most talented quarterback on our roster. What was I going to outwork you, and I’ll smart you to get on the field? Absolutely. Was I going to find a way to be more accurate, to know everything better, absolutely. And so when I talk about out at work your talent, it’s getting away from the idea. And really the excuse that I just Don’t have the talent as so and so. And waking up every day, and saying whether I have great talent, good talent, average channel or below average time. I’m going to give 100% best effort. I’m going to find a way to outwork it. I’m going to be the for basketball fans. I’m a JJ. Berea guy. I know he played with the T Wolves for a little bit, but he’s 5, 1511, but he was crucial in the maps championship run. He went undrafted. 60 guys got drafted this year that he did, and I think only 6 played as many games as he did. And maybe 5 made as much money as he did, because he was someone that says, hey, what do I control? How hard I work? A great I practice what kind of teammate I am. How consistent I am. Those are the things in my control that allow me to outwork this talent ceiling that everybody else is kind of put on me, and so I use it more as that reminder. Especially with athletes like it really doesn’t matter your talent or potential it’s what you do with it, and that’s rings true for a high school athlete all the way to a 40 year old. Sales, professional man or woman, who is like you could have a teammate who’s way better at quote the gift of gab or building some connection on a sales call. But how much harder are you working your pipeline? How much longer consistent are you picking up your phone and making calls? How are you doing the things that are in your control to outwork any level of talent you have. And that seems to be a big piece of success. And to your point with those quarterbacks like Malcolm Gladwell talks about it in in one of his YouTube videos of that theory of compensation. Well, if I don’t have the talent, I have to work harder.

And if I really embrace that idea of instead of ‘I don’t have the talent I should quit.’ But I don’t have the talent I need out, work everybody. It changes your whole perspective.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah. And it’s interesting, because when I think about Tom Brady in the psychology of someone like Tom Brady. I wonder if he would have been picked, his number one if he would have been as successful. And what I mean by that is, I think, that likely fueled him, you know, and one of the things I see, and just working in the NFL. And really great athletes, the ones that can tear an adversity on its head and say, like, you know, I’ll prove you wrong right. They just have this different fire in their belly that I think it’s the motivation, the fire that allows them to be one of the greatest of all times like, for example, in Tom Brady. Right, it’s all about his response to the adversity.

Jake Thompson: I love it, and that goes reminds me of a story about Michael Jordan, where Jordan they were playing the Washington bullets on back to back at night and the first night, Jordan, you know. Okay, game like maybe 20 or 22 points. But some rookie for the bullets had just a light’s out game. Best game of the guys correct rookie season, and after the game Jordan tells a reporter that the Rookie came up to him and was like, hey, good game. MJ.

Jake Thompson: Kind of like laughing your game. And the next night, when they played him, the Rookie had like no points, and Jordan scored almost 50. Well, years later, come to find out. The Rookie never set a thing to Jordan at all. Never approached him, never talk to him. The kid knew, like don’t fire up Jordan. But Jordan manufactured this chip on his shoulder after that night to fuel his next performance, and as we saw in the Last Dance, he did that time and time again of like, put little chips on his shoulder. And I think to your point, Brady, and those folks they play with that little bit of an edge, and they put that of doubt. Me doubt me, doubt me, but they also pair it with uncanny work ethic, and that’s what I always find fascinating, because, like Cliff Kingsbury was on the flying coach podcast with I want to say it was Shawn Mcvay and somebody else, and they were talking about when Cliff was in New England with Brady. and they were all in Mexico. It’s somebody, some patriots wedding. And they were out drink until 2 in the morning, the night before the party and Cliffs, as he wakes up at like 5 am. Can’t sleep, gets in a golf cart and he’s driving the island, and he drives by and sees Brady out on the beach with his trainer training. Even though Brady had been out all night with him, he was up before dawn on the beach, working out working drops in the sand. All of that on a quote Unquote vacation. And that’s when you just you knew he has a different switch in terms of a work ethic. And to your point it goes into that psychological edge.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, yeah, I like how you connected that with the you know. Watch me kind of mentality plus the work ethic, because you don’t have the work ethic, you know you. You don’t necessarily have the base of the bamboo to grow and I think it can be a little dangerous to always be like. Watch me watch me watch me, but I mean some of the best, have done that right. Michael Jordan is just one example of like creating this edge. There is one other thing that I really liked about your book, Jake again. It’s called Compete every day. and you talk about this idea of Clutch. So this is something we talk a lot about in sports psychology.

And you gave you gave some examples of, like Michael Jordan and Kobe, Bryant and Lebron James. And when you compare their clutch shots as defined by hitting the go ahead shot in the final 5¬†s of the fourth quarter over time you’ll see their stats below. So Michael Jordan missed 53%. Kobe Bryant is 77. Lebron, James missed 48. I wish my son. Actually, I’m going to show this to my son tonight, because he’s the best of player, and he gets so hard on himself when he misses a shot, and it’s like, Look at these greats. They didn’t say, you know they’ve missed 0.

So tell us what about this idea of Clutch, and why you provided these stats here in your book?

Jake Thompson: Yeah, I think it’s most important to understand a lot of people think. Well, just certain guys are collections, certain art, and you’re either born with it or you’re not. And what I wanted them to see is the best. They failed. They missed multiple shots, but what they had was in those moments with the game on the line. They had the confidence and the competence to say, I can take and make this shot. And Kobe was an example interviewed years later, like he didn’t want to pass it to certain teammates if he saw their practice habits, because he knows their competence level in those moments was low, even if they had extreme confidence, I can hit it. He had seen him practice and work ethic, and so why would I trust you when I know you haven’t come close to working as hard as I do. On the flip side. You can have the people with extreme competence. They can hit killer, shot after killer shot, but they start focusing on the moment, and how big the moment is versus just the play.

Jake Thompson: And so their confidence level drops in those moments. And so when we talk about, collect it’s more about being in your control of. Have you put in the work? And then in the moment, do you have the confidence that I’ve made this shot a 100 million times, whether there’s

12 min left on the fourth quarter, or there’s 12 secs. And understanding, not letting the size of the moment become too big for you, because you’re just focused on executing the thing that you’ve done over and over and over again for you and I. It’s like getting up on a stage getting from the stage of 40 people, or we can go into an arena of 40,000 people, and you can wither in those moments because you’re focused on the size, or you can say I’ve done this time and time again. Here’s my track record. There’s how many talks I’ve done. I know my talk. I’ve prepared a rehearsed. Let’s go. Then you look at that moment with more excitement, and it’s. Probably you talk about the difference between going into those moments with gratitude for the opportunity, instead of fear of messing up the opportunity.

Cindra Kamphoff: Isn’t that so true? And I think that confidence in yourself is so important in that clutch moment and it’s easy to stay focused on the outcome. All right. Is the shot gonna go in or what’s gonna it. It’s easy to focus on the future, right? And the things that are distracting you, and how big the moment is right. All those, all those thoughts can’t allow you to be at your best, or it’s if you’re focused in the present on the process, the small things you have to do. You’re more likely to make that game winning shot. But the belief in yourself, when I think about what you just said about Kobe like he didn’t want to, necessarily, you know, pass the shot because he saw their work ethic, but he believe in his own work ethic.

Jake Thompson: It’s easy for us to become outcome biased. And in those moments, we make the wrong. We guarantee the wrong decision. So your football fan i’m a football fan. Our teams have won games that they’ve played horribly and had no sense. 20 teams have also lost games that they played out of their mind. And it just didn’t work out that day. And if we only focus on the game through one where we didn’t practice that. Well, we may not practice that hard the next week, because we’re like, hey? We’re good enough. We can go through this. We can win. We do this in life. And we have this by. And so she talks about it really through the lens of the Patriot Seahawks super bowl and the decision at the end of the game to throw the ball and patriots picked it off and ended up winning versus run it with a Marshawn Lynch, and she talked about all the statistics and all the numbers and everything that goes into it, to your point. We become so outcome, obsessed in those moments that if you look at Jordan and Lebron and Kobe, the shots they missed. The next 9 are going to take the same shot.

Jake Thompson: They’re going to shoot it again. They’re going to have extreme confidence that i’m going to make it like I have 50 a shooter. I’m gonna make it again. I am not getting. I’m not living and dying with that one outcome. I’m going back into saying, okay, what do I need to do tomorrow to better improve my chances of making that specific shot in that angle, not taking anything else into it. And so those guys I would love to just sit and watch the night after the next morning their practice, because they probably went back to that spot and shot. It made it 100, 200, 500 times, and the next time they’re like, let’s do it again, and maybe they missed it again that night. But they’re gonna keep refining that craft and getting focused on the on making the shot and what they control versus kind of letting their confidence only be controlled by the outcome

Cindra Kamphoff: Absolutely. And I think, Jake, the reason that we’re so outcome biased is because that’s what we feel like. We’re judged. And if you look at ESPN, or I mean right now, March Madness is going on, but it’s the highlights of who won. Who didn’t win, you know, and so that’s also what celebrated. But the outcome focus can create so much anxiety and pressure for us, and especially in those clutch moments that you’re just describing.

Jake Thompson: It does. I actually heard Charles Barkley talk earlier this week on March Madness about that. And he said, you know we post all the big 3 the Dunk. But he said, we’re not showing the highlights of the guys diving on the floors, the guys taking charges, the things that are winning teams games. And I remember, years ago it was before Jerome tang took over at K. State. Maybe it was his first year, but they put a scoreboard in their locker room of charges, dives on the ball on the ground. Jump ball. It’s like, where were you doing the things that most people overlook is outcome, but are processed pieces that stack, and where can we celebrate those. And so for our own life, in the book I created that kind of scorecard, is it’s a way to score yourself every week on process pieces because we don’t control the outcomes. But how are you showing up consistently in the process and understanding? If I stack a Lego block every single day of progress over the course of the next decade. I’m. Going to create something incredible, even if in this moment it doesn’t look like an outcome. That’s great.

Cindra Kamphoff: Absolutely. And i’m thinking about those people who might feel like they fail right? You have something in the book that it’s called the Midnight Rule. Tell us about that, and how it fits with our conversation so far.

Jake Thompson: Yeah. So I learned the midnight rule from a guy named Nate Smith that pitch for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, for in their minor League system for years, and it’s the idea in baseball you fail 70% of the time, if you’re really good, like the best batters in the game are going to fail to hit the ball 3 out of 10 times to go up to plate. And I wanted to ask somebody that plays the game. How do you constantly step on the field to give your best effort to give your best attitude, knowing you’re gonna fail like it’s inevitable in baseball. And he talked about for him a midnight rule. And he said, regardless of how the game goes after the game I give myself to midnight to celebrate or more. so i’m gonna go back and watch tape later. But emotionally my emotions end at 11:59, because at that point it’s behind me. The next day I show up to the ballpark If i’m still thinking about what happened yesterday, and the bad pitch, and I’m beating myself up, i’m unable to be at my best in the present, where my teammates need me, for my friends for my family. And I talked about like we all need some version of that. For some people they need a laugh. They go sit in their car. They crank up Metallica, or you know, some heavy rock a/C. DC. They listen to one song, maybe yell at their steering wheel. They get out and they go. Some people. It takes a full day. But what happens is when it’s like us trying to run 100 200 300 meters looking behind us over our back shoulder. We’re never going to run in a straight line. We’re never going to be at our best. We’re never going to run very fast if we’re constantly turn looking behind us or dragging something behind us. And so we have to get in this routine of when something happens. What did we do? Well, in those months that game that you went over for. What did you do? Well, that day, did you? Did, you field grounders? Were you a great teammate, would you not do well? I chased a few bad pitches.

Jake Thompson: How are you gonna get better tomorrow? And so that’s where our focus becomes in life, and we’re able to not only let go of some of that emotional pain, but if we’re that, go through the pain, let’s learn something from it. Let’s use it. So, starting to go through those processes of even the worst experiences, what did I do? Well, I lost the sale. I bomb the keynotes. We lost the game. What did I do? Well next time what do I want to do better? And how will I do better with it?

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah. So good. I think the midnight rule is a way to reset, because you know, if you’re learning in your what, how I would describe it in my book beyond grade is, I have a tool called learn, burn, return. It’s like when something doesn’t go well for us. We ask ourselves, what did we learn? But we ask it objectively, but then we gotta burn it. We gotta let it go, and ultimately, I think maybe that’s what the midnight rule is all right reset. But then the return is, how can you build yourself back up right? Tell yourself the truth, because so many times we’re just, we make meaning based on the past, but it’s always. It’s not always like very accurate, and it’s not always the truth. Like I love that idea of just the ashes are left. You remember it.

but you’re not hanging on to it. To me it means let it go. So towards the end of your book, Jake, you talk about how important it is to help and support others, and I thought that was a really good way to end the book that you can’t do it alone. So as we think about everyone who’s listening today, and the people that you surround yourself with are really important. Tell us why it’s really important to help and serve other people.

Jake Thompson: Yeah. So Dr. David Mcclellan, from Harvard estimates that 95% of our successes and failures in life are influenced by the people we habitually associate with. It ties into the old gem. Ro. You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with, and what I believe in what I’ve seen is, it’s really hard to be a higher, cheaper unless you’re hanging out with high achievers. And if you are someone who is not chasing greatness and trying to be your best. The people that are chasing greatness and trying to be their best and grow and chase goals aren’t going to want to hang out with you.

Jake Thompson: And so there’s something about the people you surround yourself with. But at some point, it’s more important, maybe more of what are we doing to help others grow into their best self?

Jake Thompson: And when I started my career, I used to think leadership was like being that influential, charismatic person. You had a great following. People wanted to follow, support you, and over the years when I learned it, it’s about. How do you build other leaders?

Jake Thompson: How do you help people shift their mentality? They’re thinking because that’s really what legacies are made up of. And that’s he it in the book a little bit that when we get to the end of our lives, they’re not going to talk about how many books we’ve wrote. Maybe not going to talk about our social media following, or how much money we need. They’re going to talk about how Dr. Kamphoff changed my life, and she changed how I saw this, and when we get to the end of our career, we don’t talk about how much money we made. We talk about that manager that helped open the door, change our perspective, that that CEO that took a chance on us when nobody else would hire us after we did 100 interviews.

And for us the most meaningful path is, how do we help build others? And that’s a kind of backwards thinking in today’s world, because it’s all about us. How do we build us? But the Zig Zikler old quote of, ‘If you want to find success, help other people be successful.’ It’s so true.

because the most successful people I know are not about. How can I get more? How can I help more? And building that, and pouring into others. And so I wanted to wrap the book up that way, because most all of the book is, how do I build me to bring a better version of me to my goals, to my friends, to my work, to my family. But at the end I wanted them to realize the reason. We bring a better me. The reason we go through all the discomfort of growth, and being consistent in discipline, is not really about us, but about making sure we bring the best version of ourselves to everyone around us, because otherwise we’re cheating them

out of how much better we could be for them.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, awesome. And you said, 95%.

Jake Thompson: Yeah, Dr. David Mclean estimates 95%.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, I mean, that’s a lot, right? And so when you think about, how can you give, and you can serve other people. I think about the abundance mindset, and you know, how can I serve and give others? And then the energy comes back to me. Jake, this was outstanding. I i’m gonna summarize here as a way to just so people can. If they weren’t taking notes, they can write a few things down, so you mentioned the app the Habit Share, so you can check that out as a way to increase accountability in your own life, you are talking about how every day we get to be uncomfortable. So continue into develop that Kurds muscle is really important, and because we can’t control our talent, right? We can only control our effort and our and our consistency towards going after our goals. And I loved at the end, when you talked about this clutch moment where your focus should be, and the idea of the midnight rule.

So, Jake, tell us where we can find more information. I got your book here, compete every day. Where can people buy this book and learn more about your speaking and coaching?

Jake Thompson: Yeah, so best place is gonna be our website compete everyday.com. You’ll find us on social media. I’ve got my own spin off. I spend most of my time on Linkedin or on Instagram, as Jake Thompson speaks, and so would love to connect anything we talked about today. You have a question on you want to dive further. I’m always game for it. But thank you so incredibly much for having me here and just getting the chance to hang out with you today.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, it’s always fun, and I know I’ll see you the summer at the National Speakers Association.

Jake Thomson: Can I say something on that real quick because you this up beautifully the abundance mindset that you talked about, and I think

you and I, and there’s a number of other speakers that I learned dramatically different than when I came into the industry that speakers get other speakers opportunities which sounds so weird because it’s like, oh, you 2 are fighting for gigs. I’m like we are, but we aren’t because we want to help people when and I know i’m not going to speak in an event the next year that I did this year. So who can I refer? How can I help a client? How can I help a great speaker? And having that mentality and the speakers and professionalism outside of our space that have that mentality, especially in the middle performance of like. We just want to help people when there’s enough space for all of us to win individually if we help enough. Other people win is a game changer. And so, if you’ve ever been on the fence feeling like there’s not enough out there for me.

I want to challenge you over the next 30 days to follow Dr. Kamphoff. Practice that abundance mindset, and see how your perspective changes which will ultimately change your world without changing anything else.

Because that was a game changer in my life and my career of like. There’s enough out there. It’s all about having that rising tide raising all the good ships of people who actually care about helping other people succeed. It’s a game changer. So I wanted to echo what you said there, and challenge them to keep diving into your stuff on that, because it it’s such a key piece.

Cindra Kamphoff: It is a key piece, and I appreciate you saying that. And I think about all the people in the world, all the opportunities out there, and I think when we get really in the scarcity mindset, we’re more likely in fear, right. But if we’re just thinking about, how can I help? But how can I serve? It? Does come back to us, and I love the National Speakers Association, NSA. For that reason, because it is like the spirit of Cabot who started the NSA. And it’s very much like just giving and serving. And you know, how can we make the world a better place? I think all of us regardless of if we’re athletes or business people or leaders.

We give right, that that just comes back to us twofold. Yeah, absolutely. So. Jake, outstanding today. Make sure you follow Jake and check out his book compete every day. Do you have any final advice or thoughts for us as we close?

Jake Thompson: Yeah, competition. When I think about it, always go back to the Theodore Roosevelt man in the arena. That the credit does not belong to those in the stands, but the ones on the field, bloody, sweaty tiers fighting valiantly, some winning some not; and when we get to the end of our lives, I think all of us should strive to be that person on the field. Even though it’s dangerous, even though it’s scary, even though there’s a chance we’re gonna lose, because it’s a far better place to rest at the end than sitting in the stands wishing you’d stepped on it. So that that is my encouragement to send this office. Get in the arena.

Cindra Kamphoff: Outstanding. Thank you so much for joining us today, Jake.

Jake Thompson: Thank you.