Jeff Smith, From Service to Civilian and Maintaining Authenticity

One thing that life in the Special Forces and life as an entrepreneur have in common? Neither one is particularly comfortable — and that’s a good thing, according to Jeff Smith, a man who’s experienced both.

“If you’re not challenging yourself, if you’re not doing hard things, if you’re not recognizing a level of discipline that makes you internally proud, I think you’re not in a great place,” Jeff says. “And I believe that for everyone. I just don’t think most people recognize it or have ever been challenged with having to go there.” 

As a coach, in addition to being the co-owner of a gym and 68 rental properties with his wife, that’s what Jeff helps people do: go there. He starts by helping clients reassess the narratives they’ve told themselves and instead opening them up to “the entire story.” 

“A lot of the time, we have the tendency to feel sorry for ourselves and make excuses, like, ‘Oh, this is why this is happening to me,’” he says. “My job is to snap you out of that s*** and be like, well, it doesn’t matter why it’s happening. How and where do we go from here?”

In this episode of the Working For a Dream Podcast, Jeff tells Patrick what he’s learned going from the military to corporate life to entrepreneurship, as well as the ways he engenders empowered authenticity for his clients today.

What You’ll Learn:

• How Jeff helps clients pinpoint what they’re facing, what they’re telling themselves, what the real story is and how to work their way out of it

• How his time in the military helped him learn to recognize his emotions without being dictated by them

• Why it’s so important to create abundance in your network and in your communities

• And much more!

Favorite Quote:

 “If you start building wins, you will climb out of any situation. There’s no situation that doesn’t have a resolution.”

— Jeff Smith

How To Get Involved:

Patrick Bolanos is a serial entrepreneur, business owner, and CEO of Trailer King Builders in Houston, Texas.

He was raised in Nicaragua, exposed to extreme poverty, and also had the fortune of being exposed to life in the United States traveling back and forth to both countries. 

After college, Patrick’s career took him into the corporate world of banking where he learned the important lessons of understanding what you’re selling and why it’s important to believe in it. 

Back in December of 2017, Patrick was fired from his job as a CFO for a Restaurant Group.  With only $500 to his name, rent due, his wife, 3 children at home, and one on the way, he was forced to figure out how to pull his family out of this financial abyss that was strangling his life. 

With no knowledge of how to build a trailer, Patrick simply figured all of it out and has now built it into the thriving empire of what’s now become Trailer King Builders.

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