Hello, and welcome back to the Redefining High Performance Podcast. My name is Ty Bennett. I’m excited to be back with you this week and the share a quick, hopefully powerful stop for you. Actually, today I want to share 3 thoughts. I was recently being interviewed for a podcast, and they asked a question that got me thinking that’s gonna lead to what I want to share today. They asked what’s the best piece of advice I’ve ever received? Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever been asked that question or thought about that. Maybe your parents gave you good advice, or maybe you’ve had a leader or a mentor in your life that’s given you advice that really shifted your perspective or gave you a new insight and approach.

Today, I want to share 3 pieces of advice that I was given as an entrepreneur that have been very impactful for me, but I think they apply regardless of what you do. I think they’re great pieces of life advice. And hopefully, you’ll gain a little bit of insight out of those. They’ll make you think, maybe adjust your perspective and approach as we start 2026.

So, the first piece of advice I was given when I was 21 years old, my brother Scott and I started a business together in direct sales. We were young entrepreneurs, we were hungry, we were trying to grow our business aggressively, and we had a mentor who gave us some advice that has stuck with me to this day. I often share this advice with audiences. The advice was this: she said “If you treat your business casually you will become a casualty.” Now, it’s a powerful line. But what that taught me was that I couldn’t go into it with just this casual, lackadaisical approach. I couldn’t treat it like a hobby. I had to treat it like a business. My preparation, my focus, my dedication, my commitment, all of those things mattered, and it mattered in the way that I showed up. It mattered because it came across to other people. People saw something different in me when I was fully committed and engaged. And we were able to build a very successful business, but I think that advice applies to your life, now, in your current employment as an entrepreneur, in your job, whatever it is. I would tell you you can’t treat that business casually. If you do, chances are you’ll become a casualty. You aren’t going to have this type of success that you’re looking for. But let’s take that advice a little bit further. In your marriage or in your relationship. I think if you treat it casually, unfortunately, you’ll become a casualty. That takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of dedication, takes a lot of commitment, it takes deep work. Same thing with your health, same thing with any relationship. As a parent, the way that you raise your kids.
Right? I think that advice, it’s been super impactful for me. To try and not treat things casually, not treat things like a hobby.
I often get asked a question around speaking. There’s so many people who want to be speakers, why do you think you’ve been able to be successful in the speaking business where others don’t really get on stages and build a career out of it, and I think it comes down to this. I treated it like a business. It wasn’t casual for me. It was a business. I was gonna show up and… and give it everything that it needed to be. So, advice number one is if you treat your business casually, you will become a casualty.

Advice number two. Years ago, I was at a friend’s daughter’s birthday party. They had invited my daughter over. They were probably 5, 6, 7 years old. And it was in their backyard, so a bunch of the neighbors and the parents came, right? We were all hanging out, and the host, the dad, his name is Brett is a successful chiropractor, owns a couple of offices at that point, I think he owns a few more now. And we were just kind of making conversation, and I was asking him a little bit about his business, and I said how do you market? What do you do to get people in the door? And he said, we knock doors. I said, what do you mean you knock doors? And he said, I have two people full-time. They knock doors, they pass out flyers. All around the vicinity, the area where these offices are. And then he said something that has stuck with me to this day, from a marketing perspective. He said the key is you never stop knocking doors. I said, explain more what you mean. He said, we’re too busy. We turn people away. In fact, we have a large waiting list. But they’re still knocking doors because I think what a lot of people do is they build momentum. with specific habits, and then once they start to have success, they stop doing the things that built the momentum to get them there. And so Brett’s piece of advice was to never stop knocking doors. So you know, I think about, for me as a speaker. We’re marketing constantly, even if I’m booked as much as I need to be, we’re still going to be marketing. What is the mechanism for you? Maybe physically knocking doors, but it might be something else. The key to that is to find what that mechanism is, and keep doing it. Whether you’re having the success you want yet, or you’re already wildly successful, to maintain momentum, you keep doing those same activities. So, advice number two is you never stop knocking doors.

Advice number 3 came from a mentor of mine named Stephen Covey. Most of you probably know Stephen Covey by name. He wrote the book 7 Habits. I don’t know, 35 million copies have been sold, or more. He wrote the book, 8th Habit. One of the best leadership minds of our time. The first time I ever met Stephen Covey was in 2007. Somewhere around there. He was hosting a political event at his home in Utah, where I live. And a mutual friend invited me to the event with the purpose of meeting Stephen Covey. He knew Stephen Covey, he knew I wanted to meet Stephen Covey. And so, after I made a large donation, I was invited to go to this event. And we went to the event, at his big, beautiful home on the side of the mountain. We walk in, and I’m looking around, and it’s like the who’s who of Utah. Which, as I say that out loud, kind of sounds funny, but I mean, literally, I see the governor standing over there, and a couple of CEOs that I recognize, some good people. My wife, Sarah, and I are kind of mingling with some people, and after a few minutes, my friend Kevin comes over and he goes Ty, let me introduce you to Stephen. So he walks me over to Stephen Covey. Now, I couldn’t believe I was finally meeting Stephen Covey. I was so excited about this. And Kevin introduced me to Steven by saying, Steven, this is Ty Bennett.
He’s writing a book. And Stephen was very gracious, he said, Ty, it’s great to meet you, thank you for coming. What’s the title of your book? And I said, it’s called The Power of Influence. It’s my first book. He said, that’s a great title. He said, can I give you some advice? Now, this was Stephen Covey, so I was like, yeah, can I write this down? Can I record this? And this is what he said. He said, Ty, make sure you write the book for the reader not the writer. I said, what do you mean by that? And he said, you know, a book that’s written for the writer, for their own ego, to build themselves up, that book is just not gonna
make that big of an impact. But a book that’s written for the reader, to teach, to inspire, to help people. That book is going to be a home run. And then it’s like you got this train of thought going. He goes, you know, I’m a lot older than you. At that point, he was in his late 60s, I was in my late 20s. He said, I think we go through life. And we think that life is about achievement.
What’s the next step? What’s the next goal? And maybe it’s with age, but what I’ve found is that life is actually about contribution. It’s about how can I serve, how can I give? That was my very first conversation with Stephen Covey, and to me, it was life-changing. Because the shift of to be successful. You want to serve. It’s about contribution, not achievement. To focus on how do I add value? How do I serve those around me? How do I bring something of value to the table. How do I look for opportunities to impact, to serve, to help, to uplift, to inspire. That has been a game changer for me. I think often the mentality that people have. especially in a work environment is if you pay me more, then I’ll do more. But that’s not how life really works. That’s not how influence works. It’s those who shift this mentality and say, as I contribute more, I add more value, then guess what? They are probably gonna pay me. They’re gonna see the value in me. They’re going to respond. So, third piece of advice came from Steve McCovey. Life is not about achievement, it’s about contribution.

So let me recap those 3 pieces of advice. The first one came from a mentor of mine who said if you treat your business casually, you will become a casual. The second one came from a friend who said, you never stop knocking doors. And the third one came from Stephen Covey, who said life is not about achievement, it’s about contribution.

I hope those pieces of advice make you stop and think make you reassess a little bit. They’ve changed things for me. They’ve changed perspective, they’ve changed approach. They’ve been incredibly powerful pieces of advice in my life. I’d love to also hear what advice you’ve been given that’s been impactful. So, as you find this podcast, reach out to me, find me on social media, share this with other people. I’d love to know what advice and change things for you, but here’s to a great 2026. Let’s apply some of this advice and raise our level of performance, redefine what high performance looks like to you.
Thank you again for joining me.