Have you ever felt like your business is a rollercoaster ride filled with friction points? Mark Kinsley wants to help.
Mark Kinsley, CEO of Englander Mattress and host of The Sleep Summit Show podcast, knows the mattress industry faces its fair share of challenges. In this candid episode, he shares ideas for overcoming obstacles and finding momentum – personally and professionally.
In this episode learn to:
1) Let people help you. Kinsley tells a story about helping Matt Smith’s son Parker style his hair one morning. It was their first interaction, but Parker was open to the assistance. Big takeaway: all need to recognize when help arrives and be willing to accept it.
2) Create momentum inducers. All journeys have friction points, but we can offset those with energetic momentum boosts. Events like Sleep Summit are powerful momentum inducers that reignite purpose and passion.
3) Align your vibe with your tribe. Surrounding yourself with the right community reveals blind spots and generates energy.
If you feel stuck or disconnected, this candid episode will get you thinking differently. Tune in to gain insight on building community, overcoming obstacles, and leading with purpose in business and life.
FULL TRANSCRIPTION
Mark Kinsley: I’m gonna tell you the story about a little boy with some messed up hair and why this matters to your business. Hey, and it’s kind of a big day here. I’m doing my first solo show on the Sleep Summit podcast. I’m Mark Kinsley, and the Sleep Summit Show begins right now.
Mark Kinsley: Welcome to the Sleep Summit Show. I’m your host, mark Kinsley strategies, tips, and ideas for anybody in the mattress business that’s trying to grow, trying to move forward, and trying to make an impact in this industry. I. I got my hat on backwards. Yeah, I need to shave. I’m recording this on Sunday night because gotta release every Monday at 6:00 AM Uh, I wanna thank everybody just for being part of the new show.
I’ve had some amazing guests, if you haven’t gone back and listened to. Uh, Scott Vaughn and Matt Smith and Mike Magnusson. Please check out all those shows. Really good content, good information as we navigate this wild industry together. So today I wanna talk about something that actually happened back in April, and so I’ve been thinking about this a little bit and it just popped into my head today.
And it, and it actually does deal with a good friend of mine named Matt Smith. Many of you know Matt, he’s the president and c e o of Snooze Mattress Company. He was on undercover, billionaire, season two with Grant Cardone, and he had an event, uh, in Pueblo, Colorado. I’d never been to Pueblo. Lovely community, wonderful people, and he had a, an amazing team.
You, you got George and ET and the entire team there. Um, that’s really doing a great job to bring some inspiration to the industry and to think about things differently. They’re running around in silk pajamas and they’re having pillow fights out in public, and Matt’s got his new snooze mobile that’s all wrapped up.
I’ve ridden in it pre snooze wrap, uh, on the way down to the frigid lake where we jumped in and did an ice bath with like 30, 40 people. And there were folks down there fishing, looking at us like we, we were kind of crazy, which yeah, it does look crazy. But I went to Matt’s event and I spoke and I was staying at his house.
And so the, the first night, uh, it was kind of a funny thing, but we didn’t know where to go and I was out there with Keith Moneymaker from Sweet Dreams out in North Carolina. And uh, so we ended up finding rooms. And the room that I, that I found was actually Matt’s son’s room, but he wasn’t staying there that night ’cause they had a house full of people.
You had. You know, a coach from the Washington Wizards, JB was there, he had his own room. So everybody’s trying to find their own spot as we, uh, put this, put this vent on together, and we had all these different speakers. And so the next morning I remember, I. I got to meet Matt’s kids, uh, Parker and Paisley and Preston and I had been staying in Parker’s room.
And yes, I mean, it was funny, the very first blanket I tried to pull up, uh, ’cause we got there super late and tried to keep the lights off and it was like a weighted blanket. So I’m trying to pull up this weighted blanket and then, you know, find, just find a sheet or something a little bit cooler. Um, so the very first time I meet Parker the next day and he’s getting ready for school.
And so it’s getting close to the end of the school year, and Parker had to come into his room to kind of get his things in order and use his bathroom to brush his teeth and comb his hair and things like that. And I walk in and I see Parker through the doorway in the bathroom with a hand full of gel, and he just plops it into his hair.
And he’s a little boy and his hair’s all, all over the place as he is trying to get ready for school. And he looks at his hair and he goes, uh, well it is what it is. And there was like green gel in one spot, and the other spot on the opposite side of his head was completely dry and he was just trying to figure out how to comb his hair.
And so, I love a good coughed head of hair, so I, I, I walked through the doorway and I said, Hey buddy. I said, how you doing? He’s like, uh, not so good. I go, what’s going on? He is like, the gel already dried in my hair. I. And so he had put the gel in there earlier and I could see it now. And he walked downstairs and now he’s going to his bathroom to brush his teeth and try to finish combing his hair.
And the gel had dried, so it was just completely caked on there. And like I said, the other side of his head was dry. And I said, can I help you? And this is the first time we’ve met. And he said, actually, he looked at me first and he looked at my hair and he said, okay. Just as sweet as can be. And so I came over there, I got a comb and you know, I kind of reoriented some of the gel and kind of spread it out, put a little water on there and tried to, you know, get his hair looking good so he can go off to his school day, you know, feeling confident with his hair, all combed.
And that was it. And he, he was off for his day, feeling pretty good. And I went to Matt’s event and they’re in Pueblo and, and as I went up to speak, I changed everything I was gonna talk about because of that interaction that I had with Parker. And what I realized at that moment was we had 150 people there for this event, this undercover billionaire bootcamp, and everybody was looking for something.
And so my message changed and my message became just what Parker did. Let somebody help you. Let somebody help you, find people that can help you, and then when it shows up, let them help you. It kind of reminds me of the story about the guy that was at his house and the water from the river was starting to come up, so water’s starting to come up.
Maybe some of you have heard this water starts coming up, rains and rains. The river starts rising. And his neighbor drives down the driver and says, Hey, you better get outta here. The river’s gonna, it’s gonna flood, it’s gonna be bad. The guy says, I’m good. I’m good. God’s gonna save me. I’m fine. So next thing you know, the water’s up to the foundation of the house and he’s on his front porch on his deck, and it’s even with the deck.
And his neighbor comes up in a boat this time and he says, hop in. It’s not gonna get any better. The guy’s like, Go on, get outta here. I’m fine. God’s gonna save me. I’m good. Well, the water kept rising. He ends up on his roof, helicopter comes by, they got a megaphone. They scream at him, grab the rope, and he says, I’m fine.
God’s gonna save me. God’s gonna save me. Next thing you know, guy Drowns goes to heaven. And he looks at God and he says, what? What happened? And God said, well, I sent your neighbor twice. Once in a truck, once in a boat, and then I sent a helicopter for you. Let somebody help you and recognize when help is here.
And that’s what I keep hearing behind the scenes. You know, we’ve been very involved with the FAM community and people that have been a part of Dream Camp, and now we have Sleep Summit coming up October 9th through the 11th in my backyard, Bentonville, Arkansas. And I can’t wait to host all of you. And when you come, I want you to come with an open mind.
I want you to come with a commitment in mind to let somebody help you. And if you’re sitting there right now on the fence thinking, I’ve got sticking points. I have pain, I have problems I’m trying to solve. I can tell you one thing that I know for certain, and this is gonna hold true when I get to the other side and go to heaven and talk to God myself.
I know for certain the best place to solve those problems is with a community of people. A community of like-minded people who are committed. To making this industry and their businesses and their communities and their families and their lives the best it can be. And when you don’t have that infrastructure in place from a community standpoint, you don’t have the people you can call to solve any problem.
You don’t have the people that you can rely on to pick up the phone on the other end. You don’t have the people that you gather with that can fill in blind spots you didn’t even know you have. That’s been a scary thing for me over this past. Six, eight months. I’ve had some blind spots filled in for myself, and it scared me because I realized if I have this blind spot over here that I didn’t know about, and now the candle has lit it up, now I can see that blind spot.
What others do I have that I don’t even know about that could be making my business, my life, my engagement with the world? Worse than it could be. And community fills in those blind spots, especially a community that says yes to something new and something different. It was interesting, we were back at Las Vegas market and we had over a hundred people at the Englander space for a meetup about sleep summit.
We gave away some tickets. Uh, Greg Gent won a ticket. Adam Hemler won a ticket, and of course, Matt Smith shows up late and wins one of the v i p tickets. Uh, so, so, so excited about those guys coming and being a part of Sleep Summit. Um, and it just, it was one of those really special moments where we were gathering together and reminding ourselves about where this thing needs to go, what we want it to be, and making it the place and the space.
Uh, that’s the industry that we all desire and wanna be a part of. So as you think about Sleep Summit 2023, as you think about where you’re gonna put your time, how you’re gonna fill in those blind spots, how you’re gonna make the most out of the moments that you have, I want you to, I really want you to think hard about it.
I want you to think hard about it. ’cause I, I always say, we gotta fly our flag high and your vibe attracts your tribe. So I. Go listen to the testimonial from James Perez, the c e o of Mattress firm, south Texas. James Perez is ignited at the moment. He’s on fire, and that bright light is shining to all the retailers throughout the industry that he is interfacing with because the purpose has been reinfused into his business.
And he has the network and he has the support system, and he has the mentors. Around him that are allowing him to navigate each and each and every moment. And this is what we all need. This is what we all need. We’re all gonna have these major friction points in our journey as entrepreneurs, as business owners, as business leaders.
And a lot of times we focus on that friction. But there’s a magical thing that can happen. Like it’s always gonna be a rollercoaster of a journey, and that’s fine. On that rollercoaster, when you hit those friction points, we need momentum inducers. I want you to think about that phrase and say it with me.
Momentum inducers, those upward arrows that keep that rollercoaster from going down into a permanent trough. And what I have found overwhelmingly, This goes back to what I was saying about the Las Vegas market meetup. It goes back to what I’ve been saying about Dream Camp. It goes back to what I’m saying about Sleep Summit.
Those in-person events are the most major momentum inducers I’ve ever seen in any type of scenario when it comes to people navigating business and life. You gotta give yourself those momentum inducers when they come along. And I want you to be thinking about that even out outside of Sleep Summit.
Where are these friction points throughout my year? The rhythm of my existence, and how can I create momentum inducers that give me energy? I. Okay, think about this. It doesn’t matter if you’re a introvert or an extrovert. Introverts get re-energized their batteries charged by being on their own.
Extroverts get their battery recharged. That momentum inducer for them by being around people. Regardless of whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, it’s been well established that we are very communal. We all want to be with people in some capacity. The introvert extrovert thing is, is really kind of a smoke screen ’cause it’s talking about where you going to go to recharge, like fully recharge your batteries.
We all need community. We all need a tribe, and we’re flying our flag really high at sleep. Summit Saint. Come here. Be here with your people. Get reenergized because we all need community. This is your momentum inducer. I. And you know, you want to go like granular here a little bit. We’ve got Megan Anderson.
She’s had a, an amazing 12 year career at Mattress Firm. She’s gonna be coming speaking. We have Steven Ferguson. This guy sold $5 million worth of product in four years, number one in the nation when he was at Mattress room. Now he’s the president and co-founder of Bedhead Marketing, where they’re making massive change for businesses in this industry and they’re focused on this industry.
We’ve got Bob Muckle. Bob Muckle for, from what I hear, he invented comfort selling. Monell is somebody that absolutely lights up an organization when it comes to sales leadership and sales training, and you as leaders, I want you to be there to listen to Monell, and many of you have heard what he said. It never hurts to hear it again because we forget things.
There’s so much in business that we forget that needs to be resurfaced. And these events and being in person with people, that’s a huge way to do that. Um, the guy who, I have his jersey, um, okay. If you had a jersey, I would have it. Jason Friedman, I have it. It’s, it’s actually quite incredible that we’re getting him back, Jason.
Has really been adjacent to this industry for quite some time. He owned a chain of sleep diagnostic centers. He has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, uh, including Sleep Number. So he’s, like I said, been dancing around this industry a little bit. But really, Jason is a business builder.
He’s had multiple eight and seven figure exits from multiple businesses. Think about that. Eight figure exits. He’s been. Entrepreneur of the year in New Jersey. He’s been on the Inc 5,000 fastest growing businesses most recently in 2020, and that was the third time he’d done it. Him and his business partner Drew Goller.
They’re gonna be here to talk about things that you may not even be focused on or know about that you need to be thinking about. Jason and I have talked about this quite a bit lately. Behind the scenes, many people are solving the wrong problems in their business and don’t even know it. Those are the blind spots I’m talking about.
So we want you to be here to shine a bright light on those blind spots and make sure you understand you could be solving the wrong problems, or you could be solving the problems in a one or two dimensional capacity when you really need to be looking at it four dimensionally. I know this is a little bit high level right now, but I, trust me, I, I, Jason is number one, um, an amazing person, a dynamic speaker.
Uh, one of the top thought leaders around, um, business in general, but also around the, the creativity around customer experience. It’s such a hollow term in our industry. Jason is the Michael Jordan of customer experience, and we have mattress people that we’ve been working with through Jason’s mentorship and his coaching.
They can attest to this. Um, and those are just a few of the people I. We have a, a very special announcement coming up. Um, yeah, we’ll, we’ll make it this week. We’ll make, maybe make it on the next podcast. Uh, some people that you’re gonna have a lot of fun with and they’re people that you know, many of you know them.
Uh, so head over to sleep summit.co. Check out more of the speakers, check out some of the videos, check out some information about Bentonville. This is a summit. This is a meeting of the minds. This is your conference. This is not, you know, a bunch of people from outside the industry coming in and trying to shoehorn their weekly speech they give at all these different conferences into our industry.
You’re, we want you to wear out your pen taking so many notes. Making so many double red underlines. We’re gonna be doing fireside chats. We’ve got Eric Grimley from Esquire advertising. Esquire is everywhere and for good reason. Their technology and the way that they are marketing to consumers in a measurable, targeted way.
Not only on their devices, like their phones when they walk into a store, we can, you know, see who they are. But they’re also going into the home with O T T and streaming ads. The technology, the way they’ve done it, they’ve compressed down that value chain and they’re getting way more mileage outta way more dollars.
And it’s to the people that you want these end market shoppers. And he’s gonna tell us how he does some of that scary targeted marketing. And why it matters going forward and where it’s headed. And that’s the other thing. We are setting up a little bit of futurist in all of these things to make sure you know where it’s headed.
So be Parker. Be Parker. Walk into Sleep Summit with Gel Dried in your hair. Walk into Sleep Summit with half your hair sticking up. It’d be bedhead. We’d be okay with it. And you’re gonna find somebody there that’s gonna reach out and they’re gonna say, Hey, can I help you? Let me help you with this. And you’re gonna say, okay, you’re gonna look ’em up and down.
You’re gonna see that they have a nice head of hair and you’re gonna say, okay. And then we’re gonna be on this journey together because sleep summit is not the end. It’s the beginning. There are times to say yes, and this is one of those times I’m asking you, I want you to join me. I want you to say yes, and I want you to say yes to the people that have already signed up.
We got a bunch of ’em. V I T V I P tickets are almost out. Actually, as of by the time you hear this, they could be out. But we do have general admission tickets and it’s gonna be an incredible experience. A little bit different on the Sleep Summit Show today. Uh, thank you for being part of this journey.
Um, we’ll get back to asking questions like, where’s the strangest place you’ve ever slept? We’re gonna ask that question on stage to somebody. Very special. A couple of people who I will announce very soon. But in the meantime, let’s stay connected. Uh, let’s stay committed and let’s get ready to be together soon.
