In this Expert Insight Interview, Jerry Holl discusses his bestselling book and the journey that inspired it. Jerry Holl is the author of the three-time international award-winning bestseller Downhills Don’t Come Free: One Man’s Bike Ride From Alaska to Mexico.
This Expert Insight Interview discusses:
- What gave Jerry Holl the impetus to write his bestselling book
- How a cycling trip helped him understand what he was made of
- Why more people should tackle complex challenges
Going Away
You would expect a book with this title to be written by somebody who was an avid cyclist, but Jerry Holl wasn’t one. According to Jerry’s admission, this endeavor was a bit foolish and made for an insane story, but that is also part of the book’s charm.
He was 57 years old and had been in corporate sales and sales leadership for over 30 years. Eventually, every transaction started feeling the same to him, despite taking a lot of skill to execute. At a certain point, Jerry asked himself: “is this all there is?” This is where the idea for this journey came from.
The Adventure of a Lifetime
Before going on his epic cycling trip, Jerry Holl had read every adventure book known to man, looking at the “pickles” the men and women in these books had put themselves into, and he couldn’t help but think to himself, “what would I do?”
On a related note, he wanted to see what he was made of and what he would do in one of these unusual situations, and he found an answer to that question during his journey. Finally, he thought about what he would do if he only had a single day left on this planet. He realized that one more deal would not make his life more fulfilled, so he decided to do something big.
Growth and Change
It seems as if so many people are tired of their lives and are looking for something bigger, but people don’t take the plunge. They don’t take the mindful risk to change their lives and experience growth. Jerry believes you need growth and change to stay young, youthful, exuberant, and excited about the next thing.
If you take on a big challenge and attack it, growth and change will happen by default. You don’t have to go to a growth and change conference; take something big and attack it in the face of uncertainty and the unknown. Use your judgment and skills to overcome the obstacles along the way, and you will experience growth.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
Comments