Unleashing Entrepreneurial Spirit With Mark Hiddleson, Owner of Specialized Storage Solutions

Mark Hiddleson is the Owner of Specialized Storage Solutions, Inc., a nationwide logistics company with industry-leading warehouse storage solutions. It provides clients with innovative products, facility layouts, and designs to optimize their logistics operations. With several decades of service experience in the warehousing and logistics industry, Mark has held leadership roles in several professional industry organizations. Using a holistic approach, he also has experience in equipment material handling, operations management, supply chain optimization, professional development, and public speaking.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[3:15] Mark Hiddleson’s childhood entrepreneurship lessons, starting with selling gourds
[6:45] Specialized Storage Solutions’ journey into niche seismic design
[9:36] How unsatisfied client communication sparked a thriving business
[14:59] What fuels Mark’s passion for self-improvement?
[17:28] The 90-day coaching challenge that revolutionized Mark’s health and business
[22:20] How podcasting bridged the gap to Mark’s book publication
[25:03] Connecting industry leaders through networking events like executive breakfasts
[31:50] What is the role of economics in spiritual and personal development?

In this episode…

What if you could integrate the best scientific and holistic practices to enhance your personal growth, elevate your business, and make a significant contribution to your community? Learn how a thriving entrepreneur and author leverages modern strategies for self-improvement while fostering a positive impact.

Mark Hiddleson shares his journey of transforming his personal and professional life by embracing holistic practices. He discusses how his early exposure to visualization and self-improvement techniques laid the foundation for his success in the storage solutions niche. Mark’s path led him to establish Specialized Storage Solutions and host the Tao of Pizza podcast, which focuses on integrating personal growth with business strategies. His story exemplifies the power of visualization and self-awareness in overcoming challenges, such as leaving a lucrative corporate job to start his own business, and how those practices have helped him navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship.

In this episode of the Top Business Leaders Show, John Corcoran chats with Mark Hiddleson, Owner of Specialized Storage Solutions, about blending spiritual growth with business acumen, building relationships, and creating a thriving ecosystem within their enterprises. Mark emphasizes holistic development, showcasing how personal growth can transform one’s approach to business and life. He shares lessons on embracing challenges, leveraging strengths, and fostering connections that lead to long-term success.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

“I always joke that I started working when I was young, but I didn’t start paying taxes until I was 12 years old.”
“You don’t have to sit on a pillow for 30 minutes a day to talk about meditation.”
“Grow a pair of balls, take a second on your house, and start your own company.”
“Networking is not working. It’s something you do, and it pays off.”
“If I’m going to make a commitment to somebody else and we agree there’s value here, I’m going to commit 100%.”

Action Steps:

Embrace visualization and meditation practices: Incorporating visualization techniques helps overcome mental hurdles by creating a clear picture of desired outcomes, which is crucial for achieving long-term goals in business and self-improvement.
Commit to continuous learning and outside coaching: By engaging with professional coaches or mentors, individuals can gain new perspectives, accountability, and guidance, aiding them in navigating challenges and enhancing their skills effectively.
Cultivate strong professional relationships: Hosting networking events like executive breakfasts can facilitate meaningful connections and collaborations, enriching both personal and business growth.
Participate actively in industry and community organizations: Engaging in industry-specific organizations not only offers learning opportunities but also allows individuals to serve their communities, leading to personal satisfaction and professional development.
Adopt a holistic approach to business and personal life: This approach ensures that all aspects of life, including health, relationships, and business, are interconnected and balanced, fostering long-term prosperity.

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Episode Transcript

John Corcoran: 00:00

All right. Today we’re talking about how to embrace the best of today’s scientific, holistic practices to inspire self-improvement in yourself and to grow your business in life and also make a contribution back to your community. And my guest today is Mark Hiddleson. He’s got a new book out that’s on this very topic. And so I’ll tell you more about him in a second.

Just stay tuned.

Intro: 00:24

Welcome to the Top Business Leaders Show powered by Rise25 Media. We feature top founders, executives and business leaders from all over the world.

John Corcoran: 00:40

All right. Welcome, everyone. John Corcoran here. I’m the host of the show. And you know, each week I get to talk to smart CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs from all kinds of different companies.

If you check out the archives, we’ve got Netflix and Grubhub, Redfin, gusto, Kinkos, lots of great episodes. Check those out. And of course, this episode brought to you by rise 25, where we help B2B businesses to get clients referrals and strategic partnerships with Done-for-you podcast and content marketing. And Mark, I know for you that you would agree with me when I say that relationships are really. So mean so much in business.

And you know, for me, as for you, we’ll get into this conversation. You know, having the ability to have a tool, which is a podcast to take people like yourself, highlight them, focus on them, shine a spotlight on something interesting that they’re doing in their career, and then broadcasted it to the world has meant so much for me, and so many great relationships have come from that. So such a pleasure to have you here today. And if anyone wants to learn more about what we do, you can go to rise 25.com or email support at rise 25.com. All right.

Before we get started, first of all, shout out Srini Rao, who’s the host of the Unmistakable Creative Podcast. And guess what. Even before that, which is what he’s most known for now, blogcast FM when I was listening to a listening to a podcast back in 2006, 2007, 2008, time frame, he had this podcast. That was it was like the the audio version of a blog. That’s the only way you could describe it.

And he interviewed interesting people and it inspired me to go into doing a podcast. And then one day actually was my friend Matt Monroe, who also knew Srini, who recommended me to Srini, and it was like a dream come true, you know, having known of him, admired him, respected him to be a guest on his show. But now you and I connected through that because then you heard that episode and reached out to me, and now we’ve done so much together. So such great things come from all of that. But, Mark, you’re the owner of Specialized Storage Solutions is a company that you started in 2004.

You’ve worked in the heart of Napa Valley, beautiful wine country, helping wine industry companies and other types of companies with their storage racking and warehouse solutions. You also have a master’s degree in holistic Health Education, and you are the host of the Dao of Pizza podcast and a new book by the same name, which is what we’re going to be focusing on here today. So I’m excited about that. But Mark, first let’s start with what were you like as a kid? Were you like a hustler running around and doing lemonade stands and paper routes and selling gum at school and getting busted by your teacher?

What was the young Mark Hiddleston like?

Mark Hiddleson: 03:15

I love that question. It’s it’s going to be hard for me to keep a straight face. But first of all, thank you for having me. Thank you for sharing the story. How we met.

We did meet through a podcast and it has been an amazing journey and before I say anything about myself had him on my podcast. At the time he had done about a thousand interviews and I was on probably 10 or 15 interviews, and I was like, well, I could get to a thousand interviews and it’s like, okay, I’m doing 50 a year. So that’s only, oh, it’s 20 years, like a thousand podcasts is.

Pretty impressive. But I think he was doing it every day for a while. He said, Yeah, check out that episode. But as a kid, man, when you talk about entrepreneurial. So my mom, first of all, my mom was a was a elementary school teacher, my hero in my life, great teacher.

She always kept me busy with something because I was that kid that was kind of always asking the question, why? Why do we have to do it this way? Why? And but she wouldn’t let me have a paper route because she didn’t think it was safe. Like she didn’t want me out riding around on my bicycle at 5:00 in the morning, and, you know.

John Corcoran: 04:22

She was ahead of her time then.

Mark Hiddleson: 04:25

Yeah. So this was in the in the 70s in a rural town called Manteca. But my, my sister. So we did other things. My sister and I were like, funny, I can remember my sister seven years younger than me, and I was probably nine years old at the time.

And we had this garden where we had these little gourds that were beautiful colors and everything. And so we had this wagon and I was like, well, I don’t have a paper route. We need some money, man. Like, I’m nine and she’s 2 or 3, and we went door to door with a wagon full of gourds.

And wow.

It was amazing. You know, people would just give you money. It was kind of like a lemonade stand, I guess.

John Corcoran: 05:02

Yeah, sure.

Mark Hiddleson: 05:03

People just give you money just because, like, oh my God, kids. Sister. It’s like a a way to make a sale. And I always joke that I started working when I was really young, but I didn’t start paying taxes until I was 12 years old. And so one of my favorite stories is, you know, again, couldn’t get a paper out, but there was a bakery in the town I grew up in that had a dishwashing shift from like six in the morning till eight and school started like 815.

So I was 12. I got a work permit, did everything official, and I think I was making like $2.65 an hour, you know, working two hours a day. And I get my check and it had taxes taken out. So now, you know, I’m ten years away from being 65. So they start sending you your reports from Social Security and like there’s these entries like in 1982, like $17 in taxes.

And I’m just always, you know, I’ve sold walnuts, cracked walnuts on the ground and gone door to door. So. Yeah.

John Corcoran: 06:05

So you found. You found a way, even though your mom wouldn’t allow you. Wasn’t safe in rural Manteca to go door to door with the with the paper route. So that’s fascinating. Thanks for your background there. And you, you started socialized storage solution about 20 years ago.

What what inspired that? Were you doing something similar and decided to going on your own? Because what you do is very specialized, by the way. You know, you build these massive like if you’ve ever been to a Costco or something like that, these massive racks that you know, frankly, like if they fail, like people could be killed. So there’s a lot of consequences.

But you build these massive racks inside of warehouses.

Mark Hiddleson: 06:45

Yeah. And in California it’s even more because of earthquakes. And so we’re really involved in seismic design and even a lot of existing systems. Sometimes a client who goes into a warehouse and there’s an existing rack system there, they’ll bring us in to do a retroactively and say, is this system going to handle what they’re putting on in the project? We just completed the racks.

So Home Depot racks are probably 16ft tall and the product is about 20. Same thing with Costco. We just finished a project where the rack is 42ft tall, and there’s a six foot pallet on top of that, and there’s 7 or 8 pallets deep in a zero degree freezer.

John Corcoran: 07:24

Wow. It is.

Mark Hiddleson: 07:26

It is kind of a niche business. So now I forgot the question.

John Corcoran: 07:31

So so I mean that that’s so, so specialized.

How did you get into it?

Mark Hiddleson: 07:36

My company. Yeah. So it’s a great question. I was right out of college. I found this industry material handling and I just loved it loved it because it was a connection between design, engineering, construction, and then there’s a little bit of a sales part to it, because you’ve got to communicate between engineers, manufacturers and project manage and manage teams really well to to be successful in it.

So eight years of working for a really good company with a really good boss, a lot of people, you know, a lot of times people would ask me if I was the owner of the company just because we all kind of operated in a way that we wanted to, you know, own results, own solutions, the way we dress, the way we manage our projects. And there was a niche that was developing in used equipment that our company I was working for. They didn’t really want to pursue it. I came to them with an idea like, hey, we should start a division that’s just strictly used and focus on the things that we’re not doing, like mezzanines, pushback, racking some of these system type things, and they didn’t want to do it. So it was it was a kind of instead of complain about not being able to do what you want to do, go out and create it.

And I had a lot of people at the time. I mean, the main thing, you know, there were several people that would call me because we had to have these corporate meetings on Tuesdays. And so they knew it’d be tough to get Ahold of me, because I’d be in a meeting from 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning and a meeting from 12 to 1, and he’d say, man, you gotta write me a check for $800 right now. I’m like, Gilbert, what? What are you talking about?

Because that’s how much money you’re wasting going to these meetings every Tuesday. It’s like, I can’t get a hold of you if you own your own business, you know, that’s that’s another 800.

John Corcoran: 09:23

So you had clients that wanted more access to you, but because of this corporate system you’re in, they were like constraints that prevented you from having the same level of access that you wanted with the clients.

Mark Hiddleson: 09:34

And even projects, projects that we knew we were capable of doing. Yeah, we had the resources, the skill sets, the crews. And, you know, we still did some of those of those projects, but we didn’t. We didn’t really excel at it or we didn’t.

John Corcoran: 09:47

Yeah, the right resources. So you saw an opportunity.

And by the way, it’s so funny, like, you know, the way you described that this industry was so perfectly aligned for you. Working with engineers has an element of architecture and engineering, but you’re not totally responsible for that. You work with others, need to communicate, has an element of sales. And, you know, it’s funny because you’re fortunate that you found this industry because it’s an unusual industry, right? You know, not everyone.

It’s not often you meet someone who’s in this industry, right? But seems to match your personality perfectly. Right. Matches what you’re interested in.

Mark Hiddleson: 10:22

Yeah it does. And the clients that I like to work with, a lot of our guys, they’re they’re running facilities. It’s also even our clients. It’s a similar a similar story because all the salespeople in, you know, third party warehouse is probably one of our biggest clients, which is that’s a public warehouse. There’s somebody who doesn’t they’re not warehousing their own product, but they specialize.

Warehousing is their core competency, so they might have 200 clients having anywhere from 1000 to 20,000 pallets of products in their warehouse. And in order to be a good salesperson in that business, you have to be a really good operator. You have to know your numbers because what you’re selling is really I mean, selling logistics or warehousing, it’s you have to know what your numbers are. You know, if you’re going to service your customer well and make good agreements. And so I really like I love the, you know, my clients kind of share a lot of the same values that I do, that partnerships are important.

Good communication is important so that when we do a project, you know, we’re going to ask all the right questions. And even sometimes it’s uncomfortable. Or sometimes you have to ask a question ten times and they’re like, dude, you’ve asked me this ten times. I’m like, yeah, because it’s a really big deal.

John Corcoran: 11:28

Yeah. I mean, you can’t just like, tear these things down overnight.

Mark Hiddleson: 11:33

Yeah. And it seems like something really simple, but it’s people will say like, it’s not rocket science, but I always laugh because it’s like sometimes it seems like rocket science would be easier, you know, because the simplest things and anyone who’s in this industry will know. You know, it’s when you’re.

John Corcoran: 11:51

Dealing with tremendous amounts of weight, you know, so if a little bit is off, it could be catastrophic.

Mark Hiddleson: 12:00

Just the way things bolt together. And if you have, you know, almost any project involves 3 or 4 suppliers and they all have to dovetail their solution that bolts in. And then the install teams, you know, we have a saying that our company is that the the systems don’t install themselves. Somebody has to be able to read the read the blueprints, keep track of everything, stay on time. And so you.

John Corcoran: 12:22

You saw so in the early days you saw this opening in the market. Did it take off right away or was it more of a slog getting your early clients?

Mark Hiddleson: 12:31

It was really what’s it’s a wow. What a great, great question. So we did $1 million worth of business in our first year, and working as a sales rep for the company I was working for, I was probably when I left, I was averaging probably in the like 1.3, 1.4.

John Corcoran: 12:50

Okay.

Mark Hiddleson: 12:51

So it did kind of take right off. And especially because, you know, at that time I had somebody do all my paperwork, somebody to take care of my insurance, somebody to do all the, you know, health insurance and working with the state and taxes and bookkeeping and all. So really, when I started my company, it was just me. So I was doing all of that and still. So I think it did it did take right off.

I mean, then the funnier thing. So I want to just as a warning to entrepreneurs of that million dollars in sales, a lot of it was was profit, but just. I think I only so that I quit in in April and I made more money. I made like four times more money from the company I worked for up until April than I did the whole year, because it just it takes time for cash flow and things are going. Yeah, a lot of the start up costs.

And I really thought, you know, the million dollars in sales that that it would have resulted in quicker. So that’s why I’ve had people ask me like, how did you do it? Or weren’t you afraid? And like the way it worked out was like, if I would have known how it was going to work out, I probably wouldn’t have started.

Yeah. I mean, it turned out okay.

John Corcoran:14:12

Right? But sometimes it doesn’t.

It doesn’t materialize as quickly as you would like.

Mark Hiddleson: 14:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And luckily for me, at that time, you know, my wife was super supportive. That was the other thing when it was really we started the business. I mean, she had 100% support. And, you know, a lot of the times we had enough money.

But she but she was a big part of the financial resources during that time because we went from making, you know, a lot of money working for someone else to now we start our own business. We kind of have to wait for things.

John Corcoran: 14:41

Right? Right.

Or even, you know, it could just be you have to wait for the money to come in. It’s just, you know, eventually it’s going to be there. It might be the same, it might be higher, but if it doesn’t come in a six month period, that’s a big chunk of time to wait.

Mark Hiddleson: 14:52

Exactly.

John Corcoran: 14:53

What? When did you start to get interested in personal development?

Mark Hiddleson: 14:59

So we’ve always, you know, as a young athlete, I was eager to learn, like the latest training I know techniques. When I was in high school, I went to this clinic in Berkeley where they were teaching visualization, and I was a pitcher at the time. And so your nerves, your emotions, a lot of how you perform has to do with how relaxed and poised you are under pressure. And so I’ve probably 13 or 14 when I went to a clinic and they were talking about visualization, I’m like, man, this is like a secret weapon Nobody knows about it. I’m going to use it.

And it was just something that ever since then, I’ve been passionate about it. You know, it’s one of those things once you get on the path, the path kind of pulls you in. You become part of the path. I got injured my senior year in high school. I thought the other thing, I thought I was going to be a pro athlete.

I just thought, because I have the body.

John Corcoran: 15:55

What did you play?

Mark Hiddleson: 15:56

Baseball.

John Corcoran: 15:57

Okay.

[Continue to Page 2]

Mark Hiddleson: 15:58

I was a pitcher in baseball. And just because of my size and ability and work ethic, I just thought that it was just going to be probably just walk right in and be a pro because I was 13. 14.

Yeah, 15.

Even when I was 18. And part of the the challenge for me is, you know, that invincibility thing is I got injured. I got injured my senior year. I was having a lot of success. I was playing a lot of games.

I was playing more games than I should have. It all just became about winning. So anyways, I anyways, I got injured and when I hurt my rotator cuff, I kind of changed. I’m like, okay, I’m not going to be a pro athlete. What are my other skills.

John Corcoran: 16:39

Yourself? Self identity of who you are right as a person?

Mark Hiddleson: 16:43

Yeah. And so it was at that point I was going to school in college. And I’m like, how do I use this same mindset about training and development. You know, getting better learning, you know, doing whatever extra to succeed. And so it’s always just been kind of a passion.

John Corcoran: 16:59

So it it was it helped you to recover from that personal setback of this realization that you weren’t going to be a professional athlete, and you have to do something else with your life.

Mark Hiddleson: 17:09

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

John Corcoran: 17:11

Yeah. And then I know there also was a very instrumental 90 day coaching challenge that you discovered at some point that kind of had a cascade of different good effects from it. Talk a little bit about that.

Mark Hiddleson: 17:28

So I would I’d love to. And so the, the other thing so the holistic health, the masters in holistic health happened in between that that 90 day, you know, so after getting a degree in holistic health education. And then owning my business, here’s another thing. I’ve always gone to outside resources to look for coaching and mentoring. Because when you own your own company, it’s like, who’s your boss?

And everybody? To me, it’s good to have a boss. It’s good to have mentors. It’s good to have. It’s one of the great reasons I love connecting with you and Jeremy.

You’re my boss in.

Mark Hiddleson: 18:03

Certain certain areas, or I’m calling like, I sent you guys an email to ask permission to go to a conference the other day.

It’s like, boss. Can I get 3500 bucks to go to this thing? So you give us some. Great. So I’ll go for outside, so I did. I had an author who wrote a book called Strength for Life that I used to follow.

He had an email every Monday. It was called Start Strong Monday. And I liked it because he’s a bodybuilder and a weightlifter, but he was using strong in the word like a capital “S” strength. Like not just physical strength, but, you know, start with a strong attitude, space, openness, you know, the strength. And one of the emails was an invitation to join this 90-day coaching challenge.

And I loved a lot of the things about the email they were. He was talking about things I was passionate about, you know, which involved strength training was one of them. But it’s looking at things through different. I think it’s a it’s a superpower to be able to look at things from a different perspective. And so I got involved in this, this 90 day coaching thing.

And since Sean, his name is Sean Phillips, his book is called strength for life. It came out in like 2007. But Sean’s a fitness guy. He’s a nutrition guy. He’s a bodybuilder.

So just what ended up happening is it didn’t start out this way, but after a couple of weeks of being, I was like, man, I feel like I’m in good shape, but I could be in way better shape. So I just kind of started changing my habits reading, food, journaling practice and, you know, meeting once a week to for like accountability meetings. And how is this going to the rest of your life? And it was amazing because after 90 days I did lose like and I would have thought like, yeah, I’m in good shape. Like maybe I could lose 5 or £10, you know?

Yeah, I’m always staying active. But in 90 days I lost £27. I was stronger than I was before because I was doing a lot of strength training and eating, and that didn’t really start out as the goal, but it became the goal just because, like, if you hire a fitness coach, right? Like even if you’re coaching something else, you’re going to do a fitness challenge. But I realized all these other areas of my life.

I mean, I was a better father. I was a better coach to, you know, a lot of times I was coaching little league or basketball or flag football. And so it was just that transformation. It wasn’t just a body transformation. It was like a full life transformation.

And because I had more energy, things were better in my business. And, you know, I was learning better communication skills and accountability. You know, somebody would ask me with a coach, like, how how are you with accountability? If you get an exercise or a practice like what’s your. And I’m like, I go, I’m 100%.

I say, I’m going to do something. And I don’t know why I might be a little bit overboard because people are like, oh, wow. And I’m like, yeah, I just if I’m going to make a commitment to somebody else and we we both agree there’s value here, I’m going to commit 100%. So what came out of that 90 day thing is like what’s next. Right.

Did you just get in this to look good in your bathing suit.

Which was the number one reason?

John Corcoran: 21:12

Yeah.

Mark Hiddleson: 21:12

Since you’re 18. Well, it changes, you know, when you’re 18 to 28, you want to look good and then from like 28 to 38. Do you want to stay in shape so you don’t get hurt doing surfing or, you know, playing softball or baseball? I used to play rec league basketball. Those ones be in good shape so I don’t get hurt.

Right. I can compete with these younger kids. Yeah, but it’s like, what’s what’s the bigger connection? How does how do we connect the dots between these passions and your business and everything else and kind of what’s the next step and the and the answer was to start a writing practice and, and publish a book eventually.

And that was about 8 or 9 years ago.

John Corcoran: 21:53

Okay. And I guess that was interrupted a little bit with the podcast, which of course, we’ve worked together on that helped you to get that started. You know, it was it was you and I, we connected. You came to one of our events in San Diego a bunch of years ago, and then a number of years after that, you ended up starting the podcast. So that kind of was one step along the way in building towards the the book.

Mark Hiddleson: 22:20

Yeah. The podcast was a great. What did you call it?

John Corcoran: 22:25

Still is. Still is.

Mark Hiddleson: 22:27

Well, I mean, at the time you said it was a it it slowed the book down. If anything, the podcast actually really was a big. It was a bridge. I needed a bridge, I love bridges. It was a bridge because I was finding the writing.

There’s a lot of ironies about writing that, you know, I started to write about something I think I shared with you before on the call that, you know, the things I’m writing, like, don’t don’t Get too much in your head is one of the chapters, right?

John Corcoran: 22:58

Yeah.

Mark Hiddleson: 22:58

But if you’re writing, like, all you’re doing is you’re just.

In your head the whole time. Yeah, exactly. So.

So it was just, you know, there were a lot of things like that. And then how do you, you know, describe some of these things that the relationships like you brought up, like one of the most important like my business, you know, my business really is those relationships. It’s not any racks or systems or we have processes, we have all these things. We have a mission statement. But it’s those relationships.

And starting from a suggestion you made and I forget if it was at the the event in San Diego, but after the hot seats and I love that was the first hot seats I ever did was in San Diego with you guys. And I know why they call it a hot seat now is because your seat actually gets kind of hot.

John Corcoran: 23:45

It is. You’re doing. Oh yeah. You’re so these.

Mark Hiddleson: 23:48

Eyes are blazing on you and.

John Corcoran: 23:50

Everything.

Mark Hiddleson: 23:50

Yeah, yeah. I’m like, why do they call it a hot seat? Well, you know, I was nude. Everybody else had a little more experience and I was like, whoa, this this seat is getting kind of hot here. But the podcast, the it went from the executive breakfast because one of the things I loved about that is because he asked me what all my values in my network, and there’s people that I would love to introduce who I think should meet each other.

But if somebody is two hours away and everybody’s busy. And so how do you all get together? And so we found a way where I could meet with 6 or 7 of my clients, introduce people. And I mean, the conversations we had.

John Corcoran: 24:28

You’re talking about the executive breakfast.

Now, tell everyone how you structured these executive breakfasts, because this is a really cool thing you did.

Mark Hiddleson: 24:34

So and this was this was cool is that I just thought of, you know, who would I like to introduce to who or who, you know, kind of set curate this table. And then, you know, I started with a core group of like 3 or 4, like I want to make sure these guys are there. So I sent out a group text to about 10 or 15 people and just saw who could make the date. And, you know, we set it up basically all through text messages. Most people, you know, everyone I send it to, if they could have made it, they would have been there.

John Corcoran: 24:28 25:03

Yeah. You know.

Mark Hiddleson: 25:04

So people RSVP. But we just met at a to have breakfast somewhere here in town, and people drove from anywhere from two hours to an hour away. I think the closest person was 20 minutes.

John Corcoran: 25:16

But it was the power of connections, right? People, you know, and this is before Covid that you started doing this. But that shows you how much people value, you know, connecting in person.

Mark Hiddleson: 25:27

Yeah, we made some great connections. I mean, people I mean, there’s just a list of the way people made connections that you wouldn’t even have thought through those, those breakfasts. And then they stopped with the with the pandemic. But they’re coming back cool. Already.

Somebody who was on the podcast, actually, I’m drawing a blank. Yvonne Samms is somebody that I just met through the podcast that we have a lot of friends in common and people I’d like her to meet in the wine industry because she worked for Gallo. So we’ve already got her. So we’ve already got a crew of people that we want to get and we’re going to.

John Corcoran: 26:04

So talk about let’s talk about the book some more. Kind of what what was the idea behind it. Why did you decide that you wanted to? Your next step was putting together a book.

Mark Hiddleson: 26:18

Well, there were so many things that I’ve learned on my on my personal growth journey that I think are different, are different ways of of looking at things. And I sometimes when I, when I want to do a project, I look at like, what am I complaining about? And one of the things I complain about, the personal growth or the spiritual space is things either seem to be like super overly scientific or super woo woo. Like if you look at somebody go meditation, you go, okay, I know what that is. That’s something you do on the weekend or just you have all these things that that come up in your mind.

And I was just a little frustrated because it’s not really like that. You don’t have to sit on a pillow for 30 minutes a day to, to talk about meditation. So just a lot of practices, mindsets and things that have that worked for me over the years. in and just making better, you know, better decisions, better health, having healthier relationship, self awareness. Like like one of the big things of personal growth is self-awareness.

And I just I just thought there were a lot of misunderstandings. And so I wanted to kind of give a different view of what we mean by spiritual. It’s not really different because a lot of this stuff has been studied for like thousands of years. That’s the other thing that, you know, Socrates would have said, you know, if people would figure out that really everything is connected to everything, then they would do right action like people. Just once they had all the facts.

And he was trying to explain that like, no, everything is connected to everything. Well, now we have the science. We know that we know dump toxins in the lake, that eventually they’re going to end up in the soil and the food and everything else. But we still we’re not acting like that’s the case. And so I just I saw these disconnects, disconnects between science and religion.

And I think they’re both important and especially if you’re talking about growth and spirituality. So my thing is instead of complaining, collaborate. So I started collaborating on writing a book. And I also I really wanted to share the people, the mentors, the success stories of of the relationships that made a big difference in my life and put it in a book. So there were organizations like the Warehouse Education and Research Council.

I was on the board that was really too young to be on a board. I looking back on, I was like, I was 32 years old and I was on this board. I kind of just had the opportunity in my lap, but those guys just took me under their wing. And by volunteering and showing up and serving the community, you know, you look at like, well, I’m on the board. It doesn’t mean like you’re the big shot who gets to sit there in the chair.

You’re on the board.

John Corcoran: 29:08

It means it’s gotta work.

Mark Hiddleson: 29:11

You’re handing out name tags. You’re doing registration, you’re taking the truck. You’re working with the caterer to make sure the food’s on time and you’re going 15 minutes or so. I just learned so much about service and professionalism and those guys, you know, they’re like you and Jeremy. I could call them any time and say, hey, this is a question.

It’s not like that’s their job to babysit Hiddleston, but they amazed how many people would take the time. There’s one great story that the president, the national president of work. There was a event one time we went to and Emmitt Smith was the keynote. And because I’d been on a council for so long and I volunteered, like I had a little bit of juice card with Mike and I said, hey, I go, I know this is a long shot, but is there any way I can get set at the table where Emmitt Smith is going to be? Because the all the board members and everything were kind of in a different area.

But there’s probably about ten tables and one of them is going to be there. And I was going to be close, and he was like, man, he goes, I don’t know. He goes, he goes. They have some rules. Like you can’t ask for autographs or anything like that.

He goes, he goes, I’m going to see what I can do. I can’t make you any promises. Well, Michael got me a seat right next to Emmett.

John Corcoran: 30:25

Wow.

Mark Hiddleson: 30:26

And so it was. I mean, that’s like a personal success story, but the business, it’s, like, amazing the amount of connections you make and when it’s kind of a hack to service is a hack. The other thing, you know, at those conferences, I would volunteer for the registration. Like somebody has to go there and get people signed up, make sure they have a bag, give them their drink tickets and all that. And I always did that.

And I started out thinking, hey, I’m doing this great thing to help out and everything, but when you’re doing registration, you meet every single person.

John Corcoran: 30:57

Yeah, I actually love that. I actually love doing registration. Yeah. Before you.

Mark Hiddleson: 31:02

And they’re like, hey, you meet. Everyone coming in and they’re all, they’re all nice to you because they want to be let in, you know? And you’re the one giving out the drink tickets.

So yeah, I do like. I did this to be a nice guy. Yeah. So that’s my joke with my team right now because so many things like that just work when you’re trying to do. I’ve got I’ve had so many things where I was trying to do the right thing, but then I end up getting this reward that was like ten times.

John Corcoran: 31:28

Yeah, you know, talk about in the book. You’ve got a chapter in there. Chapter five Economic Lens putting the eco back in economics. And for a book that is, you know, primarily about spiritual growth, personal development, it’s interesting that you bring the economic piece into there. So talk a little bit about how that relates.

Mark Hiddleson: 31:50

So another you have so many great questions. You’ve been doing this for 15 years. Thank you I love that. So first of first of all, it’s number five. It’s chapter five.

So it’s you know, probably when I got into this industry it would have been chapter one. Like first you gotta make philosophy is nice but you gotta eat. The reason it’s it’s in there is you know, we do we do need to make a living, survive, make a contribution. And I think a business should be something that impacts the whole community. I mean, it’s not this obviously we need to make money, but what’s the bigger picture?

How do we fit into the bigger picture? And how does what we do in our business affect everything else? And I’ve always I watched your podcast, The Unmistakable Creative, because the title was networking. And I’ve always taken a networking approach to business, and it’s kind of like planting seeds, like networking A lot of people, there’s one of the I think it’s the chapter after this, but networking is not working. And that’s not to say that networking is not working.

It’s like network networking. It’s not working. I mean, it’s just something you do and it pays off. And I love ecological metaphors, and I start to hear it more and more now, like you have a ecosystem of resources or there’s a investor ecosystems. And so more people, I just think it’s a better metaphor than like machine metaphors.

Like if you if you look at how machines operate, you constantly have to do maintenance on them. You have to fix them from the outside. But if you look at an ecosystem, ecosystems adjust and do things on their own and and connect in ways that, you know, they take things, kind of take care of themselves. And there’s just a lot. And then I also think there’s the thing about our businesses should honor, you know, the actual ecosystem.

It’s part of it, too. Yeah. Just the way things work together in a in an ecosystem. Like if you think of a garden or a or a farm or anything like a river, you know, if you think of our business is like a.

John Corcoran: 34:12

Part of the larger world around it.

Mark Hiddleson: 34:14

Exactly.

John Corcoran: 34:15

Yeah, yeah. Well, Mark, I know we’re almost out of time, so I’ll wrap up. I didn’t prepare you beforehand with this question, which I usually tell my guests beforehand, and I realized that I didn’t. But I have a feeling that you’ll be okay with this question, so I’m a big fan of gratitude. I’m a big fan of one expressing gratitude and two giving my guests an opportunity to express gratitude, particularly for any peers or contemporaries or mentors who’ve been there with you through your journey.

And you’ve already mentioned the names of some people, so you could you’re welcome to mention them again. Or if you have any specific, specific stories about, you know, peers or Peers or contemporaries who’ve who’ve been there during your journey, and particularly ones that are still there with you.

Mark Hiddleson: 35:02

So who who are the mentors that I’m that I’m grateful for?

John Corcoran: 35:06

You mentioned Sean Phillips was one.

Mark Hiddleson: 35:09

Yeah.

John Corcoran: 35:09

Yeah. Srini Rao’s name came up. Tim Ferriss, we mentioned those. Those are a couple of names that come to mind.

Mark Hiddleson: 35:15

So Vicky, Vicki Dello Joio has been a coach and mentor of mine for years. I met her at grad school more than 20 years ago. Sal Fateen is amazing. He owns the company that does all of our engineering for our projects. But he’s one of those people that really there’s a story.

I met Sal because I really he was an industry hotshot. This was 30 years ago, so it was funny. Sal, at that time, Sal had 25 years in the business. And now I was thinking, I’m like, I have as much experience as Sal Yeah, I had to meet because he was kind of more than just an engineer. He’s been involved in writing a lot of codes, but he was just kind of.

I had to meet this guy and a friend of mine. I asked him to introduce me or get invited to one of the events that he does, and the guy said, well, this is not like it’s not a business thing. Like, I got to meet him. I got to meet him. So he said, okay, look, I’ll make a personal, we’ll do a personal trip.

We’ll just go on. We went to the jazz festival in Catalina and I made friends with Sal, and we’d done business together, and I thought I needed this great business contact. And it has been. But I’m kind of embarrassed that I was going for, like, the business, business, business because our relationship has been so much more. I mean, he’s he’s been, you know, like a father, an uncle.

You learn things about what’s important in life, family values. And so everything’s not about business. It’s about kind of creating this bigger family back to kind of the ecosystem. Like we’re all connected to each other. Then Ron Michael.

Mike’s has passed away several years ago. He was instrumental. He told me he was the reason I started my business. I didn’t tell this is one of my favorite stories. He goes, Hiddleston.

He goes, grow a pair of balls, take a second on your house and start your own company.

That was the way you used to talk to people. And you know, I was used to that growing up in the Central Valley. And I just remember thinking, well, I have balls. And I was like, I’d have to ask my wife to get a second home like I did. And so my wife said, well, who is this guy? Because I told my wife, she goes, who is this guy? And we went down to Palm Springs, had dinner with he and his wife, and she shook her head and she’s like, okay, he’s a good guy.

John Corcoran: 37:39

Mark, this has been great. The Tao of Pizza: The Practice of Being at Path to Peace and Prosperity for Business People and Students of Life is the name of the book. Where can people go to learn more about you? Mark.

Mark Hiddleson: 37:52

Great question. specialracks.com is the business website and then taoofpizza.com is the book website. And I’m on LinkedIn and you can check out the podcast. But I’d love to connect on LinkedIn really with anyone who hears the show and wants to learn more or connect.

All right. Thank you John. This has been fantastic. I really appreciate you. You’ve been a great resource for our business.

This has been a lot of fun. And thank you. Thank you for being a great partner. Great friend.

John Corcoran: 38:26

Thank you Mark.

Mark Hiddleson: 38:27

Thank you.

Outro: 38:28

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