In this episode of The Drive, Craig Harvey sits down with Connor Hassoun to break down SHIPS. These are the relationships, mentorships, and roles that quietly carry you to places you never planned to go. This is Part 1 of a multi-part series.

We unpack four ships that shape your trajectory: relationships, mentorship, scholarship (or apprenticeship), and leadership. The core idea is simple. Whether you realize it or not, you are always on a vessel heading somewhere. The question is whether you chose that vessel, and whether it is taking you where you actually want to go.

We talk about why giving a scholarship to someone else is one of the most selfless things a successful person can do (and how it ends up blessing you in return), the DSW framework of Dumb, Smart, and Wise, what real leadership actually costs you, and the three seasons of life: Learning, Leveraging, and Legacy. Plus a story about a man who built a canal for his tribe that ties it all together.

In this episode of The Drive, Craig Harvey and Evan Proach break down AIM, the framework Evan built on the idea that your time is like the bullets in an old Civil War rifle. You only get a few shots, so your aim better be right. AIM stands for Agent, Identify, and Maximize, and it walks through why you need to master your own craft before you can ever expect to lead somebody else, how to spot the right people to build with, and what it takes to develop those leaders into managers who can carry the weight.

Craig and Evan get into real territory here, drawing on their own experiences in the insurance business and the sports world to explain why so many people fail at leadership. They talk about coaches who actually played the game versus ones who didn't, why being a top producer doesn't automatically make you a good trainer, and how leaning in until you get invited in is still the best way to rise. They also break down SWOT conversations, the importance of knowing your managers' weaknesses, and why most people waste the very time they claim they don't have enough of.

If you are trying to grow in sales, build a team, or just figure out where to point your focus, this conversation is for you. Hit that like button if this episode brought you value and subscribe to the channel so you never miss an episode of The Drive.

What actually makes someone say yes? In this episode, we sit down with Alex King Kong Cromie to unpack the psychology behind why people buy, what triggers decisions, and how understanding human behavior can transform the way you sell. Alex has been part of over 10,000 sales presentations and distilled everything he learned into 8 practical tips for closing:

1. Diagnose the need early on so you're helping the client figure something out instead of just pitching at them
2. Become the expert instead of staying an amateur, because clients are looking for a professional who commands authority
3. Avoid green lighting, which means sticking to your script instead of trying to cowboy close on charisma alone
4. Disarm the bomb before it explodes, or pre-handle objections before the client ever brings them up
5. Remember that people hate to be sold but they love to buy, so be an assistant buyer rather than a product pusher
6. Make your open shots, meaning don't miss the easy deals that are sitting right in front of you
7. Stay allergic to average and refuse to settle once you get a taste of success
8. Maximize your personal potential, because the most dangerous thing in the world is dying with your music still inside you

Throughout the conversation, Alex and I go back and forth on real examples from the field, stories about what happens when salespeople go off script, and how a simple shift in your approach can turn a no into a yes. We talk about the white coat effect and why perceived authority matters, how to steal thunder from objections the way Eminem did in 8 Mile, and why distance equals pursuit in both dating and selling. Alex also gets into the difference between people who want success and people who actually need it enough to do the work. Whether you're in insurance, real estate, solar, car sales, or any other industry, these principles apply across the board.

If you got value from this episode, hit that subscribe button so you don't miss what's coming next. New episodes drop regularly with guests who bring real insight and real experience. Thanks for listening.

In this episode of The Drive, Craig Harvey breaks down how the most painful moments of your life can become the fuel that pushes you further than you ever thought possible. Drawing from his own experience of being fired just two months before his contract vested, Craig explains how that setback led him to build North American Senior Benefits into a $120 million company. He shares stories from Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs, and his own career to show how revenge, when channeled the right way, can be one of the most powerful motivators for success.

Craig lays out a three-part framework for dealing with pain and rejection: leverage it, learn from it, and eventually leave it behind. He talks about how holding onto grudges can actually imprison you, and how the hardest but most liberating step is reaching a point where you can forgive the people who wronged you. He also gets honest about his own divorce and the personal growth that came from taking accountability for his part in the failures along the way. This is a raw, practical conversation about turning hurt into momentum and coming out stronger on the other side.

This episode of The Drive hits on something most people skip over: we overestimate what we can do in 100 days and wildly underestimate what 1,000 days of real focus can build. A thousand days ago things looked completely different in Craig's life. Single, no kids, down in San Miguel de Allende. Today there is a toddler running around the house. If a child can go from nothing to walking and talking in two years, what is the excuse for everyone else?

The 1,000-day grind gets broken into checkpoints that actually make sense: 30 days to build the habit, 100 days to make it a season, 365 to sustain it, and 720 before you look up and realize your life is unrecognizable. Five pillars get laid out: finances, family, faith, health, and your head. Nobody is winning in all five. You are crushing one, getting destroyed in another, and coasting through the rest. The takeaway that stays with you is that the pillar you dominate should scare you more than the one killing you, because success gives you cover to ignore what is quietly falling apart.

Nothing gets sugarcoated. There is a story about a brother on dialysis at 44, a friend who seemed invincible and took his own life, and a billionaire who lost his dad and said there were no yachts in that hospital room. The whole episode boils down to one thing: you control your next thousand days, and looking back is a waste of whatever time you have left.

Craig is back with Connor Hassoun for round two of the Think Bigger series. They start with the story of Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile in 1954 and how runners who trained with him started breaking the same barrier within weeks. That sets up the whole conversation: who you surround yourself with changes what you think is possible.

Craig gets personal about his own path, including packing a U-Haul with two kids and moving into his in-laws' basement to chase a career in insurance that everyone told him was a dead end. They talk about the lies people internalize, how the word "believe" literally has "lie" in the middle of it, and three things that shape your trajectory: the way you talk to yourself, where you put your money, and who you keep around you.

It wraps with Connor's challenge to the audience: is your vision big enough to require more of you? He closes with a three-step formula he credits for his career: believe you will go further than you can imagine, stay clear on that belief, and start acting on it today.

Craig once asked his business partner Chad for a million dollars to get their company off the ground, and Chad said yes without hesitation. That moment kicks off a wide ranging conversation with Connor Hasson about why so many people, even successful ones, end up thinking smaller than they should. They talk about the three tells that someone has stopped growing: the way they talk about the past instead of the future, where their money actually goes, and whether their circle still challenges them or just agrees with everything they say. There's a real critique of the recruit-everyone playbook that dominates their industry, and why hiring fewer people and training them harder built something more durable.

From there the talk turns toward ego and identity, especially the moment a founder has to stop being the best performer in the room and start building people who outperform them. Craig tells a story about a $100 lunch with author John Maxwell that ended with one sentence that stuck with him for years, and there's a genuinely interesting bit about a goldfish that grows two inches in a bowl but over a foot in a lake, used to make a point about how much environment shapes potential. Somewhere in the mix of business talk and a Ted Lasso tangent, they arrive at the idea that letting go, of failures and of past wins alike, is what actually makes room for the next level. Part two picks up where this one leaves off.

Connor Hassoun built his own conference at 23 years old and turned his keynote into FORGE, an acronym for Faith, Obsession, Resilience, Gratitude, and Endurance. On this episode of The Drive, Craig sits down with Connor to unpack that talk piece by piece and dig into what it actually takes to build something from nothing.

They cover stories that stick with you: a brother training basketball drills alone in the snow at midnight, the true story behind Lone Survivor, a 1,000 pushup challenge on top of a 14,000 foot mountain, and a conversation with his son that changed how he defines "the greatest day of your life." It's a real conversation about faith, purpose, obsession, and what separates the people who finish from the people who just start. Subscribe to The Drive for more.