How to Be More Awesome: Grip Feats at Work

This is a guest post by Jedd Johnson, from DieselCrew.com. Jedd’s passion is Grip training, has competed in more grip strength contests than anyone in the US, and produced multiple resources on building world class hand strength, he is THE Grip Authority.

After last month’s column, Functional Feat Strength, I asked Murph what he wanted me to write on for next month. He hit me back with his usual one-line response.

“How to Be More Awesome.”

Now, if you ask me, the best time to be awesome is when you need to make an impression on other people to get them to take an action you want them to. “Taking action you want them to” can include many things, including having people like you, buy something from you, or even to work better with you.

When I started working at my 9-to-5, I was the new guy on the block. In a company full of people who had worked there for 10 to 20 years or more, opportunities for me to set myself apart and be valued as a co-worker were scarce. Because I had little experience in the field, I had to find another way to set myself apart.

So, what I did was I began taking my grip stuff to work with me as conversation pieces. “What the hell is that on your desk?” they’d ask? “Oh that’s a #3 gripper. I’m certified for closing it.” They’d then pick up the gripper and try to close it and barely move the handles. They’d call me a lying bastard and say I couldn’t close it, and then I would mash the handles right before their eyes.

Shizam! Impression made.

In fact, I got “in” with one dude during my second year there by showing him the #3 gripper and then bringing in the #1 for him to close the next day. He dominated it and common ground was established right away. We’ve been friends ever since and still talk about the day he destroyed the number 1.

Another thing I began doing for people is tearing phone books. Tearing stuff for people is one of the best ways to make an impression, especially phone books, because EVERYBODY’s seen a phone book and knows what they are like.

Grippers aren’t like that. The person has to try to squeeze it to see how hard it is. But everybody and their brother has held a phone book and when you demolish a 1500-page phone book in a matter of seconds in front of 100 people during their smoke break, you can make a lasting impression very quickly.

I’d go so far as to say that I established myself with that group of people more easily and effectively in less than one minute than I could have if I gave a 30-minute speech on safety records or benefits options.

Now, this next one helped me out totally by accident. You’re never going to believe this, but this stuff works big time.

I used to hold monthly safety meetings for all salaried personnel, including the top dogs in the company. I’m talking the CEO, CFO, Superintendents – they all came to my meetings. Now these dudes have all been at the company or in some way associated with the business for 20 years, plus. I’d been there for like 3 years…

I’d just been getting obsessed with nail bending and was working toward certifying on bending the Red Nail, and I began carrying two old billiard balls with me at work in order to speed up my recovery.

I was at a safety meeting and put the video in for the group to watch, so I pulled the billiard balls out and start spinning them.

After the meeting, the head honcho at the company, I’m talking the top official in the building, called me over and asked me what I had the billiard balls for.

This guy had NEVER spoken to me before in all the time that I had worked there.

So I told him about what I do with feats of strength and how sometimes the stresses catch up with me so during down time I do shot rotations with billiard balls or some rubber band extensions to take care of the tweaks.

He couldn’t believe what I was telling him. He had never heard of grip training, let alonebending nails, so he was instantly impressed. We had established rapport right there, and wouldn’t you know when I saw him a week later in the hallway, the guy who had never said a word to me, asked how my hand was doing. It was much better and he wished me luck with my pursuit for certification.

So right there are three examples of how Grip Training, of all things, helped me be more awesome at my job. I made many lasting friendships and working relationships by doing grip feats. Word about this kind of stuff spreads like wildfire, and within a couple of months, all 1200 people at the company knew about my abilities.

So, for you, the guy working at a job where you are the new guy, I have this to ask you. Could Grip Feats be the ice breaker that you need to set yourself apart from the rest of the book worms and brown-nosers at your company or work site?

If so, you need to get started right. I’ve got many resources for you to learn from that will show you the proper techniques to get strong as possible and how to do things safely so you don’t get hurt.

Nail Bending eBook – How to Bend Nails, Bolts, and other Steel

Card Tearing System – How to Tear Cards and Develop a Sick Grip

The Grip Authority – How to Build World Class Grip Strength and Perform Feats of Strength

There’s just a handful to get you started. If you have any questions, just let me know. My email address is jedd.diesel@gmail.com .

Thanks and all the best in your training,

-Jedd-

Jedd Johnson is a co-founder of Diesel Crew, LLC and has competed in numerous strongman competitions and grip strength contests. He owns the World Record in the Two Hands Pinch with 256.04-lbs and has accomplished many other feats of grip strength.