Meet Clayton Echard | Real Estate Advisor & Solar Sales Consultant

We had the good fortune of connecting with Clayton Echard and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Clayton, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
Taking risks is an essential part of growth, in that it challenges you to step out of your comfort zone and operate in an unknown environment. It’s within that unknown that you learn new skills to be able to better navigate the situation, so that you are more adequately able to handle that environment when you find yourself back within it at a later point.

Taking risks is what changed my life completely. I was making six figures right out of college as a medical device sales rep and was poised to take over a sales territory from my senior rep at the age of 30, where I would be making $300k+. On paper, it appeared that I had everything I needed, but I felt I was meant for more. That feeling is what caused me to leave that job and take a risk of going on to Reality TV, which ended up playing out in my favor, as I became The Bachelor and now live a life where I make more money and have more freedom than I ever have had previously.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
One of my current passion projects is to become the best hip-hop dancer that I can be. I’ve been pursuing this passion for a little over 2 years now, dancing 4x/week at a studio in Gilbert, AZ. This passion has been one of the hardest for me to become good at because it requires my body movements to be relaxed and “flowy”. With football, I conditioned my body movements to be violent and straight-lined, as that’s how I was able to create the most power possible. Hip-hop dancing is essentially rewiring my body/muscles to function opposite to how I trained them my entire life.

Every day I dance with my instructor I face a challenge. I am able to get through it by focusing on the present moment. If I can get 1% better every day, the progress I will make in a year will be a “night and day” difference, which it has been.

My dancing journey is meant to inspire people to step out of their comfort zones and try something foreign to them. There’s so much growth and excitement in the unknown, but most people won’t go there due to fear of judgment from others or fear of failure. I showcase my journey online to reveal to people that anything is possible if you are able to overcome your own mind’s fears.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Scottsdale is known as a party spot, so most of my friends when they visit want to check out the nightlife. Therefore, I would take them to Global Ambassador for dinner at Thea. The rooftop view there is hard to beat. After dinner, we could venture our way down to Old Town. Since I love to dance, Casa Amigos is my go-to spot when I go to Old Town and the staff and management there is very good to me.

I would also take them up north (weather-permitting) to go Snowboarding in Flagstaff. Or, if it wasn’t winter season, I would take them to Lake Pleasant for a boating day. Another option would to be to go hiking in Sedona. There are truly no shortage of active things to do here in this area.

For food, I would have to take them to either Grimaldis or Frasher’s Smokehouse, as both spots have arguably the best pizza in town in my opinion. The Breakfast Club is one of my favorite places to have brunch as well.

And then I would recommend they stay at The Desert Rose, one of the top airbnbs in Scottsdale! It’s also my airbnb, so I may be biased, but the countless 5-star reviews tell the story that it’s an incredible place to stay!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Coach Sumner, my high school lifting coach, is always the first person that comes to mind when I think of someone that completely changed my life. He believed in me before I ever believed in myself. He saw how hard I worked in the weight room over the 4 years I was in high school and come senior year, he advocated for me to be the starting Defensive End for the varsity football team. My first game as the starter, I played as hard as I could, not because I believed I was good enough, but because I didn’t want to let Coach Sumner down for believing in me. I ended up playing extremely well and securing the spot as the starting Defensive End for the entire year. That led to me having game film to bring to Mizzou when I tried out as a walk-on there. I made the team, obtained a scholarship, became the starting blocking Tight End and ended up making it to the NFL. With my collegiate/NFL resume, I was able to secure a medical device sales job after college and then draw interest (due to my resume) from a recruiter for reality TV, who brought me on The Bachelorette and then shortly after, I was chosen to be the next lead of Season 26 of The Bachelor. None of that would have occurred though had Coach Sumner not given me a chance.

Website: https://claytonechard.com

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