The Grit Factor Podcast w/ Karl Jacobi

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Average is the enemy of greatness. Comfort is the enemy of growth. Welcome to the Grit Factor podcast,

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where we strip away the highlight reel and get into the darkness beneath it. The real stories, the real battles and the battle plans used to conquer them.

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I'm your host, Carl Jacoby. Combat that. Entrepreneur, resilience and performance coach, keynote speaker. Husband and father. I built, scaled, and exited multiple companies totaling over 40 million in revenue.

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But here's what that highlight reel doesn't show you. Life has been smacking me in the face with a two by four since I was just five years old.

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Broken home. Constant chaos. No playbook, no safety net. Just grit. And if you're anything like me, you know you've got another level in you, in your business, your career, your faith, your leadership. You're just not sure how to get there. That's exactly why we're here. Be sure to follow me for more great content and check out my website.

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Success with coral.com. Now that's car with a K. Now let's get to work.

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John. Welcome to the show, my man. It is an honor to have you in a studio today.

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Absolutely, man. Absolutely. As I'm sitting here, I'm like, dude, I'm freaking cold. And I was going to say something about this just for a hit record.

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I'm like, wait a minute, why am I saying I'm cold when you actually live in the cold right now, where it's like freaking pi below zero.

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So. But, man, John, you know, I was going over your bio in your profile, and I really just want to paint the picture for the audience because most people see the executive leader, right?

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With a suit tie with the NBA, all the awards and declarations and corporate titles.

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man, you were honest enough to list your your background as a reckless youth,

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with emotional scarring. Most people listening right now are probably kind of pinning this picture as this executive leader, right, with, you know, all this wonderful education, academia experience and so forth.

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But they don't see the guy, you know, behind the scenes. They'll see the guy who had to fire his friends to survive. So is this picture making man, if he can,

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you know, of the man or 20 years ago versus the man that I see right now. What's the biggest difference?

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Didn't want to go to school. So I followed in my dad's footsteps. Went to work at a local steel mill. That's where I got my start, but was never very union minded guy like my dad was.

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Was there just for the pay.

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And just became a workaholic, to be honest with you, I worked shift work. Kind of secluded. No social life.

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And then. Yeah, just over the years, I had defining moments like my divorce was, was ten years into my career. That was, that was a hard thing. I had look in the mirror.

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I didn't like what I saw,

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I had to look at what I. My part and how I could be better.

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That was a challenging time. It was. I've done a lot of work in my life, mostly in my teens and early years, but I have to do it again in my 20s and address some of those things.

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My first marriage failed after

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now the 18 months we were together for nine years, those types of things.

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Yeah.

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back into school, because if I didn't go back to school, you know, society says you have to have these letters behind your name. I don't

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Yep.

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to fit that mold for them.

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Yeah.

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Nice.

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Agree.

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Oh.

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It's failure. They don't teach failure. So now my daughter gets to see her dad go to the real world.

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You know how entrepreneurship is. It's unforgiving.

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Yes I

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She gets to see that. She gets to see me, maybe get kicked down a couple times, but she gets to see me get back up, and that's something that those letters that schooling would never have give me. Those are the things that I learned in my 20s is the hard knock life, and even in my teens is those are those those life lessons, even though they suck and they're very hard sometimes there's always another reward.

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And I've always

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my wife says to me, Masters, you don't care what people think about you. And I said, no, my competition's in the mirror every morning.

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Oh

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agree.

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Yeah.

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Good for them, but I only can focus on me.

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And

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when I get in the mirror, I tell myself, remembering I love myself. I like the person that I see today. And that's not always easy, but it's. It's necessary. Because if you have that negative mindset, you're going to have a negative life.

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Yeah I agree man. Thanks for, for we're going to pack a lot of this you know for, for the next 30 45 minutes. But

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man there's a lot that you and I, the more you and I talk is you and I have had a lot of conversations outside of this. Right?

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But the more you and I talk, I mean, it just makes you realize how much you and I have in common.

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You know,

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similar to you, I had a very, unstable or unstable childhood. Broke at home, five years old, went through a bunch of, abuse, when I was with my mother and, you know, nothing against my father,

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he was a present in my life or for the first part of my life.

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And thankfully, today, he and I have a very different relationship.

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You know, but a lot of that stand in program, too, in how I was showing up, as you know,

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throughout the rest of my life. Right. So that being said, let's talk about some programing that you might have received in that earlier portion, because we're talking about emotional scarring without, you know, that that that's setting the stage, right.

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You know, in our younger years, reprogram we are a lot more vulnerable. We're a lot more susceptible to to that type of programing, whether it's our parents or loved ones, friends, business partners, best friends. Right.

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So again, you mentioned this emotional scarring. How did that specifically show up

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in your leadership back then? When you when I say back then you're

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going back 15, 20 years.

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You're a tyrant. Were you absent?

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know, walk me through this or walk, you know, the audience through this process. Like,

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did you see that impact in your life back then?

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I always say this is my best teacher is my kindergarten teacher. And I'm thankful for a few things from my mom. And the one thing that I'm very thankful for is she planted a seed of emotional intelligence at a young age. She wasn't the best mom. She struggled struggle with mental health. My

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parents were divorced before I was born.

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I have an older sibling that's about 11 years old, so I felt like a mistake that my whole life because they were divorced and, you know, my dad was traveled the world. So I got to see only a side of him, you know, here and there. My mom struggled with it. She still, to this day, kind of sometimes struggles mentally with mental health issues.

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My upbringing wasn't great. So I've always

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had that look of that iceberg that we see the picture. The common picture today is, is never judge a book by its cover

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Agree.

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I grew up poor and I remember socks using socks with toilet paper. That's how poor I

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was.

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Wow.

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forgot that.

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So I've always had that mindset and my daughter even says it to this day. She goes, you always give back. Even if you have nothing, you give back. And it's just it's who I am.

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And I think that's always shown up in my leadership is think about other people because they've had you don't know what side of the track they've grown up on.

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You don't know what's in that closet. And you have to have, you know, you can judge the book by one incident.

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You have to give them sometimes the benefit, the doubt, and you have to give them an open year.

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Unknown
Yeah. Man that I love that. That reminds me of something I heard a long time ago. You know to be kind to everybody because you have no idea the battles that they're fighting within, you know, inside their own minds. You know, and to your point, the only the only competition we have is the person we see in a mirror.

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Unknown
You know, it's not Elon Musk. It's not, you know, all of these people that we see, it's that they have different drive. They have different yes. Talents, skills, chromosomes. Yeah. Or lack thereof. But you know, that's that's a very valid point, man.

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Unknown
Let's dive in more into some of this trauma that you experienced when talking about trauma.

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You mentioned earlier,

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you know, losing two best friends, you know, then the divorce and man, coming from the childhood you had, you know, the instability and emotional health or lack thereof, then, you know, go through a divorce and that can cause a consistent feedback loop of making somebody think, I'm I'm not made for this. Right. Why is this happening to me like this?

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Having this victim mentality. Right. Why me? Woe is me and just get further into the trenches. Right? So,

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know, take us to that basement. You went through that season of hell, right through divorce, losing your best friend or, you know, your best friends. You lost two of them.

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Unknown
Tell us that last conversation you had with them.

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And I remember you and I talked about separately, but this Phil, everybody else in what were the exact words he left you? In his dying moments.

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he was living with his mum. He had trying to sell his house. He was, he had pancreatic cancer really young age 34. He got some experimental treatment which kept them around a little bit longer. And

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Unknown
I didn't think that it because he still had a little bit of energy. So I didn't actually know.

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But I went over to her house for coffee. He was trying to fix up his house, and I had just had my wife had just had our daughter Violet, and he said, you know, don't come help, like spend time with your kid.

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Unknown
So I went over to his mum's house for coffee, and that was our last. And the being our last conversation, he had passed away, you know, a little while later and he just looked at me and said, you know, I'm going to eventually pass away at some point.

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Unknown
And he had a serious conversation. It was just more about him, how people were going to gather at his funeral to talk about how he didn't live up to his potential because he was the same way. He didn't finish high school, he went through addiction. That's where I met him at a young age.

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Unknown
And then he, as an adult, realized that he wasn't an addict and he was more of a just, you know, a youth being a youth.

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Unknown
No, no guidance.

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Unknown
Yeah.

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And he didn't go to school. He ended up getting a job with, with, high, high risk youth as a mentor and as a counselor. And then he, he loved computers. So him and his dad used to actually buy computer parts and rebuild computers back in the day, you know, build their own personal computers for people.

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Yeah.

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was how he lived. And he just said, that's what I'm going to be remembered for. And he said, I know people are going to say a little with hypertension. That's when he looked at me and said, you're you're making the same fucking mistake that I am.

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Unknown
And he said, you know what you're capable of, and I see it in you.

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Unknown
And he goes, it's it's sad to watch you just sit there.

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Unknown
And I didn't like what he said.

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I remember getting in my car. I remember coming home. I remember yelling in my car, screaming, and luckily the windows were closed.

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And I came home and I looked at my wife and I said, I'm going back to school, and I'm going to leave the union and become a manager.

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Unknown
And she kind of said, that's, you know, I didn't give her any contacts before that. It is blurred the words out. And I got really curious. She was what up? I said I had a conversation with Germany. This is what we talked about. She's well, that's what he said to you. And I said, yeah, I said a while later he passed away and

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was thankful that he said it because if he didn't, I probably would have stayed stuck.

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as he's having a conversation with you,

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what's going through your head in that moment. Because you did say you were angry right. Were you angry at him or were you angry with yourself or were you both. Were you angry at him first because he said that to you? But then you started to realize shit.

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Unknown
Yeah.

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and I was the first person he told even before his parents. And that was when Steve Jobs had had pancreatic cancer. And and I knew that my wife's a nurse and he's like, you know, I'll beat it.

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Unknown
That was his mentality, knowing that that was it's a it's a death sentence. Right. And I always just said to myself from that day, cherish every moment because you don't know when there is going to be. He always had a great mindset towards it and he always thought I was going to get better. Then eventually he realized, I think it comes down to you meet your maker and internally you start thinking.

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And

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he lost his girlfriend at the time. So and then he'd been, you know, with for a long time. She left.

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living with his mum. His health deteriorated because of the chemo, and it's it's aggressive chemo. He was trying some of these experimental treatments,

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I wasn't mad at him. I was mad about the truth. It was being more mad at myself because I was self-aware enough to know.

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Unknown
I just wasn't. That I was lazy. It was just. Yeah, I was stuck. I was stuck in in that marriage.

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Unknown
Not knowing, not tackling my own. It's not tackling my fears, but just not putting in the the onus that I did as a kid. As a kid, I was fearless. The shit that I was doing as a teenager.

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Unknown
And then I kind of just got a career, that white picket fence, you make a nice, healthy wage and things just stopped. I just kind of said, okay, this is what society says you're supposed to have.

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Unknown
don't know any better. I'll just keep working, making money, get a pension and and live that life because that's all I ever knew.

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Unknown
Right? Everyone around me was, oh, you're doing good. And and I was never doing good life. I was always the bad. The black sheep of the family. So having that, having that, I guess recognition kind of was like, okay, I'm obviously doing something good. So I just stayed. And what he said to me was just looking in that mirror and and seeing what I always saw was just too naive to admit.

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Unknown
Fortunately you took that for what he intended. Right. I can't tell you how many people. Yeah that I can think of right up my head that I've had conversations with in the same,

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the same context of wanting to see them do better in a place of love, like. Like your friend has shared with you.

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Unknown
Right. Like

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Unknown
I've seen and it's ironic and how we can see potential in others, but not in ourselves. Right.

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Unknown
But unfortunately, to me, people, you know, when we we want truly want more for somebody, we want them to do better. We get pissed off at them. Right. And we do anything about it. And we distance ourselves away from them.

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You know, we cancel them and do all this other stuff, and then, you know, we're is that way too. So

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but fortunately for you, that's where risk for life changes for you. If I'm saying it correctly, that's where you really said this is my wakeup call. This is you know, I look in the mirror, you know, and I didn't like what I see right.

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Unknown
And that led me to him

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Unknown
and my grandfather gave me a sip of beer at eight, and it was my mum's dad.

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Unknown
My mum spent a lot of time with my grandpa and grandma at both sets of grandparents who lived here. One was very kind of stern. My mum's dad, my dad's dad, loving, giving, joyful, funny. But he had emphysema. Because you smoked at a young age. I don't remember that quite the age, but anyway, I was eight.

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Unknown
My grandpa gave me some beer, and I remember

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Unknown
And then I remember going over to their house, and they had the liquor bottle hanging downwards, that little thing, and taking a beer bottle cap and filling it up. And drinking it and throwing the beer bottle cap into the garbage.

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Unknown
And

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Unknown
that led me down a bad path. As a kid, was very angry. Violence was a big part of my life. No role model 16 came along and 1997 was a bad year. 1997 I lost my best friend who was murdered, and I also up before that. I lost my grandfather, Pete, and he was probably the only guy in my family that understood me because I think when he was younger, he was a bootlegger, made his own moonshine thing, maybe had some clashes with the law, and I was headed the same path.

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Unknown
Then, I just went off and I had been going off for years, and that ended me up in a hospital, a few months before my 17th birthday. And, I still know to this day how I got to the hospital. So someone out there made a call that probably saved my life. But I remember talking to the doctor, saying, your heart's going to explode if you keep this up.

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Unknown
And it was a crackhead who was addicted to crack cocaine at a young age, and that's where it materialized. And,

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Unknown
I remember coming home and I remember going back out. I was a boxer. I liked the box. So I went back to the prison. I went back out to the reserve,

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Unknown
really got into the spiritual side of things.

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Unknown
Kind of calmed down for a few months, but it only lasted for a few months. My birthday was coming up. The party. The party came and then, and it's funny because when I was 12 years old, I have a vivid memory of my my mum inviting this guy over, and he asked me to go for coffee. I'll never forget this.

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Unknown
He took me to a church and it was an Na meeting. And as a 12 years old and, he fast forward and I was almost 17 and I reached out to him, he said, look, you know, this had happened, you know, but it was under more of false pretenses. I was trying to beat a charge, you know, offender.

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Unknown
And, I had to stay sober for a year in order for conditions. So I did an ashram, a journey.

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Unknown
Okay.

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Unknown
did a lot of work as a kid. You know, I remember as as early as ten years old going to what we have as a student counselor, I guess, in elementary school and saying, hey, you know, I think I need to talk to somebody.

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Unknown
And I did that on my own or, free will. Suppose as a young kid had that, that edge to talk about my feelings and, and realized something, you know, there was a cycle that I could see as a young kid that I knew I needed to break. I just didn't know how to necessarily break it.

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Unknown
Yeah.

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Unknown
I went to that program for, for a year. Became very close with Jeremy, and then I went back to the way I was, and Jeremy never forgot about me. He would come pick me up from a party

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Unknown
and take me to Cruz Alberts and just drive around. He had a car with a loud stereo, and I was like, that adrenaline of the loud stereo and he knew that.

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Unknown
And eventually I was, you know, and I was kicked out of school and someone who was my vice principal, and he said something to me that that still irks me to this day, but not as much as it did then. And he said, I don't you live to see your 18 year birthday.

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Unknown
And he was right. I was going to either end up in a box or in a jail cell and I used that car was motivation.

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Unknown
I use that to basically say, if you. So he left. Being a teacher, he eventually became a public civil servant here in the city that I live in. I used to send him a letter every year.

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Unknown
Really.

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Unknown
And, I knew his address because I was friends with his daughter and his and his son. And I would send him a registered letter every year saying, it's my 19th birthday.

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Unknown
My 20th, 21, 22. And then I stopped

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Unknown
I remember you telling me about this.

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Unknown
thank him for saying because it bothered me, but he was right. And the negative, I guess the resentment I had for him saying that was enough for me to say, okay, you know what? So when I was young, 17, I kind of sobered my life around 18 because I was it was it was either that or I was going to jail.

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Unknown
So I had a choice. So I, I jumped in to heat and I had already been there for a year. I'd seen what it was. I felt a little bit of, you know, understanding. And I knew that I needed to do some more interior route work. So I was able to do that my late teens and then the start of my career.

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Unknown
And then, like I said at the first, the girl that I married was was an alcoholic,

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Unknown
Codependent. And but I never had a family. Right. And so I was, I was kind of in their family, their, their family gathered for Christmas. I never really had that. I as a kid, I grew up in that single parent family where one year I went to my dad's family, the next year was my mom's, and it was always torn where their family was also torn and had its own.

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Unknown
Every family has and I think.

00:23:28:13 - 00:23:30:14
Unknown
Yeah. I.

00:23:30:16 - 00:23:43:22
Unknown
I felt I felt like there was something there. So that always kept me there when I knew. And they had. She had a little brother and I was an only child, or I had an older sister that was 11 years older, but she moved out when I was five.

00:23:43:23 - 00:23:46:01
Unknown
I moved out when I was 16 as well.

00:23:46:03 - 00:23:52:19
Unknown
I had a little, a little guy that looked up to me. And I love that because I was like, okay, here. And I saw the the cycle.

00:23:52:19 - 00:23:55:19
Unknown
So it was like, oh, here's my giving back.

00:23:55:21 - 00:23:56:05
Unknown
And

00:23:56:08 - 00:24:00:08
Unknown
people would say, I have like the wounded, wounded bird syndrome. I like to help people.

00:24:00:10 - 00:24:18:17
Unknown
So I stayed somewhere where even that marriage, like I said, we were together for nine years, we got married a lot and we were together for, I think after five years, she kind of gave me an ultimatum, and I. Didn't have the balls. The night before I was supposed to get married, I sat outside of of a parking lot.

00:24:18:17 - 00:24:26:05
Unknown
Jeremy saw me and wanted to walk away, and I didn't because I didn't want to disappoint the 350 people that were showing up.

00:24:26:07 - 00:24:28:11
Unknown
Oh.

00:24:28:13 - 00:24:49:09
Unknown
And then a year and a half later, we were marriage counseling and, 2010, we were separated and went through a pretty bad divorce, but nonetheless, they're my decisions that it was it was the fear of not jumping into failure I caused anyway, when so I've always said is go make a mistake, get up, learn from it.

00:24:49:11 - 00:24:58:16
Unknown
And and, you know, take the pain, take the good, the bad, the ugly and reversed it into something that fits for you.

00:24:58:18 - 00:25:01:16
Unknown
Because the process is really the price.

00:25:01:21 - 00:25:25:22
Unknown
Agree. From I'm of the belief and this is what I'm hearing from you is all of this is part of the journey. Right. This is part of the journey of life is the peaks, the valleys in between the roads. And, you know, too many people have shunned the journey of growth because they feel like it's abnormal. Right?

00:25:25:22 - 00:25:44:20
Unknown
Like we're not supposed to have problems. We're not supposed to have adversities. We're not supposed to have challenges. It's I'm not sure how this came to be, but for whatever reason, just in the last couple of decades or even the last ten years, maybe from what I could tell, there's this seems to be the shift where we're not supposed to have problems.

00:25:44:20 - 00:26:10:06
Unknown
That's the perception, you know, and it's like, that's like that. That's, that's a, that's a force, you know, because that's a that's precisely what defines us. Right. The problems, the adversities, the things we've been through, the storms that we've had, the weather, you know, and this is how we grow is how we're resilient. This is how we get away from saying, this is how we get away from that life of just constant chaos.

00:26:10:06 - 00:26:35:18
Unknown
Because you start to learn how to get stronger, just like go to the gym, right? I mean, what's the consequence of going to a gym? You you get stronger, you're able to lift heavier weight. Well, no shit. It's just the same principle applies to the rest of our area, right? We're still working in that mental gym, you know, working out, going through it versus that's our workout, you know, or like our bodies we're putting in through challenges.

00:26:35:18 - 00:26:44:07
Unknown
We're putting them through periods of growth. Well we got to do that for our minds. We got to put them into the gym, get, you know, in you go through that. You know,

00:26:44:12 - 00:26:55:01
Unknown
mentioned a couple of things I really want to, especially the number 23, because you and I have had some conversation that lucky number 23, which is what inspired you to create a lot of the things that you're doing now.

00:26:55:01 - 00:26:57:08
Unknown
Right? Which is something I really want to get into.

00:26:57:10 - 00:27:16:05
Unknown
you had the last, you know, 20 years, you know, or 30 years or where you went through some tremendous growth and, and so forth. And, in your profile, you mentioned something that I think a lot of people can resonate with and battle with is battling that imposter syndrome.

00:27:16:07 - 00:27:36:14
Unknown
Right. Give us a specific example of a time where you know, where imposter syndrome was in full force. You know either where you're getting your MBA, filling a front and almost quit, or, you know, give us another scenario or multiple if you want. But help us understand how it affected you.

00:27:36:20 - 00:27:48:05
Unknown
When I came home, I told my wife was going back to school. I went back to work and left the union, and, they put me through metallurgy school.

00:27:48:09 - 00:28:02:18
Unknown
I had to pay for it. And operations, metallurgy, the science of steel. And I'll never forget, I got my textbooks, did it online through Hamilton, and did it online while I was working.

00:28:03:00 - 00:28:07:06
Unknown
And, I was sitting in on one of our morning meetings, and our QA guy walks up to me and says,

00:28:07:09 - 00:28:18:19
Unknown
you get that from my office? So no. And he goes, oh, that's my PhD textbook. And I'm looking at him. And I said, that's why I can't understand one. I can

00:28:18:21 - 00:28:19:22
Unknown
Yeah.

00:28:20:00 - 00:28:22:08
Unknown
and I just the course hadn't even started.

00:28:22:08 - 00:28:29:19
Unknown
I just got my textbooks and I remember reading and I'm like, I couldn't comprehend this stuff, Carl.

00:28:29:21 - 00:28:36:08
Unknown
And then I remember sitting down. And I just said, outwork them

00:28:36:10 - 00:28:38:11
Unknown
out, fucking work them.

00:28:38:13 - 00:28:53:05
Unknown
So I outwork them. Probably too much. Probably more like a workaholic, because I had a full time job and I spent probably another full time job just studying and learning and figuring shit out and how to do this.

00:28:53:07 - 00:29:04:08
Unknown
Two years came, I finished. I used a lot of resources that I worked with, ask them questions, you know, said dumb it down for me. I had a lot of experts working in steel, so dumb it down. Like making ten year olds to understand this, right?

00:29:04:10 - 00:29:06:04
Unknown
Yeah.

00:29:06:06 - 00:29:13:03
Unknown
I started to get it. And then I just kept putting myself out there asking for help from, you know, reaching out to people.

00:29:13:03 - 00:29:41:07
Unknown
And then, my marks were good. Really good, almost near perfect. And, and, you know, but the the whole time, I felt like I didn't belong in there because I just like these people were just ringing off these answers, and the guy would have to like, you know, I would be I would be using I for sure,

00:29:41:09 - 00:30:07:17
Unknown
I used to like sweats. I would be sitting here writing an exam and my armpits would be stained, and I'd be at home, and I just kept I just it was just outwork them, just put in the reps. Just like I said, it was probably to a point where I burnt myself out maybe a little bit. So it wasn't necessarily the healthiest thing, but it was more of just that 1%, that small win.

00:30:07:17 - 00:30:16:08
Unknown
Focus on one good thing and keep building on it. And I was I got that momentum. Things got easier after six months into it. Eight months.

00:30:16:10 - 00:30:26:22
Unknown
There were some challenges, but I just it was just remembering. It's okay. I had a daughter at that time. I looked at her. You watched her for inspiration?

00:30:27:00 - 00:30:31:22
Unknown
And just kept saying, like, you know, you're not going to go to the gym and get a six pack by doing ten sit ups.

00:30:32:03 - 00:30:34:02
Unknown
Yep. Okay. Agree.

00:30:34:04 - 00:30:34:15
Unknown
of my

00:30:34:21 - 00:30:53:01
Unknown
thing I used to say to myself is this, this is rumbling in your gut for a reason. You know why? You know what's on the other side of this? Go get it. And that's what I told myself really, almost every day, because I was doing schoolwork almost every day and reading stuff that still doesn't make sense to me.

00:30:53:05 - 00:31:02:08
Unknown
Makes sense man. Makes sense. Thanks for sharing that. So and again this is I think an area where so many high achievers.

00:31:02:10 - 00:31:08:13
Unknown
Battle with not just imposter syndrome but also battling the two dudes. Right.

00:31:08:17 - 00:31:32:07
Unknown
know the old dudes being the old John. Who was that? You know, reckless youth versus this new John who's in this new season, who will you know, it's focused on academia, focused on improving focus on just constant 1%, which oh, and I'm here in a moment that I hear some key numbers popping up which are familiar.

00:31:32:08 - 00:31:56:13
Unknown
But, you know, so talk to this talk to to John's out there that are out there that are battling this not only just imposter syndrome battling. How do you balance the old John? Right. The the blue collar, heavy industry as well as, you know, some of the things that, you know, that person had to go through versus this new John.

00:31:56:15 - 00:31:58:10
Unknown
You know, without losing your edge.

00:31:58:12 - 00:32:18:13
Unknown
Remember where you came from? Never forget it. Because the process really is the prize that you said the journey right down the mountain is different for every one of us. There's not one way up the mountain. There's going to be a lot of U-turns and a lot of wrong laughs and a lot of wrong. Right. So there's going to be a lot of dips and valleys along the way.

00:32:18:15 - 00:32:23:16
Unknown
Stay true to who you are and what's in your heart, I think, is the big thing

00:32:23:18 - 00:32:27:04
Unknown
to balance in. And yeah, I think we think about,

00:32:27:06 - 00:32:36:12
Unknown
we'll use baseball as an analogy for this. One is everyone thinks about a homerun or a grand slam, right? But, you know, especially with the World Series, right? Oh my God, got our grand slam.

00:32:36:12 - 00:32:51:19
Unknown
But all you need is a walk, a bunt to get on base. So think about the small step in front of you and then the next one after that, and then the one after that, and the one after that. Don't think about the top

00:32:52:00 - 00:32:57:07
Unknown
a year or two look back and say, hey, where was I two years ago?

00:32:57:09 - 00:33:17:22
Unknown
You'll be you'll be really amazed where you went is because you're not focusing on the end point. You're focusing on the now, the present. And I always say we call the present it's name the gift for a reason. And so take that and don't necessarily worry about the end goal because you're not going to probably get there tomorrow.

00:33:18:00 - 00:33:19:22
Unknown
No one no one built Roman today.

00:33:19:23 - 00:33:21:02
Unknown
Nope

00:33:21:04 - 00:33:38:12
Unknown
So that probably took hundreds of years right back then. So be easy on yourself. Give yourself some slack. I always say don't skip two days in a row. It's okay if you skip one, but get back on the horse. Whether it's going to the gym,

00:33:38:14 - 00:33:39:18
Unknown
to me it's about

00:33:39:23 - 00:33:45:21
Unknown
finding really great habits and it's it's the ability to unlearn

00:33:45:23 - 00:33:46:08
Unknown
learn.

00:33:46:08 - 00:33:48:08
Unknown
Because sometimes as we get older, we get

00:33:48:14 - 00:34:10:15
Unknown
complacent. And we've I've always done this, but sometimes that and even those people, those circles don't longer serve us. So sometimes you have to unlearn those things to relearn new things. And change is not comfortable and no one likes it better. But I will say no one likes change other than a young baby getting their diaper changed.

00:34:10:17 - 00:34:12:00
Unknown
Everybody hates it.

00:34:12:02 - 00:34:13:08
Unknown
Yup.

00:34:13:10 - 00:34:27:15
Unknown
a reason why it's hard because we don't know what's on the other side of it. But we know if it's our bellies rumbling and our guts are turning, we usually know there's good things on the other side. We just have to persevere. And ours. Sometimes when my when my guts really rumbling, I'll pinch.

00:34:27:15 - 00:34:29:18
Unknown
Like I'll pinch myself really hard

00:34:29:20 - 00:34:30:20
Unknown
Yeah.

00:34:30:22 - 00:34:36:00
Unknown
I'll say, well,

00:34:36:02 - 00:34:40:08
Unknown
Yeah.

00:34:40:10 - 00:34:41:14
Unknown
Agree.

00:34:41:16 - 00:34:53:11
Unknown
Agree. Unless you go to Taco Bell.

00:34:53:13 - 00:35:10:19
Unknown
Agree. Yes. I agree. Yes. You know the.

00:35:10:21 - 00:35:11:18
Unknown
Yes

00:35:11:20 - 00:35:15:11
Unknown
agree wholeheartedly. One of the things that I'm hearing a theme on

00:35:15:14 - 00:35:33:10
Unknown
especially here lately, but what I'm hearing from you is one of the most important things that I heard from you is surrounding, you know, evaluating your environment. Right. Surround yourself with the people who is keeping you uncomfortable, uncomfortable meeting. And it's like, man, I need to grow to get to their level, right?

00:35:33:15 - 00:35:41:08
Unknown
People that are challenging you in a good way, speaking life into you. And yeah, to your point, man, we've got to,

00:35:41:10 - 00:35:51:18
Unknown
just because the person got us to where we are and served us here doesn't mean they're going to be there, you know, to get us there next level. And there to service for the next level, right?

00:35:51:19 - 00:35:57:23
Unknown
I mean, people were there for a season a couple of years, decades. But, you know,

00:35:58:01 - 00:36:17:06
Unknown
they're not meant to be part of our lives for our whole lives. You know, and unfortunately, to me, people are afraid to let go of the past, because that's the familiar part, right? And that's where they're comfortable that are, again, going back to your earlier point, our brains are wired to keep us comfortable, right.

00:36:17:07 - 00:36:34:16
Unknown
Anything that throws out a lack, you know, we're like, yeah, but, if I, you know, our environment is everything 100% of everything. But one thing I well, kind of turn a corner here.

00:36:34:18 - 00:36:42:03
Unknown
Your your my what? You told me earlier. What you said earlier reminded me of a book called, Atomic Habits by James Clare.

00:36:42:05 - 00:36:44:21
Unknown
I saw there. Is that smile, right?

00:36:44:23 - 00:37:06:08
Unknown
So talk to me about this 3837 return because I heard it hinted several times. So let's kind of dive into the tactics here and really, you know, get into brass tacks of what is 36, you know, 37 x, return and what is 1%? Talk us through that.

00:37:06:10 - 00:37:29:11
Unknown
if you take 1.01, you times it by 365 days. That's you get 37 x. So that means showing up 1%. So it's now that's gonna look different for everybody. It could be something as simple as going to the gym every day and doing increasing your your resistance. It's all the eye of the beholder. But it's more about.

00:37:29:13 - 00:37:33:06
Unknown
If you if your angle, let's say, is to lose 100 pounds,

00:37:33:11 - 00:38:01:06
Unknown
you might do that as one. You might do that at 1 pound a day, 1 pound a week. And it's the things that you're taking. But it's it's that mindset of every day and being just 1% better than you were the day before. As it whether it's a human, whether it's going to the gym, whether it's, you know, baseball, pickleball, whatever you're doing, whatever, whatever goal you're trying to achieve is putting that into mindset and having that mindset.

00:38:01:08 - 00:38:22:03
Unknown
And that was something instilled in me, a young kid because I was they said I was going to end up in a box. And my boxing coach said to me, look, no one, you don't have the talent that you have. The work ethic that's you may not be gifted, but you don't need talent, you need work.

00:38:22:05 - 00:38:28:20
Unknown
So I'll work them and became a really good boxer. Doing it because of that 1% mindset was I didn't.

00:38:29:01 - 00:38:38:15
Unknown
I thought I was going to get laid out. They'd be honest with you. And that wasn't the case. And when I saw that, I had that belief because he believed in me,

00:38:38:21 - 00:38:45:05
Unknown
and I saw that I put that work in that daily grind, that when my friends were up partying,

00:38:45:07 - 00:38:50:00
Unknown
I was I used to get up at 6:00 in the morning as a teenager and run to school.

00:38:50:01 - 00:39:08:19
Unknown
I would run to school to go to the gym before class every day. That was my 1%. And then I would party all night and party hard and get up. But I lived a pretty hard life because I was burning the candle at both ends. So that was my 1% for the first little while. Was that dedication to that work ethic?

00:39:08:19 - 00:39:27:18
Unknown
I was also undoing some of it, but I think for people, it's just focusing on their goal and taking it to small one, one, one piece Legos. You don't you don't build the Lego that comes in the box. You take that one piece and just look at that one piece and look at your goal every day and gear towards that.

00:39:27:18 - 00:39:37:13
Unknown
And just remember, you have to be better. And there's some days you may not want to get up. The alarm clock runs at 4:00 in the morning or 5:00 or whatever time you get up, and I,

00:39:37:15 - 00:39:45:11
Unknown
I always tell people, put a picture of your daughter or your kid, put a picture of what your goal was there, and look at that.

00:39:45:11 - 00:39:55:04
Unknown
And say, okay, well, that's what I want. If you're going to turn around and go back to bed or whatever, okay. Fair enough. How bad do you really want it

00:39:55:06 - 00:39:55:18
Unknown
Agree.

00:39:56:00 - 00:39:56:07
Unknown
is the

00:39:56:09 - 00:40:05:10
Unknown
question I would ask you is, is if that's your goal, but the 1% is, yeah, it's showing up that 1% every day, 365 days a year, you get 37, 37 acts.

00:40:05:12 - 00:40:06:12
Unknown
Yeah.

00:40:06:14 - 00:40:09:03
Unknown
that to me is a personal professional.

00:40:09:03 - 00:40:23:12
Unknown
Not a lot of people know. And I think the thing that people forget is you have to celebrate all of those wins is every day. I have a habit before I go to bed, before my mind shuts off and the hamster,

00:40:23:14 - 00:40:30:18
Unknown
Does it really slow down.

00:40:30:20 - 00:40:53:02
Unknown
And usually it's I had time with my daughter. I had time with my wife. I had a walk up there, very simple things. And 99% of the time. And it gives you that focus and it just you don't have to think about that Grand Slam is thinking about that walk or that bunt, and and applying it to your life is how is that 1% different for you?

00:40:53:02 - 00:41:11:20
Unknown
Whether it's reading ten pages of a book, it could be so many different things. But it's the consistency and that's what James Clear talks about is, is you got to find those habits. But those habits are part of your goal. But it's a part of a system. And then as you get a habit, you're like, okay, I was like, doing the gym.

00:41:11:20 - 00:41:32:17
Unknown
I feel good, then it's okay. Well, now I want to I want to read. Well, after the gym I'll read. And now you have to. And once you start stacking those habits, the compounding effect and it's it's looking back and saying, hey, you know what I've read 20 books this year. I haven't read 20 books in the last

00:41:32:19 - 00:41:37:09
Unknown
Yes. Yeah.

00:41:37:11 - 00:41:54:19
Unknown
it's helping those big wins. I think the 1% mindset would help a lot of organizations because I think celebrating those wins as a team gets you the next win. And once you see that small win, it keeps it makes you hungry for the next one because you you see it and you feel good because

00:41:54:21 - 00:42:18:06
Unknown
Agree. Agree. And I believe that's where a lot of people get burnt out because they don't take time to celebrate these small wins. And oftentimes miss miss them because they're looking for those major Grand Slams that you're talking about. Right. Maybe it was a major deal or they're looking back like yeah, there's nothing going right. Well okay. You're breathing.

00:42:18:06 - 00:42:32:09
Unknown
You're you're you you're more likely to join the internet or you're there are things. So there are wins that you can celebrate. Right. So let's stop looking for this grant because what you were saying earlier, man, if you're only if

00:42:32:09 - 00:42:40:16
Unknown
you're a program of your mind, look for opportunities. Your brain's now going to naturally look for opportunities right?

00:42:40:18 - 00:42:50:09
Unknown
You know, vice versa. If you're always looking for lack, if you're always looking for, you know, things to complain about, guess what? Those two shall appear.

00:42:50:11 - 00:42:51:12
Unknown
Right.

00:42:51:14 - 00:43:15:17
Unknown
So on a note of this journey of 1%, and this is a journey I've been on for a while too, so I can certainly resonate with this. And we often, you know, under overestimate what we can do in a year, but underestimate just how much you know, with it, with consistency and how much we can achieve in a three, 4 or 5 year time span.

00:43:15:18 - 00:43:35:22
Unknown
Right. So talk to that entrepreneur. You know that. Well, what is that one habit. Right. That could destroy that 1%. You know, what is the thing that if you do it, you you know, you've pretty much lost the day.

00:43:36:00 - 00:43:39:04
Unknown
I think a lot of people struggle that one. Swisher right now.

00:43:39:06 - 00:43:41:12
Unknown
know I'm a Canadian and I love Don Martel

00:43:41:14 - 00:43:42:04
Unknown
Yeah.

00:43:42:06 - 00:43:46:03
Unknown
and some of that is because part of his story is very similar to mine.

00:43:46:08 - 00:43:53:02
Unknown
On coding and rehab I didn't I found other things, but nonetheless

00:43:53:04 - 00:43:54:17
Unknown
Yes.

00:43:54:19 - 00:44:16:20
Unknown
But then he talks about. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, I think he goes to bed around 9:00 or something. He has an alarm set at 9:00 to go to bed. He gets up at 4:00 or whatever the time. He'd be very similar to what I do and, and I, I really focus on that.

00:44:16:20 - 00:44:51:07
Unknown
It's this, that discipline. And I think another big thing is he tell you he's a big proponent of it is your health. I think you your health shows your commitment and your discipline to people. But I think, you know, mental that mental health, whether it's meditating, all those things that when you bury time your head hits that pillow, all of your thoughts will be on a journal, on an iPad or something where your mind is blank and you're so damn tired because you grind it all day.

00:44:51:09 - 00:44:55:19
Unknown
And that doesn't mean grinding by by, you know, bingeing

00:44:55:21 - 00:44:56:22
Unknown
Agree.

00:44:57:00 - 00:45:00:18
Unknown
right? It means that you've talked to so many leads

00:45:00:23 - 00:45:07:04
Unknown
and you've sent so many outreach emails to people, or you had so many networking or you've

00:45:07:06 - 00:45:08:05
Unknown
Yes.

00:45:08:06 - 00:45:16:10
Unknown
you're just you're social battery's done. You've on one. And most of the time, I'm able to it's not always like that.

00:45:16:12 - 00:45:31:14
Unknown
There's times where I, I fall off and I have to get back on is. But I always try to stay consistent. 7 to 7, eight hours of sleep and and it's setting those patterns, right. I put my phone and other side of the room get rid of those

00:45:31:16 - 00:46:01:15
Unknown
Yes.

00:46:01:17 - 00:46:06:18
Unknown
Wow.

00:46:06:20 - 00:46:41:00
Unknown
You're.

00:46:41:02 - 00:46:44:00
Unknown
Yeah.

00:46:44:02 - 00:46:48:13
Unknown
Agree.

00:46:48:15 - 00:47:02:12
Unknown
Agree 100%. Man. Right. You've you've got a rest man. And you might get away with it for a short period of time of your younger days. But when you're more seasoned it ain't going to fly much longer. I can relate to that

00:47:02:14 - 00:47:17:05
Unknown
100%.

00:47:17:07 - 00:47:28:10
Unknown
minutes, six times a day. Interesting.

00:47:28:12 - 00:47:32:12
Unknown
It is. Man.

00:47:32:14 - 00:47:56:16
Unknown
because you looked at it. You led to Amazon and it led to all these doom scroll. That's what society's come to. So like even some of those things and the one big thing I did about four years ago or so, someone showed me how to put a gray light on my phone because the blue light on your phone keeps you awake and I and then they you look at Apple's come out with the flow state do not disturb.

00:47:56:18 - 00:48:07:05
Unknown
So all those things that there's all these tools to get rid of the notifications. Don't be on the grid 24 seven. You don't need disconnect to reconnect.

00:48:07:07 - 00:48:24:15
Unknown
agree. I, I've gotten to the point where I, I actually turned off all notifications on my phone. Any notifications. Only notification I get his phone calls. You know, but I don't have any text or I get messages, I get all that. But I actually to your point, I actually,

00:48:24:19 - 00:48:33:04
Unknown
know, gave myself time. You know, set of being true to because if I see a Facebook notification or LinkedIn or notification or text motivate you, notification

00:48:33:06 - 00:48:34:23
Unknown
my my train derailed.

00:48:34:23 - 00:48:57:03
Unknown
Now I'm thinking about, oh man, I wonder what that person post or what they want. Or it could be, you know, some, you know, trying to, you know, create an argument or whatever. And now my whole afternoon, morning or whole days derail because of that conversation that I allowed to, you know, interrupt my life. Right. So on, on to know this man.

00:48:57:03 - 00:48:59:07
Unknown
I love to hear some insight from you.

00:48:59:09 - 00:49:16:10
Unknown
talks to John's out there that are probably in a dead end job or wrestling in this period, and they're here in this 1% change, right? They're hearing what you're saying about 1% improvements every day. 37 acts. Right. You know, 3737,

00:49:16:12 - 00:49:18:13
Unknown
times better than where you are today.

00:49:18:13 - 00:49:37:01
Unknown
If you just focus on 1%. So what would you recommend be the first change tomorrow morning he wakes up to Brand New Day would be the first thing you would recommend this John, if you will, that you do to aim for this 1%.

00:49:37:03 - 00:49:38:18
Unknown
Oh,

00:49:38:20 - 00:50:01:13
Unknown
I didn't expect that answer, but that's a good one. Very good.

00:50:01:15 - 00:50:02:09
Unknown
Okay.

00:50:02:11 - 00:50:06:20
Unknown
he made a plan that he says I love you in, and which something that I do.

00:50:06:22 - 00:50:25:11
Unknown
But he actually went in the mirror, and I still haven't dinner. He goes in the mirror and stares at himself in the mirror for five minutes and goes through that. But he talked about meditation, and I've always done it. I actually bought an Oculus about the first Oculus the matter headsets, and I have a meditation app on there.

00:50:25:13 - 00:50:58:01
Unknown
But I've always been big into box breathing, even when I boxed. And just whenever I was stressed, I just saw the effect of what that does. I think it centers you. I don't know why I think that that connection. I think just getting up, looking at where you want to go and not thinking of the end goal or thinking of what's one little small step that I can do today is going to get me a little bit closer to where I want to go.

00:50:58:01 - 00:51:18:12
Unknown
And then and then throughout that day, look at that. Go look where you are that I make, that I need to pivot it a bit. I need to alter it because like you said, someone sends you a LinkedIn request. You derailed the whole afternoon. So I think it's slow and steady.

00:51:18:14 - 00:51:33:18
Unknown
Yes. Yeah. Yeah I agree.

00:51:33:20 - 00:51:49:10
Unknown
Meditation is definitely high up there. Yeah. In terms of resetting your nervous system and, and feeding your mind with good content, right. With reading instead of getting on social media and just rotting your brain, you know, especially in

00:51:49:15 - 00:52:09:10
Unknown
today's distraction era. So we're. Come in. Yeah. You too. Same.

00:52:09:12 - 00:52:11:00
Unknown
You lost me there.

00:52:11:02 - 00:52:33:13
Unknown
Ha ha ha ha.

00:52:33:15 - 00:52:40:11
Unknown
and I sit in there for three minutes and I listen to whatever podcast, usually the diary of a CEO, because they're three hours long.

00:52:40:11 - 00:52:42:10
Unknown
So last quite

00:52:42:12 - 00:53:04:15
Unknown
Yes they do.

00:53:04:17 - 00:53:08:09
Unknown
Well, that's a good morning to.

00:53:08:10 - 00:53:18:20
Unknown
And then I go on with my day, and it's really eliminating. We have so many things that are that want to distract us. And that's to me, the discipline is you have to have the discipline.

00:53:19:01 - 00:53:22:13
Unknown
I don't know who says it's more of a what. I don't do

00:53:22:15 - 00:53:23:19
Unknown
Yeah.

00:53:23:21 - 00:53:40:22
Unknown
Agree. We're going to, this can be one of my one of my last set of questions as we wrap up here. You know, here are some of the things you don't do. But, I appreciate you sharing your morning routine with us, because that's one of the big things that I stress with everybody I work with is,

00:53:41:00 - 00:53:45:07
Unknown
is your morning routine, because that is the one time of your day is in full control,

00:53:45:07 - 00:53:45:16
Unknown
right?

00:53:45:21 - 00:53:59:06
Unknown
It gives you position and confidence and so forth to start your day, you know, with degree of confidence. You know, just you're you're fully present. You're in that flow state.

00:53:59:08 - 00:54:03:22
Unknown
You've, you've your serotonin levels higher, you've got those dopamine hits because

00:54:04:03 - 00:54:13:06
Unknown
that degree of accomplishment, you know, you've got your morning routine, you got your you got your journaling and you, you've listened to some positive content or you've read some good content.

00:54:13:08 - 00:54:22:01
Unknown
You know, we're as you know, the person who scores the first thing in the morning. You know, they're they're you're just not in a good state to get

00:54:22:01 - 00:54:23:15
Unknown
their day gone. Right.

00:54:23:21 - 00:54:26:07
Unknown
know, there's a couple of clients I used to work with.

00:54:26:09 - 00:54:34:08
Unknown
like, call me. You know, he's a heavy sports guy and bet a lot of money on games and so forth.

00:54:34:08 - 00:54:34:16
Unknown
And

00:54:34:18 - 00:54:55:18
Unknown
would look, you know, first thing in the morning, he'll look at the scores from the previous night, and that would dictate how his day was, you know. And so how's that working out for you? You know, but we'll come in as we wrap up. I mean, I've got a couple of questions on kind of rapid fire through these just, you know, you know, brief answers, a perfect.

00:54:55:18 - 00:55:28:13
Unknown
But just be, just, you know, be you, man. But, because grit looks different for everybody in different seasons right now in this specific season that you're in because you're building a business, you're you're, you know, you're just building this business and you're, you're navigating that chapter of your life. What does definition look like for you in this current season that you're in?

00:55:28:15 - 00:55:45:08
Unknown
reach out for help. Have that ask people be vulnerable. Ask for help. If you're, if you're stuck somewhere but it's just about showing up every day with that intent to what's my goal. What do I want. How the hell am I going to get there?

00:55:45:10 - 00:55:50:07
Unknown
Because we don't know a lot of these things. You know, if we had the perfect would. I thought that in school when I taught entrepreneurship in school.

00:55:50:09 - 00:55:59:05
Unknown
No we're not agree.

00:55:59:07 - 00:56:21:16
Unknown
I agree man. Love it man. Keep putting in the rest man. So especially in today's state may we look at high achievers. And there's always the talk of adding more right. Adding more habits adding more processes strategies. And you alluded to it earlier, but I really put some, you know, put that on a microscope in a moment because

00:56:21:21 - 00:56:29:14
Unknown
while those are appropriate, but in this season life I'm in, I have been more focused on what I need to subtract

00:56:29:16 - 00:56:33:03
Unknown
because also growth requires subtraction, right?

00:56:33:05 - 00:56:46:10
Unknown
So for you, either in this season or maybe in a past season, what was one habit belief or friction point that you've had to unlearn or to remove from your life so you can level up?

00:56:46:12 - 00:56:58:18
Unknown
My network, when I left my career, I saw that my network was very, I was my career. That's all I ever knew. So it was looking at that friend inventory,

00:56:58:20 - 00:57:07:11
Unknown
and I've had to make it in the last, probably year, year and a half where I've just distance myself from those people. I don't give them my energy anymore.

00:57:07:11 - 00:57:07:23
Unknown
Ooh.

00:57:08:01 - 00:57:10:20
Unknown
the person that would reach out to people.

00:57:10:22 - 00:57:12:19
Unknown
I was always the one that I would always reach

00:57:12:20 - 00:57:13:10
Unknown
Yeah.

00:57:13:12 - 00:57:19:23
Unknown
have kind of taken a step back and it's shown me who's invested in John

00:57:20:01 - 00:57:25:05
Unknown
Yep.

00:57:25:07 - 00:57:26:10
Unknown
Nice.

00:57:26:12 - 00:57:34:11
Unknown
I've had to learn is to I've always been vulnerable, but just ask for help.

00:57:34:11 - 00:57:37:22
Unknown
Don't just even think people don't understand. Just just say it. Just

00:57:37:22 - 00:57:38:16
Unknown
Yeah.

00:57:38:18 - 00:57:59:05
Unknown
struggling, man? Or hey, I'm struggling. I need help and you'll be surprised. They may not have the answer for you, but they may know someone that does. So I think it's asking for help and and unlearning that because we feel like we feel like, I don't know what the word is like.

00:57:59:05 - 00:58:05:16
Unknown
Needy. Right? We're inconveniencing them. And generally they're not. We're not is they're more than glad to help us.

00:58:05:21 - 00:58:36:23
Unknown
know I love that man. You know again I can just go back down to evaluating your environments. So so as we wrap up man or you know get more towards it when the lights go out and you're, you're finding yourself in the trenches. For me personally there's usually like a quote or something I tell myself to kind do it myself or to I hate to use the word motivation, but to me, you know, to lift my spirits a bit, right?

00:58:37:01 - 00:58:46:13
Unknown
So. So for you, is there like a quote or directive that you repeat yourself consistently to keep yourself moving forward?

00:58:46:15 - 00:58:51:11
Unknown
Yeah. As my favorite fighter, Conor McGregor and everyone knows, Conor McGregor

00:58:51:11 - 00:58:52:03
Unknown
Yes.

00:58:52:05 - 00:58:57:11
Unknown
And look what he's done with himself. That mindset.

00:58:57:13 - 00:59:00:07
Unknown
is a guy that gets punched in the face for a living. Are used to. And

00:59:00:07 - 00:59:03:09
Unknown
Yeah. Used to.

00:59:03:11 - 00:59:14:17
Unknown
Yeah. He's my one of my favorite fighters, man. And not just because of his fighting style, but because of his. He knows how to promote. Yeah.

00:59:14:22 - 00:59:21:14
Unknown
And I. Oh, yeah. He's definitely a show man. You know, he's like, hey, man, we're not here to take part. We're here to take over.

00:59:21:15 - 00:59:26:00
Unknown
Yeah. That was one of the first things that I remember him saying, but, cool man.

00:59:26:02 - 00:59:45:09
Unknown
Last or almost last, Leah, as we high achievers, in my opinion, this is an area that I struggle with sometimes is we're expert critics of ourselves. Right. And oftentimes it's one of the hardest areas. What I mean by that is, is

00:59:45:11 - 00:59:52:16
Unknown
there an area of your life, you know, where you needed to take the needed to take 60s of grace?

00:59:52:18 - 00:59:55:13
Unknown
To, you know, to give yourself

00:59:55:17 - 01:00:15:22
Unknown
permission or to to give yourself, man, what is the term I'm looking for forgiveness for something that occurred in your past, or a failure or something of that nature so that you can level up because oftentimes people have this backpack

01:00:16:03 - 01:00:23:18
Unknown
full of stuff, right? Full of garbage, shame, guilt, remorse, all this stuff that they experience

01:00:23:20 - 01:00:24:04
Unknown
in.

01:00:24:04 - 01:01:03:04
Unknown
They can't move up because all that stuff is, is still holding them back. So is there anything that comes to mind of any specific situation? And you're like me and John, you know, dude, as you're looking in the mirror, I forgive you. I forgive you for fill in the blank. Is there anything that falls an umbrella that you had to forgive yourself for so you can believe a lot?

01:01:03:06 - 01:01:21:03
Unknown
Yeah.

01:01:21:05 - 01:01:32:00
Unknown
Yeah.

01:01:32:02 - 01:01:41:16
Unknown
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

01:01:41:18 - 01:01:46:08
Unknown
Yeah. Agree? Too many people get wrapped up about the the illusion. Right.

01:01:46:14 - 01:02:04:12
Unknown
I agree wholeheartedly, man. Oh, man. So this last question comes in two parts. I did kind of prepare you, you know, before we hit the record button, but this is a chain of iron that we're building here, right? So I give every guest an opportunity to ask my future guest,

01:02:04:17 - 01:02:07:08
Unknown
is one burning question that you will love to ask?

01:02:07:08 - 01:02:10:15
Unknown
If you are me asking is completely anonymous, right? I mean,

01:02:10:20 - 01:02:20:21
Unknown
don't tell you who the next guest is and my previous guest not know. You know who my current guest is, right? So it's completely anonymous. So you know,

01:02:20:23 - 01:02:27:16
Unknown
think about this question as I'm asking you. This next one I'm about to ask you is, what is

01:02:27:18 - 01:02:35:00
Unknown
question that you will love to ask this next guest and they'll be interviewing as you're thinking about this?

01:02:35:02 - 01:02:41:00
Unknown
My last class had this question for you. Again, completely anonymous.

01:02:41:02 - 01:02:41:16
Unknown
Right?

01:02:41:18 - 01:02:50:18
Unknown
And she and she's a firecracker, man. My last guest described herself as a dog with a bone and a

01:02:50:20 - 01:02:52:14
Unknown
saw, who physically

01:02:52:16 - 01:02:55:17
Unknown
cannot let go of a problem. Right?

01:02:55:19 - 01:03:02:17
Unknown
And she. She's a go getter. She's a she is. You know, it's just that type of person who just is obsessive.

01:03:02:21 - 01:03:18:23
Unknown
Reminds me a lot of what you and I were just talking about, right? So her challenge to you is this. Have you ever given up on something? And if so, what was the specific criteria to told you walking away was the right move?

01:03:19:01 - 01:03:40:13
Unknown
My career was, is I had hit a ceiling and I knew that I, I knew that if I didn't leave I was stuck and I didn't belong. It wasn't my career. It was my dad's career. I followed in his footsteps. I was grateful for the things that I learned. And if I was to do it over again, I do it the same way.

01:03:40:15 - 01:04:02:04
Unknown
But I knew my time was done. I knew I wasn't going to retire there, and I just knew that if I did, it was probably going to be my mind and I wasn't happy and I just that, to me was one of those things where I was, I, I've had family call me a pitbull refusing to let go.

01:04:02:06 - 01:04:06:07
Unknown
So I like that. She said. That dog

01:04:06:09 - 01:04:11:20
Unknown
I rest my case.

01:04:11:22 - 01:04:19:02
Unknown
But I, you know, it was my divorce, I think was the kind of thing if I don't go educate myself or start thinking about it, I only had a grade 12.

01:04:19:07 - 01:04:26:07
Unknown
Society doesn't really benefit you. Look at today, there's people with PhDs that are looking for work.

01:04:26:09 - 01:04:27:06
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah.

01:04:27:10 - 01:04:28:14
Unknown
Right. Exactly.

01:04:28:19 - 01:04:38:21
Unknown
I, I had to fit the mold that society wanted. And then I said, screw the mold. I'll just take my life hard, knock life lessons and do it myself because I know the boss that way.

01:04:38:23 - 01:04:56:21
Unknown
Yeah. No I, I agree real quickly. You know as we wrap this up man. You know you mentioned sealing. So the for the, for the visual person out there who's trying to imagine as soon what are you for. Are you referring to an income potential or is there another sealing that you're referring to here?

01:04:57:02 - 01:05:03:01
Unknown
No development or you're just sometimes you'll be that. You'll see yourself as being the smartest person in the room. And you want to be the

01:05:03:01 - 01:05:07:00
Unknown
Oh, yeah. Agree. That's the room you need to exit.

01:05:07:02 - 01:05:26:16
Unknown
know, you want to be in a room where you feel nervous because you feel whatever you say is going to be that's the right room, because those are the people that are going to level you up, because just you being in that that room is going to challenge you, and that's going to instead of coasting when you're when you're at a room and you're just, you're just coasting and you're, you're spinning your wheels.

01:05:26:16 - 01:05:46:09
Unknown
Yeah. No, I, I yeah, 100%. You know, this whole thing boils down to a common theme of work. Evaluating your environment, right? Keeping your environment growth focus. Awesome job. Dude. I really appreciate you joining me and sharing the last hour with us, man. Thank you for not only just giving us the chief change officer,

01:05:46:12 - 01:05:48:01
Unknown
version of the story.

01:05:48:03 - 01:06:07:14
Unknown
You know, is easy. It is is it is to come in here and talk about, you know, the pretty stuff, right? The executive MBA and the awards and so forth. I really want to appreciate it is really allowing us to look at, you know, the reckless you, this person who,

01:06:07:16 - 01:06:14:11
Unknown
didn't have the greatest upbringing, the greatest programing, you know, that's essentially where you started, right?

01:06:14:11 - 01:06:35:14
Unknown
In the pain, you know, that it caused. And this path, you know, the inspiration you have from your, your, your best friend or two of your best friends, in this really gives us a brutal insight of, of, of your reality right into the, the fire that it created for you to create the life that you have now.

01:06:35:14 - 01:06:38:19
Unknown
Right. And granted, it's maybe not the life

01:06:38:21 - 01:06:46:04
Unknown
of, you know, what a lot of people would call success, but man, everybody's got their own version of success. So again, man,

01:06:46:09 - 01:07:00:20
Unknown
my hat's off to you for sharing your story. You didn't just share the 37 math. You showed us the scars and really gave a lot of people a, you know, some actionable steps for what they can do in their own life.

01:07:00:22 - 01:07:01:09
Unknown
So,

01:07:01:12 - 01:07:09:14
Unknown
again, man, I appreciate you, you know, sharing that now for the person who, you know, resonates with that struggle,

01:07:09:16 - 01:07:26:11
Unknown
maybe they're feeling like they've wasted a potential or they're they're looking around, you know, at their toxic environment or network, even. And they know that they need leave behind. Right? Where can they find some information about you?

01:07:26:11 - 01:07:48:16
Unknown
Or maybe they want to connect with you or just say, hey, John, do bro. I can personally resonate with your story. Thank you for sharing. Can you be my pal? Where can I find you, man?

01:07:48:18 - 01:08:11:16
Unknown
Awesome. I'll definitely be dropping all that in the notes. And by the way, dude, I forgot to bring this up in this whole 23 that the, you know, the sheer. Just a glimpse 60s or less. Why was that such an inspirational number for you?

01:08:11:18 - 01:08:14:14
Unknown
Two 3rd February 3rd of 2023 was

01:08:14:17 - 01:08:20:16
Unknown
my first day of chapter two that I got to pick. So three years ago is when I left my career. As of today,

01:08:20:18 - 01:08:29:13
Unknown
Oh, wow.

01:08:29:15 - 01:08:33:14
Unknown
That's awesome man. That's awesome. Well, thanks for sharing that, my dude.

01:08:33:20 - 01:08:50:19
Unknown
can't be leaking. You know, your LinkedIn profile. Your. I believe you have a website. We'll share that all in the show notes. So again, John, thank you my dude, for stepping your read today. It was an absolute honor to have you, my man. Awesome I did awesome.