This week on Acta Non Verba Zachary Babcock explains the Underdog Philosophy and how to find the answer to your purpose hidden within Adversity. Listen in as we discuss the difference between motion and action, how monumental things happen in increments, and how your identity creates your reality.
Zachary Babcock helps entrepreneurs launch, grow and monetize their dominant brands with top rated podcasts. Zachary has been featured in over 200 shows and he has interviewed over 200 celebrities and alpha entrepreneurs on Underdog Empowerment, a top rated podcast.
Learn more about Zachary and Underdog Empowerment here: https://underdogempowerment.com/
Episode Transcript:
00:32
Acta Non Verba is a Latin phrase that means actions and not words. If you wanna know what somebody truly believes, don’t listen to their words, instead observe their actions. I’m Marcus Aurelius Anderson, and my guest today truly embodies that phrase. From five years in prison,
01:01
to scaling a multiple six-figure business, Zachary Babcock helps entrepreneurs launch, grow and monetize their dominant brands with top rated podcasts. Zachary has been featured in over 200 shows and he has interviewed over 200 celebrities and alpha entrepreneurs on Underdog Empowerment, a top rated podcast. His podcast is amazing. I was lucky enough to be a guest on his podcast a couple of years ago.
01:29
But his episode with Andy Frisella is off the chain. But as I was saying before we hit record, man, the one that you did with Robert Green, just next level, incredible masterpiece. So impressed with that, man. So if you guys are listening to us now, go listen to that one, go listen to Andy’s and subscribe to his podcast because it is incredible content. It’s not just with entrepreneurs, but it’s with people that are truly making impact with their work. So welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for being here, my friend.
01:56
Dude, it’s a hell of a introduction, man. I appreciate you. It’s the truth. I have no reason to lie to you. I can tell you the truth, man. Likewise, dude, man. That’s always a pleasure when I get to jam with you. Thank you for having me, bro. Of course, man. And on Clubhouse, you were just owning that thing. It’s incredible. So if you guys want to learn more about him, go to his website, unde And we talk about all these different things, and you’ve interviewed all these incredible people.
02:22
Can you tell me what the underdog empowerment philosophy is? And then we’ll talk more about some of the people you’ve interviewed and some of your journey as well. Yeah, man. Basically, in a nutshell, in its simplest form, underdog empowerment is saying underprivilege is the privilege. Being underprivileged is your privilege. Kind of like how you find your power in your adversity, right? That’s something that you know all about. It really is, man. It really is. Whenever you take you.
02:51
a perceived weakness and you turn it into your greatest strength. Like I took my perceived weakness of being a six time felon, did over five years drug addict, and I turned that into my, one of my greatest assets to lead off with and captures people attention as far as marketing goes. And then they get to know me and see that I’m a real dude and I care a lot about people and stuff. It’s all about taking that and turn it into your greatest power. Yeah. And I’ve got to meet Zachary in person at the Arte event. Is it two years now?
03:20
Yeah, man, it’s crazy how fast time flies. I know, right? And he’s absolutely right. He’s a real dude, very approachable. What you see is what you get. And being able to have dinner and spend time with you, man, it was incredible getting to see. I love everybody that’s in the RTA syndicate and everybody that’s in this environment because everybody wants everybody else to win. And it’s like, what can I do for you? How can I help you? Just the amount of information and the goal that you are giving just in a normal conversation, you and I.
03:48
Tony Wotley, it was pretty tremendous. So I can’t wait for the next one. There’s a lot of powerful people in that position. And I don’t just mean powerful, like, monetarily, I mean like incredible people that had this powerful energy. Yeah, exactly. Real, real motherfuckers. That’s exactly it. I absolutely love that idea of that underdog empowerment because when you’re at that place, it’s almost like you’re at rock bottom. And so you have no choice other than to just execute violently against the things.
04:17
that you think to be true because you have no fear. You’re like, if I try this and I fall down, it doesn’t matter. It’s like, okay, I just redirect now. I just course correct and keep pushing in this direction. Brian, the Bobby talks about that. He’s like, man, I don’t know what I’m doing, but he didn’t know what he was doing even with $300 and now he’s turned it into a seven, almost it’s going to be an eight figure company this year. So he’s a, he’s a big guy on executing. He’s like, I don’t care if I fall down. I don’t care if people laugh at me and the underdog empowerment. Like you said that.
04:47
gives you that courage to push that ability to say, you know what, I don’t really care what these people think about me. And by doing that, the rest of society would do that. It would be very different. That’s what I love about your podcast here. The whole concept, dude, of action, James clear, I think is the name of the book, atomic habits. Oh yeah. Like I’ve always had that concept, but I didn’t, he just put it in a beautiful way where he said, you know, some people are in motion and other people are in action and there’s a clear difference.
05:16
motion is like the planning, the strategizing and you know, sometimes you, you know, you need to do that to an extent, but most people just do that because it’s a way for them to avoid taking action and having failure where action is instead of planning the trip you call and you book the flight or instead of planning of what guests you’re going to have on your podcast, you send out an email and make the pitch. And so action always dude, one last thing, if you don’t mind.
05:45
It reminded me, talks about in that book about those, uh, kids with the camera. And the instructor gave half the class that said, Hey, you guys, your number one priority is just to get quantity, take as many pictures as you can. If you get a hundred pictures, that’s a, if you get 90, that’s a B and so on. And then the other class is like, Hey, you don’t have to hit no number. I just want you to give me the most perfected photo you can give. And what happened
06:10
is the people that were given the quantity took way better pictures than the people that took the perfected one because they didn’t spend all this time strategizing. They’re just fucking taking pictures. It was action. That’s it. And like you said, those were reps, right? Yeah. And I always tell people, cause people, when I coach people, they’ll be saying, listen, you know, I, I’m not sure what to do next, or I’m not sure what the priority is. And it’s like the answer that they need is hidden in the adversity that they’re avoiding.
06:40
Yeah. Which could be making that phone call, sending that email, being real honest with themselves, you know, whatever the case may be. And I love James Clear’s idea, that whole idea that the things that are monumental are actually incremental, but it’s about being able to take that first step, push that domino, take action and not sit around and talk a bunch of shit about what you’re going to do. Cause everybody’s going to do a lot of stuff, but how many people are actually out there doing it so, and you’re actually out there doing it.
07:09
these people that you’ve had on your podcast, you’ve got to meet a lot of them and spend time with them in person as well. Can you tell us about maybe the top three or four things that come to mind about them? Is there like an overarching like similarity or a pattern that you see within these people? Yeah, there is. And I don’t know if I got like the top three, but I know the top one is that they’re visionaries and they’re very clear about the vision. They know exactly what they designed everything about their whole entire life.
07:39
Like we walk into Andy’s first form or Patrick Bette David’s value tainment, and you could just feel the energy and the culture there. You know what I mean? And that was a clear cut of them designing that from top down, like being like, so that’s what I picked up on. And I always am trying to duplicate, I guess, or model what these high performers are doing. And so like, I try to do that in my life where
08:04
like on my phone, for example, and on my vision board, they’re very, I have one in my room and then one of my screensaver and all that. And I got clear representations of every single aspect of my life, like my health. I got my head slapped on this dude’s body because I just Googled 210 pounds, 10% body fat, six pack abs. And then I took that photo and put my head on it. And now I know where I’m going in that area of my life and same with my relationships and so on. And it’s so weird, bro. You know me, dude.
08:34
I’m not a rah rah kind of dude at all. It’s all about action, right? But being clear on that vision and knowing exactly where you’re going and then just taking steps towards it each day, shit just aligns and then stuff just starts coming your way. It’s weird. It’s awesome too. Yeah, when we pay attention to our intention, it changes everything. Like you hear conversations that you wouldn’t normally hear if you’re attuned to it or just like what you’re doing. I mean, you’re on day three, I’m on day nine, 75 hard. And it’s like,
09:03
I make this decision and I’m committed because there’s only one level of commitment that’s total, not this half-assed, I’m in or out or half-baked, or I’m going to go until it’s difficult. It’s like, no, if you’re committed to this, you get it done. And then you just start, like you said, when you’re executing, all these other things kind of come and they dovetail beautifully to help you get on that way. So many people are chasing all these other things, but I always talk about alignment. And now for Aligned, we can run forward so fast and just pick up the stuff as we go as opposed to…
09:32
Okay, I’m going this direction. I got to stop and I got to turn around. I got to backtrack. Now I miss this. Then I forgot this. And now we’re just wasting a lot of time, energy and entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs. They don’t understand that they only have a certain amount of energy, a certain amount of enthusiasm, a certain amount of focus on what really matters. So some of them may work their ass off for a year and then burn out when if they have listened to people like you and your guests, they could take that six months and get all that done.
10:00
And then really start making some true ground in the process. Amen to that dude. Dude, what I love most about doing it. So like, it was weird, bro. Like, you know how if you’re in the same environment every single day, you kind of had like the same thoughts or whatnot. Yeah. So I was traveling out to, uh, Iowa to see of all places, Iowa, shout out to all of our Iowa listeners. Yeah. Uh, I was traveling out there to speak at, uh, at Nate Bailey’s event.
10:29
You know, so I’m on the plane, new place, new thoughts, right? And I’m 30,000 feet in the air and I’m just journaling and I got really clear, man. And it was like so simple. It’s always the simplest stuff that wins. Right. And mine was create the vision, sell the vision and develop the culture. That’s all I need to focus on as the CEO of the company, as, as the visionary everything else we need to get the right people on board.
10:56
that can handle that role, whatever that may be, whether that’s the finance department or if it’s our ops guy or whoever, but everybody that holds that shared vision of where we’re going, that mission in life, and more importantly than anything else, represents our core values. They share our core values. And if we hit it right, right there, man, you become an unstoppable force. I agree. And I love what you said about core values because we learn about those from Andy and Ed and Arte. And it’s so important because when you have those core values, whether they be written
11:26
wall or whether they just be something that you’re continually reinforcing with them. It’s almost like you’ve given them these instructions. So now even if you’re not there, they know what to do. They know that if one of our core values is to go above and beyond for the client, then even if you’re not there and they’re like, well, I wonder, I can’t get him on the phone or he’s in the middle of an interview. It’s like, no, they know what they should be doing. They can default down to these things. I should be executing against this. I should be making the priority the priority. I should be going above and beyond for this person.
11:55
to make sure that they over-deliver as much as they can. And when you build that into your culture, like you said, people don’t understand how powerful our culture is. You were talking about your environment. If I have people that work for me that are not helping motivate me on the days when I’m a little bit low, or me watching them get everything together and they’ve got momentum, now on the days when maybe I’m a little bit tired or I’ve got a lot of stuff going on, they can keep me going. And it’s like, man, yeah, I wanna be like my employee here. I wanna be like the person who’s actually…
12:23
doing this and it keeps us continually aware of, like you said, what we should be doing and what the vision is and how to continually just expand on that as much as we can. And why do you think that’s so important for these leaders to have that knowledge? Because a lot of people think it’s about work ethic, it’s about grind, and we’re talking about actions, not words. But frankly, most entrepreneurs that I know that are successful have the work ethic. But the harder thing for a lot of them is to create that vision. How can they create that vision? What would you say would be the…
12:52
couple of steps that they could do to actually see what they want to create in their vision. Yeah, man, I can only talk about stuff that I’ve done. That’s, you know, was helpful for me. Yeah. So what helped me get really clear on the vision, because if that’s your role in the company, if you are the visionary, if you are the CEO, if you started the company and got it off the ground, and now you’re starting to bring on people to your team, then that is your responsibility is the main thing is the visionary, right? So
13:19
What helped me with that and to really get down in is starting off with journaling. And I do it where I get really clear in all areas of my life, not even just the company, because I want to align everything together, you know, and it’s not just about the company, even though the company is very important, but I want to make sure that my health is in alignment, that I’m, you know, taking care of that first and foremost, and then my relationships and my lifestyle and then design.
13:46
the business around the lifestyle instead of designing the lifestyle around the business. But once I got all these pieces figured out and say, this is what I want to spend each day, you know, like, cause for me, I’ll tell you right now, I just updated my vision board. I got visual representations and it shows 12 to four is my working hours. And then I took a picture the day I got out of prison, right? And I’m like, I stand outside the prison. I got my fists in the air, like a champion or whatever. It was the day I got out in 2014.
14:14
And I took that and I cropped that out. And then I put both of our company logos, because we had two different companies currently in there. And I said, I have completely removed myself from the day to day operations. And that’s our number one goal this year is to remove me from the day to day operations. Like you said, not because I don’t like working because I love work and I love doing what I’m doing. I’m removing myself from the stuff that I shouldn’t be doing, even if I can do it. You know what I mean? And that way I can play chess instead of checkers. So for me.
14:44
journaling, getting really clear in each area of my life, getting in an alignment, also having a strong reason why we’re doing it in a clear mission. So for us, it’s a 9% recidivism rate or lower in the US nationwide for people coming out of prison. And so we’re aligning all of our different companies with our vertical integration to achieve that core mission. So there’s a common worthy cause that we’re all fighting towards, right? So in order to do that, we’re going to need to make a lot of money to support that mission.
15:12
help a lot of people out. And so having that mission plus, you know, a clear vision of every aspect journaling all that out and then getting it visual as well has really helped us get really focused. And then we get all that and writing, we got the core values slapped in front office so everybody knows and we make every single decision based off of those core values. I’m talking about hiring, firing, promoting, recognizing all that. And that’s really helped out a ton for us.
15:40
It’s funny, you were talking about journaling when I was at the ROT event, when I was speaking there in Mexico, it was the same thing where being on the beach and getting away from everything. And then it’s like, that’s when all that stuff kind of dumps into you and you’re, you finally realize a lot of that and you talk about this in one of your podcasts, you talk about how starting out with the why may not be the best way to get started when it comes to all these things. Can you elaborate that about that? Because there’s so many people that that’s kind of what they default to, but they don’t understand that there’s some pitfalls in that.
16:09
Yeah, dude, I’m so glad you asked that question. I’m literally writing a book about this, dude. But it’s such a great concept. So I at least I feel like it is. So I read the book start with why and it was amazing book, a lot of gems in there. But I felt like the title was shitty because you can’t start with why you know what I mean? Like
16:34
How can you start with why and determine why anything’s important to you if you first don’t know who you are? And it has to start with who? With identity. I mean, think about it. I know this is true with you. I know it’s true with me and I’m pretty sure it’s true with everybody tuning in right now. Anytime you made any significant change or evolution in your life, it started with an identity shift. It started like that quote.
17:00
by Henry Ford, whether the, I don’t know the exact words, but whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right. Cause that’s your self image, your identity of what you believe. And so when I try to quit smoking cigarettes, I started smoking when I was nine years old, I’m 32. You know what I’m saying? I smoked for 20 plus years of my life. And every time I tried to quit before, people would be like, and help me flesh this concept out. I’m going back to the Tom McCabbits book. He talks about this in there.
17:28
And I was like, holy shit. And then I started adding my own like philosophy to it. But anytime anybody asked me, Hey Zach, you want a cigarette? I would always say, no, I’m trying to quit. And that was the identity right there was that, Hey, I’m a smoker. I’m just trying to quit, but I’m still a smoker. You know what I’m saying? That’s what I identified with in my whole self image. And then when I got clear and I was like, Hey, no, I’m a healthy man. I do healthy things like not smoking, you know, nutritionally balanced diet, workout.
17:57
get proper rest, all these things that a healthy person does. And I’m a man of my word and I do what I say I’m going to do that. Right. There was my identity. And now when people ask me, Hey Zach, do you want a cigarette? I’m like, no, I’m not a smoker. And I got over 10 months of not smoking now, which is the longest that I’ve ever went in my life because I’m not a smoker, you know, so I’ll end it on this. The formula that I’ve.
18:22
developed because everybody likes formulas and shit, right? Really just doing the work, right? To avoid actually having to do the work, give it to me. And so this simple three step process. Now, when I say simple though, bro, you already know simple doesn’t mean easy. Those are two completely different things. It’s simple, but it’s fucking hard. All right. It’s going to, this is really hard, but it’s simple. It’s identify. So.
18:51
Right now I’m doing it. I identify as a 210 pound, like I talked about earlier, the 210 pounds, 10% body fat, six pack abs and optimal health clearly define, identify. Right. Now, second step is behave. So I can’t just identify and then magically get a six pack. Right. I have to behave and do what that guy does. What does he do? He works out five to six times a week. He gets proper rest, each nutritionally balanced meals, take supplements, yada, yada, yada, all these things.
19:21
And so in the process of behaving by reinforcing those habits with the identity, both of those reinforcing each other, the third step has become. And so it’s identify, behave, become very simple, not easy though. Well, it has to be simple. And people talk about like the 80 20 principle, right? People look at boxing. There’s six punches in boxing, jab cross, hook, hook, uppercut, uppercut. There’s six punches, but the punch that knocks everybody out is the right cross.
19:50
So that is simple. But how many different combinations come together to allow that opportunity? So just like what you’re talking about, people always say, oh, I was in the right place at the right time. Well, they were, but they failed to see all of the work and all the steps that it took, how many months, years it took to put yourself in a place where now you are and magically in the right place at the right time.
20:16
because you did the work to get there, as opposed to acting like you won the lottery or just fell on your lap. You’re like, oh, look, this just happened to me. That’s not how it goes. And that simplicity is what you have to have, especially in any kind of combat, whether it be boxing, whether it be entrepreneurship, whether it be in life, it’s a battlefield. And if you don’t see it as such, if you don’t see these things as potential threats, you don’t have to live in fear, but by God, you better be aware, because if not, you are gonna get caught. And the punch that knocks everybody out is the one that we don’t see coming.
20:45
Amen, bro. Right. That’s the reality, man. And that’s what everybody talks about. Your story is so compelling. And I was lucky enough to get to hear it before. Could you tell us about that? I talk about just the adversity and the gift that you found in it. Can you give us a description of what got you to that lowest point and what made you truly begin to change? It actually happened when you were in prison, right? Yeah. Two different times. I’ll give a
21:11
Cliff notes version of it because it’s a long story, right? Have you ever, by the way, side note, have you ever had a guest on and you ask them a question and they start talking for 30 minutes? I have. And then you’re like, I’m trying to crowd this person and keep them kind of in this area, but it’s like, but you want to let them talk too, because lots of times there’s gold in there. So yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah. It’s been quite the skill to develop, but I get it now where I’ll just start interjecting and making.
21:40
quick little jokes or like saying something just to keep it, break it up. You know what I’m saying? But, uh, so no, I’m just kidding. I could tell you done this before. It’s not our first rodeo guy. Amen. But yeah, man. The first one was long story short, I was in prison and I was in the hole, which is the prison inside of prison.
22:08
And my sister passed away from a heroin overdose. I found out because they brought me in shackles and handcuffs to the captain’s office. And he says your mom called and she had a break into the bathroom with a screwdriver and found your sister dead on the floor for needle in her arm. Last. Yeah, it was crazy, dude. It was the last thing I was expecting. And then they gave me a 32nd phone call to my mom. We’re bawling our eyes out and they put me back in a cell.
22:33
by myself. And then for the next three days, I’m literally going crazy, bro. I’m thinking about all these voices in my head, the mean shit that I ever said and did to my sister, the goodbye, I’d never get to tell her to all this shit. And then on that third day, I got lucky because I didn’t know anything about self-help or anything. I wasn’t reading books at the time. I was, you know, 21 years old, and I was still in my fuck the world mindset, whatever back then, but I got lucky man. And I woke up on that third day and I said,
23:02
And I’m not a religious person, but I believe in God and I’m spiritual. And I said, God, I don’t know why I’m still alive, but there’s gotta be a reason. What can I do right now to find happiness and peace? That question led me to the right answers, you know, cause a lot of times in those darkest moments when the shit hits the fan, when the world’s crumbling around you, we ask, well, why is this shit always going to happen to me? And that’s the wrong question. Cause it gets you to search for the wrong answers. And so I just got lucky and asked the right question. And.
23:31
long story short, very long story short, it helped me develop one of the most detailed routines you’ve ever can imagine in life. Like OCD don’t have shit on this. And this routine helped me like, you know, cleaning the cell, deep cleaning, taking care of my health, working out at the same time every day, all this stuff, which gave me freedom in that because of that discipline equals freedom in a place where you wouldn’t expect freedom to happen. And
23:58
It showed me that, Hey, right. Asking the right questions can get the right answers. And it showed me that no matter what happens to you in life, cause shit’s going to happen that you can’t control. We can always control how we respond to what happens to us. And that gave me freedom in that time. Wow. So prison actually freed you. Yeah. It’s fucking weird, right? It’s like all the paradoxes though. You’re right. I mean, it’s like with me, with the gift of adversity, it’s like, we will fight against something and we’ll rail against it for a while.
24:27
And then we either figure out that this ain’t going to change. And if it’s not going to change, then we have to change. Or we’ll do like what you mentioned before, where we’ll just sit there and be the victim. Oh, I can’t believe this happened to me. You know, I’m a good person. Why this happened? Because I did that. I was like, you know, why I’ve always gone above and beyond to help other people. And it’s like, why am I paralyzed? Why did this happen? And it’s like, you know, if she doesn’t care about your opinion, it doesn’t give a shit about what you prefer. It just is. So now what you’re going to do.
24:55
And again, you can either take action or you can spend a lot of time, right? A bunch of stuff down as a plan that you will never execute. And there is a lot of power in journaling. I absolutely agree. And again, it’s about that intention and the question that you’re asking yourself specifically, because if we don’t know what the right question is, like you said, you’ll eventually end up with the wrong answers and you’ll never be able to find that place where you can have that perspective and understand what it is. So, and I’ve talked to a lot of people about this.
25:24
You and I have been through some hardship, but we see people that get stuck in that victim mindset. Something bad happens to them, but they are never able to get beyond that and they just stay there for the rest of their life. They’re living mediocre, like mediocrity and everything from their lifestyle to their fitness, to their relationships, to whatever they do to keep themselves distracted. What is it that makes one person stay stuck there and another person go to another level and say, I’m not going to do it?
25:53
I’m not going to be a victim. What is that in these people? Yeah, dude, I absolutely love that question because it’s something that I’ve been just trying to get to the bottom to. Because I was like, how can I go from being a stone cold drug addict and do all this time in prison to completely shifting my life instantly, making a decision to own the rest of my life in one moment and never go back to that? And then how do some people get stuck? I’m like,
26:23
dude, I, I, I’m still trying to get to the bottom of it. And what I truly believe at the end of the day, you can’t help someone that doesn’t want to get help. They have to be open to it first and foremost, but I believe that person that isn’t open to it, you got to balance the tough love with the compassion. You know what I mean? Because if you’re just always tough loving somebody, maybe that tough love can get them to commit suicide and you don’t want to do that, right? But sometimes they need the tough love and you can’t enable them.
26:51
And so sometimes they do need the compassion to know that you do love and care about them. And so that’s a really hard line to determine. And I believe that comes with having empathy and being able to, you know, pick up on that shit from other people. So I think that’s the first and foremost, but, but a tool though, that I found useful, at least what helped me make that decision to snap. I remember.
27:18
Waking up when I went back to prison, 20 days where my twin sons were born, I’m missing out on their birth. And dude, I couldn’t wait to be a father. I grew up without a dad. And I used to play football. And I used to say, you know, I wonder, I see, I always see my friends, dads at practice. And I was like, man, I can’t wait to, I want to know what, how that feels. And I can’t wait to be a dad and, and do that. And side note, I literally just signed up my boys are they’re turning seven for football out here in Wentzville, where we just moved to. And I
27:46
Yeah. And I applied to be head coach. So that’s going to be, this is gonna be fucking awesome. But, uh, but waking up in that, in that cell and I was like, dude, that was like the worst, shittiest feeling I’ve ever felt. Like, cause I couldn’t wait to be a dad. And so the identity shift happened right there. Like I woke up and say, this isn’t who I am. I’m a good father. I care about my, my kids. I care about my family. You know, I’m not, I’m a good human being. I care about people. I’m not, I’m not a shitty person. And so like it started there for identity, but I also visualized.
28:16
negatively what my life was going to be like if I continued doing the same shit. And that was not in my kid’s life, not with my family, with my wife, away from them, either in and out of prison or dead. You know what I’m saying? And I didn’t want that. And that was enough pain to get me to realize. And so maybe you can visualize your life. And I’m wrapping up with this. Maybe you could visualize your life at the end of your days when you’re about to die and say, would I be okay with my life if I keep living the way I am?
28:46
And if the answer is no, then you need to fucking change and do something to change it. And if the answer is yes, then you’re on the right path. You know what I mean? So that doesn’t mean that you have to go out and be ultra successful entrepreneur making all this money or whatever. Your perfect life might be a hundred K a year and having the freedom to spend with your family and stuff. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but you got to get clear on what the perfect life for you is. You don’t live what society says is what you need to do. It’s
29:14
The answer to that is to get clear on what success means to you, not to everybody else. That’s absolutely it. For me, when I was in that bed, unable to move for months and being told that this is what I’m going to be like the rest of my life, man, that’s what I had was like crazy regret, crazy regret for all the stuff that I said I was going to do or wanted to do or even shit that I didn’t get to tell people that I’d always wanted to tell them. And it’s like, cause I knew that coming from that place of just being in a bed, I’m unable to move what I told them now wouldn’t have the same significance.
29:42
Cause it’s like, Oh, he feels bad about what’s going on or, Oh, he waited this long. Now it took this to make him say it. It’s like, no, I want to be able to say it from an able body perspective. I don’t want to be that guy that’s like, Oh, well, because all this best has happened to me and I don’t have any other choice. I’m going to go ahead and apologize or profess my love or whatever it is. And in this life, there are no guarantees and everybody thinks that they have more time. But if you’re within the sound of our voice right now, you have to understand.
30:08
There’s going to be a time in your life when you can no longer chase after your dreams and aspirations. And that time is approaching a lot faster than you think. So don’t think that it’s way off in the future. Don’t think that you had this expiration date for when you’re 95 and you’re going to die comfortably in a bed surrounded by your loved ones, because that may not happen as a matter of fact, it’s likely to not be the case, you know? And if that’s the idea, again, you having a second chance, me having a second chance, that’s why you hear such urgency in what we’re talking about. And you see it in our actions. Because.
30:38
We know how quickly it can change. And we know how, just like you said, I’m not a shitty person, I just made a shitty decision. But if we aren’t aware of what we really want, it’s easy to subconsciously make the wrong decision. And now all of a sudden we’re going down this path that doesn’t serve us or the people that we love or the people that we serve. And if we don’t take that kind of responsibility and have urgency and gravity and everything that we do, we will absolutely just meander down the path of least resistance, we’ll go on autopilot.
31:07
we will get stuck and then we’ll claim that we don’t know why. But we do. Mm hmm. You know, it’s so weird, bro, that you just made me think about as you’re talking to me, I’m like, man, it goes back to the vision, man. Like, that’s how powerful vision is. I’m not on the woo woo rah rah shit, dude. I don’t roll like that. But, dude, when I went to prison the first time and I was 19 years old, right. And I was a dumb kid at that point in my life, didn’t know shit.
31:36
My vision when I was in jail for six months waiting to get sentenced to go to prison and the whole time in there, like I’d visualize like, I’m going to go in there and I’m going to get tatted out and I’m going to be all like, you know, in shape six pack, all this shit. And that’s exactly what happened. I got out and I was like, I’m going to get out. I’m going to get with all the ladies and chicks and stuff. It’s exactly what happened. Cause that was my vision at that time. And you know, also it wasn’t
32:02
clear on like, you know, the type of person I wanted to be in on it. And that’s why I also led to a lot of not having direction in other areas of my life, but that was like the only focus I had. And when I got clear on my focus and other areas, like everything that I visualized, it doesn’t happen like that. Right. But it’s a clear vision of where I’m going. And it happens over time. Like, dude, I put up a post on Facebook. I had that picture. I took a picture of the coach leaning down to his players on the football team. And I,
32:31
Photoshop my head on the coaches head and I put my son’s name on the back of their jersey and Now we just enrolled him in the fucking and that was on there for over a year It was like two years on that board and now we’re enrolling them into football and I applied to be head coach And we’ll see if I get the job, but I think it’s gonna happen dude, you know, why not? They need strong leadership, especially at that age and that’s the thing too as leaders. We learn a lot especially in that position I mean you talk about kids. I’ve got a 19 year old stepdaughter
33:00
but I didn’t really get to meet her, you know, until she’s like already a teenager. So I’m learning as a parent, it’s like, hey, you got thrown in to being a, you know, a father of a 16 year old girl, you know, good luck, go ahead, is there a manual for this? Nope, figured out. And you know, and it’s like, I can’t talk to them. Like I do a client where, you know, you’re giving them the power hands, like, we’re doing this and we’re disciplined and we don’t compromise. It’s like, you have to have that true empathy. You have to have that ability to talk to them and have that nurturing, but also like,
33:30
kick him in the ass and tell him you love him at the same time. There’s a lot to that. And that complexity is what makes us human. So what works for one person in training one day may not work tomorrow because leadership is, is tough because people are tough because they can change like in an instant. And if we aren’t aware of that, we will get caught doing the same thing. The stuff that worked before we think will always work, but that’s not always the case. And so I think you being a coach is going to be tremendous. You’re going to learn a lot.
33:59
And it’s going to give you, imagine that bond that it’s going to create with your boys, right? Yeah, man. I’m excited, dude. I have literally like that’s the most exciting thing I got going. Like there’s a lot of shit going on. A lot of good stuff happening in our biz. Great things happening. But that by far is like the most exciting thing for me to be able to to have that experience with my kids, man. It’s going to be awesome. And speaking of business, you’re on Clubhouse and you’re just owning that environment. Can you kind of give people a couple of ideas of.
34:27
what’s the best way to use Clubhouse? How are we able to harness that to leverage not only our business, but just to learn from people like yourself. And you’re in the rooms with like Dan Fleshman, like all these huge entrepreneurs all the time. Yeah, dude. Now you’re going to get me geeking out. Cause it’s just, no, you’re the expert in this, man. I love talking about stuff like this. Yeah, dude. So there’s a bunch of stuff that I’m learning that you can be doing. Like I’m not going to call myself a Clubhouse expert. Cause as of right now, I mean, what
34:54
What’s today, the 27th or 28th or something of January at the time this recording, I’ve been on Clubhouse for one month and since December 22nd of 2020. So not an expert because none of us are, cause it’s too new, but I’m gonna share what I’ve learned that’s working really well. I mean, we generated over $12,000 from Clubhouse without even trying, you know what I’m saying? 17,000 followers in less than 30 days.
35:22
grown the Instagram over 4,000. Like it’s pretty cool platform, I love it. Two main things that I would say to focus on mainly is one, have a strong bio and I’ll lay out tactical stuff on how you could do that. And then secondly, get really good at networking and building what I call mod alliances, building alliances with people that can bring you up and moderate you, bring you up on stage, because that’s the name of the game is get up on stage.
35:49
talk and interject whenever you can have something powerful to say, shut your mouth when you don’t. And, uh, but just being on stage, it’s the same thing in real life. If you’re on stage, people are like, damn, that’s these automatically it’s instant authority builder. So, um, yeah, that’s the name of the game. So you want me to go into some tactical stuff about that? It’s up to you, brother. We’d love to hear it though. Your stuff is so valuable. So hell yeah, dude. So the bio, how clubhouse works is you have a mini bio and then a full bio. And so,
36:18
The mini bio is like when you’re in a room, and I’m trying to explain this, I know it’s a podcast, it’s more visual, but when you’re in a room, if people click on your icon, because you’re either on stage or in the audience, and that’s how the platform works, and you can just click on people’s picture or whatever, as soon as they click on your picture, it’s gonna show the mini bio, and then it’ll show the top three lines, and then it’ll have a little thing that says view full profile. So the mini bio literally shows just the top three lines, and you wanna optimize those top three lines.
36:47
And a quick formula that I’ll do. The first line is a pattern interrupt. So mine says, uh, real M F or prison to scaling biz. Cause most people are like, you know, real politically correct and like trying to be super polished and shit. I’m trying to shake up the pattern. I want to be real motherfucker. Prison is scaling biz captures attention. Right. That’s first line. Second line is a credibility builder for positioning. So I said, uh, hosted club houses first ever live podcasts.
37:17
Like, oh, damn, he’s hosted the first ever live podcast on Clubhouse. And then the third line is I’m opening loops to where you have to, if you read it, you have to hit view full profile. So I say, people laughed at me until dot, dot, dot, click here. And if they press click, if they press anywhere on that screen, it opens up the full profile. And so if you read that, people laughed at me until what? And you have to click it, right? It’s like, damn. So it like draws you in. Yeah, man.
37:46
Yeah. So you want to open that loop and then you close that loop in your full profile, but you want to just keep them curious enough to that’s the whole goal of the mini profiles. So view the whole profile and then the full bio full profile, whatever you want to call it in there. You want to communicate how you can help people, you know, what you do and how you can help. You want to let them in, you know, more, uh, maybe some personal stuff as far as like your mission and stuff. I say, you know, I’m on a mission to achieve a 9% recidivism rate nationwide in the U S.
38:16
So people get like, damn, that’s novel. I can dig that. And I like that. You also wanna have strong call to actions before I even get to that. You also wanna include some keywords. So if people type a keyword, you want your profile to show up in the search because they do have a search feature and that’s really cool. And so I had a partner where I said, other stuff I like talking about. And I said, entrepreneurship.
38:39
mental toughness and I listed like five things, not too much, but five other things that I might want to pop up for if people are searching that. And then another thing I said was I host rooms on and I listed the four things that I host rooms on and that shows people if they want to, that encourages them to follow me or not. You know what I’m saying? But, oh, he hosted rooms on that. I want to hear what he has to say about that, you know? And then last but not least, a strong call to action. So I had call to actions throughout.
39:06
I had a couple of like three or four of them throughout the bio of different ways, whether, you know, whether it was, you want to get more involved as far as maybe like a client goes, but nothing like too strong. And then, uh, uh, then other ways to get more involved just as, you know, a follower or a fan or whatnot. And so the very last call to action at the end, for me, my main goal on clubhouse, my main goal is to grow a huge audience of people that love our shit that we can help.
39:34
very clear consulting. I got the vision dialed in on that, right? And so the last call to action, it’s a very strong call to action. I said, you’ll probably like my Instagram too. Let’s connect. And I pointed at my thing and what I did right there is I opened up another loop. I said, you’ll probably like my Instagram too. If you read that, you’re probably like, well, what’s his Instagram about? And it has a thing where you can connect it. And so you just hit the button. It brings you right to my Instagram. And then now I got you over there. And then.
40:02
I got even the funnel on Instagram. That’s a whole nother long story. We can get in that if you want, but that’s as far as getting your bio dialed in. And then I could talk about model alliances and shit too. No, I think that that’s perfect. Again, you always give value. You’re just giving it away all the time. You’re always trying to educate people and you’re really a pioneer. You’re really kind of kicking the door down on this stuff. So I think that’s enough to get people to not only understand clubhouse, but now follow you and connect to you and they’ll probably like your Instagram also. So if they’re not, if they’re not, they’ll be in there as well. And.
40:32
There’s so many people that you’ve interviewed, over 200 people. And I know that it’s like picking your kids, but what are some of the ones that really stand out for you when it comes to that underdog empowerment kind of philosophy? Man, there’s been a lot of good ones. And you know, it’s weird. It’s not weird, but what’s cool is that each interview at that point in time feels like the perfect interview for that point in time. You know what I’m saying? It was like- I do.
40:55
When I sat down with Andy, I was like, Oh my God, it’s the best one ever. But when I sat down with Robert green, I was like, Oh my God, it’s the best one ever. And it’s like, they all were just like at the right time and it was exactly what I needed to hear. And so like, I’m, you do the same thing. What I use the podcast for is to really build those relationships with people first and foremost, but man, there’s so much other things that happen. Like one is interviewing Andy for Silla. I went in there and I asked them very specific questions. I said, I said this, I said, Hey man.
41:25
We’re currently at multi six figure business. We’re scaling to seven. When you were in that phase with first form, what did you focus on as the CEO of first form to get it to where it is today? And then he broke down how he scaled first form and stuff. And I’m like, holy shit, this is good stuff. And then I started implementing that stuff. So I get to use it for mentorship, which is awesome. But man, I’d say definitely the second interview with Andy.
41:53
was one of my favorites. The Robert Green was one of my favorites. Also Bedros Killian. Oh my God, that was an all-time good one. Patrick Bet-David, those are probably like my top four. There’s been a lot, but those are probably like my top four. For me, it’s my favorite as far as that goes. Well, and I like that you made that point. So many people see a person, you know, has at this huge level and they’re successful, right? Whatever their version of success is. And people think, oh, I’m going to do what they’re doing now.
42:22
But like you said with Andy, it’s like, we can’t do what Andy’s doing right now. Like, Andy is, like you said, completely out of the daily operations. He’s the visionary, like high visionary, like way, way up there, like three or four moves ahead. And if you guys aren’t following Andy or having us do his podcast, everything that he does is intentional. Nothing is accidental. Nothing superfluous. Everything has a specific intention. And I mean that when he puts it out there, he’s trying to help you see.
42:50
point or he’s trying to evoke emotion in you to take action as opposed to just, here’s a funny meme and here’s this and here’s this. So there’s a lot of intentionality behind it from learning from him. But like you said, the stuff that he did to scale from six to seven figures is not necessarily what he’s doing now. So you’re able to get in on that kind of ground floor and see, oh, he was doing this. Oh, he was grinding, you know, 16 hour days. Or maybe at that point, he was only doing four hour days to allow him to have the capacity to start seeing what he really needed to do.
43:20
Because in business, it’s very easy for us to get caught up in the minutia of the day to day, to get caught up in the, okay, here’s my power, let’s show you what I’m going to do. I’m going to push this out. I have another workout, whatever it is. But if we don’t have, again, back to your point of the vision, it’s easy for us to not even know where we’re going. Like if I have a map and you don’t even tell me what direction north is, I’m kind of screwed. Like I might have an idea. I can turn left, I can turn right, I can turn here.
43:50
north is, I’m always going to be stuck. I’m always going to be questioning myself, which when we question what we’re doing, it’s hard to really give 100% of what we actually have. And if we subconsciously hold back, then that what’s that do that breeds disbelief that goes back into all those loops that you were talking about before, where by knowing what’s really important, by knowing who the fuck you are, you can understand what the why really is, as opposed to trying to make somebody else’s why or what other people think that your why should be is.
44:20
Amen, dude. You just put that so beautifully, by the way, like, like that was like, babe, Toven. Like, it was it was it was articulated that that was a pretty gangster right there. I thank you, brother. I should be a speaker or something, right? It’s a book when these days. That’s awesome, dude. Hey, can I piggyback on that too? Yeah, bring it with that man. Like, dude, like, literally, if you haven’t done it, this might sound like
44:49
Yeah, whatever. I could be doing a million other more impactful, moving the needle things, but do this is the hands down, the most impactful, moving the needle thing you could do period. And it’s literally, like you said, man, that clear cut vision, and then your core values. And those are your guiding your know, or stars, dude, you’re gonna get to a point if you’re not already there, where all these opportunities are presenting themselves, and you’re not gonna be able to take all of them. And you’re gonna be able to
45:16
use that like, Hey, does this align with our core mission of where we’re going and our vision of what we’re doing? And also does it align with who we are? More importantly of how you know what we stand for and what we don’t stand for. Man, it’s so powerful, dude. It makes decision making simpler. It takes a lot of that hard stuff out because yeah, you still might have to make some hard decisions might have to tell people no, when you don’t want to, but you know, you’re doing it from a place of alignment with where you’re going and what you’re all about.
45:45
And so, man, I couldn’t stress that enough, man. Having those two things in place, man, it gives you a source of power. It does. And, and here’s the thing in this life, you either decide what you truly want or you become the result of somebody else’s decision. That’s it. Yeah. Right. So if you’re not making that vision of what the hell you really want, you’ll never know. And that’s why I love your podcast, your vision, the way that you’re helping people. How can our listeners learn more about you? How can they get help from you? Where would you send them?
46:14
I’d appreciate that man. Definitely a underdog empowerment.com. That’s where the podcast is. The podcast is definitely the best place to go. Obviously some super passionate about podcasts, but yeah, man, if you ever need help with podcasting, you want to talk more about that podcast, powertrain.com is our company website, but definitely go to underdog empowerment.com and check out the podcast. That’s something that I love putting out there, man. And he gives out incredible.
46:42
I hate the word value because people use it so much that it doesn’t mean anything. But he gives out real tactical stuff that works. He literally has a podcast that tells you how to get ranked as a podcast, tells you all the steps that people are going to try to sell you. And he just gives it to you because it shows, one, he knows what the hell he’s talking about. But two, if he has that amount of knowledge, imagine all the other stuff. He’s really forgotten more about podcasting than I’ve ever learned in the process. So this is the guy. This is the…
47:12
person who’s the expert in it. And if you really want to take your business or your life or your message to another level, you’ve got to get into podcasting because if it’s not for this, you’ll just be a small town hero. It’s like, yeah, everybody will be impressed by you. But by pushing that button and hit record, his podcast has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. And that’s hundreds of thousands of lives that he’s able to change with that message. So thank you for what you do, brother. Thank you for being here. I want to be respectful of your time.
47:39
I know you got another workout to probably get into and finish that water. So, uh, any parting words for our guests, man, thank you again so much for what you’re doing and for being true. People need this message. They need to see everybody’s like, Oh, I have to do this. And I have to have like this positive mindset all the time. It’s like, no, you can succeed the way you are. You don’t have to change into this perfect thing. Of course we all want to change and get better, but where you are right now, you can succeed if you’re able to, to put these things into play that he’s already been mentioning, dude, I appreciate you so much.
48:08
For real, I’m not just fucking saying that. Like we jam bro, on some real shit. But exactly what you just said, you got everything in you right now. You are the person you need to be right now to go out and do the things you need to do. And the best thing, my parting advice or my parting words would be, done is better than perfect. Do this shit. You can do it with everything in life. Done is better than perfect. You can do it.
48:36
Learn and iterate and change and morph and adapt as you go. But you’re never, you just got to do it. Action, action over everything, man. Every time. These not words, my friend. Thank you, Zach. That cop will talk to you soon, brother. Thank you. My man. Appreciate you. Thank you for listening to this episode of Acta Non Verba.
