Dream Chasers Show

How Small Steps Create BIG Success with Author & Speaker Duane Martinz

• Eric Heidrich

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Ever feel like you have a big dream, but you're not sure where to even start? That's exactly where Duane Martinz found himself when he was inspired to write his book Becoming Your Own Champion. He embarked on a journey that would eventually lead him to become an author, life coach, and an international speaker.

In this conversation, we dive deep into the power of consistent small actions and trusting yourself when self-doubt creeps in. Duane shares the vulnerable truth about writing his book despite having no experience with Microsoft Word and considering himself "the last person who should write a book." Through daily writing sessions—sometimes producing just 300 words—he eventually completed his manuscript, proving that starting small can lead to remarkable achievements.

What makes this discussion particularly refreshing is Duane's honesty about fear. After years of professional speaking, he still gets "scared to death" before taking the stage, yet he's learned to recognize fear not as a stop sign but as a directional marker pointing toward growth. As he puts it, "our biggest gifts and purpose are often found behind the wall of fear."

The conversation also explores practical strategies for building accountability, celebrating small wins, and starting each day with intention. Duane's morning routine includes scripture reading and personalized prayers that center him for the day ahead—a simple practice that transformed his approach from being "a victim of circumstance" to living purposefully.

Whether you've got dreams of public speaking, writing a book, starting a business, or simply becoming more intentional about your growth, this episode offers both inspiration and practical next steps. As Duane reminds us, "You don't have to see the whole staircase to take the first step." Your journey begins with trusting yourself and taking that first small action toward your biggest dreams.

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Eric Heidrich:

What advice do you have for people who are currently doubting themselves? Right, because that's a common thing. We all go through moments of that where we're just struggling and we can't seem to figure it out and we have doubts. What would you say to them?

Duane Martinz:

You've got to trust yourself because you're better than you think you are and we're our own worst critic and if you just trust yourself and go with that instinct, and then it's that getting out of your own way and allowing yourself to start small. Don't be afraid of starting small, but also know that it's like you and I talked earlier about public speaking as many years as I've been doing it I get scared to death before I get on stage still, and that's okay, and you just need to be okay with being scared. Do it anyway.

Eric Heidrich:

Welcome to the Dream Chasers Show. Our mission is to inspire and improve the lives of those who dare to chase their dreams. Here's your host, eric Heidren. Hey guys, welcome back to the Dream Chaser Show, where our mission is to inspire and improve the lives of those who dare to chase their dreams. Now, in this episode, I had the opportunity to interview a man who I've come to truly respect and admire. His name's Duane Martinz, and he's an author, he's a life coach and he's an international public speaker. And how I met him was through a group called the Toastmasters. Now, if you're not familiar with them, basically what it is is it's a group of individuals that get together and practice public speaking.

Eric Heidrich:

So I was at this Toastmasters meeting for the very first time. I had no idea what to expect and really nervous. Well, anyway, I show up and I sit down and there was probably maybe 10 people at this particular meeting and this guy gets up and it was Duane, whom I didn't know at the time. But he gets up and he starts speaking and he's just knocking it out of the park. I mean, he's doing fantastic like with hardly any ahs and ums, and he doesn't seem nervous at all for about 15 to 20 minutes at this point. But his speech is so compelling. He's telling stories and he's just drawing me in. I'm like mesmerized by this guy and I'm just thinking like, oh my goodness, I don't think I could ever do that. I'm terrified to even be up there and speak for like 10 seconds.

Eric Heidrich:

Well then he's telling us about this book that he had written. It's called Becoming your Own Champion and he's holding it up and showing it to everybody. As he's explaining kind of what he went through in his life and what brought him to write this book, and at one moment he looks out to us and he says so, who wants to take that next step? And he's kind of holding the book out for someone to come take. And I'm thinking like, oh, this is just part of a speech, you know he's not actually asking us and he repeats himself. He goes who wants to take that next step? And he holds the book out and I'm like, without even thinking, I jump up and I said I do. And he's like awesome, come on up here. So I'm walking up around these people I've never met in my life and I'm thinking, did I just break some rules or something? I have no clue, but he shakes my hand and he asks for my name and then he hands me the book and he signed it and everything, and he finished his speech and all that. So I still have this book. It's called Becoming your Own Champion.

Eric Heidrich:

Well then, later that evening I find out he's a professional speaker and he's an author, obviously, and he's a life coach. So he's an incredible guy. So just recently I reached out to him and I asked if he wouldn't mind coming on the show and telling us his story about how he became an author and a speaker. And he's such a humble guy, he's so down to earth. So I really enjoyed this interview and I know you will too. So let's just dive on in and get to it. Duane, thanks so much for being with us here today.

Duane Martinz:

Absolutely. I was stoked to get your message, so thank you for having me.

Eric Heidrich:

Yeah, absolutely so, Duane. Our show revolves primarily around two main things it's faith and it's personal development. And I've been following you for a while now and I've been kind of watching some of the stuff that you're going through and I'm just curious can you tell us a little bit about your journey through personal development and when it all started for you?

Duane Martinz:

Oh, absolutely. So. I used to live in Yellowstone Park, work out in Montana, and I was in college at Montana State University and I never knew in school how to study, how to be a good student, any of that. And when I got to Montana State I found a room that they had there and it was called the Peak Performance Center and it was no bigger than my office here, which is pretty small, but it was chocked full of back then cassette tapes if anyone remembers what a cassette tape is Chocked full of cassette programs from some of the greatest minds that ever lived.

Duane Martinz:

And that's where I really got into personal growth. Personal development was. I turned my car into what Zig Ziglar coined the phrase of an automobile university and I started listening to those tapes as I was driving. And as I was driving and listening to the tapes, the tapes were driving me and they were taking me to a new place and they opened my mind to what was possible out there. And I used to have a box that would have a hundred cassette tapes in it and I would listen to those and I still have a lot of Zig Ziglar programs and he would challenge you on those six cassettes to listen to the whole program once and then listen to each cassette tape six, uh, seven times before you moved on to the next one. Oh and I'm like, well, I'm out here driving 208 miles a day. I have the time. I was naive enough to push play and and I just it. It just became a part of me of loving that whole personal growth.

Eric Heidrich:

And that travel time that was for your job primarily. Right, you were driving a lot for work, Correct? Yeah, so in essence, if I'm hearing this right because this is, it's, kind of similar to what I've gone through in the past was we have a lot of this time where we're driving or we're commuting. We're either commuting, we're sitting on our butts, right. Not doing much, and it's perfect time for that, for that growth oh my gosh.

Duane Martinz:

I love it. Now, of course, we have podcasts. Most vehicles don't even have a cassette or CD player in them, so I hammer podcasts and audiobooks, just listening to them constantly. When I'm at the Y I try to get something good in me every day if I can, and it is so easy to listen to an audiobook. You can get four or five chapters in when you drive from here to Rapid City, which is an hour away, and then I can hear them many times. Like most of the audio books I have in Audible I've listened to at least a half a dozen times and then it finally sinks in after I hear it that many times. So I love that opportunity to grow like that.

Eric Heidrich:

We humans, we're I hesitate to use the word stubborn, but we're hardheaded. We have habits of thinking and habits of doing, and you have to hear and see and do things several times before it creates a new pathway of thinking.

Duane Martinz:

So absolutely, and that's why Ziegler went to challenge you to listen to each CD seven times, because then it became a part of you and you could internalize it, and so I loved that.

Eric Heidrich:

That's phenomenal. Yeah, scripture talks about how the word is God and God is the word, and I know that in scripture no word is wasted. There's nothing written in there that doesn't mean something. So it's very powerful, the word, and when you're able to listen to a book or an audio from the authentic author, they'll emphasize certain words, they'll re-say it. They'll re-say a sentence three times slower each time until it sinks, because the word is powerful, versus if you're just reading the book.

Duane Martinz:

You might just skip through it just because you're trying to get in a hurry. Yeah, you're right, eric, absolutely that's powerful.

Eric Heidrich:

Um so, duane you, you're an author. The book that you wrote is called becoming your own champion, and'm curious what inspired you to write that book.

Duane Martinz:

Well, wow, thank you for this. Hopefully I can make it through without my eyes waking, because it was a dream of mine to. After all of those years since the mid 1980s when I started this personal growth path, I always just had that little thing in my heart saying maybe someday someone will be listening to me or reading my book or hearing me speak. But, eric, I didn't know how to do any of that. I tell people all the time if you knew me, you would know I was the last person that you thought ever would have, could have or should have written a book. And it's I believe it's a God thing. It's all God inspired.

Duane Martinz:

Because I went to a seminar in Rapid City. It's called Days of Excellence. They've done it for 11 or 12 years now. One of the speakers there was named Patrick Snow and he wasn't there for this reason, but while he stood on stage he said that if you've ever had the dream to write a book and if you've ever wanted to write a book, he said, I'll coach you through the process. And there was just enough of a connection between him and I, because I was a Montana kid and he talked about going to the University of Montana for a year or a semester or something, and I thought that was enough connection for me to know this guy was real.

Duane Martinz:

I visited with him after his seminar and we talked on the phone for 90 minutes and I just trusted the process that he could take me through, and so I brought him on as a coach and we coached every single week and I had the manuscript done in about seven months and the book was completed in my hand the day before the next year's Day of Excellence. In fact, I went back to that Day of Excellence the next year and the emcee held my book up in front of 1,400 people and he said some of you come to this seminar thinking you know it's a day off, I don't have to be at work, he said, but some of you come and you hear a message that resonates. And he said last Duane Martinz went home and he wrote a book that just came off the press yesterday, and so that was an amazing accomplishment for me. The other thing that it did for me, eric, was I was afraid of dying with my music still in me.

Eric Heidrich:

I was going to ask you about that quote.

Duane Martinz:

Yep, and this takes that away. You know, if something was to happen to me today with my speeches, with this book and with the online course, I'm at least using some of the gifts that God gave me. And when I talk about it being God inspired, I was the slowest typer you can imagine. I didn't even know how to run Microsoft Word. I had to have my coach teach me and I'm sure he's just smacking his forehead going. Where did I get this guy from?

Duane Martinz:

But I had to watch a two and a half hour tutorial on YouTube on how to use Microsoft Word and I never one time had writer's block and I would keep telling my wife. I said I don't know if any of this is worthy of a book, but when this stack of sticky notes and thoughts and ideas from all these years are on this side, I'll be done writing. And Patrick taught me to have a decent sized book. You want 50,000 words was the goal, and I remember running up the stairs and announcing to my family that I just hit 50,004 words. But I wasn't finished yet and the book ended up being over 70,000 words and I told Nancy. I said I'll let the editors decide what's worthy, and they cut about 18,000 words out, and so it was just a phenomenal process.

Duane Martinz:

So in the book I I tell people and I really, really mean this that if I can do this, you could do it better, faster and more efficient than I did, because you're so far ahead of the curve, you know, so I try to encourage anyone that has a book in them that the world needs your message and to just get and literally, if I can do it, you can do it better and faster All right.

Eric Heidrich:

So, duane, you brought up a lot of things that I want to unpack during that conversation, which is phenomenal. Your first thing that caught my attention was when you said the speaker who inspired you was real. He was authentic. There was something about him, just the fact that he connected with you from the school you went to the same school how that authenticity is what got you the fact that he wasn't this perfect person. I think a lot of times with personal development there can be kind of this soapbox feel you should be doing this, you should be living this way, and a lot of times when I'm giving my messages, I'm like we're human, I mean, even the best person in the world that's doing the best thing, that's maybe doing something we want to achieve. We tend to tell ourselves I don't have that in me because I'm not like that person.

Duane Martinz:

Right, and in your opinion, how, how important is it to just just be real, even about our shortcomings and Well, you have to be there's no way to not be and have people listen to you, because I I think people are smart and they can see right through that. I mean you and I can tell when someone's just uh saying something that just isn't isn't true. And in public speaking, one of the things that helps you connect better with your audience is to tell your your your firsts and your frustrations, because then they're going oh my gosh, he's real, he suffers with the same thing, he has the same mistakes. I do, and a lot of times.

Duane Martinz:

So, eric, there was a three-year period where I send out a post every single day on Facebook, just trying to put some good out in the world. I never missed one day for three years, and many of the times when I would start my video, I would tell them that I need this message more than you do, and here I'm the guy that's given the message. But I'm admitting I need this today. I need help in this area. I'm pitifully weak here and I'm not very good in this area. So it's just like you said, admitting those, and people love to hear your first, your frustrations and your failures.

Eric Heidrich:

Absolutely, when you were talking about writing your book. It reminds me that I think a lot of people out there especially people listening to this show have aspirations, things that they want to achieve, things that they want to do. It might not be writing a book, but it might be starting a business, it might be designing some sort of thing, it might be traveling, it might be being a better person, a better father, a better mother, all the things. When you look at writing a book, that seems like an astronomically huge thing to do. And so writing the book, you kind of looked at it and you said, okay, it's a big thing. How do I break it down into small bites where I'm just doing a little bit every day, a little bit every day to push the needle? How do you feel about that in terms of people trying to attain and chase their dreams? Because that's what this show is about. It's about really going for the thing that you want to do most.

Duane Martinz:

It is, eric, I agree with you. Most of us we get bogged down in the big picture. We know what we want, but it's that, how do I get there? And it's that we try to live our lives in overwhelm all the time. And Amy Porterfield taught me in Digital Course the end product just think what can I do today to move that needle just a little bit. And that's where I say I just would come down and do the hunt and peck on the keyboard and some days, eric, it'd be 300 words. But I was here and I showed up for myself.

Duane Martinz:

And too many of us are afraid of starting small. We want to already be the big high selling author and the big podcaster and all of this, and we're afraid of starting small and going through the mistakes. And you can't be. You just have to do the baby steps and chug along a little bit every day and sometimes you backslide. But and you've heard this before Most of us quit too soon, you give up on yourself or your dreams too soon, and if you just would have went a little bit farther, you would have overcome that.

Duane Martinz:

So it is. It's the baby steps and and it's that trying to do a little bit every day and I still struggle with this in a in a big way. I have to write down things of just do this four times this week. So in my planner I'll write down, like right now I'm trying to do a walking consistently, so I'll put down walk four times plus. So if I get my four or more like last week was five, but I have to still do the baby steps on many, many, many of my habits.

Eric Heidrich:

Oh, that's perfect. I mean, I was even thinking, as you're talking about that, how you mentioned, we tend to overload. I think I look at time sometimes as this like container, nature doesn't really allow for a vacuum. That container will be full, right. If you just picture a cup, it's always going to be full, even when it starts to empty, it fills back up, right? So if you have, let's say, you got an hour every night before bed, that will fill up with something, even if it's just junk, even if it's a TV video game.

Duane Martinz:

it fills, yeah, Eric. I always say to people that if you don't control your time, someone else will, and that's how your cup gets full and we're all busy. I say, even if we're watching TV, we're busy, and that's the junk that your cup fills up with.

Eric Heidrich:

Yeah, absolutely. Cup fills up with. Yeah, absolutely, and I think too, like as as um, as doers. You know, I don't know if we're all type a, but the people that really are trying to to fulfill something and chase their dream, chase their aspiration, they're doers and they find this. It's called superman syndrome. I don't know if you've ever heard that, but I can do everything right, I can tackle it all and eventually I think we get to a place where it's like man, we can't always do it all, sometimes we need a little bit of a break, but I think it's important too. And tell me how you feel about this. But when you do hit your goals and you hit your four times a week, you're walking four times a week. You hit your writing every day for a week. You're walking four times a week. You hit your writing every day for a week. Do you celebrate? Do you ever take time to celebrate your wins?

Duane Martinz:

Yes, but I have to be reminded of that because so many of us. That's why, when I listened to your podcast that you did the last one that you did where you said 46% of people aren't happy I believe that that's because we're always striving for these things and then when we do reach them, we don't celebrate, we automatically go to the next thing and you don't take time to go. Oh my gosh, I did that. Even if it's a small thing, we tend to overlook it and it's no big thing. And then boom, you're on to the next thing and you don't take that time to internalize of how good you are and what you just did, whether it's a small, little thing or not.

Duane Martinz:

And sometimes I have to be reminded of that as well and do do something small. Or or say once I accomplish this little task, even if it's a little one, then I can and go do something that's enjoyable. I can go fishing, or I can do this or that, you know know. So, yeah, we need to take time to celebrate because, um that if you keep moving that finish line and never celebrate along the way you'll, you'll never achieve that joy that you were talking about in your last podcast.

Eric Heidrich:

Yeah, I listened to a lot of people, and one of them's, matthew McConaughey, as wild as it sounds, but he says earn your Saturdays, earn your Saturdays. So you put it on a certain, on a certain timeline. This, once I achieve this thing, once I do this thing, that's when I get to go do that pleasure. And so it's a pleasure reward system. Right, it's like it's like training a dog. You can't always be negative, negative, negative and yelling like no, don't do this and yes, do that. You've got to give them the treat so that they know Same with our brains, we're not much different, right?

Duane Martinz:

That's so true.

Eric Heidrich:

We need that reward system. Like good job, Duane. You did what you said you were going to do. Now here's that treat, if you will.

Duane Martinz:

And you know something else for me. I don't know about you, but I thrive off of a check mark too. Oh yeah, I I talk about in my it. I, in my keynote, I ask people if they use to-do lists and I most people raise their hand. I said the cool thing about a to-do list is you make it on monday and that sucker is still good on friday because you just keep adding to it. And then then I I pare it down and I ask him to admit by a show of hands that how many of you might do something that is not on your list. Then you put it on your list so that you can check it off your list.

Duane Martinz:

And I said oh, I am so guilty of that because those little check marks give me satisfaction. I don't know if anyone else feels that way, but works for me, I've got some right here.

Eric Heidrich:

I don't know if you can see on the screen, I've got check marks for the things that I've yeah, to knock it off. It feels good to cross it, yeah you get to look back and say I did that. You know that's something.

Duane Martinz:

Yes I accomplished for me. That is part of that celebration that we talked about earlier of, of that check mark can do a lot for me yeah.

Eric Heidrich:

Yeah, that's a good point. I didn't even really think of that.

Duane Martinz:

This is the Brain Teaser segment, where we put your thinking skills to the test and challenge your mind with puzzles and riddles. So grab your thinking cap and let's go cap and let's go All right.

Eric Heidrich:

Welcome back to the Brain Teaser segment. Now. The reason for this part of the show is to just have a little bit of fun and also to exercise that creativity muscle to help you think outside of the box a little bit. So here's how this works. I'm going to tell you a brain teaser and give you a little bit of time to think about the answer. Try to really think about it too and see if you can get the answer yourself. If you need to just hit pause on this episode and take some time to think about it, Then hit play and see if you got the answer right. Remember, what we're trying to do here is work on creativity.

Eric Heidrich:

All right, here's the first question what is yours, but everybody else uses it? What is yours, but everybody else uses it? Here comes the answer your name. All right. Next question what has a lot of keys but can't open a lock? What has a lot of keys but can't open a lock? Here comes the answer A piano.

Eric Heidrich:

All right, last question, and this one's a little bit different A cowboy rides into town on Friday. He stays for two nights and then leaves on Friday. How is this possible? A cowboy rides into town on Friday, stays for two nights and leaves on Friday. How is this possible? Here comes the answer. The horse's name is Friday. I know that one's a little bit tricky. That's the end of the questions. Hopefully you had a little bit of fun, and if you didn't quite get any of them, that's all right, because we're going to try again on the next episode. Let's get back to the message, One of the other things that I want to ask you about. I saw, when I was doing a little more research, that you quote scripture. So you're you're a man of faith, yes, which I am as well, and I'm curious how that plays out in your day-to-day life as far as faith goes.

Duane Martinz:

Oh my, yeah, thank you for asking that. Well, one of the things that I do is I start every morning with some scripture and I just use the YouVersion Bible app and I thrive on remember I just told you I love check marks and those little feelings of accomplishment. So in this app it tracks your daily refresh. That you do and I am actually I'm a numbers guy. So 966 days I've never missed a day in this Bible app and it just gives you a very quick scripture, a little two to three minute video explaining it and it's.

Duane Martinz:

And then I have five prayers in there that come up, they rotate every day, that I actually wrote for me to be the kind of person that that I want to be and I I just can't think of a more powerful day to to start your day than going through some of those. So here is one for me that I wrote on fear and it comes up every week. It says God, there are a lot of things I'm afraid of. Please help me to work through these things, please give me confidence that you are with me and will protect me. And then I have one for peace. It's just says God, please let your peace fill my life and guard every aspect of who I am, no matter what goes on around me. Allow me to find rest in you and your promises.

Duane Martinz:

And but, eric, I have five of these. That of these that they're just powerful, because it reminds me that I need the strength from from somewhere else to get through my day so that I can be the kind of person that I want to be. And that's one of the big prayers that I have every single day is to use me for something greater than myself. So that's the way I start the day, and and that habit just serves me so well because it keeps me, it gives me direction for the day.

Eric Heidrich:

Yeah, I'm just going back in time throughout history. How I used to start my day, and it was. I was more of a I would say, a victim of circumstance than I was a purposeful person trying to make my day. My day would make me if that makes sense.

Eric Heidrich:

I would wake up and it was a train wreck, Duane. I would wake up and let's say, I got to get to work at seven, I'm getting up at 630 and I'm shoving food in my face, just rinsing off real quickly, and then you know, if I had a, I didn't at the time, you know, wasn't married or whatever when I was in the air force, but just rush out the door and then when I was married, it was the same, but I was basically like, oh yeah, babe, see you later, love you, bye, and day after day after day. That's how I started it and that's about how I'd end it too, and I think that, um, I would bet a lot of people can relate and it's like it just starts you off on a a weak foundation. Yes, the whole day is chaos when it starts like that so how did you transition into what you do now?

Duane Martinz:

where did your change come from?

Eric Heidrich:

you know, that's a good question and it it came from starting to read the scripture every morning, starting a new, starting what I call a new path or a new habit of the of the mind, as you know, where we first make our habits and then our habits make us, and so I had this habit of it was a poor habit of waking up late, rushing through the day, getting to work and repeat, but it started when I was, when I started to really go into this personal development, and I found that we're influenced by everything we look at, and so that that means TV, that means social media, all of these things, and I was finding, man, there's so much conflicting things that are confusing. The news says this uh, the, the, uh. Social media says this, all the opinions of everybody are conflicting and fighting. And I was like man, there's gotta be some truth somewhere, and I only find it in scripture. Yes, it's the only place I can find real, authentic truth about how, how we can live to be peaceful and purposeful. Yeah, that's wow good for you.

Eric Heidrich:

What a find, huh oh man right, it was there all along I. Always we had these big dusty bible, the big old like I. I've always known about it, just never cracked it yeah, never opened it.

Duane Martinz:

Yeah, so I one of the other ones I I read every day. It says I know nothing's impossible for you, but sometimes I struggle to believe it. Please help my unbelief. Do impossible things in the world around me and use me in the process. Give me the courage to boldly ask you for what I need and to trust you as I wait for you to answer me. Strengthen my faith by showing how you make impossible things possible. And yeah, it's powerful, eric, I'm glad you stumbled onto that.

Eric Heidrich:

Yeah, and as, like we talked about earlier, it doesn't mean that we're perfect we're far from it but I think it's a good step in the right direction. Yes, to bring peace in our lives, absolutely All right. So I want to know a little bit about your experience on the road to entrepreneurship and any sort of advice that you might have for listeners who are thinking of going that route. You had told me that prior to this, you were driving a lot for a company, and can you explain what that was like for you to jump ship from your job to go into entrepreneurship?

Duane Martinz:

Yes, actually that was God-inspired as well. Retirement wasn't on my radar that much and I had nearly lost my wife for a second time due to a medical reason, way back after we had our first child. I rushed her to the hospital, which we were in Yellowstone and lived an hour away, and I got her there and they did an emergency surgery and said if you would have waited 20 more minutes we couldn't have saved her. Well then, fast forward to four years ago. She had retired from federal law enforcement and she had a major back surgery during COVID. The back surgery was a smashing success, but she developed a pulmonary embolism in her heart and that usually kills you on the spot, and she made it through that in seven days. And I I joked with her. I said it's no dang wonder why I'm bald. I said you quit trying to check out on me. So I did was you know, that's when I. That's was really the drive to leave my work and I had already done. The book was already written, I hadn't done a course.

Duane Martinz:

Yet my, my public speaking business still isn't as often as I would like it to be. And, eric, to be honest with you there's sometimes I get too comfortable where I'm at, because we do have income coming in. It's sometimes harder for me to strive when I know well I would rather I struggle with the same things everyone else does. I would rather be doing this than sitting down here, creating my membership that I was telling you about, or getting ready. I need to get ready to relaunch my course, living your Greatest Life Possible in January, and it's still a struggle for me. That's where I have to take the baby steps of just do this today, just, and then. What normally happens for me is, once I get in motion towards doing that, working towards that goal, well then it's easy to turn that 15 to 20 minutes into 45 minutes to an hour and you're working longer. So I still struggle with that.

Duane Martinz:

Entrepreneurship, and here's my biggest struggle. In all honesty, I don't think of it often enough as a business. I think of it more as a hobby, where I'll get to that, I'll get to that. I'll get to that. Where, if I had to go to work for me every single day and knew that my job was on the line, then I think I'd get more. Okay, I gotta get this done or I'm gonna fire me. So, so that's where I I struggle with that, if sometimes I'll even write down. I do a lot of journaling and a lot of daily prompts and a lot of affirmations and I'm like just quit thinking of this as a hobby and turn it into a business and just do a little bit every day that accountability that's huge, huge.

Eric Heidrich:

And if you're like me or Duane, it sounds like a lot of us struggle with that personal accountability If no one's holding us accountable, like at the job right.

Eric Heidrich:

If you don't show up to your job, your boss, whatever's going to happen, it's going to fire you. You're accountable the speaking and writing. You've got to hold yourself accountable or you need somebody else to do it, and I think that's where the coaching thing comes in. I've personally hired myself several coaches and it's like you'll never reap the benefits of spending money quite like you will, on your own personal development. I don't know if that's been your experience, but spending money on yourself for your development is huge, so hiring a coach is amazing.

Duane Martinz:

Well, that perfect. Saying that, eric, because that's the only way I got this book done is is I hired a coach. And had I not been financially committed? So I'm very I call it cheap, frugal, don't know what, but when I was financially committed and it was a lot of money to hire Patrick to me it was to some it wouldn't be but to ask my family to take money out of our accounts to do this.

Duane Martinz:

I needed that accountability, I needed to follow up. So that was the best thing that happened for me because if you pay, then you pay attention. And that's what happened to me with the book was I was financial committed and it was a lot of money. And I needed to see this through because, just like many of your listeners, I've been guilty. I'll buy a program, I'll buy a book, I'll buy a something, and most of us never finish the books we buy. We don't finish reading them, and I'm guilty of that as well. But with this I was like, oh, this is a huge commitment, I need to be accountable to me and to my family and see this through. So it was that investment in myself that helped me get the book done.

Eric Heidrich:

You got skin in the game, that's yes wow, absolutely, when you're sitting on the sideline watching someone play. You got no skin in the game, but when it's your butt on the line, there's another saying too show me where your money is and I'll show you where your priorities are.

Duane Martinz:

Yeah, you got that right.

Eric Heidrich:

When your money's in the game, that's.

Duane Martinz:

when you're in the game, that's why I got my online course done. I purchased Amy Porterfield's Digital Course Academy and again Eric. To me and in my world it was a lot of money and I'm like I got to see this through, I got to finish this and I did. And when I look back at that I'm like I don't know how I did that because so much of that tech and everything is so over my head, uh, but just did the work, did the work, did the work a little bit every day, didn't get in overwhelmed mode like she. She taught us and lo and behold, I the work, I trusted the process and I have a digital course, you know. So the same way, I got the book done.

Eric Heidrich:

Awesome. So then with that course you do life coaching, if I'm not mistaken. So if our listeners wanted some coaching services, where would they go to find that?

Duane Martinz:

Well, if you go to duanemartinz. com, the book is on forward slash book and then I have a free resource out there that's forward slash tips and that's one giant way. You can get a free PDF download to how to jumpstart your day and it's basically it's how to increase your happiness and self-confidence for the start of every day. But just reach out to me or direct message me on on social media. I do have a coaching program. So my low tier would be the book. It's fifteen dollars. You can get it for me, where I'll sign up for you, or Amazon, get it for me, where I'll sign it for you, or Amazon. Then the course. That's my mid tier and then the coaching would be the the higher tier. So I don't do many coaching people a year because it takes a it takes a while.

Eric Heidrich:

Yes, yeah, real quick. I want to go back just briefly to a small tier uh book Phenomenal Reviews. So anybody listening yeah, it's called Becoming your Own Champion. You can find it through his website, which I'll restate and I'll put in the links. But Phenomenal Reviews. So that's not just something to just glaze over. Oh, you know, that's my small, that's a big feat. So anyone that's serious about becoming better, that's a good resource for you. One of my favorite other quotes I'm full of quotes, I swear it's like a mask cut to my head. It says if you want more in your life, you need to become more. If you want more, you need to become more. And I think it's important to know it's okay to want more, in fact it's good. It's a good thing to aspire, but you have to. It comes with action, and a good piece of action is get that book and get started. Well, thank you.

Duane Martinz:

And I always tell people it's better to be green and growing than to be ripe and rotten. And I'm sure that's a Ziegler thing. I mean that guy has shaped my life to who I am. But yeah, I'd love for people to read the book and I do have a lot of very positive reviews. There's people that know me said it's like me sitting on their shoulder listening to me. Yeah, I did tell the editor. I said you've got to keep me in the book.

Eric Heidrich:

Yeah yeah, the the editor. I said you've got to keep me in the book. Yeah yeah, the personality that's huge.

Duane Martinz:

And if they, do order it directly through me. I usually pray that I write the right words in the cover of the book to touch someone and because sometimes that may be all that they read is the part, Because sometimes that may be all that they read is the part of it. And I've had some very wonderful success stories on just what was written in the front cover and at a time or two I've had people call me and say what did you write? Because she called in tears about something that you said. So a lot of times, like I was just at a speaking event in Madison, Wisconsin, and I signed some books there, and one of the people who received one of my free books last year was at that event and he read the cover of what I wrote in the book to him. So I know that's god inspired as well. I just pray for whoever I'm sending it to, to make a difference for them.

Eric Heidrich:

That's awesome, like authentic too, like a real, yeah, yeah, you, you, that's, that's really great um with, with misspelling and everything yeah, you have to google some of those words.

Eric Heidrich:

Huh, make sure that they're spelled right. Well, cool, Duane, just a couple minutes left. I really appreciate you being here, but before we close out, I just wanted to ask what advice do you have for people who are currently doubting themselves, because that's a common thing. We all go through moments of that where we're just struggling and we can't seem to figure it out and we have doubts. What would you say to them?

Duane Martinz:

Yeah, you know, the first thing, eric, that comes to mind I'm tearing up already is you got to trust yourself because you're better than you think you are, because you're better than you think you are and we're our own worst critic. And if you just trust yourself and go with that instinct, and then it's easy to find the process to get to where you want to go, because there's a lot of ways to get there if it's whatever it is that you want to achieve, but it's that getting out of your own way and just allowing yourself to start small. Don't be afraid of starting small. But also know that it's like you and I talked earlier about public speaking as many years as I've been doing it I get scared to death before I get on stage. Still, and that's okay, and you just need to be okay with being scared. Do it anyway.

Duane Martinz:

There's a book that's over here by Susan Jeffers. It's called Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway, and truly just trust yourself, because the world has good things in store for you. And if you just trust enough to take that first step I think it was Martin Luther King, maybe that said you don't have to see the whole stairwell, just take the first step, and that's the hardest part of just letting yourself go and trusting yourself enough to start. You've got to start the process in whatever it is that you want. So that's the biggest thing is to start. Phenomenal, yeah, thank you.

Eric Heidrich:

Yeah, thank you, yeah, phenomenal. I personally believe that our biggest gifts and our purpose is found behind the wall of fear. So when you find something that makes you scared, there's something in there that you need to do, and I can't explain why. I don't know why, but I can tell you that the times I felt most alive was when I was scared of doing something and I did it Right. All right, Duane, thank you so much for being with us One last time. For our listeners, they can find you at duanemartins. com, correct.

Duane Martinz:

D-U-A-N-E-M-A-R-T-I-N-Z, and also also you can find me out there in the Facebook world, and I'd love to connect with you and help you any way that I can to achieve whatever it is that you want.

Eric Heidrich:

Awesome. All right, Duane, thanks so much.

Duane Martinz:

Yeah, buddy, thank you. This has been wonderful.

Eric Heidrich:

That's going to do it for this episode of the Dream Chaser Show. Now I have a quick favor to ask you If you've ever gotten any value from this show and you haven't already. Please leave us a review and share the show with one person. It just takes a couple of seconds, but it really goes a long way in helping us create even better messages and shows the world that what we're doing here is actually valuable. Also, don't forget, you can contact us by clicking the send us a text link at the top of the show notes in your podcast app. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for listening and remember dream with courage, chase with faith.