Welcome To The Jungle! Are You a Sheep or Cheetah? Personal Growth & Entrepreneurship Podcast

What comes first—action or motivation? In the first episode of Run with the Cheetahs, host Russell Anderson sits down with entrepreneur, speaker, and author Jerry Freishtat to break down the mindset shifts that separate high achievers from people who feel stuck.

Jerry introduces his powerful animal hierarchy of human behavior—from snakes and sloths to sheep, cheetahs, falcons, and alpha lions—and explains why 90% of people stay trapped in the “sheep mentality.” Discover why discipline leads to motivation, how “micro wins” create momentum, and why your childhood labels don’t define your future success.

If you’re an entrepreneur, creator, or anyone looking to break through limiting beliefs, this episode offers practical tools to take action, think bigger, and start climbing your own path to an extraordinary life.

📘 Buy Jerry Freishtat’s Book — Run With the Cheetahs
📘 Buy the Book — Run With the Cheetahs
https://a.co/d/7Kq3MrG

Audiobook: https://a.co/d/jbuW7Bh
Paperback/Hardcover: https://a.co/d/7Kq3MrG
Target: https://www.target.com/p/run-with-the
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👥 Connect with the Hosts

Jerry Freishtat — CEO of Wealth Climber | Serial Entrepreneur | Investor | Author
Committed to innovation, growth, leadership, and helping entrepreneurs unlock their potential.

Russell Anderson — Founder & President, ACS Creative
30+ years in brand building, marketing strategy, and business growth. Serial entrepreneur and lifelong learner.

🎧 Episode 1 – Topics Covered

✅Action vs. motivation: which truly comes first
✅What keeps people stuck in “sheep mentality”
✅The animal hierarchy of human behavior
✅Why discipline creates motivation
✅The power of micro wins
✅Entrepreneurial lessons & personal stories
✅Why finding your “how” matters more than your “why”

🎶 Music Credit

Intro/Outro: “The Emerald Isle” by Michael Fath
🎵 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
_____
Marcus Buckingham – Defining Strengths
🎥 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
_____
💬 Join the Conversation
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Tell us what topic you want to see next on Run with the Cheetahs.

action vs motivation, discipline over motivation, how to get motivated, build discipline habits, mindset for success, achieve your goals, personal development tips, self-improvement strategies, entrepreneurial mindset, overcome procrastination, success hierarchy,how entrepreneurs think, daily habits for success, motivational podcast, success podcast, entrepreneur interview, self-help podcast, business podcast episode, personal growth podcast, motivation, productivity, self improvement, leadership, success habits, mindset coaching, achieving goals

Jerry Freishtat
CEO of Wealth Climber | Serial Entrepreneur | Investor | Advisory for Startup Entrepreneurs | Speaker | Author | Committed to innovation, growth, and making a positive impact on the world.

Russell Anderson
Founder, President ACS Creative; Marketing & Design (30+ years of growing brands; global and local)
Serial Entrepreneur, Forever Student of Business - and Life

Buy the Book and Audiobook!
Amazon Audiobook
https://a.co/d/jbuW7Bh

Amazon Book Purchase
https://a.co/d/7Kq3MrG


Intro/Outro Music Credit
Big Thanks to Michael Fath for the use of The Emerald Isle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hva33IEU3SY&list=RDHva33IEU3SY&start_radio=1

Transcript

What comes first, action or motivation? That's a great question. I think a lot
0:06
of people have it backwards, don't they? They absolutely do because everybody says, "I'm just not motivated. I don't
0:12
feel like doing it. I don't want to do it." Well, guess what? 80% of everything
0:18
that you will do in your lifetime if you want to be successful are things you don't want to do. So, the key is the
0:25
disciplined actions. And then when you start getting some success, the
0:31
motivation then kicks into [Music]
0:43
[Music]
0:48
Hello everybody. Welcome. I welcome you to this very first inaugural podcast of
0:54
Run with the Cheetahs. This podcast is the companion podcast to the book by the
1:00
same name, Run with the Cheetahs, Your Climb to an Extraordinary Life, written
1:06
by Jerry Fryat. And I am honored to have the author with us here today. We're
1:11
going to get him in here in just a little bit. But let's talk about what we're going to be doing in this podcast.
1:16
This podcast is for people who are feeling stuck. People who want to grow.
1:23
People who know they're not living their best life. People who want to be, as
1:28
Abraham Maslo would say, they want to be all they can be. Research shows that most of us are
1:36
performing way underneath our potential. And that's what we're going to be talking about in these podcast episodes.
1:43
We're going to be talking about the principles and the guides, the hacks, the tips, the tricks, what you need to
1:50
do to try and grow and become all you can be. And we're going to have some
1:56
fabulous material in here. The book is just tremendous. I have known the author
2:01
for 40 plus years. I met Jerry Fryat back in 19 in the 80s. I got to tell you
2:09
the little story about how we met. I had a house and uh I had some big sliding glass doors that needed some window
2:15
treatments. And so I called an ad I saw on the paper for window treatments and
2:21
really nice customer service gentleman named Jerry answered the phone, talked to me, said, "Well, we need to get
2:26
somebody else to look at those windows and measure." I said, "Great, let's do it." So we schedule an appointment and
2:32
few days later people come out to uh measure and talk to me about the product and it it was Jerry. Fantastic. the same
2:39
guy that had helped me on the phone, who was wonderful, shows me all the product. We talk about what we should do. We do
2:44
some business. He says, "It'll be a couple weeks. In a couple weeks, we'll get these out to you. We'll have installation come out." Sure enough,
2:51
couple weeks later, get a phone call from Jerry. Hey, everything's ready. We're ready to send installation out. I
2:57
said, "Great." The installation people come out. It's Jerry. The bottom line here is that Jerry was running the ads,
3:05
answering the phone calls, running the appointments to the people, making ordering the product, making the
3:12
product, and then installing the product. He was indeed doing everything
3:17
from start to finish. And I see him smiling here. I'm going to bring him in right now because Jerry, you you were
3:24
the essence of an entrepreneur at that point, my man. Yep. I mean, Russell, I believe that
3:30
most young entrepreneurs start some phase of exactly that story. I mean, uh,
3:37
it it's it's you you live, eat, and breathe, you know, what it is you love to do. And, um, I mean, that's kind of
3:43
what defines an entrepreneur actually, you know, is like the, you know, there's nothing I would rather be doing. And,
3:49
you know, I when I first started out, you know, it was seven days a week and um, you know, learned everything. had no
3:56
idea what I was doing. By the way, you know, just went out, you know, had no sales skills. I had no, you know, abilities to do anything. Just uh just
4:04
kind of winged it. But with every single aspect of everything you did, every single day, you learned something and it
4:10
just grew from there. And it and uh that went on to a that's the beginning of a story of a 40-year entrepreneurial
4:17
career that turned into, you know, many multi-million dollar businesses. Well, that's actually right. you know.
4:22
Uh, so we we got our blinds up and by the way, they were they were gorgeous. Those they look fantastic. And then a
4:29
couple of years go by and I'm driving down the road one day and I see a showroom for Jerry's business, which was
4:36
new. And I said, "Well, you know, I'm going to stop in just to see what this is all about." I stopped in and Jerry
4:41
was actually there in the showroom that day. So, we got to talking. And at that point in my career, I was doing a lot of
4:48
marketing consulting. And uh you know, Jerry and I, we went to lunch. We had a real nice talk. And uh I was fortunate
4:55
enough he he asked me to do some work for him, which I did. And uh that was truly the beginning of our business
5:02
relationship. And our business relationship has grown into a personal relationship. I love Jerry's family.
5:08
He's quite a family man. Wonderful family. He's a wonderful human being.
5:14
He's a health nut, which I can't wait to explore that a little bit more with you. You're going to love that. But it's been
5:19
a fantastic relationship. And here we are. Jerry wrote a book and uh and then this is the podcast that's going to
5:25
accompany the book. So, let's get Jerry in here for real now. Let's get him in here and talk to him. Jerry, say hello
5:31
to everybody for us. Yeah. Yeah. I really appreciate it, Russell. So, by the way, let me let me just jump back to that story that you
5:37
just told about because it was one of the most simplistic things but most impactful
5:43
things on me when I was in my mid 20s. I guess I was like 25, 26, 7,7 years old.
5:49
Um, when we went to that lunch, um, and this is a great lesson for everybody that's, you know, listening that's
5:56
starting out in sales. Russell said to me, he goes, you know, after, this is
6:02
after he presented, you know, what he was doing and did, gave me his background, his marketing, everything that was going on. And got to remember
6:08
this is the 1980s where, you know, marketing and advertising is, you know, yellow pages, newspaper ads, uh, you had
6:15
radio and TV. Um, and uh, Russell says to me after he presents, you know, the
6:22
details of what he does and what his background is, he goes, "You know, I tell you what I'm going to do, Jerry.
6:27
I'm going to put some ads together. I'm going to run a few of them. I'm going to
6:33
do it all at my expense." He goes, "You know what? If it works, then maybe we'll do some business together."
6:39
And that moment was the first time in my life where I understood what providing
6:45
value meant. That was the first time I was exposed to somebody. I mean, how can
6:50
you say no to that, right? And of course, Russell goes ahead and does that. Runs these ads. We get tremendous
6:57
response. And that was the beginning of a 40-year business relationship that we
7:03
built multiple large companies, multi-million dollar operations. Um, and
7:08
it's been a great experience. But that story and just to you know we're going to get into a lot of this in other
7:14
podcasts down the road. But provide value before you ask and that is one of
7:20
the greatest sales lessons you'll ever get. It was certainly a great start for you and me. I'll tell you that we we got off
7:26
to a wonderful start. Well, Jerry, you know, congratulations on the book. I know it's doing real well. I've read the
7:32
book three or four times and uh you know there's there's a quote I'm going to bring up here before we talk about the
7:38
book. It's a quote by Maya Angelo and she says,"Do the best you can until you
7:45
know better. Then when you know better, do better." And I think that that really
7:52
encapsulates your entire book. Your book is all about when is showing people and
7:59
and demonstrating to people how to do better. And if they can do better, they're going to grow the way they want
8:05
to grow. So uh you know Jerry come on te tell tell us what why did you write this
8:10
book? Well the book was kind of a natural evolution of you know my entrepreneurial
8:17
career um the my own personal experiences and you know a lot to do
8:23
with my childhood and how difficult things were and what I went through growing up. Um, I've had uh, you know,
8:28
major major wins and I've had major major failures both personal, financially, across the across the
8:35
board. And one thing I learned over that time is that with every major setback,
8:43
the comeback always exceeded it. It wasn't right away. Sometimes it could be months. Sometimes it was years. But
8:51
eventually if you have the resilience to endure and keep pushing, keep working,
8:58
you will reach a new level and a new tier um in your life. And that's what I that's why the tagline of the book is
9:04
the climb to an extraordinary life. It's not something that happens. There's a lot of work involved.
9:10
Oh, that's the other other aspect of it was um I was working starting I'm going
9:17
to say my mid30s. I spent a lot of time studying the most elite
9:23
individuals, the most successful people. And I'm not talking about just financially. I'm talking about across the board family people, you know,
9:30
people with, you know, um, good faith backgrounds, people who seemed content and happy in their lives. And and I I
9:38
started working on, you know, what makes these individuals tick. And I put all of
9:44
that content that I learned over the last 30 years studying that along with my own personal information. And I
9:51
believe that my book is the pathway. It's a different presentation than most self-help books. Uh that people can
9:59
actually learn not just, you know, what to do, but how
10:04
to do. Um that's that's one of the things I say about my book. It's a how-to book. It actually tells you, you
10:10
know, what you need to do and how you need to do it um to to elevate your life
10:15
to an extraordinary level. Well, let me ask you this. You're the the subtitle here is your climb to an
10:22
extraordinary life. What is an extraordinary life?
10:28
Um okay, let me give you the simplistic definition first. Okay, it's the constant evolution and growth of
10:35
oneself, which is the endless pursuit of exceptionalism.
10:42
You know, in order to live an extraordinary life, you're going to have to pursue exceptional things. Okay? And
10:48
notice I said pursue because not all efforts are going to end up with wins or
10:54
or, you know, positive results, but all efforts are rewarded with growth. Um,
11:00
the relentless pursuit of anything meaningful is never a loss.
11:06
That's great. That's really good. Well, listen, you know, I I've read the book three or four times. Uh, it's a great
11:12
book. I think people will enjoy it. It's one of those books that you can pick up and start in any chapter and get
11:18
something out of or you can read it from start to finish. So, uh, it's one that you want to keep nearby. But let's go
11:24
ahead and start at the beginning of the book because in the very beginning of the book, welcome to the jungle is the
11:29
first chapter. And in that chapter, you introduce a set of labels that you apply
11:35
to a hierarchy of human behavior. And you know, labels are pretty important
11:40
both when we're youngsters, uh, good labels, bad labels. I can remember, uh,
11:46
I was I was not a good runner. I was not ever labeled a good runner, but I was a good reader. And I think all of us
11:53
individually have a group of labels. Sometimes those labels actually come together to form what we feel is our
12:01
identity. And so labels can be very important. I remember back in the 80s, Jerry, that Carol Jackson wrote a book
12:08
called Color Me Beautiful. And in that book, she identified ladies complexions
12:14
and the different sorts of complexions. and she identified each one and labeled it as a spring, a summer, a fall, or a
12:22
winter. And those labels basically ignited a fashion trend which still
12:28
continues to this day. People still use those labels. So, you've got a set of labels which I've never heard before.
12:34
Uh, one of them is a little bit familiar, but the rest of them are not. Please tell us about your labels and and
12:40
how they work and how they apply. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm I'm I'm big on, you know, human nature and human history
12:46
and you I've done a lot of studying in that area and I believe that um to get people to understand things, I'm I'm
12:53
also big on metaphors, right? So, um I what I did is I took the what I call the six levels of, you know, human behavior
13:01
and uh and identified them with animals. Um, since the book is called Run with the Cheetahs and uh, so so at the very
13:08
bottom tier where it starts out are the snakes. And the these are the people who just are intentionally deceitful. These
13:15
are your worst people, right? And your your next level up are the sloths. And the sloths are the victims. These are
13:22
the people with no accountability, no responsibility. Everything is somebody else's fault. And um and those people
13:31
generally live their entire life that way. Uh the next level are the sheep and the sheep are the conformers. Um the uh
13:40
you know I want everything on an even playing field. Don't ruffle the feathers. What I have is good enough.
13:48
And you know th those people are trying to live what you know they call a content lifestyle. Um after that we run
13:55
into the cheetahs which are the climbers, the risktakers um the the
14:01
people who are looking for something better on a consistent basis looking to grow, expand and elevate their life. Um
14:09
the next two levels are kind of an evolution of the cheetah. Um the are the
14:14
falcons and the falcons are what I call a sophisticated cheetah. um they focus a
14:19
little bit more on the emotional side of things and they also um the the key
14:25
difference between a cheetah cheetah is mainly based in work ethic and a falcon
14:32
works in detail. So they're they're just a little bit more sophisticated from everything they've learned over many
14:38
many years of being a cheetah. And the highest level is the alpha lions. And the alpha lions are the innovators.
14:45
These are the rarest people of all. Um it's people you know just to give an example like Martin Luther King or Tiger
14:52
Woods or you know Tom Brady people who have reinvented something that they have done that
14:59
revolutionized uh the world and re revolutionized something that was not there before.
15:05
Wow. Wow. So uh I really want to be and I really want to be a climber. I mean I
15:10
and I kind of identify myself as one of those cheetah climbers. I think I have a
15:15
lot of sheep characteristics that uh I need to to pay some attention to, but I
15:21
really want to be a climber. So, I think you've said before 90% of the people are
15:26
are identify in the sheep category. Is that correct? That's correct. And and and you know,
15:32
and actually, you know, being a sheep is not necessarily a bad thing. You know, sheep can be loving, caring people,
15:37
meaning well people, um things like that. But, you know, ultimately I find that most people that are sheep that
15:45
stay sheep their entire life, uh, they eventually end up suffering what I call
15:50
the death nail of regret. Gotcha. I gotcha. So, you know, people are out here. They're watching us.
15:56
They're listening to us. They're saying, "Okay, well, I want to get a little bit of this cheetah life." You know, how does one how does one begin to be that
16:04
climber? How does one begin to move towards and into and progress through
16:10
the cheetah life? Yep. And um I mean it all starts with education of course you know knowledge
16:16
and and learning and self-education and and understanding the concepts that it takes to improve yourself. Um but let me
16:23
ask you this question. What comes first, action or motivation?
16:29
That's a great question. I think a lot of people have it backwards, don't they? They absolutely do because everybody
16:34
says, "I'm just not motivated. I don't feel like doing it. I don't want to do it." Well, guess what? 80% of everything
16:42
that you will do in your lifetime if you want to be successful are things you don't want to do. So, the key is the
16:49
disciplined actions and then when you start getting some success, the
16:56
motivation then kicks in to keep going. Confidence is just simply the memory of winning.
17:04
And I believe that confidence is at the core of all success.
17:11
Well, you've hit you've hit on a couple of words. Go right ahead, please. No. So, it's so that sounds like a lot,
17:18
right? But it really starts with what I call micro wins. you know, every single
17:24
day you got to do little things that make yourself feel a sense of
17:30
accomplishment. You know, stop hitting the snooze button. You know, a lot a lot of it's it's what you do and what you
17:36
don't do, by the way. You know, so, you know, like little things like like the snooze button. Um things like, you know,
17:43
basic exercise, you know, discipline yourself to do these things that when they're done, you kind of re feel you
17:50
don't need a congratulations from anybody else. you kind of feel a congratulations toward yourself. And if you start developing these micro wins on
17:58
a daily basis, you'll you you will just slowly evolve into a more confident person, a more
18:06
joyful person and that's the beginning of the path to an extraordinary life.
18:11
Well, you have hit on a couple of words that are just huge concepts. One of them is confidence. Uh one of them is
18:18
discipline. Uh you you uh you in you you said you didn't say the
18:25
word momentum but you were certainly talking about the way to build momentum. I think that's one of the most important
18:31
words you can possibly use when you're trying to grow anything. Uh you know but
18:36
but one of the places that we have to start is we have to start with some self-awareness.
18:42
I mean you said it earlier about the lies we tell ourselves. You know, we have to start and be we have to be
18:49
honest with ourselves about who we are. Uh you know, it's been said that we spend more time getting to know our
18:56
friends and our mate, asking questions about what they like, where do they go, what do they do, why is this, why is
19:03
that? We ask more questions of our associates sometimes than we do about ourselves. And sometimes we just don't
19:10
know ourselves as we should. So self-awareness becomes really important
19:15
here. Wouldn't you agree? Yeah. I mean, this gets back to a little bit of what you said earlier about
19:21
labels. Okay. Uh this is uh this is what happens in our childhood and teen years.
19:28
You know, people impose upon us
19:33
what we you know perceive as who we are and it has nothing to do
19:40
with who you are. um you need to know yourself not
19:45
someone else else's falsely you know views or opinions of you that that get
19:52
implanted in your mind and and parents I mean are a huge part of this thing you
19:57
know mo most of us are a complete product of our environment and our parents and what we grew up with um
20:05
someone else's views and opinions absolutely 100% do not define you. Only
20:13
you define you. And people never think about that. You know what what happened
20:18
yesterday and and and the the information I got yesterday and things that people said about me yesterday.
20:24
Well, you know, you could start today to build a new tomorrow and you can discount that. A lot of
20:30
times that involves getting out of the arena of people that you associate with.
20:36
Sometimes it's the people that you're around. Um, you know, Ed Mlet, I'm going to read this quote to you real quick
20:41
from Ed Mlet. It's about, you know, you can't love yourself if you don't know yourself. And you can't know yourself
20:48
without spending time with yourself. And that is one of the things that very
20:53
few people do is like get away, do spend some time with yourself. I don't care if
20:59
you go on a hike by yourself, go on vacation by yourself, whatever it is, spend some time on what is it that I
21:06
want, you know, what what is it that you know, what are my talents? You know,
21:11
what am I good at? You know, all these things that would build your self-esteem are what's important, you know, to
21:17
growing in life and becoming an extraordinary person. Um most of us do look for outside sources for our
21:25
identity and our true identity you know lies within right um I'll give you just
21:31
another quick story about that you know um this is also related to the labels and so forth you know when I was in
21:37
elementary school um right from the beginning I I was an ADD kid and I was
21:43
in trouble you know literally from kindergarten forward and I was a huge
21:48
problem in school I was principal's office all the time and the
21:55
the impression I had from all these experts and I saw psychiatrist,
22:00
psychologist, counselor, I mean it was like a non-stop thing that went on for like five straight years and
22:07
that made me think what the there's something wrong with me, right? You know, I mean, those labels were put on
22:15
me. And the reality of it was is
22:21
there was nothing wrong with me. There was something wrong with the system that I was put into based on my personality
22:28
and what my needs were. Because I got to sixth grade, my teacher knew exactly how
22:34
to take care of the situation. She kept me active, gave me things to do. I didn't have to sit at my desk all day.
22:40
And and I realized at that point my ADD was a superpower
22:47
because Yeah. because from that moment forward once I recognized, you know,
22:53
that I was different than most people as as a positive, not a negative. I mean,
23:01
everybody should take a look at the things that you the gifts that you have. We're all born differently. We all have
23:08
gifts. We all have talents. Just because those gifts and talents don't fit into
23:13
the norm of society or what what's perceived to be normal
23:19
absolutely does not mean that you're not an exceptional person. As a matter of fact, being different is a gift. So I
23:26
think everybody should, you know, contemplate that because most of us feel bad about not conforming and you should
23:33
feel great about not conforming. I love it. Well, you know that Jerry, that brings us to strengths and
23:39
weaknesses. I mean, and you and I, we've talked about strengths and weaknesses. And, you know, there's a lot of different schools about how to think
23:45
about this. Some people really think you need to work on your weaknesses and, you know, try and get them up to spec, etc.
23:52
U, but, you know, I'm a huge fan, we've talked about this before, of Marcus Buckingham. And for any of our listeners
23:59
or readers that um don't know him, he's all over YouTube and you can check him
24:04
out. and he has been preaching about strengths and weaknesses for years. And uh boy, I just I I've been following
24:11
him. He's tremendous. And what he really says is we need to lean into our
24:16
strengths and mitigate work around our weaknesses. I mean, we're working with
24:22
our strengths is where our success and our happiness is going to come. and let's mitigate our weaknesses and and
24:28
and and and not not ignore them, but understand them, but don't think we're
24:34
ever going to get those weaknesses up to being, you know, 100% or 110%. Now, I've
24:40
shared this with you before. I'm going to do it one more time. You know, I have some strengths. I mean, I I have some competencies. I'm pretty good at some
24:47
things, but boy, do I have some weaknesses. And one of them is working around the house. Now, this is not a
24:54
laziness thing. This is I am simply not good with tools,
25:01
Jerry. Honestly, this is my tool bag. It's in a baggie. It's in a baggie. I I
25:07
mean, I don't ever want to have to reach for this because I'm terri I'm so awkward with it. And it's it's a
25:13
weakness. I'm never going to be a carpenter. I'm never going to be some guy that can go around the house and fix
25:18
all the stuff. So, I just try and I try and keep all that kind of work at bay and bring in people to get it done when
25:25
it when I can. Strengths and weaknesses. I think everybody needs to know what their strengths are, play to them, and
25:33
understand their weaknesses and mitigate them a little bit. Do you agree with that? Yeah, 100%. I mean, you're you're the
25:40
prime example in this conversation right now. Look at your strengths, right? you
25:45
you're you're you're an amazing creative marketer. Um, you know, you've built
25:51
mega multi-million dollar companies, not only with me, with other clients. Um, you are a top-notch level musician.
25:58
People might not know that about you, but uh, if you do some research on Russell, you'll find that out. So, those
26:04
are those are your strengths. And, you know, it this whole conversation reminds me of that um that thing that Mark Cuban
26:11
preaches. And Mark Cuban says you should focus on what you're good at, not your
26:17
passions. And the it's just so true. And the reason he says that is because when you
26:25
focus on the things that you're good at, and this gets back to what I just said in the last segment there about, you
26:31
know, your the gifts that you've been given, um, we're all born with inherent gifts and talents. If you focus on
26:38
those, especially when you're young, you're going to get those little micro wins on a regular basis. And the second
26:46
you get those wins going, your self-esteem goes up. You feel good about yourself, and that results in
26:52
confidence. Yes. So when you So again, you know, the example I like to give, you know, I'm
27:00
510, I've got short arms, my vertical leaps about a foot, right? Am I ever playing
27:08
in the NBA? Probably not. But let's just say I love basketball. And you know, so
27:14
that could be a passion of mine. Well, keep your passions that you're not necessarily gifted or good at as
27:21
hobbies. You don't have to just completely eliminate it, but that's not
27:26
the areas that's going to elevate your life and you're going to soar and be confident in. So, you have to identify
27:33
those things. Find out what you're great at. And and sometimes, by the way, the
27:39
things you're great at might not be the things you enjoy the most, but once you start doing them and you start getting
27:44
that success, you'll learn to love it. Oh, I love it. That's great. You know,
27:49
back in the 90s, I wrote a program called Goal Tenders. And I don't think
27:55
you know too much about it because I never really launched it, but there were some pieces of it that actually I
28:00
introduced to your team back in the time. One of them was that line, the best year yet. And we've talked about
28:07
that. But in that program, I introduced two exercises. And I didn't make this
28:12
up. I read this and found it. But when I did these exercises myself, I thought
28:18
they were amazingly powerful. I want to share them with people today. Now folks, this is your homework. Okay? Okay. I
28:23
mean, this is something you really need to do. You need to get out a piece of paper and do these couple of things I'm
28:29
going to suggest to you. Uh the first one is list out the top 10 things that make you
28:36
happy. List them out. You know, what are those things? Is it reading? Is it exercise? Is it going out to dinner? Is
28:43
it meeting with friends? What are the top 10 things you like to do that make
28:49
you happy? And then when you review that list, you should be doing what you can to get more of those things into your
28:55
life to keep your happy quotient up high. That's just a really good exercise. And by the way,
29:02
it's almost hard to believe how much that list changes over the years. I first did that for myself when I was in
29:08
my 30s. And let me tell you where where what I had on that list then and what I have on that list right now are very
29:15
very different. But but here's another one. So that's number one. That's your happiness list. The second one is your
29:22
list of goals. Now, let me tell you why this is important.
29:27
We all have so many things rolling around in our heads. We, you know, I want to I want to go on a jungle safari.
29:33
You know, I I want to go to Italy. I I want to build a business. I want to I want to do this. I want to do that. We
29:39
have so many things in our head. Let's make a list. Let's make a list. I hope you can put a hundred things on there.
29:45
It's really hard after you get after 25 or 30, but put it all down. Get it out
29:51
of your head and onto a piece of paper. And the advantage of doing this is then you can look at that list and say,
29:57
"Okay, well, you know, that's right. I'd like to do all these things these, but what are what am I going to get serious
30:03
about? What are the three, four, or five things here that I can identify and get
30:08
some clarity on where I really want to go?" And then in future talks, we're
30:14
going to talk a lot about goals and as you will say, Jerry, the commitments you need to make to make those goals happen.
30:21
Correct. Yeah. I mean, the that's exactly where I was going with this whole thing. So, you
30:28
know, most people have goals and and some people write them down, but a goal
30:36
without a commitment is just a dream. Yep. Okay. And dreamers go to the graved
30:43
dreaming, right? So when you set a goal and you make a commitment, you have to
30:50
have, you know, when this is going to start, when this is going to end, every
30:56
single aspect of it along the way. Um, and and the most important thing that
31:02
most people don't understand, and I learned this from coach Michael Bert, he has something called A to B. you know,
31:09
I'm over here and I want to be here. And he has he says, "What goes in between
31:15
the A and the B?" And the answer is who.
31:21
Relationships and who is going to help me get there is
31:26
the most critical thing because the who leads to the how. And you know when I
31:31
when I got into the bodybuilding world about 15 years ago, there's no way any
31:38
bit of it would have happened without the who who taught me the how. And that
31:43
is something that everybody should always when you have a big goal or not even a big goal, even a moderate goal,
31:49
you you're going to need some type of coaching to get there. Well, we're going to spend a lot of time in future podcasts talking about goal
31:56
how and how to reach goals. It's a it's a big conversation. I can't wait for that. Hey, I got something for you that
32:02
I want to ask you. Um, so a lot of people, this is a big topic
32:08
right now. It comes and goes as being a big topic and that is life's purpose.
32:13
You know what, what's your purpose right now? I think a lot of people are saying you got to find your why or you got to
32:19
find your purpose. And I just I want to know what does Jerry Fryet say about your purpose, your life purpose.
32:28
Tricky tricky one here, Russell. Um because it changes and I'm in the minority camp on this topic because
32:36
everybody most of the motivational speakers you'll see and there's even a book called Know
32:43
Your Why, talk about the why. And I'm not about the why. I'm about the
32:49
how. And the reason I'm about the how is because
32:54
if I can find something in a short window, when I say short window, a year or two window, that I can figure out how
33:03
to execute on that and have the regimented disciplines to achieve
33:09
something in a short period of time and then, you know, gain the confidence and gain the self-esteem that comes along
33:16
with that. I can take that piece into anything else that I want to do or move
33:22
on to. Most people when they're in their, you know, teens, 20s, even 30s and 40s,
33:28
they they don't know their why. Life changes all the time. And sometimes if
33:34
you focus on the why, you can also get stuck in just living the same five years
33:41
over and over and over again because you think you have a why, but as you grow
33:47
and your life expands and the world changes and family and and different horizons come come about. um your view
33:55
and visions of things you want, dreams, goals, happiness, what whatever you want
34:01
to call it, is it changes. And so that's why I' I'm I'm focused on how I can
34:08
execute on what it is that I'm looking to do now, a week from now, a month from
34:15
now, a year from now. Um, not not to say I don't f have have a drawn out path to
34:22
a 30-year, 40 year, 50-year path because everybody should have that as well. But,
34:28
um, but that why is going to change. Well, you know, Jerry, I'm I'm so I'm kind of relieved to hear you say all
34:33
that. Uh, about 10 or 15 years ago, I was in a church group and we decided to do a study on Rick Warren's book. I
34:41
can't remember if it's life with purpose or 40 days of purpose. I can't remember the title. It's a fantastic book. I
34:47
highly recommend anyone read it and uh we spent literally six or eight weeks
34:52
studying this book. And uh you know, people got different things out of it. I enjoyed every bit of it, but I can
34:59
honestly say that at the end of that book, I didn't feel like I knew my purpose. I I I did feel like I I wanted
35:05
to be me, and that was the closest thing I can come to my purpose is that I want to be everything I can be. I want to try
35:14
and be all I can be and I realize that I've got a long way to go. I want to
35:19
keep climbing. I want to do I want to get more of that cheetah life. Yeah. Life is about the like we said earlier,
35:26
it's the constant evolution of oneself and and you you take that to the grave.
35:31
It does not end. You know, most people and I think we all can say this when we're we're in our teens. We we all have
35:38
this impression that there's some like level of euphoria in life like you reach
35:44
some level or some destination and all of a sudden everything's glorious. It's
35:49
all sh sun sunshine and rainbows and everything's perfect. That does that that's a fantasy world. It does not
35:56
exist. Life is a continuous battle. I mean in my book I call it there's a
36:01
chapter called embrace the battle and uh that is
36:06
accepting that and understanding that is what breeds contentment in within
36:12
yourself because you're always looking to grow and achieve. The second you stop
36:17
doing that you're headed to a bad result and uh that's where depression and and
36:22
other things you know start kicking in. Um, you know, no, nobody wakes up,
36:27
nobody wakes up and says, "Hey, how could I be average today?" Right? You know, but but our conforming the
36:36
average, you know, people that are, you know, 90% of us that are sheep, you know, we engage in those conforming
36:43
behaviors that limit that growth. And it's all environmental. It's all a
36:49
misperception about the way life is really works and how humans are supposed to be working to achieve different
36:56
levels of ex of success over time. I also like to I'm just going to throw this in here is that you know achieving
37:02
exceptionalism there's what I call the five horizons and those areas are health, family,
37:11
finances, professionalism and faith. And each one of those categories, you
37:18
know, needs some time and dedication for, you know, education, execution,
37:25
commitments, goal setting, and every one of those things because um you and I have discussed this at length about, you
37:31
know, we both have exceptional marriages. Our wives are the most amazing people on the planet. And we we
37:38
we sit back and say, "Wait, why is that?" Well, it's that we've done the work, right? you know, so uh you know,
37:46
there's there's a commitment and uh there's not a day that goes by that I'm
37:51
not thankful for, you know, the gifts that my wife has brought to my life. As a matter of fact, without that, you
37:57
know, the success I've had wouldn't be there. I mean, there's no doubt about it. So, that's one of the things you
38:03
have to prioritize. You know, my goal was to make her the happiest woman on the planet every day, not occasionally.
38:10
Well, I know you do the work. I know we do the work, but I will say that uh getting my wife to marry me was closing
38:16
the biggest sale of my life. There you go. So, listen, you know, we're let me let
38:23
me skip aside just for a minute. I want to get personal with you for a second. You know, I I knew you pretty well. And
38:28
uh I know back in the day you were into bodybuilding for a while. And when you and I got together about a month ago,
38:34
you shared with me that uh you were kind of getting back to it, not to competitive bodybuilding, but you wanted
38:42
to once again get back into the regiment of of really exceptional health and
38:48
bodybuilding. Now, I happened to see you. We got together about a month ago, and it was two days after you had
38:54
started getting back to the gym, and you were a hurting puppy. I mean, you you were sore and you were saying, "Oh my
39:00
god, I don't know if I can do this." How are we doing with all that? And tell us about that little journey.
39:05
Well, it's it's like anything else. You know, the commitment, the dedication, it's evolved and and now I'm in a you
39:12
know, I'm I'm in the trenches, so to speak. You know, the workouts are going great. I'm past all the soreness
39:18
periods. Um diet, you know, I've got that locked in. And um and just in I
39:25
guess I'm on my ninth week uh and I again getting back to who I hired a
39:30
coach. Um so I'm I'm my ninth week in and I'm down about four points in body
39:36
fat. Uh body mass is actually up with my body fat down and my weight is down um
39:42
eight pounds. Um, now that not that that's anything
39:48
exceptional, but what you have to understand is when I was done with bodybuilding, um, this is I guess I
39:53
wrapped it up about eight years ago. Um, I I didn't go more than nine months
39:59
without some type of physical issue after the bodybuilding career. And um, I
40:04
had six um, orthopedic surgeries. I had um, kidney stones a couple times. I had
40:10
to get a prostate issue uh fixed. So, um every time I would come back to try to,
40:18
you know, get into my regimented lifestyle, which is critically important to me. I mean, that that's what drives
40:23
me, physical fitness, health, and wellness. Um something kept getting in the way. And I just took the disciplines
40:30
that I've learned, you know, through everything else I've been through, especially the bodybuilding discipline,
40:37
um and fought those battles. I mean that that's the bottom line. And then all of a sudden, you know, I my last surgery
40:44
was my left shoulder uh labum surgery, which at my age, it took close to a year
40:50
to fully heal. Um after that, I was finally there was nothing wrong, right?
40:56
So I said, you know what? Let me let me let me get back into this in a serious way. And sure enough, it's worked out. I
41:03
feel great. A matter of fact, I feel the best I've felt since I left bodybuilding. Wow, that's cool. energy levels up and
41:09
uh and of course, you know, one of the things that I like to do is look good for my wife. So, you know, that's
41:14
another factor. Absolutely. Well, anybody that doesn't if you knew Jerry, Jerry's been a gym
41:19
rat all his life. I mean, he's a he's a guy that loves to work out. Big gym guy. And if you ever looked at him, you'd
41:25
say, "Well, this is not a guy that needs to go to the gym." But he loves it and and that's why he looks like he does. So, I congratulate you and applaud you
41:32
for getting back into it. I know it'll go real well for you. You know, one of the terms you used a minute ago, and I'm
41:38
just going to say this is this is the book is fantastic, but my favorite chapter in the book is embrace the
41:45
battle. I just think that's such a great phrase. And since this entire podcast,
41:51
your book, the podcast, it's all about growth. It's about growing. It's a and
41:56
embrace the battle is for me, it's just the core theme of what what you have to
42:02
do. So, I just wanted to throw that in there real quick. Um, we've got so many good things to talk about. Um, and you
42:10
know, for today, I think we should get close to wrapping up, but I want to say, so here we are. We've done an
42:16
introduction. The book is fantastic. People are hopefully they're saying,
42:22
"Okay, well, well, here here's where I am. This is where I am, and here's where I want to go." And if you're in that
42:28
comfort zone, which so many of us are, the question becomes like the song, do I
42:34
stay or do I go? Do I stay where I am, where it's nice and comfy, or do I move
42:40
on to better things, to bigger things, to the things I hold dear in my dreams
42:46
and my hopes and my aspirations? So, do I stay or do I go? I think that's probably where we where we should leave
42:52
it for today. Uh, you know, one of the things I'd like to talk about going forward is
42:59
what holds us back in all of my talks and research that I've done for many,
43:04
many years. That becomes like one of the biggest things for people to have to learn and deal with is what is it that
43:11
is holding you back? Would you agree with that? Yeah, I mean that it's something that everybody faces and um of
43:18
course you know you and I when we were younger we had our share of in just like everybody else. All of our insecurities,
43:24
you know, all of our doubts, all of our fears and um we are going to get into uh
43:31
in the chapter um called the dream stealers. We're going to get into how how you're going to conquer that.
43:36
That's a fantastic chapter and we might even bring a guest in for that whom I think you and I have spoken about. guy
43:42
is fantastic with uh talking to people about what's holding them back. So, uh you got anything last you want to say
43:48
today, Jerry? Nope. I think we're all good to go. It's a great great conversation and uh Russell again just uh 40 years uh
43:56
launching the podcast with you. It's just the next chapter. Let's go, my man. Let's get Let's rock this thing. All right. So, good to see
44:02
you and we'll talk to you real soon. Thank you everybody for tuning in and uh listen, leave us plenty of comments and
44:08
we are not sure exactly what our schedule's going to be. It's going to be probably once every two weeks here
44:14
initially. So if you do subscribe to us, make sure you do hit that bell. You've heard that a thousand times from people.
44:20
Hit the bell so you're notified when we put another one up. Initially, it's probably going to be about every two weeks and we'll settle into a good
44:27
schedule. But Jerry, I'm looking forward to it. We're going to have a good time with it. We're going to put a lot of really good information into people's
44:34
hands. Yep. Thank you, Russell. All right. Talk to you soon, my man. Thanks. See you. Goodbye.
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