The Journey Of Success: Elevate Other People And Achieve True Greatness With Jake Kelfer

Welcome to the Conscious Pivot Podcast with international speaker, business mentor, best selling author of Pivot, and your host, Adam Markell. The Conscious Pivot shares the stories and wisdom of people who have successfully reinvented some area of their business and personal life. You'll gain powerful insights into how you can fully embrace new opportunities, increase your performance, and master the art and science of innovation and resilience. So please join Adam as he guides you on your conscious pivotal.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Conscious Pivot podcast. I'm your host, Adam Markell, and I am feeling good and grateful today. The two GS. I just sort of recently started saying that, and it feels really. It feels great to say that, actually. You know, somebody says, how are you? How you doing? I'm from New York originally. And so that whole how you doing? Thing is kind of a funny. A funny little exchange that I'm used to since the time I'm a kid. And yet it's always interesting to. Well, for me, as I've gotten older, when somebody asked me that question, I really want to give them an honest answer. Growing up in New York, the standard answer was, great, fine, how you doing? I was like, you didn't even answer the question. Somebody says, how you doing? He said, hey, how you doing? Nobody even answered the question, as I recall. But last several years, people ask me that, I really want to be honest about my answer to them. And not every day do we feel great. Not every day does our body feel great. Not every day do we mentally feel really fit or at our best, maybe financially, we don't feel great every day, etc. And there's a lot of shit going on in the world right now that can feel less than great. But when I started to say this a couple of days ago, I just started to notice how it felt for me to say, you know, I'm good and I'm grateful, and both of those things felt true. You know, if I'm great, I don't mind saying I'm great for sure. But good is, yeah, I feel good and grateful together. And that means that. Well, you know what? I won't even say what it means because I got a great guest today that we're gonna kind of dive into some of this juicy bits together. And his name is Jake Kelfer, and he and I are gonna chat about a number of things today. Maybe we're gonna track that. We'll see. It's usually no accident that those things kind of comes through at the beginning of a show. So Jake is a lifestyle entrepreneur, a life elevator, which we can talk about too, and a coach to ambitious entrepreneurs and freedom seekers, helping people create incredibly impactful and profitable businesses. He is the best selling author of Elevate beyond and Elevate youe Network, a high energy motivational speaker, and the founder of the Professional Basketball Combine, which helps NBA draft prospects turn their dreams of playing pro basketball into their reality. There's a lot to unpack there. I'm looking forward to that. He and his work have been featured on Forbes, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and many other major media outlets. I'm looking forward to this conversation so much. Jake, thanks so much for being a guest on the show today.

I appreciate you. I'm pumped to be here. I'm feeling good and grateful and let's do this thing.

Nice. Are you a basketball player yourself?

I consider myself a basketball player just now. It's recreational. Right. And not legitimized, but no one's taking that away from me ever.

That's good. Yeah. You know, what, with that definition in place, I'm a basketball player too.

There we go.

I grew up playing schoolyard basketball, but I never got my dad's height. He was a really good basketball player and I love the sport. And, you know, it's kind of an interesting thing. Cause that ESPN special about, you know, I think it's called the Last Dance, right. Was the. The documentary about the last season when Michael Jordan was playing with the Bulls, as well as Scottie Pippen and, you know, the rest of that Dynasty team playing together. Did you see that series, Jake?

Oh, of course. I mean, I mean, I'm a basketball nut. So a show like that comes out, I'm glued to the tv. And for me, look, this is really interesting. I'm a young dude, I'm 27. So I grew up with Kobe. And as a Lakers fan, a Southern California kid, I grew up with Kobe. And this plays a huge role in my story. But I had always heard that Michael was the goat. Right. The greatest. But I didn't get to witness it really, because I was 6, 7 when they went on. You know, they won in the 90s. And so being able to see that documentary for me was like eye opening because you got to see really who Michael Jordan was outside of just the stories or the old clips. And that was, I mean, that was so cool for me to see that.

It really is epic. Even in, like, watching it so many years later, to see some of what they were able to accomplish. Right.

Yeah. And even like, outside of basketball, how Great it was that they were filming that back then, and now you're seeing it coming to light here in 2020, 2021. Whenever someone's listening to this, like, such an amazing, amazing piece that really shows what a champion looks like and what you got to be willing to do to make things happen and adjust when things don't go our ways. And so I. I dug it. I love the whole thing.

Yeah. Well, you know what? It's so great you brought that up. The idea that there are lessons to unpack, lessons about obviously, professional basketball and success in that arena, but also in a lot of other areas. So I'm just going to put. You throw this one right at you. What's something that you learned from that documentary that you still thinking about or that you've been applying since seeing it?

I mean, the thing that stands out and there's a lot of things. I even wrote a little bit about this and did a bunch of stories on it because I was fired up about it. But here's one thing that is the biggest truth from there. No matter how great we are as an individual, we can never achieve true greatness without other people. That is the thing for me that I base my entire life on is I wouldn't have had the success I've had up to this point if there weren't other people involved. I wouldn't get to the places I want to go if I don't include other people on that journey. And the more you include the right people, the more fun the process becomes anyways. And so that was like, for me, just a huge takeaway because everyone's like, Michael, Michael, Michael. But without his coach, right. He doesn't achieve what he does without his role players, without the Steve Kerrs, right. Without Scottie Pippen, who's great, Dennis Rodman, he doesn't achieve some of those things. And it's. It's really like, for me, that's by far the biggest takeaway is that no matter how great we are and no matter how great other people think we are, we need others to get to where we want to go.

Yeah, it's so interesting because Phil Jackson is. Is the. Was the coach at that time, obviously, you being a Southern California boy, you know, he comes to the Lakers and creates his magic there with Kobe, right. But he. He first did it at the bowl, you know, with the Bulls. And before that, he was actually on a championship basketball team. He played for my home team, the New York Knicks, which, man, it's. It's a. It's A sad thing, but that's the last time they won a world championship was actually with Phil Jackson playing with guys like, you know, Willis Reed and Earl Monroe and, you know, whoever else was on that team back then. But. But Phil Jackson coming to that team, it's. It's. It's remarkable because first of all, he hadn't coached a. He wasn't the head coach of any team to that point. He was just an assistant. He had maybe been an assistant for a couple of years with Chicago. And Michael Jordan was obviously, he was the star. He was, you know, the marquee, everything. He was all world, winning MVPs, scoring titles, you name it. And the first thing that he does when he comes, you know, into the role of head coach, he says, listen, it can't be just about you now. I mean, she's telling a franchise, hall of Fame, you know, future hall of Famer, that. That something's got to change now in order for them to go from being good to great. So this is funny that we're going to come to this, but to go from that place where they were a good team, but were a team that was getting stopped at some point every year, you know, was. The Pistons were kind of their arch nemesis at that point, but they had been stopped every time. And Michael had no ring. And Phil Jackson comes in and says something, hey, you know, we got to go to this triangle offense, and we're going to. We're going to try something new, and you're not going to be the only guy touching the ball. And what I found personally remarkable was that even with a very healthy ego that Michael Jordan obviously, you know, had and has he had to make a decision whether or not he was going to buy into that system and put the team ahead of himself personally in order to win and, well, I mean, be coached, to be coachable, I think, is one of those things that you don't hear a lot spoken about Michael Jordan as a guy who was coachable, but he was certainly coachable, don't you think?

Oh, for sure, for sure. And I think related to that, right, is like, we have to be coachable just as humans. And if we're, you know, I look at it with our event that we run the professional basketball combine, it focuses a lot on guys who are right in that second tier who want to get into the G League, get on the last roster spot of the NBA, right? They're right on that fringe. One of the key separators for those guys is how coachable are they and how Much of a team player, are they? Because the franchises look and see, is this person going to add to our organization, even if they're not playing on the court in the games? And, you know, we look at Michael right there, super important that he's coachable to go from his level of individual hall of fame to team hall of fame. You look at guys at the level that I work with to get from a overseas contract to an NBA contract, it's, are you coachable? And do you bring something to the organization? Right. And then we look in business and in life, and it's like, are you coachable? If you want to separate yourself from everyone else who makes x amount of money, to make this amount of money. Right. Or to get no customers to getting a stream of customers. Right. Coachability is one of those things that I think is so pivotal in all aspects of our life.

Exactly. So you're a young guy. Where did you learn? First of all, are you coachable?

I'm 100% coachable. 100% coachable. I know how important it is. Right. I've learned quickly.

Well, I mean, it's one thing to recognize that coachability is important and look at other people go, you know, it's important that they're coachable, but it's another thing to be coachable yourself.

Right?

Where did you learn to be coachable?

Yeah. So I'll preface this by saying, like, maybe growing up, my mom wouldn't have said I was always coachable because I'd always snap back and get defensive with her. Right. And then someone else would tell me, and I'd come back to my mom and be like, mom, I just learned this. And she would be like, jake, I've been telling you that for the last six months. You just never wanted to listen. Right. But I believe that, like, my willingness to be coachable has stemmed from my parents. I'm very blessed to have two incredible parents in my life that growing up, they were my rocks, and they really taught me about this, whether it was in sports or whether it was in academics. And they were always like, when a teacher gives you feedback, see it as a chance to improve, to get to that next level. When a coach gives you feedback, it means that there's a chance to be better. Right. And I'm internally wired to want to be great. I just have this desire that I always want to keep leveling up and. And bring people along with me. So the more that I'm coachable, the more I'm able to then coach other people and bring them with me on this ride. And so the credit, a lot of it goes to my parents for putting me and giving me the opportunity to put myself in situations where I would have that opportunity, whether it was in sports or academics.

Yeah, I have a bit of a theory about coachability as well, which is that often coachability is something that we learn out of adversity, out of our own personal frustration or making mistakes, making sometimes the same mistakes again, or kind of hitting the wall that we can't break through. And I'm curious to get your thoughts on that because to me, one of the great things that I could also associate with that word, coachability is humility. And again, to look at someone like a Michael Jordan and say there's humility there, you'd think, well, you can't be as strong as he is. You can't be able to trash talk people and just literally will yourself to victory when at the same time that you maintain a humbleness. But again, I think from Michael's standpoint, you know, with all his success, like you said, individual hall of Famer at the time, when Phil Jackson takes over that team, he goes from individual hall of Fame with no rings and no championships to team hall of Fame with six, six titles. Three. Three, you know, two groups of three, which is, you know, like utterly remarkable, you know, at that time, kind of an unheard of thing. So is, has there been a time in your life when you were humbled and it was that humbling experience, whether it was in business or in something personal, that that helped you to see the value in being coached or develop that humility to be able to listen to people?

For sure. I mean, I think throughout my life there have been a lot of key moments where I've had to check myself, you know, and when I say that, it's not even in like this super negative thing where I thought I was unbelievable and needed to like really check, but it was, I needed to check myself to see if I was in alignment. Right. I needed to get focused on just because I want to achieve something and I want to get to that next phase. Am I going there for the right reasons? Am I taking the action steps that are going to get me there for the right reasons? And so when I think about some of the things that I've done, whether it was writing my first book, I was this 23 year old who was writing a career development book. Now internally you have all these doubts of who's going to read a career development book by a 23 year old on the Other side. I have all this excitement of, like, I'm 23 and I got my first book coming out, like, let's go. We're separating ourselves from the pack. But I had to take a step back and realize that from the coaches and the people that were in my life is that no matter what happens, is most important for you to keep going. And a lot of times when we get to this point, whether we think we're really remarkable and something doesn't go our way, or whether we're hesitant and we're hopeful that it does go our way, we stop because we're afraid of what's on the other side of that action. And for me, there have been a lot of those moments that in different initiatives and endeavors that I've pursued where I've had to really say, hold up. What am I willing to do here? And am I doing it for myself or for the greater good? Something bigger than just myself. And those moments have always forced me to come to a place of humility while also still maintaining that competitive edge to be great.

Yeah, that's really well said, Jake. So, you know, I have a client. Part of what our business does is we help people to craft talks that are fit for a big stage. You know, like keynote speaking often TED TEDx or TED speaking. And Ellis Wims is a former defensive, you know, he's a guy who played for several teams but. But he won a Super bowl as a member of the, of the Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And one of the things that Ellis has shared with us is the, you know, his process of going from a kind of a guy who wasn't going to be recruited, you know, wasn't a scholarship player in college, ultimately did play, and in his senior year was a starter and all that kind of thing. And then in the sixth round, you know, he doesn't even think he's going to be a draft pick, you know, and all that kind of thing, but he did the NFL combine and that's where he was seen. And then ultimately, you know, gets picked up by, I think Tony Dungy was, was the coach of the Bucks at the time. So I hadn't heard about the, the. An NBA combine. Is that something that you, you got involved with at its inception? Were you one of the co founders of that? It's just something I hadn't heard of, but until I actually read your intro.

So the NBA, which I believe is the greatest sports organization out there, they have their NBA combine just like the NFL has their combine. Right? The NBA combine features the top players that are likely to get drafted, just like the NFL combine ideally puts players that are going to be drafted. The only difference is there's a ton more players that get drafted in the NFL versus the 60 that get drafted in the NBA right now. A couple years ago, the NBA announced that there was going to be a new contract. This was called a two way contract where basically every team was going to have two additional roster spots where they would be able to send this player down to the G League to develop themselves, but also they could bring them up if an injury happened. And this contract would pay 9 to 10 times what what the player gets in the G League system. So when that was announced, I immediately realized, well, where are the teams going to find these prospects? Where is the event that's going to host all of these prospects? Well, there wasn't an event outside of the NBA combine. And so myself and along with a couple other people, we started talking about this idea and I ended up creating a secondary NBA draft combine to help that next tier sign those contracts to get noticed by the G League so that every team could come to one location so they didn't have to fly these guys in and spend more budget. But the agents could do things for their players, the players would get more exposure and everybody would benefit because of this event. And that's essentially what became the Pro Basketball Combine. And over the three years that we've hosted it, we've helped over 70 guys get noticed and signed in what's now 30 countries across the globe.

Yeah. So when do you typically do the. So is yours the actual NBA combine now? That's what you call it?

No, so we call it the professional Basketball combine. And so we have our event and then the NBA has their NBA combine the week before our event typically. So they'll go, they have their players that attend and then we go. We have our players and teams will fly out, send scouts, regional guys, executives, assistant GMs, whoever, depending on the talent that they really want to see and evaluate. And so that's how we run it. And then hopefully our guys funnel into the NBA pipeline and we've had some incredible success stories. But I think there's something important that I want to note here, which is we talked about Michael Jordan, right. We talked about Phil never being a coach before becoming the head coach. A lot of times in our lives we just need that one opportunity, right. We need somebody to give us a chance to that isn't expected or guaranteed. Something where we've worked hard. All these players that Come to our event, have worked their ass off and now it's time where they're like, you know what, they're right there. They can taste it. Right. And so our event has given players an opportunity to say, I do belong in the NBA. I do belong in the organization. And we've had guys go on to win the G league rookie of the year. We've had over 10 of those two way contract spots filled. We've. We've had guys who were mid major players in college end up getting G league contracts. We had a D2 guy who no one heard of. We took a risk on him, gave him the opportunity, and he's been in the G league ever since. And so that one opportunity is sometimes all we need to take somebody from good and turn them into somebody that's great. A lot of times we have it inside. We just need that chance.

So when is this typically happening? Well, I should. Has Covid impacted your ability to do the combine this year?

Yeah, Covid played quite a big role for us. And so we actually didn't. Weren't able to host it this year.

Because the NBA was in the bubble. That's what the way they were conducting their league in the bubble. Yeah.

So the NBA did their league in Disney in Florida. And the season, you know, it was a completely different season out of whack. So the regular NBA draft, the draft process, everything has changed. And we're approaching as of the time, they're recording the 2020 NBA Draft. But the way it worked out is there was no big events or anything like that. We weren't able to do it. So one of the things that we did for our players because we still wanted to give guys a platform. We stand for giving guys a platform.

I wanted you to tell us how it was that you were able to pivot because it was in many ways about pivoting. And so here, here, your one big event, the event you're planning for all year long isn't going to happen. You know, obviously it's disappointing, but you did something about it. So that's, that's where you're at.

Which is exactly, exactly. I'm gonna, I'm gonna get into that. And so, you know, it's, it's, it's really interesting because I'm gonna go, I want to go two ways with this. Okay. The first way is related to this, this big event. Now we have a small team and this big event kind of was like, shoot, are we going to be able to do it? Are we not going to be able to do it. Obviously, now we realize we aren't able to do it. What we did instead was knowing that our whole mission is to get players an opportunity to give them a chance to turn their dreams into their reality. Right. That's what it is that we provide these players well. We wanted to use our platform as a chance for players to be heard and seen. So our director of scouting started doing virtual film rooms, virtual draft rooms where he'd break down film. We'd get a bunch of prospects who we would have invited or who would have been on our radar and allow them to almost pitch themselves through their knowledge of film and their game and distribute that to team personnel. We were also able to do a PBC honoree list. So we announced players who would have been invited or would have been there as another way to boost their credibility and boost their stock moving forward, whether it be in the NBA or overseas, depending on what happens. You know, And I think the thing for us related to this specifically is there's so much unknown. There's so much unknown and we are so reliant on and focused on what the NBA does because it goes hand in hand. Right. If the NBA doesn't have it, we don't have it. And it's really important for us to understand that even in the midst of all this, we can only control. We can control.

Exactly.

And if we focus on the things that we can control and we create the opportunities out of that to the best of our ability, we're going to be alright. And we're going to set ourselves up for the future and continue to do the things that made us what the event is today.

So is it fair to say that you are focusing on just what you can control, is how you leverage uncertainty for this?

Yes, 100%. That is how we've been able to pivot and navigate through this time.

Yeah. And part of the conversation on this show is always around the topic of resilience. So I'd love to just get your beat on that. What does it mean to you? How do you define it? Where has it shown up or not been there for you in either your personal life or in connection with the business?

Well, I think resilience, and this is one of those words where I feel like there's so many interpretations and meanings of it and it can be applied to us in so many ways, similar to greatness, success. Right. But when I think of like resilience, I think of in my own life and for the people that we work with or that we See, is the ability to keep going in the face of adversity and the ability to not only keep going, but to enjoy the challenges that come up through that adversity. And so, you know, when I think of this situation, for me, it was not just in the basketball world, but as a motivational speaker who's doing a. A bunch of gigs a year all over the country, right? Like, you know what that's like. Those events were canceled, those contracts. And so I had to really evaluate and go back to my roots. Why am I doing what I'm doing? What is the way that I can make the greatest impact for myself, my family, and the people that I care about? And how can I continue to change the world even though I'm not able to control everything about what I want to control? Because I want to control more, right? Like we all do. We want to have more control.

I'm a control freak. I mean, I'll just say it like we want it.

And so I think, you know, when it comes to resiliency and being resilient, it's about understanding that there's always going to be things that we have no control over, right? It's always going to be that we're going to get knocked down, but it's what we do in that situation that separates us from everybody else. And so that's resilience for me.

And how is it that you. And so I'm not sure how larger or what the size of your team is, but, you know, I have a theory that when we work with organizations, when we either speak to them or we work with people, senior leaders and those folks, we say, you've got to model resilience. I mean, that's the only way an organization is resilient, is because the individual people that work in that company are resilient. Now, not everybody has a blueprint for what it looks like or what it takes to develop their own resilience. So it really requires a great deal of leadership. So do you have sort of things that you're doing currently in the organization to encourage people to be able to take better care of themselves? For example, like, what does that look like within your. Within your group?

I think that's exactly it. Right. And again, our organization is not big. Right. It's mostly me and our director of Scouting within the Combine, and then we have freelancers and contractors and everything. But the biggest thing that I focused on with him specifically was just giving him certainty that I still believe in him and what we're doing.

That part of what you did was to give that guy, because there's a lot of people that are part of this community, have large, large organizations, and some that are just solopreneurs or starting up with a few people, and then have outsourced solutions and all that. But in this time of great uncertainty, what you did is you told this guy or you reminded him that you are certain that you can succeed and that you're certain that your certainty includes him. You have faith in him and his value to the organization and that even in the midst of whatever's going on, that as a company, as a team, you guys can succeed. Did I paraphrase that correctly?

Yeah, 100%. I want him to know that I believe in him. I have faith in him, and I have faith in what we're trying to do. And even if we can't control what's going to happen right now, we can control how we set ourselves up for the next one. We can control how we continue to stay mentally strong, how we can continue to find unique ways to be innovative and creative. I mean, that's one of the blessings, typically that comes out of a terrible situation, whether it's personal or on a global scale, is we're forced to. To innovate, and we're forced to make these adjustments. We're forced to pivot. Right. We're forced to see what really matters. And when we have those people who tell us it's going to be okay, who believe in us and tell us that we're going to come out greater and stronger because of this, you feel that it's possible. And that's why I think connection. And when I said at the very beginning, the greatest lesson I learned from the last dance is that I is that no matter how great we are as individuals, whether you're the CEO, whether you're a mid manager, whether you're a contractor, the most important thing that we can do to achieve greatness within ourselves is to tell somebody else, to bring someone else along the way for the journey. And that's how I make it a big priority for me with everyone that I work with at any point in time, is that, you know, I want you to know that we're in this together and we're on the same ship.

Right. I believe in you, and I believe in our ability to succeed.

Yep.

And what's happened there is you kind of aikido the whole thing because you go right in the middle of great uncertainty. You're creating certainty.

Yep.

Nobody has a crystal ball. There's no such that that certainty doesn't exist even for, you know, again, recovering control freaks like myself. So the landscape ahead, what are you guys thinking in terms of how far ahead you're looking and what you're doing to plan for that?

So it's a really interesting question because, again, we are reliant a lot on what the MBA does, and in some ways, that's a blessing. And a lot of ways it's not because we're dependent on somebody else to dictate potentially, the future of where we go. So with that, though, with that, that's.

The challenge and the opportunity all at the same time.

Exactly. Exactly. We've done an incredible job at navigating it up till this point, but also we've done a great job navigating it up to this point. And I think now more than ever is we are being proactive to react, if that makes sense. We are anticipating what we think could happen and laying out the scenarios, but we are also waiting for information to make the best decision of how to proceed. Does that make sense?

You know what? We often talk about disruption and the fact that we are disrupted, and obviously, so many areas of so many different models were disrupted this year. And sometimes we talk in terms of how you manage disruption. And I think one of the ways that you do that is that you self disrupt, that you. That you positively interrupt the status quo. So, yes, right now you're. You're pivoting because you kind of were forced to do that. But I think when you're looking ahead, you're looking at what's the landscape that you can create. Is there sort of a scenario that involves being sort of riding in the coattails of the NBA? Because that's, you know, there's a great model that already exists for that. And then what would it look like to not do that or to do something that wasn't necessarily competitive to it, but was. Had collateral. There was a collateral benefit to doing something that wasn't strictly tied to the strategy and the planning of an entity that you have no control over.

Mm. And look, with both of us, myself and our director of scouting, you know, he's got another job, and I'm a business coach as well. So we've been able to build up the combine in a way where we are. We have that flexibility. Right. And so, you know, when I said talking about how we've changed with the combine and how we've had a pivot and do certain things, well, it's also allowed both of us to look into our own lives. He just had a kid. Okay? What does that look like? And how am I supposed to, as a leader, give him that certainty moving forward that he should spend more time with his family? Because there's going to be a time where we're going to need to jump back in and go haul in. And same thing for me, how can I reinvest this time that maybe I wouldn't have had? How can I reinvest this into my wellbeing, into our coaching clients, into our programming? What new things can we provide? Because what's happening is that by the next year, right, within six months from now, there's going to be exponentially more growth as an individual on my end. And I'll speak for myself here, there's exponentially more growth for me because I've been able to understand true priorities. I've been able to get more efficient. I've been able to build something that's going to last longer and create a larger legacy. And when I think about the entire scope of why I do anything that I do, it's to literally, I mean, it's a change world, but it's to elevate the world to be able to achieve their greatest definition of success. And all of this, everything that we're talking about, the resiliencies, the humility, the life of what the events are, all of it has boiled down to, is this going to get me closer to my mission of elevating people and to personal fulfillment and freedom and happiness? Because that's all it is that we're all trying to seek. And so if this is giving us that opportunity to reflect, then I need to take advantage of that opportunity, even though it may have been disguised initially as one of the worst things that could have happened to our combine and to the, you know, to myself as a speaker. Right.

So let's just for a moment talk about the public speaking piece, because we have a lot of people as well, that are in that arena with. In our community. So the gig stopped, you know, Covid happens. Everything you had on the books is now put on hold or canceled, and no new gigs are on the horizon at that moment. What was your pivot or what. What did you do to improvise? Because improvisation is one of those skills we are getting to work on so much now. So what was part of what became part of your best practice to respond to what was going on?

So I work with a lot of. As a speaker, I work with a lot of high school colleges, leadership groups, and some organizations, probably about a 70, 30 split. And for me, one of the first things that I did was anyone that I had an existing contract that got shut down, I let them know, similar to what we talked about with my employees, hey, I completely understand what's going on. I'm here for you, we'll work this out. Just, I know it's going to be a tough time. Let's just communicate and go back and forth. Like, I wanted to let them know that I'm not going to apply pressure, I'm not going to go collecting their paycheck trying to claim the half of the fee because everybody was panicked and that wasn't the way I wanted to handle it. And so I let them know that I was, I was there for them and worked with them. The second thing that I really tried to do was in the beginning was build relationships with new potential clients by offering to do little gigs. So in the high school space, in the college space, in the leadership groups, I reach out to a bunch of people that maybe I met once or twice or maybe people that I knew would potentially gonna hire me in a year or two and was like, hey, I'm sure everything got canceled. I'm sure everyone's freaking out. I'd love to do a 15, 20 minute thing for your seniors as a little send off for them. That's easy. It allowed me to, one, practice my virtual skills, allowed me to practice my virtual presentation, but also build incredible rapport with the decision makers who now are going to be like, well, look at what he did in a time when we needed him the most. Now if they're deciding between me and someone else, guess who they're picking? Me. And I've seen gigs come in for 2021 purely off of that intentional strategy. And again, it wasn't to get more gigs per se. It was to create impact and give people what they needed right now. Right. And it was to show them I care, because I do, but it benefits all of us. And that's when we're winning, is when everybody's becoming better because of us and growing because of what we do and our actions. So those are a few of the things that I've done and then now really tried to leverage different types of virtual stages, summits, podcasts, virtual conferences, and leveraging all these different avenues. But in the beginning, those were the two pieces and pieces that I still think are always applicable. But sometimes we don't think about those things as the natural plan of attack.

Absolutely. And I have a theory that it's very difficult for us to give anyone Else, anything that we don't possess ourselves. So to be there for other people, to be at our best for others, it interferes with that process if we don't take care of ourselves personally, I'm not talking about selfishly, but that we actually recognize that to take care of ourselves is actually benefit to others around us. So my question to you is, as we, as we wind down this discussion, what's one thing that you do on a ritual basis to take care of yourself, to maintain that resilience?

One thing, there's a lot of things that I do on the day to day, I got my routines. But look, one thing, and this is something that's played a role in every pivot I've ever made, is the practice of gratitude. That is something that I never fully appreciated. And as someone like me who's always go, go, go, gratitude was never something that I thought I needed to practice because I thought it slowed me down. I thought it took me out of this pursuit and away from the speed. And in reality, the practice of gratitude has been a force of comfort. It's been a source of happiness, it's been a source of connection, and it's been a source of growth for me every day and in everything that I do because it always allows me to stay present. And I think that's like one thing that I really like because of my change in stance on how I thought about it. Sure did. I always know gratitude is important. Yes. Right. But did I ever go on a gratitude walk? No. I laughed at that. But now I go out and I walk and I look at the leaves on the trees. I see the leaves change colors and those things. There's power in that. There's power in noticing things and being fully present. And to give a specific example is you can walk down the same block in your neighborhood every single day and every. If you start to notice it, you will find something new that you never noticed, even on things you've walked by a hundred times. And that's when you're present. And so gratitude has been that one thing that if I had to pick, would be something that I highly recommend for everybody to do.

Well, now I know fully why it was that we were connected for this podcast. So, yeah, gratitude is. It's like an unsung hero in so many respects. And I love what you just shared, Jake, about a gratitude walk. I'm not heard it termed that way before. And of course, it's no wonder that we started with that concept of what it means to be good and grateful. And I'm good and grateful for you today, buddy, and for all that you just shared with our community. I have a ritual that I remind myself of at the start of every day. It's a ritual that has helped me to reset. I think that's the thing about gratitude is it's such a reset and it can take no time at all. I mean, it could be 10 seconds. You can create a reset for yourself in the midst of a day that might be going sideways for any number of reasons. We just hit the wall or something comes out of nowhere, we get surprised or energetically, we're not at our best. And you go, well, what do I do about that? Well, you know, you can hit the reset button and gratitude is one of those things. You can do it, you can use to do it. So for me, there's three steps to my waking ritual. So the first step is to wake up. So I already know the answer to this question, Jake, but I'm going to ask you anyway. Did you wake up today?

I did wake up today.

You are fully awake, buddy. And it's true too that, you know, as we as awake as we are, you know, maybe we're amped up because it's a good day or whatever it might be, where the process of awakening is a process. It's not a thing that it's done because today you feel good, you got to do it again tomorrow. A little bit more tomorrow, hopefully than today. And that's a life to me, that's a fully encapsulated life, is that every day you wake up just a little bit more than the day before. So that's the first step in this, the second piece you've already spoken about, which is gratitude. So to wake up, when I wake up in the morning, I take that 10 second reset for myself. And it's sometimes it's more than 10 seconds, sometimes it's, you know, you know, it's a couple of minutes they just lie in bed or I sit with my feet, you know, on the floor and I just feel what it feels like to experience gratitude throughout my body. And that's the second step. And you spoke to that. And the third step is I really believe that our words have power. This is one of those things that a lot of people don't really get as fully as I think we can get it, that our words have power. They have this divine power to them. There's this opportunity to do something miraculous with our words each day. So what you say matters. And a lot of us just throw away a lot of words. And, man, if any of us were to listen to a recording of all the stuff that came out of our mouth in a particular day, it would probably horrify us. So to carefully select our words is not that easy for an entire day. But at the beginning of the day, I set that intention by curating a specific thing. I say when I put my feet on the floor. It's four simple words, but four words that have changed my life and I think have helped a lot of people as well. And those words are, I love my life. So I wake up, I feel gratitude. I put my feet on the floor and I say, I love my life. So those of you out there that are contemplating a morning ritual or a waking ritual, you could try this out for yourself, just obviously wake up. We're all going to do that, right? Hopefully. No guarantee. So if you're searching for something to feel grateful for, the fact that you're alive and breathing in that moment, you don't have to really look further than that. And then you could pick something to say. So, Jake, I'm just putting you on the spot right now, man, but you're going to wake up tomorrow, you're going to feel gratitude. What's something that you could say out loud in that moment?

I love my life. We can do that. We could do. Today's gonna be a great day. We can do just I'm grateful for water, shelter, a bed. Or we could do something, you know, very personal. I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for the opportunity to, you know, for me, I'm grateful for the opportunity to choose happiness, to choose gratitude, to choose the people I surround myself with.

Yeah. Well done and beautiful. Jake, thank you so much for being on the show today. Absolutely. Awesome. Everybody else, we'd love to hear from you. It's so great to hear from our community. So you can go to AdamMarkel.com podcast, leave a comment there. Obviously, if you haven't subscribed, feel free to do that and recommend the episode to somebody else that you think could really just maybe somebody that's not living in gratitude or wants to get some really great insight around pivots, the ones that Jake was speaking about. I think now is a great time to share something like this with people and give them a hand. And we all need a hand. I'm always looking for inspiration. So without saying any more than that, I'll just say ciao. And thanks so much for everybody. Bye bye.

Thanks for listening. Good evening, everyone. We hope you now have the tools and greater insights to navigate your own pivot. Help us inspire others by sharing this episode and leaving your comments over@adammarkel.com podcasts for more tips, strategies and support as you consciously pivot into a new business and lifestyle you love. Join our Pivot community on facebook@pivotfb.com.

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