The Secret to Breaking Free from Mental Roadblocks
4 Feb 2025 · 53 min
Coach Bob Shenefeld discusses his iMatter framework, a system for cutting through mental noise to find your purpose. He covers daily practices like identifying your three most important tasks, building peer communities, and attending his four-day retreat called The Mountain.
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Foreign.
Welcome everybody to this edition of CPG Insiders. And welcome to 20 20. I'm your host, Dr. Mark Young with my co host, the Robin to my Batman.
Every time, man.
Justin Girard. You wanna. How about. Would you want to have a different. You want to have it be a different sidekick instead of Ramen?
Look, man, you know, it's. He's still a superhero, right? So, I mean, there are so many worse places that this could go.
But he did, he did wear tights in his underwear on the outside.
That's where I was going to go is. I know, Justin. I don't know if we want to see him in tights, but that's fair.
You know, that's fair. Or at least I wouldn't let you do it for free because, I mean, come on.
So we're going to have a great guest today, folks. Our guest is a very dear friend of both of ours and we call him Coach Bob, but his real name is Bob Shenefeld and Bob is an author. Bob does a number of things. We're going to get into that. And your most recent book, which is. What is it? I know, it's Unscatter the Chatter.
Yep.
And that's what we want to talk about today.
You know, amazing read.
It's 2025. It is that resolution time. And we're not really here to talk about whether you're going to lose weight or whether you're going to, you know, stop eating potato chips. But we make New Year's resolutions for our businesses too. Right, Bob?
Right. Yes, Absolutely.
And this is kind of the time people do that, you know that the average New Year's resolution is broken by January 17th.
I knew it was gonna be in the first 30 days. Right.
And one of the reasons, one of the reasons is because people try to use willpower to solve their New Year's resolution. And I think they missed the point that willpower doesn't work. As my friend Ben Hardy wrote a book called Willpower Doesn't Work.
Right.
It doesn't work. And Ben has a very interesting position on willpower. And his position is if you need willpower to make a change in your life, you haven't actually made a commitment to what you want.
Right.
You're still on the fence.
Right. Not committed. Right.
And in therapy, we actually refer to that as threshold. And threshold being there has to be change, it has to be now and it has to be me. And that once somebody accomplishes that, once somebody says that there has to be change, it has to be now. And it has to be me. From there on out, you're basically living as a new person and the issue becomes creating. Creating a new environment.
Right.
Creating an environment that is going to be conducive to the new person you're going to be. So if you want to quit drinking alcohol, you probably shouldn't be a bartender.
This week and hang with your drinking buddies, right?
Exactly. So, Bob, tell us a little bit about your book. Let's start there. Let's talk about the book.
Sure. It's Unscatter the Chatter and it's based on a company that my wife and I created years ago called iMatter. And so it's about helping. And that was all it was. We wrote it for me because I've been scattered in the past. I'm a visionary entrepreneur and kind of all over the place. And so as I was a part of eos, which my good friend, as your good friend, Gina Wickman, created an operating system for business which I avoided for a while because I'm like, I don't want structure. I like to be free flowing and wing it. And that's cool to a certain point. But then as I learned that structure around what matters most and who matters most actually works. And I love being in the moment and present and tapping into the creativity and the intuition and the magic. I realized as I have certain structure, there's more magic, intuition and creativity within that structure. So we created imatter. And so it's principles, practices and tools and it's a life operating system. And the title of it, which I love is we have especially in today's world. There's so much information coming at us from the outside and it's from social media and the news and our parents and our kids and our friends, whatever it might be, that it's so distracting and most of it's not positive. And then in here the internal chatter has been escalated and so most of that's not positive. You know, why didn't I do this? Am I ever going to do that? And so what we realized with a certain structure and like you were saying, you know, to commit to, you know, if I'm happy with my life, great. If I'm looking to get more out of my life, okay. It's an opportunity for me to commit to something, to commit to my life and then also to have clarity on what is it that I want, how am I imagining my future. It's also letting go of the past, but also learning from it. So improving from the past and then it's impacting this moment right now, and that's being present. So unscared of the chatter. Again, we wrote it for me. And if other people enjoy it, which we found people have, that's awesome. And again, as people we found have put in a business operating system, especially because it's really for leaders who are ready to go to that next step. And if I wake up and I'm 40 or 60 and go, is this all there is? And how do I want to be remembered? What's my legacy? So it's basically helping me and others to figure out, why am I on this earth? So what's my North Star? What matters most to me? And who am I as a person? And so it's unscatter the chatter.
You know, when you talk about information, there is more information published on the Internet now in 24 hours than was published in all of human history up to 1986.
I believe it.
I mean, think about how bizarre that is, right? And there is more news articles posted in the New York Times in one day today than the Founding Fathers received and read in their adult life.
That's overwhelming.
And yet look what they accomplished, right? They accomplished more with less because they were taking in less useless data and had more time to think.
And to be right.
I mean, my goodness, look at the paper. Look at what these people wrote, the Founding Fathers. I mean, it was incredible. And you would ask yourself, where are those people today?
Right? Well, and that, to me, is what, as you know, and you are a visionary. And to me, this is a time for us to step into our greatness and to be an example, not just to other visionaries, but to all people to say, what's your vision for your life? What's your vision for this week? What's your vision for this project? And a lot of people don't even know what that means, but it's like, okay, so like you said, slow down and think. And then, you know, what really matters most? What are the priorities? And then to act on those things and then to be present. And then, you know, then it all kind of works. And so, you know, you know, to me, it's not, you know, to help our employees, our kids, our friends, to say, like, with my son, he's graduating from high school last year, I'm like, what do you want to do next? He's like, I don't know. Like, well, if you did know, what would that be? And then he started to think about it. And then part of having a vision also is to say, okay, share it with people. Have A plan, act on it. It's probably not going to go the way you thought, but then be able to pivot and dust yourself off after not accomplishing maybe what you thought. And it's just to keep going at it and living it. So I think this is a great opportunity. You mentioned the Founding Fathers. I love the founding Fathers. And that, to me, is our opportunity now. I think this is the greatest time ever to be alive. So for us visionaries to walk the talk, live life, share, you know, love more, and then helping those around us to do the same. So I think it's another revolution.
Well, one question that I have just for our listeners, too, Bob.
Yep.
Because I remember this was one of the. I mean, I. Again, through our relationship over the years, this is one of the breakthroughs that I had with you. And it's. And. And it really is the beginning, which was, what is a visionary? Am I a visionary? And what does that mean? Right, right. And so if you can just kind of go through that a little bit for our listeners, because I think a lot of people aren't used to this term.
Yep. No, thank you. Yeah, it was actually through eos. Cause I can inspire, I can sell, and I like to have fun. And so I was successful in sales. And then, like, a lot of businesses, they made a mistake and made their top salesperson a manager. I am not a manager. I'm not. Details. I'm not good at following through. And so I hated my life at that point. And then when I saw a gap in the industry was in, I was like, okay, I'm gonna have the courage to go start this business. And a visionary is often very good at seeing a gap or an issue or an opportunity and seeing potential solutions. So as a. In sales, I would do this to say, so, Mark, what's going on? Justin, what's going on? And say, so what I'm hearing is this. And then people will be like, well, yeah, okay, so here's the issue. What about this? What about that? And then the visionary often will be like, okay, I think I have a solution. And then a visionary will often sell the person on the solution. And then if we have to go deliver it, that kind of sucks. But that's what we need to have the people and the process behind it. So the visionary, what Gino taught me, and he literally, I saved my life in a lot of ways because I did not think I should be running a business. I was frustrated. I was mad at myself. I was beating myself up. And he's like, dude, you are a visionary and there is a place for you in business. And I'm like, yeah, but I'm not a good manager. He's like, no, that's not what it's about. It's to make sure you get your vision captured, documented, rally a team, figure out what team you need, and then stay in your seat. Which is, you know, the role of the visionary is to be inspiration, to develop a great culture of who we are and, and to motivate and to have fun. I mean, a lot of my clients that I coach, the visionary coaching clients that I have, it's. We, a lot of them forgot how to have fun. And, and so it's like, what do you love doing? So to sum it up to me, the visionary is relationship, person, big ideas, network, connecting. When we got locked down hard a couple years ago and I had an in person meeting with visionaries, which a lot of people are afraid of, and the visionaries are like, screw that. I'm getting together. I'm going to live my life. And one of the visionaries is like, I'm so glad to be here because I like to connect. I'm good at it, but I have to connect. And that's connecting with you, connecting you with others, and then connecting with even something greater than ourselves. So that's long winded answer for visionary.
My friend Joe Polish says he wants everybody to have an elf business.
An elf business? What's that?
And his elf is easy, lucrative and fun.
Love it. Yep.
And again, as a friend, Dan Sullivan says, Dan is somebody who's learned that he's a visionary, has absolutely learned that he's not a manager.
Right.
Stays away from the management of his company, Won't even walk into the area where management happens in the company.
Right.
And Dan says if he's asked to attend more than two meetings in a year, he demands an investigation.
My wife and I did a couples conference with strategic coach with Dan and babs. This was 25 years ago out in Vegas. And I got a chance to see Dan and Babs for a few minutes after, after lunch. I'm like, this is great, Dan. You got to come to Detroit to visit our entrepreneur group. And he's like, I don't do my schedule. And I'm like, what a loser. He can't even do his own schedule. And he's like, no, because I'll over commit. And then Babs is like, yeah, he's right. If you're interested, send me information. We'll make a decision. And boy, was that brilliant. Is because I'm the same way. I can't do my own. I don't know when to say no to things. So that's great.
So, Bob, I. Now this is truth. I didn't know what I was doing today until last night.
Right.
Because Tracy here in our office runs my calendar. And it may. And for the most part, it makes no sense for me to get involved.
Yep.
So it makes more sense for me to look and say, okay, Wednesday night, what's going on tomorrow? And the reason I look at it at Wednesday night, because that tells me what time I need to be here.
Right. Exactly.
And then point me to the room I'm supposed to be in next.
Right. And then be yourself.
You know, it's funny, I'm gonna add that. So I was telling the guys off here how I went to do this prison thing last last week and a whole bunch of us authors went to a prison and we spent 13 hours there coaching 80 maximum security prisoners that are about to get out in the next month to a year and a half. These guys had been there 15 to 30 years.
Wow.
And it's run by the prison ministry side of this. That for Joe Polish, is run by Andre Norman. And Andre was the number three ranked gang boss in the most darkest, toughest, high security prison in the country. And his very interesting story. And at any rate, he had made it. He was a lifer. And he actually made a decision that he was just going to kill seven guys that were there because they were in his way. And God kind of spoke to him and told him, nope, that's not what you're going to do. And you're going to turn your life around. And so long, you know, short story is he became a prison lawyer and filed his own appeal and won. He got out and he said God told him he was going to go to Harvard. And when he got out, the dean of Harvard invited him to Harvard.
That's awesome. That's vision.
That's vision. And where I'm going with this is we were asking Andre, what's the best thing to do? What is the best thing that we, all these authors, what's the thing that we can do to help in the prison? And Andre's answer was, show up as yourself. He goes, don't try to be anybody that you're not. He goes, don't be afraid of who you are. If you're a Democrat, you're a Democrat. If you're a Republican, you're a Republican. If you're a Christian, if you're a Muslim, Just walk in the door. And this is exactly who I am.
Right. Well. And that to me is part of the chatter is in most people's heads. It's who am I? And it's the am I? And shifting that conversation to the I am. And it's hard for me to do that on my own, I think, for most people. So that's where even in our book, we ask ourselves questions, we write them down, we share them with others, and it's a safe space to hear ourselves think and to safe space to feel ourselves feeling. And that has helped me and our clients to again realize what matters most to you. Because it can't be everything, because I'm not going to get everything done. Who am I being clear on that as you're talking about? And then why am I here? What's my North Star? So I think to make time to think about those things. And again, listen, whether it's my ego, my heart, God, my dad who passed away 11 years ago, when I slow down and listen, it's amazing the clarity and the direction that I get from that.
So another friend of mine is doctor. Dr. Brackman. Doug Brackman.
Oh, yeah, I love Doug. Yep.
Okay. And you know who he is, Justin. He wrote the book Driven.
Yes.
Doug was with us on this trip, this. That we just did.
Oh, nice.
And interesting, because he points out that 85% of the population genetically don't possess the behavior or the genetic sequence to think about their own thinking.
Right.
And when you look at entrepreneurship, it's about 4% of the population. And guess what? It was 4% of the population 300 years ago.
Yep.
And it's 4% of the population now that people are hardwired to these certain behaviors.
Well, and that's to the visionary question, Justin, you know again. Right. Yeah. We have a different gene. And so that is that creativity, that connection. And as I learned from Dr. Doug a couple years ago, he's like, and it's also imposter syndrome. I'm like, no, that's not my issue, Doug. I don't have that. And after we talked, I'm like, oh.
Shit, Everybody has it. Actually, Doug said, everybody has it.
True. But. And he came to one of our visionary summits a couple years ago, and it was a game changer for everybody, literally, if not everyone, almost everyone in the room, to go, oh, shit. And imposter syndrome is not a bad thing. It's to slow down. And I don't have to prove to you two who I am or to my wife. It's just to be me. But I've been, you know, most of my life saying, how can I prove to these guys I love them and are people going to buy my books and you know, to, to prove to myself that I'm worthy? And ultimately I'm already worthy with my head and my heart and with God. And then the rest is just bonus and fun.
That's one of the things that I actually said to these prisoners because one of the things I was picking up from them was that they all felt that they weren't worthy or that they weren't enough.
Right.
And that when they got out, they weren't going to be enough.
Yep.
And that was one of the things that I tried to explain to them that, no, you're enough right now. And it was interesting because I explained to them, you guys haven't been on the outside for 15 to 30 years. The world has changed. I know you have some Internet access and you get to watch some tv. You don't know what's going on out here. And I mean, I literally started explaining to them, you know, my wife has a self driving car that she never drives. And they're like, what? That can't be right. No, no car drives by itself, guys. He just types in an address.
Right.
But what I was explaining to him was that we have gotten so accustomed now into the United States of having poor service.
Yep.
And inferior products and in people with bad attitudes. We, we expect to go the car wash and get half the car wash.
Right.
We expect to go to. We expect the fast food restaurant to screw the order up. I mean, we don't. It's not like it happens once in a while. We just accept this is going to happen now.
Right.
And what I was explaining to them was if you're, if your goal is to get a job when you get.
Out.
Do the Dan Sullivan thing, show up on time, do what you said, say please and thank you.
Right.
And I was explaining to him, if you just keep those commitments, you show up on time, or let's say you're a CPG company, you deliver the product that you promised, your product performs exactly the way that you said it would perform. If something's wrong, you take care of it and you honor those people who buy your product. You're good.
Right.
You'll be referred.
Surgery is habits.
Right?
Right. No. Well, it's interesting too. So I go back to those three questions that you were talking about, Bob. What matters most? Who am I? Why am I here? Right. And immediately also another Dan Sullivan quote. Comes to my mind. And of course, Mark, if I totally screw this up, I know you'll be able to correct me. But essentially all progress starts from the truth. Right? So. And when we talk about anyone in our lives, it is. Those are the truths, right? What matters most to me? Who am I and why am I here? And so what is the. And it's the truth. It's not what. It's not what that imposter syndrome says. It's not what your, you know, the people around you are saying, or it's. It's not the expectations others have set for you. No, it is the truth. What is the truth of those three things? And those are simple questions that are so difficult to get to. And frankly, they are going to change throughout life. So I'm just curious for you and getting back to, you know, getting back kind of to the book because again, you start off with, I wrote this for me, right, so what were some of the. Whether lessons or even tools from the book that helped you get to those truths?
So we have seven lifetime expanders, which are. And the reason, one of the things that got me to write the book was the gentleman who did the last lecture maybe 10, 15 years ago, his name escapes me right now. And he was about to. He had X amount of months to live, and he worked at Carnegie Mellon or Carnegie Tech or some school. And so he had his lecture room and he basically said, here are the truths and the things that I've learned in life. And it was mainly for his kids, but it was recorded and then, you know, caught fire. And, you know, he got a lot of press and sold a lot of books and everything. And I thought, well, that's so sad. It was his last lecture. So to me, the book is my first lecture. And even per Dan Sullivan, I know we all, many of us refer to him as he's a great mentor to a lot of us. He had the lifetime expander, which is what would you do if you had extra time in your life and then to get that extra time be those things now? And that was a big inspiration to me. So for me, the book, the seven Expanders are how I expand my life. And this book really is for my kids, you know, but it's not necessarily what I've. What I'm doing all the time. It's the lessons that I'm still learning and teaching. And one of the things I call craft, it's not my business, it's teaching what I'm also learning. So I'm learning to know and act like I matter. I mean, a lot of people are like, dude, you're so confident. I'm like, yeah, you should hear what's going on up here. And so. But basically it's the seven expanders, which is to create great relationships and there's tools around that. It's to choose your tune, choose your attitude. So you know, again, Mark, as you said, you know, if I'm expecting bad service, I'm probably going to get it. And I can be pissed about it or I can still appreciate what they did or choose to go somewhere else the next time. But if I can be pissed all the time, what I put out to the universe I get. So if I'm putting out negativity, I'm going to get it back. To realize what matters most is the third one, which. Oh, it's everything matters most. No, I mean for the last 25 years, my kids mattered most. They still matter. But as a parent that mattered most was to spend time with Grace and help her to figure out who she is. And now she's going to be an elementary school teacher and she's changing those kids lives and her life while she's doing it. And then she's realizing who she is. And she just got married this summer. It's amazing. My son to help him to know who he is. And he just finished his first semester at Princeton and he's going to be starting at first base in a month and a half at the University of Miami. We're going to go beat him. So parenting mattered most to me. And now that doesn't matter. I mean, it's still there for them. So realizing what matters most to clarify who I am. So to realize I am a visionary, I am a teacher, I am a speaker, I'm not a manager. I don't even want to run a business, to be honest. I just want to be in that visionary seat. It's to follow my North Star. And that's my purpose, which is to create experience and spread peace, joy and freedom. And I haven't always been doing those things. I've been creating them but not experiencing it. My wife a year ago said, you're not happy? I said, yes, I am. Like, oh, I guess there's something there to look at and then to spread those things and then ultimately to be regardless. And so what that means is to be present regardless. And so again, I can worry about the future, which worry has never really helped. To be upset about the past and have remorse about the past and regret and that doesn't really Help but to be present. And so to imagine these great future. So, as Dan says to my future is greater than my past, and my conscious and subconscious is helping me to figure that out. And downloading from God in the spirit and then improving on the past, it's not ignoring it, but not dwelling on it. Then it's like, I can be present with the two of you here right now. And then the last one, and again inspired a lot by Dan, is to live my legacy now. And that's to be remembered as boy Bob was. You know, he was present. He was a great father, he was a great friend. He helped, you know, Justin to realize something on the mountain. He helped Dr. Mark to this, and he allowed others to help him. And so there's different exercises. We've got about nine tools in the book. And it's at the end of the day, it's to make time for myself and to use tools. And as Gino says, in business, there's a thousand business operating systems. Pick one, and if you don't pick mine, that's fine. The same thing in life. Pick an operating system that works. And not everything that I do works for everyone else, but do something. And so make time for others to join peer groups that have other people that are going through the same thing where there's safe space for me to say, yeah, what about this? What about that? I can be open and honest. At our visionary summit a couple years ago, this great visionary runs a great business, and he stood up at the end of the summit, and he was kind of crying. I'm like, what's going on? He's like, I'm really sad that I'm. I like myself more here with you all than I do at home or in my business. Like, well, why is that? He's like, because I'm me here. I'm like, you can be you anywhere. But we put ourselves in a box. I used to blame people. Well, my brother, my sister Mark and Justin think I should be this. You guys may or may not. It's not about that. So it's personal accountability. And so I guess the main thing that I would share would be to make time each morning to start my day, to ask myself questions, you know, think it's a safe space. But then when I find that my brain, my ego kind of blocks me from my heart and from my spirit. And so if I think, then I go to the why, My ego is like, that's fine. We'll let him go there. And all of a sudden, it hits my emotions and my heart to say, wow, I am actually Sad. And as Dr. David Hawkins talks about in Letting Go, I had shoved those emotions down for my whole life. I come from the happy family. Well, I'm sad. Well, you shouldn't be sad. You have a great life. And so I would shove it down. So as I acknowledge those emotions and accept them, I rise to a higher consciousness level. So to make time to share what matters most to me today, my top impactful action items, three of them, and then my I am statement for the day and then I share that with a group. So then I'm hearing myself think others are engaged. I get to know others. And I then, oh, I told Justin and Mark I was going to 10 send 10 notes of gratitude today. Not that you're going to call and ask me, but to be in integrity, it's like I'm going to get those things done. I get them done first thing and it's like I already had a great day, so now I can be present. So long winded answer and a few things in there.
It's a little bit like Dan Sullivan's model of three important things.
So many of my things are like Dan's thing that I give him all the credit in the world. Yeah, I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah.
Dan Sullivan has a model where you, you, you write out your goals for tomorrow and you write down one of the most, three, three most important things to accomplish tomorrow.
Yep.
And that's where you start. You get to the office in the morning and you start on those three important things.
Right. Not urgent important. Right.
And Dan's model is you may get all three things done by noon and you may decide, I'm going to go home and spend time with my wife. I'm going to go, you know, visit my kids. I'm going to do whatever you may decide I'm going to do a few other important things. But his point is if you do three important things a day, you've done 750 important things this year.
Right.
And most people have never accomplished 750 important things in a year.
Love it.
Yep. And that builds my confidence. And it's the referability habits, as you mentioned from Dan, that if, you know, I, I don't run around tell everyone my top three things, but I do have, I share it with about 20 people a day, including my wife. And I feel so good that by nine in the morning I'm like, I already did what I said I was going to do. And that helps my chatter to say, oh, I Actually am good at following up on things and it's the important things, not just the urgent. Go ahead, Mark. Sorry.
Now tell us about your business coach, Bob the Mountain. Because our listeners can interact with you. And folks, the reason we're doing this show, let me tell you why we're doing it.
Yeah, thank you.
Reason we're doing this show is because most of you, not all of you, but most of you that listen to this program are entrepreneurs. And if you're not an entrepreneur, you probably are the right hand to an entrepreneur if you're listening to this show. Let me explain something to you. We're not normal. We, we are 4% of the population. We are the, we are, we are the, we are the hunters. We are the ADHD people. We are, we are the hunters, not the gatherers, right? And we're hunters who live in a farming world. We're hunters who live in a world owned by the farmers, right? And if you're an entrepreneur, you think, think about being a farmer. I'm going to plow this ground, I'm going to put this seed in the ground, I'm going to fertilize, I'm going to put water and then I'm going to sit and wait for it to grow. If you're an entrepreneur, you couldn't remotely think about, I'm going to watch this field for three months and see what comes out of the ground. So. But we live in, but we live in that world. So Bob coaches people like us.
Now.
It's funny, when you get around other people like us, you all of a sudden find, oh, look, I'm not a special snowflake. Here's a whole group of me, right? And you all do different things and you all, you know, come from different backgrounds, but you're all basically the same person. So when you're running your own company and especially you're in a startup or you're in a mid sized, you know, CPG company, being the top guy in the company is kind of a lonely spot because who do you have to go to? Where do you go? You tell your problems to your, to your staff. No, you can talk about some of the stuff at work to your staff, but you can't go to the people who work for you and tell you the problem you have with them, right? Or you don't want to go to them and tell them the frustration you're having at home because you don't want to mix that in your business. So where, where do you go, where do you go and find Someone who has lived your life, who understands being a visionary and can say, yeah, I've been there, I've done that, here's what I did. Or I've got a client that does that. And so that's kind of where Bob comes in. And Bob, you do this coaching and you also have something called the mountain. Right. And again, that's why we're doing this show, because I want people to have access to people like you. So tell us about what you can do for our entrepreneurs.
Yeah, so kind of the structure of my world is imatter, which is our company in the book Unscatter, the chatter is the intellectual property and capital, the principles, practices on tools, on how to live a great life, to live the life of your dreams. So that's for anyone. And so you can buy that on Amazon or go to imatter.com and how I'm growing that and spreading that is through building communities. And so there's two communities that I'm focused on right now. One is the visionaries. So a I'm a visionary and when I'm teaching, I'm learning even more. So within that community we have the Visionary forum, which is a group of visionaries and we say it's visionaries, unleashing visionaries. We network for each other, not to each other. It is a peer group where we can be open and honest. And like you said, it's like, oh, I get you. And it's not people saying, well no, that's not going to work. You know, it's like, how can I help you to make it work? Or and so it's just this great safe space. So there's a visionary forum and we meet a couple times a month and it's basically this great community. It's resources for the visionaries. And then we also have a thing called the Visionary Summit which is twice. That's for this group of visionaries. That's a three day retreat. We cap it at 30 to 35 visionaries. We bring in three great thought leaders. Not just to speak to us, they are going through it. They are visionary thought leaders. So they're also learning and listening and playing off each other. You mentioned Dr. Doug, he was one of three two years ago and he was just like, this is my tribe, you know, and so he was one of us. So we've got the summit, which is twice a year for three days for visionaries, as you mentioned, the mountain, we do that twice a year right now. And that's a deep dive spiritual retreat and all these things have the foundation of imatter, which is cool. So there is a system. So it's education and execution. And then. And then we're going to be doing more mountains. As my kids are grown, I'm going to spend more time out in Colorado and that way we can do it more often. We do that out in Colorado and then I do coaching where I coach visionaries and if it makes sense, their leadership team. You know, like we mentioned, Eos is a business process which helps the company to be smarter. And some on the health side, what I love working with is the visionary and. Or the integrator or the leadership team on the health side, which is, you know, who are you as a person and how do you build trust? And again, it's not just all about business. It's about who am I as a person and in life. So again, we've got the book, we've got the online tools, which is I matter. We have the forum coaching, but it's basically all around helping people to know and act like they matter and to create experience and spread peace, joy and freedom. And I believe this is the greatest time ever to be alive. A lot of people are like, oh, my God, we're so screwed and so separated. And I know the two of you agree with me on this. This is a great time to be alive. And we've stepped into a new age. I call it the wisdom age. A lot of people call it different things, but as we start to connect and collaborate and step into our genius and our greatness and help each other, this is. We're going to leave this planet better than we found it. I mean, it's a great opportunity to help our clients, our employees and our kids. And it all starts with me. You know, I matter may sound selfish, but if I know and act like I matter, I can help you two more. I can help my wife more. I'm learning more. It's like the oxygen mask. And so that's what we're teaching. And it's not just about creating a community of visionaries. It's about helping visionaries to figure out and create their own community. So again, it's like, if you guys are a part of the forum, that's awesome. But I mean, Mark, you already have a couple great communities and Justin, you have a community. So we're helping people to create their own community of 150 people that they also affect other people. And if the foundation is about. I just, I want to help you and I want to, you know, to use you to help me. This is a great place. And so, like, when I talk about my legacy when I'm 115, which is my date that I. That Dan Sullivan helped me to pick 24 years ago, and just smile and go look at what the. We did. Excuse my language, but. And our kids just going, way to go, guys. You know, and guys and girls, you. You know, thank you for having the courage to seek out who you are and this. And the courage to fail and the courage to be laughed at and. And the courage to have joy and love.
By the way, you might get a chuckle out of this. Doug said he wanted to interview me for his next book.
Yeah.
Because I am patient zero in driven.
Yes, you are.
Doug is awesome. Yeah, he helped. He helped me a lot to understand again, you know, Gino helped me that I'm a visionary doctor. Doug helped me. I've got a lot of Cheryl, and my wife and I lived in Colorado for a couple years, 25 years ago. And to meet these spiritual healers and to help me to understand there is something greater than myself, whatever that is for people, when I slow down and listen, the clarity is amazing. And to realize I am different, and that's okay. And I'm not different by myself. Again, I'm different with another 3 or 4% of the population. And to accept that role and to be accountable, that it's my opportunity and I think my obligation to be a great person, to be an example of being present and to impacting every moment of my day. And believe me, I struggle each day on it, but I keep improving on it.
I was talking to these guys in the prison, and at one point I said to him, here's a little secret to you guys. All of us in this group and all of you in your group were essentially the same people. That's because all of us have been considered to be outcasts and all of us have considered to be ADHD kids, probably when we were younger.
Right.
I go, statistically, we know that ADHD people, 50% become salesmen and entrepreneurs, and 50% go to prison.
Right?
You guys are that 50. We're this 50.
That's awesome.
But the difference is you got caught, right?
We could have got caught. Right. Keep our fingers crossed.
Now, you also have the mountain, right?
Yep.
So tell us about the mountain. And, Justin, you've been to the mountain, so you can talk about it from a, you know, experiential standpoint of what it was.
So, yeah, you start, Justin, and then I can fill in.
Way to throw it back on me, Bob. The way you always do. No, this is what I can say about the mountain. And I know, first of all, let's.
Tell people what the mountain is. Bob, why don't you tell people what.
The mountain is, tell them what it is and I'll tell you what my experience was.
Yeah, so I, I've been a part of the entrepreneur organization for nearly 30 years and again, I've been coaching visionaries for nearly 30 years. I ran the forums for Detroit. I was the forum chair for the eastern region for eo and I would take forums on retreats. And when Cheryl and I were living in Colorado, we met some great healers and found some great hikes and the energy of the mountains and the freedom and literally being up higher is a different vision and vantage point. So I was doing that and then being a visionary, I'm like, I'm going to take 100 people out to Montana. And then Gino, a good friend of mine out on the mountain is like, dude, you got this nail. So it's basically we take seven people out to the mountain for four days. They do some prep work, which is based on Imatter and unscatter the chatter. So people do a little bit of prep work. We show up, we do a deep dive, check in with each of us, then we do different healing exercises, hikes, laugh our asses off, maybe have a cocktail or not. But basically then we go deep into any issues or topics that came up during our check in. And what happens is our defenses go down and it's just real people, like you said, we're all the same. And so for me to say, hey, I'm frustrated with this, and Justin's like, hey, that's a topic. We capture the topics and then throughout these four days, we basically kind of solve these topics. One of the people that went on this said it was a small change in his life that changed the trajectory of the rest of his life. So it's to start and stop a couple little things and it's basically to experience feeling and being and falling in love with ourselves again and tapping into, you know, to other great visionaries, tapping into to ourselves and tapping and connecting into something greater than ourselves. And what's interesting is it's magical, it's moving. And then we literally talk about reentering back into society because it is so joyful and peaceful. And then so is that, is coming back the real reality or is that space that we're in in the mountain reality?
So you're right about the small changes. You know, a good example is when you, if you look at a handgun or rifle and if you're shooting at a target 50 yards down and you move the gun by the barrel by one degree.
Right.
You won't even, you won't even be on anywhere on the target. You'll be in a completely different place.
Yeah. So to sum it up, the mountain is a four day spiritual retreat for people who are living a really good life, that are really ready for living a great life. And so again, I can't necessarily help people who are totally struggling, but it's like, isn't there a little bit more? And so they go, they go on this retreat and they come out of it kind of a new person. But it's not even a new person. It's the person that we really are. So, Justin, thoughts, ideas? No.
And again, I don't want to give away too much of what I'll call the actual activities. Right. Because that was part of the magic was actually not knowing what was to come. So I'm going to save that. I'm not going to go into that.
Yeah. Tell us more about what it did to you or for you.
Absolutely. So here's what I will say. So one of the things and, and we've talked about this before, so one of the biggest things that it helped me, it, it did help me get closer to getting back to those questions to ask. Right. It helped me get clarity on who I am. Did I figure it out all in four days and did I come back and I was this person and I haven't changed and a peace and love stayed there as Bobby talks about it. No, absolutely not. I'm not going to, I'm not going to blow smoke up anyone. Right. But what it did do is, is it helped me, it gave me what I called three things that I've continued and it's on my, you can't read it on my backboard here. But it gave me peace, love and connection. That's what it did. It gave me connection to who I am and it gave me connection to others in that space. As you talk about the energy that was there, it helped me realize what love meant to me and the love that I can create and how powerful that actually is in the world. It helped me retrain my brain away from being so results driven because that's how I was raised and that's how I was groomed in this world as an athlete. And, and it was always about achievement based and you got to do this and this and here's the next thing, right. And Helped me realign with. It's more about the process and it's about the creation, who I am and what I can do. And the results of that are, are the real greatness. Right. And that's going to come, but I'm not going to focus on that anymore. I'm going to focus on who I am, what's my impact, what I can do. And that created more peace for me. Right. And, and being in a group of. So again, my experience, because I walked in there, I walked in there with Bob, I walked in there with his lovely wife. I walked in there with John. Glenn is an amazing coach, and then this wonderful gentleman named Beezer who's also a coach. So I walk in and we get to the first check in that Bob's talking about and I look around and I'm going to. Oh, no. If you want to talk about imposter syndrome, oh my gosh, you figured you.
Were over your head.
I was like, what am I doing here? I don't belong here. Like, there's, there's no reason for me to be here. This is nuts. Right? And by the end of that evening, I realized exactly why I was there. And I had the other members. I remember Beezer coming up to me and saying, my God, you impressed me. Your ability to listen and the insight that you gave. And everyone's older than me too. And, and, and he was like, I am. I'm already blessed to have you here. And we've been together for a couple hours. And so, and so that helped me realize the impact that I could have. And that was the first night. And so then going on this journey and the journey of healing. And again, this is not just about it. And for me, it wasn't just about.
The.
About, okay, what can I bring back to Jekyll and Hyde? And okay, so here's what I'm going to do. And absolutely not. It helped me. It helped me start walking through trauma. It helped me identify trauma I didn't even know that I had and started me to help identify those things and realize that there is a pathway to peace and love and the magic that you talk about. But it didn't set the expectation that, okay, by the time you leave, you're healed and you're cured and it's going to move on. But what it has done, and that was for me, it was a little over a year ago at this point. Yes, because it was March of 2023. And so, and so I have gone through personally this past year and a half has been A year full of trauma. I have lost multiple people in my life. It is. It has been traumatic and it's been hard and it's been tough. And what I can tell you is that what. What it has done is. It is. The best way I can describe it is it gave me the tools and it gave me the confidence and the passion to be able to rebound. It didn't stop the pain from happening, it didn't stop the suffering from happening. But what it did do is it allowed me to get back to peace faster. And every single time, I was able to come back to peace faster. Also it helped me to be that. That healer when I needed to be that healer, because it helped me recognize that I could be that healer now, right? That imposter syndrome of what I can do, my ability to listen, to learn and to create love for others. Like I, I found that at the mountain. And, and not to say I can never find it, but I can tell you that I did. And so now it opened up what as. And. And what Bob allowed me to see is that I am a visionary. Now. What that vision is, I had no idea. But until that moment, I thought I was just a smart guy. And I'm working here with Mark and this guy's so dynamic and, and what he can do and, and, and I'm just here to kind of ride the wave and do what I can do. And Bob, that place helped me realize that. No, your visionary too. Your ability to create, to connect, to do things is just as abundant as anybody else. So what do you want that to be? And I'm still on that journey of figuring it out, but it created that place of freedom for me to do that. And it gave me the. For lack of better term, gave me this permission, right? It gave me the permission to start to discover who I am. I haven't found it yet. And that's going to be a lifelong journey, but it gave me permission to truly start that pursuit and figure out why I'm here. And I can tell you right now, once you, Once you flip that switch and once you identify this is my purpose, this is why I'm here, this is what drives me, then you do have a greater connection to every single day and everything that you do and that accountability point, right? It's not to say you're human, you're not going to be perfect every day, but I can go back and I can answer what matters most to me. I can say, here's my action items, here's where I want to be today. And then I can also look back.
At the day and say, you know what?
How was I that today?
I wasn't.
But that's okay. That's all right. So why wasn't I? And. And then you can make progress forward and you can continue to grow. Right? And so until. So that's what the mountain did for me, is it gave me, literally, it gave me a mountain, it gave me a foundation, it gave me a focal point to say, this is where I can grow from. And now I can grow, and I have the ability to. And, and for anybody out there who. Who feels this power inside them, right? And for whatever reason, whether they haven't given this little permission, whether it's because of the environment, grew up in, whatever it is that feels like I can have been able to unleash this, this is going to. This is going to break you from that prison. And, and, and again, to. To try to quantify that, I think is impossible. But I will tell you right now, it's the most powerful four days that anyone could ever have. And, and if. If you are looking at your life and you were looking at it and you're saying, there is so much more for me, I just don't know how to get it. All progress starts with the truth.
Love that. And I'm showing. Thank you for all that. I'm showing our rock that we, I carry with me, which is go to the mountain. So it's not just the mountain. It's go to the mountain. So it's not just the experience while we're there, because I can go to the mountain whenever I want. So that is a mentality, it's a mantra to say, you know, ah, I'm So what's going on? And say, okay, if I was on top of the mountain, and even just to relive that, it's like, everything's okay. I'm above it all. What really matters most? Who am I? Why am I here? So it's an ongoing journey, but thank you for all that, Justin. I appreciate it.
Yeah.
So, Bob, I'm going to end right there. How do people. How do people. How do people find you? How do people engage with you? You have a podcast coming up. Give us the different ways people can. Can engage with you.
Yeah, so if you go to imatter.com and I'm bob@imatter.com and if someone wants to have a conversation, if you're a visionary that's interested in either a peer group or our workshops that we do, or spiritual retreats or coaching that's what. And ultimately this has kind of been a hobby for me up until last year. And I was kind of afraid, didn't have the courage to take the leap to jump into that. I was an EEOS implementer for nine years, which was awesome. And I made good money and I had an impact. But it's like, that's not why I'm here. So to give that up and say, okay, we're going to turn this into a business. So imatter is our company. So if you go to imatter.com or email me@bob matter.com our team will give you different resources again. You can get the book, you can sign up for things. The podcast Viva la Visionary is coming out in mid February and it's celebrating and elevating the Visionary. So I appreciate both of your time. Love you guys. And however I can help you or commute your community, please let me know.
That is great. We will see you next week. But folks, if I want to encourage you to go to the Show Notes, we'll have the links there in the show notes, so don't worry about writing them down. So go to the Show Notes and we'll have the links to be able to find Bob the podcast. We'll have links to I matter. And if you like today's show, do us a favor, take, just take a minute, give us a five star review and write it. Write a sentence. You know, the majority of people listen to podcasts don't do that, but the more people do that, the more it gets elevated. We are now the number two podcast in all of the CPG world, correct, Justin?
Yep.
Nice.
So of course, me being me, we need to become the number one podcast in CPG world. So you can help us get there by just doing a little five star review. And if you're not, if you're, if you're not subscribed, hit the subscribe button. Then you won't miss any episodes because then they'll just download for you.
Right?
Also, while I'm sitting here begging, asking people, if you have other people in the industry, send them a link to.
The show.
And you know, pass it on. We'd appreciate it. As always, you can always reach out to Justin to reach out to me if you've got questions, if you just need to ask things. And so I want to explain to people, I have a lot, a lot of people that are trying to get time with me and I make it a focus of doing it. So even if you want to call because you can't afford to use this, but I just want to ask you something and get some advice. Be afraid to reach out. Know that it might take a minute to get that call set up. It might not be today. And those are my favorite ones. The people who call up and they literally call on the phone, say, I want to talk to them right now. It's like gotta got a schedule planned out here. It's gonna be a little tough.
But. But I will, I will get to.
You or Justin will get to you. So that's, that's it for today on CPG Insiders. And we will see you on the next episode. And here's to everybody having a fabulous 2025. If you're looking to greatly increase sales on your CPG product, don't hesitate to contact us at Jekyll and Hyde Advertising and Marketing. By the way, the only advertising agency with a guaranteed result. Just go to jekyllhideagency.com or feel free to give us a call at 800-542 10.