Eagle Summit Keynote: Transform Your Mindset for Success

Okay.

Hey, guys, we're live, and we are about to have our keynote speaker, and he's awesome. You guys are so entertaining. You're gonna love it. So stay tuned. Give us a second.

Are there people back there that we need to bring in?

Yeah, well, you know, haul their butts in because they don't want to miss this. Yeah.

So we've done a lot of good over the last couple days, and my heart is just, like.

Exploding. How many people are out there? How much time do I have to kill?

Thank you.

I've got a hook in my car, just like an SD card. But I. You know what? I got a joke.

We're on live.

Let's do it. I know we're on live. And so if any of my friends are watching this, they know. They're like, oh, no. I know exactly what joke she's going to tell.

Why was the rooster happy?

Why?

Because.

You should have kicked. You should have kicked the leg up at the same time.

I just did that on Facebook Live. That cracks me up.

All right.

I know.

Live from the Eagle summit, this is the quality content that we bring to the stage.

Jeff, are you ready? Oh, no, no.

Okay.

I mean, can you follow that? Seriously? I didn't think so.

I've only had one drink, too, so just wait. It gets better.

All right. Chris, was there anybody out there? We're good. Okay, let's go. Okay. So I have no introduction for this guy. Just watch the screens.

To rise above the beginning of life, consistently live our best and add value to the community, we must harness the power of the champion for him. Our speaker is Jeff Kozatek, Peak Performance Else with core authenticity. He is a distance trusted advisor and certified coach with both the Values conversation and the John Maxwell team. Jeff uses a creative process to help leaders overcome overload, doubt, and burnout. Today, he will show us how we can be the champion for ourselves, our families, and our community. Get ready to be part of every courage. Put your hands together and help me welcome to the stage inspirational speaker, bestselling author, and peak performance coach, Jeff.

Can we do that again? That was a lot of fun. I'm sorry. I don't normally get that. That's really great. Thank you. Good evening.

Good evening.

How are you all doing? Better now. All right, I have one thing to say to you. Are you ready? 90 minutes.

That's what the agenda says. I know. So I just thought I would be really clear about expectations right out of the gate. 90 minutes. You can take it to the bathroom and be fine, but everyone else Here is stuck for 90 minutes. This is going to be awesome. Ladies and gentlemen, folks, my name is Jeff Kozatek, your peak performance coach, keynote speaker with core authenticity, and today we are talking about the champion within a leadership mindset. I love mindset. If you like mindset. Can I get a yeah?

Yeah.

All right. That's good. This has been an amazing, amazing two days. Amazing speakers, generosity flowing abundantly. Tom's legacy living on. I just met Tom two years ago. I had a chance to speak last year, which I'm very, very grateful for. Thank you, John. Thank you, Sandy. Coming back again and seeing the impact that Tom has had. I met Lisa Nichols. I'm currently mentoring with Tessa Greenspan, who mentored with you. I mean, the layers.

You have no idea what's happening as a result of you stepping out, being the champion for yourself and your community.

It's pretty amazing. I am censoring myself. It's pretty amazing. You know what I'm saying? If you do say, yeah.

Some of you did not get a chance to that. Do. Do that. I'm gonna do it one more time so everybody can participate. If you feel me say yeah.

That'S good. All right, so we're gonna have fun. We're gonna hang out, we're gonna talk about mindset for 90ish minutes. Probably like 82 at this point. And we're gonna have fun. I'm gonna give you some stuff to think about, and then we'll. We'll roll out. Sound good?

Yeah. I've never done that. It's always been a yes. It's just that. Yeah, that's new. That's. That's fresh. That's real authentic. Okay, so here we go. We are talking about. Oh, yeah, the. Welcome, welcome. Check your invitation. I don't know did. I don't know if any of you noticed on the intro video, there was a clip of me coming on stage and I received a standing ovation. Did anybody notice that? No, I'll back it up.

So I was speaking to this group of like, 400 people, and as I was taking the stage for the first time, I was doing two keynotes that day. And as I took the stage, everybody stood up. What?

Holy cow. Do you have any idea what kind of an impact that had on me? Just take a guess. Throw it out. There are no wrong answers. Huge.

Thank you. That's like in Sunday school. Jesus. Yes, it was huge. What kind of an impact do you think that had on me as a speaker?

Yeah, I was motivated, confident. Confident, energized. Yeah. The what? I was uplifted. And it wasn't just the stage. I felt good. Now how do you think that impacted the audience for them to stand up and applaud and smile? What kind of an impact do you think it had on them? They engaged? Yeah. Are you asking for something? No.

They'Re standing in the building right now.

Wow.

They keep standing. Chris is taking a photo.

I appreciate the sympathy standing of Asia.

That's not a critique on you. I just want you to think about the impact that mindset had on that audience we talked about. Engage.

I love you.

What else do you think that did for them?

They were ready, man. We were all like all up and they were like.

The what? Said it made them feel connected to you. Made them feel connected. They were engaged. Do you think that opened them up or closed them down? Yeah. Do you think they were sitting there like, okay, justify yourself, speaker. Prove that you're worth my time. Do you think it had that kind of an impact or do you think it was a curiosity?

Closed or curious? Camera one, camera two. Right? Yeah, it was curious. So I want to invite you to make a similar choice. You can sit there and be closed and be like another bald, middle aged white guy. Great. Very excited. Heard lots of those. What do you got? Or you're too young or you're too old or you're a different skin color or whatever and you can shut down or you can sit there and open up and we can engage and hang out. This is your choice. This is a mindset that you bring to the table. I cannot make this choice for you. You get to make it for yourself. Yay. We call that hashtag ownership. Also the leadership mindset, the champion within. Now I want to ask you to make a choice. Option one or option two. Okay. I'm going to tell you what the options are so you're not going in blind. Option number one, because I come from a street performing background and I like to have fun. I like to talk with my audience. Option one is engagement. So I'm going to talk and you're going to talk. We're going to talk back and forth, we're going to laugh and haha, I might even talk with you. And then you will talk with me and then I'll respond tomorrow when I look at all his comments. So that's option number one. Option number two. I love this stuff. If you don't want to engage, you can just sit there and I will verbally vomit for 80 minutes.

Those are the two options. Choose, but choose wisely. I will hold you accountable. So which is it? One or two? One or two? One. One. Three or four? Three or four? Five or six? Okay.

Right. All right, so we're going with one. Everybody in for one, say yeah. Yeah, I'm keeping that. That's gonna be fun. Okay, so here it is. Mindset. That's what we're gonna talk about. This is amazing, by the way, listening to all of you other amazing speakers all weekend. I think it's gonna be wrap up really nice with a little bow. And the fact that John o' Leary was here speaking just a little while ago. You don't know this, but I have been following John O' Leary since 2017. Not in a creepy stalker kind of way, but when he first started speaking, he spoke for the Girl Scouts, then I spoke for the Girl Scouts. He spoke for Rockwood School District, then I spoke for Rockwood School District. He spoke for Vistage, then I spoke for.

He spoke here. And now I'm speaking. He's speaking for $30,000.

Yes.

It's just a matter of time. That's the pattern. So I'm very excited to be here today. All right, so, mindset. What is mindset to you? Shout it out. There are no right or wrong answers. And I'll say, share with you what I think it is. What you got?

What you think?

What you think? You get a book? Did you get a book? Well, there's a book right over there. I got a book. Everybody. You get a book and you get a book. What you think? What else we got? What else we got? Attitude. Attitude. Thank you. What else we got? Choice. Thinking. Attitude. Choice. See, that's the. What is mindset? I define it this way. What we believe about ourselves and how we interpret the world around us. I put all that together into one word called. So what we believe about ourselves and how we interpret the world around us. I put all of that into one word. Here it comes.

Mindset. Mindset is key. When we decided to go to the moon, it took one thing. It started with an M and ended with Einsette. What was it? Yes. When Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile barrier. Yeah.

Breaks the four minute mile barrier. And then all these other runners break the four minute mile. What changed?

Mindset. Yeah. We're just using mindset.

I did. I did. And you're gonna. No, you're not. And it's part of my slides coming up. You're gonna love it. I chose option one. Sorry. And I love you for that. TJ Heart. Right. Okay. If you Are in a relationship, and you start off feeling really good about who you're with, and then at the end of the relationship, it falls apart. What changed? I'll give you a hint.

Mindset changed. When it comes to doing the dishes, what is key for me.

So is cleaning the litter box and all the other fun stuff. Right. Mindset. I'm going to say that this is at the core of whether or not we are able to give generously, Whether we are able to respond in the moment to a need, which is pretty amazing. There's a lot behind mindset. If we do not have a champion mindset, we do not create a summit that lasts and goes 65 times. If we don't have a champion mindset, we don't step into the gap.

And fill that need. That's why I think it's important. Why do you think it's important? Why do you think mindset is important? Why are we even having this conversation at the very end of an amazing, full and exhausting at the same time weekend? Why are we talking about this.

Determines how far you can go. Is that important? Does it matter?

Yeah, it matters. Why does it matter? Eagles. See, I'm following the John o' Leary's footsteps. Eagle. Does it matter? Yeah. Yes. Why? Better life. Better life. Yeah.

And what we think about.

All right, I'll take it.

It drives what we do.

It drives what we do. More about emphasizing the journey rather than the destination. Ooh. More about the journey than the destination. What else? Eagles table. That I've not heard from on this side yet. You gotta pass for the next hour.

What do you think? What do you think? Mindset. Why do you think mindset is important? It's important that we're having this conversation.

Because thoughts become things.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yes. Could you. Imani, could you say that one more time really, really loud? Mindset is important because what. It determines what you're going to do.

Yes.

You get a book. Another book. Yeah. Mindset determines what we do. This determines whether we succeed or whether we fail, Whether we see help needed and then respond and meet that need or walk away. And, oh, good thing somebody else has got that. Mindset is the key, and I like to think of it as your personal thermostat. I once heard Bob Proctor referred to mindset as a thermostat. Do you know what this is? A thermostat. I know. Did I set that up enough? So, thermostat. What does the thermostat do?

Regulates temperature.

It sets the therms. Exactly. If you want Your house set at a really nice 70 degrees. Or 69. If you're me, you can do that. And then if it is cold outside, somebody leaves the door open and all the cold air rushes in, cools the house down to 62. What does your thermostat do?

Kicks on.

It kicks on. It turns on the heat. Heats up the house. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah.

If it's during the summertime and you have it set at 69 degrees, however, the sun is out and there are no clouds in the sky. So the sun beats on the windows and heats up the house to 71.

And then you're sweating. Cause you're me. What does the thermostat do?

Turns on the air.

It turns on the air and cools everything back down to really nice 69 degrees. That's the thermostat. That's how it regulates the house. Your mindset does the same thing.

I'm hoping that this will stick with you for a while.

Thank you for laughing. Everybody else just staring at me. Thermostat. Your mindset is your thermostat. You will not outperform your thermostat. You will not outperform your.

I will take both answers because we are using them interchangeably. If your mindset, thermostat is set at 69, and if you start outperforming your thermostat and you're like, oh, my gosh, look at this. My business is cooking. We're rolling in the dough, and your thermostat's like, what? No. Sit down and immediately fall into self sabotage. And then we start shutting all that off, and then we start performing at a 69. Or if we're set at 69 degrees, and then we start falling way back, and now we start to underperform. Do you know what. Do you know what your thermostat will do?

Kick it up. It will kick it up. You'll be like, wait, I gotta get my stuff together. And then you engage. And then you put in a whole bunch of work. And then boom, the business grows. Boom. The relationship improves. And then everything is great at 69. And because things are going, you keep going. And then you're up to 75. And then your mindset's like, wait.

Sorry.

And it brings you back down 69 degrees again. Your thermostat makes all the difference. I'm a huge believer in this. Ask me why.

Why?

Yeah, but ask me like, you really want to know why? I'm glad you asked. Because for years, I learned all this Stuff I learned, all the tools I picked up. I read the books. The books that children love. The books I read the books. I attended the classes. I watched the TED talks. I listened to the podcasts.

I hung around with people smarter than me. Maybe some people. I shouldn't have hung around. Alarm going on. Right. Even though I was hanging out with all these amazing people and doing all this stuff, my business was not changing. My personal relationships were not changing. Why? Because of my. My mindset. Thermostat. It was set down. I'm gonna make a change, Jeff. Future Jeff. You need to land on one word and just stick there. All right? Future note. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My thermostat, my mindset would not allow me to move forward. It kept me down. I would immediately start self sabotaging to keep everything low. Then it wasn't until a couple years ago when I learned how to effectively shift my mindset, that everything started to shift for me. This was awesome. And this is what I want to share with you tonight. Sound like plan? If so, say yeah.

Did you get a chance to respond? Yeah.

Yeah.

Keeping it real. All right. So who sets your thermostat? Who? Who?

This person. It's either your champion or your challenger. Your challenger or your champion. One of those is in control of your thermostat at all times. Your thermostat is never left unattended. Either your challenger is in charge. Challenger in charge. Or your champion. Yes. Yeah. And there's only one person that gets to make that choice of who is in control of your thermostat. Do you want to take a guess who is in charge of your thermostat? Not me. You are in. Yes. You. You. You. You are in charge of your thermostat only. Nobody else. You can't set my thermostat. I can't set your thermostat. At the end of the day, you make the choice. I make the choice. So how do we make the choice? How do we choose? Challenger or challenger? Thermos. Thermos. That doesn't make any sense. Challenger or champion? How do we make that choice? Don't ask. I'm just going to tell you. This is option number two. TJ.

I got you. For 25 years, I made my living in the entertainment business. This was an amazing job. Ask me why. Why?

It really is going to be 90 minutes. This is fun. I was kidding. It's not gonna be 90 minutes. It's like 82. All right. For over 25 years, I made my living in the entertainment business. It Was awesome. Because as an entertainer, I got to cross a lot of social boundaries, like John o'. Leary. I got to talk to little kids. I got to talk to bigger kids. I got to talk to crazy organizations. I was talking to people that looked like me and didn't look like me. Believe what I believe. Did not believe what I believed. Voted the way I vote. Did not vote the way I vote. Similar lifestyles and different lifestyles. Living in the same space and living outside of the country. That's right. I am an international performer. Thank you, Canada.

Because Toronto is on the other side of the border. Right. It counts for me. I crossed international performer, and that's how it's done.

Done.

That's how it's done. Yeah. Everywhere I went, I ran into the same thing. No matter who was in the audience, everybody was wrestling with the same two questions. And these two questions are foundational for how we choose the champion or the challenger. Does anybody remember last year what that foundational question is?

And. And that's why I'm back.

That's okay. I got you. That's also why I'm back. Worth. What is my worth? That is one of the big foundational questions. Some people use the word identity. Some people use the word significance. I use the word on the screen. It is worth. Yeah. What is my worth? What is your worth on a scale of 0 to 10? Don't say it out loud. This is rhetorical. Rhetorical. I want you to think right now, on a scale of 0 to 10, if 10 is full, lacking, nothing, and 0 is oh, no.

Where are you?

This is key, especially for leaders. This is key not to be overly dramatic. And I can be because I am an actor. This is everything, everything, everything.

It's true. And it's also fun. We can have fun. So after we answer that question, the next question is, what? Where does it come from? Where does our worth come from? There are really only two options that I've found. It's either internal or it is external. External. If we look for it externally, we usually go to one of these five buckets. You might recognize this in. In somebody else. We might look for it on our performance. Look. Look at what I have created. Look at my list of trophies, my resumes.

Right. Look at everything I could do. I fire. I made fire. Wilson.

Wilson. Cast away. There will be random pop culture references throughout the talk.

Party time. Right? Right. So it might be on that, or maybe it's it. The performance shows up. In my knowledge, I am amazing because of what I know. Mansplain Mansplain. Mansplaying. Right. Even if I don't know about a topic, I'm going to tell you all about it. Because my wisdom through my performance makes me worthy. Have you seen that in other people? Yes or no. Yes. Or we might look for it on a property. Look at my house. Look at my other house. Look at my other, other, other house. Did you see my yachts? Look at my yard? And it's all about the stuff that we own. Or maybe it's in our appearance.

Would you just stand up and. Right. Maybe it's in our physical appearance. Right. Or maybe it's in our digital appearance. Well, what we look like online. Or maybe it's what we look like when we go to church or to temple or when we go out to a restaurant. How does a family need to act and behave when we're out in public? It's our appearance. Or maybe it's what our organization does when we go to a conference. Or how I show up at a summit. Hypothetically speaking, maybe even how do I show up at the 65th summit?

I don't know if that's relatable. Throw it out. Right. It's our appearance. Or maybe it's in our relationships. Did you know that? I know. Name Drop. Name Drop. Name Drop. Catchphrase. Name drop. Yeah, I'm a big deal. I spent the whole weekend hanging out with Name Drop and Name Drop. So and so wrote something in my book makes me awesome. I got to hang out with these people that makes me awesome. And it's all about who we know that makes us worthy and important. Or maybe it's not who we know, but it's how we know them. I'm important and worthy because I am a CEO, because I am a father, because I am a parent or a child or a sibling or an aunt or an uncle. Fill in the blank. Do you know anybody like that? Yes or no? They lead with their relationship, and that makes them worthy. Or maybe it's in our circumstance. This one is very personal for me. I spent a lot of time looking for my worth and my signature, my circumstance. I would walk up to people and say, tj, you will not. Man, today I overslept. And then when I was running around, I was trying to get my coffee ready. The coffee. I was late getting my coffee. And then my kids were up and they wanted me to talk to them before I was, like, alive, which is a problem. So that caused more problems. And then I'm rushing around. Then I spill coffee on my clothes. I have to Change clothes and then I'm running them out the door and then I'm trying to get here. And then I run into construction and other stuff. And then I get abducted by aliens. And then when they return me, they didn't have the decency to drop me back off in Missouri. They dropped me off in Texas. And then I had to take a train because I didn't have a car. I didn't have my stuff so I could Uber. So I'm on the train and then I finally get here.

Aren't I amazing? Yeah. I didn't give up. When we look for our worth and our circumstance, we're constantly telling people our tale of woe. We want everybody to see all of the stuff that we're. We're wrestling with so they know just how amazing we are. That's how I learned to survive. That's what was modeled for me as a kid. I am my circumstance now. A few years ago, I was working an event and one of the volunteers had a name tag. We're going to call him Bob. And Bob's name tag said Cancer Free Bob.

Where was Bob finding his worth?

Circumstance.

In his circumstance. I'm very excited that Bob is cancer free. Very excited. However, if Bob is finding his worth in his circumstance, what happens if his circumstance changes? His worth drops. We have an issue.

When we look for our worth outside of ourself in any one of these areas. It invites the challenger. And when our challenger shows up, we start comparing. Am I doing enough as that person? Am I donating enough as that person? You gave her a van. I'm gonna give you a fleet of vans.

That'Ll make me worthy. And then we start competing for that, right? I'm gonna out give or I'm gonna outdo. I'm going to outwork. Or maybe we compete. I'm going to be the best at all costs and I'm going to sacrifice personally way beyond what is healthy so that I can be the best. Or maybe I'll contend to be the best. And in that case, I'm going to make sure that I'm the best by making sure you do not succeed and I start keeping other people down. Maybe I don't share opportunities. Maybe I don't share resources. Maybe I don't give a van. When I see a need, I don't fill it.

Or maybe I control everything. Micromanaging micromanagers. Will Ferrell Lego Movie Micro Nobody. Not even one. Are you serious? Thank you. I appreciate you speaking up loud and meeting me here in the middle of all of this, right? We start to control everything. That's what the challenger does. We know the challenger is in charge when we start doing that stuff. And when we start doing that, that brings all of this type of behavior. We start changing the rules. I don't have to do that. We're going to be a problem. We're going to get people first. We're going to keep other people from winning. I'm going to stop short of the finish line. I'm not going to follow through because I quit. I'm just not gonna participate. I might be here, but I'm gonna watch cat videos because they're cute. So cute and cuddly. Or dog videos. I'm just equal opportunity, right? Or maybe we'll just be the nice one. We smile and say yes, but inside we are hulking out. All of this is a result when the challenger is in charge and the challenger comes out. We're looking for worth outside of ourself. Why? Because that's an automatic scarcity mindset. We're saying, there's not enough here. I have to go get it. I have to earn more. I have to prove myself. And if I'm proving myself and earning more, am I going to share that with you? The answer here is no. No, I'm going to keep it all for me. Because if I give it to you, then I am less. And that's a problem. This is why I would like to suggest an alternative.

This is very exciting. The alternative is intrinsic worth.

Intrinsic worth. Guess what you say? What?

It's getting late. My wife would say the same thing. She'd be like, what? Jeff.

It'S okay. It's late for me too. I've been here with you. I got you. If it's intrinsic, it never, ever changes. Ever. On a scale of 0 to 10, it is 10 all the time, no matter what. Even if I'm going through a hard time with work, it is still, on a scale of 0 to 10, a 10. Even if I'm going through a rough patch with my significant other, I am still a. Even if I make a mistake and don't successfully ride the unit cycle at the end of a conference keynote last Friday, hypothetically speaking, I am still a 10, right? Even if I succeed in bringing tons of cash, I am still a 10. It never changes. And when we're sitting on intrinsic worth, it invites the champion. And when our champion is out, we engage, we equip, we. We empower and we encourage all things we need to do as eagles.

All things that you Are doing that. You are doing that you've all been doing more than 65 times. And all the new people in the room, you are doing. This is why you're here. When the champion is out, we're doing amazing stuff. And when we engage, when we equip, when we empower, when we encourage. Guess what? What? Thank you, both of you.

We get the champion behavior. We start, we're adaptable, we collaborate. We are proactively helping. We're empowering other people. We're persisting, we're engaging, and we're able to set healthy boundaries. Champion mindset, it's very different than the challenger mindset. And this is simply a choice. Challenger or champion, everybody gets to choose. Now, some people be like, well, Jeff, where does the intrinsic worth comes from? I think it comes because we are all created in God's image, fearfully and wonderfully made on purpose, for a purpose. Because we're reflecting in an image of God that makes us pretty darn worthy in the. In the Christian worldview. As you read through the Bible, it's why Satan is so frustrated. It's like, oh, my gosh, every time I see you, I see him.

Right? Enter challenge. Right? That's where the worth comes from. It's why Christ died on the cross, to restore us to factory settings. Right. Behavior is not it. It's not about the value we're bringing to other people. It's our worth as a human being. It separates performance from performer.

Anybody remember those commercials? Perform. Budweiser, right? Perform it from perform. Yeah. See, it's fun, even real late at the end of a long conference. Yeah. Champion or challenger. Now, some people be like, yeah, but, Jeff, I don't believe what you believe. That's fine. There's a guy named Albert Einstein. He lived a while back. People thought he was kind of smart. Anybody remember Albert Einstein or read about him? Yes, yes, yes. He once said, there's only two ways to live life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is. It's a choice. Can you be successful as the challenger? Yes.

And there are significant consequences that you will pay.

When I lived my life as a challenger, one of the significant consequences I paid was looking at my life insurance policy as a way to care for my family. That is not a price that I would like to ever consider paying again. Does this make sense to you?

Sometimes that consequence. Sometimes that price might look like addictions, might look like all kinds of stuff. We're going to move on because it's the end of The. The thing we want to keep it. Keep it light. Not death cake or death. I'll take cake piece. Right. Champion. Champion is very different. That's what we want. That's what we want. When the champion is setting our thermostat.

Game on. Game on.

So are you ready to go a little further down the rabbit hole and find out how we can support our champion so that we can keep our thermostats at high? What do you think? Yeah.

Yeah.

What about you?

Okay. All right, so here it is. I've got the six keys to mindset. These are six keys that I've picked up over the years, going through crazy interesting medical challenges with my wife and. And being a performer.

Yeah. So here we go. Six keys. They are on the. Well, actually here. What do you. Oh, it doesn't work. What do you think this one on the top left is?

I'll take it. What about the one in the middle?

Yeah. What about the one on the bottom? All right, great. Thank you very much. That has nothing to do with my. My keynote. Just giving a little feedback on my new merch. We've got what we want, our will to get it. The stories we tell ourselves, our feelings, our perspective, and our belief.

Yeah. These six keys make up our mindset, what we want, our will, our stories, our feelings, our perspective, and our belief. So we're going to break those down really quick. First ones we're going to hit is want and will. As I mentioned, I've spent a long time in the entertainment business. There was a period of time when I was teaching people how to juggle, and I will still make the same guarantee that I made back then. I can teach anyone how to juggle, including you, as long as we meet two requirements. How many requirements?

Two.

Ooh, is it hot in here? I'm sweating, Fred.

Yeah, yeah. The settings I would teach everybody, anybody, how to learn how to juggle, as long as we met two requirements. Those requirements are they needed to want to learn. They did not want to learn how to juggle. There was nothing that I could do. Nothing I could do. They didn't want to do it. Does that sound like champion or challenger? Challenger. Totally challenger. We needed a champion approach. Yes, I want to learn how to juggle. Then the next one. Do we have the will to learn? This is where it got interesting. If somebody came to me and they said, I want to learn how to juggle. Okay, great. And they would throw a ball in the air and drop it. Be like, look, I can't.

Like, what do you mean? Well, I dropped it. Like, oh, that happens. We'll pick it up. Okay, do it again. Okay. I can't.

Why would they say that? Because challenges, right? Because they didn't have the will. Because it dropped. They're like, look, it dropped. That's evidence that I can't do it. Is that champion or challenger? Challenger. The challenger is looking for evidence that it does not work. And every time we see evidence that backs up that belief, we're like, yep, it's not going to work. And then our will to engage totally drops. So if I was going to teach them how to juggle, we had to switch that to how can I? Or what if you could. If we could make that switch or even just add one word, the super magical word. Yet. I can't yet.

Right? Then we would stay in. They would stay in, they would push through. They might drop, but they would pick it up, throw it in the air, and eventually, because of their want and their will, they would be able to juggle all three. Want and will. That's all we needed. That's all we needed. Even when I taught a guy who was. And Mark, if you're watching, I think you were like in your late 50s or early 60s. Mark came from a farming background. When he was young, he lost some fingers. He's. He's in his, we're just say late 50s, and he didn't have all of his fingers. And he's learning how to juggle for the first time. Mark had the want. He knew exactly what he wanted. And I modeled it for him. So he knew exactly. It was specific. Specificity, John. Yep. And he wanted the will to do. It was there. And Mark learned so fast.

When you are approaching your next challenge or your next opportunity, do you have the want to engage? Do you have the will to stick in there? When it comes to doing the dishes for your spouse late at night, just want to go to sleep. And your spouse says, hey, can you load the dishwasher? Do you want to. Do you have the will to stay engaged? Or maybe it's something with your business. I don't know. Want and will. This is huge. If we don't want it, Challenger. If we don't have the will, Challenger. And what's really interesting, and I think this came up earlier, we were talking about compliments. Sometimes it's really hard to get a compliment. I don't know if any of you can relate to that. You don't have to say you relate to that, but if you do, I want you to know. I see you I feel you. I hear you. Right. If we are showing up as a challenger and we think we are not a 10, we're, like, down here. Then anybody that gives me a compliment, I'm like, you have no idea what you're talking about. I'm a two. I can't receive the compliment you're trying to give me. And every time I'm gonna make a mistake, I'm gonna be like, look, I am a two. That's what twos do. I did not mean for that to rhyme. Just happened that time.

The second one was on purpose. The first one. And when the challenger is in charge, then we, like, go out of our way to make sure that we'll fail. And so everybody can see. I'm gonna do three in one hand. Oh, look. Yep. I'm just learning, and clearly, I can't do it. That's challenge your mindset.

And when anybody gives us a compliment, that's it. While we're in that state, it's very easy to deflect and minimize. And then if somebody says, actually, you are really bad, we're like, thank you. You see me.

Because it most relates to my personal view of myself. Does that make sense? It's a little distorted and weird, and yet it makes sense at the same time. Can I get a yeah? Yeah, yeah. So we go with the champion mindset once and will. All right, now we're going to break down the other ones, but we're going to use my framework of engage, equip, empower, and encourage how we can use those four things to help strengthen our champion will, our champion want, our champion story champion feeling, perspective, and belief so we can have that champion mindset and maintain it, because, honestly, sometimes that mindset shifts. You know what I mean? Yes.

All right, so earlier you did a poll, and you totally proved this point. You're like, where are we at with gratitude? A week ago, what number was it? Anybody remember? Yeah, it was in the six. It was in the six.

Way down. It was set down here. And then we do it again today. And what did the number jump to? 9.4. He was so excited. I was excited. Everybody was excited. This is a room full of eagles.

I don't know what an eagle sounds like.

This is like a dying.

Yeah, this is a room full of eagles. We're all leaders. We're all doing stuff. Everybody's got a day. Sometimes we have multiple days. Sometimes they string together, and the mindset kind of goes up and kind of goes down. These things can help us get back up on Track. Okay.

Okay.

Do you want to fight me on that?

No.

Do we agree? Any undecided voters? Okay. All right. So here we go. Let's talk about feelings. We're going to use Engaged for feeling and perspective. Feelings. Oh, my gosh. How many of you have heard people talk about feelings as being positive or negative, good or bad, right or wrong? You ever heard that? Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to say no, sir. I just concur. I'm going to suggest to you that feelings are like lights on your car dashboard. They're just letting you know what underlying need, value, or belief is being met or neglected. That's it. It's information. Oh, my gosh. And if we pay attention to that and then we dive down into the roots, we engage with the feeling rather than dismiss it. No, Stop crying. You're crying too many times. What did John say? Like, every time was too much, but once a month was okay.

But if instead of minimizing or pushing the feelings aside or shoving it down, we take time to engage and go down underneath and figure out what's really going on, then we can strengthen our champion mindset rather than reacting and inviting the challenger. Gratitude was on this list before.

Before I knew what was happening in the conference.

But gratitude really comes from perspective.

For me, it's how we look at things. Like right now, my perspective of this room, I am not alone. There are people here. Some people are smiling. Some people are like, I'm done and ready to go. Will you please stop? There's a few doors, so I can get out if I need to. And there are windows. It's really great. And apparently there's a bunch of people out there, but I can't see them because it's really small. And I'm older now. Hi. Right now, if I shift my perspective in the same room, I look this way, there's a sign in front of me. It's really big. It's so big I can't read it. There are no exits. I am all alone by myself, and I'm being amplified. And I don't understand what's making that happen. Did the room change? No. Where did you go? Nowhere. Right. The only thing that shifted was my perspective. What?

Perspective? Yeah.

So if I just shift my perspective over here. Oh, my gosh. You're all back. You're all back. It's like that old. I think it's a Chinese proverb, like, of the farmer. And is that enough for you or do you need more? Okay. The old Chinese proverb about the farm that One where the farmers got the sun and the sun is home and, and they're raising their crops and the sun is out and he's on the horse, but then the horse gets spooked and he falls and he breaks his leg. And we think, oh, that's bad because the son broke his leg. And then there's a war going on. So they come in to recruit everybody, all the young able bodied men in the village, and they're like, oh, we can't take him because his leg is broken. So then we're like, oh, actually that's good. And then actually because he's here, then this thing doesn't happen. And so that's bad. But then because of that, this happened and that's good. It's just a matter of shifting perspective. Perspective? Shifting what perspective? It's like Sesame street perspective. Yeah, we shift the perspective. Same situation, just a slightly different way of looking at it.

When my wife was diagnosed with cancer in 2022 and she had to have a bilateral mastectomy, which is not fun. She always wanted a breast reduction, just not that way, but the insurance paid for it, so that was good. We look for the positive, right? She goes through that and then she goes through chemo treatment. And during all of that stuff, they tell us she's got the gene that is genetic and will be passed down potentially to our kids and then our kids, kids. And then our kids, kids, kids, kids. I'm a man that is driven by hope. When I heard that news, the light at the end of my tunnel for my family went out. My perspective shifted.

And I was like, man, the tunnel is gone. I have no more tunnel.

Now. That's not a guarantee that the kids get the gene. It's not a guarantee that if the kids get the gene, they're going to get cancer. It's just a higher increase of probability. But in that moment, my perspective totally zeroed in on this. And in that moment, the light went out and I was there for about a week. And then I realized, no, a person without a tunnel, a person without purpose, is not a person that I want to be. So I built a new tunnel. I shifted my perspective and I went, okay, well, let's build a tunnel out for a day and let's build a tunnel out for a couple days, then maybe a week, then a couple weeks and a month. My situation did not change, just my per.

Just my perspective. And as I shifted my perspective, my champion came back. And when my champion was back, I was able to lead my family, I was able to engage with my work. I was able to be the champion for the people that depended on me.

And gratitude is another great way of shifting perspective. There's always something amazing to be found if we look for it. Always.

Always. And we can choose to just focus on this part, or we can choose to acknowledge this part and then look at that. Going through the cancer fight with my wife shifted how we show up in life. She is cancer free. We spend all of 23. Oh, yeah, she's cancer free. Yay.

Sorry. When you live it, you're like, yeah, yeah, that part already happened. Now we're on to the next thing. She's cancer free by the end of 22. So 23, we're out living. We're traveling all over the world. She gets tattoos, I get a tattoo. I've got another one scheduled for next month. Very excited. Who would have thought that was going to happen? But it is. We're having a great time. The only thing shifted was our perspective and our gratitude for the way that she came through that. Our gratitude for the doctors, the gratitude for the support of our community. Okay, equip. Equip for stories. Oh, stories and stacking pebbles. This is very important. Is it any of this helpful for you so far?

Yes.

Is this good? Okay. If not, you can say no, and we can cut it early.

It's like a choose your own adventure keynote. Yeah. So this is good. Okay, so we talk about want and will and perspective. We're going to talk about stories because the stories we tell ourselves matter. There's this really weird thing about humans where we totally focus in on all the negative stuff. Is that. Is it just me, or does anybody else do that? Yeah. Thanks, Fred. You and me, we're just dressed alike. We think alike. I got you like my brother from another mother. Yeah, yeah. Our stories. Like, if I make a mistake, I often bring all of my mistakes with me. Now, I had some really great successes three months ago, but I didn't write them down. Guess what happened?

I did. I totally forgot them because I did not stack the pebbles in my book blueprint for value, which everybody should have gotten a copy at. If you didn't. There's a stack of them over there. Stack of them. Stacking pebbles. I know, and it's thematic. Habit 20 is stacking pebbles, keeping track of the winds along the way. The big ones and the little ones. Specifically the little ones. We don't keep track of the little ones. Oh, my gosh. Then we just look for. We're like a win is a graduation A win is sealing this deal. A win is climbing to the top. We were talking about this earlier. Mount Everest. You're up there for five minutes. How much training did we say that took? Two years, three years. A long time. A long time. And if we're not stacking pebbles, we miss all of the progress along the way. And then we're like, I'm not winning because I haven't made it to the top of Mount Everest yet. So we learn to stack the small stuff. Pay attention to small stuff. Write that down. There's a reason in the book, the good book, the Bible, the bi b l e that they made Ebenezers. This thing is a really weird name. But they would stack rocks. Did you make an Ebenezer? No, I have to tell you, that's my middle name is Evan from Ebenezer for this reason. No way. You are a stack of rocks.

Yeah. You feel me? You're like, it's a weird name. And then I said that. I mean, it's a fantastic name. I've always thought it was weird. I mean, I like a standalone word, it's kind of weird, but as a name it's amazing.

We just edit out the other part. Yeah, right. We got it. We have to keep track of that because instinctively we want to let go of the good stuff. We just want to look for the big, negate all the small stuff and just focus on all the stuff that doesn't work.

And we write our story. Who's writing your stories?

Are you writing it? Is somebody else.

So.

When I was five, I was run over by a 1978 Monte Carlo. Does anybody know what kind of car that is?

You did?

No. No, you weren't there. You weren't there. So here's this crazy situation. So as a five year old, I'm in the. Hey, how are you?

Thanks for coming. Yes, sir. Can we get you anything? Do we have any water? Okay. And five. And I'm over at my mom's friend's house and we're leaving. She's in the front seat, I'm in the back seat. We're getting ready to back down the driveway when all of a sudden this kid comes running around the house chased by a swarm of bees. A bee veers off heading towards the car. What does my mom do? She rolls up the window.

Right? But she can't get it up fast enough. The bee comes into the car, lands on my shoulder. As a five year old looking at a bee here. That's a big bee. That's a big Bee. So rub a dub dub all over my shoulder. That's a big bee. Grizzly man. That's a big bear. That's a big bear. No, nobody saw grizzly man.

It's just for me, okay? So the bee's there on my shoulder and I'm freaking out. So I scream. In my scream, my mom loses control of the car. As she loses control of the car, she screams, which then grabs my attention. So I'm like, wait, what's mom freaking out about? And then I realize we're rolling down the driveway backwards. And I look back there and we don't want to do this. We don't want to go out in the street. So I'm like, what can I do? As a five year old, I know I'll fling open the door, I'll jump out of the car and I'll push on the door to keep the car from rolling down.

Well, that's what I did. And it was a 78 Monte Carlo. Did I mention that? It's a big car. It's heavy. I'm five. Who do you think won the car? And so I'm pushing, and so I can't push anymore. The car knocks me down. I fall half underneath the car and the front tire rolls over my stomach. And then I end up going to the hospital. My mom, somehow she gets hurt. She goes to the hospital. And I spend several days in the hospital under surveillance because there was no, nothing wrong with me. The doctor was like, I don't understand. The kid was run over by a car. There should be issues. I don't believe it. I'm told that he came in and he saw the tire track on my stomach and said, oh, okay, well, let's keep him in for observation. Just make sure all the insides are working. So I was in the hospital by myself as a 5 year old after just having a traumatic experience with a car for several days.

The story that I told myself was that I overreact. I overreact. The bee laying on my shoulder, I overreact. Because of my overreaction, other people get hurt. I started picking up responsibility for what my mom did. And then I try to do what I think is right and it doesn't work. So not only do I overreact, not only do I cause harm to other people, but I can't do it. I am incapable. And what's worse, I will be left alone. I will be abandoned.

I'm too much. I'm gonna hurt other people. I can't do it. I'm gonna get Left behind. That's the story I pick up as a five year old and I carry with me for decades. That set my thermostat. Do you see how this ties together?

Yes.

So several years ago, I go back to this story.

And I'm like, wait a second. Let's examine that. As an older, wiser, more mature guy and not just a five year old, I'm like, okay. B lands on the kid's shoulder. It makes sense that he would scream. It's appropriate. Not too much. Rewrite that part of the story. Am I responsible for my mom's choices behind the wheel of the car, yes or no?

No.

No. She's a grown woman. She's got it. I'm not. I did not cause her pain. Rewrite that part of the story. I see a need. I jump into action. I engage my champion. Engaged. And then I empowered myself to take action and I pushed on the car door. The car door knocked me under, but it wasn't because I was incapable. I was just ill equipped. Change that part of the story. And then I'm in the hospital by myself for days. I thought I was abandoned. No, there's only one dad. I only had one dad. He's taking care of his wife, who is pregnant with my brother at the time, who's in the hospital. He's taking care of work, he's taking care of the house, taking care of the dog. He can't be everywhere all at one time. He put me in the hospital so I could get the help that I needed. I was being cared for.

Oh, well. Rewrite that part of the story. I'm telling you.