Master Your Mindset: Life In The Front Row With Jon Vroman

Wellness Force radio episode 21.

We have this thought, we do this thing and this is the result of it. When we are numb to our own emotions and our lives and we get so busy and we're just clicking the button over and over again all day long, we aren't changing our habits partially because we don't even know what's happening.

Welcome to Wellness Force Radio, where you will hear inspiring and passionate experts in the areas of wellness, technology and behavior change. Your host, Josh Trent, will empower you with the knowledge and tools you need to take the very best actions in transforming your mindset, your body, and ultimately your life.

Now, here's your host, Wellness Force Radio. Welcome back for another inspirational and educational show. I am your host, Josh Trent. It's been a week. I have missed you. And as always, this show is where we track down the most inspiring and passionate experts in behavior change and wellness technology. These are the thought leaders. They dedicate their lives to empowering others with knowledge and tools that drive real transformation in our physical and emotional wellness. It is so easy to support Wellness Force Radio right now on your iPhone and it makes a world of difference. All you have to do is tap the screen of the show in the podcast app which will pull up all the show notes and links. Click on that link that says rating, review. Take just 30 seconds to leave us a five star rating and review. This allows me to keep serving this amazing community and bringing on these inspiring guests that we can all be more empowered from. Now let's jump into the show. Today's show is literally going to rock. I am sitting down with author and motivational speaker John Vroman. John, welcome to the show.

Hey, Josh. What's up, man? Good to be here.

So excited to have you on. I met you at the QLM Mastermind and I was honestly enamored with your speaking ability, your message, and just the guy that you are. I think the audience is going to share the same insights that I did and today's show is really close to my heart. This is where we're going to learn from you about changing beliefs and what it takes to live our lives and in the front row. So I'm really excited to have you on.

Thanks, man. Let's do this.

We're gonna cover, we're gonna cover some subjects today, but I wanna throw out a huge four letter word that starts with F and that word is fear. Today, really touching on identifying limiting beliefs and fear. How fear can direct us, how we can overcome, maybe sometimes in life, not even overcoming it, just being aware of it and facing it. But I wanted to start by just touching on your story. You know, the research I've done on you, John, being underweight and kind small, you've transformed your life and thousands of people's lives by becoming one of the most sought after motivational speakers in America. I want to read your quick bio so if someone hasn't heard of you that they can get a nice pulse here. So John Vroman is an award winning motivational speaker, author, philanthropist, personal coach, ultra marathon runner, and founder of Front Row Foundation. He was voted the number one college speaker in America. Not one, but. But two years in a row. John, is there anything that people might not know about you that's fun? I know that these accolades and things are cool, but how about like a fun fact where people can kind of break the ice with you?

I have, I have four critters in my home. Two of them are my boys, Tiger and Ocean. And I have two poodles that are both under 20 pounds. And you may hear them yapping on our episode today.

Awesome. I was like, four critters? Wait, do you have like four pets?

Okay, so it's, in my world, really, really cool.

By the way, we don't have to spend too much time, but where did it come from to name your son Ocean?

I'm so glad you asked that. And I love answering this question. So the short answer to that is that my wife and I decided that the first decision of his life was not going to be made out of fear. And I'm so glad that you prepped this podcast interview by talking about that, because that was what we had said to one another, was let' swhen we say names as we're kind of saying them out loud to test and feel our way through this, let's choose the one that we get the hell yeah response from and not the one where we think about how it will be perceived or whether or not it's too unique or if it's masculine or feminine or what type of person might it create if we name him this? But more or less, which name calls to us? And that's where we went with the name game.

God, that is awesome. And I had no idea that it was going to be rooted with that intention of sparking people to just overcome fear. That's beautiful. And my next question. Question is.

Josh, you're totally tuned in.

We are just, we're on that same page right now. My next question, though, in this, in this path of, as we go into this show and dive into how Fear can direct. On a previous interview, I think it was with Hal, you had mentioned this in one part that you had in, in the early ages become a spectator of life and being underweight. I mean, what was that like for you? Like, what were you feeling then? How old were you?

So when I was 16, entering my sophomore year of high school, I was shy of 5ft and about 80ish pounds. And so I had a very small body that led to ultimately having an equally small mindset about myself and my potential and my self worth. And I was terrified. You know, the way to sum up my life at that point was I was terrified of just about everything. I desperately wanted to fit in. I desperately wanted to be connected to people. And at that point I probably could have been had I chosen to embrace whatever cards were dealt to me. But instead I used it as an excuse not to participate in life. And I really did take a backseat in almost every instance at that particular moment. Yeah.

And when you were going into kind of this development in high school, did you reach a certain point where you got frustrated that motivated you to put on weight? Or how did that work? How did you make that transition?

Well, I have to thank the doctors because I went to go see an endocrinologist who did a bone scan of my hand and established I had the bone age of a nine year old at 16. And and so I was given six doses of a human growth hormone to help jumpstart my body. And it worked. Man, I totally, I think I grew like 7 inches that year and just sprouted up. And that's what changed my physical body now what I think. And when I look back, even in observation of my own life, what I find interesting now as kind of a spectator of my youth, was that I then became overly aggressive with my new found height. And I kind of, it's a little like somebody who found a superpower who never felt like they had it and they went crazy with it. And so all of a sudden girls started to notice me and I started to fit in a little more. And rather than being a calm, confident person, I chose to just go crazy. And then my life switched and I got really engaged to some degree, but engaged in all the wrong activities. So I did everything to try to fit in and I compromised my values to meet my needs. And that was for a period of maybe, we'll say that was probably three years that I did that until I was exposed to some environments with some really high quality people that challenged the way that I had been living. And a Few close calls, a few crashed cars along the way, and a few near death experiences that sort of awoken me to, hey, I've got to get my stuff together. And that's when it started to change. It was a Tony Robbins conference that I attended. It was the company that I was a part of, which was very positive and uplifting. And I switched out some of my peer group in certain ways to play with people that were operating daily at a level that I really wanted to get to. And that's where it all started to change. But it was a few rough years, man. When you ask my parents, they'll tell you that's where a lot of their gray came from.

Well, it was hard too, because you came from a military family. I think you moved a lot. Eight different schools over the course of your moves. I saw that happen in my mom's family. And, you know, my grandpa was a four star brigadier general, Marine Corps. So when you move and you have to meet new peer groups and constantly adjust, was that something that really was. You didn't know it at the time, but do you feel, looking back, that that was really painting the picture of the hardships you'd go through in order to establish yourself as someone who can lead the front row foundation? What role did that play for you in development?

I think for sure that moving a bunch. I embraced that part, especially as young kid where I was excited to be in a new area and meet new people. I'm generally an outgoing person. My nature is to want to connect and build relationships. Hence my greatest pain when I was a little bit shorter was not fitting in. And I think that that certainly conditioned me. I do think, and I've had this debate with people, Josh, that it's so interesting because I went through so much struggle that I want. I always go, do my boys have to. I always think to myself, do my boys have to go through that in order to develop themselves? Like I always say, oh, it's because of the struggle that I got all this growth. And I wonder, you know, do I need to expose my kids to more struggle so that they can become the best versions of themselves? And, you know, but I do think, yes, that's part of it, Part of what helped create the version of myself today that allows me to serve. One of the reasons I want to help people to have great experiences in life is because I have felt personally what it's like to not have great experiences, to not be in the front row, to not be connected. And I swore that I would first live differently Myself. And second, help others to do the same.

And I want to talk about your core values and shift in a moment to what the Front Row foundation is. But before we go there, I am so curious if you could share with one of these times in your life where you hit a rock bottom or a quasi rock bottom, a moment that you use perseverance and grit to overcome it.

Yeah, well, I don't think I've ever shared this in a space like this. So here we go. One time I was driving and I had been drinking and I crashed a car. And it was a pretty serious crash. And I remember I, at that point in my life, fled the scene. I was terrified, and I ran. And I remember my dad telling me that the cops had put a warrant out for my arrest because I had left the scene of the accident, left my car where it was. And the next day was a day that would change my life forever. When my dad sat down with me. And I don't know, maybe he'll be hearing this for the first time, but he sat down with me and he said, I'm just glad that we're having this conversation here at the breakfast table and not while you're in a prison cell. Because the only difference would be that you were just lucky somebody wasn't walking down the other side of the road or driving down the other side of the road when you crashed. Now, he didn't ask any questions. He didn't know anything about the accident. He just made that simple point that he was grateful that we were having the conversation in this way versus me being in prison. And it was simply because somebody happened to not be there. That conversation changed my life forever. And I remember that day like it was yesterday. And that was probably 24 years, 20, 22 years ago. And I just realized that I was very, very lucky in that moment. And that's kind of haunted me in the past, that the only reason that I am here today is because I lucked out in that moment. And I went from feeling like I was invincible and feeling like I was the only one that mattered in that moment and that my feelings were all that counted, to having that grand awakening that the world is much bigger than me and I need to be conscious and aware of that. And especially if I. Not only just selfishly, that if I don't want to spend my life in prison, but if I also don't to live with the guilt and the shame and the pain of what it would be like to have taken perhaps the life of somebody else. And you And I actually both know one of my best friends, Hal Elrod, was hit by a drunk driver when he was 19 years old and he actually died three times before they brought him back fully and spent some days in a coma. So these are moments that change our lives forever.

Wow, man. There was multiple times during your share where I got goosebumps. So thank you for that. I know, whoever's listening, I hope you got goosebumps too. Your phrase that really resonated with me was that you were lucky to be there because really, sometimes we forget in our lives how lucky and how cherished we are to have this experience in this world. So thank you for sharing that.

Yes, absolutely.

Well, from meeting you, I mean, I felt a genuine confidence in you and calmness in your presence. But I'm curious if you can explain and touch on your top five core values.

So, top five core values, what I talk about when I'm speaking are connect, create, change, commit, and contribute. When I sat down years ago to write out how I really believe people live life in the front row, and I had interviewed a bunch of people, and I had been a student, a big time student of other people's successes for years, when I thought, what do I really believe? And the first part of that, and if it's okay, I'll just give a quick summary of each one. And if you want to dig in, we can. But for me, it's all about connection. It's. I always talk about who's in your front row. And, you know, this is one of the most important questions we ask. It's something we've heard many times. I've heard some of my great mentors say the same thing in different ways, but it comes back to something like, you are an average of your five closest friends. Knowing that, I knew I needed to be super intentional about my relationships. And I said, when I get to the end of my life, I want people to remember me for being somebody that gave a ton in relationships, that I cared for people deeply. It's how I reshaped my identity. It taps into my nature, of course, but I believe wholeheartedly. It's about connection. And in the charity where we put people in the front row of their favorite live event, and these are folks who are braving a critical health challenge. I see it day in and day out, the importance of an amazing network of people who love you and that you love and that we do this thing together, right? This life thing is done together. And if ever I'm feeling unaligned, I know it's probably to do with the fact that I need to get around some amazing people. I need to shift that part of my life. So that's where it begins. And the second part about creating is that I just believe that we create our own reality. I love the idea that it's not what happens to us, but the meaning that we give it. And so I believe that we're constantly trying to shape the reality in which we live. I believe we're creating and shaping our environments. It's what we hang up on our walls. It's who we choose to be around. All of that is part of creating and shaping. I believe in change. I believe in constantly challenging assumptions. I believe, you know, saying, listen, the. The most difficult thing is to not get to the place where, like, we figured out a few things, right? Like, you're a pretty successful guy, Josh. You've got a lot going for you. It's, it's. It's tough to reevaluate at times. Once things are going well and once there's not major tragedy, that sometimes is the major tragedy that there's not a major tragedy, right? They just think things are kind of going so well and they're clicking along and that complacency can get just. Time flies by before you really challenge yourself once again and to change and become the next version of you. The fourth about commitment. I believe that when your why has heart, your how gets legs. I believe that I learned this, and I'm continuing to learn this, but it first showed up for me in 2005 when we did this ultra run to raise money for the charity. And I didn't run. I didn't run for six weeks leading up to the event. The furthest I had run was, I don't know, maybe 18 or 20 miles ever was the furthest. And I got out there that day, and after 26 miles, I could barely walk. I was like, how am I going to do another marathon? And I remembered that I said, when your why has heart, your how gets legs. I remembered we had sent letters out to hundreds of people telling them that we were going to do this. Drew strength from all those people, and we just put one foot in front of the other and it was done. And not to minimalize that day, but I share that sometimes for all of us, it's about. It's really being committed. And I don't remember who said this. I think it was, oh, the name's evading me. But it was 99%'s a bitch, 100%'s a breeze. I think that's Jack Canfield who originally said that. But that doesn't sound like a Jack Canfield quote, does it? 99%'s a bitch, 100%'s a breeze. And I think that when you're really committed, you go 100% in. And I believe in that. Something I operate by. So I know that if I'm not performing, it's probably from a lack of commitment. And finally, the last one's about giving back and contribution. And I just believe that too many of us want to seek out all the fame and fortune. And then when we are sitting around with all our awards and all of our money, then we're going to try to figure out how to give it back. And I think that's broken and I think that's backwards. And I think that we ought to be asking, how do we give along the way? How do we contribute at a level 10 right now and not waiting for down the road? A lot of people are like, well, once I get my business going and once I get the new thing or once I get this all figured out. But for most people, that's like living in a 6,000 square foot home and driving a Lexus and wearing a Rolex before they start thinking about giving in a significant way to people. And I think that the greatest joy is in finding a way to contribute at a massive level from very early on. I mean, think about kids doing lemonade stands and figuring out how. I mean, you think there's countless stories of young people doing amazing things. So those are the five core principles and. Sorry, I know that took a long time, but.

No, it was awesome.

Yeah, I'm a speaker, you know that, right?

Exactly. Question.

And then it's like, you're done.

No, I'm letting you go, man. That's gold. So making authentic connections, creating your own reality, being open to change, committing fully and contribution. What rang in my head when you talked about contribution was that I give complimentary sessions to people at certain points and there's a few people that might even be listening that I just work with because I think that they can achieve whatever they can achieve and I'm not really worried about the money for them right now. So I give back in that way because you're right. I mean, just because you have a Lexus and a huge mansion, like that's not the time to decide, oh, maybe now that I have millions of dollars, I should contribute. Contribution is the energetic piece that actually gives you more in the long run, because the more you give I mean, eventually, the universe is going to give it back to you.

Yes, that's it.

So that resonates with me, man. And I'm curious, too, you know, from working. You mentioned Tony Robbins. What was that like? What was that experience like? Do you feel like that's what took you in as a catalyst into creating the Front Row foundation, or were those two separate buckets?

It happened. I always say it was this trifecta of three things happening in my life at the same time. One is, I went to this Tony event, and, I mean, I was transformed. And by the way, I'm not a Tony rep. I'm not getting paid to say this, but, like, you know, I was transformed. I walked. I walked out of that place. I was called home. I was, like, crying. I was calling my mom and dad. I felt like I had the most transformational experience of my life. And I let go of a lot of limiting beliefs at that event. Like, I'm not a good reader or, you know, I blamed a lot of people and a lot of things, and I held onto my story of the past. It let all that go at that event. But that was the event where Tony said, how would you rate your contribution to the world? And I didn't like my answer. The second event was I was at a Jason Mraz show in the back row, looking to the front, and I said in that moment, I said, life is different in the front row. And that was where a light bulb went off. And then the third one was this ultra run, which we'd actually committed to running before we decided to do it for charity. We were just training for this ultra, and we thought, oh, we should raise money for a charity. So we were looking around to charities to give to, and then the question turned to, well, if we started a charity, what would be the perfect one? And that day, Front Row foundation was born. So those three things happening, it was like Tony asking the question. Having that aha moment at Jason Mraz and then having this run all happened within a period of maybe 90 days. And that was kind of the spark. That was the perfect storm that brought it all together.

So cool. So did this kind of. You had this aha moment literally at the concert during the show?

Yeah, I was sitting there. I was with my girlfriend at the time. And I looked in the back, and there was just people kind of checked out. They were sitting down, the energy was low. And I looked to the front, and I saw these couple girls. I remember they were standing up and they were shouting out requests, and Jason was Talking to them, and they were having a blast. And I remember thinking. And then I said to my girlfriend, I said, man, life is different in the front row. How do you get those seats? How do you hang around those people? And what is it that they're doing differently? Why are they having such an amazing time? And that's when the whole conversation then came to be. You can spend hours talking about that whole philosophy, but, you know, it's like the bullet points are. Like, one is you get to the ticket window early. Some people get the front row because they show up early. You know, other people get the front row because they're friends with somebody who's got the resources or connections to be in the front row. Some people are in the front row because those seats were open, and they just walk up and took them. They just like, those are our seats. And they went up and took them. There's a million reasons, but all the analogies and metaphors, as you might see, are all about. It's all about engagement. This whole message is about courage. It's about engagement. It's about being present. It's about the type of people who. There's people at concerts who wish they were somewhere else. They're still doing their to do list at home. They're still wishing they were at another concert. They were wishing they were with somebody else. And then there's people who are like, this is where I'm at. This is who I'm with. This is who I'm seeing. And I'm going to have the time of my life. And I think those people have something figured out. And so I wanted to study that ability to get in proximity of the stage. The power, the thing that inspires you and let loose and just enjoy the moment and really be there and be engaged. And in doing so, when you're an amazing fan, you give the band tons of energy, and then they play a better show for you. And it's that contribution, right? That's being in the front row.

God, I love the metaphor. I communicate by metaphor in my life. My girlfriend's always like, can you stop that? But I love what you're talking about. There's so many parallels between showing up fully present in our lives and living our lives in the front row. But, you know, now this is a perfect transition. John, what is this foundation that you've created? How are you serving people through the front row Foundation?

Yeah. So Front row celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. And we're actually. I don't know when this will come out, but we're going to be@thebestyeareverlive.com Partnering with Hal Elrod, one of our top sponsors and longtime friend of mine. What we do is we create once in a lifetime amazing experiences for children and adults who have a life threatening illness. And we do this by putting them front row of their favorite. I mean, they are raving fans of some type of live event. It could be sports, music, any type of entertainment and we document the entire thing. There's pictures and there's video and we really roll out the red carpet. It is dinners and everything that you could imagine along the way, personalized gifts. We want these recipients to feel like rock stars for the day. And what's more important than even just the day is that day becomes a metaphor for how they can live every day of their lives. And we create the videos and the photo books so that they can look back on that experience and they can draw energy and strength and positivity from that and choose to live life differently. We always say that you don't choose your seat always, but you can always choose to have a front row experience. And some of these folks have been dealt some pretty difficult hands. They're really battling through some pretty serious situations. And for many of our recipients, they have said that not only was this the greatest day of their life, but for their families, we didn't realize the impact that it would have on the phone. Family members, they had such a great time watching their loved one enjoy themselves. Because when you're battling for your life, your family is battling with you. And getting together enough energy and resources to take somebody out for a night on the town is not always at the top of their list because they're fighting for their lives. And so to have somebody come in and do that for you when you probably aren't going to be doing it yourself. Even people with resources, even people with money, it's, it's time and energy then too to get these done. It's just such a gift. We feel it's such a gift to us to be able to watch this occur. And it's been a lot of fun, man. There's been a lot of great experiences. Little children to older folks.

Yeah, it's really touching. I mean, I had heard you and Hal talk previously about the girl who went to the Kelly Clarkson and I found myself just like not breathing, just listening and just feeling how, feeling the weight, the emotional weight of how in my life and in everyone listening, I know there's times in your life where you become so caught up in what's going on and how I'm not being served or how I'm not getting what I need or all these different spiraling voices. And then you come across a story where someone is at one of the last concerts they'll be at for their whole life, and they're just this young kid. And it really is this perspective, this gift of perspective that I think you are giving through the front row foundation with the other edge of the sword being that you're actually giving these phenomenal experiences to these people that sometimes may not have a way out. And I think that's admirable. And I just want to thank you for that mission and how you're executing that, John.

Thanks, man. We're having a lot of fun and it's a real joy to meet our recipients and to help ease the pain a little bit and bring a little joy. And that's our mission.

Well, segueing into beliefs, I mean, talking about how in our lives we can come so wrapped up in our own drama, in our own heads. What are some of the ways that in your own life you've shed these limiting beliefs? I know you had gone to Tony Robbins and you said you left crying and you had these big breakthroughs. Have you come across from either coaching or speaking and all the things you do, three top action items that people can start to do to let go of these beliefs that don't serve them?

Yeah, that's a really good question. I like that. Let me think about that for a quick sec.

Sure.

One, I know. By the way, I'll start with the one that is for sure, 100% my number one answer. And that is it's peer group. It's who's in your front row. And I know you're not shocked to hear me say that, but I think that what's great is when we have people around us that have empowering beliefs and it helps condition our mind. Just like children learn, we watch other people do things we emulate. So many times I watch my friends handle a situation or think about life a certain way, and I can't help but be affected by that. I have to be careful who I put myself in proximity to because I immediately adapt to everybody. And if it's not positive, it's not.

Going to be like an emotional chameleon.

Yeah, yeah. That's exactly what it is. Yeah. And I think I never forget. And you might know this story. I don't remember if I shared this at the Mastermind, but one of our good friends, John Berghoff, I remember I was telling John about we had an event we were inviting people to and we had a couple hundred people coming and I think our goal might have been 300 and we had 200. And I said to John, hey, I think we have enough people. Let's just be okay with what we have. And John said, yeah, I'm going to pretend you didn't say that. Let's go back to talking about how we can get to 300. And I remember thinking that was the best response ever. I'm going to pretend you didn't say that. Let's go back to talking about how we can get to 300. And he said it in the most loving, caring, awesome way. But one of the ways that we can change our own beliefs about ourselves and about our potential is to be around people who will challenge them with us and for us. It's why I had such a great experience, experience at Tony Robbins. It's just changing your environment. I mean, listen, you invest in yourself, right? People invest in coaching with you. You invest in coaching with other people. It's so that you can surround yourself with amazing folks who are going to elevate your thinking. So that's number one. I think that number two, kind of number one bleeds into this a little bit. But it's really about your physical environment and sometimes that is people. But I would also say it's literally about shaping an environment that helps you create better habits. When I read Switch by Chip and Dan Heath, do you know that book?

No, but I will link it. What's the name of it again?

It's so good. It's called Switch by Chip and Dan Heath. And two of my favorite authors, by the way, they have three incredible books out and this one in particular was talking about change. And they said there was a rule called the 22nd rule. And for example, if you woke up and your workout clothes, your group will love this, are next to your bed, then your X percentage times more likely going to go to the gym because it's there. You're twice as likely. Right. If you have to go to your closet to get your clothes out, you're half as likely to go from a 20 second differentiation of how easy it is or not easy it is to do that thing when I put the keyboard. So Tatiana and I had this conversation recently about inspiring our children to play more music. When I take the keyboard, plug it in and put it on the floor, I can almost predict with 99% accuracy that Tiger will play it because I've put It directly in his path. In the bathroom, I have a Sharpie marker and I write on the wall, on the mirror, words and messages and affirmations for my kids and for my wife. I have one right now. If you went to my bathroom, there's a message to my wife. I can't tell you what it says, but it's only for my W. And the deal is that it's all about shaping an environment. So that would be the second one to create habits and be creative with that. Oh, one more on that, Josh. And again, you gotta. You know I'm the speaker, right?

So no, this is gold, man. Keep going, keep flowing.

The other one is, I came up with this two years ago and I created a wall calendar. I've never shared this on any podcast. I don't think. So this is new. It's a wall calendar. It literally spans about 11 or 12ft on my wall. I'm looking at. It has every month of the year on the wall and then above it is 2015 and below it is 2016. And I use post it notes to put major goals and major deadlines. I'm a very visual person and I was like, I need to create the next two years of my life so I can see it. I want to see how quickly it's approaching. I want to see it all laid out. Two years of my life on one wall. And that has been a massive help for me to stay focused on my number one projects and when they're going out. So I think that's a big one. And then the third one I would just say is this, and this will be quicker is really about mindfulness, and that is being aware of our thoughts. One of the ways to create habits is simply know that we have this thought, we do this thing, and this is the result of it. When we are numbing to our own emotions and our lives and we get so busy and we're just clicking the button over and over again all day long. We aren't changing our habits partially because we don't even know what's happening. And I feel like that's how I lived a lot of my earlier life was I didn't pay attention to how I felt. I didn't pay attention to what my body was saying. I didn't pay attention to whether or not my heart was saying, hell yes. Name your kid Ocean. I was doing things based on. I would have named him based on what everybody else said was a cool name versus picking the name that was powerful. And work on raising a really cool Child, I think that for me, it's about being aware and mindful. It's about actually slowing down. I listen to a lot of podcasts, and I hear brilliant people say oftentimes when they're asked the question, what advice would you give to your younger self? Is like, slow down, not work harder, kick more ass. It's like, try to slow down a little bit and make it so that your moves are maybe a little more intentional, so that you're a little more aware, so that you relax a little bit into it. And you could be super effective and be relaxed. You could be super effective and be aware. Like I think about my golf swing, I'm like, the harder I grip the club and the harder I swing, the worse the result is. Sure. So relaxing and being mindful and being present, I think is a huge aspect of developing great habits. And that's it.

And I think what you're touching on is being in a state of flow. There's the Flow Genome project, and they're gonna be at the bulletproof conference that I'll be attending here in October. And they're all about tapping into the brainwaves, those alpha brainwaves, that readiness state where you're actually, you can execute from that place of calm. And that's really why I think, John, you've been such a phenomenal speaker, voted, you know, the top speaker in all of the colleges in America two years in a row, is because you understand that. But I'm curious, with that as a template, do you biohack your life in any way? I mean, do you biohack your workspace? Do you have any technology that you use to facilitate this growth and this awareness for yourself? We cover a lot of behavior change and wellness tech on the show. But to achieve what you've achieved, is there any key principles that you have put forth in your life, whether technology or biohacking?

Yeah, it's a great question, and I'll take a stab at answering that. Of what I think, for me, I would say is my answer, and we'll see. If this is what you're looking for, you tell me. But for me, it's about the most simple sense. It's using a timer to give myself deadlines throughout the day. That's one of the most basic. So I will use a timer to say, I'm going to work on this activity for 30 or 45 minutes, and then I'm going to get up. I have a rebounder that I'm looking at right now. So I'm in my Office. I'm standing up currently at my standing desk. I'm looking at my yoga mat on the floor. I've got a foam roller. I've got a bike stand where I can bike in front of my TV if I want. I've got an inversion table. I've got all this stuff surrounding me. I'm sitting on a balance ball. When I am sitting at my desk, I'm literally just looking around. So I think in all those sense, I'm always setting a timer and being active throughout my day. That's one of the ways I'm using simple technology to remind me to jump up and do something. I've got my Apple watch on that does what everybody knows it does. When I run, I'm running with a heart rate monitor so that my whole deal is I run for time and heart rate and that's what I'm going for. I don't care about pace at this point. I don't care how slow or fast I run. I really just want to be operating for a certain length of time in my target heart rate. And that's been working for me. So that's my, I mean, you know, I think that's my big, that's the stuff that I use technology wise for myself.

It's powerful too because you talked about having these little tool sets around you to really, I mean, encourage you to be the best version of yourself. Because having the tools and the bike stand and the foam roller and having the heart rate tracking, these are all mirrors of mindfulness. And we've had plenty of guests on the show and even in some of the blog posts that I've written about mindfulness. And really these devices are great, but it's the intention behind the device that's most important. And what I'm getting from you is that the reason you've set up your workspace, your environment like this is because these tools are going to remind you that this is the most important path for you. This path of success, of self awareness, of doing what it is that you, that you feel like you should be doing. So thanks for sharing that. I'll make sure to give like a little list of John Vroman's favorite biohacking tools into the show. Notes, man. Well, last question for you before we let you go. And this has been a phenomenal conversation and I'm really excited to hear your answer for this. And this is, what is your definition of wellness? What does wellness mean to you?

Wellness means to me, I think when the major categories of your life are aligned in a way that you feel like you're living in harmony and with joy and that your best self shows up more often than not and that you're good for the people that are around you, that the machine, your mind, body, spirit is operating in a way that is both authentic to you, it's why you're here and you're operating at your best and it's impacting other people. I think that's wellness. I think when the system is running well, I think is when you are well.

Thank you, John. This has been a really phenomenal conversation. I'm sure we're going to get tons of questions. I will link you in the show notes. But for people that want to learn more about front row foundation and about different events that you're having throughout the year, where can they go to seek you out?

Frontrow Factor.com would probably be the best place and that will link to all the other stuff to the charity, speaking, coaching, et cetera. You can find me there.

Excellent. Well, John Vrooman, thank you so much for coming on the show. We really value the impact you're making in the world and I'm stoked to see you in December at the event.

Yeah, Josh, so cool, man. Thank you. And thanks for. I want to say this, thank you for what you're doing because I believe that you are helping the world to complete their, you know, to define what wellness means for them. And ultimately, I believe that when they do and when they experience that they themselves will help the world to be a better place which my boys will grow up in. So you are having a direct impact on my children's lives and I thank you for that. That means the world to me. So much love to you, my friend. And thanks for being a real leader.

All right, man. Thank you. That made me feel really awesome today. You just made my day. So thanks for coming on the show and we'll catch up with you soon.

All right, See you, buddy.

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