This episode represents the beginning of exciting times for the Be Relentless Podcast. 

First, I had the privilege of introducing our new Podcast Producer Brandon Seifert! 

Second, got to sit down with Kirk Van Everen, IN PERSON, for the first time on the show. 

During the show we explored Brandon Seifert’s story and what lead him to the Be Relentless Podcast, Kirk Van Everen’s world travels and how he made it back to Colorado, concepts from the book “Be Relentless: If the obstacle is the way then we must be waymakers” and we also hinted at some of the exciting things that we will be revealing soon from the ULA-Universe! 

Topics of the discussion included growth, fear as a tool, and the importance of taking action, no matter how small the step. Additionally we discussed how to navigate challenges, create value, and positively impact the world. 

If you found value in the show please share it with someone you care for as well as subscribe and rate it!

Also, check out Be Relentless: If the obstacle is the way, then we must be waymakers HERE.

Do you want to learn more? Check out:

The Book: Be Relentless: If the obstacle is the way, then we must be WayMakers.

The Podcast: “Be Relentless Podcast”

The Fuel: Sisu Stamina, Performance Evolved

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Episode Transcript

00;00;08;23 – 00;00;30;06

Jon Mayo

Hello and welcome to Be Relentless, the podcast. It’s been a while since our last conversation and I’m very excited about the conversation that we get to embark on. Today I was joined by Kirk van Evren in the flesh. My brother, partner and friend is finally back from his tours in Europe and his world travels. Very grateful for that.

00;00;30;17 – 00;00;56;07

Jon Mayo

And additionally, we get to introduce Brandon Seifert, who is the be relentless podcast producer and who has joined your team. And that is also extremely exciting. So today we talk about a large variance of topics from the book. Be relentless. If the obstacle is the way, then we must be way makers to the future of the show. The cool work that Brandon’s doing, as well as an introduction to who he is and what his journey looks like.

00;00;56;20 – 00;01;21;29

Jon Mayo

And then we begin to explore where the universal learning approach to yoga in the early universe is going and what you can begin to expect in the coming years. A little bit of teasers there. Additionally, as an overview to the topics we explore in the show, outside of those frankly very fun administrative changes that we get to experience are the value of paying it forward, working to create value and to pay it forward to help others.

00;01;23;03 – 00;01;54;12

Jon Mayo

The fact that growth requires goals, right? That was a good topic. Fear and how we can use it as a tool is something that we explored in the importance of taking action and just starting, no matter how small the step is. Are all nuggets that launched exploratory conversation today, which was quite a blast. So without further ado, let’s dive right in.

00;01;55;25 – 00;01;57;22

Kirk Van Everen

All right. Well, I’m comfortable.

00;01;58;06 – 00;02;01;01

Jon Mayo

I’m very comfy. Cozy. How are you, Brandon?

00;02;01;16 – 00;02;02;14

Brandon Seifert

I’m doing great.

00;02;03;10 – 00;02;43;06

Jon Mayo

You know, I’m pretty excited that we’re all here doing this. One of the sentiments that we’re talking about when we’re getting everything set up in your upstairs, Kirk, is right now we’re talking about if you went back in time two years ago. Right. And someone said, all right, you’re going to be sitting down with Kirk having finished recording the first book at 1230 in the morning, the night before, sitting down to do an episode of the Be Relentless podcast with Brandon, who Welcome to the team, is a podcast producer, and all of us are on our own stimulants right now from the universe.

00;02;43;26 – 00;02;45;06

Jon Mayo

Out of him like that sounds like heaven.

00;02;45;12 – 00;02;51;09

Kirk Van Everen

I would have. I would have. If you had said this two years ago, I would have suggested that, you know, what are you taking that I’m not right now?

00;02;51;10 – 00;02;53;18

Jon Mayo

So it’s pretty neat.

00;02;53;29 – 00;03;00;20

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah. And this is a cool moment to get everybody together. And I haven’t been on the podcast in a while.

00;03;01;11 – 00;03;02;24

Jon Mayo

You’ve never been on it in person?

00;03;02;24 – 00;03;09;21

Kirk Van Everen

In person? No. It’s always been remote. I mean, we recorded with my, you know, 5000 miles away. Yep. Yeah.

00;03;10;00 – 00;03;18;13

Jon Mayo

We tested our conversations, pioneered the remote style for us. Right? Yes. And now getting to do it in person is quite a treat. So.

00;03;18;25 – 00;03;19;26

Kirk Van Everen

You know, Brandon here.

00;03;20;29 – 00;03;23;19

Brandon Seifert

Hi.

00;03;23;19 – 00;03;39;22

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah, You’re going to be running the. I mean, you just walk kind of walk through like your your role here. I mean, this is this is great. What horsepower you bring to this this huge endeavor. I mean, how do you how do you see this unfolding moving forward, how you like? And so far.

00;03;40;23 – 00;03;58;24

Brandon Seifert

I’m loving it. It’s given a lot of purpose to what I’ve been trying to do in my life right now. I’m not really sure exactly how far I’m able to to get it going, but I’m just learning along the way and we’ll see what we can make happen together.

00;03;59;21 – 00;04;02;24

Jon Mayo

Yeah, the the back story, if you’re okay with me sharing it a little bit.

00;04;02;26 – 00;04;03;12

Brandon Seifert

Yeah, go ahead.

00;04;03;21 – 00;04;11;25

Jon Mayo

Yeah. So the back story and why Brandon’s here now is when did we start? How long ago did we start talking? Like, pretty consistently.

00;04;12;17 – 00;04;18;07

Brandon Seifert

Consistently? We was February of last year.

00;04;18;19 – 00;04;45;04

Jon Mayo

Okay, so we’re about 13 months in. Right. And conversations happened kind of. We walked through everything that’s laid out in the book, Be Relentless and which is now available on Amazon, by the way. Shameless plug and the audible will be available late very late March. Probably mid-April is more realistic mid to late April as well. So you can get it print in that.

00;04;45;10 – 00;04;48;06

Kirk Van Everen

You said edit out all of my heavy breathing. That’s probably what it.

00;04;48;06 – 00;04;48;20

Jon Mayo

Is and.

00;04;48;20 – 00;04;49;15

Kirk Van Everen

Like might take a while.

00;04;49;25 – 00;05;16;15

Jon Mayo

Yeah. Yeah. All that, all the silliness you’re breathing my like coughing and getting congested last night gasping. Yeah. So the book’s available. We walked through though in real time in real life, essentially the is there because it’s an operating framework. It’s it’s it’s real it’s usable and I do my best to live the concepts we got to walk through them in concept the conversation we also work together for our day jobs for a pretty amazing company and are part of a great team there.

00;05;17;19 – 00;05;36;29

Jon Mayo

But yeah, 13 months ago we started having these conversations. We started climbing in discussing these ideas of intentional living and what if we develop discipline in CSA and become more relentless in pursuit of something, you know, and you’re welcome to expand on that as much as you want. But it led to about two months ago.

00;05;37;28 – 00;05;39;01

Brandon Seifert

Yeah, about two months ago.

00;05;39;10 – 00;06;02;05

Jon Mayo

Yeah, two months ago. We’re having conversations about, well, what’s next, right? Because some baseline discipline had been established, things like that. And the conversation of like, what should I be? What is there to pursue that’s worth say, waking up earlier doing the extra work for came up. And I’d love to hear from your perspective if you’re willing, like how this began to fit into that.

00;06;02;05 – 00;06;35;00

Brandon Seifert

Yeah. So the like you said, we already had the framework kind of set discipline being built, but I felt that very strong imposter syndrome because I wasn’t living life fully, I wasn’t striving for much. And so I think at one point we were just sitting down and you asked, What would I find meaning in my life for? I was like, I don’t know, just maybe doing something like you’re doing.

00;06;35;21 – 00;06;59;24

Brandon Seifert

And I want to say like two or three days later you’re like, Oh, hey, you said this. And I really thought about it and you just threw it out there. And I was shocked by it, you know, to be able to to work with you guys and from there, I gave it about an extra week because I wanted to make sure that I was like, fully committed to to trying to work with you guys.

00;07;00;18 – 00;07;21;13

Brandon Seifert

But I decided to go with it. And I’ve been loving it ever since. I’m finding a lot of purpose in what I’m doing behind the scene, continuously growing, and it’s very hard to do that or to not do that. When you’re working with John. Like you have to work on something if you’re around that guy.

00;07;23;00 – 00;07;46;19

Kirk Van Everen

Well, you gave it an incredible facelift. I mean, really, like you came out of the gate absolutely swinging from what we’ve seen. So far. I mean, it’s just wonderful just because you were able to provide this this additional perspective, but then also channel in a way that I really, I feel is going to help create so much momentum because it’s just a different perspective on the approach to it.

00;07;46;19 – 00;08;13;02

Kirk Van Everen

And you you were hitting it out of the park right off the bat. So phenomenal addition to the podcast out the gate. Very, very cool to see what you will continue to do and I totally understand we were talking about just being around Jon, that there is this there’s this infectious energy that comes out of just working in collaboration with him.

00;08;13;02 – 00;08;24;26

Kirk Van Everen

And I’ve had I’ve had, you know, the privilege of working with him for years, you know, prior to our time, both getting out of the Army, we were, you know, shaved heads, uniform and not just Nazis.

00;08;24;26 – 00;08;25;14

Jon Mayo

We were in the Army.

00;08;25;14 – 00;08;56;13

Kirk Van Everen

No clarity. Yes. You know, we were we were we were very, very close with each other. And and just being in the same room, it was just this combustion reaction of of productivity. But it also just this dreaming like the the ceiling was blown off and the ambition was amplified. And we just started asking more questions about what if, what if, what if?

00;08;56;29 – 00;09;18;16

Kirk Van Everen

And really that kind of catalyst and that that dynamic spurred the answers to those questions, turned into, let’s do a podcast, let’s launch a company, let’s start a product, let’s completely change the direction of our lives. Jon’s like, You know what? While I also write a book at the same time, I mean, it was so I totally get what you’re talking about.

00;09;18;16 – 00;09;44;29

Kirk Van Everen

You’ve got to work if you’re around him and it’s been the best shift in my life professionally that I’ve ever experienced. Because you talked about purpose, right? This is it was a way to channel all of the things that I hope to extract out of life and but give it a centralized focus. For the first time ever. And we can definitely go into this more in terms of where this is going.

00;09;44;29 – 00;09;54;10

Kirk Van Everen

But you hit the nail on the head. It is a way it is a phenomenal reason to wake up in the morning and commit your time and energy to. Right. Yeah.

00;09;56;04 – 00;10;30;22

Brandon Seifert

And I think all of that also speaks to cultivating the people that you want around you in your life to be able to pursue these things like you need the right people in your life, otherwise you’re going to become those people and embody those things that you wish that you weren’t. Yeah, so I’ve done a lot of cultivating family, friends in every aspect of my life, from spiritually to work to, you know, any aspect of social engagement.

00;10;30;22 – 00;10;43;02

Brandon Seifert

I’ve had to change to be able to be pursuing my dreams and my goals. Like you need to, to shift your entire social dynamic.

00;10;43;04 – 00;11;17;21

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah, I mean, it’s the analogy John brings up in his book and not to give away the ending, but the but you talk a lot about choosing the circles that you, you surround yourself by the people that contribute value. They contribute, you know, to your growth. It support your endeavors. And then, of course, the other side of that equation is the people that would detract from that, people that would, you know, maybe because of their own, their own, it maybe isn’t even to their own fault, but you maybe their life’s direction is in is is north and yours is south.

00;11;17;21 – 00;11;48;29

Kirk Van Everen

And you’re both in, you know, for good reason going those directions. But if they don’t mutually support each other in this aspect, it’s important to ask those critical questions. And it turns out to be a pretty painful mental experiment to walk through because you do have to set, you know, set sunset some of these relationships or at least group them in a way where you are not pouring yourself into these people and these relationships to the same degree you would others else, because you end up it’s like throwing an anchor behind your boat.

00;11;49;18 – 00;12;02;04

Kirk Van Everen

It hampers your progress. And you know, that puts at risk your ability to achieve those long term visions and dreams that you, you know, you set out to accomplish.

00;12;02;18 – 00;12;31;21

Brandon Seifert

So. Right. And I, I want to follow that up with like the whole purpose that I’m doing this for is one to grow myself, of course, But also to to give this kind of realization to other people that I’ve missed in. And I’ve already begun to do that with family and friends. But it’s almost like you have to step back from that toxicity and then you can reintroduce yourself back into it.

00;12;31;26 – 00;13;03;11

Brandon Seifert

Sure. And then feed that light that you’ve started to gain back into those around you. And you can see people just start striving in their own life after that. Sure. And that is one of the most beautiful things that has added purpose into my life is to give that back. Yeah. To those toxic people know it’s healthy to do so, to reintroduce yourself, but going back into it and helping those people, that’s the best feeling.

00;13;03;19 – 00;13;33;23

Kirk Van Everen

I mean, you have a literal microphone and the larger that this podcast ends up becoming, the more people you can actually connect with at scale. You know this, you know, the Internet is by design that you can do. Somebody in Australia can be listening to this and be moved by the things that you’re creating, you know, through through Instagram and through, you know, every through Spotify and every every dimension of where the fingerprints of be really on this podcast exists, if they can find it, they can be affected by it.

00;13;33;26 – 00;13;57;03

Kirk Van Everen

And that’s an incredible journey to pursue. One thing I would I wanted to ask, though, just because in your own personal journey to express these ideas and introduce these concepts, have you felt that it’s been isolating in some contexts, like where you feel like maybe you’re not being as under it because it’s not a super common mentality to embody?

00;13;57;03 – 00;13;59;15

Kirk Van Everen

Do you find yourself being isolated in some context?

00;14;01;13 – 00;14;20;09

Brandon Seifert

Yeah, definitely. I’ve noticed that I will be going off on weird tangents about how I’ve improved my life and like try not to be preachy about anything. Sure, of course. But it’s almost like the people that I’m trying to express that you sometimes just don’t get it because they haven’t had that aha moment. Yeah.

00;14;20;21 – 00;14;23;11

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah.

00;14;23;11 – 00;14;40;17

Brandon Seifert

And sometimes you can through that isolation and you keep just pursuing it, you can start getting that for those other people. Sure. There’s definitely been a long period where nobody understood me because I changed so fast and so radically. I became a different person.

00;14;40;17 – 00;14;41;06

Kirk Van Everen

And yeah.

00;14;42;04 – 00;14;50;23

Brandon Seifert

Even just my outlook on life was foreign to not just myself but everyone around me. And so there was a readjustment period.

00;14;50;23 – 00;15;08;21

Kirk Van Everen

Do you think that just by proximity, though, those people seeing your transitions, I mean, maybe if you’re not, you know, able to sit them down and get them on the same page in a conversation, but just through observing your actions, I mean, I’m sure that this has a ripple effect to like. Well, wow, he’s he’s really turned his life around.

00;15;08;21 – 00;15;25;09

Kirk Van Everen

What are the things he’s doing differently? Just piques that curiosity. Have you seen that start to happen? Because I know it’s at first it’s okay, we’re on it. We’re speaking on a different wavelength right now. And it’s not to say that, you know, you’re better than anybody else. It’s not to suggest that whatsoever, but I found this very much.

00;15;25;09 – 00;15;52;07

Kirk Van Everen

So when I start talking about certain concepts of really pushing the boundaries of thinking and changing lifestyle, intentional living, there’s you really start to hit this wall because it starts to conflict with maybe how they perceive their own version of how to live their lives. It seems to go in conflict with that, or it breaks the norms of like what the comfort that people typically seek to you know, they drift to the they default to.

00;15;52;07 – 00;16;04;25

Kirk Van Everen

Well, you know, I sleep in and so I need to get up and, you know, and like to kick my feet up and do X, Y and Z to go. Have you ever tried doing this, this, this and this? You’re like, why would I do that in my time? And then just you just feel like you hit this wall talking to them.

00;16;05;15 – 00;16;30;24

Kirk Van Everen

I felt the same way. I feel like I’m speaking a different language almost. But then after a while, you really start to sound like, Wow, that’s really cool. You’re doing a lot of stuff. Yeah, I mean, I guess we’ve been talking about know, like this is, you know, you want them to have aha moment on the spot, but sometimes it takes really just the results of your actions to be what the wake up moment for those people.

00;16;31;06 – 00;16;49;02

Brandon Seifert

Yeah. And social engagement has drastic effects on that as well. So like I used to be someone I would gossip and like the complete cut out of that kind of stuff makes them wonder, Oh wait, this guy’s different.

00;16;49;21 – 00;16;50;27

Kirk Van Everen

Y Yeah.

00;16;50;29 – 00;16;55;04

Brandon Seifert

And he seems happier for some reason. Who would have thought not.

00;16;55;04 – 00;16;56;22

Kirk Van Everen

Gossiping would make you happy?

00;16;56;22 – 00;17;04;27

Brandon Seifert

Yeah, but I definitely feel that like, there was definitely a hitting a brick wall moment.

00;17;04;28 – 00;17;05;10

Kirk Van Everen

Sure.

00;17;06;13 – 00;17;31;20

Brandon Seifert

In every in. Honestly, I don’t have very many true relationships. I try to keep it that way, but with every single one of those minus John because he was like, No, just tackle the wall, go through it. Every other one was bricked like dead end, really. And there there was a phase where I just didn’t talk to anyone for like three or four months.

00;17;31;20 – 00;17;32;03

Brandon Seifert

Really?

00;17;32;03 – 00;17;32;23

Kirk Van Everen

Like, Yeah.

00;17;33;02 – 00;17;40;05

Brandon Seifert

Unless it was work. But yeah, there was a moment where nobody understood me and therefore cared.

00;17;40;08 – 00;17;40;18

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah.

00;17;40;24 – 00;17;47;12

Jon Mayo

How did you navigate that silence or what was that experience like?

00;17;47;12 – 00;18;04;16

Brandon Seifert

I navigated it by just pursuing forward, knowing that no matter what the things that I’m pursuing make me happy, and eventually I would find someone that would be there for me. They could come back if they wanted me.

00;18;05;07 – 00;18;08;06

Kirk Van Everen

So you knew your true North and you just let that guide you through the silence?

00;18;08;14 – 00;18;26;23

Brandon Seifert

Yeah. And eventually they did. Like, they reached out to me. We started doing things again, but it’s. It’s cut out cold turkey. Every relationship in your life, who’s going to come back? That is very powerful.

00;18;27;21 – 00;18;50;04

Kirk Van Everen

And a little scary to. Oh, yeah, because it gets gets quiet for sure. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, everybody has their own things in life that they’re doing. But I mean, really, you turn the faucet off and it just it’s, you know, so hearing crickets, you’re like, okay, who who’s, who’s out there? And it helps to reinforce that as people start to recognize that and creep back into your life.

00;18;50;12 – 00;19;14;08

Jon Mayo

This is an incredibly surreal experience for me. I’m sitting here listening to you guys talking, and I know that like Brandon from our walk together, it’s been an absolute privilege and honor to get to watch the transformations you’ve been doing in your life right? Things were pretty dark a year ago, and now we’re looking at a vibrant future where it’s like, how do we do all the things we want to do in the time we have, right?

00;19;14;14 – 00;19;39;12

Jon Mayo

It’s just a different game and it. Kirk the questions you’re asking everything. It’s like, holy crud, the things in the book aren’t just my experiences. They’re not just years, they’re yours also. And there’s more people we know that have done this. The, the idea of like, we’re communal creatures. We need to be very intentional on who we surround ourselves with, what that looks like, how we evaluate that and be willing to give ourselves permission to let those relationships go.

00;19;39;12 – 00;19;59;28

Jon Mayo

For a time. It’s being test case. It’s being tested and lived by many to the point where, like you walked in silence for 3 to 4 months, which is just this 100% surreal experience for me sitting here like, holy moly, these things are like, this is happening outside of my brain, right? Which is cool. And in it it’s creating that powerful effect.

00;19;59;28 – 00;20;20;05

Jon Mayo

Which brings us back to why happens to be a sun to day, why we’re all here doing this right now? That purpose that we’re pursuing. Right. The thing that I invited you to do is, hey, I’m bent to spend my life pursuing the question of how might we unleash human potential, Right, Kirk And I’ve built a business around that question.

00;20;20;29 – 00;20;44;20

Jon Mayo

The podcast is founded on that question. The book is written for that question. Do you want to run the podcast and make it something incredible in pursuit of how might we unleash human potential, how might we better love people, how might we build community, right? How might we help our fellow human beings to grow, prosper and thrive? And that was really the invitation.

00;20;45;03 – 00;21;06;26

Jon Mayo

And you’re like, Well, I don’t know anything about podcasting. I was like, That’s not what I ask. I ask, What do you think about those questions? And you’re like, I love those questions, right? There’s like, All right, well, if you want to jump in to answering to pursuing those questions, let me know. And that was the invitation wasn’t like, hey, you’re going to do X number of posts or any of that jazz.

00;21;07;11 – 00;21;30;02

Jon Mayo

It was, Do you believe in this vision enough that you’re willing to create a way towards pursuing it? And your response was, Yes, as we’ve just discussed. And now here we are. And I too want to just pat you on the back because I think it’s worth acknowledging it. I love the ability to do it publicly. But since you’ve taken over and been rowing 12, 13 hour days at our company, like our day job, right.

00;21;30;17 – 00;21;56;12

Jon Mayo

Great company, great team, you surged on projects and all the while you were still revamping the entire visual, esthetic and related body of the show and how it’s interfaced with and creating extremely powerful posts, at least from my perspective. I look forward in the morning to like look at a post that you’ve put on for this show and it’s like, I want to comment on it, but I’m like, It’s kind of weird in my shaking my own hand.

00;21;57;25 – 00;22;19;16

Jon Mayo

But now that like now that we’ve been able to announce or by the time this publishes, we’ve been able to announce that you’re driving this, I’m going to be able to comment in the line with the show, with the things you’re doing and provide hopefully a little bit more context, value interaction. It’s just so stinkin exciting. And what’s so powerful, I believe and I just heard this quote, I don’t know where it’s from.

00;22;19;17 – 00;22;40;25

Jon Mayo

I have no idea where the quotes from, but it was very simple. You can’t have growth without goals was the concept, and it seemed oddly fitting when it came back into my mind because to what we were discussing you went through, you chose to do 75 hard for bit where you did the whole 75 hard, right? And then we were talking about just continuously building discipline.

00;22;40;25 – 00;22;58;11

Jon Mayo

And when we started talking about doing this, it was because it’s like, why wake up and work out if what else am I doing right? So the goal that we ended up creating was pursuing the questions and having you join the team as the podcast producer. And when you accepted that that became the goal. How do we grow this thing healthily?

00;22;58;15 – 00;23;37;19

Jon Mayo

I authentically, organically so that can have maximum impact in the lives of those it touches. And that goal started to feed the cycle. And what I love about everything that we’re collectively doing is I cannot tell you at this point whether what is being built is being built or it’s building me or in this case, us. And I think that’s a cool place to be because when you wake up and you’re tired or what have you, and you’re like, I can’t wait to lean into further developing this thing with hopes that it helps do this.

00;23;37;19 – 00;24;04;11

Jon Mayo

And it’s true. It’s causing me to need to be better to do it. Well, what a cool, self-perpetuating cycle to create, right? You’re creating a positive feedback loop, a positive habit loop of If I want to get this done, I have to become more efficient. I have to become more effective. I need to have a clearer mind, a healthier body, a less chaotic life.

00;24;05;08 – 00;24;28;05

Jon Mayo

How do I create those things so that we can get to the point of experiencing life through the lens of beauty that it has and also reaching out to our community and love? You know, it’s it’s incredibly neat. And what’s fun about it is we’re just in this. None of us would say like, hey, we’re the expert, Come listen to us.

00;24;28;05 – 00;24;43;19

Jon Mayo

No, it’s just an invitation to join us as we journey through this great adventure called Life. And our hope in sitting down with a mike instead of just around a table with coffee is that we can pay forward any of the peace, joy, contentment, value.

00;24;44;10 – 00;24;46;03

Kirk Van Everen

Happiness, lessons learned.

00;24;46;03 – 00;25;00;07

Jon Mayo

Lessons learned that we are finding. Yeah, to anyone who cares to hear and maybe create a movement of people who are like, You know what? Life’s not too terrible. And I can choose the lens through which I see the world and I won’t. I’m going to choose one that makes it a little bit brighter.

00;25;00;13 – 00;25;21;13

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah, that’s that’s a that’s a beautiful pursuit, because not only improving yourself, but you’re also creating something that has the capacity to help so many more people. And this is not just a self-righteous thing, but it is just what has become our calling, you know? I mean, I think that there’s plenty of amazing people out there that would love to, you know, just to kind of touching your core.

00;25;21;14 – 00;25;37;03

Kirk Van Everen

And I’ve heard a variation of that as well. There’s so many people out there that would love to create value in this world, right? But if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there. And that is really kind of the crux of what I was. I pulled out of what you said is that you have this guiding arrow.

00;25;37;08 – 00;25;56;19

Kirk Van Everen

This could be what this could be that for somebody who just wants to apply their horsepower and their passion towards something they care about, but they don’t know where to point it, right. This is a great lens to analyze yourself. What can I have in my circle and then focus on your immediate circle around you and then your community and go out from there.

00;25;57;11 – 00;26;01;12

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah. And here we are unified by that. It’s amazing.

00;26;02;23 – 00;26;03;28

Brandon Seifert

Yep.

00;26;03;28 – 00;26;05;28

Jon Mayo

Well, we about to say something.

00;26;06;08 – 00;26;33;27

Brandon Seifert

Well, I was going to say, like, all of that stems from starting with the end of mind. Like you have to figure out, like you said, your true north. You got to figure out what do I want in life? If I were in John actually phrase this in one of our very first conversations, if I were to talk to myself on my deathbed and it is the most perfect version I can imagine myself to be, how far off the market money.

00;26;35;17 – 00;26;56;18

Brandon Seifert

Okay, we’ll then start working on that stuff. But like without knowing that that true north on what you think the best version of yourself could be. You have no compass. You’re running blind. You know, you can’t travel anywhere because now you’re traveling in five different directions off of whim and impulse control.

00;26;56;23 – 00;26;57;04

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah.

00;26;57;20 – 00;27;00;26

Brandon Seifert

So yeah, truth sense on that.

00;27;00;26 – 00;27;02;16

Kirk Van Everen

But yeah.

00;27;02;16 – 00;27;32;04

Jon Mayo

It’s interesting because the general theme, I think is if you start by focusing on yourself, like you said, it was quiet, then people start reaching out by that point, enough action had taken place. Right? This is true in my own life as well. If you focus on getting as close to that deal as possible, the actions and changes it produces creates a surplus of energy, a surplus of life value, whatever you want to call it, that begins to overflow from you.

00;27;32;17 – 00;28;12;04

Jon Mayo

So instead of trying to fix the world or fix your community or fix your friends, which is a very weird concept that I would just discourage you. If you’re focused on fixing yourself, you naturally begin to overflow with love, compassion, the courage to speak what you believe to be true to the best of your knowledge. And that begins to influence your environment, influence your relationships, influence your community from an outpouring of excess that never really runs dry, which is such a different approach from saying, okay, I have this idea, I’m going to go shout it from the rooftops, proclaim to the world that this is what I’m doing now, and then try to force everyone

00;28;12;04 – 00;28;33;05

Jon Mayo

to do it with me, which I think is unfortunately, what a lot of people do. And it’s why I also think it dries up because you’re pouring your cup out in this passionate pursuit that has no source of refueling rejuvenation. It just once it’s dry, it’s dry, it’s brittle, gets broken, and then you’re back to whatever you were raised.

00;28;33;05 – 00;29;12;13

Jon Mayo

This you’re creating a fuel source that continues to create and perpetuate the mentality, the philosophy, the outlook, the lens on life, the types of things we’re talking about creating, and in the pursuit of the things you want to pursue as we dance through this adventure and that make it so that you never truly run dry. Yeah, you have blips, you have sad moments, you have hard moments, but the overarching ecosystem that you build ends up helping to fortify you, to navigate those better, and then get back on the path of contentment more swiftly, you know, which is a distinction.

00;29;12;28 – 00;29;35;02

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah. One thing you just brought up that I’ve loved and never heard of put together better than this, and I’m going to screw this up. But you talk about the difference between passion and motivation and how that relates to your energy expenditure, right? So if you have something, imagine you’re sitting in a class and it’s a subject you’re not particularly interested in.

00;29;35;25 – 00;29;55;00

Kirk Van Everen

You could go you definitely could go as far as to say you’re not passionate about what it is, right? Whether it’s math or history or whatever it is, it is. Think about the energy, energy expenditure it requires for you just to maintain focus on this right and how exhausting it is, where you’re forcing yourself to run through the motions because you’re supposed to care about it, right?

00;29;56;16 – 00;30;22;26

Kirk Van Everen

And then picture the things in your life that you are fascinated by, things that just compel you to get off the couch and just go. Just go take action. Right. And how and just the dichotomy that exists between that that that class that you’re sitting in, if you’re not interested, and how much energy is just being generated because you’re passionate about a subject or an idea or a goal, right?

00;30;23;21 – 00;30;47;01

Kirk Van Everen

If you can land, if you can zero in what it is that you’re passionate about, you are you become much as a nuclear reactor of energy that just that just sustains itself. You wake up in the morning because you are motivated and passionate about whatever it is you end up just committing yourself to. You know, it’s just, you know, and again, there are harder days and others.

00;30;47;01 – 00;31;11;28

Kirk Van Everen

I mean, there’s biology. Is it you know, this is a factor here, right? But comparatively, looking side by side, there’s an immense difference between how taxing it is on you to commit yourself to something that you really aren’t invested in. And then you compare that with what you are, which, you know, you’re driving purpose in life and watch how far you can go and how where that energy just comes out of the woodwork.

00;31;12;01 – 00;31;33;28

Kirk Van Everen

It just it just comes seemingly out of nowhere. You dive in headfirst, motivated, excited and thrilled to just pursue it, even if it’s just, you know, mean could be anything but, you know, find that purpose, find that thing that moves you. And I think for this, that’s what this became, you know for and it for me and John.

00;31;33;28 – 00;31;56;12

Kirk Van Everen

And again, we’re sitting there for the first time here and this is, you know, this is great. But for me, it was we had this moment where when we had to put a finger on what it was that that would command our passion and focus and drive. And we finally found it. It just changed the dynamic with how I interacted with life.

00;31;57;08 – 00;32;25;08

Kirk Van Everen

You know, my my habits, what got me up in the morning. I mean, I was running around with a gimbal and my friends filming in Germany trying to make commercials. And up until odd hours of the night, video editing and, you know, problem solving and brainstorming and whiteboarding, I mean, God, look, if this was it and again, if math is your passion, you know, this would have been I mean, you know, it would have been you know, I would have been diving into those subjects.

00;32;25;08 – 00;32;45;08

Kirk Van Everen

But for us, it was our calling and it moved it it moved me to go do things I never thought I would find myself doing. I was just pinching myself in the moment, being involved in these activities. I’m like, What am I doing here? I’m like, I’m living life like I am really in the fast lane right now and it’s wonderful.

00;32;45;08 – 00;32;48;19

Kirk Van Everen

So it was a very cool realization where it kind of all clicked for me.

00;32;48;20 – 00;32;50;13

Jon Mayo

Yeah. Look like you leaned in there.

00;32;51;03 – 00;33;30;15

Brandon Seifert

Well, I was going to say like, it’s fascinating to use the schoolroom kind of way to put it, but I’ve always been thinking about, like the difference in perception versus consciousness and everything that you’re saying is a very pretty version of everything I’ve been, you know, thinking about. And that was, you know, just like you’re in school, you’re watching the clock go by because summer break is right around the corner and those seconds drag on because that is what you are focused on and you don’t want to do it or you want it to come faster and therefore you’re taking yourself out of your conscious seat and therefore you’re you’re not being present.

00;33;31;10 – 00;33;58;04

Brandon Seifert

But every time you’re present in life, you’re able to, you know, go 3 hours into something thinking it was 10 minutes. You know, you just fully become that moment and that is everything that, you know, I feel like we’re trying to do right now. It’s just people start living consciously and be able to take their life and find those beautiful moments.

00;33;58;17 – 00;34;25;09

Brandon Seifert

And you can’t do that if you’re watching the clock. You know, you got to step away from watching it and just go do it. It’s almost like there’s a shift in your head where you can feel, you know, the thinking mind. Just stop because you’re already dealing and not enough people just do anything. And like they love fear or anything else, stop them in their life.

00;34;25;09 – 00;34;25;24

Brandon Seifert

Right now.

00;34;26;12 – 00;34;56;02

Jon Mayo

What oftentimes takes a nudge to break that cycle, and that’s one of the primary things that we’re hoping to pay forward, is providing that nudge. Right. Providing that looking glass, me or whatever analogy you want to use to say, no, you can do it. Take whatever step it takes, but start right. And we’re not alone in this by any means, but it is beautiful because everything we’re talking about, one of the things I’m very worried about in The Imposters syndrome comes into play, but it quiets if I know we’re on the right path, right.

00;34;56;20 – 00;35;22;24

Jon Mayo

And I believe we are. If it’s an authentic, genuine pursuit of these questions and ideals and we are doing our best to live those things right, then we have the ability to explore and create that value for ourselves and then share that outside of that. And that’s precisely what we’re doing right now. And as long as that is true, then we’re on the right path and it’s worth sharing.

00;35;22;24 – 00;35;41;28

Jon Mayo

The second we start trying to script it or teach it or preach it, we’ll kill it, right? It’s just not going to make sense at that point. But as long as it is authentic and genuine, wherever that may lead us, well, maybe down rabbit holes that are wrong. And we have to correct course and correct in like make statements of, hey, we were wrong here.

00;35;41;28 – 00;36;02;00

Jon Mayo

It doesn’t matter. We’re going to mess up, but we’re also going to find a lot of good truth and value in this exploration as well. And that makes it all worth doing. Right. There’s things that we can do, like we have no idea how efficient and efficient person can become if that keeps compounding over time. Sure. Or how influential or how vibrant.

00;36;02;15 – 00;36;30;21

Jon Mayo

Right. And we have all signed up to be test dummies in this experiment and then to showcase that the results of that experiment as you journey through it. Sometimes it’s the good stuff, sometimes it’s the bad, but it’s the the best or it’s the most true version of it that we can provide, right? Yeah. Which, which is something not to take lightly because in it, quite literally is our lives.

00;36;30;21 – 00;36;31;18

Jon Mayo

We’re playing with our lives.

00;36;31;18 – 00;36;32;15

Kirk Van Everen

That is what is at stake.

00;36;32;17 – 00;36;33;13

Jon Mayo

It’s our lives.

00;36;33;20 – 00;36;57;23

Kirk Van Everen

So yeah. John, could you expand a little bit on just because this approach one of the things that I think that is a driving factor for this is the accessibility of the concept. The applicability of the concept is so important, right? Because if we were just trying to refine everybody’s final 1% of improvement, the conversations be very different, right?

00;36;57;23 – 00;37;20;16

Kirk Van Everen

So there’s so much, so much of what we’re saying is trying to reach an audience that is either painfully aware that they need improvement or unaware that they need to improve, but willing to ask themselves certain questions. Can you kind of talk about the accessibility of the idea and how important that is? Because we won’t have a community if we don’t reach people, right?

00;37;21;19 – 00;37;26;11

Jon Mayo

Yeah, Accessibility. We define what you’re meaning by that a little bit more. So context.

00;37;26;11 – 00;37;50;00

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah. So I would say accessibility. So when I say accessibility and applicability, accessibility is, is demonstrating that the concepts that we’re trying to do don’t require gotcha. A certain, you know, personality type. You can be all the way down the road. I mean, you talk about in your book, whether you wake up this at 20 or 70, right?

00;37;50;00 – 00;37;53;14

Kirk Van Everen

This you have the tools right there. Yeah. Okay.

00;37;53;17 – 00;38;22;16

Jon Mayo

I’m tracking. Thank you. It really I think one of the greatest barriers to entry is thinking that you can’t do enough, so it’s not worth starting. Right. And I do believe that to be a lie. One of the one of the things that we were talking about is what does it take to get started, right? This accessibility. I have to start by running a marathon every day.

00;38;22;16 – 00;38;52;15

Jon Mayo

Do I have to start by doing a thousand push ups every day? No. If one pushup takes everything you have and that starts to set you on this trajectory to leading a more maximize life, because you’re beginning to develop discipline, you’re beginning to create value, then do the one pushup and you know, one of the things that’s interesting is we have all of these great examples of hyper positive role models in our culture right now, which is such a blessing and a gift because it’s rare to have this many positive sources.

00;38;52;24 – 00;39;17;07

Jon Mayo

Like if you look at the overarching positive theme of the message that say Joe Rogan or Cameron Haines or David Goggins or Jordan Peterson or enter a thousand names, I’m not giving appropriate credit to here that are influencing our culture in whatever context towards a very similar vein, right? They’re saying like, Hey, take ownership of your life to the best of your ability and you can do it right.

00;39;17;25 – 00;39;38;08

Jon Mayo

We’re compliment eating that message and standing on the shoulders of those people who have pioneered this path for us in which beautiful and exciting to me. And what goes back to the authentic piece and how is this is it a accessible for others? Is there’s people who are turned off by each and every one of them, and you don’t want to hear them.

00;39;38;08 – 00;39;56;08

Jon Mayo

They do something that they don’t like. Yeah, there’s people who are going to not like what we’re doing, but there’s people who are going to love what we’re doing. Yeah, and those people may not have heard this message and whatever unique conditions we get to explore in it together and it will inspire life in them and that makes it worth it.

00;39;56;08 – 00;40;17;15

Jon Mayo

When one person’s life changed positively to a more vibrant existence makes every minute, every second of the 330 grinds of the in the morning grinds of the the late nights of the not doing the socially fun things, which by the way, I’m doing things that I think are immensely fun. My definition is changing, but, you know, doing all that is worth it.

00;40;17;22 – 00;40;50;25

Jon Mayo

And I have this incredibly unique privilege of watching, you know, you my best friend’s life transformed from this. My life has definitively changed dramatically from this. And Brandon is a great example of someone who like like I said earlier, this is surreal. Like when you mentioned how dark things were about a year ago and to be where we are now and doing this, it’s like, okay, I if I said one person can do this starting anywhere and we can grow from there and it’s worth it and there’s positive progress and that’s already three fold demonstrated just in this room, in this conversation alone.

00;40;51;07 – 00;41;10;11

Jon Mayo

So I better not get greedy and I better keep pressing for it because of that. And back to the accessibility piece, it doesn’t have to be grand. Like, like I said, a push up could be the difference. Yeah, right. I think one of the first things someone did was wake up at like six and read ten pages of book for like 30 days.

00;41;10;19 – 00;41;33;18

Jon Mayo

And then that just built the confidence of, okay, maybe I can’t control what I’m doing. And then it expanded from there. Right? But this concept of accessibility, especially when you hear it from someone who’s doing crazy thing or perceived the perception is like, That’s wild. How do they do it? Yeah, it can be a pill to jump. And I’m curious because I know without like trying to artificially ask the question, I’ll just ask it bluntly.

00;41;33;25 – 00;41;55;06

Jon Mayo

I know from our conversations early on some of the comments and sentiments you shared is like, I’m not going to wake up and do the crap you’re doing. John is what he said. But how did how did you navigate this exact question of accessibility and what made it accessible to you and how did you interact with it? If you if you’re comfortable sharing?

00;41;55;06 – 00;42;27;18

Brandon Seifert

I would say that the the whole reason I could do all of this was just the guiding factor that you provided initially, I wasn’t able to to even get myself into the mindset to be able to do any of this without being around someone that could I could see is living this life, you know, And it changed across the course of the year.

00;42;27;20 – 00;42;50;03

Brandon Seifert

You know, like you said, I started 75 hard. That was your initial challenge because you thought I could give more to give. And I said, Well, I’m not going to kill myself a year ago. Like, I might as well do something. So I ended up doing it. And then directly after that happened, I went through those three or four months of just silence.

00;42;50;09 – 00;43;28;12

Brandon Seifert

Hmm. And so I started leaning heavily into what I was doing. So like in 75 Harden you have to read ten pages a day. I’m dyslexic. That took an hour for me to get ten pages into a book. When radio Silence happened, I started reading a book a week and I just full force dived into it. And it’s I’m not sure if I’m really hidden, you know, answering the question well, but you just got to dive into it and you have to you just start, you know, like, like you said, like just the push up.

00;43;28;21 – 00;43;48;28

Brandon Seifert

For me, it was ten pages to gain confidence to say, well, things are starting to suck again. Nobody wants to talk to me because I’m starting to be different. All right. Well, I’m going to read a book every week for the next 13 weeks, you know. You know, which was my goal because, you know, end of year was around that time.

00;43;49;15 – 00;44;01;05

Brandon Seifert

But you just have to start. And that, you know, I appreciate people that just start you know, it’s so hard when you don’t see other people just start. That makes sense. Yeah.

00;44;01;07 – 00;44;27;21

Kirk Van Everen

So you were shown by example because you said that like there was the message that was there, but it was also through demonstration as possible. You know, I think that when we talk about accessibility, you have these people who have, by societal generic definition, made it right. They are elite athletes that will run 100 miles. And, you know, and or you know, they’re some tycoon of whatever respective industry they’re involved in.

00;44;27;21 – 00;44;53;22

Kirk Van Everen

Right. And it seems it comes across as inaccessible. But the message that we’re that we are really the drum that’s being beaten here is that the supplies to everybody who wants to make a difference in their life. And, you know, if you have only 5% to give compared to these, you know, seemingly unreal, unreachable examples of it, of and success.

00;44;54;17 – 00;45;24;05

Kirk Van Everen

So if you only have 5% relative to what they could do, but you give 100% of that 5%, then you’re putting everything on the table and you are you are giving it your all and that’s fine. That’s a great, great step. And that 5% will turn it into 10% and 20%. And your goals and your reach and your scale of application will just increase from there because every single step you’re going to look back behind you look at look at the hill.

00;45;24;05 – 00;45;35;20

Kirk Van Everen

I just climbed up. I climbed that hill. I couldn’t even get out of my chair. I could just climb that hill. Hill, hill. It turns into a mountain. And then there. Now you’re just your next projects become okay. I mean, just take this mountain now and.

00;45;35;20 – 00;45;36;22

Jon Mayo

Then you’re exploring space.

00;45;36;22 – 00;45;38;05

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah. Yes.

00;45;38;23 – 00;45;51;22

Jon Mayo

It is cool, though, because one of the things that’s really interesting is we, you know, if you look at Joe Rogan, for example, it’s like, oh, my goodness, I can’t be like him. That’s not my personal sentiment. I’m saying that’s what people may think. Like, I’m not going to do all the things he’s doing or enter any of these names.

00;45;52;07 – 00;45;56;01

Jon Mayo

But who is Joe Rogan? 2000 episodes of his podcast, Go Right.

00;45;56;13 – 00;45;57;12

Kirk Van Everen

The guy in Fear Factor.

00;45;57;12 – 00;46;20;02

Jon Mayo

Yeah, I just I think you’re right. And he was, you know, any of these people, who were they ten years ago? And what’s interesting is if you look, they’re the same frickin person doing the same things, walking down this adventure, exploring, doing it, but they’re doing it consistently, daily. And then it just grew over time to what it is now, which seems to be an insurmountable gap from where we are.

00;46;20;11 – 00;46;40;08

Jon Mayo

But in reality, it’s like if you look at us now, that gap is a lot smaller. So hopefully that also helps increase the accessibility. Yeah, it’s like we are no where near on the same planes as all these people were referencing. So the gap from whatever we are doing to our friends, if there is one right, is way smaller.

00;46;40;08 – 00;46;56;03

Jon Mayo

So hopefully it’s a little bit more accessible for now, but I fully intend for that gap to grow. Yeah, as we continue down this path. But there’s always the ability to point back and look at these. There’s always the ability for us to be mindful of this type of conversation and revisit it in the future and re fortify and encourage people to that end.

00;46;56;16 – 00;47;16;06

Jon Mayo

Because like you mentioned, well, we’re communal creatures. We are people who are better in community. So us getting to walk together through this journey, through this adventure helped encourage you to some of the changes I was getting to walk together helped both of us, right? Kirk So like it, it helps. It pays to be together. But what do you do when you’re not?

00;47;16;06 – 00;47;35;04

Jon Mayo

We have no one. That’s why we’re doing the podcast and that’s why the book exists. That’s why everything about your universe is pursuing the question of how might we unleash human potential? What the heck is potential, right? What is that it’s interesting because it’s it’s essentially in my mind, the way I look at it, it’s synonymous with hope.

00;47;35;22 – 00;48;01;04

Jon Mayo

Born from the question, what if what if we could simply do more? What if life could be beautiful? What if we could experience peace and provide those we love with value? And if we have known, we love because we are desperately alone? What if we could create something of value within ourselves that we can learn to love ourselves, which then attracts others that we may love?

00;48;01;24 – 00;48;11;17

Jon Mayo

So I look at potential as this like very airy spirit of hope. That’s a that is best articulated the question of what if.

00;48;11;19 – 00;48;12;00

Kirk Van Everen

I’m.

00;48;12;04 – 00;48;38;06

Jon Mayo

Right? Because if in pursuing how much we unleash human potential, almost every question that comes from that is what if we did this? What if you joined the podcast? Brandon Kirk What if we did a supplement? Hey, what if we made the audible book and we just throughout all of the societal norms on how audible books are done and we have it dynamically engaged with different voices throughout it to best deliver the content, curate a journey.

00;48;38;15 – 00;48;57;29

Jon Mayo

And then there’s these authentic short form conversations intentionally placed throughout the book where they add benefit not of necessity, but where they help. Yeah, and then what if the book itself could be a curated journey visually where you have imagery and different types and words that flow so that you’re able to walk through it as an experience, right?

00;48;58;12 – 00;49;27;15

Jon Mayo

And then what if we can have conversations that mimic that, which is what we’re doing now? And what if we can create something that not only gives you energy so you can better perform today, but also helps your body become healthier over time as you continue to use it? You know, instead of just taking for the quick high that we can give someone and getting a profit, we very intentionally have chosen in stamina to provide a number of doses that makes it cost effective while unevenly pursuing the quality and desired outcomes.

00;49;27;15 – 00;49;30;27

Jon Mayo

We want to the point we had to fire first to manufacturers and labs.

00;49;31;04 – 00;49;31;15

Kirk Van Everen

Yes.

00;49;31;27 – 00;49;36;09

Jon Mayo

To find someone who could meet our standards and get the vision to reality.

00;49;36;09 – 00;49;38;09

Kirk Van Everen

But it all started with what if?

00;49;38;17 – 00;49;49;01

Jon Mayo

What if they learn from back? Then let’s do something human optimization, which has grown into all this. So it’s like it doesn’t. It’s just daring to ask in daring to act.

00;49;49;10 – 00;50;21;09

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah, I would say asking what if is a vote of confidence to what is possible, right? Because just by asking this question, you are by default not closing the door on something that could be if you are even asking that simple question, you have already taken steps to remove the mental boundary that might be blocking you from even attempting as simple as doing a push up or writing a book or launching a company or creating a communal movement.

00;50;21;13 – 00;50;41;00

Kirk Van Everen

Right. Just that simple. What if you have opened the door and you may not even realize that you did it, but just just that one step is a spark that can absolutely turn into a raging fire at that point. So yeah, I think that that that’s a beautiful way to talk about. I mean, I think that ties into the accessibility as well.

00;50;41;10 – 00;50;49;10

Kirk Van Everen

Is it really that’s such a simple mental shift. What if okay, there’s my vote of confidence into yes, this is possible.

00;50;49;26 – 00;50;58;27

Jon Mayo

Yes. So and brand do you remember is it in Goggins second book or first book that he has the chapter I think on Whatev or is it an interview, do you know.

00;51;00;11 – 00;51;02;13

Brandon Seifert

I think it’s mentioned in his first book.

00;51;02;26 – 00;51;20;26

Jon Mayo

Yeah. So it’s like, what if as a question is a universal human concept, right? But in his beautifully barbaric way, that is true to Goggins. He talks about that just down to the one step right. And Kirk, you were talking you shared with me last night the story about the down. We you refresh me on that story a bit.

00;51;21;09 – 00;51;25;23

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah. So and when I was a cadet.

00;51;25;29 – 00;51;26;20

Jon Mayo

That was a.

00;51;27;06 – 00;51;45;00

Kirk Van Everen

Yes. And I was a kid at a West Point and it was during one of the presentations and I one of the ones I was I actually was awake for. Right. Because I was kind of in a perpetual state of exhaustion throughout it. But the Mike Durant came to talk to us. And for those of you, they’re not familiar.

00;51;45;00 – 00;52;24;06

Kirk Van Everen

My TURAN was a was a UAH 60 Blackhawk pilot, and his his helicopter was shot down in Mogadishu. I mean, this is, you know, famously depicted in the movie Black Hawk Down. In the movie, Mike Durant is depicted actually being captured and detained and as a prisoner by the the militia hordes within Mogadishu. Right. So one of the concepts that he brought to light and I will never forget this because I do actually apply this and have several examples of this that I’ve used in my life is oftentimes and it’s just a human reality.

00;52;24;22 – 00;53;00;18

Kirk Van Everen

You’re faced with circumstances that seem insurmountable or completely overwhelming to the point where it is. It is it is almost impossible to think that it’s even something you could accomplish. Right. So in the moment, you have to adjust the scale of ambition of what you’re trying to accomplish down to the smallest, most digestible task that you can. You know, you basically walk yourself backwards, okay?

00;53;00;24 – 00;53;18;19

Kirk Van Everen

That mountain, I can’t handle that mountain right now. This is a metaphor mentally, whatever that this task, this thing, this is a mountain. I can do the mountain. Okay? I can’t. Can I make that that I can’t make it to the ledge? All the way down to. Okay. I can’t even take my next first step. I have to just focus on breathing and making the next 30 seconds.

00;53;18;19 – 00;53;32;13

Kirk Van Everen

So he talked about him actually doing this in the jail cell, who’s being tortured. He was saying, okay, I just have to make it to the next 30 seconds, okay? I have to make it to the next minute. I can make to the next 5 minutes. Okay. Things are getting crazy. Now. I have to focus on just making the next 30 seconds.

00;53;32;23 – 00;53;58;02

Kirk Van Everen

So it’s this ebb and flow analysis of of finding out what you can actually accomplish when you’re when you’re hitting this wall of adversity that just by perception seems impossible to accomplish. Right. So this is an incredible skill set to apply to your life because you feel like you’re absolutely overwhelmed. Walk yourself back until you’re actually able to accomplish something.

00;53;59;00 – 00;54;23;07

Kirk Van Everen

That small task which and I mean, this literally could just be breathing through 30 seconds and just getting through 30 seconds is still progress in the right direction. You’re still making steps pointed in the right way. And yeah, so, I mean, basically just conceptually being able to navigate that spectrum of what you can and can’t do and being okay with just being breathing.

00;54;23;12 – 00;54;25;09

Kirk Van Everen

Yes. That is so vital.

00;54;25;16 – 00;54;44;18

Jon Mayo

Well, yes. And it complements this. The whatever question, everything we’re talking about so well, because there’s still moments in my life where I’m reduced to breathing for 30 seconds, Right. So it’s not like, oh, you just grow out of that now. Like there’s still times where you’re going to be focused on breathing to understand what needs to occur next.

00;54;45;02 – 00;55;09;18

Jon Mayo

And there’s, you know, I don’t know how interest this this thought here. If we look at a kinetic situation, highly kinetic situation, there’s a need to take pauses occasionally and change your perspective. Right. And be relentless. If the obstacles the way we must be way makers, which is the book that I just finished writing and Kircher’s finished recording The Audible for, and that was quite a labor of love.

00;55;09;24 – 00;55;32;22

Jon Mayo

In fact, let’s use that as an example. There’s this great moment. Yesterday we put into practice two of the tools that we’re talking about right now. Just yesterday so yesterday we had an intentional pause about whether or not conversation should be included as part of the Audible book. We were probably about 5055 hours total over the course of different days over a time period of recording the book.

00;55;32;22 – 00;55;52;29

Jon Mayo

We just finished the final actual recording of reading the book, right, which is probably about 15% different from actually reading it because we altered it for audible delivery. And I could see Kirk was fatigued, I was fatigued, and I was sitting there like, Man, I’ve already asked for so much for us to record this. Is it even worth doing?

00;55;52;29 – 00;56;13;21

Jon Mayo

The conversations and I was struggling to see what is the value in that? So I asked, It’s okay, man. Should we even do the conversations? So we determined we both literally scooted our chairs back and breathe for a minute and we began whiteboarding. Going through the book, what conversation would we have here? Yes or no? And then what would it look like?

00;56;13;21 – 00;56;36;20

Jon Mayo

And we played with it for about 3 to 5 minutes, and we just did that. Going down the book at the end of it, that pause, we’re like, Well, if at the end of this exercise, we don’t want to do the conversations, we won’t. And if at the end of it, we think there’s value to add, not regurgitate, but additional insight and value that we believe will add to the experience of the book, we’ll record the conversations and the result of that intentional pause.

00;56;37;03 – 00;57;11;23

Jon Mayo

Sitting back looking at the situation and saying, okay, let’s do this exercise became that first step to what was otherwise very difficult to find and understand and then we took that first step and then that created ultimately what turned into six additional conversations that from listening to them after recording them last night provided immense value in addition to the book that would not exist if we had one not taken an intentional pause, step back and looked at our surroundings, and to just focused on one singular, tiny step in front of us.

00;57;12;04 – 00;57;42;12

Jon Mayo

Right? So we weren’t quite reduced to breathing, thankfully, but we were reduced to just asking the simple question of what would we talk about by chapter? And that produced that effect. So it was both the intentional pause, which it allowed us to adjust our focus and perspective on the scenario we’re walking through. And then we took and then we just cut down the big bear of an entire book’s worth of conversations to what is the next one and should we have that?

00;57;42;23 – 00;57;58;27

Jon Mayo

And that made it very doable. And then we searched until 30 last night to finally successfully finish recording the book. And thank you so much, man, because that was that was a lot. That was a lot. But it’s kind of cool because that ties in directly.

00;57;58;27 – 00;58;18;24

Kirk Van Everen

Don’t you think? Like, yeah, I mean, it was a good real world example for sure, of just the use of this. This doesn’t have to be some you know, combat scenario application of a kinetic pause. I mean, there’s there’s definitely like a militaristic sound to that term itself. But the thing is, it’s important to be able to see the applicability into your everyday life.

00;58;18;28 – 00;58;38;25

Kirk Van Everen

This is this is these are tools. You know, this there’s a lot of this is in the book. It’s on everything we just talked about in the book. But would you provide It was a great example of immense value extracted from just the application of these tools to take a step back, an intentional step back, see the bigger picture of what maybe you might be missing or it might be incorrectly, right?

00;58;38;26 – 00;59;00;20

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah, but it’s just an intentional thing to make sure that you’re seeing things correctly, understanding the variables that are at play and then being able to act on it. Right? And then the kinetic example I talked about, I mean, he’s you know, he’s being, you know, carted through the city or Mike Durant specifically carried around the city, you know, in his thing, it was just like, okay, what can I accomplished in 30 seconds?

00;59;00;20 – 00;59;32;25

Kirk Van Everen

Like, how do I not die really? I mean, those and that’s the other of the spectrum, you know, And again, I bring that up just because it really does help to drive the point across of what the most extreme example of that is. But this is a tool that is in everybody’s back pocket right now. Everyone has this tool that they can pull out and apply amongst many, many other tools that I think that, you know, through the through the through the production of the podcast and the book itself into the culture that will be built to universal learning approach, these are all things that we’ll just we want.

00;59;32;27 – 00;59;52;03

Kirk Van Everen

We were chomping at the bit to demonstrate is right there. You know it’s either inside of you metaphorically in your back pocket, ready to be pulled out and applied to life. Yes. To just sharpen your approach and improve simple tasks that you would otherwise stumble over.

00;59;52;03 – 01;00;01;17

Jon Mayo

What’s yes, a place where I’m reduced to breathing often is in parenting. So I’m saying.

01;00;01;17 – 01;00;03;12

Kirk Van Everen

Like, just breathe and it’s 30 seconds.

01;00;04;11 – 01;00;33;16

Jon Mayo

Because these things work in such a wide array of situations. Taking that pause and breathing and assessing the situation from brain and I work with but a gentleman, awesome guy was in a pretty bad motorcycle. First SUV car crash almost died. And some of the events that we walked through in finding him, identifying him, getting his family involved, everything else required many pauses to assess the validity of the information we had.

01;00;33;16 – 01;00;52;08

Jon Mayo

Right. That’s kind of a more extreme one. Mike Duran situation, Just trying not to get killed by an angry mob of people who literally wanted to rip him limb from limb. And he was suffering from multiple combat injuries and broken bones from the crashed helicopter and everything else. That’s an extreme example. Less extreme is us determined to have a conversation to add to the book.

01;00;52;19 – 01;00;59;09

Jon Mayo

Less extreme still, you would think his parenting. Yeah, but let me tell you, probably on a weekly basis.

01;00;59;09 – 01;01;00;04

Kirk Van Everen

Combat right there.

01;01;00;17 – 01;01;21;18

Jon Mayo

I have to put my hand on the wall, take a step back and breathe to get my emotions, my temper, my everything under control as I’m watching one of my children drive me out of my mind. And I have to think this is the moment for me to act. And this is kind of another element we’re introducing here, but this is the moment that matters.

01;01;22;04 – 01;01;40;26

Jon Mayo

So they’re happy and we’re playing and stuff. That’s beautiful, but what they’re going to remember is how I am acting right now when we’re both losing our minds. And this child does not know how to control their emotions and they’re out of control. And I have a I have a choice in how I respond to what they’re doing.

01;01;41;12 – 01;01;56;23

Jon Mayo

And that choice will teach them what they ought to do in those situations, whether I intended to or not. So am I going to snap and lose it despite being frazzled, or am I going to pull together, be the freaking adult, be the man, be the father, be.

01;01;56;23 – 01;01;58;19

Kirk Van Everen

The example to look up to and follow.

01;01;59;02 – 01;02;03;20

Jon Mayo

And do the best I can to set an example that’s not trash is how I.

01;02;03;20 – 01;02;04;13

Kirk Van Everen

Would put it. Yeah.

01;02;04;24 – 01;02;26;18

Jon Mayo

And I am ashamed to admit that I often fail and then have to go back and have conversations with them about like, Hey, this, I didn’t your dad messed up here. I could done this better. And we talk through the why and the understanding. But there’s oftentimes that just slowing down. I’m just I’m doing five breaths or if it’s a about I’m doing ten breaths I don’t care what happens I’m doing ten breaths to force my body to respond differently to the situation.

01;02;27;17 – 01;02;48;17

Jon Mayo

Absolutely has saved me from losing my mind with my sons whom I love. Right. And how much could that be utilized in romantic relationships? Right. How much can that be utilized at work? You know, like another lightweight example, because I think lightweight ones are where we see the accessibility and it’s harder to discredit. And lightweight is subjective, right?

01;02;48;26 – 01;03;05;08

Jon Mayo

But right before we pressed record, Brandon, I were talking about, I was asking him, and I’m going to ask you again, cause I want to see now that we’ve life has changed in the last hour. Being on the show right before, though, I was like, What do you think about all this? Like, what about the work we’re doing?

01;03;05;08 – 01;03;30;18

Jon Mayo

Do you love? And what gives you that feeling of life and what freaks you out? And part of what the freak out was was being on the mic. So I’m curious to see rephrasing it like re asking the question now, what is it about everything we’re doing that for you as an individual Sparks joy and makes you excited to engage in it in like a satisfying And then what about it is challenging still.

01;03;32;27 – 01;04;01;16

Brandon Seifert

At this moment. It’s the fear factor of everything. It’s doing all the things that I’ve never thought I would ever do in forcing myself to do a bit, get on the mic, read that book, go for a run. Anything that I’ve done in the past year, I’ve done in my life, and that’s terrifying. But I’m also like I’m utilizing fear as its own compass now.

01;04;01;17 – 01;04;33;00

Brandon Seifert

Yeah. And so now I can start cultivating these different things in different ways to, to dive further into it. We talked before this as well. About a week ago, we were having a conversation about the podcast and I don’t know how you mentioned it, but you mentioned, Oh yeah, it’ll be great when you and I are talking and it lightbulb moment clicked and I was like, Oh, you want me to talk?

01;04;33;00 – 01;05;03;11

Brandon Seifert

That was terrifying for like 10 seconds. And you saw it on my face because I just froze and you’re like, Hey, buddy, Hey, how you doing? And so now I’m here, I’m doing it, and it’s nothing like I’m, I’m fine. I’m. But I am no longer frozen by the fear of it. Yeah. Just like I have been for the rest of my life in the past years.

01;05;04;14 – 01;05;25;07

Brandon Seifert

And that is the most beautiful aspect of everything that we’ve been doing. And that is the thing that is driving me forward right now. Now is how much more can I live? How much more can I do? Yeah, that I’ve never thought in my 27 years prior to this year that I could have ever done. And it’s a beautiful feeling.

01;05;25;07 – 01;05;52;26

Jon Mayo

And what you just stated captures perfectly the compass that we can collectively use if what we’re doing is not serving to progress us in our own journeys together, then we’re just manufacturing things for whatever reason. And it’s very tempting and easy to fall into that trap. But if all of us, as we work together, continue to use as a litmus test and a punchline, the concept of is this helping us progress and grow?

01;05;53;07 – 01;06;15;29

Jon Mayo

Is this helping us to new facets of life and become better? If the answer is a resounding yes, we’re on the right path. If the answer is even marginally not a resounding yes, then we need to pause and analyze. Okay, where are we checking the block? Where we selling out? Where we falling short of this ideal that we’re collectively pursuing?

01;06;15;29 – 01;06;37;17

Jon Mayo

And if we all safeguard each other to that and in every way possible, then we have the opportunity to continue to live each day very vibrantly and entertainingly and frightfully and exciting and all these things. And there’s no end in sight, you know, short of death. It’s like, Well, when are we going to run out of new things?

01;06;37;20 – 01;07;07;03

Jon Mayo

I don’t think that’s possible in our lifetime to run out of things, to explore and build and refine and grow. And so it’s a value is not something that is a finite resource. It has value can be infinitely created. And that’s very good news for us because we’re in the business of creating value. So it’s like, All right, we don’t need another three steps down the road if we just know what’s the thread to start pulling on in.

01;07;07;07 – 01;07;34;18

Jon Mayo

We have the courage to start pulling on it, whatever that may look like. Then the rest will produce itself for us. And that is endlessly true. Like the blog that we’re launching soon May and the things that are coming the rest of this year and going into next year, boy, you better watch out because it’s getting exciting. We’re in the next little while going to launch a multi fold endeavor publicly and formally.

01;07;34;27 – 01;07;57;15

Jon Mayo

There’s been a lot of soft launch with those we know, but the cumulative launch of the early universe is just to name a few of the elements. Without giving it all away. We have this show, the book CC’s Stamina. And the only other element I’ll mention right now, the blog and we were talking about like what value can we produce in the blog, right?

01;07;57;15 – 01;08;14;19

Jon Mayo

Kirk And like, what articles could actually be written and where, where should we go? We already have 27 articles ready to go and almost 100 more to be written. And it’s like, All right, all we did was start pulling on the thread and now we have more than we can write or use or now. So it’s like, okay, what are we going to do?

01;08;14;19 – 01;08;36;05

Jon Mayo

We’re only going to take the best of the future content to create it as we need it, and we’re going to press into that. So it’s like from I have no idea what we write about too. We have more than we can write about. It all just started by pulling in that first thread and to get to very soon make all of this accessible for the world is going to be a pretty exciting time for all of us.

01;08;37;08 – 01;09;10;19

Kirk Van Everen

Yes, well, one thing I and again, that’s a that’s the wonderful kind of collective realization right there. And I just wanted to circle back to Brandon real quick. So you’re talking about overcoming these initial fears to start something, I mean, and just the paralyzing effect that that can have on you and you’re and as a forcing function to prevent you from attempting to even do even simple things, right, Things that you know, someone to your left or right might have no problem with right.

01;09;10;19 – 01;09;36;12

Kirk Van Everen

But that person who you left, right might be paralyzed by something else that they’re equally as afraid of. Right. That’s an amazing it’s an amazing, like, mental journey. Just break through to the other side and then show proof of concept of your ability to do the first thing. And then you actually are doing it. And then you start to look at everything else that has, you know, like the voice of fear in your head that has had an influence on you.

01;09;36;17 – 01;09;57;08

Kirk Van Everen

It starts to fade. The effect and the influence of fear, if you will, on you, starts to lessen. Right. And it’s not to suggest that you just are unafraid. I mean, there’s there’s a concept, and I don’t know if I’m going to get this correct, but that brave people aren’t unafraid. They’re just brave. 5 seconds longer than your average person right there.

01;09;57;14 – 01;10;17;02

Kirk Van Everen

This is they’re they’re I mean, they’re absolutely terrified, too. But They decided to just push that last little bit and they broke through the other side. And they’re seeing through the the fog of of of, you know, this disillusion. They couldn’t do X, Y and Z. And then that changes the tone of how you look at everything at that point.

01;10;17;14 – 01;10;38;14

Kirk Van Everen

You know, for me, like I of course terrified of heights and then I went to airborne school and you jump out of a plane and it’s definitely I was terrified. I wasn’t born unafraid of jumping out of a plane. And I don’t know who is, but I was terrified. But it’s just stepping out of the plane and then demonstrating like, okay, yes, gravity still working.

01;10;38;14 – 01;11;03;13

Kirk Van Everen

I’m going to the ground at a healthy pace. Right. And then demonstrating that I could actually do that. It just changed the way I looked at everything else that was trapped behind this barrier of entry of fear. And I think that’s very cool that you talked about this running, you know, reading multiple books. I mean, all these things that you talking on the podcast.

01;11;04;09 – 01;11;08;15

Kirk Van Everen

How does this changing your perspective, looking to the left read other things that still are on that list.

01;11;10;06 – 01;11;12;14

Brandon Seifert

So at this point I don’t even really have a list.

01;11;12;29 – 01;11;16;06

Kirk Van Everen

That’s amazing.

01;11;16;06 – 01;11;42;21

Brandon Seifert

The way that I’ve been doing everything at this moment is whenever fear becomes palpable. I’ve learned through all of what I’ve been doing in this past year that that gives you one, two, 3 seconds. When you start doing this kind of stuff, you get one or 3 seconds. At least. That’s how far I’ve gotten it so far. And I’ve been doing this for a year and it gets a little bit longer, as you, but you still feel it.

01;11;43;24 – 01;12;08;23

Brandon Seifert

But where you can just question exactly like what if what if I just dealt with that spider that I’m scared of? And I’m like, Yeah, yeah, keep it on like a very small scale or you know what? If I decided to wake up early and do the running and decide to not put that barrier that I used to immediately put between me and whatever I was scared of.

01;12;09;15 – 01;12;20;11

Brandon Seifert

And it’s almost like just having that extra couple of seconds to just question it and push. That is that’s what you’re looking for.

01;12;20;11 – 01;12;20;21

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah.

01;12;21;00 – 01;12;48;25

Brandon Seifert

You know, you have to give yourself it’s going back to like the intentional pause. Is this actually as bad as I think it is? Am I just having anxiety? Because sometimes the best things in life are scary things. Yeah, And that’s what I’m starting to realize. And you know, I’m not married yet, but like, I’m sure anyone that has ever approached a girl asked someone to get married, you know, like any of that kind of stuff.

01;12;49;20 – 01;12;51;08

Brandon Seifert

I bet that’s some scary stuff. I was.

01;12;51;08 – 01;13;22;15

Kirk Van Everen

Shaking. Exactly. I was absolutely shaking when I did it. That’s a that is that’s an amazing way that you put that. I really liked how you framed the fact that this lists you now for 1 to 3 seconds. You’re challenging the validity of the fear itself. Correct. Just being able to do that is the difference between just like closing your eyes and never trying to acknowledge it and open your eyes and trying to understand the fear.

01;13;23;02 – 01;13;52;09

Kirk Van Everen

And if that’s speaking publicly, that’s taking a risk with a business that’s asking for someone’s phone number, right. That you like, you’re just taking you’re taking this concept of fear and you’re turning it on its head. And just that action alone is the difference between people making bold, bold, taking bold risks and not because I guarantee you those people are not it’s not an absence of fear.

01;13;52;20 – 01;14;13;07

Kirk Van Everen

They’re not just like just built. I hate that people say that, oh, I’m just built differently. No, that’s not true. You’re not you you just you have walked through and found way to kind of get past things that some people still struggle with. But the thing is, it’s not unique to you individually. So, you know, you are walking through that.

01;14;13;07 – 01;14;15;01

Kirk Van Everen

I still walk through that. You know, I.

01;14;15;01 – 01;14;19;19

Jon Mayo

Think it’s part of the human condition. Yeah. So you can jump at the mic there. What were you about to say?

01;14;20;05 – 01;14;37;13

Brandon Seifert

Well, I was going to just point out like this is every factor of life. And it is. It is. For example, yesterday I went to go get groceries and I you know, I was running low on time. So I did the pick up thing. And normally I would be scared to talk to the people giving me my stuff.

01;14;37;26 – 01;14;49;14

Brandon Seifert

And I had that 1 to 3 seconds and I mentioned the color of her hair because I noticed that it’s changed that fundamentally, potentially changed her day.

01;14;49;15 – 01;14;49;28

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah.

01;14;50;08 – 01;15;13;28

Brandon Seifert

Because the last card next to me, they were really rude to that person. Yeah, but because I decided to to kind of man up in my own life, like honestly and just decide to say I thought, yeah, that could have fundamentally changed someone’s day. Mm. And I got to experience that because I decided to live in the moment and not become quiet like I am.

01;15;14;26 – 01;15;17;00

Brandon Seifert

And so, so like that branches off.

01;15;17;01 – 01;15;17;12

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah.

01;15;17;19 – 01;15;24;23

Brandon Seifert

You know, you stepping up to your own fears and insecurities can drastically change the people around you.

01;15;25;22 – 01;15;58;03

Kirk Van Everen

That’s, that’s amazing. You can overlap the concepts there. It’s one thing to be like, okay, I had a fear of, I don’t know, get you up in the morning right early in the morning. You’re benefiting yourself for sure. But if you can overlap your potential fear and you can and you can simultaneously improve the lives of other people to include your own, not only are you exercising this this muscle memory of challenging the concept of the fear itself and challenging its validity and whether or not it deserves a place in your psyche.

01;15;58;03 – 01;16;19;21

Kirk Van Everen

Right. But if you’re simultaneously also changing it’s as simple as just, hey, it’s nice haircut, right? And that person walks away with a compliment. You’ve overcome your fear. You are exercising this the next time you get me. Guaranteed to have less of the moment of hesitation the next time you revisit said thing your.

01;16;20;08 – 01;16;39;12

Jon Mayo

Yeah, yeah. What’s interesting about this of the sentiment that the quote you heard earlier the way I’ve heard it is courage is not the absence of fear. It’s the decision to act despite it which is it is a conversation I have with the boys and my sons. And I have to take my own medicine on because in the same way, like company in the person, I’m very happily married to a beautiful woman.

01;16;39;27 – 01;17;01;14

Jon Mayo

And some people advocate still ask for numbers and throw them away just for the act of it. I’m not comfortable doing that. I just think it’s a little too far from my comfort zone. Sure, I want to protect my relationship, but what I do do is I force, if I notice male or female, I’ll compliment it, I’ll speak to it, which makes me very uncomfortable, especially if it’s a female, because I am married and I’m so protective of our marriage.

01;17;01;14 – 01;17;22;08

Jon Mayo

But what I found is me giving a genuine compliment with no other ulterior motives is a very freeing act for myself. Frankly, because it’s like, Oh, all I did was compliment them and they’re waiting for the shoe to drop for the ask. But there is none. And then for them, they just get, you know, the gift of being recognized, like you said, like, Hey, your hair’s different.

01;17;22;21 – 01;17;45;04

Jon Mayo

So even still, I seek out, like in all those situations, I’m always trying to find those areas where I’m uncomfortable and determining, is there a way that I can dance to that discomfort right? Because which is precisely what I think about, and I have not thought of it in those terms again, but dance in the discomfort sure is a really fun way to put it.

01;17;45;05 – 01;17;53;05

Jon Mayo

Yeah. Because like you were very uncomfortable before we started recording and now you’re talking to the mic like, Oh, I’m just it’s nothing like you said a minute ago.

01;17;53;14 – 01;17;54;08

Brandon Seifert

Right? Yeah.

01;17;54;21 – 01;18;26;08

Jon Mayo

You’re dancing in it and we’re creating these, like, heat seeking vessels towards discomfort to see life through different lens. And when you’re uncomfortable and like nervous in those types of vibes, like you’re very alive that you’re in that moment. Yeah. Which is kind of one of fun micro portion of existence to be aware of. But the conditioned response we do and all the small things, right, do begin to create positive effects in the bigger things.

01;18;26;08 – 01;18;33;14

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah, that’s a, it’s a I to sometimes experiment with that. But typically at this point, if it’s a cool t shirt, I’m like, Dude.

01;18;34;01 – 01;18;35;04

Brandon Seifert

I like your t shirt.

01;18;35;04 – 01;18;52;13

Kirk Van Everen

And a lot of people are not as they’re not expecting compliments like that. And it really does like and this is just, just my personal thing I will hold on to accomplish that that someone said to me for a very long time, like someone makes any compliment to me, which is and this is maybe you’re handsome.

01;18;52;15 – 01;18;52;24

Jon Mayo

Well.

01;18;54;19 – 01;19;14;19

Kirk Van Everen

Now, but like, you know, just make any, any kind of compliment. I’m, you know, with the army, you don’t really hash those up, you know, the additional stuff or often you don’t necessarily it’s not you don’t walk around patting each other on the back. Right. So like 12 years, almost 11 and a half years in the Army, active duty, I was not used to receiving compliments very often.

01;19;14;19 – 01;19;36;26

Kirk Van Everen

You would always compliment down like you always, you know, you would award your subordinates, you make sure that they get recognition for things. So but it was always, you know, if you’re if you’re a leader, you’re rarely recognized and you’re rarely complimented in that capacity. So putting that on its head and thinking about, okay, well, if I have this kind of visceral effect when someone compliments me, I can I’m definitely not alone in that reaction.

01;19;36;26 – 01;19;53;25

Kirk Van Everen

I know that if I project this and I’m not I’m not like terribly dissed. I’m not, like, uncomfortable about it. But it was one of those things where, you know, your profession, where attaboys are kind of almost discouraged. You’re just like, Hey, just do your job. Hey, don’t look for recognition. Just do your job right. Just put your head down and pedal.

01;19;53;25 – 01;20;10;10

Kirk Van Everen

I realized I was not in a good practice of doing those things, and I realized that I was hesitating to do it. And then it’s like, hey, I it’s a it’s a really creative t shirt or, Hey, that was really funny. Whatever. It’s it’s something. It hits them in a way where you see the effect of them and not only does it affect them, but I feel better too as well.

01;20;10;10 – 01;20;38;25

Kirk Van Everen

And I know this is intrinsically tied to my pursuits, my purpose, which is interwoven into everything that we’re doing with you, play where I wanted people to create happiness and value and give create value on the greatest scale possible to the most amount of people I can reach. Right? So I know when I feel these this is just a microcosm of a much, much larger, ambitious goal of helping people at scale.

01;20;38;28 – 01;21;08;19

Kirk Van Everen

But it’s scary. It’s definitely like there’s there’s a barrier to overcome and it’s and that’s a great way to just start practicing at the smallest scale, your ability to overcome things that make you uncomfortable because your you’ll just start slide at the spectrum of things that are more, you know, more uncomfortable and you take on more terrifying things or scary things or uncomfortable things and it just kind of increases the breadth of what you even attempt to do in life left to right.

01;21;08;22 – 01;21;30;12

Jon Mayo

So, yeah, 100%. Mm hmm. At this point, I’m reflecting on how exciting it is to have you back in the States. I think it’s very good. I’m very grateful that we’re not 8 hours apart and doing this across an ocean and half the world. And also, you know, we kind of got to talk already about what we’re doing, what we’re excited about.

01;21;30;25 – 01;21;55;11

Jon Mayo

I was curious, Brandon, with this being the first episode we get to record together, I started to test the systems and we’re definitely growing and evolving the show through your creative input and everything that you’re driving right because you’re the the driving force behind the show now. What are you most excited about as you look at the next, say, year?

01;21;55;11 – 01;22;26;18

Brandon Seifert

I am very selfish in the sense that I am excited to hear all of the exploratory conversations that I can impart of my own life. I don’t think it’s wrong to be selfish through any of this. I’m going to be selfish when it comes to taking what I can. From everything we and any guests discuss. But I’m also going to be selfish about utilizing everything that we’re talking to improve my own life, knowing that that’s going to improve the lives of everyone around me by proxy.

01;22;26;22 – 01;22;52;07

Brandon Seifert

Like I can’t wait to to just kind of be a fly on the wall and everyone smile just kind of like chip in because something just really strikes at me and I know I’m going to see lot of that and I’m just excited, excited to just listen and share that message. Yeah, that I can.

01;22;52;19 – 01;23;10;22

Kirk Van Everen

I mean, the people that come on the show, you know, you could you can spend your entire life and, you know, if you don’t pay attention to others, you’re only going to learn what you are exposed to. Right. But you’re you’re in the immediate presence of people that are experts in their field or that have harrowing things that they had to overcome.

01;23;10;22 – 01;23;38;04

Kirk Van Everen

Right. You don’t necessarily need to learn through everything being hands on. You can extract genuine gold from the people that. Come on to the show that talk through their experiences. And just like anybody else who really wants to improve themselves, you just you extract everything. Then, you know, you’re combining multiple lifetime’s worth of value just by proximity. And that’s really what we hope for.

01;23;38;04 – 01;24;06;17

Kirk Van Everen

The show in the long and the long run as well. I mean, you know, I know what you’ve already started to do, expanding the reach, people. Just imagine what you’re extracting out of this and you’re creating such an ambitious web of accessibility to this show. So the lessons that you were extracting from this show just by, you know, being heavily involved in every aspect of its creation, that is that is now being amplified.

01;24;06;22 – 01;24;11;15

Kirk Van Everen

You turn the microphone around as a loudspeaker, and that’s just very, very cool to see that. So.

01;24;12;06 – 01;24;42;17

Brandon Seifert

Yeah, I agree. And one thing that I was thinking about is like the difference of me just starting this journey that we’re all walking through together. It’s the difference of you were scared to jump out of helicopters. I was scared to give a compliment like the difference in where I’m starting with the difference in knowledge and experience going through this journey is so vast now that I’m just soaking it all up like I.

01;24;43;11 – 01;24;53;28

Brandon Seifert

I’m having a blast just talking right now and being able to be like, Oh yeah, I was scared to talk to someone and you’re like, Oh yeah, I’m jumping out of the airplane.

01;24;53;28 – 01;24;55;09

Kirk Van Everen

Oh, that’s a bad example.

01;24;55;19 – 01;25;09;00

Brandon Seifert

No, Yeah, yeah. But like, this means that we’re going to capture a lot of different people now, Like there are going to be a lot of people that are scared to just talk to people.

01;25;09;00 – 01;25;09;12

Kirk Van Everen

Sure.

01;25;09;21 – 01;25;32;25

Brandon Seifert

Like what I’m going through and what I’m you know, I had a very sheltered life and I’m just now starting to explore life and and that is wild versus other people that have gone and done all this other stuff and seen like there’s still a bridge, maybe not the airplane, but like complimenting someone’s T-shirt or, you know, anything that you notice, we still go through that same thing.

01;25;32;26 – 01;25;33;08

Kirk Van Everen

Yeah.

01;25;34;18 – 01;25;36;25

Brandon Seifert

And we’re all just going through life together, like.

01;25;37;15 – 01;26;02;06

Jon Mayo

Yeah, we’re all humans. Yes, we’re all human beings. It’s part of the condition of reality that we face. And the whole idea is, are we able to create something that allows us to journey together as we try to find our way home and to help each other in that metaphorical searching for peace, contentment, joy right. And I think this eclipses it very well.

01;26;02;13 – 01;26;23;20

Jon Mayo

And one of the things I’m excited about and grateful for is to have you on the team. Brian I’m excited, grateful to have you back in the States. Kirk And that’s really Rowan now. And I just look so forward to each invigorating moment as we work to deliver everything that we’re working on to world with the hope that it helps others experience life in the way we’re beginning to.

01;26;24;20 – 01;26;39;01

Jon Mayo

And as far as the first conversation with the three of us and as far as getting started, I can’t think of a better way to have a better conversation to have had, nor a better opportunity for us to consider going and getting lunch here. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting famished.

01;26;40;08 – 01;27;04;05

Kirk Van Everen

Well, I’m thrilled to be here in person for the first time. I’m thrilled to work with you, Brandon. It is. It is an honor to just be included amongst people like you, but it is even more motivating to know that hopefully somebody can extract value from the conversations that we’re having and to be aligned to something so beautiful is is an amazing reason to wake up every single day.

01;27;04;22 – 01;27;07;10

Kirk Van Everen

So thank you for having me here.

01;27;07;10 – 01;27;39;11

Brandon Seifert

Definitely. And thanks for letting me join the the the team. And that goes back like the beautiful thing to me is. I was like a year ago with a life that didn’t meet any of this. You know, I was planning on ending in in just within a year. I get to now be the person that can help other people potentially find this journey and start living life, seeing the beauty and just living.

01;27;40;09 – 01;28;03;29

Brandon Seifert

That is that’s the refreshing point and thing of it all. For me, it’s like, All right, I just started this journey. Now I can help someone else start it. And that’s, that’s going back to it. That’s when I’m excited for.

01;28;03;29 – 01;28;25;16

Jon Mayo

All right. And that is the show. Thank you so much for listening. If you found value in today’s episode, please pay it forward. You Can do that by liking and following the show liking following us on social media or sharing this episode with someone you care about. All of these things help more than I can put into words, and each action taken to help us spread the word is greatly appreciated.

01;28;25;22 – 01;28;42;22

Jon Mayo

So once again, from all of us here at the UK and be Relentless podcast, Thank you for joining us in the journey as we seek to lead maximized lives.