Confidence isn't just about
believing in yourself.
It's about taking bold
action in the face of adversity.
And today's guest knows
exactly what it takes to
turn challenges into
incredible opportunities.
Eric Weir is a bestselling author,
entrepreneur, investor,
and success coach who has
worked with some of the
world's top performers from
elite athletes to Hollywood executives.
As the founder of Weir Capital,
Eric has built a reputation
for helping people maximize
their potential, whether in business,
finances, or personal growth.
But Eric's journey hasn't
been without obstacles,
and we're going to hear some about that.
He has faced setbacks,
learned valuable lessons,
and discovered the power of
resilience along the way.
In his book, Who's Eating Your Pie?,
he shares insights on wealth, purpose,
and the mindset shifts
needed to create lasting success.
Eric, welcome to the show.
Hi, Taryn.
Thank you for having me on.
I'm very excited to be here.
Thank you.
Yes.
Well, you know,
I met you through someone on LinkedIn.
I interviewed him for my podcast.
Okay.
always like to ask at the
end hey do you have any
great guests that would
like to come on my show
okay and he mentioned you
and I said no way eric
we're I would love to
interview him so that was
my first kind of
introduction to you and
then here we are today so um
welcome welcome and I would
love to hear you know some
of what you've got going on
right now talk to us about
your book and all the
successes that you are having in life
Yeah.
Well, essentially,
it's fun to focus on success,
but it's been my experience
that there's really no
success without a setback.
And what really got me
started was a significant setback.
And when I was five years old,
I was in an automobile
accident and I had a
traumatic brain injury.
And as such,
I developed a stutter almost instantly.
So I got home from the car
wreck and seen all the
police and all of that.
And I remember wanting to
get out of the car and both
the police and my mother said,
don't get out of the car.
And I'm like,
that seems bad because I was
watching Bugs Bunny Road Runner.
Everything happened when the cars wrecked,
they blew up and caught on fire.
So I was faced with a decision.
Do I blow up and catch on fire?
and obey my parent, my mom,
or do I get out of the car and survive?
And I chose to die.
It was really hard for me, right?
So I get home and I'm stuttering.
I'm like, can you please pass the piece?
And they're like, Eric, are you okay?
And they thought I was just
in a wreck and was rattled,
but it didn't go away.
So they took me to a speech
therapist and it wasn't the, this was the,
this was the nineteen,
this was nineteen seventy-two.
So this was not the PC
encouraging speech therapist.
It kind of went something like this.
And I'm sitting there and my
legs and my mind's eye are
hanging off the side of the
chair because I'm five.
And she goes, Eric,
life is going to be hard.
I'm like, OK.
She goes,
you have a stutter and the odds
are you'll be a failure.
The odds are you'll be reclusive.
You you won't want to engage
in conversation because
it's hard and kids are
going to tease you and make fun of you.
And in such,
you'll probably choose to avoid that.
She said, but there's an alternative.
You can probably be very successful,
but you'll have to view
each conversation as a
challenge and each time
you're picked on as an opportunity.
And I'm like, wow, this is crazy.
She says that if you do that,
if you view each of these
rocks you're climbing,
you'll have overcome so
many obstacles by the time
you're eighteen,
more than most people do in a lifetime,
that you'll be hard to stop
because you'll view
obstacles as opportunities
if you follow my advice.
And I left the meeting, one of my parents,
to say, this is a quack.
Don't do that.
It's terrible advice, right?
And my dad looked at me and goes, Eric,
life's going to be hard.
Let's get started.
And that's where it began.
And immediately they set out
the next day and set up a lemonade stand.
And I realized I do real
estate is that location matters.
And in this particular case,
we lived right at the
entryway to an elementary school.
So I had parents who were
picking up kids slightly
older than me and they're
lining up in front of my house.
So when you have a lemonade
stand and you're five and
you're blonde and you have a sign,
lemonade, fifty cents, that was great.
The bad news is my name's Eric Weir,
and my lemonade was fifty cents,
and F's are hard to say.
E's and W's are hard to say.
So I made a sign.
So people would ask me how
much is the lemonade.
I would point to the sign,
hoping that would end the conversation.
Not one time did it stop.
How much is the lemonade?
I'm going to get... It's...
fifty cents right and I
never got fifty cents I got
a dollar I got five dollars
I got tipped and I was like
this is fantastic so I went
inside and you know and
then was was fun my dad got
home and he'd lost his job
and we were living in a
rented house we'd lost everything
And he goes, how'd it go today?
I said, I mean, I made eighty six dollars.
Well, in today's money,
that's like six hundred.
OK.
And he's like,
I don't think I made eighty
six dollars today.
So that's how I got started.
The first thing I thought is
I've got a business partner tomorrow,
my lemonade stand, my father.
Right.
But it was fun, but it was a setback.
But that setback opened its
door to other opportunities
that still benefit me today.
so inspiring to hear because
traumatic brain injury is
not something that many people overcome.
I love the advice going back
to your speech pathologist
that you had when you were a child.
And, you know,
that was a lot of mindset advice.
Oh, a hundred percent.
I got picked on every,
I cried myself to sleep.
I mean, hundreds of nights.
I mean,
I got picked on relentlessly for
years and years and years and years.
I mean, even one of my teens asking people,
us and a girl on a date is Eric.
Where can I take you to movie?
And it wasn't until I was
forty that I got over.
I mean, I stuttered till I was forty.
And a therapist would say,
put yourself in uncomfortable positions.
And one that I did at the
end was thirty seven, eight, nine.
I was a church greeter.
And it was terrible because I stuttered,
right?
What makes it worse is when
I have coffee or when I'm tired.
And I'm always tired, and I love coffee.
So I'm right at the front of the church,
and I would shake people's hand.
And every once in a while,
I'd get it right.
But most of the time, I wouldn't.
And they'd shake their hand.
What's your name?
And I'm like, it's weird.
And three things would happen.
All were bad.
They'd look at you like, like,
and just wait until you get it out.
Like this pure eye on, eye on.
And that made me uncomfortable.
Right.
And I felt bad for them.
Or they would just look away, you know,
just walk off.
Or they just avoid you altogether.
And all three were bad, you know?
So, but it was funny.
What changed my life was the pastor said,
thank God for what besets you.
And he said,
the apostle Paul prayed two
times to remove the thorn in his flesh.
And he goes,
we don't really know what that is.
Hunchback, there's all kinds of theories.
He said, both times God said, no,
my grace is sufficient.
And I thank God for my stutter.
And I really didn't want to
because I really wasn't happy about it.
And I was so upset.
It was very emotional for me.
When I did,
the stutter went away over
about three years, not the next day.
But I said, thank you, God,
for the stutter you gave me
that made me who I am,
that gave me my persistence
and resolve that I would
not otherwise have.
And then that's what changed my life.
It was gratitude.
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
You, well, you're speaking my language,
right?
It's the gratitude for me that, you know,
what's interesting that
came from me at my lowest point.
And it was something that I didn't,
I didn't have that like
deep appreciation for gratitude.
And I didn't feel like I had a true,
true relationship with God.
Until I was at my lowest point,
until I felt like I have no
self-confidence,
I'm in steeps of depression, anxiety,
which a lot of people are going through,
right?
But I realized this,
that if we didn't have the
darkness of the night sky,
we wouldn't appreciate the stars.
We wouldn't be able to see
them and distinguish them.
So I think that, you know,
complexity of just the
human experience like we're
talking about right now that, you know,
you have to have the give with the take.
You have to, you know,
be able to have that
adversity so that you can
overcome and actually step
into the person you're supposed to be.
It's so true.
And I do something with each of my,
I have five sons.
And at some age,
it's not like I've written it down.
It just kind of happens and
it pops in my mind at certain age.
But I remember doing it at
ten with one of my sons.
And I went into a closet and
I closed the door and it was very dark.
And I brought a lighter with me.
And look how dark it is.
He goes, yeah, I can't see anything.
I said,
I brought a lighter and I'm going
to light it.
And I have like a lighter
here and I would just,
I would light the lighter
and show a flame.
And I get, were you able to see the flame?
He goes, yeah.
And I said, that's light.
The light in you can light
the darkest room.
And I said, remember,
it only takes a little bit of light.
No amount of darkness can
overcome the smallest amount of light.
So be a light.
And that, I think, has impacted our lives.
It certainly has impacted mine.
And gratitude is a light.
No matter how bad things are,
there's always,
you're supposed to be grateful for,
there are always people who would trade,
no matter what circumstance you're in.
With you right now,
no matter where you are, handle it.
And so often we just we
focus on what we are lacking,
not what we have.
Oh, a hundred percent.
Right.
But once you really, and I do,
I consider it a
relationship with gratitude
because gratitude, you know, again,
it's what I used to think
of it as is something like, okay,
you check your box.
All right,
I'm done my gratitude for the day.
That's good.
On to the next.
You have to do it every single day.
It's a lifestyle.
It's a habit.
It's like prayer, right?
Absolutely.
Um,
the interesting thing about gratitude
that I realized once I
developed a relationship
with it is that it did feel
like a continuous prayer,
like a bridge that at any point in time,
I could just reach out with
an expression of gratitude.
And be connected through prayer to God.
It's that powerful.
No, it's super powerful.
And I heard Jordan Peterson say, he said,
like,
start each day believing that
everything that happens to
you ultimately will turn for good.
And in scripture, it says,
all things work for the
good of those that love and serve God.
So it was, that's a biblical advice.
And he's opened by,
I don't care what religion you are.
Just say,
all things are going to work out
for my good today.
No matter what happens,
it's ultimately for my goodness.
Sometimes it's so hard to see what it is.
And you listen to Tim Tebow.
And he wanted to go back and
play in the NFL again, right?
He's in great shape.
He's a great athlete,
Heisman Trophy winner.
And he got cut.
He didn't make it.
And, you know,
they knew there'd be fans would come,
support would come.
He poured himself all into it.
Demi, his wife, was really behind him.
And he didn't make it.
He was very disappointed in his flesh.
And then he said, well,
I'm going to dedicate my time to God.
And what he's done since that time to help,
you know,
children who are less fortunate
and people of—
who've been, you know,
preyed upon through
trafficking and things of that nature,
he would never have been
able to do if he had
another one or two or three
years in the NFL.
So he now says that that was
the greatest thing that
ever happened to him.
And it really aligned his,
his purpose more,
more tightly with what he
believes God has him to do.
Oh, that is so timely.
You know, just this week, I,
I'm on the leadership
committee for C-suite for Christ.
And, you know, we,
beginning of the committee
meetings we always say god
moments and we can stand up
and talk about it if we
want and I shared one this
week um it was a god moment
I had this revelation and I
said you know I'm done
wanting the things I want
for myself I'm just done
what I want is what what do
you want from me whatever
that is I'm open to it I'm
excited about it I'm
already grateful for it let's go
I don't want what I want for
myself anymore.
And I think if,
if we all think on that level of,
you know,
not leaning as the Bible says on
our own understanding and
lean instead on God and
have faith in his plan for us,
which is always way bigger
than what we have for ourselves.
Sure.
Oh my gosh.
How much more successful
could we actually become?
No, a hundred percent, a hundred percent.
That's so, it's so true.
It's so true.
Yep.
Wow.
So your story is incredible.
You know,
you go from this point of
adversity in childhood,
never saw that coming,
traumatic brain injury,
turning into stuttering.
Here we are at forty, still, you know,
finally overcoming the stuttering.
You get into where you're a
phenomenal success at
everything you touch.
Sounds like you have a lot
of faith that keeps you going.
I would love to know, you know, was,
was there a specific turning point?
Was there, you know,
when you were forty and
overcoming the stuttering, was it,
describe that point in your life.
What was going on and how
did you make that switch to
overcome stuttering?
Yeah, I guess at age forty,
I'd poured myself out of
like insecurity or trying
to prove myself in business
to attain some pretty
decent heights by that age.
And
And then I was like, it's hollow, right?
And no matter what I attained,
it was temporary,
but it would not fill the
void in my heart.
And I realized through
reading other books and building things,
there's five things that matter, faith,
family, fitness, finance, friends.
And I call it faith or your lens,
the center of a wheel,
if you think about it that way.
that really it's a lens I
see the world through.
So I either see the world
through my insecurity,
I see it through my lack,
trying to prove myself to
myself because I stuttered
and wanted to overcome or
prove all those people they
shouldn't have teased me or
I was a value.
And then when you flip it
and become grateful for your setbacks,
grateful for being teased,
grateful for the pain,
it's very empowering.
And at the same time,
it makes you more solid in
your roots because you
become less seeking
external affirmation and
more of just grateful for where you are.
And I had a mother that was
very prayerful.
And she would say, Eric,
there are two types of people.
And I'm like, well, what's that, Mom?
She said,
there's those who are humble and
those who are soon to be humble.
I'm like, wow.
Oh, my gosh.
I love your mother.
I'm going to steal that one.
It's so true.
Because when you become
proud of yourself or proud
of your accomplishments,
it's not too long before you're humbled.
And it says in the Bible,
pride comes before a fall.
And it's so true.
And I've seen it in my life, you know,
over and over again, but it's, it's,
you know, there's not,
there's nothing great
accomplished by yourself
and people who act like
they attained it on their own.
I think with a little bit of
self reflection to realize
that's probably not the case.
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
That resonates so deeply.
Right.
And it's, it's just so important, you know,
these lessons in life,
something that you said was
very profound.
your heart wasn't full that
your heart wasn't in it at
one point in time you were
lacking it sounds like
fulfillment purpose part of
that is did you have that
relationship with your
creator at that point
Yeah,
I accepted Christ at a young age and
I followed him through high school.
And then I followed success after that,
after college.
So I began to define my
value as my outward
accomplishments and not my inward self,
right?
So if I could accomplish something,
I would do it.
And I would miss events.
I would miss things that
were otherwise important to me.
And then I, in the way, along the way,
I met a lot of very wealthy people.
And what I did, I was,
excuse me, finance,
we're the financial
professionals and working
with high profile people
and tech founders and on and on and on.
And I was fortunate enough
to be near some people in
life-threatening situations
or near death or they're
sick or something happened.
And I noticed that what they
really seemed to want near
them were people in their lives.
And not all the time, but most of the time,
those were the same people
that they chose not to
spend time with because
they were pursuing success
or what they thought was
success or I was doing it for them.
And you really are.
You're doing it of your own insecurity,
your own emptiness and your
own search for significance.
And you may want to help them too,
but that's it.
But in that case, it gave me, you know,
a way to evaluate and see
and learn from somebody else that, well,
those were decisions and I
hold this person in high
esteem and they're very
smart and driven and
educated and successful.
But at the end of the day,
what they really want is relationship.
And so how do you
you know, know you have to pay the bills,
know you have to do things,
take care of your body, mind, soul,
you know, relationship's very important.
And when you look at
longevity and people are
talking about it's vegan, it's vegetarian,
it's exercise, it's whatever,
you look at the blue zones,
around the world.
And what they find among the
people is there are people
that eat almost mostly meat
in their diet.
There are people that eat
mostly vegetables in their diet.
There are people who drink
wine and smoke cigarettes
in their parts of Italy in the Blue Zone.
And what they found out,
the commonality is they all
had a sense of purpose.
They did light amount of exercise,
gardening,
or some kind of walking around.
But what's interesting is
they were all in relationship.
They were in a community and
had a sense of purpose.
So longevity is important.
And I've heard it said that
if you put someone and isolate somebody,
no matter what age they are,
it halves their life
expectancy because now
they're no longer in
relationship and it becomes
a very difficult and a very
different life.
Oh, so much wisdom there.
You hit on two points that I
want to touch on.
One is, you know, a lot of high performers,
myself included, right?
I've been guilty of this in the past.
The reliance on external
validation for approval.
Huge, Eric, huge, huge, huge.
Oh, yeah.
You know,
recently I heard something that
totally cured that for me
because it has been a
problem for a long time.
What cured it for me is I
heard somebody say that if
you seek external validation or approval,
it's idol worship.
Never thought about it like that.
It's true.
And I never thought about it.
And that certainly cured me.
So now that's my permanent check, right?
But you're right.
It's seeking of the purpose,
aligning with your purpose,
doing things collaboratively,
like you're talking about
community over competition.
How can we work together?
How can we unify?
Right.
It's all important.
And I like what you said, too, that.
Rare, very rarely does somebody, you know,
get to the top by
themselves for themselves.
They usually have people
helping them along the way.
It's so powerful, right?
No, it's so true.
It's so true.
It's just, it's, it's, it's, you know,
you need people, you need relationships,
you're not going to be good
at everything.
And, you know, if you, you know,
attack things as a team or
think as a team and realize that,
you know, most of life is, is,
is more about giving than receiving,
it makes things a lot
easier and you keep score a
lot differently.
I love that.
Well, Eric,
where can we find you and learn
more about you and research
your book and understand
everything that you're doing these days?
Yeah, one of you can go.
I have a website called ericweir.com.
It's here in the bottom.
You can go there.
I have a book called Who's
Eating Your Pie that's on Amazon.
It's easily findable there
and audible as well.
And one of my favorite
chapters happens to be the first chapter,
and it's Permission to Dream.
And most people have been down and out,
and they're down on themselves,
their relationships, or down financially,
you know, in any type of way.
And they haven't given
themselves permission to dream.
But if you think about it,
you ask a ten-year-old child,
I'm going to be an astronaut.
I'm going to be a dentist.
I'm going to be a doctor.
You ask them in college what
they're going to be.
It gets smaller.
I'm going to do this.
Smaller dreams.
You ask them when they're forty five.
I just want to sleep and
maybe have a warm meal.
Right.
So.
So the idea is,
is we we forget to dream
and we don't give ourselves permission.
So my first chapter is give
yourself permission to dream again.
Give yourself permission to
start over again.
And every day is a gift.
And if you look at life that way,
it's a great start to each day.
I love that.
I always say, you know,
bookend your day with gratitude.
So the first thing, you know,
when you wake up in the morning,
say a prayer,
say an expression of
gratitude because it is a lottery.
We're lucky, so lucky every single day.
No question.
And then before you go to bed at night,
again,
bookend your day with gratitude and
expression for the day.
You do that long enough,
you'll change your life.
No doubt about it.
It does.
There have been studies.
It's like going to a gym and working out.
If I work out one day,
there's no difference.
I work out.
a week, a little bit, thirty days,
I start to notice it.
A year later,
and you can transform your
body and you don't realize it,
but it happens.
It's the same thing with
gratitude or thankfulness
or just being purposeful in life.
I love that.
Well, thank you so much, Eric,
for being a fantastic guest on this show.
And thank you for everyone
who tuned into this episode.
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