Seven figure success starts when you start thinking like a CEO.
Welcome to the John Kitchens Coach podcast experience as your host, John Kitchens.
Get ready to think bigger and transform your business into
a path to lasting freedom.
What is happening?
Welcome to Expert Mentors Live episode three 15, and, uh, man, this
is where experienced operators break down what actually drives results.
And, uh, I have the honor to be able to jam and hang out with you guys today.
We are going to unpack the agent to CEO Momentum Engine.
And listen as always, if you guys want clarity on your next move, go
book your call@sevenfigurecall.com.
And, uh, let's dive in.
So I had the opportunity to speak at, um, an event last week in Birmingham, Alabama,
further together event with, uh, Connie Collie, Alexander Jacks there the go-to
luxury expert in Birmingham, Alabama.
And my, uh, longtime client and dear friend, Mr. Jean Darden.
And it was, uh, it was just, it was awesome.
Had a great lineup, great event, great location.
Just everything about of it was first class.
I wouldn't expect any, anything different.
And so this is the conversation, you know, when I was asked to come
in and, and was actually asked to kick the event off, which is.
Kind of a nice little change up usually, you know, uh, bringing us home, but
had the opportunity to kind of set the stage and that was really intentional
as we wanted to, set the stage mindset wise as kind of the theme was mindset,
momentum, heading into, uh, coming out of first quarter here in 2026 as.
We start to, uh, round first heading to second, uh, which is
kind of halftime for this year.
And so we thought it was really important to make sure that, uh, we set
the stage in the right frame of mind.
And I wanna just kind of walk you through the presentation that I
had the opportunity to share there in Birmingham with you guys today.
So, let's jump in.
So here's what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna just kind of fast forward through, the beginning of, of the
presentation, take you into kind of the teaching part and, um, we will kind of
then kind of call to action that we had.
But I just wanna walk you through this because it's extremely important from.
Where our heads need to be as we are looking to build momentum.
And I tell clients this all the time,
momentum is, is a challenge and it's, it's hard to get, but once you have momentum.
You never wanna let it go, because once you have it and you lose it,
it's 10 times harder to get back.
Okay?
It's the old adage, right?
It's easier to stay in shape than to get in shape.
So think about that from a momentum, it's the same thing, right?
It's easier to maintain momentum than to.
Build momentum.
So once you have it, you want to hang onto it and write it
as long as you possibly can.
So I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna share these, but I'm just gonna
jump down, um, a little, little quick context for those that I
haven't had the opportunity to meet.
We've got so many new people coming into the community, coming in,
uh, to Honey Badger Nation coming into the Agent Legacy community.
And maybe this is the first time that you've had the opportunity to jump in
and, um, you know, check out the show.
Thank you guys for being here.
Like, subscribe, share.
As Andy Fer says, don't be a, you know what, share the show.
So if you guys get value out of this, the, the greatest compliment
is to be able to share this.
Uh, with, with others that would get, uh, a ton of value out of it as well.
Little context, man.
I'm, I'm a Hall of Fame coaches kid.
I gotta make sure I say that.
You know, my dad's in the coaching Hall of Fame in in Oklahoma for the public
school system in, in, in, through coaching through the entire state.
So it's kind of cool to say, you know, my dad's a Hall of fame coach.
And what that meant, man, is I just grew up in the locker room.
I grew up on the field.
You know, all, all of my extra time in childhood, if I wanted to spend
time with pops, I was on the field.
I was, um, in the locker room.
Yeah.
I was that kid that, that got, athletic taped upside down on the ceiling.
I've got locked into multiple lockers, all part of the experience.
Right?
But when you're in that environment for a long period of time, and this is
true for us in any part of our lives.
When we're in, you know, an environment, it forms a belief system.
And so for me, the belief system of, knowing that everyone on the planet
needs a great coach in their life, because I believe with a great coach
in your life, your life will be better and listen, for our business
to be better, we have to be better.
And when we have, you know, these belief systems, this is really
what starts to form our why.
And for me it's to inspire and challenge people to think bigger.
And if you guys have listened to any of the episodes on the podcast, you know,
my whole goal for the John Kitchens Coach podcast experience is to really create
a masterclass in becoming the CEO of your life and the CEO of your business.
And I just know with, with absolute certainty.
Inspire challenges, people to think bigger.
You.
We gotta think bigger.
I promise you, everybody listening to this conversation,
you're not thinking big enough.
And we want to think bigger so that we can transform our lives
and transform our business.
Quick backstory.
Supposed to go to college to, uh, play golf, ended up on the drinking
team instead of the golf team.
And, uh, that was a recipe for disaster.
Ended up moving out to California, walked into kind of the ideal situation
for me, which became my schooling.
Had one of the most amazing bosses that you could ever ask for Kathy Wake and.
Kathy really taught me all the ins and outs and the facets of really running
an organization and running a business.
Learning how, merch moves in and out of the pro shop, learning how to, you know,
hold people to the dress code by just simply raising the dues or, the, um,
you know, the fees to play golf by just a couple dollars would turn away folks.
Showing up in tank tops versus showing up to the dress code.
Little things like that, right?
And got sucked back into Oklahoma.
Couple childhood friends, serial entrepreneurs, ideas, execution.
We sold the last.
The last endeavor at the end of, uh, 2003, we had nothing to do, so
we thought it'd be a good idea to, uh, start a bar, which, uh, led down
as a very slippery slope for me.
And, uh, that was the all it took to make the connection with the
gentleman there in the blue shirt next to me, Mr. Michael Reese.
He is the connector and, and actually Michael and I go back to
junior high high school days of playing, uh, playing golf together.
Little interesting, worthless fact.
We were actually first roommates together outta high school while we were at Cameron
University for that year, year and a half.
Uh, but he is the connector.
He connected me to, uh, the gentleman there in the yellow Mr. J Kinder, and over
the past 20 years, been a part of the.
Three separate seven figure real estate businesses.
Over 4,300 transactions under my watch, personally have coached
thousands of real estate professionals.
I need to update that number.
We're we're a little over 17, six, one-on-one sessions over 10,000 hours,
uh, which we passed about nine months ago.
Uh, so just, just relatively hitting that in the 14 years now of coaching of
one-on-one coaching, not one to many.
That's a, that's a whole separate statistic, but, uh, in the one-on-one
capacity and the reason that.
This would mean anything to you is just, I just have a unique perspective.
Most operators, coaches, agents, don't have Right.
Multiple markets, multiple transactions, coaching agents now all over the world.
And so just a unique perspective, not very many situations I haven't
encountered, I'll put it that way.
Opportunity to work with some of the best and the best on the planet and that, uh,
that army is still continuing to grow.
So here is what's on the agenda.
I wanna walk you guys kind of through what we, uh, kind of look at as the bottleneck
into the shift and then into kind of what is that breakthrough that we all need and.
Really what this becomes is this is really the linchpin for our business.
So I want you to pause for just a second and I want you to think
about when you first started this journey into real estate.
Okay?
And maybe, close your eyes.
Obviously if you're driving, listen to this might not be a good idea.
But if you're in a situation just close your eyes and think back, right?
What was your vision of the future?
When you got into, got into real estate, right?
The idea was probably pretty dang simple, right?
I'm gonna work hard, I'm gonna grow my business and I'm gonna secure my future.
What we thought it would look like was, man, if I work hard
enough, the business is gonna grow.
If I focus on making more sales, the revenue will keep increasing.
If the revenue keeps increasing, the profits surely will follow.
And if the business keeps growing, eventually my future is gonna be secure.
But what it really looks like is man, I got a great plan.
I got great intentions, but before noon, my firefighter hat is on.
I've got.
74 different problems that I have to, be in the middle of to handle
because my team can't handle it.
I'm trying to focus on growth.
Instead, I'm being pulled over here, being pulled over here.
I got people issues, I got operational issues.
The more the business grows, the more decisions everyone
is waiting on me to make.
So here on the left, the expectation, the hustle illusion,
the hustle, grow, freedom.
Man, it's my linear growth path and I'm a status dude.
I'm gonna be number one in the market.
I'm more volume, more freedom.
But the reality is this cat over here on the right, that's all hemmed up and it
is a complete whirlwind, endless loops.
It never ends.
I wake up and just put my firefighter hat on.
90%, 95% of the daily firefighting, and then the bottom right there, right?
The little profit trap.
We think more growth, more profit.
Aha.
But what we fail to remember is that growth sucks cash.
And if you don't understand the financials and what drives them,
you are that broken piggy bank.
So the real problem, right?
The real problem.
It's not your marketing, it's not your sales or your leads, okay?
It's trying to grow without structure.
And as all of the marketing sales leads, everything's kind of funneling in.
Ah, that's where it breaks down, right?
The leader is always the biggest bottleneck.
Remember, the pack only runs as fast as the leader.
And we tend to put ourself in a situation to where we become
the biggest dang bottleneck.
Okay, listen, hustle, hard work.
Yes, I get it.
Nobody cares.
Work harder.
However, work is not, uh, hard work is not just the answer.
Hustle is not a strategy, okay?
And it's really about shifting from an operator to an architect.
See, the reality that we have to understand is that
this is a creative world.
We get to design it however we want.
Okay.
And and it's not just report it.
This is how it is, this is how it has to be.
No, we get to design it however we want it to be.
Okay.
One thing like, listen,
we're not, most folks, 99% of folks are not trying to build.
The next massive brokerage.
The next exp the next real, the next LPT, the next Realty of America, just
the cloud-based AI models that are coming online as the direction of the future.
Most people aren't building those 99%.
99 point, 99% of people are not building those most people.
In the real estate space, wanna make a really good living, okay?
And you gotta put this into perspective, like what are really
good professions in your market?
And what do those really good professions pay?
What do they what?
What's the pay structure, right?
Like some of these, you gotta work 50, 55, 60 hours to make six
figures or make 70, 75,000 a year.
How many transactions do you need to close in this space to make six figures?
Depending on price point, it's not that many.
Okay?
And if you really look at it, okay, most of you in your markets can
maybe close one to one and a half, two deals a month max, and make
six figures, multiple six figures.
And truth be told, if you're only closing one to two deals a
month, you're working part-time.
I don't care what anybody says.
Jump on here, let's talk about it.
You are working part time and making six figures, where else
are you gonna go and do that?
Okay.
To my point, six figures, or even, even if you wanna get to seven figures,
there are so many paths to get there.
Okay?
That's why it's important to embrace the architect mindset, okay?
And once we realize, dude, I'm the bottleneck.
Okay.
And you know where the bottleneck is.
The bottleneck is in our thinking.
It starts to feel like we're constantly putting out fires issue after issue, and
then all of a sudden another one pops up and we keep working harder, right?
Nobody cares work harder, but the problems keep multiplying.
This is nothing like the simple path that we imagined, okay?
Contrary to what we were taught.
Working harder never fixes a slowing business.
People double down on effort because surely if you spend more time, more
hours, more marketing, more activity.
It's gonna solve the problems, but effort doesn't equal growth, right?
Go back to insanity.
Definition of insanity.
Like a lot of agents that I've seen over the years, this is
exactly what they do over and over, expecting a different result.
Why is this happening?
What are you missing?
Okay?
And this is where the shift comes in.
A production mindset focuses on reacting to whatever problems show up next.
Man, this deal needs attention.
Oh, I gotta, I gotta handle, take care of this client.
Oh my gosh, something's broke over here.
Oh, I gotta deal with this issue this person's having.
And then we start to embrace, man, the more the business
grows, the more I have to react.
Everything, and I'm not getting anything done that actually makes progress moving
towards something meaningful in my life.
So what has to change?
Real growth only happens when your mindset shifts from reacting to
problems and critically examining how the business should operate.
Because when your thinking doesn't change, the business always defaults
back to the same constraint.
You.
Okay, listen, I'm talking.
What I'm talking about here is Theory of constraints.
Eli GoRat wrote the book on Theory of Constraints.
Yes, I recommend it.
Our mentor, it's his number one book recommendation.
However, our mentor's, number one book recommendation for 2026
is this book called Reset by Dan Heath.
Listen, if you do not have a copy of this book, get this book.
If you're coming to Kitchen Table, my quarterly mastermind
event that I host, don't buy it.
'cause I'm gonna give you this book because this is
how important it's inside of.
This book has 17 pages.
The best 17 pages condensed.
On Theory of Constraints.
Get this book.
It's fantastic.
Read it from front to back.
However, use it as a resource manual for a lot of things.
But number one, use it as a resource manual for Theory of Constraints.
17 pages, best breakdown.
You'll understand most of you know and follow.
If you listen to this show, you know who Alex, her is, and you follow Alex.
Alex operates in Theory of Constraints.
Everything he does comes down to Theory of Constraints.
You have to understand this concept.
Listen, I can help.
I can help anybody that that's coachable, that wants to help,
that wants to get better.
I can really help you when you understand theory of constraints.
Okay?
We are most of the time the biggest constraint, and we gotta know
how to remove that bottleneck.
The other thing and where this comes into is the concept of
understanding the difference between the window and the mirror.
You have to ask yourself, what do you have a stronger relationship with the window?
Because it's easier for you to look out at the world and point your finger at people.
We all know those type of people, right?
Will sit back in their chair and, and point and direct.
You know, they wanna be the foreman of your life.
They wanna control you, right?
Is that you?
Are you calling the shots through the window or are you the
individual that has a much stronger relationship with the mirror?
So that's the question you have to ask.
Ask which relationship is stronger?
Your relationship with the window, or your relationship with the mirror?
I can promise you, you're not going to remove this constraint.
If you don't have a really good relationship with the mirror, okay,
it all starts with that reflection.
So how do you breakthrough from your bottleneck?
Okay, the breakthrough.
This is the breakthrough.
How do you actually run the business differently?
And this is where the linchpin of the entire process comes in.
And this is, this is our process.
It's called the agent to CEO.
Framework, the most important piece.
There's six components in the agent to CEO process.
The most important piece is the CEO operating system, okay?
It's going to give you, as a leader, a structured way to identify the real
constraint, make better decisions, and design the systems that allow
your business to grow without depending on constant intervention.
Let's break this down.
What is the CEO's operating system?
And the CEO operating system is a proven three-part framework.
It is designed to re-engineer your business from for predictable
growth, moving you from operator.
To architect.
Okay, listen.
Best definition of an operator.
An operator just gets shit done.
You might not have a rhyme or reason or know why.
You just know how to get results, but you don't understand how you do it.
There's no system.
It's just like I see it.
I just, I can get the ball in the end zone.
They can, they just can't tackle me.
I'm faster and I'm more elusive than anybody else.
Okay.
Until you get a little bit older and you slow down, you get, you get hemmed up a
little bit, then you go and get caught.
So you gotta, you gotta have a framework, you gotta have that system.
And the three parts are the constraint finder, theory of
constraints, just told you.
Best, the best resource for theory of constraints.
The decision filter.
This is so important, and the leverage engine.
So key number one, the constraint finder.
Stop fixing everything and find the single gear that is grinding.
Okay?
You have to look at your business as a machine, and every business only
has one true constraint at a time.
Identify that.
And fix it.
Okay?
Most leaders spend our time reacting to symptoms instead
of addressing the real problem.
When energy is spread across too many issues, nothing truly improves.
Okay?
The goal is not to do more work.
The goal is to remove the obstacle that stops the work.
Eli GoRat is the godfather of the Theory of Constraints.
The book, the Goal.
Okay.
It's fantastic.
It's a fable.
It's tough to listen to, but, talks about this machine factory.
But he also, you know, conveys it into the relationship with this kid.
And he also, conveys it into the relationship with his wife.
It's great.
It's a fable.
I highly recommend listening to it, but if you want to get down to the
brass tacks of it and gimme, gimme what I need to be able to, to operate.
Go here.
17 pages versus an entire book.
Give you an example.
So I was talking to, a team lead that operates a, uh, enterprise team, one
of the top teams for exp in the entire country, but also one of the top, it is
the top team in, uh, in one of the states.
And we were talking through this theory of constraints where the biggest bottleneck
was, and it's business wise, it's traffic, conversion, fulfillment, retention, said.
Consistent.
Consistent leads, consistent sales, consistent results and retention.
And we were talking about going through this exercise and he and I'm asking him
the question, where's the constraint?
And he is like, dude, we got like eight platforms.
It's a mess.
We gotta tighten up our systems, get better results.
And I said, well, is that the bottleneck?
I said, let's go red light, yellow light.
Green light through the three things that are required for consistent
sales, or excuse me, consistent leads.
Let's go through the three things that are required for consistent sales,
and let's go through the three things that are considered for consistent
results, right things, right order.
And so we started working through it.
Okay?
What we found is that it was somewhere over in.
There was some yellow lights in the consistent leads.
They now listen, you zoom out.
They don't have a lead problem.
However, their message to their target audience is not crystal
clear, so there's a yellow.
So we need to clean that up.
And then we get over into consistent sales.
He's thinking his biggest problem is how do I fix my systems on the back end?
Because we have too many tools.
We have too much stuff everywhere.
That's a real problem, but that ain't the main problem.
That's what Theory of Constraints will get you.
It'll get you working on the number one problem because if you avoid the number
one problem, that's not a good strategy.
You're only gonna get second, third, and fourth problem results when you solve
those instead of first problem results.
Okay, so hopefully that makes sense for you guys.
Super important to know where the real, the real kink in the water hose
is that we've gotta remove first.
Okay, so key number two.
Key number two is the decision filter.
It is so important for us to think in second order to
solve problems permanently.
We wanna move beyond the temporary bandaids that we all put on our business.
We have to evaluate the long-term ripple effects of our solutions to ensure
we are solving problems permanently.
We don't want to just plug a leak.
If it remains creating a massive flood downstream tomorrow, when
decisions are made with long-term consequences in mind, reoccurring
problems disappear in the organization becomes more stable and predictable.
The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your decisions.
I always like to run everybody through, through this scenario right here,
because what you have to realize is that.
Do you have good decision making filters in place?
Do you have a process to make decisions?
Okay, here's my process.
Real simple.
One, I wanna know what all the words mean.
I wanna make sure we're all speaking the same language, right?
You talk about success.
I talk about success.
Most of the time, your definition and my definition are different.
We need to get clear on what the words mean.
Second is, show me the math, right?
Business is just math.
Show me the math.
I wanna see what the math is because most of the time, the math
and the data will tell the story.
And then the third thing is, if I say yes to this, what's the
ripple effect of my decision?
Okay.
It's like you drop a pebble in the water and it just ripples out, right?
That's the same impact of our decisions.
What's gonna be the ripple effect?
Now?
What are the filters to run our decisions through?
Why do we always start with, what's the goal?
What's the vision?
Where are we trying to go?
Because that's a decision making filter.
And when you tell me what you're trying to do, I get to ask you, is that gonna
move you closer to where you want to be, or is it gonna move you further away?
Listen, the only goal in business is freedom.
The freedom of choice, the freedom to do whatever the
heck it is that you want to do.
That's what we're all striving for, and our business has to be architected,
designed to move us closer to freedom.
The reason I see so many folks getting stuck and including ourselves for decades.
Because we were chasing the wrong goal.
Okay?
You have to get clear on the goal, and you have to use those filters to
make sure that you're moving closer to freedom and, and not choosing to do
something that is moving you further away.
The second part is do you have clear written core values?
Do you know what core values are?
Those are the shoulds and should nots in your life.
More importantly, your core values are.
Your decision making filters.
Okay.
We hire fire, train, lead, coach, mentor, support, cheer, hold people
accountable through the core values.
Okay.
My number one is always growth, right?
I believe we grow in committed to growth.
Personally and professionally, daily.
Daily, we're doing something to grow personally and professionally.
That is a decision making filter.
I am not hiring you if you're not of growth mindset.
I don't want to spend time with you if you're not trying to get better personally
and professionally every single day.
That's a decision making filter.
A players, what are A players?
Okay, this is how we behave.
We think, and we operate and make decisions and execute as an A player.
A player gets the job done 90% of the time within the given pay range.
Hey, I have a quick question.
Do you know exactly where you are in your business and at
what stage is keeping you stuck?
If not, download the eight stages of the real estate business.
It's the most powerful tool we've ever created, and it shows you how
to stop surviving and start scaling.
You can grab the blueprint at the eight stages.
That's the number eight stages.com and get clarity on your next move.
Alright, let's get back at it.
I only wanna be around people that can get the job done 90% of
the time, given the pay range and the scope that we're working in.
A hundred 100 zero.
Own the outcome, right?
It's all about results.
No excuses.
And one of the best examples of this, and listen, I was late to Landman, I
will admit that, but that is one of the best shows I've seen in a long time.
And the last two episodes of season two might be the best to go back
and watch if you, if you haven't seen it, I recommend watching it.
If you have seen it.
It's worth going back and revisiting to just see how people behave.
Okay?
That is an example of 100 zero.
His daughter shows up late for cheer practice.
No excuses.
She made no excuses.
Tell coach my, you know, hey, my fault, I won't be late.
I'll be early.
At the end of that practice session, coach comes back with feedback, goes,
Hey, you gotta get your legs up.
Okay, great.
I'll work on that.
Coach goes, how are you gonna work on that?
I know I need to stretch more.
Owning it, accountability, and one of the most powerful scenes
and here's the, here's the lesson.
His ex-wife to be new wife, whatever loses her.
You know what?
When she finds out that Tommy had lost his job.
And she was mad because he didn't tell her.
And when she called him, this is like, you gotta go watch
this 'cause it is brilliant.
He goes, listen, I don't bring problems.
I bring solutions.
I don't have a solution to this problem, but I soon will.
And when I do, I'll bring it to you.
Oh.
What if we all thought about that?
What if you had a team that operated in getting results and solutions, right?
Those are values.
Okay?
Those are decision making filters.
What are your decision making filters That's gonna improve every aspect
in every quality of your life.
Key number three.
This is the leverage engine.
This is where we apply disproportionate force to shatter that bottleneck.
Listen guys, stop creating endless to-do list that we never get to, okay?
Stop treating $10 tasks with the same importance as 10 $10,000 tasks.
Alright?
Go into finding the constraint and solving them ruthlessly and putting every ounce
of energy and effort and resource that you have to remove that bottleneck.
Too many of us treat every dang task with the same level of importance, which
spreads effort, thin and slows momentum.
Yes, details matter, okay, but when energy is concentrated on the
constraint, progress accelerates the team gains clarity, and the
business begins moving faster.
Guy that wrote the book, doing more things doesn't create better results.
Doing the right things.
Does doing the one thing, and then guess what?
Then there'll be another one thing, then there'll be another one thing, but solve
that one thing to open the floodgates to then go create another constraint.
All right, so it's, here's another example.
Too many agents are worried about writing a contract, right?
New agents coming into the business.
Man, I gotta understand the contract.
I gotta, it was like, why?
Why are you given one ounce of energy on how to execute and write
a contract when you don't even have one customer to talk to?
Why don't you go get some people that want to buy and sell real estate?
Then we will worry about that.
Write things, right order, right Solve this problem, then
we'll deal with that problem.
Once this one is solved, that's how you have to operate.
That's how things get done.
Okay?
And here's that momentum equation, right?
So it's that mindset,
the internal driver, which is everything, plus this new operating
system, this framework, this blueprint.
That helps you identify the constraints and install predictable systems
for execution is what equals the momentum in the resulting force.
Listen, you don't need, you don't get freedom by working harder.
Okay?
Yeah.
I listen.
Nobody cares.
Work harder.
I embrace that.
In fact, I got it written down right here.
I look at it every day.
We earn it by becoming the person who leads differently.
Thanks clearly and executes without excuse.
You want a better business.
They become the better version of you who can build it.
So here's the CEO toolkit.
All right.
If you guys want to download this, you can.
If you're watching the video, you can hit the QR code.
If you're listening, you can go to agent to C-E-O-A-G-E-N-T-T-O
ceo.com/ceo toolkit.
That's agent to ceo.com/ceo toolkit to be able to get that
copy of the CEO operating system.
So I, man, I can obviously keep going, but I wanna pause right there,
um, with, with today's episode, and
we have to really remember.
We tend to figure things out as humans, right?
We're just naturally wired to solve problems.
Uh, once we have a level of awareness and we, and we can truly see what
the problem and the constraint is, then we're just wired to go solve it.
And sometimes we get rewarded for bad behavior.
And it's a lot of the, I got this.
I'm the only one that can solve this.
I'm the only one that can do this.
Listen, if you embrace that mentality, like I used to, you immediately
put a lid on your potential.
You, I immediately put a lid on your, what's possible for you,
man, about a decade ago now.
Geez.
It's wild to even say that.
I went, started on this endurance journey and, um, I've shared the story
many a times here on the podcast.
Lost my mom when I was 11, two months shy of her 40th birthday, and when I
was getting ready to turn 40 49 now.
So I was 39.
I just, I wanted to do something to honor her, and I just went
down this endurance journey.
Prior to that, just the 5K fun beer runs was about it.
If I had to run a mile, I was just like, I was dreading it.
And so I just wanted to do something hard that was gonna put me on a journey
that I was really gonna have to work for.
And so, uh, landed on running a marathon.
Ended up, uh, choosing to run the New York City Marathon.
Being slow as a turtle, you know, had to find an alternative to be able to
get in and was able to get in and, and, uh, just had an awesome experience.
Took my dad.
It was the only, only time that he had ever been to New York City.
It was just, uh, really, you know, a lot of magical moments and I remember.
Several, a couple months after you know, getting through the finish line in new,
in, in, um, there in Manhattan, in in, uh, central Park where the, uh, New
York City Marathon wraps up was in la.
And if you guys ever have an opportunity to hear Jesse Itzler speak from stage man,
run to see that man, he is the best from stage and, um, you know, you've ever been
in, in, in an audience or been in a room.
And, uh, man, you're like, man, that dude is speaking to me.
And I had one of those moments and Jesse said something that
just really stuck with me.
And he said, you know, the worst thing as a human being is
accomplishing a major milestone and not immediately resetting the goal.
See, I had accomplished a major milestone of completing a marathon,
yet I hadn't reset the goal.
Fast forward.
A couple weeks later, get a text message from none other than
Michael Reese with a link to 10 year anniversary of Ironman, Florida, and
I'm like, what in the heck is Ironman?
I've seen it on TV, but I have no clue what.
An Ironman is a full Ironman and so just, just went down the rabbit hole.
You know, I'm just of the belief.
I don't believe you commit and figure it out.
I believe you figure out what it is you want and reverse engineer
and then ask yourself, is that something you can commit to?
So I just did my homework, figured out what it was, you know what, 2.4 miles
in the water was figured out what 112 miles on the bike was figured out.
Oh, I know what, 26.2 because I had just done that a couple months
back in the New York City Marathon.
Combine that all together, you know, you're at, one 40.6 total miles, total
distance covered, and going through the.
Reverse engineering what it's gonna take and, and really what
it comes down to is time, right?
It really comes down to time.
And the riddle I was trying to solve was how much time is required to train, to
be able to get across the finish line.
And it was 13 to 14 hours a week, training, not prep,
not recovery, just that time.
Looked at the calendar, had the conversations, and
was able to commit to that.
And went down on that journey and how that journey started was the same
way the marathon journey started.
See, I downloaded a guide and I just followed the process from the download me.
I had success doing something really hard that I downloaded and followed
a script to be able to accomplish.
Guys, I got two months out from Ironman, Florida, and I was lost.
I had one of those in the mirror moments and the conversation
was, dude, you're an idiot.
Like you are the biggest idiot I've ever seen in my life, and you're an idiot
because you coach people for a living.
Your dad's a hall of fame coach, yet for some brilliant reason, you have this
false belief that you can figure out how to run a full Ironman, get from Texas to
Florida, and be able to finish this race.
Without dying,
and it was that moment like, dude, I need a coach.
And it, it, it was like, it was embarrassing, but it was also freeing,
knowing that anything that we want to accelerate and truly accomplish
in life, we need guidance, we need mentorship, we need coaching.
And from that moment on was able to, really understand everything and build
the foundation that, was able to carry me through three full Ironman finishes
and now into the a hundred mile foot race journey that, that we're on.
5, 5, 100 mile races.
Um, a couple more lined up this year.
Obviously everything is working towards a bigger goal.
Um, so we're just building the resume.
We're building the resume right now because we do have bigger goals, but
everything is building towards that.
And listen, three finishes, 500 mile finishes, not possible without
a great coach in your corner to be able to, to make that happen.
And I've been very fortunate to have.
Coach in my corner for the journey so far.
So guys appreciate the opportunity to be able to jam with you on Expert Mentors
Live episode three 15 and listen all of the episodes here, all of the episodes
in our agent to CEO conversations, plus many, many other conversations from the
past are all loaded at the John Kitchens Coach Podcast Wherever you're at.
If you got value from this man, do me one huge favor, right?
If you see it on YouTube, like subscribe, hit the bell, get notified.
But go to the podcast down, subscribe to the podcast, share it with others.
If you got value from it, it's the biggest compliment that we can have.
And, um, just appreciate you guys tuning in.
And, um, that's a wrap.
That's a wrap.
Today's episode of Expert Mentors Live.
And thank you guys for, tuning in, allowing me to, uh, jam with you,
share presentation that I had the opportunity to give from stage
last week in Birmingham, Alabama.
And listen, I know this isn't s surface level conversation.
This is about the decisions that move your business and your life forward.
So if you guys are ready to scale with clarity.
Eliminate the constraints holding you back.
Go to seven figure call.com and book your call till then.
We'll see you next time guys, and as always, keep making it happen.
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