Top 5 List to Inspire and Motivate You to Accomplish Your Goals

David 0:00
Are you looking to grow your sales on Amazon? Chances are if you’re not selling on Amazon’s international marketplaces, you are leaving some serious money on the table. What keeps a lot of people from selling internationally are all the confusing hoops you have to jump through to get started. That is why we worked with Kevin Sanderson from maximizing e commerce on our international expansion. Kevin and his team take care of the details and guide you through the process of expanding so that you can grow your sales and reach new customers. If you would like to find out if working with Kevin and his team is right for you head over to www.maximizingecommerce.com/fire FIRE. Once again that is www.maximizingecommerce.com/fire. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives vigilantly, who airs who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error, and shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who never know, victory of defeat.

Ken 1:31
So to me burn the boats is, whenever I fired the man, mentally, I think a lot of times we give ourselves openings and weakness. And what this means to me burn the boats is, you know what, make a decision, commit to it, and don’t look back, look forward. And so if you burn your boats, there’s no looking back, you don’t have a boat to ride. And so whenever I quit my engineering job, left it, there’s no looking back, it’s been almost a year and a half now, burn the boats, and the only way is forward. And then I translate that to anything that I have any goal that’s really important to me. I’m going to say, Hey, I’m going to achieve this goal. And I’m going to make that decision and not look back. And I said, How long has he been doing this? And that was her grandfather. And he had been doing that since he was five. His father taught him in Russia. And I’m like, this is someone who has perfected a craft. And so I looked, I picked up my boots and I looked at them. And I couldn’t tell one from the other. One of them had half the sole ripped off. And I looked inside there and he had even put new inserts in the bottom. This is insane. Like someone to take that and just repair it. When I think of someone that’s a master of their craft they practice it every single day for a really long time. I think, what does it take 10,000 hours and you’re considered an expert at something and like you mentioned earlier, surround yourself with like minded people to learn from and then just show up every day, practice your craft, sharpen the sword every day. It gets a little bit sharper every single day over a long period of time.

Intro 3:06
Welcome, everyone to the firing the man podcast a show for anyone who wants to be their own boss. If you sit in a cubicle every day and know you are capable of more then join us. This show will help you build a business and grow your passive income streams in just a few short hours per day. And now your hosts serial entrepreneurs David Schomer and Ken Wilson.

David 3:30
Welcome everyone to the firing the man podcast. On today’s episode, Ken and I dive deep into what gets us fired up, fully torqued, totally inspired as we navigate this crazy life that is entrepreneurship. Ken, what’s going on man?

Ken 3:44
David, what’s up, man? We’re in the podcast video today. I’m excited. The topic of the show what you know, motivates us inspires us. This is what we live for every day to get jacked and pumped and just accomplish our goals. So I’m really excited to share with the audience with the listeners on the things that you and I, what gets us pumped and motivated and to share that with everyone. David, what’s first on the list?

David 4:11
Absolutely. Let me reach behind me for those of you that are joining on video. And for those of you that are not joining on video, I’m going to describe to you what I have. This is a canvas painting of Teddy Roosevelt riding a moose, he was out up in Alaska, he saw a moose there was swimming. And he did what every reasonable man would do. He jumped on its back. And I think this is the most epic picture of all time. Now, below you see a speech that he gave. It’s called the man in the arena. And I’m gonna read that speech to you right now. It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives vigilantly, who airs who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error, and shortcoming. But who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who never know victory of defeat. That is the man in the arena. And I’ll tell you what, when I first read that it made the hair on my neck stand up. I absolutely love that speech, so much so that I got on, I think it was vistaprint and found this awesome picture Teddy Roosevelt riding a moose, and put that text in there. And this is in the podcast studio, when we’re recording. But when we’re done, it goes right back up to my office. And when I walk into my office, it just sets the tone. My goal is to be the man in the arena. So I don’t know Ken, what do you think about this speech?

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Ken 6:13
Yeah, you introduced that I had never heard that before. And then you’re like, hey, check this out. And so I went and read it. And it’s real inspiring. It speaks to, like, what you want to accomplish and being on the battlefield, just getting in the game. And so that’s kind of what it speaks to me. And then the picture that you have, like, who like Teddy Roosevelt, like we’re both outdoorsman, and we like wildlife hunting, fishing, and I can’t think of anybody else who probably has had more impact in the country we live in than Teddy Roosevelt. A lot of that can be attributed to him, parks, recreation, we don’t want to go into all that. But he’s very influential in that space. And just that picture of him riding a moose, like, that’s balls, right? Who the hell jumps on the back of a moose and rides it and this is not a baby moose. This is a bull moose with massive rack. He’s apparently in the lake jumps on the back and is riding this moose. Like, that’s classic right there. So yeah, it’s very motivational.

David 7:14
Yeah, he was an absolute legend and his last night, I think it was something like 3 million acres he put into public land in perpetuity on his last night. And just if you’ve been to a national park, you most likely have Teddy Roosevelt to thank for that. So anyway, that’s number one. That’s what gets me fired up is the man in the arena speech. So Ken, what’s number two?

Ken 7:35
Absolutely. So for any of our YouTube followers, anybody that watches on the website on YouTube video you’ve likely seen in my office, there’s a poster that’s hanging up, it’s burn the boats. And I want to read through here, the background on that, and then I’ll give you a little bit of what it means to me and how it’s impacted me. And so this is a phrase from Cortez quoted. If you want to take the island then burn your boats with absolute commitment, come in sight that create real victory, Cortez, the concept of burning boats traces back to one of history’s most inspiring leadership stories in 1519 Hernan Cortez led a large expedition consisting of 600 Spaniards 16 or so horses in 11 boats to Mexico, the goal capture a magnificent treasure set to be held there. Upon arrival, Cortez made history by destroying his ships. This sent a clear message to his men, there is no turning back. They either win or they perish. Although you might assume that Cortez’ men would have become despondent with no exit strategy in place to save their lives. They instead rallied behind their leader as never before. Within two years, he succeeded in his conquest of the Aztec empire. Some date this concept even further back in history to the times of Julius Caesar, and his conquest of England, or even the ancient Greeks. Regardless, the scenarios and impact were similar. So to me burn the boats is whenever I fired the man, mentally, I think a lot of times we give ourselves openings and weakness. And what this means to me burn the boats, you know what, make a decision, commit to it, and don’t look back, look forward. And so if you burn your boats, there’s no looking back, you don’t have a boat to ride. And so whenever I quit my engineering job, left it, there’s no looking back. It’s been almost a year and a half now, burn the boats, and the only way is forward. And I translate that to anything that I have any goal that’s really important to me. I’m going to say hey, I’m going to achieve this goal, and I’m going to make that decision and not look back.

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David 9:48
Yeah, absolutely. I really like this and I think burn the boats is really a mindset and Ken is not advising that, if you do fire the man, don’t give everyone the middle finger on your way out. Don’t burn That type of boat, but I do think having the attitude of, I’m not going to worry if this doesn’t work out, it’s going to work out, I’m going to make it happen. And I’ll tell you what 2021 has been filled with challenges and struggles in our businesses. And obviously, there have been successes too. But this attitude is helpful is just we’re gonna keep going forward. If something takes six months to get from China to the US, we’re just gonna keep going forward. And we’re not going to let these struggle stop us. Yeah, burn the boats. I absolutely love that.

Ken 10:32
Awesome. David, next one up.

David 10:35
Yeah. So this is something that inspires or motivates me is to be around people that are masters of their craft. And I thought of a couple examples. And this really has nothing to do with business. The first one is Chuck Wilson, this guy grew up on the outskirts of Iowa City, and he had an apple orchard. And he was beyond his time, in terms of like breeding different varieties of apple trees. He was all in on growing apples. And he had a beautiful farm. And he was really before his time in terms of being organic and using natural fertilizer. And the guy just he loved apples, and he loved apple trees. And he loved eating apples. And he just, he was awesome. And when you talk to him, and you’d talk about, like the different varieties that he was developing, you could see that he was like, totally jacked up and excited about what he was doing. And just being around that, it rubs off on you, I aspire to be a master of some sort of craft at some point in my life. He’s example number one. Example number two, I met at chainsaw Carver in in Festus, Missouri. And that’s what he does for a living. And the guy’s an absolute artist. And he’s all in he gets totally excited about what he’s doing. He doesn’t, he told me he’s like I don’t really like doing boring designs, like just carving your last name into a log. Like, I like doing really epic stuff. And it was just infectious talking to him. Like he was so excited about what he was doing. And I absolutely loved that. So we talked a lot about on the podcast about surrounding yourself with like minded individuals. And I think that’s really helpful in business to surround yourself with other business people. However, just being around like a fellow master of whatever, I think that is also helpful and inspiring and motivating. Ken, what about you? Like when you think of people that are masters of their craft, what do you think about? Sorry to interrupt the episode, you may have heard Ken and I talking recently about a new tool that we’re using for Amazon refunds. Now I have used other refund tools like this. However, I can tell you in the first seven days, they scrubbed the back end of my Amazon account going back 18 months, and found $5,000 of refunds. And the nice thing about this is, it’s my money, Amazon made a mistake and they are just auditing my account. The other thing I really like about this tool is there is no monthly fee. They only charge a commission if they are successful in getting you your money. Go to GETIDA.com GETIDA and enter promo code FTM for firing the man FTM 400. This is an awesome tool. I can’t say enough good things about it. Now back to the episode.

Ken 13:20
Yeah, absolutely. So I have a quick story to share. This was about probably five, seven years ago, I had a pair of boots that I bought. And I’m pretty cheap. I don’t usually spend more than $50 on a pair of shoes. And I bought this pair of boots and it was nearly $200 for these boots. And so I wore them for about a year. And then one of the soles started coming off and I was like damn. And so I was talking to my dad, he’s like, well, there’s a shoe cobbler like in this one Plaza by the house. I’m like, Oh, really? What’s that? And he’s like, that’s someone that makes shoes. And I’m like, Okay, in this day and age, you don’t really think of people making shoes actual shoes. So I’m like, that’s worth a shot. I don’t want to just toss these boots. So I go over there go in, walk through the door, and it looks, it looks like it’s a blast from the past of like the 40s or 50s. Everything inside there was like really old and the guy greets me comes up. And I can’t remember his name. But he was probably in his late 50s, early 60s. He was a Russian guy, probably no more than five foot six. And I showed him my boots. He had very, very little English and I had very little Russian to give him. So he looks at them. I show him that it’s broken. And he shakes his head and he’s like, yeah, and then he just writes me this old receipt. And he hands it to me and says one week. I’m like, okay, so I go back a week later, and I go in there and he didn’t hear me. And so he was just working away. He had all these different kinds of machines. He’s like sculpting leather doing all this stuff. And I’m like holy crap. Comes over, and there was a little girl that was in there. And so she comes over and I hand her the receipt and she looks around, she gets the shoes. And I said, How long has he been doing this, and that was her grandfather. And he had been doing that since he was five. His father taught him in Russia. And I’m like, this is someone who has perfected a craft. And so I looked at, I picked up my boots, and I looked at them. And I couldn’t tell one from the other one of them had half the sole ripped off. And I looked inside there, and he had even put new inserts in the bottom. This is insane, like someone to take that and just repair it. When I think of someone that’s a master of their craft, and they practice it every single day for a really long time. I think, what does it take 10,000 hours, and you’re considered an expert in something and like you mentioned earlier, surround yourself with like minded people to learn from and then just show up every day, practice your craft, sharpen the sword every day, it gets a little bit sharper every single day over a long period of time.

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David 16:00
I think there’s something about just being human and being attracted to this. And I’ll give you an example. Two examples forged in fire, which is a knife making TV show on the History Channel. Have you seen it?

Ken 16:11
Yeah.

David 16:11
Those guys have been making knives their whole lives, and they’re masters of their craft. And it’s really cool. I think that’s probably why that show is so popular. And you can if you apply this thought to TV, boy, cooking shows, like watching world class chefs cook and prepare a dish. There’s something attractive to just watching that. Anyway, I don’t believe that I am a master of any craft yet. But someday, I hope to be a master once I get my 10,000 hours in.

Ken 16:39
Yeah, absolutely. David number four.

David 16:43
Yeah. So usually, when I think like getting motivated and jacked up, I think of an elevated heart rate and doing something physical. And this next one is actually the opposite. It’s a sensory deprivation tank, also known as float tanks. And I had my first experience with these about two years ago. And boy, they’ve been a game changer. So for those of you that are not familiar with this, imagine a giant tank of water, probably four or five times the size of a big tub, like it’s giant. And in each tank, there’s about 1200 pounds of Epsom salt, there’s so much salt in there that you’re buoyant, you just float, and that water is heated to 98.6 degrees. And it’s totally dark. So the goal is to float in that tank and be totally weightless, and relax. And I go for 60 minute appointments. And I’ll tell you what, in terms of clearing my mind, or thinking of new ideas, this has been the number one thing that I have found. And one thing I would say is I’ve noticed a trend amongst entrepreneurs sometimes don’t sleep very well, I’m definitely in that category. I would say like borderline insomnia, some days, where I just have so much on my mind, I can’t wind down and go to bed. And I’ve heard a lot of people talk about meditation. And I’ve tried it. I’ve downloaded the apps. And I’ll do it for about 10 minutes, and then I get bored. And so I see the value there. But for those of you that have tried that and failed, try out a sensory deprivation tank. I mean, and I’m not joking, but when I get out of that, I feel like I’ve taken a nap for about three days. They’re wonderful. Ken, you floated before, right?

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Ken 18:27
Yeah, absolutely. I started floating probably about four or five years ago. And I don’t do it very often, maybe once every three months or six months. But like you mentioned, David entrepreneurs are stressed out sometimes we can’t sleep we have pressure. And so a float tank to me like it just like everything melts away. So sometimes I’ve had different experiences with them, where I go in, and I just after an hour, like you said he felt I feel like I slept for three days, I came out of there and I was like, holy shit, I feel good, real good. And then some other days, I’ll go in there. And if I feel already relaxed and everything, then I just let my mind go. And if I don’t fall asleep, then I like you said it inspires me to think of different stuff, ideas, problems that I have going on right now. Thinking of solutions to those outside the box where I wouldn’t normally think of it. And this is literally dedicated time to do that. Because you can’t go anywhere. You’re in a tank and you’re floating and you’re weightless. And you can just let all your muscles and your whole body just go and then your mind is literally free. And so if you haven’t tried this yet, go try it. I highly recommend it. And it’s definitely been a tremendous value in my life on thinking of new ideas and just letting stress go away. So yeah, I really like it.

David 19:47
Yeah, I would say like that industry needs a new PR team because sensory deprivation tank sounds like a torture chamber. It sounds miserable, but this is truly one do not knock it before you try it. I think there’s tremendous value in doing this I would prefer to float than to get a massage. And so I’ve been floating about once a month. And I find that when I am most busy is when I go and float. And that’s like the perfect time to unplug for an hour. If you, they’re all over St. Louis, look it up. I’ll guarantee there’s one within 20 miles of most people listening to this show.

Ken 20:25
Yeah, absolutely.

David 20:27
Ken, what’s number five? What’s the last thing that gets you just totally jacked up?

Ken 20:31
Number five, people that fire the man. Like when I hear the those stories. David, you and I, we’ve had our own experiences firing the man, we’ve interviewed dozens of people on the show that have fired the man and it makes me we have a quote here. I’ll give this quote to David grabbing life by the balls and taking control of your most valuable asset time. And that is so true. And I don’t think that we can, it’s really hard to explain that until you experience I think. And I’ve tried to talk to my friends and relatives that have jobs. Until that day comes where you’re able to fire the man and you just that weight comes off right off like to To this day, like I can still see whenever I did that. It’s just super motivational. It gets me going, I like just want to go out and start sprinting, like I’m so fired up. Just like sticking it to the corporation’s right? Like you’re like eff you. I’m working for myself now. I don’t need corporations or whatever. And it’s just freedom. What does it mean to you, David?

David 21:33
Yeah, absolutely. This has meant different things as I’ve navigated through working for the man versus not. When we started this podcast firing the man, we both had full time jobs. And I remember, I can close my eyes and replay this, and I probably will for the rest of my life is when you walked out of your job. And if you would have read my mind, or what was going on, in my mind, it was like fuck, yes, this is so sweet. This is awesome. Ken set a goal, he achieved it. This is it. He’s at the finish line. He’s also at the starting line of something awesome. That was like inspirational, I aspire to do that. And now that I have fired the man and am on the other side of it, I really like seeing other people do it because I know you know, this is going to impact them monetarily, hopefully, very positive. This is going to impact people’s families, like the ability to go to every soccer practice, every soccer game, spend time with your family, have flexible working hours. That’s huge. That’s a gift when someone fires the man that they’re going to receive that gift not having bosses and people looking over your shoulder and constantly fearing that you might be in trouble. Or you might not perform up to a certain standard, right you as a self employed individual, you set that standard. And it’s been night and day. And as we the other day, I was texting Kiefer Hogue. He was a guest on our podcast, and he was telling me what he was doing in revenue. And I was like, dude, I’m so pumped for you. He’s working construction right now. And I think he’s halfway to firing the man. And that gets me so jacked. The difference that’s gonna make in his life. And, you know, he just like us, man, he set a goal. He’s working towards it and grinding and I don’t know, it just totally gets me fired up. So, anyway.

Ken 23:16
Absolutely. I can remember back when you fired the man, I was there that day when you left the CPA firm and you walked out and I knew right then and there. I’m like, David is experiencing this and he’s gonna feel that and like you said, it’s a gift your time right? That’s our most valuable resource. And for all the listeners, all the audience right now, if you have a goal of firing the man, just take steps one by one, and you will get there. We believe in you, David and I, we were able to accomplish that. We’re just two normal guys. Normal is debatable but we’re just two guys. David’s normal, I’m not. And we were able to do that. So you can too if you’re listening, set a goal. reach it. We’re rooting for you.

David 24:01
Absolutely. All right, that caps off our list of five things that get Ken and I really excited and jacked up. If you’re listening to this episode and you’ve got something that gets you fired up, hit us up. www.firingtheman.com on the right hand side hit the microphone and leave us a voicemail. Thank you everyone for tuning in to today’s firing the man podcast. If you liked this episode, head on over to www.firingtheman.com And check out our resource library for exclusive firing the man discounts on popular e commerce subscription services. That is www.firingtheman.com\resource. You can also find a comprehensive library of over 50 books that Ken and I have read in the last few years that have made a meaningful impact on our business. For that head on over to www.firingtheman.com/library. Lastly, check us out on social media, and on YouTube at firing the man for exclusive content. This is David Schomer

Ken 24:55
and Ken Wilson. We’re out

David 25:12
Before you go Fun fact for all you Amazon sellers out there when you start selling in international marketplaces, all of your reviews come with you. At the beginning of this year, Ken and I sat down and talked of ways that we could double our businesses in size and landed on international expansion as our number one initiative this year. We partnered up with Kevin Sanderson from maximizing e commerce and he has made the process an absolute breeze, walking us step by step through the process. If you want to grow your revenue and reach new customers head on over to www.maximizingecommerce.com/fire and connect with Kevin Sanderson today. Now, back to the show.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai