Kristen: [00:00:00] Welcome to this edition of Insider Secrets, the weekly podcast that turns real estate investing goals into reality. Each show we interview guests who are seasoned real estate professionals, actively closing and managing real estate deals. Mike is the founder of My Core Intentions and would like to help you make your real estate investing dreams a reality.

Mike coaches you to buy investment real estate, creating short-term cash flow and long-term wealth. Your host and real estate coach, Mike Morawski has more than 30 years of real estate investing and property management experience. Here’s your host, Mike.

Mike: Hey everybody. Welcome back. It’s Mike, your host of Insider Secrets. Glad that you are here today. Boy, I’m excited about today’s episode. My guest, Jeff Wickersham. Jeff, tell the listeners a couple of things they’re going to hear on today’s show.

Jeff: We are going to dive into how to bookend your days. That last 30 minutes [00:01:00] of the day, prepare for success and stack wins earlier today for 30 minutes, we’re in dive into ice baths, the David Goggins run, and how you can really challenge yourself to be the best possible version of yourself.

Mike: We’re really going to talk about some neat things today. You’re going to have to jump inside and listen to the rest. See you inside.

Hey everybody. Welcome back. It’s Mike, your host of Insider Secrets and you are in for another great episode today. I’m excited about today’s guest. But before we get into that, let’s talk about you. Let’s talk about your intentions. Let’s talk about what you did this morning when you got up. What were those disciplines that you put into your life that you sat down and you said, Hey, I’m going to exercise?

I’m going to pray. I’m going to work on my gratitude. What were those? And then what was your intention for the rest of the day? Was one of your intentions that you had to talk to X amount of people for your business [00:02:00] that maybe you had to get a special project done. Maybe it was that you needed to get to the gym twice today, not just once. But whatever those intentions are, make sure that you set those.

We talk about that all the time because that’s really what drives us moving forward in our life and in our business. And I think we’re going to talk a lot about that today. Remember, please go out like us, love us wherever you hang out on social media, that’s where you’re going to find us.

So Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, like us, love us, subscribe to our channels, and get the most relevant content that you possibly can get. Today’s show is brought to you by Urban REI property management. If you are in the Chicago area and you’re looking for a solution for your real estate investments, give Urban REI a call.

So my guest today is Jeff Wickersham. Jeff say hi to every.

Jeff: Hey, everybody hope all is well. And you’re having amazing day.

Mike: I am really excited about Jeff being here today. Jeff and I [00:03:00] have connected over the last few months, and it’s just been interesting, our conversations in that. But here’s a little bit about Jeff, Jeff’s life changed back in 2014 when he watched his mom take her last breath in her battle with breast cancer.

And it was that moment, that decision that needed to be made either to crawl in a hole or fight each day for the gifts that life provides. And boy, Jeff, that’s a lot to say for the gifts that life provides. Jeff spent 20 years in corporate America but left in 2015 on a mission to help guide and serve his company Morning Fire Coaching. Morning Fire Coaching guides busy clients to implement game-changing habits for more energy, focus, abundance, and time from the power of the four-step ‘Morning Fire Mythology’.

Jeff, I’m going to let you talk a lot about that today. You might say why would a coach have another coach on? Because I think that we can learn a lot from each other. It’s just like having a multifamily person on a multifamily show, [00:04:00] right?

We always keep learning and I want to learn from great coaches. So Jeff’s a peak performance coach and author and podcaster. Hey Jeff, one thing that I always ask every one of my guests when I start the show is, in one word, what best describes you personally and professionally?

Jeff: Energy, that zest, that energy that’s one of my core values of who I am as a person. And I think I know it’s so vital to success. And so many people lack that energy. And then they don’t get those results. So energy is just core to who I am.

Mike: What’s amazing is energy’s contagious. Cause I can feel that from you even over, we’re not in the same room, we’re not in the same space, we’ve had a few conversations. And we get to know each other and now I can feel that energy. And it becomes contagious for the other people who really drives a conversation, who drives a relationship, and which person is doing that. So that’s pretty cool. Good for you. Hey, listen, fill in some of that backstory for us. I [00:05:00] gave kind of some highlights about your life, but fill some of that backstory in for us.

Jeff: Yeah. And you touched on it Mike obviously life changed for me when I lost my mom to breast cancer a little over seven years ago. And that caused a fundamental shift in who I met at the core right of my being. And I question everything about life. And I think that’s a natural process that people go through when they have a tremendous loss in their life.

So I questioned everything. And through that self-discovery, I said, what is my true passion? Where I’m headed at? Normal, safe path really lighting me up on a daily basis. And the answer was no. So I chose to pivot, went out, started a gym locally. I was always into fitness. My late mother was always into fitness. And then what organically grew out of that was peak performance coaching because listen, in the United States, we don’t suffer from a lack of gyms, yet 72% of America is either overweight or obese.

And it’s not that there’s not a gym. It’s that battle that you [00:06:00] face, I face, we all face in between our ears every single day. It’s that mindset. It’s that mental battle. And I dove deep personally cause I knew I needed to up-skill what I was doing on a daily basis. And then through that self-discovery, I was able to take it to a network of people say, Hey, this is working for me. Why don’t you try this out? They came back and said, this is amazing. And then I just ran with it from there. So it’s living each day in gratitude. I’m so grateful for our conversation right now, Mike and, grateful to be standing up and upright.

And then also knowing that today’s a precious day, we’ll never get back. So it’s a gift. And how do we choose to use it, and how do we intentionally choose to step into that best version of ourselves. So that’s a little bit about what I eat, sleep and braid on a daily basis.

Mike: Yeah. Pretty cool Jeff. So here’s what you said overcome that mental battle. And I think that we’re faced with a mental battle every day. I don’t know that I consider myself a motivational [00:07:00] speaker, but I think by my example, It motivates others around me, or I would hope that it would, but it takes a lot sometimes to overcome that mental battle, the mental fatigue, the things that happen, how do you do it and how do you encourage others to do it?

Jeff: I start with what I call the bookends of the day. What’s that last 30 minutes of the day look like at night and that’s truly where you need to start. How do you set yourself up for success in the morning? How do you prepare for a great night’s sleep? Sleep is so vitally important for us to restore physically, mental health, all those pieces.

So preparing at night, figuring out what success is going to look like in the morning. And then right when I wake up, I stack wins, stack micro wins physically, emotionally, spiritually, and it creates tremendous momentum in your days. And I always say with those bookends in the middle, it doesn’t matter, right? Just like on a bookshelf, everything stays tight, stays together.

And taking time for yourself, [00:08:00] so many people feel like it’s selfish. It’s the most unselfish thing you can do when you can actually wake up, drink a glass of water, work out a bit, meditate, gratitude, journal, all those things that is going to light you up, you feel progress, you feel movement, you feel like, Hey, I’m in control.

And then you can show up so much better for each and every person. So I like to start with those basics. And what do you do at night to finish your night? How do you prepare for a great night’s sleep and what do you do right when you wake up in the morning. What you don’t do when you wake up in the morning is you all check your phone, you don’t check your text messages, you don’t get on email. You take time for yourself. So you’re in control rather than how many people out there play this way. They’re checking their phone, checking their email, they’re playing defense. They’re dictated by somebody else’s schedule, what they want their desires rather than controlling it themselves. So those two bookends are extremely powerful.

Mike: So let’s talk about that nighttime thing a little bit. So that 30 [00:09:00] minutes before you go to bed, what’s that look like for you in your life? What’s your routine?

Jeff: So definitely shutting down the electronics. Getting the electronics out of viewpoint. I have blue light blockers on my glasses from kind of seven o’clock on. So I’m already kinda tired and ready to get to sleep. I’m preparing for what I’m going to do the next morning. So I love to drink a full glass of water when I come downstairs. Why? Because the longest time period we go without water is when we sleep.

So you’re a little dehydrated when you wake up. So a great way to wake up in the morning is drinking a full glass of water, so that glass of water is out and it’s in a cabinet. And people always say, that’s ridiculous. Why do you want to do that at night? What happens if there’s no clean cups in the cabinet?

What happens if you know that your favorite cup should have been in the dishwasher, but let’s say my wife didn’t close it fully and it’s not there. That gives the mind an opportunity to say, you know what, Jeff, Mike, this is too hard, go back to bed, heck with this stuff. So [00:10:00] anything you can set up, you limit really the friction involved in the process. You’re going to be so much more likely to actually execute it, having your clothes out, ready to go right there. Maybe all your sneakers are on top of there. So there’s a reminder that, Hey, you’re going to go workout.

Those things set you up for success. So we want to eliminate friction when we’re looking to do good things and then add friction into the process, add resistance into the process. When we want to stop doing things that we know don’t serve us in the long run.

Mike: I love that, that you are setting yourself up for success by taking that forward motion, to do something, to get prepared for something that’s going to happen in the future. And that’s so interesting. You said another comment you made was stack wins. Give an idea of some wins that you stack in the morning or may have stacked this morning before we even did this.

Jeff: I did. I was up at 4:00 AM. Stacking wins right away. So water is number one? I love some affirmation, something [00:11:00] you’re going to speak out into the universe, how you’re going to act, how you’re going to show up how you’re going to be. What’s that best version of yourself and doing it with some energy, right? If you were saying, I’m going to be great today, that’s not really inspiring, but if you’re going to say, I’m going to be great today and you’re changing your physiology. Why do you do it? I could feel the energy spiked through me when I do that.

So affirmations are great. Moving the body, we’re physical beings in nature. So many times we’re not in tip-top shape. You want to run fast. You want to do amazing things. You’ve gotta be in shape. So moving the body, I call it a power workout. It doesn’t have to be 45 minutes to an hour. It can be 10 minutes.

I do push-ups, sit-ups, air squats every day, just to get the body moving. Meditating is another piece to the equation, spending some time and thought I’ve meditated for 1,525 straight days today. So over four straight years, just being very disciplined. Gratitude journaling is another kind of core component. Studies show that if you gratitude journal once per week. Write down three things you’re [00:12:00] grateful for over an eight-week period, it increases your happiness level by 20%.

Doing those things micro wins. It doesn’t have to take a terrible amount of time, but all of a sudden you’ve accomplished 5, 6, 7, 8 things. What’s that going to transfer to? You can feel good about yourself. You’re gonna feel progress. You’re gonna feel like you’re moving in the right direction rather than on your heels, throwing yourself in the shower, rushing out the door.

And no wonder why anxiety, depression, stress, are at an all-time high. We’re not again, setting ourselves up for success the night before, we’re not stacking wins. We’re not feeling good before we take on the other things in the day.

Mike: Boy, all those thoughts I had that we were going to talk about before we got on the show, I will throw them all in the garbage because you just opened up all kinds of places to go now and all kind different questions.

Jeff: I love it.

Mike: Hey, let’s talk about this. And I think people need to realize this. There’s a big difference between joy and happiness. [00:13:00] What’s your thought around that but I think that’s what gratitude has done in my life and I’ve seen it do it in other people’s lives. The whole gratitude journal thing. I try to encourage people all the time. Hey, listen. It’s okay to say, Hey, I’m grateful for my kids, or I’m grateful for snowfall, but when you write it down and you sit there and you feel it and let it bask over you. There’s such a difference in what happens to you in your life. Talk about that a little bit.

Jeff: I would agree with you and that physical process of writing it down and really being intentional sledding seep into your body, to your subconscious mind, it sends signals then to your mind to find out and search for other things to be grateful for.

And so many times people are operating from a place of lack or, not enough. And then what do you find out there? You find black, you find not enough where if you wrote down, what’s just hitting you in the [00:14:00] moment. And I do it, obviously, I’m grateful for my wife and two sons and some other things that are every single day.

But I love to pick out two or three things that I’m just feeling. It could be my cats chasing each other and tackling each other in the hallway. It’s just fun and nice to be grateful for all those moments that you have in life. So it is a fundamental thing that I do every single day. And I also think it then causes you throughout your day to be much more present.

You might see a bird flying or a butterfly, and you’re going to be grateful for that. You’re going to appreciate it where if you’re not in that frame of mind from starting your day, you might miss those moments that truly can be special and just increase that happiness level.

Mike: Yeah. So we know your mom’s passing and sorry for your loss, was a defining moment in your life. Do you think that people naturally have one defining moment in their life? Or are there multiple over [00:15:00] years?

Jeff: I would definitely say they are multiple. And it’s that hero’s journey kind of story where you go through trials and tribulations. You’ve got to battle those inner dragons and then you come back and you share, and then you’ve got to go out again and leave and battle more dragon.

So I would definitely say there are multiple ones. There typically is a key one and unfortunately many times it’s the loss of someone or a deep pain that compels people to move. I wish more people. And that’s where I want to inspire people to move before that and do amazing things and live each day to the fullest before that.

But I would definitely say there are multiple ones and you’re constantly on that journey. And that’s one of the things I’ve found that for me personally, I was always prior to going down that deep personal development rabinale. I was always in this once I get here, everything would just be perfect.

And there’s no exoneration of the work you hear that need to do on yourself or in life at any moment. [00:16:00] So just know that it’s a never-ending journey until that day when you pass. And that allows you to appreciate that work each day and the journey you’re on.

Mike: Yeah. Do you think all defining moments are painful event in life, or do you think that we just noticed those more and but we have defining moments that have happened from positive things too?

Jeff: Yeah. I would say both, right? Pain, people move for one or two reasons pain or pleasure, but I would say pain is the much bigger driver because we’ve gotten that negativity principle hardwired into our minds. That if there’s anything negative that happens, our minds amplified eight to nine to 10 times more than a positive emotion.

It’s that caveman’s brain. It thinks there’s a saber-tooth tiger out there ready to kill us. So anything that comes across, it amplifies it. So we’re hard-wired each and every one of us with that fight or flight defense mechanism. [00:17:00] And that’s why pain is so much more powerful to move from than pleasurable event. But both pain and pleasure are drivers.

Mike: So who’s your mentor? Who have you learned from over the years?

Jeff: Tony Robbins has been a big one. I’ve been in a group of his for about three years now. This year I’ve got a new coach, his name is Brian Johnson. He’s a stoic kinda optimizer. He’s up to some big things and it’s always important to have mentors, role models, people to learn from. Because again, you’re on this never-ending journey, and once you get that taste of, Hey, I can learn something new. I can get better. And you’re in that growth mindset, it’s just incredible to wake up every day and say, what am I going to learn today? What am I going to tackle today? What am I going to do? And it gives you a tremendous amount of energy and it empowers you to push that limit each day.

Mike: Yeah, I agree with that. I’ve had a coach for 20 years, and I still have a couple in my life today that they [00:18:00] stretch. My objective as a coach is to push my client outside their limits and stretch them. Cause I think that’s how we grow. Talk about coaching, talk about your coaching and what you do. But really from that, here’s what I like about what you do, it’s high-performance coaching. What does that mean in general to just coaching?

Jeff: So for me, it means stepping into that best version of yourself, right? And so many times people are operating at a level and that gap between where you’re at now and where your optimal self is that best version of you, if you can close that gap then your happiness level is going to rise. So we all have on-tap potential. We’re not utilizing. So it’s working harder. It’s being more diligent. It’s being more intelligent. It is stepping into that best version of yourself.

And so many times we’ve gotten it wrong and I got it wrong for almost my entire life right up until a couple of years ago [00:19:00] where we rely on our feelings to drive our actions. And so many times you’ve drawn. How do you feel? Oh, I feel crappy. So you don’t take action. What does not taking action do to your identity? It takes your identity down in a downward spiral and you feel worse about yourself. Now your identity is you don’t follow through on your work. Those types of things. What I love to do is define an identity, future state identity that somebody is.

Let’s say for me, for example, I’m doing the David Goggins four by four by 48 run in a week. It’s running four miles, every four hours for 48 hours. It’s almost two full marathons over a weekend. I’m doing it for the second time.

Mike: Back up. Let’s talk about that for a minute. So explain that again. You’re going to run four miles every four hours.

Jeff: For 48 hours.

Mike: For 48 hours.

Jeff: So it’s 12 legs. I started at 11:00 PM on Friday, March 4th, 3:00 AM. 7:00 AM. 11:00 AM, 3:00 PM all the way till Sunday at 7:00 PM. [00:20:00] So this is the second year I’ve done it.

Mike: Who do you run? Where do you run?

Jeff: Right outside my house. I’ve got a four-mile track. I’ve got a different one than I did last year because I’d like to change things up, but I’ve got it dialed in where I can come in and recover, ice-cold bath, get my nutrition in, get some compression, work on my legs, stretch a little bit, get to sleep, wake up and do it again. The first couple of legs, you can’t really sleep because the adrenaline is so high. But after the first, I’d say four, you’re getting that hour and a half, two hours of sleep as much as possible.

Mike: Wow. And do you have a coach that’ll be working with you or somebody around you that’ll be, are you doing it by yourself?

Jeff: So I I will be doing a couple of legs by myself, but I have friends, buddies chipped in and said, Hey, I wanna run a leg with you last year. So I’ll have that kind of support, which is great. But I do go out a couple of times by myself and those are the most difficult ones when you’re battling with your mind through, just continuing to push, but [00:21:00] it last year doing it, I will say it was the biggest physical and mental challenges I’ve ever put myself through. And I always say true grit is not doing it once but then knowing what you’re facing and saying, I’m going to step forward and do it again.

Mike: Man. Good for you. That’s great, I can’t wait to check in with you on those results. How do you communicate with your clients? Oh, here’s what I just wanted to mention this real quick.

So this morning I had a little interaction with someone on LinkedIn, and we were interacting back and forth and he said, oh, I’m really busy right now. And I’ll check back in with you in a couple of weeks. And I really don’t think I need a coach in my life because we’re making all kinds of money and things are great.

And so my interaction back and forth with him was, Hey, it’s good, things are great. But if you’re so busy that you can’t wait a couple of weeks, how’s your time balance? What’s your calendar really look like? How are the important things in your life? [00:22:00] And I think that we forget that, when we get so busy, right? That we can get out of balance. One of the things I like to work with people on is their balance. And so it was just interesting how people’s perception that I don’t need coaching, life is great. And my final comment to them was everybody needs coaching. Would you agree with that or disagree with that?

Jeff: I would totally agree. And when I hear the word busy, I cringe. Because that to me means you have no control over your life and you have no control over your schedule. And the language we speak is so incredibly powerful to our subconscious mind. We’re sending signals every day, how we speak out loud to our subconscious mind or our inner dialogue.

It’s getting stored in our subconscious mind. I always like to relate the conscious mind as it’s a post-it note, right? That subconscious mind is a NASA supercomputer, right? And it’s [00:23:00] running so many things behind the scenes. And when you speak out loud, you’re feeding it. And busy to me, you lack control. I always say, are you busy or are you productive? Because then you’re much more intentional. Now, I am productive today. I’m doing these things. I’m not busy.

But I hear busy, stressed, overwhelmed, don’t have the time. Yes, those are the candidates that absolutely need coaching, because you’re not managing your energy properly or not managing your time properly.

Mike: And what do you think the pushback on somebody like that is? I don’t see the benefits. How do you help people see the benefits?

Jeff: One would be asking the question, okay, you’re good, could it be better? Yeah, it could be better. Okay. Let’s have a conversation about what it would look like being better, or, Hey, things are great. Could they get better? Absolutely, most people who have a growth mindset know that they could have things be better. And I feel like busy is always just a standard default response that a lot of people just fall [00:24:00] back on. If they say, Hey, things, couldn’t be, Hey, congratulations, you are winning at life. And that’s fantastic. I’ll move on to somebody else that might need me more.

Mike: Okay, so here let’s run a little scenario. Role-play a little bit, okay?

Jeff: Okay.

Mike: If you were coaching me. And this is really interesting to me because, do you know who Evan Carmichael is?

Jeff: I’ve had Evan on my podcast twice and been on Instagram lives with him, so yes know him.

Mike: Love Evan Carmichael.

Jeff: Yeah, love him too.

Mike: Here’s what he talks about. He says that after 12,000 videos on YouTube, he still gets afraid of shooting. And that’s me, I have hours and hours of content like this content by myself, hours and hours, nowhere near what Carmichael has.

But here’s what I’d like to know. If you were my coach, how would you coach me through that?

Jeff: So you get some nerves, right? You get a little nervous before you get on and shoot the video.

Mike: It’s [00:25:00] like this, Jeff it’s what do I say? I don’t have any relevant content. What am I going to talk about?

Jeff: So number one, if you’re talking about relevant content, I would say spending a half an hour every morning, researching, books, podcasts, and anything to pull from. I literally have a notes section in my phone where I have quotes, where I just pull off quotes that I’m listening to, and then I can riff on a little bit. So that would be number one.

Anxiety, nerves related to getting on and doing content , that’s actually a good feeling. It’s just how we interpret it. It’s the body’s way of saying, Hey, we’re reading something’s going to happen. We’ve just been so wired to say, ah, it’s anxious. It’s nerves. It’s on the same plane as being excited. It’s a state of arousal, right? So I would coach you or whoever it was if they have nerves going into anything.

And I used this with my youngest son who played football and was getting, he was a quarterback of the team and you’re in a line of nerves. I said, can you just say, I’m excited real quick. He said, [00:26:00] I’m excited. How do you feel? Oh, I feel good because you’re instantly changing your physiology and the way you interpret how you’re feeling instead of anxiousness to unexcited and it completely changes your state. So again, the power of language and short little things that you can do.

We’ve just interpreted those nerves is anxious or feeling of, I shouldn’t do it. Or if you say, I’m excited, immediately it changes it and you step into that piece.

Mike: So I love that. And you’ve talked about that a couple of times now, the language piece, and you talked about affirmations prior to that. I heard somebody say the other day when you say an affirmation, you shouldn’t just say that oh, I am a success. Or I am a millionaire, or I do have great coaching clients, but you should really live that to step into it, make it part of who you are, feel it. And those are the affirmations that actually change your life. Talk about that a little bit.

Jeff: So true. So if you’re going [00:27:00] through affirmations, you’re sitting down and you’re monotone going through, there’s no change in your physiology. And if I always have up standing around in the morning, I’m walking around as I’m doing it. I am given that body language and saying it with some conviction that is going to get into your subconscious mind so much more easily than just sitting there and going through the motions. Again, back to what you asked me in the beginning, energy, bring that energy, it changes your physiology, changes your state. It’s going to get into your subconscious mind. And subconscious mind is going to figure it out, Jeff is full of energy. We better supply it to him and we’d better move in that direction throughout our day.

So it’s so incredibly powerful when you can bring that energy, if you want to yell. How many times as adults do we scream in a day? Positive things for us? Almost never, but the streams of positive affirmations out loud, or just scream in general, I’m ready to go. And it changes your state and it gives you a [00:28:00] boost of energy.

Mike: How about diet? Let’s talk about diet. Cause I know how I feel when I eat really well or when I don’t eat as well.

Jeff: Diet is so huge and for 2022, I just just declared until my wife Valentine’s day and told my network that I’m going alcohol-free for 2022. So I’m not having a single drip of alcohol because as I am on these missions attacking my goals. I’ve always felt like it’s a little break in that car that I’m driving.

And I always like to say my body’s a race car. It’s a Lamborghini, it’s a Ferrari. So what fuel, what food could be drink, are you putting in that sports car that is your body? And so many times we eat things. And we don’t connect the dots to how we feel. I ate something yesterday and I had a crappy day. Maybe I shouldn’t eat what I ate yesterday if it’s sugars or sweets or something like that.

But having a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, [00:29:00] not those middle aisles of the grocery store, right? The outskirts of that grocery store, that’s where you should typically shop. That is your fuel. That’s your gasoline. So that sports car of a body. If you want to run fast and do a maintenance things, you want to feel amazing, you’ve got to eat, you’ve got to eat properly. And anytime something’s quick and easy to eat, typically, it’s not good for you.

Mike: Yeah.

Jeff: Processed foods. My youngest son has Crohn’s disease. So we really stay away from anything processed because that irritates his disease.

Mike: Yeah. Interesting. Talk about some of the mind shifts that you’ve actually seen in some of your clients results-wise, right? What types of shifts have you seen where people have changed, differences you’ve made?

Jeff: So discipline and consistency would be one A one B. I just had a guy that I’ve been working with for a while, hit a full straight year of meditating every single day. So being disciplined to do that every single day, I’ve had multiple people. I’ve worked with [00:30:00] lose 15, 20, 25 pounds. And it’s not that we’re doing crazy workouts, but we’re eating right.

We’re meditating. We’re getting a lot of water. We’re working out a little bit in the morning and that consistency is so much more important than intensity, right? So many times we start these things and we go so fast, but yet we fail off. If you’re just consistent over time you’re going to be successful. The issue lies, we don’t know when that success is going to happen. And we live in a kind of, I want it now mentality. So those would be a couple of things.

While the other guy, I was working with his wife said, she wanted a divorce and she said it’s time for you to move out. And we had a conversation and I told him, I said, the only thing you could do each and every day is step into the best version of yourself. Show up for your kids, show up for your wife and the best version of yourself as a husband, as a father and let the chips fall where they may. And it instantly changed.

He did it. I actually just got a text from him recently. He didn’t move out. His wife [00:31:00] and him are going to counseling and he’s made that shift every day. So those types of things, just light my soul on fire when I can hear and help and navigate those difficult things, because we all face those trials and tribulations in life, the pain. It’s nice to have somebody that you can rely on to say, Hey, you’ve got this. Be your cheerleader. You’ve got this, let’s figure it out. And let’s move forward.

Mike: Choke me up. I know those moments in your life as a coach, as a friend, as a peer, as a mentor to somebody else, just make a difference.

Jeff: They do. And I got that text the other day and I’m getting a little emotional now. I let it sink into me and what a gift that was given to be able to help him and him stepping into the best version of himself and continuing to move forward.

Mike: And that’s where I would challenge people on coaching, is, Hey, you know what? Life is good. I’m making a ton of money. I’m busy. But I don’t need coaching. Where are you at with your kids? Where are you at with your wife? How are you showing up as a father, as a husband, as a [00:32:00] spiritual leader? Let’s talk about parenting for a minute, right? Let’s talk about showing up for kids and what that looks like and why that’s important?

Jeff: Yeah. It’s one of my driving missions now here forward and I feel like the family ideals, the family values have been eroded. There’s been like constant crashing of ways on the family shores. And one of my founding missions now here forward is to help 1 billion families by 2072 and guiding them to come together.

We’re all stressed for time. We’re all busy. If we want society to start to go back in the opposite direction, no anger, no polarization, all those things. It starts at the family level. And one of the best gifts you can give your kids is personal development, this curiosity that I can get better at these things, these habits that I wasn’t taught in school. I don’t know about you, Mike, but I wasn’t taught. Hey, how should you wake up? And what should you do first thing in the morning, not really at any [00:33:00] age level was I taught.

Bringing that family dynamic back, taking them through. Mom and dad, son and daughter through a family coaching program is one of my core beliefs. But showing up it is our duty to do it. And it’s the greatest gift I’ve been given two sons. I love guiding them. I’ve meditated with them before school for the past three years. And we need to do a better job of that. This is the first generation of kids that their life expectancy is less than their parents.

So they’re projected to live, not as long as their parents are. The statistics related, is son or daughter going to make more money than dad or mom? In the 1940s, it was 90% of kids would. It’s down in like the teens now. So we’ve gotta equip our children with strategies, tools, habits, personal development for them to step into the best version of themselves.

Because they’re not getting prepared enough in the normal day-to-day routine. And [00:34:00] they’re also facing things that I didn’t face as a child. I didn’t face social media and I didn’t face technology like we did. It’s being intentional and I’ve always told both my sons, regardless of what I’m doing in my office working, because I’ve been working from home for quite some time. If you come in, and I don’t have anything going on, you want shu hoops, I am out with you. And that’s just being present and I love those moments.

Mike: Yeah. It’s some of the advantages to working remotely now, right? Where you don’t have to show up for somebody else or in an office. Nice, good for you.

Hey, talk about the ice bath. You mentioned it before. I figured I was going to keep it to the end as we start to roll down on this thing. Okay. I got to go to the ice bath.

Jeff: So I have taken a cold shower, ice bath, or I’ve now incorporated a kind of a shirtless walk in like sub 20-degree weather, almost 1200 straight dates. And there’s now science that’s coming out about the ability for [00:35:00] you to put yourself in natural, stressful situations. So that’s a situation that I put myself into intentionally, so I can handle other stress that comes my way. And so many people operate from 67 to 73 degrees every single day and get in your car, now it’s gotta be 70 degrees.

Come to the house. So it’s hot. We gotta turn the air conditioner on. We don’t put natural, environmental, intentional stressors on the body. Cold shower, ice bath is one of the ways to do that. So I love one, the mental challenge of stepping in to the ice-cold water. I live outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It’s wintertime. That shower is ice cold, and I step in the shower, turn it on the mind, says, what are you doing? I said, Nope, go sit in the corner. I’m in control. And I stepped in and getting shower. It’s a great mental exercise now that I’m almost 1200 straight days into it, to allow you to take control of your mind rather than the other way, where the mind dictates to you.

So love the mental [00:36:00] exercise. Nothing’s colder than an ice bath. I will tell you I’ve done cryo. I’ve done some other things. An ice bath is the absolute coldest shower ever be, but it’s an amazing thing to get in, focus on your breath, push through it mentally. And that’s quite a rush venture done.

Mike: Yeah. Okay. I’ll let you have that. So if I’m choosing natural stress, I’d rather run into a burning building where it’s warm.

Jeff: You can do a sauna, sauna, or whatever. Yeah, for sure.

Mike: I’m a steam room guy. Hey, let’s change the game plan here a little bit. Let’s talk about your favorite tourist attraction.

Jeff: Okay. Favorite tourist attraction. So this is like a ever-growing one. Cause last spring, my family and I got a travel trailer. So we go camp it. So now it’s like moving. We can go different places. We went up to Niagara Falls and went to cutting bunk port, Maine. We went to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. [00:37:00] So I just love being with the family and go and see and explore in different places. So I would say it’s not one specific now it’s kinda mobile all over.

Mike: Nice. How about best book you’ve ever read?

Jeff: The best book I’ve ever read “The Energy Bus by John Gordon. It’s just so true to who I am and it’s a short read, but incredibly powerful and all about that positive energy.

Mike: Nice. And the best restaurant you’ve ever been to?

Jeff: That’s it. That’s it. That’s a tough one. One I love locally near me is a local pizzeria. Padrino is I’ve always gone there. I went there since I was five years old. It’s about 25 minutes away from me. I still go there. They know me by name. It’s one of those places that I love to go to.

Mike: Hey, Jeff, this has been a pleasure. I appreciate you. I appreciate your energy and the life you just bring to the space that you enter. So thank you for that. How do people get ahold [00:38:00] of you if they want to connect with?

Jeff: Absolutely. So I am out on all socials, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tik TOK, Facebook.

You want to go to my website? It’s www.themorningfire.com got a ton of content out there. If you want to grab my book Rise, Fight, Love, Repeat: Ignite Your Morning Fire. You can go out on the Amazon. It’s their Kindle or paperback that’ll give you those 30 minutes at the end of the day and those 30 minutes at the end of the day, that’ll give you the blueprint that I use. So check that out as well as Morning Fire for Entrepreneurs, where Mike was a guest on my podcast is out there as well.

Mike: Awesome. Jeff, it’s been a pleasure, always great to be in this space with you. Thanks for being here. Hey everybody. Thanks for being here. We will see you all soon. If you need anything don’t ever hesitate to reach out, have a great day, everybody.

Kristen: Thank you, Mike, and thank you for joining us for another great episode of Insider Secrets. As always, Insider Secrets is brought to [00:39:00] you by My Core Intentions. Wherever you hang out on social media, you will find Mike and My Core Intentions, please and follow us to get the most up-to-date real estate investing trends.

Visit mycoreintentions.com, where you can get expert coaching on all things, real estate investing, and property management. If you’re looking to become an expert, Mike’s coaching will help you scale your real estate investment business. We’re looking forward to having you back again next week for more Insider Secrets.