Greg Voisen
Hey, this is Greg Voisen with Inside personal growth. And joining me from all the way on the East Coast is Jeremy Slate. And Jeremy is going to be talking to us about his new book Unremarkable to Extraordinary. You can find that out on Amazon. We'll have a link to that. Jeremy, good day. Yeah, how you doing?

Jeremy Slate
Hey, Greg, I'm doing awesome. And you'll get a good laugh out of this. By the way, you mentioned opposite coasts. So, three hours ago, I walked into my studio cuz I'm like, Alright, I'm ready to talk to Greg. And then I realized it was Pacific Time, not Eastern time.

Jeremy Slate
I walked in, I'm like, I'm like, oh, man, I'm, I'm three minutes late, like he's gonna be so upset with me. And then I realized it was 130, not 1030.

Greg Voisen
What I think my listeners can get out of that story is that you're extremely punctual. And that's a good thing. Well, you know, Jeremy, for my listeners, let me let them know a bit about you a bit about his book, and really who Jeremy is, and then we're gonna get into discussing this. But he has a personal website, which is Jeremy Ryan, slate, SLA t.com, where you can learn more about Jeremy. He also has another website called command your brand.com. And there you can learn about what he does to help people build their personal brand, their profiles, and he does a really good job of it. And he's done in excess of 1000 podcasts. And he's just a man on a mission. He says our mission is we help people to change the world and better mankind through the power of podcasting. And I, my listeners know that as well, because this podcast benefits the homeless, and all we do is go out I personally go out and give away money to the homeless to help them get them off the street and get him something to eat. So I love the cause and bettering mankind is important. Let me let them know a little about you Jeremy Ryan slate is the host of create your own live podcast which studies the highest performers in the world. He studied literally at Oxford University as well as holding a master's in early Roman Empire propaganda from Seton Hall University. He is named number one podcast to listen to by Inc Magazine in 2019, as well as the top 40 under 40 by podcast magazine in 2022. Jeremy and his wife, Brielle, co-founded Command your Brand, a new media public relations agency to help entrepreneurs get their message out by appearing his guests on podcast. He resides in Stillwater New Jersey and is a former competitive power lifter. So he says former but you know, hey, when you look at his picture up there on the website, it doesn't look like former looks like he's still powerlifting he's still powerlifting

Jeremy Slate
Yeah, so here's so here's the funny thing. Like I don't do competition anymore, Greg, but I did last Thursday, i deadlift every two weeks. So I'd last Thursday, I did 575 for a double. So I did 575 for two on deadlift. So I'm still close, man, I'm not that far off. What have I used to compete at?

Greg Voisen
Well, I'm going to, I'm going to refer you to a gentleman who is really big author sold millions of books. And his name is Jim Keeling, and he's down in Atlanta, and he's 60s about my age 68 and the power lifts. And he has videos that he puts up on LinkedIn. And he's, it's amazing for his age when he's powerlifting. I think 400 And something. The guy is crazy good. But I will remind me at the end of this, I'll give you that link. Now, this book is really a great book. And you selected great authors, and I was listening to a few of the podcasts that you had done. And these are personalities for what you call extraordinary stories. Can you tell us the story about selecting these personalities, and why did is important and really was important to you in writing this book, obviously, you wanted to profile these people that you've helped. And there's many of them up there. And you've got quite a few top names too, that have come across your transit. Guy Kawasaki was on the show, many, many moons ago. And I noticed that he's up there as well. So tell us a little bit about that.

Jeremy Slate
It's interesting, because and you've probably seen this since you've done so many interviews as well. Greg, like I find that there's themes that come up again and again and again. And you know, it's very consistent the things I see and what ended up happening is there's so many stories I could have chosen and the reason I chose the ones I did is I felt like the you know each chapter carries one main story and it has a bunch of supporting stories that go with it. I found that those are the ones that make it the most real to the person reading it. Because I think it's really important that I think a lot of the personal development industry, frankly, it takes advantage of people. Because there is, you know, you do have to know what you want, you do have to, you know, associate with the right people, but have a lot of it's about hard work. And it's about consistently hard work for years, a lot of times, and I wanted to give people something that was real, that they could say, okay, I can see how that person did it. I'm going to apply this in my life based on that, right. And I think there's, there's just too much, you know, like, having the right affirmations and stuff like that is important. But that stuff without action is not good, right? You're not going to get what you want to get. And that was really what I came down to him, like, you know, who took action? Who did it at a high level? And what's something applicable to people reading this, because I don't want people to read this and be like, Oh, well, that's great. But I could never do that. I wanted this to be like somebody can see themselves in that position. You know, they see what that person is now. But they could see themselves in the early days of that person's life or experiences that person's life. And then within that, we found smaller stories within the podcast that and I don't mean smaller as in the importance of it. But they weren't as tight with the main theme. But they supported the main theme. And that was kind of how we've selected the extraordinary stories, the small stories within chapters as well.

Greg Voisen
I think what's important with anybody listening right now is that if we were in a movie theater, let's say and I whispered in your ear, really what I find is the stories that are most compelling are the ones that get whispered into my ear. There are people that I can relate to, there's people that I would want to go to the movie with, and share the movie with, right. And I think what you're doing is you're actually whispering in people's ears. What they want to hear from people that in we could call it in this case are real. These are people that have had to struggle have had challenges. There isn't anybody out there who is a success, that literally has been gifted it with a silver spoon in their mouth, even the people who have silver spoons, there's challenges because I work with them as well. Right? So whether it's psychologically emotionally physically, all of these various areas of body mind, health and spirit that you and I are interested in, are part of the makeup of the whole, right. And that's the most important thing. And you know, an extraordinary story, you tell a story of another author named JJ virgin, and I was listening to her as actually, you know, she became this great health coach, I'm gonna call it a health coach. Yeah. And you mentioned that sometimes in life, we can succeed when we really when we're really afraid, because we're working for something bigger than ourselves. For JJ, that was the life of her son, can you share that story with the listeners, and for my listeners, you can actually listen to this podcast up on Jeremy's podcast, but it's podcast 1003. And we'll put a link to it.

Jeremy Slate
But it's, it's to me. And it's interesting, because you get you get feedback from readers about the book and things like that. And this is one of the ones that I hear from people the most about, actually, this story is one that, frankly, I hear back from a lot. And for those people that don't know who JJ virgin is, she's really one of the top people, you know, not just health coaches, but people that's actually you know, she is a New York Times bestseller multiple times, she's certified other people in her way of coaching because it's so different in particular. And she kind of hit this point in her life where she was just about ready to kind of take that leap, right and go from somebody that have been done things well to kind of that next level person, and her son gets hit by a car. And it ends up kind of really just shattering everything she thought she was going to have. And she spends his whole time of him recovering in the hospital. So she's had just signed a big book contract, she had just gotten in advance. And she's sitting in the hospital finishing this book. And she had to keep herself healthy. Because if she didn't, wasn't healthy, then she couldn't see her son. And she couldn't write this book. And she had to write the book because the money from the book was going to pay for his medical care. So it was this really, really big situation. And I think one of the things that happens when you look at this is when you're doing something just for yourself, it's easy to say, you know, I can't get up that early, or I can't make that goal or I can't that target. But when you look at it, and it's like well, my kids are going to suffer or my family is going to suffer or you know, somebody's life I'm going to change isn't going to be changed. I think it becomes much easier to do that because it's not about you, right? Like you're going to take what's easy when it's about you, you're going to avoid what's uncomfortable, it's about you. But when it's about other people you just look at it so much differently. So for her she buckled down she figured out how to build a studio in this apartment that she was renting because she was about to buy a house and I had fallen through because of this whole situation. And she filmed all the videos she filmed that a public television show around it to launch this book. But all of these things that she said, you know, she would not have had the courage to do it, had she not been doing it for her son. And I think I've seen that in my own life, frankly, you know, my mom had a stroke in 2010. And it was, it was one of the hardest single situations that ever hit me in my life. And at that point in time, I was teaching high school, and it made me look at a lot of what I'm doing. I'm like, am I going to make the impact I want to make? Am I going to be able to help my family? Because my dad needs my help. Now, in the way I want to help doing what I'm doing? The answer was no, I didn't know what the solution was. But I ended up working towards that. And I think sometimes when it becomes bigger than yourself, it makes it easier to get things done, if that makes sense. Well, always

Greg Voisen
When you have a purpose, right? Yeah, great, greater than yourself. And that purpose usually starts out with curiosity. You know, I've had Steven Kotler on there many times when we look at these extreme athletes, I'm just finishing, helping write a book right now called the precipice of life about mountain climbers. And it's interesting, the stories, you know, I've interviewed like 25 of the most famous mountain climbers around. And you said, Well, when these events that occurred, like in JJs case, happen, like our son getting hit by the car, you have to take a different course of action, you have to be flexible, you can't be attached to the outcome of what you think that goal is supposed to be, which was to write that book, in this particular way, or to reach that goal in a particular way. I really like what Marshall Goldsmith always has to say in this book called the urine life, you know, one end, there's regret. And on the other end, there's meaning and purpose. But the reality is, is that journey that we journey as individuals goes to the continuum in between, at a time when we have regret, and you can easily get down and negative around the fact that you know, our son got hit by the car, and maybe she told the publisher, no, I'm not going to finish the book, and it isn't going to happen. But she didn't write, she stayed the course in a new direction in a way that she could get there. And I think you state that whatever age you are in life, now is the perfect time to start there. You were a teacher, you just mentioned it. And were you going to kind of do the things you wanted to do. What do you believe that now is always the perfect that now is always the perfect time? Why do you believe that? Because there's a lot of people that are waiting for tomorrow. Before they start, they're like, Okay, something's gonna change. It's gonna change tomorrow.

Jeremy Slate
But there's always a good reason not to when you do that, Greg, right. Like, I remember when I had my first daughter, like, she's, she's gonna be four. Now at that point in time, our business was a different position. And I was not prepared to have a child. But I will tell you like, that was one of the greatest things that happened to me, you know, having that daughter four years ago, and we have our second two years ago. So I think when you're always saying that it's not the right time, like, you're never going to do something, right, it's never going to be perfect. And that's why I think when you're even building a business, I tell people, some of the best advice you can actually do is build something alongside what you're already doing. Because I think too often people like Well, I'm not ready to take the jump yet, I'm not ready to take the jump yet. I'm not ready to jump yet. And if you look at it that way, you're always going to not have enough money saved, or you're not going to have the right connections, whatever it is, but you need to be creating something that as it grows, you get to a point you have to make a decision. So I think when you're looking at that the timing is never going to be right man. But like, it's the I feel like it's an overused phrase, but the phrase is, the best time to plant a tree was 50 years ago right now, right? Because 50 years from now, that tree is gonna be huge. So you have to start somewhere. And you have to kind of will it be you have to be willing to sometimes take a haircut to get there. But I think so many times, if you tell yourself, you're not going to be ready, you're never going to be ready. And I think that's a really, really vital point.

Greg Voisen
Well, I remember Jim Lehrer, in the power of engagement book, Jim was just on here for another one of his books, and he's sold millions of those books, the power of engagement. What do you do, Jeremy, to manage energy. Because the challenge that people have when they're running a sideline, is that sometimes it doesn't work, because they're bouncing between a couple of things. You said, hey, and because I'm not ready to make the shift all at once I come in to slide into this, you know, I'm gonna take it a little bit at a time. But then what happens is they these solopreneurs entrepreneurs, they don't know how to manage their energy, and they burn out, they get burnout somewhere. Right? And then they give up what have you done to prevent burnout?

Jeremy Slate
Well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you honestly, Greg, like, you know, saying it's perfect is, you know, there's no such thing as perfect. I'll just be honest, you that we don't, when I started this business in 2016, you know, I was working full time at another friend's marketing agency building websites. So I was working at that business from, you know, 830 in the morning until five o'clock at night and you know, building the other business, on my lunch break and also from, you know, five to midnight every night. So like, I will tell you, when you're starting something early, you're going to be putting in a lot more time than you want to be putting in. And energy is going to be a problem. So the thing I've always done since then is I start with fitness first, right? Fitness is a huge component of my life. So I start with the gym first thing in the morning at usually 637 In the morning, I start with Bulletproof coffee every morning. So I'm getting the right kind of fats for my brain to function correctly. So I'm really trying to make sure I handle myself first before I get in a lot of those things is one part of it. The other part about it is though, once you start seeing some success, the way a lot of entrepreneurs and solopreneurs burn themselves out, is they don't figure out how to take those positions or those things that created and turn them into jobs. Right? They haven't figured out how do I hire somebody? How do I make these jobs inhabitable? So what I'm doing is when I'm building something, I'm documenting everything, and that means everything's documented in written form. And since a lot of what I do is on the computer, it's all done in screencast. So they can also take a look at the video and see what I did in the computer as well. And those two things match up. So every time I hire somebody that can actually come on board and inhabit a job, what I find is so many times, a lot of people aren't thinking with that they think of, okay, when I get to this point, I'll hire somebody. But if you haven't created a job, there's nobody to hold that job, if that makes sense. So to me, I'm always documenting, always making positions and making it easier to hire. And it's that type of viewpoint that's taken us from me and one other person building a company to this year in 2022. We have 20 people on our staff, but it's really making jobs that people can inhabit.

Greg Voisen
And so what besides the exercise program? What is your daily journaling, meditation, contemplation look like? I mean, where are you when it comes to keeping your mind as focused as possible? And what are some of the things that Jeremy does.

Jeremy Slate
So for me, it's frankly, just that Fitness First thing, first thing in the day is it's a really big deal. I don't read a ton, I do a lot of audiobooks, I don't do a lot of like written books, I just don't find I have the time for that. At the same time, it's making time for my family, you know, at five o'clock, six o'clock every day, we all go for a bike ride, you know, my two daughters and my wife and everything else. So I don't know that I particularly do anything for my mindset rather than keeping my body right. And, you know, making sure I'm keeping my schedule. Well, that's kind of what's worked well for me. Well,

Greg Voisen
it's important to know because you know, it's not one size fits. All right, so everybody has their own little formula is here. And Jeremy, you state in the book, that adversity is the caterpillar that can coons itself, hidden from the world and slowly becoming its higher level self? Speak with the audience and listeners, if you would about adversity, and why do you consider it the greatest test of a person and we just had a sterling Hawking on here. And his book is called hunting discomfort. He believes if you don't hunt, discomfort, discomfort, it'll haunt you. Okay, so what do you what would you say about adversity because I see adversity as discomfort as well.

Jeremy Slate
Well, the thing you have to take a look at is, I think a lot of times you're gonna see adversity, and people are gonna approach it in a couple different ways. One person is going to say, oh, that's terrible, I'm never going to do that. Another person is gonna say, well, that looks kind of hard. And then the person that that that I want to be in that I strive to be says, Okay, that looks hard, might take a few minutes, think about it, and I'm gonna approach it. Because often what happens is, people don't think of the skills they're going to gain during that the abilities are going to gain during that how they're going to stretch themselves. When you come out of the other side of something very difficult. You're actually a different person. And I think I think fitness is one of the easiest ways to explain that. You know, in my mid-20s, I was bench pressing foreign 50 pounds and squatting over 700 pounds. And people would see that and be like, wow, how do you do that? Like, are you on steroids? Like, what are you doing? And I would say, no, no, I'm 25 years old. And I've been since I was 17. I will give five pounds a week for 10 years. And I think that's what you have to look at the same way as building adversity. Difficult times, build skills, they build fortitude, and they build you into the person you need to be. So I think often people don't think of the experience of going through something for what you're going to become. They just want to become that thing without the pain. But oftentimes, Greg, there's so much pain involved in becoming that you have to want to confront it. A lot of people

Greg Voisen
aren't. So regimen. Let's talk about that. Because, you know, look, if you did five pounds every week from the time you were 17 to get to 400 and something pounds, there's a regiment. Yeah, you know, and a lot of people will just they'll back off when it's like, oh regiment. I don't want to do that. What did you do within your mind, Jeremy, to understand that the connection between the regiment helped you get closer to achieving the goal or the outcome that you wanted to achieve?

Jeremy Slate
One of the things that we start with every year is I start with my goals for the year at the beginning of the year, and I think a lot of People Number one, don't do that. I think it's vital. But we also have sub goals within that of the targets we're trying to hit. And if I can reach those smaller targets, that's going to put me mentally in the right position to be able to handle a lot of things. So that's one of the biggest things is I am a maniacal planner, Greg. So I'm always looking for what am I going to take to hit that target? How am I gonna get past that target? How many people do I need? What kind of budget do I need. So because of that, I'm really able to, you know, work to hit those different, different goals. And because I have waypoints there, I will tell you in my 20s, I didn't have the sub goals, the goal. And that was one of the single most difficult things because you feel like you're never getting anywhere. And that's something being in business with my wife for seven years now was one of the biggest things I got out of it, because my wife is somebody likes to celebrate the wins along the way. Whereas I'm like, you know, this is the big thing I want. I'm not there yet, you know what the heck. So when you learn to do that, you can actually number one you are rewarding yourself, see, think better about it. But number two, you can actually see yourself getting closer to the goal. And honestly, that was a huge change for me, is seeing sub goals on the way to a goal.

Greg Voisen
Well, like proximal goal as they're referred to. And it's been studied by some of the most famous people I've had people that are universities, professors that have written books on goal planning and going missing those proximate goals, proximal, the short term goals that you're attaining are those little wins that you and your wife are actually celebrating together. And so important to celebrate those wins along the way toward the goal. Because then when you achieve the goal, it has much more meaning for you. Okay, it has much more purpose and everybody out there today, given COVID and the circumstances we've been in Jeremy, the great resignation is really around new goals. It's around new things in their life that they want for their life. And you state that nothing in life is given. And then it should be taken and it shouldn't be taken for granted. when an opportunity comes you can't say I wasn't ready. You need to always be ready for the day. That opportunity presents itself because it will What advice would you have for the listeners about grabbing and missing opportunities in life because they do float by as well are by talkies are floating by all the time.

Jeremy Slate
So I talked about this in the book and I think one of the biggest examples of this for any football fans out there in life fans out there think it's Tom Brady. Tom Brady is now a seventh time Super Bowl champion. I think he's like a four time Super Bowl MVP. He's quite arguably the greatest quarterback to ever play in the NFL. And when you look at Tom Brady, yeah, he's six foot four, but he's slow. He doesn't have a big arm. And he doesn't have any of the things you would say like, that guy is going to be a great quarterback. So he barely started his senior year of high school. He had to compete for a starting job and only started half the season his senior year of college at Michigan, then he gets drafted the NFL on the sixth round. And he only plays because the quarterback ahead of him. Drew Bledsoe gets hit by jets linebacker Mo Lewis and literally almost dies in the field. So he gets to then play because of that. And he gets that job and never relinquishes that job his entire career. Now, here's why. Because Tom Brady watched hours of film, hours of film, he could tell what somebody is going to do before they did it. He knew it was happening before those things happened. He practiced better footwork, he practiced better calling, he practices better time with the wide receivers. Because if he got all those sub skills, well, and he was a master at those sub skills. That's actually how you win. Because if you look at a lot of these, number one overall picks, a lot of them don't pan out, there's very few that do. And it's because their whole life, they've been told they're the best. They have had everything easy. They've never had to practice; they just show up and have this natural ability. When you get to the NFL man, like everybody's good. So it's what you have mentally that sets you apart. And that's the difference, right? He showed up every day, like, I don't know, my opportunity is going to come but I'm going to be ready for it. And if you approach anything in your life, you're going to get those times. And they may not look at the opportunities you think they're going to look like but you figure out how to make them into an opportunity. So if you're preparing for your time, and when it comes, you know, that's how you can make the most out of it.

Greg Voisen
Yeah, and you know, I really what you're saying right now to a really interesting story. For those out there who have seen free solo. Basically, he spent 10 years charting his course up El Capitan to do that climb without ropes. Okay. And most think that basically Oh, you know, he just did that. No, he knew every foothold he knew every handhold he knew everything you had to do to climb El Capitan like that. And I think you know, as you see him making notes in his little notebook in the in the Netflix video, it's fascinating. And, you know, just crazy. Most people thought he was just out of his mind crazy, but the reality is, we're talking about Preparation, we're talking about how long it took to prepare to actually do that. Same thing with Brady. You state that life experience and hard work, we're just talking about it can be some of the best teachers couldn't agree with more? Can you share some of the best life experiences and hard work lessons that you've had? And how did it affect your current present life?

Jeremy Slate
That's a really great question. Because I look at it this way. And I don't know what your viewpoint is on this, Greg. But I think like the education system now is a little, you know, not really producing people that can actually do something when they graduate, you know, like, I look at it, and you know, I have a master's degree in history, which was fun, but it's not really like usable, I don't use it. And I think one of the biggest things missing is, you know, you looked at a lot of trades, there's something called an apprenticeship, right? Where you work under somebody for a period of time you get some skills, you get some knowledge, and used to do that a lot of different careers, you know, 150 years ago, but you don't really do that as much anymore, unless you're gonna be a plumber or something like that. So I think experience is, is one of the greatest teachers out there. And it's one of the biggest things missing, because if you look at the knowledge you get in school is a lot of times missing application. So for me, some of the best things that I've learned how to sell, you know, how to sell is one of the most vital skills you can ever learn. And yeah, you can read every book out there, you can go to every seminar out there, but you only learn by doing it right, because you the number of times you've done it, the better you become at it, the less you think the less you actually just do it. So to me how to sell is vital, how to work with other people as like, as a boss, that was not a skill I had early on. So I had to learn, how do I listen to people for what they need? How do I manage people for what they want to get out of it? So I think many times as a boss, we're thinking, Okay, this is what I want the company to do. But your employees are gonna be excited about that to a point, but they're not going to be excited about it unless you can show it how this affects them. So there's so many skills that I had to learn by experience that you just you can't learn in school until you're thrown in that position. So I'm not saying education is a bad thing. But I'm saying one of the biggest things missing is experience and really working under somebody that's had experience

Greg Voisen
it, you know, all these lessons in life, you know, learning lessons that we take along the way, you know, are you going to go through life? Or are you going to grow through life? Yeah. Are you on the learning line? Right? Are you on the line, that's basically you're just coasting, right? And anybody who is on the learning line, continual learners, which is the makeup of 99.9% of all my listeners, because you wouldn't listen to this podcast, if you weren't on the learning line. Every one of us has taken those and use those small, tiny steps every day, to make our life better, and hopefully, to make somebody else's life better. Like what you've done for 20 people, you've given them an opportunity to work for you and work inside of a company, and to grow and help other people in the process. That's your mission. And, and I commend you for that, because that is a great cause. Not that you weren't doing that, as a teacher, you were you know, you were helping students in a classroom. And you

Jeremy Slate
I don't know if I was helping that many students in a classroom and I barely survived. I had soft, my sophomores in high school, and I was not prepared for that.

Greg Voisen
That was a tough gig for you. I can tell. But my wife was a school teacher for 23 years and right home with some amazing stories. And today, you know, here's a here's a great story. We'll go into a grocery store or someplace and they see her. And they stop and say, Mrs. Voice and you remember me, and then she'll go, oh, yeah, because she had, I don't know how many students over the course of 23 years, but lots of students, right. So oh, yeah. Remember, what are you doing? Oh, women, nurse. Oh, I'm in grad school, I'm studying to be a doctor. You know, and the impact you can make just the little things that encourage or inspire someone to take that step is important. And you know, somebody I think, who's inspired a lot of people is Thomas Edison, you tell the story about Thomas Edison, and the correlation to greatness and humility. Can you tell the story and why greatness and humility are great factors for his search for the correct filament light bulb in it must my listeners are no, I don't know if it's 10,000 times but literally, it's however many times he iterated to get to the to the light bulb. It is what it is. But it is a wonderful story. And it exemplifies never giving up. That's what it exemplifies.

Jeremy Slate
Well, it's interesting because when you when you look at it, he tried 10,000 times to finally get that correct filament and a light bulb because it had to burn in that environment and burn for a long period of time. Like he burned he'd find it and they'd burn and go out Are you finding it wouldn't light. So to actually have an incandescent light bulb burn, you had to find out what to do. And they tried and tried and tried. And they said, you know, Mr. Edison, you know, you finally got it on the 10,000 time, why did why did you keep doing it, and he said, you know, I haven't found I haven't found 10,000 ways, I found 10,000 ways that didn't work before I found one that works. So there's also value in knowing what doesn't work, right, because you can apply that in the future. But it's also having the commitment of figuring out like, I'm going to get this done, I don't care how it's going to get done. So, you know, there's also kind of that interesting competition between, you know, Tesla and Edison, as well of like, you know, Tesla's technology may have been better, but Edison was the shooter, businessman. So at the same time, having the end goal in mind is really important to getting there. And being willing to keep showing up every day until you're gonna get there as well is also really important as well.

Greg Voisen
Well, you know, not that long ago, I was reflecting with somebody who actually worked with Steve Jobs. And they said, there couldn't have been a man that was more curious than Steve Jobs, probably one of the most extreme people as relative to curiosity, I always wanting to find out how things work, how to put them together. And I think this this element of curiosity with inside of Edison, you couldn't do what Edison did, if you didn't have a curiosity, a really, really, really strong curiosity, right. And, and I think for all of our listeners, they understand this, but you just mentioned something 10 minutes ago about goals. You know, curiosity then leads to purpose. And then purpose is defined by you then saying, I have a goal. And then setting interim goals, like you mentioned, the short term goals. And then from the short term goals, achieving something of meaning for yourself. So you know, if you take this pipeline down the path, most great achievers have followed, like a five course path from Curiosity, all the way to meaningful goals, but you can't just have curiosity, and then do nothing with it, you've got to have some kind of goal around it. Right?

Jeremy Slate
Well, there's also another point to that too, though, and this is something that, you know, Steve Jobs, and also Thomas Edison have in common. And that's the idea of being unreasonable. When somebody is reasonable, they say, oh, I couldn't do it because of that, or I couldn't do it because of that, or, okay, that's why I couldn't do it. When somebody is unreasonable. They refuse to accept any reason why it can't be done, and just see how it can be done. This is this is an Apple Magic Mouse, right. And when that product was developed, Steve Jobs said, this is how I want it done. This is what I want to look like, this is how I want to function. And they said, Steve, we can't make that product. And he said, Okay, so I'm gonna lock you guys in this room. When the product is made, you guys, you guys, let me know. And I'll unlock the door. So sometimes you have to be unreasonable to offer also foster innovation, right? Like if Edison looked at all these different reasons that he couldn't do it, he would have never tried to do it. So I think at the same time, Curiosity is great. But being unreasonable is vital.

Greg Voisen
A great. And the other thing that Steve Jobs adding to that is he said, guys, when you come in that room, because I've read a lot about him, and I've talked to a lot of people that worked with him. During the course of my interviews here in these podcasts, he literally said, leave your ego at the door. Yep. And that was a really important one, because that's the only way things get innovated. If somebody's got a huge ego, and they're trying to like to control the situation, you're not going to have groupthink, you're just going to have one guy thinking for everybody else. Um, you know, you mentioned that one of the biggest things you've found about extraordinary people is the drive just to make it happen. You just kind of mentioned that most of the world waits for life just to come to them. Alright, it's like, oh, I'm waiting for something to happen to me. Everything has to be perfect before they can take any action at all. Can you speak with the listeners about just going for it? And then sorting things out later? Because a lot of people they don't like the masses. You know, it gets pretty messy when you just go, Yeah, and you don't actually know. Because you can't have a knowing about something that's going from I call the invisible to the visible like the mouse, right, put you in a room. It's invisible. I don't have the mouse. So I gotta draw. And then I got to figure out what goes in it. And then I gotta visualize it, and then I got to prototype it. And then after I prototype it, I've got to build one or two, and then I have to see if it works. And then I gotta take it to the market. You know, all of those things, which can be really quite messy. Speak about it.

Jeremy Slate
Well, I think the thing that's interesting about that is the theme of my podcast is it's called Create your own life. And it's called Create because I see creation as a process. That's Active, it's not passive, right? And you were just talking about, you know, like, not going out there and getting it waiting for it to be perfect. And when you're being active in life, you're actively seeking things, you're not waiting for it to happen to you, right? You're not letting it's not a passive thing. So I think number one, that's kind of the mindset you have to have around it is life doesn't happen to you happens because of you. And it's an active process you create, because there's this whole idea of like, you know, I'm gonna go follow my passion, and I'll never work a day in my life. And I think that's actually really bad advice. I think what you should actually take a look at doing is finding your passion and finding your passion implies you're going to try a lot of things; you're going to do a lot of different things. There was a really great interview I saw with oh, gosh, what is the guy's name that place? Dwight on the office?

Greg Voisen
Oh, I know what you're talking about. I do. Everyone will know when okay, yes,

Jeremy Slate
the guy that plays the white on the dirty guy. He's Yeah. And he was. And he's saying that, like, you know, so many people think about their 20s. And they think they have to have it all together at school, when he goes, you look at it, the 20s is the workshop period, it's when you're figuring it out. It's when you're building skills is when you're doing these things. But you know, your 30s and 40s, you can have it all figured out, and that's fine, or work towards it, or whatever. So I think you have to understand, it's an active process it's doing, you're going to screw up, sometimes you're going to fail sometimes. But you need to look at each one of those things for what I gotta get out of it. And you mentioned as well, this, this idea of, you know, never getting started. If you never get started, then your competitor has got a product selling, they're already getting feedback on how that product was created. And because of that, they're going to stay ahead of you, right, like getting something out into the market, even if it's not perfect is going to create a conversation, it's going to create an ability to do something.

Greg Voisen
Yeah, you know, it's, it's, you know, I default back to this, you know, how I got started this podcast 15 years ago, was, I used to go to big events where there'd be these great motivational speakers. And my son said, well, why don't you start a podcast interviewing them? And I was like, Really, and this was before podcasts were even big. It's like we're talking 1516 years ago at this point. I don't even think there was a handful of people doing podcast back then. But the reality was, is I said, great, you know, and I kind of asked, I'll be honest with you, I said, What's a podcast? You know, because it was in a time period where they just they just weren't known. But now is a way for people to learn and acquire skills and knowledge is just so readily available. And at no cost, no fee, usually right? To get there. And we've we whoever the ground breakers are, I've kind of revolutionized this. And it's important that I think, did you hear these different perspectives along the way, like what you have in the book, what you've got on your podcast, show what I have on my podcast show? And find out what you're curious about. If you're curious about go find it, I got to do is type it in Google Search, and one of us is gonna pop up. Now, towards the end of the book, you speak about conversations with General David Petraeus, who was retired four star US Army General and public official. We all know who he is. Can you share with our listeners, the lessons and inspiration that you got from that conversation?

Jeremy Slate
Well, one of the biggest things I learned is he talked about early on when he was you know, kind of first becoming an officer and he was he was an aide to a he was a two star General Jack, I forget his last name, but its name escapes me. But he was in working with us General Jack at the time. And he said, the thing that was interesting about this guy is you know, he wasn't one of these guys that look at the 50 metals on my chest. And you know who I am, you know, where's my drink? Where's my cigarette, where's all these different things? He was somebody that he learned how to individualize leadership for each person he needed. And a lot of times if he needed something, he'd get it himself, right. He'd get his own drink, he would, you know, he was a servant leader in that way. And that was something that really taught Petraeus how to lead and he frankly, think that's one of the biggest reasons he was able to rise up the ranks like he was to four star general, because he said, there's so many personalities that you deal with in the military. And they all think, you know, I'm better than you because of this and look at how many medals I got because of that. But he learned how to serve people. And he learned how to get the men really interested in him. And I'm reading a book right now. It's called Washington by Ken cheer Tao. And they talk about George Washington during the revolution. And one of the biggest things about him was they were better leader. There were better generals than him. There were people that had more insight than him, but he could get the men to support him like nobody else because he was a servant leader. And that's similar to what I saw from Petraeus, you're like you can get people to follow you even if you're not the best if you learn how to come to them in the way that they need. And frankly, when you can kind of bring that kind of energy to back together, you're gonna be able to create some incredible things because you can bring to you Other the best. And to me, that's one of the biggest lessons. Another thing he talked about as well as this idea of journaling, and actually like writing out your thoughts and working them out on paper and finding out, is this a good idea is this bad idea? Like, how should I use this. And it's something I've done a little bit more since then and helping to work out a lot of my own thoughts. But the two biggest things I learned from him; we’re learning how to lead in an individualized level. And also, you know, the importance in journaling.

Greg Voisen
Well, the Greenleaf model of servant leadership has been around for a long time. And it's an inverse pyramid. And it basically where most people think that the people underneath them should serve them, just flip it upside down. And really, you're serving the people in your organization. So the 20 people that are there, but it's not only are you serving them, as you said, it's how you serve them, you know, with strong morals and humility, and the kinds of things that you need to have the characteristics of a leader. Most people who have those same values are going to be attracted and will follow. Yep, not only will they follow, they'll make more of a contribution. Because this is really around contribution. All those 20 people that work for you, I think, probably emulate and are really honored to kind of work with somebody like you, I can see it that it would be a wonderful place to work. Now, Jeremy, your book is filled with these extraordinary stories. And the stories are a great way for people to learn. And there's takeaways, if you were to leave the listeners with one or two single takeaways, what would you like to have them take away from the book that's actionable, that they literally could integrate into their life or take action on today, that would make some change in their life positively, to affect something that they're trying to reach or get to, or grab or whatever that might be?

Jeremy Slate
Well, it's, it's interesting, because I find the simplest changes are actually the biggest ones, right? Like if you can make simple things happen leads to bigger things. And the one we spoke about is there's a really great book out there by Cal Newport called so good, they can't ignore you. And he talks about finding something you're good at and continue to get better at it. And you know, that's where you become passionate. It's the idea, it's this the same idea of finding your passion versus following your passion, finding your passion employees, your implies you're doing something. So to me to want to be passionate about something before you've done it experienced it worked at it and gotten good at it like it's putting the cart before the horse. So if you can figure if you can, if you're willing to put in the work to find something you're good at and continue to get better at it, you're going to find passion in that I think that's really important. The other thing as well is realizing that opportunities in life come in different shapes and forms. And many times you have to be willing to create your own opportunities, because it may not be exactly what you're looking for. But if you can figure out how to position it correctly, turn it a little bit, open that hole a little bit wider, you can make it the opportunity you need it to be but opportunities in life come all the time, you just don't always know they're gonna look at. So those would be the things I would say.

Greg Voisen
Those are really wonderful takeaways, too. And for my listeners, I will put a link to Jeremy's web sites plural. We'll also put a link to Amazon to unremarkable to extraordinary, that's the book itself. The other thing, Jeremy, you know, and just the energy that you carry, it's so important. The way that people carry themselves, you were talking about sales earlier. And one of the things you should learn how to do is to sell. It's, it's persuasive. The way that somebody carries energy and of itself, how they enter a room, how they appear on a podcast show how they literally do these things that get people to want to hate taking action, as you said, right? Early on in this it was really about how we're going to take these actions toward these goals, that five pounds of discipline every week from the age of 17, all the way to your age now so that you're lifting, 500 and something pounds. And I just want to commend you for the good work that you're doing. Or helping people with their brand for helping people bring out these positive individuals that have something meaningful to say, and to have put that into a book. And also to have continued this podcast series, which is great. So we'll put a link to the podcast as well. And again, kudos to you kudos to all the great work you're doing. Anything else you want to leave our listeners with.

Jeremy Slate
I would just say like take action, right? Don't wait for life to happen to you. And if you can be someone that turns life from, you know, a passive process to an active process, you're gonna be in better shape than 95% of people out there.

Greg Voisen
Good point to make. No mistake to you Jeremy. Thank you. Appreciate having you on inside personal growth and appreciate all of your wisdom and insights. And again for all of my listeners will have links to his podcast we'll have links to his websites plural and we'll also have link to his book on Amazon thanks Jeremy

Jeremy Slate
Hey, thank you so much for having me.