Barbell Shrugged - Feed Me Fuel Me  — Leader of Leaders w/ Aaron Guyett  — 107

Episode Date: October 4, 2018

Our guest this week, Aaron Guyett (@aaronguyett) has been given a warrior mind and body, that MUST serve, sacrifice, and lead in love for God and his fellow man. As a father, Marine, and coach, his why is summed up in seven words:   "Give your life in love for others."   Aaron wants people to know that they are loved and they matter. His intention through Leaders of Leaders (@leadersofleaders) is to give all of himself so that others may be lifted up for something greater than themselves. He cannot stand people mistreating the weak, taking advantage of the poor, or giving up to a life of victimhood. He believes we are all strong beyond measure, and even more so when we experience God's love and everlasting life.   Thanks for joining us this week, and let us know what stays with you after listening to Aaron's journey on this episode of Feed Me Fuel Me!   Enjoy!   - Jeff and Mycal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/fmfm_guyett ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

Mike Bledsoe here, CEO of The Shrug Collective. Today, we bring to you a new show, Feed Me, Fuel Me, hosted by Jeff Thornton and Mike Landers. As we're expanding what we offer, traveling to great guests, and introducing you to the best content, we have partnered with amazing companies that we believe in. We talk and hang out with the founders and owners of these businesses. Not all products are created equal, even if it looks like it on the surface.

We've done the research and have been in the industry long enough to see what really works and what will make the biggest difference for you long term. With that being said, one of my favorite companies, Thrive Market, has a special offer for you. You get $60 of free organic groceries

plus free shipping and a 30-day trial. ThriveMarket.com slash feedme. This is how it works. Users will get $20 off their first three orders of $49 or more plus free shipping. No code is necessary because the discount will be applied at checkout. Many of you will be going to the store this week anyway, so hit up Thrive Market today. Go to ThriveMarket.com slash feedme. Enjoy the show.

This is episode number 107 of the Feed Me, Fuel Me podcast with our special guest, owner and founder of Leaders of Leaders, Erin Guyette. Welcome to the Feed Me, Fuel Me podcast. My name is Jeff Thornton, alongside my co-host, Michael Anders. Each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message related to our three pillars of success. Manifestation, business, fitness, and nutrition. Our intent is to enrich, educate, and empower our audience to take action, control, and accountability for their decisions. Thank you for allowing us to join you on your journey. Now let's get started.

Hey, what's going on crew? Welcome to another episode of the Feed Me, Fuel Me podcast. Ders and Jeff coming to you from Scottsdale. And we are fortunate enough to have the founder of Leaders of Leaders, fellow Marine and instructor of the Special Forces Experience, Aaron Guyette. Appreciate you being on the show with us today, brother. Thanks, man. And it is an honor. It is an honor to be on the show with you guys. Yeah, we, you know, we got, uh, we've been extremely fortunate to, uh, cross paths with, uh, Jessica Webster. Uh, and she emailed me a couple of weeks ago and she told me there's a guy that needs to be on your show. He's got an awesome message. Uh, leaders of leaders is, uh, really on a mission to change a lot of things for a lot of people and afford them the consciousness to walk a purposeful path. And so, you know, we got some dialogue going and, you know, learn some more about the mission of Leaders of Leaders. And that's what we really want to dive into on today's show is your path to Leaders of Leaders and the mission of that organization up to this point. So for everybody who doesn't know who you are

and your journey to this point, put some meat on the bone for our listeners. Where do you come from, and how did Leaders of Leaders become your passion and your path? I mean, that's kind of a deep and wide and long kind of path, but I'll try to create a synopsis, and then we can dive into one of those things from there. Yeah, so essentially I was born and raised in the hills or the mountains of North Idaho. So hillbilly at heart, country boy at heart. life and the fast-paced maneuverings of a military organization, as well as also the slow and mundane life of a Marine as well. But in the Marine Corps, lots of training with infantry, and we boast as Marines, as you know, being a Marine yourself, we boast this high level of leadership. And while sometimes it falls short, oftentimes it does produce incredible leaders in incredibly arduous and stressful environments.

And I think that's kind of the key and something that I pulled from the Marine Corps was this challenge and constantly sharpening my edge with challenges, but also with people that weren't afraid to challenge me as well. So, you know, as iron sharpens iron, so does one man sharpen another kind of a scenario. And so got out of the Marine Corps, started a fitness gym called Innovative Results in Southern California. so stayed in the city, so to speak, and then grew that. And once it got to the level where I could kind of have some freedom, I actually jumped back into the Marine Corps and continued my path as an infantryman, but then kind of got into this instructor role as an infantry instructor. And so again, kind of put

in the forefront of leadership and trying to build into these leaders that already existed, not only in the civilian side, so through personal trainers that have all of these clients, but also in a team of them, but also in the Marine Corps realm, and then decided to kind of put some accolades onto the end of my name or under my resume and learn what the kind of the formal schools and academia say about leadership. I did business management, then did a master's in leadership, organizational leadership. And it was funny because I was kind of finishing my time in innovative results and preparing for sale and selling it. And I was like, oh, what am I going to do? And it sort of hit me. It's like essentially the same thing that I've been doing my whole life. And that's empowering and instilling, you know, important skills and understanding with

people that already have spheres of influence. Like we all have a sphere of influence, but putting sort of nails and teeth onto that, if you will, and saying, hey, look, instead of just having a sphere of influence that you kind of ho-hum around, why don't you be intentional about it, take responsibility and start doing some intentional things to build not only into the people that you have influence,

but build those people that you have influence, but build those people that you have influence into leaders and become a leader of leaders. And through that, it became sort of this passion project of mine. And it was sort of single handedly activated, if you will. I was kind of was on the back burner and I was doing a lot with it, but more as just kind of a passion project. When Jessica and Jeff stepped on the scene and, you know, he asked me to kind of fill a fitness cadre role because essentially I was going to do the same thing in his special operations community. But obviously he's not in that anymore. So he's like, hey, how do I give back? How do I serve men the best in this

nation, in this world? And so he kind of set up something called The Process. And The Process is at the special forces experience dot com. And he's like, hey, I want you to be a cadre member. And then he and then Jessica found out about leaders of leaders. And she's like, I don't think you realize that we chose this guy for a reason. And here's a much deeper reason besides just the fitness aspect. And so we've been kind of going forth. And now I'm fortunate to be able to be with these incredibly calibered or skillful leaders in the special operations and other realms of life and kind of walk out what I've been walking out for men and women, but mainly men in my life up to this point. But now it's got this whole sort of invigorated value and purpose behind it. Not that there wasn't value and purpose there

before, but it's really sprung to life and become this very vivid and visceral thing. And I'm just I'm excited about it, man. I'm pumped. That's awesome. So one thing that comes to mind as you describe your journey and the development of Leaders of Leaders, Is it in response to something that was lacking in your life experience? Or is it something that you saw that you were fortunate enough to get and now you're paying it forward? Yeah, I would say both. Yes, yes. Both and. So I'll start with this. So we'll go pretty vulnerable pretty quick, but I've been in tons of groups and therapy and whatever. So to me, it kind of rolls off the tongue for most people. It's really hard for them to talk about. But this is one of those areas that I think

lends a lot of credit, not only to how it was formed, um, but also sort of gives a voice to the voiceless. Um, so I had sexual abuse when I was young, so like five years old and then eight through 11. And so I thought that that stole my masculinity and stole my ability to be a leader. Um, and I, I think that genetically and just through, you know, who I was before that stuff happened, and even if that stuff never happened, who I still am, I think that there was this sort of this leadership cornerstone, if you will. But what I realized was I sort of had to fight for that. I had to fight to get it back.

And I wasn't fighting society. I wasn't fighting people's perspective of me. That's what I thought I was fighting. You know, I thought I was I thought people thought I was lesser than they thought I thought they thought I was weak. But really what I realized it was I thought I was weak. I was lesser than so I was having to fight myself to put myself in a position so that I could, you know, have a chance to be a leader, not even be a leader, but have a chance to be a leader. So essentially, that was one of the huge reasons why I joined the Marine Corps. I mean, obviously, I wanted to serve for something that was greater than myself. I wanted to be a part of a brotherhood that was

really intimate and close and cared about each other and would die for each other. You know, I even fought, I joined and I wanted to fight for all the romantic reasons, you know, like being the hero, being the person that saves the day. But then when I joined, what I realized is it was starting me on this journey where I was learning a lot more about myself, what I was made of, and that I am not the things that have happened to me. I'm not the decisions that I used to make. I'm the decisions that I make today right now. But then fast forward, I got out of the Marine Corps and I got into some trouble and I ended up in jail. And in that jail time, I realized that I, while part of me was making good decisions and setting me up for this, there were still these like deep, dark shadows and this these sort of underpinnings or more more visceral and

subconscious controllers of what was going on in my life and I'm like well shoot if I if I can't I can't get a hold of this then you know this will always be sort of my default I'll end up in bad situations I'll end up not being able to lead, not making the right decisions all of the time. I'll just make the right decisions most of the time. But as you and I know, we are what we do in the dark. We are what we do when no one's looking. That's truly what our character is and who we are. And so at that point, you know, I had to give up some of who I thought I was and who I was to something greater than myself. And it was in that moment where I realized, hey, I am more than enough. I'm not this, you know, these bad mistakes that I made.

I can change. You know, it's funny. I say to people all the time, I made, I can change. It's funny. I say to people all the time, I'm a believer in transformation. I'm a believer that people can transform. Although, if I'm using history as a best judge and using generals as the rule, that isn't the case. People don't tend to transform. People kind of tend to kick the can down the road. You know, they are who they are till the end of their days. At the same time, there is this incredible strength and power in transformation. And a lot of it is even just forgiveness. So forgiving myself,

forgiving, you know, the people that did things to me, forgiving what happened to me. And, and that was really when the transformation swung. That was really when the door swung fully open and things started to rapidly change at that point. So yeah, that's a much deeper dive into, so yes, it's both ends. So there were instances that created that and they were trying to decide and being in a position to do that. you know, putting places or measures in place to where you can start overcoming, you know, that trauma and start dealing with it. And, you know, I guess sort of for forgiving yourself, how long did that transition period take place? Or what age did it start for you to start really putting those measures in place for yourself? Yeah, so it started at I was 24. And, and I would say it didn't really, and I guess even now it's not complete fruition, right? I'm not perfect. I'm not 100% obviously. But it didn't really come into its own or be

matured or have fruit for about seven years. It took about seven years. So I was like 29 when I really started to see the reciprocation of those decisions I started to make at 24. And when I started to forgive myself, and the thing is like, there's moments even now where I'm like, why do I hate this person? Or why do I hate this about me? Or why, you know, and have to go back through the process of forgiveness, because forgiveness is a process. It's not, we tend to think of it as this, oh, I'm going to do it once. And then I'm, I'm, I'm forgiven and everything's, uh, you know, white and perfect. And it's no, cause we have a memory, you know, and, and a lot of it's subconscious, uh, you know, but even, even our conscious memory, you know, we will – there will be certain moments in our life where it will bring up these like deep darkness parts of – or deep dark parts of us.

And we've got to come to grips with it again. And it's really started to happen. And and and then this kind of this new formation, this new creation started to begin. And I say new formation, new creation. Obviously, I'm the same physical, you know, even though that physical stuff kind of regenerates and whatnot. Um, but from a spiritual or mindset standpoint, um, that's kind of what I'm talking about. So yeah, it was, it was a long time, man. Um, but, but slow and steady does win the race. You know, the hair doesn't win, right. You could see that story a thousand times, never wins, you and there's there's a i

think a deep uh and incredible truth to that you know if we don't have a steady approach in what we do slow is subjective slow could be different for you different than me but if we don't have a steady approach like at some point we're going to either burn out or we're not going to you know we're going to get distracted and and not you not fulfill what it is that we're called to do. So to that point, you said you embarked on this journey of self-improvement from a conscious standpoint, started taking these intentional steps to fix the things that you perceived to be wrong with you at 24 but when did you taking action and knowing that action needs to be taken are two totally different things so when did you become conscious that it's your responsibility to become fulfilled you can't rely there is, it doesn't make any

logical sense or any other form of sense to rely on others for fulfillment. Yeah. So the, the funny part is, so like my parents, um, uh, which were, they're incredible parents and, and set me up for success, uh, as far as a structure for that. The Marine Corps set me up for success. I have a lot of great teachers and coaches that helped set me up for that. The funny part is, you know, at that point, it's an empty shell, really. I mean, you see these incredible empty shells and you're like, yeah, that would be amazing if it was on me or, yeah, I could see how that could work if it was on me, you know, but you sort of kick the can down the road. Right. And so the Marine Corps sort of set up a structure. My parents set up a structure, these coaches and teachers set up a structure

where you understand it. Like you said, I, Oh, I get it. I get that. If I do this, then this will happen. But it, it didn't, it didn't come to a head until 24. And for me, I was, I was fortunate, you know, a lot of people, it takes a lot more trial and error, well, they'll try it, you know, they'll put on the shelf, so to speak, and then they'll like, take it off. And my God, it didn't work for me. And then they'll pick it up again, dust it off, put it on again, and take it out. But it didn't work for me. You know, they just haven't obviously spent enough time with it. And so it takes them kind of a long time. For me, it was like, boom, one for me you know they just haven't obviously spent enough time with it and so it takes them kind of a long time for me it was like boom one moment you know at 24 where I was so deep in a hole and the funny thing is I had a ton of things going for me you know like I was married

and this is former wife so more more vulnerable knowledge of my life uh so which i that's the marine corps way anyways right don't we have to do that like once or twice three times no so uh yeah former i i had a wife at the time you know great car great home uh i had a business um i had a ton of a ton of things going for me. I was getting promoted all the time in this business and had great success. And then Wallop, man, I just got hit so hard. And it was exactly what I needed at the exact right time to make me flip, literally turn around on a dime. Because I coach now tons of people in this realm. And the last thing I tell them to do is flip 180 degrees. Because I'm like, you're going to burn out. You're going to be done. You're not going to, you know, history will show us that humans don't really work that

well if we have to flip 180 degrees. It's only in, you know, and post-traumatic growth or post-traumatic stress disorder will show this, right? It's only in these very trauma-filled moments where we can have this 180 degree or this massive transformation. And so I think it can be like a spirit-led thing, right? If, you know, the God of the universe goes pow and puts it on you, then I think it can happen. I think it can happen, you know, in things like combat or car accidents or near death or near life experience, whatever, you know, things like that. That's what the process is all about, right, is creating a traumatic experience in a fairly controlled environment so that people like you and me can experience enough trauma to have

post-traumatic growth as opposed to post-traumatic stress disorder, helping to give people the tools for that. So I was fortunate enough to have the trauma. Most of us, I think we have to tirelessly hit up against the wall until we realize, oh, we can climb this wall and keep moving. What do you say to the, well, I'm going to ask you two questions. The first of which, why do you think that it takes such a momentous event to create that change? And then do you, are you of the belief that the amount of change made has a direct correlation to the amount of trauma experienced? Ooh, that's a, yeah, that's a really good question. So I can answer the first one with, uh, at least my belief in the utmost surety and understanding. So, well, here, I'll,

I think that it needs to be a traumatic experience for this rapid change because we are kind of the sum total of our behaviors and our habits. And so we can look at it from like a neuro standpoint, neuroscience standpoint, and what they're finding, right, is, you know, neurons that fire together, wire together. So if there's this traumatic experience and it's firing a ton of neurons together and wiring them together, we can kind of grab hold of that and shape shift it or adjust it enough to kind of our ultimate success or our transformation, which is also can be to our ultimate demise. Right. And our disorder. Right. Which is the whole post-traumatic growth, post-traumatic stress disorder. So that's a kind of a neuro based answer. but I think that I think that that's true if you think about it

You know events with lots of humans. Why are they why are they so attractive? Why are they so energy filled? Well because there's lots of humans. They're all kind of cheering and shouting for one thing to happen So if we can sort of look at this, you know, all of these organisms as then inside of one organism, if I have a bunch of humans, if you will, that are neurons, and they can all kind of cheer towards this one thing, then I'm going to be more prone to make that change, more prone for this growth, for this development, for this improvement in process at an accelerated rate. The hard part is, what are the exact environments and ways in which you can make this happen? That's where it's, you know, I don't think that we have an exact science on that.

And so, therefore, we have all these veterans that have post-traumatic stress disorder, and we're dealing with the ramifications of that. Whereas, you know, I deployed and I was in gnarly experiences and combat experiences in my deployment. And it's different for me. But part of that is I had these traumatic experiences when I was a kid and I got used to handling them. So I handled it a little bit different than the person that didn't have these traumatic experiences. And then does the trauma, the second question, does the trauma equal the growth or do you need a certain amount of trauma to get a certain amount of growth? And I would say yes and no. Just kind of, and I'm pinning the tail on the donkey, totally blindfolded,

throwing this out there. This is my theory. I think you need enough trauma to make, from a neurological standpoint, so central nervous system, even peripheral nervous system, emotions, right? You need enough trauma to excite as many emotions as possible, as much of the neurons as possible. And then you need to kind of create that shift, create that change. But then here's the funky part. So my sort of level, my threshold for that might be different than yours. So how do you know you've hit the right threshold? When did you go too far?

When did you yell too loud or have too much violence or too much – whatever the formula is that you're using, when are you crossing the line where it's, okay, this is too much. They may not be able to recover from this or grow from this. It might actually be the opposite. They might create a disorder or some sort of stress response that we don't want. So that's why I always fall back to we should dose the stress just like we dose the stress in our workouts. Dose it psychologically and what we understand neurologically as much as we do in our workouts. Because what we don't do in our workouts most of the time, every once in a while this happens, we don't just go and smash crazy for 24 hours so that we can get super huge and strong. We do these small doses over time, and because we can

measure those and manage those, whereas we can't necessarily measure or manage this incredibly traumatic experience. So maybe the blow-off valve is, hey, you can quit at any time, which happens in special operations communities around the world. Hey, you can quit at any time. Those ones that are able to keep going, something changed, something switched in their head, right? Which allowed them to continue. It wasn't this physiological change. It wasn't that they got stronger, built more endurance or anything like that. It's something flipped up here. Whereas those that quit, it's the blow off valve. They couldn't handle it. It was too much for them. They went over the line. It was

past the threshold. Yeah. So I don't know if that, I kind of danced around the answer, but that's kind of, that's my thought on it. No, I think it's a really interesting thought. What comes to my mind is like how you use fitness as your vehicle to get your message across. What was it about fitness in general that you use that as, you know, as your platform to stand on and reach out to other people? Was it, do you have a background coming through your life growing up where you were involved in sports? Or was it through military that you really found that love and passion and you figured out, hell, this is where I can make, you know, the biggest impact with my message by using that you know the fitness platform yeah so it started in my youth being involved in sports so

yeah I wrestled I played football I was a soccer player even kind of dabbled in hockey we didn't have a hockey team for our high school but I dabbled in hockey and and then joined the Marine Corps and so everything that I kind of learned and understood there that was helping me grow physiologically or develop physiologically, so improve performance in some way, shape or form. And hey, you could dose this and create this adaptation response. Right. This is just how our bodies work. And then kind of learning more and more and more of that, you know, and understanding the science of how that works as I went through the Marine Corps and then beyond outside of the Marine Corps. But it wasn't until I sort of had an aha moment. So I was using it just to help

people change physiologically. Hey, I'll help you lose weight. Hey, I'll help you get stronger. Hey, I'll help you, you know, gain more lean body mass, you know, you name it. I could, I could set up a protocol and help you walk that out. And it's just your adherence to the protocol and then time. That's all that it's going to take, you know? And that's pretty much the nuts and bolts of what we do, right? The, the, the key though, for me, the aha moment was when I realized that the mind and the body are inextricably connected. You change the body. You automatically, without even knowing, change the mind.

It creates this. They're inextricably connected. You cannot separate them. So I know now, which I didn't know when I first started, that when I get somebody stronger, they're not just getting physiologically stronger. They're not, you know, growing more type two a or type two X, uh, muscle fibers or their, you know, their metabolic, uh, glycolytic metabolic system isn't running better. Those things are happening. Those adaptations are happening. You know, PNS and central nervous system, they're connecting at a, at a much greater level. They're able to get more muscle. All these things are happening. But to me, more importantly, they're getting mentally stronger. In their head, they know that they can do this. And then they're seeing it happen with

their body. They're seeing it happen with weights move, with waves move, and on ropes, with whatever the modality, whatever the methodology, they're seeing themselves improve at this incredible level. And it's happening day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out. And I mean, to me, when that was the aha moment, I was like, this is powerful stuff. This is a freaking drug. Because there is no drug that's like that. We're trying to come up with all sorts of stuff in the supplement world and in the prescription pharma world, but there's nothing like it, man. There is nothing like a challenge to excite the cells from a neuro level or a mental mindset level and a physical level that creates change like what it is that

we do on a day in and day out basis. And that to me is incredible. And now it's become much more about the psychological. And hey, don't worry, we're going to get there physiologically. That's going to probably happen sooner. But watch what happens to your confidence. Watch what happens to your courage. Watch what happens to your, you know, you name it, that all that stuff in our character, in our mind, in our heart. Right. Whichever metaphor we want to use to exclaim it, it's happening, your outlook, your perception on this particular circumstance when it comes to the dose response that you were just talking about. There are certain people that in their mind don't have a story worth telling, right? If they don't have the, to use your story, the sexual abuse to overcome, the deployments and the PTSD or the post-traumatic growth that you describe,

you know, like they, comparatively speaking, they've just been on easy street. Right. And at the same time, they've been able to achieve, you know, in a lot of cases still be successful. Yeah. Right. But they're, they, they did what everybody told them to do in a lot of circumstances where they, they went to school, they did all the things and, you know, now they're making money, but they're, they're still lacking that, that validation, right? They don't have that story to tell, right? So, uh, there, there's a guy that I used to know, he used to work out in my gym and was killing it in real estate, a lot of money, happily married, or you would think that, raising a beautiful little girl.

And then he said, you know what, Michael, I'm going to go do the seal fit coquereau. He's 40. He was early 40s at the time. Yeah. And I asked him why. And that's the dialogue that we had. You know, I just feel like life has been too easy or, you know, like there's, there's, there's something

missing. I'm not, I haven't been tested and I need to prove it to myself. And my retort to him was, you don't need that experience to validate your life. Like your daughter isn't going to be any more proud of you as a dad for having gone through the coca roll. Yeah. Right? That doesn't make the experience any less efficacious. Yeah. But that's not the ticket. You know what I mean? And for the monologue

that he has in his head, going back to the dose response thing, that's a very concentrated dose of adversity for somebody who hasn't accumulated in his own mind, the adversity required to come out of that with the appreciation you're supposed to. What's your take on that circumstance? No, I, well, number one, I totally back you up and agree wholeheartedly with what you're thinking and saying to him. The problem, I think the problem is not in the story, it's in the storytelling um and it's the story that we tell ourselves so oh i'm not oh i haven't been through something hard enough because here's the thing we have disney we have uh the whole entertainment industry

makes a living off of this challenge hero and then usually there's a second challenge or a second you know drop in the story and you're like oh shit it's all gone and then oh he saves him and wins at the end of the day and ah and so we we tell ourselves that we have to in order to have this hero-like persona or this uh this worthy persona we need to go through this storyline that we've been told over and over and over again. And don't get me wrong. You know, obviously, entertainment industry knows what it's doing.

That's that's a great narrative. It's an easy narrative. The low hanging fruit is abundant. We're going to get tons of people to buy these tickets to these shows. But actually, I believe that the story he's telling before seal fit is the story that should be told more often it's granted it could be if it's not told well it could be mundane it could be not worth it but but here's the deal he is living the tortoise existence he is the tortoise and that is he that is why you're winning that is why you're successful that is why you're winning. That is why you're successful.

That is why you're valid. That is why you're a good dad. That is why you're good at real estate. That is why you're crushing it in the gym. Because you've done it the right way. Don't do it the wrong way, which is the way that I did it. And now I'm finally realizing that I need to do it your way, which is a story that you've been telling your whole life, right? Which I wish I was telling my whole life. And some of these things happen to us. So of course, like, yeah, you can't stop that from happening. And so then you're going to have to overcome, you know, that also puts the voice again in the voiceless that are like, oh, well, this thing happened to me. So all is lost and I'm done. Like, fuck, no, that's not how it is. You're telling you're, you're a bad storyteller and you're telling the wrong story,

you know, like both of those things. Whereas this guy, he's telling the right story. He's just – okay, you're not a good storyteller. That's okay. I bet you I could tell that story and it would be incredible and everybody's going to want to walk that narrative because they're like, oh, shit, you're telling me that if I just put myself through pain at a, at a controllable, manageable level, dosing it, I'm going to, I'm going to get to be that level way up there. Like, dude,

sign me up because if I've got to go through one more gnarly instance where I'm thinking about killing myself, like, Oh, like that's not healthy. The heroes on TV, that's not healthy. Like, do you see the relationships that explode on, you know, even in Disney? Like, that's not healthy, man. That's not what we're supposed to do. That's why leaders of leaders, to me, that's why I'm so passionate about it. It's like, no, you make the slow and steady approach because why?

Because it's the right approach. Because it's sustainable. And because it works every damn time. If you dive headfirst into something, you know, you could come up with a broken neck. And then what good are you? You know, like then you're not going to be able to do the thing that you wanted to do, you know. So, yeah, that's my take on it, man. That's dope, man. When did you, um, start, when did you really start becoming conscious of the, like you manifesting the right people in your life, like starting leaders of leaders and,

you know, getting Jessica and Jeff in your life. And I'm sure other people in your community around you, when did you start becoming conscious of, you know, your power to attract people that will help you, you know, get to your goals that you're trying to reach? So again, it was that kind of that 24 year old moment. But the thing is, I, you know, we want we want so much proof in our pudding, you know, like, Oh, well, I won't, I won't believe until I see it, you know, kind of thing. And so it wasn't really, I didn't really see the power of it until I was probably about 27, 29. And then I really started to go, hmm, who are the people that I hang out with the most? Who are the, you know, five most influential people in my life? And did I choose some losers in there?

Did I choose some people that are going to pull me down? Like, ooh, I think I did. Okay, let's rework that. Not that I don't, not that I have to cut them off completely and never talk to them again, but they're definitely not going to be, you know, speakers into my life, influencers over my life, you know, and, and showing me the way or mentoring me out of this, because I was in a hole already, you know, heroes like you know dark spot and and we don't want to find ourselves there but I found myself there so I'm like dude okay uh so yeah about 27 29 and then I started really being particular about who and and like poking at it like okay

yeah I really do want to kind of walk down this road with this person, but I'm going to kick the tires on this thing. I'm going to test drive it a couple more times before I go, yeah, let's totally do this. But every once in a while, you know, I believe God just put people in your life. And, you know, that's like my spiritual mentor, Ian Stevenson. Even Jeff, like obviously we're in our kind of beginning romantic uh romance stage or whatever uh but like certain people i'm like dang man yeah that that right there i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna try to follow what that guy's doing because clearly you know he's he's got things going on and that was so that it sounds like your client was my Ian Stevenson.

It was like his family was on point. They had all grown up to be incredible influencers and leaders and in their own right, in their own areas of life. His marriage was kicking. He had a solid ministry. You know, he worked at a church. So it's a little bit different, but he had a solid ministry and he was building into tons of people, leveraging those people to build into even more people. And I was like, okay, there's something about this guy. I've got to be a part of this thing. So it was kind of around that moment where I'm like, okay, I'm going to be a little bit more particular, not because I care so much about me, but I care about the people that are that are in my sphere of influence. Right. Yeah, it should be about me. Like, obviously, if I suck, then I'm not going to be able to help any other any other people.

But at the same time, that immediately, like every time I get filled by one of those, you know, influencers in my life, that immediately gets poured out to the people that are closest to me. You know, I don't hold onto it. I'm not trying to say, Oh, this is, this is my juice. You don't get my juice. You know, like not everybody's juice. Like we all need, we all need to grow. So that being said, and with the mission of Leaders of Leaders and via your experience as a coach in multiple facets, fitness, the Marine Corps, professional mentorship as it would be, is leadership, in your opinion, something that can be taught? I know it's definitely something that can be honed, but do you think it's an innate ability? Either you can or you can't, or can you teach those that are lacking? Yeah. So like nature or nurture, right? Natural outpouring of who you are. Does, or is it something that can be nurtured? And I would say a bit of both, but the more I've walked down this road, and maybe there's certain genetically predisposed or certain wirings of certain people that are going to be more apt to have the change. So like, uh, for instance, to use, uh, epigenetics, right. But just because the gene of, of cancer or the gene of height or the gene of whatever is there

doesn't mean it's turned on. Right. Um, so do we all have the gene and then somebody just needs to come and turn it on or does some of us not have the gene at all? And so even, even if you're doing all the things that turn it on, you can't turn it on. I don't believe that that's true. Like I think leadership style I think is more about the genetics, is more about the wiring. But I think leadership – because again, leadership, good leadership is you can build a following and influence that following. Great leadership is you can develop other leaders and then they become even better than you. Both and, whether it's good or great leadership, I think it can be taught, but I don't think that I can teach everybody. There are certain people that it's going to, it's going to ring true for them. The things that I'm saying is going to work perfectly. But then there's some people where

I'll say something over and over and over again, but because, because I missed the rhythm or missed an articulation or a visual or a word or whatever, or a rhythm, they're just not going to get it. But then they'll go to, you know, somebody like Jessica or somebody like yourself or, or you rhythm, they're just not going to get it. But then they'll go to, you know, somebody like Jessica or somebody like yourself or you guys, and then boom, you say, you say essentially the same thing, but you said it in a way where they're just like, ah, move forward with it. So yeah, I think we're all I think we all can, but we definitely all don't. So I think it's definitely a nurture thing. It's a taught thing. But then style and who can do it to who or who can teach it to who is, I think, the piece there.

That's super interesting. And with everything that you're doing right now, how would you currently define your life's purpose with all the work that you're doing? Yes. So yeah, my life purpose is I want to viscerally impact other leaders, whether they know they're leaders or not, or people in position, let's call them people in position, so that they can take the responsibility and become a leader of leaders. So not just me being the leader of them being a leader, but I want them to have that sort of be a waterfall effect into their spheres of influence to impact the world for good.

And I don't just arbitrarily say good. I I do believe there is objective morality. Like I don't think that rape will ever be OK. Right. I don't think that sexual abuse will ever be something that's OK. Like, oh, we just evolved into now it's OK to do this or do that. I do believe in an objective morality. So when I'm saying good, I'm talking objective moral good. I don't claim to have the objective position to call what is morally good and not. I believe that that comes from God. And so, so then kind of my, my end game, my end purpose for me, like I'm doing this to serve a higher power. I'm doing this to serve God. And I believe that he's going to put things in my path for me to be able to walk that out to the level that he

wants me to walk that out. But it's up to me to actually do the walking and from what I can understand it's not easy walking you know it's hard walking you know it's it's gonna be filled with obstacles and actually that's when I know that I'm pursuing my life purpose is when things get tough there's resistance right I'm like okay that means I'm on the right path because if things were easy then I'm probably right? I'm like, okay, that means I'm on the right path because if things were easy, then I'm probably not making, I'm probably, you know, every once in a while, I'm going to get some seasons of respite or rest and, and, and adjustment or whatever. But, um, if I'm, if it's on easy street, then clearly I'm probably, I don't think impact happens on easy

street. I don't, I don't think development and growth happens on easy street. So, yeah, that's when I know I'm walking out that purpose can affect, you know, I've got this vision of a million people. And so that's kind of put in my, in my purpose, because I believe that if, if I'm able to help a million people, let's say there, let's say there's a million people in the nation, we have a, you know, a nation of 350 million. I think that's a really solid impact in 350 million. If there's a million people that are not taking the path of mediocrity, that are taking the path that has resistance, but are doing it for this moral good, then I think that completely changes a nation. And if that's a nation, then that changes the world. And I'm not here trying to state that, oh, I'm going to be a changer of the world, but I'm also here stating that I'm going to be a changer of the world.

Yeah. So walk us through the construct, the process without giving away the secret sauce. How does Leaders of Leaders work? Yeah. Okay. So it all starts with belief. And there's books that can be written on belief, right? But it kind of goes back to what we were talking about before. If I don't have belief, right, then I can't do this thing. Or if I can't do this thing, then I'm not going to believe that I can do this thing. So that's where, again, that

physiological, psychological, inextricable connection happens. Um, so I, I think it, I think it can be dosed. I think it can be learned. I think it can be managed. Um, um, but it's, it's not going to be easy kind of a thing, but its essential foundations are vision, intention, and means, and that's sort of like a Dallas Willard philosophical understanding of the purpose of life or what is a good life, what is living a good life or what is the purpose of life. But in that vision, there's belief, purpose, values, and then I would say vision, but you, you're not going to have, you're not going to have a right vision if you have wrong

beliefs or wrong values or wrong purpose, right? So ensuring that those are in alignment, that's kind of where I put those four things under that vision. I guess, methodology, if you will, or system process. Then from vision, which is belief, purpose, value, vision, is the intention and the means. So, again, without intention, my vision is just a cool fantasy and a cool dream. But even with my intentions, without action, without means, without legs on it, it doesn't really go anywhere. I'm thinking, like you said, this inner dialogue is telling me that, hey, my narrative is just a good narrative, right? Even though it seems ho-hum and boring and I haven't been through this arduous challenge, like realizing for this, you know, this client of yours or a former client or former person that you knew, realizing, hey, this is a good narrative, right? This is what I'm so, but strapping that onto a greater purpose, maybe, you know, he's

missing out or pursuing greater means because, hey, what you've done right now, you need to add zeros to the end, buddy. If you add zeros to the end, now you're going to have a very sobering effect in what it is that you do. So what you've been doing is awesome. But if you feel like it's easy street, you don't have to go do seal fit. You just add a zero on the end of it. Now what you were doing becomes tremendously more difficult, right?

And challenging. Um, but in that you're going to be able to tell this new narrative, right? That in itself is going to be the challenge now, not having to go find some extraneous, um, challenge. Well, again, those are still valid ways to, I guess, pursue it and figure out kind of who you are. Um, and so with that is, uh, I believe that balance is bullshit. I'm and, and, you know, people talk about balance all the time. And I, and I think the intention behind balance is great. Uh, I, I believe wholeheartedly in the intention behind balance. The problem is if I'm to be the best father, the best husband, the best business owner, the best leader, I'm not going to be able to be all of those things all at once. I'm not going to be able to have this perfect, well, if I just spent 15 minutes here and then 20 minutes there. And especially with relationships being a very important part of this whole process, it's not as easy as, oh, I'll just balance everything out. So

I supplement balance with prioritization. What are your priorities, right? What are your priorities? And the priorities should go right exactly in line with your belief, your purpose, your values and your vision. Right. That should tell you what your priorities are. So that gives you your intention and then you start walking out the means and the means are going to be in relationship. It's going to be in communication. It's going to be in scheduling action or inaction, like not doing something and then of course into the kind of more nuts and bolts of any business or any organization which is like systems and delegation and scaling and measuring and analyzing you know the OODA loop kind of stuff as well and I think that all businesses kind of have that but I think

the corners and I think the important piece is that beginning piece if you don't have your vision right if you don't have your values right if you don't have your purpose uh if you don't have your beliefs or if your beliefs keep changing uh it's going to be really tough for you to walk out anything with any sort of great impact um it's going to be really tough for you to lead people it's going to be even tougher for you to have those people lead other people you know so yeah that yeah, that's, that's kind of, that's it in, in, in outline form. I like it. I like it. So, uh, before we let you get out of here today, I want to ask you two questions with regards to your, your daily routine, your daily life. So I think this is where the real fruit of the conversation is, what as it pertains to you as a human being and a leader of leaders. And I'll ask

it in two parts. You can answer it on any level, mental, physical, spiritual, whatever resonates with you right now. The first of which is what do you do each and every day to feed yourself and create that momentum for the day? And the follow on to that is what do you do each and every day to fuel yourself so that that momentum is sustainable over the long term? Yeah, those are great ones. And so I'll answer a bit on the physical and a bit on the spiritual or mental. So I think first and foremost, you know, I have a morning routine. I, number one, get up early. And part of that is like, people are like, oh, it's because the Marine Corps and actually no, it's because of the Marine Corps. And actually, no, it's because I have kids. It's the only time I really have to myself in the early morning. So I get up at 430 in the morning and then essentially start off my day with my beliefs and my values. And then it kind of goes into then my purpose. So I go through like affirmations, purpose and sort of basics of my vision basics of my

values and basics of my beliefs then I get into a little bit more of the specifics well I'll spend time in Scripture I'll spend time meditating and then and of course it's always with a good cup of coffee so that's a that's a physical fuel point partially because I'm addicted to caffeine. And then also just the nostalgia that's wrapped around that smell and that cup is so now deep seated with me. It's actually what allowed me to start doing this as a habit because I had a habit that was coffee drinking, but I wanted to build a habit that was a morning routine that gave me so much more as a husband, as a father, as a business owner, as a leader. And so I realized I needed to add some parts onto just that cup of coffee. Just coffee wasn't good

enough to fuel me, so to speak. And then I'll train usually either right after that or I'll take my kids to school, spend some time with my wife, and then I'll train right after that. So that's kind of how today went. I trained right before I got on this call with you guys. And then to be honest, like right now, I need to start putting a priority on the nutrition aspect because what I realized was it hasn't been a priority. It's starting to slide to where now it's affecting all of my other parts. It's affecting my ability to be a good husband because I'm hangry or I'm not fueling enough or whatnot. It's affecting my ability to be a good father, be a good decision maker because I need to fuel. So now I'm going to rise up a priority with nutrition and I'll probably – I'm a pretty like deep analytical thinker and kind of strategic system creator just naturally. So I'll probably build some system and my wife is going to hate it at

first and then she's going to love it because she's like, oh, it's so much easier because all I have to do is X, Y, Z. And then all I have to do is X, Y, Z. But yeah, right now I would say that that's actually, I know what I need, you know, in all of the education that I've taken, but I can see that now what I've needed and what I'm doing is starting to slip. So readjust the priorities, come back on that. And that's sort of where I'm at with the physical fueling for short term, you know, right now feeding for short term and then fueling for long term. And then I always try to once a week get on a call with somebody who and sometimes the people that I think I'm going to fill are actually going to actually end up filling me.

So it doesn't always work out the way that I foresee it. But somebody that's going to fill me that I want to learn from and and I want to admire and honor, you know, and then also somebody that I want, you know, or multiple people that I want to pour into and teach and give what I've learned to them. Because, you know, I've met so many incredible mentors, so many incredible teachers and professors that they have all this stuff bottled up, but they haven't figured out ways to get it out there. And I'm like, dude, you're going to die. Like with a half of your incredible knowledge stuck inside your brain, stuck inside your spirit. And that doesn't do anybody any good, right? It's not, it's only doing you good for the time being. And then it's gone. Um, so constantly trying to think of ways

to leverage that, get that information out there. If I think there's good stuff that I've learned, I want to immediately either transform it if I need to, reform it if I need to, but definitely get it out there and pay homage and honor the people that I've learned from. Thanks for that, man. And where can everybody in this community go and follow you and support you with everything that you have going?

Yeah, so I've got, I apologize for the three here, but I've got Battle Rope Exercises. Battle Rope Exercises is on Instagram, at Battle Rope Exercises. And that's where they're going to find a lot of this fitness stuff. And I actually do a lot more with metabolic pathway programming than I even do with just Battle Rope cool stuff, even though that is kind of cool. Then I've got Aaron Guyette, which is kind of my personal page. So you'll see a lot about fatherhood and being a husband and things like that as well as just business and life stuff.

And then Leaders of Leaders. At Leaders of Leaders is the Instagram for the Leaders of Leaders. And that's the newest. If you go online, though, Battleropes.org, there's full-on workouts and workshops and all sorts of stuff on there for specifically if you want to learn about metabolic pathway programming and also Battleropes and how to actually quantify those fluid yarn-looking wade thingies. And then leadersofleaders.org is where you go to find all this stuff on leadership. I will say that that's getting revamped, and right now it's not connected to the process, which is at the special forces experience dot com. So you have to go. It'd be a one off to go check that out and see if you think you've got what it takes or if you're if you're going to do make sure you take a look at all the points of contact for Aaron and everything that he has going on with Leaders of Leaders, the Special Forces Experience and Battle Ropes. Brother, you are very humble in your approach, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you're definitely on a path to change the world, my friend.

Oh, I really appreciate that. And I hope I can in some way, shape or form live up to those remarks. I feel like God's put some big shoes in front of me and I'm just doing my best to fill them, even if it means diving in them head first. You're doing awesome, man. You're crushing it, man. So for everybody out there in Feed Me, Fuel Me land, make sure you get out there and support the Leaders of Leaders initiative. And until next time, Feed Me, Fuel Me. Yeah, man.

Thank you. It's a great honor to be on your show. And that'll do it for this episode with our special guest, Aaron Guyette. If you want to check out everything that Aaron has going, please go check out the full show notes on shrugcollective.com. Also, be sure to connect with us on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Feed Me Fuel Me. We would love to hear from each and every one of you. If you found this episode inspiring in any way, please leave a rating and a comment in iTunes so we can continue on this journey together. Also, be sure to share it with your

friends and family on social media, including Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, or any other social platforms that you use. We really appreciate you spending your time with us today and allowing us to join you on your journey. We would love to hear your feedback on this episode, as well as guests and topics for future episodes. To win this episode, we would love to leave you with a quote by John C. Maxwell. A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. Thank you again for joining us, and we will catch you on the next episode. Way to make it to the end of the show. As always, go to Shrug Collect over at iTunes, give us a five-star review, positive comment, and hit thrivemarket.com slash feedme to get that great deal on awesome groceries.

See you next time.