Blaze Your Own Trail - How to Get Inspired & Elevate with Jake Kelfer

Episode Date: June 20, 2022

About Jake: Jake Kelfer is a lifestyle entrepreneur, life elevator, and coach to ambitious entrepreneurs and freedom seekers helping people write and launch bestselling books. He is a 3x bestselling author, a high-energy motivational speaker, investor, and the founder of the Professional Basketball Combine which has helped 70+ NBA draft prospects turn their dreams of playing pro basketball into their reality. He and his work have been featured on Forbes, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and many other major media outlets.  In this episode we discuss: Where Jake grew up. His relationship with his parents What his Dad never missed What sports he played Getting to work for a Dream organization His Entrepreneurial journey And more! Connect with Jake on social @jakekelfer Grab a FREE copy of "The Elevated Entrepreneur" 👇 https://www.theelevatedentrepreneur.co/book Thanks for listening! Connect with Jordan: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanjmendoza/⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/therealjordanjmendoza/⁠ Clapper: ⁠https://clapper.vip/jordanjmendoza⁠ Join my Facebook Group: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/linkedintrailblazers⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.blazeyourowntrailconsulting.com Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I had a total of 11 jobs between the age of 11 and 17, just trying to help and support my mom. When I gave away my ATS resume template, that I used to charge $3,000 for. If I were someone that wanted to work with you, I think the thing that would resonate with me the most is a fact that you have been as far as they will fall. I gave her all my videos, and today she's a message saying I got my first client, and it could not be happier for her. On my show, one thing I love to do is really get context into people's journey. I saw vegetables door to door. I saw newspapers. I do it because I truly care to help.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail Podcast. I'm your host, Jordan Mendoza. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host, and I've got a very special guest today. His name is Jake Kelfer, and I'm going to have him tell you who he is and what he does today. Yeah, what's going on, Jordan, man. Thanks so much for having me.

As you mentioned, my name is Jake Kelfar. I'm a three-time author, high-energy inspirational speaker, and the founder of the Professional Basketball Combine, which has helped over 70 NBA prospects sign their first contract in 30 countries around the world. I do a lot of business coaching, working with freedom seekers and ambitious entrepreneurs. I'm pumped to be here. Awesome, man. I appreciate that intro.

And as you know, my friend, my favorite part of this show is taking a rewind. It's really diving in, getting context into people's journey and really finding out how they have blazed their own trail. And I know, you know, with that comes a lot of ups, a lot of downs, a lot of sideways, left and right. So if you can share with the audience, where did you grow up and give some context? What kind of kid were you, would you get into, you know, adolescent years, elementary up through high school? So I grew up in a town called Santa Clarito, which is about 45 minutes north of Santa Monica, Los Angeles. And there were really like three things that were super important to me growing up, family, athletics, and academics. I was really, really blessed.

and I still am blessed to have two parents who love me and support me and a brother who is just my biggest supporter and somebody that I look up to a lot. And so to have a great family growing up was really important because as a guy who loved basketball and whose dream was the play for the Lakers, when you stop growing at 5'8, you know, it makes it a little more challenging to get to the league. So luckily I had family who supported my athletic dreams, but who also made sure that I focused hard on my academics, made sure that I had, you know, plans and opportunities so that if I didn't make the NBA, I had something to do. So growing up, I played basketball, baseball, football. I loved school. I loved math. I mean, I've always just had this affinity for numbers. And now as an

entrepreneur, I just love looking at the data and the analytics and the insights and all these things. But all of that put together really helped me understand, like, what do I want to do with my life? and knowing that I had support, knowing that I was always competing, knowing that I was always trying to be the best that I could be in everything, whether sports, academics, just the neighborhood games, whatever it was, I knew that someday down the road I was going to do something that would go against the status quo, something that maybe people were afraid to do, but I was like, you know what, watch me. Like, let me try to take this underdog mentality and put it into the world to create something great. And that's led me on an absolutely unbelievable journey that

I couldn't have predicted as a young basketball player with dreams to play for the Lakers. That's awesome. Appreciate you sharing that context. So when you think about childhood, right, you talk a lot about, you know, your parents and your brother, you know, being just really good examples and really letting you know that you can go for whatever you want. What was it? Were these subtle things? Were these, you know, words of encouragement? Or was it just the overall demeanor in how they carried themselves throughout your childhood?

I think one of the things that was really powerful that they did, my parents specifically was they didn't put pressure on me to get A's. They put pressure on me to give my best effort. And I think that in life, in sports and academics and just in anything, sometimes we can feel pressure from somebody else to achieve a result that maybe we don't even desire, maybe that we don't even really want to get to. And for me, just knowing that as long as I did my best, my parents were still going to love me, even if I got a B or even if I did get an A, they were still going to love me and be proud of me. That gave me a lot of encouragement to try things because even if I didn't succeed, I knew that I still had family. I knew that I still had people that loved me.

And so I think that even though I wanted to achieve all these things, I wanted to be the best, knowing that I had support, even if I didn't achieve that exact result, meant the world to me. And when I think about it, you know, my dad attended every single basketball game I ever played in from the time I was five years old to the time I was 18 and graduated from high school. He never missed a game. So when you talk about setting an example for your son of what it means to be a good dad and to be a present father, he did that for me. He was an entrepreneur. My mom's entrepreneur in a way. She was a professor, social worker.

So it's like there's all these things that just. like as I look back, played such a big role in my childhood, but it was just knowing that they always supported me, that they were always going to love me, that I could try something and I could totally screw it up. And they'd still be there for me. And so I think that having that was just pivotal for me in being willing to try new things.

I love it, man. Yeah, I think, you know, having positivity, right, that positive support and knowing that no matter what you did, as long as you did it your best, that they're going to be there. That had to have definitely paid dividends, and I'm sure it's continuing to pay dividends today. So when you think back,

you mentioned you played baseball, football, and basketball. Knowing what I know about you today, was the love of basketball, was that always number one? So, no, it wasn't always number one. Basketball and baseball were pretty tied. I mean, growing up, we played against some elite players in baseball have gone on to playing the major leagues. I mean, Bryce Harper, Trevor Bauer.

I mean, you look at all these guys. Like, we competed against them growing up. And what was really interesting, though, is when I got to high school, I started to realize that, okay, basketball, I just had so much more love for it. And it was in high school when I realized that, even though I knew my chances of getting to the next level was going to be much harder. I just loved the atmosphere of being in the gym on a Friday night with the crowd going crazy. I love the idea of being, you know, a point guard that sees the floor and can get your

teammates involved. I love just so much about the game. And at that time, too, you know, I mean, as a Lakers fan growing up in Lakers, I know you're a Blazers fan, but like seeing the Lakers just win, you know, I'm in high school and Lakers are winning back to back titles. And it's just like the energy around basketball was everything. So I knew that that was the bigger dream at the time. So basketball just kind of took the forefront over everything as I got through my high school days. And just in case anyone was wondering, I hated the Lakers. I still hate them to this day, being a big Portland Trailblazers fan. But that time, I mean, man, those Lakers, man, they were just unstoppable.

You know, talk about continuity and teamwork and not giving up on each other. And I just remember that game against Portland that sent you guys to that finals and how much we had that thing dialed in. But you guys just had that other gear. Yeah, there are a couple Kobe moments. against the Blazers that, you know, on our end, go down in our history. And in your end, it's like you get to see it every time they show that highlight. But we won't go down that rabbit hole right now. We'll keep blazing our own trail on this path, though. Yes, sir. We'll talk about that offline. All right. So let's talk after high school. So, you know, you were playing all

these different sports. You, you know, had a love for basketball. You know, what route did you end up taking after school. You said that, you know, academics were something that were something that you wanted to focus on as well. So did you end up, you know, going the college route? And if you did, what was what was that next path like? So once I realized that the NBA was out of the cards, I kind of changed plans, right? And it was like, if the NBA is not going to happen, what's the closest thing? I was like, well, I'm smart. Some of my friends were going to go to the pros, whether it being basketball, baseball, football. I was like, why don't I be an agent? And I'll represent the greatest players in the world. Then I'll get on the court that way. I'll be an assert.

as my uniform, they'll be in a jersey as their uniform. I was like best of both worlds. I went to the University of Southern California, which is my dream school. I was the seventh person of my family to go there. And so that was always the school I wanted to go if I didn't end up getting a D1 scholarship somewhere else or if I decided to go to college. And so I went to college with the intention that I was going to be a sports agent. And in my mind, at this time, I was going to go to college. I was going to get a great job. I was going to be one of the youngest agents to sign a lottery pick. I was going to make a lot of money. I was going to get married. I was going to buy a house. I was maybe going to buy an island. I was going to have kids. And then once I hit all of those

things, then I'd give back. I'd start speaking. I'd start writing books. I'd start doing things. And it was during college that I just did everything I could to get that job with the agency. I got all the internships I wanted. I went to all the networking events, the resume workshops. I mean, I was that kid that just did everything. I was involved with the Sports Business Association. I did all these events, like whatever I could do to give myself a leg up. And then right before I get ready to graduate college, my plan gets derailed. The agency I wanted to work for goes on a hiring freeze and they can't bring me on. So now I'm getting ready to graduate USC.

I had this plan, right? And now for the first time, I have to make quick adjustments right when life really starts to get real. Because now I'm going to graduate USC and I didn't have anything else lined up because that was the path. And I did everything to put that path as the forefront. And so that was when I had to really start to see, okay, what's about to happen next? And it was just a blessing because I had practiced all of these networking things. I'd gone to all the events. So I started to build a little bit of a network.

And so I put it to work. And I said, well, what can I do here? Who can I connect with? And I ended up graduating USC without a guarantee of a job, but with the expectation that I would start my career with the Los Angeles Lakers in their corporate partnerships division. And when you look at it in a roundabout way, the dream was to play for the Lakers. The next dream was to work for an agency. But the way I started my professional career was suiting up for the Lakers on the sideline as a court partnership's assistant.

And that's one of those things where you can't predict what's going to happen in life. But you have to be willing to take action and keep moving forward even when things don't go the way you want. And that was how I started the next phase of my career, which was or the first phase of my professional. career, which was with the Los Angeles Lakers and their corporate partnerships division. That's awesome. Yeah. And I'm sure that had to be super surreal, right? You grow up a big Lakers band. You know, you have aspirations to one day hopefully play for the organization and then being a part of it, having that come to fruition. How meaningful was that for you? I mean, it was unreal. I mean, look, look, there's, there was a moment there I was like,

do I take this job or not? Because it wasn't exactly the agency route. But it was also, like, well, I can meet a lot of people. I can network a lot of people. Plus, like having the Lakers on your resume is a pretty good thing. But then I was also like, let's cut through the BS. You can work for the Lakers. I mean, that's every L.A. kid's dream. No matter what I do in life, I can give a year to work for the team for at least a season and

see what happens. Plus, it was Kobe's final season. So it was like, I'd be crazy to pass up that opportunity. And so I said, yes, and it was an amazing experience. And it was life changing in a lot of ways for me. So I'd love for you to share it at the audience since it was that life changing. What are the top three lessons that you learned while working there that you still carry with you today? One of the big lessons that I realize is that I definitely needed to be in a role that allowed me to have big vision and have the permission to execute on some of those things.

As a bottom of the totem pole employee at a large organization like the Lakers, very corporate, I wasn't able to do some of the things that I, wanted to do. And part of that was because I was young and maybe I didn't, I didn't know, but I wanted to be in a role. I knew whether it was working for myself or working for a group where I had say, I had input, I could make impact. So that was a big lesson for me, becoming aware of how my personality was suited and the types of people I really worked well with, different ages, different demographics, of who I really connected with and what my real skill sets were. So that was a big lesson. The second lesson that I, that I really learned here, was from Kobe. Okay, because Kobe, this is his final season.

he's injured half the time. He's kind of on his own, on his own wavelength. But when Kobe warms up, it's different than everybody else. When Kobe warms up, he goes to the elbow, he shoots his fadeaway jumper. He does his pump fake. He does his up and under. But he practices his game shots. And then he's done. Everybody else is doing layup line, just kind of running, throwing the ball up super high, maybe doing some crazy dunks. But what was really cool for me is that I learned that you can never get board with the basics. As you go through life and whatever it is that you do, whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're an employee, there are always going to be things that you don't always want to do because they're beneath you. They're fundamental. Maybe you don't think you need to keep

improving on them. But Kobe made it very clear. The way you watch them is that you do the things over and over and over again. You get great at the basics. You do them better than everybody else. And then you add your own flair and that's where your greatness comes in. So that was really big for me because there are times when I'm growing businesses where I don't want to do the little things or I don't want to do the basics because they're tedious. They take a while. But those are the things that always work. That's why they're the fundamentals. That's why they're the foundation elements. That's why they're the basics. Those things lead to the advanced, to the intermediate, to the all-star level. And then the third thing that I learned, and I'll tell you a little story about this too,

but I really learned this concept of how you can create incredible experiences for every single person you come across. So I was getting in an elevator and part of my job with the Lakers was I got to pick all the contestants. All right. So I got to pick, you know, the half court shot person, the skills challenge, the three point shootout. I did meet and greets. Anything that had a brand partner, I was responsible for helping execute that on site. So I'm in the elevator. I'm going down to the court to take a contestant to shoot a half court shot. It's like $95,000 or something like that. crazy, right? I'm in the elevator and the doors are about to close. I'm like, all right, let's go. I'm getting hyped up. And all of a sudden, Jerry West walks in. All right. Now, for those

that don't know basketball or don't know who Jerry West is, he is the guy that the NBA created the logo after. Like, he is the NBA logo. He's a Lakers Hall of Fame player. He's a dude that I've looked up to my entire life, right? Like, he is Jerry West. He's a legend. So now my pits are sweating. My heart's beating out of my chest. I'm like, holy crap. Like, it's me, Jerry West and the elevator attendant. Now, the elevator attendant looks at Jerry and he says, excuse me, sir, what floor do you want to go to? Now, Jerry's got courtside seat. So he's like, event level court side. And the person working the elevator does not know who he is. So he looks at Jerry when Jerry says court side and he goes, do you have a credential? Because if not,

I'm going to need you to step off the elevator because this young man pointing at me has work to do. And I was like, no way did he just tell Jerry West to get off the elevator. Like, this can't be happening. Jerry very politely. He looks. looks at the attendant and he says, I don't have a credential, but do you know who I am? And the person working in the elevator has no idea. And he says, sir, I'm really sorry. I don't. I'm going to need you to step off, though. And I was like, this can't be happening. Like no way is this happening right now. Right as Jerry's about to jump off the elevator, though, I'll go, wait, wait, wait, he's with me. He's my guest. I'll escort him down.

And the person working the elevator kind of looks at me like, well, why didn't you say hi for the last 20 seconds of this awkward interaction, you know? Like, that's probably what he's thinking. And so he turns to me and he goes, are you sure? Like making sure I wanted to actually take Jerry down. So I look at Jerry, you know, I want his permission, make sure he's okay with it. And he gives me the nod of approval. So I give the elevator to the same knot of approval in Jordan. The next 14 seconds, best elevator ride I've ever had.

Get out of this elevator. And in my mind, I start to wonder, is he going to be pissed at the attendant didn't know who he was? Is he going to be mad at me for having to stand up for him and escorting him down to the, down to the court side? How is he going to react right now? But right as we go our separate ways, Jerry, He sticks out his hand. He shakes my hand and he says, thank you. I appreciate what you just did for me.

And it was that moment right there that he made me feel like a million bucks. That little minute of thank you. I appreciate you. Made me feel like the most important person in the room. And I realized that that's what we all see. Everybody is a person. And we all want to be loved, to be complimented, to feel value, to feel like we belong, to feel that we matter. And Jerry gave me that feeling. And it was right after that where I started to think, every interaction that we have can change somebody's life. And we don't know what someone's going through. We don't know how they're feeling.

But what we do know is that we can control how we act and treat other people. And so I said, how do I give this feeling, which I now call the feeling of elevation, to as many people as possible? How can I do it to people I've never met? How can I do it to people that pay me thousands of dollars to speak on their stages? how can we do this on a day-to-day basis to show people that they matter and to really let people know that you're there for them. So those were the three big lessons that as of today I'm sharing with you, right? But those were three really big lessons that really taught me a lot about myself

all within a pretty short period of time. Love it. Those are some great lessons and, you know, kudos to you for, you know, getting Jerry down to his seats because he probably wouldn't have been excited if you would have been stuck in that elevator any longer, you know? So what's cool about that as well is now you get, you do have that Lakers stamp on your resume, right? You got that to talk about, but these lessons that you just shared, I'm sure there are countless more. These things you get to bring with you as well. And they, they not only get to help you, but they also are going to help everyone that gets to listen to this episode. So thank you for sharing that. So after the Lakers, you know, what was next? You know, I know, I know you said that this got you. You,

to really start to think about these things. Like how do I make these lasting impacts for other people? And I've actually seen, I saw a really cool TED talk by a guy named Drew Dudley. And he calls these little things lollipop moments, you know, these moments that we give people these highly impactful, just a compliment or just a little thing that might take them a long way. Because like you said, Jake, you know, you never know what someone's going through, what situation they're dealing with, what hardship.

And you being that positivity or that life. could highly impact the trajectory of not only their day, but potentially their life. You know, it could be that big of an impact on their life. So I'd love to hear what you did next, what that next goal was or what other roles you served in on this journey. So a couple weeks after that experience with Jerry, I'm really starting to think, you know, because I was like, it was an impactful moment. And I came home one day after work and I asked myself two questions.

What do I know and how can I help people? because after that experience, I started to think, maybe I don't have to wait until I've become, quote unquote, successful or rich or a certain status to actually make a difference. And so I asked myself, what do I know and how can I help people? And the only thing that I knew as a young 22 year old guy, the only thing that I really knew or 23 years old was how to get that first job, right? How to get your internships, how to network, how to do things at that level. And so I was like, okay, how can I help?

help. Well, my brother was in college at the time. I had a lot of fraternity brothers. And I was like, you know what? What if I, like, gave them all the information that I've gathered, that I've done, that I've used and help them out so that they could, you know, spend more time studying, but still get great jobs and internships. I was like, awesome. Well, what you got to realize is that college kids don't want to read 30 pages of blog post content on resumes and, and interviewing skills. And I was like, okay, I get that. Like, I wouldn't have wanted to read that either. So what do I do next because I know this is important. And I end up meeting with a with a mentor of mine who's a professor at UCLA and he tells me to turn that content into a book. And I was kind of confused because I was like,

I'm 23 years old. And he goes, yeah, but your content is still very good. The age of thing doesn't matter. And so he challenged me to write a book. And basically what happened over the next few months, the last few months I was working with the Lakers is I wrote this book. I would leave my home at 5 a.m. to avoid L.A. traffic. I'd get to the Lakers office early. And for a couple hours, I'd write and think about what this could become. And at the end of that Laker season, Kobe retired, I retired, and I launched my first book, which was called Elevate Beyond, all about how to stand out in the job market and discover your passion. That's what then started me on this journey of personal development, self-help, motivational speaking, while also still pursuing this agent at the time,

the agency dream. And that kind of said, okay, well, now what do I do? Because now I have this book that's an Amazon bestseller, but I also have this dream to be an agent and change these athletes' lives. How can I do both? Can I do both? And what avenue makes the most sense? And you know, this podcast is about blazing your own trail. Well, at the time, now I had to figure out, well, what trail was I going to pursue? And could I do both of them at the same time, or would it not make sense? Well, I decided to go after both of them and see which one hit, which one would take off a little bit. So I have this book and I'm like, okay, I'm going to start speaking because someone told me that you can make money as a speaker. And I had left the job with the Lakers. So now I'm

full on entrepreneur. I'm like, well, we got to hustle. We got to get some bread, you know, we got to eat and we got to get paid. So I started reaching out to anybody and everybody who I thought I could potentially speak for. And I got a few gigs here and there. There was a lot of rejection, but I kept going. So I had the book. I was getting a couple gigs here and there. But I was also still networking and trying to build up the agency network. Well, a couple months go by and I'm doing this and I'm like, I'm really enjoying it. I'm having a lot of fun. And I get this idea to say, you know what, let's go bigger. Let's go home. Like, I don't want to really be an assistant anymore in an agency. So let me try to,

what could I do that's different? What could I do that hasn't been done that people like would be like, you're crazy. So I decided to build a secondary NBA draft combine to hopefully help prospects who weren't invited to the official combine to get seen. And I was like, in my mind, if I could pull this off, I'm going to get to negotiate with agents right away as my customers. I'm going to get to meet a lot of players. I'm going to get to know all the NBA executives. I'm going to get to know the media who could be very helpful as an agent. And I'm going to give this event a chance.

And that was where the next phase, again, all these phases just start one after another because we think about how do we make a difference? How can you help and what do you know? And one thing led to the next. And we ended up having this event. And over the last three years, we've helped over 70 guys sign contracts. in 30 countries resulting in 10 to 20 millions of dollars for players to play their dream. And what it's become is that everything has come to this one idea, which is that in my life,

I'm here to elevate people to achieve their true definition of success and to turn their dreams into reality. And that's been an amazing, amazing blessing. And I've just enjoyed it so much. And there's so many cool things that have happened and so many amazing people that I've met, so many ups and downs. But it's all been because I've been able to say, let's go for it. Let's try it. Let's put in the work. Let's find the right people and let's enjoy ourselves in the process because who knows what's going to happen. I love it. I love it. I'd love for you to just share a little context on, I think you said this has been the third year now, right? Of the combine. Yeah, so we ran the event. Yeah, we ran the event 2017, 2018 and 2019. Every year it got bigger. We added new things.

We brought in more people. And then unfortunately, the pandemic hit. We couldn't run it in 2020. 2021 was iffy. So we didn't run it. And we'll see what the future. holds. But the three years that we ran it, I mean, it was truly incredible. And the way it kind of operated was we'd have 24 prospects come to this event from all over the country. And we'd put them through a series of different drills. We'd have them do interviews, different three on three scrimmages. And we'd give the world a chance to see them. But we'd also have a very private on-site event for the NBA execs to see them. We ended up having some incredible players. One of our players got drafted in the first round. One of our players who was like five, six,

who no one thought had a chance. He ended up getting invited to NBA Summer League. We had Division II guys who we were like, let's take a chance, going to play in the G League. We were able to do some really cool things, provide some additional education to these guys. And, you know, it was just a dream come true to be able to work with these NBA athletes and to be able to help them turn their dream of playing pro ball into their reality. And it was a huge blessing, man. It was so fun, so exciting. and met some incredible people. I love it.

I'm sure, you know, as a fan of the sport, right, being able to be up close and personal with these players and then also the executives around the league. I'm sure that had to have been a blessing as well. It was awesome. It's like a kid on a playground, you know what I mean? Like, but that was my job. I created a job, created an opportunity for myself

to step into what my kid fantasy was, right? And I'm on the court with these athletes. I'm playing D. You know, I'm passing. I'm doing drills. with them. I'm doing extra shooting things with them. And this all led to me being able to train with with, you know, guys like Damien Lillard, you know, John Wall, Derek Roe, Chandler Parsons. I mean, I was able to get on the court and train with all these All-Stars. And it all started because of the

connections I was able to build through taking a chance on this event. And so, I mean, anytime you get to do something that you've always grown up dreaming of, it's awesome. You know, and when the people are great, too, it just makes that experience a memory. And that memory will last a lifetime. 100%. Well, I love it. Thank you for giving that context there. And what happened after the pandemic, it comes on, right? It's coming on strong. No one knew this thing was going to take place. You've had these three successful events. So I'm sure it wasn't easy to pull the plug. So I'd love to just learn a little bit about what some of your focus was. And I know we've got your new book that just released. So I'd love for you to share some context on, you know, did this happen when the

pandemic happened? Did you, you know, because you seem very good at being able to pivot and being able to adapt when situations arise. So I'd love to share that context. Yeah, man, great, great question. So fast forward to 2020, the start of 2020, I'm speaking all over. I got two books at this point. I got the combine that's firing. We're going into 2020. Like, we're like career year, record year, like with all the things that we had been building. Well, the pandemic hits. Speaking gigs get shut down. The combine gets shut down. I'm like, okay, what are we going to do next? And I could have just been like,

all right, let's just take some time or whatever. But what I did was I really got focused on myself. I had to look inward and really find out what do I really want? What do I really desire? Who do I want to become? Because for the first time in several years, I wasn't on the road multiple times a month or every month. I had time to sit and time to think and time to just be.

And that has been one of the greatest blessings that for me personally has come out of the pandemic. But I also had to realize, okay, well, what are we going to do next? And I just wanted to think at the beginning, I was like, well, what do people need right now? And I was like, everyone's trying to go online. And I just was like, I have a lot of friends that have built e-commerce business, online businesses. I was like, you know what? Let me just interview a bunch of them. And I could give people this insight.

It'll be free. We'll do like a summit. And I'll just get people access to all these amazing minds. And like, that's just like what we could do to start. Because nobody knew what was going on, right? There was nothing that we could control at the time. But I was like, I could provide value in that way. And it'd be fun to get on some cool conversations with some great people.

So we do a summit. We get thousands of people to come virtually and they watch all these interviews and it was really awesome. And as we're going through, as we keep going through this pandemic, I really learned a lot about the power of not being in control. Because it felt, and it still feels like 18 months, you know, since this thing started, it still feels a lot like there's only so much that's in our individual control. And I think it's really important for us as humans, as people that want to achieve peak performance, that you can't always control everything around you. But you can always control how you respond and treat other people and take action. And so for me, you know, I built these businesses.

I had been coaching people on the side a little bit. But this pandemic was like, holy crap, this is the time where we got to really develop everything because we have time. I can sit down. I can think and be. And so I really ramped up our coaching program focusing on helping new entrepreneurs. really build that business, right? A lot of people were getting laid off. A lot of people were working from home. A lot of people had more time and they were like, shit, I want to work for

myself. I want to get a taste of this because I have the time to do so. And so we really doubled down. I built out everything that I already been coaching people on, built it all out, did some one-on-one, did some group coaching. And that for us has been, has been really, really big, really focusing on helping new entrepreneurs build online businesses, especially in the coaching space. And while I was doing all this, I continuously, was thinking, when's the next book coming out? You know, when's my third book coming out? And over the pandemic, I really invited a bunch of entrepreneurs, coaches and performers, 39 specifically, to do an interview with me answering a sequence of questions that I think a lot of us really needed.

It was some of my best questions from all the interviews I've done. It was some of the best questions that people wanted to hear from me or from others. And what's been a result of that is I just launched my third book called The Elevated Entrepreneur, which is about unlocking the secrets of the world's greatest coaches, entrepreneurs, and it's really all about how to become a high performing, productivity, crushing, and freedom achieving entrepreneur. And that book has just been received so well, and I'm so grateful to give the world an opportunity to learn from 39 brilliant minds. They could pick and choose how they want, what they want to listen, to see the styles they really resonate and then take actionable action right after they read this book. And so this has just been

awesome. It's been an incredible way to kind of release something out there for people to see and really inspire people to keep taking action and keep building great relationships. I love it. And I love that you took action, you know, during an unprecedented time. You know, I launched this show on January 1st, 2020. Had no clue, right, that this pandemic was going to happen, had no idea. But, you know, but what came out of that launching the show was, you know, 50 episodes in the first season. As you know, being a host yourself and, you know, doing the summit and then in the process of writing this book, we grow so much when we get to learn from other people, right? When we get to ask them questions and just learn about their journey.

So kudos to you for taking action and launching your third book. And I know we had talked offline. and I believe that you've got a copy of this. I'd love for you to share where the audience can download that copy. Absolutely. And I want to make a mention there on like how great it is to learn from other people, right? Like I wrote this book for all the entrepreneurs out there hustling to create their dream life. I wanted to interview people to share that information.

But also, every time I interviewed somebody, I learned something new. And just by interviewing these 39 people, I've learned so much and I've grown so much. And so I'm just so excited for everybody to get their hands on it, which leads us, to how everybody can get their hands on it, which is you can get a copy of the book at the elevated entrepreneur.co. And the cool thing about the way we launched this is we made it free for everybody. Now, you can go buy it on Amazon and pay full price, or you can get it for free at the link and just cover the shipping. The reason we did that is because I wanted to get this in as many hands as possible. I was like, this knowledge is too good not to be shared with

everybody. So if you want a free copy, go to the elevated entrepreneur.com. Snack. a copy, cover the little shipping, and we'll get it to your doorstep as soon as we can. But that's the best way to get it. And you can find that just online or you can find that on Instagram at Jake Kelfer. And it'll be the link in my bio. Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. And you just mentioned your Instagram info.

Are there any other platforms where you're creating a ton of content? You know, people are going to want to follow you after they hear this. They're going to say, man, this guy's got some great insight. So where are the best places that you want people to go to find and connect with you, Jake? You can find me anywhere on social at Jake Kelford pretty much, but my main platform that I'm spending most of my time is as a creator is on Instagram and as a connector's on Instagram. So we'd love to connect there. Let's chop it up.

Let's get in those DMs. Let's have a good time. Awesome. Awesome. And as we're wrapping up here, I'd love for you to share outside of your book that just launched, what are one or two books that you'd love to share with the audience that they should go pick up that would add massive value to their lives? Oh, love this question.

There's so many great books out there. One of my favorite books of all time is this book called Training Camp by John Gordon. It's like a fable about an athlete who overcomes adversity in his pursuit to make the NFL. So if you like sports and you like business and you like fables, it's a great book. And then I would also recommend Atomic Habits. I absolutely love Atomic Habits by James Clear. I think he does a wonderful, wonderful job with that book. And there's a reason it's one of the biggest books of the last couple years.

And those are two that I absolutely love and that I have. I highly recommend. Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that. And we appreciate you coming on the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. Keep blazing out there. I can't wait to continue to follow your journey and find out what are the things you're coming up with from the creative standpoint. Yes, sir.

Thank you so much for having, man. I really appreciate you. Thank you.