Blaze Your Own Trail - S:2 Episode 9: The Journey to Cruz Country With Armando Cruz

Episode Date: June 3, 2020

Armando Cruz is a connoisseur of experiences, husband, father, adventurer, best selling author, ultra-marathoner, lifestyle physical therapist, and legacy coach. Armando helps growth-minded, men and women understand and eliminate chronic pain and optimize their 7 Healths: Spiritual, Emotional, Physical, Relational, Financial, Environmental, and Adventure. Armando's unique approach helps strip away the clutter both internally and externally to free you from pain and provide you a plan to thrive. He is the creator of the Cleanse & Renewal Program, the Modern Man Virtual Summit, and the R.I.C.H. Man Experience. He is the co-owner of Cruz Country Fitness & Physical Therapy with his wife, Christian. Armando has climbed mountains, run over 100 miles in a day in swamps filled with snakes and alligators, has lived out of his car, and has rollerbladed and surfed in hurricanes but his biggest adventure has been fatherhood. He is the proud dad of three amazing children and has been married for over 14 years to his beautiful wife, Christian. In this episode we discuss: Where Armando grew up What sports he was active in Where he learned hard work from Starting his business A breaking point His journey overseas His book and what it's all about Connect with Armando: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cruzarmando/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acruz3/ Book: www.legacycodebook.com Website: www.cruzcountry.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.

Hey everyone, this is such a great episode with Armando Cruz. The guy is amazing. He's got a lot of passion for what he does. And I can't wait to chat with you after the episode. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. I'm your host, Jordan Mendoza. And I've got a very special guest with me today. His name is Armando Cruz.

And Armando, if you can just for the listeners, give the audience just a little insights into who you are. and what you do today. Sure. First of all, thank you for having me on. It's a pleasure to finally meet and connect with you. But in a nutshell, I'd like to say I'm a connoisseur of experiences. I value and treasure each experience and each adventure that I get to have and get to create.

I am a husband of going on 14 years. I have three kids. and my wife and I help people understand, eliminate, and push through eliminating chronic pain. And that's really where we've kicked off everything and it's the hub of everything because from there there's different other opportunities of us to be able to serve them. but many people have been feel like they're enslaved or held hostage by their own bodies through pain. And so we help them escape that hostage situation and take control. I love that. That's awesome.

So let's get some context here. So on this show, you know, I'm always interested in the journey that people have been on. So I always like to start out from childhood. So, you know, where did you grow up? And, you know, what kind of childhood did you have? Did you have siblings? Did you live in a rural area? Did you live in the city?

Let's give the audience a little insights into, you know, how you were as a kid. Sure. Born and raised in Miami, Florida from two immigrant parents. My parents are both Cuban. What's interesting about that is my dad came over when he was 13. He, you know, he worked a whole bunch of jobs. He, you know, he went through college. He did all that stuff.

My mom originally went to Nicaragua because they were fleeing Cuba, the communists. She went to Nicaragua. She or my grandfather built up this whole rice business. He became like the Uncle Benz of Nicaragua. And then the communists came and they had to flee Nicaragua and they came over here. I share that because my wife, her parents, are in Nicaraguan. And I wasn't aware of how small that place is her dad, his dad, her dad's friends had a crush on my, my mom's sisters. So they were, you know, the family that had six

sisters. They were the Cuban family there and all the Nicaragans knew them. And so like small world that, you know, I don't know how many years later, my wife and I meet, and when she tells him that, that, you know, that my, my, my, my, my, my grandfather had lived over there. And he's like, wait, yeah, I know who they are. They lived here on this house. And on that one, she's like, there's no way. What are the odds of that? And sure enough, that's what it was. My, my, my, one of my aunts actually went to psychiatry school with my father-in-law. And it's like, Very small world. So anyway, sorry, fast forward, born and raised, Miami, Florida. Grew up in the suburbs. Parents, both working parents. My dad has his own construction company.

My mom worked for a development company. And grew up. I went to private schools all my life. And I am the oldest of four. Played every sport that there was in the school. And I fell in love with performance and exercise and health and optimizing life from an early age. And then that kind of grew into a moment of uncertainty because in high school, what was kind of difficult was all my classmates knew what they wanted to do and they had like a set path. Like, oh, I want to be an attorney. Oh, great.

You know, you can do this, go to law school. become an attorney. Oh, I want to be a doctor. Go to medical school, do this. I want to be an accountant. Go and do this, this and this. I knew that I liked exercise and you like performance, but I didn't really know if there wasn't really a track at that moment that at the other end of that I would be what I wanted. And so what I say, I Frankenstein my track to create what I wanted to do and to create the job that I wanted to create. And when I realized, that there was no job that fit the bill of what it was. I made it up. And so that started off with performance. And I realized, wait, you know, I can give the best exercises and give the best

training programs. But if you're not fueling your body properly, that isn't going to be worth anything. So I then went down and understood nutrition more. When I realized that, hey, if you're pushing the limits, you're probably going to get hurt at some point. So I had to get a better understanding, well, what is pain? How do you get hurt? How do you prevent it? And how, if you do, how do you get out of it quick? So I went and I did physical therapy. And then I realized, wait, all of this doesn't matter if your mind's not in the right place. And so I started diving into more of the personal development and understanding the mindset. And then I realized, wait, the mindset is only good if you can access it. And a lot of people talk about mindset, but there's another

thing called brain set, which is a precursor to that. And if you don't get that right, you never meet the mindset. And so dove into that and have created now after, I don't know, what I've been, we've had our company for 14 years, my wife and I. It's, we've created our own system to help people not only eliminate pain, but optimize what we call the seven healths. That's kind of almost to present. Okay. No, that's awesome.

So let's talk about the journey into entrepreneurship from the start. So, you know, thinking back to year one, right? You're in year one. You are getting into fitness first. So can you tell the audience, give some context on, you know, some pivotal moments for you where you kind of realized, you know what, this isn't enough. I need to add to my arsenal.

I want to add these other layers and levels. I think that that was born through the necessity. Like that what you're saying is like I need to add to the arsenal. It was not I need to add to the arsenal of the business, but of for me it happened to be in communication. It's, oh wait, I was very much a person that I was very straightforward in that. okay, wait, this is what you want to do, then let me tell you this. What I didn't realize was I didn't understand marketing and the psychology of communicating

what the person actually wants, which is they don't care what it is that you do. They don't care what it is that all your degrees and certifications. What they care is, can you help me with my problem at the end of the day? and if the context isn't framed in helping them with their problem, they're probably not going to hire you. But I also really appreciated, you know, when I started, I started with personal training and it was just one on one. At the beginning, the sales part of that was very difficult for me. But what I appreciated it, what I appreciated about the whole system, the way it was set up is that it was a pay for performance. if at any moment I was not producing what I said that I could do, they were there to fire me.

Right. So then my ability to retain clients was a direct reflection on my ability to deliver the value that I was saying. Sure. Right. No, no, absolutely. And so did you have any, when you launched, you said, you said didn't really know much about marketing and sales. So had you ever had any of those roles in the past? in high school, did you ever do anything sales or marketing related or was it just kind of

you were starting at the bottom and you just needed to figure it out? What's funny is that my undergrad, I remember a good friend of mine, Alex, that he's a real estate investor, has his own company. Undergrad, I remember having conversations. He always had these grant, this vision of being in a Fortune 500 company or owning his own company. And I was like, in my mind, I was like, no, no, I don't want to have to deal with. any of the business stuff. Just give me the people. I'll fix them. I'll make them better. Just give me the, let me do what I know how to do. And at the beginning, that's what I, that was my mindset. And I remember when I went into my master's to do physical therapy, I was getting ready

to the later end of my schooling. I remember my friend Alex called me one day. I was at an internship later at night. I was out of town. This internship was out of town. And he called me, he says, guess what? I started my own company. And I looked at him and I was like, what do you mean? You started your own company? Because to me, it was such a far away concept. I said, tell me about it. Like, what do you mean? You started your own company. He was, yeah, I incorporated. I started my own LLC. I'm going to be doing real estate. I'm going to do this, this, this, this and this. And I was like, wow, is that difficult to ask? And he goes, no, you can do it.

And the second that he said it, like the next thought of my mind, well, if Alex can do it, I can do it too. And probably two weeks later, I went on and I incorporated it. I had no, like, there was no planning. There was no business plan. There was no nothing. It was just, hey, my friend started a company. I'm going to start a company. So I created an LLC and I said, okay, well, I have this LLC.

see now what do I do and it was just I share that because I think sometimes it's like there's a fear of not having everything in place I kind of started it and then said okay well what can I create this into and I slowly built up and I said okay wait let me start with personal training great I know how to do that I have control of quality care right I have the control because it's just me and then slowly but surely it started growing and that actually shifted a lot once I got married because at the time I was doing the personal training and then I had graduated physical therapy school

and for three months I had just gotten married and for three months I was working at a physical therapy place which I really loved and I lasted three months because I really loved it but somewhere around week six I started doing math and I was like man if I just picked up two clients, I can make this, sorry, two clients, personal training, I can make just as much or more than what I'm making here in the hours that I'm working here

as a physical therapist. And I kind of lingered for six weeks and I was like, wait, this doesn't make sense because I value my time and I was just newly married. If it was between hanging out with my wife and hanging out with more patients, I was like, dude, I like helping people, but I like my wife a lot more, especially we just got married. Yeah. I wanted to hang out with her as much as I could. So I made the jump and I completely left that, took that, and then we started talking about opening up our own facility.

And then from there is when we opened up our own facility and started creating more leverage things, started creating group where we have employees, now delivering some of that. that and then figuring out how the business model is going to be. Yeah, and I think a lot of people come to that crossroads, right? Is it, you know, do I want to do the time for money or the money for time route, right? And it can be hard, right? It can be hard making that decision. And I think that the world, right, the media, the mass media, everyone's, you know, you have to have this role.

This is security or safety, you know, so I think it naturally in our brain, It's, yeah, if I don't have this, then I'm not going to be okay, right? And I think a lot of people I talk to, they have that same thing. You know, they're maybe they want to start something, but they're afraid to take the action because what if this, what if it doesn't work out, you know, what's going to happen next? And then now I burn this bridge and I'm not going to have a place there, you know? So what was it for you that gave you the confidence to just to just go all in? Was it because you knew you had a skill set that was valuable enough to build upon?

Or, you know, what was it? Was there a person that encourage you like parents or, you know, your wife, you know, you're newly married, right? So, and then that can be a challenging thing, right? Just newly married and then going off and venturing into doing your own thing. So what was it that gave you that confidence? Well, first, I'd like to state that at the very, nature you hear those people it's like oh I was a natural born entrepreneur from the beginning natural salesperson not me at all completely that that was so far out of my comfort zone and so far

of the way I did things growing up that the person I am today is not anywhere near that person growing up whenever you had to sell the chocolates it was like you know those fundraisers is like My mom would always end up having to buy the bare minimum because none of us would sell anything. And so it wasn't something that I grew up with. So I want to share that because we hear these natural entrepreneurs all the time on social media because that's their natural way of being. They're louder. They're more out in your face kind of people because that's their natural way of being.

That's totally cool. But don't think that you have to be like them in order to do something. on your own. And by the way, you don't have to be an entrepreneur to be fulfilled either. Like, you can be extremely fulfilled and you can be add tremendous value not being an entrepreneur, working for someone else with a vision and a mission that you believe in. That's just as helpful. We need both. Absolutely. Yeah. And those are more the entrepreneurs, right? Right. They, you know, working internally to build that business up. And, you know, I have a very unique situation. because I have a corporate role.

I've been with the same organization 13 years. I started in the bottom doing sales leasing and then assistant and property manager and multi-properties and then got into training. But I also have a consulting business, right? So I'm an employee and an entrepreneur and I've got a podcast. So I'm just that type of person. I have to be busy, but not just to feel like I'm doing something,

but it's just in my DNA to, I think a lot of that came from my dad, you know, he's an immigrant from the Philippines and telling me the stories about working in the rice fields and all he had was a caribow that helped him, you know, plow these rice fields, you know. And so that hard work is really in my DNA. And I was really the opposite of you because I sold my friends candy. You know, like I love, I love that process. I would go, I was super poor growing up. So we would go, I grew up in Oregon. We would literally go door to door and ask people for their cans because you got a nickel

for each can. Wow. So if I wanted something, my mom couldn't afford it. She was on disability. I mean, we had four siblings. I didn't have the money, so I had to create the money. You know what I'm saying? So, but yeah, I think you brought up a really great point that, you know, however you

are, that's how you're wired, right? We're all wired differently. Some of us are more extroverted. Some of us are more introverted. And it doesn't mean that. either one is better than the other. It's just who we are. And I think, you know, for people that are out there that are listening to this episode, you know, don't go against the grain of how you're wired just to try to be someone that you're not or to press other people. Right. You've got to do it in the

framework that of the human being that you were designed to be. Right. Right. No, I agree 100%. And, you know, I wanted to bring it up because there is that a lot of, of that conversation and somebody listening could be like, oh, there goes another one. Yeah, this guy had it. He, he, you know, he was a natural at this. No, I wasn't natural at this. But what I will tell you that the few things that really shifted me in this direction were, first of all, if we go back, I mentioned my dad had his own construction company. Growing up, my father was my was my best friend and not because I was some odd kid that nobody liked. I had plenty of friends. It was just he was the one that I trusted the most because I spent so much time with him.

We did a lot of training together. He was there at every practice. He was there at every game. And I picked up on it. Like I loved hanging out with my dad. And the fact that he had his own company and he had the autonomy of time was something that I kept early on. I realized I remember at 13 years old saying, man, when I grow up, I want to be a father like my dad was to me. Like to my kids, I want to be a father like my dad was to me, being able to spend time with them and have that freedom so that we could do whatever we wanted. And again, we still get the stuff done, but there was a certain freedom there. Whereas my mom always worked for someone and she had to fight for her two weeks every time.

And she was going on vacation. It was like the week before she would have to do double the work for the work that she was going to miss. So she was going on vacation. Yeah, but she had to do all the work before vacation so that she could go. And that I realized, wait, if I want to be the father that my dad was to me, part of that is that autonomy of time. And so that started, that planted a seat early on. And I think later on it came up. Once I got married, my wife was very supportive.

She's also in the industry. So she understood the way this worked and she realized, wait, no, this does make sense. You are leveraging a lot more of your time because you can make more here. And then finally when we decided, whoa, what if we opened up our place? Well, then we have more control over our time. Granted, we're risking more because now, you know, you're putting more at risk. but is the risk worth the return? Are we as a couple willing to endure that?

And again, that's a conversation. Like, if you're single, it's a very different thing than when you're married. Like, I hear often a lot of entrepreneurs, very young guys who are very successful, but what they're sharing works great if you're single. And your only responsibility is to you. your life revolves essentially around you. The second you choose someone else and say, I'm going, like, you're choosing marriage,

it's no longer just about you. It's a give and a take. Sometimes you have to sacrifice some things. And anyone that says anything different is probably not nourishing that marriage enough because you must give and take within a marriage, right? And then if you add kids to the mix, you know, I always say if I was single,

the difference in the risks that I would take would be very different. We love to camp. I love sleeping outside and being in nature, and I could lose everything and live in a tent by myself, and I'd be okay. I'd figure it out. My kids love going camping, but one thing is going camping where you're coming back home. The other thing is, no, no, this is like, this is home. I don't want to put them in there. So I don't take the same risk because I don't want to put them in that situation. I take the risk that both my wife and I are an agreement that we can take as a family. And I think that's also an important point that honor the stage of life that you're in. If you're single and you're in your 20s, go hog wild.

Take all the freaking risk that you want. You have so much time. Yeah. If you're 50 some years old and or 40 some years old, and you were married and you have kids, don't take a risk that's going to put everyone out on the street. Like you're doing everyone at this service. The upside is not worth it if that's the downside.

That's it. Yeah. You know, my wife and I have four kids, so two boys, two girls. And June 30th, we'll have our third boy. So that's five, man. So, yeah, no, I definitely get you there. And that's why that's really, you know, you have to know your why. You know, and for me, it's my family.

Like, I don't, I don't want my wife to have to work because she's already the MVP. She's already here with the kids while I'm traveling, you know, well, when I used to travel, but with COVID-19 happening. But when everything is all sudden done, I go back to traveling, right? And, you know, to have to have her here and teaching them and working with them and doing all that, I mean, that's a major blessing, you know. And so I, I work as hard as I do so that down the road, I don't have to, but also, you know, it affords us to be able to have her be home, you know,

because being a, being a mom is, that is a full-time job, you know. If the roles were reversed and I had to be the, there's no way I could do it. I'm very self-aware of that, that I couldn't, I couldn't be a stay-at-home dad. There's just no way. It's just not, I need to be around people. I need to be moving. I need to be busy. So I have so much respect for the stay-at-home moms.

that might be listening to the show, you guys do such an amazing job because I know that I definitely would fall short. I don't know about you, but I would fall short in that aspect. Yeah. Look, and I actually had a really good example with my father, though. And it's something, again, it's like who, what, what your, one of the things I like to say is your environment is one of the greatest predictors of success, right? Your environment helps create the things that you see help create the possible future you could have. Whether you deviate from that, that's another, that's another thing. But a lot of times, if you look at statistically speaking, your environment will highly determine your outcome very often. It's just, it's enough there to keep you where

it is that you're supposed to. That's why it's so important to surround yourself with people who expect excellence and demand more from you so that you can grow, from there, right? But my father was not afraid to do the housework, not afraid to be with the kids. In fact, they have 14 grandchildren and if it was up to him,

he would take care of all 14 at the same time. I share that because that's not how all men are. Like, no. My father at all is a brilliant guy, but he has a bandwidth for how much time he can spend with the kids. and definitely not 14, right? He can play with him for about an hour.

And then it's like, okay, I've had my fill and then kind of the next thing. He loves him, but it's not in his DNA. My dad is like a little kid. He'll play and play and play and play and play with him. And he'll play them, to be honest, he all play them. And so growing up, I saw that. So like right now, I work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. and my wife works Tuesday and Thursday.

Virtually, we see clients, we work, you know. So on the days that we're not working, we're responsible for homeschool. Because now I have my three kids here, and so now, okay, well, how do we do that? I have no problem doing it. I enjoy work, and my wife does a better job at making sure all the fine details get done. but I can still I can still execute it right and and the same thing my wife my wife because she pays attention and thinks about a million other things that I don't yeah um she does a much better job for sure yeah I'm I'm not a I'm not very detailed at all you know so my wife also keeps she

keeps me on track she's like tell the hey don't forget you have this like you've got this going on and and you know so yeah it's definitely a blessing when you can have a yin and a yang right you like you can compliment each other you know where they fall short maybe you have a strength and vice versa so let's talk a little bit about you know the start of your your first team right because i think this is an important topic right especially if you've never had to manage a large group of people before so would you say that you know and because it sounds like your dad has been a major influence in your life would you say that watching him, the way that he worked with his employees, the way that he ran his businesses.

Do you think that was a big contributor to the way that you operate your business and work with your team? It is, but it's also been part of the limitation in growing because my dad was a very hands-on person. So he had a construction company. And like I said, he could take off and go. He had his people. He was very organized.

and I had to go to work with him in the summers, so I knew how that went. It was not fun for me. Did not enjoy being, especially because it would happen in the summers. So it's like 90 plus degrees, 90 plus percent humidity, mosquitoes, and plus you're doing manual labor digging trenches, carrying blocks. I know that very well. My dad has a landscaping business for 40 years, so I feel you're paying there. And so it's tough work, man.

when you're doing hard labor in the summer, it's like, that's the worst. Yeah, yeah. And down here, Miami is no joke for sure. So all that to say, what I learned from my dad was the organization and the example that you set. Like his workers preferred when he wasn't there because when he was there, he wasn't there, he wasn't there on an ivory tower looking down. It was worse. He was in the trenches out working. them because he was a machine. Like if it was a trench, like he could out dig them. If it was doing

this, like he just wouldn't stop. And so I learned, number one, the persistence and the willingness to be in the trenches with your team. But that can only take you so long. That it only take you so far because at some point you do need to remove yourself to create more leverage and it's the thing over the past I would say I probably say the past seven years that my wife and I have really been focusing on is how to step away for a second to grow and leverage but not lose the intimacy and not lose the culture because you're not literally in the trenches digging at the same time so how do you maintain that and that's what we've learned over the past seven years and continue to refine as, as, as, uh, you know, as business owners.

Okay. So have you, have you and your wife done everything on your own or have you invested in like a coach, you know, someone to help you along in your business? Because I know, I know for me, the people like my mentors, my coaches, you know, people that are way smarter than me, you know, they have really invested a lot of time and energy in, in, and helping me grow. And I'm a believer that I don't I don't ever want to be the smartest guy in the room. You know, I just want to surround myself with people that elevate me and create a network of people that I aspire to be like. So can you give the audience some context if that's a route that you guys have taken and who that maybe who that person is? Yeah, I mean, to give you context, we've probably spent,

you know, both my wife and I have master's degrees. So both, of us have master's degrees we've probably spent more in coaches and in continuing growth and mentorship after or since having the business then we spent on our on our higher level of you get like we added and she went to a really expensive she went to a private school private university she went to the University of Miami which is a private one so she paid a lot more and we still have, have overcome. So yes, we've had plenty of coaches, plenty of mentors, join different programs, because, again, you want to be in different masterminds to surround yourself with

the way other people think that will, it's not necessarily that you're going to do what they did, but will help bring your longer, at the very least, open your mind to other possibilities that you didn't know we're there. Yeah, no, I completely, agree with that right especially if it's an area like you mentioned before sales and marketing those weren't your forte those didn't come naturally to you so um naturally you'd want to surround yourself with those people that actually do that so then you can take that framework and then build it with your personality styles you know because i think that i think that's an important thing too is that you don't just try to do it the way that other people are doing it now the framework is key

having that knowledge that you didn't have before and then using it to the way that you operate is really the way that I like to do. But what about yourself? Yeah, look, at the end of the day, you have to understand how we learn. Like, everyone learns a little bit different. But there's a part in learning where you have to consciously go through the steps. It's not going to feel natural. it's not even going to feel congruent.

And so sometimes what you end up doing is mimicking the person that is teaching you, even though it doesn't feel right. And I had a lot of struggle with that. I had a lot of struggle because I was trying to learn this skill, but at the same time, I was trying to manipulate it

so it fit everything. And sometimes when you try to do that, it doesn't work, you have to understand it, take it for, wait, I'm trying to acquire a skill, let me acquire, the reps, the skill first so that I can better understand it and then manipulate it in such a way that really resonates. And so I had a lot of initial struggle because I didn't understand that. I didn't understand that because I was like, why would I do it like this guy? Because I'm not

like that guy. Sometimes you need to do that when you're learning so that you understand what's the flow, what's the tempo like? What are the questions you need to ask? Even if they don't seem natural at the moment and then step back and say, okay, wait, now I've put in some reps here. I have an understanding of the flow of this. Now, how would I do it? How would I do it so that it makes sense to me? So it actually flows. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, makes sense. So what would you say, going back to mentorship and coaching, what would you say over the years has been the best advice that you've received? And you know, you can pick a topic. You can pick a topic, but just really curious to see what that advice was and why it's stuck with you.

One that comes, like I said, I've invested in a lot of different coaches, a lot of different, but one of the ones that stands out to me is probably one of, I would say that there were three men in my life that created massive shifts. One, my father. Second, second man was my 10th grade philosophy teacher. He was the person that got me fascinated with reading and being a Renaissance man. Like, I remember asking about anything, and he just had this massive library, and he just read so much that it's like, he was like Google, right? He was like a human Google, and that fascinated me because to me, one, like being able to connect with someone is really important. And so if you know someone's language is a wonderful way of connecting with them, right? That's it, yeah.

If you understand a topic that they're talking about, you can connect because, oh, it's something that they're interested in, right? So to me, the pursuit of knowledge and the pursuit of understanding was really important at that moment of my life. Granted, I didn't really read, even though that started. I started building a library, which I'm in right now, though you can't see it, because I have it set up for the video. But I started building my library since 10th grade. and then not only not until i graduated my master's did i actually start reading reading i didn't read through college i mean i just showed up for the class took a lot of notes but i never read the books like never except one class that they tested you on everything that

you had to read um but i that love for that but the other person is is is probably the coach that i would say that i had the deepest connection with which is now I say friend, Dax. And one of the things that he always said was, you don't have to be more than you are just all that you are. And that kind of stood out. Like at first I was like, wait, I mean, I know it sounds kind of cool and everything like that because it flows, but like what does that really mean? And what I got from it was it gave me permission to be the best me that I could be, not try to be like somebody else. And the second that I owned that, I started seeing my gifts for what they were. And then I could double down on

them and actually serve the world with those gifts. So to me, that was a really pivotal moment in just with that one statement. You don't have to be more than you are just all that you are. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, yeah, I love anything that's related to just, you know, striving to be the best version of you, right? And looking at it through that context, awesome. And so what would you say just for the audience, you know, there's a lot of our listeners are either, you know, early stage entrepreneurs or maybe aspiring entrepreneurs and give some context to them on, you know, what, what's been in your 14 years? And first off, congrats, right? A lot of businesses don't make, get out of year one. So you guys have found something that's working, right, to be to have a longstanding business. So what would you say has been the hardest thing for you guys or maybe the biggest challenge or struggle or hurdle that you've gone through to date? And how have you, how did you get past it? Okay. This one is, uh, is a little bit, uh, definitely deeply personal. So maybe seven years ago, no, six years ago, I got to a point and maybe you can relate or, you know, somebody listening, have you ever like worked for something and like been striving for something? And then once you get there, instead of feeling fulfilled and excited, you feel this feeling of, is that all there is?

I share that because about six years ago I fell into that. You know, we had the nice business that we were serving people. We loved our clients. Have a good marriage, a healthy marriage. We had healthy kids. My wife was pregnant with our third at the time. And, you know, from the outside, you have a nice house. You have a car.

You know, like things were good. but inside something felt off and I felt lost. I got to this place in my life where I fell into this dark, dark place that led me down in, I say depression because it was a less than state than I, it wasn't like a clinical depression, let's say, but it was definitely that the actions were in alignment with something like that, right? And I make that distinction because I don't want to just throw out the word depression because it is a very serious word that a lot of people suffer from. But it was definitely a state where I got to a point where I felt so lost. I felt like I had lost my identity because I had been working towards all this stuff.

And there was a moment where I just kind of put my head up. and I was like, this was supposed to feel different. I was supposed to feel more fulfilled, and I didn't know what it was. At that moment, I lost who I was. I didn't know, like, everything I had worked for, everything that I had believed to be true, didn't seem true anymore, didn't seem in alignment.

So it put me down this dark place to the point where I almost bankrupted the business. my wife is spreading with a third child I'm pushing clients away like I'm not taking on new clients even though we need it and I'm coming home and sleeping four to six hours

in the middle of the day and I just don't want to do anything I'm just I don't know I'm like frozen you know that when people say you know that fight flight or freeze I was in the flight or the freeze state I wasn't fighting with anybody I was just

trying to disappear because I didn't know. I didn't know where I stood. I didn't know who I was at that moment, what I wanted to do, how I wanted to keep going. And it was a really dark time. And I remember my wife said, look, I don't know what else to do. And I remember around that time my coach, Dax had reached out and he invited me to a retreat in Thailand. And after having the conversation with I felt like this is exactly what I needed. And I remember going to my wife and telling her about it. And there were two problems with the retreat. Number one, like I said, I was bankrupt in the business.

So I didn't have the money for it. And number two, the retreat finished a week before my wife's duty. Right. And if you know anything, if you've had multiple kids, you know that the more kids you've had, the earlier that they can come. right because yeah the woman's ready to deliver it's done it a few times right so there's a chance i can miss the birth of my child and i remember having the conversation with my wife and asking her you know i don't know what else to do but i think this could really help and i remember what she said

next to me was one of the greatest acts of courage and love that i've ever experienced she goes well if you feel like this is what you need to do to kind of figure this out, then you need to do this. Not for you, but for us. She said, I would rather you miss the birth of our child than miss the rest of our life because you're not the man, the husband or the father. I know you can be. Wow, it's powerful. Right? And that was like a punch to the gut because that was the mirror right in my face.

And she said this from a place not of spite or anything. Like this was coming from pure love. She was just like, look, I can't help you anymore. We need you. And if this is what it takes, like we need to do this as a family. And so fast forward, I was able, we figured out the money situation, flew out to Thailand, which by the way is like a 24-hour trip, you know, door to door. I'm halfway across the world.

It's a 12-hour difference. So I would call my kids and my wife and in the morning and it'd be they're going to bed. And they would call me in the morning and I'd be going to bed and going to bed. And it was kind of like one of those things. And I remember the clarity and the perspective that I got there. Number one, just from stepping away was massive. So I would highly encourage if you're ever kind of in a stuck in a place where you're stuck, perspective matters. right? If you looked at a cylinder from the side, you could think that it's a rectangle. If you looked at it from the top, you could think it's a circle. But it's only when you look at it all the way around that you realize, wait, no, it's a combination of them and it's actually a cylinder. Well, your life is very much that way. A problem that you're having is very much that way. So when you're feeling stuck, find different ways of gaining different perspective. Sometimes physically stepping away.

Sometimes it's just like physically moving your body in a different place. Like if you've been sitting down and you're stuck on this problem, stand up, walk around, shift and think about it from a standing position. Sometimes that's good enough. Emotionally, you need a different perspective. Right. So sometimes you need the perspective of someone else to help you with this. Right. So I was able to get a physical shift in perspective flying halfway across the world.

I was able to gain clarity and guidance through the coaching. And I realized, number one, the work that I was doing, my clients, my business was exactly what I wanted. I just couldn't see. I hadn't seen it before. And I just gained the clarity and like, oh, wait, look at the impact that I'm actually having. And then there was a little bit more that I realized that I wanted to work with and help other men like myself. married men that were family-centric entrepreneurs that wanted to show up more powerfully in their marriage, that want to show up more powerfully in their business, and want to show up more powerfully in their health and the impact and the legacy that they create. And so while I was there, I had the space and the time to start creating the program that I wish I would have had.

And so I created my immersive program called the Rich Man Experience. and rich was a redefinition of the word rich into a value system. It's standard for respected, inspired, connected, and happy. I sure that because when I got back, three days later, my son was born, so I didn't miss that. But I came back completely a different person, and I had a much bigger vision for the impact that we were having and the impact that I wanted to leave. I started reaching out to other men like myself and we started working, going through this rich man protocol, rich man experience, which then led me after two years to realize, wait, this is something that more people need to hear.

And that's where I wrote my book, The Legacy Code, which kind of chronicles the process that I take a lot of these guys to purposely and powerfully create their legacy. I love that, man. Yeah, I love that. So thinking about the flight there versus the flight back was, was it noticeably different, right? Because on the way there, I'm sure you didn't know what to expect. You didn't know it was going to happen in Thailand. You didn't know if it was going to change, but you had a lot on the line.

So that flight there was probably scary as hell. You know what I'm saying? So how was the flight back? Well, let me share. The flight over there was nerve-wracking. It was kind of like God's sense of humor kind of came out because it was like what I needed. I couldn't wait to be there. And I knew that it was an experience that would transform me.

And on the flight over there, it was Miami to Shanghai. Shanghai to Puket in Thailand. When I get to Shanghai, they say, oh, you don't have the continuing boarding flight to Pouquet. It's like, what do you mean? So I'm like, look, I have to be there. They're like, oh, there's no flight until tomorrow. I was like, no, but you don't understand.

The time difference means I miss half, if not all, of the first day. I can't do that. Like, my family sent me on this mission. And I was like, look, you have to do something. The lady tells me, she goes, there's another flight that leaves in 10 minutes. And it's across the entire airport. I have a book bag. I have luggage that I'm rolling.

Just one, like a carry on roll on luggage. She goes, I'm going to put you on there. I don't know if you can make it. I said, I'm a runner. I will make it. I ran the entire airport from one end to the other without stopping. And I made it as they were closing the doors. There was nobody in that whole section of the airport.

And I just barely made it that I got to Phuket at like 4 in the morning. And it started at 10 a.m. And luckily, I had a friend that. were there that were doing the retreat and they're like, hey, whenever you get in, just call me, this is our hotel, come in, crash for the few hours and then we'll all go there together. So that was me trying to get there. The sense of excitement, relief, focus that I had going back was so free and exciting. But it was also a very stressful thing because I'm calling my wife.

It's 3 o'clock in the morning Pouquet time. So it's 3 p.m. here in Miami. And this is my call. Hey, what's going on? My wife, I can hear in her voice. She's been crying and she doesn't sound well. She goes, I've been throwing up all day. I'm completely dehydrated.

The kids are like running around. she's at home by herself. Everyone is working. My mom is working. My dad is working. My in-laws are working. She goes, I don't know what to do. And like she's telling me this and she's concerned about the baby because she's so dehydrated.

And my taxi comes. And I can only talk to her through the Wi-Fi, which the hotel has. So now, like, she's trying to tell me. like where she's at emotionally and physically, and I'm telling her, I've got to go and I won't see you for 24 hours. So my entire trip back, I'm wondering what's happening.

She ended up in the hospital. My mom had to take her to the hospital because she was to get an IV because she was so dehydrated from throwing up and everything like that. But I didn't know any of this. I was just left with, I'm sick, puking my guts out, super dehydrated,

and I can't do anything, but just lay down in the couch. and the kids are just like running around. Like that's what I was left. So on one hand, it was very freeing. The other hand, it was very, very, very intense. Yeah. So, you know, the 12-hour flights probably both felt like 24-hour flights, right?

Like, because they were both very, yeah, both very stressful, just getting, having to make it there. So, wow, that's an amazing stories. So let's go ahead and give the audience some value from a fitness perspective. There might be people on there listening. They're saying, you know what, I think I want to really get into fitness or maybe I want to get into nutrition. And so I'll let you pick one of the many categories that you have expertise in. And let's give maybe your three best tips. So whether that's fitness, nutrition, you know, whether that's, you know, helping people with their marriages and relationships.

You pick the topic and let's give them three tips. And then we'll give the audience context of where they can find it. because I know I've gotten a lot of value out of this, and I'm sure the audience has gotten a lot of value as well. So there are going to be people that listen back to this and say, you know what, that's a guy I want to surround myself with. That's a guy that I think can really help me out. So let's give them the tips first,

and then we'll get into where they can find you. Sure. Let me ask a clarifying question here. Would you like me to tailor this more for like a personal thing? like in other words something that they can do personally or do you want me to tailor it if somebody's thinking about going into the business of the health and fitness or something along those like what would be you think more let's go the let's go the personal round yeah let's let's do that right because i mean you know we're where everybody's trapped right and so i i look at it and it's like i got up

this morning and i was like you know what actually i'm off today i'm off for my my regular role so I'm going to go run the neighborhood and I ran four miles, you know, and I don't typically do that. I don't typically get the chance because I'm sitting in two hours of traffic, you know. So like you said before, perspectives, everything, right? I could be in traffic or now I can look at it like a, wow, I got up. I got my wife some coffee and now I'm going to go run and have that mental health break, you know, that 50 minutes alone with no phone and no distractions, right? So I think the fitness tips, especially like in the state of our world, are probably going to be very beneficial.

So let's go that route. Okay. Let's set a little bit of context for a second. Earlier on I mentioned this idea of the seven healths. And, you know, when we think of health, the opposite of that would probably be disease, right? This ease, sickness, right? So the seven healths are emotional health, spiritual. health, physical health, relational health, financial health, environmental health, and the last one,

adventure. Okay. Each one of them represents an ingredient of the bigger picture of your life and what health means. They all contribute. They're all intermingled with it. So I want to share a few of them so that you can keep them in mind. Number one, if you're emotional, if I gave you a pencil and said, Jordan, would you consider this pencil to be heavy? The answer would probably be? No. No. Right? I hope not. Right? But I've asked you, Jordan, take that pencil and I want you to outstretch your hand and hold it out in front of you just like that. And I want you to try and do that for the next 10 minutes. Well, that pencil didn't change in weight,

but you holding it on the outstretched arm now feels real heavy. Your traps and your neck and your shoulder are going to be burning and going to be on fire. If you could even get to 10 minutes because I haven't met that many people that could, to be honest.

So the reason I give you that example is that sometimes we think the big things in life are what are holding us down, but oftentimes the little things that we've been holding on to exhaust us and drain us without us even knowing. So the question is, what are you holding on to right now? That is no longer serving you.

If you can answer that, you can now say, well, is it okay to set it down now? Do I still need it? Can I leave it for somebody else? Do I want to burn it and make sure nobody else touches it? Right? I share that because the emotional stuff very often is the stuff that's harder to address. One of the things on my list of projects that I plan on doing is doing some kind of event, like a marathon or something, carrying a big log.

And on the log, I plan to write, not all burdens are visible, right? right and the reason that because if you're carrying a log anybody can see if I'm struggling you know going through a marathon and I'm carrying there like oh this guy's freaking carrying a log of course he's going to be tired well what's the remedy to that well put the log down right put the log down it's not going to be so hard the problem is that emotionally is it it's very difficult to identify that log sometimes so it's even that much more difficult to set it down. Right.

So that's one thing that I want to share with you. But it's a huge one because it's one of the ones that a lot of people completely miss. Right. The other one is movement. People always talk about workouts, training, and exercise. I redefine that a little bit to movement. And here's how I define movement. Is moving your body in such a way that you move your,

your joints, ligaments, and muscles so that it energizes, excites, and leaves you feeling better than before. Why is that important? If we focus, let's say right now, everyone is cooped up, stressed out because things are shifted, right? Our brain does not like change, and there's a lot of change for a lot of people right now. So that's kind of freaking people out. plus on top of that you have this virus going around, right? So that's another stressor. So how do we optimize our help? Well, movement energizes, excites, and leaves you feeling better than before.

That definition is important because if you are going to exhaustion and completely exhausting yourself and beating yourself into a hole, you are actually putting yourself more at risk of getting sick. You're stressing the system more than it needs to. So during this time, during times of high stress, instead of thinking I'm going to start and get, you know, six-pack abs, maybe it's something to help you focus. But when it starts becoming a stressor that it starts draining you, you're crossing the line and now you're being more susceptible. So how do you infuse movement so that you feel better when you're done, not more exhausted? I bet when you finish your four-mile run, like you're doing this interview and whatever else you were doing today, I bet you've probably felt more energized and actually more excited to seize the day, not feel like crap.

I forget it. I can't do anything else. I'm going back to bed. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you know, those the endorphins that get released and, you know, just the fact. And it's funny you said that because I was at like 2.34 miles. and I was on my, I was on the intersecting street in my, in my subdivision, and I looked,

I could see my house. And in my head, I said, I could just go home right now. Like, I could just go home. And then, and then in my head, I said, but what if I just finished? What if, what if, because I, my goal is to trace the neighborhood and tracing the neighborhood, it's 4.14 miles. And I said, if I, if I go home now, I'm just going to go and sit down and do it. whatever, or I could finish this up. And it was a, and, you know, I think there's crossroads a lot

with humans. Like, we come to these crossroads. And for me, it was like, it was a pride thing. For one, it was like, I don't want to go back and tell my wife that I finished it if I didn't. You know what I'm saying? So I was like, I got to keep going. So I pushed on and I got back. And yeah, you're right. And I felt good. I felt because this is the longest run that I've done in a wow, because I'm always, you know, I'm always on the road or I'm always doing things. So, you know, so yeah, I get that. Right. I would say that the last and final thing and it's related to pain. Sometimes it's physical pain, sometimes it's emotional pain. But one thing is for certain. You're in a relationship with your body. And one of the hallmarks to a healthy relationship

is proper communication. If your wife said something to you and your initial response was to fight back, how healthy is that relationship going to be? Not very healthy. If that's your immediate response all the time, to fight back, your body, when it's creating pain,

is not fighting you. It's trying to communicate with you. Part of the problem is that you haven't learned the language of your body. And so how great a relationship are you going to have if you don't even understand what your body's needs are at the moment. Your brain's needs are at the moment. And so what I encourage you, if you find yourself that you're in pain, stop and understand

that your body's not attacking you. Your body's trying to communicate with you. The question is, are you ready to listen? Once you're ready to listen, then the dialogue can start. But if not, it's just pushing and doing. bumping heads. And that's not going to lead to a healthy relationship. And what you want is to build a healthy relationship with your body so that you treat it right and it treats you well. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. And it makes a lot of sense. And, you know, I definitely love those

three tips. I mean, even for me, right? Just as a, as the host of the show, those are things that I definitely want to implement, you know, because, you know, there have been times when I was definitely more into fitness than I am now, but, you know, I'm not getting younger, right? I'm 39, so I'm not super old, but, you know, I want to make sure that I can have a good relationship with my body so that I can stretch out life, right? Because that's what you're actually doing is you're giving yourself more life by investing in all of those areas, not just the three, but the seven that you had mentioned before. So, man, this has been great.

those tips are definitely valuable. And so where can everybody find you? There's going to be people that listen and they're going to hear your story and they're going to be inspired by this. So where can they find you? I'm on all those. Well, I don't know all of them, but I'm on Facebook. I'm on Instagram.

I'm on LinkedIn. We met on LinkedIn. Each one kind of has a different facet. In LinkedIn, I share a lot more, it's more business stuff. and Facebook you get like a mix of personal and business and then Instagram you're going to find me a lot more my creative pursuits whether it's drawing woodworking metalworking adventures that kind of stuff you're going to see that there so you'll get to see a different side but I guess one of the the places that I'd

encourage people to go especially if you're experiencing pain is to to go to our website, Cruz, CRUZCountry.com. And on there, we have a presentation free that'll get you, if you want to get a better understanding of the language of your body and the language of pain are the six components that lead to chronic pain and then what to do about it to actually move you forward. And so you can just register for that. It's free.

Nothing is sold there or anything like that, but it's an educational piece so that people get a better understanding. That's where I would encourage them. If you're interested in possibly learning a little bit more of more of the legacy component, I would encourage you to get the book and just go to legacy codebook.com and there's a link there that you can go to Amazon to purchase it. But on there, there's a whole bunch of interviews. I did a virtual book tour on different podcasts that if you want to hear more about the book,

there's a synopsis there. There's a whole bunch of information there that will give you a little bit more context for what this whole book is about and what to expect. So those will be the places that I would encourage people to go. That's awesome. Well, you definitely have blazed your own trail, you know. So I definitely appreciate you taking the time, you know, coming on the show. And I'm sure we'll definitely be staying connected.

And I hope you have an amazing weekend with your family. Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me. And thank you for doing this. Thank you so much for listening to that episode. with Armando Cruz. Man, the guy does a lot. They've got their business.

He's an author. He's a father. And he's just got a lot of positive energy. And make sure you connect with him. I'll make sure all that info is down in the show notes. And if you aren't already subscribed to the show, please subscribe and also share this show with your friends if you enjoy it. Our goal is to impact as many people as possible through the content.

Another thing is, if you haven't already written a review and rated us, please do that in iTunes. That will also help us move up the ranks with the hopes to becoming a top ranked podcast in the future. Thank you so much again, and I'll talk to you soon.