Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Jesse Iwuji On Creating an Unstoppable Life EP 61

Starting point is 00:00:00 Driver! Start driving! So many people have these big goals, these big dreams that they're too scared to go after, and they go to the grave with them. There was many times I wanted to quit. I wrecked out of six of my first seven races. After each one, I could have easily been like, why am I doing this still? Quit.

Starting point is 00:00:35 But I told myself, no, it's gonna get better. What's in my fourth race? Racked again. No, it's gonna get better. Got to my fifth, racked again. No, it's gonna get better. Got to my fifth, wrecked again. Now it's gonna get better. Got to my sixth, wrecked again. You gotta begin walking and keep walking.

Starting point is 00:00:50 Start running, keep grinding. Even when you're tripping fall, you get up and you go. Anytime someone tells you you can't, look the other way and you keep going. Welcome visionaries, creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, leaders and growth seekers of all types to the Passion Struck Podcast. Hi, I'm John Miles, a peak performance coach, multi industry CEO, Navy Veteran and entrepreneur on a mission to make Passion Go viral for millions worldwide. In each week I do so by sharing with you an inspirational message and interviewing I achievers from all walks of life who have gone a lot their secrets and lessons to become an action star. The purpose of our show is to serve you the listener. By giving you tips,

Starting point is 00:01:37 tasks and activities you can use to achieve peak performance and for two, a passion-driven life you have always wanted to have. Now let's become PassionStrike. Welcome to the PassionStrike podcast and episode 61, and this is a very special one with NASCAR Extinity Driver Jesse Luigi. So excited for you to hear this incredible episode that we have today. And Jesse is our second episode in the month of September that are featuring veterans who served in the 20-year war on terror. It's our salute to them. If you didn't catch last week's episode,

Starting point is 00:02:16 it was with the Black All Racing team, a veteran run team, with owners Janet and Tony Black All. And next week, we have some incredible episodes coming up featuring two astronauts. Distinguished Naval Academy graduate and the first female Naval Academy graduate to fly in space Wendy Lawrence, will discuss her time in the space shuttle program

Starting point is 00:02:40 and also her relationship with our other astronaut, Caleb Barron, who is in final preparations for her main voyage to the International Space Station, which will happen in October. And then I have three episodes with former Navy SEALs. The first is with former Navy SEAL commander, Mark Devine. The second is with former Navy SEAL and retired Army Colonel, Dr. Bob Adams, and the third is with retired Navy SEAL and retired Army Colonel Dr. Bob Adams and the third is with retired Navy SEAL William Brannum. Some amazing content and I hope you get to

Starting point is 00:03:10 check all of them out. I did want to recognize an event that happened to me today. I received a call completely out of the blue from a veteran who I had never spoken to before and he had happened to see a recent episode I did with Dr. Michael Lewis on traumatic brain injury. And he himself is a retired Navy SEAL that is going through some hardships right now because of traumatic brain injury and other trauma. And it's moments like that where I am so thankful that I started on this journey to create passion struck.

Starting point is 00:03:42 Its purpose is to reach listeners, just like that veteran, and give them information that helps change their lives. What we're trying to do with this show is to provide incredible content that helps anyone who's listening, improve their life, and take it to the next level.

Starting point is 00:04:00 I'm gonna start out today's episode with two quotes. The first is from Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who said, the winner ain't the one with the fastest car. It's the one who refuses to lose. And the second quote is from Roger Stavak, who said, I have a lot to learn about NASCAR. But I have learned if you have the right people in the right places, doing the right things, you can be successful at whatever you do. And I

Starting point is 00:04:25 picked those because Dale Earnhardt is one of Jesse's inspirations and Roger Stoback, like Jesse and I, are Naval Academy graduates, and I just really like that quote from Roger a lot. Now let me tell you a little bit more about Jesse. No one has ever tried to enter NASCAR from the Navy until now. Jesse Uigi is a naval officer and NASCAR Exfinity driver. He just signed a huge contract with Emmett Smith, who will be his sponsor for next season. He also drives in the Camping World Truck Series. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy,

Starting point is 00:05:00 where he played Division I A College Football for four years, was commissioned as a surface warfare officer where he has been on two Arabian golf deployments. Outside of the Navy, Jesse always had a passion for motor sports. In 2015, he made history by becoming the first US Naval Officer and Naval Academy graduate to compete in NASCAR. He is a two-time winner of the NASCAR Diverse Driver Award and outside of racing and his time serving the Navy. Jesse has also starred in various TV and online shows, owns his own drag racing event company called the Red List Group, owns a trucking business called JV.

Starting point is 00:05:40 J.E. Transportation and an eSports event company based on Simracin. And in today's episode, we're gonna talk about his journey from the Navy to NASCAR, how the Navy taught him what success looks like, what he learned from playing Division 1 sports, how he has learned that everything he put in the military, he is now putting into his race car, why he put so much effort into achieving his goals

Starting point is 00:06:08 and his inspiration for you to do the same. How many times in his initial season he wanted to quit, but instead conquered those obstacles and challenges that came his way and persevered to reaching the second highest level of NASCAR and so much more. I know you can't wait to hear this episode, so let's become PassionStruck.

Starting point is 00:06:28 [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Welcome to this special episode of the PassionStruck Podcast, and I am so excited today to have Lieutenant Commander Jesse Uigi, who is also an Ascar Expended driver. Thank you, Jesse, so much for being on the show today. Yeah, thank you so much for having me on the show. Well, we both happen to be in able Academy grads and I reached out to you after reading Shipmate magazine, which is our alumni magazine, seeing this great

Starting point is 00:07:02 spread on your story. And having lived myself in Mooritzville, North Carolina, in the heart of NASCAR for many years, I just had to do this interview. So what an amazing story of transition for you. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. It's been a pretty crazy, interesting journey.

Starting point is 00:07:22 So like me, you were a division one athlete at the Naval Academy. I happened to do cross-country track and field and then cross-country, and you spent all four years as I remember playing on the football team. Can you tell me a little bit of how varsity sports has prepared you not only for your career in the military, but now being a professional athlete? Yeah, so, you know, playing part-city sports

Starting point is 00:07:46 of the Naval Academy has done a lot for me, physically, mentally, spiritually, all of that. It helped me understand key concepts, key things that are very, very important towards eating and anything you wanna do in life. There was a lot of different virtues, a lot of different things that we learned from our coaches on the football field.

Starting point is 00:08:04 One of the biggest lessons I learned, especially at the Naval Academy through our coaches was our coaches always had this saying. It was a very simple saying and this saying was nobody cares. And the reason why they would say that is I think, at a me, as you saw, we're not the biggest team out there. And we're playing against teams like Notre Dame, Ohio State, they typically outsize us. They typically have better speed than us. They're stronger. They're all of us. Maybe they have better facilities, whatever it is, they have all this stuff that's quote unquote better, but at the end of the day, no one feels sorry for us. We still have to line up just like they do every single down and fight for that win. And what did we do?

Starting point is 00:08:41 We beat Notre Dame twice while I was at the academy. A team that should have stomped us every single year. They didn't. And that's because we never felt sorry for ourselves. Even though the other team might have this, might have that, might have these five star recruits, four star recruits, potential NFL players, future NFL stars, whatever it is, it didn't matter. Nobody made excuses for us. We're not going to make excuses for ourselves just because maybe we don't have those same things, those same people, But at the end of the day, our motto was nobody cares. Nobody cares about what we don't have. He still had to line up and go. I took that from when I played football and applied it to everything else I did in life, whether it was, you know, my career as an officer in the Navy, when I was starting in this whole

Starting point is 00:09:19 journey and NASCAR trying to work my way up the ranks, I didn't have a lot of resources to begin. But guess what? Nobody cares. Nobody feels sorry for me. No one's going to feel sorry for me and just pushed me along. I have to figure it out. And that's what I learned while playing varsity sports at the Naval Academy. Well, that's great. And so as I was looking at some videos on you, I myself was not a surface worker officer, but I've spent my fair share of time on a variety of ships while I was in. And I remember hearing you talk about how you were on deployment and you got this vision

Starting point is 00:09:53 that you wanted to be an ask car. Why an ask car out of all sports? And can you talk about pedophony and how it came about? Yeah, so the actual original epiphany came about, I would say about seven months prior to my second deployment. And I was sitting in my room in San Diego one night and I was sitting there, I was thinking like, what are the different things I want to do post Navy? Where do I want to go?

Starting point is 00:10:19 What's my next adventure? I'm a sports guy. I like exciting, intense things. You know, what I want to do? Football was over for me. I wasn't going to play football anymore. I wasn't a basketball player. I like doing exciting, intense things. You know, what I want to do? Football was over for me. I wasn't going to play football anymore. I wasn't a basketball player. I wasn't anything else.

Starting point is 00:10:28 But what was I going to do that was going to be fun fulfilling and a crazy journey. And I had always liked cars. I had always liked racing. And so that particular point, that was January 2014. Up until that point, I had been taking my personal cars to local tracks in Southern California doing open track days.

Starting point is 00:10:46 And these are track days that anyone can bring their vehicle to the track, do a bunch of sessions, drivers, that's if you want on the track, learn how to control your vehicle on the track is really, really fun. Well, guys, the point where it finally knows that you know what I like doing this, I don't want to do it at a low level for the rest of my life. I want to take it to the highest level possible. Why not try to become a professional race car driver? And that is where the journey began.

Starting point is 00:11:08 And from there, it was trying to figure out, how do I find the resources to make this happen? How do I find the money? How do I find the time? How do I find all this stuff? Because I was still active duty in the Navy. So there was a lot of stuff I needed to figure out on timing and resources and all that stuff to make it happen.

Starting point is 00:11:24 But that at first, the original epiphany happened about, yes, seven months before deployment, while on deployment, I just kept dreaming about it more and more and more. And it really, really started believing that I was going to actually make this happen. And I did through a lot of help and a lot of support from a lot of great people. So how do you balance, especially when you were on active duty, active duty life and being a race car driver, because having, like I said, been on ships, it's a pretty arduous duty, whether you're at sea or it can be even worse when you're getting prepared

Starting point is 00:11:59 for deployments and having to do all kinds of upkeep on the ships. So for me, having to balance the active duty life and getting into racing, yeah, it definitely, it's a lot of time management stuff. Luckily for me, when I decided to finally embark on the journey, when I actually started taking the physical steps to make it happen, this began in the beginning of 2015.

Starting point is 00:12:20 And at that point, I had just come off of the deployment and I was transitioning from C-Duty to Shore Duty. So while I'm sure I had a lot more free time especially on the weekends, if I would have tried to bark on this journey while still being on the ships, it would have been really, really difficult because you don't know your underway schedules, you don't know when you're going to be away and back away and back. You don't know if you're going to have these inspections coming up, how much time it's going to take to get through the inspections, all that stuff.

Starting point is 00:12:46 So for me, I had to embark on it after I came back from my second deployment and after I transitioned from C2D to Shore. And once I did that, then I knew that, okay, you know, for the most part, majority of my weekends are going to be free. So when I embark on this racing journey, I'm going to work my normal Navy job Monday through Friday, you know, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. And then on the weekends, I'll go racing. And I would fly out Friday evening to the tracks that I was going to race at race on Saturday, fly back Sunday, go back to work on Monday. And that's what I did, you know, multiple, multiple week throughout the year.

Starting point is 00:13:17 And some, some weeks harder than others, but I did what I could where, when I can, or when I could. And what I also did too was, you know, sometimes there would be certain events or things I needed to go to that was during the week. I just have to take leaves to make that happen. Okay. And one of the inspirations I read about that you have, and I think we chatted about a little bit

Starting point is 00:13:36 as Dale and her junior. And I mentioned to you, I've met him numerous times, mostly at the waffle house. At night. But my neighbor, Pete, when we lived in Morseville was his agent. And so I got to meet him a few times through that. But probably spent the most time with Jimmy Johnson, because I worked for Lowe's, and he was our driver for so many years. But having someone like Bill or her junior in his lineage in racing,

Starting point is 00:14:09 how monumental has that been for you and getting where you are now? Bill's also always been a really cool guy, very informative. He's passed on some good knowledge to me. Really nice guy, just down the earth. No one like that who has a ton of media attention, all that popularity, all that stuff, for him to still be really reachable and down the earth. No one like that who has a ton of media attention, all that popularity, all that stuff for him to still be really reachable and down the earth. It was always something cool to me.

Starting point is 00:14:30 And I've always wanted to kind of be that type of person where it don't matter how much pain, no matter how much celebrity, whatever I get, I always want to be somebody who is still just a normal person. And he is definitely somebody who embodies that who continues to stay grounded. And I like that a lot. So I try to learn when I can't for when I can't. He's a super awesome guy. He's done a lot, you know, obviously done

Starting point is 00:14:52 great on the track, done great off the track. And you know, just someone that you just want to know. Well, definitely and I will tell you, there are some very approachable drivers. One of the most approachable, I knew back in the day, it was Matt Kanzel, because we went to church together. And I just love how he would show up with his whole family, and he would be present in doing whatever he was doing.

Starting point is 00:15:16 And like you said, just totally normal person outside of the race car. Well, one of the things I wanted to get into is, you may not be familiar with the study that was done by Gallup, but in 2019, they actually surveyed the one billion full-time workers around the world and found out that only 15% of them are engaged at what they're doing. So that otherwise, it means 85% of the world's one billion full-time workers aren't fulfilled and what they're doing.

Starting point is 00:15:47 And that's a big reason for why I started PassionStruck because to me it all starts with making a choice, which you had to do as well. And I was hoping for the listeners and watchers. You can talk about how did you come about making that choice and what were some of the difficult things you had to go through when you were trying to make it. Many, many difficult choices. We're going on any journey in life and when you're trying to accomplish something bigger than where you're at, you know, you're gonna... there's a lot of sacrifices that will have to be made. For me, I was used

Starting point is 00:16:18 to just do all my normal day job coming home, relaxing, eating food or working out, eating, relaxing, maybe watching some TV, watching a bunch of YouTube videos, whatever it is. That's like what I would do on a daily basis. And then on the weekends, go party all the time, like every weekend, Friday, Saturday, all the time. And then when I wanted to embark on this crazy journey, becoming an Asgard driver, I knew that if I was going to elevate my life and I was going to, if I was going to try to achieve

Starting point is 00:16:42 something I've never achieved, I was going to have to do things I've never done. And one of the things was sacrifice basically air all the fun stuff that I was doing outside of a Navy. So, you know, I got rid of all that stuff. I, you know, stopped going out and partying. I stopped just watching TV and do all that stuff. I basically come home from a Navy job and lock myself in my room and work on me.

Starting point is 00:17:05 I would do a lot of research on how to gain sponsorships. I would train on my racing simulator. I would network with people, jump on different calls to try to speak to different business owners to see if I can maybe pitch them on a potential sponsorship ideas. All these different things I was doing every single evening. It's been the six hours of my evening every day working on this stuff.

Starting point is 00:17:28 But these are the sacrifices I had to take at the make just so I could become who I wanted to become and achieve what I wanted to achieve. It takes these sacrifices. The things you're going to have to do to get anywhere in life. You initially got to have your vision clearly seeing yourself become what you're supposed to become. And then from there is daily action. I took daily action just to make this happen. I had faith throughout the journey because throughout the journey it will be dark, very, very dark when you're going through a tunnel of life before right before you even get to the end goal at the end that light at the end of the tunnel. You don't even see it. It's still pitch black even if you're

Starting point is 00:18:04 a few inches away from the end of the tunnel, it's still pitch black. And you have to have faith that you're going to get to the end. And then while doing all this stuff, one thing that was very important was along the way, a lot of people will reach out for help because maybe they're inspired by your journey or what you're trying to do. I've always tried to do my best to help others who are trying to achieve their goals too. Because if you help them achieve their dreams, your dreams will come true too. And I believe I've gotten to where I've gotten to,

Starting point is 00:18:28 just because I've been able to grind every single day, and then also I've done my best to help others achieve their dreams too. Did you know that Forbes Magazine recently cited that 70% of individuals who do personal development, masterminds, and one-on-one coaching, benefited from better work performance, increased communication skills, and overall better relationships. And we at PassionStruct are obsessed with self-development, coaching, and mentorship. That is why we've created a free resource to help you unlock your hidden potential.

Starting point is 00:19:04 Because people doing great things in business and life are just like you, only they've had a coach along the way, and we've got that covered too. Let us show you the systems and frameworks that we teach both minded individuals to help them step into their sharp edges, execute on their passion journeys, and get predictable results time and time again. Go to passionstruck.com slash coaching right now and let's get igniting. I think there's two things there I wanted to focus on.

Starting point is 00:19:35 One is the motto for this show is make a choice, work hard, and step into your sharp edges, which means every single day you've got to do something that scares you or puts you in an uncomfortable position, which it sounds like you've done those three steps because oftentimes people may make the choice, they want to do something, but they don't do the daily work that it takes to get to where they need to go. And I call it, you know, activity sacking because it doesn't have to be, stay a monumentally, but all you need to do is make a leap. And when you start building upon those over time, those small, corrections that

Starting point is 00:20:18 you make, turn into those monumental steps that you want to take in your career. And the other thing I heard you saying that is the philosophy of I can, because I think so many people out there, when they get these life-changing opportunities, they haven't done the work necessary that gives them the confidence that when that opportunity presents itself, they say yes, when we all have this inclination to maybe say no because it's uncomfortable. So how did you, how do you propel yourself because saying yes to the Naval Academy was a choice, you know, saying yes and deploying to the Virgin Golf a couple times

Starting point is 00:20:59 is a choice. How do you continue to have this attitude that you say yes to things that are presented to you instead of saying no to them? Yeah, it can be very interesting when you're going through your journey in life when you're fully focused on Achieving whatever that goal is you're gonna have different opportunities that get presented to you and Some are somewhere good some are bad, but you gotta be willing I always tell people you gotta be willing to take the trip, right? And when I say take the trip even though there isn't any guarantee that by you going to this networking conference or by you going and having this meeting with this person that potentially could help you in your journey, even though there's no guarantee, just take the trip because you never know. It might work out, it might not, but just because you put the energy towards something that could potentially push you forward in your journey, just taking that risk. It's like you're, you're, you're like adding to your savings jar.

Starting point is 00:21:51 You're just adding every single time to eventually it's going to fill up and you're going to have enough resources to make it happen. But life does reward those who are putting energy towards their goal on a daily basis, especially when you're putting risky energy where you're taking risk and you're taking leap to faith, life rewards that stuff, even if it doesn't work out at that moment. So that's why I say I say yes to a lot of different things. But then it gets to point two, you got to taper back because you can only do so much in 24 hours each day. So then you get it. When all of the opportunities start presenting themselves and you got to really simmer

Starting point is 00:22:22 down and be like, okay, what's one of these opportunities are actually going to make sense or going to be quality opportunity because the quantity of those opportunities will eventually start coming, especially when you're putting a ton of energy towards something. I just got to find out which ones are quality so that you stop just making movement and you start making progress. And that's a big part of it. But yeah, like you mentioned with the eye can't think there's two types of people in this world There's people who say I can and there's people who say I can't and both of them are usually right

Starting point is 00:22:53 So it's all a mindset thing. How are you gonna set your mind up? Are you gonna be that I can like somebody says hey, you know This is impossible to be like it's not I can even though it looks impossible You just go try you you probably will make it happen. But if you tell yourself you can't, your mind immediately shuts off all possibilities, all thought processes that can potentially figure out the issue. Yeah, I think that's a great answer.

Starting point is 00:23:14 And as I'm sure you have been on this journey, I'm there have been people who have told you, this is such a crazy idea. How could you possibly ever do this, giving you that negativity? How do you overcome those doubters? Especially in the early days, when I know you wrecked a number of times during your first races.

Starting point is 00:23:35 How did you get over those periods where many people would have just given up? I'm sure you were hearing it from all sides, yet you persevered through it. How did you muster the courage and strength to do that? I never let anyone's opinion of me become my reality. That was the biggest thing. And I heard that quote from a fellow named Les Brown.

Starting point is 00:23:57 He said that someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality. And when I heard that, I was like, wow, it's powerful. That's how you say yes to yourself. People are going to doubt you. People are going to say that you can't do this based off of their interpretation of you or what they think your talent level is, your skill level, your resource level, whatever it is, people will form their own opinions.

Starting point is 00:24:17 But you don't have to let their opinions of you become your own reality. Only your opinion of yourself matters. Only you saw the vision, seeing yourself and where you're supposed to go, what you're supposed to become, who you're supposed to be, only you saw. God gave us each individual visions of where we're supposed to be in life and guess what?

Starting point is 00:24:38 He didn't give it to anybody else. He didn't give you my vision. He didn't give me your vision. So I can't even see your vision for myself, but I can see my vision for myself. And because I can see it, that means I can go achieve it. And if you keep that in mind, anybody out there looking to the coffee's big golden drain, just keep in mind, you were the only one giving that vision. So nobody else has any kind of right or any kind of say so or any kind of validity to ever tell you or doubt your vision. Now,

Starting point is 00:25:06 people can doubt your effort, but they can't doubt your vision. Like when your vision comes, guess what? That means it is something that is achievable by you. Now, if your effort's not there, people can doubt that all day. You know, you can have the vision and not give the effort, but you can get that doubted all day. But if you have a vision, that can't be doubted. That's something that's achievable. You put the right effort and make it happen.

Starting point is 00:25:29 And that leads into, I have this philosophy, I call them a skeet or principle, and you've touched on a number of aspects of it. But it's oftentimes, if we find this passion that we're going after, but we let those negative influences, whether it be people telling you you can't do it, go into the bar, or other things get in your way. And that's why I say you have to conduct a mosquito audit of your life and get rid of what I call the pain in the asses, the invisible suffocators and the blood suckers, because those influences and people will profoundly

Starting point is 00:26:06 keep you from achieving what you need to achieve and want to achieve in life. And I think you summed it up so well, both at the beginning of this interview and just what you said right there. So it sounds like that's exactly what you had to do in your own life is to conduct that audit and get rid of those things that we're holding you back from where you wanted to go. That's not an easy thing to do. Yeah, no, that's

Starting point is 00:26:28 true. It's not easy at all. And you get it right on the head. You got to circle around you, the people around you. You're going to have to be very careful on who's around you and what information is getting into your head. Sometimes when you're going on a journey in life, you're going to have to get rid of all the negativity, the people who are speaking negative words into your mind, you got to get rid of them. Sometimes it's family, sometimes it's friends, it's co-workers, whatever it is, you gotta get them out of your circle. And I say, you can't be nice to them, you can still be nice to them, but you don't have to let them be the regular voices that come into your head. For me, what I did was, like I told you before, when I basically locked myself in my room and

Starting point is 00:27:04 work on me, I stopped talking to a whole bunch of people who were my friends and all that stuff. I stopped talking to a lot of people. All I did was listen to like two or three different motivational speakers every day. So while I was working in my room on doing some research on potential sponsorships, racing on my racing simulator, training myself out of driving race cars, working on different presentations on my computer, while I was doing that for about five, six, seven hours of evening, I would have these motivational speakers on my phone just speaking.

Starting point is 00:27:31 There's motivation into the air from my phone or a computer or wherever, all evening long. And these are the voices I heard every single day for multiple years. And when you do that and these are now the voices, these voices of encouragement, motivation, and great philosophy when this is coming to your head on a daily basis, it's nothing you can do but change. You change it to someone who now believes that you can do anything. And that's what happened to me. It changed me.

Starting point is 00:27:59 But it took like two or so, you two and a half years of doing that to get me in a right position. Well, I mean, it's a perfect lead into the law of attraction. And what you bring into your life and put out, you're going to attract. So what you think about, you bring about. Exactly. Now, one of the other things I wanted to talk to you about

Starting point is 00:28:19 is I have not had the opportunity to be behind the steering well like you have. I have done the Richard Petty experience. here in St. Petersburg, Florida have a Indy car race and I got to sit behind a driver. But I don't think until you do either one of those things, you realize just how fast and how murky it is to drive a race car. And so I brought up to you before we talked this panseft that you have to have optimal anxiety. And I can think of no better place to need that

Starting point is 00:28:53 than being a direct race car driver because if you have too little anxiety, you're not gonna give it your all. But if you have too much anxiety, I would think that's when it's gonna cause you to make that mistake or do something that isn't going to lead you to having a successful outcome. So how do you achieve that optimal anxiety as a driver? Yeah, it's tough. It's a balance you have because you got to be on edge.

Starting point is 00:29:17 And I think that's what it takes for the driver. You have to be on edge with the race car. You got to find that edge where the car is not completely spinning out, but it's on edge where any given moment it could, so in control, you're in control of keeping it on that edge, if you don't let it spin out, but then you're not driving it too slow. And that's the tough part about being a driver

Starting point is 00:29:40 is finding that optimal anxiety, which is basically being on edge. You're literally on the edge without going off the edge. You're out of control. You're in control of being out of control. It's a tough part, and the best driver that able to do it the best. Good drivers that will do it sometimes. I'm always learning and trying to find ways to continue to do that.

Starting point is 00:29:58 But it takes a lot of focus, it takes a lot of energy, but it's definitely possible. That's great feedback. One of the things I always ask Naval Academy graduates when I have them on this show is one of my favorite things when I was a mid was getting to watch a four-star lecture. And I wanted to ask you, if you were invited to the Naval Academy to give four-star lecture to the mid shipment, what would it be on?

Starting point is 00:30:21 I was invited to do a four-star lecture. I would title it as what you think about, you bring about, that's what I would title it as. And it would basically be very kind of law of attraction type lecture where I would just kind of talk to people about mindset. And how mindset is going to be well-alonged to achieve all the great things that you're gonna be able to achieve

Starting point is 00:30:42 in life, because everyone who gets there to the Academy has a ton of potential to do amazing things in life, and most do. You know, some go off and just live normal lives, some to some people don't, some people end up falling into some pitfalls and things happen. And then others, you know, go off and achieve great things. But I would like to kind of help people unlock their potential with the speech and just really, you know, showcasing them through my life stories and other people's

Starting point is 00:31:05 life stories that I've seen and this different philosophies of stuff to help them unlock their mind to understand that, hey, what you think about, you bring about, your minds are very powerful. You're already in a place where you're showing that you have potential to be amazing, unlock your mind and use all your potential and be the best as you can be. Well, well, Jesse, thank you so much for this interview.

Starting point is 00:31:25 I know we're running up against the clock. And one last question I had for you is you have a goal of making it to the highest level of NASCAR. For you over the next couple of years, what are some of those goals and ambitious tasks that you're putting out there for yourself to get there? For me, it's really working on the training side of it to continue to get more seat time in real race cars and also virtual race cars.

Starting point is 00:31:51 Also, you know, continuing to do what I can to expand the marketing efforts so that we can get more sponsorship, putting that together between seat time and sponsorship and all that. That's how we're going to be able to make that happen. So that's when I'm working on every single day, doing, taking meetings all the time, doing a lot of different things, just saying yes to myself, telling me yes to myself that I can actually make this happen.

Starting point is 00:32:11 Well, great. And if the fans out there wanna get ahold of you, how can they reach out to you on social media? For any fans looking to reach out to me, just type in my name on any social media platforms, Jesse Iwujee, that's J-E-S-S-E-I-W-U-J-I. I'm on all the social platforms. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, all of them.

Starting point is 00:32:34 So people can reach out, send me messages. I answer all my messages. So reach out if you got any questions on anything or want to support. Great, Jesse. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. Thank you for having me. I hope that you enjoyed that episode as much as I like doing it.

Starting point is 00:32:49 What an inspirational young man Jesse is. And if you truly love today's episode, it would mean so much if you could forward it to like-minded friends to meet a weekly dose of inspiration. And if this episode really resonated with you, I'd love to hear about it by getting a five-star rating and hearing your comments. Those ratings mean so much to the popularity of our podcast. And if you haven't checked out our YouTube channel, it's at John Armiles, and we have over 160 different videos up there pertaining to various topics, including personal growth, how to achieve peak performance, relationship advice, health and wellness, overcoming adversity, and so much more. And if there is a person that you want to hear me interview or a topic that you would like me to do an episode on,

Starting point is 00:33:39 please DM me on Instagram at John or Miles. Until then, I know you have so many choices of podcasts where you can go and it means so much to us that you come and listen to this show. Now I hope you apply it and become PassionStruck. Thank you so much for joining us. The purpose of our show is to make Passion Go viral. And we do that by sharing with you the knowledge and skills that you need to unlock your hidden potential. If you want to hear more, please subscribe to the Passion Start Podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcast ad.

Starting point is 00:34:15 And if you absolutely love this episode, we'd appreciate a five-star rating on iTunes, and you're sharing it with three of your most growth-minded friends so they can post it as well to their social accounts and help us grow our passion start community. If you'd like to learn more about the show and our mission, you can go to passionstruck.com where you can sign up for our newsletter, look at our tools, and also download the show notes for today's episode. Additionally, you can listen to us every Tuesday and Friday for even more inspiring content. And remember, make a choice, work hard, and step into your sharp edges.

Starting point is 00:34:55 Thank you again for joining us. you

Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Jesse Iwuji On Creating an Unstoppable Life EP 61

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