Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Why I Created Passion Struck EP 100

Episode Date: January 21, 2022

Today’s episode is a special one for a variety of reasons. First, John R. Miles provides a detailed look at how Passion Struck plans to impact the world. Additionally, It is the 100th episode of the Passion Struck podcast and marks a year since Passion Struck (the company behind the podcast) launched. John is asked by many people why he started Passion Struck and made it his life’s mission. He goes into detail on why he founded Passion Struck, what it means to be Passion Struck, why it will impact systems change globally, and the master plan to do so.  4x4x48 Challenge in Support of Special Forces and Veteran Non-Profits We have an exciting and important announcement. I was asked by my friend, retired Green Beret Andrew Marr, and his brother Adam Marr (Army Apache Pilot) to sponsor, fundraise, and participate in this year's 4x4x48 challenge. This challenge is a cause near and dear to my heart as I am one of the veterans that these organizations have helped overcome my struggles with mental health and the long-term impact of Traumatic Brain Injury. If you are interested in supporting our efforts, please go to: https://give.warriorangelsfoundation.org/team/400731. Have You Tried BetterHELP? BetterHELP is making professional therapy accessible, affordable, and convenient — so anyone who struggles with life’s challenges can get help, anytime and anywhere. BetterHELP offers access to licensed, trained, experienced, and accredited psychologists, marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers, and board licensed professional counselors. BetterHELP wants you to start living a happier life AND is offering Passion Struck listeners 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/passionstruck. Like this? Please join me on my new platform for peak performance, life coaching, self-improvement, intentional living, and personal growth: https://passionstruck.com/ and sign up for our email list. Thank you for joining us today on the Passion Struck podcast. New Interviews with the World's GREATEST high achievers will be posted every Tuesday with a Momentum Friday inspirational message! Learn more about me: https://johnrmiles.com.  SHOW NOTES 0:00 Show Introduction 1:38 4x4x48 Challenge 4:59 Why is systems change needed? 6:58 Why John founded passion struck 9:32 Create a new type of company focused on intentionality 10:14 What does it mean to be Passion Struck? 11:43 Backdrop behind the master plan 14:04 Creating the most intentional place on earth 15:07 Our belief system - prioritizing powerful outcomes for society 17:26 Building the passion struck community FOLLOW JOHN R. MILES ON THE SOCIALS * Twitter: https://twitter.com/Milesjohnr * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnrmiles.c0m * Medium: https://medium.com/@JohnRMiles​ * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/john_r_miles * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/JohnMiles * Blog: https://passionstruck.com/blog/ * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_podcast   ====== ABOUT JOHN ====== John R. Miles leads a global movement called Passion Struck. He is passionate about being the catalyst who helps individuals expand into the most excellent version of themselves, unlocking the most no regrets life possible. He is a combat veteran, multi-industry CEO, successful entrepreneur, top podcast host, and author who is helping people worldwide regain their passion. John is one of the most-watched, quoted, and followed high-performance trainers globally, and his leadership acumen spans more than two decades. He's founded or co-founded more than half a dozen successful start-ups, was a Fortune 50 CIO and CISO, mentors rising entrepreneurs, and invests in successful tech ventures. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, where he learned vital leadership skills and was a multi-sport Division 1 athlete.

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, maybe veteran and entrepreneur on a mission to make Passion Ho-Viral for millions worldwide. do so by sharing with you an inspirational message and interviewing eye achievers from all walks of life who unlock their secrets and lessons to become an passion struck. The purpose of our show is to serve you the listener by giving you tips, 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 PassionStruck. Welcome back to the PassionStruck podcast, an episode 100. Today marks a huge milestone for both the show and the PassionStruck movement and I wanted to thank each and every one of you who come back

weekly to listen and learn how to live better, be better and impact the world. We couldn't have done any of this if it wasn't for your support. I have an amazing guest Claude Silver who will be coming up next Tuesday, January 25th. An episode you do not want to miss. Claude is the chief heart officer of VaynerX, a company that started and led by Gary V. And in that episode, we talk about heartfelt leadership and the importance of emotional optimism. I promise you don't want to miss it. I also wanted to let the audience know that I will be participating in the 4 by 4 by 48 challenge.

And if you're not familiar with this challenge, it was started by retired Navy SEAL David Goggins and you do four miles every four hours for 48 hours, basically two marathons and back-to-back days. And I am doing this to support veteran nonprofits who are on the cutting edge of treatment for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. I will put links in the show notes so you can learn more about it and support me and this important cause. Today's guest of the week is actually a friend of mine,

Steve Stone, who was my boss when I worked at Los Home Improvement. And Steve writes, as the name implies, John has a true passion for whatever he's doing. He strives to be the best and make the most of his opportunities. He has brought all those attributes to Passion Struck. Steve, thank you so much for that endorsement and for your 15 plus years of friendship and support.

Today's episode is a special one. I get asked by people all the time why I started Passion Struck and have turned this into my life's mission. So I'm going to have that discussion and also what does it mean to be Passion Struck and my master plan for the future a lot to unpack in this episode. Thank you for choosing Passion Struck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to living a no regrets life.

Now, let the journey begin. We will be right back to the Passion Struck Podcast. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp Online Therapy. And we often discuss mental health on the PassionStruct podcast and dealing with the stigma of seeking it. Is there something interfering with your happiness and preventing you from achieving your goals?

For me, depression and anxiety significantly impacted my life until I took charge, got over my embarrassment and sought out help. And luckily, there is a platform now that makes it so much easier to take that step and get therapy. Better help will assess your needs and match you with your own license professional therapist. I highly recommend that everyone turn to better help to get started. And find a therapist who helps you look at things in a different way like they did for me. Their service is customized, accessible, and affordable, and you can be matched

with a therapist in just 48 hours. And to that end, better help wants you to start living a happier life and is offering passion struck listeners 10% off your first month by visiting betterhelp.com slash passion struck. That's B-E-T-T-E-R-H-E-L-P dot com slash passion struck and join over 2 million people who have taken charge of their mental health. Thank you so much for listening and supporting the show and I realize all those codes in URLs can be difficult to remember, so we'll put them in the show notes for the episode. Please consider supporting those

who support this show, make it possible, and free for our listeners. Now back to PassionStruck. Thank you so much for joining us today. I wanted to be transparent with you, the audience, and clearly lay out what we're doing with PassionStruck, why I created the PassionStruck movement, and talked to you about the strategy that we're using during all of it to life. I know from building other companies that it is such a difficult journey to undertake. That is why one of the most critical foundations

to creating a great company is having an impactful mission. Here at PassionStruck, we have a very clear mission statement to entertain, inform, and inspire people across the globe through the power of intentionality. We aim to empower people to be the best versions of themself possible. Where they live better, be better, and impact the world. Our goal is to help people

worldwide. Learn how to live a legendary life built around living life intentionally. Now you may wonder, what is the burning issue that caused me to take on such a bold and far-reaching mission? I believe so much of the world around us today is built on a series of lives. We are told by popular culture that power, money, intellect, and material goods are all the indicators of success and happiness, and that we must live in the hustle culture to attain them. Movies like Jet Leaves, Fist of Legend, Tron, Inception, and The Matrix are all great metaphors for this fake life. The directors show you that the world around you is artificial and based on a fake reality. And I believe that much of this false narrative portrayed in these movies is now becoming real life. We are becoming conditioned to the terrible idea that we're not in control of our faiths, and

that life is merely a simulated environment dictated by popular culture. Why has this become the driving obsession in my life? It started by me doing a close inspection of how I was living my own life. To be honest with you, I didn't like the person I had become. I was living this artificial life and pursuing a comfortable life, but not one connected to my authentic self. The pursuit of self-actualization and the passion for solving novel societal problems. I believe the vast majority of the population is like the person that I was. That person living in mediocrity and in service of self versus humanity. Like me, so many out there today, we're a shroud that disguises their true

self. They live a life that is conditioned by society. That is made up of self-limiting beliefs, a skewed identity, a fixed mindset, and an antagonistic orientation towards others. There is a groundswell of people worldwide, seeking higher wisdom and purpose in their lives. They are rich in poor, progressives and conservatives, young and old, lonely, lonely helpless and disengaged and what they share at this moment is a deep concern about the direction in which society is headed the assaults on our attention caused by the digital age the rise of materialism and the erosion of human values millions worldwide are filled with apathy consumed by suffering and engulfed by ego. More people than ever today live with a fixed mindset and believe that their potential is limited.

Additionally, the second leading cause of death among Americans 25 to 34 is suicide. That's higher than any other age group. It is the fourth leading cause of death globally for adolescents aged 15 to 19. In the US, suicide rates have increased 25% since 1999, and veteran suicides continue to increase with well over 150,000 veteran deaths during the 20-year war on terror. And globally, over 800,000 people a year take their lives through suicide. To couple with that, in the 11 years after 2005, there were more mass shooting incidents and deaths

than in the previous 23 years combined. The fact that depression and anxiety have become basically ubiquitous and belonging and acceptance are increasingly forwarded are likely to lead to both trends. I founded PassionStruct to go after the root of the problem. I believe the solution is to curate and facilitate a new breed of company that addresses these alarming trends

by teaching people how to live their authentic selves and live their life intentionally. We want to help people restore faith and humanity, humanism, and attain self-realization. Because we desperately need fundamental systems change in our value systems, human connections, and in ourselves if we're going to transform the world. That is why our company exists,

and this movement is so important to me. I want to do my part to help put an end to human suffering and increase joy in the world. I get the question a lot. What does it mean to be passion struck? What's this whole thing about? Being passion struck is about reaching one's best and full potential.

It is the willingness to risk social, financial, and physical safety to address the novel problems that are impacting society, and to do so intentionally and in alignment with one's values and what best brings fulfillment. We as humans require exploration. It takes courage to grow, coupled with a burning desire to seek out and make sense of challenging, uncertain, and novel experiences. We only become our authentic selves when we move in the direction of personal growth. In his three of human motivation, Abraham Maslow wrote, a musician must make music, an artist must paint,

a poet must write if they're gonna be an ultimate piece with themselves. What a person can be, they must be. They must be true to their own nature. This need we may call self-actualization. It refers to humanity's desire for self-fulfillment, namely to their tendency to become actualized in what they are potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one, idiosyncratically, is, and that is what passion struck is all about,

being everything that one is capable of becoming. I see so many millions of people who are disengaged in their own lives because they have no vision for the future and sadly believe that there is no hope. I decided I wanted to teach people how to take control of their lives just as I took back control of mine. But as I started to look around all I could see were limited ways of addressing the issues. So I started to develop my theory about how do you get people at mass from being stuck in their lives to becoming passion struck. I believe people's mindsets and beliefs are influenced by their families where they grew up and on which side of the poverty line they were born into. I also believe that we are greatly impacted and influenced by the culture that's all around us.

And looking at this problem, we can't change those first three issues, which are fixed, but we can alter the culture and positively impact the future. Given my background in scaling large organizations, I saw the need to build a company whose focus is to create systems change at scale. So I took a step back and began to create an influencer map and embracing the philosophy shared by Jeff Walker of locally driven and network supported organizations. A strategy that would allow cash and struck to impact change both locally and globally. We started to look at ways to partner with people and are always actively seeking out partners

whether they be profit or nonprofit who will help us accelerate our goal of ending worldwide suffering. I started studying companies like Reddit, Kickstarter, Oprah, Peloton, Netflix, and a light bulb went off. I can achieve systems change through storytelling and by changing people's emotional narratives. I could do this by creating a disruptive entertainment

and education company that is consistent in telling one type of story repeatedly through the lens of living life intentionally. By doing so we will give people a larger sense of meaning and of their role in positively impacting society. It's an aspirational brand that makes people see the world the way it could be, not how it is today. And at PassionStruck, we ask ourselves this question every single day. How do we create the most intentional place on earth? I want to use PassionStruck to bring a voice to the everyday heroes who walk among all

of us. I want to create emotional stories that showcase these everyday heroes and their intentionality at the core. We want to tell this story over again and again using all the products and mediums. We can produce that will tell that story. We want to show the masses that you can become your best authentic self and live your life with no regrets and a pursuit of becoming the best version of you that you can become. We want to build a great and engaging media company to ignite passion and unleash creativity. We imagine a world in which the vast majority of people feel purposeful in who they are,

live in harmony with their true selves, and positively impact society. We aspire to be a company that prioritizes powerful outcomes for society as much as our shareholders. Passion structs operations will reflect its core belief system, which you can find on our website. We will use these core values to promote creativity, fight social inequality and help people learn how to be in control of their own lives. The first phase of this journey launched last year at the beginning of 2021 when we created a passion

struck brand. We started by creating content that is unique and told through the lens of intentionality. We wanted to do this so we could clarify what we're all about, make it memorable and important. To that end, we created the passion struck podcast to be a show that focused on exploring the mindset and philosophy of the world's highest achievers to learn their lessons to living intentionally. A show that aspires to speak to the humanity of people in a way that makes them want to live better, be better, and positively impact the world by providing enjoyable, energetic, positive, and hyper-useful content. A show where we highlight the stories of everyday heroes. We wanted to use this podcast to

sample our theories, methodologies, ideas, and overall strategy to see if it would resonate in scale. The response has been overwhelming, as we near 800,000 downloads in our first year between the podcast and our YouTube channel and John Armiles. Going forward, we will continue to create a deep stable of content that will cover a broader range of topics all tied to how do you live intentionally that will be immediately actionable for people who are ready to make a choice and to take action. Using this information, I updated and also validated many of the core concepts that are part of my upcoming book, which will go live this summer.

I feature guests from the podcast throughout the book, as well as well-known leaders, athletes, academics, and creators whose stories go to amplify the techniques I lay out in the book. At the same time that we were launching on this curation phase, we also started to create the passion-struck community. We wanted to build brand awareness and establish and grow the movement. Our goal with the passion-struck community is to build authentic human connections. And we believe that passions and interests not individuals connect us. We want to create a community that

brings belonging to everyone in the world. The primary way we plan to initially build this community is by creating world-class, free content that will help people learn how to become the best versions of themselves and make it clear what our ideology is all about. We want people to be obsessed with the ideas. Ultimately, we want to develop a passionate community that drives action around intentionality. It is a community where members come to be informed

by stories and conversations that they trust. And we want them to spend more time here in this zone of safety and personal growth than anywhere else. The brand has started out with me as the front person, but we will be bringing more and different expertise into the company over time and hopefully in this next year. You will also start seeing me being more unguarded in my public speaking on social media

and in future podcast episodes. We want to change people's lives with transformative content and I can only do that by being really authentic in my delivery. We will continue to offer free content and are currently building our base of sponsors to help us to that end. We also have books and gear like the shirt I'm wearing that you can also buy that all go to helping keep the show free. If you're supportive of this mission, we would love for you to subscribe to the podcast our newsletter and our YouTube channel I am so excited about my upcoming book where I will show you how to become your ultimate self Through the 12 stages of unleashing an intentional life I hope that this book and the passion struck movement and everything that we're about will help you to see your life differently

And what it can be if you live life intentionally. There it is. There's the master plan in detail. There are more phases to come, but I will save those for a later time. I hope you know now why we're doing this and why our mission is so important. You don't know how much it influences me. When people reach out to me on social channels, emails, or in their reviews of the podcast, or YouTube videos, it lets me see the impact that passion struck is making in their lives. Until next time, live life passion struck. 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. And if you absolutely love this episode, we'd appreciate a five star rating on iTunes, and you sharing it with three of your most root-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. Thank you again for joining us.