Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Seeing Things Differently - With Zach Kadolph

Episode Date: August 19, 2020

In this episode I am joined by Zach Kadolph as we discuss the meaning behind the video "I'm a loser" and the power of gaining perspective as one moves forward in life.

Welcome to Your World Within Daily. I'm Eddie Panero. And in today's episode, I want to pick up where I left off yesterday, kind of delve into that meaning behind the somewhat cryptic title and in the play on words in yesterday's speech. I'm a loser. Talk about life as a journey in which the losses shape us, the challenges create our opportunities. And lastly, how the hardest thing and the best thing to do in life is often to let go. All right, so good morning. I have a special guest today. I'm here with Zach, who a lot of you guys know and are familiar with. Partner up with them on a lot of videos. And the video I want to delve into a little bit yesterday, from yesterday the speech that I uploaded onto the podcast called I'm a loser, title with some shock value there. I want to talk about some of the ideas that went into it, what it means, and, you know, our thought processes we were creating it. So what's going on, Zach? Oh, man, everything and nothing all at the same time. Thanks for having me on the pod. That's quite the intro.

I like that. Yeah, we've had some late nights, you know, shooting some stuff. And it's been fun. It's exhausting, but it's a fun kind of exhausting. Yeah, well, there's nothing better than doing the things that light you up, that's for sure. Yeah. So this was an interesting video just to kind of set the stage. So I moved to Greensboro and I'm setting up the studio where I'm going to do all my writing.

I have all my equipment and ended up in like a half hour writing this speech that I thought was just, I immediately, I called him. I'm like, I feel really good about this. It just feels different and it's fun. And I was really, really proud of it. And I had this idea where, because it's a lot of it's reflecting back on things that I've done. in my life that were technically losses, right? It's kind of a play on the word that ultimately ended up being gained. So I picture like sitting there and, you know, having this camera rotating around you,

kind of simple and going into like trips down memory lane. And Zach was like, you know, well, I have a different idea. What if we really spice it up a little bit and make it look like, you know, you are this sort of dark character? but in reality, you know, you end up on top. It's almost like it's an illusion in a way, right? So tell them a little about that and kind of what brought you to that point. Yeah, well, you know, I feel like every video on the channel is just, you know, you go back to,

it's not just rah, rah, it's giving your audience something to think about and in changing perspective. And with this one, first off, you really undersold that. I'm pretty sure when you called me, you said this is the best thing I've ever read. I was a little excited. I was just like, okay, easy. But then I listened to it, and it was just so clever. It's the quintessential your world within video because there's so much of the negativity around,

thinking of yourself as a loser, think of yourself as non-successful, and other people, frankly, telling you crap things like that. So, you know, it's so easy to internalize that and make that part of who you are, but when you just realize that you're just one switch away, one idea away from changing that, putting it on its head,

is really eye-opening. And my grandma actually messaged me, and she's like, do you think you're a loser? Is everything okay? And I'm like, I'm doing great, grandma. But the point of it is I've lost many times in my life, but I never internalize as a loser. It was an opportunity to learn something.

And that's why I was like, okay, you might actually have something here because I love the thought of turning your losses into moments of learning. And so the video specifically, you know, I look at it as a journey. And I've probably watched way too many M Night Shyamwan movies where there's a twist at the end. But, you know, starting it out dark and dim and just more like, you know, down in the dumps is how everybody sees it. And I wanted to be able to bring it to life where like, you can move past those things and then have some nice payoff of like I've taken those things and instead of saying succumbing to being a loser it's I've used those things to make myself

feel better and be better and get better at my craft and I think hopefully that came through in the video yeah I think it did I mean I'm biased but I think it did I it is very much a journey and I like I like how you put that because some of the things things as you're going through them and you're living them, you're not thinking, you know, oh, man, this is going to be amazing five years from now, right? That's what's so interesting about being able to look back is because it feels like all hell's breaking loose and the walls are breaking down around you, falling down around you. And it's like once you emerge from that, though, you can kind of pick up those pieces. And so that's kind of what it's about. Like

losing in the moment and realizing you're so much, you're so much. You're so much. You're so much better. And not only that, you kind of, it's like the thing that what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. It gives you the courage to lose again, to try again, to fail again. And that's important, too. It's a reps thing. And I never ever thought even six years ago, I'd be saying that. But you learn to get your ass kicked, right? And it's like, without that, you just stay the same. And so that's sort of the idea behind it. Yeah, so, Eddie, we were having a conversation the other night over dinner and brought up Evan Carmichael and how he says he'd still always do this. Oh, yeah, yeah.

And I think if we took a big L on this one, I don't think I would ever feel upset about it. I'm curious your thoughts, you know, as we were talking about, you know, if this thing doesn't get views or, you know, it gets a lot of views, does that matter? So there's two parts, right? as a create, like when you, it's impossible to be as excited as I was about it to feel like I had something to say and then have a reaction be underwhelming and not be a little disappointed, right? Now, with that said, I will say that as a creator, particularly on the YouTube platform, I've learned over the years to not let that determine your success. Otherwise, the highs are too high and the lows are too low, and they're just not reflective of who

you are and what you're bringing to the world. So it's almost like yes and no, like you want people to hear it because listening to it, I feel like it changed me and my hope is that it can change other people. But if it doesn't blow up, does it suck? No. You know what I mean? It's like there's a middle ground. Yeah. Yeah, that's kind of where I was at was like, you know, I'm at the point where I'm making things that I feel are helpful for people. And if there's anything, I took away from this, just hearing it from, you know, obviously you put it together and you sent it to me, and I got the same, you know, experience or reaction that your audience would get listening to it for the first time. I was just like, I've never thought about it this way.

And when you send me stuff like that, I instantly am happy because I'm like, there's so many times in my life I've been stuck on something. It's just because of what I believed. And when I heard a new idea or I heard something in a different way, it completely transformed the way I thought and I felt about it. And I was like, you know, if there's so. somebody else out there that's struggling with, you know, oh, God, I'm a loser. People are telling me all these things. And they have that same, you know, mindset, that same shift that I had, how impactful and how powerful that could be.

And I think that's more, you know, probably more fulfilling than anything to say, hey, I watched this video and it really impacted my life. And I started thinking, you know what, there are things I can take away from my losses, probably even more so than my wins. Yeah, it's funny. I mean, rewriting a narrative. It's like, because you become an identity, and I harp on that a lot because that's really what it is. You know, you believe yourself to be A, and so you fulfill the expectation of being, quote, unquote, A, or B, or C,

or whatever that identity is. Like, it's really an interesting thing. But what's funny is, you know, writing these things and sending them to you, how you visualize them and internalize them, is sometimes so different than I do because of our experiences. And that's what's been really cool. Because when you, it's almost eye-opening. When you have two different perspectives coming at something to bring it to life,

it's like, oh, well, one, it's just interesting to hear your perspective. Two, it's like, well, you realize all these people listening to it are taking it in so differently than when the pen hit the paper and it's just it invites flexibility and just a really cool atmosphere to create. Yeah, absolutely. So that's been fun. What would you say let's let's for a minute or two here talk about some of the lines in the in the video that you like if you had to point someone to something and say hey this I feel like would help you with X, Y or Z or particularly pay attention to this line. What's your favorite point in? My favorite. My favorite. favorite lines that thought I lost my mind. And then I can't remember what the line is behind it,

but it says, I thought I lost my mind. I don't remember what it is. I thought I lost my mind, but I found it. Turns out I just lost my old way of thinking. Yeah, I love that part. And it's funny that I can't think of it offhand. But what really stuck in my mind hearing those lines was actually, you know, a hatching of a butterfly. And it's like, you know, you're stuck in this cocoon and, you know, you were a caterpillar and now you're in this little cocoon and your whole life feels like it's shattering around you and you're just about to blossom into something different. And I feel like sometimes that's the way when you're completely changing your life, changing your diet. Like for me, when I went from being an athlete all the time to more the business world

and trying to put all my energy into learning and growing, you know, my business acumen, that's where it just felt like such a shift in dissonance between some of the other things I was doing. And it wasn't until I reframe them as, you know, this is still, you know, I don't want to say competition, but it's still something that you can strive to get better at. And I don't know, just a lot of the times where you have this dissonance with how, at least how I see myself. Yeah. that it's not, I'm going crazy. It's just your body's, it's a hard shift to change.

Yeah, because you had a situation with the state championship, right? You talked about the other day where you, you were like a frontrunner by far. Oh, man. Not to bring it up. Yeah, thanks. You choked, but the reason I'm bringing it up is not to, you know, beat a dead horse, but because you said that changed your life, that realization, you know? Yeah, so when I was a junior in high school, I was all state and discus.

And then my senior year, you know, all the people who had outperformed me were graduated, and I'm sitting here going, it's prime, and I had a back injury, and I was kind of struggling throughout the year. But I was pretty much standing there and outthrowing people, and my back started to feel better towards the end of the year, and I had a moment where I was working with a different coach, and they said something that just made it click, and I started throwing it. it 20, 30 feet further than I've ever thrown it. It was to the point where, you know, in practice, I was throwing in the top five of best throws, you know, ever recorded in Michigan high school.

So I'm sitting here going, gosh, I got two more meets left. All I've got to do is get a good mark. And I'll at least have, you know, my school record, I'll have a state championship. I start thinking about all these things down the line. And I get to state finals. And I throw the first one. and I could see like the crowd around me is pausing and they're like, did that just happen? And then I choked. All five of my throws were scratches. And I went from having the whole crowd stop and watch when I'm throwing because they think I'm about to set the record to going home with a third place finish. Just wondering what happened.

And I was so bitter and so angry because you have these goals. and I always, like I viewed that as a loss, even though, you know, a third place in States isn't bad. I got a state metal, but it was such a bitter feeling for such a long time. What was the mental shift? When I realized that at the end of the day, I didn't prep long enough. I wasn't doing enough to take care of my body and recovery. I wasn't doing nearly enough from a nutrition perspective. And frankly, you know, because I was injured, I didn't.

didn't do enough practice. So it was more of a fluke of me throwing that far than being able to do it consistently. And I think, you know, not seeing myself as a loser, but of different ways to prep that could have made myself more successful and focusing on recovery, those are all things that I think the shift from I choked and I'm a loser to I learned that health, I learned that recovery are all extremely important aspects of it. And, you know, obviously yoga is a huge part of my life now so that I'm incorporating more flexibility training.

So would you, would you say it's similar to speaking? Like something that helped me, and if it feels similar, is like when you're speaking on a stage, knowing what you're going to say so well that you don't even really have to think about that, you can focus on the other things. You can focus on the eye contact and in your. pacing and stuff like that. So like the preparation is so important that you can't choke because you've done it so many times. That's exactly it. That's exactly. Yeah. It's it's interesting how like so many so many times in life we walk up to the plate just ready to wing it. And it's like you

lose, leave so much up to chance when you do that. I think and then maybe we'll wrap it up here. I'm not sure how long we've been going. But, you know, for, For me, one of the most important lines was swinging from the stars because I like it up here. You know, I just, I loved the distinction between normalcy and thinking how everyone else does versus, you know, doing your own thing, staying on your own path, not getting distracted by other people. And, you know, realizing, you know, like, like I mentioned in today's video, it's like when you open a window when you look out, you know, anything there can be yours. Like, conceptually, the world can be yours as much or as little as you want it to be. It happens in proportion to how much you're willing to endure and fight for what you want

and fall down and get back up. And the important thing is that's a decision. And to remind yourself, everything in life is a decision. How you handle what's going on around you is a decision. How far you go is a decision. how you think about yourself as a decision, the story you tell yourself as a decision, and there's just so much power in that.

So if I had to point someone to one piece of advice in that video, that would be it. But, Zach, unless you have something else up your sleeve, I think it's time to wrap up. Yeah, well, if you haven't checked out the video, I'm a loser. Keep this... I can't not laugh at that name, you know. Yeah, but... But I mean, that's the point, right?

I mean, to be able to laugh at people calling you a loser, of thinking you're a loser and turning it on its head to say, these aren't losses, their opportunities. It is uplifting in some sort of a dark, twisted way, but it's still true. So thanks for having me on. Yeah, man. So definitely check that out if you haven't. And just for the folks that are on YouTube, the vast majority list on the podcasting app, But for the next maybe two or three days, I'm going to be doing just audio.

But I plan on getting the studio back up and running and having the video component out soon. So hang in there with that. I appreciate you all. And I'll talk to you tomorrow.