Show Notes

Your gut, your core, your inner voice, your spirit, your chi, or your instinct, whatever you call it. Today we're going to talk about trust. Trust in yourself, and trust in the calling of your inner core.

Welcome to episode #10 my name is Jeremy Epp and I am here to help you set up, launch, and grow a profitable business. Have you ever had a goal that you found yourself daydreaming about? I mean really daydreaming about. Not just a one time thing, but over and over again? A goal that was so much bigger than yourself and your beliefs that you left it in the daydream stage. You thought, "There is no way I could ever do this." Perhaps it was a goal to start your own business. Perhaps it was to travel abroad for an extended period of time, get into shape, or volunteer for a year with an organization overseas, but you dismissed the thought and said to yourself, "I can't do that? I don't have the time or the money. I have obligations with my family, with my company. I just can't stop and quit and move on to something new."

However, months later, if not years later, you keep finding yourself returning to the same goal, to the same daydreams. I had a goal of helping people with their business. When I was younger I found my passion in business and just loved all of the challenges and how business came together in so many different aspects and there's so many different ways to approach a problem. It really got me excited. But as I looked for opportunities to restart a new business, I kept coming back to "what do I know?" Not what my passion is, but where's my expertise? And I kept returning to the real estate industry because I had been in the industry for 19 years and I thought, "Yeah, I could help people with their real estate business, with their marketing, with learning how to set up and grow their business, how to work with real estate clients, et cetera."

I actually started a real estate podcast and I started up a company for that, but I knew deep in my heart that that was a short term situation. I knew I didn't have the passion and the drive to really put everything of me into it and I knew that that would come out and my audience would see right through me and see that my heart wasn't in it and they would tune me out. But it's what I knew. It's where my expertise lie, but I kept coming back to, "But my passion is in business, small business, helping people like you get out of a situation where they're not happy, where they're not satisfied, where they have so much more to offer the world than just working at a large corporation. That's where my passion drives." So I finally decided to take a chance and listen to that voice and start this business as a side hustle and I'm glad I did.

I knew immediately that that was the right choice. I knew that by saying no to the real estate growth and helping people with their specific real estate business and focusing more on the business, the small entrepreneur, I would still help businesses like the realtor and the real estate broker. However, my focus was going to be to a bigger audience and specifically to an audience that was similar to me, that was stuck in their mid career and had obligations that held them back even though their passion wasn't there, but they just agonized when they thought of spending the next 10, 15, 20 plus years of their life in a corporate environment. Just counting down the years and the months toward when they could retire. What a life. No, thank you. So why do we push down that inner voice? Is it because we tell ourselves that it's not logical? That these ideas are crazy? And sometimes they are crazy.

Sometimes it is not logical. Are we worried about what others may think about us? Are we desperate for people's approval that we fall into the trap of not wanting to be different? Ironically, it's those people that do take that chance, that step out of the mold that we celebrate, that make all the difference. I think of all the great artists and the musicians that we celebrate today because they are different, because they speak to who we really want to be and who we are in our core. They're not singing about getting a corporate job and working for the next 40 years of their life so that they could one day retire and then go traveling. No, we celebrate the Mother Teresas, we celebrate the Steve Jobs who had the courage to step out and do something different. We think of the dreamers like Elon Musk who took a dream so radical and actually built cars and products and are continuing to dream to this day and sharing with the world new technology. We think of authors and speakers like Seth Goden who speak simple truths that are outside of the box, but they make complete sense to us.

And then of course we have the greats, like Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and many others that have come before us that have set the trends. Well, they didn't listen to others, did they? Were they so concerned that they were discouraged? I'm sure they were, but did they stop? Did they shut down or did they continue? Were they called crazy? Were they radicalists outside of the box thinkers? Were they celebrated at their time? Probably not. People probably thought they were just that wacky, crazy person. So why do we not listen to that inner core? Why do we have so little faith and trust in ourselves?

It was in the fall of 2006 and my wife and I had decided that we wanted to make an offer on a new construction home. In fact, it was a home that wasn't even built yet. There was a builder in our local area. We really enjoyed his building and we were looking for something a little bit better layout in a little nicer condition of a home compared to the home that we had been actively upgrading over the many years. And so we found a lot that was being offered for sale and we made an offer on it. The realtor that was helping represent the seller at the time, the builder, gave us a couple options as far as what homes that they were planning on placing on that lot. We enjoyed the floorplan and we really were excited because that was the right home, but we wanted to make several tweaks, several customization features that were not too radical but still radical enough to the point where they weren't in the builder's original plans and the builder was willing to do them.

However, they wanted to have the money up front for those changes in case we backed out or couldn't get financing down the road. And so we paid out different funds. We extended the garage and made it larger. We upgraded the heating system, we upgraded some of the finish work and the materials of the countertops and some of the materials that were going to be used and selected and a host of other things. And these upgrades, including our deposit down on the home, was roughly about $30,000 and so we had to pay that money up front. So over the course of the building that took place in late Fall and early Winter of 2006, we felt being in the real estate industry, that there was starting to be a slowdown in the marketplace.

And we were very concerned about this. Our house was set to close in February of 2007 and we were kinda touch and go with the builder as far as their schedule goes. But we had some nagging feelings, I'll call it our inner core, was really talking to me and my wife, and it was saying that this house was a bad move. It was a bad idea. And in fact, we had a few conversations about whether or not we should pull out of the deal and go figure out another plan. But what we didn't want to do was lose that $30,000 and we knew that if we pulled out, that was money that was going to be gone. And that's a lot of money, let's be honest. So we kind of convinced ourselves, "Let's just stay in the game and let's stick with it. And worst case scenario, we'll keep the house for a year and then we'll sell it and not only cover our costs, but we'll actually make a profit and then we'll figure out what the next steps are from there."

Well, as the building process moved forward, the closing date moved from February, eventually into April. And over the course of that couple of month extension that the building needed to finish out the building, the mortgage rates rose dramatically. And so by the time we were set to close, our interest rate had skyrocketed and we were in a very bad position. So again, we kind of came back to, "Well, we've got enough funds, we can hold onto the house for a year, a year and a half or so without much of an issue. And then we can sell the home."

Well, we closed on the home and if you listen to my last episode, #9, you learned that eventually my business dried up. We had no income source really coming in for 2007 and we eventually lost the house in the third quarter of 2008, which incidentally cost us a whole lot more than the $30,000 that we would have lost had we listened to our instinct and that inner gut and told us to back out when that voice came evident in December of 2006. So why do we turn away from that?

Why do we talk ourselves out of it? Are we so busy thinking it's just noise? Do we try to bury this? Is it uncomfortable? I would say yes to all of those things. So what's a time when you've had a gut feeling and you've chosen to ignore it? What were the consequences? Did it work out just fine and there was no big deal or was there something negative that occurred that had you listened to your gut and followed through and taken action, you would've avoided that pain or that cost or that situation? A time, a positive time when we did listen to our gut, many years ago, my wife and I, we traveled to a small resort town outside in eastern Washington called Leavenworth, Washington. This whole town is built around a Bavarian theme. It's a beautiful setting surrounded by gorgeous mountains and you're in this little valley with these beautiful buildings and this character that's just fantastic.

And it's only a couple of hours away from our house that we lived in at the time. So we had been invited to attend a timeshare presentation to a new resort community that was being built in Leavenworth. And we were so excited because we love that town. In fact, we had dreamt of eventually maybe buying a second home or a piece of land that we could build a second property in Leavenworth area and just really enjoy the peace and the community and the views that everything that Leavenworth had to offer. So we put a deposit down and we are super excited, but over the course of the next day or so as we travel back to our home on in western Washington and we began to talk and think about it and we both kind of had a negative feeling in our core and we chose to actually follow through.

And so when we got back to our place, we reached back out to the timeshare company and said, "I'm sorry, but we're going to need to pull out of the transaction and get some of our money refunded." We did lose, we believe approximately $500 on that. And again, it's not fun to lose any money, but we just felt that this was a bad investment for us at that time, even though we knew that this was a prime time to get in at the ground stage while the costs were still low. But we listened to that gut and we followed through and, and lo and behold, it was probably less than two years later that that timeshare company went bust. They filed bankruptcy and everybody that had invested in it had lost everything that they put into it.

So that was a time where we were listening to our gut and we've all heard stories about that air traveler or that train traveler that had a funny feeling and decided to not get on that plane or not get on that train and make that trip and something bad happened on the trip and they were spared that. So why do we not listen to our gut more? Why do we deny it? I'd say it's because it's kind of a mystery to us, you know? Is it just this weird feeling? Is it based upon logic? You know, when my wife told me she didn't feel good about my partnership and I kind of dismissed her and then later, I should've listened to her, why do we turn that away?

Well, a couple of takeaways when it comes to your gut and the first that I want to share with you is that as you listen to your gut, I'm going to encourage you to actually follow it and take action even though it doesn't make sense all the time. Even though it may be counterintuitive. But I want to say that if you take action and follow that, follow your gut, follow your instinct, your action will bring clarity as you move forward. However, you must follow it. You must begin even when you don't have all the answers, but your clarity of that direction will come to you as you progress down the path. Bestselling author, Mike Littman states, "You don't have to get it right. You just have to get it going."

I recently was told a story about a gentleman who came to America. His parents were first generation immigrants and he was trying to make it on his own. He had finished college, his parents had poured everything into him and put all their hopes and dreams into him. And here after attending college, he was struggling in the entertainment industry and he longed to be a success in what he set his mind to. He was a videographer and he did a lot of work kind of behind the scenes, taking videos. Well, he literally was on his last leg as far as financial speaking and he had made his last rent payment and he had this nagging voice in his mind saying, "You need to buy a camera. You need to buy a camera, you need to buy a camera."

It made no sense to him. He was down to his last dollars. He had video equipment, but no camera. He didn't know anything about a camera, but he decided to follow his gut and he went and used the last remaining $2000 on his credit card balance and he purchased a camera and some equipment, so now he was down to nothing. He was literally calling up trader Joe's, asking them when they threw out their produce and other products because he was having to dumpster dive for his food. He had to let his roommate know that he had no money for rent that month. Well, circumstances would have it that after he bought the camera, a friend of a friend of a friend contacted him and asked him if he did videography to which he replied, "Absolutely I do."

Well, it turns out that Usher, the great Usher was doing a video shoot and wanted to have a videographer for kind of documenting behind the scenes what was going on. He had just fired his videographer and was looking for somebody else and somebody knew somebody that knew somebody that knew this gentleman. So he said, "Absolutely, I do that." So on his way to the shoot, he made sure that he brought his camera and as it got out of the car, that voice in his head, his gut, was saying, "Make sure you bring your camera into the shoot." So he goes into the shoot, setting up his equipment, he's got the video equipment going. It's kind of in a stationary place. But while he's doing that, or while the camera is doing that, he's got his camera out and he's taking still shot photos and he tells a story of Usher came up to him and asked him what F-stop he was using.

Now they were in a basement environment and the lighting was horrible and the setting was dark and the lighting was actually fluorescent. So if you know anything about photography, it's very poor for taking photos. And he had this voice in his head when Usher asked him that question and the voice said, "It's better that he thinks you're crazy then to open your mouth and prove that you don't have a clue what you're doing." So he looked into Usher's eyes, said nothing, and turned around and walked out. And so he walked upstairs where he could get cell coverage on his phone and he starts scrolling cause he's scrambling, he's sweating, he's nervous because he doesn't know what he's doing. He's just taking photos and and doing the best he can. But in the meantime, he's trying to learn this as quickly as he can. So he goes back into the photo shoot, doesn't say anything more to Usher and he's taking photographs.

Well it turns out that his setting on his camera, he set it to the smallest jpeg setting. And if you know anything about photography, that means that when you go to edit the photos and print them out, that they're at the smallest setting. They're not at an eight by 10, they're not good for eight by 10s. So unfortunately, what happened because he set them so small that anytime he blew them up, they were extremely grainy because the settings were done in appropriately. So three days after the recording, he gets a call from Usher's manager and asked him where those photos are. And so he's scrambling and the lighting is horrible. Some are bluish because of the fluorescent. Others are yellow. It just looked hideous. So his gut once again told them, "Stick with black and whites." And so he took the best 10 or 11 photos because they were so grainy, you could barely make out who Usher even was.

So he took the best ones where you could still tell it was Usher. He blew them. He made them black and white, and he sent them over. Now he knew it was a disaster, it was hideous. Well, about 30 minutes later he gets a phone call back from the manager. "So how did you know the Usher's tour is focused on vintage black and white, old-school musician, underground feeling? The photographs are perfect. They represent exactly what Usher's looking for. In fact, they're so good would you be willing to come with us on tour for the next year and be his personal photographer?" That is an example of an amazing, amazing, crazy story that happened because he followed his gut time and time again. Even when it didn't make sense, he followed it. His action brought clarity. The other thing I want you to know regarding your gut is that there are going to be seasons in your life that ebb and flow.

There's going to be differences. There's going to be times where you have to say no today, but it doesn't mean you need to say no forever. You may be in a time of your life where you're taking care of a family member, young or old, and they need your attention. They need your time. They need your focus on them in this particular season of their life, but you know that season's not going to last. Even though it may not be right time in your life to move forward today, that doesn't mean that you should not prepare to take steps in the future. So again, listen to that gut. Don't push it down. Focus on it. Let it grow. Let it nurture inside of you and give it the attention because again, it may not be today, it may not be in this season, but it may be in the next season or the one following.

The other thing I want to encourage you, if your gut is telling you to do something crazy, it makes no sense, your friends are gonna think you're bonkers, find somebody that has gone down that path that you wish to go and follow them. Learn from them. Seek mentorships with them, if possible, or others that have gone down that same journey to help you bring clarity and to give you courage cause by surrounding ourselves with like minded people, you're going to be encouraged to move forward to follow that gut. Even though those around you that may not understand what you're doing may not be supportive. Don't let the imposter syndrome stop you before you get started. Don't ask, "who am I to do that or this? I'm nobody. Nobody's going to listen to me."

I want you to become the expert. I want you to become the teacher. I want you to become the master of your expertise, of your focus. We all start out at different phases. Nobody starts out as the teacher or the expert or the master. They become it over time because they learn from others and they implement and they execute and they learned from their journey both good and bad.

And finally, I want to remind you nothing great comes without discomfort. If you were running away, if something seems so giant, so enormous that you're turning away from it, you're letting fear take you and talk you out of it, you need to change your mindset and run toward that fear. You need to conquer it. If something scares you, great, go do it. If you're not experiencing that discomfort, you're probably not challenging yourself enough. You're not dreaming big enough. You're not listening to your inner calling. So again, follow your instincts. Don't let yourself or others talk you out of your goals and your inner calling.

If you enjoyed this episode and would like to be notified when other episodes release, head over to my website, JeremyEpp.com and click on the subscribe button. If this is your first time, I want to thank you for popping in and listening and encourage you to go listen to other episodes as well. I appreciate you tuning in and I thank you for your support and I look forward to speaking with you on the next episode.