Tough Love, REAL Accountability, and how to know if you're challenging yourself - with guest Colton Paulhus

It's time for round 3 with Colton Paulhus. He's not just the CEO of Anchored Tiny Homes, but also the mind behind The Visionaries Table Podcast, and a guy who's been crushing it both in dropping pounds and growing his business.

We're keeping it REAL in this episode, digging into what it takes to build mental toughness, stick to those high-performance habits, and why dialing in your discipline is non-negotiable. Between Colton's weight-loss wins and his quest for a billion-dollar empire, we've got a goldmine of down-to-earth advice that's going to hit right where it counts.

Join us as talk about charging through life's hurdles, snagging those wins even when things are looking grim, and why doing the hard stuff can set you free like nothing else. We're spilling all the good stuff that you're going to want to scribble down and slap on your fridge. And trust me, you're about to get seriously pumped for what's coming at you.

Timestamp Chapters:

- 00:02:30 – The Buckle-Down Story of Ben Battling a Staph Infection

- 00:08:45 – Colton Breaks Down Overcoming the Daily Grind

- 00:14:20 – Why Doing More Than Necessary Is a Game-Changer

- 00:21:10 – Tackling the 40% Rule and Blasting Through Barriers

- 00:28:30 – Colton's Epic Weight-Loss Adventure and Its Freedoms

- 00:36:15 – Merging Fitness Triumphs with Business Breakthroughs

- 00:43:50 – Ready, Set, Sweat: Taking on the 4:44 Fitness Fury

- 00:52:30 – Inside Colton's Metamorphosis and Mega-Bucks Dream

- 01:03:45 – The 'One More' Mantra in Workouts and Wealth-Building

- 01:12:40 – Ben Gets Personal About Starting Fresh and Fighting Demons

- 01:21:25 – Laying Today's Groundwork for Tomorrow's Big Score

- 01:30:15 – Colton's Battle with Bites and Building Mental Muscle

- 01:39:00 – The Unvarnished Truth About Self-Talk and Staying Steady

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https://www.instagram.com/coltonpaulhus/?hl=en

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https://www.bennewmancoaching.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I was in bondage, I was addicted to food, I was in pain, you were captive in your own body and I was not free. I am more free. That one simple area. I'm a hundred times better of a man and a leader than I was six, seven months ago. Okay, so today we have Ben Newman back for episode three. We're going to dig into mental toughness, the unrequired mindset, mentality, as well as workout, and really dive deep into all things mental toughness and being unrequired. So, ben, thanks for being back. Man, I'm excited to have you on.

Speaker 2: 0:51

But you say that you're excited to have me on. But after I get done with you, after this first hour, cause I'm locking in on you you may change your mind.

Speaker 2: 1:00

You wish that I wasn't with you for this episode. I got to tell you, colton, I am so proud of how you have been showing up. For those who are listening, if you've been under a rock and not paying attention Andy Elliott challenged Colton to do 250 push-ups a day on this journey, with how he's challenging himself and just seeing you take on that challenge, which I'm going to add another one today which I know you're ready for, and I'm going to be in the fight with you. Yeah, but I just I'm really proud of you, colton, because many people have heard me say it and you and I have talked about it. We live in this world where everybody tells you how great they want to be and then, when we have a conversation, with their action, we find out they're really not all about it. That's right, and you've accepted the challenge of going to two of the individuals and I say this humbly, but I'm gonna speak about Andy Elliott two of the individuals who, in this world, are actually doing what they say. They do For sure, and we're doing it at a very high level, and you are now doing exactly the same. You've done it in your business, in building a billion-dollar brand, but your beautiful family and your kids, which I love seeing the pictures with your kids Every time I see you put something out with your kids and for those of you that have struggled to become disciplined in other areas of your life where Colton has been honest with you, that's why we're doing this.

Speaker 2: 2:28

There were areas where he was super disciplined, killing it, and he said enough is enough. Man, when I see pictures of you with your kids and your beautiful wife, it almost brings tears to my eyes. You all know I'm an emotional dude Cause I think to myself my goodness, the running around you. You're going to be able to now do that you couldn't, the the ability to breathe when you're playing with your kids, and it's going to keep getting better. I just think about what you've decided to do, and change is going to make you such a force and it's going to make your kids realize even without them ever being able to express it because they're younger just like how proud they are of you, man. So I know that's a long way to start. I took the mic over here, but I'm just super proud of you, colton, and I'm honored to be on this journey with you.

Speaker 1: 3:12

Boy. It's good because I'm actually digging up some old footage and videos and photos of me and my heaviest weight and I was looking through and I can't tell you how many days after work, my daughter cause she would take my phone and, like, take photos and videos of me. Right, well, I would just be sitting on the couch watching TV with her. Now the first thing I do is we go, we go on the play set and we go outside and we run and we play, and so it's a little thing, but it's like I'm actually able to invest energy and into my kids, when I would just come home and check out and I wasn't giving my family the best Right. And so I say that to say like, when you guys are in a place in your life and you're down on yourself maybe you're overweight, maybe you're struggling with drinking or smoking or watching too much TV you can make a change. You just have to decide, like Ben said enough is enough, I'm over it.

Speaker 1: 4:04

Right, when you partner with negativity and overeating and these things that aren't serving your life, you have to draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough. That's the only way you're going to change. That's the only way you'll have lasting change, right? Like I told you on the last episode, I'm already to my goal weight. I just have to work the steps right. Like I'm so locked in here mentally and I see it so clearly literally every day, right, but I just have to work the steps. There's a process and I have to follow that process, and you're going to add something to my process too that we're going to talk about. But at the same time, I just feel like people. Like when you're in a tough spot in your life, you do have to draw a line in the sand and you have to go all in I believe, forever, but definitely for a season where you just say, hey, I'm cutting off ties from this past, me from this bad behavior, and I'm going this direction.

Speaker 2: 5:02

Yeah, and I think it's so important to have those honest conversations with yourselves. And you know I can't speak for Andy, I can speak for myself. But you know, I think people sometimes see the type of discipline that we live with and they say, oh, like this is, this is robotic, you can't live your life this way. Well, wait a second. You guys can send questions into Colton and ask and I will always give the honest, transparent answers. That's all I know. I screw up stuff all the time. I screw up stuff as a father. I screw up stuff as a husband. I screw up stuff with my diet.

Speaker 2: 5:37

Sometimes, as strict and as crazy as I am when it comes to diet and working out, sometimes I may eat the damn chocolate chip cookie. When I said I wasn't going to eat the chocolate chip cookie but then I realized, like what the hell did I eat the chocolate chip cookie for? But I am a human, or there'll be periods of time where I will decide to cheat. I'll tell you guys butter cake at Mastro's Like that's one of my favorite desserts in the history of the world. So when we get down to Scottsdale together with Andy Elliott, I don't know if we could ever get Andy to eat dessert. But, like man, if I could get him to Mastro's, I'll buy the steak. I'll buy the dinner if we could watch him eat some butter cake on film. But you know, I may say, like man, let's eat some butter cake. Colton, like you've been so disciplined and so I.

Speaker 2: 6:17

I don't want anybody to think that I don't make mistakes or I plead that I'm perfect. I still still have two coaches. I'm reading books every day. I invest well into six figures in my own development every single year. So just because this is the work that I do doesn't mean that I'm not broken. It doesn't mean that I have perfection.

Speaker 2: 6:35

I'm working on so many areas of my life. So maybe some of my areas you look at and you're like, oh, he's a robot or he's this. Well, you know what. I may look at areas of your life and say, man, I need to do a better job of getting to church on Sundays with my family, because I put my head in the Bible every single day. I read devotionals every day, but, gosh, I need to get better at getting to church every Sunday, right? So there's things that I struggle with that you might be absolutely crushing in your life. So that's where I think the openness of this conversation and dialogue and work together is so important, because none of us will ever be perfect, the only perfection is upstairs.

Speaker 1: 7:11

That's right. That's right, and people want to hear that, they want to see that Right. And I think that's what relates a lot of people to feeling like they can actually do it. You know what I mean, like even spending time with you and with Andy. Yes, you guys are on a different stratosphere when it comes to being locked in, but at the same time, I believe I'm like I can do that. I can make that commitment. I can. I can change my life. I mean, we're going to talk through the unrequired workout process, but I look at it, I'm like, hey, I think I can do that. Right, I know I can do that. I'm a, I'm a little intense and it's going to require me to make a commitment, but at the same time, I can do it. I know I can because I'm locked into where I want to go. Right, and if you're doing it, if Andy's doing it, if other people are doing it, I can do it and I believe that.

Speaker 2: 7:57

And I think the key is is you have to remind yourself when you change, to start a new discipline, you change it and you do it just that first day, just that first day. I am a product of a father who is an alcoholic, a father who was a drug addict, so my parents when they divorced as I share with you all at six months old, I never knew my parents together. My mom passes away 11 days before my eighth birthday. She divorced my dad because of all the reasons that I struggled with my dad when he moved back into the house and so, drug addict, alcoholic, my dad got sober nine months after my mother passed away because he didn't have a choice. I still have lots of other struggles that I had to deal with and navigate. You can't divorce your dad. But my point of sharing that is you attack addiction one day at a time. Reversing addiction is reversing a pattern of behavior. When you watch Colton, colton has now decided I'm addicted to doing 250 pushups a day because that addiction is tied to a goal. And so as Colton progresses through this and he's going to get to day 20 and then day 25 and day 30, and we're going to watch this and we're going to be on this journey with him. You're going to see, it's just one day at a time that he does it. You get to the next ring rung on the ladder, one day at a time. And so, wherever you are, if you decide to start, just start and do it. That one day Colton is not going to be able to do that unrequired workout to the level in which I do it. It's not possible.

Speaker 2: 9:34

There's there's another speaker and influencer online. It's hilarious. He brought me into speak for any bet. I'm not going to say his name, but this dude is ripped. I'm talking like this guy is built, like magazine cover built, and we go to dinner the night before I speak.

Speaker 2: 9:52

And I looked at him. I said I am going to crush your ass tomorrow morning with my workout. And he looks at me like dude, like you've seen how I'm built. Yes, ben, you're in good shape, but you're not built like me. You will not crush me. He couldn't even get through the first set of a hundred pushups unbroken, I, and then we start doing planks, and I and I said to him though I said you know what I said. I know you feel like I'm breaking you right now, but there's an unfair advantage. I've done this over 1700 straight days, which means my body is conditioned to do it for sure, but I conditioned my body to do it one day at a time and I said you're actually killing it right now, right, so it's actually perspective. It's not I'm doing better than you. He was probably doing better than I did on my day one, right, that's right.

Speaker 1: 10:41

And so it's all perspective, yeah, yeah, well, and to even elaborate on that, right, when I was so, for a while I kind of hid my top weight. Now I'm like full transparency, I don't even care. But I was 435 pounds, right, that was the top of the scale when I hit my highest weight. And there was days, right, it's why I got up to that weight, because there was days I'm like gosh, I have to lose 175 pounds. I have to lose 150 pounds, even on the climb, right, when I kept climbing up in weight, there was just days. I'm like that seems so daunting.

Speaker 1: 11:13

But the shift in my mindset is what you're talking about. I just said it just has to happen one day at a time. So I just have to win the day and then I have to win tomorrow. But it starts with just winning today and I think too many people they have, like these big goals and dreams in their life. Maybe they want to get in shape, maybe it's not that, maybe they want to overcome alcohol addiction or or build their business, and they're looking at this in goal too much, right, and they don't realize at the end of the day it's just one day at a time, one rep at a time, one bite at a time, and you just have to win the day.

Speaker 1: 11:47

I mean football coaches, right? I played division one sports. They would say that so often and I wish I listened more to that, right, it's like they just say win the day, just just win today, win the rep right. When they would say that so much and I get it now, looking back, there's a reason. They're saying that because it's so true Don't think about the game when you're making the game winning sack. Think about winning today, think about winning the rep right. And you do that enough times. You will make the game winning sack or throw the game winning touchdown, but it does start with that. One rep one day at a time.

Speaker 3: 12:24

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Speaker 2: 12:55

I always say what you do today manufactures that result that you want, want so to your point getting to 250 pounds. You manufacture that with how Colton decides to eat today, you hitting those pushups, 250, additional working out or additional work that you'll do walking, training, whatever. Everything you do today manufactures, one day at a time, getting to that 250. One of my favorite stories of this concept it was, I believe, my second year at Alabama and it's actually when I started saying the phrase what you do today manufactures the result you want in the future. And so I actually said it in a team talk and we literally broke down guys, your prizefighter days. We've literally given you all the tools. We've given prize fighter days. But we've literally given you all the tools. We've given you the playbooks, we've given you the prize fighter days. I literally would say to the guys one prize fighter day at a time, you will manufacture all the things that are going to happen at the games in the fall. So this was actually an off-season training.

Speaker 2: 13:59

I walk into the gym and Jerry Judy, who's one of the greatest wide receivers to ever play college football and I think this change with the Browns is going to rejuvenate his pro career I think you're going to see him really elevate to the next level next year. He's a special talent. I walk up to Jerry and he's squatting. He's squatting during off-season conditioning, so it's probably like April. And all of a sudden I walk up to him and I said I said on this squat you're going to manufacture a touchdown in October.

Speaker 2: 14:30

And Colton, his eyes got so big and he just started banging out those squats and you could just tell that it was a. It was a flip right, because you, being a former college player, how many times did you go to lifts in April? And you're like what the hell are you guys pushing me to attack this squat right now, in April? I'm not going to play a game until September, that's right. But it's the elite athletes, it's the elite business athletes who recognize everything you do today manufactures what you want in the future. And when you start to figure out that mental difference and the mental understanding of the importance of one day at a time, you'll never live the same way and your results will never look the same.

Speaker 1: 15:15

That's right, that's right. And the other thing, too, is I actually sent a team note to our whole company today, right. And what even is crazier is most people don't realize that the only person that knows if you showed up is you, like. You're the only one, unless you literally have someone watching you all day, which is not the case but you're the only one that really knows if you gave it everything you could possibly give it, right. You're the only one that knows if you snuck that bite of cookies in the closet, right.

Speaker 1: 15:46

And it's like I think that's the biggest thing is the self-accountability. I can pay for coaching, I can have people help me, but at the end of the day, you have to look in the mirror and say, hey, I gave it everything I could today. I invested in myself, I put in the time and I did what I was supposed to do. And I think that's the thing, is building self-confidence Ed Milet talks about. Self-confidence is built by keeping the promises you make to yourself every day and over the course of a long period of time. Right? The people that are not self-confident. They said, oh, I'm going to lose weight, I'm going to build a business or I'm going to invest in my kids and then they don't do it. So they lack confidence because they've lied to themselves time and time again. But I want to dig into the unrequired right Because I want you to kind of explain that and then get into your challenge to me.

Speaker 2: 16:35

So the unrequired many people see online because now I've posted I mean literally today was the 1734th straight day that I've done the unrequired workout but the unrequired is actually a mindset. So we're going to talk about the mindset first, so you can understand it, have a better understanding of how I built it, but then we're going to go into the workout piece, which is just part, because the unrequired applies to everything that you do in your life where we may select a couple of areas in your life where you apply this unrequired thinking. So I shared the stage with David Goggins at an Alabama training camp and we share the stage, and it was probably maybe a good six months after he and I share the stage. It was my first year at Alabama. This is back like 2017. And all of a sudden, I decided to read the book Can't Hurt Me. And Can't Hurt Me is literally right behind me on the bookshelf. I see it every day. I walk into my office. It's my favorite book that I've ever read and I read the book and I think it's chapter two or chapter three.

Speaker 2: 17:45

David Goggins encourages you to do something for 30 days. Challenge yourself to do something for 30 days, and so you know, basically he's getting you to kind of write. And so I pull out my journal and I write down planking. I'm going to do a plank challenge for 30 days and I had remembered that I had done a plank challenge with executives from Quicken Loans Now it's Rocket Mortgage, so from Quicken Loans, years ago I'd gone to every single one of their sites and I'm doing work, speaking to all of their forces. Literally it's like an army, like Andy's army, and it's literally like an army of people in these different facilities. And so I'm working while and we had decided we were going to build up to doing a plank for five straight minutes unbroken. So me and the top leaders from each site Detroit, cleveland and Scottsdale decided we'll do a minute straight for six days, another minute straight for two minutes for another six days and up to three minutes. And so by the time we got to 30 days we'd be at five minutes. So that's what I thought about when I write down this 30 day challenge. I wrote down planking. I'm going to get back to doing this five minute plank straight. I waited two weeks, colton, so we're not letting you wait two weeks to start. For those of you that are listening, you don't get to write down your challenge and start in two weeks. Don't make the mistake that I made. I waited two weeks. Finally I start and I said, okay, I'm going to start at four minutes, I'm going to add two seconds every day and by the end of 30 days you're adding two seconds a day, you'll be at five minutes. So I was on, I do five minutes and five minutes two. Five minutes four, five minutes six.

Speaker 2: 19:28

I go to Sacramento to speak. I'm at dinner the night before I speak and I'm with some of the leaders from the organization that I'm going to speak to the next day. It's a financial firm and a handful of their leaders about four of them say to me hey, can we come to your hotel and train with you tomorrow morning? And I said, absolutely, let's get after it. So they show up to the hotel, we do this workout, not the same workout that I'm doing. It was a hard workout but not as hard as what I'm going to have. You do it and what others may decide to join us with, and you can certainly send everybody the workout that follows the request and we get done with the workout and the guy's like, oh man, that was such a hard workout, get done with the workout. And the guy was like, oh man, that was such a hard workout, thanks for letting us come and train you.

Speaker 2: 20:09

I said we're not done. And they look at me and say, what do you mean we're not done? I said now we have to do the unrequired. Once again, the unrequired are the things that other people can't see, they don't want to do, they don't want to talk about that. The highest performers choose to make a priority. Now, the psychology of an unrequired mindset and this applies to your business, this applies to how you eat, this applies to how you train is that, colton, you can't do the unrequired or the extra until you've done what. What's required of you. What's required, yeah, right. So you can't, you can't do the extra till you've actually done what you were supposed to do, right? So we couldn't do the unrequired portion of this workout together until we'd completed the first part. These guys want to kill me. They're like dude, I got nothing left.

Speaker 2: 21:03

I said all we're going to do is you're going to plank unbroken, as long as you can plank. And I told him. I said hey, I'm going to go for four minutes and eight seconds today. I explained to him why I said if you can go for 30 seconds, go for 30. If you can go for a minute, go for a minute. If you can go for two minutes, go for two minutes. I just want you to go unbroken. Miles, one of the leaders looks at me and he goes. Ben, sorry to break this to you, but that's not a challenge for you. You could do five minutes right now. Now I'm thinking Colton, like hey, I'm the speaker, I'm the coach you brought me in. You're not supposed to be challenging me, but I'm coachable. And so I looked at him and I said, all right, I'll do it. So I literally did five minutes that day. We get done. He goes, man, every day. He goes at 15 seconds. Add 30 seconds, see how far you can go. Wow, day 30.

Speaker 1: 22:10

I'll never forget I was in coach climbing's basement in Manhattan, Kansas. I woke manhattan kansas.

Speaker 2: 22:12

I woke up, I'm doing my plank and on day 30, colton, I planked for 16 straight minutes insane. Okay, my original goal was five minutes. Later on, in david goggins book, he explains what he calls the 40 rule. Those of you that follow goggins, you know the 40% rule. Those of you that follow Goggins, you know. The 40% rule states when you feel like you've reached, like I can't do anything else, like when you say I'm at 250 pushups, I can't do any more, you're actually only at 40% of your capacity. You've got 60% left. One of you decides I'm going to go out and I'm going to run three miles today and at three miles you're like oh my gosh, I can't move, I can't go another step. You're actually only at 40%. You've got 60% left in the tank. Wow, check out the math on this. I was never very good in math. Five, which was my original goal, divided by the 16 that I actually did is almost 40% Colton. So I protected myself to the 40% rule before I even got started, like I set my goal at something that was actually 40% of what I was capable of doing.

Speaker 2: 23:19

So how many times in our lives? Because we don't brace the unrequired, we don't accept the challenge. We don't try to do the extra. We never even fucking find out what we're actually capable of doing. So, colton and Andy and I, through this consistency every month, it's like we're screaming with love, passion and fire to you Give yourself a chance Finally. Go all in, give yourself permission to choose, to figure out how far can you actually go. So, colton, thank you for letting me be long-winded on this episode today with some of these stories. But that is how the before we talk about the workout. That is how the unrequired mindset was built.

Speaker 1: 24:03

It's so good. And you know, what's funny is I actually wrote down um before this episode. I didn't even know we were going to get into this, but I wrote choose the hard things. And it's. It's very similar, right? It's a lot of times. Ed Milet talks a ton about this, right? I listened to a lot of his stuff and I know you do too.

Speaker 1: 24:20

But discipline is freedom, right, and a lot of people think freedom means like you're just kind of in outer space and you're free and you're doing whatever you want to do. But when you actually discipline yourself to say, like you right, 1,735 days in a row, that's freedom. And people don't realize that when you make a decision to do something, you're disciplining your mind, your flesh, right, the desires that you have in your flesh, and you make a decision to do something and you do it over a long period of time, that's actually freedom. Freedom is not just waking up every day and doing whatever the heck you want to do. Freedom is saying I'm going to commit to this and I'm going to do it for a long period of time. Right, I'll take my weight loss journey, right. When I was 435 pounds, people might've said, oh, you're choosing whatever you want and you're free. I was in bondage, I was addicted to food, I was in pain, you were captive in your own body.

Speaker 1: 25:21

I was captive in my own body and I was not free right.

Speaker 1: 25:24

But disciplining myself and saying I'm going to work out, I'm going to commit myself to eating clean, that's actual freedom, right? So choosing the hard things is what actually creates freedom in your life, and doing what's unrequired creates the freedom that you want in your life. And my word for the year, this year, was freedom. And I just believe, when you take it even a step further and you want freedom in your life, we all want this, we all want to take our life to the next level, but a lot of us aren't willing to do and choose the hard things. We're not willing to do what's unrequired, and the ones that are are the ones that are going to get free. Those are the ones that are going to get free. Those are the ones that are going to step into their destiny and actually fulfill on the dreams that God has put in their life, because they're choosing the hard things and they're disciplining themselves every single day to do it. So let's dig into the workout, cause I'm excited.

Speaker 2: 26:20

Before we get to the workout, let me ask you a question. Yeah, before you decided to change and to start taking control of your life again through discipline, did you talk about building a billion dollar brand?

Speaker 1: 26:35

A hundred million was always the goal.

Speaker 2: 26:37

And what do you say now? A?

Speaker 1: 26:37

hundred million dollars, a billion, multi-billion. I say we want to build a multi-billion dollar brand.

Speaker 2: 26:43

So this proves my point without knowing the answer. But I've done this long enough. You guys got to remember I've been doing this for almost 20 years now 19 plus years I've been doing this work, so a lot of times I know the answer before I even ask. And sometimes I'll risk it right, because I'm going to ask the question. I'm like, oh, the answer better be right A hundred. So you now, because you decided to no longer be captive in your own body, in terms of your professional life, you now believe in doing 10 times what you once believed, because you've regained control of your mindset and taken your power back in your life. Colton, think about that man. And now you just said multi-billion, even if we just say a billion. The original goal was a hundred million. Now, at your current weight because I don't know what updates you have or haven't been given and how often you're giving them on your story, but it's your current weight when you started at 435 and we know where you're headed to to that 250, you're believing in 10 times.

Speaker 2: 27:45

And some people would say and this is where, for some people, they say well, the two don't correlate. You're a bit bullshit, the way you do. One thing is the way you do everything and for I don't look. People will say to me oh well, you don't understand, cause I make this money. We have a very healthy business. There's people who are making way more than I make. We've got an eight figure business. There's people who are doing nine figure, crazy numbers that our business may never produce, right, I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about trying to be the best me. But I can tell you I love it when somebody says well, your business does you know 10, 11 million? Like you don't understand what it's like to run it. I don't need to understand because, guess what? I've got athletes that have signed $250 million contracts, 300 million. So you don't impress me with what. I'm never impressed by money because I've seen it at some of the highest levels, right, I've got friends that are billionaires. So I'm not impressed by the money. People often hide behind how much money they make so that they never step into finding out how great they can actually be.

Speaker 2: 28:49

Colton, you already had a successful business. You literally could have said I could be really successful. Have all the money that I need. Who cares what I weigh? I'm a multimillionaire. I'm going to have a business that's worth a hundred million? Who cares what my weight is? And so for those individuals listening who are like it doesn't matter what I weigh yes, it does, because it matters to your family, it matters to the example that you set, it matters to you not living with regret, it matters to you having freedom in your mindset, it matters to you living a longer life and it matters to what you actually believe you are capable of achieving in your life. And if you don't believe it, look at how amazing Colton looks. He's over 130 pounds down and now he believes not in a hundred million, but a billion dollars plus, solely on the fact that he's taken discipline into his life and everything that he does. That's right.

Speaker 1: 29:40

And what's so good, mic drop right there. But at the end of the day, when you take it down to its core, you have to understand yes, it matters to everyone around you for sure, but I don't care. I was 435 pounds. I can relate to the person that's very overweight. It matters to you the most. I can tell you right now, a hundred million dollar business did not make me fulfilled and happy. It just didn't.

Speaker 1: 30:05

I looked in the mirror every day in shame, in guilt, like how did I let myself get here right? So I was fighting this battle internally with myself of looking down and having shame in my life. And I think when you're overweight you can't help but do that because you know internally what the standard for your life should be. You can tell me that, oh, it's okay to be overweight, I'm making impact, I'm building a business, I'm helping families provide income. There's another level. There's another level that you can go to and I can promise you where I am now.

Speaker 1: 30:42

I'm not even to the goal weight yet but, like he said, 128 pounds down to be exact as of this morning. I'm going to lose 175 pounds total. Well, 185 to get to 250. So, 185 pounds. I am more free, more happy, more fulfilled. I'm able to give more to my family, to my business. I'm a better leader. I'm a better father. Because of me losing weight that one simple area. I'm a hundred times better of a man and a leader than I was six, seven months ago when I was 435 pounds.

Speaker 1: 31:16

So you can tell me that it doesn't matter in your life. It does, because you can't lie to me. I was overweight, right? Ben might've never been overweight he's worked with people that have been, so he knows but I know personally. 435 pounds. I was in shame, I was in guilt, I was not content with where I was and I knew there was another level internally and I had to fight that and look in the mirror every day and know that I could take my life to the next level and I wasn't. So you have to understand you can take my life to the next level and I wasn't. So you have to understand you can take your life to the next level.

Speaker 2: 31:50

There's another level of freedom in your life and you have to be willing to go after it and I think the way that you attack it is by choosing things that make you uncomfortable and realizing through the discipline to step into the breakthroughs that you experienced mentally. When you push through that uncomfortable to make that you're comfortable, and then you raise the bar to get even more, you just keep pushing and pushing and pushing. That's where you realize the growth takes place. And so, even though we're going to talk about this unrequired workout, I really do want you to think about the fact that this applies to how you run your business. So I always say, if you're looking at it from a business standpoint and let's say I say to you, okay, and I have a belief that you now understand which is winning, is actually your ability to look yourself in the mirror one day at a time and say today I gave it my very best, and you guys have heard me say that before. If you do that one day at a time, nobody can ever take that away from you. If you know, you're truly giving your best, which is what Colton said earlier in this episode. He basically said this between you and you like, if you're going to lie to yourself, you're lying to yourself. You knew you ate the cookie or you didn't eat the cookie. But you know, if you ate the cookie, that's right. If you give it your very best, nobody can ask any more of you, and you can't ask any more of yourself than your very best. When you stack days of giving it your very best, the byproduct is winning at very, very high levels. That's how winning is done. And so if I were to say to one of you what does it look like for you? You're building a pipeline, you've got a sales organization and all of a sudden you said well, for me it's 20. I call them POCs point of contact text message, email, phone, call my voice. We're open for business today and you say 20 is my very best, then 20 is the required number for you to know that you've given it your best.

Speaker 2: 33:42

What do most people do? The way we're wired as individuals? They pick up the phone, their first four phone calls, they set two meetings, they close two pieces of business and they're like I'm on fire, what a great day this was. And they stop at four because they're measuring themselves on a result rather than understanding. You must get the reps in to have the pipeline at the highest possible level and to drive continual peak performance and to get to a billion dollars of revenue. So the required, if it's 20, then you do 20.

Speaker 2: 34:16

But the psychology of building the discipline to get the 20 is much easier when you buy into and you take ownership of an unrequired life, meaning on the business side of things. I'm going to add 10. 10 is an extra two pocs you tracking with me, colton. So now these damn balloons, this ai stuff on microsoft these days. So you add the two is 22.

Speaker 2: 34:46

So I asked you earlier you can't do the required, you can't do the unrequired till you've done the required. So if you believe that the unrequired will be the difference for you to build the momentum to get to a billion dollars, then you are going to do the 20 every single day. There are no excuses, there's no cop-outs, it doesn't matter if you close 20 pieces of business in a row, because you don't stop at 20, you do the 22. And I've been teaching this for years. And then Ed Milet came out with what I believe is the greatest book ever written about it, the Power of One More, and essentially confirms everything that I've taught through the Unrequired for all these years and literally brings it home with the best book to ever be written on the topic and so you've got it. So the unrequired it's not just a workout, it's literally everything that you do in your life, all right, so let's talk about the workout piece.

Speaker 1: 35:35

So, essentially, let me elaborate on that real quick if you don't mind. So it's so funny because at the gym I read that book right and so, like this morning, um, I had 30 minutes on the stair stepper. Well, literally I do 31 minutes. I if, if the if the sets are five by 15, I do five or six by 16. So I always do one more set and one more rep. So it's funny, because that has literally been indwelled in my head of like, just do one more, everybody else is going to do 30 minutes. If you do 31 over the course of a long period of time, you can get more out of your life.

Speaker 2: 36:09

Let me say one thing that I said earlier today, because I think this is really important. And you see that Colton is doing this in his life. You see Andy Elliott do it in his life. Ed Milad has become one of my dearest friends and confidants and mentors in my life. That's how he lives. So we're not just saying, oh, it'd be really cool to write a book called the Power of One. That's how Ed lives his life.

Speaker 2: 36:33

You're now seeing, because you're going to see the transformation Heck, there might be a documentary written about Colton when he's all done with this story, taking the business to a billion and just every single detail of all of it. But you're seeing, he's not saying he's going to do it, he's actually doing it. And so now it's your turn to give yourself permission. Now it's your turn to lean in, like we've been encouraging you to do on this episode. And remember, when this vein starts popping out of my neck, I'm not yelling at anybody. This is passion. This is passion and fire, because I want you to stop making excuses and finally lean in, get uncomfortable and do the things that are going to help you improve in all areas of your life.

Speaker 2: 37:13

So good, so good okay, let's dig into the unrequired so what ended up happening was you travel as much as I do to speak. I've been able to speak in nine different countries, I've given thousands of talks and you have enough times where you show up to the hotel, you're on the road, go down to the front desk and they say, ah, gym's under construction. Or, you know, my wife decides for a trip. Oh, let's go to a log cabin in the woods. No gym there, right. So you start to see this pattern, to where excuses are almost given to you and then you tell yourself there's nothing you can do about it. So what I decided to do was to physically push myself by creating a workout that would allow me to never have an excuse again, to create a string where I can become the example of consistency and discipline with training. And I'm not talking about hey, I did 20 pushups a day for the last five years. This workout takes 45 minutes. Most people cannot do it one time They'll. Oh my gosh, how do you do that all these days in a row? Now, given I joked earlier, I've broken some people down, but I've also become conditioned to do this and I keep challenging myself. Now I've added 500 pushups to this every day starting last April, so it's pretty intense. Then I throw in weightlifting and other things that I do, but this core workout, this is where I want to give you all the opportunity to start and you may not do it all unbroken the first time. Colton may not do it all unbroken the first time, but it's 10 exercises. There's fours throughout this entire exercise, so it's things that are unbroken. Four minutes and 44 seconds, so you actually start. You do a reverse plank, so you lay on your back feet six inches above the ground for four minutes and 44 seconds. When you're done with that, you immediately flip over. You do a regular plank for four minutes and 44 seconds straight unbroken. And one of the things we're going to do Colton's going to start doing this in addition to the 250 push-ups. I've already made the decision uh, for him we're not giving a choice, just like andy elliott didn't give a choice. And all of a sudden, here's what he's going to do and he's going to come to st louis and we're going to, and he and I are going to do it together and I'm not going to do it to show him how fast I can do it. I'm going to wait for him to finish his 444. And then I'm going to wait for him to finish the next step and we're going to do this together and you all are going to see it. He's going to build the discipline and you're going to see this weight shredding off of him Because this is a HIIT workout with the type of volume that most people would be unwilling to step into this level of uncomfort.

Speaker 2: 39:54

There's four minutes and 44 seconds straight of jumping jacks. Y'all remember the presidential physical fitness test when you were a kid and they're like do 50 jumping jacks. So when you hear jumping jacks you don't think it's hard. Try doing jumping jacks for four minutes and 44 seconds straight. It's hard. Then we do air squats four minutes and 44 seconds straight. Then there's calf raises, then there's curls.

Speaker 2: 40:18

If I'm out at a log cabin, if the gym is broken, you do a set of 44 straight pushups rather than the 44 straight curls. Then we do sets of 44 pushups. Then we do abs four sets of 44 different exercises. You can do all the same exercise. Then it's. The ninth exercise is what I call cardio burst. So it's jump rope in place. It could be running in place, it could be mountain climbers 44 seconds straight, rest for 16 seconds and another 44 seconds straight to the minute until you do five sets of that. Then we do wall sits. The same way 44 seconds straight. Rest for 16 seconds. 44 seconds straight, five sets of that. That's the unrequired. It takes about 45 minutes in order to complete it.

Speaker 2: 41:06

It's a great 75 hard workout because you could literally do it standing out in the ice, cold weather. So a lot of people I get frustrated. Now it's different. I give you the example. I've always said this Andy Frisella, wearing a ruck pack with 50 pounds in it, 60 pounds in it, 70 pounds in it, going for a walk, that is a walk that would count for 75 hard. If you are literally walking down your street, waving to the neighbors and stopping and talking and you're counting that as a 45 minute walk for 75 hard, you are cheating yourself and you've got to go. Look in the mirror. So it's one of the reasons all the times I've done 75 hard, I've never done a walk. I've never just gone outside and said I'm going to walk down the street for 45 minutes. That is the big. Don't cheat yourself.

Speaker 2: 41:54

Once again, the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. So I built this workout, to challenge you, to make you uncomfortable. But also, there's nowhere to hide. There's no hiding in a wall sit. You don't stand up straight, just up against the wall and go I'm doing a wall sit. No, you get your ass down, you put your back up against the wall. You can't hide from a plank. You're either planking or you're not planking. That's right, right, yeah, yeah. And so for those of you because a lot of people say, oh my gosh, I can't do a plank for four minutes and 44 seconds straight, then start on your arms and go up to straight arms. Go back down to your arms, go up to straight arms. If you can't do it, just on your elbows for four minutes and 44 seconds straight, rotate back and forth, but don't go down. Prove to yourself that you can do it, and what you're going to find is the mental toughness that you build by doing these things unbroken.

Speaker 2: 42:46

You know, I've been doing boot camps for 15 years. We had people working out during our boot camps 15 years ago. Frisella can tell you we did a boot camp down in St Thomas and the Virgin Islands in 2015. And we brought in a trainer and had people doing crazy workouts. All this stuff you see online. I've been doing this stuff forever because I know this makes a difference and part of us providing the challenge to Colton and I say us, andy and I really challenging Colton. It's not just for you to watch what Colton and I say us, andy and I really challenging Colton, it's not just for you to watch what Colton does, it's for you to give yourself permission to step in the ring with us to challenge and push yourself so we all can grow and push together. It's not just me, it's not just Andy, it's not just Colton, it's all of us choosing to do it, whatever that level of uncomfort looks like.

Speaker 1: 43:33

Yep, yep, it's like I said right, choose the hard things and do the things that will take your life to the next level, because discipline is freedom, right, and when you choose to do the hard things, you do the unrequired. That's actual freedom. And I just believe that strongly because I lived it the other way. I lived eating two crumble cookies a night and going to Taco Bell, and that's bondage, right. People might have thought, wow, you're getting to do whatever you want every day. No, that's not freedom. Freedom is deciding to do the hard things every single day over the course of a long period of time. So anything else you want to add to that.

Speaker 2: 44:12

The only thing I would add is there are going to be periods of time where something is going to happen and you're going to tell yourself I just can't do it. And so this is the piece of the story where I never claim that all of my screws were tight. I got plenty of screws that are loose, but this is what happens when you give yourself permission to go all in. This freedom that you give yourself is a freedom that you only know comes with the discipline so I shared. Today was the 1,734th straight day I've done that workout that I just described. There were actually 10 days where I was unable to do it because I had a staph infection. I got kicked on the sideline by our starting safety when I was working for the Michigan State football team against Ohio State a couple of years ago Ends up turning into a staff infection. I have surgery. I was literally doing this with a staff infection in my ankle until I woke up one morning. I could not stand on my foot and my wife goes okay, you're not working out today, you're literally going to the hospital foot. And my wife goes okay, you're not working out today, you're literally going to the hospital and they literally took an MRI that day, told me they could have amputated my foot had the staff gotten into the bone. So thankfully we caught it early. But on the day they removed that staff infection cut me open, sucked it out of my ankle. I will never forget that pain. We'll never forget that pain.

Speaker 2: 45:35

I asked my wife to bring me 15 pound dumbbells, colton. I did a thousand curls in the bed in literally the gurney in the bed in the hospital, because the thousand curls took me 45 minutes, which was the same length as that workout. I said I will not stop my wife, who's five foot six, she literally walks in. She's this beautiful tiny little gal. She literally walks in. And she's this beautiful, tiny little gal and she walks in and she's like sweating and she's like I brought your dumbbells and I literally she goes. I can't believe you made me bring dumbbells when they pushed me to my room that night. I'd never stayed overnight in the hospital. The guy pushing me, he's like hey, man, I've worked here for like damn near 20 years. Are those your dumbbells? And I said, yeah, these are my dumbbells. He goes. I've never seen anything like this 20 years. I've never seen somebody bring dumbbells up in here. So I stayed one night.

Speaker 2: 46:27

The next day I did a thousand curls in the bed. Again, they came in the physical therapist when they released you from the hospital and she walks in, she's got her little clipboard, she's going to run these tests for me. And she says, hey, are those your dumbbells? And I said yep, and she goes I think you're fine, we don't need to run these tests, we'll release you. Today I ended up doing cause. I was on crutches for about 10 days and then I finally was able to get back into doing the unrequired when I could walk again and do jumping jacks and put the pressure on. But so for 10 days I did a thousand curls in the bed. I still honored the 45 minutes.

Speaker 2: 47:03

So I love sometimes for people to get the full story because I think it's important. That's right. Even a staff infection and a surgery. I didn't stop. And some people may say that it's crazy, but I always joke with my wife. I say, babe, if I become addicted to working out and buying Air Jordans, we're doing pretty good, because I could be addicted to far worse other things. And so I just want everybody to know. You may never catch my streak of 1,734. You may have an injury, you may have a sickness, you may have whatever. But even when you feel like you just can't do it, find a way to make it happen. And when you do that this disciplined life that Colton is now living, that he craves and can't live without you'll experience that for you too.

Speaker 1: 47:48

That's right, and most of the time. I'll just add one more thing Most of the time it's not a staff infection. It's someone saying, oh, my shoulder hurts, or right, there's little things that come up that we talk ourselves out of it. So I bet you there's going to be moments in this journey where I'm like, oh, I'm tired, my legs hurt, right, my core hurts, my groin hurts, and it's like those are the moments that you have to choose to do the hard things right. Most of the time it's not going to be a staph infection or surgery or any of that. It's going to be a thing that you actually can push through to actually go to the other side. So that's what I would say. If you guys have liked this episode, episode three with Ben Newman, please like, subscribe, share this. We really want to get this out to as many people as possible so you can live a tough life, have mental toughness and do what's unrequired. So, ben, thanks for being on the show.

Speaker 2: 48:40

Colton, thank you Once again. I'm so proud of you. Keep attacking, one day at a time and for anybody that's interested, colton and his team now has it so we can send you the workout. You can join us on the journey. You can start with Colton, as he's going to be starting at day one, and lock in and everything in your life, identify that unrequired or maybe it's one thing business related, one thing personal add in this workout. It doesn't have to be 10 different things.

Speaker 1: 49:06

Own that unrequired mindset and watch your life change yep, and I just thought to myself I'm like I'm gonna start this tomorrow. And then I felt like no, I'm starting this today, I can't start start tomorrow. I got to do this tonight, so I'm going to hit this workout tonight, so let's go. I love it.

Speaker 2: 49:22

I love it. Attack it, tag me. I'm going to share it online.