Vertical Momentum
Richard Kaufman, aka The Comeback Coach, has heard hundreds of stories as a podcast host on resiliency. As a man who has had to dig deep to overcome a lot personally Richard shares with us some of the best lessons he has learned from others on his podcast. Resiliency is a skill that takes constant refinement and learning to hone and one could argue there is always more you can learn.
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Transcript from Episode 71 with Richard Kaufman:
Keith McKeever
Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever. Alright folks, you're in for a treat. This week, I have another repeat guest. I've got the one and only the podcast rookie. That's an inside joke from what he was talking about a minute ago. I've got Richard Kaufman on here. And he is by no means a podcast, rookie. Richard, welcome back to the battle, buddy. Yes,
Richard Kaufman
girl. I'm so honored and grateful to be on. And guys, if you're watching this, make sure that you hit that subscribe button. Make sure you smash that notification button. Because this is one one podcast. I don't ever miss. I don't miss an episode. So make sure you don't miss an episode of this podcast.
Keith McKeever
Thank you, Richard. I appreciate it. And likewise for everybody you know, you go check out Richard's podcast, get that? Get your website scroll on vertical momentum podcast. I know you're on all the places that I am Apple, the homeless mostly iTunes, I guess it's Apple podcasts. A days me back a few years, right? iTunes, Spotify, anchor all those different places. So everywhere you can find a podcast you can find Richards and you gotta go check his out too, because you you have some amazing ones. Some of the conversations you get into guests are amazing, too. So definitely go check that out. So welcome back, Richard. For those who don't know, you, could you give us just a little rundown of who you are, what you did the military, those kinds of things.
Richard Kaufman
Oh, well, I'm probably the only guy that you'll ever meet that gets thrown out of the military for being a drug addict. Gets back in and that almost gets thrown out for a second time, just for being a aihole Should I should say, but I finished with 23 years in regular Army National Guard, and then I got hurt on duty, can't see can't shoot. So we don't need you. And they medically discharged me Memorial Day 2012. That was the day that I attempted suicide. Because you know, after 23 years of coming back in having the blessings to be able to come back in and try to become the ultimate soldier. And then all of a sudden, I didn't know who Richard was. And it scared the bejesus out of me and I attempted suicide. Thank God I didn't happen. And then I got my kind of my I got my amigos. And we all know who my amigos are. Tani Moses, Dudek curry. And they said, you know, alright, you gotta get off your ass, you got to do something, you know. And so I started a podcast as I was doing it for shits and giggles. You know, it was just something to do. I was with GNC for a while. So I just was, you know, putting up 32nd, you know, trying different products, take test, taste, testing and stuff like that. And then I went blind, I lost my vision. And three years ago, and I can see at about 20% vision. And since I've been using anchor, it was a lot easier for me because it's audio only. So I didn't have to do a whole lot. And I got the idea. I'm like, You know what, let me just start interviewing people that got worse than me. And I interview first interview is a guy that he had yet. He was a quadruple amputee, and he's skiing in Aspen with his family. And I'm like, wait a minute, no arms and no legs. He's living a better life than I am. And that's when the podcast really started. And now it's just morphed into its own thing. Right now. So I'm a full time podcast host, author, speaker, I just do whatever I can to help give people hope again.
Keith McKeever
Yeah, you do an amazing job. Really? You know what, I love to listen to your podcast when I'm mowing the lawn? Because it your episode length takes me just about the exact amount of time to mow and weed my lawn,
Richard Kaufman
then, you know, perfect for me, Richard. So, but you know, because I tried to figure out you know what the perfect lengths are. And there are certain people that will only listen to a 15 minute episodes, some people will listen to 20 minutes for me, as long as it takes for the story to get told. You don't mean so something like I did an episode with John Lee Dumas. It was a 20 minute episode. And then I did another episode with a friend of mine that was deployed in Afghanistan. And we did a two hour episode. So I don't think there's a perfect of your podcast or there is no such thing as a perfect time. It's whatever the people want.
Keith McKeever
You know, I've kind of got a similar philosophy I usually write you know, four or five questions to kind of lead the conversation and bring out the key points and, you know, whatever happens after that happens, but yeah, I've never been one to subscribe to, oh gee, we're at 20 minutes. We gotta we gotta wrap this up. You know? So hey, if you're still dropping nuggets, and you're still You know, provide value to listeners, you know, it's all about, you know, giving people hope, educating them, guiding them to resources or an idea or whatever it helps improve their life, you know, for podcasts.
Richard Kaufman
Like when I had you on the show, I always try to tell you, it's like two brothers sitting down to have a cup of coffee. And a lot of people like Paul Aikens came on my show. And he revealed for the first time that he was sexually abused by a priest. And he said, Hello, reason I did that. He said, Because I felt so comfortable. I knew you weren't, you know, you weren't just going from a script. You were and one David Meltzer, I had David Meltzer, on the show, and afterwards, I asked him to leave a review. And he wrote, Richard is more interested and interesting. And it pissed me off when I read it. I'm like, that doesn't sound that so what? I'm not interesting. And then Then he said, I want you to go look it up. And it says, It's the highest compliment that an interviewer can ever get that you're more interested in what they're saying, than interesting in what you're talking about.
Keith McKeever
Makes a lot of sense. Yeah. So it makes a ton of sense. Now, you said you've dropped a couple of names here a few minutes ago, I have had well, I've had Paul on. But you mentioned some battle buddies of yours, who told you to get off your butt and go do something. I've had a few conversations with Daniel, but I haven't had him on the show. But I should reach out to him about that. He's a funny guy. He's got a
Richard Kaufman
serious story.
Keith McKeever
Some of his it stories are hilarious. But Mark, I've had Mark do deck on I've had Tammy Moses on both wonderful people. Where did those relationships with all of them start? You know, I mean, because that's pretty powerful for them for three different people to tell you, Hey, you got to you got to decide to do something. You got to
Richard Kaufman
change in the tribe, you know, the veteran foreigner tribe? I've been there almost since day one. So I mean, not exactly. They weren't. But almost I mean, I've been there when Andrew was there, so but I got to know him. And you know, you'll see some people post now and then, and you're like, you know what I like to become friends with them. But then when MC DC came up, and after everything that happened to military influence concert conference in DC, a bunch of us all went out to to a given night diner and had dinner. And it was amazing. It was Dudek, it was Tammy. It was all people I call my amigos now, but it was at that moment where we all became family. And we actually sang birthday got a birthday cake for Tammy. So we're actually singing her birthday. And we actually this was way before she even had a podcast. We actually scribbled out everything about her podcast on a napkin. And she made that a possibility. And she she started to do that. So that it was that day that we all became family. And it's been that way ever since that if we ever have a struggle, like I lost my vision 80% And they actually put money together. And Daniel built me a computer, for people that have that are sight impaired. And I'm actually looking at it right now use it every day. No cost shipped to my house. So for me, you know those people they say, you know, there's not a lot of people. You can call it three in the morning. You know those three, Curt Baelish. I know that if I call them at three o'clock, they're on the road. And I think we all need battle buddies, especially when we get out because we struggle. For me. I struggled a lot when I get out because I became a lone wolf.
Keith McKeever
Yeah, you need those people. I can see Mark being that way. But I don't I don't know him too well. But I've talked to Tammy a lot. And I think of Tammy as a big sister.
Richard Kaufman
Yeah, me too.
Keith McKeever
She is just so sweet down to earth caring person. I absolutely love having conversations with her. She's a wonderful, wonderful person. So, you know, I'm very passionate about what she does. I mean, she's in the hoarding space. She grew up with that she's got one heck of a story about hoarding. That's a That's a difficult topic to talk about. You know, but I learned from her that, gosh, like 6% of Americans live in a hoarding situation. That's 90 million people.
Richard Kaufman
And I grew up in a hoard. So that's where me and her really bonded. And actually she was the first guest that I ever had on a podcast. Tammy was the first
Keith McKeever
Wow, that's, that's awesome. You never you never forget the first you've got a heck of a connection with the first because guess what the guy local gaseum all the time.
Richard Kaufman
We're like 500 episodes into some something stupid.
Keith McKeever
And you're a couple 1000 miles apart. You know, hey, that's, you know, there's no distance when there's a computer, and there's video chats and stuff like that. So. So you've you've, you've had hundreds of conversations, you know, 500 or so guests, probably numerous other conversations outside of that. So because yours is about resiliency, and I know your podcast is like towards the first responder, community, to veterans, veteran entrepreneurs, things like that. What are some of the biggest lessons that you've learned from from all these different guests?
Richard Kaufman
Well, you know, besides having, you know, veterans entrepreneur, I mean, I really got into the veteran printer space. So I have, like, last week last throughout my last two guests, was Mr. Mr. Greg Reed, 12 Times bestselling author. And then also Mr. Lee Steinberg, the greatest sports agent in history. So I kind of also talk about entrepreneurship. And, and I think the biggest thing that I found, since I've talked to all these people is, a lot of times when we get out of the military, like Sergeant Nick talks about Sergeant Nick Valentine, the military does not give a shit about you, your phone stops ringing, you no longer have a job, you no longer have a mission, and you no longer have your battle buddies. And so a lot of times we get out, and we're just like, we're lost. And I think without a mission, without a purpose is when most of us would take our lives. But it seems like if we have a purpose, we're more inclined not to take our lives, because we know, well, I got a mission to fulfill. I can't take my life right now. Because I gotta go, I got a goal, or I got I got a mission. So I think that was the biggest thing I've learned is, you know, we have to live a purpose driven life in order to insulate us from I mean, of course, I know, you know, when when I lost my vision, I had a lot of suicidal thoughts, but I didn't act upon them. And if I did have thoughts, I would actually put them out on my Facebook page. And all my friends would reach out to me. But I think, you know, having a pitch of mission, and a purpose was the biggest thing that everybody that I've talked to, they all have in common is now they have a mission.
Keith McKeever
Yeah, that that'd be a big one I did totally just dawned on me, I never thought about it. So now civilian civilians sometimes may not have the experience working in teams. And the relying relies on the team, like you have in the military. You know, your weak link in the military literally puts lives into balance. So I think that's, you know, it's important for civilians to have that team and that purpose. But you go from having that to having none when you get out. There's nothing there. I'm my transition was pretty smooth, because I went to work for a small company. I worked 70 plus hours a week with the same group of people. It was almost like a military atmosphere. Actually, the the regional manager was that, like he served during the Vietnam War, but either way, I was the same people every day.
Richard Kaufman
Unfortunately, they were. Unfortunately, they were Denver Broncos fans, but we're not gonna
Keith McKeever
that's not talking about the Broncos lifelong Bronco fan here. It wasn't a pretty day yesterday. We're recording this after their 11 to 10 win against the San Francisco 40. Niners what might be the ugliest offensive game I've ever seen. It was almost like the Iowa, the Iowa football game earlier this this season, if anybody caught that when they couldn't move the ball a foot.
Richard Kaufman
Frankly, when you talk when you talk, I pay attention.
Keith McKeever
You got me? Yeah. See, most people might not be lifelong Denver Broncos fan. I've been a fan through the good and the bad. And last couple weeks has been some bad. But we believe in Russell Wilson. Yeah. Yeah, there's there's a lot to that, to that team thing and having that belonging and that purpose. I think that that is a huge lacking thing for a lot of people.
Richard Kaufman
But you know what, let's just talk about sports for a second. I mean, cuz no matter. You know, I'm a big Yankees fan judges about to make history. But you know, it seems like we all not all of us, but a lot of guys and girls we connect to a team is because we want to be involved in a team. You know, we say it's our team. You know, so I think a lot of us, you know, when we get out, we don't know who our team is. So we have to find it. And I for me, personally, you know, now I've had all these key talks with people. It's not found in the bottom of the VFW anymore. That's not you know, when guys and gals get Get out of the military now. You know, they want to get involved with stuff like Reverend warriors, you know, they want to get involved and do things. So you have to find your, your team. And a lot of us have to, you know, even some of us just once we get out of the military, either we stick onto it where we're that 80 year old Marine that's still wearing to beat us, or we go totally against it, like martial terror Terran where he doesn't, you know, he's not, he doesn't talk about the military much. So it's kind of like, we, we either go either way. So sometimes when we get out, we have to try to connect with like, for me, the veteran printer tribe, saved my life. And Operation veteran freedom saved my life also. So we have defined groups, I think, you know, that we can get involved with, and maybe not, you know, ask for help right away. But for me, I was I joined the group, and I crept, I was a creeper like, I just, I just watched everybody for like a year, to see who was real and who was not. So I think, you know, maybe you need people need to find if you get out of the military and you're struggling, maybe, you know, try to find groups that you might be interested and just creep for a little while and watch
Keith McKeever
how there's more more than enough options. You know, there's remember Warriors is a good one, but doesn't have to be military or veteran focused either. You know, if churches your thing. There's lots of churches that do good things, right. They do community outreach, food pantries, you name it. There's, there's somebody volunteer job well, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, whatever. I mean, there's so many different things in the community where you can find people who have like minded passion for serving the community. And kind of can give you that team atmosphere in that community. Well,
Richard Kaufman
I, I talked to achieve Master Master to Chief on Friday, and he said, you know, but it's easier for us to talk. I can say, you know, even if me and you are on the phone somewhere, and I can say listen, Keith, you know, you kind of shitting the bed here, buddy, you need to straighten the EFF up. You're okay with that? Because, you know, we both been where we've been. And we both raised our right hands. But if but if you're talking to civilian guys, and you come up and be like, Hey, bro, you just shit the bed. You're like, who are you? You know. So I think a lot of us were were able to talk to each other reel to reel when we know that somebody else has served. So it's a little bit easier when you know to be in those kinds of groups.
Keith McKeever
It doesn't take the pain away. I'll give a shout. Travis Johnson has told me some things over the years, where he's like, Nope, you're doing this wrong. You got to think about this, you got to think about that. It's painful to hear it sometimes it is. But when it comes from a genuine place of care, and somebody else seeing things from a different perspective, I look back at some of the things he's told me. And it's painful to hear at first. But it put me on the path to create something or go down something that has turned into something great. Well, Travis has been as he saw something from a different perspective.
Richard Kaufman
Travis has been a lifesaver for me. Without Travis, I wouldn't be where I'm at today. I was I think I was the first one to ever buy his ebook. And without that ebook, I wouldn't be where I am today. So Travis, thank you.
Keith McKeever
He's, he's an impactful guy for a lot for a lot of people. But is there is there any other lessons that you've picked up on these conversations because that was a good one. But
Richard Kaufman
you know, I I've had navy seals on I've had, you know, Delta Force. And you know, I've had these guys, I've got professional athletes, NASCAR drivers, you name it, they've been on the show. And the one thing is, like Ed, my lead talks about in his new book is do one more rep. Do just one more, do just one more interview, do just one more, whatever it is, do one more. Because I think it was Mr. Zig Ziglar once said, you know, there's never a traffic jam on the extra mile. So whatever you're doing in life, if you want to succeed, just do one more. And I so I asked him anytime and I talked to a seal or, you know, I asked him, What was it that made you not quit? They said, I just did one more. And I think it's simple when you think about it, but it's also something hard. You know, like we were talking earlier. I'm 53 years old. I'm 200 pounds. I don't want to go jogging my legs don't want to do it. But after listening to David Goggins, he was like, you know, what? You've already been, you've been through basic, you know, you've been through all these military schools, you've accomplished a lot of shit. What's just running? Do it. So I think a lot of a lot of people that have been successful in life. I think they just do one more than everybody else.
Keith McKeever
That's a good one. Yeah. Or they just take action where other people won't And then just another way of looking at it, you know, because there's just successful people were willing to act and do when other people sit on their, you know, hand hands to do nothing and think about the million dollar ideas you've probably had pop up in your head, I think we've all had we're think, Oh, this is a great idea. If I turn this into a business, I'll, I'll be a multimillionaire. And then what happens? You know, six weeks later, you see someone see an ad on Facebook for the same product that you were thinking of, you know, you had the idea. So to somebody else, but they took action on it, ya
Richard Kaufman
know, and I believe I talked to one of the Tony Robbins, Tony Robbins, guys. And I'm like, you know, give me honest answer. He's like, why do people keep showing up to all these events? Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk. And he's like, because only 3% We know that only 3% that buy from us are gonna act upon us. So they're gonna be there the next time? Nine? Yes. He's like, so it makes a lot of sense. And, you know, so whatever you're doing, you know, like, if you read a book, act upon what you're reading, you know, don't don't use it as a book, you know, use it as a guide to actually put work in your, I'm saying,
Keith McKeever
that's a good one. That's a good one. I was just thinking that when you're reading a book, or listening to a book, have a piece of paper and a pen handy, and write your action, action item list. Write that stuff down. That's a good one.
Richard Kaufman
I'm interviewing somebody because I got a traumatic brain injury, buddy knows, I can't remember shit. So I'll write whatever, you know, whatever questions I have down, you know, as we're speaking, and I'll write it down. It's it's what I make sure I answer those questions. And then I go back and, and look at all while they drop this golden nugget. I wasn't even thinking about I didn't hear it. That's why I love having a podcast because I'm getting an MBA in business and not paying anybody for.
Keith McKeever
That's true. That's the best part about being a podcast, you guys kind of ask whatever questions you want. So it makes it pretty cool. So is there been any aha moments with any guests or somebody dropped something that was so absolutely mind altering, crazy thought that you had never thought of before to change anything
Richard Kaufman
for one of them. It comes out to me, his name is Brian Bulger. And when he was seven years old, he had his arm brimful ripped off. And they attached it and everything. But that wasn't what hit me, what hit me is we were talking about being a father, you know, because I got, I got a nine year old daughter and I got two sons. And it hit me. He says, when you're talking to your daughter, you're actually talking to yourself at her age. And that really hit me at home, how I'm treating my daughter, because my mother went, you know, because we have this cycles of abuse. And it really changed my whole perspective on you know, instead of me talking to my daughter, I'm talking to me, at nine years old, and it really just blew my mind. And it changed me my my daughter's whole relationships. So stuff like that, you know, I get from because when I listened to when I edited the podcast, I actually listened to it all over again. So I'm getting, you know, double, double the effects. So I'm learning stuff with something like that, or hit me. And you know, think it's gonna hit you until you started thinking, man. You know, if I keep treating my daughter the way I was treated, then the cycle of abuse just continues. You know, instead of going from generational curses, now I want it to be generational blessings. So something like that, you know, really touched me hit home and changed my life.
Keith McKeever
Nothing like something to impact your relationship with a close family member, especially child. Yeah. That would be, that would be a good one. Because it's what everybody wants to see. I mean, you want to raise your kids to be strong and independent, knowledgeable so they can be successful in this world. And you don't want to give them some of the bad stuff. And I think we all we all pick up bad things from our own parents. And you don't want to pass this stuff along.
Richard Kaufman
It says some of the biggest, you know, I say something that most successful people do. I think one of the biggest things they do is they know how to be present. You know, it's not just giving your children presents, but giving them your present. You know, like for me, six o'clock comes, my phone is away. For the rest of the night. I'm not playing with I'm not you know, and when my wife talks to me, even during the day, I put my phone down. I look in her eyes to make sure that she knows I'm listening. So I think we need to you know, like I'm talking to you on present here. There's nothing else that I'm focused on. Next thing I go on to I'm going to be 100% focused and I think so that we really need to really need to work on it for me anyways. just being present, and whatever I can do, that's when you can be over successful when you're focusing, you know, on one thing, and just being present in the moment, because that's what we have is moment, you know, yes, yesterday doesn't exist anymore. Tomorrow doesn't exist. All we have is this moment that we're actually enraged. The second
Keith McKeever
that tomorrow is not guaranteed either. Yeah. And there is nothing better than watching your kid light up with joy and excitement. I've had, you know, a couple of times lately where, you know, I've been busy for a little while, you know, because you got to work, you got to pay the bills and all that stuff, right? Well, my youngest would be like, Dad, can you come play Minecraft with me? I think it was, late last week, I sat down and played Minecraft with him for like an hour and a half. And he was so excited. I mean, he was he could barely sit still on the couch. He was so excited that I was taking the time to sit there with him and play a game with them. Gemini, nobody else. My wife wasn't there. My oldest wasn't there was just him and I, in the moment playing games together. And he was so excited. That, you know, at the young age, they can't hold their excitement. And you can see it all over their face. And it's like, you know, hey, that's the memories. You know, I will be here someday, you know, so when he's old, he you know, of course, his kids probably be like, what was Minecraft? That ancient technology when, when he's old like me, but
Richard Kaufman
But you know, it's not like I had David Meltzer on the show. And he said, you know, at 34 years old, he lost $100 million and bankrupted his business. But now his company's worth $20 billion. And I asked them, well, what is your key to success now? He says, I prioritize, and that's what we were talking about earlier. He says, I make sure that in my schedule, and Mike my calendar, there's time for my daughters, there's time from my wife, there's time to call Mom, there's time for my health. He says, other because if I don't do all that, the business stuff doesn't really matter. Because I'm gonna lose it all anyway. So I think a lot of a lot of it has to do with, you know, like, we're talking about earlier health, you know, I'm diabetic, I finally got my servers, like, My shirt was like, 110 the other day, and I will shit the bed. I was so excited. But, you know, because I'm learning that without health, there is no wealth. So, you know, I think a lot of it, sometimes we got to shift our priorities. You know, a lot of people say, Well, I work well, yeah, well, you work eight hours, what do you do with the other 16? Now, I mean, but you're what you you know, who won the football game? You know, who won whatever, you know, but you know, focus on your health, you don't focus on your mental health, you don't focus on on learning. You know, so you're just existing, you're not you're not really living. You know, if somebody I heard somebody wants a, I think was Snoopy and it was Snoopy. Talking to Charlie Brown and Snoopy says are on Charlie Brown says, Well, you You only live once. I mean, you only die once. It's new. He said, Yeah. But you live every day. So
Keith McKeever
that's a good point. That's a good point. And if we're lucky enough, you live a lot of days.
Richard Kaufman
Yeah. And you know, and, and that was something that David said, and that is really hit me. He said, I never thought of it. Because you know, when I go before I go to bed at night, this was something that Patrick budge taught me, Patrick, I love you. ICE Tech coolers. Sorry, big plug. But he told me you know, the keys to success are, say three things before you go to bed that you're grateful for. When you wake up, say three things that you're grateful for before you hit the floor. And after that, everything is gravy, you're gonna have a good day, because you wake up with gratitude. And David said that gratitude and anger cannot occupy the same space. And I was like, wow, that, you know, I was like, I've been angry a lot in my life. So maybe if I started putting a little more gratitude in, I'm not gonna have as much room for anger.
Keith McKeever
That's a darn good point. It does feel good to go to bed and say some things that you're grateful for. Layne balloon rolled out something that's probably been a couple of months ago. Now he you know, the 75 hard challenge. He came up with this 60 Day semi hard challenge. tremor was some of the key elements were of it. But one of them was daily gratitude. Daily intentions grounding. Just, it was less about the physical exercise, and water diet restrictions and stuff and more about just mindfulness. And some of them were harder to do than others. I will admit I failed on that one. But there was certain things that I've realized like grounding. Amazing, I felt great going out sitting in a lawn chair, put my feet on the ground. And I would listen to a podcast episode or audio book for 2030 minutes, I was eating my lunch outside. It was absolutely amazing. I should have kept that up.
Richard Kaufman
I love the book, unleash the humble alpha, the first 10 pages are game changers because it taught me you cannot be something great in life if you don't know who you are. And I think once you find out who you are, really get down to the nitty gritty and find out who you are. I think that's when, you know, life gets a lot better. Because now you know who you are now, you know, you know what you'll stand for, and what you're not staying for. So you know, so I just wanted to give a big shout out to them. Their book is a game changer.
Keith McKeever
There's a reason it's on my podcast must read list. Because it is if you get clarity, in that situation, you realize what is important and what's not important, you know?
Richard Kaufman
And I the big thing is, because I always now, there's a little story. I don't know if many people know this, but me and Steven got into it. And when I got to MC DC, I went up to him, gave him a big hug. And said, you know, so we had we had a little powwow, because what happened, you know, he he's tried to set me straight. And I didn't want to hear it. Because I was everywhere. You know, I was in. I was doing supplements, I was doing this, I was doing that. And nobody knew me for doing anything you because I was doing too much shit. And he finally sent me straight. He's like, bro, nobody knows who you are what you do, because you're everywhere. So me and him actually hugged it out. And if it wasn't for that, that moment at MC DC, I don't think I would actually be a full time podcaster. So I want to give a big shout out to Steven. I love you, bro.
Keith McKeever
That's that's some awesome insight. And for him to provide some clarity there for you. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. So where are you seeing with some of these guests? Are you seeing any trends or anything where people are really struggling with being resilient these days?
Richard Kaufman
The biggest thing that I'm finding, because not only do I talk about the persons, you know, like I have Mr. Greg reed on, not only are in Sharon Lechter, she wrote Rich Dad help rich, write Rich Dad, Poor Dad, not only do these people, I don't talk just about their successes. I talk about the failures. And a lot of times people the rich people that I'm talking to, because now I'm talking to millionaires and billionaires, I got something coming up with Richard Branson in a little while. But even him, you know, they do successful people have to go against what even sometimes the people in their own home, think about, you know, you won't be successful, you can't be successful, are fit, we're not meant to be rich, we're not we're not meant to have money. We're not meant to be you know, to live in Malibu, or whatever. And we, and a lot of people listen to that. And for people that I've talked to that have been very successful, they're like, you know, don't let somebody that hasn't done something, tell you that you can't do it. So I think that's the biggest thing, a lot of, you know, you kind of have to just go on your own sometimes, and do your own thing. And I believe because I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, that in the end, it's just going to be me and him. So really, you know, my life is my journey. My wife has her journey. So I think we can't, a lot of us are so worried about what other people think about us that we don't try to succeed in life. Or you get something like David talked about, you know, you buying a Lamborghini, or buying a Porsche or buying a big house to impress people. You don't even like so it's kind of I think that was some of the biggest things I've learned is, you know, it's your journey, you know, and, and don't worry about as much as you know what other people think as long as you're not hurting anybody and you're doing positive stuff. Not everybody's gonna believe in your journey. And that's okay.
Keith McKeever
That's really interesting, cuz I would have never guessed that. Probably because I probably hit the lottery with my wife that my wife supports anything that I go after, you know, and she'll tell me if something stupid or I need to go do something different. She also tells me when I misspell things, because I'm terrible grammar. So you know if anybody's seen any grammatical errors by typing, she didn't catch those. But yeah, I never really thought about that. You know, people haven't unsupportive spouses, parents, siblings, significant others, whatever in their life. You know, kind of hold them back
Richard Kaufman
Is somebody being unsupportive? You know, because a lot of people because I'm 53, he talked to a lot of 53 year olds, they don't even know what the hell a podcast is. So it's sometimes it's hard for people to understand what, you know, whatever you're into, because it's not their thing. And you're just like, Okay, it's, you know, listen to podcasts. That's fine. You know, I'm saying, so, you know, so it's not some people saying, you know, they're not pushing you down, but they don't understand. And a lot of people are free to things they don't understand.
Keith McKeever
That that that makes sense to, I can see a lot of people. Yeah, cuz I don't talk to people every now and then. So what do you do? Well, I'm in real estate, and I have a podcast. And you're right. There are a lot of people that like, what's a podcast, as well, it's kind of like a radio show. But I also videotape it. So it's on YouTube, it's a video series, almost kind of like a weekly TV show, if you will, you want to think about it like that. It's like, kind of have a weekly TV show on Radio Show. It's just in a different format. And I'm not doing it through, you know, ABC, channel, 25, or whatever, you know, just not doing it through the old school traditional means. So that's, that's really, really insightful. That makes a lot of sense. Because there's a lot of people that just don't understand your journey or where you're trying to go. Think about Elon Musk, right, you know, wanting to go to space, and, you know, everything that he's gone, I'm sure he's had a lot of people in his life that just sit back and like, what is this guy thinking? Or even
Richard Kaufman
like James, but James, big deal talks about his, in his book, finding your personal mission, a lot of us, we suffer for imposter syndrome. For me, you know, when I first started, it's like, who am I to think, you know, I dropped out in the ninth grade, I'm a ninth grade dropout. You know, who am I to think I can write a number one best selling book, you know, who am I to think that I can just have reached out to General Petraeus and be like, Hey, you want to chat for an hour, on the phone? You know, and I think a lot of us, we deal with that imposter syndrome, until we get somebody that actually believes in us to where we can start pushing forward. Sometimes just because that one person comes on your show. Now I have one guy came on my show, and I'm not going to mention his name. He says, Well, I won't come on your show because it's through anchor. Right. So now I got people like, you know, Leigh Steinberg, you know, Greg Reed, David Meltzer coming on, and I'm like, so how's how you like me now. But if I didn't have one guy, and your young buck, but there used to be a guy in the old WWF, called Sean Mooney. And he actually had me on his podcast. And that pushed me forward mentally thinking, if he can have me on his podcast, where he's got millions of people listening, I'm worth it. So sometimes you just have to find that one person that believes in you, and it'll push you to new heights.
Keith McKeever
Yeah, that's, that's a good point. And I have recently had something kind of similar. I had an organization reach out to me about being on my podcast, and they asked him, asked him questions, and I answered them truthfully, and then they just would not respond. I was like, Well, I, which blew my mind, because it was a military organization. And I'm like, Well, my podcast is all about the military and veterans. Like, if that's who you're about, and that's where organizations about, I would think that my podcasts would be an amazing platform for you to share your message. I would think, I don't know what I said to him to turn them off. But I was like, okay, all right. Whatever, I'll see you some other day. You know, next time they reach out, they want to be on my podcast, maybe, maybe I'll think twice about it.
Richard Kaufman
I know, that's something that I'm learning now, you know, because now I actually used to be where I would have to go out and find people were now I have three people that are actually sending me all these high level people, you know, to be on the show. And sometimes I got to say no, you know, sometimes the hardest word for me to say no, it's like, I don't see how this can. Like, they wanted me to have the he's a dentist to the stars up in Hollywood. He has all the stars lists, and I'm like, I don't know where to go with that. I know. It's like, how is that going to speak to my audience? You know, so I'm like, maybe sometime when I can figure out something, but I'm like, it just doesn't jam with my audience. You know, so sometimes I think the best thing is saying no, you know, or maybe not at this time, you know,
Keith McKeever
yes, Billings people in this world, right? I mean, technically, you could sit down with anybody and have a conversation. But does it provide value does it go in the direction that you're trying to go? If it doesn't, why do it? Yeah. You know, and There's a lot of people out there that have amazing stories that would never think about being on a podcast, they would never raise their hand and say, Hey, I'd like to be on one. When they have stories that can just flat out, inspire, or change people.
Richard Kaufman
And it's funny having a podcast, you know, sometimes you think, oh, man, I got this amazing guests coming on. It's gonna be awesome. The conversation goes great. And you're looking at your analytics, and it's crickets. But then you have somebody like Paul Aikens coming on telling his story. And all of a sudden, he's like, in the top two episodes you've ever had, you don't know what's going to touch an audience. And I think that's the best thing about my show and your shows, you know, we get real, and you never know what's going to happen. You never know what's going to come out. And you never know who you're going to touch. Now, Paul's out there telling his story to everybody to help other people. And it all just started out because we're sitting down having a cup of coffee.
Keith McKeever
Absolutely. Not my my best episode so far. Still my first one, just because it got really, really raw and deep about his traumatic brain injury, PTSD, suicide attempts, his service dog saved his life. You know, it was just like, I knew the guy before that, too. And just as it was going, I was just like, dang. Wow. And I knew there's like, he's not alone. There's 1000s of others out there that are in the same boat that are probably sitting there, you know, you know, hopefully, listen to it. While they're, well, hopefully, they're, they're not at that point. But hopefully, they listen to it at the right moment where they're having those thoughts. And it's like, alright, this guy can better his life. And he can do a 180. And so can I
Richard Kaufman
know, so?
Keith McKeever
Yeah, that's a, just a lot of power to it. So salsa, you know, I'm just curious outside of your podcast, are there any resources that you found that they can help people with, with resiliency? Anything anybody shared with you are?
Richard Kaufman
Well, audible. I love Audible, I think it's like 15 bucks a month, you can pretty much get millions of books. And for some, I believe, you know, one thing that uber successful people talk about is mentorship. You know, it's not, you know, a lot of people think, well, I can't afford a mentor. And, you know, I talked to a lot of NLP practitioners. And they talked about the brain that your brain doesn't know, if you have your earbuds and they don't know if Gary Vaynerchuk is sitting right next to you. Or is Eve or if he's on your iPhone, your brain doesn't know the difference. So mate, you know, a lot of people that I've talked to said, you know, they don't like because your brain doesn't know. So it starts soaking up what these people are doing, you know, like, what Gary's doing or what Tony Robbins is doing. And once you start listening to these people, and it gets into your brain, it's something that I'm at my lead always talks about, he, you know, he talks about how, you know, like, when you buy a car, and you're like, Man, I love my yellow Corvette. And then you pull it out. And then all of a sudden, all you're seeing is yellow Corvettes is, that's, it's called a reticulating activating system in the brain. And we need to start, you know, when you're listening to people like Gary, like yourself, we actually, they become part of our brain systems. And that's when we can actually start learning from our mentors, how to succeed in life, so you don't have to pay 1000s of dollars to you know, to have Gary, they're talking to you where you can get 15 bucks a month, you can get every book that he's ever written, every podcast you can actually listen to. So I think that's really important is, if you can, if you can have mentors, but if you can't afford mentors, find somebody that you where you want to be. For me, like I was told, if you want to be successful in anything you do, especially podcasting. Remember who you were three years ago, and remember where you want to be three years from now. That's the perfect part. So I think if people can realize, you know, I want to be a better husband, we'll find out somebody that's crushing it and being a great husband. You know, in some BeSafe you want to be better podcaster my mentors are missed are people like Mr. John Lee Dumas and people like that. So finding, getting into the dream 100 and finding what they're doing, and not modeling them. And I'm trying to model but not copy, you know, we're trying to say. So I think mentorship I think is really, really important.
Keith McKeever
I couldn't agree more. You know, mentorship and mentorship can be free in some way in some places, like generosity and other things. Sometimes you have to pay for Coach doing coaching can be good too. You know, that tends to be more skill driven and stuff, but just had his thought back to a military term LP Opie listening post observation post, what do you do? You sit there, quiet silence still, you just watch, observe and listen, everything's going on. And you can do that, like you said through audiobooks, and you drop some names, and I've listened to content, and watch content on video from some of those. And I think this is important for people to listen to. David Goggins. Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk are just just three names of people that you should pay attention to. Admire is another one. I mean, he's got very long podcast, but he's got books and all kinds of stuff. Go research these people, if you don't know who they are, research them, listen to their books, you can find Gary Vaynerchuk literally anywhere. And he talks about all kinds of stuff. And sometimes it's business sometimes it's like, just personal development stuff. He, he's all over the place. But he constantly drops nuggets of information. And if you have your notebook ready, and you're listening, and you're observing, and you're writing down those action things, it will change you, it will put you on a path to to bettering yourself.
Richard Kaufman
Yeah, and it doesn't cost a lot like for me, I wanted to learn how to write good copy, I wanted to learn how to be a better businessman. So I spent, I think it was like 40 bucks. And I got the whole series from Russell Brunson for like 40 bucks on his whole series, about how to write copy how to start a funnel, how to start a website for 40 bucks. And it doesn't cost much, you know, if you're willing, we spend 40 hours at McDonald's, if you take the kids out, you know, why don't you know, like we got, everybody's talking about all the brand new Apple 14 dropped. You know, we won't think about dropping $1,400 on a smartphone. But we won't. But we will think about 1400 hours to join a mastermind and become smart.
Keith McKeever
remains. Absolutely. So you get way more out of it. You get way more way more investment. And you'll have it for more than two years. Until the next one comes out, I joked about it the other day, my kids were like Can Can Can I can I afford 14, I was like, Oh, they're only on 14 I thought they were 55 by now. Like they come out every single month.
Richard Kaufman
And there's no reason why you know, with with our smartphones, you can learn anything on YouTube. I mean, there's pretty much nothing you can't learn on YouTube. So there's no reason for anybody to be ignorant on any subject. With you have one of these smartphones that that we're talking about?
Keith McKeever
Yeah, I don't know. I'm sure there's a lot of David Goggins stuff, but I know and my let Gary Vaynerchuk and Tony Robbins have a ton of content on YouTube, too. So you're right. If you don't wanna spend $14 a month, listen to their audiobook, just go watch their videos, watch 30 minutes of video every single night. You know, and, you know, they'll be amazed at what you what you can learn. So, but last question I have for you, Richard is, you know, Warren, late September here, closing out this year here soon, hard to believe. But we got 2023 on the horizon. So is there any advice that you've got for people that can increase their resiliency in one way or another, better their lives going into 2023, starting new all new year off with a bang?
Richard Kaufman
Well, for me, like when I ran a GNC for over 20 years, and we took it from 400,000 to 1.4 million in three years. And the reason was, is a lot of people come October, November, they're going to start slowing down. They're going to they're going to stop average, stop their advertising, they're going to stop their work and out, because they're going to wait until the new year. So if you do one more rep starting today, you're already against our kicking assets at the end of 2022. And pushing into 2023. With with momentum, you know, so when everybody else is slowing down, that you know, I've talked to like plenty of millionaires. And they say when the successful people when everybody else stops advertising is when they start advertising. So if you got if you're struggling with mental health, if you're struggling with your health, now's the time to start doing it today. Because you're going to lap everybody that's sitting on your couch come Thanksgiving time and Christmas time. So you know that
Keith McKeever
Absolutely. No pun intended, because today you can decide that you're going to kick that vertical momentum indicator. Yeah.
Richard Kaufman
You know, like and I tell everybody you know, every year we have the vertical momentum mental health summit And if you guys don't know what today I decided means, for me, it's the three most important words in the English language. Because today I decide, you can decide whether you're going to be today whether you're going to be a victim, or a victim, or it's your decision. And as we all know, like 911 changed my whole life that you don't have to be the same person when you go to bed to bed tonight is the that the person that woke up this morning, you can change that. And everybody says, Well, I don't believe anybody can change that quick. I bet you if your doctor calls you said, You know what, you just came down with cancer, your whole life to change, like get your mind changed. So, you know, we can always change, we just have to make that decision to change. Because the squirrel doesn't die because he went left or he went right. He dies because he didn't he didn't make a decision. So that's, that's what the whole today I decide things.
Keith McKeever
Absolutely. Because you can you can make little changes. And the consistency of those little changes add up. I don't know why. Darren Hardy. That's what it is. Bring up the first second there. He was the editor owner, something like that a Success Magazine. I listened to a book of his part about two years ago. And the main theme was consistency. Just do it today. Do tomorrow, do it the next day. And those little things start building up into success. Just those little habits. They become long term habits and the consistency when you're being consistent. Nobody else is you're going up? They're going down.
Richard Kaufman
Yep. And, and if you got if your listeners are, you know, check out the book by James clear atomic habits. He talks about it all and he breaks it down, you know that 60% of whatever we do every day is habits. So if you change one habit today, you're changing your life.
Keith McKeever
That is what surprised me if it was even more than that. It is amazing how much you think about you know, your your daily habits, like my daily routine every morning is almost It's spot on exact every day. You know, waking up getting the kids ready, getting them on the bus breakfast, starting my day checking the emails, like, you know, like, every single day, well, I'd say seven days a week, then I go to school seven days a week. But I still wake up at the same time. I can't I can't change that. I wish I could I wish I could sleep in an extra half hour. But you know, biological clock still wakes me up. So. So anyway, Richard, I appreciate you coming back on the podcast and sharing up might be an understatement of a plethora of knowledge and information. And we definitely gave people quite a few different directions to go to, to kick, kick their butt into gear for next year and start making some positive changes in their life. So I appreciate all the little nuggets of information. Well,
Richard Kaufman
thank you, brother, guys, make sure that you subscribe. Make sure that you leave a written review on especially iTunes. It'll definitely help help Keith, get his his podcasts up there. And it does a lot more than just leaving a five star. So please do that for his show.
Keith McKeever
Thank you, Richard, I appreciate it. I must admit I forget to throw that one in there. I usually have the like and subscribe. I appreciate that. And I always tell people, Hey, make sure you share the podcast right? Because it's about if maybe it impacts you. But it might even have a bigger impact on your battle buddies. You just don't know. You know, share it in a pull up a Facebook Messenger if something really hits you. Or you think it's going to hit a battle buddy of yours, send it in a messenger and say hey, you want to listen to this? I think there's some good stuff in here hopefully to help you. You know we need to do more of that because not only are you sending them something of value, you might be open up that line of communication. You haven't talked in a little while we all know that. That's important to checking in on our battle buddies. So So yeah, you can check out Richards podcast all the information about him. I've had to scroll across the bottom vertical momentum podcast. I'll have all that in the show notes and all that stuff. All the links are in there. No, have no fear. It's in there like it always will. So Richard, once again, I appreciate you being here.
Richard Kaufman
I love you brother.
Keith McKeever
There you go memory go check out my website battle buddy podcast.net for information and resources on a variety of things. Like I always say if there's something that's not on there and you think it should be, go to the website, reach out to me, connect with me. Let me know what you think should be on there. If you're struggling right now, the National Suicide Hotline number is now 988 press one or you can text 838255 If you're struggling, call it get the help you need because we want you here tomorrow
