The Hidden Crisis of High Performers: Why Success Could Be Your Downfall with Isaac Stegman

[00:00:00] Isaac: if we can just be present in the moment, it's the most beautiful gift we can give people, including ourselves.
And that's really where we get to experience life. when we're thinking about what we're going to do, we're missing what's happening. And when we're regretting or ruminating on what happened, we're missing what's happening. so very little of our life is actually spent living, which is like when I'm here with the people that I'm here with.
So that was the last one that I added that I think is maybe the most valuable one that's overlooked and people all crave it. And yet most people don't work to achieve it.
Dustin: All right. Well, welcome back to the seven figure lead podcast. , it's always fun to reflect when we have a guest on how [00:01:00] relationships. cultivate and become a thing. So, today's guest is someone I met through my
friend, Hector. Hector is actually the producer of this podcast. His company is, I should say, and Hector and I met through, an organization called Front Row Dads.
I've had at least one other Front Row Dad on, but Front Row Dads has the tagline of stop being, A businessman with the family and start being a family man with the business. So it's really a group of amazing guys that have shared values about putting their families first and growing successful businesses And my guest today isaac stegman is a member of front row dads a mutual friend of hector's and we had a really rich Conversation recently and I said man, we need to like stop talking now Let's record this for the podcast because I know it's gonna be super useful for the seven figure leap community So isaac stegman Welcome.
Thanks for being here. And please just take a moment to introduce yourself.
Isaac: Thanks, Dustin. I appreciate it. , Hector has been a huge connector for me and Front Row Dads has probably been the community that I've enjoyed the most when it comes to just meeting people and having high quality conversations that are real. there's no pretense there. [00:02:00] It's just down to, what's really going on.
And so I appreciate John Roman and what he put together and that we got connected on this call. So my background, is I've done a little of everything. I graduated high school and I was working three jobs that summer. And then I was working two jobs and going to community college in the fall because I was told you're supposed to go to college if you want to be successful.
And I definitely wanted to be successful, had no idea how to do it. so I went to community college, failed almost every class that first quarter, including bowling. I failed bowling. Really hard to do that's up there on my list of achievements that not many people have accomplished. and I was working two jobs, one for 4 and 25 cents an hour, and the other one, standing outside in the Pacific Northwest in the middle of winter at a zoo.
And the other one was getting up at two 30 in the morning and loading UPS trucks and then going to school, all dirty. And so that was my start to adulthood. At that point, I didn't have money for the next quarter of college. I wasn't sure what I was going to do. So I looked in the newspaper, because I'm old and [00:03:00] back then that's how you found jobs.
I found this job for 1025, and that was my start of changing the state of who I was and believing who I could be, because that interview was with a company called Vector Marketing selling Cutco knives. I was quite sure I could never sell knives, but I was very sure I could outwork everybody there and they paid you based on appointment.
So I took the job. I got accepted and ended up doing very well with the company, ran my own office, ended up personally selling about a million dollars worth of, kitchen cutlery, over the years and made some really fantastic friends and develop relationships. John Roman, founder of front row dads being one of them.
it was an amazing experience for me. Then I decided to go in the military if I didn't do it, then I was never going to do it. And I was called to serve my country. So went in the army, jumped out airplanes for awhile and then got out. When the air force, reserves is a firefighter because there was 2, 500 applicants when I went to, to apply to be a firefighter.
they were only taking three people. And I wasn't even on the top, 500 of [00:04:00] that list. so I'm all about, how do you figure it out? Not just, oh, well, I can't do that. There's always a way. So I tried to figure it out. And what I figured out is if I went in the air force reserves and got 120, 000 worth of certifications, that made me much more qualified as a firefighter.
So I did that, ended up running my Cutco office after that, and then got a job as a full time firefighter. Love that job. Love being a firefighter. but after five years, I got hurt at a fire and medically retired. And so couldn't do that anymore. So that was another big transition in my life. And that was where I, met a guy named Jeff Latham was somebody who I.
Worked with before and been good friends with, and was actually a coaching partner with in a coaching group. he reached out and he was so generous and he's actually one of the founding members of front row dads. And Jeff said, Hey man, would you like to coach my team? I know you're an excellent coach.
And he gave me an opportunity when I needed one most in my life. And I will always, always. Appreciate him for that. In fact, we're talking after this call, completely unrelated.
Dustin: So a couple of things there, kind of more of a fun fact is [00:05:00] this whole like cutco world. So I am not a cutco, uh, alumni or salesperson in the past, but so many people are, especially in the front row dads community. And it makes sense, right? There's this culture, John Romans from there, Micah Bromowitz, who's a former guest on this show and a member of my mastermind.
He was a huge Cutco guy. and I think, cut from the same cloth, I guess he was a horrible pun, but like there's something about that environment and the people, the way it, produces really high value people who are also really talented at sales, right? Like it's, a high paced, high octane environment.
And so a lot of the people I meet that as soon as they say Cutco and actually Hector, the person who introduced us has a history there too, and as soon as someone says that, I'm like, oh, okay, like I can Appreciate, what they're about and, the pace at which they like, to see the world.
So that's awesome. the other thing I just wanted to point out real quick. one of the reasons we talk a little bit about people's history, and it can be a little boring on a lot of podcasts, where it's just like the whole thing is your backstory. And it's like, okay, who cares? What are you doing right now?
But I do think there are relevant things from our past because it really [00:06:00] informs our present values. And like, why do you do what you do? I think that's the fascinating part to me. so in hearing your story, what's really cool is yes, Cutco is a very entrepreneurial adventure, but you also, you also were a firefighter, a public servant. you've got a really cool mix of. Not only
experiences, but skill sets and I'd say like temperaments, right? Like I can speak as someone right now as a dad who in two weeks is headed to Georgia for my son's graduation from his advanced infantry training.
I know you're in the infantry and the army. , he may or may not jump out of airplanes. He's not doing it. He's not sticking around immediately for airborne school, but he's going to be an air in the army national guard. So he'll come home and we're going to be facing the same challenges again of He tried college, didn't work out, said, you know what?
I want to try the, air force found out it was all classroom based, basically training. He's like, Nope, I want to like shoot guns and run around in the woods. And so he's loved it. He's absolutely excelled in that environment, but now he's going to come back to a civilian world where he's doing that part time.
And so [00:07:00] Isaac, I'm projecting, you know, from you onto my son, just like, there's so much in his future. what a gift, this 22 weeks of intense environment. and the things he's picked up that I get to see through letters of how he's transformed by being around new people, new people from way different backgrounds than him and people who did not have a lot of the privileges he had growing up and the deep appreciation he now has for what's coming.
So I can see how my son's values have been. Impacted greatly over this year, kind of formation in the military. And then know that you've had that and cutco and firefighting and then coaching. So I don't want to dwell on that, but I think it's relevant. how do you see that background and all those diverse experiences informing, we're going to zoom up to today here pretty quickly, but like informing who you've become, your values, front row, dads, coaching, like you do a lot of cool stuff now, and you have this very diverse background.
how do you see those things interlinking?
Isaac: yeah. So the relationship with Jeff is actually where coaching started and we started a [00:08:00] coaching company together. And then he kept running his real estate team. I took the coaching company and ran with it. And what I learned during that time and how I started coaching and why it's named Kaizen coaching is actually all the way back to Cutco when I fell in love with consistently getting better.
I didn't know the word Kaizen at the time, but the principle of it stuck with me through the military, stuck with me through firefighting. And so I was always in
all of those roles. I was doing the best I possibly could to optimize who I was and what I could become. So that led me all the way to running my own coaching company for the last few years.
And right now we are focused on three things. One is I'm rebranding a little bit the coaching company because I found out we're doing executive and performance coaching mostly around business. And what I found out was the actual reasons why people weren't succeeding in business. For the most part, we're coming from things behind the strategy and the tactics.
They were the mindset, they were the environment, they were the things that were [00:09:00] consistently holding them back from living their best life and becoming the best version of themselves. And so we took one step back to address some of those things as a company. and then we're also building out a community.
Where people can come just to get better. And it's the Kaizen collective. I'm really excited about that. There's been a huge amount of interest. We only started talking about it a couple of weeks ago. And that launches a soft launch in September and then a hard launch in October.
Dustin: that's awesome. So I, will refrain from giving my own thoughts on community. Anyone who's heard any of these episodes knows it's one of my huge passions, as is putting people in these containers of these environments. Where they can get beyond the surface level. Like what's the latest business tactic review my offer.
it's when you get people in the right environment, it changes everything. Right. Cause get new worldviews. They get new insights, new connections. and of course that all changes our mindset dramatically, but for you, Isaac, you're making a conscious choice, like in this moment of saying, Hey, I've done coaching, we know it works.
We've [00:10:00] got a great business. Why community? why add community? Or like, how does community play into the whole coaching experience that you're providing your clients?
Isaac: So community one, because one of my values as an organization, the value is better together. And I believe all of us are smarter than any of us.
Dustin: Yeah,
Isaac: I don't want to be the originator of all of the ideas because then we won't have the best. Platform infrastructure training. , everyone has something, a gift to give, and that's part of, I have these six pillars of that we coached you.
And a lot of those are going to be very present in the community as well. and a lot of that comes back to just, the continuous improvement and that when we get together. And we're all sharing ideas like that's where the best of all of us comes out and we all have something that we're uniquely gifted to give to give the world and to share with people.
Unfortunately, most people never get there because there's so many distractions in the world and there's so many things that pull [00:11:00] us away from that, In most cases, we never even find out what we're here for. So that's part of the process that I take people through in coaching.
Dustin: I love that. So we're going to spend most of our time together actually unpacking the six pillars really through the lens of the seven figure elite community and the types of people that we serve because we actually serve pretty similar people, you know, we different stages of business, but similar challenges and periods of transition and scale.
So we're definitely going to talk a lot about the six pillars. I just want to back up for a second. Am I mistaken? I didn't do any research. Kaizen was a very familiar word to me. Zik was Toyota. Is that like one of their like big mission statements is using Kaizen and how they approach their business?
Isaac: It is, that's where it first kind of got famous on the global stage was when they switched to that methodology of like consistently improving what needed to be improved. And there's this whole, framework that's taught around Kaizen. I don't teach the Kaizen framework. It's more about the Kaizen philosophy that I [00:12:00] apply to coaching, but yeah, Toyota was the instigator of that.
So which I never heard you're waiting ahead of me. I'd never even heard of that until a few years ago. I just started looking up consistent improvement, like always getting better. And that word kept coming up and I fell in love with it and I got the tattoo, I got that just to remind myself every day that I have the opportunity to get better or stay where I'm at and then not till later did it become part of the part of the infrastructure in the name of the company.
Dustin: That's awesome. just kind of an odd fun fact. So, you know, back in the day I was a traffic engineer and I got this pretty high pressure assignment as a
young guy, I, Went over to Indiana to this huge, motor manufacturing, engine manufacturing facility. And it was a Toyota facility.
And they put me in this room and this like massive boardroom with all this cool art and whiteboards and electronics all over the walls. and I'm like, just sweating. I'm like, I got to meet with these executives and try to fix their traffic and parking problems. They'd massively. Issues as you were saying, Kaizen, I mean, you and I have talked and I didn't even ask you about this, but just this flashback of sitting there in this highly [00:13:00] charged, emotional state, looking at the end of the room and they literally had Kaizen like in huge letters.
And I remember going back home and looking it up and be like, well, that's really cool. And so it's just like, it just clicked for me. which actually is very relevant because I feel like that was one of my periods where. I was highly intimidated. It was outside my comfort zone. It was in that professional setting, but I really think that was one of those moments because those executives came in the room.
I was able to perform and kind of step into a new level, and it bred so much self confidence that it took help my career take off from that moment. So it's fun to reflect back. Probably who knows 15 years ago in that boardroom. So let's talk now about Kaizen as it exists.
So you're building a community that's coming real soon. And I totally believe and share the values of you that we're better together. It's not the Isaac show. And then for me, it's not the Dustin show. Like really what I do is bring really smart people into virtual rooms and sometimes physical rooms and let them serve each other and then [00:14:00] like, I get the benefit from that.
They benefit from that. And everyone gives me a lot of credit that maybe I don't always deserve, by curating a great experience. So you're doing that with your community. and then you've got the coaching practice. So tell me in your current vision and maybe where you're taking this, who is like your sweet spot clients for your community and your coaching with Kaizen?
Isaac: So the coaching part of it, the people I get who really resonate with what we're doing are people who describe their life as I'm, I've been so successful that my life is falling apart or I'm drowning in my business right now because it's going so well, or I'm. Running on this treadmill and I got it to a level 10.
It's a million miles an hour and I can't stop or go slower. Everything around me starts to fall apart. All these people who are relying on me for jobs, my lifestyle
that my family's used to. And I feel like I'm going to have a heart attack or another heart attack or get a divorce any day now. it's right there.
And I feel it coming, but I can't see how close it is. it's scaring me to death. And so that usually they're, six to seven figure entrepreneurs who, own their own business. They're not [00:15:00] yet to that kind of corporate, mid cap to larger company. They're just evolving what they do.
And they've, been very, very good at something that's allowed them to have a lot of success in their life, from a metric standpoint, when it comes to money or, how much business their company is doing or how much it's growing, what they've failed to do is grow the rest of their life. In alignment with and congruence with those things and look at their values and principles and bring everything together so that there's synergy and there's harmony. Really, it seems very lopsided. I'm not saying balance. It's not. It's not balanced because balance, I think, is a myth when it comes to high performers. This is about everything working together. And not pulling your life apart.
Dustin: Okay. Well, that, is my audience that, is me. It was very much me. I would actually used a lot of the same words. I'm like almost a victim of your own success, right? Like, man, this is like a year ago, his business is going bonkers. It's great. I'm completely reached my personal capacity.
don't know how to, breathe enough to go get [00:16:00] help. And what I found in my own personal journey, which really backs up what you're saying is I had to step back and look at my values and be like, what I'm building is great. Good, but like, what do I really want it to be and give myself the space and I started getting, getting coaching support.
So I mean, I could have used Isaac last year in a big way. But fortunately, Isaac's here for us at this time, because there's, I know there's a lot of people listening who are in the scale mode or this growth mode. They built something really cool. and Either they're starting to see the cracks, so they're starting to see, like, I really need to, professionalize this, I need to get, start building a team, or they've got to the point where they're like, oh, crap, like, this hurts, now getting in pain by the amazing thing I built, and I'm so grateful that I built it, yet, I don't know how to control it anymore, right, and it's kind of controlling me, and it's really getting, you know, it's fracturing my, own life, setting the stage that people could be in various, I think, parts of that spectrum.
I think pretty much everyone listening is in this sort of growth [00:17:00] stage scaling phase, whether they're hearing this and starting to realize it, or they are
tuning in because they really are seeking some counsel and some help and some coaching around these really important topics. That I think is just part of the entrepreneurial journey.
let's dive into these six pillars because I think if we dive in, I let you, I'll kind of let you run, maybe we can do a little commentary, in between each one, but I'd love to hear your framework. Isaac. And I joke, he's like, yeah, you got your five pieces. Like I got six. I'm like, damn it.
I'm like, I'm making a seventh, I guess. so it's not a competition, but he has six pillars that I think are going to be really insightful. Anyone that knows me knows I love a great framework. And I think frameworks are some of the keys to insights and unlocking potential and growth. So Isaac, the floor is yours.
Please kind of run us through the six pillars that you love to teach. And then I would love to get a little commentary, that kind of specializes it for our audience as much as possible.
Isaac: Perfect. when you talked about your audience, they're probably high performers and most high performers I identify as a high performer, I always wanted to achieve and [00:18:00] succeed. We have this ability to hyper focus and get really dialed in on something. And it's a blessing and it's a curse because sometimes you get stuck there and we can't see the rest of it.
One moment that came for me where this was a turning point that I reflected on, and I still remember it, and I'm probably the only person involved that remembers it, but it was, really poignant. I was driving home from. A meeting where I was, very successful at the time in my own head, meaning like a lot of people wanted me to participate in things, do things, help them, they wanted to help me.
And so there was this feeling of like, oh, man, I matter and I'm doing something worthwhile and I have this great reputation with all of these other people. I was doing coaching at the time and I was driving home and I had a client call me and they had a, big problem, an emergency. You know, somebody else has this huge fire going on.
It has nothing to do with you. They make it your emergency. So I'm driving home. I take the call about five minutes from home and I can tell this is going to be a long call. So I pull up to the driveway. Walk up to my house, open my door. My son's it's a split level. So I go [00:19:00] downstairs to my office upstairs to, the living space.
And my son is sitting on the stairs and he's got like these Legos that he built. and he went, he went to show me and I just said like, hold on, you know. Hang on a minute. I'm dad's on a call. Right. And I walked downstairs and I finished my call. And it was, I was already late as I normally was at that point.
and by the time I got off the call, he was in bed. He was probably four years old, maybe five at a time. he was young. So he was already in bed. And so I missed, you know, I missed the opportunity to see whatever he was trying to show And it wasn't until later. And I saved the day with the client, I'm such a hero.
Dustin: Successful. I'm using the air
Isaac: I'm so successful. I'm so brilliant. and so stupid. Yeah. Because if I look back on it and as I was reflecting later that night, and then as time went on the other side of the door was this four year old boy who he's my youngest kid. Dad was his hero. They were homeschooled. So while the other two were doing school, he would build Lego things or, make something. he was sitting on the stairs waiting for dad, his hero, to come home and tell him you're brilliant, you're amazing, you're [00:20:00] smart, you did such a great job, I love this, and just give him some validation that he mattered. And he was probably sitting on the stairs for quite a while because I was very late, and I don't know how long, and I'll never know.
But up from his side of the door, here's dad pull in and here's dad coming up the stairs. And so he stands up on the stairs with what he wanted to show me. And all he wanted was a great job. And he wanted a moment with me where he mattered. So dad walks through the door and gives him the finger.
And it's not the middle finger. It's the worst finger, Because the middle finger is like, screw you. This finger is you don't matter. Something in my life, whatever's going on right now matters more than you do. You need to know your place in the hierarchy of my priorities and stay there. And unfortunately, I'm, confident this is not the first time that happened or the last time it happened.
It's just the time that stuck out in my mind where I finally got it. And at some point as entrepreneurs, hopefully at some point we'd get it, whether it's through a huge crisis or an awakening that happens, but that's really what started the pillars for me of thinking through these things [00:21:00] behind the business.
How can we be so successful? And so blind and stupid at the same time. And and really like miss out on our lives. Like what, what, what do we really want
for our lives? You know, do we want to get to the end of our lives and look back and go, man, I lived somebody else's life. I lived what other people wanted from me.
And I missed out on everything that mattered. And so the first pillar is perspective, because I believe that. How we see ourselves and other people and the world around us dictates our version of reality. What we say is our life is made up of those things. you know, we've all heard the stories of someone who's super successful, and then they commit suicide or they're super depressed.
And it's because we all have this framework of the lenses on how we see ourselves, other people in life through. And that determines, Our happiness, our joy, our peace, our fulfillment in life. And so that's foundational for everything. think the last study I saw said that 93 percent of what we do say and think is on autopilot from our [00:22:00] programming, the stories that we've created in our head and the childhood traumas we haven't resolved, things like that.
And only 7 percent is a conscious decision. So imagine your life, 93 percent of everything you say and do is reactive. It's just based on the stories in your head. And yet we never go through and examine what those stories are and work to reshape those things to a different version of truth and reality.
Dustin: Just to make sure we're as we're hearing the six, so we got the first one's perspective. Should we be thinking about, are these like things you apply? I'm sure I can do all this in one podcast episode. Is it like when you're unpacking perspective in a community or coaching?
Is it like you need to get clear on your perspective? You need to reprogram your perspective. There's tools and like, what do we do with perspective? Once we're aware that 93 percent of our thoughts are subconscious or unconscious.
Isaac: Perfect. So first we identify what the stories are. Oh, I'm believing that anytime I hire someone, they're going to let me down. so I'd never let go of control, which means they never get to do their job, which means they fail. I fire them. And then I [00:23:00] blame it on, I just can't hire good people.
Dustin: there are
Isaac: And so we identify the story.
We identify the impact of the story. I'm sabotaging all of my hires or all of my romantic relationships or, you know, my money situation. And then we look at
why, and we reframe the story and we find evidence for that thing. Because there's evidence that exists to prove both truths, If I'm looking over here, I can only see to my right.
I can see my right hand. I can't see my left hand, but it's still there. So my right hand is the thing that feels true to me. And if I look the other way, the other one is true. So in any given situation, you can look at what you choose to look at. And that forms your reality that forms your belief system, which changes how we operate and how we think and how we feel.
Dustin: Okay. be, you can be one takeaway. Obviously we need a whole episode on this perspective idea, but like one takeaway from that is like, you can choose. The perspective by which you want to operate, you can reframe things. And okay, so you don't have to live in the default. You can like, oh, wait, there's actually a left hand here to that.
I can turn and [00:24:00] focus on that. If that's if that serves me better and serves my values and my vision. Cool. So that's perspectives. I'll let you roll from here on number two.
Isaac: Okay. And the one we share is purpose, but we define it differently. So when I talk about purpose, I'm talking about, are we being purposeful with what we think, say, and do, or are we on, are we just reacting to what's around us and the environment and getting distracted? So are we on purpose or are we off purpose?
Are we actually, are we just scrolling for no reason because we're dopamine addicted or are we looking for something for a reason? So just this binary check in with ourselves of, am I on purpose right now or am I not? The next one is principles. Now principles I divide into two categories, which are one, your core values, which are the bigger themes of how we operate.
In life, and then secondly, are the principles that that, that those things dictate. So they're kind of the tactical practical application of our values. And Ray Dalio has a great book on principles where he outlines principles for life, principles for [00:25:00] business, highly recommend people take a look at that.
but those are really the guardrails for our life. if we're headed in this direction towards what we. No, we're called to be and do the principles and the, um, and the core values are the things that really keep us from going off track on that. The next 1 is priorities, and this is where I spend most of my time with my clients.
Dustin: Okay,
Isaac: So most of the time when we're overwhelmed, when we're fatigued, when we're burned out, it's because we don't have. A proper prioritization system. lot of people call it time management. It's really not time management. We can't manage how much time we have other than like hiring people and using their time.
I get the leverage thing and all that. But for the most part, it's not acting on or in alignment with our priorities. And we have a differential or a delta between our stated priorities and our demonstrated priorities. Like we say, Oh, my family, my wife, my kids, and my health are really important to me.
And then the way we show up in life is that they're not
Dustin: which creates Tons of dissonance and [00:26:00] angst and yeah, and stress and anxiety and like, yeah, it really compounds and I'm speaking from experience. If you can't tell, where, to me, this is one of those places where community is just like so powerful is because it helps you. Face your priorities.
You're telling other humans, this is what I care about. And then, Oh, really? Like the way you're, sharing what you did last week. Doesn't really seem in alignment with that. And it's like, yeah. So I think coaching community can really help with our ongoing prioritization. so Isaac, really important and going
to kind of have the stage to unpack a really great story and example around prioritization here as we wrap up in a little while.
But I'd love to just stick here for a second and talk about, do you see prioritization as a constant, recalibration or is it like a, Hey, let's get really intense for a month. And we're going to get you recalibrated, figure out your priorities and set up a, I don't know, ideal week.
Like there's all these sort of strategic tactical things to get priority straight. Is that something you prescribed to you? And then is this like, it's just an ongoing thing that we're going to fight the rest of our [00:27:00] lives? Is this things constantly getting out of alignment with our priorities?
Cause I think this is critical.
Isaac: I believe it's both. So usually there's a moment where people realize where, again, they're stated and demonstrated priorities are out of alignment. And they end up, with the stress, overwhelm, fatigue, burnout. Anxiety, all of
these things start to. Become untenable. They just like, I'm either going to get a divorce, a heart attack.
something's going to, I'm going to just quit my business,
Dustin: Just
Isaac: uh, and blow everything up, burn it down, man, throw a grenade in that thing. And I don't know that I can keep doing this anymore. And, a lot of cases people get there before they actually step back and go, all right, let me go diagnose the problem of what's happening.
So I think there's this beginning phase of like, now that I'm aware priorities matter, I need to examine my life in reflection and through the lens of looking at my purpose through the lens of looking at my values, why I'm here and create a plan like that's in alignment with that. How do I prioritize?
And that's what we'll go through at [00:28:00] the end. But how do I actually prioritize my life from the 30, 000 foot view? And then my process is every 12 weeks, you just do a check in and you look at, have my priorities changed? Should they change? Because you're not the same person and you don't have the same next steps in life forever.
There should be this constant evolution of like, okay, now that I took one step forward, I can see what's next and I can take that step. And if we do that every 12 weeks, There's a book called the 12 week year. That really gives us a great
example of how to do this. But if I do that every 12 weeks, it's frequent enough that I can pivot where I need to, but it's not.
So it's not every single day. I got to do this whole process to reprioritize and evaluate everything that would get a little overwhelming and maybe unnecessary as far as The time commitment,
Dustin: Yeah. I think I'm a 90 day, 12 week, huge advocate of that quarters. I mean, it's all kind of the same thing. Right. And I think that's just the perfect cadence, to reexamine your priorities. And it's very, it becomes very. Practical, Very tactical. It's like, Oh, this quarter or like I'm starting a new [00:29:00] cycle.
What are my priorities? personally and professionally this quarter and I can go execute on them. And like you said, then in 90 days, you're kind of a different person. And so you've got different priorities. And so it makes sense to
recalibrate after you have sort of the initial deep dive to set the bar for what you're, Life priorities are, so I love that practical application of priority.
So, yeah, please continue on if you want with the fifth one or if you have anything else to say on priorities, feel free.
Isaac: on the priority, what you said was that's built into our coaching program, we operate on that, not just me personally, but as a company, we operate that on that basis as a company and also with our clients to help them consistently feel like they're operating in alignment and know that's true.
the next two are more. How you show up moment to moment. So we have your practices, which are like your habits, rituals, things that, you do on a regular daily basis, weekly basis that make your life flow. And if you've read atomic habits, if anyone has not read atomic habits, I highly suggest it.
it's along those principles of like. Put things in your [00:30:00] life that are on this regular cadence. So you don't have to come up with the creative juice to, to decide in the moment what you should do. If there are things that if every day I do this, my life kind of works out, put those things into a system that allows you to get the most games with a little, with as little effort as possible put into recreating this thing.
And then the last one is presence. And this is the one that I added that really goes back to the got a minute moment with my son, where. We miss so many of the moments that matter in life and we can't go back and at some point it's too late, you know, I don't know if you've ever waited too long to have a conversation, waited too long to have date night, waited too long to ask that person out or, waited too long to make a change in your business or correct.
And action from an employee or a contractor that's getting out of line. And all of a sudden it's a much bigger problem than it was before. I've had more than my fair share of those moments. So maybe I'm out and I don't get to have any more of those, moments that blow my life up. But, if we can just be present in
the [00:31:00] moment, it's the most beautiful gift we can give people, including ourselves.
And that's really where we get to experience life. when we're thinking about what we're going to do, we're missing what's happening. And when we're regretting or ruminating on what happened, we're missing what's happening. so very little of our life is actually spent living, which is like when I'm here with the people that I'm here with.
So that was the last one that I added that I think is maybe the most valuable one that's overlooked and people all crave it. And yet most people don't work to achieve it.
Dustin: Yeah, I love that because I feel like the other five, are extremely important and. talked about a lot, Everyone talks about their habits. I'm using other words for your peas, but like their vision or perspective, are they living on purpose or going by doing the motions prioritizations, like, a constant, theme and business and coaching, but presence is really not talked about much.
I actually think That's super powerful. And as I look back, it's like thinking about personally and professionally, but especially on the business side of my life or the career side of my life, it was like. [00:32:00] Always chasing something, right? It's like need that first job, that next promotion.
I'm going to leave this company to get this next thing. And then, companies suck. I'm going to go be an entrepreneur. And well, then I'm going to go be a partner in this business. Well, this business isn't just mine. I'm going to go start my own thing. And it's like, you're always chasing, which I think there's some healthiness to being in pursuit, but like, it reminds me a lot of.
The book, the gap in the game with Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy, where the encouragement there is like, if you're always looking at horizon line, you're always chasing the future, it's like, Oh, I've achieved something, but that's cool. But like, what's the next thing? And the horizon line is always moving.
You'll never catch it. And so the encouragement there, which I think comes back to presence is like, Stop trying to like fill the gap in the future and look at what you've already gained. And when you look backwards and you say, look, what have I done over the last 90 days? And what have I done this week?
And you express gratitude for that. It grounds you in the present. And you can really appreciate like, I am here and like. How cool is this moment and this present moment? So yeah, I think that obviously really [00:33:00] resonates with me. It's, I'd say like my strengths finders like Achiever. So that's a battle for me as like, I'm always looking for the next thing to achieve the next box to check.
And I think something I've personally improved on a lot in the last couple of years is just that being present, appreciating where I'm at. it helps to have. the sun and, leaving the nest and being in the army. And, all my kids are teenagers now and it really shifted, has shifted my perspective.
And as you said, I know I had many, many, many of those moments of the Legos on the stairs and like, I'm going to call, I got to get to a call and not being present. So I think that's kind of a special part of midlife as you. Either whether you like it or not, you get hit upside the head by all the things you've missed.
and at least for me, it's really helped me be grounded in the present. So number six is awesome. I love that. so we're going to shift here in a second through story, really unpacked number four, which was priorities. before we do that, Isaac, I kind of want to just, got a good snapshot.
I think of. Kaizen Coaching, the Kaizen [00:34:00] Collective, the community you're building. I always like to just do a moment of sort of future pacing. And some people have responded by saying, I don't future pace. I have no goals. I'm just in the present. And some people are very deep and have a very detailed plan.
Kind of where do you see your career or your coaching business going over the next several years?
Isaac: the coaching business, we're building it actively right now. And I want that to be somewhat of a collective as well, where everybody feels a sense of ownership in what we're up to. I believe that what we do there matters more now than ever coaching to the things that I just talked about on top of, business and performance.
So that will never go away. I'm also writing a book called the courage project. And. the courage project is something that's near and dear to my heart. then, with the collective, it's really just a group of people that are the kind of people I want to do life with.
they all want to get better. They all are curious, and open minded and not seeing themselves as, oh, I've already got it made, or I'm better than this person or that person, but just we're all seeking better. We're all seeking that next version of [00:35:00] ourselves and growth. And so that's where the collective, , looking at taking that.
Dustin: that's awesome. Awesome. Well, we've kind of reached the end here. we'll obviously give you a chance after this to let people know how to find you and connect with you and get plugged into the Kaizen collective. but I heard this story and I'm like, man, you got to tell this on my show because I think my audience will resonate resonated with it.
so I'm just going to kind of give the mic over to Isaac here. He's got, Just a story, but it's a story. I think that speaks deeply into this idea of priorities. so, man, that the floor is yours. I'd love for you to share the story.
Isaac: Thank you. I'm going to take some creative liberty on this by the way. So just so everyone knows, um, but it comes from Warren Buffett was asked once, what do you have to do to be successful in life? And the short answer is say no to almost everything. That's the answer that you see in a lot of quotes, the slightly longer answer is that he talked to his pilot and his pilot said, Hey, what can I do to be successful?
And he gave him this formula. The Isaac eyes version is the story that added to it just to make it a little bit more. [00:36:00] Fun and colorful. so I'll give you brief version of that, but this pilot, Warren Buffett's private pilot. So, but pretty much at the pinnacle of where you can get to without owning your own plane, your own company.
so he's listening to all of these amazing conversations on the plane where Warren's coaching people and making these brilliant business moves. And the pilots kind of joking with him at the end of one of the flights. And he says, well, I mean, I've listened to Hours and hours and hours, of these conversations on all these trips and I'm still your pilot.
I don't know anything. , don't get me wrong. I'm very successful in my own right. And I appreciate the opportunity. And if I did ever want to grow and expand and do something more, what would that look like? Like, how could I do that? Warren says, all right, you need to do three things.
I'm going to give you, these three envelopes. You're going to go away for three days and I want you to talk with your wife first and Tell her we need to clear the calendar. I'm going to go somewhere where there's no people, no technology for three days and work on this assignment. And at the end of it, I'll know exactly what I need to do to be super successful in life.
And the pilot's stoked. And he was like, all right, that's going to be a [00:37:00] hard sell. We have soccer practice. We have ballet. We have all these things. my wife's probably gonna kill me, but Hey, I'll make it happen. I'm the man, I'll make it happen. So he goes home. Tells his wife what's going to happen.
He doesn't do that. He says, babe, like, I love you. Here's some flowers. Let me make dinner tonight. She's like, all right, what's up? He says, so when I was flying Warren back today, he, uh, he said, he gave me an assignment. So it's
really important for my job that I do this thing. I'm supposed to go away for three days and not having contact with you.
and no technology, you can't get ahold of me and I'm not supposed to be around people. So I'm just going to be checked out and I need to do it And she gives him that look, you know, you know, the look like.
Dustin: I know the work for sure.
Isaac: But they have a great relationship. She trusts him. And so she said, all right, this is, I get it.
If this is something that you need to do for that relationship, then you should do it. And he's like, yes. All right. So I love you. And I'll do, I'll do soccer for the next six months, like whatever it takes. And so he packs up the car, goes up to his family's cabin. two hours from anywhere and it's on this lake and it's where he grew up as a kid.
[00:38:00] Pulls up in the driveway, super early in the morning, gets out, opens the first letter, says day one on it. And the letter says Welcome to day one. Today, you're going to learn how to play. All you get to do today is just remember how to play and do that. Get a good night's sleep. You bigger day tomorrow.
And that's the end of the letter. And he's like, This is not the letter I'm supposed to be getting. This is somebody else's letter. He mixed it up. This is like for his kids or something. So he's sitting there. He's got nothing else to do for three days. He either goes home and tells Warren he didn't do it or he just does it, Finishes the program or he opens the other letters and cheats.
And he's like, I just can't do that out of integrity. I cannot look him in the eye on Monday morning and say, I opened the other letters or lie and say I didn't. So he goes for a walk and he's like walking down by the Lake and thinking about, all right. So if I were to do this, what would that look like?
Okay. I just need to remember how to play. Why don't I know how to play? I used to just go, my mom said, go be back when the streetlights came on, and I would play for eight hours, not any specific games. I would just go [00:39:00] play. Okay. And pretty soon he's like, all right, I can do this. Like I'm super successful.
I'm motivated. I'm driven. I'm not going to go back and be a failure. And so he thinks about what he used to do when he was a kid. And he's like, I used to skip rocks. That's what I used to do when I was here. That was something that was fun. I'll just start doing that. So he started skipping rocks pretty soon.
He's got a competition going with himself, okay. 15, right? Like that's my new record. And before you know it, he's like stripped down. But naked swinging from a rope swing that he made, off the tree into the lake just having a great time and slowly over the course of that day, all the other voices in his head about you should be doing this.
You need to do this. Here's what needs to happen when you get home. You're not doing this enough. Those voices start to fade away. pretty soon he's just in the moment. So he walks back up to the cabin when it's dark, and he's exhausted, and he's hungry, and he's all scratched up and bruised, but he had a blast.
And he's like, alright, now, that was weird, and I don't know what it has to do with success, but okay. tomorrow is the day that I get to learn about success, today was a test probably to see if I would actually do the thing. So he goes to bed, wakes up [00:40:00] super early in the morning, excited for the day that he actually gets to figure out how to be successful.
He opens the letter and it says, congratulations. If you're opening this, I'm assuming you're doing this on day two. And that yesterday was a day of reflection and of struggle of how to do this. And yes, it was a test if you could do it, but it was also. A reminder that the space where we can create and have the most success in life and not just be locked in on what we think we should be doing and who we should be being needs to come from a place of play.
You need to be able to imagine and create stuff and play in your life. And so that's what yesterday was about. So I'm assuming you did it. Congratulations. Welcome today to today. You are going to write down the top 25 things. So if
the prescription for everything that you want to do between now and the rest of your life, that looks like being amazingly successful.
And then tomorrow I'm going to show you exactly how to do that. And he's like, Oh, man. All right. So here we go. So, so he, gets out the markers and the big sticky [00:41:00] sheets and he starts writing all these things. And he's got so many things up there. And he's like, Oh, man, I've got like hundreds of things.
I need to start crossing these off was probably 1 in the morning before he gets down to 25. And he's like, these are the 25. This is everything I want to do with my life. I love all of it. It's good. I'm going to be so successful. My wife's going to be so happy. My kids are going to be so, impressed and everybody at work is going to be like, you know, you're the man.
And I can't wait to achieve this level of success and do all these things. He goes to bed, he wakes up four hours later, stoke for the next day is the day, he's expecting to open the envelope and see like this golden ticket or golden scroll unfurl. And he's going to frame that and put it in his office.
This is what Warren wrote me that changes my life, and the key to success that I'll sell for a billion dollars someday. So he opens the letter and it says, congratulations on making it through day two and moving on to day three. Today, your job is the hardest. Of all three days today, you're going to cross off all but five things and he's sitting there like what this is practical [00:42:00] joke where the cameras this doesn't make sense, turns over the letter.
There's nothing on the backside. He didn't miss any letters. He's like, I don't get it. Like, why would he have me? Not just yesterday, 5 and it felt anticlimactic. So he sat there for a minute, goes down to the lake, skip some rocks, hearts, not really in it, walks back up and he's just confused. And so he says, all right, well, there's gotta be a reason.
Like, he wouldn't just. Maybe he's messing with me, but I don't think so. I'm going to at least do the assignment. Cause I can't go back to him and say, I didn't do it, but I'm going to keep the other 20, just because I want to do those two, but I'm going to give him the list of the five, just so he knows I did the assignment.
So he crosses off, all but five takes him all day to do it. He saves the other 20, like writes down the other 20 in his journal. Cause he's like, I'm going to do these two. I'm just not going to tell him, tell him I'm going to do makes a nice, neat list of the five that he can give Warren the next day, drives home late that night, gets in super late.
Wife rolls over in bed, says, how was it? He says, I don't, I don't even, I don't even know what to tell you. Like, [00:43:00] great. I hope you had fun. Rolls back over. She says, remember six weeks of soccer. And he's like, I know, I know. So he goes to sleep, wakes up for the next morning, grabs that letter, takes it to the airport where he's supposed to meet Warren and he says.
All right. I did the assignment. here you go. here's my five. Now, what I don't get is like, I don't know how this is supposed to help me do those five. you didn't give me any tool. Is there like another letter that I missed? Warren said, just kind of chuckles. And he says, no, you don't get it yet. He says, you can do almost anything you want to. If you choose not to do the other things instead, and he said, the reason why I have you write 20 and then go to five and the pilot was like, yeah, that didn't make sense to me said, hold on. All right. So the reason why we started with 20 is if you really look at your life. Doing those five at a level 10, like you are all in on those five things. How much time do you have left to do other big things? And the pilot thinks about it for a minute. And you can tell the wheels are turning and he's starting to get it. He's like, if I'm honest, I mean, I picked some pretty big things.
I, don't even know that [00:44:00] I can do all of those things together at a level 10. but I can definitely try and I want to do the other things as well. And Warren says, that's the secret. Those 20 things are the ones that are going to pull time, energy, attention, presence away from the five that matter most so that at the end of your life, you're sitting there regretting.
Not investing more in the things that matter most because you were distracted by the things that were just attractive enough, just enticing enough to pull you away. That's how to live the most successful life.
Dustin: I love that because it's like you have to give up the good to get the great, all 25 things are great. And the 20 things on the backside of the sheet are amazing and exciting. And there's things that I really wants to do, but those are actually, it's not like the other.
If you had a hundred, it's not so much this other 75, it's the 20 that are closest to great that are the actual huge distractions and the things that keep us from true success. So yeah, I love that story. Isaac, you told it even better than the, the last time I heard it. [00:45:00] So, really appreciate that.
Really appreciate you. I think it's a beautiful illustration of priorities and something that people can really take away and think about. Going through that exercise for yourself. I'm like, man, what are all the good things I'm doing that are taken away from the great? And well, what are the true five things that are the highest priority right now in my life?
So, I've taken a lot of your time. I really appreciate it. But yeah, as we close out here, like what's the best way for people to get to know Isaac, get involved in
your community, get involved with your coaching program. Do you have a sort of a single source of truth that we could access you?
Isaac: Yeah. Kaizencoaching. com is where you can find most of this. K A I Z E N coaching. com. I just built a workshop that we're rolling out next month that actually walks people through their 25 to five and the priorities, List and the cadence and alignment with values. so people can find that information on the website about that as well.
If they want to participate.
Dustin: So easy enough. Kaizen coaching. com. Yeah. Whether you want to connect on. Go or more likely community Kaizen [00:46:00] coaching, continuous improvement, and yeah, I get this resource to walk you through this. what I think is just a really beautiful exercise of prioritization and unlocking, kind of the heart of the six P's, he's got me beat with the six P's, but I will give deference to it because I really think your sixth P of presence and this fourth P of priorities that we just went through the exercise on are super, super powerful.
So Isaac, very grateful to know you, man. really excited to share this with our community. So thanks so much for coming here, delivering the goods and, really leaving us with a lot of great insight.
Isaac: Thank you, Dustin. I expect that you'll have seven P's by the time we talk again, in the future. And if somebody is listening,
Dustin: in nature. Yes, I have to.
Isaac: definitely, this resonated with you. This is not just a business for me. it's a calling and I really want to have those conversations with people who go, Oh, you know what?
I'm super successful and my life is falling apart. reach out, let's just have a quick 15 minute. Catch up conversation, whether you're part of front row dads or Dustin's community or somewhere else, if I can help you get some perspective on that, I'd love to do it.
Dustin: I love it. All right. Well, yeah, go to kaizencoaching. com. check out Isaac [00:47:00] and all the good stuff he's up to. we'll see you guys next time on the seven figure leap. Very grateful for Isaac. Let's talk community and let's talk about your book next time you come on Isaac.
So we'll catch you then. Isaac: Thanks, Dustin.