The Mindset Forge
In Season Five, The Mindset Forge focuses on helping men between 40 - 60 years old maximized this chapter of life by building strength, discipline, purpose and a proactive mindset.
During Season's one through four, you will fantastic content focused mainly on successful athletes and performing artists who've learned how to show up for the big moments of sports, performance and life.
The Mindset Forge
Unlocking Your Full Potential: The 5 Mindsets to Master in your 40s w/ Todd Philips
Ever wondered why age 40 seems like a threshold for most men? Today's episode touches on this phenomenon as we journey into the mind of Todd Phillips, a mindset coach passionate about helping men in their 50s unlock their full potential. Todd's personal experiences, from grappling with memory issues at 40 to his steadfast dedication to making a global impact, are both inspiring and enlightening. His audacious mission of fundraising to bring water to the communities in Liberia, West Africa, floating on a raft, is a living testament to his five pillars of performance—clarity, energy, courage, productivity, and influence.
Our conversation dives into the unique challenges encountered by men in the 40-60 age range, highlighting the importance of proactive maintenance of physical and mental health. Todd gives us a glimpse into how external motivation structures can help those who need a little extra push. Moreover, he brings forward the intricate connection between brain health and physical health. Offering insights from his five pillars of performance, Todd assures us that anyone, regardless of age or profession, can reach sustained high performance. Also, we bring forth the idea of gamifying our lives to confront emotional baggage and face challenges with newfound courage. So, gear up for an intriguing conversation with Todd Phillips, where we dissect these compelling topics, and much more!
Todd Phillips is the Founder and CEO of Mindset Mastery and SuperEasy.AI. He helps busy business owners and entrepreneurs in their 50s master their mindset to achieve success as they define it. He shares his proven Rapid Brain Transformation Methodology, teaching them simple, ultra-powerful ‘brain upgrades’ that can 5X their productivity so they can live life on their own terms.
Todd Phillips started a non-profit, The Last Well, in 2009 to reach an entire developing nation with clean water for the first time in history. He created a coalition of governmental agencies and non-profits in the nation of Liberia, and worked alongside a Nobel Peace prize winner, an Olympian, high-level CEOs, and two Liberian presidents, the US State Department, and the African Union to accomplish this historic mission. Together they transformed the lives of over three million people.
Todd teaches that success hinges on five pillars: clarity, focused energy, the courage to chase goals, heightened productivity, and unparalleled influence. By mastering these, his clients have been able to crush it in their personal and professional lives.
For more information, go to http://toddphillips.com
Todd's Youtube Channell is: https://www.youtube.com/@TODDPHILLIPSVIDEO
Email: Barton@bartonguybryan.com
Website: http://bartonguybryan.com
Use this link to get a 30 minute discovery call scheduled with Barton regarding the Team Bryan Wellness Concierge Fitness Program
https://calendly.com/bartbryan/conciergecoachingcall
My 3 Top Episodes of the first 100:
7 Essentials to Building Muscle after 40
3x Olympic Gold Medalist Brendan Hansen
MMA Strength and Conditioning Coach Phil Daru
You're listening to the Mindset Forge podcast. Welcome back, barton Bryan. Always, of course, focused on men of 40 to 60, really making this the best chapter of your life. Been on awesome couple of weeks. I actually just had my 30th high school reunion. So going back to my hometown, davis, california, got a chance to bump into, like old friends and people that from my you know class of 93 so long ago. But it was just really cool to really check in. You know, see how people are doing, hear stories, be reminded, reminisce all that kind of stuff. But also just take stock on who I am today. Am I where I want to be? Am I in the direction I want to go? All those things? And I think it's important, you know, with things like reunions and birthdays and anniversaries and such, that we do that. So if you have something coming up a reunion or anniversary it's definitely a good time to kind of check in with yourself and ask yourself, hey, how am I doing with who I am right now, the direction I'm going and the kind of momentum that I have towards my goals?
Speaker 1:Today is all about mindset. I have a mindset coach. He's actually a good friend of mine's, todd Phillips. He's runs mindset mastery coaching. He's got a YouTube channel that's awesome, all about mindset. He coaches men, mainly in their 50s on mindset around productivity, business and living your best life at that age, kind of 50 years old. So we have a lot of parallels, a lot of things that are kind of we're talking about, that are very similar. We always kind of bring it back to fitness and kind of overall mindset around being at this age and how to maximize it. But he's got a couple of fantastic stories and specifically one where he's actually on a raft in the middle of a lake trying to raise money to help families and communities in West Africa that we're going to get to and it will blow your mind if the kind of things he did, the clarity, the mindset, the confidence, the belief that he had to complete this mission that he was on. So we'll talk about all types of things there's going to be a ton of value for you. So definitely listen to the entire 55 minute episode here or watch it. If you're doing YouTube, enjoy the heck out of it. But he's a great guy to know. You can also check out more about him on YouTube and other platforms that he utilizes. Before we kick off this episode and get into the interview.
Speaker 1:I do want to shout out Ironneck, specifically this week because they're doing a big flash sale at their facility, which is in East Austin. Now, if you're listening, you don't live in Austin, I apologize. You got to be there to get the deals, but they're just kind of opening their doors. They're selling a whole bunch of really cool equipment, including the iron necks and other like functional training equipment that they have significant discount, up to 75% off. So if you're in the greater Austin area, I would definitely come check it out. It's in East Austin. It's from 11 to 4pm Saturday, the 23rd. So and if you don't know anything about iron neck, check it out ironneckcom or you can just Google it. See a bunch of information. I also did some videos on the iron neck. You can see me using it. It's a fantastic piece of equipment.
Speaker 1:All right, so, without further ado, my friend Todd Phillips. All right, todd, so let's jump right in. Like why mindset coach? Why mindset coaching? Why that whole discipline? I think it's a unique and something that's really people are taking notice of, especially in the last couple of years. What drew you to mindset coaching?
Speaker 2:Yeah, first of all thanks for inviting me. I really appreciate this. It's been exciting to get to know you over the last year a year and a half or so and inviting me on the podcast was a welcome invitation, so I appreciate that very much.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I had some problems. Actually, a lot of people don't know this. I had some memory issues back in 2010. So nearly 13 years ago. I'm 54 now. Now this was back right when I turned 40, 41, right around that timeframe, and it had been bothering me for a couple of years. So I finally went to a neurologist. I just I, just I got to go figure this out. Everybody says, hey, you're just having a little problems, it's just getting older, whatever those issues are. And I thought you know what, you know when something's not right, you just know it.
Speaker 2:So I went to this neurologist and I actually had a battery of tests. They did some scans of my brain. They did a 20, a 21 different tests on my brain and when the whole thing was done, he came out with this big report I still have it somewhere. It's really long, very involved report. And the neurologist said hey, man, listen, for a 40 year old, you're doing better than most. And I remember saying to him I said Listen, I don't want to be doing better than most 40 year olds. That's not the reason I came in. The reason I came in is because I'm not doing as well as I was five years ago. I'm not doing well compared to myself five years ago, and so I really decided back then, back 2010, 2011,. So you know what I'm going to take ownership of this. I'm not a neurologist, it's not like I'm going to go get a PhD but I started reading into brain health and really, mindset mastery and what I, what I realized was it wasn't just nutrition, it wasn't just, you know, chemical or physiological challenges with my brain. That was one piece of it, but it was mindset. So it was both brain health but also mindset mastery, which is the name of my company now mindset mastery. So I realized at that point I can deal with my brain health on one side I can read up on that but the mindset issue, you know, negative, limiting thoughts, procrastination issues, fear there are so many issues that people have in the mindset area and it affects them physically and this is what I didn't fully understand 13 years ago.
Speaker 2:So about 2015, 2016, after studying for about five years, I started doing some mindset coaching, had some executive leaders up in DC, politicians. I lived in DC for about seven years and I just had all these brilliant people from all over the place that were connected to my church. I passed to the church in DC and I started getting these, these executives and politicians coming in, these very successful businessmen and entrepreneurs, and they would sit down with me and say, look, I can't get this right. You know, I'm challenged right up here, and they knew it. And so I eventually started coaching for free.
Speaker 2:You know, I was a pastor of the church. They came to me, I wanted to help them, but I realized within about a year that the this mindset, these mindset challenges it was a. It was an epidemic. I just realized everybody was dealing with it Not quite. I just didn't quite understand that. And so that's how I got involved. I was coaching people in 2016, 17 and 18. And then I had a nonprofit. I helped from 2019, 2020 to finish a big project, and then in 2022, last year, I relaunched mindset mastery and I've been focused on that ever since I've been. I've loved it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you? You mentioned this idea. Or like you're the doctor saying, hey, you're doing better than most.
Speaker 1:I think people listening, myself included like so many times, especially as you get older, there is this idea of like well, you're going, you're going to be diminished, your, your blood work is not going to be perfect, you're not going to be strong, your shoulder is going to be messed up, you're you're going to have low back issues, like there's all this kind of like diminished expectations on who we are, who we can be, and and we own only us, only the.
Speaker 1:You know us as individuals, know what we're capable of or what we were capable of. You know in our twenties and thirties and now we're in our forties and fifties or so, and and we're feeling like there is a fight happening there between, like, who we know we can be and who we're kind of sliding into or or or if we're not paying attention and actually doing the work, we may end up, you know, falling into some kind of just that typical, that typical kind of reality of like people in their forties and fifties that are just kind of accepting reality, slightly unhealthy, slightly, you know, not as focused, not as disciplined and not as kind of you know in your best self. And so talk about you know, just when you were coaching and and you're coaching now, like what are the things that keep showing up for you, especially if it meant in the 40 to 60 age range, and how you're helping them, and because some of the ideas that you're helping them with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so mindset mastery is focused I didn't mention this before it's focused on 50 year olds. I mean, I'm very narrow in my focus. I'm 54. I'm working with people just like me. So I'm working with 50 somethings, helping them to master their mindset so they can achieve success the way that they define it. See, everybody defines success in a different way. So we identify that, we structure it, we understand it and then we help them achieve that.
Speaker 2:And I think there's two things you mentioned before that are that are ongoing challenges, especially with the 40 to 60 crowd. Number one is that inevitable decline with age, and I call it I don't know if it's okay to do this on your podcast I call that the bullshit equation. It's it's part of well, it's just part it's. It's the exact opposite is happening in the medical field right now. The exact opposite it. You know, 50 is the new 40, 60 is the new 50. We joke around that, but it's absolutely true. People are living healthier longer. I mean, you know, I remember my grandfather when he was 54 years old. He did not look the way I do and I hope I look okay, but I mean he looked, he looked old, he looked. You know, he had all sorts of challenges. Of course, he was a chain smoker, but we're in a different age now and what's happened in culture is is we still listen to that voice, not just not just out in the culture or out in the community or what we hear on the, you know, on a podcast or something like that, but it's in our head I can't tell you the number of men that I work with primarily men that they say it in this matter of fact sort of way. Well, you know, decline with age, having a little problem of memory, can't find my keys, got the, got the little lower back problem, just like you were saying, barton, and as though those things are not only normal but they they shouldn't be addressed aggressively and dealt with right so that you can be a better version of yourself. And the second one was just what I learned when I, when I went to that neurologist 13 years ago, was both brain health and mindset mastery right.
Speaker 2:So the brain health challenge is also there, in the sense that people I really believe this, talking to a lot of men in their fifties, they're incredibly brilliant in business. You know, they've made a lot of money. A lot of these guys I've talked to some you know six, seven figure income, some eight figure. You know companies, nine figure companies, and they will apply all their intelligence, all their intuition, all their study and their capabilities Into creating these large businesses. And then when I asked them, what are you doing for brain health? And I mean, many times it's just a blank stare and I'll challenge them. Sometimes I go, look, we're gonna talk about brain health, their 10 core areas of brain health, and we're gonna go through this because it's such a core component of your not just your brain health, at your level of confidence. You know, as we move forward, as we all get older, but stay healthy in the process, more and more healthy years in life. Right, I mean that's what you, that, that's your sweet spot. I mean that's what you do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well then, talk about, you know, obviously, brain health, you know the chemistry and the, you know the, the aspect of it, and. But we talk about self-confidence. There's a lot around what we can and can't do in that realization. So whether it's you know cognitively what we can and can't do or physically what we can and can't do, those things play in, you know, to how we feel about ourselves. So what have you noticed about the? You know fitness and the kind of the physical aspect of Building confidence as it relates to mindset and just your kind of angle on Mindset mastery.
Speaker 2:Yes, so remind me of the confidence piece and I'll throw this in here, but I want to say this pardon, doesn't matter how successful men are. The vast majority of them are. I have found, and people will argue with me on this the vast majority are, at least partially or the majority of their Motivation comes from external Sources. Right, so they. It's very difficult for them to internalize those things. That's why many men gamify their lives. Right, they create external goals. I do it. We are nonprofit, reached an entire country in West Africa. We can talk about that later, but you know, I spent 12 years with an external goal, gamifying the process. I put a timeline in for this project in West Africa to finish by December 31st of 2020. It forced me to think out of the box and to think creatively, because I know my mind and I know that I'm externally Motivated. It's very difficult to internalize that. So, when it comes to, when it comes to health and fitness and brain chemistry one of the biggest things I tell people and Most of these guys don't think they need a mindset coach, by the way, and they got it all figured out it's it's till something goes wrong, but they, then they get a hold of me and then they're. You know I'll be with them for the next five years. That's not the goal, but I mean they'll stick it out once they realize it because of external motivation.
Speaker 2:Though, on the health side, I tell people all the time because I'm a mindset coach, you know, I tell them all the time you need to find a fitness coach, a nutrition coach. If that's one person, that's fantastic and, you know, preferable. But you need to find someone who deals with your brain health over the long term and its connection to physical health. You know, and and what I tell guys all the time that say you need a coach to external, okay, take your external motivation structure in your brain right now and and Game to find the damn thing, get a coach. That's it.
Speaker 2:Look, I need, I need a game, I need a two-month structure, a two-year structure. I've climbed a couple of. I used to do mountaineering and I had a coach for both those, a fitness coach, because I knew if I was going to maximize my potential of summoning these. There's a couple of the highest peaks on these different, two different continents. If I had a chance of doing that, it was gonna be because I had someone that was gonna really motivate me from the outside, not not count on my own intrinsic motivations to move me to a new height, physically and and Perorably, you know well, I think you kind of choose to two things there that I liked it.
Speaker 1:First of all, men, women too but make men specifically like we're very, you know, scoreboard, game of occasion of things. External gratification or motivations are very, very useful in and how we get Motivated to do things. But on the other side, the other side of that, we also have to like find Our own validation internally so that we don't just become like either thrill seekers or, you know, constantly needing External validation to prove that we're worth something right, so like that's. That's a kind of a piece of that mindset that people need to have. I think that a coach can help them create, though, that scoreboard and create that external motivation. But I think in the end we have to, as men, find kind of the internal compass and guidance within ourselves. It says like I am this person, I am disciplined.
Speaker 2:I.
Speaker 1:I am working on my mindset, I am working on my businesses, I am working on whatever, and that's who I am. That's why you know. You know, as opposed to like I'm doing these things so that other people dot, dot dot, talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 2:The external yeah, the internal well, it's a great point, Barton. I think One of the things, just, you know, like we were kids, we had this constant external motivator in most of us, in our mother or father or both, that told us to brush our teeth. You know we were kids, you know I hated doing that. I just, I don't know why. I mean, I look at, I just hated brushing my teeth. It seemed like this nightly chore that I just despised. And and I laugh about it now because you know it's it's like that in life. So we do these things that we don't necessarily like, like I was going to go climb the mountain, which I do like, and then I had a coach to get me to do the things I didn't like.
Speaker 2:But what's funny is after, like brushing your teeth, eventually it, the external motivation, is unnecessary Because there is that, that habitual performance is there, and then you move and you internalize that reality and then it becomes automatic and to the point of no longer thinking. You know spending Mental energy on thinking through the process of brushing your teeth, and then that's a silly example, but that applies across the board. Um, what I tell people all the time is I the reason? I, because I know it.
Speaker 2:I know people are externally motivated by and large, especially with new projects, with a new mission, with a new goal, and so what I found and now neuroscience and research actually Confirms this if you create a, if you create a goal, that's outside of yourself, that's as far as it's further along or more than you can do on your own right, and so you need an external coach. You set that so that your new internalization is further down the path. In other words, you've got an external goal. You bring a coach in. They help you to get to the summit of that mountain, because I was a mountain here, right, so I get to the summit of the mountain, but what I did to get there took me outside of my box and generated more internal habits and I call them habit of mind, so that when I got off the mountain, those structures, those internalized systems, stayed with me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes sense. I think that's oftentimes. We were just taking it back to fitness. It's not.
Speaker 1:A lot of people are just internally motivated to go to the gym every day, like it's that habit that they have, and that's why personal trainers have jobs, that's why there's a huge industry, the fitness industry.
Speaker 1:But as we do it and they talk about 21 days or 66 days to build a habit but the point is, however long it takes you, it's that moment in which you just internally know, hey, this is part of who I am, it's part of what I do. It's not that hard that I have to make a conscious, difficult decision every day that I just do it. Right, I've got a gym, I go to it or I go for a jog or whatever. That fitness world that you want to occupy and work through. It happens at some point in probably one to three months, but in the meantime you are struggling, you are not enjoying yourself, you are probably regretting some of the times that you like force yourself to do it, and also the times that you didn't do it and regretted the decision to be a version of yourself that you probably, long-term, don't want to be.
Speaker 1:So that was exactly why I think coaches and I think there are coaches that we all agree with like, hey, that's a good idea, I should have a fitness coach, a nutrition coach, maybe a business coach but mindset is sometimes elusive, because what is mindset? What is that? Fortunately, I think it's something that's really come into a lot more, just more of a day-to-day conversation like, hey, mindset's important.
Speaker 1:have a positive, proactive mindset that helps people realize hey, maybe I need more of that, maybe I need a higher coach to do that. What are some things that you focus on, maybe in the first couple of months working with somebody? I know everybody is different and they come to you for different reasons, but what are some benchmark things that you're looking for and helping them figure out in those early months?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we focus at mind-set mastery. We focus on five core components, so clarity, energy, courage, productivity and influence. Then a lot of research on this and found that the high performers, the highest performers that perform at a high level consistency Because, by the way, I don't believe in peak performance. You and I may differ on that, I'm not sure, but I push against the grain on peak performance because what that suggests is that you hit a peak, so you work toward climbing my mountain right, you work toward the peak, come down off the peak and so you're not at that high level for a sustained period of time. I'm a big proponent and all of our coaching is around this reality that we are pushing people toward high performance, sustained levels of high performance. So high levels, let's say, at a nine, consistently over the long term. So high levels, consistency over the long term. So not this, but helping them through clarity, energy, courage, productivity and influence. And so I'll say this probably 85, 90% of my clients.
Speaker 2:There's two things going on there. They'll come to me with certain symptoms, for example, like procrastination, and what I try to do is push them into this framework of these five core pillars. I call them pillars of performance and a lot of times people will come to me, just like they probably do with you, right, they think they know what they're doing in the gym. Right, they probably know something, but they're coming to you to be a coach. Well, if you know everything, you don't need a coach if you think you know everything, right. So I have a lot of really high output, mostly men that come to me because a friend in theirs said hey, you need to go see Todd, right, or I'll have ads online and people will book a call with me and we'll talk.
Speaker 2:I give everybody an hour. Usually I charge 500 bucks an hour. A lot of times I'll put specials out there for free, because what I realize is when I book a call for an hour with somebody, that's a lot of time and I can really dive into where they are, what their issues are and suggest things they may or may not understand about themselves. So those five areas are really where I focus. What's interesting is the and the other things come into play, like bad habits, good habits, procrastinations, whatever. They all come into play when we talk about the clarity, energy, courage, product, human influence. And then what's interesting about that is the guys that get done with me after 12 weeks or 24 weeks. However long they're involved with me, they will go from. I didn't fully buy into these five pillars. I thought I wanted to focus in on procrastination and now I realize that there's an overarching framework for mindset and that's been very helpful to most people.
Speaker 1:Talk about courage. That's a word that you hear in adventure stories and things like that, but in our modern times, courage is something maybe that's not as defined or not as clear to somebody. How do you talk about courage in somebody's life and helping them have a better mindset?
Speaker 2:Yes, great question. I get asked that quite often. People get clarity, they get energy, productivity, influence and there's courage sitting there in the middle. It's just another word. I chose it for a few different reasons, because it does exactly what you. You know what happened there, right? It causes people to ask a question about what exactly is that? It's a boldness, it's a push through mentality. It's this idea of confidence, right, courage and confidence. It's really a more of a poetic way of saying confidence, but it's a little more than that. I think people are not confident because they don't have clarity about where they're going, which is why one of the things we talk about is clarity, and the more cloudy life is and the lack of clear vision and understanding of where they're going. That creates lack of confidence and they fail to be able to get up in the morning with their chest out full of courage.
Speaker 2:I remember when we started. We started non-profit back in 2009, called the Last Well, and I mentioned it a little bit earlier, a few minutes ago but our mission was to bring clean water to an entire nation for the first time in history, kind of we used to call it our Neil Armstrong first man on the moon moment right For our generation. I would always say, back in the last decade, I would go. We desperately need a powerful story of courage in the midst of challenge, and so one of the biggest things for me was to, yes, reach a country with clean water, and I do not mean to diminish this at any level, but equally as much as we wanted to reach an entire country with clean water and do this historic thing. The UN, by the way, united Nations estimates that what we did in Liberia saved, out of the 3 million people we reached, saved 150,000 lives. So there are 150,000 people that saw their next birthday because of the work that we did. Now I say all that to say wow, we had an incredible team that got that done government agencies, ngos, et cetera.
Speaker 2:I was equally as focused on our donors and the people who heard the story back in the US. I wanted them to go. You know what, if Todd and the team can go, do that and I can support them financially, you know what? There's a last well in my life. There is a bold decision and a narrative that I want to follow and a story that I want to be a part of. Right.
Speaker 2:I want to either have something that is the hero, or be the hero in that moment, and that's the courage I'm talking about, barton. I get chills when I tell stories like this, because we are in a place right now in society we are politically divided, we are racially divided, there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty regarding online communication and news and AI artificial intelligence is coming into play. With that, there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty, a tremendous amount of division. This world needs hero stories. This world needs courageous people that will step up and step out and go do something profound. And that's why I spend so much of my time on the courage component of those five pillars, because I think we're missing the heroes right now.
Speaker 1:Well, speaking of heroes, and I've heard this story and I love it. We share a common like. We've done a lot of work in West Africa different countries, but like so towards the very end. Right, you're getting close to the deadline, like 2020, december 31st. You're getting close to that date and you decide to get on a raft or a boat. So talk about that story. Why? Because it really relates to the courage and the vision, the clarity that you created around this whole project and how it culminated in you as the leader, like really putting yourself out there in a very courageous way. So talk about that story and how it ended up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, thanks for bringing that up. I didn't know we were gonna talk about the day and yeah, it's one of the most, I guess, exciting and challenging chapters in my life. So just for those listening, so the last well was a non-profit to reach the entire country of Liberia clean water. Let me just tell you a quick.
Speaker 1:So guys, as you're listening to this I know it's a slight tangent in terms of, like we're not talking about fitness, we're not talking about specifically mindset mastery or coaching, but follow along in terms of, like, his clarity, his courage, his influence, right the things that he's talking about, the mindset he had throughout this Cuz. I promise you, everything that he's teaching is in this story.
Speaker 1:So, let's continue, but I just want you guys to go into the story with an understanding, like you're about to hear firsthand how all these things are playing out in his life. Go ahead, thanks.
Speaker 2:Barton yeah, so we had a. The mission was started in 2009 and was to go through 2020. So it was a 12 year mission. Built into the mission was an end date and I want people to hear that. Right, not all missions have that mission statements, but we had an end date in mind and I did that on purpose. I wanted to at the time we even started.
Speaker 2:It was a little early on, but I still had these five pillars in my head right, clarity, energy, courage, productivity, influence. And I keep saying that, and I'm not I'm doing that on purpose, cuz what I want people to do is, when they leave this, this podcast, to think about where is my clarity, am I courageous? Right, and on and on and on. So we were about 10 years into a 12 year mission and it was extremely clear with my board of directors and the staff that we were not going to reach the finish line of this 12 year. What turned about out to be a $31 million project and we were falling short with the finances. And the board got together and I said, listen and actually this is interesting Several of the board members almost tried to push a vote that we pushed the date varsta dot the end date and I was like no, it's December 31st.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 2020, not 21, 22, 23,. Yeah, this is 2020. So I fought very hard for that and they said, okay, well, we're not gonna make it, so you've got your date, we're not gonna vote it out, we're gonna keep the mission. What are we gonna do about it? And there's a whole long story to this, but basically we started talking about this idea of, okay, what can we do in the United States as a fundraiser that really stands out, that can really get some attention, hopefully on a national media level, right? So I said something like wouldn't it be fun, like Leonardo DiCaprio, titanic, floating on that door, that piece of wood at the end of Titanic, the movie? And I said what if somebody just floated on a raft in the middle of Lake Ray Hubbard in East Alice and just kind of stayed there until we raised whatever money we needed? And they all said that's great. And I said you know what each one of us could take a day at a time. So there's 11 of us and so if we go past 11 days, I'll come back on there on the 12th day. And then the next person and they all said, no, none of us are gonna do that. We all vote you to do that by yourself unanimously. And what was funny about it is the whole thing was we have water, they don't meaning Liberia, and that's not okay. We have water, they don't. That's not okay.
Speaker 2:And so we decided to float on the lake where a lot of the drinking water came in East Alice. So they voted that I would be on the raft. We built a 20 by 20 raft. It had a tent on it, it had a small generator on it, it was made of aluminum and wood and that was pretty much it, and so I had a small generator to internet and phone power and stuff like that. And then this tent was on there and we stuck it out in the middle of the lake and tossed some anchors down on three out of four sides of the raft and I thought I was gonna be on there for a week. Our goal was to raise 2.5 million, which was just crazy 2.5 million, and I wasn't gonna get off the raft until we raised it.
Speaker 2:Now, if you're watching this, you may not know this, but most big fundraisers like that have what I call a backstop donor and what that is is you sit out there for a week or whatever. Whatever the fundraiser is, and if it gets a little sketchy, then there's somebody that's gonna fill in the gap. So right, if we raised 2 million and I was sitting on there after like three months and was gonna go insane, then there'd be a backstop donor to take care of the other half million dollars. We had no one. I was gonna be on there till it was over. But we did have a lot of clarity, right. So go through that process. We had incredible clarity about our timeline. We had clarity about our overall financial goal and we had incredible clarity about what we needed to raise on that barge minimum to get us on track to finishing in December 2020. And so we did.
Speaker 2:I got on the barge. I figured I'd be there for a week. By day seven we had raised, I think it was $170,000. By day seven 170, 2.5 million you do the math Not even 10%, yeah. And so I joked.
Speaker 2:I called one of the board members. I said I'm gonna be on here for like three or four or five months. I can't do that Like. I mean, this is, the whole thing is not going the way I planned. So one day I guess it was day seven or day eight I was like man, I gotta do something different. So a friend of mine said why don't you just post a Facebook live? Just hit Facebook live, hit the button. I'm like I don't do social media, no idea what you're talking about. So they showed me what to do and then I hit the live button and I said hey, it's Todd Phillips, I'm out on the barge with the last. Well, we're trying to raise $2.5 million to reach half a million people in Liberia with clean water and I'm not getting off the raft until we're done. So that's what started a really amazing deal.
Speaker 2:That first day there was like 13, 14, 15 people watching and I said I'm just gonna come on here every day. So then day nine comes and I'm like hey, how's it going back on the barge? Blah blah, had no plan, no structure, nothing. A guy puts a comment in there, says listen, I'll match anyone who gives any money tonight up to $10,000. And I was like what? So I was reading down the comments. So somebody else popped up like 30 seconds later said I'll match that with my company. So we're about 160 grand into this deal. We're on day two of a Facebook live show that doesn't really exist and we raised $20,000. So that's the best day we've had so far Over the coming weeks. I was on there for 29 days, 29 days. I lived on that raft for a month, but the very last night we raised $238,000 on a Facebook live and over that timeframe it was so the first week three and a half weeks, so over about a 20 day timeframe we raised $2.4 million on that raft.
Speaker 2:And it was over after that 29th day, and then we finished, we raised the rest of our money and walked across the finish line in Liberia with our project on November 12th 2020, during the pandemic. So, anyway, so that's the story and anyway, do you have any questions about that? Did I go down the route you wanted me to?
Speaker 1:No, that was awesome. And I just I challenge the listener think about yourself, think about the goals you have, whether it's fitness, whether it's like a business thing that you're involved in, whether it's your family. Like, think about how long you would be willing to stay on your raft. And this is just a metaphor for what he went through. Now he, it wasn't a business.
Speaker 1:For Todd, this was like saving, bringing healthy drinking, clean drinking water to people in villages throughout Liberia. He had a goal he was willing to be out on a raft for 29 days. Like, think about yourself, think about that clarity, that motivation, that fortitude of like, what am I doing? What's my purpose? What am I here, in this chapter of my life, trying to manifest for myself? And it's a. I mean there's so many cool details. I mean football players taking boats out, hang out with you and do Facebook live and all that. There's so many great parts of the stories. That helps that process. You know, end up in 29 days completing your mission. But to me, the whole thing is just like the fortitude of saying I am not getting off this raft. There was no. Like you didn't wake up every morning thinking like, should I get off the raft. No, I'll stick it out another day, like you had.
Speaker 1:And this is the same thing I felt during my bodybuilding show. I never felt like, oh, it feels like it must be so hard to diet every day. I'm like, no, I bought my entry to the bodybuilding show. It's six weeks away. I'm doing it. There is no choice. I mean, yes, there's always kind of a choice, but there really isn't. Once you decide to do something, there isn't a choice.
Speaker 1:I was in Peace Corps, west Africa for two years. Yes, I could have came home, but it was never a choice to quit and come home, even though I was, you know, in the desert for two years. Like it. It's that's always going to be the decision we have to make as people and that's a mindset thing. That is like a when you decide, like I'm doing this, I'm seeing this through and, todd, I think that's. I mean I'm not putting words in your mouth here, but I do want to use your story to really prove a point. It's like that's. I mean, if that's not you in your fitness journey, ask yourself why and find out what you know internally or externally needs to motivate you to make that type of fortitude and courage and resilience a part of who you are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can I jump in on that? Yeah, go for it. Yeah, I mean. Again back to some of the clients that I coach and train on the mindset piece. It's you know we talk about external internal motivation. I keep going back to this, that the neuroscientific research on it is that you have to. There has to be like, keep going back to this. Someone may, you may, be helping them develop an internal mental fortitude, right, an internal goal structure. That just happens from within them and wells up, you know, from inside, and I agree 100%. We need to get there.
Speaker 2:The vast, vast majority of people that I talked to you know, as I said before, they need to gamify their life, but they also the other external motivator is relationships. So it's not just climbing the highest mountain to give you something to go for. People need to find out what matters in their life to them and why health should matter in light of that truth, right? So I talk to people all the time. You know, would you do this for your wife, would you do this for your kids? And everybody says yes, because it's the right thing to say, but when it comes down to men, I'll push back, I'll go seriously.
Speaker 2:Really, we just finished talking about the fact that I remember this one guy. So we finished talking about the fact that you and your wife aren't getting along. You haven't been getting along for years and you're telling me that the reason you would get into physical shape is because of your wife right now, and he kind of him and haunt, he finds you know what. Okay, fine, he said we're not doing well and that's not my motivator. I said what about your kids? He goes they are my motivator.
Speaker 2:I said so quit talking about your wife right now. It's about as it sounds. Quit talking about your wife right now. That's not the thing that's working. What you want to do this for is the relationships you have with your kids, but you have to get people to. It is so difficult to get people to express and even understand their own motivation right, and that goes back to external motivators. If it's not for relationships, it's for a goal. One is goal, two is relationship. Those are the two things that drive people and those are the things that help build habits that are eventually internalized when they have enough mental and physical fortitude to continue moving forward Right.
Speaker 1:So you know, going back to what I said, like if you, if you assess your life or your focus on fitness or business or whatever the thing is you're trying to get better at, and you realize that you don't have that internal fortitude right now, the answer is hire a coach. That is the answer, whether it's Todd as a mindset coach, myself as a fitness trainer and nutrition, and I candling those things Wherever it is. You need like, put your like, understand where you're strong, where you're weak, because I know there's this whole philosophy about like Strength finders and like lean into our strengths.
Speaker 2:But that's an employee.
Speaker 1:That is somebody who's an employee of a company and pay. Hey, we need about the best version of you. So can you just focus on the things you're good at and we'll ignore the things you're bad at in fitness? If I'm not good at Posture, your chain work, so I'm gonna ignore it. Well then you're gonna have a bad back for the last 60 years of your life because without a strong posterior chain, you're done. You're gonna be hunched over and you're gonna be the old guy that walks with bad posture Because you never addressed the weak points and so we can't.
Speaker 1:We can't go into like this chapter of life thinking, well, I'm not good at cardio, so I'm just gonna let cardio go and only use weights. Or I'm not good at strength training Because I have that shoulder thing, so I'm just gonna only run. You know laps that that is a short-term strategy that ends up long-term being the like, the thing that takes you down. And so when talking about mindset coaching is talking about fitness, like we, you sometimes you need a coach. Like Todd, it says it says bullshit. Like you you're.
Speaker 1:You're telling me you you're gonna, you doing this for her or for you know some reason that's not really true, it doesn't feel true. Let's get to the root cause of it. Let's figure out where you're weak in in your discipline, in your mindset, and let's like, let's solve that, let's grow in them spaces so that you have a holistic Discipline in life. I think holistic discipline I mean holistic can be a little like out there hippie-dippy stuff, but like. But the concept is like we don't want weak Structural, like if we're a house, we don't want a weak foundation and if you're if a man, in this age we can't have glaring weaknesses that we're just ignoring because they will eventually catch up with us. Todd, as we're wrapping up here, any final thoughts on kind of just what I just said or things that kind of tie this together. And then I want to give you a chance to talk about, you know, ai and a couple other things that you're involved in.
Speaker 2:Sounds good, I a couple things. I just wrote this down. I wanted to talk real quick about negative speech. You know self-talk. Yeah, one thing, take me two seconds, and then the other one is that thought exercise I've been doing very lately, very recently with my, my clients, where they you know the you do you play any multiplayer games like Xbox 360? I don't yeah, I'm out of it, but I'm the multiplayer games you go in, and so it's just this entire world that you can go through and you're a character.
Speaker 1:Right ready player one movie or you just like exactly put on the glasses and you're like in another way in it.
Speaker 2:You're in it, right. So you have this, this virtual world that you go in and you just get dropped into it. So let me talk about that first. So this is really worked for a lot of my clients. I just started doing this a couple months ago and here's a thought experience imagine, just like a multiplayer game right, ready, player one if they've seen that movie.
Speaker 2:But imagine this, these games, you turn the game on and You're your character, literally gets dropped into this, virtually gets dropped into this world. It has no past, you have no past, you just in the game, you're fully grown or you're this kind of whatever, right, so let's just say you're a 54 year old man in the game and so I'll sit and say, look, just imagine being dropped into this reality Today, just like a multiplayer game no past, no stressors, no financial problems, whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever medical issue you have, like you have a weak ankle that came with you, and it's just like creating a multiplayer person, that that, that avatar. You can include things. You know they have this problem or they have that problem or they have this strength, or they have a 10 in courage or something like that. But I give people. I say, look, imagine just getting dropped into this world. If you can imagine this Exactly as you are, with the current medical issues and any brain function problems, whatever that might be, but you don't have any history, there's no business. You know that you, that you can remember 10 years ago, 20 year ago. There's no challenge you're having with your wife and kids and it doesn't exist, other than you're just being popped into this world.
Speaker 2:Now, if that's the case and you have no emotional ties to the past and it's just a game, and you have these limitations and these challenges, what would you do next and would it keep you? Would you have more courage? Right? And so, speaking of gamifying it, right, if you just got dropped down in this world, just like you are right now, and you just got to start from there, how would you feel? And people will tell me all the time they go Well, I mean it. I've played those kind of games before and you know I don't have any stress about being that player. Right, I'm courageous, I go, I go fight the beasts and I go into these little villages and I, I Plant this and I build this building and I sell this and make money. And you know they just do what they're gonna do, but they don't. They don't carry this emotional baggage that all of us have, and somehow we need to, and this exercise helps people back up from all that, from all those the emotions they have tied themselves and all the baggage that they're holding right now in their lives, and allows them at least a few minutes of respite from them. And I just want people that are watching this just to be encouraged.
Speaker 2:Regardless of the challenges You're dealing with, regardless of the weight of those challenges, while you're sitting or standing watching this right now, you can start, not just today, but you can start this very minute, looking at life differently, seeing it differently, and one of the biggest things you can do is this there was a research study, a neuroscience research study done I think it was Johns Hopkins, I Believe that's right. It's about four years ago and they did a study not on negative self-talk I mean negatives thoughts but negative speech, right. So we know negative thoughts hurt us and positive thoughts help us. But what they did is they asked the question what is the difference between negative and positive speech? So what they found is this if you speak something positive, if I say, barton, I want you to help me work out and I'd like to lose 10 pounds in the next 12 weeks and I want to be in a healthy, you know the best shape of my life in 12 weeks and I know you can do it right. All that's positive speech. When I speak that and I speak it to someone like you, there's clarity, right, you have the capability of helping with it and I'm saying it out loud I have a 10x greater chance of accomplishing that thing. It's a 10 fold increase just by speaking it.
Speaker 2:If you think it, it's one thing, if you speak it, it's another. Some of us know that, I'm sorry. If you think it, it's one, it's 10. If you speak it, it's 37 times more of a chance you're going to get it. Now, the problem with that is negative speech is worse. So it may be a. It's I'm sorry, man, it's tenfold. This way, negative speech is 37 times worse, right? So it's not just speaking positive, it's just stopping you just stop saying all the negative crap.
Speaker 2:There was a professional football team whose brain conditioning coach I'll be done with this after this brain conditioning coach comes in, spends two weeks with this football team and says we don't have time to understand manifesting and power, positive thinking and all that. Those are things that take a while to understand. The only thing I don't want you to do is say anything negative to anyone, because the team was doing terrible, they were losing, they were complaining and griping at each other, and he said no negative speech, not a single thing, for two weeks. And he said that alone. That alone. Either don't say it or say positive. That one thing turned them around. In two weeks, a professional ball team losing every single game simply stopped speaking negative things and it absolutely changed the trajectory of the organization in two weeks, right so?
Speaker 1:anyway. Yeah, and it's so funny because, just being somebody who's at the gym a lot, I get a lot of guys that walk up to me and they're impressed by me or whatever. But they often have a negative self talk about themselves. So they'll be like man, you're so disciplined, you're in here, I see you all the time.
Speaker 1:I'm like well, if you see me all the time you're here, too, like you may not approve of what you're doing, or you don't necessarily love the results you're getting as much as what you think I'm getting. But it's easy to see somebody else and say, oh, that's really disciplined or that's really impressive. I'm not that way and you hear it in people and I catch myself too. I'm not gonna be, I'm not gonna say like I never have negative self speech.
Speaker 2:Yes, you do.
Speaker 1:We all do. But I think we can catch ourselves, especially when it comes to fitness or losing weight or whatever that goal is, that we know we kind of like are dragging our feet. To start is we wanna say, well, I've tried, that I'm just I can't do that. I can't stay on a diet or I can't be at the gym that many days of the week. There's a lot of I can't. It's not in me, there's something's wrong with me. And that's what you talked about with the ready player one. Drop yourself into this virtual world, like if you don't have the emotional baggage about all these things that you think are true, and you just say here, I am day one, what's possible, I'm gonna go make it happen. And the freedom in that mindset of like, no baggage, I'm 54, I'm 48, whatever, like it's day one, let's see what happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Careful I know you know this right. Careful with what you say after the two words I am. They can be. That is either the most destructive or the most powerful thing that you can do to give you courage and clarity in life.
Speaker 1:I like that. I am disciplined, I am focused, I am a great father, I am a good husband, like those things, like to say those and to really feel it and mean it, like that's a powerful thing. So let real quick cause. So first of all, where can people find you? We'll have some information in these show notes, but where can people find you, reach out to you, that kind of thing, and then talk a little bit about what you're up to? Just recently?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if they wanna find out anything about me, they can go to ToddPhilipscom and I guess you're gonna leave that link somewhere in the pocket. Yeah, so you can go to ToddPhilipscom. All of my services are on there and everything else that I think you would. Any questions you possibly have. I think we answer most of them, and then you can go to my YouTube channel, which is at ToddPhilipsVideo. All one word at ToddPhilipsVideo, and I have a lot of free content on there as well. Yeah, so if you have any questions the other thing too you can email me on offthesite ToddPhilipscom or you can book a call with me. Actually, if you wanna do that for about at least the next 90 days, I'm gonna be doing those in no charge, so awesome.
Speaker 1:Great and real quick AI cause I know that's a big, big kind of new thing. Just give us a quick little update on what your interest in AI is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we started a division of Mindset Mastery around AI and I know that may sound like they don't connect, but since December of last year when OpenAI started ChadGBT, I've been studying artificial intelligence for the last four or five years, just cause I like to geek out and stuff like that. So when it came out as the first kind of commercially viable user interface for AI, I knew we were in for a pretty cool ride, and some people are really concerned about it, cause I'm excited, most concerned. Most are concerned. But what I started hearing on the productivity front. So when I got to productivity the fourth thing that we talk on when I'm coaching almost everyone by about March or April started asking me questions about AI. You know what's the deal? How does it help me be more productive, more efficient? In my company, nobody seems to know anything about it on my staff, you know. Then a week later they'll come and say, hey, I understand that it's gonna destroy all of mankind. What's the deal? Yeah, I mean, it's just crazy stuff.
Speaker 1:So we can find it, so we know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. What we decided to do was start a division because it was so overwhelming the number of people and then the amount of discussions we were having. So I was very quick, talked to my team. I said, look, let's put a division together and we're launching all the website and everything. It's called supereasyai. It's not up right now, so you can just go to topfilmscom, but as we're launching this right now, the interest is shocking. I mean, it's just it's crazy. And so productivity, as a part of Mindset Mastery, now we've kind of it's weird, it's kind of morphed into this on the productivity side, this AI engagement. So we've got we've putting a team of experts from all over the world a couple here in the United States, london, malaysia, ghana, canada but just you know a crack team that what we're trying to accomplish is not only helping people understand it better through education, but acting as an agency for AI solution models for small businesses under this 10 staff.
Speaker 1:So often, the people that are most motivated by Mindset and personal growth and development are going to be entrepreneurial people, people who have business, that want to scale, want to be more productive, less procrastination. You mentioned procrastination. I see that a lot with not just fitness, but also in the field of like, hey, I'm my own boss, but yeah, now you gotta get to work right. Ai solves so many problems in my world.
Speaker 1:I know we've talked about it too, and I think it's something that, if you know, as you're listening to this and you're wanting to reach out to Todd, you know, ask him the question because it's a rabbit hole of lots and lots of things that you can learn and utilize to master doing things that you're already doing even better and more efficiently. So, todd man, I appreciate you. This was longer than we thought, but I think he was just full of really juicy content. And you know, funny thing is I see Todd almost every day working out. I train at the W Hotel gym. He's working out there, so he's another guy in the fitness realm that practices what he preaches.
Speaker 1:He's in there doing the things, working hard, taking care of himself. So you know, shout out to you as not just a great coach and a great you know leader in this space, but also somebody who leads yourself well.
Speaker 2:Thanks, barton, and if you're watching this I know Barton does some, you know some online training and he's developing his company in that direction. If you have an opportunity just to watch his training videos, if you have an opportunity to interact with Barton online through YouTube videos or comment section or email, whatever that is I'd encourage you to do that, not just because he has me on the podcast. I've watched him for months and months now training different people at the W, at the gym, here, and I've gotten to know him. I've watched his videos. I just think he's exceptional at what he does, and I work with a lot of online businesses, one of the things I do. We have online entrepreneurs that wanna build or scale their business, and so I do a lot of that work, and I see a lot of people that wanna do a lot of things online, and a few of those people stand out. Barton's one of them.
Speaker 1:So Appreciate it. Man, as we wrap up this interview, a couple of things Remember. Go to ToddPhillipscom or you can check out his YouTube Todd Phillips video. If you search that in YouTube, you'll find a bunch of videos where he's talking mindset, talking productivity, courage, as he mentioned several times, clarity those types of things, those five pillars that are gonna help you get there. And, of course, if you feel like you might wanna have a conversation with him, you can always reach out. He is offering some free calls that you can set up. Have a conversation with him. I promise you it'll be worth your while.
Speaker 1:All right, thanks again for listening to the Mindset Forge podcast. If you're looking for more of this content, you have got my shorts these little pieces on fitness, warm up stuff, working on the rotator cuffs, warming up the core, some alternate ideas for squats, for dips, things like that that you can utilize. But also, of course, we have the long form interviews and podcast stuff that's in there too. So dig into my whole podcast. Check out the YouTube channel if you're not listening to this on YouTube, but find more content. There's some great stuff out there. So, thanks again for listening, dig deeper and reach out to me if I can help in any way.
