[00:00] Brian Michel: One of my biggest acts of active surrender was leaving my corporate job, leaving this cushy financial position I was in, to take on something that was bigger than me to take on the purpose, the plan that I felt I was being called to do. And so to me, has nothing to do with giving up or giving in.

[00:23] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Welcome to another episode of Success for the Athletic Minded Man, real talk on harnessing your athletic drive, clarity, consistency, and focus in business and life. This is your host, Jim Harshaw Jr. And today I bring you Brian Michel. What’s harder, running a hundred miles through pain and exhaustion, or leaving a comfortable corporate job to build your own business from scratch.

[00:45] Well, in this episode, I sit down with Brian Michel. He is a certified coach in my REIA Path program. He’s also an ultra marathoner and a former corporate leader, and he shares with us today why walking away from a secure paycheck was actually harder than running a hundred miles, and how both of those actually shaped who he is today.

[01:05] So if you’ve ever wondered how you can find the courage and the clarity and the grit to pursue your biggest goals, this is the episode for you. Here we go. My interview with Brian Michel. You have run ultra marathons, you have also built a business from the ground up. So let me ask you, what was harder, you know, training your body to go a hundred miles through pain and suffering or.

[01:28] Preparing your mind for, for, you know, leaving the comforts of a corporate job?

[01:32] Brian Michel: Well, I’m sure your audience is gonna have a lot of different answers. Mine is, is very simple. Starting a new business, walking away from comfort was by far harder. Spent a lot of time training for the ultra marathons and sure to put my body through a lot of pain.

[01:48] But the idea of stepping away from a fin financial comfort was a major step for me. And I’m sure as we’re talking. That’ll come out even more clear and, uh, can, you know, give you a little bit of background on that.

[02:00] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Well, yeah. Tell me about how you took that leap. I mean, this is something that a lot of guys, you know, fantasize about leaving their corporate role, starting something on their own, being their own boss.

[02:11] Like what were the voices in your head saying? How did you deal with the, I, I don’t know if you had fear or not, but I think a lot of people have fear whenever they, I know I certainly did. There was some, some fear involved whenever I quit my job to go full-time into this business. So what was that process like for you?

[02:26] Well,

[02:26] Brian Michel: I, I’m not sure everybody wants to know about all the voices in my head, but I’ll, I’ll give you a little bit of backstory. So this is, I think, uh, as I’ve reflected on this many a time, this has been coming for probably a couple decades, I’ve. Sort of felt this calling to do something bigger. And for the longest time I thought it was bigger as in scope of job as in bigger company, as in more responsibility.

[02:52] But really what it turned out to be is it was beyond what I was controlling, if you will, that I had to sort of give up and fear Absolutely was at, uh, sort of the heart of where I was when I made the decision. If I could lemme just share a part of the story. 2023 is when I, uh, decided to start my business.

[03:14] And a year and a half prior to that I was going through a, a period of just wasn’t sure I was in, in the space I wanted to be. I was beginning a get a little bit bored, uh, if you will, with my role. And I went back and ironically, as many will end up finding out, I went and completed a coaching certification, which is.

[03:34] Obviously how you and I have come to know each other, and when I went through that process. The sort of fundamental belief behind the specific certification I was getting was spiritual in nature. They really referred to it as energy, but ultimately the owner had a strong faith. I grew up in my faith, but didn’t really practice very well, and for whatever reason.

[03:59] That moment in time when I was completing that certification, something just overwhelmed me with a calling to go do something different, and I remember completing it going to my wife a few weeks later. And saying, I think it’s time for me to step away from my, my corporate role. And there was a lot of fear, a lot of doubt.

[04:18] Had no idea what I was doing. Always felt like I was the good support person, but not one that was actually gonna run the show. And, uh, the idea that I, I stepped into that, um, I have, uh, way more to thank than myself because I thought I was in control of everything. And in the end it was really me giving up control that allowed me to step into that with, with some level of strength.

[04:41] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So, I mean, there, there was probably some preparation though, I imagine, right? It’s not simply saying, you know, this is just something I wanna do. I’m just gonna quit my job and, and go do it. I think a lot of listeners, I, I really do think a lot of people have an entrepreneur inside of them. You know, a lot of people wanna start their thing.

[04:57] They want to go be their own boss. They wanna be independent. Not everybody, but for the guy who’s listening who says, okay, so, so Brian, just. He just did this, he just, just took the leap. I mean, was it, I’m gonna jump and hope the parachute will appear, or were there some contingencies in, in things you had in place before you quit?

[05:14] Brian Michel: Yeah, I, I would say that, uh, I’m not one to just jump and see what happens. So there was definitely a ton of planning that went along with it while also at the same time trusting that there was a bigger guidance for me. And, and so lemme talk about the plan first and foremost. So. I knew that I wanted to get into coaching, which is why I, uh, completed the coaching certification I did.

[05:35] Wasn’t sure what I wanted my, uh, niche to be, but I, I knew I wanted to go into that space. I really enjoyed business and so although I was stepping away from business, I didn’t want to leave the environment. I wanted to still be involved and there, therefore, part of my company is also consulting, so I dug in a little bit to like, where would I spend my time, uh, in the consulting space.

[05:57] There’s a lot of consultants out there, and I just felt it was diluted, and so I was a little concerned about what that would look like. So anyways, I chose coaching consulting as sort of the, the starting point. Secondly, I reached out to all my network, like where could I immediately pick up on some work versus just like I had to go and organically create everything on my own.

[06:17] So, uh, I met with dozens of businesses through the process just to learn like what their needs are, you know, is it something that I could actually match up and marry up to? And then the ultimate contingency for my, my wife and I was a two year plan initially. So financially sat down, where, where are we at from a family perspective?

[06:38] You know, one of my biggest responsibilities is taking care of my family. I have four daughters and I did not wanna put them in any sort of challenging situation, more so than me already leaving corporate America. I didn’t wanna jeopardize our financial situation, although I was gonna change it to Your plan was about the right timing, uh, to do so.

[06:57] Ironically, I’m sure a lot of entrepreneurs can attest to this. I was reviewing that plan every six months, but initially it started out as a a, uh, two year plan. And between that and what I knew I could jump into to get business outta the gate was sort of my starting point. And then from there, it really became nothing but networking to, to ultimately decide where were, my niche was gonna be from a coaching perspective, where my niche was gonna be from a consulting, but that, that those were some of the initial thoughts to get me rolling and took a leap of faith at that point in time.

[07:31] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You know, it was interesting how I started my business, this business about a decade ago, uh, was by asking questions. Same thing, right? You said you started out by just going to your network, asking questions like, how could I help your business? And like. That’s such a perfect starting point for, for the guy listening is like, you know, if you, you have an idea or you want to do something, start a business.

[07:52] Go start, go start asking questions like meet with people. Like when you connect with people, magic happens. You don’t know what you don’t know. You don’t know what they’re gonna share. You don’t know who they’re gonna connect you with. And so that is such a, a good starting point. And then the other thing you said is, is you had a conversation with your wife, right?

[08:08] Did a little bit of. You know, good communication, a little bit of strategic planning behind it, and, and you came up with a plan and you executed it.

[08:16] Brian Michel: Yeah. The, the point about networking is, is really important. I’m glad you highlighted that, Jim, because, uh, I’m not a sales person by nature. I didn’t do business development.

[08:26] For me, it was leveraging skills that I did bring to the table. Very curious and lots like to ask lots of questions to really, really understand, not. At the surface level of what somebody might be sharing. But in the end, what’s the deep connection that I and a coaching client or a company looking for consulting would align on?

[08:48] ’cause quite frankly, one of the, uh, reasons that I, I wanted to do this was I wanted to work with individuals that I wanted to work with. You know, I don’t regret anything I did in my corporate career. However, there were plenty of things that I was doing that it just, it didn’t get me up in the morning. I didn’t feel the real cause behind it.

[09:09] It wasn’t driving me. And so, uh, the idea of going in and asking questions not only helped me start think about starting a business and where I was gonna go, but it helped me like really get associated with those that I wanted to spend a lot of time with. Yeah.

[09:24] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So what advice would you give to the guy listening who is sitting there thinking, this job doesn’t get me up in the morning.

[09:32] I wanna look at my next thing. And their next thing is maybe, you know, maybe they wanna satisfy that entrepreneurial streak inside of them.

[09:39] Brian Michel: I, I would say first and foremost, go start talking to the people you already know. Like you don’t have to stretch yourself too far. I, I, I started realizing that a core group of my own friends who we’d spent the last 25, 30 years together.

[09:52] We never really spent time talking about business. It was always about kids and other, other things, but not necessarily deep diving into what do they
[10:00] really do and, and, and what gets them up and what are they looking for. And, and so I, I started, started talking and I had, uh, entrepreneurs in my own backyard.

[10:10] That I could just start tapping into what did it look like for them and what, what did they go through and what questions did they ask themselves and what should I be thinking about? And the financial plan, you know, I, I knew like two years felt right, but is that enough? Is it too much? And they all gave me really great advice.

[10:26] And so whether it’s you going and starting your own thing or it’s just you wanna look at a, a different type of opportunity that aligns to your values, aligns to, you know, what you get excited about. You don’t have to go apply for jobs. You don’t have to like leave where you’re at. It’s just going and sitting down and really just being curious.

[10:45] I think the biggest thing for me and what I’ve learned from a lot of clients is. If you show up to whoever it is, a current client or a prospective client, or just a friend, if you go there to truly be curious and not already have your mind made up on something or something that you want to impress upon someone else and just.

[11:07] Bask in learning in that capacity. Uh, you just never know what you’re gonna discover. And I learned more about my friends in probably a six month period than I had learned in 20 years, uh, about their business backgrounds and what, what excited them. And so, uh, yeah, just, just start by going, have, have, have coffee, have, have a drink with your friends and just learn

[11:26] Jim Harshaw Jr.: what were the sources of your first clients like for me?

[11:30] It was, I, I, I call it like my third degree network. Maybe not so much like you would think on LinkedIn, but more like the, you know, you have your kind of inner circle people, you know, family close friends, and then you have that sort of second level people who are friends you maybe see regularly. And then the third level is where a lot of my early business came from.

[11:50] These are people who know me. Maybe I. Uh, have interacted with them somewhere before and they followed me on social media or were friends on LinkedIn or whatever, connected on LinkedIn or whatever. Or maybe we were friends or colleagues, you know, 10 20. Plus years ago, and, you know, so there was again, this familiarity, but that’s where a lot of my initial customers came from.

[12:10] Clients came from. How about you? Yeah,

[12:12] Brian Michel: yeah. The, as I was mentioning, the, the initial conversations were just to learn. But to your point, when it started to really dive into the business, I was going back to colleagues. I had worked, uh, early in my career 20 years ago, just to reconnect with them because now they’re in elevated roles.

[12:27] And they’re thinking more about who can they bring in to support what they’re doing. So that was part of it. My first coaching client through a corporate office was through a colleague from 15 years ago. They’re in a new company and I shared with what I was now kind of in the process of doing it. At the time, I wasn’t even fully like sort of out there.

[12:46] I hadn’t built any of my process. I didn’t even have an invoice yet. But after a, uh, a coffee, they’re like, listen, we’re looking for new coaches. And they brought me on board and within a couple months they’d already put something, somebody in front of me. So. Yeah, it was. It was going back to that I was also, for me, I leveraged my corporate consultants, meaning those that I had hired in my corporate days, I was going to them now to say, okay, now I’m in your space or a parallel industry.

[13:15] Here’s what I’m doing, here’s what I’m interested in. And actually a big chunk. Which I didn’t necessarily expect initially is to go out and deliver leadership development training and a company I hired, it’s now going on 20 years ago, they now have hired me in as a facilitator, as a coach. And so yeah, so it was tapping in a little bit of like maybe who was a little closer to me now, but also looking at my, my broad network and just quite frankly, I would take a coffee, a drink, a lunch with anybody I could possibly get in front of just to see who wanted to talk.

[13:47] And I, I, I know everybody sort of probably sees the, the, the, the reward from all their work at different stages. I didn’t really start to see much of, of the reward for probably six to eight months, which is probably the hardest part for me. I enjoyed the networking. I enjoyed learning. But at some point in time you’re like, yeah, I gotta get some business though.

[14:08] I need to start driving some revenue. And fortunately for me now, a little over a year and a half later, um, actually going on, oh yeah, it’s almost two years now. I was just sharing, uh, earlier today that it’s starting to come, it’s starting to come fast and furious and so all that upfront, but you gotta have a little bit of patience too.

[14:27] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And so I wanna, I wanna shift gears into the other really hard thing that you’ve done, which is running. Ultra marathons in a hundred miler and in Ironman because I think there’s, there’s a similarity here in the sense that, you know, doing something hard, uh, figuring out how this is going to work for you, whether it’s in your business or how you can train your own body to compete and in ultra marathon.

[14:52] Tell me about that process. What made you decide to sign up for Well, yeah, I, I don’t think you started there with a hundred miler, but what, what, what got you into the endurance competitions?

[15:03] Brian Michel: Yeah, I’m glad we’re touching on this because I think a lot of it kind of rolls over into my professional life for sure.

[15:08] I, I, so I’ll take you back in time for a moment. I was, uh, 29 years old. I was approaching my 30th birthday. I had been an athlete growing up, but. My wife and I had started having kids, and I just had gotten to a point where I was way outta shape. I was 40 pounds heavier than I am today, and it just didn’t feel good.

[15:29] You know, my career was going fine. We were starting to have kids, all that, that felt pretty good, but I was missing something else. And I remember getting a phone call from my cousin and basically said, Hey, uh, I’m coming down to your area and, uh, I wanna do a, uh, triathlon. And I, I laughed out loud when he first said it, uh, when he asked me because.

[15:49] I literally at that time couldn’t run a mile. I mean, literally like I went out to go run a mile and. It was ha It was hard. My knees hurt. I was out of breath quickly. Really? Wow. You would, you couldn’t run a mile. Couldn’t run a mile, couldn’t run. Honestly, like, I, I’m not, this is, I’m not like just doing this for your show.

[16:06] I, I literally had a hard time running a mile and so I, it was probably five months later when we, when we did the, uh, triathlon, my cousin. Uh, wiped me off the face of the earth. He, he crushed it. He’s a, he’s a really good athlete himself. And I, but I, I reached the goal. I wanted, I wanted to do this certain, um, event in under two hours, and I was, uh, I think 1 57.

[16:28] So I, so I, so I beat my goal. Whatever happened that day, Jim, uh, like I’m sure many of your listeners, something just grabbed a hold of, I got a bite of the apple and I wanted more, and so my cousin and I sort of stayed in contact. We did a few things here or there, but I had a good buddy that lived closer to me and it all became about the process, which I know, you know, goes hand in hand with, with your program here.

[16:53] I loved the competition. Don’t get me wrong. I loved doing the events, but the idea of getting up every day and having to really get after it and practice and prepare my body was something I really, really enjoyed. And what I found over time, I didn’t relate it initially to this, but it was really more of a mental.

[17:12] Relief, and it wasn’t even physical, but I always identified myself with the physical aspect. Yeah. So anyway, so that’s how I got started. I did my, if I flash all the way to the question about my longest ultra marathon, which is a hundred miler, I did that five year, six years ago now. And so let’s, let’s just say it’s about 15 years later.

[17:33] So it took me a while to get to that level for sure. It takes a lot of. Effort. You know, having young kids, you have to find the right time to train all, all the good things I’m sure your listeners go through, but at, at some point in time, I read a quote and I don’t remember it word for word, but basically the, the gist of it was the moment you feel you have used everything you have, your body can give.

[17:59] You still have 30 to 40% more. And something like really stuck with me when I, when I heard that. And for me it was, okay, well how far can I push myself until I really truly can’t go any further? And that just led to after that first triathlon. I was doing, um, routine. You know, we do four or five triathlons a year.

[18:20] We eventually change to, uh, sort of off-road triathlons. Now we’re trying to find spots that are in deep woods to be, you know, mountain biking and, and other things. And we did multi-day events, basically not sleeping for a couple days to get through it. I really enjoyed those and then I switched to more of a marathon approach and wanted to see how far I could, you know, you know, there.

[18:45] And ultimately I set my sights on. Boston Marathon, which I was very blessed to be able to qualify for and compete in, and then eventually turned to, okay, I’ve done these things. I’ve pushed my body, what, what else is out there? So I set my sights on a hundred miler and it’s, again, blessed to have completed, you know, I’m not the fastest necessarily, but it was, it was more about, uh, completing it.

[19:08] I, I had my sights on a 200 miler and injuries age. Uh, time commitment started to get in the way travel was becoming. More expensive to do these types of things, but it started with the bite of the apple and then it was, how far can I push myself? And then it was just having fun. And now I’ve been fortunate enough, I’ve passed it on to a couple of my kids.

[19:30] My youngest just ran her first triathlon over the weekend, so it’s been cool to watch.

[19:35] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, very cool. So how do you balance this, right? You’re a driven guy and you know, a lot of time investment goes into. Training for, for any of those events you just talked about. And also a lot of time goes into, into your career at that point, and now your business.

[19:52] How do you balance both of these? You know, how do you balance the time and energy that goes into these? And I know there’s this whole conversation out there in the
[20:00] world of like, there’s no such thing as work-life balance. And I, I really think it’s a matter of semantics, right? And it’s work life balance.

[20:05] It’s work life harmony. It’s work life integration, whatever we wanna call it. Everybody knows what we’re talking about. Um, so how do you balance all this?

[20:13] Brian Michel: Yeah, you’re right. Semantics. I started to use the word integration though for me because it just resonated better that I can sort of fit this all together like a puzzle.

[20:23] So part of it was a mindset I had to get my head right. I, I had to also decide what was most important to me. And so in the end. For, for years now. Family was always first, so whatever was happening, I was gonna make sure that I was trying to succeed the best I could there. And then everything else sort of lined up behind it.

[20:41] So let me give you a couple examples. Like I chose, uh, on a couple occasions to pass up, uh, promotions because I knew that there was gonna be a bigger time commitment. Some of them would require, uh, another move. I already moved my family once and I chose, I wasn’t gonna move them. Uh, again, so I was making intentional decisions around certain things in my life that I could sort of keep what was most important, most important to me.

[21:07] And so, so that was part of it. Secondly, I would find ways to get my workouts in that wouldn’t interrupt my family, my work. And so. Literally it was interrupting sleep, it was interrupting car rides with family and friends and that sort of thing. But, uh, a few things would happen. My, my one daughter, uh, they all were in different, I had four daughters.

[21:28] They were all in different things, but the example that I’ll give you is my daughter was in volleyball and traveled quite a bit for it. And so what I would do is. If it was local in my hometown, I would ride my bike or run to wherever the event was. So I’m still gonna be there, still gonna participate.

[21:44] I’m gonna be the dad on the sidelines, that sort of thing. But by God, I’m gonna make sure I get these things in. I’m just not gonna jump in my cozy car ride, uh, to get, to be able to get there or, you know, I would if we were traveling, uh, out of town. Uh, once again, this is, this seems like simple things, but it’s intentional.

[22:00] Everything that I would work out in is in another bag. So it’s in there, it’s in my car, it’s ready for me when the times are right. So we would get there, we’d find out the schedule, and if there was an hour break, I’d run out, uh, go take a run, go take a bike, ride in between games, et cetera. So I just. I was very intentional about making sure I was there for my family, but when the moment they weren’t looking or they, maybe they weren’t even awake, I was gonna make sure I took advantage of that time and that was my own, like, it was sacrificing stuff that maybe I wanted to do differently.

[22:30] Maybe I wanted to relax, et cetera, but it wasn’t gonna, wasn’t gonna impact them. And so I just found ways between. My relationships, my work, and my personal interests that I was going to fit it together like a puzzle. And it didn’t always work, you know, I had to sacrifice here or there, but, you know, I, I feel in the end I was able to do the best I could there I, and I lived with the best I could do there.

[22:53] And if, and if I give you one last story, so take the, the Ultra Marathon. So, you know, you’re running a hundred miles. Uh, I think a lot of people think, well, gosh, I, I, I gotta get in, uh, a heck of a lot of miles. Before that, I, sure I had a plan, I was getting my miles in and so forth, but I was also one to believe that I had to prepare mentally to do it, not just physically.

[23:14] And so I. I didn’t do much over half of whatever the race was like for that one. I didn’t do much over than a 50 mile run, so I I, but I did shorter runs to, to work on things. I worked on mindset. So when the time came, I was gonna be prepared where I was gonna throw, throw at me as an example, I always forget people’s names and it’ll come to me here in a second, but there was another ultra marathoner who wrote a couple books.

[23:40] Uh, one of the things he talked about was depriving yourself of water and liquids to train your body not to need it as much. And at first that was crazy ’cause everything you read, you gotta have water’s five. But what I learned in my training is that was part of mental training for me. If I could go out for 13, 14, 15 mile run and not have any water.

[24:03] I was training myself full physically, but more mentally so that when it came time, when I knew I went over 50, I’m gonna hit something. But now if I can fuel myself at a different pace, uh, it, it would all still work out. So anyways, a lot of reading.

[24:18] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Oh, so that’s the thing. You can actually train yourself to operate more, you.

[24:23] More efficiently with, with less water.

[24:25] Brian Michel: Yeah. It’s not necessarily efficiently, it’s more about the mindset that we get so caught up into what we need in those moments that we seek it out. So some people when they go, for example, to do a, a long training run like that, they have to maybe keep themselves in a certain location so they can always find water, et cetera.

[24:45] The, the reason it worked out for me is it allowed me the freedom to go wherever I wanted. I eat or run to my daughter’s volleyball game without having to worry that I’m not gonna have enough water. So it just, all those things sort of just, it worked for me, but it was a lot of, you know, trial and error and sometimes I, I got dehydrated and it wasn’t a good thing, but in the end it really helped.

[25:06] Uh, if I look at the bigger picture of keeping my relationships, but also being able to finish a hundred miler.

[25:13] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I mean, the key word that I’m hearing is intentional. Like this was very intentional, which is the whole crux behind reveal your path, like the, the program that you coach and that I started is like this.

[25:23] This idea of living intentionally in all the areas of our lives. Having a plan, thinking ahead, and when you’re training for a hundred miler. You know, you’ve gotta think ahead, not only in in, in the race obviously, but, but in your training and how you structure your life. So there has to be a lot of, uh, planning that goes into this to be able to pull something like this off.

[25:43] So you, Brian, are obviously a driven guy and there’s a lot of driven guys listening to this right now. And you talk about this concept of active surrender, active surrender. For a lot of guys who are listening that, that sounds like giving up. How, how do you explain to somebody. What active surrender means and that, you know, someone who maybe sees that as a weakness.

[26:07] Brian Michel: Yeah. Well, I’m glad that you actually bring it up that way, because when I first started to share the, the, the thought, the idea, and, and it’s now building into programs that I, that I run in my business. Uh, that was the reaction, visceral reaction from a lot of people. Like what do you mean surrender? I’m not, I’m not giving up anything.

[26:26] I’m here to sort of just, you know, kick butt and take name type of mentality. So, so let me start by saying this, you know, many of us in our life at some point in time training, talking to another peer comes up and some advice you get, you know, talk about things like, um, control what you can control. And so I wanna just set the mindset there for everybody that’s listening.

[26:49] If you can get your head around control, what you can control, this sort of concept becomes a little bit easier to swallow. Because if we as men in particular, want to be able to control everything that’s around us, you even hear me talking about intentionality, which is a bit of a. Being a control freak in those situations.

[27:09] We have to realize we can’t control everything. We can’t. And so this, this definition of active surrender now is gonna sound very, uh, familiar to the Reveal Your Path community and hopefully for those joining for the first time, like it, it resonates. And the definition is this is is a intentional process.

[27:28] To surrender to God, surrender the control to God, but listen to the next part. And that is faithfully taking actions that are aligned with the plan. Now we can come back to the plan here in a second, but aligned to the plan. And then the last thing is trusting in timing and wisdom. And so if you put all that together for me, this is all about.

[27:56] I can’t control everything. I shouldn’t control everything. I have to focus on the plan that I’ve, and, and this is for me. I, I know this is not gonna be maybe for every one of the listeners. My plan is very much aligned to my God, which is my faith. And so if I’m taking action every day that I believed to the best of my ability is aligned to that, it comes down to.

[28:21] The timing and the wisdom that is offered to me. Okay, so what does that really look like? How do they, how does that sort of play out? For the longest time, I would go to God with my after action issues. This didn’t work out. Why not? Why aren’t you helping me here? What’s going on? I have a faith, I give you money to the church.

[28:43] Right. That was sort of the, the mindset and how I was sort of playing in my head with everything. That’s how I was sort of going about things. So all this, the switch I made in my mindset is it’s gotta be more proactive. So I’ve, I wake up every day, I think actively about my plan for the day, which is not gonna be much different than most of your listeners, right?

[29:04] I wanna think about what I’m trying to get done, right? I’m trying to think about what are my actions, like, what are the big rocks? What are the small rocks? A lot of the same things. The difference for me is I ask for the plan that is laid out for me to be woven into how I think, act and behave that day.

[29:25] So for me it’s uh, an additional boost to the plans that I’m working towards, to the actions I’m working towards and, and, and so now I can not only maybe go and ask for more post, but I can also be grateful and give praise for what I’ve been giving. Which wasn’t where I was before. So if I take you back just six years ago, I had gotten to a point where I was in a very good position financially and, you know, I, we were thinking about buying a second
[30:00] home and we had bought a boat, right?

[30:01] All, all the things right? Like I, I just felt like I’m getting the, the stuff and I finally made it and I feel good. There was something missing. I still wasn’t totally happy. I was taking my kids for boat rides and we were having a great time. Something still was missing for me, and I had to take a step back and go like, well, what, what’s going on?

[30:21] And I felt like what I was doing was giving, uh, all credit when things went well to myself and when things went wrong, I was blaming, my God, I was blaming my faith, I was blaming my church. And, uh, that wasn’t easy. Like I had to go through a, a pretty significant change. And then you fast forward. One of my biggest acts of active surrender was leaving my corporate job, leaving this cushy financial position I was in, to take on something that was bigger than me to take on the purpose, the plan that I felt I was being called to do.

[30:59] And so to me, has nothing to do with giving up or giving in. It’s following the plan that that time may give me the bigger purpose in life. I tell you like. Joy and harmony and peace. Those terms were foreign to me before and now it’s just how I wake up and live every day. And so that’s where like anytime I have some, a conversation with somebody about control, giving up control, and it feels like giving up and giving in.

[31:26] This is a moment where you have to reframe that and say, this is actually calling you to be and do something bigger. And that’s, that’s where I’m at.

[31:34] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. And faithfully taking action. I love those three words faithfully. Taking action.

[31:40] Brian Michel: Yeah, I mean, and that’s why I say like the definition’s gonna resonate with a lot of your listeners because just think about that.

[31:46] It’s an intentional process. And by the way, this isn’t for all the listeners. I didn’t steal this from, uh, reveal your path. Like this is just something that, you know, I’ve been building over time, but. It’s intentional, it’s a process all what we can all sort of get involved with taking action. Mine just happens to have a little bit of that faithfully component that’s added in, and then you think about, it’s about timing.

[32:08] Like we get anxious, we get frustrated when things don’t happen, when we think they’re supposed to happen. For me, it’s, that’s goes back to that faithful trust. Like when it’s supposed to happen, it’s gonna happen. I’ll share this real, real quick. I shared with you earlier that now business is coming and I, you know, a year and a half to two years later, I, I, I feel really good about the work that was put in earlier and now I’m reaping some of those rewards that was about me being patient for the timing to be right.

[32:39] And I had somebody say something, and this may resonate with some of your listeners, like, I had a really good mentor of mine. That when I was making the decision in the process of making the decision to leave corporate American do this, they said to me, one of the last quotes, comments they made to me was, you need to start preparing to be successful.

[33:00] ’cause I was preparing to fail. Like I was trying to do all this contingency, basically saying, well, when it doesn’t work out, okay, what am I gonna do versus plan to succeed? And that totally changed my mindset as well. Like I gotta, now I’m at a place where. I have to start managing my schedule better because, uh, I’ve got more business coming in.

[33:22] And that’s, I, if I would’ve had that upfront, I probably would’ve failed even more. And maybe I wouldn’t have stuck with it because I didn’t know how to take it on. And so, to me, that was a little bit about someone else’s timing and I’m ready for it now and I feel great about it. That’s amazing.

[33:40] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So. Why did you become a reveal your path coach?

[33:43] What was it about reveal your path that made you wanna become certified in the program and become a coach?

[33:49] Brian Michel: Well, I’ll never forget, I was in Whistler, Canada, and Jim, you and I had, uh, a interview slash conversation about your organization, about your program. And for the audience, Jim didn’t pay me to say this.

[34:04] This is honest to goodness, genuine from my heart. I felt an immediate connection to you, Jim. A lot of our values and interests were aligned. I am nowhere near the athlete. However, when, when it comes to family and faith and other components, that goes back to what I said before. I wanted to get aligned with those I wanted to be working with, not that I had to be working with, and I walked away from that conversation just feeling.

[34:31] That I would have a great mentor in the space that I would have company that I could get behind and I could really go after it versus just feeling like, well, I, there was components I didn’t believe in that I had to try to sell to clients. I just felt good about that. And then as I began to learn more, I mean it aligned to.

[34:49] A lot of the way that I operate, you know, being intentional about things and setting goals like there was, there just wasn’t much misalignment. And so I wanted nothing more. And then a layer on top of all that, the moment I entered into school and started listening and connecting with other pathfinders, like

[35:09] Jim Harshaw Jr.: school is our online platform.

[35:11] For the listener. Yeah. Yeah.

[35:11] Brian Michel: Sorry. I, it, it was one of those things where if I had lost a little bit of that fight in me, it was immediately brought back to the top. Like everybody just makes you raise the level of not, it’s not just performance, it’s commitment, it’s interest, it’s, it’s a community of men and women that.

[35:32] Love on each other and wanna move each other forward, and if we’re all better. So, you know, the world is like, it was just a great mentality and so that, that first conversation caught me, uh, it, it reed me in and I’ve never looked back since then.

[35:47] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Well, we’re grateful to have you as a member of the community, grateful to have you as a, as a coach leading the clients in Pathfinders in reveal your path.

[35:55] Brian, for, for the listener who wants to take action on some of the, the advice that you shared here today, what’s, what’s one action item they can do in the next, let’s say, 24 to 48 hours?

[36:05] Brian Michel: Well, I, I, I think the first thing that I would offer anybody in these, these cases is sort of take a little bit of a look in the mirror, you know, what is it that you really have a passion for?

[36:16] So we’ve. I’ll get to the action in a moment, but for me, the action starts with some intentionality around like, what are you looking for? What are those values that you wanna align things to? So just pause and in the world of reveal your path, it’s a productive pause. Just to think for a second about what does this really mean to you and what are you going after?

[36:37] ’cause once again, it doesn’t mean you leave a corporate job making a good income to be able to start your own business. It, there’s a ton of things that that could look like as you move forward. But then from there, for me, it’s about taking a moment every day. To me, it’s the beginning of the day, sort of set the tone for how you’re gonna live and practice throughout the course of the day.

[37:01] For me, it’s prayer. For me, it’s gratitude. For others, it may just be what do I need to get done that day? But that goes back to that intentionality.

[37:09] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Brian, thank you for making time to come on the show and share your wisdom.

[37:13] Brian Michel: You bet, man. This has been great. Have me back any time. I look forward to spending more time with you in the Pathfinders.

[37:19] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah,

[37:19] Brian Michel: awesome. Likewise. Thanks, Jim.

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