Iron Man Mentality | Aaron Heard

FULL AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION:

Justin Stoddart 0:01
If you do this right during this market with these headwinds, you are going to be come out the other side of this better, stronger, have an amazing story. Today we interview Mr. Aaron Heard, who just became the newest Ironman triathlete, we’re going to be learning all about his experiences his story, in preparation for and the actual race day, and making all of the comparisons that you’re going to want to know about to thrive in this headwind market, it’s going to be an awesome episode, do not miss it. For one minute. The big question is this. How do we those of us in the real estate industry with crazy amounts of ambition? How do we think bigger than the building of our own empires? How do we simultaneously see success and significance, income and impact? My name is Justin Stoddart. And this is the Think bigger real estate show. Aaron heard my friend Welcome back to the show. So glad to have you here. I still remember the day that we did our last episode several years ago in person, pre COVID. In a room together, just the two of us

Aaron Heard 1:08
so much fun. So much fun. Thanks for having me back.

Justin Stoddart 1:11
Dude, it’s such a pleasure. So I’m so inspired by the person who you’ve become, which already was an amazing human when we got together last time, and since then, you’ve made enormous. You’ve like grown incredible in business and in life. And I’m thrilled to really get into your story today. Because I know there are a lot of agents out there right now, who are facing a headwind in the real estate market. Right? We all are. Yeah. And they’re, they’re, we’re asking ourselves, like, is it worth it? Right? And if so, how do I get through this and come out better on the other side, which is exactly what you did. Right? As you went through the brutal process of traveling by water, by bike, and by foot 140.6 miles, in a matter of one day, look at that, look at that arid herd, you are an Iron Man. So there’s so many lessons, I’m sure we could spend hours and hours extracting them all. But I really want to dig into that before we do that, let’s give some context to those that are just hearing it for the first time. Right, you are the owner of real tour property group out of Portland, Oregon, have a very successful team here. You’re an executive mastery coach, in maps, Coach some of the top most successful agents around the country. And you have two beautiful children, beautiful wife, and I just have some great things going on, man. So it’s such a pleasure to have you here. Because again, our mission is not just to build empires, right in business, but it’s really to pursue success and significance. And you’re a guy who we look up to who is doing both. So super glad to have you here. Let’s dive in man. So talk to us about when you made the decision to become an Iron Man, how did that all start?

Aaron Heard 2:56
So two years ago, I have I have a coach. I have multiple coaches, though, that one of these coaches challenged me to run a marathon distance over the course of a week. And at this time, well, actually, this is like three years ago. So I apologize. But three years ago, he made that challenge for me. And I accepted the challenge. begrudgingly, I wasn’t a runner at that point in time. And I accepted it. And like you, when we say we’re going to do something, we do it. And I finished that week, beat up, down and out destroyed me. And my legs were hurting so bad at the end of that week. And I came out of that thinking, This is ridiculous. Like, I am a young man, right? Not even 40 years old at this time. There’s no reason on God’s green earth, why I should feel the way I feel from running. Like, it just didn’t make sense to me. So I chose to make that a thing. So I could not feel this way. It’s like I’m going to I’m going to do something. And so from that had the conversation with my coach ended up signing up for a marathon.

Justin Stoddart 4:12
So pause really quickly. I think there’s a lesson to be learned from that. Whether it be your physical condition, maybe your relationship status, or whether it be your bank account in business. We’ve probably all gotten to a point at some point where it’s like, enough is enough. This is freaking enough. I am better than this. Yeah, I am not going to live this way anymore. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired like this and that and that sounds like that’s where you got to write was that point of like decision where it’s like, this is unacceptable?

Aaron Heard 4:40
Yeah. Yeah. And it hurt physically, like there was it hurt. It was bad, though. Again, it’s like I had to go through that pain to understand that this is not okay. And I’m not going to continue to allow this to show up. And so we ended up signing up for The Portland marathon, which was at the tail end of the year in October, and this was like a January, February type timeline. So it’s like, okay, now now that I have this new destination, I understand that I need to become physically in shape and capable to do it. And so then talk to other people that have done marathons, researched, I mean, oh my gosh, there’s a tremendous amount of data online, shocker. And there’s these programs that you can follow, and I happen to fall under a peloton program, which is a phenomenal experience of my own, where it’s like, it’s just on Monday, you do this on Tuesday, you do this on Wednesday, you do that. And you know, over six days out of a seven day week, you are exercising, following their plan. At the beginning of the plan, it was very easy, almost too easy. And yet, you just follow the plan, trust the process. And towards the end of it, it’s really it’s a big deal. I mean, you’re running 20 something miles on your weekends, you’re running like full sprints for an hour with these, you know, breakups and you’re lifting weights, you’re doing things that Well, I never did before. Right? It’s just with that consistency allowed me to show up and finish my first marathon. And not like, be totally destroyed. I got destroyed. Don’t get me wrong, but totally destroyed.

Justin Stoddart 6:33
Was there a point Aaron, where you were? So first and foremost, you hit bottom was like, Okay, that’s enough. I’m not gonna live this way anymore. Secondly, you had enough faith and belief that I can change that you went out looking for help. Right? Was touched about that? Was there anything in there that said, like, you know what, maybe I’m too old for this. Maybe this isn’t maybe the herds aren’t the running type? Right? Was there any like language went on your head? That almost caused you to not even try to fix the original problem that you were fed up with?

Aaron Heard 7:03
I don’t believe so. Looking back, I don’t that’s not in my DNA. Justin, I feel like other people have gone before me. And if if they can do it, what he’s and I can’t. Yeah, you know, they’re not it’s not an ego thing, though. It’s like, are they really that much better than who I am right now. It’s like, they just, they just acted different. And so it’s like, let’s just, let’s just follow a model. I’m not trying to be the David Goggins of the world, right? This is, if you don’t know who he is, research him, he’ll blow your mind. It’s not, that’s not my my walk, or my journey. Oh, it’s just about me becoming a better version of myself. And there’s amazing human beings out there that are battling with much more challenging things than just being a middle aged man and struggling to run a few miles that do these things. You know, my friend, Dan, who’s a Keller Williams associate, and he is sponsored, a man with Down Syndrome who just finished their first Ironman actually, they completed and finished a World Series Iron Man, it’s a first man with Down syndrome. And he’s, uh, he’s crushing it physically and amazing. There’s blind individuals that are going through, there’s people in wheelchairs that are doing things like this, like, man, that’s inspiring. And if they can do that, the herds can do that.

Justin Stoddart 8:40
Yeah. So obviously, tying this back to business, right? I hope everybody here doesn’t allow any of that self talk to come in. Right? Some people are blessed to have maybe been raised in an environment where that doesn’t enter in. Others may not where it’s like, you know, maybe, maybe I can’t do that. Maybe I can’t have a successful business. Maybe I’m not made up for this. And what I hear you say there is that you don’t believe that number one, if you do have that. And number two, go looking for people out there who overcome far greater odds to create the similar success that you want than you ever will. And so if they can do it, you can do it just simply have the faith and the belief in the fact that like, Yes, I can become somebody different than I am today. Other people have have made a more drastic transformation I have so if they can, I can, right. Yeah,

Aaron Heard 9:27
I like it. I mean, going back to business, and we were on pace for selling just under $100 million in sales this year, Dustin, and we’re in we’re in six locations across the country now and we’re building up this amazing, it’s amazing, and I liken it to everything we trust the process. If you want to become a really skilled practitioner, then follow a process. Develop your skills every day. Say these words. Use these phrases, ask for the appointment, this volume of time And it more likely than not creates this result. Like we can’t control the outcome. Right, though we certainly can plan for it. influence it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It’s like, this is my belief. I believe that if I model after these individuals if I follow this plan, and I have to have the discipline to stay committed to doing the work, and I’ll tell you, there’s a lot of days that you don’t want to do the work. And, you know, we could talk about that too, though. There’s a, there’s the discipline aspect of just showing up and doing it.

Justin Stoddart 10:36
How do people I believe that’s where a lot of people get stuck, right? Is they have this initial dream, they go out, they find people who have done it before, it’s like, Okay, I’m going to do this, and then motivated or inspired? Yes. And then something comes in on those mornings are those moments when you don’t want to pick up the phone? Where you don’t want to make those contacts where you don’t want to put your running shoes on? What’s some of the best advice you have to help people toward that doesn’t become their pitfall?

Aaron Heard 11:06
Yeah, motivation is short lived. It’s, it’s, it is what it is. Motivation is dumb, we don’t need to be motivated. What we need to do is be committed to a plan. Like, truly, when we establish a business plan, we establish an idea that, here’s what I here’s the outcome in which I desire. And here’s what my plan is to create that income or result in units or whatever it is, right? And then what happens because we’re all fired up, we’re excited about it. January 1, right? Look at what happens all the new year’s resolutions we get after and then it gets hard, or it gets boring. And then we stopped doing it. And we start looking at new ideas, new concepts, creative models to create a different result. Just because we’re no longer motivated to maybe we’re even meeting or exceeding the goal, but we just literally stop doing what we said we were going to do from the start. And then it gets weird. Right? What we need to do is to develop a discipline that says not enough, I’m unwilling to not do this every day, or not follow this plan. It doesn’t have to be an everyday thing. You don’t have to like exercise for three hours a day, every single day, six days a week or seven days a week to achieve huge huge goals like an Ironman 140.6 mile triathlon, you don’t have it doesn’t take your life to do it. It takes an amount of discipline to consistently and that’s the key word consistent, definitely, you know, push towards your outcome. Whether you feel like it or not,

Justin Stoddart 12:57
I think like you said, is that find a model that has worked for other people and commit to the model, right, stop recreating the wheel? Yeah, I think one thing that has shown up for me just today, so people that are watching this broadcast live, you’ll notice it looks like I have a black guy, I don’t know who hit me, I don’t think nobody hit me. I think I have a cold or something that sent into my I have every reason in the world today. To say like, this is not a good video day, right? I have not looked that good for those that want a closer look at it like and I’ve compared that, although it’s a very tiny thing, right? And went through my head like, oh, maybe I shouldn’t do video. And I’m like bullcrap I’m committed to do video every day, right? That’s part of my plan. That’s part of the model that I subscribe to. And I think we just have to realize that we are never going to be totally ready or in the perfect shape to do the work. And the minute that we start thinking like, the conditions aren’t perfect, then we are essentially uncommitted from everything from the outcome. And the plan that will get us to the outcome, like we have to overcome the fact that like, the conditions are never going to be perfect. Like never. And we’re never going to be perfectly ready or feel just like we’re ready for it.

Aaron Heard 14:04
And you have no over the conditions, whether it’s cold, rainy, interest rates go up, housing prices go down, you have no control over any of that. So why even try? Why even try to have control over it? Just do what you can control our world. You know, we we hire coaches, I’m a coach for my organization. And we have a firm resolve over being really clear on what our commitments are this week, based on how we want our outcomes to look at the the week and at the end of the month. We model it through a 411 very simplistic practice, say, here’s what my year goal is, here’s what my monthly commitments are to be in alignment with hitting that year. And here’s what I need to do this week to be in alignment with hitting my goal this month. very simplistic. And so we sit down and we go okay, great. You said you are committed to doing this volume of conversation In scheduling this many opportunities, moving people forward to this level following up doing these actions, how did you do? Simple as that? And then based on how you did, how do you feel about that, if you love how you feel about it, and yet you didn’t hit your goal, we’re going to have a conversation around your commitment towards actually finishing at the level in which you said you wanted to finish, right, which might result in going to have conversations, hard conversations with your family, with your kids saying that trip to Disney World where it’s gonna get canceled, because I don’t really want to work that hard to get us there. So don’t get your hopes up son. Like that, let’s just be real about it. If you’re not willing to do the work, don’t plan on getting to the finish line in the timeline that you said you wanted to be there. And there’s no judgment on that nobody’s forcing you to go make a bunch of money or go to do an Ironman. It’s your choice. Except when you commit to it in my world. We take that pretty serious.

Justin Stoddart 16:07
It’s just being real, right, is that we can’t get ourselves and think that without doing the work that we’re gonna get there. Like nobody who’s ever succeeded anything for an extended period of time ever got there by any other path and committing to a plan and a model and doing the work when they didn’t feel like it. That’s just the recipe, folks. It’s just the recipe. And I’m sure it was the recipe for you.

Aaron Heard 16:28
I rarely is there luck or hope involved like it happens that people get lucky and sporadically, right? It’s just not a great strategy or a plan. Yeah, could you imagine you toeing the line on a on your first marathon or an Ironman without having executed plan prior to it? This is like the first time I got this. I’m gonna get lucky.

Justin Stoddart 16:54
That’s funny, right? And in fact, I was this is kind of where I want to go with this now is that let’s go. The preparation has to be in place, right? You just can’t want you to have the preparation. Now, even on race day, I was I was just glued to your post when you’re describing like the race day events, because I could just see you there, right. And you show up and the bus is supposed to come and tell us what happened. Like you’re like expecting things to happen in a certain way. Even on race day. You’ve done all the preparations. You’re there, you’re ready to go right? And talk to us about some of the things that were unexpected on race day that you were like, I didn’t really prepare for that.

Aaron Heard 17:26
Yeah, well, so there’s this checklist and I’ve created a checklist and I had on my whiteboard from the time I’m waking up to the time I’m being at a place and then what nutrition what food I’m taking in putting in my body to the calories in the sodium and the like legit is a plan. And that plan executed created great results for other people. So that’s like, let’s just go model after this, right. So we have, we’re going to swim 2.4 miles. We’re gonna go for a nice lovely swim in the morning. We are going to after the swim, we’re going to go find our bicycles and go for a nice Hunter and 12 mile bike ride. And then after the lovely jaunt down the street, we’re going to go and park our bikes put on running shoes and then just do a nice little 26.2 mile run through the back country in Sacramento. No big deal

Justin Stoddart 18:23
right? Don’t ever think no big deal

Aaron Heard 18:25
me in the bros gone out for a nice little joyride. Now, when we go there first in the morning, they open up this what they call transition and as he calls them T T one T 2k transition one is when you first get out of the water and you get into your bike and you transition from being a swimmer into a biker and then that’s like the central rounds and then you go park your bike there and you enter in T two and teachers when you park your bike and you transition from a biker to a runner make sense. So we start out by going into the transition and they put us in a stadium which is kind of an odd place to put a transition because the way you have to it takes a lot of walking you know going up to the front gates of the ball stadium and then walking around where the athletes or the the dugouts are the or the ballplayers go play all the way behind through the like concessions and then wraps back around and it’s a long walk and so it’s cold you have shorts on you got tight clothes, you’re not bundled up or I wasn’t bundled up I wasn’t really prepared for just being cold and you know that so we get in there and got to let nice walk get down to the bike, pump up the tires, make sure everything is like organized and ready for transitioning from being a swimmer to a biker and we go from this transition area we want Get out. And they’re supposed to be buses that shuttle us to the swim start, because we’re swimming 2.4 miles. So they’re going to take us to a drop off point. And then we’ll go down stream to where we exit and they would get out. Well, there’s 3000 athletes plus their spectators, their family members that can go they they announced all this stuff. And like, hey, everybody gets on the bus. And then spectators can get shuttled back to watch their athletes exit the water and, you know, just be their moral support. And the buses are like, not moving. There’s like five buses for all 3000 of us plus spectators. And we’re in line, and the race is supposed to start at 7am, which means we should all be there by like, 630 to line up to start getting in the water. And I got on that bus at 715. Why was that bad?

Justin Stoddart 21:01
Then did they delay the start of the race for everybody there, wait until we got there or they just said you cross the line. I mean, when you get going right, but

Aaron Heard 21:11
so they delayed the pro star by 15 minutes due to that. But they have permits for shutting down streets and all this other stuff that they have logistics on like millions and millions of dollars. So they can’t like, hey, stretch it out, though. My time. The time for the athletes starts when you cross that a certain star starting gate line, right? So there are cut offs that get shrunk. Like if you if you don’t complete the swim within a certain period of time, after getting in the water, you’re at a normal star, you’re You’re out if you don’t complete that time. But if if they shrink it by 30 minutes now you only have that much time. So it’s like the pressure becomes for a lot of the people that are not as skilled to go through that process. Yeah, yeah. Regardless, I just wanted to get there, right? Like, you get, I don’t know, anxious. So you get nervous stomach, which makes you have to use like the restroom a lot. So you’re in line, you’re kind of like, Oh, I’d really like to go to the bathroom. But I can’t because then I’m not in line, then you’re on a bus. Our bus driver happened to get lost. So you literally he’s asking athletes that don’t have cell phones on him because it’s all packed away. Like how can we get there and there was some other athletes that got on a scooter that were driving or like follow those guys. We get there, they drop us off at about 715 we’re able to get the wet suit up and on and line up and get into position to go get in the water. And yeah, so that I wasn’t prepared for all that there’s a lot of time kind of waiting and moseying around and ice cold. And I think the morning was like 52 degrees. And basically with very tight, minimal clothes on to it got really cold, right. So we’re like, jumping around doing jumping jacks, trying to just stay warm. People had those aluminum blankets on, you know, I don’t know where they came from, but they had them. Like gotten the water it was like a breath of fresh air 63 degree water felt amazing compared to the 50 Something degree cold temperature that I was standing on for the past, you know, and I started at eight o’clock. So I have 45 minutes of after I got to the swim star 45 more minutes.

Justin Stoddart 23:46
So think about this, folks. Think about the things that Aaron’s describing right now. Right, all the unknowns as prepared as he was, there were still a number of things that caught him off guard. Okay, think about the real estate market right now, you may have been well prepared, following the model, following the plan, do what you’re supposed to in all of a sudden interest rates go crazy, right? There are things that are always going to happen. And you have a decision at that point to say, You know what, I didn’t prepare for this. I’m out, right? I’m not doing it. Or you can say like Aaron said of like, okay, new circumstances, I’m going to make the best of them. Right, like double down let’s let’s let’s do more work. To get ready to do the actual work, right? Jumping, weren’t like getting the credit for that you don’t get credit for like 100 like 500 Jumping jacks, right? It doesn’t add to your trophy at the bottom, but it’s just extra stuff you had to do to compete in these new circumstances. And folks, we have to be thinking the same thing of like, okay, I might need to work smarter and potentially even harder during this time to get back to like the starting line of where I would be without all these outside events. Right. So same principles, guys, same principle. I love it here. Talk to us now about when you got on the bike right the swim a success you’re out. However, It was a long journey was there not from the swim end to the swim all the way back to your bike like a mile or something like that you actually had to run

Aaron Heard 25:06
1.2 miles and so you get out of the water. And they have they have people there to help you get out of your West. So you because sometimes those things get difficult to get out. So they rip the wetsuit off of you hand you your wetsuit and say see it. And so you start your running barefoot. 1.2 miles, because remember, I told you that stadium thing we had to go around and complex all the way in? Yeah, and of course, our technologies like tracking our movements through GPS, so everybody’s going, Wow, barefoot cold, just swam 2.4 miles. So you know, not feeling like, Let’s go for a run.

Justin Stoddart 25:47
So I couldn’t get on my bike yet. Great. So another again, kind of curveball coming at you. Right?

Aaron Heard 25:52
We’re not expecting that we planned it was it was just because it’s right across the street. So we planned for just a little quick. Were there but they made us go around this condo complex and then around to the backside, which then took us in where we had to go wrap around the inside, down into it was bananas different than what we anticipated.

Justin Stoddart 26:12
So now you get on the bike. Right? Okay, great. I’m out of the water. I’m moving on warm. Go time, right?

Aaron Heard 26:19
Yep, taking in food, drinking water. And we now are on the bike, making strides towards closing out the 112 miles. Now this is really important because this is a mind game bikes. It’s a long time sitting on the bike. So you’re going you’re gone. Gone. This The road was glassy, just super smooth, like fresh pavement. It was amazing. And then we turn a corner and the winds come out of nowhere. And in Sacramento, California on this very day, after the sun came up and they had a huge windstorm come in just my luck. You have 35 mile per hour wind gusts. And when you’re on a bike on big open flat country roads, the dust storms that literally the tumbleweeds flying across the streets, and the bike is just getting thrown, I saw people literally get pushed off the side of the road and crash and you know, bad stuff. Because of the winner.

Justin Stoddart 27:24
So talk to us through the mindset right now. Right? Like you’re committed to this and you put in a lot of work. What’s going through your head when it’s like, look, I didn’t plan for this. Right. This is this is this is kind of like a total curveball. How did you work yourself through that to not overthink it to not get so caught up in these unfair circumstances to where you lost the forward movement?

Aaron Heard 27:49
Yeah, well, I’ve been there before. So in my training journey, there’s been some very long, very uncomfortable rides. Not so much with the wind. So aggressive, though. Other circumstances, rain, temperatures, the winds were different, though. Very uncomfortable. And that’s just look, I’m in it. I committed to it. Today’s the day that I actually become Iron Man. This is what I signed up for. And I’m unwilling to not do it. So I just had to kind of like, embrace the suck. And it’s like, yeah, the wind was so bad that my lips were getting so chapped up Justin. Just, I mean, like wind burned, that you would open your mouth and it’s like you stuck your head out going down a freeway in a car and just like the moisture just comes out of your mouth. It was so aggressive. And so literally just embracing the suck and just saying, Look, this sucks. But look, everybody else is here to I’m not on this journey alone. You are alone because in the Ironman event, you’re not allowed to like hang out with other people you can’t get close to people and draft off them because that makes things easier. And but just embrace it and just understand this is as temporary. And paint you know, this is this is a temporary pain. The the goal achieved is bragging rights forever.

Justin Stoddart 29:35
As I’m spending time with agents who are licensed in 2008 or in the in this industry in 2008. Their perspective on what’s going on right now is very different than those that are experiencing it for the first time. They’ve been there before same words you use right maybe not the exact circumstances right for you. The new thing was when but you knew that the bike has uncomfortable possibilities, right? You’re sitting for that long, how long by the way, how many hours is is 112 mile In normal circumstances or in your circumstances,

Aaron Heard 30:02
so in the event, it took me seven hours and 14 minutes, okay, a long time on a very small bike saddle. Right, in a normal circumstance in a pre race and it should have been like a six hour cry for.

Justin Stoddart 30:21
So so again back to my comment of you have agents who have been through difficult circumstances before and what you said I think is key is that this is temporary. And the good agents realize that like there’s a thinning of the herd going on right now that those most people can’t have hard things for very long, if they weren’t prepared. And or they just they, they can’t stomach it. So they’re out and the opportunity that comes I was in a top agent mastermind at a co host of this past week, and a lot of a lot of volume sitting around the table. And it was amazing how some agents were saying, man 2008 910, it was my, it was my best years because it was not crowded. Even if people were still in the industry, we’re just moaning about it all the time. And those of us that just got the work had an incredible experience. And I think, right, it’s not gonna be necessarily comfortable for everybody or anybody. But the reality is, if you can just have a vision beyond right now and be like, it’s gonna get awesome. I’m going to be an Iron Man at the end of this right? I’m going to have an amazing business at the end of this is gonna be fantastic. I think as you can, as you can kind of see around the corner a little bit. With, you know, in your mind’s eye, you can get through difficult things.

Aaron Heard 31:22
That’s right. You have a commitment to your finish line. Yeah, one thing I learned about myself, Justin, during the run, actually, which you know, we parked the bike. We go now we’re set up to go on a journey for a long run.

Justin Stoddart 31:38
Oh, yeah, we’re not done yet. Guys. After the seven mile bike ride, we still have a marathon to run.

Aaron Heard 31:42
Now we go, we go around 112 miles, we park the bike. And then with no brakes, we put on running shoes, and we go and start our journey on it. 26.2 mile run.

Justin Stoddart 31:54
So I’ve done triathlons. By the way, that’s probably the hardest transition is going from bike to run your legs feel like they’re a piece of wood. It’s like the weirdest thing.

Aaron Heard 32:00
Yes. Well, other than starting also, your body does not respond to your heart rate goes high. Everything kind of spasms out because it’s it’s like whoa, this isn’t right. We shouldn’t be doing this. So I get on on this run. And everything’s going to plan. I had this I was calculated every 15 minutes, I was taking in 100 calories. I was eating appropriately on the bike every 15 minutes. Legitimately. Up until mile 90. And then at mile 90. i The plans suggest no more solid foods like granola bars and fig bars, but moving to these gels, nutrition gels and like packets that athletes eat. Because it’s very light. It’s very clean and easy to digest. And so mile 90, I’m like okay, I’m transitioning in every 20 minutes, I’m taking in these calories and doing it star Baron feeling like a champ. Honestly, I’ve miles of this run is so solid. It was like the best five mile run I’ve ever been on. It was just so clean, felt amazing. Like I could do this all day, which is not a normal feeling. starting that process in a triathlon which was different, right? So it’s like, okay, we’re doing it. And then things started transitioning a little bit my stomach started to get a little bit sour things are like, I’m starting to break down a little bit, you know, people call a hitting the wall. And it was I was able to get to about mile 12 Before that wall punched me in the nose like Mike Tyson. That’s the

Justin Stoddart 33:43
long way to go. 14 miles, 14 miles of going through a wall.

Aaron Heard 33:48
A long ways. Yeah. Yeah. And it was. This is where it got really real because now it’s dark outside. We’re all running. I can’t take even a sip of water without like gagging. You know, and I know. Oh, yeah. I mean, it was everything I had in me not to like hurl. And you throw up and somebody sees you like a race person, dirt race director or an aid station person. You’re getting pulled, you’re going to the med tent, you’re getting IVs you’re, you know they are they’re shutting you down from racing until you can demonstrate and move forward. Right? So it’s like you just everything you can to fight over these urges and continue to move forward because it is a race and you got to finish. So it’s constantly moving forward even even when feeling terrible at times, and understanding like I’ve been there before I’ve hit that wall much like you have in marathons, usually comes at a mile 20 in a marathon. And then that last six miles is like that grinder that’s it’s a very common thing. Well, this was a mild 12, because of all the stuff that I just went through already. And so here’s what I did, like I’ve been here before, I know I need nutrition, I know I need to nourish myself. So follow the plan, and start taking in little bits of nutrition as I can getting water in me and, you know, walking and running as much as possible to keep moving forward. And it took me up until mile 19 To get back to a place where I felt comfortable running for a sustained period of time. And then from mile 19, through the finish, I was able to actually like, run the entire time back on my normal pace, if you’re following my timelines, my average per minute mile up to a mile 12. And then it was like really low average per minute mile tell mile 19. And then it’s like, Okay, back to normal. But that was like, darkness was showing up in my world.

Justin Stoddart 36:01
Talk us through what you do when you the darkness. I mean, a couple things I’m seeing from you as right as like, just keep moving forward. Forget about the pace. Yeah, you wanted to be going at a faster pace, right. But what some do is like, I can’t keep up that pace. I’m just going to shut down. I’m done. Right? They overthink that and they get in their own way. And they there’s no movement forward. Whereas if you just at least keep moving forward. You’ll get your pace back. Right. That’s anything else that stands out from you about that even the internal dialogue of how you made it through that. There’s so many reasons to be like, This is not fair. The wind, right? The setting of where like the banquet, like you could have been making all these reasons like, this isn’t my fault. This isn’t. I didn’t sign up for this. These people screwed up, you can start to blame other things that aren’t you right. But it doesn’t do any good.

Aaron Heard 36:44
Yeah, it doesn’t do any good. And also, like other people are still trudging forward. Right. So I think there’s something to be said about looking at your community. If you’re surrounding yourself by people that are quitting. Oh, boy, if everybody’s like, Yep, I’m out. Peace. Nice seeing you guys. Nice to meet you. ESEA. Oh, I think we’d be able to defer that conversation, it becomes so easy, because it’s acceptable behavior. Not in this though, like this is like, and this is something that I learned that I truly value sharing this with my coach last week, is that this community does not look for shortcuts, Justin, there is no, I wish this was not 112 miles, but 105 miles, I wish it was anything different. It is what it is, the finish line is there. And we committed to this process and finishing within this timeframe. And it might be hard. Understand that there’s going to be challenges that you’re going to have to decide are you going to keep moving forward because one step forward is better than stopping. You stop.

Justin Stoddart 38:07
I’m sensing that. Obviously with you and I both been coaches, we recognize that in those moments, you lean back on the coaching that you’ve done, the preparation that you’ve that you’ve had, and the people that you surround yourselves with, right. As I mentioned, this, this mastermind was a part of last week, there was zero pessimism in that room, right. And there’s all kinds of you you’re in different circles. And there’s a lot of pessimism, right, a focus on what’s wrong, as opposed to like, I can’t control that. Here’s what I can control. here that the Silver Linings the opportunities, here’s the solutions to these challenges. And it’s just it’s so much about again, I’ve had about 350 episodes of this. And it’s interesting how common the thread is, it goes back to of who you surround yourself with really matters, we think we can discount the fact that people are having an impact upon us. But we need to be very careful about the associations that we have. Because we are very much determining what our life’s gonna look like based on who we allow into our circle and who we invite in, that we can we can really influence that entirely but not but but in large degree we can we can deeply influence it.

Aaron Heard 39:15
Yeah, and our company feels so blessed right now, because of the market shift that we’re actually able to impact so many people by giving them that community of abundant thinking big thinking, consistent progress towards developing strengths that they might have as weaknesses right now, becoming better every single day, like it is constant and never ending improvement in our world. And we have like opened the doors up across the country for leadership and Agent partners that might be struggling on their own to partner with us. And we’re seeing radical impacts in their lives and their businesses because of that, and I love it. So thank you shifting market.

Justin Stoddart 39:57
Right. Yeah. I mean that was one of the key opportunities in this market. There’s very talented people who just need better leadership. The end of the day, they just need leaders who can help them to become what they’re supposed to become, regardless of the circumstances. So good, Aaron, I

Aaron Heard 40:13
know short, Justin, and nobody’s going to do the work for you. In these in this community, nobody is going to, like, push you or, like, if you quit, they’re like, alright, so you keep going. But there is no shortcuts, and nobody will do the work for you. If you want the outcome, commit to it and do it.

Justin Stoddart 40:35
So good man, I’m uh, I’m deeply inspired by your journey as well as you as a human. And I’m grateful to have you as a friend and someone that rubs off on me. And I’m grateful for that. I think we’ve we’ve wrapped up our time here. I’m sure there’s so much more that we could do. So we will do it again. In fact, I know, folks that are that are anywhere near the Portland area, Aaron and I are already scheming on doing an in person event. So stay tuned for that. What other details yet, but we’re both interested in pouring into people in big ways during this time. So stay tuned for that. And one more question before we wrap up here, which is you are a big thinker, and a big achiever? What is it that you do to continue to be that way to continue to expand your possibilities, as if this entire episode isn’t already an illustration of that. But any final thoughts on that?

Aaron Heard 41:22
I am really inspired by people that do really big things. And so reading books on others that have done that Tim Ferriss with tools of Titan, one of my all time favorites, because all he does is interview the best of the best. And those people, if you if you spend time learning what they’ve done to accomplish what they’ve gotten, it’s hard to think small. It’s really hard to to limit your thinking, when you’ve identified that other people have done what? And it started were in their garage. And through this constant grind, they were able to create that. Yeah, so reading is a very, very good thing. Very good practice. If you don’t know them, go find them.

Justin Stoddart 42:14
And we live in a in a world now where you can spend time with people simply by buying their book. Right? By listening to their audio, listen to their podcasts, you can actually legitimately have those people rub off on you. There’s no excuse anymore. But well I live in, you know, Mid America and I don’t have access to big fingers. No, you do. You do? You absolutely do. You just have to think

Aaron Heard 42:37
they are so reachable to you can reach out to those people that inspire you directly through their social channels. And it’s not absurd to receive a response and get started engaging with these amazing, influential people.

Justin Stoddart 42:52
I’ve been impressed by that as well as how, how they actually don’t get as much reach out as you think they would because most people don’t have the courage to actually start. Yeah, that’s a great lesson for all of us on this episode is it you don’t have to be great to start with, you have to start to be great. And so if today you’re at that point where it’s like I’ve had it right, enough is enough. I’m not gonna live this way. I I belong in a different crowd, different group of achievers in any area of your life. Today’s at a start, right. I hope that as you’re listening to this, this becomes a turning point for for many people listening to this. So

Aaron Heard 43:28
Eric, take action. And don’t be afraid to say hello.

Justin Stoddart 43:34
I love it. I love it. Aaron, appreciate you very much, my friend. Thank you for all you’ve done to pour into us and to show the way lead the way of what looks like to be a big thinker and a high achiever. Appreciate you and to everybody listening here today. You know what my final request is? It is these three simple words and they are go think bigger. Erin, thanks for helping us do that today, my friend.

Aaron Heard 43:51
Thank you.

Justin Stoddart 43:54
The honest hearing good ideas is not enough. You have to apply them in order to get the results desired. If you found value in today’s episode, then you’re really going to love the community of big thinkers and high achievers that we are building in order to help you to apply the principles taught today. If you’re not yet a member of Think bigger real estate on Facebook, go sign up now.