Finding Inspiration with Jacob Craig

Important: When available, we use affiliate links and may earn a commission!

Intro 0:01
The right habits puts you in control of your health, relationships, mindset, and more. But most people lack the tools to stick with those habits long enough to see results that is about to change. Welcome to the unshakable habits podcast with your host, habit change specialist and speaker Stephen Box. Join us each week as experts share their stories, experiences and insights and give you the tools to build unshakable habits so you can live life on your terms. It's time to take your habits from unsustainable to unshakable.

Stephen Box 0:47
Welcome to another episode of The unshakable habits podcast, I am your host, Stephen Box. And I am joined today by Jacob Craig, the author of inspiring leaders and health and fitness. Jacob. Thanks for joining me today, man.

Jacob Craig 1:02
Hey, thank you, Steven. It's great to be on here. I love learning what you're doing. And now it's great to be on. So

Stephen Box 1:08
thank you so much for having me. definitely appreciate you being here, man. We're gonna jump into your story today. And it's it's a bit of a unique story from any of the other guests that I've had on the show. But before we do that, I do want to remind our audience about the unshakable framework. And the purpose of this framework is to help you identify the parts and Jacob story as he goes through it to help him to create his unshakable habits. So the first thing is, we all need a vision, a vision is different than a goal. Because a goal is a very specific thing, we oftentimes do not have much control over achieving that thing. But a vision, that's we are, it's our behaviors, it's our attitudes, it's our thoughts. That's the things that we have control over. so desperately want to sit. The second part of the framework is to build skills. Or if there are these skills that we have, sometimes we just need to remember that we have them and utilize them. And finally, that third part, if you have the skills that need to be built, you have to build them in the way we do that is through repetition and daily action. So that's going to be our unshakeable framework. Just keep that in mind as you hear Jacobs story, because that's what's going to allow you to apply what he's going to share with you today to your own life. So Jacob, tell me a little bit about this book that you wrote, because you took a little bit of a unique approach in writing this book.

Jacob Craig 2:42
Yeah, yeah. No, unlike what people may think I you know, and people might get turned off just by me saying this, but I didn't, you know, I'm not certified in health and fitness, I don't have a degree in health and fitness. I'm simply somebody who was very, very interested in improving my health and fitness. I'm an engineer by trade, but I decided to, you know, spend my extra time learning on topics of self improvement, I've always been interested in people in the motivation and success space. And I was getting to a point in my life where I just wasn't comfortable with where I was with my health and fitness, I was, you know, working out a little bit. And, you know, I was running, say, five, six miles a week, and I thought my diet was okay, but things were just catching up to me, I guess. I was catching up to, you know, around 20 years old, and I just noticed my weight was just creeping up creeping up creeping up. And, you know, I was like, I got a good 5060 pounds to lose, like, how am I gonna? How am I gonna do this, I've been doing things, I don't notice a difference. So I got turned down the path of looking for podcasts that really helped me. And what I realized is there's so many different individuals in the health and fitness space that I wanted to find all different programs, find what works out well, different programs that they have, and why they work for 1000s and 1000s of people because, you know, obviously, if they've influenced that many, you know, it really must mean it works for some people. So I want to learn about it, find the programs that work for me. And so I decided I was going to write a book while I did it to kind of help reinforce that information for myself, as well as helped share that information if people get the same value out of it as I do. So, this first book, like you mentioned, inspiring leaders in health and fitness. And it's Volume One because I planned on writing on 12 different individuals and I will write on the other six in the future. But this first six, you know, I tried to grab the greatest variety that I could so it has physical therapists, nutritionists strength and conditioning coaches and talks. About how they built their platform, as well as you know, what's involved in their programs, what tips and tricks they give on their podcasts in their books and things like that. So I really get to know the ins and outs of their program as well as you know, get to know them, it really has made me appreciate getting to know the author behind the book. And that's something that the podcast world has really kind of developed as you get to know the person. And you get to see how much work they're really putting in to positively affect as many people as possible. So it's really a fascinating thing. And so through my book, inspiring leaders in health and fitness, I really tried to give an unbiased approach on all these people and really just say, their backgrounds, the tips and tricks they give, and let people you know, decide what program they want to follow for themselves. You know, there's people in this book, some of them are more of like a keto style diet, some are more a balance between carbs and fats, sort of diet, if you want to focus on muscle building. And some are, you know, strictly plant based, so you have all that variety, and, you know, some are focused on sleep. And so there's such a wide variety so that people, really anybody can gain, gain some helpful information, no matter, you know, what area of life that they're in. And the great thing is, I was kind of worried that, you know, people would see it as just a series of biographies. And, you know, think of it as just boring to read, a lot of times people are interested in just a strict, you know, dense biography, but these are just 15 pages on each person. So people are finding it much easier to read, and also getting some great, valuable information that can help them as well. So yeah, I, like I said, I work as an engineer, I'm just kind of this is really just been a passion of mine to help share information in the self improvement space. I'm also moving towards this next book is going to be inspiring leaders in motivation and success. So right now I'm reading on David Goggins and what he is educating people on and building a heart mindset. And it's very interesting how health, fitness, motivation success, they're all very relatable, because what is what is the health and fitness program if you can't get people to adhere to it? And yeah, and as you know, as a physical trainer, I'm sure you've, that's the toughest thing is getting people to stay consistent with what you're trying to accomplish. Right.

Stephen Box 7:43
Yeah, you know, it's funny, you mentioned that because I actually was interviewed on a podcast the other day. And they were asking, you know, how did I go through my career? Like, how did I add all these different certifications over time. And for me, it started off as I was just doing fitness, and I got some people results, but I wasn't happy with the results I was getting from people overall. So I started studying nutrition. And that got more people results, but there were still people who weren't getting results. So then I started studying behavior change. And then that really helped me get a lot of people results. But there were still those few people that weren't getting results. And then that's when I started realizing, you know, fitness and nutrition are important, but they're actually a small part of the overall picture. Because things like stress management, sleep, recovery, having good relationships, emotional health, all these different areas, they do interact with each other, even if we think they're separate things. And so he wasn't into and that's where the unshakable habits branding came in with, it was my me moving away from just being a fitness and nutrition person and moving into this bigger space, because you're absolutely right. All those things, they're, they're interconnected. And if you don't have that behavior component, then nothing else is really going to change.

Jacob Craig 9:06
Yeah, yeah, no, the whole, the whole self improvement space, you know, a lot of people get turned off by the word, self help. And really, the whole new world, the self improvement, self development, is what people are calling it nowadays. And there's just so much to it. And it's also deeply Incorporated. And it's really finding, it's not only finding what you know, health programs and fitness programs work for you, but it's finding you know, your path and like finding what you're passionate about. And it really starts with you and being your best use so that you can, you know, then help others if that's your, you know, what you want to do are really just finding what you're passionate about and finding what success means to you in that sense. So that's definitely a rabbit hole we get into in defining success and things like that. But no, it is It's important for people to set goals for themselves in order to reach you know, where they want to be in a year or five years, you know, a lot of people just don't take the time to, to reflect. And I'll share something deep to kind of. So you understand kind of my headspace where it's at. You know, when I was born, I was I was born with a sub arachnoid cyst, which is a basically a brain tumor. And when I was two years old, that's when they found it, and I ended up having a seizure they operated on me. And all they're able to do because the brain is so delicate, they're able to pop it. So the fluid still there and whatnot, and it's technically still there. So they said, If I hit my head, head hard enough that it could come back. And so I've always had that on my conscious, it's kind of always been kind of a weight there to think about. And it's so to me, it's, you know, life is short, you have to make the most out of life. And to me, when I was growing up, that kind of meant, you know, spending time with friends, family and enjoying it. Whereas now that I'm growing up and older, it's really trying to make an impact and contribute in the best way that I can. And it's, I said, it was it was dealt with when I was younger, but it definitely has had an impact on me. And I'm not saying that everybody needs to have that wake up, call that wake up moment. It's really just finding, having that realization of how important it is to, you know, go down that path of self improvement, and try to be the best you that you can be so that you can, you know, just be a more positive person in general and start reaching goals for yourself.

Stephen Box 11:42
Yeah, you said something there that I find so intriguing, because, and I've had this happen with a couple of different guests. And so I want to kind of bring some, some highlight to this. You talk about how you were born with this tumor. And it's the kind of thing that you you acknowledged it, right, it's, it's there, you admitted to the fact that it's, oh, even to this day, it's kind of on your mind, it's something that's had an impact on your life, you know, both positively and negatively. But where you were clear mindset shift is from maybe somebody else is, you aren't looking at it as a hindrance, right? I mean, you're an engineer, you know, how many people if they had something that was going on with their actual brain, wouldn't might say, I'm not smart enough to be an engineer, I have I have this burning issue. I'm not smart enough to be an engineer, right? But you, you didn't allow that to hold you back. Instead, you use the as a catalyst to say, you know, what, I don't know how much time I have. I might live to be 100, I'm might not, you know, whatever. So I'm just going to live every day. And I think that's something that so often people will overlook is just that slight shift in perspective change. And I remember one of my my guests, she was saying that, like 90, I think was like 80, or 90% of our thoughts and feelings are actually subconscious. The most of what we actively think about isn't really is really scratching the service of irrational thoughts, interest, mostly subconscious. And so you probably have never even thought about the fact that you view it that way. It's just to you, it's just a natural thing. And I think that highlights what I try to teach people, which is, it's not about you trying to like, pump yourself up and give yourself you know, false positive mindset stuff. It really is about creating that vision. It's about like, what kind of person do you want to be and it sounds like party your vision without you ever sitting down and calling it that was you wanted to be someone who lived life to the fullest, you wanted to be someone who became the best person you can be in the kind of person who can have a positive impact on the lives of other people. And that was the vision for who Jacob wanted to be.

Jacob Craig 14:23
Yeah, you've absolutely hit hit the nail on the head. And I've actually said that to people as you know, that's how I live life. That's something that has stuck with me is you know, if if, you know, when I die, and this is, you know, but it's it's come up before, you know, I want people to you know, recognize that I tried to live life to the fullest. You know, I've actually, you know, said that to people and it's you know, something that I find important every day is absolutely a gift no matter who you are, whether you have a condition or you don't have a condition you never know. You know the amount of risk that we put in just by you driving in a car every day, you're fine. You never know what can happen. And so absolutely every day is a gift. And we need to recognize that and that our time is short. And it's not to be, you know, negative about it. But it's, you know, it's, it's the truth. And if you want to start bettering yourself, stop, you know, making excuses for yourself and realize that you have so much power to change what you want to change. And it's, it's really an incredible thing, if you you know, and that's another thing, just listening to these people from the self improvement space, just what they're able to accomplish, what one person is able to do is really, really an amazing thing. So I also have a morning live stream that I do every day through, it's on, it's mainly through Facebook, but I also do YouTube, Twitch, things like that. And today, we're talking about Walt Disney. And his actually, two of his quotes, because they're pretty related. And one of them was saying, I don't, he said, I don't follow any other, you know, Motion Picture artists, I'm not influenced by any other Motion Picture artists, and why that's really inspiring, is he, you know, what he was able to accomplish just as one person, the fact that he didn't have a major influence in his main form of artwork, but what he was able to build just from himself, as one, you know, what he was able to accomplish and how many people he was able to influence as well as hire through Disney. It's just absolutely incredible what one person can do. So that's something that we talked about today. So that it's interesting how that relates in.

Stephen Box 16:41
Yeah, it's funny. When did you say that? Because the first thing that popped in my mind when you said that was? What if he had followed someone else? What if he had been inspired by somebody else? Would his creativity have actually been stymied by the fact that he was now looking at this other person and thinking, Oh, that's how I have to do things.

Jacob Craig 17:08
Right, right. Well, there, there's also a, it, it can inspire people to to, you know, look at people who are higher up and kind of set a higher bar for themselves than what they have currently, you need to, you know, see what's possible in order to achieve it. That's another way to see it, too, is. Another thing is, I watched a TED talk recently, that was Rodney Mullen, a professional skateboarder. And if he amazing, incredible, incredible guy. And if what he's saying his main message is talking about skateboarders and how, if you watch the X Games, you know, 20 years ago, when Tony Hawk first did the 900, it's this huge, huge, huge moment. And now we're seeing 1415 year olds doing things that are bigger than that, and they just do it, like, it's a drop of a hat, it's absolutely nothing. And it's because you're putting yourself in that environment, you're with those type of people, and you set that new bar, and you realize what's possible. So that's another way to see it, and really get inspired out. So there's really two sides, where, you know, creativity can really it takes so many different forms, there's so many different ways to, to look at it.

Stephen Box 18:23
And I think this is an important differentiation that for people to understand. And and I, I brought this up, and I'm glad that you brought up the kind of the counterpoint to it, is when you look at what people do, the way isn't the important thing, right? I mean, we see this all the time, you just studied a whole bunch of fitness and nutrition. And you just talked about and fed with all these different diet approaches and different exercise approaches and everything else. So we get so caught up sometimes, and oh, I had to do keto, or Oh, I have to do this, or I have to do CrossFit or I have to you know, do nothing but cardio or whatever. Right. And so we get caught up in the specifics. And the thing is, it's never the what, it's always the why. That's, that's what we need to understand. Like, when you know, you use the atheist example. Um, yeah, it's cool to be able to say, Okay, I saw this person do this, right. But if you just were like, I'm just gonna copy Tony Hawk, and you never pushed yourself to go beyond that, then we wouldn't be seen 14 year olds do harder stuff now. Right? Because no one would have pushed themselves beyond that point. They would have like, that's the pinnacle. That's it, we're done. Right? Right. So So there has to be a point where you say, you know what, I'm going to take what I'm seeing, and not just emulate it, but understand it, develop those skills. You know, just like going back to that framework that we talked about. Vision. I want to be that and more right I want to be the person who does that kind of stuff, skills, what skills do I need to develop to get those skills, you need to understand how to hop on the skateboard, how to do the actual tricks. And then you have to practice every single day, and you have to push yourself. When you do those things, that's how you become even better than the people who were inspiring to you.

Jacob Craig 20:22
Yeah, yeah, no, that's, that's a great, a great way to do it, I mean, a great way to say it, no matter what you're trying to what you're trying to accomplish. Like when it comes to the book, and trying to develop a vision for the book, I really didn't know what the end result would be. And yes, you know, I would could have never imagined, you know, where that I'd be able to develop something like this. And the fact is, it's not just me, it's, it's, you know, a team that I built while doing that, and I never realized, you know, that's kind of the oxymoron of self publishing, it really takes a team. And that's what I said at the end of my book is, you know, that's the biggest misconception I had going into it was that self publishing, I could do it all myself, I could publish a book on 12 people in one year, it took me two years to publish a book on six. And it's just shows, you know, the amount of work that goes into it, and the amount you can invest it into, if you want to build the best thing that you can possibly built. And so that takes, you know, vision into skills and figuring out what skills I want to implement, and then what skills I want to hire out. And then the attribute attributes of it is, you know, pushing it further than that, and developing this, this platform that I'm trying to develop and making sure, you know, I'm still working to find what exactly works for me now. Now I have these tools to be able to, okay, if I want to cut weight, I know what I need to do, if I want to try and bulk up, I have a framework in mind that I could use, you know, and I have all these things that sort of worked for me. And I can also, you know, sort of guide people based on what kind of approach they're looking for, or, and it's, it's really anything, if they're looking for information on goal setting, if they're looking for information on, you know, anything self improvement wise, then you know, I can kind of guide them in the direction of a person to, to follow. And, you know, just help them with that realization of self improvement, and how many people are out there trying to give value to you. And you just have to, you know, stop giving excuses for yourself, like I was saying, and just start, you start somewhere. And soon enough, you'll be bettering yourself. And yeah, it's all like you're saying building that vision, building those skills and then implementing those skills. And it, it's funny, because that really relates to how I guide people on building confidence, if you'd like me to kind of go into that.

Stephen Box 23:05
Yeah, I do. Before you talk about that. I do want to kind of point out something that you mentioned that I think is such an insightful thing is that the idea, in and of itself of a self help book is a bit of an oxymoron, right? Because by buying a book, and having someone else help you, it's not really self help. Because the idea behind self help when you when you hear the term, people think that means I'm doing it on my own was self help means is, you are taking the actions, you are taking responsibility for the results that you get. That doesn't mean you have to do it alone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you just want to point out that you brought that up. And that was such a great point that we don't do any of this stuff on our own.

Jacob Craig 23:56
Yeah, and that and that's a powerful realization, the person I'm studying right now, David Goggins would tell you, the opposite, that motivation is crap. And it's all you and you got to figure it out for yourself and that and that's true, in a sense, you could think of it as you know, all these people are telling you things and they get you motivated. But if you don't push yourself, you don't emulate those things. If you don't, you know, it really comes down to nobody's gonna hold you accountable, but yourself. But what you're saying I 100% agree with, there's so much power in learning from different people that inspire you and you can have idols that you don't personally know that you follow that, you know, give you an example and show you what's possible. And that's the insanely powerful thing. And like I said, the podcast space has really shone a light towards that. And it gives me a whole nother meaning when I'm reading a book to read Get to know the author. You know, how many times do we read a book, or we watch a movie. And we don't know the author, we don't know the writer, the director. But if we do know, the writer, we, you know, whether it's a TV show, or whether it's a book, you know, we start to look for cues where I see where her comedy came in, or I see where his, you know, his attributes of what I've seen in his other films, or if you know, the the writer kind of, you know, their background, and you know, that they're out there and what they're trying to accomplish with their book with their film. And it really gives a whole nother meaning to entertainment, and you know, the quality of what you're reading and watching.

Stephen Box 25:45
Yeah, it's, it's funny, you mentioned, you know, the whole idea with motivation and self motivation versus external motivation. And I'm sure that this is going to tie into the conversation you're about to have about the confidence. Because I think what some people overlook is yes, ultimately, motivation has to be internal. You can't have someone follow you around forever pumping you up, right? It's just not realistic. But on the other hand, if you don't have the skills yet, you only know what you know. And the things you know, today can only take you so far. Right? Right. Sometimes you have to have somebody else come along, who knows more than you. So for example, when you're writing your book, right? You didn't sit down to write a book originally, you basically sit down to take notes to reinforce this for yourself. So when you decided to turn it into a book, you have never written a book before, right? This is your first book? Uh, you had no idea what self publishing look like you didn't know how to edit a book, you didn't know how to do any of that stuff. Yep. So how do you kind of go about that process of figuring that out?

Jacob Craig 27:08
So that was basically the extra year, like I said, I could have just jot things down on paper and basically thrown it up on Amazon as a PDF and said, there you go, because they're, they're, you know, regulations, or what, I don't know how to the word for the requirements for a book aren't insane, I think it just needs to be 20 pages or something like that. But I wanted to develop something that I was proud of that people could actually take and find quality. And so I did hire an editor, I did find a person to design my book cover, because those are things that are important, I want to give the best quality. And it's not about the product, it's you know, in turn, being able to give value to people. And if it's not something that people believe, is going to give value to them, then they're not going to pick it up. So it's about being able to make that impact and the better I can present the book. And so what I did is basically spent, like I said, maybe maybe not a year of that time, well, a year that time was publishing, but while I was doing that was learning from people trying to find other writers and reading books on self publishing through Amazon, and trying, you know, finding what path I wanted to take what works. And, you know, it's really grump gone great for me so far. And, yeah, so that's really kind of how I went about that. And so I really need to, even as I'm doing this, now, I'm still developing skills. And now I need to now that it's been out for a few months, I've been working on marketing ever since but also trying to write the next book while doing that. So it's, it's really trying to and, and if I'm not producing content, and that's, you know, I never want to get away from you know, the, the bear part of it, I'm a writer, that's what I do, I want to keep writing keep, you know, finding more information that can help people so I'll never stop doing that. But I also need to build skills in the background to you know, help make a bigger impact. So there's always things from self publishing to marketing and things like that, that I'm always trying to improve on and build skill so that I can be the best author that I can be.

Stephen Box 29:27
So I want to kind of walk people through this because I think one thing that happens a lot of times when people when they're trying to create some kind of habit or they're trying to achieve something is they underestimate just how much they have to learn sometimes to do it right. we underestimate the the pure volume of skills that need to be developed here. So just for you to write a book right. So So first of all, is some point in your life you had to learn to read. You had to learn to write Okay, we now You might laugh about that, if somebody's out there, they might be like, Well, of course in the news had to read and write, right? Those are skills at some point in life you had to develop, I mean, you didn't need them at the moment you're reading the book to come along and learn them, but you at some point did have to develop them, and you had you not develop them, you would have had to develop them for you to write the book. Then you had to be able to take your ideas, your thoughts, the things that made sense to you, because you had context around them, you would listen to hours and hours of podcasts, you would read the books, you done all this stuff to have all the context around your thoughts. And you had to be able to consolidate into 15 minutes, these most important things about these people, without all the extra context and make it make sense to your audience. And that is a skill in and of itself. You may have already had it, it may be something you had to develop, but it is a skill that had to be there. Right. Then when it came to say getting your book cover done. Okay, you had to actually learn how to communicate what you were looking for, and that you had to maybe learn how to go out and find somebody you had you reached out to different authors, you got information on how to even go about finding a book cover designer? Yeah, just go pay somebody five bucks on Fiverr. Am I going to eat crap? If I do that? Probably. So what's a better alternative? Right? Yep. Yeah. So So you had to develop all these skills. And that's, that's like tip of the iceberg. We haven't even cover like probably half the skills you had to learn. And then that's going to be getting into your marketing and possibly public speaking and Yep, all this stuff.

Jacob Craig 31:42
No, you're doing a great job. Basically summarizing, you know, the broad gist of what I had to do without getting into the nitty gritty of it. I mean, there's a lot of skills that go into publishing, and someone might see ebook on Amazon, like I said, you you could just publishing something, published something simple, but I wanted to take it to the best quality that I possibly could. And I had a vision for it. And so someone might look at my book on Amazon and see, oh, it's $25 for the hardcover. That's crazy. Yeah, well, I needed it. You know, I had a vision for it. For it to be a I have portraits in the book of the people, I'll show you one of them. So I had an artist make portraits of each, each individual. And it took me a few different artists to find, you know, the person that I wanted to use for them. And they really just, I just loved the quality of Yeah, it's really, it just looks like a photo just looks like a photo. And it's really incredible. And so I needed the book to be color, I'm not going to put out a black and white. I want it to be the best quality possible. So the E book, you can go on Amazon, you can find it for $8. If you just want to spend the $8 check the book out. Or if you'd like ebooks, then there you go. And then if you decide you want the hardcover, yeah, it's gonna be $25 it actually has a sale right now, I don't know how long Amazon's gonna do this for I didn't set it. They have I think their prime day they're leading up for so I think all books are on discount right now. So it's actually like $19, which is insane. But no, it's really, it's important to me to make it the best quality possible. And so, like I said, I had a vision for it. And it really exceeded all expectations because I was able to find people that are able to do better things than I ever possibly could. I can't be a book cover designer and a writer and an editor and a proofreader. So I have a team of like 40 proofreaders and you you find out how to do this, how to build that community and how to, it's really a, you know, a very interesting process. I learned to love the process. It's very different than what I do as an engineer every day, it kind of gives me my, you know, creative side, and also just feeling fulfilled in being able to help people and educate them. And also learning more constantly myself. So it's kind of, you know, getting more into, into it's really been a fun process. And yeah,

Stephen Box 34:25
yeah, yeah. And the thing is, honestly, that applies to writing a book, losing weight, or getting promoted at work, becoming a better speaker, becoming a better spouse, better parent. All of those roles that we play in life, all of those things we want to accomplish. They all come back to vision, skills, actions. The framework is the same no matter what you want to accomplish, the only thing that changes Is the skills and the actions?

Jacob Craig 35:02
Yep, yep, yeah, you got to find what works for you, everybody's path is going to be different. And it's a great, a great way to put it. And everybody's gonna develop different skills, and amazing concept that I read about. And it's from a book where it's the history of innovation, and it's where good ideas come from by Steven Johnson. That's the main title of the book where good ideas come from by Steven Johnson. And he has this idea, basically, every skill that you build, you're expanding what he calls your adjacent possible. Yeah, so basically, yep, where you're at now, where you're at now, there's so many different paths you can take, if you learn a new skill, you're opening all these other doors, and all these other things you can do that expand what's possible for you, and it's really just a fascinating kind of mind blowing concept that I love. And it's, it's a great way to think about it and really try to, you know, expand and it's important to, you know, test yourself and make yourself uncomfortable here and there, push your boundaries. And that's what's gonna, you know, it's important to fail and find what really works for you. And you know, that the adjacent possible I just love, love, love that concept.

Stephen Box 36:25
Yeah, it's a great concept. Because if you, if you spend a lot of time doing interviews like this with people, what you start to hear over and over again, in people's story is how they never end up exactly where they thought they would. But almost always, you can connect the dots from point A to point B. And the reason why is because of exactly what you just talked about. And it's the matter of, I did this thing. And now two or three other possibilities that are adjacent to that thing opened up, and I decided to pursue one of those. And then when I did that, it opened up several more possibilities. And so there's always going to be a loose connection between the original thing because the original thing is your, that's your original vision, that's what you're working toward, but you start to realize there's different paths to getting there.

Jacob Craig 37:23
Yeah, yeah, kind of branches, your second to your third point, you know, developing new skills, and being able to expand what's possible, and then, you know, taking a certain route and getting there. And it's, you know, definitely a empowering way to, to think about it, you know, a lot of people think they're stuck the way they are because of, you know, their genes or what's happened to them when they were younger. And it's important to know that, like I said, You have so much power in what you can do in life, I never, you know, five years ago, I wouldn't be able to imagine that I would be an author, a speaker and all these things, and I work towards it and took a different path than just being, say, just being an engineer, there's so many different paths to go down, just in that realm. But you know, it's, it's it. And that's something that has really helped me, you know, just make every year my best year ever, is by exploring that and saying, you know, five years ago, I would have never known that I've been here and I'm doing things that I wasn't doing last year. And it really just, it gives a whole new meaning to life in general.

Stephen Box 38:34
Love it, man love it. So one of the most important skills that at least I think that people can develop is a mindset skill. And that is confidence, aka belief. And so that's something you mentioned, that you help people with. And I think it's important for the main reason that if you don't believe that something is possible, it won't be because you'll sabotage yourself at the end of the day. So developing confidence is super important. So what is your process for helping people do that?

Jacob Craig 39:12
Absolutely. And this was a topic, you know, something that I was thinking of when I was getting ready for one of my morning live streams. Like I said, I go live every morning through Facebook, if you just look me up, Jacob Craig, on Facebook, you can find it. And I just go live and share my morning routine every day. So I just go over a quote with people. And we talked about the concept behind the quote. And so a topic of confidence came up one day, and I was just thinking to myself, man, what what's really going to help people what's an implementable tool that can really help them gain confidence. What are the different ways so what I came up with was a acronym. So I say you got to put in the reps. Okay, there's our EP You need to first start and reflect, like I said before, a lot of people, the vast majority of people do not take the time to reflect, to think to themselves, where they're at where they want to be in the next year, five years, 10 years and to sit down and think, what are the areas in my life that I can use improvement on? Nobody does that. So reflection could also mean, it could mean journaling, it could be talking to a friend, a family member, it could be talking to a therapist, if you need a therapist, you know, there's so many different ways to think about that to find where you need to improve and to understand yourself better. So that's, that's reflection, that's the R and then E is education. So educating yourself through books, through podcasts, and through things like that, that obviously, like you're saying, basically, knowledge is power, you know, being able to develop knowledge that's going to help you, you know, not only understand what's possible, but help you find what's going to work for you What's going to push you to that next level. And then the last part is the P, if you're reflecting and you're educating yourself, that's a great start. But if you're not putting in the practice to get there, then you're not going to go anywhere with it. So you need to implement, you know what you've learned, and you need to put in the practice every day. And that's what's really going to get you to build that confidence and to get where you want to be.

Stephen Box 41:32
So yeah. So now this is the funny thing here, because we did not talk about this at all before the show. No, right. No, so so let's let's back up here for a second. All right, so what is our? Yep, reflection, okay. And reflection is what recognizing where you are and where you want to be. You could say, that sounds like a vision. Yeah, you could you could say that. Education. Hmm. Does that sound like skill development? Yeah, yeah, educate yourself so that you can find new tools. And in practice that this sounds kind of like actions, right. So So what we've discovered here is, we're the same person, they were the same person. So what we've discovered here is no matter what terminology you use, what you call it, this is the framework to achieve things

Jacob Craig 42:30
and get things done. And it's, it's resounded throughout this whole interview. You know, we've talked about all these concepts here and there. And it's just related. I mean, because you, you drove this with your framework. And this is just another way to another way to see it. Another way to get where you want to go. And everybody's definition of success. Everybody's where they want to get to in life is different. Everybody's path is different. Quit comparing yourself to other people. And also stop making excuses for yourself and start somewhere.

Stephen Box 43:04
Yeah, I will say one of my very favorite phrases is one of my mentors, co founder precision nutrition. dr. john Berardi said, it's not a race, you're not behind. And I'm like, when you said it, I'm like, you're right. It's not a race. What I mean, I think part of it is we kind of get caught up on this idea of, on one hand is that the life is short message. And so we think we have to cram as much as I can into that time. And what we sometimes miss is, if you get so caught up on I have to achieve all the things you miss out on the joy of the journey. Right? It's really about the journey. It's not really about the outcomes. Because most the time when we get to the thing, it's not as fulfilling as we think it's going to be. It's the journey of getting there. That's, that's where all the fun happens.

Jacob Craig 44:04
Yeah, yeah. One of the people that I was studying while I was developing my book, inspiring leaders in health and fitness is Mike Matthews, who's a muscle building coach, but like I said, motivation is wrapped in so much to it. Yeah. Goal setting and things like that. And something that is really, really stuck with me probably more than anything of anything I heard or read while I was doing it. Was that really the journey of self development and self improvement? And you know, basically, being able to find where you need improvement and keep working towards that and it's a never ending race, you're never going to reach it and be like, okay, I've made it. And that's the beautiful thing is that there's always there's always a you know, bigger thing a another thing you could accomplish Like right now, I'm, like I said, I'm learning from David Goggins, who's a motivational speaker. And he was a, he had a very tough childhood, was raised, kind of told and felt like he wasn't going to be anything. And he got to a point where he said, Enough is enough, he ends up becoming a navy seal. And then after becoming a navy seal, he says, you know, I'm not stopping there, you know, now he's a speaker, all these places, as well as a ultramarathon runner who has done 60 plus ultra marathons, and many, many, many of those are over 100 mile races. So this is somebody, so many people, he was saying, you know, reach that, you know, they have people in their family that were navy seals, so all they want in their life was to become an ABC on once they hit that Pinnacle. They they're satisfied, well, you can keep taking it a step further and find a different path and expand that adjacent possible, like we were talking about. And that's what I learned from all the people in my book is that, you know, they're so inspiring, and so into just helping as many people as possible, and they're still working to do that. They never reach a point where they just okay, they build their supplement company, and they're making all the money off that. So now they don't need to do the speaking anymore. And they don't need to see clients anymore. They don't need to read more books. No, they're still doing all of those things, too. Because the bigger picture is just making a bigger impact, and helping as many people as humanly possible. And it's, it's just a very inspiring thing. And it, you know, you can tell that it's their inspiration, it's what keeps them going. And it's just a very powerful, powerful realization of self improvement in general. So,

Stephen Box 46:56
yeah, I know, one person that I used to interact with and follow up quite a bit. I remember, you know, he was at a point where he didn't need to do anything. He had been in the industry for over 20 years, he had built a huge reputation. And he didn't need to do anything financially. But every now and then he would just, like, hop up in his facebook group and go, Hey, guys, I just opened 10 slots in my schedule. So if you want to go schedule call with me. And me, it was like think 100 bucks or whatever to schedule call within which some people would think, you know, like, Oh, you know, he doesn't need the money. Why is he charging for it? Well, you know, there's, there's reasons for that. Number one is that people don't take things too seriously if they don't have some kind of investment in it. Right. Right. Right. But I mean, you got to think that this is somebody who if somebody came to him and said, Hey, I want to hire you to coach me one on one, he's not charging him 100 bucks an hour, he's charging them $10,000 for an hour of his time. So really him to charge 100 bucks is like nothing like he's really just doing that, to get you to be accountable for showing up and, and applying what you get out of the call. But it goes back to exactly what you're just saying. If you look at people who have had long term success, it's not that they stop naturally doing some of the stuff because maybe they get to a point where they can no longer do it. Like, it's easy to do one on one coaching, when you have like 150 people following you, right? Maybe even when there's like 1000 people following you can still handle coaching people one on one, you get to a point where you have 500,000 million people following you, it's impossible for you to still be able to handle coaching people one on one and be able to take care of everybody, you'd literally be coaching people for the rest of your life. Right. But that doesn't mean that those people don't still want to invest in people. And that's where they're going on podcast. They're doing interviews, they're making videos, they're putting out programs, they're still trying to find ways to invest in people and provide value and right. I think that's, you know, what I see in you as well, you're, you know, obviously not the point where you have a million followers yet. You'll get there and you'll get there. But you do have don't get my confidence too. But But you do have a vision for what you want your life to look like. And I think that's such an important thing. And that's what I love so much about your story is that none of it is about you. Everything that you said today, everything he talked about when we did our pre interview, everything I've seen about you has been about you adding value to other people's lives. And I love that about your about your story and about what you're doing.

Jacob Craig 49:51
Well, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, it's just truthfully because I enjoy it and like I said, the main thing is just trying to contribute and help People in any way that I can, and I have all this knowledge if I can help share that knowledge and you know, help people better themselves and improve their own lives, you know, and it's not it. There's that tough conundrum where it's really you know, them doing the work. And it's self improvement, you need to find that motivation, and you can listen to me talk all you want, but until you decide, you're going to start taking steps to get where you want to go, then you're never going to get there but it No, that's, it's, it's just a empowering thing to me. And there's no reason for me to stop. I love what I'm doing. I love the people that I meet, whether it's, you know, somebody who finds my content interesting, and they want to ask me questions or want to give me their perspective on something I love, just getting to meet people and talking to them and seeing the different, you know, paths that that people go in, and also being able to talk to people like you and other people in the space who are doing very similar things, just trying to give value to people and, and what people don't understand is the majority of these people, it takes a long time to build something like this, and you need to have that passion behind if you're going to get anywhere. And it's it's a it's important just to have that realization that you know, we're not in for it for the money. I'm two or three years into it. And I have a couple of websites I have, you know, the book, I gotta maintain, I have all these commitments. And it's it to me, it honestly doesn't feel like anything, because I love what I'm doing. But you know, I can honestly say right now I'm still negative years after years after doing it, but there's no reason for me to stop, I'm going to write a Volume Two of inspiring leaders in health fitness, I'm going to write inspiring leaders in motivation and success, because I love doing this and it's I you know, am in the ropes for I understand it's going to be a 10 year process. If I want to write two volumes of inspiring leaders and motivation, success and two in health and fitness. I understand that, and it's going to help me learn more, it's going to help, you know, educate other people and provide value to them. And it's just the best way I can see to try and make an impact. And you know, there's all these other things that I'm working on as well. And I just enjoy, enjoy doing it. And you know, it's great, like I said, to meet people like you and see how many people there are just trying to spread positivity, and help as many people as possible. I mean, it's it's not an easy thing. It's a big commitment. But understanding the passion behind it is, is pretty incredible. So

Stephen Box 52:57
yeah, and I will say I definitely appreciate that, Matt, I appreciate I feel very blessed to have a variety of guests. Come on. I've had some people who have been super successful in their life, and they've been willing to come on and share their passion. I've had people like yourself that are up and coming. And you're willing to come on and share your knowledge and your insights, and especially being willing to open up and share maybe some of those things that we a lot of times are scared to share with people. So I appreciate you, you being honest and open with us and giving us some insight into some of the struggles because that's what being unshakable is about being unshakable isn't about being perfect. It's about having the ability to stick with it. Not just when things get hard, but especially when things get hard. Yep. So yeah, so appreciate appreciate you modeling that for us today, man, I really do.

Jacob Craig 53:54
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I, you know, a lot of people I'm sure may connect with this too, is I really, you know, if you want to define me, I'm more of a introvert. You know, I stick a lot to myself, but I do love people. And I, you know, I'm not you know, and I just am very into learning and trying to try to share that information with others. And in order to do that I need to push myself out of my comfort zone and you know, develop new skills and really test myself in order to be better. And that's, you know, the key to to anything, so yeah, that's definitely it's, it's a big thing.

Stephen Box 54:38
Love it, man. Love it. So how can we help you get those million followers out there, man? How can people get ahold of you?

Jacob Craig 54:46
Yep, so my websites right up there, inspiring leaders collective calm. I titled that because that's the name of my book series, from health and fitness to motivation and success kind of brings everything together. on that website, you also right in the middle of smack dab, you'll find a link to as all of my socials, from my Facebook to my YouTube channel to my twitch channel. But I don't want to confuse people that my main website is that book series link. And if they want to search me on Facebook, that's the main place that I post things and connect with people. So if you just search, you can search at inspiring leaders collective or you can search Jacob Craig, on Facebook, and you'll find me there. And I said, I go live every morning, Monday through Friday, you'll catch me on the weekend sometimes. And so if you want to talk to me live, get to know me more, ask me questions. And if you want to check out my book, you can go on simply go on Amazon, and search inspiring leaders in health and fitness. And that's the way you can find my book and start there. That's probably honestly the the best way to really start is with the book. So that, you know, that's where that's the core of the value that I bring is through through my writing and my book. So like I said, the E book, if you go on Amazon is $8. And the hardcover is 25. Right now it's on sale, but I'm not sure you know, when this airs, if Amazon's gonna keep that, keep that going. So so you can go, I would start there start on Amazon, if you want to check out more about me. There's my link inspiring leaders collective calm.

Stephen Box 56:38
Alright, cool. Appreciate it. So final final words, do you have anything that we didn't get a chance to talk about that you want to put out there? Or do you have maybe a take home point that you want to leave everybody with?

Jacob Craig 56:51
Sure, oh, I'll say something that's stuck with me. It's something that my father actually told me growing up. He said, Never let money be an excuse not to do something, if you want to experience something, don't let money scare you from that. If that means, you know, traveling, if that means anything in life. And that's powerful to me, it really stuck with me. And what I would add to that is don't let time or money scare you. So, you know, I'm, like I said, aware that this book process, everything I'm doing is a 10 year process. And people say wow, I'm not ready for that. No, that's not what I signed up for. I'm just trying to find a diet that works for me that I can cut weight in 30 days, you know, but that's not what it's about. It's finding what works for you. It's finding your journey, exploring that. And the met the main message is what I've been saying, you know, kind of throughout is stop making excuses. start somewhere. And, you know, don't let time or money be that excuse. And, you know, that's how you're going to start and find your passion as if you just, you know, start working. There's also a Dr. Phil quote that ties into that is in order to help anybody, you need to help yourself or you need to, you know, improve yourself so that you can be the best person that you can be. And that's really the starting point. And that's coming from somebody who, whose main goal is to help as many people, Dr. Phil's to help as many people as possible. And you know, the fact that it starts with yourself and realizing it's not only your health and fitness goals, it's your career, it's your relationships, it's everything. Figure out where you need to improve most. Stop making excuses and just start somewhere.

Stephen Box 58:52
Love it, man. Love it. definitely appreciate having you come on the show today, Jacob.

Jacob Craig 58:58
It was it was a great pleasure talking to you, Steven, I really, really appreciate the opportunity and get to know more about you and your work. So thank you so much for having me

Stephen Box 59:07
on. My pleasure. My pleasure. I just want to remind everyone we will have a another episode of The unshakable podcast next week. And if you want to check out any of our past episodes or future episodes, you can subscribe to us on YouTube by going to unshakable habits comm slash YouTube or you can find this anywhere that your favorite podcasts are being played. I will see you all back next week. And just remember, you are not meant to be average, you can be unshakable.

Outro 59:48
Thanks for listening to the unshakable habits podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others post about it on social media or leave a rating And review. Do you catch all the latest? Please subscribe at unshakablehabits.com/YouTube or on your favorite podcast app. You can learn more about unshakable habits at unshakable habits.com Until next week, be unshakable, my friends.