My childhood was hard my stepfather and my mother were physically and emotionally abusive nothing in my life was easy growing up the stories in your book these aren’t just normal things of abuse these are horrific things that you don’t even see in movies I’ve been run
Over by a car I’ve been shot at I’ve been stabbed I cannot be killed and I’ll say that on liot I’m here for a reason and that’s where heart of the life exists I was My Own Worst Enemy when I decided that I was going to be harder
Than life life actually got easy hello everyone and welcome to on the home front I’m Jeff duden today we are talking to motivational speaker author podcaster Fitness Guru and CEO Kelly seagull if you are looking for an inspirational boost to finally stop your limiting beliefs you won’t want to miss
This episode we’re diving deep into his story exploring how he tackled life’s curveballs overcoming the victim mentality Kelly shares his secrets to being proactive making small steps to better your life every day if you like what you hear today leave a like comment or subscribe to see all the content we
Have coming your way and if you have any questions regarding business franchising or about the show use the links in the description below and we’ll get right back to you thanks for listening hey everybody Welcome to on the home front I am Jeff duden and I’m here today with Kelly seagull who is
Harder than life uh based on his book which I read last night which um uh made me really uh uh it was really interesting uh it was a tale of uh a lot of adversity and a lot of Woe and I’m looking forward to unpacking your life
Today with us here on the home front Kelly seagull welcome Jeff I hope uh you didn’t read it before you went to bed because it probably put you right to sleep not no or a couple of nightmares in there um you know I I you know I either
Wanted a drink or you know never want to see another drink again which is probably preferred uh what I found in my life is um you know that uh I’m much more effective when I’m clear sober and focused but Kelly uh thanks for being on today would you care to share a little
Bit uh about how you grew up and your experiences that made you harder than life absolutely Jeff and you know that thank you for having me on and uh you know we talked about the alignment with naughty water and you know as as we both are sitting here with gray and our
Beards you know with uh what what with wisdom where good things come from wisdom wisdom comes from experience so you know everything I did uh I learned you know I’m a learn it all so I I wasn’t one of those people that just keep doing the same thing over and over
Expecting a different results so uh you know really truthfully the simplest and easiest story about me is I was drinking the the poison expecting other people to die and I was My Own Worst Enemy sound familiar um when I decided that I was going to be harder than life life
Actually got easy so the next book’s probably going to be named easier than life and it’s simple you hear it from all these Fitness influencers all these people that you turn on whether it be Ed mlet David gogins Andy forell anyway it’s the same story make hard choices do
Hard things I’m not even not talking about getting into these ice bags taking baths taking cold showers I’m just saying the things that you don’t want to do like get up early do it when you don’t want to go to work do it you don’t want to go to the gym do it
You don’t want to eat right do it it’s just literally that’s the definition heart of life and my entire upbringing in my childhood was hard my stepfather and my mother were physically and emotionally abusive nothing in my life was easy growing up when I was supposed
To get love and affection and safety and kindness and and nurturing I got a swift kick in the behind Parts H and told me go freaking take care of it yourself uh and I’m not saying that to be who is me and I’m now I’ve done so much therapy
And and work on myself that I’m appreciative of that the moment that you take the positive and stop playing the victim and and realize that man they did this to make me tough nothing can rattle me Jeff nothing the world could be falling and I’m like oh let’s go I’ve
Been through this before I I remember this I remember getting my teeth kicked in uh when I was expecting to wake up to safety um so that’s look look man I gotta tell you that what you just said around you appreciate what happened to you because
It made you who you are today that’s a recurring theme of successful people man like uh people that came from nothing and were faced with challenges and became used to overcoming obstacles climbing over that tree uh but dude the story is in your book uh I mean for for
The people on the podcast that haven’t read this book or or looked into you these aren’t just normal things of abuse uh these are horrific things that you you don’t even see in movies uh you know they so I mean it was um you you came
From a place you came from you Eight Mile right did you go to high school with him yeah I went to high school with him for a year and uh I grew up with his like did you know him or was what was what was what was that like just nothing
Like he is today nothing he was very quiet SM a lot of weed and was very introverted and and and it was just when we’d be partying at my house I live with my sister so the abuse got so bad when I turned 16 I moved out like right away I
Mean the the the emotional abuse it just it got stupid where my stepfather quit drinking and became an even bigger jerk uh and just literally wanted me around to to torture he was so miserable he had to to project it onto somebody and he projected onto me and I looked at him
And and and I said hey literally the the last night I spent in under his roof I looked at him and I said hey it’s it’s go time you you have pushed me around long enough I’m sick and tired of it either you leave me alone or we’re going
Outside and we’re fighting right now and he said get out of my house and I said gladly and and you know that yeah look my my daughter my daughter still uh one time uh she was misbehaving a little bit so I took the door knob off and I turned
It around backwards and I locked her in um I still hear about that dude your stepfather tried to drown you in the tub yeah that sucked you know like the the stories in this book and I don’t want to over emphasize it like these are things that I mean normally people would get
Arrested for yeah nowadays they would be definitely in jail and my my grandmother who tried to act as my mother late in life said I knew something bad was going on but I didn’t know it was this bad she’s like had I known I would have got
You out the house but you know again everything happens for you not to you and and you could tell every time you say those things I start smiling because I can equate every one of those to some some sort of success in my life and this
Is recent man this isn’t six months that everything kind of just broke loose where it’s like holy smokes this was God looking after me because what we were talking about that tub incident I remember that like you just said it I remember like was yesterday I thought I
Was doneo I remember going down going what the hell is happening and you’d pull me up just before I would like pass out and then at one point I just reached out and I grab and I said grab the freaking the the the the stopper and I pulled the stopper and that’s what’s
That he wouldn’t have stopped he was so drunk um you know I’m here I’ve been run over by a car I’ve been shot at I’ve been stabbed I it’s just I cannot be killed and I’ll say that outline out thing I have it’s just I’m here for a reason and
That’s where harder than life exists and we’re going to donate a million dollars charity every year that then harder than life brand brings it in because I want to grow and give grow and give and I want to create awareness that if I did this anybody can do this but hey it’s
Not okay and what what the bigger message is how I coped with it for 20 some odd years which was drink drink drink drink drink that’s not the answer face your fears Live Your Dreams the moment I said I’m done with this freaking drinking the poison expecting
That my parents to die life got better now there was a lot of times where they tested me you know it during the pandemic I was about 15 months into this this Crusade I lost my biggest customer I lost my coo I lost custody of my
Daughter it was like I looked up at God and said what are you teaching me you know you can’t beat me you know I won’t give up and you know what that built another resiliency in me that that I knew that no matter what no matter what
Because I lost my daughter and that was like that she’s everything to me she’s I’m break I broke the cycle of abuse with her and she is spoiled and loved and an assassin so when that got taken away I was like what are you teaching me
What are you teaching me so uh look for the message and everything there is a lesson in everything it really is it it is and and sometimes people say oh this didn’t go my way or life is against me it’s it’s aligning for you believe me
It’s just God is trying to tell you look inside and and adjust what you need to become the person that you want to be and that’s where peace comes in Jee peace comes into being complete alignment with the person that you want to be and who you are and when the
Larger that Gap is when when you aren’t the person you want to be that’s all regret and usually filled with a lot of bad decisions oh yeah yeah so you’re you’re going through this abuse and you’re getting kicked out of your house your sister who is 9 years older than you had
Established a life outside of the home she gave you an olive branch reached out to you and said you got to get out of there you stuck it out longer and then ultimately she helped pull you out of there but now you had this I can only imagine that you had incredible um
Self-confidence issues you didn’t you didn’t you probably had trust issues you had limiting beliefs you’re you’re a very young person and you’re you’re drinking and using and now like you’ve just got this big [ __ ] sandwich that you’ve got to unpack and start the process of of getting better uh what did
What did that look like for you leaving the house and then ultimately transitioning into into college and uh into your career tell talk about that period of your life I remember the next day when I left my step father who called my my sister and said I need to
Talk to Kelly she like he’s not here well where is he he’s at school and she said well why is he at school he’s like well he’s he’s gonna go to college nothing’s changed just because he’s not there he’s he’s now safe so why need to
Talk to him and he and and he’s like well he doesn’t really want to talk to you so how did it look for me uh is I immediately got freedom and choices and when you give a young person freedom and choices that never had him before
They’re going to make poor choices and I made a lot of poor choices but again God was looking out for me and no matter how many stupid choices dumb situations I put myself in you know I remember going to a house party and a fight broke out
Because the the only true Brotherhood I knew the only family I knew besides my sister were my friends and they were all party animals and you know you the Brotherhood was fighting we would you know if you somebody come after your friend you fought for him that was how
You showed your love so we’re at a party and a fight breaks out and then we walked outside and and and the guy that got beat up came back with a gun and and shot my friend and it was right next to me and it’s like this is just not
Healthy I have got to make better choices I went on to drink for another 20 years because everybody loved that guy and and like you said you nailed it it sounds like you’ve been there trust betrayal you created the exact environment you’re trying to avoid because you you’re you’re what I
Operated out of fear and lack and scarcity I I was always scared that something that that that I was going to be abandoned I was always afraid that nobody would love me and and and when you don’t love yourself nobody else going to love you and I kept meeting
It’s very hard to be consistent you can’t be consistent when you’re in that condition well consistently good you can’t be no wellist be consistently inconsistent man I could I could consistently run a muck with the best of them bro I you know I had a good time
And this is what makes me very very experienced and vers white I think my voice is very heard when people talk about addiction Andor just quitting just the people I’m looking for I’m not looking for the people that are already too far gone on alcohol or the people
Obviously that don’t drink alcohol it’s the in betweeners the people that have the one or two that turn into the two and the three and then eventually turns into 10 um and and those are the people we want to talk to and really I’m really I love the 15 to 25 age demographic
Because I want to teach them hey the best investment you’ll ever do is on yourself and on your mind if somebody would if Kelly right now 48-year-old Kelly would have walked up to 17-year-old Kelly and said put his arm around him big muscular Macho Man and
Said listen to me I’m going to teach you I love you first of all I would have had to say I love you and I would have had to be consistent and I would have freaking hogged and led on him and saidou safe I’m taking you under my wing
And that young Kelly wouldn’t have beli a word the old Kelly said and funny thing is I’m walking you through is what therapy really is that’s that’s Shadow work and how you’re supposed to address childhood trauma big Kelly Comforts little Kelly but if I would have met a
Big Kelly like now I would have I would have respected and looked that’s the life I want because I’m winning and winning massively and that I’m not saying that to to brag I’m just saying because everybody has to Aspire to something you have to have goals um I wake up every
Morning I’m happy I want to I I I look forward to my day I look forward to challenges because I know every Challenge on the other side of it is growth and a learning opportunity I met with three customers of national technology management yesterday they weren’t which is weird that they weren’t
Overjoyed with us and I just went and listened and afterwards like man we I freaking love you and I made three really close friends that I’m going to bring on the podcast so everything happens for me all of this happened for me and use it as what it’s meant to be
As a tool to build that resilience if it were easy everybody be doing it and then it would be just we we would have a communistic society where everything is equal and and it’s just not the way the universe is meant to be work hard you’re rewarded you’re lazy and you do nothing
You’re rewarded that with nothing there so be harder than life face your fears Live Your Dreams make good choices and have a daily routine of Fitness of of breath work of meditation journaling I I just before I came on this podcast I I did I made sure and did
A 10-minute meditation so I could be completely clear-minded not think about anything other than you Jeff well we we we all appreciate that uh tell me a little bit about National technology management what does the company do oh thanks for uh you know we’re the we’re the easiest and best IT
Company to do business with with a heavy heavy emphasis on cyber security you know that whole ransomware stuff or I’ve been hacked you see it all over social media we protect businesses against that we keep it simple keep it easy if you look behind me if you watch this on
YouTube uh the the company’s logo is a shield and in many respects if you think about it all I want to do is protect everybody in the it business in harder than life I am a big teddy bear that wants to help and just protect I I I
Don’t I don’t subscribe to any of the isms no sexism no racism no no agism I just see you I can see right through everybody whether they’re happy or not and uh if you’re not I want to help you get happy if you are happy I want to
Help you stay there um unfortunately we only that’s where they come up with the one percenters of the world only 1% of the world has figured this thing out and and it isn’t 1% of the people that control all the money because money doesn’t buy you happiness happiness gets you
Money you know you know what man though you click on one uh David goggin’s reel you click on one Jordan Peterson reel you click on one Tony Robbins thing man you will be flooded with the answers like it’s finding figuring out what to do is not the problem it’s doing it and
Just as you’re flooded with all of this hey get up and you know I I watched this seven or eight minute clip Goggins I forget who he was with maybe it was Rogan but it was on will and it it was on you know it was okay yay I get up at
2:30 in the morning and I run 15 miles and then I do this and then I do that and you know and he just he just he finds the hardest things that he can do every day and then he does them and if he doesn’t do them then there he’s not
Growing and he just puts himself in this constant state of stress and struggle uh but you know it’s changed it’s changed his life and that’s the life he wants to live but man it is um then on the other side of it the other 80% of stuff that’s in your feed maybe
80% of of the people that are in your life 80% of the messages that you see as you walk around or you drive by fast food places and people are you know shoving all I mean everything else in society is deductive to who you really
Want to be I mean it it shouldn’t should it really be that Innovative and unique to live a healthy um prosperous contributing life but it’s but so but this the the self-defeating nature uh this the way we seek Comfort the way that we look at um you know with Envy at
What other people have uh you know we just we just look at and we we we say that we want what they have but if you really saw behind the scenes they’re as broken as you are I mean it’s it’s tough out there psychologically I mean I I
Would hate to be a kid now right be be honest with you because you’ve got all of this uh dopamine Addiction in the phones I mean it’s it’s almost like um the decks are stacked but then again we live in the most prosperous country in the world uh the world’s never been
Safer statistically uh regardless of what you see on Tik Tok and all these other places the world’s never been safer there’s never been more opportunity there’s never been more uh freedom and uh the access to information gives us the opportunity to really just create a great life but man there’s no
Way to do it without putting in the work and without ruthless prioritization of produ things versus unproductive things and um you know I really applaud what you’ve done with your life and uh I’m interested to know um how you’re helping other people do the same well let me comment on a lot of
That stuff because you know some of this message you know I like to ask like 14 questions to respond right right I was like oh my God he’s right so uh gogin actually was is published by the his books which I highly recommend um two great books uh can’t hurt me and uh
Never finished two great books published by the same publisher that published harder than life um I have yet to meet him but I will uh you know I’d say this there’s successful people that get up at 10 o’clock there’s people that are happy that get up at noon um there’s
People that that work out it it at late at night so take the message and leave the mess I think that that my boy gogins and and every and Joo and all these people that’s what works for them I happen to subscribe to prescribe to a
Lot of the same things but I’ve adapted it to me so I am the Perfect Blend of all those guys I wish I had one tenth of the of the financial capacity I will I just get started so um but if you ever want to think how hear how insane David
Gogins is read the book living with a seal it’s by Jesse ller and so he doesn’t say to the very end that it’s gaggin but you if you know gogin you can tell so he Jess Jesse Isler basically hires David gogins to come train him for
30 days and it’s he said it’s he just basically says everything they do it’s insane David Goggins is certifiable insane but he’s massively successful and that’s what works for him because you know as as you know he was a big heavy heavy kit and had every excuse in the
Book and just switched it so he switched it I switched it uh and you can put life on its head so again hard the only way though as you said work works the only path is through through hardship it’s it you if you grow up with easy easy times
Make make freaking hard or easy people make Hard Times Hard Times make hard hard people Hard Times make or hard people make easy times there’s a circle we so it’s it’s insane yeah um so always choose hard because most people choose easy so you asked me the long question
Or questions how am I helping people well first of all I’m being very vulnerable there’s nothing I I talk about my book emptying a jar of urine uh there is not and and there’s a there was a message behind that it was do your job right the first time so you don’t have
To do it again uh so I’m I’m going to be very very vulnerable I’m going to put myself out there and we’re going to continue to grow and learn and give and the three Charities that we’re we’re donating to is uh the Children’s Foundation which supports the Children’s Hospital variety which supports children
With uh that need Prosthetics arm arms and legs and then families against narcotics which uh helps families who are uh have a alcoholic or addict in their family it’s it’s traumatic I had to deal with it with my father and it just it’s the focus of the entire family
So those are the three that we’re going to donate to we actually ntional technology management donates to all three as well um but we’re going to do more from the hard of Life brand and and just Inspire model and educate is really what I’m going to do and the big part is
Model so you’ll see some of the personalities that are out on social media say one thing and do another you won’t have that happen with me everybody that know the problem with me is I’m I’m I’m a little too out there everybody knows me and and what you see is what
You get is so I can’t claim one thing and do another because I’ll be called out and and social media is is good for that so uh either way I can’t be in congruent with my uh core values I just it just it it it wouldn’t sit well with
Me I have a terrible poker face if I start if I start fibbing or telling even half truths you can feel it you’ll feel it I me so I just I got have time for it and and I I don’t have to remember uh you don’t have to remember the truth
It’s freaking easy so modeling the behaviors day and day I appreciate um I appreciate your investment in children uh there’s a you know there’s I don’t know if it’s lean Six Sigma but there’s a Manufacturing uh belief right the earlier in a process that you can identify and repair a
Defect the cheaper it is to the overall manufacturing process and I apply that to children and so I coached over 30 seasons of my kid Sports and as the end of it I wrote a book called hey coach so that my methods and all of that could
Survive my career and uh we have partnered at Homefront brands with Carson uh Ben and Candy Carson and Carson Scholars to build reading rooms across the country in title one uh schools that don’t have the ability or or the resources to properly uh fill their libraries with the kind of books
That uh kids should read and need to read so uh we’re building two reading rooms this year and and I think that I mean if you don’t like EV every aspect of uh what we do as adults should be in some way contributing to the Next Generation uh for the health and
Wellness of the country they’re going to be the ones that country those are going to be the ones that are that are taking care of us I want to make one other point and I don’t remember but I remember I was really young I think I
Was like 15 or 16 years old and I had taken a job and a a flat work concrete company which it was in Chicago it was union wages uh pretty you know everyone assumed that it was uh you know run by the mob or whoever was uh do an
Organized crime uh back then in the city and I was I would go in and uh I would I was I would just work like I was expected to work but the other guys on the crew they’d be like they want to go hide behind the house for two hours
They’re like if you if you produce that much work they’re gonna expect that from us every day and everything that these guys did and they were making really good money and I’m sure that they could support families and have good Lifestyles because of the wages but everything that they did was to try
To get out of work and my philosophy was I’m here anyway like why why would I spend all this energy trying to get out of work and then I thought about more broadly and I said you know everything that we invent and everything that we do air conditions air conditioning
Vehicles uh uh the internet everything we do is to make our life easier and seek comfort and in doing that we’ve taken so much of the work and the struggle out of kids lives that they have to climb over so now we create uh you know now we
Have to pay people to coach our kids to create things to do to make life hard for them so that they they’re athletes or whatever it is so uh but man I uh I I you know I wrote something up on my wall years ago and it’s still up there it
Says choose the path of most resistance the path of most resistance is where the growth happens and uh I’m always cognizant of when I’m over consuming or buying something for the sake of buying something for that little hit or you know just you know consuming stuff that is absolutely making my life
Easier making me more relaxed passing time with me not having to think about things and again it it shouldn’t be rocket science that uh um you know a a LIF lived uh with challenges and and struggle and building and creating versus consumption is going to be a happier more fulfilled life and you’re
GNA have the ability to impact more people and my gosh we’re here for such a such a short time Kelly Jee you said so many things I got to jump in I I I first of all hardships my body you think about muscles how do you build muscles you
Tear the muscle down you overload it to the point where you rip it and break it and then it builds back stronger so it’s it’s it’s scientific fact that going through hardships hard things make you tougher um but that’s also to go back to the guys hiding behind houses and not
Doing their work I’d love to see where they’re at today without even much if they if they continue that path they’re bums I’m sorry I I just yeah and that’s and all work is Honorable you know I don’t you know we need that work to get done and they
Might still be doing it um so I don’t begrudge them but I but I do begrudge them for their approach to the work where I was getting going to go with that was the energy everything is energy so they’re they’re operating at a cheat lie cheat and steel
Mentality and that’s what they’re going to get back they’re going to get Bare Bones minimum what you put out in the universe comes back to you so you worked hard look at you you’re successful brand beautiful person beautiful family and and then I want to go back to what you
Said about um reading rooms uh that was pretty freaking cool so what the the whole circle of life right now with the so here in Michigan it’s cold real cold it’s zero or five we had two what they call snow days in school because it’s cold they said oh those roads were bad
They weren’t and the other one was oh we’re expecting weather it wasn’t it’s just we we are teaching these children to be soft we’re tell teaching them to go on social media and say how do I get my dopamine hit comparison is the thief of Joy I have taught my child my
Daughter that everything she requires she can get from within so you want validation get it from yourself um but it started with the modeling so I just in just sitting on my desk right now there’s three books three books when I was talking about gogins books I’m
Looking over the left I have a bookshelf here hundreds of books I read physical books and guess what my daughter does reads physical books we are in Florida for the holiday and we were on the boat partying having a good time my kid was reading while every other kid was on
Their phone social media my kid was reading so what people don’t realize I love that you’re doing these reading rooms is this is a free education here’s a book about how to rethink drinking no willpower required oh here’s a great book The One Truth by John Gordon so these are these are
Classes in and of themselves and they’re you can get them for free or for a couple of bucks now I’m not going to knock you if you listen at least you’re doing something but the people that don’t read at all what are you doing with all this extra time I I don’t have
Enough time to read what I work 12 14 hour days uh I still manag to read at least 10 pages or a chapter I try to get through a book a week but lately I’ve been reading some really tough books for like this this one truth and because I
Got John Gordon coming on the podcast on Monday so I had to reread it I listened to it and I listen to some deep things because I I got to create more content and no more so end of the day that modeling and do and because the the kids
Follow my mother and my stepfather were Drinkers and party so I became a drinker and partyer that’s what they do so I’m grateful that for my child’s teen years and for the most part when she really started remembering and building her ego or her her her filters in life I’ve been
Not drinking so she’s gonna she knows nothing but love support emotional well-being and sad so I love those reading rooms if there’s anything that hard in life people can do for you to support those uh reading my daughter will come and speak about that that is Paramount we need more education on this
Planet not just sitting here scrolling through social media and here’s the bad part about it they if you think one way and it’s right or wrong whether it’s right or wrong which is relative terms in of itself no you know what’s right is what gets you in alignment with
Yourself you know what’s right for you Jeff could might not be right for me hey I get up and 4:15 in the morning but you may get up at 8 either one’s right no one’s right or no one’s wrong it just works for me so back to the right or
Wrong uh is we need to model the behaviors that we want our our kids to to achieve and you know I make things a little tough on my daughter to make sure and and she realizes that just showing up uh oh I was going with the algorithm
I apologize the the algorithm on social media teaches you more it only is confirmation biased it’s my side biased and what you click on it shows you more of because you are the product and it’s trying to keep you on there so they can Market to you and and build a profile on
You so they can sell your information these are not bad things so is that is that why I have all these Caba baras on my on my Threat all these big mams I have these crazy Unstoppable ones where it’s just I get bombarded with people
That you are you are Godlike and you are so you know this is a great transition I’m going to plug the harder than life app on on Apple that just released let’s do it because we are create what I’m looking to do and this is all for
Charity it’s 11.99 a month and it’s it’s it’s turned into a social media app with a Fitness Nutrition personal development I put love in relationships and of course some uh rethinking of drinking that’s all those five little p little uh um subjects are on there there’s spaces
To go in and then there’s an over all space that just is a social media feed where we can just talk about winning there is no algorithms there is no censorship there is no um selling of your data it’s just I want to scrape off that top layer 1% that that want nothing
But growth and giving and and and vulnerability and to get better together I’m going to build a family a harder than life family that is going to be able to create change in this world my goal is to get a million members and if you I looked it up the other day
Facebook has three billion so I want one million and then I can do a lot with the with the with the money on that for charity but also just create it I liking it to um I don’t know I’m not trying to make this political but I liking it to
Florida during the pandemic Florida was wide open so so you know Michigan New York and California were shut down Florida was wide open so we’re creating a Florida for social media come to the harder than life app and just have fun be happy and and and and you’ll get your
Cup filled so you can get in there and say hey who’s got a podcast on self-love boom there you go so it’s is it Community does it have a community aspect to it so members can ENG I got to call it family because still the part of
Me growing up still wants this family Jeff I still want to be loved I got a lot of love to give and I’m going to give it to everybody but I want to be loved so that’s why I started this this is a social media app to be healthy to
Be happy and be harder than life and it’s it’s it’s going to take me time but we’ll get there and I would bet you by the end of the year we’ll have a 100,000 members which you know I’m not trying to be like Clubhouse we’re not trying to
Take on any of the big boys we’re just trying to give another option because you can go to the the big boys and and get ridiculed and knocked down and and you know how many times I’m yelled at Daily because just tell me your steroid
Routine I got a news flash for you I don’t take steroids I’m having my doctor on and they’re still gonna say your doctor alive it’s like come on man people just will do they’ll go they’ll put more energy into avoiding the work like those people from then they’re just
Doing the work and be and becoming this other worldly person that you become by going through the through the hardships so harder than life go go to the Apple Store download harder than life it’s $1.99 it’s going to charity and come join come join this community of fun and
Happy and uh and just just just go in there and be positive now I the only censorship is if is there’s a there’s guidelines I have Community guidelines that if you’re negative and you and you knock people I’ll give you a warning and then I’m going to ask you then I’m going
To show throw you out and other than that let’s just go there and uplift each other and again we take the top one% or even the top 10% of the of the killers the people that just want the do gooders of social media we will be a tremendous
Success and and and I just I just want a freaking happy place to hang out you think of it a fraternity or sorority of like-minded people let’s do it and and then here’s the cool thing imagine if we when we get a million people and the the next inevitable
Catastrophe happens in this world I can set up a f thing where we just everybody donates a dollar and we immediately and they watch us just show it everything’s going to be transparent and vulnerable we all throw in a dollar we donate a million bucks on the H on behalf of the
Harder than life um brand to whatever that fund is we have another hurricane or whatever it’s it’s a group of people and then think of what some cool things we can do if we want to organize some efforts in any direction action because it’s going to be the the upper 1% of the
Population and I believe that uh there’s more of these people than we believe and even if there’s not let’s cultivate them and let’s provide and show that hey you may not be where you want to be but come in here be around a bunch of people that
Are doing it and you’ll get and you’ll Elevate hey man there’s niches everywhere and with Homefront brands which is our property service franchise platform uh massive growth we we have a we have a narrative and that narrative is for a certain type of person that’s at a certain place in
Their life that is serious about building a big business that uh has a track record of success that’s interested in participating with the community and um you know taking control of their own life but man it’s it’s it’s a pretty you know it’s not for everybody
But to your point 339 million people in this country I need a thousand uh there’s a thousand people out there that what we have will appeal to them and they they’re very And when they see it in the connection it’s just so easy it’s
Like this is you know this is who I am this is what I’m looking for this is who we are this is what we have and you know those deals go easy you got to check the boxes and run the process and all that but um there’s there’s niches everywhere
There’s niches for people and uh you’ve got uh you know there are people that uh are looking to cut through the noise of the world and you said something about the universe and I’ve always lik to say the universe doesn’t conspire to make us successful the universe doesn’t conspire
To make us healthy to make us have quality relationships it it doesn’t it gives us the opportunity it gives us the environment it gives you all the stimuli and everything that you could possibly use but you have to do it for yourself and I’m even in relationship with people that
Um they don’t I mean it’s it’s you know we’re we’re in a we’re in close relationships but yet um and and all of this is right there for it but uh it’s it’s right in front of them but they won’t take Jeff hold on a second I got
To jump I I say this a lot I got to jump in I’m sorry I believe once you do the work go for and you are on that positive momentum train I believe the universe does transpire to make you happy because it’s almost like even I’m on such a
Rooll the last two years and now now it’s you’re doing it’s a a roller coaster there are ups and downs but I know that the Downs are really much higher than they have ever been before and they’re just because there’s more to learn in those things so I know when I
Hit a down I know an Up’s coming right after it and you also know when you’re riding High that a down is coming after so you never get too high never get too low but but I will tell you I know that everything’s happening for me not to me
And I really do believe in it’s it’s silly that after doing as much work here’s another thing this might sound a little bit corny but I’ve been through a lot of hardships it it’s I’ve I’ve earned what’s coming I’ve earned what’s going on I’ve done the work and once you
Get there when you start seeing where you can’t lose you you you you just start knowing that there’s a higher power and that the Universe God Source whatever you worship there’s got to be something out there doing this is working in your favor that’s if you don’t listen to one thing
We’ve said listen to that because I could I’ve watched I said to my friend the other day I tried to make a couple of stupid decisions I did I tried to make I tried to put myself in a situation that wasn’t becomeing to me and it just didn’t work out like
Meaning I think it snowed or I couldn’t leave the house whatever it was I went and I acknowledged my higher power that they that God was protecting me I made a dumb decision could have been a dumb decision and uh they rewarded me so there was other thing we were talking
About too is goals without actions are just dreams you could there’s a big thing to talk about manifestations and and and put yourself and how it feels you got to take action so uh progress over Perfection just start today and you don’t have to have anything figured out Joe despenser says
Figure out the what and the why and the how will appear and just take one step forward each day and I didn’t plan on writing a book I didn’t plan on launching a brand heck my multi-million dollar IT company I didn’t plan on owning an IT company I just took action
Every single day and the universe presented opportunities to me I was just on a call yesterday with a with a non-alcoholic um uh beverage company that’s coming to the United States reached out to me do you think that I’m wanted to be in the beverage business
Looks like I’m going to be in the beverage business so you make yourself available for opportunities when you’re making dumb mistakes and you’re making that and you’re negative and the world is against you you’re not available for anything you’re not even available for blessings so do the work the work work
Yeah so I’ve got a word of encouragement for people particularly young people who who get online and they see where they think they want to go but the opportunity that they’re on currently isn’t that I would tell them that you gain the next Opportunity by winning in
The one that you’re in and whatever it is you’re setting your hands to do whatever the universe has conspired put put on you and you’ve put yourself on like you have to win that opportunity even if it’s not financially where what you want to get out of it or even if
It’s if it looks like it’s only 60% in the direction that you ultimately want to go failing in Opportunities and challenges is a h is a bad habit to get into and it’s a tough habit to break it’s easy to step out of things and say
Well this just didn’t work out and I can blame circumstances other people uh but uh observationally people that that take on the tough job even if they’re not exactly aligned or maybe it’s not the best fit for them but they finish it and they win it uh that next opportunity it
Just materializes and it’s closer and closer to the bull print bull bull to the bullseye as to where they want to be and you know I never like man I you know I started as a I had to go to three colleges five and a half years to get a
Four-year degree uh I had to you know get a football scholarship ultimately to get to college to be able to afford go uh I needed to start a painting business to be able to support myself in the summer uh and then I took a flyer went down to South
Florida uh cut my teeth in the restoration business moved up to Central Florida started a business that I would sell some 24 years and 11 months later with 240 locations in 37 States and now uh we’re here on this podcast and and I have multiple of two franchise platforms
Of businesses and other servicing businesses and you know National um particip National Parking management company I mean just all kinds of things so you would have never thought that that guy that failed out of his first college and had to drop back to this ju Joo Football Factory riding school buses
On Saturday mornings to play and uh buying your own shoes would end but it’s but the only thing to your point that I did was I just continued to win in the opportunities that were given to me whether it was an employment situation early on or setting up a new company or
Whatever it was and once you win in that opportunity man you you have confidence hopefully you have some resources hopefully you have contacts uh you have knowledge and you’ve got some good habits more than anything you’ve got good habits what did you spend oh some quote famous quote the other day is you
Spend the last half of your life or the last 25% of your life reaping the benefits of the habits that you built in the first 75% of your life you know uh you always know when you’re on the right path when people start criticizing you too remember that
Because whatever haters got to hate right because you’re taking The Road Less travel I don’t read it crabs in The Bucket Man they just no if you level up then that and the other person’s not they’re they’re going to tell you about it and they’re trying to keep you down so
Um I always tell kids look everybody’s everybody’s not for everybody absolutely absolutely and and and we’re talking about here is boundaries and standards really it’s the standards we we we’ve all got to have a higher standard for ourselves and for our friends and for for everybody we have a standard at NTM
About who we do business with who our vendors are who our customers are going to be who our employees are how we’re going to conduct oursel what we’re going to learn what we’re going to learn every year so when you have high standards it pushes away the things that aren’t for
You so what what Restoration company did were you a part of I was a company called advantaclean H interesting Y and um I have a couple questions about NTM and and I’m interested in any perspective that you would have doing cyber security based upon the proliferation of artificial intelligence
It seems like I am getting more and more solicited more sophisticated fishing uh there you can you could take our voice and you can you can with very with freeware you can duplicate our voice so I mean somebody could duplicate your voice call your bank as you and say hey
I’m going to be sending over a transfer and have hacked into your stuff I mean like you know if you think about how Bank transfers are made um you know there’s always all different types of authentification and all these checks and balances but with the tools that are
Readily available today it would seem like your business is positioned for hyper growth and AI continues to give dishonest people more resources and more tools to do the things that they do yeah so what you’re saying just you know is that somebody can download the recordings right off of this podcast and
Create a an entire conversation of something we did not say so that’s why you got you’re seeing it with that’s right with whether you be Joe Biden or whether it be Trump you see people doing voiceover of things that they don’t say so it’s getting a little bit freaky so
Really have to have a high level of discernment in this world to realize if something isn’t is too good to be true it probably isn’t or it is so um yeah it is creating tremendous opportunity and and what they’re doing is we cap is the Bad actors who are out there trying to
You know exploit uh companies are really getting us at our weakness and the weakness is people people and and and and pro just it’s the these worst hacks that you hear are usually just a user error I mean the one that just happened when I think it was the um
MGM one was the guy the bad actor went on freaking uh went on LinkedIn and just found the networking administrator who gave him the network passwords he called and and just used human kindness against somebody called sounded exactly like the person asked common questions built a relationship and was
Handed the password and under that circumstance you have to have layers and layers and layers of cyber security because under that circumstance the only things that’s can protect you is your backups and your alerts and monitors a national yeah the the simple the simple crimes right are the ones
That tend to get through because they’re just so simple oh it’s and then what do we do it’s it’s like 911 you know they now that they used airplanes now we have TSA and it takes long do you feel any safe I don’t know I don’t you
You hear about some of the just Google the things that get through airports now so uh we tend to over crect or correct and then on top of it we don’t even correct they’re out devising new ideas every single day there’s things called zero day threats and that’s what
National technology management is great at uh keeping people away from old stuff if it’s a day old that’s we’ve already figured that out so we’re very extremely proactive so we do a lot it’s funny it’s just like my life 99% of what we do is before you even
Wake up be by the time the rest of the world is up my day is half over and the truth be told is all of the bling and tackling and things that we’re doing to protect our customers happens in the middle of the night it’s with all
Of the updates that happen while you’re sleeping it’s with all of the who’s a typical customer who’s a who’s a customer Kelly you know is a typical customer is a like your um Restoration company uh multilocation multi-state uh customers love us because we streamline about nine different
Vendors processes and we and we what we’ve built literally when I made the company when I started the company it’s called telecomunications and I was like they’re gonna s people aren’t National aren’t going to buy this so we changed the name to National technology management
Because I saw way out in advance that we were creating really this solution in a box that could be templatized and pushed out anywhere in the world so if you use us we have several locations of custo customers all over the country if you use us no matter what office you go to
Everything is the same so it’s the it’s the Henry Ford approach you can get any color car you want as long as it’s black you we have we make it simple there’s three options a ba bare Basic Essentials essential cyber security cyber security plus and absolute freaking everything we
Got and you choose the reason why we only sold that that third one which was the the highest one and when you’re taking somebody that has zero cyber security to three they feel it it it’s it’s intrusive it’s it’s you’re talking two- Factor authentication you’re talking they they’re locked down they
Can’t download things there it it it’s intrusive it’s I feel it every day because I go to do podcast and my teens got us blocked we got email scrubbing we have spoofing uh we we have everything to teach people all the way down to human being behavior and then we throw
In a big layer of AI that says hey Jeff goes to a lot of restoration a lot of book things why is he going to this fishing he’s never gone to a fishing you know f i s i n g or uh he doesn’t go to weightlifting sites why is he there and
It’s looks at human behavior and it’ll quarantine that and say hey uh we don’t think this is Jeff we think somebody’s acting as Jeff we’re going to hold this off so we’re constantly that’s actually one of core values in NTM continuous Improvement because these these Bad actors are getting better every day so
We leverage AI we leverage the cloud and a lot of our competition is working on yesterday’s information and we’re working on tomorrow’s information so that’s what’s allowing us to get better and better and better and here’s the the thing is um the with the downturn in the economy all my competition keeps selling
Out to private equity which if you’re an investor you understand how private Equity Works they’re going to come in buy your you probably who you sold to um private Equity comes in looks for ways to cut costs and then combine to make the volume bigger and then sell
It as a three to six to 12 times multiple so a lot of our competition has gotten bought out and when that happens they slice off what makes them them we are not for sale I am having a blast at NM it used to be years ago before I
Started this Crusade we were reactive we were like every other company I like what am I going to do walking into a mess today we have happy customers happy employees and what do you know it all coincided with one decision that I made five years ago which was I’m gonna
Freaking just choose not to drink anymore and and again I wasn’t I wasn’t an alcoholic I just it was in the way and then now we’ve seen massive success massive growth yeah it’s funny how that happens it happens to a lot of people they they get focused and well the first
Thing that happens so in in my book discernment I talk about um I have a little blurb in there about alcohol and you know it’s uh the the worst decisions that I’ve made uh were always alcohol was always a factor I heard Jordan Peterson say the other day that if you
Took alcohol out of the country like most almost all murders are alcohol involve alcohol uh you know you would reduce murders and uh but you know it steals your time it’s the it’s the time that’s drinking it’s the time that you’re thinking about drinking then you’re drinking and then it’s the time
Recovering from the drinking and your mind is not working on other things it’s really just math like is is there anything in life that’s not math I mean it’s math right it’s just it’s just time time number of transactions so we talked earlier about you know you you when
About reading books you know and uh who was it ran maybe said something like our lives are a combination of uh the people we meet the conversations we have and the books that we read okay so when you’re drinking like what’s the impression you’re making with people what’s the quality of the conversations
You’re having and you’re not reading a book so it’s I mean every compound interest works both ways it works negatively and it works positively and the more positive things that you’re doing the more transactions that you’re making the more conversations that you’re having and by the way leaders
Like us we get paid by the conversation it’s it’s our ability to converse with the right people and have the right conversations we’ll do more for our business in furthering our agendas uh than anything else that we can do and that’s why we have to be out that’s why
Podcasting is such a great medium today it get it we can get in conversation people can listen to it they can decide do we have anything of value for these people or or don’t we what you’re saying Jeff is the cost benefit you know and we know that it’s does the cost outweigh
The benefit or does the benefit outweigh the cost with alcohol it’s very simple and and and I thought it was working for me I was very successful uh monetarily drinking I had customers that would use me because we drank together I and then when I quit they left so and I was glad
To let them go so I will tell you that alcohol serves no benefit it just doesn’t if it did I would continue drinking um and and I would have one I just don’t want it so uh the other thing too is those conversations remember we’re going all over the place so this
Is awesome I love it so remember God gave you two ears in one mouth for a reason so listen twice as much as you talk and be interested over interesting so there’s just little couple of little things and and when you’re not hung over you’re not tired or
You’re not you’re fully present you actually want to listen because it’s you’re going to learn right yeah one um couple more things while while I’ve got you and I appreciate you giving us so much time this morning Kelly your book so many people are writing books now uh you can throw
Something into chat uh an outline and come up with a book of course it’ll be a compilation of uh plagurism and all of this other stuff because it’s come it’s you know AI it works from the known universe so it’s only going to grab stuff that somebody else has already
Done it’s not truly creative um although it it appears as if it is sometimes so but you went with a publisher you didn’t self-publish can you talk to maybe the audience about what that decision was like what that Journey was like anything that you can share if somebody’s out
There and they’re thinking hey one day I want to write a book uh what are my options in getting it published and what was your experience like going with a publisher first of all what you were saying excuse me is uh chat GPT you could throw an idea and say give me this
And CH here’s what is going to make this world a better place creativity so you can tell after now having a conversation with me Jeff you could tell the the vernacular of that of that book was written by me you could you can tell everybody that’s read that
Book that knows me said wow I I thought I was having a conversation with you and and you can’t chat GPT cannot emulate that now eventually when you when I get enough publish it it may be able to but again it’s going to be plager plagiarization and then you have
To look in the mirror and know that you didn’t do it there is so by the way your your your chapter openings are strongly offensive and they’re all I mean you want to you you got the hook in the book man uh I’m telling you it’s uh your your first lines or your
First paragraph of each of the chapters that’s that’s worth getting the book alone Jeff the that’s how I started the book I’m not I begin with the end in mind and I will tell you the best defense is a strong offense I I am GNA
Go down swinging and and I I always say um for ask for forgiveness not for permission so yeah back to the book I highly recommend if you’re thinking about writing a book write it because it opens up so many doors for you because it’s it’s not easy it took me a year to
Write this book and you asked me self- everything happens for me it just was one of those weird things where I’m like I’m gonna write a book and then all of a sudden you know you say that and on your feed comes all some kinds of Publishers and
It just came in alignment with with who and what and why and then while I wrote the book was during the pandemic so we’re in lockdown everybody’s home day drinking I’m working out doing push-ups and sit-ups I bought a home gym I decided to implement EOS at National
Technology management so we went through and redid our entire company and all all the while at the same time I’m redoing myself and the number one part of that was not only hypnotherapy talk therapy emotional coach the biggest one was writing literally writing my book I have the
Notebooks scribbles that I wrote the book on on and it was extremely cathartic meaning holy [ __ ] reading this and writing this that really did happen and it made it it’s it’s kind of like why I highly recommend you Journal it gets these negative limiting beliefs and you know we have these thoughts
These the the thoughts are magical lies so if you can just get them out on a piece of paper you can see how your ego is meant to protect you and it’s all ego so the ego is the enemy but when I was writing these things out it became
Crystal clear that I still had work to do on myself so I declared war from this book and then after I wrote the book The Publisher said hey what are you going to do with this I’m just gonna hand this out to my customers at NTM because oh no
You aren’t this is way too good this is gonna be a bestseller and it was it went Amazon bestseller for multiple weeks multiple categories and then it opened up other but the biggest thing was it made me by by reading if you listen to the audible
That I that I narrate you hear my voice crack so this was all a part of the therapy process the healing process hearing myself say my mother beat me on my birthday she I remember like it was yesterday she gouged my eyeball out I
Had a scar under my eye my mother on my birthday yeah I say it now with abs I said it with emotion to to to get you guys to listen it does nothing for me it doesn’t hurt me anymore but it took a lot of therapy together so this was all
A part of my healing journey and my my I just sent to somebody yesterday I met a loc a real nice lady that’s a publisher smaller I’m GNA the second book will be published by somebody different frankly I we’re making such a big Headway in the hard life I’m sure
Somebody’s going to reach out to us and pay us this time we self we sure it was a hybrid we used the publisher but I wrote it myself and gave it to them and said here let’s make this a book um and then they they set it back and and I did
All the edits and it was uh it’s amazing how it literally I just said the what in the why I just wanted to put a book out there to to to help the and I didn’t know a [ __ ] about sorry didn’t mean to swear didn’t know anything about how
What it meant to write a book and just each week I’m committed to writing a chapter and and after three months I had the outlines of a book and then we just filled in the blanks and then they go through and edit and it’s just it’s it
Is a tumultuous process it is I found some areas where we can do it quicker like you know who I’m at John Gordon these books this guy brings out these books in 90 days but he’s got it down to it to to a te and they’re short and
Simple and but there strong messages yeah the next one will be much deeper um in your book you talk about your why start with the the what and the why as your daughter Ariana um what can you share about what she’s doing now and how these changes
Over the last five years in your life have made an impact on her through that modeling yeah Jeff she says to me every year on New Year’s I I quit drinking on New Year’s Eve in uh 2019 so uh 11 N I quit uh and so every New Year’s we spend
It down at our Florida house that I built with my drinking money and every year she says to me I love new years’s because it’s another year that you don’t drink that I a better father I am a better role model I am a better human a businessman I’m a better everything not
Drinking and and and I was a good person I just am the real me I am the true authentic self everybody that knew me when I drank said this is the real you I always had a big heart I was always kind I was but I would mask that hole in my
Heart with alcohol and there would be certain times I wouldn’t be my true and authentic self so now I I am my true and authentic self I love it so she we spent on New Year’s this year New Year’s Eve uh an hour and I still have one Vice I
Smoke cigars we were sitting outside and she wanted to talk talk to me and teenage girl uh has fomo fear of missing out all of her friends that are back home here in Michigan were’re on a Big Tex Strat and they’re at a party and she’s stuck with her dad and just
Started one hour of non-stop telling me what was important in her life I wouldn’t trade that that was the best part of my vacation and and honestly between you and the fence it’s a 14 15y old girl’s life talking about uh who said what and why and things
That all it was her whole world but you’re looking back going I I none of this is gonna matter in F in a in five days let alone five years but it meant the world for her to have a safe landing Place someone who listened and all I did
Is just sit there for one straight hour and then what did I do I went to go went downtown to pick up a bunch of drunk people to bring them home and get them safe which made her even more happy that I’m the person people call when they
Want to be safe so I it’s so fitting it’s extremely fitting that my company is a shield because I am here to protect and serve that sounds like a cliche of law enforcement but I am I you’ll see if when we meet Jeff I’m a big guy big
Muscular guy and as long as I’m alive everybody’s that is in my ecosystem is going to be protected and I’m going to love them and give them back and and I really believe the more you give in this world the more you get so I want to give
Away a million dollars trust me we’ll make several million and then we’ll do more so uh it’s long short answer to that or the long answer to that short question is it just it just I love it’s great for what I did for her but I love
The man in the mirror I look in the mirror and I’m proud proud because she’s proud now am I the fun Dad no she she’s you ask what she’s doing right now she’s at a sleepover because there’s no school and she won’t have anybody sleep here
Because Dad’s not the fun Dad we are the serious we get things done we run routines we work out and then a lot of her friends they all know me and follow me from social media and they want to pick my brain and what I tell her is
This is the love house this is the house of love love bring the girls whose dads are estranged and don’t understand what it is bring them here we will provide safety we will provide love and we will provide a set of ears for people for women
Girls men everybody to just come and be heard and be seen because that’s what this is all about that’s what life’s all about yeah Kelly man I appreciate your journey I appreciate your sharing it I appreciate what you’re doing to impact the lives of other people is uh we’re
All broken and there’s so much Brokenness out there and even though we are in a broken state that doesn’t mean that we don’t have something to contribute to other people that are looking for answers and and looking just to make their lives a little bit better along the way Kelly last question hold
On Jeff Jeff we’re not all broken you had one sentence hold on one second we’re not all broken we just ain’t finished yet for we Ain finished yet well sorry go ahead last question work in progress yes sir work in progress if you had one sentence to make
An impact in someone else’s life what would that be oh that’s an easy one I hear this a lot I love everybody and tell the truth it’s a ramas quote love everybody and tell the truth this world would be so much simpler if we all just
Told the truth not your truth the truth a lot of people people filter the truth through their ego and that is not the truth did you do it it’s black or white so love everything is Love A lot of times you’ll see me walk around I’m tapping my harp that’s because I’m I’m
Not feeling in alignment with love I’m I’m out of alignment so I keep reminding myself when I’m walking around and I’m in flow I Feel Love emanating and then I just know nothing but the truth but I’m trying to show people that hey man Jeff
I wasn’t my best self today and I tell you something horrible that I did or or that I wasn’t it creates a vulnerable space for you to be vulnerable and it brings us together so I am a big vulnerability and love person so that is was created out of that terrible
Childhood um so good came out of it and we’re gonna we’re gonna you know I’m 48 I’m going to live into a 100 so we’re going to donate $50 million $52 million from hopefully uh when this is said and done um all because I grew up tough and
So love everybody tell the truth and it’s not my quote it’s Ros but I love it if it’s I can go show it to you it’s on my wall in my bathroom I stare at it every morning when I take a shower awesome perfect perfect way to
Wrap up today Kelly where can people get in touch with you uh we’re big on Instagram we’re on all social media platforms but Instagram is ky. seagull that’s s g71 then uh go on to harder than life.com there’s all kinds of cool things where you can donate to the cause
You can buy harder than life merchandise like this shirt we got hats we got hoodies and uh we we’re one we’re coming up on uh one year of doing this and it the the growth is massive I never thought I’d be here but I want to let’s
Run it back again next year and see where we’re at in next year because we’ve only just begun and then jefff we got to get you on the hard and Life podcast we I got to hear all about you because it sounds like we’re brothers from uh from from different mothers and
I I I I I want to know more I I really do practice what I preach I I you’ve made a new friend in me if there’s anything that the hard and life brand can do uh for your brand and for you personally by all means just shoot me a text and I’m
There I’ll take you up on that Kelly we’ll do it this has been Kelly seagull harder than life on the home front podcast with Jeff duden thank you for listening
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