When Dreams Turn Foggy

Watch the episode here:

• Discover a powerful mental framework for pushing through your toughest challenges.
• Learn why celebrating small wins can completely transform your mindset during difficult times.
• Get a rare, vulnerable look at the mental battles even successful entrepreneurs face.
• Find out the one question that can create momentum when everything seems to be closing in.
• Understand why keeping your dreams alive isn’t just about you—it impacts everyone around you.

What’s shakin? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan. Today, we’re going all in even with everything going great. I’m going to get vulnerable with you today and tell you about a time period when things were going kind of bad just recently for me, and it was a mindset thing for me, because I just kept seemingly getting hit with so many things left and right, and how I ended up pivoting and getting myself out of that. Did I really just say pivoting? I hate that word, but we’ll stay shifting right. I made a hard turn and got myself out of that. And it made me realize something about, even with with my past too, about how decisions matter, and the manner of which you make those decisions actually determines if you’re going to stick with that decision or not. No, here we go over about a month’s period of time. 

You know, this year, it was like between mid-February to mid-March getting ready for the public offering of reach out now, this is a, this is like sleepless nights. I mean, I know that’s the cliche, right? I mean, but I’m talking stress beyond stress, and when everything just seems to be not going your way, and you just continue forward regardless. But you know, even on a couple of meetings with my team, I would just be vulnerable and say, Guys, I’m under a lot of pressure right now, and I’m grateful for you to be continuing to do everything that you do so that I can keep dreaming. Because it the dream doesn’t exist. If the dreamer is not there, the dream doesn’t exist that the dreamer can’t keep dreaming, I continue to push forward into that dream. 

And even though there are many, many, many, many things right now that are, that are like, You know what? This is a lot of work. Why are you doing this? And I start asking myself that question, you know? And they say that every entrepreneur always wants to throw in the towel all the time. That’s true, you know? Because there’s always a thought that comes up the man, it would be easier if I just did x, you know, but definitely wouldn’t be happier, for sure, you know, especially when you have this dream that you believe in, you have to keep pushing forward, because the only way that dream is going to can actually take place and become reality is if you keep dreaming. And that’s so important, is to keep pushing past that, you know. And for this month, that dream of mine ended up becoming very clouded, almost like it was fading away in the distance, or like, if you close your eyes, you could just see like fog surrounding you, and you can’t see the next way to go.

 And here’s the thing with fog, right? Because you may not see where to go, and even that, that thing still exists, but you saw it at one point. If you’re on a road that you’ve traveled down so many times, and you know that there’s always a stop light that you turn right at right the same way you go to work or or the same way that you go wherever, to the restaurant you go to. You know that that establishment still there, but you can’t see it. You know that it’s still there. And you know that all you have to do is just keep driving and you’re going to get there. Did you catch that? All you have to do is just keep driving? That’s the same with this kind of stuff too, and that’s that’s literally like the only thing that kept me going is just saying, Okay, I may not see the next 10 steps. And that dream that was so clear to me for years seems so unobtainable at this moment that all I can focus on is what I can do right now. What that one single next step is, because there’s never been fog in my life, or really, I doubt, in yours, to where you actually couldn’t even see just one single step. It may take you time to actually see that, because you just need to center yourself and gain clarity in that moment, but to just take that one single step so as things just kept getting shut down and getting nos on all these things, even for the ability to use ACH to take investor transactions, it’s like, okay, I’m just gonna try another round. Just gonna try another route. How about we try something we haven’t thought of yet? I started asking people around me, on my team, on consulting teams and vendors like, give me some advice here. Can you mentor me? And I’m grateful I have so many amazing people around. And then with my team, I’m telling them, guys, this is really crappy right now, and I appreciate you carrying most of the load of the day to day operations so that I can continue to forge the way forward, because that’s my job, and I will keep dreaming. I haven’t lost it. It’s just harder to see right now. So then, after a month, right I started seeing because of taking these individual steps, just the next step that I could see. I had no idea what the step was going to be afterwards, but I could tell what, at least the step that I could do today. And that’s an important question to ask yourself, whenever you feel like there’s no way outs, whenever you feel like there’s no path forward, whenever you feel like everything is closing in on you, whenever you feel constrained by stuff that’s happening to you, the question to ask yourself is, what is one thing that I can do today to create. 

Movement, to take action, to keep momentum going. What is one thing that I can do today? That’s it. That’s all that matters. Is that one thing that you could do today, and as soon as you start seeing movement quicker, say, Okay, awesome. Well, that worked. Okay, well, what’s one more thing that I can do this hour? What’s one more thing that I can do this minute? And it starts to accelerate when you just start with that one question, when you feel stuck, what’s one thing that I can do today? That one question is, what got me through this month of turmoil to continue pushing forward, when I felt stuck, when I kept getting doors slammed in my face, when I kept hearing No, that’s the one thing. And then suddenly it was like I started seeing some stuff towards the end of the month, like, like, little wins, little, tiny things that would pop up. And you know what, even if their little wins freaking celebrate them. 

I mean, this is not the time to just keep trudging forward when you’re in this rough spot. You have to recognize the little wins and celebrate those things, because those little wins are what’s going to keep you going. And then the fog starts to clear, and you can actually see that, oh, I just can’t see. Only see my next step right now, or what I can do today. I can actually see what I have to do this week. I can see the next five steps now, because some of these things are falling into place, celebrate those little wins, especially in these times of turmoil, because those will be the energy and the fuel that keeps driving you forward. I don’t care how small it is. Don’t care how small it is. Celebrate those little things, even if it’s with just a glass of scotch, even if it’s with just a high five with one of your teammates, even if it’s just a hug with your partner, celebrate those little wins, especially in your when you’re in the times of struggle and turmoil. That’s what will keep you moving forward. So then, after these little wins that I saw, I started seeing some bigger ones possible, and I started seeing some bigger ones actually happen. And then it was one day I was just sitting down, right after I ate my breakfast, and this phrase came to my mind, and it was like a moment of clarity, and just spreading that fog and able to see things clearly, and I never would have been in this moment if I didn’t do everything that I just told you that works to keep you moving when you could feel stuck. 

And it was this one phrase was, yesterday was the end of everything. Today is the beginning of what’s happening now, as I sat there and let that soak in, yesterday was the end of everything. Today is the beginning of what’s happening now started feel like this amazing energy rise up inside me because all of that stuff. And it was a choice at this point, all of that stuff that had been overcome, it’s like it’s done now. It’s completely done because I started celebrating it, and that celebration allows you to recognize it. It’s been completed, even if it’s just one small little part, it’s been completed, so yesterday, quite literally, and whatever you’re having troubles with right now, you may not have even had any of those little wins yet, but this is still true. This is a factual statement that yesterday was the end of everything, and today is the beginning of what’s happening now. Live in the what’s happening now, not in what has been done or what has ended, because it doesn’t define you anymore. It doesn’t exist anymore. Today is what’s happening now. That’s where you truly live, rather than on the shoulda, coulda, wouldas, as I’ve talked about before, today is what’s happening now, as I got up from this chair, I go shower, this wasn’t a workout day, I remember that it was just almost like a meditation day for me. In the morning, it wasn’t a workout day. It was a it was a day in between my workout days, a shower, going to my closet to grab a shirt, and I see this one shirt. I see this one shirt couple months ago is when I received this shirt as a gift from one of my board members, a director on my board who actually helped build a multi billion dollar company over the past seven years, and now he’s helping me do the same thing. Just absolutely incredible, because as I walk by this I started tearing up, and

it was a couple months ago with all of my board members in front of a group of high level, high net worth entrepreneurs that are doing big things at a group. That I’m a part of, where we announced that we’re now a public company. Just a badass moment for us. And his name’s Darren. Darren Jacklin. You can google him, just an incredible dude in the middle of me, acknowledging and expressing how grateful I am for everybody that’s around me, that supports me, that believes in me, that’s on my board, on my team, with my board, standing at my side. Darren steps out, and he says, Rick, I want to acknowledge you, because you’re the one that put this dream together. You’re the one that we’re following, and you’re the one that we’re enjoying to mentor through this process. And I want to give you this dream. And he hands me this shirt that I put on right then and there, which was billionaire in the making. He got this for me. He labeled me this. 

This wasn’t something I ever looked at myself. He labeled me this billionaire in the making. And as I was walking through my closet, I had not worn this shirt since the day that he gave it to me, and it just so happened that that day, I had a scheduled meeting with him, with another board member, with six other team members that are involved in my capital raise for my public offering. Just absolutely incredible. I pick up the shirt and I put it on and I felt what it meant, because it meant something to Darren to give it to me. You know, every single time that we’re on a call or just a random audio message or something like that, he’ll even tell me he’s like, I believe in you, man, I believe in you. So this wasn’t just a thing that he did and he presented it to me in this public forum so that I could take ownership of it and believe this myself. Because it was almost like I’m not doing this for the money. I’m not doing what I’m doing. I’m actually doing this to help people and build something meaningful and bring value to the world. Quite literally, with this company that I’m building. 

But a byproduct of that, because money is a tool, is that I will be a billionaire. And what’s even more awesome than that, because I told parts of this story on that call that day with my team, who’s running the capital race for me, with a couple of my officers from my public company, and a couple of my board members, and I’m telling them this story. This story, and I’m saying, You know what this shirt really means? It means that, because this happens, because I’m the dreamer, and I keep dreaming, that that means everybody else on this call right now will be millionaires. And then Vlad, who’s amazing, pipes up. He goes, I think I want a shirt Rick that says millionaire in the making, like, dude, I’m gonna make those for you, because just as much as I own this today, and this was an important moment for me to get out of my mental rut that I had already chosen to work on myself. And then I just happened to walk by in my closet and see this shirt that somebody believes in me and believes this is true, and I believe in myself. I just couldn’t see it for a month, and there it is right in front of me again, and I’m going to own it, and I’m going to keep dreaming. You.