Jordan Gross: Finding Daily Happiness

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And that’s from long Island. New York, Jordan is a Northwestern Kellogg school of management graduate, a writer, a coach and speaker, and they multipotentialite having experienced positions in large banks to small startup companies, focused on bringing cheaper Asian delivery food to urban populations.  

And must have he is a corporate refugee turn trailblazer for positive change optimism, and the belief that our daily actions can help us all overcome stress and anxiety. Thanks for jumping on Jordan. Oh, thank you so much for having me I’m excited for the conversation today. So a multipotentialite is quite, quite the word there.  

Yeah. I stumbled over that. The first few runs. So that’s a very brag worthy word there. Yes. So that’s actually one of my new favorite words. I only learned that this year and I was like, I have to put it in my bio because it literally sums me up in one word. D are you familiar with the definition? Um, well, I am now.  

Yeah. So it’s, it’s based off of this amazing Ted talk of this woman who said, as a kid growing up, people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. And I said, Astronaut like everybody else. But I also said writer, painter athlete, musician, and she was told that that wasn’t okay, that she shouldn’t have all of these interests and passions.  

And then she, she kept questioning that for the rest of her life. And then she finally grew up and realized that there were people who had a lot of different interests and weren’t afraid to go out into the world and pursue them, those interests. So she. Along with probably some other people coined the term.  

Multipotentialite these people who really have a breadth of interest and are not afraid to go out into the world and experience them. So that’s really what I’ve been trying to do. Yeah. Good for you. Well, why don’t you give us a little background on what it is exactly that you do. Yeah. So I, uh, I came from the corporate world, so I, I kind of had a life that was going through the motions ever since high school.  

So I started out, I was, I was a good student and I was a good athlete. So I was captain of the soccer team. And then the next logical step was, Oh, go play soccer in college. So went to a good school. I played soccer there for the first year. And then after that, It was, you know, you have to go and get a good internship and finance and people would tell me, you know, go, go into investment banking, go into consulting.  

So I tried both those out. Uh, didn’t love them. So I was figuring out what was next. After, after that, I decided to pursue a master’s degree where I got a master’s in management studies from Kellogg, um, out in Chicago. And then after that, the logical next step was heading into a prestigious role in, in the business world.  

So I joined a big restaurant group in this, uh, big time leadership and development position. And I was, you know, I had a stable job. I had a job that other people wanted. I was making a good amount of money. Um, but nothing really felt right to me. You know, I took a step back and just figured out that this was not the path that I wanted to take.  

I wasn’t making the impact that I wanted. To make on other people. So I dropped everything with no plan and I ended up writing a book on overtime, stress and anxiety with powerful morning routines. So there, I was kind of just talking to people about this book. I wrote, I started speaking about it. Started traveling a little bit and then coaching people on it.  

And then for the last year and a half or so, I’ve been doing that. And then, uh, it’s led into this new opportunity, which is a new book concept and a new business that I just started calling cloud nine living. And, uh, the book is called the journey to cloud nine and am trying to relay similar sentiments about living optimally. 

 And it’s all about how you can find moments of happiness and euphoria in your daily life. And what are some of the. More transformative life experiences. We all need to encounter in order to truly feel like we are on cloud nine. So, what is it that, um, I like how you outlined, where you went through life.  

Uh, but when you say that, you know, you realize this wasn’t your thing and, and you now talk to people about overcoming stress. So what were your stresses and what was the breaking point that made you take a step back and go, Hey, I think I want to take a different path. Yeah. So I would attribute this to two key things here.  

And the first key is all about energy. Right. So the stress wasn’t really like a traditional stress. It wasn’t like, Oh, I’m scared for this big presentation at work, or I’m scared to have my bosses. It was more so just the stress of waking up and not feeling super energized to get involved in what I was doing for in the restaurant world.  

It was about 15 hours a day. Right. So 15 hours a day, I was not. Eager and excited to go and do work. Then there was something definitely wrong. And then the second component is also had to do with energy, but more so about passion, right? So I was truly passionate about things that I was working on on the side of work.  

I was writing a little bit, I was involved in helping other startups bunnies with my business background. Um, so I was so much more, uh, pumped up to do these things. Then go to my. My five to 8:00 PM job. So those were really the two key quote unquote stresses that allowed me to understand, ah, it’s probably time to make a change if I’m not feeling super charged, going into what I’m spending the majority of my day doing.  

Yeah. Was, was there a noticeable, a memorable point where it was either too much of the day job? Or just starting to get enough excitement of the sidewalk. So like, was it the burnout on the one or the excitement of the other that really made you go, okay, I’m going to make the jump. Yeah, it’s so funny. You asked that.  

And for me, I like to say that my light bulb or my aha moment was actually understanding that I didn’t need to have a light bulb moment or not hot moment. So what I mean by that is. Hearing all these people in the personal growth and development world, like I was listening to a lot of podcasts at the time.  

I was reading a lot of books, hearing them say that it took X to occur for me to make a change, right. Or this tragedy beauty occurred in my life. And it was then that I noticed I had to really make an impact in the world. For me, it was the understanding why should I wait for the perfect or imperfect alignment of the stars?  

Right now I have a real, I have a realization that things are not right, how they’re supposed to be. So I think before they really get to a point where I need need to make a change, I’m going to do this because I really want to make the change. That’s really cool, because a lot of times, especially with newer entrepreneurs, it’s a common topic with other guests where we talk about how you just need to start, just start.  

And so it’s cool to see, um, you know, hear about your experience, where or you to recognize that. Yeah. Nope. So when you go and you talk to these people and you help them out. So as you said, you like, you have the stock or you can help people deviate from the norm and you want to help them import, uh, you know, discover the importance of a sense of purpose.  

So when you have these discussions with people, Where do you start and how do you, how do you work with them? Yeah, of course. So for me, it’s all about meaning and purpose and fulfillment, right? So happiness is a great factor to get there. And sometimes it may seem like I’m all about happiness, but I truly think that meaning and purpose and fulfillment comes more from a full range of experiences and emotions.  

Right. So that’s just a little precursor and then I’ve actually developed a little bit of a strategy. It’s a four-part strategy in order to help people understand what exactly it is. That’s going to light them up and allow them to feel like they’re on cloud nine. So first and foremost, I’m huge into self awareness and self and self care.  

So we are not going to be able to make true realizations and understandings of ourself, um, in any process that we go about doing until we are truly feeling our best. So I’m big into meditation. I’m big into what I put into my body, healthy eating. So my first book was called getting comfy and comfy. Is this five step routine.  

Stands for calm, openness movement, funny in you that you practice every day to get yourself into the right mindset for approaching the rest of your year journey. So that’s really step one. Is, is that self awareness piece? Step two, two is a trial period and I am big into exploration. And a conversation.  

So exploring what it is in the world that is going to light you up. So if you love sports, then you go out to sporting conferences and sporting events. See what pieces of that experience, uh, are really. Allowing you to, to learn and grow and develop and understand, because obviously this is a professional ambition.  

You’re going to have to apply it to the professional world. So it’s really about learning through other people. A lot of relationship building, uh, with the people who I work with, you have to have at least five conversations a week. With strangers, uh, just learning about what they do and how you can sort of incorporate what they do into what you want to do.  

Next. The third piece is where it deviates from a lot of other people, and I actually place a tremendous amount of emphasis on failure. So this is what I call the error period. So it’s the opposite of trying things that you do, like. It’s going out into the world and trying things that you don’t like, right?  

Say you, you hate dancing, right? Yeah. You go and you take a dance class and you figure out what, in that dance class you, you enjoyed. Right. And you’re the key here is not to go out and become a dancer. I mean, maybe some people want to be, to become a professional dancer yeah. After, but the key is to really take away the transferable skills and the experiences that you had.  

From that dance class, you know, like, did you enjoy being in an environment where there were people around you? Did you enjoy being in an environment where there was an instructor, instructor pushing you? Right. So that’s really what you’re trying to take away when you’re going through all of these experiences.  

Um, and then four is, uh, background in leadership, coaching, executive leadership coaching. And I learned under this guy, his name is Marshall Goldsmith, and I learned a process called stakeholder centered coaching, which basically just enrolls all of the stakeholders in our lives, our friends, our family, our direct reports.  

Cause I was working with leaders, our colleagues, our mentors, and we asked them a set of questions about. Ourselves, because so often what I find is that the, our best skills and attributes may be right here in front of our face, but we don’t realize that because we think it comes naturally to us. So that’s really, the last piece is understanding from your friends, from the people in your sphere of influence, uh, what they think are some of your best traits.  

And then after those four things, there’s really a deep dive into picking out the components of all of these learnings that you’ve. Uh, you’ve undergone for yourself and applying them into what’s going to be next for you. So as you work with these people, I imagine there’s a pretty diverse, uh, you know, backgrounds across all these people.  

Are there any stories from these people that you’ve worked with that really stand out? Yeah, totally. So one story that really highlights, it’s just how, how simple this process could end up being is I was working with somebody who had a great job and they were, they were quote unquote deviating from the norm.  

They had their own startup and everything was going right, pursuing a passion project, but the work didn’t feel as meaningful and fulfilling as it should. So through this four step process. So, you know, getting comfy with who he was through the process of exploration error, and then, uh, enrolling stakeholders and talking to other people, we realized that all this person needed.  

Throughout their day to day lives to, to feel this cloud nine euphoria was a one hour gym session. And every time that this person skipped the gym their day and their work did not feel meaningful, but every time this person video to the gym, it was a great day. So we finally understood that and we realized that moving forward, this person had to implement a simple one hour gym session into every single day, no matter what.  

So I don’t know how all of you are, but you look young. I don’t know if you just had a baby face 24, 24. Okay. So do you meet resistance from older people that you work with? The wonder, what type of wisdom? Somebody so much younger can bring to them? Yes. I have a, it’s actually led to not working with some people because I don’t have the quote, unquote experience or the life experience that I need in order to give advice to which I would just say that that’s fair. 

You know, I can’t work with everybody and teach their own, you know, if, if I was 50 years old and looking for somebody to work with, one-on-one. I don’t know how I’d feel. Maybe I would want somebody who was older than me or somebody who had gone through the same exact kind of life experiences to guide me along the way.  

What I would, what I would also say is this, I would say that. In in having these conversations with people, uh, at the very core, when we dig deeper, when we ask why, why, why, why, which is something I so often do asking why fi four or five times a lot of our problems are all rooted in the same fundamental.  

Components the same pieces. Right. So if you’re talking about, you know, one example that’s easy to speak to is, is money, right? So I want them, I want a job where I can make more money. Right. Well, why do you want to make more money? Well, I want to make more money so I can have a really nice house. Right.  

Well, why do you want to have a really nice house? Well, because I’ve been on this world for 60 years and think it’s time for me to just have a nice house for so other people know that I was successful in life. Well, why do you want other people to know that? Well, because I value other people’s opinions.  

And why do you value other people’s opinions? Because that makes me feel good. Right? So if you dig deep down, down, down until that. Final thing, you understand that this person is just looking for some sort of validation to look good. And I think whether we’re 60 years old or 24 years old, uh it’s, it’s, it’s really the same way as to go about how to entering that question.  

Sure. Yeah. That makes sense. So you talked about how you’re big on routines. What exactly is your morning routine? Yeah. I love that. So glad you did that. And I always like to do this in a fun way. If you want, if you want. Sure. Um, I’ll walk you through, uh, I’ll walk you through the comfy methodology. You’re ready.  

I’m ready. Take a deep breath just in, through your nose and out three and a half. I’ll do it with you. Alright.  

That’s literally the first part of my morning routine, the CN comfy stands for calm. And basically when we wake up, so many of us are feeling anxious approaching the rest of the day. You know, that alarm goes off and it startles us. Right. We jumped. Uh, but the first thing that I like to do and that I recommend people do is to really get yourself into a place of calm.  

And I do that by taking a deep breath. Um, you know, other people like to meditate, they like to do a little bit of yoga, like to stretch all things I’ve done in the past. But for me right now, I think deep breath is just something that gives me a great entryway into the rest of the day. Are you still lying down when you take this?  

Are you up and out of it? No, no, no, no, no. Sorry. I skipped a step. That’s not part of the comfy and that is two feet on the floor. Two feet on the floor, right? When the alarm goes off in a great way to ensure that you put the two feet on the floors by putting your alarm somewhere where you can’t reach right.  

When it goes off. Right. So you have to actually stand up and go turn it off. Have you seen, um, Have you seen the alarm clock? I want to say it was a college student came up with it a couple of years ago. It rolls. So when it goes off, it just takes off like you have to get out of bed. Oh no, I have to see that.  

No, that’s so funny. I thought you were going to say. I thought you were going to either say the alarm clock that smelled like bacon or the alarm clock where the bed just like, contorts you right in the bed actually forces you to get up. Cause it like it’s, I think it’s, as soon as the video, I don’t think it’s real, but no, I like, I like that a lot that it just runs away from you.  

Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s often running. Like you got to get out of bed. That’s funny. That’s so funny. All right. So we got it. We got two feet on the floor or we do our breasts. Okay. Then we have, Oh, so let me ask you this. Um, just name me something that you accomplish today. Um, I took a nap. I haven’t taken naps and why.  

Nice, awesome, amazing. So as simple as that O stands for openness, and you could either be open with another person like you and I just did, you can, you know, send a text message to somebody saying, Hey, you know, I’m grateful for you. Right. And you’re just opening up to, to that person. Or you could open up to yourself by journaling, right?  

So you could write down things you’ve accomplished. Can write down things that you’re grateful for. You can write down things that you’re scared of. Um, it’s really just a way to get things out of your mind at the beginning of the day and out into the world, right? Yeah. So that’s O M M. You know, uh, um, if you want to do it.  

Yeah, you can. If not, not, but just, you know, I jog in place for five seconds. I just get the mind right. Going, I get the body going. I work. Yeah. A little sweat sometimes. So sometimes it’s five minutes rather than five seconds, but I’m doing a quick rendition right now. Uh, so movement and this is a popular one.  

Obviously we hear all the time, how important exercises for our bodies. For me, it’s not even so much about the physicality of it. It’s more to wake up my brain. Um, so that’s, that’s why movement so important in the morning. And that can be in the form of jogging, walking, uh, doing a weightlifting session, a class, you know, all these different things are all perfect ways to move in the morning.  

F uh, F is where I haven’t seen a lot of people stress this in the morning, but for me, it’s F stands for funny. So laughing and smiling is so social important because at the end of the day, I think yes, serious things in life do occur. And a lot of us are undergoing very serious circumstances in serious occasions, but, uh, the best way to respond to them rather than react is by not taking ourselves too seriously.  

So by waking up and I call it creating a PNN, a positive news network. Rather than, you know, flipping on CNN where we find news that’s traumatic and devastating. I think we’ll go into the day feeling much more positive and optimum. So that’s, that’s the F and then finally is the Y and Y stands for you or your passion or your choice.  

So it is whatever you want to work on that has nothing to do with work. It is something that truly you wake up and want to do rather than have to do. So that’s how you close out. The morning routine is a, is totally coming full circle and realizing that the morning is a time for you to be yourself and to develop yourself rather than, uh, you know, have the rest of the day control you.  

You know, it’s, it’s interesting that, that you, when you talked about effort, funny saying a lot of people don’t focus on that earlier, when you were talking before you just broke it down, like you did now is the one that stood out. I thought that was a thing in, so I’m glad we got to go over that. Yeah. You know, sometimes I do.  

Um, yeah, I’ll do the morning routine where I get up and exercise and, and a lot of times where we’re just coming out of winter and getting into spring and summer, um, Up on the treadmill, I’ll set up the laptop and I’ll, I’ll do the virtual runs on the beach. I take my mind away from the winter, but it’s great.  

But one time I switched it up and I was like, why don’t I watch, um, why don’t I watch something? And so I was watching Netflix and I watched, I watched, I can’t remember who it was, but I watched a comedian. Yeah, I felt noticeably different than like both are great. I feel good doing the beach and I feel good watching the country, but there was a noticeable difference in the type of feel good that I had gone down the funny route.  

Yeah, isn’t that amazing. Right. And then it’s just, you know, you, you, you go into the rest of the day more laid back, you know, you’re laughing. You’re, you’re just realizing that there’s so much, so much happiness that there is out there, you know, it’s, it’s not all, it’s not all bad. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, you’re a TEDx speaker.  

Is that right? Yeah. So I gave my first talk on April 5th, also. Just recently. Yeah, just recently. Okay. Cool. So tell us through, um, you know, for, for the listeners that don’t know what TEDx is, why don’t you give us a background on that? And then, uh, why don’t you give us kind of the summary of, of what you talked about?  

Yeah, we’d love to, so TEDx stance, uh, Ted stands for technology, education and design, and Ted is this years old. Decades, old company. It’s a nonprofit where they’re trying to share ideas with the world. Their, their slogan is ideas worth spreading. So basically for a nonprofit, it’s sort of like a franchise model, I guess, in which you can create a had X event.  

If you have, you know, like a auditorium space or something like that, and you get speakers to come and give a talk based on the theme that you want to relate to your audience and you invite these speakers and they have, uh, anywhere from 18 minutes or less to share an idea worth spreading. So I ended up doing a talk in Clinton, New York at Clinton middle school, which was actually a really unique TEDx event because it was adult speaker like, like myself. 

And then after it was actually a seventh grade speaker. So you got to see the different perspectives, but also the overall themes that we are, we’re trying to relate to people and, and there’s no difference, you know? So, uh, that was really cool. And my talk that day was about getting comfortable outside of your comfort zone.  

So again, in this world of, of learning and growing, we so often hear the phrase, you know, progress is at the edge of your comfort zone, right? Like comfort is the enemy of progress you have to get, get outside your comfort zone. And I couldn’t agree more. I, you know, that’s, that’s a great sentence, but I think often we lack the, how.  

So, how do we get outside of our comfort zone? You know, jumping out of an airplane is terrifying. You need stuff, sort of preparation. Yeah. Tool and tactic in order to build yourself up and get again, the confidence necessary to jump out of that airplane. So for me, I, I split the talk into three parts. The first part was getting comfortable in your own skin.  

And obviously based off of the comfy routine, this was all getting comfy in your own skin. So really it was that, that way in which we are in tune with who we are self-awareness and taking ownership of who we are. So that was part one. And then part two was once you’re comfortable in your own skin, you have to deliberately get.  

Uncomfy. So how can you do this? You know, not, not yet. How can you do this? But basically just this, this push that if you feel good with yourself, the only way you’re going to continue to grow is if you start to feel a little bit like uncomfy with yourself. Yeah. And then the last part was getting comfy.  

With the uncomfy. Right? So that last piece is actually the five steps that aren’t just a morning routine for me it’s before anything that feels like it could be stress or anxiety inducing it’s before, you know, I got comfy right before my TEDx talk, public speaking, I did my little routine before a big meeting.  

You have a little routine, it’s like a pregame ritual and that’s how you can truly. Feel more confident getting outside of your comfort zone. So what else is cool about Jordan for our listeners is the way him and I connected is he’s doing 90 podcasts in 90 days, which is a crazy undertaking. And you know what?  

So, um, I, I recorded another episode with, um, a woman named Kathleen gage just yesterday. Okay. And she’s a big podcaster. And she had given a timeframe about however many podcasts in a year. And I said, yeah, I’m talking to this guy tomorrow. Who’s doing 90 and 90 and Kathleen 65, like her world is podcast.  

She does them on both sides of the mic. Yeah. Even her and her experience level was just amazed that you’re taking on 90 and 90. Wow. That’s great to know. Thank you. Why don’t you, you know, what’s, what’s the, how did you get to the idea of doing 90 and 90 and what’s the goal with it? Yeah. Yeah, that’s a great place to start.  

So the idea came about through this cloud nine journey that I’m on this cloud nine living company, this journey to cloud, right. And book. And I basically said, okay, okay, here I am at this number nine, but in the words of grant Cardone  so nine became 90. And that’s how that number stuck. And then I said, okay, how long is it going to take me to do 90 pods?  

Yes. 90 days. And it was that simple. So there wasn’t really too much else involved with the thought, but I kind of just said to myself, if I really want to start this, if I really want to get the word out there about cloud nine, I’m going to have to talk about it all the time. And I think a great way to talk about it is by doing it on podcasts, because so many people are interested in having these conversations with me on the phone about it.  

And while you and I are talking about the journey to cloud nine, why not present it to a larger audience? So that’s what the thought process was behind doing podcasts. And that’s funny. Yeah, go ahead. Good now. Got you. Go ahead and continue. Okay. Sorry. I was going to say the overall goal with it is yes.  

Sure. There’s obviously I would love for the most amount of people possible to experience their own versions of their cloud nine lives. Um, but really the secondary goal is to show the, the resilience and the grit and the. You know, I hate using cliche words, but the hard work it takes to start something, to start a movement from scratch to start something from the ground up.  

Um, and this podcast journey is how I’m going to show that. What have you learned? Um, I’ll ask you, what have you learned in two different ways? The first one is what have you learned in. The logistics and trying to tackle doing 90 and 90. And then as you’ve started the journey, what, what have you learned as you’ve begun?  

Yes. Okay. So obviously organization was key here. Um, but I I’ll sort of walk you through for anybody else. Who’s wanting to go on podcasts. I’ll walk you through exactly what I did. So I have a pretty nice sizable presence on LinkedIn. And I use the search filter. I just typed in host, uh, and that came up with 500, 4,000 connections, right?  

500, 4,000 people. So then I filtered that down to first connections and it was 546, I think. So I exported that those 546 people and into, into an Excel spreadsheet. And I started looking through all the podcasts and I sort of just rank them based off of whether or not I would be a good. Fit to talk about cloud nine and my journey and, and everybody else’s journey to cloud nine.  

So I decided at the beginning of April that I would reach out to 10 people a day. Right. Which out to 10 people? Well, a day in 30 days, I get to 300 people. Hopefully I have, I can’t do the math in my head right now, but I hear people. Yeah. I’ll get some sort of percentage where 90 of them will say yes. Um, so that’s where I did.  

And I think the main things I learned. First and foremost in the outreach process was to be personable and an authentic, you know, I was, uh, I’ll, I’ll be totally person. Uh, I’ll be totally generous. I’m with you. I copied and pasted the middle of just what I was doing. So I didn’t have to keep writing it in a different way to everybody.  

But that first paragraph where I was reaching out, I did my research about what you’re doing and what the podcast hosts. Arguing with their podcast, you know, it was, I love what you’re doing here. I’ve noticed that this person is your guest. Uh, I have actually listened to this person speak before, right?  

So there was a sense of personalization where I think people were really, uh, pleased to see that I did. So it wasn’t just sending this, this nonsense message to them. So that was number one. And number two. Uh, what I’ve learned as well is that it takes a lot of persistence in outreach as well. So I had three columns, one was contact number one, one was contact number two, and one was contact number three.  

So stay seven days after I contacted somebody the first time I would go into contact number two and reach out to them again, making sure they had seen them message or, you know, just checking to see if, if they were interested. Um, so that was another big thing was persistence there. And then to answer your second question, what have I learned now that it’s started?  

Is that a, just because I’ve started the podcast journey doesn’t mean the hard work is over now. Again, it’s that personalization process before each interview, I’m doing at least 30 minutes of prep work, looking into who the guests have been on, on the shows, looking into the interview styles, looking into how I can relay my information in the best way possible to whatever show that I’m on.  

So there’s obviously this huge component of just, you know, authenticity that goes into all of this and being, you know, my best version of myself to present to the audience that I’m speaking to. Yeah. I think the personal personalization goes a long way, uh, especially for, um, And, and it’s not even just for podcasts, but even the listeners that do email marketing or outreach or just anything, you know, when you reached out it’s, it’s exactly, as you said, you know, once you’ve done enough of these, you can tell that the, the first line or two is personalized.  

And then for the same, for the understandable reasons, you don’t want to write a novel every time. Yeah. The fact that the, the recipient can identify that there’s been some genuine effort made and then. They’re accepting of the other part. That’s more, you know, cookie cutter. Yeah. And that’s how it works. I actually remember very clearly writing you back on.  

Wow. This is cool. This guy doing 90 and 90. That’s pretty. Yeah. Yeah, that was your message. And, and the, the, the other thing that I’ve learned two is everybody’s going to be different, right? So you were excited, you were on board to, to just, you know, have me on your show. Other people I’ve had to go through like multiple phone calls to see if I was the right fit.  

Right. And it’s about taking each process seriously and being grateful for each one. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. What I was gonna say earlier, what, it’s funny that you mentioned grant Cardone, because I just talked with him yesterday. He did, he did a, just a little quick video for me and, um, cause I have a book coming out and so he chatted about the book and he was funny.  

He’s he’s doing his little selfie and um, It’s like really dark lighting at first. And so he goes, Oh man, I feel like I’m in jail and they get Savage blocks around it. So it’s funny, these little candid snippets of somebody behind the polished videos. Yeah. That’s so funny, but yeah, that’s awesome. What’s your book going to be about?  

Uh, my world is SEO, so it’s a book about SEO. Failure. Yeah. So, um, you know, if you had to summarize what has contributed most to your success, what would you say that is? Can you pin it down to something. Support system, definitely the support system. And first and foremost, I have to start with my parents.  

Um, they’re they can not be more in my corner as to what I decided to do, giving up, you know, a stable job and a stable life for total uncertainty. They’re my biggest fans. They’re my biggest supporters. They would help me as much as they possibly could, but unfortunately, a lot of what I’m doing, um, They can’t do so they’re my number one.  

Uh, and support comes in many different ways. If it’s not parents for people, maybe it’s a spouse. Maybe it’s, you know, children, maybe it’s a relative. Uh, but for me, it’s also come from mentors. So having a close knit group of mentors, people who I can look up to yeah. By mentors, I don’t even mean somebody.  

I necessarily know. Right. So at first my mentors were like, you know, if you’ve heard of the book the miracle morning by Hal Elrod. Yeah. I just heard, um, uh, like four or five days ago. Yeah. Okay. Funny. So, right. Like he was a mentor of mine when I first started out on this whole journey. Uh, fortunately enough, I’ve been able to actually.  

Meet him. And now he’s like a real mentor mentor in the classic sense of the word, but it’s about finding people who you can look up to who have gone through what you want to do and whose journey you could take bits and pieces of in order to implement into what you’re doing. Right? So it’s about finding those people who are, are on your team, whether they are right in your immediate sphere of influence or whether you want them to be in the future.  

So it’s all about the support. So with your parents supporting you did so that’s great that they’re supportive. Um, yeah. Did they have any, w they at any point, the ones that, so you, you went through the traditional timeline of education and college and growth. Did they fund any of that? Like, did they pay for college?  

And so was there any point where they were, obviously you want to support your kids, but there’s any point, did you get this little hand that they’re like, what did we pay for all that college? For. Yes. So I, again, I, gratitude is one of my biggest things and I’m so fortunate and blessed to have been in a position where my parents did pay for my entire education.  

Um, and I couldn’t be more grateful for that at certain moments, I would say maybe one. Maybe once, because the second I quit my job, there was a little bit of uncertainty because I didn’t have a plan. So maybe in the beginning it was like, what did we pay for, uh, you know, your education foreign business.  

If you’re going to be a writer, all of a sudden, or what did we pay for these suits for you to wear, if you’re going to go wear a tee shirt and shorts every day? Um, so there were small things like that, but I think the role of a parent, what I’ve noticed. And why I consider my parents the best in the world is because.  

Uh, they can tell me what to do and have their own opinions and guidance on what they think I should be doing. But the second I make a decision and decide to do something else. They switched from director to support, right. And immediately when I made that decision. There were no, there was no looking back.  

There was no regrets. There’s no hesitations. It was okay. You’re on this path now and what can we do to help you? So I think that was really the moment for me. That’s a little,  like, these are the people I need in my corner. And if there’s nobody else in the world, I’m okay. Because I’ve got these two biggest fans.  

Um, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we’ve talked about all this cool stuff, this growth and success. So let’s talk about, um, one of the reference points. He said, uh, you were locked out of your office in a corporate job, so what’s that all about? Yeah. So I guess if I did have to attribute an aha moment to why I ended up quitting, my job was this.  

I got locked out of my office role, uh, sorry, story. So at my last role, The background of it is it was a management and leadership program where in the restaurant world, it was about being hands on and the operational day to day. So I would get to the, the restaurant when lunch started around 11:00 AM.  

And I wouldn’t leave because I had to be the last one there to do the end of the day paperwork, make schedules, count the money. And that sometimes when, until like four or five o’clock in the morning. So there I was all by myself in this ghost-like restaurant at the time. Um, and I had just come out of the freezer where I was counting.  

Neat. Okay. So there I was counting meet I’m in a full. Suit and tie, and I’ve got these meat gloves on, like I think probably. And, uh, I had to go back the office and put the meat inventory into a spreadsheet. It was a pretty big deal for what we were doing. Um, but the one thing I didn’t realize was that I had locked the door to the office and I was the only person in the restaurant at the time.  

And I couldn’t get in. So I’ve never been one to wedge locks or anything like that, that, um, and I, I locked myself out. So there I was four 30 in the morning sitting outside of the one place in the world I needed to be at that time was in front of that computer writing in the spreadsheet. So I can send out the email to all the higher ups.  

Um, I was just sitting on the floor, waiting for somebody to come. I think they’re coming at like five 30 or six to let me in let little poor old me in. Um, way after I had to send out this email anyway, so it was already, you know, no I’d already, I was already going to get a demerit, but, uh, I was just sitting on my phone thinking about what I could do in that moment.  

And I thought about my comfy Richie and I was like, okay, how can I make this funny? Like, how could I smile? How can I turn this situation into something? That’s going to be a hilarious story moving forward. So I started watching these. Um, I started watching these videos about, I actually started watching Ted talks and I was watching this Ted talk about, um, just really, uh, having these lollipop moments throughout the day or moments where you feel like you can have an impact on other people.  

And I realized that for me, I wasn’t impacting other people in the way that I wanted in this restaurant position. I was on a restaurant in park Avenue, in New York city with these, you know, corporate businessmen, literally like feeding the rich when my whole, my whole purpose I think is, is to, for lack of a better term feed the poor, like really make an impact on people who need it the most.  

So it was in that moment that I realized, like, what am I doing sitting here in this restaurant about to type meat, count into an Excel sheet when I should be out there in the world making a true difference. Uh, so that was the moment where I really, you know, decided I think this is my time I was up here and I should really go do something else.  

No. That’s a great story. Yeah. We start to wrap up. Um, I want to touch on one more thing. You mentioned offline. I asked if, if there’s any advice you had or something you could tell your younger self, you said that if you think about it every single day, do it now, could you kind of elaborate on that? Yeah.  

Uh, so I think the best story for this is, is I was on a run, uh, actually, uh, rewind a little bit more. So this guy named Peter Shankman, he started a company called help a reporter out, and now he’s, he’s a keynote speaker. He speaks all over the world. He gave a talk at a company that I’m involved with called next gen.  

It’s like a young entrepreneurs group. And at the next gen summit, he gave this amazing speech. And at the end of it, he said, I’m here to help any you guys. Here’s my email, here’s my phone number, but you’re going to do it on my terms. And my terms is five o’clock in the morning in central park, in New York city.  

Uh, I’ll be out on a run and you could have 45 minutes of my time if you’re willing to come out and go on. Yeah. Run with me. Wow. So there I was out in this morning routine, you know, uh, enthusiasts and I said, this is my perfect opportunity. So I texted him the next day. I said, Hey, I would love to meet you for Ronnie said in two weeks, meet me at four 45 in the morning at central park, I got out there, we met four 45, started running.  

I had 45 minutes to run with the guy and just, you know, pick his brain. And I was actually at the point. In my entrepreneurial journey where I was thinking about maybe going back to the corporate world. Right. But I wasn’t, I was by no means thinking about it every day. But what I was thinking about every day was how much I could help people by, by writing this new book, all about cloud nine.  

Right. So he started asking me questions and he basically said, um, You know, are you homeless? I said, no. He’s like, you people love you. I said, no. He’s like, do people support you? I was like, yes, of course. And he was like, are you hungry? I was like, no. And then he fired. It was just like, is there something on your mind that you can’t stop thinking about every single day?  

And I was like, yeah, they’re actually, he is. And he’s just like, so what the heck? Like what the heck else is there to think about. Right. Like, do that thing, do that one thing that you can’t get off your mind or else you’re going to constantly live the rest of your life with fear of the, what if I’m and you don’t want to live your life like that.  

Cause that leads to the stresses and anxieties. Yeah. Um, uh, I was reading recently, Jeff Bezos has, um, he calls it their regret minimization framework and that’s how he decided to start Amazon as he had this great job, he went to his boss and he said, Hey, I’m thinking about starting this internet thing.  

Um, and, and, and he said it was really hard decision cause he had a great career. And so he wanted to come up with a framework to make his decision. Yeah. So he realized the best way to answer that was my fast forward to when I’m 80. Yeah. You know, which choice would I potentially regret? And he said after that, it was super easy for him to decide.  

Yup. Yup. I love that so much. I actually think I heard him talk about that in a podcast interview where he said, you know, the, the number one thing people do talk about on their deathbeds is the things that they didn’t do rather than the things that they did do that their biggest regret are all the things they didn’t do rather than the things that they actually went out and did for sure.  

In the world. So, yeah. Yeah. That’s absolutely, you know, I say in my Ted talk, I said that. My greatest fear in the world. Something that, you know, may not be able to happen is if on the last day, on this earth, the peop the person who I became, where to meet the person who I could have become. Right. I think that terrifies me to think that I can go through life going through the motions and being average or safe.  

Yeah. That’s a great analogy. Yeah. Well, I want to give you an opportunity to put out any contact information, uh, more or just, you know, whatever message you want to put out. Yeah. So I’ll keep this really simple, uh, journeytocloudnine.com. That’s everything spelled out. J O U R N E Y T O C L O U D nine.com.  

Okay. And find everything you need about what I’m up to now, what I’ve been up to in the past, and really allow yourselves to interpret what cloud nine living means for you and how you can experience true happiness and euphoria. So head over there, my email’s on there. If you want to get in touch with me, um, And I always answer.  

So feel free to reach out Jordan. I appreciate your time. Uh, last thing is we surprise our guests with a random question generator. So I don’t know you did your research. So I don’t know if you know it’s coming so yours. Let’s fire it up here. Wrong button. So yours is, if you were the opposite gender for one day, what would you do?  

Oh, wow. Um, what would I do? It’s a great question. I probably do a lot of the same except, uh, I guess go to a different bathroom. I think my life would look very much. I don’t like, if you have another one, we could do another one. Cause I don’t know. I actually really liked that line because I was like, sometimes they’re, they’re pretty easy questions to answer.  

They’re odd ones. And that one, I was like, yeah, I don’t know what I’d say to that one either. Yeah. Okay. Arden grass. I appreciate your time. It’s been a pleasure. Hey, thanks so much, David. It’s been awesome. Thank you.