I’ve recently been doing a lot of podcasts and interviews sharing my experiences as a professional fighter. I’ve been fortunate to gain some extremely valuable insight from the sport, and it’s my passion to share this knowledge with others.

As the saying goes, “All ships rise in a high tide.”

By sharing my successes and failures, I can encourage and teach others how to succeed in their own lives; to avoid some of the mistakes I’ve encountered; to do better than I’ve done.

When the tide is high, we all benefit. The world becomes a fuller place with happier people.

One of the questions I am most often asked is, “What can someone who is stuck in a rut or just plain afraid to take a chance do to accomplish their goals? What can they do to get started?”

Well…

It’s not sitting on the couch.

It’s not telling your friends about your idea.

And it’s not thinking about your idea.

IT’S TAKING ACTION. It’s doing one little thing. It’s making a chronological list of all the things that need to be done to get where you want to go and doing step one. It’s that simple. But most of us won’t do it because we want more. We want something juicier, something fancier. We want to get dressed up or buy a new gadget.

We choose not to do it because it sounds too simple.

Let’s take a look…

I wanted to become a professional speaker. I wanted to become a corporate speaker. Here is the starting point of my most recent corporate speaking event…

One lonely day, while working from home, I googled “speaking organizations.” Through my Internet travels, I came across the Beating the Odds Foundation. I looked up a contact email and emailed them. They responded and we set up a call. Turns out, they are located in Central PA and the founder, Rocco Scalzi grew up in Altoona, PA, right near my hometown. Growing up, Rocco was part of the small, tight knit group of Italians that my mother was part of; they actually knew each other growing up. Rocco’s parents knew my grandparents.

Rocco’s best friend, Rocco Alieniello’s, dad was in my grandparent’s wedding. We hit it off. Through Rocco’s organization, Beating the Odds Foundation, I spoke at the Hollidaysburg Jr. High, and it went extremely well. Turns out, Rocco’s friend, Rocco Alieniello, is the President (Western PA) of US Foods. US Foods was having a corporate event in March and they were looking for a speaker. Rocco asked Rocco (confusing, yes) if he knew of any good speakers. He (Scalzi) was impressed with my performance at Hollidaysburg and suggested that I speak at US Foods. Rocco Alieniello trusted in his friend’s judgement, and, alas, I’m a professional corporate speaker. One little email started it all. (100 other emails went unanswered, but it only takes one).

Things don’t just happen. You have to MAKE THEM HAPPEN.

You make them happen by TAKING ACTION.

Create ideas. Plant seeds. DO SOMETHING!

Weekly Updates

  • My book, Driven: My Unlikely Journey from Classroom to Cage is now available on Kindle. Get it here!
  • I recently sat down with bestselling author Hal Elrod for his “Achieve Your Goals” podcast. Listen here!

Thank you all for reading and have a great day!

Spaniard