Todd Baker - Fueling Your Fire for Lasting Change
In this purposeful episode, host Jill interviews Todd Baker, founder of Project Nine Life, which focuses on guiding individuals towards transformative change. Todd's coaching approach centers around providing a framework for setting achievable goals and consistent progress, allowing individuals to achieve their own definitions of success.
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Transcript
Hi and welcome to the You World Order Showcase podcast. Today we are talking with Todd Baker. Todd is the founder of Project Nine Life nine steps towards a whole new life. And while I was looking around on his website, this quote from William Wallace Braveheart, I knew that.
::Was the name of the movie.
::Every man is born, but few.
::Truly live and I.
::Just kind of reminded me of what you're doing.
::On your, on your website, and what you're doing for people. So welcome to the show, Todd. It's really nice to have you here and tell.
::Us about how you got started.
::Yeah. Thank you, Jill. It's you know.
::The Nice thing is that the whole thing about how I got started was really based on my own personal journey. It was seven or eight years ago, and like most people woke up in January, looked in the mirror.
::And thought, oh God.
::So, I was like I got to lose weight and.
::Like a lot of people, my resolution that year lasted 3 days. I live in Denver, so day four, it's snowing and it's cold and I just. I was like.
::I'm not going.
::Today and instead of just giving up and saying I'll get it next year or something like that, I spent the day really thinking about.
::Like why it was so easy for me to give up and why did I want to?
::Get in better shape and you know to lose weight and you know, like every fifth grade English teacher tells you ask why seven times and then you'll get the right answer. So, I went through that process and.
::What it boiled?
::Down to was. It wasn't even like losing weight. It wasn't a certain number. It was getting.
::Fit and it was getting fit because of my kids, you know, they were. Oh, God, 11 and 912 and 10 or.
::Something like that at that point.
::And they're very active and I did not want to be the dad that.
::Had to sit on the sidelines, couldn't do stuff with them. You know they would come home and say, hey, we want to go camping and I would just give them money and say we'll go like I wanted to be the dad. That was like, they get home and say, hey, we're going camping. I'm like, great, let's.
::Get in the.
::Truck and let's go and truly participate with them.
::In their lives and, you know, just be there for them, participating in all that stuff. And then, you know, I started thinking about, well, this isn't, you know, they're 12:00 and 10:00. They got a lot of years left. And so do I. And so it shifted me from, like, a resolution which is short term.
::And I started thinking like for a lifetime and that's where the fitness came in is.
::You can get fit and you can stay fit for the rest of your lives even after you hit a certain number or feel a certain way. You can continue to do it and you know eventually at some point they have. They'll have kids and I want to be there for the grandkids as well, so that's how it got started and.
::UM.
::You know, and I did not do anything special. I just. I made some small adjustments to my diet and I just started walking every single day and I still walk every single day. And the crazy thing is, is like when you're out and you're active, like, different parts of your brain start to really turn on. And that's where the company and the idea was born is.
::You know, I started thinking like I can't be the only one that's going through this. I can't be the only.
::One that's faced.
::You know I want X, but I'm not there yet and struggles with resolutions or, you know, bucket lists or vision boards that there's no plan. It's just you put them on a piece of paper or a piece of poster board and all you change over is the year I didn't want.
::To be in that state.
::That state. And so I started developing like.
::You know the process behind it and intentionally it is very simple because.
::You know, getting into it.
::Should not be the hard part because you're.
::Going to face challenges?
::It's something new, but it's going to make you uncomfortable, but that's where we all grow. So that's kind of how I got started is, you know my own.
::Personal escapades into getting fit and you know I will say I mean, over the course of a year, I end up.
::Losing 100.
::Pounds. But I didn't care. I just felt better and I could do stuff with my kids. So you know, weight loss always comes with it. But it wasn't the intent.
::This is not really when you're when you're overweight.
::It's a symptom. It's not the problem. It and most people just focus on losing weight instead of fixing the root problem, which is all kinds of things for all kinds of people. But once you get that adjusted, then then the weight falls off and you hit a point that's comfortable.
::It's maintained.
::Yeah, I mean.
::Yeah, my goal was never to like, have a six pack. I mean, I'm 48. You know that that day is long past.
::But I can still maintain my fitness and be active with my kids and friends and you know, feel perfectly comfortable at a beach or whatever, you know, without anything, you know, just I'm good and it's maintainable because it's simple.
::And doing that.
::It actually helps your kids for when you're older as a person who has much older parents. Because I myself am older.
::My parents have taken care of themselves. My, my father-in-law, my dad over the years and they don't have a lot of health challenges right now that a lot of people in their 80s are suffering from and it's because they.
::Started early and they maintain.
::Trained their, they exercised and you don't have to go to the gym and lift a bunch of weights and be super mad when you're older, but you do need to stay mobile. You need to walk at the very least and you know, even if it's just around the block, you need to get out and move your body.
::Your limp system needs it the way we're designed. We're designed to move and it's.
::No, you're absolutely right. And let's face it, I mean, the majority of people in the world today, whenever they set a resolution or whatever, it's one of three categories, it's health, wealth and relationships. And my journey started on health, but my ultimate.
::Goals and what I consider living my best life that's changed. But my inspiration has it. It's still my kids. It's just it's a little bit different than because.
::I'm not trying to get healthy, I am healthy. It's I've. I've established a new level, a new me.
::So that I'm looking for what's next, what's next, what's next? And I think that's what it's a common theme that you see amongst people who are successful and not even talking about monetarily, but just successful people is it's never enough. They're always on the lookout for.
::OK, I got this. What's next?
::And it's a great way to look at things because you, your, your, your head is up, your confidence is high, your energy is higher and you become an attractor, you know, opportunities come to you rather than you having to, you know, bust your behind just seeking.
::You know these?
::Little crumbs and scraps, they just come to you in droves to where you know you say more. You say no 95% of the time because.
::It doesn't align with something that is your where you're going, and that's where you know as a ripple effect. You know, as I was on the journey.
::Of getting health my relationship to my kids went through the roof because I told them what I was doing.
::Why was doing it and why they were important to me that you know that that the reason I was doing it and the.
::That accountability reared its ugly head about 3 weeks in. It was snowing again. Wake up in the morning. I'm cooking breakfast.
::My daughter comes downstairs. She goes. Hey, Dad, are you going for your walk today? And I was like, yeah, I'm going to see what the weather does, but yes, I will go.
::And without even hesitation, she looked me dead in the eye. And she goes. You mean now?
::And I was like.
::Yes, I do. And you know, got dressed and walked out the door because you know it, it showed me tremendously how.
::Yes, it was important to me, but yes, it was.
::Important to them as well.
::Yeah, I.
::I can totally.
::Relate to The Walking in the morning and.
::For me, we have.
::To get it in in the morning.
::Or it doesn't get done.
::And we joke about because I live in Idaho and it snows here too. We talk about the fair weather walkers.
::Where were you when the snow was piled 7 feet deep and the roads were icy?
::Yeah, back in the days where it was, I had to walk to school, uphill, both ways and eight feet of snow. Yeah. OK, but yeah, it's.
::And those days are coming back.
::I mean, you know, the crazy thing is, is like I typically go at the same time every morning. And the more often like, as I got into it and I just, I was consistent. I started to run into the same people and I developed relationships and friendships because I got to know them.
::Like you know it a walk should have taken me an hour. It would take me an hour and a half because I'd stop and talk to people and.
::You know, get to know their names and their dogs’ names and it would spark different questions.
::In the neighborhood, we walked three miles and I know the names of every single dog.
::Oh yeah.
::Yeah, yeah, there was. I had a I had a neighbor. He was new to the neighborhood. He moved in probably, I don't know. Two years after, like, I was walking every day and he was going to mailbox. He walks by and he goes. I'm sorry. He's like we've never met.
::I said I'm taught.
::And he goes, yeah, you're the guy that walks every.
::Day I was.
::Like, Yep, that's me.
::You know, but it's, it's just it was it.
::It created so many opportunities for so many different things that.
::Had nothing to do with, like walking. It was, you know, just your brain turns on and relationships go and opportunities come out of nowhere because you're in a completely different mindset for yourself.
::Yeah, and it's fun and its fun getting to know people and seeing what's going on in your neighborhood and.
::Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, people were not made to spend life alone, you know? I mean, we're.
::Better their television set.
::Yeah, I mean.
::We're it's a community and you know we're social beings and.
::You know, not saying you have to switch from introvert to extrovert, but keeping your head up and saying hi that that really does not take that much effort or uncomfortableness you don't have to stop walking. Just hey and keep going it you know and then.
::You'll get. You'll get.
::Comfortable being uncomfortable and.
::All sudden you'll be taking an hour and a half.
::On an hour walk.
::What are you actually coaching people?
::With right now.
::What is your? What is your main focus?
::Didn't think it was weight loss.
::It it's not, it's.
::So I'm not a I'm not a personal trainer. I'm not a personal financial advisor. I'm not a marriage or relationship coach. But what I do is I give people a framework and a plan.
::For how they can get to those improvements within their own lives, you know, you get 1000 people in a room, you're going to have 1000 different ideas of what that looks like. But the plan is very simple and it starts with just, you know, doing a little bit of homework ahead of time.
::Of figuring out like.
::You know what do.
::You actually want and you know having a, a good mindset and getting out of short term and into long term and finding and asking yourself those tough questions. Why?
::To truly find what your inspiration is, your motivation is external. It's an external factor, right? And it can be fleeting and some days it just doesn't show up or it shows up as a snowstorm. But inspiration is that fire deep inside everyone that it never goes away.
::And I look at it as.
::A snowstorm. I don't care what motivated me in the morning. Like if that was my only thing. A snowstorm is going to really put that fire out quickly. But my inspiration being my kids and being there that never went away because I I'm not feeling my kids and I'm not saying it has to be, you know, your why has to be family.
::Or, you know, kids or anything like that. But ask yourself that question and when you think you've got it, ask one more time and really get down to that nitty gritty of. This is why this is important to.
::I mean.
::So no matter what your goals are, health, wealth, relationship wise.
::It's the framework of the plan is.
::Is laid out very simply and very kind of organized that.
::Puts you on the right path to achieve what you as an individual.
::Want to achieve you know it? It's. I mean, I'm not going to be on camera doing push-ups or, you know, showing you how Bitcoin works or anything like that. But if that's where you want to go and you're not there, I can help people get a plan together that's going to get them.
::Perfect Sir.
::Very underrated in my opinion. If you have the directions, it's easy to get where you want to go. Most people don't even know where to start. They don't even take stock of where they are starting, and so they're hoping something's magically going to happen and they're suddenly going to be transported.
::To this new reality for them. But that doesn't happen either. You have to go through the process. It's a growth process and the journey the road map shows you what the journey.
::Could look like.
::You have to look like that, and it often doesn't look exactly like you think it's going to look. But if you at least have you know the place where you're starting and the place where you want to go, and a rough idea of the steps that you need to go through in order to get.
::To that place.
::You're much more likely to arrive.
::And that's, you know it, it's something that I talk about fairly often during the eight week course that I offer is.
::Your only comparison is to yourself from yesterday. It's not the Joneses, it's not Instagram. It's not Facebook, it's yourself and all you want on a daily basis is to be 1% better.
::And you know people. And I've had clients be like. That's I can do better. I can do.
::More. That sounds too slow.
::But in context I.
::Tell them well.
::Think of it this way, if you're if you get 1%.
::Every single day for one year.
::At the end of a year, you are 37 times better off than you were when you start.
::That's progress and it's achievable because it's not these huge leaps and bounds, it's measurable and it's like I got better today and.
::You know, making improvements doesn't mean that you have to do something different and dramatic. Sometimes you get presented with obstacles and your progress that day is to come up with a game plan as to how you're going to get around that obstacle.
::To get back to your plan the next day, that's progress because you came up with a plan as to how to do it, whereas before that obstacle might have presented itself and you thought, well, not making it this year on to the next year.
::And so it's just, you know, just 1% every single day and it adds up and it's cumulative.
::You know.
::It's super hard to make a 1% change.
::No, no, it's, you know it's, you know.
::And regardless of where your goal is, I mean, if your goal is like.
::You know, I want to be a billionaire with a B well.
::You're probably not going to do that from today until tomorrow unless you start today at 900 + 1,000,000 dollars, then OK, yeah, you might do that. But most people are.
::Right.
::It's a great, huge goal to have and I applaud people that have huge goals. They should be.
::You know, I almost cringe when people say.
::You know, when you set goals, they should be smart goals.
::I just.
::I don't think so. I think your goal should be as big and bold as you want to. There's two rules they have to be something that you can sustain for a lifetime and they should have a profound positive impact on your life.
::What happens is you know, you get to the after you go through what your goal is and you discover what your inspiration is or why. Now you start building your how are you going to get there? That's where your smart goals come in, because you're not going to go from zero to 100, you're going to do it 1% at a time.
::And that's where you can actually measure how you're getting to that ultimate goal. But it gives you clarity and it clears all the fog out, which is a huge.
::A huge point for a lot of people because you know that's where you typically find people say life got in the way. Well, no, you, you just you let that clog close in fog close in and obscure your clarity of where you want it to go.
::And sometimes we fail.
::But if we let those failures?
::Derail us entirely. Instead of just saying, OK, well, it.
::Didn't work that way.
::Maybe I didn't make 1% forward progress today, but I didn't.
::I didn't go backwards either or.
::And sometimes you do go backwards.
::But I figured out how to go around and get back on the path so that I can start making those 1% changes in the future. I mean, all of those things are so necessary and so many times we just get derailed and give up.
::And then we.
::Choose by giving up a different path. That's not going to.
::Get us where we want to go.
::Yeah. No, I agree. I I'm.
::A staunch believer that no one in life has ever actually failed.
::They have just had some real big learning opportunities. Edison was the perfect example. You know, he was asked when he finally got the light bulb, someone asked him, like, how could you fail?
::Thousands of times to make a light bulb and keep going.
::Till you finally got it right, he says. I didn't fail once. I just learned 1000 ways not to make a light bulb.
::And that's the approach that you need to have that it's not necessarily that.
::You failed. It's just you learned something like you learned. OK, this way is not the way to go. I've got to find an alternative.
::And again, if you are you, if you're at that point and you find your alternative.
::That's progress. You're still moving forward, just, you know, you have to sidestep a little, but it's still going towards your goal, not necessarily falling off the top of the ladder.
::You offer a little work.
::What color the workbook, but it's more.
::Like a worksheet.
::That helps people get clarity around these things that we've just been talking about. How can they get?
::A hold of that.
::So it's the one on the website, is it? It's changed a little bit. So the easiest way to get it is just send me a quick e-mail. It's info@ project9life dot com.
::And I will happily send you the worksheet it's got, it's very simple. It's like 2 pages. There's only four questions on it and then they're blank on the back for a reason because you got some work to do back there. But I'll send that out as well as kind of some homework you need to do.
::Before you even start filling anything else out, you know, I think that's too often, you know, you get people, then you say.
::In almost any environment you can say, OK, we're going to talk about your goals, who's got to go on, everyone's hand goes up, and they immediately.
::Know what it is.
::And it's like, that's a little too quick like.
::Why is that your goal? Why was it so easy to identify? That's what it is. You, you know? Is it because that's just what you've been after? Or society has said that's what you need to attain it. It needs to be a very personal decision. And there's, you know, some just very simple things you need to figure out beforehand.
::Then you get into the. Then you get into the to the worksheet and then there's programs that we offer that will help even further, more supportive after that. So you you've got every.
::Every opportunity to give your belt your yourself, the best chance to succeed.
::Perfect. And what's the one thing you want the audience to take away today?
::You know, I would say.
::If you want more out of your income.
::More out of your relationships.
::And you want a simple way to get there in as little as eight weeks.
::That's why we're here is to help get you on the path.
::To achieving whatever that is that you want, but you know if main those main things like if you.
::Want more out of?
::Income relationships in life and you don't want complicated.
::You want simple.
::8 weeks. It's a small price to pay for.
::Yeah, and sometimes just having the tools is.
::Half the battle.
::Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, I've seen we've all seen them. You know, it's like, you know how to be a better real estate agent and 99 simple steps. It's like, who's got time to read 99 steps and.
::Who can employ all 99?
::Of those you know, it
::Can't be complicated. It has to be simple because.
::When you get into it.
::That's where your work begins.
::Indeed. Thank you so much for joining me today. Todd, this has been an amazing conversation.
::Thank you so much for the for the opportunity, Jill, I certainly appreciate it.
::Yeah, just we're here to help you guys, so.
