The Possibility Mindset in the Age of AI - Rob Cressy

Meredith Bell: 00:00:04

Announcer, thank you for tuning in to The Ultimate Coach podcast, a companion to the transformative book The Ultimate Coach written by Amy Hardison and Alan D Thompson. Each conversation is designed to be a powerful wake up call, reminding us of what's possible for you and your life. So if you're on a journey to expand your state of being, this podcast is for you.

Ipek Williamson: 00:00:37

My guest today is Rob Cressy, an international and intentional creator and entrepreneur with a contagious passion for growth and innovation, Rob is deeply immersed in the world of AI and personal transformation, and the way he integrates the two is both refreshing and inspiring. If you are also interested in any one of these topics, get ready for a treat, because I'm sure the conversation Rob and I have today will invite you to rethink what's possible, Rob, first of all, thank you for being here with me and welcome.

Rob Cressy: 00:01:21

You are welcome, and thank you so very much for having me. I am 15 out of 10 excited. This is going to be the absolute best conversation ever.

Ipek Williamson: 00:01:31

Oh, my God, that's wonderful, Rob. Now this is podcast, and people are not seeing your face or you, but you radiate possibility. When people ask you who you are or what you do, where do you begin?

Rob Cressy: 00:01:51

It's a layered question, right? Because I know the being answer of the let me open up my declarations and tell you how I am infinite love and how I'm the happiest person on earth, shining my light on everyone, I can also say I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a creator, I'm a coach. There's a lot of different things right here on what you would call a multi hyphenate, right? Because I wear a lot of different hats by design, because it is all based around the lens and framing for how I live my life now, which was not always this way, but 15 years ago, when I left my corporate job to go all in on living my dreams and going to $0 overnight, two things happened. Number one, I became self aware. And number two, I adopted a growth mindset and and a mentor said something to me. He goes, Rob, if you ever hope to get paid to do what you love, you better be doing it already. So at the time, my dream was to get paid to talk about sports for a living. So I was like, All right, well, what do I need to do to talk about sports for a living? I need to teach myself, podcasting, audio video editing, being a host, being on camera, social media, marketing, brand, building, essentially everything on the other side of building a media company, and then entrepreneurship is the greatest personal growth and development program known to man. So because I was sitting there at $0 I had to make myself better, because there was no other option, since I was all in on this. So I never set out to become a coach. I just lived like one for more than a decade, until I started to get hired to help people be better at business by being better at life. Yes, that's a long winded answer, and yes, it's a circuitous answer, but inside of that is why I radiate this sort of possibility and how I show up in the world. Because my purpose in life is to be a positive force for good that leads others to what's possible. So maybe that's the better answer is, Rob What

Rob Cressy: 00:03:59

is your purpose in life, because within my purpose, everything else is wrapped inside of there.

Ipek Williamson: 00:04:05

Well, that's a beautiful answer, and I know that you've built your life and brand around showing up fully and meaningfully. So if you would to explore or share with us what you think around live fully on purpose. What would that mean exactly?

Rob Cressy: 00:04:28

So there's a lot of quotes in my life that changed my life when I learned them, and one of them was live by design, not by default. And for the first three decades of my life I lived by default, and certainly in the decade plus in which I was in corporate America, I would consistently, I would just take any job that I could, and then I would flip jobs for something that had a shorter commute or made more money, and I got better every step of the way. But I. Did not wake up every single day enjoying what I did, and quite frankly, for a large majority of the time, I was paid a lot of money and hated what I did despite the fact that I was great at it. So I was straight trading time for money, living for the weekends. And once again, all of this shifted when I realized everything is on me, and I get to determine my experience in life, or when I became self aware, it was the very first day of the very first morning of entrepreneurship, Day Zero. We're actually gonna call it day one. And I sat there and I was like, there's no one to tell me what to do. When do I wake up? What do I eat? Do I go to the gym? Do I call anybody? Do I do a website? Anything? Every single thing is on me. And for a lot of people, it's like, whoa, that's too much. Everything's on me. For me, I was like, holy smokes Batman. Can you believe everything's on me. So because of this, if you could do whatever you want, or if you could do what you want, whatever you want, all of the time, what would you do? And I'm like, let's go. Let's design that life. And it just so happens in the course of that. I really like to help people I really like to create, and so much of this is just naturally who I am. And once again, there's things that I have experienced or happened in my life that really became foundational to who I am today and what and so much of this becomes at the beginning of this journey. So I asked myself one question, remember I wasn't I was not this person 15 years ago. This

Rob Cressy: 00:06:46

is a work in progress. It always is. And I asked myself one simple question early on in the journey. And I was like, what will help me accomplish my goals faster? Positivity or negativity? And the answer was civil positivity. Of course, negativity is going to take me further away from where I want to go and slow me down. Therefore this became a binary equation for me, a one versus a zero. I'm all about positivity and Team Good vibes and negativity has no place in my life. Because just logically, if I'm living in negativity, it's not going to get me to where I want to go. So because of this, positivity is way better than the alternative. So because of this, this is just corn foundational to who I am. So if somebody's like, Well, Rob, is this how you always are? I sit there and this is effortless for me, because I don't have to make the choice on do you want to be happy? Do you want to help other people? Do you want to live a life of positivity? Once again, I'm all in on my dreams and been living my best life. So this is a logical thing, and then I've just continued to stack over and over again. What are those things that logically make sense, that align to who I am and what I want to do? And because of this, you start to become a purpose driven person by design, because when you're by default, you're just doing the same things over and over again, and it's an absence of control. But on the design side of things comes the you can do and be anyone that you want. And you're like, ooh, this sounds fun. Let's go.

Ipek Williamson: 00:08:31

And you know what I'm thinking and feeling as an entrepreneur myself, this is a must to have for any entrepreneur. You need to create a life that is disciplined, that is positive, that is really creative, and without that, it's kind of quite impossible to hang in there.

Rob Cressy: 00:08:56

By Design. As an entrepreneur, we have signed up for impossible. We've signed up for challenging. So this is actually the entry point into the game. It's why the name of my podcast is built for the game. Why? Because I've built for the game of business, in life, in entrepreneurship, and it is all the micro, 11111, all of these little inches that you're stacking over top of this, because all of this is in service of something greater. And I love how you used the term discipline there early on in the journey, I read this book by jockowo called Extreme Ownership, and he is known for the terminology of discipline equals freedom. And for a lot of people, they see discipline as rigid. But the great thing about discipline and why it creates freedom is because you don't have to think, this is what you do, and this is what eventually evolved into me, of what I put. Called effortless effort, where you can do things unconsciously on a world class level that nobody else does, because this is just part of who you are. Because, of course, I do these things because this is who I am. This is what I want to create, and this is part of the lifestyle of it. So the discipline actually gives you way more freedom to create, because you know what you're not doing.

Ipek Williamson: 00:10:25

Well, that's that's so very beautiful way of explaining it. And now, while you were speaking, I was thinking, I interviewed. I had many guests, of course, on this podcast, but nobody went ahead and turned our casual initial conversation into a podcast. So it was like you said it, that you were gonna do it, but like, I wasn't expecting that good a job, and it turned out to be really beautiful. So I wanted to acknowledge that first of all, because nobody did that before, and I loved it. And also, one other thing that stayed with me from that call you sent me afterwards, after our conversation, incredible resources that completely changed how I use chat GPT, I've been all in ever since, believe me, I'm the best student. What really resonated with me was your mindset that it's not about being tech savvy, it's about being open and willing to explore. I felt the same way when I first started chatgpt using it, what do you think makes that kind of mindset so essential when it comes to AI,

Rob Cressy: 00:11:51

Because it is the most aligned to who we are, and what makes our heart sing? That for me, that what do we want to focus on the limits and who we are not? I mean, this is being 101, or do we want to focus on the things that are aligned to the best versions of who we are? So in going into this, I have no AI background, no tech background whatsoever. The only thing that separates me is I used chat GBT the first week it came out in beta, in November 2022 and within the first minute of using it, I felt like I just used the internet for the first time. And I was like, holy smokes Batman. I see what the next decade of business is going to look like. I'm all in Ian. What instantly separated me from everybody else out there was, I'm unromantic about this. This is just a tool. It just so happens. It's the most powerful, greatest tool we've ever seen in the history of the world. But once again, let's go back to what we are entrepreneurs and business owners. So my goal is to turn $1 into $1.50 and I'm not just trying to make this sterile that I'm only using chat GBT to make money, but this is the lens for how we come at things, because for a large majority of the people, or the dissenters, they're going to tell us why this doesn't work. It told me George Washington went to the moon. See, chat GBT doesn't work. And I sit here and I'm like, That's irrelevant. How do I build a better marketing strategy? This is where we can use this. So this is the lens that we grow. Because the beauty of AI is it can be anything you want it to be. So in doing this, I literally couldn't stop using chatgpt. Early on, I caught that bug where I was like, oh my god, oh my god. I originally tried to start trying to break it right? I'm like, Okay, this thing could do anything. Let's go. So I started to create marketing strategies or things that people used to pay me five or 10 grand for over the course of months, and boom, I'm creating it in like 30 minutes. And I'm like, This is

Rob Cressy: 00:14:05

unbelievable, and it's exploding my brain. So I started to create these frameworks that I told myself, because obviously I didn't know anybody else who was doing this, other than my friend who let me know about chatgpt. So I googled chatgpt. Course, chatgpt mastermind, chatgpt coach. Nothing. There is nothing on the internet at this point about anything on how to use chatgpt. So now I'm that dude. I'm like, All right, I'm just gonna start creating with this. So once I started to see that it could literally do anything, the framework started to become there are millions and billions of dollars at our ability to ask it the right questions. It doesn't mean it's going to spit out a lottery ticket, but it does mean that we could build systems, processes, workflows, ideas, states of being, mindsets that can layer into holy smokes. I. Turned this into something. So because of this, this opened up a very important word, curiosity, right? I'm sitting here exploring this. Maybe that's the other word curiosity and exploring. And I'm like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my God. And I just keep playing and going. And I'm like, can you believe you can do this? Can you believe you can do this? So this curiosity became contagious for me, so I naturally just started sharing how I was creating with AI, with anybody around me. I created a private Facebook group, eventually that led into me doing both one on one team and group coaching, which I'm still doing today around all of this, but the mindset that I realized was that this has nothing to do with tech or AI skills. It is how creative you can be. And I ran a sports marketing agency for a decade, and I've lived the life of a creative so I roll it into this in the AI era, already a master creator, right? So the exact example you gave you and I have our first connection call for this podcast to give me an intro, and I'm like, This conversation's so good, we're turning this into a podcast. Because naturally, when I find somebody who's

Rob Cressy: 00:16:19

got this radiant energy like you do, who's amazing and thoughtful and considerate, and I'm sure many people listening have heard this before, where you're like, wow, that conversation was so good. I wish we would have recorded it. Well, thankfully for you and I, we both had aI note takers running. So I was like, good thing we did record this. So this is where I'm always seeing, and I see in content, not in a I'm trying to turn everything into, but I can into so once I see that there is creation everywhere, now I'm like, Oh, well, what is the mindset that we can build for ourself that will serve us, that will help us get the most out of AI aligned to our goals and where We want to go and in there, I was like, Oh, you're telling me that we can personalize this. So then all of a sudden, boom, light bulb goes off. I'm putting my declarations in there. I'm putting my core values in there. I'm putting in my 2025 goals, my three year vivid vision, aka my soul data. And once this happened, everything unlocked. Because now this is an extension of us, and the way that I will zoom this up on the top lens is this is a human first perspective to creating with AI, because where everybody else is going to fail is they're going to outsource everything to AI. I believe, instead, we are the creator. It is our creative assistant, therefore we give the inputs, and then it will help us build on top of this, because I've said this before, there's one thing AI will never have soul, s, O, U, L, so when we infuse it with our soul and our identity and our essence, now it becomes an extension of us, and this becomes a full force multiplier,

Ipek Williamson: 00:18:11

Absolutely and I really love chatgpt, and it is my creative assistant, and I have been accomplishing so much more, like multiplied by 1020, what I accomplish. And people ask me, how can you do all of these things? Well, because I have a great assistant. And, you know, some people are very reluctant to use chat, GPT or AI, and they feel like, oh, it's gonna take our jobs. It's gonna do that. It's gonna do this. And since the beginning, what I believed was, oh, chatgpt or AI will not take our jobs. On the contrary, if we learn to use it and become better and better at what we do, and use it to get better, we will be even more indispensable. And as you said, like the possibilities are limitless, like, if you let it get to understand and know you as much as possible, which all the tools you shared with me, which I'm inviting everyone to find you on your YouTube channel and find your videos, they're amazing. And I learned so much. I implemented them, and I entered all my information, my soul information, and now it is literally speaking like me. It's so amazing. So I love it really.

Rob Cressy: 00:19:49

Can you feel the resonance in the language that it gives you? Like that? What excites me is, on a consistent basis, I watch people's brain. Things explode when I share them, these various things that they can do with AI that they didn't realize before, where all of a sudden they feel it. And once again, I have no AI background, but when I see what I can create with AI, it speaks to me. So so much of this for me, and it's a very simple framing, is growth mindset versus fixed mindset. And there's a great book by Carol Dweck about this, called growth mindset. And for those who say all the reasons why not. And obviously, with me, operating in the top 1% in the world of AI, I hear and see everything from the dissenting opinions from the I can tell you, wrote with Chad GBT because I can see the M dash to it's going to replace our jobs. But once again, when I hear that, I just hear George Washington went to the moon, it is completely misplaced focus for me, because as a high performer, we are not concerned with our limitations, we are more alive with what can I create? So one of the gifts that I want to give everyone right now is there's a rare mindset that I've cultivated that I share with my clients that can serve you both right now and the rest of your life in the AI era. And what I call this is the limitation elimination mindset. I'll say it again, limitation elimination mindset. So I have done, I estimate, over 500 coaching hours around AI of just with entrepreneurs group, one on one, all that various stuff. So I've got reps in just so many different ways, and so many different business owners, and I keep hearing the same things over and over again, and a lot of it is AI is moving so fast I can't keep up with it. I don't know what tools to use, so I'm not going to do it. Or the other one, which is the number one word, is overwhelmed, Rob, I'm just so overwhelmed by all this. So now they can't move forward with anything, or they see

Rob Cressy: 00:22:10

I'm using chat GBT now, but I don't have time to learn image creation or AI video or insert whatever it is, right? So there's always a reason why not? But here's what the reality is of this AI era, everything is changing, new and innovative is the standard. So into perpetuity, there is always going to be a new tool, there's always going to be a new feature, there's always going to be a new something. Therefore, it would really serve us to cultivate a mindset for how we are seeing more or overwhelmed, or how does something get into our world with AI, so that we are living in the growth mindset and not living in the fixed mindset, because so many people are seeing I'm not An AI person. I don't have a tech background. I'm not on the level that the two of you on this conversation are now. So now all of a sudden, here comes all this fear, judgment and self limiting beliefs, right? So let's throw all of that in the trash by saying, well, be aware that this is the new era that we're living in there, and more doesn't have to mean bad or overwhelming. You have just thought to yourself, Wait a second. There are new tools. There are new possibilities. How and when am I going to explore these in a way that aligns with me? And if you can understand that we're going to throw the fixed mindset in the trash forever with AI, then you're golden, because at no point will you ever hear the words I'm overwhelmed by AI, because that's just a choice, right? That's saying there's all these things I can't get to that I want to that's just fixed mindset. Growth Mindset says, Okay, look at all these playgrounds, look at this canvas, and this is what I mean by these mindsets, because this is the creator lens that I've chosen to adopt that serves me in helping me live my purpose every single day, in helping the world be a better place

Ipek Williamson: 00:24:17

That's so beautiful. And I feel like you are and I am the same. We are like children in a candy shop, right, using it and looking at it well, I want to change the gears a little bit, and I want to get to the ultimate coach community. You had an interaction with Steve Hardison right before the ultimate experience event in Arizona in January 2025, this year, and he challenged you to do something, right? So what was that?

Rob Cressy: 00:24:55

So it's, it's a moment that changed my. Life and and I've shared this on a separate podcast, and many of the people have heard this, but I'm going to give the Cliff Notes version for this right now is that I'm in an LA fitness gym at three o'clock, like on a Tuesday, working apps, and the morning prior, I'd shot Steve a DM, and like most people in the ultimate coach community, you have some relationship with Steve on Facebook or Instagram, and you can't believe that he accepted your request. And you're like, Oh my God, this ultimate coach guy is actually saying this. So there's a reverence to Steve. And my coach is John, Patrick Morgan, so that's how I got introduced to this community and Steve, because JP and Steve coached together, and my word of the year in 2025 is fearless. And I'd had the idea when I was writing a letter to myself for 2025 that I'm going to open on December 31 and in it I said, I'm going to do a be with session with Steve artisan, and I paused because I didn't want to write something in there that I didn't believe I could create, right? Because whatever judgment of, like, how am I going to make this happen? Or what is all these, all this head trash, right? But that's not the goal of vision casting, is to put something out there. So I'm like, Nah, man, I'm gonna do this. Boom, I put this in there. So then for two weeks. So January 1 happens. It's on my mind of, like, just inquiring with Steve about the process for a be recession. That's it. Just like, let me just open this DM. But I'm also aware of, like, what if Steve's like, yeah, here's the price. Do it right now. I'll see you in an hour. And I'm like, Whoa. I'm not quite ready for that right now. So once again, all of Rob's head trash, of the limiting beliefs, of everything that I just said not to do with AI Rob's now living in real life. And then finally, I think it was like, January 13. I was like, Nah, my word of the year is fearless. And I go in there,

Rob Cressy: 00:27:01

shot him a simple DM of like, hey. Just wanted to find out about what the process is for a be with session. All of a sudden, five hours later, I'm at the LA Fitness and my phone rings, and it's Steve Hartson giving me a FaceTime message. And I'm like, oh, it's like, what do you do right now? I'm in gym clothes. I'm literally mid set. I'm not on my phone in there, and boom, next thing I know, I have like, an hour and three minute conversation with Steve artisan in the middle of an LA Fitness. I sit right next to a couch, I do this, and he tells me about the be with session. And then all of a sudden, very organically, we just keep having this conversation. He's like, Hey, Rob, do you have another minute? I'm like, do I have another minute? Like, yeah, there's nobody else on Earth I'd rather be talking to right now. But let's go well that Do you have another minute ended up happening two or three more times, where at the end he went to enroll me in the ultimate experience, which was happening in like nine days, and obviously, being part of this community, I was aware of it. I've read the ultimate coach book, I estimate five times. I read it once, maybe twice a year. I listen to the podcast. I'm about this life. I've got my declarations. I embody them. I coach it. It's like, I'm a part of this community. This is who I am here. But when Steve told me the date of the ultimate experience, all of a sudden, I went, Oh my God, I've been training for the last two months for a half marathon on that day, and when I get back from the half marathon, my wife has tickets to this event that she's been wanting to go to for two years, that is exclusive, that she finally got tickets to. And I'm sitting here and all this is running through my mind, as Steve is saying, hey, you need to come to the ultimate experience. And I'm like, How in the world am I gonna tell Steve harson That I can't go to the event that he's inviting me to because of all of these things and

Rob Cressy: 00:29:05

because fearless is my word of the year. I'm like, Steve, this is unbelievable, and this is incredible. I just have to share what's enlivened me. Like, I'm all in on this, but here's what's actually going on in my life, right? So he's like, Rob, is there anything I can help you with? I was like, I'm just me just throw it out. Boom. And he essentially says, Rob, you're a powerful creator. You can make this happen. And it's an emotional moment, because it was like he shot this power of possibility in him. And he goes, if you are in that room, you and I will create a miracle together. And I'm like, There's no way I can't not be in this room. It's just not possible. Just if Steve arson says we're gonna create a miracle together in this room, if you show up, you gotta find a way to be there. So and remember, we're gonna go back. I'm a master. Creator. I can create anything. So I'm radiating sunshine and rainbows, like I'm just on a different planet. I'm leaving LA Fitness, my wife's calling me. Be like, it's been an hour and a half. Where have you been? I was like, Babe, I just received a phone call that just changed my life. I can't tell you right now, because there's more depth to it, and that's what he challenged me with.

Ipek Williamson: 00:30:24

So, yeah, I mean, this is, this was amazing. And then you did, actually, that is video. You recorded a video, I believe Correct.

Rob Cressy: 00:30:37

I did because and you, you got to experience sort of how I think and operate on this right? So I just captured a moment in my life that changed my life, because I can choose if it changes my life, right? Because whether I realized it or not, I created that conversation with Steve Hardison through the dominoes of the dominoes and the dominoes of the dominoes, right? So I Steve goes, I'm gonna connect you with Judy. She's putting on the event I had not yet really interacted with JD before, nicest person on earth, just the most loving, as everybody knows, with this. And she says in my call, and this is one day later, Rob, Steve had said, I'm going to enroll somebody in the ultimate experience that I have never met before. And then he got my DM the next morning, and I heard this, and it's like, I don't think quantum leap is the word, but it's the essence of a quantum leap of like portals of possibility of your life, where you're like, how is the synchronicity of the universe operating on this level? Not how, but we all know how this stuff works, but all these things coming together here, and I've learned to capture a moment like that when it's alive, because if I wait five days a month, I don't feel the same way that I just did, right? So I'm taking this I'm already creating this conversation as the greatest conversation my entire life, and I have not even attended the event, right? I'm just like, I can't believe this. Let me just give this on wax, because so often on social media, there is this facade that everybody's life is puppy dogs and rainbows and they just pop out of the womb and see if artisan calls you, not the case, right? So I want to give like the Holy Smokes Batman. This is actually what just happened in my life, way, because you cannot give to others that which you're not experiencing yourself. At that moment, I was radiating on the highest frequency with the highest possibility, with the most amount of love operating in me, and I wanted

Rob Cressy: 00:32:55

to speak that into existence. Little did I know, once again, that just when I tagged Steve Morrison in this he would then go and tag essentially everybody in the ultimate coach community to see this video, so that when I actually did commit and I attended the event, everybody there knew me, even though I knew almost nobody's

Ipek Williamson: 00:33:17

That's so interesting, and because I watched that video, he tagged me to and I remember when you came to Arizona for the ultimate experience event, when you first walked into the hotel lobby, I think Tanya and I were among the very first people you came in contact with, even before you checked into The Hotel. So there was something so open and vibrant about your present. What was that weekend like for you? Stepping into that space for the first time?

Rob Cressy: 00:33:51

It gives me chills right now, because the way I describe that is it's a cocoon of love, and I believe it was Steven McGee, who calls it a portal of possibility. And that was almost just him speaking on stage, but that's how I saw it, right there. So I'm rolling into this thing with the intention that I am going to create a miracle with Steve artisan while there. So Steve also did some prep beforehand, saying, hey, every day for the week before the event, I want you to create yourself as if you are going to create a miracle at this event, so for the preceding seven days. So if it's preceding before the event, I am taking this as serious as possible, that I've got this Change The World Vision. I'm creating a miracle. My being, I'm doing the inner work. This is now the most important thing in my entire life, for seven days, and I'm just living on this frequency. And it was like when you said, Rob, you radiate possibility at the top. It's because I do the work, right? Whether the work is AI, the work. Beingness and self creation and all of that. I live this, and I do it because there's a quote that I learned from Ed mylett, one of my coaches implemented the speed of instruction. If Steve artisan says, Craig, you're being for seven days in a row before the event, and we're to create miracles, you don't have to tell me twice, I'm already in Let's go. So I lived this, and then I also created the perspective that my experience in the event actually had nothing to do with Steve artisan. Yes, I know that Steve is there, but if I'm just saying that I'm only there because of Steve, then I'm not doing myself or anybody else's service. So I walked in there and I'm like, Man, I'm a go giver. I'm there to help. I'm there to meet. I know how I show up for everything. Like I'm a home run. I'm a 15 out of 10. Me coming there is going to change the way this whole event is, which started with me in these videos, all the way to me going there. So I land in

Rob Cressy: 00:35:56

Phoenix at night, and I have a text message from Judy, who's like, Hey, Rob, give me a call. And I'm like, oh my god, this is already starting, right? So I'm like, I'm gonna create a miracle. All these possibilities there. And she invites me to be a part of the group that blesses the conference ahead of time. And she's like, This alone will be worth more than your price or your ticket. And I'm like, This is unbelievable. This I haven't even stepped off the airplane yet, and there's already rainbows coming out of everywhere. So here I come, and it's like, here comes a Care Bear rolling into the hotel, and who do I see you and Tanya. And it's just like, there's the table for the ultimate experiences. I don't know anybody there, and you two were the most loving, kind, warm, friendly people. And I was just like, This is my place.

Ipek Williamson: 00:36:50

You know, it was so lovely seeing you, and we have pictures together. You know, I saw, I get to see your beautiful son when you were talking to him on the phone, it was lovely to get to know you and meet you in person. And you know you bring creativity, intentionality and energy into everything you do. And it doesn't matter what you do when you have that kind of attitude, that kind of mindset, I don't see anyway not to be successful, anyway, like whatever you do and you happen to be doing, being an entrepreneur,

Rob Cressy: 00:37:30

Yeah, and it's because we can all choose, right? This is just a choice. How do you want to show up every single day? And I've committed to I always say that what I do and how I live, it's a mindset, it's a lifestyle, and it's a way of being right. So even in my own coaching and these perspectives and all of this stuff, it's a mindset, it's how I think, it's a lifestyle, how I live, and it's a way of being. This is my identity. So this is how it becomes effortless, from the reading a book for 30 minutes first thing in the morning every single day for 15 years in a row, to speak in my declarations, to journaling and meditating and working out and serving people and showing up with content and being a Go Giver, and all of these various things, because this is both what I want, and this is both what I would want for other people. So if somebody else was showing up in the other way for me, the way that Steve did, the way that you did, and Tanya and everybody else there, this is what we would all want for each other. So that's why we don't give to receive, but we do know that there is intentional reciprocity. When you do give, you will receive. So by giving this energy to others, I am going to receive this on my end.

Ipek Williamson: 00:38:56

Absolutely law of reciprocity, and it works both ways. Whatever you give you get back multiplied. You say that entrepreneurship is a new every day. So how do you stay grounded in who you are being while navigating constant change? What is your way of grounding yourself.

Rob Cressy: 00:39:23

It's my process, right? So the It All Starts foundationally at the beginning. So when you look at those binary things that really changed my life, one of them is audit your inputs, right? So, good in, go, good in good, out, bad, in bad, out, or gold in gold, out. So one of the biggest challenges that we all face, everybody is that the world is constantly going to be shooting arrows at us, fear, judgment, self, living, belief, advertising, negativity, the news, social media. Buy this. Look at what this person all of this, right? The second you pick up your phone or open your computer or turn on your TV, the world is on and will give you as much of that as you want, and that is somebody else's agenda. Doesn't mean it's all bad, but somebody else is going to shoot to you what they think you want, or what they see or something else. So there's a lot of agendas there. So I realized that if I do not invest in myself first, then I'm allowing the world to do so. So once again, we're going to go very back to the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. And it's the first month that I say to myself, if I don't bring in any revenue today, this week or this month, how do I guarantee that I'm growing and successful, right? Like, how do I not make money my only metric of success? Because my old life was money was my metric of success. So it's like, and that's the most common thing that the world operates on, is money is your metric of success. So if that is not my metric of success, because I'm currently at zero, what do I do? And I said, if I learn something and I get better every single day, then I'm better today than I was yesterday. Therefore the most important thing that I can do every single day, first thing in the morning is invest in my own personal growth and development, because it is the one thing that number one, nobody can ever take from you, and it is completely compounding. So because of this, the how do you become a coach was because I

Rob Cressy: 00:41:40

stacked my personal growth and development first thing in the morning, as in, like the second I wake up, the first hour or two, depending on where in my stage of life I am, is me investing in me, from reading books to meditating to journaling to creating my being so that I'm designing The self talk that I have for myself, because I know the second that I pick up that phone, boom, here comes the rest of the world. So we also know that being has a half life. So I start the day and it's like, boom, I am infinite love, and I'm radiating these rays, and I'm a spiritual billionaire as I boom, I'm loving this. And it's like 5am to 6am, to 789, 1011, 12, and then three o'clock gets here, and that thing is starting to wane. And I've been out for 10 hours and 11 and 12, and now my three year old son is home, and my energy is getting lower. And maybe I had a good day, or maybe some challenging things happen. And then it's like, Oh my God. Now, the fear, the judgment, the self limiting beliefs, the I'm not enough is starting to come in here, and then you're at the end of the day, and it goes, boop, new day. And it goes, well, what are you gonna do, Rob? I'm like, let's decide myself into the best version of myself. So when I first stepped into the identity of a coach. My program that I created was called Design your best self, because similar to how we've talked about AI, we can choose what those Lego blocks are for what the best version of you looks like. So this all becomes a series of building habits, routines and mindsets all aligned to the best version of yourself. So this is completely formulaic, completely process oriented, and completely by design on what I would love in my life. So because of this, I'm in control, not the world, and that is how I do it every single day, because I know the second I sit out there, I've signed up for fear, judgment, self, limiting, beliefs, challenges, adversity and obstacles every single day into perpetuity, because that's what

Rob Cressy: 00:43:49

entrepreneurship is, and

Ipek Williamson: 00:43:51

That's so very well said. So now we get to the question I ask everyone which one of the questions in the before you begin section or the back cover of the ultimate coach book resonates with you the most at this point in your life, and why?

Rob Cressy: 00:44:15

So can you tell me what those are? Because it's my experience of the ultimate coach book, I think is unique for everybody. So why or how do I read or experience the book? Right? So I understand this community. There's people who, as a group together, are going through page by page to all of this, right? So for me, it's a reactivation. Maybe I'm hearing things or seeing things differently at a different time right now, it is, you know, what it's all about for me is possibility, just the the language in the nuance of what I hear and see and read and embody in that in. And what Steve says, and maybe this is in the beginning or the end, is I want you to read this book as if this is about you, right? So that right there. So now rob the master creator, rolls, and it goes, All right, this book is about me. So I read books on a Kindle, and the reason is because I can highlight my book notes, export them, and put them into my Evernotes, and then I can re review them on a consistent basis. So when I read the ultimate coach, I've got five versions of me taking notes from this, but after the first time I read it, what I did is I went and changed all of the language in my notes to be about me. So every time a client of Steve said something, it was about me. Anytime a client said something about Steve, it was about me, I read that document and I'm like, This is the greatest document I've ever seen in my entire life. So that's what I'm stepping into. And I know I'm not answering the question like everybody else might, but for me, it is all around. Read this as if this is about you. I embody it. I have a process. Boom.

Ipek Williamson: 00:46:12

Well, then you created your own question. Who do I need to be to read this book as me like written for me, and how can I implement that to my into my life?

Rob Cressy: 00:46:29

Yeah, because the I'm not just reading to read once I like I here's a little nugget. So how in the world did I even get like this to be this growth mindset high performer. So I'm at zero once again to get my entrepreneurial journey. And I'm reading like Inc Magazine and Fast Company and all those things, trying to be an entrepreneur and learn. And I kept hearing the same thing over and over again. The average CEO reads 60 books a year. I heard it 8 million times, and I sat there and I was like, I'm reading zero. I should probably get on this. It doesn't mean I don't know how to read. It just means I've never actually read a book outside of what I'm supposed to read. And the thing that switched for me is that it became a new world, or a portal possibility, where I was like, All right, for many of us, you start with Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki, and then maybe you get to something by Tony Robbins, and then you just start bouncing around to a variety of other things that this turns to. This turns to this. And I didn't see it as reading. I saw it as learning and embodying what the best in the world did so not that I could be them, but that I could do things like them, so that I could emulate this. So when I'm reading books, it is for retention and reactivation and doing not just to live in that world right there. So when it came to the ultimate coach book, what really inspired me is actually my own limitations. When I would read the things that Steve's clients created for themselves that I've not yet created for myself, I saw the possibility where I was like, Whoa, they're no different than me. Yes, that's they're in this book. And it just inspired me so much. And once you understand this frequency, that these are inches or Lego blocks, and there's a quote that I love, also from Ed mylett, the bigger the dreams, the deeper the foundation. Well, it just so happens for me. My Foundation says I'm reading this book once or twice a year, and

Rob Cressy: 00:48:39

I'm embodying it.

Ipek Williamson: 00:48:41

Yeah, beautiful. So thank you so much for sharing this, and this brought a different perspective to my signature question. Now at the end the three rapid fire questions for you. So the first one, if you could instantly master one skill, what would it

Rob Cressy: 00:49:08

Be once if I could master one skill, it would be enrollment. And the reason for that in enrollment is actually a word that I learned at the ultimate experience, not part of my vocabulary, and I have actually never spoken what I'm about to speak right now, because I'm just thinking about this rapid fire question. And why? Because when you asked the question, immediately my mind went to impact, and then it went to me speaking on stage. So my ability, the first word that came top of mind was persuasion. But I was like, that's not the right framing for what I'm looking for, right? There's a different energy persuasion, but enrollment is different because I didn't see it as enrollment in me. It was my ability to enroll others in their own dot, dot. Not dreams, goals, possibility. So by design, my ability to have others enroll themselves in what they would love to create for themselves would allow me to create impact on the absolute highest level,

Ipek Williamson: 00:50:16

Beautiful. Okay, so secondly, what is your favorite, favorite tool or app you can't live without right now, other than chatgpt?

Rob Cressy: 00:50:29

Yeah, the chatgpt is the non negotiable right now. What can I not live without right now? It's interesting because there's, it's like I'm thinking about new tools versus old tools. The app would be my Kindle. I think I would consider the Kindle an app to read books, because that single thing has opened my mind in ways that I never thought possible. And the only reason I have a Kindle is because 20 years ago, a client of mine sent me a gift, and it was a Kindle, and I opened it, and I was like, What is this thing? I don't read books, so, like, I wasn't this, like, what is this thing? And it was this kind, the old version, black and white and all of this. And that transformed my life. And I'll give a little nugget or a yes in for everybody here, in terms of the game behind the game of this. So I said that I take notes on a Kindle, and it's very beneficial why I've read hundreds of books. I have the Book Notes from hundreds of books. So I hear from so many people like my notes are all over the place, and I gotta re review them. I understand the artistic nature and the embodiment of reading a book and writing on the side. I get all of that. But in this digital era, in in this AI era, what is super valuable is your ability to access something instantly. So I've been on client calls with someone. So two weeks ago, I'm on a client call and they go, Hey, Rob, I'm trained in EOS. Have you ever read the book? There's one called traction, there's one called something else. And I did five years ago, and I was like, Yep, I hit the word traction, boom, pulled up my book notes, and his jaw hit the floor. He's like, what? He's like, I got all these floppy years. And I was like, yeah, look at this thing right here. So I learned something super valuable. One of the highest ROIs you can ever get in your life is rereading something because like riding a bike, you can't assume you got it the first time. So when I read a book, I've got an active practice of

Rob Cressy: 00:52:42

rereading the Book Notes on a consistent basis, and I'll give a bonus app. It's called Read wise. So read wise hooks up to your Kindle and will deliver for me eight Book Notes a day, just to the passage that I can review. So every single day for let's call it two minutes. I click Read wise, and there's the ultimate coach. There's a Tony Robbins book. There's something from Richard Branson. There's something from whatever Brene Brown, you name it. And there we go. And now here's the bonus, AI. What does AI need in order to be more powerful data. What is data written text? Who has a library of several 100 books of what they've ever read me? Huh? So now, in this AI era, I can use the ultimate coach notes to create a custom GPT to create my being or my next offer.

Ipek Williamson: 00:53:42

Wow, amazing. And staying with the books topic. What is one book? I know you read so many and you must have so many favorites, but what is the one book that you have recommended the most?

Rob Cressy: 00:54:00

The obstacle is the way by Ryan Holiday, and it is because of my entrepreneurial journey. So once again, early on in this journey, you see the statistics on entrepreneurship and small businesses. The average small business, 80% of them go out of business in the first year, 90% in the first three or five years. Or some crazy statistics. So by design, we are signing up for something where the failure rate is above 80% and I sat there and I was like, the only reason that these people did not succeed is because they gave up on their dreams. So I am going to specialize in not giving up, that is it. I specialize in not giving up. I'm showing up for another day. So all of a sudden, I read the book. The obstacle is the way, which is all around. It's based on stoic philosophy, and one of the things in there is about cultivating a mindset of what stands in the way. Becomes the way, so your ability to turn obstacles and adversity into opportunities. So for me, this mindset is one of one for the entrepreneurial journey, because by design, I want to specialize in the hardest thing, that as long as I do not give up, I am still in this game, and because I am all in on my dreams, the most important thing that I can specialize in is not giving

Ipek Williamson: 00:55:30

Well, I love this. Rob, thank you so much for being such a powerful stand for creativity, intentionality and transform, transformation, your presence, your mindset, your heart, are really unforgettable. I'm so grateful that our conversation will reach so many people who will walk away with more possibility, more curiosity, and, most importantly, more courage to explore what's next. Thank you for being with me.

Rob Cressy: 00:56:09

Thank you for being or thank you for having me here. And I want to reflect this back to you. You've done such a great job of being a champion for everybody in this community with how you show up, from you being at the ultimate experience, to this podcast, to your heart, to the way that you radiate, to the way that you ask questions, you have created such a positive impact on so many people in a way that you may not even understand on an everyday basis. And I'm thankful for you, and I want to recognize you, because you're an amazing person, and the world is lucky to have you.

Ipek Williamson: 00:56:49

Oh, thank you so much, Rob. Thank you, and hope to be in contact, in touch. Going forward. Have a lovely day.

Rob Cressy: 00:56:58

You, too.

Meredith Bell: 00:57:02

Thank you for joining us today. If there's someone you know who could benefit from this conversation, please share this episode with them. Also check out our website, being movement.com, you'll find valuable resources and links to connect to an engaging and wonderfully supportive community. Together, we can inspire and support each other on the path to a greater understanding of being until next time, take care and be kind to yourself. You.