Aaron: Hello, welcome to the Truly Amazing Live Show. I am your host Aaron Kennard. And today I’m going to be discussing the topic of fitness and health and how that relates to living a truly amazing life with a man named Brandon Epstein from entrepreneurfitness.com. I just want to let you know right up front here that he actually just launched a podcast today. The day that we’re releasing this actually. So, you can go over to entrepreneurfitness.com and find that or type in entrepreneurfitness.com into iTunes to search for that. I’d highly recommend you checking out his podcast and I think you’ll understand why after this conversation today. So, anyway with that, I’m just going to jump right in today to this discussion with Brandon Epstein. So, here we go. Today I’ve got Brandon Epstein on the phone from entrepreneurfitness.com. How are you doing today Brandon?

Brandon: I’m doing well, Aaron. Thank you so much for having me.

Aaron: Yeah, absolutely. And everybody there I just want to do a quick intro to Brandon. I’m really excited to have him on the phone today because his focus is on helping people, you know, create a more healthy, fitter lifestyle. But the background to that is really focus on the mindset and the overall holistic way you live. From what I’ve gathered from talking to him, I really resonated with the way he approaches health and fitness. And so, I’m excited to get him on the show today and discuss what it means to live a truly amazing life. So, with that, Brandon tell us anything more about yourself before we jump into it that you think people should know. Any quicker intro, where you’re from anything else like that, and then we’ll jump into it.

Brandon: Thanks Aaron. I’m living down in Austin, Texas right now. I came here just because of the great community for entrepreneurs. And people are really inspiring in looking to pursue their dreams. And, honestly, down here I’m doing the exact same thing. I’m pursing my dream of creating this company, entrepreneurfitness.com where I help entrepreneurs achieve key performance. I think that’s what it’s all about. Life is all about getting into the flow, getting into your zone and really enjoying the process of what you were put on this earth to do. And that’s what I help people do.

Aaron: Awesome, so it totally resonates kind of the mission of a truly amazing life and it’s just a different angle to take, like really focus on getting into your flow and your zone through your health and through your body, right?

Brandon: Absolutely. To live a truly amazing life and to be able to have the ability to perform at high levels…really our baseline is our health. And our health is everything. Even if you haven’t been chronically ill, if you’ve just had, you know, the flu or a cold, like you just can’t perform as well. Right? You’re clouded.

Aaron: Absolutely.

Brandon: And that is clear. You can’t perform as you’d like to. Very important.

Aaron: Yeah. It’s totally huge. And I’ve…I mean, my audience wouldn’t know that I’ve been through like a chronic illness. And a lot of people that I interact with have been though that. And anyone of us can say, yes, absolutely. If you don’t have your health, if you’re in pain, it just makes your ability to enjoy life and to feel like life is amazing, it makes that a much greater challenge. It’s not impossible because really under any circumstances, you can choose the way you think. And you can choose to view life as amazing and live to your fullest that day. But it just makes it so much harder. It’s such a greater challenge when you don’t have your health. And so I think it’s huge what you’re doing. And it’s definitely a baseline. It’s one of the main pillars of a truly amazing life that I teach is that health and fitness side of things. So, tell me what is your opinion, what is your view of what it means to live a truly amazing life? Or I guess I should say, what makes your life truly amazing to you would be even a more appropriate question?

Brandon: Yeah. I’ll kind of answer both of them. I’ll start with say in general what I believe makes a truly amazing life. I think that is living a life in flow. So, for your listeners who aren’t familiar with flow, flow is that, you know, that experience you have where time seems to flow up or down, heat up at the exact same time. So, like an hour goes by and it feel like seconds, right?

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: And you lose yourself in time. And we’ve all been there. Whether you’ve been an athlete, or you’ve been an artist, or maybe be in business, or maybe, you know, teaching, or as a parent. Whatever it may be, we’ve all had those moments where we’re in flow and we just felt locked in. And we were performing well. We’re enjoying the process. And for me, my goal every single day is to spend as much time in this flow as possible. And so, I think it’s very important to find out what are the activities that put you in this flow mind state. And so for me, the activities are studying and helping others improve their performance. So, essentially, helping other people get into flow. And really mastering it myself. And so, and studying everything from nutrition, and exercise, and neuroscience, and psychology, and understanding how all these things work together to give us this flow state and really allow us to live this inspiring and amazing life.

Aaron: Very cool. So, I really like how you put that so succinctly that to you, it’s living in a state of flow. And I really resonate with that just because for me I kind of state that as living in a state of connection. Connection to myself, connection to my source. That for me is like living in flow but all the ways that you just described that as just performing well, enjoying the process, just locked in. I kind of describe it as living the life of joy. And like, if you’re in that state of flow, you’re just living joyfully. Would you agree with that?

Brandon: Yeah. I definitely agree. I mean it’s impossible to like be in flow and not enjoy the process.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: I mean, because when we talk about like when people mediate, like you’re really not thinking about anything, right?

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: Like time just becomes irrelevant and you just experience the joy, endorphins rush to your entire body. You know, when you’re exercising, your mind is clear completely. You get into this flow and endorphins rush. So, you’re going to feel joy. Like the two are just correlate too strongly not to.

Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And I like how you brought up the meditation thing because that’s one of the practices we’re actually working on this month as we record this. But it’s one of the 12 habits that we practice kind of as the fundamental pillars of a truly amazing life. But it’s that state of…I mean, what you’re talking about that state of flow, can really be no different than just simply the state of living wholly in the present moment.

Brandon: Yeah. That’s so true. I mean, that’s what it’s all about, right?

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: Being able to get present and that’s such a difficult thing for so many of us. I think it’s something that a lot of people, you know, battle with their whole life, just like being present.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: And worrying about the past, we’re not future pacing. Just embracing the present moment. But like you just mentioned, when you’re in those flow state, you can’t be anywhere but the present.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: Because your mind requires you to be present.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: You’re so engaged in whatever you’re doing.

Aaron: And the interesting thing is that when you are fully present, that is when you’re fully alive. That is when you feel a fullness of joy because you’re not…and it’s like all those moments when you’re living in the past, or like you said future pacing, those are the moments when you don’t feel well. And if anybody were to look at the life, I guarantee that’s exactly what they’d find. The moments when you’re living presently, is when you feel good. And when you’re living outside of that is when you don’t. Would you agree with that?

Brandon: Yeah. Well, you see, I believe it definite, like when you’re present, you’re going to be in a good state of mind. Like no matter what.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: Like sometimes I notice, you know, with some clients that I work with personally, they have a hard time being able to even just live in the present. And one of the best ways to recreate that present state of mind, is actually bring yourself to a past memory where you were present. So, this may sound kind of strange but I’ll explain what I’m talking about.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: So, for like example, when you mediate, well, if you think about a time in your life where you were in flow. Maybe, you know, playing a sport or you were performing in anything, in business. Whatever it may be, and you experience tremendous success. And so during those moments, you’re so engrossed in that moment. If you can bring yourself back there just by closing your eyes, and just kind of taking yourself through all your feelings kinesthetically, what it feels like, what it sounds like, what it tastes like, what it smells like, bring yourself there, you’re present in that memory and it makes it so much more easier for you to like open your eyes, come back to reality, and live presently. Because you remind yourself like, OK, that’s it. That’s what I need, you know?

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: That’s where I want to be.

Aaron: Yes. That’s a really good point. And I think that goes along the same lines as dreaming and visioning a future, or the desires that you want and you can feel really good in that. It’s not that you’re like living in the future meaning you’re unsatisfied with now, but you’re actually…there’s a huge value in visioning in your mind, spending that time. Whether it’s, you know, recollecting that flow from the past as you talked about or bringing up this, in your mind of future vision of what you desire, and living, and feeling really good about it because you believe and stuff, right?

Brandon: Yeah. Of course. I mean, not to get too woo, woo, but I mean, I really do believe and I’ve heard other…I forgot who said this quote, but I heard someone say, you know, your thoughts and your emotions are just coming attractions to like what your life is going to be, etc.

Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. And so if you spend all your time worrying about the future, what are you creating, right? It’s like worrying is planning for things you don’t want according to some people.

Brandon: Yeah. It’s interesting, Aaron. I’ll even admit like, personally like, like once you understand this and you grasp it on a deep level, and you understand like your ability to create whatever mental state you want, it is incredibly empowering. But I’ve noticed even myself sometimes, like I can catch myself being lazy and just being like, OK, well, I’m just…I’m not going to take myself to that mental state. But I think something that’s really big for your listeners is the grasp. Is that like, once you have that knowledge that you can create whatever mindset you want, and you can bring yourself present, and, you know, use the tools that maybe you’re going to give them for meditation, it’s really your duty. And I feel like you really owe it to yourself and the people around you to be that person who, you know, isn’t lazy. The person who uses these tools and lives presently. Because, you know, the saying goes, the author Stephen Cutler(?), who’s really been studying the state of flow, and these positive feelings, and living a good life, and live presently…I mean, the more flow you have, the more flow you have. So, if you can spend more time in these mind states recreating them, even if it’s at first seems artificial, if we can create them, then we’re going to have more of them in the future.

Aaron: That’s a very good point. Very interesting. So, tell me then, what got you into this. Like what was your story that got you into this interesting flow, or your past experience where you maybe weren’t living it? Did you come from a place where you struggled with this and had some realizations? Or, what’s your story regarding this?

Brandon: Absolutely. So, I was never the most talented athlete, or student, or anything like that. So, I’ve always kind of being looking for like that edge to know, how can I compete with people who are faster, or stronger, or more intelligent than me? And my freshman year after college, I just got done playing my freshman year of college football, and I just rode the bench. Didn’t get any playing time and, you know, I was like, alright, what is it? What can I do to get an edge? And I started actually studying a lot of Chinese medicine, believe it or not. And using energy training. And learning about shock waves and meridians, and how can I manipulate my own to get into these flow states, and learn about brainwave training. And all of these different modales[?] together taught me how to really train my mind to be able to live in these present states. To be able to create these, you know, wonderful coming attractions for what I want. To be able to be more powerful when I get out there on the football field. And my real, ha, ha, moment was when I started playing that year. You know, instantly, I was the starting defensive end for our football team after riding the bench the whole last year. You know, I went from being like a two or three student my first year in college to a 4.0 student after I studied all this. And so, I really tell everyone, I was like, once I started studying Chinese medicine, it really just turned me into like super human. And then once I got interested in it, it was, you know, it was addicting. It was like, wow. Alright, if I could do that, then what else is possible? So, from there I just kept going, you know. I kept going deeper, and deeper down the bunny hole.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: And learning, OK, well, you know, researching and understanding, well, if I spent more time in alpha brain waves, what would that do to my intelligence, my creativity. And actually when I was in college, I got this fellowship to actually do my own research on the effects of meditational brainwave training on strength performance and stress levels. And strength hadn’t really been tested before and I got different results. It showed that people were actually able to bench press more by just going down into these alpha brainwaves, going through this coming attraction, or this imagery and then going and doing the physical practice in real life. And there also was decrease your stress levels.

Aaron: So, you did the whole research study on that?

Brandon: I did, I did, and so…

Aaron: With like different people at your school or different subjects?

Brandon: Yeah. It was my study and so I just took a…I couldn’t do a huge study because I was one practitioner but I just took six students. I had three in my control group, three in my experimental group. And just did my magic on them essentially. And got some pretty cool results.

Aaron: That’s really cool. So, you did that while you were in college?

Brandon: I did, yeah.

Aaron: Very cool.

Brandon: So, from there, yeah, I don’t know how they let me do that because you should have seen like the other grants people were getting. It was just like really scientific like studying microbiology. And I was just like, well, I’m pretty sure if I can like make these people meditate, I’ll make them stronger and I’ll get them less stressed out. You know, like no professor in my school like had even studied this kind of thing. And they’re just like, alright, you can try it. Like, I wrote up my study and it got accepted. So, it was a lot of fun.

Aaron: That’s amazing.

Brandon: Yeah. So, since then I’ve had this obsession with, how can I make things better?

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: And I just haven’t solved it, and that’s kind of been the manifestation of Entrepreneur Fitness. And now I really focus on, how can I work with, you know, entrepreneurs or top performers. The people who really want to, like you say, live this inspiring, amazing life. And because, you know, most people live this kind of baseline life that like they’re not unhappy, but they’re not like thrilled with life. And that’s actually like the scariest place to be because you become very comfortable there.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: And I really like working with people and getting them out of their comfort zone, and getting them to really perform at their peak levels. Because I think that’s where the beauty in life really lies, and the magic of life.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: I totally agree with that. That’s like the whole message of the truly amazing life is to stop settling and just start living wholly. Just start living a truly amazing life rather than…it’s just so easy to settle into comfort, into our comfort zones. I mean, all of us have done it. I’ve been there and that what kind of gets me into gear as far as realizing that one day and feeling that. Going back to your story of where you were, so like, you were playing football and you were benched. Was it just like over the summer that you studied and then came back the next season having like retrained your brain and stuff? Was it just over the summer that you had that transformation? Or what was…

Aaron: Really, it was…I think I went home that winter and I studied a little bit for maybe like a month or so. And then I just took my whole summer, I dedicated it fully to learning about brainwave training. So, train your brain to activate alpha, beta, and delta brain waves.

Brandon: Which is what you tend to do in that practice of medication, right? When you’re going…

Aaron: Exactly.

Brandon: …going into that leaving the flight, or flight response and going into those slower brain waves, right?

Aaron: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So, that and then learning about the energy system. So, energy is kind of like my go-to thing. It’s the thing that I feel like I’m very good at helping people and myself increase. And it’s because, you know, through using our breath or chia. And chia means…

Brandon: Energy.

Aaron: Chia means breath and energy.

Brandon: Yeah. And so breath is everything. And so, I really learned how to use breath to create more energy. And so like I was only about, not even…I was like 240 pounds and I was just throwing guys around who were like 300 plus just because I was using like this chia that I was able to generate…

Aaron: You’re talking when you were playing football as a defensive tight end?

Brandon: Defensive end, yeah. I was going against like offensive tackles [inaudible 17:43] bases.

Aaron: So just using, like understanding how to use your breath to create energy, is that what you’re saying?

Brandon: Exactly. That’s it man. And it’s sounds kind of abstract when I explain this. I don’t think anyone has ever applied it to football.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: Based on what I’ve heard, I don’t know. The Sea Hawks last year did some cool stuff I think with meditation.

Aaron: Yeah. I saw that. Didn’t you post an article on that?

Brandon: I did. Yeah. The article is actually like over a year old. So, I thought it was cool to just bring it up because they showed…I think they studied how to get these players into flow and look what happens, they won the Super Bowl, so.

Aaron: Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s just really cool. So, then you’ve just been taking that fascination with what you were able to accomplish and it just spring boarded you into…ever since then, you’ve just kind of continually been studying and studying. So, when you say what makes life truly amazing to you right now, if I were to recall from the beginning, it’s like the things you do are really this passion to study and grow, and to share, and to give, and to teach. Is that…

Brandon: Exactly. Yeah. I mean, growth and contribution, right?

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: That’s where it’s at. I mean, those are the things that I experience the most joy and fulfilment doing.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: Just being able to grow, learn more, being able to expand my abilities, and then once I have these I get to contribute them. What more wonderful thing is there in the world than to be able to share your gifts with other people?

Aaron: Yeah. That’s awesome. I knew we would have a lot of good to talk about because, I mean, just your energy level, the way you talk about stuff when we first met was really resonating with all of the 12 pillars. But the bottom three pillars of a truly amazing life that are like listed on the Truly Amazing Life poster are grow, give, and empower. And it sounds like that’s what you’re all about, as far as, on a daily basis.

Brandon: Aaron, I think you really hit the nail on the head with the hammer there with those three. I mean, if you can do those three everyday right, if you can experience that. I’ve never met anyone who’s been living that kind of life who wasn’t fulfilled, who wasn’t joyous. I mean, why do we do any of it, right? Some people would think it’s a little controversial when I say this, but I don’t think anyone necessarily does anything purely altruistically. I think we do everything, more or less, for a feeling. We’re looking for a feeling, right?

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: And we get those wonderful feelings from helping other people. So, yes, it’s a great thing. And this is a great way to experience these feelings. But I think the fastest way to do it is just like you said, through those three pillars. Just through empowerment, through giving, through growing.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: That’s where it’s at.

Aaron: Yeah. Well, it’s clear that that’s…I mean, your focus on that is why you’re able to help people. And why you’ve gotten these great testimonials, and why you’ve been able to have an impact into people’s lives. And also why you continue to do it because it is fulfilling, and it is bringing you joy. So, it’s really a pleasure to be able to hear about these things and see somebody that’s putting it into practice and helping people, you know, grow in them. Why don’t we…as we’re wrapping up here, why don’t you tell us any other particular advice on how people can implement those pillars in the lives? Or what people could do, from your perspective today, to more fully live a truly amazing life?

Brandon: Yeah. So, I’m glad you asked that, Aaron, because something that you mentioned before really resonated with me, when you talked about getting people out of their comfort zone.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: I think that is like the number one most powerful thing you could do, is start to get comfortable being uncomfortable. That’s what I tell everyone, right?

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: Because the first time we do anything, it’s not comfortable. It’s hard. It’s scary. You know, we experience these feelings of fear and uncertainty. And if we don’t take ourselves there on a consistent basis, we cannot grow.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: If we can’t stretch ourselves, we can’t be the person we want to be. So, my biggest advice would be, start to do things that really push you no matter who you are. You know, maybe you’re a single man or woman, and you see someone that you’d like to introduce yourself to. Maybe you’re at the grocery store, maybe you’re at a yoga class, whatever it may be. Get yourself out of your comfort zone. Go introduce yourself. Go say, hi. Smile at people as you walk by them. Make eye contact. Make uncomfortable eye contact until maybe the other person looks away. You know, do these things that stretch yourself on a daily basis. Make small talk with like waiters, and cashiers when you talk to them, when usually you’d just go through the motion. You know, do things like, find out like…I’m sure you’d speak to your audience about this a lot, find out what really gets you excited and then do those things that seem like they’re so hard, or so uncomfortable and just start taking steps forward. Because the more steps you take going forward in this uncomfortable state, the more comfortable, and the more normal it becomes. And you can just go higher, and higher, and higher.

Aaron: Yeah.

Brandon: I think that’s the most powerful thing you can do.

Aaron: Very cool. You start getting comfortable being uncomfortable.

Brandon: Exactly.

Aaron: And to do that, start today by just doing one thing that’s uncomfortable to you.

Brandon: Exactly.

Aaron: That’s outside your comfort zone?

Brandon: Right. I mean, I don’t know about you, Aaron, can you think of a time recently where like maybe you had a voice in your head that said, oh, maybe I could do that. And then you just didn’t do it? I have these things all the time.

Aaron: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s just a common practice. Like, that sounds a little hard. That’s sounds a little uncomfortable. I’m not going to do that. But actually just then doing that thing rather than just letting it pass…because I mean probably all of us get 20 of those every day or more. We see things we could do and we just brush them off because they’re not within our comfort zone, right?

Brandon: Exactly.

Aaron: Yeah. Very cool. It’s been such a pleasure to discuss some of these things with you, Brandon. And hope this has been a value to the people listening and to hear of some of these ideas about living more fully, getting out of your comfort zone, getting into that state of flow. And if people want to learn more about Brandon, or hear about his coaching, what he’s doing. I know he’s starting a podcast here, right away, that you could get on. So, I believe, you just go to entrepreneurfitness.com, right Brandon?

Brandon: That’s right. And the podcast is Entrepreneur Fitness as well.

Aaron: Yeah. If you want to learn more about Brandon, hear more about what he’s doing, or how he might be able to get you into flow, go over to entrepreneurfitness.com. I’ll put a link to that on the show notes over at Truly Amazing Life.com slash podcast on this this episode. And with that, I’ll let you all go. Have fantastic week and we’ll catch you on the next episode. Thank you Brandon.

Brandon: Thank you so much for having me.