Hey everybody, welcome back to Vision Pros Live.
I'm your host and coach, Fletcher Ellingson.
I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad you're in
this conversation. And the reason is because
on this show, we're gonna introduce you. to all
sorts of entrepreneurs, all sorts of solopreneurs,
people who have a vision. And how I define vision
is a clarified story in the mind that we intend
to bring forth into the physical realm. Today
on the show, we have Jeff Fisher from Ride the
Wave. I know this guy definitely has a vision,
but before we get to that, Jeff, welcome to the
show. Thank you, Fletcher, so much for having
me. It's an honor to be on. Right on, right on.
Hey, like I mentioned, we always like to start
with a win, or at least I like to start with
a win, because I like to practice feeling good.
There's a lot of stuff we can focus on that doesn't
feel good, but that's a waste of life energy,
in my opinion. So let's start with a win. What's
something that's going well in your life, professionally
or personally? Professionally, we had started
WaveMaker. mentorship program, which is a new
style one -on -one mentorship where you befriend
somebody and you do not leave their side until
they're out. You're sort of a passenger in their
car while they drive. And recently, in just a
week, Heather, who is what we call a wave rider,
a mentoree, ended up getting a job in just a
week, is on track to get an apartment with her
and her fiance, Jose, and they've been experiencing
homelessness. So it's proven in the community
and we're really building it up to be great.
So that has been a recent win and a blessing
professionally. Right on. That's exciting. And
that reminds me, I'm going to chime in here about
a win for me too. It's similar because I'm also
a mentor to a young person in our community.
And actually today, after we get done recording
this, I'm taking this young person to the bank.
to open up his first ever checking account and
he's excited to put some money in there and he
and i have had a conversation about beginning
to invest in himself financially so he's excited
to have his first ever checking account and then
we're going to open up an e -trade account and
he's going to buy his first ever share of stock
so that he starts building wealth for himself
It's so nice right there, that quality over quantity,
right? Really bringing somebody up and spending
that time. That's what we're trying to replicate.
And then like a wave, branch it out. Right on.
So cool. So you have started this company, this
organization called Ride the Wave. And we're
going to dive into that. But first, I do want
to ask you this because this is called Vision
Pros. Jeff Fisher, what's your vision? Yes, I
have a pretty grand vision. We're going to build
an all inclusive modern campus for people experiencing
homelessness. So university style place where
you're you're accepted, you don't leave until
you're your best self. Whoa, that. OK, I got
all sorts of questions and I'm sure our listeners
do, too. So this is not. From what I read on
your website, this is not just like a homeless
shelter, is that correct? Correct. The vision
is to have a place that has the most modern facilities,
but more importantly, brings down a culture of
servant, conscious leadership, which I've always
been privy to and really love throughout my life.
Mental health strategies from a business perspective,
how to be a go -giver, empowerment strategies,
little things with finances too, because that's
important, like how to balance a budget, how
to not go into debt and how to build wealth and
give back. utilizing a new style program and
we have a nice opening actually it's called project
dignity we're working on which is going to be
a 10 to 15 modular home community where we can
hopefully test out successfully those principles
that is so cool uh very inspiring and you know
um as you were saying all this because this is
a grand vision right this is this is the vision
out of the ordinary right and People listening
to this conversation, when they hear you talk
about that, I have no doubt that many people
are being like, dude, unattainable. Dude, that's
not going to happen. Dude, that's overly ambitious.
I'm saying that because to those people thinking
that, if they're hearing me right now, I'm speaking
to you. Every huge... successful business every
i mean from i don't care what it is apple microsoft
to a mom -and -pop shop um in a brick and mortar
and a small in small town usa they all started
with an ambitious vision right i mean we have
people who are private companies now who are
building space rockets and going in into space
taking you know regular people into space that
started with an ambitious vision that's right
right so yeah i think something's impossible
until a record gets broken like a mile record
and then it gets broken then everybody does it
after yes exactly you got it so so we i'm i i
enjoy this conversation i appreciate this conversation
because it's challenging us to look at our limited
thinking right and because even when i was reading
through your website I mean, I could hear my
thinking like, well, that's ambitious. Yes. Well,
that's well, they're going to have some hurdles
to jump through. That was my initial thinking.
And why I'm why I'm admitting that is because
I want people to hear that that type of thinking
is automatic. Like that was what my my brain
brought for me. It kind of goes right to that
negative. It can't be done or exactly. So I'm
a very optimistic and very positive person, right?
I'm in the coaching space. But what I want people
to hear is that even like my brain has these
tendencies to think negatively or think doubtfully
or skeptically as a default, right? Now, fortunately,
I'm practicing catching that so I can hear like,
oh, that's my programming. That's not me. And
what I want to think and believe instead of that
is Jeff Fisher and his vision are incredible.
And there are and I know that there are ways
for that to occur if he's absolutely committed
to it. And so, again, I'm making this about the
listeners right now, Jeff, I'm aware of that.
But again, listeners, I you're you're listening
to this podcast, Vision Pros. Because it's about
vision. It's about having a vision and bringing
that clarified story from the head into the physical
realm. And that's what Jeff Fisher is doing.
He's working on it. So we can all send him good
vibes, send him good energy, send him money.
I don't know. Connect with him. See if you're
interested in this. If this is lighting you up.
connect with jeff and see how you get involved
with his vision and help him bring it into the
physical realm yeah fletcher i love how deep
you're going and i can feel the energy good man
good so so i want to hear what's going on right
now like what are what are you excited about
in this business and and what's next yeah absolutely
you nailed it right big undertaking how are we
going to get there So just to give you a little
bit of my background, I own a process equipment
company, NCK Equipment. Nicole, Kristen, and
Kathleen, the owner, the founder, named it after
his three daughters. He was a really great guy,
very good influence on me. And I was trying to
get to the bottom of the culture of the company.
And one of the things Ray and I, who the owner
was, used to say is, you're riding the wave,
yeah, you're riding the wave. And we were doing
great on sales. So it came to me while I was
acting out certain principles in the community.
I myself am a Christian, and then after I had
some encounters with people I normally wouldn't,
friendships. The catalyst, though, when I was
walking across the street from where my mom lives,
there's a convenience store, I was getting something
to drink. Long story short, saw a van that was
beat up. It's been there. I used to ride my bike
around there. I saw it up there a couple days.
Felt a wave come over me, something to call me
to check on the person in the van. And when I
did... John Gordon, J -O -N Gordon. If you go
to johngordon .com, he's a great servant, positive
leadership. NFL's first, I think, Davos Sweeney
in Clemson was his first relationship. Really
great guy who's a supporter as well. I do a one
word every year. So that one word was encouraged.
And Daryl, I encouraged him. Fueled him with
encouragement. Changed both our lives. That's
why we're here. I wrote a book called Wavemaker.
It's a repurposed story of my interaction with
Daryl, followed by principles to teach others
how to approach people in the street or have
similar interactions they normally wouldn't.
Radiate positivity in how to do that. The art
of asking questions. The art of questions are
so important to understand how to ask them, to
get out stories, and to be able to get flooded
with various information from people. Because
the value is, and that's why our tagline is,
The path is to the person. It's not even in technology.
It's where you get and grow through someone's
spirit, and you listen and gain knowledge. So
we're trying to connect people with all the distractions
that are out there. The book, Revenue, and also
we have a podcast, Ride the Wave podcast. It's
gone from zero to 100K subscribers in a little
over six months. I went guns blazing Fletcher.
I went all out. As soon as I went to Ramsey Solutions.
Entree leadership, and I met Ken Coleman, chased
him down the hallway to share this thing, realized
it could operate at a high level, and I have
not stopped. Wow. That's inspiring. I really,
really appreciate that. Hey, I like to recap
certain things that catch my attention, so our
audience hears it. You said inspire. What did
you say? Get curious. The art of asking questions
in there was inspire what? So there was a radiate
positivity. The other one was nerves. Sorry,
I might not have said it. Nerves are normal because
one of the things there with Daryl is I did feel
a certain way. I pushed through nerves to get
there. So it's a set of principles because later
there was a discovery with a formula. And that
was the first vision. The first vision I had
was training courses. And then it expanded from
there. Yes. All right. So radiate positivity.
And by the way, this isn't. This isn't just like
fake positivity. This is like, you know, an optimism,
right? This trust and belief that things are
going to work out. And you may not know how they're
going to work out. Right. It may not even look
like they're going to work out, but there's this
trust that that is going to work out for our
greatest evolution. Yeah. Radiate positivity.
Get curious. Learn the art of asking questions.
Right. Learn those phrases. Oh, tell me more
about that. Help me understand that. Right. This
is how we create massive relatedness. This is
where impact begins. Right. Yes, I like that
word. yeah that's a great way of describing it
it really is it's uh it opens up and you it's
basically breaking a barrier you break a barrier
into something and the relationships that i've
been developing normally i would just pass by
not because i felt a certain way or was negative
about that person pretty pretty optimistic um
it would be because i just didn't think anything
of it i was in the zone but the value has just
changed my life Yeah, I can believe that. And
you know what? You've probably become, tell me
if this is accurate. Have you become much more
practiced at approaching and talking to people?
Yeah, I mean, it starts to, it's a social skill.
There's an intelligence to it that you start
to get where you can see people, you can see
in their eyes. You know, when you connect with
them, you can tell by their smile. Yeah, you
begin to. naturally developed sort of a way to
read the room. Yes. And the reason I'm calling
that out is because a lot of people hearing this,
they may have a default thought, right? Without
their permission, it just shows up. Oh, I couldn't
do that. No, no, no, no. What I want you to hear
is what Jeff said. That first conversation he
had with the guy, I think it was Daryl in the
band. Yeah, Daryl was, he was the person that
I met. uh literally a week later we went to the
library to film the first show so so and you
heard jeff say there was he was there was a level
of discomfort but he pushed through it there
were nerves right um and those nerves are are
nothing negative they're not bad they're just
telling you to pay attention right they're paying
like hey be alert you know um your body is always
telling you there might be danger right it's
just it's natural But what I want you to get
is that, yes, it might be uncomfortable at first.
But the more you practice this type of engagement,
the more comfortable you become, the more proficient
you become. And there's a greater sense of certainty
around it. I think the more certain we become
about this, the more capable we become, the more
proficient and the more confident. Would you
agree with that? I would agree. You know, for
those people out there, maybe some young people
that play video games a lot, you know, I think
if you were to look at life a little bit, in
a sense, it would be too easy to just go through
and maneuver. You'd have to go through certain
obstacles and challenges to get to the next level.
There's no better game than life because you
can feel it, you can 3D it, you get into every
aspect of it. If you tap into that, and not only
that, You put service on top of it. Yeah. And
you treat people kind. Wait till the wave takes
you. Yeah. Love that. Yes. Be a source of kindness.
Be a source of contribution. When you practice
those two things, yeah, like you said, the wave
takes off. Things begin to radically change in
your life. Yeah, it's like a snowball. Yeah.
Yes. Yes. This is this is my kind of conversation,
Jeff. And I just want to appreciate you. Thank
you for being that source of kindness and contribution
in our world. Thank you for getting out of your
comfort zone so that others can discover their
potential and live a feel good life and make
a difference for others. This is this is exciting
to me. This is what life's all about. So thank
you, Fletcher. It's been an honor. And I really
enjoyed this time. Yeah. If somebody wants to
find out. about your work, how to connect with
you, or maybe be on your podcast, or maybe get
you on their podcast. What's the best way to
get in touch with you? Best thing to do is go
to our website, ridethewave .org. Everything's
there. You'll have the podcast. You'll have the
books. There's a children's book that just came
out. It's there. I haven't really released it
publicly. um and you know anything all our social
media you can find it on the website it's a good
hub for it and the contact page if you fill it
out it'll come directly to me and jayvon the
ceo and podcast co so just let it rip yeah um
one more question i thought about are are there
currently needs that your business has that people
might where they might be able to plug in or
tell me a little bit about that Yeah, thanks,
Fletcher. So right now, in order to build trust
in the community and fill an essential gap, right
now we're looking for a van or an SUV because
the problem is people are not able to get to
their appointments, and they're expected to be
there, but they have to walk miles, they're tired,
they're hungry, and there's really not affordable
or really efficient transportation. So in town,
we're going to create a taxi service called Wave
Transportation. And eventually that will connect
to the campus when it's up because then they'll
be able to connect to the wave mentors for rides
and also bring people back and forth to the campus.
So, you know, something like that, we could really,
really use some contributions, whether it be
a van or SUV or some donations, that would be
a blessing. Right on. Okay. Yeah. Connect with
Jeff, get involved. If this is touching your
heart again, thank you, Jeff Fisher for. being
on the show and it's time for you now to get
out there be a source of kindness be a source
of contribution you do have something to offer
this world And I believe in you. Thank you for
being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned
in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to
seeing your reactions as these episodes continue
to move forward. This is going to get more and
more fun. We'll have more and more engagement
as well. We'll invite people to participate in
the show. And thank you for giving us your time
and attention. Have an excellent time building
out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.