Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening,
everybody. Welcome to today's episode of the
Never Peak Project Podcast. I'm your host, Coach
Ranger. I walked across America in 2024, and
now I take all those lessons that I learned on
my journey, and I help entrepreneurs, nonprofit
leaders, and just high achievers get what they
want by getting past their internal and external
barriers so that you can create real results
in your life. In today's episode, I'm going to
be talking about a very important concept, one
of the key... secrets that I use on my walk across
America to get from South Carolina, from Myrtle
Beach, all the way to Los Angeles over in California.
And that simple tool is to pretend that I am
a frog in a pond. I know this sounds a little
bit silly, but when it comes to different metaphors
or ways to kind of break down these big goals,
it really works for me. And I hope that this
concept works for you as well. Now, before I
really dive into the frog in a pond explanation,
I'll give you a little bit of a story of how
I came to discover this concept. So it was about
six months before I started my walk across the
country. I was sitting in the lunch area with
one of my coworkers over at the county that I
worked in, and she could tell that I was physically,
visibly stressed. And she was like, hey, like,
what's going on? Like, does it have to do with
your walk? I was like, yeah, dude, like. I've
been ready to do this thing for like two years
now. We're six months out from my first steps.
And I have no idea what I'm going to do for my
route. I've tried making different plans. I've
tried doing day by days. I've talked to other
people that said that there's not even a point
in doing that. I just feel super overwhelmed
on how I'm going to get from one point to the
other. And she was like kind of talking me through
it a little bit. And at one point in our discussion,
I looked at her. uh little what is it the the
contigo cup thing the the whatever it's called
that a lot of people have and she had a sticker
of a frog on it and i said you know what it feels
like it feels like i am a little frog and there's
this huge pond in front of me and i'm trying
to just jump from one side to the other and i
have no idea how to make that happen and she
kind of just paused for a second and she said
well What if you didn't have to do it all in
one leap? What if you found like lily pads to
get from one side to the other? And in that moment,
I just felt like this like wave of clarity, like
these weights off my shoulders. Have you ever
felt like that where it's like, oh my God, I
just figured this out. We just cracked this case
wide open. Well, in that moment, I realized that
you don't need to figure out every single step
in between where you are and where you want to
be. Sometimes you just need those big waypoints,
those lily pads in between to get from one spot
to the next. But you do need to be clear on where
you're starting and where you're going. Those
are really the only pieces that you need. When
I was on the walk itself, I was able to figure
out what those lily pads for me day by day. When
I first started, my lily pads were super close.
I was like every single day, I was like, okay,
I'm starting here. I'm ending up in this general
area. Where do I need to stop? And then I would
plan out the next day and the next day and the
next day. But a few weeks in, I was able to start
expanding out those lily pads to where they were
further and further and further away. Typically,
my lily pads were either hotels that I knew I
could stay at. Again, I stayed at a lot of Marriott
properties during my walk. They were host families
that I knew for sure I hadn't nailed down. And
they were the waypoints. So before I even knew
I was going to stop in Amarillo, that was one
of them. Same thing with Oklahoma City. Same
thing with a few other spots throughout the country.
But what I did was I had those as the general,
this is where I'm trying to land. And then in
between, I wouldn't always have, you know, hosts
or an understanding of where I was actually going
to stay. And I kind of had to put myself in the
spot of that frog again, right? Like, okay, there's
this big pond. I'm trying to get from, well,
the east side to the west side, Kerploth. But
how am I going to get from, like, those lily
pads to the next lily pad? Some were close enough
that I could just kind of jump and hop from each
one. But as I got better at figuring out where
the pads were and I got further into the walk,
they got further and further away. I kind of
thought, OK, well, shoot, like if a frog can't
jump from one lily pad to the next, like what
would it do? In that moment, I was like, well,
shoot, dude, like it would swim. It would just
get in the water and swim. And that was powerful
for me because a frog is able to swim very naturally.
It's something that just it just works for them.
So then I have to figure out, OK, well, what
is so natural for me that even when I can't get
from lily pad to lily pad. i can reframe it in
a way that i was confident in my abilities and
i knew that i was confident in my abilities to
just figure things out i had the tools to just
sleep on the side of the road if i ever needed
to but i also had things like technology i posted
a lot on facebook i had the support of the various
communities that i was going through i was able
to find you know local facebook groups local
um you know police stations firefighting houses
etc etc like i had these resources just like
a frog has its legs to figure out how i was going
to get from pad to pad now this is something
that has come up in various coaching clients
that i've had pre during and post law but the
idea here is when you're striving for a goal
you're really trying to get from one spot to
another from your current state in your current
state to a more ideal situation it can feel super
overwhelming like you're that frog that needs
to get to the other side of the pond in one go
that's not the case now this is is a method methodology
a tool called chunking down you take your big
goal and you find the smaller pieces that you
need to do in order to make that goal possible
For me, it was, OK, instead of looking at it
from South Carolina to California, can I look
at this from Myrtle Beach to halfway across South
Carolina? Can I make this from the Georgia border
to the Alabama border? Can I do a state or two
at a time so that it's less overwhelming in the
moment? And as I get my sea legs or my walking
legs, I can really understand what those next
steps and what those next few days or weeks are
going to look like. So one of the easiest examples
is I want to start a business. Well, that state
from being a nine to five or being a W -2 and
not having your own business to having a thriving,
let's say, $100 ,000 a year company, that's a
huge jump. But if you kind of chunk it down,
you say, OK, what is the most important next
step? Your MINS, M -I -N -S. Most important next
step. I learned this on the BiggerPockets podcast.
They're about real estate investing, but the
same thing, right? Like, what is that most important
next step I need to take? What is that first
leap? It's probably figuring out, well, what
is the type of business I want to start? Do I
want to do service? Do I want to do products?
Then after that, what kind of licensing would
I need? Do I need a bank account? Do I need to
fill all this paperwork? Those are those first
lily pads. And they're very close to each other.
Just like my first few days on my walk were very
close, you know, instead of being, you know,
100, 120, 250, whatever miles out, it was 10,
15, 20, like pretty close, like day by day. And
as time goes on, those lily pads do get further
and further apart. Once you have your business,
you know, you have the name, your fictitious
business name statement, you know, all these
county, state, et cetera, paperwork filled out.
The next thing is get your first customer. Then
it's get 10 customers on retainer, then this,
then marketing and sales. And it feels like these
lily pads get further and further and further
out as you try to make your way to 100 ,000.
But in that case, from my beliefs and where I
stand, the way that you swim in that situation
is to show up every day, do something of marketable
value while working on your business, whether
it is Work on advertising or sales or cold calling
or reaching out to your network, showing up to
your BNI meetings or different referral networks.
It's just that day -to -day work. And if you
can develop those skills of networking, having
good conversations, eventually that will lead
you to the next lily pad and then the next one
and the next one. Same thing with your relationship.
Maybe you want to go from single to married.
First of all, you need to figure out what you
want in a partner. What is important to you?
Am I going to get in the dating apps? Am I going
to get out in person and try to meet people?
What does that actually look like? But then those
lily pads get further and further apart. You
know, you find a partner, eventually you get
engaged, then you plan the wedding, then you
have kids, then you do this. Like those pads
get further and further apart, time -wise, distance
-wise. But there's soft skills in between, like
good communication skills, being able to express
what you need, setting boundaries. That is the
swimming. So... Really, the takeaway that I want
you to have from today is in order to get where
you need to go, the first step is knowing where
you are and where you want to go. Be very clear
on that vision for yourself. Whether you're starting
in South Carolina and you want to get to Los
Angeles, be clear on the destination, the waypoint
on your map. And then start filling in the lily
pads in between. Literally, I got a piece of
paper and I drew a pond. And on the right side,
I put start. On the left side, I put end. And
then I kind of just started making little dots
on the map of where I wanted to go. Same thing
with my business. Same thing with my relationship.
Do that. Start filling in what those little destination
points are for you. On the other side, write
down swimming. And then put in those soft skills
that need to come naturally to you. The day -to
-day activities. Just like walking is something
you need to do to get from one lily pad to the
other. What is the smallest, most important next
step you need to take in order to make yourself
go from the right side of the map to the left
side? And if you would like some help and support
figuring out what your, you know, what your waypoint
is, where you're starting from, where you're
going, figuring out what the lily pads are or
what that walking in between each step that swimming
looks like for you on a day to day basis. I'd
be more than happy to support you in that journey.
In the description is a link to my channel to
schedule a free 15 -minute consultation in which
we'll go over where you are, where you're going,
and what you need to do in order to make it a
reality. Completely free. Just go ahead and sign
up for a time, and I will speak to you then.
As always, remember that the best is yet to come
as long as you are willing to make the decision
to never settle, never quit, and never peak.
I'll see you guys in the next one.