Becoming A Hero: How To Transform Into The Best Version of Yourself with Brian Johnson: An EOFire Classic from 2022

0:01Light that, Sparkfire Nation, JLD here, and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. On today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down becoming a hero, how to transform into the best version of yourself. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought Brian Johnson into EO Fire Studios. Brian is the founder and CEO of Heroic, recently made crowdfunding history, and is building a social training platform that will change the world. And on today's conversation, we talk about expressing the best version of yourself, how to live with virtue, and first things first, second thing is not at all.

0:37and oh so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Brian and our sponsors. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Brian, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. John, great to be here. And you know what? I think it's less about what people disagree with and more, I just don't think people are thinking about what I would describe as the ultimate game.

1:27So I'm a big student of ancient wisdom and modern science. And if you asked Aristotle and Martin Seligman what the real game of life is, they'd give a very different answer than what most of us think about. We can talk about that more. But basically, eudaimonia via arete in Greek, in English, flourish by putting your virtues in action. Be the best, most heroic version of yourself moment to moment to moment. That's the ultimate game. And again, I just don't think most people are thinking about that to even get to a point where they can disagree with it. I think most people aren't even playing the right game.

2:00So I could not agree with you more. It's a game of life that few people are choosing to play their way because they don't even understand that's a possibility. And you've had, Brian, a fascinating career. I mean, you spent 12 years as a CEO and 13 as a philosopher. And most recently, you just made crowdfunding history with your new company, Heroic. Break down this journey for us. Yeah. I've been passionate for all 25 of those years with understanding what it is that makes great people great, kind of that 0.0001 % that really go out and fulfill their potential, live their destiny, and make an impact in the world.

2:38And that's just led me to a pretty idiosyncratic path where built and sold to social platforms as a founder CEO and then spent the other time reading, writing, teaching, thinking, repeating as a philosopher, and now bringing it all together with heroic. But the through line has been, what does a great life look like? What have all the great teachers said across time and cultures? And how do I embody that? And then how do I inspire and empower others to do the same? So one thing that I'm really excited to learn a little bit about is the fact that you've read over now 600 philosophy and personal development books.

3:19And I know the value bombs are endless in this amount of books you've read. But if you could just share a couple of the biggest lessons learned from these over 600 books, what would those lessons be? If we did ask Aristotle and Martin Seligman, as I mentioned, as proxies for, my passion is ancient wisdom, modern science. What if all the great wisdom traditions have to say? And then what is science kind of confirmed? But if you ask those two guys what the ultimate meaning of life is, they would say eudaimonia via orate and flourish by putting your virtues in action, as I said. But basically express the best version of yourself.

3:58And how do you do that? Well, if we were on video, I'd hold up my right forearm on which I have tattooed the word Arate, which we translate as virtue or excellence, but it has a deeper meaning, basically expressing the best version of yourself moment to moment to moment. And if you are capable, and I'm now holding up two lines right now, parallel to one another, one above the other. If you're capable of doing something and there's a gap between that and what you're actually doing in any given moment, it's in that gap where regret, anxiety, disillusionment, depression, etc. exist. Close the gap.

4:40Live with Arte. Be that best version of yourself. and then you experience eudaimonia and then the downstream effect of that is you succeed in your work as an entrepreneur, in your relationships, in every other facet of your life. So let's dive a little bit deeper here because this is over 600 books. I mean, what is this common theme that you've seen come up, at least in a good majority of them, that you're like, you know what, if I'm hearing a version of this so many times, there's gotta be something to it. Yeah, again, I keep on coming back to that, But that's kind of the central one for me is – and again, when I say ancient wisdom, I'm talking about ancient Stoics, ancient Greek, you know, Taoist thinkers, Confucian thinkers, all the major traditions.

5:25They're all saying the same thing, which is live with virtue. Be that best version of yourself. Have wisdom. Have self-mastery. Have courage. Have love. Not once in a while, but right this moment. It's kind of like a super engaged version of Eckhart Tolle's power of now, which all the spiritual teachers talk about these days as well. And again, modern science confirms that's the real game. And again, it's simultaneously much easier than you think, but not something you're thinking about too often. Now, you had an aha moment when you decided to create Heroic. Take us to that moment in time. Walk us through that aha moment.

6:06into the creation of Heroic. Yeah, so we've talked about the fact that I've spent half of the last 25 years founder, CEO, the other half as a philosopher. I was reading, writing, teaching, repeating as a hermit. Election night, 2020. Politics completely aside, genuinely. Woke up, middle of the night, checked out, and it's just, you know, frankly, just appalled. Really? This is where we're at right now? We can do better than this? And in that moment, our new business was created, which is heroic. And as I mentioned, entrepreneurially, I've built and sold two social platforms that predated Facebook.

6:44So I've waited for over 15 years for someone to create a kind of a conscious version of Facebook that's out of the attention economy that is in many ways an answer to the social dilemma. And it was on election night in that moment that I just said, look, I'm going to do it. Let's go. Let's create an answer to the social dilemma, use the best of social and persuasive technology for the absolute best. And then three days later, I learned that the crowdfunding regulations were changing from a million dollar max and not Kickstarter, but actual equity fundraising to 5 million. And I had another epiphanal moment of, I didn't think we would do it.

7:23I just had a hit. We're going to be the first company to make history as the first to raise that 5 million. Filed with the SEC. Six weeks later, sent out an email to our community of optimizers. And within 24 hours, we had over$5 million of commitments. In 100 hours, we had 11. We made history. And I think the world's just hungry for change. They want to see something different. And that's kind of the origin story for Heroic. Now, that is quite the origin story. You have that aha moment, Fire Nation, in your life. Just listen, step up, wake up, stand up, take action. We're going to be talking about the goal of 51-2051.

8:05We're going to be talking about what it means to have 2 ,500 investors from over 75 countries and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. You've got AI helping you write emails and name your dog. Shouldn't you be using AI to help you invest too? Seriously, I know investing can seem a bit overwhelming. I've been studying it since a young age, and I still have questions 30 years later. But it's an incredibly important part of my overall long-term wealth strategy. Is it part of yours? Public.com is the investing platform for those who take it seriously. With Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and more.

8:42You can also access industry-leading yields like the 4.1 % APY you can earn on your cash with no fees or minimums. But what sets Public apart? AI isn't just a feature. It's woven into the entire experience from portfolio insights to earnings call recaps. Public gives you smarter context at every touch point. Plus, you can earn up to$10 ,000 when you transfer your existing investment portfolio over to public. Go to public.com slash fire to fund your account in five minutes or less. Paid for by public investing. Full disclosures in podcast description. I know firsthand it's easy to get hung up on all the things that need to happen in order or bring an idea to market like a great website.

9:22Without knowing how to code, how are you supposed to build a beautiful platform that attracts people to your brand? Well, at Wix.com, you can build a business-ready site in minutes with the help of an AI site builder. All you have to do is answer a few questions and Wix does the rest. Whether you want to start with a template and build from there, or would prefer to start from scratch, their AI tools make it easy and fun. Plus, you can sell products and services, help clients schedule appointments, and more, all with their built-in solutions, no add-ons required. Wix has been pioneering in website tech for almost 20 years, so you can trust they know a thing or two about web design and running your own business.

10:01Ready to create your own website? Go to wix.com. That's wix.com to start building your website today. Thanks to Wix for sponsoring our show. Okay, let's talk about a platform that's completely changing how entrepreneurs are running their business, and they are also our featured partner, HighLevel. If you're an entrepreneur, coach, agency, or course creator looking to grow faster and smarter, HighLevel is the all-in-one platform that replaces your entire tech stack. Seriously, think ClickFunnels, Calendly, MailChimp, Kajabi, and even your CRM all rolled up into one powerful white-label solution.

10:37You can build funnels, send SMS and email campaigns, schedule appointments, manage pipelines, run memberships, and even launch your own branded mobile app. It's drag and drop simple, incredibly customizable, and built for serious growth. My favorite part, you can resell high level under your own brand. That means recurring revenue, loyal clients, and total control. So whether you're tired of duct taping tools together or ready to start offering high value services with ease, high level is your unfair advantage. On top of it all, their support team is second to none and has your back every step of the way.

11:10Seriously, every question that pops up, they will have your answer waiting. And if you visit my special partnership link, you'll get a free trial. So visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial and see why thousands of businesses are switching. That's highlevelfire.com where marketing, sales, and automation finally come together. High level, join the revolution. So Brian, we're back and 51, 2051. What is that? And what is the goal? Well, John, if we were looking at each other right now, we were sharing this on video, I'd hold up my other arm on which I have tattooed heroic. And right above that, I have my life's kind of mission and ultimate target, which is 51-20-51.

11:59it's a uh a goal that i got from the positive psychology movement but can we help create a world in which 51 of the population is flourishing by the year 2051 when i first heard of that which again came from martin seligman and the colleagues of his who created the positive psychology movement frankly i thought it was crazy i still think it's crazy um in audaciously ambitious but that's what I've dedicated my life to is how do I play my role humbly yet heroically well to help create a world in which 51 % of us, 51 % of us are flourishing by 2051. So that's 5-1-2-0-5-1. And I'm looking at it right now.

12:40I, you know, the joke is, uh, research says that if you write down your goals, you have a 40, whatever percent higher likelihood of achieving them. Well, some people write it down and on their mirror or, you know, put it in their wallet. I decided to tattoo my body with it. I'm all in, John. I love the fact that you're all in and why not Fire Nation? Why not go all in on that? And there's some actually people that I know that have tattooed things on their chest that's backwards. So only they can really read it when they look in the mirror. And it's just things like that going all in. Like, are you really going to not succeed when you put yourself in that kind of situation?

13:16And it does seem pretty crazy having over 2 ,500 investors from over 75 countries around the world. I mean, this is a dream come true for a lot of people. It could be a nightmare for a lot of people. I mean, how do you personally honor that kind of commitment? Walk us through how that happens and how you're honoring this commitment of yours. To me, it's become a kind of a sacred opportunity. And we used a platform called WeFunder to raise the money via the crowdfunding. And there was a moment where everything was official, right? And I needed to go in as the CEO of the business and officially sign all the, you know, 2 ,500 shareholder documents, right?

13:57And it was one of those moments where I paused, you know, and I live out in the country here in Austin and I walked around our trail and just reflected on it. And it felt to me very much like I was, in a way, kind of, it was just a sacred commitment. It wasn't quite, you know, the depth of my marriage to my wife, obviously, but it was a sacred, sacred commitment. So I wrote this sacred vow, um, that I'm actually holding in my hand right now that I recommit to every single morning where I just fiercely commit to showing up and honoring their investment in me. Um, and it's hard to put into words just how powerful that is for me, but I, underneath that sacred vow that I have printed out, I've got a really thick binder clip with a hundred and like 50 pages of notes from a couple thousand investors saying why they wanted to invest in Heroic and support me and us in our vision to create a better world.

14:50And I reread a page every morning. So I reread my sacred vow, recommit to it, and then I reread a page of those notes. And science says that if you want purpose in your work, the fastest way to create it is to make a connection between what you do and an individual or a group of people you serve. So every single morning I read these notes and I'm often brought to tears, even though I'm on my fourth reread through them. Um, there's just something really profound to feel people's belief in me and in us from a hundred dollars to several hundred thousand dollars. Um, and that's, that's what I've chosen to do.

15:27The sacred vow, um, has been unbelievably powerful for me and it's kind of my North star and what I recommit to and show up again at a really fierce level every single day to make them proud and make the impact that we're all committed to. So Brian, we shared a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff today. I mean, I kind of want to go back to that 600 number because that's just so many philosophy and personal development books. Just as somebody who's always kind of trying to find more time in a day to do stuff like that, to better myself, to read, to, you know, I do love the fact that now every single morning and evening, I take my dog on a walk and I'm listening to a great audio book.

16:05How did you knock out that kind of number? What was your process for that? Dude, I asked myself that question. I look back at my schedule from years ago and literally that version of me was unbelievably productive. I mean, I did 100, 110, 120, not just reading the books, but actually distilling them into the six-page philosopher's notes and 20-minute MP3s and all that. I hustled is the short answer. And I didn't do anything but what I decided was most important. So Peter Drucker is a guy I admire. We've got a philosopher's note on his great book, The Effective Executive. He says, first things first, second things not at all.

16:45And I'm ruthless. When I'm all in on something, I'm all in. So I didn't use my phone for a year or two. I didn't use email. And I just, I read, I wrote, I taught, and I repeated. And there's just a rhythmic consistency to my life that allowed me to create at that level in that context. But now, you know, I just downloaded a new Audible book from a friend who's a, you know, Navy SEAL director of mentorship there, and he recommends books I pay attention to. But my reading has gone dramatically down because that isn't what's most important for me now. Now my craft is leadership. And, you know, I think it's just a matter of finding what's truly important, you know, and strategically, strategically, what's the big lever we need to pull and then go pull it.

17:35And for me, that's kind of what the notes were for that phase of my career. And I love that phrase, rhythmically consistent. I mean, for me, that really kind of molds with my all or nothing kind of mentality as well. And that's actually honestly how I was able to do 2000 episodes in 2000 days. I was just rhythmically consistent, rhythmically consistent. Dude, that's awesome. I did not know that. Yeah, you got to be 2 ,000 in 2 ,000 days. That is fantastic. Yeah, now I'm over 3 ,500, but not in 3 ,500 days because I peeled back for a couple of years when I hit episode 2 ,000 to three days per week.

18:11And now I'm actually back up to seven for a lot of different reasons. And so I'm back to my rhythmically consistent seven days a week. But Brian, I want to end strong with you sharing the one theme, the one takeaway that you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from our entire conversation here today. Any call to action that you have for us, anything that you want us to make sure we're checking out as far as connecting with you, and then we'll say goodbye. Yeah, I want to go back for a moment, actually. Let's come back to this question because it's a great one, obviously, but just your ferocious commitment is really inspiring to me and how it's paradoxically easier to produce at that level when you're so clear and the ambivalence is just gone.

18:49You've just decided this is what needs to happen and you're going to go hit it. So I just got struck by that. I did something similar with my own little content over a span of 1200 and something days. So I didn't quite get to your 2000, but I admire that. And I love it. Thank you. We're excited to share what we're doing with both optimize and heroic. So if you've been looking for more wisdom and less time and have a hard time keeping up with all the books that you want to read, those 600 philosophers notes were part of a premium membership that are now free. We're really excited about that. And we can talk about, you know, the best URL to go to.

19:25Go ahead and share that. Optimize.me slash fire. And you can get instant free access, no strings attached to 600 philosophers notes. Those 1200 optimized plus ones I did every day, 50 hour long classes on all kinds of subjects from mental toughness, habits, relationships, et cetera. And then we're getting ready to launch Heroic in April of next year, which is Heroic.us, which is something we're obviously super excited about. Helping people move from theory to practice to mastery is the big idea there. But appreciate you and I'm thrilled to be able to connect. Appreciate you right back at you, Brian and Fire Nation.

20:07You're the average. Of the five people you spend the most time with, you've been hanging out with BJ and JLD today. So keep up that heat. and head over to eofire.com. Just type Brian in the search bar. The show notes page will pop up with everything that we've talked about here today. Brian, thank you for sharing your truth, knowledge, value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Right on, man. Likewise. Fire Nation, today's value bomb content was brought to you by Brian. And are you ready to rock your very own podcast? Well, if so, then check out our very own free podcasting course where I will teach you how to create and launch your podcast for free.

20:47Freepodcastcourse.com. That is Freepodcastcourse.com. I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today.