The Framework for Starting Over without Starting from Scratch with John Ulsh

0:01John Lee Dumas:Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down the framework for starting over without starting from scratch. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought John Ulsh into EO Fire Studios. John is a USA Today bestselling author, speaker, and resilience expert who survived a near-fatal accident, turning recovery into a practical framework while leading teams and inspiring others through mindset and leadership. Today, we talk about the rock bottom moment, not starting from zero, the rebuild framework, momentum being greater than motivation, and oh, so much more.

0:38John Lee Dumas:And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to John and our sponsors. Today's show is sponsored by strawberry.me. If you're feeling stuck or like you're ready to get to the next level in your career, then finding the right coach can help. Go to strawberry.me slash fire and get 50 % off your first coaching session. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support. Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com.

1:21John Lee Dumas:highlevelfire.com. John, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. I think most people become obsessed with their actual goal, but I really believe success comes from actually falling in love with the process. Learning everything you can on the road to achieving the goal is more important. I mean, goals matter, but the process is where you grow. It's where you build your discipline, your resilience, your confidence, and actually the habits that become sustainable later. So I'm a big fall of the process guy. Love the process, love the grind, the journey find your nation.

2:01John Lee Dumas:That's where you're going to look back and say, those are the fun days. Those are the good old days, the journey, the getting there. And I want to talk not about getting there, but about your rock bottom moments, because John, you had one of those. And listen, many people listening have had a rock bottom moments. Many people are going to experience a rock bottom moment. So you take us to that moment where everything hit bottom. What exactly forced the reset and what decision changed everything? My rock bottom and my journey came when I moved from the hospital to a nursing home. I was 37 years old.

2:37I was paralyzed, completely unable to take care of myself and completely dependent on other people. It was pretty much then that I I realized my life was dramatically changed and it was never going to be the same. But, you know, that decision changed everything. And at that time, it became, you know, a very simple first step. I just asked my nurses and nurse aides to tie resistance bands to the side of my bed frame. I mean, I couldn't walk. I was paralyzed. I couldn't feed myself. I couldn't brush my own teeth. There was pretty much nothing I could do, but I could pull in those stretchy bands.

3:17And for the first time since my accident, I had some control over something. And later that one decision just to try to help me keep some strength would get me out of inpatient rehab, you know, significantly faster than they ever thought I was going to get out of there.

3:34John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, this is a powerful story that we're going to really be diving more into, especially about the whole framework for starting over. without starting from actual scratch. Now, let's talk about that, about not starting from absolute zero because a lot of people, they feel like they're back at square one, but you actually say that's not true. So how can someone identify the assets, the skills and the relationships they still have at this moment in time where they are right now today? That kind of connects back to pillar number two of my eight pillars, which is identifying the source of the problem.

4:10Most people are out there going, what is the actual issue right here? Usually they find that most of their problems come back to one or two root causes. Again, once you kind of identify the source of your problem, you can focus on that one thing that helps you move forward. That also allows other problems to take up less space for you. So like a perfect example, if somebody will come to me and say, I want to lose weight, but I don't have time or I'm overwhelmed at work. I have to stay later than I want to. and I'm so busy that I just can't figure out how to fit it into my schedule. I would probably look at them and say, look, I don't think your real issue is you need to lose weight.

4:46Your real issue is a time management problem, right? So once you solve that real issue, ultimately a lot of these other problems that you have no longer are there or they become less of an issue and a lot more manageable.

4:59John Lee Dumas:I want to talk about the actual rebuild framework because John, you have a three move framework. We're talking reset your mind, simplify your focus, and execute daily non-negotiables. Let's go through each one of these three move frameworks, each one of these single move frameworks, and give an example of you in real life doing one of these frameworks, what that actually looks like on the ground. Resetting the mindset is more about identifying that real issue, right? I mean, you have to understand the source of the problem before you can create an actionable plan. And once you really know the issue, the execution becomes much clearer.

5:39The goal is to tackle the issue every single day. The focus isn't always, did I achieve my outcome today? But did I actually just show up today? So for me, like after the accident, I could have gone on disability. Nobody would have blamed me. Nobody would have said, oh, you know, you need to keep pushing yourself and get out of bed. You can't stay in that wheelchair. But I made a choice to show up, just a daily commitment to just try to rebuild myself every single day. Not something built on this concept that I could just keep pushing and pushing, but just that I had a foundation of showing up every day.

6:18And if I could look at myself in the mirror at night and say, I showed up every day, regardless of whether I got the outcome I wanted, then I knew I had the building blocks to keep going forward.

6:28John Lee Dumas:So let's actually go through a specific example of your three move framework. I mean, we've talked about your story a little bit. Maybe just give us like a real world example of what that looks like in the real world. In the real world, I would say the very first thing is, you know, understanding commitment, right? If you need to be committed to something before you can tackle it. And I've had people say, you know, I'm not committed right now. And that's okay. That's called giving yourself a little grace, right? Right. But when you're committed, the next step is really to get back to that source of your problem.

7:02Because, again, you can't really create an executionable plan until you get to the source of the problem. Right. And when you do that, then you can start to put that plan in action. And, you know, we can go through from there and say, OK, but I couldn't. It's eight pillars. And so as you keep going through, you're going to deal with setbacks. They're going to come. They always do. It's not a question of, you know, going back to square one. A lot of times, it's just this understanding that I just need to shift and readjust. And by the way, reevaluate my plan. So from a, you know, from a standpoint of, you know, in my life, just this decision, I've had 45 surgeries over 19 years.

7:45I've had so many setbacks that took me backwards. And every single time I had to re-follow the process again. One, I had to recommit myself. And that often took time. Two, I needed to really understand where my source of my problem was. Again, shifting constantly based off of what I was going through. And then third, you know, I needed a plan that I could execute. And, you know, motivation is, you know, sort of a challenge because motivation fades, but commitment doesn't.

8:18John Lee Dumas:That's what we're going to be getting into next is momentum being greater than motivation, clarity through pressure, coaching others, and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Today's show is sponsored by strawberry.me. I've interviewed nearly 5 ,000 successful entrepreneurs and one thing they all have in common, they've enlisted mentors, coaches, and people along the way to help guide them. But where do you find the right coach or mentor? Great question. And that's where strawberry.me career coaching comes in. I speak from personal experience when I say that coaching and mentorship has helped me get to where I am today.

8:55John Lee Dumas:In fact, you might not even be listening to Entrepreneurs on Fire if it weren't for my very first coaching mentor, Jamie Masters. I knew that in order to produce the best podcast, I needed to find someone who was where I wanted to be. Here we are nearly 14 years later, and I'd say I made a fantastic investment. So if you're feeling stuck or like you're ready to get to the next level, then finding the right coach can help. Go to strawberry.me slash fire and get 50 % off your first coaching session. That's strawberry.me slash fire. Fire Nation, if you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure.

9:32John Lee Dumas:That is why High Level is Entrepreneur on Fire's featured partner. High Level gives you a website builder and hosting, funnels and landing pages, email marketing, appointment scheduling, payment processing, course and membership hosting, and so much more. Everything you need to succeed all under one roof. No duct tape, no juggling five platforms, just one clean system for your business. And their award-winning 24-7 support has your back when you need it most. When you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you also get my exclusive bonus stack, a 30-day free trial, a private 15-minute call with me, JLD, access to my weekly live office hours, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something Execution Roadmap, and more.

10:15John Lee Dumas:Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. John, we're back, and I want to talk about momentum. I want to talk about motivation, but I want to specifically talk about why you believe momentum actually trumps motivation. So why is consistency more powerful than motivation when you're trying to rebuild? Motivation fades. It may get you started, but it doesn't always stay with you. Consistency is what you can lean on when your motivation isn't there. So again, motivation is a feeling. Consistency is a choice. When you're rebuilding, you can't depend on how you feel every single day.

10:55Sometimes you need a process that you're committed to, even when you don't actually feel that motivation. And so I just think motivation trumps, or momentum always trumps motivation. Give us a real world example. I've had to rebuild my body. I had to rebuild my life. I had to rebuild my business. And so there'll be days where I'd hear a motivational speaker. I'd read something. I'd listen to something on a podcast and it would motivate me. But if I didn't take that motivation and turn it into a consistent plan, it would leave. It wouldn't stay with me long enough to get me to where I needed. So, you know, again, for me, this constant need to, you know, try to rebuild my body from paralyzed to a wheelchair to being able to walk unassisted.

11:47A lot of that came from, you know, being around people who motivated me. But what I really needed was an actionable, consistent plan that would force me to, number one, track, and number two, to get up every single day with the idea that I just needed to try. And so, again, motivation is great. It's a great tool. I'm a motivator. But ultimately, I need people to take that motivation and create consistency in their life if they want to get the change that they're looking for.

12:20John Lee Dumas:There's a great quote by Zig Ziglar. He says, motivation is a lot like showering. It's useful, but it doesn't last. So you need to repeat it often. I mean, Fire Nation, motivation is great, but again, it's not going to last. But what is going to last? You getting up every day and whether you feel like it or not, putting in the work, putting in the hours, making things happen, being consistent, building on the momentum that you've acquired thus far. So let's get into clarity through pressure. I mean, how did going through that pressure that you went through reveal what actually matters in life and then help you cut out what doesn't really move the needle?

13:02Pressure often forces you into situations where you don't have much choice, right? Especially when the pressure is not self-imposed. So in those moments, you're stuck constantly reassessing. I'm constantly having setbacks, surgical, and those are out of my control. But, you know, the big thing about those is you can't reassess what you don't track, right? If you don't systematically keep score, how do you know if you're winning, right? You can't evaluate something and determine if it's working if you're not tracking it. So, you know, progress for me is never linear. And for most people, it never is a linear thing.

13:40You have to learn to adjust, pivot, keep moving. And for me personally, it was about figuring out what mattered and what didn't matter. It was about figuring out sometimes what was working and what wasn't working. And again, if I'm not tracking that stuff, I can't go look at it and see if it's working or not, because otherwise it's just a feeling.

14:05John Lee Dumas:Give us an example of what you found really matters. The thing that matters more than anything else is falling in love with that process. Because if you love the process, the grind, whether it's health-related, business-related, relationship-related, it's always going to be a grind. But the fact is that you need to love that process because otherwise you're never going to achieve the goal that you're looking for. I just again a perfect example it is you know for me because of rehabilitation you know going to the work to work out and just expect that because I'm doing it for a month or two that you know I'm going to get to my goal and for me it was it's been years and years of of grind and if I didn't like it I would have quit so many times because I would have said like this is I don't, this isn't for me.

15:06I don't like what I'm doing. Like I'll talk to CEOs who are super successful as CEOs and don't like their jobs. I'll say to them, could you, your sheer determination has made you successful. Could you imagine the level of success you would have if you loved what you did on top of all that? It's just, you know, again, determination is great, but you got to love the process to get you there as well.

15:36John Lee Dumas:What did you cut out that you found just doesn't matter? You said, man, this is just not adding value to my life. It's out. Living up to the expectations that I create by what I see around me, whether that's other people's success, other people who are being more, making more progress in their recoveries. a big part of my story is when I decided to take on my own rehabilitation, step out of my daily outpatient rehab and go work on it myself, I started working out four days a week with teens with Down syndrome. The most positive human beings you have ever met. And that is what I needed. I literally surrounded myself with just positive energy, positive people.

16:31I didn't want to be around my own peers because I was so far behind after the accident that that idea was just going to create a bunch of noise in my head. Oh, you're not good enough. You're never going to get there. Whereas literally working out with Danny, who was a 17-year-old young man with Down syndrome became my focus and my soft spot where I could stay in and just be positive all the time because he was a positive human all the time.

16:58John Lee Dumas:So now you coach others. I mean, you've turned your experience into helping others rebuild faster. So you see the common traps that people just fall into over and over again. What are they? The big one is this concept of everybody falls in love with the goal instead of the process. You know, they focus so much on that end game that they miss all this opportunity for growth, for learning, you know, from all the progress that actually happens along the way. You know, I often say like the beauty lies in the process. And if you miss it on your way to your goal, then you're actually never going to achieve it.

17:36I get to speak to college athletes a lot. And, you know, I always say, look, you don't get to win a championship overnight. You know, you practice, you win a game, you go back to practice, then you lose a game, you reevaluate, right? If you're lucky, you make the playoffs. It's, it's very much a step-by-step process. And when people spend so much energy looking far above the horizon at the climb, you know, that they're headed towards, that that goal feels so far away. There were so many times where, you know, when I focused on this idea that I was going to be able to walk again, or I was going to be able to one day run, it seemed like impossible.

18:15This seems so far. But instead, you know, when I just started, instead of looking up, looking so far in the future, if I just looked at the next step in front of me, you know, that is why the commitment is so important to me because commitment becomes your crutch, right? So if you just look at that one step in front of you and make that one step, and then the next day, you just take another first step, right? And so life becomes a bunch of first steps every day. And, you know, when you stop and look back, you will see that you came very far by taking one step and focusing one step in front of you.

18:56And so many people want to look at that, you know, top of the stairs over the horizon. And, you know, if you just stick with the process, you will get to where you want to be. And it's just that one step every single day.

19:12John Lee Dumas:So listen, if someone's listening right now and they're in their own rock bottom moments, what would you say is one action they should take today to start rebuilding their momentum? The first step is to commit to something. And here's sort of what I learned about commitment. Commitment comes before clarity. Most people think clarity comes first and they think, When I know exactly what to do, I'll move. Or when I feel confident, then I'll start. Or I need to feel ready to commit. But that's not how life works. You commit first, then clarity kind of follows. I always want to choose purposefulness over perfection every time.

19:53So for me, that became this idea of what I call a ready framework. ready being an acronym and, and R stands for, for reflect for me. So like I try to take a step back. I try to slow down and understand what's happening, right? I have to understand where I am and often not where I wish I am, not where I wish I was right now, not what used to be for me, but, but, but where, where am I right now? Because I know I can't move forward until I understand my current reality. And so second in the ready framework is E, evaluates like, okay, what's real, right? What really matters right now? What do I actually need to pay attention to?

20:37Because not every problem deserves all your energy and not every obstacle deserves all your focus. You need to actually evaluate what is truly important. And when you do that, then you can move to like A, which is alignment. You know, you got to align your actions with your reality, not your preferences or not your emotions, but your reality. I think too many people spend their lives fighting reality instead of just responding to it. Because if you accept your reality, it doesn't mean you have to approve it. Acceptance just means you're understanding what it is. So then you can kind of move to the next step, which is D, which is decide.

21:17Because at some point, you have to decide, right? You can wish, you can hope, you can try, but you have to truly decide. You have to make a firm decision. And you have to kind of, you know, that firm decision will create your momentum. Because without deciding to firmly do something, nothing will change. And then for me, why is yield? And actually, this is the hardest part, you know, because for me, I had to just learn to yield to the process. Because, again, like I said earlier, it's rarely linear. Healing isn't linear. Growth isn't linear. Grief isn't linear. So, you know, there's always setbacks and there's always frustration.

22:02And there'll be days when it feels like nothing is working at all. But if you're, again, committed, you're committed to moving forward every single day, you will eventually arrive somewhere better than where you actually started. Because, you know, again, surrender is a big problem for me. For a long time, I thought surrender was weakness. But the reality is surrender is actually freedom. Because once you stop fighting the things you can't control, you can create a new baseline to start from. And at that point, that's when you begin to see kind of everything is still potentially there for you within the areas that you can control.

22:47And that's where I would start my rebuilding. And that's where I would tell other people, you start your rebuilding in the areas you can control because so much of life is out of your control. And the only thing that you can control is your own commitment and your own ability to want to show up.

23:04John Lee Dumas:If Fire Nation's really resonating with what you're saying right now, and they want to connect with you. They want to learn more. What is your call to action for our listeners today? I have a book out called The Upside of Down. It's available everywhere books are. That is a two-part book. It's a lot about my journey and story. And then the second part of that book is those eight pillars that I coach on. We are constantly putting out content. Instagram, LinkedIn are the two areas I'm mostly interacting with people, but we're on Facebook and we're on all the other social medias, but John Olsh at John Olsh on Instagram, John Olsh on LinkedIn.

23:46You know, I, I respond to a lot of the messages that are in there personally. And you know, it's, we're putting out just motivational stuff every single day there in, in short absorbable forms. If you want the long form at the books available on audio as well. So, you know, if you're somebody who absorbs your information, via audio, then the book is there as well, read by me. Or again, if you're a physical book person, it's out there.