The One You Feed Podcast with Eric Zimmer

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, the only daily show interviewing the world's top entrepreneurs seven days a week. Today, we'll be talking about The One You Feed. To draw these value bombs, I brought Eric Zimmer into EO Fire Studios. Eric is the creator of The One You Feed podcast, and he shares timeless wisdom and practical tools for meaningful living, drawing from deep conversations and personal experience, overcoming addiction to inspire lasting change. And today, for a nation, we'll talk about consistency, staying true to your mission, the science of incremental change, the most effective habits, routines, and tools to impact your life and owe so much more.

0:40And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Eric 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. Fire Nation, success isn't a solo journey. It's about who you surround yourself with. That's why I built the Freedom Circle, a powerful community of entrepreneurs ready to support, inspire, and share the ideas that move you forward.

1:21Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more. Eric, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hey, everyone. Happy to be back here on Entrepreneur on Fire. I would say it's not something that most people disagree with so much as it's something most people really overlook. And it is how incremental the path to success often is and how stringing together one good action after another consistently turns into something really amazing and valuable. I mean, we can look at you and I don't know how many episodes you have. I know I have 800 and somebody asked me yesterday, well, how did you get to 800 episodes and 50 million downloads?

2:10And I said, well, I mean, it's cliche, but I did it just an episode at a time. You know, how did I write my book? I wrote my book in 30 minute chunks because it felt overwhelming, but I could do 30 minutes. And so my upcoming book is called How a Little Becomes a Lot. And it builds on this idea that I think we all know it. It's a cliche, right? But to really embrace it as like, that's what this is going to look like if I'm going to be successful. It's going to be little things that don't seem like they're that important individually that just continue to add up and accrue. Well, we are going to be diving deeper into the science of incremental change in a little bit here at Fire Nation.

2:51And Eric, to answer your question, you are episode 4 ,682. So I just keep doing one episode at a time, just like you. and today, Friday Nation, we're talking about the one you feed. And I want to start with your transformation, Eric, from a homeless heroin addict at 24 years old to a thriving entrepreneur. Tell us that story. I think if you were to see the movie of that, what you would see is me, you see a bunch of scenes of me buying drugs and people overdosing and all sorts of terrible. Then you would cut to a scene in a recovery center that was an old tuberculosis hospital. And you would see me talking to a counselor in a dingy yellow room and them saying, you need to go to long-term treatment and me saying, I don't think so.

3:38And going back to my room and having what we call a moment of clarity where I was like, I'm going to die or go to jail because I had like 50 years of jail time hanging over my head if I don't do this. So I went back and said, okay, I'll go to treatment. I'll go to your long-term treatment. And if you're going to film a movie, that's the that's a pivotal scene but back to the theme that we've been talking about that scene has no value without the thousands of little choices that came after that you know the going to one meeting a day or two meetings a day or three meetings a day or calling my sponsor or reading something or trying to help someone else right that that pivotal moment is seen as a pivotal moment because it was followed up by a ton of action.

4:24And so that's kind of how I did it really is, yes, I had some epiphanies along the way, but then they were followed up by a lot of just straightforward action. And one of the things that I really learned early in recovery was a phrase that I still use today, which was sometimes you can't think your way into right action. You have to act your way into right thinking. And what I was told then was here are actions that you can take, things that you can do that are going to make it much more likely that you recover. And I just kept doing them, right? I just kept following the simple actions that were laid out in front of me.

5:00And over time, my life transformed and became something very different. Now, that was a long time ago. So I've been on a growth journey ever since. But that's kind of how that initial transformation happened. What a powerful start to this episode, Fire Nation, as we talk about The One You Feed, which actually happens to be the name of your podcast, which we kind of talked briefly about, has over 50 million downloads, over 800 episodes, and you turn that show into a trusted global brand. What lessons on consistency and staying true to your mission can you share with us today? Early on, for whatever reason, we just made a commitment.

5:44Like every Tuesday, an episode was going out. Now, compared to your daily commitment, that seems relatively minor. But for us at the time, both having full-time jobs and kids and all of that, that was a pretty big commitment. And we just never missed Tuesday. And then we eventually went on to do in Friday. And we've never missed. Now, do we re-release episodes? Occasionally. But every Tuesday and Friday, an episode shows up. And I think that is the consistency that we're talking about here. So I think that's the foundation. And then beyond that is a ability to come back to what is important when things aren't going as well as you like, meaning you grow for a little bit and then there's a plateau.

6:38And on that plateau, it can get kind of discouraging. Then you grow a little bit more and there's a little bit of a plateau. and learning during those plateaus to reflect on like, why am I doing this? What is it that I want about this? And it ultimately for me ends up being a combination of I love talking to people. I love having conversations. I love the lifestyle that my podcast has ultimately allowed me to have. There's all these factors. But when I return to those sort of more intrinsic things, I am happier than when I'm out there comparing my downloads to, you know, Tim Ferriss or Joe Rogan, right?

7:15And so when I find myself doing that and saying, oh, it's not enough, I come back to the intrinsic pieces. You know, this show is good for me to do. It helps people. I get to spend time with my friend Chris. It supports a wonderful lifestyle. It helps people. Those things I can reflect on. And I think those are the things that make it possible to do something consistently over the long term. Now, we did mention this a little bit right in the intro, but I want to dive deeper into the science of incremental change and how those tiny daily actions can actually lead to massive business and personal breakthroughs.

7:50Yeah, the science is, there's a bunch of different things that go into why scientifically this makes sense. One is simply the idea of homeostasis, right? We, our organisms, our systems, whether they be inside ourselves, whether they be business, political, social systems, they tend to like to keep things the same. They don't like change. and so when we try and make a radical change and sometimes radical change is necessary i needed radical change to get sober but for most of us when we introduce radical change it's really hard to maintain and the harder something is to do and by and hard could mean ability but it could also be like it's hard to fit all this into my already busy schedule that's a type of hard, right?

8:45The harder something is to do, the higher the motivation we need to do it. And so we may start out with motivation really high, but we all know that that motivation goes up and down. It changes. And so when we do things that are small enough that we can do them with variable levels of motivation, then we start to succeed. And as we start to succeed, our motivation goes up, right? We feel more motivated when we feel good about ourselves, when we feel like we're doing well, when we feel like we're succeeding. All that drives motivation up. Motivation is driven down, conversely, when we feel bad about ourselves.

9:28And so if we are very inconsistent in what we're trying to change, we say, I'm going to work out, you know, five days a week and we do it two days a week and then we do it three days a week then we do it two days a week every week we are feeling disappointed in ourselves and that drives down our motivation so when I'm working with somebody in a in a coaching environment I'm much more interested in let's build consistency let's start with small actions that you can do consistently because then you start to feel better about yourself your motivation goes up you can do more you can do more you can do more so those are the two sort of core ideas right one is it outsmarts homeostasis because it doesn't set off the the alarms of oh my god everything's changing and it works with that this sort of relationship between ability and motivation in a in a skillful way i mean let's be honest whenever i can outsmart homeostasis it's a good day fire nation and we have a lot to talk about around habits, routines, and tools when we get back from thanking our sponsors.

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11:39So 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. Fire Nation, let me drop a truth bomb. The biggest bottleneck holding most entrepreneurs back isn't lack of ideas, tools, or hustle. It's lack of connection. And when I scaled my business to eight figures and mentored thousands of entrepreneurs, I saw the same thing again and again. People trying to do it alone. And that's why I created the Freedom Circle. You've heard me end every episode of Entrepreneurs on Fire by saying you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

12:20That's not just a quote. It's the reality of success. The Freedom Circle instantly becomes your family of five and then some. It's a community of driven entrepreneurs ready to pour ideas, connections, and support into every part of your journey. So Fire Nation, if you're ready to level up and finally create freedom on your terms, head to freedom-circle.com to learn more. That's freedom-circle.com. Eric, we're back and I'd love to chat about you, your most effective habits, routines and tools that have the biggest impact on your life. I think the single most effective habit I've managed to build for myself is exercise.

13:01And it's kind of rote and pedestrian and it's sort of like, you know, your mother telling you to eat your vegetables kind of thing. And yet for my mental and emotional health, it's probably the best thing I can do. I mean, being a homeless heroin addict at 25 tells you I may have had some problems up in my head. Those don't all disappear, right? So I've dealt with depression over the years and exercise really helps with that. The second thing that exercise does is it gives me energy. And I think having energy is one of the key things that allows us to be successful. So if I were to be like for me, if you're like you could have one sort of habit, one sort of routine, what would it be?

13:41It would be that one. the second that I've really started to take advantage of over the last few years is using apps like self-control or I think it's called free time to limit my ability to do things on my computer and phone that I don't want to do it's just far easier for me to have help not doing the sort of habitual bad habit behaviors that we all fall into. So like for me, I'm not really on social media. My thing is like I will compulsively check my email. And maybe compulsively is the wrong word, but way more than it needs to be checked. And that takes me away from doing things that are important, like working on the book or producing a podcast episode or all the things that drive my business and my life forward.

14:35So I just have this little app on my phone. And when I try and check my email, it just pops up a screen and it makes me take a deep breath. And then it asks me if I actually do want to use it and for how long. And that, surprisingly enough, is enough most of the time for me to go, oh, actually, you know what? I didn't want to. I was just habitually grabbing my phone because that's what I do. And, you know, we may get to later talking about these six saboteurs of success that I talk about and we offer as a as a e-book. But one of them is the autopilot pitfall. And it's exactly that. It's like we're not even really aware that we are picking up our phone to to go to social media or email or to Candy Crush for the 45th time today.

15:23We just do it. And so these tools are great ways of sort of snapping us out of autopilot. I love your comment about exercise and energy the two e's I mean for me I have non-negotiables every day but two of those non-negotiables is The first thing in the morning. I wake up to my alarm at 6 a.m Because I am out the door with my dog for a three-mile hike outdoors in the sun With the fresh air and the blue sky for three miles getting my sweat on And I do the exact same thing to bookend the end of the day. So i'm six miles total It's over 10 000 steps intentionally personally plus my dog he needs the exercise he was actually 70 74 pounds at one point now he's down to 58 i'm very proud of him some very healthy weights um all because i'm committed to doing that and what does that exercise do the bookend of the energy of the exercise it gives me energy like i love post shower my first cup of coffee i've already had three miles in my back pocket completed like my energy is high i feel good like i'm ready to go like it's the start of my day that i know what I'm doing.

16:26Like a lot of people, they don't have a reason to get out of bed in the morning. They have a lot of reasons to quote unquote, get out of bed, but not at that moment. For me, it's at that moment. I have to get out of bed at that time if my morning is going to start off the right way with that three mile walk. So I love that attitude. And you did mention those six saboteurs. So go ahead and break those down. Yeah. Let me first set up, like, I think when it comes to changing behavior, like creating a good habit, let's just focus on that for right now, there are two key elements. And you just hit on one of the big ones, which is you know exactly what you're going to do.

17:04You know when you're going to do it. You know why you're doing it, right? So structure and systems are really important. They're really valuable both in our personal lives and also as entrepreneurs, right? That knowing what to do and specificity is really valuable. And a lot of books like James Clear's Atomic Habits is a great book all about those things. And those are critical. Like I think you have to do them. The six saboteurs goes to me to the next level, which is even when you know what you should do, why you're doing it, how you're going to do it, you find yourself at this choice point and you end up making the decision you don't want to make.

17:40And what is helpful then is to examine in that moment what was going on inside to me, right? Because it wasn't a planning failure. It was an emotional failure. So those six saboteurs, I kind of tried to really think about what is it that happens? And I mentioned one of them, the autopilot pitfall, which is you just don't really realize you're making a decision. You just, habit is driving the show and habits are great when they're good. And they're really problematic when they're bad, because the definition of a habit is it happens sort of automatically with no conscious effort. And so we've got to find ways to break out of that autopilot pitfall.

18:16The next I call the fatigue fallout. And it's what you and I were just talking about. It's energy, right? When we don't have the energy, it's very difficult for us to do the things that we want to do and we believe are important, right? When our energy dips, our judgment starts to fall off. We start to think things that are good for us, aren't important. We just run out of energy. And so one of the things that's really important is learning how to manage that energy throughout the day. Like I just know no matter what I do and I've tried all kinds of different things. I have a little afternoon dip, you know, starts between two and three and lasts for about an hour and a half, two hours.

18:57What I've learned to do is just not do not like, I'm not going to try and write my book during that window because I just don't, I'm not going to do it well. My mornings are much better times or again, later, like six o 'clock or five o 'clock. So the second one is just the fatigue fallout. It's recognizing when we're tired. It's taking breaks that make sense instead of a break of checking my email or checking whatever your thing is, your sports scores or your social media. For me, it's about getting up, go move for five minutes. That's a break that fights fatigue. So number four is emotional escapism.

19:32And it's really when our emotions get in the way. So if we want to think about this as an entrepreneur, it's when a deal you thought was going to come through doesn't come through or something hard happens in the business and you then just it becomes very hard to do anything productive because you're you're feeling discouraged and so and we're we're doing what we're letting our mood dictate our actions and back to that line i used earlier sometimes you can't think your way into right action you have to act your way into right thinking, you know, emotional escapism is one of these saboteurs. And, and the way to work with it mostly is to recognize what you're feeling, acknowledge what you're feeling, and then also say, but that's, I allow myself to feel all that.

20:23And I'm going to do the thing that supports my goals, my wellbeing, my values, whatever you want to call it. The next is a self-doubt stalemate. And this is when you just don't believe that you can succeed. We talked about earlier about how motivation goes up when you are feeling good about your chances of success, feeling good about yourself, and it goes down. The self-doubt stalemate is when you just think, I can't do it. I'm not good enough. Whatever form that takes for you and your business, there's a thousand different forms, but we all get them. And the self-doubt stalemate is one of those things that stops us.

20:58you know we're we've got the plan it's time to do it and and again all of these are sort of they can be very subtle you may not recognize what's happening you just recognize you're procrastinating and then the last is the insignificance trap and it's similar to the self-doubt stalemate mate but it's a slightly different and it's more that you don't believe the little action that you're going to take is going to lead to anything meaningful so self-doubt is i can't do it the The insignificance trap is more like, well, what's one blog post going to do? Or what's 30 minutes of writing going to do?

21:31Right. We don't see how our actions accrue over time, both positively and negatively. And so we just don't think the individual thing is important. Yeah, I was talking to a coaching client today who jokingly said, well, you know, it's just hard for me to do things right now that are not high importance and high urgency. And I semi jokingly and playfully said, I'm going to remind you as an entrepreneur, like everything you're doing is high importance and high urgency, right? That's being an entrepreneur. So these moments are significant, right? These choices you're making are significant. And so that's the insignificance trap.

22:08And those are the six saboteurs. Fire Nation, what a powerful breakdown of those six. I mean, I was resonating with a lot of what Eric was saying, and I hope you were as well. Now, Eric, we've come to the end of our conversation here. I know you have a couple of things for us. There's a free ebook for Fire Nation. There's your book that's coming out in April of 2026. And any other call to action that you have, go ahead and share that now. Well, if you go to oneyoufeed.net slash success, you can get that ebook. And beyond that, I mean, until my book comes out, you know, our podcast is our, you know, is our big, big thing, right?

22:45It's a place to enter our world. And you can find the one you feed on any podcast player. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with EZ and JLD today, so keep up the heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type Eric in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. Eric, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks, John. Always a pleasure. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Eric for sponsoring today's episode.

23:17And Fire Nation, are you ready to rock your very own podcast? Check out our free podcasting course where I will teach you how to create and launch your podcast for free. Freepodcastcourse.com. I'll catch you there or 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. Fire Nation, success isn't a solo journey. It's about who you surround yourself with.

23:58That's why I built the Freedom Circle, a powerful community of entrepreneurs ready to support, inspire, and share the ideas that move you forward. Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more. Thank you.