The Fearless Life Project - Julian Rosen

Redefine your relationship with failure. Because I can look back on my journey and point to five times, at least five times, where if I hadn't failed, I wouldn't have learned something essential. If you can separate yourself from this autopilot operating system, you unlock your business. You unlock your ability to enjoy yourself.

What's up, Finit fans? Welcome back to the Future of Finance podcast. So five, two, six, three, two, fifty, fifty three. This whole episode is better than a cup of coffee. So take a listen. Enjoy it. This is episode number 47. Julian Rosen of the Fearless Life Project. Hey Fitness fans, welcome back to the Future of Fitness Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Malzone, and today I have a very exciting and energetic guest. His name is Julian Rosen, and he is the founder of the Fearless Life Project. Julian, welcome to the show.

Awesome to be here, Eric. What is up, everybody? Hope you're killing it today.

Awesome. So you have a lot to say, right? I think you have a lot of very uh valuable things to say. Yeah. It's not just quantity, it's quality. Uh especially for today's modern fitness professional, you know, people who are doing things online and trying to push forward as an entrepreneur, as a business person, and what are the realities thereof? Uh, not just you know the challenges of of marketing and and finding clients and retention, but the mental game that we go through every single day, if not minute, if not second, ever gone through. So, Julian, please uh tell people kind of your your journey, right? From uh director of a club to online fitness pro to where you are now.

Yeah, yeah. So I started off where I'm sure many of you have. I was just a personal trainer. Um, I also you know got my CSCS and started working with some athletes, and that was exciting for me. And worked my way up. I was working at uh for one of the Under Armour Performance Centers, and you know, they have a pretty awesome training system for clients and athletes. And yeah, I ended up being the director of fitness. I was you know onboarding and growing teams of trainers, helping them build their book, helping them refine their skills and their message so they could really attract the right clients, and then um basically wanted to start infusing reaching more people and infusing my message and my brand into something. So I started an online you know side hustle, so to speak. And then man, the more that grew, I just got addicted to it and eventually I grew it so big, so quickly, that I approached my, you know, the man I was working for, and I was like, hey, with all due respect, I love here, but it's it's time for me to do this. And um and really it it it grew. I mean, it not only replaced the income I was making from my salary and commission I was making from training, but it's it well surpassed that. And you know, I was telling you this. I was actually, for all you guys listening, my my fiance is a travel nurse, and so I we were living all over the world. We were living in Hawaii at the time, and on paper, I was making great money, loved my fiance, was living in freaking Hawaii, and I just felt weird inside, I felt bad inside, and I realized I got into the fitness game to change lives, to transform lives. And you can call it cheese your cliche, I don't give a shit. Like that's why I did it. And then I realized that the fitness coaching itself wasn't enough. It wasn't, it was a great platform to spark change, but it was leaving something to be desired for me, fulfillment-wise, and my gut was telling me. So that's when I pivoted real hard, started the Fearless Life Project, which is a and it still incorporates fitness because fitness for me is always going to be this important thing. But really, at this point, I help business owners and entrepreneurs really develop the mindset they need to navigate the unknown terrain of growth, of transformation, of evolution as a business owner, of as a brand, because man, there's stuff they don't tell you when you get into it, as I'm sure you know. And you are faced with doubt every day. Every day you're faced with doubt. Um, you are faced with that, oh shit, what if this doesn't work feeling? You're oh, you know, what if my message doesn't resonate? Feeling there's there's tons of doubt swirling there. And so I help business owners, entrepreneurs master their relationship with stress, with anxiety, so they can retain that clarity and connection to their artistic or creative vision that got them started in the first place. Because when you can act in accordance to that every day, you're gonna grow. You're gonna, you are going to explode 100%. So right now, yeah, if you're if you're you know running a physical location or if you're doing something online as a side hustle, or if you're thinking about taking everything online, there's certain mindset shifts that it doesn't matter what avenue you're in, the same mental game is always going to apply. And I think and I think you'll you'll agree with me on there.

Yeah, absolutely. And I, you know, I can resonate with so much of what you say. And and you know, first of all, when I uh I owned a a CrossFit affiliate from Santa Barbara, it was successful. Um I had a a I still have a beautiful wife. Um Santa Barbara. And by all means, everyone looked at my life, they're like, dude, it's on paper, yeah. Like it's cool. Why would you ever change it? But something deep, you know, inside me was like, you know, this isn't it.

This isn't the this is where um this is this is a great chapter in my life, but it's and you know, and you know, and you'll know, and it will, the more you bury it down, it will come back with a vengeance and rock your world. So yeah, the I encourage everyone that the as scary as it is, once they get that hankering in their heart and soul, in your gut, intuition, whatever, implement as quickly as possible. Act on it as quickly as possible because it there is a seed getting ready, it just wants to freaking flourish into a forest of abundance and amazingness. But yeah, you gotta you gotta act. You can't you can't sit on that.

Yeah. So let's let's put this, let's kind of put this into an avatar. Let's think about that. So, you know, if if I'm um Suzy Fit Pro and I'm listening and I'm I'm starting my business, right? Either I'm opening a gym or um I'm starting an online nutrition program, or maybe I'm I just want to start developing content and these words pop in. They're like, you're not supposed, you're an imposter, right? You're gonna be wasting your time. What how embarrassed are you gonna be if a year from now this doesn't work? How do you start walking Susie through the process of without giving away your secret sauce? But how do you start walking through the process of more confidence or just dealing with the emotions and thoughts?

Yeah, so right away I would ask Susie, say, looking forward, yeah, there's all these what ifs and potential scary things. And yeah, you could even fall on your face, but what is what is what would it cost you if you did nothing? What would your life be like if you just kept enduring what you're doing and not acting on what you truly want? Like, what's that look like? And a lot of people, that fire burns so hot that they will run forward. Um also, I will always tell them that this imposter syndrome thing, like, dude, you look at some of these heavy, heavy, heavy hitters. I was actually talking to a client the other day, and she works with some huge, huge clients. Um, have you ever heard of Oracle? It's uh it's like a cloud, cloud database. So I don't want to name names, but somebody high up in that organization confiding in her was like, I still have this imposter syndrome, like I still give presentations and saying, who am I? And this generates billions of dollars of revenue. This guy is out there with that little seed of doubt in his head. So I would say, Susie, that's just means you're human. That just means that's actually a good thing because that means you're going into the unknown. You're going into uncharted waters. Because if you were strolling forward and it didn't seem scary, it didn't seem hard, there was no doubt, A, you probably wouldn't be expanding yourself and setting yourself up for massive success. And B, if it was clearly plotted out and you knew what to expect to the point where there was no doubt. On the other end of that journey, there's probably a thousand other people already there because the journey has been walked a thousand times. So I would say you're not alone in thinking it. And okay, yeah, it's scary going forward, but what awaits you behind? And it, you know, is that pain greater than the slight discomfort of growth?

Yeah, I love it. My uh my business partner and I, Doug Holt, we we have this thing we call it the rocker chair test, where we say, you know, okay, if you're looking at this moment in time, right? And uh and you're sitting in your 90 years old, you're seeing your rocket chair, are you gonna wish you did this or you wish you didn't? And most of the time, you're gonna I non-action is just the thing that you you're never gonna look back and say, Oh, I'm so glad I did nothing.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and I just want to tell your listeners this redefine the relationship with failure because I can look back on my journey and point to five times, at least five times, where if I hadn't failed, I wouldn't have learned something essential. Like without that failure, I'd actually be a failure if that makes sense. So like don't live your life avoiding failure. Just just know that just know that this journey will provide you with the teachers you need, whether it's a random video on your Facebook feed or falling on your face and learning something. Like there, once you embrace this mindset that everything is happening for you, it becomes a game almost. Like a yes, there's still risk, yes, there's still hard work, but it takes on this playful, like, okay, what's it gonna be like today? Where is it gonna come from today? Who how am I gonna grow today? And so, yeah, change your relationship with failure right now. And I always say, like, think about it then implement it. So, like, I'm holding up my notebook right now, like not only change the relationship with it, but right now, write down five times you failed in your life and how it actually benefits you or benefited you at some point. Like rewrite that, rewrite that story in your head because once you flip the script on failure, you man, it's like it's like you take the parking break off and you can finally like just freaking speed down the track. It's amazing.

I love it. So let's let's let's get raw here a little bit. Like, what are what are some of the things that what are some of the things that go through your head on a daily basis? I mean, you produce a lot of content. I see you're on Facebook all the time, doing a great job, by the way. Um what are some of the things that go through your head and how is that translating into your coaching life?

Yeah, so it's funny, like all the stuff, all the stuff that I was trying to run away from at the beginning of the journey, it doesn't go away. Like it's not like, oh, once I once I double my income, doubt's gonna go away or fear's gonna go away. Like those are not to get too neurosciencey on your on your crew, but like those are deep-seated survival mechanisms that date back to the caveman days that you can't really get rid of. You can just change your relationship with them. But imposter syndrome. Like, I'll begin, I'll be thinking about what am I gonna do my Facebook Live about today or this week? And I'll immediately the voice is like, no one wants to hear that. Or somebody's already said that better than you said it. Or um what if no one listens, right? Or what if someone listens and leaves a bad comment? Or you know what I mean? And like so, so the doubt is there. Almost it almost like greets me every morning. And I actually have a um I have a board, like a calendar in my room, and like I keep my phone right under it. So when I wake up, I walk over and I have to look at this calendar and I write myself a question, and sometimes it changes, but like it just makes me make a choice. And right now it says, Are you treating today as an opportunity or an obligation? Because that if you think of it as an obligation, your energy is gonna match that. So I always like I choose. I'm like, I'm gonna get up and this is gonna be an opportunity, or do I want to hit the snooze button if I do? Like, I have to admit then that today's an obligation. And it's like, once you put the ball in your court, I haven't written obligation once. I've gotten my ass out of bed. So so just know like it's human nature to avoid transformation, it's human nature to avoid growth, it's human nature to avoid the potential for social rejection. These, like I said, I I love, I nerd out on the brain science of transformation and fear, but these are all just things that every single human being deals with. It's just like flexing any muscle. The more you take action in spite of these feelings or voices, the stronger you get and the quieter the voices get. They never go away unless you're a sociopath. Um, there's some people out there that don't hear it at all. Um, but but yeah, it's it's it's a muscle. And it's like the more you flex it, boom. It almost becomes automatic to take that action in the face of the fear. Um, but same thing, man, that muscle atrophy. If you it like the more you sink back, the more you let your circumstances dictate what you're doing, man, that you know, you go and pick up that weight and you're like, oh shit, this is heavy. So it's it's the momentum game. It really is.

Yeah. Yeah, I really like that. Man, there was back when I had a home office, because I don't really have one now, but on my whiteboard, it would say, um, God, I can't remember the exact quote, I should have it memorized, but it was essentially it's not what you have to do, it's what you get to do today. Yeah, oh and that's that's the same, it's the same premise. And I find it in the neural stuff too, is we can get into that, man. I I love it because we have this mechanism within us that we fear rejection due to back in the day, it was our tribe. If we get rejected from our tribe, we're literally died. We have no food, you have no shelter, you have no nothing. Yeah, it's still so ingrained. And when I talk to people who have this you know posture syndrome or worried about what people have said failure, it's telling me like, dude, you know, no one's thinking about you right now. Like you may people are thinking about you, but they're not. They're too consumed with their own shit, right? Yeah, they they just you're not on their radar at all. So don't worry about it because nowadays we don't have to worry about the whole tribal thing. Like, we can live sufficiently on our own just fine, right? You can stuff off.

Yeah, if that person thinks, if if that person thinks you're stupid, you can still go to Chipotle and get a burrito. Like there's no the correlation doesn't exist anymore in reality, but our yeah, our our deep-seated survival mechanisms still have that. So it's like the reason you're scared of rejection is because part of your brain thinks you'll die and it's that real. And I was telling you this before we hopped on the call, it's like, yes, that's a belief in your head right now, but just like you believed in Santa Claus, right? The more you disprove it, and I apologize if I'm rocking anyone's world about Santa Claus right now. I know there's some people that are still holding on to that, but um, but yeah, the more you disprove a belief, the more BS it becomes, right? So for me, I used to be afraid of filming content in the gym when people were around. I thought like I just was afraid, I don't know why. And the first time I did it, felt super awkward and scary. The second time I did it, still kind of awkward, still kind of scary. The third and fourth time, I was like, I am totally fine every time I do one of these videos. Like nothing is actually happening to me. There's no actual threat.

Yeah.

And my brain kind of backed off and I was like, oh, you're totally cool. So it's like, it's kind of sometimes like I encourage every single one of my clients to admit, like, as crazy as it sounds, like, you gotta create a little space between you and your mind. Your mind is this analytical survival tool. And it and it had when used properly, it has these great problem solving and idea creation skills. But like, dude, if the banter is ongoing and you're listening to it and you're letting it dictate, you're letting your thoughts and emotions dictate your actions, you're gonna get, you're gonna, you may get where you're going, but it's gonna be a lot harder and your life's gonna suck a lot more and it's gonna take a lot longer. Whereas if you, you know, and and this is basically mindfulness, but like if you can acknowledge that you're having these thoughts without becoming these thoughts, or if you can acknowledge that you're feeling a certain way, but acting in accordance with your goals and your vision, that's where that every single self-help book boils down to that. It's like, here's your vision, it may not always feel good. The circumstance, like, yeah, you may be a single mom, and you may be only have X amount of hours to do this in a week, like, but the second that vision becomes stronger than your circumstances and your actions become stronger than your circumstances, you unlock yourself, you really do. And oh man, hold on, I had something awesome. I was telling someone, oh yeah, so just back to like I read it was that uh that Tommy Baker um podcast with the guy, the Scottish guy. The Scottish guy, yeah, yeah. And and basically he said some version of this, but he's like, who you are is actually found in what you do. Yeah, nothing else matters. So if I sit around all day and I talk about, man, I love animal rights and I hate animal cruelty, and I think all dogs, shelter dogs should be adopted. This, this, and this. And and then if I look, if you look at my weekly habits and and I don't volunteer, I don't advocate, I don't donate, all that feeling and talking doesn't mean shit, and it doesn't do anything, right? So like the second your actions are in alignment with that vision, it will happen. It will happen.

Period. Yeah, uh, that's beautiful. And you know, I I I totally agree with that. You see so many social media warriors out there, right? Oh, yeah, protesting all this stuff, right? Like, yeah, yeah. Uh I'm not gonna get too much, but then if you look at what are you doing on a granular level, on you know, how are you actually fighting for this cause that you're so showing the action? Show me the action, yeah.

Right. Yeah, like show me the money, it's like let me let me actually see it. And um, and the thing is, like those people, like the second they take that passion and put energy behind it and it becomes action, like it's a it's a powder keg for awesome, awesome progress, growth, change, whatever, but it's just like the action, the people have so much problem with the action, and it's like you have to understand that your your your mind isn't always gonna want it, especially if it's gonna produce change, because your mind wants comfort and predictability. So it's like if you can separate yourself from this autopilot operating system, man, you you unlock your business, you unlock your ability to enjoy yourself, you unlock your it's just like a lit, like I it's just like it gets me going, man, because it's like you can build anything you want to build with your life, yeah, with that concept.

Yeah. So when you're when you're helping your clients and coaching them through you know this whole non never-ending process, yeah. What what kind of like daily, like what tangible things can you give our listeners? Like what daily things do you have them do? What do you what's the the basics or the fundamentals that you have them do?

Yeah, yeah. So as with all good coaches, right? I I I everything I prescribe them is stuff I do. So getting on the topic of kind of you know, almost brain hacking, right? Like using your brain to your advantage and being aware of why, like what it actually is designed to do and making sure you're aware of that, um, I make sure that every single one of my clients starts their day not in survival mode. Meaning if, and I dude, I used to do this when I when I was working at the gym, I would snooze, hit the snooze, hit the snooze until the last possible minute, and then rush out the door and make my breakfast, and I would forget my lunch and I would sit in traffic and I'd freak out. And when you're in that responsive, reactive survival mode, the like, and they've done like physiological studies, the the chemicals and hormones stressing or coursing through your veins are you know, like adrenaline and epinephrine and cortisol and all these things that literally downregulate the creative and rational part of your brain and upregulate that the amygdala, which is like that primitive survival part of the brain. And so if you're creating a business, because that's what you, when you are a business owner, you are constantly taking ideas and making them a reality, right? You are creating things that do not yet exist. And to be in that mode, you need clarity drive and creation. And creation just meaning like that really, really firm grasp of your vision, right? And so this is my long-winded way of saying, they have a morning ritual. Always. So if you're like, well, I have to get up 20 minutes early, I'm like, what does that 20 minutes do for the rest of your day? If it if that 20 minutes gives you two hours of passionate inspiring action, are you telling me it's not like that's a great talk about ROI, right? 20 minutes for two hours, right? So um but yeah, so basically I have them create space in the morning so that A, they're not starting on that survival mode, but B, they're actually starting the day on their terms in alignment with what their vision is. So every single day I have them, A, right off the bat, gratitude journaling. So simple, Google it. The stuff, like the the studies back it up, but I mean obviously logistically it just makes sense. Like it's like smiling and frowning at the same time. It is impossible. It's like flexing your bicep and your tricep at the same time. It is impossible. You can either express gratitude or negativity. So I'm like, just shut off the negativity right away. Get vividly specific about what you're grateful for, right? So not saying my friends, my family, but man, the sheets in my bed felt so good on my feet last night after I had busted my ass at work all day. Or man, you know, so right now I'm planning a wedding and like, man, I am so glad that we found a photographer who is in artistic alignment with what we want to capture, like how great we found that person, we're gonna have these images. And then I have them go and actually express gratitude for something that hasn't happened yet. And and there's all kinds of there's all kinds like spiritually, but also like physiologically, there's there's a lot of research that supports like this just influences your actions in such a way that veers you towards that thing. But again, get vividly specific. So for me, it's like I don't, oh man, I'm so glad I billed 100k this year. No, it's like, man, I am so grateful for the feeling I got when I checked my bank statement, saw those numbers, I called my dad and told him that I broke six things for the first time and he was so proud of me. Like, feel it. So immediately I have them put themselves in this extremely positive mindset, and then every single day, 10 minutes or 10 pages, something positive, some book that is expanding you. And it could be spiritually, it could be in the business world, it could be fitness, um anything, anything that is new, right? Um so that daily expanding of the mind again just kind of puts you in this calm learning state. It doesn't put you in this responsive stress mode. And then I also have them journal just anything that comes up through this process, right? So, you know, when they're reading, like, oh shoot, how I can apply that directly to my business. Look at this great idea I had, or wow, I never thought of it that way. Like, I make sure that they're in this, you know, they're taking things in, but also producing as well. Um and then uh I I encourage them to do get their body moving in some way, shape, or form. You know, if they like training or working out later in the day, like I just encourage them to do some like mobility work or some, you know, like thoracic rotation or just something to get their body moving um before they head out the door and start their day. So like so that habit sequence is and creating that space and starting the day on their terms is something that you can start doing right now, and it will massively, massively, massively impact you. And it's and it's it's a compound thing as well, though. So it's like if you can think of it as like, okay, each day is making you 1% clearer, or 1% more connected to your vision. Yeah, you do it for four days, you're not gonna notice that big of a difference. Compound interest, you do it for two months and you look back, you know, although it's little 1%, that's 60%. Like it's it's huge. So you also have to, there's a there's a face factor in there that the consistency will pay off. And it's I'm a living testament to it. Um, and again, you look at all the heavy hitters across the board, um, just entrepreneurially business like business owners, like Serena Williams, Beyonce, James, like you know, LeBron James, like they all have a morning ritual. Tom Brady has a morning ritual. Um, because you need to start the day connected to your vision. That's gotta be the biggest thing hitting you in the morning.

Yeah, very powerful, man. I mean, I one of my mentors is James Fitzgerald from uh also known as OPT and from OPEX. And uh when I interviewed him like three months ago, I'm like, so what you know, what kind of habits do you have? He's like, well, you battle off like 20 rituals he has every day. Yeah, like it's ritual for everything. Like ritual, you know, the going to bed ritual, pre-dinner ritual, coming home from work ritual, more.

I was like, wow. Yeah, yeah. I remember your interview with Dan John, that guy, talk about rituals. He's like, Well, I got my menu and I got this. I was like, geez, dude, that's I don't know if I'm there yet. Yeah, like yeah, but that's also important to note that it doesn't have to be this you know, this drastic huge life transformation. Like, start small. Yeah, start small. That's how everybody started. Start small. And like I said, that compound effect is this the the this this the non-sexy secret sauce where everyone's looking for that silver bullet, it's it's not. It's just there is no silver bullet. It's and as fitness professionals, you can relate to this, right? Like you see those infomercials. No, like the shake made is stupid, right? Like the the the it doesn't matter that the BoFlex incline treadmill burns eight percent more calories than the regular treadmill. Like whoever bought that's not gonna use it consistently enough to take advantage of it, right? So there is no silver bullet, it's consistent.

So, Julian, where what's your vision, man? Where do you see yourself in two years?

Yeah, so in two years, and I was just I was actually just on the phone with my sister talking about this. So in two years, my clientele who I'm working with, they're obviously in leadership positions, whether it's an entrepreneur with a significantly sized team or an executive leader at the executive level for a Fortune 500 company, and I'm working with them one-on-one, knowing that there will be some trickle-down effect, right? So the things that I'm talking to you, you will in some way, shape, or form communicate to your team, which will then boil off into their lives, right? But but also, so I'm operating with you know one-on-one clients, which is gonna be um in order to give them as much value as possible. Like I'm gonna obviously have a very, very select list, but what I'm gonna do with them is whether I'm working with them digitally or in person, I'm also gonna do culture building on site, right? So after we work together, I'm gonna come and work with you one-on-one in person, and I'm gonna give a presentation to your team. And then I'm going to have like a culture building protocol with, and I already got the wheels turning with this in terms of like, oh, well, like each person's gonna have their wall of greatness, which is we list all the times you've been good enough. So when that doubt keeps in, boom, it's right there, and you're gonna have a why calendar where you're gonna write at a fundamental level why you're doing what you're doing, right? Like, I want to transform entrepreneur and business owners' lives because when they can build their vision fully, the world's gonna be a better place, and I know that because I'm only gonna work with people who I like their vision. I like their why. I'm not gonna work with uh, I don't want to get too political, but I'm I'm not gonna work with people that I don't align with. Um and so, you know, and it's like today, am I gonna act in accordance with my why, right? So, like little culture building things that will raise the entire work environment, right? So I'm gonna be doing math and then you know running mastermind groups, and I'm gonna be taking like-minded business owners and entrepreneurs who are dealing with the same stuff, and I'm going to facilitate massive change with them and we'll go through this entire coaching process together. And personally, I'll be living by the ocean. That is non-negotiable.

I love it. Uh well, I have no doubt you're gonna you're gonna grow uh your empire considerably. What where do people find you, man? Where if people want to get a hold of you, if they want to ask you questions or if they want to work with you, where do they?

Yeah. Yeah, so right now, my current website, the fearless LP, uh, because someone took the fearless life product. I don't know what they're doing with it. But um, the fearless LP is my website, and I'm currently going through a rebrand right now. So, but you can still um you can still just hit the contact button and reach out to me personally on Instagram. I'm just Julian underscore fearless life. And yeah, direct message me, comment on anything. I'm super receptive on that. And then just like my regular personal Facebook man, I'm totally cool with people engaging me there. It's just Julian Rosen. Um and uh so picture of me and my fiance, and we're in like a desert somewhere, so I don't know how many Julian Rosens are out there, but uh but yeah, man, posting posting the messages every day, creating content every single day. And the cool thing is a lot of the content I create it because it's something I need to hear as well, something I'm reminding myself of. So I deliver it with passion and authority because I'm I'm living all this stuff as I am delivering it to people to use. Beautiful.

Well, Julian, thank you, man. I really appreciate it. I love what you're doing. I think there's such a huge need for it if people are really honest with themselves. You know, where do they start? And uh yeah, we'll I know you and I will be talking a lot. And 100%, man. Julian Rosen, thank you. Yeah, take care, guys. Have a good one. Don't leave yet, Eric Nelson, your host. I have an extremely special offer just for you. If you go to FitnessmarketingLice dot com four Sort of Marketing, are you a market? Your website, your website, your website, four, two, two, four, two, three, three, two, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, three, smart, five, start, start, and then, you know, that's the