You're listening to “The Uncommon Life Podcast.” Whether you're a startup or you've been in business for 10 years, this show is for you. Each week, you'll get mentored by business leaders who deliver valuable strategies, tactics and tips on how you can pursue your passion without compromise. We’ll show you how to achieve balance while sticking to your core values, so you can have an uncommon life.
Now, here's your host, Jimmy Fullerton.
Jimmy Fullerton: Okay, so here is Part 2 of my interview with J.P. Crawford of DiVerge Fitness. We touch on a variety of topics, but we talk about relationship-building, morning routines, self-care. It’s a lot of fun and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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Jimmy: What as far as your relationship-building—you're very good with people
J.P. Crawford: Oh, thank you.
Jimmy: How much time do you spend building relationships? Do you even need to do that anymore?
J.P.: It is as far as networking? That type thing?
Jimmy: Yeah. When I say “networking,” I don’t like to use that term. It bothers me a little bit. I like to call it “relationship-building” because I don’t like the network per se.
J.P.: Yeah.
Jimmy: I do what's necessary there, but I'm more about building relationships, and through…like, naturally.
J.P.: Absolutely. Just let it grow organically. Yeah. I am, so…I think each of us in our careers, there was a time and a place, and maybe even before email and, as you said, social media, earlier, there was more of a need to go to big luncheons, things of that nature. Now what I try to do is just seek out the top people in their field, build things, relationships. Hopefully, I have something in common with those people.
Jimmy: Let me stop you. I’m going to ask you.
J.P.: Sure.
Jimmy: I’m sorry, I’m interrupting you.
J.P.: No, no. Go ahead.
Jimmy: Seek out the top people in their field. How do you do that?
J.P.: So, we're very close to Atlanta, which has become an international hub. Many times I may never be able to meet these people. It may be an author; it may be a success coach. If you're studying success coaches, who do you study? You study at Tony Robbins. It would be a hard argument to say he wouldn't be in the top 10 of success coaches.
Jimmy: Absolutely.
J.P.: If you're studying researchers, from a human body standpoint and from an efficiency standpoint, you study Tim Ferriss. You know?
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. I listen to his podcast a lot.
J.P.: Fantastic podcast.
Jimmy: Very go 0:03:00od. He goes very deep into some things.
J.P.: The long-form podcast.
Jimmy: Yeah.
J.P.: And that's really…so I'm glad you brought that up because that's really, to me, in relationship-building. It's that. It takes…you can't do it over 20 minutes of coffee.
Jimmy: Yeah.
J.P.: It's sitting down. [03:00] It's speaking, as you and I are here, you know? Not preempted questions, things of that nature, but speaking about, really, not what necessarily matters to the audience, but what matters to that person. And then, you'll get to what matters to the audience. Simple.
Jimmy: Yeah, there'll be people out there that that rings true with.
J.P.: Exactly.
Jimmy: And, if it doesn't, then they're not meant to be your audience, but…
J.P.: Right. So, I think that's in seeking the top people in the field. If you can meet those people, that's fantastic, but I must--
Jimmy: But what do you do to seek? How do you identify?
J.P.: I think a big thing is you look at the content they're creating. From a podcast standpoint, Tim Ferriss, Jocko Willink is…
Jimmy: Two of my favorites out there.
J.P.: Phenomenal guy.
Jimmy: Yeah.
J.P.: And Ferris is the one that kind of got Jocko started in podcasts. You see people rise. You see people rise very quickly from customer-building. Look at Malcolm Gladwell. Look at Seth Godin. Those look for people that the other people in the field are quoting or reading that material. And I think there are always going to be newcomers that may be fantastic, but don't go on Facebook, Twitter, whatever it might be, and read and scour.
Read The New York Times bestsellers. That…I think you can get a lot from that.
Go on Amazon. Go on Amazon and look at—we were speaking of Tim Ferriss—look at his most recommended books.
It's simple things like that.
Jimmy: There are several books I've bought as a result of… This is a Tim Ferriss podcast promotion.
J.P.: Yes, yes.
Jimmy: But, yeah. There's a couple that he… I get the 5-Bullet.
J.P.: Yeah, 5-Bullet Friday.
Jimmy: 5-Bullet Friday.
J.P.: Yeah.
Jimmy: There’s one that…at least two that he’s recommended that I've read that I really enjoyed.
J.P.: So, I think that's what you do. You go on and you learn as much as you can about those people. And I'm a big believer in “you're the byproduct of the five people you spend the most time with.”
Jimmy: You spend the most time with, yeah.
J.P.: So, to me, podcasts, books. If you want to watch YouTube interviews, you don't have to meet one-on-one with these people, but seek out the best.
Jimmy: Yeah.
J.P.: I'm sure there are local people that are great, but if you're looking at someone that's made a multimillion-dollar company and that's saying, Look, this is how I did it? Just duplicate that and do… I think entrepreneurs so often go out and they say, I'm going to do it my way. That's wonderful. I did that. You did that. I think that's great. But why not learn from people that have already done what you're trying to do?
Jimmy: Yeah, that's something I definitely believe is one of those traits, I think, entrepreneurs have to possess—humility.
J.P.: Yes.
Jimmy: The willingness to [06:00] admit that, hey, I don't know everything. There's other people out there, not just the ones that have already done it. I agree. That's probably where you should start because I have a proven system, but not everything is going to have a proven method.
J.P.: No, not at all.
Jimmy: You might take a look from here, a little from there. But there are people locally, too, yeah. I definitely believe in going beyond local, but I think, yeah, you can get plenty of wisdom from people that maybe they're not millionaires; maybe they're in a different state, but I think everybody has something of value. Everybody has a story and something they've been through that you can get value from. I think being able to recognize and identify that is important, and it can definitely help you be successful.
You don't always have access to the people that have the huge following. You can follow them, but as far as building relationships, yeah, I tend to focus on the few people I can build a really good relationship with and kind of expand from there, naturally, like through…they refer somebody, and then it kind of goes from there. One thing I have to hate is going to forced networking events -
J.P.: I don’t do it.
Jimmy: - chit chat, small talk for 10 minutes, and it just bores me to tears, man. I can’t do it. I'm not really good at it either. I don’t like to do that.
J.P.: No, no. And you think about it with those things. What's the purpose of those things? The purpose of those things normally is there is some organizing committee and you're trying to bring people together. But those people may have nothing in common, the likes the dislikes, things. So, in your spending just a few minutes with each person, as you said, instead of when you're getting started or when you’ve been going, just ask for help. You know?
Jimmy: And when you're there, when you're talking to somebody, you know in the back of your head, [unclear 0:07:44] you're always thinking, This person wants some from me.
J.P.: Exactly.
Jimmy: And they're thinking I want something from them, you know?
J.P.: Right.
Jimmy: So, to me, even though I can see the benefit of that to a certain extent, much more in the vein of trying to provide something of… Are you familiar? You might not be familiar with this guy, Michael Maher?
J.P.: I've heard the name.
Jimmy: He wrote The Seven Levels of Communication. It's about building a referral-based business. And, basically, one of the main themes of it is figuring out, when you meet people, be strategic about it, but figure out how you can genuinely help them. And that comes from, like you said, listening. Listen to what they really need, and then figure out how can you help them get what they want? And it's out of that you can develop a genuine affection and care for people, and how they're doing, but start out just trying to help them out. Don't ask for anything in return. Just let them know, Hey, man, I can help you out.
J.P.: Right.
Jimmy: I can provide some value to you. And don't ask for anything in return, you know, just…
J.P.: No.
Jimmy: But building relationships like that is much more rewarding, for me, just going out having lunch with somebody and talking to them, and finding out. I do that in real estate.
J.P.: Yeah. You’ve done well with that.
Jimmy: Yeah, and I enjoy that [09:00]. I like to meet people and find out about their lives. I’m really not in the nosey standpoint, but I like to find out what makes them tick.
J.P.: What makes them tick.
Jimmy: Yeah, I love that. That’s a big part of who I am. You always strike me as very happy, very happy.
J.P.: Oh. I’ve got an awesome life.
Jimmy: Yeah, you got awesome life. You need to do a tee shirt that says that.
J.P.: It, uh…
Jimmy: An awesome and uncommon life.
J.P.: It is. It is an awesome and uncommon life.
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J.P.: Just as you have, I’ve put in long hours through the years. There are times… So, I know we were going to talk about morning routine, so that’s just…well, Jimmy.
Jimmy: Yeah. What is your morning routine?
J.P.: So, morning routine for me is I wake up at 04:20 a.m.
Jimmy: Not for 04:21?
J.P.: No.
Jimmy: Not 04:15.
J.P.: No.
Jimmy: 04:20. Wow. Snooze me.
J.P.: Snooze button, I think, is just a sign of weakness. I’ve left that, so…
Jimmy: You're hardcore beneath that friendly exterior.
J.P.: I think, in the morning, you should have about five to eight seconds to get up out of bed, if that much, and that's after hitting…
Jimmy: Five to eight seconds.
J.P.: Five to eight seconds, because within that time period, I think you're allowed. Yeah, you're allowed to be unhappy about waking up for about five seconds. Anything after that and you're just you're being whiny, you know? And then…
Jimmy: That’s true, because, once you actually get up, you're glad you're up -
J.P.: Right.
Jimmy: - ninety-five percent of the time.
J.P.: And, if you're not happy about getting up and getting going, maybe that's something you need to evaluate.
Jimmy: It’s a red flag.
J.P.: Yeah.
Jimmy: It’s a red flag. Have you been there ever?
J.P.: All of it. I mean, when you're getting started and you're working those 80- to 90-hour weeks, I mean, for those of us that have been in business for a long time, all of us remember, ’08, ’09, ’10, times got hard, and…
Jimmy: Yeah, that’s when I got into real estate. It was when the bottom fell out which [crosstalk 0:11:47] thing.
J.P.: Perfect timing.
Jimmy: Yeah.
J.P.: Yeah. But a hard timing. I mean, you got into a field that, basically, everybody wanted to get out of at that time.
Jimmy: Yeah.
J.P.: And you made it. So, it starts at 04:20. 04:20, up, the ground, [12:00] go in, start the day with espresso and big glass of water; take the supplements that I take on an empty stomach and then I’m out the door [crosstalk 0:12:10].
Jimmy: How many supplements do you take?
J.P.: Probably about 12. Twelve.
Jimmy: These are vitamins?
J.P.: Yeah, vitamins, minerals.
Jimmy: Okay. All right.
J.P.: And then, that's not counting the protein powders and the branched-chain amino, and things like that. I try to keep it simple, only use what works. The majority of what I use, you can test for in a blood test, so you can see, actually, if it's working or not working. If not, maybe it's just placebo effect. So, I like being able to test for it in blood.
So, from there hit the gym. Normally, I'm at the gym between 10:00 till 05:05, work out for an hour. Ice-cold shower. And then, from…
Jimmy: You do the ice-cold shower thing?
J.P.: I do the ice-cold shower.
Jimmy: I've tried it before.
J.P.: If not, I sweat. I keep sweating for the first hour that I'm training.
Jimmy: Yeah, forgot about that.
J.P.: So, then go from there. Normally, every day I do either a 12- or a 16-hour fast.
Jimmy: How often?
J.P.: Every day. Every day.
Jimmy: Twelve or 16 hours.
J.P.: Twelve or 16 hours of no food.
Jimmy: Every day?
J.P.: Every day, and that’s really easy if you think about it. The last bite of food goes in your mouth at 07:00 p.m., the last bite of food.
Jimmy: Oh, okay.
J.P.: S0, 07:00 a.m. So, I’m sleeping through the majority of it. There is no pain. From time to time, I'll do a 24-hour fast, and you do see changes in blood -
Jimmy: Of course, yeah.
J.P.: - and in your system give your organs a chance to rest and [crosstalk 0:13:37].
Jimmy: Yeah.
J.P.: Yeah. So, first meal is vegan protein shake.
Vegan—I've been a vegan for two years. I have been a vegetarian for 17 years. So, I've seen great changes in that from a bloodwork standpoint, a body-composition standpoint and a cognitive function.
And then, normally, after that, meals are spaced out anywhere from three to four hours apart from one another, at least, three shakes a day, high-protein, low-carb, and that's my day.
Normally, I start working with clients at 06:00 a.m., finish off at 06:00 p.m. I've got some breaks in there where I go home spend time with my family or just read, but I’ve got a big belief--
Jimmy: What kind of books to you read? I have to have an idea. Mainly nonfiction? Nonfiction?
J.P.: I read no fiction books. It would probably be great from a cerebral function to read some fiction books, but there's just so much content out there on the nonfiction side that I enjoy. I enjoy that.
Jimmy: I'm the same way. I think it would be good, just creatively, to… Sometimes I might read something that's, even if it might not be a fiction, it might still be a nonfiction, but it'll be a different [crosstalk 0:14:54].
J.P.: Type of slant to it.
Jimmy: I read one a while back, a few months ago, that I loved. It was just about writing.
J.P.: Yeah.
Jimmy: [15:00] Somebody who taught writing, and it was really a good read. It really makes you…I could really appreciate writing after I read that book, because she just made her point so eloquently, but simply as well.
J.P.: It enriched your life, though.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah.
J.P.: Yeah, it’s wonderful.
Jimmy: Broaden your life a little bit, not just listen to the same old thing. It's good to…kind of helps you to be more creative and use different parts of your brain you're not used to using.
What are the values you have that have contributed to you? Do you have time in the morning or time during the day where you read or do you meditate or…?
J.P.: I do. I meditate every day, normally, for 10 minutes. I use an app called Headspace and I've used that -
Jimmy: Heard of it.
J.P.: - for about three years now. There are a lot of great ones out there. There's one called Calm that many people use. Headspace are monthly subscription or you can do the free, but they have several different brackets, everything from sleep to whatever it might be.
Also, in the morning, I left out, in that first 20 minutes when I wake up, I have a journal, gratitude journal. So, to say -
Jimmy: Gratitude, yeah.
J.P.: - you put out every day. I kind of put out my plans for the day and what I'm thankful for. That helps. It sets your mindset for the day.
Jimmy: You sound like you might have read Miracle Morning.
J.P.: Yeah.
Jimmy: You have?
J.P.: Yeah.
Jimmy: Okay. Yeah, that's a really good book about having... What I like about it is you can kind of scale that down to whatever time that works for you, as the main thing is it builds some structure and it gets you in the right mindset. It can be as little as five minutes of writing in your journal.
J.P.: And that's about what mine is. It's no more than five minutes.
Jimmy: Stretching? You know, some stretching as you get older?
J.P.: Yeah. Yeah.4
Jimmy: As I am and you are.
J.P.: Yeah.
Jimmy: There’s nothing that makes you feel like an old man than being creaky and stiff.
J.P.: No. No, I am. For years, we would, when we’d train clients, and then, as well just I, myself, you go through your workout; you do a little bit of stretching at the end. Now we intermingle mobility exercises and stretching throughout the whole workout. It doesn't matter how strong you are. If you can't move and you can’t move through a full range of motion, your life will be limited.
Jimmy: Nothing like having kids to make you realize that.
J.P.: Yes.
Jimmy: Who cares if you can bench press 350 pounds, if your shoulder is bothering you so much that you can't lift your daughter in a way it's not painful?
J.P.: Yes.
Jimmy: Then it's not worth it.
J.P.: No.
Jimmy: You need to be able to enjoy that kind of stuff. And, well, that's cool. So, what are you primarily focused on now with your business in 2019?
J.P.: The business now, I would say, primary focus is providing more and more specialized care for our clients.
Jimmy: You're trying to edge up people like me, the meatheads in that range?
J.P.: No, no, no… No, I like the educated meatheads like yourself. The educated meatheads where…
Jimmy: Yeah, all right, thank you. It’s an oxymoron. I’ll accept that.
J.P.: [18:00] If your shoulder hurts… No, I mean, I think we use the term “meathead,” it's important to be strong. The stronger, if you show me someone--
Jimmy: We mean that affectionately.
J.P.: Yes, yes. If you show me someone who has lifted weights for 30 years every day and show me someone who has run every day for 30 years, the person who has lifted weights is going to age slower. And, I mean, we have mountains of clinical research on this.
Jimmy: I agree a hundred percent. Let me just interrupt for one second.
J.P.: Please.
Jimmy: I have seen people that just from…you probably would even remember these people in the gym that were…I saw some that were 60 years old -
J.P.: Oh, yeah.
Jimmy: - that looked like they were in their late-40s.
J.P.: Absolutely.
Jimmy: They’ve been working out for a long time. They weren't runners. I'm not knocking running because I run, too, but I run more short distance. But for whatever reason, weightlifting is a good way to… It's like a fountain of youth.
J.P.: Oh, yeah. And, I mean, we know, synesthesia is the medical term, basically, for the loss of lean muscle mass that occurs with the aging process. The only way to stop that is with weightlifting, combined with proper nutrition.
We see so many people as they age, they shift to a more convenience nutritional plan, and that meaning, we talk to older people where [we’d ask], What did you have for lunch? I had some peanut butter crackers. Okay, would you have for dinner? I had some grilled cheese and some soup. So, their protein intake in comparison to their carbohydrate and their sugar intake is vastly skewing towards simple carbohydrates, almost no omega-3 fats, and they stop lifting heavy things.
In contrast, you have the people where, as they age, they continue to lift heavy things. They continue to consume less refined carbohydrates and more high-quality protein sources, vegetables, fruits, things of this nature. Those people age slower.
Jimmy: Non-processed stuff, yeah.
J.P.: Yeah. They age slower. They have less injuries. And they're able to have a higher quality of life later.
And, I would say, this comes back to your original question to me: what are we focused on in my business in 2019? That's what we're focused on. How can we provide the highest quality of life as long as possible for each individual client?
Jimmy: That is so important, because so many people as they age, they focus on—I mean, my mom has her colon cleanse, like, three times a year. They're so focused on cancer prevention and stuff like that, which is legit, but the problem that she's having right now, what I see from a lot of people is, it's not her internal problems. It's their structural issues.
J.P.: Exactly.
Jimmy: She has not maintained her strength over the years and, as a result, she falls now. Her balance is a little bit off as she falls a lot [21:00], and you know when you get older and you start falling a lot, that's a problem.
J.P.: That’s it. It takes one bad fall and it’s hard for you to recover.
Jimmy: It takes one bad fall and you become sedentary. Then, unfortunately, it usually doesn't end well and your quality of life goes down. And, structural, I think what you're doing is helping people structurally.
J.P.: Yes.
Jimmy: To be active and to have a better quality of life, and I'm all for that, man. I’m all for what y’all -
J.P.: Thank you.
Jimmy: - are doing over there.
J.P.: Thank you.
Jimmy: That's awesome. You're not a common person. That's why I have you on this show, because I….
J.P.: Thank you for having me.
Jimmy: You're very welcome. Tell people how they can get in touch with you.
J.P.: Sure. So, easiest way… I don't maintain a social media presence. I think it's great for many businesses. Mine?
Jimmy: You're an uncommon business.
J.P.: I’m in uncommon business. Email me: jpcrawford@divergefitness.com. Pick up the phone: 706-321-9397. Call. I'll call you back.
Jimmy: Thank you, man. It's been a pleasure. Time just flew by. There's still stuff I want to talk about, so I can see -
J.P.: Next time.
Jimmy: - what’s going into Part 2. But thank you all for listening to The Uncommon Life Podcast. Stay tuned. Be uncommon. Have a good day.
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