Welcome to Incorporating Superpowers. My name is Justin Recla and I’m your host for this show today. And I tell you what, you guys are in for a treat because we’re talking to Ron Kardashian. I said that right, Ron Kardashian, right?
Yes, sir.
Okay. So now, real quick, I haven’t determined whether or not he’s actually related to the Kardashians. But that might come up in this conversation. Okay?
But I’m super excited to talk to Ron today because we’re going to be talking about cognitive behavior.
This is something that is near and dear to my heart with the clients that we work with. Ron works with executives, he is the executive coach for executives. He is literally top notch in his game and I’m super excited to have him on. He’s got a very unique story. Just in the brief time that we connected right before the show, I can automatically tell that Ron, he’s the real deal. He connects to transparency and we about ended up down a rabbit hole before the show. I was like, “Stop and save some of that for the show.” Ron, thank you so much for being on the show today. I appreciate your time and it looks like you’re enjoying the day outside as well.
And I’m constantly balancing myself to be the man that I am in public and private. Quite frankly, that’s been my biggest struggle but my greatest benefit.
Yup.
Hit us up, who are you? What do you do? What’s the magic you bring to this world?
Oh, boy. That’s the billion dollar question my wife keeps asking me. Who really are you? No, I’m just kidding.
Boy, I think the process of life, the development that I always am sharing with my family, I always say that your wife is your resume for those who are great leaders. And I’m constantly balancing myself to be the man that I am in public and private. Quite frankly, that’s been my biggest struggle but my greatest benefit. Being raised in a home where the father was there for a short season and then, bam, gone. Left mama and the whole thing.
The discovery of adulthood and manhood is a process that we’re all on. And so I jokingly say she’s my resume, so she’d tell you the truth. I’m still a big work in progress. But for the most part, the last 20 years, I’ve led an unbelievable career. Hitting four continents and doing what I love and that’s helping people better their lives, become more fiscally responsible, be more behaviorally responsible. And at the end of the day, reducing depression and anxiety, which were ailments that I was constantly plagued with.
Now, I often say, as we talked before the show, that mine was self-induced. And oftentimes, I think what’s made me a very well-rounded coach is that I’ve gone through a lot of the issues that many people deal with day to day. I mean, I’ve abused over-the-counter prescription drugs, I’ve been a drug user, I’ve taken alcohol way too far, I’ve used cocaine. I’m not afraid to say it. I’ve smoked marijuana and smoked weed. And all of that came to a halt at 22 by suffering three, three, Justin, near-death experiences.
Wow.
Where when you hit that, when you play that hard, which I’m learning the type A individuals I coach and these elite level thinkers, high performance athletes, even celebrities, people that run really hard, you’re doing seven, eight, even nine or ten figures a year like some of the people I’m coaching, like R Enterprises, you have really got to learn how to hit the pause button on the remote. It’s not a stop but mostly.
It is pause, it is pause.
It is. It really is, man.
Folks, listen to what he’s just said here. He set the foundation for who he is, and in that transparency, puts all his shit on the table, owns it. And if your coach isn’t doing that for you, it’s time to get a new coach. Ron, this is the real deal. This is where the rubber meets the road, right?
Yeah.
Because I think there’s this misconception in the industry that your coach is perfect, that your coach is infallible and your coach is all this kind of stuff. Then people are looking for that solution, but the title of the show is Cognitive Behaviors. So you automatically already knew what your journey was and what it served for you and how it helps others. Where does that cognitive behavior, that stuff that people have gotten their past, what they’re thinking and how they’re doing it, how does that have an impact on our day to day life?
Over those last 20 years in career development, I found myself standing on the sidelines of UOP, University of Pacific, training some of the San Francisco 49ers. Then from there, I moved into the Golden State Warriors, had an athlete there that I trained. And I started picking up on these performance behavioral assets that pro athletes had. And having an undergrad in personal training and learning the study of kinesiology, which is basically human movement, I realized that a lot of good these guys were doing physically, if they did not have the behaviors to offset some of these issues that they were working through, day to day issues of spending, scaling new companies, running a family, having elderly parents, transitioning them into a home, private schools. And you’d think that along with more independent wealth would come more ease. But what I found was there’s actually a lot more trouble. As the ancient proverb says, “With great wealth comes great suffering,” and there’s a lot of truth to this.
More money, more problems, right?
More money, more problems, brother. And so it was really cute how I began to consult these guys physically, but they really needed help mentally, as I did. And so over the years, and I’m working on a PhD now in cognitive psychology, but my emphasis is human performance. So that’s basically, how do we perform as human beings? And cognitive behaviors, which is a fancy way of saying brain behaviors or the engine, if you will, that runs the life, that runs your money, it runs your spending, it runs your promotion or your confidence. And I wrote a whole book about it called 30 Second Solution. And cute little story, I went to this gentleman, Dr. Daniel Ayman, who I love. I don’t see him as far enough as I should, but he wrote 100 bestsellers. And I said, “Doc, look, if you don’t tell me that the brain can change,” because I’m in this process.
And even at the time, I still was dealing with addictive behavioral disorder. I had some issues that I was working out with my wife, anger issues. Where she was like, “What’s wrong with you? Why do you feel like you need to vent like this?” And I would blame it on my Italian heritage. I’d say, “I’m an Italian, I’m Armenian Italian.” Tia is so precious. She would say, “Look honey,” she’s very sweet. She goes, “That ain’t going to cut it.”
So when I met with this doctor, I told them that and he laughed and he said, “The law of neuroplasticity,” which a lot of us are well versed in now, this was just coming out then, was that the brain can change, it’s plastic. Well, the old Italian excuse, if you will, man, that was just lip service to validate a behavioral issue that Coach Ron was not ready to graduate to. And almost lost my marriage because of it. Come to find out, most of the executives that I’m coaching right now are in the same predicament. They can run $100 millions a year, they’ve got $70 million in property assets, but they have no stability at home, which inadvertently, is affecting the brain and changing the generation. I’m a legacy guy, Justin, so I’m not interested in just the short term profit. I’m interested in the long term effects on how my children, now, are going to change this game or else I’m no different than my daddy was.
Well, and that’s the thing, right, is that the change has to start with us. And I love the fact that you use the legacy aspect. I mean, I get that. I’ve got a nine year old who has been doing business since she was two. And she calls me on my shit all the time.
It’s a good barometer.
Yeah.
And it’s important that we instill that, we change the behaviors, especially as men, of what it means to be a father and the shit that we pass down to our kids. It’s our responsibility to change that and the way it goes and the mechanical. I love that.
Fiscally we can go up, because arrogance can be countered with aggression and perseverance, right? But I realized the higher I went, the more empty I got.
You’re so right. I mean, if you look at Steve Jobs, the memoir that his daughter just wrote. Now I’m here in the Silicon Valley. I mean, we’re in the mecca of it. And to hear her discuss how her father was never present changes the perspective on the optimization of man, not the perfection of man. And that none of us are ever going to be perfect. But we do have a responsibility to bring mastery into certain segments in our life. And I become a student first and that’s what’s accelerating my clients. Because we’re kind of on this trajectory together. You know what I mean?
And I found that this ancient proverb, I use it all the time in the biggest board rooms, “Humility proceeds honor, but pride comes before a fall.” And Justin, hands down, the more arrogant I became, the lower I became. Fiscally we can go up, because arrogance can be countered with aggression and perseverance, right? But I realized the higher I went, the more empty I got. And most of the guys and ladies that I coach, they have a certain level of economical success. But on the inside, they’re still seeking out mediums. They’re still seeking out psychologists or fortune tellers because why? Because the DNA inside of us is craving something that we can’t buy.
Oh, this is great. I want to take a quick pause right here because we really just cracked open the rabbit hole here, folks. We’re going to dive down to it after the break.
Ron, before we go on break, where can people go find more information about you?
Ronkardashian.com, all day long, spelled as is.
Awesome.
Take a look at the website. We’re going to go on break right after this word from our sponsor, Crypto Wealth Coach.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
Podcast: Play in new window
