The Mind Body Project
The Mind Body Project
Episode 100: Reflecting on the Journey of the Mind Body Project
It's been a remarkable journey!
We're at a significant milestone - our 100th episode of the Mind Body Project!
I want to take you back to the very beginning, tracing the remarkable conversations, the amazing guests, and the incredible content I have shared. The past two years' worth of content has been a voyage of personal growth and evolution, with me often playing the role of guinea pig. Trials, triumphs, and everything in between, I have covered it all.
Diving into the art of podcasting has been an education in and of itself. The ability to follow the conversation, to take it in unexpected directions, has resulted in some of our most captivating content. This approach has filtered into my other podcast, My Hometown, and has influenced how I perceive other broadcasters' work. But it's not just about the conversations and the guests. The Mind Body Project has been a journey of learning and transformation. A journey that has reiterated one simple truth - we're not alone in our struggles. Each one of us grapples with similar issues, and sometimes, it takes that right moment for things to truly fall into place.
So here's to our 100th episode, and many more to come, as we continue navigating the fascinating world of mind and body.
Welcome to the Mind Body Project Podcast. After over a decade in the health and wellness industry, Erin realized that our bodies change only short-term unless our mindset changes. For long-term success, Both our mind and body are forever linked. We are continually building up new ideas and tearing down old ones in our construction zone we call our mind. After this podcast is over, make sure you give it a like and a share and please subscribe and review this podcast. I would now like to introduce you to your host, the man connecting your mind and body to create a limitless life, Erin Zegler.
Aaron :Welcome back to the Mind Body Project and welcome to the 100th episode of the Mind Body Project. A hundred weeks we've shown up every week to bring you the Mind Body Project. We've had some amazing guests over these hundred episodes. We've shared a lot of content over these hundred episodes hours and hours and hours of content, of things to hopefully give you things to think about. Hopefully I've brought you guests that share their stories. That maybe gives you insight to their life, but also an insight of how they handle life, how do they manage life through their struggles, through their triumphs, all those different things. So today is all about just celebrating a hundred episodes. I celebrate because for me it means a hundred weeks in a row I have come up with content or had guests to bring over those hundred episodes and showing up being consistent it's one of the things. That's always the advice I give. When somebody says you know, I want to do this or I want to do that, I want to live a healthy lifestyle, I want to reach these goals, I want to do these different things. What's your advice? I always say be consistent. And so I try to model that in my life and through this podcast, through the Mind Body Project. I hope that is one way that I've been able to model consistency of every week showing up to bring content, new content every single week to share with you. So I just really wanted to kind of talk about the last hundred episodes. You know I can go over every single episode. That's a lot of episodes, a lot of topics that I covered over the last hundred episodes that's. I mean, we're just two weeks shy of two years of two. No, my math isn't good. It'd be four weeks, four episodes of making two years straight. But I just want to share some of the things over the last hundred episodes that I have have really learned, some of the things that I've struggled with, some of the successes I've had, and I just wanted to share those with you.
Aaron :You know, one of the things is and is sometimes, believe it or not, it's hard to come up with a topic week after week. It's hard to find a guest it's hard to think of, you know, who would fit what I want to share with my listeners on the Mind Body Project. It comes sometimes. It's what lesson do I want to share this week on the Mind Body Project? So it's come up with topics sometimes, and when I, you know, when I started the podcast almost two years ago, a hundred episodes ago, it didn't really dawn on me. I just thought you know, I have a bunch of ideas, I'll go ahead and put them out there. But what happens week after week, when those ideas start getting harder and harder to come by, it is.
Aaron :What I found is the challenge for me is that I have to always be learning. I have to always be learning and trying new things, new ideas, and so I can share those with you each week, because I never, I never like to share something that I haven't tried, or I'm always the biggest guinea pig, especially when I've been a trainer for the last 16 years. When it comes to exercises and diet and all those, I'm the guinea pig. I'll try, I'll do anything, I'll try it just to see before I tell a client, hey, this would be good.
Aaron :You know, probably a couple of years ago I decided to do the half-marathon at Cowtown in Fort Worth and I had a new idea. You know, typically the week, the plans, if you look online they're about 12 weeks long and I thought what if there was a way to decrease that? Because when you decrease that training period, you decrease chances of injury, the amount of miles and all those things in motivation, all those things that go into extended plan of training. And so I was kind of sharing this with my wife, kim, and I said I just got to find somebody to do it. You know, I want to take that 12-week plan, bring it down to eight weeks and just do time-based versus mileage. It's a lot of 12-week half-marathon plans or mileage and I want to take it down to time. I want to do it all indoors, except for a long run once a week which was outdoors, and I wanted to see how that could translate into the half-marathon, how it could translate into making it speed, all those different things.
Aaron :I was telling Kim about it and she said and I said I just need to find somebody to do it she goes why are you looking for somebody to do it? I said, well, I don't really want to do it. She said, well, if you want to know if it works or not, you need to do it. And so I was like it's not really the answer I wanted to hear. So I said, fine, so I did it a couple of years ago and, you know, did it again last year, just in tweak some things to see how some things worked and it works better. So I always liked to try things. I didn't want to try at that time, but she talked me into I want to. I'd like to try things before I suggest those To my clients. The same as there's no different with the Mind Body Project.
Aaron :The things I share with you each week are things that I've tried, that have come up in my life, that I've, you know, had to go out and search and learn and apply. And how does you know? And just like that half-marathon training plan that I utilized, that I came up with I had to do, I had to tweak it this last year, I'm going to tweak it again next year, and that's the same thing with the things that I share each week is that they have to be tweaked according to your life. How do they work? How do they adjust? One of the right. When I started, I did about, had about four episodes in. It was just me sharing different lessons, and then I interviewed my dad and then I had another interview and maybe she was my second interview Leigh-Anne Hart and I've shared the story before, but it has been and I think it was. I think it was the first interview I did after my dad and it was the best piece of advice I'd ever gotten.
Aaron :I was pulling up to her ranch, I was going down a road, about to pull up to her driveways, on the phone with Kim, and I said I am so nervous, like I am so nervous Like just land, just a sweet lady, and I was just nervous to interview her, to talk to her. And I'd only talked to her on the phone and just briefly, and I was just a nervous wreck and I don't know if she knows that or not, but I was and I was talking to Kim and I was about to pull through her gate and I talked to him. I said I'm just so nervous, I mean I have all these questions planned. And she said just follow the conversation, don't worry about getting all the questions in, just follow the conversation. And so Leigh-Anne and I started the interview, had all my questions written out, you know, as I do each time and we just started talking and we started to have a conversation and she'd say something and I'd want to dive into that a little bit more and I thought, oh, you know, I think people really connect with this. I think this is something that people really want to hear, that they need to hear, and so I'd ask her more about that in her life and ask her more about this. And you know, over an hour and we talked and I looked down and I had not hadn't looked at my paper at all and I was like, wow, but as I looked down, I covered everything that I wanted to talk about without coming out and asking.
Aaron :So it's one of the biggest lessons I've learned over a hundred episodes is I always have key points. I don't necessarily have questions. I have key points that I'd like. That, I think, would be interesting. I'd like to find out. A lot of times, my guests, it's things that I'm just interested about and want to know about, and so when they have those things, I think, well, what about this, what about that? And that has been the biggest and is and is transferred into my other podcast, my Hometown is all about my Hometown, and as I interview people that's what I do each time I just follow the conversation, we, I get them started and have some questions and and I might ask a question about this, and they lead into a story and then I think they say something. Oh, I'd like to know about that, and I think everybody else would like to know about that, and so I just follow the conversation. It's the best advice that I've ever gotten. Of course, my wife gave it to me and I listened, and that's what I've been doing every time I have a guest on is to just follow the conversation, I find, and so it's not.
Aaron :I hate to even call it an interview. On Sundays I watched the Today Show with Willie Geist and about halfway through his show he has Sunday Sit Down where he interviews a guest and he, you know, he says you can find the full interview on his podcast and I always like to tell him I call it, say it's, it's his podcast, because that's the way it sounds, but anyhow, it's kind of goofy, but I always think it's called Sunday Sit Down, where they just have a conversation. That's what they do and that's always been my goal. Is I, even I? That's why I hate to call an interview, I just it's a conversation and when I have a guest on, say I'm so nervous, it's not, you know I don't do that, and I say it's just. We have this little bitty camera and I have a microphone that you're going to be talking into you won't even notice it. It's just going to be you and I having a conversation, and, and they're nervous. But once we start talking for the first couple minutes they just loosen up and they go oh, it's just a conversation, it's just me sharing my stories, just me sharing my life. So that's that's what I try to do each each time.
Aaron :Something else I've learned is um, you know, it's kind of like I have to work at it, at at doing a podcast, because you know what I have all these people listening and, you know, wanting to watch and listen to my podcast each week. You know what happens as time goes on, those numbers start to go down, they go down, they go down. I think, oh, what am I doing wrong? And so I. So it encourages me that I need to learn new techniques. Do I need to become a better communicator? Do I need to be have a better camera presence? Do I need to do some different things with my voice? Do I need to have more engaging topics, more, um, ask different questions of my guest and engage a little bit different? So it makes me think more of what should I do different? Do I my communication skills need to be better? Do I need to hone in on those um? So it just helps me be better and I don't take it as well. You know they they just don't care, they don't want to improve their mind, they don't want to worry about the body. No, it's, it's. What can I do better to get those listeners back, to get those viewers back? So it's something I've learned that just because you have a podcast doesn't mean people are going to listen. How do you attract those people? How do you attract those listeners?
Aaron :When I had my first gym in 2004, I honestly thought that you unlock the door and everybody would come in, and I probably thought that a little bit. With podcasting, I thought, well, why wouldn't everybody want to hear? It's not the case. There has to be something that that that catches their ear, that they want to listen to, like now, why do I want to listen to him? Why do I want to listen to that guest? What do they have to offer that I could utilize? And that's what it is. Why do we listen to podcasts? Why do we listen to um books or books on tape, on audio? Why do we read? Why do we watch a movie? Because they have something that hooked us, that we want to be entertained, we want to be educated, we want to enjoy whatever it is, it has to have that hook that catches us.
Aaron :You know, in you know, 100 episodes beginning of this year, um January I think it was January I'm in February, but January I think I think it was the first this year I started not only recording the podcast um audio but also started videoing it put on YouTube. That has been quite the challenge to get both of them done. Figure it out. How do you do it? How do you edit? Man, I've learned a lot and that's just been in the last um 25, 26 episodes of this year, and so that that's been an experience of now it, you know, just recording video recordings.
Aaron :Now I have to set up a light and have to kind of set up a studio per se, and and it's a lot of work to get everything set up to be, because I don't leave it up all the time, so it takes a lot of work, and so then I have to remember oh, I'm on camera, I just can't use my voice. I have to also look presentable. My kids, they got me this great shirt for Father Today. It says the mind body project. So now I'm official, I have an actual, uh, a tire that, if you know, if you're watching, you see, see the mind body project logo on my shirt, uh, so so that's kind of neat.
Aaron :What? What else have I learned? Over 100 episodes, and you know I go back to. Oh, man, only three or four or five people watched on YouTube, sometimes maybe 10 or 20. Man, I only had 100 people download this episode. I only, I only had 25 people download this episode, and sometimes that can get me down, just like it could all of us.
Aaron :But I have to remind myself that my goal is to impact the world, and maybe that one person and I've been downloaded all over the world, all over different countries, from China to Russia to England to Australia, all over, and maybe that one person I impacted is in a different country. Maybe that person I impacted is in this country, maybe this, the person I impacted, is in my town. And isn't it really? If I want to impact the world, don't I record this and do this each week for the one person, for the one that it's going to impact, and I'm not sure which one that is, who's going to listen to it? That's going to? Who's going to maybe not listen to it this week? Who's going to listen to it six months from now? Who's going to find me a year from now and find the episode that speaks to it and that changes their life, that they listen to it? You know what? I listened to one of your guests and they were talking about their struggles and the things that were going on in their life and how they came out of it. And I thought I'm there and if they can do it, I can do it. What if it's for that one person? And this episode may not reach that one person until a year from now, may not reach that person until two years from now.
Aaron :Being out almost two years now, coming up on 104 episodes, we're at a hundredth episode. Maybe somebody just is now tuning in and goes back to one of those episodes from two years ago and goes, wow, that really, that really resonates with me After a while myself, and that's those are the things that you have. I've had to learn over a hundred episodes and you might probably, if you've listened to every episode, hope you have Hope. You hope you've listened to every episode. If not, I encourage you to go back. There's some great topics, great guests Encourage you to go back and listen to some of those is that you probably heard me repeat things over and over and over.
Aaron :I think why does he repeat it over and over and over? But do you know what? Maybe somebody is hearing this for the first time, maybe they're hearing it for the third or fourth time. You know, I think it's like seven or nine times. We have to hear something repeated before we catch onto it, before we go. Ah, maybe that's an idea, maybe that's the thing I want to do. So if I want to make that impact, I have to keep repeating, because I never know when the one is listening. Or maybe you've listened to every episode, and this is the 11th time you've heard me say whatever it is, I've said you know this time it catches it, it catches the right point in life, that it catches you and you go. Yep, I've been hearing this forever, but it just now clicked that I can put it into practice.
Aaron :Another thing that I've learned over the hundred episodes after training personal training for 16 years. I have a lot of clients that you can probably count in your sleep and it kind of can be. That way I can have a conversation with my client and still keep counting my head. It's just something. That is not something I ever tried to do, it's just something that kind of came about over the years of talking and counting and just it just kind of happened. And for me I have to find, you know, it's just like anytime in a job, in a career, we kind of go. You know, I could kind of do this with one eye closed, both eyes closed. You know, of course I can't do it with both eyes closed because I got to make sure the weight doesn't fall on the client. But there's days when it's just, like, you know, groundhog Day. We're kind of going through this again and doing a podcast.
Aaron :Doing the Mind Body Project gives me a creative outlet. It gives me a creative outlet to speak to people, to come up with new content, new ideas, new lessons, and so it helps me be creative. And it's what it does too is open minds, because a lot of times I share things that I've learned through experience, and so I try to put an experience that I've had with a lesson I want to teach, with a lesson I want to share, because isn't it more interesting when we go? How did that apply to your life and it's what it's done for me over these hundred episodes is, when I see things or have things happen in my life, how does it apply? Is there something I've taught, something I've shared? Is there something I've learned that I can apply to that experience and then share that with my audience?
Aaron :Because surely I'm not the only one, surely I'm not the only one that has experienced that, and so many of us, as I talk to clients, as I talk to business owners, as I talk to married couples, as I talk to all sorts of people, I find out that everybody thinks that their problem is unique to them. And I'm here to share with you that your problem, I promise you, is not unique to you. Somebody, somewhere, has experienced that and had those issues, and maybe it's one of the things that I share that you go, I've had that, I thought I was the only one that experienced that, and you go. I'm not, thank goodness, I'm not a goofball or weird or dorky, have a 360 effect zoom meeting every Monday and it's a place to be safe and it's a place that we connect and we talk about and we can be honest and we're honest in there, and people say all the time I thought that was just me. I love your honesty Because I feel that same way. I thought I was the only one You're not and so this has been able to give me an opportunity to share those experiences that I've had with people, to know you're not alone. There's other people that have experienced the same thing you're experiencing. It's not odd, it's not weird, it's just. Maybe nobody talks about it in your circle, but you're not alone. Somebody somewhere has experienced the same thing.
Aaron :And another thing I've learned in 100 episodes is I learned I love to and I enjoy to motivate people and and by the things that I share in the experiences I've had, I love to just share that because I think I can't, I can't talk to everybody. I can't. You know clients. You know my time is one on one. I can only have so much time. So how can I expand my reach? And and I love that this podcast has allowed me to do that it's it's what they call evergreen, where it's always out there, it's always going. You know, I can be trying to client, I can be asleep and somebody can be listening to my words, they can be watching my video, they can be doing these things and I can be touching lives, touching people, sharing my experiences when I'm doing something else and when I, when my time's occupied or I'm taking a nap or I'm reading whatever it is I can, I can share that.
Aaron :Another thing I've learned over the 100 episodes is how to become a better listener and better communicator. As I'm sitting across or next to a guest and and I feel so fortunate to do that, because there's not many times in our lives where we get an hour, hour and a half to spend with somebody that we just want to find out about their life it's not anybody we're necessarily in a relationship with. We may not be friends, we may just kind of know of each other, but I get to spend time with those people, those guests, and just listen to them Without any, any distractions. I get their time. There's there's no phones going off, there's nobody bothering. I get their time and that's the most valuable thing we have and I and I take that so heavily because I think it's so important that they're giving me their time. They'll never get that hour, hour and a half back, but they chose to spend it with me.
Aaron :So, to be respectful, I need to listen, I need to open my ears, listen to what they're saying and try to expand upon what they're talking about. So maybe there's somebody that can connect with something if I ask a question, or maybe sometimes it's just for me. Maybe it's like man, I needed to hear that, I needed that from them, and it has given me the opportunity over these hundred episodes to do that. And hundred episodes. I never thought on day one that it'd be a hundred episodes and I really didn't think.
Aaron :Quite honestly, I just finally got over the fear and hit the play button or record button and spoke into a microphone about what was on my mind, on my heart, and hopefully not as many ums and uh, as I've grown over these hundred episodes, gotten used to speaking in a microphone, talking on camera and sharing what I have to share, the lessons I have to learn, and I've learned to become a little more vulnerable, because vulnerability we connect with that. So many times we put that up the shield of armor that we're tough, we don't want to let anybody in. And these hundred episodes have showed me that we need to be a little more vulnerable because there's people out there that can connect with that, that are experiencing the same things we are that if we can be a little more vulnerable, they can go, wow, that's me. And if he or she's struggling with that, then maybe I can get past that too. So it's helped me to understand that and to be a little more vulnerable. So I'm just looking forward to I'm just excited about what I've learned over the hundred episodes, the hope that I've impacted you in some way over these hundred episodes, and I encourage you that if you haven't listened to episode, go back and find an episode that you haven't listened to, and we're going to have a lot of great new content coming up.
Aaron :I'm going to have a lot of great guests coming up in the in this next year and just to share their stories, and we'll share more of my stories. But share more of my stories. I have to have more experience. So encourages me to go out and do things and have those experiences so I can share with the lessons you've learned. So tune in for the next hundred episodes, because these hundred episodes have really encouraged, inspired me and have helped me grow. So I hope they have helped and inspired and motivate you to grow and I hope I have been able to help you grow and impacted your world in some way. So thanks for taking a little time to join me today and as the time my wife came every night before I go to bed, it's bombin' the night double A out.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If you would like to connect with Aaron, you can do so by going to erendeglercom or find him on social media as Aaron Degler on Instagram, facebook and YouTube. Once again, we greatly appreciate you tuning in. If you've enjoyed the show, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. We greatly appreciate that effort and we'll catch you in the next episode of the Mind Body Project podcast.