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Investor Fuel Show · Hosted by Mike Hambright · November 9, 2026 · 40 min listen

Why Most Entrepreneurs Stay Stuck (And How to Break Through) | Dr. Jeff Spencer

Show summary

In this episode, Dr. Jeff Spencer shares insights from his extensive career as an Olympian, sports scientist, and advisor to top achievers. He discusses the parallels between athletes and entrepreneurs, the importance of setting clear goals, and strategies for maintaining high performance and resilience.

Key takeaways

  • Treat goals as "projected realities" rather than fixed facts -- be willing to adjust course (call an audible) when new information reveals a better path, rather than rigidly chasing a goal whose shelf life has expired.
  • Don't try to figure everything out alone. Getting input from people who have already done what you want to do can compress a 20-year learning curve down to roughly 8 to 18 months.
  • Build two layers of support: one-on-one guidance from people who have achieved what you aspire to, plus a peer group that meets regularly to compare tactics and strategies that are and aren't working.
  • Start each day with a deliberate pause before jumping into action: a moment of gratitude or connection (meditation/prayer) plus breathing exercises to slow the mind, since rushing into action out of fear leads to fear-based decision making.
  • Evaluate any goal against three factors: your aspiration (the destination), your actual state of readiness (experience, mindset, resources), and the resulting "reach" -- if the goal is too big for your readiness, you won't build momentum and may wrongly conclude something is wrong with you.
  • Stop measuring yourself against other people. Build your path around your own specific assets, motivations, and skills rather than competing on someone else's scorecard.
  • Mistakes aren't failures -- they're information. Staying in the game and learning from mistakes matters more than avoiding them, and a breakthrough can be right around the corner from a setback.

In this episode

  1. 00:01Introduction to Dr. Jeff Spencer
  2. 01:05Olympic background and the idea of "exponential potential"
  3. 03:28Parallels between athletes and entrepreneurs; goals as "projected realities"
  4. 08:31What separates those who break through from those who don't
  5. 10:59Why surrounding yourself with peers and coaches compresses the learning curve
  6. 15:13Daily practices: slowing the mind, breathing, avoiding fear-based decisions
  7. 20:49Why entrepreneurs abandon ship and jump to new ventures
  8. 21:49The three questions: aspirations, state of readiness, and closing the gap
  9. 27:07Where to learn more about Dr. Jeff Spencer

About the guest

Dr. Jeff Spencer is a former Olympic athlete, sports scientist, and doctor who spent 10 years of his life pursuing what he calls "exponential potential" to become an Olympian despite odds he describes as one in 360 million, coming from a welfare family with no resources for top coaches or equipment. He is now 75 years old with 60 years of experience as both a competitor and an advisor to top achievers in business, sports, and entertainment, having helped around 40 athletes win Olympic or world championship gold medals, though he now focuses primarily on advising entrepreneurs. He is also an author, speaker, and adoptive father, and runs a website at drjeffspencer.com.

Listen to the audio

“I say exponential potential, most people talk about full potential, but what I can tell you honestly is that there's many octaves above full potential, and that's exponential potential.”

Dr. Jeff Spencer

“The breath is the metronome for the mind. The faster your mind goes, the more likely you're gonna make a mistake, and the more likely you're gonna start making all your decisions out of fear of loss.”

Dr. Jeff Spencer

“You actually get much more credibility by adjusting to reality than staying rigidly on target for something that's shelf life has expired.”

Dr. Jeff Spencer

“If a person is thinking about doing something, they're probably capable of doing it, they just haven't done it yet.”

Dr. Jeff Spencer
high performance mindsetentrepreneurship psychologygoal settingmasterminds and coachingbreathing and nervous system regulationOlympic training parallelsdecision making under fearresilience

Questions answered in this episode

What is the difference between an athlete's mindset and an entrepreneur's mindset according to Dr. Jeff Spencer?

Spencer says the technical specifics differ (what microphone you use versus what sales technique), but the human experience of pursuing a goal is identical in sports, business, and entertainment. He now spends almost all his time working with entrepreneurs rather than athletes because he says they are more open to embracing change and making appropriate adjustments than people in corporate hierarchies.

How should entrepreneurs handle changing their goals or strategy mid-course?

Spencer explains that goals are "projected realities," not fixed truths, so when new facts emerge you should be willing to call an audible and adjust course, sometimes fractionally and sometimes majorly. He says people often mistakenly think changing direction makes them unreliable, when actually adjusting to new reality builds more credibility than rigidly chasing a goal whose shelf life has expired.

What daily habits does Dr. Jeff Spencer recommend for entrepreneurs to stay grounded and avoid fear-driven decisions?

He recommends a purposeful pause each morning: greeting the day, some form of connection like meditation or prayer, and specific breathing exercises, because "the breath is the metronome for the mind." He warns that rushing into action out of fear of being left behind speeds up the mind, leads to decisions driven by fear of loss, drains energy, and makes people emotionally unavailable to family and friends.

Why do some entrepreneurs abandon their business for a completely different venture when things get hard?

Spencer says this often happens because the goal was too big for the person's current state of readiness, so they don't gain momentum, conclude something is wrong with them, and start over elsewhere -- without changing themselves, which just repeats the same problem in a new venue. He frames the fix as matching your goal (the GPS destination) to your actual state of readiness (experience, resources, mindset) so the "reach" is appropriate.

How important is it to have coaches or mastermind peers as an entrepreneur, according to Spencer?

Spencer is a strong advocate, saying you shouldn't try to figure everything out alone -- getting input from people who've done it can turn a 20-year learning curve into 8 to 18 months. He recommends both one-on-one guidance from people who've achieved what you aspire to and being part of a group that meets regularly to compare notes on tactics and strategies that are and aren't working.

What three things does Dr. Jeff Spencer evaluate when working with a client or top achiever?

He says he wants to know: 1) their aspirations (the destination programmed into a GPS), 2) their state of readiness (how they think, their experience, and their resources), and 3) based on those two, what their actual reach is. The gap between readiness and the goal is then closed through well-planned, but flexible, decision-making.

Resources and links

Full transcript

Mike Hambright (00:01.058)

Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. I’m really excited to have Dr. Jeff Spencer here with us today. He has a storied career as an Olympic athlete and a trainer for not only successful entrepreneurs, successful athletes and things like that. We’re gonna ask him to share more about himself in just a moment. I’ve often said there’s so many parallels between entrepreneurs and athletes that are always on the verge of a breakthrough or giving up. Like there’s this kind of give and take constantly.

And it just takes this motivation from within and by probably surrounding yourself with the right people and all those amazing things. So today we’re really going to talk about what it takes to become a high performance entrepreneur from Dr. Jeff Spencer, who has it’s just an amazing track record that’ll share with you to be able to share those things. So Dr. Spencer, thank you for being here.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (00:43.645)

Well it’s pleasure. Thank you, Mike. I look forward to the conversation.

Mike Hambright (00:47.394)

Yeah, really excited to have you here today and and excited to have you speak soon to my Investor Fuel Mastermind members as well. So hey, before we jump into this, like just tell us a little bit more about your past, your your history, and kind of what makes you qualified, I guess, to even talk about a subject like this.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (01:05.469)

Well, I say that, you know, people like who am I? Well, I’m a guy that really believes very strongly that everyone should have an opportunity to explore living an exponential potential life. And I say exponential potential, most people talk about full potential, but what I can tell you honestly is that there’s many octaves above full potential, and that’s exponential potential. And that’s what my hope is for everybody because a as an Olympian, ten years of my life, I mean ten freaking years of my life are dedicated to one thing and one thing.

Only, and that was to extract out and evolve my potential. That was my whole quest for 10 years, and that’s what allowed me to become an Olympian against all odds. You know, my odds of becoming an Olympian were one in 360 million, is basically what it was. I come from a welfare family, so my family did not have the resources to be able to give me the golden spoon to hire the best coaches or have the best equipment. You know, but the one thing that I did have is that I have a self.

Starting gene. I’m inquisitive. I’m not afraid of hard work. I’m very coachable, and that’s what allowed me to become an Olympian. But I’ll also say that, you know, what I kind of do now professionally is that I show people their future so they can make better decisions. Well, how can you actually do this? Well, number one, I’m 75 years of age, and so I have 60 years of

Mike Hambright (02:26.498)

Mm.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (02:32.707)

experience as a participant but also advising some of the most prolific achievers of our era in business sports and entertainment. That that’s all I’ve known like my entire life. I was custom-made really for that. And so as an Olympian, as a doctor, as a sports scientist, as an advisor to these prolific achievers in all different areas, as also an author, also as a speaker, and also as an adoptive father, I can meet anybody

Wherever they are, I don’t care how big they are on the planet, I can look at every person from every perspective and have a conversation that allows me to help inform them about where they’re gonna land in their current trajectory. They have no idea. They’re guessing, quite honestly. But I can determine what that is and what it takes to maybe adjust the trajectory so that we do live that exponential potential life.

Mike Hambright (03:19.789)

Right.

Mike Hambright (03:28.823)

That’s great. And and how I I want to ask you two questions. One is around the parallels between athletes and entrepreneurs in your experience. And also just the importance of kind of setting that North Star of saying this is where I want to go. Because I think there’s a lot of entrepreneurs that are just trying to get through the day or the week or the month. They’re just trying to get to the next level without necessarily having, you know, they’re they’re they’re kind of looking for more, but not a well-defined path that’s clear as to where they want to go. Maybe you could share your insights on that.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (03:57.822)

So the f what was the first question again that you asked me? Well that’s it, look, whether it’s sports, business, or entertainment, doesn’t matter to me. There are technical differences. Yeah. What microphone do I use? What sales technique do I use? Those are all basically specific to the genre, but the experience as the human is exactly the same in all three of those. It really doesn’t matter to me like whatsoever, quite honestly.

Mike Hambright (04:00.13)

just the parallels between entrepreneurs and and athletes.

Mike Hambright (04:11.325)

Okay.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (04:26.683)

And so yeah, I was an Olympian, but I really work in the business world like right now. I I don’t really you know want to win a gold medal. I can help you do that. I’ve helped, you know, forty people win gold medals in the Olympics and world championships and stuff, but you know, all my time right now is spent in the business world because I like that, because I I love the contribution they’re making to humanity. They’re tearing you know, they’re they’re carrying their own weight in society, they’re they’re hungry for information, they’re compliant, they’re not afraid of hard work, you know, so on and so forth. So

To answer the question just about the target. Well, you know, I think one thing that we need to really be mindful of here is that all the goals that we have are projected realities. They’re not real. It’s a projected reality about something that may be possible. But what I do know is that when we have a set of principles that we employ.

and we have technical assets to execute the things that have to go right to move forward, we’re always adjusting the direct the trajectory as we go because every moment has its own reality. And sometimes if we get too fixated on something that’s become obsolete and we continue to pursue it.

Well, that could be a waste of time and a waste of energy. So, in my opinion, we should always be addressing every moment through the eyes of what that reality is. And more often than not, something is revealed to us to

shift course maybe fractionally, maybe a major change in course based upon the reality that takes us to a bigger, better, faster outcome than we could ever have conceived of, like intellectually. And anybody that plays a big

Dr. Jeff Spencer (06:06.815)

game, whether it’s sports, business, or entertainment, they read the terrain and they look at what are the facts that I’m looking at like right now and what are the opportunities that I didn’t see but I now see that I could take advantage of. So we kind of need to be mindful of this idea

Mike Hambright (06:22.07)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (06:25.531)

To be able to call an audible once we get behind the center and we look at the defense, we can call that audible. So I I just want to be explicitly clear on the fact that we do need a very specific target, and the target is important for the brain. Because if the brain doesn’t have a target, it wonders why am I even doing this? And also as it relates to the people that are supporting us in supporting roles like the BPs.

Mike Hambright (06:49.077)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (06:55.445)

And then we have people that sort of pyramid all the way down and all the way back up. You know, there needs to be some objective that we are moving towards for them to understand their place in this whole process of getting from A to Z. But that may actually end up being something quite different.

And the people that adjust to that, sometimes they mistakenly think, well, you know, I’m changing my mind, therefore I can’t rely on myself because I’m always changing my mind. Or perhaps even, you know, the people that I’m working with think I can’t stay with one thing. Well, yeah, quite honestly, you actually get much more credibility to by j adjusting to reality than staying rigidly on target for something that’s shelf life has expired.

Mike Hambright (07:43.948)

Yeah. That’s great. can you talk a little bit about if you think of every level of success, whether it’s an entrepreneurship or or athletics, people that make it to the big leagues, people that make it to the Olympics are a very small portion of those that were trying to get there. There’s so much carnage left behind of the people that were so close but just didn’t get there. And I think, you know, we obviously from my perspective, I think about entrepreneurs a lot that

We put people, you know, we always want aspire. There’s often other entrepreneurs we aspire to be like. We want to accomplish certain things, but there’s so few that actually make it to that to that level. And so maybe just talk a little bit about what separates people that try hard but don’t make it to the big show and those that do. What separates those folks?

Dr. Jeff Spencer (08:31.655)

Well, I think again, every one of us has a natural inclination towards something that we’re an expert at, because I think we need to be mindful that there’s only one Mike and there’s only one Jeff in all of human history. There’s nobody like you, there’s nobody like me.

And we’re all qualified to do something of extraordinary impact because anything anybody does, there’s a ripple effect throughout every direction and change and where human history is headed. But you know, we use as a scorecard us against them. And you know, I think that that’s a a big mistake.

Because we should be looking at what our assets are, we should mean, you know, what qualifications do I have to do, what, where where is my motivation, what are the skills that I know that I’m really good at? And really building a life based on that, not trying to

lead a life of comparison against like other people. And it takes a while for people to understand that. And the other thing that we should be mindful of is that mistakes aren’t really mistakes. You know, mistakes are telling us and we always learn something from our mistakes and it doesn’t mean that the big breakout just isn’t right around the corner.

And you know, so we do need to stay in the game. I think that it also speaks very much to the topic of that that we need good input from people that have accomplished things that we can learn from so that they can validate whether we’re doing the right things to get to where we want to get to. And I’m a big fan of not trying to guess at anything. You know, and the younger you are, the more you’re

Dr. Jeff Spencer (10:06.055)

guessing or you’re reading a book and you’re doing what the book tells you or what your friends tell you, but you you haven’t experienced it yourself. So I think there’s a very important link here by having some level of guidance from credible sources that have actually done it that we should always find ourselves connecting with.

Mike Hambright (10:26.975)

Yeah. And that’s obviously one of the one of the premises of of our mastermind is surrounding yourself with other people that have you know, maybe learned the lessons that you haven’t learned yet that can help you climb that learning curve even faster. And so I’m a huge believer of surrounding yourself with other people that have done what you’ve done or or are doing what you’re doing or obviously coaches that can help keep you on track. Maybe just talk to the importance of surrounding yourself with other people that are on the same journey as you or have been and coaches and things like just the importance of that. Obviously you believe a lot in

Dr. Jeff Spencer (10:42.545)

How to get that.

Mike Hambright (10:56.855)

Coaching I’m sure, but just maybe share your thoughts.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (10:59.655)

Well, I I do, as I said just previously, i it’s like don’t try to figure things out for yourself. why take twenty years to discover something you could get input on that would maybe now take eight twelve to eighteen months. And so I think that’s really important to conserve resources and belief in self and trust in other people that are supporting us is to be able to be able to engage things from a perspective

of well-reasoned actions. And again, I feel that as we’re moving forward in our career, we need input from people. I always like to think that I want to be around the smartest kids in the class to see what they’re thinking of. Because if we’re left to our own devices, we may be thinking things that aren’t true.

and taking actions on things that aren’t necessarily real, but we think they are when actually they’re not. So there is a a certain safety in numbers, which I I believe we should be with peers. I believe very strongly in that because when you’re with peers you can share tactics and strategies that are working that are not working. We can spend time with people that are more advanced and have done things with this that we can listen to. And I’m a big fan of

getting around as much reality as we can to listen because then we can also figure out, you know, where’s the resonance between me and what’s being said here? You know, in we may have opposition to certain things. There may be confirmational biases that are incorrect. there may be things that are new to us that we should take that are unconventional or unorthodox, but it’s on the sharp edge of of change. So I’m a big fan of

doing that like as much as possible to be able to compress the learning curve. And I think there should be two parts to this. I think that there needs to be personal one-on-one conversations. I think there needs to be also being part of a group that meets regularly so that we can compare notes like as a collective, especially in today’s world. You know, we we’re living in an unprecedented world of increasing tr change that’s going at basically at like a warp speed, quite honestly. So I think, you know, again

Dr. Jeff Spencer (13:13.769)

To look at what do we need here? Well, we need us to show up. We need to have the vitality. We need to take care of our health so we can execute the stuff. We need to be coachable. We need one-on-one engagement with people to get advice from those that are have done what we aspire to do. We need to be around a group of people that as a collective, we can compare notes and as I said, find strategies and tactics that work. We need to keep harmony within the family so that we don’t create dissension there because we have dissension there, then we have a divided allegiance on what we do.

And we start making decisions and we start getting frustrated, all of those lead to bad decision making. So that’s the way that I think we need to look at it. And there’s some other things here I think that are extraordinarily important. If you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything. You know, seek guidance. If just keep your eye on the one or two things that have to go right in the moment that you know to be real. Don’t try to necessarily make up, you know, for lost time.

Mike Hambright (13:58.658)

Mm.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (14:10.481)

You know, stay in receivership of ideas, you know, invite ideas to come into your consciousness, you know, don’t be rigid, stay open. You know, you need to have peripheral view of things that are happening in the periphery that are saying don’t go there, or hey, this is an idea maybe you didn’t think about. So the idea of, you know, again having these principles behind us that we look at because the principles that guide the actions, and when we have the actions as a library of tools to use.

then we have the most assurance that we can make the right choice at the right time to move forward at the right pace and at the right speed.

Mike Hambright (14:49.055)

Yeah, that’s great. I I think you you just answered some of these questions, but I I want to ask you if there are there any specific things that you would recommend? What are some daily activities or week maybe even weekly activities for entrepreneurs that I I kind of make this joke sometimes, which I think is very real, is that a lot of entrepreneurs and I’m sure athletes too, wake up in the morning and they want to 10x their business and by lunchtime they’re thinking about shutting it all down just because they get hit with these hit punched in the mouth, right? And so

Dr. Jeff Spencer (15:13.191)

That’s

Mike Hambright (15:16.321)

What are some things that people can do s d on a daily basis to just stay focused and kind of quote roll roll with the punches?

Dr. Jeff Spencer (15:24.667)

Yeah, g I would say, you know, f focused. You don’t want to be hyper focused because if you’re hyper focused, you’re shut down you’re shutting down peripheral information that could be very useful, that p can protect us from unnecessary problems and opportunities that we may have forfeited. So I think there needs to be a presence of being that

Allows us to discern and be able to look at things and not try to catch up or do things too fast because many times people get up and they want to get into action quickly because they’re afraid if they don’t get into action quickly, they’re gonna get left behind. And that’s a life that’s driven by fear, you know. And if you’re driven by fear, your brain’s gonna be going a million miles a second.

And we’re gonna start making decisions that are based on fear, not on gain. And that’s never a way to conduct a life because it takes a lot of energy. We’re emotionally unavailable to our family and our friends. we’re always worrying about everything. we’re using resources either maybe too cautiously or or too frivolously. So, you know, for me, when we first wake up, I think there needs to be a very purposeful pause where we send where where we

spend deliberate time sending our s centering ourself and being able to slow the mind down. That’s what I think is really important. And so for me there could be a variety of different ways of doing this. I mean number one, when you get up in the morning, I think you should greet today and you know bless the fact that you got another day in front of you. I think it’s important to do some type of, you know, connection with humanity.

in and life itself, you know, whether it be by meditation or traditional prayer or something along those lines, I think that that’s really important. And then do to do some some breathing exercises

Dr. Jeff Spencer (17:19.783)

That slow the mind down because the breath is the metronome for the mind. The faster your mind goes, the more likely you’re gonna make a mistake, and the more likely you’re gonna start making all your decisions out of fear of loss. And if we make our decisions out of fear of loss, then it it’s gonna be a losing some game. We’re never gonna be able to get out in front of those things. So, you know, those things I think are very important, but that means that we have to go against our human nature.

you know, or human nature is is fear-based first. You know, survival is our highest priority. And survival means we gotta do whatever’s necessary to stay in the game and not get left behind. And that leads to making really bad choices sometimes. You know, it’s like I saw this woman, you know, she had a phone in one hand, she had a piece of toast in the other hand.

And she was talking so much and she was trying to put on her makeup in the car, looking in the rearview mirror that she put the phone in her mouth thinking it was a piece of toast, you know? And so I think that that’s a really an important thing. But we have to be mindful too, is that our survival biology that we can’t help that’s hardwired into us is going to try to make us feel that you gotta get going faster than everybody else to keep up and not get left behind. But that’s not the way it works. You know, again, the breath is the metronome for the mind.

I would just suggest the most important thing that you could do is to really take the time to learn some breathing exercises that you just don’t make up, but but you look at

breathing techniques that are designed to slow the mind down so that you can make better choices. Not only that, but you also conserve a lot of energy. And when we do that, that’s like a football player in the locker room putting on the shoulder pads and putting on the helmet, you know, putting the the black stuff under the eyes. You know, before you take the field, you better be ready. Don’t jump onto the field too quickly because that’s when people get injured. Does that make sense?

Dr. Jeff Spencer (19:13.061)

And I can’t I can’t can’t emphasize this enough. It’s like you can’t mentally put yourself there. The biology has to be deliberately slowed down, and the nervous system only responds to that breath application to say life is safe, everything’s okay for now, now I can proceed forward making really good choices.

Mike Hambright (19:13.099)

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (19:40.901)

not being compulsive about either getting left behind or fearing a loss. I I I just can’t emphasize this enough.

Mike Hambright (19:50.764)

Yeah, that’s great. And I think th that’s more important than ever, right? It feels there’s a lot of anxiety, a lot of anxiousness with could be the political climate, the economic climate. There’s a lot of things. I mean, there’s a little bit of a perfect storm right now for people to be concerned about, especially in business, that just feel like, okay, maybe I just need to hang it up or or a lot of entrepreneurs just they just go play a different game. But like, okay, I’m gonna move out of real estate investing and I’m gonna go move into crypto trading or selling peptides tomorrow. There’s all sorts of stuff like that that’s going on. And

And I think, you know, on entrepreneurs are a little different than athletes, and most athletes are very good at at one thing and they’re probably athletic inclined for other things too. But in entrepreneurship, I’ve seen it many, many times where people will just, you know, go play a different game because they feel like that’s gonna be easier. And I always say, Well, it’s easy in the beginning, but that too will get hard, right? And so I think there’s a lot of anxiousness right now. And I think what you’re saying is is a great time to to kind of reflect on how to come to peace with many of the things you’re saying, right?

Dr. Jeff Spencer (20:38.331)

I’m just saying.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (20:49.331)

A hundred percent, yeah, quite honestly. You know, I appreciate you saying that I just want to re-emphasize again, I I don’t work with athletes.

If I don’t win a gold medal, I’ve helped 40 people win gold medals. But that’s that’s not where I spend my time. My time is purely all you know, I don’t really do that well in the corporate world because you know there’s too much hierarchy, it takes too long to turn the aircraft carrier around. You know, I prefer the entrepreneur space myself because they’re they’re more open to being able to embrace things to make the appropriate changes like when necessary, but you know, to start over without

Us changing, it’s only going to repeat the problem that we previously had, so it’s not really the genre. I think it’s you know to me it it always goes back again. Let me make sure I have clarity on several things. Number one, what is my state of readiness for what? Because if the goal is too big and we’re not ready for it, then you know we may not.

put ourself in a leveraged position to gain the momentum to get there and then we think something’s wrong with us and then we go and then we start over, correct? I don’t think that that’s the right way to do it. You know, the kind of way that I look at this, you know, through the eyes of my work, my clients, I want to know three things. You know, number one, you know, what are your aspirations? And that would be the equivalent of a destination in a GPS that you program in, correct?

And then I want to know what their state of readiness is. State of readiness is like how do you think, where you’ve been, what’s your experience, what are your resources, so on and so forth. Because

Dr. Jeff Spencer (22:32.793)

That informs me of what your reach is. And so if the reach that we have is appropriate for the goal and it makes sense, okay, well then we just have a space between you know where we’re starting our readiness and the goal itself. Just you know, what do we do with the gap? Okay, well to close the gap is making really good decisions as we move forward.

As I said, that is well planned out, but the plans are always subject to change because plans are estimations about what we think reality is, but we’re not there yet. And then once we get to the reality, then we make the adjustment.

And then we move forward with that. That’s the way that I always look at this. And there’s a set of principles that guide, you know, how we go from a starting location to the destination itself. It may be something entirely different, but we don’t want to throw things overboard and look at it the same way that we did to get to that place where we wanted to work we did bail out and we look for something new.

Mike Hambright (23:33.516)

Yeah. And it’s interesting in time where as an entrepreneur, where you get to new levels and then you you ultimately we hit some we hit some sort of ceiling, right? And then we have to find a way to break through to that new level. And you look back and you realize that what what seemed really hard at one time, for example, riding a bike, obviously you’re very aware of that. At one point it seemed like an insurmountable task, and then you build up some skill level where

You’re like, Well, that was that wasn’t hard at all, but at the time you thought it was and you just have to keep breaking through these ceilings to get to the next level.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (24:03.857)

Yeah. Yeah, and you never get to the finish line, quite honestly, in life. Because the landscape is like always changing. So, you know, to your your your point there is that we need to be able to make sure that we’re ready to take the leap that we’ve never taken before. And there needs to be mechanisms that prepare us to be able to do that.

Mike Hambright (24:08.021)

You’re right.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (24:31.313)

that have been appropriately selected and rehearsed so that when it’s executed, we go through that transition as smoothly as possible. And again, that’s where the value of someone that’s done it that can help one plan what that looks like.

comes comes i almost like prices or indispensable in in my own opinion there. and usually if a person is thinking about doing something, they’re probably capable of doing it, they just haven’t done it yet.

And so y the appropriate reach I think is important. You know, there’s a lot of people out there that say, well, you need to dream as big as possible. What do you want to do? Well, I want to have the first organic garden garden on ma on Mars. Okay, well that’s a big aspiration, but you’re probably not gonna get there, you know, within the next couple millennia, you know. But so I I I think that there does need to be a reach where we where we learn to have confidence in ourselves because we demonstrated to ourselves that we can do it because the the reach was appropriate.

And we shouldn’t be in competition with anybody else. Quite honestly, it’s like again as I said before, it’s like we all have assets and attributes that allow us to do something on this planet that nobody else has done. And that’s our contribution. And when we have that alignment, we have that resonance and we just can’t wait to get up and go to work, you know? And so again, I think it’s really important that we be very mindful about how we choose what our goals are. And we should

not just rely on other people to tell us necessarily what that is, or you know, go to a cheerleading session and be all inspired to want to influence a million people. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m all for it. But I’m just saying is that we need to develop the assets to do that, and we have to have the confidence to execute it. And we only have the confidence to execute it if we’ve proven it to ourselves that we really have what it takes to be able to do that. And there are measurable steps to be able to make that happen. So what it does, it reduces the risk and anxiety of

Dr. Jeff Spencer (26:30.389)

Taking action on something that we’ve never done before. Again, that goes back to so what do we do? Well, we go to all of Mike’s programs because he’s got kind of everything. He’s got one-on-one, he’s got one-to-group, he’s got entrepreneurs to entrepreneurs and other disciplines. You know, I think those are all indispensable elements in framing up our state of readiness to be able to take a calculated, well formulated and confirmed.

in rehearsed appropriately action to be able to move forward. I really believe that very strongly.

Mike Hambright (27:07.509)

Yeah, that’s great. Well, Jeff, thanks for sharing your insights today. If folks want to learn more about you, you have so much information, such a rich background. Where would folks go to learn more about you?

Dr. Jeff Spencer (27:18.011)

Yeah, well you can do I I I’ve just you know Jeff Spence just do a Google search, you know, assuming all over the place, doing all sorts of things with all sorts of different people. That that would be one place. But also, you know, if anybody’s interested in having a conversation about you know anything, you know, as a courtesy to to you and your community, Mike. And I I just can’t say how much I appreciate the time and energy that you’re putting into creating value for for your community. It’s it’s really, really extraordinary and people are lucky to have access to somebody that cares and that really

Really brings this type of accessibility to you know to their ability to become an exponential potential player. My website is www.drjeffspencer.com, D R J E F F S P E N C E R .com It’s a one-page thing. I’m not grandstanding, I’m not bragging about myself. I’m not putting all these lists of people that I’ve worked with, even though I’ve worked with some household names, actually a lot of them, quite honestly.

And I really care about people. You know, we get one pass through this dimension, and you know, for me it’s important that we make it count, but we make it count by what works for us, not by comparing ourselves with other people. Which which brings me to another thing, Mike, you know, when I present in you know Dallas here, you know, coming up in November, we’re gonna be talking about what does it really take to do this?

To optimize what we do to live a life of fulfillment, also contribution and also meaning. And there are certain things that I’m gonna be sharing that have a track record because they’ve proven themselves over and over to deliver on that promise because I want people to be really confident.

in a way that they have demonstrated them to themselves that they can take bold actions because they properly prepared to do that, and because of how they show up and what they do to support their teams, the team is fully behind them.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (29:31.197)

They believe in the mission, they also trust the leadership. And those are the things that I think that are indispensable in today’s world that is actually changing at light speed.

Mike Hambright (29:44.449)

That’s wonderful. Well, we’re we’re excited to have you and thank you for sharing your insights today. I think there’s so many entrepreneurs like I I think entrepreneurship is a way to it’s it’s the fuel that fuels your life. Like I used to think that the business sometimes we get caught in the business being the thing, but it’s the thing that allows us to live the life of design if as long as we’ve designed it, right? and I think there’s so many that are on the cusp of greatness and sometimes get stuck there for one reason or another. And so

Dr. Jeff Spencer (30:14.235)

Yeah, well let’s let’s unstick it. What do you say?

Mike Hambright (30:17.429)

Yeah. Yeah. Let’s do it. Let’s do it. Yeah. So so thank you so much for joining us today. Everybody, hope you got some great insights for today. Go learn more about Dr. Jeff Spencer, just an amazing career and an amazing kind of heart to help entrepreneurs get to the next level. So thank you guys for joining us. We’ll see you on the next show.

Dr. Jeff Spencer (30:34.675)

See ya. Bye everybody.

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