Spark Change and Improve Your Life
Greg has been through changes or pivots in his life and every time new doors and opportunities have opened up for him.
In today’s episode, Greg will share those experiences and hope to inspire you to take some risks and reap the rewards of a life well lived.
“When your hair stands up and kind of like, Oh, what I just said made me kind of uncomfortable. That’s the good shit right there. That’s the stuff that makes you realize that, Okay you’re challenging yourself. You are not sitting back and pretending that everything is okay. You’re really putting some thought into this to try to understand how it is you can become a better person. How you can grow and become more interesting.”
-Greg Paul
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Topics Covered
01:35 – Deciding to move from Boston to Colorado, change in lifestyle, the change in atmosphere, the change in environments, really had an influence on me in a very positive way.
03:23 – Choosing to become an entrepreneur, the opportunity of selling cars brought to his life, [00:04:36] realizing all the challenges and the things that I’d overcome in order to succeed
05:14 – From project management works renovating jobs transitioning and focusing more on the more enjoyable, fulfilling ventures of Greg’s career
06:34 – Doing hard shit as Jocko Willing says is really, really, what’s important. It is really what fulfilled and makes Greg happy
08:04 – Taking risks, right? What are we going to do to take risks to make our lives better
08:17 – Greg’s fiancée taking a huge risk on him despite his past, a great relationship that spawned from the fact that it wasn’t easy
10:25 – Start focusing a little more energy on other things this podcast, writing, public speaking, and sharing his message and helping others
11:13 – Early New Year’s resolution implementation from Greg
12:17 – More changes and plans to come for Greg
Resources
Connect with Gregory Paul
Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
“When your hair stands up and kind of like, “Oh, what I just said made me kind of uncomfortable.” That’s the good shit right there. That’s the stuff that makes you realize that, Okay you’re challenging yourself. You are not sitting back and pretending that everything is okay. You’re really putting some thought into this to try to understand how it is you can become a better person. How you can grow and become more interesting.”
Hey, everybody, this is Gregory Paul Kotsaftis of the Pitching The Truth podcast. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy today’s episode. And as always, thank you so much for listening.
Hello and welcome to the Pitching the Truth podcast. My name is Gregory Paul Kotsaftis and I’ll be your host here today. On this rainy, crappy, cold freezing rain kind of day in Colorado.
Thank goodness I get to get out of town tomorrow for a week and spend some time in sunny Florida down to Key West which I’m really looking forward to.
So, I wanted to talk today about some changes being made in my life. Some changes that I have finally decided need to be done. I’ve had many instances in my life where I’ve taken a step a leap of faith, sometimes by choice.
Most of the time I was forced into it. Most of the time was a deep struggle and something very difficult to do. But always it worked out. So to give you a couple examples and then I’m going to tell you what I think my grand plan is starting literally right when I get back from vacation.
Back in the day before I decided that I wanted to move here to Colorado from Boston, I was dating a gal named Robin.
I think I’ve mentioned her a few times, and you know she decided to move out here Boulder, Colorado and at the time I thought man this is never going to work. I’m just gonna stay home and hang out with my friends here in Boston and do my own thing. But eventually I missed her terribly and I decided to come out here.
So that was a major step for me to move to Colorado.
Now I will say that step was made a little bit easier because I had somebody that I really cared for and I wanted to be with. So I made the step with her to come out here. That was challenging but not overly challenging.
So that’s one example. In the end, it all worked out of course. Because it became very successful and very happy in Colorado. And the mountains and all of nature and wonderful people and just the whole lifestyle here which honestly I don’t think I could ever beat. You know when I came out here to it should be mentioned I think I lost about 30 pounds.
I lost about 50 pounds when I met Robin. I was like two hundred seventy-three pounds of the time. When I met her I’m like Man, I don’t have a chance at this I better lose some weight. So I quickly lost literally three months I lost fifty-two pounds. Dunno about 220. Pretty ripped up. And then when I came out here just before that again I gained some weight. When I got to Colorado I dropped down about 200 pounds.
I say these things because the change in lifestyle, the change in atmosphere, the change in environments, really had an influence on me in a very positive way.
So I’m very grateful that she brought me out here. And I mentioned that to her recently that I’m thankful that it was her influence that caused me to come here. So that was one instance of making a change in the positive effects it had in my life. The next one was deciding to sell cars for a living. You know as I’ve mentioned before, I was selling beer and doing pretty well and I thought that was a great little life plan. But if I hadn’t started selling cars I never would’ve become an entrepreneur.
I never would have branched out to build a huge tremendously successful business and never would have generated enough money to travel the world as I did. Before I came out here. Colorado man I had never flown. I’d never been passed Memphis, Tennessee.
That’s as far west today as ever gone in my entire life. How lame is that? Literally, I never went to California ever until I got to Colorado first when I was twenty-six years old.
Then I went more west to California. I can’t even imagine if I’d stayed of Massachusetts what my life would have been like.
I don’t think I would have gone anywhere. That’s kind of town whereas I grew up where people didn’t travel back then they kind of stayed put and the thought of that really just makes me cringe.
So that move, just a little push started this whole movement of getting out there trying different things.
As I mentioned I started selling cars that did really well. Then I decided to open my own business. At the time I didn’t think that was that big of a deal. But realizing all the challenges and the things that I’d overcome in order to succeed, I now realize that taking that kind of risks and making those changes usually pay off. I’ve never had one of these situations where I’ve stepped off and said I’m going to try this today and I’m going to cash it in and do everything and see what happens and not have it work out.
So recently, I’ve been reflecting upon that and I’ve been reflecting upon what it is I want to do with my life and who I want to surround myself with and what challenges I want to give myself.
So, as many of you may or may not know my full-time job personally is renovating houses here in the Denver market. Which has been phenomenal? The market’s been really strong, done pretty well, made some decent money, found some good opportunities. But I’m starting to realize that I think the economy is going to change. Things are gonna shift. I think eventually the market’s going to flatten out at least if not take a dip. And what I’ve also realized is that this career is kind of a dead end career for me. It’s only going to go so far unless I make some bigger moves and start to buy and do a lot higher end homes. Which of course is risky and I don’t know if I want to do that. I’ve also come to realize that having to manage my subcontractors because I’m a project manager, and deal with the headaches of the day to day people that are constantly broke, looking for money, struggling, not showing up for work, with drug addiction problems, family problems, have all kinds of various issues that I have to somehow deal with because they don’t show up for work or they become my problems.
It’s not how I want to spend all my time. I think that that is going to take way too much energy for me. And at the end of the day it’s not fulfilling, right? Because what are we doing here and here doing this podcast really to give back to society and try to help other people learn from my mistakes and what I’m starting to realize is that doing the hard shit, doing hard shit as Jocko Willing says is really, really, what’s important. It is really what makes me fulfilled and makes me happy.
Something else you may not know about me is that I trained in jujitsu for six years. Eliott Marshall’s been on this podcast a friendship that I’ve renewed which I’m very very thankful for. But I went to train yesterday and it was funny because I went in there and there’s a gentleman named Ian, who I have not seen in seven years and litter in the locker room getting ready to train and he says, “Hey, Greg how are you?” Out of nowhere.
First of all, I was shocked because I know that well that he remembered my name. Second of all, I was humbled by the fact that he was so kind to me considering my past and my mistakes because a lot of people just don’t speak to me anymore that are in that circle. And I started to realize how much that just made me feel good, right?
And it just made me feel like I was doing the right thing. It made me feel like I’m out there challenging myself because I’m putting myself in positions where people could be kind, or not kind to me. But at the end of the day I know what makes me feel good and Jujitsu is just one example or society in the community that’s in my school has been something again that’s fulfilling to me it makes me happy and makes me joyful and I start to I want to share that with people. I want people to realize that there have to be stuck and be in this day to day system of doing the same thing over and over again and not be fulfilled and not be happy.
So I guess if this comes back to is taking risks, right? What are we going to do to take risks to make our lives better? I took a risk moving to Colorado I took a risk of becoming an entrepreneur and starting to sell cars for a living. Taking a risk on a lot of friends that turned out to be great friends my fiancee took a huge risk on me. She didn’t have to accept me with my past but she did. And here we are we’re still together and very thankful for that.
This is an example of we have a great relationship and that I think really spawned from the fact that it wasn’t easy. There’s a lot of work. A lot of hard work doing tough shit. You know asking tough questions trying to struggle and figure out what it is exactly that will make this work.
And right now I’m at a crossroads. I am in the crossroads of my life I had a conversation with my brother last night. And he is buying into the truth ideology just as much as I am. We had a very frank direct conversation and I had to say that is probably one of the most direct conversations we’ve ever had. And I appreciated it.
And I appreciated the fact that we talked about my parents, we talked about different people in our lives and how we just don’t want to tolerate partial truths or lies anymore. Because it’s just not worth our time. And I think that is really really important. And in today’s world, I mean people just seem to kind of go through the motions and all of this seems to care.
People lie to each other to say, this and that, or stay in a job where they don’t give a crap about, that they don’t challenge themselves by just being directly once which I’ve always tried to be with people. You find out quickly where you stand and at the same time you also realize that little feeling in the back of your neck you know when your hair stands up and kind of like.”Oh, what I just said made me kind of uncomfortable.” That’s the good shit right there. That’s the stuff that makes you realize like, OK you’re challenging yourself. You are not sitting back and pretending that everything’s OK. You’re really putting some thought into this to try to understand how it is you can become a better person.
How you can grow and become more interesting.
So, again sorry. Back to me. Enough about me What about me. Back to me. Back to me about my whole challenging ideas.
So, I’ve been doing this house thing for a long time it’s good. Like I said it’s decent. I get to train, I get to hang out with my kids. I get to pay restitution. Everything is very positive. So I continue to do that. But I’ve got to start focusing a little more energy on other things.
And other things are this podcast. Other things are writing, other things are public speaking, and sharing my message and helping others. And all that’s a little difficult. It’s tough for me to you know really, first of all, spend a lot of time and energy on it because it’s like learning something very new and it’s a lot of work to try to figure out what your niche is and figure out what your message is. But like anything else, like training jujitsu, like riding a bike, like flying a plane. These are all things I’ve done recently. It takes practice.
And the only way you’re going to figure it out is if you can get in there and you start doing it and you do it every day on a consistent basis.
So rather than wait for New Years to come. Because I’m a true believer that New Year’s resolutions generally don’t happen unless you start early. So I’m be starting right after Thanksgiving, not December 1st. Literally, the Monday after I get back, to try to put out more consistent content on this podcast. I’m gonna go out and find new guests to try to make this place, this venue a little bit more interesting. I’m going to work on my public speaking get out there and do some of that. I’m also going to try to strive to build some other ways of making money that is more satisfying to me personally so that I can be happier and feel like I’m leaving my mark on this earth.
It’s really important to me especially for my children that they realize that I tried my best. First of all to make amends on the stakes but also to try to change society and leave a positive impression upon it.
You’re out here listening, right? Listening to this podcast. I’m thankful for that. I’m very grateful and humbled that you’d take some time just to listen to what I have to say. I’m hopeful that as I continue to do this, I can get more people engaged and more people to try to understand where I’m coming from and maybe I can start changing a few people’s lives and opinions.
I’ve reached out to a couple of old coaching clients in my direction of having them be really brutally honest and direct with whatever situation they were in and whether it was their job or their relationship or just who they were as with their career work what they wanted to do is proven to be very very helpful for them. They’ve all thanked me profusely because it changed the direction of their life shifted their direction. Taking a challenge and making a move and trying to figure out what it is you want to do and where you want to go may seem hard. But at the end, if you don’t try. You got two choices.
You can sit back, do the same thing you do every flipping day, eat the same food, watch your television show, hang out talk shit about your spouse or your friends and you know look a little Facebook and feel like you know something and check your phone out your news feed and you can go through those motions every day stay in your same hometown maybe take one vacation a year.
Or you can try to shift things. And that’s what I’m going to do shift my life to get past mine but my past and step out there in front of the world and try to make some kind of a positive change and positive difference.
So take my words, listen to my stories, try to understand what’s going on. I’m going to be trying to get a bunch of different people on here to interview to talk about what changes and shifts they’ve made in trying to find their truth about what they want to do.
And again thank you so much for listening. Thank you for taking the time and I hope that you will do me a favor. Please review down here at the bottom of my tunes and Stitcher where you’re at. They’ll be wonderful. And if there’s anything I can do for you please reach out to me at greg@veracitygp.com and go to my Web site veracitygp.com and reach out to me or reach out to me here on this podcast. Whatever you want to do. If there’s anything I can do for anybody out there to try to help them. I’ll be glad to do it. Please feel free to reach out. We’ll go from there. Thanks so much for listening and it’s all next time. Take care.