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Surviving the Side Hustle
Welcome to "Surviving the Side Hustle," the ultimate podcast for balancing the demands of entrepreneurship with maintaining mental, physical, and emotional well-being.
Hosted by Coach Rob Tracz, an expert in helping driven professionals achieve 'personal development for professional success,' this show is more than just storytelling—it's a masterclass in thriving amidst the entrepreneurial grind. Each episode features candid conversations with leaders who are rewriting the rules of entrepreneurship, sharing their unique stories, the creative solutions they're offering, and the everyday challenges they’re overcoming.
Whether you’re a side hustler looking for your big break or an established entrepreneur seeking fresh perspectives, "Surviving the Side Hustle" provides valuable insights that resonate with the movers, the shakers, and everyone in between.
Feeling burnt out and sidelining your own health? This podcast empowers you to overcome stagnation, build resilience, and optimize your life and business. We dive deep into your goals, identify obstacles, and share strategies to boost your energy, improve your strength, and keep the entrepreneurial grind enjoyable.
Join us for inspiring stories, expert insights, and practical advice to help you look good, feel good, and do great things at every stage of your entrepreneurial journey. Let’s not just survive the side hustle—let's master it.
Surviving the Side Hustle
E106 - Cliff Starks Recap: Lessons from the Cage to the Coaching Room
Ever felt like business is just a series of punches to the face? You're not alone. In this compelling episode, I break down my recent conversation with former UFC fighter Cliff Starks, who perfectly captures the entrepreneurial journey as a fight in the octagon - constantly dodging hits from clients, doubt, and your inner critic.
Cliff dropped some serious truth bombs that apply to every high performer. Most notably: we don't fail from lack of knowledge but from lack of clarity and accountability. Think about it - how many courses have you bought or masterminds have you joined, yet still found yourself stuck? You didn't need more content; you needed coaching to help you ask better questions and take aligned action.
One of the most powerful concepts Cliff shared was the be-do-have framework that transformed him from an overweight kid to an elite fighter. This maps perfectly to resilience and my Rise to the Challenge framework - becoming someone who does hard things and earns the right to big wins. He also emphasized that trust comes before transformation, which aligns with my Team Triangle framework for identifying the coaches, captains, and crowd that supports your journey.
The ultimate currency in entrepreneurship isn't money or connections - it's momentum. Cliff's advice for anyone starting out resonates deeply: "What's a small win that can give you momentum to go after your next win?" Start there. In future solo episodes, I'll be breaking down each of my principles more deeply, from the Pirate's Flag framework to the Resilience Matrix, giving you bite-sized lessons you can actually apply to your side hustle or full-time entrepreneurial journey. Check out my free coaching newsletter at surviveinsidehustle.com for more behind-the-scenes insights and frameworks.
What's going on, everybody? It's Rob here and surprise and welcome to your Friday recap episode of Surviving the Side Hustle. Typically, we drop our interviews on Wednesdays, but we're making a couple of changes here. So now, every Tuesday, I'm going to be sitting down and I'm going to be dropping the high-performing guest interviews where we talk about the real stuff like the mindset, business, personal growth, and then on Fridays, I'm gonna hop on and to break it down for you. So this solo episode is, you think of it, kind of like your behind the scenes take. I'm gonna be sharing my top three takeaways from the conversation. I'm gonna be highlighting moments you might've missed and tie everything back to the core frameworks I use in my coaching, things like resilience, clarity, support and opportunity creation. The goal here is to help you reflect more consciously and apply these lessons directly to your own journey. So, whether you're side hustling, full timing or just trying to level up, these episodes are going to be for you. So sit tight and let's get into it. If you've ever felt like business is a series of punches to the face, then this episode's for you.
Speaker 0:This week, cliff Starks said that being an entrepreneur felt just like being in the UFC. He says one minute, you're dodging hits from clients, doubt and your inner self-critic. And after talking with him, I left with three game-changing insights, not just for fighters, but for every high performer trying to win their own game of life. Now, I've never been in the UFC, unless you count getting grilled by my middle school baseball coach after striking out but I've definitely felt that moment of pressure that Cliff describes. Most people think performance is about knowing what to do, but Cliff dropped this truth. He said we already know what to do, we just don't do it. So why? To him, it's because high achievers don't fail from lack of knowledge. They fail from a lack of clarity and accountability. How many of you have bought a course, joined a mastermind or even read a book and still found yourself stuck? You didn't need more content, you needed coaching, which Cliff described as helping people ask better questions and take aligned action. Cliff's major epiphany came from butchering his first personal development, public speaking kind of talk. He realized it's not enough to just inspire, you've got to learn to instruct. That unlocked his fighter's formula and eventually led him to launch the training room for entrepreneurs. My own epiphany coaching isn't about providing answers. It's about providing a container for people to unlock their own clarity and consistency, and that's why I created the Prime Performance Process.
Speaker 0:A couple of things from taking away from the conversation with Cliff. Number one we got to ask better questions. He said the quality of your life comes down to the quality of your questions. This maps to clarity and focus. Specifically, in my coaching, we go over the pirate's flag framework where we dig into things like your foundational values and asking you hard questions until you figure out how to ask the right questions. To be honest, until you are asking the right questions, your values are just guesses, not guiding principles.
Speaker 0:Second thing that I really took away from Cliff's conversation was you got to become the person before you have the results. He used the be do have to transform from an overweight kid to an elite fighter, and to me that's resilience. Oftentimes I talk about the rise to the challenge framework that I created and it's all about becoming someone who does the hard things and earns the right to have big wins. And the third thing that I took away from the conversation with Cliff was trust comes before transformation. He's running five-day challenges not to sell but to build the trust before he asks, and to me that's support and influence Oftentimes talk about the team triangle framework that I use in my principle number five, and it's important because you want to be able to identify your coaches, your captains and the crowd that supports you and cheers you on, and you don't earn their engagement without trust. So if this is your first time hearing about some of my principles and some of the frameworks that I've been sharing in my coaching practice, don't worry, because I'll be breaking down each of these principles more deeply in future solo episodes Touching on the be-do-have model, all the way to my Pirates flagged framework and even the resilience matrix. You'll be getting bite-sized lessons you can actually apply, whether you're building a business, reshaping your body or crafting a better life.
Speaker 0:If you haven't yet, check out my free coaching newsletter and follow us on social media, too, at surviveinsidehustlecom. That's where I'll be sharing a lot of behind-the-scenes frameworks, client wins and invitations to upcoming challenges. I want to wrap up by reminding you of what Cliff said when I asked for his best advice for entrepreneurs who are starting out. He said what's a small win that can give you momentum to go after your next win? And that's it. You got to start there. Momentum is the ultimate currency in entrepreneurship. So that's it. Ask yourself what's a small win that can give you that momentum to go after and motivate you for your next big win. Until next time, guys, peace, peace, peace peace.