The 3 Things Every Burned-Out Founder Needs to Hear with Eric Farewell

Jason [00:00:00] So welcome to the Living Question podcast. And here we have Eric Fairwell, dear friend of mine, who introduced me to a lot of really cool things, that we may or may not get into, I don't know. So

Eric one thing I love about Jason is he always has the ability to just add one more thing that's cool, and so anytime I'm like, "Hey, you should check out this cool thing," he's like, "I, I'm all in.

Eric 100%. I'm there."

Jason Totally, man. And so- ... um, why don't we start with, kind of like an intro of kinda what you're up to, what you're about nowadays?

Eric Sure. Yeah. Uh, well, my name is Eric Fairwell. I am just turned 40 years old. I live here in Austin, Texas, and five years ago I retired. I decided that making another $100 million is not gonna make me happier, and I was losing my wife and my children, and I wanted to reprioritize what success meant to me.

Eric So that retirement lasted for a good three years. Uh, we were able to move to Texas from Florida. We still own all of our companies back there, [00:01:00] and yeah, I fell into somatic work and learning how to build my nervous system about eight years ago, which really opened the door for this to be a possibility.

Eric And now today, um, my life is one of play. I get to be in deep community with amazing, epic legends, uh, who I continue to tr- try to get to move to Austin. And I love it. I really do. I, I've done a lot of things in my life, and what I'm most proud of is the relationship I have with my family and with my friends, and the family of choice.

Eric It's really magical. And so started coaching two years ago accidentally, and that turned into a community, and now I have business leaders from all over the world that are learning to use the same processes I did to find freedom, and also to learn how to process their trauma and not have their inner child be the one that's in charge of their business, which is what most of us are doing because being an entrepreneur is a trauma response.

Eric I'm 98... 99.8% sure.

Jason I remember the moment where I read that, [00:02:00] on... It was some post on LinkedIn, but I remember that. I was like it's a trauma response. And it was like the, the immediate felt sense was like, "Yeah, that makes sense."

Eric Yeah, it's like, "Oh, crap, he's right." It's... for me, it really was.

Eric I, I grew up in a hyper-conservative Christian family, uh, that I later learned that when you have a h- a, a group of people that are living a very similar life like that, they call it a cult. and to step away from the shame and the constant judgment, uh, I built businesses where people told me I was good.

Eric And- ... then I didn't have to face all of the trauma and the challenge and the struggle of my youth, and so I started building businesses at 13 years old and never looked back.

Jason Wow.

Jason Yeah. So we'll start with a question here, 'cause I know there's so many places we could go. but I'd love to come to a moment where...

Jason 'Cause we had r- before we started recording, you had talked about how difficult it was to, to let go of the performative part of your [00:03:00] identity. Huge. And I also know that you've been working on that. You've done it so many times, and it... And so like can you kind of give me a picture of like what, what that's like right now, and why are you still trying to like shed that identity?

Eric I'll go into story mode, 'cause it makes more sense if I tell the whole story.

Jason Sure ...

Eric this summer, I was flying out to the West Coast to speak at a conference, and I'm about 10 chapters into my book at this point, and I am just overwhelmed with this feeling I have to be in integrity, so I have to actually write the afterword first.

Eric Because like every other book, it's like, "Hey, here's the tools I use. Here's the stories that support it. Here's the frameworks. Here's what you can do." I was like, "I have to write this afterword." And the afterword basically says, "Here's my life in 2025. January 30th, my father-in-law killed himself" February 11th, somewhere, somewhere in there, we got hit by Doge.

Eric All of our military contracts canceled. That was our biggest, client for the last almost decade.

Jason Whoa.

Eric Uh, April 6th, I think it was, we got hit by [00:04:00] tariffs, and I had to lay off my CEO from the beach in Miami or in, uh, uh, K- on Kauai. By June, over half the team had to be fired. Then we had a fire in our other company, burned our, uh, production truck and trailer to the ground.

Eric We were under-insured for a whole hell of a lot of money.

Jason Whoa.

Eric Uh, and I say all of that to say it's... would be easy for me to play the victim card, yet 2025 was probably the happiest year of my life. I was closer with my wife, closer with my friends, more people I can call on for support. My kids are freaking incredible.

Eric We play games together every day. We actually connect every day. There's, there's deep connection. My even almost 15-year-old son still comes and snuggles us in bed every night. It's like there's magic happening, and- Mm ... a level of magic I never thought was possible. So to surrender what my expectations were, what my performative nature was, my workaholic side, the, all of those things wasn't easy.

Eric And the reason I tell all these stories is to go full circle. December of '25, I get a call from the CEO of my biggest [00:05:00] company, and she's like, "Hey, I don't know what to do." And all the fear alarms start setting off, and it's like, okay, well, we've got 3,800 past clients. We can call all of them and pitch them all something, and, you know, we'll close a bunch.

Eric And I was like, "I, I'll start making phone calls." And I sat back, I was like, "No. My word for the year of 2025 was residence." And I was like, I, I can't be in my residence and try to, you know, put myself in this position where I'm willing to do the things I used to do. So, grateful for that, and here we are.

Eric Editing this is gonna be fun.

Jason It'll be right there. This is me as I am, you know?

Eric I know. Zero shame, dude. You were sick yesterday. I'm amazed that you're sitting upright. Me too.

Jason Me too. Like, I half expected it, and I half was like, man, I, I did a really... Like I, I told everyone I was hardcore resting because it was so hard just to lay flat and not do anything, especially with everything that I had come to sign up for.

Eric Right.

Jason Like- [00:06:00] like, there was an event happening, like two blocks that I was supposed to be supporting.

Eric Yeah.

Jason And I could see all the messages updating in the chat, and I was just like, "Oh, this sucks."

Eric You know, it's been a constant theme since we met- Mm-hmm ... that you get this, these opportunities to surrender your expectations.

Jason Yeah.

Eric And it's a pretty good one. Hey, fly halfway across the country, bring a team to film stuff, and by the way, you're gonna be in bed. Yeah.

Jason Yeah, so trust in divine timing. Without a doubt. And I'm so glad that we ended up here.

Eric Yeah, man.

Jason Yeah. So man, that is a wild 2025.

Eric It definitely was a, uh... There were a lot of opportunities to learn and a lot of opportunities for what I called emotional whiplash.

Jason Yeah.

Eric Uh, because January of '25, I also launched my first, uh, mastermind in over 20 years, and I would have these incredible calls, and I'd, come off the call just jazzed. Like, oh my gosh, these people are changing their lives for [00:07:00] the better. They're doing the hard work. They're facing their inner child.

Eric They're facing their trauma. And then I open the bedroom door, and I hear my wife take one breath, and I'm like, oh, she's in it.

Eric Pivot, drop in, get focused, be present, be engaged. Don't try to solve. Don't try to be a, be a, uh, you know, a fixer. And, uh, there is some significant magic to it, and also it was like, wow, that, that tested my range.

Jason Yeah.

Eric For sure.

Jason Yeah.

Eric and it still does. I mean, we're, we're a year and two weeks removed. It's, it's, uh, it's still very much alive in our family, and between death and death of business, it's all, it's all tied together. It's all, it's all there to help us remember that when things are good, we really need to be in joy.

Jason Yeah. So let's talk about the moment you made the decision then. so you had the, all the stuff, like fires, dumpster fires, real fires, all the shit's happening, right? And then you're like, "Okay, I'm about to get back into the trenches, make the calls, make the sales, get things back together." [00:08:00] How, like, where did you catch yourself in that moment, and how did you choose?

Jason I'll

Eric tell the story of the story. in September of '25, I hired a new coach. I paid him 50% of my disposable income. So not a, not a cheap coach.

Eric Uh, 50% of what my recurring revenue was per month, I paid this guy, and he's done what I wanted to do. His last book sold six million copies. You know, I'm, I'm bringing a book to market that I really want to see change a lot of lives and, that's always what I look for in a coach is like, who's done what I wanna do?

Jason Yeah.

Eric And so it took him about 15 minutes to go, "Eric, you're really good in chaos and you keep making it for yourself."

Jason And

Eric I was like, "That's true. I do have that tendency." And, and I'm... Not in the ways I used to with work. In this case, I was trying to buy a new house, and he's like, "Eric, just wait. Delay.

Eric You don't have to move. There's no reason for you guys to rush, especially a, you know, a mid seven-figure purchase. Like, there's no reason." And [00:09:00] so I heard that ringing in my head, th- this whole, you don't have to create chaos. And then I felt the energy of what it- I was trying to do, which was I was trying to be the hero.

Eric I was trying to be the savior. And I have an incredible team at each of my companies, really incredible people, and as soon as I felt that energy and I, even said, "Yeah, I'll do this thing." And I got off the phone and I was like, "I can't. If I do that, I'm not the man I've become."

Eric I go back to... I revert back to the old systems that didn't serve me.

Eric They didn't get me... They got me where I am to an extent, and then they failed me. Working 110, 115 hours a week every week until three months in, I get sick and sleep for two or three days like you just did- ... is not the path that I want to show my kids is reality or safe or even freaking sane.

Eric and that's, that's what I felt. I felt this disconnect from not just purpose, but alignment. And so I, I, I could tell you many other stories like this where I make the uncomfortable choice to stay true even though there certainly are easier ways and more [00:10:00] ego-fed ways that feel like they're what I should do.

Jason Yeah. And it sounds like you've put a lot of reps into making this choice. Like, this was not your first choice putting you in this direction.

Eric Yeah, I mean, it's all, it's all nervous system. It's building a relationship with who, who your energetic system has been programmed to be, right?

Jason so let's go to that moment then.

Jason So you, like, started to talk about that, and in your body were you like, "Okay, now we're taking a breath, resetting," and- Being the Eric that you are now

Eric Yeah, I just-

Jason How did that go?

Eric Did exactly what you said. I, I call it the one breath. It's a deep meditative breath that allows me to just get re-grounded in who I am, and taking that one breath, dropping in, and then shifting from production to curiosity.

Eric It's like, okay, this is the thing. This is the path that should make enough money to keep payroll covered and our credit card bills paid. And when you have a company that's churning between $100,000 and $400,000 a month, that's a pretty hungry [00:11:00] machine. Yeah. Like, those are expenses, not income, and they don't stop when the income stops, you know?

Eric And given the financial climate of the end of 2025, there was no certainty. So I took my deep breath. I got curious. I shared my emotions and my feelings with my partner, my wife. I said, "Look, this is... I want to go do this thing because I know how to do it, but I don't feel like I'm supposed to." And she goes, what about Micah?"

Eric "What about AJ?" And I was like, "What do you mean?" two of the employees we laid off." Two people who are wonderful... Well, AJ quit the year before, but it doesn't matter. People who used to work with us and don't anymore, but they still carry our mission.

Jason Hmm.

Eric She's like, "Let them call everyone. Give them commission.

Eric Make it easy." Oh. 15 minutes later- Hmm ... I pass that to the CEO, and guess what? Phone calls are getting made, and I'm not making them. And I get to stay in my creativity because the current state of what, what I'm building in my life requires me to block so much time to write those LinkedIn posts, to write my book, to be present with clients, and- Yeah

Eric I only work with clients really one day a week. So it's like it's... The rest of the time is creative time, and if I was sitting there making phone calls to try to make money, to try to feel safe, [00:12:00] I would have failed pretty miserably at the mission I'm on now.

Jason Yeah. Yeah. So, so let me make sure I'm tracking with you then.

Jason So you took your one breath.

Jason Seems like you practiced that one a lot, too.

Eric Oh, hell yeah. Probably 10 times today.

Jason Lovely. And so after that one breath, then you went to somebody to share the emotion that you had, so you went to your partner.

Eric Yep.

Jason And she dropped, some wisdom on you.

Eric Yeah.

Jason That, you know, like, because you had grounded, because you had asked and you had shared, then you started to have, like, doors open in front of you.

Eric I think it's so important for us to, to see our emotions reflected in someone else. So I often, whether it's with my wife or with... I have so many dear friends that I do this with, where I just like...

Eric Might be a random phone call at 10:00 at night on a Tuesday where I'm just like, "Hey, here's what I'm feeling. Check me." Because they may feel something in my energy that's different.

Eric And so it's really interesting because it- it's natural to revert to fear, fight, flight, freeze, right? those are our natural order of, of how we move.

Jason Yeah.

Eric But if we're [00:13:00] choosing a different way, we're choosing a higher resonance, it... You have to have outside perspective to see you. Yeah. So I- my wife is the most commonly used one, but I also have my friend Red Benz. I have-

Jason Yeah ...

Eric my own community, like, all these different people. And Preston, whose house we're in right now, is one that I...

Eric Very frequently, one of us will call the other and it's like, "Hey, check me."

Jason Yeah.

Eric And I think it's good. I think it's important to, to have those, especially for me, men in my life that I can lean on that- Know me and my strength and my weakness.

Jason Yeah. Yeah. And I love that because, like, what I'm hearing that I'm taking notes on, mental, and I'll have to take even more notes after I rewatch this, is that part where not only are you doing the work, but you're also including checks- Mm

Jason with trusted people who know your heart, know where you wanna go, and also, like, they can give you that direct feedback.

Eric Right.

Jason Yeah. That's awesome.

Eric It's huge. Yeah. I mean, Preston says it all the time, community is currency, and it doesn't become [00:14:00] currency until you make a withdrawal. So me being here on this podcast- Mm

Eric with you right now is a withdrawal. You asked me to come show up, and I'm like, "Absolutely. I like you. I love you. I'm gonna show up for you."

Jason Yeah.

Eric Is it... Was it a hard week to do it? Yes. But we made it work, right? Yeah. And so you made a withdrawal, and that's a beautiful thing about real relationships is it's not transactional.

Eric It's like a bank

Jason But banks are transactions

Eric I know. I'm trying to find a better way of putting this. It's more, it's more like- ... you put deposits- Yeah ... and you can make withdrawals. 'Cause every time you build a relationship, you're, you're building the deposit bank, right? Yeah. And-

Jason But there needs to be circulation

Eric Ah, 100%.

Jason Like, I just can't stack up all of this stuff by, like, doing a lot of things for you- Right ... thinking that, oh, I'll just save up with Eric so that in case I ever need help, he'll come out and help me. But that's different from, "Hey, can you help me out here?" Or, "Hey, do you wanna meet up and do this?"

Jason Right And getting an actual circulation going, 'cause then it's a real relationship, right?

Eric Absolutely.

Jason Yeah.

Eric Absolutely. And that's, people have so much [00:15:00] fear around releasing the things they have. It's like, no, the moment you give it away to somebody else, it reduces its merit, reduces its power over you.

Eric It's like, you might as well circulate. It's really beautiful. Mm.

Jason Yeah. And the, that, that's a really interesting one for me, because, especially, I've been researching my culture, actually. because it's, it's... an Asian culture is more collectivist. Mm. And a lot of it, a lot of the energy goes around, like, not rocking the boat.

Jason not making things, like, difficult for other people. And there's a lot of, like, implied stuff. It's kind of like, oh, if you give me X thing, then I need to return that in some kind of value. Not because it was, like, given without expectation. It's kind of like it's implied that I must return it somehow.

Jason Mm. And so that makes gifting really difficult, And in, in Chinese culture, uh, it's Lunar New Year, today?

Eric Yeah, today, I think. Yeah.

Jason And I should know this. Um- I

Eric don't know why I do, but I believe it's [00:16:00] today.

Jason But you give red packets.

Jason and like, we'll track how much money we get, like, for our kids so that we know next time we see their kids, we're gonna drop that or more into their red packet and so that it circulates.

Jason But it's a different feeling. It's not this feeling of, like, a giving overflow. It's more of, like, this is the norm. This is the standard that I have to-

Eric Mm ...

Jason kind of move by. And I've only recently been opening to exploring that, the different idea of, like, circulation of I can give freely because I know I'll receive freely.

Eric Yeah.

Jason And there's gonna be times in my life when I can give crazily, I can give super generously, and then there's also gonna be times in my life where I'm laid flat.

Eric Yeah.

Jason And there's nothing to give, and I'm gonna need to ask for a lot. And knowing that, hey, like, there's people in my life who got me, it, they're probably not the ones who I've been having, like, red packet wars [00:17:00] with of, like, who will give more the next time,

Eric I- I'll be the guy who gives nothing back, but feel free. I mean, that's ... My kids would love that. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

Jason Yeah. See? But you're not Chinese, so it's okay, right? That was like... but truly though, like, uh, whenever I give, I, I give with this heart of generosity. Not expecting. But at the same time, like, as I've been researching my culture, like, one of those things about the collectivist side is that it's very diff- like, when you act like that in a Western environment It's you- you're seen as different.

Jason You're seen as more timid. You're s- Mm ... you're, you're seen as, like, more calculating, more cold, because you're trying to condense everything into this number so that, like, the... it becomes real currency.

Eric Interesting.

Jason So it's almost instinctual to turn it into a real currency, but that kills it.

Eric was interest- I was having this conversation- I know

Eric last week- Yeah ... with a friend. She's... she asked me, "So what do you think of modern tipping culture?"

Eric I was like, "I [00:18:00] actually kind of love it." the counter service places where, like, they make you a coffee and they hand it to you and you're like, "Yes, I want to put a $4 tip on my $2 coffee." I'm that guy.

Eric I mean, I grew up in food service, and I genuinely am, but I don't want them to ask. The moment they ask, "Hey, it's gonna ask you a question," or whatever they say, I'm always like, "I know what the question is. I'm not an idiot." And now it feels like it's created, like, a societal construct of expectation. I love to over-serve and over-amplify the possibility. And, and, like, I literally... I was sitting there having a cup of coffee with her, and it was a $3-and-something cent cup of coffee, and I put tipped $4 on it, because it was the maximum amount they would let you press the button.

Jason And

Eric I was like, "That made..."

Eric That brought me joy.

Eric Cause I'm not gonna miss the two- the $4, but it might bless them.

Eric Right?

Jason Yeah.

Eric And yet the- they'd asked the question, there was a, there's a part of me, that defiant rebel in me, that just would go, "No tip." It's just so interesting. So I wonder if it's the same idea, like when it's made real currency, the magic is gone.

Jason Yeah. And, you know, I see it very differently, 'cause I feel like tip is a reward for [00:19:00] service.

Eric Right.

Jason And so when I get bad service, I'm like, "No tip," right? Or if I'm picking up to go or delivery or-

Eric I'm the opposite ... yeah, right? If I get bad service, I over-tip so they question themselves 'cause they knew they did a bad job.

Eric I think maybe they're just having a really terrible day and this $100 tip will change their life. I don't know.

Jason Yeah.

Eric Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but it's...

Jason Yeah, let me be your server.

Eric Yeah. No, you- you'd enjoy it.

Jason That's cool. Yeah, like, I, I remember, likewell, I would just get pissed off if the tip ratio started at like 20%, 'cause like it's just slowly crept up over the years.

Jason Oh, yeah. it used to be like 10%-

Eric Right ...

Jason was the minimum. Right. I, like I see the other two. It's fine, right? And if I really like them, sometimes I hit the top one, right? Yeah. Um, but it's like it started at 10, and then after a little bit it was like 15-

Eric Yep ...

Jason 18, 20. One place I saw it start at 22 as a- Yep

Jason suggested tip, and I was just blown away.

Eric Yeah. It's, [00:20:00] it's- Yeah ... it's, I don't know. I, I could definitely get annoyed with it. There's parts of it that I can understand the annoyance, and there's parts where I'm like, this is a new opportunity to give- Mm-hmm ... that, that is so societally acceptable. Like, where else can you walk up to a college student who is clearly not having the time of their lives and bless them in a way that they can feel as if they're enabled to bless someone else, and have it be completely societally acceptable?

Eric Mm. You can't walk through a dorm room and be like, "Hey, here's 20 bucks. Thanks for existing," right? But you can do it at a counter. I don't know. I, I- Mm ... maybe I'm looking at this with a glass way too full, but it just, I think it's kinda cool.

Jason Yeah. Yeah. I don't think so. I think your glass is full, though-

Eric My glass is pretty full

Jason in a great way.

Eric Yeah.

Jason Yeah.

Eric Yeah.

Jason So I'm not sure where we were,oh, so you've put in a lot of reps, and I, I'd say like I, I wanna see that moment, if you could walk us through when you first made that choice. Because like the cost of you making this move for [00:21:00] 2025, could you speak to like what did it cost you to choose you and choose your current work rather than going back to where you were before?

Eric So I, I mean, like I said, I've been building businesses now for 27 years, and my last large business was a, a company called Avi- Aviator Paramotor, which I've owned for 14 years. And my plan had been, you know, once we got it to scale, the plan was let's do a roll-up of the industry.

Eric You know, no one had ever done that in that industry before, where for about $150 to $180 million, we could own about 30% to 35% of kite sports in the world.

Jason Wow.

Eric And it's a dramatically growing industry. It's a lot of fun, and I actually believe in it. this is a thing for me. Every one of my companies I have to have passion around. Even with passion, I'm going to burn out eventually, right? Uh, unless I have strong enough boundaries, which I didn't in my first businesses.

Eric I didn't in my last businesses. This coaching business I really do. I have very set schedule. I have clean backup plans. I have different people who can manage [00:22:00] for me. All those things are still true. but I wanted to build this huge thing, and then in 2019, my marriage is falling apart. It's a year pa- after my brother passed away.

Eric All of my understanding of what I wanted in life is starting to shift, and I learned about meditation. And we were at a marriage retreat, kind of a last-ditch effort to try to see if we could save this thing. And they brought all the men into a room, and they sat us knee to knee, and they said, "All right, breathe together."

Eric Hmm. So we're breathing,

Jason and two minutes-

Eric Knee to knee. Yeah, yeah, eye to eye.

Jason Eye to eye.

Eric Two minutes in, the leader says, "Gentlemen, what you're practicing is self-control." And my whole life I was told I would be president or in prison, all I need is more self-control. But for the first time in my life, someone told me what self-control was.

Jason Hmm.

Eric And I was so angry. It's like, this is so simple. I can breathe. Everybody does that. Like, that's a pretty logical thing to do. And so I became obsessed with doing the work. it started with meditation, then breathwork, then all sorts of different somatic [00:23:00] exercises and body work. And, not only did my marriage stay together, it's thriving.

Eric Um, we're- we'll be married 17 years this year. my relationship with my kids is better than ever. So what led me to this place where I was willing to choose the hard thing was a knowledge that I don't have to live in fear, that I have the tools at my disposal to know what the possibilities are and to be at peace with them.

Eric So it's just a very different energy than I ever had in my life before. And I don't know if that fully answers your question, but that's as far as my brain got.

Jason Yeah. And when you say self-control, what was it about self-control that changed you?

Eric So I, I believe self-control is a relationship with our nervous system.

Eric Our nervous system is reflective of all the programming we've received from this life and the past ones, but mostly our programming from between the ages of two and eight years old. So we end up repeating the same patterns to try to keep ourselves in a position of feeling s- safe, because those years are so formative, and particularly if you had an unsafe childhood, it can be incredibly [00:24:00] traumatizing.

Eric When I learned that I could have a relationship with my nervous system and help it understand that I was safe, even if my body didn't feel safe, it was a unbelievable unlock.

Eric mean, th- this morning, I, I, I do functional patterns twice a week with a trainer, and it's a physical therapy and

Eric So I've broken my back twice. I've got seven broken vertebrae. I have herniated discs, and I have really bad scoliosis. And today I'm doing these really weird split squat presses, and he's adjusting my rib cage to one side and then my cervical spine to the side also to try to correct the cerv- the scoliosis as I'm doing this workout.

Eric And it used to be that when I would try to do something like that, that changed my alignment, I'd feel like I was gonna die. I would be panicking.

Eric And now it's maybe a 7 out of 10. If 10 is, I'm about to die, and it's not logical, but my nervous system is so afraid of being out of the alignment that it's been in for 20 years, 23 years, that every alarm bell goes off.

Eric And now because of the, the relationship I've built with my nervous [00:25:00] system and showing it that it can be trust- it can trust my mind, I can trust my heart, it's changed everything to be able to radically rebuild new alignments and, yeah, it's really special.

Jason Wow. So

Jason Is that like something you do during that moment where it's like your nervous system's like, "Okay, I'm shifted out of alignment." Your mind knows that it's supposed to be helping and it's freaking out. Like, is that where you do the breath, or is it because of the accumulated build?

Eric Yes, and. Yeah. Yeah.

Eric Both. But I 100% took the deep breath, not just one, but about 15 minutes of them to try to keep my nervous system as calm as it could be. And by the end, you know- are, we almost always revert back to our base level, right? And so by the very end, my body starts getting tired and my nervous system starts firing and there's like a, feels like a, a ra- a railroad spike stabs through my back at T5 and T- T4, T5 where I've- Mm

Eric crushed the two vertebra, because my whole body's just like, "Oh, this is too much. [00:26:00] It's not safe." And, you know, an hour later I'm fine, but it's, uh, it certainly is an interesting experience both physically, and it's not just physical, it's also emotional, it's also, you know, relational. those relationships that you know are triggering, that you know are challenging, whether it's your parents or employees or business partners, like, having, having the range to be able to be present with whatever is, is only by doing the reps.

Eric you can, you can get a lot of knowledge very quickly, but you can only gain wisdom with time. Yeah. And I think that to gain the body wisdom, it takes a lot of time, and I, I feel like a baby. I've been doing this eight years and I still feel like I have so much to learn.

Jason Yeah. Yeah, I was actually just talking with Hector off-camera, um, about when we were coming in here today, we were talking about, these intensives and how, um, shout out to Preston for lending us the studio.

Eric It's amazing.

Jason Um, he's got Bridge and Extreme though, and I just remember how weird it was that it was two days, and then a week in between- ... and then three [00:27:00] days, and I just thought that was so weird. I was like, but wouldn't it save more money for people if they could just fly out and just do five days in a row or something like that?"

Jason but there's a concept called spaced repetition.

Eric Yep.

Jason And for those of you who aren't familiar with it, maybe I'll add a link, but real short, it's by spacing it out, your body and your brain will keep it and learn it even better than if you were, like... it's kind of like than drinking out of, like, a fire hose of all the knowledge.

Eric Right.

Jason So if a five-day intensive versus a two and then a three, would probably embed more, and I had that experience going through the event. but sounds like similarly with each of the somatic reps that you do, right? It's that spaced repetition every single day because, no amount of knowledge can teach our nervous system what to do.

Eric No, and, and I think a huge part of what makes theirs so successful is it's really a reprogramming event.

Eric It's how do you face- So true ... every fear of your life, [00:28:00] reprogram it, then integrate that reprogramming to take the next step to the next level, right? It's why you're here. You're not here to be an attendee.

Eric You're here to be a supporter now, right? Yeah. Because that's the next level, the next level. If you look at the 12-step program, the 12 step is always give back. Any 12-step program, right? Mm-hmm. You're doing the same thing because you've hit, done the hard work to reprogram, to integrate, to reprogram at a higher level, and now to give back to those who want to go through the same experience.

Eric It's beautiful and it takes time. There is no shortcut. You can't just be like, "All right, I paid the extra 100 grand and now I got it." No. there's a lot of charlatans who tell you that you can, but it's not true.

Jason It'd be nice.

Eric I would... Oh. Only 100 grand? Yeah. It's like saying you're gonna instantly fix your marriage in one day.

Eric Nope. You're still gonna be triggered by the same exact things. You're still gonna be pushed. You're still gonna have fr- frustrations. I, I remember a couple years ago, uh, Matt Drinkinan, uh, Drinkin- Drinkinhan, uh, who's a Front Row Dad, had a challenge, and I was on this call, and he's like, "We're gonna have a no [00:29:00] yelling household."

Eric I was like, "Cool." I mean, as, as the masculine, I... The only emotion I was ever shown that you could safely share as a masculine man was anger.

Eric So it's what was patterned for me, and I was really good at it. I'm like, I'm a rockstar at angry guy.

Eric And I was like, "Cool, I'm in." I don't yell at my kids hardly at all anymore, but I'm not at 100%, and it's been years of practice.

Eric But it's largely the practice of me knowing that when they're triggered, it's an opportunity not for me to beat them, to p- to, to win-

Jason Out-trigger them ...

Eric right, but actually to sink back and to drop in and be even more engaged and loving and quietly, calmly present versus amplified. So it's, it's always...

Eric I mean, it's a learning battle. It's- Yeah ... I, I could tell you 10 stories from the last 24 hours of times where my wife or I were both like, "Okay, your turn." The kids are out of school this week, so it's a whole, it's a whole fun thing.

Jason I hear that. Yeah. Awesome, man. let me make sure we're on track and steer us on a [00:30:00] cool question.

Jason 'cause when we talked about cost, right? this is a fun question I thought, like, is there a part of your former identity that's still hard to let go of?

Eric h- part of my former li- identity that's still hard to let go of. It's the servant.

Eric It's... So my word for 2026 is to receive, because for 27 years I've built businesses and reinvested in them. I've paid myself the minimum the IRS will let me, I've taken money out of companies and put it in savings, and then put the money right back in when times are hard.

Eric I have always been available to do whatever work there is, nothing's below me, as the founder, the owner, the CEO, it didn't matter. I cleaned the bathrooms all the time. Doesn't matter, right? Mm-hmm. I wanna show that I'm not above it. And I got so much out of being the servant, out of being the guy that people looked to and said, "Wow, you're such a good giver."

Eric I mean, I've won awards for this, right? and I'd still choose to serve, but I don't choose to serve at a cost to myself.

Eric And giving that [00:31:00] up is, like, rewriting my circuitry completely because all I want to do is say yes.

Eric And even then, I mean, I had a, a new friend who asked me to dinner this week, and I'm like, "Awesome.

Eric I can see you in April." And that's a really uncomfortable place to be, but I'm writing a book, and I've got clients, and I've got travels, and I just got back from Miami, and all these things, and it's like, I could absolutely see him Friday night, like, the night's free. And it would be my nature to do that, but it would cost my relationship a lot because my wife has been home with our kids all week.

Eric It would cost what I do for me, my fun time, which is about three to four hours a day. I play games of one kind, whether it's physical or virtual, doesn't matter, I play something with myself, my kids, with my friends, and that time keeps me sane. Would take away my time to meditate, take away my time to drop in, take my way my time for intimacy.

Eric And so I literally said, told him, I was like, "I'd love to, and I'm sorry I told you Friday yesterday. I could probably see you in April."

Eric Which is really uncomfortable- Mm ... but it, it's hard to give that up because I, that, there's so much [00:32:00] beautiful dopamine-

Eric of, like, I'm the guy who's always available, 'cause for years I have been.

Eric I've been a billionaire in time, and I'm grateful for that. And also, right now, I'm in a season where I'm not.

Jason Yeah.

Eric I, I am, but I'm not using it.

Jason you are using it.

Eric Well, I'm not using it for others. How's that?

Jason So like, what about it was uncomfortable of like rescheduling to April?

Eric Letting anyone down, particularly if I have given my word to do something, feels like I'm out of integrity, and I have been on a huge push not only just to be in my integrity, but, but to be specifically in my integrity. For years I said my best year was $6 million in revenue.

Eric It wasn't. It was $5.9998 million in revenue. And I've learned that the more powerfully specific I can be with accurate statements, the better it can be. My friend Garen O'Shay shared this with me and it just hit me and I was like, "Oh, duh." You know, he's always said he was in prison for two and a half years.

Eric He was in prison for two years, I think three months or four months. [00:33:00] But he's always said two and a half years- Mm ... 'cause it's easier to say, and he's like, "But I realized I was cheating myself out of the truth."

Eric I put this in my book 'cause I think the power of that specificity is so much more dramatic than the challenge it is to stay and remain specific.

Eric And I'm dyslexic with numbers, so it's really hard for me. I get them backwards sometimes. But I've learned, like how can I show up And be really clear with my word.

Jason Yeah.

Eric Yeah.

Jason And then being clear, what do you get out of that?

Jason What do you get when you're now clear?

Eric When I'm now clear?

Jason Yeah.

Eric I think the biggest thing I get...

Eric So I gave up all my secrets in 2020. I told my wife everything I'd ever done that was wrong, that was negative, that I needed to ask forgiveness for, and I continue doing that with my friends, my family, my employees, and I became obsessed and to the point now where, like, I don't want there to be any secrets.

Eric And even then, by saying 6 million instead of 5.998, when someone does forensic accounting when they're buying my businesses, which I listed for sale last week, by the way, that's a whole nother story-

Jason Cool ...

Eric that it rings as [00:34:00] untrue. Right. And I don't want anything about me to rings untrue. I, I... If someone has a question or a problem, I want to be able to answer candidly and tell the truth.

Eric Yeah. And so by trying to shift my language into more accuracy, it relieves me of half of the, the fear of being found out.

Jason And I'm also hearing, like, alignment.

Eric Yeah.

Jason Yeah. Yeah. Like, no matter what you say, no matter what angle they look at it or they try to dissect it, it is what it is.

Eric I call it the clear and present danger rule.

Jason Clear and-

Eric Clear and present danger. Clear and present- Do you ever read Tom Clancy?

Jason I read one, like, a long time ago.

Eric I, I've read them all- Yeah ... 'cause I'm that nerd and I'm... I read at night. I read, I read fiction every night. I have for many years, and I- Okay ... I get through probably 100,000 pages a year or more.

Eric I love to read. And- Mm-hmm ... uh, clear and present danger, there's a character named Jack Ryan, who's the pri- primary character, and he's advising the president. The president's friend has just been found on a drug-filled boat, killed by the cartel, and all his advisors are, like, freaking out. Like, if they ask if you were friends, say that you met once."

Eric And Jack Ryan goes, "If they [00:35:00] ask if you're friends, just say you were lifelong friends. If they ask if you were close, just tell them that you were like brothers. take all the wind out of their sails so they can't go anywhere else." And of course, the president does this, and it just c- it's out of the, out of the news cycle in, in moments- Mm-hmm

Eric because there's no deeper eh, right? it's just the truth. And so I've been trying to follow that as much as I can, and it's... it can be really uncomfortable, especially when you talk to people about things that are intimate or vulnerable that most people don't talk about, but that's why I've surrounded myself with people who do, or I very quickly build new relationships.

Eric Yeah.

Jason Yeah. And you're quite good at that, by the way.

Eric Thank you. It's, it's been quite, quite the journey.

Jason Yeah. I don't know. Like, I'd, I'd love to go anywhere from here. and you know, we've, we've checked off the living question part. and what I'm really hearing is this, this like, this alignment, but also this trust that as you're making every single step- Each [00:36:00] event, each thing that happens around you is a rep.

Jason let's say our listeners are like, "Wow, okay. That makes total sense. I wanna start putting in the reps. I wanna start doing the work." where should they start? what should they kinda keep in mind as they're doing it?

Jason those kind of things.

Eric It's a great question. I believe that every human, particularly entrepreneurs, particularly people who are trying to bring change to the world, needs three things. The first is a, uh, mentor, which is someone who has gone where you want to go, someone who has the life you want in 10, 20, 30, 40 years.

Eric Someone you can look to as a North Star, like, "Oh, they made decisions like this." And maybe you won't make the decision exactly the same way, but you want the result they got. Right? The second is a coach. Mm-hmm. Someone who is in the work that you want to do, or has transcended to a level that you have deep respect for, and is still willing to get paid, hopefully way too much money, because it should hurt- so you actually stay accountable, right? that's a really delicate thing to talk about as a coach, because I don't want people to think I'm trying to make more money by it, but I've found that if I don't [00:37:00] pay someone so much money that it makes me, like, cringe, I just don't listen to them.

Eric I don't follow through. Yeah. My current coach gives me between I think the average is probably 13 pages of notes per hour of to-dos and things that he's gonna follow up with me on next week.

Jason Oh, wow.

Eric It's a lot. Yeah. It's a ton. And guess what? I wake up in the morning, I can't be bored. Even in my retirement,

Eric I still have things I'm doing because I'm responsible to someone who I'm paying a lot of money to, to ensure that I follow the right steps to get this book to have the result that I want it to have. And I don't care about Wall Street, New York Times, I don't care about that, but I want the book to have massive impact.

Jason Yeah.

Eric And the last piece is a community. It's a p- place where you share values with others. I mean, you and I and Hector all met through Front Row Dads.

Jason Yeah.

Eric I guess we didn't meet through Front Row Dads, but I brought you in really quickly.

Jason Yeah. I

Eric was like-

Jason You, like, kidnapped me into

Eric Front Row Dads ... I kinda did.

Eric I was like, "This is a really great community. You should be part of it." And then, like, the next, like, 24 hours later- I was like, "All right" ... he was a part of it. I was like, "All right. L- let's go." But that community piece is so important because it allows you to see that reflection o- of yourself in others. It allows you to have people, brotherhood, [00:38:00] friendships that you can actually share what you're doing or what your fears are, what your pains are, what- whatever it is, and that they give you a reflection back.

Eric But those three things I think are so crucial. And as far as where to start, man, you can start with a book. for me, when I was 18 years old, I read a book called... Or sorry, 19 years old, I read a book called Power vs. Force- ... that taught me the power of muscle testing, and taught me about different religions, taught me about all these different things that completely changed the way my mind worked.

Eric You can buy that book for, like, $8 on Amazon.

Jason Yeah.

Eric Uh, and there's hundreds of others. Good book. There's so many that, The Surrender Experiment's another phenomenal one. Mm. There's, uh, Many Lives, Many Masters. There's Sacred Contracts. There's, uh, Dare to Lead. There's, so many amazing books that get you to start thinking about things slightly differently.

Eric And I just think it's a really beautiful challenge to start to consider what- What truths remain true in our soul as we age? So hopefully my book will be one of those books. I don't have a title yet, but it should be out October,

Jason Yeah. Awesome. And for those who wanna, like, find out more about you, where can they find [00:39:00] you?

Eric Yeah, I'm on ericfarewell.com, E-R-I-C F-A-R-E-W-E-L-L. I believe I'm the only Eric Farewell in the world, uh, which is kind of-

Jason That's cool ...

Eric awesome. Yeah. So pretty easy to find. I'm also on all the socials, LinkedIn, everywhere else, and I do write. I write for my socials. I post every couple of weeks, and it's just, generally it's a lesson I've learned recently, and I love to share them because by revisiting them and having to write it out, I usually learn way more than I did in the moment.

Jason That's for sure. Yeah. I just started writing myself, and it's this constant process of as I write it, it almost like I y- I get to squeeze more juice out of that event. Yeah. And then I try to... Then I have to make it make sense, that someone else could read it- Yeah ... and also kind of hear what I got, and it's, like, such a different experience.

Eric 100%, and it's really special. It's like that's... They say that it's... Our kids' school banned AI.

Eric Not the teachers, the students. Up until high school. They actually teach the high schoolers how to use AI purposefully, but up to high school they, they, they s- the kids voted and banned AI because they said [00:40:00] that they learned the most by writing out their thoughts.

Jason And

Eric I thought that was really fascinating and also a little frustrating, 'cause I love AI. I don't use it for any of my writing, but I use it for everything else. Like, it's phenomenal, and my kids are using it for everything else, as long as it's not at school 'cause they can get in trouble for that.

Jason Makes sense.

Eric Yeah.

Jason Yeah. That's incredible. Eric, I've really loved this time. I feel like we could talk about 1,000 other things, 1,000 other events. we'll definitely do another one at some point.

Eric I look forward to it.

Jason Uh, but thank you for coming.

Eric Truly my honor, man.

Jason And it's an honor for me, too.

Eric I'm excited to see you on this journey as you've learned to lean in to what's truest for you and where you're meant to go. I've witnessed your purpose play pinball for two years, and it feels like you've finally found resolve that's so beautiful for you.

Eric It feels at peace. So congratulations.

Jason In the pocket.

Eric You're doing the thing.

Jason Yes. Thank you, brother.

Eric Thank you.