Build Mental Strength! The GRIT System Transforming People Everywhere | Ep 062

➡️ In this powerful episode of Gurus and Game Changers, we sit down with WORLDWIDE STEVIE® Award Winner Lara Jones, crowned "Woman of the Year," "Female Entrepreneur of the Year," and "Best Female Thought Leader" for her revolutionary Global G.R.I.T. System™. From losing her youngest son and nearly her own life to building a global empire that serves Fortune 100 companies, Lara's story is a masterclass in resilience.

As the founder of Be A Legend and G.R.I.T. Global™, Lara has transformed organizations including Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, KPMG, and the US military through her groundbreaking approach to performance and leadership. Her new book "Hunt or Be Hunted" reveals the four-pillar framework that's making her one of the most requested speakers on grit worldwide.

➡️  Learn:

 - The 4 types of GRIT and how to identify yours
 - The missing link between fear and growth that most leadership programs ignore
 - How to rewire your brain for success using the 54321 technique
 - The neuroscience behind turning trauma into triumph

➡️ Chapters
00:00 - Introducing the Force of Nature: Lara Jones
04:06 - From UK Success to US Homelessness: A Raw Immigration Story
06:00 - 8 Seconds from Death: The Night That Changed Everything
11:22 - The GRIT System Revealed: A Masterclass in Resilience
20:16 - Understanding Your GRIT Type: The 4 Elements Explained
21:39 - Breaking the Comfort Zone: Why Most Leadership Programs Fail
31:31 - What's Next for the "Female Tony Robbins"


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Stacey: https://www.instagram.com/staceymgrant/
Mark: https://www.instagram.com/mark_lubragge_onair/

➡️ More about the guest:  Lara Jones
Website: https://larajones.com/
Book: Hunt or Be Hunted: How Anyone Can Develop Grit and Lead Like a Legend https://larajones.com/book/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officiallarajones
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larawylesjones/

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➡️ Thanks for watching:
#GRITSystem #GritMindset #ResilienceTips #MentalToughness #EmotionalIntelligence
#LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveCoaching #CorporateTraining #BusinessGrowth #Fortune100
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Transcript

00:00 - Stacey (Host)
She was a ball of fire, that's all I can say. Like she was shot out of a cannon, like fantastic. 

00:06 - Mark (Host)
Thousand miles an hour. Thousand miles an hour Positive energy. 

00:09 - Stacey (Host)
Positive energy. I learned so much from her Someone who went through such a horrifying ordeal. 

00:15 - Mark (Host)
Terrible. 

00:16 - Stacey (Host)
To turn her life around and now be so inspiring. 

00:21 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, I don't even want to relive the story. I know it's hard to hear I mean imagine going through it but what she has done it's about her own mindset, right, it's about how she views life reframing yeah, which is one of her, one of the letters of the acronym GRIT, which is what she the GRIT system, the global GRIT system, about developing GRIT, and it's not. 

00:43 - Stacey (Host)
It is GRIT which is what she the GRIT system. 

00:44 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, the GRIT system, the Global GRIT system Global. Grit. It's about developing grit, and it's not. It is grit like we all know the term, grit and intestinal fortitude, that type of thing but it's so much more when she lays out what her GRIT system is. 

00:58 - Stacey (Host)
And she does, she does In this podcast Pull out a whiteboard, she Pull out a whiteboard. 

01:01 - Mark (Host)
She was great, she was like I'm doing a whole seminar on this. Yes, you are. 

01:04 - Stacey (Host)
There's a master class. You will learn her system in this podcast. This is one of the most actionable podcasts we've ever done. I agree with that. 

01:12 - Mark (Host)
It was almost like we were in the presence of a really good instructor. This is a good one to watch on YouTube if you can. 

01:17 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, you should definitely watch this on YouTube. I mean listen to it and then watch it, yeah. 

01:22 - Mark (Host)
I mean, she literally puts on a whole seminar on her global grit system Plus she's beautiful, she's smart, she's you know, she has it all. 

01:31 - Stacey (Host)
She has it all, but she also believes in working with other people and really that other people are the most important thing. 

01:38 - Mark (Host)
Yeah About giving it back. Yeah, giving it back to help others develop their own grit system and to live a better life. At the end of the day, to lead them. 

01:46 - Stacey (Host)
Worked with huge, huge companies Amazon, Wells Fargo. She's worked with them to raise their leaders up. 

01:52 - Mark (Host)
Which one Northwest Mutual A lot of Fortune 100s. I think I say it in the intro yeah, celebrities, she worked with the military, people that need to perform at a higher level, or work with the military and people that need to perform at a higher level or or benefit from performing at the highest level. The highest level. That's who she, that's who they call her I believe it. 

02:10
I do too, I believe it because it's like right out of the gate, boom, we are on she's been compared to like the female tony robbins, and I totally agree. I got that same same energy level and and she's my new best friend to help, I think she might be my best friend i'mire to help. 

02:22 - Lara Jones (Guest)
She might be my new best friend. 

02:22 - Mark (Host)
Did you get a text, did you? 

02:23 - Stacey (Host)
get a text. I'm going to go see. We exchanged phone numbers. 

02:26 - Mark (Host)
I love her. Well, you're all going to love her as well. Please enjoy the creator of the global grit system, Lara Jones. I said it that way to make sure she's happy. I'm calling her Lara, so Lara, if you're listening. 

02:42 - Stacey (Host)
No you, no you in this name. 

02:44 - Mark (Host)
L-A-R-A. 

02:44 - Stacey (Host)
L-A-R-A we love her, Lara Jones. 

02:50 - Mark (Host)
Enjoy. Hi, I'm Stacey and I am Mark, and this is the Gurus and Game Changers podcast. Welcome everybody. So today we're going to talk about grit, right? What is grit? It's that hard to define thing that you can spot in other people. It's what gets them out of bed in the morning when they are exhausted and want to put things off. It's what makes you make that phone call or take care of that thing on your to-do list when everything is telling you to just not. It's this internal motivator. Well, who better to talk about grit and leadership that comes with it than our very own Lara Jones joining us? She's a world-renowned, award-winning grit and leadership performance expert and speaker and creator of what is known as the Global Grit System. Welcome to the show. 

03:38 - Lara Jones (Guest)
Well, thank you so much for having me on the show. I really appreciate you sharing your audience with me. I'm super excited to talk about everything related to grit. I mean, whenever someone says that word I'm like let's go, Game on, Game on, exactly. 

03:52 - Stacey (Host)
You were born and raised in the UK, right? Yes, that's correct, and you left the country with nothing, and then you came over here to start in a brand new country. So tell us, like, what made you do that? Oh my gosh, how long do we have? 

04:06 - Lara Jones (Guest)
There's many reasons why I left the UK to come to the US, but one of the biggest things is I've gone through a lot of trauma right Over in the UK. I talk a little bit about it in chapter two of the book, but I've gone through quite a bit over there. But I was actually a very successful sales director director. However, the majority of the people over there in England and I'm sorry to say this to my fellow British people, but very fixed mindsets and I kept hearing all the time well, that person's only successful because they're lucky. Like what, like, what Like has nothing to do with it, right? Maybe sometimes being in the right place at the right time is, you know, it's helpful? Right, of course it is. 

04:45
But if you don't have strategies and tools to know how to get you to where you wanna be, you're just gonna remain stuck. You have to change your perception. You have to change your outlook, your attitude. I thought I am gonna take it upon myself to show them what you really can do and I just decided one day, that was it. I wanted to up and leave. I wanted to be a lion, and the best way to be a lion is to train with them and that was why I decided to up and leave. 

05:12
And actually, when I came here I didn't have a social security number, so I couldn't go and work for anybody and I started my own business. But there was a period of time I couldn't even eat for three days because I didn't have the money to. I was homeless at one point, had to sleep on people's couches and I just never, ever wanted to give up, no matter the hardship that I was putting myself through. I knew I just I kept on to the one thing that many people give up on themselves, and that's the belief. I work with a lot of teams, a lot of companies, do a lot work with a lot of corporations and I help them with this. But how do you instill that belief to learn in the way that they want to? 

05:49 - Stacey (Host)
There was a time I think it was three or four years ago when you had said that there was eight seconds before you might flatline. You were in a very serious predicament. 

06:00 - Lara Jones (Guest)
Yeah, I'll share the story. So actually I didn't want to become the expert in grit. I'm going to just be fully honest here, right? This is not something that I set out a desire to be like, oh, I'm going to be the expert on grit and tell these, you know really sad stories and all of this stuff. It's here's the real deal. I kind of got to a point in my life where I'm making it, you know, out in America. I've kind of proved myself with the American dream. I've proved that you can do anything with nothing. I literally I mean it's the whole immigrant story right Of absolutely nothing in my pockets, and I built something from scratch. Three years ago is when I kind of thought to myself okay, well, you know, maybe I don't have to focus so much on the grit element anymore, because I've proven to people what's possible. Big mistake, big mistake. 

06:45
So three years ago, unfortunately, the unthinkable happened and that's when my global grid system actually started to develop, from something, from the most tragic event that had ever happened in my life and my youngest son passed away and I nearly lost my life the very same night, and I remember it vividly. I was rushed to hospital. I remember the sirens going off. I remember the flashing lights. My son was next to me He'd already died and I was at the hospital and they hooked me up to all these machines. My blood pressure plummeted. All I remember is the nurses screaming down the hallway saying emergency blood transfusion, emergency blood transfusion. I see a crash cart being pulled in and I'm like this isn't good and I was told afterwards, but I had about eight seconds before I was about to flatline. In that very moment I said to myself okay, larry, you've got two choices One, you accept it and you die. Two you accept it. You're probably going to die, but you have to trust they're going to bring you back. And in order for me to create that belief that I could be brought back because I was like somehow, subconsciously, I was going to have to create that I said, okay, what's the last thing you want to see before you die? And I said my living children. 

07:54
So I use a technique on myself that I teach to so many other people, called the 54321 technique, and I said, okay, what's the five things you can see, what's the four things you can hear, what's the three things you can feel, two things you can taste and one thing that you can smell. And, as I did that technique, it helped save my life, because what it did was it slowed my heart rate down and now my body did not have enough blood for my heart to pump around, and that's I was. My organs were shutting down one by one During this transit, like this period of time of me doing this technique and slowing my heart rate down. It actually allowed the doctors it gave them more time to figure out how to get the 16 gauge needle into my collapsed veins with the blood. That saved my life and um, so they were able to do that. I was whisked off into surgery and then my life was saved. 

08:40
But a lot of people do not talk about the aftermath, and let me tell you the first thing that I was asked when I woke up from that was do you want to have your son buried or cremated? Uh, here's a death certificate you have to fill in. Um, it was. It was horrific, it was horrific. And then they said well, which funeral directors do you want to use because we have to transport his body? Mind-blowing, right, mind-blowing. But these people are dealing out of logic. There's no emotion attached to it, because it didn't. You know they have to kind of switch off from that. 

09:08
But at the same time, here I was complete mess. I'd only just woken up from surgery. I nearly died just a few hours earlier and my son had already passed. So now I'm left to deal with the aftermath. So I came back home with no child and I had to tell um, my living kids, why their baby brother was no more. They were very little, they were only two and a half and one um. 

09:34
And during that time period I remember saying to myself oh my gosh, lara, you are a leader of a company, you are a leader for your kids. My ex-husband didn't work, so I was supporting him as well, I was just supporting everybody. And now I had to do it on top of having double trauma and grief. I thought, how, how the heck am I going to do this? How, how? Nobody would have blamed me if I'd given up Nobody. 

09:59
But four months went by and I was kind of in a very dark space. I felt like I was drowning every day. To be honest, even getting out of bed, that's a win, you know. Just even taking a shower, that was a win for me. But I remember, four months later I remember this vividly because it was January 2022, and it was a Monday and I remember walking into, I woke up in Jack's room that's my son. 

10:18
That passed. 

10:18
I woke up in his room and I walked into the bathroom and I remember there was a window behind me here and there was a mirror in front and the sun was just streaming through the window and it bounced onto the mirror and onto my face and it was like a light bulb just going off. And I suddenly said to myself Lara, you got to wake up today. Your son did not. You get to feel the sun on your skin today. Your son does not Stop making this about you. 

10:42
This isn't about you. This is about others. What are you going to do with all that pain, that grief, that trauma, and how are you going to use it as a fuel to help empower others? And I thought to myself well, in order to do that, I first of all have to understand how have I what I like to say grit through the past four months. In fact, how have I grit through all of my prior traumas? And it was then that I discovered my global grit system. But during those four particular months, I mean, what was my choice. You know, I either sink and everybody suffers, or I have to somehow kind of come up for air every now and then and be like, okay, I've got this, I've got this, I've got this. A little whiteboard here. 

11:22 - Mark (Host)
Oh good, let's see. 

11:23 - Lara Jones (Guest)
Well, I'm a visual person, you know. So it's like, yeah, I like to show people from a visual perspective. If there's nothing you can throw at me that I'm going to be like, okay, I'm not going to do that. No, no, you throw a challenge at Lara Jones. She's on it like I'll work to be the best at whatever it is I have to do, because I'm very competitive. I'm a competitive athlete as well, and so that's that's kind of inbuilt in me. But I am a get it done person. 

11:47
But I realized that I this was hindering me with my situation, with trying to move through this pain, because it was, it was kind of killing me, because the get it done is almost like, okay, brush it off, I'm a solution. It's not a problem person. But my solution to this was I wanted to bring my son back. That wasn't going to happen, right, so I had to find a different solution. I had to be creative around it, and so that's when I realized that, instead of just getting things done, I had had to reframe how I think about the situation. So, instead of saying, look what happened to me, I'd say, look what revealed me. Instead of saying, look what was taken from me, I'd say look what was given to me. 

12:21
And when you change certain words, a negative in a sentence, into positive, mean that you actually have a physiological response and it alters your brain chemistry. And when you alter your brain chemistry, that's when you're able to start rewiring your brain. But it has to be consistent. You've got to create it like a habit. So I kept doing this over and over and over, and a lot of people don't realize this. And again, I talk about it in the book. But 80 of your thoughts are negative and 90 are repetitive. So that means oh yeah. So it means even today, like you guys have had negative thoughts and you're putting in a bit like no, I'm a happy, positive person, I don't have positive all day. That's, that's bull, right, because you do, you do you have negative thoughts. 

12:58 - Stacey (Host)
That's a negative. 

12:59 - Lara Jones (Guest)
Wait a minute I'm just talking facts. But you do. You have negative thoughts that run through your head a lot. Okay, the reason they keep repeating is because you're not dealing with them in the correct way. When you have negative thoughts, that thoughts that come into your head, you just immediately try to just push it away and it's like I'm not going to deal with that. In fact, a lot of get it done. People do that. They just push it away. Well, that's actually the wrong way of dealing with it, because it's just going to come back and bite you harder. So the actual way you should deal with it is uncomfortable. 

13:25
But you you sit with it for a minute and you say to yourself how is this serving me? Like, is this serving me? And if you say no, you put it in a box, you put it on a shelf. But what you've just allowed your brain to do is free up memory. So now it's happy because you've processed it and it knows it can tap into it if it has to. But now you've just freed up memory for the positive uh thoughts to come into your brain. And so this is what I was doing and I was reframing how I thought about the situation and I suddenly said, but if I'm able to get it done and reframe how, I think I'm going to be able to impact others in a very positive way. 

14:04
Because remember what I said it's not about you, it's about others. I don't care if you're a leader or not. It's's not about you, it never is, it's about others. I cannot drill that in hard enough, because the more that you make it about other people and stop focusing just on me, me, me, the whole game changes. Don't focus on money, you focus on relationships. You focus on the time that you spend with people. That is more critical to me than anything else in this world. 

14:32
Why? Because I nearly died. I'm grateful every day I get to breathe the air that we breathe. I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to see things that I get to see, you know. I'm grateful that my kids get to experience life with me. I'm grateful that I get to experience life itself. It's so important to understand that it's not about you, it's about others, and that's when you realize that you have to take responsibility. Right, it is your responsibility and you've got to take ownership of every action you do, or inaction. And so what have I just felt here? Grit, exactly. So then I did I. Suddenly I was like, oh my gosh, I've just discovered the four elements of grit. And I was like, oh, I can talk about it now, like this is what we're talking about. 

15:15 - Mark (Host)
Clearly the mindset you're saying people need to have. You have right. I don't know if you were born with it or it was a just a fundamental decision at some point. You made the decision I'm going to have a growth mindset. That's hard for people, right, and it's more of an evolution for some people to go through some things to develop. That mindset Was yours. Like a binary on-off switch Can people make? That choice when they wake up in the morning. 

15:42 - Lara Jones (Guest)
The answer is yes, you can absolutely make that choice and that decision. Everybody has grit, right. Every single person has grit, and there's going to be people saying what are you talking about? No, they don't I know plenty of people that they do. 

15:54
They do. They just have different levels of it, and you have to learn how to tap into that, because grit is a muscle, right so it's. Let me tell you when you're a baby, you learn how to crawl, how to walk, how to talk, and you fall down so many times you don't remember, but you keep getting back up. Why? Because it's ingrained in you, okay, so what's the difference between that and into adulthood, where now you've obviously got lots of different people that have a different approach when it comes to trying harder or doing things differently. 

16:25 - Mark (Host)
Hey guys, thanks for listening. If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review, give us a follow, subscribe, subscribe all those things, all those things. We love it because we read each and every comment and it helps shape the show, so we would appreciate it please, and back to the show what happened between them being a baby and doing this and everybody having it instilled in them to who they are today. 

16:48 - Lara Jones (Guest)
what is that? The environment, right. Remember what I said about the, the motivation influencing how you think that that's actually a whole process, but it's the environment, right. So the environment is so crucial and critical. That's why you should surround yourself with people that are better than you, that have done more than you, that you want to inspire to be. It's having the discipline, because you have a greater goal, right, and that greater goal is something that that you want to always keep on your target. Now, where people fail is they get bored, right. They get bored of repetition, and so they think, oh, I just I want to rebel, I want to do something different, and that's okay from time to time if you want to do that, but here's the signs of someone that's going to be really successful you stay disciplined at what it is you're trying to do? 

17:31 - Stacey (Host)
What exactly is a lion? How would you describe that to people who are like oh, what is she saying? Why, okay? 

17:38 - Lara Jones (Guest)
well, actually I like to refer to myself as a lioness, okay, and this is because lionesses are the hunters. And what's the name of my book? 

17:46 - Stacey (Host)
hunt or be hunted? That was the other question I had. 

17:48 - Lara Jones (Guest)
That was question b okay, well, I'm answering all your questions without you asking them, isn't it? It's great, isn't it All right? So the lioness is the hunter. If a lioness went out to go hunt and it misses its kill, do you think it's going to come back with its tail between its legs and say, oh man, I suck, sorry, like to its cubs. Oh, you's going to go back out there 50 times if it has to, right, just to make that kill, because that's its mission, that's its focus, that's its grit, right? It knows it has to feed its family. That hunter out there, that lioness, is not going to allow the competition to get its meat. This is why I relate this to corporations and teams and even individuals and whoever else you know I've worked with. But are you the hunter or the hunted? 

18:35
And often when I ask the audience, I say how many of you think of yourselves as the hunter? And I see a few hands go up and I say how many of you think of being hunted? I see another few hands go up and then I'm like well, majority of the room didn't put their hand up. So I said how many of you don't know? And then everybody else's hands show up. And that's when I said well, I'll tell you that the ones that don't know you're actually being hunted, because the hunters already know they have that mentality, because they live and breathe it every single day. In fact, they don't even have to think about it anymore because it forms part of their habits, and that's just. That's the difference between somebody that wants something and somebody that actually does something about it. Right, you can want it, but if you don't execute and take action, then it's just words, it's just a dream, it's just intention. Well, the world can be built on good intentions, but if you don't take the action and execute on it, I don't wanna know. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. So I said we do hard things not because we want to know. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. So I said we do hard things not because we want to, but because it's the right thing. 

19:36
So when we do have challenges and hard times that hit us, we're better equipped to handle them, because our brain is literally wired to be like oh, I remember this in this particular scene, oh, I know what to do here, and we become more hardwired into just, not just every day. It doesn't have to be physical, right. It can be something that I have a really tough time expressing my feelings on this, or I have a really tough time communicating my opinion on this, or I'm having a tough time carrying out this project, or whatever it may be. Okay, you've acknowledged that you've had a hard time. Now what are you going to do about it? 

20:16
It's not enough just to talk about grit, because that's like dangling a carrot in front of someone and saying you know what, if you want to do well in life, you got to have grit. But how do you develop it? Oh, I don't know, like no. So I developed an assessment called the grit type indicator, which, um, um, basically assess how much of it on a grit scale, um, of a go-getter, a reframer, an innovator and a trustworthy titan you are. So they all stand for something, as I just said. So you've got've got go-getter, you've got reframer, you've got innovator and you've got trustworthy titan. It's like I'm giving a little masterclass this class here, isn't it? 

20:47 - Mark (Host)
I love this. 

20:48 - Lara Jones (Guest)
I mean my gosh. I'm doing a little mini workshop. Look at that. But you've got the four different types of grit. So now I was like, oh, I've just created the belief in people that everybody has grit, so you can do anything in life as long as you understand that you do have grit. So now I've got the four elements, I've got the four types. How do I now put that into a process which helps people understand the growth? Because this is why I'm hired right. 

21:13
This is why I'm hired a lot to not just speak but give workshops and programs and so forth all across the country and internationally, is people want me to help with their performance. They want to say, okay, can you please help our people perform at a better rate or better or a higher? Um, you know purpose or whatever it may be. We just we need, we need to pull what we know is in them, we need to pull that out of them and we need to have them have growth. Well, we have to start at the bottom because, um most people, they will start in comfort. Why? 

21:39
because, it's comfortable. Basically, it's what they know, right, and their brains are actually doing the one thing that they're supposed to do, and that is protect them. So they're like, no, you're going to stay in comfort, you're going to stay in comfort, okay. So then I say to them what's on the other side of comfort fear, right yeah and then I say what's on the other side of fear? 

21:59
and they say growth? And I say I say no, it's not. So there's a great big gap, it's missing. What's missing and I said this is why most leadership programs, most sales programs, most any other type of program that you're trying to do, it will fail if you don't apply, do the practical. So this is called the learning zone and I'm going to come back to that in a minute. But how do we get out of comfort and get into fear? Well, I'll tell you not trying to put you on the spot, I'm just going to tell you we pull from the g and grit and we have to get things done right. We've got to have that. Go, get an attitude. We just got to get it done, take action and so on. Actually, it's very easy for me to teach people that what's really difficult is when they're now in their fear. They're like well, now what do I do? 

22:38 - Mark (Host)
because now I'm in this fear zone, and then people get scared. 

22:40 - Lara Jones (Guest)
Yeah, they're scared, and so if they don't have the right tools or strategies to get out of fear and into learning, they end up going back to comfort or they freeze or they're like oh, I'm just going to grind it out, because that's the type of person I am, I'm just going to grind, grind, grind. But again, without the right tools or without the right strategies, they can't get out of fear and get into learning. So what happens is they grind it out, their stress levels increase, their anxiety levels increase. That leads to burnout. Burnout leads to poor performance, and poor performance leads to getting you fired or you're going to leave. Not good for anyone, because now the company has a recruitment and retention issue and now the individual has low self worth, low self esteem, and they end up back in comfort. Anyway, it's just, it's not good at all. 

23:21
So how do we get out of fear and get into learning? Arguably the most difficult, the one I've just been talking about. But you've got to pull from the r and grit. You've got to be able to reframe how you think about the situation, because grit, grit is not about running away from the situation, it's about changing your perspective in the midst of the situation, and that's tough for people when they're in the midst of it, right, when they're in those challenges at that time. So if you can master that reframing how you think and you're in the learning zone, once you're in the learning zone, you need to make sure you spend long enough in here for it to become a habit, so then you can carry out the tasks which allow you to achieve the goal. But if you spend too long in here which, by the way, my reframe is are notorious for because they have a fear of imperfection, right? Um and so if you spend too long in learning, then it's like reading a really good book, putting it on the shelf and it collects dust and you don't do anything with it. What good is that? You're not executing. You're not executing, you're just a dreamer, right? 

24:23
So therefore, how do you get out of learning and get into growth? You have to pull from the iron grip. You've got to be able to impact others through innovation, because if you can innovate your way out of a challenge, it doesn't become a challenge anymore, it becomes an opportunity. And that is where the tea then comes in, because once you're in growth, now you have to take responsibility to start this whole process again and where your new growth level, just happens, has just become your new comfort level, and the process goes on and on, and on, and on. So, in a nutshell, this is why the global grit system is so incredibly impactful for people, and it's because of that. But I say to people look, it's not about it, doesn't matter where you are in this. It matters that you are aware of where you are, because once you are aware of it, you now can see oh, this is how I can get out of it by applying this particular skill set. So that is how the global grit system came to be born. 

25:17 - Mark (Host)
I mean it's really good in its simplicity, right. It's a very simple, straightforward structure that is so deep. Like you said, each letter is deep and there's a lot of meaning behind each one, but I like what you just said. It's not. The important part is knowing, being aware of where you are, which means you put a little bit of thought into it, which lets you do a self-assessment to determine what's my next step, because if you're not doing that, you're just you're floating. You could be floating in fear, you could be floating in comfort. 

25:44
You could be floating anywhere and there's no direction. 

25:46 - Lara Jones (Guest)
You're just out and most people actually do float in that fear, because there's three different fears that I talk about, but it's fear of failure, fear of imperfection and fear of the unknown, and every single person that I speak to can see themselves in one of them. Right, there's not really, it's not human to be not fearful. Right, we all have fear in us and that's okay. I think some people see fear as a weakness. Fear is not a weakness. Fear is actually ingrained in us and it's healthy for us. How do we approach that fear and rewire our brain so it understands that fear is now not fear, it's part of our growth? 

26:24 - Stacey (Host)
When you are coaching these teams, what do you see the most of? Where are people the most? Are they in the comfort zone? Are they in the fear zone? 

26:29 - Lara Jones (Guest)
are they like, are they are they growing like what it's a good question. 

26:32
It's a mixture. Actually. It's a mixture and a lot of it also depends on their grit type and my grit assessment is not a personality assessment. It's kind of like the disc assessment, but in grit like the myers-briggs, but in grit it's not. Um, it's not a personality assessment. It will assess how gritty you are in certain situations when, um, certain bad things hit the band right and um, you've got the adversity and you've got all these different things happening. You've got to make sure that you know how you're going to deal with it. Like, if you understand which grit type more dominant grit type you are, you also can learn. Okay, I need this grit type in this particular scenario. 

27:05
Across the board I've seen quite an even split, if I'm honest, like I see some people will admit they're already in growth. Some people get stuck in learning, some people get stuck in the fear and then you've got others that are stuck in the comfort and oftentimes you know, I asked them I'm like well, why do you think that is? And it's because they don't know. Like they don't have the tools to get out of it. No one's ever developed it in them, because they didn't think that it can be developed. 

27:30
Grit can be taught and it is applicable like to anybody, and you can, but you do have to want it right. You can't just do it and not want it. You have to want it. You have to have that desire and that passion to wanna change and to wanna grow. And now I come across people that actually want to change and put themselves in environments to change, but they lack the discipline to follow through with it. And then you've got others that have the discipline and will follow through on things, but they don't necessarily put themselves in the right environment. So it's like you've gotta have both right. And that's why I left the country england to come to the us, changed my environment and I had that resilience and that grit to follow through, even on the days I couldn't eat, even on the days that I was homeless so I would imagine that different roles within a company would attract different grit types right, so salesforce absolutely that person? 

28:17 - Mark (Host)
yes, probably not living in comfort, because that's not a comfortable role no but. 

28:22 - Lara Jones (Guest)
But you'll be amazed at how many actually run back to comfort. 

28:25
So you say that but they love the fear, but then they run back to comfort and that's why then they don't hit their targets Right or they start burning out, because they remember what I said earlier about them grinding Like. I see that a lot in sales. It's an amazing, amazing tool. My reframe is very, very talented and good at what they do. They just need to speed up a little bit. Okay, I'm just saying, all right, wonderful people, really good at their thinking. My goodness, are they slow at making their decisions? Yeah, and they and they. They don't like to finish things because, um, they have this fear of imperfection. So I love my reframers, but I'm just saying you need a bit of g in you. 

29:02 - Mark (Host)
You need, you need us, you need the g's to like speed the process up everybody needs the g kick him out the back side, exactly, you just do I've always been fascinated by the whole notion of grit and I can't wait to actually take the assessment. Yeah, I'm doing it. 

29:15 - Lara Jones (Guest)
Yeah, I want to know what a good type you are for sure I I think, I think that you might be, I feel like Stacey might be an. I just from getting to know you a little bit, I think that you might be innovator. I think you might be a reframer Maybe you might even be a trustworthy Titan, but you might be a reframer. 

29:38 - Stacey (Host)
I think You're definitely a reframer. You reframe everything to the positive. That is so true. 

29:47 - Mark (Host)
Is that what that means, though? I mean mean, I have a positive outlook, but I also get up and go. Yeah, but challenge where to? 

29:50 - Lara Jones (Guest)
come your yeah, yeah, and I think are you. I would say you're more, uh, like, a logical thinker than you are, like with your emotions you know. 

29:57 - Mark (Host)
so, um, yeah, yeah, you're, you're. So yeah, I don't know, you're not as I want to find out. 

30:04 - Lara Jones (Guest)
I'm just calling you out now like live on this, I love it I would say you're non-assertive, like you're not as assertive as Stacey. 

30:10 - Mark (Host)
Stacey's more assertive Like a little direct. 

30:12 - Lara Jones (Guest)
I'm sorry. 

30:14 - Mark (Host)
I'm just Well. The second half of that is 100% correct. Stacey's very assertive. 

30:28 - Stacey (Host)
My, my prediction is that you are a reframer and that you are an innovator. 

30:30 - Lara Jones (Guest)
Stacy, I think I'm coming to arizona and we're hanging out. Yes, let's do it. I just want to hang out with you. This is like you, literally like like I, could you just lift, lift up people, and it's just so fantastic and um thank you. I just love life. 

30:37 - Stacey (Host)
Fireball, you're like a fireball it's phenomenal and I just could talk to you all day and I don't even know I have no more questions, though I mean you've answered everything who needs the questions. Throw the questions out the window. 

30:48 - Mark (Host)
So what is next? 

30:50 - Stacey (Host)
Yes, what else are you going to do? What is next? What's on the horizon? Good question. 

30:54 - Lara Jones (Guest)
What is next in the life of Zara Jones? I mean, every single day is a mystery to even me. You know, I wake up and something different happens that day. Okay, a lot of big things on the horizon. Obviously, I've been making a name for myself out there. Whenever people think of grit, they think of Lara Jones. When they think of Lara Jones, they think of grit, which is great. I've been building a huge platform on LinkedIn and Instagram. So anybody out there listening, if you want to follow me, my Instagram is at official lara jones oh, you did, and it's lara. By the way, there is no you in my name. In fact, let's just show the book, because I want people to realize I want to show it to them. 

31:31
This is how you spell the name, lara. No, you okay. A lot of big things happening on horizon. Obviously, the grit type indicator is going to be coming out and, um, basically, watch this space. You know, a lot of people have messaged me lately saying you're like the, the female version of Tony Robbins. 

31:47
The reason I want to be known for this is because I'm tired of people telling me that they either have grit or they don't, and so when a really crappy situation occurs, people will take their own life because of it, and I'm here to change lives and also save them. Um, I know what that's like to not want to be here and I will tell you that that's not a solution. Yeah, that's not a solution. So, um, there is always a solution. I lost my son and nearly my life. 

32:14
A lot of people don't come back from that. I have I'm living proof that anything is possible. You just got to have the belief and the faith in yourself that you can do it, because the moment you lose that belief and I don't care who around you is telling you you can't there is no such word as can't I tell my kids that all the time, but if anybody around you doesn't believe in you. Cut them loose. I'm dead serious. Just do it Like, just get it done, seriously, done Seriously. This, the G in grit, get it done. Why? Why? 

32:42
People say, well, I'm scared, I'm scared of failure. Well, everybody's scared of failure. But if we're scared of failure, that's a good thing. It means that once you've done it, even if you fail, you get back up. Do you think I did everything great the first time? Absolutely not, absolutely not. But that's what makes me who I am today. That's what makes me a better person. I am who I am today because of my failures, and I'm proud that I just kept getting back up and doing it again and again and again, and I've got more. 

33:06 - Mark (Host)
We don't have time on the podcast to go over it, but I have so many stories. 

33:11 - Lara Jones (Guest)
We have to do a part two and maybe a part three. 

33:13 - Mark (Host)
I'm telling you in fact you guys should just come out and just follow me around for a day. 

33:17 - Lara Jones (Guest)
We should just do a little like documentary on it. It would be so much fun. Seriously, don't say that because we'll do it. 

33:23 - Stacey (Host)
Maybe that's what's next. 

33:24 - Mark (Host)
That's what's next it's been announced right here, live. It's announced right here. 

33:28 - Lara Jones (Guest)
You heard today I love that documentary on grit development with lara jones oh, there we go. 

33:35 - Stacey (Host)
Yes, okay, there you go. Oh, my god, I love you. You're fantastic, amazing. Um well, you guys are fantastic, great to work with you. 

33:43 - Mark (Host)
Thank you. It was great having you on the show. It was great having you on the show. 

33:45 - Lara Jones (Guest)
It's been awesome, oh it was amazing to be on the show. Thank you so much. I can't wait to come back. Thank you. 

33:50 - Mark (Host)
And we'll do it in the studio next time. 

33:51 - Lara Jones (Guest)
I'm so glad we were able to make this happen. 

33:59 - Stacey (Host)
You're still here. You're still listening. Thanks for listening to the Gurus and Game Changers podcast While you're here. If you enjoyed it, please take a minute to rate this episode and leave us a quick review. We want to know what you thought of the show and what you took from it and how it might have helped you. We read and appreciate every comment. Thanks, See you next week.