Be Real, Be Raw, Be Free | Grow With Kepo Ep. 19

Are you actually stuck… or just avoiding the truth?

In this solo episode of Grow with Kepo, host Kepo dives deep into the uncomfortable but necessary work of being real with yourself. From the quiet lies we tell ourselves to the hard truths that set us free, Kepo shares the exact mindset shifts that transformed his life and business. This episode is a soul shake-up for high achievers who are tired of the cycles, tired of the excuses, and finally ready to take bold, aligned action. Vulnerability is not a weakness. It’s the start of everything you want.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• You’re not lazy, you’re misaligned
• The first step to change is radical honesty with yourself
• Blaming external factors keeps you stuck
• No one is coming to save you
• Easy solutions are illusions
• You need a strategy that honors the difficulty
• Building while working a 9–5 is hard, but possible
• You must train your disciplinarian self
• Vulnerability builds connection and attracts support
• Asking for help is a strength, not a weakness

BEST MOMENTS:

00:03:13. “You are where you are because of you. And that should be good news.”
00:06:38. “All this time you have been looking for an easy way out.”
00:08:48. “Your next chapter isn’t going to start itself.”
00:11:05. “This thing is so hard it eats you up, chews you up and spits you out.”
00:13:20. “You are lying to yourself and cheating yourself out of the beautiful life you can have.”
00:15:23. “You need to recognize the season you are in right now.”
00:22:11. “Have you sold them on your vision yet?”
00:25:46. “There is power in being vulnerable. It is not a weakness.”

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Transcript

0:00

If you want the results that only 1% of the world gets, you need to do what 99% of the world is not willing to do. And 99% of the world is not willing to get out of their comfort zone. Here is something you need to hear. You're not lazy. You're just misaligned. I'm Keppel. I help high performance get on stock by taking bold aligned action. And this is grow with Keppel where we speak with influential trailblazers who've made their mark and found the clarity that changed their lives. This is where we get clear realign and move toward a life that actually feels like yours. Welcome to the show. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Today is a very special one because I'm going to touch on a topic that I don't see people cover well enough. It is all about the power of being real and using vulnerability or seen vulnerability as the super power. It is not something to shy from. And I know, you know, we throw the water around a lot these days. Vulnerability, be authentic. Be unapologetically you. But let's really get into what it really means to really be real. And there are two places where you are real. First, you are real to yourself and your real to other people. Let's talk about the first part. When you are real to yourself. You are fully acknowledging where you are at right now. So let's give this more context. Wherever you are in life right now, I can bet that is something they are struggling with. For most people listening to this podcast, you dream of a better life that you can have your dream of living life on your terms, doing things when you want to do them, and not living by some 9 to 5 schedules somewhere. Not having to clock in to work somewhere. You dream of affording whatever you want to for your family, both your immediate family and your extended family. You also able to pay for whatever it is for them without even thinking about it. Right. You won't. So you will go to a store or go online at Instacart and not be looking at the price and have that kind of freedom. The economic freedom, the mental freedom, the financial freedom, all the types of freedom. You dream of these things every single day. That is what you vent about with your friends that is what you talk about. When you get into circles and you complain about the economy, you complain about your work, you complain about taxes, you complain about everything. And then he ends up the conversation usually culminates into, let's just play the lottery and we all laugh, but nobody actually buys a lottery ticket where you hope that you win it, which is always mind blowing to me, right? So you dream of all of these things and you are struggling. And because there is a gap between the life you really dream of having and the life that you're really having right now, there is a huge gap. So how do you close it? The very first thing that needs to happen is you being real with yourself. The first part of being real with yourself is coming to terms with the fact that you are where you are because of you. And this may sound harsh and obviously you don't know my story. You don't know this. My parents, this, my upbringing that I call. You know what? If you think you can't, you are right. If you think you can't, you are also right. If you are here to just respond with excuses not nor move on to the next podcast, I will tell you all the things you want to hear. I am here to tell you stuff that you might not want to hear. Let's get real with ourselves here. The reason why we are in the situation that we are. The reason why the life experience you have right now, the standard of living that you have right now, all of that has to do with you. However, that should be good news to you because it also means that if you put yourself here, you can get yourself out of it. That is the number one step. Or just let's just get real men. Let's get real with who we're actually going to blame. It is not the economy. It is not your boss who is an absolute jerk or not. It is not the job market. It is not the real estate market. It is none of those things. It is not your upbringing. It is you, you, your. The sum of your choices and your decisions led you to where you are now in life. The fact that you did not take bolder actions or take risks, calculated risks before is now coming to bite you in the rear. That is why you are here today, and you can change that unless you get this real with yourself. I'm telling you, there is nothing you want to do. You are not your all. You always need a half asset because it's always going to be somebody else's fault. So let's just get real. It's okay. Even I can admit to that. The reason why maybe I don't have the level of financial success that I dream of, the level of economic freedom, the level of every kind of freedom that we can dream of, that I don't have right now. That reason is me and I own it with my four chests, I own it with my focus and I am doing something about it. That is the difference because now I know that all my gosh, I am a co-creator with God, I can actually determine how my life trajectory goes even though it is written what your life is going to be, you still need to work towards it. So I'm not going to sit around like a couch potato and just hope that, you know, our life will turn out the way we want it to turn out. It is completely up to you now. I see that. But please do not get me wrong. There is room for God here. It is completely up to you and God when I am talking about completely up to you. For me, I don't feel the need to always say it is you and God because I believe that we are one and He is in me and I'm in him. I know that if you don't believe that you are in the universe, the universe is in you, and you are one with this. With the with the source. That is it. I don't need always qualified like that, but usually I'm just basically saying it is not up to any other human being. It is up to you. That's the first part of being real. Now the second level of being real and being real with yourself is acknowledging that all this time you have been looking for an easy way out. Think about this and be honest with yourself. Have you thought about can somebody just bill meals? Have you thought about finding a billionaire husband or wife that can just bill you out? Have you thought about what if I just won the lottery today? What if I just got this windfall of money? All those things are actually, believe it or not, limiting beliefs because you already believe that there is nothing you can do. You are completely helpless. And so somebody else is just basically to bill you out. There's a high likelihood, there's a high chance that you've actually thought that will maybe be will thinking like that now. And I'm here to tell you that if you really get real with yourself, you will come to terms with the fact that, honey, nobody's coming, nobody is coming. You are actually fully equipped with everything that you need to change the trajectory of your life. So let's just get real about that, that we have been looking for an easy way out. And that is why we have found this, because guess what? It doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. And once you start to get really real and vulnerable in your circles, your circle of friends and influence, when you are talking about these things, that is when the solutions will start to pop up. But when you talk about it based on it is somebody else's fault and somebody else is coming to bill you all the solutions will never come to you. You need to start changing the kinds of conversations that you have with the people that you talk about these things with. And if they don't want to change, then it's time for you to find a new circle where people are actually charting their own course and breaking out of finding solutions to their lives. I'm actually flying the coop and changing the trajectory of their lives and the generation of their families generation for generations to come. You can join them to find another circle where they are having those kinds of conversations because that is where it starts. Hey, can I be real with you? Your next chapter isn't going to start itself. If you're in a job that drains you and you're tired of talking yourself out of your big ideas, it's time to move in. Raise your standards. My free 21 day challenge. I'll coach you step by step to get through fear, make hard decisions, and start building the work and life you actually want. Click the link in the description to join the next round or hop on the wait list to today. All right. Now back to the conversation. There is no shortcuts. There is no quick hack. There is no quick life tip they can just give you. There is no magic bullet. You just have to do it yourself. That is why you have hands, feet, head. You woke up this morning, both of your feet touch the ground. That is enough. That is all you need. You don't need anybody else because nobody else is coming and there is no easy path. Anybody that has sold you that, to be honest with me, you fell flat on your face. It did no workouts. Anybody that sold you the bag of goods and told you that it is overnight, it's going to be easy and you just need to do this. Just click this button, just make this one post every day and that's it. You're going to make it big. They have lied to you. And if you tried what they did, I'm pretty sure you fell very flat on your face saying like, okay, this thing doesn't work because when you open up the hood and you see how the factory actually works, you realize, Oh my gosh, there's a whole lot more to this than I ever thought. And it is. Of course it is. If it was so easy, everybody will be doing it. Everybody will be doing it. We will all be rolling around in our beautiful millionaire, you know, $300 million yachts and selling it around mediterranee. And I really do want to sit around the coast of Turkey and all those places that, oh, gosh, what a dream. Anyways, my point is, if it were so easy, you wouldn't even be listening to this. You just like, What is this? What is he talking about? I am living my best life, but you are not living your best life because you have been looking for a simple solution. The other level of being the real, the next level of being real is where you now start using the right strategy to write frameworks, the ones that don't lie to you that it is easy and you know that, okay, this thing is hard to open, willing to put in the hard work you need to be real with yourself when she gets hard. Because I am telling you this stuff is hard. Me building a business while I'm working in 9 to 5 full time is hard. This thing is so hard. It eats you up, chew you up and spit you out. When he spits you out you need to stand up on your two feet and get up and do it again and again and again. As I'm recording today, let me tell you something. I give myself a break for the day, right? I went out for a nice walk. I went to a really nice hotel. I went to the bar. I got myself a nice glass of rosé. It was nice. The sun was out. I walked around and I was like, Man, okay, when I come back, I'm going to record this. But when I came back home, I looked on my couch. My couch looked at me and I looked at it again and I said, Couch, I'm coming. But not not yet. I wanted so badly to just say, you know what, I will just do this tomorrow. But I told myself what is going to be even harder than what whatever feels hard right now is getting into tomorrow. Realizing that I broke my promise to myself to record this thing today and already packed week day. Why would I put it to tomorrow? That's even more painful. So yeah, I want to rest. I want to. I give myself a rest day, half day yesterday, but my body's like, oh, it looks like we need more. I know body. I know you need more. I've given you enough or less. My ordering is gaslighting me. I am fine. I can go on. People survive with a whole lot less. We are so coddled in this modern world. We think that Oh my gosh, I just need by build to sleep for 10 hours and I need to roll out of bed at 11 and have brunch and then walk 2 hours. You are kidding yourself, okay? You are lying to yourself and you are cheating yourself out of the beautiful life that you can have. Because everything that I want, everything that you also want is when we sit down and we do the work, even when we don't feel like it. But let's be honest, it is hard. Let's get real. It is not easy. I cannot stress this enough. You have become so addicted to looking for a quick way out. Don't get me wrong, there is something called smart work. Working smart right is working hard is working smart. Working smart is finding in ways more efficient ways to get the same thing done. Be very careful that you don't cross over to the other side. We are just looking for the easy way out. If you are constantly looking for the easy way out, then you obviously have all of this wrong. If you don't want to break any sweat, you don't want to break any tears, you do want to shed any blood. You don't get it. Yes, you are not ready. If you want the results that only 1% of the world gets you need to do what 99% of the world is not willing to do, and 99% of the world is not willing to get out of their comfort zone. Do not complain to yourself or to anybody if you are living a life of quiet misery and you are not willing to go the extra mile. No, only to do the hard stuff. Let's keep it real, you all. I am so tired of all these people saying things like, Oh, you know, you just need to be balanced and soft life and you know, pace yourself. There's time for everything. Oh, shut up, please. Have you noticed that a lot of people that say that they know they have toiled back in the day when they first started out, when they were grinding, they were not trying to do anything, balanced, anything. It is now that they are making money in their sleep. It is now they have all these passive streams of income and they are so established they don't need to post four times a day to get ready to just post one thing and apples goes viral just because they are the ones that posted it. That's an example. And they do not come and tell you, oh, you know, like I've learned, you know, over my life, you know, it just needs to be balanced and oh, shut up. Listen, you need to recognize the season you are in right now. You have never done this before. And when you start to break out and start to build this life, as in really, really go after it. I'm telling you right now that it is not going to be easy and there's no such thing as balance. And I'm being so vulnerable with you right now because it is hard for me. I am telling you, man, there are times when I'm just saying, I just I'm so tired. I just want to you sleep all the angels fuck on the couch but I can't. And that's when you know that you are onto something. When you want to rest, you also rest all day. And just like, you know what? I'm just going to hang up for a couple of days and that thing is just in your head because you're obsess about it. You love it so much. You just want to continue your you want to keep going is no matter what key rest in off rest the amount of rest that science says you should get your 8 hours of sleep right take mindful breaks all of that go for walks take care of your body feed yourself eat nutrient dense meals I don't order take out I just don't I eat out like maybe once a week. So I work out. I do all of this, I take care of my body. So I'm just so that because I know what I'm putting it through, I know that it is going through a very hard season right now. There are a lot of times that I want to explore the new city that I just moved to. I love to explore. I love to shop life basically, and I'm having to say no to a lot of things. It is not easy. There are times when even in my 9 to 5, I'm just like, I just can't cope. I finish this once I can get to the one that I really love. But if if I'm being real with myself, this is the one that is actually paying the bills right now. I am still growing the business. It hasn't gotten to where you can replace my income. Not yet. So I have to give it the time and the quality and all of that that it deserves for several reasons. Apart from the fact that he pays my bills and actually wants to keep my job, there is something called behavior attached to everything beat the way you are. And one thing is the way you being. The other thing try it out. Whatever bad habits you have your nights of when you start your business, that is exactly how you be as well, because you are the same person. So there are times when I just I even resent the work and I'm like, well, no, no, no, I need to actually be grateful. I need to be grateful because there are people that they will give anything to trade places with me and I don't take that for granted, but at the same time you all, it doesn't mean that there are weeks that are going on. Just say I just quit. Can you just quit this 9 to 5? And just like that's what I can just focus on this. But I'm walk in this path because I know that there are some people that I'm going to pull out of this as well. And if I can walk through it, I can pull them out too, because I will show them that, look, this is possible, you can do it for yourself. And if I walk through that, but if I walk on the hot coals, I can tell you, okay, this is where you put your feet, your feet. So to the skin, those scald so much and all of that, it is hard. It's not easy. You will sometimes say by the end of the day, after working so much. My next for my brain is fried, is so fried up, say God, I want to do anything and I promise myself that all create your content tonight so that tomorrow you have something to post right tomorrow where you're already in the groove of the day. Yeah, I know. Under pressure. I need to post, I need to put my content and it's always a like a tug of war, like, okay, okay. I just want to warm my dinner right now. Sit on the couch, couch of five. But when it comes to these types of things, they are two parts of you. There's the butler and there's disciplinarian. In that moments, my disciplinarian gets up and said, Nope, we do not want to regret this faffing about tomorrow, so we are going to get up again to create this post. But I am telling you that initially it takes a lot of discipline. You are disciplinarian in. You need to come out and just step in where you want to. Just struggling, want to suffer, but is just stepping inside of it. No one are doing that. And then the Butler side of you is going to be thinking about your future self. It's like, okay, let's think of future couple here. How can we make future couple's day better tomorrow? It is if we create this content now bright future couple. We want her to be so confident that is using out of her skin. And we know that the number one way for her to do that is to keep the promises that she made to herself. So let us get up and help her now and actually keep this promise so that tomorrow she has grown our confidence by that much. And I am telling you, you will. It is not easy now when it comes to being real and being vulnerable with other people. The number one place where you need to be real and vulnerable with other people is in with the people that can actually help you. And there are two types of people that can help you. The walls, the support system, right? Like, let's say you live with other people in the house. If there's a certain hour of the day that you've blocked out for, I'm going to walk on this particular thing, let them know I told them, this is how you can support me. Please do not knock on my door when I'm around this time of the day. Don't say that. That's how I see it. Well, family members, I do, though the time that I use are the same on my door. Do not enter, do not knock. I'll tell them not to knock when the sign is up. And I actually lock my door because some of them did not understand. Do not knock them, do not enter. And that was for me then staying their way for an hour, 2 hours was how they could support me. How can your support circle be there for you in this moment? Be honest with them. Like, okay, this is what I'm trying to do and this is where I could use your help. I could use your help you ask, even though you might say, Oh, they never do this. You know, I'm always the one. Do your dad have you asked did you tell them why it is that you're doing this? I have you have you sold them or your vision yet for yourself and for the life that you want to build and how is really to benefit them. Try that. Ask for help. The all that type of person that you would ask for help from is a mentor, a coach. If you are trying to go at this thing alone, I am here to tell you that you will feel so much off, you will fall flat on your face. You will throw in the towel before you of will still quit. Do not attend this on your own. If you have been trying to do it on your own, you don't you see why you haven't gotten the results that you want. If you also go fast and born out there for sure, by all means, do it yourself. If you also go farther, you do with other people. Get a coach, get in a community of like minded people that are doing the same thing. I am telling you, there will be times when you you hit your upper limits. I mean, just like I just want to be I just want to be done. But then you enter that community, you see somebody giving a win, sharing their win, sharing a struggle or something. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. It's not. I'm not the only one. Oh, my gosh. I wonder, are we okay? I need to stay the fight or you raise your hand and just say, Hey, guys, I'm struggling with this. Can you help me with this? Hey, mentor, I don't. I'm I'm feeling really blocked here or I'm feeling like an imposter today, or I. I just. I really want to take this step. I want to email this person to reach out to this person, but I don't know if I can actually do it. I don't think I have the credentials. They will guide you. Stop trying to do life by by yourself. You're not an island. We are social beings. There is something called social learning. We learn from each other. That is how we learn. Be vulnerable about your struggles, about where you are at. Let me tell you something nobody likes difficult to you make it person because they can't tell. That is why people gravitate towards others who are just so real. I'm being so vulnerable because the key this person actually understands the human eye correlates with them because they get me, they get my struggles. When you try to put up this facade, like everything is under control, I have everything on the clock, everything is fine. I alliance yourself. Nobody buys on nonsense because we all know because these you are strongly admits its weaknesses you are broke if admitted it's okay it's okay. Admit it's Admit where you at When you share it, you voice it. It comes out of you. It doesn't take root. It is way you keep it to yourself when it's in your head. That is when it has room to expand to the point where you find yourself spiraling. You go into this rabbit hole and before you know it's something that is so small becomes this mountain. And then before you knew it was a point, you talk to yourself eventually into negative self-talk to the point where you quit. That is how it happens. Do not be that person. There is nothing wrong about struggling. It's okay to struggle and own it. It's okay to raise your hand for help. Stop trying to go at it alone. There is power in being vulnerable. You will. It is not a weakness. It is a huge, massive sign of strength. And that goes for both men and women. If you need to cry, cry. If you need to yell, yell. Well, by all means, keep it real. You'll keep it so real because you may not even know it or you may actually be helping somebody else out. You are here and you are still listening to this point because I am being so real with you. You have probably clicked on my stuff because you could relate to something because I was not putting up any facade about being a beginner. There's nothing wrong with being seen as a beginner that is your ego and your ego. Eat up all your business strategy will eat up all your vision and all of that before you can spell ego. Stop. It's it doesn't help anybody as ego science. Let it go, man. Take off your mask and let us see the real you. Let us know what it is you are struggling with. Get in a community, get a coach fest, do real with yourself. Be real with yourself and understand that you put yourself here. You can get yourself out, be real with yourself and understand that. Okay, you know what this stuff is actually going to be hard. Let me stop looking for the easy way out. Be real with yourself when you actually start doing the hard stuff. Be real when you feel like this and be real when you are struggling. Be real when you are tired. Be real about it. Get real and get real with your support system. Let them know where they can help you. Stop trying to do this alone. Get a coach. Get a community where vulnerability as a strength, it is not a weakness. Be happy to be seen as a beginner because people will celebrate you when you eventually make it to the top. Embrace that. Embrace the change. Embrace the growth, huh? This is good. This is really good. You all. I really want to know where it is. You have been struggling. Put it in the comments. I want to hear all about it and I'll see you in the next episode. Thanks for watching. Thanks for tuning in. To grow with Keppel there, this episode sparked something for you. Subscribe share it with a friend and keep growing.