CT Kaupp: Mentors, Relationships and Entrepreneurship
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CT Kaupp helps service-based businesses create a powerful online presence so they can thrive in their marketplace. After five years honing his craft at his late father's adverting agency, he started his own website design business (CT Kaupp, LLC) to disrupt that industry - by providing an uncommon level collaboration and personal 1:1 service. From creating, updating, and maintaining your website, he has you covered.
CT has spent the last three years on a journey of self-discovery – figuring out what makes him tick, what brings him the most joy and fulfillment, and how to live it out authentically. He approaches each day with purposeful intention and hopes to inspire you to do the same.
His motto? "BE ELITE" (hat tip to P.J. Fleck, head coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers).
Website: https://ctkaupp.com/
Show notes:
[00:05:30] Meet CT
[00:06:58] CT's Why
[00:09:38] What CT learned from his father?
[00:12:57] Personalization of craft
[00:14:28] Inspired by coaches
Pete Carroll - Coach of Seattle Seahawks
[00:18:02] Brendon Burchard
High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way by Brendon Burchard
[00:19:24] It's not just about motivation you have back it up
[00:24:45] What are habits that have worked for you
[00:27:53] Fixed Mindset
Carol Dweck: A Summary of Growth and Fixed Mindsets
[00:31:01] Asking why and thinking outside the box
[00:33:54] Giving yourself space from work
[00:36:53] Power Down Routine
[00:39:16] Dealing with self doubt
We asked past guests on the podcast to provide some tools that worked for them when confronted with self doubt.
[00:42:12] Why being level headed is important
[00:43:35] Being an entrepreneur
[00:46:20] Why are podcasts important?
[00:49:31] Biggest work in progress
[00:52:32] How does CT feed his curiosity?
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Full Transcript - CT Kaupp: Mentors, Relationships and Entrepreneurship
[00:05:07] Erich Wenzel: hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of feeding curiosity. Today's guest, we are joined by CT Kaupp. Hey CT.
[00:05:15] CT Kaupp: Hey, how's it going?
[00:05:16] Erich Wenzel: Pretty good. So for everyone else, I think the best place to start is just to say what you do professionally or what is your main means of income. And then we'll unpack your story from there.
[00:05:30] Meet CT
[00:05:30] CT Kaupp: Sure. So I am a website designer by trade. I've been working with the websites for close to a decade. I worked at my late father's advertising agency, for five years, and then, by about five, six years, and then started my own, was a design business three years ago.
[00:05:50] And, that's, to be able to marry that passion and the fulfillment that I get from creating websites and I'm managing for my clients and the professional expertise of doing that. Being able to marry both sides of it, like that's the ultimate fulfillment and joy to me. And so from a professional side, that's what I'm all about.
[00:06:13] And then the personal side, I'm really big into personal and self development and really just figuring out yourself on a deep level. And, and really believe in that.
[00:06:25] Erich Wenzel: So we really share a through line in that space of personal development, broadly speaking. But what really resonated with me was when we first connected I'd read your website bio as to why you decided to, you know, do your own design, which is really driven by your father.
[00:06:43]I really resonated with that idea and I think it's really powerful as to, to shape. Why you do what you do, rather than just doing it for a source of income. So I don't know how far you want to go back or why the story with your father really resonates with you.
[00:06:58] CT's Why
[00:06:58] CT Kaupp: [00:06:58] Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll hit on a couple of different topics that are, so first, I would say that web design and like that, the business that I'm creating. You know, it's, it's what I do, but it's not who I am. It's diving into thinking about trying to start a podcast myself in the website design space or somewhere that would then relate to the business that I'm building.
[00:07:23] But I struggle with it, because I'm so much more than that. Like, I don't want to just. You know, this is all I am. And like tying my identity to that. Like that's just not, that's not what I'm all about. My father passed away in 2016 from a brain tumor, and so I was only 28 at the time. it was two months, 62 days from the time that he was diagnosed with that, until the time that he passed.
[00:07:48] And so, you know, having gone through that experience really gave me a profound view on life and how short it is. and in front of business sounds like I'm super particular and picky with the clients that I take on because I want to be able to create that really awesome fit and relationship. And it's really important to me.
[00:08:11] Like I would see my dad stressed out when I was working with him, you know, with certain clients. And it was just like, why do you have to, like, why do we have to hold onto that client? Like, I'll be sure that they're a big client, but like, why can't we let them go? And then pick up others to, you know, make up for that.
[00:08:28] do you know that is the right foot that appreciates and values the service that we're providing or whatever that might be. And so that really is ingrained deep into me. and, and then like the personal side, with in passing, like it's just, I can't fathom being in a job that you hate. and being on fulfilled by that, because then that's going to trickle down into every other part of your life.
[00:08:56] So although, you know, your, the relationship with your spouse and your kids, family, everything else, you know, coworkers, the whole, the whole thing, it just is going to trickle down to everything. And I, and I, so I believe in living a life that you can live in alignment with all of that. and, and feel really fulfilled by the work that you do, which sounds going to make everything else richer and deeper.
[00:09:18] Erich Wenzel: Yeah, I think you're really hitting on something really important there. You know, it's like connecting to the individual is really a through line for you. Do you, is that just driven by your father? But I feel like there's some like leading by example I guess, or cause it's, it's a newer thing, right?
[00:09:38] What CT learned from his father?
[00:09:38] CT Kaupp: I mean, I would say that.
[00:09:40] I mean, definitely the number one thing, you know, I learned from him from a business sense was just important to relationships. So that, that, that definitely is the threat from him. But I've always said like if he started an agency today, he wouldn't have had the brick and mortar, the physical location and all that kind of stuff, just because how much things have changed now, you know, from when he started back in the early eighties and so trying to take what.
[00:10:09] I learned from him a little bits and pieces here and there, and then marry that and twist that and mold that into my own thing. And so I'm really big on location independence and financial freedom. And having those then allows me to take trips to meet clients, you know, essentially on my dime, in my free time.
[00:10:29]just because I enjoy having that deep personal connection with those that I work with and we can take that back to the personal debt side because, I would say we're pretty much, when I started maybe about a year before I started my business, so let's just call it four years ago, I really felt a calling to dive into myself more and just like, figure out why I, what makes me tick and why, why did I do this or do that or enjoy this or enjoy that.
[00:10:59] And I believe that having that clarity, really helps in all areas of your life. And I said, you didn't eat, this isn't anything new, but like the idea of you have to fully love yourself before you can love anyone else. And that's sort of the start of it. but in that work, I realized how important the deep relationships are to me, I'd rather have five really deep and rich relationships, then 50 surface level. And that's not saying, that's not me telling you that that's the right way to go about your, about your life. But like for me personally, I like that. That's when I feel most fulfilled.
[00:11:41] Erich Wenzel: Yeah that's so powerful.
[00:11:42] Oh, man. Yeah. I feel like over the last couple of years, I mirror that sentiment incredibly, like the idea of small talk is kind of like, I don't even know how to describe it because it just seems so, like it just drives me crazy to some degree, right? Like, I want to know why people think the way they do. Right? Or like, why do they, like, what resonates with them?
[00:12:08] I'm trying to think of. Because it's like you have to have a certain level of surface level. Right. And I don't mean to say level twice in one sentence, but it's like to connect. You still have to get through prerequisites, but it also feels like, can we just get past that first and it'll be more interesting if we just like, pretend like we've already gone there.
[00:12:27] You know, like what's the weather and what do you do for your job? And actually like getting to the point where you actually talk about the things you're really interested in.
[00:12:35] CT Kaupp: Yes. Yeah. No, I'm with you. I feel like I agree with you a thousand percent. I think I experienced that when I talk to others that share that, then we're able to go really deeply, quickly, and that feels very natural. And I would say from both sides.
[00:12:57] Personalization of craft
[00:12:57] Erich Wenzel: So to build off of going deep, what I was going to say is like, that has to help. I feel like in any aspect of whatever you choose to do, if you can connect with an individual, you're able to like see that person for whatever they are, right?
[00:13:14] Like you get to be instead of just saying Oh, we're here. Just business context, you get to actually see inside that person and like, we'll just use your, you know, craft for your example as a website developer, right? You're helping people create a landing page, for instance, as to like what they want to put out to the world. I mean, like you were saying, you don't want to over identify with, you know who you are and what you do. Right? But to some degree it's like, it's about putting out that message so that it resonates with the core of that person's being, if that makes sense.
[00:13:47]CT Kaupp: I'm really big on, I want to make it authentic and personalize it to each client, and so I'm always driving home ways that we can do that, and I want to do it more and more every time.
[00:14:01] And it really depends on the client and how far they want to go, but like the more. Personalized touch, the more human touch that you can put in that website. And I believe the more it's gonna resonate with its end-user, obviously, if everything is set up correctly and written correctly for that user.
[00:14:21] But I, but I just feel that personalization is a big, big part of that. And then given it gives that human touch.
[00:14:28] Inspired by coaches
[00:14:28]Erich Wenzel: Yeah. So for you, where does this internal driver highlight the individual? Where's that come from? Like, do you have any besides your father, of course, like are there any books or just mentors that you will turn to? maybe even sports, I guess would be another place to look at this. I don't, I'm not, I'm not sure how, where else off the top of my head? Sure.
[00:14:51] CT Kaupp: The other good on the sports angle for a second. So, two, two coaches, Pete Carroll with the Seattle Seahawks and PJ Fleck with the University of Minnesota. you may know him from his row the boat guy. That's one of his mantras. so if anybody listening is a big college football fan, or just, I guess college in general, athletics, then you may have heard that, but, yeah, those, I growing up, I've always, I was always passionate about sports and still am, and became a Seahawks fan in fifth grade, which is very weird growing up in Wisconsin, green Bay Packers country.
[00:15:29] And so it's like a religion up here that you have to be a packers fan.. I just said I'm going to go out and be my own. Be my own person, do my own thing and pick the Seahawks. And, yeah, it's been an interesting, with a nice old rivalry with the Packers and the last decade. But, the point of all that is that because of me.
[00:15:49] Becoming a Steelers fan that I get introduced to Pete Carroll, whatever that was. I think that's, I think it's been 10 years, 10, 11 years that he's coached the Hawks. And, just
[00:15:57] his philosophy on life, you know, building that culture within the organization. And that's, that's top down and seeing how that transformed the team from what it was prior.
[00:16:12]let me have a few play offers, but like, it was nothing and that consistent. That consistent success and sustained success that they, that they want to have and that they have had. it's remarkable, but it just to me, shows the power of connecting the part of the family, the power of everybody being, having one common goal and all being in.
[00:16:34] And I see the PJ Fleck at university of Minnesota is like a Pete Carroll boat. 30 years younger. Very, very similar. He started at Western. Michigan. you know, he obviously had some support, but like at the head coach, I believe his first stop was Western Michigan for season. They, I can tell you, won one game and over the course of four or five years, built them up and they won their conference championship and then he went to Minnesota a couple of years ago and built them up.
[00:17:04] And you can see that same trajectory and you can see that same process. And to me, it's just someone that. Knows himself on a deep level and, and, and understands the power of connecting. And I always say that if I can jump back to Carol quickly, I always say that once is, I mean, he's one of the most successful football coaches of all time, and I believe that he's gonna have more.
[00:17:32] He's had a more powerful time and he's gonna have more impact after his football coaching career, than what he is turning it into. just with everything that he's doing and competing to create a company that he co-founded. I believe in what he's doing a thousand percent, and I'm excited to see where that heads, but those are two main mentors for me, from a farm.
[00:17:56] And then I'll give you a one book, high performance habits, Brendon Burchard.
[00:18:02] Brendon Burchard
[00:18:02] all right. So a few years ago I had found out about Brendon Burchard, and he's all into high performance, and I connected with him pretty deeply. He, I saw a speech on YouTube that he had done talking about a car accident he had when he was 1819 and he thought he was gonna die and saw his life flash before his eyes.
[00:18:28] Was very unfulfilled and he was actually thinking about suicide before he was going on that trip. And some of the parallels that I got out of it when he was talking, he was just very reminiscent of my dad and just seeing life flash before my eyes, you know, in a parallel kind of way. And his high performance habits book is.
[00:18:55] All about tips, tricks to be a better father, be a better husband, be a better coworker, you know, can help you in all aspects of your life. But very tactical information backed by science. It's the largest study of high performance, high performers ever. And that's what I like about it.
[00:19:13] That it's all backed with real facts and numbers and not just a motivational manifesto.
[00:19:24] It's not just about motivation you have back it up
[00:19:24] Erich Wenzel: It's funny you bring that up, right? Like there's this, this weird overlap within this like self-help community, where, where it becomes this like self-belief thing taken a little too far. So to some degree, right? It's like if you make a board or you just say, yeah, if I just think about it every day, it's going to happen, right?
[00:19:47] But. I think there's a point where you ha, you can't just, you can't just imagine something happening, right. But you have to go out and do it.
[00:19:56]CT Kaupp: I'm totally with you. I need, I'm very much black and white and I need concrete evidence and like just, I need to be doing something. So I got like, I'll be extremely transparent and tell you like from day one. When I started my business, the goal was to be able to travel and see clients face to face regardless of where they may be.
[00:20:20] And it took me three years to be able to take my first trip and do that, but like that, that's never wavered. It literally from day one, that was the goal. And then I was able to do it a couple of weeks ago, and so it's like. You can, you can have the vision, you can think about it. You think about it all the time.
[00:20:40] And I did feel like you got a, you also got to work and, and create the business and do everything that needs to be done to get to that point. Versus, like you said, just just thinking about it. It isn't gonna really do anything. Do anybody any good
[00:20:51] Erich Wenzel: right not even yourself. I feel like in this world we always say those things like, I wish I could go do that. Right. And I think there's a point where we have to say I, instead of saying, I wish saying I will. And the idea is that it's not going to happen tomorrow, but it's going to happen.
[00:21:09] Eventually, because if you just slowly built, you know, brick by brick, so to speak, you can get to however far you want. It's just not going to happen as fast as you'd like it to sometimes. And I think your story is honestly a huge Testament of that.
[00:21:25] CT Kaupp: I think it's very hard in today's society where it's instant gratification, everything, and it's, you know, I see a bunch of stuff on my facebook timeline or social media timelines, you know, but, you know, this online course, that online course, and basically it's just a lot of it is just selling crap because it's selling that quick fix. . Anything worth fighting for isn't easy. If you really want something and it's, and it's tough, well, everybody would be doing it. So like you have to put in the work to get to that point and like, no $299 is going to take you up from zero to 60 in one weekend.
[00:22:06] Erich Wenzel: I think it's really true, right? Like you can spend whatever money on a course. I think it's the real work that doesn't happen while you're in that course. I think the real work happens as soon as that course is over because it's like how many of those things that you learned in that are you actually going to use afterwards? I don't mean to be cynical, but it's like most people, probably 80% of the things that they learned in those things don't get used ever again, you know, all those habits are like, you know, flow hacking things, or you know, we'll just call them hacks, right? All those hacks people see nowadays, I think. Most people are just kind of chronic, you know, starting over again, kind of people where they just go after something and they get really excited and motivated.
[00:22:48] Cause I think honestly motivation is crap. cause it's like motivation and it works until something gets hard. And then once it gets hard, people are like, eh, I'll go do the comfortable thing.
[00:23:00] CT Kaupp: I'll give you a real world example. I'm working through the business coach and I spent a lot of money, and at the end of it I told them, I was like, you know, if I don't actually do what we talked about and a plan that we put in place, here that money was completely wasted. I was like, you, you can get, you can pay somebody to give you all the knowledge in the world, but if you don't implement it, then it's worthless.
[00:23:31] Erich Wenzel: Absolutely man. That's honestly been a huge driving force for why this exists for me, because it's, you know, we can accumulate knowledge and we can accumulate all of this stuff, but if you can't use it or if you don't internalize it for yourself, right? Like, so what I learn is never going to be the same as what you learn.
[00:23:53] And so you have, it's like the Bruce Lee motto, right? Take what is useful and discard what is not, and then add what is uniquely yours. And I think if we all kind of did that more often, we would be a lot further along than we thought we could be. Because we kind of just take what other people say and we're like, well, that worked for them.
[00:24:13] So if I do what they did, it'll work for me. And I don't think that's entirely true because whatever situation they were in I'm using it like a Royal day here. So like whoever you look up to, like you can use them as a blueprint, but like you're still living your life and they lived their life. You just happened to be on the outside of that looking back 2020.
[00:24:33] so I don't know if you want to like what are habits for you or like things that you've picked up along the way that have seemed to kind of solidify stuff, you know, along along the ride.
[00:24:45] What are habits that have worked for you
[00:24:45] CT Kaupp: I would say some of that, Kim is, as you were talking there, is when you figure it out yourself on a deep level and figure out what is fulfilling and joyful for you and.
[00:24:58] Makes you want to get up in the morning. that may not be what, Hmm. Does it for your partner or for your neighbor or the guy who lives in another state or somebody you know, on social media or whatever. And it's like, you gotta think about yourselves first and everything kind of flows from there. And I don't think you can have that ultimate fulfillment until you do the deep work to figure it out yourself.
[00:25:26] Erich Wenzel: Absolutely. . So for you, like what was that journey like? Cause obviously it's never over, but like what was the, what was that moment where you really needed to like figure out what you were all about and to start uncovering that?
[00:25:44] CT Kaupp: I would say I was probably around at the time that I was transitioning.
[00:25:49] From my dad's company to my own. Somewhere within that year-ish transition, just, I don't know where it came from, a, just a yearning to get to know myself on a deeper level. I always kind of felt a little bit as, as outsider and as, and now knowing what I know. I think it was, like we were talking about earlier, you know, with, really wanting to.
[00:26:15] Learn people on a deep level or you know, have those deep relationships. Like that's just a different way to go about life because so well beyond the surface level. So while 10 years ago I may have thought like, what the heck? Like I feel weird. Like, like what, what's going on? But in reality, it was really just that at that point.
[00:26:37] And I mean, just two of these, these are very. These may sound easy. You're kind of like just fluff, like, you know, you can kind of dismiss it, but two things that really, for me, where it was taking, if I figured out my personality type, so different stuff, you know you can do online and you can figure that out.
[00:26:57] And just reading through that, connecting, what's that going? Holy smokes. Yeah, that's me. That's me. That's me. Okay. Like, here's why I. Always think about things this way or use my, I do things this way. Being able to, I'm a very visual learner, so to be able to visually see that, read some of them and recognize that was really helpful to me.
[00:27:22] And, and I believe it's, it's powerful for other people because I think. There's a lot of that. Just don't spend the time to dig into that, and I think there's a lot of power in having, having that information.
[00:27:37] Erich Wenzel: What website or what type of personality test did you take, just out of curiosity, for those who are interested in
[00:27:42] CT Kaupp: taking, I think it was the 16 personalities.com
[00:27:47] Erich Wenzel: correctly. But that's the like INTJ, those kinds of ones, right? Or
[00:27:52] CT Kaupp: the Myers Briggs.
[00:27:53] Fixed Mindset
[00:27:53] Erich Wenzel: Yeah, that's what I was thinking because I've heard it called 16 personalities or Myers-Briggs. That's really interesting. And it makes sense that you know, people. Who fall in the category like you and me. We are just these accumulators of knowledge in many ways.
[00:28:08] So it's like once you have this thing, it's like, Ooh, I get to learn how to categorize myself a little bit better, or understand more of myself. Right. And I think one of the dangers here, at least at a younger age, for me, I was using it as like identity foreclosure. I was using it as this thing of like, Oh, here's who I am.
[00:28:29] But it's not like you're like, Oh, here's how I am in different scenarios. That's a fixed mindset, a fixed asset. Like that was my old way of looking at it. Did that happen to you at all?
[00:28:41] CT Kaupp: I can't keep going down that road. What changed for you that,
[00:28:45] Erich Wenzel: Well, it was, it was really for me, like all through high school, like I had this very like still, I felt a lot like you where I was different than other people where I was hyper intellectual. I enjoyed analytics and science and all this kind of stuff, but I knew I had like this work, work ethic and drive.
[00:29:02] If whatever I like, I was so curious about a broad range of topics that I knew that if I, whatever I want to pick for college, I would succeed. but I had to pick something practical, right? Like, I could have gone into some sort of, you know, esoteric. Type science or something like that. And for me, I didn't want to pick something that limited my options.
[00:29:22] I wanted to pick something that would open as many doors as possible. Like that's one of my overarching themes is I like to look at things to be as general and broad reaching as possible. And once I kinda got into engineering, I was like, okay, cool. I have this thing. I'm doing it and it'll just continue to open doors because engineering, like whatever flavor you decided to pick, all kind of lends itself as a certain level of problem solving.
[00:29:47] Broadly speaking, like once you get in, like once you just get engineering, you're just a problem solver at heart. You just deal with very specific kinds of problem solving. But then from there, I was able to kind of reconstruct a working out basically, and like how to work out, turned into a science. and no one had ever explained it to me that way.
[00:30:06] I had always assumed, you know, working out was a jockey meathead thing. You know, I pick things up, I put them back down again. And all, all that matters is the number that you're lifting. Right. but I was able to deconstruct it. And look at it from an engineering like biomechanics way and I was like, Oh my God, it's like a lab.
[00:30:25] But your mood, your, instead of using a piece of equipment as the instrument, it's your body and how you move the body in space. You know, looking at it from simple mechanics like pulleys or pushing, you know, that kind of stuff. I was able to. Make it into this like a real life playground for myself, and that was really what kind of broke down this barrier of like, I'm a fixed quantity.
[00:30:46] Basically. I was able to kind of say like, Nope, everything is a work in progress and you can break it down into small, chunky parts and over time you can make changes like meaningful changes that you never thought were possible.
[00:31:01] Asking why and thinking outside the box
[00:31:01] CT Kaupp: I think the overarching theme for me. I was just asking why and thinking outside the box, and I'll tell you as we sit today, having a gym in a nursing home setting would be crazy, right? Like nobody who does that, but like to me as I'm sitting here right now, like I want to work out. Until the day I die.
[00:31:31] Why I can't. Well, why can't we be lifting weights when we're 85 years old? Like on the surface? That seems weird. That doesn't, that seems like, the. My Jordan a majority, we would definitely go the other way. But like, that's how I, I like to think like, I want to be able to be the best that I can be, you know? And until I die.
[00:31:52] And like we talked about just accumulating that knowledge and learning a new day, a new adventure and all of that, like that's. That's just how I'm wired.
[00:32:01] Erich Wenzel: Yeah. I mean that's exactly it. Like I started looking at it and you know, this comes kinda from computer grade, but I didn't realize what I had done until I started.
[00:32:11] I took the course with them and I had turned working out into a vision. cause one of the things I had said to myself was like, okay, like you're not working out just because. Like, you know, it's good for you. I wanted to work out because that one day I would be, you know, a parent and I didn't want to be the parent that couldn't run around and play with their kids or have back problems or be like winded walking up the stairs because I sit at my desk for too long every day.
[00:32:39] You know, I kind of inadvertently made it like a long term goal that I put away in the future so that I could just create this habit and. And you know, it's so funny looking back on it now because it sounds so silly, but it's like I said, okay, if I can figure out how to do this now while I'm working and going to school full time, I can figure out how to do this once I'm busy and I have like a family and a full time job regardless, like, you know, I was like, I just said, okay, if I figured this out now, it's not going to get any harder or easier.
[00:33:07] You know, it's like I'm always going to be a certain level of busy where it feels like I can't do this. You know?
[00:33:15] CT Kaupp: It's a very similar path for me as well. That was when I started my business, I got into working out even more core than I was prior, and it was like the same exact thought pattern as to.
[00:33:33] If I do it now, one of my businesses really starts taking off or adding family and all the other responsibilities that could come up in the future. It's like, it's just ingrained in me. It's second nature. It's just, it's what I do versus having to figure out it, having to figure it out, you know, five, 10 years down the road.
[00:33:54] Giving yourself space from work
[00:33:54] Erich Wenzel: For you, what was, what's the hardest thing? So kind of pulling back into the business aspect of this, it's like, because it's your own business, right? You can always find reasons to continue to work, right? So how do you like to give yourself that space within your life to say, I've done as much as I can do today?
[00:34:14] CT Kaupp: You hit the nail on that right there. I would say just being able to turn off is extremely difficult. Because I just want to keep pushing. But I wouldn't say that I learned early that if I'm not feeling my best, it's much better to turn off and disconnect than trying to push through, because the quality isn't going to be there, and then I'll feel even worse.
[00:34:47] You know, most of my sleep will be worse and just like everything will get up and I'll be even worse the next day or the next couple of days or whatever. So I do, I do carry that with me, that I always, I want to keep a good sleep pattern as best as possible and rhythm that way. I really believe that sleep fitness as a term, like I just find that's gonna be, that's gonna be gigantic.
[00:35:09] I think we had talked about in the past, like that's going to be. Gigantic three, four, five, 10 years from now. It's just not really, it's, it's getting there more mainstream. More technology and all that kind of stuff, but it will be even more so in the future. But yeah, absolutely. I would go with that, man.
[00:35:25] Just turning off is, it's really hard, especially like you said, on owning my own business and I'm not working, I'm making money. Right? Like
[00:35:34] Erich Wenzel: I just feel like it's such a, it's such a strange thing to think about, right? Cause like most of us who are in this, this vein of like. Self-improvement and stuff like that.
[00:35:43] We have that, that, whatever you call it, be it genes or just the overall mindset of push and grind and all of that, but we've kind of come away from that. I meant using the group of, we like this newer paradigm shift where we, we recognize there's. This double edged sword to grinding like too, like you do have to commit, but there's also like you got to give yourself the space to recover, and I'm going to not use another workout analogy here, which is, you know, when you first start working on, you're really gung ho about it.
[00:36:16] You don't want to take a day off because you're like, dude, I can't take a day off cause I don't want to be lazy. I don't want to let that get it like getting in my head. Right. Okay. But when you want to take, you know, one, two, maybe three days off, and then you come back to the gym, you want to break some PRS that you've been struggling to break.
[00:36:33] It's like nothing even happened. You know, you've got to give yourself space, that recovery time to actually perform at your best. And it's why it's so counterintuitive for some of us, at least those of us who are workaholics or have that ability to workaholic without really trying to, so I don't know if you have any like tips for yourself to kind of, how do you.
[00:36:53] Power Down Routine
[00:36:53] Wind down or, or have like a power down routine, either daily or weekly. Do you have a day where you do no phone on Sundays or something like that?
[00:37:03] CT Kaupp: I wish, I wish. Sure. I like to do, I would like to do daily reflections. That ends up being weekly. Okay. I'm doing something right now or the majority of time I would say that's.
[00:37:20] I'm doing something right now that I heard about, I would say maybe towards the end of last year, early this year. And so I started doing it every Sunday. And it's where you just take a postcard or a posted note or whatever and write down one thing that you're grateful for in that week. You know, you fold it up, put it in a jar, and then at the end of the year.
[00:37:44] Then you open all, you, you, you, you know, out the John, you open all up and you see all this awesome stuff that happened in the last 52 weeks that, you know, it can be trivial little stuff and the scheme of things, but then you don't really think about it, you know, but you know, as you're going through it, you just realize how awesome this thing was.
[00:38:06] It brings up, it brings up memories and all that, so that's something new that I just, like I said, just heard about and started that up and I'm excited to see or what that is like, come the end of the year. The other thing I would tell you is that especially early on. When I started that first year running my own business, like it was, it was tough as nails.
[00:38:26] You know, nobody's referring to you because you're brand new. Like nobody knows you're trying to quit. Yeah. Nobody knows about it. How can they refer, refer me.
[00:38:35] and so, kind of a trick that I would do when I went to bed, that was the act of flushing. Whatever happened that day away. And then waking up the next morning with a fresh slate.
[00:38:51] And that was powerful for me to just to visualize that. And then when I would wake up, it really, I really felt a lot more clarity and didn't feel, you know, like, like the monkey brain when I was a thousand things stolen on clarity of vision.
[00:39:08] Erich Wenzel: That's, that's a super interesting thing. And I, and it brings me to a point that I really kind of want to highlight with you because I think it's a powerful thing.
[00:39:16] Dealing with self doubt
[00:39:16] To recognize all of us, right? The idea of dealing with self doubt, right? You as a solo or you know, entrepreneur with your own business, having to squish yourself down. It's gotta be a huge part of your time. I've done that many times with myself doing this project and podcasts, even though it's not a business, I still, you know, sometimes I can get stuck in loops where I'm just like, well, if I stopped tomorrow or didn't come out with a podcast or whatever, no one would care.
[00:39:44] And I get stuck in those things sometimes. And it's, you know, it's silly thoughts, but it's also those things that the monkey brain loves to think about. So how do you deal with those waves of self doubt when, when they do arise.
[00:40:00] CT Kaupp: I would say what helped me was having that clarity of vision and then knowing where I was going to go and like I was telling you earlier about, you know, day well on here, here's the vision that I had, like that's never wavered. Having that clarity I feel like then was able to help me navigate. Some of the uneasy waters or, you know, I'm, I'm going to make this work, or, you know, Hey, I'm struggling.
[00:40:30] I'm in class. Like, what? Like what? How am I going to get that next client? Because, because it's never, it's never been about money to me, right? It's, it's, it's, so, it's so much deeper than that and the impact that I want to make. It has, it has no bearing on money. And whether I make $5,000 a month or $50,000 a month, like I'll be the same person, I always say, if money was no object, can I be working for free?
[00:40:57] What would I do? I literally would be doing the exact same thing I'm doing right now. I may be traveling a little bit more, I'll be honest in that regard. But other than that, you're getting the same person
[00:41:11] and, and so having that vision. I think it is powerful. otherwise I think you can get that shiny object syndrome where you're just trying to make a quick buck, you know, and that quick fix and you get in that sort of rut. And. Now you just to 10 quick fixes and nothing worked and you're still, you're back at square one
[00:41:38] Erich Wenzel: or you lost money in the process, right?
[00:41:42] Yeah. I think that's, that's so true man. Cause it really makes it easy when you can, you know, put your flag in the sand way up in the future and say, just trust in the process, not today's outcome. And, and that's kinda been a mantra for me too, in like the last couple of months, like thinking about 2020 and it's like, no matter how far you think you should be right now, it's like, don't think about the should woods or could'ves just think about what you can do right now and just keep going.
[00:42:12] Why being level headed is important
[00:42:12] CT Kaupp: [00:42:12] I think the other thing I would say too is that I would say a huge. Quality. really the quality for an entrepreneur is having that level. Headedness so never getting too, I never getting too low. Yeah. I feel like I've heard Seahawks talk about that a bunch. You know, Russell Wilson, that's probably him in a nutshell.
[00:42:35] And that's, that's really powerful because it doesn't matter to me if I'm struggling to get clients or if I just got three new big clients. Just stay even keel and. Don't get too high. Don't get too low.
[00:42:49] Erich Wenzel: [00:42:49] I agree. It's like one of the things, I believe Nicole Davis had told us this, a former Olympian volleyball player, she had said always pretend like the score is zero, zero.
[00:42:59] You know, and, and that's fine. Like if you're at a sport, that's cool, but like in general, I think that's such a great idea to look at life because it's like you can come, you can come in every moment. when you said if you're pretending like you're low, you'd usually do worse.
[00:43:12] And if you're already coming in high and you feel like you're hot, then you might get sloppy. And so you've got to really ride the wave at that perfect balance point to kind of keep going sometimes. And by no means am I saying this is easy because it's not at all. would you say, let's see, there's like.
[00:43:35] Being an entrepreneur
[00:43:35]People on the outside, okay, let's do it this way. So people on the outside looking at someone who's running their own businesses, they say, how do you do that?
[00:43:41] Right? Like, cause they, they think it's daunting and they, they see like you're always moving and you're kind of like maybe pulling your hair out or something like that. Like what would you say to someone who's like, maybe he wants to do it, but it's like afraid of committing to it.
[00:43:57] CT Kaupp: That's an interesting question that you bring up because I've thought about that a lot because I've gotten it. Similar reactions or similar questions. You know, I can never do that.
[00:44:07] And I'm like, you know, I, I was never, I don't mean this is a town trite, but like I was never fearful of starting my own business. Like I just, it felt like this is what I'm supposed to do and everything is going to work out, trust the process.
[00:44:25] This, this is where I'm supposed to be. This is where I'm supposed to be headed and I don't have a good answer. Those kinds of questions. But like that's where I go. Cause it's just like, I don't think of myself. As someone that's persevering, but from the outside, like that's what everybody is, is seeing her, like you said, you know, you're referring to add on one minute and it's just like, that's, that is what it is. It's like, that's, that's just part of the, the nature of the beast and what I signed up for. And, but at the end of the day, I'm so passionate about what I do. I think that that covers up a lot of it as well.
[00:45:10] If I was starting my own business as something that I had no compassion for, I had no desire for, then I think those things would rear its ugly head a lot more often.
[00:45:19] Erich Wenzel: Absolutely. You know, it's one of those things I've been thinking about a little bit myself, not only in the entrepreneur space, but it's like when you look at like. Why do people do the things they do just as an interest level, right? Like people who like to read, or people who like to play an instrument or whatever, you name it, or people who run marathons.
[00:45:38]and I think my answer for this is that people do whatever it is that they're doing because they're compelled to do it. and that means that they, regardless of. Like there is no choice in the matter. They're, they're just being compelled to do the thing that they want to do and they're just going to figure out how to do that.
[00:46:02] No, if, ands, or buts about it, you know? And so I think for some people, when they look on the outside, I think the best way to look at it is like, they just haven't found a thing that they just feel like is pulling them along for the ride. You know?
[00:46:18] CT Kaupp: Yeah. I think that's a good way to look at it.
[00:46:20] Why are podcasts important?
[00:46:20] Erich Wenzel: You know? Cause I feel the same way for my podcast, like I like doing feeding curiosity for me. Isn't that like I've planned this thing. It's just I feel compelled to make it a thing, which I don't know. Like it sounds so strange to say it that way though, but it's like there's just something about it that I can use as a vehicle to explore the world.
[00:46:40] Right. And that's, I feel like how a lot of people view the thing that they're doing in their life right.
[00:46:45]CT Kaupp: I've talked to a lot of podcasters and what you just described, your podcast is going to be going places because to me it seems to be the common denominator for anybody that has a podcast.
[00:47:02] They really enjoy it and that's where it starts. And it doesn't start with, I'm going to make this amazing podcast and get all this ad revenue and be number one, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It starts with the seed of, you're so interested in and passionate about it that, that, that. Let alone fuel it.
[00:47:24] Erich Wenzel: I mean like legitimately part of it is being able to talk to people like yourself because the to kind of get meadow with you real quick here. But I had listened. I love podcasting as a genre. I just think as a form of content creation, it is so different and unique than any other forum.
[00:47:41] And so even though it is super buzzy and like everybody is doing a podcast nowadays. I don't see it in that way at all because I think it allows for a unique form of discourse and entertainment that we don't really have access to in other ways currently. For me I want to be able to talk to people who are like, you know, subject matter experts or just living life.
[00:48:02] And then the more I kind of pulled back to the layers cause I was, I'm pretty big into biographies right now. Like I listened to them and audio books cause I find them really fascinating to learn life lessons from. And I was kinda like, you know, you don't need to be a bill Gates to get like, learn from someone.
[00:48:16] Like you could be anybody. Then, and you know, ask them questions that they never got asked before. Like, how did you, you know, what was it like growing up with in your life kind of thing? Or, you know, cause even though we're all different, we all have similar patterns and themes within our lives that helped shape us and we can learn from those.
[00:48:33] Right. And the very least like grab a book or something that, you know, shaped them. Like you mentioned coaches that are in books here, so we can, other people can go read those things and kind of gain knowledge from that. Right.
[00:48:45] CT Kaupp: I've always said entrepreneurship to me, I've always been intrigued by it because everybody has their own story, their own back story, their own story of why they started and what the product or service or selling or whatever.
[00:49:05] Yeah. We all have different stories. But yet we all have one common thread is that we want to be our own. It wasn't, you know, on our own businesses, bear on bosses. Yeah. so I've always, I've always been treated.
[00:49:19] Erich Wenzel: It's super interesting. So we're almost at an hour already and time is flying . I didn't even realize, but is there any way we'll do two different ones.
[00:49:31] Biggest work in progress
[00:49:31] So first one is in the last six months or so with it, like within the new year, what has been your biggest takeaway or biggest thing you've been working on?
[00:49:45] CT Kaupp: It's just personal or professional?
[00:49:48] Erich Wenzel: Either or or both. You can give one of each.
[00:49:52] CT Kaupp: Okay. So I would say let's start professional professionally. Where I have a niche. My website design business was primarily in the fitness space. Okay. And that's where I'd been the last year or two. So the first year I'm a general web guy, and that's getting me nowhere because as a generalist, pretty much you can help anybody, but then you help nobody because you don't resonate with anybody.
[00:50:19] So I picked the fitness space, did some great work, and I have some great clients. I enjoy that. But I learned towards the end of last year that that wasn't exactly where I wanted to plant the flag. A hundred percent I didn't want to put all my eggs in that basket. So now as we move forward in this year, I am going to have, instead of it being solely fitness focused, I have kind of four buckets.
[00:50:46] So health and wellness. Home services, you could say like plumbers, like contractors, plumber,
[00:50:54] Erich Wenzel: contract work, all the like electricity and things like that.
[00:50:57] CT Kaupp: Yep. Yep. Pest control, all that fall into that bucket. And then podcast histories. And those are like the four main areas that I want to target. And so instead of being solely fitness, able to branch out a little bit, but yet still.
[00:51:12] Have, have a couple of niches, have the edge, to be able to be specialized. And so that's my focus and my push for 2020 here and then professional, or I'm sorry, personally I think it's those daily and weekly reflections. I want to get more consistent with that. And, I remember hearing something early on with the business where it was like, you win.
[00:51:39] What you do tonight helps you win the day tomorrow. I forget the exact phrase, but you know, being able to pick out a couple of key things that you need to accomplish that next day and sort of have a game plan for the next day. So that one, when you, when your head hits the pillow, you're not, you don't have the monkey brain going, meno, trying to figure out, you know, what, what are you going to, you know, where are you gonna spend your time managing tomorrow?
[00:52:04] To, when you wake up, you have that clear thought and you know exactly what you need to do to be successful on that particular day.
[00:52:13] Erich Wenzel: Yeah. That's awesome, man. I love that a lot. It's really good. I think reflection is a, is a huge thing for, for us in the modern world too, because of how go go, go. It is.
[00:52:22] If we can stop and pause and reflect on how we got to where we are, we can kind of direct where we're going a little bit better.
[00:52:31] CT Kaupp: Yeah, I love it.
[00:52:32] How does CT feed his curiosity?
[00:52:32] Erich Wenzel: and so last question here. So this is a newer question I've been doing for 2020 but it's, it's a little cliche, but what is it like for you, how do you feed your curiosity?
[00:52:52] CT Kaupp: I would say continuously. Learning like I like, I don't feel like I ever learned enough and I'm very open minded. So getting different perspectives. There's obviously people that I look up to, mentors I'm talking about like from afar. but you know, exposing myself to the new views and new ways to think about things that, that, that's, that's what I was saying.
[00:53:20] Erich Wenzel: Awesome. Well, CT, this has been truly insightful and obviously more than enough for round two at a later day. Where can people connect with you?
[00:53:30] CT Kaupp: Connect with me on my website, CT cope.com it up in the show notes. Instagram is CTE underscore. And does say that. Put that in the show notes as well because kind of the two areas, social media wise that are the most
[00:53:49] Erich Wenzel: active sweet can definitely
[00:53:50] CT Kaupp: do that. Feel free to, yeah. Feel free to come to my website and reach out to me that way and love to talk through.
[00:53:59] Erich Wenzel: Awesome. Thanks. CT.
Today on the podcast, we are joined by Joe Jackowski. Joe is a Marine Corps veteran and current graduate student at Vanderbilt University in the Cognitive Psychology in Context program. His primary interest is meaning in life, which broadly extends to problems in ethics, A.I., and culture.
In this episode, we sit down to discuss his first long-form article on his new sub stack, Apotheosis: A Philosophy for Influencers