Workout — Exercise is the best way to increase not only your physical muscles but also your perseverance muscles. Pushing through a tough workout increases your mental toughness and makes you feel better overall. I set a daily schedule to get a workout in. I find that great business ideas flow to me when I am in a peak state of working out. You will also release endorphins as well. Pushing past your physical boundaries daily will help you overcome almost anything your career throws at you.
Resilience has been described as the ability to withstand adversity and bounce back from difficult life events. Times are not easy now. How do we develop greater resilience to withstand the challenges that keep being thrown at us? In this interview series, we are talking to mental health experts, authors, resilience experts, coaches, and business leaders who can talk about how we can develop greater resilience to improve our lives.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Joseph Robert K’Amo — The Fantasy Football Counselor.
With millions of downloads, Joseph Robert K’amo is transforming the way fans make educated decisions about drafting and managing their fantasy football teams through his podcast, The Fantasy Football Counselor. Joseph brings the truth to sports through his authentic voice and approach.
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory?
I have to tell you that achieving this level of success has not been easy, and the key ingredient to this success has been perseverance which develops my resilience. The formal definition of perseverance is doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. I define it as persistent, unrelenting, and massive action towards your goals, no matter the overwhelming challenges, to achieve your desired outcome.
I took my passion, fantasy football, and turned it into my full-time career and a six-figure salary. Breaking out of the 9–5 grind is difficult, and sometimes I have to pinch myself to realize that I make a living giving advice on a game I enjoy playing! Now with millions of podcast downloads and a massive social media following, I have been able to monetize my personal brand and live in freedom and abundance.
Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
The most interesting thing is that if you build it they will come. I literally started from nothing and wanted to build a business around fantasy sports. I stayed consistent and persistent and turned into a 6 figure salary after 5 years.
I literally built an Instagram page from scratch in 2015 and I relentlessly started vlogging on it about fantasy football. I was timid at first and unsure where this was all going, but now I am grateful I stayed with it.
I sometimes take it for granted that I took fantasy sports and my passion and made it an abundant reality. I would say that the fact that I went from doing a job I hated selling Industrial products to factories to my passion of NFL football is pretty interesting on its own.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
I believe in authenticity and accountability, for both myself in business and the NFL players I talk about and with on my show. This makes me vastly different from other shows. I tell fans what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear. In the case of fantasy football, the truth will really help you win your leagues.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
My Father. When he died unexpectedly 5 years ago it changed my life. At the time I was working a 9–5 hydraulic sales job that paid the bills but left me feeling unfilled. When my father, who I love so much and who inspired me, passed away so suddenly, I realized that it was time to honor him by going after my dreams of entrepreneurship and doing what I love.
Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. We would like to explore and flesh out the trait of resilience. How would you define resilience? What do you believe are the characteristics or traits of resilient people?
If there is one piece of advice I can give to anyone trying to reach greatness, it is that they can never give up. You must keep moving forward. That is what separates the greats from the average. Through my experiences and continued growth, I am constantly faced with new challenges and problems. I have to continually expand my knowledge and persevere to get through them.
Throughout my journey of breaking out of the 9–5 and growing my brand, I have been faced many times with problems that, at the time, seemed very hard to overcome. I found myself going back to the drawing board and figuring out ways to solve them. I had to find ways to increase my “perseverance muscle” and increase my toughness and resilience.
Courage is often likened to resilience. In your opinion how is courage both similar and different to resilience?
Resilience is the ability to keep going, despite obstacles. This takes courage. It takes courage to keep going even when the odds are stacked against you.
When you think of resilience, which person comes to mind? Can you explain why you chose that person?
The First name that comes to mind is Michael Jordan. He would always defy the odds and come out on top. He is a great example that you can be the greatest at what you do and have the mindset to overcome obstacles. His mindset and resilience were second to none.
Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway? Can you share the story with us?
I am told this all the time. I have always been told that I am not good enough, and I feel some people and haters are shocked and a little envious that I even made it this far. I filter the noise out and just keep moving forward. I lost count of how many times people said you can’t do it and I don’t even focus on this. Head down and keep grinding. I don’t care what others think of me.
Did you have a time in your life where you had one of your greatest setbacks, but you bounced back from it stronger than ever? Can you share that story with us?
Similar to the previous question, I have and will continue to have setbacks. These included tough breakups and losses of jobs in the past. They all set me up to find the beautiful wife I am with today and the career that I enjoy and am super passionate about. These setbacks are all a blur to me as I am laser focused on success and obsessed with winning in my field of expertise. Eyes on the prize constantly.
One of my favorite sayings is that a “Setback is a Setup” for better things ahead. Too many setbacks to discuss, but I keep pounding through them and become stronger and better each time.
How have you cultivated resilience throughout your life? Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Can you share a story?
Not having a lot of money growing up was the worst and best thing that happened to me. My father was a blue-collar steel worker and money was always tight. I learned that I had to earn my own money and work hard for every dollar I ever earned. Nothing was ever handed to me and I prefer it that way.
My first job was selling chocolate bars door to door at the age of 13 years old. It was a grind and I got rejected a lot, but always kept knocking. I learned to deal with people and rejection at a young age and it really built up my resiliency muscle quickly.
Resilience is like a muscle that can be strengthened. In your opinion, what are 5 steps that someone can take to become more resilient? Please share a story or an example for each.
Workout
Exercise is the best way to increase not only your physical muscles but also your perseverance muscles. Pushing through a tough workout increases your mental toughness and makes you feel better overall. I set a daily schedule to get a workout in. I find that great business ideas flow to me when I am in a peak state of working out. You will also release endorphins as well. Pushing past your physical boundaries daily will help you overcome almost anything your career throws at you.
Also, setting fitness goals and a schedule to get a workout in conditions you to translate these habits to business. I do suggest that you do a workout you enjoy because that will help keep you coming back each day.
Read
We have all heard the old sayings that “readers are leaders” and “knowledge is power.” This is true to some extent, but to increase your mental toughness you need to hear about people that have overcome adversities and persevered to greatness. I recommend books like Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins, for example. Reading books and consuming content about people who have overcome tough challenges and accomplished great feats will show you that anything is possible.
If you believe it, you can achieve it. Don’t stop in your relentless pursuit for greatness. It helps me to read that others have achieved near-impossible feats.
Meditate and Visualize
I really enjoy doing daily meditation to help me see my goals coming to life. If you can see it in your mind, you can manifest it in your material world. If you have a challenge you are struggling with, guided meditation will help you find ways to overcome it. Guided meditations have worked very well for me. You can start and end your days off with them to achieve a greater effect.
Taking yourself to places in your mind before they happen in reality is a great way to increase your perseverance. When you encounter tougher challenges in reality, your mind has already conquered them in meditation beforehand.
Make Time for Yourself
Yes, I work hard a lot and am constantly on the grind. Yet it is good to take time for yourself to relax and do what you enjoy. For me, it’s going out with my family and playing video games. A positive outlet is great. Going out in nature helps reset my mind, and that gives me more willpower to overcome my current obstacle. Sometimes you have to step back and reevaluate the situation and approach it from a different angle.
No matter how tough the new business or life challenge is, if you are relaxed and refreshed, you will be better able to tackle it.
Eat Right
I truly believe we are what we eat, and I try to eat clean whenever I can. This means preparing meals at home and not eating fast food. I try to stay on top of my vitamins and minerals as well. I function a lot better when I eat right, as I feel unhealthy food and snacks weigh me down.
You might ask how eating healthy helps with perseverance? You must give yourself every positive advantage you can. Being and feeling healthy is the edge you may need.
The bottom line is that when you want to do great things, you will encounter roadblocks. The key to my success is to push through and make it to the other side. Having the will to persevere will help you reach your goals and push through whatever life throws at you.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would say that you need to focus on health, wealth, and relationships. If you can master these three things you will live a very happy life. Get into a routine of exercise and take care of your body and mind. Build yourself to the best version of yourself and attract the right people and love interest.
Then I would suggest putting out content around your passion and offer a product and service to make this world a better place. The key is to enjoy what you do, because life is too short. The movement would be to take action and be the best version of yourself. Set those goals really high and never settle.
We are blessed that some very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them 🙂
I would like to sit down with Joe Rogan. I think he can interview better than anyone else on the planet. He also has the same interests as myself, which include podcasting and MMA. I know that would make for a great conversation.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
If you play or watch sports, or play fantasy football, be sure to check out www.thefantasyfootballcounselor.com for winning advice and the truth in sports! Follow on instagram here as well @fantasyfootballcounselor
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!