IAM1623 – Millennial and Podcaster Creates Thought-Provoking Conversations

Why it was selected for “CBNation Architects”: One of the most impactful things I heard over, and over and over again was the importance of the morning routine and while it seems obvious it is often overlooked. When starting something new and thinking of planning and preparation, don't forget about the morning routine. In addition to coffee and while filling up his cup, meditating and also listening to motivational videos. It was great to have Zack on the show and hear how his brother's autism sparked him and helped him to find his voice and sense of belonging. He also talked about the impact of gratitude in his life.

Check out premium content in the CBNation Library at http://cbnation.co/library and pick up our eBook to hear some of the best lessons at http://cbnation.co/shop.

Previous Episode: https://iamceo.co/2019/04/23/iam253-millennial-and-podcaster-creates-thought-provoking-conversations/

Transcription:

Zack Peter 00:00

One of them is my tenacity. I've always, anytime any wall or obstacle was kind of set up in my way, I've always found a way to kind of navigate around it. I think people that have listened to each of my podcasts know that the past seven months have been extremely challenging with all the new growths and career opportunities and challenges that have come my way.

So I think just staying tenacious and staying true to your gut and your passion will always get you through, anything. 

Intro 00:27 Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you are in search of. This is the I am CEO podcast. 

Gresham Harkless 00:51

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Zach Peter of #NoFilterwithZach Peter, and #AdultingLifeHacks to get your shit together.

Zach it's awesome to have you on the show. 

Zack Peter 01:06

Hi, how are you? 

Gresham Harkless 01:07

I'm doing phenomenal. Phenomenal. And what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Zach so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Zack Peter isn't your average green-juice drinking millennial. As a writer, he has published a total of four books, with work featured on Yahoo!, Men’s Health, Bustle, People, and more.

In between collagen-martinis, you can catch his signature wit and gift-of-gab as host and producer of the hit weekly podcasts, #NoFilter with Zack Peter and #Adulting: Life Hacks to Get Your Sh*t Together. He currently serves as the Executive Director for Jenny McCarthy’s autism foundation, Generation Rescue, and can be regularly seen on POPSUGAR and Maria Menounos’s AfterBuzz TV network.  Zach, are you ready to speak to the I am CEO community? 

Zack Peter 01:49

I am so ready. 

[restrict paid=”true”]

Gresham Harkless 01:51

Awesome. Let's do it. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to start your business?

Zack Peter 01:57

Well, I like to consider myself a millennial hustler, which I know some people may think of as an oxymoron. Cause they don't think of millennials as hustlers. They think of them as lazy or they dismiss them as really insignificant. Or Snapchat obsessed and like, look, let's be real.

I have a ring glide, I like to put on filters. Like I do love taking selfies, but I also like to, spend the other 20 hours in my day working and doing things that fuel me. And for the longest time, growing up, I kind of felt lost. I felt like I didn't really have a voice.

I felt like an outsider or, I just, I never really fit into any of the molds. I was a straight-D student. I was always talking in class, always getting in trouble for talking to other people in the class. Always in detention, and never did my homework. So I was just an outsider, so to speak.

And then eventually my brother was diagnosed with autism and after that I had many siblings by that point, but he was the one that I really struggled to connect with and I wanted to connect with him. And I saw how active and engaged my mother was in helping him with different treatments. And trying to just help him ultimately reach his fullest potential at the end of the day.

And it inspired and motivated me to get involved and I obviously wanted to have a relationship with my brother. So I started to do my own research and through that realized a lot of other families in our community were struggling with the same things. So, I started hosting fundraisers in our local community.

It started with a fundraiser called Plan for Autism which started 10 years ago this month. 

Gresham Harkless 03:30

Awesome.

Zack Peter 03:30

Ironically, and ever since then, I just knew that I wanted to help people, I knew that I enjoyed talking. Obviously, it's part of what put me in detention for a really long time, and I just knew that once I found my voice, which was through the advocacy work for autism, I was like, okay, now you're not gonna shut me up.

And I just kept going and paved the way ever since. 

Gresham Harkless 03:50

I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and hear a little bit more about your podcast and some of the other things that you're doing. 

Zack Peter 03:55

Yeah, it's really funny. I started my very first podcast when I was 15, 10 years ago. I was on my cell phone taped in my bedroom through like an online software called Blog Talk Radio, and I did it for maybe about a year and a half.

And after that I was like, I'm never gonna do this again. Like, this is just not, it's not my thing. Only to find out a few years later, I ended up doing a couple of web shows on YouTube, and then eventually one of the web shows that I really loved and enjoyed. It was like a talk show and then ended up getting canceled by the production company that we were with and the co-host that I was with.

But I really enjoy hosting and I really wanna do another show. So I ended up talking to a couple of different radio stations at the time about doing a show with them. I didn't really wanna get back into radio or audio. Eventually, there was an opportunity to do my own podcast, which was #Nofilter with Zach Peter, which I think will be, I think we've just, or we're just completing our fourth year of the show.

Gresham Harkless 04:54

Awesome. 

Zack Peter 04:55

And that really just started as me wanting to host my own show and have really thought-provoking conversations with people that I thought were really interesting. I loved pop culture, I loved the news, I loved a lot of people on TV and different reality shows, people that I was fascinated with what have built.

On social media and eventually, that's kind of what #nofilters, what Zach Peter became is its candid conversations with TV personalities and social media stars. We drink, we play games, we have fun, and we just have very thought-provoking conversations, which I enjoy and it's a job that I get to do every week that pays my bills that I love.

Gresham Harkless 5:32

Yeah. 

Zack Peter 05:33

And last year came another opportunity to host a second podcast with my friend Nikki Sharp, who I love and is another badass boss, babe, and millennial hustler. And we met through a wellness festival and we just vibed. I invited her on no filter and she had a great time. I invited her on like two more times and a couple of my other guests had canceled and she filled in and we just had a very nice dynamic in chemistry.

We decided to do #Adulting, which is really focused on having thought leaders and experts come on the show and asking them questions about how we can, in our twenties and early thirties, get our shit together. 

Gresham Harkless 06:11

There you go. And then we all are on that process of getting our shit together. Yeah. So that's why that name sticks well, and we also had Nikki on our podcast as well too.

Yeah. So she is a badass, I think that's the correct phrase that I would define her ass. I definitely would echo that. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for you or your podcast. Or anything that you're working on, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Zack Peter 06:33 I've always been really two things. I actually think one of them is my tenacity. I've always, you know, anytime any wall or obstacle was kind of set up in my way, I've always found a way to navigate around it. I think people that have listened to each of my podcasts know that the past seven months have been extremely challenging with all new growths, and career opportunities and challenges that have kind of come my way.

So I think staying tenacious and staying true to your gut and your passion will always get you through anything. And then I think, one thing that is lacking, especially with the millennial community, cause I feel like there is a bit of entitlement that I come across with other people, other peers in my age range, is gratitude.

I feel like I wake up every morning and I'm so damn grateful that I have a paycheck, that I have a beautiful home that I can live in. And I know that in two seconds this can all be gone. It can all be taken away. You know, an earthquake can come and destroy my home and I have it today.

And I feel like that is so important and crucial because it keeps you humble. And I feel like every opportunity that come my way, sometimes it's taken a lot longer. Sometimes it's taken 10 years to get to where I'm at, but you know, by staying humble, staying grounded, and just being grateful, there's an opportunity or something in front of me today, I think that has been the true secret sauce to why I've been able to be successful so young.

Gresham Harkless 07:54

Want to drill down a little bit deeper. Do you feel like that's something that, you know, millennials or even not even just millennials, people that don't, you know, understand the act of being gracious for things and having that gratitude, is that something that they can develop or how do you have that gratitude muscle, so to speak. 

Zack Peter 08:10

I think it is a muscle, and like with any muscle, like when you're going to the gym, you're trying to get those ads for your Snapchat, like gratitude is a muscle and it takes constant practice. I mean, I think our culture and our society has defined gratitude as Thanksgiving, which is nothing like, people aren't even thankful on thanksgiving.

It's a glut in this holiday about consumption, black Friday and eating all the turkey and mashed potatoes and you know, we've gotten the branding of what gratitude means. Off, and I feel like it's something that you have to work on every day. One thing that I really love that Nikki does is a gratitude journal.

I don't personally journal every single day, but I do wake up and when I catch myself being overwhelmed, I like to just kind of check myself and be like, okay. What are three things that you're grateful for right now? It doesn't have to be big. They can be simple. They can be that I'm grateful for a job, they can be I'm grateful that I have money in my bank account to go and have dinner with my mom tonight. Like simple little things or grand things, you know, whatever it is, just check in with yourself and, and be grateful for the little things throughout the day as. The chaos kind of comes up and it grounds you and, and you develop that muscle.

Gresham Harkless 09:17

Absolutely. I love that it puts everything in perspective, so. 

Zack Peter 09:21

Absolutely. 

Gresham Harkless 09:21

I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And you might have already touched on this, but this is something that you feel like makes you more effective and efficient. 

Zack Peter 09:29

Something that makes me more effective and efficient. I think anyone that follows me knows that I'm a big coffee addict, so I'm consuming caffeine way too much. But, something a little more practical, I would say your morning routine. I like to always start my morning either with a 10-minute meditation and I like to just go on YouTube and listen to 10 minutes. In your day like that's how long it takes for your coffee to brew. So like a 10-minute meditation, or even just listening to a really inspirational or positive, uplifting podcast. I think those are two really good things that help you get your day started on the right foot and help set your mindset for what is to come ahead.

You know, any challenge that's to come up or any celebration that's to come up. It just puts you in the right mindset. So always start your day with something that's an investment in your own kind of mindset and, personal growth. 

Gresham Harkless 10:24

Yeah, absolutely. And like you touched on, like having that and doing that every single day, it starts to propel you.

And then days start to become weeks, weeks start to become months, months start to become years and all of a sudden you are hitting those goals. 

Zack Peter 10:36

Absolutely. I think meditation is probably one of the most underdeveloped. It's growing a little more now, but I think one of the underdeveloped things for successful business owners or entrepreneurs or CEOs, you're starting to see it grow a lot more.

But I also wanna touch on the fact that like, I'm not, the person like Nikki Sharp can go and meditate probably for an hour on a rooftop and with silence. I'm not that type of person. I'm somebody that can do a 10-minute YouTube video, or one thing that I really like to do is, I'll play a meditation as I'm going to sleep.

So it's kind of continuing to stay in my brain, even as I fall asleep. I get to hear it and they're probably about two hours long, but I'm usually asleep within that first 15 minutes. So they're easy ways to kind of fit it into your schedule if you don't have a lot of time where you're not gonna be sitting on a rooftop for an hour in a cross-legged position.

Gresham Harkless 11:26

No, that makes perfect sense. And I'm not the type to do that either. So I have not done an hour meditation and as soon as I did the 10-minute one, some days I'm like, okay, I need to do just the minute one. So yeah, let me figure out how I can do that. 

Zack Peter 11:37

Whatever works for you.

Gresham Harkless 11:38

Exactly. Exactly. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self 

Zack Peter 11:48

To stop stressing about it not working out? Because at the end of the day, just kind of look at your track record.

You've always made it. Like today, you're still here. Everything that you thought you weren't gonna make it through before you've continued to push through. You've continued to overcome even the things that you thought were gonna break you or the things that did break you for a minute. Whether that was a heartbreak, whether that was a career setback, whether that was getting fired, whether that was, you know, failing your test in high school, whatever that was.

You've made it through every single obstacle. So trust that you're gonna continue to make it through those obstacles. Cause you have that potential within yourself. So anytime you're going through anything challenging or you're struggling, or you feel like you know, the timing's not quite there yet, just keep trusting that you're on the right path and keep pursuing the thing that drives you and fuels you at the end of the day.

Gresham Harkless 12:35

Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of times you can look at, you know, some of the small wins or things that you've done in the past and understand that you did trust the process. You did continue to follow through, just like you said. So you did those. I think it's hard.

Zack Peter 12:46

Sometimes the shit storm is so overwhelming that you're just like, I really don't know how I'm gonna get through this.

You know, I've been through a lot of those times and it's really just about being like, okay, I can't control everything today. I kind of just need to take this day, hour by hour, and follow my schedule and maybe be a little robotic for these next few hours just to get through it.

But I'm gonna get through it and you will. And then you'll come out on the other side and you'll be like, that wasn't as terrible as I thought it was gonna be. And you've developed all of those other muscles and all of those other skills to kind of level up. 

Gresham Harkless 13:17

Yeah, I absolutely love that, and especially in perspective, because a lot of times something seems so overwhelming, but like you said, to drill down and say, what can I do at this hour?

What can I do in this minute to propel myself in order to hop so that I can reach that level or that success, whatever that is, or get through that thing? And then a lot of times she can look back and say, ‘Hey, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was.'

Zack Peter 13:37

1000%. 

Gresham Harkless 13:38

Awesome. Awesome, awesome. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO.

And we're hoping to have different quote unquote, CEOs on this show. So, Zach, I wanted to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you? 

Zack Peter 13:49

Being a CEO to me is kind of being the curator of your own life. You know, being a CEO, I think traditionally meant starting at an entry-level job, working your way up to the top of a company, and it was a big company like At&t or like one of those mega empire brands.

And now being a CEO really is just being in charge of your own life. If you're waking up every day, you're fulfilled, you're happy, your bills are being paid, and you have money to enjoy yourself, you're a CEO. You're the master of your life today, so as long as you know you're waking up, you're fulfilled, and you're living the life that makes you truly happy, then I think you're the CEO of your own life.

Gresham Harkless 14:27

Absolutely. I would definitely echo that as well too. So Zach, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out. What I want to do is pass you the mic just to see if there's anything additional we want to let our readers and our listeners know, and then of course, how they can find you, find out more about you, and of course subscribe to your podcast.

Zack Peter 14:41

Yeah, I would like you said, I have two podcasts. Right now one's called #NoFilter with Zach Peter, and one's called #Adulting Scene Life Hacks to get your shit together. I think they kind of complement each other. Adulting comes out on Tuesdays, no filter comes out on Wednesdays and you know, no, no filter.

I like to say is for the pop culture junkie that wants a little life advice. But ultimately is gonna be enjoying a glass of wine and watching Grow Housewives at the end of the day. And adulting, you know, it's more of the mind-numbing one that kind of makes you think about things a little differently, but you're still kinda having fun.

And then adulting is more of the practical lifestyle or wellness or career advice and tips, like concrete things that you can take notes and, and take away to kind of conquer your day. So definitely I put everything into those shows. They bring me joy and like, look, I started out as the kid that always ended up in detention for talking to all my other classmates and now I have two amazing podcasts that are iTunes top charting and have great reviews and amazing guests.

We just finished taping the third season of adulting. We have, like Jillian Michaels, Dr. Drew Pinsky, we have a lot of really great guests this season and, and prior season. So stay tuned cause that's coming out in late April. 

Gresham Harkless 15:50

Nice, nice, nice. Absolutely love it. Converting what you used to get in trouble with in school into what you're doing on a day-to-day basis.

That's definitely the American dream, I think. So, Zach, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day. And we'll make sure to have all those links and all that information that show notes as well too so that anybody can follow up. 

Zack Peter 16:10

Awesome. Thank you.

Outro 16:11

Thank you for listening to the I am CEO podcast, powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. 

Grab our CEO gear www.ceogear.co. This has been the I am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

[/restrict]