Welcome to the daily grind podcast everybody. I'm your host Colin Morgan. Listen, are you tired not living a fulfilling life? Do you believe you deserve more?
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Kurek Ashley Kurek. Welcome. How are you today? I am fantastic and very honored to be on the podcast with you Colin Absolutely super excited you're here Kurek is an internationally renowned speaker author and coach in the field of self-development and spiritual growth and is recognized as a premier expert in Personal and professional development self-discovery and peak performance his number one best-selling book How would love respond has transformed the lies of hundreds of thousands of people all over the world for over 30 years?
Fortune 500 companies and major corporations around the world such as Apple, Seagate, Schwarzkopt, West End hotels, the Australian Royal Air Force and Carlton United Brewery hire Kurek to teach them tactical success strategies that have produced awe inspiring results his list of private clients include Hollywood film and TV stars Movie directors producers and cinematographers a quintuple platinum rock band hit music composers top business leaders oil executives and Kuwait Olympic gold medalist professional athletes and sports teams the list just goes on and on He is the creator and founder of the life success club that brings together a community of like-minded positive success driven people from all over the world Tony Robbins has even said Kurek you truly are the embodiment of the word outstanding Kurek again This is absolutely amazing that you're here with us today if you could share with us a little bit more about who you are and maybe for those who are Unfamiliar with you talk to us about what you do Sure well Colin first I'm talking to you from Australia where I live love it if people listening though That's not even close to an Australian accent and by the way people here in Australia say the same thing to me I've been here for 20 years but I was born and raised in Chicago and then when I was 18 years old I moved to Los Angeles and because I was an actor since I was 12 years old and then got in the movie industry and had worked I've worked in over 38 movies and also did over 500 movies behind the camera is a key and Dali grip and different departments on the crew So but I've left that behind and you know even back then though since I guess high school I've been coaching and teaching people about how do you follow your dreams and how do you achieve those things and you know What brought me to Australia was a company that asked me to save their business Which I did but they they actually never paid me and left me stranded here And so now I was actually homeless in two countries at the same time because I couldn't even actually fly back to the States to be homeless So I decided to just kind of kick in the gear and do what I do and teach you know really what I teach other people to do and at that point I was doing some free seminars to make some money from a paid seminar that I was selling people into and at one of those free seminars I happen to ask the audience who here remembers the person who stands on the third box at the Olympics I mean everybody ever rush out to buy your book think and how'd you get third? Yeah, anyways workshops over woman stands up. She goes I was on the third box at the Olympics. I said oh wow Yeah, here we go and she said you know, I'm Natalie Cook I won bronze medal for Beach volleyball at the Atlanta Olympics She said, you know, I know you have the skills and tools I need to get what we want we take me to Sydney to win the gold medals And so for the next two and a half years I worked with the girls and on September 25, 2000 We beat the best team in the world at that time known as the Brazilians and walked home with the gold medals And so I've been here ever since wow what an amazing story and you know I'm interested to know during your you know say acting career Were you involved also in in businesses or is this something that you picked up sort of after that was over?
Well, it's a great question come because you know, I've always had the entrepreneurial spirit. Yeah, so I'll tell you a great story about that But you know I've tried all kinds of different businesses including when I was a you know, a really young kid I used to from the back of comic books I got into the American seed company Which is you know, you you know you order that they send you a box of flour and vegetable seeds and you go knock on doors And you sell these packets of seeds for 25 cents And then you can get all kinds of either prizes or you can make some money and whatever and I used to do it every year for I don't know probably four or five years and would always sell out and get these little nifty gadgets like a movie projector or something like that So I've always had that spirit, but I've never really had anybody in my family that my dad, you know He was in construction. He was a you know, a project manager, but never really owned a company So I didn't have any mentors like that yet My my desire was is that I was gonna be somebody who would be the owner or be the entrepreneur not really be an employee because that concept Just never worked for me that you work for 30 years in the same cubicle Staring at the walls. I would have hung myself.
Yeah, and so but I've had so many businesses that have failed Including one that was called fan hands, which was this, you know It was this product that I created that I thought you could work out anywhere and I don't have to go into details of it But you know, I had home shopping network on board and you know people who do Tony Robbins infomercial and all this stuff And they were all excited about it And then I finally made a prototype and found out that it didn't actually work at all It kind of was backwards on that but my enthusiasm and my passion is what got so many people interested in it They didn't even ask me if it worked or not. Yeah Interesting and sort of going back a little bit you had mentioned about working with that Olympian and you worked with the whole team Didn't you in that process? Well, yes on beach volleyball. There's only two girls.
Okay, so I worked with Nat and Kerry the two players Steve Anderson the head skills coach or the head coach I would say and then Phil Portland who was the physical trainer and we were known as the dream machine and You know, the thing is that Steve was the same coach that took him to win bronze at Atlanta He's actually an American as well. Okay, and you know, it was one of those things that when they first asked me I said yes, then they walked away to go talk to somebody else for a moment I'm thinking dude, what did you just say you have no idea how to do this? You know, I've never done it before and I just said hey Kirk look man All you gotta know is a couple things number one is where you're starting number two is where do you want to go? And the third thing is is what's the first step?
Yeah, you know, you don't have to have this big elaborate plan because a lot of times it doesn't go to plan and rarely does it ever go to plan So that's a waste of time. It's just what's next step and then the next step and the next step and through that process You know, we actually won the gold medals and the cool part of the story Calling is that it was a sport that nobody really cared about because it was beach volleyball was kind of a frivolous sport in those days And it once we got there in the momentum We created an immediate attention that we drew and all the rest of those things It was rated as the most exciting event in the 2000 Olympics here in Australia Was the women's beach volleyball finals and the whole country literally stopped to watch it I mean the prime minister actually approached me at an event afterwards and said that they stopped parliament To watch the game and I'm thinking that's kind of inappropriate, but anyways Yeah, and it really was and now the girls are hall of famers Australian order of merit. They have posted stamps with their pictures on it. They have best-selling authors They still to this day are legends in Australia in its 17 years since the 2000 Olympics and you know, they still get paid for the personal appearances and all those things It's it's amazing.
Yeah, it's absolutely amazing And it's probably a great story to be able to work with such high-level athletes like that And I know that you were sort of employed so to speak to help them with the coaching But I was wondering they probably taught you a lot about yourself in that process as well Well, you know everybody teaches me something, you know, because everybody has a gift column You know and the thing is that if you're if your mind is I'm the teacher and I'm here to the priest everybody else Well, that's not really much of a teacher the best teachers or experts I guess in life are the ones who are ongoing students And so, you know, I I look for the gift in everybody and the funny thing is when you look for it, you find it It's actually biblical. You know seeking out. You'll find is that you know, I just have my eyes open And you know, even I even go to speakers presentations and workshops and some of them The speakers are quite poor at their skill set for speaking But that doesn't shut my mind down to what I can get out of the program or some I've been to some programs where I actually personally don't like the speaker But that doesn't mean I won't I'm not willing to learn from them because I can see they're experts in what they're teaching I might not personally approve of the person but I can separate the teacher from the teachings Interesting, very interesting. It sounds like that's been a big part of your life You know people around you learning and I'm interested to know sort of at that time of transition where you had mentioned that you were homeless in two countries So at that time, you're probably like, what am I going to do?
I was wondering what sort of daily behaviors you had and what you implemented in order to teach you that that new skill and become this You know speaker and author an amazing person that you are now Well, thank you. You know, the funny thing is I was already speaking I was already doing all kinds of stuff before that and it just um, you know, I've even had a bigger tragedy than that in my life and You know, I'll share that with you in a moment But what happened was is finally when I I was able to rent a room from a woman who had an apartment here in Brisbane, Australia Um, it was costing me like $60 a week. So you can imagine, you know, the level of place time Um, living out, but it was just a room and it was tiny I have a bathroom my house now that's bigger than that room and I had a I had a very large desk And uh in a single like a military cotton there, you know, I mean, it's just a small bed And when I was asked by somebody, you know, why do you have such a big desk in a small bed? I said, well, I don't spend four hours a day in the bed, but that desk is my business and it's gonna get me out of here Um, and all around me.
I just wrote on pieces of colored paper Um, inspirational sayings and things that keep me on board because the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your communication And so, you know, I and by the way, thinking is you communicating with yourself And so, you know, just to have that consistent communication surrounding me that it filled my mind Because Napoleon Hill who wrote Thinking Grow Rich said that the dormant mind is a devil's workshop So if you're not actively putting in your mind, that's gonna take you forward The garbage will seep in there and it will create havoc and chaos in your life And so, you know, I just surrounded myself with it and then every morning still to this day, you know, I get up I read my goals every day. I have some affirmations that I do every day. I do some meditation I do some exercise And when people tell me, well, curic, you know, I don't have a life like you, you know, I'm like a kids and I got a business and I got a stuff I don't have time for that Well, that's kind of like saying, you know, I'm so busy flying my plane I don't have time to put fuel in it. Yeah, well, your plane crashes and so does your life And so, you know, that's priority one for me is to exercise what I call your four main muscle groups, which is physical obviously mental Emotional and spiritual you got to work those every day because if you don't use it, you lose it And it's the key distinction column between successful people and the masses, you know By the way, the masses are also using the most consumed drug on a planet known as antidepressants Yep, and so if you want to separate yourself in that group and get rewards that most people don't get in life The key distinction is to manage how you think and feel differently than how they are and even probably how you wear yourself at one time Because everybody goes through the same stuff, you know, we all go through hard times and we go through economic challenges And we have death and whatever, you know, it happens But it's now what do you do with it?
And if you don't manage how you think and feel well, you become a victim to it because it's going to dictate what you do Absolutely, I think that's such a powerful message and I had one person I had on here His name was Rod Kleeff and he mentioned something similar what you said and one thing I took from it He said that people spend more time planning their their grocery list than they do their lives Yeah, and it's or they want to Story but there's no life in their story. It's a story Absolutely, and I like what you said about having you have to work on yourself first and foremost I mean you work on yourself then those things that you want will start coming to fruition more and more You know Colin, it's the best investment you can ever make that's gonna create that you get returns is personal development working on yourself You know when I was homeless Living in my car in Los Angeles by the way being homeless here wasn't the first time I've been homeless many times And you know, I created a friendship with a gentleman that you may know who he is his name so best or still own Since the 1980s because his best friend Who their roommates in college still to this day their best friend's matter of fact is and his name's john herself He just finished a wrecking slide in the movie literally this week and um John became my mentor my mr. Miyaki from the karate kid when I was 18 years old and he introduced me to slide And slide would have me up at the south for christmas and parties and all and stuff and people would say Why do you got to work up here? I mean the guy's a loser and he's homeless or he's broke or whatever You know, I'd be like I'm standing right here.
I can actually hear you And then they're like I don't hear you're a loser man And so I said you had no idea who this kid is man in his head. He already is a success It's just a matter of time in which is results will catch up with his mindset Yes And you know the funny thing Colin is anybody who's ever succeeding life It's always started as a visionary thought You know that in our head we hold that thought so consistently of who we're going to be and what we're going to create And that stuff that you can't convince us that we're not because we put it in there so consistently that we buy into it and we believe it And all that time that I've been homeless so you know the library in those days It was my favorite place to hang out because first it was air-conditioned And you could sit there and you could actually fall asleep at a book in your lap You know and have some safety um at a drinking fountain and all that stuff, but man those books I couldn't afford to buy them and they'd let me borrow them for free And man that was I go my only way out of this is to develop myself because in order for things to change I got to change the world's not gonna change I got to do it And then I would find a way to buy that book not from the library obviously But I'd find a way to buy the book because I wanted to highlight in it right in the margins and you know It's still to this day even in my homeless days I have a library and a lot of those books that I bought back then are still in my library with those original markings in them Wow Wow and I know you had mentioned you know obviously you've been through a lot And if you don't mind sharing that story of say the biggest personal struggle that you've had to overcome Whether it be your your homeless or another story if you could share with us that story and how you were able to overcome that Sure, it was uh 1989 I was just finished a movie lock-up with Sylvester Sloan And now I'm on wait in the Philippines to go to a movie called Delta Force to a Chuck Norris Okay, now I got to tell you when you're 27 years old Colin and you're a young man You know and you get to work with two of the big action is you know big action stars of the world and fly and Chuck You know, I mean like I'm on top of the world plus They dress me up like a commando They give me a real live machine gun with blanks in it all day long You're firing machine guns and throwing hand grenades and I'm in helicopter with the m60 And every time I get in the helicopter and it takes off during filming I get paid an extra 400 So a lot of days we're doing 15 to 20 flights a day I mean, I'm just you know for a guy who you know was making no money at one time to a guy who's getting money like that It's a whole different life stuff. Yeah, I'm saying Fly me to lunch and And so it was a friday I'd already done about 15 or 20 flights at some very hairy stunts in the chopper Hairraising, I mean like and now we're on top of this palatial These grounds uh this lawn of this palatial mansion that the marco's family built as a summer home for themselves And it's on the rim of an extinct volcano crater in a place called tagatai city And it you know goes down like 1000 feet to this lake down there and there's a resort And then on the other side there's bluffs and mountains and jungles and monkeys. I mean, it's amazing You know as a cockboy getting experience this and all the way to do for this scene is go up 15 feet Shoot two lines of dialogue and then it's party time and vanilla because it's the weekend And you know get to hang out with Chuck Norris and he'll buy you a beer and stuff and you know And I couldn't tell you the cool thing is about you know chucky such a nice guy that When he takes you out for a beer you almost pray that a bar fight will break out because you just want to see this guy in action But um, you know, so we go up about two feet in a chopper and it's hovering for a moment and the cameraman Shifts the camera where he's getting a shot.
He's trying to get his angle that he wants him I realized I'm not being photographed. I asked him body goes. Nope. You're on a frame I stepped out of the chopper.
The other door gunner stepped out Chopper goes up 15 feet drifts out over the edge of the mountain the engine has mechanical malfunction and shuts off And it knows dives over a thousand feet down the side of the mountain And uh, I was the first person to reach the wreck and start pulling bodies out and vehicles are coming down to help out and my best friend Mike Graham the key grip Was 29 years old and I pulled him out when he was completely on fire He was the chopper versus the flames and he died in my arms on the way to the hospital and for the next and I lost Five of my friends that day and for the next two and a half years I had a Three 57 Smith and wasn't pistol in my mouth with every night and drugs up my nose and Drinking booze and cigarettes and you know all that stuff and I wasn't partying. I was just trying to kill myself. Yeah, luckily I'm not a success at everything in life And so one day I just woke up and I realized that your life's not your own You know, there's people who love you and look up to you and care about you and you know, they're not helping you up You're dragging them down because there's negative energy is a much heavier denser energy than positive energy is And you know, you know, you have 15 scoops of sugar in your tea and it just makes sweet tea But you never want to drop a poison. It will kill you.
Yeah, so you see it's much heavier in denser So I drew a line in the sand with a broom pole where broomstick and said once I stepped over his line I'm done and at that day I gave up cocaine and cigarettes and alcohol abuse. I gave all my guns away Not that just people wondering on the street obviously, but um and you know that moment of decision Is what changed my life and people asked me about that, you know, they said um, how'd you do it? I go, you know, you got to get to the place. We were done.
I'm done. I'm done being fat. I'm done being poor I'm done being broke. I'm just done because until you get there you're complacent.
You're accepting it And since and then after that, it's about being consistent to your decision Where you got to stay with it every day every day and work on yourself and there's that personal development again And I brought myself not only back But you know my life today is a testament to that decision-making process because you know, you follow the line and it takes You to write where I am today is just staying with that and and the people I help these days who Go through trauma, you know, they realize I'm the real deal. I didn't learn this in a book I learned this from the life experience Yeah, and I appreciate you sharing that story. I mean, I have no idea I've never been in a situation like that, but the perseverance and obviously you had to go through a ton In order to overcome that or not necessarily overcome that but get through it to a point where you know You made a new decision to move on and start pursuing this new life of yours And it's just a real real inspiring story Thank you. You know in Colin, there's people who got way worse stories in me, you know, I mean I've worked with people who've lost their children or you know, I mean, I can't imagine losing my kids You know, I don't know how you'd make it after that But the thing is that you know, your life doesn't have to be in the toilet to make it better You know, you don't have to go through a tragedy to make you know to turn it around and a lot of people go Oh god, it's guys like you life was had this big tragedy that now you're on stage and you're amazing unlike wait a minute A lot of people didn't make it you just didn't hear their stories because the gun went off or the drugs killed them or something You know, they didn't make it and learned from other people's stories, you know perceive your own life You know at the end of your life that you didn't make it that you didn't follow your dreams You wound up, you know unhappy and unhealthy and look at that and go now.
I'm not going that route I'm going to different. It's like Scrooge, you know, Scrooge, you know Was acting a certain way and all of a sudden he saw that goes to the future and he saw that life And he's like no, I'm not doing that and chains his path and you can do the same thing for yourself without having to go through the tragedy I mean, don't don't ask for stuff. You don't want absolutely and I know you had mentioned earlier on in in this episode You had sort of a mr. Miyagi.
Was it was a John the name? Yes, John Herzville He's the FELD. Yeah, so he just finished directing a sly in a movie called Escape Plan 3 not who's not even out yet. I don't think but he just did three and Yeah, so slides went all over instagram and stuff with photos of him and john and videos and stuff So it's great.
It's great to see because they're best of friends. That's amazing. I'm working together It's awesome. Yeah, yeah, so kind of during that period when he was sort of around you and he was a big influence What was one of the core messages that you've taken with you and throughout your journey?
That's a great question Colin. Oh, you're awesome at the interviewing thing You know john said to me first he forced me to read think and grow rich in 1980 And he would call me up from the studios every day. What page are you on? And you know, I mean this guy really held me to a higher standard yet john always said to me said, you know, curk Everybody in life gets a shot, you know that you're success that you're you know, you're big change he said but Your shot is not going to look like it what you think it is.
It's not going to be big and grandiose It may be you know a person you bump into or something that happens that doesn't seem like it's your shot But it turns into your shot and so it's all going to come down to what do you do with your shot And so you'll always have to be treating everything and everyone around you as if this is it Yeah, and you gotta you know, you know, you know in my sense. I study I keto for the last 10 years I'm just about to get my black belt in wow my sense I always says is the way that you participate the way that you practice is the way that you'll participate And he says, you know, you need to be prepared for battle now. Not when the battle starts. Yes, you know That's a little too late to start training and so it's you know You see you put those messages together and it's like always you know always be working on yourself always conduct yourself In a way in which everything's your shot and it just doors start opening and things start happening, you know And john by the way, I met when I was working at a health club I'm trying to you know, uh feed myself in 1980 And he wanted me to train him and um and then asked me to help him move And then somebody had spray painted his wooden fence in front of his house with some Anti-semitic things not john's, you know Jewish descent and it really panicked them So for a month from midnight, you know till six in the morning I sat out in my car in front of his house waiting for the person to come back to catch him Yeah, and that's how I really got to know john But because of my enthusiasm and he saw this spirit in me That's when he took me under his wing and started raising me so to speak and for the next 13 years I was as assistant.
I've done like eight or nine movies with john He introduced me to john travolta who I became great friends with um the rest of those things and um You know gave me my first movie which was two of a kind with john travolta and living in john Um, yeah, so it's as you see it it is the truth that you know You know you got to treat everything in life like it's your shot and the funny thing is you'll be prepared for it and doors will open I love that. I think that's such a powerful message there And you know anyone who's out there listening take that in because this is something this episode You can take a lot from and this question I I'm super excited to ask you because you've been through a lot you've had so many experiences ups and downs And I always ask if you could go back in time, you know You can pick the age go back in time say a young curic if you could offer a young cure at one piece of advice What would that be and why? It would be calling us to be happy. Yeah, um, you know buddha said there is no way to happiness happiness is the way It's not something you achieve.
It's a decision you make and you know Just be happy because that is the purpose of life It's to just enjoy this life because if you do that at the end of your life You want if you're not you got to do it all over again But you're gonna step in all the same piles of poo and you're gonna go through all the same stuff You're gonna go through Um, and it's that's true mastery and it takes you back to what I said earlier It's about math, you know really managing how you think and feel So a number of years ago I was in singapore and I sold out the indoor stadium Um for one of my programs and then the promoters literally stopped payment of the checks when I was on the plane flying home And you know they ripped me off for $250,000 And people said but you're not even upset and I said you might get my money, but you don't get my happiness Those things aren't connected and that's just something I've learned through life is that you know, um when you're happy It's easy to go back and achieve things You know because first you're just in an energy, but if you're gonna let it affect your emotions It's really hard to come back and the ultimate goal for everything is happiness I mean why do you want the money or the car or the relationship you think it's gonna make you happy It's not the thing is if you're happy you'll get the house you'll get the car you get the relationship Um, it's the energy that attracts it all and happiness is the way That's amazing. Now kurik. What is the best way for our audience to connect with you learn more get to know more about who you are Oh, thanks for that cone. It's uh, you know easy is kurikashley.com k u r e k a s h l y dot com On there.
There's a free 10 day course called get out of your bad mood, which is about how do you manage how you think and feel? It's a real course when you read the comments on it by far the most heartfelt Wonderful comments. I've ever read on a program and I'm really honored by that It's completely free and it's you know, but you'll see there's videos and blogs and all that stuff You know, it's always about helping people If you write me my emails kurik at kurikashley.com if you're right, I actually write back You know, but I don't have esp so if you need help, I I can't guess that one And then facebook and you know those things. I'm always a bill fantastic.
I will share all those links go visit kurikashley.com Take advantage of that course. I can tell you I've been on his website. I've looked a whole bunch of his stuff What an amazing inspiring person. I want to thank you so much for coming on the show again here today kurik My pleasure.
Thanks. And anytime you need me, I'd be honored and you know, call it if you send me your postal address on a private message I'd be honored to send you a copy of my book and have you read it. That's fantastic I will definitely take advantage of that and as you can see everyone success is driven by passion hunger and today happiness Everyone has to overcome obstacles. Everyone has a story start building yours today We had the chance again to talk to kurikashley kurik again.
It was an honor to have you come on the show Oh, you're legend calling and uh, congratulations on your show and I can tell you're just from how you're running it It's gonna be a major success I appreciate that very much and until next time everyone call him organ signing off and always remember keep on grinding