Prepare to be inspired by the incredible story of Justin Schenck, who, despite a 1.7 GPA, a mother addicted to opioids, and a father incarcerated, defied all odds to become a global inspiration. Justin's journey from rock bottom to top-rated podcaster is a story you don't want to miss!

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Who Is This For?

Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a podcast enthusiast, or simply someone seeking a little motivation, Justin's story offers actionable insights and a compelling reason to keep pushing forward.

What's It All About?

In this riveting episode, Kevin Lowe sits down with Justin Schenck to dive into his incredible journey from facing personal and family struggles to becoming a top influencer and entrepreneur. Kicking off with humorous banter and quickly moving to profound insights, the discussion takes listeners through pivotal moments that shaped Justin's life and career. From his mother’s battle with opioid addiction to his own period of self-destructive behavior, Justin’s story is an important reminder that no matter how far gone you feel you are, you can always get back on track.

Key Themes

Exploring themes like the importance of having a vision, taking control of one's destiny, and the transformative power of intentional action, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways for anyone who listens. Justin shares how he leveraged podcasting as a medium to build genuine relationships and create lasting impact. His candid recounting of his rock bottom moment and the steps he took to rise above it are truly inspiring.

Key Takeaways

• Power of Self-Awareness: Justin emphasizes how self-awareness and understanding what you don't want are crucial in charting a successful path.
• Value of Relationships: Building genuine connections through podcasting has been instrumental in both Justin's personal and professional growth.
• Declaring and Overcoming Rock Bottom Moments: Identifying and declaring rock bottom moments can serve as a powerful launching pad for future success and personal transformation.
• Designing a Purpose-Driven Life: Justin shares his approach to creating a life centered around impact, not just income, emphasizing work-life balance.

Standout Quotes

1. "The key to getting to the next level is acceptance. Accept the fact that you are exactly where you're supposed to be."
2. "Having a vision of where I wanted to go, even though it was a blurry vision at the time, was key to my resilience and success."
3. "Podcasting has become the greatest vehicle for me to meet inspiring, amazing people and build genuine relationships."
4. "If you can declare this as your rock bottom moment, that becomes the launching pad for everything you're going to create in the future."
5. "I work to live; I don't live to work. Designing my life around the things that bring joy and impact has been my secret to happiness."

Links & Resources

• Justin Schenck on Instagram: @JustinTSchenck
• Justin Schenck on Facebook: @JTSchenck
• Growth Now Movement with Justin Schenck on Apple Podcasts or simply search for "Growth Now Movement" on your favorite podcast app.
• Growth Now Movement with Justin Schenck: YouTube Channel
• Growth Now Summit Live: BUY YOUR TICKET
• Justin Schenck's Company: PodBrand.io
• Book Mentioned: Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson

Today's Awesome Guest

Justin Schenck is an entrepreneur, speaker, and the host of the top-rated podcast the Growth Now Movement. He has been named a Top 8 Podcaster to follow by INC Magazine, featured in Thrive Global, and chosen as an ‘Icon of Influence’ in the new media space.

Justin’s podcast has grown to become a podcast that is currently getting played in over 100 countries every single week, and he has gone on to help countless people grow their brands and businesses with his company PodBrand.io. He is also the host and creator of one of the go-to events for entrepreneurs and forward thinkers: Growth Now Summit LIVE!

Hey, it's Kevin!

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© 2024 Grit, Grace, & Inspiration

0:00:38 - (Kevin Lowe): Just realize this, that you're about to be taken on a journey of discovering how Justin was able to overcome the odds stacked against him to get him to where he is today. My friend, this is an interview you do not want to miss.

0:00:55 - (Kevin Lowe): This is episode 312. Yo.

0:01:27 - (Kevin Lowe): Justin Shake. Welcome to the podcast, man.

0:01:39 - (Kevin Lowe): Absolutely, dude. I agree 100%. Well, man, I want to start things off. I want to dive into your full kind of journey you've been on, and I would love just kind of start with kind of an interesting question, and you will kind of see where it takes us is, when you kind of look back on this journey that you've been on, what do you feel like? Was that one moment in time, that one event that really was that spark that ended up setting you on the path that's led you to where you are today?

0:02:38 - (Justin Schenck): And it was in that moment for me that, uh, I started to reflect back on life a little bit more. Right. And what ended up happening when she passed away is I went on a three month bender where I was blackout drunk six nights a week. Like, that whole thing of, like, going out and. And not. And then waking up in your bed the next morning. Right. And not remembering anything that's going on now, obviously, because of what I. What I went through in my life, I was always very self aware, and I knew that I was numbing a pain, right. And I knew that I was just kind of running from the feelings. And I had a coach at the time who called me one day out of the blue. We weren't even scheduled to talk. And she goes, hey, what are you doing tonight? And I said, oh, I'm going out with some buddies.

0:03:43 - (Justin Schenck): And so I wrote a letter letting go of some of the resentment. The whole exercise is, you write the letter, and then you set it on fire, letting it all go. And then I woke up the next day, and obviously, I felt a huge weight lifted off of my shoulder. And I had two realizations. The first realization was, my mom didn't die because she was an addict. My mom died because she didn't love herself. And I realized in that moment that I also didn't love myself.

0:04:37 - (Justin Schenck): I then realized that I still didn't love myself. And I then began the inner work. And I think that's for me. Even though it sounds like the journey started much earlier, that's where the journey really began for me, of going inward and trying to figure out what is it that makes me happy, what is my purpose, why am I here? And have been able to figure that out over the last six plus years and feel blessed to be in a really great place now.

0:05:34 - (Justin Schenck): Yeah, I mean, for the first twelve years of my life was actually very, very normal. From the outside it looked normal. Right. My, my parents were fakingly happily married. You know, we lived in a beautiful home. We, we lived by the beach in South Jersey and it was really kind of a blessed life. And when I was twelve, that's when we discovered my mom's addiction. And what ended up happening was it led to a divorce in my parents and there's other things involved in that too, but that was like the beginning of the end of their marriage.

0:06:28 - (Justin Schenck): Not because I'm dumb, but because I was checked out, right. Life wasn't a great life and I wasn't into school and I was checked out and all the things in between. Obviously at that point my mom was in the middle of her addiction and my dad ended up in jail. And when you look at that, all signs point to you've got no shot, kid. Right? As a matter of fact, they say if your parents an addict, you have a 50% chance of being an addict. And if your parents in jail, you have 50% chance of ending up in jail. Like, if you do the math, I'm 100% screwed.

0:07:21 - (Kevin Lowe): That is short.

0:07:46 - (Justin Schenck): But what I did know is what I didn't want, right? I didn't want to end up like my parents. And so that self awareness of what I didn't want allowed me to explore different things and try different things. And I had tried a couple businesses that had failed throughout the years. And then that led me to the idea of podcasting, which originally was supposed to be about me interviewing entrepreneurs to figure out how to be a better entrepreneur.

0:08:30 - (Justin Schenck): I felt loved. And I think that's the most important key to most things. But in retrospect, going through those hardships taught me so much. It taught me a little bit of forgiveness for individuals who are battling things. It taught me that everybody has their own story and their own journey. It taught me self awareness, which I believe is a key part to my success. It taught me so many things. And so, again, like, even though it was not the easiest childhood, I feel blessed to have the journey that I have. Cause I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now and being able to, you know, impact people all over the world.

0:09:10 - (Justin Schenck): I was, like, 30. I think I was 31, and she was 58.

0:09:31 - (Justin Schenck): Dude, you know, I get this question all the time, and I don't really have an answer.

0:09:36 - (Justin Schenck): There's that old. That old story of there were two sons whose father was an alcoholic, and the one son ended up becoming an alcoholic, and the other son became very, very wealthy and successful and never fell into addiction. And they asked both of them, why did you end up this way? And they go, because my father was an alcoholic. And so I think the key part for me was always looking at people who I thought had what I would want in my life versus only focusing on where I was, right? I had great aunts and uncles who created success in their life, and I saw their life unfolding in a much more peaceful way than my life did. And I go, well, that's what I want. Right? And I think vision is super key.

0:10:54 - (Justin Schenck): I'm sure somebody else would answer that differently. I think everybody's kind of on their own journey, but it was definitely, like the understanding and the vision of where I wanted to go and then never giving up. Often on Instagram, every. Every couple years, I'll post a similar story, how I had a company when I was 24 years old where we put together events for entrepreneurs, so we'd focus on different things from, like, customer service to sales to marketing, et cetera.

0:11:45 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, no, absolutely. Wow. Now, when you were in high school coming up, you know, graduation time, was college even something that you thought about?

0:12:23 - (Justin Schenck): And I was like, I'll apply. Because my mom was like, hey, you should apply just to see if you get in. Neither of my parents went to college, so it was never like, oh, college is the path in my household. But she's like, why don't you just apply and see if you can get in? So I applied to Temple University. My uncle at the time was on the board of Temple University. So I was like, I gotta get in. I'm gonna get in. Like, my uncle's on the board.

0:13:07 - (Justin Schenck): And I think that my vision was a little bit different than the corporate world. Even though I've had success in the corporate world in my previous life, it was just not for me. So. So to answer your question. Right. That was my long answer. But to answer your question, college. College was involved in my life, but it was never really what I thought my path was going to be.

0:13:54 - (Justin Schenck): Oh, yeah, my sisters are great, man. They. I don't know how all three of us turned out the way we did. They both have, you know, great marriages and children and great careers, and my one sister's a teacher, my other sister sister's a nurse, and they're thriving and living their best life, which I love seeing. I have no clue how we all ended. I mean, don't get me wrong, we're all far from perfect and we all have our own things, but we. We all ended up in really good places.

0:14:42 - (Justin Schenck): So going to work for somebody and sitting at a desk Monday through Friday, 08:00 a.m. to 05:00 p.m. felt like sitting in a classroom for me, and I was just like this. It's driving me crazy. I would show up to work at 08:00 a.m. and I'd be done all my work by eleven, but I had to pretend to work till 05:00 p.m. and by the way, anybody who works a 40 to 50 hours job and they claim that they work fully 40 to 50 hours, they're all lying.

0:15:46 - (Justin Schenck): But it was always like, okay, this is not going to be my forever thing, because I just couldn't stand showing up and being at a desk eight to five, right. A friend of mine, and actually somebody who's in my mastermind, he often wears a shirt. This is unemployable. And I felt that way. I just felt like, this is not for me. And always admired people that were entrepreneurs. I remember at the age of, know, 1819, 2021, even back then, reading, you know, reading these entrepreneurial books, you know, back then, it was a different, different take on this man. But, you know, reading Donald Trump's book and Tony Robbins and, you know, all these different things, and I was just like, this is what I want. I want to create something that inspires people to go and live a better life. It was always kind of deep down inside of me, I couldn't vocalize it at that point. I didn't know really what that meant, but I always felt like there was something bigger.

0:16:50 - (Justin Schenck): It is wild that I've been able to, like, I do some really cool things, and I've had great success, but I'm always humbled by all of it. Like, there's no ego in me whatsoever. And it's because although I had that vision, I didn't really know what happen. I kept trying, right? I kept trying. And then finally, I always say I found my. So I'm a Disney fan, like a Walt Disney, Disney world type of thing.

0:17:35 - (Justin Schenck): And my mouse was the $60 microphone where I started having conversations for the podcast. Right. So, like, what's your vehicle in order to create that impact that you want? It took me a long time to figure out what that vehicle was, and I tried many different things, but here I am. Now, every single person will tell you they feel like they're destined for more. Most people won't take the action, so you have to be able to take the action, get knocked down, get up, and take that action again.

0:18:01 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, absolutely. You referenced earlier about a rock bottom moment. Would you talk to me a little bit about that before we start diving into how kind of arise from that? Because I feel like a lot of us have what seems like kind of a rock bottom moment before we can really just expand into where we're supposed to be in life. And I would love to hear about your story.

0:18:53 - (Justin Schenck): And so I declared that my rock bottom moment. And most people, what they do wrong is they don't declare their rock bottom moment. And what happens is they hit a rock bottom moment. They feel bad for themselves. They might come out of it a little bit, and then they hit another rock bottom moment, then another rock bottom moment, then another rock bottom moment. And then what I say is, they'll do that until it's too late. And that's what happened to my mom, right? There was no declaring, okay, I'm done with this. There was no saying, I'm worth more than how I'm treating myself.

0:19:44 - (Justin Schenck): I was traveling like I always wanted to. I was building my brand. My podcast audience was the biggest it had ever been at that time. And I was rolling. And then Covid hit, and I lost 70% of my income overnight. Like, literally overnight, 70% of my income. And as we know that, like, they told me first they told me two weeks to flatten the curve, and then all of a sudden, we were in this spot for two years. I had to completely rebuild everything.

0:20:31 - (Kevin Lowe): Jeff. Yeah, absolutely. I almost kind of look at it like there's a rock bottom moment, but then there's also pivot points along the way. And you basically, with the pandemic, you, you just had to pivot, make a pivot, and, uh, keep headed, headed where you're going. Talk to me about podcasting. Cause podcasting is obviously a big part of the story. When did you really get into podcasting? You know, what year was it? Because I think you've been doing it a pretty darn long time.

0:21:06 - (Kevin Lowe): That's a long time in podcast world. Yeah.

0:21:36 - (Justin Schenck): And I was there for, like, 45 minutes. He didn't say a word to me, and finally just goes, so what do you do? Like, probably thinking, like, why are you here on a Monday afternoon at your age? And I go, I'm a podcaster. And the guy's response was, I love podcasts. And I realized in that moment how much this platform of podcasting and this medium of podcasting has completely changed over the eight and a half years that I was doing it. When I launched my show, there was something like 400,000 active podcasts there's now 4 million.

0:22:18 - (Justin Schenck): Yeah, so a couple of things, right? So when I started podcasting, I had only listened to one podcast before that. Not one episode, but one podcast that I would listen to. And I remember thinking to myself, well, this guy's taking this podcast and he's built a great life for himself, but I feel like I could do it better than him. Which is like almost like an arrogance. Like, not necessarily an arrogance. It was like a stupidity moment. Right? Like too dumb to know better.

0:23:02 - (Justin Schenck): There's just so many different ways to be able to do it. And the reality is, like, I didn't know what I was doing, and so I was like, let me just give this a try. And I decided I was going to commit to 52 episodes. It was originally called the Growth now movement. It is still called the growth now movement. It didn't have a with line because I had a co host. So it's now the growth now movement with Justin Schenck.

0:23:39 - (Justin Schenck): And nobody listened. I was doing 40, 50 downloads an episode. Every once in a while I'd have a bigger name on because I was getting big name guests in the beginning, and I would do like a couple hundred downloads with the big name guests and it'll go right back down. And I remember around the 45, 46 episode mark, I was thinking, okay, what am I doing? I'm just going to wrap it up after the 52 episodes.

0:24:29 - (Justin Schenck): And so I was like, okay, I'm just going to keep doing it. And then my co host had, he ended up having a child. And so time got super tough, and I was like, hey, man, do you mind if I do this on my own? I just want to see what happens. He's like, yeah, go ahead. And probably about two or three months after I was doing it alone, the numbers really started to grow, and I was doing a couple thousand downloads an episode.

0:25:20 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, absolutely, dude. So freaking cool. Podcasting in with life and all forms of business relationships are vitally important. I feel like podcasting is, it's a really amazing way to form some genuine relationships with people. You're sitting down with them for an hour, talking with them, hearing their story. Talk to me a little bit about some of the genuine relationships that you formed throughout the years that maybe have, have played a big role in getting you to where you are.

0:26:36 - (Justin Schenck): And one of the speakers was a guy named Fabio Viviani. He's from the show Top Chef, if you watch reality tv, which I don't. And I was flying out to this event to attend it, and my friend was going with me, and I was like, the whole time, I was like, who cares about a chef? Why do they have this guy talking at this event? But, like, who cares? And he spoke on stage and he blew me away. And I turned to my friend and I go, I need to be friends with that guy.

0:27:17 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow.

0:27:48 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

0:28:12 - (Justin Schenck): But, like, if you're only interviewing people that inspire you, people that you think would be fun to be your friend, your goal there is to build that relationship and see where it goes. And I don't build friendships for exchanges. I build friendships for relationship because relationships, I believe, are the rocket fuel to success. And so I feel really blessed to have the conversations I get to have.

0:29:05 - (Kevin Lowe): And, uh, so I love that, dude. When you kind of look back on, on this journey and all that you've created, what in your mind was, like, the greatest success, whether personally or professionally, that you've experienced?

0:29:47 - (Justin Schenck): But I was carrying trauma. I didn't feel like the limiting belief of I'm not enough, right? Because my parents chose their things over being a fully engaged parent. What I ended up finding out was abandonment issues. So I would get into relationships, and then I would do things to purposely mess them up because I was like, this person's gonna leave me anyway, so I'd rather have control over them leaving me.

0:30:33 - (Justin Schenck): And now we've built a great life together. I think that's been the biggest win. I love how in the beginning of this, you said on your journey, I'm still on this journey. As a matter of fact, you're probably going to ask me later in this episode, where can people find you? I always say they can go find my podcast, wherever they're listening to this. They can search the growth down movement and they can come on the journey with me. If they're interested, click subscribe and come on the journey with me. Because the end of the day, the reason my show is called growth now is because I believe, you know, what's not growing is dead.

0:31:17 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, dude, I love it. Well, well, talk to me a little bit about, I mean, we talked a lot today about purpose, a mission, vision. What is life like for you today with what you have created business wise, podcast wise? Kind of tell us all about it. Jeff.

0:32:01 - (Justin Schenck): But I also run a mastermind filled with impact driven entrepreneurs who want to grow their impact and grow their income. So we meet twice a month and we meet up twice a year in different places all over the country. I own two companies in the podcast space. The one I talk about publicly because the other one is a referral only type of thing, but the one I talk about openly is a company called Pod brand where we help podcasters be seen and heard a little bit more by creating social media content for them.

0:32:47 - (Justin Schenck): Being impact driven, right? Helping either the impact I want to make or helping the impact of others. And so that's what I fully focus on. I get opportunities all the time, but if it doesn't check boxes for me, I don't do them. So it has to be in that impact world. It can't take a ton of time and it has to be fun. And if something marks those three things, I'll be like, yeah, let's give it a whirl. Let's do this business together.

0:33:17 - (Kevin Lowe): I love that, dude. I love it. Happy for you to hear somebody be able to say that. I mean it. You have to, you have to smile and you have to, you have to just give you a round of applause for the fact that you've done the work, you've put in the grind, you've overcome the odds, and you kept showing up. I think it's pretty freaking awesome to see what you've been able to create.

0:33:45 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, dude. Well, listen, before I ask you my last question, I would love for you to share where we can find you, what kind of things you got coming up that we can look forward to, and all the different ways that anybody interested in feeling like, you know what, I need a little bit more of this guy in my life. Where can we go?

0:34:32 - (Justin Schenck): They can click subscribe and come on the journey with me. Told you I'd say that. And what I have coming up, man, I actually have a growth now. Summits coming up in September. So growth now, summit live. They can go to growthnowsummit.com and get their tickets. I would love to see your audience out and full of energy because I'm sure they have it since you do. And it's just an incredible day long rock concert for entrepreneurs and forward thinkers and people looking to level up in all areas of their life. And the speaker lineup is absolutely bonkers this year. And I'm just really, really excited to be able to deliver for the people in the audience.

0:35:05 - (Justin Schenck): Yeah, it's in. It's in Westchester, Pennsylvania. So about 20 minutes, 30 minutes outside of Philadelphia. So they would, if they're flying in, they fly into Philly. They can either grab a train or an Uber and head on in. It's a beautiful little town, and it's in this incredible theater called Uptown theater.

0:35:48 - (Kevin Lowe): Maybe they're in their twenties and they're kind of in that period of. Of life, or, heck, even in their thirties or forties or fifties, when you feel like something needs to break loose and you don't know what you're doing, you feel like you're spinning your wheels. What would you say to that person?

0:36:26 - (Justin Schenck): But actions lead to things that you know where you are in your life, right? And so exactly where you chose to be could be a disheartening thing, but it could also be an enlightening thing and an empowering thing. Because if you chose to be where you are today and you accept that fact, that means you get to choose where you are tomorrow and you get to choose where you are the day after that, and you get to choose where you're going to be 2030, 40, 50 years from now.

0:37:01 - (Kevin Lowe): So much power in the one word of choice. Justin, it has been an absolute pleasure to speak with you, man, to hear your story, and, uh, it means the world to have you here. And I, uh, just want to extend just the most heartfelt gratitude for you taking the time to, uh, share your story.

0:37:30 - (Kevin Lowe): Absolutely, dude. Well, thank you. And for you listening, man. I hope you took some notes on today. Another just masterclass in resilience and so many good insights from this guy. Maybe you thought at first, oh, no, another podcaster we're going to hear about. But no, it's the story of the podcaster, the story of this guy that made today absolutely amazing. Hope you enjoyed it. If you did, share it with somebody you love.