Extreme Jungle Leadership & Unshakable Brotherhood: Building Resilient Teams with Erik Hatterscheidt (Inspirational)

What happens when you lead through fire—literally—and discover your deepest strength in the most extreme places on Earth?

In this motivational and deeply inspiring episode, Reginald D is joined by Erik Hatterscheidt.  Erik is the founder of Freshline Moto Club, the world’s only motorcycle brotherhood that brings entrepreneurial men together through extreme motorcycle expeditions and humanitarian missions, from the Namib Desert to the jungles of Guatemala, Erik builds leaders who don't crack under pressure—and cultures that thrive in chaos.

Erik reveals how his faith, upbringing, and total breakdown at his family’s resort sparked a global mission to forge elite teams of men through extreme expeditions and fire-tested brotherhood. He shares the 5 Instincts of Male Leadership, how to recognize cracks in your culture before collapse, and how he went from crying over unpaid bills to leading world-class training camps across Africa, the Andes, and beyond.

Whether you're leading a family, a business, or a movement—this episode delivers the mindset, courage, and clarity to go from overwhelmed to unstoppable.

• Discover Erik’s 5 Leadership Instincts that every high-performing man must understand and activate.
• Learn how to build trust, endurance, and unity in any team—even under extreme pressure.
• Find out how faith, stillness, and servant leadership are the secret weapons to lasting influence and legacy.

Tune in now to hear how leaders are built in the fire and how to become the kind of person others would follow through the storm.

Eric/Freshline Moto Expedition Club contact details:

LinkedIn - Erik Hatterscheidt - President at Freshline Moto Expedition Club |https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-hatterscheidt

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/freshlinemotoclub

Application: Freshline Moto Expedition Club - https://www.freshlineclub.com 

inspirational, motivational, motivational speech, Christian podcast, leadership, men’s leadership, team building, resilience

Transcript

Reginald D: Welcome to Real Talk with Reginald D. I'm your host, Reginald D.

Today I'm joined by a powerhouse in leadership and cultural transformation,

Eric Hatterscheidt.

 Eric is the founder of the world's only brotherhood uniting entrepreneurial men through extreme motorcycle expeditions. From the Sahara to the Andes.

Eric guides men through intense African boot camps and expeditions.

He teaches how to lead teens through chaos,

build cultures that don't crack, and earn the kind of loyalty that follows you through fight.

Welcome to the show, Eric.

Erik: Thanks so much for having me on. Really appreciate it.

Reginald D: Yes, sir, thank you so much.

Definitely an honor.

So I'd like to start out by asking my guests, can you tell us a little bit about your childhood and where you grew up?

Erik: I grew up in British Columbia, Canada. I grew up on a little wilderness resort out there,

cabins in the mountains kind of thing.

My dad, he was a commando in the Namibian Defense Force, which was in southern Africa.

He left that and went on to become an engineer and eventually he ended up buying this resort and that's where I grew up. But I grew up in a very regimented household.

High discipline. If anyone in the store's ever watched the movie Sound of Music, this is getting pretty old now. But that family,

the viewing trapped family, the dad, he would call the kids to attention, he'd have his whistle.

And that was reality in my household. My dad did very similar parenting styles. High discipline. But it was also a very caring, loving father. Wanted to teach us a lot and prepare us for the world.

So it was a unique place to grow up. Also learned a lot about how to be independent. We were relatively isolated. Anytime something broke or something needed to be built, we had to do that on site and we weren't going and getting parts and doing things.

So literally almost everything we did was manufacturing those parts and those pieces and putting that together on that wellness resort.

Reginald D: Yeah. And I think that's a huge thing when, you know, some kids think their fathers are hard on them,

but then they teach you how to be self efficient and all these things of the world that we need now, you know, because man, you go out here and if you don't know how to do it yourself,

you know it's going to cost.

It's going to cost a lot. So.

So Eric, what was the defining moment in your life that completely changed how.

Erik: You view leadership are many moments. But the moment that comes to mind for me years later,

after I'd grown up at the resort, I went through high school, I went to university,

studied business,

and my parents had asked me to Come back to the resort and help them to try and grow it. My dad was a mechanical engineer, as I mentioned, my mom was a food scientist.

And neither one of them was well versed in marketing. And I had studied marketing at university. And so they kind of,

they didn't intentionally put pressure on me. But I think I did feel the pressure as maybe as the oldest child to go and attempt to take the resort out of a situation where we were just,

just treading water every year financially. We were just keeping our heads above water and came out of university,

took over the management of the resort and immediately started losing money trying different marketing campaigns that didn't work.

And I did that for about eight months.

And at the same time, the pressures of leading the workers that were at the resort making decisions that were impacting the resort, some of those working and some of those ******** up.

But the big thing was just financially me digging our family business into a deeper hole.

Those pressures were mounting.

And at the time I was both literally and figuratively isolated. I was isolated in the physical sense, of course, but I was also feeling very isolated as the leader of a business.

And I didn't know who to turn to or what decisions I should make because it felt like a lot of decisions I was making were not decisions that were actually the best decisions for everyone involved,

despite my best efforts. And I just remember one night, after working a full 16 hour day. Cause it was a lot. I was doing a lot of administration. I was literally also the guy who might have to crawl under a cabin and repair a pipe, clean a toilet,

chop firewood,

and at the same time manage the staff doing a lot of the same stuff and then still have to come back and answer all the emails. And then I remember coming back one night into my cabin, my little cabin that I was living in.

And I walked over to the fridge, I pulled out a beer and I walked over the coffee table and I put my beer down and I put it down on a pile of bills that I knew I couldn't pay.

And I sat there and I just stared at that beer thinking, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? How am I going to pay these bills?

And I just broke down crying. I bawled my eyes out like a little girl. And that was really where my back was, up against the wall.

I really didn't have an idea of what I was going to do next until a thought struck me, which was, wait a minute. I've been trying everything I know how to do and I've been Digging us into situations in the business that are not where we want to be.

And I thought,

I can't be the first person to have to go through this. I don't know why I'm trying to do this all on my own, why I'm trying to do this in isolation.

And so what I thought was, somebody else out there has gone through something similar. I just need to find them. And I had no idea where to look. This is kind of before the days of like very prevalent online entrepreneurship groups and mastermind groups and things like that.

And so what I did is I just went into Google and and I knew that I would want to build something that was better than what we had. We were like a tiny little,

tiny little resort in the middle of nowhere. But what I decided to do was go Google what are the top luxury resorts in the world. And I googled and I compiled a list that night.

I was already like 11 o' clock at night when I first started crying my eyes out. Then I started compiling a list and by 2 in the morning I had a list of 200 resorts or at least the contacts for 200 resorts, managers, admins.

And I emailed just a blanket email to everyone. And basically I just said, hey, I'm running this little resort in Canada.

I need to talk to someone that will just tell me what my one next move is. And I went to bed and I woke up the next morning and nobody replied.

And I did it again the next day. I emailed everyone,

slightly different email, so it wasn't just copy and paste, but same general message. Emailed everyone again,

waited a whole day, no replies, Emailed everyone again, waited a whole day, no replies, emailed everyone again. On the fourth day I got a response back from one of the most prominent luxury resorts in the world, which was down in Tasmania.

And this guy emailed me back as the general manager for the resort and he said, hey, my assistant said, you've been emailing for the last few days. If I give you 10 minutes of my time, will you stop emailing us?

And so I said, yeah, sure. So I jumped on a call.

And that call ultimately was the call that transformed my life because that call was what allowed me to begin to form a relationship with a leader who was a high performer,

who did have an understanding of what I should be focusing on. Not just from a tactical do this business strategy, but really my mindset and really helping me see where I was viewing the world in a way that wasn't working for us as well as some of the the business lessons that came from that.

And so my real pivotal moment came from understanding that I needed to surround myself with other high performing individuals who had been there, learned it, and that was really just going to shortcut my ability to get to where I wanted to go for myself and my family.

Reginald D: Yeah, and I think one of the main things you said there is, you know, persistence. You got to be persistent when you're trying to figure it out. And that's where a lot of people fail because they give up.

But,

you know, you got your,

you got your answer by word the heck out of them.

Erik: So I was prepared. I literally, mentally, I was like, I don't know how we're going to get out of this. So I'm literally going to send an email every day until this business tanks or until someone replies to me.

I was like, this might take a year, it might take two, who knows? So four days really for me was,

it was very acceptable.

Reginald D: Right, so you're talking about high performance. So when you're not building high performing teams, what brings you joy or keeps you grounded outside of work?

Erik: It's a question where it actually blends into what I would say is in essence a portion of high performance. Because for me,

I've got two young children. I have a daughter that's five, and a son that's one and a wife. That is incredible.

And that is very much what brings me joy. And anyone that's listening to this as a parent also knows that that comes with a lot of stress and a lot of emotional exhaustion and all of that.

But that is where I think everything that I've ever learned when it comes to showing up as a leader and a high performer, that's where it actually matters more than any other area.

And that's where I get the most fulfillment in my life.

I don't know if you're looking for, hey, what's your hobby? Or something outside of this, but if I'm asking, answer truly. Since I'm most fulfilled when I'm pouring into my family.

Reginald D: And that's it, man. That's it, Eric. Because I'm the same way, man. Out of all the things I do and all the grind I do is just, you know, when I come home and got the family here and the wife, you know, and everybody, we just, it's, it's different.

It just,

it helps you live to fight another day, actually.

You know, things like that. So.

So, Eric, your story is rooted in building trust and resilience.

What first inspired your journey onto leadership and cultural transformation?

Erik: It was an accident. Like, I think a lot of people assume that I started this with some intention to build some global leadership brand. And I put together a whole business strategy and all of that.

And it couldn't be further from the truth. The reality of the situation was I had been running this resort, this family resort.

Jordan, who was my best friend since we were 10 years old.

He had pursued a career as a paramedic and he was a paramedic for a number of years, but in a also, interestingly, an isolated region of northern Vancouver island, which is here in Canada.

And he was also leading his teams up there. I was leading my teams.

We were both relatively isolated. We both had a high degree of responsibility on our shoulders.

We didn't really talk about any of that at the time,

but what we did at one point was say, hey, let's go travel down to Guatemala together.

We had backpack earlier when we were a bit younger, 19, et cetera, and then this is a few years later, but we wanted to go just travel again. So we were down in Guatemala, walking down the street in a small city called Antigua, and we just happened to walk past the motorcycle rental shop.

And we had both grown up riding old beat up bikes on Mahu's case on the farm and in my case on the resort and the wilderness resort, but riding them down the logging roads.

So we had a riding experience and we also knew we were fairly competent in figuring things out.

And we asked the guy who owned the motor rental agency, hey, could we rent these bikes from you, but just give us a map, we don't want a guide or anything.

Just tell us where you would go if you were not a tourist, but if you were just as a local, where would you go to go explore and talk to some of the tribes and go to some of the cool places that are unknown.

And so he drew us that map.

We rode for about 10 days on those bikes and we just thought that that was an absolute game changer in terms of a way to experience the country. We had backpacked and traveled before that, but the motorcycles opened up a whole new world of possibility.

From that experience, we decided this was amazing. We wanted to invite our friends. So we invited some of our closest friends down and we reserved six motorcycles for a trip with our friends who had confirmed that they were going to go.

And then one by one, before that date arrived, all those friends backed out. And so we had all these reservations that we were going to lose if we didn't go and find guys to fill those seats.

So we Just put a random call out on Facebook at the time and said, hey, if anyone's reading this, if you're a friend of a friend, but you want to go explore Guatemala, no set itinerary.

We're just going to go into the unknown, into the jungle. If that sounds exciting to you, reach out to us. And we actually managed to fill those seats all with guys that were acquaintances of friends of ours.

And we went and we traveled together in Guatemala.

And maybe this is a long winded answer to your question, but the thing that was very apparent to us on that trip was that all of us in the evenings when we'd sit around a campfire with no cell service in the middle of the jungle and we were having conversations,

all of us were burdened with a level of responsibility that was crushing,

but we didn't have anybody to share that with. And that was a real epiphany moment for us where we realized, wait a minute, we're all suffering here in isolation, but we all share a lot of the same problems.

What if we just talked about it?

So what that led to was us continuing those discussions in an online format after that trip. And then what surprised us was, Jordan, I had no plans to go and travel or do any motorcycle travel or anything after that.

It was those guys who said,

how do we keep this going? And then also, where are we going next? And that led to future destinations that led to them telling other guys about it. And that's what evolved from there.

And essentially the club itself, a lot of people look from the outside and think it's a motorcycle club.

That would be false. What it is, it's a group of men that have a lot of responsibility in their lives that are there fully supporting each other emotionally,

physically,

sometimes financially when one of us hits a roadblock. So that's what it is, first and foremost. And then what we're doing when our cups are full, we're able to go and serve and bring a lot of value to the world in a number of different ways.

Reginald D: Man, that's amazing. That is destiny at hand. I mean, it's like you try to do something and you depend on one way of doing it, on some people to come with you, and then they back out, and then you send a message out, then you get these other people there,

and then here you are,

you know, taking this thing from one place to another, one level to another. Man, that's amazing. So that's how you started Freshline Motor Club.

Erik: That's right, yeah. Yeah.

Reginald D: Okay.

So talking about that,

I Heard it's a challenging club, but it's a good place to be.

So what are some early warning signs that a team is cracking and how should leaders respond?

Erik: Oh,

that's a good question. So we have learned over the years, we've evolved a lot since those early days.

We realized that the thing that is going to be the most detrimental to a team is a person who doesn't want to be there.

And so what we've done is we have now created these training camps. So everyone that wants to go and run an expedition with us actually has to do a training expedition first.

And that's both in an effort to train them, but it's also in a big way to spend time with that individual and get to know their personality and their character traits, et cetera.

Because I'll tell you the thing that has come up again and again, that is the piece that will show you that a team is forming. Forming cracks is the one individual who starts to let their ego get in the way and their needs become more important than everyone else's.

And so as soon as you start to see that,

that's the beginning of the downfall of a team, because you find that one person, that one person who wants to say, hey, my needs are more important right now than everyone else's.

And they demand that.

And then they start complaining about conditions. And then what that leads to is the spread of a cancer within the organization. And so there are a number of other red flags that we can discuss, but that is the most prevalent one that comes up as a pattern in our training camps.

That's why we have the training camps. And then thereafter, if you're getting into the expeditions in terms of a team breaking down,

I mean,

I'm going to be real with you.

It's very, very rare that our vetted guys are breaking down. They are the guys who, when things get really challenging, really difficult,

they step up, they laugh about it, they joke about it. They're like, hey, now, now, we asked for an adventure, now it's an adventure. They band together when there's a decision that needs to be made.

What I will say is that when teams of competent men break apart,

it is due to the leader. It's due to the leader not sharing the reality of the situation with the team members around them, trying to shield their team members from some of the negative,

negative things that are happening that are potentially going to be impacting the team.

And the team members will start to lose respect for a leader because they don't feel like their.

Their Level of competence is being valued. And so then that will start to internally disintegrate a team.

Reginald D: Right, right. So what are some of the challenges that you put your teams through to come through there? What are some of the things that you guys do?

Erik: There's a difference between training camp and expeditions. But let's just say in training camp, we're trying to simulate as much as possible conditions that we'll find on expedition. And so what that means is our training camps now take place in three different locations, both in Southern Africa, in the Namib Desert,

which is sometimes nicknamed the Devil's Cauldron. And we're putting them through there to face extreme,

extreme temperature fluctuations. We've got extreme heat and the desert out there, and then we ride them out to the Atlantic Ocean, and then we throw them into the Atlantic Ocean and let them freeze.

And we see how those temperature fluctuations are going to impact them.

We will intentionally sabotage teams. So what we'll do is we'll break guys into smaller groups, smaller teams, and they're typically teams of four guys each.

And then we'll rotate leadership positions within the team, and then we'll give them objectives, ride from this point to this point. And then in those camps, we call them camps, but they're actually riding across the country.

They are a true expedition riding across the country. In those camps, those training camps, they actually are delivering true needed humanitarian aid to different places. But what we'll do is we'll simulate challenges along the way.

So we might disconnect a wire or puncture a tire or give them a route that we know has been blocked or inaccessible, and then we'll let them figure it out.

As far as overcoming that challenge as a team,

doing that once is fine. Especially if it's a nice sunny day and the temperature's okay, that's fine. But when you start to do it and you compound those issues again and again and again, that's where you start to see people wear down.

When you start to see them get exhausted, especially if we're doing that over a long day, where now all of a sudden, emotionally, mentally, they're starting to get exhausted,

that's really where we see who the true leaders are and who steps up in those situations. Cause it's relatively easy to be a good team player or to even be a leader when everything's going fine.

It's when you're faced with challenge after challenge after challenge where we see the personalities really come into play.

And we're doing that because it can and has not infrequently happened on expedition, where one of the.

One of the common jokes within the club is nothing can stop us now because there's been expeditions where it feels like every 20 minutes,

there's something that's unplanned, that's happening, that's external, outside of our control, and we're gonna have to deal with it as a team. And that can just happen again and again over the period of weeks sometimes.

And so you need to be able to adapt. We're facing similar challenges in some of the other locations as well. So we operate training camps in Guatemala. They're dealing with heat, humidity, jungle, mud, intense mud, trying to slog it.

There's been days where it might take us almost a full day to get 2km because of the mud.

And then we've got camps that we're starting to run up here in the Rockies, in Canada. And that's where we're dealing with a lot more river crossings, colder temperatures. That simulates a lot of the regions like Nepal that we're getting to, or northern India, more the stands, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,

Mongolia, things like that. So, yeah, I don't know if that fully answers the question, the way you were thinking about it, but it does.

Reginald D: I like that it's different. It's very different.

So you mentioned the power of instincts and leadership.

How can leaders practically tap into their instincts to lead more effectively today?

Erik: So that is a little bit of a loaded question. I'm going to be honest with you, Reginald. This is something that I spent the last couple of years, but specifically last year, I probably spent over 300 hours just trying to study men,

what drives men, what fulfills men. And the reason that I did that is because I noticed when we do run our training camps, every night we have a campfire chat, and we'll go deep into a variety of topics that really will expose what men are truly challenged with.

What they're thinking, what they're feeling. And one thing I noticed is that it constantly comes up. It's an ongoing joke again, within Freshline is like, there's a post boot camp depression that happens because guys feel extremely fulfilled despite all of the challenge I just explained to you, men will feel extremely fulfilled.

Coming back from boot camp and just say, that was the most incredible experience of my life. That felt like what I was really meant to be doing, meant to be living.

And then they come back to reality and into the Western world, and they're like, man, this is just.

Now there's this stark contrast that wasn't as distinct or clear before to them.

And so one of the things that I've theorized when it comes to tapping into instinctual pieces as a man is that there's actually a priority of instincts that men have.

Keep in mind, this is a theory. I'm not a psychologist, but so far I believe it's held true across all of the men we've worked with and all the books that I've studied and the psychological articles I've studied.

But in order, there's five different instincts that I think we need to tap into as men in order to actually rise to leadership effectively.

Instinct number one for me is the instinct to be needed. And I think that's really important because it provides a foundational sense of identity rooted in competence for a man.

So right off the bat, if you don't feel, and I apologize to the women, although this might actually be a good reference point for you to understand the men in your life better, but this is specific to men.

There's actually a different set for women.

And honestly, I'm still working on it. It's more complex. Of course it is. But that base level instinct to be needed and feel like there's a level of competence that's valued in the world.

If that's not there,

men are going to lash out.

They're going to find other ways of subduing themselves. They're going to find other unhealthy habits to fill their time because they don't know what else to do with themselves. And most men don't even know that this is a piece of them that has to be filled.

And so they're going to feel a level of discontentment and they're not going to go, why? But that's level one. Level two instinct here is the instinct to test limits.

And the reason that this instinct is in men is because it develops a certain level of competence and confidence to be able to pursue higher needs. And when I say that really what men are doing when they're testing limits, when they're testing their capabilities, their limits,

it's trying to figure out what am I capable of doing so that I can go and begin doing that thing, that's where I'm going to start going and making my mark in the world, suppressing that risk taking, which is often something that happens.

There's a lot of societal forces that suppress a men's desire to take risks.

There's going to be a negative impact to that because individuals who know what their capabilities are more likely to build something and often actually take responsibility for others. Because they know what they're capable of.

If they don't know what they're capable of, they're less likely to take on challenge. So that ability to test limits tells an individual, how much challenge can I take on?

These are all foundational, by the way. They build on each other. So instinct to be needed, number one, instinct to test limits, number two,

number three, instinct to gain respect.

So once you've tested your limits and you know what you're capable of, as far as taking on challenge goes,

that's where you start to say, now that I know what I'm capable of, I'm gonna go and bring that to the world and bring that to a group.

And the reason that this instinct to gain respect is really important as a leader is because it promotes the desire to contribute more than you take. This is something that I've seen a number of men get wrong.

They think that leadership is about telling everyone else what to do.

If you understand that your core instinct is actually to gain respect within the group,

and I'll tell you why, gaining respect is actually gonna be really important for a much higher level of leadership in a second. But if they understand that the instinct there is to gain respect,

they're not gonna get that respect by just telling everyone what to do. The only way to gain that respect is by genuinely delivering more value to the world than you're taking back.

And so another way of looking at this as a leader is saying,

am I. You almost look at it like a bank account.

Am I giving out more than I'm taking in? That's going to be the sign of a leader. And really, in some sense is the sign of a man is someone whose net value is contributing more than they're taking in.

Because when you're a very young man, you take in a lot more than you give out. And then as you get older, it's your responsibility as a man and as a leader to switch that role, to say, hey, it's okay that people that are younger than me, people that I'm leading,

I am going to pour into them. That's just the natural way that things go. And that's actually what's going to both fulfill me as an individual, and it's going to be the piece that allows me to earn respect from the individuals around me and earning the respect of the individuals around you.

So that instinct number three is what leads to instinct number four, and instinct number four is the instinct to become powerful. And I've gotten some pushback on this fourth instinct, the instinct to become Powerful.

But I actually believe it's one of the most important instincts for a man to realize that he's got in himself. And it's something very important for him to tap into from a leadership perspective.

Because when you are powerful and powerful in this case is you've earned that previous instinct. You've earned the respect of the people around you. So they are willing to follow you and they're willing to follow a vision that you set.

You only get that because you've already shown that you've delivered value to them.

And the instinct to become powerful, the way that I'm defining this,

the reason that that's really important for a man and a leader is because it is required in the world for you as a powerful individual that has the ability to set a vision and have other people follow it.

It's your responsibility to take care of everyone that's involved in that vision and then ideally even beyond it. So that instinct to become powerful in a healthy masculine way,

not in the way that you think about like a dictator who's ruling a country who just says, you must do what I want.

This is where you have people who choose to follow you because you've always put their interests at the core of your vision.

That's where I think a lot of men really crave this power.

But they don't understand how to execute it in a healthy way. They just, they demand power or they are unwilling to learn and grow because they're embarrassed by mistakes they've made.

What they need to realize is that this instinct to become powerful needs to be channeled in a way that is focused on taking responsibility for all the people around you, for their well being.

That's what real power is in that sense. And then what I would say this is by observation,

it's almost an unfortunate reality. But the fifth instinct is the instinct to seek inner peace. And as I said before, these five instincts, they build on each other. And for men,

men struggle with that inner peace. And they struggle to lead effectively when they're not at peace.

But if they've channeled the healthy way of channeling those instincts up till now,

they're able to find an inner peace when they are in a position that is power through respect.

Because they have been giving value to the world, to others.

That is what gives them inner peace. A lot of people are chasing this inner peace through a number of other aspects. But for men specifically, I think it's almost impossible for a man to find inner peace unless he's actually given value to the world.

In the form of essentially, I mean, the protect and provide is a simple way of saying it, but I think a lot of people get lost in protect and provide and think that, oh, all I gotta do is make sure I bring the money in and make sure my family's safe.

There's a lot more depth to it than that.

And when you understand that depth and you have the respect of the individuals around you, that's where there's a sense of inner peace and fulfillment that comes, that says, I'm very good with life and where it's at.

And the really interesting thing is that for women,

that instinct to speak inner peace is almost instinct number one. But for men, they can't reach it until they've gone through all these other levels first. So when it comes to leadership, this is the situation where leaders need to understand these instincts to be able to channel them and also sometimes in current society,

to be able to push back. When people say, hey, I don't think we like you doing that, but, but to understand as a man, hey, it's like there are healthy ways of tapping into those instincts and that's what will progress you forward as a leader and allow you to become a very,

very valued leader in society.

Reginald D: Yeah, and I love the way you broke that down. I really do. You know, think about leadership. I always say, man, like you said, some people like the power aspect of it.

My team understands me, you know, and it's all about serverhood, man. If you can't get the serverhood part now,

being an effective leader, you're going to struggle.

You're going to struggle because you're the certain people and you want to make them great, you know, not just you.

Erik: Yeah, that's a key element. I mean, that's something we look forward to even doing.

People apply to come in the club and that's one of the three core elements that we're looking for just to be able to be accepted in the club is do you have a servant's heart?

Because if you don't have that, we're going to be in trouble already.

Reginald D: Right? Exactly, exactly. So, Eric, I have a few quick rapid fire questions for you.

Erik: Sure.

Reginald D: What's one leadership quote you live by?

Erik: I don't know if it's a quote, but Extreme ownership, there's a book by Jocko Willink, so let's call it a quote. Extreme ownership, like everything at the end of the day comes down to you as a leader, your responsibility.

Got it.

Reginald D: What's a leadership myth you wish would die?

Erik: That's A good one, man. What's a leadership myth? I wish would die, I think.

Oh, actually I do. Sorry. I've got it. Leadership myth I think would die is that leaders need to shoulder responsibility and hide the challenges that they're facing from the team.

That's something that we often see as a big mistake. So, yeah, the myth that you need to shield your team from everything is a myth that I wish would die because it doesn't actually help the organization.

Reginald D: Absolutely. I love that one. And then what is one daily habit that keeps your leadership sharp?

Erik: This is an unorthodox answer, Reginald, but for me personally,

it is setting aside stillness for time between me and God.

Prayer time. Some other people might see that as maybe stillness for reflection or stillness for meditation, but in my case, setting aside stillness for time between me and God is the thing that people is the most humbling and most effective piece to my leadership.

Reginald D: Absolutely. So, Eric, for every team members that's actually listening today, what is one message that you would say to them and what would that be?

Erik: Don't practice leadership in isolation.

Find the people who've been there before.

Find that tribe.

It doesn't have to be through us,

but find that tribe of individuals who are a few steps ahead of you. I might use the term high performer, but you do want to take advice from individuals who've been there before.

I look for a pattern of three. Has this person done this intentionally three times,

and therefore they know what they're talking about. Everything else is I'm taking advice with a grain of salt. So, yeah, just that surrounding yourself with people that are a few steps ahead of you is definitely something that is.

It's going to put you in a position where it's far too to grow if you're doing that.

I'm sorry, Hard not to grow.

Reginald D: Exactly. Yeah. You always got to reach to that next level. And then, you know, that's one thing you know about me. I always want to find somebody else who's doing it on another level, higher than what I'm doing it or been doing it for a while so I.

Erik: Can learn from them.

Reginald D: You know,

think about learning, man. You can never stop learning. At the end of the day, you can't be stagnant and think that, hey, I got this and I know what I'm doing.

Hey, it's always more greatness out there. And there's some great people out there that you can learn from.

Erik: Absolutely. If you can. Good philosophy is find the best in the world and keep bugging in. If they don't get back to you. Find the second best, find the best in the world that you can actually get someone to reply to.

That was something that this, the mentor actually that I contacted in Tasmania, that was something I learned from him, was just always just look who's the best in the world.

See if they'll talk to you. You'd be surprised.

Start there and then work your way down.

Reginald D: That's it. I like that. I like that. So, Eric, lastly, how can my listeners follow you on social media or sign up for your freeline Motor Club?

Erik: So good place to contact me if, if anybody's listening and this is something that resonates with them.

I always appreciate somebody that can make it to the end of a podcast, especially this one. Reginald, you've been very patient with me. Cause I know that I probably ate up more than your average podcast time.

But if anybody wants to connect with me and what I can do, and I've really only done this for our,

our pain members, but,

and I truly haven't done this before, I honestly, my members would probably be upset that I'm offering this to you guys in the podcast. But if anybody reaches out to me on LinkedIn,

I'll sit down with you and I'll take an evaluation of just where your leadership is at and truly work with you. No strings attached to just understand are there areas where you might have blind spots, areas for improvement and we can take a look at that.

So if you want to reach out to me on LinkedIn, I'll share the link here. Reginald. But Eric, outerscheid on LinkedIn. And then if you want to take a look at the club and what we're doing, Reginald, I can share the, the application page link with you and that gives a bit of a summary of the club and they can check that out in the podcast notes here.

Beyond that, Fresh Lane Motor Club on Instagram is a good place to just follow expeditions that we're currently running.

Reginald D: Absolutely. Eric,

thank you so much, man. Eric, man, I'm telling you man, I really love what you're doing. This is like,

I love things that I feel like it's kind of out of the box kind of thing, you know, I mean, what you're doing, man, it's remarkable. And I really appreciate you for what you do.

Erik: I appreciate that. It's definitely been,

it's been an experiment of treading new ground. But it's the members really that have driven all the best aspects of the club. So really the,

the onus of all the great parts of the club goes up to them. But I thank you so much for your time, Reginald. I appreciate what you do. I appreciate I have listened to a number of your podcasts and I really actually appreciate especially motivational speeches.

It really gives me pause to make me think and grow in that way. So thank you.

You bring to the world.

Reginald D: Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thanks for tuning in. Real Talk with Reginald D. If you enjoy listening to Real Talk with Reginald D, please rate and review on Apple Podcast. See you next.