You Didn't Get Where You Are Overnight and You Won't Get Out Of There Overnight Either with George Bryant

Do It For Yourself Podcast

This is The Do It For Yourself Podcast. Each week I sit down with someone who is doing it for themselves and chasing a dream they just couldn’t suppress. This is often speakers, entrepreneurs, or athletes. They all share one thing in common, they are overcoming challenges and never giving up. Someone who is Doing It For Themselves is not selfish in their pursuit, they are simply chasing a dream or working towards a goal because it is something THEY want to do. They are not forging down a path because society or someone is telling them it’s what they should be doing.

This week my guest is George Bryant. George is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, father, and much more. I am really excited to bring you this week's episode as I have been a follower of George's for a long time now.

When George was a child, he struggled with abuse. George was bullied as a child in school and this followed him throughout his life. By the time George got to high school, he could see the writing on the wall. He knew he needed to make a change, he knew if he stayed where he was, he wasn't going to go anywhere. The thought of running away popped into his head, but he realized quickly that he would need money to do that. Option two would be the military. He could "run away" but get paid while doing it.

George made up his mind to enlist in the military, went to the recruiter's office ready to join but was turned away. The reason....he was told he was "too fat" and would never make it. George left the office that day, returned six months later, no longer "too fat" and he enlisted in the military. Just days after graduating from high school George was on a plane to begin his new journey. George didn't join the military because it was something he was really passionate about, it was more that he could get out of the situation that he was in, AND get paid for it.

George lost the weight to get into the military but this was not the first instance he had an issue with eating. George had an experience when he was 15 when he went to rent a suit for a dance. Due to George's size, he needed a different size jacket and pants and he was ok with that, but what George couldn't handle was the comments from his mother. This made him so upset, that he got sick to his stomach and in some way this made him feel better. George began to realize that when he was upset, mad, didn't matter if he made himself sick, he felt better. This began a VERY long journey with bulimia. George went on to struggle with these habits through the military and it compounded with the working out.

While George was in the military he realized that he didn't have the privacy to purge that he had before enlisting in the military and it put him into a cold-turkey stop. That was up until he began to find himself in extremely stressful situations. George had a situation that forced him into emergency surgery and put him into a wheelchair for 12 months. This brought back all of his bad habits with eating a purging. While going through his recovery, George attempted suicide one night and he realized that he needed to make a change, if he didn't get things together he wasn't going to be able to go back into the military, he didn't save any money and he had no skills. George made a full recovery and returned to the military from 2006 until 2013.

In 2013 George had suffered from over seven concussions and had brain injuries. It was going to take six months for recovery but George had used all of his allotted time already. George was so worried to leave the military because he didn't know what he was going to transition to but the doctor who he was seeing had to recommend he be medically discharged.

Prior to being discharged, George discovered Tim Ferris's book the 4 Hour Body, and also found the paleo diet. In the original book, Tim Ferris says to eat clean for one week, and then you were allowed to binge. As hard as he tried, George couldn't binge and this helped him control something that was controlling him for so long. Through this process, George began to cook and post these things on Facebook. George had no idea what he was doing but he knew that people were looking and so he just kept going. Because George was gaining some traction on Facebook someone suggests that he start posting things on a blog instead of a website. After months of posting on his blog, someone suggested he take these recipes and put them in an ebook. George had no idea what he was doing

Even though he was so clueless about what he was doing, George just kept moving forward, posting, selling ebooks and it was working. There were some hard lessons that George had to learn, such as paying taxes, but it all worked out.

George began building relationships, his website, and his business. He was all consumed in this and he was loving it. Given George’s personality, as you maybe can imagine, this relationship with Civilized Caveman and the internet became very unhealthy. George was living his life for other people and he was now addicted to social media and this company. It became too much and he knew that it was time to move on. George felt wrong selling this because he felt like he would be selling an addiction. George found a friend and told him that he was giving him to the company and that was it.

After deleting his social media for over a year George went through a long period of healing. George listened to the people around him in order to improve who he was. He really took a lot of time to work on himself which has in turn helped him build a successful business of helping others.

George has an amazing story and I am so happy to have the opportunity to share it here on the podcast.

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