Still Working On Your 2025 New Year's Resolutions? Go Beyond The Vision Board And Break Out Of Comfort Zones With The Oxcart Technique (Special Guest: Terry L. Fossum)

Feeling stuck or uninspired in your entrepreneurial journey? This episode is your wake-up call! Discover how to set breakthrough goals, get unstuck, and use proven strategies like the oxcart technique to build unstoppable momentum in your business.

What’s Covered in This Episode:

• The secret to setting breakthrough goals that propel you forward.
• How visualization and the “carrot and stick” method can transform your mindset.
• Why being stuck is often the precursor to your next big breakthrough.
• An introduction to the oxcart technique and how it applies to entrepreneurial success.
• Practical strategies to stay focused and overcome inertia in your business.

Terry L. Fossum's is the #1 Bestselling author on Wall Street Journal, a survival reality show winner representing all of Boy Scouts of America, a highly successful businessman reaching the top 1% in his entire industry – in the world, and his TEDxTalk reached #2 in the world.

His book, 'The Oxcart Technique - Blueprint of Success' has helped people succeed in business, FINALLY lose that weight,  save their marriages, and even overcome addictions.

Today, he's going to tell us how to apply that to creating success as an entrepreneur.

📚 The Oxcart Technique: Blueprint For Success (available on Amazon at https://amzn.to/4clfmbr)

🤝For more information about Terry
http://www.terrylfossum.com/

🌟Join the WAITLIST for The Faithful Founders Collective at https://reinventing-perspectives.kit.com/231f666d82

💛 Thank you for listening in! 😀

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a review! Much appreciated.

Transcript

Terry: [00:00:00] We need to understand 92 percent of the people who set a goal fail. 92 percent and there's a reason why all these things we're being taught are either incomplete or completely wrong It's popular culture. Quite frankly, , we can only think happy thoughts, only positive visualizations. If you think of anything negative, world will take you that direction. Not true. So I wanted to share what I learned and what I found out was very scientifically based with people like me.

who are out there struggling and trying and struggling and trying

it's time to reinvent.

Priscilla: Welcome to the lessons of entrepreneurship, the journey of reinvention. I always promise you a special guest. And if this is not special upon special, Terry L. Fossum . Terry, I'm so excited to [00:01:00] have you here. Let me just rush through a few of the accolades that you have. There are too many for me to mention would be here all day.

Number one, bestselling author on Wall Street Journal, survival reality show winner. Highly successful businessman, top 1 percent in his industry. His TED talk is one of the most listened to. We're going to dive into it. So stay tuned, but Terri, please tell us who you are and what's your mission.

Terry: Absolutely. And it's funny. You mentioned all the accolades and those aren't , who I am, that's just things I've done. And that's a whole different story, isn't it? Who I am is I'm a guy that grew up in literally the poorest city in the entire United States of America, a small Texas, Mexico border town called McAllen.

We've all heard of it. It's been in the news where all the border crossings are happening, the cartels coming across the border I love my hometown, don't get me wrong, but it can be a little rough growing up there sometimes with all the gangs and the drugs. I was on the wrong end of an assault rifle in junior high in my own back alley.

In high school, [00:02:00] my father was killed. And before he died, one of the neighbors came up to him and said, I just want to make sure you understand something. Not a single one of your boys will ever grow up to be anything. So we all have our self perceptions, we all have our self doubts, our obstacles we've had to go over.

That's who I am. I'm the kid from the poor city in the U. S. who's never going to grow up to be anything. That's the way I see myself it just didn't turn out that way.

Priscilla: I just finished reading the book the ox cart technique. Please tell us what led you to writing that book?

Terry: Two things. Failure was the main one. Absolute failure. I wanted to prove that guy wrong. And I tried, I got all the personal motivation. I could, I learned all about the goal setting, all about visualization and everything I could pump into my brain from the books and the audios and the seminars and everything.

And I everything I learned and I failed and I tried and I failed and I tried and I reached a point where I couldn't fail anymore I walked into the bathroom. And I looked at myself in the [00:03:00] mirror. I said, you know what? He's right. And it was at that that something clicked inside because I went, wait a minute. No, I refuse to let him be right. If for the sake of the memory of my dad, if nothing else, I refuse to let him be right. And something happened, Priscilla. I got ticked off. And I got up and I brushed myself off 

I noticed something though. I wasn't doing it just for some carrot, some positive visualization. I never believed that would happen to a kid like me, to a guy like me, right? But I was doing it to get away from something, a stick, if you will, never grow up to be anything. So when I Trying to get out of my comfort zone and all the naysayers and the obstacles again and the people said I'm an idiot and all of that stuff.

I didn't care because even though that was painful, I had something more painful that was pushing me and something that was pulling me and the ox cart technique was born. It's only later I found out the science involved when I started writing the book. So I wanted to share what I learned and what I found out was very scientifically [00:04:00] based with people like me.

who are out there struggling and trying and struggling and trying. It might be a business goal or financial goal. It might be a marital goal. 50 percent of the marriages fail. It might be a weight loss goal. 75 percent of the diets fail, but I know there's people out there like me that need to learn why their goal setting hasn't worked.

You know why, what they've tried hasn't worked and what really can work for them so they can break free. and accomplish whatever their goals are. They don't have to be crazy like me, but everybody's got goals, dreams, wishes, ? That's why I wrote the book.

Priscilla: When I read the book. It clicked for me too, thank you for writing that book and for sharing it because I saw myself as part of the people who always think of, the carrot or the success scenario. Now I'm going into the book terms. I'll probably ask you to lay out the ox story for us so that those who are listening can have a sense of what we're talking about.

This book is really powerful. I [00:05:00] think me, like a lot of people, we often think about what we want, the thing we want to achieve. But before long, That motivation for the thing we want to achieve, we've lost it. Therefore we don't achieve our goals. I like that you say, if you can't set a goal and you can't achieve a goal, then you can't reach success.

Our audience of entrepreneurs, we're trying to be successful in business. So this conversation is critical with Terry L. Fossum. So Terry, please lay for us that parables that the listener can have an idea of what we're talking about and please do go out and get this book.

Terry: The parable goes, there once was a farmer that lived on very fertile land, but he had no way to get his crops to the market just across the river. Why don't you build a bridge? The village elder asked him, build a bridge. I'm a farmer. I know how to build a bridge. Ask the carpenter.

He knows how to build many things. So sure enough, the farmer got to work building his bridge and he built it. But now he had no way to pull his cart full of vegetables across the bridge to the market. So he bought an ox from the village elder. It [00:06:00] was a good ox, a fine ox. But when he brought it home and attached it to his cart full of vegetables, the ox refused to pull the cart anywhere.

Angry, the farmer approached the elder. What am I supposed to do when he doesn't pull cart? How did you motivate him? Motivate him? He's an ox. He's supposed to know what to do and do it. Do you always do, and this is for us too, do you always do what you're supposed to do or do you need to be motivated sometimes?

Find out what the ox likes and reward him when he does right. The farmer knew that the ox's favorite treat was carrots, sweet and juicy. He dangled a carrot in front of the ox's head. And when he moved forward to get it, he pulled the cart behind him. And that worked great. As long as the ox was hungry.

But when he wasn't, it didn't work at all. Angry again, the farmer approached the elder. What am I supposed to do when the carrot doesn't do the trick? Sit beside the road until he's hungry enough? This just won't do. What do you do when you don't feel like working, [00:07:00] but know you need to anyway? I think about how my crops will rot in the field and my family will starve.

That gets me out of bed no matter how tired I am. Okay, what is it that the ox doesn't like? He hates for anything to touch his tail. My son touched it the other day and nearly paid the price. Okay, at the times where the carrot doesn't do the trick, try tapping his tail with a stick. That's worked so well that usually just even showing the ox the stick was enough to get him going.

Boy, that farmer was sure proud of the shrewd purchase he'd made. That's the best ox I've ever owned. Sometimes the carrot worked. Sometimes the stick worked, but using them both together, he always got his crops to the market. So that's the parable that goes with it.

Priscilla: It's such a powerful parable. Look, if we think about problem solving, there we go right there, , as entrepreneurs, you're there to solve a problem and once you think you've solved one problem, another problem appears, you've got to figure out how to solve that problem too. Being [00:08:00] a person who hasn't heard those terms before, like I've heard about the stick, but usually you hear of it in a negative way, and in this case, You hear about the power of it.

Why is it that there's such a negative perception of the idea of the stick and the carrot?

Terry: right now it's popular culture. Quite frankly, , we can only think happy thoughts, only positive visualizations. If you think of anything negative, world will take you that direction. Not true. We need to understand 92 percent of the people who set a goal fail. 92 percent and there's a reason why all these things we're being taught are either incomplete or completely wrong the Harvard goal study this goal study has been written up in number one best selling books on New York Times It's been reported from stages around the world the Harvard goal setting study says many things including 100 percent of the people in this study who wrote down their goals You Achieved them.

100%. That'd be fantastic. If it was true, Somebody made the study [00:09:00] up. Harvard's confirmed. It never happened. So has Yale. Somebody made it up and it's been repeated so many times we just believe it. It sells lots of books. It sells lots of tickets. It makes people feel happy and all that.

Look, I'm doing the right things. But it doesn't work. It's important to write down your goals. It's important to have goals, . Positive visualization. Important, but not enough for many reasons. Like you're talking about what we've done what I used to teach around the world.

I used to teach this. And then I found out why it doesn't work. Many reasons. Number one, let's talk about me personally. I used to do my vision boards, right? I have pictures of big Houses and fancy cars and all that stuff on there, I'd never believe that could happen 

I I know where I come from. I know what I'm not capable of. At least I think I do. It's not true, but that's what I believe. Number two, I don't care about those things. I'm my happiest in a tent. People, I'll see you on the beaches of the world. I want to be up in the mountains, but the big one came to me when I went to disprove my [00:10:00] theory.

Cause what happened to me is when I told you, I picked myself up. I got back at it. It started working. I started really doing great in business. So people are coming to me going, Terry, what are you doing? Before I knew it, I had a room full of people listening and we're teaching this and it's working for them.

we started applying it to marriage because marriage is a goal. I got these emails. You just saved my marriage. Wow, rip your heart out International weight loss coach in one of my sessions. She freaked out and started teaching her clients So I knew it worked. But before I put it in this book, I wanted to make sure I wasn't wrong True science is trying to disprove your theory not prove it You don't go out there trying to look for evidence prove it because you'll find evidence no, you try to disprove it 

First of all, I started reading and I came across something called prospect theory Priscilla, I'm tripping out a little bit cause I'm reading this. I'm like, I don't really understand this cause it's above my pay grade. But I told my wife, think I might be onto something. Something big.

. I put on my social media. I need an expert [00:11:00] on prospect theory. And I got several people reached out to me. Most I couldn't understand a word they were saying because again, it's just language that's above me, man. It's psychobabble that I don't understand.

I got one guy that I could understand he did his PhD dissertation on prospect theory. So okay, this is the guy sent him my notes. I said, be honest, . I'm trying to disprove this. Tell me I'm wrong. And he came back and said, Terry, you're dead on. You read his introduction in my book.

Because he was so impressed with what happened. And here's what prospect theory tells us. And here's why what we've done doesn't work. Priscilla, you know, in entrepreneurship, it's all about getting out of the comfort zone, right?

Priscilla: Yes.

Terry: all about that.

That's our tough part. We don't want to get out of our comfort zone. We say we don't have time to do something. No. We took the time to do the things comfortable. Not the things uncomfortable. Prospect theory taught us that we'll do more to avoid pain than to go toward pleasure. Let me say it again.

We'll do more to avoid pain than to go toward pleasure. We associate pain with getting out of our [00:12:00] comfort zone, right? Does that make sense? , so we don't want to do that. We don't want to get out of our comfort zone. So no matter how much positive visualization, happy thoughts, you know, all this pleasurable feeling, it's not enough to kick us out of our comfort zone. Using the stick in conjunction with the carrot, we provide a failure scenario that's stronger than the pain of our comfort zone. We do it right, as you read about, create that emotion. It's more. Something we want to get away from more than the pain of our comfort zone. And it leads us into our success scenario.

And that's what you were reading about in the book, right?

Priscilla: Yes. , as I read it, I thought , it's easy to think about, like you said, the power visualization, the beautiful things but most people, the reality of what it's gonna take for you to get those things we're not willing to do.

Terry: Yeah.

Priscilla: And so no matter how many vision boards or how much positive thinking or what else we do, we still don't move because we know what needs to happen to make that happen.

In the book, it was so [00:13:00] well laid out as long as we want to avoid what we need to do, getting out of the comfort zone to get the thing we want, then we don't move. We say we want it, but really we don't because we don't really want to change.

Terry: We don't want to go through that pain. We avoid pain more than go toward pleasure. Exactly. And it sounds like that hit home for you in the book. 

Priscilla: It absolutely did. Writing down the failure scenario, okay, what will happen if I don't succeed at doing this? I found that so powerful because literally it'll make you sick to your stomach. You definitely want to move. You have to move because the thought of not succeeding is enough to make you feel sick.

Terry: Yeah. here's the important point. Emotion, not fact, is the driver of all action. Emotion, not fact. We've got to create that emotion, and then we'll take the action on it. But only if we create enough emotion. It sounds like the failure scenario did that for you, huh?

Priscilla: Absolutely. Because for the average person, people are quite fairly happy and fairly comfortable. It may be not very rich, [00:14:00] maybe not very successful, have enough comforts in life. Depending on where you live enough comforts in life that you're okay with even if nothing changed really But of course if they said do you want, great success everybody lift their hand that technique is just powerful.

When I saw all the things you've achieved like I saw you were a winner in a Survival contest. How did you use that in that particular scenario? I'd love to just get some inside details of Terry's mind.

Terry: So for those listening that don't know much about me, which is great. I ended up winning a survival reality show primetime on Fox Network as the oldest competitor on the entire show. Let's start there. My wife was laughing at me. She's oh my god, you're the TOG. TOG, what's that?

You're the token old guy, dude. really cute that they've got that demographic represented, but he gonna die. And then they wanted me to wear my Scoutmaster uniform. I'm Eagle Scout. They wanted me to wear my Scout on the show, representing all of Boy Scouts of America. So once again, it's really cute.

They got [00:15:00] the old Scoutmaster on there with a little neckerchief. But he won't die. And understand, , I didn't reach out to be on this show. I didn't want to be. They reached out to me. there's a God story behind it, by the way. The reason I even said yes to it. Now, I'm going to be on this show as the old guy.

And I found out my competitors were going to be Special Forces guys. A Marine Scout Sniper, one of the baddest dudes I've ever met in my life. A Mercenary who helped take out Saddam Hussein. A 4th Degree Ninja Black Belt that I've seen on Naked and Afraid All Stars, except for the fuzzy parts.

Military Survival Instructors. And the Fat Old Scout Master. Okay, let's talk about carrot and stick. Let's talk about success scenario and failure scenario. The success scenario didn't mean that much to me. Now, first of all, we had the opportunity to win a quarter million dollars, okay? It's a lot of money, right?

I don't know how to say this without sounding like a jerk, so I'm just going to say y'all I pray you'll understand my heart. I'm okay financially. It's nice. Don't get me wrong, but it wasn't that huge of a [00:16:00] driver for me at all.

Not enough to go through the pain. Okay. Not even I get to be on TV. I don't care. Sorry. I don't care. . I watched those shows, but I never wanted to be one. So the carrot did not do it for me. So let's talk about the stick. I'm representing all of Boy Scouts of America, a cause that's near and dear to me, that I believe not only shaped, but saved my life.

And it saved the life of a lot of other kids, and helped a lot of other kids become honorable men and women. organization means the world to me. And if I make it look bad on national TV, it doesn't matter what the excuse is. Oh, I'm the oldest competitor. So what? I didn't want to be up. So what?

. My failure scenario hit me hard. Everybody will judge all the Boy Scouts of America based on my actions. therefore, and now let's talk how this works together. We've got my success scenario. Okay. You know, the Boy Scout can win. That's pretty cool. Failure scenario, the Boy Scout will lose.

What's the difference? The bridge that we talk about in the [00:17:00] parable is your daily action That's your bridge between failure and success. We all know what those actions are. We know what we're supposed to do. It's doing it. It's the difference. That's why the OXCARP technique is so powerful to help you reach your goals.

My action plan, I got to get in shape. Let's start there. You know? So I went down to the local gym. I hired a personal trainer. I said, you got a few short weeks to whip me into shape. Can you do it? And he basically looks me up and down so I was in pain 24 seven 

I'd never done survival in the jungle. So I flew into the Amazon jungle, found somebody to take me in and learn survival in the jungle. Pulled over a hundred ticks off me, . And I did several other steps. They're all painful. My success scenario would not have gotten me to do them.

My failure scenario did so that's how I applied the oxcart technique to win a survival reality show of all things

Priscilla: That's powerful. We have a sense of how to use that in the different aspects of life. I liked that the book started with marriage and [00:18:00] then it talked about key relationships. And then it talked about yourself, your physical wellbeing, your fitness. And then it went on to, okay, now let's talk about your business career success.

like the way that was laid out, because sometimes you start with the business and you can't get to the business because everything else is pulling you in all directions. You can never really get to that full potential in that area because the intricate parts of your life are not in order.

Terry: And there's four things, some will say three and I'll say three a lot But read up a little bit about you I can say four on this show that all are inner working, if you don't have one, you don't have any of them sure.

Financial is important because that affects the rest of your life. It affects your relationships. It affects your health. Studies are very clear on that. So that's important. But your relationships are equally, if not more important, because if those aren't in order, it's going to affect your finances and it's going to affect your health.

If you don't have your health, you don't have anything. And then the fourth one for me and everybody can have any belief that they want to. And I'm cool with [00:19:00] that. I don't care. I got the microphone so I'll tell you mine. Mine is my spirituality. Mine is my belief in God. In my opinion for my belief system, if you don't have that, forget everything else, you know?

So depending on your beliefs, go with three or four, but they are all interconnected. all affect the rest of them.

Priscilla: , you talked about the action plan, you now have your success scenario, which is all the things that you're looking forward to. You also have your failure scenario that if this doesn't work, what is the reality of this situation?

Facing that reality, not pleasant, but important to face that reality of what happens if, I don't do what I need to do to get this moving. Then the transformation in the book, you said, I may get it wrong, Terry, but you can come in and correct me because you are the author of the book. The transformation, , happens in the action plan.

What are you going to do? When you referred to the parable, you said, the first thing he did is he found an expert. He needed to build a bridge. It wasn't something he knew how to do. So he needed to talk to someone who was an expert at building a bridge. [00:20:00] I think that in itself is gold. Please, Terry talk us through the idea of the action plan and how to approach that.

Terry: So often we try to figure it out ourselves, whatever the goal is, okay, I know what to do. That's vanity and vanity is not going to get you very far. One of the reasons that I've been successful in a lot of areas is I find people smarter than me in those areas and I learned from them.

I do what they do. I just got off another zoom actually doing exactly that for one of my goals. I reached out to this person who's smarter than me in that area. Learn from the experts. Now, you can get those things different places. There's a lot of information online. But be careful. Because a lot of it is not right.

I want to have a happy marriage, I'm going to talk to people who have a happy marriage. Also, who have a bad marriage. What did they screw up? If I want to learn about business, I'm going to learn about a from a successful business person.

You know, what did you do? Reach out to these people. It's amazing. If you ask for their advice, people love giving advice, [00:21:00] right? That's why you have people on your show all the time. People love giving advice, So if you go to people and say, look, I really respect what you're doing in this industry, whatever it is, , let, we're talking business.

Let's say it's realty. Let's say it's network marketing. It's selling cars. It's whatever. You know, I really respect what you're doing. Can you give me daily actions that I should take to help me reach my goals in this industry? They're going to tell them to you. A lot of times we have corporate training.

We know what to do. But learn from the experts and then use the ox cart technique to apply what you're supposed to do every day to keep you to it every day, which is the hard part.

Priscilla: Thank you for that. Cause , we just think, Oh, , this part of my life, I'll just figure it out. And that's the action plan. You find yourself in a place, you can't imagine how you got there, but someone guiding you and expert guiding you and how to get to where you're trying to go.

I also love that you talked about what should happen, , if you can talk a little bit more about this, because you said. should [00:22:00] look at your scenarios twice a day. That idea of having it in your face. 

Terry: It's gotta be in front of you. And that's why I tell people yeah, I've got it on my computer. No, this won't work. Let me back up one section more. What we're talking about is three different pieces of paper. That's all this is. Prospect theory that this is based on won the Nobel Prize when it's applied to economics.

We're applying it to goal setting. It's been called the biggest advancement in the science of goal setting in recent history by one of the 50 best brains in science etc. But the truth is, it's three pieces of paper. That's all it is. The first one, you write down your failure scenario and , you create a motion.

You should be crying When you do your failure scenario, , if you aren't, you did it right. That's good. Now there's a very important little quote you put at the bottom. It's in the book. You'll see it there. It's very important to put on there. This will not be my future. I'll do whatever it takes to make sure my failure scenario does not come true.

My success scenario does. Okay. You post that [00:23:00] up next. You post those daily actions. And noticed I said, post it on a wall somewhere where you will see it. That's exactly what Priscilla is talking about right now. Your daily actions that you will take that will make the difference between your failure scenario or the third piece of paper, your success scenario, be in your future.

Either one of them could be depending on the actions you take or do not take. You post them up, you read them every morning. Start with your failure scenario. It should hurt. You should go, like me, my failure scenario, never grow up to be anything. There's no way in the world I'll let that happen. I'll do whatever it takes so it doesn't.

What does it take? 

Bam, and finally, after you've read that, so you go, okay, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it, fine, I'll do it. And then you read the third one, your success scenario, what life is going to look like from that aspect, because you did those things.

Problem, solution, format. We talk about not wanting to focus on negative, on the failure. And that's why you start with that but you [00:24:00] end with that success scenario that makes you feel good because you took the actions. Do it in the morning, do it every night to see how you did. Do it for a few weeks and watch what happens to your goals. by the way, I want to tell everybody, we're giving you a brief look. We're giving you God willing, some great information, some stuff that's helpful for you today, but please, this is just an overview. Get the book. If you're serious, get the coaching.

The book has examples all the way through it. Failure scenarios, success scenarios and everything else. So make sure you go ahead and do that. .

Priscilla: So powerful. Thank you so much, Terry. Please do go and get this book. I think, , every area of your life, whether it's your marriage, whether it's your close relationships, whether it's your career, whether it's your entrepreneurship, whether it's your weight, whether you're fighting addictions. I could go on and on, but the best thing would be for you to buy the book so you can go through the techniques, because literally it is a workbook. You do say it's a workbook, that you can go through the techniques and see the life change that you'll [00:25:00] have in that. Terry, I've taken you so much into the book and , I want people to come away with who is Terry?

They're going to read the book and know who Terry is, but get a sense of this man who has attacking all these things with this energy and this ability to do. What is this man about?

Terry: Helping people. entire mission statement in life since I was in high school. Was to help as many people as I can before I die. I wake up every single morning, the first thought out of my head is, thank you God for the gifts you have given me. Please help me use them in your service, not mine.

I understand and I've been given some gifts, we all have, but I want to give credit where credit's due. People look at all these accolades, oh Terry's great, no I'm not, no I'm not I've gotten gifts just like we all have, and it's using those gifts. for what you're passionate about.

For me, it's helping people. That's why I want as many people as possible to get this book who are just like me trying and trying and wondering why it hasn't worked. You know, I get excited. , I'm going to do it this time. But over time, the passion [00:26:00] fades and you didn't reach the goal again.

That's why I want to get this in as many hands as possible because it will make a difference in your life.

Priscilla: Yeah, absolutely. hope to come back to you, Terry, , I just finished reading the book. I want to give you a detailed what I've been up to. And I hope also to the audience, please, if you can go to www. terrylfossum. com, I'll put a link down in the description, read the book.

Get it to work and reach back to Terry. Let him know what the book has done for you and the big things that you're doing because of him agreeing to wake up and use his talent to help people. Thank you so much, Terry.

Terry: Priscilla. I really appreciate everything you're doing to help people. Keep up that amazing work you're doing. Go get them.

Priscilla: Thank you.