This week’s blog post is from Reid Ferguson, a Project | U participant, and he shares how despite having accomplished some very large goals in his life, committing to a year of personal growth was the ultimate catalyst for experiencing deeper fulfillment. Here’s Reid’s story in his own words…

Where My Journey Began

I first became part of Adam Hergenrother’s world about three years ago when I became a CEO for the Hergenrother Realty Group’s Hudson / Eau Claire team. Immediately when you become part of the team, you set a lot of goals (which I really liked) and there are high levels of accountability from Adam and the leadership team. 2018 – the year before I joined Project | U – was a really incredible year for me using this model.
At age 56, I competed in my first Ironman in Lake Placid. This was a huge accomplishment for me because I really hadn’t done any strenuous physical activities in over 10 years, and there I was competing in one of the most grueling races there is. I also heavily focused on building wealth through property. I did a major flip on a house that year, and I sold three personal homes, which included packing up and moving two of those. I was focused on building my real estate team and built it up to 20 agents. That was one of my main goals for the year along with our team becoming the number one team in our market center, and we accomplished both of those. Then on top of all that, Adam challenged his team to read a book a week for the whole year, and I actually finished 2018 reading 54 books. It was a great year, and I liked having and achieving these huge goals, but I felt there was something more that I hadn’t yet experienced.

Becoming More Purposeful

So I joined Project | U, the full-immersion leadership training in 2019, and there was a big difference between the model of goal setting and accountability that I was just telling you about and a year-long, full-immersion program. When you immerse yourself in growth for a year, it’s more than just setting goals and having high accountability – it’s about completely dedicating yourself to creating a better way of life and a more purposeful life.
There are four components that Adam set up as part of the year that are really critical and focusing on these components has helped me bring my life to a better place. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not like was in a bad place before because things were going well (as you can see with some of the goals I accomplished in 2018), but it’s definitely in a better place now since I am clear on 1) why I am working, 2) the why behind all my decisions, and 3) it has given me clarity on the” why” ultimately behind my life.

What Happened When I Committed to a Year of Extreme Growth

The first two components of the year were on Health and Wealth, which come first in the program because they are the foundation for the rest of Project | U. So during the first half of the year, I completed another Ironman (now at 57!), and then I really focused on building net worth as Adam recommended. So far this year, I have grown my net worth by 34%, which is really astounding to me because I always have kept an eye on my net worth and my finances. But when you really focus on net worth, as I learned in Project | U, it’s amazing. I realized there’s so much more clarity I can bring to financial situations when I’m purposeful about them. I was also able to pay off a big commercial loan this year, so I have a lot less debt on my plate. I’ll also have more investment opportunities because I’ve opened up another commercial line of credit. So when opportunities come around, I’ll have that to draw on now – something I didn’t have before.
It was really the second half of the year when we started to focus on Spirituality where it really became apparent to me why Project | U was so different than anything I had ever done previously in my life. The team aspect became huge as we dove into the component of spirituality, which may sound kind of funny since you don’t really think of spirituality as involving other people, but it is true. Most people in Project | U are super busy, super talented and super successful people, and it’s sometimes hard as leaders to slow down and think about the deeper, broader picture of life and get clarity on why you’re doing what you’re doing. But we all slowed down together, started meditating and supporting each other in discovering our big why’s.
Meditation has become important in my life and now helps me stop worrying about things that come up. You know things are going to come up in and business that we are going to have to take care of and fix. Problems just come up in business and life. But through the spirituality piece and meditation, I’m learning that it’s actually fun to have challenges. I don’t always like some of the things that happened during the day, but challenges are opportunities to grow. How I handle those challenges now makes it so much easier and less stressful in my day-to-day life.

Now, with what I’m learning in the Leadership and Relationships section, it’s my opportunity to help people to discover all of this in their own lives and show up as the best leader I can be for everyone in my life – my team and my family. It’s a level of leadership that’s new to me now that I’m focused on so much more than just achieving my own goals. One of my big goals for this year is to be able to purchase a cabin so that my family and my wife’s family can visit there, and so we can spend a lot of quality time all together. Growing myself and creating a life that benefits my family is really important to me, and it’s become really clear to me how important that is this year. 

Community of Transformation

It’s also been really amazing to get to know the other Project | U members who are in our group and are committed to doing the same growth work that you are doing. It’s a great group of people, and not only do they want to have a better life for themselves, but they are also invested in helping their own teams and members of our Project | U group. We’re all here to do the things we want for our own big “why,” and there’s also a bigger shared purpose that we all have – to leave a legacy and help others by knowing ourselves better. There’s a sense of community and you get to know really talented people at a high level. It makes you grateful and thankful for everything that they shared with you and the opportunity you have had to share with them. It really cements the most important things about life and why we’re working to do what we’re doing or working to get where we want to go. These people and this program are actually changing my thinking for what I want out of the rest of my life.

Update: Reid let us know that he just had an offer accepted on a vacation cabin for his family and they will be closing in April. Congratulations to you and your family, Reid! If you’d like to read more about how to make transformational changes in your own life read How to Make Changes That in Your Life That Will Last. For more real-life transformation stories, listen to the podcast episodes 3 Stories of Transformation: How to Grow Your Life & Business and Real-Life Transformation Stories. Interested in learning more about Project U? You can learn more about Project U here or reach out to Hallie Warner for more details at hallie@adamhergenrother.com