Level Up with Coach Fergie

With the November 3rd midterm elections approaching, we're switching things up on Level Up Conversations! I'm joined in the WJNO studio by my good friend and radio mentor Brian Mudd and Washington political insider Don "Stew" Stewart for a lively, no-holds-barred conversation about what's really at stake. From rising living costs and voter frustration to Florida's political landscape, campaign strategies, and predictions for control of Congress, these two bring serious knowledge and some fascinating behind-the-scenes perspectives. Politics isn't my usual playground, but understanding how decisions affect our families, businesses, and futures? That's a conversation worth having!

📣 QUOTE: "The political inertia that you will find in midterm election cycles is unlike anything else you will find in politics." 🗳️ - Brian Mudd

📣 QUOTE: "Making it a choice election rather than a referendum election, which is what Democrats want to do." 🗳️ - Don ‘Stew’ Stewart

Coach Fergie’s Level 🆙 Take-Aways
Your wallet knows the truth, regardless of what politicians tell you! 💰
History reveals patterns, but your decisions still shape the future! 📚
Don't confuse political messaging with facts. Do your own homework! 🔍
Strategy matters, but understanding what people actually need matters more! 🎯
You don't have to agree with someone to respect their right to choose! 🤝
Freedom comes with responsibility. Get informed, make your choice, and VOTE!  

🔹 Valuable Time-Stamps🔹
🕐 00:03:00 - Why Midterm Elections Favor Opposition
🕐 00:07:00 - Affordability And Your Financial Reality
🕐 00:16:00 - Florida's Changing Political Landscape
🕐 00:20:00 - Alaska's Controversial Election Strategy Explained
🕐 00:23:00 - Congressional Predictions And Election Stakes

What if the toughest fight you'll ever face isn't inside a cage, but against the limitations you've placed on yourself? Coach Fergie sits down with Mike Rodriguez and Danny Tarantino, the driving forces behind Reaper Headquarters, a new family-oriented martial arts academy in West Palm Beach! From Danny's journey of finding purpose through martial arts to Mike's passion for developing confidence in children and adults, these two are building something much bigger than a fight gym. Discover why showing up is half the battle, how staying calm under pressure changes everything, and why a white belt mentality can transform your life. Whether you're seven or seventy, there's a place for you on the mats. Let's Level 🆙!  

📣 QUOTE: “You want to be able to learn to stay calm and breathe even through the toughest positions.” 🧘 - Mike Rodriguez

📣 QUOTE: “You have to just trust that someone's been there before, and they're here now, and you can do the same thing.” 💪 - Danny Tarantino

Coach Fergie’s Level 🆙 Take-Aways
Pressure doesn't create your habits; it exposes your standards. 🔥
Confidence is earned by keeping promises to yourself. 💪
Show up with a white belt mentality, no matter your experience. 🥋
Learn to control your emotions before they control your decisions. 🧠
Your goals are simply byproducts of the standards you live by. 🎯
True success is planting trees you'll never sit in the shade of. 🌳 

🔹 Valuable Time-Stamps🔹
🕐 00:00:19 - Pressure Exposes Your Personal Standards
🕐 00:04:00 - Building Community Through Martial Arts
🕐 00:09:00 - Staying Calm Under Intense Pressure
🕐 00:14:00 - Embracing the White Belt Mentality
🕐 00:19:00 - Helping Kids Build Real Confidence

🛠️Recommended Resources:  
🌐 REAPER Website COMING SOON!
📷 REAPER Instagram
🔵 Mike RodriguezFacebook
📷 Mike Rodriguez Instagram
🔥Show Sponsor Steve Austin's Dynamic Team with Rize Mortgage

What if the two most powerful words shaping your future are "I AM"? In this thought-provoking Coach's Corner, Coach Fergie welcomes back performance coach John Denney to unpack how the words we attach to our identity influence our confidence, beliefs, relationships, and ultimately our potential. Together, they challenge the dangers of negative self-talk, expose why empty affirmations without genuine belief fall short, and explore how daily mental discipline, powerful questions, and intentional action can transform the stories we tell ourselves. If you've been allowing your past, circumstances, or someone else's opinions to define you, this conversation will challenge you to reclaim your identity, renew your mind, and start speaking life into the person you're capable of becoming!

📣 QUOTE: "Only when we're really in touch with our I ams can we actually become we are." 🤝 - John Denney
📣 QUOTE: "Your mind is always listening even when nobody else is, and there's a difference between holding yourself accountable and holding yourself hostage." 🧠 - Coach Fergie

Coach Fergie’s Level 🆙 Take-Aways 

1. What follows "I AM" can become what you believe, tolerate, and eventually become. 🧠
2. Your circumstances describe your situation, not your identity. 🎯
3. Stop holding yourself hostage with the same words you'd never tolerate from someone else. 🔓
4. Affirmations without belief and intentional action are just empty words. ⚡
5. Build your mental foundation on ordinary days so it holds when life punches back. 💪
6. Your past belongs in the rearview mirror, not behind the steering wheel of your future. 🚀

🔹 Valuable Time-Stamps🔹
🕐 00:03:00 - The Power of I AM
🕐 00:07:00 - Breaking Free From Inherited Identities
🕐 00:15:00 - Why Empty Affirmations Don't Work
🕐 00:20:00 - Building Resilience Through Mental Discipline
🕐 00:24:00 - Rewriting Your Story Through Self-Talk

🌐 Visit The Harmony Exercise Website
🔥Show Sponsor Steve Austin's Dynamic Team with Rize Mortgage

What happens when old-school work ethic meets modern entrepreneurship? Coach Fergie sits down with the team behind Oakmont Landscapes and Oakmont Pest Control for a conversation about building a business on accountability, communication, leadership, and actually doing what you say you’re going to do. From Marine Corps leadership and growing up in the landscaping industry to five-star service, business partnerships, taking care of your people, and building for the long game, this conversation proves that standards aren’t something you talk about—they’re something you LIVE.

📣 QUOTE: You can preach it in the morning all you want, but you gotta go out and do it every day. They have to see it, and they have to feel it.” 💪 - Oakmont Landscapes and Pest Control   

Coach Fergie’s Level 🆙 Take-Aways 

• Old-school customer service still wins—people want to see you, hear you, trust you, and know you’ll follow through. 🤝
• Lead from the front—your people should see you willing to grab the shovel, get dirty, and work beside them. 🫡
• Take care of your people first—when the company grows, the people helping build it should grow with it. 👊
• Great partnerships require defined lanes, trust, and knowing when to make concessions instead of needing to be right. 🧩
• Five-star service becomes sustainable when excellence is practiced so consistently that the team no longer sees it as a standard—it’s simply how they work. ⭐
• There is still massive opportunity for people willing to do the hard, hands-on work that others increasingly avoid. 💪

🔹 Valuable Time-Stamps🔹
🕐 00:04:00 - Old-School Customer Service Still Wins
🕐 00:05:00 - Leading Your Team From the Front
🕐 00:09:00 - Making Business Partnerships Actually Work
🕐 00:15:00 - Building a Five-Star Service Culture
🕐 00:22:00 - Growing Without Sacrificing Your People
 
🌐 Oakmont Landscaping Website
🌐 Oakmont Pest Control Website
📷 Oakmont Landscaping Instagram 
📷 Oakmont Pest Control Instagram
🔥Show Sponsor Steve Austin's Dynamic Team with Rize Mortgage

Coach Fergie challenges the Varsity Squad to question whether they’re truly stuck—or simply too comfortable to make the move they already know they need to make. From business and relationships to health and personal growth, he breaks down how discipline creates options, discomfort builds confidence, and one courageous action can begin bridging the gap between where you are and where you’re capable of going. 

📣 QUOTE: “Information can become procrastination wearing a nice suit.” 👔 - Coach Fergie

Coach Fergie’s Level 🆙 Take-Aways 

• Working hard and doing hard things aren’t always the same thing. ⚒️
• Confidence is built by keeping promises to yourself. 💪
• Your next level may be one uncomfortable decision away. 🚪

🔹 Valuable Time-Stamps🔹
🕐 00:02:00 — When Success Creates Comfort
🕐 00:05:00 — Hard Work vs. Hard Things
🕐 00:09:00 — Building Confidence Through Evidence
🕐 00:14:00 — Turn Obstacles Into Training
🕐 00:16:00 — The Four-Question Comfort Audit

🛠️Recommended Resources:  
🌐 Request Your Complimentary Hour of Power Coaching Session with Coach Fergie
🔗 Coach Fergie’s LinkedIn 
▶ Time To Shine Today YouTube Channel
🔵 Time To Shine Today Facebook
📷 Coach Fergie’s Instagram
📷 Time To Shine Today Instagram
🎵 Time To Shine Today TikTok
🐦 Coach Fergie’s ‘X’ formerly Twitter
🔥Show Sponsor Steve Austin's Dynamic Team with Rize Mortgage

What happens when the pain you’ve spent years pushing through finally demands your attention? In this Coach’s Corner conversation, Coach Fergie and performance coach John Denney explore the difference between acknowledging pain and allowing it to control you, why buried physical and emotional pain can eventually surface in unexpected ways, and how the stories we carry from our past can quietly shape our behavior today. They unpack the power of having the right people and systems around you, why external success doesn’t always create internal peace, and how shifting from “So what?” to “So what can I do?” can move you from reaction into action. It’s an honest conversation about resilience, self-awareness, perspective, and learning when to push forward—and when it’s time to actually listen.

📣 QUOTE: “What we resist persists.” 🔥  - John Denney
📣 QUOTE: “Make darn sure you’re not writing a story that works against you.” 🔥 - Coach Fergie
 
Coach Fergie’s Level 🆙 Take-Aways 

1. Pain lives on a spectrum: burying it can be destructive, but allowing it to dominate every conversation can be just as limiting. ⚖️
2. Share your struggles with people who can actually help you move forward—not simply with anyone willing to listen. 🎯
3. When somebody lets you down, taking it personally can make their behavior your burden. Your response is where your control lives. 🧭
4. What you resist can persist. Ignoring something uncomfortable doesn’t necessarily make it disappear—it may simply find another way to surface. 🌊
5. Some will, some won’t, so what?” Stop exhausting yourself trying to drag everyone along on a journey they haven’t chosen. 🚪
6. You can honor what happened without allowing the worst chapter of your life to become the story you tell forever. 📖

🔹 Valuable Time-Stamps🔹
🕐 03:45 — Finding the Balance With Pain
🕐 06:40 — Systems Matter More Than Goals
🕐 15:05 — Pain Is a Warning Sign
🕐 18:05 — Childhood Stories Shape Adult Beliefs
🕐 24:15 — Pressure Can Sabotage Performance  

🌐 Visit The Harmony Exercise Website
🔥Show Sponsor Steve Austin's Dynamic Team with Rize Mortgage

Chance Carrick is a West Point graduate, U.S. Army veteran, and founder of Fides Restoration, a veteran-owned property damage restoration company based in Jupiter, FL. A former football player turned competitive golfer, Chance now competes on the Veteran Golfers Association (VGA) Tour and represents Team Army in the VGA's version of the Ryder Cup. Whether restoring homes or competing on the course, he brings the same discipline and integrity to everything he does.

📣 QUOTE: “We are not going to do things money first. We are gonna do things client and employee first.” 🤝 - Chance Carrick

Coach Fergie’s Level 🆙 Take-Aways 

1. Leadership is forged through responsibility, adversity, and experience. 🎖️
2. Perspective changes everything—especially when someone is having one of their worst days. 👀
3. Purpose can disappear after one chapter ends, but it can be rebuilt through service. 🧭
4. Clients and employees should never feel like numbers on a spreadsheet. 💯
5. Treat every customer’s home like you would want someone to treat your own. 🏠
6. Golf can take you through nearly every emotion imaginable in just four hours. ⛳

🔹 Valuable Time-Stamps🔹
🕐 00:05:00 — West Point Builds Leadership
🕐 00:08:00 — Rediscovering Purpose Through Entrepreneurship
🕐 00:10:00 — Putting People Before Revenue
🕐 00:16:00 — Trust During a Family Crisis
🕐 00:22:00 — Moving Forward Through Adversity

🌐 Visit FIDES Restoration Website
🔗 Chance’s LinkedIn 
🔵 FIDES Restoration Facebook
🔵 Chance’s Facebook
📷 FIDES Restoration Instagram
🔥Show Sponsor Steve Austin's Dynamic Team with Rize Mortgage

Noah Prebianca is the kind of young entrepreneur who proves experience isn’t measured by age—it’s measured by the swings you’re willing to take, the lessons you pull from your losses, and your willingness to keep building. From touring as an internationally recognized DJ to helping build a business generating nearly $200,000 a month at just 20 years old, Noah experienced success early—but he also learned that fast success doesn’t guarantee an easy road. Today, as co-owner of Sanctuary Kava in North Palm Beach, he’s building something that goes far beyond what’s served across the counter: a genuine community where entrepreneurs, professionals, and people from all walks of life can connect and belong. Grounded in his Christian faith, fiercely ambitious, and refreshingly open about the struggles that come with both, Noah is focused less on looking successful and more on making sure the people around him are winning. His story is one of faith, resilience, hustle, community, and a young man determined not to waste the gifts or opportunities he’s been given.

📣 QUOTE:  “You know what means something to me? All my people are doing good, everyone's eating, everyone's getting fed.” 💪 - Noah Prebianca   

Coach Fergie’s Level 🆙 Take-Aways 

1. Early success can prove what’s possible while giving you unrealistic expectations about how fast success should happen. 🚀
2. A more expensive market can create bigger opportunities when you understand the people you serve. 🌴
3. The best businesses can become communities instead of simply places where transactions happen. 🤝
4. Squandering your potential means wasting opportunities you were fortunate enough to receive. 🙏
5. You’re going to face difficulties whether you take the risk or play it safe—so take the shot. 🎯
6. Loss can become fuel when you decide to honor someone through the life you build afterward. ❤️‍🔥 

🔹 Valuable Time-Stamps🔹
🕐 04:55 — Building Something That’s Yours
🕐 09:15 — Early Success and Its Lessons
🕐 15:00 — Building Community Beyond Kava
🕐 17:20 — What Real Hustle Looks Like
🕐 21:05 — Creating Connection and Belonging 

🌐 Sanctuary Kava Website
📷 Sanctuary Kava Instagram
🎵 Sanctuary Kava TikTok
🔥Show Sponsor Steve Austin's Dynamic Team with Rize Mortgage

Ali Denney played collegiate beach volleyball at both the University of South Carolina and Florida International University (FIU). She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology before completing a master’s degree in kinesiology and exercise science. After graduating, Ali began competing in semi-professional beach volleyball and initially turned to coaching as a way to help fund her travels and continue pursuing the sport she loved. What started as a practical opportunity quickly became a passion of its own, eventually opening the door for Ali to coach at the collegiate level. Today, she continues to play and coach beach volleyball full time. 

📣 QUOTE: “Our number one rule at practice is zero judgment. So not only zero judgment with your teammates, but with yourself.” 🧠 - Ali Denney  

Coach Fergie’s Level 🆙 Take-Aways 

1. Presence is a skill that must be practiced. 🎯
2. Never demand a standard you won’t model. 🎭
3. Purposeful practice prepares athletes for pressure. 🔥
4. Experience builds trust when pressure arrives. 💪
5. Mistakes are information, not identity. 🔬
6. Curiosity makes athletes more coachable. 🔍 

🔹 Valuable Time-Stamps🔹
🕐 00:06:35 — Mindset Changes Athletic Performance
🕐 00:08:20 — Coaching Through Better Questions
🕐 00:10:20 — Zero Judgment Creates Growth
🕐 00:15:30 — Building a Championship Culture
🕐 00:17:25 — Developing Independent, Confident Athletes  

🔗 Ali’s LinkedIn 
🔵 Ali’s Facebook
📷 Ali’s Instagram
🎵 The Harmony Exercise
🔥Show Sponsor Steve Austin's Dynamic Team with Rize Mortgage

What if the people, relationships, and opportunities showing up in your life are actually reflecting something back at you? In this powerful Coach’s Corner conversation, Coach Fergie and performance coach John Denney unpack the Law of Magnetism and challenge the idea that we simply need to “find better people.” They explore why lasting change begins by becoming the person you want to attract, how your internal beliefs can keep pulling you back toward the same patterns, why curiosity creates connection while judgment destroys it, and when protecting your inner circle becomes necessary for growth. If you’re tired of repeating the same relationships, tolerating the same negativity, or wondering why your environment never seems to change, this conversation will challenge you to stop looking outward, check your own magnet, and raise the standard from within.

📣 QUOTE: “This isn't happening to you. This is happening through you.” ⚡ - John Denney 

📣 QUOTE:  “Would the person you're looking for be attracted to the person you're being right now?”🧲  - Coach Fergie

Coach Fergie’s Level 🆙 Take-Aways 

1. Stop blaming the people you attract—check the magnet. 🧲
2. We don’t get what we want—we often get what we believe. 🎯
3. Your mind needs daily training just like your body does. 🧠
4. Life isn’t always happening to you—sometimes it’s happening through you. 🔄
5. “I’ll be happy when…” keeps happiness permanently out of reach. ⏳
6. Understanding starts when judgment stops. 🌎

🔹 Valuable Time-Stamps🔹 
🕒 04:17 — Become Who You Want to Attract
🕒 07:03 — Your Internal Thermostat Shapes Life
🕒 14:17 — Stop Creating Your Own Chaos
🕒 16:08 — Better Questions Reprogram Your Mind
🕒 21:36 — Shared Values Without Creating Clones

🌐 Visit The Harmony Exercise Website
🔥Show Sponsor Steve Austin's Dynamic Team with Rize Mortgage