"Be open to being open with yourself."
In this episode, Nick speaks with Peter Kolat, who grew up in Poland during the communist era. His family lived in a small room, and they never had much money. His parents divorced when he was 8, and his mom decided it was best if he & his sister stayed with their aunt and uncle in Poland, while she went to America to work and hopefully make a better life for them.
When it was time for his mother to leave, Peter begged his mom not to go, but she had to do what she needed to, so she left for America.
When Peter turned 14, his mom had earned enough money to buy a house in the United States and now wanted her children to move back with her.
Peter had friends, school, and dance that he didn’t want to give up, but he had no choice. Now Peter is grateful that he is here because of all the opportunities that live here.
Many times, people, or Peter himself, could claim that he was a poor Polish kid, but Peter used these impactful moments to choose who he was and what he did.
Peter is on a mission to help other people become and live their best selves.
About Peter Kolat,
Known as "Polish Peter" in the industry, is a transformational coach for Immigrant entrepreneurs and business owners. Because of his ability to speak into people’s lives and dive deep into what’s holding someone from being successful, he’s been referred to as the Polish Tony (ref: Tony Robbins) by his students.
Peter owns a successful national business development and coaching company, runs 2 transformational coaching masterminds & has worked with high 6 and 7-figure businesses in 16 different industries around the country.
His clients consistently return positive ROIs in their businesses.
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Click Here To View The Episode Transcript
00:00:08:08 - 00:00:27:17
Nick McGowan
Hello and welcome to The Mindset and Self-mastery Show. I'm your host, Nick McGowan. And on this show, my guests and I unpack the stories that shape us, the lives that we lead on our path to self-mastery. So let's not wait any longer. Let the games begin.
00:00:32:06 - 00:00:35:21
Nick McGowan
Hey, Polish. Peter, welcome to the show, man. How are you doing?
00:00:36:08 - 00:00:41:13
Peter "Polish Peter" Kolat
I'm doing great. Well, thanks for having me. And I really appreciate you being on here on this particular podcast with you, man.
00:00:42:01 - 00:01:03:19
Nick McGowan
Yeah, absolutely. Look, I'm excited for you to be here. We connected, I don't know, a couple of weeks ago, a month ago, something like that, through a friend who was on, I think one of the first ten episodes that I done, Adrian Smooth. So he was on and I know whoever Adrian puts me in contact with, I'm in for some weird fucking stories and great conversation with great people.
00:01:03:20 - 00:01:18:08
Nick McGowan
So I'm glad you're here. But look, man, I got to be honest right off the bat, just saying to you, welcome, Polish, Peter, I'm going to sound like I feel like I'm being a dickhead and just calling you that. So I want to get that out of the way first for the audience who are like, Wow, this guy's kind of a douche.
00:01:18:08 - 00:01:25:14
Nick McGowan
Bag me for calling you that. But that's what people call you, right? Like, it's that's kind of the nickname industry wise, correct?
00:01:25:23 - 00:01:51:11
Peter "Polish Peter" Kolat
Yeah, that is the nickname. That's why I've been coming out of the industry and came out of something that was in one of the masterminds that was came out of it. As you probably know, I have an accent you can hear. I have an accent or gender component. I was born in Poland. I mean, the southernmost point in like middle of mountains left in the first seven years and, you know, 12 by 12 room and during the communist era in Poland.
00:01:51:11 - 00:02:24:08
Peter "Polish Peter" Kolat
So it was a very small kind of a in the hotel room, kind of the whole that was our bedroom, our living room, our kitchenette off to the side, bathrooms were down the hallway, public restrooms kind of thing that we everybody used. So I came out of Poland, and so I'm pretty proud of my Polish heritage. At the same time, I am really grateful, lucky and blessed to be in this particular country because I know where I came from and when I get to do now in today's world, it is help other people and help impact their lives too, for the betterment of themselves.
00:02:24:08 - 00:02:50:07
Peter "Polish Peter" Kolat
You know, because we all have stories, we all walk through stories. So the fact that I'm able to do this has helped me tremendously. Now, the story behind a Polish pillar is that I think about every single one of us has some kind of an identity that we've created for ourselves. Right. For me, it could have been this poor Polish kid from communist era and and kind of disempowering and things like that.
00:02:50:18 - 00:03:12:12
Peter "Polish Peter" Kolat
So and it's something that's out of my control. Now, what happened out of this Polish pillar thing is that while my first name is Peter Polish Peter. And there was an identity tied into there that is within me that I have control over that nobody can take away from me. And that includes being empowering, being transformative. Being person was intentional and loving.
00:03:12:19 - 00:03:34:21
Peter "Polish Peter" Kolat
So actually each letter stands for something and that's what I created for myself. And that kind of became this name for, you know, around the industry. And that's how people refer to me. But the point I'm making is there is an identity that every single one of us has and each one of you, the listener, I want you to create an identity for yourself that you have within your own control that nobody can take away from you.
00:03:35:12 - 00:03:45:14
Nick McGowan
Wow. Yeah, that's a ton of tunnel layers to the one thing that somebody right off the top, if they just heard me call you, just polish. Peter probably asked, why the fuck did he say that?
00:03:45:21 - 00:03:47:14
Peter "Polish Peter" Kolat
So now? Yeah. That's awesome.
00:03:47:21 - 00:04:14:12
Nick McGowan
Yeah. Well, to also know that it's not just about somebody tying your identity directly to you, but also something you've created and used an acronym to be able to actually strengthen it a bit. Because I think one of the things that we get into on this show often without talking directly about it, is the flavor that we bring to life and that we see through things the way that we see life and interact with life through the different lenses that we have, the identities that we have.
00:04:14:12 - 00:04:33:04
Nick McGowan
I often joke at times like I'm a little much because I was born in Philly that just that's the joke. That's not real. That's not that's not who I am. But it's part of what some people believe me to be. So I'll lean into those jokes in certain ways. And in those ways I know we can buy into those identities.
00:04:33:10 - 00:04:48:23
Nick McGowan
So it's interesting how you not only bought into it, but you're like, Fuck yeah, this is who I am and this is what this actually means. So I appreciate that you. Dove Right, right into that. In fact, I always start these episodes off with, tell us what you do for a living and you knock that off. So thank you.
00:04:49:00 - 00:04:56:04
Nick McGowan
The next one is going to be what's that one thing that most people don't know about you that's maybe a little odd or bizarre. I know you got at least a couple of them.
00:04:57:00 - 00:05:16:22
Peter "Polish Peter" Kolat
Well, it's depending on the rating of the show, but I want to put this out there like this. So when I was a little back in Poland from the part of the country that I met, that's a very traditional lot of you know, we have our own traditions and things like that. So I used to be in this traditional dance group.
00:05:16:22 - 00:05:42:13
Peter "Polish Peter" Kolat
I played violin in there and I dance like we travel across the country and then start doing like international festivals and things like that. So a lot of people here in the States don't know that I got moves and those moves were works traditional back there. But I mean if you want to go look up on the Internet world, girl, that's g0r, a, l and then look at dancing.
00:05:42:13 - 00:05:43:23
Peter "Polish Peter" Kolat
For that, you'll see what I used to do.
00:05:44:12 - 00:05:50:03
Nick McGowan
Nice. Oh, man. So you can cut a rug or polish rug, I guess in that sense. Yeah.
00:05:50:04 - 00:05:53:19
Peter "Polish Peter" Kolat
Oh, I appreciate that.
00:05:53:19 - 00:06:21:00
Nick McGowan
I mean, I almost, you know, I as soon as somebody says anything like that, it's probably because I'm a very visual person. I start to picture the person doing those things. And in some ways I almost picture you like a Simpsons character, just kind of like cruising along and dancing. But that sounds like an epic bit of a story that you have where there are some people, I think growing up where they want to play other music and they get to travel around with their, you know, school or whatever.
00:06:21:00 - 00:06:40:05
Nick McGowan
And then there are some people that play sports and they get to
