Badass Is The New Black (Season 3) Episode #20 Be Inspired To Overcome Your Disability And Take Action Towards Your Goal With Jordan Levin

Having a disability can be difficult. However, inspirational speaker Jordan Levin proves that despite being deaf, he can do what he wants with the right mindset and the right support system around him. He joins Krissy Chin as he shares his inspiring story of overcoming his disability and believing that all the good things start from within. Jordan says that he never lets his disability hinder him from the things he wants to do in life, and part of that is taking action and being grateful for every opportunity. His goal is to motivate others to expand their inner vision, focus on themselves and help them excel in their endeavors.  

---

Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here: 

Be Inspired To Overcome Your Disability And Take Action Towards Your Goal With Jordan Levin 

All Good Things Start With YOU! 

This interview is a complete inspiration. Jordan Levin was born deaf but learned how to speak and taught himself how to read lips. His never-take-no for-an-answer attitude has got him far in life and taught him many practical tips for generating success in business. Jordan is here to teach us how to communicate better, how to take action and a couple of habits that you can implement to keep you moving forward in your life and in your business.  

---

We have Jordan on the podcast. He’s been a fighter since the day he was born. He was born three months premature, weighing only 31 ounces. Two years later, Jordan’s parents discovered he was deaf. They were told that he would never learn to speak. You’re probably thinking, “How is he going to be on this podcast?” Through dedication and hard work, Jordan’s parents taught him to use his residual hearing. Jordan instinctively taught himself to read lips, which has helped him to navigate the shoals of a hearing world. Jordan inspires others through his motivational speaking and CrossFit coaching to begin a journey of expanding their inner vision by focusing on themselves. His goal is to help people excel in their endeavors and help them realize that all good things start from you and all good things start from within. I’m super pumped to have you, Jordan, on the show. Thank you for being here. 

We need to be grateful for opportunities. That’s how we’re going to be able to get through challenges.  

Thank you. It’s an honor to be here. I’m happy to have any discussion that this discussion goes to. I say I am an open book so let’s go for it. 

We have a little bit of history of when you’re born and you were born with a hearing disability. Is that what you would define it as? He’s nodding for me. 

I always tell people that I don’t consider myself having a disability. It’s a heightened awareness of abilities. A lot of people tend to downplay those disabilities and get caught up in there. What I want the readers to know and hear that disability doesn’t need help and nothing going to stop you from doing something that you want to do. That’s where, “All good things start with you,” mantra comes into play because I want parents to understand that the diagnosis, for my parents, for example, of finding out that I was deaf was a devastating diagnosis. The interesting thing is how they took their diagnosis and figured out a way to teach me how to speak and how to listen. That was not easy. Through that, there was a lot of overcoming adversity. There were so many different situations growing up that most people would take for granted but for my parents, it became a learning experience of what someone who’s deaf knows. For us, it wasn’t just how do we get to there to adjust when there have been many steps along the way. 

I wanted to bring you on this show because you have not let any of the challenges that you have faced stopped you. You own businesses and opened a gym. We can get into that and all the things that you’ve been able to accomplish but I wanted to bring you on to let people read your message and use you as inspiration that we all have things in our lives that we could let stop us from that next thing or moving forward. It’s a choice that we have. Are we going to let it stop us? Are we going to play into that? Are we going to say, “It might be this way but I’m going to figure out how I can learn to do it another way so I can still do it or learn to use tools and resources to allow me to experience it? Maybe not the same as the person next to me but experience it in a way that is going to fulfill me and help me change lives.” I’m sure you’ve had lots of roadblocks. Can you think of something in particular where you were like, “This is tough,” and how you got past that? 

There are many stories and one main story is not necessarily getting tested but I want people to understand that there are ways to get people comfortable with this situation. It’s like a catch-22. For example, when I was in middle school, I attended a hockey camp at Michigan State University, where we stayed in the dorms. We were in the dorms for the whole week. Keep in mind, I do not know a single person. Meeting new people, for most of us, can be challenging. A lot of time, I would go to a different event with a friend. I learned from a young age that my parents pushed me out into the real world and said, “Jordan, go fend for yourself. You’ll be able to figure it out.” They never let anybody else stop me from that happening.  

What I’m getting at is something that I did internally that I didn’t realize that I was doing until I was a little bit older. It was getting people comfortable with me. I would demonstrate how far down the hall I could read someone’s lips. The kids thought it was the greatest thing ever. Immediately, I flipped the narrative. Instead of letting that disability and letting those people question my disability, as I say, more of my ability, I was able to get the people to like me. I may not be the best hockey player, but I’m certainly able to keep people comfortable with me. That was is able of an intuition of changing the narrative to allow you to be truly who you are and we talk about being honest with yourself and accepting gratitude. I’m getting ahead of myself but these are some of the different habits that I’ve developed all through the years and they are some of the things that I could have in coaching, which allows the individual to understand these steps along the way to help you get to where you want. 

It’s such a powerful story. I recognize what you did there. Regardless of what it is, other people aren’t doing what you did and what you did was you were yourself. You were like, “Instead of hiding this and sitting alone in the corner and making myself even appear I’m more different than everyone else,” you’re not that much more different. You can’t hear everybody else but you’re a human. You can play hockey and you can be friends with people. Taking that skill that you developed because of something else that you couldn’t do like everyone else you’re like, “Let me put this out there and show people who I am and what I can do.” That’s in line with what I talk about being authentic. We hear everyone say, “Be authentic.”  

Everyone’s like, “What does that mean?” That’s authentic, what you did. It was being who you are, not trying to hide it, using it to your advantage in the best that you can and getting where you want to go with it. Whereas, if you hide the things that make you different, you can’t truly be yourself and you can’t truly share the message. You’re here sharing your message, “All good things start with you,” because you owned who you were. I love that. You got into some of these habits and I want to know more about these habits. I know they’re a big thing of what you like to talk about and teach. Tell us some of these habits that you’ve learned and how to develop and use these. 

I’m going to give you an example of something that happened to me when I was in elementary school. At that time, when I was about to enter elementary school, the principal didn’t want me to be in that school. What happened there was the principal said that, “We had to abide by certain rules because this kid has a disability, therefore we have to file IEP.” I don’t know what it stands for. The truth of it is she wanted my parents to sign all the rights for the school to control what I did in school. What do you think happened there? 

They said no. 

I want people to understand that if you think about being an educator and not seeing the value in a child that you and your abilities and this school only judged a book by its cover, which is exactly what we’re taught not to do. A magical moment happened at that time. What I call that is the habit of gratitude and recognizing that we have a choice to either stop or lower ourselves down. When that door shuts, we have to allow the other door to open because, in that situation, we have to be grateful for that opportunity to rise of to education. It’s what I call becoming private service. You learn to become your own private investigators. Our superhero skill is starting to sharpen. The more we can be grateful for those opportunities, that’s how we’re going to be able to get through those challenges. 

Your parents sound like rock stars. 

You can 100% say that because I’m grateful to them for recognizing all these situations. I have said this for years, “Never taking no for an answer.” That is a powerful thing. 

Is that something that your parents instilled in you? 

They did. I used that every day because there were so many situations that came through that we were told no. The word no doesn’t sit in my parent’s vocabulary. For me, this relates to business, personal, and every single situation. Especially in business, you’ve got to ask a question when a company or a representative says no. Do you personally know where you want to get to? You’ve got to figure out the private investigator in you to be able to navigate that. That’s where that comes into play. 

For most of us, meeting people can be challenging. 

What do you say to the person that’s reading who has been sitting on the things that they are taking no for an answer? They’re like, “I can’t do it. This person told me I couldn’t do it.” Maybe it’s their insecurities. They think that they can’t do it. What is your message to that person? 

My message is to take a look at that situation. Is it truly something that you’re passionate about? If it is, find another route. I’m going to keep it simple. This is a poor example. If I have this water bottle and I want to have some specific logo or message and style. I’ve got one vendor and the vendor says, “I can’t do it.” There’s got to be five other vendors. I don’t care if it takes twenty vendors to find that one bottle that gets you to what you want to. Go for it. It takes time. You need to be patient. Don’t go to something up right away because you heard the word, no. If you continue to follow that yes and positivity of what you’re doing, it would matter for itself, on many avenues of what you’re doing. 

You mentioned finding positivity, which makes me think about surrounding yourself with positive people. How does that play a role with you in your life? Who are the types of people that you surround yourself with? 

The answer to that is, because of who I am, everyone knows. I would go to anybody in any situation. The truth is like attracts. It’s hard to explain but I want to understand the positivity portion of your life. If you are in alignment with everything you have going on in life, it means that’s yourself. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying life is perfect. If life was perfect, nothing would ever get done. There are always challenges. A lot of times, it starts with the first thing that you do when you wake up. For me, when I wake up, I sit at the edge of my bed. I give myself a nice smile. Nobody can see me. I sit on the edge of the bed and take a couple of deep breaths. I don’t look at my phone and I say to myself, “Today is going to be an awesome day.” You’re already setting a standard for yourself. If you flip the switch, you wake up and go, “I’m tired. I’m grumpy,” I’m pretty sure the day is going to follow that. When something negative hits you, let’s say, at work with something personal, there’s a good chance that it’s going to set you up. Once you get set up in a negative way, that will manifest itself in a negative way. We have to find that balance that allows us to be fulfilled in the things that we do. 

I was going to ask someone who has negative people in their lives, negative things or they’re working a job that they hate wishing they could do something more or their passion, they’re in a toxic relationship or whatever it is holding them back from that next level. What is your advice to help someone move through that and move past that? 

My best suggestion for that and what I’ve learned through the years that I’ve been learning a lot from interviewing different people on my podcast. One of the things that are important that I’ve learned personally through the years is having a support system. There’s a pretty good chance that with the situation that we have going on, you’re not going to be the only one. It could be a friend that you got to talk to. I don’t recommend this but there might be a support group on Facebook or something. Sometimes it can be helpful. However, there are too many cooks in the kitchen in that situation.  

Who do you trust? You’re most likely going to trust your friend or your family. Work with those individuals first and let them know what’s going on in your brain, physically, mentally or whatever you have going on. I’m pretty sure you’d be able to find some different tips and tricks within that circle of friends and family. Don’t be afraid to fulfill an awesome idea. It will work when you have this looking at you like, “You’re crazy. That’s not going to happen.” I’m not saying do it but you need to look at all the scenarios. Weigh down the pros and cons. Who makes the decision? You do. Not them. All good things start with you. It’s not necessarily about finding the passion. You already have passion, whether it’s sports, crafting activity or whatever it is. You will be surprised at how much fulfillment you can find.  

I’ll give you an example. My wife is a wonderful artist. We’ve been together for quite some time now. In the beginning, she got involved in CrossFit, became a coach, a co-owner with the gym, and all of that. She’s doing a wonderful job but she took a backseat to her passion for painting, where she went to school in college for painting and all that. She put that at the back and it wasn’t a few years ago when she started getting back into it. Especially during the pandemic, we weren’t coaching as much. She fell back in love with her art and she is phenomenal.  

She said to me, “This brings me happiness and joy.” I said to her, “Good. Keep doing that. Don’t stop.” That’s what makes her happy. Keep doing it. Forget about the money. Money is not something you need to think about. I learned this with myself because I’m an entrepreneur. I was looking for different ideas. I’ll be honest with you, it wasn’t about when I started realizing that I need to go back to my passion and that’s speaking. I’ve been doing it for years but I’m focusing on things that I enjoy and I’m feeling fulfilled. I’m slowly working my way toward even more fulfillment. I go back to that life, in that sense because it does help to be patient. Whatever you do, play the long game. Do not expect results right away. Take it one day at a time. 

Entrepreneurship is tough. Everyone, if you’re out there reading, you’re trying to launch your business, launched your business, there are roadblocks every day. I have people who message me, “There are good days and there are bad days but I’m still happy that I’m doing this.” I know people have a hard time with that word passion and they’re like, “I don’t know if I’m passionate.” What is passion? If you enjoy doing it, then you get into it. You’re smart. You’re like, “How can I monetize on this thing I enjoyed doing so I can only do this thing I enjoy doing and put food on the table?” You guys are already one step ahead of most people. It is hard work. There are hard days, no matter what you’re going through, what the challenges, no matter who we are. The question is, how bad do you want it and do you have a support system around you? We don’t need to do this alone. Do you have that support system?  

Maybe it’s Jordan listening to his podcast, listening to the people and that’s your support system. You’re not talking to Jordan one-on-one and sending him messages. Maybe you are but maybe that’s your support. Maybe you’re tuning in to Badass is the New Black podcast and you’re getting inspiration from the people on here. Maybe that’s your support system or maybe you’re connected with other people but you’ve got to have that support. I know that your wife supports you in all of the things that you do. I love that you’re supporting her back. I have the same with Michael, who supports me and I support him. Sometimes I don’t even know what to say to other people who don’t have that support in their marriage or their partnership because mine now is good. I would tell them to get out because I got out of my first marriage because it wasn’t supportive. That’s my advice. I don’t know if you have better advice for someone. 

I hear and see people who’ve gotten divorced, remarried and all that stuff. There is so much involved. You understand this. There has to be an equal give and take. There has to be mutual respect between the two individuals in a marriage. When you respect each other and do the things that you do for your husband without having to think about it and you’re doing good and he appreciates that and he acknowledges that, that’s awesome. It’s the same thing here. For me, my wife tells me to do the dishes I forgot to do them. She’ll give me a little bit of a nudge. I’m not good at them but I noticed that I am getting better at the little things.  

You, I and everybody else are all busy but you have to slow down a little bit, be aware of your surroundings and see what’s coming out in front of you. As busy as we all are, we tend to get so consumed with whatever we’re doing, whether it’s work, whether it’s focusing on the kids, but what about that significant other? There is not enough communication between everybody. It is marriage advice but it’s also life advice. Having open-ended communication and trust with each other and it goes a long way. I can’t explain it but you have to understand it enough to make it work.  

Communication is huge and I worked on communication between my husband and me. I realized it was trickling into my business and beneficial for my business. Whether you have your business you’ve hired anyone out, I know that Jordan has people that do work for him and I have people that do work for me, communication is huge. That mutual respect between respecting them for what they’re doing in their role for your business and appreciating them can go so far. I 100% agree that this is business advice but it’s life advice. It’s all of the things, whether it’s your friendships, your partner or your business, that’s all huge and great advice. Work on communication, respecting one another, appreciating one another, and showing your appreciation. Also, trying to make an effort to be quicker with the dishes, Jordan. 

One thing I want to throw in the cup is to share what you mean and do what you’re going to do because you might say something and that person will receive it but it depends on how you say it. Also, if you said you were going to do something, follow up and do it. Especially in business and relationships even with friends and family and at all seems to be one of the biggest things that I’ve learned is to make any type of relationship successful. 

I don’t know if I’ve talked about this before on the podcast. Maybe I have. One example with communication for me, what I found that I always said is I grew up in a passive family. There weren’t loud arguments. No one liked confrontation. I would say things like, “We should do that.” Michael is like, “We should set up a date?” I go, “We should do that. Who’s setting up the date? Are you going to set up the date? Should I do that?” It’s being direct and being clear with what you’re going to say and taking ownership. If they’re not going to offer to do it, then say, “I will do that. Can you do that?”  

I find that in our business meetings, it trickles even into that where we talk about all these that we could do and these marketing things, “This is what’s coming up.” Having to be clear, “Claire, you’re going to do the graphics for that. I’m going to email this person to get the information. What are you doing?” Having that clear list because I have had times in a meeting where you talk about all these things and no one said, “You do this and I’ll do this.” You go away and a week later, it’s like, “Did anyone contact so and so?”  

That’s the thing and that’s also an important point is having the proper follow-up. As someone who loves to take action, if someone said to me, “You will have to estimate. You will have to look at it.” In three days, I’ll send you a message. If I have a client of my CrossFit gym that says, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” I’ve got everybody’s phone number. I’ll see them tomorrow. There’s a pretty good chance that you’re going to text me by the end of the day or the next day. I mean this in the nicest way possible. People are lazy.  

I’m guilty of some things. I work hard on some things but for other things, I’m lazy. I appreciate the text from my chiropractor the night before that says, “See it tomorrow at 4:30.” 

That’s what I’m getting at. It goes back to the communication aspect, to the trust, to learning who you want to be associated with. The needs of that chiropractor because we have a great relationship with the chiropractor. He’s upfront with you. He tells you exactly what you need to know, follow-ups with you, and gives you that personal reminder. I’m not talking about auto. We can go down a rabbit hole of that whole automation thing. I normally pick on automation because there’s nothing wrong with that but it goes both ways. Personally, with my CrossFit gym and with all my clients, I really want push the communication with everyone. It’s different when you have leads or you’re trying to build a business. They’re going to use automation for that. There’s a two-way street when it comes to that. It’s the same thing with marriages, friends and family. Everything comes together. 

I will say that it’s an automated message. What I like about it is that I can respond and someone will respond. It’s not automated. Know it’s saving them time, which I respect and can appreciate but if I’m like yes if we’re coming and no for not. I can text back and be like, “No. Can we set something else to reschedule?” She’ll respond to me. If you’re thinking of a texting service, it’s a good idea to get a number where you can automate but then you can also reply through there as opposed to, “Do not reply to this message.” Nobody’s on the other end. That feels lonely from the customer’s standpoint. 

I’m on a few auto texting campaigns. I’ll send them a message saying, “X, Y, Z,” and nothing. I’m like, “I’m texting you for a reason. I have a question.” No response.  

What else? You’re huge on taking action. We talked about this when I recorded with you on your podcast. We talked a little bit about taking action. We have this in common, for sure, that we are people that take action. For the reader who is feeling a little bit stuck, down and negative, but they do want it, there’s something. What is your advice for taking action? 

Never taking no for an answer is a very powerful thing. 

One of the things that I’ve developed in my habits is if there’s something I want to accomplish, whether it’s starting a podcast, doing a website or setting up an online course, whether it’s starting a brand new physical business, I have a major decision to make. I will do my research. I would gather all the information. I will look at all the pros and cons. I might talk to different people to get their perspectives. Once I started and got down into which direction I want to go in and who I want to do business with, I look at many different factors. How responsive are they? Do they respond with a reasonable amount of time was there to dictate your potential and shift with their company? What I’m getting here is once I’ve nailed it down with what I want, I will sleep on it. I will work on it the next day with a clear brain and mind with zero distractions. I’m sitting on the computer and my computer is off. I’m only focused on that. I have to do a quick analysis to be sure that the decision I’m going to be is the right one.  

My point is to take action by doing that. My point is once you’ve made that decision, try not to have any neglect because once you’re in, you’re in. Whether there’s a lot of money or whether there’s little money, you’ve already made that commitment to yourself to take action and keep going. You may be going for it for a couple of weeks and you might hit a roadblock. That’s where the private investigator comes into play for me. I start investigating why I’m in a roadblock and what I’ve got to do to get past it. I’m going to go back, do research and figure it out. If it takes a couple more weeks to make that decision? Fine. There are days where there are going to be these stepping stones but once you’re in there, whatever phase it is, go on with it. You’ll never know where you’re going to end up. 

It’s powerful. I love that you said, “No regrets.” It’s something that I live by, even with horrible decisions that I didn’t think were horrible at the time in my life. Instead of thinking of them as regrets, “I regret doing that thing. I regret saying that. I regret reacting that way.” Use it as a learning opportunity and moving forward so you can be better and do better next time that comes around. It’s so powerful. Jordan’s thing is all good things start with you. That’s such a powerful reminder that you are the one that can take control. I want to know your last thoughts on that message. For the person that’s reading, speak to them. What do you want to say to them before we tell them how they can find you and keep connecting with you? 

The best way to get a hold of me is to go to my website, JordanLevin.com. I have a free book that you can download. It’s my father’s book that he wrote about years ago and it’s called We Were Relentless: A Family’s Journey to Overcome Disability. I’m giving that away for free. I want you to understand that overcoming adversity is a well-known statement. It applies to everything. You can download that. I do online business coaching. I do health coaching. I am a health coach. I do personal training, whether it’s online, virtually or in-person. I’ve got a lot of things. You can get a hold of me there. If you are local in Michigan and you’re looking to get involved in CrossFit, I own CrossFit Bloomfield. The website is CrossFitBloomfield.com. You can sign up and get more information. We’d love to help you at the gym. I’d love to have the opportunity to work with you virtually as well. Hopefully, in the near future, we’ll be able to meet in person. 

Any last inspiring message you want to share? 

Never take no for an answer. Always be yourself. Don’t worry about anybody else. There are zero comparisons. Each of us is our own individual and we need to be able to find what that is within ourselves. We have to love ourselves before we love everybody else around us.  

Jordan, thank you for being here. Thanks for hanging out with us. We will have all of the information in the show notes. Click on all the things and go follow Jordan. You’re on Instagram and Facebook. Thank you to everyone who is reading. Until next time. Take action. Done is better than perfect. See you later. 

Thank you so much for having me.  

Bye. 

Important Links: 

• Jordan Levin 
• All Good Things Start With You 
• Podcast - Krissy Chin episode on All Good Things Start With You podcast 
• CrossFitBloomfield.com 
• Instagram - Jordan Levin 
• Facebook - Jordan Levin 
• We Were Relentless: A Family’s Journey to Overcome Disability 
• https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/JordanLevin/  

About Jordan Levin

 While growing up, fitness and sports represented Jordan Levin’s life. On any given day, you could find him water skiing, windsurfing, snow skiing, playing baseball, hockey, and doing gymnastics. He loved playing sports, which he learned from his father, an active athlete himself.

Jordan’s true passion is to help people strive to do and be the best. He learned this through a life that involved significant health issues and a hearing disability that easily could have kept him down and out. Throughout his life, Jordan’s parents taught him the meaning of being relentless, never taking “no” for an answer, and striving for the best.

He has overcome many obstacles in his life, and today, this vibrant, enthusiastic and highly motivated coach helps adults, children, and teens find the desire within them to accomplish their own personal fitness/health goals. Jordan has grown CFB from humble roots in his parents' garage into an 8000 sq ft fitness facility. Bringing a tough yet highly compassionate style to his coaching, Jordan leverages his own life lessons to help members to accomplish their own goals.

Jordan is also a motivational speaker and champion for overcoming the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic. This certified fitness coach and owner of CrossFit Bloomfield is President of the Jordan Levin Childhood Obesity Foundation and speaks to groups about his life’s journey.