Why Do Utah Founders Keep Repeating The Same Life And Business Patterns?

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Most Utah founders are not stuck because they lack ambition. They are stuck because the old story is still driving the day. Same thoughts. Same reactions. Same ceiling. Nick Smith, owner of 12 Journeys Certified Giant Coaching and author of The Giants And The Smalls, sat down with Peter Anthony on the Utah Business Spotlight Podcast to answer the question every high performer eventually has to face. Why do Utah founders keep repeating the same life and business patterns even after they see them?

Nick Smith's answer is not surface level motivation. It is identity architecture. Habits do not hold when the identity underneath them has not moved. Rewrite the identity first and the habits follow. That is the entire premise of 12 Journeys, the book, and the coaching program Nick Smith has built for founders, leaders, and couples who feel the ceiling but cannot willpower their way through it.

Who Is Nick Smith And What Is 12 Journeys

Nick Smith is the owner of 12 Journeys Certified Giant Coaching and the author of The Giants And The Smalls. Nick Smith built the 12 Journeys framework as an identity based approach to personal transformation for Utah founders, leaders, couples, and high performers who have hit a ceiling that willpower alone cannot break. The hub of the work lives at my12journeys.com, and the long form conversations Nick Smith records with clients and guests live on the Wake Up With Giants TV YouTube channel.

The Book Behind The Framework, The Giants And The Smalls

The Giants And The Smalls is Nick Smith's book on becoming the giant version of yourself by rewriting the small identity quietly running your life. The story follows a small who leaves everything he knows, questions the assumptions he inherited, meets a giant, and learns how to become one. Every giant in the book is a real teacher Nick Smith met in his own life, and every lesson maps directly to the twelve stage framework Nick Smith uses inside 12 Journeys.

The 12 Journeys Framework, Awareness To Legacy

The framework moves a client through twelve deliberate stages grouped into three arcs. The inner world arc walks the client through awareness, grief, acceptance, and empowerment. The growth arc walks them through uncertainty, vision, surrender, abundance, and nurture. The impact arc closes with legacy. Each stage has a specific job to be done, and each stage builds on the one before it. Skip a stage and the whole thing collapses back into the old identity within weeks.

"We do not fix behavior. We rewrite the identity running the behavior. That is why it holds."

From Living In A Car To Rebuilding A Life

Nick Smith shares the story of a scholarship client who came into the program homeless, living in her car, with a single goal that had nothing to do with money. She wanted her own space two blocks from the ocean. From the car to a Motel 6. From the Motel 6 to a job. From the job to a real career and the space two blocks from the water she said out loud on day one. The point is not the geography. The point is that when identity moves first, the external results stop feeling like a fight.

Why High Performers Keep Returning To Old Patterns

Nick Smith is direct about the pattern most founders will not name. The old grooves are deep. The habit loops are wired. Waking up to the pattern is only the first step, and most self improvement plans die by week three because the client wakes up, feels the discomfort, and slides back into the old identity because a new one was never built. The 12 Journeys work is designed for that exact drop off point, which is why Nick Smith opens the interview by saying you do not just wake people up, you get them to rewrite the story in a new direction that is more powerful.

Using AI To Help Clients See Themselves

Nick Smith has built AI agents and applications inside the 12 Journeys ecosystem that act as a mirror for clients. When someone finally wakes up to a pattern, the first reaction is judgment, and judgment sends them right back into the loop. The AI is designed to help clients see themselves without collapsing, so they can stay in the work long enough for the new identity to take hold. It is a very intentional use of AI, personal transformation as the point, not productivity.

Neuroplasticity, Identity, And Your Current Future

The science backs the framework. The brain builds roughly seven hundred new neurons a day, which means every Utah founder has the biological ability to build a new pathway at any age. What blocks it is the story. Nick Smith frames it clean. Your old stories are your current future. Rewrite the story on purpose or keep paying interest on the one you inherited. Peter Anthony extends the point on the show, you have to change the past to change the future, because the past is what is quietly writing the present.

About INCubator Marketing Agency

INCubator Marketing Agency is Utah's first AI-integrated marketing infrastructure team, headquartered in Sandy, Utah and serving small businesses, founders, and operators across Utah County, Salt Lake County, and the wider Wasatch Front.

Every engagement is built around the INCubator Method: seven core marketing systems — authority web design, local SEO, CRM and pipeline, marketing automation, AI voice receptionists, video content, and conversion-focused funnels — installed together as one accountable infrastructure so every dollar compounds month over month.

The agency was founded by Peter Anthony Wynn (Founder & Marketing Strategist) with Marc Olsen (Partner & Automation Expert) and Chelsie Wynn. INCubator operates Utah Business Spotlight, a long-form Utah small business podcast filmed at Bad Bet Productions in Sandy, Utah, and hosts Tuesday Night at the INCubator — a weekly marketing training and networking event for Utah business owners.

Contact: team@incubatormarketingagency.com · +1 385-386-6988 · Office hours Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM Mountain Time.