Meet Hunter Charneski | Author | Athlete | Keynote Speaker | Man of God

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hunter Charneski and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hunter, looking back, what do you think was the most difficult decision you’ve had to make?
The most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make was putting God first.

My father died when I was fourteen. As a young man without his dad during his most formative years, that led to the unconscious pursuit of father-figures in the form of coaches, mentors, and men I idolized.

Because I was so hungry for the father I needed, I did whatever it took to earn these men’s approval, counsel, and guidance, or lack thereof. Suffice to say, I worshiped them.

On and on that went for nearly two decades. During that time, I sabotaged myself over and over again; sacrificing my God-given gift of writing for what I thought was success, (money, women, notoriety, achievements) and an “Atta boy” from the current coach or mentor I worked with. But here was the rub: each success, no matter how great it may have been perceived by others, felt to me like another meaningless win. Nothing could have compared to writing.

Then, in November, 2022, I got into business with the biggest and baddest mentor I’d ever known: a gentleman internationally known as The Trillion Dollar Man, Dan S. Pena. Mr. Pena served as Chairman on my Board of Directors for a HealthCare acquisition platform. During Mr. Pena’s thirty years of financial coaching and industry rollups, he has a 100% success rate on the boards he’s chaired. Meaning, he’s helped create generational wealth for people in my position in as little as thirty-six-to-forty-eight months…without fail. Naturally, given my state of self-sabotage, I said to hell with writing and took every word he said as if it were the Word of God.

After five-months of working together, in March, 2023, I started developing symptoms. I sustained bodily injuries. I felt physically ill. It was like a black column of dread was filling my spine, one vertebrae at-a-time. Coincidentally, during that time I was roughly 100 pages into the first draft of my upcoming book set to launch on October 11, 2024: “The Way: Out of Self-Sabotage; Into Self-Mastery” trying like hell to answer a question I had written on the blackboard in my office.

The question was: Why do we sabotage ourselves?

With no where else to run, for the first time in my life, I ran to God. On March 22, 2023, I sent Mr. Pena a video. I told him I needed to put God first, go all-in on my gift of writing, and be patient and steadfast enough to run my race instead of someone else’s.

Mr. Pena resigned five-days later. Meaning, I had effectively walked away from all-but guaranteed generational wealth.

I put God first, which was the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make. But it was the right one. Because if I hadn’t, I doubt I’d be here doing this interview.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I think what sets me apart from others is that I have a PhD in Self-Sabotage, metaphorically speaking. That’s no small thing, by the way. It’s allowed me to weaponize words against other artist’s self-sabotaging activities. I can recognize self-sabotage in others when I see them unconsciously participating in it. It takes one to know one, so the saying goes.

That’s a good deal, and what I’m most excited about. Because of my twenty-year self-sabotaging spree, it is my hope that my book: “The Way: Out of Self-Sabotage; Into Self-Mastery” will become the preeminent book on stopping self-sabotage.

Can you imagine a world in where self-sabotage ceases to exist? I can, and I have. I think it’ll look a little something like heaven on earth.

As far as where I’m at professionally, getting here was no cake walk. You see, when you finally put God first in your life, then go all-in on your gift of writing, pottery, singing or otherwise, running YOUR race can be humbling to say the least. Like, the only job you’re able to get is as a Sandwich Artist at Subway humbling; which is where I ended up on September 10, 2023. Mind you, I had a license to print money, practically speaking, in any other endeavor I’d pursued until then; all of which were self-sabotaging activities, however.

As far as overcoming that challenge, I saw it as an incredible opportunity for content creation. Stories upon stories were just waiting to be snatched up and shared. From customers telling you about their crazy days, to the power going out on New Year’s Day, and exploding bread in the freezer because the temperature got too high. As a writer, I would have been a fool to not have paid attention to all the potential prose to be pulled from my workplace to my book.

Lessons, ha! There are too many to count. Here’s one lesson that piggybacks off the last point I made about challenges, and it’s a quote from a man named Paul Rink: “Suffering never hurt any writer I know of.” This quote isn’t limited to just writers, but artists of all kinds. Think about it.

Stephen King wrote perhaps the greatest vampire story of all-time: “‘Salem’s Lot” in a laundromat.
Steven Pressfield, author of: “The Legend of Bagger Vance” didn’t have his first book published until he was fifty-four.

Rink’s advice and both Steves’ examples are analogs of the third step to stopping self-sabotage that I talk about in my book: Run YOUR Race. If you’re truly running YOUR race instead of someone else’s, odds are there’s going to be a fair bit of suffering involved. Lean into that suffering. Later on, the empathy you’ll have for what will likely be your target audience will be priceless. Because where empathy flows, connection grows. How’s that for a lesson?

In November, 2022, right before I left for Scotland to go see Mr. Pena, I was selling life insurance. I’d make 300 cold-calls per day. That was my jam. One day, Mr. Jones answered my call. At first, what I thought was going to be a wham-bam-thank-you-mam, one-call close ended up being a six-hour conversation with a complete stranger.

You might be wondering what we were talking about. And if you are, I’d tell you to look up.

“Put God first.” Mr. Jones said. “Or you will lose everything.”

I can’t speak for Mr. Jones, or God, for that matter, but I would echo Mr. Jones’ advice to the world. Because I’m not concerned with the world knowing me, my brand, or my story. I’m interested in the world knowing Him. I hope my book: “The Way: Out of Self-Sabotage; Into Self-Mastery” will help the world put God first; we need Him now more than ever.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m going to wax introvert here, but that’s just who I am. Say la vie.

I’ll tell you what, there are few things more relaxing than setting up a couple lawn chairs in the garage with a finger of whiskey in one hand and a cigar in the other. I don’t drink and I don’t smoke, but if we’re going for “the best time ever” I’d make an exception. We’ll put this in the “hang out” category.

I’m a one-meal-a-day kind of guy. I do it for a number of reasons, the truest and perhaps most paradoxical being: I love food. After fasting all-day I get to have a feast, no guilt or shame tied to it. Three cups of ground beef laying on a pillow of butter and a bed of jasmine rice? Sure thing. Salmon burgers swimming in a sea of sweet potato fries? No problem. Can’t forget the Ruth’s Chris steakhouse downtown with the family-sized side dishes. C’mon. Or, Tiffany and I’s favorite guilty pleasure, getting takeout pizza and a Crumbl cookie, (or two, or six) for dessert.

As far as fun goes, I love working out. At thirty-three years old, I still compete in the sixty, 100, 200, and 400-meter dashes at NCAA track meets at my alma mater, Grand Valley State, (where I played football from 2010-2013) in both the indoor and outdoor seasons. Who doesn’t like being fast? So yeah, of course my best friend and I would hit the track up no less than three times over the course of a week together. As Dave Tate once said: “Life is what happens in the gym. Everything else is just rest between sets.” I feel a similar way about the track, and I revere the times I get to share it with those who are interested.

You can wash, rinse, and repeat the itinerary above for seven-days and we’d be happier than a cat in a mess of guitar strings.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to dedicate this shoutout to my wife, Tiffany, because of her unwavering faith, on multiple levels.

In the summer of 2019, after we’d been dating for a year, and talked about starting a life together, I told her I was moving from Michigan to Arizona. I wanted to pursue a new consulting business that was gaining traction, but I really wanted to just run away from my problems, i.e. self-sabotage.

Her response? “Do what you need to do.” She said, not in an antagonistic way, but in an unconditional-loving way. She knew that I needed to go be alone in the desert in order to learn that all I ever wanted was right in front of me, (her).

I did come back to her, by the way. On September 14, 2021, we bought a home in Georgetown Township and moved in together. She was waiting for me once I found my way out of the desert.

On February 3, 2023, three-months into my business venture with Mr. Pena and almost two-years before my book: “The Way: Out of Self-Sabotage; Into Self-Mastery” was set to launch, she stood by my side. On that day, she said: “I do” in a courthouse, taking me as her husband. Faith in action, man.

My book, this interview, and several other levels of my life wouldn’t have been had it not been for my wife’s multiple levels of faith.

Website: https://a.co/d/27tCA7l

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hunter_charneski/

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@huntercharneski3779

Other: https://huntermcharneski.substack.com/

Image Credits
(For the Subway headshot) Oliviara Multi Media