Meet Eden.

I cared so much about fitting in that I let other people’s opinions shape how I saw myself.

Going back to wrestling gave me something real to work toward. I trained, kept promises to myself, and did things I wasn’t sure I could finish. Eventually, I made varsity and was selected to train at All I See Is Gold Academy, where I am coached by Olympic gold medalist and six-time world champion Jordan Burroughs.

For the first time, I had proof that I could say I was going to do something, work toward it, and follow through.

But I also got something wrong.

I started believing that the more I suffered, the stronger I would become. Then I injured my shoulder. I couldn’t train the way I had before. My routines fell apart. My grades slipped. I started caring about other people’s opinions again.

I thought confidence meant becoming unbreakable.

I learned that it meant knowing I could rebuild.

So I started again—one decision at a time.

ClickFunnels is a software company that helps entrepreneurs build websites and sales funnels that guide people from discovering an idea to taking a specific next step.

When I was nine, ClickFunnels interviewed me about the difference between a website and a sales funnel.

Through the ClickFunnels community, I met Russell Brunson—its co-founder, an entrepreneur and author, and a former state champion wrestler. Russell became an important mentor and example for me.

Seeing those two sides of his life helped me understand that I didn’t have to choose between being an athlete and being an entrepreneur. The discipline I developed through wrestling could also help me learn, communicate, create, and build something of my own.

People often tell young people to “just be confident.” That never gave me anything I could actually do.

What helped me was choosing something worth working on, making a promise to myself, and doing the work long enough to create evidence that I could follow through.

That became the idea behind Earn Your Hard™.

The book is not about making life harder. It is not about suffering to prove something. It is a practical way to choose the hard that builds you—in your mind, body, work, or life—and start where you are.

I’m still doing it too.

Make the promise.
Do the work.
Build the proof.
Trust yourself a little more.

I’m a co-founder of Earn Your Hard™, not just the person whose story appears in the book.

I help shape the parts of the brand designed for young people, including:

• the voice and ideas inside Earn Your Hard™
• challenges and community experiences for young people
• the way we talk about confidence without pretending life is simple
• What’s Your Hard? conversations with people about the experiences that helped build them

My role is to make sure young people are not only talked about. Their perspective should help shape what is built for them.

Your hard does not have to look like mine.

Through What’s Your Hard?, I ask people about a difficult and worthwhile experience that helped shape who they became—and what they would tell a young person facing something hard today.

The purpose is not to celebrate struggle for its own sake. It is to show that confidence, capability, and character are often built through choices most people never see.

What hard experience helped build who you are today?

Earn Your Hard™ was built from a belief Eden and his father, Eric Rodriguez, share: young people need meaningful responsibility, but adults should not take over the work that helps them grow.

Eden brings the lived perspective of a young person still doing the work. Eric brings the perspective of a father and financial educator who has spent years helping people make difficult decisions and follow through.

Together, they are building Earn Your Hard™ so parents and guardians can create the opportunity, while young people make the choice and build the proof for themselves.

I’m 16. I’m still learning. I still have days when I get distracted, doubt myself, or need to begin again.

My faith is still growing too. It shapes how I think about who I am, what I have been given, and the responsibility I have for what I do with it.

Earn Your Hard™ is not me standing above other young people with all the answers.

It is an invitation to choose something worth working on—and build alongside each other.