Episode 218: Resilient Minds, Thriving Ventures - Unleashing the Power Within Entrepreneurs to Overcome Burnout

In this episode, we delve deep into the treacherous terrain of entrepreneur burnout. Join us as we explore the subtle yet powerful warning signs that often go unnoticed, leading to the demise of even the most passionate and driven individuals. From relentless workaholism to deteriorating mental and physical health, we leave no stone unturned in uncovering the silent saboteurs that lurk beneath the surface.

But fear not! We don't stop at mere identification; we equip you with a toolbox of strategies and insights to combat and conquer burnout. James shares his personal experiences and battle-tested advice on how to regain control, rekindle your passion, and build resilience in the face of adversity.

Tune in to discover the transformative power of self-care, boundary-setting, and purpose-driven decision-making. We'll guide you through practical steps and mindset shifts to not only survive but thrive in the entrepreneurial world. Don't let burnout extinguish your dreams—ignite a new flame of balance, fulfillment, and sustainable success. Join us on this empowering journey toward reclaiming your entrepreneurial fire. #highperformance #burnout #selfcare #health 

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Podcast Guest: James Williams
Company/Organization: The Growth Edge
Position / Title: Certified High-Performance Coach
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-r-s-williams/
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/73776466/admin/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesrswilliams/
Website: https://thegrowthedge.com/
Email: James @TheGrowthEdge.com

This is just a reminder. This is something that I've come across a number of times in my career as an entrepreneur, but it absolutely is true. If you know that you don't have the right people in the right seats, you should really look into changing that and getting the right people in the right seats.

We've had. A lot of turnover in some of our companies in the last six months or so, and a lot of it had to do with underperformance and me wanting to give people the opportunity to be able to quote unquote, grow into the position since we've replaced them and found other people to be able to be in those positions.

Those. Opportunities, those areas has have absolutely flourished. So don't be afraid to make that change when you see things not happening, uh, no matter how much you might want to keep kicking the can down the road. So,

 On invest in square feet, we unlock the secrets of wealthy entrepreneurship. I'm Matt Shields and my mission is to help business owners just like you, protect your wealth so that you can invest passively into multifamily real estate. And speaking of investing passively in multifamily real estate, if you are looking to learn more about that, head over to invest in square feet and sign up for our monthly trainings where we walk.

Are potential investors through some of the knowledge that you need to have as a passive investor. In the multifamily industry today we're gonna talk about a topic that does not get covered nearly, nearly enough, and it's something that pretty well all entrepreneurs are going to face at one time or another, and they may not even realize that they're facing this.

The questions that we're going to answer today is, are you pushing yourself toward burnouts? We're gonna learn the hidden signs that high achievers normally will start portraying when they are on their path to toward burnout. And we're, we're gonna learn how to identify them and what to do when you are in those situations, or even have your loved ones listen to this episode so that they can understand whether or not.

You might be going through a burnout situation and they can help identify those particular situations. So with that, let's get onto the show. max@podcastboutique.com

  Well, the interesting thing about high performers like yourself is that high performers, you know, naturally can actually. Like go through burnout whilst not knowing they're in burnout, right?

That's, yeah. They can actually, they can actually do that because, I mean, I dunno if you under, you know what human design is, but there are all sorts of different personality profile testings. And so my wife's what's called a manifesting generator, and so that archetype has the ability to generate a huge amount of energy and we're not talking about fitness.

We're talking about this natural drive that you were just born with. And so you have this ability, but then what start, multiple things start happening. So, um, intrinsically things can start happening. Like you get very used to, um, your quality, your quality of sleep. Mm-hmm. Right? You get very used to, uh, certain pains.

You get very used to, um, your mood fluctuations, and it's what I call unconscious incompetency. So, You get used to things and you think that it's normal, right? Mm-hmm. And you're so focused on your goal, you're not even paying, you're not even comparing yourself to how other people run. Cuz you're just, this is just how, how I am and I'm fine.

Mm-hmm. It's your fine though, right? Then the other things is on the outside, your relationships. Right? They're just, they just, they, they start distancing a little bit. You feel like you can't trust people 100% anymore because you haven't spent the time to cultivate that. Maybe the marriage or those relationships, they're just, they're not fluid.

And again, the high performer will be like, oh, that's just normal. It's normal to argue with my wife every day, or it's normal for this thing to happen. That's, that everyone else is saying is bad. And so what often high performers do, because they, they don't think there's a problem. They normalize problems.

So, Yeah, that 

makes sense. 

Right. Until then your hair starts falling out. Right. Or you get that call from the doctor. Right. Or something really, I had a, a good friend's father who, you know, was always so happy and chirpy, um, and driven and worked really hard and, and then he, he, all his hair just fell out.

Wow. Yeah. Eyebrows as well. Everyone thought he had like cancer or something and it wasn't, it was a stress-induced, it's your body saying, listen, I'm trying every way to tell you to change how you are running me. Yeah. And you are not listening, so I need to do something drastic. And that's what happens is the signs get more extreme until you listen.

Mm-hmm. And my goal is to, is to try and educate. Because I don't want you to wait that long because sometimes that sign is unrecoverable. Mm-hmm. And if you get real burnout, that can take years to, to come back from that years. Yeah. Right. And that's if you do what you need to do to recover and then you, doesn't matter how clever you are, it doesn't matter how motivated you are, you won't physically or mentally be able.

To do what you want to do. Yeah. So, 

so what are some of the, the steps that we can take to, um, you know, help make sure that we're, I guess, not going down the burnout path, make sure that we are taking care of ourselves. You know, what, what are some of those, what's some of that advice that, you know, we 

can, I mean, that's a big question, but I would say the most important thing, so I, I, I run a, a training called Running the Business of You.

And I developed this for this mindset because, Like, let's say we just talk about business owners, entrepreneurs, right? Mm-hmm. Entrepreneurs understand the construct of a business. They understand SOPs, they understand company culture. They understand cash flow, they understand profit and loss. They understand these concepts, so, I turn those concepts into the roles within yourself.

And so step one, if you were to go into a business and audit that business and run a diagnostic, the first thing you'd want to be is com is awareness of everything. I wanna just be aware of everything I wanna, I wanna understand, you know, though, if we talk about the person, I wanna understand my level of energy.

I wanna understand. My sleep, how much I'm sleeping, what my REM and my deep is, you know, so I want stats. I want data, right? I wanna understand, without normalizing or judging anything, I just wanna literally audit my performance. So become aware of everything and then have some data about what, say a high performer that does the same thing as me.

Who is happy, healthy, energized, great relationships? What are they doing that I'm not doing? So we ga we gain data first, right? And we compare. Um, sleep's a big thing. Stress management's a big thing. Time is a big thing. The ability to put to bed. The work and now be husband or wife or friend. Yeah. Yeah.

It's quite often these, those AA types, they actually think about everything all the time. Mm-hmm. So it's com compartmentalizing, it's the ability to be present. So before we teach what, what are, which are habitual patterns, which takes time, we, we gain awareness, um, which is kind of like sales, right? So if I wanna sell you something, you need all the information so you can understand the benefit.

Of what you're investing in, because no, a type entrepreneur is gonna invest any more time in something unless they are sold on the, on how it's gonna benefit them. Yeah. In what they find important. Exactly. So that's my first job, is to sell to them why their ti, why their time addressing this thing is gonna, is gonna make all the things they're striving for easier to get and way more successful and all of the things that people complain to them about, like, you're not around enough.

Or you don't pay attention to me. But all of those things will also be addressed because you will have time to be present. Yeah. With your kids and your loved ones, and you will have time for your focuses. So step one is awareness. So, 

It's, it's so, so interesting, you know, some of these things that you're, you're talking about, like, I, I keep reflecting back on my own life and the way that, you know, I, I'm interacting with those, those different situations and I'm told, like, I don't, I, I've, so I've been an entrepreneur for a long, long time, right.

So I, I, I, you know, I, I understand the ups and downs and, and, and all of that. And I think, and I, I don't know that I've ever told anybody this, but I feel like I. Have sort of, I don't wanna say numbed myself, but, but I, I try to just keep an even keel, right? Where I never, I'm never like extremely excited about anything, but I'm never extremely depressed about anything either.

Mm-hmm. It doesn't really matter what it is. Right. So I just kind of like, I go, go this even flow. And, and the way that sort of manifests itself to other people is that I have a hard time expressing myself. I'm like, I don't think I do. I, I feel like I'm, you know, so 

I mean, without more information, I, but what, what often this, what, what sometimes happens, and I'm not saying what this is or isn't for you cause I don't know enough.

Mm-hmm. But often what busy people do that experience these emotions, especially men, more so than women actually is they bypass emotion. Right. They bypass it because it's like you recognize, well, when I feel really upset, doesn't help me progress. If I, if I feel really excited, it doesn't help my progress.

And so that's, even keel. Sounds good. And it could be good. Mm-hmm. But I'd need more data. Right. Because bypassing, it's a little bit like, you know, having weeds in the garden and you're like, well, If I dig up those weeds, my garden's gonna look terrible for so long. That's gonna look terrible for the neighbors.

I don't wanna do it. So I'm just gonna put a rosebush in front of the weeds and no wanna know it's there. Yeah, 

yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a great analogy. I like that. 

So that's part from what happens. Yeah, but you can't, you can't avoid what will, if you are bypassing emotion, you're not gonna avoid what will happen because the full expression of human emotion from furious to to elated.

That's the human experience. And if we deny ourselves those emotions, your body's now saying, oh, I don't need to produce these chemical messages anymore, right? Mm-hmm. So you are literally shutting down essential functions in your body that help you perform. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. And then when you are building up, stress doesn't, you can't bypass stress.

So if you're not feeling it, you're still getting the chemical messengers from that stress. You're still getting a buildup of cortisol. You're still getting information, and you're still getting used to those things eventually those things. That's the cornerstone of all disease, right? Information. Yeah. So eventually stuff starts happening.

Yep. And. And what is scary, and I don't wanna scare people that are listening to this, but really awesome ent, like high performing entrepreneurs that, um, are very good at bypassing. There has to be such a massive amount of information and, and, and stored stress for something to happen that when it does happen, it's big.

Yeah. 

Yeah. Yeah. I imagine that's, you know, that's those situations that lead to the burnout that, you know, might not be recoverable from, right. Yeah. You're, you're internalizing so much of that and, and, 

but the, but the other side of it, let's talk about the positive cause I like going there. The other side of it is, rather than talk about all the doom and gloom that could happen, like if you think about how successful and how great you are performing right now mm-hmm.

If you did. Have awareness and have a stress management strategy and a performance strategy, knew how to optimize the business of you. You are already doing well, so imagine if you were optimized, you would be doing 10 times better without any more effort. Yeah, I love it. Now that language, this is how I sold my wife on taking sleep seriously, because she wasn't, she was like doing all the things, like looking at her phone before bed, you know, getting up in the middle of the nights to write notes down, doing all this stuff and then not sleeping well and getting stressed and relying on coffee.

Mm-hmm. And the way I sold sleep strategy to her was, I said, you realize that the better you sleep, the more money you're gonna make, right? Mm-hmm. Because when you wake up the next day, having had ample REM and deep sleep and your sleep pressure fluids are, are gone, your ability to perform is 10 x and what do we know in business if you can, if you can make really good decisions fast?

Mm-hmm. If you can bounce back from failure fast, if you can have the same level of focus and energy at at 5:00 PM as that you did at 9:00 AM all of those things and more are gonna lead to a more successful business and life. Obviously, and all of those things are physiological effects of how you live.

Yeah. Couldn't agree 

more. And how do you, what are some of the suggestions on, um, you know, improving your sleep, right? Like, you know, you mentioned the no. Looking at your phone and like blue light glasses. Um, uh, you know, what are some of the 

other things that Yeah, yeah. So I mean, it's a big subject and sleep is, a lot of people think sleep is sleep strategies, just about what you do before, before you go to bed.

But sleep is about how you live your whole day. Okay. Consistently over time. And so, I, for a business owner, I'd view sleep, like, you know, that secret source of the business that if it's running really well, e everything's gonna be fluid. Mm-hmm. And so from the moment you get up in the morning, You've heard, I don't you have that term.

Um, um, oh, I got up on the wrong side of bed this morning. Do you have that term? Absolutely. Yeah. One day you wake up and you're in a bad mood. Yeah. So nine times outta 10, that's because of what your first thought or action, or attention was focused on when you first get up. So if anyone gets up in the morning and then reaches for the phone and turns the email on, you've just given away your agenda.

So whatever you read on your phone mm-hmm. And at that point, your mind is, it's not ready. It's like a cold engine, right? If I start the gas, if I, if I, my car was parked in the snow and I turn the engine on and I just went full force before the engine's been lubricated and warmed up, what's gonna happen?

The engine's gonna break, right? It's gonna, that engine's gonna have a stressful day. So it's like that with us. So, how we start our day, you know, we, we build in a routine, which is for at least an hour, no one. Outside of my family in the house gets my attention. Mm-hmm. And even my family for the first 10, 15 minutes, no one else gets the attention apart from me.

And what I do is I undo anything that has. Built up during the night, so let's say eight hours of sleep. I haven't drunken anything for eight hours, so I need to hydrate. Mm-hmm. I haven't been moving much, so I need to get the blood flow and get all that, all those liquids and stuff in my joints moving, right?

Mm-hmm. Get moving. So hydrate. I need to, I understand that my brain has been kind of quiet all night, so I need to now warm it up slowly with something that's positive. So whether it's, um, journaling or meditation or I, there's a great exercise where you just write down five. Once you've done the work on understanding your values and who you are at your best, you can write down five questions to ask yourself that, bring that person out, okay?

And if they're relevant to your agenda that day, even better. And then from that point on, you're, you know, you're just warming the body up because if you prime your body, your, your performance is gonna be better. Yeah. And then, then throughout the day we've gotta think, well, what are some of the things throughout the day that do have a negative effect on my physiology or my psychology?

And so one great trick for everyone, very simple, is hourly recharging. So if every hour, if you set an alarm on your phone to go off late, I. 50, you know, uh, 50 minutes past the hour, every hour. And then for five minutes or maybe 10 minutes, you undo that previous hour. So for example, if I'm sat on my computer working for an hour, I have to understand that I'm staring at a bright screen.

I'm sat down, which is not, not great. I'm probably not breathing. Deeply. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I'm probably not hydrating, so all I'll is stand up, move around, change my focus, hydrate, move around a little bit, do some breath work, and you'll gain back some of the performance you've lost in that previous hour. If you do that every hour, you're not gonna get the afternoon crash.

Yeah. That alone. That makes sense. Yeah, because it's, rather than try and solve a big problem by waiting till four, if you just. Chip away a little bit every hour. Mm-hmm. You are just keeping everything functioning right? Yep. And then we have to have a solid cutoff time, like me and my wife, when we finish our days, we might discuss work a little bit and then we have an agreement we say.

Right. Is there anything else around work that you want to discuss? Okay. No. Great. So from this point on, no work talk. 

I love it. I love that. Okay. That's, yeah, that's great. That's great in 

itself. That's amazing, right? Even that, yeah. So then it's just evening with partner, okay? Mm-hmm. And then, you know, we have food, all this kinda stuff.

And then before bed, you know, at least an hour, but ideally two, at least an hour of nothing that's gonna stimulate. Your intellect. So be very careful with that last word. Other stimulation is fine. Exactly. Um, so no screens, no tv, no computer, no phone, right? Um, no books that are learning books like fiction's.

Okay. But nothing that's gonna get you thinking of ideas. Mm-hmm. Because that you've already, you've closed off the day. Yeah, you said I'm done. It's awesome. I'm planning for tomorrow. We're sweet. So an hour, that hour is like the opposite of the wake up. It's like I'm gonna get my brain used to the fact that at this set time, an hour or two hours from now, it's gonna get used to that.

It can start winding down so that by the time my head hits the pillow, I'm not racing. Yeah, it's ready. And after a period of time, your brain will learn that your body will learn that it'll start producing the melatonin early. It will start winding itself down. Your body will start prepping. So, And you'll go to bed right now.

There are tons of other tricks in terms of depending on your, your access to things. I mean, I have an infrared sauna, so I do that. Mm-hmm. And cold, cold plunge. Um, do you do that before bed though? The plunge, so, yeah. But not cold plunge. So there, there's a lot of science behind in infrared sauna is really great because it will, it reduces a lot of the information, relaxes your body, but your body, your core temperature must be cool to sleep well.

Mm-hmm. And so, Even if your bedroom's cool, it's important to get that temperature down. So I will jump in a cold shower or a cold bath just for a coup, not like ice, just cold, just to get my core temperature back down. Right. And that what happens then is your body will, it knows. It's like, oh man, let's start pumping the hormones that we need for this time of night.

Yeah, yeah. Now, obviously you might feel a bit stimulated after that cold bath, but it's different. You are, all you're doing is you're just tricking your nervous system. Um, so I do that, and then you bit, then you're a bit cold, and then you get wrapped up in bed and you might do a meditation practice. You know, there's all sorts of, there's lots of little tricks and tricks you can do, but you know, ultimately, Before we start talking about tech, um mm-hmm.

It's really simply your, your body is the most amazing tech in the universe. It will do what you teach it to do. It's just that most of us are teaching our bodies unconsciously to do things that aren't good. Yeah. 

I, yeah, I, I love, I love the, you know, I guess the, the conscious, um, action of saying, okay, we're done with work now, you know, you and your partner, um, you know, and acknowledging that, okay, there's nothing else I want to talk about.

So it's nothing like, you know, you don't feel like I gotta 

get everything right. It's, yeah. It's a respectful part of that relationship. And when you, we've lived and worked. We, we've been married for 10 years, but we've worked together under the same roof for like eight years. Mm-hmm. And for that to work, you've gotta have some very strict boundaries about when are we work, James, Emily, and when are we husband and wife?

James. Emily. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Right. Because otherwise you start disrespecting each other's agendas and. You know, things go awry. Yeah. How, 

how do you, how would you, and, and I'm not quite sure if, well, I guess some of your clients I'm sure are, are, are in these similar situations where, um, you know, you might have someone in your life, or maybe it's even you that.

Is essentially addicted to their phone. Right? Like all you know, they're sitting there on the couch or whatever, and the phone is right there in your face. Right? I think there's so many people that live that way. Mm-hmm. Um, I, I guess, you know, I. Recognizing that and accepting that is kind of the first step.

But, you know, any, any thoughts on, um, how you can do that or even do that for someone else and get them to recognize that, you know, you're spending way too much time staring at the screen? Yeah. 

Yeah, it is a big conversation. I mean, I, I was having this conversation with someone the other day about the way the world's going and the lack of presence that we're getting.

I mean, tech's great. Don't get me wrong. I love tech. Yeah. But there's an element of responsibility that I think that needs to be taught, and I certainly know with my, my daughter coming in February next year. You know, teaching responsible use of technology, rather than saying it's good or bad, but just teaching your responsibility is very important for that next generation.

Mm-hmm. So, listen, I would first say the most powerful way to be influential is be, um, a role model. Mm-hmm. Because when your partner sees you benefiting from something they're not doing, they're gonna get curious. So I'd say that first because it's not your job to tell people what they can or can't do.

And the most powerful way for them to do it is, is them just seeing how, how it's benefiting you. Um, But there is also a con conversation. So most conversations of influence or persuasion fail because people don't plan for them. They go in there with all the information and the data, and then they, they regurgitate that and it doesn't work because, you know, we call it the kimono, right?

If someone, if you, you walk up to someone. And you want to convince them of something and you haven't even asked their permission, you'd not even warm them up. And you dunno what's going on in their days. You're, and they're, they're kimonos me, metaphorical, kimonos closed. You've gotta open that up first, right?

Yeah. So if you ever build a relationship, like when we first met, we didn't, you didn't pick up the phone and go, hi James, um, I want you to hire me for this thing. Um, when are you ready to pay? Yeah, yeah. Yep, yep. Right? It's a relationship we're building. And so, um, so I would say, In high performance theory, there's like an 80 20 for positive, negative, influential, right?

So if we can think of all of the ways and all of the benefits that are relevant to that person's joy and what they want and what they find important, and you can paint out a picture of all the ways it will benefit all of those things for them. Two, not look at their phone all the time, and then a little bit of information of what will happen if they do continue to look at their phone.

That's a good. That's a good kind of metric. Um, but you've gotta be very careful with a relationship that's different to like a friend. Yeah. And so I would say stick to strong boundaries. Like if me and Emily are together in the evening and she wants to stare at her phone, that's great. I'd be like, well, I'm not gonna be in this room then.

Or if it's the room that I was already in, you know, I would ask her if you could look at that in your, in another room, please. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And you'd be very strict with that with love? No, no anger, no frustration. My focus is on me. Mm-hmm. So that I can be a good husband, and I think this is where a lot of people get it wrong.

If you are ever resentful or angry, another person for them making you feel a certain way about how they're behaving, what you have to understand is they're not making you feel upset. You are upset by the way you are perceiving that situation. Yeah, that's great. And if you are resenting them, it's because you're giving that way more attention than you're giving yourself.

So imagine for a moment that you said, okay, I want to pay more attention to my sleep. My partner doesn't. So I have a adult conversation with him, say, this is how I'm gonna be living my days, and I would love you to support me. I'm not asking you or telling you. I'm just, I'm, you know, I'm just saying, can you, I'd love you to support me in these routines that I'm trying and this is how you can support me.

And I'm not telling you you have to do it as well. Mm-hmm. And, and you have that solid boundary and you do it with love. And what will happen is as it's starting to benefit you, This person's gonna get curious. They, they've got more energy. They're happier. Yeah. And they, they're not missing any emails.

They're not missing anyone getting back to them. So even though they're not looking at their phone all the time, so. There's that, right? Yeah. I mean, we could talk about this all day. Like the, the reason people get addicted to their phones, they've, they've forgotten how to make themselves happy so they get a dopamine hit from their phones.

Yeah, exactly Right. There's a lot 

to it. Yeah. Yeah. Com completely agree. And, and I'm glad that you brought that up because again, I think that that's, you know, something that people don't realize, you know, just how, how, how much psychological impact, you know, your phone has on. You know, your, your, your current state of mind and, and 

what it's actually doing.

Oh, it's, yeah. Everything, your brain absorbs everything you say. Everything you hear and see is stored in your subconscious. Yep. So if you were to measure what you are spending your time looking at, or reading and understand, that is shaping your character and your habitual behavior, if you could really see the data on that, you would very quickly address how much you are looking at your phone and what you're looking at.

Yeah. 

Yeah, yeah. No, couldn't agree more. What, um, you've mentioned, obviously sleep has been, you know, kinda one of the, the core focal points on this. Um, and you, you mentioned that you, you really love tech. Do you have any recommendations for tech that, you know, helps sleep or, you know, even like you, you, you said that you establish kinda the baseline, right?

Are you guys using like war rings or, yeah. Um, anything like that? 

Yeah, I mean, I'm a da, I'm a fan of data, so I use no ring every night, um, because I want to know. And it was fascinating during Covid cuz when we didn't know what it was or isn't or whatever, it was great to study that cause it was like, you know, the impacts of stress or if I have, if I did, you know, I did catch Covid at once and you know, how does that impact my sleep?

And I love doing all that because it's helped me refine my process. Cause everyone's different, right? What works for one doesn't work for everyone. So if I can measure data that says, You know, if this happens the night before my rems impacted, if this hap, so if I, for example, if I have a heavy workout, you know, I need more deep sleep to recover.

Mm-hmm. So my deep sleep will be compromised a bit after a workout, which means I have to double down on the things to get my muscles relaxed. You know, I might do magnesium spray on my muscles, I might mm-hmm. Have a, or a salt bath or something like that. Um, so, so, I'm always very cautious about recommending tech because I, I, I want, I don't want people to get addicted to another bit of tech to replace this bit of tech.

Yeah. You, your body's capable of doing everything yourself and most of it's psychology and then it's a supplement as the same with supplements. Right. Have a healthy diet and then supplement it to. You know, fill in the gaps. Mm-hmm. Have a healthy, you know, mindset routine and physiology routine. And then have tech to support it if you wanna go another level.

So, yeah, a ring's great. Um, for meditation. If there are people that are like, I've tried to do it and it's tricky for me. Mm-hmm. I sold myself a meditation by using the Muse headset because it gives me data. Okay, so that's, uh, M u s e Muse. It's a headset that you wear, um, and then it plays track on your phone, and then it, it literally gives you biofeedback.

So when a bird chirps, um, you're in a really good state, um, when the noise that you've picked is more violent, your, your brain's more turned on. When it calms down, it's calmer. And then afterwards you get data that says how much time you were present, how much time you were, Think And so then that's great cuz you get feedback and you can play around with routines to get yourself, you know, mastered there.

Now it's like, I can just do it. In fact, I, I can give you a listeners and this the one I created, I created a very short, um, visualization for myself that works really well and I'll send you the link. Um, so I don't use the use headset anymore. For me that was like the training wheels. It was, um, it was the tech that got me started, right?

Um, I am, I'm gonna be getting involved in a big project that I can't talk too much about in, in the coming year that will involve tech, but it'll also involve practices and, and coaching and all sorts of other things. Um, and so I mentioned the infrared sauna, right? They're, they're really much more doable for homeowners now, right?

They're, you know, they're three or four grand, which I know is an investment, but, If you used an infrared sauna regularly, you know the impact on reducing inflammation and sleep and stress. I mean, it's, it's just there's so much data on, it's incredible. It's great thing to have or use if you can. Yeah. Um, I wouldn't go too heavy on the tech for sleep to honest with you.

I would, ID pay attention to your diet. I'd pay attention to the routines that we've, we've talked about. You have everything within you. To sleep really well. Yeah. And be patient. That's the other word that entrepreneurs tend to hate. 

Yeah, exactly. Well, I think everybody too, right? Everybody wants, you know, I didn't now last night what, whatever I did yesterday didn't work.

Right. So then I'm gonna give up and, you know Right. 

Try something else. Right. And that's the, that's the kind of the, the double-edged sword of tech is that a lot of tech is invented to cut the timeline. Yeah. You know, the best results that you've ever had in your life that have lasted, have come from, from giving things time.

And that's the same with business. Go give it time. Yeah. And see that time as is great. Cause I'm, I'm working out what's working, what's not working, measuring the metrics, improving, and if we can, if we can fall in love with any process, whether it's our personal routines or our business routines, then we can be very, very successful in optimize and healthy.

No shortcut. Last, last question here. Do you have any um, uh, I guess. You know what, what, what yesterday used to look like, you know, for one of your clients or somebody that come, comes to mind mm-hmm. What, what their life, what their days, personality, whatever it was used to look like. And then after going through, you know, the, the, the trainings and the coaching and all of that, what today looks like.

Do you have any of that sort of before and after? Yeah. 

Uh, I mean, there are many, uh, I think a, uh, a lot of it is the awareness piece. A lot of people, the unconscious incompetency is so big, a lot of people don't, are just not aware. So I had a, an, an amazing guy who was a single dad, um, really dedicated. I mean, the fact that you even, you know, ring rang up a coach to inquire on coaching, shows you how dedicated you are.

Mm-hmm. But there was a lot of just unconscious incompetency. Like he was doing the same things over and over again and, and expecting a different result. And like a lot of people, Thinking that he needed to add something to be better, but what we found was it was actually more taking things away, right?

Mm-hmm. And when he took things away and spent more time just being present, it gave him the opportunity to, to see what he was and wasn't doing, and his relationship with his son. Felt better. He could be really present with his son, which again, wasn't about amount of time spent. It was about when I am with you, I'm with you.

Yeah. He ended up giving up smoking because his anxiety was reduced, so that was, he was still obviously an addict to smoking, but it was easier for him because cuz his anxiety was reduced because he'd slowed down. He gave up smoking. Mm-hmm. He, you know, he was able to then start his other business because we realized that him hanging on so tight to everything meant that he was scared of delegating.

So he was hard for him to start his new business cuz he didn't wanna delegate all the responsibilities to this new person in the role that he was gonna be letting go of. Yeah. So everything just slowed down. Right. And yes, you know, we talk about health often, we talk about diet, we talk about all these things, but ultimately it's psychology.

It's about. It's about, um, becoming aware of how you are currently running this ship and how to slow down readdress. And so, yeah, he gave up smoking. He developed better relationships. He, he actually met someone and developed that relationship. Um, he started this new business. He's happier. He's, he's more successful.

Um, and, and all from really getting to know him. Self better. Yeah. And figuring out a way of running himself that suits him so that he can just be happy and fulfilled and not be in, in the rat race that he's put himself in. Yeah. 

I love it. And, and again, I think that so many people get stuck in that rat race and don't even realize they're stuck in their rat race.

Right. And that's the Right, that's the big thing, like you said, more awareness and, and you know, just, just being open to, you know, that other, that other, uh, part of life that is actually right out in front of you. And you might not even recognize it. Right. 

So it's a lot of it's terminology. I think that's, that's where I like having fun is, is using terminology that that is speaking the language of an entrepreneur because you know really what an entrepreneur does, they're solving those problems every day, and the problem of themself is no different.

Yeah, yeah. It's just that we're. There's this weird assumption that it's gonna take too much time and they're gonna lose something. There's, there's actually these three main fears that people have, right? There's process pain, which is that the process is gonna be too hard or take too long. There's, um, outcome, um, there's greener pastures pain, which outcome pain, which is the, after all the effort and work, it's not gonna be any better.

Right. And then there's, um, loss pain, which is that if I do this, I might lose something. And they're the, they tend to be the three excuses that people will convince themselves of to not take the action, to work on themselves to be better. Mm-hmm. 

Yeah. And, and is there a. Are there, is there a time, I guess you can say, like you said, um, you know, you're going to lose something.

I, I feel like if I take time off, you know, things are gonna fall apart, right? Mm-hmm. There's, there's, you know, not gonna be, somebody's gonna need an answer and it's not gonna get answered for a week, or, and, and, you know, then things like, you know, again, it just doesn't, doesn't go on, right. If, if you are in a position like that, Like truly in a position like that, is that a time when you should be stepping aside and, and doing these types of things?

Or is it best to, to, you know, wait and get into a position where, you know, you feel like, okay, I am in a position where I am as such an entrepreneur. It's solar. I know, 

right? I'm, yeah, exactly. That's a, it's so funny. Listen, it's, I remember what someone once saying to me, uh, um, you know, I don't, I don't have time to meditate.

And I said, well, then you need to meditate more. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So every single person on this planet needs to be doing this kind of work in one way or another because it, because when you become more efficient with time, you get more done in less time. So you create time. Yeah, that's true. You're never losing time ever.

Like if you, if you, if you can imagine for a moment, The last day, the last time you felt really on it, fired up, efficient, focused. You were making decisions, you were getting things done right. First time it was just like everything was just going so awesome. Can you picture mm-hmm. A time like that I can.

Absolutely. Yeah. Right. Imagine if you were like that every day. Yeah. Would you get more done in less time? Sure. Absolutely. Now, the, the other trick here for you, for, for entrepreneurs like you, is just because you have more time doesn't mean you have to fill it. Yeah. With work. That's, that's true. That's, but the point is, is you get it.

And so, so this is the thing. It's like, it's like, it's like, okay, so here great example is, is motor racing. So I'm, I'm a fan of Formula One. Mm-hmm. So you've, you're leading the race, but your tires are starting to get a bit worn out and you're like, well, I've still got 20 laps, but if I pit I'm gonna, I'm gonna lose probably five places.

Mm-hmm. So maybe I should just tr try to keep going. Right. We, we all know what happens then. Yeah. Yep. So it's, it's the same strategy. It's like you have to understand that to speed up sometimes you've gotta slow down. Yep. Yep, yep. That makes sense. Because we're, we're in life, right. If you are only gonna live for a week, I'd be like, yeah, fair enough.

You just go all out. Yeah. The tires burn those tires out, baby. Yep. Right. But this is the life and the, if you want to live a long life, and specifically if you wanna actually be working and delivering and succeeding for a long time, not just get old and not be able to, then you've gotta regularly take those pit stops and change those tires.

 All right. So wasn't that interesting? How many of you were raising your hands throughout this episode and saying, yeah, that's me. I've, I've felt that before, or I feel like I've been in that situation before. I know that I personally can, but, uh, but let's go ahead and recap what we learned today. Um, obviously we learned that entrepreneurs can be in a burnout mode and not even realize it, which is incredibly, incredibly dangerous.

Uh, just like any business with SOPs and processes and procedures, you should always look at your health in the same way, step-by-step. I personally use an earl. Aura ring so that it helps me track my sleep. So I know, you know, when I should be going to sleep and when I should start winding down. So that helps me a lot.

Um, audit your life and start with your sleep. Are you getting enough sleep? Uh, how much sleep are you getting? What kind of quality of sleep? And I, I, as I just mentioned, we Ring is a great resource to be able to. Learn about all of those different facets of sleep. Uh, look around you who's happy, energized, and, uh, in great relationships.

Look at them, evaluate what it is that they're doing, and try to emulate as much of their life as possible. So again, this goes back to the same thing. Look at what is working for other people. Learn from other people. Learn from other situations, and put yourself in those same types of, of positions. Uh, separate your work from your life.

So when you go home, uh, be a father, be a husband, be a a brother, be a friend. Be a mother. Don't worry about always constantly working. You need to have that separation, that that ability to be able to leave work behind. Uh, have a stress management strategy. You know, that can be any number of different things that could be going for a walk, that could be going to the gym.

Maybe you're into some type of sports. For me, I like to play volleyball. Uh, I play volleyball a few times a week, uh, few times a week. So that's my stress management, uh, outlet, uh, decompress each hour and step away from the computer, maybe five, 10 minutes. Uh, drink of water, get a drink of water, go for a short walk, you know, just time to separate yourself from that.

Intense concentration. What I found is after I do this, I'm able to come back and I'm that much more focused. I'm able to, I might be, you know, banging my head against the wall trying to solve some type of a problem or, uh, you know, get past some type of a challenge. And after I take that walk or that short break, there's a moment of clarity and I'm able to get right back to whatever it is that I was doing.

Uh, obviously this has been said many, many times over, uh, but really limit yourself, uh, before you go to bed to any type of screen time. So that can be phone, computer, uh, tv. The blue light in the, the screens is not natural. Uh, you don't want that getting into your eyes shortly before sleep. You, you'll notice, and again, if you have the aura ring and you start doing this, your sleep scores and your sleep ability is going to go through the roof.

So again, avoid those screen times. Uh, and then take time to be present in your relationships again, with technology today. So many times we feel like we have to be connected all the time. You're scrolling through social or you're responding to someone, or you're listening to, you know, podcasts or listening to music.

You're not present in the moment with either the yourself, your own thoughts, or, uh, whoever it is that's in your life with you. So take some time to step away from the technology. Completely. If you wanna learn more from James, reach out to him at James the Growth edge.com or go and check out his website, the growth edge.com.

He loves hearing from entrepreneurs and helping people get through the challenges that they may be having. If you wanna understand what the wealthy do, head over to invest in square feet and sign up for our monthly. Powwows where we get together and we go over some of the things that you should know as a passive investor into multifamily real estate.

A lot of it has to do with techno or with terminology and learning the things that you may not necessarily understand. The steps along the way, what to look for, how to evaluate deals, uh, all of that stuff we talk about during our monthly powwows. Invest in square feet drops every Wednesday, and we are available on whatever podcast platform it is that you use.