Feed Your Mind As Regularly As You Feed Your Body

7 Steps to Level Up Your Business AND Your Life!

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SUMMARY

• My biggest mistake building companies #2 is: I didn't nurture my brain to the same extent that I nurtured my body.
• 7 Steps to Level Up Your Business AND Your Life!
  
  • Determine how you got where you are. Are there any belief systems holding you back?
  • If you want to change your Output (your results), you gotta change the Inputs. 
  • Feed your mind as regularly as you feed your body. If shit isn’t working for you, feed it something new, or you’ll stay exactly where you are.
  • Hang out with people who have done what you’re trying to do. Learn from them, get there faster and less painfully.
  • Get a coach to help keep your mindset strong and your focus where it needs to be. 
  • Don’t just think and plan. DO. Get moving. Take Action. Show up.
  • Build up your Savage Shield™ for the tough times by inputting the G.C.P.P.P 
• If you have any questions about this, about your business, or about working with me, email me: [email protected] 

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

"I made this mistake early on in my life, early in my career. I wanted to blame my parents, I wanted to blame all this other stuff—no. I am responsible to fuel not just my body with good food, I am responsible to fuel my brain with good inputs. You want to build a business? You want to build a phenomenal entrepreneurial life? Hang out with people that are doing it!

Hello and welcome back to my series on the 10 biggest mistakes that I’ve made building companies. Today we're at number two."

My Biggest Mistake Building Companies #2

"One of the biggest mistakes that I’ve made, I think that so many entrepreneurs make, is not feeding our minds as regularly as we feed our bodies.

You know, there is a reality. Our brain drives everything that we do as we go through this journey called life. We make different decisions, and a lot of those decisions are based on the fuel or the input or the food that we put not just into our body, but into our brain."

Where We're Going Today

"So what do I mean by this? What I mean is that every single day, when we go out into the world, there is stuff that happens to us, right? I’m gonna take you through the journey of what I believe is this beautiful thing that we call our journey through life.

Have you ever gotten to that point where you ask the question, How the hell did I get here? Well, I’m going to share my thoughts on that. And it's not just, how did I get here? It's, how do I get to the next level? How do I take my business and my life to the next level? And I’m going to share some interesting thoughts along the way."

The Entrepreneur's Trilogy™

"So one of the mistakes that I made is I didn't nurture my brain to the same extent that I nurtured my body.

Now I talk about this all the time. I have a belief system, a philosophy on entrepreneurship, if you will, and I call it the Entrepreneur’s Trilogy™. Basically, what I mean is that I believe that we star in three movies every day, and we star in them simultaneously. That's why I call it the Entrepreneur’s Trilogy™. The 3 movies are Heartset, Mindset and Skillset."

Mindset

"I’m not going to go into all the details of each one of these, I’ve got multiple trainings on this, but what I want to talk about today is Mindset.

In our journey, what's the stuff that we've put in and how have we gotten to where we are? There is an undeniable truth. Undeniable. I’ve experienced this personally, I’ve experienced this with hundreds, if not thousands, of other entrepreneurs that I’ve talked with or worked with over the years. It’s that we cannot grow our business beyond our ability to grow ourselves.

You can only grow the business as much as you can grow the founder. And if the founder has a set of beliefs, potentially a set of limiting beliefs—I see this all the time—sometimes I think it's handcuffs. It held me back. This is a mistake that I’ve made so many times.

When we talk about Mindset and we talk about our mind, which is all the stuff that we have put into our brains, let's face facts: we are who we are because of all the stuff that's happened to us. All the stuff that we put into our brains since birth, right?

So our mind, our motivation—what are those things that drive us? What are our goals? What are our dreams? What are our visions? What's our vision for ourselves and for our organization? And our movement. You know, do we get our asses off the couch and go do stuff? Or do we talk about it?

So, I love this subject—I don't know, I love all my subjects—I don't want to have a favorite child. But I think that our ability to fully understand this thing that sits on our shoulders is the game changer. It's the miracle worker. It's the thing that can transition us from average to outstanding. From fearful to fearless.

I don't want to say it's not difficult; it's extremely difficult because we may have been shackled with some challenges up until this point in our lives. So go with me here a little bit."

Y.A.W.Y.A

"The first thing, and where I’m going to spend the majority of the training today, is our mind. These letters here basically indicate you know y-a-w-y-a. You are who you are, you are where you are, because of all of the stuff that's gone into your brain since day one. It's an undeniable truth. No one can argue with that.

Now, we all start this journey differently, right? You know, even if you have the same parents, you're born into a family that's different than when there were no children.

For example, the first born comes into the world to some parents, or a parent or whatever the situation may be, and if you've never been a parent you don't have a damn clue what you're doing, right? It's like hey, I got this new thing here… I got this new toy. I hope to hell that I can keep it alive. And as you start to learn all this stuff and you're nervous and your parents, you're up and you go in there in the middle of the night, is the chest going up and down? Is the little sucker still breathing? That's first child.

And the second child comes along you're like oh it comes into the same family. No, it doesn't come into the same family. It comes into a family where the parents have already, kind of, all right I went through this the first time… you know, the kid’s still kicking over there, so I’ve done something right. Now there's the new child, it's not the same family. It's a different situation.

So, we are who we are because of all the things that have gone into our minds since birth. This thing that sits on our shoulders is so unbelievably powerful."

How The Hell Did I Get Here?

"I don't know if you're like me, but do you ever ask the question, how the hell did I get here? How did I become Mike? How did I become Alice? How did I become Gene? How did I become Mary? How did I get to where I am today? If you ask the question, and then you sort of start to dig deep into it, you realize, man a lot of stuff went into me becoming me.

Now I have this belief, you know people can argue, I really don't give a shit, to tell you the truth, but it's my belief. Which is: I don't think we have any control over our lives for the first 18 years. Now we obviously do have some control, but there's a reality. We're brought into this journey called life, there's a whole bunch of stuff that we don't get to control. And so yeah, as you get a little bit older, you become a teenager, maybe there are things that you can control, but I’m talking in general terms. In general terms, we don't have any control over the first 18 years of our lives and let me explain."

The First 18 Years: Can't Control That

"The first thing is, we cannot control who our parents are. We cannot control our birth order in the family. Are we a solo child? Are we a family of 12? Can't control that. So, we enter into this world, step number one is all right, I got this guy and this woman, or this this couple, that's standing over me and they're like okay I guess your mom and dad. Great cool. No control. Can't control anything about your parents.

Now number two is, we also can't control where we were born. We can't control our environment. If we were brought up in the inner city of Detroit—I’m just picking on Detroit, but it can be any city—we're brought up in the inner city and there's guns and drugs and prostitution and poverty. All of that stuff is surrounding us. We've got no control. So, if we're brought up in that environment, versus being brought up in an environment of multi-million-dollar homes in this posh neighborhood. It's going to be different. Our experience starting out coming out of the blocks is going to be different. No control.

Next, is as we start this journey and we have these things called parents or guardians, were they are they risk takers? Did they like to take risks or were they conservative? My background is engineering, so in general engineers are sort of designed to not necessarily be risk takers. There's other professions that aren't risk takers, but then again there are professions that are risk takers.

So were you brought up in an environment like, hey, yeah man, go ahead take those risks. Go skiing and jump off those huge mountains, and like ski down the slopes, mountain bike over rocks, try stuff! It's unbelievable how much of a difference your parents can make in your philosophical approach toward risk. A risk taker or risk averse, it can have a macro impact in your life. No control.

Were you brought up in an environment that was loving or were you brought up in an environment that was hate-filled? Our parents, like I said, you can't control them, so they have become who they are because of all the stuff that went on in their life prior to today or prior to you being born. But we can't control that.

So it's going to influence us if we're brought up in an environment that is focused on religion and church. It's going to impact us. If we're brought up in an environment where it's a political family and they focus on politics, is that going to influence us? Yeah, it is.

Are we brought up in an environment where there’s bias? Bias of hey, I don't like someone because… their hair is blue. I don't like someone because of the color of their skin. You're brought up in that environment, like okay that's an environment that I’m in, that's an environment that I have no control over. Loving/ hateful—you have no control.

Were you brought up to dream? Were you brought up to go after it? Were you brought up to, hey you know what, I’m gonna go for it? Dream big, go out and set some audacious goals. Go try and change the world! Or you were brought up in an environment where you know what, all I want to do is get by. All I want to do is survive today so that I can get to tomorrow. If the philosophies and the belief systems of your upbringing are one side or the other side, do you think that's going to have an impact on the types of decisions or the types of risks or the types of things that you dream about? Or just your overall personality. It's huge! Big impact.

This one's awful—drugs and alcohol. Man, oh man. I’m blessed that I was not necessarily brought up in an environment that was conducive to drugs and alcohol and abuse, but I had a world that was different than other people's worlds.

And if you're brought up in this environment and mom and dad are high, your brothers and sisters are high all the time, they're on drugs, is that going to influence you? If they're hanging around down in the inner city and you're the younger sibling and it's like you're following your older siblings, can that have an impact on your belief systems? Sure as hell can. And it's almost impossible for it to not, because this is what you're surrounded by 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Major impact.

Were you born of poverty or were you born of money? You know, we talk about this all the time, it's like you can't choose your parents. So, did you get lucky? I’m not saying just because you were born to money you got lucky. You could have been born to money and been very unlucky because there's pros and cons of this whole world. Were you born in poverty? All of these things impact your process and your decision-making.

As you go through this journey called life, all of these things that have impacted you from the beginning are just—violence and abuse there's another one. If you're brought up in an abusive environment, whether physically or mentally—I have heard some unbelievably horrific stories in the world that I am in now. Working with entrepreneurs, understanding their journey, and seeing where they are and seeing where they want to go… some of the stories are unbelievably horrific, and I can't process that or fathom that, because I was not brought up there. But guess what? It happens, and it's scary, and it's unbelievable.

And our values and our beliefs, we could be brought up in the environment where you need to go and help others. You know, what can I do for others? What can I give back to society? You could also be brought up in the world of Homer Simpson. Where you know, what whatever happens, happens. It's a completely different philosophy, and I’ll tell you, no one can deny this. We don't get to choose these things. These things have been pre-selected for us as we came into this world. I don't think we have a lot of control over the stuff that has happened to us in our lives. You can talk to and listen to all the psychologists, and they'll tell you that so many things happen, and they're already ingrained in your DNA by age seven. Whatever it may be, but it has a major influence in our decision-making."

Turning 19 & Taking Control

"Then this magical thing happens at age 19. We go off into the world and we're now adults. What whatever the definition of adult is… some people obviously are forced to mature at a faster rate than others; some, you know quite frankly, never mature. I got plenty of friends and colleagues that I still think are living in their teenage years.

In any event, all of the things that happen to us, all the stuff that's gone into our brain prior to us becoming an adult, ask yourself the question: did these events poison you? Or did they empower you? Did you start off on a real solid foundation where that foundation becomes instrumental in where you end up? We don't get to choose.

So now here's the challenge: as we have now built this foundation that gets us from pre-18 into adulthood, then we go off into the world, and every single day we face these forks in the road. Call them a decision point.

And there are studies, a study by Inc. Magazine that says we make 35,000 decisions a day… I don't know who the hell went and counted all those decisions, but nonetheless, I’m sure some of them are very meaningless decisions. You know, should I pick up the cup of coffee and dump it on my head? Or should I take it and take a sip?"

Forks in the Road

"So, in any event, we make a lot of decisions. That's undeniable. But every time we go through the journey, every time each day starts, as we look at the potential decision making, we say all right first decision of the day: it's a fork in the road.

Maybe that decision is,

• Should I exercise or should I not?
• Should I hit the snooze button, or should I get up?
• Should I go and endorse a morning routine (which I’m a big fan of) and maybe practice some meditation, some gratitude, things like that? Should I do that?

It's a decision. Then that decision gets the next decision. The next decision may be instantaneous, but whatever decision you make, it's going to take you down a path where you are now going to see a new fork, or a new decision.

And our day is basically, from eyes open to eyes closed, nothing more than a culmination of a whole ton of decisions. You get to a new fork; you take a left or right. You get to another fork; you take a left or right.

You keep going throughout the day, and just—use driving to work. What if you chose to take a different path to work today? Something could happen along that journey. It may take a little bit longer to get to work, maybe you're listening to a podcast on your car and all of a sudden you may hear something on that podcast, and that podcast or that one thing could trigger an idea in your head. All of a sudden, you start thinking differently.

Or you go the normal routine, where you're in bumper-to-bumper traffic and people are honking their horns and they're flipping you off. It's all one little decision. Changing the way you drive to work can have a major impact. It's unbelievable how much of an impact it can make. Not only on your day, but on your life!

What if you bump into someone that shares a philosophy or a belief system with you that you never thought of? Like, damn! I never I never really thought about that! That's the beauty of reading books and listening to podcasts and watching YouTube videos. You get to hear philosophies and different people—and again we had a foundation that was kind of built for us over the first 18 years, but then we become adults.

And then when we become adults, it's like all right we're making our own decisions and more inputs go into our brain, but each day is nothing more than a combination of a whole bunch of forks in the road. Now when you add up all the forks since the beginning of your life, okay this is my life's journey. A whole bunch of forks, a left or right, wherever it may be, ends up in here's my life journey, and here is where I am today.

Now all of those forks, all of that culmination, could result in you becoming a pilot for an airline. It could be you becoming homeless. It could be you becoming an entrepreneur. Maybe you were brought up in an entrepreneurial family and your parents were both entrepreneurs and you've got siblings that are entrepreneurs. Or you had a professor in school and he was talking about entrepreneurship, or you watched Shark Tank, and all of a sudden you saw someone on there like, damn, I want to do that! It's a decision. You become an entrepreneur.

You could work for Amazon. You could go into the armed forces. Lots of times the people that are in the armed forces are children of parents that were in the armed forces. There's an influence that happens throughout the journey. And you could become an NFL player! You could be a professional athlete. You could be a musician. You could be a magician. You could be a singer. You could be an engineer. You could be a police officer. You could be a doctor.

You could be anything. But all of those decisions that you have made, every left or right that you take it at a fork. What if you you're unhappy with your job? You say, you know what I think I’m going to stick here and I’m going to stick it out. I’m going to stay at this job that I’m miserable at. And then one day you're out there, having a cocktail with one of your friends, and they say what the hell is wrong with you? Life’s short! Go and get a new job. Go try something different. That's an influence.

That's something we get out there into the world and you never know what one conversation or one article or one audio or one thing that someone says that can influence not just your day, not just your morning, it can completely shape your life. I’ve had many experiences throughout my journey where I, call it gone to a seminar, gone to an event, or read a book, and the philosophies that I learned at that seminar or after reading that book, were completely contrary to the philosophies and the belief systems that I had as a child. Never got that belief system.

Think about this: as you go through the journey you face a fork in the road. Today for example, and instead of doing the same thing that you do every day, what if you did something different? What if you woke up differently? What if you started your day differently? What if instead of stopping at the coffee shop you said, you know what? I’m not going to stop at the coffee shop. Today, I am going to go for a run. It can make a difference. What if instead of stopping at a breakfast place and eating absolute garbage, grease laden shit for breakfast, you say, you know what? I think I’m gonna go have some fresh fruit. All of it can make a difference."

You MUST Feed Your Mind

"But ultimately, and this is the mistake that I made and that's why I’m sharing this, you have to feed your mind. You have to feed this thing that sits on top of your shoulders. You have to feed it.

And every time you feed it, if you feed it the same stuff, I can promise you—tomorrow you will be exactly where you are today. In one year from now, you will be exactly where you are today. In five years from now, you will be exactly where you are today, if you continue to feed it the same things that you've been feeding it."

Formula for Life

"So now, my background's engineering. I’m a geek. I’ve broken life down into a formula! How messed up am I? You take the first 18 years of your life, on top of that you add all of the decisions that you've made since age 18, and what happens? That becomes me today.

Now if you think I am messed up or wrong with this belief system, shoot me an email, let me know. I don't know how I could be wrong because this is fundamental stuff. We don't get to control our parents we don't get to control our upbringing; we don't get to control the environment that we're brought up in, we don't get to control our birth order, we don't get to control a bunch of stuff, especially in our younger years.

And all of that stuff that's happened in our younger years has a major influence on where we are today. Now you take the first 18 years, plus you take every decision that you make, you add them all up, that is where you are today."

In Order to Change Your OUTPUTS, You've Gotta Change Your INPUTS.

"Now guess what? If you're happy keep doing the same shit you've been doing! If you're in a great spot in life, don't change anything. I always say, I talk about the Entrepreneur's Trilogy—if you are healthy and you have phenomenal relationships and you are happy, keep doing it. Keep doing it.

However, if you are looking to try and get to a different level, if you are trying to take your life—from your physical health, your mental health your business, whatever it may be, your society, your church, volunteerism, whatever it is—if you're trying to go to another level, in order to change the output, if you want to change where you are in your life, you got to change the input.

What do I mean by that? We've had these things that have influenced us, all of these things that influenced us since birth, now our thought pattern, just the things that we think about, have been influenced; but our thoughts ultimately manifest themselves into things in our lives.

Our beliefs, whatever we may believe, it doesn't manifest into a decision. Our beliefs are our decisions. Because we're going to make the decision, when we get to that fork in the road, based on our belief systems.

Our language can completely change, like, how you doing today? I don't know… day sucks, weather sucks, like whenever anyone asks me how I’m doing, I always answer the same way, ever since I was a teenager. I said, “I’m doing great!” Sometimes, I got to tell you the truth, I’m freaking lying. Sometimes, I’m not doing great, but I say great anyways, because there's a chance that that one word can help lift me out of whatever challenge I may be facing.

Our language, our physiology, our focus, our habits, if we want to change the outputs in our lives, if we want to change the things, the environment, the situation, you've got to change the inputs.

This is why I love the world of coaching. Coaching, the foundation of coaching, comes from the world of sports. So why do we have coaches for sports? Well, if you want to be a great basketball player, a great soccer player, a great gymnast, and you go out there, say you want to be a gymnast, and you decide, I’m going to start running up and down, I’m going to start twirling around on some bars, and I’m just going to get better. Yeah, you can do it. It's called trial and error. Good luck. Let me know how that works out for you.

Or option two, you can study and listen to people that have already been where you're trying to go. I always say this: the greatest learning laboratory on earth is at the feet of someone who's already done what you're trying to do. That's why I love the world I’m in. I’m in the world of coaching. I coach entrepreneurs. Why is it beneficial to have a coach? Now I’m not gonna BS you—some coaches suck, some coaches can promise you stuff and they're horrible.

But when you look in the world of sports, there's a pattern of greatness. There are some coaches that have been doing this for two, three, four decades and they have a pattern of success and a pattern of building leaders and a pattern of helping people break through what their limiting beliefs may be. But make no mistake about it, if you want to change the outputs in your life, you have to change the inputs."

MOVEMENT - Show Up

"And ultimately, our mind. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here, but the mind, the stuff that we put in, the stuff that's been put in our mind, plus our motivation, which is our goals, our dreams, our vision—our mind plus our motivation equals, and hopefully can fuel, the movement, can fuel us to take action. You can have all the good stuff that goes into your brain, you can have goals written down all articulated and spelled out perfectly, and you have these dreams, but if you don't get your ass off the couch and go do stuff… you have to show up!

I just got back from a trade show in Nashville—I love Nashville! Awesome, awesome city. So I go to this trade show and it's a trade show for the speaking industry, it's called the National Speaker’s Association. So I go to this trade show—I found out about it three weeks ago. Three weeks prior to going. Part of my life, part of the things I like to do is, I like to be on stage. I like to talk. I like to share stories and stuff. Well, it's not really been part of my DNA as I built my other businesses, so what do I want to do? I’m going to go hang out for three days with people that are professionals in the area of public speaking.

Now I could have seen this event come across my email, I could have looked at the price, I could have said that's three days out of my—you know, what am I going to do? I’ve got to make sure that this is taken care of and that's taken care of, and what about the me—I could have made some BS excuses, but I didn't. I said you know what? My wife donna went with me, I said, “Let's get on a plane and fly out to Nashville, stay at this beautiful hotel, and go listen to some people that are experts in this area of public speaking.” So I didn't just think about it.

And I encourage you, if there is something out there that you want you want to learn about, you want to be better at whatever it may be, if you want to be a better artist or a better singer, go study under people that are great in that area. Reading books is amazing, being in person, being with other human beings in an environment where you get to talk and exchange, have conversations, that's a game changer. So you got to show up. You got to throw fear out the window. You got to not just talk, you gotta walk."

The Savage Shield™

"And I’m gonna finish with this: I believe that we all can create this shield, this force field, and this is the thing that can help us battle when those tough times come. I call this the Savage Shield™. Yeah, I named it after myself.

You know, if we can create this force field, we can create this shield, as part of the strength of this shield, we are only putting in the good, the clean, the pure, the powerful, and the positive. We're only pumping in good stuff into our brain.

We have to get away from the naysayers. If you got friends that are down and negative, or friends and family, whatever it may be, and they're not dreaming like you want to dream, and they're not reaching for the stars, and they're not trying to get to that next level… I hate to say it, but stay away from them. They will poison you. If you want to get your business, your life, your health, to the next level, you gotta hang out with people that are playing the game better or differently than you are.

I made this mistake early on in my life, early in my career. I wanted to blame my parents. I wanted to blame didn't have the right education, I wanted to blame all this other stuff. No. I am responsible to fuel not just my body with good food, I am responsible to fuel my brain with good inputs.

Your thoughts, your beliefs, your language, your physiology, your focus, your habits, all of those things, when you start to only hang around with people that are positive, I can promise you you're going to be positive. You want to build a business? You want to build a phenomenal entrepreneurial life? Hang out with people that are doing it!

I have three coaches in my life right now. Why do I have three coaches? Because they're specialists in different areas. When I went to the event, I got a speaking coach that's gonna help me get on stage and learn how to perfect my craft. You know I have a mindset coach. I have a Tony Robbins coach. And I have another coach where I hang out in this mastermind with a group of people that are building speaking and coaching business and they're running multi, multi-million-dollar companies. And I built multi-million-dollar companies in other areas, but now I’m hanging out with people that have done it in the area that I want to go after right now.

Feed your mind as regularly as you feed your body. Only pump in the good, the clean, the pure, the powerful, and the positive, and I can promise you miracles will happen."

Let Me Know!

"Now, I am beyond grateful that you spent this time with me today. If you made it all the way to this point, you know, if you think I’m whacked, yeah join the club.

But if you're listening on a podcast, I would be beyond grateful if you shared this and you subscribe to the podcast. If you're watching this on YouTube, leave me a comment, let me know, subscribe to my YouTube channel.

If you thought I had my head up my ass, tell me in the comments that I had my head up my ass. If you liked what I said, then share with me, because I’m always trying to learn.

If you have a question, shoot me an email [email protected]. Love to hear from you.

Have an amazing day. Dream big! Wake up tomorrow morning, just like the sign behind me says, “Why is my day great today?” Come up with that answer. And if you answer like why is my life great, it's an unbelievable way to start your day. Love ya. Have an amazing day. See you soon."