Get a team. Welcome to the show. This is Wrong with the Punches podcast and I'm your host, Tif Cook. And look, it's winter, it's cold, it's miserable. I'm miserable. I am tired and exhausted and all of the things. Lately, as you might have heard on some previous episodes here and there, a bit of peppering of winginess creeping in, and we're talking about that today. We're talking about burning out and stress management and leadership and being entrepreneurs and managing mental stress in conjunction with physical stress and how it all come together. And who better to talk to than our friend Bobby Capuccio. So here we go. I'll leave you to it. See you on the other side. Nobody wants to go to court, and don't My friends at test Art Family Lawyers know that they offer all forms of alternative dispute resolution. Team of Melbourne Family Lawyers have extensive experience in all areas of family law, de facto and same sex couples, custody and children, family violence and intervention orders, property settlements and financial agreements. Test Art is in your corner, so reach out to Mark and the team at www dot test Artfamilylawyers dot com dot au, Bobby Andrew Percuccio, send your last name backwards, and I gave you a new middle name because I can't remember your middle name.

Get a team. Welcome to the show. This is Wrong with the Punches podcast and I'm your host, Tif Cook. And look, it's winter, it's cold, it's miserable. I'm miserable. I am tired and exhausted and all of the things. Lately, as you might have heard on some previous episodes here and there, a bit of peppering of winginess creeping in, and we're talking about that today. We're talking about burning out and stress management and leadership and being entrepreneurs and managing mental stress in conjunction with physical stress and how it all come together. And who better to talk to than our friend Bobby Capuccio. So here we go. I'll leave you to it. See you on the other side. Nobody wants to go to court, and don't My friends at test Art Family Lawyers know that they offer all forms of alternative dispute resolution. Team of Melbourne Family Lawyers have extensive experience in all areas of family law, de facto and same sex couples, custody and children, family violence and intervention orders, property settlements and financial agreements. Test Art is in your corner, so reach out to Mark and the team at www dot test Artfamilylawyers dot com dot au, Bobby Andrew Percuccio, send your last name backwards, and I gave you a new middle name because I can't remember your middle name.

I think it's Joseph Andrew.

I think it's Joseph Andrew.

Yeah, I know, Bobby Joseph. And then I said, and then I said Percuccio.

Yeah, I know, Bobby Joseph. And then I said, and then I said Percuccio.

Pacuccio, Robert Andrew Percuccio. That is my alter ego whenever I whenever I unbutton the shirt, I turn into Are Andrew Pakuco whatever Percuccio can't even pronounce. I don't even know who I am anymore.

Pacuccio, Robert Andrew Percuccio. That is my alter ego whenever I whenever I unbutton the shirt, I turn into Are Andrew Pakuco whatever Percuccio can't even pronounce. I don't even know who I am anymore.

So many sounds like a very gangster name, Pipuccio compared to Capuccio.

So many sounds like a very gangster name, Pipuccio compared to Capuccio.

Yeah, Cappuccio sounds like you're just a really dedicated barista, where the other one sounds like a character that was in three episodes of The Sopranos before they killed them off.

Yeah, Cappuccio sounds like you're just a really dedicated barista, where the other one sounds like a character that was in three episodes of The Sopranos before they killed them off.

Do you know what's funny is I was literally thinking went as soon as I said that flashed into my mind, I was like a feller, how funny? And it's only two letters swapped around.

Do you know what's funny is I was literally thinking went as soon as I said that flashed into my mind, I was like a feller, how funny? And it's only two letters swapped around.

Hello you mate, I'm doing all right. I'm doing all right. How are you going? Oh?

Hello you mate, I'm doing all right. I'm doing all right. How are you going? Oh?

Well?

Well?

Yeah? An answer?

Yeah? An answer?

Yeah, I know I'm cold, I'm exhausted a lot. I'm not having my best winter. I'm not having my best moment at the moment.

Yeah, I know I'm cold, I'm exhausted a lot. I'm not having my best winter. I'm not having my best moment at the moment.

You struggling winter, don't you.

You struggling winter, don't you.

I do struggle in winter, and this winter even more so. So on checking out all the avenues, you know, I'm at that age. I'm at that age where have hormonal shifts. So I'm checking all that out, checking all that jazz out. You know. I was talking to a friend about it yesterday. We were having a bit of banter back in front, and I laughed. I ended up laughing right because we were leaving voice notes, and you know that the act of talking, speaking, saying something sometimes if you hear yourself say something, it's a whole new thing aside from what you you can think of something in your mind. When you say it out loud, you hear it differently, you understand it differently.

I do struggle in winter, and this winter even more so. So on checking out all the avenues, you know, I'm at that age. I'm at that age where have hormonal shifts. So I'm checking all that out, checking all that jazz out. You know. I was talking to a friend about it yesterday. We were having a bit of banter back in front, and I laughed. I ended up laughing right because we were leaving voice notes, and you know that the act of talking, speaking, saying something sometimes if you hear yourself say something, it's a whole new thing aside from what you you can think of something in your mind. When you say it out loud, you hear it differently, you understand it differently.

It lands, and you internalize it. Yeah.

It lands, and you internalize it. Yeah.

Yeah, And if I look at our conversation, we're back and forth, back and forth kind of because she's we're very sick. We're similar, we're the same epigenetic health type. So we're activators for people who don't know pH three Sixtyso biology profiling tool to help us understand our profile. So she's an activator, I'm an activator. We have very similar traits in terms of personality, style of exercise, explosiveness, like all of the all of the things where we're you know, like activators can burn out because we just don't want to stop. We do everything at full tilt until we crash and burn if we don't integrate short rests and you know, do the things we love. We love stress, We like little stress monkeys. We've got to manage that. So I'm talking to her and she's also ADHD. So I was having a conversation. You know, there's there's being an activator, and then there's the ADHD traits, and then there's that crossover between ADHD are also is you know, is it coping mechanism from trauma history? All of these things overlap like everything does in life, and it's like, well, which label do we use for this? And then I was saying, and then there's just there's just life better like forty one years and if I look at the last five and what I've been doing and how consistently and long, and I've got like it's the best life I've lived in terms of what I get to do, the breakdown of time I get to spend doing each thing. I absolutely love it, but I'm on all the time. So I've trained this brain and body of mind to just be like go go next thing, next and next thing, and I love it all. And then we get to this point in the conversation where I share with her maybe the last twelve months. I go, well, there was this, really I go because you know what else is stress? Aside from stress? Excitement? Like, what is what happens when you get really excited about something in your body?

Yeah, And if I look at our conversation, we're back and forth, back and forth kind of because she's we're very sick. We're similar, we're the same epigenetic health type. So we're activators for people who don't know pH three Sixtyso biology profiling tool to help us understand our profile. So she's an activator, I'm an activator. We have very similar traits in terms of personality, style of exercise, explosiveness, like all of the all of the things where we're you know, like activators can burn out because we just don't want to stop. We do everything at full tilt until we crash and burn if we don't integrate short rests and you know, do the things we love. We love stress, We like little stress monkeys. We've got to manage that. So I'm talking to her and she's also ADHD. So I was having a conversation. You know, there's there's being an activator, and then there's the ADHD traits, and then there's that crossover between ADHD are also is you know, is it coping mechanism from trauma history? All of these things overlap like everything does in life, and it's like, well, which label do we use for this? And then I was saying, and then there's just there's just life better like forty one years and if I look at the last five and what I've been doing and how consistently and long, and I've got like it's the best life I've lived in terms of what I get to do, the breakdown of time I get to spend doing each thing. I absolutely love it, but I'm on all the time. So I've trained this brain and body of mind to just be like go go next thing, next and next thing, and I love it all. And then we get to this point in the conversation where I share with her maybe the last twelve months. I go, well, there was this, really I go because you know what else is stress? Aside from stress? Excitement? Like, what is what happens when you get really excited about something in your body?

It's exhausting.

It's exhausting.

Yeah. So I go back wind back at the beginning of last year and I was approached and asked to audition for so then I was training really hard physically for this TV show, this adventure TV show, and Harps was training me. And then when that TV show actually didn't end up going ahead and going to air shortly after that, I decided, God, do something, Then I'll go back. I'll train for five And then I went straight out of that training, continuing strength training into fight training, which was for a few months highly highly intense and stresful and emotional and all of the things, and then around that time, we also started doing the filming and peppering the promo for Mark Seymour's album to come out, which was super exciting and I was like, oh my goodness. And then he started hitting the media and then it launched in February and all throughout this time, and as I was relaying all these things to Sage up until now, I was like, God, it's just I mean, isn't it funny how we have our own answers? And in the start of the conversation, I'm like, I just can't pick what why I feel like this? And then you finish the conversation, go, God, it is no wonder I feel like this. Who could even function on that timeline?

Yeah. So I go back wind back at the beginning of last year and I was approached and asked to audition for so then I was training really hard physically for this TV show, this adventure TV show, and Harps was training me. And then when that TV show actually didn't end up going ahead and going to air shortly after that, I decided, God, do something, Then I'll go back. I'll train for five And then I went straight out of that training, continuing strength training into fight training, which was for a few months highly highly intense and stresful and emotional and all of the things, and then around that time, we also started doing the filming and peppering the promo for Mark Seymour's album to come out, which was super exciting and I was like, oh my goodness. And then he started hitting the media and then it launched in February and all throughout this time, and as I was relaying all these things to Sage up until now, I was like, God, it's just I mean, isn't it funny how we have our own answers? And in the start of the conversation, I'm like, I just can't pick what why I feel like this? And then you finish the conversation, go, God, it is no wonder I feel like this. Who could even function on that timeline?

So you do all that and you need to unplug, but you're not doing it.

So you do all that and you need to unplug, but you're not doing it.

Yeah, because you get, you get. I get. I realized that how do we train our minds? My mind is always doing so stillness and rest, even my rest is not rest. And I've so I've not been boxing lately, and I joined a yoga studio for a bit, and I thought I'll do some in yoga and and I'll do some just a bit of light running here and there, and I caught myself saying to someone one day, I haven't I haven't trained for two weeks. That morning, I'd gone for only three and a half k, but I've done a three and a half k run, then a yoga class. Then so at ten am, I'm saying to this person, I haven't trained for two weeks. That day, I've done a yoga class and a run, and I was gonna for.

Yeah, because you get, you get. I get. I realized that how do we train our minds? My mind is always doing so stillness and rest, even my rest is not rest. And I've so I've not been boxing lately, and I joined a yoga studio for a bit, and I thought I'll do some in yoga and and I'll do some just a bit of light running here and there, and I caught myself saying to someone one day, I haven't I haven't trained for two weeks. That morning, I'd gone for only three and a half k, but I've done a three and a half k run, then a yoga class. Then so at ten am, I'm saying to this person, I haven't trained for two weeks. That day, I've done a yoga class and a run, and I was gonna for.

An average person a month worse of exercise. By ten am, it's like off.

An average person a month worse of exercise. By ten am, it's like off.

Right right, And so then it's when you adjust everything. It's like, okay, so I'm gonna eat like this. I've stopped the intimatet and fasting because that's just that's a stress. And when you're when your corns all is high, I'm like, okay, so I'm not intimating fasting to my food patterns are changing. Also the style of exercise and the intensity and the frequency, that's all shifting, And I found myself feeling really lost in hang on, what is my baseline? I have to readjust into what's appropriate? What is exercise?

Right right, And so then it's when you adjust everything. It's like, okay, so I'm gonna eat like this. I've stopped the intimatet and fasting because that's just that's a stress. And when you're when your corns all is high, I'm like, okay, so I'm not intimating fasting to my food patterns are changing. Also the style of exercise and the intensity and the frequency, that's all shifting, And I found myself feeling really lost in hang on, what is my baseline? I have to readjust into what's appropriate? What is exercise?

What your baseline? Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I was talking to doctor cam McDonald not too long ago around the subject of burnout and he was talking about people like you who are sympathetic dominant. When you're approaching burnout, you don't shut down, you don't disassociate, disconnect. You drive harder and harder and harder. And people in that category are putting in more and more effort, and the more effort they put in, the worst they perform and the worst they feel they don't push through. I did the I finally did my profile.

What your baseline? Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I was talking to doctor cam McDonald not too long ago around the subject of burnout and he was talking about people like you who are sympathetic dominant. When you're approaching burnout, you don't shut down, you don't disassociate, disconnect. You drive harder and harder and harder. And people in that category are putting in more and more effort, and the more effort they put in, the worst they perform and the worst they feel they don't push through. I did the I finally did my profile.

What are you.

What are you.

I'm a connector on the cusp of activator. Yes, I don't know if that makes me a stress monkey. I think I'm a cheeky monkey, but I definitely one of the monkeys.

I'm a connector on the cusp of activator. Yes, I don't know if that makes me a stress monkey. I think I'm a cheeky monkey, but I definitely one of the monkeys.

It makes sense because you're very people in relationship focused. You like to be part of the team and the tribe and the Yeah. I love that. That's so great.

It makes sense because you're very people in relationship focused. You like to be part of the team and the tribe and the Yeah. I love that. That's so great.

Yes, I finally did it.

Yes, I finally did it.

And what have you learned about yourself?

And what have you learned about yourself?

I pretty much knew that. Like I was like, Okay, this makes sense. Yeah, I get it. So I thought like, activator makes a lot of sense, crusader makes a lot of sense. Connector makes a lot of sense. For me, I was like, oh, I'm a connector, I'm a cusp of activator. Right, So I'm like one of those connecting activator types of people.

I pretty much knew that. Like I was like, Okay, this makes sense. Yeah, I get it. So I thought like, activator makes a lot of sense, crusader makes a lot of sense. Connector makes a lot of sense. For me, I was like, oh, I'm a connector, I'm a cusp of activator. Right, So I'm like one of those connecting activator types of people.

Okay, you're connectivator?

Okay, you're connectivator?

Was I was correct in my suspicions about myself.

Was I was correct in my suspicions about myself.

It's so enlightening, though, isn't it. I don't know if you felt I remember when I first learned about that process and learned about some of the behavioral traits that idea of permission, And I don't know if you felt the same. But for me, you know, with an activator's propensity to need to move right movements number one, Yeah, that was a real eye opener to go. Ah, you know at times where train in the morning and then I feel the need that I'll you know, I want to train again and go have I got an unhealthy relationship with exercise, but realizing that there's this hard wiring that the body needs to move to express energy into.

It's so enlightening, though, isn't it. I don't know if you felt I remember when I first learned about that process and learned about some of the behavioral traits that idea of permission, And I don't know if you felt the same. But for me, you know, with an activator's propensity to need to move right movements number one, Yeah, that was a real eye opener to go. Ah, you know at times where train in the morning and then I feel the need that I'll you know, I want to train again and go have I got an unhealthy relationship with exercise, but realizing that there's this hard wiring that the body needs to move to express energy into.

And what type of movement and when? Yeah, for me, I've always wanted to be a morning exerciser. Like but when I say exercise, I'm talking about like really getting after it and doing resistance training. But like when I would be on the road, people get up super early. It's like, oh, we're going to the gym.

And what type of movement and when? Yeah, for me, I've always wanted to be a morning exerciser. Like but when I say exercise, I'm talking about like really getting after it and doing resistance training. But like when I would be on the road, people get up super early. It's like, oh, we're going to the gym.

You want to go?

You want to go?

And I knew intuitively no now, because I will feel amazing for about thirty minutes to an hour after and then I will be useless. But I do need a lot of exercise very early in the morning, lower intensity, a lot movement, not anything too taxing or too strenuous. That type of things are done ideally for me in the afternoon when the afternoon is not possible. In the evening, yeah, but it's like I love morning workouts, They're just they're not physiologically suited for me. For me, it's like taking a really brisk long walk first thing in the morning, Like listening to some type of audio program switches me right on. It's like, oh, it's going through a lot of the things that I learned through trial and error and saying this is what you need. And I'm going, oh, wow, that's amazing. It is amazingactly how I live my life when when the variables are more under my control.

And I knew intuitively no now, because I will feel amazing for about thirty minutes to an hour after and then I will be useless. But I do need a lot of exercise very early in the morning, lower intensity, a lot movement, not anything too taxing or too strenuous. That type of things are done ideally for me in the afternoon when the afternoon is not possible. In the evening, yeah, but it's like I love morning workouts, They're just they're not physiologically suited for me. For me, it's like taking a really brisk long walk first thing in the morning, Like listening to some type of audio program switches me right on. It's like, oh, it's going through a lot of the things that I learned through trial and error and saying this is what you need. And I'm going, oh, wow, that's amazing. It is amazingactly how I live my life when when the variables are more under my control.

Yes, I'm the same with so to move in the morning is for me better off to the cardio and then strength in the afternoon. And that's when I actually prefer, like I do I do, I wait, prefer training in the morning over the afternoon. But I do feel stronger and better doing strength training in the afternoon. It's just really interesting how the body just actually knows, but sometimes we do override that. So the line can be crossed by what we listen to, what we tell ourselves. You know, I have white knuckled, not really white knuckled. I've really embraced and loved intimate and fasting, knowing that it is a stressor for my biology because I'm an activator and I knew that, but discounting all those other stresses that I was under or for all that time, realizing that that was actually just predisposing me to this burnout. But because and this is this is what I think happens with any highly restrictive diet. Look at keto and carnivore and vegan anything where people just cut out everything at the start. Because I was very quick to accept that, Okay, when I start to intimate and fast, my body loves it for its start. My body composition is like, bam, this is great. My relationship with food is great, and my energy is great. So my hunger hormones are much more manageable for me in terms of having a good healthy relationship with food. Everything's just easier. But over a period of time. I always tend to burn out, and I think that that is a big contributing factor and then you go, Okay, well that's just not an option for a long term.

Yes, I'm the same with so to move in the morning is for me better off to the cardio and then strength in the afternoon. And that's when I actually prefer, like I do I do, I wait, prefer training in the morning over the afternoon. But I do feel stronger and better doing strength training in the afternoon. It's just really interesting how the body just actually knows, but sometimes we do override that. So the line can be crossed by what we listen to, what we tell ourselves. You know, I have white knuckled, not really white knuckled. I've really embraced and loved intimate and fasting, knowing that it is a stressor for my biology because I'm an activator and I knew that, but discounting all those other stresses that I was under or for all that time, realizing that that was actually just predisposing me to this burnout. But because and this is this is what I think happens with any highly restrictive diet. Look at keto and carnivore and vegan anything where people just cut out everything at the start. Because I was very quick to accept that, Okay, when I start to intimate and fast, my body loves it for its start. My body composition is like, bam, this is great. My relationship with food is great, and my energy is great. So my hunger hormones are much more manageable for me in terms of having a good healthy relationship with food. Everything's just easier. But over a period of time. I always tend to burn out, and I think that that is a big contributing factor and then you go, Okay, well that's just not an option for a long term.

It's all cumulative stress. I mean, I've been on an all sashimi diet for like three weeks now. I'm loving it. Only sashimi, just pure sashimi. I blew it three blueberries the other day, completely off the wagon.

It's all cumulative stress. I mean, I've been on an all sashimi diet for like three weeks now. I'm loving it. Only sashimi, just pure sashimi. I blew it three blueberries the other day, completely off the wagon.

How do you manage your like that idea? Do you ever goog? Did you ever burn out? You're over?

How do you manage your like that idea? Do you ever goog? Did you ever burn out? You're over?

Yeah all the time time, Because like I realized something and I was in so a couple of weeks ago, I did a presentation and it was like a really bad one. It's like, it's so funny because we all tell ourselves stories and we have our own standards of performance, and we should, but a lot of times we tell ourself stories about how something went. And I knew I was not on that day. As a matter of fact, I was like the anti on, almost off. I was awake in the room, I was conscious, so I wasn't completely off. But that was not a very good showing. The feedback was better than usual, so apparently people really liked me stupid and half dead. It's like, might be my new persona. So in the debrief with the organization that I had done this event for, we were talking about things and I had realized, like, on my time off, it's not time off, so I will just stress out and ruminate about work in a more serene environment. And that's basically what I was considering taking time off, like, yeah, I take a day off. You have to take a day And I was like, oh, I don't take a day off like I would say. Throughout the day, I am back going through my head, running through checklists, literally putting things together in my head, and I am not shutting off and not thinking about work. It's like, wow, okay, And then I wonder why Sometimes I'm in that situation where I'm pushing, pushing, pushing, but the faster I try to move forward, the slower I'm actually going. And I'm in that kind of vicious cycle. But you're not alone because right now, according to Christina Maslock, who has done some incredible research out of UC Berkeley, ten to fifteen percent of the workforce is experiencing burnout. So not like they're heading towards it, they're there and this is extreme. I mean, you could take a look at it two age. You could take a look at the human cost and the financial cost. I think a lot of things that organizations do not because they're they're callous and heartless, just because it's an easier metric. It's to go, well, what is this costing us? And it's just that if you have a ten thousand person organization, fifteen percent of your workforce is experiencing burnout, that is costing you twenty six million dollars. Now in the United States, employee disengagement is a huge problem. Actually it's a huge problem globally, going to the Gallop organization, nearly eighty percent of the workforce is actively disengaged. In some places like Japan that numbers a lot higher and they're going into crisis. But employee disengagement within the United States, I happen to know that stat of thought my head cost over a five hundred and fifty billion dollars a year. So what's interesting about that is even though it's ten to fifteen percent of the people are in burnout, upwards of fifty percent of the people are on their way towards a state of burnout, which is one of the main reasons that and lack of psychological safety. But lack of psychological safety contributes to burnout, it's one of the biggest contributors to employee disengagement.

Yeah all the time time, Because like I realized something and I was in so a couple of weeks ago, I did a presentation and it was like a really bad one. It's like, it's so funny because we all tell ourselves stories and we have our own standards of performance, and we should, but a lot of times we tell ourself stories about how something went. And I knew I was not on that day. As a matter of fact, I was like the anti on, almost off. I was awake in the room, I was conscious, so I wasn't completely off. But that was not a very good showing. The feedback was better than usual, so apparently people really liked me stupid and half dead. It's like, might be my new persona. So in the debrief with the organization that I had done this event for, we were talking about things and I had realized, like, on my time off, it's not time off, so I will just stress out and ruminate about work in a more serene environment. And that's basically what I was considering taking time off, like, yeah, I take a day off. You have to take a day And I was like, oh, I don't take a day off like I would say. Throughout the day, I am back going through my head, running through checklists, literally putting things together in my head, and I am not shutting off and not thinking about work. It's like, wow, okay, And then I wonder why Sometimes I'm in that situation where I'm pushing, pushing, pushing, but the faster I try to move forward, the slower I'm actually going. And I'm in that kind of vicious cycle. But you're not alone because right now, according to Christina Maslock, who has done some incredible research out of UC Berkeley, ten to fifteen percent of the workforce is experiencing burnout. So not like they're heading towards it, they're there and this is extreme. I mean, you could take a look at it two age. You could take a look at the human cost and the financial cost. I think a lot of things that organizations do not because they're they're callous and heartless, just because it's an easier metric. It's to go, well, what is this costing us? And it's just that if you have a ten thousand person organization, fifteen percent of your workforce is experiencing burnout, that is costing you twenty six million dollars. Now in the United States, employee disengagement is a huge problem. Actually it's a huge problem globally, going to the Gallop organization, nearly eighty percent of the workforce is actively disengaged. In some places like Japan that numbers a lot higher and they're going into crisis. But employee disengagement within the United States, I happen to know that stat of thought my head cost over a five hundred and fifty billion dollars a year. So what's interesting about that is even though it's ten to fifteen percent of the people are in burnout, upwards of fifty percent of the people are on their way towards a state of burnout, which is one of the main reasons that and lack of psychological safety. But lack of psychological safety contributes to burnout, it's one of the biggest contributors to employee disengagement.

That and.

That and.

The manager like one of the main drivers of employee disengagement is poor leadership practices, or as we've been discussing on this podcast right now for I don't know two years, erroneous belief systems resulting in toxic practices by leadership who are probably not bad people. I mean, some of them are really bad people, but most of them are probably not bad people. They're trying to do the best that they can. It's their operating system is flawed. There's a bug in the system. And because a lot of times we're in positions where the evidence of your erroneous practices are not immediate, like they are in let's say, you know, a game of Aussie Rules, or they are in the theater where you're performing, and people like throwing some bottles at you. You keep doing them and you double down on what doesn't work because at one time there was a benefit, or at one time you felt confident because you went to a course or your mentor who had like eighty percent of their workforce quit on them, but you looked up to them said hey, this is how you have to be. So they're they're just perpetuating conditioned practices that don't work. So you have so many people in the workforce right now that are to disengage, heading towards burnout. And when we talk about well being, this is kind of interesting. Can I get into this a little bit, yes, please, So well being is a state of thriving, right because when you take a look at well being, like the Gallup organization talks about the integrated harmonious optimization, I'm paraphrasing, but they talk about career, social, financial, physical wellbeing, and community well being being all of the factors that come together to produce a state of thriving. And we know thriving people perform better at absolutely everything than languishing people perform. Now, when you take a look at which one of those variables that, when they come together, produce a state of thriving in an individual, you got career, social wellbeing, financial wellbeing. You have of course physical wellbeing, so all the things about like stress management, sleep, movement, exercise.

The manager like one of the main drivers of employee disengagement is poor leadership practices, or as we've been discussing on this podcast right now for I don't know two years, erroneous belief systems resulting in toxic practices by leadership who are probably not bad people. I mean, some of them are really bad people, but most of them are probably not bad people. They're trying to do the best that they can. It's their operating system is flawed. There's a bug in the system. And because a lot of times we're in positions where the evidence of your erroneous practices are not immediate, like they are in let's say, you know, a game of Aussie Rules, or they are in the theater where you're performing, and people like throwing some bottles at you. You keep doing them and you double down on what doesn't work because at one time there was a benefit, or at one time you felt confident because you went to a course or your mentor who had like eighty percent of their workforce quit on them, but you looked up to them said hey, this is how you have to be. So they're they're just perpetuating conditioned practices that don't work. So you have so many people in the workforce right now that are to disengage, heading towards burnout. And when we talk about well being, this is kind of interesting. Can I get into this a little bit, yes, please, So well being is a state of thriving, right because when you take a look at well being, like the Gallup organization talks about the integrated harmonious optimization, I'm paraphrasing, but they talk about career, social, financial, physical wellbeing, and community well being being all of the factors that come together to produce a state of thriving. And we know thriving people perform better at absolutely everything than languishing people perform. Now, when you take a look at which one of those variables that, when they come together, produce a state of thriving in an individual, you got career, social wellbeing, financial wellbeing. You have of course physical wellbeing, so all the things about like stress management, sleep, movement, exercise.

Diet, social well being well.

Diet, social well being well.

And then we have community. Well, yeah, social is right up there, but the number one now. And when I say number one before somebody says, well, not in my country, not in my community. This will the conclusion that they found by analyzing the data of over one hundred million interviews across nearly two hundred countries, representing ninety eight percent of the world's population. So yeah, your neighborhood too. The number one driver of well being is job satisfaction. It is the meaning of work and how aligned your values and your strengths are with your job. And the reason for that is because when that's happening, you have purpose, you have a sense of engagement, which in and of itself is extremely healthy. Like these things are not the totality of a strategy, but in part some of the things that stave off dementia. So the impact is incalculable when it comes to quality of life. But when you're satisfied with your job, you're kind of in an environment where one of the questions that Gallup asks, and it's so insightful, and a lot of managers would balk at this like I don't care, I want to minimize that. You could not be more wrong, is do I feel like I have a best friend at work because when you are driving towards a meaningful vision, right, like, your job isn't just where you go to make a living, it is where you collectively go to make a difference. You're going to have some strong bonds, so you start to facilitate those connections that drive social well being. Now you also if you're really satisfied in your job, money is not the only factor that results in job satisfaction. You can make a lot of money and be miserable at your job, but there is kind of like a baseline. They used to say it was like something like seventy six thousand dollars. Now it's like upwards of ninety thousand, towards the six figure mark, where I need that baseline to not worry about finances. But beyond that, it really doesn't add all that much to job satisfaction. But if you're in a job that you love, you're probably experiencing a baseline level of financial wellbeing, and you're probably engaging because a lot of times when people don't engage in certain things that support physical wellness. My take on it is you're not lazy. It's not because you lack character. There are things that are going on in your environment and within the biochemistry and function of your brain that is producing certain behavior patterns or acting as constraints towards certain behavior patterns that you normally would engage in. And like when you talk about like behavior, like or motivation, people use that word a lot. It's just a reason for doing something or behaving in some way, like how does my body either react or respond to environmental stimuli? Right? Motivation? Behavior? But you're probably engaging in more, You're probably moving more, You're probably a hell of a lot more active, and you're probably more involved in your community or more likely to appreciate and be grateful for aspects of your community. So it's almost like career well being because work is so central to who we are as human beings globally, it kind of it's kind of like the domino that sets off that chain reaction, if that makes any sense.

And then we have community. Well, yeah, social is right up there, but the number one now. And when I say number one before somebody says, well, not in my country, not in my community. This will the conclusion that they found by analyzing the data of over one hundred million interviews across nearly two hundred countries, representing ninety eight percent of the world's population. So yeah, your neighborhood too. The number one driver of well being is job satisfaction. It is the meaning of work and how aligned your values and your strengths are with your job. And the reason for that is because when that's happening, you have purpose, you have a sense of engagement, which in and of itself is extremely healthy. Like these things are not the totality of a strategy, but in part some of the things that stave off dementia. So the impact is incalculable when it comes to quality of life. But when you're satisfied with your job, you're kind of in an environment where one of the questions that Gallup asks, and it's so insightful, and a lot of managers would balk at this like I don't care, I want to minimize that. You could not be more wrong, is do I feel like I have a best friend at work because when you are driving towards a meaningful vision, right, like, your job isn't just where you go to make a living, it is where you collectively go to make a difference. You're going to have some strong bonds, so you start to facilitate those connections that drive social well being. Now you also if you're really satisfied in your job, money is not the only factor that results in job satisfaction. You can make a lot of money and be miserable at your job, but there is kind of like a baseline. They used to say it was like something like seventy six thousand dollars. Now it's like upwards of ninety thousand, towards the six figure mark, where I need that baseline to not worry about finances. But beyond that, it really doesn't add all that much to job satisfaction. But if you're in a job that you love, you're probably experiencing a baseline level of financial wellbeing, and you're probably engaging because a lot of times when people don't engage in certain things that support physical wellness. My take on it is you're not lazy. It's not because you lack character. There are things that are going on in your environment and within the biochemistry and function of your brain that is producing certain behavior patterns or acting as constraints towards certain behavior patterns that you normally would engage in. And like when you talk about like behavior, like or motivation, people use that word a lot. It's just a reason for doing something or behaving in some way, like how does my body either react or respond to environmental stimuli? Right? Motivation? Behavior? But you're probably engaging in more, You're probably moving more, You're probably a hell of a lot more active, and you're probably more involved in your community or more likely to appreciate and be grateful for aspects of your community. So it's almost like career well being because work is so central to who we are as human beings globally, it kind of it's kind of like the domino that sets off that chain reaction, if that makes any sense.

I love that. My question is, entrepreneurs, how do we? How do I? How do I be the leader for me? And when I think, as I was thinking of this question for you, so how do I lead me better? Because obviously I've got the answers and I'd never let an employee or another person or a client fall into the patterns getting the results that I'm getting knowing the answers I know, and continue to do that, Why why are we unable to Why is it so difficult for us to pull ourselves out of those practices? And then second to that, when I think of leaders in when I think of leaders, they have this additional tribe. They have all of that social and they have this feedback from leadership. So they're giving, they're contributing, they're leading, they're seeing their results. When you're an entrepreneur, you're leading just yourself, but you don't have the team that you're leading, so you're missing out on some of those connections there. So can you talk a little bit on those things? All of that? Well hold salent of questions, I asked, I.

I love that. My question is, entrepreneurs, how do we? How do I? How do I be the leader for me? And when I think, as I was thinking of this question for you, so how do I lead me better? Because obviously I've got the answers and I'd never let an employee or another person or a client fall into the patterns getting the results that I'm getting knowing the answers I know, and continue to do that, Why why are we unable to Why is it so difficult for us to pull ourselves out of those practices? And then second to that, when I think of leaders in when I think of leaders, they have this additional tribe. They have all of that social and they have this feedback from leadership. So they're giving, they're contributing, they're leading, they're seeing their results. When you're an entrepreneur, you're leading just yourself, but you don't have the team that you're leading, so you're missing out on some of those connections there. So can you talk a little bit on those things? All of that? Well hold salent of questions, I asked, I.

Really, I really want to, Oh man, I want to take you back to something that you said, explain more around. I would never let an employee like what were you saying there? Like what would you not let an.

Really, I really want to, Oh man, I want to take you back to something that you said, explain more around. I would never let an employee like what were you saying there? Like what would you not let an.

Employ So if a version of me came to me and said this is how I feel and this is what's going on, and this is like I said to you at the start of the show this is my last twelve months, and this is how I've been living life, and this is how I'm now feeling. I would go, well, the answer is pretty clear, you need to address this, this, and this.

Employ So if a version of me came to me and said this is how I feel and this is what's going on, and this is like I said to you at the start of the show this is my last twelve months, and this is how I've been living life, and this is how I'm now feeling. I would go, well, the answer is pretty clear, you need to address this, this, and this.

Okay, So you wouldn't allow an employee to languish the way you languish in your job. Do you want to expect that from your employee? Is what you say?

Okay, So you wouldn't allow an employee to languish the way you languish in your job. Do you want to expect that from your employee? Is what you say?

Yeah, I have. So now like when we see what the answer likely is and I feel, I'm like, Okay, I'm going to have to just reevaluate how I'm doing life right now. Lifestyle. You know how much I'm working on. I need better protocols for switching off. I need better socializing protocols because because I'm not switching off, too exhausted to kind of be present in those social activities. And then they're taxing me more because I'm going in with empty batteries. But in the middle of all of that, why is it so hard to make the changes? Because I'm not the only one? No, you're not, I mean I am any one. You're absolutely not.

Yeah, I have. So now like when we see what the answer likely is and I feel, I'm like, Okay, I'm going to have to just reevaluate how I'm doing life right now. Lifestyle. You know how much I'm working on. I need better protocols for switching off. I need better socializing protocols because because I'm not switching off, too exhausted to kind of be present in those social activities. And then they're taxing me more because I'm going in with empty batteries. But in the middle of all of that, why is it so hard to make the changes? Because I'm not the only one? No, you're not, I mean I am any one. You're absolutely not.

And I think the first step is acknowledging I am not alone in this, Okay, So there's not like, well, what is wrong with me as an entrepreneur in my business. Nope, you're not. You are You are probably part of the majority, to be fair, so acknowledging I'm not the only one would be a really great first step the other things, And I'm not speaking from like, well, here's how an entrepreneur should approach this. I'm speaking from Okay. You are someone who has a ton of responsibility that falls on top of you, and sometimes if you don't do so, or if you unplug in a way that you desperately need to, shit doesn't get done and there are enormous consequences. And you probably are someone who has very few employees, or maybe you're an organization of one. And I don't want to comment on any of that because people's situations are different and there is a difference between what is an ideal situation versus reality. But let's pick apart a couple of elements. First, is what is under my control and what is not under my control? Because there are certain things day to day that you have to respond to. They are urgent and important, kind of like the Eisenhower matrix, like what's important and urgent. Can't ignore that in a business and still be in business too much along what is important right, but it's not necessarily urgent. So like I have a bill that that has to be paid, or I have payroll, I have to do that. If I don't do that, I'm going to lose employees, right I might. The consequences might even be worse than that. I'm violating some labor laws there. So I have to address that. That falls under important and urgent. Important but not urgent. Is I need to upgrade my skills because I have to constantly innovate and grow my organization or else it's going to die. But I don't need to do that today and I don't need to do it by Friday, but I definitely need to do it right. Then there are things that are urgent but they're not important. So there's this email I have to respond to for the good of a relationship because I have gotten back to it in a timely fashion. But if I didn't respond to it, it's not like there would be severe consequences if I ignored it. And if I respond to this email there could be a huge advantage or benefit. But it's something that I kind of need to do. It's acting upon me. Somebody needs to respond, or like, I'm in the middle of doing a show and this is really important because an organization wants to use bits of this episode. So I've got to get this done. Somebody comes knocking on my door and they won't go away. That's urgent but not important. It's like, oh, hey, is this apartment three? No, that's down the hall. It says five right on the door. Oops. Sorry, I don't look at I don't look at numbers. So and then you have things that are neither urgent nor important. They are tasks that you have just conditioned yourself to do because it gives you a sense of completion, It gives you a sense of autonomy. You don't trust anybody else. But if you completely ignored this, nothing really bad would happen, and if you got right on it, nothing really good would happen. So let's start taking a look at within this matrix. What is the urgent and important right I gotta do that. Let's take a look at the important which one of these things are in my control and not in my control? Because that allows you to see what can I put off a little bit longer and give myself a breathing room, And what do I what do I need to tackle? Maybe not today, but I absolutely need to tackle it, and it's unavoidable. But that gives me a locus of control because I am directing intention at it. In other words, I am choosing this stressor this thing that even though it may seem like a complete pain in the arse at the moment, I'm going to tackle it. The greater locus of control I have, the lower the deleterious effects of stress on me. So it's not exactly stress that's the problem. It's the interpretation of stress. I mean, of course, when stress is intense enough and it's chronic enough, doesn't matter where it's coming from. Like you just talked about, like I'm super stressed out and then i go to my favorite like rugby match, and I'm super excited. I'm adding stress on top of stress. That's not like I need to back off and decompress. But how I frame and interpret stress. If you have two people in a very similar situation, tackling the same workload, and one person believes, oh my god, I'm so stressed. I never perform well when I'm stressed. Another person is like, oh god, like stress just gets me going. It's my competitive edge, person A is going to have more of a negative physiological impact in the of the same stress as person be all things being equal, you also said, well, how come I go back and do the same behaviors over and over. I think there's two sides to this. One. You might need to Right, you got a business, and there are things that like in the first couple of years, especially the first year, you're on the verge of going out of business all the time, I might need to do this. It's like the second part of that is when I'm afraid, when I am anxious, when I am angry, what I'm not open and innovative and creative. I doubled down on the consistently reinforced behavior patterns that I am currently conditioned to engage in. I go back to what has traditionally worked. Like there was a there was a show back in the nineteen fifties in the US called The Honeymooners, Right and one of the Stars. It's about this couple, Ralph Cramden and Alice Cramden, and they lived in Brooklyn, which is where I grew up. And Ralph is kind of like a hothead. He flies off the handle for it ain't like the slightest provocation, but it's really not helping his relationships around him, especially with Alice. She's not having this. And even though Ralph thinks that he runs the household, he hasn't. Alice is the boss in this situation, hands down. So he learns this technique that when he finds himself getting angry, he does a pattern interrupt where he says something like I think it was pins and needles, needles and pins. It's a happy man that grins and he flashes a smile, and instantly he feels better. Now things are going really well because every time he starts to go back into his precondition pattern and he gets really angry. Right with like his mate in the building, Ed Norton, he says that phrase, flashes, the smile, had an interrupt. Now he's able to make a better choice. Ralph's go doing great, except there's this one day where all these stresses culminate and he is in such a stress and he just tries to initiate and like saying it, the phrase gets him even angrier and he just snaps. He goes right back into his condition patterns. And it's funny because we're all Ralph Kramden a little bit in that regard. So that's an answer to that. I think the bigger question is what do we want and need in these situations, Like what would you want for your employee? Well, one, just listening to someone even if you don't speak, but being completely invested and being mindful of what they're saying and what they're feeling and reflecting and repeating. That creates a polyvagel response for both people, especially face to face. So that's a great way of downregulating that physiological state sometimes like when we feel alone. This is why mastermind groups so powerful. If I could just share what I'm going through with other entrepreneurs and I don't even need them to say, hey, you know, like we could talk about that in a second, why don't you do this or you know I did this, and might just listening empathetically that conversation will help the both of you, not just one. Also like hearing from other people. Yeah, Tiffany, I was in that same situation last year. Here's kind of how I handled it. I don't know if this works for your situation, but it worked for me and my employees. And here's the result. Wow, it's almost like when I was in When I was in Australia last year Melboyn, I was reading a book by Mogoat which was a terrify find book called Scary Smart, and it was about the rise of artificial intelligence. And one of the things that he said is, you know by the year like, ah, what was it like, by twenty fifty or twenty forty nine, artificial intelligence will be generalized. In other words, it would be self aware and it will have general intelligence. It's not like it's programmed to do this specific task like find you airline tickets. So it'll be a self aware, independently thinking general intelligence about one billion with a bee times smarter than Albert Einstein. And that is potentially amazing for humanity or that is the most dystopian, terrifying reality that humanity has ever faced. Either way, either way, it's going to be impactful. But he said, one of the reasons why AI, its intelligence and evolution is getting away from the desire is because how many millions of people are using AI. I feed something into my AI over here in my little corner of the world that has never quite been fed into to any AI before. My AI just learned something guess what. The second my AI learned something, they all learn it instantly. It's like that hive mind. Masterminds do that. I mean, of course, we're not going to learn to the degree, nor are we going to learn at the same speed as an AI. But you have fifteen people in your mastermind that are all in the same situation. They are hard working, dedicated, and a lot of times stressed out entrepreneurs, but they all work in different industries. They're at different points of evolution and growth within their company, within their own leadership and ownership journey. One person comes back to that mastermind and offers a piece of insight. Everybody learns it if they're open to it. But that's not what happens with human beings by itself. Here's what happens. We have all of our past experiences, interpretations, perspective biases. So not only do we all learn something. I just got an insight that nobody else got, and I volunteer that, and that provokes another insight that somebody else got and they volunteer that. So you have fifteen people in a mastermind. One person learns something, all fifteen get that information. But then we learn something again again again again again within the span of thirty minutes, and that grows exponentially. So that gives you social connection. It gives you social support, which is a stress mitigator and essential for well being. You're tapping into your community, you're learning, and you're growing. Here's the thing, long term high performance learning and growth is one of the greatest stress mitigators and contributors to well being. There for thriving, it's that. And we don't talk about that. We talk about like eating vegetables. We talk about movement very important. We don't talk about learning and development. We don't talk about sitting down in yes, in person, face to face with people like kind of like we did in it before the New World Order, and working things out, even engaging in conflict with people you care about who all care about the same singular thing. So all of those things are critical for employees. And here's here's something interesting. Google wanted to figure out who are the top performing teams within their entire organization. Now Google isn't necessarily known for having low performing employees, but what they wanted to I and they don't really have a chill, relaxed work environment either, but they want them to know who were the best of the best, and their assumption was the teams that are performing or out performing everyone else probably have the smartest people. Well, there's a fallacy that there's a floor in that logic. One they don't appreciate like team dynamics and exponential learning and growth. Right, I'm sure they appreciate it, but it wasn't their main assumption. And number two, everybody at Google is intelligent, everyone, some annoyingly so. Right, they're the most irritatingly intelligent people you'll ever meet. Here's what they found. It wasn't who was on the team, it wasn't what they knew, it was how the team functioned and within that dynamic. The number one component with psychological safety because when you're really in a team that cares about process and outcome more than politics and who's right, you can say anything right, you can you can volunteer something and not have to worry about somebody going tif That is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. Because what we're focused on is design thinking and the outcomes of that type of thought processes. We're not really worried about who's right. We're worried about what's right. So they can engage in all of these dynamics that drive thriving, but they also have psychological safety and they're encouraged to speak like like diversity. That's that's something like God, this can keep going and going and going. But after doing like over two hundred extensive interviews, they found that this was what produced the top the best of the best teams within Google. It was that it was that a personal dynamic. So sometimes you need to build that because it's just you and one employee.

And I think the first step is acknowledging I am not alone in this, Okay, So there's not like, well, what is wrong with me as an entrepreneur in my business. Nope, you're not. You are You are probably part of the majority, to be fair, so acknowledging I'm not the only one would be a really great first step the other things, And I'm not speaking from like, well, here's how an entrepreneur should approach this. I'm speaking from Okay. You are someone who has a ton of responsibility that falls on top of you, and sometimes if you don't do so, or if you unplug in a way that you desperately need to, shit doesn't get done and there are enormous consequences. And you probably are someone who has very few employees, or maybe you're an organization of one. And I don't want to comment on any of that because people's situations are different and there is a difference between what is an ideal situation versus reality. But let's pick apart a couple of elements. First, is what is under my control and what is not under my control? Because there are certain things day to day that you have to respond to. They are urgent and important, kind of like the Eisenhower matrix, like what's important and urgent. Can't ignore that in a business and still be in business too much along what is important right, but it's not necessarily urgent. So like I have a bill that that has to be paid, or I have payroll, I have to do that. If I don't do that, I'm going to lose employees, right I might. The consequences might even be worse than that. I'm violating some labor laws there. So I have to address that. That falls under important and urgent. Important but not urgent. Is I need to upgrade my skills because I have to constantly innovate and grow my organization or else it's going to die. But I don't need to do that today and I don't need to do it by Friday, but I definitely need to do it right. Then there are things that are urgent but they're not important. So there's this email I have to respond to for the good of a relationship because I have gotten back to it in a timely fashion. But if I didn't respond to it, it's not like there would be severe consequences if I ignored it. And if I respond to this email there could be a huge advantage or benefit. But it's something that I kind of need to do. It's acting upon me. Somebody needs to respond, or like, I'm in the middle of doing a show and this is really important because an organization wants to use bits of this episode. So I've got to get this done. Somebody comes knocking on my door and they won't go away. That's urgent but not important. It's like, oh, hey, is this apartment three? No, that's down the hall. It says five right on the door. Oops. Sorry, I don't look at I don't look at numbers. So and then you have things that are neither urgent nor important. They are tasks that you have just conditioned yourself to do because it gives you a sense of completion, It gives you a sense of autonomy. You don't trust anybody else. But if you completely ignored this, nothing really bad would happen, and if you got right on it, nothing really good would happen. So let's start taking a look at within this matrix. What is the urgent and important right I gotta do that. Let's take a look at the important which one of these things are in my control and not in my control? Because that allows you to see what can I put off a little bit longer and give myself a breathing room, And what do I what do I need to tackle? Maybe not today, but I absolutely need to tackle it, and it's unavoidable. But that gives me a locus of control because I am directing intention at it. In other words, I am choosing this stressor this thing that even though it may seem like a complete pain in the arse at the moment, I'm going to tackle it. The greater locus of control I have, the lower the deleterious effects of stress on me. So it's not exactly stress that's the problem. It's the interpretation of stress. I mean, of course, when stress is intense enough and it's chronic enough, doesn't matter where it's coming from. Like you just talked about, like I'm super stressed out and then i go to my favorite like rugby match, and I'm super excited. I'm adding stress on top of stress. That's not like I need to back off and decompress. But how I frame and interpret stress. If you have two people in a very similar situation, tackling the same workload, and one person believes, oh my god, I'm so stressed. I never perform well when I'm stressed. Another person is like, oh god, like stress just gets me going. It's my competitive edge, person A is going to have more of a negative physiological impact in the of the same stress as person be all things being equal, you also said, well, how come I go back and do the same behaviors over and over. I think there's two sides to this. One. You might need to Right, you got a business, and there are things that like in the first couple of years, especially the first year, you're on the verge of going out of business all the time, I might need to do this. It's like the second part of that is when I'm afraid, when I am anxious, when I am angry, what I'm not open and innovative and creative. I doubled down on the consistently reinforced behavior patterns that I am currently conditioned to engage in. I go back to what has traditionally worked. Like there was a there was a show back in the nineteen fifties in the US called The Honeymooners, Right and one of the Stars. It's about this couple, Ralph Cramden and Alice Cramden, and they lived in Brooklyn, which is where I grew up. And Ralph is kind of like a hothead. He flies off the handle for it ain't like the slightest provocation, but it's really not helping his relationships around him, especially with Alice. She's not having this. And even though Ralph thinks that he runs the household, he hasn't. Alice is the boss in this situation, hands down. So he learns this technique that when he finds himself getting angry, he does a pattern interrupt where he says something like I think it was pins and needles, needles and pins. It's a happy man that grins and he flashes a smile, and instantly he feels better. Now things are going really well because every time he starts to go back into his precondition pattern and he gets really angry. Right with like his mate in the building, Ed Norton, he says that phrase, flashes, the smile, had an interrupt. Now he's able to make a better choice. Ralph's go doing great, except there's this one day where all these stresses culminate and he is in such a stress and he just tries to initiate and like saying it, the phrase gets him even angrier and he just snaps. He goes right back into his condition patterns. And it's funny because we're all Ralph Kramden a little bit in that regard. So that's an answer to that. I think the bigger question is what do we want and need in these situations, Like what would you want for your employee? Well, one, just listening to someone even if you don't speak, but being completely invested and being mindful of what they're saying and what they're feeling and reflecting and repeating. That creates a polyvagel response for both people, especially face to face. So that's a great way of downregulating that physiological state sometimes like when we feel alone. This is why mastermind groups so powerful. If I could just share what I'm going through with other entrepreneurs and I don't even need them to say, hey, you know, like we could talk about that in a second, why don't you do this or you know I did this, and might just listening empathetically that conversation will help the both of you, not just one. Also like hearing from other people. Yeah, Tiffany, I was in that same situation last year. Here's kind of how I handled it. I don't know if this works for your situation, but it worked for me and my employees. And here's the result. Wow, it's almost like when I was in When I was in Australia last year Melboyn, I was reading a book by Mogoat which was a terrify find book called Scary Smart, and it was about the rise of artificial intelligence. And one of the things that he said is, you know by the year like, ah, what was it like, by twenty fifty or twenty forty nine, artificial intelligence will be generalized. In other words, it would be self aware and it will have general intelligence. It's not like it's programmed to do this specific task like find you airline tickets. So it'll be a self aware, independently thinking general intelligence about one billion with a bee times smarter than Albert Einstein. And that is potentially amazing for humanity or that is the most dystopian, terrifying reality that humanity has ever faced. Either way, either way, it's going to be impactful. But he said, one of the reasons why AI, its intelligence and evolution is getting away from the desire is because how many millions of people are using AI. I feed something into my AI over here in my little corner of the world that has never quite been fed into to any AI before. My AI just learned something guess what. The second my AI learned something, they all learn it instantly. It's like that hive mind. Masterminds do that. I mean, of course, we're not going to learn to the degree, nor are we going to learn at the same speed as an AI. But you have fifteen people in your mastermind that are all in the same situation. They are hard working, dedicated, and a lot of times stressed out entrepreneurs, but they all work in different industries. They're at different points of evolution and growth within their company, within their own leadership and ownership journey. One person comes back to that mastermind and offers a piece of insight. Everybody learns it if they're open to it. But that's not what happens with human beings by itself. Here's what happens. We have all of our past experiences, interpretations, perspective biases. So not only do we all learn something. I just got an insight that nobody else got, and I volunteer that, and that provokes another insight that somebody else got and they volunteer that. So you have fifteen people in a mastermind. One person learns something, all fifteen get that information. But then we learn something again again again again again within the span of thirty minutes, and that grows exponentially. So that gives you social connection. It gives you social support, which is a stress mitigator and essential for well being. You're tapping into your community, you're learning, and you're growing. Here's the thing, long term high performance learning and growth is one of the greatest stress mitigators and contributors to well being. There for thriving, it's that. And we don't talk about that. We talk about like eating vegetables. We talk about movement very important. We don't talk about learning and development. We don't talk about sitting down in yes, in person, face to face with people like kind of like we did in it before the New World Order, and working things out, even engaging in conflict with people you care about who all care about the same singular thing. So all of those things are critical for employees. And here's here's something interesting. Google wanted to figure out who are the top performing teams within their entire organization. Now Google isn't necessarily known for having low performing employees, but what they wanted to I and they don't really have a chill, relaxed work environment either, but they want them to know who were the best of the best, and their assumption was the teams that are performing or out performing everyone else probably have the smartest people. Well, there's a fallacy that there's a floor in that logic. One they don't appreciate like team dynamics and exponential learning and growth. Right, I'm sure they appreciate it, but it wasn't their main assumption. And number two, everybody at Google is intelligent, everyone, some annoyingly so. Right, they're the most irritatingly intelligent people you'll ever meet. Here's what they found. It wasn't who was on the team, it wasn't what they knew, it was how the team functioned and within that dynamic. The number one component with psychological safety because when you're really in a team that cares about process and outcome more than politics and who's right, you can say anything right, you can you can volunteer something and not have to worry about somebody going tif That is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. Because what we're focused on is design thinking and the outcomes of that type of thought processes. We're not really worried about who's right. We're worried about what's right. So they can engage in all of these dynamics that drive thriving, but they also have psychological safety and they're encouraged to speak like like diversity. That's that's something like God, this can keep going and going and going. But after doing like over two hundred extensive interviews, they found that this was what produced the top the best of the best teams within Google. It was that it was that a personal dynamic. So sometimes you need to build that because it's just you and one employee.

Yeah, like, who.

Yeah, like, who.

Are other entrepreneur I know you go to networking events.

Are other entrepreneur I know you go to networking events.

Well, I was just going to talk about that because I I'd stepped out of my regular networking morning meetings at the end of last year to spend time on different parts of my business and to pray up a little bit of time and just to reevaluate. And I'd started to really notice that that component of what I got out of networking that I loved so much. I was like, I've got to start looking for just getting a little bit of that back in. And I got asked to speak at an event yesterday, and it happened to be a networking style event. It was a lunch in Albert Park and I really loved it, Like I was just thinking about it as you were talking, and I go that, like, that's always been my number one reason for networking. Over all of the years that I've networked, It's been because it fills my up, because I learned from people. We engage. I like the minds of the people that enter the room, and this particular room was really and I said like, I'll be back next month to the next meeting as a guest. So I was there as a speaker this time, and I was like, I'm going to come back because I really enjoyed the energy of the people in this room and they didn't. And it wasn't one of those meetings where everyone rushes off. It was like when I turned up. Weirdly, there was two people I knew from there. One was the person who who asked me if I'd be available, and then there was another person I'd known, But everyone felt familiar and it just like, you know, like I was. I was. I had two and a half hours sleep the night before, I had wicked insomnia, so I was on a very low battery. But it just filled my cup and I loved that.

Well, I was just going to talk about that because I I'd stepped out of my regular networking morning meetings at the end of last year to spend time on different parts of my business and to pray up a little bit of time and just to reevaluate. And I'd started to really notice that that component of what I got out of networking that I loved so much. I was like, I've got to start looking for just getting a little bit of that back in. And I got asked to speak at an event yesterday, and it happened to be a networking style event. It was a lunch in Albert Park and I really loved it, Like I was just thinking about it as you were talking, and I go that, like, that's always been my number one reason for networking. Over all of the years that I've networked, It's been because it fills my up, because I learned from people. We engage. I like the minds of the people that enter the room, and this particular room was really and I said like, I'll be back next month to the next meeting as a guest. So I was there as a speaker this time, and I was like, I'm going to come back because I really enjoyed the energy of the people in this room and they didn't. And it wasn't one of those meetings where everyone rushes off. It was like when I turned up. Weirdly, there was two people I knew from there. One was the person who who asked me if I'd be available, and then there was another person I'd known, But everyone felt familiar and it just like, you know, like I was. I was. I had two and a half hours sleep the night before, I had wicked insomnia, so I was on a very low battery. But it just filled my cup and I loved that.

Yeah, it is so important, Like in the fitness industry. Richard Boyd just wrote a great post on LinkedIn, and he was talking about how he was able to go into an organization and without knowing anything about their data, tell them who their top twenty performing employees were, who are the top ten performing clubs financially on the personal training side, simply because he was able to pull from PT on the net usage reports and there was a shockingly strong correlation between people who were constantly educating themselves and using the site and performance in the workplace. And so when people go to conferences consistently, yes, it shows a commitment to learning and development, to upskilling, but there's also so much more. It is so invigorating, It is energizing. I know people that they're so stressed out, they work really hard, but they felt so super engaged because they would just bridge the gap between one conference and another. They would go like every six weeks and those types of events not only because of the education, but because of the camaraderie and the communication with other attendees. Sometimes the most beneficial part of a conference is the after hours dinners. It's the after hours conversations in the pub because it provides you especially you talk about a personal trainers. A lot of times they are entrepreneurs in a company of one, and then they get together and they get all of those other elements that should be part of every organization's culture.

Yeah, it is so important, Like in the fitness industry. Richard Boyd just wrote a great post on LinkedIn, and he was talking about how he was able to go into an organization and without knowing anything about their data, tell them who their top twenty performing employees were, who are the top ten performing clubs financially on the personal training side, simply because he was able to pull from PT on the net usage reports and there was a shockingly strong correlation between people who were constantly educating themselves and using the site and performance in the workplace. And so when people go to conferences consistently, yes, it shows a commitment to learning and development, to upskilling, but there's also so much more. It is so invigorating, It is energizing. I know people that they're so stressed out, they work really hard, but they felt so super engaged because they would just bridge the gap between one conference and another. They would go like every six weeks and those types of events not only because of the education, but because of the camaraderie and the communication with other attendees. Sometimes the most beneficial part of a conference is the after hours dinners. It's the after hours conversations in the pub because it provides you especially you talk about a personal trainers. A lot of times they are entrepreneurs in a company of one, and then they get together and they get all of those other elements that should be part of every organization's culture.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't even know if I answered your original question, but okay.

I don't even know if I answered your original question, but okay.

I remember what the question was, like, I'm.

I remember what the question was, like, I'm.

An entrepreneur, right so, and I'm burning out and I'm working all these hours, which and by the way, I mean the.

An entrepreneur, right so, and I'm burning out and I'm working all these hours, which and by the way, I mean the.

Total you know what specifically answers that question, because my question was what you know, who leads the leader? How does the leader learn to lead themselves? That environment actually lends itself to the environment almost becomes a bit of a leader and a reflection, I think, because you get to you get that outside perspective, you get other people's perspectives, you get outside of your own bubble for a little bit, and you become part of a team. Even if it's only for two hours two hours, once a month, or once a week or once afore, whenever it is, it causes a little kink in the routine that allows you to step out and go oh, because sometimes I think it's the routine that you just me so busy hopping up and doing the routine that it's hard to step out of the routine to change the routine. The routine's not working, but I'm so busy in the middle of it that i don't know when to do, you know what. It just reminded me of a few years ago. Used to run retreats in Thailand with boxing and take people over there, and there's a we'd do the retreats at Amoytai Gym, but there was also a CrossFit gym nearby, and we'd often go and do a couple of classes a CrossFit and this CrossFit place was crazy. People from all over the world go to this strip in it's in Shallong in Thailand and train, so you're training with these weapons from all over the world, all sorts of athletes. And this particular CrossFit gym has two cross kit CrossFit conditioning classes that specifically have not four beginners. I think one was called death Row and one was called something else equally as tragic, and it had like if you have been on this street for less than two weeks, you're not allowed to do this class. If you're under eighteen, you're not allowed to do this class. The lead into the class, speaking of stress I love this. The lead into the class, the trainer of him telling you what this class was going to be like was like anxiety evoking, and he was like, if you get tapped on the shoulder, you're going to have to pick up the pace because you're not keeping up. If you get cap tapped twice, you're out. You've got We have a fifteen minute warm up outside, which was grueling. He goes, you have until the end of that warm up to go back to the front desk and get your money back once. If you come in and start the workout after that and you choose to leave, you don't get your money back. So it was like this whole build up and I was standing there.