Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Are You Holding Your Business Back? - 056

Episode Date: July 18, 2018

It took 7 red bulls, 2 severe panic attacks, and a couple trips to the hospital for Craig Ballantyne to turn his wild life around. In this episode, Bedros Keuilian talks to Craig about his transformation from loose cannon to productivity guru, and how you can turn the corner yourself. They also discuss how to give your team members the freedom they need to work at a high level. Watch or listen now to discover why, in any industry, the greats find a way to reinvent themselves. “Turn your adversities into your biggest superpowers.” - Bedros Keuilian Here’s what you’ll discover: 2:04 - Why good role models are a must if you want to grow as an entrepreneur. 7:55 - How to recognize and eradicate anxiety from your life. 15:41 - How to reinvent yourself and become the entrepreneur others want to copy. 22:55 - Why you need to build your empire around your entrepreneurial strengths. 31:12 - The one thing entrepreneurs should NEVER say. “You must be accountable to someone you deeply do not want to disappoint.” - Craig Ballantyne

And that was the lowest point of my life. It was a Monday in May of 2006. And I was training a 5'3-obese, 310-pound lawyer stressed out. He's 55 years old, and I say to him, Richard. And Richard was a real nice guy. I say, I need you to take me to the hospital. Hey, friends, welcome to another episode of Inside Look on the Empire podcast. And today we have the great Craig Ballanty.

And we are going to take a deep dive into this man's life because he's had a massive impact on my life. Craigie, welcome to him. your show. Oh, it's nice to be here. All right. Hey, so we've known each other for about 10 years. Yeah. And I'm going to tell an interesting story. Sure. If you don't mind. And it involves our friend Sean Hatzel, who I believe is going to be coming out here to the Empire. Yeah, he'll be at the Empire. Right? And so, gosh, about nine, ten years ago, Craig and I were at a Frank Kern event.

2011. When you were training for the marathon. Yes. Gosh, you have a hell of a memory. 11, we're at a Frank Kern event in San Diego. By the way, a big shout out to Frank Kern and Natalia. And during the break, one of the breaks of his seminar, this guy, fitness guy, comes up to me. He goes, hey, my name is Sean Hatzel, and nice to meet you. And I said, oh, hey, good to meet you.

I'm out here with Craig Ballant. He goes, Craig Valentine, I'm a big fan. I said, great, why don't you come have lunch with us? And you and I were walking down the sidewalk. And I was in the middle. Sean was to my left. You were on my right. And Sean just kind of crosses over me and says, hey, Craig, how long?

are you and you your answer was something like none of your business or I don't want to talk about that, right? Now that was Craig 1.0 and I share this here with everyone. There's like zero point oh. Yeah, because there was a time that I would actually jokingly call you crusty and yeah right but but here you've evolved so much and you're making such a big impact in people's lives and so I'm curious first off at what point did you make the conscious decision that I need to start working on myself? I would say that I always knew it's almost like you remember when you're a kid and you watch like Bugs Bunny and there'd be like the devil on the shoulder and the angel on the other side. I always knew that there was the angel on one side, but I was more of the devil. I was more of the bad,

you know, took the path of least resistance. I could have been better. And I always knew, like, I could have been better today. And it was just over time and overtime and overtime and you know, definitely meeting you and hanging around you and Jason Faruja, Joel Marion and my business partner and dear friend Matt Smith. Just being more, like having a big brothers in my life, I think was really, really important to make me play up a level life. So we would do the masterminds. And same with when I did masterminds with Matt Smith. I always told the story.

And it was actually Rick Mulready, a great guy who was a Facebook expert down in San Diego. I gave the greatest advice in the world to Rick. But I said it like a dick. And I know that all Rick heard was, wow, this guy's a dick. Even though he didn't even, like it was really literally million dollar advice. And I remember Matt looking over and just going, you can't do that. you know and you did that to me several times I called the Armenian death stare you don't want to get that it was so it was through that and you know it's like it's embarrassing

like people always say man here's so much nicer than you were back then and I I mean I appreciate it and I take it as a compliment but I also am like dang I really really screwed up and missed out but you know I don't yeah we're not going to dwell on that yeah we're not going to dwell on that but I think it was over time and and there was I don't think there was one specific moment it was just I always knew I could do better. And then having you guys in my life really accelerated that because you set that higher bar, which is really important to have coaches who set the higher bar for me. Yeah, coaches and friends who can set a higher standard of expectation of self.

Yeah. And then the phrase that I just started using about last fall was, it clicked on me that you must be accountable, not just to anybody, because accountability is good. I call that the secret ingredient to success. But I've had coaches where I only did about 80% of the work. You know, like, Janik, Silver is awesome, awesome dude. I love the guy. But if he was disappointed in me, I wouldn't lose any sleep on it. So I say now, you must be accountable to somebody that you deeply do not want to disappoint. If you are accountable to somebody that you deeply do not want to disappoint, you will move mountains to play up to their level.

And again, it's this big brother relationship that I have with you where it's like, I will never disappoint you in any way, anyway. And so that just makes me do everything way outside the comfort zone. And so people today see the disciplined and almost like this perfectly structured man, Craig Ballantyme. But what they probably don't know is the party addict, alcohol addict, drug addict, and kid who was raised by a father, a mom and dad, but specifically had a father who was, for all intents of purposes, emotionally abusive. Yeah. And so why don't you tell us who that Craig 1.0 was because I think it's important for people who think that, but yeah, but there's no hope for me to see that, holy smokes, this guy did a complete 180. Yeah, and I think that that's why I love the Big Brother thing so much because I definitely didn't have a good role model as a father. Now, I still love the guy, and I miss him dearly. He's been passed away for 10 years. But, you know, there was no role modeling in relationships with women.

I remember when I was like 10 years old and I saw my friends' parents hold hands. And I was like my mind couldn't even comprehend not only the fact they were holding hands and they were adults, but the fact that they were actually talking and getting along really well, my parents never did. And so, I mean, that is, you know, it's a crisis in society today. For a young man to not have a role model in their life, that is why I think we have. a lot of problems. And it's why I had a lot of problems. My father also drank too much. And therefore, drinking was, first of all, normal. But second of all, it was an easy way for me to deal with my lack in life. So, you know, lacking social skills. Like, I could go out and get tons of girls

if I had six beers in me. I couldn't get tons of girls if I didn't have six beers in me. And so that then became an emotional crutch that then I used as an excuse through high school. I mean, because we start drinking early in Canada. I mean, that's what you do in small towns. You play hockey and you drink beer, sometimes in the other order. Tell our friends how early you started drinking beer. I started drinking beer when I was 14, for sure. That's nuts.

Yeah. I remember, like, you know, ninth grade, you know, like once or twice, and then 10th grade, like, every weekend. That's my son in two years. I know, so it will not happen. But, I mean, it's just, it was the norm. And, you know, that then became the norm for me until I was 30, which is, you know, it's, that's one.

I'm really where I kicked myself. I mean, I could have done so much more. And it was very hypocritical. And I actually made an Instagram video about this the other day that I actually called myself a fraud because I was, for all intensive purposes, a fraud in the way that I behaved. Six days a week, I was that perfect guy,

health-oriented, working out, doing all the great things. And then Saturday night from 4 p.m. till 4 a.m., sometimes later, be drinking straight through from pub to nightclub, you know, so on and so forth. And I did that until I was 30 years old. And I think that misalignment, in addition to the alcohol, in addition to the caffeine, in addition to not sleeping enough, addition to working too much, all of that caught up with me. And, you know, karma caught up with me.

And I had the anxiety attacks when I was 29 to 30. Let's actually talk about that. But because unbeknownst to you, you were literally doing R&D research and development for your next book that's coming up. But before we talk about the book, tell our friends about the anxiety attack that you had and the circumstances that you have to go into the hospital. Yeah, I actually went to the hospital twice, the emergency room twice. The first time was on New Year's Day, 2006. And so I had gone out and just drank a ton of vodka Red Bulls.

I had drank at least seven cans of Red Bull that night. And I remember waking up the next day at like 11 o'clock and got in the shower. And as soon as I got out of the shower, the heart rate was pounding. So, you know, my sympathetic nervous system was going crazy. I was dehydrated and basically spent that day pacing back and forth, with a tiny 400 square foot apartment in downtown Toronto, in the club district, you know, where I was living and just pacing back and forth.

I remember texting my buddy who was out with the night before. I said, I think I'm going down here, man. And he was like a crazy party or so he's like, no, man, come out again tonight. And I was like, no. So eventually 11 o'clock that night, I walked outside. I gave up. I basically no mass. I'm on my knees here.

I'm giving up. Mercy, please. And so I walk outside. As soon as I walked outside, I felt 10, 20% better. So fresh air. So that's one of the tips I give people. You have to get outside. You have to get outside of your own head, first of all, quit letting the wheel spin, but also physically get outside. So I go outside, get in a cab, I start talking to cab driver, 10% better just talking to somebody instead of pacing in a room. Then I get to the emergency room. I walk in, I think it was Toronto General Hospital. I walk in, it's empty, but the guy, the intake guy, I'm not sure what you call that guy. He's the separate. receptionist person, looks at me like, you're an idiot, I don't know what you're doing here, get out of here, I don't want to talk to you. Like that's the look on his face, he's about my age.

I walk up to him, I say, I think I'm having a heart attack and his demeanor totally changed and rush me to the back. And so I always say to people, if you have like a sprained ankle and it's a busy emergency room, just tell them you're having a heart attack. They'll take you right into the back. Right away, right away. So I get in the back and this nurse comes in, she's like petting my stomach and rubbing my head and human touch, massive decrease in the anxiety.

So they actually let me go like an hour and a half later because there's nothing to keep you for. And I just drank almost a Red Bull and whatever. And they probably see this all the time because I've heard about it from so many other people, entrepreneurs, people at party all the time, texting an email and me saying, hey, I know what you explained on stage there the other time. I'm going through it now. So I leave there. And for the next four days, I kind of take care of myself.

I do a little bit of yoga. And then after that, I'm back to the old bad habits. and then it happens again to me a few months later. And then that's when I suffered through what I call a six-week heart attack, literally 24 hours a day, seven days a week, tingling from the top of my head, down to the end of my fingertips, tight chest, elevated heart rate, couldn't breathe properly, couldn't think properly. You know, it's like 60% of the time.

Like, that's the best you could focus with 60% of your capacity. It could barely work out. And, you know, I'd have a conversation with somebody and they'd say, I'm stressed, and then that would make me more stressed. And so after six weeks of that, I could sleep from a lot. 11 p.m. till 3 a.m. and then it'd wake me up. And I was like, okay, again, I quit. And that was the lowest point of my life. It was a Monday in May of 2006. And I was training a 5'3-obese, 310-pound lawyer stressed out. He's 55 years old. And I say to him, Richard, and Richard is a real nice guy.

I say, I need you to take me to the hospital. And now if you walked into that gym and that day, and you said, which one of these two people needs to go to the hospital? The 29-year-old guy who's fit or the 55-year-old guy who's obese, you think he'd be a lawyer. But no, I'm asking him. And he looked at me like I had not just two heads, but like nine heads. He just totally didn't understand it. And this is where I came up with the analogy that anxiety is a black box. It's a black box that you can't explain to somebody else. So, Pedro, I'm having an anxiety attack right now. You've had one. So, you know, you would go, what do you mean? You look totally normal. Now, if I said you have a broken arm, you'd be like, I can see that. I get it, yes. But not

with the anxiety. Not only can you not explain it to somebody else, you can't explain it to yourself. Because you're like, why would I feel this way? Why would I feel this way for six weeks straight? You know, I didn't drink yesterday. I shouldn't feel like that bad. I didn't have any caffeine today. Why should I feel like this? And it's because your sympathetic nervous system is just going insane. So I get to the emergency room. This time it's a Monday morning, so it's busy. And he took me to St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, which is where they take all the trauma cases. So they're like, you go sit over there, buddy. I don't care if you're having heart attack. Just go sit over there because you're not. And so they do give me a chest x-ray and then they gave me a heart rate monitor and they said,

come back in 24 hours, drop it off. And then when I dropped it off, they said, okay, we'll call you in 24 hours if there's anything wrong with you. And when, you know, I was like watching the clock, right? And as soon as the 24 hours turned over, it was like half the weight of the world is off me. Same day, I bought a book called Panic Away, an e-book on ClickBank. which is where I was selling all my stuff at the time. Panicaway.com by a guy named Barry McDonough over in Ireland, and I get to the chapter two. And the first five words of chapter two say,

there's nothing wrong with you. And I shut it down. And I'm totally cured. And I'm like, I'm too busy for this anxiety anyways. And that was actually went through my head. I'm too busy for this anxiety. Good. Stop right there for a minute. So chapter two, the first five words, there's nothing wrong with you.

And you're like, there's nothing wrong with me. I mean, it was an instant pivot. Yes, what happened in your head. Because of the two things. Because I knew that day I was told there was nothing physically wrong with me. So no longer can my hypocondriac mind, because I did a master's degree in exercise physiology. So I know all the stuff about how the heart works and the sympathetic nervous system and all this stuff.

I know how it works and I know what you're supposed to feel like when you're having a heart attack. So I knew all that and then would get into my head and my wheels would spin worse. So knowing that combined with there's nothing wrong with you, kind of gave me that permission like, okay, what I felt was, not only I did feel like, hey, you know what, I am really busy and I don't have time for this stuff, but I also thought this is something that I can fix. This is something that I can fix through better behavior, through structure, through boundaries, taking care of myself, which sounds stupid. So you got this sense of control?

I did. And I also, probably like maybe one other factor was I had to learn how to breathe. I had to learn how to breathe again. Here I know, I'm 30 years old. I should be a champion breather, right? But what most people do, especially those of us that sit in front of a computer or that have bad posture, is we breathe from our upper chest. And so when you breathe from your upper chest, you can't take a deep breath and you take these short shallow breaths, which is good for when you're trying to get jacked up. But what it does is it decreases the amount of or increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood.

And that causes the release of adrenaline. Adrenaline stimulates a sympathetic nervous system. And so you're on this vicious cycle. So I was doing yoga, meditation, Tai Chi and Kigong. And I hated all of them, but they taught me how to breathe properly. So the combination of those factors allowed me to take back control of my mind and my nervous system so that I overcame the anxiety. And I'd say every three months for the next year, it would start to creep back in. And I was able to fight it on.

It was like literally, you know, Friday afternoon, I felt it. I was fighting it till Sunday and then somehow it went away. And now you could load me up on probably three Red Bulls and I'd be totally cool. Because you've got the tools that deal with it. Yeah, because I understand what it is. I know. And you're right, I have the tools to deal with it. And so where this is concerned, you know, as I met you around 2009, 2010.

Yeah. 2009, specifically. Fast forward five more years, and your business is really starting to take off at this point. Yeah. What creates this shift in your mindset that, okay, your past your anxieties, you're starting to build better habits and rituals, right? But how does your business take off so quickly? It's letting go. It was letting go.

So, you know, before that, up until that point, you know, in 2006, I did everything myself. By 2010, I had assistance, but it was still top down. And then around 2012 is when I started letting go, letting go of like, hey, listen, I'm not going to tell you what to do. I was not a good leader at that point, but I was still a little bit more open to other people driving some stuff. And so we got a copywriter came in, and he just wrote a sales letter. He took the stuff that I could do, the great programs. I reinvented myself in terms of the fitness base because before that it was turbulence training. In 2012, I went all body weight stuff.

And so I had to reinvent myself because all these young guys were coming in. And so that was a turning point for me because I was like, oh, do not want to reinvent myself. I just want to keep coasting on this. But I was like, okay, you got to man up. And I didn't say man up. But I didn't steal that from you. But I did man up and I reinvented myself. And I remember thinking, now I understand what they say when they say Madonna.

reinvented herself again. Because I never understood. Like Madonna's Madonna. Like she's just totally dominated. But no, she did have to reinvent. She reinvented her music, her image, her look. And I'm like, oh, man, I'm getting old because now I'm having to reinvent myself. So that was a big change. But then also, I reinvented the programs, but then I gave more freedom and liberty to people within my team. And this one young guy, he just got married last week, and I gave him a gold coin, like a $1,300 gold coin for his wedding present because, I mean, I still owe him, like, way more money because he wrote a sales letter that allowed us to sell hundreds of thousands of copies of a new program.

And also, he helped me keep my reputation as the godfather because now I was like, okay, I've reinvented myself. And, you know, now people are coming back to me for advice and stuff like that. So I really owed that young man, a debt of gratitude, because I guess I gave him the freeway, the leeway to go and perform at his highest level, much like you do with your team members. You give them that guidance and then the freedom to go and be the best.

So that was a huge shift for us. Why do you think you were able to all of a sudden start trusting others in your business? I mean, that's like pretty intimate stuff. That's your money. That's your livelihood. Yeah, I think it was because of the environmental exposure to other people.

I would see you do it. I would see my business partner, Matt Smith, do it. And I think, you know, Joel Marion is one of the most generous guys that we know. And, you know, you mentioned Sean Hazzle, before. I remember Joel, like, just let Sean Hadsell come down and spend two full days working beside Joel to learn everything he knew. And also then all the affiliate parties that Joel would have. He had the biggest parties with over 100 people there and he was just

giving so freely. He would take people on these affiliate trips. He was just so giving and so generous. And I was such a cynical, skeptical jerk that I was like, there's got to be something. You know, he's doing this for a reason. But he's not. He's just so generous and so giving. And then you being involved in Toys for Tots and, you know, your commitment to Shriners and Matt driving the Toys for Tots thing and the generosity that he has with friends. And it was that, and there's a couple other people in my life who were just like super generous that made me realize, like, hey, you know, not everybody's bitter and cynical and jealous like my father was. You know, he had a lot of those negative, negative emotions and characteristics that held them back. He would

I tell this story a lot in my workshops that, you know, my father would have this pattern of, he's got a new best buddy. And this new best buddies over every day. And then all of a sudden, like, after three months, it was almost like clockwork every three months. New best buddy's gone. I don't know if he's buried out behind the barn or something, right? But new best buddy's gone. What would happen?

I think he just became so bitter and envious and jealous of the person that he probably said something stupid and got in a fight. with the guy and told the guy to F off and never come back and he would just go find somebody else to hang around with. So do you think you picked up some of those habits? That's where the jealousy and stuff would come back? Yeah, I definitely think I picked up that distrust of people, but also there was probably distrust, you know, between he and I. Sure. Yeah. And so, you know, he yelled at me a lot. Never hit me, fortunately. He was never physically abusive man. But very, very angry. When I would come home from school, when I, in grade school, you would come home and you'd never know which guy was going to be waiting there for you.

You know, the guy who's going to be yelling at you, the guy who's going to be so, so drunk, he's, you know, passed out in his workshop, the guy who just doesn't want anything to do with you, the guy who, you know, wants to go and do something crazy. Because, I mean, that guy was like, he was, he was like borderline crazy. I mean, he would just do stuff. Whenever he saw, I'd like to say, whenever he saw a keep out sign, all he saw was, come on in, come on to the other side of the chain.

Like, you know, we would go on family vacation. And I remember him hopping over a chain fence that said keep out because he's like, I want to go see what's in here. Yeah. So he was like a risk taker in a way, which is kind of funny. But, you know, he also got three driving while impaireds, fought the cops on one of them. And it's just a real embarrassment to my mother and to my family. And just he never learned. And so when, you know, one of the things that we did in one of the inside looks in the Empire podcast, when I interviewed Ed Milet,

Ed might let's father stop drinking at 15. And that scrambles my brain because I don't understand how anyone can stop drinking. And so I asked, you know, Ed and I spent a good amount of time on that. And Ed said, well, nobody's ever asked me that before. But I guess the only type of person who would ever ask that question is somebody who saw that there was no hope. I mean, there was never any hope of my father quitting drinking from when he started, which I think it got bad around when I was five up until when he passed away. What did you ask, Ed?

I said, because he glossed over it. He mentioned that in the interview with you. And he said, you know, my father stopped drinking at age 15. As in when Ed was 15. Yeah, when Ed was 15, that's when his father stopped drinking. And I guess everybody else just goes, oh, okay, because they think that that's something normal. But anybody who knows anybody who's an addict, you don't just stop. You don't just stop.

I mean, people are around you are begging and pleading for you to stop. You don't just stop. So how did he stop? And Ed just told this story, but I guess one day he just pulled over and his father just said, this is it. I'm going to stop drinking. And he committed to it. And Ed's father has gone to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for over 30 years, four times a week and doesn't say, I'm curative drinking alcohol. He goes four times a week at age 75 or 80. He's committed. Yeah.

He's committed. And so speaking of reinventing, and I don't think I've, I mean, I've known you for a long time and these are stories that I didn't even know. But speaking of reinventing, there's another reinvention that took place where you went from the fitness guy to the personal development life structure guy and now you're running these perfect day workshops. I mean, to be able to lead people through getting, having this fuzzy vision of how they want their life to look to at the end of one day, because I've gone through it at the end of one day for us to be so clear on what we want our financial life, our personal life.

or health life to look. How did you shift gears and reinvent yourself into this guy? Well, that had been going on for a long time. So in 2007, I had my first online business seminar. So Yonick Silver encouraged me to go and do it. Young Vinny D. was at it. Mike Geary was at it. You know, some really great people at it. That was 2007. I started that. And I started my own mastermind at that time, but I was 1.0. And so, you know, people would come to these meetings and I might give them great advice, but, you know, there wasn't that love felt by them. And so, you know, And so it never really took off that great. And then fortunately, you know, you and I met each other.

So I was doing it. I was doing some phone coaching like Isabel Doles Rios was, you know, it's been a longtime client. She did phone coaching with me in like 2009, 2010. John Raleigh did phone coaching with me. So I was always practicing this stuff. I was building the systems. I just wasn't working with as many people.

And then along the way, I was also writing the book, getting a lot of help from Matt Smith to like figure out, I've got all this stuff to say. What should I say it? How do I organize it? He and I had some great dinners, and he gave me so much great advice. And so along the way, I was chipping away at it. And at the same time, I was, you know, after the reinvention of the fitness industry,

even a reinvention of the fitness industry only lasts so long. And it wasn't, I liked it. I didn't love it. And so I was always kind of looking for, like, how can I get out of here? And it wasn't really teaching people online marketing because I'm just not the kind of guy who will go and do a deep dive into funnels. I don't care about that stuff as much. And so I was like trying to figure out how I could find my way in the world to do what I'm good at, when I'm really gifted at.

And recently, I was up at Randy Garns Place at Skipio, and they, for all their guest speakers, they make you take the Strength Finders test. And Matt had always told me to take it, but I never took it. So I did finally. And I am off the charts for futuristic, vision, strategic, execution, and one other thing. Probably looks. Probably good looking. Right? Yes.

And so I was like, I thought everybody thought like this. I thought everybody was planned out to knowing exactly what they're doing in three weeks from now on Friday at three o'clock. Like, I know. And I thought everybody was like that. So I spend like all the time in my head. I'm thinking almost always about the future. So combining all of that, it allows me to come along and then help somebody like you who's like, I got a ton of stuff to do right now, Craig. I don't know what I'm doing in three weeks on Friday in the afternoon.

Plus, the one wild card that I have in that is all the flaws. So I've had all these flaws that I've been trying to fix for over 25 years. So I remember age 17, age 18, going to the library, the Stratford Public Library, and going in and looking up a book on how to stop being so angry. Because I was the worst loser in sports. I would yell at all my friends, probably because my father, yelled at me, so I thought yelling at people was, that's how you communicate. That's not how you communicate. So for 25 years, working on personal development, naturally gifted at vision and strategy,

loving that, loving helping people, I call myself the chess master. I can move Bedros on the board of life to the winning position. I just love it. I love the coaching and accountability that I do with people now. And when you combine all of those things, this is it. This is what I'm going to do. You know, somebody asked me, what's your exit strategy for your business? I'm like, death? Because, you know, because this is what I'm doing until I die, because even if you said you can't work, no, you're not allowed to take money anymore, I would do it. It's funny that you took your biggest adversities in life,

and they became your superpowers and they serve as an advantage now to be able to draw on those experiences and go, ah, Bezos was talking about that, or Isabel has that issue. here's how I can move him or her through the chess game of life. Yeah, it's because I've had to go and fix all these things, so I figured out, here's how to fix things fastest. Here's the feedback loop that you need to follow. Here are the five pillars.

Really, that's why we're paying you. Like, we're paying you for speed and outcome, right? Absolutely. And so you just figure, like, I figured out how to get through the maze faster than everybody else. I'm going to show you how to do the same thing. Makes total sense. So now you're doing this, and of course your first book was the perfect day formula,

and your new book that's coming out, When is it coming out? In November. In November. Yeah, I'm going to give away copies at my retreat in November. Perfect. Perfect. And am I still coming to that?

Yeah, you're speaking on the second day in the afternoon, baby. Wonderful. I just needed a little edification, so I asked for it right there. Edification cup running low. No, but you're going to give away copies in November. And the book is all about anxiety. And society today suffers, at least we hear society suffering more from anxiety than never before. Why is that?

It's because, well, first of all, I think that it's diagnosed more. You know, people are more open about it. So 30 years ago, you had anxiety. You're not going to show that weakness, right? Right. So first of all, there's that. Second of all, social media has got to have something to do with it. Third, you know, the comparison syndrome.

That's what I call the first world problem, the number one cause of friction in most people's lives. Mostly, though, is because we're misaligned. So I was misaligned. I was saying one thing. I'm Craig Ballantyne, men's health fitness expert. I was making the videos. I was training people. Oh, yeah, I'm going to go in binge drink every Friday or every Saturday, every Friday or every Saturday.

And, you know, you can't hide that. It's like the preacher, stooping the waitress. You're not getting away with that forever. So it's a values misalignment. Yes, absolutely. So with values, goals and actions are misaligned, that causes internal stress. Sure. You know, it's like, oh, I want to write a book and you never get around to write,

and it causes internal stress. So we've got internal stress. We have all this stimulus in our world. Caffeine, not enough sleep, all these choices, all these electronics, hyper sympathetic nervous system response. We don't know how to breathe properly. We aren't coping properly. There's a million factors. And that's why it's become so prevalent today from, I mean, it's really, really bad in teenagers.

It's really terrible in America. 40 million Americans, so more than 10% of the population. and it's probably just going to start to get worse. So the Craig Ballantyne that I met and the Craig Ballantan that you've become, who stands here next to me right now, running the Empire podcast and running the Empire Mastermind with me, you're such a joy to be around, honestly. I loved you then, but I love you now. What's missing in this Craig's life?

Well, I think it's what you have in your life that I look up to more than ever now, which is that partner and that support. So I loved it when you were running fitness business summit. I'd go down there. I'd see you behind the scenes with Diana. And it'd be Diana and Badros against the world. Diana and Badros against the world. And seeing that true partnership is very inspirational to me.

Seeing Joel and Lisa's true partnership is very inspirational to me. So I think that's what's missing. That's like the last little piece of the jigsaw puzzle. And then it'll just be exactly as advertised, perfect life. Well, I'll tell you what. as here's a call to action to all of our listeners and viewers of the Empire podcast are if you know of someone what is the perfect Mrs. Craig Valentine look like because if we know of someone we should probably make an introduction. The girl next door I always say like Buffy the Vampire Slayer in her

heydays. Okay. Sarah Michelle or Geller type. Absolutely. All right so guys and gals if you know of someone the Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island. Okay. I actually had that. the house for Marianne more than Ginger, believe it or not. Yeah, I did too. So if you know of that girl, go ahead and do a DM introduction. But honestly, Craig, you have evolved so much, man. And what is it that we can do to help you and serve you in your mission? Oh, man, just, you know, what matters most to me is helping people transform.

So being open to it, asking for help. And I was one of the things. So when I'm coaching my clients, I have 10 questions that I give them every week. And the last question is, who do you need help from? And for some reason, the theme of everybody's answers was, I don't need help from anyone this week. Bull. Bull. That's the, I always say there's no wrong answers to any questions in my workshops.

There's no wrong answers to any questions in the accountability. And then I realize there is one wrong answer. When you say, I don't need help from anybody, that's when I know you need help from somebody. So reach out, get help from somebody in all areas of your life. You've talked about how you've gotten help. I've talked about how I've gotten help. You've got to go and get help. You've got to go and get that accountability from somebody that you deeply do not want to disappoint.

And that's all that matters is for you to be at your full potential, for you to live your best life, and for that is to be open to it. Amen. Craig Ballanty, thank you for joining us on this episode of The Inside Look on The Empire Podcast. Maybe I'll come back. Thank you so much for joining us for another amazing episode of the Empire podcast. Now, the greatest compliment that you can give to us is liking, loving, and sharing this episode with all of your friends. So please go to iTunes and give us a five-star rating and then share it online and social media with everyone that you know.

And make sure to tag us because we love hearing from Empire listeners. And if you own a business that's doing half a million dollars or more in annual revenues and you know it's got massive potential, and you like myself and Craig Ballantine to help you scale it by 5x, 10x, and 20x in the shortest amount of time possible, then you might be a great candidate for the Empire Mastermind program that we have. To learn more about the Empire Mastermind program, go to bedroskulian.com, forward slash empire.