Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - How Craig Ballantyne Became the World’s Most Disciplined Man - 002

Episode Date: July 5, 2017

A farm boy. A party animal. A twenty-something with severe anxiety issues. And then...the world’s most disciplined man? Looking at the earlier stages of Craig's Ballantyne’s life, most people would never guess he’d become the highly disciplined and successful entrepreneur he is today. In this episode, discover how Craig Ballantyne turned his greatest weaknesses into his greatest strengths. Here’s what you’ll discover: 1:18 - What Craig Ballantyne learned from his parents that he still applies to this day. 3:37 - The most painful words Craig Ballantyne ever heard as a young man—and the lesson he took away from them. 6:31 - The inspiring quote Craig Ballantyne heard later which changed his life—both personally and in business. 8:29 - The number 1 issue that stops people from making bold career moves, and how you can avoid falling into this trap. 9:50 - The first thing you must do to gain a deeper understanding of yourself and unlock your absolute fullest potential.

Hey, friends, Pedro Sculian here with another Empire podcast. Have you ever wondered how some people have a burning desire and a massive reason why for the things they do and the businesses they build? Well, today we're talking to my friend Craig Ballantyne, who is the most disciplined man on the planet. And today we're going to dive deep into his life and find out his why. Craig, welcome. Thank you, sir. Yes.

All right, so we're going to kind of take this a little different because many people watching this podcast probably already know you as the person behind early to rise, turbulent training, and of course a prolific speaker on discipline and structure. But let's talk about the Craig who lived on a farm. Let's start there. How old were you when you lived on a farm? I want you to take us to one particular day and how it looked like. Okay, so I grew up on the farm.

You know, it's still in the family today. And so, you know, back 40 years ago, growing up, poor, you know, I didn't know any better, but we didn't have a lot of money. My mom worked a very low-paying job as well. But what I learned from my parents was that they had this incredible work ethic. And they worked very hard and they passed that on to me, and very resilient, very resourceful. And what they showed me was, listen, you got to go out and get it done. And what they also want to teach me is that my mom didn't want me to make the same mistakes

as she did, which was that she quit high school. So they were always looking out for my future. So I think the combination of work hard, plan for the future is what really was ingrained me. like a four-year-old kid kind of wandering around the farm by myself because we couldn't afford child care so they just left me at home all day. So with that said, I'm picturing a giant farm, tractors, right? And you've been very open about sharing how you've suffered with crippling anxiety.

How far back can you remember these anxiety attacks looking back as a kid? I think that I didn't have them until I was about my early 20s, but I was always introverted, always thinking about the things that would come out of my mouth before I said them. That is a learnable skill and you can get better at that. You can get better at speaking and conversations. So it's not anything that anybody can use it as an excuse in life. But I always remember just being happy to be on my own and whether that was the fact that I had no other choice because we lived on the farm away from other people and we didn't

have cable. We had three television channels and they all generally had crappy Canadian broadcasting on them. So there wasn't much to watch so I had to entertain. myself and so I became comfortable by myself but perhaps when I was around other people my social skills weren't as good as they could have been and so you know when I was in high school we actually we drank a lot and so you know self-medicating with the alcohol which was a bad habit that I got into and that led into I remember when I was in my early 20s I had that feeling of felt like burning

over my my pet or under my pack over my heart and that was a feeling that then I would feel it during my anxiety tax years and years later So it was slowly coming up, but I didn't have the first real anxiety attack until I was about 25 years old. Gotcha. But looking back, you do see how there was hints of it. Absolutely. Absolutely. So let's stay in that era there for a moment, that high school and younger era. Can you just kind of take us a little deeper into your life, maybe one of the worst moments of your time, high school or earlier?

I would say one of the worst things anyone ever said to me was the one of my ex-girlfriend friends said to me, why are you such a bitter guy? And it was really, I mean, it hit me because, I mean, I knew she was right, which was embarrassing and the fact that other people recognized it was also embarrassing. And then combine that with the fact I was a really angry high school student. Not that I would get in fights or anything, and I acted normal at school, but on the sports field, I would yell at my teammates and I would, you know, if we got scored on or if we lost, and these guys were like my best friends.

And I'm still, I don't know how they put up with it. me but they were really they did they just like oh there he's just yelling again just ignore them and so the combination of the anger and the bitterness actually drove me to self-improvement because I would go to the library when I was 16 or 17 years old looking for a book how to not be so angry and that started me down the personal development stuff it's like okay listen you can you can take one of two paths in life you can take the easy way out stay drinking stay angry you know work a eight to sorry seven o'clock to three o'clock was the shift at the

factory where my mom worked or you can go on this path of self-improvement never-ending self-improvement and be able to step and step up in front of people like I do today and say look at all the things I screwed up doesn't matter where you're starting you can improve as well and in order to improve I learn a lot of lessons that I can pass on so I always say and I'd say in my workshops that I am put here blessed with all the flaws so that it can help people overcome them. So, bitterness, anger.

What a wonderful guy. I'm Mr. Sunshine. Mr. Sunshine. But truly, bitterness, anger, and being introverted, yet I've seen you evolve over the last decade as we've been friends and business partners. You are the most relent. You are like in this relentless pursuit of evolution. Where does this drive come from?

I think it's because, as Brad Peelan likes to say, I think you're bipolar. or schizophrenic because, you know, at the same time as I had those negative things, I also knew that I was capable of being like just the greatest guy in the world. I really believe that. And so it's not natural for me, but I know that I can stand up on stage in front of 40,000 people and, you know, speak like Joel Austin or somebody and just have that same impact. I know that I can do it and I'm just, it's taking me a little bit longer to get there, but I know deep in my heart, there's always that person that cares so much.

Oh, you know, since day one, I've always cared about people. But it's, it just depends on who's going to show up that day as to how I outwardly portray my caring for people. You know, if I'm tired, too much caffeine, hung over, I would be very short and curt with people and it would hurt them. And then I realized, in fact, one of the quotes that has changed my life. And, you know, you hear that all the time, oh, that quote changed my life. Now, this quote really did change my life. Maya Angelou said, people will forget what you said. people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

And I was just like, I have experienced that many times. And so now, even when I go in an elevator, I don't look at my phone in the elevator, I look when the door is open, as awkward as this is, as much as I don't want to do this, doesn't matter who's coming in. Good morning, how are you? And I just start the conversation like that, and we ride pleasantly down to the bottom. But I don't even pull the phone out even if they do. I just stand there. And because I just want to make people feel good, whether it's the,

interaction at Starbucks or person in the elevator or coaching client. All right. So you're doing things that most people would just find difficult. Now, if you're an extrovert, you wouldn't find what he just said difficult. But you are doing things that are way out of your comfort zone and you're forcing yourself to constantly evolve at this alarming rate. In fact, I remember a couple years ago, I took the stage of Fitness Business Summit and I said, I don't know any one person who steps more outside of his comfort zone than Craig Ballantyne

Because you were the guy that we would walk into an elevator and you would literally turn, face the corner, and just go into your phone, right, when there was someone else in the elevator. And today you're greeting people with a smile and starting that dialogue and conversation. And that is a true testament to your evolution. And as it turns out, your evolution has led you now to these workshops that you're running, which I believe is part of your true gift while you're on this planet. You've got this unique ability in these workshops because I've had the privilege of sitting in on the very first one you did your perfect life workshops Where you take the people who are in them and through these forms that you have you're able to connect dots for them that they can't see where does this magic come from I think it comes back to okay listen I've had to do all these things that I know that I want to improve in myself So I know the steps that are that are that you can take to do them you know here the first steps that's it most people struggle with they want to do it

They want to change in their life. In fact, there was a survey that I read recently of 2,000 people who wanted to do a career change. And the reason that they didn't make the change is because they didn't know the first step. And so I teach people the first step. It's like, okay, here's everything that matters to you in life, here's all your obstacles, I see what you want to improve, let's focus on the first step. Let's get you that momentum and get you going.

And then it's also just this clarity of vision. So I spend time in meditation, I spend a lot of time in introspection. and self-reflection that, I don't know, like 95% of people don't spend any time thinking about that, being proactive in their lives. And so they're totally reactive and totally struggling. And that's why they have to come to me in the first place is because they're running around like a chicken with their head cut off, because they have too much going on, too much opportunity, too much struggle. And I can just help them. I can clear the path, take the mental clutter out of their head and turn it into mental clarity. And it just is part gift, but also part experience.

Sure. So let's talk about introspection because ever since I've learned to be more introspective from you, I've literally dialed in my life. It's almost like all the stars and moons, everything seems to align in your life because there's no more outside circumstance controlling me. I have direct control of my outcome. How does someone become more introspective? What are the steps?

Well, first thing is to do what Bedros did, which is accept full responsibility for your life, full personal responsibility, and then take what I learned from ancient stories. philosophy, which is control what you can, cope with what you can, and concentrate on what counts. So we control our thoughts, words, and deeds. We don't control whether it's raining. We don't control whether there's traffic. We don't control if our boss or business partner isn't a bad mood. You can't control that. You've got to get over that. You can't control if your spouse is upset. You can't control that, or your kids are acting out of and misbehaving. What you control is how you respond to that. So you can say, okay, listen, I can

can get angry right now, but that will do me no lick of good. Yelling at the child will do no lick of good. I need to deal with this the right way. So that's that level. When you take that responsibility and you accept control, you learn to cope with what you can't control, which are other people's behaviors, and then you concentrate on what counts,

which is focusing internally. You focus on your thoughts, words, and deeds, people and experiences that really matter to you, your future, and you stop worrying about Mr. Jones and how he bought that new Maserati that you don't have. Or Mrs. Jones has those new shoes that you want to get but can't afford. You can get stressed out by that, or you can realize it doesn't matter if she has 20 pairs of the nicest shoes in the world, it's not going to impact my life.

So that is the mindset, the starting point you must have, and then you go and say, okay, now I'm going to spend a little bit of time thinking about my future, myself, my family, what really matters. And when you do that introspection every day and you take a look at yourself, I'd like to say you run the movie of your life every day. And you take a look, okay, Bedros is going to Starbucks at 9 o'clock. He knows he shouldn't get the 10 pumps, a class of sugar in the coffee that he gets. But here he is, he's getting it. Why is he doing that? Why is he doing that?

And so at the end of the day, Bedros can look back and say, okay, tomorrow, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to plan ahead. I'm going to go with somebody. I'm going to say, hey, don't let me get the sugar in there. and that way he improves his life. And that's what he's done. He's made the stars and moon align. It's not that they did, he made them align because he controlled that within himself.

And when you do that, you end up with following this one phrase in life that allows you to get ahead, which is make the right decisions for your right life, right now and always. And when you operate on that, you make the stars and moon align in your life and you become successful. And so where that's concerned, and you're constantly making the stars and moon align in your life,

and I want to give people a little peek into your life, because I don't know any one person, truly, who evolves as quickly as you do, Kaizen, as you live Kaizen, what is next in your life? What is the area that you are looking to improve on in the next 12 months now? Definitely there's two areas, and one is family. So family, 41 years old, so I want to get myself together and have that amazing family that you do very, very much. impressed by my friend Baderos here. Also the other gentleman that I hang around with Matt Smith and Joel Marion, they have great family lives. Family is very important to me so I'm focusing on that and then I'm focusing on the

workshop so I want to make sure that I'm going out and taking this gift that I have to as many people as possible helping them with that and then taking it to businesses as well where we help get the team aligned with the vision of the company so I know that these are the two most important things right now and it's very very that I've had to go through a journey of my own in the last 10 years, trying different businesses, being successful in a couple of them. But this is exactly what I was meant to do in pumping up more books on the topic to help people get dialed in. This is fantastic. Craig Ballantyne, thank you so much for spending time with me and our show and letting us take a peek into your life. This has been another Empire podcast episode with Craig Ballantyne.