Business Innovators Radio - Ep. #29 – Travis Bell – The Big Success Podcast with Brad Sugars

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Big Success Podcast, cutting edge conversations on business and personal success, as well as how to level up. Here's your host, number one business coach in the world, Brad Shogers. Today on the Big Success podcast, I've got the bucket list guy, Trav Bell. Now, not only is he a bucket list expert, build his own personal training business. In fact, if you go right back, and some of the things he teaches us about reverse bucket list today, which is going to show you a whole different side of gratitude. And I really think you'll enjoy that part for it. But as a kid, he wrote his to-do before I die list.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Like, okay, that's an interesting thing for a kid to do. But Travis is going to take us through that. Not only that, he takes us through his whole bucket list formula, the 12-step formula for creating your bucket list of not just the big travel things, but all of the other stuff. So he's here. He's written the book on it. He's taught everyone about it.

Starting point is 00:00:55 He's the bucket list guy. Travis Bell, we're going to talk about success. So Travis Bell, I have to ask, as a bucketless guy, you know, you're the bucketless guy, what is success to you? How do you define success? Good, good question. And I'm going to, you know me, I love fleshing things out in the story. I finished a hike with my dad about 10 years ago. and we were staying at a not so good hotel at the end of that hike in the middle of kind of lower Hobart,

Starting point is 00:01:32 really dodgy kind of area. They picked it, I didn't. And on the back of the Dunny door, for the non-Australians, that's the door, yes. That is, or the banio is,

Starting point is 00:01:49 there was a quote by Bob Dylan, written, a man is a success when he wakes up in the morning and goes to bed at night and does what he wants to in between. And I went, huh, and it has stayed with me. It's in my book. I've talked about it at length. And I think success for me is doing what you want, with whom you want, having the freedom of choice, and, yeah, being happy in the process, having purpose.

Starting point is 00:02:22 It's having purpose, meaning and choice in the process. Okay, take that down just a little bit, okay? Let's take a look at that. Firstly, did that definition change over time, or is that always been your thing? My definition has changed by hanging around with people like you, and which is, you know, a success, success to me, sure, is choice, but also when you get exposed to other people playing life at a whole other level,

Starting point is 00:03:04 very different to what you grew up with, then your perception of success expands. And I think, you know, for me, I've, as you know, I've always wanting to get around other people that are big thinkers. And as a result, it's just, you know, the mind does not go back to that original, how it originally was before that exposure to other people living life a lot more grander, a lot more with a lot more expansive, a lot more choice. So for me, I'm always putting myself in environments and around big thinkers that allow me to expand

Starting point is 00:03:41 and keep doing the things that I love in the process, though. You know, everything you've done in your life, you've been sort of pushed to success levels. When do you think you chose success in life? Was it as a kid? Was it gradual? How did you choose success? It's interesting. I never played team sports.

Starting point is 00:04:06 Maybe because I was adopted. I grew up as a competitive athlete doing. surfing and surf life-saving and swimming. And I've always, I've got a tattoo here. If it is to be, it is up to me. So it doesn't say if it is to be, it is up to the team. Unfortunately, there's no I in team. There is me.

Starting point is 00:04:32 So I've always sort of, you know, been self-determined. You know, I've always been motivated. I've always got around influences that I could learn from. I can go on it. I know, Trave, if you go way back, do you think there was a time where you said, I'm choosing success in my life versus average? Yeah. Definitely.

Starting point is 00:04:56 Definitely. I reckon it goes back to seeing my dad, seeing my dad disgruntingly go to work. at like split shift as a warfie, as a fitter and turner by trade, really in the same job from when he was 17 through to retirement, he was in the same job. The last 15 years he did not like it. And I saw him get angrier and angrier and angrier.

Starting point is 00:05:32 He's still angry today about the government and all the rest of it. The big man smashing the small man. And, you know, you know, those kind of. an affair kind of shows and watches the news and just gets more and more angry. Anyway, bless him. But I reckon that that turned me into a business owner. It's like my concept of work growing up is not favorable, not positive. I didn't want to go to, I didn't want to spend the precious years of my life angry

Starting point is 00:06:03 at the world like dad was. And so maybe it's, you know, that force. me to become an entrepreneur, you know, like right out of uni, I chose to be an entrepreneur to, you know, so I got my first personal fitness training client in third year uni and then I started personal training back in the early 90s. And, you know, that one book, The E-Mith by Michael Gerber and all of your stuff as well, you know, that really changed the perception of

Starting point is 00:06:39 of what this, what success was, how to build wealth, how to, how to, you know, do business. And rather than rely on someone else, I wanted to rely on myself. So let's think then, if you look at success, what's your formula for it all? How do you predict success is going to happen? What's your methodology of how success works? Well, I like, you know, it's, it's really an action. It's a doing activity, you know, like, like I will sort myself, you know, having, number one, having a goal.

Starting point is 00:07:24 Like I've been always, you know, right from when I was swimming competitively, I always wrote down goals. And, you know, even to this day, I go and do corporate events and I go into very intelligent groups of people and say, write down your goals. And it's like I've discovered freaking fire, you know, and then I go into another group. I say, right down your bucket list. And it's like I've discovered the wheel. And so people don't do what you and I think.

Starting point is 00:08:04 It's just our way of being. I've always written down goals. I don't understand why people don't. And I'm like, all right, are they medium goal? Are they really stretch goals? And, you know, a goal is only valid if it's a stretch goal. So, all right, well, who do I have to, that's what I want to have. Who do I have to be or who does one have to be in order to achieve that?

Starting point is 00:08:31 Maybe disassociate myself and go, okay, what would Brad do? You know, what would, sorry, who would, who would be the type of person that would achieve a goal like this in no matter, in whatever area of life? And more importantly, what would they do? So it kind of flipped that, you know, B do have. No, no, you're big on that. Sort of have B, do to a certain extent. You know, what's the goal that you want to have?

Starting point is 00:09:00 And then reverse engineering, go, who is that kind of person that wants to have, you know, that could achieve that. And then get around those people. You know, that's an accelerated learning technique. Get around the people that are actually like that and that stuff rubs off. And what do they do on a day-to-day basis in order to close that gap? So when you think about, you know, make the mistakes or the failures in life, how do you use failure to teach success?

Starting point is 00:09:28 How do you learn from that sort of thing? I think it's really important. and I've always done this is, you know, teaching, you know, like learn to teach. You know, if I've learned lessons, I guess I'm an educated by trade and I can't help it. You know, I'm a coach by trade and I can't help it. If I've learned something, whether it be by a book or for my own life or from a, you know, business, I like to be able to impart those lessons not immediately because they're too fresh, at least impart those lessons.

Starting point is 00:10:08 You know, I went through a mental health, you know, mental health battle with depression, albeit mild back in the day, before it became the bucketless guy. And I know that if I'm vulnerable, if I'm authentic to the message, and if I tell stories, that the audience or clients can't hide in my shadows as a result

Starting point is 00:10:30 that really brings them into the light and gets them to address the things that they want to address. So imparting that knowledge, there's a lot of people that learn a lot of stuff in life. And I'm the first to say, don't, whatever you do, don't go through this life and die with the wisdoms trapped within you. You know, get it out of you. Extract the learnings, articulate them in a way to teach them and help others. You know, helping others is one of my highest values along with family and health and all the

Starting point is 00:11:02 rest. But if I'm not helping others, which I saw during COVID, I was like, I'm not helping enough people. You know, I just, it frustrates me. So I love helping people. I love imparting those messages. And that, that gives me a sense of fulfillment. That, that is a success marker for me. If I'm only helping one person or a handful of people on actually not tuning in to why I'm here. Got it. Got it. You're on the big. Success podcast. I'm Brad Sugar's. We'll be back with the bucket list guy, Travis, and we're going to be talking about bucketless and how you build it and what you can do and how you can succeed at living a bucketless life. In 30 minutes a day for 30 days,

Starting point is 00:11:45 30x business will take you through the exact hard-won business principles that Brad sugars has personally developed over the past 30 years as an entrepreneur, investor, and business advisor. Join Brad and his team and 100 other entrepreneurs who want to start building a successful business today. You're back on the big. success podcast. I am Brad Sugar's your host and we're going to chat with the bucket list guy, Trab Bell, around bucket lists. But before we do that, Trap, I want to ask, how does one succeed at the reverse bucket list? Because I love the way you teach people to do that. How do you succeed at doing it? Well, maybe first tell them what it is and then how to succeed it, doing it.

Starting point is 00:12:23 Yeah, everyone knows what a bucket list is. There's, you know, it's all the future things that we, all the things we want to tick off our list before we, we die between now and and into the future before that, you know, used by date. But the reverse bucket list is, I actually do the reverse bucket list with people before the future bucket list to give people a sense of gratitude, you know, to get them to identify all the cool things that they've done in their life as if they were in a bucket list all the way along.

Starting point is 00:12:54 And this, you know, this is a big gratitude exercise. So when people identify all the cool stuff, and to be honest, we live in such a forward-facing world, the next thing, the next goal, the next, you know, and that can create anxiety in people by just piling more. Dude, I'm already busy. And now you're talking about bucket list. It's like, no, no, no.

Starting point is 00:13:17 One of the pills that are positive psychology. One of the pills of positive psychology is gratitude. You know, positive psych, as you know, it's about identifying the strengths, what gives person meaning, purpose, fulfillment, and gratitude. And basically bleeding more of that into their life and into their business life as well, or work life. And therefore, you'll have a quote unquote happy life or a more fulfilled life as a result. And people are too busy trying to fix their weaknesses to balance things out.

Starting point is 00:13:53 Now, positive psych is just like, no, do more of what you're good at, that what floats your boat. How do we succeed in creating, what's the keys to creating a great reverse bucket list? Mate, it's identifying all the things that you've done in your life as if they were in a bucket list all the way along, simple as that.

Starting point is 00:14:13 You ask most people, you know, identify those things and people will sort of start to tap out at about five things. You mean you can only identify five things on your reverse bucket lists, maybe in the five minutes that I've given you. So I think it's really important to identify all the things, and there's no judgment, no comparison or anything like that.

Starting point is 00:14:37 You've got a reverse bucket list, and that should be as fleshed out and as big as the future bucket list. What it does is when you actually put pen to paper and even create a reverse bucket list board for some people, it gives people an overwhelming sense of gratitude and a hell of a foundation to then dream big because a lot of this stuff happened by stuff in your past happened by default rather than intentional design what if we actually put some intention you know intention true intention behind what we want to do going forward and people like that get that glimmer of hope

Starting point is 00:15:16 mate and i've got to say just helping people identify all the cool stuff and I frame it up in this you know reverse bucket of this context that alone has helped so many people with depressive thoughts it really has over the years it's helped people just bring the light back and go yeah massive appreciation for you know the stuff that I've done in my life already remember doing it and just listing all the places that I'd traveled to and just when when you actually list them down and you go damn You know, I'm being everywhere. It's, yeah, it makes it feel real good.

Starting point is 00:15:55 So let's flip that over then. Your formula for the bucket list, the My Bucket List, can you take us through that and why that formula is important? Yeah, yeah. Well, when you, I created it, I created it on the back of researching what most bucket, this is about 12 years ago when someone called me the bucket list guy. Most bucket lists are about trouble and that's what a lot of people still think the bucket lists are all about. But travel, unfortunately, uses the most resources, you know, time and money as a resource. It's really expensive and it takes somewhat a lot of time in order to tick that stuff off. So it doesn't happen until retirement, until you can get off work.

Starting point is 00:16:37 And what is in America? You get two weeks off a year if you're employed, four weeks off if you're in Australia. When the hell am I going to get time to do my bucket list? So it forces people into a mindset of heavy, delay. gratification. I'll be happy when that happens syndrome or I'll have to wait until someday or the perfect time. And, you know, with with the mental health stats, as scary as they are, depression, anxiety, you know, the over-prescription of antidepressants, suicides, use suicides, then you go throw the pandemic on top of that. And even this thing called the loneliness

Starting point is 00:17:18 epidemic, which is a real thing, you've got a perfect storm of mental health. So there's got to be some, I'm doing my bit to, you know, my narrative, this bucketless narrative to help people, to give people tools to be instantly gratified, you know, to get that sense of instant gratification rather than just wait until delayed gratification so they can be happy now. So I created this, my bucket list blueprint, which is a 12-step. program, which sounds like A.A. You might need to drink afterwards. But what is the formula?

Starting point is 00:17:57 What does it stand for? So my bucket list, M, it's an acronym. So it's designed to help you go north, southeast, west in your own brain, help you extract and articulate a personally meaningful and holistic bucket list rather than just about travel. So M, who do you want to meet before your timer, meet a personal hero? why stands for your proud achievements you know another level of education a TED talk you know growing you know starting a business maybe for some building your own house um uh my

Starting point is 00:18:33 be i've written a book on this i've done a TED talk on this um B uh buy that special something this is the only materialistic part of this how are you rewarding yourself you ultimate challenge ultimate challenges. So these are maybe the small, medium and big physical challenges, also the intellectual challenges that you can set for yourself. See, on the other side of your bucket list, here's something that people need to write down. On the other side of your bucket list is a you that you don't know yet.

Starting point is 00:19:05 I want people to get curiously excited about what's on the other side, the bigger version of them that they don't know yet. Yeah, because as we know, people are dying at 40 and being buried at 80. People get to midlife and they have a crisis. We call it a crisis. Let's have a midlife awakening. So you, C, conquer a fear. So it's not just about holding the snake or getting a spider.

Starting point is 00:19:35 It's how you map those that stepping up to the plate, conquering the fear, jumping off the bridge with the bungee. but how do you map that into other areas of your life? You know, maybe it's starting that business or it's asking someone out on a date. You know, it's how you map those fears. Conquer of fear. What are we up to?

Starting point is 00:19:57 M-U-C-K. Yes. Kind acts for others. Like I said, it's early over here in Australia, Brad, so I'm yet to have the coffee. Kind acts for others. So this really rounds out the bucket list. this in another category. It's not about just you. It's about, you know, the kind of footprint

Starting point is 00:20:17 footprint that you can lay down while you're still here. Now, we're assuming that you're all nice people who are listening to this. So, you know, buying someone else coffee in the line at Starbucks or helping an old lady over the street, let's assume that you do that naturally. It's not going to pluck this item, but maybe there's a cause out there that hits your heart. Maybe there's a champion of a cause out there. Or you've been personally, by something. Something really pisses you off. Maybe that they need your attention. E stands for express yourself.

Starting point is 00:20:51 So this is the creative part of you. Good. It could be woodworking. It could be writing a book. It could be writing songs. We've had people do all of the above. We had a bunch of ladies in Mexico at a company go and do quilting. And I didn't even know what the hell quilting was. was. So now I do. So that painting, art, you know, photography, whatever it is. So this is the,

Starting point is 00:21:21 and this is this is the category that a lot of us used to do maybe before we became an adult, but where we find flow in, right? So E, T, the first T there is take lessons. All right. So what are some things that you want to learn before your time is up? Break dancing, harmonica, guitar. I'm learning Spanish at the moment. Not very good, but I'm learning it. I'm actually learning when I launched the book. I've got a four-channel DJ deck mixer. So I'm learning, learning, you know, mixing.

Starting point is 00:21:59 I can't play a musical instrument to save myself. But this is allowing me to, and I can lose days doing that. So that's the creative side. L is along the same lines as K. L stands for Leave a legacy. All right. How do we want to be remembered after you're gone? You know, one year, two years, 50 years. What sort of an imprint are you making now?

Starting point is 00:22:27 What sort of roots can you plant now in order to create that legacy? It might be a property portfolio. It might be even a father-son camp that you're saying. set up, a mentoring program, a scholarship. It could be a whole bunch of different things. I stands for, you love this bit, mate is idiotic stuff. This is just, I know, there's a, I know there's a 21 year old backpacker within all of us still. No matter how serious you become as an adult, right? So, God, people are just got to still keep having fun and having more adventures and choose fun and choose life because people get so serious and then they mental health

Starting point is 00:23:15 and you know like anyway people people funnily enough a lot of people say to me over the years trav this is the feedback but thank you for giving me permission to have fun again thank you for giving me permission to dream again i mean dude how sad is that yeah yeah so s stands for satisfy a curiosity. This category gets weird. It gets weird. There is really weird stuff that people want to do. And this is actually the most, you know, what are the foods?

Starting point is 00:23:52 What are the restaurants? Where are the places you want to stay? What has always been that chip on your shoulder that you've always been curious about? About exploring and doing. And when I do a couples bucket list, because that's one of our offerings, a couples bucket list, this category gets really fleshed out. Back on target. T stands for the classic travel adventures.

Starting point is 00:24:22 So where are the big bucket list items that you want to go on? Who do you want to do them with it? Nothing sadder than doing a selfie at Machu Picchu. So these, so these. These experiences need to be shared. And who do you want to share them with? You know, there's a big, these are the, these are the watts, but where's the big why? You know, when you flesh out your whole bucket list and then you look at,

Starting point is 00:24:50 you look at it in a categorized list. And then you go, I do a one to ten scale. Ten is you'll move mountains to make that happen. One, you couldn't really care about it. So you go through all your whole list and you go, yep, these. are the eights, nines and tens, whatever they're the ones that really get you out of bed in the morning. And they're the ones where you've got to start plotting them. You've got to start what I call a bucket list budget around them. They're the ones that really can change

Starting point is 00:25:19 the course of your life. With the tea, the travel adventures, what I was saying during lockdown, if you haven't got the money, you haven't got the time, you know, be your own tourist in your own hometown first. You know, it's about, it's an attitude of choosing. not just taking that default. You know, a lot of us are just existing and not living. So this gives people an opportunity to really, you know, I think go for it. And it has worked over the last 12 years of, you know, letting people in on this stuff. You're on the Big Success podcast.

Starting point is 00:25:54 I'm Brad Trugas. We're going to be back and we're going to talk about going from good to great, how we level up in our bucket list life. He's known as the bucket list guy, the world. number one bucket list expert. Someone called Travis this about 12 years ago after the first talk he ever did, and it's stuck ever since.

Starting point is 00:26:14 To learn more about Travis Bell, please visit the bucket list guy.com. And we're back. Travis Bell, bucket list guy. What's the difference in the people that build a good bucket list, like a, to do the average things, and people would go for massive

Starting point is 00:26:34 and go for the really big stuff. What do you think is the difference between those people? How can we learn if we want to be the ones going for the massive? Well, I think a bucket list is so individual. And I say in my rooms when I speak, as you know, there's to be no comparison, no judgment. Because what Brad Sugar's, and I've seen your bucket list, what Brad Sugar will put on his bucket list,

Starting point is 00:27:04 A lot of people in the world can't compare. And, but that's, you know, that, but, but I've had, you know, I've had, you know, teens, you know, that are on suicide watch from really bad backgrounds, are going through really bad stuff just to go on a holiday down the beach, you know, that, probably the rest of the world could take, you know, just completely take for granted, you know, oh, yeah, that's not a bucket, but that's massive in her world. You know, and that has to be appreciated. See, and here's, I guess, the frame for it all.

Starting point is 00:27:50 It's really not about the ticks off your bucket list. It's really about how a person reverse engineers every aspect of their life in order to make that stuff come to fruition. it's it's about the growth of you on this journey towards these self-imposed destinations but more importantly like i said before it's about the you that exists on the other side and that's the person that we don't know yet so if and that's our potential when we get to experience our potential it puts a smile on our face so each to their own is probably the best answer for that um but you hang around enough you know i'm going to challenge everyone that your bucket, you know, this is a never-ending thing.

Starting point is 00:28:35 So whatever you put on your list, what are you going to do once you've crossed that off? Then you're going to have to go more, the more, the more, the more. So it's about getting around the right tribes of people, the right community, and the people listening to this podcast and hanging around in your world. You know, they're always upping their game. You know, they're always looking for more and more big success in their life. So don't keep it to yourself. Share your bucket list.

Starting point is 00:29:03 You know, share your bucket list with your team, with your family. And it's amazing what comes out of them that will inspire you and vice versa. So, you know, it's really important to share this stuff and just don't keep it to yourself. Bring people on the journey with you. How do you, is there a formula for dreaming big? Is there a methodology for it? Or is it just as simple as get around people who are dreaming big? Well, it has a hell of a lot.

Starting point is 00:29:31 You know, it's about action. At the end of the day, you can write all the goals. You can write all the goals that you want. But it's about taking action. You know, baby steps, if that's your way of doing it. I'm not one to do that, but everyone's got their own comfort zone. you know you've got to put pen to paper you know like again there's so many people that go through life and yeah they might even say they've got a bucket list but it's up there with their to-do list

Starting point is 00:30:08 you know and guess which one gets done first on a day to-day basis it's their to-do list so as simple as it sounds and i'm on a lot of podcasts of i've talked to it so many people over the years and the first step is to whether it's, you know, go through that my bucket list blueprint. Don't just think about it. Grab a book if you want to. Have a look at my TED talk. Get around our coaches who can help you, you know, who can help guide you. But the most important thing is actually putting pen to paper and getting this stuff out of your head

Starting point is 00:30:48 and separating that daily to-do list from your bucket list. And so as simple as that sounds, that is actually the first step. The first step is actually getting it out of your head. And I know it's really analog and old school, but what's this, Brad? This is a, yeah. Yeah. And what's this stuff here? Penipate.

Starting point is 00:31:10 It does this amazing thing like writing. You know, basically when you write stuff down, I'm being facetious, of course, but when you actually write stuff down, you're typing into Google or, it could be chat GPT for it at the time of recording. You're typing in your search, your search engine here. And if you don't type it in via writing, what are you searching for? You know, the brain has a funny thing of helping the part, of showing up. The universe has a funny way of showing the path when the what and the why are really strong.

Starting point is 00:31:47 You've got to plug it into Google, write this stuff down. and it's amazing how you then you start to, you know, you put Mount Everest Base Camp on you. But funnily enough, you're now, you know, talking to people who have been there. You're looking at blogs. You're looking at websites. Stuff is showing up on social media.

Starting point is 00:32:07 I have to actually say it and my phone starts showing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was about to say that. You just say it near your phone and you'll get ads. And just in this podcast, podcast, because I've got mine on right here, I'm probably now going to get ads about it, a matter of a space can't. But that's kind of how it goes with that retargeting stuff. But yeah, write it down, guys.

Starting point is 00:32:30 And then I'm going to say, pick off the thing that is the most easiest to do, all right? Go the low-hanging fruit first, because that will give you the momentum and motivation to smash through the bigger ones. Finishing up to date, best advice you ever got on success or best quote you ever read on success,

Starting point is 00:32:49 other than that, Bob Dylan. Yeah, I'll come back to that. I come back to my tattoo. I love a bunch of your quotes as well, you know, about business. I can't think anything off the top of my head. I'm going to say, I'm simply going to say, life's way too short, not to live your bucket list.

Starting point is 00:33:17 don't wait until you get given a use-by date. Now is the best time to take action, and it really is. Love it. Travis Bell, the bucketless guy, follow him, learn from him, study his stuff, build your own bucketless life. You're on the Big Success podcast. We'll be back next week with more on your success. And that's a big success podcast for today. Hopefully you took a lot of notes, and hopefully you're going to learn the bunch,

Starting point is 00:33:42 and hopefully you're going to take action on it and refer people. Remember, if you haven't subscribed, click that subscription. button now. Be with us every week on the Big Success Podcast. B.S. Brad Sugar's Big Success. Take action. Check the show notes for all the links. I'll give you all the links for everything that your speaker had. Make sure you follow it through and keep the learning going. Remember, you got to grow into your goals. I'll speak to you next time on the Big Success podcast. You've been listening to the Big Success podcast with the number one business coach in the world, Brad Sugar. To learn more about how to achieve business and

Starting point is 00:34:17 personal success, as well as how to level up or listen to past episodes, visit www. www.bradshuggers.com.

Business Innovators Radio - Ep. #29 – Travis Bell – The Big Success Podcast with Brad Sugars

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