Digital Social Hour - Facing Entrepreneurship Realities: Scott Clary's Candid Talk | Digital Social Hour #38

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

Are you ready to completely shake up your mindset and challenge the status quo? The latest episode of the Digital Social Hour is guaranteed to provide you with an electrifying jolt of inspiration and motivation. Our guest, the charismatic Scott Clary, candidly discusses breaking free from traditional career structures, escaping negative influences, and creating your own path - yes, it's as liberating as it sounds. Join me and Scott as we take you on a captivating journey through his remarkable tech sales and marketing career, and transition into the exciting world of private equity. Let’s pull back the curtain on the harsh realities, sacrifices, and rewards of entrepreneurship. We’ll delve into the intricacies of managing a portfolio of companies and discuss various strategies for financial stability in the wake of the uncertainties brought on by COVID-19. In this compelling, unfiltered conversation, Scott shares invaluable insights from his personal experiences, including his enlightening interviews with personalities like Grant Cardone. His radical and enlightening perspective shows that success is more than just about making money; it's about growth, resilience, and continuous learning. But that’s not all; we get personal too. We chat about the challenges in managing work-life balance, the struggle in relationships, gradual energy drain, and yes, we talk about the 'ugly' side of entrepreneurship. Scott holds nothing back, baring all in his pursuit of truth and helping others thrive despite the challenges. On a lighter note, fancy a low-carb high-performance diet advice or a coffee tip, anyone? Scott’s got you covered! Finally, don’t forget to check out his hugely inspiring podcast, the 'Success Story', where he uncovers the real struggles behind successful figures. Don’t miss out on this power-packed episode; it's brimming with a treasure trove of wisdom, valuable life lessons, and hard-won success secrets. Tune in NOW! Trust me; you'll finish the episode with a feeling that you can conquer anything! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/digitalsocialhour/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You know, traditional career isn't safe anymore. That's hell. It really is hell. If something is like physically draining my energy, I cut it out of my life, including people. You feel like you're in a shitty situation, remove yourself from that situation, do it. All right, welcome to the Digital Social Hour. I'm your host, Sean Kelly, and I'm joining my guest today, Scott Clary. How we doing?

What's going on, man? Welcome to Miami. I'm in your town, man. Yeah, yeah. I love it. I love it. You got to show me around. After?

We will. We will. We will. So what's going on? Not much. Give people a brief summary of what you've done and what you're working on. Yeah, sure. So super quickly, sort of to give you a high level on my life. Background was always in tech, always on the sales and marketing side.

So really strong sales and marketing, you know, started selling tech and then moved into sales and marketing leadership, led teams to the companies that I built that were acquired. So I had some success there. Now I'm focused on capital allocation, meaning I do some angel investing. I'm trying to build a private equity firm, which is a wild ride to put it lightly. I run a really large business podcast. Sort of to summarize, the different seasons of my life went from operator into investor, capital allocator, but this is very recent for me. So I'm making the transition at this point in my life because I've had career success. I've had entrepreneur success. I've had, you know, build a company. It's been

acquired never as the entrepreneur CEO founder, but always bolting myself on as like the sales and marketing person to help scale it up. And it's tiring as hell. So right now where I want to be, like, I like building my own podcast, my own brand. I don't mind building companies, but I rather work with multiple founders conversation a million different ways, but, um, I'm dealing with, do I want to be VC private equity? What are the differences between the two? Why I'm making decisions is to build a private equity firm versus just do angel investing, just do VC. Cause there's so many different ways to make money once you have a little bit to play with. And even if you don't have a lot to play with and I'm sort of learning that end of it now. Um, so that's where I'm at. Um, so yeah, long time sales and marketing. I mean, that's sort of my thing. So that's amazing. So

yeah, your podcast is incredible. You've interviewed some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. You know, billionaires, guys like Grant Cardone. What was it like interviewing Grant? Cause he's a controversial figure. So funny. Cause I actually don't, when you talk to him, I don't find him that controversial. I think he's controversial in the sense that he just doesn't have a filter but when you talk to him like one-on-one he's actually a really down-to-earth pragmatic dude so he doesn't come across as like an asshole he just says it like it is which i think for a lot of people that throws them off um he's he's an he's another marketing guy too like he knows that if he says the most ridiculous shit online like he's gonna get clicks which is which knows that if he says the most ridiculous shit online,

he's going to get clicks, which is cool. And it's also his personality. I think his personality shines through. When I spoke to him, it was a pretty normal conversation. So when I spoke to him, and that was a fun interview because it was during COVID. So it was right when shit was hitting the fan and we just had a conversation about how

traditional career isn't safe anymore. So the things that you thought, you looked at your parents, you saw them work a job for 30, 40 years. And that was like your model of what success was. COVID fucked that all up. So COVID screwed that up. 180 turned it on its head. And I mean, like Grant raises money to buy real estate. And that's kind of been his message all along. But in that particular conversation, it was like, okay, regardless of whether or not you put money into my real estate

assets, or you work with me, like find a way to get cash flow, so that you don't depend on your nine to five. And that funny enough, little bit of a segue is sort of what I'm working on in my life right now. So like, how do I buy cash flow how do i buy businesses how do i invest in businesses so that i don't have to be working in a business or working for one particular company for the rest of my life right to make money because that's that's hell it really is hell and i mean covid everyone is furloughed laid off so all the shit that we thought was secure and safe and all the big companies that we thought would never let us go that's what happened people got let go in mass and it kind of hit people that were complacent like you know like it really hit them like a ton of bricks like people didn't expect it so you know whether or not it's investing

in real estate it's investing in businesses it's just like understanding how to start a side hustle whatever the fuck it is i've done like all of the things you can possibly do and i've tried them all tried to figure them all out. I think that the message from Grant and the message now that I speak about is like, find ways to sort of future proof yourself financially. Right. So that you aren't relying on that one particular job, one particular company, one particular source of income.

And yeah, I think that's Grant's message, whether or not it's harsh and it comes across. But I mean, it's real. Like, it's very real or not it's harsh and it comes across. But, I mean, it's real. It's very real. So it's like a wake-up call for a lot of people, and it resonates with me. At least that part of it does. Absolutely. One of the things I like about you is you're very open with the reality of entrepreneurship.

People don't talk about the lawsuits. They don't talk about the anxiety, the late nights. But you're very open about it. What makes you feel so comfortable to be open about it? That's an interestingly worded question. What makes me feel comfortable to be open about it? Yeah, because I feel like most people don't even want to talk about it publicly. Because I've dealt with all the shit

and I don't think it serves anyone to sugarcoat the reality, right? I don't think that makes anybody's life easier. So if you are a good human being and you've experienced something in your life and you've learned from it, why would you not want somebody else that was you 10 years ago

to not go through all the bullshit that you went through? Like, I don't see how that's a good way to operate through life. I don't believe in gating knowledge. I mean, this is sort of like my thesis on life. I started a podcast interviewing people, didn't monetize it. I monetized ads later on, but I didn't believe in gating knowledge. I mean, this is sort of like my thesis on life. I started a podcast interviewing people. Didn't monetize it. I monetized ads later on, but I didn't gate anything.

Didn't drop a course. I was podcasting while I was still working as CRO for a company. And my thought around that was I'm going to get awesome people that have experienced shit. And the podcast is called Success Story. And I'll plug it. But the point is it's not really meant to focus on successes it's almost like it's uh it's meant to show that somebody who has success has gone through all this bullshit along the way right so that's why i started the show because i wanted people to understand that like life is not black and white it's not easy it's not like and it's also not like the people that

have achieved the billionaires the people that have made over 100 million, the people that have IPOs and exits, it's not like they haven't gone through shit themselves. So I think that sort of removing the veil and exposing what entrepreneurship really is, is a really healthy way to educate people, to show them opportunity, but to not bullshit what they're getting themselves into. Agreed. So we just spoke about why jobs are not great anymore. Why working is, well, people want to work. Not everybody wants to be an entrepreneur. Not everybody should be an entrepreneur. And jobs are great for some people.

Entrepreneurship is great for some people. But the point is, you just have to understand what you're getting yourself into and the potential drawbacks to each. There are a lot of drawbacks and putting all your cards on the table in one career for your entire life. There's also a lot of drawbacks and working in a starting a company as a founder, a lot of drawbacks. There's a lot of drawbacks raising money from venture capitalists. There's a lot of drawbacks even joining a startup as an early employee, getting a little bit of equity in that company. There's drawbacks in everything, but I think you have to just be more candid about

it. And if more people are candid about all the different things that they go through in each of those scenarios, then the person coming out of college can make a really smart, educated decision, know what the fuck they're getting themselves into. Because putting all your cards on career is tough. Putting all your cards on startup is equally as tough. A lot of depression, a lot of stress. Again, you mentioned lawsuits, but it's not just like lawsuits. It's like you are responsible for everything. So yeah, you deal with the lawsuits, you deal with the bankruptcies, you deal with when you can't pay your staff, you deal with when you pitch a VC and he or she tells you your idea is shit. You deal with when you sign an LOI

with a VC and they screw you over on terms. And later on, like you realize when you exit your company, you don't own half as much as you thought you would. And even though, you know, Bloomberg is writing about $100 million exit, maybe after taxes, you're only getting a wire for 5 million or whatever it is, or actually you get the wire for a Sempe taxes. But the point is, it's not easy.

So that's why I talk about it so candidly. Right. And you mentioned college earlier. Is that something you will recommend to your kids or would you recommend going to college for upcoming entrepreneurs dude that's a good question um so i think there's there's reasons why people should go to college i learned a lot of soft skills in college so i learned to not around in college because high school was super easy for me yeah so high school was super easy barely tried always killed it that didn't fly so well with college when you're managing that many classes that many courses at a like a higher level of sophistication so i think it allows you to be

very pragmatic about where you place your time and your energy and just be a great time manager and then also understand how to go into a particular topic that you may not care about and learn enough to be proficient at it i think that's a good skill to use and learn. But after college, like I got my MBA, all the shit that I learned in my MBA, I had already learned that. The majority of it working in startups and working in even large companies. So college is good for a variety of reasons. I don't think it's necessary, but I think that it can help someone structure their life better so that it's a little less chaotic because I can go into a new topic. And because of what I took away from university, I'm Canadian, but college, same difference. What I took away from that is I can go into any topic

and reach a certain level of proficiency in that topic to at least be knowledgeable in it. And I felt that like being exposed to a wide variety of things in college gave me that skill set. But in terms of does it place me in a career that I need? Well, there's some degrees that you actually have to get to. I mean, we're talking like lawyer, doctor, dentist, whatever. But outside of that, it is starting to lose some of its value. I agree. And I also don't believe that it's worth the price tag.

And especially if we're talking about Ivy League shit, I mean, you better network the shit out of that institution while you're there. Or if not, it is not worth $100,000 a year. It's a lot of money. And I think business, it's a ton of money, dude. And a lot of business leaders, CEOs, people that are hiring are understanding

that there's a lot of things that they will look for that is not a Stanford or a Harvard MBA. Yeah. I mean, I don't look for any of that. There's things that I will look for in somebody, but it will never be that. So, you know, it has some merit if you take the right things away from it.

If you're just gonna fuck off for four years completely, then it's not worth it just to get the degree. Yeah, as someone who hires people, I think that's a unique perspective. What stands out on a resume for you? What stands out on a resume? So it depends on what I'm hiring for. Let's talk about startup land.

It's somebody that, funny enough, the most important thing is somebody that actually hasn't done the job in a Fortune 500 or Fortune 1000 company. So when I'm hiring for startup, I want somebody that is hyper ambitious, like all the buzzwords, right? Grit, ambition, like all the buzzwords, right? Grit, ambition, like all those things are great to look for. But you always want people that are okay, trying to do things the way that it hasn't been done before. So the worst hires that I've always made are people that I thought were hyper experienced, and they come from enterprise, like really, really, really large business, ton of skills, like on paper, awesome. You put them

into a startup, they fuck it up. They always fuck always fuck it up because they're like it can't be done without resources without a team supporting me without an ea or whatever support they had in that big ass company and then they end up sabotaging their own success because that's the only way they've ever operated so you got to think even as an entrepreneur it's very hard to make the shift from working in a large company to working in a startup it's it's exceptionally hard for you imagine how from working in a large company to working in a startup. It's exceptionally hard for you. Imagine how hard it is for somebody who has never worked in a startup before and you're hiring them from and then you're putting them into that startup. That always screws up people.

And it screws up that team. It screws up that. You don't do it. I can see that. So find somebody that has the basic skill sets, that is proficient, that is an A player because A players are very important to hire. You don't want to hire Bs and Cs. And you want somebody that will set the bar. In a startup environment, you're usually hiring somebody that's smarter than yourself at that thing, but they haven't done it or they haven't. You don't want to be the first time they've moved away from large enterprise. That's the best way I can put it. Interesting.

That would be my best advice. If they have moved away from enterprise, they've moved away from large enterprise. That's the best way I can put it. That would be my best advice. If they have moved away from enterprise, they've navigated that transition, and then you can find them at a later point in their career when they understand what startup is and they've shown success in startup, preferably at a similar stage company in a similar role, fine, you can bring them in. But just don't be that first point of transition.

Right. So like we said earlier, you've interviewed some of the most successful entrepreneurs, centi-millionaires, billionaires. What are some common traits you've noticed from interviewing all these people? So one of the most common traits is probably one of the reasons why it's important to be very candid about entrepreneurship. It takes an unreasonable amount of energy and time and commitment to be successful at building something. So, you know, hustle culture is not great. But candidly, if you are going to build the best thing in that category,

and you're going to take a business from zero to you know a hundred million five hundred million a billion IPO like there will be a period of your time where you will not have balance and I think that that's what people have to understand about entrepreneurship I don't love hustle culture but it's the reality if you really want to take it to the next level and I think that there's obviously some exceptions to the rule, but the majority of people have disclosed that there are very real periods of discomfort in their life that they had to take on, and they were willing to take that on to take their business to the next level. And I think that that's the reality

that people have to understand. It impacts your life. It impacts your relationships. It impacts your mental health, your well-being. It could impact your money if you aren't finding product market fit, if you aren't scaling quick enough. It can be very stressful. So, yeah, don't love hustle culture, but you will have to hustle for a period of time. I mean, even myself, I built a podcast while I was working full time in a startup environment. So, you know, I'm putting in 10 hours a day in the startup and then evenings and weekends are all podcasting, sourcing guests, doing interviews. Day one,

I had no budget for it. Now it's, now I get ad revenue. So I rolled that back into the team, but day one, I'm doing all the shit myself. So video, audio, and that's because I chose to do it that way. I mean, you can be successful and then you can have a whole team supporting you at a later stage in your career but like at that point i knew i wanted to start it early i wanted to i wanted to get it off the ground and i knew it was going to take hours and energy and effort to do but i'm also a firm believer that if you do anything for 10 years you will see success at that thing and the day one version of that thing may not be the year 10 version of that thing. But if you iterate over 10 years,

you will build success in that thing and there will be some measure of success. So I stand by that completely. And I'm like, okay, if I bust my ass for five to 10 years of my life doing this one thing that I know will pay off, I have no problem with that. That's a very small portion of my life

for something that honestly is an asset that I'll use to the day I die. So that's sort of the reality of entrepreneurship and the reality of a lot of people that have built things. And you'll also see, you'll notice when people build things, they'll build it, they'll exit it. And there's a kind of person that's an entrepreneur. And once they exit it, most people are not comfortable. Most people are not just comfortable just like sitting on your ass. So again, I interview a lot of people. I'll give you two very good examples.

One of my good friends, Joseph Martin, he sold his company, Bossy Charm, for $520 million. I think about three years ago now. Took some time. Last, I think three days ago actually, and we won't put dates, so we'll keep it evergreen, but three days ago, we're sitting at a coffee shop, he's like, Scott, I need to figure out what to build next. The guy never really has to work ever again,

but it's like, it's a mindset. So when you build something once, and then you sell that thing and you have nothing going on really in your life compared to previously to that exit. You do have to go into something and a lot of people feel that drive and that need. I'll give you another example. So Matt Higgins, he's a founder of RSE Ventures. He was a guest shark on Shark Tank. So obviously super successful guy, put in his time, built a massive private equity firm, investment firm. He's a good friend with Gary V. He just launched a book.

He just wrote a book. You're talking about the process of writing books. I'm thinking about doing this too. And he was like, listen, Scott, I like went full entrepreneur mode. So I wanted this book to be successful. So I was like sleeping four hours a night for like a month or two,

writing, promoting, getting on podcasts, traveling, doing in-person, doing as much PR as I could, going on Fox and MSNBC and CNBC, whatever. He's like, but that is my version of how to take something to market. So there's going to be a period of my life that's going to be super uncomfortable. But I know that when I get over that hump, it's going to be good. But I have to like be OK with that of, you know, those four hour, you know, sleepless nights and just putting in a ton of work. And he said, even now, it was strange to me because he built his company successful, but

now this book was a passion project for him. And he said, it took a toll on my health. Even though I've done this a thousand times, I have all these portfolio companies. I work with founders all the time. Even doing it again at this stage in my life, I thought it would be no problem. It still takes a toll on your health. And he's also very passionate and very much an advocate for if you want to take something to the next level, sometimes that's what it actually takes. Wow. So yeah, sometimes you got to sacrifice your health. And it's pretty crazy. I did that in college. I slept like four hours a day. It's not.

Yeah, dude, that's a that's a very dangerous thing to say. You have to sacrifice your health to be successful. I think you can be careful about it, but it's not relaxing. That's the best way I can put it. It's not relaxing. I mean, my health is fine. I mean, I still sleep six hours.

I work out, but like, but I mean, could I have spent more time with my girlfriend? Could I have seen my family more while I'm in that spent more time with my girlfriend? Could I have seen my family more while I'm in that season of building in my life? Totally. So I think another, and I've gotten sick. I've gotten burnt out. Again, not a badge of honor, just a reality when you're really passionate about something

and you're putting the time in. And it's not like it's going to be like this all the time. But if you're building something, you're working full time, and you have to go travel, you're trying to maintain the same schedule, you're going to get burnt out, you're going to get sick. It's just a matter of doing all the things and trying to make everything work, managing your whole life, and it's difficult. But I think that outside of just, you know, there's obviously a lot of things you could do for your health and well-being, mental and physical, but also the relationships you have. That's another thing that people don't really understand about entrepreneurship. And this is like a very, this is going to be a lot of like very negative, a lot of positive about entrepreneurship as well. But I think that there's realities that people don't talk about a lot, like you mentioned before, that I'd rather

people understand some of these things going in, as opposed to just being blindsided by them later on. So relationships, friends, family, spouse, better half, girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever it is, those are things that sometimes do not survive somebody that is working at full capacity. And like multiple examples of that. So I think I'm blessed because I have a girlfriend that we've been together for four and a half years

and she's building her own thing. She operates at the same level. But like many examples, people that we've been together before and a half years and she's building her own thing and she operates at the same level. But like many examples, people that I've interviewed on my show and I won't name names because this is a very personal thing. But a lot of people that have divorced, broken up with after 10, 11, 20, 30 years because it just drift away. Time and focus is not on that other person. And unfortunately, that hurts a lot of relationships, especially if the two people don't understand what they're getting into when they start building something. So say I'm dating a girl,

and we're both working nine to five jobs, just got out of college, and I'm like, I want to start a business. And she's like, yeah, sure, go for it. I don't know what I'm getting myself into i'm not setting expectations when she started dating me she did not expect somebody working 80 hours a week never going out anything and i'm i haven't really prioritized her in a while that causes strain that causes relationships to break right so it's not that relationships can't work but you

better be sure that you're setting expectations and that you're purposefully trying to make the relationship work because more often than not it can cause enough strain to break it yeah that's something that people don't think about ever yeah i feel like a lot of entrepreneurs almost everyone i know at least uh has issues balancing work and their relationship like it's it seems to be a common issue it's it's work it's money and it's like it's funny enough it's never like lack of money it's like when one partner is way more successful than they thought i've actually i haven't seen this as much i haven't seen this as much with um with men being more successful maybe yeah men get money and they get an ego then they cheat and that's horrible but i've actually seen when two partners I have a friend, she was with her, I'm assuming fiance, she's with a man for 11

years. She started building a company, hyper successful, generating multi-million dollars in revenue per year. And the man couldn't deal with it. And they broke up because of that. So the man couldn't deal with the woman being the breadwinner in the house, which is that's a wild thought to me. But I mean, there's a variety of things that basically impact the power balance of a relationship that people going into that day one, they did not expect. So there was a shift in the energy in the relationship that caused some sort of friction. And when you take on entrepreneurship, there is such a massive shift, whether or not it was that very weird but specific example,

or it's you're working too much. There's a shift in the energy between the two people that I think a lot of people just don't think about going into it, which will basically, if people don't level themselves up and be okay with the new version of that relationship, then of course,

they're not gonna be comfortable with it. Like if you dated somebody and they were this kind of person and then 10 years later, they're a very different person, that stresses you out. And entrepreneurship is forcing you to evolve. Very quickly.

Always. There is never a situation where you go in to build a business, even if it's not successful, where you will not evolve as a human being. So you better be sure that your partner is cool with that and is willing to join you on that ride because if not that's when it's not great yeah no i love that i never thought of it that way that's really impactful uh earlier you mentioned burnout and there's all these new studies on how stress is

really harmful and can potentially take years off your life. How do you deal with your stress? And what advice would you give to people that are feeling stressed? So for me, a lot of it. Yeah. So I work on things I do enjoy doing. So I'm very quick to something is like physically draining my energy. I cut it out of my life, including people. I really don't have energy or time for that. And I feel like people keep and you know this when you go into a room, you talk to somebody.

It's just a negative vibe you know these people and i think a lot of people keep those individuals around too long and it's not just individuals it could also be it could also be you're working for a job too long while you're trying to build something and like maybe that thing that you're building is successful but you're still working for a boss you hate because you're scared but like that nine to five actually makes you depressed and you feel like you walk into that office and you feel the energy drain like when when you feel like you're in a shitty situation and hopefully you have the ability to remove yourself from like that situation do it as soon as possible like rip the band-aid off everybody knows when they're around people are doing things that don't give

them energy kill that shit because that compounds your burnout exponentially. Other things that can easily lead to burnout is multitasking. So I'm speaking about working a nine to five while starting a side hustle. People are like, well, isn't that multitasking? Yes, but no. Meaning that if I'm working my nine to five or if I'm working on my side hustle, I'm not bullshitting with other stuff while I'm doing that very specific task. So burnout is a real thing. People that multitask think they're good at it. They're not. There's studies done on what's called attention residue, which means that every time you switch tasks, you get slightly less efficient and you really build up residue in your brain that allows you to or doesn't allow you to operate as efficiently as

if you're just hyper focused on one task. And there's actually studies, and I'm not pretending to be a doctor, but there are studies that are done on attention residue. So to avoid burnout, focus, hyper-focus on the thing that you're doing in the moment and only that. And then if you do need to switch tasks, there's actually a strategy that you basically time block how long you're going to be working on the new task and the plan that you will have to return to the old task. residue, which again, over the course of the day, if we're constantly switching tasks, builds up and then increases fatigue, decreases the ability to make decisions, increases the feelings of burnout. So hyper-focusing is one way in like a very, um, a very tactical way to reduce burnout as well. Um, again, everything in your life that isn't in line with what you're doing can increase your burnout. So if you have a partner that isn't supportive, if you have parents that aren't supportive, if you – I'm trying to think.

You're saying to cut your parents off? No. I'm not saying to cut your parents off. But I am saying that if they are not supportive of you, then you do have to limit if you're talking to them every day, and you're calling them every day, and every day they're giving you shit, that's not conducive to building something. So fine, talk to them once a week, or talk to them once every two weeks. But the point is, if they are draining your energy, you have to be cognizant of that. So okay, are you going to kill the relationship with your parents? No, obviously not. But you also can't let them sabotage your every single day. Right? Right? That's it. That's it's tough for a lot of people that have really

great relationships with their parents. But I would say like your relationship isn't great if they're not supporting what you're doing and they're not supporting what you're passionate about. So don't break it off, but understand that it's hurting you and it is helping. It is causing burnout. So again, so relationships focus, um, trying to think of what else I would say, physical health is a big one. So if you aren't in great physical shape, and you don't have to be like, you know, you know, 5% body fat. But if you aren't going to the gym, if you aren't working out, if you aren't eating right, if you aren't understanding what foods sort of optimize your energy levels, so that you can perform at like peak performance all the time.

Like I have a very specific diet that I use that's worked for me that I've sort of tried to perfect over my entire life. I think that that can lead to burnout, too. You're always eating garbage. I mean, if you're always drinking and all the same bullshit. I mean, most of the people that I know that are high performers also try and biohack to some degree. So they're always trying to find ways to operate at peak capacity, peak performance. So whatever the food they eat, the workout routine they do, the sleep schedule they have, they all try and maximize their day as much as possible. And when you maximize your day and you aren't hitting walls at 4 p.m. because you didn't have a shitty lunch, yeah, it will help you. It will help you do more. It will help you,

I guess, not just do more, but like do it better so that you're not, you know, writing shitty emails or you're not the work that you do or the, you know, the document putting together. It's not like filled with errors and shit like that when you are operating at high energy. So I'd say that also helps avoid burnout. But it's not like one thing. It's a combination of like everything. But being aware of all the different things that can sort of like hijack your day in your life. I think that's the number one way to avoid burnout. Absolutely. What are some biohacks to you that you do? Do you fast? Do you take pills? Yeah. So I'm pretty i'm a pretty heavy coffee drinker um i've i've fucked around with nootropics but i don't really like them that much i find that most

nootropics like they give you some sort of focus but then personally i get like a massive down after nootropics and like we're not talking adderall we're talking like actual nootropics so like i i don't love the feeling for me my perfect day is uh coffee 9 a.m one and usually around five so like three cups a day that's late yeah i'm fine with that though because i'll go but i'll go to bed around like one o'clock so it's not too too bad for me i'll do intermittent fasting so um that means like a 16 and 8 so 16 hours fasted eight hours eating sometimes i even do like a 20-hour fast, four-hour eating window.

And I'll do that in the morning. So I won't eat until around three or four. And for me, coffee plus fasting in the morning gives me optimal energy. So I feel like on, like zoned in, like candidly better than most nootropics. And there's no massive down because the only stimulant you're on is caffeine.

I mess around with diets. Like I operate better on a low carb diet. So what I'll try and do is like Monday to Friday, I'll usually do keto or low carb as much as possible. Saturday, Sunday, I'm like, I'll refeed and do like a higher carb diet. Like really don't care what I eat on Saturday, Sunday. And I found that that sort of combination is the best for like energy levels, um, just for like operating, uh, for being alert, um, for being like, like cognitively present. And, um, I also find like, of course, like that diet plays into like my workout routine too. So that's like my best possible diet for working out. Um, I don't do a ton of cardio. I should do

more. I don't do a ton of cardio. I do more i don't do a ton of cardio i love lifting always love lifting um yeah that's pretty much it how many days a week do you lift um four okay usually four it's pretty doable yeah it's like it's very doable yeah it's like it's like really not a lot and like i mean like this is not a um a fitness podcast but i mean like i'll do like um like a like a chest and tries back and, shoulder abs, like very basic split. Yeah. Pretty like normal bodybuilder split. But I find that works.

And combined with like a keto diet or a low-carb diet, which is, it's also a very high-protein diet. It's like you end up looking good too, and you end up functioning better. Yeah. So for me, it's a win-win. But I mean like nutrition and diet recommendations, it's really dependent on your schedule. It's dependent on like how food interacts with your body. I know people that die on low carb.

They die? Not die. Like they're no energy. Like they don't die. Like I mean, like they have no energy. Not actually die. No, like they're not performing well. Yeah, no, not die.

No, it's interesting you said that. I found out last week I'm actually allergic to most carbs. Fortified and enriched stuff. But is that like, that's not, what's the word? Glucose intolerant. No, there's a gene. So I took a 10X health systems test, that gene test. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I found out Americaica for some reason um they do a lot of fortified and enriched grains the food here is garbage yeah so food is absolutely garbage i mean like most of my diet like you're talking about keto and low carb it's mostly meat yeah like it is mostly meat throughout the week i eat very few grains what type of meat like organic grass-fed um i mean any type of meat is better than eating shit that you'd get from a restaurant but yeah organic grass fed um sometimes kosher as well it's pretty well taken care of um chicken beef nothing too crazy yeah find different ways to make it not monotonous but like yeah yeah um would you ever do the carnivore diet isn't that just pure meat just

pure meat yeah i would okay. Yeah, I would. Okay. I would. I get bored, though. Yeah. Rogan does it. I don't feel like it has enough benefit because I would literally lose my mind just with how bored I'd be about the food that I'm eating every day. I feel like low-carb or keto where you can include cheese and maybe some nuts as well.

At least it gives you enough variety throughout the week to not be bored yeah i mean i don't like being bored with my food if i like a dish i'll eat it but i don't want to just eat meat yeah you know those people that meal prep the chicken and rice every day well that's that's like yeah that's like a hardcore bodybuilder kind of like i also find that boring but i enjoy eating heavier fat foods because i find it tastes better yeah versus because you there's so many different diets, right? Like all diets, ultimately what you're trying to do is you're trying to optimize like your workout and your fitness performance. But then you also want to like make sure that you have energy levels and you're not like peaking and valuing all day.

Yeah. So chicken and rice is really good for like a high protein high protein moderate carb low fat diet but when i do that kind of diet i'll maybe perform like 10 better in the gym because i do have a few more carbs going through my body but i find that like my peaks and valleys like i'll hit i'll hit walls throughout the day and i'll be like i'll be very tired right so i'll be tired like right before lunch i'll be super hungry um i'll be tired around three four o'clock um my sleep won't be as good if I have carbs in my diet like there's a whole bunch of reasons like it's not like you Can't do it. It's just I don't enjoy it as much. I don't operate as well. Yeah, that makes sense Scott It's been a pleasure man any closing comments or where people can find out more. No, dude. That's awesome I love it short and sweet. Okay, um

Scott D. Clary calm everything's there. All right. You heard it there guys digital social hour. I'll see you next week