EntreLeadership - #292: Are You Losing Your Best Skill? with Jesse Itzler

Episode Date: November 12, 2018

Ok, not everyone can (or wants to!) go live in a monastery like self-made billionaire entrepreneur Jesse Itzler did, but we can all certainly reap the benefits of the powerful lessons he learned while there. Removed from the endless distractions of his daily life, Jesse quickly realized that he was losing one of his greatest skills: thinking. If you too aren’t regularly spending time in thought, consider yourself warned. You’re headed straight toward burnout. Join us as Jesse shares how to avoid just that—and even gain more energy in the process. entreleadership.com/podcast Buy the book: Living With the Monks Learn more about the Grand Hall Experience at Summit Get your Personalized Growth Planner from Infusionsoft  Want expert help with your business question? Call 844-944-1070 and leave a message or send an email to [e-mail]. You could be featured on a future podcast episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all negotiate our goals, but goals should be unwavering. I don't want to be the 80% version of me. I want to be the 100% version of me, and it starts today. Helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is Andre Leadership. Now, here's your host, Ken Coleman. Coming to you from the Music City, this is the broadcast of leaders by leaders for leaders. Thank you so much for joining the conversation.

and oh, I love it when Jesse Itzler stops by. That's right. You've been with us for a while. Jesse has been with us before and he is back. If you don't know who Jesse Isler is, I'll tell you more about him momentarily. Also coming up a very special Entree Leadership Summit announcement. That is our premier event. It is the Super Bowl of Leadership Events. Exciting stuff coming to you there. But let's get right to it. Jesse is the author of a new book entitled Living with the Monks. That's right. He decided to go live with some monks. because living with a seal wasn't enough. He needed another challenge.

I love this guy. So we're going to talk about his time, what he learned, how we can apply that to our personal growth journey and our professional growth journey. Also, he and his wife, Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx, if you've missed this, they're both new additions to our summit 2019 lineup. I'll tell you more about that after our conversation with Jesse. Here he is, the one, the only, Jesse. How does the idea come to you to go from living with a seal to now living with monks?

Well, like most things in my life, it wasn't really planned. I just was thinking about that I have invested so much time in the physical side of my life. You know, I have trainers. I run marathons. Enter all these kind of crazy races, but I really neglected a lot of the spiritual side. And I was thinking like, well, you know, to be super well-rounded, I really need to work on that. who are the masters? Who are the masters? Who could I learn from? And everything pointed to monks. I didn't know a lot about monks. So I did a little research and literally just decided on short notice to go live on a monastery for a month. All right. So I know you did a little bit of research and I think little is the operating word. So take us to you show up. What were your preconceived notions or ideas or what did you prepare for? And then what was different when you actually showed up?

Well, I didn't know much about monks. I only knew what I've said. seen in movies or a limited amount of what I've read about. So I assumed that all monks were Buddhist. And I assumed that the whole day would be spent in meditation and prayer and reflection and that everyone wore a robe and had shaved heads. And that wasn't the case at all. I went to a monastery that was Russian Orthodox and very different than what I thought it would be.

And I lived with eight monks that have been on the monastery for basically, most of them, for 50 years. Wow. So I took my crazy modern world and inserted myself into this almost throwback community and totally in isolation. You know, no phone, no cell, no radio. I didn't get really any newspapers, cut off from my family, and decided that I was going to just do a complete reboot and try to figure out whatever it is I was trying to figure out. So when you show up, what have you packed? I mean, like, what's going on? I know you've got bananas with you, because anybody that follows you knows that.

But what else are you prepared for there? Well, we were on 500 acres in the middle of nowhere in the winter just south of Canada. So I brought some limited amount of clothing, and I brought my own food supply because I wasn't sure I have a interesting diet. I had a lot of fruits and vegetables. I didn't know how well-stocked they would be. And that was really it. I didn't bring any reading materials. I didn't bring anything. I brought a little journal, but I packed super lightly. One suitcase full of

basically clothing, which is mostly like running clothing, and one suitcase full of bananas and vegetables and stuff that I was going to keep in my room. So take me through the first 30 minutes to an hour. I want the audience to kind of get a visual for this. You walk in, I guess it's a check-in process of some sort. Do you have a room? Are you in a big room? What was your lodging like? Yeah, so first, before I even got there, I pull into this just massive, I was being, it was like being on Gilligan's Island in the woods. It was like you show up and, you know, people live here. Where do they live? And we drove up this road that was about a mile into this mountain and then all of a sudden it opened up into this monastery with, you know, I think there were two churches and there were just multiple buildings.

And when I walked in, it was the first thing I realized it was like freaky quiet, freaky quiet. Sure. And I met kind of my liaison there, my go-to monk, brother Christopher. And immediately he just took me to my room to get me settled. And my room was about, they call it a cell, was maybe 10 feet wide by 10 feet long. And there was nothing in it. There was a bed and there was a lamp. And that was really it.

And I recognized immediately like, you know, I'm not in Kansas anymore. This is going to be a long, a long journey. It was about 6, 7 o'clock at night, and he said, you know, I want you to get ready, get a good night's sleep. We're going to start tomorrow at 7.15 with prayer, reflection, and meditation, first thing in the morning. And I looked at my watch and I was like, well, it's only 6 o'clock now. What do I do for the next 13 hours? Right.

And he looked at me and he said, you think. And I was like, I'm screwed. I'm not really good at thinking. I'm good at like doing and reacting and social media. I'm good at that stuff. I'm not good at thinking, and I'm certainly not good at thinking for 13 hours. Now, how long was the commitment? How long did you stay at the monastery? I was there for in human days, 15 days, but it felt like dog years.

Oh, I'm sure, especially that first 13 hours. Okay, so when you start the next morning, do they have a somewhat free flow schedule, or is the entire day pretty scheduled out for you, even if it is thinking time? Well, it was surprising for me because I had assumed that the whole day would be spent meditating or in prayer or reflection. But the reality is they have to keep the lights on. They have to make money. They have to pay bills. They have land.

They have. So the morning was about an hour and a half to two hours of prayer and meditation into a silent meal. And then each of the different monks, and there were eight of them, when to do their own responsibility or task. So they had multiple streams of revenue. And what was amazing was the monastery that I was at, they actually bred German Shepherds. They're the largest breeders of German Shepherds in the United States. So they would breed dogs and as a side hustle, they train dogs.

So they have about six to a dozen dogs come in every two weeks and they train them. And they are the masters, world-renowned, dog breeders and dog trainers. So once we broke from breakfast, from about 10 a.m. until lunch, which they call dinner, supper. And then until the afternoon, they went on and did whatever it was. They were responsible for. And each one of the eight monks, it was very efficient, had their own responsibility. One might be in charge of cleaning. One might be in charge of the dog kennel. One might be in charge of food, whatever it was. And they would break until we regrouped later for our meditation. Now, essentially, I'm going to jump around here, just give folks a general idea of the trip and the time.

But I remember in the book, in fact, I want to point this out for our listeners, part three of the book. It's great. Each chapter is a hashtag. We'll touch on some of those, but these are 10 real-world benefits from Jesse's time. But I recall in reading the book that post-trip, you were marveling at how much effort the monks put into the little things. And so you were just talking about their day-to-day duties. What was the lesson? I know you share it in the book.

I want to tee you up to talk about that. When you reflected on how much effort they put into the teeny tiny regimental things, you came away with a big lesson. Well, I mean, we live in a world of multitasking. You know, we all have to-do lists. And, you know, I love crossing things off my to-do list, even if they're not 100% done. Right. If I can get something at 80%, I'm just anxious to cross it and go to the next thing

because I just want to work through my to-do list. They believed in the opposite. They were amazing monotaskers. And they were always where their feet are. And I remember, you know, whatever they were working on, there was no time limit. It was done when it was done to 100% perfection in the way they wanted it to be done. I remember one day after a retreat, they had a big retreat one day. And they had about a couple hundred people there that had lunch.

And after lunch, I had to clean the dishes. That was my job. I was like the pledge. I was like the rookie on the team. They gave me the dishes. So I was cleaning the dishes and they kept bringing more dishes because there were hundreds of people and the dishes started stacking up. And finally I turned to one of the monks. I said, I'm never going to finish this.

There's just too many. There's hundreds of dishes here. And he looked at me, he said there's not hundreds of dishes. There's only the dish that's in your hand. And what he was saying is like don't think ahead. Don't rush. Be present. Be where your feet are.

You know, take a big task, break it into small tasks. Clean this and go to the next plate. And I did. And I started just working through it until all of them were done. And I realized, you know, look, we all live in routine. So many of us live in routine. When you go through life in routine, life goes fast. And then you wake up all of a sudden you're 80 and you're like, whoa, I gain 40 pounds. The average American gains two pounds a year between like 35 and 60. Now you're 40, 50 pounds overweight. You're 70, 80 years old. And why didn't I do all this stuff? And we go through just because we're going through the process and it just goes so fast. They've been able to slow the clock down. You know, by being super present. I know in my own life, when I'm at my son's soccer game, sometimes I'm thinking about my list and what I have to do and work on Monday and my goals. And I'm all over the place. And sometimes I miss a lot of what I'm there to be doing. So when I came home, I made a really big mental note to kind of always try to be where my feet are. That's really good. Okay, so I want to stay where you were just at because I'm curious what

begin to change in you. Almost back to that first night, he drops you off at six or seven o'clock at night and you're just on your own. We follow your story. We know your journey. You know, you're moving fast. You got a lot going on. Your wife's got a lot going on. You got kids. Everything is moving fast. How long did it take you into the 15 days where, and this may not even be the right question. I don't mind if you correct it. But I'm wondering when did the intentional slowdown, when did it rewire your brain? Well, you know, after like day two or three, I really, even day one, I said to myself, there's no way I'm going 15 days. Right. And the reason was I was like, well, no one's going to care if I'm there for three days or five days versus 15 days. Right. You know,

what's the real benefit? And I started negotiating my goal. My goal was 15 days and I started giving myself an which I realize I do in a lot of areas of my life. You know, like, I worked hard enough. Like, why do I have to keep going? Well, you said you're going to work out for an hour. It's only been 40 minutes. No, no, but I've done a really good 40 minutes. I'm done.

No, no. The goal was an hour. Or, you know, I'm going to return all my calls before I go out and meet my friends for dinner. I got a couple left, but I did great. I got through 70% of my list. I'm going to go, no. You told yourself you're going to do all the calls. So we all negotiate our goal.

goals. But goals should be unwavering. So once if I finally settled in and I'm like, you know what, day four or five, I'm here. I'm here for 15. I'm here for the duration. Once I got that in my head and I realized like, I'm not going to cut me corners here. This is the one time. I'm never going to get a chance to do this again in my life. I don't want to be the 80% version of me. I want to be the 100% version of me. And it starts today. It starts with me sticking it out for 15 days. not for 10 or 12 days. Once I made that commitment and I really settled into,

okay, I'm here, let me get as much out of it as I can, I saw a shift. Because I was doing it for me and not for any other reason. At that point, I was there for me, not for a book,

not to tell stories at the dinner table, but for me to actually experience it and surrender the fact that, okay, I'm away from my four kids, I'm away from my wife, I'm away from work, but let me enjoy it. Once that transition

happened, that's when the floodgate started opening up for a lot of life lessons and just what proved to be an amazing experience. And what really helped me get back in tune with my own gut, you know, when I went there, like probably a lot of listeners, your listeners, yourself included, like we get bombarded. Bombarded with bills, emails, requests, meetings scheduled, family requests for time, friends requests for time, kids, like, we're always getting hit with stuff. to that. And then we have social media and the news that impacts us on top of that. Like, that's a lot to process. And we didn't have that maybe 20, 30 years ago. We didn't have all the

access that we have now. People have so much access to us that I think we've lost our greatest skill or we're starting to, and that's the ability to think and to be in tune with our own intuition. I can Google something. I can ask Alexa. I can ask Siri. When do we ever get the time to actually be alone and get in tune with our own gut. And I can tell you, Ken, man, as an entrepreneur, you know, that probably didn't break a thousand on his SATs, I don't remember what I got, but I don't think it was a thousand. I've relied on my gut. You know, do I trust this person?

Is this scenario situation leading me in the right way? But all of a sudden, I found myself in a spot where I wasn't really, my superpower, the force wasn't with me anymore. I wasn't having that intuition that I had that's helped guide me. And I needed to reconnect with that. And I think the only way to do that is spend time alone. You don't have to go into a monastery. You don't have to go sit on a mountain in the Himalayas

and close your eyes and pray all day. But you do have to spend some time alone or go to places where you think best. You do have to invest the time to reconnect. Otherwise, you're just going to be on this wild goose chase running all over the place. And for some people, it works. But ultimately, I think that that will lead to burnout, fatigue,

decision fatigue and other things that we want to try to avoid. Okay, I want to come back to that. So, folks, don't forget what Jesse just said there. I'm going to come back and ask him to give us some advice on that. But first, I want to go back to what you've been talking about. I'm taking notes. I'm listening. And Jesse, I'm curious that once you got into that rhythm of the new speed, the new quiet,

does the slow down, the quietness allow your brain to slow down to a point where it can you actually hear your heart? Is that what you're essentially saying? Because the thought process, does it slow down to the point that it's actually really good thinking as opposed to a scattered speed thinking? Well, yeah. So absolutely. At least it was for me. So, you know, I think we have a limited amount of space in our computer chip in our brain. Right. I think the average American makes like 35,000 to 50,000 decisions a day. And we're just, we retain a lot of stuff because a lot of stuff comes at us. At the monastery, all the decisions are taken away from you. You eat when they tell you to eat, you eat what they serve you.

I wore one outfit. I showered once. I didn't have any decisions to make other than be present and do what I was told to do. That freed up. Imagine that being the only thing you have to really think or worry about during the day. Do you know how much energy that frees up? Oh, it's tremendous. Do you know how much energy you use every day worrying about things that may never happen?

worrying about things that may never happen to your kids, planning, plotting, strategizing, in traffic. I mean, it's just a lot of energy. When you take a step away from that, even if that's getting everything out, even at home, if you just take everything that's in your head and make a big list, even if you don't do it, if you get it out of your head so it doesn't live in your head,

you're freeing up energy. By day five, I had boundless energy. I was thinking so clearly, I started making list. of every and it was just I have them in my phone it's amazing of what was coming into my head and the clarity I was getting how I wanted to spend my time I'm 50 the average American lives to be 78 so if I'm average I got 28 years man 28 years who do I want to spend that time with and how do I want to spend them and my 70s probably not going to be able to do what I love to do now in my 70s

or even late 70s or even if I hit 80 early 80s like I like to climb mountains I don't see a lot 80-year-olds on top of Mount Washington. That's one of the mountains I just climbed. That window shrinks. So I just reestablish my relationship with time when I was there. And it created an urgency around having as much energy as I can to do the things I love to do with the people I love to do them with. And I started to realize around day six or seven. Might sound obvious.

Maybe everybody says, oh, of course you want to spend the most time with the people you love. but do you do it? Mm-hmm. And how much time do you have left to do that with? Like, the clock doesn't stop, man. The clock ticks. Oh, it's true. So, you know, like, I realize, like, it's now for everything.

And I came back with tremendous urgency. Mm-hmm. So good. I got to put a point in here because Jesse's got four young kids and I've got three. And for you parents, I just want to put this out there because the thought popped in my mind. I heard a parenting expert share this with me one time and it rocked our worlds, Jesse. If you sit down and think about how many weekends you have with your kids before they leave the nest, that's a humbling, sobering thought. I do it all the time.

Yeah, it's unbelievable. I reverse engineer my whole life. So, like, are your parents alive, Ken? Yeah, they still are, thankfully. How old are your parents? 68 and 67. Oh, so they're young. So, and where do they live?

They're in Virginia. And where do you live? I'm in Nashville. How often do you see them? Twice a year if we're lucky. Okay. Let's say you see them twice a year and let's say they get to be 78. So let's just say that they live to the average age.

I hope they live longer. Yes. But let's say they live 10 years. You don't have 10 years with them. At your pace, you have 20 visits. Yeah. Like you don't have 10. Everyone's like, oh, I got 10.

My parents live 10, 20 years. Amazing. You only see them twice. That's 20 visits. Yeah. So when you start to look at things like that and you put it into perspective of time, and that's what I'm saying, like my life right now is 1 to 30. It's not what I've done in 50 years.

I can't get that back. It's from 50 to 80. It's day one today for the next 30 years. That's my entire window. If I live to be 90, great. But let's just say 80, 85. That window is 35 years, man. Whatever I want to do, it's got to fit in that little space.

That's not a lot of space. My list of things I want to do is this big. The years are this big. That's right. So either you've got to shrink your list or you got to use the years super efficiently. Yeah. So good. All right.

I promise you, folks, we go back to an advice question. Jesse, coming off of this experience, which of course they can read in great detail in the book, what would you recommend if we're all sitting around and somebody says, all right, Jesse, how often should I just go get quiet? What do you think a good rhythm is? I mean, I think it's different. I think everybody has their own formula, their own needs, their own system. some people mean more of a recharge than others.

So I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all answer to it. But I do think it's important to take time every day for yourself. And I think that if you don't, it leads to resentment. So I think that if your boss or your spouse or your kids or anyone take away the time and the things that you love to do. So let's say I love to run. I need to do that. I need that every day.

If my wife says, oh, honey, today we have to do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you can't run at all. I'm going to be mad at my wife. And when I'm doing the things with my wife, I'm going to resent her that I'm not running. Whereas opposed to if I could say, look, I need 45 minutes or an hour today for me to do whatever I want to do.

When I'm in that time, I'm not guilty that I'm not with my wife or at work or with my kids because this is my time. Everybody knows and I'm aware of it. Once I do what I need to do in that time, it's like, okay, now I'm happy to go spend the rest of the day or the part of the day with my kids or whatever because I've taken the

time for me. And it's now, again, sounds so simple. And I'm not claiming to have all the answers, but I know a lot of people that walk around angry or pissed off because they've lost control of their greatest asset time. They can't even do the things they love to do because other people are now controlling it. So I encourage people, you know, I had this class called Build Your Life resume that I teach and I tell everyone in my class, take three hours a day, cumulative for yourself. Cumulative. And everyone's like initially like, that's impossible. I have kids. I work. I'm like, so do I. So do I. But it's cumulative. So when you take 20 here, 30, 15 minutes before you go to bed and maybe that's two hours to start off, but it's so important. So to answer your question,

long-winded answer, I don't know what the formula is for how much quiet time you need or this or that, but I do know the importance of taking time every day to do the things that you like and need to do. Because if that gets stripped from you, it's going to reflect how you operate in business. It's going to reflect anger and how you parent and as a parent. It's going to reflect in animosity or resentment in your relationship. And it's a simple fix. And let everybody know and do the same. Like if I have a big goal can I let people know, I let my wife know, like, look, I'm going out of balance. I got this goal. It's important to me. I love you. We're still going to have plenty of time. But I just want you and everyone to know and the kids to know that to get this

goal, I have to invest this amount of time and I would love your blessing. And once everyone's on the same page, it's all good. But you've got to communicate it. Yeah, that's so good. It's just a simple boundary. And I think that's really rich. I want to go back to the monotask. This is another one of the 10 real world benefits in part three, hashtag monotask. Jesse explained it beautifully and illustrated it for us. But Jesse, now let's let you teach us. We've got a bunch of leaders, we've got personal growth junkies that listen to this program. How do they take that lesson that you shared earlier and really apply it to the day so that they're actually more effective and a little bit more disciplined, the monotask? Because as you said, we're all, you know,

if people are looking at their day right now, they're going, oh, my word, I'm doing this, I'm doing this, I'm doing this. How do they begin to take the discipline of monotasking? You know, it's funny because you're asking someone who's highly ADD. Exactly. So, I mean, I struggle with that because I sometimes operate best when I have multiple balls in the air and this and that. But the reality is, you know, I've had this fundamental shift now where I take everything off of my desk other than the thing that I'm working on. I schedule my calendar differently, so I have enough time to complete a task before I go to the next and I try not to rush through things. I try to do things, you know, as best that I can.

Little things like I just went to my son's soccer game with my four kids. I left my phone at home. In the old days I probably bring it. I check it at half time. I check it. But no, no, that can wait 40 minutes. Here I am. And, you know, if I'm reading a book and I want to read 20 pages or I'm writing something and I'm like, I want to write 20 pages, I don't really get up until that's done. And I don't rush through it. I just try to complete the task until I go, to the next task. And that's been a better system for me than bouncing around, having multiple things. I'm still all over the place. But like I said, I'm trying to be where my feet are. Right now, I'm talking to you. I'm not thinking about, you know, the 50,000 other things I have to do today.

Doesn't mean they're not there. Doesn't mean they're going to go away. But right now, you and I are having a conversation and that's where I am. When this is over, I'm shut down. I'm not going to revisit it and I'm going to go to the next one. That's right. I'm going to chip away, man, chip away at that list and just every day, it's just got got, chop down the tree. Chop down the tree, next tree, chop it down. All right, I want to go to page 253 for you booknote folks. And it is the sixth chapter in part three, hashtag go where you think best. And what's interesting when you open up this chapter, it takes us back to earlier in our conversation that first night we're Christopher leaves you in your room and you're going, what have I done? You know, I get 13 hours by

myself. What does that hashtag mean? Because I think it's one of the greatest takeaways from the books. I just want to let you unpack it. Yeah, I mean, I just, I'm a creative guy, you know, and I think we don't spend very often enough time in the places where we're most productive and where we think best. And for me, I get my best ideas in a car, in an airplane, on run, and I try to spend at least a portion of my day in those spots and in those places. And when I get a groove, I want to stay there because if that's where I think best, if that's where my most creative ideas come to me, then the longer I stay there, I'm going to reap the fruit.

So is that where you were going with it? Absolutely, yeah, because I think sometimes we, because of the busy routine, what jumped out at me is we all have our own spot. I actually enjoy road trips. I can't do more than about four hours at a time because I have ADHD as well, and it drives me crazy. I have every letter. Yeah. I have every letter. So do I.

Truth be known, the guys behind the glass are laughing because these last couple questions are convicting for me. And I know some of you are going to get something out of it. But I know when I read that, I went, yeah, that's right. And I began to identify my own places. And yet I was convicted, Jesse, because I'm sitting there going, but I don't strategically put myself in those places as much as I ought to. Now that was the big takeaway for me is the intentional, getting the intentional place where the juice is. Yeah. All right, I want to shift gears because your books are so fun, and I remember how I laughed out loud with Living with a Seal. We've not talked about any humorous moments. What sticks out to you as some funny moments or where there's some laugh out loud moments for you personally hanging out with these Russian Orthodox monks?

My gosh, man. Yeah, asking you to choose one is difficult? Oh, I just remember it was like, I was like a Martian. You know, it was like, it was like I was zapped in from decades, from like, it was like a scene from back to the future. Right. So I just remember kind of, they were asking me about my background. I was talking about the Atlanta Hawks and that were part of the ownership group. And one of the guys said, oh, you know, that, that's amazing.

I've been to a baseball game before and I explained that it was a basketball, team. Then I was talking about, you know, private jets and everything that I was saying that I've done, they had no idea. And so there was a lot of those kind of moments. I remember we went off campus, off the monastery to go for a hike one day. And that was a really funny experience for me just because it was built up that they hike all the time. And so that was just getting in the car with them. And it was like we all crammed into this one car. It was like nine of us in this small little car and they brought one of the dogs and that was a crazy experience. Are they wearing robes all the time or is that another myth?

Only in church. Interesting. It was really interesting. Because I picture you in a robe, but that again is me romanticizing. That did not happen. No, I wasn't in a robe. And you showed up with a shaved head. This is another funny little thing.

You thought, well, they shave their heads and they don't shave their heads up there. Yeah, I just, I shaved my head before we went. thinking, you know, I'd just be respectful. And I just assumed, like, you know, I'm going to, I mean, I knew I didn't have to do that, but I figured I would want to blend in and just, you know, it wouldn't cause any issues. Because I have crazy hair, as you can see. It's, you know, it was way longer then. Right. And so I just shaved it and then showed up there, and then they all had long hair. So I stood out anyway. Yeah. Now, how aware of the outside world are they? Do they know how crazy 2018 really is? Yeah, so they're super well read, very, very intelligent. They actually,

every Sunday gather around and watch the news. So they have in a back room, which I didn't access, there's a TV that they would, you know, it's like one of those old TVs where you put the hanger and the antenna. Oh, yeah. Touch the metal. And then you got to click the channel. Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah, they had, they would watch the news. So they kept up on it. They know what's going on. They know what's going on, but they're not at a high level, at a high level. I don't think they would know how to operate in iPhone 10. Right. So as you're closing up on your 15 days, have you reached a point where you've learned so much from them, but now they're a little bit curious with you, or do they just do their routine? And obviously they were kind to you and you're

having conversation. But I'm just curious, do they begin to lean into you a little bit and learn more of what you're doing? Because these are business people. I thought that was one of the most interesting thing is that they're the best of the best when it comes to breeding German shepherds. And efficient. You know, they run this 500-acre monastery that they've built everything themselves. They have a business that works, that's profitable, that keeps the lights on. They have books and CDs on how to train puppies and dogs that have sold millions of copies. They have licensing agreements. I mean, they've really built this amazing thing. First of all, I love them. All of the monks on the monastery were engaging.

They were very hospitable. They made me feel very welcomed. But they wanted to learn just as much as I want to learn from them. They wanted to learn from me. So we were brainstorming. I think we had like a little whiteboard session one day. We were talking about other ways that they could kind of grow their followers and spread their gospel and get more customers.

And it was just really fascinating. Yeah. That's so cool. I was like, there's a thing called the Internet. Yeah. And yeah, they're like the one. So two quick questions. Are you going to get a German Shepherd from them? Ah, I have to clear that with my wife. It's still a negotiation. But if we do, I'm going to name it Monk. Yes, which is perfect. I wouldn't. Come here, Monk. Exactly. I'm so glad I asked that. It was random, but I wouldn't expect anything different from you. And then what are the chances that they sit on the court side seats with you at a future Hawks game? Oh my gosh. That would be amazing.

I think that would be great. Like they just all sit there with you right on the front row, all these orthodox guys. It should be great. Yeah. Let's do it. Well, you know, listen, I'm living your life for you. I don't know why I'm making suggestions. Great stuff.

Hey, before you go, this is such a fun book and you took so much from it. And one of the things I love to ask authors is if there were one thing, and I know there's much more. What do you want people to do, Jesse, after they read this? You know what's interesting for me? The lesson here, one of the lessons, and I list 10 specific lessons in the book, et cetera, but for me, this journey was about building my life resume. And it was just another experience that no one could take away from me. It was another thing within that 30-year window we're talking about that I wanted to do

and had an opportunity to do as opposed to living in routine. And I just really, for me, that's been a great blessing, encouraging people to, you know, we focus on our traditional resume so much. And there's so much emphasis in the world around building your resume. But I think that model is broken. And I think if we turn that model upside down and focus on our life resume, it often, very often leads us towards a promotion or a dream job or a shift in career. It makes us more interesting.

And the more you experience, the more you have to offer. So for me, one of the biggest takeaways was just being there. And when I was done and I left the monastery, I got picked up, and I got in the car with the driver, and he said to me, well, how do you feel? And he thought I was going to say, tired, hungry, anxious, you know, isolated, whatever. But the answer was proud. I was proud that I stuck it out all the 15 days and didn't cut it short. I was proud that I put myself in a position to learn. Very often, real growth comes from stepping into the unknown, and that's what I did. And I was proud of myself for taking this leap of faith and pushing myself in a spiritual way as opposed to just a

physical way. And these are all things that you do when you sign up for something or do something that you don't know what the results are going to be or maybe a little bit outside of your routine. And that was kind of, it was just a reinforcing moment for me that like I'm on the right journey for me and my life. Like adding more kinds of things like this and building my life resume. is really important. Now, I'm not saying you got to go live on a monastery for 15 days. Of course you don't.

But what I am saying is it's these kind of newness. It's very hard to get newness as an adult. Where does it even come from? It's something that I crave. The lesson here for me, even outside of the book, outside of what we're talking about,

was how important those kind of experiences are to put on your plate. And when I left, the first thing that came to my head is like, what's next? What more can I do? Because I am aware of that shrinking window of time that we talked about in the beginning of this call. Folks, it's a tremendous message. It's always entertaining. Any book and anything that Jesse puts out is entertaining, but don't miss the depth that is in this book. You need to run, go get it, devour it, and meditate on it and let it challenge you.

Jesse always challenges me. Jesse, I just want to say this. I know you do 100 million interviews. We're grateful that you spent time with us a year and a half. have two years ago on the first book. And I fell in deep admiration for you. I've never met other than just talking to each other and looking at each other on a video screen. But I want to tell you this, and I mean this, you're six years older than me. We come from the same era. And my all-time favorite movie is Dead Poets Society in the scene where Robin Williams leans in behind those young men and whispers Carpe Diem. It's such a powerful moment for me, as cheesy as it may sound. you live that, dude, you live that. You've been wildly successful financially,

relationally, and yet you continue to challenge and convict and inspire me, and I know millions of others. And I just don't want to let this time pass by saying, you sharing your hunger to make the most. You are the living, breathing embodiment of Carpe Diem. And I just want to say thank you because it is incredibly inspiring. And we appreciate you. Man, that means a lot to me. And thank you for having me early on in my journey with the first book and here again. And I really appreciate that.

And if I could just say in closing, you know, to that point, I just don't want to have any regrets. Yes. You know, I mean, we all talk about not having regrets. And of course, I have regrets. There's regrets that you can change. And then there's the regrets that you can change, right? You can go back. If you didn't get your high school diploma, you can go back and get it if you regret it.

But then there's the regrets that down the road you can prevent. Yes. And I don't want to go and be like, man, I was the 80% version of me. That's right. There's nothing to do with money either. It's like, I just don't want to be like I went through the motions. I want to go and create that kind of life of doing the things I love to do. And I feel very lucky to be in a position to have done that.

And I feel like there's a lot more that I want to do. And so I appreciate you recognizing that. And I'm glad I get to share those thoughts with people. And maybe it'll inspire people to seek out their own form of newness. Yes. Well, you model the way. You hopefully will be an old man, family gathered around. This is my dream. And we look back on our life and we reminisce, not regret. And I think that you're modeling that. And I think it's a powerful challenge. It is living with the monks. What turning off my phone taught me about happiness, gratitude, and focus. He is Jesse. Itzler. Jesse, I know you got a lot going on. We're going to let you go. Thanks for being where your feet are for us over these last few minutes. We're all better for it. We appreciate you. Well, thank you guys so much for having me, man. I appreciate it. All right. I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. As I said, before we went to the conversation, Jesse and his wife, Sarah Blakely, going to be both with us in San Diego for our Summit 2019 event. The main room is sold out, but the team decided to add a grand hall experience. So this is the same content as the main stage.

and it's going to be broadcast live into this adjacent grand hall ballroom. Then the live from Summit stage, which I host, these are interviews with most of our speakers, come out on this stage. We've been doing this in the hallway and putting live on social media in past events. This time we're going to be doing in this grand hall ballroom. So not only you're going to see all the content, all the speakers, you'll get that special access in this room as well. You'll get all the other access that the main stage attendees have. you're just going to be watching it in that overflow room, if you will.

Dave Ramsey, Chris Hogan, Pat Lynch, Sioni, Sarah Blakely, Jesse Isler, Simon Sinek, Peyton Manning, Marcus Buckingham, Dr. Henry Cloud, yours truly. Got to be given a keynote address so excited to be speaking as well as hosting this great event. Entreeleadership.com slash summit. Or the link is in the show notes, episode 292. All right, our friends at Infusion Software bringing you a personalized growth planner. Developing a solid sales and marketing strategy can be intimidating, but InfusionSoft takes all of the intimidation out of the process. They've got a proven framework for capturing leads,

increasing sales, and creating lifetime value for your customers. So if you want to attract your ideal customer, sell your brand, and while your customers, get this free personalized growth planner. Get it at infusionsoft.com slash get my planner. That's Infusionsoft.com. That's Infusionsoft. dot com slash get my planner or you can get the link in the show notes episode 292 well folks that is going to do it so on behalf of the entire entree leadership team thank you so much for listening we'll talk with you again very soon hey folks i want to make sure that you're aware that we have other great podcasts from ramsie solutions here's a sample of the chris hogan show i am so excited to be able to talk to you all week in and week out we're going to talk about your money your life your

dreams and your goals. You know why? Because I'm your coach. Whether we're talking about building wealth, paying off your home early, investing, paying for college, and guess what? How to become an everyday millionaire. We're going to focus on taking your calls because you matter to me. Together, we can do this. This is the Chris Hogan Show. If you'd like to hear full episodes, just search the Chris Hogan Show in Apple Podcasts or go to chris Hogan 360.com.