The Nick Bare Podcast - 038: 8 Valuable Lessons to Succeed In Work and Life

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

In today's solo episode, I delve into the heart of my entrepreneurial journey, sharing the invaluable insights and wisdom I've gained from over 10 years in business. However, these lessons are not just about achieving success in the professional world; they are keys to unlocking fulfillment and success in your personal life. Failures, challenges, and triumphs have led me to these insights, and if applied, they can help you navigate your own journey. Enjoy! Save 10% at BPN Supps: https://bit.ly/nickbare10audio Follow for more:  IG: https://www.instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nickbarefitness Topics: 00:00 Intro 1:32 Work matters, play is important 5:04 Strategic persistence 13:13 Don’t forget to live 24:31 Behaviors are guided by incentive 34:45 Start today 38:39 Action reflects character 41:39 The hospitality business 49:47 Build a healthy business 52:17 Set the conditions for success

We are so worried about life that we forget to live. We're worried about how much money we make, how many likes we can get on a photo. We're worried about the opinions and perceptions of others who don't know us and judge us. We're so worried about those things that we forget to live. Because we say, when I get this promotion, I will do X, Y, and Z. When I make this much money, we will then be able to live. If you've been following me for any amount of time, you know that I value work. I value hard work a lot.

But play is important and don't be afraid to play and explore your curiosities and passions. And you shouldn't feel guilty for pursuing that. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to thank you for tuning in and supporting the brand. Now, I have spent the last decade plus of my life building bare performance nutrition. And we create effective supplements that you can trust to support your wellness, endurance, and performance goals. We offer high-quality, great-tasting weight protein powders, effective pre-workouts, superfoods, sleep support, electrolytes, and much more.

So if you want to support the content that we produce and the message that I am sharing through my content and on this podcast, I would greatly appreciate it if you went to BPNSups.com and you can use code Nick Bear 10 to save 10% off your next order. So thank you guys. I appreciate you. and let's dive into the show. Today's episode of the podcast is about things that I've learned over the last decade plus of building a business.

Some lessons I've learned through entrepreneurship. And if I had to sit down and make a list, I guarantee that list would be 100, 150, 200 things or lessons that I've learned and acquired over this time. and I will probably make follow-up videos after this one. But I wanted to sit down and really just talk about eight things that have been on my mind recently. This is a collection of things that I have identified. Some of these things are based off of books or podcasts that I have read or listened to over the last couple months.

but as I sat down, these eight things really would not leave my mind and I wanted to share with you because I think they are very important not only for building a business but very applicable to life as a whole. And I was planning and thinking about this episode

and one of the key takeaways that I want you to leave here with, hopefully, is that work matters. but play is very important. And this is a lesson that I'm trying to learn myself. I used to consider myself a workaholic. And I was very proud of that. I was proud of the nonstop need and desire to work.

Because when I wasn't working, I was uncomfortable. And I've learned over time that is not the most. sustainable approach to life, especially as you prioritize family, have children, prioritize your relationships. You know, effort feels good. It does putting forth an effort and achieving goals and results. But effort without results necessarily doesn't. And you've heard me talk about this over the last couple months, but

just because you're working on something and you're working hard doesn't mean that work is producing an outcome and instead of focusing on the effort, instead of focusing on the work, I think we should focus on result-driven work, outcome-oriented efforts. And that's some of the stuff we're going to talk about

throughout this episode. Going back to work matters, but play is important. before we dive into some of these lessons, I wrote this down. I no longer want to work just to be working anymore, but the time I spend on work needs to be intentional,

thoughtful, and impactful. So just working to work doesn't provide me this fulfillment or joy like it used to, but the work that is very, like I said, intentional and impacts people and has a mission behind it,

that's the work that I want to sink my hands into and really get dirty and make things happen. So the first lesson I'm going to talk about this popped up on my Instagram feed a few weeks ago and I shared it with as many people as I could because I thought it was extremely valuable and important. If you're not following James Clear

on Instagram, go follow James right now. Pause this episode and go follow James and just read a bunch of his stuff. But the key takeaway is that persistence is not just about effort, but also strategy. And James's quote that I'm going to reference right here that I, like I said, shared with a lot of people from Instagram. It says, you're more likely to unlock a big leap in performance. by trying differently than by trying harder. You might be able to work 10% harder, but a different approach might work 10 times better.

Remain focused on the core problem, but explore a new line of attack. Persistence is not just about effort, but also strategy. Don't merely try harder, try differently. And I'm sure we've all heard the quote, many, many times before, work smarter, not harder.

And I will tell you from personal experience, I used to repeat this and I used to say this, but I didn't actually practice it. I think a lot of us have this issue is we say one thing, but we don't put it into practice. And we might say, do as I say, not as I do.

Right? Like, we know better. I know better. I know that working smarter will drive more effective and efficient results, but sometimes working harder is actually easier. And I'll explain why. Now there's another book that I

I highly recommend by Marshall Goldsmith. It's called What Got You Here Won't Get You There. And sometimes we have to take one step backwards to take two steps forward Because it's easy to follow a plan that has predictable results, but it's hard to try something new that has risk associated with it. Myself, Jordan, and Ian were literally just talking about this

in our Monday morning meeting a few hours ago. Talking about how often it is really easy to keep doing what you've been doing even though it's working because the results, the outcome is predictable. You know if you do X, Y, and Z it's going to produce

A, B, and C. For example, it's safe, it's predictable, it works. It's also probably, in most cases, sustainable.

But what if you decide, like deliberately decide to forget X, Y, and Z and try something new. Now that's a hard choice. It could be considered the hard right over the easy wrong.

It's a hard choice because it's unpredictable. There is risk associated with those choices because you don't know the outcome because potentially you've never tried it before. But like James Clear said, what if the, the, the results, the ROI, the return on investment is 10 times greater.

It's 10 times better. What I'm trying to get across in this first lesson right here that I hope you're taking away is just because you've been doing something one way doesn't necessarily mean it's the best way to do something. It's predictable. Yes, it works, yes. But what if it could work better? what if it could produce greater results,

not only helping yourself and benefiting you, but other people as well. So oftentimes, even if something is working, we have to take this big picture approach and perspective. Take one step back. Look at the plan. Look at what you are doing and identify, or at least try to identify opportunities to do it better.

Or maybe not even better, but do it differently. and just try and experiment. Because even if it fails, you will have learned so much through that, that journey, that process. I guarantee it. You know, when I talk about these things, it's because I've gone through

chapters and seasons of life myself where I've done this. I have failed at a lot of things over this last decade plus of building a brand. I have failed that just about everything. I've made all the mistakes. And I will continue to make a lot of mistakes.

in the future. I will and I accept that because I'm trying new things. I'm experimenting. I know there's a risk associated with different choices and trying new things, but if you never try, you never know.

We want to be rewarded for our effort. Even when the effort produces zero results. And you've probably seen people wearing t-shirts. Maybe you're wearing this t-shirt right now or maybe you have this bumper sticker or maybe you've posted this motivational quote, I know I have before. I'm guilty.

And it says, be the hardest worker in the room. And my question that is, well, is it BS? Like, is working harder? Is that a skill? Should that be recognized and rewarded? Just working harder.

Is that something that we should pat people on the back for and congratulate them on achieving? Even if working harder produces less or little results. But should we be rewarded for the outcome and the result that is associated with the effort we are applying to something, whether that's building a business or showing up as a father or a husband, a wife, a mother, being a business partner, being a friend, contributing to society. I met a lot of hard workers. I've met people who claim to be the hardest working person in the room, but are also working on the wrong things.

And I believe that the. the age of being the hardest worker in the room, yes, there's something to recognize there if you are working on the right thing. Again, persistence is not just about effort, but it's also about strategy. And it's not always about working harder, but it's taking a step back,

looking at the big picture, and trying to identify opportunities to do things better, more effectively, applying strategy so that the result, the outcome is 10 times greater than you could have achieved just by putting in more effort. Effort is important, but the right effort, a focused effort, is what is required to win and succeed and provide fulfillment and passion and everything you're trying to squeeze out of that lemon of life. It's important.

Lesson number two, this is also another James Clear quote. It was an Instagram post that again, I screenshoted and shared with a lot of people. And he said there's two rules to his life. one, the person who has the most fun wins, and two, the climb is the fun part. Now, if you haven't noticed with this podcast, I'm sharing things that I'm learning along the way. And a lot of the things that I share

are things that really resonate with me. And when things resonate with me, it's because I see something in a book or I hear in a podcast or someone posts about or says that I can relate to because I'm struggling with something similar or I have in the past and I can truly relate to what is being said, those words that are put together, they hit me in my core. And two rules of life. The person who has the most fun wins in the climb is the fun part.

James Clear. I think a lot of us, if you're listening to this podcast, you are probably someone who is a high achiever, high performer, sets the bar extremely high and is goal-oriented. I would assume if you're listening to a lot of my content because, well, that's the type of person that I am and that's how I live my life. And oftentimes, we will take life too serious. And if you're taking life too serious, you really are never at peace. You never feel peaceful.

And feeling peaceful is just when you can sit down and relax and the weight is like off your shoulders. And you feel joy. For a long time, I could not feel that. I didn't experience that. The last couple months, I have truly felt peace and it feels light. It feels really great. and part of the reason I've been able to experience this piece, again, I think having a daughter, becoming a dad, it changed my life.

It truly did. If anyone that has kids can most likely relate to this, but it opens your eyes to what you've been missing, where you need to shift or reshift your focus and your priorities. it puts life into perspective where you're spending your time, your energy, just being present. And when my daughter was born, who's about to be 16 months old, she's coming up on a year and a half, which is crazy to say and think. It's been the fastest year and a half in my life. I've realized that I've been taking life way too serious.

Now, life is serious, yes, but when we take it way too serious, we eliminate all the play and play is an important part of life. It truly is. I believe we should explore, play, pursue curiosity. If there's something you're really interested in, pursue it, try it. You know, in the past, I was so regimented and strict with where I was spending my time and energy that if there was something that I wanted to pursue that I was, curious about, I wouldn't because I was afraid that it would distract me from the one thing

I wanted and needed to be focused on that was building the business. And now I'm starting to pursue some of these curiosities, like cooking. I've always been into cooking, but more recently I've really got into cooking. And I'll talk a little bit more about this throughout the episode. but I've been studying and researching different chefs and trying different recipes and learning different techniques and taking master classes on how to cook certain things

and how to use utensils and how to incorporate herbs and seasonings and spices and cooking techniques and then applying them to a recipe and then letting my family and friends try this food that I'm making. I'm loving that. For me, that is exploring and pursuing a curiosity.

That is play. Cooking for me is not work. It is play. Music has always been something that I've been extremely curious and interested in. When I was in high school, I was actually in a few rock bands, punk bands. I played guitar, can never sing. Still to this day, wish that I could sing. It's the one thing that if I could like have one wish,

and that one wish was granted selfishly, I believe that wish would be that I could sing. And when I say sing, I mean like, belt it out, let it rip. Now that Steph and I live in Nashville, we've been going to more shows, more concerts, and just experiencing and watching some of these extremely talented musicians blows my mind how good they are in person. And I wish that I could do that same thing.

I mean, literally just like, belt it out, hold a note for like 15, 20 seconds. That'd be badass. That'd be about one wish. But I love music. I love playing music. I love listening to music. It makes me feel a certain way

and certain songs connect me to this emotional memory. Food does the same thing for me. But I've been pursuing and exploring these curiosities that I've always wanted to act on, but they felt like distractions. And now that I have, they've brought so much joy to my life. And as I've been spending more time on some of these things,

which for me is play, it's brought me more peace. It's allowed me to not take every aspect and part of life so serious. And that's something I've been very conscious of and intentional with my thought processes throughout the day, especially in my early morning runs.

You know, for me, I wake up to 4.45 every morning right now. My day's getting started. I'm preparing for my morning run. I'm looking at emails, looking at text messages from the night before, and sometimes, depending on what's going on

with the business or my life or projects that I'm working on, it's really easy to get extremely overwhelmed early in the day, at least for me it is, as I'm going through all these notes and emails and just getting called up. And when I go out my run, I tell myself,

Nick, don't take everything so serious. Don't take life so serious. It's going to work its way out. Attack one thing at a time. Let's block and tackle all these objectives that need to get done. It's not as overwhelming as it felt 10, 15, 20 minutes ago. And when I finished my morning run,

I feel lighter. I feel better. I've just negotiated with myself from being overwhelmed to really just feeling at peace. And then I approach the day meeting my wife and daughter in the kitchen after my morning run

as the person that I want to show up as. The person who has the most fun in life, that's who wins. When you end up on your deathbed, getting ready to go to heaven if you did all the things right, and you look back and say, man, I had some.

fun. You're the one that won. And if you look back and you say, the journey to get here, that's what made it so fun, you really won two things to focus on. Or you can be the person that's on your deathbed and you look back of your life and you say, wow, I worked a lot and I ran it into the ground. and I didn't play as much as I wanted to. But time's up.

Time is up. You only get one of those chances. I used to look at fun and play, like I said, as a distraction. And that distraction was a waste of time. And that would bring upon this feeling of guilt for having fun, going to the concert, going to dinner, eating something that was off my diet. I'd feel guilty for these things because I attributed these moments of fun and play to a distraction to the goal and outcome that I wanted to achieve. And I've completely flipped the script over time as I've gotten older and experienced more of life and in my opinion had become wiser.

because we are so worried about life that we forget to live. Think about that. We're so worried about life. We're worried about how much money we make. We're worried about what things we can buy. We're worried about what other people think of us. We're worried about how many likes we can get on a photo. We're worried about the opinions and perceptions of others

who don't know us and judge us. And we're so worried about those things that we forget to live. Because we say, when I get this promotion, I will do X, Y, and Z. When I make this much money, we will then take a vacation. When we achieve this status

or accomplish this thing, we will then be able to live. It might be too late then. If you've been following me for any amount of time, you know that I value work. I value hard work a lot. It's what has put me in the position I am today. But play is important,

and don't be afraid to play and explore your curiosities and passions. And you shouldn't feel guilty for pursuing that. You really shouldn't. And anyone who tells you otherwise is probably pretty unhappy themselves. Lesson number three is that behaviors are guided by the incentive theory. I sourced this from Masterclass.

And here's how I kind of came to this one. Again, I saw a post a few months ago that I loved and I sent it to Kat Thomas, who's our CEO. and it's from Donald Miller. I'm a big fan of Donald Miller's work, his books, his workshops. We've actually put the BPN team through the story brand workshop a few years ago. And this post he had said,

study the incentives in play and you will predict people's behavior. Study the incentives in play and you will predict people's behavior. Now, I also think that if you study your incentives that are in play, you can predict your own behavior. This is, in my opinion, self-awareness. And self-awareness is extremely important.

But what can understanding individuals' behaviors and ours teach us? Now, like I said, I sourced some of, of this work from Masterclass. I actually have a membership on Masterclass and mainly I do the cooking masterclass lessons. A few weeks ago I went through a breadmaking master class course because Steph and I are really into making sourdough right now and Steph makes like a loaf of sourdough every other day at this point, which is an insane process. If you ever made sourdough,

like it's not just throwing a few ingredients together. There is a process, and it's taken her quite some time to get her sourdough loaves to where they're at. I'm a big fan of this journey that she has won because I've been crushing sourdough and I'm in marathon prep. And, you know, one thing is definitely helping me get more carbs in and run all the miles I am right now. but I think masterclass is great.

Like I said, I went to the breadmaking class or course a few weeks ago. I'm currently in like some general cooking courses on master class. This is by no means sponsored by masterclass. I'm just a fan of learning new skills. And like I said, pursuing curiosities. Some of the best way or best ways to explore curiosities is books, podcast, courses, masterclasses, a great resource that I've used in the past and I will probably continue to use moving forward.

But I pulled some of this information from their website online. And the incentive theory of motivation states that external rewards and punishments are the primary cause of an individual's behavior as opposed to internal factors. and people derive motivation from all sorts of external sources, but there are three of the most common that I'm about to read off. One is compensation. Makes sense.

People are motivated by money and making money. Two is recognition. I think this is a huge source of motivation for a lot of people that utilize social media. and three is security, which I completely understand, security for yourself and your family, for short-term and long-term benefit.

And I was thinking about, like, what, what am I incentivized by? And I would encourage you to think, like, what are you incentivized by? What, where is your motivation from external? And you could also say internal sources as well. where does it come from? Where's it derived from?

I thought long and hard about this one. I would be very foolish and naive to say that I am not motivated by compensation at some level, recognition at some level, security at some level, yes, like all three of those things play a role in what motivates me to do what I do and work.

But where I think a lot of my incentives come from are freedom. Freedom with my time, my money, my energy, my priorities. Where I spend those things, when I spend it, what I spend it on, and why I spend it. One of the things that I've learned in the course of my lifetime is just how valuable time is. and specifically like where you spend that time. I remember years ago, it's when we were in our first warehouse, in our office in Round Rock, Texas,

2590, Oakmont Drive, Suite 420, Round Rock, Texas, 78665. That was our first office and warehouse flex space that we occupy. And I also, I'll remember this day for the rest of my life, but I had to go walk down to one of the other businesses in our same business park because some of the mail from their office accidentally got delivered to our office

and I went to drop it off, be a friendly neighbor. And I walked into this office. There were no windows. It was like bright fluorescent light. It was very corporate, run down. And you walked in and there was this reception desk. And it was one of those reception desks where the receptionists sit down low, probably on like a table I'm sitting at right now.

It's like a 30 inch high table, regular seat. But then in front of them is like a two foot little ledge that when people walked in, they could lean up against and then you look down to the receptionist. So like you're, you're standing up as you walk in. The receptionist is sitting down. But the receptionist that's sitting down can't see above that little wall and they really can't see outside. So you're just contained to like this eight foot wide, four foot deep box.

And for some reason, I remember being there thinking these people behind the reception desk are probably here for eight hours a day, five days a week. And they might be there for five, ten, 15, maybe 20 years doing that job. Now, to each their own,

but would I want to spend 20 years in an eight foot wide, four foot deep, receptionist desk area where I can't see outside and when people come in, I have to look up to see them

so I can't even see the doors or out the doors that are behind them. Absolutely not. That for me is not freedom with my time, my energy, what I value.

I don't care how much I'm getting paid. What the compensation is. It doesn't align with the freedom of the life that I want to live. there would be no incentive for me to live that life. There has to be another option or opportunity or choice outside of that. We all have choices. Sometimes we have to,

we have to go through some mud to get to their side. And one of my favorite quotes is that if there's something you don't like or you don't like doing, you need to change the way you think about it or change what you're actually doing. And if you can't do either of those, if you can't change what you think about it or change what you're doing,

you need to find a solution to get out and do something new. You see, not only is understanding your own incentives very important because one, like I said, it allows you to become more self-aware but it teaches you and tells you what you enjoy and what you don't enjoy and what you value and what you don't value

and where you want to spend your time and how you want to spend it knowing your own incentives is important but also understanding what incentivizes other people is also important because one it allows you to understand why people act a certain way it allows you to understand behaviors for good or for bad. But also in a partnership, it allows you to align incentives. And if you can't align on incentives, you can at least communicate what each other incentives are

so you understand why someone is doing what they're doing, how they're doing it, and what they're doing. I think if you communicate that in a partnership, whether business, family, social, friendship. It's extremely beneficial. Number four is the sooner you start, the better because today is never too late, but tomorrow may be. Now, there's not a whole lot to say about this.

It's pretty self-explanatory, but this can be applied to work and to play. Because if we keep procrastinating on the things that we want to do, or we know that we need to do, you're just pushing everything off. And the end result, the outcome that we want to achieve is just one day later,

one week later, one month later, one year later. I recorded a podcast a few months ago and it said that done is better than perfect because perfect never gets done. Kat Thomas, our CEO, told me that. and I'll never forget it because it resonated a lot.

What I've been doing my entire life is just been focused on getting things done, not focusing on perfecting. We can keep improving. I don't know if we ever perfect anything. Get it done and then make evolutions to what has been done, improving and making better.

but striving for perfection, it's never going to get there. And it's just going to be getting pushed off one additional day, week, month, and year. I think of my mom's life a lot because the year that my mom was supposed to retire, even though she loved her job, she loved her work. There was so much passion and fulfillment in it. Her job was not like the one I described of the receptionist behind a desk for 20 years. My mom taught special education. She coached Special Olympics.

She was very involved in our community. She loved her work. But the year that she was supposed to retire and move to me and my brother and just bring the family all back together, again because my brother and I were living in Texas. My parents were still in Pennsylvania. That same year, she ended up getting diagnosed with cancer. Advanced stage ovarian cancer. And from the time she was diagnosed to the time she passed away, six months,

very fast, aggressive cancer. No one could have seen it coming. And it happened in a blink of an eye. It was so fast. She explored curiosities when she was younger, even when she was older. She played. She had fun. But just when she was getting ready to retire and embark on this brand new journey and chapter of life, she was robbed of that.

Tomorrow was too late. She didn't have any more time. So postponing life or the act. to live so that we can keep working. It's a dangerous ladder to climb. Again, I appreciate work. I am the biggest fan of hard work. But I do believe that it needs to be not necessarily balanced,

but I will say complimented with play. Because one without the other isn't enjoyable, it's not sustainable, and you're not going to do your best in either category without applying a little bit of one another. Number five is that your character is a greater contributor of value

than your bank account or your net worth. We're in church this past weekend and a Bible verse that always stands out to me that our pastor set on stage that really just hit home a little extra

this past weekend he said when you get to heaven and God welcomes you into his kingdom he says well done good and faithful servant now God doesn't welcome you into his kingdom

because he opens up your bank account and says Ah, you have enough to get in. We'll take the rest. Thanks, bud. Get on back. No, that is not a contributor of value. Now, it can be depending on how you use that money and who you help and how generous you are with what you build in a lifetime.

I'd say it's more important how you make your money than what you make. but your character is a greater contributing value. You know, there's a lot of people who, again, going back to earlier in this podcast, will say one thing, but then the actions don't reflect the things that they say. If you ask someone how to describe their character, it's a very interesting interview question or just conversational. with people in general. How would you describe your character?

And the things that people list, then interesting to see how their actions reflect those character traits that they say they value and then how they live those out in their life. I'm very intentional with being self-aware with the character values that I believe that I have or I want to achieve and then making sure that my actions reflect that

or I'm trying to get better at ensuring my actions reflect the character traits that I have or want to have and make improvements. Loyalty is one of those things. I know a lot of people who will say they are loyal or also a lot of people who say they value integrity but then the actions don't necessarily reflect

the character traits that they say they are trying to. to embody. Your character, my character, is a greater contributor of value than your bank account, your net worth. Number six, I am obsessed with this one right now. Business is all about how you make people feel. We are all in the hospitality business. Right now I'm listening to a book titled Setting the Table by Danny Meyer. Danny has an extensive backer. Brown history and experience in the restaurant business, building and starting restaurants. He is responsible for building Shake Shack, but he's also built a lot of high-end restaurants as well. And one of the things he says in his book, which I highly recommend picking up, I'm listening to

his audiobook right now. Business is all about how you make people feel. We are all in the hospitality business. You know, you can't, this is coming from a business mindset. You can't buy an emotional connection. You have to create it. One of the things I always always say is you can't buy brand. You can buy a business.

You can't buy brand. You can't buy community. Just because you put forth persistent effort doesn't mean you can create an emotional connection. There has to be strategy incorporated into that. Whether it's actually intentional or not, there needs to be strategy involved. And this is why I personally love the restaurant industry. For those who do it right.

And this is why I love going to dinner. And I love the experience. One of me and Steph's favorite things to do is try new restaurants. We did it in Austin all the time. We do it here in Nashville and we travel. but what I'm doing is like for weeks before we go travel on a vacation or a trip. I'm looking for like the best restaurants to go to. I'm reading reviews.

I'm following like the Instagram pages of the city who are highlighting these new and different restaurants. Yes, because I love the food, but also and even more importantly, I love the experience. I, after building a business for over 11 years now, appreciate what goes into building a business so much and the way it makes people feel. And going to dinner, eating a meal, experiencing someone's restaurant, for me is one of the best ways to embrace

that experience as a whole. from the way you feel when you walk into the environment, the music that's playing, the lighting, the decorations, the tables and chairs that were selected, the way that the host takes you to the table, the way that the server greets you,

the cocktail menu or wine selection, the appetizers, the entrees, the desserts. I mean, Steph and I always get a few appetizers. We get an entree. Sometimes we like going to these,

small plate, tapas type restaurants. We try a little bit of everything. We always get like a dessert. We split it at the end, whether we eat a bite or we eat the whole thing. And going to dinner for the restaurants that do it really well, make me feel a certain way while I'm there and after I leave. And I love that about it. I respect the businesses and the restaurants that do this so well.

It's an emotional connection, not just with the first. food, but the people there and the environment. And if the environment's good, the food's good, the energy is great, the lighting's on point, there's some music playing in the background. Steph and I are sitting at a table across from each other. I just feel at peace, our conversation's really good. It's a great night together. It's an emotional connection, not just between my wife and me, but everything that we're

just surrounded by in that moment. I love that experience. And a small part of that is the food itself. Like a fraction of that experience is the actual food. And I know some people are probably listening to this right now thinking, dude, you make no sense. Like this doesn't resonate with me at all. I can't relate to that.

And that's okay. We're all different. We all like different things. But for me, it's one of my favorite things to do. And I think it's because I realize how hard the hospitality industry is. I realize how hard building a business is. And when people can create emotional connections that quickly

in a matter of minutes after sitting down at an establishment that someone built by hand very intentionally, I appreciate that. And I have a lot of respect for that. Business is all about how you make people feel. We're all in the hospitality business. It's the emotional connection. Another one of my favorite books is The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath.

And after reading The Power of Moments, I've told this story before. It was like right before I went to Leadville, Colorado to run the Leadville 100. And when I crossed the finish line at Leadville 100, there was a gentleman at the finish line that when you crossed, he put a metal across your neck and he gave this big bear hug. And I'll never forget that. I remember the whole 100 mile race.

But for some reason, of that entire race, the greatest memory is crossing the finish line, getting this bear hug from this older gentleman as he put the metal across my neck. So when we hosted the BPN go on more marathon, I said, I'm going to replicate this.

So I stood at the finish line And as people ran across And completed the half marathon And the full marathon I gave them big bear hug Every single person And I put the metal Around their neck

And by the end of the race I was covered in sweat And I had salt lines From everyone else's salt Or sweat all over me But there was an emotional connection That was created Intentionally

When people crossed that finish line. I wanted people to feel a certain way after putting forth this big effort, which might have been a compilation of weeks and weeks and months of work leading up to this one day to test themselves physically and mentally. And I wanted them to leave with this emotional connection. Now, as I built my business, I wasn't conscious of this. I didn't realize that building an emotional connection.

was what I was trying to do. It was what I was doing. It's only in hindsight now that I realize that's how I built my brand. I built BPN and go one more and the business that we've built through emotional connections with people. We are in the hospitality business.

That's what we do. It wasn't necessarily strategic. It's just what felt natural and authentic to me from the beginning. And maybe it's from the way that I enjoy things and I emotionally connect with experiences and businesses like going to dinner or going on vacation and going on trips.

And I supplied the things that I knew I liked and I resonated with to my business. And I saw a huge return on creating emotional connections with people because we're all in the business of making people feel a certain way. Number seven is that an unhealthy business will never grow or help others.

You know, I started BPN because I was truly passionate and still am about creating health, performance, and endurance supplements that help people achieve results and goal-oriented outcomes. I want to help people feel better, fuel better, and perform better through sports, nutrition, endurance, and health supplements.

And that's what we've done ever since I started the brand in 2012. That is the mission. That is the purpose. That is the foundation of why I started doing what I've been doing since the moment I started the business in my small college apartment in western pennsylvania and the reality is even though that foundation and mission has never changed as a business grows you have to make choices that are in the best interest of the business the employees investors founders customers people who support and love the brand.

And sometimes you have to make hard choices. Building a business requires hard decisions and hard choices. And a lot of these hard decisions and choices are around people management and scaling and growing a team and evolving that team as business demands change and evolve and grow. But the reality is that if you're an entrepreneur,

if you're a business owner, you have to build or focus on building a healthy, sustainable business because if you don't, and if you're just doing all of it for the love of the game and the fun,

and you want everyone to like and love you, and through those choices, you end up building an unhealthy business, you won't be able to take care of yourself, your employees, potential investors, owners, or your customers. An unhealthy business will never grow, and it can't help anyone, yourself included. And the last one, number eight, is set the conditions to succeed. I actually just posted a YouTube video this morning talking all about this.

But we have to set the conditions to set ourselves ourselves. up, give ourselves the best chances of success to achieve a desired outcome or result. And we can't talk about setting the conditions without talking about forward thinking and backwards planning, but also habits. And I was thinking about this topic on a run a few days ago, thinking about how I can best describe how important setting the conditions are. Because you can apply this to something like preparing for a workout or a race, but also it can be applied to your life as a whole.

Now, I have it, the way that I'm going to describe it here, is an action that is reinforced. It's made stronger by frequency and consistency. So if you do something and you do it more often and you do it on a regular, consistent basis, it's going to turn into a habit. For me, waking up and running every morning is a habit. My alarm goes off, 4.45.

I rule on a bed. This morning is a good example. It was 45 degrees. It was downpouring rain. I went through my normal morning routine, went into the kitchen, took my G&M sport, stretched, rolled out a little bit, put my shoes on, ran out in that cold rain for 11 miles.

And I got it done because it's a habit that's being reinforced through frequency and consistency over years now. And one of the habits that I have adopted is the ability to forward think and backwards plan. And this is just being very deliberate with the actions you take in your life. So I'll use a big workout to describe forward thinking and backwards planning or even a race. Let's use a race. So say your race day is on a Sunday. That means that you've done some backwards planning. You know, okay, I'm going to get to the city that I'm going to be racing in by Friday so that I'm not rushing.

And at Saturday, I can really take my time. And I can check in and I can eat healthy foods that are going to set me up for success for the race day on Sunday. So then you back into that. Okay, well, on Saturday then, I need to get my bib and check in at a certain time. Which means I need to go get groceries either Friday night or Saturday morning to make sure I have the foods that I need to consume throughout the day and enough water to consume throughout the day and electrolytes to consume throughout the day. So I can set myself up for success on Sunday. And you back into that.

Okay, well, I'm also going to lay out all of my clothing and my fuel that I'm going to need for Sunday to make sure I have everything. Oh, through that process, you realized, you forgot socks. You go, you buy some socks. Now you're good. All your stuff's laid out for the next day. You set your alarm. You stayed on top of your nutrition. You had the appropriate amount of carbs on Saturday, electrolytes, water.

You have everything taken care of. of you can get to bed by 8.30, 9 p.m. or at least get in bed. Maybe you're not going to sleep because you're nervous for race day, but you're at least in bed trying to fall asleep to get a full night's sleep for the next day to race. You were forward thinking of, okay, when I tow the line Sunday, how can I be best prepared?

How can I be most comfortable and at peace to go crush this race that I has trained for for months? that's forward thinking. What kind of headspace do I want to be in when I tow that line? Now I'm going to backwards plan to make sure

from now until then I do everything in my ability to set the conditions to crush. That is forward thinking, backwards planning. You can apply it to a lot of things in life as well. Okay, in two years

I want to live in another state building my business and I have more free time to spend with my family. So from now until then, what do I need to do to get my life in a position and set the conditions to be living that dream? I'm going to backwards plan accordingly. Forward thinking with a vision, a goal, an objective, and then putting in hard timelines and micro goals in between then and now to make sure it happens. That's how you set the conditions to succeed in the win.

It comes through habit stacking, forward thinking, backwards planning, setting the conditions. You've now increased your likelihood of success and to win tenfold. It's powerful. It's so powerful. And for some people, it is common sense, and it's a very natural ability to do that. I've gotten really good at it through building a business because as you build a business,

you have to learn how to project manage a lot of things. And if you're not forward thinking and backwards planning, project management becomes an absolute nightmare. So with more frequency and consistency of project management, I've gotten really good at forward thinking and backwards planning. And I've been able to apply that to a lot of different parts of my life, not just preparing for a big workout or a race. But if it doesn't come naturally to you,

you have to intentionally get more repetitions in. Force yourself to forward think and backwards plan. In the beginning, it's probably going to be unnatural, uncomfortable. it's not going to feel like it's working or you failed at it, but with more repetition, more frequency and more consistency, it's going to become a habit that you're doing like it's tying your shoe.

It's like nothing. But it's very powerful. So those are eight lessons I've learned from building a business that aren't just applied to building a business, but I think life in general. and I believe they're super important. And there are things that I've had to learn through failing many, many times. And now are just a part of the way I think and live.

So I hope you guys enjoyed this one. And as always, go on more.