Your Transformation Station - 56. Challenging Gavin Sequeira and HIS Theatrics w/ Favazza

Episode Date: September 21, 2021

"How can you create a transformation in others if there's no transformation in yourself?" Greg Favazza and (Gavin Sequiera) rehash the corporate environment and the discontent of Gavin's career before he was able to "break free" from his climb up the corporate ladder.   Support the showPODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://ytspod.comApple Podcasts: https://ytspod.com/appleSpotify: https://ytspod.com/spotifyRSS: https://ytspod.com/rssYouTube: https://ytspod.com/youtubeSUPPORT & CONNECT:- Check out the sponsors below, it's the best way to support this podcast- Outgrow: https://www.ytspod.com/outgrow- Quillbot Flow: https://ytspod.com/quilbot - LearnWorlds: https://ytspod.com/learnworlds- Facebook: https://ytspod.com/facebook- Instagram: https://ytspod.com/instagram- TikTok: https://ytspod.com/tiktok- Twitter: https://ytspod.com/x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So that gives me one additional question to our closing questions that has me thinking, how can I monetize when I, what you just described is my life? Like I feel like I'm doing all this work, grinding it out. And I'm not making any money. I got to make money. I got a baby. I got to take care of that. That baby wants to eat, man.

What can I do to monetize my own content? this into an information product and sell it to the world. What can I do? We're tapping in to surpassing expectations from the most successful people in the modern day and honing in a new foresight, methodologies, and clairvoyance you never knew. This is your transformation station with your host, Greg Favaza. Gavin Secura, you are an author, podcaster, speaker, mentor, you use your skills to educate every day people on a practical steps to turn their vision into reality what is that tell me about that yeah so look all of those things really happened organically you know

I didn't wake up one day and suddenly I was a mentor or or an author or a podcaster these are these are things that kind of developed over time so you know originally I was just a corporate guy. I worked in a large company, you know, straight out of university, out of college, got a couple of degrees. And I just fell into a corporate role, you know, and from, you know, as successful as I might have thought I was, you know, I was just a tiny, tiny, tiny piece in this big monolithic elephant. And one day I just woke up and I went, who am I? Like, what am I doing? You know, I really kind of felt a bit insignificant. And it's a weird feeling to have because you know, in my 20s when I was working, I thought, that's it.

I've got it made. I've got a great job. I bought a car. I bought a house. I was successful, right? And as I got into my hit the age of 30, I was like, there's got to be more to life than this. Like, what am I doing? You know, I don't want to be doing this for the next 10 or 20 or 30 years.

I just, I lost all sense of purpose and passion. I would, you know, hate going into work. I, you know, when I got it, you know, when I got it. to work. I couldn't concentrate. I was still a good performer, but I wasn't passionate about my job anymore and kind of lost interest. I was looking elsewhere. I would start to read books. I was doing personal development. So Gavin. Gavin, that sounds like a midlife crisis. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah, you nailed it. So when people, like, was this like a thing that was building up inside of you since, like you said like age 20, like you're in 20s, you were doing fantastic.

And by 30s, I don't think it just kind of just like snap by that time. I feel like it's like steam building up in the pot. And it's just started off with something versus, okay, you're not doing exactly what you've always wanted to do, but you're making damn good money. People will sacrifice that. But then you add on the additional things where you lose your personal time. And now you're taking it out on the kids. And then you just all of a sudden realize.

who the hell am I? I don't recognize myself in the mirror. Yeah, 100% man. So like I, um, you know, I was missing out on a lot of family events. I missed out on weddings. I missed out on friends moving houses and housewarming parties and I missed out on engagements and I missed out on, you know, all of these important life events, um, you know, people going on ski trips inviting me and I couldn't turn up because I was working late or going somewhere or I had to be somewhere else. And, and, you know, the might, needs one thing, Greg, but it only kind of lasts that, you know, it's kind of like a little hit in the arm, right? You get that pay rise, you get that, you know, you think, oh, wow, that's great.

But then it wears off. And then the reality of life sinks in. And there I was, I'd be working, you know, 12, 14 hours every day, like six days a week. To be honest, even weekends, I'd be working. You know, if I wasn't, even if I wasn't at work, I was working, I was always, I was always, kind of my mind was always working. Work was number one priority. And my, my, my, my, personal life and family life and all took a backseat. And even my health took a back seat. I don't talk about it a lot, but, you know, I was unhealthy at the time. I'd put on a lot more weight. I was, you know, because I was traveling a lot for work, I was in and out of airports and taxis and hotel rooms and eating junk food all the time. And I think I drank something like

six or eight coffees a day. It was crazy. I drank a lot of, and I was really unhealthy, man. Like what you see now, was like at least one and a half times bigger. And, you know, some people would say, hey, you, that's a perfect life, right? I mean, that's a small sacrifice for everything you had. But to be honest, I wasn't happy with where things were going. And something in me, something had to change. I didn't know what it was, but I needed a change. It sounds paradoxical because people will be like, you're getting the perfect job, you're getting

the money. But then you view success as having a family. and enjoying everything you've always wanted to do with them versus other people will be like, the money. Like, we can do it anything. Yeah.

So, you know, I know people who have been on both sides of that coin. So on one hand, I know people who would sacrifice everything to have that career and have, and if you had that mindset, you could be really, really successful at the expense of everything else, right?

Very few people get that balance. right. On the other hand, I know people who had the job promotion on one hand and they gave it up because they wanted to spend more time of their family. So they made those life decisions. Where I was heading was the other end. I was sacrificing a lot for the company.

I was a company guy. Anything for the team. If I needed to work back later, I'd put up my hand. I'd be the last to leave the office. I'd be the first one in. All that stuff. And after a while, I'm like, why am I doing this? You know, because I honestly couldn't see the point of it. I didn't. And I started questioning. I really did. You know,

as good as the money was, as good as the corporate lifestyle was, actually, to be honest, it wasn't that great. There was a lot of politics. I didn't enjoy that. You know, when you're young and you're starting off, it's exciting. Then you've got to play this political game, and you've got to say the right things to the right people at the right time. And I just couldn't do it, man. I wasn't, I'm not cut out for that. You know, and I quickly started to separate myself from from that environment. So I turned turn up to work, but I checked out if that makes sense. No, that makes perfect sense. When you're describing the symptoms of the feeling of just the midlife crisis description up per se, it reminds me of how an entrepreneur

is living his life. I mean, with me, I mean, highly caffeinated. That's like that that is my vice of choice. I go right towards the coffee. As you can tell, I have two cups of coffee right here. And then if I'm not doing that, I have some sort of simulant of vape that I used to smoke. So, and God, and I just gained weight. Like, like, holy shit. I was in the army and I was shredded. And now I got myself that dad bod going.

And I'm like, no. So what is the difference from? the corporate style to running your own business? Because it sounds very identical. Yeah. So, you know, both of them require a lot of dedication and effort. I mean, if you want to be successful in anything, like you said, when you were in the army, Greg, you would have been highly disciplined.

You worked, you know, it wasn't so many hours that you work. You just did what you had to do, right? You were disciplined. You kind of turned up when you had to. You were there for the team. You were there for, you know, the minute you put on your uniform, you're in. You're in the zone. And I was the same when I was in corporate.

The minute I got into work, I was in a zone. It was hard for me to get out of that zone because I put everything else outside. Kind of being an entrepreneur right now, you have to create that zone for yourself. So one of the good things, I guess, of being an entrepreneur, so there's good and bad, there's, you know, the pros and the cons. One of the good things about being an entrepreneur is you get to control, the aspects around you to some degree, right? When I was in corporate, I couldn't control the environment. I couldn't control my bosses.

I couldn't control my colleagues. I couldn't control whether we were going to have a good month or a bad month or if things were going to happen or not. I could only control what I did personally. In my business, as an entrepreneur, I can set the agenda to a large degree. I can choose who I want to interact with, who I want to work with as a client,

who I want to spend time talking to, you know, all that kind of stuff. And so that's one good thing, you know, but is there hard work involved? 100%. You know, are they sleepless nights? Yeah. You know, is it, does it always work out for you? No, you know.

But I kind of chose that path over the corporate path because I kind of felt like I was being more authentic to myself and I was being more, I just had more of a vision for what I wanted to do and I could do. with my own energy rather than just being a unit or a number in a big company. Some little tidbits. Like a pawn and a chessboard moving around. Whereas I get to create a chessboard here. Does that make sense?

Yeah. It makes sense. It makes sense. And let's transition. And to see the benefits of having our own business versus corporate America or a nine to five. Right. Okay. So yeah, that's a good segue.

So one of the things I talk to a lot of. of my clients, my people, you know, when I'm chatting to all of them, is I kind of break it down to six things, right? Six things, if you can get this right, you really can truly be successful in anything. And I didn't come up with these six things. I've experienced them, and I've kind of packaged it this way. So the first thing is what I call self-discovery. Self-discovery is like the first stage of growth, right? If you know who you are, Greg, as a person, and you can work out, you know, your person. your vision, your why, your reason for being.

If you can try and spend some time to figure that out, you can really set the agenda moving forward. Because if you don't know who you are, it's really hard for you to kind of accomplish goals. It's hard for you to influence people. You can't really make your stamp on the world. So the first stage, if you want to be successful in business, I feel, is this thing called self-discovery

where you kind of learn who you are as a person and where you're heading. Right? That's the first thing. The second thing is what I call it, empowerment. Now empowerment is how do I empower myself to become successful? So what do I need to do with that? I need to change my mindset. So speaking from experience when I was in the corporate world, I was, I don't like to use the word brainwash, but I was taught to think a certain way. I was to act a certain way, to speak a certain way, to present a certain way, say the right things

to the right people, you know, to be politically correct to, you know, it's weird now because we're living in a time when all of that stuff's being challenged, right? But that's how I grew up. That's literally how I grew up. As an entrepreneur, I'm finding it actually doesn't serve me to be like that. People want to hear authenticity. They want to hear, you know, they want to hear the stories behind the stories. They want to hear like, how did you solve that problem?

Like, I don't care that you have the solution. How did you, why, how did you even end up in that situation, right? So empowerment is all about getting rid of those. those thoughts behind those limiting beliefs, the things that are holding back and addressing them and then working out a system for helping others do the same thing. So for me, that second stage of growth is empowerment and we spend a bit of time there. The third stage is what I call strategy. Now, strategy is simply putting a plan in place, having a long-term vision, having a medium-term vision and having some short-term goals. And the reason I break it into those

three, Greg, is because if I want to head in this direction, I need to know where I'm going, right? So I need to put a place marker or something down the track there. And then I work my way backwards and have milestones. So I go, okay, if this is I want to be in three to five years, where do I want to be in the next 12 months? And what do I need to do in the next 90 days to get there? I feel like they're a formula that can be contextuals, not just towards you and what you're doing, but it could be towards establishing your business. It could be establishing a routine. It could be establishing anything.

A lot of people fail to miss that. Like when people are talking about, oh, there's these different strategies. You take these strategies. You can do this. You can do. I'm like, yeah. But then people forget that it's not applied to that.

It's malleable. It's a formula. And that's, and that's, What I understand that a lot of people aren't getting is with my military background, it's transferable skills. This is a transferable formula and people need to understand that. Yeah, thanks for really articulating that well. It is exactly. It's a formula. It is transferable, whether in business, in sport, in anything. You look at some of the most successful people in the world and what they do. They do the same things day in and day out. You know, why does a face

tennis player like Roger Federer or why does, you know, the dream team, for example, in basketball or any sport, Tiger Woods or, you know, in golf, they all have a coach. They have a coaching team. They have all the support staff. They have the right mindset. They turn up to training every day. They, you know, they're out there hustling every day. These guys are the top of their game, but yet they still turn up every day for training. You would have done the same in the army, right? Yes, yes. It was no stick days. It wasn't a sick thing. So it's crazy, right?

It's the discipline. It's the art. It's the effort. I read this interesting thing by Michael Jordan. I'm a huge Jordan fan. And he used to say, you know, like, yeah, he put thousands of hours of training, you know, to become one of the best in the world when he was playing. But it was a time when no one saw him train.

So when everyone went home and the lights went off in the gym, he lit a candle because the lights were off. and he would sneak in and he would shoot hoops for another three, four hours. It's that kind of like going above and beyond what is required that distinguishes you to become the top 1% and become successful. But that's a whole different topic. But we talked about getting to that strategy level. So you had self-discovery, you had empowerment, then you got strategy.

the next stage of the formula is what I call implementation. So implementation is putting the plan into action, getting shit done, right? You and I can plan all day. We can write this fancy things. I'm going to do this when I'm, you know, and I'm going to achieve that. And I'll tell you what, Greg, most people, including myself, we love to procrastinate. We love to dream. We love to, you know, I'll write this thing and I'll come back to it tomorrow.

when it's, you know, and I'm sure you can relate to that. So it's difficult for me because I used to be huge at planning. I would make it look perfect. Okay, let's be honest. It would look great. Now it's just like all I want, I just want that football. I want to start running. Like, that's all I want to do.

I got it. Yeah, exactly. You know, when I, so I'm actually related to sport and in my corporate days because that's, that's kind of what I did, right? But when I was in the corporate world, you know, I was asked to come up with a business plan. Now, I'm like, all right, well, what do we want to achieve? Let's write the stuff down. And they're like, no, no, no, it's got to be at least like 50 pages long.

It's got to have this. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding. And, you know, these guys have been weeks and weeks on this plan. By the time the plan was done, it's obsolete. It's crazy. It's crazy. Like so, and I look at, I look at sport, you know, let's go back to. basketball. You know, you got eight seconds on the shot clock. It's the fourth quarter. And man,

the amount of stuff that happens in eight seconds in this, you know, a coach can turn a game around, but it's acting quick. You know, sometimes you don't need to spend a whole lot of time. It's like assessing the landscape and going, what do I need to do to get to the next level now? You know, and so I'm a big believer in just setting simple plans, achievable plans, and have markers or milestones that you want to tick off. And really it's just about getting the accountability, getting the help from someone to get there. So you don't have to do it. What's an example? What's an example of simple plans? Simple plan. Like, you know, hey, we're doing this podcast now. So if I said to you, all right, my goal is to do 10 podcasts this month, right? I write down a plan.

And as I do each one, I tick it off. Now, it's a simple plan. If I said, I want to do 200 podcasts by the end of the year, that's, it's going to blow my mind because I'm going to go, well, hang on a second, that's a lot. And I'll get overwhelmed. And when I get overwhelmed, I'm not even going to do one because I'll be like, no, quite honestly. And, you know, if you multiply it up, 10 a month, it's like 120 a year. It is possible if I did 10 a month. But if I said my goal was 120, I'm making it too complex. It's the same plan, but it's, my brain can't comprehend that right now. It's keeping things simple and going, you know what, what do I need to do? today and this week just to get through the day in the week. I have my plan in 12 months

in three and five years, but all I'm focusing on is the next 90 days, the simple stuff that I know can tick off. It's achievable. And if I keep doing it and I turn up to training every day, I'm going to hit these other goals, you know, like you would have done in your training. If you just turn up to the gym, do the basics. I do karate on the side, Greg. I don't know if I told you. No, no. So I, you know, I train like three, four times a week. And all I have to do is turn up to class. Turn up and train to the basics.

I do the same thing day and day out, day out. But when you look back like two years, you know, before it to where I am now or two years from me, like it's a huge difference. All right, let me ask you this, because this is a huge thing for a lot of people. For me personally, I did Grab Maga for about almost five years. the hardest thing. Have you heard of that, Kramagau? I haven't heard of Kramagau. Okay, it's out. Geez, I'm drawing a blank here.

I actually did it. I was an instructor and I can't even think. But, oh my God, this is probably like a shitty moment because I know exactly where it's from. But it came from, it's really, there we go. So the first day I showed up was the hardest thing. I've ever had to do in my life before the Army, of course. It takes, there's certain, there's certain levels in the echelons for people that they have anxiety.

They're uncomfortable. It's the feeling of uncertainty going into a gym, going into a martial arts gym. You know how hard that was for me to walk in that door? For me, I overanalyze everything. All I kept thinking was, I'm going to get my ass kicked. I have low self-esteem. I don't deserve to be here. I think somebody else should be here.

And then by the time I was able to walk in the door, do the class, and I had a great time, it was just as equally as hard as coming back the next day and doing it. But that consistency, that habit, once I continued there, I mean, a lot of people might not experience that. For me, it was extremely difficult just to walk in the door. Yeah. I totally relate, man. And it's almost like if you're not used to speaking in public, it's terrifying.

You're getting up on stage and just talking to 10 people, let alone 100, you know, something like that. And there's been times when I've had to do that, you know, and it hasn't been easy. And I'll tell you another secret. You know, I'm reasonably comfortable now talking in front of big crowds because I've done it a few times. It doesn't mean I'm great at it, but I'm more comfortable because of repetition and doing it over and over again. I'll tell you what I find really difficult. talking to the camera when no one's looking. Just me and the camera.

I'm trying to record a video. Oh, my God. Here I am. I've spoken, you know, in a corporate boardroom. I've spoken to people in suits and in present, formal presentations. I've even spoken in front of, you know, family gatherings or like even in a public setting. And then I'm trying to record a video for my business, right? This is the first time I try to do this.

And I'm like, I can't do this because I'm staring at a freaking hole. my computer, on my laptop. No, I'm not getting any feedback. I don't know what's going on. And that was hard. And I did several takes and I'm like, I can't do this. Yeah. There's no constructive feedback.

You're not getting that energy of, do I sound like a dick? Do I sound buddy? Like, come on. You know, when you're talking to people, people laugh, people smile. You can see someone yawning. You can kind of gauge what's going on. When you're talking, especially when you're trying to deliver training and record something, oh, man, it was difficult.

I could, I really, you know, I struggled to do that. And so, yeah, that's one of the challenges, I guess, you know, in being in your own business. Sometimes you, you've got to, you're constantly learning. You're constantly trying to get yourself to another level, even when you didn't realize you had to, you know. And so I can't remember what we were talking about before, but, you know, that, that is, there's always challenges there. And, yeah, I guess that that's one of them, definitely. So, Gavin, I wanted to utilize your strategy session. I wanted to guinea pig what you offer people and kind of help get me on the right track for success because you what you described earlier is the lifestyle that I'm living.

Like I used to be a very healthy individual. I'm eating garbage. I'm drinking energy drinks. I'm drinking coffee. Whatever vice I can get that's motivating me, whatever I can get that competitive edge, I'm going to take it. pill, liquid, I don't care. I just want to get the business off the ground. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, okay, so let's go back to what we were talking about earlier because this has a lot to do with it. So out of those six stages of growth, one thing, so we talked about four of them. The fifth one, I'm just going to quickly cover this and then I'll, and then let's see we can try and relate it back to you, right? Sure. The fifth one is about once you're implementing your plan, you've kind of got some goals that you've set. I know you've probably set some goals for yourself, Greg,

and you're probably ticking some things off. Now it's about working smarter and not harder. And, you know, we all try and do everything ourselves. So we all try and, you know, no one can do it as good as me. No one can. You know, we have this thing. And I don't know where it comes from. Maybe it's a human trait.

Like, you know, I came up with it. Therefore, no one gets it except me. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to let go. And so one of the toughest things I had to learn being in business, I didn't learn this in corporate. I learned it in business is to hand the reins sometimes to someone else. It might be for the littlest thing, you know, like it might be editing a piece of video. It might be, you know, like it might be tweaking some stuff on a website that maybe you and I can do because we've got the skills, but do we have the time? And is it really worth us doing that piece of work.

Should we, would it be better to give it to someone else to do and leverage them, you know, pay them for it, but it frees you up to do some of some of the stuff. And so. Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, I got to pause you. Like this is a really big piece of information that you brought up that it comes up. And every single business episode is working on the business, rather in the business. Correct. Is to separate yourself and know your strengths.

and don't try to develop new skills because you ain't got the time, pay somebody else, and look at the bigger picture. That's all I had to say. Thank you. No, no, you said it. You said it. So I really, I like the approach of working with your skills. So, you know, a lot of people say, oh, sorry, working with your strengths.

A lot of people say you need to work on your weaknesses. You've got to kind of round yourself out. I have a different approach. I think if you're really good at something, stay in that. I mean, you know, you can try and grow skills. over time, but if you're really good at something, that's your natural God-given talent, your gift, man, shine in that area, you know, and build a team around you that have the skills that you don't have. Let them shine in that area, and together everyone works, you know,

the team progresses, everything runs a lot smoother and faster and you get there. If you try and do everything, you realize you do nothing well. You know, when you start off, yes, you're going to wear many hats. You know, I was, like, when you start off in business, you're the marketing guy, you're the sales guy, you're the guy, you're the IT guy. You're the everything, right? You're the dad as well. You're the guy who's got to put food on the table. You're everything. You're the guy who's got to mow the lawns and everything, right. But if at some point you're going to make a decision, and I always say to people, all right, let's map out your day and where do you spend your time? And literally, like, where do you spend your time during the day? Or you could do it per week, for example. If you go, well, I spend so much on my day doing this exercise, and I do so much of my day sleeping, and I spend so much of my day watching TV, for example, entertainment, and so much of my time with my kids doing their homework.

And so you map out all those hours, and you go, all right, now if I had to make some tweaks, because I need to find an extra five hours in a week to work on my business. How am I going to do that? I'm super busy. I don't have time. the short answer is everyone has time we all have time it's it's where we're spending it so you know i get people to look at that and go Gavin Gavin i want to puncture some holes in this philosophy i'm here to challenge you because i'm dealing with this so this resonates with me deeply and i know there's a lot

of people here oh this is going to be a good show ladies and gentlemen this is going to be fantastic okay so when you say you want to write things down i have this duality inside me where there's the side of me that wants to be, oh, Army, Greg. Like, I got all those core values. I'm ready to go work out. I'm ready to read, journal, and get in the sauna and just do something that I can feel that is bettering me in the moment.

And then there's the other person that wants to just do absolutely nothing or be strictly on the job, nothing but seeing results. I want fucking results. it's creating a graphic, the metadata. And when I do, I write out this whole plan. And I'm like, okay, so I know what I need to do. Yet I get this satisfaction, the urge from doing the things on the computer, making these graphics, setting up my audio, booking appointments, recording, editing.

And it's scary. It's very scary. And I know other people are feeling it. I'm getting more satisfaction out of creating graphics, editing. than going to the gym and doing something product, spending time with my family, and then that scares me. Yeah.

Because I... Why do you think that is so, Greg? I mean... I feel like I'm the creator. Like, there's nothing more satisfying than me than making it impact in someone's life. When I see that happen, that transition,

that transformation, I should say. Yeah. That... It's something I gain from the army that I, I love. And I'm seeing that in real time when I'm creating my thoughts and I'm making it realistically here. And I'm like, holy shit. This is really satisfying. You can see it coming to life, can't you? Yes. And it's addicting. It's so addicting. You know, yeah, it's kind of like, you know, if you ever took up cooking, for example, you know, you create a dish and it's suddenly

It's a real thing that you're serving to someone and they like it. And it's like, well, I made that. Yes. I get that. I guess, yeah, look, if you can, if you, it's easier said than done. And I'm not, I'm not going to tell you how to live your life. But if you can, if you can harness that way of thinking towards every aspect of your life, you know, almost. So it's tricky.

But this is what I say to most people or to all people actually is put your business in the middle. Right. And then your business becomes the vehicle that is going to drive everything in your, well, I shouldn't say that because, you know, if you're a religious guy, you'll go, well, God sits in the middle, right? Nope, no, we're good. You keep on going. We're good. Or my family, all my little. But if we're focusing on business, right, you can't ignore the other areas of your life. So your health, your relationship, your family, your financial situation, you're like all, you've got to, you got to put some. energy towards each of these. Now, most people are not going to do it that way. It's not going to be evenly spread out. You're going to put 90% towards creating the graphics and doing the stuff behind, you know, like you said. And it's like, oh, man, I have forgotten to eat. I've forgotten to wish my kid good, you know, good night. That happened to me yesterday. That's, it's bad. I don't like it, though. Yeah. So it's comfortable leverage the training you did in the army, you know, the discipline of

how you got things done in certain time frames. You still made time to turn up for your training. You still ate. You still did your drills. Your uniform was always iron and pressed. Oh, yes. You know, so you somehow managed to have this balanced lifestyle and get an education and all of that.

And you trained and you did all the, and you had fun. And so you've always kind of remember what worked back then. And what were you doing back then that was different? Was it the fact that you had some guy standing over you going, Right. You know. I get what you're saying as far as it's a structured system where I execute.

And for me, that's the system I work fantastic, like completely, because I see a system and I refine it. I make it better and I make it mine. So if I were to work with anybody's business, God, you wouldn't want to lose me. I tell that to everybody. You wouldn't want to lose me. So I'm very specific if I'm going to work with someone. But here, it's, it's, there's too much, it's too much free roaming. It's like, holy shit, I can go this way.

I can go that way. Yeah. So you almost need, you look, it's because we're, we're not that good at looking after ourselves. I'll be honest. No, fuck no. We're good at helping other people. Like, I'm sure you could want me and I could help you.

But if, if we left each other alone, I wouldn't, I'm not the best person to help me. I know it. I already know this. So I have coaches and mentors and people that I turn to that they're not attached to my personal stuff in my life, but I check in with them every now and again and they go, so how, you know, their job is to make sure I stay on my plan, you know, to make sure I'm still, you know, I haven't been completely off course because, hey, we all have this thing called shiny, shiny object syndrome or something, you know, something, which is, oh, what about this? Or, hey, you know, and then you get caught up in that. And it's, It's like, you're brought in what you were working on.

So I get where you're coming from. You know, when you were in the Army, when I was in corporate, we had a structure around that kept us focused, kept us discipline, which is why we were really good. You were super fit. You were healthy. You were disciplined. You were on time because you had that structure to follow. Now, when we become entrepreneurs, we lose that structure.

We, you know, and so we all struggle with it. I don't know any entrepreneur that doesn't struggle with it. You're not alone. I struggle with it too. And you know, you might go a few weeks, a few months, a few years and struggle with this stuff. But at some point, you've got to make a decision, which is, hey, I've been trying to do this now. And it's not working for me. Like, the business might be working, but my balance is wrong.

I'm skewed too, you know, I'm put on too much weight. I'm not exercising. I'm not spending enough time with my family or whatever. So if you need, if you need the help, for someone to come in and help you with that. It's never too late to get that help. You know, like getting a mentor, getting a coach, getting someone who can,

and their job is not to tell you how to do your job. Their job is just to help you plan this thing better, execute better. Yes. And I put up my hand about five, six years ago and I got a couple of coaches. You know, one of the reasons I did karate, Greg, was to get more discipline in my life.

I'll be honest with you. Also, as a result, I became fit. I became healthy. I love the sport. But the discipline aspect, do you know what the biggest thing I learned from it? This is what my instructor said.

He said, Gavin, actually, he didn't just say it to the whole class. He says, a black belt is a white belt that never gave up. So basically, you know,

white belt is like the lowest grade. And he says, you know what a black belt does really good? The basics. A black girl turns up. It's the first to turn up, the last to leave, is polite to everyone,

greets everyone. helps everyone, like, does the things that most people wouldn't do, you know, like, whereas someone who comes in and struts themselves and goes, you know, what, I'm this and I'm that. That's not what a black belt does. A black belt's really humble to just walk in, you know, no one even knows he or she's there, but they do all the stuff that needs to be done. Like, they do the basics.

They're so disciplined, so humble. So that's what I needed. I needed that in my business because I didn't have that. I came from this corporate environment where I thought I was everything. winning good money. I was really spoiled. And I thought I knew business because I worked for a big business until I got into my own business and I realized I didn't know a whole lot of things. Okay. Let's transition here. And I just have a few more questions. Cool. We'll wrap this out. In your experience as an entrepreneur starting out a business,

what do they need to know as far as key information in their own philosophy? philosophy. Yeah. The biggest thing I think, the biggest thing I can say is like you must have a, you must have a self-belief that you can do it. Now, again, that's easier said than done. Yeah. Being an entrepreneur or wanting to do something that you've never done before or, you know,

maybe has never been done before requires an enormous amount of self-belief and courage. You know, so forget about the discipline. forget about all the hard work, that'll come over time. I just need to know that the thoughts that I'm having about this, like, God, I regret doing this. And then there's times where I like, God, I love this. Like, is that normal? It's normal. It's normal.

Yeah. Oh, you know what? Let me tell you something else. And I still get in this phase every now and again where I'm almost going, what am I doing? Like, how did I end up here? And I look at some of my friends who are still back in the corporate days, and they're vice presidents of companies and they're managing directors. They're all senior guys, and they're all senior guys.

And here I am. I just wrote a book and I just record another podcast and I put out a course. And I'm thinking like, man, it's like I'm living in an alternate universe, right? But, hey, I created this universe. I created it. Like you said earlier, there's an enormous satisfaction that comes out of creating something. And I'm now, I'm living my life according to my terms. It might not be the most perfect life in the whole world, but it's my life.

You know, no one tells me what to do. I love that. But it comes to a lot of responsibility because I have to make decisions every day on how I keep moving the same forward. Because if I don't do it, who's going to do it for me, you know? And so coming back to your question, you must have, you must work on this thing called your why, which is, you know, what is it that inspires you? What is it that you're passionate about?

What are the skills or the talents or the gifts that you already have? You already have stuff that makes you successful today, that you can turn around and either solve a problem for someone or help a person or a group of people, a community to solve a problem. And if you can bring those two together, you've got a business, you've got a business idea, and you can monetize that with help. Does that mean my why has a little sidekick called the how? Yeah.

So I always say if you can figure out the, well, it's not me that came up with this, but I learned this to people like Jim Rohn and Tony Robbins and all of them. So if you can come up with the why, the how will show itself. It'll rear its head somehow, right? Hell yeah. If you focus too much on the how, what ends up happening is you get caught up doing stuff. You get caught up being really busy, but you have no purpose, no direction. And this is what happened to me, Greg.

When I first started... I feel like it's happening. Yeah. So, you know, I was in your shoes. And sometimes I fall back into it where five years ago, I think I mentioned this maybe just before we started, I started doing podcasts five years ago, right? I was really busy doing it. I got into LinkedIn.

I got into Facebook. I started writing blogs. I was doing all this stuff. But I wasn't making any money. Yeah. I was. I was, but I really wasn't. I wasn't, I wasn't.

But I was busy. I was putting in the hours. And people were like, man, Gavin, you're really working hard. You're going to make it. And I'm like, I'm not feeling it. Yeah. And so one of my mentors was like, dude, you got to like nine out of the ten things you're doing. You're going to say no to stuff.

And then focus on the one or two things that's actually going to get you to the next level. So treat it like a game, right? To get to the next level, what do you need to do? Don't try and aim for five levels above you because you're doing things that you're not quite ready to implement. So you're wasting time and effort. And so I would just say you have that belief and just work on the things that are going to get you to the next stage first and do it in a natural progression. So that gives me one additional question to our closing questions that has me thinking. How can I monetize when I what you just described?

is my life. Like, I feel like I'm doing all this work, grinding it out. And I'm not making any money. I got to make money. I got a baby. I got to take care of that dude. That baby wants to eat, man. What can I do to monetize my own content? Turn this into an information product and sell it to the world. What can I do? Well, so have you ever heard this saying, Greg, if you build it, they will come. Yes. Right. So that doesn't work anymore. No.

Well, okay, that's not entirely true. But what I'm trying to get at is... Unless it's a Walmart or a target. That's right. Yeah, that's right. The thing I always say is like find a need and then try and fill it. So, you know, if you're doing work right now and you're creating stuff, and it might be amazing stuff, right?

I'm giving, you know, let's just admit that whatever you're doing is amazing. But no one wants it or no one's prepared to pay for it. Yeah. You know, it's just going to be a hobby thing that you enjoy doing. And I've done plenty of that. I have to stop doing things because I knew I probably would never be able to actually monetize it or sell it. And it's really hard to let go of stuff, really, really hard. But here's how you figure out where there is potential.

You run a like a test case scenario. Let's say if I'm thinking of putting together a program. Let's say I've got all these podcasts, I've got this thing I've got, I'm going to record all these videos. I'm going to put a program together. I'm going to package this thing together to solve a problem. But before I do all the hard work,

are there enough people out there that have this problem, that are asking these questions, and have you spoken to any of them? And to say, hey, listen, are you getting the help you need with this? Like, where do you normally go to solve this sort of thing? And if they go, look, I go here, and I go there, but, you know, these guys don't know what they're talking about,

and this is all too hard, and it still leaves me having to figure all this stuff out, and you then go in and you close the gaps, and you go back to people like this, and you go, you know what, if I could show you how to get from here to here, which is what you told me you want to do, and instead of you doing all of these things, you just do this, and it's going to solve your problem, would that be of interest to you? And if people go, you know what, yeah, it would. I wouldn't mind talking me about that.

then you've got a captive audience and if you do that enough times and you can automate this but if you've got that then you've got people who want what you're producing you know one of my good mentors Greg if I can say this

he's a best selling author over here in Australia he's written like 18 books or 19 books and before he even writes the book he's got about he's got thousands of people who already want to buy so he's what he does I'll give away his secret now

because he already paid for him to tell me this, I can share this. But he basically, he designs a cover of a book. It looks beautiful. You know, you look at it and you think, I want that because it addresses my, the thing that's going on in my mind, right? The title gets me.

And then the content that's in it doesn't come from him. So he might say, you know what, I'm going to put a book out that's got the top, the secrets of the top 10 podcast. out there. The top 10 tips that, you know, they train in the army from 10 different perspective, 10 different colonels and sergeants and lieutenants and whatever that he's interviewed, right? And he gets them to share their stories in his book. And so if I want to read this book, I'm like, holy crap, this is going to be an amazing, because he tells me, so-and-so's going to share

this and so-so's going to share that. And he's got this beautiful, so he's laid it out. And he goes, this book's coming out in six weeks time. Do you want to pre-order it? You know, and normally it's this price, but you can get it for this price. And people jump on it. And then he goes, when I've got enough people who want it, now I go and print the damn thing and sell it. So he never, and you know, it's simple stuff like that.

He doesn't build it and then sells it. He sells it and then builds it. So I kind of learned that philosophy a long time ago, which is find a hungry crowd and then feed it. Gavin, I've been just jumping in my seat to chime in, but I didn't want to just cut you off there. But holy shit. Okay, so this is what I'm talking about, what you described with him. So there's two things I got to say before I let you have the microphone back.

So first off, with that image, the picture of the book, putting it up there and looking at it, having that, that is a method that I use with my audio slash Adobe premiere, like video creation. my graphics. I will get the perfect sound, the perfect music that sends the inspiration. You listen to your transformation in the beginning. I created the story that in my head before I actually even put it together by just listening to the entirety of the downloaded audio that I played. It's got to be motivational. It's got to send a message.

It's got to start off low. And there's got to be like you're climbing a fucking mountain. You don't just go straight up. You're going up at an incline. I want to set the tone. And then that's where I create this beautiful masterpiece. Holy shit. That's a method.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm telling you, you need to understand. These are formulas you can apply to everything. And then what you said earlier with emotionally invested in the business, it doesn't come out the way you want it. and then guess what happens? You work harder to try to make it come out better and it's not coming out. And what I've learned was to separate myself

once I'm able to detach from the situation, it's no longer an issue. And I just, I call it fuck it mode. And when I'm in that mode, I just get it done. And I don't think it's my best work. Like to me, I think, I think this looks like shit. But then people be like, dude, that looks awesome. What are you talking about?

You're so hard on yourself. Greg, why? I'm like, I don't know. I'm a perfectionist. but I ain't get shit done, so I got to go to fuck it mode just to get things done. Yeah, yeah.

I hear you, man. Yeah, sometimes you just, we're our own worst critic, you know, we're really hard on ourselves, but sometimes we just got to give ourselves a break, you know? And if you've been at something for too long,

yeah, you just want to get it done. But every now and again, sit back and just be grateful, you know, look at yourself and give yourself a little pal on the back. Because if you got it done, you got it done, you know? Most people never,

finish the race, you know, they'll start something and they won't finish it. And if you finish something you said you were going to do, man, celebrate. You know, like just get, it's a little win and you need these little wins to keep, keep building your self-esteem, build your confidence, as long as it's getting you in the right direction. Damn right, like making your bed every day. That's just a little win that sets the fucking tone. Last question here for you. How can the listeners implement your tactics to be successful in their own lives? Yeah, so I, again, like, you know, just it comes down to having that plan. So if any of the stuff we talked about on this call makes sense and maybe you wrote a couple

of notes down, it's just making sure that you take the time out to try to implement that. Because if, you know, if you didn't implement anything we talked about, well, none of this stuff is going to work. You know, it's just empty words. I'm, when I listen to stuff, I always write notes. You know, I'm a big believer in finding a way to learn something new every day that I can implement. Because I find I learn stuff every day, you know, and have that plan. You know, we talked about the six stages of growth.

I don't think I covered the fifth and the sixth, but really quickly, the fifth is leveraging yourself through other people using technology, you know, outsourcing. You don't need to be the one to do everything. And the last one, the sixth one, was, you know, finding a group of people. people are building this community around you that can support you. Because, you know, if you don't have a good team around you, a good support group, man, it's a lonely world out there, you know, and the world will beat you down. Like Rocky Balbo always said, I think, in Rocky Five, you know, the world is a mean place.

It'll beat you down. And it really will. It really will. And there's been times when I've been down, I've been really down. And it really helped to talk to someone else who's been there and can say, you know what, Gavin, you're actually this close. get this close, don't give up. You know, and so you need that support group around you,

and it's really important to build a like-minded community, people that are on the same journey as you. It doesn't matter what they're doing, but if they're on the same journey, they can lift you up when you need it. You can lift them up, but you're a team. And when you're a team, you know, together, everyone achieves more, right? God, I love Rocky Five.

That's so good. I love it. I love it. So, Gavit, how can our listeners get, in touch with you if they want their own strategy session or they just want to find out more how to tell corporate to fuck off. Look, man, I actually have a gift for your audience. So if anyone is listening to this is like, hey, I just want to get some more information, right?

And well, people can find me on social media, Gavin Sequoer. I'm sure you're going to put my name in there. And breakfree from corporate is my brand. You can look at up breakfree from corporate.com. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on Facebook, all of that stuff. But if you go to breakfree from corporate.com, there's an ebook that you can download, which I highly recommend.

It's free, and I'll send you the link. It's called the eight bulletproof ways on how to escape your nine to five without risking your income. So people that are stuck in their jobs that are looking at, how do I get a side gig happening that, you know, one day I can transition to and get out of this stupid area that I'm in and do something I really love. I put a whole list of strategies on how you do that, right? And it's all around mindset. It's about putting this plan into place.

All those tactics we talked about. You can download that for free with my compliments. And at the end of it, you get a complementary strategy session as well. So if you get through that stage, I'm happy to talk with your guests one on one. And I do this all the time, Greg, and I love doing it. It doesn't matter if we end up becoming clients or not because I know that that is going to help them on their way. So that's... Beautiful.

What was that title called again, Gavin? One more time? It's called the eight bulletproof ways on how to escape your nine or five without risking your income. Beautiful. Now, it's sitting, it sits in my website, which is break free from corpora.com. You'll see it in there. Just go there. Put your details in.

It'll get sent out to you. We'll be in touch. There's plenty of ways you can reach out. And I love chatting to people. So if anyone gets that, just just reach out to me. Gavin at breakfree from corporate.com. As long as you don't ask for their phone number and start spamming them. Don't worry, guys.

I got your back. We won't put you through that. You and I have a lot in common, even though we... Yeah, we do. I'm from a different background. We came from a disciplined background, and now we're in this, like, what the hell are we doing? But we're trying to figure it out, and we're both trying to help people figure it out.

So it's like we're on a similar mission. We've come from two different ends, but we're on a similar journey. That's what I took out of it. Yes. I agree. Yeah. The only problem for me is I honestly, I don't know where I want to be.

Like I have so many great ideas. I have just like you know how many potential book titles I've written down. Like that's all I want to do is write books. But when it comes down to actually sitting down and writing it, I get probably five pages in and then I don't want to do it anymore. And then I'll stop. thinking of something else. It's like, I need people to work for me and like, dude, write this book. I will come at you with topics, subjects, and we will get it done sooner than later. And then I got work on something else. It's like, I need to run an organization. That's all I want to do.

I just want to get in people's asses and just say, hurry up, move your ass. Like, no, that's the R. Becoming out. What, why, like, I'm just curious, like, what, what made you want to become an entrepreneur? Like, Honestly, I did this as a creative kind of thing because, one, it was new to me. I've done, I had 15 different jobs. No, no, 21, correction, 21. And this doesn't include the military. Right.

All I look back on it, it's all the same. After a certain point, you learn everything about everything. And it becomes benign, becomes benignness. And after being in the army, you come back to the real world, I couldn't do it. I had a boss and then he was telling me what to do. And then I'm like, whoa, if you can't follow your own rules and regulations, I don't listen to you. You don't set the standard. I'm already, I already know what I'm doing.

And then here you are telling me how to do this. And then I adapt, but you aren't even doing it. So now I feel like I'm lowering myself. I'm not going to work here. I won't work for a company like that. If they can't live the thing that they're saying, no, fuck that. And now I just decided to do this on my own. And it was a creative project that turned into something more.

And now I don't know what to do with it because it's like hitting off. People want to be on. People want to know about it. And I don't know what to do. It's like, shit. I mean, it all depends on what type of feedback. getting, right? Because you could, you could, to monetize this, you could have things like subscriptions, you can have, you know, you can, you could put out a, for example, you could put out

a book. I created a book. Yeah. Yeah, building influence through digital distribution. I talk about how to become a podcast or how, not just a podcast or social influencer in digital marketing. And what I put in there for who are podcasters, I would say go download it because I also put in there every distribution site that's available as of last year. I'm talking like if you want your podcast in China, I have the I have the distro put it there.

I translate Google translated their sites, went through, found their distribution places for podcast, and then put it put it in my book. that's crazy if you want it for india i have it in there if you want it for uh fucking germany i have it in there wow i i know what i'm doing i'm i'm a guy who can learn anything i apply myself to i learned adobe audition i learned uh adobe photoshop and i'm like i'm doing expert level graphics because i would do to people to do my graphics but then i after a while i started utilize in their techniques. I can look at something and I can see how it's done just by I'm very

very pristine. That's a great school. At looking at something and seeing how it was made, how it was designed and implemented. And then I can make it better. So you know, there's so much you can do, Greg. I mean, that's what's scary. Yeah, yeah. But you know, sometimes it's just starting with one little, one little project, getting that going. So for example, as an example, if I'm a novice, podcast, let's say, right? I'm getting into this game and I'm like, man, I love what you do, Greg. Like, teach me, teach me.

And so, and you might have a course where you've pre-recorded, you've done all the, here are the steps, it's all pre-recorded, you watch it, you do this, you do this, you do this, at the end of it, you are, you know what you're doing, right? And you can get that and you can, and you can just put it out to everyone and go, guys,

like, if you are starting off your podcast's journey, this would be where you need to start. took me a few years or months or whatever to get to this to get this level of expertise you can have it now like save yourself the time and it might cost you know like you make up a price right but then i look at that sudden that i done that problem and then the issue is there's over 500 000 podcasts that are active right now not including the one we look at the ones that are non-active it's close to a million and they're just taking up space now out of those 500 000 that are active, who is doing a course? That's about half. So now I got to compete with 250,000 different people

who are doing the courses, who have their own books. And then it's like, how do I set myself aside? How can I approach this from a unique way? And I have my unique way. It's how I talk. It's how I view things. I look at it very authentically. And I want to just rip it apart and tell you this is wrong because I believe in this. And I also think somebody might believe in that. But I think it's right because how I know how to think this makes sense because I need to be consistent. I need a journal. I need to do this because it ripples out. I make consistent little major impacts through compound gains.

I get that. But from the other side, I want to look at it from a duality perspective. And from the other side, I think it's a waste of fucking time because that perception is when I was 10 years, 10 years ago. Now I'm a full-time dad. Now I'm an entrepreneur. That doesn't work right now. So now this is when I start to doubt everybody in what they're saying. At the end of the day, you'll always be competing with a lot of other people doing similar things.

It's like saying, why would I want to become an accountant or why would I want to become an engineer or why would I want to become a doctor or a teacher? When there's so many other teachers and accountants and doctors and engineers out there, it's because you are, unique and if you do something a little bit different to everyone else, you suddenly stand out. When there's a lot of people doing the same thing, it's all noise, right? If you can just stand up by 5%, if you're just a little bit above the average, you're suddenly, you're certain, you separate yourself like the cream rises to the top very quickly. Sometimes people, I say to people, it's better when there's a lot of people doing the same thing because you just have to do it a little bit better, a little bit different, have your own

tweak to it. Maybe it's a language you use. Maybe it's like what you said to me, you know, earlier, where, you know, you're never going to, look, there's a lot of people in the world. Everyone's going to listen to different things. You just need to find your tribe and like what you say, the way you say it, you know, and how you say it. And as long as you can help those people, they will, that will slowly grow and multiply over time, but you got, you got to find your group of people, Greg. Don't, don't try and take over the 250,000 or the 500,000, you know, Because that, again, you don't know who most of them are. You know, and you might not want to work with 90% of them.

Oh, I'll tell you who they are. They're the millennial population that makes up the globe now. Yeah. The beginning of this year, the millennial population is that, well, I am one of those millennials and I know how they think. And I know what we're rising to. I know what we're coming as a economy. I know what we're coming as a global relationship.

I know what's happening together. I just need to get heard and get seen because I am the person that will say what needs to say and I will shine the light on everything, on all the things that we don't want to talk about, all the things that make everybody uncomfortable. And I will say, hey, this is normal. It's okay to feel this way. You have a trauma. We all have a fucking trauma.

Let's talk about that. This is really good. Thank you so much. Keep in touch with me. Greg, keep in touch with me. We'll chat a bit more. Definitely. Thank you.

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