35. An MBA’s Journey from a 9-5 Corporate to a Podcaster & Buzzing Crypto Start-Up - Lessons & Tips from Bergs’ 2022

Don't let things fester. Tackle them now and sleep well. Like I learned this lesson a long time ago with actually 50 cent with the 50th law written with Robert Green and he's like, if I've got a problem with someone, I'm going to go up and I'm going to talk to them. I'm going to say I'm not going to go home, think about it, talk to my partner about it, lose sleep over it, sort that shit out immediately. Like we let things get really big. You and I are actually really good at this. We had one just before this pod, like, hey, these things bothering me, let's talk about it. And it was like, it was awkward, it was uncomfortable. But then we came to a great resolution and now a huge weight has been lifted.

Hey, Ben and Bergs listeners, I really want to apologize. This is a cracker episode where Bergs goes through his full reflection but I forgot to tick the right microphone. So you're hearing out of my computer laptop microphone, not my actual podcast microphone. So really sorry. But the best thing is I don't really talk through this podcast. So if you can try and just navigate your way through and listen to Bergsey Drop Sample Diamond. So check it out and next episode I hope, guaranteed. We're back with better audio. Thanks guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Bennett Berg Show. I'm your co host Ben with my good mate Bergs. How are you, man?

Mate, I'm feeling amazing. It's recording on a Saturday. It's nice and sunny outside and it looks like you've got a massively sunburnt forehead. Mate, look at that dome. What's happened?

I have a tomato dome. Above the nose is no good. Below the nose is good. I don't ask me why. Went to the races the other day, sunscreen below my eyes and not above it and just copped it. Absolutely cocked it.

I'm like, how did this. Lucky you're not wearing a hat. Great. But what about the rest of your face? Did you just forget you had a top of your head? Like, I don't know.

I really don't know sometimes. But look, mate, I'll tell you what's not red and that's bitcoin. We have printed a few green sticks. Mate, we're, we're touching 21,000 USD for the first time in a long time. So really excited about that. But let's get into business burgers because we had one of the most popular episodes last week was my 2022 reflection. If you Want to check that out as the latest episode, How I Turn my business and life around After Nearly dying twice. Ben's brutal 2022 and this week we have Bergs doing his review. So Bergs, we had a heap of people reach out and say thanks for like those questions. It was I had a few mates that reached out and did their own reflection. Since last week's episode, Burgs has gone through all those questions and he's today gonna grow through his 2022. What was the ups down sideways and what he's taking to 2023 mate. So I'm gon mate.

And these questions were cracking. I ended up writing like over 10 pages of stuff. Granted they're like, you know, diary sized pages so they're not massive but man, these questions are cracking so we'll run through it. Question one, what are your top business, personal and family highlights from 2022? Question two, what are your lowlights from 2022? Number three, what are the new people that came into your life and how did it change you? 4. What moved out of your life and what impact did it have? 5. What have you changed in the past year? Man, these are some probing questions. Like they seem really innocent but they are deep. They are deep. Six, what are the lessons you've learned in 2022 that you're bringing forward with you? Seven. What wisdom do you take into 2023? And I like that because it's kind of the same question and you have to think again on it so you go deeper. Brilliant tactics. 8. What things will definitely change in 2023? 9. This is my favorite one. What is your fantasy story for the end of 2023? What do you want your life to look like? 10. What is your reward for achieving your goals? And I added a couple of other questions. What are your battery charges and what are your battery drainers? So mate, are you ready to get into it?

Let's go. Let's hit it.

All right, personal highlights. 2022 became the strongest I've ever been. Just simple lifting, consistency deadlifts. No fucking ego lifts. And even going backwards to go forwards like you know, I had a little, little niggling thing that could have become an injury. I might not just drop the weights right down and then over the next series of weeks work my way back up. Just executing, just putting those pearls on the string, mate. And I was so proud of myself for doing that. Big highlight for me, me big mental shift. I sorted out all my health issues so I had bad guts like sleep, allergies, all this kind of. I ended up, you know, seeing gps, going to specialists, getting it all sorted, doing the hard thing, had a colonoscopy, got all that sorted, and, mate, my life has changed dramatically. Like, just the mental load of having that and fatigue is incredible. I feel great. I made the hard decision to change careers and chose uncertainty over unhappiness and join collective shift. It turns out I am unhappy at collective shifting.

No, honestly, that was a really tough decision for me. Going from working for a not for profit in government for 16 years to then going to work in private industry in a startup, in crypto and having a family. It's just a hard mental shift. But the reality of that decision was there was no risk at all. It was just gangster. It all worked out. I get to do what I want to do every day.

Had a couple of trips down south, which was just amazing. Going down to one country with a family, set boundaries with a lot of people. So I'm very poor with personal boundaries. So I've been setting positive boundaries and people just respect it. And my life's just been heaps better.

Finally got around the things that were bothering me, like selling my arcade machines, painting my house. I didn't realize how much that was eating my brain every day until I actually did it. Like, the hard things. I shaved off my beard, mate. I got rid of it. Gone, mate. And you're like, you're a different human. Look at your head.

Mate. We started the Benneberg's podcast and we've had guests like Chris Judd, which is just incredible. I still cannot believe that. That two absolute degenerates will get someone of his caliber to come on the show and just give a brilliant episode. I seriously upped my pizza game. So now, mate. I used to just make a dough, like half an hour before put it in the oven. Now make a poolish dough. It takes two days to make me. It's just incredible. It just bubbles up and it is just, mate, off the hook. And I've optimized for happiness and I've read a ton of books and learned heaps as well. They're probably my personal highlights for 2022.

Where does this year or last year fit in in rankings of, you know, your last 10, 15, 20 years? Like, you change jobs, you got fit, you, you happy? Yeah. Biggest year ever.

I feel like I was a potato before that. Wow. And I feel. I feel like that a lot in my life. Like, even if I look back three months, I was like, what a. I was so dumb.

Wow.

And that's how I know I'm doing the hard things and I'm growing. I still feel like an idiot every day and I've got a lot to do. But I always think, when is the best day it is today. I don't look back and be like, oh, my life was so great then.

Do you think coming across into a private startup company has unlocked your potential or pushed you to do more? Or you are now just enjoying it so much that you're just delivering better shit? Or, you know, does that make sense?

I definitely feel less tension because I'm doing the things that I want to do. And the skill set that I've cultivated over the last, you know, decade plus, I can now deploy that. There's no frustration. I can move fast. There are other frustrations in the business, of course. Like every business, they suck in certain areas, but they're just things you have to deal with. And I think this is better for me because I can be my entire self. I don't have to put on a front, act a certain way. It's. It makes more sense to me to be here and act this way. It just feels right.

Amazing. Brilliant.

Yeah, man.

All right, family highlights. So the missus got into Masters of ot, which is huge. She's going back to study. That was great. My daughter learned how to read, which was massive. Amazing. She even the other day she picked up a thing and read conjunctivitis and I was like, holy.

We're better as a family unit. We spent way more time together.

I'm a lot more comfortable with everything that we're doing. I just love, you know, we're cooking more together. We're just doing basic human stuff and it just feels amazing, man. It's really, really good.

Was that because of anything that happened? Like what's triggered that?

I think I've actively wanted to do it. Also, I'm working from home, so it makes it a lot. Even though I work from home a couple of days a week previously, I don't always have to go to the office. I feel like I have more time, I can do more things. I can do drop offs and pickups for school and I can allocate more time to myself. I need to get better at it because I'm not used to being fully remote, but I think that has contributed to it. And also.

Working in government was more about relationships and maintaining it and super long term things. Whereas this is more about. And that's what people are incentivized to do. This is more about incentives going out to the market, getting quick feedback, moving at pace. I understand it a lot more. And the feedback mechanisms are a lot better. Rather than relying on individuals who may change their mind at a certain whim. It's more market dynamics. And I think also you and I are more aligned and that just makes it really, really easy to run a business.

And you mentioned, like, when you're working in corporate as pain in the ass, you have to go into the office, you'd have to do stuff like there's no need to be there most of the time, you've got to do it anyway. And you come home, you can't be asked, you're tired. Like it's a whole different dynamic when you're just working from home and you can structure the day or the week that you want to have.

Yeah. And it's taxing. Like, there were so many meetings. The meetings were ridiculous. Most people didn't need to be there. Every asshole had an opinion. You had to listen to them. And you're just wasting people's time because they're paid a salary. There's no bonuses, there's no nothing. It's just your salary. And people are justifying their existence. If that happened in our business would be like, great. We understand, we understand your point of view and why you might think that, but this is the direction that we're taking and this is why. Yeah, you know, and you couldn't do that in the previous workplace. And meetings on meetings, it was just ridiculous. Now I can be like, I'm way more efficient and effective. We have more efficient meetings, we have less meetings, but they are bang on. Everyone knows what they need to do. We're on a certain time limit. If people are talking too much, other people will literally cut them off and be like, you've had enough. I need to talk as well. Because this is the only time we have four more minutes to shut up. Exactly, exactly. And also working Async and we're quite good with our communication channels. Whereas before it was all in email or teams or video conferences. Everything was an hour. Everything was, we need to meet. Now it's a 10 second voice message. We need to do this. This is what's happening.

Yeah.

You know, it's much easier in a much smaller business rather than a large bureaucratic one.

Nice.

All right, business highlights 2022. Surprisingly, I haven't included what we actually achieved in my old job, so I'll do that now. That was releasing mobile apps to the App Store and just changing the way that Health did mobile development super proud of that.

Now. Collectorship. Created a high performing development team.

Ran that team. It was amazing. We created a dashboard, portfolios, NFTs, lots of integrations. It was just so good. Created a product strategy and I knew I nailed it when the employees got back to me and they're like, holy crap, this is what we needed, like a true North Star. Like, this is what we're all working towards. This is what we're doing this quarter and this is why. And Ben looked very smart in front of investors with that. I achieved my targets, which was really, really good. So first time I've actually had bonuses and achieved those because I was just working like an absolute animal because that's just how I live. Joined entrepreneurs organization, which was actually huge. So this happened in like July, August and it's been life changing to be able to talk with a group of peers, take your challenges there, have their eyes and experiences across it. It's just amazing.

Increase board performance on the school board that I'm on. So I've been working on that with them running more efficient and effective meetings and now they're just crushing it. Traveled to Melbourne and bonded with the team. That was just heaps of fun. Got into Demio with the work lads. If you got an Oculus, just get into Demi. It's great. Nerd up. I didn't take any. So I was 100 me. I didn't have to put on a front or whatever. The I talk how I talk. This is how I am in real life. This is how I talk in the business. I didn't hold back on the memes channel. It's just who I was. I didn't have to be like, oh, is this going to happen with this person? Obviously I'm not an asshole and I consider other people's feelings, but I could just be more myself. And the culture of collective shift and just crypto in general suits me more. Where it's business, finance, investing, but there's also irreverence and shit posting, which I just love.

We smashed the NFT Web3 integration, which is just huge, like we're eating our own dog food. We now have Web3 integration on our site. I jumped on a couple of investor calls with you, which was great. I was dog tied, but we did it anyway. And just to see that side of things, that's a very new experience for me and I quite enjoyed it. I'm doing this collectorship podcast as well as the Better Burks podcast, right? So it's like, that's really good. We signed A great deal with, with a company. I don't know if we talked about it publicly yet, but that was fantastic. Maybe we'll go through that next week. That was huge. We had an amazing strategy week in Melbourne. I got dev and marketing to talk together and created like a high performing team between them. We got through all the blockers there and I'm proud of that one went from a one to three product company, managed a couple of crises. One was like I was there for like a couple of weeks and our site just went down and like the provider deleted all our backups and told us it was our problem. Which is just ridiculous. Right? And doing like fancy things like using fancy tools, doing a B testing like it was just, it's epic man. Like being able to use really awesome cloud tools and being able to go through data, get market feedback and create great products is just what I'm about.

You're screaming after that in your old job and now you've, you've, you've kind of got a role where you can explore that, do different things, test those skills that you probably had but weren't fully like utilized exactly.

Like we weren't allowed to install any of those tools. It was a big security was just the arbiter of no, you're not allowed to do this, you're not allowed to look at it this way. We had to break through so many barriers and do like, you know, backdoor, roundabout kind of stuff in order to get things done. It was just crazy. Now I'm like, I want to install that tool. I need that feedback. This is how much it's going to cost. This is expected return. Go and do it.

And what's your, what's your advice or takeaway for anybody that's like sitting in a corporate job that, where you were, that may be thinking of trying to start a new thing or working for a startup that's probably in a comfy, well paid position that thinks they can do more but not really being fully utilized on what, what is the thought process for them to, to follow the path that you've taken?

I would say fuck the money, go after fulfillment. Like that is the thing. You think you need the money, but how much do you really need and do you need something else like fulfillment instead of more cash? And that's what it was for me. Where I wanted to my day to day, I wanted it to be awesome, not feel like I've got. It's like, it's like you're a fucking race car mate and you want to Race, but you're not allowed on the track. You just got to drive in a 50 zone. And it's good and it's great and they pay you a lot of money. But why have you done all this training? Why do you feel like there's something inside you that you can just unleash and be amazing? Even if you don't succeed, that's okay, but you at least have to try. And I wouldn't say it's one or the other. It wasn't that for me. It's not like I have to leave and I have to replace my salary or I can only do this. I start while I was working. I was consulting with you guys. So either consulted on weekends or at nights, or I would take time off for my job, like a couple of days a week or take some annual leave and do a chunk and work with you guys in collective shift. And that's how I knew this is where I wanted to be. Like when I was at my other job I was thinking about was working at collective shift. That's what I wanted to do, right? So I knew that was the choice for me. It's not an all or nothing. I would say at least try it and see. You could even take your annual leave. You could take a month off and go and work for another company if your contract allows it, or contract to them or create your own business. You can do it in a day and consult to them and see what that life is really like. Get a taste of it. And this goes for, like, houses and big things as well. People like, I want the big house, I want the Bugatti, I want this or whatever it is. Okay, maybe think you want that, but go and hire that big house for a month, pay your 10 grand, 20 grand, whatever it costs a month. See what it's actually like when you're living it. Do you actually want that thing? People go out and buy Lamborghinis, 300 grand, 400 grand, 500 grand, and they get it and they're like, oh, this is amazing. And then they realize, I can't fucking drive it anywhere. Why don't I buy this stupid car, go and hire it for a week and see if it suits you. Try the clothes on before you buy them. That's my advice to those people. Nice man. That's good, good advice. Yeah. Low lights, 20, 22. I got sick a lot. So at the start of the year, I did have those stomach issues when I came back from Melbourne, Me mate, I got camp. Oh, mate. So people don't know what campylobacter is. It's like one of the worst food poisonings you can get. I was literally in bed for days, and I had really high temperatures and I had. I was. I had the back door trots, mate. And this is just not a usual kind of. I got the runs as well.

I don't think I got as bad as you. I was in bed for a couple of days, but I was no good. I think. Yeah, I remember it was terrible.

And like, literally, like, normally you got a fever, you're in bed. When I had the chills, my bones were hurting. Like, it was. It was ridiculous. And it was like. And I'm gonna say it because this is what it was like, this is gross. But you know how normally you have food poisoning. Yeah. You know, get the trots. This was like having bowel prep, like, going to the tort so much. And it was like, something is very, very wrong. Like, this is full on. Thankfully, I didn't have the vomiting or anything, but, yeah, I did a test and I had campo back then, it's like, woof. But I managed to avoid antibiotics and just recovered from it. But that was. That was full on, man.

It was. So it was comparative. Yeah, it was comparative to when I was in Dubai and, like, accidentally had, like, six laxatives.

Yeah. So it was literally, like. It was at the point where you just like, I need to go to hospital. Like, this is pretty bad. So, like, on the line to, like, health direct, talking to them. And I was just like, oh, my God. So more of a story. Don't eat anything. In Melbourne.

A lot of the low lights were. I did have a lot of pain and fatigue from that. So. No, not from that. From just pain in general. While ago, had like, a car crash and I had whiplash and I've had, like, back pain and those kind of things. So towards the start of the year, I was sitting at my old job, and then I came into collective shift. Pretty much got Covid straight away, worked through that. And then I wanted to prove to myself and to you guys how good I was. Sat at a computer for, like, over 12 hours a day. Wasn't exercising, wasn't doing that stuff. So because of that, I was in a lot of pain. I was very tired and also hardly left home. I prioritized work too much, and I need to get better with that because, you know, you're looking after the entire person. You're not just looking after one kind of aspect.

I care too much about what other people thought And I let the little things get to me, reflecting, like really deep. I did that way too much. And I'm like, why? Why does that even matter? But when you kind of all go, go, go, and you're deep in operations and you're stressed and you're fatigued, those little things start to get at you and you pay too much attention to them.

There's this thing I heard recently about being above the line or below the line as a business owner or employee at work. And when you're below the line, you're tired, you're grumpy, you're feeling sort of bit anxious and anything that pops up can really niggle at you and you start to like get really worried about it and whatever. And when you're living below the line, it's really hard to maintain that sort of like self awareness and stay on top of things. And when you're below the line, that's when it's time to rest and, you know, recover. And that's really hard to do because it's like you always want to be go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. But being below the line is not. It's kind of counterproductive where being above the line, you're rested, you're self aware, maybe you're meditating, you're journaling. And you can sort of crush those things as they come up. They probably still annoy you, but it's. It's faster, if you know what I mean. Like, you're not like constantly sitting there because like, if you're hungover or you're tired or you're worried or anxious, it's.

Going to like cultivate the emotions come up. And it reminds me of the Feynman quote where the first rule is not to get fooled. And the easiest person to fool is yourself. And we lie to ourselves, we tell ourselves stories. We are not good at mediating the own thoughts in our head or understanding how we're feeling. Like, if I'm tired and I've got a little bit of back pain and I haven't eaten, all that's going to affect my decisions, my thinking. And I don't even know that that's happening at that point in time. It is the easiest thing to say, but the hardest thing to do. And a couple other low lights, whole family getting Covid wearing masks everywhere. Like when I had to go to the office and with a big beard, that was just rubbish.

Isolations, lockdowns, and also a bit of isolation working from home. So I'd never worked from home. Completely before. And it's taken me a while to kind of work it out. And before you go to the office, you get all this incidental kind of meeting with people and talking and coffees. All that went away, and it was just working. Then you're like, whoa, I've been at home for a while. Like, I need to get out and see my friends. It's more about deliberate planning and getting those activities out and all. Right, question three. New people and how did it change you? So.

Meaning all the people at Collective Shift, like, they're not new people, because I know them all, but actually getting to spend more time with them, like, spending time with you, you know, Tim, Matt, Nick, everyone else, like Dave, Leon, it's just been fantastic. Like, talking shit with you guys, having strategy, getting around it. Like, strategy coming together with a plan and executing on it. But just you're just all generally good people. Like, I love you guys. It's great.

In EO group I met, I got four new amazing people that I would say are my friends. And we're all going through hard stuff in business. We've got a business mentor as well, a bunch of entrepreneurs that I've met in the. In the collective, in the crypto space. We all just get along because we're all going through the same hardships. This is like when we did our MBAs. It's like, you're instantly friends with people, provided they're not dickheads, because you're going through the same hard experience. You generally, generally in your late 30s, early 40s, you've probably got kids, you're working full time and you're studying, and it sucks. And you're all going through that together. When you meet another founder, like, you just know straight away, everyone glorifies it, but behind the curtain, it's just work, and it sucks, and it's hard, and you instantly bond with those people. So I've really enjoyed that.

And I think in terms of friends, got a few new friends as well, which has been really good. Some that we now meet, like, weekly or multiple times times a week. And I really focus on not necessarily meeting new people, but deepening the relationships that I had, which I'm really proud of. And I think, like, a goal would be to meet at least one new person each week this year. That's what I want to do. I think I can easily achieve that. And I think just meeting one person, that's like, at least 50 new people, which is just. It's just cool, man. Like, yeah. And if it's like A you set yourself that goal, you're actually going to do it.

All right, so what moved out of your life and the impact. So 16 years of government moved out of my life. And the impact, honestly, is still with me. And the exhaustion was incredible. Like, just the exhaustion from opening the hospital in 2015 was still with me. Like, I remember a guy left three years after that, and he said it took over a year to get rid of it. Just all the thoughts, relationships, patterns, neurons that fire in your head, it's still with you. And then even people call me now for, like, you know, advice or whatever. It may be cool. People from around the hospital, I still help them out, talk to them for 10 minutes. But just those problems, and I'm like, my God, thank. I don't work there. And it's not. It was like. It was very fulfilling and we did fantastic work, but after a certain set of time, you just want a different set of problems. Like, I know on this pod, I bag it out a lot, but the reality was I stayed for a reason. I was fulfilled. It was great, but I just wanted more. It was time for me to find that more.

It's like having school friends. It's like you look back and go.

Honestly, I look back and I talk about this with my mate Joe all the time, how.

Toxic and abusive that environment was. And not necessarily not the Fiona Wood foundation, not the unit that I worked in, but the entire area and directorate that I worked in. And how that functioned was horrible. It was really, really bad. It was abusive. Right? And it's just not just to me and my point of view. I was relatively okay in it, but what happened to other people and how they were treated and even, I would say, dehumanized with the way that they were treated. It was. It was quite poor. It was very, very poor. And that was reflected in the culture of the organization. What moved out of my life, my beard moved it on, mate. Cut it off. Much easier life. I moved on. Part of my ego as well. Like, I've been actively trying to do this for years. Where a lot of what I do is. And humans, we. We have ego, and it's what propels us. If we didn't have ego, we wouldn't build buildings. We wouldn't push ourselves forward. We wouldn't want more. We'd be sitting in a hovel somewhere. So it's good. Too much of it. And if it drives you in, your decision making is not so great. So I've really tried to remove my identity of being Aaron, Chief Digital officer, health hospital. Now I'm like, yeah, I'm chief product officer. I'm a podcast from a few other things. But no, I'm just me. And I'm trying a bunch of stuff and I'm just in this world. And even, even, like, with lifting, like I was saying before, like, I've taken the ego out of it. I'm doing this to better my health. I don't have to reach a certain goal. I just need to exert effort and I have to do the boring thing time after time. And what's moved on, holding back now, full degenerate. I take my whole self everywhere, even at work, my podcast, my normal life. And that being said, it doesn't mean I'm an asshole. I'm rude to everyone. But I will say what I think and I will say it in, you know, in a nice way. But I'm not going to hold back and be like, what does that person think? Or is this going to happen? Or, I don't worry about that stuff anymore. That stuff doesn't bother me. And people like, oh, I never would have said that. And I'm like, yeah, but, you know, it needs to be said. This thing's happening. You're all feeling it. Just tell the person, be like, hey, did you know that this is happening? And this is kind of the effect that it's like, just live a good life. Don't be an asshole about it. But, you know, don't worry about offending other people. You got it. Like, life punishes the vague wish and rewards a specific ass. Just be yourself and get amongst it. I think that was. That was a big, interesting point because.

You mentioned one of the things that you probably sat and worried about too much last year was thinking about how other people, you know, felt about you. What was that transition like? Was it. Was it a. Was the mental model? Was the way of thinking about things that changed from worrying about what people think about you to like, not giving.

A. Yeah, I think generally in general terms, and this will come up later on, is I worry too much. I think too much. It's too deep a thought. I think 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 steps ahead. And that's not the way to be. And I think I read a book called how to Stop Worrying and Start Living. This is by Dale Carnegie. And this book is incredible. We'll put a link in the show notes and it literally my main stressors and worries. It teaches you how to create a worry plan. So you think, like, I was worried about my health, I Literally wrote down a worry plan like, Aaron, how are you feeling? Do you need to do this? Do you need to call a gp? Is this just in your head? Is it this is it that I can go and I can read it. So like outsourcing those things, worrying about what other people think. I started to look at people and just realized everyone is awkward, right? Everyone's feeling or the world only exists in your head. Everyone's feeling the same things that I feel. And this is actually realized this through guided meditation, through headspace. Like you think you're alone, you're only feeling this, but everyone's feeling it. And it was, it was reaffirmed with that documentary Stutz as well with Jonah Hill where you know, he's saying like, no one is absolved of human problems. They are still human. Everyone has these, everyone's battling with them. Whereas I was thinking in my head, you know, what does this person think? What are they going to think of me? And even just talking to solopreneurs where they were like, you can't be everything to everyone. You need to be yourself. Put it out on the market and the small segment of people will just self select that I like that guy. That's what I want to be. And even my post on LinkedIn, Twitter, everywhere else it would have to be professional and all this kind of crap. I really worried about my reputation. Now I'm like, no, this is who I am. 90, 90 of people are going to say you, but that 10 they're going to say we really want you, we want you to do this. And that's what I want.

So relatability, right? It's like you're not, you're not the, you're not the Instagram model. You're the fucking real guy that people can relate to. He's got problems like everyone else. Like all, you know, very imperfect. It's just time to be relatable and create the connection.

100 and it's tough to do at first. It's tough to put yourself out there. But once you do, you feel so free and you realize that 90 of people don't have to like you. But that 10 absolutely love you. That's way better than just having those mediocre fair weather friends and followers, followers, colleagues, that kind of stuff.

And it's fascinating too. Like I think maybe because you and I throw each other so much or maybe because I was a basketball referee for eight years and just absolutely copped it for, for a long time. But like, you know, you're coping on Twitter People take the piss out of you. Like trolls was like, you know, you, you know you're going somewhere when you get that sort of reaction, right? Because you're being vulnerable, you're being open, you're like, people didn't piss out. You was like, that means you're not being Mr. Perfectionist, you're being, you know, relatable and those. There's that niche of people that listen and go, like, I feel that way too. Like, thank, like I want to listen to this guy, right?

100%. And that's it. Like when you get that engagement, you need to say something one way or the other for people to engage with it. If you're middle of the road, that's ridiculous. Don't be that person. You're not being yourself and you're not really going to get anywhere. You will always just be middle of the road. All right. 5. How have you changed in the past year? Became myself more live the way I want to live. So I still need to optimize this more and more day to day lifestyle setup. But I'm now living the way I want to live. No one really dictates to me when and where I have to be, what I have to do do, and I'm still getting everything I want to get done. This was actually highlighted to me, what, two days ago. I'm now super comfortable around other people and can see how awkward other people actually are. So this is actually like a family meetup, right? So my sister in law is getting married, this big family meetup. And I was just like, what's going on? People I've never met before, having beers with them, talking to them, just like, what are you into? What's going on? And I was like, holy. Like, even though I seem very extroverted, I'm. I'm an omnivert. So I'm quite introverted at times. But even a few years ago I would have been super awkward going there, talking to people. Now I'm just like, it doesn't matter too much. Just have a chat, see what they're about. It's not like, oh, I have to come off as this or do that. It's just like, have a talk, just be great. And yeah, that was, that was just incredible feeling for me. I was like, oh, I don't feel those things anymore. That's really cool.

What do you put that down to? Is that, is that the change of job? Is that doing the podcast? Is that like getting back in the gym?

Yeah, it's being, being myself. So I don't have to think, what do I need to be? What are these people going to think? I just rock up as myself and talk to people. And it's also putting myself first. So myself first in life, in the business, working out, looking after my body and just being me. Like, all I have to do is show up and be me. I don't have to think about anyone else or anything else. Just show up. And it's just a really freeing feeling. Like, what is this person going to think? What if? I swear, what if this happens? I'm like, don't worry about the what ifs. If it happens, they'll tell me. And if they don't, then it's not a problem.

I like it, man.

Yeah. And you'll be able to see it on their face anyway. If you're being a dickhead, you know you're being a dickhead. I just don't have to worry. It was great. It was so, so good.

Think, thinking more long term. So I'm a lot more patient. I still have a huge sense of urgency where I want to get things done, but I'm patient with the results. So impatient with action, patient with results. I think that's really helped me a lot as well because I didn't have a lot of control previously in my life of those things. Being unwell and working in a job where I didn't have that. Now I have more control over the effort that gets put in and the results are determined by the market. So fantastic. And focusing on long term things with long term people, that's just what I want to do. Like, it's great. It just makes so much sense. Now. Here's, here's the juicy one, mate. This is the juicy one. Clear my throat. For you.

Lessons learned, bringing forward to 2023 and some wisdom. Are you ready for the wisdom?

Yeah, I love it. Let's. Hit me, hit me.

All right. Money doesn't matter. How you live your life does. And this was huge for me where, you know, you see your bank account go up, it goes down, your investments, and I was tying too much of my worth and achievement to it. And the reality is it don't matter. What matters is the day to day, how you're living your life, how you spend time with your family and friends. They're the things you're going to remember when you're 80 and 90 not having an extra 10 grand in the bank. And I think I am saying that from a position of privilege, as, you know, an educated person, a white collar worker that's on a decent salary. Obviously, if you don't have that money, that's going to be your priority. But for me, when you get to that point, definitely make that right choice and optimize for happiness and fulfillment. Like that is what I need to optimize for. Not always optimizing for cash, because cash doesn't buy. That money only solves your money problems. And I have to learn that lesson year after year after year because you get caught in that trap again. You compare with your friends, you see salaries that come out. You're like, oh, why am I putting in all this effort? I need more money. It's like, yeah, you get the money. Now what? You're just stacking more marbles. What are you really going to do with it? What are you going to spend it on?

Lessons learned. Where's the fire? Why I'm always running around like a mad bastard, like my house is on fire, something's happening. To get everything done, I don't need to do everything. I don't need to account for every nanosecond in my life. Sometimes it's okay to chill or just read or not. Set your hair on fire at work you can do, you know, you can achieve a lot. You don't have to push yourself to the extreme.

Don't worry, you'll figure it out. If you worry, you suffer twice. That book I mentioned, how to stop Worrying, Start Living, Create a worry plan, that really just was amazing for me. And there's even a technique like a mental model that I have from that. And it's like, think about this event that's going to happen and that you're worried about. And you take three steps. Number one, detail the worst case scenario of that event. What is going to happen? What is the worst case scenario in your head? Write it down. Number two, can you accept if that thing happens? So if you have no control and that thing happens, can you accept it? Number three, great, you've accepted it. What can you now actively do to work towards that outcome you want? And that thing not happening? And just walking through that framework is so good. It is so good. It's helped me so so much so it's huge.

Most people don't have good attention spans, so I've noticed this again and again. The society we're going towards, people just don't like, we're very fidgety and this includes myself, where we want that dopamine hit. And even like, man, I play Apex with one of my mates and it's like we're on Discord in between games. And I'll be talking to him, there'll be no response. And he'd be like, on his phone. I'm like, bro, it's like 20 seconds. Do you have to be on your phone? It's like all these little things. And like, I've noticed in my life how much am I picking up my phone, how much attention am I giving it? And it's just a trend I've noticed. And it's something that, you know, this is something that's being taken away from humans. You need to just get back and do basic human stuff and just reset. I think that's really important. We've learned that a lot during this year as well.

Two naval quotes that I basically live by now. Happiness. Happiness is a choice you make and a skill you develop. And desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want. And I've added even then, was it a good trade? So the first one, people want to be happy. You can be happy. That's just a choice. So you say, I want to be happy. You can, like, default. Humans are just happy. If you get rid of all the bullshit, all the ego, all the stuff you have to do, you'll be happy. But that's a choice. But then you have to work on it every day. You have to go. All the choices I'm making, the things I'm doing in my life, what am I desiring? What am I sacrificing? Am I optimizing for happiness? Is it a good trade? You have to stay on top of it. It's like fitness. You just have to keep going.

All you have is an ice cube quote. All you have are your balls and your health. So at the end of the day, nothing else matters apart from who you are and are you healthy. Money will come and go, friends will come and go. Relationships will change. But you need to look after that. And really, the healthy man wants a thousand things and the sick man wants only one. So look after your fucking health. That is a lesson I need to learn day after day after day. Because, you know, I look after for a while, I get good, I start looking fit, and I reward myself with beers and food, and it just goes downhill and I don't sleep, and it's just silly. Big lesson for me.

Amateurs do what they love. Professionals love what they do. I think that's. That's definitely for you. And I like, yeah, I love the crypto space, but I fall in love with what I do at collective shift. Like, I love it. I love to do it every day. That's a true mark of a professional. Don't let things fester. Tackle them now and sleep well. Like, I learned this lesson a long time ago with actually 50 cent, with the 50th law, written with Robert Green. And he's like, if I got a problem with someone, I'm going to go up and I'm going to talk to them. I'm going to say, I'm not going to go home, think about it, talk to my partner about it, lose sleep over it, sort that shit out immediately. Like, we let things get really big. You and I are actually really good at this. We had one just before this pod, like, hey, this thing's bothering me, let's talk about it. And it was like, it was awkward, it was uncomfortable, but then we came to a great resolution and now a huge weight has been lifted. I didn't realize how much it was bothering me and then it was actually bothering you as well. And the thing I thought that was bothering me wasn't the thing. We actually talked through it and we found another thing. We're like, oh, that might be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it just works. And my final one was proof of work and compounding are everything. I firmly, firmly believe that that's a.

Fair chunk of wisdom, mate. That's.

That's some deep reflections, mate. So we've only got a couple more things to go through and these are. These are relatively, like, you know, easier. What? Things will definitely change in 2023. I will have a better relationship with my body. I'll be kinder to future Aaron. So at the moment, I try to account for things that are going to happen in the future, but future Aaron, I don't plan for him. I don't set rest breaks, I don't set. I'm so at setting up things with my friends or going to a. We work next week or doing whatever. I tend to wake up and do a spur of the moment. It's going to be kinder to future Aaron. Or iron my clothes for the next day for future Aaron. So it's a bit easier, you know, not leave it all for the morning and be stressed, exercise more and just increase incidental exercise. Like when I go to my mum's house, it's like within 40 minutes. Riding distance so I can just ride there, just do that, just increase that. Incidental exercise, eat well, spend time like food shopping and prepping meals. I used to love it, but I haven't done that in a while and I Need to do it more, you know, UberEats is convenient, but you're going to die. Don't do it. Start my weekly calendar with me first. So every week I do my calendar and I usually put in work and my wife, my daughter, things I have to do. Fuck that noise. I'm going to put in what I want to do and look after me first. It's literally you're in an airplane, the mask comes down, you put it on yourself first, then you put it on other people. So I'm going to structure that. These are the things, these are my non negotiables. And then I build work and everything else around that. Obviously some things are not going to be negotiable. Like you have to do a work thing or you have to do a pickup or two drop off. But put me first every week. That's something I definitely want to do. Like, and it's things like going to the gym or having a coffee with a friend or having a chat with Ben, like those kind of things. Be consistent with the things that matter, even the boring things. Again, this is working out meal prep and it's freedom through discipline. That's what this is. Don't work myself into the ground. I'm very bad at this and I need someone to tell me to stop or I get sick and my body tells me to stop. So I'm going to work on criteria to set. Gonna be a series of questions I'm gonna ask myself every week and check in with myself and give myself a score. And that way I just immediately trigger, no, I need to go and leave or do less or do something else.

That's what I told you last year, man. You were like, you would look like you've been hit by a truck.

And I was like, I was cool.

It's like you take some time.

Yeah, that's it. It's just like, it's hard how you can hyper focus and you can be singular and that's crazy. Go to therapy more for maintenance. I've been to therapy for like a year or more and I only go when like I'm struggling or an event has happened or something like that. I want to do regular at least monthly maintenance just to work on myself. I think that'd be really good.

All athletes need a tune up, mate. Or athletes have a basketball coach, they've got a gym coach, they've got, you know, they've got experts helping along the way and like, that's a big one.

The highest performers have coaches. Absolutely. Be calmer and let Less things affect me. All right. So I'll quickly go through my battery chargers and drainers and you can call out anything you think are interesting. Battery chargers. These are things that just get me amped and give me energy, son. Podcasting, building and creating, cooking, meeting new people, brainstorming and talking about the future, lad. Just get me around a whiteboard. It's on. Lifting weights, riding my bike, playing pinball. New experiences. Working with my hands no matter what it is. Reading, meditating, going to the beach and driving my V8 like an absolute broken. I just love it, mate. They're the things that give me energy. Battery drainers. Sitting in front of a computer for too long drains me. Having too much in my calendar makes you just go, oh, feeling rushed all the time. Life admin, my God. Worrying and overthinking some family members. So that tells me I need to set better boundaries with them. Any type of finance or tax compliance. I love the strategy. Getting down with an accountant or a finance person and working it all out, but then getting the documents together, doing the spreadsheets, looking at the fucking blockchain. My God. Even just prepping. And it's worse in my head than actually doing it. Hour or two's work, but just feeling like I'm always on the clock and having to optimize every second. And this is something I do to myself. This is not something you do to me.

You're the CEO of the company. But I always feel like I have to maximize every second of my life when I'm already producing insane value. I could literally sit down for half the day and things would still be okay. And I need to get better at that. Not always being like, every second you need to prove your worth. It's like, no, every second you just need to get better. And that might be you need to go and work out or have a 15 minute break.

I actually think that's.

Do you find that for yourself as well?

It's fascinating. You know, I've been thinking about this a little bit more. I've really spoken about too much, but I've been thinking about this more and more recently. I think it actually comes down to the fact that we all work remotely and we have this in desire. Need to showcase what we're doing. Because we don't see each other, right? Yeah, we barely see each other.

How. How do we signal to each other what we're doing and what, you know, the work we've been. Yeah, it's like, how do I do that? Oh, I always have to be on Slack. So if I reply, that means I'm working.

Yeah.

This is the equivalent of the manager that wants you to sit in your desk so they know you're working. I'm like, no, no, no, you measure on value. We measure on value as well. But we still do this stupid, don't we?

And I think it's just a communication thing, you know, Honestly, I think it comes out of communication. Like we had it with one of our staff in our team, you know, that there was like, we don't really know what they're doing, you know, and then when you sit down and actually ask them what's going on, you realize that there's this mountain of stuff you've got no idea about. It just sort of opens up. It's like, oh, right. So I think it just comes back down to a communication thing. You know, some people are in a native, like, you know, work out a bit of anxiety around that. I think that's both you and I.

Absolutely. But then it's like, you know, when you get reassurance is hard because you always want more and you get reassured and then two days later you're like, oh, but what are they thinking now? And it's like this brilliant Jack Butcher diagram is two circles. It's like them thinking about you. It's just a dot in a circle and then there's a fully shaded in circle. You can actually see in the background just here. Yeah, it's like it's you thinking about them thinking about you. It occupies your entire mind with such a silly humans mate. Oh, my God. I think you're right, though. It's just about checking in and if you're feeling like that, communicate it. I was bad at doing that. That's actually one of the conversations Ben and I had before the pod. One of the conversations that was challenging me and he's. Ben was just like, what the.

It's so. And. And then like, oh, well, can you communicate this to me? And then I'll communicate this way back to you. So it works, right? Yeah, it's. It's crazy. All right, so. So this is the big one. We've got two left. We've got my fantasy story and we've got our reward for achieving my goals. So, man, this, this was deep. My fantasy story for the end of 2023. Aaron is calm, he's fit and in brackets, looks good in a T shirt and can dunk a basketball ring. He is sleeping well, happy and is pain free. He doesn't feel rushed all the time and appreciates the little things in life. Most of life's inconveniences don't bother him at all. Ben and Bergs has a following of 2,000 true fans and has 10,000 downloads per week. So if we're doing three episodes, 3,000 by the end of the year. We've held a Bennebergs meetup and had the best time with degenerates like us. And we've had some cracking guests on the pod. Collective Shift is highly profitable and our staff size is relatively similar. We run the company how we want and have found profit. Market fit.

I want to sell at least one non collective Shift related product on the Internet because I've wanted to do. I just want to release something on Gumroad. I just have to do it. Like it's a skill set that I'm just going to throw out there, build my social media following provided it isn't too draining to 10,000 followers on Twitter plus LinkedIn. I don't know what the LinkedIn number is, but I like LinkedIn and I have spent a lot of time with my friends and family, eating, drinking, playing board games and having a good time. I'll look back on this year and see it was the one year I put myself first and that's my story.

Yeah, man. Dude, that is so similar. But in your own take than to mine. Like, we have very similar goals for this year. That's really fascinating. That's awesome.

It's incredible. And we should check in with each other like monthly, just outside of work to see how we're going with this.

I like it. I like it. I like the. I like the no Rush piece. Like the no Rush piece. That's good.

Oh, it just does my head in. Like, even if there's a few things in my count, I'm like, why, like, why do I have to be there at this time then quickly drive back and rush there and go here? I'm like, I just need to set up my life better. Like. Yeah. And. But it's also feeling like I can't move those things when in reality, in most of those relationships, I have power and I can just do that. Yeah. But I feel like I'm letting people down and that's a silly internal thing I need to work on.

Yeah, I feel you, man.

Nice. Yeah, I like it. And then my reward for achieving goals in 2023, this is very hard for me to, to do a goal because I'm already so grateful for everything I have in my life and I feel like I've Got everything I need. But the goal for achieving, a reward for achieving my goals was, would be a trip to Japan with the family. That would just be amazing.

And buy a property by the beach. Now, I understand that one is very cheap and one is very expensive, right? But this. Buy a property by the beach, it's going to be. It's not going to be a fancy beach. It's going to be miles away in the middle of nowhere. It's going to be a very small unit or something, and it's probably going to be a rental. That is like a pie in the sky thing if my finances can do it. If they can't, you know, it's just a goal I want to get to in the next sort of 5 years or 10 years so I can retire at that place when I'm 65. That's just something that I want to achieve.

Amazing, man. Great work, dude. So how was that reflection? Was that. Is that what, like, how was that rank in terms of your previous reflections? Maybe dance or something?

Oh, this was the deepest I've done and it has been the best. And when I first started it, I was like, oh, I have to do this for the pod. It's gonna suck 10 minutes into it. I was like, holy crap. I was sat down, looked up, it's been an hour and I had to go do something else. And all I wanted to do was get back to that thing and do that thing because it was so rewarding. It got so many thoughts out of my head. It gave me a clear path. It helped me to understand what I was feeling and what was important to me. And I highly recommend that everyone does so.

Fascinating. So my. My takeaway that I got out of, the biggest takeaway out of what I got from my reflection was that what a fucking year we've just had. We've all worked super hard. It is okay to have a rest. That's what I got out of it. Because, like, you and I are both the same. It's like you can't put the pen down. You can't put that. You got to keep just going and going and going. But when you do that reflection, you're like, wait on a minute. You know, you just ran a marathon. You just finished the marathon and now you want to run another marathon. No, if you keep running, you're going to fall over, trip and kill yourself. You need to, like, have a break, rest, put your feet up, ice those knees and get back into it in a few weeks time.

100. Why are we sprinting marathons why are we not more like pro athletes? And this is the whole thing where working like, see it's funny, like you either work like you work like a cow where you toil every single day, you're supposed to work like a lion, you rest most of the time, you sprint, you hunt and you enjoy the reward. What we're doing is a mix of the two. We're working like lions but toiling like cows. We're sprinting everywhere. And what do you think is going to happen? We're gonna get cranky, we're gonna burn out, we're gonna make the wrong decisions. So I think you and I need to do regular check ins on this. And we've been actually really good over the break. Forcing each other to take leave. And again, I'm still an idiot, I'm still checking. I was like, I'm still doing stuff but at least I'm taking leave and relaxing quite a bit. You've had a little bit of leave, you're going to take more leave. You've got that planned and nothing happened. We, we're such idiots. We set big stretch goals for quarter four and we achieved all of them the first time in the history of the company. And we're just like, okay, that's good. What about quarter one? Like we haven't rewarded ourselves, we haven't talked heaps about it. We said congratulations, gave ourselves a pat on the back. We're not like, holy crap, that was incredible. So all right, what's next? And we're depriving ourselves and robbing ourselves of that joy. But again, I don't know. I need to work on how to reward ourselves, how to acknowledge it and then how to set the next steps. Because it's always just the next thing, the next thing. And if you do that, you caught in an infinite loop. There's this brilliant piece by Osho. I'm going to write it down now to put in the show notes. It's 12 minutes. You guys really need to listen to it about. It's just about desire and you're just on an infinite loop again and again. I desire the new thing. What's the next goal? What's the next goal? And if you drop all of that immediately, you are happy and you are enlightened. You're living as a human was supposed to be. And the way that he speaks about this, I try to listen to it at least once a week is just incredible. And I need to get back to more of that. It doesn't mean you do nothing. You still have your goals and you still achieve them, but you're more imbalanced and you're not so extreme because the more we do that, the more we train our brains to be that way. And by the end of the year, you are absolutely cooked. It is crazy. That's why you see like all these business owners that are in their 40s look like they're in their 70s. Because I've done that.

No soul left.

Mate.

Amazing. Look back.

Dude, that was incredible.

Well done.

I think we're both pretty short on time. So do we want to.

That we'll do meal of the week and name of the week. We're going for it, mate.

Okay, let's do it.

I'm not gonna let. I'm not gonna let this post. We'll go this past. We're gonna do my meal of the week. So get amongst this lad. This is a home cooked meal and this is cow sway. Do you know what this is?

Have you had this way? No idea.

Okay, so this is like a Burmese Luxor. You know what a Luxor is?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, good. This is a Burmese, one of those. So it's like a coconut based like soup with like chicken and garlic and everything in it. And then all the accompaniments you got, you got haste of lemon in there, you've got egg, you've got fried garlic, fried shalots, fried crispy bits, fresh lots cut up onion, coriander and mate. My God, this took me back to my childhood. I had this meal probably when I was 6 and I still remember it from then. And I've had a couple along the way, but they have not compared. And this, I shed a single tear. It was that good. It was my mum's friend that made it, brought it over to her mum's, like, you've got to come over now. Cooked it up and it's got egg noodles and everything through it and it was just delicious. It's like the warmest hug and no one talked. We just sat there in silence. We just ate and grunted and it was incredible. This was. I would not change a thing. It was 10 out of 10. It was amazing. Home cooked Burmese food. Amazing, man. It was just. It was beautiful.

That looks brilliant.

And yours looks fascinating, mate. So tell me about this.

I'm just pulling up the. Just pulling up the menu. I took a photo of the menu because I was like, I'm gonna forget what hell this actually was.

So it looks like a truffles sauce as well.

Yeah, it's a bit of a truffle. Sauce. So what we have here is.

The wagyu brasola. I think that's how you pronounce it.

Yeah.

Cauliflower. Cauliflower and truffle puree with deg x62 deg. Egg entirely. Sure what that is?

I think that's 60 degrees. Eggs. Yeah, that's. That's like a sauce.

Yeah. And we've got the potato fries. And mate, this was just incredible. Now, I'd already started to eat this. As you can see, there's a little bit of steak missing. But this was wicked. We're over in Bendigo, over watching. My sister moved to Bendigo.

She's over there.

So we went over there, had a meal, and this was just wicked, mate. It was like, you know, share plates. We just got a heap of different stuff. We got like, short ribs. We had. We had some swordfish. We had. We had pork. Scotch. Yeah, pork. What's it called? What's a pork belly? Braised lamb. We had some salad. Yeah, dude, this was. It was top notch.

All the fancy things.

Yeah, this is top notch. Awesome fries. Steak was cooked beautifully. This is like a. Yeah, like a good 9.9.6.

That looks incredible. That's super fancy, mate.

Yeah.

Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Right, you're gonna be for us now.

We're gonna go to Meme of the Week and I'm gonna show you a little something something first because I myself got maimed. So, mate, we're playing presidents. And. And for a while, I was the. So there you go. I had to wear a neck pillow on my head. And, mate, I was sweating. And I didn't get to sit on a chair because I was an. I had to sit on this thing that was like 2 inches high, like a little st. Stool. And we'll drink her probably on our fourth bottle of wine. And they even stitched me up with the cards. They printed out these bergheads and they put them on the cards for. For those that haven't seen. This is what. This is the berghead on the back of the phone there. And just. Oh, my God. It was just. It was horrendous. So I got sished up and this is what they did. They made me into a meme. It's like. But our princess is in another castle and I'm looking like Toad there. This is just ridiculous. Is ridiculous. Right?

Great.

What an episode.

Yeah. Good reflection. Really love that. If you want to listen to any other. My other reflection, mine was last week and check that out. But what I'm bergs. If you want those reflection questions, we'll drop them in the description below so you can do it yourself. Make sure you get in there and get it done. And we do have an interview coming out. It might already be out by now, maybe out soon with Reese. Which is, which is epic episode was.

Around how I really enjoyed that.

Oh man, it was epic. You know, if you, if you're looking to travel, work remotely, work in a crypto company structure, tax, build wealth, that is the definitely the episode for you as a cracking episode.

And it was so interesting because he's just a really well traveled and experienced human being and quite philosophical as well. And his outlook on life is very different from the majority but his life set up, he's working towards it being very incredible and just to talk to a person like that. And he also works for a startup and in Web three, so we get to speak about that as well. But it started off as hey, you're doing these things in web 3. And then the interview just pivoted to wait. Tell me about that. What's your philosophy on this? How have you structured it? Where do you live, why do you do that and where are you going? It was just amazing. I really enjoyed that conversation. It was 10 times better than I thought it was going to be.

Yeah, top notch. So check that out. And as always, you can can love to hear your feedback. Tweet at one of us. BenSmithSonau on Twitter orabybackburg. Leave us a review, send it to a friend. We'd love for your feedback and we'll see you next time.

Thanks champions.