Next Level 267: How to Stay Focused to Achieve More in Life by Galel Fajardo

AI is not going to replace jobs. Your job will be replaced by somebody who knows how to use AI.

Welcome to the Next Level Income show where it's our goal to take your income, your investments and your life to the next level. I'm your host, Chris Larson. If you haven't yet, get a copy of our book for free at our website, Next Level Income.com. that's www.nextlevelincome.com. just click on the book link and I'll even send you a copy if you put your address in. On today's show, we have my friend Galal Fajardo. Galel is a business strategist and high performance coach who helps overwhelmed entrepreneurs reclaim their time, their energy and their freedom without sacrificing their income or their sanity or their family and relationships. With over 23 years of entrepreneurial experience and a master's degree in performance psychology, Glel specializes in helping six, seven and even eight figure business owners simplify systematize and scale while protecting their mental health health in the process. His coaching clients have included Navy Seals, Olympians, professional athletes, corporate CEOs and solopreneurs. He's also the creator of the Sovereign Success System and works as a fractional CMO and adviser for brands across health, fitness, real estate and personal development. And today he's going to share his advice and his tips for how you can achieve more in your life by doing less. G I'm so excited to have you.

On the show, man. Chris, thanks so much for having me here, man. I'm fired up to be here. I appreciate you inviting me.

Absolutely. This has been six months in the making. So the audience doesn't know that we've been trying to make this happen for six months. But you've got an amazing story. I can't wait for you to share it with the audience. But I've learned a lot from you in multiple different areas and we're going to dive into some of those areas today so you can share some of your knowledge with the audience too. But talk a little bit about how you ended up where you are today as a performance coach.

Yeah. So it's, it's crazy. Like you know when you're going through a really tough time and I do you think to you right. As I know you do when you're going through a really tough time and you're asking yourself why, why, why is this happening? And I remember I had some like very wise mentors around me at the time that said Galel, one day you're going to look back and you're going to say, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Instead of saying, why, why, why? And I, at the time that I was going through it, I was like, there's just no way. There's no way I'll ever feel grateful for this. I can say unequivocally, 20 years later, I am so thankful to God that I was allowed to go through the challenges I did, because I'm on this podcast with you today as a result of that. Right? So what happened was out of college, I thought I was going to be an attorney. So I had gone the pre law route. I was going to become a prosecutor. And then eventually I wanted to become a judge here in Orange County Superior Court. See if that led to maybe the Federal Circuit Court, you know, had aspirations of maybe being a Supreme Court justice. And so my dad, being the wise man that he is, says here, I want you to interview these attorneys. In my life, they practice all different types of law. See what they think of their career, see if it helps you choose a path. Interviewed them and they all said, don't do it. I hate my life. Don't become an attorney.

Wow.

So I said, okay. So I took that information back to my dad and he goes, look, I'm not trying to talk you out of a great career, but is that what you would like for your life? And I'm like, no, it's not what I want. They were all miserable. So I pivoted and at the time that I was graduating college is 2004, graduating from UC Irvine, and real estate was just blowing up. And so I had started working at a mortgage company and in 2003 and got my real estate license, got my brokerage license, and eventually became a loan originator. And then, you know, here I was like on top of the world, making all kinds of money hand over fist back then, man. Hand over fist, right? So then what's the next thing you do when you are really good at something is you start your own company. So my wife and I left the mortgage brokerage that we were at and we started our own company. And, and it was great for a little while. Then 2007, 2008 happened and we lost it all. Like, we lost. The first home that we ever purchased was a condo in Aliso Viejo. We lost that to foreclosure. We had savings, we had investments, all gone. Credit completely trashed. The lowest point was literally needing to ask my parents for money to buy groceries and having my church give us money from the benevolence fund so that we could survive. It was bad, Chris.

And, and that kids at the time was it just so your wife.

So the, the day my son was born with August 7, 2008, I'm right in the midst of all this stuff.

Wow.

And my mom said to me, as we're going into it, like the week before his due date, my mom said to me, she's a very wise woman. She's a physician, successful medical practice. She says, Gillel, children are a blessing. They are a blessing from God. You are going to see things turn around as a result of your child being in this world. And so I held on to that hope and it didn't get easier. But my perspective really shifted. The challenge leading up to that point was that I was really dealing with tons of anxiety and depression. And so I was having panic attacks and tons of anxiety and it was just crippling for me. And so leading up to that point, the years leading up to was just, it was brutal. And so I was really trying to improve my mental health. And with my son here, I had a new why I had a new purpose. Like I had to not only be a husband and support and leader to my wife and our family, but now I have this young boy, this baby boy that I need to like lead into the world. So it, like, you see these books on my shelf behind me, I read 90% of those books, some of them multiple times to learn about my, my psychology and how we regulate emotions and how the brain works and just went like into like full, full blown, deep dive into my own psychology. Learned about how to manage stress and anxiety, learn better systems, restabilized us financially. But then I said, you know, I, I, I love this coaching thing, this idea of being a coach. Ever since I had met Craig Ballantyne, he did a one day workshop here in Costa Mesa with Bedros Kulian.

Oh yeah, yeah.

We're doing these little like pop up master one day masterminds scraped together 500 bucks, which you could pay 500 bucks to go see Bedros and Craig at the time, right? And I said, I want to do what he's doing. And so I, when we were doing the round tables, like the hot seats, Craig says, so what about you G like what is it you want to do? I said, I want to be a coach. And he had seen like I was not in good physical shape. I was a mess, right? Like, I was like sleep deprived dad, all this stuff. He's like, before you become a coach, build your business. Right? And so he he encouraged me to launch a supplement that I had had in the works. He's like, I love that idea. So I launched a supplement. It was an anti anxiety supplement. I wrote an ebook that led people into a funnel, made a bunch of sales with that supplement. And so that was kind of my first, like, true digital business that I had. And then Fast forward to 2017. I got a master's degree in performance psychology from National University, got to work with Navy SEALs, professional Ath Olympians, business owners, and became a full blown coach at that point with the formal training, formal degree. And, you know, I, I've been very blessed to, to meet all kinds of great people like yourself along the journey the last several years.

Yeah, well, it's, it's a heck of a story. And, you know, it's, it's the hero's journey. Right? And I, I find it, I find it amazing when you, you talk to real life heroes that go through success and then, you know, they hit this point and then come back from it. And I know there's even more to that story. And those were, those were some dark times for you. And we were talking before the podcast, you know, it's been, it's. I've been through a challenging period here in Asheville. We had. Helene, I've had some loss in my life as well. And you know, you, you had, you know, a great, a great statement. You said, you know, you know, you don't know it at this point, but you know, God's putting you through this and you'll look back and, and, and be grateful for it at some point. And I was talking to actually a coaching client who just came on board here this week, and he said the same thing. He just went through bankruptcy, lost all his businesses. And he goes, chris, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. And I'm like, what? It's amazing. So, you know, my first question for you, Gillel, you know, you talked about reading all these books when you're going through stuff like this, how do you maintain, you know, that, that positivity, the gratitude, you know, compartmentalize. How do. What are some tips for listeners to go through that?

Okay? So I would, I, I'm not here to like, thump people over the head with the Bible. Just like, I want to make this total disclaimer, right? That, like, I know that's not this show, okay? But I would be a fraud if I just said it was all about me. Like, I rely on my faith so much. My faith has been such an important component that to reminding me about what my values are and what is all of this for, right? And so I view myself as a living, breathing ambassador for Jesus, right? And so that drives my actions right now. That means loving everybody. It's not conditional love. It's unconditionally loving on people and being a great example, right? And so for me was being grounded in those values. So for anybody who's listening, I don't care what values you are. If you don't believe in a creator, that's okay. You have a set of principles and values. Those values and the vision that you have for your life are what guides you each and every day. So for me, it was knowing what the mission is and knowing what my values were, staying in alignment with those, and making sure that the actions I took every day led me to that North Star, right? But we gotta know where we're going first. And so that for me was like, massive. So that. That guided conversations I was having on a daily basis, Mentors I would seek out, books I was reading. I. I realized that I was. Had a steady diet of negativity, steady diet of negative food, like bad food that I was eating because it made me feel good, right? So I was addicted to sugar and processed foods and all these things, right? Because it made me feel good at the time.

Sure.

I had a steady diet of negativity. It's a total band aid, right?

Yeah.

Steady diet of negativity. By watching the news all day long, I could tell you everything that was going on in the news and in politics and all this stuff that was not serving me well. And then I was addicted to conversations with friends that also provided lots of negativity. Yeah, you're right. You should be mad at so and so. Be mad at this, be mad at that. And that was not serving me. And finally I decided to change that lens. Darren Hardy was instrumental in that. Darren Hardy, who said he, he shared. You know, it's like looking through a. A glass, right? So we have a. A, A glass of water, and you had nice clear glass, but then you put a spoonful of dirt in there that's watching the Kardashians, and you pick up another spoonful of dirt. It's like watching CNN and Fox News, right? And then you. You eat junk food. And so soon you're looking through the glass and it's all cloudy and murky. He says you need to get fresh, clean water and keep pouring it into the glass until it's nice and clear again.

Clears it back out.

Yeah, clears it back out. And now you have a proper vision. And so that's what I started doing, and that's what I've adopted now in my life.

I love that. And that's a great analogy. You know, keep. If. If your glass is cloudy, keep filling it with clean water until it flushes it out and does that. And that's one of the things I've been doing over the past five, maybe even 10 years now. I do a gratitude journal in the morning and, you know, training your mind. Because I think, you know, one of the things that I know Craig espouses, Craig Valentine espouses and that I've talked to our coaching clients about a lot is get rid of social media. You know, there's studies now that show the more you're on social media, the less happy you are because people put. They put stuff on there. It's like, oh, look how. Look how great things are. And, you know, that might not even be their car that they're in the picture with. Or, you know, they've got this picture, you know, of. Of, you know, their wife in a bikini or whatever it is. And next thing you know, like, you're like, wait, you guys are getting divorced? What happened? Like, you guys looked amazing in there. People, you know, you feel self conscious. You're like, oh, I could be doing better.

Yes.

You know, so that. The news. The news. I realized I told my family after one of the elections. The next morning, I got up and I said, you know what? That's it. We're canceling. We're canceling the news. We're not watching this anymore. Like, this is just not. There's no good, you know, there's all these little things, you know, that you can do and then replace it with, you know, teach your mind to be positive, you know, to be positive. I found that. That, that is, that is. That's helpful. And it's really the basics, you know, so, you know, the gratitude, getting your mind right. But, you know, you mentioned this as well, diet. You know, when I'm not. When I'm not doing well mentally, I go to my diet and my physical activity.

Yes.

And I go back to the basics. And I find that if I do that within a day or two, I can reset my mental energy. How do you. How do you incorporate those things with your coaching clients?

Great question. So first off, the way that I incorporate it with my coaching clients is to make sure I am embodying those principles myself.

Oh, good one. Yeah.

I cannot be kind of like being a parent, right? Yes. Right. Being A parent is the ultimate mirror to your personality, right? You start to see and you're like, why do you get so angry at your sister so much? Have some grace for her. And then I'm like, as I'm saying the words is as if I'm, like, hearing it. Like. Like you're pointing with one finger and three are pointing right back to you. Like, maybe because I get frustrated.

Yell at your brother.

Yeah, don't yell at your brother because I, like, raise it my, my voice at my kid or my wife, right? And so it's a. Kids are the ultimate accountability partner in life. I'll never forget Chris, my. My son. He was 8 years old, and so this is. Gosh. So now he's going to turn 17 in a couple of weeks, right? So this is like. So he's 8 years old. And I was on the couch and I had just been complaining like an hour before. Honey, I'm like, so overweight. I feel so fat. I hate how I feel. And I'm sitting there with this giant bowl of ice cream an hour later on the couch and. And my son, 8 years old, innocent as can be, walks up. He goes, hey, daddy, you know, you were just complaining about how you're fat, but you're eating ice cream. Can you tell me why? Oh, boy. Talk about a reality check. Right? So this goes to answer your question about how do I teach my clients a smack, right? So for me to be the best coach I can, I have to be my own best coaching client. And I think this was. I'm so grateful for my first professor in grad school who said, in order to be a good performance coach, you must become your best coaching client. In other words, are you embodying the principles of a high performance individual? So what we do with a client, it's like, you know, there's an illness and you go to the emergency room. What's the first place you go to? Chris is a triage, right? They go, okay, you're. You have pain. Where is it? It's in my knee. Okay, so it's not chest pain. Potentially fatal. You can drop down on the list, Right? And so with a client, it is triaging what their concerns are. And so I pay attention to their language and how they're describing the issues. And generally speaking, a business issue, like a business problem, like declining in revenue, sales aren't performing as well, marketing's not working as well. Like any decline is typically associated with a personal problem that somebody's having in their life. That's what I often find is that business outcomes are often tied to some personnel issue. It could be the salesperson you have in place, it could be sales director, it could be the owner. Right. But that's why part of the coaching process is doing that discovery. And so then making sure we, like you said Chris, is we have the basics down. Right. So most of my clients, they're overwhelmed, they're busy entrepreneurs. Right. And I find that they're. Business becomes their life and as they get more success, their business kind of builds a prison around them.

Yeah.

And then they're like get resentful because they want to enjoy success, but they can't do it because they're so busy. Right. And then when that happens though, people have neglected themselves so they're not eating properly, they're not hydrating, they're not getting enough sleep. Like the number of sleep deprived people that I talk to on a daily basis is astronomical. Like this, the basics, right. And I, I remind people like, we are like potted plants. We need sunsh, we need water. Right. And we need a little bit of love. Right? A lot of love.

Right.

And so some classical music.

Don't, don't plant.

Absolutely, absolutely. Yes. That studies showed that they love music. Right. But we neglect those basics. Right. So we get those basics together, everything else becomes so much easier. And I can't tell you how many clients who I have talked to that I said, listen, after your next 1 hour 90 minute work sprint, I want you to go walk the block for 10 minutes and tell me what that does for you. And they go and they report back. It's like the 10 minute walk. Gillell was life changing, life giving. Right. And so it's making sure we're sticking to those basics and that is where we start.

I love that. And you know, you mentioned, you, you didn't say structure but you mentioned like the 90 minute work sprint. I love like the pomodoro technique, like working for you know, three 25 minute blocks, you know, hour and a half, taking a, taking a walk, you know, sitting outside like I got a little patio here, I sit out the sun and eat lunch and people like wow, like how did you get so tan? I said I eat I lunch for 30 minutes in the sun every day, you know.

Yes.

Come back refreshed and you feel, you feel amazing. Or take a walk on a, on a phone call and do that, you know, I know, you know, you specialize in working with entrepreneurs, but I know a, anybody that's high performance or working in a high income job can employ these same things. And I've, you know, I know you've embodied them. I've worked with, you know, your mentor, Craig Valentine as well for, for a lot of years and done these things. One of the things that you've really taught me though, Gillel, over the past six months is how to optimize some of our marketing. And you're, you're an AI expert. So I know, I want to, I want to shift gears just a little bit as we wrap up today. So I want to, I want to talk about two different things. So one, I want to, I want to be real simple because my wife. Crazy story. So she's pulling out actually of our car wash yesterday. She's dropping my son off to work. He's 15, so he drove there, but he, he has his learner's permit. So she drops him off, she's pulling out and this guy walking down the sidewalk, she wasn't gonna hit him. He was probably about 3ft off her bumper, swung his backpack and smashed her windshield yesterday. Obviously, obviously, the guy's crazy, right? So. But it looks like somebody, he had like a bowling ball in his bag. So the police came the whole nine yards. Fortunately, she wasn't hurt. You know, the, the car wasn't dented, so she's got to get this new windshield. So she's going through it and she's like, what do you know? I don't know, should I go to the dealer? Should I get safe flight to do it? And I said, did you check chat GPT? And chatgpt is like my high powered assistant for everything now. I reference it for medical stuff, I look for legal stuff, I run, you know, if I'm looking to buy something or a review, I'll run it through there to double check. I'll look at my credit card points and say, hey, which credit card should I use for this? You, you have really taken AI to the next level. What are some things that all our listeners could, could use AI for today to help, to help gain back some more time in their day?

Great question, Chris. So the biggest thing that AI helps me with because I'm an entrepreneur with adhd, so I have focus issues, I have attention issues, and it's hard for me to start things. Exactly. I know you and I both could like commiserate on this, right? And so where AI helps is reducing friction. The biggest struggle that entrepreneurs have when they're accomplishing big goals or going after big goals is they, there's friction. And so sometimes it's friction where it's like I don't have the energy or motivation to do something that could be one. So how do we reduce friction? As we make it easier, we lower the barrier. Instead of thinking about the project in one big, big chunk, you break it down into smaller pieces. Right. And so we're AI helps is give it a project, give it a task. So I tell AI what role it's supposed to play.

Yeah.

What is it that I expect from it and what is explain to me how to break this down. So it's like you are a world class chief operations officer. I currently have this problem. I expect a solution broken down into simple steps on how to do that. And so then AI with its great wisdom will go and break it down. Right. So I use it to reduce friction. I use it as a second brain to basically help me figure out other ways of solving problems that maybe I haven't looked at. And so I will like kind of have a conversation. One of my favorite features is to use the voice feature on Chat GPT and I will be driving in my car and I will just talk with my AI, right. And I'll say, hey, you know, I want to talk through this problem I'm having right now I'm currently dealing with.

You can call me if you need a friend. You know that. Right.

Like I do. I will take you up on that, Chris. When I have specific financial and investing questions, I will call you because you are the guy I send my clients to. But like a marketing thing that I'm trying to talk through, or maybe it's a personnel issue or I have a client who has more of a complex issue and I want to just like dump things out of my head. Right.

That's a great idea. Yeah, that's a, that's, that's like a next level way to use it instead of just, you know, thinking. Yeah. But like, you know, have a, like literally have a conversation back and forth.

Yeah.

That's interesting.

Yeah. And the way that the platform works is that it's taking all your words, the pauses, the ums, the odds, and it's, it's analyzing your, your language. Right. And it gives you a response based on that. So there's times I'll literally have like a long drive, I'll open it up and I will just start talking through a certain issue and I'll say these are the ways that I've looked at helping, you know, solve this issue. But can you give me some other angles that I haven't and can you provide alternatives and help me Rank them based on what you think is most effective. And so it'll just full blown have a conversation with me that those are just some of the ways, there's a lot of tactical ways and helping you formulate email responses, helping you with some marketing stuff. There's very tactical ways of applying it, but I love it for reducing friction.

I love that. Yeah, that's a great, that's a great way. Or doing those, you know, those kind of menial tasks or helping you get, get somewhere or one of the cool things that, that you taught me as well is you can actually upload books into, you know, like ChatGPT or one of the AI platforms and then ask for a response based on what you put in there, which is how we built, how we built our, our Chris GPT. So if you want to go to our website and check that out, which is, which is available to our coaching clients. But yeah, it's really, it's really amazing how it can process. One of the, one of the things that I think has been a challenge is, you know, I could, we could sit here probably and talk about the school system and how it, it does or doesn't serve, you know, our children or especially entrepreneurs, right? So if you're an entrepreneur listening, you're probably shaking your head up and down. But I got an email from my, my older son's teacher this past year and it said, hey, your son clearly wrote this paper with AI and he goes, this analyzer says it's 100% chance. I'm like, well, nothing's 100%. There's a 1% chance he did it, right? So I ran through another one. I was like, what says eight? Mine says 8%. So we get into this dialogue back and forth. But my point is, I feel like the school system isn't really teaching our children how to use these tools because, you know, they're not using it. So, you know, that's one of the topics I wanted to bring up today because I think there's so many people that are, are maybe intimidated by using Chat GPT or these other AI tools that are out there. And as you start to fold them in, you know, to your, to your processes every day, it can be really valuable. Like I said, it's like, hey, we need to repair my wife's windshield. What's a, what's a fair price? What are the options around Asheville, North Carolina that we can expect? And then it gave her, I showed her that. It gave her a lot more confidence having the conversation and making that decision today. So it's really cool. But business owners can really, really do it. And one of my favorite things is using it for standard operating procedures so you can give it to your team so they can, they can ask it the questions that they might come to you with. So if you're out there, if you're an entrepreneur, if you're a business owner, if you've got a team and you have people underneath you that call you all the time with questions, you can build one of these systems so your team can lean on a virtual you.

Yes, yes, very much so. And that right there is essential. It's one of the things I show my clients how to do is how to build those standard operating procedures. And here's the thing, too, is like, if there's people that are in your audience that are listening, they're intimidated by AI, I'm going to tell you, it's okay. Like, it's easy for me to say because, like, my generation, I mean, I'm, I'm a millennial. Right. So I, I remember life before the Internet and then I remembered seventh grade hitting, and then I had the Internet after that. Right. And so there is a learning curve where I was teaching my teachers how to use the Internet for certain things with AI take baby steps, but it's, it's here to stay. And one of the things I'm encouraging my children to, I'm encouraging them to use AI every single day.

Yeah.

And how to use AI, and I'm showing them how that I use how I teach, because how you speak to AI matters. And so one of the things that most people miss is that they just try to get an answer. They treat it like Google. You have to think more logically. Right. What's the role it's going to play? What is it that you expect from it and speaking to it that way. And I'll tell you, if people, you know, AI is not going to replace jobs. I saw Shiron Shat talking about this. AI is not going to replace jobs, but it. Your job will be replaced by somebody who knows how to use AI.

That's a great way. Yeah, that's a great, That's a great way to put it. Yeah. And, you know, just like computers and, or, or think, think about pilots. And I taught surgeons how to use navigated systems in the or. And the surgeons were like, I don't want to do this. It's going to take my job. It's like, they're still pilots. They're just better pilots. They're more consistent so think of AI as guardrails that can help you be more consistent and better at what you do. And Gillel, you've got, you've got an awesome website. You've got a ton of of resources, you know, for people that are listening, they want to learn more about your, your coaching, what you do, how you help entrepreneurs. What's the best way to get in touch with you and learn more about that?

Yeah, so you can just go to galelle.com that's G A L E L dot com. Go there, get on my email list. And I like to tell people my emails are not boring. So I like to educate, I like to coach. I'm giving out resources, I'm sharing resources with folks. You can also find me on YouTube. Just search my name, Galel Fajardo. Or it's at Galel F or Instagram at Galel Fajardo. My first name, last name and you'll see some of my content there. If there's anybody that's interested in AI that's just like, hey, listen, I want to know how to reduce some friction. If you go to galel.com forward/next level, that will send you to an opt in where you just put in your name and email address and it gives you my AI for ADHD cheat sheet. And I'm finding people, even if they don't have adhd, that AI cheat sheet is helping them be able to just get through tasks even faster. And it's just a good way of teaching people how to use AI kind of as that second brain.

Awesome. Thank you so much for that. We're going to put that in the show notes here. So if you're on YouTube, you can just click down below. If you're listening on Spotify or one of the other podcast platforms, check out the show notes. That's gillel.com nextlevel galil thank you so much. I always enjoy our conversations. They're fun.

Yes.

And so seriously, give me a call if you get bored and you don't want to talk to your AI in your car.

I absolutely will, Chris. Thank you, brother. Thanks for having me on.

My pleasure. Thank you. Hey, Chris, here again. I hope you found this episode valuable. Now I have one more thing to gift you. We have a page for my coaching clients where you can get a free copy of my book as well as much more from previous guests on the show. Just check out nextlevelincome.com coaching to get a free code copy of my book, audiobook and much more. I'll send you a copy of my book and cover all the shipping costs as a thank you for listening to the podcast. Also, please like share and take just 90 seconds to give us a rating on Apple Podcasts.