Balancing Life & Business with Jeff Walker

Jeff, a massive welcome to the Life on Purpose podcast.

Thank you, James. I'm glad to be here.

So great to see you. Look, I've read your books, I've heard so much about you from friends. So at launch, the book that you wrote, number one New York Times bestseller, really changed my outlook on business. But one of the things that I really loved about it that really brought me into your world was you talking about fatherhood, you making decisions around, hey, this is what my business has got to do to give my family a vehicle to have freedom and so forth. So I would love to go back to when you were a stay at home dad with your kids and thinking about 9 to 5, rat race versus doing your own thing. Tell me more about that situation.

Yeah, well.

So I was in the corporate world coming out of college, I got a corporate job. You know, my dad worked for the Same company for 35 years, a big corporate company. My father in law worked for the same big corporate company for 40 years back when I was coming out of college. That's what a lot of people did. Times are different now, but that was sort of like what I was programmed to do. And so I was in the corporate world, but I just didn't feel like I fit there. And I was very much not happy. And my wife was going to graduate school to be an engineer or for a second engineering degree. And when she.

We got pregnant while she was in school and by the time she graduated my son was a year old and we just really wanted someone to be home, to have a parent home with our son. And I know not everyone can make this work, but we decided we were going to try to make it work. And so we had one salary, my wife's salary, she was supporting the family did a great job of it, but it was very tight. Money was very, very tight. But I quit. My job just walked away when my son was right around a year old. And then about two years later then we had our daughter. So now he's home with a couple of little kids and frankly I can tell the story. So it all seems like it makes sense and I was intentional. But the reality is we just wanted one of us home with the kids. My wife, I hated being in the corporate world and my wife fit better there and had this new degree and so she got the job and I quit and we had no real plan going forward from there. And then about four or five years later is when I started my business.

Or it's probably actually about six years later. And I just started this Online business. And it was just with the hopes of making a few extra dollars to help support the family. Like, my goal was like, if I could make an extra $10,000 a year, it would really ease things up. And things took off from there. And the first year was about $10,000. And the second full year, I made more than my life. And we started talking about having her come home. And then in the third year, she was able to leave her job and come home, be with the kids, but also help me grow the thing, you know, grow the business and take a big role in the business. So that's sort of how it all transpired. It seems like a dream now. It was amazing to be home with the kids when they were young like that. I don't think I was equipped for it. Like, I. I was 20, let's see, 27 years old when my son was born. I don't think I was old enough. And certainly initially when I saw him with the kids, I was more like. Just more. More like a babysitter. My wife was still the. The homemaker, really, Even though she was working all day, she. She was the one really being a homemaker. And I was doing my. I was hanging out by my fingernails. When I was first home with the kids, it was.

That sounds familiar. I'm a rookie dad as well. So every day is like, you know, I'm learning. I'm a dad in progress is what I call it.

Yep. Yeah. No one gives you. No one gives you training for it. And more than that, no one seems to recognize that it could really be useful to have training for it, you know, and, you know, people just assume they know what they're doing. And even as a parent, you assume you know what you're. What you're doing. And I. Yeah, I wish knowing now what I knew then, because, like, when I was. They were like, around 96 was when I bought this program by Tony Robbins, Personal Power 2. And I bought it. There's a infomercial that ran all night long here in the States, and I bought that. And in going through it, there's a lot. It was a personal development program. First thing I'd ever done in that direction. But the meta lesson I learned is that no matter what we want to learn, what we want to do, what we want to be good at, there's someone else that has spent a lifetime studying that and getting good at it. And even though at that time in my life, I didn't really have much going on besides that, I had this young family which was wonderful and I had a wonderful wife, but there wasn't a lot. If you looked at my life from the outside, you're like, this dude's like a loser. Because like back in the, in the early mid-90s, being a stay at home dad was not a fashionable thing. We didn't know a single person that did that.

And so from the outside it's like, yeah, he doesn't have a clue. In my mind I'm like, I thought I'm like really smart. But then in studying that program, I realized that I could get a lot better at whatever I want. And one of the things I wish now looking back, I wish I went and got a whole bunch of books and studied a bunch of courses on how to be a better parent because I know I would have been if I. There's just things you can learn and you don't have to figure it out on your own. And you're not going to do a great job if you or not. Very many people are going to do a great job if they try to figure out on their own.

That's amazing. Like the personal power. I've done the Tony Robbins stuff, been to a few of his events and went to Fiji and whatnot. It's just a powerful way to think. And the way he delivers it, I'm the same. I listen to that audio program. It's like a 30 day program.

Yep.

That's amazing. You're a real pioneer in two ways, really. I see one, you're a pioneer in the dad realm because as you say, back when you were a stay at home dad, it was quite unusual and you're very new and also with the product launch formula. So for those folks who know nothing about the product launch formula, I mean that has transformed the business world. It's transformed hundreds and thousands of people's lives. So when you talk about that business, it's a very special business. It's very much. You were a pioneer. People weren't doing it the way you were doing it. So where do you get that creativity from?

I don't know. In some ways I think I'm not a terribly creative person. If you look at it, I created that product launch formula, but that's the only thing I've created professionally. I mean, I've been selling that program or iterated, updated version of that program for 15, 16 years and a lot of other people have gone through 18 different things in that amount of time. I think, I think one of the things is, you know, I created the program and for everyone out there, it's just a program on how to launch your product, your service, your membership site. If you want to do launch anything online, this is the way to do it. And it's the, and it's worked. And my students have done over a billion dollars of sales and, and if you've seen someone launch in a big way, they either learn from me or they learn from someone who learned from me. And it's just. And that sounds egotistical, but the thing is I just started out early and again, I don't think I'm that creative, but I've always been about conversation and relationship and I've. I came into this world with no experience in sales or marketing. And so when I went to make that first sale, and again at that time it was been a stay at home dad five, six years, I hadn't made a penny in all that time. And the idea that someone would buy something from me was just, was really stretching my boundaries. But I created this newsletter, it was about the stock market where I've been sharing what I knew about the stock market. And that was all just personal study.

But when it was time to try to make a sale, because I was just trying to help support the family, I didn't know how to sell. So I romanced people until I felt good about asking for that sale. And it turns out that philosophy was really completely in alignment where the world was going with the Internet and with so much connection and interactivity and transparency, that process lined up really well. And then I started teaching people. And as you start to teach people, you start to learn more and more and more. And then I had hundreds, and then I had thousands and tens of thousands of people going through my material and I could see what they were iterating as much as I was. And I was just, they'd report back to me and I was really good at keeping that conversation going. So I almost feel like I've just, I had that initial spark and then since then it's just been co creation with my clients ever since.

It's honestly inspiring. And the first time I heard about you was through Brendan Burchard, who arguably is one of the top marketers on the planet now. And he said, guys, I'm going to show you this, this and this. But you need to know, I was inspired by, and I learned from Jeff Walker in the product launch formula. So go buy it, go check it out. So he still to this day encourages people to check it all out.

Yeah, Brendan's an amazing friend. He's like One of those once in a lifetime people that you meet him and it's just like, oh my gosh, this guy has greatness built into him. So, yeah, it's been great to know him over all these years.

That's so cool. He obviously sees the same thing in yourself. So when we think about you creating this and it gave you this freedom, this financial freedom, how does that relate to your ability to be a more present dad?

Well.

Just. Okay, full disclosure.

I don't have very many regrets in my life, but I'd say the one regret I had was in those early years of the business when the kids were maybe five, six, and you've got a five year old, they're maybe five, six, seven, eight. I was working so hard to create this business that I don't think I was as present as I would like to be. So, yeah, that's, you know, you don't get those years back, you just don't get those years back. And even though I was with them all the time, you know, in those early years, I was still off of my brain, was off in business land. And. Yeah, if you had to go back.

How would you do it differently?

You know, I don't know if, you know, I. I'm not sure. I'm not sure if I could, if I, if I could have built what we've built, I don't know if I could have done it differently. You know, it really was requiring my presence. And I, I think I am in such a privileged space in so many ways. And I know, like I said, we made that decision for one of us to be home, and not everyone can make that decision.

And it's hard for me to make proclamations and tell people to be present because everyone's got a different situation. But I do know that once we started to get to a comfort level.

And the business got to a comfort level, like the things that we didn't do is we didn't grow our lifestyle. We didn't start buying Lamborghinis and we didn't start moving into bigger and bigger and bigger homes. We kept our lifestyle pretty much the same. And then it's like we didn't have this pressure to continue to grow. And, you know, and as an entrepreneur, you're always, you know, you got a little bit of competitiveness. You just see, where can I take this thing? How can we grow it? But knowing that, you know, the most important thing for me, it was family. And a lot of people say that, but a lot of times the decisions, they're Making don't reflect that. So, you know, we, one of the things we did was we moved out to our dream home, our dream hometown. Not the dream house, but our dream out into the mountains in Colorado. Because I wanted to be where my kids would grow up, close to nature and where we'd have those continual opportunities to get out in the woods and, and just be silly and fun out there. But to give them a connection to the natural world and, and be someplace that they didn't want to leave like when they grew up. So then I was like, I'm already looking forward to my grandkids. You know, my kids are like little, but I'm like, you know, looking forward to grandkids. And so I wanted the kids to, I wanted to be someplace that gave me the best chance of them not wanting to leave. And yeah, just. Yeah, it's tough, you know, when you're a parent of young kids, you're just getting, you're just trying to survive. At least for me, you're just trying to survive. You're hanging on by your fingernails, just keeping your head above water and it's hard to have a bigger picture view in that time and be able to step back and look down. But yeah, I'd say as soon as you can get some perspective on it, just try to figure out ways to, to get close. I mean, like one of the things I did, I was, I'm not doing it now, but I was a big fan of monthly goals and one of. And I'm a big fan of having a balanced life and staying like for instance, staying in shape physically, of being a good community member, of.

Staying balanced mentally, psychologically.

Of having a relationship with the natural world, of being a good father, of being a good husband, of having a financially solvent life, of having a strong business. So there's all these different roles we have and I'd have goals around all of them. So I would have, and I have parenting goals. So like with goals, it's nice if you can make them tangible. So I would just do silly. This sounds silly, but literally, like in my journal, it's like right over there every month I would write down all my goals and one of my goals would be.

Playing with my kids. And so I would literally set, this is the number of hours I want to play with the kids each this month. And I would track it like on a 30 minute basis. I mean it shows you what a geek I am. But I'm, you know, I figure like, if I can actually ground it down to that, I'm actually playing with them then, you know, it's tough to put a measure on having a good relationship with your kids, but I can measure playing with them. And I think playing with them and spending that time focused on them can't help but, you know, contribute to that relationship with them.

Time spent is so important. And I guess one of the true measures, because your children are in their late 20s, early 30s, so you've got a longer perspective than I do. I'm a real rookie. So I think a true test is the connection that you have with, with your child in adulthood. So tell me about that connection you've got with your children now.

Oh, it's pretty, it's, it's truly magical now. So my son is.

30. That's a problem when they get older. No, he's, yeah, he's 31. I was trying. He's about to, he's about to have a birthday. So he's 31, about to be 32. And when he was in college and this is like 2010, I could see the world. My world was moving towards video. And I, you know, I live out in the mountains there. There was like no one I could just call up to do my video. So I said he was off for summer for, for off of school for the summer. And I said, hey, I, I want to start doing some video. If I buy a whole bunch of video equipment, you could, can you learn how to, you want to try to learn how to use it and, you know, shoot some video with me, you know, for your summer job? And he's like, okay, yeah, that sounds good. You know, he didn't have any other job going, so we decided how much I'd pay him. And I went and just bought some cameras and I bought some lights and I bought him some courses on doing video. And he dove into it and, you know, complete rookie, no experience. But he over the years has become one of the premier videographers in the industry. And he, you know, we've, I feel like we've set the set, set the curve in a lot of ways for really good video in the industry. And we've inspired a lot of people. But he's so, he's, he's the one that's driven all of that. And he's also shot for some of the, you know, some of the most biggest names, most famous people that you could imagine in the industry. So he works for, for, with me part time and he also freelance is part time for other people. And he's, he's, he's an Incredible artist. But the cool thing is we work together all the time. And he's now not just a videographer, he's my producer and my director. So he's often like telling me what to do and what to say.

Role reversal.

Yeah. And it's just, it's just magical. And he is like in his element and I'm in my element and we just get to just feed off of each other. Like, it's just ridiculous. Yeah. I mean, you know, and he's, he's so, he's so gentle and sweet. He'll be like, we'll shoot something and maybe we'll shoot something. I'll be completely horrible. And he'll be like, okay, we got one in the can. Let's, let's try that one again. Let's just, let's get on another. And yeah, so he's, he's just absolutely amazing. And then my daughter also has a part time role in the business and, and she also, she does, she designs, she's a fashion designer of clothing and she does design and construction of like one off pieces. But you know, we just have just a super, yeah, super warm relationship and they love each other and they're always playing with each other and you know, they're off on a bike, a mountain bike ride right now as we speak. And they invited me a lot long. This is one of the magical things, is one of the things when they were little, real little, I decided that I would always share a passion with each of them. And I'm like, I don't care what it is, I'm going to share a passion with them because I'm like, that's something, it'll always be something to talk about. And you know, my daughter, if it's, if it's American Girl Dolls, you know, okay, I'm going to get passionate about American Girl Dolls. And because, you know, almost anything, once you start to dig into it, you can go deep on anything. And almost once you go, start to go deep, stuff starts to get fascinating. So I'm like, I can make anything my passion if I set my mind to it. And so I made that decision early on and.

It turns out my kids took on my passions. So when they were early teens, they started mountain biking, which is like a big passion of mine, and they started skiing.

And those two things are like lifetime anchors for us.

They just love to do those things and I love to do them with them. So it's been amazing. So we get to ski together and skiing is an amazing family sport. Unbelievable family Sport. I mean it's expensive. That's the only negative. It's super expensive. But it's a lifetime sport that, you know, people can do into their 80s and, and you know, when you're, when they're 15 years old or 16 years old and maybe you're having a hard time, you know, sit them down to have a conversation with them, when you go skiing, they, they're on the chairlift riding up with you like 8, 10, 12, 14 times a day. So there's like this built in time and who knows, you might even have a conversation on that lift.

That's so cool. We'll have to get you down to New Zealand and get you on a set of skis down here.

Yeah, I'd love it. I would love it. Especially since the seasons are opposite. So I can, you know, our summer. I can go skiing down there.

Totally. Winter bunny. Absolutely. I love it. So I'm thinking about dads and moms out there and we want to be more present, we want to be there for our kids, want to be connected. But the one thing that really holds us back is that thing called work. And we head out the door at 7:30 and we get back and it's still dark in the middle of winter.

So.

So financial freedom. And obviously if you've listened to the Tony Robbins stuff back in the day, he talks a lot about that freedom. So you've achieved that through your product launch formula. It's phenomenal. So for people out there who are stuck in a rut, who can't see a way out, who are in the corporate world, how could they take the first step to actually work towards financial freedom? What would your advice be?

Well, what worked for me, and it's worked for me several times I've seen work for other people is to, well, first you got, you have to have an idea, you have to have something that you're passionate about. First backup. I'm going to come at this from the lens, a world I work in which is primarily online businesses and primarily information driven businesses where you're teaching someone how to play tennis or how to meditate or how to speak a second language. And so these are wonderful businesses. And those are the. Primarily 80 to 85% of my students are in those type of businesses. You know, that doesn't mean, you know, there's a lot of other kinds of businesses you can start. I just, these are the kind of businesses that I'm familiar with and I love and tend to, you know, you can, you can start on a shoestring you can start just from nothing. You don't, you know, if you want to open a restaurant, there's a lot of capital involved. But these kind of businesses, there's not. And so with that lens in mind, you have to have an idea for something that you want to share with the world that you're passionate about, that you either have studied. Like back in the day with the stock market. I had studied the stock market just deeply. I had no official designations. I wasn't a stockbroker or commodity trading advisor or registered investment advisor. No initials after my name, no credentials other than having studied it and having an opinion and wanting to share, wanting to help people. And so I just started publishing. I started publishing a newsletter, a free newsletter. And back in the day we didn't have social media, so you couldn't just publish on social. So I published an email newsletter. I still think email is the absolute killer app. I think it's the way to go. But I would always just say the way to get into this business is to start publishing. And you can do that just via social. The great thing about social is you need zero tech experience. You don't need any kind of investment. You can literally do it from your phone. But once you start publishing and you start to find out what the market reacts and what the market wants to learn about and what they care about, then you can lean into that and you start to find your voice, your publishing voice, whether it's your speaking voice or how you are in video or your how your writing voice or whatever, but you start to find that voice and you'll start to attract a following. And you know, if you can attract a small following, then you can build a serious business.

And it's. I've gone to that route and I've had literally thousands of my students go that route as well. And it works. You just have to look around, look at your inbox and you can see, no matter what you're interested, what if you're, if you're into guitar, you can see there's literally hundreds of people that have built businesses, teaching people about guitar. You know, if you're into ukulele, it's the same thing. If you're into photography, it's the same thing. If you want to build a meditation practice, the same thing. There's a reason that people are publishing and it's because it's not just out of the goodness of their heart, it's because it turns into a business pretty quickly.

Well, your system works brilliantly. I played drums since I was 9 years old and it's a Scottish style pipe band drumming and very niche, very specific, but it's a real passionate community. And I was like, you know, I want to share this. I want to share some of my knowledge that I've had across the years. I've been very fortunate to win some world titles. I've got stuff I could share here. I was like, I don't know where to start. So red launch, I got to do this. Followed it step by step, hit the button, out to the email list. And it was transformational for them and transformational for me. It was phenomenal and I'm still learning and iterating. But your system is phenomenal and you've touched literally hundreds of thousands of people's lives because every student of yours is inspiring and educating hundreds, if not thousands of other people.

It's absolutely ridiculous to think about it. But yeah, you know, so there's people that are playing Scottish pipe drums better because of my work. You know, there's, there's people with dogs that are better behaved because of my work. I'm not a great dog trainer, I can't play drums. But it's. And that's the, you know, that's the world we live in is we can all make such incredible contributions and make a great living at it and to have the lifestyle and the freedom, the, you know, the time freedom, so you can focus on your family or whatever you want. And you know, my kids have grown up. That's one of the biggest joys is my kids have grown up around this and they, they've seen how you can create your future. You, you know, you can, you can visualize that future and you can go and create it. And they have grown up in that. They. One of the blessings, I mean, there's so many. It's just, I'm so blessed. It's just ridiculous and. Oh, but before I forget, I do have. James, you're going to love it, but I've got a new edition of the book, Complete rewrite, Revamp, Updated, coming out in late July. So, yeah, let me know where we.

Can get it and if there's a link, let me know. I'll put it on all the social as well. Get it out of my email list. I'll be the first to buy for sure.

Cool, cool, thank you, Appreciate that. But yeah, freedom is just ridiculous. And one of the things.

There'S so much. One of the things I'm really thankful for with my kids is the struggle, the financial struggle we had because they Remember when, like.

There was this sort of Italian fast food restaurant? It was, it was, it was mostly fast food, but they'd actually bring your food to your table and it was just, you know, they had one night a week where we could, we could afford to eat there. We said some incredible special. And you know, it was like $3 for the kids and $6 for us to eat. And so like, maybe once a week we'd go there and they, they would think that was such an incredible treat and, and, and, and they look forward to that. And they, they still hold that in their mind of how, how that was such a special thing. And my daughter recently, that restaurant was in Denver and she recently went back to that, like as a, you know, 25 or 26 year old, she's like, boy, that restaurant was really a pretty, pretty bad. It's like, I remember being so amazing, but the food is really pretty bad now when I go back. But I have to. It's just, it was so, so special when I was growing up that we could go out. But, you know, we, we transition from, you know, along with my business success came financial success and we, you know, we don't have to struggle for things.

But I'm so glad that my kids remember when it was a struggle because I think, you know, I think raising your kids when you have wealth makes things harder. Frankly, I think I'm glad that my kids have that touchstone. If I had that success earlier, then they wouldn't have that touchstone. And I think it made raising them easier because they're very driven. They save money. They're super, super driven to support themselves.

I'm so thankful for that because I think if you grow up around a lot of money, then it's easy to not have that. So that was, that was. We were lucky. We were lucky.

Would you say that you intentionally imparted a value or values on your children? Were there certain things you brought from your parents? Like, you know what? I want my kids to carry these.

Yeah, I think, you know, I think my parents taught me how to treat people well.

I think they taught me how to be kind, how to treat people as individuals.

And to treat, you know, to give everyone a chance and not prejudge them based on anything. I think those are really important things that my parents instilled on me are in me and, and just, and also the value of hard work and, and of showing up and doing the work. And so those are things that I definitely, you know, wanted to impart my kids, you know, the most Important thing is not that, you know, I'm not preaching to anyone out there. This is just me preaching to my kids is. The most important thing is not your work. It's not the amount of money you make. It's not your. Anything like that.

It's.

That you treat people well. That you treat people well.

That's beautiful. That's interesting because I've interviewed quite a lot of dads in different fields. And I recently interviewed one of the world's greatest rugby players. He plays with New Zealand or used to play with the New Zealand team. And he said, james, the one value that I want my child to carry, the one and only value, if it's the only thing I impart, is kindness. And that's exactly what you said. It's just being kind to others, treating others well. That's beautiful.

Yeah, I love it.

And what gets you out of bed in the morning, what fires you up today?

I'm trying to figure that one out myself. I think.

Seriously, I'm trying to figure it out.

We've gotten to a place where the money. It's been a long time. It's been over a decade since I was driven by income or money. We kept their lifestyle pretty darn simple. You know, I've got some really nice bicycles, some really nice mountain bikes, like, really nice ones. I've got some nice guitars, but, you know, I drive a Chevy truck, a Chevy pickup. We live in the same home we lived in for 21 years. We do take nice vacations. We travel first class when we travel. But in general.

I never think about money. I think about serving my clients, I think about serving my team. We've now grown up a pretty big team. We've got about 40 people on the team. So I think about serving my team, I think about serving my clients.

And I do like to get better. I like to continually get better. And there's always new tools coming that, you know, we had to figure out. Video. You know, when I started out, the first 15 years I was in business, no one knew what I looked like because even putting a photo online was hard in the early days. Much less a video, much less doing lives. But I've figured all that out. But I think really.

The direction I was starting to move in without abandoning it, my work and my clients, my team was. I see a lot of entrepreneurs that struggle that even once they.

Once they start to achieve some significant success, they still struggle with their inner game. They struggle with not feeling like they're with, you know, the whole imposter syndrome. They suffer with being pulled in too many directions. They suffer with, you know, working with their team. There's. There's just a lot of suffering out there for people that you might look at from the outside and say, wow, that person's really successful, but inside they're torn to pieces. And for whatever reason, I tend to be a fairly even keel and I tend to be pretty happy. And I didn't have these long relationships and just in pretty much most, almost all the areas of my life, I've got my shit together and. But it's because I've worked at it and. And.

I think I've got a lot of lessons to share around that. But exactly how I do that is a great big puzzle. So I'm not sure, but that's the direction. Yeah, pre Covid, that was the direction I was starting to move. I was starting to. I had this code name was handprints, and it was about the handprints you're going to leave on the world.

And I guess there's a legacy piece in there, but there's also just a way of being an entrepreneur and still being at peace, having a peaceful heart and a peaceful mind. And so I was starting to move in that direction and then Covid hit and we had to. You know, it's been 15 months of scrambling to, you know, to reinvent the business and all that worked. But, you know, soon it'll be time to go back to figuring that other piece out.

That's very exciting. I'll be keeping a close eye on that one. And if you look at, say, daily or weekly or monthly habits, is there anything you do for self care that does give you that benefit balance psychologically, spiritually, emotionally?

Yeah.

The stuff I've been doing for about.

12 years now. Well, I've been doing it longer than that, but I've gotten really ritualistic for about 12 years. And frankly, it's a lot of the stuff that you hear a lot of people are talking about these days.

And so, you know, having a morning ritual, super important to me, and that involves.

The two, three, let's call it three big ones, is yoga. I do almost every morning. It's a pretty minimal practice. I'm like a total wimp about it, but it's like 20 minutes and I'm getting on the mat every day. Again, it's a wimpy, wimpy, wimpy.

Every day, though.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it is, you know, I'll miss certainly at times, but not, you know, the intention is it's every Single day. And you know, some days just get off a little bit sideways and they don't. But, you know, this morning it was. Yeah. And then meditation. And I do about 20, 25 minutes of meditation every day in the morning. And hydration. You know, I fill up a half a gallon jar of water and I'm going to go through that at least one and a half times in the day. And, and so you, you know, and I know if I like, if the, when I walk downstairs, if I drink, you know, one of these, then like I'm off to, you know, if I get that down the first five minutes of the day, then I'm going to be, I'm going to get there. So those three are like a real cornerstone. Journaling again, my journal, I don't have it. Usually I do when I'm on one of these calls, but journaling has been part of my life for 25 years. I actually number. Well, here we go. I'll just pick up an old one here. I always number them. So this one's number 54. So I think I'm currently on number 56.

But that's not like something I do every day. I'd actually like to bring that into more of an everyday. But it's a regular occurrence. Being outside.

But the yoga, meditation.

Hydration, those are the three non negotiables every morning. And then I always want to bring in exercise and being outside as well sometime during the day for exercise. I'm not a big fan of going to the gym. I'll do that if I have to. But, you know, I've got a lot of passions that just get me the exercise. You know, I'm tennis, mountain biking, kayaking, skiing, hiking. Just. I'd rather do things that I'm passionate about than having to worry about going to the gym. So I will go to.

Yeah, I love to get out and do things. I enjoy going to the gym. Even just the smell of the gym. I'm like, I don't want to be here. I'm not the big bulky guy. But I'm similar to you in that I love to meditate every morning. So anywhere between 20 to 40 minutes and breath work, hydration, journaling. So going back to the meditation, what does your meditation look like for you?

Well, it's varied a lot over the years. I have used apps, I've used headspace.

I stuck with Sam Harris's Waking up for quite some time.

And right now, though, is my favorite time of year because I have just about a month ago, the weather Got warm enough where I could be outside on our front porch and I live in this tiny little community and there's just a little walking path through the community and I sit on my front porch and.

I have this sort of a meditation music thingy. It's not like an app, it's just, it's, it's a. What is it called? It's. I forget what it's called but it's like a 21 minute, you know, ethereal sounding thing. And I'll just have that playing just. That tells me when it just done. I know 21 minutes into it, but I'll literally sit on my front porch and in my meditation.

These days it's more open eyed, you know, where you got a real soft focus and I'm just. But I'm. The thing I'm keen in on usually is just trying to feel any hint of a breeze or the birds, the nature sounds. So I'm just focused on sound or feeling as opposed to like breath. And if my mind's really, really busy and I can't get to that calm place, then I'll go to breath and I'll start focusing on breath. But yeah, being on the front porch early a.m. and we've got. Our neighbors have a 5 year old boy who's going to kindergarten. So usually the way the time works, somewhere in the middle of meditation he'll come bursting out the door and running out the door, go to school. And so that's just joyful for me to see him and his 5 year old energy and how it varies every day and, and so I welcome that little interruption to my meditation. But yeah, right now, so you know, at some point it'll get probably too warm to be out there and certain parts of the year it's too cold. But right now front porch is about a two month window here, three month window where it's just beautiful. It's actually my favorite meditation.

I love that. And for a lot of moms and dads out there, I do think meditation is one of those great ways to balance the stresses that come with being a of part parent. And for me that's what I use it for, to stay, stay balanced and then the journaling. So when you journal, is it just whatever comes to mind or do you have questions that you ask yourself and journal on those?

Yeah, it's, it's more what's, whatever's on my mind where I'm at. And frankly I think, I think I could do. I think having some prompts might actually be better for Me. But, yeah, it's more just sort of where I'm at right now, what I'm thinking about right now. I love it.

I love it. Well, I've got one last question. I ask everybody this. Jeff, so what does it mean to you to live life on purpose?

Well, that's a. You know, that's a great question, because, you know, one of my absolute favorite words is intention and living with intention. So life on purpose is. It's. It's. It's. It's living.

An examined life.

It's an examined life. And it's like looking at, you know, having that time to step back and saying, is this. Is this how I want to live my life? And is this. Is this on purpose? Or is this. Am I creating what I want? You know, is life. You know, one of my favorite phrases is, you know, or questions. Is life happening to you or for you? Is life happening to you or is life happening for you? And when you're in that mode of life's happening for you.

That'S where you're actively. You're designing your life. I think. I think Tony Robbins used that phrase and personal power, too, way back, you know, designing your life and that even though back then, you know, holy cow, it was just like we were desperate for money. We were desperate for time. We were desperate. You know, we had two young kids. We. It was just hard. And. And even at that point, you know, when I bought that program, which we had, you know, was a significant investment for me at the time, and I was scared to tell my wife about it because I was embarrassed that I bought something off an infomercial. You know, I got the chance to tell this story to Tony Robbins personally. Yeah, that was. That was a fun moment. I'm like, tony, I know you hear these stories a lot, but I bought Personal power, too. And my life just completely changed after that. And Tony said. Yeah, and Tony said, you know, you just never get sick of hearing those stories. So thank you. But, yeah, it's like saying it's, you know, I think for parents, especially parents of young kids, I think meditation is great, but it's also hard. You know, if those kids are. They're going to wake up. When they wake up, they're going to get up when they get up. You know, it's like, so. So I'm like, everything I can say about, you know, about a morning ritual and all this stuff, it's like it goes out the window. If you got young kids, I mean, you know.

They'Re going to live, you Know they're going to. That's the beauty of them. They're in the moment and their moment is now. And if they're waking up or if they're hungry or whatever. So I have enormous compassion for parents trying to figure that out. But yeah, it's like, is this, are you living the life you want and having ways to program in the time where you can ask yourself that question? And I'm asking myself that question all the time. Another question, question I ask, and sometimes I ask this too much, but it's like, to what end? To why are we doing. To what end? We want to do this launch and make a million dollars. To what end? What's a million dollars going to do for you really? How is that, how will that actually show up in your life? And what will that change? What will you do differently when you have that million dollars? And can you already be doing that now before you have that million dollars? And does it really need to be a million dollars? Could it be $100,000? You know, because you know, in my world, people get caught up in the money and especially people are doing these big launches, you know, and crazy amounts of money could come in in a short period of time. But if you're not using it to live the life you want, then to what end? And if you've gotten to that life you want and you're just pushing for another project, another project, another, bigger, bigger, bigger. It's like to what end? And I ask that question all the time. All the time. It's like, and like I said, sometimes you can go too deep with it. It's like your kid, when, when they ask you why and like the 14th time they've asked you why and you're starting to get exasperated. So, so you can go too deep with that question. I'm just. Full disclosure, but you know, I'm. We best, we know best. I know we only get one shot at this and, and I, and I want to make it count. And because I have these kids, that's an obligation that I took on that I can't ever step away from. You know, you can step away from just about any obligation, but if you bring a life into this world, in my opinion, you, you, you signed up for it and you, you owe it to them and you have a relationship to them that no one else will ever have with them, ever. And they're going to need you. And you know what? I'll tell you what, James, when, when you're a five year old, he needs you in so Many ways. And you might think that, you know, when he gets to be a teenager or when he gets to be, you know, 20, 18 years old or 21 years old, they don't. They still need you. They still need you. When they're 30 years old, not as often.

But when they do, it's a bigger deal. The stakes are higher. Like five years old, something comes up, Seems like the world's gonna end. Well, when they're 14 years old or 16, the problems might be fewer, but they're going to be bigger. You know, when they run a car into. Into something, or the problems are bigger and they're harder, and then when they're 30, there's even fewer problems, but they're even bigger and they're harder and they're going to. They're going to need you. So I'm sort of rambling here, but that's beautiful.

It reminds me of just what an honor it is to be a parent. And the day that Finn was born, I decided I'd write a letter to him expressing what was going on in the world, in his mom and dad's world and in the world around us. And then every year on his birthday, I wrote a letter and reflected on his year, what he's achieved and what I hope for him. But what he doesn't know, he won't get those letters till he's 30. So him and I are 30 years apart. And when he's 30, he'll get the first letter, and hopefully I'll be here when I'm 60 and we can read it. And I put about 100 photos. So I go through my iPhone and I print out the best photos from the year and write on the back of them old school. So I'm a true believer in that. Like, as we go along, we still play a role. My dad. I ring my dad when things are tough, whether it's a medical scare. Dad, like, I don't know what to do or a relationship challenge. Dad, what should I do? And so I'm a big believer, and I'm really glad you shared that.

Yeah, well, what you're doing there is just.

Yeah, it's. It's going to be so amazing. And you might want to. I. I might. If I were you, I'd be tempted to start sharing it more, like, when he's 21 or something, but you've got your plan, so I don't want to.

Hey, no, no, I. I take that on board because, yeah, there's no guarantees I'll be here when I'm 60. And it would be beautiful to share that stuff.

It. Yeah, it is. I mean that doing that is just incredible. I remember when Dan was born and, and because my dad and I, we had, we, we butted heads like when I was 17, 18, you know, I was too strong willed and we were just, we just did not get along there for a couple years and, and it hurt me, it hurt my heart. And I remember holding Dan when he was like this, you know, that first day and just making this promise that that's not going to happen to us, you know, because it was still fresh for me, it was only 10 years before and I'm like, and here I've now I've got a boy. I'm like, that's not going to happen. And then frankly I had a fear that it would happen. Even after I'd made that promise, I had this fear. And then my wife at one point, she's like, you just have to let go of that fear because it's not going to happen because of who you are. And if you hold on to that fear, you might attract that into you. And yeah, and we, we've got such a special, special relationship, you know, with both of them, both the kids, very, very different relationships.

And I do, I mean this might not be popular, but I, I think that in general there's a father's role and a mother's role are different roles. And to get even into more hot water, I think, you know, the, every father and son and father and daughter and the mother and son, mother and daughter, I think they have certain magic. Each relationships got some certain magic. Again, this is just me hope I'm not stepping into. Not at all.

And I totally understand and I agree it's, it's a unique relationship. They're all different.

Yeah. And, but yeah, it's, it's, it's such a, such a privilege to be a parent and it's such a challenge. Such a challenge. And.

Yeah, now hopefully one day I.

Get to meet your kids and grandkids and whatnot. If you bring them down for a little holiday to New Zealand or vice versa if I'm up your direction. But I want to say a heartfelt thank you for taking the time to connect and for anybody that's watching or listening, please Google Jeff Walker launch. That's the book Google Product launch formula. That's the amazing course. Is there anything else you'd like them to check out to connect with you? No.

I mean I have a blog that I, where I publish every week. It's usually a video I publish every week. It's just@jeffwalker.com and sort of along the lines of those of the letters you're writing to your son. The blog Theoretically, I'm a leader in the entrepreneurial and marketing world, but many of those blogs I'm recording, those videos are for my kids.

You know, just the lessons I want to impart on them that they'll be able to look at 50 years from now.

So that's beautiful. I'll be sure to put all those links in below, but thanks a million for connecting. I really appreciate it. Hey guys, if you enjoyed the content today, please smash that subscribe button below. And if you want to become part of my community, I've got an amazing free Facebook group. Please come and join us. The link is in the description below. And also if you've got any questions about today's session, I'd love to know. Just comment below and I'll be sure to get back to you guys. Have the most amazing day.