Life on purpose weekly - Full interview with Scott Gazzoli

There we go. Scott.

What's happening, dog? How are you, brother?

Fantastic. How you keeping?

I'm living, man. 2020 in New York is interesting to say the least. I'm glad to see you, dude.

Yeah, you too, man. It's been a while. The last time we connected was on your amazing podcast. So for those who haven't checked it out, please, if you're watching this live on replay, go and check out Scott's amazing podcast causing the effect. It's amazing.

Appreciate that, man. Appreciate it. How was. How's my man Finn doing?

Oh, man, Finn is doing so good. Him and I had a lads trip. So for those who don't know Finn, Finn's my four year old boy. So Scott, him and I headed up to Wellington, which is the capital of New Zealand. We flew up there last Friday, had an amazing weekend at the museum, did the cable car, all that fun stuff. He is ripping around and loving life. Great, man.

I'm glad to. Yeah, I was excited. I was like, you guys do it right? Follow the sun, trip. You're just living, man.

Life is too short. It's never to be lived. Tell me about your life. What's going on in your life right now. What would you like to chat about today?

Yeah, man. So last time I think, you know, and thank you so much for plugging causing the effect. Check that out. It's all good stuff. Just trying to kind of help people like, like, like all of us, right? Trying to push this good word forward. And the last time we spoke, I was kind of embarking on new things, right? So I have a day job, big finance stuff in the city, and now I'm full blown into comedy, doing that every, every night, ripping through and doing the podcast. So for me it's, you know, I know there's people doing a lot more stuff than me here, and I think I could do a better job of balancing it and just enjoying the process more, you know, And I feel like that's been the issue, you know, timing, putting the time in is one thing, but enjoying it and like, enjoying the process, being in the moment instead of worrying about the next thing has been the biggest issue for me. And it's just like I feel like you're doing the right stuff without feeling that gratitude. And I just feel, I've honestly been feeling a little numb lately because I'm so focused and I feel like you lose part of the family, you lose part of, like, how to be like, you know, old school. So I wanted to talk to a little bit about that and I was like, who's better to talk to than James about something like this?

So now, well, thank you for bringing it to the table. And, Scott, I want to honor you for coming on live and sharing that with the general public as well, because that takes courage. So what you're doing is amazing, but you're splitting yourself across several different areas, and that is the life of an entrepreneur. I get it. I totally do. And that comes with its challenges. And the word balance itself is an interesting one. And I think there's this perception that we should have a perfectly balanced life. People talk, literally talk about work life, balance, right? And it's got to be balanced well, I think for me, and I want to share this with you so you can just think about and reframe it slightly. I think counterbalance is somewhat more appropriate. And when we're trying to balance, it means that we're actually, you know, we're spending equal amount of time with family, in our career, with our side hustles. If we're doing those things with our health and fitness. And that, as you know, is totally impossible. So I certainly feel it's more so about counterbalancing. So if you can reframe it and think, okay, this next three or four weeks, I've got to go wild on, it could be the comedy for you to stand up. It could be on the podcast. So, you know, a few other things are going to have to go down my priority list. One, one thing I would encourage you to do after this, drop me a dm, Scott, and I'll send it to you. But I'm sure I've got a thing. I do this once a month for myself. I do it with all my clients, my coaching clients as well. And it's a simple wheel of life. So this is an example one here, as you can see, for Bob Jones. So this is about looking at all your different pillars, so health, mindset, intimate relationship, friends and family, and so on. So you give yourself a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being not so good, 10 being awesome. And then you create your wheel of life. That wheel there is totally out of alignment. That needs a wheel alignment. So the idea is to try and have a life, a wheel of life that's flowing. And when you've got a more rounded wheel, then the car and the wheel can build momentum. But when it's out of alignment, then we start to feel a bit of overwhelm. We feel a bit of unbalance. So I'm going to send that to you afterwards to do, and I Would just schedule it on the first of the month and say, how am I doing? Check in on life, check in on your relationships, check in on your wealth, check in on your mindset. So if you were thinking of counterbalancing, how does that apply to how you're feeling right now? Where are you feeling? Like, hey, I'm really struggling in this area. I'm overwhelmed in this area.

I would. And that's the hard part, right? Because it's like, you know what Tony Robbins says, where energy goes, focus slow. So it's like when I'm focusing on work, right, for example, it's going well, but then I'm, you know, the podcast starts lacking, or you're not putting into the work for comedy. So it's like a balancing act that I don't really, you know, I'm trying to base in the beginning of the week on Sundays. I've been kind of setting up my calendar for the week, and that gives me a little bit of ease and kind of shifting the belief that I feel like it is part of the story. I tell myself, right? It's part to sound like a cool business guy from New York that, oh, I'm too busy. And just reframing that has helped me a little bit just to be like, there is time. Just maybe save an hour, you know, know, not eating lunch a day, or, you know, there's ways around it. But that's been like, the one thing I made this week is like, the story you tell yourself is important. I think just making, thinking, waking up, because I always wake up in the morning, oh, my God, there's so much shit to do. And just that doesn't feel right. And I think that's a good start. It's like changing that up to be like, there is time in the day, and maybe I have to micro manage the calendar a little more. You know, what are your thoughts about. About that kind of planning out the week on Sundays? I know it's something that you preach a little bit.

Yeah, yeah, totally. Well, look, the one thing that you said that I really picked up on is, you know, wake it up and say, there's so much shit to get done. And sometimes just the language that we use to ourselves and the way we frame things can totally set us up for an amazing day or can set us up for an overwhelming day. So when you think of, I've got so much shit to get done when you frame it like that, it's like, well, that's not that exciting. If you were just to slightly shift the language and go, actually, today I get to do so much epicness. Today I have the opportunity to do X, Y and Z. So I think just shifting your self talk is going to be a game changer. Like today I get to meditate. Today I get to serve my clients. Today I get to record a kick ass podcast. And if I screw it up, that's okay because there'll be another opportunity. So I think first things first. Your morning self talk can dictate the quality of your day. That's huge. The next thing that I hear, when I'm hearing you speak, there is about priorities. And often when you're feeling like you can't get the shit done is because there's conflicting priorities. And the one thing I think that's hard for people, parents, leaders, every human on the planet right now is that there's so many high expectations on us to be great leaders, to be extremely healthy, to be amazing, perfect parents. There's so many goddamn expectations and we can't be all of that and be perfect. So we have to have priorities. Yes. Society wants all our priorities to be of equal substance. That's not possible. You've got to have things that are number 300 on your priority list that might be clipping your toenails. Right? There's got to be priorities. So if I was to ask you what are your top three priorities this week?

This week it would be my show coming up on Thursday. You know, that's a major comedy show. Getting, just doing my usual work, which is, you know, typical nine to five job, and then producing two podcasts a week. That's typically the main three.

And I have been trying to just. I think the one thing I'm getting from what you're saying is I could be a little too hard on myself. That's, that's probably the problem. A, and then B, shift shifting the belief in like, you know, and I'm curious to see your opinion on this, like focus on work. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Obviously you're still working Thursday, Friday, but starts shifting when I turn towards Thursday. I'm really focusing on the comedy and the podcasting and trying to get that work out. And I know you're, you're the right guy to talk to because I always respected how much you, you know, you're close with Finn. You have, you know, your day, you know, you're coaching and then you're still doing all this content. So I'm curious if that's kind of how you do it yourself. Are you shifting your, your kind of. Who you are. I'm gonna be the father. I'm James the father. I'm gonna be James the, the coach, et cetera.

Yeah, great question. And you know what? I get where you're coming from 100%. And I think for other people watching this, they're probably feeling the same way as you are. Like, hey, how do I shift gears? And is it okay to shift gears? Is it okay to be a really present parent for a couple of hours and not answer emails and Snapchats and that stuff? Is that okay? Hell yes, it is. So for me, I use a process of blocking my time. So I'm very, very rigid with that. And sometimes that means I've got to say no to people. Sometimes I will say, look, sorry, I can't make that event. I've actually scheduled a meeting with myself and people like, who the hell are you scheduling a meeting with yourself? Like, yeah, I've got got to plan my monthly or I've got to make sure that when Finn gets home that the dishes are done, the ironing's done, that I'm able to spend time with Finn, my partner. Like, I want to be present with the people I love. And so I think blocking your time is important. And this doesn't happen. You can't block your time out reactively. You've got to be really proactive with that. And that's why I would definitely encourage you to think about scheduling a block of time, maybe an hour on a Sunday, maybe 30 minutes, and schedule your whole week and make sure that on Monday you've got three micro priorities, three things on Monday, that if you achieve those, you'd be delighted and they'd take you one step closer to your annual goal, which might be a podcast around download numbers or your rating of your podcast have an overall overarching goal. But on the Monday, you're taking three micro steps towards those goals. Tuesday, same thing, but you need to block that time out. And if I was to see your calendar, and this is what I do with a lot of my coaching clients, I'll say, send me a screenshot of your iCal or your Google Calendar. I want to see blocks of time, like 90 minute blocks. There's my email checking rather than being on email reactively, looking at it constantly as it comes in once a day or split into two 45 minute blocks. I'll sit on email, DM and so forth and chunk it and block it. So important block your time because you need to have time for Scott. You need to be Scott the comedian with your Mitts who's out there enjoying a drink, having some pizza in Brooklyn, doing all the fun stuff. Right? That's important. If you don't make time for that, you're going to be the ever, never present, Scott. You'll be there with your mates, but you'll be on your phone. You'll be there with your loved ones, but you'll be on Instagram seeing who's responding to something that you've just posted. You don't want to be that guy. Life is short. And for a lot of people, this is probably kind of been running through my head this month. For a lot of people, they treat life like a sprint, but it's really a marathon. Life is a damn marathon. And it's about slow and steady wins the race. And I don't know how many times as a kid I've heard that. And you read the book about the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the race. So I think, Scott, take a bit of pressure off yourself and just get really clear on your priorities. Write out, hey, this week's priorities are 1, 2 and 3. And what I would encourage you to do because the priorities shared with me were excellent, but none of them were health related. None of them were you selfish related. They need to be. You need to be selfish to look after your health, selfish to look after your own growth, selfish to look after your nutrition. I really want you to prioritize you because when you're not healthy, everyone that loves your content and your podcast and your comedy, they don't get the benefit from it. They need you to be at your best spiritually, mentally, with your well being. So I would say if you can think about that as your number one priority every day, do something whether it's a walk around the neighborhood, a home workout, get into the gym, meditation, whatever it is, please prioritize you.

Yeah, no, and I think even, even right. I think I try not to make those priorities because that's like the given for me every day, like you know me, I'm at 4:30, I do my 40 minutes of meditating and then my two and a half hours in the gym. But that goes without saying. But I think even writing that down, making it a different type priority because that's like that, I need that. But it does tend to be more of a. I just want to get it done. I'm not enjoying it as much this month because I'm like, oh, I have to do this by be the my9 to do this. And I think what you're saying about the blocking is very interesting because I'm known in the company or people love my clients, love me because I'm always answering for them. And that's. I think that's more of an insecurity thing with myself of, like, I want to. I have to respond quickly because I don't want to lose a client or I don't want to lose a, like, something or something crazy. And I think, you know, you're kind of blowing my mind a little bit with these blocks of time. Maybe staying off the email. Not so much social media, because I try to stay off it, but. But the emailing. I tried to. I literally tried to answer any email within five minutes. And you can imagine it just doesn't. It feels freaking crazy.

So. Absolutely. Why do you feel the need to be so responsive to those people who are asking of you through email and direct message?

Yeah, I think it's fear. It is a lot of fear. I think I've always had this insecurity about losing people, and I don't want to let people down. And I would say that's like, a problem in general for me that, you know, like, what is the difference if I answer an email now or within an hour? Like, it just sounds the way you said it was, like, just makes so much more sense. Like, you're gonna bang out so much more within it. Because then basically, me and you were. Me and you are talking on Instagram. You don't answer me for an hour. You're gonna be more productive within that hour. Instead of I'm sitting and waiting and, like, trying to, like, make sure I'm there for people. And really what you're saying is, like, be more selfish. It makes a lot of sense because I think I've. I have felt the. The lack of. I feel like I'm doing all the right stuff, but I'm not present. Like you. I don't know the word you use, but it was like, I'm doing it, but I'm not here doing it. You know what I'm saying? I'm just trying to breeze through it. It's like, how much are you really getting from what you're doing if you're not fully present?

100%. A great book, like, if you want to, if you haven't already, it's the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. And it's really about being present, enjoying the present moment, and learning how to do that. And I think you mentioned the word fear, right? All humans have fear. Nobody can say, hey, I don't have fear. In fact, this guy here, I've been studying him all year. He's my leader of choice. I pick a leader each year and I study them in depth every book I can get. So this guy here, Nelson Mandela, right? Absolute legend, he talks about fear and he talks about courage. And he's like, courage is having that sense of fear, but doing it anyway. That's what courage is. So with fear as a human, we are either have a fear of success or we have a fear of failure. And sometimes we have a combination of both. Now people might say, how the hell could you have a fear of being successful? Well, a lot of us do. And it's the fear of, you know, outgrowing your community. The fear of outdoing your family's lineage and your family's history and of becoming wealthy, becoming an influencer, becoming a great leader. So there's fear of success and there's fear of failure. But the one thing I want you to think about with fear, F E A R false evidence that appears real. Okay? So that's what fear really is. It's false evidence that appears to be real. We have this belief that oh my God, if I get in that water, I'm going to sink and die. Now why can I say that, Scott? Because I've had that fear that like life, scary shit, scary feeling of the water, right? I would drown, I would sink. Now I took that through my life for 30 years and the only thing that changed that, and hey, I'm not Michael Phelps by any stretch of the imagination. But as soon as Finn came along and I became a dad, I was like, this is bullshit. I've got to step up and lead and show my son that I'm not afraid of the water. So I, I went, I got swim lessons. You're going to laugh. I went along to this, I thought, I'll go to a private swim school where it's quiet, I'll go in the evening, I'll get a one to one lesson. Did you really? Oh hell yeah. I was 31 years old. I took my little bag with my swim gear, I got into my swim gear. I walk into this little private swim school and it's like moms everywhere lined up watching all their five and six year old kids getting taught to swim. And there's me walking in, I'm like, oh my God. First of all, I've got the fear of the water now. I've got this self conscious, I'm the only adult around. But you know what? Pushing through that fear and going, screw it, I've got to do it. I know why I have to do it. And now I can jump in the water. Now I can keep myself afloat. I can survive. And it was pushing through that false evidence that appeared to be real. I now know I can jump into deep water and actually float. Is there still a sense of, like, oh, God, what's going to happen? Yeah, that's there. But I actually have, you know, the skill set now to do it. And I think with competence comes confidence. And you'll probably relate that to your comedy and your podcasting. The more competent you get at the skill set, the more confidence you build mentally and within.

Exactly. And I think that, you know, you get so focused on one fear. Like when we were talking a couple months, it was like the fear of stage fright. I was terrified to talk in front of people. And now I'm like, this is fucking nothing. Let me just go and rock it. But, like, you get comfortable with. With just doing one thing and then, like, it's. I think the changing it up, like just that, that month, that little. The wheel, I think is going to be really useful. So I really appreciate it because I think it's just. It's just changing being able to handle the priorities. Really, It's. It sounds like just change, changing your. Okay, you're doing comedy Thursday, Friday, then you're going to switch over to doing your day job, and then you're going to be a family guy on Saturday, Sunday, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it's. This stuff is not. It's not rocket science, but at the same point, it's just so easy just to let it slip through. It's like, why didn't I just think about just setting up some time? Like we said Sundays, because my coach was telling me, he's like, dude, yes, you got to stop pushing. Like, my problem is probably the same as yours. Like, it's not. Not going 100. I'm used to going 100. It's about turning off the engine. So Sundays, I try to relax, but it sounds like a perfect time to just map out the rest of the week. Right?

You know, 100%. And I think creating solitude and reflection time in your life, that's the golden time. You know, you think of the grits, whether it's investment, politics, whatever industry, the greats all talk about think time and taking the time to think and scheduling time to think. So again, with all my one to one clients, I'm like, okay, how many hours have you got scheduled this week to think. And some of my clients are thinking up to four and five hours a week. There's half a day's work where they're just pen and paper, they're in a nice environment with a hot drink and they're asking great questions of themselves. And that's the think time. That's where they come up with the big distinctions. That's where they're able to prioritize what's important in life. And so that's probably the one thing that I want to share with you is just please always take the time to prioritize your life. Think about what your true priorities are. That could be your one question each morning after you've meditated, before you go to the gym. What's my number one priority today? And it could be the podcast, it could be the comedy club, it could be lifting a family member up or a friend who needs you at that point. But have one priority. If you complete that, if you get at the end of the day and you've had a success and building on those micro successes will give you massive macro fulfillment. And that's what you want at the end of life, at the end of the month, at the end of the year, you want to feel fulfilled. And often you, because I know you're into the Tony Robbins stuff, is like success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure. And that's so true. Like if you're just so focused on the work but you don't have the time to meditate, you don't have the time to go and hang out with buddies and have that beer. You don't have the time to jump on a plane and go check out a new culture. What's the point? This is a one shot deal. Life is a one shot deal.

Yeah, no, you're totally right. I feel so, I feel so silly just, you know, because it really you nailing it. Like I really have not spent meditating. Like again, I, I you, I feel like maybe it's part coven in New York. It's a lot of different things going on, but I would say the first couple months of COVID I was kind of steaming through, rocking and rolling. And since things got a little rocky in August and here and stuff like that, you're meditating. But I'm not, I wouldn't even, I feel like I'm wasting time. Honestly. It's like you're not hanging out with yourself. You're like waiting for the clock of 20, waiting for the whatever time you're doing to end and really not enjoying it, so it's really, it's really some interesting stuff. Just taking like 15, 20 minutes in the morning, every morning, I think would be really beneficial to think, you know.

Absolutely. One, one client I've worked with, high performing client, he's put 25, 26, did incredible things in the world. And we started to put a dollar figure on his page think time, the time when he was just thinking. And we worked out that his think time over the next 20 years, each hour of think time was worth $10,000. $10,000. He was going to get paid to think because of the quality of the outputs he can create over that 10 and 20 year period. So I don't want you to underestimate that. And with the meditation you're talking about sometimes going through the motions, one thing that's super important is a lot of people want to meditate to get good at meditation. Right. They want to be good meditators. But actually I think it's great to do meditation to get good at life. So don't do it to get good at meditation, do it to get good at life. It allows you to detach and to be truly present and to truly get the best from yourself and experience the joy. You've got to be able to detach from your thoughts, detach from your responsibilities. And you may feel responsible for some of your friends and family, you may feel responsible for your clients, but for you to serve them and have joy and happiness along the way, you've got to be a badass of detachment.

Yeah. And everything you're saying is just golden because it's really, I would say in the beginning of the year, doing the meditating, you feel it, right? You feel the gratitude. You feel working out of an abundant state. And people will think we're not. It's like this stuff works, but now it's really working out of a place of. I guess I wouldn't call it suffering, but it really would be. If there's an opposite of abundance, it would be like, that's probably why you're not getting as effective. But I want to now just walk me through the goals again. So now with your, with the way you coach your clients, you said have three micro goals for the week, but then on each. Let's just say I wanted to. I take the, I take your approach. 15 minutes a day. Is that included in those three goals or is that a mi. Another micro of a micro goal for the day.

Great question. What I'll do. I'll step you through how I help my clients plan out a five year like badass goal, whether that's hitting a $20 million goal, whether that's buying their first boat, whether that's creating a four day week for themselves, they can spend beautiful time with their loved ones, whether that's having a dream body. So we'll go through a five year vision process and I'll be asking them to really visualize what things might look like in their life in five years in different pillars. Relationship pillar is always number one. So you want to ask yourself that question, Scott. What do I want my relationship with myself to look like in five years? What do I want it to look like with a partner? What I want it to look like with my mum, my dad, my siblings, my friends. Take some time to reflect upon who you're going to show up as as a friend, who you're going to show up as as a family member. Are you going to be burnt out, tired and short tempered. Are you going to be an epic kind of flowing person of joy for the people you love? Then go to your wealth pillar, your health pillar and career pillar, all these different pillars that are important to you. You can come up with your own. But I've got five key pillars I get my clients to go through. They come up with their five year vision, then we work back. Where are you going to be at four years? Where are you going to be at three, two, one? Now we're at the business end of the conversation. Where are we going to be at in 12 months time? I would love to schedule this with you right now, Scott. In 12 months time we're going to schedule this exact conversation, Instagram live, and we're going to have the conversation and you're going to set those intentions. You up for that? I'm in. Dude.

I got some your goals, man. I got 365 day goals to hit, man.

Absolutely. I love it. So set your 12 month goals right now. What a lot of us tend to do, we're human. We tend to want to have a financial goal, a career goal, a health goal, a fitness goal, a creating goal, whether it's a book, a podcast or whatever, a side hustle goal, a family goal, a travel goal. We come up with a ton of goals. That's exciting, but it's also bloody overwhelming. So what I want you to think about are what are your top three goals for 2021? And truly take the time to write down everything you want, your bucket list of life, write down what you want and then think, what can I achieve in one year? And if Some of them are two or three year goals. Think, okay, could I take a little chunk and step towards that big badass goal? What can I achieve in 2021? And it must be a stretch. If you're setting goals that are not stretching you, you're not going to have the juice to keep following through when life gets tough. And if you can get through a year of life without adversity, hey, you're doing pretty damn good. Most of us don't get through a month of life without some challenges or a day. So think about three outcomes. That's what I'd always encourage my clients is three definitive outcomes. Try and make them balance. So one might be career or wealth, one will be relationship, and one could be health. So think about what it might be. It could be a contribution goal. You're trying to help save the planet or help some kids that need your support. So three clear goals for the year then. For each of those goals, take five minutes and go. Why is it important? You know, some people will set a goal on New Year's Day and have no reason for setting it. They hear someone said, oh, I want to lose 6kgs. Oh, cool, I want to lose weight this year. That's someone else's goal. Think about why each goal is important. And if you can't give yourself five to 10 reasons why it's important, it's probably not important to do the goal at all. Move on and do something different. If you don't have enough juice and layers of purpose, move on. Do something different. Because you will be one of the 80% that gives up mid February on your New Year's resolutions. So reasons are important, the why you're doing them. Next thing is reverse engineer each goal. Okay, by the end of 2021, I want to have reached X goal. Let's say it's I want to have done 300 podcast episodes by the end of 2021. Pretty big goal. So by December 31, 2021, I will have to have done 300 podcasts. By November, I'll have to have done X amount and work back October, September. That way you've got a one pager that tells you January. I must have done 50 podcasts or 30, whatever it's going to be. And then that's your monthly map. So massive action plan each month, take 30 minutes an hour at most. Set up your massive action plan. Okay, what have I got to achieve this month? And you just go and look at your timeline for your podcast. Oh, yeah, by January, it's 50 podcasts okay, so here's my map. I've got 50 podcasts and then week one, well, I'm going to have to have done 15 podcasts. Week two, I have to be up to 30. Week three, I have to and just work through each week of the month. That is your template for the month. Put it up on your fridge, put it up on the mirror that you have the shave or you brush your teeth in, have it sitting there and score off each week as you go. Then with your Sunday planning or Monday if you want, all you got to do is look at your monthly map for each of your three goals and go, okay, week one, I've got to achieve that. Okay, cool. Monday I better crank out this. Tuesday, I better crank out that. And you fill in each aspect, one priority for each day to get you towards that weekly goal. What's happening here is you're setting up massive self accountability. You're setting yourself up for success and giving yourself an unfair advantage over the world, over your competitors. Reason being, Scott, most people set a goal January 1st, they recheck in on that goal December 31st, 12 months later. For people who are high performers, they're checking in at least once a month. That gives you 12 times as many chances of succeeding and following through. For those who are like next level high performers, the platinum players of life, they're checking in each day that gives them 365 times more of a chance of succeeding because they're following up each day the reminding the subconscious each day of what their true priorities are. If you were to do that, and that alone for 20, 21, I will guarantee you your life will shift. I guarantee you you will have outcomes that will blow your mind. If you can truly stick to that plan and truly be self accountable or have a great coach that can help you stay accountable to that. When the life and life gets tough, you know, as it does, it always does. So that would be the method I would definitely encourage you to do. I use that method myself and it's super, super effective.

Yeah, no, it sounds, I really do. I understand the power of goals. You know, I remember March, I put, you know, wanted to do X. I wanted to perform my first show on stage by September 1st. And you hit it. There's something about writing it down that kind of clicks that particular activating system. It's just like, okay, this is gonna, this is gonna be nice. So.

It'S, it's interesting, but I like the way I think the, it sounds like what you're doing and I'm Interested to know what your clients are. You guys, are you going over it with them on a weekly basis, or is it a monthly basis? Because I think, you know, love my Tony Robbins coach, all that good stuff. But I think if there was more accountability, if I was, you know, I get. Get lazy if someone's checking in. It's. I think there's a fine line, but with how to, you know, let somebody kind of run with it and then check in. How do you go about that process or on your end?

Yeah, absolutely. Great question. So different clients have different packages and different levels of accountability. Some people, you know, say some of my clients here in the $150 million plus category, you know, they're in their mid-40s, mid-50s, fully financially free, financially retired, so to speak, they generally don't need a lot of accountability. Once a month, we're checking in on those things, but for other people, they're literally sending me a message each day with what they're doing each day, the goals that they're reaching, a selfie of them going to their gym session, sending me messages as they're updating when they're reaching big goals. Other clients, it's once a week in a session. It's maybe a couple times a month. But each month we go through different things and we have a pattern. So we'll do a wheel of life every month. So that wheel of life I showed you, we get to check in on that. We do a monthly reflection where I ask them deep, reflective questions about what they've done this month, what they've learned this month, what went well, what didn't go well. And so they get a template all written up for them as to what went well, what didn't go well, what they need to do moving forward. So different people get different things, but accountability is everything. And a lot of us go, I'm cool. I keep myself accountable. You know, I can attest to that. It doesn't work. If you truly want to set ambitious goals and live a life on your terms that's ambitious and beautiful, you need someone, whether it's a mentor, a coach, a non family member. Please don't get a family member to help keep you accountable. That will end in disaster.

Yeah, I agree. No, I agree. I like how it sounds like a nice, fun way to, like, check in and make sure, you know, it's out with those guys who are ultra, you know, winners that, you know, they just want to keep winning. And I think for me, I was just referring more to, like, you know, on a Podcast, you want to hit a thousand views an episode.

It.

I don't want to. It's hard to go down that path because it's a little shallow or it's a little, you know, you're worried about this or that. How I, and I know the take the massive action, you know, do certain steps to get where, where it would be. But when it comes to stuff like that, how would you coach somebody to grow a podcast without. I know you're not a podcast guy, but just to grow an audience or something of that level, how would you go about that process? Process is really just looking at the steps and then taking those steps that you'll see Google how to do it, you know, sharing and all that stuff. Is it, is it. Because I know you're, you know, you're very similar, it's very similar to share on Instagram, for example.

So, yeah, absolutely. Great question. So look, growing anything has the same success path. It doesn't matter if you're trying to grow a plant, if you're trying to grow an investment, if you're trying to grow a podcast or a following, it's always the same success path. And it's super important to look at vanity metrics and be like, screw that. Because if you're doing it for the vanity, the likes, the love, that's bullshit. I mean, you're trying to build up likes. What does that mean? It means nothing. It means someone has double clicked as they're in a little biz just scrolling through it means nothing. It's the true value that you're trying to bring. And I think the word that comes to mind is be prolific. Be so prolific in your industry. Show up, causing the effect. Cause the effect. You know, be there constantly and show up when you don't feel like showing up. Tell people, I don't feel like showing up today, but I am. And relate to who they are. I think when people can relate to you and be like, shit, he's having a tough day. I have those two. I want to listen to him. How did he get through that tough day? So I think continue to show up. And if you're on social media and you're trying to build a podcast, pick a platform, maybe pick two at most. But don't try and be across all platforms and be prolific on all of them. Get prolific in one or two platforms and just deliver value. Your thousand views an episode will come. If you are delivering value, if you're showing up, if you're networking, connecting with great people, that's going to happen. In fact, it'll probably be 10,000 downloads, it'll probably be 100,000. But I think when you focus just on the metric, you lose sight of why you're doing it. And I know that you're a heart centered, purpose driven human who started this podcast for the only reason, to connect with humans, to help humans, to help people move forward. And so I think if you can constantly remind yourself, hey, for six months, I might only be getting 20 downloads an episode. I'm making that number up. But that's okay, because you know what? I'm just going to keep showing up. And if you look at some of the greats, a guy that I look at is a guy called Evan Carmichael, and he's a North American. Started YouTube for the first six or seven years. Like he went from like 300 subscribers year one, 450 subscribers, year two, 600 subscribers, year three. Then like year six and seven, he went like 600,000 and then 2 million. And it kept on growing, but he just kept showing up. And I think when life gets tough, and it does for us all, for those who say, oh, my life's freaking perfect, every area, bullshit, right? Life gets tough, but just keep showing up. And I say this coaching. So life coaching, executive coaching works every single time as long as the client shows up in their own life.

Wow, that's well said. Yeah, it's funny. Again, like in the beginning of the podcast, first four or five months, I wasn't. This stuff didn't go through my brain. As, you know, you get into like your little slump or whatever. Like you're comparing yourself as I'm very much like. Exactly. You were saying, I'm guy, I want everybody to do well. But you know, you're in a slump and you see the comedian before you crush it. Like, I'll go tell this guy to get, get the hell out of here. You know, it's just like, I don't want to feel that way, but I do. You know, it's like I, I think the, I think we know the answer to this one. It's like where you put your energy, where you think about those thoughts. And that's why it's a vicious circle with me. So I think it's really about starting. I really like what you said about starting the day off right. And I'm definitely going to take you up on after my meditation, making sure I'm in the moment, but just taking that 10, 15 minutes. Like, what are we going to do today, Scott? What are we going to focus on? You Know, because I know when you came on it really, it made me put relationships into a different view category because I think I just take those for granted because there's a lot of people in my life and it's like, you know, know it really, this stuff is, it's just really eye opening, you know, that's beautiful.

I'm really glad. And I think, you know, the quality of your relationships will definitely correlate to the quality of your life. That goes without saying. So I think as you're traversing through it, think about your friendships, your loved ones and, you know, if you have kids one day as well, same thing. The quality of those relationships will really determine the quality of your life. And one last question, actually, just, just before we finish up, if we were to fast forward 12 months, which we will, we'll connect in 12 months, we'll do this. And you said to me, james, I've had the most badass, epic year. What would need to happen in the next 12 months for you to say that to me with that kind of energy and language?

It would be.

I would say the, the 12. The long term goal for me is to be a paid regular comedian at some point, you know, just to, you know, this stuff, I'm not doing it for the money, but that's a certain level that you hit. That's, you know, I look at it like a, I'm a real artist of everything I do. But this. To be respected by your peers and then to be at that level where in New York and probably one of the two hottest spots between this and la, to be a paid regular somewhere and just to have enough skill, be like, okay, this guy, this guy's. You know, I've never done a craft like this where it's going to be a lot of delayed gratification and you're going to have to put this time in a sucking to really to make it explode. And that would just make, I think the fulfillment is, is going to be phenomenal.

So high. Are you willing to work to achieve that outcome in 12 months?

Whatever it takes. You know, I'm committed. And I'm telling you, dude, when you do these in the beginning, it is rough. You're doing open mics with a bunch of guys who don't want you to do well and you're just bombing half the time. It's, it's fun and, you know, you learn. You know, my first bomb was last week and I was happy at how well I took it. I was like, all right, let's. Because usually I'd be like, oh, I'm never gonna do this. But it's like this is part of the process, the path. This is. I'm doing it regardless, no matter. And I think the other point of why this is so important to me is like everything in my life, I've always started off maybe a little ahead. I always, a little, I'm a little slick, I'm a little smart here. I'm starting off behind my stage frights there. You don't feel comfortable. So it's like I really earned this to like the highest degree. And it's the biggest fear of my life. And I'm like, just slowly overcoming it.

Beautiful. You're dancing with your fear and I think, you know, that is amazing. And I acknowledge you for that. To get on stage and dance with your fear, that's everything. And you're a big gym guy. You do two and a half hours a day. You know the saying, repetition reps builds the muscle, repetition builds the competence, and then obviously builds the confidence. So if you look at becoming epic as a comedian, you've got to be thinking about the famous 10,000 hour rule. As a 9 year old, 10 year old, I heard about this rule and I was drumming at the time and I thought, I want to be the world's best drummer. I want to win a world championship. I thought, okay, I've got to get my 10,000 hours up. So I would literally think as a 9 or 10 year old, how many hours I got to do this week? Oh, yes, I'll try and fit eight hours in on Monday. I'll do another, you know, 16 hours over the weekend I'll do three or four hours Tuesday, Wednesday, I started adding all these hours up. Then I stopped counting because I just loved it. And I drummed for hours because I loved it. But what I would encourage you to do is think about each day. How many hours or minutes do you have scheduled to the craft of comedy? How many hours a day are you watching? The best comedians writing what they're doing, how they're doing it, their body language, they will be leaving you clues. Some of the best comedians have the same structure. They have the same body language. Please study that every day. Please, please build that muscle every single day. That's going to be a game changer. Yeah, man.

And then repping, repping it out is the, you know, we're trying to figure out. It's good to have. I never had like people on the same page me. So a couple of guys and I were trying to figure out how to perform. You want to average once a day. So figure four or five times on a Sunday, once or twice on Thursday. So trying to get to that seven times a week. It's. That's the goal for, you know, for. That's grind, I call it. I'm on the grind now because this is like just putting in those hours.

You know, Good grind, hard, man. And I'm going to ask you, how many times do you do a live comedy session on Instagram Live?

Not yet.

Would you be up for it?

I may, I may have to give it a shot. It's the zoom. Open mics have been. They're tough, man. They're tough without, without hearing the thing because it's like the only, this is the only craft that you really need to feel that, that camaraderie with the audience, that's the hardest part of it, right? It's like talking. You're having an intimate conversation with a group of people, you know. But I'll take you up on that too.

Try.

I'll try. Once I'm skilled, I'm trying build that muscle.

And if you think about it, when you're live with an audience and they're not responding and they're like, God, this guy, who's he? And you can feel that distance. Yeah, that's damn hard. If you were to do an Instagram live, you will feel no response. So you're going to learn to get numb to response. You're not doing it for the response, you're doing it to put the energy out there. So if you show up Instagram Live, you are vulnerable as massive vulnerability. Right. It's a huge thing to step up and do it, but you're building the damn muscle. So if you schedule one 10 minute slot a week or if you're totally going to go crazy and be badass, one 10 minute slot a day, you turn it on and you pretend there's 10,000 people that are watching you on a stadium. That's going to be a game changer for your mindset for sure, dude.

You're filled with all these tricks, James. Jesus, man.

I can't believe I waited so long.

To talk to you again. I'm like this knowledge sooner.

This is gold, man. So good, so good to connect with you. And I'm passionate about what you do. And as we wrap it up, I want to encourage everyone who's tuned in late or who's watching this on replay, please go and check out Scott's podcast. It's a top 25. Is it top 25 mindset podcast.

Yes, we're in it. We did it.

We did it.

Top 25 mindset. And seriously everybody listening. I deal, I've spoken a lot with a lot of people and James, the way besides your education that you know your stuff but like it feels really right that what you're doing and it feels genuine. I really appreciate you know because I can just tell you not a bullshit artist and it's just, it really means a lot because you, you know there's a lot of people who could try to BBS on here so all the work you do and you know I love, I love it and Finn is one lucky kid, man. If you guys ever to want or adopt a 30 year old Brooklyn kid, I'm, I'm here.

Come on over.

I'm definitely gonna come visit you though.

That's.

That goes without saying.

Please do. I'll be at the airport to pick you up. You come and say hello.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Causing the Effect podcast is where you guys want to head to check out the most amazing podcast. And thank you all for tuning in to life on Purpose weekly.

Thank you guys.

Can you. Take care brother. We'll see you soon.

Glad to do.

Bye bye. 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.