MBA1094 Why Exercise Is a Must For an Entrepreneur

Hey O. Welcome to the $100 MBA Show, a business lesson a day to keep you working away on your business every day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the $100 MBA, a complete business training and community online. And in today's lesson you will learn why exercise is a must. As an entrepreneur, there is absolutely no excuse you have to get your exercise in. You're physically able. You got to make time for it. You and your business relies on it. Exercise is so important for your physical health which will influence your mental and emotional health, which influences everything that has to do with your business. You are the leader, you're steering the ship and if you're not in tip top shape, you're everything is affected. So in today's lesson I will express why I'm so passionate about this, why I think exercise should be an integral part of your schedule. Every week I'll be sharing some tips on how to do that, how I got into the habit of making sure exercise is a big part of my life. I'll also be sharing how it's impacted our business in so many ways. If exercise is not your thing, after today's episode, it will be. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. The word for today's show comes from Adroll. Whether you're a startup or you have 1,000 employees creating sustainable growth matters. That's why over 37,000 brands use AdRoll to find more shoppers, more sales and grow their businesses online. Adroll takes care of the nuts and bolts of digital marketing, so businesses like Teepublic have more time, less stress and huge growth. The retail brand's holiday campaign beat their initial sales projections, delivering more than double their sales targets. Make sure you invest your marketing dollars with a proven partner. To see how brands invest smarter and grow faster with AdRoll, visit adroll.commba that's a D R O L L.com MBA. Listen, I totally get it. You are busy, you are swamped. Your to do list is never ending. You got lots to do for your business. Trust me, I know how it is. I just described my own life. But exercise is not going to take you away from your work. In fact, it's going to make you more efficient. The best analogy I can think of is a fuel efficient car. You might think, hey, my car's fine. I don't need to invest in a new car. That's more Fuel efficient. But if your whole life is driving, if you do road trips left and right, then in the long run, your fuel efficient car is going to save you money, the car will be in better condition, you're going to be saving the planet, all because you made the investment. Exercise makes you more efficient, it makes you sharper, it gives you more energy. And in my book, one of the biggest pluses, it gets rid of unwanted stress and tension. Building a business is stressful and you need to channel that stress somewhere. You need to be able to release that stress, that tension that you have. And exercise is a healthy way to do that. That tension will be released somehow. If you don't exercise, it may be in the form of blowing up on your employees, getting into unhealthy habits, being depressed, being upset, frustration galore. You get the point. So exercise expels that stress in a healthy way so it doesn't damage your life and your business. I see exercise as a habit. It's just a habit. You have good habits and bad habits. And once you get in the habit, it becomes addict. You have to do it. If you don't exercise during the week, you feel deficient, you feel like something's wrong, and that's where you want to get to listen. When I exercise, I think clearer, I'm sharper, I'm able to make better decisions, quicker decisions, because I'm giving my body it's right. When I say it's right, it means that our bodies do a lot for us. And if we neglect it, if we just take it for granted, it's going to betray us. It's not going to give us the best performance. So when we take care of our bodies, when we do exercise, we give it its right, we give it its due, and we get rewarded with some great benefits, like being sharper, like sleeping better, like being more rested when you wake up in the morning, like feeling good about yourself, feeling good physically, looking good. Many of us are the face of our company. We are going to be at conferences, we're going to be on stage. And let's not ignore the fact that that matters. People's impression of how we take care of our own body, how we respect ourselves matters. Now. I gotta admit, I love exercise. I love sport. I played sport all my life as a young kid. But as I started in entrepreneurship, exercise took a back seat. I kind of just saw, hey, I gotta just go all in and not worry about exercise. Luckily, my business partner and partner in life, Nicole, makes exercise a priority. And she reminded me, hey, you need to do this. This is important. She's very, very good at prioritizing health, not only exercise, but diet, rest and all that. And it was a great reminder because it reminded me how beneficial exercise is, especially as an entrepreneur, especially when there's so much on your plate, especially when you need time for yourself. So I'm going to give you some strategies, strategies that have really worked for me, to incorporate exercise in your day and make sure you have time. Number one, if you feel like exercise is a waste of time, then couple exercise with your professional development time with your reading or getting better or advancing your professional skills time. I listen to audiobooks when I go to the gym. I like the gym. I like to do my own routine. I like to get lost in a book or a great podcast. And audiobooks are great for that kind of thing. And if I go to the gym four times a week and I'm going through an audiobook, the average audiobook is about 10 to 12 hours. So basically, in two and a half weeks, I can finish a book. That means I can probably get through two books a month. That's 24 books in a year. That's probably more books than many people have read their entire lives. I know it's sad, but it's true. You can get a lot done if you incorporate exercise and listening to great information that can help you along your journey. Podcasts are another great, great example of that. The other thing is put it in your calendar, schedule it. There are two strategies I like to do. I like to do it at the end of the day, at the end of my work day. So if I'm ending work at 6, let's head to the gym. De stress. Just forget about the day, shut off my phone, put it on silent, and just go at it. And it gives me a chance just to be myself and be who I am and be by myself and just have some alone time to just collect my thoughts. Another option is to bridge it with a break you have in the day. So if you are having lunch, you can have lunch and then go to the gym or go and do some exercise or go for a run or go for a walk, go for a jog, go for a swim, whatever you prefer. The point is that you're not breaking the day too much and you don't feel like, oh man, I'm being pulled away from my business twice a day. So it's just once a day because you bridge it with your lunch or you couple it with your lunch. Another strategy is what I call the Dwayne Johnson strategy. Dwayne Johnson, of course, is the rock, the actor, and he's known for his crazy workout routines. He works out about two hours a day. At 4am every day he wakes up early. So that's a routine you may want to pick up, waking up an hour or so early and hitting the gym or doing that exercise that you prefer. Now, if you don't like the gym, if you don't like running, if you don't like, you know, whatever kind of calisthenic exercise or aerobics class or yoga class, do something you enjoy, do something fun. If you're a competitive person, play a team sport. Get involved in some sort of intramural sport or league in your area. I love playing basketball. Basketball is something that I loved all my life. I'm a part of a league, and I play basketball once a week in that league, and it gives me great cardio for that week. I also try to pick up some basketball on the weekend, some pickup ball. And if you're having fun and you love it, you'll enjoy. You'll make time. You'll find a way to make it happen. So choose something that you enjoy. And the thing about being part of a team or being involved in a league or a team sport is that other people are relying on you. They're expecting you to show up. So there's a little bit of pressure to make it happen, to be there and to exercise. One strategy that works for some people is investing in some way in exercise, like buying a new outfit, buying a new pair of track pants or sneakers. And it motivates you to say, hey, I'm going to wear these new clothes and feel good while I do exercise. It's kind of that extra push. One other strategy I find that's helpful is to track your progress. Some people get motivated by this. I'm motivated by this, where whatever your metric is, is it losing weight or losing inches on your waist or adding muscle or being able to lift certain amounts of pounds or your mile time, you know, in terms of running, have some sort of metric to kind of track your progress and see how you're getting better. By doing that, you kind of see some progression and encourages you to keep going. You're actually getting better, you're actually improving, and you're hitting your milestones. Another strategy I want to share is that whenever you have the thought, like, oh, I don't have time, I'm stressed, I'm worried I got to get my business going or I got to do something in my business, remind yourself, if I break down, if my body is not there for me, if I am having problems with my health, I cannot do anything. In my business, your health is priority number one. You got to take care of yourself. If you don't take care of yourself and your health, everything will suffer. You can't work, you can't help that business, you can't build that business, you can't help your employees. And you got to see it as a long term strategy. It's not like, oh, if I miss exercise today, I'm going to have a heart attack. No, it's the idea of having good habits. Exercise has got to be part of your life and it's got to be a priority. When it's not a priority, it's a slippery slope and you're building for the future. Listen, the thing about entrepreneurship, it's a long game. It's not like being an athlete, for example, where you have a short period of time. You know, most athletes retire at 35 maximum 40, but you're just getting going at 40. As an entrepreneur, you got to be able to be around and be healthy and be able to do the things you got to do. Well beyond 40, 50, 60, maybe even 70, 80, like you're Warren Buffett. You got to be able to do it all. You got to be prepared for that long, long journey. Guys, I got more on today's topic. I want to share with you how much exercise has positively impacted our business. But before that, let me give love to today's sponsor. Support for today's show comes from Microsoft Surface. I'm a big believer in making sure you're as productive as possible when working on your business. One productivity hack that really has worked for me is creating an environment of focus. Sometimes when you work in the same place day in and day out, like your home office, you slip into bad habits that derail you from your to do list. A good way to shake it up is to change your location. If you feel like you're getting distracted, get up and go to a cafe. Go to a co working space. Change your environment so you can get refocused. That's why I'm so pumped to share with you the all new Surface Go. The smallest Microsoft Surface ever. At just over a pound and with a 10 inch touchscreen, the Surface Go gives you laptop performance and tablet portability. From running office to taking care of your everyday tasks, the Surface Go easily adapts to all your needs, no matter where you are. And with prices starting at just $399. It also adjusts to your budget. So what are you waiting for? It's time to go. Ever since I've incorporated exercise as a priority as part of my regular life and routine and skill schedule, these are the positive elements that I've gotten out of it. These are the positive impacts it's had on our business. Number one, I sleep a whole lot better. I fall asleep in literally a minute. And this allows me to be well rested and wake up ready to go at the start of the day. It's made me more efficient and it's allowed me to really start the day with a lot of energy. Number two, it's made me more confident. To be honest, being healthy makes you feel like you got it together, like, okay, I have this part of my life squared away. Everything's okay. And confidence is transferable. When you feel good about your body and how you feel. When you take on a challenge that you are not really sure about, you can use that confidence to push you through. Number two, I'm more optimistic about my future because I know I'm planning for the future. When you exercise, you realize, hey, I have to plan for the future. I got to be around for the future. I got to be healthy for years to come. I. So it's made me really think long term and be optimistic about the future. Number four, most of my day is making lots of decisions, and I'm sure it's the same for you as a leader of your business. And I find that exercise has made my mind a whole lot sharper and that I'm able to make difficult decisions quickly. I can evaluate my options. I'm just a sharper person. I'm thinking faster, my brain moves faster. And I guess maybe that has to do with blood circulation. I'm not a doctor, but I definitely see that as a result. The other great positive impact is that when I do have a tough day, it's a great release. It makes me feel so much better and allows me to reset and say, okay, this day is over. I've exercised. I feel good now. You know, all those stresses of the day, just forget about them. Tomorrow's a new day. Take on the new day allows you to hit that reset button so you're able to recharge and take on new challenges and not dwell on the old ones. And lastly, exercise has really allowed me to enjoy my time off more. So when I'm not working, when I'm on vacation or I'm traveling, I get to do more. I'm more active. I don't get tired after walking in a city all day long. I get to do activities or excursions, whether that's ziplining or jet skiing. And I still feel good and I don't feel exhausted at the end of the day. It makes the time off even better. Well, there you have it. I hope I convinced you to incorporate exercise in your daily life for the sake of your business and your own health as the leader of the business. Thank you so much for listening. I'm going to check you tomorrow on Q and A Wednesday. We have a question from one of our listeners, and this question is can I start a software company with no technical knowledge? I answer that question straight up and my advice to that listener. So make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss that episode. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. If you haven't exercised regularly in years, this is not going to be easy. This is going to be a challenge to get started, to have some consistency but have some sort of plan. Use the tips I talked about today. Do something you enjoy. Do something that will encourage you. Get a buddy. Do everything you can to make this happen and see 40 Days as your finish line. They say if you do something for 40, 40 days, it becomes a habit. If exercise is part of your routine for 40 days, you should be golden. So just see that as a goal. Don't say, oh, I have to exercise for like 10 years right now. No, 40 days. If you exercise four days out of the week, that's roughly 20 days of exercise. Definitely doable. I hope that helps and I hope to check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care. Sam.