Ep 200: Mastering Your Mindset With James Short: How gain clarity & focus in business & life

Blue sky time is anywhere between 15 minutes to 60 minutes, at least weekly or fortnightly, when you can actually unpack this, when you can spend a time—it could be down the beach or in a park—no phones, no distractions—and and do that big sky, blue sky planning, where you look at what are some of the hesitations and we and the blockages that we might have. And we do this by reviewing the week or reviewing the month. And so what some of the wins that we've had? What some of the challenges that we've had? What are my key lessons that I've learned? Both positive and negative over the week or over the fortnight, and then what do I need to be doing differently?

Welcome back to the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. I'm your host Richard Deternge, and in today's episode we're talking all about mindset. We're talking about what it takes to build up an ultra successful business. And how to steer away from the thing called ego, the thing that gets to us a lot of the time, and how do we stay out ahead doing that? So today I've got a very special guest called James Short. Actually, funny story: James Short actually got involved in the fitness industry around the same time that I did—17, 18 years of age, knew exactly what to do, and got straight into it. Owned successful gyms and studios, sold those, and now. has— is in the space of, I think, the most important thing, which is your mindset, coaching specifically around mind management, goal achievement. And so this can be a really, really interesting one. So if you are in a stage at the moment where you're struggling with clarity, you might be struggling with competition in the marketplace, you might be struggling with people out there throwing their egos everywhere. Well, I've got a really special guest today. Welcome to the show, James.

Richard, honor and a privilege to be here. Thank you very much.

Good to have you here. Now, James, you've been in the space a very long time, and I wanted to get you on because you know the fitness industry and you've been successfully being able to train up many different industries. And one of those industries that you focus a lot on, apart from the fitness industry, is the real estate industry. And now I know, James, You've been in this space since probably 2009. You are the go-to person when it comes to assisting principals and directors and leading agents to master their mindset, time focus, and money flow. I love that money flow. But I want to kind of draw your attention probably to your earlier days, James, when you knew that, hey, I want to get back into fit— I want to get into fitness. I want to help people improve their bodies and their minds. And it's very similar, isn't it? They improve their body, they improve their mind. Take me through those early stages when you did get involved in the fitness industry. What was that underlying thing where you just said, I want to do this, I want to leave school, I want to get straight into the fitness space, do courses? Heck, when there was no personal training courses, what are those mindsets that you had to go through to do that?

I remember a piece, I think it was year 8 or year 9 at school, business studies. And they said, if you were to draw a business, what would it be? And, you know, I was heavily involved with rugby union and water polo, just love training in general. And I actually drew a picture of a gymnasium. And on the outside of the wall, it had Shorty's Gym, obviously last name Short, Shorty's Gym. And I kept that. And I remember when we first opened up at the age of 21, our first boutique gymnasium in Surry Hills, I was like, oh my God, like, How coincidental is that? Well, not really coincidental because that was a drive at the age, as you said, at the age of 17, I went out and did my ATPA, my fitness leaders, and, uh, and, uh, hit the gymnasiums and became personal trainer and so forth. And what I soon realized is that we can, as a trainer back then, we can teach people what to eat, we can, you know, get them to run longer or hit the gym harder. Yeah. But if that's the emotional and mindset connection is, is not there, And there's a limiting belief or a mindset that's in a fixed state that doesn't want to improve, that's holding on to those beliefs, then gosh, it is hard work. And that's when we further investigated the study around the mind. We studied things like neurolinguistic programming, we studied communication, and we studied emotional intelligence. And that's when our results for our clubs just went through the roof because both myself and my business partner did that further study and we got into the mindset. And that's where it just really catapulted the clients' results, but also our business results as well.

Yeah. Wow. Super interesting. I think that's what happens when you really go a little bit deeper than the basic trainings that, you know, anybody's gonna give you. It's like, why aren't people getting results? Why are people still holding to weight for? Why, you know, is it interesting, isn't it? You know, when we talk about weight loss in the fitness industry, eat, eat less, move more, pretty basic, right? But obviously, going into training with NLP and realizing that that's a huge problem for people to get to that next level. Now, you've been doing this for a while now, but you've been— you do all industries, but specifically, I know that you spent a lot of time in the real estate industry. Is that correct?

That's correct. So, yeah, so sold the business in 2008 and then went and did some further studies. And then a bunch of mates who used to train at the gym owned real estate agencies and they said, James, can you help us with— we're struggling with our team, we're struggling with our traction ourselves personally, can you come in and help us? And that's when, from 2009, I've been in that space. And, and it's, it's, yeah, it's flourished, it's grown, and, and really an honor and a privilege to, to help those within the space, to, to deal with them personally, their own mindsets, but also their teams as well.

Well, what an amazing space. Um, you know, James, you've done a lot of, um, really cool achievements. I want to shout a few of those out, by the way. Um, you recently did a 250-kilometer run in the desert, is that correct?

Yeah, that's correct. So that was a couple of years ago. That was in the Simpson Desert. The Simpson Desert is the world's largest sand dune, a parallel sand dune desert. So if you imagine, you know, on a big day out in the surf and all you see are the sets rolling in, that's what it was like on top of a sand dune. All you could see is sand dunes and sand dunes and sand dunes all in a line, just one after the other. So that was over 5 days. We did 250 kilometers. And that was an epic, epic race. That's for sure.

The reason why I ask is because, you know, in the fitness industry, people do some crazy things like these. Well, I haven't done a 250-kilometer sand dune running race, uh, James, but, but I guess what I want to try and get to here is that why do people do these things for, James? Why do you do a 250-kilometer run for? I went in my pool this morning, it was freezing, and my 2 sons go, why you do that for? And I go, it's just hard. And it, then it makes me feel good. But I guess, you know, I haven't always been, you know, sometimes you're in that slump and you're trying to figure out how to get out of that. And for me, I'm, I'm loving that hard stuff at the moment. But, but take me through that because take me through the mind. How do we master our mind to, to have clarity, to have focus? Is, do we all have to do these crazy things to master that? Or, or can you sort of show us, you know, as a small business owner running a studio, what are some tangible things that we could probably do and also to our clients? Because we are in a different landscape at the moment, James. I was reading the other day, it was just on the weekend, about 75% of people now in Australia are actually not sleeping because of financial stress. We've heard this more and more and more, and we've got to deal with that ourselves, but then also our clients as well. We gotta stand up and say, hey, it'll be okay. Let's get you, you know, get you focused. But we know those clients have other things on their mind. So take us through what we can do for ourselves and how can we pass it on to our clients, James? Just that whole mindset concept.

I think you hit a really good point. We don't have to go out and run a 250-kilometer run or jump in an ice bath or do these crazy events. I remember back when we had the the gyms. It started off with, hey, mate, I wanna do, I wanna do the City to Surf. Can you do it with me? And I was never a runner. I was a swimmer. And so there was a bunch of us, we trained up for the City to Surf, which is a 14-kilometer fun run in, in Sydney. And, and eventually we, we did it. And so that same mate, he said, you know, mates call me Shorty. Shorty, we've— I know you can sort of run. How about we do a half marathon together? I said, well, what's a half marathon? I said, he said, it's 21 kilometers. I said, why would anyone want to run 21 kilometers? Right? So this is back in 2000 and, uh, where are we, 2006, 2007? And sure enough, we trained, we did the activity, and we achieved the 21 kilometers. Now, a couple of weeks later, after the 20 or after the half marathon, he goes, hey, guess what? I know you can sort of run. I, you know, I got flat feet. Stocky build, bad knees. He goes, how about we do a marathon? I said, well, what's a marathon? He goes, 42. I said, like, why would anyone want to run 42 kilometers? Sure enough, we did the activity and we, we did the 42 kilometers. A couple months later, he said, Shorty, he goes, I know you can sort of run now. They call me the— they call me— I've got the Shorty Shuffle. I know you can sort of run. I know you can swim because that's your background, but can you ride a bike? I said, well, why? What did you have in mind? He goes, well, there's a little event up in Port Macquarie, mid-north coast of New South Wales. It's called a Half Ironman. I said, well, what's that? He goes, it's a 1.8-kilometer swim, it's a 90K bike ride, and a 21-kilometer run. Anyway, a bunch of them we did led to then the next conversation after we did about 6 of these Half Ironmans. He goes, how about we do a full Ironman? I said, what's a full Ironman? He goes, it's a 3.8 kilometer swim, 180K bike ride, and a 42 kilometer run. And I said, well, how many days do we get to do that in? He goes, no, no, all at once. Sure enough, we did the activity and this sort of flowed on and we did a bunch of these Ironmans and then moved to— I got a liking to trail running, which I did, then moved into a couple of 50 kilometer trail runs and then 100 kilometer trail runs. And then sort of looking around, go, well, what else is there in Australia that I went over to New Zealand, did a couple ultras, and that's where I found the Big Red Run, which is the 250 kilometer run over 5 days in the Simpson Desert. And I share the story with you, the listener, today because it— if you think about it, like 250 kilometers out of someone's context, it just blows someone's mind.

Yeah.

And I remember very clearly sitting around the campfire most nights talking to these other crazy cats, and they've just, just ran 1,000 kilometers. They've done a 7-day event. And, and so once again, your mind gets blown around what is actually possible. And I share the story— it's not about running the 250 50 kilometers. It's about doing the activity to do 5 kilometers. It's about doing the activity to, to, to, to get off the couch and start moving. It could be a 1-kilometer walk, and it doesn't necessarily have to be physical activity. And what's the biggest thing I learned from doing these races? It's that who I became along the way and the stories that I could share. But it's about who do I hang around with? And so around that campfire, hanging around these crazy cats, I felt like, wow, I'm not so crazy after all. I felt like I found my groove with that tribe of people. And so I, in my coaching sessions, I say, well, who are you hanging around that's actually lifting you up? Who's, who are you hanging around with your financial advice? Who are you hanging around with your relationship advice? Who are you hanging around with your business advice? And so it's looking at what is your environment and how is that actually lifting you up or is it actually pulling you back? And the second thing is, is what's your activity that you're doing to moving the dial? Because we're creatures of habits and some habits are really good for us, but actually some habits are really poor for us because we repeat 97% of our activity is the same activity we did yesterday. 97% of our activity that we do today is we did it yesterday. And we're gonna repeat again tomorrow. So these are habits, these are routines that we have formed. And like you do with your your morning swims, you're forming a new habit. And so looking at those patterns, looking at those habits that help us, but also looking at those things that hinder us. So there's a couple of things there— is start small, looking at your activity, and looking at your habits.

Yeah, I love that. Um, I mean, just starting is the big thing I got from that. 97% of people do the same as yesterday. Totally. We all do the same thing. We eat the same, we do the same until something happens, right? Something changes that. somebody says something and you go, that might be a good idea, isn't it? So it's that proximity piece that we keep coming around to and around to, around to. James, you're in the real estate industry. I go to any Netflix show and there's real estate owning Manhattan, owning New York. They've got the Lamborghinis, the Ferraris, the hot girls in the real estate agents, all this stuff. Yeah. You're an industry that is very egotistic. How— I mean, you know, in the fitness industry, I think it's, it's, you know, in some parts of it, um, it gets like that from a client's perspective, some of the clients, from a coach's perspective, you know, it, it runs in and out of very egotistic ways because, you know, we've got to puff our, our chest up just so we can get our point across or we get attention on social media or there's some other fitness You know, gym doing something else. They've got influencers. So it, it becomes very heavy, James, these industries. Tell us how we can stick away from the ego and getting down the path that we shouldn't— we don't want to be, but, but society tells us to. Instagram tells us to. Our competitors tell us to. I mean, you, you've done this since 2009 in the real estate industry. What's the tricks that we should look out for in the fitness industry?

I, it's, it's coming back to that environment piece, I think is really important. 2 stories I wanna share with you that, uh, that are 2 guys that I work with. One individual agent who's one of the top performers in Australia, he, he writes over $4 million in commissions every year. And he, yes, he's got the suits, he's got the car, but when we catch up and there's a group of us that we catch up with him is, uh, we get his ego in check. And this has actually, this has actually resulted in his success of, because his competitors in this space that he works in, that high, he sells houses with $15 million plus. And there's a lot of ego in some of those agents. And the reason why his success is because he comes back to his authentic self. And we remind him and we call him out on the behavior. It'll always see the little ego on the shoulder kicks in. And we go, mate, drop it. You don't need that. You don't need this. You don't need that. And he's super appreciative and he listens. And when he listens and actually takes note, it's, it's been phenomenal to see his growth. And then when we look at it as a, as an employee, employer component on another story, another client of mine, just in 8 years, he's gone from 1 office to 24 offices with now over 300 staff. Wow. And that's because there's no ego. It's because he has come back to his authentic self, come back into how can I serve my team? How can I serve my leadership team? How can I serve our clients? And that piece has dropped his ego completely. And he sees it sometimes, it kicks in and he goes, oh no, all right, I can see it creeping in. It doesn't serve me, doesn't serve the people around me. And so a common thread now coming through in the fitness industry, it's like, well, who are you surrounding yourself with your— in your environment that calls you out on your ego. Because sometimes it can be so subconscious that it kicks in that you need someone, a third-party perspective, go, drop it, it's not serving you, where is that coming from? And asking those questions to call you out on those ego traits and ego behaviors. So definitely environment and definitely being self-aware.

Yeah, that's really good. Um, James, why do you think people You know, drop? Why do you think people have to show the ego? You know, is it, is it because it's, it is good in the competitive environment? Is it because, again, like you're saying, the proximity piece? Does it help us, the ego?

The ego is actually there to protect us. Alright? It's a really interesting piece. If you delve into the ego, the ego is actually there to protect us. It actually provides a wall in between your true authentic self. And so when we can actually, the ego can be there to really good at starting things and get you going and like, let's put you into action. Mm-hmm. But it can actually really hinder yourself with coming across, uh, where it's all about you. It's all about how you look. It's all about how you're being perceived, where really there's no connection to that. And so once again, if you, this is where I love working with, with, you know, particularly those within the real estate industry, those egos, because you can get get over the wall or take the bricks down and look at who that person really is. And when you can tap into that, oh gosh, the results, the connections, the relationships just goes to a whole new level because you can see past it. And so that's why— and you look at social media, that it's a very ego-driven, centric, uh, platforms where it's like you just— people are perceiving living their best life. But when you get behind the wall and you have a chat to these people with It's a whole different story. And so that's why taking the bricks around down one at a time and looking beyond the ego, it's like, what is that? What is that person behind? What's, what's really going on for them? So it definitely helps you to get things started, but it doesn't help you to maintain things because it actually protects you. Um, and it's that puts that wall up so you can actually, you actually can't connect on a deeper level.

Yeah, that's really cool. Great insights, especially for the industry into staying level-headed. James, I was just reading your bio and something else I find really interesting, I sort of want to pick a little bit of it because it's so interesting. Because again, when we do hear somebody from outside the industry, and again, real estate, fitness, it's an entrepreneur business concept and A lot of the time is we've got to make our own money. We've got to build our own clients. Even if you're a PT, you've got to find those clients in a gym. If you're a studio owner, you've got to manage a business. I'd love to talk about money flow for a second because this is a point, especially in the fitness industry, where we've got 2 types of people, 2 types of business owners. We've got investors that are coming in and they're purchasing a gym and they'll probably maybe get a franchise and They're growing and growing and growing, right? And then we've got the other side of people where they're coming in because they love it. Like you, me, and you, James, we came and we loved it. We want to serve and help people. But a lot of the time, we love it so much, we struggle with the financial piece, the flow piece. But when I hear flow and money, I'm like, oh, that's so cool. Let's get more of that stuff. What are some strategies around generating— because I think we're all good at generating money. Yeah. All right. We can generate money, we can find a client, but it's that money flow, keeping it, driving it through, scaling it up. What's some strategies you can give? And it's probably a big question I'm asking, James, but what are some strategies we can get to get some more flow, money flow in our life?

Yes. Great. And I love this piece because it's all around the relationship that you have with money. So what is the belief that you have around money? Is it belief that it's easy to get, it's easy to go, it's easy to to lose. So first step is having some self-awareness around what is specifically your belief that you have around money. What is the belief you have around money flow? What is the belief that you have around getting new clients? So understanding what those beliefs and behaviors are that you have around money is the first step. The second step is to look at, okay, so what is that flow? Where are the, I guess, 2 components where if you look at a bucket, Where is the, the, the leakage of that flow? And where is it? I guess if you look at a stream, where are the boulders that is stopping the flow? And sometimes those boulders can represent things that you haven't dealt with. It could be bills. It could be there's no proper planning in place. What's the structure that you have with your money flow? Do you set up in different accounts to with different buckets, so to speak, that that oversee different expenses. And so I always have a big recommendation around what I call blue sky time. And blue sky time is anywhere between 15 minutes to 60 minutes, at least weekly or fortnightly, when you can actually unpack this, when you can spend a time— it could be down the beach or in a park, no phones, no distractions— and do that big sky, blue sky planning where you look at what are some of the hesitations, and we— and the blockages that we might have. And we do this by reviewing the week or reviewing the month. And so what some of the wins that we've had, what some of the challenges that we've had, what are my key lessons that I've learned, both positive and negative, over the week or over the fortnight? And then what do I need to be doing differently? And in this review process, you'll get some massive insights and awareness around yourself personally, around your money and your money flow. And that blue sky timing is so important because it allows you To reflect, reset, and reignite.

Yeah, I love it. Reflect, reset, reignite. Blue sky. I'm writing all these notes down. Review the week, the structure, the bills, the buckets. What do you do with this? And I think, and then James, like, you know, if you, so basically where would we start? Like, you know, is it again going back to the same concept? Like, Getting better advice, you know, 97% of the things we're going to keep doing and doing and doing and doing again. Is that the other issue too? It's just like we keep doing it, we don't take it seriously enough.

Well, what happens is that we're so fixated on what's in the front screen of our car, what's coming up next week, what are we working on next month, what are our goals for the year, where we actually don't spend the time to review. And this is the power of moving forward because, as I said, 97% of our time that we did today, we're going to get to do again tomorrow unless you be aware of those patterns. And so when we can review those 4 review questions, what are my wins? We acknowledge the wins. What are my challenges? We acknowledge the challenges. What are my lessons, both positive and negative? And then what do I need to be doing differently? And that the 3rd question, my lessons, determine your beliefs, determine your behaviors, determine your patterns. And when we review the week, the month, the quarter, the year, we can actually go, oh, hang on, they're the same lessons that happened last week and the week before. Ah, maybe I need to do some change work around those lessons so I enhance the positive lessons but also let go of the negative lessons so I can actually start to change things in my life. And so I'm strong, always a big believer of review To allow you to reset, to reignite.

I love that. Win the challenge, lessons, do differently. Even just that, you know, really big reminder. Sometimes you just get doing stuff and get busy, but those lessons there just get back to those things.

Yeah, it's like when, you know, people say, oh, you need to set a financial budget. What happens when you get asked to set a financial budget is that you keep a money log. Right, for the first 2 weeks to see where your spending habits go. It's the same thing with your time. When you, you know, sit, you know, where's my time go? Well, let's keep a time log of, of where your time's gone. Same thing with a food diary, right? When you're in a trainer or a nutritionist can go, well, we need to find out what are your habits and, and what are the times and so forth. So you can do this on every aspect of your life, but you can't do it unless you review it.

Can't do it unless you review it. This is outstanding. Really good insights and a different level of insights, which I love, I love, I love. Listen, before we leave, because I could talk to you all day and pick your brain, I think a lot of people are getting huge value with this. I kind of want to understand from your perspective, from a real estate perspective. I've got 2 more questions for you. What do you see in your world being the best marketing advice or the best marketing you've seen in the real estate sector? What's that one thing that people get the best results from, from your viewpoint?

From the marketing perspective within real estate, it's literally phone calls. It's positioning yourself as the authority and it's actually making those phone calls and connection because at the end of the day, people want to be connected with and to, and the best way to do that, the most cut-through one is just picking up that phone and making those connections. The other aspect of that is is having that point of difference of being known as the expert. So many agents out there are generalists, but what I see is that when an agent picks a niche and really doubles down on content and positioning themselves as that go-to person in that niche, floodgates just open up and they're just inundated with business. So that's my recommendation there.

So good. One more question. In your bio, you've got awesome dad as a— so mindset coach, author, speaker, ultra endurance, and awesome dad. I've got 2 kids and I know you've got a daughter who's— you're really supportive of her sport. I think you're a basketball coach as well. James, tell me, for all the parents here running businesses and also being awesome parents, what are your strategies about how to be an awesome dad?

So I've got 3 amazing kids. I've got a stepdaughter who's 31, my daughter who's 16 and a son who's 14. And it's the ability— my best advice is around planning. Um, you know, doing the races back when I was doing the races and all these crazy events, running a business, and then, you know, helping run a family with my amazing wife, it's, it's so much that we need to fit in. But unless we plan for those events and those activities, it will never get— never happen. So I remember, you know, when I was doing training up for the races, it was like it'd be up at 3 o'clock, it'd be on the road by 3:30, 4 o'clock and training till 6 or 7 and then doing a full day with seeing clients and kids and so forth. So it's— kids won't be kids for that long. I mean, gosh, my stepdaughter, I've been around her since she was 4 and she's grown up and, you know, she's still obviously around, but the younger kids, they grow up so quick and you will never get that time back. So it's really, I believe, planning and, um, and, and being there for them is, is so important.

Love it. James, thank you so much for the insights, the mind, having been a great parent, money. I think that these are the 3 most important things I reckon we've covered today. So been a huge valuable piece, huge valuable podcast that I can say. And so thanks for jumping on and making this happen, James.

Absolute pleasure, Richard. Thank you for having me on.

Now, James, just want to give you a shout out personally. I've seen your clips, your content come out, but jamesshort.com.au is the best place to go. Is that correct, James?

Yeah, definitely head over there. Bunch of resources, check it out. Also on socials as well, Coach James Short.

Yeah, check it out, guys. jamesshort.com.au. And you can sort of see some huge free resources, 9 Steps Performance Teams and things like that. So there's heaps of blogs and podcasts there. So check it out and hit James up if, you know, he can definitely help you out. Thanks guys for jumping onto this episode of the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. If you like these episodes and more, Simply go to any podcast platform and check it out, or go to website commarketing.com.au, and you can select what you want to hear more of. Thanks, team. I'll catch you next time on the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. Bye for now.