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Michael Levitt is the founder & Chief Burnout Officer of The Breakfast Leadership Network, a San Diego and Toronto-based burnout media firm. In this week's episode, Michael and Alyssa talk about the silent killer: Burnout. Michael shares his story of how he almost lost his life from toxic stress and burnout. He now spends his time trying to educate others on how they can recognize the signs of burnout and seek the help that they need before it is too late.  Support the Podcast More info can be found at https://BreakfastLeadership.com/media Blog is at https://BreakfastLeadership.com/blog Books:  Burnout Proof:  How To Establish Boundaries To Avoid The Negativity Of Stress https://amzn.to/2JkbKxQ 369 Days:  How To Survive A Year of Worst-Case Scenarios:  https://amzn.to/38Zd807   Transcript:   Alyssa Scolari [00:23]: Hello friends, good afternoon, good morning, good evening, good night wherever you are, whatever time it is. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Light After Trauma Podcast. I am your host, Alyssa Scolari. Today we are here to talk about another juicy topic. I love this topic. Again, I know I say that all the time, but this topic I am very passionate about. We are here to talk about B-U-R-N-O-U-T. So no I can't sing, but yes I'm going to anyway on this podcast. For those of you who struggle with spelling, that spells burnout. I'm really, really excited. Our guest today, who really has made his entire career and his biggest passion about burnout prevention, his name is Michael Levitt. Michael is the founder and Chief Burnout Officer of The Breakfast Leadership Network, a San Diego and Toronto based burnout media firm. He is an in-person and certified virtual speaker, a certified NLP and CBT therapist, and is one of the world's leading authorities in burnout recovery and prevention. He is a Fortune 500 consultant, a number one bestselling author, and host of The Breakfast Leadership Show, a top 200 podcast on iTunes. That's so exciting! He is a former healthcare executive, CIO and CFO overseeing $2 billion budgets, so he has truly seen and done it all. Hello Michael, welcome to the Light After Trauma Podcast. How's it going? Michael Levitt [02:14]: I am awesome. I'm looking forward to our chat today. Alyssa Scolari [02:17]: Me, too. I have to ask you from reading your bio, you're on the West Coast? Michael Levitt [02:23]: I split my time between San Diego and Toronto, and actually at the time of this recording I'm in Toronto. With the U.S. Canadian border closure they've closed it to non-essential travel, and apparently I'm not essential. So I get to stay here, which is fine. Alyssa Scolari [02:23]: Lovely. Michael Levitt [02:40]: I'm a dual citizen so I get to vote and screw up two countries, and I'm comfortable either place. Plus the weather now in Toronto is nice, so it's not bad. You should talk with me in the winter, I'm like oh, why am I here. Alyssa Scolari [02:40]: I'm sure. Michael Levitt [02:53]: But things are opening up. I anticipate by the fall of this year that it'll be easier to travel and all of that, and I'm looking forward to it. Alyssa Scolari [03:06]: Yeah. So Toronto to San Diego? Michael Levitt [03:10]: Yeah, it's a five hour flight one way, anyway. If you've got stops, then of course it gets much longer. But it's about a five hour flight, and obviously a little bit different temperature during the year. Right now we're about the same because I have the weather out on my phone for both locations, and I always look at them like oh wow, we're actually warmer than San Diego today, interesting. But that doesn't happen a lot. But in the summertime it does, but not so much when that crinkly white stuff's falling from the sky. It's like you don't tend to see that too much in San Diego. In the mountains yes, but not by Gaslamp or anything like that. Alyssa Scolari [03:52]: No, not when you're hanging out at the San Diego Zoo. Michael Levitt [03:55]: Exactly, yeah. The polar bears might be happy, it's like finally we've got the weather right. Alyssa Scolari [04:00]: Right, at last. Michael Levitt [04:03]: Exactly. Alyssa Scolari [04:04]: Well, that's actually really cool. Obviously I'm sure it comes with its frustrations, undoubtedly. But I don't know, that's kind of neat to essentially have lives in two different countries. We're here today to talk about burnout which as I stated earlier is one of my favorite topics, definitely getting more attention as we were talking about, but there's not a lot of action. First it's like acknowledging that this is a problem and then it's like okay, maybe we should start thinking about taking action. I'm going to turn it over to you, the burnout expert. What is burnout? What does that mean? Michael Levitt [04:45]: Burnout is when you have prolonged stress basically, to really narrow it down. It's basically when you are completely fatigued, exhausted, you're mentally and physically drained. You have no motivation to do anything, and it's been over an extended period of time. Now for each person, that could be a different period of time. Some people can burn out pretty quickly, and others it could take several years for it to build up depending on what's going on. But that's the thing I see with everybody that is actually at that burned out state is they're just done. They don't have any motivation, they're fatigued, they're living life in a fog, they really can't see things clearly and quite frankly they're almost numb to life, which is no way to exist. Alyssa Scolari [05:37]: Absolutely. I relate to that so well. I think that's a really, really good description because it's just like that sense of almost like you're just going through the motions I think, and nothing really means much to you good or bad. It's just kind of like, oh. Or on the other sense, I feel like sometimes it can also be like you're the Energizer bunny where it's like I can't stop, I can't stop, I can't take a day off, I have to do this, people need me. People need me, I can't take a day off, I can't afford to, that type of mentality as well. I think it could maybe go either way. Michael Levitt [06:12]: It does, and a lot of people that I see that are burned out are what we like to call people pleasers, and they don't want to let anybody down so they just continue working. Maybe they're Type A personalities, very driven, very successful and have always put in those 12, 14, 16 hour days kind of thing, and they wear it like it's a badge of honor. And it's like no, actually you'll end up having a different type of badge and it'll be whatever they put around your wrist when you're in the hospital, or a toe tag if you don't take care of yourself. I definitely flirted with that with my burnout journey. Alyssa Scolari [06:52]: Yeah. It's funny. As you're speaking I'm like oh, I feel personally attacked right here because that honestly, it truly was me. It was chronic people pleasing, just working 12, 14 hour days. I think for me, I watched my mom get very, very sick and she almost died. We were told she was going to die. I think it was a result of her chronic people pleasing and her burnout that is the reason why she almost died, and to this day continues to have health issues. So I think that was a really big turning point for me. But I know you have an entire journey of your own with burnout. Would you mind talking a little bit about that? Michael Levitt [07:38]: Sure, I'd love to. Back in 2007, I was hired as a healthcare executive for a startup healthcare organization just outside of Windsor Ontario, Canada. I'm a dual citizen born in the U.S., immigrated to Canada in 2004 with my former wife and became a citizen in 2011, hence the vote and screw up two countries joke that I made earlier. But in this role, and anybody that's ever worked in a startup, you know there's a lot of work involved, there's a lot of things to set up. I had to recruit physicians, hire staff, educate the community on why our clinic was better than the other clinics that had been in town for several years, and had a very proactive board of directors. Even though I was an employee, as a people pleaser or I identify myself now asa a reformed people pleaser, but as a- Alyssa Scolari [08:37]: I love that. Michael Levitt [08:37]: ... former people pleaser I took it on my own and said, "Well, I'm going to act as if this is my company." Which it isn't, but I acted as if it was, and was driven and was basically working 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. seven days a week for a solid two years. During that time, when you're working that many hours and you're in an office type of role, you're not getting any level of exercise to speak of, and I certainly wasn't. Of course when you're an executive and we all know this, who gets the real close parking spot to the door? The executive. So I wasn't even getting 10,000 steps just because my parking spot was so good. I'd be lucky if I probably got 2,000 steps a day, because our clinic size was rather small at that point. So I wasn't doing that. My nutrition plan quite frankly was breakfast, lunch and dinner, ordering in a microphone, drive around the corner, paying for it and getting a brown bag handed to me. I just ... Of course working those long hours, you tend to eat differently. So you're eating later than you normally do so that of course, your body doesn't have an opportunity to break that down before you crash into bed, which then your body's got to break that down while you're sleeping. And sleep is so critical in prevention of burnout, and people that don't get good sleep it's really problematic, and I'll talk about that in a moment. But this went on for two years. Then finally in May of 2009 I had what I refer to as my year of worst-case scenarios. I was mowing my front lawn on a Monday night, actually it was ... The anniversary is this week, ironically. But I was mowing my front lawn, and we had a small lawn and gas prices were expensive back then as they are now at the time of this recording. I had an electric mower and this thing was really bulky to turn, it wasn't light at all, it was really hard to turn. I mow the first row, and then I turned the lawn mower to mow the next row. I felt this incredible pain in the center of my chest. It really felt like I had pulled a muscle, and it hurt so bad that I couldn't continue mowing the lawn. Then I went inside, I took some pain medication. The pain went away unless I lifted anything with my right arm. I'm left-handed so I don't tend to lift a lot with my right arm, but occasionally I do. And anytime I lifted anything, that pain would be there. It was dull, it didn't hurt badly, but it did have some discomfort. So that went on for a few days. Then Thursday night of that week I went out to a local restaurant that had an all you could eat special, and I took them up on that offer. I had all kinds of fried sea ... really tasty not good for you food and washed it down with a few adult beverages, and life was good. Went to bed, and then about an hour and a half after going to sleep I woke up again with that pain that I had on Monday night, but it was at least 10 times worse. It literally felt like an elephant was stepping on my chest. At that point I thought okay, this is what you get for eating all of that food. It's just ... You're getting acid reflux or indigestion or whatever. So I got out of bed after I caught my breath, went into the bathroom, took some Tums, was able to fall asleep. So Friday morning comes. That pain that I'd been feeling every time I lifted anything with my right arm was persistent, it wasn't going away. So after working about 45 minutes and reminder, I'm working in a medical clinic, I decide to approach one of our physicians and asked him if he could take a look. Because I explained to him what had happened that week and he listened. He was going, "It's probably nothing but we got the EKG equipment here, why don't we run a test just to make sure there's nothing going on because it sounds different, something's weird. So I just want to check things out." I'm like, "Okay." I go back into the procedure room, so our physician is in there, one of our nurses and one of our admin/medical assistants were in the room. And all of a sudden they just start laughing hysterically, they can't control themselves they're laughing so hard. The reason being is because their boss is taking his clothes off at work in front of them, so they're making all kinds of sexual harassment jokes. Now of course this is before Me Too and all of that, it wasn't appropriate then, certainly isn't appropriate now, but they were doing that. I'm as red as a tomato, I'm embarrassed. I'm not thinking anything else. So after they had a couple minutes of conversations they said, "Okay, well let's go ahead and get the test going." So they hook up all the electrodes and they run the test and they look at the results, and they're perplexed. They're like, "This looks weird. You know what, let's disconnect everything and we're going to put new leads on and we're going to run the test again." So they did and they put the little electrodes which are basically little tape things with wires, and they tape them all over your legs and your chest and arms and all that stuff. They did it again and they placed it in different spots, and they got the same results. So they took the results and they faxed them off to Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor and Dr. [Gena 00:14:02] who was a cardiologist there at the time. Got the paperwork, and then about 10 minutes later called the clinic and said, "Tell Michael to get his butt in the hospital right now, and he can't drive." I had a pretty significant heart attack that Thursday night. I had two blockages in my left interior descending artery, which is known as the widowmaker because if people have heart attacks with blockages in that artery they tend to die. Statistically speaking, most people do. I didn't, thankfully. But that set off what I call my year of worst-case scenarios. So 17 weeks after that, I was let go from that job because they wanted to go in a different direction. Mind you, this is 2009. Remember the Great Recession? Alyssa Scolari [14:46]: Mm-hmm [affirmative]. Michael Levitt [14:48]: I'm in Windsor across the border from Detroit Michigan where GM, Ford and Chrysler were drowning, and GM and Chrysler had filed bankruptcy and got government assistance to stay afloat. Ford wasn't doing much better, but they were able to navigate without getting a lot of government assistance. Needless to say there wasn't a lot of jobs around, and anybody that did have jobs certainly weren't going to be leaving them. So it took me several months to find a new job. Ended up relocating to Toronto where I could find some work, and about two weeks into my new job, and this was in April of 2010, I get a phone call from my oldest daughter, who today is her birthday. Happy birthday, [Sarah 00:15:30]. Alyssa Scolari [15:30]: Oh, happy birthday. Michael Levitt [15:32]: There you go. But she was little at the time. And she called me at work and crying, I couldn't understand a thing she was saying, and then finally I was able to get from her that the bank had come and repossessed our family vehicle. Because when you're on unemployment and anybody that has ever been through that, they know the income is less so you're getting less money coming in. Obviously I wasn't working because I was recovering from my cardiac event, and I was also taking heart medication that was $1,000 a month because I had no drug coverage. So food and drugs, not the fun ones but the ones to keep your heart alive were quite frankly, what we could afford. We had worked with all of our creditors and they had given us a pretty extensive grace period and I'm thankful for that, but unfortunately that grace period ran out, and the bank exercised their right to take back the car. Fast forward to May of 2010, so almost a year after my cardiac event we find a place to move the family up in Toronto, I was commuting back and forth. We got everything unpacked from the movers, and we realized that we left our bunk bed ladder for our daughter's bed back in the old house. I was going back there the next week to visit with family and friends and all of that, and I said, "Well, I'll just swing by the house, grab that and anything else we left behind," because we were going to be listing it with a realtor that following week, it was ready to put back on the market even though the market was horrible. It's like we got to sell it, we can't pay rent and a mortgage at the same time, that's not going to work. But they were all ... Obviously our mortgage payments weren't being made either because of all the things that were going on. So I went down there, had the good visit with the family, and then I went by the house to grab the ladder and whatever else we left behind. Opened up the screen door on the front of the house, I saw the largest padlock I've ever seen in my life. I've never seen this padlock at Home Depot or anywhere else, and there was a small sticker on the door that said, "Foreclosure." Now we never got any notices from the bank saying that we were that close to that happening. I'm not sure what happened, but we didn't get the notices. So basically over a year I had a heart attack that should have killed me, lost my job during the Great Recession, had my car repossessed and my home foreclosed. All of those things happened because I was burned out. My burnout created all those scenarios. I wasn't taking care of myself, I was making mistakes at work. I was constantly in a fog and I wasn't motivated to do anything in life. I certainly wasn't eating right, wasn't sleeping well, and all of those things, all those dominoes came tumbling down. Thankfully, I survived it. But it was obviously not a fun period of time, and I see so many people that are burning out or approaching burnout, they're flirting with their own year of worst-case scenarios and it scares the crap out of me. So that's why I do the work that I do. Alyssa Scolari [18:38]: Now at what point was it when you saw that padlock with the foreclosure sticker on it, did that hit you? At what point did it click in your brain that this is what it is, this is burnout? Because I think a lot of people who may not necessarily be aware of burnout tend to go down this other thought path of, why can't I catch a break, why do all these bad things happen to me, I'm just that guy or I'm just that person that I just get shit on all the time. Michael Levitt [19:12]: Yeah. For me it was during that 17 week recovery before I had lost my job was I did a lot of deep ... Because I had plenty of time and wasn't working, just deep review of what in the world happened, how did I get to this point? Why am I having to take a nap at 2:00 p.m. every day when I was 40 years old at the time? 40 is a little young to have a cardiac event. But we're seeing- Alyssa Scolari [19:43]: Yeah, that's really young. Michael Levitt [19:43]: ... We're seeing a lot of people now. I know a lot of people in the healthcare industry, there's still a lot of people that are starting to have heart attacks even before 40. That's not good because unless you make some dramatic changes, you could have 30 or 40 years of having to take medications, who knows if you had any ... Thankfully I didn't have any long lasting impact from mine, but I know some people could have strokes, or partially paralyzed or inability to work. It's not something you want to mess with. But during that time I did a lot of reading, which is something that I had stopped doing. When I was younger I read a lot, and then college and university my reading switched to textbooks and things like that. But after getting out of college I didn't read for pleasure, I hadn't for several years and I loved doing it, I just got away from it. So during that time I rekindled my love for reading. I would read different types of books, leadership books and inspiration books and comedy books, just to read and relax. I realized that leading up to my 369 days, I forgot how to relax. I didn't know how to relax. And a lot of people I think are in that boat because they've been going so much, they're so driven, Type A, people pleasing, they never let up off the gas. And when something happens and there's a lull, they don't know how to react so they have to grab something quickly to fill that "void." That's no way to live. For me, case in point yesterday I was supposed to be on two different shows yesterday, and both of them had to reschedule for whatever reason. Basically that cleared out a good chunk of my day. Did I fill it with anything? No. I listened to some music, I sat out on the balcony so the weather's beautiful now. So just relaxed, just kind of eased into things, and that's an amazing way to fill time. Because automatically we look at that long to do list that we all seem to have and we go, "Oh, I can tackle this and this." You could. Should you? Or should you if you're not- Alyssa Scolari [19:43]: Not necessarily. Michael Levitt [22:08]: ... Yeah, if you need that time to just ... Do it. Don't worry, that stuff's still going to be there. Don't worry about that. Alyssa Scolari [22:17]: Right, it's all going to be there, and I think you speak to something so important which is something that I up until recently, have truly struggled with my entire life was this concept of well, when there is a gap. For me, even a couple years ago if there was a weekend where I didn't have anything to do, I was crawling out of my skin, crawling out of my skin. Those are just your big red burnout flags of okay, I can't be still for even a hot minute. So for you to now be at this place, where did that transformation come? At what point did you go, "Okay, I am reinventing myself and now actually going to make this my career"? Michael Levitt [23:06]: For me the reinvention started initially during that 17 week recovery period, and then of course after losing the job then my full time job was to find a full time job. That took several months to do so, and that was where my focus was, and I basically had boundaries on it. It's like okay, from 9:00 to 5:00 Monday to Friday I'm going to research and look for opportunities. On the weekends, I'm not. I'm not going to look for jobs, I'm not going to do research. I'm just going to watch sports, do something with the kids, run errands, whatever the case, and just live life. So I started getting in the habit of getting some time blocks around when I work. Then when I finally found the new role which ironically was in healthcare again, my parents wanted to have me committed. They said, "Are you kidding me? You're going back into the field that nearly killed you? Are you that stupid?" And I'm like- Alyssa Scolari [23:06]: Do you have a death wish? Michael Levitt [24:06]: There's quicker ways to do this, not that we want you to and please don't, people. But they were quite beside themselves. I said to them, "Look. I've done a lot of work on me over these last several months. I want to give this another shot and I want to approach it differently, completely different than what I did before." And I did. I stayed in healthcare for another ... Do the math here, that would have been almost eight years. But during that time for, I guess from 2010 to I'd say 2014, was just working on myself and working. I was getting really successful and doing things in the healthcare space, I was on boards of directors and all this kind of stuff, so going back to that people pleasing thing and giving back and all of that. Then I realized in January of 2015 I was like whoa, my calendar. I don't like what this looks because I started color coding my calendar and meetings I always used the color red, which I think a lot of people see red when they have to have a lot of meetings. But I used that one for not good meetings, just a work thing. So I look at my calendar and I just start ... Digital calendar of course, and skimming back and forth. And I'm like, I'm seeing a lot of red. I said, "That's not good." So I looked at it and I started counting the number of meetings that I was going to have in the first part of 2015. And in January I had 57 different meetings. And I said, "Okay. Let's not do this again." So I immediately resigned from two boards of directors, and withdrew from a handful of committees at work. I said, "No," switched the team meetings from monthly to quarterly, and just by March it was like I had six meetings. So I went from 57 to six, and was like okay, why did I do that, then I kind of revisit. I'm like, "All right." Then I started talking with my colleagues and noticing wait a minute, there's a lot of people that are flirting with burnout in this sector and this is healthcare. So I started talking with them about it, not really sharing what happened to me but saying, knowing what I had known and the studies that I'd done. And well, I'm just going to work through it, which is the common answer a lot of people think on how they'd beat burnout. It's I'm just going to work harder, I'm going to work through it. Alyssa Scolari [26:39]: Right, or it's like I'll wait until the summertime, and then once summer comes then I'll be able to take a break. Or it's like once I just get through this real big project that I have going on at work, then everything will be fine. Michael Levitt [26:51]: Right. Well, it isn't. Because we've seen studies. I know The Hartford just did a study, indicated that 61% of people working are identifying as burning out. Deloitte did one as well that said that 77% of the people they surveyed have been burned out in their current job. Seven, almost eight out of 10 people. We've got a huge, huge challenge with this. So for me, when I started seeing this and everybody was saying well, I'm going to work through it, I'm like, "That's not going to work." So I just started doing a little bit more research on burnout, a little bit deeper dive. Even back then six years ago, there was some conversations happening but not as much as what we're seeing today. But there was still a lot of material and a lot of research and the stuff that, the Maslach stuff out in California and Dr. Freudenberger who wrote a book that was published in 1980 called Burnout. 1980, okay? Alyssa Scolari [27:54]: 1980? Michael Levitt [27:56]: Yeah, 1980. The phrase burnout, he was the one, a German guy, died about 20 years ago, I guess. But he first coined the phrase burnout in the public forum in 1973, so this is not new. But it's getting worse because what's happened is, and I'll use this example. My iBinky, that's the nickname gave my brother gave me, my iPhone because if I don't have it, I'm like a little kid without their pacifier or their binky, not happy. So he's like, "Can you put down your iBinky for a minute?" And based on the number of hours I spent on it, the answer is not likely. But these devices, the smartphones, the laptops, they're great devices because they allow us to work anywhere at anytime. But the disadvantage is we can work anywhere at anytime. And we're horrible of establishing boundaries around when we work and when we don't. It's so easy. I mean, for many of us our laptop's probably just sitting open all the time at a table somewhere, or if we got a computer we just go ... Or the phone is literally two seconds, unlock, go to it, answer that text message or answer the WhatsApp message or the email or the Slack message, or all the notifications we get on a daily basis from these things. We don't shut down. I think back to my dad, he used to work years ago at General Motors, and he worked on the assembly line for the most part, but towards the tail end of his career he worked in the engine assembly plant. And he drove a forklift, so he would deliver engine blocks to the assembly line so they could put engines in the cars and continue building them. I never remember seeing a forklift come home. He never brought it home. I'm sure the emotions and stress of working in the auto industry which was up and down, he did bring that home. But he never worked on anything at home. Well for the majority of us we can work at home, on the beach, on our vacation, all these other places. You see these images on Instagram, oh look at my office today. And it's like you see this ocean or mountains and things like that. Yeah, it's cool that you can work in a beautiful setting, I get it. But are you taking time to actually experience that beautiful setting, or are you just plugging away? If you're not enjoying that time, I'm going to save you several thousand dollars right now. Don't go on that trip, have your background image on your computer of those mountains and just work at your desk, because that's basically what you're doing. Alyssa Scolari [30:40]: Right, and save your money for all the health bills that are going to come when you eventually suffer whatever illness befalls you because you're not truly taking the time to unplug, relax, unwind. Michael Levitt [30:57]: It's critical. I mentioned sleep a little while ago. Lack of sleep impacts your cognitive ability, your awareness, how you digest your foods, pattern recognition, problem solving skills. But the thing of it is when we don't get good sleep, the lack of clarity, the fogginess, all that, what happens is then you start making mistakes at work, or you have to work harder and longer on things because you're not able to flow through things. So if you get a bad night's sleep and we've all had that, we know how we feel the next day. If that's consistent over a period of time, then that's when you start having all types of mental and physical ailments and issues, and you can end up with clogged arteries or a stroke or hypertension or chronic diseases, you name it. Over two dozen of the chronic diseases that we identify as chronic diseases have stress as one of the contributors. Alyssa Scolari [32:00]: A thousand percent. Even I would dare say a lot of autoimmune diseases as well, not all but a lot of them are related to chronic stress. Michael Levitt [32:11]: Yeah. Because your body and your brain's going I got this stress, this is a toxin to ourselves, I need to send the energy to go fix that. So it's using energy that could be used to help prevent all kinds of different things. I don't know, like maybe COVID for example. People that are stressed out, I haven't seen anything on this, but I'm certain that your stress is going to lower your immunity to be able to fight off things. That's why when you see people stressed, they get coughs and colds and whatnot. Well, you don't want to be flirting with COVID either, so again that's so important for you to get a good night's sleep and do the necessary things to keep your stress at a minimum. Because if you don't have prolonged stress, you won't burn out. Burnout needs the stress. If you don't have the prolonged stress, you won't burn out. Alyssa Scolari [33:05]: Exactly. I know when we first connected, you talked a little bit about the work from home burnout because of COVID, and I think it's interesting because I see in my practice and then the people in my life, the people who are truly thriving from working from home like my husband, he's genuinely thriving, have incredible boundaries with themselves where he opens up that laptop at 7:00 a.m., and at 3:00 p.m. it is shut. His phone is gone, and we don't even talk about work. But for the most part like you said, a lot of us don't have great boundaries with ourselves, which I think is probably why the work from home is really, really causing major burnout in folks. Michael Levitt [33:56]: It is. I mean and also the, I have to do everything. Well spoiler, you're not going to be able to. Alyssa Scolari [34:03]: Ever. Michael Levitt [34:04]: So many people became full time schoolteachers during this pandemic as well. So, and we know the school time tends to coincide with when many of us work. Well, you're trying to do two things that are completely different at the same time. It's not going to work, so that's why you see a lot of parents getting up earlier and they're doing a little bit of work, and then they're helping their kids with school and making sure they're on the computer doing the schoolwork and not on their PlayStation 5, and then after dinner they're working again. These long days are not sustainable. The healthy organizations have recognized this and said okay, we need to focus on what we really need to do right now for our customers, and do that. And the other stuff, we'll get to it if it needs to get to. But unfortunately, there's a lot of organizations that have micromanaging managers that were micromanaging before that have completely lost it because they can't physically see you, and they're like, "I don't know how to manage people if I don't know how to see them." So that's why you hear all those horror stories of you need to stay connected on the Zoom call all day with your camera on. I'm like, "Am I six?" [crosstalk 00:35:21] I approach these managers and I'll ask them, "Why do you do that?" "Well, I don't trust them to do their job." "Okay, wait a minute. You don't trust your employees?" "No." "Then fire them. Right now, go." "I can't do that." "Why?" "Well, I need them." "But you don't trust them?" "No." "Then why did you hire them?" It's the managers lack confidence, training, maybe sometimes there's a personality issue, but for the most part it's confidence, a lack of training in how to manage because no one gets the proper training on that or leaders, for that matter. Alyssa Scolari [36:07]: Yeah, and I think it also can be burnout on the manager's end. When you get to the point, and they even say this in the therapy world, when you get to the point where you feel like you can't trust other people and you have to micromanage folks whether it's your clients, whether it's your employees, whatever it is, you need to check yourself. That's a sign right there, we need to step back. Michael Levitt [36:29]: Yeah. It's a thing of ... I implore people. I had great, great bosses earlier in my career and throughout where I engaged with them. And the great ones gave me all the information that I needed, I had all the tools that I needed to do to be successful in the work that I was doing, clear instructions on when I need to do it and when it was due, then they got out of the way. They let me do my job. Alyssa Scolari [36:54]: It's a beautiful thing. Michael Levitt [36:55]: Yeah, and I remember the first day I worked for a company, Rick, one of my bosses back two decades ago, yikes, time flies. But it was 3:30, I remember it vividly. I'm sitting in my cubicle, he comes up, it's my first day, we already chatted earlier in the day and all that stuff, we had lunch and whatnot. And he said, "Okay, just some ground rules." I'm like, "Oh, here it comes." He looks at me and he says, "I don't care when you get here, I don't care when you leave. As long as you get your job done, we're good. You okay with that?" I'm like "Yep, I am." Alyssa Scolari [37:29]: Beautiful. Michael Levitt [37:29]: I worked for him for three years. That was during the dot com era too, when everybody was switching jobs every two months because the recruiters were saying, "I know I just placed you for this job and paying this. Well, we can give you an extra $25,000 if you go over here." Okay, let me grab my knickknacks. Okay, let's go. Because it was just a zoo back then, but you had to take advantage of it. But I didn't when I was there because I'm like no, this is good. This is a good place for me. Alyssa Scolari [38:02]: Sometimes that's priceless, having a good boss. Sometimes you can't put a dollar sign on that. Michael Levitt [38:06]: Nope, it is priceless. It makes you feel like you're being listened to, you're being supported, you get to work in your sweet spot with the things that motivate you and all that. When you do that, work flies by and it doesn't stress you out. Even though you may have busier periods, you may have some big workloads, you come home and you're like okay. Yeah, that was a long day, it was tiring. But you don't feel completely wiped out because well, you enjoy what you do. I think that's a big thing for everybody to look at as well, is rekindle what you enjoy doing. Sometimes I know with people that are burned out, they don't know what they like. They don't know what brings them joy. How do you not know? Well, you got to ask yourself. I know why they don't know because they're completely fatigued and wiped out. So rekindle that- Alyssa Scolari [38:58]: And put everybody else before themselves. Michael Levitt [39:01]: Yes. And self care is not selfish. Although it is, but it's a good selfish, it's- Alyssa Scolari [39:08]: It's a good thing. Michael Levitt [39:10]: ... you got to take care of yourself first because then that way when you do choose to give to people, they're getting a much better version of you than they would before. Alyssa Scolari [39:18]: So much better, so much better. Absolutely, it gives you better connections with everybody at work and personal. Michael Levitt [39:28]: Absolutely. Alyssa Scolari [39:28]: So you have now made ... This is your entire career is burnout prevention and intervention. You have your own podcast, right? Michael Levitt [39:39]: Yes, The Breakfast Leadership Show, yep. Alyssa Scolari [39:42]: The Breakfast Leadership Show. You are a speaker, so I assume you speak basically all over the world. Michael Levitt [39:53]: Yep. Last year, lots of virtual events because of the pandemic. But I spoke at over 30 different conferences last year across the globe. Every industry, you name it, I've spoken with them because burnout doesn't care what industry you're in. You would think yeah okay, healthcare, education, legal, yeah, it's like those are all there. But admins and single parent groups and engineers and automotive, you name it, I spoke at their events. My original career was public accounting, so I was an auditor and I did audits for all different types of businesses, so I'm familiar with most sectors so I can tailor my talk. When I go in and work with organizations, I know some of the struggles that they face because I used to be in those industries in an auditing capacity, so I needed to know what those businesses did and how they did it. So that decades ago career comes back and says hi, remember me? And I said, "Yeah, I'm going to grab the good parts of that and not the long tax season hours. I don't need that again." Alyssa Scolari [40:59]: Right, I'm going to leave that. Michael Levitt [40:59]: Exactly. Alyssa Scolari [41:03]: Then you have two books that are out? Michael Levitt [41:06]: Yeah, I've got a couple of books related to burnout. The first one that I released four years ago, 369 Days: How to Survive a Year of Worst-Case Scenarios chronicles what I talked about earlier, about that year of loss and some of the lessons learned from that. Then my new book Burnout Proof covers what burnout is in greater detail, what are some of the signs, what are some things you can do right away to stop burnout. Because people think burnout is this treadmill that you can't get off of, and you can. You make some simple adjustments. And I will say this, most people don't need to reinvent their life if they're burned out. In my situation I did because of all kinds of other factors and the way that I was living my life. I did have to reinvent myself, but most people that I've encountered don't, they just need to make some adjustments here and there. The deeper work, and you know this in the work that you do, is figuring out why you burned out in the first place because that's important. You don't want to ... Because otherwise you have been burned out two or three times, well I was burned out once and it nearly killed me. So I'm not going there again, I don't want to go to that trip. Alyssa Scolari [42:12]: Yeah, you literally don't have the time to be able to do this again and again and again. Because it only takes one time, but it could end your life. Michael Levitt [42:21]: Exactly, and when you're laying on a procedure bed in the hospital and Dr. [Morrisey 00:42:25] meets you and says, "Hello," and he looks at you and he looks at your chart and he goes, "You don't know how lucky you are to be alive right now." I looked at him, and I was in pretty good spirits at that particular point and I said, "So, you skipped the bedside manner course, did you?" And he laughed and we all laughed, and we thought it was funny. But it's like, I said, "I know where you're going, I get it. I'm really lucky to be here. Okay, good. What do you need to do?" He said, "We're putting two stents in." "Got it." And he did. A nice little quick procedure thankfully, but needless to say it was a very, very important lesson for me to learn, and I don't want anybody to go through that. No one should be laying on a hospital bed to have heart surgery basically when you're that young, because it's not good. You shouldn't do that, so you need to make those adjustments and figure out why you get yourself into the situations you do. Alyssa Scolari [43:26]: Exactly. Michael Levitt [43:28]: Once you do that, then you can make the adjustments on that aspect of it, and then your life will be so much better for you. Alyssa Scolari [43:36]: Yep, absolutely. I do agree that there's definitely an element of deeper work that I think people need to do where it's like, how did I get to this spot in the first place. Michael Levitt [43:46]: Exactly. Alyssa Scolari [43:48]: Both of your books, are they sold on Amazon? Michael Levitt [43:51]: Amazon. You can order them on Barnes and Noble as well if you don't like Amazon, then you can get them through Barnes and Noble as well. If you're in Canada, you can get them through Indigo or Chapters. I know there's a few other places that sell it, too. But those are the ones that people tend to flock to. Alyssa Scolari [44:07]: Perfect, okay. Then I have the links to everybody for the listeners out there because I know this is something that the listeners will really take to. I think burnout is something that a lot of trauma survivors suffer from because we tend to be chronic people pleasers. It's something that I find myself talking about time and time again in my practice, something I've struggled with personally. So I am so thankful that you were able to come on and share your story and hopefully just continue to save lives because it really is what you're doing, trying to save people from what you had to go through. Because not everybody ... We don't have to have a life threatening situation in order to check our burnout. We're trying to get people before it gets to that spot. Michael Levitt [44:59]: Yes, I agree. Prevention is so much better than recovery. Alyssa Scolari [45:02]: Yes. Yes, exactly. Thank you so much for coming on today, it was truly a pleasure. Michael Levitt [45:10]: Thank you, happy to be here. Alyssa Scolari [45:12]: Thank you. Thanks for listening, everyone. For more information please head over to Lightaftertauma.com, or you can also follow us on social media. On Instagram we are @lightaftertrauma and on Twitter it is @lightafterpod. Lastly, please head over to Patreon.com/lightaftertrauma to support our show. We are asking for $5 a month, which is the equivalent to a cup of coffee at Starbucks. So please head on over. Again, that's patreon.com/lightaftertrauma. Thank you, and we appreciate your support.

From the losses that come with entrepreneuralism to losses much more personal, Jason Seiden (@Seiden) of BRNDSTRM knows a thing or two about Grief. He'll be joining us Tuesday 6/22, Wednesday 6/23, and Thursday 6/24 for a special DriveThruHR series on grief and its place in Seiden's (and our) "profersonal" world. On Tuesday, we started with working through an operational definition of grief with Jason:  what does it look like and what is the grieving person's reality and responsibility to themselves and others? In this episode, we'll move into how we can make it safe for the grieving who are walking wounded, a particularly timely topic considering the losses we've experienced over the course of the pandemic. Then Thursday, we'll look at grief, and how collaboration tools and social media can impact the well-being when working through grief.     This is part of our summer growth series, when we look at topics that are tangential and related to the world of work and HR, particularly around well-being, belonging and workplace dignity. We hope you can join us. 

From the losses that come with entrepreneuralism to losses much more personal, Jason Seiden (@Seiden) of BRNDSTRM knows a thing or two about Grief. He'll be joining us Tuesday 6/22, Wednesday 6/23, and Thursday 6/24 for a special DriveThruHR series on grief and its place in Seiden's (and our) "profersonal" world. In this episode, we're going to start with working through an operational definition of grief with Jason:  what does it look like and what is the grieving person's reality and responsibility to themselves and others? On Wednesday, we'll move into how we can make it safe for the grieving who are walking wounded, a particularly timely topic considering the losses we've experienced over the course of the pandemic. Then Thursday, we'll look at grief, and how collaboration tools and social media can impact the well-being when working through grief.   This is part of our summer growth series, when we look at topics that are tangential and related to the world of work and HR, particularly around well-being, belonging and workplace dignity. We hope you can join us. 

Welcome back to this 5 part series on How to Win Friends and Influence People, which is an amazing book by Dale Carnegie.   Today we are going to talk about interaction with others, and how to create and handle influence with others.   Part 1- Techniques in Handling People Don't criticize, condemn or complain. human nature doesn't admit fault people get defensive and resent the critic it takes patience, character and self control “When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic.  We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity" Give honest and sincere appreciation. it brings out the best in someone must be sincere and not motivated flattery is cheap praise and doesn't help long term “I have yet to find the person, however great or exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than he would ever do under a spirit of criticism" Arouse in the other person an eager want. forget your own perspective begin to see others point of view combine your desires with their wants…not manipulation “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own."   Part 2- Six Ways to Make People Like You Become genuinely interested in other people. You've heard the phrase, “you can make more friends in two months by being interested in them, than in two years by making them interested in you." outer world reflects your inner world force yourself to smile always Smile. remembering names makes someone feel valued separates you from everyone else tips for remembering names:  repeat it, ask them to repeat it, repeat it often in conversation, write it down, associate with something about them. Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language. ask questions about them show interest about their interests Be a good listener.  Encourage others to talk about themselves. showing interest expressing they are valuable creates longer conversations and impressions Talk in terms of the other person's interests. golden rule…treat others how you wish to be treated start conversations with personal or interest prior to business Make the other person feel important…and do it sincerely.   These are amazing tips and strategies….REMINDERS…as to how you can Handle your interactions with people and help make a significant impact on others.  Winning Friends and Influencing People in a “Genuine Way” is not just about Making People Like You, its really about making an Impact.  I believe if you will apply these principles everyday, you will create much more Prosperity and Happiness and gain lasting and deep relationships.  We all need to Practice (not just hear) these ideas.   Tomorrow we will talk about the Next Section of the Book (part 3) which covers 12 Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking. Then Thursday we will cover Part 4 on Being a Leader.     Thanks for joining me today on Day 2 of a 5 day Series on How to Win Friends and Influence People.  I'll see you tomorrow (same place) to continue our discussion.   George Wright III

What a week on Bravo TV! Crab cakes for one, charcuterie boards being used as paddles, the return of Summer House in their most GRAND house yet, and Meredith Marks masking up before it was what we all did! We had SO MUCH FUN watching all of our shows this week, and we are so sad that this inaugural season of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is coming to a close! Also, Drew Sidora SECURED her spot as a Peach holder in one swift moment on Real Housewives of Atlanta, & the Dallas ladies take shots on shots on shots of pickle juice with vodka... yep. Then Thursday night, SUMMER HOUSE season 5 premiered, with the cast truly giving it their ALL by completely quarantining together for 6 weeks in a gorgeous new house in the Hamptons, and we enjoyed some Lemon Ice Tea Lover Boy during the premier & recording of this episode! As usual, it wouldn't be a complete pod without our Bravo Tops & Flops of the week (Luke PLEASE SHAVE)!Time Stamps: Intro - 0:00-4:55; RHOA - 4:55-21:04; RHOD - 21:04-36:22; RHOSLC - 36:22-60:36; Summer House - 60:36-76:36; Bravo Tops & Flops - 76:36-84:48Make sure to subscribe to & download the podcast wherever you subscribe, leave us a rating & review on your platform of choice, and follow us at @bravoboyfriends on Instagram & Twitter! Happy listening!

Coming up this week on two all-new episodes of Bat Boys Comedy!  We've got two doozies!  On Tuesday, we'll get our belays on in "Granite Peaks". Then Thursday, we annihilate the competition in "Weapons of Destruction". Be sure to subscribe, so you never miss an episode.  

It's a massive week for Bat Boys Comedy! We're publishing our 50th episode!  That's right, 5 - 0! FIFTY! But first, on Tuesday, we publish our 49th episode: Bootleggin' Bicycles.  Then Thursday, we'll publish our extra-long 50th episode. That's right, as our way of saying thank you to our amazing fans for sticking with us for 50 episodes, we're packing in two episodes worth of laughs. Tune in for a sneak peek at what's coming your way on Bat Boys Comedy!   

Part 1- Techniques in Handling People Don't criticize, condemn or complain. human nature doesn't admit fault people get defensive and resent the critic it takes patience, character and self control “When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic.  We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity" Give honest and sincere appreciation. it brings out the best in someone must be sincere and not motivated flattery is cheap praise and doesn't help long term “I have yet to find the person, however great or exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than he would ever do under a spirit of criticism" Arouse in the other person an eager want. forget your own perspective begin to see others point of view combine your desires with their wants…not manipulation “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own."   Part 2- Six Ways to Make People Like You Become genuinely interested in other people. You've heard the phrase, “you can make more friends in two months by being interested in them, than in two years by making them interested in you." Smile. outer world reflects your inner world force yourself to smile always Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language. remembering names makes someone feel valued separates you from everyone else tips for remembering names:  repeat it, ask them to repeat it, repeat it often in conversation, write it down, associate with something about them. Be a good listener.  Encourage others to talk about themselves. ask questions about them show interest about their interests Talk in terms of the other person's interests. showing interest expressing they are valuable creates longer conversations and impressions Make the other person feel important…and do it sincerely. golden rule…treat others how you wish to be treated start conversations with personal or interest prior to business   These are amazing tips and strategies….REMINDERS…as to how you can Handle your interactions with people and help make a significant impact on others.  Winning Friends and Influencing People in a “Genuine Way” is not just about Making People Like You, its really about making an Impact.  I believe if you will apply these principles everyday, you will create much more Prosperity and Happiness and gain lasting and deep relationships.  We all need to Practice (not just hear) these ideas.   Tomorrow we will talk about the Next Section of the Book (part 3) which covers 12 Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking. Then Thursday we will cover Part 4 on Being a Leader.     Thanks for joining me today on Day 2 of a 5 day Series on How to Win Friends and Influence People.  I'll see you tomorrow (same place) to continue our discussion.   George Wright III

What a week it has been for market volatility. Just Monday, the S&P 500 plummeted 7% at the open, tripping circuit breakers that briefly halted trading at the New York Stock Exchange. Plus global oil markets plunged after the implosion of an alliance between OPEC and Russia caused the worst one-day crash in crude prices in nearly 30 years. Then Thursday, a level-one circuit breaker was triggered yet again minutes into the opening bell after the S&P 500 dropped 7%. In this episode of Retiring Today, Loren Merkle breaks down what a Bear Market is, what you should be considering and why he doesn't see a recession is in the books for 2020.

Last night I had a chance to write the forward of the book, and this one is dedicated to… On today’s episode Russell talks about finally submitting the manuscript of Traffic Secrets so that he can never touch it or change it again. Here are some of the things you will hear about in this episode: Find out why Russell rewrote the entire 2nd section before submitting the final manuscript. Hear the story about why Russell is so passionate about being proud of his work. And find out why Russell is hoping the Traffic Secrets book can help change millions of lives. So listen here to find out how the process of submitting the final manuscript of Traffic Secrets went. ---Transcript--- What’s up everybody/. This is Russell Brunson and we just submitted the Traffic Secrets manuscript. I’m going to tell you that story and a whole bunch more on today’s episode of the Marketing Secrets podcast. Alright everybody, it’s 5:21, and 21 minutes ago we submitted the final, final, final, final manuscript for the Traffic secrets book. The work is finished. I’m not allowed to touch it ever again. And for anyone who’s like, “Cool, I know you’ve been working on it. I thought you submitted the final manuscript a while ago.” I have a problem and the problem is, not perfectionism, but I want to do things right. And I think, I’ve told this story before, but I think this stems back to a conversation I had with my dad when I was like 6 years old. Basically my job was to clean the car, he said, “Go clean the car.” So I went and cleaned the car, came back and said, “Dad, it’s done.” And he’s like, “It’s done?” I’m like, ‘Yeah.” He’s like, I’m like, “Do you want to come see it?” he’s like, ‘Well let me, are you proud of it?” I’m like, “What do you mean?” he’s like, “Are you proud of it?” I’m like, “Um, I don’t know.” He’s like, ‘Well, if you’re proud of it, it’s done.” And I was like, ah crap. I knew that I cut some corners and wasn’t super happy. So I went back in the car, cleaned it way better. Came back and said, “Dad, I’m done.” He said, “Are you proud of it?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “Okay, then you’re done. You’re fine. You can go.” And that was the lesson that always stuck with me. So I think I have that tendency, it’s not perfectionism, it’s just I want to make sure that what I’m creating, what I’m putting my name on, that it matters, that it’s important, that it’s good. So that’s kind of why, that frame is my mindset. So basically before I went to Fiji I submitted the final manuscript, and I was gone for a week. And then the editor, the publishers get it and they have an editor that goes through everything. So the new editor went through everything, and when I got back from Fiji she said, “Here’s the manuscript, go through some edits and you can accept or reject everything.” So we kind of did that and then as we were going through it, so that was I got home Tuesday night. So Wednesday I came and got the manuscript and I was like, ‘This is good. But I want to read it out loud just to make sure it sounds good out loud as well.” So we put together a makeshift thing, set up a stage at the office, and then all day Thursday, all day Friday I read the book to a group of about ten people and we streamed it to everyone who had tickets to Funnel Hacking Live. The first section I was really proud of. I was like, “Boom, proud of it. Let’s go.” And the second section, I was not proud of it. The content was good, but it was clunky, it was hard to get through, it was boring. I even skipped a section, I was like, ‘I don’t even want to read this anymore. I’m bored.” If I am bored this is not good. And then the third section I loved. The third section I’m super proud of, the second section I wasn’t. And I had this sick feeling last weekend because I’m like, I know what it’s going to take to go and rework this whole thing. And I was like, I can’t do it this weekend because this weekend I gotta prepare for Monday, we had the Clickfunnels birthday announcement. So I didn’t touch this that whole weekend. Sunday night I started working on my presentation, Monday all day I did the presentation, I talked about that. We launched the birthday launch, smashing success, then I came Tuesday and I was like, okay, I gotta rewrite section two of the book, which is not a small section. There’s only three sections in the book, it’s like 121 pages. So I took it and I started writing and I spent all day Tuesday, did that deep into the night. Then Wednesday I went and stayed late, in fact, I didn’t even come home Wednesday. I came home Wednesday at like midnight. Then Thursday, which is last night, went in and worked on it, and I left the office last night at 3:30 in the morning. And I almost had it done, except for a couple of sections. Then this morning I came in, finished the last sections, Joy Anderson on my team, she is going crazy doing editing and cleaning things up and getting the images done, just all the stuff with me. And the last step today, handed the last part to her, she spent all day cleaning it up, and at 5:00 it got submitted. And it’s fun because she just went live on Facebook live, I was watching her video, she was talking about, “Who does that?” Most people are like, ‘I’ve read the book, it’s been edited three times over. But I wanted, I didn’t want this to be a good book, I wanted this to be a great book. I don’t want this to be like, “Oh I read the traffic secrets book.” I want them to be like, “Oh my gosh, I read it and I reference it and I look at it over and over and over again.” I want something that sticks, I wanted something that will last beyond me. So that’s why I put so much time and effort and energy into it. But as of right now it’s done. I’m on about three hours of sleep. I’m taking my kids out, we’re going to go play, have some good times, and then I’m going to crash and sleep for as long as my body will allow me to. I’m kidding, as long as my kids will allow me to. And I’ll be back at it for round two tomorrow morning. Anyway, I just wanted to celebrate with you. It’s excited, it’s been hard work, it’s been a long journey. And I’m just grateful for people like you who listen and who care. It’ makes this work worthwhile and fun to do. It’s interesting, as I was writing the dedication last night, I was looking at the dedications for my other books, and the dedication for the Dotcom Secrets book I talk about my mom and my dad and my wife. The Expert Secrets book I talked about Daegan Smith, I talked about all the experts who have positively changed my life. And then I talked about my kids. So for this book, I was look, who is this book dedicated to? And I don’t have the dedication in front of me, you’ll have to wait for until the book comes out to read it, but it was dedicated to you. It was dedicated to the entrepreneurs I’ve been called to serve, my funnel hackers. And you can read what I wrote there, but the basic gist is that because of you this thing I’m so passionate about has a purpose, because you guys take this stuff and you learn it and you implement it, it has meaning. And you know I think so many people struggle in this world because they don’t have meaning, they don’t have purpose, and I’m just grateful that because of you guys, I have a purpose and I have a reason behind all this stuff, and I’m just grateful. So the third book is dedicated to you, my funnel hackers. And I hope that you love it, and I hope that it helps you. It’s called Traffic Secrets, and it’s all about how to get people into your funnels and get the eyeballs to see what you have, what you’re publishing. But the real power is it’s putting your message for your god-given talents out in front of people. If I can help expose more people to what you have to offer, then all the pain and the stress and the agony over the last 18 months since we started the project, will be worth it. I said that, and I said that if this book helps get one new customer to come to you who’s life you can change through the product and services you’ve been given, then it will be worth it. And my goal, well I’ll tell you my goals later, well, I’ll tell you my goal. We’re going to be doing a big launch for this when it goes live, my goal is to sell, well to put it in context, Dotcom Secrets book during launch sold 20,000, Expert Secrets book was like 70 or 75,000, and this one I want to sell a quarter of a million copies during the launch month, and then a million during the first year. So if I can get a million people this book, each person who gets a book is able to get just one new customer, then that’s a million people’s lives who have been changed because of it. Some of you guys are going to use it to affect thousands or tens of thousands or millions of people’s lives. So anyway, that’s why. If anyone wonders why I keep doing, why I stay up late, why I put in the time and effort and energy, why I didn’t just take the last week and a half and focus on the next project, but instead did three all nighters in a row, back to back to back. It’s because I care. I care about the message, I care about you, I care about the people you’re serving, so I’m going to give it my all. And I hope you all take that same kind of passion with the work, the art, the things you’re creating, things you’re putting out there. Because if you do that, then they will last beyond you. And that’s why we do this right? Anyway, with that said, I am going to go get packed up. We’re heading out to going out of town to play with the kids and then I’m going to pass out. So I’m going to go. Thank you guys again for listening, for paying attention, for following along, and once again, grateful for the opportunity to serve you, and hopefully this book will help take your business, your life and your platform to the next level. Alright, good night, talk to you soon. Bye everybody.

Appointment Setting (019) transcript: Steve Butala:                      Steve and Jill, here. Jill DeWit:                            Hello. Steve Butala:                      Welcome to the House Academy Show, entertaining real estate investment talk. I'm Steven Jack Butala. Jill DeWit:                            And I'm Jill DeWit, broadcasting from sunny southern California. Steve Butala:                      Today, Jill and I talk about appointment setting. Jill DeWit:                            Not like your dentist. Not like your doctor. This show's all about when to do appointments around your business. No sorry. Steve Butala:                      Here is my synopsis of appointment setting. Jill DeWit:                            Right. Steve Butala:                      The same thing that motivates a person to set an appointment with you, to come on over to see if they are going to buy their house, is the exact same reason that anyone sets an appointment or walks into a check cashing business. So if you walk into a check cashing business and you hand over your check the vast majority of not everyone on this call is not going to do that. That's not our socioeconomic thing. They want their money right now. If somebody handed you their check and they said okay in three days I will let you know how much money I am going to get, they would walk right out. Jill DeWit:                            I like that. Could you imagine if - that's true they walked in and it's like - Steve Butala:                      Yeah Jill DeWit:                            Yeah come back in three days. Steve Butala:                      And I will let you know how much I am going to give you. Jill DeWit:                            Yeah. I might change my mind especially when you come back and I am like sorry did I say 10%, I'm keeping 20%. Steve Butala:                      Or you walk back in three days and they say, Who are you? Jill DeWit:                            That's awful, what check? Steve Butala:                      Before we get into it lets take a question posted by one of our members on the houseacademy.com online community. Its free. Jill DeWit:                            That's a classic example of you and I off in the corner like in a boring party cracking up - Steve Butala:                      Like what are they talking about? Jill DeWit:                            With light beers in our hand, cause that's all they have and we are still having fun. Steve Butala:                      Yeah. Jill DeWit:                            All right John asked how do you know what properties have mortgages on them. Steve Butala:                      Excellent question. Until recently, you didn't. You had to guess. In fact, if you are going to send out, we have been sending out offers to owners for almost 20 years. More than that actually, but until recently; you just kind of like swung hard and hoped for the best. That's how I play golf. Jill DeWit:                            Yes. Steve Butala:                      You would send everybody an offer and it would come back and then you have to find out [inaudible 00:02:16], so recently with DataTree you can very simply weed out which properties have mortgages and which ones don't, and not only just positive or negative or true or false, how much the mortgages are and what percentage of the current principle as a percentage of the current value. So you know, we send out anything below 70% loan to value: They tend to get a letter from us. Jill DeWit:                            Right Steve Butala:                      There is another model for just sending out mortgage less property, which we also utilize but its not really for this show. It's a great question, a great simple question, very hard, this is one of the reasons I can't stand "driving for dollars" and stuff. Its like you don't know anything about this property. Jill DeWit:                            True, what the situation is, they could have just bought it - Steve Butala:                      So silly. Jill DeWit:                            You really are not even dealing with the owner of the property, which is the bank kind of thing. Steve Butala:                      It's another reason why I cannot stand people who just go buy lists. I just read on our community online somebody was asking. Jill DeWit:                            Really? Steve Butala:                      Somebody was just asking that. I am not ready to join the group. I need a place to buy some cheap lists. Jill DeWit:                            Oh no. Steve Butala:                      I need owner and address that's it - Jill DeWit:                            Sorry. Steve Butala:                      And I'm like man, this is just not how you do this Jill DeWit:                            Not doing it right. Save up your - Steve Butala:                      You are going to waste some much money on mail. Jill DeWit:                            Wait and do it right. Steve Butala:                      Yep. Jill DeWit:                            When I used to do our calls I used to do a lot of inbound sales calls to join Land Academy and I would tell them if they are in this position, it is not the right time. Hey do nothing. You should, even like right now listening to House Academy, be a fly on the wall. Get into our online community for free. See what our members are doing. Listen to the show. You should be doing this for six months to a year sometimes. If that what it takes to get you to save up and be in the right place, you can jump in and do this right. We are not going anywhere. That's the best way to do this. Steve Butala:                      Totally. Jill DeWit:                            Thank you. Steve Butala:                      I just decided that because you and I can't get this straight yet between Land Academy and the House Academy show, we should just call it Hand Academy. Jill DeWit:                            Hand Academy? Steve Butala:                      On both shows. Jill DeWit:                            That's good. House/Hand Academy. Steve Butala:                      House/Hand Academy and then we don't have to worry about it. Jill DeWit:                            Like the [inaudible 00:04:23] Buet family of companies. If you really think about it, you know what that is. Uh-huh. Very cool [inaudible 00:04:28] Steve Butala:                      Today's topic: Appointment setting. This is why you are listening. This is another one of those, just like yesterday, ultra simple, two word concept, that I think in my silly little antidote about check cashing is so overlooked, yet so important. Go ahead Jill I know you have a lot of notes. Jill DeWit:                            So, appointment setting what is this talking about? This is the seller calls you back or you get a sign off her back in the mail, whichever it is, or email; and you now need to get this ball rolling, and you need to get that first appointment to meet with them and start this purchase process. Jill DeWit:                            So what you want to do is (a) do it right then and there. Every time that you are talking to them or leaving a meeting with them you should be planning the next step. So lets just say they called you back and said you know what, my wife and I got your offer three weeks ago, we have been sleeping on it, talking to the kids, nobody wants the house. We are ready to do this, and we do want to start the process. And they usually don't know what it is too. They will ask you what is the next step. You say, you know what thank you very much, when can I come over? I need to get eyes on the house. We need to schedule the inspection and get the purchase agreement from you; and then there you are right there setting that appointment. And why you are at that appointment doing what you need to do, as you are leaving, you need to be setting the next appointment or a follow-up call or whatever it is, you always have to leave them with the next step. So, that's my thing number one. Jill DeWit:                            (2) Appointment setting: Don't let too much time pass. Don't say well they got the inspector coming on a week from Friday, so I'll get with you the Wednesday after that. That's way too long. Steve Butala:                      Right. Jill DeWit:                            You cannot operate like that. This should be another topic on another show that we will do in the future is how to get a good house inspector, and you know it only takes a few, and you figure out who the right guy is, and he loves you too and knows how you operate. Steve Butala:                      Yeah, exactly. Jill DeWit:                            And he knows that when you call you are going to want it within three days man, like 72 hours I have to have this done kind of thing. Time kills deals. We talk about that a lot. So anyway, don't let too much time pass. Jill DeWit:                            (3) Don't miss any of these appointments by the way too. Be real careful, make sure when you say I am going to call you on Tuesday. It's not the day you happen to be on an airplane because you are going to London that day and there is no way you can get to a phone. Be realistic. Look at your phone and make it accurate, put it in your calendar and follow through. Jill DeWit:                            And, finally, when its appropriate, if there is a little bit of time, say the quickest you can get your inspector is on Friday and you are meeting them on Monday and you have called everybody of the three that use and if that's the best that you can do, then I would like you to also do reminders. Like, hey just a reminder do it on Wednesday. I confirmed the inspector. He is going to be there at 9:00 a.m. on Friday. Then Thursday afternoon, one more time, just like, hey just a reminder, he is coming tomorrow. If anything comes up, let me know. I will be available tonight. Just a little something so they know you are there because you are working for them and with them. You want this to go smoothly and easy for them. That's really it too. Jill DeWit:                            I'll finish on this. The whole point of what we are doing here is we are building trust, having communication with them- Steve Butala:                      Establishing trust. Jill DeWit:                            We want them to buy from us, and we want to make this easy for them. Never talk over their head, make this hard, just should be very easy, the inspector is coming, you know and the day and the time and if it's a little old and she is going to be there alone, I want you to be there with them too by the way. Make it that you can show up. You make this whole thing easy for them, so they want to sell to you. Steve Butala:                      I mean there is nothing I can add to that. Jill DeWit:                            Thank you. Steve Butala:                      I just think time is so critical. Jill DeWit:                            It is. Steve Butala:                      We have other members who I do consulting calls with and the real successful ones, the appointment gets set that day. Jill DeWit:                            Yeah. Steve Butala:                      They block out from 3:00 or 4:00 on in their schedule every single day in anticipation for at least two appointments. So it is imperative; and if its not you and your not on the market, you are a little-bit more advanced and you've got somebody representing you, with boots on the ground in that local environment, they need to be available for that. Jill DeWit:                            Right. Steve Butala:                      Completely available. Its imperative. Jill DeWit:                            Exactly. Steve Butala:                      If you let even one day go by- Jill DeWit:                            Their going to pick up the phone. Steve Butala:                      Things could change, yeah. Jill DeWit:                            Once they are warmed up to the thought that they are going to sell their house, if you are not on it, they are going to start shopping and going you know what, I just say that sign on the corner, I'm going to call that guy. Steve Butala:                      Exactly Jill. Hey we know your time is valuable. Thanks for spending some of it with us today. Join us next time for the episode called: Age is no Barrier for a House Investment. Jill DeWit:                            This oughta be good and we answer your questions posted on our online community at houseacademy.com. It is free. Steve Butala:                      You are not alone in your real estate ambition. I wrote that title for me. Jill DeWit:                            For you or for me? Steve Butala:                      For me. Jill DeWit:                            Okay, good. Steve Butala:                      Age is no barrier. Jill DeWit:                            Thank you. I appreciate that. Steve Butala:                      Meaning old people can do this and young people. We have people in their early 20s and we have people in their 80s in our group. Jill DeWit:                            That's true. That will be fun to talk about. Wherever you are listening or wherever you are watching, please subscribe and rate us there. Steve & Jill:                         We are Steve and Jill. Steve Butala:                      Information Jill DeWit:                            And inspiration Steve Butala:                      To buy undervalued property.  

Dan Maduri and Jim Williams guest is the former Fulbright Scholar and award winning journalist Joseph Hammond. He gives the duo the latest on what is going between the United States and Iran.He is based in London and has been reported in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. A frequent guest on both TV and radio on serving as a defense analyst along with his print reporting. Hammond has written for a number of publications including The Economist, U.S. News and World Report, Forbes, Newsweek Middle East Edition, International Business Times, Monocle Magazine to name a few media outlets He worked as Cairo correspondent for Radio Free Europe in 2011. He has also covered the Supreme Court, diplomatic conferences, NATO, The G20 as well as other major events and international conferences. We also touch on the odds on who will be are likely to win, place and show in the two Democratic debates set for Miami this week.Be sure to watch Dan on MSNBC wednesday with Craig Melvin on his 11 am show Wednesday. Then Thursday with Hallie Jackson at 10 am live from Miami. Jim will be reporting for both France 24 and i24 News during the debate.

After finishing book #2, these are my thoughts on weather or not you should actually write a book. On this episode Russell talks about finally completing his Expert Secrets book as he’s about to send it off to the publisher. He also gives some advice on whether or not others who have asked him, should write a book as well. Here is some of the gold you will hear in this episode: Why Russell bought a domain name and paid a publisher 10 years prior to actually writing a book. What some things Russell thinks you need to do in order to write a book. And why taking the time to make sure that you wrote a good book is so important. So listen below to hear Russell’s advice and find out why it’s worth it to write a book. ---Transcript--- Hey everyone, this is Russell again. I hope you guys are doing awesome today. So I apologize that I have not been here for you guys the last three days. I’ve been here in spirit. Hopefully you had a chance to listen to the last 3 episodes. I’ve got some of you guys freaking out in the Facebook group about the last 3 episodes. They’re like, “I cannot believe you actually gave this.” In fact, if you guys aren’t on the Facebook group yet, if you go to projectclickfunnels.com it’ll redirect you to the Facebook group. But we’ve got 40,000 funnel hackers like you hanging out, talking about stuff all day long. So go to projectclickfunnels.com and come join us. But some of you guys are freaking out there like, “Dude, I can’t believe Russell shared that.” So for those of you guys who are paying attention, I’m trying to drop gold bombs all the time. Hopefully the last 3 days have been inspiring for you. If that did anything for you, you’re going to love the Expert Secrets book. Because it’s taking that and going into a lot of depth and it’s so exciting. Anyway, I wanted to let you guys know that I’m pretty much done with the book. What? It’s been every night, so Monday night I was up til 4:30 and then I had to get up at 7, and then Tuesday night I was up til I think about 3, and that night I remember Dylan Jones, we’re racing, I’m trying to get the book done and he’s trying to get the survey element done, which I think it’s done. I think he’s going live today, which is amazing. But we’ve been racing and I told him, “I have this weird feeling, I’ve been drinking a lot of caffeine so I can stay awake. I have this thing where I’m wide awake, but I feel like I don’t have a soul, because I think my body is a asleep, but my brain and my eyes are awake. It’s this weird zombie feeling.” Anyway, I told him that at 2:30 Tuesday night, and at 3 o’clock I hit a wall. So I had to be done after that. And then Wednesday was the next day. Each night I’m getting 3 to 4 hours of sleep, so Wednesday started, luckily I had the day pretty much open so I worked on the book all day, and came home at night and I think I done about, all the days are blending together, I think it was about 2:30 when I went to bed on Wednesday. I pretty much got it for the most part done. And then yesterday I had a bunch of stuff happening. And today’s Friday and I’ve got 2 of these Funnel Fridays which is starting in 15 minutes. If you’re not watching Funnel Fridays go to funnelfriday.com we archive them there, but again, I’m dropping these little gold bombs, gold nuggets for you guys in different places, and if you’re not watching you’re missing out on cool stuff. Each week we build a funnel. We’re building one in 15 minutes from now, which is cool. And then I’ve got decade in a day, so those who join my inner circle, when they first come in we do a thing called Decade in a Day. Basically I spend an hour with you on the phone and we look at your model, figure out what you need to do and point you in the right direction. So I’ve got 5 or 6 of those today in a row, we let everyone who’s in it, listen in. So they listen and hear what everyone else is saying, which is kind of fun. So that’s what’s happening. So today is a full day too. I’ve got probably, I  would say 2 hours left on the book just ot put all the final images in and I’ve got two new chapters I added that are just mini chapters. They’re two pages just to show how this stuff works in different funnels, so I have to write those as well. Then at that point, I have my editor do one last run and my goal is Monday to submit it to the publisher. So Monday I submit it to the publisher, then I’m done. I can’t touch it. I’m not allowed to ever touch it again, which is stressing me out. Then I have to record the audiobook version, which will be happening in a couple of weeks. And then Monday we have our certification event. So we have Certified people coming out Monday. So I’ll be speaking at that. And Monday we’re actually moving to the new office. It’s crazy. The next thirty days are insane. I have three events in the next thirty days. So Monday we move in the office, plus certification, that’s Monday, Tuesday. Then I got Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to plan for the FHAT event, which then we have our FHAT event. Which FHAT is F H A T which stands for Funnel Hack A Thon. So this is a new event we’re going to rolling out, and hopefully it goes well. But we’re taking 30 of our inner circle members through that. So that’s happening the next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Then Thursday and Friday I’m supposed to have the 100k meeting, but I’m going to have to miss it because I can’t get it all done. So I’m missing the 100k meeting, during those two days we’ll be filming the book launch video’s and also the FHAT event videos, to launch those two projects. Then I’ve got a week where I’m trying to do all my presentations for Funnel Hacking Live, and after that we go to Funnel Hacking Live. It’s crazy. And then I have a break for a couple of weeks, then we launch the book. So It’s insane. If I survive the next thirty days it’s going to be pretty amazing. It’s funny because I have people that are like, “Oh, I wrote a book.” I had a guy I was talking to the other day and he’s like, “I have a presentation in March I’m preparing for.” I’m like, a presentation. I was like, “In the next 30 days, I have 17 or 18 presentations that I haven’t started on yet.” I have to get that done in the next 30 days, plus I’m writing a book, plus moving offices, plus there’s a lot of other stuff happening behind the scenes of well. Next week, we’re launching, obviously we launched the podcast funnel last week, which was cool and brought a lot of you guys to our podcast. Next week we’re launching Funnel Graffiti, the week after that we’re launching Funnel Manifesto, and we have all these cool things we’re rolling out. There’s so many fun things happening, I love it. I love Clickfunnels, it makes it so fun and cool to do cool stuff. Anyway, all those things are happening. On top of that trying to be a scout master and a parent and husband and everything else. It’s crazy, but it’s so fun. I’m having the time of my life. This is, I love it. Alright, today I wanted to share one thing, because people keep asking me about the book. “Russell, should I write a book? Should I not write a book?” So what I wanted to share with you guys is my thoughts on that because this is now book number two. I’ve written others, I mean this is my second published book. We’ve got 108 Split tests, which is an awesome book. We’ve got Funnel Stacking, which is an awesome book we’ve done. But this is the second real book. And for me it’s been stressful. The Dotcom Secrets book took me a year and a half to write. And Expert Secrets book turned into that as well, I thought it was gonna be faster. I was like, I will prepare better this time. But no, it still took almost 18 months from beginning to end. It’s funny, my accountant was, which I finally have a good accountant. It’s awesome to have someone who’s awesome. So he’s going through all our stuff and numbers and the end of the year he sent us this report and it’s funny because if you look at the book funnel, we’ve sold almost 100 thousand copies of the Dotcom Secrets book last year. Or maybe since it started, I don’t know, whatever it is. But you look at that and it’s like how much money we make on those funnels. And it’s not a lot. If you look at it, if that was my business was the book, you’d be like, “Oh, wow you made….” I think we netted maybe 100 grand from book sales last year, which depending on who you are could be good or bad. But we sold a lot of books. I averaged a dollar a book, which is horrible. But you look at that, and what was the, from looking at it, was that profitable? No it probably wasn’t. But if you look at it like because of that book, what was created? It became the guidebook, the playbook for people to understand funnels, which got people into Clickfunnels, which got people building, which got people into the certification, which got people to go to live events. It became this tool for so many other things. And the Expert Secrets book is the same thing. My goal is to sell 100 thousand copies during the launch month. I want to sell a million copies. In fact, I’m launching a blog documenting how we sold a million copies of this book because I want to show the process and share with everybody. So the question is, is writing a book worth it? A couple of things, first off I’d say at first it’s not. But there’s a transition point. In fact, I still remember when I actually wrote the book, or decided to write the book, I’d always wanted to. In fact, the reason I bought the domain name Dotcomsecrets originally was because I wanted to buy a book called that. So that was 10 years ago. But I didn’t write a book for 10 years. I think you have to earn a book. Some people write a book really quick. And I don’t think it’s the right timing. But for me, I was sitting at a Carl’s Jr with Chad Woolner, my buddy. We were watching our kids play in a playground and he said to me, “Do you know the difference between you and Brendan Burchard and Tony Robins? There’s only one thing that I really noticed. I feel like your content is as good, if not better. I feel like all these things, the one thing that they have that you don’t have is a book. That’s it.” And I was like, huh. That’s weird because I don’t feel like, there’s some weird perception about a book, whatever that is. So that night I was like, I don’t know how you are, but I financially commit if I’m going to do something. So I went out there and I was like, I need to find someone to help me with this book.  So I found a whole bunch of people and I interviewed a bunch, and spent a whole bunch of money the next day for somebody to be the person. It was Julie Easton, who’s my…..helps me write the book. So I gave her a whole bunch of the money and she became….Now I had, I paid someone, this has to happen. And she was writing every single day. It was like “What’s next? What’s next?” and a year and a half later we had a book. But it was just one of those things. So people always ask me, “Should I write a book? Should I not write a book?” And when all is said and done, I think that you should. I don’t think it should, it shouldn’t be the first thing you do. But it’s something you should do because it is dramatically transformed our positioning, our business, our brand. So I do think it’s worth doing, but not at first, but there’s a time. So I would say to all you guys to do what I did. 10 years before I wrote my book, “I’m going to write a book.” Just declare, “I’m going to write a book. And this is what the title’s going to be and I don’t know what it’s going to be yet.” Because as soon as I had this, I knew the book, I knew….it’s weird because my mind started doing stuff that became the book later.  I had to become something to write the book. We had to have stories and stuff. I don’t know if subconsciously I declared, “I’m going to write a book.” In fact, I even paid Morgan James who did our publishing; I paid him for the book 10 years ago. You could ask him. Every time I saw him for the next year he was like, “So when’s the book coming?” I was like, “It’s coming soon.” But I paid it 10 years prior, I paid the bill for the book. So when the book came out he was li,,e “I never thought you were actually going to write this.” But I had put it out there. I paid money to start it, and then I was doing life but because of that it made me create the book. It made me create the stuff to have that I think that it should be the goal for all you guys to write a book.  Because I think it’s important. I think if I was you guys, I would make sure you write a good book. I’ve had some friends write books that were like, they did this thing where they busted out a book in a weekend and it became a bad book and it didn’t help them, it actually hurt them a lot of times. In fact, I had a guy who I respected a lot, and then I read his book and I lost all respect for him because I was like, “That book made me think you have no idea what you’re talking about.” So I think it’s worth writing a good book. So I’d say if I was you guys, depending on where you’re at in your path say, “I’m going to write a book.” Just make that a thing and even buy a domain name, get the e-cover designed. Be like, “I have a book now, I’m an author. I’m writing a book.” Tell people that, “I’m writing a book.” “What’s it about?” “I don’t know yet, but I’m writing it.” Just to kind of put it out there. And then start becoming who you gotta become to write the book. You have to earn the book. Go out there and if you’re writing a book on weight loss, go get a hundred clients and help them lose a lot of weight so you can understand intimately the process so you when you do write the book, you will a different perspective. When I had the idea for Dotcom Secrets, I had like 4 funnels in the internet marketing niche and the potato gun niche and a couple little things, but I didn’t, I wasn’t worthy of writing that book yet. But because I did that, I started coaching people and started learning and I started to launch my own. We did supplement funnels and weight loss funnels and from that learning and education I learned all the stuff and then I was able to write this book. But if I didn’t have that, this thing out there, who knows if I would have ever written it. And now, the Expert Secrets book is out there and it’s been written out and it’s the next piece. What we’re trying to do with our company and our mission and how we’re trying to effect people, it is a book, it is the thing if I do it right, if I execute it correctly, which I hope I will, it’s going to expand our market and bring us out to the masses and get this main stream. That’s why I feel called to write this book and I’m so proud of it. I said on Snapchat the other day, “After writing this book I almost hate the Dotcom Secrets book.” It was an amazing book, I’m proud of it. But compared to what’s been created here….I’m so excited for people to have this. It’s going to change people and it’s going to cause movements and it’s going to be awesome. With that said, I’ve got Funnel Fridays in 7 minutes. I’ve got to get in here and get started. That’s my thoughts on writing a book. It’s worth the journey and when you’re ready for it, you’ll know and then it will become a transforming piece in your positioning and in your brand and in you as person. That’s what I got for you. Alright guys, I’m out of here. Have a great day. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye everybody.

It's a Special Crossover Event! Jaclyn talks with League of Awkward Unicorns host Deanna Zandt about Anita Hill, the power of truth-telling, sexual harassment then and now, and Shine Squad, the project she co-founded to address the unchecked sexual harassment in social justice workplaces. Then Thursday, catch Jaclyn getting vulnerable about recovering from rape and building a new sexuality, on The League of Awkward Unicorns, the irreverent show about mental health and emotional wellness that Deanna hosts with Alice Bradley. Unscrewed Awkward Unicorns 4 eva! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.