← Digital Social Hour
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- [00:00]
A
You have to put yourself in the other person's shoes. That's probably one of the most important things. Whether it's negotiation, marriage, business. Put yourself in the other person's shoes about what will they want. And then it's like, oh, everything actually becomes. Wouldn't say easy, but simple. What I found over the years is that most people's problems in life come from the fact you're avoiding a hard conversation. And that hard conversation might be around their health, it might be around something in their marriage, it's something in their business, it's something about their finances. And everybody wants to bury those things.
- [00:35]
B
Okay, guys, got someone today that I've known for a while. We met at a Mastermind when I was 21 years old. We got Craig on the show.
- [00:42]
A
Hey, well, good to be here, man.
- [00:43]
B
Yeah. I actually haven't seen you since the Mastermind in person.
- [00:46]
A
No. Been a long time. You know, obviously a lot of things have come up, and I've been all over the place, and you've been here crushing it.
- [00:51]
B
Yeah. You've been doing your thing, going from Canada to Mexico.
- [00:54]
A
That's right.
- [00:55]
B
But you were in Canada when I met you.
- [00:57]
A
Yeah. So originally from Toronto, and then when we met down in Los Angeles, I was still up there.
- [01:02]
B
Got it. And then when did you move to Mexico?
- [01:04]
A
So we moved to Mexico. I met my wife, who's from Vancouver, moved out to Vancouver March 1st of 2020, you know, right before the big Covid. And then we moved to Miami for a bit, and that was when we had another mastermind that we were at. And then we moved back, got married, and then through a series of events, we had to get out of Canada and we moved to Mexico, and that's where we had our kids.
- [01:26]
B
Wow.
- [01:27]
A
Yeah, Three kids down in Mexico.
- [01:28]
B
So they have a Mexican basketball.
- [01:29]
A
Yeah. So I am the. I'm the papa of Mexicanas. Three of them.
- [01:33]
B
And you just. You were there for some time and.
- [01:35]
A
Yeah, we were there back and forth for about three years. We. We had our first kid, and then we were going to move back, and then we found out my wife was pregnant again, so we decided to stay there. And then we were moving back, and we got. I think we found out she was pregnant again right when we were moving back. So we did move back to Vancouver for a bit, and then we went back and had our child in Mexico. You know, there's a bunch of reasons we did that, and we wanted to make sure that A bunch of reasons we did for the first one that were a little Bit different for the last one, we wanted to make sure that all three of them had the Mexican passport. And so just briefly, if you have your child in Mexico, just like if you have your child in the United States or in Canada, you. You have the opportunity to get them the passport of the country they're born in. That's not for every country in the world, but it is for those three and many others.
- [02:23]
B
Interesting.
- [02:24]
A
Yeah. So now my kids have two passports, Mexican and Canadian. And why would I have two passports? It's just an insurance policy, you know, so March of 2020, if you had a Canadian passport, you're restricted from traveling to certain countries, and same with the United States passport. But if you had other passports, you could travel more freely just based on weird rules that they had. Right. And so there's all that sort of stuff. It just gives you a little bit more freedom. And what's the cost, standing in line for a little bit?
- [02:50]
B
Yeah, absolutely. And I bet it paid off during the pandemic.
- [02:53]
A
Yeah, definitely. It made us. We had much more freedom. You know, we like to say that we escaped the broken Canadian healthcare system. It's not perfect by any means. You know, it's free, but it's got its problems. And so we ended up in Cancun, where a friend of mine, a guy named Simon Black, who runs Sovereign man, which is a whole company about second passports, he went and had his first child in Cancun. So I'm a good friend with him. So we moved down there. We were going to use the same doctor, ended up not getting along with that doctor, so we used a different birth center. So we had our kids in Playa del Carmen, the party town. And the care was great. So obviously there's. In Mexico, there's private care, and there's the public care and Mexican private care. I mean, over a million Americans go to Mexico every year for medical care.
- [03:41]
B
Wow.
- [03:41]
A
Yeah. And cheaper. Yeah, it's cheaper. It's faster. In some cases, it's definitely faster for Canadians.
- [03:47]
B
Yeah.
- [03:48]
A
So, you know, so my mom got a knee replacement in Canada, was on the wait list for over a year.
- [03:52]
B
Holy crap.
- [03:52]
A
Yeah. And honestly, she actually got it faster because I knew the doctor, but.
- [03:58]
B
Wow.
- [03:58]
A
You know, it would have been like two years for her to wait to get a knee replacement. So that's a problem with Canadian healthcare. It's not perfect, but it's free. But you wait around forever. And then my wife ended up having an emergency C section in Mexico, and it costs 3,500 US there. You're probably looking at 30 to 60,000 in the United States for a C section.
- [04:16]
B
Yeah. That's crazy.
- [04:18]
A
It is crazy.
- [04:18]
B
Most people can't afford that.
- [04:19]
A
No. And, you know, maybe your insurance covers it. Maybe it covers some of it. But there's a. There's a movie that we watch called the Business of Being Born, and it was by Ricki Lake, of all people, so Ricky Lake, the talk show host. And it was a really great movie. And it's done in 2006, so it's very dated.
- [04:35]
B
But.
- [04:36]
A
But you just see the. There's an industry behind birth. There's a reason why they want to give you medications to induce your labor. They want people in and out. And where we went in Mexico, we stayed two nights. Nobody rushed us out of there. We had these Mexican people are amazing in general, but we've had these excellent Mexican nurses taking care of the kids. We were clueless. It's like, how are they giving us a baby? As most parents feel when they have their child, they get sent home and they have no idea what to do. But they helped us, you know, through the first couple days. And, and then when we were down there, we had. You can get a nanny anywhere, obviously. But we got a couple of wonderful nannies. And so our 4 year old is fluent in Spanish and English. Wow. And I mean, she can flip on like that. She can talk super fast. I can barely understand her now. And it's because our. We've had Spanish speaking nannies every single. Nearly every single day for about nine hours a day. And they speak Spanish to our kids.
- [05:36]
B
That's smart.
- [05:37]
A
Yeah. So it's really cool. And so, you know, you could send your kid to high school Spanish or you could just, you know, have a Spanish speaking nanny like we did.
- [05:46]
B
High school Spanish did not work for me.
- [05:47]
A
No. And. And I could have gotten my Mexican passport. So one of the other benefits to having a child in Mexico is that you get fast tracked for permanent residency. So we are permanent residents of Mexico and we could have been fast tracked for our passports, but like the American passport test, it is really difficult. It's a really difficult test on the history side, but you also have to speak Spanish very well. And with all the things going on in our lives and, you know, learning Spanish at that level just was not in the cards for us. So we have our permanent residency but not our passports, unlike our kids.
- [06:21]
B
Yeah. I think it's smart to have multiple passports these days with all the craziness going on.
- [06:26]
A
Yeah. And there's. It's an insurance Policy that again, has very little downside to it.
- [06:31]
B
I was looking into Dubai before the war, but now I don't know if I'd go there.
- [06:36]
A
Yeah, and, you know, that's one place that I know a bunch of people who have golden visas and, and things like that and setting up your tax residency there. But that's an entire. Like, you can go down the rabbit hole on this because there's something like, there's the five flags theory is like, have your business in one country, have your residence in another country, live in another country, have your citizenship in another country, and, and you're banking in another country and you can go down that rabbit hole. I haven't gone all the way down it. But it is a way that you protect yourself. And there's, you know, these are rules that anybody can leverage. You know, it's not like you have to be rich to get a permanent residency in Mexico. It's just the amount of time that you spend there. And so all of these things, you know, when I post about, you know, escaping the Canadian health care system, I got a lot of hate from people who, you know, are not unlike some of my relatives who didn't understand what we were doing. But, you know, just because you were born in a certain area doesn't make it the greatest. Especially I always love somebody who's never been to any other country, says that their country is the greatest. Well, you've never tried it. You should try some other ones. You know, it's like pizza's your favorite food, but you've never had anything else again. These are rules that are out there. You're playing within the rules and you're leveraging them for your family, for your healthcare, for whatever it is. And so I look at it as a way to take advantage of what is there for us.
- [07:53]
B
Location, freedom.
- [07:54]
A
Exactly.
- [07:55]
B
That's important to me too. You want to be able to work from wherever are in the world, which you've proven you could do. Mexico, Canada.
- [08:01]
A
Yeah, we certainly can. And that's the thing. Like, I have an online business, so I can do that from anywhere in the world. Obviously, if you're a plumber and you go down to Mexico, you're not going to be able to make the income
- [08:10]
B
you are at home. That's the ultimate form of freedom, though.
- [08:12]
A
True.
- [08:12]
B
When you can work from wherever in the world.
- [08:14]
A
Absolutely. And it's been that way. You know, I've been. I sold my first program online when you were, you were probably out of diapers, but, you know, so January 28, 2001 was the day that I sold my, made my first dollar online. And I was just telling one of my coaching clients who I was went and hiked Red Rocks this morning and I told him I sold a word document through PayPal. I didn't have a shopping cart, I didn't have a merchant account. I didn't even know how to make a PDF. It was just something that I sold to somebody who asked me like, because I used to create workout programs and I wrote for Men's Health magazine. So this guy found me and he sent me a message and, and that's the bootstrapping way of doing it. And then I built, you know, websites and newsletters and all that stuff. And so I sold ebooks and had very popular online fitness videos and stuff. And I have tens of millions of views on YouTube. And so I've gone through like each one of the popular things. But all along I've been making money anywhere in the world. I remember the first time, the only time I went to Dubai was 2006, and I remember getting a sale alert while I was sitting on the plane because I was flying from Dubai back to London, England on the way home. And I was like, man, this is just so great. Here I am sitting on a plane in Dubai and the sales are coming in.
- [09:24]
B
Yeah. And that's a beautiful, it's the best feeling, man. I'd rather be able to have that freedom than be confined to one location.
- [09:31]
A
Totally. Because, you know, in, in 2020 we, we saw what happens to people that don't have that and are confined to either a job or to, you know, a single source of income. And a lot of entrepreneurs, they think they have freedom, but they really have a high paying job. Right. Because if they don't show up to work, the business doesn't make money. Like a lot of chiropractors, we work with a lot of chiropractors and small business owners like that. And we had this new guy come in, he's like, if I'm not in here with patience, this company doesn't make money. And I need to escape this. And there is an escape route for everybody. But that's what it's all about. Freedom is we have core values in our family and freedom is one of our five core values because it dictates everything. And we are ready to get up and leave in a moment like we did in late 2001 to get out of Canada because, you know, we didn't get vaccinated. And so in 2021, in Canada, October 31st or November 1st. That year we were no longer allowed to fly on airplanes in Canada. So we left the two days before. And ironically or coincidentally, America made a law on November 8th of 2021 that if you were unvaccinated, you were not allowed to go into America. So we had this like eight day window to get in and then we spent a month there and then we went to Mexico.
- [10:51]
B
Wow.
- [10:51]
A
And then I couldn't come back. I could not come back to the United. I had to drop out of the mastermind because I couldn't go to the events. Wow. Like that was the reason I no longer continue. Yeah. And you know, so my business is based in Denver. I paid, you know, American taxes for about 15 years now because of the business there and Canadian taxes. And then I couldn't go and host my events that I'd been hosting for six years prior to. I couldn't go to the office. I couldn't, I couldn't do any of these things because of those rules. And so, you know, we, but we were, had the foresight, we were looking ahead. We were thinking, okay, what are the. We were paying attention. We don't pay attention to the news on a regular basis. But at that case we had to, we had to figure out what are the rules being opposed upon us and then how can we get around these rules? It's kind of like I think about Tim Ferriss's four hour work week and he talks about how he won the. I think it was kung fu and he won or some sumo wrestling. He won by like getting the person out of bounds. It was like within the rules, but it was kind of like gray area.
- [11:50]
B
Yeah.
- [11:51]
A
You know, and same with some of his tango stuff. And it's like, you know what these rules, they're arbitrary and they change all the time. And so you have to be aware of them because again, ultimately it came down to we were protecting our freedom. Freedom is so important to us. It's why I've done everything in my life up to this point and will continue to do so in the future.
- [12:09]
B
Yeah. As an entrepreneur, I feel like naturally you're playing in that gray area a little bit.
- [12:13]
A
Yeah. And you know, it's definitely not anything illegal. Again, it's all within the rules. But you know, some rules you can take advantage of.
- [12:22]
B
Yeah.
- [12:23]
A
It's kind of like real estate and tax stuff. Like. Yeah. People, they're very rich people who don't pay very much tax because they're following the rules.
- [12:31]
B
Yeah.
- [12:31]
A
And the rules change all the Time. I'm not making the rules, just playing by a lot of playing by them to leverage my life.
- [12:37]
B
Yeah. I pay more in tax than Trump, than Bezos.
- [12:40]
A
Right.
- [12:41]
B
It's crazy. But, you know, Tate doesn't pay any
- [12:44]
A
tax, but there's a way to reduce your tax. Like, I have a lot of friends who move to Puerto Rico. Right. That's another rule that people could take advantage of by moving to Puerto Rico and setting things up according to the rules again. And those rules might change because, you know, 35 years ago, those rules didn't exist.
- [13:01]
B
I've heard mixed things on Puerto Rico.
- [13:03]
A
Yeah. I mean, that, to me, is going
- [13:05]
B
back to what we said about location freedom also.
- [13:07]
A
Yeah. You are in the middle of nowhere.
- [13:09]
B
Yeah. 181 days, I think you got to spend there.
- [13:11]
A
Yeah. And. And obviously, there's some downsides. Like, you probably don't want to end up in a Puerto Rican hospital.
- [13:16]
B
Yeah.
- [13:17]
A
Right. Because I had a friend who wanted to move there, but his wife was pregnant, so.
- [13:21]
B
Oh.
- [13:21]
A
Yeah. You know, But I know a lot of very wealthy people who have homes in Dorado and. And the other compound that I forget, and they like it.
- [13:30]
B
I do want to get out there and film.
- [13:32]
A
Yeah.
- [13:32]
B
What's that neighborhood called?
- [13:34]
A
There's Dorado is one of them. And then I think St. Regis. There's St. Regis, and then there's the Ritz compounds, and I keep on forgetting them. But I have friends who live down there and love it. Like, think it was the best move. Like, do you ever meet Shanda from the Mastermind?
- [13:48]
B
No. I know Logan Paul's out there. Chase Hero, I think is out there.
- [13:51]
A
Yeah. He's been out there forever. Jason Capital is out there still. But this. This girl Shanda is a friend of mine. She moved out there and says it was the greatest move she ever made. She left California. That's a big difference, man.
- [14:03]
B
Well, I do believe, you know, surrounding yourself with a community like that is Right.
- [14:07]
A
There is a lot of other very wealthy, successful people out there.
- [14:10]
B
Well, when you're keeping half your money.
- [14:12]
A
Yes.
- [14:13]
B
50% in America is going to the government.
- [14:15]
A
Yeah.
- [14:16]
B
So if you're keeping that, that helps a lot.
- [14:18]
A
Right. So there's a lot of things you can do, and then it is. It's 180 days, which sounds like a lot, but that's a lot of. You still have, you know, 180 days that you can come back to the United States or spend wherever you want.
- [14:27]
B
Yeah. Yeah. I travel about once a month, so I could probably make it work. If I had to.
- [14:31]
A
There you go.
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B
Yeah, I try not to leave too
- [14:33]
A
much, you know, so there's, It's a great big world. As you know, the guy that I was out with today, he's, he's really big into the snake world. So like, he goes, he, he just got back from Asia chasing pythons. So he has this huge social media following of him, like holding pythons.
- [14:48]
B
And once probably seen him.
- [14:49]
A
Yeah, you probably have. And like, he, he goes around the world on these wildlife adventures and he's like, man, you know, it's, it's really important for people to travel because you get a concept of how great America is. And I, and I absolutely love this country and I love the diversity of the people here, but there is a whole other world out there that you need to experience. But then also realize, like, how good it is in this country.
- [15:12]
B
Absolutely. Yeah. Definitely travel if you're not doing it, guys. So people call you the world's most disciplined man. How did you get that nickname?
- [15:19]
A
So I used to own. Well, yeah, so when I ran the fitness business and I ran this other business called early to Rise, people wondered how I pumped out so much content. And this is obviously way before the days of AI it's like 2011. So I'm probably putting out 2000 words and multiple newsletters per day. And they're like, you must be the most productive man I know. And therefore the logic is if you're productive, you are also disciplined. And you know, this is. I'm certainly not disciplined compared to David Goggins or certainly some of the military. And so, I mean, no offense when, you know, I kind of use that phrase, but I'm actually not the most disciplined man. I'm an undisciplined person who built very effective systems. And what I've realized was through self reflection and introspection, I realized where my most productive time was. I realized what my distractions were. You know, the roadside bombs that would go off that would ruin my day. And I eliminated them. I eliminated those things. And when you eliminate most of your distractions, you're kind of left with nothing to do but the actual good stuff. And then therefore you become productive. And so I became productive. And that then led down to the discipline thing. And so, yeah, I guess it's discipline to me. It's so many things that I do now, you know, exercising daily and getting up, I get up. I've gotten up at 4am or before 4am basically for the last 15 years of my life. Crap. And to me, it's like, who doesn't get up at 4am, right? Because like Dan Martel and Sharon Sirvatsa and Alex Hormozi and you know, Trump would get up at 5am and you know, so most, there's a lot of people who get up before 5am and there's a reason why, because you're ahead of the game, right? You're ahead of the day. Now you have to figure out when you're gonna go to sleep and stuff like that. But you get up and there's nobody really asking for your time. There's emails in your inbox. But if you can ignore that, you have this time of day and there's a lot of writers who write at this time of day who believe that there's a extra creativity element to it. And so you know that you're not going to be distracted. And you if as long as you don't go on your email, as long as you don't go on your phone, as long as you don't turn on the tv, you can get so much done. And so, you know, we were talking about how Russell came into my world. Like he used that formula and then he made this podcast back in 2016 about how he read my book and used my system and he said, I get an eight hour workday done in two hours. Wow. Yeah. He said, first of all, I think this Craig Ballantyne guy is insane because I got up early. But then he tried it and he was like, oh yeah. If you get up and go right to work on your number one task, your hardest thing, when you have the greatest discipline, willpower and intention, as science shows, then you're gonna get so much done. Because if you try and do like, if somebody's trying to write a YouTube script or they're trying to create a course, or they're trying to come up with really brilliant Facebook ads and they're trying to do it 2 o' clock in the afternoon and you know they have people calling them and they're tired from lunch, like you're gonna do a crappy job.
- [18:12]
B
Yeah.
- [18:12]
A
But if you get up in the morning, even at 7 o' clock in the morning, so somebody's like getting up at 7:30. Now if you get up at 7 and you go and attack this thing and you have a bit of a plan from the day before, like you're gonna get all this stuff just flow out of you because you're probably more creative at that time of day and all of a sudden you're gonna be like, oh, my gosh, it's 9 o' clock. And I did more by 9 o' clock today than I did by 5 o' clock yesterday. Because it's about the accomplishment and not the activity. And so you see Alex Hormozi posting about like, it's 4:30am and I'm working. Well, it's not because he can't sleep. It's because he knows that that time of day is where he's crushing it. And same with Dan Martell. He's posting almost every day. Whether it's like 4:05am or 4:30am he's posting about how he's creating at that time of day. And so success leaves clues. Why are all these guys getting up at that time? Because they have so much demanding their attention over the course of the day, all their employees, all these problems that come up, that's the time of day that's protected for them. On the flip side, our friend Joel Marion, he built his business, his Biotrust business from 10pm to 4am and so he's the night owl guy. And everybody thinks being the night owl guy is like super cool. And, you know, working at midnight, that's way harder than getting up first thing in the morning. Because what do you have at night for temptation? You have Netflix. You have, you know, your girlfriend, boyfriend, partner, spouse, whatever. You have pro sports, you have alcohol. People are going out for dinner. Like, I hey, both of them are really about no distraction work time. But in the morning, what distractions do you have? Like, as long as you can get your butt out of bed and focus, you're going to have great progress. At nighttime, you have to protect yourself from all these time bandits and time vampires that are trying to get you. And it's like, usually people are tired and they give in to watching Netflix and the next thing you know, they're like, oh man, I'm just going to go to bed. And those people who try and work at night, you know, it's a year later and they've gotten nowhere. So that's why it's also bad for your health. Yeah, it is bad for your health, being up all night. You know, I grew up in a factory town where people would work the night shift from 11 to 7. And that was not, you know, that ages somebody super fast.
- [20:18]
B
Yeah, they've done studies on, on the
- [20:20]
A
same with this town. Right? Like, you know, people work weird hours and you are much better off getting up early in the morning.
- [20:26]
B
It's just circadian rhythm.
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A
It's just the way the world is built.
- [20:28]
B
Dan, you've inspired me to step it up because I get up at like 9 right now, but I'll push it up a couple hours.
- [20:34]
A
So here's, here's what I recommend is, and this is, you know, it's very hard for the instant results type of people, but I used to have severe anxiety attacks. I'm happy to talk about those. So in 2006, one of the things I realized was I was getting at 7:30 in the morning. Now that's late for me because I'm coming from the personal training world where you usually start at 6. And so when I was able to quit my personal training job, I started getting up at 7:30 in the morning, which is like sleeping in. And I would wake up and I'm a morning person. I like to do everything in the morning. I like to work out, I like to go out, I like to do my work, I like to do a million things. And so at 7:30 in the morning, man, I'm already lost an hour and a half of my morning minimum and I'm already feeling anxiety from it. So I decided that day that I was going to get up at 7:25 tomorrow and I was going to take an extra five minutes before I checked my email because I was doing stupid stuff like rolling over and checking my BlackBerry. A BlackBerry, in case you don't know,
- [21:27]
B
my mom had one.
- [21:28]
A
Okay.
- [21:29]
B
I played around, right?
- [21:30]
A
Exactly. Remember the ball in the middle? Yes, exactly. So I had a BlackBerry and I'd check it immediately. So the next day I got up at 7:25 and I didn't check my phone until 7:35. And I did that for a week to prove to myself I could do it. And then I extended it by five minutes and then the week after that another five minutes. So in three to four months I was getting up at 5:30 in the morning and not checking my email until 9:30. And that was the time in my life I had the greatest breakthroughs in my business. You know, became a millionaire and wow. And just was able to become productive. And that's when I was like, oh, this is a secret. Like it's so simple, but this is a secret. Get up a little bit earlier. And so for somebody who's getting up at 9 or 8 or 7, do not try and go and join the 5am Club tomorrow.
- [22:15]
B
I tried that.
- [22:15]
A
Right. Because you are gonna like the first day you're gonna be like all adrenaline and you're gonna make it. Second day you might get through it as well. And the third day you're like gonna wake up at 11 o' clock and go, this was stupid.
- [22:25]
B
Yeah.
- [22:26]
A
And so it's, you know, maybe 10 to 15 minutes max at a time. But do it for seven days and get acclimatized to it. Then do it, you know, another few minutes and get acclimatized to it. And, and you realize over time and so. Have you ever heard of Neil Strauss?
- [22:40]
B
Yes.
- [22:40]
A
So Neil Strauss wrote the Game and he wrote a book about Motley Crue and all these things. And Neil Strauss was convinced he was a night owl. He's convinced I'm the type of guy, you know, I live in la, I party, I go out, I write like late in the hours. And he switched to becoming a morning person and he goes, I should have done this a long time ago. It's much more effective for my writing. And it's so. It's really just like, it's kind of a growing up thing because, you know, when you go to college and stuff like that, people want to stay up late at night and do work. But when you get into the real world, it just isn't set up for that.
- [23:11]
B
Yeah.
- [23:12]
A
Because the temptations are at night, people expect you. Even still, you know, nine to five are still the work hours. And if you can get ahead of the game and get your stuff done before 9am, you're gonna be so much better. Like, especially for the people that are listening to this who are like starting a side hustle and you think you're gonna do it at 10 o' clock at night, you're gonna find out the hard way that it's, it's just too hard. There's too many other things that you wanna do. So go to bed a little bit earlier, get up the next morning and attack it and you'll have won the day before 9:00. And that's a really good feeling. Especially if you're going through a bit of a losing streak in life.
- [23:46]
B
Yeah, I'm definitely gonna implement that. Cause as someone that wants to have kids soon, I know that's gonna take a lot of time.
- [23:50]
A
So. Yeah, and. And they're going to be on their schedule and you're going to have to get on it too.
- [23:55]
B
Yeah, I'm going to go with the nanny route, I think. I know it's a mixed opinion topic.
- [23:59]
A
Oh, dude. I'll tell you all about the nannies. The, like, if you are a husband and father of a kid, like if you do not get your wife a nanny as the first thing that you get Her. You are insane.
- [24:11]
B
Really?
- [24:11]
A
Yes. Like, because when you buy back her time, you buy back your time because here's what happens. Like so, so the birth process is violent, right? So if you have a natural birth or if you have a C section, the woman is injured, Right? Right. And so the woman needs to recover from that. She also needs to take care of a baby 24 hours a day. Like you can't, you can kind of help, you can bottle feed, you can change some diapers, but you are not, you know, the baby's not interested in you. The baby is interested in mommy. And so my, my wife had to have emergency C section for the first child and therefore a C section for our other children because they were so close together and that you have cut all layers of your abdominal open. So that requires surgery. Not just surgery, sorry, recovery, like weeks of recovery. So she can't like ab crunch out of the bed with the baby and she has to go through a recovery period. So if you don't have a nanny and you don't work at home and your wife, but your wife needs to recover from her surgery, how's that all going to get done? The nanny should be there. So what we did is we got a nanny from 8 to 5. Okay.
- [25:24]
B
And she didn't live there.
- [25:25]
A
No, no, no. We were in Mexico in a gated community and nannies are very common there. So we found somebody through a friend. And so the one lady came from 8 till 5 during the daytime. And if you can't afford a daytime nanny all day long, like at least two 4 hour blocks per week. Because if your, your baby is attached to your wife, she can't shower, she can barely go to the bathroom. Like I've seen products of where there's like a, you can have like here's where you set your baby in the bathroom when you go to the bathroom. Because that's what a lot of women have to deal with. Like they cannot leave the baby alone. It's either that or like I can't take a poop until the baby go has a nap. Right.
- [26:04]
B
So they're glued to the mom.
- [26:05]
A
Right. And so like even if you can like sell your baseball cards or whatever, right, so that you can afford to buy a babysitter slash nanny for your wife to have two 4 hour breaks per week so she can go back to the gym when she's ready so that she can have a shower. She can go and do these things. Like most women before they get pregnant, what do they do? They go to the, they get their lashes done, they get their nails done. They do all these things. They have a life. And now they've gone from having a life to having a baby and no life. And imagine like, you were not allowed to go to the gym, you were not allowed to do like regular Sean stuff for the next 90 days.
- [26:43]
B
That's why they have postpartum.
- [26:44]
A
Right? Man. And so American culture is too hardcore about get back to work. Like sending people back to work after six weeks of having their baby, man, that's not enough. So even if you're going back to work in three months, I still think that's too early.
- [26:59]
B
What is it in Canada?
- [27:01]
A
Oh, man. I mean, in Canada, my friend. My friend who's a guy got three months paternity. Wow. So I don't know what it is for, you know, because Michelle's an entrepreneur too, so she doesn't have like a regular job. I don't know what it is, but it's probably. It might be a year.
- [27:18]
B
Wow.
- [27:18]
A
Yeah. And so there's definitely no forcing them to go back to work. But in America, they force you back to work a little too quickly, I think. And so anyways, back to the nanny. Thing is the nanny, you just. You also need extra hands. And then once the babies get crawling. Oh, my gosh. Like, and so we have three. At one point we had a two and a half year old, a one year old and a newborn. So that's pretty crazy.
- [27:44]
B
So you need two nannies.
- [27:45]
A
Yeah. So currently we have two nannies from 7am to 2pm in our house, and then from 2pm till bedtime, we take care of the kids.
- [27:54]
B
Got it.
- [27:55]
A
And we do that five days a week. And then on weekends we have one person, but for a while we had people from eight to five every day. And then also for the first six weeks, you're going to want somebody overnight because you're going to. Everybody ignores this. I'm like, you need a night nurse or a night nanny or whatever you want to call it. They're like, no, we're good. And then after two weeks, they're like, oh, my God. Like, no sleep. Like, I have a friend who's an entrepreneur in Dubai, and for some reason his baby just would not sleep unless it was sleeping on somebody. So on the chest of the father, on the chest of the mother. They would fly relatives in from the uk, like grandma and cousins and stuff, but the baby would not sleep in the crib. I don't know why. I've had other friends who had to sit upright on a couch with their children for the first six months of their lives because the baby's, like, lungs didn't develop properly or something. And it was like, babies just come with, like, all these weird things, right? Like, none of them are the same. Some of them scream more than others, Some are colicky, whatever, and you have no idea what you're gonna get into. So you, at the very best, are gonna be woken up every two to three hours by screaming, baby, wow. And there's a reason why people, when they want to torture somebody, they play baby screaming over the loudspeaker. Because especially when it's your baby and the baby is screaming and you're like, the baby cannot communicate to you. It's usually like, it's cold, it's poopy, or it's hungry, but sometimes it's something else. And so this goes on for about two weeks. And you're like, dude, I got a business to run. I'm going to buy back my wife's time so that she can get even six hours sleep in a row. Because if she can't imagine not being able to sleep more than two hours for six weeks, you lose it a little bit. Right?
- [29:46]
B
Be bad as a podcast host, My brain wouldn't be functioning right.
- [29:49]
A
Exactly. And so think about your wife. And then, you know, there's lots of tears and it's all very emotional, and there's everything about breastfeeding. Like, you know, because if breastfeeding doesn't work, like, breastfeeding didn't work for my wife's mom with her, and. Or my mom. So we were all bottle fed, and so all of our kids were bottle fed because, you know, my wife wasn't able to breastfeed. But that's really hard on women because it's like, you know, a man not being able to provide for his family, like, sure, it sucks, but you'll be okay. But mentally, yeah, it's like a biological thing. So there's so many things, and if you throw in the fatigue and not being able to live a normal life, even, like, for a couple hours a week, all of this compounds. And then one of the best pieces of advice that I ever got about raising kids and being married was, you can be tired and your wife can be tired, but you cannot be tired at the same time. Because what happens when people are tired? You know, hey, pick up that bottle cap. You know, it's like, it's just a bottle cap, right? But when you're tired and exhausted, you don't have the patience. You don't have the ability to, to temper your emotions, emotional regulation. So it leads to more fights. And then like, then you're gonna go to marriage counseling. So you could spend the money on marriage counseling or you could spend the money on a nanny. And it's much better to have the nanny because in most cases, especially with first child, you have no idea what you're doing in a lot of cases. So. So I'm a big. And it's not a bad thing. It's like, oh, but it's a stranger taking. Well, yeah, but then you send your kids to school at preschool at age 2, like, that's a stranger. Has your kid all day. And so we're not sending our kids to school. We're gonna homeschool our kids because, you know, I see some in our neighborhood, there's a lot of, you know, kids walking down the street and they got, you know, there's this one's attached to the cord to this one, attached to the cord to this one, attached to the cord to this one. And there's like 12 kids with one adult in the preschool. And it's like, is that what I want? No, I don't want that. And you know, I basically run a preschool with my three kids all together anyways. So, you know, we're just going to keep them at home and educate them our way. And I like to say that I, you know, when I come to Vegas here, I don't gamble with my money in casinos. I'm not going to gamble with my kids in public schools because unfortunately, everybody thinks Canada is the safest place. Well, guess what happened last month in Canada. There was a school shooting. Like, I don't, I don't, I don't even know what kind of gun the person had. Like how on earth the guns are banned there. It's very difficult. You can, you can get long guns which are like rifles and shotguns, because hunting is still big. You cannot have a handgun. And I don't know what kind of gun was used by this. I don't know if it's a teenager or a 12 year old or something. And our cleaning ladies that we have in Vancouver, her daughter used to go to the school and she fortunately just moved into our neighborhood. She's like. And it's crazy, right? So there was six people killed and 27 injured in the shooting.
- [32:46]
B
Awful.
- [32:46]
A
And that, you know, most of the time with Canada, you have a superiority complex. Oh, that only happens in America. Well, now it's come home to Canada in a public school and you know, there's a whole bunch of other reasons that only public schools. You know, everybody, every kid gets bullied at public schools. So I'm not going to gamble with my kid going off to a public school. So the nannies then, you know, they are helping, you know, my wife teaches our kids to read, but, you know, the nannies are helping teach the kids to read and read in Spanish and, and, you know, these songs in Spanish. And again, they, they're fluently bilingual in Spanish and they're really like, a couple of them are like parts of our family because they've been with us so much. And it just happened that Vancouver has a large Mexican population, which is kind of surprising. But a lot of Mexicans go to Canada for school because it's easier to get into than America. And then a lot of Mexican men go to Canada for construction. Vancouver specifically, because they're building a lot of stuff up there. So there's a large Mexican population. And so when we moved back, it was like, wow, we can get Mexican nannies for our kids. And Mexican people are just some of the best. Yeah, they're really wonderful people.
- [33:56]
B
Hire a lot of them.
- [33:57]
A
And it's a very family oriented country, which is one of the reasons that we loved it there.
- [34:00]
B
Yeah, yeah, they do good work, man.
- [34:02]
A
Yeah, absolutely.
- [34:03]
B
I hire a lot of Mexicans.
- [34:04]
A
Hardworking. Absolutely.
- [34:06]
B
For the, for my house, whenever I need repairs or roof or anything. They're good at a lot of shit.
- [34:11]
A
Yeah, exactly.
- [34:11]
B
It's impressive.
- [34:12]
A
And they work hard. And so I always laugh when like, you know, like some, you know, privileged white person like me says, oh, I do hard things. Like I do a 30 second cold shower. I'm like, when I lived in Cancun, the Mexican guys would come to work and build a house beside me and with no power tools, right. So they have. They were all cinder block houses and they would get the cinder blocks up to the next level with a rope.
- [34:33]
B
Wow.
- [34:34]
A
You know, a winch. And they would work all day long in jeans and sweatshirts and it's 85 degrees and 90% humidity. And I'm like, I cannot even go outside, you know, and exist in this weather. And they're working out there for 10 hours a day and they live on tacos and a 2 liter bottle of Coke. Like they're just passing around the 2 liter bottles.
- [34:52]
B
Some of them bring beer on the job.
- [34:53]
A
Yeah, man. I mean, they're just, they're just great, man. They're just great. And Mexico's like, you know, I grew up in the 80s and 90s in Canada, where there wasn't real really rules. Right. You know, like you barely had to wear your seat stuff in Mexico, you barely have to wear your seat belt. So it's kind of like going back in to nostalgia like for me growing up, you know, because now there's just so many rules.
- [35:14]
B
Yeah. Other than Mexican nannies, what are some good investments you recommend?
- [35:20]
A
Well, date days or date nights with your wife. Absolutely, man. Buying back your time so that you buy back time with, with your partner. I've, I've spent a lot of time around married entrepreneurs in their houses, you know, coaching people. I've helped people not only save their marriages, but also one of my greatest success stories. I helped a guy who got divorced from his wife get back together with his wife and have another kid.
- [35:48]
B
No way.
- [35:49]
A
He said he's the only guy that's went to the other side and back. And you know what he did? He put more discipline and structure into his life, which is why the marriage kind of fell apart in the first place.
- [35:57]
B
So he let go of his physical health.
- [36:00]
A
He let go his physical health. He got way too much into work, you know, neglected the family. And then, you know that that is one of the molehills that becomes mountains.
- [36:11]
B
That's a common issue with entrepreneurs.
- [36:13]
A
Totally with men. And so the greatest like non monetary investment that my wife and I have ever made in our marriage is having super hard conversations as early and quickly as possible. So if something bothers either of us, I've watched so many people get into these passive aggressive relationships and you know, it's just death by a thousand cuts over time and eventually at least to disintegration of the relationship. But if you attack the problem head on, just like every entrepreneur, like if you have a toxic employee or a person's coming in late and you tolerate that, all of a sudden they're going to think, oh, I come in whenever I want and everyone else is going to go, oh, I come in whenever I want to. And the next thing you know, you have utter chaos in your business. Well, it's the same in your marriage. If somebody's doing something where you feel disrespected, you can't just let that go. You have to say, hey, listen, we need to talk about something. And then we have, we even built in our business for our clients a level 10 difficult conversation framework. You know, starting by making sure that you're framing what the outcome is that you want, putting yourself in their shoes and thinking about how they see the problem, what the objections they are going to have to any proposals that you bring and being able to work through that. Because what I've found over the years is that most people's problems in life come from the fact they're avoiding a hard conversation. And that hard conversation might be around their health, it might be around something in their marriage, it's something in their business, it's something about their finances. And everybody wants to bury those things. And you can kind of bury things for a while, but eventually, it's kind of like when I had my anxiety attacks. I, I, I was behaving, I was being an idiot. I was drinking on the weekends, binge drinking, you know, being a personal trainer during the week. It was hypocritical behavior. And I was like, you know, I didn't have any outlets, like meditation or journaling, and I was just burying my feelings. But when you push things down really hard, what happens is eventually they're going to explode back up in your face as hard as you pushed them down.
- [38:09]
B
Yeah.
- [38:10]
A
So if you have something that's a major problem in your life and you're just pushing it away, and pushing it away eventually is going to blow up in your face so bad that you're not going to be able to repair it 100%. And that breaks my heart because I didn't come from a family where my parents had a strong marriage. And I remember I was 11 years old when I first saw adults hold hands, and I was like, my mind blew up. I was like, what is going on? Your parents like each other. I cannot believe this. And so growing up, I was like, I just, I want to grow up and have a good family. And the coaching business we have is we help, we help entrepreneurs have it all, essentially, you know, build their businesses, but also not at the expense of their family. And one of my friends, you know, he got into these discipline challenges, and it blew up his marriage because he was spending all his time working and then the rest of the time in the discipline challenges and not getting upstairs from his home office to have dinner on time. And you do that, you know, 300 nights of the year, eventually your wife is gonna have a real problem with it. And he threw away this marriage on the outside. I was like, man, you've got it all. You have a great wife. You have, you know, an amazing house. You have three kids, you have a fancy car. And now he sees his kids every two weeks. Like, nothing is worth that to me. So whenever I see somebody's marriage, I just want to, like, fix Their marriage so bad. Because I've seen people who've had really bad marriages fix it because they put intention into it. And as cheesy as it is, start with the five love Languages. Like, people might say, oh, that book is so cheesy, or whatever. That thing works really, really well because it finally shows. You're paying attention, you're having conversations, you're being intentional about it, and then you can. You can turn the ship around. It might take a while, but you can turn it around.
- [39:54]
B
That was a good start for me. Five Love Languages.
- [39:56]
A
It really is.
- [39:56]
B
I figured out my wife and I have different love languages totally.
- [39:59]
A
Almost always.
- [39:59]
B
So I was trying to love her with my language, which is acts of service.
- [40:03]
A
Yeah.
- [40:03]
B
But hers was, I think, physical touch and words of affirmation, which words of affirmation for me is like my least. So I never showed love that way.
- [40:12]
A
Right. Yeah. And that's generally the case, is you think this is how it goes for most people in life in every areas. You think what you like or what you're good at, everybody's good at, or everybody likes, and it's not the way. I mean, that's the great thing about humans, is that they will surprise you all the time with their behaviors and what they like. And you have to put yourself in the other person's shoes. That's probably one of the most important things, whether it's negotiation, marriage, business, you know, creating content. Put yourself in the other person's shoes about what will they want. And then it's like, oh, everything actually becomes, I wouldn't say easy, but simple.
- [40:47]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It definitely helps. Yeah, that's a good one. And then you could get more advanced after that.
- [40:52]
A
Totally, totally. But starting there, there's, you know, another book that I read that was really helpful on the marriage side was the 80, 20 marriage. And one of the things that they had in there, there's a. There's a marriage therapy company called the Gottman Institute. Yeah. And so one of their rules is you need to have 20 positive interactions for every negative interaction.
- [41:12]
B
Wow.
- [41:13]
A
Yeah. I know that's a lot. That's a lot. But you know what? It goes a long way. Like, even if you can hit 10, it's pretty awesome because most people, and I see this in some of my relatives, you know, they don't realize they're speaking so poorly in front of other people to their spouse or. And. And then obviously it's worse in private, and that is just against death by a thousand cuts. You can only insult somebody and Demean somebody so much before they, Even if they just check out of the marriage. Right? Like, you might not separate, but you're checked out of the marriage and it's cold. What's the point? But if you. And I'm not saying, hey, go insult your wife and then be nice to her 20 times, like, you might have to, like, say, hey, honey, I really appreciate if you took the garbage out. You know, I took it out, you know, last night, I'm going away or whatever. Can you take it out? And then you didn't, you know, I really need to do that next time. That's a negative. So now it's like, how can we get 20 positive interactions?
- [42:07]
B
Right?
- [42:07]
A
Honey, I really appreciate this. Hey, you look fantastic. That sort of stuff.
- [42:10]
B
I got to work on that. Yeah, man, I'm not at 20 to 1.
- [42:12]
A
No. And it's, it's again, like the things I compliment my wife on things that she appreciates, but I don't compliment her enough on the things that she really wants compliments on. So, I mean, there's like so many levels to, to the marriage. I mean, marriage is hard work. But everybody that you'll talk to has a great marriage, will talk about how hard they've worked on it, and they will talk to you about times in their marriage where men, it was tough. Some of my greatest best mentors and friends be like, you know, they've definitely talked about separation. But then he's like, man, every single day I just, I just text her like, you know, this little line or a question, how you doing? Can I pick you up something? And it's just like easy little things like that, that, you know, we're so busy we're just going to overlook it. And then we're going to go home and like, hey, I'll have dinner with you or something. They want so much more and they need so much more. And there's, you know, you can build systems into it and everything.
- [43:06]
B
But think about AI automation.
- [43:08]
A
Yeah, right. Yeah. Especially some of these voice callers. Now, I know someone that, hey, this is. It's your husband.
- [43:14]
B
Yeah, no, I know someone that has a auto text every morning.
- [43:17]
A
Well, I mean, hey, you know, I like the personal touch. Personally, but so I used to do these workshops around the world. I did one in London with this guy from Eastern Europe, from Slovenia. And he's pretty big social media guy in Slovenia. But, you know, people from that part of the world, they kind of talk like, Arnold, right. You know, they talk like this, you know, sort of thing, and he Was telling me this really romantic story about how every day I get up and I leave post it note for wife and for children in hidden spots about how much I love them. But he's saying it like he's going to kill you. Right? And it was just, it was. I remember that story because it was so contrarian to like you didn't expect it from the guy from Eastern Europe who spoke like that to do something for his wife. Like leaving hidden post it notes throughout the house so that she would find them when she opens up the cupboard. I love you, honey. When she, when she's making lunch for the kids. And so I try and incorporate stuff like that because and buying little things I buy, obviously buy my wife some expensive things, but buying her the little things, flowers, it means. Yeah, it means my life loves flowers. I bought her Monster Jam tickets for her birthday. She's still not sure how to respond to that. Obviously some other things we try and do fun date days because my wife is super fun. Like I'm the disciplined, kind of structured guy. My wife is like, you know, it's something about opposites attract. Right. She is just super high energy and lots of fun. So we went snowmobiling for a date day. We do all sorts of, you know, those meditation and cold plunge things as date days. And it's just making sure that you're spending quality time with the person and, you know, not being the hardcore entrepreneur all the time.
- [45:00]
B
Yeah. I started doing date nights. I didn't do one for probably five years, bro. I was grinding.
- [45:06]
A
Yeah. And so we hear that all the time from entrepreneurs. Like, I'd like to do more date nights. How often do you do them now? Once a month. How often would you like to do them? Once a week? It's like, well, let's just look at like you're running your schedule here. You got to make the time for. And so the older I get, the more people are talking about date days. Right. Because you know they're going to. For if they're getting up at 4:00 in the morning, you ain't going for an 8:00 dinner. Right. And so they're doing date lunches, date breakfast. You know, my wife and I play tennis once in a while. It's just especially because when we're home with the kids, it's full on with, you know, screaming and, you know, keeping them safe. That's another thing with kids. Like nobody tells you how much of a job it is just to keep them safe.
- [45:48]
B
Yeah.
- [45:48]
A
They're falling in their mouth, putting everything in their mouth, climbing everything. And boys are truly a different level than girls. Like we, you know, we had two girls first and I thought, wow, these girls are got to be just like boys. They're so wild and climbing things. And then the boy is just like three times, you know what the girls were. And so she needs break from that. She spends a lot of time doing that. Even with the nannies, like again, three under three was full time for so many people. And so it's getting her back again because a lot of women lose themselves. You know, there's physical changes, there's lifestyle changes, and you know, there's changes to us as you know, it's like we don't get to work 14 hours a day and you know, obviously we have responsibilities and we help out, but we don't have physical changes unless you kind of let yourself go.
- [46:40]
B
Yeah.
- [46:40]
A
And another thing you have to be careful with is eating your kids food. You know, especially that's how most guys get fat when they come get the dad bought. They just eat their kids food.
- [46:48]
B
Really?
- [46:49]
A
It's like because you go to a restaurant or you like even at dinner, it's like the kids don't eat. They eat like this much. They eat this much food 19 times a day. Right. So they're always eating. There's always food and there's always food left over. And some of it's tempting and some of it's like, oh, I just don't want to be wasteful. And so you end up. That's why a lot of dads end up gaining 5, 10, 15 dad bought. Yeah, because they're just always eating more than they need to because the kids aren't eating it anyways. So you need to have the date nights, you need to have the date days, you need to have the overnights. And the overnights are tough. That's another thing with, with the nannies. It's like this catch 22, you need the nanny. But some women will, you know, the baby just makes them think so differently about other people holding the baby. So there's going to be trust issues with the nanny sometimes. Like you could be like, hey, we need a nanny. And she'll be like, yes, we need a nanny. And then you bring the nanny and it's like, I'm not giving the baby to the nanny. And you're like, what? Right, because it's not rational. Yeah, but you and I don't understand because we are not a mother. We did not carry the baby for nine months and so we don't have the same relationship.
- [48:01]
B
We have an emotional connection.
- [48:02]
A
Yeah. I mean, it's another world. And so anyways, she needs that time. You need to get back on giving her the opportunity to do the things that she used to do and just have fun, you know, because that's where a lot of people lose it is. Especially once the kids get older and, you know, they hit 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. The biggest complaint that I hear about most people in their marriage is I'm an Uber driver. I'm an Uber driver for this kid. My wife's an Uber driver for this kid. Because this one's playing tennis and this one has swim. So we see each other and we're like two ships passing in the night now. We're roommates. And if your marriage hits roommates level, that's when you're in trouble, right? Yeah, that's bad. Yeah. And you're. Oh, I'll just sleep in the other room tonight. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's almost over. Almost over. But very common, especially because you get so busy taking care of the kids. So you have to be proactive. And if you can't do a date every week, then a date away, like an overnight trip away every month is
- [49:00]
B
the staycation every couple months.
- [49:02]
A
Yeah. Doing the staycations are super. Especially down here. We are in Vancouver with Whistler. Like we do staycations all the time. Sometimes we'll be like 15 minutes away from home at a nice hotel in Vancouver, knowing that we can go home at any moment. Because again, like being away from your kids for the first time for the mom is very challenging. Like for the first, it was more than three years. The only time Michelle was away from the, from the kids was to have another kid.
- [49:30]
B
Wow. Yeah.
- [49:30]
A
That was the only night she slept out of the house.
- [49:32]
B
Holy crap.
- [49:33]
A
I had a couple of work trips and, you know, I really, I don't like taking them anymore because I just love my kids so much and we love spending time with them. But for her, I believe it was Christmas time. We went to There's a nice Rosewood in Vancouver. We went and stayed there for the night and we left at four and we came home at eight o' clock the next morning. That was the first time she'd slept in a different house. Right. Because not even a full day. No, but she's. Because she's the mommy and it's a different level.
- [50:03]
B
You also believe men over the age of 30 should not watch sports.
- [50:07]
A
Yeah, this is. I get a lot of flat.
- [50:08]
B
That's A hot take.
- [50:09]
A
Yeah, man. So I remember the moment I realized sports were robbing me of things. I was in a hotel room in Denver. I was a road warrior for a long time. And so I was splitting my time between Toronto and Denver and I went in and I had something very important to get ready for on a Monday morning. And I walk in the hotel and I turn on the football, right? I turn on the packers game or something and like I just go like a zombie into the tv. And if I ever watch like a hockey game on tv, like my wife's like, hello, are you in? Like, I just get so sucked into it. And I blinked and it was five o' clock and I'm like, oh, my gosh, I didn't get anything done on this important thing. And I believe, like, you hit 30, you're older than most of the, a lot of players in the league now. You're watching like somebody else's kids play sports. And the reason why I'm so hard on it is because most people are not accomplishing what they want. You know, they might be overweight, they are not getting ahead in their career. They want to do something, they want to achieve something, and they feel like they don't have time for it. But they spend so much time on pro sports. And so it's the obsession with pro sports, it's a fantasy football, the March Madness brackets, all of these things where you know so much about the players, you know so much. And I'm talking to a guy who used to sell jerseys, right? You know so much about it. But what do you know about your wife's love languages? What do you know about how to get ahead in life? What do you know about AI and how it's going to take your job and then you're going up in a whole world of hurt. Like, what are you doing about these things that really matter? And we are being distracted by sports, mostly NFL, you know, it's like, it's like the NFL and then there's everything else. And when you watch a game or you spend six hours on a Sunday sitting in front of the tv, you don't get ahead. You get fatter, you get broker. Sports, gambling, that's another level of what it's doing to young men.
- [51:57]
B
Degeneracy.
- [51:58]
A
Oh, man. Like, it is totally bankrupting young men and putting them in such a hard spot. And it's like, hey, listen, I love the games. I, I am inspired by the athletes and I can, I can think that LeBron James is an absolute world class Specimen. But I don't need to know what he did last night. I don't need to check the sports scores first thing in the morning. I don't need to know who's in the playoffs. Because, you know, most people. If I said to you five years ago, who was in the Super Bowl? I don't know. But did you spend, you know, 12 hours that day watching the Super bowl and probably 15 hours that week watching TV shows about the Super Bowl? That's probably one of the second worst thing after the sports. Gambling is how sports have become a soap opera. You got to go and watch, like some guy who played 20 years ago, talk about the game that's coming up in two weeks, and you got to check in, like that's. You gotta draw the line. Yeah.
- [52:48]
B
A lot of athletes have pods now, too.
- [52:49]
A
Yeah. And it's just insane. It's amount of information that is not getting you ahead. And so I challenge the guys, like, take a break from it. And most people will. Most. Most people's biggest comeback to me is like, oh, you got picked last. Right. That's. That's what people will post on my comments.
- [53:06]
B
You weren't athletic.
- [53:07]
A
Right. I'm like, okay, all right. I only. I want to argue with you. I wasn't picked last, but I won't argue with you. And the people who actually say, you know what? I gave up sports, man, I just feel so much better because you're putting so much of your identity and your glory in the hands of people you'll never meet. Never meet. And they're not from your town. They just got picked for this team. It's a business. It's really a massive business. Especially again, the NFL is like, it's like 18 million people watching the NFL game and then 1 million people watch an NBA game. Like, there's nothing in between. Like, the NFL is just so dominant in terms. Because I was looking it up for like some stats for my reels and stuff like that.
- [53:48]
B
I didn't know that. That's crazy.
- [53:49]
A
It is unbelievable how much the NFL dominates against every other sport in terms of viewership. But then again, there's fewer games and there's, you know, there's other factors into it, but, man, it's just wild. And like, how. Also wild how young people are so into Formula One. Yeah. It's really weird to see the stats, but I would just say, like, you can enjoy the game. You can watch it casually. You can watch it if it's a family bonding experience.
- [54:14]
B
Right.
- [54:15]
A
But if you're watching it home alone for hours and hours. And actually one of the other reasons they'll say that, like, we had a coaching client who was not getting to bed on time, which meant he was waking up late, which meant he was getting in fights with his wife because they co owned the business and the business was moving ahead. Why? Because he had to stay up and watch Golden State Warrior games. Like why? Yeah, right. So like just turn the game off and get to bed on time. Maybe watch a little bit on the weekend.
- [54:41]
B
Yeah.
- [54:41]
A
Go to a game live. It's, you know, great experience. I get it. But don't get obsessed with pro sports and be okay with leaving it behind because you'll find you're not really missing it. And sure it's inspiring. But Elon, sending rockets into space, like all the time, that's inspiring. There's many other ways to be inspired by things. So I have to go with the extreme in order to get people to go, okay, maybe I'll cut back by half. That's what I'm looking for. It's the same with getting up at 4am I don't want everybody to get up at 4am because then you're going to start bugging me. I want my alone time. I don't expect you get up at 4am, but if you go from 9 to 8:30, it'll move the needle in your life and you're not going to miss out on anything.
- [55:23]
B
Yeah, move the goalposts a little bit.
- [55:24]
A
Yeah, exactly.
- [55:25]
B
Well, Craig, this was great, man. Where could people find you and potentially become.
- [55:27]
A
Yeah, hit me up on Instagram at real Craig Valentine. And you know what? Hardly anybody emails me because I made rules. So if somebody wants to ask me a question, email me at craig@craig valentine.com Respect.
- [55:38]
B
Thanks. Yeah, man, that was fun.
- [55:39]
A
That was good.
- [55:40]
B
Yeah, check them out, guys. Peace. Thanks for staying all the way to the end, guys. It means a lot to me.
- [55:44]
A
If you could please leave a review
- [55:45]
B
on Apple that helps us climb the charts, it helps us get way more guests, and it helps us continue growing the podcast and the team. So it would mean a lot to me if you left a review on Apple or wherever else you're listening. Thanks so much.