A (12:05)

NetSuite is a success story Partner now what does the future hold for business? If you ask nine experts, you're going to get 10 answers.

B (12:12)

Bull market.

A (12:13)

Bear market Rates will rise. Rates will fall. Honestly, I just wish somebody could invent a crystal ball. But until then, over 41,000 businesses have future proofed their business with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud ERP, bringing accounting, financial management, inventory and HR into one fluid platform. With real time insights and forecasting, you're peering into the future with actionable data. And when you're closing the books in days, not weeks, you're spending less time looking backwards and more time on what's next. If I had needed this product, this is what I'd use. Whether your company is earning millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and seize your biggest opportunities. And speaking of opportunity, download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at netsuite.com ScottClary the guide is free to you at netsuite.com Scottclary netsuite.com Scottclay Shipstation.

B (13:11)

Is a success story Partner. Now you know what's chaotic. Last week during one of my interviews, my guest dog knocked over their mic stand. My Internet crashed mid recording. I spilled coffee all over my notes. It was not a great interview. But speaking of handling chaos well, that same guest told me something fascinating about.

A (13:30)

Their business after we stopped recording.

B (13:32)

Life can be unpredictable. But a large component of their business is E commerce fulfillment. And that is a whole different level of chaos. Unless you're using Shipstation. They told me that since switching to Shipstation, They've saved around 15 hours every single week by shipping from all of their stores with one login. The automation is incredible. One click and their labels are printed. And what really impressed me most, it is a massive business that they run is how it scaled their business. They doubled their order counts last quarter. Shipstation handled it without a hiccup. And the shipping discounts, They've nearly saved 88% on USPS and UPS rates to shipstation.com and use code success story. Sign up for your free trial. That's shipstation.com code success story and this minimum viable approach, it also reveals some very important truths. Some habits and naturally trigger other positive behaviors. And Franklin understood this when he structured his virtues to reinforce each other. This is where the idea of the keystone habit comes in. Because not all habits are created equal. Some habits naturally trigger positive behavior. Now, Franklin's virtue practice, it works so well, partly because it was a keystone habit that improved everything else in his life. So one well chosen habit, it really can transform multiple areas of your life simultaneously. Now, for many people, exercise is their keystone habit. When they work out consistently, they naturally make better food choices. They sleep better, they feel more confident, they think more clearly. Now, for entrepreneurs, maybe a morning routine becomes your keystone habit. It means you wake up early, more time for work review. Priorities means better decision making throughout the day. If you exercise or meditate, you get improved mental clarity. And if you eat a healthy breakfast, you have sustained energy. Great morning routine. That's a keystone habit. The key is to identifying which single habit would create the most positive ripple effects in your life. So Franklin's daily virtue reflection was a keystone habit because it improved his decision making in every other area. By constantly asking, what would a virtuous person do? He naturally made better choices about work, about relationships, about health, about personal development. So you have to ask yourself, what's one change that would naturally lead to other improvements? I gave you two examples, but just start. There's. And once you've identified your keystone habit and built momentum with the minimum Viable consistency towards your keystone habit. You're ready for the deeper transformation which is identity based change. Now, what Franklin really understood was that he wasn't trying to do virtuous things, he was trying to become a virtuous person. And the fastest way to change your habits is to change how you see yourself. So when your habits start to align with your identity, they become effortless when they fight against each other. Meaning your identity is one thing and your habits are another. That's when you need this constant willpower. Because the person who sees themselves as someone who exercises doesn't need motivation to work out. Exercise is just what they do. It's like brushing their teeth. The person who sees themselves as someone who creates doesn't struggle to sit down and write. Creation is how they process the world. So instead of saying, I want to exercise more, you have to start saying, I am somebody who moves their body daily. Instead of saying, I want to eat healthier, you have to start saying, I am someone who nourishes their body with quality food. And every action that aligns with your chosen identity makes it stronger. Every action that goes against it makes it weaker. And this is why the system is so powerful. The daily check in the minimum viable. It wasn't just tracking behavior, it was reinforcing identity. So in Ben Franklin's example, he was basically daily reinforcing the identity of someone who actively practices these 13 virtues. His identity turned into, I am the type of person who practices temperance. I am the type of person who works hard. But identity doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's always shaped by powerful forces. So you can do as much as you possibly can do to have the identity that is synonymous with your habits and vice versa. But there are two very powerful forces that shape that are external forces that shape your identity and shape your habits, your physical environment and your social environment. And if you do not manage these, it will be very hard for you to adopt the habits that will eventually become your identity. Because if we go through these two powerful forces, physical and social environment shapes your behavior, sometimes even more than your intentions do. If your phone is next to your bed, you're going to check it first thing in the morning. If healthy snacks are visible and there's no junk food in the house, you're going to eat better. If your workout clothes are laid out at night, you're more likely to exercise in the morning. You have to structure your entire day around the habits that you want to actively pursue and eventually turn into your identity. Franklin understood this instinctively. He structured his entire day around his virtue practice, from his morning routine to his evening reflection. So you have to make good habits obvious and bad habits invisible. Now, James Clear, he's the author of Atomic Habits, probably one of the most prolific thought leaders on habits. He calls this environment design. But I like to think of this a little bit differently. I like to call it choice architecture. So you are designing your physical space to make good decisions automatic and bad decisions difficult. That's all it is. It's very simple. But many people don't do it. So I'll give you a couple examples of what this looks like. If you want to build creative habits, just keep a notebook and pen visible at all times. You can close all the browser tabs so you're not distracted, except for the piece that you're working on or the work that you're actively engaged in. And if you are trying to enter flow state and be creative, put your phone in another room. Do not disturb while you work. If you're trying to build health habits, so prepare your workout clothes the night before. Keep your water bottle filled visible so you're always hydrated. Put the healthy snacks at eye level in your fridge. Or even better, only have healthy snacks in your fridge. And if you want to build a learning habit, keep books in places where you normally hang out so you don't turn on the TV at night. You can download some educational podcasts for your commute. Or if you're going to jump on a plane and then set up a dedicated spot in your condo in your house where you can just learn. Listen to a podcast, read a book with minimal distraction. The goal with any of these ideas is to reduce the friction for good habits while increasing the friction for bad ones. When good choices become easier than bad choices, willpower becomes irrelevant. Your environment does the heavy lifting. It leaves your brain free to focus on what matters most. But your physical environment, like I mentioned, is only half the equation. The people around you shape your habits just as powerfully. Because humans are social creatures, we unconsciously adopt the habits of the people that we spend time with. You've heard the saying you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. It's true. If your friends complain constantly, you're going to become more negative. If your colleagues work late every night, you're going to feel that pressure to do the same. If your family has poor health habits, you're really going to struggle to find and maintain good ones. Your social environment is your destiny. So let me get this straight as well. It's not about cutting off everyone who doesn't perfectly align with your goals. It's about being intentional about influence. I want you to surround yourself with people whose habits you want to adopt. Join communities of people who are already living the way you want to live. Online or offline, formal or informal. The medium doesn't matter. What matters is the consistency of exposure. So if you want to build a business, spend time with entrepreneurs. If you want to get in shape, train with people who prioritize fitness. If you want to be more creative, connect with artists, writers, makers, you become who you spend time with. You got to choose wisely. And even if you can't change your immediate social circle, you can be intentional about about whose content you consume, whose books you read, and whose examples you study. Your influences shape your identity. Your identity shapes your habits. Your habits shape your life. And none of these ideas work in a vacuum, right? All this preparation, the minimum viable consistency, the keystone habits, the identity work, the environment, design, the social architecture, it all builds towards the moment that actually matters, that split second when you have to choose. And that's really what this all comes down to. Because every habit comes down to a moment of choice. The alarm goes off, you get up, you hit snooze, finish dinner, do you go for a walk, you turn on Netflix, you sit down at your computer. Do you open up creative work? Or do you check social media? Now, these moments don't feel significant, but they're everything. In that split second, you're not just choosing what to do next, you're choosing who to become. The person who consistently chooses the harder path in small moments builds the strength to choose it in the big moments. But the person who consistently chooses comfort builds the habit of avoiding challenge. Your character is built in the gap between stimulus and response. Viktor Frankl, he understood this when he wrote, between stimulus and response, there is a space. And in that space is our power to choose our response. And in our response lies our growth and our freedom. Now, most people live unconsciously, letting stimulus trigger automatic response. Wake up. Check phone, Feel bored. Scroll social media, feel stressed. Watch tv. Franklin's daily virtue practice was really about expanding this gap, creating space between impulse and action. Training himself to pause and ask, what would a virtuous person do? Right now, living consciously means creating space in that gap and making intentional choices. So the next time you reach for your phone, just pause. Ask yourself, is this moving me toward or away from who I want to become? The next time you skip your planned workout, just pause. Ask yourself, what kind of person am I? Voting to be right now. And these small moments of conscious choice compound into a life that you consciously choose. Just like they did for Franklin, just like they can do for you now. After listening so far, I don't want you to wait until Monday to action some of these ideas. Because you don't need a perfect plan. You don't need to overhaul your life. You just need to make one different choice today. Franklin didn't transform himself overnight. He spent decades building the habits that would define his legacy. But it started with a single decision to track one virtue for one week. The person who exercises for 10 minutes a day is closer to their fitness goal than the person who plans to start a perfect routine next week. The person who writes one paragraph today is closer to becoming a writer than the person who's going to quote, unquote, really focus on it. Once life gets less busy, progress beats perfection. Action beats intention. Your past habits create your current reality, but they don't have to create your future reality. Every moment is a chance to start becoming who you want to be. And the compound effect works both ways. If bad habits have been working against you, good habits can start working for you immediately. If you miss a day, if you miss a week, if you miss a month, and you don't listen to what I'm telling you right now, you might find yourself living someone else's life. But you're always one choice away from living your own. So start making different choices today, right now, with the next choice that you make. Because your future self is waiting. Lingoda is a partner of success story. Look, I'll be real with you. My French used to be solid. I learned it in school. I even had decent pronunciation. But when I booked a trip to France last year, it was a total blank. I could barely order a croissant without sounding like a tourist. So I jumped into the Lingoda Sprint challenge, and, man, it changed everything. I'd take live classes late at night after podcasting. Only five students, max. Real teachers, real conversations. And in just two months, I went from bonjour to holding full conversations at a Paris cafe. Confidence unlocked. Now, here's the play 30 or 60 classes in 60 days. And if you finish them all, you get 50% cash back. That's basically €4 or $5 per class. That's insane value. Go to try.lingoda.com successsprint and then use my code, Scott Sprint for an extra €20 off on top of their current deal. Registration closes May 5th. Classes start May 12th. Let's get fluent. The HubSpot Podcast Network is a success story partner. Now, if you like Success Story, you're going to love other podcasts in the HubSpot podcast network. One of my personal favorites is I Digress, hosted by my boy Troy Sandich. With shows under 30 minutes, I digress helps eliminate complexity, complications and confusion in your business with frameworks and strategies to achieve true, scalable and sustainable success. If you are an entrepreneur building anything you need to listen to I Digress. This is one of the most useful business podcasts you're ever going to subscribe to. Listen to I Digress Wherever you get your podcasts.