June 25, 2025 • 45 mins
I would love to hear from you!
Ondra, a mindset coach and best-selling author, shares his powerful journey from severe social anxiety and depression to building a successful career helping others transform their mindset and social health. From his darkest moments contemplating suicide to discovering personal development through a Google search for "how to be happy," his story demonstrates how intentional community and inner work can change everything.
• Meditation as a consistent practice, from 2-minute sessions to 30-minute deep work
• The entrepreneurial journey described as "wild loops" of extreme highs and lows
• How videos of random acts of kindness became a beacon of light during suicidal thoughts
• Managing stress through present-moment awareness rather than past/future thinking
• Why strong relationships contribute significantly to personal and professional success
• The video game approach to overcoming social anxiety by leveling up gradually
• Shifting from exchanging time for money to exchanging value for money
• Taking care of your mental health first before trying to solve others' problems
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and let us know how it's going. I'd love to see a couple five stars fly up.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Hi everyone.
I'm Nate Shearer, your host,and this is Mindforce, the
podcast.
That's all about love, life andlearning.
Here, your mind matters.
Today we'll be talking aboutmental health, social health and
entrepreneurship.
Let's start with a quickintroduction.
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
Who are you, what do you do andwhy are you here today?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hello, thank you for having me, Nate.
What do you do and why are youhere today?
Hello, thank you for having me,nate.
I am, my name is Ondra.
I am from the Czech Republicoriginally, but now I've been to
about 20 countries as a digitalnomad.
I am a mindset coach, a speaker, a community leader and also a
best-selling author nowadays,and I love talking about
entrepreneurship and socialhealth.
I used to have very bad socialanxiety and kind of went on a
(01:05):
big journey to overcome it, andthat's why I speak about it now.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Awesome.
Okay, we'll start with thewarmup.
First question what's somethingyou do daily that helps keep
you grounded?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Daily I absolutely daily these days meditate, and
usually a few times a day.
Actually.
It can be anywhere from twominute meditation to 20 minutes,
30 minutes, but definitely latedays.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
It's interesting.
It's come up on the show quitea bit.
Can you walk us through how youwent from not meditating to
your initial steps intomeditating?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Absolutely.
I think meditation is such abroad concept these days and
it's very popular.
There's so many different waysand kinds as well.
For me, the meditation journeystarted around when I was 13, 14
years old, and it was the timeswhen I started getting into
personal development and startedbeing like how can I deal with
(01:56):
my emotions and anxiety better?
And I didn't really feel anydifferent.
I didn't feel any effects ofmeditation in the beginning, but
then as I stayed moreconsistent and I tried different
ways, I tried just normalmindfulness and then just
focusing on my breath, and theneventually I settled on guided
meditations and I trieddifferent types of guided
meditations and that startedhelping me a little bit more.
(02:18):
And then I transitioned intoinner body meditations from
Concept of the Power of now byeckhart tolle, and so that kind
of meditation made the mostimpact on me.
So it was like very slow burn.
The beginning was very toughand I started and I quit and I
gave up and then I started again.
I didn't stay consistent.
(02:38):
There was like back and forth,back and forth.
But now, because it's been morethan a decade since I, like,
did my first ever meditation,I'm much more consistent and I
feel the effects much more.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, that makes sense.
It's part of your routine.
Now, it's just second nature.
Do you do any type ofjournaling or writing of any
kind?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yes, absolutely Journaling, not every day these
days.
So it's like the way I look atit.
In the beginning, when I wasreally fighting with my anxiety
and fighting with my depression,I felt like I needed to go more
all in into managing my mindset, into maintaining my mindset,
and so I did all of these.
I did journaling, I didmeditation.
I was running all the time mymind that it automatically kind
(03:22):
of focuses on the positives andfocuses on solutions and what
I'm grateful for and things,what I'm proud of.
So I have.
I don't have to have this, Idon't have to be as brutal with
it, but I just do more of amaintain.
I just do maintain practices.
Every few days.
I journal about what I'mgrateful for, journal about what
I'm proud of, I refocus onsolutions and things like that
(03:43):
and my mind kind of works.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
It's, it's magic already that's interesting, yeah
, very reoccurring.
Uh, writing, journaling andmeditation are definitely up
there on themes that comethrough from the different
guests and whatnot.
A next question if you coulddescribe your entrepreneurial
journey in one word, wild andwhy it's been.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I've been through many cycles, let's say, or, or
loops where it starts to goreally well, it's like, oh my
god, this is so amazing, I lovethis.
Or if everything's going towork out and something just
happens, like you start goingdown, like no, and you kind of
watch it burn and you watchthose stuff slow down, and then
you go through the bottom of theloop, like should I even you
know try again?
Like should I even continue?
Like what's even the point?
(04:29):
Maybe I should just go back toa job.
You know like this is nevergonna work.
And you come out of of it andyou're like, oh my god, this is
amazing, again, right, and yougo through the loop.
And I've been.
I've been in business for aboutfive years now and two or two
and a half of those years havebeen full time.
So I've been through many ofthose loops and every single
loop just gets wild, both on thetop of like getting flown out
(04:51):
to different countries to be togo on a business meeting and
getting sponsored, and and then,oh my god, all of my clients
are like kind of leaving and youknow they can't pay, so how am
I going to pay my bills and then.
So I've been through very highhighs and very low lows as well
what do you think that thatcycle or that loop has taught
you?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
what's the the big lesson if someone's in one of
those different phases?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I'm, always changes and the only thing that stays
the same is, like your internalspace, and that's why meditation
, I think, is such a reoccurringthing as well for you and other
guests, because everything elseoutside is unstable and
uncertain and it will alwayschange.
But maintaining your own innerspace, your own inner peace and
your stability and certaintywithin through journaling,
(05:36):
through meditation, throughthese mindful practices, that's
how you can stay sane and makesure that you keep going through
the loops.
And everything outside might behappening, but internally
you're like, ok, this will pass,I'll make it through and it
will be amazing again.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah, that's a good reminder.
Got to have some type of solidrocks, a little bit of
foundation inside yourself,because outside, like you said,
everything is just going to keepon moving, keep on changing.
So you got to have something atyour core.
And the last question, thewarmup what's a social
interaction or connection thathas had a lasting impact on you?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
My first thought is like oh my God, which one do I
pick?
There have been many that made abig lasting impact In terms of
personally, I think the biggestone, right in the very almost
the beginning of my life, waswhile I was still really dealing
with bad depression and anxietyand suicidal thoughts as well,
(06:30):
I found a friend who from theoutside it seemed like she had
an amazing life and she was likethe popular girl in school and
everybody loved her and all ofthis.
And behind closed doors she gotreally beaten up and abused by
her dad and because I wasgetting bullied and I was kind
of hiding that right, I was likepretending everything is okay
(06:50):
from the outside but in reallife I was suffering.
It was similar for her, andwhen we became friends and we
became more comfortable witheach other, we started sharing
and kind of consolidated in eachother in a way and we helped
each other make that sufferingeasier, and so that was
definitely a big one.
That probably changed the thecourse of my life, hey, in a
(07:13):
very positive way yeah, that's agood one.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I think that's a really good point behind the
show and thing that I try tolike push on.
Like these conversations I getasked like you know, what do you
think the point of the show is?
Or you know, why did you startthe show and different things
like that.
And my thought is, stories likestories connect us, and so I
think a lot of times that's whatends up happening.
You have something that happensto you and you think it's
difficult and, for whateverreason, we kind of go inward and
(07:38):
we isolate and we think, oh,I'm the only one that's has ever
happened to.
You're definitely not the onlyperson.
There's hardly anything in thisworld that no one else has ever
experienced before.
And so, hopefully, you know thestories we share, the you know
the fun or the jokes or thelaughs or whatever it is like
resonates with somebody and like, hey, I can get through it or
(07:58):
someone else is going through itand you know I can, I can push
on, and so, yeah, I think that'sawesome that you said that.
Like we all try to hide it andkind of push it down and push it
down deep, unfortunately, butwe've all had bad days and even
if it's not the same.
I think it's another thing.
There's so many parallels whereit's like, ok, I haven't been
through that exact thing, but itdoesn't mean I can't sit with
(08:18):
you and you know, empathize andconnect and be like, hey, we can
get through this, even thoughit's different.
You don't want to say likeyou've been through everything
and I know how to fix it, butbeing able to sit in the space
with somebody is super important.
Well, before we start on thethree main pillars, I wanted to
know if you had a question forme.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I think my question would be what is a relation?
I'll use the same question.
It's a great question what is arelationship or interaction
that made a lasting impact onyou?
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Oh lasting impact.
I think I would say it was withmy mom, and I don't know if you
can do that because I'm surethat's probably a cop out, but I
just feel like the relationshipand the dynamic for my mom and
me is just super unique.
My dad was Evan, went through abunch of different I don't know
.
He had a bunch of troubles andwhatnot, so he'd punch holes in
(09:09):
walls and, you know, had a lotof different things going on.
So me and her, the way that wewould navigate life and how it
was kind of us against the world.
We lived in small apartmentswith my grandparents and hand me
down clothes and and just thatrelationship.
It's just so hard to showsomeone else.
So I have another two siblingsafter that and they don't have
that same kind of connectionthat we had because it was just
me and her, and so it's alwaysone of those things that's been
really difficult for me todemonstrate or to show, like how
(09:31):
strong and how different it is.
It's not that our relationshipis better than theirs or
whatever, like that's not theintent.
It's just different when it'syou and you know another person
trying to just get through it.
Like I think of we were kind ofjoking the other day about like
chores in the family here.
You know, like we pay the kids,you know, six $7 for their
chores and I remember, you know,going through and cleaning up
(09:52):
the house and helping out withstuff because we had to.
It was either she picked it upor I picked it up, like there is
no other option there's.
I'm not going to ask for money,I'm not gonna, you know, want
more.
And so I remember going tostores and things like that and
I'm sure I would ask for thingsfrom time to time, but I knew we
just didn't have much.
So it's just interesting howthe dynamic is so much different
in that relationship space whenit's a different dynamic.
(10:14):
So I say, yeah, definitelylasting.
It's kind of guided my life andchanged things.
I kind of from the verybeginning, like one story I
don't think I've actually sharedit, which is kind of odd but
when I got my tonsils out as akid, I lived in this one, you
know, this little one bedroomapartment and all I could do was
watch cartoons, because youknow you're all on drugs and
your throat hurts and all youcan do is really eat popsicles.
(10:35):
And we only had one TV, onesmall TV that was on the
opposite thing, opposite, youknow, floor of the apartment
from the bedroom.
So I remember my mom you knowshe's pretty tiny, she's trying
to drag this giant mattress downin front of the TV so I could
watch TV, eat popsicles and vegout.
And just her struggling andmanhandling this, this mattress,
(10:56):
to get it in appropriate placefor me to recover, and whatnot,
was just one of those thingsthat I I remember forever.
Yeah, that's what I would say,me and my mom against the world.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, thanks for sharing.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Awesome, yeah yeah.
Your first main pillar ismental health.
So how has mental healthinfluenced your journey as an
entrepreneur Massively?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
from both like balancing my own mental health,
but also like the reason why Istarted all of my business
journeys was because of mentalhealth and helping other people
with mental health.
So, as I mentioned before, Ihad severe social anxiety and
depression myself and got to thepoint where I almost jumped in
front of a train to end it all,and the friendship that I
(11:39):
mentioned earlier was a big partof me coming out of it.
And then another big part was IGoogled how to be happy and I
got introduced into personaldevelopment and learning
psychology by myself when I wasstill a very young kid, at 13.
And the reason why I had to dothat was because, being from a
small town in the Czech Republic, the mindset about mental
health was like that doesn'texist.
(11:59):
Don't be a little bitch, justget over it, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Whatever so I didn't yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So I didn't have the opportunity to go to any doctors
or therapy or use anymedication, even though in my
city there were psychologistsand psychiatrists.
But my family was just like, no, that doesn't exist, you don't
need any of that.
So I had to go on this bigjourney to do it myself.
And then I just studied reallyhard and started changing my
habits and doing things likejournaling and trying to
(12:24):
reprogram my brain and overcomebullying and do all that.
And then eventually, a fewyears in maybe about five, six
years in I just one day kind ofwoke up and I was like
remembering my life before.
But I discovered personaldevelopment and after and I'm
like, wow, I'm not depressedanymore, I don't absolutely hate
myself, I don't have anxietyattacks anymore, like, and I'm
(12:46):
not scared of people so much,I'm talking to strangers on
buses, I have good friends, I'mdoing very well in school, I was
like, wow, like this personaldevelopment thing, like
self-help, like it reallyabsolutely changed my life.
So I want to start sharing itand I want to help others
because I see so many peoplestill struggling, you know,
specifically with social anxiety.
That's really where I startedand, yeah, it was a the reason
why I became an entrepreneur tohelp others because I see so
many people still struggling,you know, specifically with
(13:07):
social anxiety.
That's really where I startedand, yeah, it was the reason why
I became an entrepreneur tohelp other people with mental
health.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
That's awesome.
So I hate to bring up a darkmoment, but I want to have like
real conversations here and tryand keep it as real as possible.
I think sometimes things getkind of sugarcoated along the
way.
So when you were thinking aboutyou know, know, throwing
yourself in front of a train,like can you kind of walk us
through the thoughts of thatdarkest moment, like what's kind
of going through?
(13:31):
There's just no hope, and canyou kind of walk us through what
you felt at that moment?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
yeah it there was.
It seemed like no hope, no wayout of it.
It seemed like everything andeverybody is just evil and that
the world is just meant like theonly thing that I can ever
experience in in the world issuffering and pain and struggle.
And it became, yeah, likereally really hopeless and
meaningless.
I think that was the biggestthing of feeling like there's
(13:57):
absolutely no point except justhating myself and hating my life
.
I I really, I guess a part ofme really directed towards me
because I felt like maybe Icould stand up for myself a
little bit more, maybe I couldsay something or maybe I could
fight back or maybe I could dosomething different, but I just
couldn't.
I couldn't get myself to dothat and my body was reacting in
(14:21):
a very physical way and withanxiety as well, and I would cry
almost every night, cry myselfto sleep of like I just don't
want to wake up, I don't want togo to school anymore, I don't
want to talk to my parents, Idon't want to see anybody and,
um, I think the meaninglessnessof it just felt the worst and
like it's never going to changeyeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
So someone that's in that dark moment, they they're
isolating, they're spiraling,they feel like there is nothing.
What was that moment?
Where was it a light bulb, orwhat was that transition?
Like, hey, I got a, you saidthe self-help, but can you walk
us through that moment whereit's like I got to, got to get
help, I got to fix this, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
I think it was after like a day of bullying.
When I came home I was justlike this fucking, what an awful
day again.
I just don't want to do thisanymore.
And a part of me, like I knewthat I don't really want to die.
I don't.
I know, I really don't.
I don't really want to killmyself.
And maybe that was because, youknow, part of me was like this
you know, my family is here,maybe there's some potential and
some parts of life I enjoy.
But it's just like there's thisoverwhelming pain.
(15:28):
And another part of me was likewhat's the point?
But then there was a small partof me like I know, I don't
really want to do that.
And I was also scared.
I was like scared of the painof actually jumping in front of
a train and something inside mewas just like okay, well, I have
to do something about this.
Like if I'm not going to doanything, nothing's going to
change.
(15:49):
I wish I could tell you, maybemore specifically, but I
remember two things that reallyimpacted me.
One of them is I was sodesperate and I Googled how to
be happy, and then another thingthat happened was that I
discovered videos of random actsof kindness, and the videos
were literally called restoringhope in humanity, which was what
I needed, and I don't rememberspecifically which one came
(16:11):
first if I first discovered thevideos, kind of randomly, or if
I Googled first and then that'swhat popped up as well, but
really it was just montages ofpeople, you know, doing random
acts of kindness, like helpingsomebody across the street, or
even something big like runninginto a building that's on fire
to save dog.
And the first time I watchedthose videos I just I cried my
eyes out for hours, justwatching hours and hours of the
(16:34):
content, and that became like mybeacon of light, because it
felt all like hopeless andmeaningless, like everything and
everybody is evil, just out toget me out, to hurt me.
And then I saw these people whowere doing these selfless, kind
, random acts and I thought,well, maybe there are amazing
people out there, maybe there isa different side to life and
(16:55):
humanity, and I just need to goout and find them and even
become one of them.
So then that's my world.
I want to hang out with thesepeople, so I've got to be one of
them.
And so that became my, my world,like I want to hang out with
these people, so I want to be.
I got to be one of them and sothat became my beacon of light
in a way that helped me pushthrough, because I had like,
okay, well, there's, I'm maybestuck here in the darkness, but
somewhere out here there'samazing people, there's amazing
(17:15):
communities and all this.
So that gave me the hope.
And then the Google search andthe personal development gave me
, like, the strategies and thetechniques of meditation and
journaling and running in themornings and all that to climb
out of that.
So it was the combination ofthe two really yeah, that's,
that's perfect.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Earlier I wanted to mention, like one of my favorite
phrases is you never know whatsomeone's going through or what,
whatever battles people aregoing through, and so I think
that's perfect, because you hadmentioned, you know your friend
getting abused and then thebullying that you were trying to
hide and, and so I think thatreally rolls into like the show
here and you know things likethat, just taking care of each
other.
It's always, or not always, butI feel like a lot of times it's
(17:53):
the smaller things.
I mean opening the door andsmiling and these things that
you're talking about.
You know helping each other.
I think that's how we getthrough this crazy thing called
life.
I mean, there's no owner'smanual, there's no directions,
like we just try our best and ifwe're going to help each other
along the way, it's just goingto make it better for ourselves,
and a lot of times you feelgood when you do it, so I mean
it's a win-win.
(18:13):
I don't know why there isn'tmore kindness and, you know,
more joy of helping each other.
Next question misconceptions ormyths people have about mental
health in high achieving spaceslike entrepreneurship.
What are misconceptions?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
about mental health.
I think a part of it might bestill what my parents told me
like it doesn't matter, itdoesn't exist, just get over it.
No, just kind of sweep it underthe rug, work over it more,
hide your emotions.
You don't have to deal withthat, you just have to work,
work, work.
Whereas if you create more of abalance with your emotional
(18:52):
control, you will be moreproductive and more effective in
work and the way youcommunicate and your output and
all that.
So I think that might be a bigmisconception that it doesn't
impact the performance.
Another misconception might beis that when somebody's doing
really well success wise, likefrom the outside, that means
that they're just doing wellmentally as well.
We find out more and more thatthat's not reality.
(19:16):
There might be people who mighthave it all from the outside
the money, the house, thesuccess, the business, the girls
or the amazing wife and allthis but then internally they're
still suffering.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
So that might be a big misconception as well.
The definition of success is avery difficult thing.
I think the way that theoutward world defines it is
probably not as accurate.
I feel like the people thathave the cars and the money are
usually the ones having the mostproblems yeah, what do you
think, what do you see asmisconceptions about mental
health?
that's what I was gonna say.
In that high achieving space,like I know in my current role,
(19:50):
like I'm in a leadership role,and so it's one thing that's
always kind of bugged me whereit's like when you're in the
leadership role, likeeverything's figured out and you
know.
It's interesting how, whenyou're in different levels of
you know the business ororganization, like usually the
lower levels, which I hate touse like hierarchical because I
think we're, you know, allimportant and things like that.
So I don't really mean it upand down necessarily, but in the
(20:11):
lower sections for lack of abetter term it's like you know
how are you guys doing andgetting checked on.
It seems like the higher youget, it's like no one ever
checks.
You're the boss, you're theleader, like you got it all
squared away and it's like youknow we're all right, like we
all got wives and kids that youknow have troubles and things
are going on, or you knowsickness, or you know there's so
(20:33):
many different things that aregoing on in the world.
There's so much good, like yousaid, in the world, but there's
also still all the things wehave to push through and
struggles Always just kind of abizarre thing to me where it's
like if you are in a differentposition or if you're having
success, you know, whatever thatmay be, it's like oh, got it
all figured out.
I try to do that in my sections,like after a few months I try
(20:53):
to go through like I lost my dadand my grandparents and I
co-parent and I went through adivorce and I went through these
things, you know, and I'm likeI'm not trying to be a Debbie
Downer like bring down the moon.
So I usually don't do it rightoff the bat because I don't want
to freak anybody out.
But you know, three or fourmonths into having a section and
whatnot, I kind of go throughthat and I hope it's like
bridging the gap, because a lotof times we hear at work like
(21:14):
open door policy, like you cancome in and talk to me whenever
you want, but I a lot of timesI've never felt like I could not
because the physical doorwasn't open.
The physical door was open butI wasn't sure like this person
seemed like they did have itsquared away or I didn't know
enough about them to.
I'm not going to tell you mymessiness if I don't know enough
about you or have thatconnection.
(21:35):
So I try to put out some ofthose things like hey, I've been
through some stuff, and againI'm not saying like I've been
through your thing so I'll solveit and I'll fix it.
I'm just saying I've beenthrough some stuff.
It might be a parallel, butlike I'll listen and we'll
figure out like how to moveforward.
Or maybe it's just to vent andget some words out and then we
need to go on our way and maybenever talk about it again.
I don't know which directionit's going to go, but I will
(21:56):
definitely sit in the space withyou and listen.
But I think that's probably thebiggest thing.
Like success, leadership, youknow these different things.
It's like, oh, I got it allfigured out, when that is
definitely not the case.
I was wondering from you know,being your own boss and you're
running the company and you'removing around, you'd mention,
like how do you manage stressand avoid burnout?
You don't have, I'm assuming,set hours and you're the one
(22:17):
kind of making sure thingshappen.
So how do you manage stress andavoid burnout while you're
building and working throughthat business?
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah, Great question Again.
Funny enough, meditationbecomes a big part of it, and
meditation in, I guess, twospecific ways.
First is like an actual sitdown meditation, like what you
hear, what you imagine that,like an actual sit down
meditation, like what you hear,what you imagine that you, when
you hear meditation, right, likemost people just probably think
about okay, let me sit downcross leg like, and like, just
like meditate, right.
I would also say meditationthroughout the day, which to me
(22:47):
means being present, right, soliving, trying to live in the
moment.
Because a lot of the stressmostly comes from your mind,
being stuck in the past or inthe future, right, so we're
overthinking what might happenor what is going to happen in
the future, or we're reminiscingabout what happened in the past
and we start to get stuck inregret and all of this, oh my
God, I should have done this orshould have done that, right.
(23:09):
And that's what creates more ofthe pressure, whereas if you
just focus on being present inthe moment, that stress just
goes away.
And then people sometimes sayfeel your emotions, right, like,
don't try and push youremotions away, but feel your
emotions, and to that I neverreally understood that and then,
finally, it clicked for me andI created a little bit of a I
(23:32):
guess nuance Instead of feelingmy emotions, I say feel the
sensations.
Right, so your emotion is madeup of physical sensations, right
?
So I was like what do you mean?
I'm feeling really stressed,I'm feeling the stress.
What do you mean?
Feel the stress?
Right, like I'm already feelingit.
What else do you want me to do?
Whereas when I made thedistinction about feeling the
(23:52):
sensations, I was like, well,what's the sensation?
My heart is beating really fast, okay, that's, I can feel that
directly.
My hands are jittery, right.
My arms may be like a littlebit shaky, right, I feel like
pressure in my shoulders, forexample, right.
And I found that when I do that,when I feel the sensations of
what's creating that emotion, Iget more present with it and it
(24:15):
just starts to dissipate andthat pressure, that stress goes
away.
And again, that ties both intopracticing that as a sit-down
meditation once a day, or onceevery two days or something like
that, and then just doing thisthroughout your day, like, as an
example, I might sit down to mycomputer, I might look at my
to-do list and I'm like, oh myGod, I have like 10 things to do
.
I get overwhelming, I getstressed about should I do this
one first, or should I do thatone first?
(24:36):
Or if I do this one first, thenit's going to be this hard.
And if I do that one first, ohright.
And instead of just looking atthe to-do list and trying to
force myself to work right away,in that moment I'm just going
to get present, take a few deepbreaths, maybe connect with with
my heart a little bit and thenstart working from that space,
and it's infinitely easier.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, I think that's good.
I think I've gotten hung up onthat.
I'm sure other people have too.
On meditation, you're like oh,I got to cross my legs, I got to
sit in this spot, I need tolight an incense and I got to
make sure I'm playing the rightmusic and it's got to sound like
a spa in here or something, andI think it's a really good
reminder.
I'm glad you brought that up.
Like it looks different.
What works for you work throughit.
You know if it's one minute orfive minutes or 30 minutes, or
(25:21):
you know you process the thingsthat you need to process and you
process it in the way you needto.
But I think the term is, youknow, kind of like oh, it's just
hippie stuff, it's just kind ofcrazy, it's like it is whatever
it needs to be for you, and soit can look in a lot of
different ways.
I like that.
Your next pillar is socialhealth.
So how do strong relationshipscontribute to personal and
(25:42):
professional success?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, Social health is one of my favorite topics
these days and something thatI'm very excited about exploring
more deeply as well this year.
And it ties back into you know,when I started thinking about
this.
It ties back into my first realfriendship, which is I already
mentioned her a few times likethe friendship where I didn't
have to pretend anymore, likewhere I could actually just
(26:05):
share and be myself and wedidn't really have a device to
give each other right, but justhaving that space where I didn't
have to pretend anymore and Icould be myself.
And it sounds like buzzwords,but when you're really
experienced it's like, wow, okay, this is what people mean.
This is why people say thesebuzzwords.
It's different to hear it andthen to actually live it.
(26:27):
And then it makes everythingelse so much easier and lighter
and better.
And I think we are in the end.
We are social creatures, right,and we evolved to be social.
And especially these days, andespecially in entrepreneurship
and when people are gettingstarted as solopreneurs, we
(26:47):
isolate and we think we have tomanage and handle everything
ourselves, and that's whatcreates so much extra stress and
so much extra anxiety anddepression and isolation.
And so just bring it up, theconversation and the ideas of
like, hey, how are yourrelationships?
Do you actually have strong,healthy friendships and are you
maintaining the relationshipwith yourself?
(27:09):
I think that's really importantto talk about.
And these days, you know, withsocial media, like people
replaced their social habits ofjust going to chat with a friend
with scrolling on their socialmedia, right, and it kind of
taps into similar parts of thebrain, maybe because you see
faces, you see other peopledoing things, right, so it gives
(27:29):
you a little illusion of socialinteraction, but then in
reality it just leaves you moreisolated and empty.
You know how do you feel whenyou finish your three hour
scrolling session?
Shit, right, yeah that's roughso go ahead.
Yeah, so it ties into it and Ithink having strong
relationships in and from thefriend, the places and the
(27:49):
friends where you can fully beyourself and be authentic,
really right, that's whatimpacts the stress levels and
connection and more meaning inlife and makes everything easier
.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, I think sometimes we think we need to
say the right thing or, you know, sometimes you don't got to say
anything at all if you got thatright connection.
I wanted to know earlier yousaid you had struggled with
networking and things like thatand being more isolated and
feeling awkward and things likethat, and being more isolated
and feeling awkward and thingslike that.
So what advice do you have forentrepreneurs that do struggle
with networking?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
yeah, I like to look at it as a video game.
Well, I mean, everything, my,my whole mindset about life is
like life is like a video game,but specifically, this can be
like a quest or as a video gamemetaphor.
If you're really struggling,you look at it as like in levels
.
Right, that's where the videogame metaphor comes in.
So, let's say, your main goal,what you really want to do, is
you want to be able to walk intoa networking event and hear a
(28:42):
speaker and be like reallyconfident, walk up to the
speaker hey, I really reallyloved your speech and this was
amazing and connect with themand then shake everybody's hand
and reintroduce yourself reallyconfidently.
But then the reality is likeyou can't.
You feel like you can't do thatbecause you're really shy and
your body starts being reallynervous and shaky.
Right, your heart beats, yourheart beats faster and you just
(29:03):
don't.
You don't know what to say andthings like that, right.
Well, so that might be yourlevel 10 where you want to get
to, but if you're at level one,where you can't even talk to a
normal stranger at a normal likein a coffee shop, then you
might want to start there, right.
So for me that journey was likeI couldn't basically couldn't
speak to anybody, and I startedby chatting with people on
social media and on apps.
(29:23):
I just started texting peopleand then I got a little bit and
I still felt really scared if Iwas just like, oh my god, like,
what if they're gonna hate me?
What if I say the wrong thing?
What if I ask, ask the wrongquestion?
What if they're going to beannoyed that I'm trying to text
them right, like even withinthat?
So I got over those little fearsover there and then, once I got
more comfortable, I startedsending voice messages.
Once I got more comfortablewith that, I started doing phone
(29:44):
calls and then video calls andthen and then I started talking
to strangers on buses and then Istarted joining groups and then
I started being on events andthen speaking on stages.
I saw like you start withsomething that's a little
outside of your comfort zone andyou train yourself there, you
get more confident, comfortable,you build the skills, you build
the confidence and then youlevel up and then eventually,
(30:04):
within a few months and years,you're going to be speaking on
the stage delivering a speechand be like the confident person
you want it to be.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
That's awesome, that's a good one.
I'm going to have to rememberthat, because I think we talk
about, you know, short-termgoals, long-term goals and one
year and five year and thingslike that, and we all know we
need goals, but it sounds kindof boring.
But when you put it in levels,I mean that sounds a lot cooler.
I think a lot of us gravitatetowards game theory and
achieving things and having funalong the way, and so I love the
(30:32):
idea of going through that.
I like the idea of like steppingup through the levels too,
because I think that is anotherthing we want to do A lot of
times.
We want to do the big thingfirst, whatever.
That is for some reason, like Iwant to go right up and talk to
the president of the company.
It's like are you really?
You probably don't want tostart there, but I feel like we
don't do a very good job of the,the consistency, the small
(30:55):
things.
Along the way.
You got to do it a hundredtimes before you can do the next
thing, and so that levelingconcept I think is really good,
because you stay consistent anddo the small things and then you
can kind of get to the nextlevel and then you know
consistently do that and thenmove on.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
I think that's really good yeah, I also like the
again to like make the metaphorvery sticky and specific.
If you start playing a game andyou're at level one, you can,
you, and you try to beat theboss at level 10, where you're
going to get your ass kicked andprobably never want to play the
game again.
Right, because your character,you're not ready for it, you
don't have the skills, you don'thave the experience, you don't
(31:29):
have the equipment or whateverit is that is in that specific
game, right, but like you said,in life we just think that we
can go from level one to level10, be really down with it, you
know, but it's like no, youactually have to go through
levels.
And I see that as, like,specifically with overcoming
social anxiety, people make thatmistake all the time.
They're like hey, I want to.
I'm really sure I can't speakto anybody, but I'm gonna stop
(31:49):
picking up girls on a on a beatand then they go and try to talk
to one girl.
They get rejected, they burnout, they embarrass themselves
really badly and they're likeI'm never doing that again.
Yeah, you went too far gottaease into it.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I'm curious with, uh, you talked about, like the
different apps and things likethat, like what do you do now
that you're more secure andthings like that?
Do you gravitate towards likemore video calls, or do you
still have a balance of, youknow, text and email and how do
you kind of balance?
Because you had talked aboutsocial media and things like
that.
So I'm curious, like thedigital communication, what's
(32:22):
the best kind of balance there?
At some point you have to sendemails because it's faster, but
you know what's that balancelook like for you it's I'm using
all of the different channelsand I do.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
I do dms, I do texts, I do emails, I do voice
messages.
Every now and then I'm going tosend a video message as well.
I do phone calls, I do videocalls.
Yeah, all of the above itdoesn't matter to me.
It's more so like what I feelis the most effective tool for
that moment.
Sometimes, when I'm runningaround between meetings and
events, I'm going to just send aquick voice message.
(32:55):
If I'm sitting down at mycomputer, I'm going to just send
a quick voice message.
If I'm sitting down at mycomputer, I'm going to usually
text and and um and just chat,and then I do lots and lots of
video calls and online meetingson video.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
So yeah, that makes sense.
I think you already kind oftouched on it, but maybe expand
a little bit.
What do you think the role ofcommunity is, and personal and
business success?
Speaker 2 (33:15):
well, let's start with the personal thing.
In the personal it kind of tiesback into the social health and
if you have a and the quotethat we've all heard you become
the average of the five or threepeople you hang out with the
most right.
So the people that you hang outwith, they're going to have a
huge influence on you.
So if you hang out with reallypositive people who have healthy
(33:35):
habits, who go to, who gorunning, you're much more likely
to become you're probably goingto become a runner, right.
If you hang out with runners,if you hang out with really
positive people who have healthyhabits, who go to, who go
running, you're much more likelyto become you're probably going
to become a runner, right, ifyou hang out with runners.
If you hang out with people whowatch the news and complain
about the economy, you're goingto become a person who complains
about the economy.
So your community and and yourcommunity shapes who you are
becoming right, especially thepeople who are closest to your
(33:57):
closest community.
So you've got to be reallycareful and you've got to
structure it in an intentionalway and with business it becomes
similar, it becomes similar,but also there's more
opportunities, right, like so inbusiness it's all based on
relationships.
It's all based on who you knowand what kind of opportunities
you get from collaborating andcontributing to other people.
(34:19):
So the better community youhave, the better network and the
better relationships you have,better opportunities you will
have, more opportunities youwill have, and that's how more
business is done.
That's something that I didn'tunderstand as a kid.
I thought that go, it's just.
You know, I had no idea likewhat business was and I was
watching.
I was watching watching CaseyNeistat and his vlogs as he was
(34:41):
building his businesses and hewas like, yeah, today I'll have
this meeting and this meeting.
He was like going around NewYork City from meeting to
meeting and I remember watchingand I was like what the hell is
he doing on all these meetings?
Like what's happening right,and these days it's funny
because my life is like so muchabout meetings and so much about
like event here, a podcast here, a coaching session here, a
(35:02):
sales meeting here, a meeting totalk about a festival that
we're starting, a meeting totalk about a local business,
that we might be starting ameetup here, right, and
networking here, and it's allabout meetings and so now I'm
like understanding it.
That's like the community andthe relationships that you have
will equal the opportunity thatyou will have.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
I find it interesting too, because I know a lot of
people are like I hate meetingsand we make the joke like hey,
this email could have been, orthis meeting could have been an
email, and things like that.
And I think that's true to acertain extent.
But on some of the projectswhere there's a contention or
like things are stuck, I'venoticed if I pull people
together and we have a meeting,there is something about someone
(35:40):
sitting across the table fromyou.
They want to help you a littlemore.
They feel like maybe pressureor you know, they feel like they
got to come through for you.
If it's on the other end of anemail like, hey, could you get
this back to me?
You know, sometimes they do andsometimes they don't.
There's some type of ownershipand responsibility when you're
at that thing.
So I know you know we joke likewe hate meetings.
(36:02):
But there is something I thinkback to, like you said, social
creatures, right, like that'show we were built.
We were supposed to go and plowthe fields and hunt and bring
it back for everyone, and so Ithink that's a yeah, I think
that's really important toremember.
Like meetings are important,maybe we to remember like
(36:24):
meetings are important maybe wedo have too many, but they
definitely do get things doneand the last pillar you have is
entrepreneurship.
So I'm curious what?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
are some of the biggest mindset shifts you've
made along the way.
A few of the biggest ones wasexchanging value to time for
time instead of exchanging valuefor money instead of time for
money.
So, to give you a little bit ofcontext, I grew up in a working
class of factory workers.
Basically everybody in myfamily is used to working in
factories steel factoriesspecifically and so my mom would
(36:48):
literally tell me the only waythat you'll ever make money in
this world is by exchanging yourtime in the factory for getting
the paycheck, and maybe thebest you can hope for is getting
your time to be more valuableand being in an office rather
than on the factory floor, right?
So it was all about justexchanging time that you put in
(37:10):
for the money for the paycheckthat you get, whereas
entrepreneurs operate inexchanging value for money.
Right, and it might take timeto create the value.
In other instances, it mightknow that it takes time to
create the value.
Once you create a product andthen you sell it over and over
again, you're not selling thetime that you took to create the
product, you're selling thevalue of the product.
(37:31):
So that was a big one.
That was a big one for me.
Another big one for me.
Blanking out a little bit, Iactually, funny enough, I made a
video like the entrepreneurthinking versus, or business
thinking versus, employeethinking recently, because I
came from being an employee, sothis is something that I do
think about a lot, but the timeis definitely a huge one.
(37:53):
I'm trying to get my brain tosnap back into remembering what
it was.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Oh, it's all good, we can move on.
But I do like that though,because I know I've seen bosses
get mad if someone leaves likeright on the clock and things
like that.
And it's always somethingthat's always kind of bugged me
a little bit, because I've seensomeone that comes in, they set
their prior for the day and thenthey work from 730 to 430.
They get all the things doneand they leave right on the dot
because they move through theirchecklist and they're done.
(38:20):
And then I've also seen peoplethat stay until five or six
o'clock at night and they walkedaround most of the day with a
coffee cup.
It didn't really get much done,but oh, they stayed until six.
That's so good, like theydidn't do anything.
And so it's weird to me that wehad one boss of just kind of sit
by the door and like almostphysically tap his watch, like
(38:40):
oh, you know, watching the clock, like that.
I'm like that is bizarre, likewhy don't you go check and see
what the two different peoplegot done?
Because there is no correlation.
You could be the most efficientor the worst efficient, and the
amount of time is notcorrelated at all.
Like I mean, I guess you camein and worked for an hour.
Maybe that's like you know toofar, but maybe I mean if you get
it all done.
Another question I had for youis you know, in the terms of
(39:05):
success we talked about andwell-being, how do you balance
ambition and wanting to getthings done with your own
well-being?
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah, I think part of it and this is something I
think comes up probably a lot aswell is a morning routine right
.
Part of it is is definitelylike in a morning routine, and
I've always tried to structuremy morning routine based on what
I need the most.
We just had a conversationabout this specifically with my
friend and roommate who we'redoing this call, we're living
(39:30):
with, because, like, we kind ofwant to correlate and do morning
routines together but we havedifferent goals and different
needs for it, so so it doesn'tmake much sense.
But, generally speaking, findtime to take care of your body,
find time to take care of yourmind and those are like the main
ones and of course, of yoursoul and all that.
That again ties back intomeditation and you can fit that
(39:51):
into a 20 minute, 30 minutemorning routine.
So then you take care ofyourself first and then you can
go out there and take care ofother people and take care of
everybody else.
Now I'll actually tie this backinto.
I remember the differencebetween business and employee
mindset is that a lot of thetimes employees, they just go to
work to get their paycheckright, so they're thinking about
(40:12):
the reason why I'm doing thisis to get a paycheck, whereas a
lot of the times entrepreneurs,especially big entrepreneurs,
tend to think about solvingproblems.
Right, like I want to solveproblems for people, and they
get a kick, or they enjoy thesolution of problems, not just
doing it for the paycheck andthey get paid to solve problems.
As entrepreneurs, we tend toalways solve other people's
(40:34):
problems and solve problems forother people, and a lot of the
times we tend to forget abouttaking care of ourselves.
But I'm another metaphor thatprobably might get a little bit
overused, and you've heardbefore you gotta put on your own
oxygen mask first before youput oxygen masks on the people,
right?
So you have to take care ofyourself first, otherwise you're
not able to solve otherpeople's problems anymore if
(40:56):
you're not taking care ofyourself yeah, I always like the
visual of you can't pour froman empty cup.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
That's another good one I like.
Like you can't, there's nothingin it, the cup is empty.
Last question inentrepreneurship, what lessons
have you learned about failureand how do you bounce back?
Speaker 2 (41:10):
I would say, failure can be only like temporary
defeat if you don't give up.
Right, and there's always alesson in failing.
There's always a lesson infailure and it's something that
the faster you fail and thefaster you bounce back, the
faster you'll actually learn.
And I think the biggest reasonwhy people are scared to fail is
(41:31):
because a big part of it isprobably school systems.
Right, how they teach us to.
You have to over-prepare,otherwise you're going to fail.
And if you fail like failing isthe worst thing and you get
punished for failing, right, youget shamed and your parents
punish you if you fail your examor something like that.
Right, and in entrepreneurship,if you study entrepreneurs and
business people or people whoare very successful, even
(41:54):
employees who've been verysuccessful in climbing the ranks
and creating a great life forthemselves within a company they
go through failures and they'renot really afraid of it.
Right, they fail and they learnfrom it.
So if you are worried and ifyou're scared of failing, great
way to overcome that is exposuretherapy.
If you fail one time and you'vegot shame for it, then it's
(42:15):
going to be really painful, it'sgoing to hurt.
But if you fail 50 times andyou're still okay, then you're
like oh okay, well, just anotherone, what can I learn?
And you move through it right.
So I think the more you fail,the easier it becomes to fail
and the easier it becomes tobounce back and learn from it.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
Yeah, it was interesting watching some of the
interviews with Elon, when therockets are coming back in and
hitting the ground and exploding, and everyone was like you know
you failed and I can't believeyou hit the ground.
And he didn't seem phased atall.
He's like let's send up anotherone, we'll figure out what went
wrong and move on.
So good example of you know therocket blew up, but we'll try
to do better on the next one andI think that's really all you
(42:52):
can do, right, like make lessmistakes than the time before
that.
The time before, that's whatyou got to focus on.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
So, andre, let's try to bring it all together.
What's one thing listeners cando today to improve their mental
and social health whilepursuing their goals for their
own business?
Wonderful, I would say that youcan try doing a social health
checklist that I created is likethree, three daily small tasks
that you can do that you can dodaily and you can start today
and see how it goes.
So one of them is aboutyourself, the relationship with
yourself, which is journaling orwriting or focusing with the
(43:25):
meditation, or you can do thisin the mirror.
In the mirror, three thingsthat you are proud of, three
things that you are grateful forand three things that you
forgive.
Right these three by three,basically, and it's it's really
very powerful for reshaping andtaking care of the relationship
you have with yourself and withyour brain.
Second is the social healthaspect and deepening the
(43:45):
relationships and staying intouch with people, which is
writing a short gratitude list,gratitude letter or a message to
somebody, somebody that youappreciate, that you have in
your life, whether that's apartner, a business partner, a
family or a friend.
Write a short appreciation,gratitude letter to them, and
it's great for you, it's greatfor them as well.
And then, third is more so forgrowing your network and growing
(44:07):
your confidence outside, andthat can be give a compliment to
a stranger, or wave at threestrangers and say hello to three
strangers, or send messages tothe random people that you see
on Facebook to give them acompliment if you're not going
outside at all.
But, generally speaking, it'sbest to do it in person.
And so these three things as achecklist to do daily, or just
start today and see how you feelafter it.
(44:28):
I recommend to maintain mentaland social health.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Perfect.
Well, thank you for coming out.
I'd love your input.
Share your questions orfeedback on Instagram, facebook,
tiktok, youtube or anywhere youget your wonderful podcasts.
Please leave a review, if youcan, let me know how it's going.
I'd love to see a couple fivestars fly up.
Well, thank you much for comingout.
I love you all.
See ya, thank you.
Hi everyone.
I'm Nate Shearer, your host,and this is Mindforce, the
podcast.
That's all about love, life andlearning.
Here, your mind matters.
Today we'll be talking aboutmental health, social health and
entrepreneurship.
Let's start with a quickintroduction.
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
Who are you, what do you do andwhy are you here today?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hello, thank you for having me, Nate.
What do you do and why are youhere today?
Hello, thank you for having me,nate.
I am, my name is Ondra.
I am from the Czech Republicoriginally, but now I've been to
about 20 countries as a digitalnomad.
I am a mindset coach, a speaker, a community leader and also a
best-selling author nowadays,and I love talking about
entrepreneurship and socialhealth.
I used to have very bad socialanxiety and kind of went on a
(01:05):
big journey to overcome it, andthat's why I speak about it now.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Awesome.
Okay, we'll start with thewarmup.
First question what's somethingyou do daily that helps keep
you grounded?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Daily I absolutely daily these days meditate, and
usually a few times a day.
Actually.
It can be anywhere from twominute meditation to 20 minutes,
30 minutes, but definitely latedays.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
It's interesting.
It's come up on the show quitea bit.
Can you walk us through how youwent from not meditating to
your initial steps intomeditating?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Absolutely.
I think meditation is such abroad concept these days and
it's very popular.
There's so many different waysand kinds as well.
For me, the meditation journeystarted around when I was 13, 14
years old, and it was the timeswhen I started getting into
personal development and startedbeing like how can I deal with
(01:56):
my emotions and anxiety better?
And I didn't really feel anydifferent.
I didn't feel any effects ofmeditation in the beginning, but
then as I stayed moreconsistent and I tried different
ways, I tried just normalmindfulness and then just
focusing on my breath, and theneventually I settled on guided
meditations and I trieddifferent types of guided
meditations and that startedhelping me a little bit more.
(02:18):
And then I transitioned intoinner body meditations from
Concept of the Power of now byeckhart tolle, and so that kind
of meditation made the mostimpact on me.
So it was like very slow burn.
The beginning was very toughand I started and I quit and I
gave up and then I started again.
I didn't stay consistent.
(02:38):
There was like back and forth,back and forth.
But now, because it's been morethan a decade since I, like,
did my first ever meditation,I'm much more consistent and I
feel the effects much more.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, that makes sense.
It's part of your routine.
Now, it's just second nature.
Do you do any type ofjournaling or writing of any
kind?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yes, absolutely Journaling, not every day these
days.
So it's like the way I look atit.
In the beginning, when I wasreally fighting with my anxiety
and fighting with my depression,I felt like I needed to go more
all in into managing my mindset, into maintaining my mindset,
and so I did all of these.
I did journaling, I didmeditation.
I was running all the time mymind that it automatically kind
(03:22):
of focuses on the positives andfocuses on solutions and what
I'm grateful for and things,what I'm proud of.
So I have.
I don't have to have this, Idon't have to be as brutal with
it, but I just do more of amaintain.
I just do maintain practices.
Every few days.
I journal about what I'mgrateful for, journal about what
I'm proud of, I refocus onsolutions and things like that
(03:43):
and my mind kind of works.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
It's, it's magic already that's interesting, yeah
, very reoccurring.
Uh, writing, journaling andmeditation are definitely up
there on themes that comethrough from the different
guests and whatnot.
A next question if you coulddescribe your entrepreneurial
journey in one word, wild andwhy it's been.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I've been through many cycles, let's say, or, or
loops where it starts to goreally well, it's like, oh my
god, this is so amazing, I lovethis.
Or if everything's going towork out and something just
happens, like you start goingdown, like no, and you kind of
watch it burn and you watchthose stuff slow down, and then
you go through the bottom of theloop, like should I even you
know try again?
Like should I even continue?
Like what's even the point?
(04:29):
Maybe I should just go back toa job.
You know like this is nevergonna work.
And you come out of of it andyou're like, oh my god, this is
amazing, again, right, and yougo through the loop.
And I've been.
I've been in business for aboutfive years now and two or two
and a half of those years havebeen full time.
So I've been through many ofthose loops and every single
loop just gets wild, both on thetop of like getting flown out
(04:51):
to different countries to be togo on a business meeting and
getting sponsored, and and then,oh my god, all of my clients
are like kind of leaving and youknow they can't pay, so how am
I going to pay my bills and then.
So I've been through very highhighs and very low lows as well
what do you think that thatcycle or that loop has taught
you?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
what's the the big lesson if someone's in one of
those different phases?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I'm, always changes and the only thing that stays
the same is, like your internalspace, and that's why meditation
, I think, is such a reoccurringthing as well for you and other
guests, because everything elseoutside is unstable and
uncertain and it will alwayschange.
But maintaining your own innerspace, your own inner peace and
your stability and certaintywithin through journaling,
(05:36):
through meditation, throughthese mindful practices, that's
how you can stay sane and makesure that you keep going through
the loops.
And everything outside might behappening, but internally
you're like, ok, this will pass,I'll make it through and it
will be amazing again.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah, that's a good reminder.
Got to have some type of solidrocks, a little bit of
foundation inside yourself,because outside, like you said,
everything is just going to keepon moving, keep on changing.
So you got to have something atyour core.
And the last question, thewarmup what's a social
interaction or connection thathas had a lasting impact on you?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
My first thought is like oh my God, which one do I
pick?
There have been many that made abig lasting impact In terms of
personally, I think the biggestone, right in the very almost
the beginning of my life, waswhile I was still really dealing
with bad depression and anxietyand suicidal thoughts as well,
(06:30):
I found a friend who from theoutside it seemed like she had
an amazing life and she was likethe popular girl in school and
everybody loved her and all ofthis.
And behind closed doors she gotreally beaten up and abused by
her dad and because I wasgetting bullied and I was kind
of hiding that right, I was likepretending everything is okay
(06:50):
from the outside but in reallife I was suffering.
It was similar for her, andwhen we became friends and we
became more comfortable witheach other, we started sharing
and kind of consolidated in eachother in a way and we helped
each other make that sufferingeasier, and so that was
definitely a big one.
That probably changed the thecourse of my life, hey, in a
(07:13):
very positive way yeah, that's agood one.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I think that's a really good point behind the
show and thing that I try tolike push on.
Like these conversations I getasked like you know, what do you
think the point of the show is?
Or you know, why did you startthe show and different things
like that.
And my thought is, stories likestories connect us, and so I
think a lot of times that's whatends up happening.
You have something that happensto you and you think it's
difficult and, for whateverreason, we kind of go inward and
(07:38):
we isolate and we think, oh,I'm the only one that's has ever
happened to.
You're definitely not the onlyperson.
There's hardly anything in thisworld that no one else has ever
experienced before.
And so, hopefully, you know thestories we share, the you know
the fun or the jokes or thelaughs or whatever it is like
resonates with somebody and like, hey, I can get through it or
(07:58):
someone else is going through itand you know I can, I can push
on, and so, yeah, I think that'sawesome that you said that.
Like we all try to hide it andkind of push it down and push it
down deep, unfortunately, butwe've all had bad days and even
if it's not the same.
I think it's another thing.
There's so many parallels whereit's like, ok, I haven't been
through that exact thing, but itdoesn't mean I can't sit with
(08:18):
you and you know, empathize andconnect and be like, hey, we can
get through this, even thoughit's different.
You don't want to say likeyou've been through everything
and I know how to fix it, butbeing able to sit in the space
with somebody is super important.
Well, before we start on thethree main pillars, I wanted to
know if you had a question forme.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I think my question would be what is a relation?
I'll use the same question.
It's a great question what is arelationship or interaction
that made a lasting impact onyou?
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Oh lasting impact.
I think I would say it was withmy mom, and I don't know if you
can do that because I'm surethat's probably a cop out, but I
just feel like the relationshipand the dynamic for my mom and
me is just super unique.
My dad was Evan, went through abunch of different I don't know
.
He had a bunch of troubles andwhatnot, so he'd punch holes in
(09:09):
walls and, you know, had a lotof different things going on.
So me and her, the way that wewould navigate life and how it
was kind of us against the world.
We lived in small apartmentswith my grandparents and hand me
down clothes and and just thatrelationship.
It's just so hard to showsomeone else.
So I have another two siblingsafter that and they don't have
that same kind of connectionthat we had because it was just
me and her, and so it's alwaysone of those things that's been
really difficult for me todemonstrate or to show, like how
(09:31):
strong and how different it is.
It's not that our relationshipis better than theirs or
whatever, like that's not theintent.
It's just different when it'syou and you know another person
trying to just get through it.
Like I think of we were kind ofjoking the other day about like
chores in the family here.
You know, like we pay the kids,you know, six $7 for their
chores and I remember, you know,going through and cleaning up
(09:52):
the house and helping out withstuff because we had to.
It was either she picked it upor I picked it up, like there is
no other option there's.
I'm not going to ask for money,I'm not gonna, you know, want
more.
And so I remember going tostores and things like that and
I'm sure I would ask for thingsfrom time to time, but I knew we
just didn't have much.
So it's just interesting howthe dynamic is so much different
in that relationship space whenit's a different dynamic.
(10:14):
So I say, yeah, definitelylasting.
It's kind of guided my life andchanged things.
I kind of from the verybeginning, like one story I
don't think I've actually sharedit, which is kind of odd but
when I got my tonsils out as akid, I lived in this one, you
know, this little one bedroomapartment and all I could do was
watch cartoons, because youknow you're all on drugs and
your throat hurts and all youcan do is really eat popsicles.
(10:35):
And we only had one TV, onesmall TV that was on the
opposite thing, opposite, youknow, floor of the apartment
from the bedroom.
So I remember my mom you knowshe's pretty tiny, she's trying
to drag this giant mattress downin front of the TV so I could
watch TV, eat popsicles and vegout.
And just her struggling andmanhandling this, this mattress,
(10:56):
to get it in appropriate placefor me to recover, and whatnot,
was just one of those thingsthat I I remember forever.
Yeah, that's what I would say,me and my mom against the world.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, thanks for sharing.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Awesome, yeah yeah.
Your first main pillar ismental health.
So how has mental healthinfluenced your journey as an
entrepreneur Massively?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
from both like balancing my own mental health,
but also like the reason why Istarted all of my business
journeys was because of mentalhealth and helping other people
with mental health.
So, as I mentioned before, Ihad severe social anxiety and
depression myself and got to thepoint where I almost jumped in
front of a train to end it all,and the friendship that I
(11:39):
mentioned earlier was a big partof me coming out of it.
And then another big part was IGoogled how to be happy and I
got introduced into personaldevelopment and learning
psychology by myself when I wasstill a very young kid, at 13.
And the reason why I had to dothat was because, being from a
small town in the Czech Republic, the mindset about mental
health was like that doesn'texist.
(11:59):
Don't be a little bitch, justget over it, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Whatever so I didn't yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So I didn't have the opportunity to go to any doctors
or therapy or use anymedication, even though in my
city there were psychologistsand psychiatrists.
But my family was just like, no, that doesn't exist, you don't
need any of that.
So I had to go on this bigjourney to do it myself.
And then I just studied reallyhard and started changing my
habits and doing things likejournaling and trying to
(12:24):
reprogram my brain and overcomebullying and do all that.
And then eventually, a fewyears in maybe about five, six
years in I just one day kind ofwoke up and I was like
remembering my life before.
But I discovered personaldevelopment and after and I'm
like, wow, I'm not depressedanymore, I don't absolutely hate
myself, I don't have anxietyattacks anymore, like, and I'm
(12:46):
not scared of people so much,I'm talking to strangers on
buses, I have good friends, I'mdoing very well in school, I was
like, wow, like this personaldevelopment thing, like
self-help, like it reallyabsolutely changed my life.
So I want to start sharing itand I want to help others
because I see so many peoplestill struggling, you know,
specifically with social anxiety.
That's really where I startedand, yeah, it was a the reason
why I became an entrepreneur tohelp others because I see so
many people still struggling,you know, specifically with
(13:07):
social anxiety.
That's really where I startedand, yeah, it was the reason why
I became an entrepreneur tohelp other people with mental
health.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
That's awesome.
So I hate to bring up a darkmoment, but I want to have like
real conversations here and tryand keep it as real as possible.
I think sometimes things getkind of sugarcoated along the
way.
So when you were thinking aboutyou know, know, throwing
yourself in front of a train,like can you kind of walk us
through the thoughts of thatdarkest moment, like what's kind
of going through?
(13:31):
There's just no hope, and canyou kind of walk us through what
you felt at that moment?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
yeah it there was.
It seemed like no hope, no wayout of it.
It seemed like everything andeverybody is just evil and that
the world is just meant like theonly thing that I can ever
experience in in the world issuffering and pain and struggle.
And it became, yeah, likereally really hopeless and
meaningless.
I think that was the biggestthing of feeling like there's
(13:57):
absolutely no point except justhating myself and hating my life
.
I I really, I guess a part ofme really directed towards me
because I felt like maybe Icould stand up for myself a
little bit more, maybe I couldsay something or maybe I could
fight back or maybe I could dosomething different, but I just
couldn't.
I couldn't get myself to dothat and my body was reacting in
(14:21):
a very physical way and withanxiety as well, and I would cry
almost every night, cry myselfto sleep of like I just don't
want to wake up, I don't want togo to school anymore, I don't
want to talk to my parents, Idon't want to see anybody and,
um, I think the meaninglessnessof it just felt the worst and
like it's never going to changeyeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
So someone that's in that dark moment, they they're
isolating, they're spiraling,they feel like there is nothing.
What was that moment?
Where was it a light bulb, orwhat was that transition?
Like, hey, I got a, you saidthe self-help, but can you walk
us through that moment whereit's like I got to, got to get
help, I got to fix this, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
I think it was after like a day of bullying.
When I came home I was justlike this fucking, what an awful
day again.
I just don't want to do thisanymore.
And a part of me, like I knewthat I don't really want to die.
I don't.
I know, I really don't.
I don't really want to killmyself.
And maybe that was because, youknow, part of me was like this
you know, my family is here,maybe there's some potential and
some parts of life I enjoy.
But it's just like there's thisoverwhelming pain.
(15:28):
And another part of me was likewhat's the point?
But then there was a small partof me like I know, I don't
really want to do that.
And I was also scared.
I was like scared of the painof actually jumping in front of
a train and something inside mewas just like okay, well, I have
to do something about this.
Like if I'm not going to doanything, nothing's going to
change.
(15:49):
I wish I could tell you, maybemore specifically, but I
remember two things that reallyimpacted me.
One of them is I was sodesperate and I Googled how to
be happy, and then another thingthat happened was that I
discovered videos of random actsof kindness, and the videos
were literally called restoringhope in humanity, which was what
I needed, and I don't rememberspecifically which one came
(16:11):
first if I first discovered thevideos, kind of randomly, or if
I Googled first and then that'swhat popped up as well, but
really it was just montages ofpeople, you know, doing random
acts of kindness, like helpingsomebody across the street, or
even something big like runninginto a building that's on fire
to save dog.
And the first time I watchedthose videos I just I cried my
eyes out for hours, justwatching hours and hours of the
(16:34):
content, and that became like mybeacon of light, because it
felt all like hopeless andmeaningless, like everything and
everybody is evil, just out toget me out, to hurt me.
And then I saw these people whowere doing these selfless, kind
, random acts and I thought,well, maybe there are amazing
people out there, maybe there isa different side to life and
(16:55):
humanity, and I just need to goout and find them and even
become one of them.
So then that's my world.
I want to hang out with thesepeople, so I've got to be one of
them.
And so that became my, my world,like I want to hang out with
these people, so I want to be.
I got to be one of them and sothat became my beacon of light
in a way that helped me pushthrough, because I had like,
okay, well, there's, I'm maybestuck here in the darkness, but
somewhere out here there'samazing people, there's amazing
(17:15):
communities and all this.
So that gave me the hope.
And then the Google search andthe personal development gave me
, like, the strategies and thetechniques of meditation and
journaling and running in themornings and all that to climb
out of that.
So it was the combination ofthe two really yeah, that's,
that's perfect.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Earlier I wanted to mention, like one of my favorite
phrases is you never know whatsomeone's going through or what,
whatever battles people aregoing through, and so I think
that's perfect, because you hadmentioned, you know your friend
getting abused and then thebullying that you were trying to
hide and, and so I think thatreally rolls into like the show
here and you know things likethat, just taking care of each
other.
It's always, or not always, butI feel like a lot of times it's
(17:53):
the smaller things.
I mean opening the door andsmiling and these things that
you're talking about.
You know helping each other.
I think that's how we getthrough this crazy thing called
life.
I mean, there's no owner'smanual, there's no directions,
like we just try our best and ifwe're going to help each other
along the way, it's just goingto make it better for ourselves,
and a lot of times you feelgood when you do it, so I mean
it's a win-win.
(18:13):
I don't know why there isn'tmore kindness and, you know,
more joy of helping each other.
Next question misconceptions ormyths people have about mental
health in high achieving spaceslike entrepreneurship.
What are misconceptions?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
about mental health.
I think a part of it might bestill what my parents told me
like it doesn't matter, itdoesn't exist, just get over it.
No, just kind of sweep it underthe rug, work over it more,
hide your emotions.
You don't have to deal withthat, you just have to work,
work, work.
Whereas if you create more of abalance with your emotional
(18:52):
control, you will be moreproductive and more effective in
work and the way youcommunicate and your output and
all that.
So I think that might be a bigmisconception that it doesn't
impact the performance.
Another misconception might beis that when somebody's doing
really well success wise, likefrom the outside, that means
that they're just doing wellmentally as well.
We find out more and more thatthat's not reality.
(19:16):
There might be people who mighthave it all from the outside
the money, the house, thesuccess, the business, the girls
or the amazing wife and allthis but then internally they're
still suffering.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
So that might be a big misconception as well.
The definition of success is avery difficult thing.
I think the way that theoutward world defines it is
probably not as accurate.
I feel like the people thathave the cars and the money are
usually the ones having the mostproblems yeah, what do you
think, what do you see asmisconceptions about mental
health?
that's what I was gonna say.
In that high achieving space,like I know in my current role,
(19:50):
like I'm in a leadership role,and so it's one thing that's
always kind of bugged me whereit's like when you're in the
leadership role, likeeverything's figured out and you
know.
It's interesting how, whenyou're in different levels of
you know the business ororganization, like usually the
lower levels, which I hate touse like hierarchical because I
think we're, you know, allimportant and things like that.
So I don't really mean it upand down necessarily, but in the
(20:11):
lower sections for lack of abetter term it's like you know
how are you guys doing andgetting checked on.
It seems like the higher youget, it's like no one ever
checks.
You're the boss, you're theleader, like you got it all
squared away and it's like youknow we're all right, like we
all got wives and kids that youknow have troubles and things
are going on, or you knowsickness, or you know there's so
(20:33):
many different things that aregoing on in the world.
There's so much good, like yousaid, in the world, but there's
also still all the things wehave to push through and
struggles Always just kind of abizarre thing to me where it's
like if you are in a differentposition or if you're having
success, you know, whatever thatmay be, it's like oh, got it
all figured out.
I try to do that in my sections,like after a few months I try
(20:53):
to go through like I lost my dadand my grandparents and I
co-parent and I went through adivorce and I went through these
things, you know, and I'm likeI'm not trying to be a Debbie
Downer like bring down the moon.
So I usually don't do it rightoff the bat because I don't want
to freak anybody out.
But you know, three or fourmonths into having a section and
whatnot, I kind of go throughthat and I hope it's like
bridging the gap, because a lotof times we hear at work like
(21:14):
open door policy, like you cancome in and talk to me whenever
you want, but I a lot of timesI've never felt like I could not
because the physical doorwasn't open.
The physical door was open butI wasn't sure like this person
seemed like they did have itsquared away or I didn't know
enough about them to.
I'm not going to tell you mymessiness if I don't know enough
about you or have thatconnection.
(21:35):
So I try to put out some ofthose things like hey, I've been
through some stuff, and againI'm not saying like I've been
through your thing so I'll solveit and I'll fix it.
I'm just saying I've beenthrough some stuff.
It might be a parallel, butlike I'll listen and we'll
figure out like how to moveforward.
Or maybe it's just to vent andget some words out and then we
need to go on our way and maybenever talk about it again.
I don't know which directionit's going to go, but I will
(21:56):
definitely sit in the space withyou and listen.
But I think that's probably thebiggest thing.
Like success, leadership, youknow these different things.
It's like, oh, I got it allfigured out, when that is
definitely not the case.
I was wondering from you know,being your own boss and you're
running the company and you'removing around, you'd mention,
like how do you manage stressand avoid burnout?
You don't have, I'm assuming,set hours and you're the one
(22:17):
kind of making sure thingshappen.
So how do you manage stress andavoid burnout while you're
building and working throughthat business?
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah, Great question Again.
Funny enough, meditationbecomes a big part of it, and
meditation in, I guess, twospecific ways.
First is like an actual sitdown meditation, like what you
hear, what you imagine that,like an actual sit down
meditation, like what you hear,what you imagine that you, when
you hear meditation, right, likemost people just probably think
about okay, let me sit downcross leg like, and like, just
like meditate, right.
I would also say meditationthroughout the day, which to me
(22:47):
means being present, right, soliving, trying to live in the
moment.
Because a lot of the stressmostly comes from your mind,
being stuck in the past or inthe future, right, so we're
overthinking what might happenor what is going to happen in
the future, or we're reminiscingabout what happened in the past
and we start to get stuck inregret and all of this, oh my
God, I should have done this orshould have done that, right.
(23:09):
And that's what creates more ofthe pressure, whereas if you
just focus on being present inthe moment, that stress just
goes away.
And then people sometimes sayfeel your emotions, right, like,
don't try and push youremotions away, but feel your
emotions, and to that I neverreally understood that and then,
finally, it clicked for me andI created a little bit of a I
(23:32):
guess nuance Instead of feelingmy emotions, I say feel the
sensations.
Right, so your emotion is madeup of physical sensations, right
?
So I was like what do you mean?
I'm feeling really stressed,I'm feeling the stress.
What do you mean?
Feel the stress?
Right, like I'm already feelingit.
What else do you want me to do?
Whereas when I made thedistinction about feeling the
(23:52):
sensations, I was like, well,what's the sensation?
My heart is beating really fast, okay, that's, I can feel that
directly.
My hands are jittery, right.
My arms may be like a littlebit shaky, right, I feel like
pressure in my shoulders, forexample, right.
And I found that when I do that,when I feel the sensations of
what's creating that emotion, Iget more present with it and it
(24:15):
just starts to dissipate andthat pressure, that stress goes
away.
And again, that ties both intopracticing that as a sit-down
meditation once a day, or onceevery two days or something like
that, and then just doing thisthroughout your day, like, as an
example, I might sit down to mycomputer, I might look at my
to-do list and I'm like, oh myGod, I have like 10 things to do
.
I get overwhelming, I getstressed about should I do this
one first, or should I do thatone first?
(24:36):
Or if I do this one first, thenit's going to be this hard.
And if I do that one first, ohright.
And instead of just looking atthe to-do list and trying to
force myself to work right away,in that moment I'm just going
to get present, take a few deepbreaths, maybe connect with with
my heart a little bit and thenstart working from that space,
and it's infinitely easier.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, I think that's good.
I think I've gotten hung up onthat.
I'm sure other people have too.
On meditation, you're like oh,I got to cross my legs, I got to
sit in this spot, I need tolight an incense and I got to
make sure I'm playing the rightmusic and it's got to sound like
a spa in here or something, andI think it's a really good
reminder.
I'm glad you brought that up.
Like it looks different.
What works for you work throughit.
You know if it's one minute orfive minutes or 30 minutes, or
(25:21):
you know you process the thingsthat you need to process and you
process it in the way you needto.
But I think the term is, youknow, kind of like oh, it's just
hippie stuff, it's just kind ofcrazy, it's like it is whatever
it needs to be for you, and soit can look in a lot of
different ways.
I like that.
Your next pillar is socialhealth.
So how do strong relationshipscontribute to personal and
(25:42):
professional success?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, Social health is one of my favorite topics
these days and something thatI'm very excited about exploring
more deeply as well this year.
And it ties back into you know,when I started thinking about
this.
It ties back into my first realfriendship, which is I already
mentioned her a few times likethe friendship where I didn't
have to pretend anymore, likewhere I could actually just
(26:05):
share and be myself and wedidn't really have a device to
give each other right, but justhaving that space where I didn't
have to pretend anymore and Icould be myself.
And it sounds like buzzwords,but when you're really
experienced it's like, wow, okay, this is what people mean.
This is why people say thesebuzzwords.
It's different to hear it andthen to actually live it.
(26:27):
And then it makes everythingelse so much easier and lighter
and better.
And I think we are in the end.
We are social creatures, right,and we evolved to be social.
And especially these days, andespecially in entrepreneurship
and when people are gettingstarted as solopreneurs, we
(26:47):
isolate and we think we have tomanage and handle everything
ourselves, and that's whatcreates so much extra stress and
so much extra anxiety anddepression and isolation.
And so just bring it up, theconversation and the ideas of
like, hey, how are yourrelationships?
Do you actually have strong,healthy friendships and are you
maintaining the relationshipwith yourself?
(27:09):
I think that's really importantto talk about.
And these days, you know, withsocial media, like people
replaced their social habits ofjust going to chat with a friend
with scrolling on their socialmedia, right, and it kind of
taps into similar parts of thebrain, maybe because you see
faces, you see other peopledoing things, right, so it gives
(27:29):
you a little illusion of socialinteraction, but then in
reality it just leaves you moreisolated and empty.
You know how do you feel whenyou finish your three hour
scrolling session?
Shit, right, yeah that's roughso go ahead.
Yeah, so it ties into it and Ithink having strong
relationships in and from thefriend, the places and the
(27:49):
friends where you can fully beyourself and be authentic,
really right, that's whatimpacts the stress levels and
connection and more meaning inlife and makes everything easier
.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, I think sometimes we think we need to
say the right thing or, you know, sometimes you don't got to say
anything at all if you got thatright connection.
I wanted to know earlier yousaid you had struggled with
networking and things like thatand being more isolated and
feeling awkward and things likethat, and being more isolated
and feeling awkward and thingslike that.
So what advice do you have forentrepreneurs that do struggle
with networking?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
yeah, I like to look at it as a video game.
Well, I mean, everything, my,my whole mindset about life is
like life is like a video game,but specifically, this can be
like a quest or as a video gamemetaphor.
If you're really struggling,you look at it as like in levels
.
Right, that's where the videogame metaphor comes in.
So, let's say, your main goal,what you really want to do, is
you want to be able to walk intoa networking event and hear a
(28:42):
speaker and be like reallyconfident, walk up to the
speaker hey, I really reallyloved your speech and this was
amazing and connect with themand then shake everybody's hand
and reintroduce yourself reallyconfidently.
But then the reality is likeyou can't.
You feel like you can't do thatbecause you're really shy and
your body starts being reallynervous and shaky.
Right, your heart beats, yourheart beats faster and you just
(29:03):
don't.
You don't know what to say andthings like that, right.
Well, so that might be yourlevel 10 where you want to get
to, but if you're at level one,where you can't even talk to a
normal stranger at a normal likein a coffee shop, then you
might want to start there, right.
So for me that journey was likeI couldn't basically couldn't
speak to anybody, and I startedby chatting with people on
social media and on apps.
(29:23):
I just started texting peopleand then I got a little bit and
I still felt really scared if Iwas just like, oh my god, like,
what if they're gonna hate me?
What if I say the wrong thing?
What if I ask, ask the wrongquestion?
What if they're going to beannoyed that I'm trying to text
them right, like even withinthat?
So I got over those little fearsover there and then, once I got
more comfortable, I startedsending voice messages.
Once I got more comfortablewith that, I started doing phone
(29:44):
calls and then video calls andthen and then I started talking
to strangers on buses and then Istarted joining groups and then
I started being on events andthen speaking on stages.
I saw like you start withsomething that's a little
outside of your comfort zone andyou train yourself there, you
get more confident, comfortable,you build the skills, you build
the confidence and then youlevel up and then eventually,
(30:04):
within a few months and years,you're going to be speaking on
the stage delivering a speechand be like the confident person
you want it to be.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
That's awesome, that's a good one.
I'm going to have to rememberthat, because I think we talk
about, you know, short-termgoals, long-term goals and one
year and five year and thingslike that, and we all know we
need goals, but it sounds kindof boring.
But when you put it in levels,I mean that sounds a lot cooler.
I think a lot of us gravitatetowards game theory and
achieving things and having funalong the way, and so I love the
(30:32):
idea of going through that.
I like the idea of like steppingup through the levels too,
because I think that is anotherthing we want to do A lot of
times.
We want to do the big thingfirst, whatever.
That is for some reason, like Iwant to go right up and talk to
the president of the company.
It's like are you really?
You probably don't want tostart there, but I feel like we
don't do a very good job of the,the consistency, the small
(30:55):
things.
Along the way.
You got to do it a hundredtimes before you can do the next
thing, and so that levelingconcept I think is really good,
because you stay consistent anddo the small things and then you
can kind of get to the nextlevel and then you know
consistently do that and thenmove on.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
I think that's really good yeah, I also like the
again to like make the metaphorvery sticky and specific.
If you start playing a game andyou're at level one, you can,
you, and you try to beat theboss at level 10, where you're
going to get your ass kicked andprobably never want to play the
game again.
Right, because your character,you're not ready for it, you
don't have the skills, you don'thave the experience, you don't
(31:29):
have the equipment or whateverit is that is in that specific
game, right, but like you said,in life we just think that we
can go from level one to level10, be really down with it, you
know, but it's like no, youactually have to go through
levels.
And I see that as, like,specifically with overcoming
social anxiety, people make thatmistake all the time.
They're like hey, I want to.
I'm really sure I can't speakto anybody, but I'm gonna stop
(31:49):
picking up girls on a on a beatand then they go and try to talk
to one girl.
They get rejected, they burnout, they embarrass themselves
really badly and they're likeI'm never doing that again.
Yeah, you went too far gottaease into it.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I'm curious with, uh, you talked about, like the
different apps and things likethat, like what do you do now
that you're more secure andthings like that?
Do you gravitate towards likemore video calls, or do you
still have a balance of, youknow, text and email and how do
you kind of balance?
Because you had talked aboutsocial media and things like
that.
So I'm curious, like thedigital communication, what's
(32:22):
the best kind of balance there?
At some point you have to sendemails because it's faster, but
you know what's that balancelook like for you it's I'm using
all of the different channelsand I do.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
I do dms, I do texts, I do emails, I do voice
messages.
Every now and then I'm going tosend a video message as well.
I do phone calls, I do videocalls.
Yeah, all of the above itdoesn't matter to me.
It's more so like what I feelis the most effective tool for
that moment.
Sometimes, when I'm runningaround between meetings and
events, I'm going to just send aquick voice message.
(32:55):
If I'm sitting down at mycomputer, I'm going to just send
a quick voice message.
If I'm sitting down at mycomputer, I'm going to usually
text and and um and just chat,and then I do lots and lots of
video calls and online meetingson video.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
So yeah, that makes sense.
I think you already kind oftouched on it, but maybe expand
a little bit.
What do you think the role ofcommunity is, and personal and
business success?
Speaker 2 (33:15):
well, let's start with the personal thing.
In the personal it kind of tiesback into the social health and
if you have a and the quotethat we've all heard you become
the average of the five or threepeople you hang out with the
most right.
So the people that you hang outwith, they're going to have a
huge influence on you.
So if you hang out with reallypositive people who have healthy
(33:35):
habits, who go to, who gorunning, you're much more likely
to become you're probably goingto become a runner, right.
If you hang out with runners,if you hang out with really
positive people who have healthyhabits, who go to, who go
running, you're much more likelyto become you're probably going
to become a runner, right, ifyou hang out with runners.
If you hang out with people whowatch the news and complain
about the economy, you're goingto become a person who complains
about the economy.
So your community and and yourcommunity shapes who you are
becoming right, especially thepeople who are closest to your
(33:57):
closest community.
So you've got to be reallycareful and you've got to
structure it in an intentionalway and with business it becomes
similar, it becomes similar,but also there's more
opportunities, right, like so inbusiness it's all based on
relationships.
It's all based on who you knowand what kind of opportunities
you get from collaborating andcontributing to other people.
(34:19):
So the better community youhave, the better network and the
better relationships you have,better opportunities you will
have, more opportunities youwill have, and that's how more
business is done.
That's something that I didn'tunderstand as a kid.
I thought that go, it's just.
You know, I had no idea likewhat business was and I was
watching.
I was watching watching CaseyNeistat and his vlogs as he was
(34:41):
building his businesses and hewas like, yeah, today I'll have
this meeting and this meeting.
He was like going around NewYork City from meeting to
meeting and I remember watchingand I was like what the hell is
he doing on all these meetings?
Like what's happening right,and these days it's funny
because my life is like so muchabout meetings and so much about
like event here, a podcast here, a coaching session here, a
(35:02):
sales meeting here, a meeting totalk about a festival that
we're starting, a meeting totalk about a local business,
that we might be starting ameetup here, right, and
networking here, and it's allabout meetings and so now I'm
like understanding it.
That's like the community andthe relationships that you have
will equal the opportunity thatyou will have.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
I find it interesting too, because I know a lot of
people are like I hate meetingsand we make the joke like hey,
this email could have been, orthis meeting could have been an
email, and things like that.
And I think that's true to acertain extent.
But on some of the projectswhere there's a contention or
like things are stuck, I'venoticed if I pull people
together and we have a meeting,there is something about someone
(35:40):
sitting across the table fromyou.
They want to help you a littlemore.
They feel like maybe pressureor you know, they feel like they
got to come through for you.
If it's on the other end of anemail like, hey, could you get
this back to me?
You know, sometimes they do andsometimes they don't.
There's some type of ownershipand responsibility when you're
at that thing.
So I know you know we joke likewe hate meetings.
(36:02):
But there is something I thinkback to, like you said, social
creatures, right, like that'show we were built.
We were supposed to go and plowthe fields and hunt and bring
it back for everyone, and so Ithink that's a yeah, I think
that's really important toremember.
Like meetings are important,maybe we to remember like
(36:24):
meetings are important maybe wedo have too many, but they
definitely do get things doneand the last pillar you have is
entrepreneurship.
So I'm curious what?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
are some of the biggest mindset shifts you've
made along the way.
A few of the biggest ones wasexchanging value to time for
time instead of exchanging valuefor money instead of time for
money.
So, to give you a little bit ofcontext, I grew up in a working
class of factory workers.
Basically everybody in myfamily is used to working in
factories steel factoriesspecifically and so my mom would
(36:48):
literally tell me the only waythat you'll ever make money in
this world is by exchanging yourtime in the factory for getting
the paycheck, and maybe thebest you can hope for is getting
your time to be more valuableand being in an office rather
than on the factory floor, right?
So it was all about justexchanging time that you put in
(37:10):
for the money for the paycheckthat you get, whereas
entrepreneurs operate inexchanging value for money.
Right, and it might take timeto create the value.
In other instances, it mightknow that it takes time to
create the value.
Once you create a product andthen you sell it over and over
again, you're not selling thetime that you took to create the
product, you're selling thevalue of the product.
(37:31):
So that was a big one.
That was a big one for me.
Another big one for me.
Blanking out a little bit, Iactually, funny enough, I made a
video like the entrepreneurthinking versus, or business
thinking versus, employeethinking recently, because I
came from being an employee, sothis is something that I do
think about a lot, but the timeis definitely a huge one.
(37:53):
I'm trying to get my brain tosnap back into remembering what
it was.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Oh, it's all good, we can move on.
But I do like that though,because I know I've seen bosses
get mad if someone leaves likeright on the clock and things
like that.
And it's always somethingthat's always kind of bugged me
a little bit, because I've seensomeone that comes in, they set
their prior for the day and thenthey work from 730 to 430.
They get all the things doneand they leave right on the dot
because they move through theirchecklist and they're done.
(38:20):
And then I've also seen peoplethat stay until five or six
o'clock at night and they walkedaround most of the day with a
coffee cup.
It didn't really get much done,but oh, they stayed until six.
That's so good, like theydidn't do anything.
And so it's weird to me that wehad one boss of just kind of sit
by the door and like almostphysically tap his watch, like
(38:40):
oh, you know, watching the clock, like that.
I'm like that is bizarre, likewhy don't you go check and see
what the two different peoplegot done?
Because there is no correlation.
You could be the most efficientor the worst efficient, and the
amount of time is notcorrelated at all.
Like I mean, I guess you camein and worked for an hour.
Maybe that's like you know toofar, but maybe I mean if you get
it all done.
Another question I had for youis you know, in the terms of
(39:05):
success we talked about andwell-being, how do you balance
ambition and wanting to getthings done with your own
well-being?
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah, I think part of it and this is something I
think comes up probably a lot aswell is a morning routine right
.
Part of it is is definitelylike in a morning routine, and
I've always tried to structuremy morning routine based on what
I need the most.
We just had a conversationabout this specifically with my
friend and roommate who we'redoing this call, we're living
(39:30):
with, because, like, we kind ofwant to correlate and do morning
routines together but we havedifferent goals and different
needs for it, so so it doesn'tmake much sense.
But, generally speaking, findtime to take care of your body,
find time to take care of yourmind and those are like the main
ones and of course, of yoursoul and all that.
That again ties back intomeditation and you can fit that
(39:51):
into a 20 minute, 30 minutemorning routine.
So then you take care ofyourself first and then you can
go out there and take care ofother people and take care of
everybody else.
Now I'll actually tie this backinto.
I remember the differencebetween business and employee
mindset is that a lot of thetimes employees, they just go to
work to get their paycheckright, so they're thinking about
(40:12):
the reason why I'm doing thisis to get a paycheck, whereas a
lot of the times entrepreneurs,especially big entrepreneurs,
tend to think about solvingproblems.
Right, like I want to solveproblems for people, and they
get a kick, or they enjoy thesolution of problems, not just
doing it for the paycheck andthey get paid to solve problems.
As entrepreneurs, we tend toalways solve other people's
(40:34):
problems and solve problems forother people, and a lot of the
times we tend to forget abouttaking care of ourselves.
But I'm another metaphor thatprobably might get a little bit
overused, and you've heardbefore you gotta put on your own
oxygen mask first before youput oxygen masks on the people,
right?
So you have to take care ofyourself first, otherwise you're
not able to solve otherpeople's problems anymore if
(40:56):
you're not taking care ofyourself yeah, I always like the
visual of you can't pour froman empty cup.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
That's another good one I like.
Like you can't, there's nothingin it, the cup is empty.
Last question inentrepreneurship, what lessons
have you learned about failureand how do you bounce back?
Speaker 2 (41:10):
I would say, failure can be only like temporary
defeat if you don't give up.
Right, and there's always alesson in failing.
There's always a lesson infailure and it's something that
the faster you fail and thefaster you bounce back, the
faster you'll actually learn.
And I think the biggest reasonwhy people are scared to fail is
(41:31):
because a big part of it isprobably school systems.
Right, how they teach us to.
You have to over-prepare,otherwise you're going to fail.
And if you fail like failing isthe worst thing and you get
punished for failing, right, youget shamed and your parents
punish you if you fail your examor something like that.
Right, and in entrepreneurship,if you study entrepreneurs and
business people or people whoare very successful, even
(41:54):
employees who've been verysuccessful in climbing the ranks
and creating a great life forthemselves within a company they
go through failures and they'renot really afraid of it.
Right, they fail and they learnfrom it.
So if you are worried and ifyou're scared of failing, great
way to overcome that is exposuretherapy.
If you fail one time and you'vegot shame for it, then it's
(42:15):
going to be really painful, it'sgoing to hurt.
But if you fail 50 times andyou're still okay, then you're
like oh okay, well, just anotherone, what can I learn?
And you move through it right.
So I think the more you fail,the easier it becomes to fail
and the easier it becomes tobounce back and learn from it.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
Yeah, it was interesting watching some of the
interviews with Elon, when therockets are coming back in and
hitting the ground and exploding, and everyone was like you know
you failed and I can't believeyou hit the ground.
And he didn't seem phased atall.
He's like let's send up anotherone, we'll figure out what went
wrong and move on.
So good example of you know therocket blew up, but we'll try
to do better on the next one andI think that's really all you
(42:52):
can do, right, like make lessmistakes than the time before
that.
The time before, that's whatyou got to focus on.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
So, andre, let's try to bring it all together.
What's one thing listeners cando today to improve their mental
and social health whilepursuing their goals for their
own business?
Wonderful, I would say that youcan try doing a social health
checklist that I created is likethree, three daily small tasks
that you can do that you can dodaily and you can start today
and see how it goes.
So one of them is aboutyourself, the relationship with
yourself, which is journaling orwriting or focusing with the
(43:25):
meditation, or you can do thisin the mirror.
In the mirror, three thingsthat you are proud of, three
things that you are grateful forand three things that you
forgive.
Right these three by three,basically, and it's it's really
very powerful for reshaping andtaking care of the relationship
you have with yourself and withyour brain.
Second is the social healthaspect and deepening the
(43:45):
relationships and staying intouch with people, which is
writing a short gratitude list,gratitude letter or a message to
somebody, somebody that youappreciate, that you have in
your life, whether that's apartner, a business partner, a
family or a friend.
Write a short appreciation,gratitude letter to them, and
it's great for you, it's greatfor them as well.
And then, third is more so forgrowing your network and growing
(44:07):
your confidence outside, andthat can be give a compliment to
a stranger, or wave at threestrangers and say hello to three
strangers, or send messages tothe random people that you see
on Facebook to give them acompliment if you're not going
outside at all.
But, generally speaking, it'sbest to do it in person.
And so these three things as achecklist to do daily, or just
start today and see how you feelafter it.
(44:28):
I recommend to maintain mentaland social health.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Perfect.
Well, thank you for coming out.
I'd love your input.
Share your questions orfeedback on Instagram, facebook,
tiktok, youtube or anywhere youget your wonderful podcasts.
Please leave a review, if youcan, let me know how it's going.
I'd love to see a couple fivestars fly up.
Well, thank you much for comingout.
I love you all.
See ya, thank you.
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