The Dark Side of Discipline with Craig Ballantyne

What if the discipline that made you successful is also holding you back? In this episode, Joey and Drew sit down with Craig Ballantyne, author of The Dark Side of Discipline, to discuss the fine line between discipline as a tool for success and discipline as a trap. Craig shares how he learned the hard way that too much structure can become a prison, impacting relationships, creativity, and even personal freedom. He breaks down his definition of true discipline, how to recognize when it's working against you, and why so many high performers push themselves to unhealthy extremes. He also shares insights from his writing process, his journey to quitting alcohol, and the importance of accountability and community in self-improvement. Tune in for a raw and insightful conversation that will challenge the way you think about discipline.

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Episode Transcript

Craig Ballantyne (00:00):
This dark side is generally seen in us

(00:03):
ambitious people. In the Eagles.Right? It's in the Eagles. The
phrase I use in the book is wildhorses.
You know, you the old phrase isyou can lead a horse to water,
you can't make it drink. Not thewild horse.

Joey Bowen (00:15):
Welcome to the Fuel Hunt Show. What's going on,
Eagles? Welcome to the Fuel HuntShow. Today, Drew and I are
joined by the world's mostdisciplined man. Again, again,
Craig Ballantyne, a friend, oneof the few, and, a repeat guest
now on the show, which is likewe should we should have brought
a gift for you, Craig, for this.

Drew Beech (00:35):
Our first one. Our first one.

Craig Ballantyne (00:37):
Well, you guys you guys are doing me a huge
favor. You're making amazing Tshirts for my event that's
coming up. You have for youknow, I'm I'm wearing one right
now. This is a custom Fuel HuntT shirt, and I saw that you guys
are doing this regularly now. Soanybody that runs an event, you
know, you got 30 people comingto something.
I don't know what your minimumis, but, know, just get get

(00:58):
these really quality shirts.Like, we have people who see our
mastermind members wearing them.We get messages all the time.
Where can I get one of these?I'm like, nope.
You can't get one.

Joey Bowen (01:07):
Fair.

Craig Ballantyne (01:07):
So we appreciate you guys.

Drew Beech (01:09):
The Craig no problem, Craig. But the Craig
the Craig mantras are are fire.

Joey Bowen (01:14):
Are fire. On fire, man. On fire. Yeah. We're doing
a lot of work for, you know,major hotel change.
You just do schools, obviously,events. Like, it's been great.

Craig Ballantyne (01:23):
What do you do for the hotel change?

Joey Bowen (01:24):
So we actually just did so we'll do tees and, you
know, shirts, hoodies, thingslike that. But one of the more
exciting projects we just didfor Lowe's Hotel, we made boxing
gloves, custom boxing gloves,leather 12 ounce boxing gloves
for a women's event, leadershipevent. And we also assisted in
like setting up a ring. It wasit was pretty cool.

Craig Ballantyne (01:45):
Wow. That's pretty So so the hotel will come
to you and say, hey, thisperson's having an event. They
want some gear, but we theydon't know where to get it done?

Joey Bowen (01:52):
Exactly. Yeah. A lot of our yeah. And most of our
business that we do is throughreferrals. It's Yeah.
You know, few people in ourcommunity that have our gear
love it and say, we want this atour school or at our event. You
know?

Craig Ballantyne (02:06):
Yeah. Listen. It's no joke. These t shirts are
quality. They're comfortable.
And, you know, this there's interms of buying clothes, there's
not much worse when you buy it.You know, you buy a t shirt to
get given a t shirt, and itfeels like you're putting on a
cardboard box, man. Mhmm. Yeah.Like, don't understand.
What planet are these peoplecoming from? Like, where do they
get this cotton or whatever itis? But it's so it's so brutal.

(02:29):
Yeah. Was Like, how hard can itbe?

Drew Beech (02:30):
Those heavyweight cotton T shirts, though, are
becoming a trend now. Like, theone Joey has on is a heavyweight
cotton. Yep. And, like But,obviously, you

Craig Ballantyne (02:39):
can keep your trend.

Joey Bowen (02:40):
Yeah.

Craig Ballantyne (02:41):
You can keep your trend in America. I'm gonna
wear real three T shirts up herein Canada.

Joey Bowen (02:46):
We do it. We do the oversized tees right now.
They're they're still soft. Theyhave, like, a nice drape nice
drape to them. Not like thoseones you get.
They feel like you're wearing, aburlap sack. You know what I
mean? It's terrible. Terrible.Alright.
Well, I appreciate I appreciatethe big up, Craig. But we're we
are here. We are here to talkabout something very important,
and that is your new book, TheDark Side of Discipline. I feel

(03:09):
like I need to I love the title,but I feel like I need to say it
with that type of intonation.Like, I need to

Craig Ballantyne (03:14):
realize Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. That's fair.
That's very fair.
Like, how else could youpossibly

Joey Bowen (03:20):
Right. Exactly. Exactly. So before we get into
the book, why don't you tell thecommunity your definition of
discipline? I've said it on theshow multiple times before.
I think it's probably the mostaccurate definition of
discipline that I've ever heard.So why don't we start there?

Craig Ballantyne (03:37):
I appreciate that. And, you know, I must have
hacked it from, like, EOS.Right? Because EOS, Entrepreneur
Operating Systems, has theirlevel 10 meeting, and, you know,
maybe that was ingrained in mybrain. But eventually, I just
came up with this definition ofdiscipline that keeps it simple.
You have a level 10 problem inyour life. First of all, you
have to identify the level 10problem. And then the ultimate
definition of discipline in yourlife is putting a level 10

(04:00):
effort into your level 10problem. And everything else is
just entertainment, and that'sthat's really it. So, you know,
you can use the wordopportunity, level 10
opportunity.
You know, in business, sometimesat a level 10, a part two
opportunity comes along. And yougotta take you gotta put a level
10 effort into it to to reallyleverage it. Now it's it makes

(04:20):
sense. People get it, but mostpeople still won't do it because
it's it is hard.

Joey Bowen (04:25):
Yeah. For sure. For sure. What, so elaborate a
little bit into how you chosethe title of the book and what
exactly the dark side of thatdiscipline is.

Craig Ballantyne (04:35):
Yeah. So there's a phrase that that goes,
you can't write the book untilyou've lived the book. You can't
write the book until you'velived the book. And so what that
means is everything in the book,you you know, most books are
about like, hey. This is aproblem.
Here's how to solve it. Well, Ihave all had all the problems.
So I used to once beundisciplined, you know, a binge

(04:56):
shrinker, you know, regular kidwho didn't really wanna do too
much hard work. And, eventually,I used discipline to become my
savior, help me overcome myintroverted tendencies. You
know, if you if you would havemet me when I first met Bea and
then met me five years later,you'd be like, man, that guy's a
different person.
And then you meet me five fiveyears later after that, you'd be
like, man, that guy's adifferent person again. And

(05:16):
always two point o, three pointo, four point o, whatever as as
Bedros says. So discipline wasmy savior. But then there's a
very fine line where you canswing the discipline pendulum
too far, and all of a sudden,discipline becomes your enemy,
and it can put you in a prison.And I started seeing this in the

(05:38):
last five years.
You know, maybe I saw it beforeCOVID, but I really started to
write about it and talk aboutit, you know, when everyone was
kinda went through lockdown andall the weirdness and stuff. And
people were just going too far.And, you know, there's one way
of going too far where the goodgets in the way of the great. So
you build this like three hourmorning routine and it stops you

(05:59):
from, you know, writing the bookthat you've always claimed you
wanna write. Okay.
So the good, the morningroutine, there's lots of good
stuff in there, but it's gettingin the way of the great, this
book that is inside of you, deepin your soul. Alright? Now
there's a really there's also areally destructive version of
it, which I saw in in multipleof my friends. And since I've

(06:19):
gone on multiple shows talkingabout the book, I've heard this
from, you know, like Nick Kuz Ican't even say his name. You
know, Nick Kuzmilatus.

Joey Bowen (06:28):
Kamalatsu. Yeah.

Craig Ballantyne (06:29):
Yeah. Kamalatsu. You know, he said the
same thing, man. He's like, Iwish I had this book five years
ago when I was going down thedark side of discipline. Mhmm.
And this dark side is generallyseen in us ambitious people. In
the Eagles. Right? It's in theEagles. The phrase I use in the
book is wild horses.
You know, you the old phrase isyou can lead a horse to water,
you can't make drink. Not thewild horse. The wild horse, the

(06:53):
ambitious horse, you know, youcan lead it to water. It will
drink all the water, snort allthe oats, it will run around
until it's exhausted Mhmm.Trying everything because you
and I, everybody listening, wewant it all.
We wanna have it all. We wannado it all. We wanna be the
champion of it all and I get itand I love it. But sometimes we
take things too far andeverything in life, everything

(07:14):
good in life can there can betoo much of it. And sometimes
everything good can kill you.
You guys know that water cankill you. Right? Mhmm. Like if
you drink too much?

Joey Bowen (07:24):
Of course.

Craig Ballantyne (07:25):
You can drink too much water. And you know, so
water is the thing that keeps usalive. But if you go too far and
you drink too much water, youthen dilute the sodium in your
bloodstream, it messes up theelectrical conduction of your
heart. You basically have aheart attack. It's crazy.
Right? And so it's the same withdiscipline. And I went too far
with discipline in my life. Youknow, when I was when I was
really hanging around Bedrosbetween, like, 02/2011, '2

(07:49):
thousand '16, you know, I had anexercise streak of a thousand
days, exercising in the, like,the weirdest places, you know,
sacrificing social time to goand keep this ex exercise streak
going. And for what?
You know? In the end, I lost outon more than I gained. And
fortunately, I didn't loseanything major in my life, but I
know people who have actuallyhad their marriages not only

(08:11):
affected but ended by going toofar with this. You know, they've
gone and done all the challengesand they spent half their day
doing that and then half theirday with their head in their
phone running their business.And they've neglected the great,
which is their wife and theirkids.
And then it's over. And and youjust sit there and you go, oh my
god. What did I do? We've allhad those moments in our life
where we were like, oh my god.What did I just do?

Joey Bowen (08:33):
I'm in I'm in too deep. Yeah. I'm in

Craig Ballantyne (08:35):
too deep. Yeah. And so that's the dark
side. You know, it's anotherimagery for it is a is a double
edged sword. I actually wasplaying around.
I didn't come up with the coveridea. My my publisher, Carrie
Oberbrunner, did. He's anamazing dude. But I I wanted to
put like a sword on the front.Right?
Because it's a double edgedsword. It can be it can be your
lifeline. Right? Like you're analcoholic, you're overweight. A

(08:58):
lot of people listening to thismay have been in a situation
where discipline was the savioras it was for me.
But then discipline can cut youback and and that's the thing
that I want people to be awareof and then I want people to
customize their disciplineplans, their systems, their
identity, and their standards soit serves them. There's a line

(09:18):
in the book I've gotten a lot offeedback about which is, you
know, just saying when you'redoing all these things, ask
yourself, does it serve you? Orare you serving it? And if
you're serving it, you've lostyour freedom and you're in the
discipline prison. If if thehabit, the challenge, the ice
bath, the working out, thejujitsu, if all of that is
serving you, by all means,leverage it.

(09:41):
But if you're serving it, stopit.

Joey Bowen (09:44):
For sure. For sure. So let's talk about the process
of the book. So this isn't yourfirst book, obviously. I have a
staple in my library here at HQ,obviously.

Craig Ballantyne (09:54):
Love it.

Joey Bowen (09:55):
Changed my life. So was the process of writing The
Dark Side of Discipline anydifferent than your other books?

Craig Ballantyne (10:03):
Yeah. So there was a couple of things I wanted
to do. I wanna keep it shorterthan the other ones because I
know as a as a person who has200 unread books in their house,
I just do. Yeah. I just buyeverything.
I hear about a book. I buy it.You know, I can probably build a
second house out of books.

Drew Beech (10:21):
Live two bookshelves to the to the left and right.
Man, I've I've only read noteven half.

Joey Bowen (10:26):
I I had that problem, then I bought a Kindle,
and it made the problem worse.Because now I have $200 of
Kindle too. Right? So

Craig Ballantyne (10:33):
Now it's easier.

Joey Bowen (10:34):
We got you.

Craig Ballantyne (10:35):
Right. I just bought Jason I just bought Jason
Redmond's new book, and I willread it. But, you know, I don't
wanna go into the Kindledustbin. So so so first of all,
the fact is that most peoplewon't read them. Those that do
will not get get past the firstchapter.
So some of the things that meand my co author Daniel Woodrum,
we thought about here is keepthe book as short as possible. I

(10:55):
was aiming for 25,000 words. Ithink Perfect Day is about
40,000. We got to about 26,000.We couldn't cut it anymore.
The other thing is we jammed.This was advice from a guy named
Vern Harnish who who runs acompany called Scaling Up, and
he has a book called Scaling Up.It's basically his version of
EOS. You know, they're they'realmost the same. And he said

(11:15):
front load the best informationin your first chapter.
So that's where you find the thedefinition of discipline. I and
I on I I write in the book and Isay, you could stop reading the
book at this point. You'veyou've got the most important
thing. Now, of course, don't.But so so there was that.
The other thing was I I startedwriting on January first of
twenty twenty four, and I hadthe middle part of the book

(11:38):
because, you know, we sellcourses on effortless discipline
and all this stuff. So that wasobvious. And the first part of
the book about the dark side waspretty clear too, but I didn't
have an ending for it. So Ifinished the first draft in
March of twenty twenty four andthen I sat on it for like four
months. It sucked because I justcouldn't figure out how to end
the book.

(11:59):
Then my business partner and coauthor Daniel Woodrum started
doing these presentations at ourevents about raising your
identity, raising yourstandards, and I was like,
that's a perfect fit. He putthat in to end the book, and so
we still kept it short. So Ithink, you know, if somebody's
thinking out there about writinga book, you know, nailing that
title, nailing that cover arereally, really important for

(12:20):
Amazon sales. Just like if youhave a YouTube channel, you
wanna nail the the cover slide.If you do a bad job on it,
nobody's gonna pick it up.
So Yep. Those things are behindthe behind the scenes for
getting as many, you know,purchases as possible. I could
talk to you all day long aboutbook stuff, but I'll stop there.

Joey Bowen (12:40):
I did notice that the book was somewhat shorter
than your others, but it alsofelt like the tone of it was
much more direct, like, muchmore concise. Like, you know,
the the value was thereimmediately, and I didn't have
to, like, unpack too much of it.Like, you just hit us with it
right away. So I I did feel thatwhen I

Craig Ballantyne (13:00):
I mean, I've I've read my books from time to
time, and I'm like, what theheck is and and I'm sure, like,
even when like, the the the thereal prison sentence of writing
a book is when you read theaudiobook after you've sent the
the book to the publisher.

Joey Bowen (13:16):
Yeah.

Craig Ballantyne (13:17):
And and you're reading it and going, why is
this in here? Oh my god.There's, you know, there's a
this something you find thethree errors that still paid
made it past nine editors. Andand, anyways but I I I did wanna
make sure that there was nothingthat was gonna be out of time,
you know, it's gonna betimeless. And and so there's the

(13:38):
hardest work of the book iscutting it down because there's
a phrase by Stephen King calledkill your darlings.
Darlings. And this is this ishelpful for anybody creating a
course as well or even probablyfor you guys for your shirts is
we have the we have thesedarlings. We have these ideas,
these quotes, you know, these,you know, pages and pages of,
like, oh, I really love what Iwrote here. But if it doesn't

(14:01):
help the reader, if the reader'sgonna be like, this seems out of
place, or if it messes up withthe flow, or if it's just like
one of the biggest problems Ihad with this book is I was
really repetitive in the firsthalf, and we had to cut and cut.
And I probably have, you know,another 10,000 words where Yeah.
You know, you've got the pointfrom what's in the book. Sure.

(14:22):
And but I sounded really funny,you know? And Yeah. Because
there was there were just somelines that man, it was so good,
but it it didn't belong.
So you have to kill yourdarlings. Yeah. You have to kill
the things that you think arereally cool that will not help
the end user. And that's veryhard for most people, but that
is what makes a book tight. Andwhen the book is tight, you

(14:44):
know, people get through it.
You can get you can probablyread it in ninety minutes. You
know, the audiobook is two in abit hours. Like, you'll go and
the thing is, now you'll you'llconsume it and you'll consume it
repeatedly. And when you consumeit repeatedly, first of all, it
helps you, also helps me.

Drew Beech (14:59):
It's funny you mentioned that kill Yeah. I was
just it's funny that youmentioned kill your darlings
because our first meeting withDee, that was the first message
you brought up to us, the firstbit of advice. Because I do
believe it applies to all areasof life and business because we
had our strategy when we startedFuel Hunt was keep everything in
stock all the time becauseeverything we create and come up

(15:22):
with as far as shirts and rashguards go, we love them. We're
we fall in love with witheverything we create as as base,
man. Yeah.
As authors or course creatorsdo, but we were basically
spending all of our moneyrestocking everything when only
half of this stuff was selling.So that's

Craig Ballantyne (15:39):
And then you forget about it. Like, you know,
when I read the book, I I didn'tthink anything was missing. You
know, I've got all the files ofthe old stuff, and and I've
totally forgotten what I'vewritten. So when you do it you
you have to have the courage todo it or you have to have an
editor who's gonna force you todo it. But when you do that, it
makes your message tighter.
And when your message is tight,it's repeatable. Right? Like,

(16:01):
think about all this a lot ofthis stuff that Begros says. It
is repeatable. It is tight.
And and I've always said that,like, most of the stuff that I
write in my books, I send out ina newsletter to my coaching
clients first. And thatnewsletter is like Chris Rock
going into a dingy comedy clubin New York City and trying the
joke for the first time.

Joey Bowen (16:22):
Mhmm.

Craig Ballantyne (16:22):
Seeing the crowd's reaction and going, oh,
I see. I needed to pause, throwin three more f words, and I'm
gonna try that again next weekat a different place. Oh, better
reaction. I'm gonna try this.Woah.
Horrible reaction. Back to theoriginal. Okay. This goes in the
Netflix special. Now I do that,you know, for 30 more times, and
I've got an hour of contentthat's tight and is gonna get,

(16:44):
you know, get me $15,000,000 orwhatever it is for a Netflix
special.

Joey Bowen (16:48):
Yeah. And it's your most it's your most valuable
stuff. You know? In in, in theperfect day formula, in your
book, the perfect day formula,you say one of the things that's
always stuck with me, you sayaction begets action.

Craig Ballantyne (17:00):
Yeah. Totally.

Joey Bowen (17:01):
And in in what you just said now, it's funny
because I almost feel likeconsistency begets the
consistency. If they if yourreader can consistently read
that book, right, and take inthat message and repeat it over
and over, they themselves willget more consistent in applying
it to their lives. You know?

Craig Ballantyne (17:21):
Yeah. And who's gonna share the book more?
The person who got through thebook.

Joey Bowen (17:25):
Of course. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Of course.

Craig Ballantyne (17:27):
Absolutely.

Joey Bowen (17:27):
So you said you said a couple things. Drew, thanks
for mentioning the kill yourdarlings thing because I I did
wanna shout out be there sincethat was, like, the first piece
of wisdom he ever gave us.

Drew Beech (17:37):
And then one other thing. Craig Craig, you
mentioned, like, how you wouldgo back and read, and you'd be
like, what was I thinking, orwhat was I doing when I was
writing this? But I find thatthe more we write for the people
hunt page and the more we writefor our blogs, it's important to
not let the good be the enemy ofthe great because no matter how
much I toiled over one piece ofwriting or copy, I go back and

(17:57):
read it a year later a monthlater, and I'm like, what the
hell was I writing? Like

Joey Bowen (18:03):
Yeah.

Drew Beech (18:03):
So I do think no matter how much you evolve as a
writer, it's you're always gonnafeel that way. Even someone like
you that's written bestsellers.Like Yeah.

Joey Bowen (18:10):
Yep. Yeah. One of well, actually, two I think two
of your rules. In the book, youtouch on your 12 rules for life.
Right?
Yeah. And there's some overlapbetween your rules and my rules.
I think you you write, everymorning for sixty minutes. Yep.
I do I do the same.
And I find what Drew just said.You know what I mean? Like, it
helps me get tighter, but still,inevitably, like, I look at

(18:32):
stuff that I wrote last year,and I'm like, wow. This could be
so much tighter. You know?

Craig Ballantyne (18:36):
Yeah. But that but that it should be. Right?
Like, it it'd be like youlooking at your jujitsu a year
ago and going, oh my god. Whatwas I thinking trying to do that
in that position?

Joey Bowen (18:47):
And

Craig Ballantyne (18:47):
and and that's what evolution is supposed to
be. I'm, you know, I'm sure youknow, I I like to tease Bedros
when when I spoke at at, BKLive, the first one. I showed a
picture of him from 02/1971 ofhis first YouTube videos. Right?
And he looked like a terrorist,you know, because that's when he
shaved his head.
And, I mean, he looks so muchdifferent now, but, you know, we

(19:08):
all do those things and we allevolve. And and, you know, you
can't regret the past, but youcan only learn from it.

Joey Bowen (19:15):
Yeah. For sure. For sure. Let's get into, my
favorite chapter of the book,which is, I believe, harnessing
the power of positive people inyour Oh

Craig Ballantyne (19:24):
man, is everything.

Joey Bowen (19:26):
Yeah, so obviously that speaks to a lot of what we
do here at Fuel Hunt. When westarted Fuel Hunt it was a
community. It was literallyabout bringing together not just
positive people but people ofprogress, like you said,
evolving people together tochange society, change the
world. So, chapter 13 hit methere. It also hit me because
you discuss a bit about, how youquit drinking

Craig Ballantyne (19:48):
Yep.

Joey Bowen (19:49):
And accountability. And then you kinda got into,
like, finding your tribe and thepower of three. So let's, like,
dive into 13 a bit. Man.Selfishly, if we could.

Craig Ballantyne (19:57):
Yeah. Absolutely.

Joey Bowen (19:58):
And and start maybe let's start with how you quit
drinking and, like, howaccountability played a role.

Craig Ballantyne (20:05):
Yeah. Absolutely. So, you know, I was
a classic binge drinker. Youknow? Like, pick any pick any
college movie where, you know,people get super drunk and do
stupid things, and that was me.
You know? And and, fortunately,it was all, you know, safe, and
I never really got into anytrouble from it. But it was a
habit that didn't serve me for along time after I should have

(20:25):
quit. And so what did I do? Iessentially, in order to quit
any bad habit, you must, asJames Clear says, you know, put
us a ton of friction in the way.
Make it as hard as possible todo. So removing alcohol from
your environment was one of thefirst things. Fortunately, I was
a weekend binge drinker. Ididn't have any alcohol in the
house, but that's what you wouldhave to do. And then the second

(20:46):
thing I did was I eliminated thetoxic people from my social
circle.
I still have friends to thisday. Well, my friends from back
then are still going to the samebars today as I went to when I
was 25. I know that they stillgo, not as frequently, but they
still do. And I just couldn'thang around those people. But
then there was, you know,there's this trend out there
online that I absolutely hate,which is, you know, go dark and

(21:09):
cut off all these people.
And I just hate that becausewe're meant to be social people.
Humans are meant to be socialand around good people. So you
shouldn't cut everyone out ofyour life. And I have a I had a
lot of good friends who drank,weren't bad people, and I wanted
to spend time with them. So allI did was meet those people in
new environments that were notdrinking.

(21:30):
You know, hiking. I didn't dojujitsu back then, but that
would have been good. But theweight room, playing even
playing golf, anything on aSaturday morning where I could
connect with people, and thenthey could go drink and I would
find something else to do. Andso that elimination was very
key. The next thing is betterplanning and preparation.
So whenever you leave a badhabit, there's a void. And if

(21:51):
you don't fill that void withsomething else, then you will
get sucked back into the voidand do the bad habit. So I
started, you know, doing thosethat planning preparation to
meet people in goodenvironments. And then finally,
the thing that really lifted meup was the connection. When I
met people who who also didn'tdrink, you know, Bedros Bedros
never really drank.
We got drunk once in Miami TwoThousand Nine I think but other

(22:13):
than that we never really hadmore than one drink together and
okay so now I'm around this guywho doesn't drink and then we
meet other people like SharonSravazza no drinking and this
guy's super successful he'sfunny you can hang out with the
guy And all that time, as I getaway from the drinking, I start
to increase and change myidentity to a non drinker which

(22:36):
then allows me to operate andhave fun in drinking
environments. So you could putme now back in the toxic
environment and I wouldn't drinkbecause my identity is I'm not a
drinker. Sure. Therefore, I canbe anywhere. I don't need any
discipline now to stay away fromalcohol.

Drew Beech (22:54):
Mhmm.

Craig Ballantyne (22:54):
Because I'm not a drinker. The end.

Joey Bowen (22:57):
Yeah. You had that you had that identity shift.
It's so

Craig Ballantyne (23:00):
That's great.

Joey Bowen (23:00):
It's so important to call out that cliche that floats
around with, like, cutting offyour entire social circle and
just like

Craig Ballantyne (23:08):
I hate it so

Joey Bowen (23:09):
much. Chainsaw the people in your life. I do too. I
feel like it's, like, a reallysurface level strategy that
actually kind of pulls you tothe dark side of discipline. It
actually makes it harder.
It it

Craig Ballantyne (23:22):
Honestly, I think it's a great recipe for
creating school shooters is whatit is. Yeah. And and the only
people that say it are, like, 25year olds who you know, they
they run these little accounts,and they've never, like,
actually lived life. And maybethey have no friends. So, you
know Wow.
But anybody who's anybody who'sgot a good collection of friends
knows that the more people youknow, the easier everything in

(23:45):
life is.

Joey Bowen (23:45):
Yeah. Yeah. You have to you have to audit and edit
the relationships. And the folksin your circle that don't
respond well to that, then maybethere's a more drastic change
with them. But most people loveyou, want the best for you, and
are reasonable and canunderstand, hey.
Look. You know, we can go hike,but we're not gonna go to the
bar. You know?

Drew Beech (24:03):
Exactly. I also think when you're hanging out
with these people, it's alsoimportant to, like, be okay with
being weird. You know what Imean? Like, when I started to
stop drinking, I remember I wasin my old job in sales, and I
would just not go to the happyhours. They'd be, oh, like, what
are you doing?
Like, going home to, like, bewith your family? I'm like,

(24:23):
yeah. That's exactly what I'mdoing.

Craig Ballantyne (24:24):
Like Yeah. Right.

Drew Beech (24:25):
But when you're in these normal, quote unquote,
normal social circles or doingthings that are considered
normal, like happy hour anddrinking, like, you start to
want differently or thinkdifferently or do differently,
you're going to have friction,like you say. Like so being okay
with being called weird orperceived as weird is is

(24:47):
definitely a a key component.

Craig Ballantyne (24:50):
It it is key. And so let's reframe that
because because people will getthat, and they'll understand it.
And some of it will be like,yeah, I'm I'm no problem with
this. But some of us some peoplelistening will go, yeah, I want
that. But but they are like, butI don't wanna be weird.
Well, here's the thing. You'renot being weird. You're running
your own race, and you'recomfortable in your own skin. So
that's the exact same thing assaying that you're weird, but

(25:12):
it's a reframe, and it is it isthe most powerful thing. I
remember when I was a personaltrainer twenty five years ago, I
trained this guy who was a CEOof a retail company and his
brother was a lawyer in DowntownToronto, which is kinda like New
York.
They had this financial area. Soso twenty five years ago, this
this lawyer lived in this reallyrich part of Toronto and then

(25:32):
biked downtown to the FinancialDistrict to be a lawyer, which
was unheard of at the timebecause twenty five years ago
nobody, you know, biked. Right?You know? Now it's probably
normal.
So what is what he said abouthis brother was he said my
brother is so comfortable in hisown skin and I want I wanna be
that. Me. Me. Me. I wanna becomfortable in my own skin, and

(25:52):
I wasn't, you know, I wastransitioning, but I didn't I I
binge drink with my friendsbecause I wasn't strong enough
to be comfortable in my ownskin.
Eventually, I became comfortableand, strong enough to become for
my own skin, but that was likeone of my goals from day one
because it's also a level offreedom. You're a free person

(26:13):
where you can think for yourselfand act for yourself. You're not
weird. You're a free person,which is what everybody wants to
be. And then the final thing Iwill say about this is that for
every you know, so that youknow, for you, maybe you're
there's 10 people in that group,right, that are going to happy
hour.
And every person like you whoactually opts out or doesn't

(26:34):
partake in the drinking, there'sfour other people in that group
that want to be the same as youbut they don't have the courage
to do it. Exactly. And what Idid is I did that around my
friends and over the last twentyyears it was you know it's not
really happening now because youknow people are either there or
they're not but when in thefirst couple years after I

(26:56):
started doing that more and morepeople coming started coming to
my my dark side, right, of ofYes. Not I'm not doing that. And
now some of my friends arehealthier than I am who used to
be bigger binge drinkers than Iwas back then.
So you need to be that leader,the eagle in the group, and
people will come.

Joey Bowen (27:14):
Abs absolutely. Absolutely. I took a page in
January 2024. I took a page outof your book literally and
figuratively, and I put out tothe community that I was not
gonna drink. I was done.

Craig Ballantyne (27:26):
For Yeah.

Joey Bowen (27:27):
For a year, I said. So for this So I was still,
like, kinda, like, teetering.Right? I was like, yeah. You
know?
But for this year, I'm not gonnadrink. It ended up being a
commitment that I've now madefor life, right?

Craig Ballantyne (27:39):
Yeah.

Joey Bowen (27:39):
Never drinking again. And it is amazing how
many people in the communitycame forward and said, you know
what, I'm gonna do this too. Youknow, they were just waiting in
the wings kind of to make thatcommitment as well as soon as
they saw somebody that theyknew, trusted, liked making a
pledge to be comfortable in hisown skin. It's

Craig Ballantyne (28:00):
so important. Yeah. And and you know what I
found with the whole drinkingthing is for for probably three
years, you know, I was like a aonce a month, one to two drinks.
Yep. And and I just found it'seasier to be a % out than 99%
out.
And I saw I read that quoteright when I quit for good. And
I was like, it is true because,you know, if you go a long time

(28:22):
without drinking like, if youdrink, like, once a month.
Right? Yeah. And then you have adrink, man, it hits you.
And you're like, one drink? Iused to drink, like, six beers
in an hour, and you hit onedrink, and your entire day is
ruined. Yeah. So it's like, whatis the point of this? Like, it's
horrible.
And and you got a whole lot morein the line now, so goodbye to

(28:45):
it. And Sure. I am not judgingpeople who drink. If you want to
drink and and it serves you andyou're okay with it and there is
no harm that comes of it, you goon and do it. But if you're
like, yeah.
It doesn't serve me and my auraring tells me that, I would have

(29:32):
a drink once in a while.Obviously, I you know, the only
person I really spent time withwas her, so I was, like, wasn't
really drinking that much. Butthen I went out with Jason
Capital, a friend of Baydros'sof mine. You know, I went out
with him and his wife, and Itook my wife out. We went out
for dinner in Newport Beach inNovember of twenty twenty one
right before we moved to Mexicoto have our kid, our first kid.

(29:54):
And I had one drink, and then Ihad a horrible sleep. It was
actually we were staying in,Huntington Beach, and it was
during Santa Ana winds Mhmm.Because we went to, like,
Beidros' for Thanksgiving acouple days later, and the winds
were horrible. So we so I slepthorrible because of that. I
slept horrible because of thebooze.
The next day, I felt like I hadhad 12 beers the night before.

(30:16):
Yeah. And I was like, this isI'm done. And that was when that
was when I just went all in onit. Yeah.

Drew Beech (30:22):
Yeah. I was gonna because for me, I I'm a little
bit younger, but in 2019, Istopped because we I had my my
wife and I had our son Young. Wewere, like, 24, 20 five. It was
my best friend's my bestfriend's wedding, and I came
came home that night, and I was,like, throwing up in the sink.
And my son was asleep in thebedroom, and I was like, if my

(30:42):
son walked out right now andjust saw his dad, like, throwing
up in the sink, like, what wouldhe think?
Like, what kind of father am I?So I just after that night, I
just stopped. And I doubt thatit was a lot easier when you
have that those children or achild, they're looking up to you
as a as a leader and a and a arole model that might be easier
to to let it go.

Craig Ballantyne (31:02):
Yeah. There's there's a lot of things that you
can leverage, right, as reasonswhy. And, you know, some people
will need a little bit moresupport to it. But being in that
community, man, and and saying,you burn the boats. You say,
hey, I'm not drinking thismonth, this year, whatever.
Like, when you say it, now yourintegrity kicks in and Mhmm.

(31:22):
You're not gonna be the type ofperson to go back on it, which
is why the power of connectionis so important. Yeah. And on
the flip side, the flip side,what we talk about a lot is you
can't get stuck on LonelyEntrepreneur Island or, you
know, Lonely High PerformerIsland, which is what happens in
between events. And, you know,we have people come to our

(31:43):
events, they get all fired up.
They're all they're all businessowners that come to our events.
They get fired up. They seetheir potential. They see
everybody else succeeding, andthey get great information. And
then they go home and it justlike it's just this decay
because some of them live inlike Eastern Tennessee.
And I love Tennessee. I'm notI'm not knocking Tennessee. I'm
just saying if you live inEastern Tennessee in a city of

(32:03):
twenty, thirty thousand people,there's not a lot of people like
you in that town and it's easyto get dragged down. I'm from a
town of 20,000, 30 thousandpeople in Canada where you know
it's mostly factories. I workedat factories.
I know those people. And if Ilived in that town, even if I
had the biggest house in thattown and I knew the two or three
other really good entrepreneursin that town, I'm I'm gonna

(32:27):
revert to the to the median.Right? I'm gonna go back to the
average pretty quick. So that'swhy you have to be in the
community all the time to keepgetting up.

Joey Bowen (32:36):
That's one of the that's one of the positives of
technology and social medianowadays. You know, people drag
it through the mud and I've beenguilty of doing that sometimes.
But you know what? There's athere's a a massive bright side,
and that's the fact that you canstay connected with the right
people. It is your choice.
You can stay connected with theright people online all the
time.

Craig Ballantyne (32:54):
And it is research proven. It's research
proven to be as effective as inperson. Absolutely. %.

Joey Bowen (33:00):
Which you mentioned in the book. You know what I
mean? And that's what, the Fuwoncommunity has done for so many.
Because even if you're in a bigcity, right, of a hundred
thousand people, you can stillhave that same decay and that
same disappointment and feeling.Because your circle or the
people you interact with everyday aren't on the same path, you

(33:20):
know, and don't have the habitsthat you need or you want.
So, you know, being able to turnto a community like Fuel Hunt,
or early to rise or, you know,your communities, it's it's
crucial nowadays. Crucial.

Craig Ballantyne (33:33):
Yeah. Absolutely.

Joey Bowen (33:35):
Let's talk, you you opened chapter 13 with a Jim
Rohn quote. He's the GOAT, bigJim Rohn fan, big Jim Rohn fan
about, you know, being theaverage of the five people that
you spend the most time with. Iagree. I believe towards the end
of the chapter, you close thechapter with, power of three. So
not really Yeah.
Five people that you spend timewith, but the power of three. So

(33:57):
let's talk about the power ofthree because I think that
that's a really practicaltactical tool

Craig Ballantyne (34:02):
Mhmm.

Joey Bowen (34:02):
That people can use in their daily lives to stay
accountable and replace badhabits with good habits.

Craig Ballantyne (34:09):
Yeah. So the power of three is is actually
just three questions. And we'veI actually started building an
app. I spent over a hundredthousand dollars trying to build
an app to do this, and and it'sI have

Joey Bowen (34:20):
get that.

Craig Ballantyne (34:20):
Failed. Here's a business lesson. It failed
because I did not do the marketresearch. Okay? So I'm not an
app you know, interestingenough, I don't use apps.
Like, my whole goal in life isto have what do I have on my on
the front of my phone? I have,like, maybe seven apps on my
phone, and I don't wanna addanymore.

Drew Beech (34:39):
Mhmm.

Craig Ballantyne (34:39):
So I don't use them. And now I'm gonna go and
try and build one. And I didn'tdo the research behind other
accountability apps that are outthere, and I foolishly threw
away about a hundred grandbefore I killed the project and
said, I'm not bleeding anymore.Mhmm. But the whole thing of the
power of three is simply to havethree accountability questions.
And I started doing this withsome of my coaching clients

(35:01):
probably about six years ago whowere really struggling with
something. So it could have beenas simple as getting up on time.
It could have been, you know,writing 500 words. It could have
been, you know, doing an amountof outreach or making an amount
of videos or maybe some personalhabit like drinking or whatever.
And we did we keep it simple.
It's just it's three questionscustomized to your situation. So

(35:23):
let's say Joey has a hard timegetting up without snoozing. So
we say, Joey, every single dayat 08:00 in the morning, you're
gonna text me, did I get up ontime? Did I hit snooze? And did
I get to bed on time?
If not, why not? So did I get upon time? If not, why not? Did I
hit snooze? If not, why not?
Did I get to bed on time? Ifnot, why not? Because those are,

(35:43):
like, the three questions thatare critical to this one little
goal.

Joey Bowen (35:48):
Mhmm.

Craig Ballantyne (35:48):
And it's a direct text or WhatsApp or
Instagram message between thecoach and the client in our
business. And it's theaccountability somebody needs.
And the but the key is the ifnot, why not? Because because
now it's up to you to go, well,you know what? I didn't get up
on time because I didn't get tobed on time, and I didn't get to

(36:09):
bed on time because I waswatching Netflix.
Okay. Mhmm. So now we'veidentified the problem. So now
we can reverse engineer. How dowe stop watch watching Netflix
so much?
Alright. So let's set up theOpal app on your phone or, you
know, that's a really great appto stop you from accessing your
phone. Maybe we can we weactually have coaching clients
who their assistant goes intotheir Netflix every Sunday night

(36:32):
and changes the password anddoesn't send the password back
to the person until Friday.Yeah. I've had I've had another
client who had, his assistant dothe same to their Gmail every
morning and then send thepassword back at 05:00 at night.
Sometimes you have to go toextreme measures

Drew Beech (36:48):
Yeah.

Craig Ballantyne (36:49):
To get control of the thing. Yep. And so this
can be used for anything. Youknow, if if it's like, did you
go to the gym or, you know youknow, some nutrition, something.
Like, whatever it is that theperson you know, everyone
listening.
Yep. If there's something you'restruggling with, you find
someone you deeply do not wannadisappoint. You say, hey. Can I
do this little accountabilitywith you? Maybe it's somebody in
the community, and you have anaccountability partner, and you

(37:12):
gotta show up every single dayat a certain time and tell them,
did I do the thing or did I notdo the thing?
And if I screwed up, why did Iscrew up? Alright? So now we can
then unpack how we don't screwup in the future and this is how
you get, you know, the oldcliche, 1% better every day.
That's it.

Joey Bowen (37:26):
For sure.

Craig Ballantyne (37:27):
Over over time, like, you get to the point
where it's you're you haveperfect scores every day. It's
like, okay. It's either time tomove on from this or it's time
to switch to, like, what's thenext level 10 problem we gotta
fix?

Joey Bowen (37:37):
Sure. Sure. Yeah. We do we do on Wednesday evenings,
we do small group accountabilityin Fuel

Craig Ballantyne (37:43):
Oh, cool.

Joey Bowen (37:43):
Rise, which is, like, our private community,
FuelHunt community. And we askthat question, if not, why not
in there? And it is the mostpowerful question. Without that
question, what happens is if youdidn't do what you said you were
gonna do last week, right, whattypically would happen is it
would get glossed over becausethey would say or we would say,

(38:04):
you know, well, you did do a lotof other stuff. So let's just
like forgive it type of thing.
But the if not, why not? Likeyou said, it helps you follow
that thread back to the problem,you know? It like, all the time.
That's where that's where that'sthe root of the whole thing. You
know what I mean?
So Yep.

Craig Ballantyne (38:22):
Most of the stuff I do is really just and
most of the stuff for success isreally just reverse engineering
it. You know? First of all,figuring out what you really
want and then reverse engineerhow to get it. And that's it.
The And that's what success is.

Joey Bowen (38:36):
The craziest the craziest thing, I was a
programmer for much of mycareer. And I started
programming when I was young,like, around 11 years old. And
the way I learned how to programwas by decompiling other
software.

Drew Beech (38:51):
Okay.

Joey Bowen (38:51):
The first three pieces

Craig Ballantyne (38:52):
That's taking an engine, taking it apart.
Right?

Joey Bowen (38:54):
Exactly. Reverse engineering. And I I learned
that at such a young age. Thefirst piece of software I ever
wrote was a virus scanner. Idon't know if you remember those
from back in the day.

Craig Ballantyne (39:03):
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Joey Bowen (39:04):
McAfee virus Yeah. McAfee. Reverse engineered that,
and then I wrote my own. Andthat skill of of decompiling,
understanding, and then creatingmy own is something that, like,
I'm super grateful for becausethat led that is a lesson that
I've applied to life, business,relationships, everything. It's

(39:25):
so it's so valuable.

Craig Ballantyne (39:27):
That's very cool.

Joey Bowen (39:28):
Alright. Let's we covered chapter 13. Drew, you
have any questions? I'm sorry. II wanted to ask you.

Drew Beech (39:35):
No, sir.

Joey Bowen (39:36):
Alright. Okay. I got you. So let's respect your time
here, Craig. Let's let's talkabout your 12 rules for life.
You touch on those in the book.Mhmm. I alluded to them earlier.
Two of them really resonate withme at this juncture of my life.
Writing, like I mentioned, everymorning for sixty minutes, I do

(39:57):
that, sometimes longer.
And also, probably not asurprise to the community, the
second rule you have is writingwith honesty and feeling, I
think. Yeah. Is is the otherone. That also resonates with me
because in the beginning of ourjourney with Fuel Hunt, I was a
bit preoccupied by people'sopinions in my writing.

Craig Ballantyne (40:16):
Sure.

Joey Bowen (40:17):
And now I no longer am. So those two rules resonate,
but I'm not gonna ask you to gothrough all 12 of your rules
even though all 12 of them arevaluable. Maybe you could pick
one or two that were reallyneedle movers for you and your
life and share them with thecommunity.

Craig Ballantyne (40:32):
Yeah. Well, you know, the one thing that I
wanna do is, first of all, justexplain, like, what the heck,
are we talking about here. Andso in 02/2011, I went for a run,
or or did some intervals orsomething on Easter Sunday. And
as I was running, I thought, youknow what? Man, I I operate by a
system because a lot of peoplewould always say, oh, what would
Craig do in this situation?

(40:53):
So I thought, well, what is mysystem? So I came back in, and I
remember doing this because mymom came home from church, and I
was sitting at the kitchen tablevisiting her on Easter Sunday.
And I was sitting there writing,and I just wrote these 12
statements out, which, again,this is 02/2011, and I don't
really look at them. But Ilooked at them for this book and
I was like, oh, yeah, man. I doexactly that.

(41:14):
And that's that's what I'mlooking for here, that everybody
has these core values inside ofthem by which they operate. And
it's like your iPhone can doamazing things because it has an
operating system. Mhmm. That ifthis, then that, it can and
that's how you call Tokyo.Right?
And so I put together these 12rules. And it's and

(41:35):
coincidentally, it's, like,right around the time that I
think Jordan Peterson wrote hisbook 12 rules for life or
something, but mine I've neverread the book, honestly, and I
don't know what his rules are,but these are my rules. And they
are stuff that should betimeless and not change. So the
ones that really stand out to meare like how I want to be. I I

(41:57):
wrote an identity statementessentially that I'm a polite
and courteous British gentleman.
I I, you know, I don't get intodrama. I don't get into
conflict. If I harm somebody, Iapologize and and that's it. I
can't remember exactly how itgoes, but it's it's fairly long.
And that was part of my identityshift and change from having the

(42:18):
introverted tendencies that Ihad.
Know, when I met Beidros, I hada lot of very introverted
tendencies. And I don't callmyself an introvert because I
don't like the label and puttingmyself in a box. But by watching
Bedros, who also admits tointroverted tendencies, but
Mhmm. I he's a very Californiacool guy. And, you know, I saw
how he treated people that whenwe we would walk into our

(42:38):
mastermind meeting, there'd be,like, 20 people in there and he
would greet them all.
And and meanwhile, just kindawanna go to my seat and let's
get going sort of thing. Butthat's not what people want. And
so eventually, over the years, Ijust adopted a lot of his
behaviors. And then I adoptedthis identity of, like, this is
how I want to be. So what domost people do when they go into
an elevator?
They open up their phone. Theylook at the floor. When I get

(43:00):
into an elevator, as part ofthis identity is I don't bring
out my phone, and I greet everyperson that comes into the
elevator. And it's not supercomfortable for me, and it's not
super comfortable for the otherperson in most cases either,
unless you're like an old lady,and then they just wanna chat
with you for, like, the rest ofyour life. But so that's, like,
one that's really important.
And there's another one. I thinkit's seven. There's two parts to

(43:23):
seven. And one of the partssays, it will all be over soon,
the good and the bad. And, youknow, most people have heard
that, you know, it'll be oversoon, the bad part.
And so you gotta persevere forit through it. And and listen. I
think we all get that. You know?Fetal hunt folks are tough,
mentally tough, physicallytough, but you also have to flip
it and understand that the goodwill be over soon.

(43:47):
Yeah. And therefore, you must,you know, hold on to the
moments, be present, begrateful. Like, I got three kids
under three. You know,eventually, they'll be 30. Yeah.
And and they won't be I mean,it's a wonderful time, and I and
I so I've built my life aroundspending as much time as
possible with them. So it willall be over soon. And for those

(44:08):
Fuel Hunt members who are goingthrough a season of life where
it's a winter, and I understandI've been there in many ways,
understand that spring willcome. And for those of you that
are going through, like, justthe absolute best part of your
life, good. Enjoy it.
Enjoy it. Make the most of it.You know? Life life is life,

(44:28):
and, you know, things may or maynot change soon, but make the
most of what you have right now.

Joey Bowen (44:33):
Yeah. I don't I don't think people because
sometimes it can be scary. Theydon't want to embrace the
impermanence of things, youknow, the good. You know what I
mean? It it can be scary, butit's a it's a fact of life.
Mhmm. We mentioned Jim Rohnearlier, and I believe he has a
book, but I know he has alecture on the seasons. And I

(44:54):
encountered that like way earlyin in my life, in my early
twenties, I think it was. And,you know, he spoke about the
seasons and, you know, how, youknow, winters come and Yep. They
go, so do summers, you know, thegood times.
Yeah. So it's it's veryimportant. I think the first I I
think the first half of thatthat rule is like, I think it's

(45:15):
nothing matters maybe.

Craig Ballantyne (45:17):
You Yeah. Something like that. And and it
and it and it really you know,everything matters, but nothing
matters in the way that thatthings will come and go. People
will come and go in your life.And, yes, they matter, but what
matters the most is that youstay true to yourself.

Joey Bowen (45:34):
Yeah. We have, obviously, in our community, the
rules of the few. We have 11.We're one try of your 12. But we
have

Craig Ballantyne (45:41):
Twelve twelve is a lot. It it really shouldn't
have been so many.

Joey Bowen (45:44):
So well, it's, you know, I think it's, they're
yours. You know what I Andthere's as many as there need to
be. But I am moving in thatdirection, right? So we have 11
rules of the few. And the waythat I look at them for the
community are really like aguide because I feel like
thinking nowadays is a lost artto some degree.

(46:04):
Don't think for themselves, theydon't think freely. So, they're
really the way I look at them isthey're a guide and they're a
guide for you building yourdaily choices. At least that's
the way when I wrote the rulesof the few, I intended them and
out of the rules of the few kindof came my three daily choices

(46:27):
that I live by and that's kindof like my North Star. Yeah. So
and and mine are are prettysimple like as you probably
would expect like I'm a fan ofbeing, you know, to the point.
So it's create more than youconsume. Mhmm. Embrace more than
you escape, and love more thanyou loathe. And they're the

(46:47):
three they're the three thingsthat I judge myself by on on a
daily basis. When I do myplanning for the next day, I
say, look, you know, did I dothese three things?
You know? Did all of my choicesand my actions throughout the
day reflect these three corechoices that I wanna make for,
you know, a great life,basically? So, do you find
yourself revisiting your ruleson a daily basis? And do you

(47:09):
feel like they become theydefinitely drive your choices,
but do you see yourself making,like, very common choices day in
and day out that keep you going?

Craig Ballantyne (47:19):
Yeah. And the whole point of the rules is to
eliminate the decision fatigue.Right? It's it's kinda like a
diet does. You know?
So a diet you if I'm on a ketodiet, I don't have to sit there
and think, can I have the donuttoday or not? No, it's just not
on the plan. It's the standard.So much of the effortless
discipline systems, thestandards, the identity, they're

(47:40):
there to take away from themillions of decisions we have to
make. Because if we had to makethat, you know, all the
decisions and not havestandards, you'd be exhausted by
the time it got around to thereally important decisions.
Mhmm. So for me, you know, it'sit's those rules that I haven't
revisited in a long time becausethey are so ingrained in me. And

(48:00):
the most important thing is thatI make all the decisions around
the core values, which is thefreedom for my family. And so is
this moving my family towardsmore freedom? Is it making sure
that we have freedom?
And if I take this meeting, isit taking me away from having
freedom? Like, you know, becauseyou can meeting yourself into a

(48:21):
prison. Yeah. And so so I'mpretty ruthless with I have
every Friday, like, in a bit,you know, I'm on West Coast
time, so a little bit later thisafternoon, I will go through my
calendar and cut stuff. And itwill require me apologizing to
people and saying, I'm sorry.
I know I committed to thismeeting in a couple weeks, but I
you know, it just it doesn'tfit. I can't do it. And I will

(48:43):
do that because I have to youknow, I'm like a wild horse. I
will say yes to too much stuff,and I have to constantly call
the calendar. And I think that'sa very important thing for
people to do because it givesyou more freedom to work on what
matters.
So Yeah. I'm always kinda I'myou know, the rules, the
systems, they're all there as adecision filter so that you make

(49:04):
the right decisions. And alsofor when you're not sure to go
back, review it, and run itthrough the filter again.

Joey Bowen (49:11):
For sure. For sure. When I, in Perfect Day Formula,
you talk about meetings. Right?You spend a little bit of time
on meetings, and I rememberreading that when it came out
and trying to spread that in mycorporate days.
And it was not a popular it wasnot a popular thought back back
in the days with meetings. Lessmeetings, you know what I mean,
was not popular. Not popular.

Craig Ballantyne (49:32):
Well, not not until you're running your own
business then it's gonna be verypopular.

Joey Bowen (49:36):
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Craig Ballantyne (49:37):
But but but back to the writing of the book
thing, there was a lot of peoplewho said this is really out of
place in this book. And as Ilook back, they were probably
right. But I just that was adarling that probably should
have been killed. Yeah. Butthere were probably a few people
that did get a lot from it.
But in general, that didn'tbelong in the book and it made
it in. So, you know, that's thekind of thing that you look back

(50:00):
and go, little out out it's justout of the flow. It's not out of
the the the belief. It's just

Joey Bowen (50:06):
It's just I think you're right. It's out of the
flow. It's not that it lacksvalue. Like, that's what we
found when Bea came in and said,look, guys, you gotta kill your
darlings. Like, you gotta getrid of these designs and these
badges.
Like, they meant something to toto people in our community. You
know? We still have people tothis day, darlings Sure. Killed.
They're like, is the, you know,the the fire tea ever coming

(50:26):
back?
You know, it's my favorite tea.I just just last week, I got a
picture of, you know, somebody,held it up on Instagram and sent
it over. So there's value inthose things.

Craig Ballantyne (50:35):
Well, you should have bought two of them.

Drew Beech (50:36):
Yeah. Exactly.

Joey Bowen (50:37):
We had two colors.

Craig Ballantyne (50:38):
No. That should be your that should be
your new fuel hunt core value.Always buy two.

Joey Bowen (50:42):
Buy two. Buy two at everything.

Craig Ballantyne (50:44):
Yeah.

Drew Beech (50:44):
But We weren't just talking yesterday about the when
we release something, we releaseit once, and that's it. So, I
mean, if you're if you'relistening to this podcast.

Craig Ballantyne (50:52):
Right. You gotta buy two.

Joey Bowen (50:53):
Buy Buy two. What Drew, I think you had something
that you wanted to say maybeabout meetings.

Drew Beech (50:59):
It's just interesting to see people that
I've looked up to, like Craigand Aaron Hind, who we just had
on this show, like, coming up

Craig Ballantyne (51:06):
Oh, nice.

Drew Beech (51:06):
In my days, have similar messages and mantras for
people, but he I listened to himon a podcast maybe ten years ago
when I was working with him inmy corporate days. But he said,
when you say yes to one thing,you say no to something else.

Craig Ballantyne (51:21):
Darn right, man.

Drew Beech (51:22):
So that so applicable to your to your
meetings and the meetingstrategy, because if you say yes
to one meeting, you're saying noto your family, essentially.

Craig Ballantyne (51:31):
Yep. Yeah. Absolutely.

Joey Bowen (51:32):
For sure. You know,

Craig Ballantyne (51:33):
the the one thing I said this one thing to
years and years ago when I whenBeidros and I were coaching, you
know, fitness business ownerstrying to make it online, I
said, every time you read anemail newsletter from somebody,
you're stealing that time fromyour kids. Mhmm. And I said this
to a guy who had five kids, andhe's like, oh, man. You know?
Because we do you know, we'rereading newsletters from people

(51:55):
we'll never meet.
And Mhmm. You know, you get onenewsletter you you only need one
newsletter. You're, like,scrolling through and watching
Instagram videos. You're you'restealing that time from somebody
from somebody that matters more.And, you know, it's it's human
nature, you know, and thesethings are designed to be
addictive to us.
But just understand that ifyou're doing something, you're

(52:16):
taking that time from somethingelse that you could be doing,
such as mobility work or, youknow, it it you know, it's all
the type of stuff that we knowwe should be doing. So just be
be ruthless with your time.That's where you have to be the
most ruthless and selfish withanything in your life is with
your time. Because if you areruthless and selfish with your
time, you can be a more generousperson. Noodle on that one.

Joey Bowen (52:37):
For sure.

Drew Beech (52:38):
And that's I I'm a big I don't know where you stand
on this, Craig, but I'm a big,do not disturb mode person. And
it's very unpopular with familyand friends, but it wildly
popular with the people I'mspending my time with time
because, like, when I'm with myfamily or I go to jujitsu or I'm
out with friends, like, I don'tI don't have my phone checking
every five seconds. Like, Islept on the mats for the hour

(53:01):
or two hours I'm there. I myphone's in the locker room. Like
and I think we've gotten so faraway from just staying focused
or on what we're doing at thetime, whether it's spending time
with people working.
It we're easily distractednowadays.

Craig Ballantyne (53:16):
Well, absolutely. And so that phone is
is a hindrance. It's a doubleedged sword for sure. I I
actually stopped taking my phonewhen I went to the gym, but my
my wife made me take it justsaid in case I have to get ahold
you. But I do leave it in the inthe locker room as well, and I
cannot believe what people dowith their phones in the gym.
You know, they're they're, youknow, doing leg curls and

(53:36):
texting at the same time. It'sridiculous. Yeah. And setting
and setting their phones up to,you know, film every repetition
is ridiculous. It's so far gonethat I think soon I'm pretty
sure soon gyms will go the otherway and say, can't bring your
phone in here because it it'sridiculous.
And, you know, maybe there's away that they can listen to
music another way, but it itjust it distracts you from the

(53:57):
thing. I don't take my phone outon date night at all even if I
wanna film something. I just usemy wife's phone if I wanna take
a picture of the food orsomething, and I just I just try
and go, you know what? I grew upin the eighties and nineties
with no phone, you know, becauseI'm, you know, I'm almost
Beidros's age. I'm almost as oldas he is, that old man.
And I've lived without a phone,and I lived a great life without
a phone. So I'm trying to goback as much as possible. That's

(54:19):
why I don't have the apps.

Drew Beech (54:20):
I'm very grateful for technology and such, but I
think we've technology ed toofar. Like, the landline like,
when you didn't wanna answer thephone to just do with your
family at home, you just tookthe the landline off the off the
hook, and then you put it uplike, no one can get through
you. I was like, okay. I mean,no big deal.

Craig Ballantyne (54:37):
Right. The phone ring, I remember, like,
trying to call my friend, mybest friend that I've had since
I was six years old. I'd let I'dlet the phone ring 40 times.
Like, maybe he's gonna answer itin the next But his his mom
probably unplugged it becauseYeah. You know, she was a single
mom and worked in a factory andprobably didn't want anybody
bothering her.

Drew Beech (54:54):
Yep. And I'm guilty of it too. Like, when I'm in the
zone and I'm work I need aresponse from someone quick, I'm
like, I I I sit there. I'm like,okay. Maybe they'll answer the
next like, hopefully, they'rethey're a distracted person and
they'll answer me right away.

Joey Bowen (55:05):
I'm on I'm on your, your path, Craig. Like, I'm
doing the app audit. I only havecertain apps on my phone. And
there's a story that I heardrecently about an entrepreneur.
I believe maybe tequila, I don'tknow, billionaire.
I'm not sure exactly who it wasand I'm not sure if there's
anything that you could reallylearn positive from him other
than this. So, this isn't anendorsement, but he does

(55:28):
business by landline and faxmachine. That's where I'm try
that's where I'm trying to get.

Craig Ballantyne (55:33):
Yeah. There's a there's a guy famous in the
marketing world, Dan Kennedy,who who who says he's never had
a cell phone.

Drew Beech (55:39):
And Okay.

Craig Ballantyne (55:40):
Yeah. He's a big fan. And, you know, he makes
people send faxes to him. Nowhere's the thing. If you are
only I actually use this in in atraining where I said, with your
if your inbox is is full, it'syour fault because if that means
you probably send a lot ofemails that shouldn't be sent.
And so treat every email thatyou send as a fax. Think that

(56:03):
and before you hit send, you hadto actually get up Mhmm. Print
out the thing, walk over to athing, and send it. Would you
send this email? In in mostcases, you probably wouldn't
send the email, especially likea thank you.
No. You're welcome. Like, you'regetting this thank you. You're
welcome nine email thread, andit's such a waste of time. Yeah.
Just stop sending the emails.People forget that they even

(56:24):
emailed you. So Yeah. That faxthat fax thing can be beneficial
mindset.

Drew Beech (56:29):
Now I'm regretting the thank you email I sent to
Linda this morning. So

Craig Ballantyne (56:33):
Well, hey. It's it's not me. You can send
her all the emails you want.That's her job.

Joey Bowen (56:39):
That's funny. Alright, man. Let's let's bring
this in for a landing gear.Drew, do you have a lightning
round for Craig?

Drew Beech (56:44):
If you don't, would agree. Craig, three quick three
quick questions, three quickanswers. Alright. Favorite quote
that you live by?

Craig Ballantyne (56:55):
I would say this is this is my quote.
Everything in life is easierwhen you know more good people.

Joey Bowen (57:02):
Amen to that.

Craig Ballantyne (57:03):
Yeah. I truly live by it.

Drew Beech (57:05):
Most important part of discipline.

Craig Ballantyne (57:09):
Systems, man. Systems. Without if you have
systems, you don't needdiscipline.

Drew Beech (57:14):
And finally, think I know the answer already, but
your the best morning routine.You

Craig Ballantyne (57:20):
get and go to work.

Joey Bowen (57:21):
Yeah. Yeah. For sure.

Craig Ballantyne (57:24):
Get up and get up and chase your dreams and
jump the tail of the dreams and

Drew Beech (57:30):
Go do.

Craig Ballantyne (57:31):
Yeah, man.

Joey Bowen (57:31):
Go do. Yeah. That's right. Alright, Craig. Where
can, where can the communityfind you and where can the
community get your new book, TheDark Side of Discipline?

Craig Ballantyne (57:39):
Well, wish they could find me at your jiu
jitsu tournament, but they won'tfind me there. They Not yet.
Find

Drew Beech (57:45):
yeah. I was gonna say not yet.

Craig Ballantyne (57:47):
Yeah. Instagram at real craig
ballantine hit me up there. I'mnow using LinkedIn, so if
anybody loves LinkedIn, they canfind me there too. And then the
new book is available atdarksideofdiscipline.com or go
to Amazon. All the formats, theaudiobook, ebook, hard copy, and
paperback are all availablethere.
And we just hit a bestsellerstatus in small business books

(58:09):
or something. So Let's go. Yeah.We're climbing the ranks,

Joey Bowen (58:11):
man. Let's go. Congratulations. Alright. I'll
leave the few with a reminderhere.
Always choose hard work overhandouts. Always choose effort
over entitlement. Remember, noone owns you. No one owes you.
You're one of the few.
Now let's hunt.