All Episodes

January 29, 2024 20 mins

This empowering episode welcomes you to join Danny Stone as he unveils his most effective strategies for potential optimization as a content creator. His approach focuses not on tools, equipment, or resources, but on personal growth techniques that instill clarity, focus, and discipline. Known for his transformative approach to turning passions into successful online businesses, Danny delivers an insightful and motivational talk on steps that can aid audiences in winning at life.

Starting with an impactful discussion on the importance of morning rituals, Danny underlines the vital role of affirmations, exercise, and mindful journaling. This episode elaborates on building productive habits in personal and professional life, and underlines the significance of lessons such as engaging with your audience, analyzing data and asking questions to your followers.

Delving into the concept of “start, stop, continue” for personal and professional reflection, the conversation navigates the path of identification and improvement, emphasizing the importance of embracing failure as a learning process. Cutting through the common misperceptions, and focusing on fundamental aspects of self-improvement, this episode is designed to ignite your creative journey and helps you challenge your limiting beliefs and accept failure as a part of your evolution.

This episode promises valuable insights and pieces of advice that will help creators build sustainable productivity habits, improve content quality, engage more effectively with their audience, and create a thriving online business. Share your takeaways and join in the journey of collaborative learning!

Danny's Links

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Is it just me or do you as a content creator find it difficult to know which
self-improvement tips to follow that are going to help you to become the best creator that you can?
I can relate. Well, in this video, I'm going to give you five self-improvement
tips that really help me to get clear, focused, and disciplined so I can create

(00:20):
the best content I possibly can.
And here's a hint. It has nothing to do with tools, equipment, or resources.
You ready? Let's jump in.
Music.
You're listening to the grinding gratitude show i am
danny stone and i've dedicated my entire life to helping
people win win in their careers win in

(00:43):
their businesses and win in their lives this podcast is going to help you get
on your grind and hustle to create the life that you love and walk in gratitude
along the journey each episode i'll teach you tools and tactics and bring you
conversations with experts that will help you turn your passion into a thriving online business.
Life isn't about wishing for something greater. It's about making it happen.

(01:05):
There's something special about you. Grind until you find it.
Be grateful when you get it.
Music.
Tip number one, the thing that really helped me to get focused as a creator,
as a business owner, author, speaker,

(01:26):
the number one thing that really helped me to get focused and disciplined was
creating a morning ritual.
See, there's a difference between a morning routine and a a morning ritual.
And I want to clear that up right now.
A morning routine are all of the things that you have to do to prepare for your day.
You have to shower, you have to get out of bed, you have to eat something,

(01:50):
you know, you have to brush your teeth. That is a part of your routine.
But a ritual is something that you look forward to that's going to give you
more clarity, more focus, more peace, and more calm in your day.
So for me, once I realized the power of that, It changed everything for me because

(02:11):
I would hit snooze 10 times.
I never wanted to get out of bed because I wasn't looking forward to starting my day.
This was back when I was going to my corporate job. And then when I quit the
corporate job and started my own business, I was still struggling.
And so I couldn't get excited about getting up and getting out of bed.

(02:31):
And what I realized is being a business owner and a creator,
we get to use our gifts and our talents to inspire other people,
to encourage them, to bring them entertainment,
to make their lives better.
And so when I started thinking about that, that was one of the things that really

(02:53):
inspired me to get up and get out of bed and get at it.
But once I decided to do that, I would read all of these books that say,
wake up at 6 a.m., wake up at 5 a.m., you know, do this in the morning, do that in the morning.
And I tried all of these things and it was just too much.
All of these self-improvement tips were just a lot. So what I had to do was

(03:16):
figure out what works for me.
And what worked for me was developing a morning ritual. That was the very first thing that I did.
So when you wake up in the morning, what are the three or four things that you're
going to do to take care of yourself so that you can ease into your day with
clarity and focus and discipline?

(03:36):
Because as a creator, you know it can be so chaotic.
You've got to document. You've got to create what you're creating.
You've got to put it out there.
You've got to promote it. You've got to engage with your audience.
There's so many things that we have to do.
So the best thing that we can do is to start our day on our own terms.
You know, so for me, you know, I talk about the four M's of a powerful morning ritual.

(04:02):
And the very first one is meaning. You know, I wake up in gratitude.
I pray. I say thank you. and being grateful and being in gratitude is one of
the best things that we can do.
Because when we're stressed and we're overwhelmed and we're trying to create
amazing content, sometimes we don't feel the gratitude.

(04:24):
We're not grateful that we are able to create content.
So we have to wake up in gratitude. So the very first M is meaning.
I wake up, I pray, I journal.
Here's all the things that I'm grateful for, right? The second thing that I
do is mantra, an affirmation.

(04:46):
What is that powerful affirmation that you say to yourself as you're getting ready for the day?
What is that powerful statement, right? We have to speak what we want into existence.
And so if you're waking up and you're listening to the radio or you're reading
the news, you're allowing your mind to be programmed with other things instead

(05:06):
of what you want it to be programmed with.
So what is your mantra? What is
that powerful statement that you have as a creator? What is your mission?
And you wake up and you say that to yourself at the beginning of the day.
I am powerful. I'm amazing.
I'm so fortunate to be able to create content that reaches millions and millions of people.

(05:28):
I'm so fortunate that what I create inspires people to be at their best.
I'm so blessed and fortunate that I get to create content that makes people
laugh. What is it for you?
You want to wake up and say that to yourself every single day.
That is the second M, the mantra.

(05:49):
The third M is you have to get moving, right?
We're constantly running around doing things, but we need some form of exercise.
See, exercise releases endorphins and the things that make us feel good.
So when you wake up and you exercise and you take care of your body,
you're actually taking care of your mind at the same time.

(06:11):
And I don't know about you. I find when I exercise, I just feel good afterwards.
I'm ready to start the day. And then the fourth M is mindful journaling.
Writing down your thoughts can be so powerful as a creator because as soon as
you wake up, you have this,
you know, you get these amazing ideas and sometimes they just pass you by because

(06:34):
you don't jot them down or you don't jot down what you're grateful for or you
don't jot down your thoughts. thoughts.
And I found that when I just write things in my journal and I come back to them
a week later, a month later, or months later, there are so many amazing nuggets
in there that are going to help me better myself.

(06:56):
And some of those thoughts will help me better my business. And some of those
thoughts will help me with ideas to create amazing content.
So mindful mindful journaling is powerful. So start your day with a really amazing
morning ritual and you will see how it will change your life.
Tip number two, we're talking about self-improvement and one of the things that

(07:20):
really helped me to go from struggling as a creator to getting focused and creating
great content and engaging with my audience was developing powerful habits. habits.
See, I knew I had to change my habits. I would wake up and kind of take a little
bit of action on my business.
I would do a little bit of creating, but it wasn't focused.

(07:43):
And I just wasn't focused on the right things. I didn't have the right habits.
And it was all over the place. Like I didn't know what I was going to do when
I woke up. I would just wing it throughout the day.
I would kind of do a little bit of research on what type of content I would
create, but not not really.
And I knew that I had to develop better habits, better habits for myself,

(08:08):
better habits for my business as a creator.
So what I started doing was looking at other successful creators who are doing what I'm doing.
And I started seeing how do they start their day? What do they talk about in terms of their habits?
What are some of the things that they do? Where's the discipline in their lives?
And I started applying some of that to my life. And I'm telling you this.

(08:32):
When you have habits, really powerful habits that are serving you,
that are elevating you, that are lifting you up, that are keeping you focused
so that you start to do things on autopilot, that's when you get in your groove.
And so I started developing habits, personal development habits.
I started developing habits around my creating.

(08:54):
How am I going to do my ideation? How am I going to come up with ideas?
How am I going to test them? them? How am I going to put them out there in the
world? How am I going to monetize them?
So I created habits around all of that so that it just became second nature
and I didn't have to wake up and guess, what should I be working on?
What am I supposed to do today?

(09:15):
See, when you know what you have to do, that removes so much of the barrier, right?
Because so many of us don't take action because we don't know what to do.
So when you map that out and it becomes a habit, these are are the three things
that I have to do today as a creator, it changes the game.
No more winging it. Now you know exactly what you have to do.

(09:37):
So create better habits and you'll create better content.
You'll be able to monetize that content. Your audience will believe you.
They'll want to engage with you because they can tell the difference between
you just winging it and you really really thinking about the content,
you're really thinking about what you're creating and putting it out there for your audience.

(10:00):
So that's the second powerful tip that I learned about self-improvement.
The third one is all about learn, unlearn, and relearn.
What are some things that you learn that you know that you just have to unlearn?
You know that they're just not serving you well.
Maybe when you first started this, some of the advice that you got as a creator

(10:22):
is you're never gonna sleep. Don't sleep for 10 years.
Just do the work. Just create, create, create. Forget about sleeping.
Sleeping. Well, maybe along the way you realize the importance of sleep.
Maybe you realize that you have to get more sleep in order to be at your best
so you can create your best content.
So that's something that I had to unlearn. What are some things that you have

(10:44):
to unlearn? Let me know in the comments.
Then you might have to relearn some things that you know are really important as a creator.
Some things that you might know that are important are going and looking at
your analytics, engaging with your audience, asking them what they want,
providing what they want.
See, these are things that we know, but do we do it? So for me, I had to relearn that.

(11:09):
I would just go and create content and then nobody would be engaged or nobody
would buy the course or the product.
And I would say, well, how come no one's buying this?
And eventually I had to realize I should be asking my audience what they want.
I remember I spent six weeks creating a whole course and I put so much time into it.

(11:34):
I wrote out the lessons, I created workbooks, and I put it out to my followers
and my audience and crickets.
Nobody wanted it. And I pushed it for a very long time.
And what I realized is that but it just wasn't what my audience wanted.
And so when I asked people, you know, why didn't they buy it?

(11:55):
They said, Coach Stone, that's not what we want.
And once I asked them and they told me, I realized I was way off.
So I had to relearn that. I knew it, but I had to relearn the importance of
connecting with your audience and your followers and asking them what they want
before you run out there and create it.
And doing my research before I create it. Looking at the analytics before I

(12:19):
create it. So that's something that I had to relearn.
And then what is something that you have to learn? Maybe you have to get better
at video scripts. Maybe you have to get better at recording.
Maybe you have to get better at showing up on camera. Whatever that is,
there are some things that you have to learn that are going to make you a better creator.

(12:40):
And look, I'm not talking about the technicalities of things, right?
We all know that. I'm not talking about all of the videos that you can watch
on, here's how to speak better on YouTube, or here's the lighting,
or here's the angle, or this is the camera.
I'm talking about things that you know that are gonna make you better as a person
that are in turn going to make you a better communicator, that are gonna make you better creator.

(13:04):
And some of these things aren't necessarily around equipment or technicalities
or the type of camera that you use.
These are self-improvement tips that are going to help you, that are gonna supercharge your success.
So think about the things that you have to unlearn, relearn, and learn.
Now, tip number four, this is all about start, stop, continue.

(13:30):
What are some things that you have to start doing? What are some things you
have to stop doing? And what are some things you have to continue to do?
And for me, this was a big thing because at the beginning of every year,
I would set these big goals and these big dreams as a creator.
I want to do this and I want to be on these stages and reach this much people.

(13:50):
And it was almost like I was starting fresh every year. And I said, well, wait a minute.
There's some things that I obviously have to start doing.
There's some other things that I'm doing and that are working really,
really well. So I want to keep doing those. And then there's some things that I just need to stop. job.
So think about your start, stop, continue in your personal life,

(14:11):
in your business as a creator.
What are some things that you need to start doing that are going to energize
you, that are going to help you to get focused, that are going to help you to get organized?
What are some things that you want to continue to do that are already working?
And then what are some things that you need to stop doing? They're just time suckers.
They're time wasters. They're not getting where you where you want to go.

(14:34):
They're slowing you down.
They're blocking you. They're playing into your limiting beliefs,
so they're stopping you from moving forward.
What are some of those things that you need to stop doing?
Think about this. Write down on a piece of paper, start, stop,
continue, and start writing those things down so you can see that list in front

(14:54):
of you and you know what you need to start, stop, and continue.
Tip number five. Now, this is going to be a tough one, but I really want you to lean into this.
It took me a long time to lean into this.
But tip number five is all about embracing failure.
As a creator, as a business owner, as someone who's on a mission to help more

(15:18):
people, inspire more people, entertain more people, you have to understand that
you're not always gonna get it right.
It's okay to try new things. It's okay to fail.
But if you don't step outside of your comfort zone, you're not going to push
the limits and you're never going to reach your true potential.
This was a tough one for me because I don't like to fail.

(15:42):
And when I used to fail at things, I would see myself as a failure.
And I would put that label on me. Danny, you're a failure.
Okay, you tried that book thing. It didn't work.
Okay, you tried this podcast thing. It's okay. You tried this YouTube thing.
It's all right, but you're not really successful.
And I had all of this negative self-talk in my mind, and I started to label myself as a failure.

(16:08):
And so what I did was I would stay inside my little box of my little comfort zone.
I wouldn't push myself. And because I wasn't pushing myself, I wasn't growing.
I wasn't learning. I wasn't experiencing new things. I wasn't reaching more
people because I just stayed comfortable.
And so what I realized is failure is a part of the process.

(16:29):
Every successful person that you know has failed many, many times.
And as a creator, you have to know that you have to push the limits.
You got to step outside of where you're comfortable to test out new ideas,
to listen to your audience and respond with what they want.
To create amazing content that maybe you hadn't created before because you were afraid.

(16:54):
You've got to do it afraid. You've got to step outside of that box.
You've got to know that amazing things are waiting on the other side of fear,
and you have to embrace that fear.
And when you do that, I promise you, you're going to grow and stretch in so many ways.
Your content is going to get better. Your business is going to grow.

(17:15):
You're going to reach more people.
You're going to be more clear about what it is that you want to do in the world.
And people are going to see that and they're going to be attracted to that.
But you have to step outside of this box.
You got to get uncomfortable.
You have to push yourself. And look, it's going to be very awkward.

(17:36):
Like I remember the first time I started my podcast, the Grind and Gratitude Show.
I launched the podcast. I didn't know anything about podcasting.
I was just mumbling and stumbling through my words.
The first 10 episodes were probably terrible.
I wanted to quit because I just, I didn't know anything.

(17:57):
I thought nobody wants to listen to this. Who wants to listen to me stumble
over my words and all these ums and ahs? Nobody wants to hear that.
I was terrified and I almost shut it down.
And then I got one message from somebody who said, wow, I love episode five.
It really resonated with me. It made me think about my life.

(18:19):
And that was the thing that made me realize getting uncomfortable and being
afraid to fail is a part of success.
And now the podcast has reached people in 65 countries and we've had 172 episodes.

(18:39):
But I kept going. I embraced fear. I embraced the failure.
I had some setbacks. Nobody was listening. Very few downloads in the beginning, but I pushed through.
And here we are at 172 episodes reaching people around the world.
So think about that next time you want to quit. it. Think about that next time
you want to be comfortable or next time you have an idea, then you talk yourself

(19:02):
out of it because you're afraid. Embrace failure.
So those are the five tips. I hope this has been helpful for you.
I know there's so many self-improvement tips out there and as creators and business
owners, it's hard to know which ones to follow.
Maybe these ones aren't even for you, but at least they get you thinking about
what are some self-improvement tips that you can have that are going to help

(19:23):
you to become a better creator.
Now look, I want to to hear from you in the comments.
Let me know your biggest takeaway from this video.
Thanks so much for being my co-host on this episode of the Grinding Gratitude
Show. I really appreciate you.
I hope that you learned something and you're motivated to take action and get on your grind.
Didn't that go by fast? If you want more, head over to grindinggratitude.com

(19:46):
for show notes and more information about this episode.
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to iTunes and subscribe subscribe,
and leave a rating so more people will tune in.
And let me say this, there's something special about you.
Grind until you find it. Be grateful when you get it.
Music.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

1. On Purpose with Jay Shetty

1. On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

2. 24/7 News: The Latest

2. 24/7 News: The Latest

Today’s Latest News In 4 Minutes. Updated Hourly.

3. The Joe Rogan Experience

3. The Joe Rogan Experience

The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc.