From Drained to Dynamic: How to Cultivate and Sustain Peak Performance

0:01 Welcome to The Coaching Equation brought to you by Empire Partners and hosted by Ryan Lang and Brooke Bishop. Our mission is to help you build a profitable and impactful coaching business by cutting through the noise and all the expert advice to deliver tried and true actionable insights that you can deploy in your business today. Each week, we bring on expert guests, unveil cutting edge tactics and strategies, and share the secrets and stories that we've gathered from working with the most successful coaching companies on earth. Welcome back to the Coaching Equation Podcast.

0:42 I'm your host, Ryan Lang, CEO and co-founder of Empire Partners, alongside my co-founder and co-host, Brooke Bishop. And in today's episode, we are diving in on one of the single most important topics in business and in life, optimizing your energy. Look, if you've ever felt drained, overwhelmed, like you're running on empty, shout out to Jackson Brown, my man. This conversation is for you because in today's episode, Brooke and I are going to dive into practical strategies to help you go from feeling stuck to unstoppable. Cultivating the energy you need to show up at your very best every single day.

1:23 From optimizing your daily routines to building resilience and staying aligned with your vision, this episode is packed with actionable insights to actually help you go out, lock in, and sustain peak performance. So buckle up and let's go make this happen. This is episode 38 of the Coaching Equation Podcast. Welcome back to the Coaching Equation Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Lang, CEO and co-founder of Empire Partners, alongside my co-founder and co-host, Brooke Bishop. What's up, dude? What up, what up? You know, this is going to be a lot of fun as we get into the, you know, here in the first part of the year. It's so interesting because so often I think that we can kind of start the year in a way where we're either A, F, We feel super energized and or we feel a little bit of the holiday.

2:14 There's a little bit of a holiday hangover going on, or we can kind of be caught in a little bit of a messy middle. And here's the deal. Today's episode is all about getting you on point as it relates to your energy, because newsflash, this is 100 percent in your control. So as we kick this thing off, I think the first thing, dude, that I want to talk about is that, you know, one of the biggest misconceptions in the world in general, this isn't amongst any one group, is that energy – that we either have energy or we don't.

2:55 And the truth is that energy, as we know, is cultivated. It's generated internally. It's also taken away internally. And so this is less about, you know, how do you have energy? And it's more about how do you actually generate it and cultivate it, which I think is a major distinction. I love it. It takes me back to many, many years ago in college when I learned that how we burn calories, right? It's like if you burn a gram of carbohydrates or sugars, you know, you get four calories of energy.

3:37 You burn a gram of protein, you get four calories of energy. And then the thing that blew my mind, it's like you burn one gram of fat, you get nine calories of energy, right? So it's like, okay, if you can become a fat burning machine, you get more than twice the amount of energy. And it was just this interesting thing because then you start to see all the different studies that came out and they're like, oh, don't eat fat and avoid fat. And I'm going way back in time, clearly, because now you fast forward to keto and all these different things. We have all these little different ways of creating and cultivating energy. One big way, obviously, being nutrition. But there's another side to this, which is the emotional game, which is the spiritual game, which is the stories that we create and how that can foster energy as well.

4:17 And, you know, this can be exhibited when we have something really good that happens. It's like immediately we get this adrenaline rush, but then it's not usually just the adrenaline. Like it carries over. We maintain that energy. It's like we didn't put anything different in our body at that moment in time. But it came from somewhere. So where did it come from? Yeah. So yeah, I'm pumped to dig into today's combo just because I know both you and I do so many different things. And we're kind of, I don't even want to say kind of, we are scientists and tacticianers. That's my new word, tacticianer. Is that a word? Tacticianer. Tactician is a word. I think you just combine practitioner with tactician.

4:58 We're going to write a book and it's called the tacticianer. It's happy. Word now. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm stoked to explore it because, dude, let's just be real. How many times have we have we heard a coach or an expert consultant, whatever, where they've said, I've run three calls today and I'm just exhausted. Right. I worked three full hours. I need a week off. So true. And I think it is one of those things. You got to check in on this. This is one of those deals where you've got to look at like what's quote unquote normal and what's not. Like you being zapped after three calls in a day, not normal.

5:43 Not normal at all. And when I say that, you know, here's the interesting thing. It's probably if we're using the word normal to just describe like what's more common, That probably is more common than the opposite side of the coin. But it's not a, you know, it's not, it's not a normal meaning like your body and your mind and your spirit are just truly responding to the protocol. No, you got way more left in the tank than that when you're doing it right. That's the main key right now. Somebody right now is listening to this and is like, oh, this is bullshit.

6:23 Nope. I do not. I'm turning this one off and I'm taking a nap. I'm done. Yeah. I'm going to go fucking kumbaya on the couch for a while and take another three hours before my next call. Make sure I'm in state. Alright. All right. So let's dig into this. What we thought would be helpful for you today is not for us to talk conjecture about a whole lot of things that we've heard or that we think might work or whatever. You know, as Brooke kind of mentioned, we're both scientists really in this particular category in many different ways. Yeah. And obviously, this is a big part of what I've done professionally over the course of my career, both in health and fitness on the physical side and then obviously as a performance coach as well.

7:12 And so what we're going to do is we're going to run you through some of the things that we do day in and day out to help cultivate energy and generate energy and maintain energy. And hopefully, these are things that you'll be able to take and play around with and employ in your own daily life. These are all the things. These are also things that we like to play around with our clients. Wow. The instant lisp showed up again. Damn it. I love it. I love how that lisp shows itself. So let's start with the morning routine. This we could go on forever on. So let's kind of, let's keep it tight on the morning routine.

7:55 But give us a sense for what's going on there. I like how you just politely put guardrails on me right there. That was very clever. You see how I did that? Yeah. Hey, bro. Don't go into the weeds, bro. Fucking laying the plane is what I'm trying to say. So let me tell you, when I started about my original morning routines, no, I think that there's just this element of being intentional, right? It's like we as coaches, it's like we use the word intentional, being in alignment. We use all these words and fancy schmancy jargon. But what does that actually translate to as it relates to the actions that we take or the actions that we don't take? And I think that, again, I keep saying I think. I know that morning routine has been one of the most powerful pieces.

8:36 It's funny because my wife and I, we actually don't call it morning routine. So I don't know if I ever shared this with you, Ryan. So my wife is like the word police as it relates to like origins and sounds and whatnot. And so she's all what else in our life do we enjoy morning? I'm like, it's a really fascinating thing. Like, so you wake up in the early part of the day and then what we cry and we weep that we're alive. Like it sounds I've never thought about this at all. I hadn't either until she highlighted it. And I'm like, Oh shit. Good point. That's fair. We actually don't call it a morning routine. We actually refer to it as prime time. So not the coach of the Colorado buffaloes, but for us, we prime in our morning.

9:19 So we have specific activities that we do to literally trigger a couple different things. One is detoxification. So getting any negative energy out of our system. The second is we do specific things to get our head screwed on straight and to get into alignment. And then the third is we do specific things to get our physical body engaged so that we literally trigger our mitochondria to fire off. So that we step into the day lit on fire and we're again in alignment and we've taken those actions. So it's kind of like the Navy SEAL principle of like make your bed first kind of a deal. So by doing that first thing, we prime ourselves to get into the right space to go kick some ass. Because I know you like to wake up.

10:02 You're one of those guys that likes to sleep in. So I'd love to hear your inputs and takes on being a late riser. Yeah. Late riser. Yeah. So for me, I'm exactly the same way. And I love that. I love the shift in language to prime time because that's exactly the way that I think of it. It's I actually I look at it. I look at it actually as my armor. You know, the external world, this is the way that I've always thought about it. You know, in years past, many years ago, I would just get up and, you know, instantly allow myself to be affected by the world around me, the people around me, all of that stuff.

10:46 And I started noticing really quickly that when I would take time for myself, even at first when I didn't understand what I was doing and I would just get up and do stuff that I wanted to do, like I would get up like, you know, an hour early to just do something I wanted to do, like play video games or, you know, read the newspaper. Yeah, I did that. I did that. Read the newspaper. Uh, but, um, but you know, the, the thing that I found is that as I've cultivated this practice over time, it literally is my armor. And so what I do first thing in the morning is always, I'm always looking at the things, the pieces of armor that I need to put on in order to be properly, uh, you know, I mean, literally ready to go into battle every day.

11:36 And so that starts for me really early. And for a long time, I was kind of like a 6 o'clock, 6 a.m. kind of guy, which is still early to a lot of people. But that had more to do with the time that I was typically getting to the office and that kind of thing in my previous life. And since I had kids, it was like, for crying out loud, those little bastards are going to be up at... you know, 6 a.m. Like I, if I, if I'm not up before that, I have no time for myself. And so I am four o'clock, 4.30, just about every day. On the weekends, I'll sleep in a little bit.

12:18 But, you know, Monday through Friday, it is four o'clock to 4.30. And that's, you know, for me, getting up, doing that, diving into, you know, the things for me that, that are, uh, are helpful, which we'll go through some of these. So I'm not going to necessarily go through the list right now, but that's a big thing for me. I, I feel like when I, when I don't get that time in the off chance that that doesn't happen for one reason or another, um, which in this day and age, it's either because I'm really sick or, uh, it was the late one, uh, which I still allow myself occasionally. Yeah.

12:59 But it doesn't happen often. And when it does, I feel I feel honestly, I feel off kilter. It's that intentional time, you know, and it's just too hard for me, as I think it is for most business owners, CEOs. You know, even if you're just going to a job every day, it's pretty tough to find the time to do, you know, the things that, you know, will really set you up for success and help you put that armor on day in and day out. Yeah, no, it's, it's interesting. I love that, that framework of putting on your armor and it makes so much sense, right? So partially why we created the meditation for shield meditation for kicking off the day and, and really mentally, physically, emotionally doing just that.

13:41 So I think it's, but I never, it's interesting because I never connected the dots on the, just that. Yeah. I think it's brilliant. Um, there's something interesting that I've started doing about three months ago, which I'd never done before. That's, proven to be for me. Well, you, you and I are both usually back to back with our meetings through the day. So one of the things I've started doing is in that, that prime time, I'll actually write out each of the meetings that I have in the day and I'll capture what is the outcome that I have for each of those meetings. And I'll document like any of the high notes, just to make sure that I've, I've walked through what I want each of them to be and how I want people to feel. And I'm actually like, I'm, I'm, I'm actually like, projecting into each of those meetings each day beforehand.

14:23 Because what I found myself, if we go back in October, November, when Brooke was burning up, I was going from meeting to meeting. And I'm just like, why am I here? Why am I here? And I found myself melting energy because I didn't have an outcome. And I was kind of scrambling in the moment, trying to get my feet underneath me. And so I've found that by projecting each day and like really documenting that is had a huge effect on how I show up and how I feel. I love this one. And it's something that I do as well. I actually started doing this. I think I originally for me, I think I picked this up from something Brendan Burchard related at one point or another. But just looking at the calendar ahead of time and saying exactly that, like, OK, what's my outcome for for this conversation that I'm going to go have?

15:10 What do I want for myself? What I want for the other people involved going in with intention? Yeah. And the thing that I want to highlight here, somebody might be listening to this right now and go, well, what in the hell does this have to do with energy? Well, guess what? When you find yourself in a spot where you're consistently running around from meeting to meeting with no real handle on what the outcome is, what your intentions are, that kind of thing, you will be asking yourself, why am I doing this? Why am I here? Why am I wasting my time right now? You'll get resentful. You'll get pissy about it. And if you want to watch that battery drain, whoo, It happens at like double time when you find yourself in that spot. So this one absolutely correlates to energy.

15:51 It's a super sneaky one. And it's one that I think if you spend a little bit of time, it doesn't take that long. But if you spend just a little bit of time looking at each engagement, visualizing just a little bit, thinking about the outcomes that you want, that kind of thing. It really does make a huge difference. I love that one. Yeah. Yeah. For me, I found when I can step into more of a commander mode and just like in my own identity, right? Like I'd come into the meetings and be like, okay, great. Here's what's going to happen. Here's where we're going. And so I put myself in a stronger position of influence. And so when we're an influencer, guess what? We got energy. When we're being influenced, we're usually melting energy.

16:33 And so that was just a huge piece for me just to recognize, like, wait a minute, my identity hasn't been showing up in the right framework for the, you know, the results that I wanted. So flipping that switch, it's like, okay, great. If we're in battle times, I need to know what the hell's happened today. I need to know where my, my units and people are out in the field and what they're doing and like just the things that were taking place. And so I just found, again, instead of going into a meeting and trying to burn time and energy, figuring out what was happening, stepping into that identity of commander for, for me. I love that. And, and I would say also, you know, one of the other little sneaky ones that, that I think is really important as it relates to energy is at different times, we all have different things that we're focused on in terms of affecting change in our own lives, in our businesses, things of that nature.

17:27 And, you know, when we, I, When we talk about energy, one of the things that has to come into play is decision fatigue. And right, especially as we get past lunchtime and further on into the day, it is real. It is very real. And a lot of times the things that we want to be focused on or that are going to need our attention or our effort, um, are going to require us to be in a place where we've done something more than just rely on our momentary ability to make that choice and that decision in the moment. And so to give an example, one of the things that I've been really focused on over the last couple of years, and you know this, is just – just reducing my need to rely on wine at night.

18:17 You know, it's not been about, oh my God, I'm a raging alcoholic and I can't function. But it's been more so about like, what would it look like if I didn't rely on this as much as I know I do? Yes, I enjoy it, but... You know, what else is there? How could I maybe challenge myself in this area? Because I've challenged myself in so many different ways physically and mentally. And this was one in particular that I knew was kind of just hanging around back there, you know. And so to give an example of what I'm talking about right now, especially as we link it to a morning routine, is that I have for the last, I believe it's 548 days, for the last 548 days, I have tracked every drink that I have put in my body.

19:07 Whoa. Yeah. Oh, see. And... And what's crazy about it, we're not going to talk about how many now, goddammit. You just hold the phone. But, you know, what's really fascinating about it is that I – because it was something that I wanted to focus on and because – I wasn't I wasn't in a space where I was going, oh, I'm going to go this huge, long stretch, like this really long stretch of just not having any alcohol at all. That was my choice. But I said, I'm going to make it a focus for myself by by touching it every single morning. And so as an example, I have this I have this app called Reframe, which I love for this specific purpose, by the way, whether you want to cut back or quit, whatever.

19:58 I find it to be very, very helpful. But I just touch that every morning. And when I get to the point where I have to make a decision that. I already had it anchored earlier in the day and I can sink back to, to, to that moment. Whereas if I just blindly said, well, this is something I'm going to focus on. And every once in a while I kind of check in, it gets so much easier for that decision fatigue to take over. And, and then we just don't make the decision that we want to make. The other part is that I actually find it helpful in that when I'm really locked in, it makes the decision for me, which conserves more energy.

20:41 If you have to make fewer decisions throughout the day, you will naturally conserve energy. Love that. It ties into, you know, mentioning how many calories we burn. So, our brain is predominantly composed of fat. Why? Because that's where we have to have as much energy firing and being used up all the dang time. So, I love the fact you brought up decision fatigue because, dude, it totally is real. And, yeah, the more intentional we are, we don't have to make decisions because we already made them. So, it's just a heck of a lot easier. Yeah, one of the things that's really important, I think, and this just kind of... as we're speaking to the end of the day, right? So maybe perhaps your glass of wine or perhaps whatever's happening later in the day.

21:24 I think this is another huge area that, that oftentimes, um, I don't want to say we go unconscious with it, but it's more that we just maybe perhaps aren't as intentional, which is our evening process or our evening routine. Um, and actually Vanessa actually, uh, so our, our COO, she posted something on social yesterday and I know she's been like super deep into the research on this one right now. Um, but the effects of blue light, um, Oh, it's real. Yeah. And just how it jacks up our circadian rhythms. And there's, there's a whole plethora of other things for anybody that wants to go down that rabbit hole. But there's just a lot of really fascinating things as you start to research, well, why are our computer monitors structured this way? And TVs and phones and all the things, all the light bulbs that are in our house and the billboards that are outside and all, all these things that are around us in our environment.

22:11 They're set up to not only distract us, they're set up to grab our attention, but it really does mess with our ability to recover and to sleep and to get into those deep sleep pieces, which then ultimately, if you don't have a good evening routine, you can't have a very good morning primetime, right? So what are some of the things you do later in the day to help make sure you're dialed in on that side? Yeah, that's so for wine management. Aside from wine management. Yes. So I think there are a couple of things that for me are non-negotiables.

22:52 I will – I mean unless it is like there is this eminent deadline that I absolutely have to hit and there's no other way for me to do it than to, you know, quote unquote, burn the midnight oil. I absolutely will not work past 6 o'clock. And for me, one of the reasons why is that I find that when I work past six o'clock, when you talk about circadian rhythm, even when I have like blue light blockers on and stuff like that, my brain will not shut down. That's my cutoff. I've just found that when I get past six o'clock and I'm still working, it doesn't matter what the fuck I do.

23:37 Wine, no wine, show book, you know, meditation. It makes no difference. My brain just doesn't shut down the same way. So that's number one is that, is that unless there's something major going on, um, um, I, uh, I will, I will shut it off because otherwise I will sleep like shit. And for me personally, we all do this deal differently, but for me, um, I am so much better. Even if I had to wake up at three o'clock in the morning, I'm way better waking up at three o'clock than working till 10. Um, yeah. So that's number one. The other thing, just from a very simple standpoint for me, is I do like I will turn lights down and things like that.

24:22 Like I will I can't stand being in environments later in the evening that have, you know, where like all the lights are blaring, you know, it's a. fucking sports stadium uh getting the tan in your head exactly yeah at eight o'clock at night yeah uh where's that banana boat um but i i i gotta i gotta dim the lights i do throw blue light blockers on uh i i have a set of clear ones that i really like i couldn't i can't do the the like orange or red you can't go full dave asprey I did for a while. Yeah, my family used to call me Bono all the time.

25:04 I totally did that. But I will be honest, I know I lose a few of the effects, but I really don't want to look through orange-colored lenses. I was just looking around. I had found mine the other day in the office clean-out. I'm like, oh, yeah, I forgot about these. I have some that are like aviators. I'm like – like what was I thinking getting full aviators I'm like I want to look cool and then I've got these like orange lenses like okay it's interesting you bring that up because my cutoff time is 6 o'clock as well So I, I, from a meeting standpoint, I will not take a meeting that extends beyond 530.

25:44 And then I have like a 30 minute, like I call it reflect and optimize window, right? Then I'm looking backwards at the day. So it's like kind of doing that prep on the front end. And then I have that hard line at 530, but then I have, and sometimes it takes me five minutes. Sometimes it takes me all 30, but of like looking backwards going, what worked well? Did I meet the outcomes? And it's just a review. Yeah. And then it's just a little mini prep for the next day of like, what do I have coming up? So this way, when I wake up in the middle of the night, because that happens periodically, my brain's not going, oh shoot, what do I have to do today? Because it's like, yeah, already did that. So I actually, it's funny you say that. I, I do exactly the same thing. It's just a little bit of, yep. Imagine coincidence.

26:25 Who knew? Who knew? Yeah, I do exactly the same thing. And that's what I find too. I really, I really, I really like to put the bow on the day and, and to look back and, and get clear and have a couple of prompts that I kind of go through. Um, and, and then similarly, just kind of looking ahead, being prepared, knowing what's coming up. Then I can put my mind to rest and, um, and, you know, and, and get it shut down. And I do also, I know about you, but I like it really to button up the evening routine thing. I mean, there are other things, but I like it really effing cold and same, same Z's.

27:06 Yeah. That's why we can snuggle together and it's all good. That's exactly right. It's why it works. Snuggle in the cold. With no blankets on. Yeah, and warm up with a hot quiche. Oh, this is really not good. Yeah, this is great. Ralph, edit this part out. Yeah, that's right. Sorry, Kerry. So let's talk, speaking of which, the temperature of an environment, let's talk about environments a little bit. What do you do in terms of optimizing your environment? And I should say, before you say that, what do you find that your environment has to do with your energy levels?

27:47 Yeah. So I think that, and so, you know, when working with Tony Robbins, there was this element that got, I was going to say beat into us, but it wasn't physical beating. It was a, an emotional mental beating, but there was this element of where focus goes, energy flows. And so I really wanted to take a step back and go, okay. Okay. When I first started working from home, because I was the first person in his organization to go work from home. And I've got a whole... We could do a whole episode on just that experience because it was pretty wild. But I very quickly realized, holy cow. There was a lot of distractions when I was working in a physical office because you've got people and things happening. There's just a lot of different dynamics that would take place there.

28:29 When I went to work from home, it was just a completely different environment. And I'm like, okay, great. Like now I've got people here. I've got people that come to the front door. I've got, you know, pets and animals and things that go on. I've got a kitchen that's at my disposal and I've got a living room with my TV and I've got like, it just, it was a different experience. And I hadn't built that muscle at that point to manage my environment in that new zone. Right. And so this, this dynamic of, you know, anything we give our attention to, well, you know, great. It's going to expand. Yeah. So as it related to my environment at home, I had to do a complete recalibration. So this literally got down to like what office or where in my house am I going to be working?

29:12 So the first thing was I cut off my capacity to be working in main living areas. I've never worked in the living room, will not work in the dining room, will not work like main commuting areas. Nope. Can't do it. Cause it's just, it's a shit show. So that was the first piece. The second was my office. So I took a page out of like the feng shui dynamic. Yeah. Like one of the things, so just being, being the father, husband, protector of the house in the early days, my office was at the back of the house. Cause I'm like, oh, I don't want any distractions. But then I found myself not feeling aware of what was going on outside the house. And so as the protector, I didn't like not being able to see what was going on.

29:53 So now like, you can't really see here with the camera and obviously somebody's listening to this episode, but to my right, there's a whole wall of windows that guess what? It looks out at the front of our property. Okay. So if I ever get that intuitive hit, all I have to do is stand up without having to go completely derail and get distracted. So those are some of the pieces. The other big one is really like my desk space, like my, my office. If I could show a camera angle from the other side, it's very freaking organized. It's probably the most organized room in the house because when I'm working, I don't want to be distracted with, Ooh, why is that set up over there? Like I, my peripherals will pick up on it for anyone who's out there. That's a mega organizer. If your space is chaotic or if there's stuff that's not organized, it'll drive you bonkers and it'll eat up again, energy.

30:36 So that's another huge piece. And then the other part is my wife and I, we joke about it. We call it, you know, my mission control. So I've done everything I can to make my workspace completely optimized. to create energy because we're creator beings and this is my creator zone. Um, so the other part of that is, uh, you know, I've got a walking treadmill, I've got a standing desk, I've got everything's within my orbit to make me feel good and have fun doing what I'm doing. Cause if I get frustrated again, that's another, it's, you know, it's another draining of energy. So those are some of the kind of the quick hits. I love those.

31:17 And I will say that this is an area that is, that is like constantly work for me. Um, it's, it's so fascinating because I have, I have certain spaces that I am really freakish about and my office, I go through, I go through ups and downs with my office. And the one thing that I realized is that when, when I am feeling more, um, when I am feeling more scattered, when I am feeling, and actually, I actually do equate this to energy. One of the things about energy is that oftentimes we, like a lot of other things in life, we think about energy in terms of like big events.

32:00 There's this big thing that happened that drained my energy or this big thing that happened that gave me all this energy or whatever. Yeah. And more often than not, it's death by a thousand cuts. And so one of the reasons, you know, this year I actually committed to a much cleaner routine. It's not like my office gets to be a disaster, but what I will do, one of my worst habits is, you know, like getting something nearly done and setting it aside and then letting those things stack. And what happens is that there are all these little nitnoy things that are, that are not done, that are loose ends, that are not tied up, that guess what?

32:43 Take my brain power. And, um, and so I, I, I'm not going to tell you what I, uh, you know, what I do day in and day out that is absolutely amazing because right now I don't have any things that I do day in and day out. What I do know is that, um, You know, when I am on top of this, there is a palpable difference. So I think that it's something that is important to be aware of. The other thing that I will say is that for me, I do have to have things from an environment standpoint. I will say one thing that I've done well is to think about what kind of an environment relative to like what I want on my walls or what's around me feels good to me.

33:26 So like right behind me, you know, is, is a picture of Aspens. One of my favorite things in the entire world is being in the mountains and, and just watching, listening to the Aspen leaves kind of flutter in the wind. Um, and, uh, I just went like all Bob Ross on that. Let me see if we're going to put a little tree over here. Uh, but I, I love that. It brings me great peace. And I, and I think nature in general brings me great peace. Uh, and so I have like, uh, four or five different plants that I've got scattered, you know, in different places of the room and just seeing the green is something that, you know, helps and is pleasing to me. So, um, this is a work in progress, something I'm going to be working on.

34:10 You can hold me accountable on this one, but, uh, if I don't have too many drainers and this is one that I got to stay on top of for sure. So, um, I was just going to hit one, one little piece that was in there. Cause I just think it's so, so important and you hit it and I want to make sure we double, double stamp and triple stamp the piece of open loops. So when we were working with Buffini and company, they have a personality assessment. And one of the core pieces of it is for people who love to start projects. There's other people that love to finish projects. And then there's other people that like the stuff in the middle. And so just like you, I'm the same way. If I've got a lot of those open loops, like if I'm not closing projects out, they eat up real estate in our brain, which is a fancy way of saying, guess what?

34:56 If we're using hard drive, if we're using that RAM, it's using energy. So I love that you brought that up. So just being mindful of what our natural tendencies are, but doing everything that you can to condition that muscle of completing projects so you can close those loops. So you're not melting energy. So. Yep. Yep. Just double down. Relative to mindset too, you mentioned a little bit ago, the shield meditation that, that came up with, you know, before the day, what are, I know you love this and I do meditate every morning. Actually, that is part of my, part of my routine. But what are some of the other different meditations that you like that help you with this? Yeah. So for me, again, it goes back to outcome.

35:37 So the morning time, I like to do that shield meditation. Now I'm going to start to reference and literally think of it as armor. So I'm like stoked on that. So, but yeah, kicking off the day, it's like, okay, great. What's my outcome there? I'll do different meditations. If it's like right before a sales call or right before a training that we have to do, I'll do like a short meditation. Great. Like get into the space, get aligned, get clear, like bring back to center. A lot of times it's just, honestly, it's just box breathing and fixating on what the outcome is just to bring my system into like a moment of coherence. The other times later in the day, if it's like decompress and this kind of tie in some elements here, like a visual plus an auditory plus a breathing piece.

36:20 And then I have a anchor. Okay. So if it's end of the day, so after I do my little reflect and optimize moment, I have a little sign above my light switch that says like flip the switch, which basically just it's a reminder to me to step into dad mode or into husband mode. So that I don't go from work mode that I've conditioned all during the workday and carry that baggage into treating my wife and kids like they're a client. Like it's just it's just a different energy. Right. So those are a couple of the ones that I do. Again, it's just really intentional and being ahead of the curve. Well, I would just say in general, I like different types of meditations when I'm going through something that's very specific.

37:05 For me personally, I am a pretty boring meditator and it's purely just being able to sit – in focused silence and hone on my breath. The one thing that I'll say about meditation is this. I'm not by any stretch a foremost expert on the subject of meditation, but if you – If you are not a meditator right now, I would really encourage you to play with it because if nothing else, one of the things that I find beyond the shadow of a doubt, and this is for myself and also in my extensive work with clients, is... is that meditation is our ability to focus and be present in the moment is everything.

37:52 It's everything in the absence of that. It is very difficult to be successful. It is very difficult to have a happy life. It is very difficult to be healthy. Um, it's very difficult to do any of those things, uh, if we cannot be present in the moment. And that's also why most of the world doesn't have those things, by the way. Um, So that's one of the things about meditation that I really appreciate is however you do it, whatever your methodology is, whatever works for you. Um, more than anything, I think that's the biggest gift. Is it just helping me to be present in the moment? The other thing is that I have found, I don't personally, uh, I don't take long, long stretches of meditation.

38:35 I'd love to explore that at some point down the road, but it's not something I've really done up till now. Um, and however the repetition of it and especially again putting that armor on early in the day i can't tell you how many times dude i have been in the middle of the day and i find myself drifting and i can snap myself right back into the moment because i've trained myself to do it So that in and of itself is absolutely vital. And again, when we're talking about energy, it's really, really important from that standpoint. Because if you are not present in the moment and your mind is consistently going all over the place when it's taking in stimulus from the external world where you ought to be present right now – You are draining your battery, just, you know, plain and simple.

39:28 So I want to get into one quick. I was just gonna say one quick piece is related to that, just because I think this is such a powerful piece. Is it that moment of being present, especially if you're running a lot of sales calls back to back as a coach? Yeah. that momentary window right at the tail of that sales call, just take 10 seconds to cut the cord of the previous call before you go into the next, even if it means you're going to be a minute late to the next one, because again, you don't want to carry all of that in because that'll, it feels like a rucksack that you're, you're navigating through all those pieces. So just thought of just, yeah. No question. That's a game changer. And even if it's just a moment or two, it matters.

40:13 So I want to get into just a couple of other things really quickly. Let's just – Quickly touch, obviously, you would think when we started this, especially, you know, Brooke kind of talking about like fats and carbs and proteins. Oh, this is going to be a health episode. There's so much more to it than that. So I want to lightly hit on on these pieces. First, you know, obviously, movement is so vital. to cultivating and maintaining energy. You have something that I love. You actually mentioned it to me this morning. I've heard you say it before, but it's a really, really simple practice just in terms of reminding yourself to get up and go.

40:53 What are you doing there? Yes. I literally have an, in my calendar, I just have little touch points there. They're set as free appointment times, right? So it's not eating up actual real estate on the calendar, but it just says move. Um, and they're just set up throughout the day because I forget I'll sit here and I'm like, Oh shoot, four hours just passed. So that that's my initial one. Um, and then the other part is, uh, I, I like to wear my Garmin watch and it tells me how much I moved through the day. So then that, again, part of my reflective, like, did I get enough in and here we One of the things that I'll throw in on this one is, is, uh, many years ago when I was coaching health and fitness, I coined the phrase, the non-workout workout.

41:35 And I used to use this with, uh, I used to use this with my busiest clients that were flying all over the place, you know, and, and stuff like that. Uh, and, um, so I like to, I like to actually get up throughout the day and I'll, I'll get out of my environment. So I'll walk out of my office. I'll either go outside or, you know, like right now in the wintertime, more, more often than not, I'm going downstairs to my studio and I'll just hit some air squats. I'll do a couple of pull-ups. I'll do a few pushups. I'll just like kind of jog across the, you know, the space a little bit. Um, And that in and of itself, first of all, you're going to feel so invigorated by just doing that.

42:18 And the other thing is from a physical standpoint, not that, you know, we have to go into this is a whole nother topic, but there are multiple other benefits to it. Like if you're actually doing strength training throughout the week and you lightly touch on those muscles throughout the week, it's a major game changer. It makes a big difference. So, you know, just something to kind of think about there. And it's not like to a point where like I'm totally breathless. It's just enough. So I feel invigorated. I feel like I've moved my body. I feel like I've done something. The one other thing I want to hit on just really quickly relative to the health side of things is that… You know, when we talk about health, I just want to encourage everybody listening to this right now that if you're doing a lot of these things and you're still having a hard time with your energy levels, there may be something physiologically that's at play here.

43:10 And the main thing that I want to give you as a gift after many, many years of all kinds of research and working with all kinds of different humans is, There is no one way. There just is not. And there is no one on the face of the earth that can convince me otherwise. And what I want to encourage you to do is to find the nutritional protocol and supplemental protocol that works well for you. Right. Um, if you don't know what that is, please get in touch with a professional, get a good functional med doctor to, to take a look at you, get a nutritionist, um, you know, something like that and, and start exploring what really has you feeling great from an energetic perspective, because it's not going to be the same for everyone.

43:52 It is not a cookie cutter thing. And lastly, buddy, why don't you end us on this one? Because I think it's really a big thing, but, um, connecting to purpose and vision. Yeah. So, you know, we all have different modalities of how we like to learn and the things that trigger us and light us up. And some of us are more visual. Some of us are more kinesthetic or auditory or, you know, there's those different, different modalities. If you're not sure what it is, I recommend you do all of the above. So having different music aids that are nearby so you can light that fire and get yourself into the space of triggering some hormones or testosterone or adrenaline or whatever you need in that moment. But also having visual aids. So like my wallpaper on my computer screen, my phone, my iPad.

44:35 You know, printing those things up, putting it on the toilet seat. So you guarantee that you see your vision each day or laminating it and putting it in the shower, becoming obsessed with what you're doing and why you're doing it. And again, building that muscle and anchoring in, it'll help you navigate through those lulls. Or again, it's like to your point, like that fast twitch muscle fiber, our brain's going to function the same way where we can quickly access that ignition switch for. for our purpose and our mission. Cause we always have energy that's there when, when you know what hits the fan and we're fixated on what we got to do. Yeah, 100%. I'll just simply say on that note that this is really an important one.

45:15 And it's one in particular that in the absence of it, we are in big trouble. Like people wonder why they don't have any energy when you're running around all day doing things where you're completely disconnected from your purpose or your reason why. Not everything you're going to do in life is going to be, you know, fucking sunshine and rainbows. Okay, cupcake. Yeah. you're going to have some tough times. And when you have that, in order to keep that energy battery full, you've got to be connected to your purpose and your vision. So these little things, whether it's the visuals, the auditory, the kinesthetic things, whatever those things are, find what they are and make sure that you sprinkle those in all throughout the day so that you can keep that battery full.

45:56 Dude, this has been great on that front. I'm going to go do some things that will get me some more energy. You just drained my battery, Brooke, and I'm going to need to go fill it up now. Energy vampire, you. Go get your energy drink. This has been a good episode, dude. And we'll have a whole lot more this year on these types of things, not just all strategic stuff, but stuff that we can do away from the strategy of sales and marketing and management leadership and all the things. And with all that said, thank you for listening to this episode of the coaching equation podcast. Until next time, be energetic. Take care, everybody.

46:38 Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coaching Equation. Please hit subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you got value out of this episode, we would be so grateful if you would share it out with a friend and leave us a review on iTunes or your favorite platform. To learn more about Empire Partners or to inquire about working with Ryan and Brooke, please visit www.empirepartners.io forward slash go. .