212. Lessons Learned on My Pathway to Wellbeing with Johan Oosthuizen

Very, very few people really know who they are. They think they know who they are. What they think is what other people told them what they are.

Welcome, everybody. I am super excited today to have Johan, and after seven years, I just think I learned how to pronounce his name, Oosthuizen, and I think it's close. No, it's almost there. He'll correct me in a second. Oh, got it. Awesome. So, Johan has been a huge part of my journey in this 3-Day Weekend, 4-Day Workweek, Entrepreneur Work, and he's going to be talking to us today about lessons learned on his path to well being.

Thank you so much for joining us today, Johan.

Well, it's a, it's a great pleasure, Wade, to join you all the way from, from South Africa. And for us, it's just after 6 p. m. in the afternoon.

That is awesome. So, Johan is one of the people that really challenged me to fully embrace this work. I was going back and forth and he reached out to me.

Uh, kind of, it was kind of interesting, he's like, he reached out to me, I'd been on one podcast, my third po first podcast interview ever, and he said, I want to coach you. I thought, okay, well, yeah, a lot of people want to coach people, and he said, no, I want to coach you, I'll just take a percent of whatever you gain, and, but I, I see that you're, you're, you're about to do something really good, and, and you're almost there, so I said, okay, great.

And one of the things he challenged me very quickly was to say, look, if you're going to do this whole 4-Day Workweek, 3-Day Weekend stuff, You can't be doing it part of the year and then make excuse why during your software season or some time of the year you can't do it, and he challenged me, and that really pushed me forward on my journey, so thank you so much for that, Johan, and what I would ask you to do is, in this, um, share a little bit to start out with, what got you on this journey of looking at Wellbeing and share a little bit about your, your background.

So I know your background, you know, your, your, your profession, what you do, share a little bit about that if you don't mind.

Wade, at this stage, I'm 63 years old, but everything started when I started in the life insurance industry many, many years ago in 1983, I was 27 years in that industry. And, uh, I left the industry about 13 years ago when I was 50 years old to do a full time coaching, uh, Uh, well, that's the new thing that I've started when I was 50 years old, but how did the whole thing of well being, uh, came about?

Uh, a typical story like all the people will tell you, you only change when something really drastically happens in your life, and that big, uh, not a hard moment, but wake up call for me was at the age of 33, going through a divorce, and that was a wake up call. I was very successful in the industry. And, uh, on the top of my game, uh, as they say, staying at the right address, driving the right cars.

Having a lot of money in the bank account, working 18 hours a day, seven days a week. That was sort of my lifestyle. And then at the age of 33, I got this wake up call via the divorce. And I was literally sitting in my house and I was asking myself the question, What is busy happening? I thought everything was just going well, and now all of a sudden this big wake up call, and I had to make a decision.

Will I still go on the way that I'm doing my job, or should I make a very difficult decision at that stage to say, okay, I'm going to have to change the way that I that I do my things and live because my kids were small at that stage. I mean, they was one years old, two years old and five years old. And I was really in the beginning of my life at the age of 33.

So that's where everything started. That was the wake up call. And the Monday morning, I walked into my office and talked to my three ladies who was my staff. And I said to them, this happened. And I'm going to have to make a very difficult decision. But I want you to help me in this process. We can carry on like this and still be the number one financial planner at the end of the year in the company, or we can close down the doors and start all over.

And they said to me, Juan, let's finish off the whole year, be the number one guy, and then we can close the doors at the end of the year. And that's exactly what I did. And that's where my journey started on the

Wellbeing Path.

Wow, that's interesting. It's, it's so interesting because I think of what got me making shifts and it was Similar but slightly different but it was a very similar thing Like I got to where I wanted to be success wise and in my case I had not yet met the person that I would marry But I had the house, I had the stuff paid off, I had the 401k, I just had all these things, it's like, and, but it was a similar concept, I hadn't made room for what I really wanted in my life, and I wasn't, I'm not working at 60 hours per week, so it wasn't as crazy, that's where I'm getting the feedback, okay, when I'm speaking now, that's coming through, you.

Are you on a, on a speakerphone or something like

that? Um, yes, we're on speakerphone, yeah.

Hmm. I'm wondering why that changed. Because what's happening now is after I speak, there's a loud feedback as if there were, like someone's using a muffled voice to pretend they were like a monster or something, or like a sinister voice.

So I'm wondering, maybe if you turn down the volume. Like it's feeding back into the microphone. What do you want to do, Wade? Let's try it. Let me see something here. Okay. Well, maybe it was a, you know, that's good. Let's, I'm going to do this. We'll continue from there. We can continue. We don't, we certainly don't need to start over.

Let me pick up. I'm going to pick up where I started that little story. I was saying, okay.

Yeah, you know, something happened similar with me, Yohan. It wasn't, in my case, marriage. It was me having together all the things that I thought I wanted to do, and there was no person in my life. So I was making the money, I had the 401k, had the house. But I hadn't made space for other things in my life. I was really so focused on my career and there really was no room for that to develop.

So when you started doing that, would you share a little bit about what was that journey of finishing out the year? I know a lot of times entrepreneurs think that number one, everything has to happen right away or it's got to be dramatic and that there can't be some sort of sort of tempered voice. And it seemed like you chose a very in between solution, it didn't, wasn't rash, and you also involved your team, what was that like?

Well, I'm very strategic, uh, as an individual, and I always think about stuff and, and, and ask questions and go to other people and get their input as well. I think the other thing that's very important to take into consideration. I was not unhappy in my occupation. In fact, I loved every moment of it. So it was not really work.

And I know my wife many times said to me, but Jan, you never, you never complain about the job that you do, even if clients ask you to come and visit them over weekends or see them late in the evening. You do it with a smile. So the job was not the problem. I laughed every minute of it. It was, it was not work, but I had to make a strategic decision because I've got a strategic mindset.

And that's why I always, as I said, involved other people and get their input. And what I teach all my clients, do the calculation and use your common sense. And the moment when you start doing that, Do the calculation. Use your common sense. You've got the right answer. And the answer for me was, don't make a drastical decision because, I mean, there's a wife and three kids involved in the whole thing.

You have to take that into consideration. Um, you're still in love with this woman. Uh, you know it's important that your kids have stability. So don't make a drastic decision, but first look at yourself. Point the finger to yourself. My mother taught me one thing. She said, Johan, in a relationship, always remember it takes two to tango.

So it's not your fault, 100%. It takes two to tango. But if you are really, uh, looking at it, start looking at first at yourself, ask yourself the question. So that was what I was doing. And I can clearly say audience. It was not, it was not easy because I've got this competition thing in me.

I want to be the best.

I always want to win. And now all of a sudden, uh, the whole picture changed. And I had to look at the bigger picture where there was three kids involved. And as well, my, my three staff members and I'm, I'm very successful in my occupation. So the funny thing happened, I all of a sudden, after the year stopped everything and, and said to my people, okay, I'm going to have no staff, it's only going to me.

I'm going to work from my house, from my study, and I will always close my doors at two o'clock in the evening, in the afternoon, because after two o'clock in the afternoon, I can spend times with my kids going to their schools, standing next to the field while they're playing ball, or they're playing cricket, or any sport, and it was funny, I was the only, only father standing next to the field, all the other mothers were there, I was the only father standing there.

And I did that when all my kids went through all their schools. And you know, Wade, you've got kids yourself. There's one thing that money can never buy. And at the later stage, when my kids were in their late twenties, And they went overseas for their gap year and things like that. Uh, we stand there at the airport and they hugged me and they said to me, Dad, thank you.

Thank you for the time that you've spent next to the sporting field, having time with us. And only that one thank you is more than enough for all the sacrifices that you think you make as a parent doing that. So no, I'll never, ever regret that decision. Never.

That's awesome. One of the things that I love about working with you is first of all, you're willing to do the work.

You're willing to do research. You're willing to learn from other people. A lot of people who are smart or have been successful. It kind of goes to their head or they just get comfortable. It's not necessarily ego. They're just comfortable. Okay. Hey, things are working. I'm not going to change it. And you helped me a lot with a lot of the content from the strengths finder process and getting clear about what my strengths were.

Share a little bit, if you don't mind, how that has played a part in your journey, not only looking at yourself, but also at how you help your clients and then how it's helped with your evolution of wellbeing, again, for you and for your clients. Well,

the reality is at, at that age of the age of 33, I wasn't even aware of the Gallup stuff and all the research that they've been doing.

And the StrengthFinder assessment was not even available at that stage. I only came across that assessment 10 years later when I was 42. But the beauty is once I've done the assessment from Gallup and I saw my strength, then everything started to make sense. so much more sense for me and I could really understand why I made all the decisions that I've made in the past and why I was doing the stuff that I was doing.

So, I was one of the fortunate people and maybe a little bit lucky in the sense that I was in the job and the occupation right from the beginning that, that Bond with my strength and I was like a fish in the water. So that was definitely a positive and also helped me on the journey, uh, because it was not difficult.

It was part of me, it was in my stride to do what I was doing. I just had to branch it a bit bigger and not just focusing on work. And also look at all the other areas of your life, like your health and your family and your finances, obviously. And how involved are you in the community? So that was the part that I had to learn.

How can I apply myself and use my strength in all those other areas as well? Because that is what well being is all about. It's not just focusing on one area. And you've made a very good point, and I see it in all my clients, and we as men, Uh, we are the biggest problem for ourselves, and we call that problem E.

1. O., our ego. I work with a lot of women, and it's funny, they take everything that you try and teach them and help them, and they try it at least, and see if it can work. But we as men, we are our own biggest enemy with that big ego. We think we know everything, and we never ever want to ask other people to help us.

And that was a lesson that I've learned from my dad. He, in his early career, and when I was doing something, I mean, I grew up in a household where my dad was always And I don't think even he realized that. He was coaching me, uh, and there was nothing like coaching in those years. I mean, we're talking about the early seventies and early eighties, but in his own way, he was a coach and he was always setting me on, do the calculation and use your common sense and ask other people because there's nothing that you can say that you know everything of that.

That is not the truth.

Yeah, I found it so interesting when you went through the StrengthsFinder with me, even something as simple as understanding, for example, that Ideation is my first one. And knowing that that's that thing where one of my friends, he says, you know, he's never met an idea he didn't like.

And I'm like, okay, I can relate to that. And there's so much possibility in that. And yet, and especially in the entrepreneur world, we think, oh, this person's got a lot of ideas. They must be so successful. And as any entrepreneur whose experience knows, number one, you actually have to execute the ideas, which is either 99 percent plus of the time.

The idea is the easy part. But addition to that, having a lot of ideas is not necessarily a good thing. A lot of the times it can be distracting, but learning that that was okay, that's a strength. And how can I use that? And that's one of the things I thought that was very helpful when you work with me is looking at.

Other assessments I use, and you know, different assessments have different tools. So some assessments are meant to measure, let's say, a person's intelligence. And then you'd say, okay, is the person literally, are they intelligent enough to do a certain job? And it's really more of a binary. Yes, they are. No, they're not.

And of course there's, there's gray areas, but for most part, after you've done it a hundred times, whatever you say, okay, everybody who's at this score or higher did well in the job. Most everybody who's at this score or lower did poorly. It's kind of easier to do that. And yet, and then other assessments I've done, sometimes I'm not meaning to be mean, so I'm not going to name the assessments, but they almost like everybody's a shining star and everything's awesome, but then they don't do anything with it.

And what I thought was so awesome was you sharing with me, look, this is your profile and it was almost like I was waiting for some diagnosis, like, okay, you can't be an entrepreneur now or, you know, you need to go work for the tax department or something that would be horrible for me. And it was just like, no, no, this is how you're going to do things.

So for example, the ideation you mentioned to me, Wade, like a discipline for me is like way down on my list. And we were talking about the idea of exercise, and he said, No, Wade, you're going to need to come up with ideas to make it interesting, to get yourself to exercise. And I'm like, that's the only thing that's ever worked for me.

Whereas for me to say, well, discipline Wade, darn it. You've got to do this. That just never worked for me. And so part of the well being, at least for me and my path, is as much as I try to be multidimensional is at the same time to align with who I am, at least in my tendencies, in my nature. How has that helped you?

And even beyond the StrengthsFinder, what do you find is that journey with people a lot of the difference between What the world thinks will make them happy, which isn't necessarily evil. It's just one, you know, idea versus dialing in and getting more precise. Because even in your cases, you said, you said, wait, I was in the field that I wanted to be in and still needed to make shifts.

What does that look like for somebody who says, look, I'm scared of losing things. I like what I'm doing, but I feel like I'm missing something. I'm 80 percent there, but I'm scared to give up the 80 to gain the extra 10 to 20%.

Wade, out of my experience working with people and coaching them, What I've picked up is that

very, very few people really know who they are.

They think they know who they are. What they think is what other people told them what they are.

The world, and we are all brought up in an environment in the world where everyone is focusing on those things that you as an individual struggle with. In your case, what you've said, discipline is something that doesn't come naturally for you, so everyone is taking you out on your discipline.

So eventually you start to think there's something wrong with you, and you start to take on a new, let's call it a personality, from what other people is hanging around your neck, and that is the biggest problem out there.

The Gallup Research Positive Psychology will tell you, but there's nothing wrong with any individual in the world.

In fact, each and every one is so unique that there's only one of you. So that's the first eye opener when people start to realize who they really are. You are unique. There's no one like you. And if you think about that, and you say for yourself, but if I am so unique, then there must be something that only I can do out there in the big world.

And that is the big aha moment for myself and many people when you start looking at these things and you realize, okay, let me use my own uniqueness and start doing that one thing that no one else can do.

And I must take that one thing not just to my work environment. I must take that uniqueness to my family, to my relationships.

I must take it to my community. I must take it to my health. I must take it to all these different, I call it, playing fields that we have to play on every week. Go and play there with that uniqueness that you have. And once you start doing that, You start to experience something, um, you are in the flow.

You've got this lots of energy. Uh, you can't, uh, stop doing what you are doing. And on the other side, people that are with you in that journey. they also start to experience something. They start to experience this uniqueness and this energy that, that you gave out to the world. They don't know what's happening.

They just know there's something different. I've never seen Wade like this. I've never experienced a time with Wade like this. And that's exactly what starts to happen. But, yo, we have, again, you have to start with yourself. And, and people don't do that. They want to look at all these different ways of doing things.

Go on all these different programs. What I say is start with yourself. It's like what they tell you in the airlines. When you're on 30, 000 feet and something went wrong in the airplane, what do you do? Put on your own oxygen mask first. Get your own oxygen before you can help the other people. And that's my philosophy.

So that's exactly what I've done over the last how many years? Put on my own oxygen mask. Get my own oxygen and from then I can start helping other people doing what they are supposed to do.

Right. Thank you. You and I had talked about something and it's, you know, you'd shared with me something along that same area in this conversation.

So. When we're taught in marketing to niche, a lot of the times people say, okay, find the, well Seth Godin would say small, find the smallest viable niche. In other words, the smallest group of people that you could still serve and make a good amount of money off of. But the niche being, of course, that you're specific to them.

So in my case, when I do insurance agency owner coaching in the United States to insurance agency owners of certain companies, I'm so specific to their niche that I'm one of. Let's say at most a dozen people that they'll seek to that are, you know, competitor wise. And if I talk about 4-Day Workweek or 3-Day Weekend Entrepreneur, there's at least a thousand, a few thousand people that at least perception wise are in the same field as I am.

And one of the things that you helped me look at was just the specific idea of even in the, the way I approach, let's say doing a 3-Day Weekend or 4-Day Workweek or the way a person approaches it. might resonate with certain people better. So my case, my style really does. When I look at the people who have I've impacted most, it resonates with people who have kids between a certain age and the parent is so aware that they're missing out.

And family is one of my most core values. So, you know, that happens. Um, that it aligns that way. And so, whereas before I thought those as, Oh, that's just a detail. It's like, no, no, no, that's like one of the main things. That's the whole, what Simon Sinek says, people don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it.

And for me, it's to, to make a better family life. And so people would say, Oh, Wade, you're a productivity coach. Yeah, you teach time management, right? Yeah, but I really could care less about those two things unless they're helping the person So if a person says, Wade, I want to do productivity just to make truckloads of money And I really don't care if I ever see my family again I'm not here to judge that but that doesn't lighten me up.

That just doesn't Do it. So I'm in the situation as your, your boys. I'm grateful that I can look at my father and say thank you for being there all those times for me. And I had that positive role model example that I now look to be for our children and so does my wife and the way we do things. And so, how can a person discover those things that are really, truly unique, not in a unique, quirky way where you say, Okay, that's unique, but it's not, at least in the marketplace, it's not necessarily valuable versus, No, this is unique and this is, this is not just a way that you're unique.

This is, in the marketplace, something of value. How do you, how do you distinguish those?

You must go back to your clients and ask your clients why do they want to work with you? What's the one thing that they can write down, the one thing why they want to work with Wade? And when you start doing a little bit of research in your clients and you get the feedback, you're gonna fall out of your chair when you see, but there are one or two things that all your clients come back.

That is the one or two reasons why they like to do business with you. And that is your uniqueness. That is your niche. That's the way that you operate. And the beauty of that is no one can copy that. I'm always asking for business owners. Why do you want to work with 7. 25 billion people in the world? Why do you want to do that?

You don't need to work with all 7. 25 billion people. You only need maybe 50 or 100 clients max. The problem is, we don't know, out of that 7. 25 billion people, who are the 100 people that you would like to work with? That's where you as an entrepreneur have to put in the world and work and, and, and market yourself like what you've done all over, all over the place and for many years.

People know exactly what you do, and there will be people out there that would like to work with you. Because of who you are, your uniqueness, the way that you dress, uh, the way that you present yourself, and that's okay. I think it's like music. Some people like the Rolling Stones, other people hate the Rolling Stones.

And that's cool. There's nothing wrong with that. And, and, I mean, let the, let the sun shine over everyone. There's more than enough opportunities and work out there for all. All the entrepreneurs and all the people out. I don't want to work with everyone in the world. I want to work with those 20 or 30 clients every year, but for us as a community, it's not work.

It's a party. We enjoy every minute of it. We're looking forward to the conversation. We're becoming friends over a period of time. I mean, you and I are a typical example. Uh, we've done our formal coaching six, seven years ago, but we're still friends. We keep in contact with each other. Not just because of the coaching, but I think because of something that happened there, that, that uniqueness, that spark between you and your client.

And you, you, sometimes it's very difficult to define that, but that's the reason why people want to work with you. That's your uniqueness and that's how you do it.

Yeah. I think that's something that people miss. One of my friends, well, my brother told me this way. My brother's a brilliant entrepreneur.

He's eight years younger than me. He's so focused and so clear about what he wants to do. And he, one time he said to me, he said, Wade, you keep thinking people are doing business with you because of your products or your courses. No, they're doing business with you. And then they're saying, okay, what is it you do?

And when I first heard that, I thought, okay, so now this is a competition to see who's nicer, better, faster, stronger, smarter. No, certain people will completely be turned off by who I am, what I do, how I do things, whatever it is. But they'll connect with somebody else and Another one of my friends just said Wade, you know, just realize people again They want to connect with you and I'm not saying that for me as a but I mean same thing with you Well, you know what they want like I if someone were to ask me should I work with Johan?

I'd say well if you can handle clarity if you're serious if you can handle somebody telling you the truth as they see it Directly and some that expects you to actually do something with that then yes, and if you don't, no, you're, you're in the wrong place, and that's okay. Um, but I just remember when you and I were talking and there was something you said to me, and you were talking about some of the findings from the GALP, how, what, roughly 7 percent of the people on the planet live a fulfilled life.

And then you and I were doing this other thing where we're saying, okay, and I said to you, well, Johan, you know, I've read that roughly 10 percent of the working population on the planet are entrepreneurs. So one out of 10 people. Is even trying to do their own thing. And it doesn't mean they're succeeding.

They might be failing. Um, and then in addition to that, that's a very broad definition. So it's not always somebody with a suit and a tie in a building that could be a hotdog vendor, a rickshaw driver. And I'm not looking to put those down. I'm simply saying those are they're free agents. They work for themselves.

So it's like, okay, so if one out of 10 people are working for themselves and 7%, which is like one out of 14 people are fulfilled. Can only imagine how many, oh, and then we talked about the, you know, a certain percent was making, let's say six figures a year. And it was like 20 percent of the time or whatever it was, or 15%.

I said, okay. So to actually be in all three of those categories at the same time, I'm not sure, cause I don't have the research to show exactly how they overlap. If it's a multiplication figure, if it's just. It's probably not more than a couple percent of the people, and you just said to me something, I'm going to paraphrase it because I joked with you, you know, people, by the way, I do curse in real life, I just try not to on the podcast, so I don't ever want to act holier than thou, but Yohan and I were talking ahead of time, so you had said to me a slightly different word, but you said, Wade, you know, if you, have you ever met somebody who has a crap life and has a lot of money?

I said, well, yeah, he's like, Wade, your coaching pitch is, do you have a crap life? And a lot of money, and you don't want to have a crap life. I can help you. So that's, that's your L of it, and I was like, that's it. And in some form or fashion, the only other variable I had learned that I'd add to that is Do you have a crap life that's impacting your family?

So I that the the people that now come to me that recognize me and say I will gladly What is your top program? What is the thing of the best involvement or highest level involvement with you? That's their thing that they're working with and something about who I am the path I've walked has made it clear the same way when I spoke to you and it's funny I didn't i'm only hearing some of your story today about your divorce and different things But family is so clearly important to you and you and I have never even talked about this, but that's something that we never even discussed it.

But I got very clear, even from a couple stories when you mentioned Rian and, you know, your other boys and just just stuff like that. It was very clear to me, family is important to this guy. And it wasn't like I did a checklist. But somewhere that resonated. So when a person is then looking to make a conscious change, you mentioned going from having a team of three people, being at the top of your game by one standard, and then changing your definition, what are some of those dimensions?

You know, a lot of times people use that concept, multi dimensional, multi, you know, multiple ways of looking at success. What were some of the things, or what are some of the things that you find are important for people to consider? I've only got

one definition. You must have a fulfilled life. In other words, tonight when you go to bed and you put your head on the pillow, you must say to yourself, it was unflippin believable.

And the other important thing that I've learned over the years, live in the now. It's all about today. You can do nothing about the past. You can't really plan for the future. It's all about today. Think about COVID and what happened two years ago. Never ever in our wildest dreams. could be thought that everything will be turned around in a matter of 24 hours.

The whole world. And that's the other thing that I've picked up over the last two years. People, COVID to me was a very positive thing. It put the light on people and asking the question, What am I busy doing with my life?

Is it really worthwhile earning all these dollars every month? Working 18 hours a day, having all these things, but I've got no other thing that I can show for what I'm putting in every day.

I've got no family life. My kids don't want to talk to me. Uh, I'm not in good health. And at my age of 63, the one thing that I realize is that health is wealth. Nothing can pay for the fact that you are healthy and you're having a good life. And that's a mind shift that we all have to make.

And funny enough, people say to me, but Johan, how's it going with you financially?

I said, you know what? I'm earning 50 percent of the money that I've earned 30 years ago, but I'm still okay. I'm doing well. I don't need to write, uh, to drive the biggest car in town or the, or the latest Merc. I don't have to do that. I don't have to stay in the three story house. I don't have to do that.

How many cars can you really drive? You can only drive one. Why do you, why do you want six in your garage? No, uh, you, what do you really need as an individual? You need people that you can love and they can love you back. You need a plate of food every day and you need the roof over your head. That's all that you really need, but at the evening when you can put your head on the pillow and you can say, you know what?

It was unbelievable great today. I had a, I had a great time. I made an impact. I've given something else to other people because you and I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow morning. Are you going to wake up? Yes or no? We don't know. So it's all about, what do you put in now? Live in the now, go full out all the time.

I had a little bit of a wake up call about two years ago on my medical side. Uh, I was all of a sudden start to pick up some weight and I wonder what was happening. I thought, okay, just part of getting older. You're 60 years old. And then my doctor said to me, but Johan, you've got, you've got fatty liver.

You really have to take note of that. And I said to myself, I have to make a very important decision. I'm going to have to start dieting, uh, get rid of all the junk food and things like that. I'm, I'm, I'm a sweet tooth. I like my chocolates and my ice cream and things like that. I hate vegetables and things.

I don't eat that. So all of a sudden I had to change my diet. But the beauty is over the last two years, I've lost 25 gauges. And what's the other positives? My children, my son in law is looking at me, and I said, Dad, but you are a good example. And all of a sudden, they start to look at their health, they're back in the gym, they start to practice, they start to train.

My client is asking, what is going on? It's the example that you put out there. And that's what you gave back to the, to the community. You must take the lead, and you must, you must walk in front of the line. I'm the, I'm the head boy of this team. My family and my children and my clients is looking at me. I must, I must be the example.

And that comes back to, what is your legacy that, that you leave at the end of the day? What are people going to say when they, when they stand around your grave? And, and, and people ask him, what, what do you say about this individual? Uh, what's the impact that you've made in the world? And the only impact that you can make is out of your own example that you say.

And I think you've said the same, your dad wasn't, was an example for you. And that's why you're taking that example and you bring it into your own family. And one day when your kids is older and they're going to have their own children, they're going to say, but my dad was the example. I believe that's the only reason why we're on earth.

Um, first of all, to, to do that one thing that, that only you and I know that we can do, and out of that, be a good example for the other people.

Yeah, that's so interesting. There's something you said about planning. I used to do a lot of planning, and things just didn't work out the way I thought they would.

Not in a bad way, not in a good way, just different. Kind of like when you're in school and in math, you do a decimal. And you, you do a fraction and after a certain number, they say, the numbers are insignificant. Like, we don't even know what they are, so it doesn't matter. And I'd found that, and I'm not saying this is for everybody, this is me.

But I'd found that when I planned beyond, even about beyond six to twelve months, that it almost wasn't relevant. Like, there's a generic sense. Yes, I'm going to still stay with my family, I'm going to raise our kids, I'm going to be a good husband as best as I can. Like, the generic intention's all there.

Nothing, I mean, I wasn't somebody that changed who I was. But as far as very specific plans, I'm It just seemed that it didn't always happen. And now, as I look at the world more and our kids are 16 and 13, and I look at now, literally, like you said, with COVID, just how fast the world is changing. And it just seems to me that so much of this is having an intention of where I'm going, doing my best in this moment, as you mentioned, and yet not getting too caught up thinking about tomorrow, because as you know, we can waste.

hours, and even specifically strategically as an entrepreneur, you can wake hours planning stuff that'll never happen. And sometimes it's so much more comfortable to vision and envision, and it's going to be great, but you don't have to do a damn thing. And at some point to make it happen, though, you do have to do something.

So. I think, for me, that was something where, even when you and I were talking and I was saying why, why, all the reasons I could not have this 4-Day Workweek lifestyle in my busiest part of the year, I'd, I'd kind of gotten to handle it in my easier part, and it really was just, okay, well, it kind of reminds me of the Alcoholics Anonymous, the 12 step programs of Just for Today, and you just said, Wade, just this week, do it.

And then do it the next week after that. Like, don't get caught up in 20 weeks down the road or, or, you know, again, the addictions program, don't think, you know, I'm never going to have a drink for the next 30 years of my life. That'll, that alone will knock you on your tail, whether it's, I'm never going to have another cookie again, ice cream again, whatever it is, but at the same time, if you can be focused in the present, that's something that's huge.

So, One of the last things I'd ask you to share, because I think you've done such a good job at this, is a lot of people try to have A Life That Is Balanced, and a different, depending on how you read literature, what not, you know, there's physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or some people say body, heart, mind, spirit, and we're not talking religion, there's nothing wrong with religion, we're talking just generic, motivation, your why, what would you say, and I'm going to ask you specifically, for the person that thinks that they can get by with, Well, no, Wade, I'm just going to focus on kind of like the Western pattern.

I'm just going to have my body in shape. I'm going to have a sharp mind, sharp body. Emotions are for sissies, or emotions are for weak people, whether this is a male or female speaking. And the spiritual side, yeah, I don't really need that. What would you say to them as far as What is the benefit of being a person that is tapping into all those dimensions and able to integrate that in your work?

Not only how it benefits you, but how it benefits your ability to serve people and ultimately even, you know, make money and be successful in that definition.

First of all, people think it's difficult to do these things, to have a balanced life. Or integrated life. No, it's not difficult. There's a simple thing that you have to focus on every week.

Just ask yourself three questions. If you look at these different areas, and it can be different for each and every individual, you ask yourself, how much time did I spend in that specific area of my life this week? How much money did I spend in that specific area this week? And how much energy was in that specific area?

Was my energy levels high or low? That's the only three questions that you ask yourself every week on each and one of these different areas. And then it's simple. You look at every week and you can see how these things differ. And it's like atomic habits that one book say, you only have to increase it by 1 percent per week.

That's all. And if you can increase it 1 percent every day over a year, you're going to be 37 percent better off at the end of the day. And what do you get out of that? You have a more fulfilled life. You've got happiness. Uh, the impact that you make is so much bigger out there. And people start to become very scary of you because your self confidence go up because of all these things that you are busy doing.

And there's nothing that can control you if you take the control back and ask those three questions for yourself every week, that's all that you do. So it's a simple solution, but we make it very complicated.

Awesome. Thank you. I know for me, I'm 50 and the integrated life, the balanced life, however people want to call it, it's well worth it. But as you said, it takes time. So the, somebody once said this to me, or I don't know where I got this, I think, but. If you look at a typical day of a Western knowledge worker, it's eight to ten hours of intellect, you know, on a computer doing these different things.

Maybe there's a half hour of exercise if the person's a physical exercise. Maybe there's 20 minutes of meditation. Maybe there's a half hour of having dinner with their family and their most important relationships. And so, even in that example, which is probably a lot more balanced than most people, because so many people don't even hit all of those, and you still say, wait, so if 80 percent or more of my time went to one dimension of my, my being, and the other three hardly got touched, Oh, I'll get them on the weekend.

Okay, look, your weekend. Oh, I, you know, I sat in front of the TV and I just, I was so tired. That I just recovered and I restarted on, on the weekend, you know, the following week, excuse me. That's for me kind of my understanding of, okay, how do I even within a regular week or in a month or how do I find time for those pieces?

Because there is so much fulfillment to that and everything you've said about, you know, just a thank you from your, from your kids. Any parent knows that. A genuine thank you from your children. Wow, thank you for doing that for me. Thank you for being that role model for me. Thank you for giving that to me.

is so huge. So, what would be your most important advice if there's, I love this question, I heard this once, I need to start using it more, where I think the woman's name was Lisa Sasevich I was listening to a presentation she gave at Genius Network that Joe Polish has and she said, imagine you're on an island, and you're being told that you can give one last communication to all of your family members, but you're never going to get to see them again.

So you get, you can share one piece of wisdom with them. that you would hope would make an impact on their life. What would that, and it could be a, it could be a, you know, two sentences. It doesn't have to be one sentence. It doesn't have to be one word, but what would that be? What would you tell people that would be the thing, you know, what would that thing you'd be, you'd want to share with them?

I share this with all my clients. Never allow the following three things to control you. Money, your job, and people. Never allow money, your job, and people to control you. Take back the control. You can say no to people, you can say no to money, and you can say no to your job. Take the

control back. Thank you so much.

Johan, where can people learn about your work? We'll put the links below, but in general, where can they find you? The

easiest place to find me is on LinkedIn. You can go to my LinkedIn profile. Obviously, I've got a website and you will see that in the link. So that's the easiest place to connect with me.

Uh, I love to connect with other people, especially business owners and share some of my experience with them. I'm always open to learn from some other people. So it will be a two way street. I'm going to learn from people that connect with me or would

like to talk to me as well. Awesome. Thank you again so much, Yohan, for joining us, and thank you specifically, me, you, to you.

Thank you so much for your impact on my life, our family, the work I do, and for any of you all who are listening, if you've gotten anything out of the work I've ever done, Yohan's a huge part of that. So again, thank you so much, Yohan, and as always, uh, I'll look forward to helping everybody impact more people and make more money in less time doing what you do best so you can fully enjoy your family, your friends, your freedom, and your life.

Thanks for

listening. Jay, Wade, thank you for your friendship, and thank you for all the input that you've given in my life over the last six years.

My pleasure, my friend.