How Looking Inward is the Key to Unlocking True Entrepreneurial Freedom with Gino Wickman

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Creator Science. Today, we'll be breaking down how looking inward is the key to unlocking true entrepreneurial freedom. To drop these value bombs, I am brought to Gino Wickman and the EO Fire Studios. Gino is the creator of EOS and author of the bestselling book, Traction. He is passionate about helping entrepreneurs and leaders get what they want from their businesses and lives. Today, we'll be chatting about the three discoveries to free your true self, the 10 disciplines for maximizing both our impact and inner peace, and so much more.

0:43And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Gino and our sponsors. Marketing Made Simple, hosted by my friend, Dr. JJ Peterson, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Marketing Made Simple brings you practical tips to make your marketing easy, and more importantly, make it work. A recent episode all about how Liquid IV is using marketing to shake up the beverage world dives deep into the strategies that have propelled liquid IV to remarkable success, a must listen. Listen to Marketing Makes Simple wherever you get your podcasts.

1:12Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world. And four-time TEDx speaker, Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions. Gino, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Well, hello, Fire Nation and hello, JLD. Yes. And I would say that the thing that I believe is that you can take 150 days off per year, including the entire month of August for 20 years while building the business of your dreams.

2:04Fire Nation, it's possible. Gino is a living, walking, talking example of that. And that's why we're focusing today on how looking inward is the key to unlocking true entrepreneurial freedom. And I want to start Gino by talking about the three discoveries to free your true self. Fantastic. Well, create a little context as we go into this. I wrote this book out of a calling and an awareness of just watching all of the successful entrepreneurs I've worked with and an experience that I had where I kind of got to the top of the mountain, as many successful entrepreneurs do. I looked at what I've been doing for 30 years and helping these entrepreneurs build these empires, get to the top of the mountain.

2:51And we tend to get there and feel a little empty, unfulfilled. It wasn't all we thought it was going to be. And if I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say, you know, is this all there is? And so with that, I describe that as I help entrepreneurs and have helped them for almost three decades succeed in their outer world by every imaginable metric. building great businesses, having great people, the money, the stuff, the accolades. Well, with that awareness of getting to the top of the mountain and what happened for me about four years ago and that reaction and that feeling, I realized that it's now time to go into the inner world of the entrepreneur and help them master not only their outer world, but their inner world and experience more fulfillment, joy and peace in what they're doing.

3:39And the aha is that it is possible to be driven and have peace. It's not a choice. It's not one or the other. You can have both. And I did not believe that was possible up until about four years ago. So contextually, that's what this is all about. And you're asking about the three discoveries. Well, I created three discoveries out of having three discoveries in the last four years as I've kind of experienced my awakening and going inward. And I call them the three discoveries for freeing your true self. And so the first discovery I made is that I am driven. And so my guess, my assumption is that your audience is comprised of driven entrepreneurs.

4:26Yes, that is my world. And so step one is to just discover, admit, realize, own the fact that you are driven. And knowing that we in our circles celebrate that, truth be told, it's a blessing and a curse. And so the blessing we know, we're born with superhuman stamina. We can accomplish more than most. We're the creators and builders of most things on this planet. However, the curse, the dark side, is that we tend to do a lot of damage to ourselves mentally, physically, and emotionally, as well as to the relationships in our life. And in understanding this, the idea is just to accept it and understand it.

5:06More importantly, understand and know that it's genetic. You're born with this. It's not changing. And there's a great book called Driven by Dr. Doug Brackman. You don't have to run out and read it, but he just proves the science behind it. And so we, the driven, are the 10 % walking the earth that are born with these genes. There's a flaw in our gene that he described. It's the D2D4 gene where we just don't feel as fulfilled as most. And so we're always looking for the additional adrenaline hit, which leads us to addictions, many of them, the main one being workaholism. And we do that to kind of numb our pain.

5:43The drive tends to get us in a lot of trouble in our lives. And with that leads to a lot of pain and trauma. And so we tend to hide that. And in this awareness, in this discovery, step one is just to say, I am driven and it is an incredible blessing. And unfortunately, there are some curse and downsides and I just need to be aware of them. That begins the awakening process. Let's keep moving to the other two. Perfect. Well, discovery number two is that all decisions are made out of love or fear. Now, this one goes deep, but I'm going to take you through a fast version of it. You know your audience better than I do.

6:19And so you let me know if I'm communicating well here. But in discovery number two, it's this understanding that all decisions are made out of love or fear. And so if you think about we, the driven entrepreneurs, we are making so many decisions every day. We have so many projects, ideas, things. And so there's so much going on. Well, when I say decisions, you can also incorporate emotions, thoughts, feelings, and decisions. So with everything going on with us all day, every day, it's either coming from love or fear. In that basic understanding, love in its simplest form is coming from our heart or our soul or our true self.

6:57Fear is coming from our ego. And when you understand that, you will start to learn that your true self is encased in this cocoon that is your ego. And it's just simply protecting you. But to take you all the way to the root, it's understanding that your true self is in there. It wants to come out. It's this incredible soul. You have the soul of a driven entrepreneur and it wants to be free. So it is in there and it wants to be free. Taking it down another level is to understand we are pure energy. And so some of us burn very bright and some of us don't burn very bright. We vibrate at a very high level or a low level.

7:33And when we're not shining bright and we're not vibrating high, it just simply means that we are blocked, that that cocoon is very strong. It's just simply the protective shell we created somewhere in our life to protect us from ever feeling pain and trauma again. When you understand that, you then understand that you can remove those blocks. You can remove that pain and trauma. You can remove what the ego is doing simply trying to protect you by bringing down the cocoon, the layers, the protective layers. I call that shedding layers. And then once you understand that you can remove that and free your true self, it just comes down to awareness.

8:10And so the simple step in this one is to just be aware of all of your decisions, your thoughts, your emotions, your feelings, and where they're coming from. And the more you understand when it's coming from love, when it's coming from fear, when it comes from fear, you then go to the root of the fear, shed that layer, break down that cocoon, free your true self, shine brighter, and start making more love-based decisions, which a simple 10 % shift from love-based, from fear-based to love-based is a monumental shift and is truly life-changing. Boom. Keep it rolling. All right. And then discovery number three is the message behind all of this content and this new book.

8:51And that is, as I said, when we started, that it is possible. The discovery is that it is possible to be driven and have peace. And so most of us driven, the people I work with, peace scares us just from a standpoint of we think that finding peace, contentment, bliss, we fear that peace is going to zap us of our drive, that somehow we're going to lose our edge. And for me, I can speak firsthand. I really thought that if I ever found peace that I would lose everything. I feared that I would want to sit in a hut and meditating all day at the top of a mountain, when the reality is it's just the opposite.

9:30By finding peace and matching that with the soul of the driven entrepreneur, our drive is actually increased. When you find that peace, when you shed that cocoon, when you shed that layer, when you shed those protective ego layers and you shine, your drive is actually magnified because now your drive is coming from your true self. It's coming from the inside out, which is more of a calling and a purpose-based drive, as opposed to the outside-in type of drive, where you're weighing it against what people will think, competition, fears, etc. And so again, I repeat, it is possible to be driven and have peace.

10:13It is kind of crazy, Fire Nation, when you think about the reality that so many people are quote unquote working so hard so that they can one day relax. But then when they get to that one day of relaxing, they freak out because they're like, what do I do? I've always had all these things to do and been so relevant in this world. And there's just a right way and a wrong way to go about it. And we're actually going to be talking about the 10 disciplines for maximizing both our impact and inner peace when we get back from thanking our sponsors. There are plenty of things to worry about when trying to grow your business.

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13:43That's thought-leader.com slash fire. Gina, we're back. And I kind of teased before the break these 10 disciplines. And I want to start off with 10-year thinking. Talk to us about that. Yes. Well, as we dive into the 10 disciplines, I want to zoom out real quick just to create a little context again so your listeners are following us. Because again, the idea here is about freeing your true self. And what we covered in the first part with the three discoveries, that is the what. And so the whole idea is to hopefully convince you out there that your inner story, the inner world, there's an opportunity for you to feel peace in that inner world.

14:24And those three discoveries, again, they're the what, just simply showing you and hopefully convincing you to say, you know what, I wanna go inside. I'm not as peaceful as I could be below the surface my tectonic plates are still shifting a little too much There's anxiety. There's worry. There's fear whatever it is And my central nervous system is more amped than it should be. So I hope we've created that awareness That's the what the how now i'm going to show you exactly How to find that piece with these 10 disciplines because these 10 disciplines what they are are the foundation They're the structure.

14:59They're the opportunity for you to create space and time in your life to do this work. And when these 10 disciplines are implemented in your life, you will not only maximize and master your outer world even more. Again, it's going to help you master your inner world and find peace. And so picking up right with your question, you asked discipline number one. So discipline number one is 10-year thinking. What I always love to do, JLD, is just give a real quick high-level overview of the 10 so that contextually your listener is following. And then please take us wherever you want to take us. You know them better than I do.

15:42But here are very quickly the 10 disciplines. We call them the 10 disciplines for maximizing your impact and inner peace. Discipline number one is 10-year thinking. Discipline number two, take time off. Number three, know thyself. Number four, be still. Number five, know your 100%. Number six, say no, dot, dot, dot, often. Number seven, don't do$25 an hour work. Number eight, prepare every night. Number nine, put everything in one place. And number 10, be humble. Fire Nation, those are the 10 disciplines. I want to kind of cherry pick a few that I think are really impactful. And of course, Fire Nation, you can do a deep dive on all of these because Gino has it all for you.

16:29And let's start off with that 10-year thinking. Absolutely. So whenever I teach the discipline, I always start with a bold statement, okay? And the bold statement is like, if you were just going to trust me and believe me and do this, here's the discipline in a nutshell, and then I'll teach it a little bit. But the bold statement is this. shift your mind from short-term thinking to thinking in 10-year timeframes. Oh, if you would all just do that. So here's the reality. We driven entrepreneurs, we are wired to want everything now, now, now. We want it today, this week, this month. And rarely are we thinking out long-term.

17:11And so the idea is to shift your mindset to thinking in multi-decade terms so that what will happen for you is literally you will feel a calm come over you. You will have more clarity. You will make better decisions and you will literally get there faster. There's an old saying in business that says people overestimate what they can get done in a year, but they greatly underestimate what they can get done in 10 years. There's a lot we can do in 10 years. We can literally build an empire in 10 years. And so the whole idea here is just to shift your thinking so that all of your decisions are 10-year decisions.

17:49Fire Nation, we've already talked a little bit about taking time off, how you need to feel free to do that and know you can still accomplish what you want to accomplish. Knowing thyself, being still, these are skills you need to acquire. The next one I want to dive deep into is know you're 100%. What's that all about, Gino? Glad you picked that one. So what that is, you know, so we're talking about managing, maximizing energy, your impact, your inner peace. And so knowing your 100 percent is your work container. And so here comes the bold statement. The bold statement is decide on and commit to the perfect number of hours per week and weeks per year that you will deliver your craft to the world.

18:34And so here's the reality. Every one of us driven entrepreneurs, we have a magic formula and it's different for every one of us. So for me personally, I work 40 weeks a year, 55 hours a week. That has been my formula for almost 25 years now. And so what it is, as I said, is your work container. It's just like that gauge in your car that's showing you maximum fuel efficiency where you step on that pedal just the right amount. You're getting the maximum fuel efficiency. Same thing with us driven entrepreneurs. There is literally a formula that if you work one more hour per week, you will start to burn out.

19:13And if you work one less hour per week, you will start to get bored. And so it's about figuring out your perfect formula. Some of us need to be working 30 hours a week. Some of us need to be working 80 hours a week. There's no one formula. We are all different. So just simply know your 100%. Fire Nation, say no often. I like to say to my audience, Gino, that when you say yes to one thing, you're actually saying no to everything else you otherwise could be doing during that time. So a yes isn't just a yes. It's a huge decision. Don't do$25 an hour work, Fire Nation. I mean, I don't think you became an entrepreneur to make$25 an hour, let's be honest.

19:54I want to dive deep into the next one because this is a phrase that I really adhere to, which is for me, I always say, win tomorrow, today. And you have a phrase, prepare every night. Talk about that. Love it. So yeah, so this is discipline number eight, prepare every night. So let's start with the bold statement. And the bold statement is, before your head hits the pillow every night, document the next day's plan. So it's just like you said. And so the idea is, when your day ends and before your head hits the pillow, lay out tomorrow in chronological order. And so you can do this in any type of platform technology.

20:37I literally use a legal pad. To this day, 35 years, I have my trusty legal pad. And so what I will do is I will sit down, close out the previous day, and then I will just lay out tomorrow, chronologically start to finish the projects I have to complete, the calls I need to make, meetings, etc. It's all laid out for me. The power of this is that you will literally sleep better. You will wake up with ideas because your subconscious is already working and you will wake up and hit the ground running. You will be more productive. The alternative is what many do and that's not prepare for the next day.

21:17Wake up and just simply let the world come at them. Wake up, start looking at emails, checking things. All of a sudden, you have completely lost control of your day. You have handed your day over to the rest of the world. And so it's all about taking control of your time. So again, you can hit the ground running. Fire Nation, do you want to live a life where you are just reactive, where you are just literally on a whim of everybody else's demands? Or do you want to live a proactive life? I think you know the answer. Now, putting everything in one place, that's something that you need to dive in deeper on Fire Nation.

21:52And I want to end with a bang, Gino, number 10, which is be humble. Because my uncle, for the longest time when I was growing up, I was like the starting point guard on my basketball team at 16 years old as a sophomore. So I thought I was like cool stuff. And I remember walking around and my uncle was like, hey, John, be humble, be happy. And he would just always repeat that phrase to me over and over again. And so I started really to equate the words of being humble and being happy as something that were synonymous. And it really sunk into me, not immediately, but thankfully it did and over a little bit of time.

22:27And then, of course, I've learned some experiences the hard way as well, which is reinforce this. So talk about being humble. So discipline number 10 is be humble. First, the bold statement, and the bold statement is to view yourself as an equal to every person on the planet. So there's a great quote by C.S. Lewis that says, being humble is not thinking less of yourself. It's thinking of yourself less. And so what I always urge the listener to do in helping to understand what we mean by this is if you picture a spectrum, and on one end of the spectrum is the word humble. on the other end of the spectrum is the word arrogant.

23:08And if you can picture that, everyone is somewhere on that spectrum. And the irony is the definition of humble and the definition of arrogant are almost identical. They are the estimate of your importance in comparison to others. And so it's how important you feel in comparison to others. And so simply put, humble people just don't feel like they're any more important than anyone else. And arrogant people tend to feel they're more important than others. But here's the beauty of the spectrum. If you really want to put your money where your mouth is and understand this very powerful discipline is think about where you are and just put a hash mark on the line.

23:46And if you really want to put your money where your mouth is, go to the five people in your life that you love and trust the most and ask them to put a hash mark on the line for you. And then you'll know how you're really showing up in the world. But I just personally believe that a humble life is better. You attract what you are. And so humble people attract lots of other humble people and arrogant people just tend to attract lots of arrogant people. And and then I always just like to share this last little point, and that is gratitude. The way to help become humble is to just practice gratitude every night when your head hits the pillow after you've prepared for the next day, by the way.

24:29Just simply think, be grateful, appreciate whatever it is. And it's utterly impossible, I have found, to practice gratitude and be arrogant. So there's discipline number 10 for you. Fire Nation, 10 amazing disciplines for maximizing both your impact and your inner peace. Give us a call to action, Gino. If Fire Nation wants to learn more, needs to learn more, what should they do? Fantastic. Well, first thing is to go to the10disciplines.com, and there you will find all of the resources we talked about, but mainly two things. Number one is what we call the true self-assessment. We're talking about freeing your true self here and finding peace.

25:18Well, the true self-assessment is going to help you determine how free you really are. Very powerful tool. And then you can also download the first chapter of the book Shine. In addition to that, we offer a self-study course, a group coaching program, and a mastermind. So if you really want to go deep with us and embed these disciplines in your life and truly for your true self and be driven and have peace, that's the place to make that happen. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with G-dubs and JLD today, so keep up that heat.

25:56For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type Gino, G-I-N-O, in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. Gino, one more time, give us that call to action URL. Yes, it's thetendisciplines.com. Gino, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Gino for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, successful entrepreneurs accomplish big goals, which is why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days.