Hal Elrod: Miracle Morning Habits for Peak Productivity and Business Success| Productivity| E354

22:20I don't like it when people slow me down. I don't like hand-holding. I like to move fast, invent, rally people, inspire. But what I do need to do is ensure that somebody else can fill the enablement role, which I do have, Kate, on my team. So Working Genius helps you uncover these genius gaps, helps you work better with your team, helps you reduce friction, helps you collaborate better, understand why people are the way that they are. It's helped me restructure my team, put people in the spots that they're going to really excel. and it's also helped me in hiring. Working Genius is absolutely amazing.

22:50I'm obsessed with this model. So if you guys want to take the Working Genius assessment and get 20 % off, you can use code PROFITING. Go to workinggenius.com. Again, that's workinggenius.com. Stop guessing. Start working in your genius.

23:05Hello, young and profiters. Running my own business has been one of the most rewarding things I've ever done, but I won't lie to you. In those early days of setting it up, I feel like I was jumping on a cliff with no parachute. I'm not really good at that kind of stuff. I'm really good at marketing, sales, growing a business, offers. But I had so many questions and zero idea where to find the answers when it came to starting an official business. I wish I had known about Northwest Registered Agent back when I was starting Yap Media. And if you're an entrepreneur, you need to know what Northwest Registered Agent is.

23:36They've been helping small business owners launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. They literally make life easy for entrepreneurs. They don't just help you form your business. They give you the free tools you need after you form it, like operating agreements and thousands of how-to guides that explain the complicated ins and outs of running a business. And guys, it can get really complicated, but Northwest Registered Agent just makes it all easy and breaks it down for you. So when you want more for your business, more privacy, more guidance, more free resources, Northwest Registered Agent is where you should go.

24:08Don't wait and protect your privacy. build your brand, and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com slash yapfree and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com slash yapfree. Let's talk about your morning routine because I'm sure it would be beneficial for all my listeners. So it stands as savers. So talk to us about what that stands for. So it started where I Googled what are the world's most successful people do during their morning routine. And I was looking for like one or two practices.

24:42And I came up with journaling and meditation and affirmations and visualization and reading. And I had a list of six. And again, keep in mind, 2008, I'm like rock bottom. And so I'm like, well, I can't do all of these. And then I had the epiphany. I was trying to go, which one's best? Which one's the best? And then I went, wait, what if I did all of them? What if I woke up tomorrow 30 minutes earlier and I did five minutes of the six most timeless proven personal development practices that the world's most successful people have sworn by for centuries? and so that was the start of the miracle morning, and I didn't know how to do any of them.

25:13I didn't know how to meditate. I didn't know how to do affirmations felt goofy, right, and so over the last, what is it, 17 years, I've studied each of these individually, so the first S for silence, that is meditation or prayer or breathwork. You think about when do our biggest breakthroughs come? They come in the shower when we're in a period of silence. We're falling asleep at night. It's in those moments of peaceful, purposeful silence, and so rather than letting those be haphazardly happen by chance. It's engineering your day that it starts with that. And for most of us, what do our days start with?

25:46They start with our smartphone. We put ourselves in a state of reactivity. Our nervous system, we go, you turn it off airplane mode. Now you're reacting to notifications. You're reacting to text messages and emails and social media. And you're literally putting your nervous system in a state of reactivity versus proactivity. So starting your day in a period of silence enables you to calm your mind, calm your nervous system, lower your blood pressure, right? And listen to the wisdom of God or higher intelligence. And I always have my journal next to me because my best ideas come during those periods of peaceful silence.

26:19And again, whether you meditate or you pray or you do both, and there's countless forms of meditation. I do all different styles. Sometimes it's a specific intention, like, God, I need a solution to this issue. And then I just get quiet and I just wait for it. And it always comes. I always get the ideas. So you talk about emotional optimization meditation. You know, I talked to so many experts. I've talked about meditation a hundred times. Never heard of that. So what's that and why does it help? Yeah, I think I made it up. I always say, I think you made it up. Oh, you made it up. That's why I never heard of it.

26:48Yeah. So most forms of meditation are about clearing your mind, focusing on your breath. I'm a results oriented person as you are, I know. And so for me, emotional optimization meditation is where I'll look at my schedule briefly and I'll go, okay, what's on my agenda today? And then I'll ask myself, what is the optimal mental and or emotional state that would best serve me today based on what I'm doing? My default is bliss, by the way. Like if it's just a general day and I got nothing, I need to, you know, specifically get into a specific state of like, I need to be confident because I have a keynote speech in front of 12 ,000 people, right?

27:23But if it's just general, it's bliss, which to me is love, contentment, gratitude, and peace. Those four components of bliss. And so I'll just sit there, sometimes I'll put my hand on my heart and I'll just get in states of love and gratitude. And I'll set my timer for five minutes or 10 minutes or 20 minutes. And I'll just meditate, if you will, meditate or marinate in that state. And what you're doing is you're hardwiring your nervous system. You're creating new neural pathways in your brain so that those states that you intentionally choose in the morning and meditate in, become your default states that you can access at will.

27:57And again, for me, I want to live life in a state of bliss. I want heaven on earth. And it comes to me from the internal state is how you create that heaven on earth and that bliss. So are you like thinking of past memories where you felt blissful and re-imagining yourself in those situations? Yeah, so in the new edition of the Miracle Morning, which is where I teach this, and I talk about there's different ways to get yourself into that state. And so, for example, let's say I'm giving a speech and I want to get a state of confidence. Yeah, I'll go, when was the last time I felt really confident in front of an audience?

28:27And I'll go, oh, it was last month when I spoke for LeaderCast. All right, what'd that feel like? I'll bring in the other savers. I'll visualize that, right? I'll affirm, I am a phenomenal speaker. I am going to make a phenomenal impact today. Or I am at peace. I am grateful. So yeah, it's using visual imagery. It's using memories. It's using affirmations. And here's the beauty of it. once you do this for a while, you don't even need those anymore. I know how to access the state of bliss like that. I can just put my hand on my heart and close my eyes and I can just sink into a state of bliss because I've done it so many times.

29:03It's literally like exercising, right? You get physically stronger, you get spiritually, mentally, and emotionally stronger through that form of meditation. So that's my favorite. And when it comes to silence, is it also stillness or can you do your silence while you're doing other things or is it more of like, be really intentional and be still and silent? I've done walking meditations. And that's usually where I'm walking outside, right? When the weather's nice, which in Texas is a short window. It's either too hot or too cold. Not from Saudi for New York. Texas is awesome. But, and that's usually like, I'll usually do a typical meditation where I'm just literally listening.

29:38I'm listening to every sound that I can. I'm being totally present to my environment. I'm letting my vision almost blur where I'm just seeing the field in front of me. I'm hearing the sounds, that's a walking meditation. But I would say 99 % of the time or 95%, I'm sitting in a chair. I've got my feet on the ground, my hands on my knees or sometimes up and I'm totally still. Okay. Affirmations. I'm going to go a little deep here. This is my favorite of the practices. And I think it's the most, number one, it's the most misunderstood. Affirmations are usually thought of as cheesy, ineffective, goofy, either because if you grew up in the nineties, you watch Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live and he had that skit where he's like, it was daily affirmations with Stuart Smalley.

30:22Did you ever watch that? No, but I know what you're talking about in terms of like how it's kind of like woo woo. Yeah. Well, and here's the two, I'll give you two really specific reasons. I think affirmations have not worked for people. Number one, lying to yourself doesn't work. We've been taught to affirm something that's not true that we wish were true as if it were true. So for example, if you're struggling financially, a well-meaning self-help guru may have said, just affirm, I am wealthy. And if you say I am, and it's followed by something that isn't factually true, then you're creating an internal conflict as if we don't have enough of them right already.

30:54And so you go, I am wealthy. And then your reality is like, no, my bank account balance is negative. And so you're going, shut up. I'm doing my affirmations. You're fighting reality. So the first problem with affirmations, they have to be rooted in truth. You can't lie to yourself. The second problem with affirmations is flowery passive language does not produce results. So a really popular affirmation is I am a money magnet Money flows to me effortlessly and in abundance. I've said this a lot of times It's so popular and the reason I think it's popular all is because If you're looking at your you're checking your bank balance on your phone, you're like, oh my god i'm overdrawn I need to do my affirmations.

31:30It's literally like taking a pill like antidepressant or something where You're covering up reality where you're going. I'm a money magnet. Oh, that feels better Money is going to flow to me effortlessly. Thank god. I have no motivation right now It's delusional. You're deluding yourself into thinking everything's gonna be okay. And then it doesn't get any better. And then you're like, oh, I gotta do it again. You're putting a bandaid on, you're not getting to the root cause. So here are three steps to create affirmations that are rooted in truth, that are practical and that are actionable and will produce results.

32:00Step one, affirm what you're committed to. If you wanna be wealthy, don't say I am wealthy. Say I'm committed to becoming wealthy or I'm committed to earning specifically this amount of money this year or increasing my income by this or getting that raise. commit to a habit or an outcome. I am committed to blank no matter what, there is no other option. Number two, step two is why is it important to you? Why is it a must? Why is it meaningful? You've got to fuel the commitment. So why is it so important that by reminding yourself of those reasons, and I usually have three to five whys for any commitment.

32:35It could be one, but it's usually three to five. Why is this important for me personally? Why is it important for my wife, Ursula? for our kids, for my community, for my company, for the world. Why is this a must for me in these different areas? And when you read those, that's what fuels you to keep going. You're like, I don't feel like it today. And then you read the why you're like, oh yeah, it's not even about whether I feel like it. I'm committed to this for my wife and I'm committed for my family. I'm doing it. And then step three is which actions you will take and when you will take them.

33:04So you're affirming, okay, here's what I'm committed to. Here's why it's so important. And in order to make it a reality, these are the actions I'm going to take and when I am going to take them. And last thing I'll say is that I use that affirmations formula for each of my goals. So every goal I have, it's what am I committed to in terms of the goal? And the goal, again, it could be an outcome, but it could also be a result. Like you could say I'm committed to losing 20 pounds, or I'm committed to exercising for 20 minutes, five days a week. And then two, why it's a must. And then three, and I have that for each goal in my life and for each role in my life.

33:36So as a husband, as a father, as a CEO, as an author, all of those things. So are you also using this as a way to like plan your day then? Is the affirmation portion a way to plan your daily goals? It's almost like it's pre-planned. So yeah, literally every day you think about this, you're affirming what you're committed to. And as we know, the only thing in life, we get what we're committed to, not what we want. And so every day you're literally reinforcing and programming your subconscious mind to the commitment. You're reinforcing the why behind it. And then you're directing your action. You're like, oh yeah, here's exactly what I need to do.

34:10So you look at your schedule. If anything from the affirmations is missing, right? So the affirmation, like to me, it's the anchor of the miracle morning. It's the foundation. And the only way you can fail to achieve everything you want in your life is to live out of integrity with what you're affirming every day. As long as you live in alignment with your affirmations, you can't fail. And the last thing I'll say is that what you affirm repeatedly becomes your internal reality. When I had cancer immediately, I use these three steps and I created affirmations. I'm committed to beating cancer. No matter what, there is no other option.

34:43I'm committed to beating cancer for Ursula because I promised her forever in the day. It's part of our wedding vows. I'm committed for Sophia and Halston, my kids, because they need their daddy's love guidance and leadership. And I want to watch them grow up. I'm committed for my mom and dad because they already lost a child when Amory died and I can't bear for them to lose another one. I'm committed for myself, right? So I had all these reasons. And then I had specifically which actions I was going to take in terms of holistic medicine, as well as Western medicine. And I had specific things I was going to do.

35:12And so I believe the affirmation saved my life because when I felt afraid, what if I die? I read those every day. And after a few weeks, that wasn't even a possibility to me because what I affirmed repeatedly became my reality. That was my next question. So you write them down and do you say them out loud or do you just read them in your head? I read them in my head. A lot of people do them out loud. I've even heard of people that will read their affirmations into their voice note or voice recorder. Yeah, that's what I do. Yeah, and then play them back. Yeah, so there's different ways. For me, it works for me if I read them.

35:40But I will say this. I do read them with conviction. And I guess sometimes I'll say them out loud. Everybody's sleeping nearby, so I don't yell them, you know. But I will, like, under my breath go, I am committed to blank no matter what. There is no other option. Yeah, even when you read something, you basically sing it in your head, right? Totally, yeah. Okay, visualization. I know we've heard a lot about this, but do you have a different spin on it? I do. We've been taught to visualize the end result. Back in the day, The Secret made vision boards very popular. And I think vision boards are fun craft projects.

36:09And I think there is value in having a picture of what outcome you want in your life to generate the inspiration, et cetera. But I find that my vision boards become invisible boards. It just becomes background because it's like I see it so many times. I believe there are two parts to effective visualization. And the first part is the vision board. It's seeing that outcome, but it's the least important part. And I just spend 60 seconds. Like when I was training for that ultra marathon, I printed out a picture of the Atlantic city marathon. That's the finish line that I was going to cross. So I saw it every morning.

36:42I closed my eyes and I would imagine triumphantly busting through it after 26 miles. But that just took less than a minute to do that. The most important part of visualization is what I call, and I didn't invent this term, it's mental rehearsal. So it's not about seeing the end result. like, yeah, get that in your mind. So you go, oh yeah, I'm excited about that. We're going to do that. Now it's about mentally rehearsing what you need to do today to take one step closer to what's on the vision board, what the ultimate vision is. And so for me, I literally would close my eyes. I was sitting on my couch with a miracle morning.

37:15And what I would, the way I'd visualize is I would close my eyes and mentally rehearse the alarm on my phone going off at 7 AM, which is when it was time to go for a run. And then I would see myself getting off the couch, like an out-of-body experience. And then I would walk into my bedroom closet. I would picture myself getting dressed in my running clothes, walking through the living room, opening my front door of my house, seeing the sidewalk. And then I would repeat the affirmations. By the way, you see how these all, these savers connect. I would, as I'm visualizing the sidewalk, I would say those three steps.

37:45Number one, I am committed to running 52 consecutive miles on October 29th, 2009. There is no other option. I'm doing this to overcome the limiting belief that I'm not a runner so that I can overcome every limiting belief that I ever have in my life moving forward. And to follow through with this, I will read the book, The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer, and follow the training plan to a T every day, whether I feel like it or not. That was those three steps in action. And I read them before I visualized. And then as I visualized, I read them one more time and I saw myself feeling excited to do the thing that I hated doing.

38:22And if I hadn't gone through that mental rehearsal, that visualization process, I would, alarm would have gone off at seven. I'd go, I'll run to, I don't want to, I'll run tomorrow, which we all can relate to that. But because I didn't mentally rehearse procrastinating, that's not what I did when the alarm went off. I did exactly what I visualized day after day after day. And that's the power of visualization in the form of mental rehearsal. Do you feel like sleeping on it also helps support your visualization? I'll give you an example. So I got asked to speak at Funnel Hacking Live and it was on stage with Tony Robbins.

38:57It was 6 ,000 people. Russell Brunson is my client. He invited me to this. I've done a lot of speaking, but this is by far the biggest stage I was ever on. And I just had three weeks to prepare, plus I'm running a company and a podcast. So really I had like a week and a half to prepare, memorize, everything like this. And I found myself visualizing. I would visualize me getting a standing ovation, doing a great job, flawless. I found myself dreaming about it all the time. And I remember I finalized my speech just the day before. Yeah. Okay. Cause I had like a lot of edits and was just like really obsessed with it.

39:35And I remember on the Uber to the venue, I started just saying my speech and I had memorized all 30 minutes. Wow. And my team was like, what? How did you memorize this? This was just yesterday. And I was like, I think I just dreamed all night about it. And then I just did it perfectly. And I was on stage and the notes didn't work. And I had memorized it. So it didn't matter. Like nobody knew. And even afterwards, I told the technical staff, the notes weren't working. They're like, you did great. And I was like, well, yeah, thank God I memorized it in my sleep. So I find that my brain will go over these scenarios when it's really important.

40:15And it's not really the best to get really restful sleep, but it helps me really perform when it matters the most. I don't know if you've really to that in any way. Yes. And, and I think it was Maxwell Maltz in the book, psycho cybernetics. I forgot the term he used, but he talked a lot about programming your mind before bed and that your subconscious would go to work on. So every night before bed, he would think of something he needed a solution to. He would set the intention for it. And then he'd wake up and he's like, it was always there. Like my subconscious worked overnight. So that speaks to what you're talking about.

40:44My relating to that is, so I don't dream ever since my car accident and the brain damage, I've dreamt maybe a dozen times in the last 20 years. I don't exactly know why, but I created bedtime affirmations when I started doing the miracle morning. And so before I would go to bed, here's what I realized. Our first thought in the morning and our first feeling in the morning is almost always whatever thought we dwelled on before bed and whatever emotional state we dwelled on before bed. Right. And a lot of people go to bed. Oh my gosh, I'm only getting six hours of sleep. I'm going to be so tired in the morning.

41:15I got a big project. I'm so stressed. Right. And that's the intention they're setting. And then their first thought of the morning is, oh my gosh, I only slept six hours. I have that project coming, right. I'm going to be a mess. And so I realized how important it was to program our subconscious mind before bed with the thoughts, the beliefs, the intentions, the emotions, the energy that we needed. And so I crafted these words and these are in the miracle morning book. I crafted these word for bedtime affirmations to set myself up that, hey, no matter how many hours of sleep I'm getting, my brain is a miraculous organ that can regenerate cells.

41:46I'm going to wake up feeling rested, excited, ready to take on the day. And that was my first thought in the morning was, oh, it's the morning. It's exactly what I thought. I slept for seven hours or six hours. I'm going to feel great. Let's go. And I jumped out of bed. So really your thoughts before bed become a self-fulfilling prophecy in the morning. So I love that you brought that up. Okay. So the next one is exercise, right? Yeah. And this isn't rocket science, So I won't spend much time on it, but the idea that when you move your body in the morning or anytime you generate not only physical energy, but you generate mental clarity, right?

42:17You get blood and oxygen flowing through your brain and you think better. You have more physical and mental energy. And so the idea is not that you need to go to the gym in the morning. It's that you do 60 seconds of jumping jacks. So I do a five minute little workout in the morning and I, this is what I'm doing now. It evolves over the years. But I do 60 seconds of plank and then 60 seconds of toe touches just to stretch out. And then 60 seconds of back bend where I lay on my stomach and I pull my shoulders back and my legs up. Then I go do 45 seconds of each of those. And then I go do 30 seconds of each.

42:50So it takes like five minutes total. But my whole body is warmed up and I feel awake and alert. I'll answer a question right now that might come up later, which is, do you have to do the savers in order? S-A-V-E-R-S. And the answer is no. you can do them in any order you want. Some people like to follow just because they can remember them. Just follow the SAVERS. But like exercise, for example, if you wake up, you know, those mornings where you wake up and you were like right in the middle of REM cycle and you're like, oh my God, I feel like I was hit by a truck. That's where I move E to the front.

43:17And I immediately do 60 seconds of jumping jacks or something to wake myself up. And now I go from like a, you know, at a scale of one to 10 of alertness, I'm at a one when I wake up. Now I'm at a seven. And now I can do the rest of a miracle morning with more energy, more clarity, and get more out of it. I've never really been a great morning person, but lately I've been forcing myself to wake up, and I do 10 to 20 minutes of Pilates. Now, I work out every day, and I like to do my hard workouts at night, but I was like, I want a way to feel refreshed in the morning, to feel more alert in the morning, and even just 10 minutes.

43:51People don't realize that 10 minutes of exercise is a decent amount of exercise, and you wouldn't have done that anyway, right? So I feel like it's just really good for your physical health. And people don't realize that you could just get it done in such a short amount of time. Yeah. There was a Miracle Morning documentary and Robin Sharma was in the movie and he said in the film that science has proven that the benefits of exercise last as long as 13 hours after the initial exercise. Another question I get is, can I do the savers later in the day? You could, but you're missing out on a, the 13 hours of benefit from that, the calming of your nervous system from silence, the clarity from affirmations, You know, I mean, the emotional reset from visuals, all of these things.

44:30Okay, so the next one is reading. Yeah, not rocket science. I think most of your listeners probably read. I would guess that's your audience. The average person does not read self-help books. You know, it's a very small percentage. But I just think that whatever area of our life we want to improve or anything we want to accomplish, right, somebody spent a lot of time learning through trial and error and then putting their best knowledge into a book. I have one self-imposed rule, and this came from cancer and realizing that work was my first priority, even though I thought it was family, it was work before cancer.

44:58Now it is family. I have to read a book on marriage or parenting to earn the right to read a book on business. So that's a little self-imposed rule that I have in the morning. It reminds me, a, it reminds me, oh yeah, family's number one. This is what I read first. And then number two, I learned something. So I actually get to be a better dad or a better husband that I can apply that day. And this is really like the learning step. So it can be an audio book. It could be a podcast. It doesn't have to be like a physical book. Yeah. And you can definitely stack habits, right? Where people go, I'll listen to an audio book while I do my exercise, right?

45:30Or I'll listen to my affirmation. Like, let's say you want to exercise for 20 minutes on the treadmill or the bike. You can have your audio affirmations that you're listening to. You can listen to an audio book. If you can write in a journal or do a, you know, lots of different ways you can do it. Okay. The last one is scribing. Yeah. Journaling. And it's funny. This acronym started with my wife. Again, she thought of the miracle morning title, right? Even though it It wasn't a book title, just the name of my morning routine. And then I was writing the book one day and she goes, I said, sweetheart, I've got these six practices and there's no rhyme or reason.

45:58Robert Kiyosaki has the cashflow quadrant. I need a catchy way people can remember this. And she goes, why didn't you get a thesaurus and see if there's any synonyms for those six practices? And so journaling became scribing. Would have made the acronym awkward, saverja. So for me, three things I journal in the morning. Number one is, is there anything that I am holding onto two that I need to let go of. Am I stressed? Am I upset? Am I right? If it is, I write it out. I just vent on paper. And then I always end it with, and I accept all of that. Exactly. It is. So I'm completely at peace. That five minute rule, right?

46:33I can't change it. That's what's going on. I'm at peace with it. And now I have, that's not weighing me down the rest of the day. And it's there in case I need to revisit it to figure out solutions or whatever. Then the second thing is I write down what I'm grateful for. And I put my hand on my heart. when I'm done writing each one down, I'll write down one, two, three, and I just close my eyes and I picture the thing that I wrote down. And I really strive to feel gratitude at a deep level. And then the third is I look at my to-do list. It's usually there's 10, 20 things on there. And I go, okay, just to get clarity, what's my number one, most important needle moving activity that I'm committed to, to do first before I move on to the rest.

47:08And I'll use that for the top three and just get clarity that way every day. I'm not just busy, but I'm really being productive. And it's a beautiful way because by keeping scribing at the end of the save, it's like the transition from, okay, I just did my personal development, my inner work. Now I'm transitioning into the most productive workday that I can have. Do you know who Case Kenny is? No, I don't. He's like a big Instagram influencer. He talks a lot about mindfulness. And he taught me something that really stuck with me. And he was saying that mindfulness is really just self Q &A. And it's just trying to figure out why you're feeling certain emotions.

47:43And I've always struggled with journaling. And I think it's because, you know, I'm a millennial. We grew up on phones and the computer. I'm just really used to typing. And when I try to write, it's just really foreign. I can like do like chicken scratch notes and stuff, but like writing a journal, I feel like I could never stick with it. But now with ChatGPT, I use AI as like my way to journal. And it's just been so helpful. Like anytime I'm having a problem and I need to think through it, I just go into ChatGPT, start a new session. It knows all the other things about me. It knows me. Wild. So it will start asking me, well, why do you think this?

48:21And do you want help with this scenario? Or let's write these things down. And it's been helping me get so much clarity. It is like a therapist on steroids. It is brilliant. We have a Miracle Morning app, which came out a few years ago. That is one thing, like the digital journal, right? There is a benefit to being able to search entries, to being able to quickly access things, to be able to talk your entries so that it's done much faster. And sometimes when I'm handwriting my journal entry, I don't write that fast. By the time I get to the end of the sentence, I'm like, wait, where was I going with that?

48:53Whereas if I could have just spoken it. So yeah, I think that finding whatever works for you, whether it's a digital journal, whether it's speaking to type, whether it's handwritten, you know, I think whatever works best. Yeah, and so what are some prompts that you give yourself when you're doing ascribing? Do you ever give yourself certain prompts? I mean, I would say the three examples I gave is what, Yeah. So it's like, yeah, what do I need to let go of? What am I grateful for? What's my top priority followed by my second and third for the day? So in the Miracle Morning app, there are over 500 journaling prompts.

49:21In the app, we call them journeys where you're like, okay, what area of your life do you need to improve? And you're like, I need to make more money. And you choose that as your journey. And then now it sets you up with all six savers focused on that one area. So you've got meditations that are focused on abundance, consciousness, and so on and so forth. Affirmations that are focused on what you need to do to make more money, what to visualize. So it all is combined with that. So yeah, so figuring out what you want to accomplish and then aligning your journaling prompts with that.

49:54What's up, Yap Gang? If you're a serious entrepreneur like me, you know your website is one of the first touch points every single cold customer has with your brand. Think about that for a second. When people are searching on Google, everybody who interacts with your brand first is seeing your.com initially. But here's the problem. Too many companies treat their website like a formality instead of the gross tool that it should be. At Yap Media, we are guilty of this. I am really due for an upgrade for my website and I'm planning on doing that with Framer this year because small changes can take days with my other platform and simple updates require tickets.

50:28And suddenly we're just leaving so much opportunity on the table. And that's why so many teams, including mine, are turning to Framer. It's built for teams who refuse to let their website slow them down. Your designers and marketers get full ownership with real-time collaboration, everything you need for SEO and analytics with integrated A-B testing. I love that. I love testing and making sure that we've got the best performing assets on the page. You make a change, hit publish, and it's live in seconds. Whether you're launching a new site, testing landing pages, or migrating your full.com, Framer makes going from idea to live site fast and simple.

51:03Learn how you can get more out of your.com from a Framer specialist or get started building for free today at framer.com slash profiting for 30 % off a Framer Pro annual plan. That's 30 % off in 2026. Again, that's framer.com slash profiting for 30 % off framer.com slash profiting. Rules and restrictions apply.

51:25Hello, Yap gang. I know my young and profiting listeners want bigger businesses and a better life. And the new year is the perfect moment to reset and commit to your growth. But let's be real. You can't build an empire if your finances are all over the place. That's why getting into it QuickBooks is one of the best first moves you can make this year. They've got powerful money management tools built right into their platform, and they have them for every stage of your business, whether you're a solopreneur or a small business. And I love that QuickBooks helps you get paid faster, pay bills smarter, and even gives you access to funding when opportunity pops up.

52:00So QuickBooks can help you with bookkeeping, can help you with getting paid, can even help you with projections and understanding where your business is at financially. Plus, QuickBooks Money Solutions reduces manual work by half and keeps your money and your books perfectly synced. That means less time staring at spreadsheets and more time actually building the vision that you started with. That's the upgrade that every profiting entrepreneur needs. Start the new year strong, take control of your cash flow with QuickBooks Money tools. Learn more at quickbooks.com slash money. Again, that's quickbooks.com slash money.

52:31Terms apply. Money movement services are provided by Intuit Payments Incorporated, licensed as a money transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services.

52:42What's up, young and profiters? I remember when I first started Yap, I used to dread missing important calls. I remember I lost a huge potential partnership because the follow-up thread got completely lost in my messy communication system. Well, this year, I'm focused on not missing any opportunities, and that starts with your business communications. A missed call is money and growth out the door. That's why today's episode is brought to you by Quo, spelled Q-U-O, the smarter way to run your business communications. Quo is the number one rated business phone system on G2, and it works right from an app on your phone or computer.

53:15The way Quo works is magic for team alignment. Your whole team can handle calls and texts from one shared number, and everyone sees the full conversation. It's like having access to a shared email inbox, but on a phone. And also Quo's AI can even qualify leads or respond after hours, ensuring your business stays responsive even when you've finally logged off. It makes doing business so much easier. Make this the year where no opportunity and no customer slips away. Try Quo for free plus get 20 % off your first six months when you go to Quo.com slash profiting. That's Q-U-O dot com slash profiting.

53:48Quo. No missed calls. No missed customers. What do you feel like entrepreneurs struggle with most when it comes to actually getting started with a morning routine like this? I'm not a morning person. That's probably the biggest limiting belief. And I've examined the heck out of where that came from. In fact, when I wrote The Miracle Morning, that was my biggest insecurity. As I was writing the book, it took me three years to write the book. I'm a very slow writer. And I go, okay, this all makes sense. But how am I going to get someone to change a lifetime limiting belief that says, I'm not a morning person.

54:19Even I've tried, it didn't work. The entire book is holding someone's hand psychologically and emotionally from, I hate mornings. In fact, I don't even know why my friend recommended this book to me. I don't even want to do this to, all right, I'll do it to 30 days later. Oh my gosh, I've done the miracle morning, 25 out of 30 days. This is changing my life, right? So it was holding their hand through that. I'll give you my favorite example, a real life story. So Pat Flynn is someone that I love. I just love him as an entrepreneur. I love him as how he is as a dad. I love Pat. And we didn't know each other when I wrote the miracle morning, I reached out to be on the show.

54:53And he said, I think I got declined by his assistant. And then months later, he reached out to me and said, Hey, a bunch of people keep telling me, I have to have you on my show. They know that I am not a morning person and they've read your book. And they're like, you know, he might convince you have to have him on the show. So I go on the show and I find out, you know, Pat's, I don't know, he's probably making a million dollars a year or more at the time. He's running marathons. He's like a phenomenal dad. And he tells me how I am not a morning person. My best work gets done at night. And he said, the way I wake up in the morning, I don't wake up to an alarm clock.

55:24I wait till my kids come in and shake me awake. Daddy, daddy, wake up. I go, how am I going to convince this guy that has it all that he should forget the kids waking him up, which is the sweetest thing I've ever heard and use an alarm. By the end of the episode, he goes, Hal, I've never been a morning person, but based on what you said, I think I'm missing a level of productivity by not starting my day in a peak physical, mental, and emotional state before the kids wake up. I'm committed right now in front of my audience 30 days I will do this and if you've seen the miracle morning documentary the movie Pat's in there talking about how the miracle morning changed his life he is now a full-blown morning person and I love that story as opposed to me trying to convince somebody because it's like this is someone who had one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world who swore that being a night owl was that's what had worked for him he gave the miracle morning a shot for 30 days and never looked back and it became a permanent part of his life.

56:14So I also identify as a night owl. I get so creative at 11 p.m. at night. If I've got a project due, my favorite thing to do is stay up till two in the morning and do it. You know, I'm the boss of a company. I can tell my team we're starting our meeting at 10 and not eight. Like, you know, and I feel like once you reach a certain level of entrepreneurship, I know in my gut, that's why I was saying now I'm starting to wake up earlier and like really just trying to be a morning person. I know in my gut that I'm holding myself back now. It did work for a while because I feel like I did need to just hustle and sacrifice and kind of just get things off the ground.

56:51But now I have a team. There's no reason for me to do that. I'm better off managing my energy, making sure I'm the most positive, productive version of myself and just living a healthier life, you know? So I feel like as a startup entrepreneur, it's really easy to fall into that trap of I need to just stay up and get things done. And it might be beneficial when you're first starting a company. But once you start evolving as an entrepreneur and you've got a foundation, I feel like you've got to step it up and start to fix the way that you wake up in the morning, basically. And here's the thing.

57:24The miracle morning doesn't have to be an hour long. It's really not an either or. It's not like I either stay up really late or I have to wake up really early. Like it's not the 5 a.m. club. It's the, okay, I wake up every day. You know, I stay up till midnight and I wake up at eight. Okay, great. I'm going to go to bed at 1130 and wake up at 730 for my miracle morning, right? So it's like a very small trade-off for like, I'm going to go to bed a little earlier just to wake up a little earlier and then start my day in a peak physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual state. And one of my favorite examples of this, you know, Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad.

57:57So I met Robert at an event. I gave him a copy of The Miracle Morning back when it was a self-published book. And I'm thinking he's never going to read this. And three weeks later, I got an email from his assistant and said, Robert's read The Miracle Morning three times. Wow. Which right there, my jaw hit the floor because I was like a huge fan of his book. And he wants to have you on a show. And so I go on a show. I Google what's Robert's net worth. I'm like, I'm just curious. 80 million dollars. Right. So I go, if this guy who is a world class entrepreneur worth 80 million dollars, realize that by implementing the miracle morning, he could achieve it.

58:27And he told me, he goes, how you named the book correctly, because he goes, since I've started practicing the savers three weeks ago, I'm experiencing miracles in my marriage in my health and in my business And I was like if it's good enough for robert, it's good enough For the rest of us. Yeah, and he's a he came on the show and he's a hard guy to please So totally good job. Yeah, yeah, I couldn't believe it. So I know that you're also an expert in habit formation I mean you started this you weren't even a morning person now you've got this miracle morning You've helped hundreds of thousands of people have better mornings.

58:58So what is your approach to habit formation? Definitely something I've studied. And, you know, there's a very popular philosophy that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. And actually, I believe it's the same book I quoted earlier that was perpetuated or talked about in Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, which I think was 1968. And then it got quoted and quoted and quoted and quoted and became part of our lexicon. There's also, though, the most recent research is from Harvard that it takes 66 days to change a habit. I'm a big believer in it takes however many days I decide that it takes. Like I believe so much in we create our own reality through the beliefs that we embody and the actions that we take And if you tell yourself it's going to take me 66 days, then that's what it'll take If you say it's going to take 21, that's what it'll take I personally have found that 30 days is my favorite approach to changing a habit Whether it's getting rid of a bad habit starting a new habit and I break it into three 10-day phases and I call this process from unbearable To unstoppable So the first 10 days of changing a habit can feel unbearable because it's new It's like i've never done this before and our identity is at stake It's like i'm not a morning person or for me when I was doing training for that marathon.

1:00:06I'm not a runner I don't think I could do this and as i'm running i'm like, oh my god, i'm so sore I I have no I don't have any stamina. I can't do this, right? There's so much negative talk during those first 10 days. It can feel unbearable But if you understand that oh, that's only a 10-day phase I can do anything for 10 days, no matter how hard it is, if there's a payoff at the end. The second 10-day phase, days 11 through 20, are what I call the uncomfortable phase. It's no longer unbearable. You're starting to acclimate, but it's still easier to not do it. But if you can push through those 10 days and go, okay, I'm going to keep doing it because I'm committed for 30 days, no matter what.

1:00:38And that can be part of your affirmation. I am committed to do this new habit for 30 days, no matter what, there's no other option. Here's why I'm doing it. Here's which actions I'll take and when, right? I'll wake up and so on and so forth. Like for your miracle morning, you could say I'm committed to the miracle morning for 30 days. Here's why I want to become the person I need to be to create everything else I want for my life. I want to start every day in a peak state. So in order to do that, I will go to bed 30 minutes earlier and set my alarm 30 minutes earlier. Here's what I'll do to make sure I'm set up for success.

1:01:05The final 10 days of the 30 days is what I call the unstoppable phase, because somewhere during that point, you wake up, there's no resistance anymore. You like forget that you didn't know how to do it 20 days ago. And you just get up and you just do it. And then all of a sudden you're like, you're halfway through the mirror. You're like, wait a minute, this was automatic. Oh my gosh. It takes no effort anymore. And that's what happened for me when I was training for the marathon is I just got up, got my dresser and I'm running and I'm like, and I get through the run. I go, wait a minute. I didn't have one negative thought during that run.

1:01:35And that's when you become unstoppable because you have fully acclimated the habit. There is no more resistance. So that 21 days may be true that it takes 21 days to implement a habit, but you need those extra 10 days to reinforce it in a positive way without the negative talk or the resistance so that it becomes something that you're excited to continue. Yeah. And that you actually enjoy. And I love the fact that if we know that the first 10 days, we're going to have imposter syndrome, it's going to feel like crap because we're not good at it yet. We don't know what we're doing yet. If that's like on our radar, we won't feel as bad.

1:02:08We'll just be like, oh, okay. I'm supposed to feel like this is the first 10 days. Let me just try to get through this. Exactly. Right. But if you don't have that, what happens, here's what people do. They go on day two or day three, they go, oh my God, this is so hard. I don't wanna do this. I don't feel like it. And here's what our brain is not good at doing. It's not good at playing how things will be in the future. It literally just, it lives in the moment. And so we go, oh, this is what the new habit's gonna be like, nevermind. We think unbearable is forever. We literally are like, oh, this is what running feels like.

1:02:40Oh, this is what waking up early feels like. Nevermind, I can't do this forever. But it's like, no, no, it's not like that forever. It's only hard for a little bit. and it's so worth it when this becomes a lifelong habit that's automatic, that takes no effort and it changes your life day after day, after day, year after year. I'm really excited to try to do the Savers morning routine with this 30 day challenge. I feel like I'm the perfect candidate. Yeah, I'm excited. Yeah, you gotta do what Pat Flynn did, commit on air. I will, I promise guys. I'm gonna do this Savers morning routine for the next 30 days, no matter what.

1:03:13Awesome. And hopefully it will become a habit. I love it. So I am in Austin, Texas, and something that's become extremely popular here is cold plunges. So now that there's this new thing that everybody loves to do in the morning, I don't hear that being a part of your routine. So tell me why. No, I don't cold plunge. It's funny. I'm speaking to the biohacking conference next month. I'm still working through the message because I don't want to step on the toes of like vendors. Yeah. But I'm going to be like, hey, start with all the free stuff. You could buy a red light therapy device, or you could just go stand in the sunshine in the morning for 15 minutes.

1:03:47You could buy a PEMF machine, or you could just go ground on the earth, right? Like, which also feels like more natural. Yeah. And then the savers. So I'm doing right now, I'm researching all the scientific proof of how every single one of the savers is hacking your internal biology, both physical biology, psychological biology, rewiring your brain, so on and so forth. So I don't cold plunge. And I have cold plunged, and it doesn't. I'll cold shower occasionally, but yeah, it's not part of my morning routine. I'm not into that either. Okay. All right, good. I feel better. Yeah, I'm not into it.

1:04:17I never have. And I actually don't think it's good for women. I heard somebody on Mel Robbins' podcast that was saying women actually shouldn't cold plunge. We get colder than men. And so I feel like because biohacking is led by so many men, women just like are getting this guidance from men and what makes them feel good. But we don't really have anybody to look up to in that space yet who can talk from a woman's perspective. So I thought that was interesting. That's interesting. And it makes me think, even for men, though, one thing that trends often miss is long-term studies, right? I've read, obviously, there's all this buzz about cold plunging, but I've read it actually puts your nervous system in fight or flight.

1:04:56There's actually negative consequences. So who knows? Who knows what it's going to be in the long run? Yeah. Hal, this is such an awesome conversation. Thank you so much for joining us on the show. I end my show with two questions that I ask all my guests. Doesn't have to be about what we talked about today. Just answer from your heart. So what is one actionable thing our young and profiters can do today to become more profitable tomorrow? It honestly is wake up 30 minutes earlier. If you want to do a full hour, go for it. And just do one of the savers. Like you don't have to start with all six.

1:05:22It's not this all or nothing thing where a lot of folks, if you've never read the Miracle Morning, order the book, get the audio book, get the Kindle or download the app. And then during your first Miracle Morning, just wake up like 15 minutes earlier and just do the R. Just read. And then as you get to the chapter on silence, you can add that in and build your miracle morning over time But whenever you're trying to change a habit The easier it is the more successful you'll be so just wake up a little bit earlier 15 20 30 minutes and do one of the savers and then build it over time Yeah, I love that you're saying you don't have to wake up at 5 a.m.

1:05:52To do this exactly anytime you wake up It's fun and what would you say your secret to profiting in life is and this can go beyond financial So it's a philosophy that I came up with in cutco. I was struggling I was in a period of my Cutco career where I was at three weeks of in a slump. I couldn't get appointments scheduled. I couldn't sell. And I was ready to quit because I was emotionally attached to my results and my results were bad. And I had an epiphany. I went, wait a minute. At the end of this year, how much Cutco I sold, this is true across all industries, is not based on how any individual day or week went in sales.

1:06:26It's based on how many phone calls I make this year. It's the process that determines the result and the outcome. And so my epiphany was, okay, I got the calculator out. How many calls do I need to make to sell my, hit my sales goal this year? And I go, okay, I need to average 20 calls a day. Okay, got it. I've made 20 calls in a day. That's easy. If I make 20 calls a day, five days a week, if I commit to that process without being emotionally attached to my day-to-day and week-to-week results, statistically at the end of the year, I will hit my goal. And so that was my epiphany as I went, I'm going to change the game that I'm playing.

1:06:58I'm no longer going to worry about my day-to-day sales. I'm going to focus on making 20 phone calls per day, five days per week, and not care, not worry, not give it a second thought how any given phone time session goes and know that at the end of the year, I'll hit my goal. And that's what happened at the end of the year. I hit my goal. In fact, I was the number six rep in the entire company. And here's the best part. Everybody else was so stressed out. Entrepreneurs are so stressed out because they're looking at the short-term results. I'm not where I want to be. It's not happening as fast as I want it to, right?

1:07:26Everybody else that I was competing with was living that same stressful life. I had no stress. I made 20 calls a day. Then I went to the pool and I hung out inside my first appointment. It was the easiest life because I committed to the process without being emotionally attached to the result. So that for me as an entrepreneur was the game changer. I teach that to my students all the time. I do sales webinars and I call it bottoms up sales. So you just figure out what are the actions you need to do? We have so much in common. I think the more we hang out, the more we're going to find out that's true.

1:07:51I know. Where can everybody learn more about you and everything that you do? And I know you also have a podcast. So tell people about that. Achieve Your Goals podcast. That's my podcast I've had for 10 plus years. And miraclemorning.com is the hub for everything. You can find the books on Amazon. Miraclemorning.com, you can watch the Miracle Morning movie there, which features Mel Robbins, Brendan Burchard, Lewis Howes, Robert Kiyosaki, a bunch of cool folks, captures my cancer journey. And then you can download the app as well in the App Store or miraclemorning.com is the hub for all of it. Thank you so much.

1:08:19You definitely inspired me. I'm really excited for my Miracle Mornings. Thank you, Hala.

1:08:27Well, Yap Gang, that's it for today's show. Hal Elrod has led such a difficult but rewarding life. He reminds us that rock bottoms are truly relative. What feels like the end for one person might just be another challenge for somebody else. But what really matters isn't how low you go, it's how you respond. And even though I'm not really a morning person, I'm really excited to try some of Hal's miracle morning strategies. His savers framework, silence, affirmation, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing is a useful personal growth toolkit no matter what time you get up. Starting your day with silence helps you slow down, reset your nervous system, and actually hear yourself think.

1:09:06Affirmations, don't forget, aren't about lying to yourself with cheesy mantras. They're statements of commitment, not wishful thinking. Don't fight reality. Root your affirmations in the truth. Visualization may not also be what you thought. It's not just about dreaming big according to how. It's about mentally rehearsing what success actually looks like in action. And also, getting in a few minutes of exercise and movement at the start of your day can be a total game changer, whether it's just stretching or like what I like to do, Pilates. It helps get your brain awake and your body online. Next is reading.

1:09:40Whether it's a podcast, an audiobook, or a classic self-help book, give yourself a few minutes to draw from the wisdom that somebody else has earned the hard way. And finally, writing or scribing. This can help you check in and clear space for what's next, warming up your brain for the workday ahead. I hope you walk away from this episode feeling inspired to take that first step bright and early, and I'll catch you on the next episode. Thanks for listening to this episode of Young and Profiting. If you listen and learn have profited from this conversation with the inspiring Hal Elrod, be sure to share this episode with your friends and family.

1:10:12And if you enjoyed this show and you picked up something new, then drop us a review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to this podcast. It really helps us grow and keep the content coming. If you want to watch your podcast episodes instead, you can head over to YouTube. We're also now on Spotify Video for premium users. You'll find all of our video episodes on YouTube and we'll be releasing new in-person episodes on Spotify Video moving forward. If you guys want to find me, you can catch me on Instagram at Yap with Hala or LinkedIn, just search for my name. Of course, I got to thank my amazing production team.

1:10:43Thank you so much for all that you do. This is your host, Hala Taha, aka the podcast princess signing off