Boost Your Productivity and Avoid Burnout with Dave Ruel

Unlock the secrets to blending peak sports performance with entrepreneurial success in our thrilling conversation with Dave Ruel, a former competitive physique athlete turned business mogul. Discover the assertive discipline and unwavering commitment required in the bodybuilding world and how these principles can transform the way you run your business. Dave dives deep into his Epic system, a groundbreaking framework designed to help entrepreneurs avoid burnout, boost efficiency, and maintain peak productivity without feeling overwhelmed.

Ever wondered how to structure your entrepreneurial journey for maximum freedom and impact? This episode provides a roadmap to achieving time, creativity, and financial freedom by aligning your daily tasks with your long-term vision. Learn about the critical distinction between being a business owner and a true entrepreneur and why setting clear annual objectives is essential for staying on track. Understand how to prioritize tasks that truly matter, and unlock the keys to a fulfilling and impactful work life.

Finally, refine your time management skills with practical tools like the Eisenhower matrix and the Inbox Freedom System. Gain insights into self-awareness and effective task prioritization, enabling you to focus on growth-related activities while minimizing distractions. Through real-life examples and expert advice, discover how to set realistic yet challenging goals and understand that true success stems from hard work, discipline, and consistency. Join us for a comprehensive guide to achieving balance and productivity in both your personal and professional life.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I don't believe in work-life balance, because I don't see life and business as two competing forces. Right, they're all integrated.

Speaker 2: 0:09

You know, they are all it's a yin and a yang Welcome to the Elevate Media podcast with your host, chris Anderson. Let's get ready to learn, grow and elevate our businesses.

Speaker 3: 0:20

Tim Ferriss said focus on being productive instead of busy. Tim Ferriss said, focus on being productive instead of busy. And Nathan Morris said it's not always that we need to do more, but rather that we need to focus on less. This is episode 116 with former competitive physique athlete turned serial entrepreneur, author, speaker and leadership mentor, dave Rule. Today, we're going to be talking about how to avoid burnout and being unfulfilled and weighed down by all the tasks and things we have to do in our everyday lives. Become more efficient, get more done and be more productive using Dave's ethics system and frameworks. So if you're overwhelmed, if you have a lot going on and you're trying to just become more productive and efficient, this episode is for you. And if you like anything you hear, make sure you share it on Instagram and tag at Pencil Leadership and subscribe to the show so you don't miss future episodes. What kind of? When you say you used to be a competitive physique athlete, is that like Mr Universe type stuff, bodybuilding or what is that? What is actually?

Speaker 1: 1:28

Bodybuilding yes, absolutely Bodybuilding. It was nowhere near Mr Universe level.

Speaker 1: 1:34

Obviously, I was never a professional bodybuilder but I did compete as a bodybuilder for many years and that was kind of my first introduction to, I would say, like, high level performance. You know I was always kind of, you know, involved in sports. You know I played hockey, basketball, volleyball, you name it, you know always at a local, slash, regional level. But the level of commitment that you need or the discipline that you need in bodybuilding or fitness in general when you want to compete is is that was my first time really like at that level and it opened my eyes to a lot of things that you have to do in order to be successful. And and also looking at it long-term, you know you don't want to just do it for a year and then you're done. You want to do it, you want to perform at the right time, but you also want to have a more sustainable approach to it. So there were valuable lessons from the world of sports performance.

Speaker 1: 2:40

And then I brought to entrepreneurship and um, yeah, you know, I think I think going through or having been exposed to that early on on a personal level really helped me. You know, um, I would say, perform better or or realize things a lot, maybe sooner than other entrepreneurs would in, uh, in entrepreneurship and um, and, yeah, you know it's. Uh, I'm still trained up to this day. Now my focus is more, you know, based on on longevity, you know, being there for my kids for the long term, not necessarily having the biggest amount of muscles possible, uh, but you know, I think it's like anything you know, same thing with entrepreneurship. You know, you start with one thing in mind. You start with one big dream, vision, and things evolve, things change and your vision or your perspective changes over time and you know you evolve accordingly.

Speaker 3: 3:35

So you know there's a lot, so many parallels, yeah it's a great point too, just how things change, and I I it's funny not funny, I guess, but it's. I see a lot of individuals who are successful or who are or are on their way to be successful or are just doing really great things, and from my perspective, a majority of them have been an athlete or some sort of competitive nature or still are, and I think that just kind of again goes to your parallels you're talking about. I mean, I'm not anything spectacular, but I mean I do marathons and I've done triathlons.

Speaker 1: 4:13

You mean, you're not the real Captain America.

Speaker 3: 4:15

Not yet. We're working that way. Oh damn. No, not blonde-haired, blue-eyed.

Speaker 1: 4:20

That was a real sorry.

Speaker 3: 4:24

That is real.

Speaker 3: 4:25

That's that's real no it's plastic, but I'll be up front, it's plastic. But yeah, I think, uh, I think there's a lot of correlations too. I think just the competitive spirit, I think just the discipline that it takes to be an entrepreneur and an athlete competitively at all at any level, I think just have so many good correlations. But even with that, I think athletes tend or have the ability to get burned out and get overworked and, you know, run down, just like entrepreneurs do. So again, that correlation is there. So that's what led you right To start Epic and start this done by noon movement and start this done by noon movement.

Speaker 1: 5:06

Yeah, you know it was well. First of all, it was always about. You know, when I launched businesses, I saw how I was operating myself as an entrepreneur and I never really, like you know, went in business saying, oh, I'm an entrepreneur and this is who I am. You know, it was a gradual thing. You know, I started because I had a solution to, you know, a problem and I made a product out of it, started selling it. It did well and then things followed, but I never, I would say, saw myself as an entrepreneur, the thing that I knew how to do from my personal life or my athletic career. I brought it to entrepreneurship, made a business out of it too, but I never. How can I say that? I never made the conscious decision of being an entrepreneur? And it's until I actually started.

Speaker 1: 5:55

The business was running, I had great results and I saw the way I was managing myself.

Speaker 1: 6:02

Why do I manage myself poorly, know, in my business, when I'm capable of doing great things when it comes to discipline, when it comes to consistency on the personal level and on the physique side.

Speaker 1: 6:17

And I started doing like this is when you know, it's only sometimes, when you're at one point and you turn back and you see the dots connecting and it's like, wow, okay, I'm burnt out right now, but I see the dots and I understand what I'm doing wrong. And when you look at I'm going to use, you know, weight training, for example, weightlifting, as an analogy. You know people think a lot of the biggest rookie mistake you see people doing is that they're going to start going to the gym and then they're going to start working out seven days a week, long hours, all the time, as much as they can. What happens? First of all, they're not seeing that. They get frustrated because they don't see the results that they want and they're like, well, I'm doing all this work, I'm not growing as much as I want. It doesn't make sense. And then they realize that they're actually overtraining and they're burning themselves out and it just affects everything else.

Speaker 3: 7:11

Yeah right, because sorry to jump in there, but basically their muscles can't recover right. They're breaking down the tissue so much they're actually almost reversing what they want to happen, isn't that correct?

Speaker 1: 7:23

Well, and then they realize that they need structure. They realize that, damn, like, I'm working out. And when a lot of people start working out without any like proper planning or proper game plan, and they do like, oh, I'm going to do a little bit biceps, some bicep curls, and I'm going to do some bench press, I'm going to do this. And then they realize, okay, I need structure, some bench press, I'm going to do this. And then they realize, okay, I need structure. And then, with structure, then they realize, okay, I have something, I have a framework that I can put in place, that now I can, you know, focus on the things that really matter, based on my goals, right. So when you look at it, you see, like you know, when, when I was coaching, coaching people in on the physique side, the main question is like what, what do you, what's your goal, what do you want to do? Right, so they always either like lose weight, gain muscle, do this, do that become more flexible? I mean, you name it and I was working with a lot of, you know, muscle people and it's like, oh, I want to gain 20 pounds of muscle, I want to gain 10 pounds of muscle, and usually it was like 10 pounds of muscle, and then I want to have, you know, less of that body fat right there. You know it's like, okay, well, okay, why do you want to do that? Well, because it was either like they want to feel more confident in their skin, they wanted to live longer, they wanted to, some wanted to compete in bodybuilding. I mean, there's all different reasons. There's official and unofficial reasons too, but that's why you need to figure out, and once that's decided, once you understand, okay, well, that's the goal. Now we're going to reverse, engineer that, this goal or this direction, and now we're going to do the right actions in order to get you there. You're not going to get there tomorrow. It's going to take time. It's going to take repeated actions, some routines that are going to be put in place, some habits that are going to need to be implemented in your life, and some movements, some things, some actions that will need to take place. And so you're going to start with usually like a 90-day plan, 90-day workout, and then you're going to be. You know, I'm going to tell you okay, chris, on Monday you're going to do chess. Yeah, because International Chess Day is Monday. No, so Monday you're going to do chess and then you're going to do this exercise and then you're going to do dead mini reps and you're going to do in a movement that's like this, and then you're going to perform that movement and then you're going to recover. So there's all that planning that goes into it. So there's all that planning that goes into it.

Speaker 1: 9:43

And when I started coaching entrepreneurs, that was, I started like little by little, in 2014, 2016,. When I sold Bioptimizers my last company, my solvents company I started coaching entrepreneurs and that was like kind of a new thing. Like it was not something that I wanted to do, like get into coaching. It was like you know what I had kind of that opportunity presented to me and I realized that most entrepreneurs do the same thing. They start in business and they do a little bit of everything and they don't know what they're doing. And then they come to a coach or someone who's been there and say what do I need to do? Who's been there and said what do I need to do?

Speaker 1: 10:26

So this is when I had built for myself like the same type of tools and systems that I was using for myself, and I started while sharing these tools with them, and obviously, this is how Epic was born and the methodology was born as a whole.

Speaker 1: 10:38

It's like, okay, well, how do I take an entrepreneur that has great potential, has a solution to offer, but doesn't know how to go about? It, doesn't have the structure to perform. And my goal is entrepreneurship is a great vehicle. Business is a great vehicle to do great things in the world, and I think if entrepreneurs can understand how to perform sustainably, this is how I can fulfill a bigger mission. And I think this is when Epic was born and started talking about it and wrote the book about it and I keep sharing that. But yeah, it's a little bit like how it was born, but how? The big mistake that all of us do, whether it's like what that you see in the physique space, you see that all the way in entrepreneurship and it's almost honestly like, just from what I've heard start on my journey with entrepreneurship, uh, it's, it's almost like it's blasphemy.

Speaker 3: 11:38

You know, done by noon, like no, like you've got to work, you know 20 hour days and and every day doing that. And yes, I mean there are some days that we we do have to to spend longer, just based on things coming up, um and things like that. But you're you're going against really. I think you're going against the grain, you're kind of going against the flow, you know of everything else um, with being done by noon and it just almost um To so many people sounds like a pipe dream, kind of like done by noon, okay, sure, maybe if you're successful and at a good level. But you think anyone can use this process at any level they're at, to still be successful, right?

Speaker 4: 12:23

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Speaker 1: 13:00

Well, you know, the title is very strategic because the title appeals or is going to. Title appeals or is going to, it's really going to make you realize what you don't have. And I believe entrepreneurs go in business for one thing, and that one like primary, primarily one thing, and that thing is freedom and freedom. I divide freedom into three freedoms. So, first of all, freedom of time right, they want to do things when they want. Freedom of creation, creative freedom, they want to work on things that they want. Right, don't want to be told what to do or when to do it. But they also want financial freedom. Obviously, they want to get paid with it and they want to be well-paid doing it, and it's normal. The thing is that when we start our businesses and the reality catches in and you don't have that structure like I was talking about, it makes you realize, like you drift from the initial intent and then, all of a sudden, that goal or that driver of freedom, if you want, is not there anymore. And when I say done by noon, it's not to be just done by noon. And when you read the book, you can be done whenever you want. It doesn't matter, it's based on where you want to go on your ambitions, on your business. There's so many variables and context to account for, but the fact that I would tell you, if you had to be done by noon every day, if you had no choice, how would you structure your days? How would you structure your work? So now you understand that it's not about working more, it's about working on the right things, and obviously that's an analogy to show you, to force you to look at how to prioritize, understanding what is the right work to do based on what you want, and get you out of that drift that actually prevents you not only from being fulfilled by your work but also creating your best work. You know, I believe that with the right structure and the right organization and bringing back entrepreneurs to their zone of what I call the power zone, like will create greater solutions for the world, will create, you know, more fulfillment for you, Because I believe entrepreneurs that's the one thing with entrepreneurs. You can be a business owner. That doesn't mean you are. I believe entrepreneurs that's the one thing with entrepreneurs. You can be a business owner. That doesn't mean you are an entrepreneur, and I see a difference with that. And an entrepreneur is really driven by its creative freedom. If you rob the entrepreneurs from its creative freedom, the entrepreneur is not going to thrive, he's not going to be fulfilled, he's not going to sense that he has some purpose, he's going to feel like he's doing the things over and over again but not going to have that drive. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 15:54

And some people are really good in business but don't have that entrepreneurial mindset. I would say they have entrepreneurial tendencies but not necessarily that creative juice. You know what I mean. And same thing I mean. Some entrepreneurs are very, very creative creative juice. You know what I mean. And same thing I mean. You know some entrepreneurs are very, very creative, but not necessarily like the best business people either, right? So there's this kind of that mix, you know, and and and that's why you hear like, for example, you read books, like you know rocket fuel, for example, that talks about the visionary and integrator and the combo that can happen. You know that. That that's really like, I think, the difference between entrepreneurship and business owner.

Speaker 3: 16:35

I think I drifted from the question no, it's good, it's good information. So that kind of draws me into that. So what structure? What do we need to put in place as entrepreneurs to have a good structure? Place as entrepreneurs to have a good structure Because if we really look at our schedule or at the end of the day, we look back at what we did, we're going to see how much time we actually kind of wasted or didn't weren't productive in. So how can we mitigate that amount of time to really push forward and grow and get to those places we want to be with results? So what's that structure look like? I know you have a, you kind of have your own way to do it, so I'm curious to dive into that.

Speaker 1: 17:14

Yeah, well, the first thing again that we do, the first question that I get you, the first questions that I get you to answer, are based on your big picture. What do you want to see become a reality? Why are you doing what you're doing? What's your goal? What's your vision? Where do you see yourself in the future? And from there, once that's established, now we can do what we call an annual guideline, meaning okay, what are the things you want to see become a reality within the next 12 months? So now we're going to do a list of five goals, really, that you're going to be looking for for the next five, for the next 12 months. These five goals, these five objectives, are always need to be in line, you know, with your big picture, with what you ultimately want. You know, if you're telling me, like I want to, I don't know, I want to work, I want to live in Hawaii and I want to have this and I want to have that, and right now you're doing everything that's supposed to it and you live in I don't know New York City and, like, you're making the plans to kind of stay. You know what I mean. There's, I think a lot of entrepreneurs are just like they make dreams that they don't really own. They're like, oh, I'm saying that because that's what I'm supposed to do. It's like, no, your ambitions are your own, you do what you want to do and from there you're going to start doing. It's like working out, it's like understanding. You're going to realize your own. You're going to build your own self-awareness, your own self-leadership, your own self-discipline. Understanding your DNA too. When I started working out the first month, I was like, well, if I work hard enough, I can be Mr Universe. You know. And then you work and you realize like no, I don't have the genetics to be Mr Universe, it will never happen. You know what I mean. It's that part of self-awareness that makes you understand that this, where do I want to go, based on what I know, and where I can see the next results, you know? So, oh well, by me competing into you know on, on the local stage, for example, and then and then going further. So understanding that is key.

Speaker 1: 19:23

I think if you don't do this, you're going to go in a. I would say you're going to go and try to find shortcuts. You're going to try in. I would say you're going to go and try to find shortcuts. You're going to try to find hacks. You see that all the time in fitness, a lot of people are going to start going to the gym. What are they going to do? They're going to take all the supplements that they can find, right. They're going to take all the pills, thinking that that's the magic answer If I take more of this and this, and that it's going to fix everything. It's not and it's not going to accelerate your results.

Speaker 1: 19:55

Before looking at optimization, look into your overall structure, so vision. From there we get you to be very realistic Not realistic, but understanding, very aware of where your time, where do you allocate your time, your energy and your attention right, your finite resources that we all have as human beings, as entrepreneurs. It's how to manage properly our time, our energy and our attention. So we're going to do an audit of looking at, okay, where is your time going, and understanding that you have four types of tasks in entrepreneurship that you're always going to face. Every single business owner is going to face these four types of tasks and how you address these tasks, how much time, energy and attention you put on these four tasks, and the right mix that's going to dictate your week, so we teach you to do that. You know, dictate your week, so we teach you to do that. So obviously, we have what we call the rocks so, which are projects related innovation, you know, growth related tasks, the routine tasks which are, you know, recurring tasks that are mandatory for the operational well-being of your company. So these are what we call the power moves, because these are the ones that are going to move the needle the most in your business.

Speaker 1: 21:09

From there, you have what we call the power moves, because these are the ones that are going to move the needle the most in your business. From there, you have what we call the drifters. That you're still going to have, but if you spend too much time, energy and attention on these tasks on a daily or weekly level, you will drift, meaning like you will stop that alignment that I talked about, you will start drifting away. And those are what we call the reactive tasks, so the tasks that are kind of the byproducts of your business operations, those that you didn't anticipate and that you tend, as an entrepreneur, to prioritize or put a little bit too much importance on, and then they stack up, and then what it does is that it prevents you from working on your power moves. And this is when you see, actually a lot of you know lack of growth and lack of satisfaction, a lot of dissatisfaction coming from you know, within your business, because you don't work on what you should be working on, on your true you know, within your true power zone.

Speaker 1: 22:02

And the other ones too and I think now it's even more so, you know, for the past two years are what we call the responsive tasks, so everything that has to do with communication. Now I mean we're in a world that connects online, that talks, that has access to DMs, to Zoom meetings, et cetera. There's new phenomenons now, like in burnout environment, like Zoom. Burnout is a real thing now and it comes from poor, actually, management of the structure. I think they're great tools, but you have to learn how to use them properly and that's why we show you right so the four types of tasks.

Speaker 1: 22:39

And then we get you once that's established, we show you how actually to manage that workload, so understanding how much you can carry and how much you can can carry and how much workload you can carry sustainably while you grow. It's like you and I would go to the gym, chris, and that's your first workout and I'm going to put I don't know 225 pounds on the bench and maybe you can lift it, because it might be genetically strong, but most people they will not be able to lift a bar. So you're going to have to find a manageable workload that you can do great work with but then will work that muscle so you can start lifting a little bit more gradually and after a while you're going to realize that, okay, well, that's kind of my sweet spot or I can push. Here's my range. You know what I mean, that I can play with. So we do that and we show you that on the work side, how to set up proper load management.

Speaker 1: 23:33

In the book, in the Done by Noon book, we use actually the Kawhi Leonard analogy. I don't know if you read it that far, but we use that to show the sports performance analogy of load management and also how you're going to be structuring that within your schedule. Right, it's understanding that. Okay, now that you have understood that, let's see how that can play within your schedule. It doesn't mean you need to be done by noon.

Speaker 1: 23:58

The done by noon exercise is to make you understand what you should be putting your priorities on and it's also going to put a constraint of time on each block of time, right? So, for example, if I tell you that you can't have your emails open all the time and work within your inbox all the time and you have only, like, let's say, 30 minutes to an hour every day to attend to your daily communications, well, you're going to find a better structure, but you're also going to start optimizing the way you do things. You're going to install. You're going to find a better structure, but you're also going to start optimizing the way you do things. You're going to install. You know you're going to put a system for your emails system, for your communication system, for, you know, to-do lists, things like that, and that needs to be put in gradually. You know we supplement gradually so you can have the best benefits from it.

Speaker 3: 24:45

And that's a great point, I think, because if you don't structure your time well, one you lose your time and you you get down. I mean doing too much, spending too much time on things that don't matter, like you mentioned, on those drifters, those reactive type things, and so I think it's what like and I've heard it and I wonder how this fits in your, your philosophy with it but like, don't like look at your email or your phone first thing in the morning, kind of thing, because it starts to kind of drag you down that into those drifting type actions.

Speaker 1: 25:15

Yeah, you know it all comes down to. You know your own behaviors. You know you can look at it first thing in the morning, the things that are you going to take action on it first thing in the morning. Right, I'm not opposed to you to look at your phone and see emails. The problem is that the behavior that's going to follow will dictate. You know how good you're going to be as a, as a, as a, as an entrepreneur. It's like you know there's not.

Speaker 1: 25:38

You can look at a chocolate bar. You know, while you're dining you can look at it, you know first thing. But if you start eating it and it opens the door to actually more chocolate and less results? It's the same thing with emails. Right, you can open your inbox, but if you start working on it thinking that that's important and urgent right now, well I'm telling you, it's not going to work for you. You're not going to be able to sustainably prioritize the right thing. So instead, if you have the discipline to look at your emails first thing in the morning and understanding where to put them, so at the right time, you can attend to these emails, understanding that not everything is urgent and important. In the book we talk about the Eisenhower matrix, which is a tool that's used widely in entrepreneurship, and I'm like, yeah, I can see why it's a useful tool when you're on the fire.

Speaker 3: 26:38

Can you go into what that is for those who don't know?

Speaker 1: 26:41

Yeah, so it's the Eisenhower matrix that was created by Eisenhower, which was president, and then he was an army general and he basically he divides the task by importance and urgency and it's like, okay, well there's, you know, you do right now, you schedule them, you delete or you don't attend the task, or you know, or you delegate it, but, okay, it makes sense. However, for most entrepreneurs, that top left corner the urgent and important part of the quadrant this is where most tasks fall, because most entrepreneurs don't have, they don't understand what truly is urgent and important. And we could associate importance with communication. So, for example, an email. We're going to expect that you should answer as fast as possible to this email, right? Do you really? Right? Is it really an urgent or important things, or are you just opening another can of worms, right?

Speaker 1: 27:52

And one of the first things that we do in order to patch that leak with entrepreneurs is that we have a system called the Inbox Freedom System and we get entrepreneurs to install, to set that up, install the system into their inbox, and obviously, every day, they're going to have to get the system, improve it and improve it, and after a while, they're going to have to get the system, improve it and improve it, and after a while they're going to realize that damn. First of all, I'm down 70% on my email load, but also it doesn't smell like burning anymore. There's no more fires. It feels like we're in control of the workload. And the reality is that what you perceive as an emergency or something that's urgent is not. And there's pretty flagrant ways to see it, for example, like one thing in the inbox system.

Speaker 1: 28:45

One of the things we get you to implement is an autoresponder in your inbox. So you put an autoresponder and if you send me an email I don't know if you sent me an email, chris, but you get the auto responder saying hey, I only reply to emails between this time and this time every day. If you're emailing me for this, here's the person you need to contact. So I obviously send to the right person. Sometimes it doesn't need to be me, if it's an extreme emergency. Here is my cell phone number. So I give you my cell phone number on my email, on my autoresponder. Guess how many calls I get.

Speaker 3: 29:23

Probably very few, if any, yeah, none.

Speaker 1: 29:26

Zero. That's a reality. We now know how to channel urgencies and emergencies. There are some emergencies you know that happen. It happened before, like you know, on a server crashes or where you're losing money right now it needs to be fixed. You don't know, like I mean, there's obviously emergencies, but they're not that like. It's very rare that it happens. You know what I mean. And we have systems in place so we don't have to to deal with all that or be like what do we do? We're like, you know we're, we're prepared.

Speaker 3: 30:00

Yeah, okay, and I think that's that's a crucial part to remember is like being able to understand the prioritization of of the tasks that we need to get done, um, and almost kind of using this not really reverse engineering kind of, in a way, of the main things, the growth related task, and then breaking those down into each level okay, what I need to do, what needs to be done, but maybe not right away, and then water is going to just distract me, um, and so I think the the system is I'm trying to get better at, I'm trying to actually implement your ethics system more through the planner that you sent me, um, because I like how it's set up and it makes sense to me to focus on just the things that are most important and that are really going to move the needle forward and not really focus as much attention on trivial things.

Speaker 3: 30:54

And for me, even like that email thing kind of stuck out to me because when I was first starting, I was like I have to answer every DM and message and email right then, like, if it pops up, oh, I got to do it right now. It's like no, like people don't they're not going to think one way or the other. If it takes you a couple hours or a day to respond. I mean they understand it's life, and if they do get in a you know upset because you don't respond right away, then maybe it's not the best to do business with anyways.

Speaker 1: 31:23

No, it's 100% and you set the expectations. You know. You're like, hey, it's very clear. It's very clear when you answer that you know. And the thing is that understanding that you have a time limit as well, meaning that you know, let's say you do, you have 30 minutes every day. You have 30 minutes every day, you know, and then it's done.

Speaker 1: 31:40

So it's going to make you like you're going to need if you can make it happen and you still spend two hours a day on emails well, you're going to need to improve your system. You're going to need to start optimizing. So you know, yes, the inbox freedom is one thing, but then you know it might come to the way you communicate with your team, for example. You know there could be a better way to eliminate emails. I love emails, I think email is great, but email in like, used in the right context. If you use email like, for example, as a project management communication center, it's not going to work. You know you need a proper place to do that.

Speaker 1: 32:18

There's tons of great tools now that will pay for themselves, because you're going to save so much time, you know, and clarity and gain so much more clarity that the investment that you're making right now is going to pay itself tenfold fast. So it's understanding how you can get a better structure overall. And again, it doesn't happen overnight. It's not a hack. It's a structure, it's a way of operating, it's almost a lifestyle. It's a sport. I know it's a sport. I would say entrepreneurship is a sport. There's things that needs to be done If you want to be. I don't know what's your sport, chris.

Speaker 3: 33:00

I grew up doing soccer and now I do long distance running.

Speaker 1: 33:03

So there you go, well, long distance running. You know you're not going to become a long distance runner overnight. You know, when you first started, you probably what you started running what? 1k, 2k, and gradually increased and from there you started looking at your nutrition, you started looking at your sleep, at your energy, and from there like, oh, maybe I need this type of supplements, oh, maybe I need this type of shoes, because I realized that if I use these shoes, I'm not, you know, my feet hurt a little bit more. So now these shoes are more appropriate.

Speaker 1: 33:34

With that, you keep optimizing and with time too, you realize that you might react differently to you know running. It's like, oh, now my right knee is hurting a little bit when I do hills. Well, you're going to start looking into it and improve that and maybe do other exercises that will help you compensate for that. That you know. Injury, you know so it's, it's it's. You have to look at it this way and it doesn't happen by just doing quick, rash decisions on the fly, thinking that I'm going to become an athlete doing so yeah, absolutely, and it's.

Speaker 3: 34:07

and again, you can correlate running or things like that to it because, like, when you get you're running and you get out there, like you have to find your pace. And once you get that pace and you hit that flow, you can go a lot farther. Paired with a with a correct mindset, you know a lot farther and a better time than, if you like, trying to push the pace too much and have to have to walk because you're cramping and you're vomiting on the side. And so find your pace, stick with it and you can go the distance in a better time. So it's just like business, you've got to find your pace, what you can do, because we all have to juggle life, relationships, business and everything that goes in with that, and so you've got to have a healthy relationship with them all. They all have to be. I don't know if there's necessarily a balance. I think it just has to be a healthy integration of them all together.

Speaker 1: 34:58

Yeah, that's what it is In the book. I talk about the work-life harmony. I don't believe in work-life balance because I don't see life and business as two competing forces. They're all integrated. You know they are all. It's a yin and a yang and, as an entrepreneur, it's not true that you know there's a clear cut, 100% clear cut, between you and your business. When you look at yin and yang, it's like a dance. You know. Sometimes you will take the lead, sometimes it's your business is going will take the lead, sometimes it's your business who's going to take the lead. But it's how well you do that over time that creates that beautiful flow and a beautiful dance and it's how well you manage that. When you see a couple dancing, they're not dancing like they're with each other. I'm professional, like you know, dancing, but it's how well they do that and and that's what makes it makes it beautiful if they're like completely doing things separately on their side and doing their own things a lot. That that's. That's absolutely weird, right? So it's understanding that it needs to be integrated. It's. It is not easy. That's the thing it needs. It needs you know.

Speaker 1: 36:10

Obviously you need to practice, you need to understand, you will. You will screw up. Like you know, there's sometimes you're going to do too much and your wife's going to be. Like you know, you're just working a little bit too much right now. Like you know, we want you to be and it's normal. I think you know it's part of understanding yourself as an entrepreneur. You know we all have different behaviors. Most of us are prone to more I would say, excessive type of behaviors, and that's normal. That's how entrepreneurs operate. The key is understanding that and understanding how your natural tendencies entrepreneurial natural tendencies and also your own modus operandi where, how do you deal with stuff, how do you deal with workload? You know how do you best perform, and understanding your DNA, too.

Speaker 1: 36:57

You know, I feel like the big one of the big problems that we have right now is that it's called ambition. Appropriation is that you're going to look at someone and say I want to be like that, I want to be, I want to be him. Why? Well, because it has this, you know. Okay, great, but is it really what you want? You know, and I feel now we're exposed to a lot of it. We're exposed to social media and again, against social media or anything like that, it's quite the opposite, but we're exposed to the best of people and we think that because these guys, who are like the entrepreneurial champions that we see there, we don't see the backstory.

Speaker 1: 37:36

You know I've been in this game long enough that I know a lot and a lot of high level entrepreneurs and you know there's personal friends and I know their personal struggles On, you know, public life. They're going to look like they have their shit together, that they're absolutely crushing it. The reality is in the back. They're struggling with different things. It could be addiction, it could be anxiety, it could be depression. I mean, you don't know ADHD, you don't know. So it's understanding what you want and why do you want that, and then make actions according to how you see it right now from your own perspective.

Speaker 1: 38:21

But again, as I said, your perspective will change with time. If you have kids, your perspective will change. Things happen in your life. Your perspective will change With age. Your perspective changes like it it is. It is a truth, you know it. It will happen. It's how you will react to it.

Speaker 1: 38:40

But as long as you are always aligned and always honest with what you want and do you know it doesn't mean that what you're doing right now will be absolutely perfect. But if you align the frequency of alignment, don't wait on the frequency of alignment is what's important. Don't wait until you're lost in the woods. You've drifted too far away to be like shoot. What do I do now, you know? Like reassess your alignment regularly, ask yourselves the right question and be honest with yourself. You know it happened to all of us and you know and for myself, I could have told you something 10 years ago like this is where I want to be, this is what I want to do. And now, today, there's new. I see the world from another perspective. There's new things that actually light me up and that I didn't know kind of existed or that was not integrated 10 years ago. And you have to be, you know, open to it, right, so it's not holding on to past selves or other people's. You know dreams and ambitions. It's be very, very honest with yourself.

Speaker 3: 39:47

Yeah, and I think that's a very good message to send Just, yeah, be honest with yourself and just know what you want and be content with what you have now and work towards where you want to get to still. And so it's again that integration of hey, like I'm grateful for where I am, but like I want to continue to improve and be able to do more and help more, and things like that.

Speaker 1: 40:11

I love it. You know 100%. And you know it's like when I remember growing up and a lot of people growing up like and being involved with fitness, they look at Arnold Schwarzenegger and they're like, they love the early version of Arnold. They're like I want to be like this. And then you start doing and you realize that, oh, he has a one in a million type of DNA. You know, and probably I'm never going to have arms like that or be like this. And he's made like. So it's understanding that.

Speaker 1: 40:38

But there's two ways to go about it. I could be like, I could dwell and it could be like why do I like? Why did I win the genetic lottery? I say like, this is what I have to play with. These are my hand, this is the hand that has been handed to me. How can I do the best with that? You know, how can I set, I would say, goals that are big enough that they will be hard as hell to accomplish, so part of your big vision, but also not completely unrealistic. It's like I'm not. I know I'm never going to be like the next Arnold Schwarzenegger ever. You know, and I think that's what a lot of people it's the same.

Speaker 1: 41:18

And in entrepreneurship, you see a lot of people you know idolating guys like Elon Musk, and I mean Gary V, et cetera, and I'm a big fan of these people. However, I'm never going to be the next Elon Musk. I'm never going to be the next Elon Musk. I'm never going to be the next Gary Vee. I love it.

Speaker 1: 41:37

I'm a huge fan of Gary Vee, for example, and I think he's been misunderstood for a lot of things, but if you listen carefully to what he says, him and I have the same message. We're like be 100% aligned with what you truly want. What makes you happy? What do you do? Well, Double down on that unapologetically, Do you? You know what I mean, and it's not about the hustle.

Speaker 1: 42:04

I think people understand. It's funny because Gary changed the word. He doesn't use the word hustle anymore because it has a negative connotation with it. Use the word work ethic and work ethic. When you think about a work ethic, you think about discipline, you think about consistency, and I think that's a better choice of word than hustle, because a lot this we talk about.

Speaker 1: 42:24

You know the, the efficient approach or efficient philosophy to work in the book, and it's either you work hard or you work smart and I think that's stupid, because working hard, I mean you know, if you're a long distance runner, it's not a walk in the park, it's fucking hard. You know Everything that you're going to be doing like if you want to perform. It's going to be hard, it's given. Building a business is hard, it's a given. It's not easy, it it's a given it's not easy. It's like, yeah, but I'm working smart. Okay, cool, You're working smart, that's great, but like it doesn't take away the fact that it's going to be hard. Obviously it's not smart to not work smart. You're always going to have to find a way to, you know, improve and optimize and better and obviously don't waste your time, your energy and attention. But a lot of people that they think that by working smart means like collecting a bunch of hacks and patches and that that's not working it's funny.

Speaker 3: 43:17

I had a conversation with a guy the other day about this and he said that, uh, or it was. It was a question that was asked about um, do you think life is hard or do you think life should be hard, or something like that. And I was like, yeah, they're, like there are things in life that are hard. It's not supposed to be easy, it's not supposed to be simple, but it'll be worth it once you find what you were created and kind of your path. But a guy on there was like no, it shouldn't be hard, it should be easy and simple. I'm like that's bullshit. I was like yeah, have you.

Speaker 3: 43:48

I was like I don't know if you've ever run a marathon or tried to get stronger, but that crap is hard, it hurts, it sucks. There are hard things in life, those challenges are hard, but that's the way we improve and we get better. And so it was a good civil conversation. I mean two opinions. It was really cool to have it. But like, yeah, stuff is stinking hard sometimes and we're so used to, and I just again this morning talked to someone and we get we get handed so much in the world today for doing nothing and it's made people think that things shouldn't have to be hard and it's it's trending a lot of people in the wrong direction because of it.

Speaker 1: 44:29

I mean I don't, there's no such thing as a free lunch. You know you have to. You know I think working hard is a given. That doesn't mean you need to glorify the hustle. You know you need to, don't like I mean.

Speaker 3: 44:42

I think hustle, hustle makes it seem like when I think of hustle, I think of like uh work either, whereas it's hard work. It's just hard work, like you're doing it and you're you're doing it in a way that's, that's improving, but I I think almost unhealthy connotation is what I think takes people the wrong way with it well, you know, it's like okay, I'm a huge hockey fan and that's an example from last week that you know I I saw and kind of rung a bell.

Speaker 1: 45:13

You look at a guy like I don't know if you know hockey, chris. But so Andrew Shaw was forward well, not retired, but forward for the Chicago Blackhawks, played for the Montreal Canadiens. My team right there played for many years for the Canadians. He retired last week because he had, through his career, like just too many concussions so he just couldn't like play at a high level anymore. He had to give up the sport that he loved the most, the thing that he loved the most.

Speaker 1: 45:47

Because Andrew Shaw was always the guy that you would say he's a warrior, the true warrior. Like he's going to give it all out, like give it all on the ice, he's going to throw his body, he's going to sacrifice himself, right, and that was what he's saying and he was just going at it like crazy and he was getting concussed every single year. Well, now he's 28 years old, he's retired and you know he's not able to play the sport that he wants. He's not able to, you know, play for the fans anymore too Like, I want to see Andrew Shaw play. I can't anymore. I love the guy, I love that player, but I wish that we hadn't been like the guy's a freaking, like he's a hero. He's a freaking like he's a hero, he's a warrior.

Speaker 1: 46:33

Well, dude, like, if you want to do it for a long time, like there's things that need to be assessed, you can still play hard, but you have to understand that. You know I don't want you to be full of scars, open wounds, all the time on the ice. It doesn't like. You know that's not the case. That's not how you're going to be performing for the long term and I think that's like the whole rhetoric that is being you know that we have around sacrifice and all that, like I don't believe like you should like have like so many scars that you can't you stop playing. You know that that's just. It defeats the purpose. If you're an entrepreneur and you keep burning out and you keep, you know you keep burning out and you keep, you don't. You're not going to perform for the longterm. It defeats the purpose of the gift that you have to offer to other people, right? So that's, that's a great point.

Speaker 3: 47:31

Like it's. It's a long game and you've got to use your strengths and how you're created to do that for the longterm because you can make such a bigger impact. Um, which I think is actually a great transition segue, I guess into, uh, the question I asked all my guests kind of as we kind of wound things down here is the fifth trade of pencil leaderships that we are all created uniquely and with the purpose to leave a positive mark in the world. And so, when everything is said and done for you, dave, what do you hope your positive mark is?

Speaker 1: 48:06

You know what? Right now, I would say that I helped entrepreneurs performed at their best sustainably so they could create their best work and impact as many people as possible with ethic. This is really like the main main mission. My main driver is that if I can help you know, real good entrepreneurs do better things, I think and create their best work and impact people in a positive way without having me to do it myself, you know what I mean Can be done at scale. I think it's going to be mission accomplished. My friends, I got much more. You know things like that. I'm doing community based here and and and building other things, but with Epic, I would say this is what I want people to. That's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 3: 48:55

Well uh, dave, I really appreciate you uh being on today sharing this. It's just been really a really good conversation and I think I hope it's eye opening for all the people listening out there. Uh, just really take hold and prioritize your time and the actions, uh, because it doesn't matter how much time you have to build something four hours, one hour if you prioritize that right, you're going to see gains and results, and so I don't want to leave without helping you out and mentioning this. Done by noon is Dave's book. It's a really good read.

Speaker 3: 49:30

It's a really got you think this's a really uh, it got you think this was a good interview, a good talk with Dave. You've got to check that out and all that he gives within that, as well as his ethic planner, um just helping you break down, um your daily tasks that need to happen to get those big goals. So, uh, dave, where can people connect with you? I'm sure the books on Amazon is at the best place for that that just share how people can get connected that way yeah, we're actually we're handing uh uh free copies right now.

Speaker 1: 49:58

So we're still you still got time to grab some free copies if you go to done by noon. Bookcom obviously you pay. You pay for shipping and handling, but we hand over the the book. And, yeah, if you like what we said here, read the book obviously and don't don't invest yet into things you're not going to use, like understand what we're doing, and then you're going to see, like the Epic Planner is really like the content, everything you're going to read in the book, you're going to be able to apply it. You know, with the Epic Planner, epicco, e-f-f-i-cco, to see what we're doing. We also have a certification on the Epic methodology methodology. Actually we're relaunching it officially. We reopened the doors yesterday on it, so it's open this week. And, uh, social media at dave ruelcom, d-a-v-e-r-u-e-lcom. This is where I I share my, that's my personal account, where I share my, my personal life and I talk and all these things, so you can meet me there and and say hi.

Speaker 3: 50:53

Cool, Well again. Yeah, Thank you, Dave for sharing Guys. Yeah, get checked out. Get that for free, just for shipping and handling Donebynoonbookcom, and start diving in that. Be more efficient and productive.

Speaker 2: 51:06

Thank you for listening to the Elevate Media Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. See you in the next episode.