Episode Transcription 

Speaker 1:

This is The Ultimate Advisor Podcast, the podcast for financial advisors who want to create a thriving, successful, and scalable practice. Each week, we’ll uncover the ways that you can improve your referrals, your team, your marketing, and your business operations, helping you to level up your advising practice, bring in more assets and create the advising practice that you’ve dreamed of. You’ll be joined by your hosts, Bryan Sweet, who has more than half a billion dollars in assets under management. Brittany Anderson, the driving force for advisors looking to hire, improve their operations, and company culture. And Draye Redfern, who can help you systematize and automate your practices marketing to effortlessly attract new clients. So what do you say? Let’s jump into another amazing episode of The Ultimate Advisor Podcast.
 

Brittany Anderson:

Hello, and welcome back to your Ultimate Advisor Podcast. This is Brittany Anderson and I have with me, Mr. Draye Redfern and Bryan Sweet. Now, you are in for a real treat for the next few weeks because we are going to talk on a few really important topics. The theme for the next three weeks is health, wealth, and happiness. So we’re going to dive right into the health aspect, which if you’ve been following us for a while, you may realize that this is a little bit different type of topic than what we usually speak on, but really when it boils down to is that no matter how successful your businesses, no matter how much you’re pushing for and what that next level of growth is, if you don’t have your health as a priority, you really don’t have anything.

 I think if, if nothing else, 2020, which is when we’re recording this, it has brought some interesting, I guess, shift in perspective when it comes to your health or in the year of the pandemic. Underlying issues have become even scarier than they are to begin with.

 So the reason that we’re talking health is that you, as a successful advisor, you, as somebody who is driving to grow your business to reach that next level, we want you to be healthy doing it. And really there’s this whole myth of the work-life balance, right? So trying to find this work-life balance and some people teach on this that you want to find that balance and part of that is your health and yada, yada. Well, I don’t really believe and I don’t think any of us here really believe that there is such a thing as that work-life balance, but rather living into your purpose.

 So there’s a quote from Mark Twain that I think just speaks to this. And it’s that the two most important days were the day you were born and the day you find out why. Now, let that sink in for a minute and think about this in regards to your health. If you haven’t gotten to that point yet where you’re looking at what is my bigger purpose? I think this happens a lot when advisors get to the stage in the game where they’ve maybe built some success, they’ve got a great team around them and they’re sitting there scratching their head going, “Have I filled that purpose? Do I know what’s next?”

 Without your health, you’re going to be focused on that versus what that greater purpose is. So part of the balance or that myth of balance that we talked about earlier, it talks about in a minute ago is making sure that you’re sharp, that you feel good, that you are fueling your body and that you, you yourself is a priority.

 So, Bryan, I know you are another one that really focuses on health and trying to again, keep that mental game strong, especially. So I’d like you to kind of step in and share some thoughts.
 

Bryan Sweet:

Well, maybe the best way to start would be to start with a quote. And if you just think about what I’m about to say, it’s probably the most impactful quote that I’ve ever heard. And it goes like this, “He who has his health has a thousand wishes. He who doesn’t, has one.” Think about that. It’s so true. So sometimes we just take that for granted. So I think these next three weeks are really, really going to be so impactful because if you don’t have your health and everything else really doesn’t matter and you can enjoy all the successes that you’ve had.

 One of the things that’s going on in the industry that I think is really a good thing is the focus on longevity planning. There’s even conferences on retirement and longevity that we’ve been asked to speak at. And with the COVID thing, those got repositioned this year. But I think one of the things that we need to do as advisors is really we need to start staying relevant in the next several years, as it relates to being a resource for our clients that goes beyond investment management.

 And being a resource for things that could relate to somebody’s health could be one of those big drivers. So can you imagine what kind of connection or what kind of a good feeling you would gain if you had an impact on a client where you gave them some information that potentially helped them live a healthier life or turned into something that help them overcome a medical condition and then turn their life into a longer life that allowed them to live even more of their dreams.

 Now, wouldn’t that really make you a differentiator in their mind? And wouldn’t they probably talk really well about you in front of all of their friends and family? So I think all of us need to think about how do we become a better resource in that subject of health? One of the other things I think I’m seeing in other masterminds that we’re participating in, is the three topics that we’re talking about today, health, wealth, and happiness.

 Another way of looking at that is what Joe Polish calls ELF, which is easy, lucrative, and fun. And one of the things that I think is really, really important as it relates to health, and I’m going to have Draye expand on this because he’s such an exceptional knowledge on these things is some of the really easy things that we can do these days to help monitor our health.

 So a couple of things that I’ll talk about briefly is there’s a thing called an Oura Ring, which will help track your sleep and your body temperature, and give you trends and let you know when things are going well and when things aren’t going well. Draye and Brittany also talked to me about these new electronic scales, where it plugs into an app and it’ll tell you, not only your body weight, but body mass and the level of water in your system and all of these crazy things so that you can see when things are going well and when things aren’t going well.

 Plus since I’ve been starting to use these, what I’m finding is once you’re more aware of it, you pay more attention and so you’re more conscious of what you eat and you’re more conscious of when you go to bed and when you get up. So Draye, maybe you could chat a little bit on some of your own ways of staying healthy and maybe comment a few more of these tools that at least I’ve found very, very helpful.
 

Draye Redfern:

Absolutely. Yeah, I love this stuff so much. So especially on the topic of health, it’s been something that has always been very near and dear to my heart, I suppose being an elite athlete and being a cyclist internationally and things. So it’s always been a part of my life, but it’s ebbs and flows and the ups and downs, et cetera. And my mentality, you got to recognize, I think with health, you’ve got to recognize your own limitations or your own mental limitations as far as what you want to take on or how you set physical goals.

 So for me I’m not the kind like I want to just lose five pounds and then I’m going to be happy with my fitness. Like that’s cool, I’d get there, and then as soon as I would get there like I could do it very, very quickly. I know exactly what to do. And then I would yo-yo back the other way.

 So for me, I have to keep consistently setting some sort of health goal. Now, that may be for some people running a 5K or maybe it’s doing a marathon or maybe it’s doing your first century road bike ride, 100 miles, whatever it is, something that you keep working up to, to train for. So for me, I had never done an Ironman. I did a Half Ironman before. And so this year, I was going to do an Ironman back in July.

 So literally you can’t just show up for an Ironman. It’s a 2.4 mile swim, 110 mile bike ride, and then a marathon. 26.2 miles after all of that. So you can’t just show up and do that. You got to obviously prep for it.

 With that, it’s a long duration. That is the clear goal. That becomes a forcing function to get in shape, to lose the weight, to do all of the other things to do. So that’s usually what I do. I like to set big goals that make me sort of have to really work or struggle for it. Well, because of COVID that Ironman got pushed off and so I eventually then signed up for Half Ironman, which then eventually got canceled.

 So a month or so ago, it was really in this funk of like, I didn’t have any big fitness goals to have sitting out there. I felt a little bit rudderless health-wise. It’s the holiday seasons, et cetera. So one of the things that really showed me these things ahead of time was exactly what Bryan said is I track everything.

 So I track sleep on a nightly basis. My hours per night. I track my body weight. I track the amount of water that I intake on a daily basis. My readiness score, which is if you have a health app and these sorts of things, an Oura Ring, it will tell you what that is, my alertness, my excitement, if I journaled or not, if I read or not that day, if I exercise that day. Literally, I track almost everything. I have a very sort of robust spreadsheet that I track all of the daily basis. It takes about five minutes to keep up with.

 But that sort of told me ahead of time that you know what, I’m sort of veering off the now I’m not sleeping quite as well. I’m adding a little more weight on. I’m definitely not exercising. Just it’s a leading indicator instead of a lacking indicator. Terminology, you’re all very familiar with, so that I could catch a problem. Before I was like, “Yeah, I added on 10 pounds because of the holidays or whatever else.”

 So that helps a lot from that side. But also I had to find something else because the way that I operate, find something, a big goal to sit out there that isn’t COVID agnostic, that doesn’t really have to rely on code being part of it. So what we’ve done is I’ve now got literally almost the entire office on a program called 75 Hard. Really kind of a fun little program. It’s 75 days. It’s supposed to be hard and difficult by a guy named Andy Frisella. It’s completely free. You can follow it on your own. There’s a $5 app you can get to follow with you.

 Essentially the premise is you drank a gallon of water a day. You do two 45-minute workouts per day. One of which has to be outdoors. You’ve got to read a minimum of 10 pages every day. Audio books don’t count. No alcohol for the entire duration and you got to follow a diet. So I managed to convince almost the entire office to do this with me begrudgingly and that has become one of the goals for the next 75 days.

 So that’s obviously an accountability and that’s a health or fitness goal. Oftentimes, it’s easier to stay on track I find when you have some sort of goal or something sitting out there like that, that’s the accountability or like an Ironman. Maybe not that robust, but something that you have to obviously, you can’t just show up for.

 And that helps a lot. But I think that even if you’re not doing something like that, simply like what Bryan said, if you’re tracking metrics for you, whatever it is that you want to track on a daily basis, it goes a really long way to having a good sense of what your leading indicators are going to be. Maybe putting weight on or maybe you’re not as clear, or maybe you’re frustrated or stressed out or overwhelmed, and seeing what things happen.

 You can track your sleep. So I use an app on my iPhone called AutoSleep. It’s like five bucks., I’m sorry, it’s on my Apple Watch, not my iPhone. It’s called AutoSleep. You could use the Oura Ring. I’m sure that Android has something similar. I don’t know specifically what it is. But the Oura Ring AutoSleep, depending on if you’ve got the Apple Watch or not, all great tools to track your sleep. And it’s really helpful because as Bryan said, when you’re tracking these things, you’re more aware of what, going to bed on time, how you’re sleeping, how your productivity is, et cetera.

 So there’s a lot there, but I think, Brittany, maybe you can circle that back. But I think that there’s definitely… Definitely, I would suggest creating some sort of fitness or health goals so that helps to keep on track.
 

Brittany Anderson:

Yeah, Draye, you made me think about a couple things. So first of all, the fact that you got your team on board with that, amen brother. I got a little squirmy in my seat thinking about, “Oh my goodness, that is a lot to manage.” The thing that I want to point out, and this actually came from, I listened to a webinar earlier this week from a Dr. William Lee. He is the author of New York Times, best selling book, Eat to Beat Disease. He’s a pioneering physician, a scientist.

 He’s done TED talks. A really smart, brilliant guy. But something that he shared that I thought was really important and that I wanted to pass on is that so many times when people think about their health, they think about having to deprive themselves of something, of having to take something away, of having to follow some strict diet that makes you lose out on the tasty things that make you happy, right?

 So one thing that he suggested was instead of going into, or going into the mindset of what do I have to take away because it’s human nature to fight that. We don’t want to be deprived, but rather what can we add? So I think some of these tools and resources and things that both Draye and Bryan have shared are so relevant. So good because you can add those little tools into your life and it’s all about creating awareness.

 Dr. Lee talked about how the one that you could do is add nuts into your diet because of the health benefits from that. A simple easy elimination that doesn’t feel life shattering could be eliminating soda because there’s no proven evidence anywhere that soda is anything but terrible for you. So it’s making those small little tweaks and adjustments to help you improve your health, to help you fight and beat disease.

 I mean, again, in the midst of the pandemic that has come to the forefront of all of our awareness of what can we do to really protect our health, to protect the health of our family. And a lot of times, as much as we’d all love a magic pill and a magic solution, it really boils down to just feeling your body and making smarter decisions, right? So that’s what this is about. And again, the reason we bring this up now, this is a huge topic in our masterminds, right? Every single session we have, every two-day intensive, we have something comes up along the lines of health.

 And you find that among high performers. You find that amongst successful business owners, entrepreneurs, not just advisors, that we all want to have this greater awareness and we’re all striving to be better individuals just like we’re striving to make an even better business. So again, that’s why we bring these things up to you today. So before I wrap up and talk about a few key takeaways for you to implement Bryan, Draye, anything else that you want to hop on and add?
 

Draye Redfern:

Yeah, I would say that regardless of whether it’s an Ironman, a 75 Hard or just adding something to your diet or your regimen, you got to find something that works for you. Because then you’re going to be more inclined to stick to it. I think that it’s always good to try and push the bounds of your comfort in some degree whether that’s taking more things on like Brittany said or doing something else physically because life is an exercise and health is an exercise, and it’s also more than anything. It’s exercising that, that six inches in between your two years.

 That’s 99% of the battle there. So that would be the biggest thing or takeaway that I would have is that whether you’re taking stuff on, removing it, tracking, it’s really more of a mental exercise than anything. And it just makes everybody, I think stronger by going through it.
 

Brittany Anderson:

Awesome. I couldn’t agree with you more, Draye. So let’s close this out with a few key takeaways. Number one, I really think, and it’s the overarching theme here is to make yourself a priority. Make the decision that you’re going to do something for your health. And even if you’re listening to this, and you’re a person who does eat healthy and you do work out as consistently as possible, there’s always things we can do to give ourselves a little extra self-care.

 So make you a priority going forward. Also, becoming more dynamic. I think Bryan brought up a really great point about being a resource as an advisor. It doesn’t mean you have to be an expert. I’m not telling you to go to medical school because that’s not your area of expertise, but just being able with the topic of longevity, being part of our conversation in this world, right? We’re planning for that period of life past the working point.

 So if we’re focused on longevity, it makes some natural sense to at least have resources you can point your clients to, to help them with that longevity, to help them live a more fulfilled, healthy able-bodied life. So just, I think being more dynamic, I thought that was a really important point. And then finally, I love what Draye said about the fitness goal. Setting some proverbial target in the future, it makes you feel like you’re actually working towards something and I think that even more so than a weight loss goal, right?

 When you have something that is maybe a little bit physically challenging that you are signed up for and you’re all in. And I always recommend doing that with a buddy, having somebody that you’re going to do that with, it helps up that accountability factor a little bit because then it’s not just you letting yourself down, it’s you letting yourself as somebody else down. So I think that’s really important to you to set some sort of a goal.

 So that rounds out the first part of the health, wealth and happiness, a three part series. We will catch you right back here at your Ultimate Advisor Podcast, as we go into the topic of wealth.

 Hey, there. Brittany Anderson here. If you are loving what you’re hearing on our Ultimate Advisor Podcast, don’t keep us a secret. Share us with other advisors that you think would benefit from the messages that you are hearing. The easiest way to do that is just simply send them to ultimateadvisorpodcast.com.

 And if you want to learn a few other ways that we could potentially serve you as an advisor, go check out ultimateadvisormastermind.com. As always, we are so happy to have you here with us as part of the Ultimate Advisor community and we look forward to a continued relationship.