PODCAST - you’ll never unlock your business’s full potential if you keep drinking (here's why)
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Have you ever wanted to just flip a switch and have everything change in your business and your life? Well, today I'm gonna share with you the cheat code that I have uncovered to not only propel me to becoming a unstoppable ultra runner with asthma, my other business athlete with asthma, it has also empowered me to become the best business owner.
And more importantly, person in [00:02:00] my life in general, and it all comes down to the D word drinking. I promise you that you will never unlock your business's full potential if you keep drinking. Drinking is holding you and your business back from serving millions of people around the world with your e-learning programs, serving millions of people around the world with the knowledge and the wisdom that you and your company have to create a wave of impact throughout the globe.
Now as entrepreneurs and business owners, we do a bunch of things to normalize. Drinking. Sometimes we even say that drinking is part of our job, and at least entrepreneurship 10 years ago was kinda looked at as a fraternity of drinking. This may even be the reward that you give yourself. For your hard [00:03:00] work.
Well, today I'm gonna share with you why we all normalize drinking, what even moderate drinking does to you and your body, what that means for your business and the global impact that you are preventing yourself from having. And what you can do starting today to flip that switch so you can unlock your business's full potential and change your life.
Forever. Why do we normalize drinking? Well, when I first got into business, the bedrock of building your business comes down to, or at least I was told, and down to networking. Well, networking a lot of times is either defined by a drinking event or if it's in the morning, it's a coffee and bagels event, or maybe somewhere in between we get a lunch, but you hope that it's later in the day so that you get to go to a happy out.
No matter what it is, why does networking, which [00:04:00] is looked at as the bedrock for business development, for bringing in more business, for getting a promotion, if you're networking, to get a job, networking. Why? Why does this have to include. These things, uh, are typically not the healthiest for you. We're talking about drinking today, but even it's not like it's a healthy lunch that's provided.
It's not like bagels are the healthiest thing. Why do we have to combine such a powerful thing like networking and building relationships with such unhealthy activities? I remember back in college I studied accounting and film, and before I became an entrepreneur full time, I decided that I would at least check out working for one of the biggest accounting firms in the world.
So I applied to work at all of 'em and. Every single accounting company that I went and interviewed with had tons of networking events. Every single one, and every [00:05:00] single one had a networking event that you guessed It revolved around. Drinking. It was just the culture. It was looked at as a way to attract us to wanna work at the company.
And I'll tell you this, I fell into that trip. I went on multiple networking and team building trips before I worked for PWC. And while I was there that included drinking. So we normalized drinking in the business space because of networking. We also. Kind of in the same vein, whining and dining clients.
This is huge. This has been around forever. This is also looked at as how you're supposed to build relationships with people and sell. To your clients, thank your clients for working with you. You take 'em to a nice restaurant, you order a fancy bottle of wine or seven, and you have a great time. This is looked at as if [00:06:00] you have made it in business.
You do this with your clients. If you don't do this, then there's something wrong with you. Your business isn't making enough money. Why aren't you taking care of your clients this way? This is unbelievable to me. The next one. Expensive gifts. I remember, especially when I first started, e-Learning partners, we would get gifts.
From clients fancy whiskey bottles, we would get wine. We would sometimes get beer, fancy beer, spending a lot on an alcoholic beverage and giving it as a gift has been normalized. In business, it is looked at as a celebratory experience. And that brings me to the next one, celebration. So I run another business called Athlete with Asthma, and I talk about this topic all the time, how alcohol is holding you back from becoming the athlete that you truly want to be.
And like I said, [00:07:00] it overlaps with business too, even if you're extremely successful and you're like, oh, you know Johnny, you're so wrong. I drink. You know, a couple beers a week, and I'm extremely successful. Great. You know, you can be even more successful by cutting alcohol out, or at least cutting back to maybe drinking once or twice a year.
You'll be more fresh in the mind. But celebration is a common thing. You have been working on a project for a long time. We've been working on closing a deal for a long time, and the deal closes. And what do you do? You go out and you celebrate. You celebrate with your team, you celebrate with your friends, you celebrate with your family, and typically celebration includes.
Drinking. You know what I would rather do? Go to a sauna, go to a spa, go to a hot springs, treat myself really well for an entire weekend so that when I get back into work, I'm refreshed, not hungover. So this is [00:08:00] why we have normalized drinking. This is how we have normalized drinking As entrepreneurs, as business professionals, drinking is looked at as.
Cool. And if you aren't drinking the most expensive whiskey, the most expensive wine, if you don't understand what the most expensive wine bottle is, if you don't understand what the best beer is, if you don't know the fancy cognac XOPO or lt, if you don't know what that is, then you aren't successful. The reality is that drinking is not cool, and all of this is a lie.
Well, when I was a kid, I was taught that everything is okay in moderation, can have a little bit of sugar in moderation. You can have a little bit of fried food in moderation, watch a little bit of tv, play, video games, all these things in moderation. And while I'm not gonna talk about any of those other things today, those of you saying.
Johnny. I just drink moderately though. I don't [00:09:00] have a drinking problem. I only drink a couple times a week. Well, my friend, the CBC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines moderate drinking as. One drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men. I've also, I'm a longevity enthusiast and one of my favorite books about longevity is Outlive by Dr.
Peter Attia, and he gives all sorts of strategies about how you can increase your health span. Your health span is the number of healthy, fully functioning years that you and I have. On this earth. He has tons of strategies of how to do that phenomenal book. He fails in that book to take a stance on drinking.
Though he agrees with the CDC definition. He says, Hey, as long as you're having at most one drink a day, then you're okay. Well, I know some of you [00:10:00] out there are a surprise as me. That this is what is defined as moderate drinking. And you're probably thinking, Johnny, I only drink one to two drinks maybe once or twice a week, and you're probably like, you know what?
I don't need to watch the rest of this. I'm fine. I'm in the clear. Well, I'm telling you that this. Is way too much drinking and even drinking one to two drinks once a week is holding you and your business back from its full potential. Now, I've not only researched the heck outta this topic, I have been my own experiment.
And while my experiment started more than a decade ago when I went to a yoga sculpt class, which is a heated yoga class. With weights, and it was around 10:00 AM and I was very hungover from the night before and I was crushing it in class, but I thought to myself, I wonder how much better I would be if I wasn't hungover right now.
How much stronger [00:11:00] would I be if I didn't have alcohol in my life? And no, I didn't give up alcohol the next day, but I slowly started drinking less. And I slowly started seeing bigger and bigger gains. 'cause here's what happens, friend. When alcohol enters your system, when alcohol, any bit of it enters your system, your body goes from focusing on all of its other activities like muscle repair, immune system support, just running the systems in your body to trying to get rid of the poison from your system.
This means that less energy is being allocated to your daily activities. Less energy is being allocated to your brain, which if you're a business owner like me, you use your brain to run your business. It wasn't until the past few years when I really got into ultra running. And I decided that if I wanted to really be the best that I could be, that at least three to four [00:12:00] months before a race I would stop drinking.
And mind you, I have asthma. I've, I grew up with severe asthma, and I have over the years strength in my lungs so that I can actually run. I was told when I was four years old that I would never be a runner, never play soccer, and never do any of these things. There was no way I'd ever run a marathon. I mean, people weren't even thinking, how the heck could this guy run a hundred kilometers?
Well, a little over a year ago I struck gold. I was training for my first a hundred K race, cut alcohol out for four months prior to the race, and I felt the biggest gains that I ever had, training for anything or focusing on anything in life. I went from never completing a hundred K ultra before to winning.
My first a hundred K ultra that I ever ran, and we were racing in 90 plus degree heat, no shade on trails through the middle of the day, and my cheat code for winning that race was cutting alcohol out. Well, that three to four months turned [00:13:00] into me taking a year off from drinking, and ultimately a total of 14 months off from drinking before reintegrating it into my life.
Before testing out how alcohol actually makes me feel, and here is what I discovered. The first drink that I had immediately created. Brain fog. I. Not only felt the brain fog in my running, which really resulted in lack of motivation, I also just didn't feel as sharp at work for three to five days after having one drink.
And I know that you're probably like, oh well, you know, drink. It doesn't bother me. I drink all the time. I don't have brain fog. That's 'cause you're in constant brain fog. If you are drinking once per week, you're at best gonna have one to three days. Per week without brain fog, so your normal state may just be brain fog.
I also found a lack of motivation, and [00:14:00] yeah, this was very easy to see when it came to training. I would just wake up in the morning and I wasn't hung over. I just didn't want to go outside and do anything. The weather was really nice too. I didn't want to do anything other than just kind of be on my phone and lay on the couch.
Now, I do have a lot of willpower, so I willed myself to work out, but I felt the lack of motivation, I felt the lack of motivation to record YouTube videos to run my business. I also. Had lower productivity. This is why, even if you are saying right now, Johnny, I'm extremely productive. I get so much done every week, and then I have, you know, some drinks on Friday, some drinks on Saturday, and I'm completely fine.
Well, I invite you to see how much more you get done by cutting alcohol out of your life. You don't even know how much productivity you're missing out on until you. See how productive you are without alcohol, so you not only have more motivation, you have more productivity. What this looked like for me is along with lacking [00:15:00] motivation, I just had no desire to work out for very long.
So I would still go and out, but instead of running eight or nine miles, I'd run one or two miles. Instead of wanting to go to a HIIT class, I just wouldn't go to the hit class instead of moving the needle by three big activities every single day in my business. Maybe I got one done and it was an easy one.
This is a huge deal and I had this for days. I also saw my mood tanking. It was just really bad. I felt really low. So if you're out there and you moderately drink or you drink once a week and you have a low mood, I'm telling you that drinking is not helping. I felt over the 14 months that I didn't drink, and I'm about two and a half months into not drinking again, my mood.
Is super good. When I have alcohol, it like immediately dips. And once again, if you are moderately drinking, you may not even know what a. Actually good mood feels like because you're in it, so you're like, you know, I'm really [00:16:00] happy. Yeah, I'm doing great. I was doing great too, even when I was drinking. Now I'm doing even better.
Also disrupts sleep. And sleep is extremely important. It's extremely important as an athlete and. Probably even more important as a business owner, 'cause you're responsible for so much, your brain needs rest, your body needs rest. And when your sleep is disrupted, 'cause even one alcoholic beverage tanks your sleep quality.
But Johnny, whenever I drink, I fall asleep easier. Great. Maybe it helps you fall asleep easier. But alcohol has scientifically proven to prevent you from reaching the deep sleep that you need to reset your brain and reset your body. And really the list goes on and on. But one we definitely need to talk about is your overall health.
It is scientifically proven that 5% of chronic diseases are caused by alcohol consumption, and that's just what is proven. If you look at what alcohol's [00:17:00] actually made of and the impact it has on our bodies, you could make a claim that. The figure is much higher than 5%, but even so, why not decrease your likelihood of these chronic illnesses by cutting alcohol out of your life?
You're gonna get all these short term benefits in addition to this long term payoff. So what does this mean for your business? Well, to start. Missed opportunities. Some people just think that when someone else is getting a bunch of opportunities and they're not, that they just aren't a lucky person. Well, I promise you that you have the same opportunities as others.
You are just missing them. You aren't open to them because you're drinking even one to two beers a week. Then how are you supposed to see all the opportunities? So you're missing opportunities by having alcohol in your life. You're also, as a business owner, have poor. Decision making, but [00:18:00] Johnny, I make great decisions.
You know how much better your decisions will be by taking alcohol out of your life, or only drinking one to two times per year. Because when you take out that mental barrier, when you elevate your mood, when you don't have to worry about alcohol, draining your energy. You will make better decisions when you are able to sleep better, you will make better decisions.
So let's get rid of these poor decisions and these missed opportunities and take alcohol out of our life. Next, reduced capacity for strategic thinking, innovation, and culture building. But Johnny, my business' culture revolves around going out and celebrating with alcohol. That isn't an actual culture.
Alcohol is a crutch that people use to connect with one another. Typically, people lean on alcohol because they're lacking connection in their life. Well, what if you could build the same [00:19:00] culture, a more powerful culture, where you are building true connections with your team? And with your clients, because you're thinking more clearly, you're making better decisions, you are seeing opportunities, you're.
Strategic thinking becomes unmatched. Your innovation goes beyond your competitors. There is a global movement for less liquor sales. Alcohol is already on the downtrend. Now, a lot of people are replacing alcohol with other drugs, but what if. You didn't replace it with another drug. What if you unleashed the power of your business by cutting alcohol out of your life?
How would your business look differently if you had more opportunities, better decision making, and you were able to be a better leader overall? You had more energy and capacity for innovation, decision making and [00:20:00] connecting with your company and connecting with your employees and your customers. How could this change your business?
And your life. Now, I'm thinking that eventually I am going to require that if people are going to work with me, that they make a commitment to stop drinking. I haven't done this yet, but I'm very close to making it a requirement for when people wanna work with me and hire me and my company, e-learning partners, that you make a commitment.
To drastically either decreasing your alcohol intake or cutting it out altogether. And this is because I've seen. The results, and this is for you. This is for my coaching clients, this is for my Enterprise Learning Accelerator partnership clients. I believe in you and I know that this is a cheat code for your life.
So even though it's not a requirement right now to [00:21:00] work with me, this is something that I work with my clients on. 'cause my goal for you is to live a happier and healthier life. Because I know how much more productive you are going to be in your business, and I know how much happier you're going to be in your life, which is why I wanna share with you what I share with my VIP coaching clients and enterprise learning Accelerator partnership clients that have not only helped them unlock a greater potential in their businesses, but live a happier and healthier life.
The first thing is I invite you to stop drinking. For at least 30 days and better yet make it 90 days. Data shows that you need to take at least 30 days off to really start feeling the results. And when you take 90 days off the health benefits compound. You may even become like me, where when I taste a beer now all I taste.
Is [00:22:00] alcohol, which is why I prefer Na beer over alcoholic beer now because I've taken not only 90 days, but a year plus off. So this is step one. Just take 30 days off and see how your business and how your life has improved next. If you're gonna actually take the time off, you are going to be 71% more likely.
To stick to it. When you come up with a replacement for the drink itself and for the ritual of drinking, that is extremely important. You need to replace the drink and the ritual. So the reason why drinking is so addictive, if you have an addiction to alcohol or not, the reason why you want to continue drinking is not only because of the drink itself.
It's also the ritual, so I invite you to come [00:23:00] up with a substitute for the drink. This could be sparkling water. This just could be water, could be na, whatever you like to drink. It could be tea, but you also need to replace the ritual. This is why I love replacing it with sparkling water, because the ritual of opening up the beverage.
Drink it is replaced. I can also, when I'm going out with a client, when I'm going out with someone to socialize, I can order a sparkling water and it's something a little bit different than just getting water. So you need to replace the drink and replace the ritual. They did a study in Japan proving that you are 71% more likely to stop drinking by doing these two things.
Replacing the drink and replacing the ritual. Next, surround yourself with people who don't drink. It's very fascinating when you make this commitment, you'll realize how much time you've been wasting [00:24:00] going to bars or going to someone's house and just drinking and sitting around. Now I still hang out with friends that drink I just grab for my alternative beverage, and it really is eye-opening, seeing how people act in these different situations.
Even from a business perspective, I have no idea why we drink at networking events because we start slurring our words. You start saying things you don't want to. Say when you are the person at the networking event that is on top of your game, you're just gonna build deeper connections. Also, if you find someone at that networking event that also doesn't drink, you're gonna build an even deeper connection with them, and eventually you're gonna find yourself surrounded with people.
Who don't drink. You're gonna find yourself surrounded with more productive people, more highly motivated people. All of the things I went through today, you are going to start surrounding yourself with people with that energy. And the last thing, unless you are an [00:25:00] alcoholic, if you're an alcoholic, don't do this.
But you can taste a beer or wine after taking that 90 days off and see how disgusting. It tastes and see if what I shared today strikes a chord with how you feel. Really looking at the awareness of, oh wow, this is why I don't drink beer or wine. 'cause this is how it makes me feel. Now, if you're an alcoholic, definitely don't do this.
And remember, I'm not a healthcare professional. I just am sharing from my experience in my life how cutting alcohol out. From winning a hundred K Ultras to redefining the global impact that me and e-learning partners is empowering my partners to do, my students to do, and I invite you to join my VIP coaching experience.
If you not only want to build a business that impacts lives worldwide with your [00:26:00] e-learning and learning products, but also. You wanna live a healthier and happier life in the process. If you want someone in your corner to not only help you grow your business and your impact, but keep you accountable for your decisions on a day-to-day basis that impact your health and your life, then I invite you to apply for my VIP coaching experience in the show notes and in the description if you're watching this on YouTube, and I'll see you in the next episode.
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