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The Million Pound Mission with Adam Schaeuble
I’m excited to be here. I’m even more jacked up to have our good buddy, The PHD, the man, the myth, the legend behind the Million Pound Mission and Casting The Pod, our buddy, Adam Schaeuble. How’s it going?
Thanks, Scott. I’m fired up. You may be the only podcaster that I found so far that matches my energy. I’m excited to attempt to break the internet.
We’re doing something a little bit different. The Note Nation is getting a little bit wider which is good, but we don’t want to go too wide personally. We want to bring it down and get the skinny on this. Adam, why don’t you do yourself a favor and share with everybody who the PHD is that we’re talking about?
My name is Adam Schaeuble, the PHD, the Previously Heavy Dude. I am known as that because several years ago, I ended up at a spot where I weighed 327 pounds. I ended up going on a personal journey where I lost over 100 pounds. I’m in Bloomington, Indiana. People started asking me what I was doing, how can I help them? I started helping other people. I formed a little bootcamp program. Over that five-year period as I lost my 100 pounds, I helped my hometown lose over 35,000 pounds. That was a huge deal. That led to The Million Pound Mission Podcast. We started helping people online doing online bootcamps, online coaching programs. Now, we are doing a goal of a million pounds with the podcast where we’re tracking it. If you read something now, you implement something, you get fired up and you lose five pounds, then go to MillionPoundMission.com and donate to weight loss. That way it goes right up on the board and we’re approaching 55,000 pounds.
It’s cool that you’re doing that. That’s one of the big things that I love. Your energy rocks out. You’re a great guy. You’ve got a lot of big heart for helping people overcome some obstacles, not only on the fitness side but also on the marketing side as well. You had me on as a guest on your podcast a while back. We also were called New Media Summit Icons of Influence and stuff like that. We hung out at Podfest as well. It’s one of the things I love. There’s a lot of synergy in the podcasting family out there. There’s so much great energy with people and people working to overcome obstacles not only if they’re trying to get the podcast rocking, but also what you’re doing with The Million Pound movement. I’m a PHD guy. I’m a big guy. I’ve always been a big guy too. You and I walk in a room and they’re like, “Watch out.” One of the things I wanted to bring you on to talk about, and we’ve done this in the past, is we know so many entrepreneurs who are busy and we’ve got such a great family across the United States with our Note Nation family, that a lot of people end up taking their health for granted as they put it on the back burner while they’re doing the hustle. They’re trying to build their empire, get things rock and rolling. That’s one of the biggest mistakes people can make. You’ve got a big energy for trying to help entrepreneurs overcome that too, don’t you?
Yeah. That is a huge deal. As entrepreneurs, the hustle is put on a pedestal. It took me a few years to lose 100 pounds, but that was several years ago. I’ve been at my current body weight for a few years now. During that timeframe, I’ve worked myself into the hospital three times. I had already lost weight. I was already a healthy guy. I was the guy that was helping other people get healthy. My business was exploding and I was one of those people, it’s almost like stacking pancakes on a plate. All of a sudden they’re so high, you can’t balance it and they all fall off. I had anxiety. I wasn’t sleeping. I was passing out, hitting my head on stuff, giving myself concussions. I ended up in the hospital three times before I got wise to the fact that, “I need to fill up my cup also. If I’m not around, I can’t help anybody. If I’m not around, I can’t make money. If I’m not around, I can’t build my brand or build my business.”
I wish I would have had the wakeup call the first time I went to the hospital, but the third time my wife told me like, “If you do this again, you have to quit what you’re doing as a business completely.” I made her that promise. We made some huge adjustments and I invest in me. The lifestyle that I live in is totally different. I’m a lot more efficient. Efficiency isn’t looked at a lot of times. People will say, “You’ve got to go more. More opportunities, more live casts, more podcasts, more everything, more speaking events. Build your brand.” Something has to give on the back and hopefully, it’s not your body and not your life. That’s the decision I had to make.
I have a similar decision that I made a couple of years ago. I was traveling, speaking. I traveled across the country looking at assets, talking with banks and conventions. I like to make the joke I put on 50 pounds extra over a few years and it was all sponsored by Crown Royal and Ribeyes. We get tied down. We get busy trying to do everything. We like to push off our wellness and health a lot of times. You’ve got to take care of yourself otherwise you won’t be around especially if you’re the linchpin and making some of the things run or you’ve got a family and things like that. Stephanie’s like, “You’ve got sleep apnea. You’re sitting here passing out every ten minutes at the end of the day. You snore horribly. You’re not sleeping well.” I’m like, “I’m fine.” I finally went and saw somebody and they came like, “You have one of the worst cases of sleep apnea we’ve ever seen. We stopped the sleep study short because we were afraid you’re going to die.” I’m like, “I need to get serious about this.” That’s led to making changes or prioritizing things.
I got my trainer coming here at the office and we work out three to four, sometimes five days a week for an hour on different things. I’ve cut out almost all the red meat in my diet and eating a lot of fish. I won’t say I’m vegan for the most part, but I’m doing a lot more of cutting out meat and stuff like that to be focused. My energy level is through the roof already. It always has been. The minute I started to sleep with sleep apnea and the next morning I woke up, I was like, “I have been a walking zombie for a few years.” The weights are dropping off and the muscles are bouncing around. I was walking down in San Diego for Traffic & Conversion Summit. Some guy came up to me, tapped me on the shoulder as we walked in the hotel together and he’s like, “Did you used to play in the NFL?” I’m like, “Thank you, but no.” He’s like, “You’re a big guy but you can tell you can move. You’re bouncing around here.” The last couple of blocks I started laughing. I was like, “I’m serious about my health and things like that.” It didn’t go on overnight. It’s not coming off overnight. Keep doing whatever you’re doing. You can tell different because you’re not walking hunched over like a lot of the guys I work with. You probably see a lot of that with your gym and the Million Pound Mission going on.
It’s the mindset that I’m hoping to help instigate out there across the world. This isn’t a sprint situation, it’s a marathon. It took me a few years to lose 100 pounds. I had to make gradual changes. I made lifestyle changes. I wasn’t doing a twenty-day challenge. I wasn’t doing a 90-day challenge like, “I’m going to get fired up for 90 days.” Guys are especially prone to that mistake of, “I’m doing P90X.” I call it transformation light switch syndrome. We flip that light switch on, we are on. We lose 50 pounds in 90 days and as soon as that challenge ends, light switch off and we go back to what we were doing before. We need that next challenge. We need that next bet that we make or whatever.
I had a client that came to me like, “I need your help. I made a $5,000 bet that I’m going to lose twenty pounds in the next month.” I’m like, “When do you want to get started? Here’s the link.” He never even filled out the link. He paid $5,000. It’s that whole mindset of the quick fix, the hacks are big now. My programs aren’t sexy because I’m like, “Let’s take a while to figure this out. Let’s do nutrition, let’s sweat. Let’s think about what screws us up, fix that and let’s do that consistently over time and you’re going to be in full control. You’re going to have your hands back on the steering wheel and reclaim control of your health. That’s not the market of, “I’ve got a brand-new diet. I’ve got a brand-new shiny exercise program.” I can take somebody from any nutrition style, any fitness style and we implement habits, structure this around their lifestyle and we make it work long-term. That’s the key to breaking that cycle of weight loss and regain it that many people struggle with.
I’m glad you said that because of we all like competition. It’s a challenge. Who doesn’t like that? People get into the gym like, “I’m going to give it all,” and then the next day they can’t crawl out of bed. It’s a gradual transition. It may start building those habits. You don’t have an hour out of each day, but you’ve got ten minutes to walk around the block. Cut your portion size down a little bit. Start doing the little simple things to help you out with that. The self-control is critical.
Million Pound Mission: The why has to be built after you ignite the passion.
It’s okay to do a challenge. I’m going to start doing these seven-day habit launched challenges, which are going to be fun. There’s going to be a financial penalty if you don’t complete each day of the challenge. You’re going to put a credit card down. It doesn’t cost you to get in, but it’s $5 a day that you don’t complete your mission for each day. That will be fun, but that’s the ignition switch. That’s not the whole why. The why has to be built after you ignite that passion. Why do you want to lose twenty pounds? Why do you want to lose 50 pounds? Why do you want to get in better shape? Why do you want to lower your blood pressure? That why has to be bigger than all the why nots. It’s like with any goal. If your goal is to retire with a multimillion-dollar passive income in the real estate industry, what’s the why behind that? All those why nots are going to show up and when they show up, the why has to be bigger than the why nots when you don’t accomplish that goal. That’s simple math.
The why nots will show up on a daily basis.
We all know that as entrepreneurs. I was going to work all day, but my cat threw up all over the rug, my kid’s sick home from school and it’s a snow day or whatever. All that stuff happens all the time and we keep waiting for perfect. There’s a podcast I listen to called The Minimalists and they say something called, “This can be day one or you can wait for one day.” It’s one day or day one, your choice. The key is not waiting for perfect to change your life, to change your business, to change your destiny. It’s make now day one and do the best that you can. We can’t be at our best, we can still do our best and that’s the way I focus on everything I do.
What are some of the tools you use? Are there any entrepreneur hacks you’re using with what you’re doing to help you stay on track? What were some of the biggest things that you did over your few years of working on getting back on track and removing the PHD?
From a business side of things, from an entrepreneurial side of things, as I built my business, I’ve always focused on community and connection and those two things. That’s what I’m good at. I’m an implementer. Those are the three superpowers I have. I’m good at building community, I’m good at connecting with people and I’m good at connecting people. I implement nobody’s business. I’ve been at a couple of events over the last couple of months, I’m not one of those guys that take notes and then let them sit. I’m doing that thing the next day. If I’m on fire about something, I’m trying it out. I know you are too because you’ve been trying on my Instagram stuff out and I’m like, “Go, Scott.”
Those are the three things I focus on whether it’s at my gym or the online service I provide is how I can create community especially with everything? I thought it was just with health and wellness but with entrepreneurs too, podcasters too. Why are these podcasting events awesome? I get to be around people like Scott. I get to be around like-minded people that have like-minded problems, like-minded wins and like-minded goals. We all get in there like, “I don’t feel like I’m out there on an island anymore.”
With weight loss, we do that. With business, we do that. With podcasting we do that. Making that connection with my podcast, I connect like nobody’s business. People email me and a lot of people that listen to podcasts are used to assuming they won’t get a response back. That goes into either, maybe something happens, maybe it doesn’t. You get that wonderful compliment, “I love your show. It’s changed my life. I’ve made a bunch of money from Scott’s show. I’ve lost a bunch of weight from Adam’s show.” They want to put that positive energy out there. I use an app called Bonjoro. I will send a video message response back to that person that’s not even hoping like, “I’m not going to get a response.” They get a personalized video response where I’m talking to them. It’s not scalable. I do non-scalable things to add that connection. That’s how you connect.
People can sniff out that template email whether their name gets filled in, “Thank you, Adam. You are wonderful, Adam.” It’s like cut and paste in there. They get a video for me like, “Scott, thanks so much for that compliment you gave me. I appreciate you listening. I appreciate the support. It means everything to me. I hope you have a great day. If there’s anything I can do for you, let me know.” Within Bonjoro, it allows you to put a link. I’ll say, “I’d love to schedule a free fifteen-minute coaching session with you. Subscribe to that link below, get on my calendar and let’s rock.” Many people connect that way. Down the line, a lot of those people will check out my stuff if it makes sense. They’ll be like, “I wouldn’t mind doing his bootcamp, his program or whatever. I’ve talked to him a couple of times and that facilitates that connection.”
The implementation is giant where you need to be implementing. Many people get fired up about stuff, whether it’s health or whether it’s business and all these new bells and whistles. I’m a big fan of a 28-day cycle. If I get something new, I implement it for 28 days. I take notes. I will say, “This worked. This didn’t work.” I will fine tune it. People with their diets, they’ll be like, “I’m doing Paleo.” Wednesday they’re doing freaking Weight Watchers and then it’s cheat days the rest of the time. With business, people get psyched about Instagram and they like a couple of posts, go live once and they never do it again. Give it a 28-day run to implement and see what happens. Those are the three things that bridge the gap for me.
The 28-day thing is extremely smart. I like the aspect that if you learn something, don’t wait around, dive into it and start implementing. You’re not going to stick with everything that you come across because God knows we come across a lot of great ideas like, “That’s brilliant,” and that went to our plan. Sometimes they’re like, “This works great or not. It doesn’t work with what I’m doing.” That’s the beauty of it. At least give it time to work. The thing that frustrates me so much as I’m teaching or coaching somebody, we give them a variety of different things to implement. I’ll say, “You’re not going to use all these, quit trying to use them all.” Find the few things that you like that you’re going to implement now. Get doing rocking those and add something new in a month.
You’ve got this other stuff that I call the Theory of Unfinished Bridges. We’re standing over here and we want to get to here. We’ve got all these things that we do, “I need to do an email blast, I need to have my LinkedIn profile, I need to work on my Instagram or I need to do a webinar.” We start doing these things, but we don’t ever finish completion. We have all these unfinished bridges and we’re pissing our time away off that cliff and I tell people, “You’ve got to do something.” Get one thing and get it completed. Get an email blast out, get your Instagram Live going. Do something. Get it done because it will get easier the second time. Before too long, that little shaky bridge that you build across that cavern now is like a four-lane highway because you’re going back and forth with that. I know that’s some of the things that you do as well with what you’re working with your clients and things like that.
You have to be an implementer but you have to be a completer also. That’s as an entrepreneur, as a type-A personality, as a person, you and I both are in the same vein here. We’ve got a million ideas a second. I keep an Evernote file that I call my idea bank. This has helped me a lot too because I don’t want to forget that awesome idea that I had. I go on my phone, I add it to my idea bank and I review it once a week. I look at where everything’s at, the big landscape and I’ll pluck it out of there when it’s the right fit, the right time.
I used to be building all kinds of bridges. That’s all I was doing. I was a partial bridge builder, PBB all day long. I was the PBB and nothing ever got done. I never made any money. I never helped anybody. I’m getting excited about that next new shiny object. The list, the idea bank helps a lot where I know I don’t forget it. I review it on a regular basis. It’s automated so that I know that every Thursday I review that list. I pluck something out as I think it’s the right time or something moves off the schedule I complete something. I launched my Evergreen Online Summit and Million Pound Mission University. It has been a huge project. I’ve done eighteen hours of interviews and that’s done. That’s in the flow now. I can bring something out where I told you I’m working on a mini-course in Instagram for podcasters. That’s the next thing that gets folded down and I’ve got some ideas around that and I can start implementing that.
What are some simple changes that people can make now? It doesn’t have to be life-changing, but little simple things they can do to start implementing and start seeing some impact?
With our health, I focus on what I call my amazing results formula. There are four components. That’s why I said I’m not a sexy program designer person, basics with implementation and accountability. The first thing is we have to get committed to a nutrition plan for the next 28 days. Everything I do is based around a 28-day cycle. You’ve got to put a ring on the finger. It’s not, “I’m going to date around with some Paleo and then switch to keto. On Thursday, I’ll do a little something else.” You get committed and we see what works, we see what doesn’t work. We make notes and then we make some small changes going forward. A 28-day commitment with nutrition, we know what the rules of the game are. Not the word like, “I’m trying Weight Watchers,” or “I’m trying keto,” that’s not good enough. You need to know what’s available, what you can eat, what you can’t eat, what is Paleo, what is not Paleo. Know the rules of the game. That’s the first commitment with that 28-day cycle.
The second component is fitness. People are like fitness. “I’m trying to fitness taco in my mouth.” That’s not the fitness we’re talking about. We’re looking at your workout schedule and it’s not trying like, “I might sign up for a bootcamp class.” Your trainer is coming over. It’s scheduled 28 days in advance. If you take group classes, book them in advance. If you work with trainers, pay them in advance. Map out. I want you to know what days of the week, what types of workouts, why you’re doing those workouts for 28 days. The third component is what I call strategic thinking. This is where I veer off into the woods where not a lot of people go. I feel like this is the most important thing because this is what will help you escape from the black hole of fitness doom. The black hole of fitness doom is a cycle. It’s a circle. We start something new. We get some initial results. Life happens. We’re not ready for it. We crash and burn. We go back. We waste our hope, our willpower, our time, our money, our effort. How many people do you all know that have lost that twenty pounds and gain it back every year, back and forth? That beats us down. Thinking strategically is where we pivot.
We look at the bottom of that cycle, the life happens moment, and we say, “What are those things that always wreck our momentum?” Is it going on vacation? Is it traveling? Is it nighttime snacking? Is it you don’t like the meal prep or you are afraid of injury? Whatever it is. A lot of people went on spring break, start something new. They’re doing Weight Watchers. They lose twenty pounds. They go on spring break and they totally blow it, they crash and burn and they don’t get back to the gym for a few months. They don’t get back on plan for a few months. Many people do that over and over again. Strategic thinking means we are looking for those danger zones. We are going to identify, analyze and plan ahead for those danger zones so that the next time they come around, we’re a little bit well-equipped.
We know, “That’s my danger zone. The spring break happens. I know I’m willing to book my workouts for a month after spring break. I’ve got my plan set up. When I walked back and hit home soil, I walk right back into a plan.” Many people are out there going, “CrossFit didn’t work. My personal trainer didn’t work. My Weight Watchers didn’t work.” What didn’t work was we weren’t ready for that life happens moment. That’s why I say we can plug in any nutrition program, any fitness program and get better results by thinking strategically. That’s the third component.
The fourth component is consistency, consistency over time with the first three. We show up 28 days at a time, map those things out. Be consistent, always thinking strategically. We crush it. It’s that simple. The typical person is like the challenged person like, “That’s not bright and shiny. That sounds like effort.” The consistent effort kicks everything else’s butt out there. That’s how I lost 100 pounds. That’s how I helped people in my hometown lose 100 pounds. My hometown lost 35,000 pounds in five years. It’s having those accountability anchor points built in. A lot of people are out there and they feel they’re on an island by themselves especially those people that are in a black hole and they get down on themselves. They think, “I’m uniquely genetically structured that I can’t lose weight,” and they start beating themselves up. Have accountability, have a community, have some support around all this because weight loss is probably one of the hardest things, if not the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Losing that much weight is hard as hell and I had people out there to help me out, hold me accountable and support me along the way. The weight loss journey and entrepreneurial journeys are one and the same. A lot of those things go right across the board and you can implement those tactics as well with your business.
Let’s recap one more time for everybody out there. First one is you’re committed, not dabbling. You are not just sticking your toe in the water. You’re all in the deep end.
Anytime we’re setting goals, we don’t use the word try, more or less. Those are too vague. We’ve got to be specific. We’re committed to 28 days nutrition. We’re committed to 28 days of fitness, which means booked out in advance and not, “I might wake up at 6:00 and go to the workout,” because that never happens. We hit the snooze button and sleep until fifteen minutes before we have to go to work. That’s what happens. The third one is thinking strategically, thinking about those danger zones in advance. The fourth is consistency with the first three.
Do you have that branded somewhere?
I wrote a book. It’s lime green. I sat down on a weekend and I’m like, “I need to get some of this information to book form.” I don’t even have any paragraphs. It’s straight through 100 pages of me blasting away about stuff that we talked about. I call it The Third Component: How To Get Better Results From Any Weight Loss Program. It’s all about strategic thinking. I dive deep in all of that. My marketing was I looked at my bookshelf I said, “No green books. I’m putting out a green-covered book.” I didn’t make a nice cover or anything. It’s lime green. I’m like, “That will stand out on somebody’s bookshelf.” I didn’t realize like, “I have to get it on the bookshelf first.” It’s on Amazon. It’s called The Third Component. It’s $3 or something like that.
The Third Component: How To Get Better Results from ANY Weight Loss Program
You run your gym in Bloomington too. You have a gym there. How long have you run that for?
I opened the gym officially in 2009. We started doing bootcamp-type stuff in 2007. In 2012, I had my own place. A couple of years ago, we bought the facility. That’s a whole other entrepreneurial mix of buying a facility with a separate LLC and then renting it back to myself and working all that out. That whole cycle of a tax savings fund, that’s one of the best moves I ever made. As you probably know, real estate in Indiana, I have a 4,000 square foot gym with three acres of land that I paid $180,000 for. I’ve got 50 parking spaces. It’s ridiculous.
That’s what I wanted to bring up here with everybody because we’ve talked with people and a lot of people to bring on trainers, but you’re an owner-operator, you’re doing a lot of stuff. In theory, you’re in this on a day in, day out basis. A lot of people get excited about somebody they see online but they aren’t in it in a day in, day out basis. It’s a theory but you live this stuff day in, day out not only with you and your family but your clients, your community.
That’s a big deal to me. That’s something to hang my hat on because there are a lot of online influencers out there that name themselves an expert. They’ve got testimonials and they have people that will be like, “I’m one Adam’s clients and look at these giant pants I used to wear.” I’m strict. If you go on my Instagram, you can see a bunch of the before and after. If you go to MillionPoundMission.com, you can see before and after. You won’t see me. You can dig around and you can find my pictures. That’s a tripwire for a lot of people that are looking for somebody to get coached by. If their pictures are the only ones you see, run the other direction because it’s way different transforming yourself and transferring that knowledge to help someone else. It’s a completely different game plan. With me, it’s client-facing like, “Look at all these people,” and they are strict with their before and after. They have to be the same size. They can’t be standing next to big clothes and stuff like that. It’s, “Here’s this and here’s 150 pounds later. Here’s the beginning and here’s 70 pounds later.”
That’s something that I’m super proud of because I am in the trenches, I’ve lost weight. I’ve helped a ton of people lose weight. It’s not just weight loss too. It’s more about reclaiming control of your health. That’s my true mission because many people feel the world and all the life circumstances are controlling their health. They’re super busy because they’re entrepreneurs, they have kids and their kids have twelve sports. Their spouses are supporting them with their weight loss journey. How many times do I hear that every day? A million. The thing is it’s like we’re driving around, we got our foot all the way down on the pedal, and we let go of the steering wheel and hope for the best. With the programs that I’m designing with the podcast, with the connections I’m making, I’m trying to show people how to grab hold of that steering wheel again, ease back on the pedal a little bit and regain control. It feels better than anything that people experience out there because it’s like, “I can truly take my body and my health where I need to be.” That’s a super awesome feeling.
What’s great is people have success in their business life and their personal lives when they take care of their health. It’s easy for us to get down there, “I didn’t go to the gym. I feel fat. I can’t fit into these jeans and shirt.” It adds a whole negative connotation to our day. We get sucked into that black hole aspect of things. You have little victory. You go to the gym. Commit to 28 days. That gives you enough time. Seven days isn’t enough or three days isn’t enough to see any change whatsoever except the sweaty clothes you may have been working out in or how sore your butt feels for the first time. You have that momentum and it builds a little bit each day. The momentum at the end of the 28 days, you can say, “I can see some momentum. Let’s stick with this. Let’s keep this going.”
It’s the same thing in business. Keep rocking, keep implementing and keep focusing forward. I know I always feel better in the afternoon after I work out with my trainer. No matter how rough morning I’m having, I know that I’ve got my hour to unwind my mind to clear it up. I don’t have that midafternoon slump like a lot of people do. I keep rocking forward in the afternoon until 6:00, 7:00, 8:00 at night, and then we can relax a little bit and go from there. It’s such a great thing, that four-point strategy. It’s phenomenal stuff for those out there that are struggling because everybody struggles, let’s all admit to it. The sooner you can admit to it, the happier you’ll be. You have a course of action to take some steps and go forward with it. I love what you’re doing with that. It’s awesome.
It’s something that people can apply to business. I’m sure that if you go back five episodes of Scott’s show and read those, you’re going to have an abundance of tips. Pick the one that makes the most sense that can be the most impactful and implement for the next 28 days. I bet some serious magic happens.
That’s the thing I get aggravated about when I’m talking to investors and they call me up, “I want to be getting a note.” It’s like, “Tell me what you’re doing?” They’re like, “I’m doing this and this.” I’m like, “If you’re trying to be a jack of all trades, you’re a master of none. Let’s focus on one thing. If you’re going to keep going to all these different workshops and seminars, this isn’t for you. I don’t want your money. You’re not serious. You’re not committed. You’re not Beyoncé. We’re not going to put a ring on it.” What frustrates you the most? What’s the thing that frustrates you about being an entrepreneur?
With the health journey, I 100% know it’s burning inside of me. I know I can help people 100%. It’s not like, “Maybe that’ll work. Maybe it won’t.” I 100% know. The thing I get most frustrated about in the health journey, in coaching people and that space is when I want it so much more than they do. Initially, I get it. You’re going to have to ramp up your momentum. Plug into this energy. Borrow my energy until you can build up your own. You do have to build up your own. You have to match levels with me eventually and then you’re on fire. It’s frustrating when people aren’t willing to do that. Some of these are life-changing situations. Somebody’s going to die.
Here’s a sad example. A few months ago, we had a guy come to my gym. We put people to work. We make them report in every day. They have to do an accountability report to an accountability coach. If they don’t, it’s not like we’re mean to him but we’re like, “We’ve got to get this every single day.” Day three, you invest $500. Day three he’s like, “This isn’t for me.” He quit. Three months later he died of a heart attack. I would have loved to have a shot at that guy. We’ve got to realize we’re entrepreneurs or whatever, that if we don’t invest in ourselves, we’re not around and we can’t be around for our kids, all those people that need us. I’m not going to walk my daughter down the aisle. I’m not going to see my son fall in love, get married and play with grandkids and stuff like that. We can’t have that blindfold on, especially as entrepreneurs because they’re goal-driven. You know as much as I do, we will do anything to achieve that goal. What are we giving up on the backend? We’ve got to find that happy medium. That’s the balance I try to help people achieve.
We have things like that occasionally happen like, “I’m not for you,” then a few months later I see somebody who’s working a minimum wage job and flipping burgers. I’m like, “What’s up?” I’m sure that’s why you believe community is important too. If somebody is in their misery alone, not leaving the house or not going and plugging into a community, it’s hard to have that energy if you don’t have it. That’s why it’s great to plug into you or people but going to that community, going to that gym and hanging out with other people, you will absorb some of that energy organically anyway.
Don’t fear accountability whether you’re an entrepreneur or you’re on a health journey. People run away from accountability like that gentleman I described. People link up accountability and judgment like, “Someone’s going to be judging me. Someone’s going to be calling me fat if I don’t report in. People will be pointing the finger and saying, ‘Failure in business,’ if I fail.” You need to link up accountability with support, accountability with coaching, accountability with love, mentorship. I know you’ve got raging communities. I’ve seen how active it is and I look for accountability anchor points in life and business.
Every area that I spend a lot of time I’m like, “How can I anchor in some accountability? How can I get something connected where somebody is expecting something of me? I’m expecting something of them.” It’s all love. It’s all support. We’re lifting all the ships. That’s why I love the podcast space. Meeting people like you, I 100% know I could text you like, “I need to go live every single day on Instagram. Do you want to do that challenge with me?” You would do it and I would do it and we’d hold each other accountable to that. That’s what you look for. Don’t shy away from it. If you fail, let’s say you start a new business and you fail, but what did we learn from that? It’s not a life or death scenario usually. Don’t be afraid. If you’ve never tried, you never get going and then you never know what’s going to happen. That way you have to live with that what if, and that’s not good either.
Regrets are always the worst thing, “What if I did this? What if I go ahead and do it?” That’s the thing that was always instilled by my dad. Don’t live in regrets. Make memories. Try something new. Give it 100%. Don’t half-ass it. Many people were 100% committed to eating or drinking that way. They’re not quite 100% committed to taking it off, working through it and seeing the positive impacts that can come from it. I look back over the last few years and I no longer have back spasms. I’m energetic. We do a lot more fun stuff. I enjoy it and I’m strong as an ox again. It didn’t happen overnight. What happened was I was somebody accountable where I knew I wanted to be VL here a lot longer. You’ve got to take your health and make it a priority versus priority number one for the most part versus priority number ten or twelve or stuff like that down the road.
You’ve got to level up that commitment to health, invest in you. I get this right about 12% of the time. People spend their youth elevating their income and they give up their health. At their later stages, they have to give up their wealth to reinvest in their health. You don’t want to neglect your health early on and then later on come back and have all that wealth you’ve built up go and spend it. You’ve got diabetes, you need joint replacements and you’ve got to hire all these people to get your blood pressure down. You lose many years of your life. What would you do as many extra years of your life? That’s worth something. That’s worth getting up at 5:30 AM a couple of times a week to go sweat with Adam.
It’s one of the biggest things. I was like, “I’m putting $50 in the bank of Scott.” $50 a day. It’s like the whole retirement savings. You put a little bit and you pay yourself first aspect like the Rich Dad Poor Dad. Pay yourself first, put that 10% in and then feed yourself with the rest of this stuff but pay yourself first. That’s the positive whether it’s 30 minutes a day or an hour a day, doing a couple of days a week can add so much more joy and longevity to your life and things like that. I lost my dad. He died when he was 69. He struggled with diabetes for years. His heart wasn’t pumping. Only 18% of what it should have been because it was affected by him being sick. He didn’t take care of his health as well as he should have been. From the time, I remember himself sticking himself twice a day with needles for insulin. I thought I did not want to do that when I turned 40. I did not want to do that in my later years. I want to be around to enjoy all the fun stuff that we’ve created. That’s the thing too. You understand this, “I don’t want to work my butt off, make all this money and then be sick.”
One of the big shifts that rock people’s world that I’ve made as part of the accountability is I joined an entrepreneurial coaching program called Strategic Coach, which is amazing. I did that for a few years and they are big on making entrepreneurs book free days. We set a goal and a free day is no work, no work email, no work phone, no work thinking, no work reading and no projects. You have to book those 90 days in advance and they hold you accountable to it. My goal every year is to have at least 110 to 120 free days every year. What that means is I work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and most times Friday, Saturday, Sunday no work, family, me, rejuvenate. My people know, my clients know and they give me hell if I email them on a Sunday like, “This is your day off. You do not need to be emailing me,” because they know I’ve been in the hospital three times from working too much.
Every once in a while, we’ll do a Friday or Sunday project day but I track all my free days and I keep those goals as I was trying to train for a marathon or something. I track all the stats. By compressing my work week to four days, I have to get more efficient. I have to say no to more things. I have to make every minute count and I have to be fully present and be effective with everything that I do. This is me and Scott time. This isn’t, “I got this list of stuff I’m worried about.” To take in that step, people freak out in the world of hustle mode that we live in. I want to enjoy these years. My son’s eight, my daughter is four and I want to pick them up from school and go play. I picked them up from school and we played outside all day.
We did basketball and there’s this lacrosse thing that I and my daughter were throwing at each other, out there dodging cars on the road when the basketball goes out there. I’m a great dad. That’s more important to me. I want to live life as we go. I’m not living La Vida Loca going to the Caribbean every weekend and driving fancy cars. That’s not me. Nothing against it but the compensation I’m worried about is time and quality of time, quality of relationship and impacts that I’m making. That’s another little thing that I do that throws people for a curve sometimes is my actual workweek schedule.
If you take a look at what your schedule is, I guarantee we all have big gaping holes in our schedule of unproductivity. If you take the time, focus on getting the things that you need to get done. It’s the 21st century with tools and social media tools and virtual assistants. You can still put 40 hours in. You don’t always have to be present for it. Maximize that stuff. I love that Monday through Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday is my downtime. You better not be calling me, but it would better be an emergency. Somebody better be dying to be calling me on those days.
One final point on that, Friday is my day. That’s what a lot of parents and entrepreneurs and business people are unwilling to feel guilt like, “I should be in my Facebook group. I should be doing something for my kids or whatever.” We have to take time for ourselves. On Fridays, I can sit at home in my underwear and watch Game of Thrones all day long. I can go work out. I can sit in the sauna. I can do whatever I want. After kids are out of school, we do some family stuff. That first part of the day, I don’t feel any guilt. It’s guilt-free reinvest in me. That’s important. I challenge entrepreneurs out there. If you feel you’re burnt to a crisp, take one day during the week, especially if you have kids. That way while they’re at school, that guilt is less, and do whatever you want to do. Do you want to go to a movie? You want to go and sit and watch movies all day? Do that. Do you want to go get a massage? Do that. Get your nails done, get your hair done, whatever you need to do, invest in all this stuff and reinvest in you. Spend time one day and see how that impacts you. You’ll come out the next day with the best ideas, you have the best conversations. You’re crisp, you’re clear and it’s a game changer.
Saturday and Sunday allow me as a parent to say, “I’ve had my time. I feel replenished. I feel good. Now I can focus on my wife. I can connect with her. I can connect with my kids and be fully present and not feeling like, “I’ve got to go another basketball game. There are twelve of them this weekend. I’m there and I’m filming. I’m running the scoreboard.” That investment in me first allows me to be super present and I’m not divided like a pie chart everywhere. I’m not answering emails, checking my phone and stuff like that. I’m there. I’m that crazy dad that’s out there running around with the basketball team and get them all fired up and stuff. That would be one challenge. If people were out there, especially entrepreneurs, take one day even if it’s that half day and do you. Do what you need to do for you and see how you come out the backend.
That’s such a great tip because many people put themselves last and then they drain themselves down. They don’t have the energy to do things. That’s a huge thing. Take a half day, take a full day. You’re set. That’s smart and it’s easier done than said.
Don’t feel guilty about it. You deserve time for you. You’re worth it. Your health is worth it. Your relationships will benefit from it. Go out there and do it.
What’s the best way for people to reach out to you? Find out more what you’re doing or plug into your community.
My hub is MillionPoundMission.com. That’s the hub for everything. I’ve got two podcasts, Million Pound Mission Podcast. I’ve got a podcast about podcasting called Casting The Pod that Scott Carson has been on. Check that out too. If you are into that 28-day cycle thing, at the top of my website I’ve got what I call my Transformation Battle Plan Workbook. It’s free. Download that. It’s about setting up your 28-day cycle. It will walk you through everything we talked about with that from a health perspective. Check that out. I love to chat with people on Instagram. Make sure you hit me up, @MillionPoundMission and send me a DM. I’ll always get back to you and a lot of times there’ll be a video. Let’s connect.
Million Pound Mission: Don’t fear accountability whether you’re an entrepreneur or you’re on a health journey.
You’ve got great stuff, Adam. Thanks so much for taking time out your busy day. Enjoy the rest of your day. Thanks for being a big inspiration out there. We’ve only known each other for a few months. I enjoy it. I love your energy. I look forward to hanging out and growing with you in the next few months and beyond that as well. Thanks for coming on to the show.
I appreciate it so much, Scott. I love your energy. I’ve learned so much from you over the last few months. I know that you’re somebody that I need to be connected to. I’m glad we’ve hitched our wagons together here. I can’t wait to see what we come up with. If you are reading the blog, please go into iTunes. Leave a positive review for this. Mention the PHD, the Previously Heavy Dude, and you liked this episode the best. I’m competitive. I like to be the number one most downloaded show of everyone’s podcast when I guest. I share it out on Instagram. I hit them up in the Instagram Story. Let’s go crazy. Tag me so I know and I’ll give you a shout out. Going there, as a podcast that’s like putting a tip in the tip jar and saying, “Scott, that one rocked. You’re doing a great job and I appreciate it.” Leave a five-star review in iTunes and I’ll thank you for it.
Thanks, Adam. I appreciate it. As always, we’ll see you later.
Thanks.
Check him out, MillionPoundMission.com and also on Instagram, leave a review. Go check out his two podcasts. It’s great stuff on both of them as always. Go out. Take some action. Take the time, plan out your next 28 days. Reach out to what Adam offered on his website. Let’s get rocking. We’ll see you all at the top.
Important Links
- Million Pound Mission
- Casting The Pod
- The Million Pound Mission Podcast
- The Minimalists
- Bonjoro
- Evernote
- The Third Component: How To Get Better Results From Any Weight Loss Program
- Rich Dad Poor Dad
- Strategic Coach
- MillionPoundMission.com
- Scott Carson – guest on Casting The Pod
- Transformation Battle Plan Workbook
- @MillionPoundMission – Instagram
- The Note Closers Show on iTunes
About Adam Schaeuble
Adam Schaeuble, aka The PHD (previously heavy dude), is the host of the top ranked fitness podcast The Million Pound Mission. He reached a point in his life where he weighed 327lbs and was already having weight-related health issues in his late twenties. He decided to overhaul his lifestyle and his fitness and ended up losing over 100lbs.
Feeling inspired, he took what he learned from his own transformation journey and created a bootcamp program that produced over 35,000 lbs of results in his home town of Bloomington, IN.
Now Adam has set his sights on inspiring over one million pounds of healthy results through his podcast, coaching programs, and the Million Pound Mission Bootcamp.