Be an Asset: Motivation, Habits, Discipline, Toughness and Mindset.
Jim Edwards changes the pre-arranged topic on Stew as he starts the podcast. Handling the curveball, Stew was able to answer as well as segue into the original topic that was more about branding, habitual content creation, and openness to growth by seeing uses for such content.
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Transcription:
Jim Edwards: Hey guys, Jim Edwards here along with Stew Smith…
And welcome back to the Sales Copywriting Content Marketing Hacks Podcast.
Today we’re going to talk about Mental Toughness Stew is like what are you talking about, Jim?
Well, wait a minute because we just spent this whole pre-planning meeting time thing, talking about what we’re going to talk about…
We’ll get to that in just a minute…
We’re going to talk about some things that I do on the letting the chickens out with Jim and Stew called my daily brief, which sounds really cool, but not like wearing underwear thing, but like, I mean, that sounds like I actually am out there doing something cool instead of just talking to the camera while I’m letting out my farm foul, but I don’t want to talk about that right this minute…
I want to talk about Mental Toughness.
Stew Smith: Okay.
Jim Edwards: With the man who knows as much or more about mental toughness than anybody else I know…
And so, Stew, before we start talking about such mundane topics as what I talked about when I let the chickens out, I would like for you as a former Navy SEAL as the guy who trains all the SpecOps guys coming out of the United States Naval Academy now for more than two and a half decades…
What are your three biggest tips for being mentally tough right now when everybody is dealing with some very challenging situations at work at home, in the economy, with their health with their mental state, I would like your three biggest tips to get more mentally tough,
Stew Smith: Man, you did not give me any preparation…
Jim Edwards: None, zero.
Stew Smith: Okay, here we go…
First of all, you have to have a schedule and be persistent with that schedule, right?
Whatever that is, and find something that you really want to do…
Right and at first, that first phase of whatever you want to do, is pretty motivating…
Whenever you first join a gym, everybody’s like, “Oh, I’m going to join a gym, I’m motivated to go join the gym…”
But then that doesn’t last very long…
A lot of people quit going…
But whenever we first get that idea that kind of resonates deep with us that we really want to achieve this…
It’s pretty motivating…
But you got to use that motivation…
Because it’s fleeting.
You got to use it fast…
And during that time of motivation, you have to start building these habits…
And these little habits of getting up early to get stuff done or, spending an extra 30 minutes reading or extra 30 minutes, doing cardio, whatever your goal is…
You have to start creating those habits while you are in this motivated state because typically, it lasts about two weeks, and you’re now no longer motivated, you’re kind of tired, maybe you’re sore, you don’t really see the results that you thought you would see two weeks ago…
So, you get a little, maybe even demotivated to a point…
But if you’ve established some really good habits, you can actually use those habits to push past that motivation…
And it gets into more of this discipline that you’re creating.
So, your motivation has to evolve into discipline.
And then the day that you don’t work out, or the day that you work out, or whatever, or you go to work or whatever, and you don’t feel like it.
You have just created a little bit of mental toughness, right?
And it comes in little bitty increments…
You don’t just look at a poster, and you’re mentally tough…
You don’t read some quotes, and you’re mentally tough, right?
You don’t read a book, and you’re mentally tough…
You create mental toughness by little bitty increments every single day…
And some of the best times to do that is that first 10 minutes, right before your alarm goes off, right?
Let’s say you wake up and you got 10 minutes before your alarm goes off, and there’s probably not a more comfortable moment in your life than those 10 minutes.
You’re just laying there, and you’re like, “Ah man, I’m just so comfortable right now.
I just don’t feel like moving.
Maybe I’m asleep for 10 minutes, and then alarm wakes me up…”
Right, whatever that is.
If you can get up when that alarm rings and get moving…
You have just made yourself a little more mentally tough.
If you can get up and go over to and put on those running shoes…
You’ve just made yourself a little more mentally tough.
You take that first step of a run, you just made yourself a little more mentally tough, or you go to a pool, and you get wet before dawn…
That’s hard because cold if you don’t feel like getting wet, but you do it anyway…
Those are little increments that can build the mental toughness…
Jim Edwards: If you say you’re going to write a book, you sit down at your computer and start typing.
Stew Smith: Yes.
Jim Edwards: Or if you say you’re going to spend time with your kids, you stop what you’re doing.
Mentally check yourself, get your attitude right, and then go spend time with your kids leaving the phone and the email behind.
Stew Smith: I apply this to fitness as just because what I do, but you can apply this to anything.
Any goal, any state of mind, any situation, you can apply that, and you just keep moving.
That’s the biggest thing just keep moving.
Jim Edwards: What about when you screw up, and you want to kick yourself and say all hope is lost?
Stew Smith: Yeah, you got to get over that.
Because that is a common thing that happens, right?
And you have to realize that’s just natural…
Right, we all fail…
We’re human, we error…
That is what we do…
We make mistakes, things happen.
And you’re going to make a mistake in this journey somewhere…
Whether you do too much or you don’t do enough, or you eat a whole pie or something, and you’ve lost all your discipline, you’re going to make mistakes like that.
You just got to realize that is part of the journey…
You’re going to make a mistake, you got to get back up and do it again.
Start over.
Jim Edwards: Now if you do screw up in something does that mean you’re not mentally you’ve like lost all your mental toughness…
And you might as well say to hell with it and never start again, or are there some tips for if you lose momentum or if you get derailed or if things happen?
Do you have any suggestions for how you can get back in the game and start building momentum again?
Stew Smith: No, you don’t lose your ability to be Mentally Tough, and if it was a life or death situation, we would all be mentally tough in an instant.
It because you’re, you are going to want to survive, trust me.
So, we have it in us.
It’s just when we can direct it in that right area of that we’re what we’re focused on and in the right direction of moving forward.
But the best thing to do is just keep moving.
Keep doing.
Jim Edwards: Keep doing something…
Anything about external motivation versus internal motivation…
What’s the difference in which one’s better?
Stew Smith: Man, you tear me up on this one.
I a lot of people think motivation is crap.
I personally like it.
I think being motivated, personally makes me happy.
Now, there are days when I’m not motivated, and that’s when I have to Rely on, those habits I’ve created and the discipline I’ve made…
But internal motivation is yeah, yet self-motivation that is very, very important…
You have to have that.
But it’s also a good way to check your self-motivation is to tell other people about it…
They This is my goal this is what I want to do…
And then maybe they’ll check you on it as well…
Or you see somebody else doing the same goal that you want to do and having that sort of external motivation, motivate you, that is completely fine as well…
But in the end, it comes down to just you and your thoughts, and there’s going to be a moment when you’re just tired…
You don’t feel like doing anything, you’ve failed…
You’ve made mistakes, and it is nothing more than your will to want to achieve that goal that keeps you moving.
Jim Edwards: Right. One of the things that I’ve noticed over the years because I’ve changed who I am, at my core as far as things with, especially with working out and stuff…
And what I’ve noticed is that motivation, whether it’s internal or external, is almost like a Bic lighter or a spark, that it sparks something…
Hopefully, sparks is your habit, which builds a discipline, all based around a clear vision of what you want.
So it’s almost like if you were to think of a fire analogy, like a campfire.
Motivation can be the spark, or it can be a cup of gasoline…
If that doesn’t get poured on something that’s going to burn the discipline with a purpose, then it’ll flame out…
But if it’s been raining, if it’s been cold, and your discipline and your purpose are there, they haven’t disappeared, but maybe you got sick, maybe they got wet…
Maybe it’s got some frost on it, like a shot of motivation…
On top of that is what it takes to get it going again…
And sometimes you got to start small and build back up.
So, like with an exercise motivation…
I’ll get to the point where I’m doing some pretty crazy workouts and then inevitably, throughout the year, we all have we all get sick, or we get injured, or something happens a family thing happens we get knocked off.
And so sometimes you have to come back at it with kind of easing back into it…
But you also if you can harness motivation…
Like there are certain videos I’ll watch, that will re-motivate me and be like man, it’s just like screw this.
I’m come back in the saddle right now.
There’s one, in particular, I watch a triple amputee guy who was doing a…
It’s not rugged maniac…
It’s the one Spartan…
He was doing a Spartan Race with each other MPT’s…
Stew Smith: Yep.
Jim Edwards: And all I have to do if I feel like I’m weak or something is watching that, and I’m like, ready to go out and just kill it.
Stew Smith: Yeah.
Jim Edwards: And so using those things to kind of reignite the habits and the discipline-based around a purpose, I think is really important.
And I can do the same thing with Rocky movies, any Rocky movie I can use to get myself back, going.
Yeah, that’s why I’m so happy that we hate the Russians again because it just makes the Rocky movies that much more poignant.
Oh, I just going to go off the rails…
Maybe we’ll get lucky.
And in the next few years, the Chinese will turn into our enemies like the Russians were when you and I were growing up, and we’ll have all kinds of cool movies where we can hate them too.
Anyway, we hate the communists.
My point in all of this and the reason I wanted to bring this up is because like I said, Stew knows more about being mentally tough than anybody else I’ve ever met.
And he knows how to help people to become more mentally tough through physically developing themselves…
And I know this is true because of the results that he helps other people get…
So that’s why I wanted to talk with him about that…
Because right now, I think mental toughness is going to spell the difference between success or failure not only in the short term but in the long term too…
Because the world is going to be different…
The world is not going to go back to exactly the way it was, we’re going to have some struggles ahead of us in society, politically, interpersonally just there are going to be struggles ahead economically.
And the people who are mentally tough the people who have high self-esteem, the people who know that they are able to handle whatever comes at them in all areas of life are going to be the leaders are going to be the people that others look to, they’ll be the last one standing when all is said and done.
So, the more mentally tough you can become now, the more it’s going to pay dividends for years and years to come.
But very much so in the short and medium term too…
Stew Smith: Yeah, something else that’s, I would say is a part of mental toughness…
That is internal and external awareness.
So, you realize when you are stressed, you realize when you’re happy, sad, whatever…
You have that internal awareness to understand it and fix it and react to it.
Sometimes I realize when I’m starting to get a little cranky, I’m just a little hungry.
So, all I need to do is eat, so I have some internal awareness instead of just snapping at everybody because I didn’t realize I was hungry.
I’m like, maybe I’m starting to act like a jerk just because I’m a little hungry.
Jim Edwards: Sounds like a Snickers commercial.
Stew Smith: But extra awareness is very important too because you see what’s going on in the world.
You see what’s happening in business…
You know that whether you own a business, you’re also a consumer of other people’s businesses.
And what it’s going to require for you to go back into a restaurant or for you to go back into a hotel or get on a plane or whatever.
So, there are situations where that’s probably not going to be very uncommon for other people.
So now how can you make people feel more comfortable about coming to your business and paying you money to do what you do?
I would say it’s going to be some for foresight that’s going to help you with that and being able to realize that “Hey, I need to be really clean in here I need to look like I’m cleaning, I need to be cleaning, I need to have cleaner.”
Jim Edwards: Increased sales by handing all of our associates a rag until anytime you see somebody, you’d be wiping some stuff down.
Stew Smith: I am serious.
I mean, it is going to be a medical level cleaning style for the foreseeable future if you want people to come into your business.
Jim Edwards: And I think mental toughness also is having the resolve to make the changes you’re going to have to make in order to move forward because some people are curled up in a little ball under their desk doing “Please God make it stop…”
And that it isn’t.
Stew Smith: Yeah, don’t be scared of change…
I mean, change is uncomfortable…
And I would say probably one of the best definitions I’ve ever heard of mental toughness was getting comfortable being uncomfortable…
And also, one of my favorites is finding the fuel when the tank is empty.
Mental toughness is such a hard thing to define.
But those two quotes right there, I think do it the best service just because it’s difficult to explain what it is and how you get it.
Jim Edwards: So, let me ask you this real quick, and then we’ll wrap this up…
But you said something that made me think and this may not have been what you said, but it’s what I heard…
You also need to get good at being kind of an observer of yourself and an observer of other people and what’s going on externally, so observing is almost like the impartial third party observer inside you, and what’s going on outside?
Stew Smith: Yes,
Jim Edwards: And this is just my total curiosity when you were a Navy SEAL when you were going through BUD/S, which seems to be a real defining point in a man’s life especially in that profession because it’s one of the things that unites a special group of guys did you use any of those techniques?
Did you have that level of understanding at that time in your life?
Or instinctively?
Did you ever look at things from the outside?
Rather than internalizing?
Did you try and use that technique in any time during your time in the Navy Seals are training?
Stew Smith: Not that I can actually think I did…
Well, I actually used it more was when we were actually in the seal teams…
Meaning, situational awareness, external awareness, situational awareness, we would always be aware of what’s going on around us…
Is there a threat around us, what’s the exits, how many people are in here, how many males, females.
There’s little things like that I would always do whenever, no matter what situation it is, it was just one of those habits that I created…
And then also, having some internal awareness of just like why am I nervous right now?
What is going on what’s telling me that I’m nervous that I’m not syncing with my conscious, but maybe my unconscious is giving me a bad vibe somewhere, like, why is that?
Or if I’m nervous or jittery and I have to think rationally so I realized that I need to take a big deep breath, relax, shoot, whatever that is…
So there’s a lot of little things that can help you, get through those moments of intense for lack of better term nervousness, but you have to be aware that it’s occurring because a lot of people just aren’t aware that they’re nervous or aren’t aware of their external situations, and then they become victims of some sort.
So, I’ve always tried to explain it…
As that is part of mental toughness is also understanding why you’re in this situation and think of your logical ways to get out of that situation if you have to.
It’s just an awareness thing, internal awareness, external awareness…
You can look at it as self-motivation, external motivation…
They’re all kind of related in some way.
Yeah, I think it just makes you a more complete asset in those situations…
So, I’m trying to tell people is that the end result is to be an asset, whatever that is, whether your physical asset to be able to carry somebody out of a facility or your mental or tactical asset, where you can think your way through situations…
That is where you want to be…
And that is why we strive to get mentally tough, so we can apply it in those scenarios.
Jim Edwards: Cool! Very cool.
Well, this has been a special ambush edition of the Sales Copywriting Content Marketing Hacks Podcast, where I asked Stew questions about things…
He had no idea they were coming because I didn’t want to talk about what he wanted to talk about with me today.
So, it was pretty good.
Stew Smith: Well, let’s see if we can move it into what I wanted to talk about.
Jim Edwards: We’re out of time for today.
Stew Smith: Well, real quick.
You have a really great segment in the morning called letting the chickens out with Jim, where you just kind of riff on things that are on your mind.
And this week, you had a few things on your mind like, what I wish I knew about sales copy when I started like face things head-on, pivot shift and move ahead of the curve and trust your judgment.
Those are just four daily segments that you had.
And my question to you was, what was going on in your mind to have these types of topics?
And then you go with this mental toughness thing, and I think they’re all kind of related.
Jim Edwards: They are, and what it is right now in my life, I am trying to be more externally focused and being careful of what’s going on in the world and to be mindful and have some foresight and to try to anticipate the changes as they come or before they come…
Because my role in my family’s life, my business, and everything has transformed over the last, let’s say 32 years, 30 years since I became an adult.
I now the elder in the family, I’m the physically functional elder in the family, if that makes sense that I’m not the oldest male, I’m not the wisest male, but I’m the one that people look to for action and help, you know what I mean?
It’s like, dad, if we got a problem we call dad, we don’t call grandpa we call dad.
And so, I’ve been trying to develop myself and also just to be aware of what’s going on.
Be a guide, be a mentor, be an example, be I don’t want to say a sage but just be the radar set for the rest of the family…
Kind of like without we’re out there with the chickens…
I mean, we’ve got four roosters, but there’s one rooster who is the head rooster that keeps all the other roosters in check.
And he’s the one that looked looks for danger.
He’s the one that alerts everyone for what’s going on.
He’s the one that hurts all the chickens inside at night.
Stew Smith: Nice!
Jim Edwards: Time to go to bed…
I mean, that’s his job…
He is the man.
And so, I’ve been really consciously trying to develop myself and then, in turn, being a leader turn around and alert the people who choose to listen to me who choose to follow me on the things I think are important right now.
And do it in a way that is empowering, rather than a way that is scary, or would make someone paralyzed, if that makes sense…
So, empower, educate, entertain a little bit.
That’s my purpose right now.
Some life skills instead of just “Hey, you need to learn about copywriting because.”
I mean, yes, that’s important, and I’m not abandoning that.
But I’m pivoting a little bit into an area that I think is important.
And if I have a message, I think is important to share, then I share it, and if people want to hear it, then they hear it, and if they don’t, then they can tune into somebody else.
But where else in the entire Facebook world?
Are you going to see some chucklehead with a too-long goatee letting out chickens and talking about philosophy?
I think I’m the only one.
Stew Smith: Yeah, there you go.
Anyway, I wanted to, I guess, do a show on your letting the chickens out with Jim…
Why did you come up with that?
I mean, it could have been anything.
I don’t need to know why you came up with letting chickens out.
But why do you do that daily bit of content?
Jim Edwards: Well, the reason I do the letting chickens out with Jim is I’ve actually studied a lot about habits.
And I’ve read a lot of books about habits about creating habits about breaking habits and how to get other people to create habits…
And one of the core rules is that if you want to create a new habit, the easiest way to do it is to tag it on to something that you’re already doing.
So, when do you usually brush your teeth in the morning Stew?
Probably right before you get in the shower…
When do you brush your teeth at night, right before after you put your pajamas on, there’s just certain things you do tag on to other things…
So, I decided one of the things that I need to do is create content every single day I need to create value every single day…
So, what could I tag that on too?
And for a while, I tried to do it…
The night before, I’d send myself an idea for an article, and I’d write the article or do the video as soon as I open my email in the morning was tagged open in my email.
The problem is that there’s dozens if not hundreds of other bullshit in there that I got to deal with.
And so, I was in a crap mood when it was time to create content…
And then it dawned on me one day you know what?
I’m, I’m going outside to let the chickens out every single day…
I have to do that.
So why not use that time walking between the house and the chicken run to record a video and so as a goof, I just turned on my phone.
I just did it.
I didn’t debate about.
I just walked out turn my phone on set.
“Hey, everybody welcome to another edition of letting the chickens out with Jim…”
I mean, I’ve tried different setups…
“Welcome to another edition of taking the trash to the end of the driveway with Jim…”
“Welcome to another edition of walking around the yard with Jim…”
I mean, I’m just being a smartass.
But the funny thing is that it gave me enough time to do a three to five-minute video, the walk over there.
I mean, you’ve been to my house I walk over there, I let the chickens out…
I open up the gates, I do all this other stuff…
It’s about three to five minutes, which is a great length for a video…
So, after I did a couple times, and then people like, “Hey, man, this is kind of cool…”
I said, “Okay, let’s keep doing it…”
And then I’ve learned and made distinctions I’ve really applied hooks and thinking about the hooks.
And yes, it looks like I’m just talking trash off the top of my head, but I actually do prepare for the video.
Not a ton of preparation, but I will use one of the wizards to come up with the outline of what I want to talk about, or at minimum, I’ll write down here are the three things I want to talk about.
And then remembering stuff and if I want to tell a story and then hook story tip loop offer all these things have come out of doing that consistently…
So, It’s like my little content marketing warm up in the morning…
But all these cool things come from it because I can have those transcribed and turned into articles people respond to ask questions that can turn into future episodes…
It’s there’s so much stuff that comes out of that three to five minutes.
But the key is the habit.
The key is the consistency.
The key is the persistence because you’re not going to build results.
We’ll go back to the working out analogy…
You’re not going to get any results doing it once…
In fact, you might hurt yourself.
Stew Smith: Yeah.
Jim Edwards: But if you do it every single day, then you can get some amazing results fast…
And relatively speaking…
It’s kind of like the podcast.
It’s like, talked about doing a podcast talking about doing a podcast, but the podcast didn’t get done until there was a time, a date, a system.
All that stuff.
Stew Smith: Yeah, that’s good.
Now tell me this.
Before there was letting the chickens out with Jim, there was this unicorn fascination.
Where did that come from?
And now, let’s think about how it evolved into your branding today?
Jim Edwards: Basically, me being a smartass.
All the political stuff like you’re all puppies, no politics because nobody cares about your political opinion.
Stew Smith: I post a cute picture of a puppy, and then I give this snarky hashtag and little tagline afterward…
Because I just post about puppies and not politics and because no one cares about your political opinion.
I did that because of all the politics out there.
It just drives me crazy…
So, I just posted that, and I know that’s what you did too probably about when was it?
2016?
Jim Edwards: Yeah.
Stew Smith: Our last election.
Jim Edwards: Yep.
2015 was Yeah, it started.
I just started posting stuff and did it consistently…
That was the biggest thing, and it was basically a big FU, and I’ll post unicorn stuff because it’s stupid.
And then I started getting into it…
I was loving it big in it…
And now it’s gets great.
Stew Smith: It is part of your branding now you have a unicorn on Funnel Scripts.
Jim Edwards: Yes…
And in fact, we’re getting ready to relaunch funnel Friday is now the mascot for it is a unicorn.
The mascot for Funnel Friday’s now is a unicorn.
So that’s pretty cool.
I just I’ll show you let me show you this real quick, but this is you guys can’t see this, but this is the unicorn.
This is the unicorn mascot, and then this is the one that we’re trying to help on right this is cool right?
Stew Smith: I like it.
Jim Edwards: Yeah, there’s a lot of there’s a lot of good stuff going on with that…
So it’s one of those things that you just you start doing something consistently, and you can get some results.
Stew Smith: Catches on, and next thing it people now associate you with a certain thing.
Jim Edwards: Exactly!
Stew Smith: Letting the chickens out, it’s also with unicorns in your business…
So it has some branding ability to it.
Jim Edwards: Right, but the thing to understand is that until you do something consistently, you can’t build any momentum, and you can’t make any distinctions.
So that’s the other thing is that it’s consistency is what gives you a foundation for change.
Stew Smith: Exactly, that’s what…
Jim Edwards: That’s how you learn.
You learn stuff, and by learning stuff, you can get better…
But if you only do something once you didn’t learn anything, you can’t learn anything.
Anyway, cool.
Well, I think this was good.
This was a good episode.
Stew Smith: Yeah, you blindsided me.
But yeah,
Jim Edwards: That’s what friends are for.
I’ve known you long enough.
Stew Smith: I don’t mind I’ve answered…
I did a podcast yesterday on the very topics…
It worked out well.
Jim Edwards: What should everybody do now Stew?
Stew Smith: Well, I would say go to the Sales Copy Content Marketing Hacks, Facebook group, and join…
And then you’ll see thousands what 14,000 members plus we over that now?
How much have you grown?
We’re like last I saw it was 14,000.
Jim Edwards: We have 15,323 members now.
Stew Smith: Look at you?
Jim Edwards: Pretty cool, right?
Stew Smith: That is really cool…
You are growing over there, and what we’re what we do, it’s a great group of people who are very helpful with answering questions about the wizards about sales copy, about business ideas, and I enjoy going over there in fact, I a lot of times I’ll go through it, answer some questions, or I’ll just go through and copy down some stuff.
And that’s what we’re going to be discussing in the next show.
There you go.
Jim Edwards: Cool.
Well, everybody have a great day, and we’ll talk to you soon.
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