RHS 007 - How to be a Self-Reliant Entrepreneur with John Jantsch

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Speaker 10 Today on the podcast, we have author, speaker, business entrepreneur John Janch, author of many different books.

Speaker 10 But in particular, we spend most of our conversation talking about his latest work, The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur, a book that dives into some of the lessons John learned researching transcendentalists, a time period in the late 1800s, mid-1800s.

Speaker 10 Emerson, Thoreau are some of the authors that you may know. This idea of self-reliance feels incredibly important, not just to entrepreneurs, but in every aspect of our life.

Speaker 11 If happiness is a derivative of meaning, then being self-reliant will help us find that meaning.

Speaker 9 And that to me feels like something we need to talk about.

Speaker 10 And that's why I had John on the show, and I am incredibly happy to bring him to you right now.

Speaker 12 I think a lot of entrepreneurs kind of relate to self-reliance.

Speaker 12 And so as I dug a little deeper into a lot of the literature from that time period, even stuff we were told to read in school, like the Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick and stuff like that, you know, all the protagonists were very kind of self-reliant, do your own thing.

Speaker 12 It was almost like the Times,

Speaker 12 all the writing and all the literature, which is actually still considered some of the best literature in America,

Speaker 12 all had kind of a vibe to it. And I think it was very much a, you know, trust yourself, do your own thing.
You know,

Speaker 12 you got to be true to you, which is such great. entrepreneurial advice.
And so

Speaker 12 as I got deeper into, you know, the whole, you know, I think there's probably 70 or 80 authors that I ended up researching.

Speaker 12 There was just a consistent thread. And

Speaker 12 another thing that kind of struck me is that

Speaker 12 I think we're,

Speaker 12 as again, as I did some more research on this,

Speaker 12 about every fourth generation has some sort of upheaval

Speaker 12 and societal upheaval. And that was certainly one with the Civil War.

Speaker 12 And there's some parallels, I think,

Speaker 12 culture-wise, society-wise, political-wise,

Speaker 12 where we kind of are at that same divide.

Speaker 12 And I think that a lot of the

Speaker 12 self-reliance literature really is not just about, yeah, you got to do your own thing.

Speaker 12 It's also about

Speaker 12 having empathy for

Speaker 12 people who don't see your vision and learning from them. And

Speaker 12 there's almost a healing aspect, I think, to the more self-reliant we are as opposed to relying on governments and political parties. You know,

Speaker 9 I could not agree with you more.

Speaker 9 You know, it's funny what I take from, you know, and I guess I

Speaker 9 it I don't I don't know that I like I don't know that I identify as would have identified before I actually started

Speaker 9 researching for the for to come talk to you today uh until I started I don't know what I ever would have self-identified as someone who was into transcendentalism writing you know I just, it's a tough word to say and I don't have a strong grip on the English language.

Speaker 9 So I, I just,

Speaker 9 but I've always loved, I've always loved Emerson's work in particular. And it's complex and it's, and sometimes it almost feels like he's

Speaker 9 kind of

Speaker 9 contradicting. I'm not saying that word right.

Speaker 12 But well, no, I think you're absolutely right.

Speaker 12 There are times when he does that and he actually admits it, that that's a trait of self-reliance.

Speaker 12 It's okay to change your mind.

Speaker 9 Yes, yes, yes. And, you know, that

Speaker 12 part of, it's funny.

Speaker 9 I, uh, yesterday I was interviewing,

Speaker 9 and this will make no sense to the people ultimately who this podcast, but yesterday I was talking to Brian Fanzo and we were talking about how

Speaker 9 there's.

Speaker 9 The world is obviously, it's very almost cliche to say how polarized our society is today.

Speaker 9 And we started talking a little bit about how you navigate that and especially from a business standpoint and talking about the various

Speaker 9 business cultures and

Speaker 9 how as a leader, do you work through that? And then how you do work through it from, if you're kind of coming up.

Speaker 9 And ultimately,

Speaker 9 we found this idea. And I think this is very much in tune.
And then I want to get into the book and that kind of stuff. And actually, I want to get into some of your backstory too.

Speaker 9 What I thought was really interesting in researching for this was this odd sense where we we started talking about how

Speaker 9 it feels like there are two sides. And I actually tweeted this today was there's two sides of a social media conversation.

Speaker 9 There are individuals who are looking for that one difference so that we can hate each other.

Speaker 9 And then there are individuals who are looking for that one commonality so that we can find so that we can find peace.

Speaker 9 And

Speaker 9 it's almost like the two sides don't know the other exists.

Speaker 9 Like the side side that's looking for hate is like everybody hates everybody and the side that's looking for commonality is like yeah the world's pretty good like things are good I'm enjoying myself and it's really weird how the two almost don't even see each other and and I take that from his work it's almost like if you can accept who you are then you kind of are towards commonality but if you're very uncomfortable with who you are and you need someone to tell you where to be then you're gonna fight and hate for what you think should should be the side.

Speaker 12 That's so true. Yeah, absolutely.
And

Speaker 12 initially, you know emerson was a preacher i mean initially um some of the writings and some of the thinking were really kind of uh

Speaker 12 you know trying to reform some of uh the church you know thinking that he was in um and so sometimes it's a little off-putting to actually call it transcendentalism people are like wait a minute is that some sort of religion um but but it it really was just a almost almost more became more of a social reform movement you know um but uh

Speaker 12 they really you know he the when you when you read deeply you see that they really borrowed from some of the Eastern religion, you know, traditions.

Speaker 12 So this idea that we're all connected in some fashion

Speaker 12 runs really deeply through all of their writing. And so the idea of, you know, to hate somebody else is to, is in part to hate, you know, hate a part of yourself.

Speaker 12 And so

Speaker 12 I, you know, and I've always believed that. I just, you know, everything.

Speaker 12 I mean, like when people talk about, I mean, when people talk about like, should I get paid for referrals or, you know, should you offer incentive for referrals?

Speaker 12 I'm like, look, the universal keep score, you know, yeah.

Speaker 12 And because I think there is this giant connection without, you know, there is a spiritual element to this book and to a lot of their writing, but it, you know, you don't have to, I don't think you have to get, you know, I don't think you have to go too far in your, you know, religious or spiritual beliefs to buy into a lot of the practical nature of some of this stuff.

Speaker 9 Yeah, I completely agree with you. I actually, and you just talked about referrals, and the referral engine is one of the books that you wrote.

Speaker 9 So for those of you who may, or for those of you at home who may not not be completely familiar with your work or just are catching up,

Speaker 9 I would love just a little bit of the backstory

Speaker 9 and where I found you. I was

Speaker 9 working as an insurance salesman for my wife's family's independent agency, a small business in every way, shape, and form. And that's how I found you.

Speaker 9 And you were the guy pounding small business stuff where everyone seems to eventually go into big business.

Speaker 9 And not that your work doesn't apply there, but you really kind of kept coming back to how a lot of the sales, marketing, relationship building tactics applied to small business.

Speaker 9 You know, that was really where I found you. But can you just talk a little bit about

Speaker 9 that part of when you started writing books and duct tape marketing and all that kind of stuff?

Speaker 12 Yeah. So, and I'll be brief on this.
I got to go all the way back to the start.

Speaker 12 You know, right out of college, I went to work for an ad agency and I did that for about five years and kind of felt like, hey, you know, any dummy can run a business you know I'll I'll be one and so I kind of jumped out and did my own thing and I really just chased project work like a lot of people you know hey you know I can hustle and you know do you need that sure I can do that

Speaker 12 and kind of you know built a bit of a business just doing that I had a couple of clients that were small business owners and I just really loved working with small business owners, but man, they were very challenging.

Speaker 12 I mean, in the way that I'd been taught anyway, to do it, because they had the same needs a lot of times, but certainly never the same budgets or even attention spans you know frankly and so at some point I said well here's what I'm gonna do if I want to work with small business owners I'm gonna I'm gonna create this approach where I can walk into a business owner and say marketing is a system.

Speaker 12 Here's what I'm gonna do. Here's what you're gonna do.
Here are the results we hope to get. And by the way, here's what it costs.

Speaker 12 And in an attempt to kind of try to solve my frustration, the light bulb went on immediately because the first three people I said that to said, where do I sign?

Speaker 12 You know, it's like they had had, and still today had had so much trouble buying marketing services because everybody was selling the idea of the week and they couldn't, you know, put anything together.

Speaker 12 And so nothing was really working. So that approach, I decided to give it a name because I, you know, I wanted it to be a system that had a name almost like a product.

Speaker 12 And so I came up with duct tape marketing. Don't ask me how or why,

Speaker 12 but it stuck and people seemed, it really seemed to resonate with this idea of simple, effective, affordable. I started writing about it.

Speaker 12 This was really right about about the time, you know, around the turn of the century. That sounds odd, doesn't it?

Speaker 12 But

Speaker 12 where people were starting to do things online. I started writing about this approach, turned it into a blog.

Speaker 12 Ultimately, the name resonated so much, I just made it the name of my business and pretty much put duct tape marketing on everything. I started selling a course.

Speaker 12 I productized kind of my approach, and that started, that attracted publishers who wanted me to write a book. That was really the genesis of duct tape marketing.

Speaker 12 And it also started attracting other independent marketing consultants who said, Hey, I agree with this approach. You know,

Speaker 12 how can I get it?

Speaker 12 And so, I also have now a network of about 150 independent marketing consultants around the world that license the duct tape marketing methodology and approach.

Speaker 12 And so, as a group, we work with thousands of small businesses. And, you know, you kind of hit the nail on the head.
I like to call them real small businesses, you know, the

Speaker 12 mom and pop places that are that a lot of people aren't going after, except for like Google or somebody that trying to sell them some stuff. And

Speaker 12 I just think, uh, I think they're the salt of the earth. And I think that helping them get their life back through marketing is kind of my, my life mission.

Speaker 12 And it runs through pretty much everything I do.

Speaker 9 Yeah. And for whatever it's worth, I know some insurance agencies that have adopted the duct tape marketing philosophy and found incredible success with it.
So it's always been,

Speaker 9 you know,

Speaker 9 it's nice, I think, you know, when you see someone who has a a system like yours and you're like, oh, man, I really love the way that's packaged up. That's great.
It's tight. It makes sense.

Speaker 9 And then it's even cooler when you hear that it actually works.

Speaker 9 That was really good.

Speaker 9 So then, I want to spend most of our time.

Speaker 9 If anyone has any interest, which I'm sure they will,

Speaker 9 once we really get into the self-reliant entrepreneur, which is where I want to spend the vast majority of our time today, just Google John's name, Google duct tape marketing.

Speaker 9 You will find all the books, all the back episodes of the blog. You've been doing a podcast for basically since podcasts started.
And

Speaker 9 there's a library of information there. So I don't want to necessarily spend time on that stuff because you've said it, you've done it.
There's plenty of places that people can go find it.

Speaker 9 I want to start looking at this

Speaker 9 idea of the self-reliant entrepreneur. And my first question for you,

Speaker 9 since we already kind of talked a little bit about just where self-reliance came from from for you,

Speaker 9 I guess my first question is, do you think that we lost this for a period?

Speaker 9 Like for you to write this book today, it makes me think that, you know, okay, there was a time period where the idea of self-reliance was counterculture. I think maybe to a certain extent

Speaker 9 it may have rose, you know, maybe kind of like stoicism has to a certain extent, like Ryan Holiday and Sunnett have done. And

Speaker 9 then it had to have fallen away for it now to feel like a new concept again. And maybe, do you agree with that? And maybe what was the impetus of that?

Speaker 12 Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. It probably has fallen away to a degree.
I mean, you just see it from some of the ways that, you know, it rears its ugly head in negative ways.

Speaker 12 But I don't, I think one of the things that's interesting about the entrepreneur is I think the entrepreneur is more geared to seeking that out anyway. I mean, a lot of times we're on our own.

Speaker 12 We've got so many voices in our head, people telling us we're wrong and telling us we can't do this.

Speaker 12 And, you know, a lot of people get in their car, they go to work, they punch the clock, they come home, they eat dinner. They don't have quite as many things, you know, telling them that they can't do

Speaker 12 what it is they're trying to do, especially if their idea seems new and different

Speaker 12 to people. And that, you know, that scares people.
So I think a lot of entrepreneurs have probably held on to this idea maybe more than society as a whole, I guess.

Speaker 12 And that's why I really wanted to apply it to the entrepreneur, because I think it's just, you know, I was always amazed as I was researching a lot of this, and I'd read some passage, and I'd go, how is that not written yesterday?

Speaker 12 You know, I mean, it's 150 years old, but it is so relevant

Speaker 12 today.

Speaker 12 If you want me to kind of give my take, and this is strictly an opinion, I'm not a historian by any means, but I think around 2008, 2009,

Speaker 12 we saw a societal shift that is now, you know, kind of reared its ugly head in completion, I think.

Speaker 12 And that coincides with what people, depend upon who you ask, the Great Depression or the Second Great Depression

Speaker 12 in the United States. And I really think that

Speaker 12 kind of what came before that and now the sort of the last decade at least, I think we've kind of hit this trough, I suppose, in that.

Speaker 12 And I think that there's, you'll see a lot of people, I think, more actively. I think there's certainly people that, you know, that have retained kind of some of the things we've talked about.

Speaker 12 But I think I see a lot more activism around saying, hey, you know, we need to come together.

Speaker 12 And so I feel like there's a,

Speaker 12 you know, and again, I'm sure that there are some people that have written about all the cycles in history, you know, throughout time and what they mean and how they come and how do you predict them.

Speaker 12 But it just, if the timing feels right to

Speaker 12 really be pushing this idea.

Speaker 9 Yeah, it, you know, it's funny that

Speaker 9 economy since

Speaker 9 the Great Recession or whatever, well, 2008, 2009, you know, it's been nothing but up. You know, we're in the longest upcycle that we've had, I think, since like the 80s.
And

Speaker 9 at the same time, there is this odd sense of,

Speaker 9 I don't want to say doom because that feels a little too heavy, but like this odd sense that everything isn't okay at the same time. And there's been,

Speaker 9 you know, some people have written about a recession that's coming or a correction and different things. And

Speaker 9 I would say my gut tells me that that has to be right. Like it just can't go up forever.
And the idea of being self-reliant during a time of turmoil feels incredibly important.

Speaker 9 Is that, does that, you know, is that kind of the impetus here?

Speaker 12 You know, it absolutely is. I mean, you know, most people spend their two biggest expenditures are on their

Speaker 12 entertainment and on their ego.

Speaker 12 And I think that a lot of that, buying the big car, buying the boat, buying the stuff that you know kind of feeds the ego. And I'm not against

Speaker 12 toys and having fun, you know, and all the things you can do. But the people that are very driven by that, a lot of times, it's really driven out of a sense of fear in a lot of ways.

Speaker 12 And I think that part of the idea of self-reliance is so much is about trust.

Speaker 12 And

Speaker 12 Thoreau is a great example.

Speaker 12 I mean, you throughout walden you know he talks about how we um you know we need to consume less and make more uh you know and and i think that that you know certainly is a theme that as i've gotten older as i've you know gotten farther along in my you know in my uh business life you know i'm you know i'm i'm way less concerned about you know looks on social media and you know all of that kind of stuff.

Speaker 12 And

Speaker 12 I got to tell you, it's a lot more joyful.

Speaker 9 Yeah. So

Speaker 9 maybe for someone who has never written, read Emerson or Thoreau or any of the others of the time period, like

Speaker 9 just break down this concept of self-reliance in terms of what it, what maybe, maybe give it an idea of like, what were they specifically addressing at the time?

Speaker 9 And then, and then what does it mean for us? today 150 years later.

Speaker 12 Well, I think as I said, you know, originally, it was a bit of a reform movement or a social reform movement. So

Speaker 12 at the heart, you know, the idea of self-reliance was self-trust, is self-trust.

Speaker 12 That, you know, you,

Speaker 12 everyone's unique.

Speaker 12 Everyone has the ability to do whatever they want to do, whatever they, you know, believe, that they don't need to follow the well-worn path of what other people are telling you to do.

Speaker 12 That if you have a dream, you absolutely owe it to yourself to go for it

Speaker 12 and to follow your own path and listen only to you. Now, what's interesting is, a lot of people kind of put that as, yeah, I'm going to, you know, here's my goal of

Speaker 12 earning $10 million by the time I'm 30. And that, you know.

Speaker 12 Theirs was really much more about how do you express your true self? How do you follow your truth? Okay, if earning $10 million by the time you're 30 is a way for you to express your truth, then

Speaker 12 go for it. But

Speaker 12 there was so much in this work and in this literature about,

Speaker 12 and especially as I apply it to a business, a better you makes a better business.

Speaker 12 And so so much of what they wrote about was how you had to, okay, it's great to say trust yourself, follow your inner truth, but there's a whole lot of work on how you've discover what that is, how you stay true to it, how you know, Keep the demons out, you know that are telling you that you're no good.

Speaker 12 And so there were there was certainly a lot of of writing on solitude and on journaling and on walking. You know, Thoreau has an entire essay that I recommend people read

Speaker 12 titled Walking. And it's just all about this idea of

Speaker 12 getting outside. That was another theme that runs through a great deal of this work is that nature is a perfect example of how we should live.

Speaker 12 And so there's a lot in self-reliance. And in fact, Emerson has an essay called Nature that I recommend people read.

Speaker 12 But the idea of it was that, you know, you

Speaker 12 have to, and

Speaker 12 this is the part where I think it's so odd that this was written 150 years ago. You know, they were talking about you have to get some downtime and you have to get away from the hustle and the bustle.

Speaker 12 And, you know, they didn't have social media. They didn't have the internet.
And they were saying that. So imagine how important that idea of self-reflection is today.

Speaker 12 You know, one thing that we've probably been a little bit remiss, I should talk about the structure of the book a little bit

Speaker 12 as well, because

Speaker 12 I'm not, and there is some history in this, but this is not a history book. I'm not trying to explain to people what all these people were thinking.

Speaker 12 I've basically made a daily inspirational for entrepreneurs. That was the goal.
So

Speaker 12 it takes the literature from this time period. And I've, you know, basically curated a lot of the

Speaker 12 nuggets that I think are really gold.

Speaker 12 And every day you get one of those nuggets. So it starts January 1st, January 2nd, you know, you get a page a day.

Speaker 12 So you get one of those nuggets from, I don't know, I should count someday so I could be accurate, but probably 100 different authors, 366 pages.

Speaker 12 And then I riff for 100, 150 words, just trying to apply it to my experience. So, you know, buyer beware.

Speaker 12 That's really what it is, is my opinion, my experience about, you know, how to live a self as a self-reliant entrepreneur.

Speaker 12 And then I give you a challenge question every day, which is hopefully something that you can center on for the entire day and give some thought.

Speaker 12 So, you know, this, this, that's the idea behind this book is it takes you about three minutes to read a page.

Speaker 12 You know, it might go very nicely into somebody's morning routine if they're doing some journaling or doing some self-reflection or meditation or something.

Speaker 12 So it was kind of meant for that because I think they're, you know, they're the second you leave the door, you know, there's going to be hundreds of people trying

Speaker 12 and hundreds of things trying to beat you down. And so, you know, the idea behind this is maybe just a daily dose of, hey, you know, you got this.

Speaker 9 What changes have you made after doing this research and diving in? Like, what things have you seen change about your own life?

Speaker 12 Yeah, that's really insightful for you to ask that because I have been telling people all the time that I grew more in this past year from writing this book than,

Speaker 12 you know, I'm certainly.

Speaker 12 I don't know how long a period of time, but it was such a compact amount of time that I spent with this literature and spent thinking about, you know, what I was going to share that, you know,

Speaker 12 don't tell my clients this, but you know, I spend very little time on social media now.

Speaker 12 That's one of the

Speaker 12 visible

Speaker 12 things because it just

Speaker 12 I feel like, not that I didn't have a sense of what was important, but I certainly have a much greater sense of

Speaker 12 the world's still going to be here. You know,

Speaker 12 I'm going to look for things that bring me joy and, you know, and nothing else. And, you know, there's just no sense in dwelling in,

Speaker 12 did I get asked to that conference?

Speaker 12 Am I on the top 50 blah, blah, blahs of to follow on Twitter? You know, I mean, that stuff just is so unimportant.

Speaker 12 You know, and

Speaker 12 so in a lot of ways, I mean, that's probably the most sort of visible, physical thing that I can identify.

Speaker 12 But I just, you know, I pick the book up now, you know, I've got the pages of it. You know, I pick the book up every day.
I have it sitting by me, you know, it's not been printed yet.

Speaker 12 And I go back to it and,

Speaker 12 you know, I feel like, and that's one of the beauties of kind of one of these daily books is you can go back, you can read through the whole thing.

Speaker 12 And then on January 1st, you know, the next year, you're a different person.

Speaker 12 And it's amazing. You've probably done this before.
I mean, how many times have you read Self-Reliance?

Speaker 12 You know, I've read it a dozen times, and every time I read it, I was like, when did that get added? You know, I missed that part last time. You know,

Speaker 12 that's really powerful. And I think it's just, you know, you read these things and they hit you because you're ready for them to hit you that day.

Speaker 9 I completely agree with that.

Speaker 9 I heard,

Speaker 9 geez, I'm going to forget who it was. It was

Speaker 9 one of the,

Speaker 9 one of the,

Speaker 9 it was either Holiday or Godin or one of these guys. And they were talking about books, or it might have been James Alcher.
He was talking about everyone wants to.

Speaker 9 read books and then take a picture of them and throw it on Instagram so we have some sort of status signaling around around how smart we are. And he said,

Speaker 9 instead of reading, you know, 10 okay books just so you can status signal on Instagram that you've, that you're, you know, a biggest big reader, how about you just read the same book that is actually worthwhile 10 times because you're probably going to get a lot more out of that.

Speaker 9 And it's funny, you asked me how many times I read it. I've, I have this essay printed out.
This is the third time I've printed it.

Speaker 12 And I've read it.

Speaker 9 This is the third time that I've that I've and it's funny how you start to key in every every time I underline and you start to key in on different phrases and different things.

Speaker 9 And I'm completely with you on that. That

Speaker 9 I feel like our perception is who we are today is who we're always going to be. And that's so far from accurate in every way.
And

Speaker 9 the case in point is I always key in on this line from his, God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. That's like one of my favorite lines ever written, ever in any book.

Speaker 9 Like I just, if I ever get a tattoo, I may have that phrase tattooed on my body.

Speaker 9 But then, you know, the next time I read it, this time I read it, I can't get the, and they're both on the first page. I mean, I have tons of notes, but, you know, they're both on the first page.

Speaker 9 This idea of like, for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost.

Speaker 9 And like that line, this time I read it has been like the the primer for every, you know, the first time i read it that that idea of god will not have his work made manifest by cowards was the primer for the rest of the work.

Speaker 9 And then this time it feels like this line, I can't get out of my head.

Speaker 9 And it's why what we're talking about here, the idea of self-reliance and what that actually means, I think, you know, solitude is important. And this is where I want your feedback.

Speaker 9 Like my perception is that solitude, nature, time, quiet, mindfulness, these things are important

Speaker 9 not so that you can be away from people, but rather so that you can understand yourself better

Speaker 9 so that you can understand others. Like you can't understand someone else if you don't know who you are.

Speaker 9 And what that time away allows you to do is start to better, like, you can't get away from yourself if you're alone. Like, that's all you have.

Speaker 9 It's why it's like, it's what Rogan talks about when he sticks himself in that dunk, that isolation tank for two hours. Like, he can't get out of his own head.
And,

Speaker 9 you know, my, my,

Speaker 9 now I, so I run a startup to a certain extent. It's a quasi-startup, but

Speaker 9 I have found the overwhelm of all the various things that come in.

Speaker 9 I sometimes find that I am underperforming in tasks that I should, that should be right in my wheelhouse because I have all these other inputs.

Speaker 9 And I guess my, what, you know, something I want just from all the reading that you've done and the advice that you're now kind of pushing through and your hundred, you know, your snippets that you're adding, like, I think a lot of people share that.

Speaker 9 What are some of the things that, and again, I don't expect you to quote certain pages, but what are some of the things that you found that entrepreneurs or leaders or really anyone can be doing from this work to start to find some peace and

Speaker 9 feel a little more, find a little more meaning in their work, I guess?

Speaker 12 Well, a number of the things that you mentioned run through a lot of the pages. Now, I organize the book so that every month kind of has a theme, you know, so we're in September.

Speaker 12 Congruence congruence is a theme uh for september and it's it's not outward outward overt but it kind of brings a little bit together um and so that you mentioned uh a theme that runs through is is mindfulness and i mean that's not a new idea by any means but um these you know that it was a very very central idea to this idea of self-reliance is that we've we've got to pay attention we've got to be here you know you talked about the inputs i mean the worst inputs in the world are the ones from yesterday and the ones that are you know for tomorrow that we're already thinking about um and and it not only takes us away from doing our best work, but it kind of robs us of the joy that we could have while doing that, you know, that work.

Speaker 12 I mean, we've all experienced that. And I think one of the best ways to give somebody a true experience of the book, if you don't mind, is I would love that.
Please. Like three minutes, I'll read one.

Speaker 12 No, please do. We're recording this on, and it's funny you talked about

Speaker 12 this passage. It's from Self-Reliance, and it talks about mindfulness.

Speaker 12 So

Speaker 12 this happens to be for September 12th, which is when we're recording this. So it starts with the title, then the reading, and then my work, and then the question.
So here we go. September 12th.

Speaker 12 What is time?

Speaker 12 These roses under my window make no reference to the former roses or to the better ones. They are for what they are, and they exist with God today.
There is no time to them. They're simply the rose.

Speaker 12 It is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leafbud has burst, its whole life acts.
In the full-bloom flower, there is no more. In the leafless root, there is no less.

Speaker 12 Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature in all moments alike. That's Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance from 1841.

Speaker 12 Almost every work cited in this book at some point turns to nature for an example or a metaphor related to living in the present.

Speaker 12 So let's start off today talking about what it means to not live in the present. because that's where most of us spend a great deal of our life.

Speaker 12 Not living in the presence means you open yourself to becoming a victim of the ravages of time. Here's a fun experiment for you.
Google the question, does time really exist?

Speaker 12 And prepare yourself for some mind-altering reading.

Speaker 12 Using your experiences from the past and dreaming about your life or your business in the future is okay. It's necessary.

Speaker 12 But it's only when our thoughts and feelings are dictated by our pasts or future that we need to find a way to get rooted firmly in the immediate present.

Speaker 12 The reason nature makes such a fine example of mindfulness is that in nature, there's one giant emerging moment. There is no past, no future, really no time.

Speaker 12 So there's no way for nature to develop any bad habits related to such social constructs.

Speaker 12 So we spend time focused on the deadline, working as a means to an end, fixated on Monday instead of Sunday, worried what others might say or not say about our best work.

Speaker 12 We won't solve this today. This is your lifelong work.
So settle in and get to practice.

Speaker 12 Your challenge question today: What are you experiencing right now in this moment? Describe it.

Speaker 9 Tremendous podcast from Mr. John Janch.
That's what I'm experiencing. I,

Speaker 9 you know, it's so funny. So I love, I love that framework.
And thank you for reading that. It really does.

Speaker 9 You know, I'm sitting here and it's funny. You're reading that passage and I'm taking notes and I'm taking notes off of then your

Speaker 9 interpretation and then suggestions based on it. And, you know, this idea of

Speaker 9 being present,

Speaker 9 it's something that I personally, I struggle with immensely. I've tried mindfulness meditation.

Speaker 9 I still try to do that once in a while, although I found it is not the best form of bringing me to the present.

Speaker 9 For me, that happens to be writing. Writing helps me center.

Speaker 12 But

Speaker 9 if I'm not writing, really, if I'm not creating, I am,

Speaker 9 I really, really struggle with being present. And what I just love to know, this doesn't have to do with the book or whatever.

Speaker 9 Like, how do you, do you struggle with it? Like, what is your relationship with

Speaker 9 acting and thinking in the present moment?

Speaker 12 Yeah, I think everybody does. And I think particularly entrepreneurs do because, I mean,

Speaker 12 you know, my wife and I were talking about something that this, oh, I had a meeting cancel earlier this morning. She was like, oh, did that open up your schedule?

Speaker 12 I was like, no, I got more stuff to plug in there. You know, it just meant I moved something, you know, into there.
And I think we, you know, it's really easy to get in into that habit.

Speaker 12 You know, I definitely have a morning routine that I try to stick with that

Speaker 12 helps me get started. But I will find that I do say that, you know, throughout the day, I try to take breaks that are just, you know, about that.
And,

Speaker 12 you know, for me,

Speaker 12 I spend about half my time in the mountains in Colorado now. And so, you you know, after this podcast, I'm going to go walk in the woods for a minute.

Speaker 12 And that, you know, I try to do that, you know, three, four times a day,

Speaker 12 you know, when I can. First off, it makes makes me more creative.
It, you know, it not only brings me back, I think it just kind of rejuvenates.

Speaker 12 It's almost like you build up all this like sludge all day long. You know, if you don't clean it out occasionally, you know, by three o'clock, you're, you're not sure what you've, you know, got left.

Speaker 12 So that's certainly a practice for me. Another thing,

Speaker 12 and I'm not great at this, but at least it helps me from getting overwhelmed, is

Speaker 12 that I, you know, even though I will have appointments and things during the day, you know, I have two or three things that these are the most important things.

Speaker 12 And I, you know, I'm not going to, I'm not going to,

Speaker 12 you know, I may have six other things on my to-do list, but I'm not going to really knock. anything else out just because it's easy.
I'm going to, you know, focus on the hard things.

Speaker 12 And a lot of times the hard things are the highest payoff things.

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 9 It's almost like allowing yourself to feel a sense of accomplishment for the things that you did get done instead of feeling um like you like like giving yourself a hard time for the things that you didn't get done like you could pound through a whole day and at the end of the day i'm like oh and i didn't do this thing and i'm like instead of getting there and going but wait a minute like i just crushed eight hours worth of work like why don't i why am i not celebrating that and why am i giving myself flack for for the couple things that i may not have gotten to And I tell you,

Speaker 12 if we had a little recorder recording what we did throughout our day,

Speaker 12 probably about 20% of our time at the office is, do we actually accomplish anything that means anything?

Speaker 9 Yeah. You know, I have a getaway place.
Like I'm actually recording this podcast from there. It's a co-working space here in, it's actually in Troy, New York.

Speaker 9 Our office is in Colony, which is across town.

Speaker 9 And the office is great. And I need to be around my people and we work incredibly well together.

Speaker 9 There's 10 of us. We're in a nice tight spot and we work in that space well.
But I also, and I have shared with them that I have to get away. Like I have to have that time where I'm here.

Speaker 9 There's no one else around. This is my room.
You know, no one's busting through that door. Like I can just, I can do this.
I can do other work. I have a whiteboard right over here that you can't see.

Speaker 9 Well, I guess you can kind of see it up in the corner there. But,

Speaker 9 you know, that. It's funny how we, you know,

Speaker 9 and I guess bringing this back to the idea of being self-reliant and being an entrepreneur is giving,

Speaker 9 you know, I guess giving yourself permission to do those kind of things, to walk in the woods four times a day, right?

Speaker 9 Some people will be like, oh, you know, John, you're not hustling or grinding or, you know, hashtag hustle life or whatever. Like, like that's wasted time.

Speaker 9 But really, what, you know, you've made the decision and given yourself permission, you're comfortable with it and okay to say, look, those four breaks make me better. And,

Speaker 9 you know, that feels, that feels like a big part of this work.

Speaker 12 Yeah.

Speaker 12 And I would argue i mean i would argue that the return on investment is so great that that i'd actually i'm actually giving myself time back you know by by doing that is how i look at it that's tremendous so you know i i want to be respectful of your time and i also want people to buy this book because to me it feels like especially as

Speaker 9 you know as as

Speaker 9 The idea of like we need to be everywhere and we need to have everything turned on. And I know there's a lot of counter arguments to that, but it doesn't seem like everyone's listening.

Speaker 9 This feels like the type of work where I can have that daily reminder to, hey, maybe it is a good idea that I turn notifications off for a while, or maybe I should, you know, it is okay for me to drive home real quick and walk my dog in the middle of the day and take that time.

Speaker 9 Like, this feels really important. I want people to go pick up the book.
So, if you were going to leave,

Speaker 9 kind of just leave with like one final idea around self-reliance and how it applies to business today. You know, it doesn't have to be the most important idea.

Speaker 9 It's just one idea that you think we haven't touched on.

Speaker 9 You know, what would that be?

Speaker 12 Well, I think the importance of, say, this format, and I'm not saying that you have to get this book, but the importance of this is that what self-reliance

Speaker 12 in some ways is a habit as much as anything else. And, you know, to form a habit,

Speaker 12 you have to practice. You have to stay with it.
You have have to give yourself the space to make it a daily practice. And so I think that it's not just about becoming self-reliant.

Speaker 12 It's just one of the themes in the book is

Speaker 12 the second we have all the answers, the second we know everything, we're going to stop growing. And so if...

Speaker 12 If you're taking this work and working on yourself every single day,

Speaker 12 you're going to benefit the people around you that are your closest relationships are going to benefit.

Speaker 12 If you serve clients, they're going to benefit from this work that you're doing on yourself every day.

Speaker 9 And I love that you picked that out because the theme of this podcast in whole, the overarching theme is finding everyday peak performance and just those little things in the journey that help you get 1% better, right?

Speaker 9 To the goal that is unobtainable. And

Speaker 9 I couldn't agree with you more.

Speaker 9 Big, big recommendation of this show is atomic habits. And that fits right in there.

Speaker 9 Like couldn't agree that finding habits that help us get to where we want to be is exactly the way to think about it.

Speaker 9 It almost feels like,

Speaker 9 and in particular, something like this, where like,

Speaker 9 am I self-reliant?

Speaker 9 I have no idea, but I do know that I can work to becoming more self-reliant and I can make a habit out of efforting towards that place. And it's all relative and subjective anyways.
So

Speaker 9 I love the format.

Speaker 9 I think, you know, when I, you know, when I was introduced to what you were doing and I saw that it was a daily practice, and also I love the time.

Speaker 9 Like sometimes daily practice books are like a 10 or 15 minute read and that feels a little overwhelming to me. But,

Speaker 9 you know, that three to five minute range feels very achievable.

Speaker 9 I can pick it up, bam, get that in for the day, go jump in the shower, think a little bit about that idea, and then try to put it into practice. So, hey, John,

Speaker 9 I appreciate very much you coming on the show, sharing your ideas with us.

Speaker 9 Where can people learn learn more about this particular work and then just you in general?

Speaker 12 So

Speaker 12 the book, if you want to find just everything about the book, it's self-reliantentrepreneur.com. You know, reliant and entrepreneur are hard words

Speaker 12 for a lot of people to spell, but if you get close, you'll probably find it. Self-reliantentrepreneur.com.
And then, of course,

Speaker 12 you probably can be led to it by many of the pages at ductapemarketing.com. So that's just D-U-C-T-T-A-P-E Marketing.com.

Speaker 9 Tremendous. And if you find it on ryanhanley.com, I'll have all the links there as well.
But you don't have to go to mine, go directly to John's site.

Speaker 9 Man, I appreciate it. I'm glad that we were able to connect again.
It's been a few years, but I've been following along with what you're doing.

Speaker 9 And I love just, you know, this, this feels like a very natural evolution of

Speaker 9 your own work. And I love it, man.
So just thanks for coming on and sharing it with us.

Speaker 12 Congrats to you.

Speaker 9 Appreciate it. Be good.

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