Episode 27 – The Formula for Success: Unlocking Peak Health and Energy with Josh Phelan

Todd Bertsch: 0:10

Welcome back to the Bolt Podcast. I’m Todd Bertsch and I’m thrilled to be your guide on this inspiring journey of personal growth and leadership. Together with my guests, we’ll dive into transformational stories, uncovering how small, intentional changes can create massive positive results in your life From overcoming challenges and setting impactful goals to building lasting habits and living with confidence, health and positivity. We’ll explore it all and, if you’re ready, to embrace a growth mindset, and unlock the best version of yourself, then let’s spark that transformation today.

Todd Bertsch: 0:46

Get ready to be inspired. Today’s guest is the one and only Josh Phelan. Since 2009, Josh has been transforming the lives of business-owning men, helping them lose fat, build muscle and skyrocket their energy. With his game-changing business, chasing Optimal. He’s worked with top-tier clients like US Army, trx Club, pilates and even Lil Wayne, all while earning the title of the number one personal trainer in Orange County, California. Listeners, it’s time to turn up the energy, Josh. Welcome to the Bolt Podcast, my friend.

Josh Phelan: 1:20

Thank you so much for having me, Todd. I’m really looking forward to today.

Todd Bertsch: 1:23

Yeah, absolutely. I was trying to think back how did we get connected? And obviously it was through LinkedIn and I think it’s from I don’t know. Maybe you liked something of mine from a content perspective. And then I know what got me was the story of how you met Lil Wayne. I just love that post. That just really spoke to me, man. I’m like I got to have this guy on the show. That’s awesome. Just jump right into it, man. Take us through that story of that guy that invited you to Idea World Fitness Convention, because I think that was it right.

Josh Phelan: 2:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So many moons ago I moved out to California when I was 18. At the time I just kind of you know from New Jersey and at the time I just realized I’m like you know what? I don’t have wife and kids. At the time, I don’t have anything holding me back. Let me make this huge jump. So I do it. I do that.

Josh Phelan: 2:19

I start working at a YMCA, I’m a personal trainer, teaching group exercise classes and, lo and behold, I met one of I think he was only six in the world at the time a master trainer of TRX, and it was through a colleague at work. He brought this guy in, he teaches us more about TRX and stuff and he’s like, hey, by the way, there’s this big fitness convention coming up. You guys should think about going. So I’m like, yeah, I’m definitely going. I didn’t even have a car at the time, so I rode my bicycle all the way to Anaheim Convention Center, figured out a random spot to be able to put it, walk in, start just trying to talk and connect and, just, you know, build some relationships and stuff. And then that sold me on just the importance of being there that first year.

Josh Phelan: 3:02

So the next year I go back with the idea of like, okay, I’m just gonna, you know, try to stand out. And I didn’t really have a big strategy. I was like, let me try to be helpful and just try to work my butt off. You know any one of these classes, because a lot of it’s you know their exercise classes. So for me I’m like, cool, that’s the one thing I’m good at. Let me exercise really hard, you know. And so. But it worked. As ridiculous as that strategy sounds, it actually worked. And so I stood out. And so that was how I was able to get recognition from Randy Hetrick, who’s the inventor and founder of TRX.

Josh Phelan: 3:34

So during that following year there’s only three people out of apparently about 10,000 attendees that went to this convention. Only about three of us actually completed what they had as a 40-40 challenge. So that kind of helped open up the door. I got invited to this VIP TRX party. Afterwards I go to that, build some more relationships and stuff, and even going into the party I was like, oh no, we’re not going to be able to make it. My name’s not on the list and the two girls at the desk she’s like, oh no, that’s the guy Randy was talking about. Yeah, you’re good, you’re good and I’m like cool, randy was talking about me. Ok, ok, yeah.

Todd Bertsch: 4:09

Yeah.

Josh Phelan: 4:11

So I get in the door there, so any who fast forward build these relationships and stuff. And then at one point in time a friend of Randy Hetrick’s reaches out and he’s like, hey, I want a TRX instructor. Who do you have in the area? And it was the CEO of 5.11 Tactical. So Randy gave my information and then I started doing classes. For seven or eight years I was there doing classes at their headquarters and once upon a time they were doing this project with Ghost Recon and in those video games I’m not a video game guy anymore so I had no idea about this, but essentially they take real clothes and real brands and they put those things in the video games.

Josh Phelan: 4:49

So 5.11 Tactical had all their bags and gear and stuff in there. So that’s where that collaboration took place. And while they’re discussing like, hey, who should this guy be? Who’s on the cover? We need somebody that looks like him, one of the guys who I coach or who I was coaching at that time at 511, he raised his hands, he goes I got the guy, so he brought up my name and that’s kind of how it all ended up unfolding and I got to be able to fly up to San Francisco and shoot some commercials with little Wayne and stuff, and yeah, it was just, it was kind of a whirlwind.

Josh Phelan: 5:19

I’m like, wait, they want me to go do this. Yeah, sign me up, I’m down for that. So it was just really neat, just this happenstance, if you will. But I think the big part too, a lot of it does come down to just being able to look similar to the main character that they have for this. But I also recognize that I don’t think I would have gotten there in the first place if I didn’t be very intentional about like, let me try to work my butt off, let me try try to provide value, let me try to, you know, show up in this space and do my absolute best, and I think that always just comes back down, you know, to just it’s going to come back tenfold to us sometimes.

Todd Bertsch: 5:55

So yeah, yeah, absolutely Law of attraction. Right, yeah, yeah, right. So that’s awesome, man. You put the work in, you put yourself in a position right to potentially have this happen to you. I just love that story. You rode your bike and you just kept going back. So did you end up training little Wayne?

Josh Phelan: 6:14

No, no, it was just for the actual commercials and stuff for Ghost Recon and everything. So I have a couple of video clips and stuff from that. But that was the end of it, which I’m actually kind of thankful for. It was an eye-opening experience to be that close to somebody and just kind of see how they operate. So yeah, it was good, that’s cool man.

Todd Bertsch: 6:35

Wow. Well, where do you get this hard work ethic from?

Josh Phelan: 6:39

I probably should blame my dad mostly for that. My dad had a landscaping business and I have three brothers and two sisters, and all my brothers and I worked for his business at some point in our lives, and so with that, you know it’s hard manual labor. You’re out in the sun, it’s. You know, sometimes you’re pretty much waking up before the sun comes up during the summertime and then not getting home until it’s almost dark or something and you’re just out there, you know, either digging holes to plant trees or using tractors, you’re doing irrigation, you’re cutting grass, pulling weeds, whatever the case, and it’s all you know. I still remember as a I was maybe like 10 or 12 or something, and the first time I really genuinely appreciated a hot shower in my life.

Josh Phelan: 7:22

And it was like after a grueling day working outside, and then we come home and then we had to unload these paver bricks because we were building a patio, a second patio for the second pond on my parents property, and so we’re like unloading all this and my hands are all like cut up and it’s like raining now and it’s towards nighttime and it’s just like now. You’re cold and you’re wet and your hands hurt, your backs hurt, your muscles are sore and you get in the shower and you’re just like, oh, I earned. This is the best feeling ever, right? So, yeah, I mean, but but it was such a good experience, though, with my dad to just kind of learn firsthand like this is what it should look like and feel like if it’s your best, you know, like there there was a sense of like hey, when you get done this job, you should be proud of how it looks, because everybody’s going to be able to see it, you know, and just kind of almost having your work put on a canvas and that was that was essentially like the analogy that he would use a lot. He would say like weed, weed eating is like the frame around the picture, and then cutting the grass is like the canvas you know of, like the actual image and so, like everything that you’re doing outside of the house or outside of the the company’s buildings, we would have commercial and residential contracts in place, but it’s like that is your work of art, you know. So it’s like let me make this the best it can possibly be, based on my two hands.

Josh Phelan: 8:48

You know so I think that was just. It just transformed. So now it’s like, okay, I’m taking this to my passion of working out and exercise and let me just try to come up my best, cause I know it’s going to be. It’s going to be received differently depending on the person and lens that they’re using to look through. And some people see somebody doing these crazy pull-ups and they’re like, oh, that’s so inspiring. And then other people look at it and they’re like, oh, you show off. It’s like, look, I don’t care what you’re going to think or perceive about what it is I’m doing, but in my heart I at least know that I’m showing up and I’m putting forth my best and that that was really I blame my dad in the best of ways on me that were absolutely.

Todd Bertsch: 9:29

I love that story man, and so, to further the things that we have in common, my dad also had a landscaping business.

Todd Bertsch: 9:36

Oh, nice Not quite to that extent, excuse me, it was a second job and it was purely mowing and weed whacking, yeah, but I love how your dad framed it literally framed it. Yeah, what a great way to look at that. And I did it too with my dad and at nine, 10 years old I had four lawns old ladies that I cut in the neighborhood and I would push the lawnmower. That was kind of my first stab at entrepreneurship.

Josh Phelan: 10:02

And then I was a paperboy too.

Todd Bertsch: 10:03

But what I loved about cutting grass was that it was immediate satisfaction, right? You know it’s long, it looks ratty and nasty, and then you go in and you mow, it’s like vacuuming and it’s just like just looks beautiful after you know, even if you’re not great at it the satisfaction of just a nice fresh cut lawn. But that’s so cool, man, I love, yeah, I love, how your dad framed that. That’s, that’s beautiful. So he said he really set the tone and then you just carried this work ethic through your entire life, right? I?

Josh Phelan: 10:35

tried to.

Josh Phelan: 10:37

I’m still human. I still have my my times of, you know, being lazy and stuff, and even you know, going back to some of the story, as far as just my struggle with, like COVID and everything, that was a time that I kind of like hung up my hat of work ethic wise and I, you know, kind of kicked myself in the butt for that, just because I heard other stories of people being like, oh, I did this during lockdowns and I was like I made some really bad choices and I was not, you know, being diligent with my time at all. I got into trouble in that space Outside of that realm. I would say I’ve been trying to keep that up.

Todd Bertsch: 11:09

What was it about COVID? Because you’ve been personal training for a long time, right Almost what 15, 16 years.

Josh Phelan: 11:19

Yeah, well, covid was an interesting time because just before it was November December of 2019, and I had stopped doing my outdoor boot camp classes and that was like my main bread and butter. And I shifted gears and I started another company, completely different, based on my last name. So it was Feeling Better, spelled with my last name, right? So Feeling Better, and the whole idea was let me take these massage guns and go to offices and provide massages for the employees as like an extra additional benefit. I just started this business going and I had a couple of clients. I had my, my one client. I ended up doing the repeat thing.

Josh Phelan: 11:57

I go and then covid happens and I’m like this isn’t good, this is horrible timing. Nobody goes to offices. So I’m like scrambling. I’m like, okay, well, let me go back to what I’ve always known personal training, and, just you know, got Matt, got more involved with that and got even a partnership for kind of like a corporate client, but essentially, instead of health insurance, they provide different holistic modalities, okay, to the employees. So I would still fall in that category to be able to kind of do that, and so I was doing some online classes and things like that.

Josh Phelan: 12:27

So, yeah, it was just a weird pivoting point. And so, because of that, though, I just like was like, oh, what do I do? I just got depressed and sad. And what was me? And then I was like, okay, well, let me turn to alcohol and weed and social media, and like I just my day would kind of revolve around these things and I was just like, yeah, it was. It was not a good situation. That’s how I got fat. During the time I gained a bunch of weight. Um, it was not not a a moment that I’m super proud of.

Josh Phelan: 12:58

However, I am thankful for at least going through that to also see and be able to better understand some of my own clients perspectives of how they see themselves and some of that mental chatter that you know happens and goes on, because before that point I almost was completely blind to it, you know, and people were like, oh man, I can’t, I hate living in the skin that I’m in and you know these little things that I would hear. I would like kind of understand it. But it didn’t really fully click for me until that point when I got fat and I experienced firsthand, I’m like, oh, this is what they’re talking about. Like I almost wanted to run outside of my own body. I was like this is so uncomfortable, I can’t.

Josh Phelan: 13:39

I hate this fat jiggling, I hate the like, how I feel about myself, what I perceive about myself, how I think about myself, like all these things directed and anger and stuff built up in me. So you know, on one side I’m kind of embarrassed like, oh man, I made horrible choices during these lockdown periods and didn’t face adversity. Well, however, I am so thankful that I went through that pain, that difficulty, that struggle to be able to now, on the other side, it’s like I look at it this way. It’s like I was given that that experience to overcome, to be able to develop things that I otherwise would not have access to.

Josh Phelan: 14:16

You know, and now I’m able to kind of pull this in and bring this with me and share it with the next person and share it with the next client and say, hey, I understand what that means. Here’s how I got through it, here’s what helped me. You know, like I understand, that sucks and this is how you feel. However, there is light on the other side, you know. So, yeah, I mean it. It is what it is at this point, so I just take it and move forward.

Todd Bertsch: 14:40

Yeah, absolutely no. We, we, yeah. We talk a lot about that. In my positive intelligence coaching. We call that finding the gift right. If you dig deep enough, you can find the gift and opportunity in any situation, any scenario, and that’s exactly what you did. So you turn that into an opportunity, into an experience that you can then add into your kind of repertoire of you know the tools and resources that you’re providing your clients. So that’s great. Was there? Was there a moment during COVID? Was there something that happened that triggered you and said I just can’t do this anymore? Was there a particular thing where you’re just like, okay, I’m done, this is it. I need to get back to the old Josh.

Josh Phelan: 15:21

Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. I mean this is is where I blame it on my sons in the best of ways, that them essentially kind of be in that focal point for me to kind of like realize, like, hey, I have to focus on what it is that I’m doing and setting as an example for them. And there’s one day where I just, you know, came face to face with that reality and I just felt like crushed of just realizing like this is the example that I’m setting for my two sons who look at me like a superhero. They think, you know, I’m the best thing ever. And I’m like don’t do what I’m doing, man. This is, this is not good. You know, I know this is leading me to bad places and I know I have to change this. And so it was.

Josh Phelan: 16:00

It was literally like one day I flipped this switch and I’m like, no, I’m losing all this like as soon as humanly possible. And I’m like, no, I’m losing all of this like as soon as humanly possible. And like I knew my plan, you know, cause I already had plenty of experience with coaching and everything, so I wasn’t super concerned about being able to lose the fat. I knew I was going to at some point. I just didn’t have a plan on when until that day. And then I just was like, okay, I’m going to fast, I’m going to wear extra layers, I’m going to change my nutrition, I’m going to cut back on meals. I’m, you know, like just very simplified approach, and it was 32 pounds in two months. You know, I’m like, all right here, let’s do this.

Todd Bertsch: 16:35

So months? Wow, yeah, that’s crazy.

Josh Phelan: 16:39

Well, I, I, I really don’t think it is. I think a lot of times, no, no, not at all. Um, the reason being is because, on the most simplistic level, uh, I think we can all agree, if you move more and you eat less, your weight’s probably going to change, you know. And so I took both of those to probably their more extreme levels, you know. So, meaning for the meals, I went from three, four or five meals a day to one or two, plus, I also did three longer, longer, multi-day fast, each one of my fast was at least three days.

Josh Phelan: 17:23

So just out of 60 days, right there you’re looking at about 10 days where there’s no food coming into the body and then let’s say, hypothetically it’s a thousand calories for simplistic math. Okay, a thousand calories that you cut out each day in a month, that’s 30,000 calories in two months, double it. You know, like you just start doing the math on it and you’re like oh yeah, that’s not super difficult, or you can see that plus when you compound that with, like I’m trying to do the best version of workouts for fat loss. So one of the things that the evidence suggests is that getting to a max heart rate once per workout significantly jacks up your metabolism for the remainder of the day, and so that was like one of my big rules of thumb is just simply like let me get completely out of breath once each workout.

Josh Phelan: 18:17

So, regardless of what it is, I’m working out. Some days I’m pretty sore. I’m not doing you know as intense as the day when I’m totally fresh, but I just had to do that one time where you know I get so out of breath. I’m not talking just because I’m not a big fan of any of the wearable stuff, any of the Apple watches or heart rate monitors or anything like that. I’m just weird like that. So, yeah, that’s, that’s kind of my little way of measuring, and it seemed to work.

Todd Bertsch: 18:51

Wow, I like that. I like that tip. I don’t do that as often as I should, but I’m going to take that into and integrate that into my workout. Speaking of workouts, so you’ve developed this plan Optimal Signaling Formula. Is that what it’s called?

Josh Phelan: 18:57

I just named it. It’s just what the body already does.

Todd Bertsch: 19:00

Gotcha.

Josh Phelan: 19:01

Yeah, so essentially, I mean depends on what we’re trying to problem solve for. So give me something that you would say is like a common goal, or maybe something that you have for the body.

Todd Bertsch: 19:12

For me it’s shoulders. Man, my shoulders are so weak I always have been struggle with them. Once I got an ailment I’m probably going to have to I don’t know maybe get surgery. I don’t bench anymore. I gave probably going to have to, I don’t know, maybe get surgery. I don’t bench anymore. I gave up benching years ago because I don’t believe in it and I think it’s horrible for your body. So I’m a dumbbell. I’ve moved more to resistance bands. I feel you can get a great workout with those, but it’s just. It’s not like holding steel, so I can’t give steel up completely, especially for somebody like you. I’ve been working out for 30 years, so that’s hard to just go to bands. So yeah, for me it’s shoulders. I feel pretty good about my arms. I’ve always been everybody’s kind of got their thing, and I can see arms are probably your thing as well. Your buys are freaking huge. But for me it’s tri’s. I got the horse shoes always been my thing. I’m the dip man, the dip master. So yeah, sorry, too much of a butt.

Josh Phelan: 20:13

Yeah, shoulders, yeah. So I mean, even for something like that, my big approach is essentially strengthen and lengthen, so lengthen more. So, to be more accurate with that statement, it would be gaining more access to the actual joint itself. So I don’t find it as beneficial to try to exercise the actual muscle and joint and everything around there unless we have more access to it. So if you’re stopping here, for example, while you’re reaching up overhead, I’d rather try to get this full extension to occur first rather than trying to get more weight going here, you know. So it’s like first step. Let’s try to get this in proper position without pain.

Josh Phelan: 20:53

And have you ever heard of a cars before? It’s a controlled articular rotations is what cars stands for, and so the idea is essentially like for this ball and socket joint of your shoulder, we can go up and around very slowly and we can kind of have this thing completely go around. And if we go very slow, what actually happens during that time is you have cartilage in between your bones, right, and so everybody thinks it’s kind of just this cushion, so the bones aren’t hitting each other. While that’s correct, it also acts like a sponge and there’s what’s called synovial fluid which is inside of our cartilage. So, when we go through these controlled articular rotations and we go very, very slow and we’re just trying to move as much range of motion that we comfortably have access to emphasis on comfortably, because if we start experiencing pain back here, we want to avoid that and we want to actually move and change the angle of the arm as we go through and create those circles, okay, and so just by doing a couple of circles, very slowly, both in both directions, forward and backwards, we’re now signaling this where’s going back to optimal signaling formula. We’re now signaling to this shoulder and to the body to say hey, body, we need more access to this joint here. And so it’s a painful process.

Josh Phelan: 22:15

Regarding the time that it takes, because this is where I lose a lot of people and they’re like I don’t want to do that, I want a pill, I want a knife going into my shoulder to get this fixed in.

Josh Phelan: 22:25

You know, two months or whatever the case, and it’s like however, if we look at a longer timeline and we say do I want healthy shoulders in 30 years from now, answer’s probably yes.

Josh Phelan: 22:37

Well, in that case, how about you spend the next year or two trying to just make your shoulders bulletproof, and the first step in my experience is gain access to the entire range of motion as possible. Then we try to strengthen it, and so this is also where visualization helps too, because I don’t know how much you’ve gotten into placebo effect and all that stuff and and everything, but essentially I like to also use the idea of let me visualize me pressing this overhead and having full range of motion with something heavy, while I’m not actually holding anything heavy, because your mind and your body doesn’t know the difference between something that is vividly imagined and something that actually occurs. They’ve done studies on this and it is mind boggling the evidence that supports hey, if you actually curl a dumbbell versus you just visually see yourself curling a dumbbell, and if you practice the same amount repetitions, it actually helps to improve your body physically. It is like still mind boggling, isn’t?

Todd Bertsch: 23:43

that like isolations.

Josh Phelan: 23:45

No, it doesn’t even have to be isolations, it just has to be a vivid imagination and experience. And the big part too, the part that, like, actually helps make all of this come together and actually work, is the emotional state of the body. Because now, with the emotional state, you’re actually starting to wash the cells in that chemical reaction. Essentially, that’s taking place and you’re teaching the body okay, this is what it feels like, this is how it should be occurring, because otherwise we have the same negative mental chatter that keeps on happening and keeps our shoulders bad for years because we tell ourselves it hurts, I don’t have access, and you keep repeating that on play over and over and over. You multiply that over a decade.

Josh Phelan: 24:26

What are you going to get? The same shoulders you had a decade ago that still cause you pain. You know so it. Hey, if we start changing this and we start imagining something differently, your body’s going to expect something differently because, scientifically speaking, every single cell in our body was given the opportunity to heal itself. All we have to do is get out of the way. So I’m a firm believer that we are capable 100% to heal ourselves, and oftentimes the system, unfortunately, is set up to sell you on other things to keep you as a customer, and I’ll leave it at that.

Todd Bertsch: 25:04

Yeah, no, I do, I absolutely love that, thank you. I feel like I just got a free session. So I do, I absolutely love that, thank you. I feel like I just got a free session. But so many different things I want to go into there. First is visualization. So I’m a big, big believer. In fact, I just did a whole episode devoted to manifestation and visualization. So, yeah, definitely a believer in that. But I never, ironically, envisioned using visualization for that type of thing. You know was more about what do I want to see in my life in terms of those types of goals, but not necessarily to visualize myself trying to heal myself you know, or through through my actual body, physical body.

Todd Bertsch: 25:45

So I man, I love that. That’s very interesting. I’ve never heard anybody talk about that, but I’m going to try it. Yeah, so yeah, I visualize every morning. You know I have a little routine I’m trying to get into. Are you familiar with the 369 method?

Josh Phelan: 26:00

No, what is that?

Todd Bertsch: 26:02

No, so that’s three times in the morning, your affirmation. So you write or say aloud your affirmation three times, and then six times at lunch and then nine times in the evening. Nice, so, as you were talking about, which I think and this is what I want to wanted to ask. But I think this is all about neuroplasticity, right, because it’s all about repetition, feeding your brain and laying down those new tracks so you can get out of, get out of your own way, which is a lot. What visualization is right? Because you’re just continually saying I can do this, I want to do this, and next thing, you know all these things around you. The law of attraction in the universe is putting these things in front of you. You just need to go and grab it, right? So I think that’s what this is all about.

Todd Bertsch: 26:48

And, man, that’s very cool and you talk about well, and I want to write a book and I want to do a huge Ted talk, you know. But I haven’t really thought about, like you said, you want to visualize your day, what you want to achieve that day, and I thought that was really cool. So I don’t know, let’s spend some time here, because I think it’s really important and it’s just coming off an episode where I talked about it. Are you still? You still have a visualization or a manifestation practice? And then what? What do you do? What’s that routine look like?

Josh Phelan: 27:34

Yeah. So there’s two things that I’ve been proactively doing. So one is where I actually like took the time to kind of like write out. I get clarity when I write my thoughts, as opposed to just like thinking it through and be like let me just riff and record. So I wrote everything out first and it was just very intentional, like what kind of man do I want to become? And then, just based on faith, and and I read the Bible, so just so you know, I’m coming at it with that worldview. So I took some scriptures to back up. Okay, if I’m going to become this, where, where can I say there’s evidence or truth around these statements? So I took each one of those statements and I found a Bible verse to essentially support that statement. So I wrote all this down and then I read it out loud and I recorded it. So each morning when I wake up, I essentially continually try to brainwash myself and I listened to it several times while I get ready for the day, and I listened to it.

Todd Bertsch: 28:28

Yeah.

Josh Phelan: 28:28

So that that helps just to kind of like rewire. And it’s funny too, because in conversation I noticed with my brother recently I just ripped off one of those Bible verses as we were talking. I was like, oh, it’s cool, like I didn’t really try to like memorize it specifically, but I just knew it just because I’ve listened to it so many times, you know, over the past few months. I think I started this specific recording. That’s interesting.

Todd Bertsch: 28:49

So that’s. I thought about recording and listening to yourself. Okay, man, I’m taking down notes here. I’m learning all kinds, keep going.

Josh Phelan: 28:57

And then the other thing is nighttime. I found it really helpful Morning time. I’m still trying to work on just like that, getting that clarity, I guess just because morning time I just feel a little bit more fuzzy sometimes and just kind of frankly lack that discipline. I guess just because morning time I just feel a little bit more fuzzy sometimes and just kind of frankly lack that discipline. I guess for visualizing, however, evening time it’s been really helpful. So what I do is I try to always wrap up my day knowing very clearly what it is that I need to get done the following day, and I’ve kind of like gamified this.

Josh Phelan: 29:27

Okay. So I have, like, here’s my number one priority, here’s number two, here’s number three, then there might be some other ones, but usually it’s one, two or three for the day, like that’s my focal point. And then I have here all the other ones and I label them bonuses. Okay. So then before I go to bed, I already wrote this list out when I finished my work for the evening and I visualize my best self doing each one of those with ease. And I visualize two versions. One it’s super easy. One most likely difficult, challenging obstacles. Something gets in the way.

Josh Phelan: 30:02

And I visualize how does my best self respond in those situations. One it’s almost like hey, this is a perfect world. Other, one’s like hey, you just got kicked into nuts by reality. How does your best self respond? Does he try to rip the person’s head off, or is he like all right stuff happens, let’s move on. And it’s really cool to just keep seeing.

Josh Phelan: 30:25

It’s like, even though I might not get my laundry list of things done for the day, it is wild the difference it makes when you keep getting that number one thing done each and every day. My confidence changed, my self-esteem, my perspective, my decision-making became much faster. My energy exploded and I was like, oh my gosh, I have so much because I’m not bogged down thinking about oh, I still got to get this done. I got to get this done because I know those are the most important ones, those are the ones that are going to move the needle. So by continually focusing on that and visualizing that now it’s like everything got more synced up again and I’m not living this dichotomy of like well, I know I should be doing this, but I want to do this because it feels good, it feels productive, I feel busy. It’s like no, let’s be real. Like we want to make progress in life. Yes, what do we have to do this? Okay, how does my best self look when he shows up to do that? So that’s been my visualization practice lately.

Todd Bertsch: 31:24

But yeah.

Josh Phelan: 31:24

I’m not good with doing it in the morning. I still haven’t mastered that one.

Todd Bertsch: 31:28

Yeah, no, and it is tough. It is tough. Well, let’s talk about morning routine. So I listened to the one show and you said are you in the 5 am club?

Josh Phelan: 31:39

4.40 these days, but yeah.

Todd Bertsch: 31:41

Okay.

Todd Bertsch: 31:41

So yeah, that’s an early club. I’m in the 6 am club. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the book by Robin Sharma, 5 am Club. Yeah, that book changed my life. So I had a very shitty morning routine for a lot of years. And I’m like you.

Todd Bertsch: 31:55

I would consider myself a very optimized person. Right, I’m tracking 20 different things, habits, really everything in my life, kind of nerded out about it, but I love it and it helps me stay on track, stay aligned and be the best version of myself. But my morning routine sucked and the first thing I would do would be to go right for that damn phone and it just, it got its claws into me and I was done, right, I was sabotaged. And then the pings, the dings, the likes, the shares, the emails, the texts, and then I’m heading into work and I’m already in the zone, right, no time for me. And then when I read Robin’s book, I’m like, oh my gosh, I need to try this. So last summer I did. I’m like, okay, if I can coordinate James Clear and I’ve seen it myself I can do this 21 days. I can make it a habit, right, and I did so. I love it.

Todd Bertsch: 32:48

So I start off my morning with I walk the dog. So we have a little dog, I walk him. It’s maybe five, 10 minutes. Bring him back in, then I go back out. Well, I’m in the Midwest, so right now I’m not going back out. It’s 10 degrees and snow, but in the summer, the nicer months, I’ll go back out for a 15 minute walk, no music, nothing.

Todd Bertsch: 33:08

I just want to be one with the sounds of nature and it’s great because early in the morning there’s nobody else up, right, so it’s just. Usually it’s just me no cars, no people, nothing. And then I come back and then I have kind of a meditation practice and that could be five, 10 minutes and I start off with a light prayer gratitude practice and then I go into five to 10 minutes and I start off with a light prayer gratitude practice and then I go into five to 10 minutes and not woo, woo or anything crazy. I’m just being one with myself and in a quiet time. I might do it on my deck in the summer months and I hear the birds waking up with me and it’s really kind of surreal, but just calming my mind.

Todd Bertsch: 33:47

And then now I’m starting to habit stack on top of that some visualization, my mind, and then now I’m starting to have it stack on top of that some visualization, some manifestation. So what do I want to see in my life? And now I’m going to try the you know, really getting that clarity for my day, cause I’ve never really done it, like you said. So, anyhow, that’s kind of my practice, but I highly recommend that I’m probably going to do a whole show on just a morning routine, because it changed my life, and what it allowed me to do too was I have a young daughter, she’s 13. And my wife would take her to school, and you know. So I would go to work and I come home, I work late, I may only have like an hour or two with them during the school year, and that was it for the day.

Todd Bertsch: 34:25

It’s like, oh my gosh, I hardly see them at all. And then, by changing this up, I’m not thinking about work, I’m not sucked in from my phone, it’s about me time. And now I’m taking my daughter to school and it’s it’s like a seven minute drive, but I’m getting just a little bit of time with my daughter and I pack her lunch, and so it’s just some. It was a I wouldn’t call it a small shift, this was a big shift. Yeah, integrate this morning routine, but it literally changed my life and it can for others. And when I speak I always say, like, don’t get right to that phone. That is like the worst thing in the world. And if you use that for your alarm, go buy an old school alarm. Don’t use your phone. Like, don’t have a reason to pick that thing up first thing in the morning, except to take it off the changer and then just flip it back over.

Todd Bertsch: 35:07

So anyhow sorry I went. I’ve kind of riffed and went on my own there for a minute, but very curious to hear about your morning routine, I know. So you get up early, what do you do?

Josh Phelan: 35:18

Well, mine’s been like all over the place for the past few years actually, just because I was. I used to be very rigid with how I approached it and so my thing was like, let me try to optimize it and I’d get my journal, I did my meditation, I do a jump on my spin bike or I do cold plunge visualization. I was all over the place, right, and sometimes, you know, I had the luxury and it would be sometimes two hour, three hour morning routine.

Josh Phelan: 35:45

you know or sometimes a full hour, and this is, you know, over the past five plus years, plus years, right. So it just kind of depends on the season of life. So I was very rigid in how I approached it and I was like, let me make sure I do all of these things every single day, right, and then if I didn’t, I beat myself up and the day wasn’t good. And then I was like, oh, this sucks, I didn’t get my morning routine, grr, I’m angry at everybody and me and whatever, and it would just like it would take me off the deep end and I’m like this doesn’t really seem to be working. You know, as far as, like, the optimization, the mindset, the energy, because, like, at the end of the day, I think those things are all valuable, I think they all have their place. However, I think we also need to start with the question of what are we trying to optimize for? Like, what are you doing the morning routine? For what problem are you trying to solve by doing what you’re doing? Because if you just want to do it so you can say that you do it, that’s called feeding your ego. If you’re doing it so you can show up better for your family, that’s called being of service. So it’s like what are we trying to do here first and let’s start there?

Josh Phelan: 36:50

So I’ve come to the conclusion for myself personally, evening routines help significantly more for me than morning routines did, and it took me forever to figure that out. And I was so stuck and I’m like oh, I’m doing the cold plunge, I’m doing the visualization, I’m doing my journaling, I’m doing this, you know, prayer, I’m doing this, all this stuff, and I’m like what the heck? Like it wasn’t doing what I wanted it to do for me, to show up consistently as my best self. But the evening evening changes the game for me. So morning routine, I’m not really as rigid as I once was. I have my cold plunge. I typically do that in the morning. I have my sauna. I do that in the evening time before bed and that really helps to kind of like wind down, relax the mind, relax the body.

Josh Phelan: 37:34

And you know what I already shared as far as just pre-planning the day and doing the visualization, but I promise you I’ve probably done every single thing you have ever read about on a blog because I’ve spoken about it, I’ve read about it, I’ve coached other clients through it, I’ve practiced it for years myself, but lately it’s more. So let me get up, let me have a very clear plan the night before of what I want to do and how I want to show up, because otherwise I think the rest of it for me was seriously a waste of time, because it hurt me more than it helped me, unfortunately, if I wasn’t as consistent as I wanted to be as the perfect version of me. And it’s like, dude, we’re all a work in progress. We’re all still trying to do our very best with what we have, with what we’ve learned so far, and we keep on just trying to iterate and do that, and so I feel like I’m never going to stop in the iteration process and it’s going to change based on the season that I’m in in life and what it is that I need at that moment.

Josh Phelan: 38:33

So, to answer your question, right now, it’s very loosey, goosey and I’m going through a divorce currently, so I have my boys only half of the time. So the times that I do have them those mornings are very different than the times that I don’t have them as an example. So it’s like, hey, those aren’t going to be the same as an example. So it’s like, hey, those aren’t going to be the same, and I’m okay with that. You know like I’m not going to get that, that peaceful, quiet time, if I end up, you know, getting a little bit more sleep and they’re up before me and it’s like all right, cool.

Josh Phelan: 39:02

But hey, you know what? I get to snuggle with them. I love that in my morning routine I get to hug them. I thought that it was absolutely crucial for me to show up. It’s like no man, if I can just show up and be there for my kids with a smile on my face like that’s winning for me, man, because I’ve been the other guy, that’s just angry and just I’m sad and I’m depressed and let me try to be a parent and stuff. It’s like that sucks, man, I don’t want to do that. So sorry it’s a long-winded question, but it’s been more flexible around the years, so yeah.

Todd Bertsch: 39:32

Yeah, no thanks, josh, I love it. I love it, man. We can keep going on and on. I want to unpack a couple of things there that I think are really important for our listeners, and one is as long as you’re doing something right, as long as you’re iterating and we say just 1%, better every day.

Todd Bertsch: 39:49

It also depends on your season of life, and you’re going through a season right now. I’ve been there, I’ve done that season and it’s a rough season and it’s going to look way different, right. Yeah, the thing is self-compassion. We have to give ourself grace. The fact that we’re trying means we’re winning. So we need to give ourselves a pat on the back, lift ourselves up and then just keep experimenting. One of my buddies he always phrases it like that. I’m like yeah, dude, you’re right, that’s all I’m doing is really experimenting, I’m testing. You said iterating and tweaking Same thing, right, but I love thinking about it as an experiment, because then typically with experiments, failure is common, right. Because then typically with experiments, failure is common, right. So we can embrace failure a little bit easier when we think of it as an experiment, because we’re just testing until we get it right. But I love that.

Todd Bertsch: 40:38

Everybody’s different and I think you just need to find what your place is right in terms of the time of day and also your season of life. So it’s interesting that you know for you it’s the evening and for me I don’t love that evening. I just want I’m burnt man I just want to unwind with a book or some silly show. You know, I watched Cobra Kai last night with my wife and just you know vegging out, so to speak, because my day I’m just taking in so much, but the morning that’s when I prepare for the day. So I think it’s just really cool how people can look at this, because that is very different to either start or end your day, you know, prepping for the day, or prepping for the next day.

Todd Bertsch: 41:20

So, either way, we’re doing the work right, we’re trying, we’re testing it and doing these different things. And I love something you said, too on a prior show about the three questions before bed. Can you just share that, and I don’t maybe you don’t do that anymore, but I thought it was phenomenal and I think I’m going to try that. So if you could share that with our listeners, I’d love to hear it.

Josh Phelan: 41:41

So, if I remember correctly, it’s going to be what are you thankful for from the day, what did you learn from the day and how did you grow? Perhaps might be the third, I may have forgotten the third one. Does that sound correct to you?

Todd Bertsch: 41:54

Yeah, that sounds yeah.

Josh Phelan: 41:55

Yeah, so essentially the idea is just kind of reflection on like what do you have to be thankful for? And actually, if you don’t mind, can I go down a little bit of a rabbit hole with thankfulness?

Todd Bertsch: 42:05

Please do, cause we’re all about gratitude journaling.

Josh Phelan: 42:07

this is good, so let’s go that was another one for me that I kind of struggled with for years. I, you know, I heard all the evidence to support, like, if you, the practicing of gratitude. I tried to send the text out to people and writing it down and, you know, thinking through it and having conversations around it. However, I didn’t find it to be as helpful as when I finally came across the idea of like emoting meaning try to feel it in your body of that real deep sense of gratitude, because that’s when the game really starts to change for you, because otherwise, if we just say it and you’re like I’m thankful for a roof over my head, I’m thankful that I have clothes in my closet, I’m thankful for food in the fridge, nothing changes for you. You said those things.

Josh Phelan: 42:58

You can try to convince yourself that you believe those things, but when you actually feel it, there is a physiological response that takes place in your body, just like when we get excited, when we’re aroused, there’s blood that rushes to a particular part of our body and that part changes. Same thing happens with our heart. So when you actually emote gratitude, your heart physically gets bigger and the chemicals are released from this area of our body that help us to actually feel that, like when you have tears of gratitude. That’s a chemical and physiological response that occurs inside of your body, and so for me, that’s what helps so much to really change and to actually help like rewire my mind to now look for more things to be grateful for. Sure, it can be helpful with repetition. I believe repetition is very important. Repetition is the mother’s skill, as others have said. However, I found the practice of actually trying to emote that to be just off the charts, difference-wise for me personally. So, yeah, that was a big one that I’ve discovered.

Todd Bertsch: 44:05

So those questions in particular help you emote. Is that what you’re saying?

Josh Phelan: 44:10

No, not necessarily. Just those questions were helpful at the time when my ex-wife and I were practicing them and it was just kind of to look for the bright spots in the day, just because it’s easy to kind of get bogged down between kids and work and all the other responsibilities, you juggle, you just kind of go at the end of the day like we made it through another one, you know, as opposed to being like, okay, well, how do we grow?

Josh Phelan: 44:33

How do we get better? What do we learn today? You know, what do we have to be thankful for? Because now we’re reflecting on what are the bright spots from today, what can we take away to bring with us into the next day? That improves our lives, that improves us, you know, that improves our family. So I think that was kind of where it all kind of stemmed from. But yeah, just on a personal note, I’ve noticed the emoting of gratitude just significantly help way more get to that point.

Todd Bertsch: 45:11

I think that’s going to be different for a lot of people, Right? But yeah, if you can get there and truly, truly feel it from an authentic point of view, then that’s going to go a lot further.

Josh Phelan: 45:19

Can I share how I what my shortcut is?

Todd Bertsch: 45:23

Yeah, yeah, that’s what, yeah please do, man, Don’t hold that back. That’s what I was getting to Like. How do you? How do you get there? Yeah, that’s where I was getting to. How do you get there?

Josh Phelan: 45:30

Yeah, yeah. So I think breath is really important. So for me I try to just be completely relaxed. I like doing it.

Josh Phelan: 45:37

Laying down Some people prefer sitting. Just be somewhere comfortable is my two cents. So get very comfortable, I lay down, I focus on my breath. Those are the first two things I do first. Okay.

Josh Phelan: 45:48

So I just go very, very slow, take big inhales, big exhales. That’s all I’m trying to focus on. I’m not thinking about gratitude, not thinking about yesterday or anything. That’s the goal. So slow, deep breaths, usually by 10 or 20. Now, with that pace of my breathing, I’ve also changed my brain waves in real time. Okay. So now my brain actually starts to respond differently and I’m not necessarily in sleep mode quite yet, but I’m kind of getting closer to that range while still being actively awake. So when we start to slow down our breathing, we are able to slow down our brain waves.

Josh Phelan: 46:25

From here what I like to do is use a more recent memory that I can genuinely feel thankful for. So I kind of cheat with having my boys are five and seven, so I usually just try to think of a time where recently hugged something special whatever, and I can genuinely like feel that in my body like man. I’m so thankful to have this. So I take a very real recent thing that I already have gratitude around and I just try to focus and amplify that. So that’s where I start. So relax, breathe, focus on something recent that you genuinely can feel grateful for. Now we’re going to try to hold on to that feeling and then we apply that to something new. So now I can start feeling gratitude for me actively showing up tomorrow as my best self, as an example, you know. So now I can take something that’s already occurred. My body knows. I’ve already taught my body this is how it feels and I’m just trying to bring that into another event, so to speak. So that’s kind of my practice.

Todd Bertsch: 47:28

Yeah, I think that’s. I think that’s a fabulous idea and I think, too, when you take that approach, you could probably visualize if it’s a recent event, right, you can actually visualize, like you said, yourself snuggling or cuddling your boys or giving them a kiss on the forehead. You know what I mean. Like, I think if you can visualize that too, it’s going to have a stronger impact. Yeah, yeah, it’s definitely been helpful. Dude, so many nuggets, my gosh, so many nuggets. Man, where do we go from here? So yeah, do you like living out in Orange County? Are you in Orange?

Josh Phelan: 48:03

Yeah, yeah, I’m in Newport Beach. Yeah, I like it Okay.

Todd Bertsch: 48:06

Yeah, because it’s a little different than New Jersey.

Josh Phelan: 48:08

For sure, for sure.

Todd Bertsch: 48:10

Yeah.

Josh Phelan: 48:11

One of the things that’s funny there’s a restaurant down by the Newport Pier and it always has these little signage where they change the letters out. So every so often they’ll’ll swap them. One time it said this was in january. It said, uh, socal has two seasons summer and kind of summer. That’s one thing I do, but it is. It is something that I still feel genuinely grateful for. Just even looking outside, I’m like you know what, like it’s a beautiful day, it’ll be. You know, it’s not in the 70s, it’s in the 60s, and people are still acting like it’s a beautiful day, it’ll be. You know, it’s not in the seventies, it’s in the sixties, and people are still acting like it’s freezing. You’ll see people bundled up in scars and hats and gloves and I’m like guys, it’s 67.

Todd Bertsch: 48:53

It’s not that cold. Oh my gosh, we would be in shorts. I know, I know that’s what I laugh about yeah and so.

Josh Phelan: 48:59

But then you know you have more active people that are out riding bikes or out running shirtless and stuff. So you get a mix of both. But it’s just nice. Man Like oh, I like to time it up If my day and my schedule works out. I like to go when it’s like really low tide and go for a run on the beach, because then it’s just like super flat and especially this time of year there’s not really a whole lot of people there. But that’s like therapy for me. But that’s like therapy for me and it’s more so for my mind than it is my body.

Josh Phelan: 49:25

Yeah, yeah I mean I love it. So I’m a big fan of being in this area, for sure.

Todd Bertsch: 49:33

Yeah, no complaints, do you find? So, yeah, focusing in on the area that you live for a minute, do you find that the people that you coach, cause you had said a little ways back, you said everybody kind of wants a quick fix right.

Todd Bertsch: 49:48

I’m imagining just. I’ve never been out to California actually. I imagine that people are all about the quick fix out there and not really wanting to do the work. And sorry if people live out there, I’m just, that’s just me, right, based on television or whatever movies. But if that is true and it’s probably anywhere right, you could find people like that. But do you struggle with that? And, if so, how do you get people to work with you, knowing that this is going to be a journey, right? This is, this is not a sprint.

Todd Bertsch: 50:23

This is going to be a marathon.

Josh Phelan: 50:26

Well, I like to uh start the questions when people start asking me like, oh, I want to, you know, put on muscle. Like even recently I had a business owner Um, he owns a couple of buildings up in LA and he does a couple of different things, but anyway, he was talking about wanting to be able to put on muscle, right and uh, and lose some fat. And there was one other little thing I’m forgetting, anyway. So he says these are my goals. I’m like okay, we can get these done Absolutely. However, I think it’s way cooler to be in shape the rest of your life than to be in shape for summer. And that was kind of where we started, because now it reframes and it gets them to also consider how long do I want to hold on to these results? Because it’s one thing to get in shape, it’s another thing to live in shape, oh, and I’m like it’s a completely different identity that the person has to then take on, because it is so challenging for a fat individual person who just simply carries around a lot of fat Just to be clear, I’m not trying to be derogatory, like you know, offend anybody to consistently work out one of the reasons in my experience why I think it’s so challenging is they don’t see themselves as somebody who has consistently ever worked out because they’ve never done it before. So it’s hard for their identity to be able to shift and to see themselves as this is capable.

Josh Phelan: 51:59

So the way that I usually like to start people is essentially like let’s start very, very small, almost embarrassingly small, so you feel like an idiot if you don’t keep to your commitment. I’m not talking about like hey, get to the gym every day. No, no, I’m talking about do something that takes you two minutes or less. And then here’s the tricky part. That’s kind of a mind f for some people, and that is try to genuinely celebrate after your small win, because that’s what essentially your mind needs to want to seek out that activity again.

Josh Phelan: 52:31

For you to do that, because otherwise, if you do it and you’re like that sucked, I don’t want to do that, that was hard, I’m sore, whatever Guess what, chances of you doing it again are very close to zero. But if you celebrate it and you genuinely feel like man, I’m doing it because I’m headed the right direction. Guess what? Now we have a much better chance of winning, because the first thing is like let’s get the direction course corrected first, then we can add speed. So that’s kind of the big part is getting people to kind of like shift around, like how long do I want to keep these goals and live this way and who do I need to become in order to have that? If we can get those two together, we have a winning combination.

Todd Bertsch: 53:18

Yeah, I’m with you on that, brother. That’s good yeah.

Josh Phelan: 53:23

So that’s how I kind of try to approach that.

Todd Bertsch: 53:25

Yeah, small, small shifts. And I think if we can just start to visualize, you know, start to visualize that and get out there and just try it. Once you get that first one right and you’re talking about the habit loop that James talks about in Atomic Habits right, you get to that reward and you can get that 21 days and boom man, it’s just automatic default and now you can start to build more habits right.

Josh Phelan: 53:51

Take it a longer or another habit have you checked out tiny habits by BJ fog by chance.

Todd Bertsch: 53:58

Yeah, okay. Yeah, I haven’t read through it, but a lot of people mentioned that, or even James, I think, refers to that research.

Josh Phelan: 54:09

There’s a. There’s one good thing I really liked about that and he talks about just because I hear it all the time people are saying 21 days, 21 days. However, one of the things that they came across, as far as the experiments they’ve done, is they found out it was more. It helped to solidify the habit better, based on the emotional response of the individual. So meaning it’s not as imperative that you get 21 days. It’s more important and it has more profound impact if you have a really positively charged emotional experience. So if we can amplify that now your brain wants to seek it out again and you want to. You have this innate desire to go and make that occur again in your life.

Josh Phelan: 54:53

But without that and if you just keep on trying to tackle the actual action, they’ve found that sometimes it can take you over 300 days, depending on what the habit is in the person. So it’s not necessarily like okay, 21, you’re good, you got this, you’re going to. On what the habit is in the person. So it’s not necessarily like okay, 21, you’re good, you got this, you’re going to be able to do it in your sleep. It’s like if you work on that emotion, you could probably do it even faster in 21 days.

Todd Bertsch: 55:15

Interesting.

Josh Phelan: 55:16

Yeah. Emotional response, I think, is a big thing that isn’t talked about enough. It dramatically changes performance and behaviors of humans enough.

Todd Bertsch: 55:26

It dramatically changes performance and behaviors of humans. Yeah, you’ve actually talked about emotional response, or emotions in general, several times in this session, so it’s that’s interesting. Yeah, there’s a lot there. Eq emotional intelligence is absolutely huge.

Josh Phelan: 55:39

Yeah, I mean I mean, if you think about it though, too, some of the biggest decisions and stuff, they’re not necessarily logical, right? You know, it’s not by reason that we come to these conclusions and then we change our behaviors and actions. It’s like no, it’s very emotional, you know.

Josh Phelan: 55:53

So, if we can start to kind of like get a better harness or rein in those emotions and not necessarily, you know, control them, because I think there is, you know, a lot of importance in being able to, to feel those things when necessary and stuff. But if we can start to just kind of be a little bit more um, what’s the word I’m I’m searching for?

Todd Bertsch: 56:11

uh intentional.

Josh Phelan: 56:12

Yes, thank you, intentional.

Todd Bertsch: 56:14

Yeah, that’s my word for the year, so I better I better remember that Perfect, there you go. So yeah, man dude, this has been, this has been so good. I’ve learned so much. That’s what I love about podcasting. I’m so glad that we connected on LinkedIn, however we did. But, man, you have so much knowledge, what’s next up for you? What’s Josh got going on these days?

Josh Phelan: 56:44

trying to work with some more clients and trying to document a bunch of transformations along the way, because the big part, too, is like, even with what you know, a little bit that I’ve shared here is I want this to kind of become more mainstream and how people approach stuff. Just because there is a lot of there’s so much misinformation and you know, I still see clients asking me and they’ll send pictures and stuff and they’re like hey, how’s this thing? And show me something that they’re eating and I’m like, well, it was very well marketed edible product, but that’s really all I can say for you and you shouldn’t really be eating that food and putting that into your body, you know. So there’s just there’s a lot of things I think people still need to kind of like wake up to and and how we approach stuff. The basics and fundamentals are never going to go away in regards to the sleep, nutrition and the movement and stuff. But I think there’s other stuff, as far as you know, the visualization and the amplification of the emotions and stuff that also need to be integrated in how we approach this. So this way we can really be optimal, knowing that we can actually show up as our best selves, cause that’s what everybody, at the end of the day, is trying to do.

Josh Phelan: 57:45

I used to work with people that just your average population, if you will, and then all the way up to people that have multiple houses and just ridiculous amounts of wealth and stuff, and I can tell you that they all deal with the same freaking problems across the board. We’re all humans. We all have our insecurities. People still are out of shape, they want to get into shape, they have relationship problems, they have, you know, all sorts of things, and it’s like we’re all just still trying to like hodgepodge and put this stuff together the best that we know how to, and one of the things I’ve discovered on my journey that I think reigns true so far, based on my testing of it. But by the time we get to 40, somebody else said this and it just stuck with me, so I think there’s some truth to this.

Josh Phelan: 58:29

But he said, by the time we get to 40, most people have only really gotten good at one or two things. The rest of it we’re just all trying to figure it out. You know, like I got really good at health and fitness, like all the exercise stuff and the body stuff, like I got that down Relationships, still working on that one, obviously, you know, it’s like you can go down lists. It’s like, yeah, I still have a whole bunch of other problems I’m still trying to figure out, I’m still trying to work on, but I got this one and my job, my duty, my responsibility as a human, let me share that with other people. Let me provide the value to be able to bring that to the table and to help solve their problems.

Josh Phelan: 59:07

But, yeah, I want to try to change that approach and help people do that, and so part of the transformations and documentation of that is part of that journey. So it’s a huge multi-year goal. That’s going to take some time to go through, but yeah, that’s what’s next for me. That’s awesome. What about for you, todd?

Todd Bertsch: 59:28

Starting to book Nice, I put it out there, I put it out in the universe, and once I put something out there, I stick to it, nice. So, manifesting it, visualizing it, it’s, it’s, it’s starting, it’s happening. I’m starting to document and research and pull it all together. And it’s been fun, man, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a big hit of dopamine. You know when I need I just like start thinking about that book. So the concept, everything is all coming back to curiosity for me. So that’s, that’s probably what it’ll be focused on, and tapping into that inner child that we all have.

Todd Bertsch: 1:00:00

So, yeah, man, I’m excited, I’m just loving this. I’m excited, I’m just loving this. I’m loving meeting new people like yourself, hearing about your journey, learning along the way and then sharing this with our listeners and just trying to help people be the best version of themselves. Right, but it all starts, unfortunately. They have to make that choice. They have to make that choice. If you can just start, small one thing, like Josh says, and really get into it and manifest it, pour your emotions into it and celebrate in a true, authentic way, then you’ll be on your way. I agree. Good, good man, what type of clients are you looking for? Anything in particular?

Josh Phelan: 1:00:42

I mean, business owning men is kind of my focal point, like I worked with, uh, miss oregon to prepare her for the miss america pageant and stuff and it’s just something that like stuff like that as silly as it sounds I don’t talk about too much just because I’m like, well, it’s not really who I’m going for. I’m like, yeah, I still have females and stuff sometimes, and even recently I had somebody reach out almost angry about it and she’s like, why not females? You’re missing half the market. And I’m like, well, there’s still a lot to be made on the other half, you know.

Josh Phelan: 1:01:07

It’s like right and also I identify too is like being part of that. So I really understand their problems very well. You know, I’m like I’ve been through many of those struggles and stuff and I understand the time crunch and that’s why my approach is like, hey, let’s give you more time back in your day instead of taking time out of your day. But, yeah, business owning men those are kind of like my favorite people to work with and I think a big part too is also they already have that growth mindset built in. Like if you’re an entrepreneur and you’re going after stuff like, your mind is definitely wired differently than the general population. In my experience, you know it’s like they see things a little bit differently. They know stuff is going to take a little bit longer, they know the cost, they understand the risk behind these things. You know it’s just like their mind already has to do that all the time for their business and stuff. So with here, we’re just trying to reroute that energy and that focus to their body.

Todd Bertsch: 1:02:02

Gotcha. Yeah, yeah, absolutely All right, josh. Well, this has been great, my man. I appreciate you If you could leave our listeners. Just drop one last nugget, quote or some piece of wisdom. What would you want to leave with?

Josh Phelan: 1:02:22

I would say don’t underestimate the power of starting. Small Direction is way more important than speed. If you’re trying to change any area of your life depends on where you’re at the season you’re in. But if you can just focus on what’s that next smallest step that you can do and celebrate that you’re going to start in the best of directions for you. So that would be my two cents is just focus on that direction. Speed will eventually follow. Amen, brother.

Todd Bertsch: 1:02:54

That’s it so much. Yeah, good to have you, brother, thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Bolt Podcast. You’re on an inspiring journey of growth, transformation and joy, and I’m honored to be a part of it. If you found this episode valuable, please like share it with your friends and consider leaving a review. It means the world to us For show notes, resources and to subscribe to the weekly Motivational Monday newsletter. Please visit toddbertsch.com and don’t forget to follow us on social media at the Bolt with Todd B for more inspiration. Remember, real change doesn’t happen overnight. Folks Start small, stay consistent and watch as your growth unfolds. See you next time.