Welcome back to behind the madness where we talk about business growth, ways to work smarter and the fundamentals of business, all geared to unlocking your brand's peak performance. I'm your host James Roberts, owner and founder of Method, and today I am joined again by Jamie, where we're going to talk about wellbeing within business. But before we jump in I wanted to let you all know about ways that you can connect with the show.
So obviously at the moment, we've got some great content going on Instagram, where you can find us at @hello_method. But we've also introduced a new email that we introduced, I think last time on the pod, which is podcast@hellomethod.co.uk, you can give us any feedback, ask any questions, and we will try to answer them on future episodes. So with all of that out the way let's jump on in with wellbeing in your business. Welcome back Jamie.
Hi, James, always a pleasure.
Always. a pleasure, so for those of you that didn't know, and we all do here. So Jamie used to, uh, obviously look after the, the gym manager. I think David Lloyd.
Lead coach.
So we thought, obviously I love a bit of wellbeing, uh, anyway, and looking after kind of my body as well as I can, until I slip and we have pizza with the kids. But thought wellbeing within the business would be a great place to start. I think everybody should be doing it, I think everybody's becoming more aware of being able to do it. What are your thoughts, Jamie? What are your thoughts about wellbeing within business?
I think it's a really interesting one because so many times in the past we've seen business owners or thought leaders as people who work themselves to the bones. They want themselves to burn out and they don't really look after themselves, they look after their businesses and this is what they see as either getting ahead what they need to do.
But now, as you said, the awareness by looking after your body, looking after nutrition, making sure you're moving, making sure we mindsets in, we've seen the growth of the awareness around mental health. And that comes through stress, depression, anxiety, how you're working through your days, your sleep patterns, all of these things.
It is wellbeing, which is why health and fitness has become less and wellbeing has become more the tagline because fitness has always been, oh well yeah, you don't go to the gym. We don't run 10 kilometers actually wellbeing
More of a thing. Yeah, we've also got a guest lined up who's going to talk a bit about the nutritional angles, which is great because that's something I know a little bit about, but always looking to improve. So that's going to be good in a couple of weeks, hopefully we're going to get we're going to get that guest on, but.
You're gonna sneek peek that you're gonna, oh, you're going to keep it in suspense.
Might never happen.
That's true.
So there's always that.
Dangle the carrot.
Exactly, and if we don't get that person, then we might find somebody else. So if I, if I drop names.
So if you do want. something on nutrition as a business owner flood the comments because then the person will have no choice.
You got some questions then, though, at podcast@hellomethod.co.uk, and we'll try and get those to the guest. Um, but I think you're absolutely right. I think, uh, the, the whole kind of fitness angle was, shall we just go to the gym, get a bit of gym work in. But now I think there are so many, as you said, sleep, there is, uh, that meant mental
So, what, what do you think James are the key areas? Everyone knows exercise and nutrition, they know of them, but what are the areas like you're very conscious of how you work as a human, which allows you to perform better as a business owner. What areas do you think, obviously, exercise and nutrition are two
Yeah, for me, it's got to be sleep. I think if I don't
Is that why we never see you.
Rest, then let's put it as rest. We all know what it's like. If you don't get a good night's sleep, you feel it the next day. So on top of nutrition, on top of that whole kind of exercise that you're getting in it's so detrimental to your day. Sleep is different for everybody. Everybody says about the eight hours, but for me, I think it was a little bit.
That's what Bezos does, Bezos really says eight hours is one of the key things in my working day. And I think we can all agree like he's done ok for himself.
Yeah. But I know people who can perform well on six, seven hours. Again, it's the quality of the sleep. If You're getting eight hours, but you're getting a kid who's coming in every 30 seconds and waking you up, then you need 35 hours, you're still not going to get it back.
Quality over quantity.
Exactly. And then the sleep debt that comes into it. So if you are, if you've had one bad night's sleep. You're going to have to sleep a bit more, rest a bit more, even take something out of your day. And I think it's the same.
So many people go, they kind of go, I slept four I'll sleep 12 tomorrow and it doesn't work like that. Let your body just does not work like that unfortunately.
Being able to break away. So luckily, obviously where we came from with the graphic design, you always hear about this, oh, I'm really struggling to get any ideas, and walk away from your desk and go and find something else to do.
And I think that almost has to come into this rest idea as well, if you're feeling depleted, and it doesn't have to be rest sleep, it has to be removing yourself from that process, that job, the activity that you're doing and recharge, and that could be going for a walk. Try not to go into social media cause I still think that's just, again,
it's Well, I think it's something like 95% of people the first thing they do when they are the get into bed or when they wake up in the morning is reach for the phone. Inevitably it's either going to be emails or social media they're jumping. I read something the other day, which was really interesting and it was in Jay Shetty's book and it was all about how you wouldn't, for example, go from zero to a hundred when you get on a treadmill.
So why do we do it to our minds when we wake up and suddenly you're flooded with what the latest Kardashian is saying, or you're seeing an influencer travel around world and see one of these trends that James absoloutly loves.
Love a trend. I think we all, we've all done it, everybody's done it. But I think waking up slowly and adjusting I've mentioned before about my lovely power hour, that you know I do where I wake up and I will slowly get into doing things when nobody else is up what I might do a bit where yoga, I might do a bit of meditation, I might do some journaling, whatever, but I'm slowly waking up getting ready for that day and building on it.
And then what I tend to do is then after I've done that after I've had a cup of tea after I'm ready, I will then go through my emails, so when I do hit the desk at nine after I drop the kids I'm ready for that day then to start whatever it's going to throw at me. But again, you know, So I think so I think rest.
I'm just going to jump on you there, James, because whoever anyone who's new to the pod, or maybe haven't heard it before obviously you've even labelled it your power hour in the morning, and obviously that's almost your day set up. So That's your morning routine, which we hear a lot about nowadays. Talk me through that because that could be really useful for other business owners.
It all started from I think I read a book which was called Rest, which I've mentioned before. Um, and it was around this idea that you can be much more productive in that, in that area, especially kind of creativity as well. You're still apparently, and somebody will correct me, no doubt on an email shortly after I say this, but you're still kind of in two worlds. If you like your brain isn't fully woken up.
In a dream state kind
Exactly. So you can see your brain can certainly for creative. You're still in that a lot of writers do it very, very early because they can get everything flowing. Um, But I think for me, it's more, I can kind of have my time without my kids as bad as that sounds it's me, it's my time to, as I said, I'll tend to and I'll mix it up sometimes I'll do a bit of a workout sometimes I just don't feel a million dollars so I will do some yoga.
I'll wake my body up, I might even just take five minutes to do a kind of quick meditation, which then for me focuses me. When I finished my meditation, I kind of have a better focus. Where I can think, right. I need to achieve this and again it's a meditation and journaling where I can focus on what I need to achieve that day and then I'm ready to go and do it.
But as a sideline to that, I've still got time in that morning hour, where I can clear off everything and check everything off that I might not have achieved the day before. So I am then ready to then when everybody wakes up, they have the breakfast I can then spend family time, I've had a chunk. I'm then almost resting again because I'm then going to go walk the kids to school and I'm going to come back again, I've done a huge amount, but I'm fresh and ready to go from that clean slate.
It's that set up and I think it is odd because we put so much emphasis on as a society on new year's resolutions. But we don't do day resolutions which is so odd. Whereas by adopting something like that, you're almost saying okay in the year I want to learn the guitar, but then today I want to learn two new chords which after a year.
Breaking it down How'd you eat an elephant
Yeah, exactly. Illegally.
If you've ever worked in an organization as well I work with we're slightly separate here, where we are kind of all remote anyway but if you worked at any business, you will tend to start work at nine o'clock and we've all had it, everybody arrives at nine then you go make your coffee, then you're going to have the chat about what happened in the football and before, you know it it's 10 o'clock and then you think, well, do you know what, maybe
it's time for another cup of coffee now because it's mid morning or 10 :30. So me being able to kind of clear everything off and get all of that processes done, we have a little bit of a banter on Slack, but I think the way we're set up that almost goes on the one screen almost as you're still working away. Um, and I think we're all very good at concentrating on what we need to do, but still having that.
So what I'm getting around to is when you, when you kind of do get to work and you're going through all of those things that you need to clear off then you might sit at your desk at 10 o'clock after you've had the chat or whatever, then you're going to clear up your emails, half of your productive morning has whizzed you by, it's gone. So I think for me anyway a business owner, you know, if you're working nine to five, that is it.
But I have to just get everything tucked away so I can start again because as well, my day is never the same anyway.
Yeah, and I think a lot of the people we aim to help, whether they're business owners, marketing departments and teams will have found themselves in a, in a very similar situation with mainly working remotely because a lot of it's digital in the post COVID era. So I think it's very applicable for them, so we looked at that we've got nutrition and exercise, you've got some recovery with sleep, recovery rest.
This mindset in there spoke about journalling some meditation kind of really almost mentally ticking off things, and they are four kind of really huge pillars because I think as and I will take the daycare of I'm the younger one on the team.
Whereas mindset probably wasn't as big when you were my age, whereas it's got a lot more awareness and this isn't due to mental health becoming, Uh, having much more science behind it, and having much more awareness, but it's also competing where you're seeing top athletes, business owners, and it's cascading down to every day.
It's mad that it's had to happen for it to be a thing
Well, you think all the negative things that have happened where it's like high suicide rates, high depression, rates, anxiety, all of that. We've actually turned around and gone, wait a minute. We've been curling barbells was for our biceps for a hundreds of years, but we haven't actually thought about working the mind.
Training your mind. I think that's gotta be something as well, that goes forward as certainly in business and business owners have to recognize it because if you are a member of staff who is struggling then you're not going to be the one who's going to put your hand up.
It has to come and filter that way down and You have to create an organization and I hope we've got it here where people can go I need five minutes, I need to be able to, I need to just, I want a day and that is, it's not, you know it's not I've broken my leg, I need a day. It can be anything, it's a hard place to get within an organization where people can feel comfortable enough to go, I need a break.
And I think that really nails What I would consider the fifth and final piece of overall wellbeing, and that's the social aspect. Humans are connected creatures, you go back thousands of years and people have that tribe. It's become a phrase, again on kind of social media you have your tribe, your community, you have that social aspect and I think a lot of people missed that during covid they couldn't see their friends or couldn't see their family, they couldn't touch base.
So I think having those five elements of nutrition, exercise, mindset, rest and recovery and social really make up the human wellbeing. And it doesn't matter how about changes in terms of if you are Elon Musk and you are jetting between the Space X and Tesla and, uh, and The Boring Company in all of these companies, or you have just started your company on Etsy. You are still made up of the same thing. So you still need to look after those components of your life.
James to finish this one off, I know you love being put on the spot. Love it. If someone could walk away with five action points, to look after that wellbeing a little bit more. What would they be? And these are going to be quick fire, anyone who knows James knows when I'm talking about.
So quick-fire sleep. Remove your phones at night. Uh, so a good tip for the sleep. Turn off your notifications, I have mine set at about nine o'clock, everything goes off, yeah, exactly that I don't have any numbers cause as you know, my OCD will kick in I'll have to get rid of numbers on anything. So all my numbers and everything disappears on my, on my phone.
Which again, taps into the mental side of things.
Yep So I can slowly wind down. So that wind down is massively important. Um, so I think that's kind of, it's almost a one and a two. But sleep, rest, recovery. I think then look after your, I think, understand yourself a little bit and I do this through my mindfulness through, um, taking five, being battered all day, step back and understand yourself. So know where you're under pressure Yeah, exactly that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. So I think being able to understand yourself helps you grow, but also understand when you do need breaks. We'll all good at working through.
We I imagine that helps step away from, all day every day we compare ourselves to other people on social media on digital stuff like that. So by being able to turn around and go, actually, do you know what now? I'm Jamie and this is what I'm about.
Hundred percent So I think so I think that which ties then nicely into, obviously if we're doing an audit of ourselves, I think being able to, being able to understand yourself as we said, but also knowing when to step away. So we're all very good at continuing forward, as I said. So, also just stepping away giving don't think that you have to work yourself through you're okay to leave something. Even, even if there's a massive deadline, if you're struggling, you're not going to hit it.
And sometimes taking that five minutes is going to make you come back stronger, fitter.
And I think, I think I'm going to add something, I did say we were quick fire on this, but I'm going to add something to that is with that step away being able to afford yourself that time but also when you're doing that reflection be nice to yourself. Because so many people don't and, and you will
We're all so negative to each other
Yeah
Should've done that better
Yeah Like if, if moments, one of my favorite phrases is Yesterday is gone, tomorrow may never come, today is a gift that's why they call it the present.
Yeah Yeah. I think the one which I, which I heard was around if you do one thing, if you, sorry, if you do six things really, really well, and one thing badly. You'll kill yourself over that one thing you did badly and you'll forget about the other six things. And it's, it is very, very true. Uh, well, my on three, four
You're on four, this is four
Hydration simple. Get the water in.
Reaching for the water
Both grabbed for a water bottles. Always hydrate and lastly, which I think will tie us on lovely into the, into a podcast which is coming soon, nutrition. I think yeah, massively. I'm no expert, which is why we're going to get somebody on to talk to us about it. Um, but educate yourself a little bit around what should be, shouldn't be putting in your body.
Go and read Food, what the fuck should I eat?
Yeah Yeah.
By dr. Mark Hyman. Yeah, incredible read a really eye-opening but also very interesting.
Uh, so I think.
What are the five mate can you remember?
I can remember, nutrition, yeah, hydration, Uh, rest, audit yourself, and step away.
What happened to sleep.
Rest Uh I did drop rest in
Okay Cool
Uh, let's call that a wrap, Jamie. Thanks again for chatting, I thought that was really good. If you've enjoyed it podcast@hellomethod.co.uk. We're always going to answer any questions and anything you want to hear and know that you didn't like. Uh, I'll give you Paul's email address, um, but anyway
He's busy editing.
Yeah. Oh God. Yeah . Thanks for this episode. Thanks for listening. And we'll catch you next time.