Todd. Hi everyone. Welcome to relationships rule. Joining me this week is Todd Burch, and Todd is coming to us from now, I've forgotten Ohio,
yeah, Akron, Ohio, lebronstown, there you go.
And I'm hoping we're going to have an amazing conversation about people, about relationships, because we both care a lot about that. But I want to start first, actually, you know where I want to start in a completely off the cuff place. You love Jeopardy and a fortune, because those are my things. And I want to start there, just completely off the cuff, if you don't mind. No, I love it. Okay, so did I tell you I was on Wheel of Fortune?
Oh, my gosh. No, you did not. Oh, I did. I
Yes, I was on it way back in the day, a long, long time ago, but it was a great experience. And I remember studying, you know, all the watching day after day after day. And then I always wanted to be on Jeopardy, but I never thought I was smart enough. And same. Here do you so now? Do you still watch it every day?
Oh, yeah. So, yeah. So obviously, yeah, you read that my bio. So talking about relationships, yeah. So I'm married. For my wife and I, we have a thing, and this has been our thing since we've been married. So every day, nothing happens between seven and eight o'clock, aside from sitting down together and watching Wheel in jeopardy. My daughter knows the dog doesn't, you know, get taken out at that time. Like it, there's, it's just a thing, and we, we both love it. And the
funny thing is, like, I literally suck at wheel. It's so good, and we've tried to get her on the show. And there was a when the traveling van comes around to the bus, it was in our area, or near Cleveland, and she was going to try out, but she didn't. But she is so good, she'll, she'll get the questions before anybody else, like, literally, she just needs a couple letters. I just, my mind doesn't work like that. So I've, I've kind of came to the conclusion I'm okay with it.
It's just not my thing. And then Jeopardy, I can compete a little bit more with her. But, you know, for us, it's, it's it's cool, because we've committed to at least one hour. You know how quick the day goes by, for sure, especially during the week. We both work. We have a young daughter, so we said, you know, this is our time, and everybody knows it. And no calls that, you know? We just put the phones down and we watch and enjoy it together and laugh and compete and, you know, it's all good. So
that's funny that you picked that one. Oh no, no,
that's special. It's our
thing. And, like, it makes me seem old. But and all the commercials are definitely not geared towards, well,
I don't even watch them. We record Joe, okay, yeah, we watch it sort of a little bit later in the evening, but we do watch it every night and wheel, I don't watch as much anymore, but tell your wife that it's very different. When you're on air. It's very different. You know, you can be the best armchair quarterback in the world, right? And it's the same with Wheel of Fortune. And I didn't win my fortune. I just to give you the synopsis for your wife. I won the first puzzle.
There were only three puzzles and the bonus round when I was on, that's how long ago it was. So I won the first puzzle. I lost my turn on the second puzzle, even though I knew the answer. And the third puzzle was very long, and it was a phrase, and I got most of it going. And I got a lot of the letters and whatever. And there was one word that was stumping as it was a three or four letter word with an apostrophe in it, yeah, four
letters with an apostrophe in it. And it was killing me. And we went to commercial in the middle, and I had, we had to turn around and and not look at it. And I came back around and I said a letter before, I was thinking, okay, and I lost my turn, and the puzzle was and my mother was sitting in the audience, and she knew it, and she was killing her, because it's an old Jewish expression, and it was in the movie Fiddler on the Roof, and it's called, it was from your mouth to God's
ears, which I'll never forget. Okay, right? Yeah, of course not, yeah. So I didn't win my fortune, but I won a bunch of stuff and everything, and cool
experience. But it was a great story, right?
Yeah, it was great. And the thing about Jeopardy, I get so that when I when I really get into it I sit now. For the last two weeks, I've been tallying the questions I get right, and then there's usually two or three that I can't get out fast enough because my brain isn't going to right my mouth. So I give myself a little grace. But the other day, the the i. Uh, Ken Jennings said something about the the new champion got 25 questions, right the night before, and I thought,
Wow. Well, I get up to 23 I think I'm not good enough, but that's not bad when I think about it. So, yeah, so I'm more. I'm aiming for 25 but I'm
not doing better than we are so
but it's, it's, it's kind of fun anyway, but that also makes me transition into a fun thing that you know that I'm a LinkedIn trainer, and you know that we're talking, we're going to talk about the power of relationships and whatever, and something that I don't know if you do this on LinkedIn or not, but I'm all about getting into the mailbox
and meeting new people and starting conversations. And I've decided I haven't done this yet, but I have used my wheel of fortune thing in a in an icebreaker kind of question to people, and I've got it set out a certain way, but I was thinking a new one could be, if you were on Jeopardy, what would you use as your story to share with the audience? I love that. That's good,
right? I might feel that, can I steal
it absolutely? Because I think it's good, and it is a good
icebreaker, right? Well, now it's on the show. It's gonna, you know, once the this episode airs, then everyone will be doing,
yeah, you know what? It doesn't matter because there's no competition. It's there for everybody. And yeah, and although there is competition, I do like a good competition, which is why I tallying. I
was gonna, yep, that's exactly what I was thinking, yeah. But it's
not, it's not really, in that vein, I share those things that I think you know people will be able to use. So tell me about I don't need to go into your whole long story, because I think that everyone you've got it on your website, and it's a great story the way you've laid it out, but Oh, thank you. You are into you have a holistic approach to personal growth and sharing your insight through coaching. You're a life coach. Correct your speaker, and you have a podcast also called
the bolt. The bolt, yes, talk to me about your work. Talk to me about what lights you up right now.
Oh, what lights me up? The Vault. Oh, yeah, yeah, no, really, it's, it's, it's funny. Jess, I've been on this holistic journey, this transformational journey, for a long time, specifically the past four years. So COVID was a, you know, a big, a big time for me to reflect. And during that time, I met my life coach, or she's called a high performance coach, and ironically, you'll love this through LinkedIn, ah, so she Yes,
she said that I started to listen to that podcast episode, yes, yeah. She's
amazing. That's a great episode. It just dropped today. But she Yeah, so she noticed something interesting about me on LinkedIn, and we're in the same same area, and, yeah, we just connected, and right away there was a synergy there. And I hired her as my life coach. She took me through this program called Positive Intelligence, which changed my life. And she's still my coach, and now we are like the best of
friends, and I've even coached her in some in some moments. So it's, it's a great testament, I think, to circling back to LinkedIn, how powerful social media and specifically LinkedIn as a professional tool, what started off as a professional relationship turned into, she is now part of my tribe. Yes, I think we'll talk a little bit about how important a tribe is. But she just ended up we're just we share the same core values. We share an intimate passion for growth, personal growth,
holistic approach, mind, body, soul. That's what gets me juiced every day to get up relationships, honestly, that's that's what I love, and that's what was the biggest challenge for me during COVID, was being a people person. Oh, yeah, you
know. And I had my wife and daughter, and we got a dog, which helped, yeah, we had a COVID dog, and bought a camper, and we had a neighbor, and we traveled around Ohio camping, which was really cool, and it was better than just sitting at the house, but, you know, not having that connection and and being in person, you know, tried some zoom stuff and whatever, play a card game. And, you know, happy hour over zoom. It's just not the same, let's be honest, better than nothing, but not the
same. So anyhow, so yeah, lots of reflection. And yeah, so that's when I kind of started my journey. And you know, it November of last year. I had been feeling like there was a something missing in my life. There was there was a gap, and I have a i. A marketing agency called evolve marketing, and I've been doing that for 15 years, and I got a, you know, a small team, and, you know, we're doing well, but I just felt like I've been called for something, something else, you know, I
don't say a higher purpose, but a different purpose. And I think it, it's really important for people to be able to have that self reflection and to be courageous enough to go after it. And I'm, you know, I'm really blessed and fortunate to be able to be in a position where I can go and try something new. And, you know, I have a, I feel like a fairly interesting story, and I'm doing the work, I've done the work, I'm still doing the work. And I saw how powerful that was for me. And I
had one, one of my employees, go through it with me as well. And I'm like, I just want to, I want to share this. I want to get this out. I want to amplify this message. I, you know, it took me a long time to find like, true happiness, and I've had bits and pieces, you know, throughout the years. I'm 53 years 53 years old right now, and it took me about 50 years to really just find
that peace and joy. And a lot of it was going through that self reflection and going through Positive Intelligence, which is primarily about turning a negative, shifting from a negative to a positive, and just having seeing the the gift and opportunity and everything in life, okay, so, and just shifting that, that mindsets, you know, was huge,
okay. So I want to go back then for a bit, because you had you. You call it your dark path, where you got into drugs and whatever when you're used. Now, some kids would have stayed on that path and gone that to destruction. You didn't. Now, you obviously had something in you way back then that allowed you to come to the light and to fight for who
you are. So I don't think it just happened here. I think it's it's in you, and it was in you right from then, right from the beginning, to see that you were better than what you were doing. Or was it a person, or was it a, you know, a mentor, or somebody that brought you out? Or was it you getting over it, getting stronger as you got older, you more mature and whatever. If you don't mind me asking, because, no,
no, I've been talking about a lot. No, it's an open book. It's all out there. That's part of the journey, right? Everybody's got a story to tell. Everybody's been through some adversity, obviously, some some more traumatic than others. There was a moment when I was about 21 years old where I was doing some things, you know, that's, you know, not proud of and I got beat up pretty bad by a few guys, real, real bad. And it was a it was a pivotal moment in my
life. And so you asked a good question to ask, what was it? Who it wasn't anyone, specifically, it was myself, and it was that moment. But it took something traumatic like that, and I said, Look, I can't do this anymore. You know, I'm I don't say I'm better than it, but I knew that I wanted to be more, that I could do more. But I was in such a fog for so long that I just wasn't really living in reality. And things were, you
know, I had a steady job. I was a janitor at a hospital, you know, if I was doing my thing and having fun, partying all day and night. But, you know, there really wasn't a path there to to doing much else, or giving back to the community or being an integral part of the community. So, so, yeah, it was that moment. And then as I got into my career and into college, there were definitely people, you know, who were in my life that gave me the confidence, that gave me the boost that I
needed to continue on, you know, my journey. So, so, yeah, I guess you're right. It's, it was built in. And, you know, you got me thinking, Janice, like, really, where does that come from? And I have to say, it comes back to childhood, you
know, your upbringing. And I always, even though I was doing things that I knew I shouldn't have been doing, there was always that little conscious, you know, that little guy right on my shoulder, and I was always a guy that would tell others like, I don't know if we should do that, you know, let's stay in this kind of safe zone. So there was always a good conscious
there. Now, if that was my upbringing or my education, or, you know, I was brought up in private and public schools and a Catholic household, so maybe some of that was there, but so there was always there, yeah, yeah. So you're right. I think there, deep down, there was always something there. It's just recognizing it and tapping into it, you know, even though I didn't know really what it was, but it was something, and I'm glad, you know, because, oh yeah, you know, I was able to
really turn things around. And it's funny, I was, I didn't mention this on a show the other day, like I. I was addicted to, you know, drugs, and now I'm addicted to growth and learning. So you can have this kind of addiction or this obsession, you know, of a trait, but then you can pivot it and turn it into something really powerful. And I just can't get enough of growth and learning and expanding my mind. And it's just amazing how elastic and powerful the brain is. It's forgiving, although my
short term memory is not great. So I don't think I'm getting that back and I am getting older, but hey, it is what it is at this point. So I just, I just run with it and use, use my sticky notes.
Yeah, there you go. So the other thing that that I wanted to ask about, or are mentioned from what you just said about turning, you know, your early 50s and, and, you know, I don't know, this isn't very old book back to when I was young, and it's called passages by Gail. She, he, she was like a psychologist. She probably, I don't know the book's still out there, but passages was a book about you go through these
different stages each decade of your life. It might not hit right on when you turn 40 or when you turn 50 or when you turn 60, but in that realm, things start to change. And that's exactly what I heard you say, is that even though COVID was happening, you're coming into the next decade of your life, and again, shit, things start to shift, and you change what and and you notice that, usually, I see it going on sometimes with my I have two girls with my daughters too, and
things shift around the decades. So I don't know. It's just some I read the book many years ago.
Yeah, no, thank you. Check it out. And it's funny. We've been talking a lot about in recent conversations, just about seasons in life. And I think that's kind of what you're talking about, that season could be a decade, or it could be a couple of years, you know, it's a mile in that
though it's, it's because, see, I always think of seasons. I think of, you know, you have friends for a season, and friends for a reason, like, there's different kinds of friends, that's how I see seasons. They come and they go. But this is a little deeper than that, I think, in that, you
know? I mean, I notice it now with my work, because I'm starting to think about not working as much, and I'm noticing that I'm making changes without realizing it, you know, I don't get up as early and I don't take appointments as late and things like that, but it's just a natural progression, but it's also the next phase of my life, right? Yeah, so I don't
know. Okay, the next thing I want to mention is a quote that I saw on your website that says, and this is where we can maybe get into talking about the importance of your tribe and relationships. Because you say you're only as good as the people, the people that you surround yourself with, or that are around you, is the way you put it. But I totally I see it a little bit differently, but I think that's a really good piece to talk about relationships from. What do you think? Yeah,
absolutely, yeah. You're only as good as people around you, you know, in terms of So, like I said, I have my own business 15 years and I'm a solopreneur, so I don't have a partner or another founder, and for so many years I was on an island, and it was very difficult. So one of my and I would say this to any of your listeners who are entrepreneurs, or they're just kind of starting out first second year into their business, don't be afraid to get off that island. I didn't know
enough. That's one of my biggest mistakes. If I could go back, you know, I had this, this attitude, and it's just kind of how I was brought up. I've, I've always felt like I've had to fight and scrap my way to get where I'm at nothing was given to me blue collar hard work, you know, just work your tail off. And that's nothing came easy, and that's okay, because I can
appreciate it. Help build resilience and grit. But you know, when you when you get into, you know, building relationships and finding the right people, right to surround yourself with, it's important, it's important to invest, invest that time, right? And finding those people not being afraid to
get help or to ask for help. And that's, you know, I feel like I just needed to do it all on my own accord when I was just Maverick, and even on my own team, it took me a lot of years before, you know, my I ran my business flat for the first 10 years, and 10 people reporting to me is ridiculous. You know, there's just no way in hell that I could, I could really do
anything else. And I'm working, you know, 60, 7080, hours a week, and it's affecting, you know, my health and my relationships, you know, my personal relationships, and it just was no good. So. So once I realized that I could get off my island and it was okay, it was okay to ask for help. You know, it wasn't like I was failing or I, you know, cheating, and that's kind of how I
felt guilty. I felt like that's so common though, with us, because I
thought it was me. It bothered me for so long, and when I had this epiphany, I was actually meeting with a guy who was kind of my fractional cmo CFO, and and a good friend and
in my tribe. And he said, Look, man, it sounds like you have a book here or something, because you keep saying you're on an island and, and it's funny, I ended up like creating this peer group for business owners, you know all about getting off your island and having kind of a safe space to meet, talk vents, share whatever it is, because, you know, maybe that first year you can take that home to your spouse or your partner, but
after that, they don't want to hear it. You know, maybe they'll, you know, they'll, they'll listen, but honestly, they don't. And finally I just realized, like, I just needed to, to find those people so, so, yeah, I have kind of went a long way around. But, yeah, you know, it's all about finding and building your tribe and and I think the first step is just recognizing that we all need help, and it's okay. It's okay to have help. And help could be just having a person that you could talk to
exactly but Okay, so there's two different sort of things come to my mind here. One is, yes, having someone to talk to, to be able to vent to and and share your frustrations and and feel like you know, they'll guide you, or they'll they'll support you, whichever way you go. And then there's those people who you want to like. For me, sometimes I think I want to do something new, because I'm an I'm a solo printer basically too. I have a few couple of people that I get help from
occasionally on things. But if I have a new idea I want to move forward with, I need to collaborate with someone. I better when I work with somebody else. And so for me, that's really where I find. I need that person, and I don't always have the right person there. So I you know, I have to find that person, I have a person that I can bounce things off most of the time, but sometimes they don't quite see the same way I do. So I think that's really important. The other piece to
that when we because I'm all about relationships, right? And the other piece to that is, I think, and it kind of fits to that old saying, which I'm actually trying to teach my granddaughter, but she's a little bit young, and my one daughter still has, well, her mom still has issues with that, and that is and it goes with the word the phrases to to have a friend, you need to Be a friend. Okay, now, if you just take that friend word out and talk about it in a business setting, it's
the same thing. You have to nurture and care for those relationships in order for them to you know, it's not one way, and you can't just build that relationship and then stop it. You have to nurture it. Do you want to speak to that too. Yeah,
absolutely, yeah, that's it is. It's all about nurturing and spending that time. And you know, the way to build, to create and build a relationship, is to build trust. Right? And trust and respect. Neither one of those happen overnight, correct? Those need to be nurtured and watered, and that takes time.
That's probably the perfect spot where that happens. It is,
yeah, it is. And, you know, one of the biggest challenges that that I'm running into now, especially now, is I'm meeting, like, the, you know, I just multiplied the amount of people I'm meeting by podcasting. And I'm sure, yeah, you like, we just made a new connection. You and I, is that connection going to turn into a relationship? Do you want it to do? I wanted to. Is there something there? Because that could be great, right? Yes, but I only have so much time, and I
think it's important for people understand you. You know, yes, relationships are amazing. We need them. They are the key, really, to to everything. But we only have so much time and be intentional about the relationships you create and that you want to nurture relationships that and not to be selfish, that you're going to get something out of it, but relationships that compliment you but also challenge you, that
reciprocate, right? And to your point, it's not a one way street, but they also have their like minded right share the same core values,
definitely, definitely, they
need to be an entrepreneur. Or anything like that, but at least they can relate, right? They have a hard work ethic, they're trustworthy, they're
competitive on Jeopardy, competitive on
Jeopardy. They're transparent, they're authentic. You know, these are all. I mean, everyone knows these things, right? But I think what a lot of people don't realize is, and I just, you know, I'm making two, three new connections a week through this new kind of ecosystem of this podcast and coaching and speaking, and it's awesome. That's what I want. That's what gets me up in the morning. Is I love people. I love meeting people. I love hearing about their stories. I'm
a great listener, and I just take it in. And I want to help. I want to I want to help people find happiness, find fulfillment. But again, it goes back to just how many of those relationships am I going to nurture grow
right? Right? And that's fair. That's really fair. I think though that also another side to that is that when we You said something just recently about, you know, something that we might get from a relationship. So, yes, it's a two way street, but in some cases, with all these people that we're meeting, if we just stay in touch on a sort of consistent basis, and are in their world, not asking for anything in return that can come back to you in in ways that you
don't expect from the law of reciprocity. So that's nice, too. And so, you know, like one of the things I love to do is because I'm almost at my 300th episode of my podcast, and let's just Yeah, but
let's just Yeah, but let's just take a moment to say, wow. Well, it's a lot. It is. I've I'm on my 10th episode, and it's been an incredible amount of work. Yeah,
no, I get it. It is, but I want so when I look at those people that I've talked to and Matt, some I knew before, some I didn't know before. Most of them I didn't know. And some of them I want to stay more connected to. But as you said, it's really hard, so we have to, sort of, once in a while, you know, stay around and see what happens and and that does, from a business perspective, it that's actually really good, because it brings people back into your world that maybe you
want to do, they want to do business with you. That didn't happen back then. We just had this conversation, right? So you never know. But yeah, I think I love it. Yeah, yeah. I love
what you said there. And I have something to add to that. I think it's, it's, I think what you're getting at, and at least for me, is I've created these buckets of relationships, or maybe, I guess, what is a relationship, right? Is it a connection, or is it a relationship? Are the two equal? Are they different?
So what I've done, well, it's like saying, Wait, that's like saying, acquaintances and friends, right? Connections and relationships, right? They're different, right? So,
you know, you create that buckets and those relationships, that that group of 12 that I would call my tribe, right? Like I could call on them anytime I would do anything for them. We definitely have a monthly meetup, breakfast or drinks or, you know, whatever it is. But then I have, you're right, those connections are really important. And I've spent time, you know, creating those, and I want to nurture those. And you do, you need to at least keep watering that seed, right?
So it doesn't need to be every day, but if i i see a mutual connection, or I know something about them, or what their services, that they provide, or an article or a book, you know, just thought of you, thought of you, and that goes back to, I love, I don't know if you're familiar with Bob Berg book, The Go Giver, but he was
on my podcast. Oh my
gosh, I went on my mind, I give that book away more than any other book, but, yeah, so being a servant leader, right? And just he's amazing, not asking giving more than you get back. Yeah. In return, give her skin, as they say, Yeah. And there's a, there's actually another book. Since I'm on that, yeah, topic, I'm not sure if you're familiar with it. Maybe this would be something you would like to check out. It's from the early 2000s think 2002 His name is Tim Sanders. It's
called Love is the killer app. Don't know that one? Oh yeah. It's a it's a great book. He was a big, a big guy at Yahoo, I believe in the think tank, but it's, it's, it's all about sharing. You know, it's wrapped around love, but it's kind of like Bob's book. It's all about servant leadership, sharing your knowledge, sharing your network, sharing your compassion. It's, it's the love, right? Just and he calls it being a love cat. And I love that. So there's a few guys in my network that I
call them. They're my love cats. They know everybody, and they don't care if you ask them, they will connect you. They will do whatever they need to do to help you out right then and there, and they don't expect anything in return. I'm like, Yeah, that's awesome, man, as we need more people like that. So it's a great book, and it's very similar to Bob's book The Go Giver just, it's all about just being a servant lever. Yeah,
there's so many grieving, just loving people
and sharing and being compassionate. So yeah, it's all good.
Yeah, it's that's really cool. So you mentioned, what's it called? Now, I just gone brain dead.
The course that you took, Positive Intelligence. Yes, Positive Intelligence.
I heard about it when it was first happening. I think it was early COVID times, maybe, I'm not sure. And and then the people that got trained brought other people in, and then they got went through the course. Is that how it still operates?
Yeah? You need to be a certified PQ coach, yeah, and go through his program, and then you can offer it, and like any coaching, you know, program. And then there's, there's a book too, a New York Times best selling book that you can read. And then there's also an account. Also an accompanying app that you can, you can utilize.
So can you give me a quick synopsis as to how you would use that in your business? Well, you're a coach, so I can see how you would do it. But well,
even in my in any business, okay, I mean, really it's, it's a, it's a personal characteristic for me as a leader, right? So for me, what it did, I didn't have a pause button. I was pretty short fused. I was a hot head. My whole life. I would go from one to 10. There was no break, there
was no pause, there was no reflection. So what this did by me, training my brain, rewiring my brain through basically mental exercises, just like physical exercise, I'm doing these things, rubbing my fingers, you know, recognizing the areas my faults, you know, in the mice, he calls them saboteurs. You know, the things that that really throw me off my game, that put me into a negative mindset, doing the reps, and then eventually I can just do that. I can just rub my
fingers. And honestly, it takes me to a whole different place. It's crazy how it works, but you're building more gray matter, and you're really just shifting from a negative to a positive. It's, it's that, I don't want to say it's that simple, you know, and I still have moments, but it took a year to really build. It's a long process. It is a long process, but it works and so, so how that has affected me as a leader, you know, where you know, as especially a small business,
right? Every day there's something, there's a curve ball, you know, put put COVID aside in the economy, but there's, there's always something, you're a small team, and anything could happen. It just throws you off your game. You know, I would get so upset, and it would just throw me into a negative mindset. My recovery time was like, two, three days, yeah, you know. And I'm not getting anything done. I got a long list. I wear 10 hats, just like probably most of your listeners,
but now I'm just Mr. Chill, nothing. It doesn't bother me. I'm like, You know what? So this book, this teaches you not only to pause and reflect, but to find the gift and opportunity. So I look at I say, You know what? Okay, last week I come in, our internet's down. Two days, our internet's down. I mean, I'm freaking mad, yeah, but what the hell am I going to do about it? It's down, so I'm at the mercy of AT and T so you say, what? Where's the gift? Okay, we can't get to the server. What can we
do? So it forces us to have other conversations, or maybe we plan. We didn't really have a game plan in place. So now let's say, Okay, this is forcing us to have a game plan. So when this happens again, you know, we're a billable service or a service company, so if my people aren't working, they can't get to the server, they're not billing, and I'm losing money, right? So anyhow, so yeah, it's really, it's changed me as a leader. So it's a personal growth trait, but that is trickling down. And
then my team sees that. Sure they've seen the changes that are making, and they've also seen that I've I've made this an important piece of my life that I want to grow. So I'm setting the example for them. And I actually paid to have one of my employees go through that program as well, and it's changed her life.
That's amazing. So it's,
it's cool. So, yeah, it's, you know, it's, it works, yeah, transcends down to me. I don't know if
I can focus long enough anymore, but I do. I am fascinated by it because it keeps coming back around. On to me. So a little bit more. Unfortunately,
a lot of people don't know about it, but just recently, more people have noticed. So I'm feeling a little bit better. I'm like, gosh, this is a New York Times bestseller, yeah, came from Stanford, like, but yeah, guys got, got the pedigree for sure. That's backed by science, yeah, which is great.
Um, so let's just last couple of questions. One, so, how do you absorb material best? Do you watch? Do you listen? Do you read, still, real books, or what do you watch? TV? Whatever?
Yeah, that's a really good question. Like other entrepreneurs, my time is very limited. And this is actually interesting point. My commute is seven minutes, depending on how many lights. And one of the benefits of being an entrepreneur is I chose where the office was going to be located, right to my house. Yeah, so I don't have that time that I could leverage for a podcast, yeah. So I do, I do love to read, and I love an old school book, hardback book. I
have 30 that are on my list, but and I do podcasts. So if I'm cutting the grass, or if I'm doing something that's going to be for a decent period of time, raking the leaves or whatever, I'll put on a podcast. So I do love podcasts. I don't like audio books. I know a lot of people do. It's just not tried that yet. Not my stick. I love just sitting down with the book in my hand, going to a quiet place when the family's asleep, and just getting an hour of reading in. And then I take
notes on the book. So one of the things that I've shifted this year was I was all about and you were probably like this too, Janice, like I just wanted to check it off. I had this, this list, you know, or this goal of 12 books, a book a month, and I would, Gosh, darn, I'm going to check that off. And I'm, you know, rushing through on like I'm not really taking it in. Yeah, so I said, You know what? And I've heard a couple other podcasts, and people say they're reading the same book, 234,
times. Don't get that? Okay, I don't either. It's like a movie, but I do get it now, because, you know, you could read 30 books and maybe remember pieces and parts of them, or you could know five of the best books like the back of your hand. Yeah,
that's though. I do like that. You're right. Because I always think, why would I want to watch that again or read that again, because there's so much more out there. But you're absolutely right. Yeah, I
get caught up in FOMO honestly. Yes, I meet, you know, I have these, these business meetings, you know, with my tribe, and my buddy says, hey, oh, you should check out Robin sharma's new book. And I'm like, oh, man, who's that?
Then you got to go through the whole thing, yeah? And
then I got a stack of all those books. Yeah. Now, you know, I'm depressed because I'm 30 deep and, but it's all, it's all good. It's, you know, I love them. I give them away. That's my favorite thing. If all my guests on my show get a book nice, you know, young people that I meet and mentor and and give advice to. I give them a book, just nothing better than a book, you know. Okay,
so that brings me to your last to my last question, what's your best piece of advice you would put out there for my audience? Yeah,
the best piece I was thinking about this one because you gave me a little heads up. Yeah,
I didn't know I was going to ask that one, but that's what I'm going to ask. Yeah,
no. Best, the best piece of advice I would give that's that's really related to this show, I think, is to get off your island. And I just had this conversation with one of my employees, literally 10 minutes ago. My My top, you know, key employee, and I said, you need to, you need to get off. You need you need to find that peer group, somebody that you know you can have that conversation with, the open, transparent
conversation in a safe space. It's not the people that report to you, even though they're friends and you're comfortable, you need to find someone else. I can't be that person anymore. Yeah, I'm the owner of the company. We can have conversations that you, that you and others can have, but there's going to be things that you just want to have, someone else that you can talk to, that you can vet. Maybe it's about me, and
that's fine, like you just need to find your tribe. Find your tribe, find that group of people that can be your board of directors, so to speak, your cabinet, whatever you want to call it. We all need help. We all need people to talk to.
That's going to be this is going to be another another session, another conversation. But I would love to step into those young people. They're probably young people, right? Ken. They see past doing it all on their phone to actually having that physical connection with a group of people and talk good question. I think I know we have to do that next time. Yeah. I
think, yeah. 30s, yeah, yes, when you get down to 20s and the teens, and they
are not, my daughter's 12.
I don't know. I do worry about that. I think we're gonna, they're gonna be on the struggle bus in terms of building, creating, nurturing relationships, because, yeah, you have a relationship on a phone. I don't, I don't know. It's not the same. I'm sorry. And just being able to talk, communicate and and and really relate and feel and see somebody's emotions as they're looking at you, and be able to read the room. So yeah,
oh, that was what I wanted to talk to you about. I'm going to have to have you back, because that's the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. You said something in your website about being able to draw people out really quickly and and, you know, get to know their life history and things like that really quickly. That's me. I'm like that too. And there's so many people who aren't like that that I find it, it's very it's another whole socio it is sociological study. You know, it
is, and I don't think that's something that you can learn. I know. I don't either. I know, you know. And the people that you meet, a lot of more coaches, we just, I just had a coach on the other day, my coach was on the show, and she said the same thing. She's like, I'm in an airport, and someone sits, sits next to me, a total stranger, and they're telling me their whole life story.
Yeah, it's a certain kind of person I know. Yeah, thanks. It's cool,
though. It's a great trait to have, right? Yes, especially if you love people and you love learning about them and you're just being open.
Yeah, this is fun. Thank you, Todd, for being on the show. Where can my people find you? I know they can put it in the show notes, but yeah,
they can find me on my website, Todd, burch.com, or they can find me on all the social media platforms. The bolts with Todd, sounds good, yep, yep. And then check out my podcast. The bolt. You can find that on all the podcast platforms as well. So yeah, thanks, Janice, this has been a lot of fun. You know, I think you and I have are building a relationship here. I think so too. Connection. I love it. Thanks for having me
so much. You're very welcome. Bye for now, and thank you to my audience for being here, and remember to stay connected and be remembered. You.