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Video Transcript
[The following is the full transcript of this episode of The Legendary Marketer Show. Please note that in this episode, like all LM Show episodes, David’s words are unscripted and unedited.]
Hey, what's going on my friend? This is Dave Sharpe. Welcome to the Legendary Marketer Show.
I'm going to take you on a really cool adventure today. I was recently in Death Valley, which is out in California. My wife and I went out there, and we just wanted to explore and have an adventure.
Wow, I can tell you that it was like, surreal. It was it was like an out of out of body experience almost. I almost think back about some of the journey, some of the day, and it felt like an adventure, it felt like a dream.
So anyway, more about that. I'll daydream about that later. You'll see how cool it is here in a second.
But as an entrepreneur, if you're going to be a hungry marketer, if you're going to be a hungry business owner, if you're going to be building a business online, if you're to be trying out affiliate marketing, if you want to really thrive then you have to avoid some pitfalls. One of them is burnout.
I can tell you from experience in the past, I've burned out many times. Sometimes it was because I wasn't getting enough sleep, I wasn't eating properly. I was just not putting my phone down enough. We look at screens all day long. We look at this screen, and then we go from this screen to this screen, and then the TV screen. Then it's like screen screen screens.
We, as human beings who were born with screens, I don't think they were around however many years ago when humans first started to grace this planet, but now all of a sudden we're in front of them all day long. You know that takes a toll on our body. I'm not a scientist. I don't know exactly the toll it takes our body. But it's definitely not all good. Some of it's good. It can't all be good.
So anyways, I've burned out from just working too much, staring at screens all day long, and you know, if you've hustled hard enough on anything for a period of time, you can relate to that. Or even worked at a job. Some people, you're either a full-blown workaholic or you sort of teeter on the line.
For me, I'm passionate. I have that problem. It's a gift, and it's a curse. I like to work hard. I like to hustle. I'm passionate about what I do. Quite frankly, when you're working for yourself and you're making your own hours, and you realize you can do it, and you start to get some footing under yourself, and you feel confident about what you're doing, it's like being in a great hobby. It doesn't even feel like you're working.
That's how I have felt a lot over the years. All of a sudden, boom, I'd hit a brick wall, and I'd be like holy crap, I'm drained. So anyway, I'm going to be giving some tips today about how to avoid burnout, and I'm going to do it from a really really really cool location, in Death Valley California.
David: Hey what's going on guys? Dave Sharpe, and my beautiful queen, and we are somewhere extremely unique right now. We've been here all day, bet you can't guess where it is. It's really cool back there, as you can see. The terrain here, well, that's what it's famous for, right?
Gonna show you something here in a second. You're going to see it just as I see it, so check this out. Wow. Look at this. If you never been a Death Valley, unbelievable. Look at this. That gorgeous honey? Unbelievable.
We're going to get some shots. Working really really hard to get up to the top of this mountain. Like a lot of things in life, right? Hard work, then you get the payoff.
Again, this is one of those videos where we're just gonna take it all in for a second.
A lot of business stuff to talk, a lot of marketing stuff to talk about. But sometimes it's just about the beauty of mother nature, man. Today is a beautiful day. We're going to take some pictures of my queen here real quick. We'll be back with you here in just a second.
Look at this view. Hold on, let me stand up here. Look at this. Beautiful. This is the sunset view, Death Valley California.
Sitting down here, we've been enjoying this view, this vast view. We were just wondering if the pictures that were taken are actually picking up how vast this is. Hoping the camera is even focusing.
Erin: It's so quiet.
David: It is quiet. In a noisy world full of like hustle and bustle, this is a much-needed breakaway, right? Everybody needs this.
Erin: I want to remember it.
David: It's nice to have a little place that you go to when you are feeling the stresses of everyday life. Where do you go? Do you go to a drink, a drug, some sort of addictive behavior? So many of us are hooked on an escape, like drugs and alcohol, and porn, and food, TV and video games, and all this stuff. It's not like every day we can come out here to a place like this, most of us anyways live in actual society, civilization.
Erin: I saw the population of that one town we were in. It was 24.
David: 24 people in this little town.
Erin: I bet that they know everybody's business.
David: The drama, it's like Jerry Springer on steroids. So, where do you go when you are feeling the pressures of life and you want to get away? You need to get away.
I think that one of the reasons why I smoke cigars is because it's a way that I relax, away from all of the everyday voices and devices and screens and internets, and my gosh. Right? Just sitting there kind meditating for an hour, thinking about what happened that day. Sometimes I'm not smoking a cigar. I'll just go out and sit on my back patio.
But it's important to have that, I think, for all of us, especially people who are trying to be entrepreneurs, because if you don't, you're just going to get burned out. What doesn't come out in the wash comes out in the rinse. If the stress doesn't get dealt with in a healthy way, then it's going to get dealt with some way. That's usually how addictions form. That's usually how bad habits form. It's usually how things that we end up working years to try and get rid of, because there were years in the making.
Things that we eventually end up destroying us, in a sense. They usually don't just happen overnight. It's because nobody talked to us about having coping mechanisms to be able to deal with the everyday stresses of life. I know I didn't. So what did I do? As a man, formed other unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with everyday stresses of life. For the traumas of childhood or whatever, we all have, which we all have a little bit all of that. Some to more varying degrees than others.
Erin and I try to always have something to look forward to. A trip planned is one of the strategies that we've used, right?
Erin: Yeah.
David: Of something on the calendar that we can look forward to. This happens to be my birthday week, so we're in Vegas and we're, it's about a two-hour trip. What?
Erin: I was making a funny face. Hi! You know what I just realize? The lie I tell myself when I am home is that I always think that when I think about places like this, I think God's here. That's why I need to come here. But God is everywhere. Even in my little home.
David: For sure. Mostly in our little home.
Erin: So I think coming places like this, maybe I can remember that. I'll take it home with me, then I can find peace everywhere. Because when you look at something like this, you can't, I can't deny, that there's some sort of higher power.
David: Whatever your belief is, it's irrelevant. You've got to believe something when you see this. It's like way bigger. Even just the power of the planet and the universe. Just how things perfectly happen, like all the stuff out here perfectly happens. The climate, the lines of mountains and the horizon.
We just came from a place to where the water ran off the mountains, and it evaporated all the water and formed these huge salt beds. It was just on and on, just 200 miles, I think, of just this salt ground.
Erin: It was legit. I loved it.
David: It was legit salt. So something to think. We, of course, have trips planned. We try to have trips planned. When we don't, we're kind of sad. We're like, we need to get a trip planned.
So that's one way to deal with the everyday stresses of life and entrepreneurship and being dads and moms.
Erin: Show them how it's turning purple.
David: Is it? Hopefully, they can see. I don't know. Can you see? It's turning purple.
Another thing that I think is important is to unplug from technology for at least one day a week. I like to also try to unplug at night as best as I can. One day a week, I think that's important. The more I get detached from like social media and stuff, and really just look at it as a business tool and not as just a social thing, because honestly, I think that's a big lie, it's a bunch of horseshit that we're actually socializing with our devices.
All you're doing it's like an instant email feature, and you see a picture of somebody. So that's like saying email is socializing. It's not really socializing, it's just sending somebody a message. The fact that you can instantly message somebody on a post, like a picture that they post, is just like a faster email. It's not really actually socializing.
Erin: I think the trick though, is to allow it to enhance your social life and not become your social life.
David: Yeah.
Erin: Because it is cool to connect with people far away.
David: Totally cool.
Erin: But it should replace…
David: The biggest thing I think about disconnecting and keeping from burning out is you actually really gotta find what works for you. One thing that works for us, may not work for you, I promise you a trip to Vegas – planned by her especially, she's like the planning queen – is definitely going to be a great detoxer.
Erin: You can take a trip in your own city.
David: So I think the most important thing is sort of daily coping mechanisms, the daily things. Those are some things that we do. Studies show that looking forward to a trip actually brings people more happiness than going on the trip. So having something planned is totally, you know, you should always have something planned that you're looking forward to. I really thoroughly believe in that. You'll probably enjoy what you do, but you'll also enjoy looking forward to doing it too. And it's a better easier way to sort of hang on to, okay, I'm going to do my diet, or I'm going to stick to my schedule or whatever. I'll let loose when I go vacation. Even if is just a small trip. We've done a lot of staycations.
All those things work, especially if you've got kids. We've got a two-year-old, we do a lot of staycations. As a matter of fact, we didn't start traveling away from her for a long time. This is the longest trip that we're on right now that we've ever done away from her.
So you can do it. It's possible, even if your moms and dads and families and stuff like that. Give yourself permission to actually get away from your husband or your spouse at night. Everybody needs their own space. We didn't realize of for many years. I guess we didn't give ourselves permission to do it. It makes the time that you spend together more special, so you can be independent, whole people coming together to make a unit instead of two halves trying to make a whole. It never works.
Spend time with your kids. We do certain things every week with our kids and our family. Having those things scheduled makes sure that they happen, too. That's another thing that's really important. If you don't schedule family outings and things for yourself, then they're probably not going to happen.
That's the thought I'll leave you with. If you don't schedule it, it's not going to happen. It's just not. We always can come up with an excuse or a reason, or we're too tired or something. If we schedule it, then we gotta flake out on ourselves. And that doesn't really feel good. You start flaking on yourself enough, either you're going to not like you, or someone's going to call you out on it.
So get it on the calendar. You Time. Daily. I think, for us, we try to do something together daily, weekly, and monthly. Right now, it's probably been bi-monthly, but daily we spend time together, every morning and at night.
Then weekly, we do a date night. We have stuff planned with our daughter. Every week, multiple times. Then we try to go on some sort of a trip. It ends up being about every other month. But I think that's kind of a good rule. I think that should apply to individuals, too. Daily, weekly, monthly. What are you doing for yourself each day to unplug?
You've got to reward yourself even if it's just for your hard work. Each week, maybe it's a massage, something like that. Then, each month or you know every other month if you're a busy parent like we are. Anyways, I'm going to leave you.
Erin: I'll tell you what, right now we need to schedule dinner.
David: Alright guys, peace.