Stephen Kotler
Appearances
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
And you'll receive a link to download the notes from today's episode. Also, if you haven't got your copy of my newest book, Elevate, please go check it out. I'll share with you how I attracted and developed a winning team that helped me build a $200 million company in 22 states. Just go to elevateandwin.com forward slash podcast to get your copy. Now let's go back into the interview.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Welcome back to the Home Service Expert. Today is an amazing day. It's a Sunday. And you guys know Joe Polish and I are great friends and part of the 100K group. He is probably the best networker on the planet. I've never seen anybody even come close. And his great friend, Stephen Collar, here. I got to know Stephen Collar at the last meeting. It was probably like six months ago.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Yeah, about a year ago. And Stephen's wrote... I don't like not one, not two, but probably a dozen, 14 books, 14 books. He's the expert of flow. I mean, there's like, he is the world renowned expert. And this idea of flow is what athletes do. It's what doctors do. It's what businessmen do. It's what everybody does when they get in this 500% better results. And we talked a lot.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
No, it's barely any time. This idea of flow starts with struggle. And I just, I don't know what burnout and maybe I just never experienced burnout, but I've always seen the vision. I think my job is to maintain a vivid vision and help people understand I'm the dumbest guy in the room. I thought I was the dumbest guy. I'm always the dumbest guy. I'm the dumbest guy in this room.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
We bring in the best of the best. We let them do their work. But I don't know not how to hit the gas. And I could see that I could burn out people really, really quickly. But I don't even understand what burnout is. So let me define it in the terms you just... So this is...
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Gina Wickman talked about this with me. Do you know Wickman? He just said, hey, I got to the top of the mountain, sold 87.5% of EOS. Super successful. Changed the world the way we think about business. And I was depressed, like nobody's business. I had hit every pinnacle that I've set out to get. And I felt useless. I felt like I gave up my baby. I felt I had all the money in the world.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
And I think a lot of people feel that way when they... Either when they sell or they're growing something and they hit these goals, but it comes at a price.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
We're going to talk about goal setting. One of the biggest things you talk about a lot is just the neural connections and some of these ideas of these different ways to get in the flow. And now there's the neurotransmitters, the dopamine release, the Burning Man festivals, and just all these different ideas. So we're going to jump into this.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
I don't think this is going to be a foo-foo, rah-rah podcast. This is really good about performance and about being your best self. So Joe's here. What's your biggest takeaway? I mean, you've known Kotler for a long time.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Everyone needs a checklist. When I go on stages, they're like, where do I even get started? Like literally I try to give the best information possible, out of the ocean because I've been doing this. I'm an overnight success of two decades. Right. Me too. And it's hard to go back to the beginning of sub a million dollars.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
So when I talk about brand and I talk about the worst word in the English dictionary, when I started business was culture. I'm like, I got people stealing from me. I got a guy that flipped over a truck. I got the cops here. I got people not answering the phones, sitting on Facebook. And you're talking to me about culture. And now I'm like, you can't live without it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
But this stress and anxiety, I get stress and anxiety. But I make decisions and I rip off the band-aids really, really quickly. Like the best state I get in is put me between a rock and a hard spot. Put the world on my shoulders. It's weird. It's like, put me in an impossible situation. And then that's when I perform my best.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
You talk a lot about the autonomy and a lot of people don't even know how to turn off. They don't know how to take time. And this is something, you know, Dan Martell, I've talked to a lot about is like, I didn't really ever reflect or take time for myself. And that's, what's kind of my superpower.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
And I was like, I go on these long, long walks and I could reflect and I could say, think through things. And I just think so many people, they don't realize there's 168 hours in a week. You spend 50 sleeping, 50 working. You got to work on yourself. You talk a lot about readers. You got to be reading and learning and curiosity. You spent 10 working out. You still got 60 hours left.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
So a lot of people say, I don't have the time. And they get boggled down and distracted. And ADHD is a real thing, especially for business owners. I guess, how do you find the time to get into flow? And what are the actions?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
If you had to build a step-by-step guide, and we can go into the three tiers of goal setting too, but if you had to set a guide to kind of go into this state more often and get your team into the state.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
With the very hardest thing you need to do right when you get out of bed.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
So I've read a lot about like Jeff Bezos, for example, he does his morning routines. He's got to have his cup of coffee, read the wall street journal, He has a few things go on in the morning. His most important meeting is between 10 and 12. So do you think... For me, I got a cold plunge, go in the sauna, wake up.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Doesn't feel like work when you love what you do. Feels like play, right? Well, listen, I'll tell you the journey I've been on. It starts with sleep. And a lot of people, they don't get the right sleep.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Yeah, no, moral support. I think, Stephen, I read that you, and I know this about you, you got Lyme disease. You were out for a while, a couple years really, brain fog. And then a friend of yours came by and said, I want to go take you surfing. And you can tell us about that story and tell us a little bit about you and just
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
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The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
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The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
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The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
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The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
I was just getting to this whole reverse engineer, like the brain's prediction machine.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
One of the things people always ask me is like, how do you accomplish so much in just a little time? And I'm like, it's pretty simple. My most open app on my phone is my calculator. I love math and I love KPIs and I love reverse engineering, whether that's getting to 10% body fat, soon to be 8%, whether that's these massive goals.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Hit a billion in revenue, I need 2,000 technicians to win 500,000 a year. So I got this, what would need to be true for this goal to happen? A smart goal, specific, meaningful, attainable, realistic goal. timely basis. My goals are stretch goals. Everything's a time. But mathematically it's already been done. It's been manifested. It's just, these are the steps.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
There's a question. I'll never forget this. I was 17 or 18 and I wouldn't work for Cheesecake Factory as a busboy. One of the questions they said is a scenario and there's no right answer. Client comes in, you know, potential customer wants to get sat. You got food that's ready that needs to get delivered to the table. You also got someone asking where the restroom is.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
You also realize a server's been double sat. How do you react to that? And really the answer, there's no right answer. It's just, I rely on my team. I do this. It's an order of operations. There's no wrong answer. When people just don't know, they're like, they can't critically think. About a solution.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
And that's what I'm looking for is people that can critically think on their feet scenario based is what are you going to do in this scenario? Because you take a step back when we talk about checklists, you know, I rely a lot on Google calendar. Almost, I counted the things the other day and I think it's a little too much, 23 things on my calendar.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
And now talking to you, I'm like, I probably need four hours of nothing except for those big things to get done that day.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
to solve the crisis i'm absolutely the best guy you can find for it that's what i need to sleep on it and i can wake up and my subconscious will solve the problems for me so we talked a lot about goals we talked about bite-sized goals we talked about three types of goals you know and one of the definitions you put in one of your books was the ultimate condition for accomplishing the impossible is flow the ultimate condition for accomplishing the impossible
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
And how do you eat a elephant? One bite at a time. And I think that's really what we're talking about. Four percent of the time, man. So here's a summary of a few things. Number one is you're absolutely right. When I got a clean office, when I got my beds made, when things are done right, when the meals are served right, when I get the right sleep, when the hydration is working right.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Like all these things compounded in productivity for sure. I find myself exactly like you said, I hit a wall and it just turns off. Like I cannot do this anymore. And sometimes I like the people are trying to rein me in and say, you're the one that set up this 14 hour day. So I got to, my biggest thing is like, I have a hard time saying, no, I think you need to do it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Especially with like people that, Hey, I need a minute. I'm overly accommodating to my own device at times so much. And like, I see a guy like Dan and a lot of these people, they're like, no, They say no. And Dan told me, he goes, you need to practice. He goes, what is your most important thing? He goes, it's probably keeping my word. And he goes, so that's the first thing we're going to break.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
He goes, you need to practice breaking your word. He goes, if you promise the neighbor you're going to mow their lawn for the next four years, you need to figure out a way and say your time has changed. And you need to pay them back, find somebody else to do it, figure out a way out of that. Because that's your demise, is your word is your bond. You're making that statement.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
So what happens if you're helping out? That's not fair to everyone else around you. That's not fair to your company. That's not fair to your parents. It's not fair to Bree. So that's one thing I'm really working on. And it sounds bad, breaking your promise, breaking your word. But it's not leaving somebody high and dry. That's not the goal. But I'm just trying to work through these things.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
It's very hard because if you say my word is my bond, my word is my everything, then You're telling your brain you can never break it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Yeah. You know, I love this stuff. There's so much we keep going on. I mean, to understand this state, everyone feels it. Everyone has it. And when you get into it, it's like you're happy. But I do agree with you. And the science, I guess, backs it up. But if you're not creating and you're just taking this linear path and you shut off this creative side, then you really go nowhere.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
I find people just, I think, let me just ask you one question here. A lot of it has to do with trust and getting burned along the way. Because like, if you can't trust people to get things done, I know a lot of people think if they don't do it, it won't be done right. There's no delegation skills. There's no ability. And people let you down. And no one will do it as good as you.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
And a lot of people are closed. Most people in business tend to rely on themselves. They become the worker. I mean, this is Michael Gerber. Like you come in as the worker and you stay in that worker mode versus entrepreneur mode. Have you noticed any of that is like the power of delegation?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Perfect is the enemy of... Good is the enemy of the great.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
The idea about it is no one knows how to get started for the most part. It's got to be perfect. We're not ready for that. We're just not ready. And I'm like the type of guys we are. We jump out of a plane, we build a parachute on the way down. I'm like, shoot, ready, aim.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
They said his ability, most people take two weeks to make a decision, like a big, big decision. These big decisions, he makes in 30 minutes. He walked into the Twitter like location and they said, you can't move. You can't move out of this building and all these restrictions. And he said, we just unplug here. We'll see if Twitter goes down. He unplugged all the servers. It stayed up.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
He just, this idea of making decisions quickly. And what I find is when I'm stressed and I have anxiety, it's because I'm lacking the ability to make decisions quickly. Like there's something festering. So the more I listen to that good voice, that hard voice that says, no drinking, get your sleep, go on the cold plunge, do your long walk. The easier it is to do harder things that day.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
It's like it starts to compound and it starts to get easier.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
My problem with that, just thinking about that, It's like, I do not really get a hold. I get satisfaction when I get out of the cold plunge, but I don't love the feeling when I first get in. And I don't love the feeling of sitting in that sauna past 17 minutes. I don't love the feeling, a lot of the feelings. 17 minutes. Yeah, 17 minutes.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Well, you know, cold plunging is three to five minutes.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
So, you know, NVIDIA, the CEO says, if I would have known business from the start, there's no way I'd do it again.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
So I go to this question, who, not how, When somebody says it's impossible, I say, if I gave you $100 million and I gave you access to 100 of the most, the best specialists in this, I would not say, like, I called you all the time, like, who's the best at this? And I pay for access. I mean, literally, like if you take money out of the equation, it's like, why would you not go?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
If you want to learn how to surf, why not go with the best that knows how to get you from zero to hero the quickest? I think a lot of people that go, they want to say no because they say it's just not possible. And if you get the right people around you, like if you got the best marketer in the world that's known for doing books, they only work with three clients a year.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
You can probably get that time from four years down to three. Oh yeah.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
And if we wanted to, tell me a little bit about Zero to Dangerous. So you actually trained this and-
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
I love this. Well, listen, I really appreciate you guys coming in today. This was a great podcast. And we went about two hours and 10 minutes, according to Giuseppe.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
I love it. No, it's genius. And like I could sum it all up. I mean, literally remove the distractions, do the hard things first, set small goals that compounded a massive goals that, you know, change your life. And when you reflect back, it's the big things that you got done. And there's so much more and so many details to some of this two hours, but I really appreciate both of you.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Hey there, thanks for tuning into the podcast today. Before I let you go, I want to let everybody know that Elevate is out and ready to buy. I can share with you how I attracted a winning team of over 700 employees in over 20 states. The insights in this book are powerful and can be applied to any business or organization.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
It's a real game changer for anyone looking to build and develop a high performing team like over here at A1 Garage Door Service. So if you want to learn the secrets that helped me transfer my team from stealing the toilet paper to a group of 700 plus employees rowing in the same direction, head over to elevateandwin.com forward slash podcast and grab a copy of the book.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Thanks again for listening and we'll catch up with you next time on the podcast.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States
Before we get started, I wanted to share two important things with you. First, I want you to implement what you learned today. To do that, you'll have to take a lot of notes, but I also want you to fully concentrate on the interview. So I asked the team to take notes for you. Just text NOTES to 888-526-1299. That's 888-526-1299.