How do you find balance and purpose when life feels overwhelming?

Todd Bertsch shares his journey of personal growth, self-reflection, and the power of relationships. Todd, a business owner, life coach, and host of The Bolt podcast, opens up about how the challenges of COVID pushed him to reassess his life and pursue a deeper purpose. From learning to shift his mindset through Positive Intelligence training to the importance of finding your tribe, Todd emphasizes how resilience and connection have transformed his life.

He also talks about the power of building relationships intentionally, getting off the “island” of isolation many entrepreneurs experience, and finding happiness by aligning work and personal growth. Todd’s story is an inspiring reminder that it’s never too late to find clarity and joy in life.

Highlights:

• Shifting from a negative to a positive mindset can dramatically improve both your personal and professional life.
• Building a supportive tribe is essential for growth and navigating life’s challenges—no one succeeds alone.
• Self-reflection and intentional action are key to finding purpose and balance during times of change.
• Relationships thrive on trust and nurturing; consistency is vital to maintaining meaningful connections.
• Taking time to reset and pursue personal growth can lead to greater fulfillment and long-term success.

Connect with Todd:

Website: https://www.toddbertsch.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddmbertsch/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theboltwithtoddb

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theboltwithtoddb/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theboltwithtoddb

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theboltwithtoddb

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/theboltwithtoddb/

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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.