Adrian has led an eventful life. Born in Yorkshire in the north of England but moved with his family to the Philippines aged 8 and then lived in various countries around Asia for many years after going to university in the US.
He’s nearly drowned twice, built three businesses and almost been bankrupt three times.
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Episode 38 – Adrian Shepherd – 11-06-2019.mp3
[00:00:00] Exceeding expectations. Episode 38.
[00:00:16] Welcome to this week’s edition of exceeding expectations. The podcast where we aim to give you ideas of ways that you can give your customers a better experience in some way. Most of the guests that come on here have the aim of trying to over deliver or just give their customers a different experience from what they were expecting rather than just simply meeting expectations. They try to over deliver in some way. This week’s guest is Adrian shepherd and it’s a second time lucky. We tried to have him on before and there was something wrong. Something went wrong with the recording and couldn’t really quite work out what it was. But we’ve got him on now and he’s had an interesting life. He was caught up in the tsunami in Southeast Asia back in 2004. Second guess because we had Michelle Miller’s Porter was also caught up in that same tsunami and it changed his life dramatically. So that’s coming up in just a few seconds. If you do like this show please do leave a review for us on iTunes Stitcher and Spotify and all the various podcast platforms and maybe join a Facebook group which is called obviously exceeded expectations on Facebook starts and questions lots of conversations and hope you enjoy this week’s show with Ada and Shepard.
[00:01:44] Welcome to exceeded expectations. This week we are speaking with Adrian shepherd. How are you Adrian. I’m good Tony. Thanks for having me. I will be second time lucky where we’re going to see if technology is in favour of us this time.
[00:01:57] Yeah well hopefully it goes down to the pit here.
[00:02:03] So you’re over in Japan on. That’s correct. And so how long have you been in Japan.
[00:02:09] Well it’s going on close to 25 years total maybe.
[00:02:15] Wow. And where where abouts in Japan are you.
[00:02:18] I mean Osaka usually the second largest city. Does that mean. So what’s a few million people.
[00:02:27] So what. So who overtook Osaka then Yokohama actually. Oh I see okay. I realized I thought I thought it was selling because I’ve been so a myself I used to live in Cobar and I think we had that conversation the last time. But yeah you have a very Japanese accent. Adrian who.
[00:02:45] Well I don’t know. I guess it’s just only years of helping people master English working with foreign students and living in Asia. I guess I just pick up this weird accent where I’m not really English I’m not really American. I don’t know what I am I’m just the person. And that’s OK.
[00:03:01] Well that’s something we because I remember you mentioned in it you I think you were born in Yorkshire but then you travelled around quite a bit.
[00:03:08] That’s correct. Yes.
[00:03:10] Said you want to sort of expand on that a bit.
[00:03:12] My pleasure. Well back in the early 80s things were not looking good for my father in the sense that he was in the garment industry and basically all the factories were moving overseas just to be competitive. And so my father was one of the first people let go in his company because he didn’t have a college degree and so we looked around or he looked around for a job and basically there was nothing available for him. So he got a job offer in the Philippines and we didn’t even know what the Philippines was back then I mean nowadays everybody knows where places like Kath and Tahiti are but back in the day. I mean people were basically limited to their just surroundings.
[00:03:59] And yeah I mean nobody knew what the Philippines was. I mean telling people back then that we’re going to move to the Philippines was like telling them we’re going to the moon. It was that bizarre. And I didn’t realize what a big deal it was. As a little kid I just I was told the movie I was like OK I’m OK sure.
[00:04:20] I mean I had no clue what it entailed but I knew was a big deal because I was told that I was going to be there’s going to be a ceremony at the school to say goodbye to me farewell events or something I don’t want I can’t read what it’s called. But when I got into the gymnasium I realized what a big deal it was because I was at the centre of everything I was on stage with the teachers and the teachers gave a big speech about how I was leaving and I’m like Where the hell am I going.
[00:04:51] You know it was just kind of overwhelming for me a little bit.
[00:04:55] And yeah in the Philippines back then is not the way it is today. I mean it’s very modernized and it’s easy to get foreign goods now in those places. But when I was there it was it was interesting. Let’s put it that way. I mean the weather was great. I love the beaches and the crystal clear waters. I have such fond memories of the Philippines but I also remember that sometimes we’re tough and we had five days without water electricity you know three days it’s tough. And you got to just make do but it was a life changing experience for all of us. It made me see when the world was like and if course it changed my parents life because my father was able to slowly move up the ranks and eventually landed a quite a good job with Mattel and then he moved on to and not the motorcycle transport the bra manufacturing from out of Germany. And that took us to Thailand. So I spent four years in Thailand the high school years and then I went to college in the States which is I guess where most of my accent comes from. And I really thought I’d hit the jackpot when I moved to America. I thought this is it. This is where I want to be for the rest of my life but it just didn’t path that way. And five or six years later I found myself here in Japan and I’ve been here ever since.
[00:06:24] And so why did you originally go to Japan.
[00:06:28] Well in college I just was looking for a part time job and I there was an opportunity available for an English teaching assistant where you’d help foreign students acclimate to American culture. And I thought OK I can do that.
[00:06:45] And so I first wasn’t picked because I hadn’t lived in America and they said well you don’t understand American culture but I attended American schools since the age of eight. So for me I only knew American culture. I really didn’t know British culture. And so luck would.
[00:07:01] As luck would have it one of the teachers bailed at the last moment so they called me up and said Are you still interested in the job. And I said yes. And I had just had some Japanese students in my group and I just love their passion and I thought.
[00:07:15] It’s kind of unfair in the way the world is today and this is back in the 90s because English is everywhere and I don’t have to study a foreign language. But these people are almost forced to in order to be able to compete in this environment. And I really respected them and I thought how hard it was to master English and I thought maybe it’s a little bit unfair for me to say why can’t you learn English when I can’t speak a foreign language myself. And just it piqued my interest that on top of that. So I just thought hey you know what I like America but it’s not exactly what I was looking for. And so I thought well let’s just go to see what your friends like and maybe I’ll like it. And lo and behold I mean when I tell my father was bunch of proud alfalfa it was the biggest waste of time because I said I’m going to learn Japanese is up. Yeah like that’s going to happen. Me. I wasn’t exactly the most studious student. I wasn’t stupid but I was clever at finding ways around things. Let’s put it that way. And it was the biggest shock to him. You said this was a big shock in his life that I actually was able to learn language so.
[00:08:22] And why do you sing now boys. What was it that was different about learning Japanese from what you tried before.
[00:08:28] Motivation you know when you when you want to learn something you learn it and when you don’t want to learn it you just block things off. I think that’s the biggest problem people have is that they say they can’t do something and once they start saying they can’t then they just find every reason why it’s not possible. Whereas if you say I’m going to find a way they will I mean the great story that I’d like to tell people I hope it’s ok and share this one with you is the story of Henry Ford and the V8 engine. If you’ve heard that before.
[00:09:00] Yeah absolutely. Great story.
[00:09:02] OK. And you know basically he he he talked his engineers and he said You know I want to be a engine and at the time be six was the biggest thing. And they said OK well we don’t know if we can do it but we will try our best. And they went way and six months later they came back and told them OK we tried everything. It’s just not possible we are not able to get the power and given all his reasons he said no no. Gentlemen I want a V8 engine. You make it happen. Go back in that room and you figure it out let back in six months later they come back and say Hey I’m sorry. Look we tried everything with the Ford. It’s just not happening it’s just not physically possible because of ABC D and F and finally he basically looks them in the eyes and said General you don’t understand. I want to make it happen.
[00:09:45] Six month later V8 engine was born and the rest is history and they say I don’t know if it’s absolutely true but there’s a very similar story with Steve Jobs and I think it was the iPhone or one of the motor was the iPhone. Yeah yeah. He did something very similar. The engineers kept coming back and saying they weren’t they weren’t able to do whatever it was he was asking and then he said no you can’t do this. And and eventually you know very much as in that story they did eventually do it because he demanded they did it right.
[00:10:14] And I think the same with learning a language especially when people say I can’t learn a language that’s completely false because if you take yourself and put yourself in another culture where you have no access to your original language you will pick up new language so quickly because out of desperation you need water you need food you want to ask for help you figure out these words fast because you have no other choice.
[00:10:44] So I laugh when people say that I can’t learn a language I think I was there once and I don’t think something else happens as well because it’s I’ve been in that situation a few times I live in quite a few countries around the world and I learned I went to a part of Spain where no one spoke English so I said made me learn Spanish. And when I lived in Indonesia and I learned Indonesian. But what I found I’m sure this is the same for you is that as you start to get more and more fluent reactions you get from local people are they just so surprised pleasantly surprised that you’ve taken the effort to learn their language. It really you get a really in days you more to them and you think more opportunities come your way because they look upon you more in a different way than it would be a most phone is never above it’s a learn their language.
[00:11:31] Absolutely. I mean that is spot on. You know they understand a lot of countries that they have to learn English because that’s the business language but they. We don’t have to learn their languages really I suppose.
[00:11:48] So those people that actually take the time and the effort and the energy to try and learn it and to understand their culture it says something about you and yeah you break down barriers. Absolutely. Mm hmm.
[00:12:02] And so you started was it you you you teach in English when you first went in there but then I mean I know that’s not what you’re doing now I think you still do it a little bit there was it was it you’re mostly doing now by going to the productivity.
[00:12:16] The thing is is that I when I started teaching students I was trying to figure out what why some people succeed and why some people didn’t. I thought there’s to be something that connects all of these students. And I looked at them over and over and over again and I finally nailed I came down to one simple truth and that is that the people who did it use their life their time effectively and the people who didn’t didn’t. And so I thought you know everybody’s always talking about they don’t have enough time. They want to spend time with a family.
[00:12:53] They want to travel and they’ve got so much work they can’t get it all done. And I thought you know wouldn’t it be great if people had more time on their hands that then they could do all the things that they want to do. They could learn the languages that they want to learn. They could write the books that they want to write. They could create these songs they have inside them that they can spend time seeing their son grow up. I thought that’s something really powerful and something that a lot of people need. And I thought teaching is just great. I like it. I really enjoy seeing people change but it’s a slow change it takes years of effort and time but in time management if I can teach people how to maximize their time and to get become more productive then I could really make a difference in people’s lives. And so that’s really what I got into.
[00:13:48] And I was really pushed over the edge when December 26 to s 2004 happened as we talked about last time.
[00:13:59] You know that’s the day that my life really changed forever and that was I found myself fighting for my life in the form of a tsunami barrelling down on me and my mom.
[00:14:13] Yeah I mean yeah. Tell us more about that.
[00:14:17] Well all year I’ve saved up money to go and enjoy a nice getaway vacation with my wife and I we’ve been married two years at a time been together about four. And I really wanted to take her scuba diving. I wanted to show hers a little bit of what I experienced as a child. Beautiful crystal clear water with all sorts of colours and fish and whales maybe even if we got lucky and just really explore that uncharted area for many people. And. I found that the best place to do in Thailand was a place called the similar islands but the only way to get there was from a small sleepy town called Khao Lak. I hadn’t even heard of it until I researched how to keep the civilians.
[00:15:09] And so I show my wife as she says the other looks lovely down there and so we did and we had a great time. Everything’s going perfectly and every day sunshine and turquoise seas. It was just close to paradise. And but on Boxing Day I guess we say in England right. You know 10 o’clock in the morning.
[00:15:36] I was in my bungalow with my wife and staring up at the ceiling and the sun was just spinning round and suddenly it turned off and you just kind of sound and the form of a blackout. Nothing happens. And it came back on. OK. And it went off again but this time it stayed often. Normally this stuff. But I mean everything got really really quiet. I mean you could have heard a pin drop. I mean there was nothing. I mean no insects no animals nothing. It was just an eerie silence. But I didn’t think much of it. I just thought wow that’s weird. And next thing I heard it was a scream and I was in the distance I really wasn’t sure what it was. I just heard somebody saying something. And so I I looked out and I saw men running across the swimming pool which was just about 50 meters in front of my cabin.
[00:16:30] And next thing I saw behind it was this wave just carry him off. How wonderful. Check that out. I mean that’s pretty much what I said. And I said Hey Coco there’s not much name. Take a look at this. And we just stood there in amazement watching this wave oh and this water just kept coming but we were off the ground about six feet so I thought nothing to worry about. But the water just kept coming. That’s a lot of water. And then our balcony disappeared under the water and it wasn’t this crystal clear water that I talked about a few minutes ago. It was like murky brown silty. I. It just looked yucky. I guess you could say and I thought OK well OK just don’t come in a cab and don’t come to the cabin. But it did come on. Come on. Okay. Now we have to start thinking about maybe getting out of here and sort of what’s the best way to do it. I thought oh maybe the bathroom is this way because from there we get out and climb up the mountain side by side the cliff side I guess. And I started to head there just to check how big the window was. But I didn’t make it like two feet because the room started shaking uncontrollably I mean I could barely stand. I mean I was doing everything I could just to keep my balance. I couldn’t move forward or backwards. I was just shit. I mean it was it was scary. I was like Oh my God I mean what’s going on and then. Then it took it to the next level is when the sound and that’s the metal contorting and the power of to the incredible pressure. And it was terrifying. I mean that’s no better word for it. Just did the high pitch you know bending of metal you hear in movies when things are breaking you know.
[00:18:23] It was ear piercing and I was like Oh my God you know this is it. And I mean there’s nothing I could do. Next thing I know water is coming right at me. It was it was at my knee.
[00:18:38] And the next thing I knew it was over my head and I our bungalow had collapsed into the water and I was like Okay Adrian you’ve got 30 seconds of air because I I didn’t take a breath. You’ve got 30 seconds. If you don’t find air you are dead there’s no one there’s no way no friends and buts about it. That is it. You have to find air. Find air that’s your only goal. Let’s step one step two. You get Kyoko out and get get your wife out. You’ve got to do it. That’s your job as a husband. And I said my goodbyes to my parents and I said hello to them my maker under the water just saying if this was it.
[00:19:17] This is my time. That’s the way it’s got to be. But lo and behold I happened to find Aaron. I’m just so grateful that the bungalows or the cabin I was in was the ceiling was so high because I could touch the ceiling when I came up.
[00:19:33] So I mean if you think about it from the beach level to the top of my cabin must have been six about 21 feet and I could touch it at the end so the water level had come up about 15 feet about. And you know I’m lucky I just had that extra few feet in between that that saved us. And we got out just in time if the second wave hit and we spent all day at the emergency centre just taking care of people I mean we had we basically escaped unscathed. My wife had two scratches on her legs and back. I just had a tiny scratch on my foot. I mean incredible consider my bungalow in my hotel it was the worst. I mean there was no bungalow left after we came back. I mean it was ripped apart in there was just I guess you could say one third of the cabin was left over. Roof was ripped off just the closet area had remained. I mean it was just incredible. What water can do and you know there’s no escape from it. You know from that moment forward I just said you know Adrian you’ve been given a chance of life and you’ve got to make something of yourself and although you’re helping these people learn English which is a good thing you’ve got to do more. You’ve been given this great chance and maybe you you’ve got to do something within. So I thought OK I’m going to go for it. And so I’ve been doing pretty much personal loan product to the ever since.
[00:21:12] In what ways did you think your attitude changed towards life towards business to you know just generally.
[00:21:19] Well first and foremost this is you know nothing really fazes me. I mean I’ve lost the fortune I’ve lost friends and I just go hey no that’s that’s life. Just gotta pick yourself up and move on in business. You can be shouted at. You can have people ignore you. You’re going to run into trouble and make mistakes. But none of it really matters because you know every day is a gift.
[00:21:53] And what’s that. When that happens because I know you mentioned that you’ve embankments bankrupts a couple of almost bank runs a couple of times. Was that before or afterwards.
[00:22:03] Let me see once before and twice afterwards.
[00:22:10] So I’m. Well I mean obviously I’ve got loads of questions about that.
[00:22:14] You know about those three episodes but then also sign that in say how your attitude changed so I suppose the incident happened the bankruptcy the auto almost bankruptcy it happened before the tsunami. You must have had a very different reaction after you were much calmer after the tsunami and having a different attitude towards life.
[00:22:32] No absolutely. I mean before the tsunami you know you you see life as everything happening to you and you think oh no oh woe is me and I lost all this money and I’m in so much trouble and you know what can I do but ask this and I mean it’s like hey I’m still alive. That’s pretty much it but that’s it. That’s that’s that one sentence. I’m still alive therefore I can make it back I can come back from this. I haven’t life and I have my health as long as you have those two things come back for pretty much anything.
[00:23:07] And yeah you hear there’s some it is basically say that often cliches that the ad is a good reason why things are cliches but you learn most from your failure so you know having those different almost camp bankruptcies I presume and you learn a lot from all of those incidents.
[00:23:22] Absolutely. I think the biggest lesson I learned from pretty much all of them is be careful you trust. I’m a very trusting person by nature I want to see the good in people and what I found is that people even with the best intentions they’re not trying to hurt you but they can really. They made bad decisions. I mean I’ve made bad decisions but I think my biggest mistakes were probably trusting from people and not seeing soon enough to get out and I let them pull me down. And I’m still fighting my way back even now. I mean although I’ve complete changed my life I’m still trying to pay off things that I people I owe and things like that because I made some mistakes and they cost people their money and so I have to find ways to pay them back.
[00:24:12] But would you say you I mean this may sound crazy. Are you in a better place now.
[00:24:17] Oh absolutely. Oh absolutely. I mean you know as you said you learn from your failures. I mean I wouldn’t change it for anything because I think those failures push me even more when you come when you get to rock bottom there’s nowhere else to go but up and you you realize it’s not going to defeat you.
[00:24:38] So the tsunami gave me the belief that every day is a gift. So whether I’m in pain or whether I’m struggling for money hey I can I can come back from that. But what business failure is you just try to learn what not to do for next time.
[00:24:56] Yeah. Yeah. That’s it.
[00:24:58] And you want to improve upon it each time and I think now I finally found my real calling and I’m really getting some traction. So yeah I wouldn’t change it for anything but I but I wouldn’t want people to go through what I did because they might not be as lucky. It was pure luck. Now two hundred thousand plus people lost their lives that day. I was one of the ones who escaped unscathed. I don’t know why or how. Still to this day just pure luck.
[00:25:30] Well this has gone back I mean before you were talking about the productivity and the time issues that people were having and so when I’m under the things I was thinking when you were you were talking about that is why do you think Time Time management is such a problem for so many people.
[00:25:47] Honestly I think the answer is quite simple is that one. And that is that I think people overlook it. I think people don’t really understand how valuable time is and how valuable their time is. But they just think that hey I have had. Don’t worry I can get to it tomorrow. I can put it off don’t don’t when I’m still young I’m only 30 or I’m only 40 and next thing they know they’re 60. We all have that thing. I will write the book when I love that I’m going to do it when no. You either do it or you don’t do it and you start today. Even if it’s just writing one sentence in your book just try why put it off. And I think people are massive procrastinators without even noticing it and they’re not doing it to sabotage themselves.
[00:26:35] It’s just they think people think that they have more time. Then they do. And they don’t feel that the intensity or that they need to get started and they think I’ll get to it later. And I think that’s the big mistake that most people have when it comes to time management the mindset anyway.
[00:26:55] And so how is it that you help people we’ve talked to. Productivity. In what way do you help them.
[00:27:00] Well you know I’ve gone back and forth over the years and these days I mean I think I start off with the most basic I think that’s the best way to do it I believe in the snowball effect today in the sense that you you’ve got to get momentum and you’ve got to get it fast. The last thing you want to do is have people move slowly because it’s about time management so you want to you know get out of the gate fast and really implement some things quickly that will have an impact in their lives almost instantly.
[00:27:31] Today tomorrow this week you don’t want to you know two weeks two months in the future that’s too far. You want to show them hey just make this change and there’ll be an impact. And they go Hey that works. And that’s what we need to get. We need to get as many of those going as quickly as possible. But for each person is different. So what I really do is I first take a look at their present situation. I just kind of go in and do a TIME analysis. I feel like I’m a detective and I’ll put on my Sherlock hat and I go to town and I just kind of get my magnifying glass out and then look at each aspect of their life. I look at their health I look at their daily habits I look at their their planning I look at their their vices their addictions. I’m not talking about drugs hopefully but you know their videogame addiction of TV addiction or a Trump ism whatever whatever things are holding back and I’m basically want to do what the British cycling team did in 2004 when the sugar was named. But a new head of the cycling committee was assigned.
[00:28:38] I know you’re a Dave. Guys.
[00:28:45] But basically he just he they they stripped everything down to its smallest parts and basically implemented small tiny changes in everything and across the board. It doesn’t seem like much but when you put them back together it has an incredible impact. It’s the law kind of compounding effect but doing it in little tiny areas that seem almost insignificant I mean when I read this story I had to tell my sons it’s so funny that they hired a surgeon to come in and teach the cycling team how to wash their hands to make to have the best chance of not catching a cold. You know I mean who who comes up with that concept. I mean we wash our hands day in and day out but it’s these little things that we miss that really take us off track and have a something that I have today it’s called the productivity formula. And the product formula is basically a bunch of different areas and you give yourself a score and each of them and in the end you put it back together and you’ll get your productivity score and then you’ll see how you compare high super performer average performer sub sub average performer and then you can really go whew I thought I was better than that. I mean even myself when I looked at when I created and I did my own score like who I mean as a to decimate you have got to do some more work myself. I think we can all go to do some more work on those things.
[00:30:12] So when people approach you for help with productivity what mostly is it that they’re looking for what is it they want to these wants to be less procrastinating and just more productive.
[00:30:24] I think that a lot of people are doing things right. Actually I think they’re doing more right than they realize. No matter how overwhelmed they are they’re actually doing a lot right. The problem is then they’re doing a lot wrong as well and that wrong part is really holding them back and if they can just get rid of those wrong things it would unleash a lot of power because those wrong things those wrong habits those vices they act as with chains that hold us down. So even when we’re doing things right we don’t. We’re not getting the maximum impact. So you’ve been working eight hours and you’re getting stuff done. But really if you’d gotten rid of those bad habits you’d be doing double or triple the amount of work. But it’s those little things that hold us back. I mean the distractions and our addictions to most social media that’s a common one these days of being trying to do too much. I said this to a client this morning is you’ve got to slow down to speed up. And they said what do you mean you have to slow down to speed up. I said you’re trying to do too much and you think we’ve been programmed today thanks to computers and all these things that we have to do and to manage that we have to do more and more and more. But the problem is we’re not doing any of them really well. And so by slowing down and just tackling little pieces you’ll really get a lot more umph behind it. And so then that. And it’s hard because by slowing down you have to say no to some things because you you think I’ve got to do business no those things won’t matter. Forget those things just let them go slow down take a breath go for a walk and I don’t have time to go for it. I don’t have time to do it. No you do. You do have time for that. And and those people think more is is more but it’s wrong. It’s actually ironic that by doing less you can actually achieve more.
[00:32:20] Mm. So what would you say I mean obviously you know this program is called exceeding expectations. How are you able to exceed expectations of the people you’re working with.
[00:32:29] Well I always try to go above and beyond. I mean that’s plain and simple. I believe in the concept of an under promise and over deliver. I think it’s just something everybody in every industry should be doing. You want to give your customers something above and beyond what they pay for because that will keep them coming back. If you give them what they want. Don’t be happy but it won’t they. They will be swayed by other competitors. You want to be able to show them hey I’m going to go beyond what I said I would do and I’m going to dazzle you with whatever. And so a few things I do I try to make sure gifts are very memorable. I have a thing where I have a deal with a cake shop here in Osaka now that they will actually write the name of the person on the Claire that I give it that I give them. So it’s it’s a personalized Claire. I mean who. Who the heck has personalized declares. And I mean it’s not like I made it. It’s just the shop did that for me and they and they make it look nice and it’s just and it’s my favourite Claire. So it’s just what I think is sad. This is not about the price it’s about the impact that it has. Wow. First of all the amount is delicious.
[00:33:44] They all like that but then it’s like personalize and it’s like oh that’s just a nice little touch. And I’m always taking notes on people’s interests because I think that we’ll let you see what things you can get them that will really have an impact. You don’t want to get them something. Luxuries anybody can get something is a client something really nice and there’s nothing wrong with that but getting something meaningful something memorable that’s different. And if you think back in our own lives what was the most memorable gifts we got is not the most expensive gift although it may be a Ferrari might might count. But oftentimes it’s not because it. Yes short term maybe that the new car was so memorable or whatever but oftentimes it’s maybe the card that your son wrote for you when you were 18 and he didn’t have any money to buy anything for you for Christmas but he just wrote in a card and said Thank you. And and you know you bring it here to there and it’s not it’s not the cost it’s the the intention behind the gift. I think everybody appreciates that when they have those things their house that really means something to them when they look at them they think Oh Adrian Oh Tony. Or oh Peter they go. You know it’s it’s got some meaning behind it and that’s what I think you got to do when you give gifts.
[00:35:10] And I got I picked that up from Steve Sims had this book Blue fishing I’d been doing it myself to a certain extent but after I read blue fishing I went even further and started to call it engraving things and things like that so I got a client who smokes which I’m not a fan of but I got them an engraved lighter with their name and the date that celebrates something for them. And again that’s powerful. And they’ll treasure that as long as they have it. And if they lose it they’ll feel bad about it. No. And that’s what you want to do. That’s one thing I do. So Gift gift giving in and in unique ways is the way to do it. And on top of that I also do magic for clients because I like magic and I think most people have only seen magic on TV or at a show. Most people have never seen it right in front of them. And I love to be able to give people that. You know amazing experience. And I can also. Show them. Well yes I’m a product of the expert but I can amaze you with this as well. Most people are sometimes even people say you know are you a magician. And because I did study quite hard and I was getting quite good I’m better than some street magicians and I have a ton of material like I could I suppose if I worked hard at it become a magician. But I don’t want to I want to be a Productivity expert who entertains people after the sessions after the meetings after the lectures. With a little entertainment.
[00:36:47] And so when you’re talking about a magic so you’re doing this just like when you was socializing afterwards in a bar after that day was it finished or. I mean how does that.
[00:36:57] Well it depends. Sometimes I actually try and bring it in to my lectures to start off if it makes a point. If it’s connected to productivity or it’s connected to what I’m talking about. If I can link it then I can use it if I can’t I just use it afterwards. I have my by my name my business cards are actually playing cards so I went online and I found that you could get customized playing cards that you know you can put anything on inside basically put my logo my telephone number and my Web site and it and I mean first of all when you take out those cards and you say you did a magic trick they don’t notices your business card offers. So they’re just going along. I just think all those unusual cards I’ve never seen that before. But you know there’s all sorts of cards. We’ve seen different backs when we’ve been travelling around the world but when I finished the trick and I say OK well you can keep the card because that’s my business card and they go Oh whoa look at that. And they go one of those three. That’s that’s different. And I do think if you can give people a unique business card I’ve seen like poker chips is another one that I thought was a very clever idea at different shapes triangle or gummy type. I mean there’s many ways to make your business card more memorable especially if you can link it to you or your business. It’s really powerful.
[00:38:29] Something else you you mentioned last son you were talking about something called the five minute habits five minute habits and habits. Well basically we all have things in our lives that are basically five minutes or less. And. They are often things that we overlook. A good one that I use is brushing my teeth. It’s a five five or 10 minutes less habit for the most part most people a minute. But I just included in that five minute group. And essentially those are the things that we overlook because they become automatic. They are things that we don’t really pay much attention to because we don’t think they’re having much effect on our lives. They’re only five minutes or less. How how much damage can that be doing to us. But what I found is that those five minute habits are often what make the difference between success and failure. And what you want to be able to do is you want to create more habits that are helping you than hurting you. It’s like every time you have a habit it’s either going to push you up step on the ladder or I guess up a mountain let’s put it let’s use a mountain or it’s going to take you one step down. And the problem is that when at the end of that day that habit is either pull you up one or minus one but the gap now is two. It’s not one because you’re not going back to where you were you either went negative there’s no neutral in life. It was either positive for you or negative for you wasn’t there was no such thing as neutral you either brush your teeth well and it help protect your teeth or didn’t. And now you’re actually hurting your teeth. So you want to be able to see over time that quite quickly there’s a huge disparity between doing things well and doing things badly. And those five minute habits are everywhere in our life. They’re the checking social media that doesn’t usually start doesn’t end up being five minutes. It ends up being much longer than five minutes but we often think that it’s just taking us five minutes of our time. There are things such as exercise which get started with five minutes. Don’t try to do twenty five minutes or 30 minutes most people will give up that pretty darn quick. But what you can do is 10 push-ups. You can do 20 jumping jacks in less than five minutes. These things will have. A positive effect on you. Slowly. And everybody has five minutes everybody. There’s no excuse. No one can say to me I don’t have five minutes. Nobody you know while you’re watching TV. You come home you’ve had you’re having your dinner say your wife’s gone to bed you come home late. You’re eating your dinner while you’re eating dinner. That’s five minutes right there. You could be reading a book while you’re eating dinner. That’s five minutes right that you don’t. It doesn’t have to be an isolated thing to be done while you’re watching TV. You can be doing jumping jacks while you’re watching TV. Five minutes five minutes of five minutes is where it all starts. It’s not the 20 minutes or the 30 minute workout that really is a success story really. It’s the establishment of those five minute habits. Done well. And then you can slowly expand it soon. Those five minutes. You know exercise routine that you have can easily be changed. Minutes. You see people think well only five minutes. That’s what you were only five minutes. Why would I do it. It’s not going to have any impact. They overlook it instead. You look at you’re not seeing the big picture. You start with fat. You don’t end five. You’re going to expand upon it slowly over time. And those small little things that you do can pay off big time in the future.
[00:42:33] And you mentioned somebody before I come into what context you said this and that something about how breathing exercises can help with productivity.
[00:42:40] Oh absolutely. Sure. Yeah I mean we all know that yoga is basically a lot of breathing. And I didn’t realize how important it is but breathing is just something we do. It’s automatic. And our bodies program to do it. It’s not programmed to do it well it’s programmed to do it as it needs but you can kind of. It’s a life hack in the sense that you can start controlling your breathing to slow it down or increase it based on what you want to accomplish. You want to give yourself a boost of energy. You can increase your breathing. It’s called Breath scales you can take a look at them. Basically you build up your breathing speed the inhalation and then the exhalation and quite intensely and you’re basically pulling a oxygen into your lungs rapidly and releasing it quickly and it’s intense it’s like a boost of. Power but at the same time you can just slow down using apps yoga apps breathing apps that will just set you in a very relaxed mode. And most of time when we sit in front of our computer. We’re just focussing on the computer. We’re focussed on what we do with what you’re getting about our breathing and how much it affects us. But if we just want to create a boost of energy then we can do that. But if we want to just relax and slow down and you can breathe and there’s something about breathing as humans if you breathe a little faster sometimes other people will breathe a little faster.
[00:44:16] Sometimes you can kind of connect with them if you if you adopt their breathing style then you know how they’re feeling and they will feel like a connection to you.
[00:44:25] It’s really bizarre but yeah I mean breathing was a weird one for me. I had to say when I first heard it I thought yeah that’s the load and I said Yeah whatever. But when I tried to but it really does work and so I recommend to listeners just give it a shot. I mean it’s a five minute habit not even five minutes less than a minute maybe and you’ll be surprised the impact is fantastic.
[00:44:54] Well I do and it’s been a real pleasure and hopefully the tech is one of this time. This episode of being online for everyone to hear in the very near future. Not quite sure what happened that end there but the audio cuts off just in the last few seconds so we didn’t actually hear Adrian say goodbye. In Depth didn’t have a lot of luck with Adrian and technology. But we got ninety nine point nine percent of the episodes in next week’s Show Episode 39. He’s with a lady called Jennifer Arroyo. She’s the background is in magic. She lives that in Germany in Munich and she kind of tries to make the impossible possible. She coaches people how they can create magic in life and businesses by breaking through their mental limitations. That’s next week. Jennifer Grey joined this week’s show. You have a fantastic.
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