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Taking Life Head On with Guest Hal Elrod: MakingBank S2E2

with Hal Elrod

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Summary

When it comes to encountering trials and tribulations—it’s not a matter of if, but a question of when. And when those crises come, many of us find ourselves reacting in destructive ways. Ways that are harmful to our business and the people we care about most.

Why does this happen?

It happens because adversity shatters our sense of control.

A crash in the market? A sudden illness, or tragic accident? The reality is we usually have NO control over the events that cause the most disruption in our lives—the only thing we can control is how we respond.

And no one knows that better than today’s guest on Making Bank, Hal Elrod.

Adversity first found Hal in the form of a life-changing accident, before finding him again during the global recession of 2008, and each had its own unique set of repercussions for both Hal and his family.

Rather than let these challenges bring him to his knees, Hal accepted his reality, controlled his response, and focused all his energy into staying positive and moving forward.

Since then, he’s authored two books—Taking Life Head On and The Miracle Morning—and become the co-host of the co-host of Best Year Ever Blueprint event.

He has also become a keynote speaker, business coach, and father of two, with a passion for helping people overcome the adversity in their professional and personal lives.

Tune in as host Josh Felber highlights some of the factors that have contributed to Hal’s success, including…

•The power of enthusiasm and work ethic

•The 5-Minute Rule in responding to adversity

•Morning rituals for the world’s most successful

•Why experiential learning is the deepest level of learning

•How multiple streams of income will save you

And more…

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Transcription

Josh: Welcome to Making Bank. I am Josh Felber where we uncover the success strategies and the secrets of the top one percents so you can elevate and transform your life today. I’m excited about my guest today on Making Bank. We’ve got to know each other a little bit off and on over the last several years and I’m really excited to introduce you to Hal Elrod. His nickname, Yo Pal Hal. In addition to being one of the highest rated keynote speakers in America, Hal is the number one best-selling author of one of the highest rated books in the world with over 1500 Amazon reviews, The Miracle Morning. As well as creator of The Miracle Morning book series. Hal is also in the hall of fame of business achiever, ultra-marathon runner, host of the top-rated Achieve Your Goals podcast and creator of the Best Year Ever Blueprint live event. And a grateful husband and father of two. That’s awesome, man.So when Hal, known as Yo Pal Hal, his mom gave him a mike to use while hosting his first radio show at the age of 15. But his greatest triumph came after the age of 20 when he was hit head on by a drunk driver at over 70 miles an hour. Hal was found dead at the scene and, despite being dead for six minutes and in a coma for six days, breaking 11 bones and being told he may never walk again, Hal defied the logic of doctors and temptations to be a victim. And he bounced back to prove that all of us are capable of overcoming extraordinary adversity to create extraordinary results in our personal and professional lives.Hal’s appeared on dozens of TV and radio shows across the country. He’s been featured in numerous books as well as Education Millionaires, the all time best seller Chicken Soup for the Soul, Cutting Edge of Sales-

Hal: You don’t have to read all those.

Josh: No that’s cool man.

Hal: I’ll let you … I think my mom sent you that bio.

Josh: I love to just dive in and [crosstalk 00:03:09]. No that’s cool. Well Hal, welcome to Making Bank. I’m excited to have you on today.

Hal: Oh man, I know. I appreciate it. I’m excited to be here and Josh, I’ve watched your meteoric rise so it’s cool to, like you said, we’ve gotten to know each other over the years and it’s cool to be connected in this space and with your audience.

Josh: For sure, man. And it was funny, just at the event we were at the other day someone was asking me “Where’d you meet Hal?” And I said we ended up meeting on line. And then a couple of years ago we ended up having dinner out in California when you were-

Hal: L.A. Café Gratitude. My favorite restaurant, man.

Josh: So that was pretty awesome. It was great to connect with you and I’m excited to have you on today. So, tell me a little bit about, how did entrepreneurship start for you? Was it something that happened when you were a kid? Obviously it sounded like you got a mike and you were doing your own radio show and stuff when you were younger. But tell me a little bit about how entrepreneurship started for you.

Hal: It kind of started by accident, and I’m so grateful that it did. I’m big on, I’m actually enrolling my daughter who is six in an entrepreneurial elementary school where the student design the curriculum. It’s amazing. So I really believe in entrepreneurship and it was fifteen … Actually I should say my parents bought a grocery store when I was eleven. And then at twelve or thirteen I started working at the grocery store. So that’s when I got the, I learned about making my own money. My mom made me, my mom was pretty tough man. She was like hey, I’ll buy you Payless shoes. If you want those Nikes you’ve got to earn it and you make your own money, buy them yourself. I was like, all right.So I learned that at a young age and then at fifteen a buddy of mine asked me if I wanted to DJ a school dance with him because his older brother got sick. So I was a sophomore DJing an eighth grade dance and had a blast. And after that I went dude, let’s start a DJ business. That was so fun. And he and I actually broke up our friendship over a girl. That’s another story. But I ended up, my dad believed in me and I convinced him passionately to finance a bunch of DJ equipment. And he bought me like $1500 worth of equipment. I got big speakers and strobe lights, fog machine, and I made flyers on a computer and posted them all over town. Got my first wedding for a hundred bucks. And a hundred bucks for four hours of playing music to me was, oh my gosh.

Josh: Awesome, yeah.

Hal: So long story short that really opened my eyes to two concepts. Number one, that you can get paid doing something that you loved. And number two that it could be doing something that you were earning far greater … you know my friends and at the grocery store I earned $4.25 an hour. And I was making 25 bucks an hour at my first gig and very soon making $100 an hour later that year.

Josh: Awesome. So what was the some of the key concepts that you found as you were building your business at a young age that’s help developed what you’re doing today?

Hal: I think that most of the lessons came in my next venture which was, at 19 I gave up DJing on the radio to sell kitchen knives. A buddy of mine sold Cutco Cutlery and he made a good, put himself through college and no student loans. And I got interested. I decided to give it a try. And the first … I really wasn’t that ambitious. I didn’t think I would do well. I just wanted to make a little more money than the other jobs were paying me. My first ten days I made $3,000 in commissions at nineteen. It was a ton of money for me.

Josh: Sure yeah.

Hal: And it just grew from there. And I went on to break a bunch of records and be one of the top reps. And people would ask me what’s your secret to success? And I really believed that the two greatest lessons that I took from that, that anybody listening can learn from and that I leverage to this day. The two things I had that allowed me to break those records. It wasn’t sales experience. I was new. I never sold anything in my life. I had never read a sales book in my life. I had the two things that we all have access to. Enthusiasm and work ethic.I worked my butt off. I did 62 appointments in ten days. And those are 90 minute appointments so we’re talking I worked nine hours a day plus drive time for those ten days. And I was just super-excited. I was just like this all the time like these knives are amazing Mrs. Jones! They’ll cut your food [inaudible 00:07:31]. And at the end of it, I talked so fast I don’t even think they know what I said.

Josh: I’ll take it.

Hal: The knives feel good and this kid’s excited. I’m excited. This is fun. Let’s do it, right. We overlook that sometimes when we’re thinking about influencing people, being successful. Just how important authenticity … And that’s the other piece of the, other side of enthusiasm, was the authenticity and enthusiasm. I wasn’t try to fake it. I wasn’t trying to get one over on the customer. I was like, hey, how much do you cook? And if it was a good fit I got really excited about the value that that product could add to their lives. And to this day that’s a big key I think to everything else that I do.

Josh: For sure. And that is. That’s one of the things that I connect with you is just that enthusiasm that you put out. I think it’s just on a daily basis.

Hal: Yeah, yeah. I think cultivating it, you know. Part of it’s natural, for sure. But part of it is cultivating it by the more you talk enthusiastically about something, the more you program your mind, body and soul to feel that enthusiasm and it becomes very genuine.

Josh: For sure. And then at 20 you had the life-changing event through the accident and everything. So tell us what, I guess after the accident, because you were in a coma for six days. So as you were coming back from all this, what did you, how was your mindset, what did you use to I guess come out of the funk? Because I think you were in a funk for a little while you had said.

Hal: Yeah. I like the structure of your questions because I feel like we’re just pulling like, all right, instead of just telling stories it’s like give us the story but give us the, extract the lesson from it.

Josh: Sure.

Hal: And this was obviously, being hit by a drunk driver, breaking eleven bones, dying for six minutes, there’s nothing ever been that was so dramatic and mentally and physically taxing as that accident was. And when I came out of the coma the doctors said I’d probably never walk again and I had permanent brain damage. My body was, I broke eleven bones so I was cut up and scarred, which, obviously, to this day. And I had to face my reality. And I think that, whether it’s my car accident or losing a loved one. We all go through adversity in our lives and challenges that test us. It tests our will, it tests our strength, it tests our emotional fortitude. I think the greatest lesson that I learned, and what allowed me to get through that, in fact, so much so that the doctors thought I was in denial because I was so positive and happy. Like, I’m literally twenty, I’m in a hospital bed, my arm’s in a sling, I had a metal rod in my arm, screws in my elbow, plates in my eye. My ear is sewn back on, right? And I’m just like laughing and joking and happy. And the doctors are telling my parents, dude, your son has lost it. He is delusional. He has checked out reality. This is not normal for a twenty year old young man to be smiling and laughing. We need to find out how he’s really feeling. They thought I was covering up my real emotion. That I was really depressed and all this.

Josh: Sure.

Hal: And my parents came in and my dad talked to me. It’s a long story short but I said Dad, I live my life by the five minute rule. Something I learned in my Cutco training, which is it’s okay to be negative when things go wrong but not for more than five minutes. And we literally learned to set your timer for five minutes. You can bitch, moan and complain for five minutes. But after the five minute timer went off you had to take a deep breath and you had to say, can’t change it. And if I can’t change it I’m not going to feel bad about it anymore. I’m not going to dwell on it. I’m not going to complain about it. I’m not going to wallow in my sorrow. I’m going to accept it, be at peace with it, and focus 100% of my energy, emotion, attention and action on what’s in my control. And that’s what I did. And that’s why, I said well I can’t change that I was in a car accident but I can be happy, grateful and optimistic even in the midst of the most difficult circumstance in my life. And I apply that to everything from traffic, rather than get upset. Can’t change it. Just be at peace with it and focus on what you can change.

Josh: Awesome man. And I think that’s a huge piece. I’d like to dive in a little bit more when we get back. Can you stick around for a minute?

Hal: You got it.

Josh: Awesome. I’m Josh Felber. You’re watching Making Bank and we’ll be right back.

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Josh: I am Josh Felber. Welcome back to Making Bank. Today we have Hal Elrod that we are speaking with. And Hal was just telling us a little bit about how he was utilizing his enthusiasm and his mindset, that he was able to overcome the tragedy that he was in. And applying the five minute rule that he talks about. You can complain and moan and bitch for about five minutes but then after that it’s done and you can’t do anything else about it and time to move on. So Hal, welcome back to Making Bank.

Hal: Hey Josh, thanks for having me man. Let’s keep going.

Josh: Sure, sure. So coma accident, done with that. Tell me a little bit about how you came up with the whole idea of The Miracle Morning and your book and everything.

Hal: It’s similar to the car accident where, like I wrote a book after the car accident. Six years later. I had no intention of writing a book. It wasn’t a dream of mine. In fact writing is one of the hardest things that I do. Of all the things I do it comes the least natural for me. But a friend of mine said Hal, you have a responsibility to share your story with the world in a way that helps people. And if I were you, he said, I would write a book. And if you can’t write a book hire a ghost writer, do whatever. So it took me six years because again, writing’s not natural for me. But six years later I finally wrote the book Taking Life Head On. And it wasn’t again because of a dream of writing a book but a sense of responsibility. And I think that we can all take that responsibility on. That whatever experience we have in our lives, what if well all chose to go hey, I have a responsibility to help other people overcome the challenges that I’ve overcome or achieve the things that I’ve achieved? And that’s what most authors do, right? That’s what they’re doing. They’re sharing their experience in a way that helps others. And that’s what I did.And no intention of writing another book. It was like all right, checked it off the bucket list. I’m not an author. I figured that out by writing a book. I’m not an author. Long story not so long, 2008, the U.S. economy crashed. And up until that point I had just hit Hall of Fame with my company as you had mentioned in the intro. And then I moved on. I wanted to be a full-time entrepreneur. Being a sales rep was like hybrid entrepreneur. I set my own schedule, made as much money as I wanted, but it wasn’t my product or service. I wanted to create something that would add value to the world. So I started coaching speaking. And then the economy crashed and I lost everything. I lost my house, lost over half of my income, couldn’t pay the mortgage. Living on credit cards. I stopped the gym membership. I went from being in the best shape of my life. My body fat percentage tripled in six months.

Josh: Ugh, wow.

Hal: I went from being in the best shape in my life to the worst shape in my life. And my finances, I went from being debt free to having 52 grand on my credit card. I went from having just bought a house to losing the house. It was really a low point in my life and I got really depressed. And that same friend that encouraged me to write that first book, his name’s John Bergoff, he’s actually one of my business partners, he’s my business partner now. We were talking and I go John, help me dude. I am at my rock bottom. I don’t know what to do. And he said Hal, go figure out … He goes, go to Google, okay? Google will save you. I was like, what? And he said just Google. Spend an hour, find out what the world’s most successful people do every day that you’re not doing. Do what they do and it’s only a matter of time before you start to see results like they get.And I was like, I wanted specific advice [crosstalk 00:15:48] and get visitors and traffic, right? And I was like all right, whatever. Long story short was finding out that they woke up early. That’s what I figured out. And I wasn’t a morning person Josh, so coming across, I mean you know, it’s very now popular. Morning rituals, early rising. And I’m going, and I’m not a morning person. And I just kept, what else do they do? What else do they do? I think I literally Googled other than morning rituals, what do successful people do, right? And then of course there’s more articles on morning rituals come up. And I’m like, dammit.So I finally, after one after the other was like I gotta wake up an hour earlier tomorrow. If I want my life to be different I’ve got to do something different. Then the question, I was like all right I’m committed. I wrote on my schedule five A.M. I’m waking up. And then I go well what am I going to do? I want this to be the ultimate morning ritual. I want this to be the best of the best of the best. And I kept searching and I was writing down the most popular common practices that these successful people did. It was mediation, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading and journaling. And depending on which millionaire or billionaire you read about, they swore by one of those.Then the epiphany was, as I was trying to figure out which was the best one, I thought what if I did all of these? What if I woke up tomorrow and I meditated for ten minutes, then I read some affirmations from a CEO or whatever, then I did visual- and I did all of them. And I woke up the next morning and did all six practices and I sucked at them. But that was the beginning of The Miracle Morning. It didn’t have a name. If felt like within two months my income had doubled. I went from being in the worst shape of my life to committing to run a 52 mile ultra marathon. I had never run before.

Josh: That’s awesome.

Hal: And because my life changed so fast I started calling it my Miracle Morning. And that’s where I’ll bring this story to end. It wasn’t going to be a book. It was just my Miracle Morning. So I started it telling it to a few people. They told it to … And it just, you know, it’s now over 200,000 people around the world that have read the book and most of them do The Miracle Morning every day. It’s crazy.

Josh: I think one of the things I’ve noticed, especially with reading the book Miracle Morning, and then kind of now there’s a lot of different spin-offs of it. Because like you said, it wasn’t all out there and what people are doing and having that morning routine. Now it’s like hey, you got to just have that. If you don’t you’re just kind of one of those weird people.

Hal: Yeah, now you’re behind the eight ball.

Josh: Right.

Hal: Well it’s funny because the subtitle of my book, and it wasn’t meant to be like The Secret, but it’s The not so obvious secret guaranteed to transform your life before eight A.M. Because I really found at time, this was eight years ago, this is the not so obvious secret because this isn’t … Not everyone’s doing the morning ritual thing yet, you know? And then Miracle Morning came out and now it’s very widespread. And everyone’s like if they’re not doing it they’re like, oh I know I need to do it.

Josh: Well cool. And now you have a whole series? We were reading there …

Hal: If you watch the video you can see some of them back there. So Miracle Morning for Writers just came out last month. Miracle Morning for Parents and Families comes out in September. Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs I’m doing with Cameron Herald, former COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK. That comes out in November I think.

Josh: Awesome.

Hal: Yeah. The series books. And the series books, believe it or not, so the original book is rated, I think it’s like 4.6 out of five stars. All of the series books are 4.9 out of five stars. Which is very encouraging because there’s a lot of fear when you do a series. Like how am I going to make these as good as the original? And people are like them better, which I don’t know if it’s good or bad but I think it’s more good than bad. So yeah.

Josh: Awesome. Tell me a little bit about, things are going good now. You have The Miracle Morning. What’s your business focus these days? What are you working on?

Hal: It’s pretty diversified. When the economy crashed in 2008, 95% of my income was from one-on-one coaching. That was it. And once I lost my income and I started to get it back after Miracle Morning, one of the realizations I had is I can’t be dependent on one stream of income. And I think that’s true, I wrote an article in Entrepreneur. If anybody wants to read it go to entrepreneur.com and just search Hal Elrod. It was on, I forgot the title. Oh, 7.1 steps to create multiple streams of income. But the opener-

Josh: Oh, yeah. I remember seeing it.

Hal: Yeah you shared it on Twitter didn’t you? Go to Josh at Twitter. That’s all you need. But the premise of it was if you, first of all if you have a family. I feel like there’s a responsibility to our family to, you can’t be depended on one stream of income in today’s economy. Whether that’s a job or you’re an entrepreneur. You just don’t know. The economy’s changing. Like Blockbuster Video, right? Who would have thought they’d go out of business? There’s so many companies like that.So because of the economy is ever-changing, I believe we owe it to ourselves and our future, our financial future, and our family to multiple streams of income. So for me, I have The Miracle Morning book. That alone is a significant stream of income. I’ve got the entire book series which each of those is a stream of income. And then I do keynote speaking which I do a couple gigs a month. I have a group coaching program called Best Year Ever Coaching and that’s got 400 members and that’s a lower-priced group program. I do one-on-one coaching. That’s pretty minimal. I only have maybe four or five clients. I keep that to a minimum. And then we do live events. We do, it’s called Best Year Ever Blueprint. You can go to bestyeareverlive.com. And that’s in San Diego in December once a year. And then at that event we sell our, we offer a Quantum Leap Mastermind program. And that’s a higher level, high end, in person, six days a year with us plus calls and such. We launched that there. I think that’s it. So that’s for the most part-

Josh: That’s enough.

Hal: Yeah but that’s the business model. So then if all of a sudden book sales dry up for some reason I’m not oh my gosh, what do I do? Or speaking. When the economy stopped last time, not only did my one-on-one coaching clients quit but the speaking gigs dried up. Because companies were like, they reigned in their budgets. So speakers were in trouble. So yeah.

Josh: That’s awesome. Tell me a little bit about the live event, the Blueprint. What’s it all about? And then I’d like to know a little bit more about the Mastermind and really what you guys dive into with that.

Hal: The first thing I would say, just so I don’t forget. I always tell people, if you go to the website bestyeareverlive.com and scroll down to the video. It’s just one fold underneath the first part of the site. Just scroll down a little bit. I always tell people watch the video and it’s three minutes long. By the end of it you’ll either go oh my gosh, these are my people, I have to be there. Or you’ll go, dude, these people are nuts, what a bunch of weirdos. You’ll know right away.

Josh: You’re either in or out.

Hal: You’re either in or out. Totally. It’s very obvious. But here’s the premise. And I really do believe that our event is different than 99% of events out there. And I know that only because I go to so many and so do you probably, right? So many events. Either I’m speaking at entrepreneurial events or I’m attending Masterminds, and I go to some of the best events out there. Our event is experiential where anything we teach you, you don’t just take notes and then go home with ten pages. Most events you go home with ten pages of notes and then it’s oh my God I’m overwhelmed.

Josh: Now what?

Hal: Ours. If we teach you to mastermind, you don’t just take notes on it. We actually have you break into groups and actually do it real time while we guide you through it. Last year we talked about random acts of kindness and how important it was to add value even to strangers and especially our colleagues and loved ones. And how the more value you add the more valuable you become in your company, in your niche, to your clients, to your friends, your family. So we talked about it, then we had them break in and talk about different ways they could actually add value on a daily basis. Very simple things.

Josh: Okay.

Hal: Dude, talk about experiential. We said all right, surprise, we’re going to have a three hour break right now and you’re going to go with your group into the city of San Diego and videotape yourself doing what you just came up with that you can do on a daily basis. And people brought back homeless people with them on to the stage. They brought back children and they brought back families and they brought back people that ran non-profits that they met on the street. It was amazing.

Josh: That’s awesome.

Hal: So again, it is, so here’s the last thing I’ll say on this is when you go to events usually there’s a speaker on stage almost the entire time.

Josh: Sure.

Hal: Imagine an event where there’s no one on stage sixty to eighty percent of the time because you’re doing the things that the speaker just taught you to do. And you’re not just taking notes. So that’s what makes the Best Year Ever Blueprint very, very different.

Josh: Cool. That’s amazing. I think that gives you … You’re put right into it and it allows you to experience it as well as go out and ingrain with what you’re learning and take action on it so I think-

Hal: I told my business partner, by the way. He gets all the credit. I had the vision, but i didn’t know how to execute it. He is a master of what you call experiential learning science. And so he actually understands at a very deep level how human beings learn and retain at the deepest level. And it is through experience. If you tell someone something they understand it. If you have them repeat it back maybe they get it. But if you have them do it and experience it and feel it, then it’s like oh, this isn’t something I took notes on. This is actually what it feels like to do it and yeah.

Josh: That’s awesome. So tell me a little about, I know you’re real big with family and you have two kids. How do you, I don’t really see it as a whole work/life balance. It’s more, I think of it as integration. How do you tie all that together with traveling all the time and speaking and then also being present there with your family and everything?

Hal: It’s a great question and it’s always a challenge. For me, I’ve cut way back on travel because of that. For a long time it was saying, oh man I need to spend more time at home. But you get so programmed, especially when you’re coming up. Anytime you get an offer that pays you money, you take it right? And then once you get to a point where, and it was actually I was on a flight to speak in the Philippines. And a woman, Sue B. Zimmerman, the Instragram gal, we were talking about it. We were on a flight for 12 hours or something so we got to talk a lot. She basically, I kind of realized, she’s like why are you speaking and on the road? I kind of realized I don’t need to. Like it’s my favorite things to do of all my work but it’s keeping me away from the family. So I increased my speaking fee significantly, basically doubled the speaking fee. Then I cut back the amount of gigs I was getting. So it’s almost earning just about the same amount of income for half the travel away from family. And then I started bringing my family. So I’m doing a five-speaking gig tour in October and I’m bringing them. They’re going with me. We’re going to be-

Josh: Cool.

Hal: They’re flying with me and then we’re staying in hotels. We’re driving from city to city. And I brought them to a few gigs. So yeah, I’m speaking less, I’m bring them with me when I can, and then I work from home. So I make sure I take time with them every day. I get off at five. I’m really big on not working into the evening and being with my kids from five until I put them to bed at eight.

Josh: That’s really cool because I think and entrepreneurs we’re so busy and we have so much going on like you said. Being about to double your speaking fees and still keep your income and everything so you can really retain that. And taking them on the travel, the trips and everything as well I think is good. Especially, I know my kids are younger and as you said they’re about the same age as yours. So it’s that time that they remember and really want to have that time-

Hal: Well yeah. You can’t get that time back.

Josh: No, for sure. So tell me, I got to wrap up in a couple minutes. What’s one device that you can’t live without, that just makes it so you can really make things happen.

Hal: I would say the I-phone but I think you probably want more specific than that.

Josh: You got an app or anything [inaudible 00:28:27]

Hal: So actually I do. Do you know what’s funny? It’s Franklin Covey planner. There you go. Dude, I am old school. I have tried to switch to digital. And I have a hybrid. I still use an on-line scheduler but I put it, I write it. So somebody schedules an appointment with me automatically, but then I write it in my Franklin Covey planner.

Josh: That’s awesome.

Hal: Yeah man, so there you go dude. I am old school. And I’ve tried to switch. I’m like, this is the year. But there’s something about being able to look over here and see my entire week at all times. It’s not a window that can be minimized or go behind or whatever. I’m an out of sight out of mind person. I probably miss appointments all the time. But for me I can see the whole week at a glance. I don’t know if you’ve gotten that before but I’m going Franklin Covey planner.

Josh: I’ve gotten notepad and paper.

Hal: Okay, all right, all right.

Josh: Kind of a variation but I remember the Franklin Covey planner when I was 13 years old and writing all my Tony Robbins stuff from the book down in there.

Hal: I just finally stopped resisting it. There’s something about it. I’m going to stick with it, you know?

Josh: Cool. And what’s one or two action steps you want to leave our listeners with? They can go out and start doing today that will help transform somewhere they are in their life?

Hal: For me obviously I’m biased in The Miracle Morning has become the one thing that not only changed my life but I’ve seen it change more lives than I ever really imagined that it would or could. So I always tell people don’t wait till you’ve read the book to start doing the Miracle Morning. Don’t wait until you’ve mastered all the practices or whatever. Here’s the real simple premise of the Miracle Morning. There’s two parts to it. Number one is to wake up when you want to, not when you have to. You might go, well, I want to wake up at the last possible minute. No, no, no, no, no. The point is that if you hit the snooze button in the morning and you wait till the last minute to wake up, you’re literally starting your day with procrastination, right? You’re hitting the snooze button, you’re sitting procrastinating. And there’s a message, whether it’s conscious or unconscious. Your subconscious that says I don’t have the discipline to get out of bed in the morning when I intended to, let alone do everything else that I want.But the opposite effect is even more powerful which is, you go oh man, I want to stay in bed but I’m going to move the alarm clock across the room, which is the biggest trick by the way. Don’t keep it by your bedside because if you can reach it while you’re half asleep you’re going to snooze every time. If you got to walk out of bed and it’s on the bathroom counter where you’re going to brush your teeth and you commit to do that, it’s a lot easier to get out of bed. So set your alarm clock back 30 minutes. Do that for 30 days. And spend those 30 minutes doing some form of personal development. I recommend reading and exercise if you had to simplify. Fifteen minutes reading. Fifteen minutes of exercise to start every day. That way you’re stimulating yourself physically, getting blood and oxygen to your brain. You’ll think clearer, have more willpower, more discipline, more energy. And you’re stimulating your intellect so that you can apply strategies to improve your life and business while your in a peak physical, mental and emotional state.

Josh: Awesome Hal. Man, guys, make sure you guys have been taking notes. If not, rewind, go back, grab Hal’s book Miracle Morning. I read it myself. It gave me tons of other additional insights and things that add to my morning routine and everything that I do on a daily basis. I really appreciate you coming on today Hal.

Hal: Yeah man, it’s an honor and a pleasure Josh. Thank you so much for having me and to all your listeners. I really appreciate it.

Josh: Let us know where we can find more about you, follow you at, where’s the best place to get a hold of you.

Hal: Miraclemorning.com is probably the best hub. So miraclemorning.com is all things Miracle Morning related. Halelrod.com is al things speaking, coaching, et cetera. And the book, Amazon for the book for Miracle Morning. Or I-books if you’re a I-books user you can find it there as well.

Josh: Cool. Again awesome and look forward to seeing you again here soon.

Hal: You too. Thanks everybody. Take care Josh.

Josh: I am Josh Felber. You’ve been watching Making Bank. Get out and be extraordinary.