Turning Curiosity into Entrepreneurship | Ryan Drake #569

Have you ever wondered how a childhood curiosity can blossom into a full-blown entrepreneurial venture? Business consultant Ryan Drake joins me to unravel this mystery, sharing his transition from Neopets aficionado to a sought-after expert in the consulting realm. Together, we explore the essence of channeling passion into profitability, the beauty of embracing failure as a catalyst for growth, and the art of crafting a life brimming with intention and fulfillment.

Links:
www.ryandrake.com
www.instagram.com/itsryandrake
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/behindthebusinesswithryan
email: ryan@ryandrake.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:02

Welcome back to the man that Can Project podcast. I'm your host, lachlan Stewart. So good to have you here Now this week. I have a very cool conversation A bloke that I connected with in Australia before I was leaving, ryan Drake.

Speaker 1: 1:17

We connected online. I was a guest on his podcast you may have listened to the recording I posted a couple of weeks ago where he hosted me and since then we've become really good friends. We've got a lot in common around business and life and we have great conversations, so I wanted to get him on the show to unpack and unlock his brain. What you can expect to learn on this episode is turning your ideas into a business, so monetizing your passion, how to embrace failure and turn it into success, other things around the power of being present and planning for a meaningful life All things that I really love talking about and it ties into a little advertisement that you'll hear throughout this episode around the self-discovery program.

Speaker 1: 2:04

Now, I'm still toying around with the name, but one thing that I know is true when you have a vision for your life and you understand who you are and what you want, it's very easy to make decisions and create a compelling future, right when you're doing things that you love. When you're achieving goals, making progress, you will be more confident. As a result of being more confident, the areas of your life that matter most will thrive, and that's why I put it together, and it's something that you guys will get a notion template, along with the workbooks, et cetera, and you'll get to see it updated in real time, and the cool thing about that is that it's something that you can continue coming back to and, like I said, I'm still playing around with the name, but it will be your essential battle plan for your life that will be broken down into so many details that, by the time it's built out and you're finished with it, you're going to have a great understanding around what's important where to spend your time. If I were to say to you, lockie, show me or fill out a 12-week game plan, you would know a goal that you could select and the plan that comes with that. So make sure you check it out.

Speaker 1: 3:12

Man that Can listeners that's you, who is listening right now. You will get a 15% discount if you use the man that Can project discount code, which is TMTCP15 at the checkout. Enjoy it. It's only $47 and it will only be staying there for a limited time only. Let's get into the episode. Welcome back to the man that Can Projects podcast. We are cracking into the 570s now, which is uncharted territory for the show, obviously, but I've learned so much. I have been privileged to be in conversations with incredible people, like the man virtually sitting across from me, ryan Drake. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 3:56

Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here, Lockie.

Speaker 1: 3:59

Mate, we connected through social media. We then went for a very long lunch, which was incredible, and have had a number of catch-ups. I was on your podcast and every time we catch up the conversations go in a million different directions, but I always walk away with new perspectives, new ideas and I feel almost challenged to be better and to raise my own standards. And I love being part of those conversations and I believe conversations like that, which I know we're about to have, would have benefited me so much when I was younger if I could just be a fly on the wall to a conversation like this. So I know that our audience is going to be, you know, buckle up, we're on for a big one here. But, mate, at the moment in your life, you've got so much exciting stuff happening. You're currently business consulting and you help people scale through systems, processes and automations. You weren't born that way. Can you give us an overview of how you've gotten to this point?

Speaker 2: 5:04

Yes. Well, I think life has this in hindsight, and I always reflect on Steve Jobs' quote about you can never connect the dots. Moving forward, you can only connect them. Looking backwards, Life kind of has these lots of full circle moments, I think, where I guess even as a kid, you have some aspiration or some insight into what you'd like to do. Perhaps you move away from that and then you somehow find that passion or excitement again expressed in some other avenue.

Speaker 2: 5:39

And so I would say how I landed in what I do now started when I was seven, eight years old, playing Neopets on the internet, and at the time Neopets was like the biggest website on the internet with like 20 million visitors per month, but it was pre-Facebook. It was an opportunity to play games online when Flash Player was a thing and Meet in Community and I got exposed to coding. I got exposed to the kindness of strangers on the internet in a lot of ways, and if I think back to what we're taught now as adults and what we try to impart on children don't talk to strangers, don't give away too much like sensitive information about yourself Well, back then you had all these like cartoon avatars of people, but you still ask them who they were, what they're about. Lockie, I distinctly remember having conversations at like nine years old with some of these people I met and they introduced me to Benny Benassi as a DJ and I was like, wow, I like house music. I didn't even know that I liked house music, so-.

Speaker 1: 6:58

Benny Benassi.

Speaker 2: 7:00

Yeah, like one of the OGs and like knowing how to code on Neopets helped when I was in high school and friends were asking questions about you know how to format my MySpace page. So all those designs and I kind of thought for a long time these were little gimmicks and fun little side projects. I never knew that they were full onon careers for people until later and I was faced with dropping out of university and I did that, did some remote sales work for a business and then learned that oh, people write code for a living and make a fair bit of money from it. I wonder if I could teach myself some of that. And because I knew a little bit from when I was younger, that sort of sparked my whole curiosity and get like doing that again. But I think and was it?

Speaker 1: 7:55

was it the sorry to interject is. Was it the curiosity in making money that made you want to go down that path, or the curiosity of the coding?

Speaker 2: 8:09

I've always just scratched my own itch. I feel I truly believe that money is just a byproduct of being on mission but being in service as well mission, but being in service as well. So I think if I just did things for money, I would get bored, because there's so many different things that you could do, for example, when faced with launching a sustainable athletic apparel line. So when I started CrossFit going back like eight years, we launched a label and I learned so much about the manufacturing industry. And you're presented with the opportunity of do you go directly to China, print the shittiest piece of clothing, slap your logo on top and make a fortune, or do you go with the best manufacturer that you can afford that meets all your ethical standards?

Speaker 2: 9:10

I think you're constantly faced with these moments where your values are then presented to you in a decision. So a lot of the time, honestly, lockie, I've just been following my curiosity did I know that playing neopets would then help me with my space, would then help me with like a career? Not necessarily, it was just because I thought at the time it was fun, I enjoyed it, it came somewhat easy to me and kind of lived a lot of my life that way.

Speaker 1: 9:46

There seems to be a pattern that I'm starting to recognize from a lot of the people that I've interviewed who are extremely successful in their chosen area, and a lot of that has come from almost trusting their gut or their intuition around what they actually enjoy and allowing themselves to explore that, rather than running the traditional path of once you've reached this age. Video games, for example, are no longer acceptable. Once you reach this age, then you can't take risks. You now have to think about families, et cetera. And look, that is a safe path. You can pretty much guarantee what the outcome is going to be. So, for those who love certainty and those who like the idea of that specific outcome, awesome.

Speaker 1: 10:33

But I know that a lot of people that listen to this show aren't happy and they're scratching their head wondering how do I find more joy in my life? How do I find more joy in my life? How do I find more fulfillment? How do I spring out of bed really genuinely excited about the day that's in front of me? And the only possible way that I believe you can get there is by exploring and investing time into your curiosities. I believe we're in a fortunate time and I know we're definitely going to dive into this, where almost anything that you enjoy you can monetize now you can create a business out of. And that's what really excites me and I want to really dive into further with you today.

Speaker 2: 11:23

Man like straight away, just for those listening. If you thought your ideas about making money was stupid, just remember that there is a $100 million a year brand of yellow sponges that has a smiley face on it, called Scrub Daddy Right. And there is a guy who, if you go to Iwanttodrawacatforyoucom, has made $300,000 selling $10 pictures of him drawing cartoon cats and posting them in the mail to anyone in the world. You mentioned something really interesting, lucky, about certainty, and the more I reflect on certainty, the more I believe that it's an illusion, because we look for these false, tangible things to hold onto to provide a sense of security when, in actual fact, reality tells us that there is nothing that is certain about our future. We walk out the door of our house. There is a possibility of us being hit by a car, of us being hit by a car, electrocuted by lightning, suffering from a heart attack. Ziz, right Ziz, a famous guy from 10 years ago, youtube. I grew up YouTube, god. He passed away because he was in the sauna, had a heart attack at 22. And so you never know when your time's up, I think.

Speaker 2: 13:10

One interesting thing perhaps about if we look at successful people versus unsuccessful people well, both of them have the same goals a lot of the time.

Speaker 2: 13:19

They still want to make money, they still want to succeed in their business, their life, still want to drive the nice car, have the nice house. But if you look at what they've been able to create for themselves around certainty, it's what if you made then? Continue to increase your self-belief and self-respect by honoring your relationship with who you are. So your word, your deeds, how you then show up. And if you create that relationship with yourself, does it really matter what you do? Perhaps not, because you have a sense of certainty within that, whatever you put your mind and your effort to, you're going to succeed. It doesn't mean it's easy. It doesn't mean that you know the pathway forward. Mean that you know the pathway forward, but instead you know that you've built up enough innate trust and wisdom to then say, okay, cool, well, I learned this lesson and now I trust myself to not make that silly decision again and continue down that pathway.

Speaker 1: 14:41

What would that process then look like if you were going back even to yourself at a younger age? Ryan, and you're going from Neopets to MySpace to then starting your clothing apparel or launching your first business. How did you develop that absolute certainty in self to take those risks?

Speaker 2: 15:03

Yeah, great question. I think one thing that I first had to look at was changing my relationship with the idea of failure and being able to redefine that for myself, because so often I think, when we hear the word failure, we come up with a very dense energy right, it feels all engulfing and like our life is over and that we have somehow disappointed people and let ourselves down and not performed. Let ourselves down and not performed. And so I think maybe failure and fear are two sides of the same coin, because often, if you ask people about them being afraid, being scared to do something, what they actually highlight is that they're afraid of failing, so they never want to try. And if we understand that that is the dynamic that stops a lot of people, well, instead I had to change that failure turned into what if it was lessons? What if life was just a collection of lessons? This was data that I could instead use to reinforce my decision making moving forward in life. So if I saw it instead as the faster I rack up lessons, the more life experience I have, then it encourages me to try. It encourages me to make mistakes, because in the process I learn how not to do something, and I think of Edison, you could say, failed 999 times before he created the light bulb, or he learned 999 ways how not to create one.

Speaker 2: 16:59

A lot of life has to be lived. It's not from a textbook. If we think about business. Gosh, I don't know anything that I've learned about business through a book. Everything's been battle-tested and understood. You can read the best negotiation tactics, about leadership and communication. You can read stuff about finances and how to manage your finances, but you don't know what it's really like until you're slapped in the face with reality and you run into a challenge and then you're really tested on who you are and your values. In those moments Same with fitness. And I can imagine for yourself, lockie, when you're in the hole or you're in the dark place on a big run what are you faced with? You're faced with yourself and you're learning about okay. Well, is this the point where I quit? Is this a point where I stop, or is this a point where I keep going? And if you do stop again, there's a lesson in that.

Speaker 1: 18:04

Is there a moment that springs to mind for yourself where maybe you have stopped, and could you share the learning from that?

Speaker 2: 18:11

so many, so so many things. Um, let's, let's talk about a high school example. So I chose not to play first 15 rugby in year 11, I think because what I wanted to do was enjoy my year, not be confronted with the challenge of training. So I switched to football and then ended up scoring a whole bunch of goals, but I would have been in the first team. I didn't even put myself in a position to try for it. But they called me up and then they wondered why I was missing from training. And it was because I didn't want to play that year. I didn't want to play not because I didn't want the accolades, because that would have been awesome and having the whole school cheer for me, that would have been cool. I didn't want to play because I in my head was staring down the barrel of wow, this training is going to be hard. How do I juggle this with school priorities, all of this sort of stuff on my plate?

Speaker 1: 19:13

So to talk, a moment ago, you mentioned how you redefined what failure is. Would you almost suggest for a lot of people as well to potentially redefine what success means to them? I feel when I was able to define what a successful life could potentially be for me, something that excited me, something that I loved the idea of, I then was able to focus, and I then was able to focus. And when I was able to focus, I was able to make the necessary sacrifices, I was able to know what to say no to, which is a huge thing subtraction over addition, as a number of people have said to me a lot recently and because of that, I was able to build the life that I've got now. I was literally reflecting on this earlier I don't talk about it a lot and I think you've challenged me on this a bit, ryan where I've got a pretty incredible life. Actually I do. It's not pretty, it's fucking awesome, and I often don't like talking about it so much because there's a lot of people who aren't in that position, and I feel like I'm unique in the fact that I took action, maybe when I was younger you know, 23, 24 was when I first decided. You know the life that I now live was what I wanted, with the freedom, the flexibility, the people, the, et cetera.

Speaker 1: 20:46

And I'm very careful with how I talk about it and what I say and what I believe, because a lot of other people have chosen different paths and maybe have different responsibilities and I think now I'm starting to recognize that that is a disservice to people, because I have the keys to.

Speaker 1: 21:03

I believe I have the keys to helping people unlock this idea of earning a great income, being an awesome husband and potential dad one day, but also being a good mate and living a good life. And I do believe, regardless of where you're at, it's possible to create, and that's where I think why we get on so well with your systems and your delegation and a lot of the stuff that you do. You almost are like a secret weapon in my life in regards to how I've created that, and I think having more conversations openly about it and my idea of success and your idea of success and your idea of failure can help other men start going well. What does success actually look like for me? Now I've decided that that's my definition of success. Now we can get to work. What are the tasks or the action items or the skills or the people that need to be part of this for me to make that possible, and what's a timeline as well, of course.

Speaker 2: 22:57

Well, can I ask you first, in case you haven't shared this before, for those who are new listening what is your definition of success for your life? Because I'd love to know.

Speaker 1: 23:07

My definition of success for life is to enjoy the things that I choose to do on a daily basis and have the freedom to do that. And for me it is one having the health to be able to enjoy all the opportunities that come my way, whether it's running a marathon or going on a hike or just having energy to keep up with all the stuff that we do. We travel a lot, we're at a lot of events. I'm working to have the vitality for that, but it's also having the connection within my relationships, people who add value to my life, who support me, who challenge me. It's to have freedom, and freedom for me is having the financial means that I can say yes to all the opportunities Money is not an issue but also the flexibility that I can travel with my wife or live in America, should I choose to, or live in wherever I want, or be a stay-at-home dad. And then, finally, the experiences.

Speaker 1: 24:06

You said it before, ryan, where books are awesome, podcasts are awesome, but learning through doing is what makes life, and being able to know the experiences or the things that I'm curious about and have the people that I love most sharing in those experiences is what my idea of success is. So I can quantify that, even though that's like a very broad statement. I have an idea of the number from the finances. I have an idea of my benchmarks for health to allow me to do that from output and input. With recovery, I have an idea of what I value in the personal standards I hold within my relationships, okay, and I have an idea of the shit that I want on my life's resume when I'm 90, of the experiences and the adventures that I want on my life's resume when I'm 90, of the experiences and the adventures that I want. So, because of that, when it comes to planning my week, when it comes to planning my month, it's easier for me to fill in my time with meaningful stuff or meaningful experiences.

Speaker 2: 25:08

So thanks for asking that.

Speaker 1: 25:09

That was cool. I love that. What about for you? What is it for you, Ryan?

Speaker 2: 25:15

I think you nailed it before you shared was you have to understand first and foremost what your personal definition is, because otherwise it's very easy to fall into the trap of listening to the podcast or listening to your friends talk about what success means for them. And until you've defined it for yourself, sometimes and I'm not sure about you Lucky, but I've found definitely in the past is chasing other people's version of success, chasing someone else's version of what it meant to be fulfilled or have meaning in life. And it's actually really important then, I think, to check in with yourself, with what it is you want and then find models for it. And, by the way, I love that what you just said and I hope everyone listening actually appreciated that. Lockie's answer then was very profound, because he talked a lot about how he felt and the meaning and the significance that he can extract from the day-to-day. What Lockie didn't say is how much stuff that he had or how much money in the bank that he had. You basically just gave a key lesson, a key unlock to life itself, which I believe was in your answer around how you've defined success being an intrinsic thing versus extrinsic external stuff. If you find yourself chasing the extrinsic goal there's always going to be more money you can make. There's always going to be more money you can make. There's always going to be more stuff you can have. But what you said was that the time freedom like love, the flexibility to choose, those are still quite intrinsic things and have meaning to you, powerful distinction. So I just really wanted to reflect that back. That that was awesome, mate.

Speaker 2: 27:24

Very similar I think you said it so perfectly in the first sentence is just being able to enjoy, enjoy life itself, enjoy, enjoy the moments. I think for me when I'm really present. So if I am present to the moment, interesting, interesting thing to think about is life is happening right now. I believe then I have the most access to success and the joy of life in this particular moment if I'm present to it. If I'm stuck in anxiety or I'm stuck in depression, then I'm either in the future or I'm in the past. Depression, then I'm either in the future or I'm in the past, and either of those states actually robs me from being present and that's what sucks away my joy.

Speaker 1: 28:21

If I can be here right now and I can be connected to you and what is from the future and reflecting upon the past is important to enjoying and having a better present I very rarely spend any time thinking about the past.

Speaker 2: 28:50

Uh, the reason for that is purely because the past has happened and it's done and it's, I think, in a lot of ways, if we reflect on what I could have done differently, that can serve some usefulness. You know people might argue that well, well, we are doomed to repeat history if we don't reflect on the past. Possibly, I think so much of our suffering comes from living in a state outside of where we're at, and you can see it in people's minds, like if you're present with somebody and they're thinking, they're anxious about everything that's happening, or they're so consumed with a breakup that happened three years ago they don't have their life. Their whole life is actually dictated through one event, as tragic as it may have been, and so their future is so constrained by the past In terms of like weekly reflections and that sort of thing. Yes, I think some of those things are really good and you can, I find utility in those things.

Speaker 2: 30:05

But how do you get to the future state anyway? Well, turn around um and said that you wanted to run the 100 kilometer race at mount kosciuszko this year when you're back in australia. Phenomenal, like that's a future goal for you, lucky. But if you then didn't do any training in the lead up to that? But your training is then decided on today, in this moment as well, and you then face with that decision of will I train, will I not?

Speaker 1: 30:47

Yeah, could I add to that? I feel, actually I believe, that if you're someone who is just, you know a lot of people say and I've said it a lot I'm just starting my personal growth journey, or my self-development journey, or the journey to being a better version of myself, I feel there is a lot of value in reflection, because there's a lot of life experiences that maybe I haven't thought about week to week, as you and I both do that a lot now, so you don't need to spend a great deal of time. I personally found a lot of value in thinking about areas where I'd fucked up and thought about what was my role in that and how could I, if I'm in a situation in the future, do that better? How would the idea of who I want to become show up? I agree with you that as time goes on and you start getting clear on who you want to become, it's more so about being that person in this moment, right now. You have a choice. Then continually holding on to that.

Speaker 1: 31:57

A lot of people really love to just hold on to the shit. It's why, as you said, when you're not living in this moment, people are anxious, they're depressed, they're traumatized and my belief is you've got to find a way to live a life where that's not impacting you, because, regardless of what's happened and look, I have empathy towards everyone who's experienced bad shit, I do. However, if you want to live a great life, you have to find a way to make peace with that and then start being in this moment. That version of yourself that you believe you need to be to get those outcomes there's. It doesn't need to be cloudy. It's black or fucking white and people you can. There will be people who are listening to this and they don't like that. That it's black or white. The way that I overcame a lot of shit in my life, and I'm sure the same for you, ryan was just going okay, that happened, didn't like that, but this is what I now want for my life. Let's focus on that. Let's do that.

Speaker 2: 33:10

Lucky. Have you heard this? I love sharing this story. It's this analogy. So I don't know who told me this, but basically a guy had just moved into Beverly Hills in LA Wealthy guy, he was a runner, fancy, yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:30

So he was exploring his neighborhood and he went for a run on his first day in the neighborhood. So he ran around the block. It was beautiful. He was observing all the beautiful homes around him and as he comes around the corner back to his house he hears this dog wailing. It's making some noise. He's like oh, that's odd, it's 5.30 in the morning. It's quite early for a dog to be in so much pain. But he didn't think much of it. The next day he woke up, did his run Again, beautiful, he loved his new neighborhood, came back around the same corner, heard the dog in pain again Thought wow, maybe the owner's moved away, maybe they've left him for a little bit. If the dog continued wailing, he'd go and check on it.

Speaker 2: 34:22

So he woke up the third morning, again beautiful in the zone, loving his run. He then decides, because he could hear the dog continuing to wail, to go and find the house. As he runs up to the house he sees an old man in a rocking chair sitting on the deck with the dog wailing next to him. So he thought to push himself in through the gate. Said Sir, have you realized that your dog is wailing? It's in a lot of pain.

Speaker 2: 34:55

He said oh yes, the dog knows that it's sitting on a nail. All the dog has to do is stand up and it would be out of pain. And isn't it interesting how so much of our suffering is not from the situation but from how we then think and reflect on the situation. So to your point. Sometimes I don't think we need a process for everything, like if you lied about a situation or you didn't follow through and you want your word. Do you need 20 journal prompts and to sit in meditation for an hour to figure out why you did it, or can you just make a decision that you're not going to lie the next time?

Speaker 1: 35:42

Yeah, we don't need to give meaning to everything every time. It's just like that fucking happened, cool. Next, I've learned, I'm going to continue forward and I think, do you feel, part of the reason why people struggle with that is a lot of people don't have interests. And I'm going to think out loud here because I actually have not thought about this, I'm just popped in the mind from where the conversation is so happy to be challenged and corrected for sure. Do you feel? A lot of people love to hold on to trauma, love to wallow in the pity, because it makes them feel significant, because they don't feel like they have much else going on in their life. They maybe are in a job that they hate, a relationship that's toxic, they're overweight and extremely unhealthy, that the only thing that really makes them feel validated or recognized is poor. Me with this experience. And then people go oh, it's okay, ryan, that's completely fine. What are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 2: 36:47

Depends what context you're in. You can find like there's a reason why depressed people are going to hang out with depressed people Because the depressed person and the happy person can't be in the same room. They will repel each other. The depressed person will think that the happy person is annoying as fuck. And can you find a whole group of people to validate the reason why your life sucks yes, why you're overweight, why parenting is hard? I'm not discounting that at all. You can find a whole group of people. Just to reflect back your opinion.

Speaker 2: 37:32

I challenged all of my clients on a retreat recently. I said guys, your relationship to busy is contextual. But if you throw the word busy around and you go into a room with Elon Musk, how do you think your version of busy would stand up in the same room? He probably doesn't use the word. He probably doesn't use the word. So yeah, I think to a degree, and sometimes we are sneaky bastards ourselves, right, because we can be smart enough to then go and get sympathy for people who will be apologetic to our situation, to make ourselves feel better yes, we all know those people in our life that we go to.

Speaker 1: 38:21

Yep, I've got one buddy and he will be listening to this, mr gardell, and he does not tolerate shit or moping around. He'll call you on your shit and pull you out of that hole and he does it in a very unique way where it doesn't make you feel bad but it makes you go wow, I can't believe what I was just talking about, whereas some people will sort of validate that and make you feel good in your wallow. But if you think about it rationally, I have an idea of how I want to impact people, as I'm sure most people do. And if you don't, that's probably something to redefine with how would the most successful version of yourself show up and impact people and make people feel that everything else doesn't matter? It's noise?

Speaker 1: 39:19

When you think about being one of those individuals who says I'm busy and I am guilty of saying that, so I'm definitely not coming from a perfect place there but when I think about when I say I'm busy it's just because I've added too much or I have allowed too many things into my area of attention or onto my calendar, the only way I'm not going to be busy is to say no to things and to set, you know, prioritize my time.

Speaker 1: 39:49

Okay, I do it very well over here in the States, like very well. When I'm in Australia, I have more meetings than anyone that I know and it's chaos. My life is out of chaos and it's day and night, and people who know me well can significantly tell the difference between how I am right now as opposed to how I am in Australia, and that's nothing to do with Australia at all now as opposed to how I am in Australia, and that's nothing to do with Australia at all. It's to do with the routine that I've set up and how I prioritize my time and what I'm focused on.

Speaker 2: 40:30

Would you say Lockie, though for yourself if you use that situation, because I can relate when I moved to Bribie so Bribie Island about an hour north of Brisbane Bought a house there during COVID, moved there for eight months and then was isolated, but it meant that I could work. Would you say that that type of routine you kind of established for yourself? In the US now, where you guys moved for opportunities, australia ends up being this kind of holiday and so if you're on holidays you do have a different routine, which would be to see people you enjoy, see people you haven't seen for a long time. Um, so the context and the environment in which your routines operate are different and you've allowed those connections I, I think differently.

Speaker 1: 41:24

I feel that every year I'm learning. Every year I have new ideas that I would like to test, that I feel could make my life better. I know the power of habit. The power of how I'm showing up in my life and how I'm showing up in other people's life makes it very hard for me to implement the change, because my life's not shit, my life's great and a lot of people's lives are not woeful, but they're not where they want them to be. And I think because of that, it's've learned over the years.

Speaker 1: 42:03

Around my ideal day, what's going to make me happiest? I could do. I could build from a blank canvas, and that's exactly what I've done. I've wanted to for years. Ryan, not meet with people before midday.

Speaker 1: 42:31

I found it very hard because I had done that for years. That to do that it would have not only been a change in my life but my client's lives, and I was fearful that that would ruin my business. Okay, so it's almost like this whole burn the boat. It wasn't necessarily that, but I do believe and this is why I'm a massive believer in shifting your environment if you truly want to change something. It's hard to do.

Speaker 1: 42:59

I should have done this years ago, but I didn't. But now I'm seeing the benefits of it and I was literally saying to someone this morning that if I move back to Brisbane I can't live where we lived. I have to find a new neighborhood, and it's nothing against the neighborhood that I was in, it's just I truly believe that if I end up back there, I will go back to the same habits, the same me, and that version of myself was highly productive but highly fucking stressed. And was I as happy as I am now? No, no way in the world. So I want more of what I've got now, and that means controlling the environment and starting from a blank canvas wherever I move.

Speaker 2: 43:47

So, Lockie, can you share a little bit for those people who are listening and they're noticing that life is okay, it's not terrible. They might live in Australia. Great, they might live in these states. You're obviously talking about standards that you have now set for yourself with where you're living. What are some of those standards that have raised the quality of your life for yourself?

Speaker 1: 44:14

Dude, I feel like you're interviewing me here. We're going to swing this back around, oh this is great.

Speaker 2: 44:19

It's so insightful.

Speaker 1: 44:25

To answer your question, the standards that I have is I've shifted a lot from business being the absolute everything and, more to your point, I've become a lot more systemized. I've become a lot more process-driven. I've become a lot more systemized. I've become a lot more process-driven, which has freed up the ability to know that I'll get the jobs done that I'm required to get done every day in a smaller amount of time. So, because I didn't prioritize it previously, I was just always on, always going, and it was like chaos, it was like a duck on top. Actually, people probably didn't see me as calm. I was pretty always on, always going, and it was like a chaos. You know, it was like a dark on top. Actually, people probably didn't see me as calm, I was pretty erratic, but underneath my feet were just going, whereas here it doesn't matter what happens in my day. I know I just need, you know, five hours roughly to get everything done. If that right, I'm very, very systemized and structured to get everything done, if that right, I'm very, very systemized and structured.

Speaker 1: 45:19

And the standards that now I have is I'm finished work by six, apart from every Tuesday, which is where I do late night calls. I exercise every morning, you know, up until midday it's locky time, I can do whatever I want. It's golfing at the moment. It could be running, it could be going for whatever, Whatever that is. It's golfing at the moment. It could be running, it could be going for whatever. Whatever that is, it's my time.

Speaker 1: 45:38

Then, from sort of midday to two, I start getting in the work zone. It's reading, catching up on things, and then from two I'm on, but that's generally until about six. So that's four hours roughly, except for the Tuesdays. And the standard that I uphold is I know what areas of my life need time and they need time every single day. It's not weekly or monthly, it's daily. Like, my relationship and my marriage is extremely important. My health and my mental health are extremely important. Hanging out with my buddies or being on the phone with my buddies important. Having time to work important. So every day there is time there for those things and I'm not stressed because I know that I've made time for it and I say no to things that rob me of that time.

Speaker 1: 46:22

So, what about you?

Speaker 2: 46:25

Yeah, well, I think you have to be a guard of your time. And again, there's so much meta stuff happening in your answers that sometimes I feel like people can listen passively to what you just shared and not engage. But there is so much that Lockie just said which I love around. You have to guard your time. But here's the interesting thing If you don't guard your time, then you can prostitute yourself out and what you really then say to the rest of the world is hey guys, I'm available for everybody and everyone can take a piece of me own time to nourish my mental, physical, spiritual, emotional well-being, gone out the window because I've prioritized somebody else. I've prioritized investing in them, whatever it might be. And so people who hit you up for a free coffee or whatever, it's really easy just to waste time. But often I think a really pernicious quote is time is money, and people buy into this idea. Time is not money. Time is infinitely more valuable than money. They're printing more money every single day. You will not get more time. And so if you change your dynamic again, coming back to what we were saying earlier on about the building, the self-trust and the self-respect, if you respect your time and somebody else's, you would never want to waste it. And then what it allows you to do and what I love in my relationships is, even if I don't speak to someone for a little while, as soon as I'm with them I'm on like that is me and them. Phones are off, I get to be present. That is the most important person in my world, right there, and then, in that context, if I'm on the phone with them, it also means then it's not a haphazard check-in call, I'm calling them on the drive because I'm bored between meeting. Like to me that's actually lazy communication, because lucky is just the afterthought, for example, versus man. Let's be really intentional.

Speaker 2: 48:56

I want to ask you about this this podcast super intentional, lockie and I spoke about it. I'm like great, and I think people need to have a healthier respect for their time as well, their time as well, cause I I didn't used to and I think I would be late to things and meetings and catch ups with friends. I'd be habitually late to stuff and I just thought it was perfectly acceptable and okay, because they were my friends, that they would be forgiving that I was 10 minutes late, and actually it was really disrespectful. Disrespectful because I wasn't in communication about it. So, yeah, I just loved what you shared then, um, and in a lot of the same ways. Those things are important. I also love having calls in the afternoon and moving shit to the afternoon now so that you can just do your hard stuff in the morning, where you need more of the brain capacity, or just either if it's work or doing things for yourself.

Speaker 1: 50:06

Speaking about intention, and we'll tie this into systems, processes and automation. The intention for me in a lot of the work that I've done now is how can I be more efficient? I think something to understand for a lot of people is when you're learning something new, it will take time and you won't be very efficient. So an example of this is I believe you can have everything, just not at once, but you can build to it. So what I mean by that and the idea I have around this is I'm in a position where I know how to create money. I could always create more 100%, so I'm not once again saying I'm the guru at making bank money, but enough Health, always feeling awesome and in a shape that I'm comfortable with my shirt off and relationship. Feeling awesome and in a shape that I'm comfortable with my shirt off and relationship, and I wasn't able to prioritize those and give time to those all at once in the beginning, when I, you know, 2014, when I guess I was becoming, you know like. This is what I need to do with this area to get better.

Speaker 1: 51:12

It took a lot of time, my cold calls. Building a business took a lot of time 12 plus hours a day for years because I was refining my skill and learning how to become more efficient. I then went to health. I've always been fit and athletic but I was shocking with recovery. I was terrible with my nutrition. So I said to myself let's start learning about that. And I've tried vegan, I've tried vegetarian, I've tried keto, I've tried. You know, I've tried it all and I've tested it and figured out what works well for my body. That's an investment in time and learning that stuff. And now I've got an idea of how to eat well for myself very easily. The same with relationship. You know relationships are complex right Communication, negotiation, problem solving, listening, empathy. You know all of that.

Speaker 1: 51:59

And that took time and because I've yeah, sex, I'm shocking at that too.

Speaker 1: 52:04

Now those things have taken time to the point where you now can do it really efficiently, like if someone came to me with a problem around X, y and Z, like health, I could design a program and understand the solution for that in no time.

Speaker 1: 52:18

Same with relationship, like I feel very good at that because I have learned how to become more efficient and learn how to cut the fluff. And going to what you're doing now with helping businesses, I'm not going to say doing now, you've been doing it for ages. But what you do with helping people become more streamlined, systemized, automated, is you help them cut that fluff so they then can focus on the most important things that need to get done in their business to free up time to invest in other areas of their life, which to me, moves us towards work-life harmony, where it's like I don't have to work 14 hours a day to make the money that I need to survive. I can actually work four hours a day, spend some time with my wife, go hit some golf balls and life's fucking awesome. So can you talk me through where your obsession came with what you do now?

Speaker 2: 53:13

Yeah, well, I when I first. So I dropped out of university and I was doing remote sales and then I spoke to the developer of this company that I was doing sales for and he told me about software engineering. So I found a way to learn about that. I moved to Sydney. So I found a way to learn about that. I moved to Sydney, did an intense bootcamp. I think I shared with you, lockie, that, like the story of, I pitched the Airbnb right. So, as a 18 year old, I'm staying in this penthouse in Sydney, overlooking Sydney Harbor and paying like 270 bucks a week, eating cereal, watching the cruise ships come in and out wild, um, and it's you never. You never fully appreciate what you've got till it's gone. So when you can't do that every morning, then you realize how beautiful it was. Uh and, and that coding bootcamp was like the most intense thing I've ever done in my life. And that coding boot camp was like the most intense thing I've ever done in my life, just mentally fatiguing.

Speaker 2: 54:21

Came back, started working full time for an agency, a marketing company, and I always said to myself, if I were to go and work for somebody else, I'm going to maximize all the skills and the learning and the lessons, because, underneath it all, I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur, grow my own business, do my own thing. So probably a strategic move in terms of like working for a startup and juggling so many hats. I worked in San Francisco for a bit. I worked in San Francisco for a bit. We worked with some of the biggest brands on the planet doing like billions and billions of data. Like dealing with billions and billions of data. One year I fucked up the messaging to Coles at Easter time so I sent the wrong message out to like 150 Coles users 150,000 users of the Coles app. That's fun. And basically, lockie, I just wanted to figure out how could I do my nine to five job more efficiently so I could get the work done faster, which started my whole.

Speaker 2: 55:33

Yeah, as you said, obsession with like systems and saving time, and I think a lot of it's driven through the lens of life is short and the older I've gotten, the more I've appreciated that sentiment. You know, I think we hear that our whole entire life. That sentiment you know, I think we hear that our whole entire life. When my grandmother passed away, you know, that week she called to speak with us and I think at the time I'm like 12 or 14, didn't want to talk to my grandmother, I'd just spoken to her earlier in the week. So I said to I distinctly remember I said to my mom I'm like I'm watching the Simpsons, I don't want to talk to my grandmother, I'd just spoken to her earlier in the week. So I said to I distinctly remember I said to my mom I'm like I'm watching the Simpsons, I don't want to talk to grandma right now. So my mom talks to grandma and then she passes a few days later and again in hindsight, you reflect on some of those moments and you're like I could have more present with my grandma. The simpsons replayed every single, every single week.

Speaker 2: 56:41

So, underlying all of that, I think ultimately it's about how do we maximize the joy and the fulfillment that we have whilst we're here and, you know, just suck every morsel out of life because we don't know how long we're here for. And you've read the studies as much as I have, where, when people who are 80 years old have been interviewed about what they regret, they regret all the moments that passed them by and they weren't present with life because they chose something else instead of being with the people they love. I've never heard a sick old person in the hospital bed asking to kiss their Ferrari goodbye or their piles of money, so it's like, okay, how can you enjoy more of life and free yourself up from doing the stuff that you don't have to do or want to do, um, so that your genius, your skills, your giftings can then be expressed in the work that you do? And how do we figure out a way to maximize not only fulfillment but also profit from doing that?

Speaker 1: 57:59

It's such a good way to think about things. Previously, when I had an employee mindset and what I want to give meaning to that is I used to think time for money. So the more hours I worked, the more money I made. That was my outlook, so it didn't matter if I was efficient or not, I didn't care. I was like, if I can draw this out another two hours and it's easy, I'll do that because it's worth another 40 bucks to me. Then, when I shifted to, I'm working for myself. How can I maximize profit in minimal time while still delivering an incredible result?

Speaker 1: 58:33

I shifted things and I would love for people to start adopting that mindset because it doesn't just need to align with business, and it doesn't just align with business or profit or money.

Speaker 1: 58:46

It aligns with going back to what we spoke about a moment ago, where you want to book in the calendar, like a calendar invite to catch up with your buddies, because it's intentional, like what are you hoping to gain from this engagement? Same with a date night, as opposed to just coming home and sitting on the couch. It's like this is an intentional date night. I want to date you again, which means let's make it fucking exciting and a lot of people lack intention in their life because they just don't have the time, they don't have processes or they don't have systems, aka meetings or time allocated during their week to do the things that are really important to them, and it's just shifting your perspective from you know, I can draw this out. That'll always be there for me, grandma will always be there for me. My wife will always be there for me too. How can I maximize my time with them right now?

Speaker 2: 59:41

Yeah, and I think sometimes you go I think just on that as well wherever life is at for you and you're listening to this wherever this podcast finds you. I think it is worth taking a moment to reflect on what is and isn't working for you in your life, and if something is not working be that relationships, your health, your business there's things that just maybe it's kind of working, but not in all the ways that you envision. I hope that you've actually gotten something from this beautiful man here as well and that this is a prompt to reach out to him and have a conversation, because he has. I said this to you as well lockheed online is like one-tenth of the, the epic human that he is in person. You know he's the same person. You get the same heart, but his brain and how he thinks about life in the world and we've had some really beautiful conversations there's something that he can offer and if he couldn't help you then he'd point you in the right direction.

Speaker 2: 1:01:01

But I think, getting present to what you're after in your life and defining the success and the lessons that you've had and what you would like life to look like. Some people might have discounted 2024 already, because we're in the middle of April, or instead you can look at it as wow, I've got the rest of the year. There's so much upside, there's so much potential still. That's your job to go and figure that out and to surround yourself with people who can help you get there.

Speaker 1: 1:01:38

Ryan, we could talk for hours and I think we will definitely be doing a lot more episodes about specific things that pop to mind. Where can people find you? Because I do encourage people, especially business owners, to reach out to you, because I do believe that with the right systems, processes and automation aka bit of AI yeah, baby, you will get time back and that time could be invested in other areas of your life. That will make it more joyful, will make it more meaningful, will make it more rich in the time that you've got here. So where can people find you?

Speaker 2: 1:02:14

You can find me on LinkedIn, instagram, my website. Shoot me. Can people find you? You can find me on LinkedIn, instagram, my website. Shoot me an email if you would like, if you're up for that. So, ryan at ryandrakecom or at it's ryandrake everywhere. So Instagram's probably the place I hang out the most, but that'll be the best way.

Speaker 1: 1:02:37

Ryan, thank you so much for jumping on. Thanks for challenging me. Thanks for it was a fun conversation. I always really honestly enjoy it when it's a bit of a two-way conversation, which sounds weird because I'm interviewing people, but I just feel we get to unpack things to a greater depth and there's more story involved, which I personally love. I appreciate all the work that you're doing and giving me your time and our friendship as well.

Speaker 2: 1:03:02

Thanks, man. I really appreciate being here. It's such an honor. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:03:08

And everyone listening. Check the show notes. All the links for Ryan will be available. Share this with someone that you know will get value, and I always love it when I see people who share it on social media and tag me. And, finally, to help us continue getting more awesome guests like Ryan on the show, leave a rating and review on YouTube, on Spotify, on Apple, whichever platform you listen to. It really helps us out. Thank you, guys, for tuning in. We'll see you next time.