I am currently, running a 3-day event in Melbourne called Ultimate Expert. We teach people skills of coaching, speaking, and branding. So, we are super excited about that. The consulting, teaching, branding space is huge right now. I’ve got some skills and gifts we’ll be able to teach people about how to create their niche and find their market and monetise their story and do some pretty call stuff.

I’m a Melbourne boy. I’m from Melbourne originally, from the Mornington Peninsula. I love Melbourne. It’s easily Australia’s best city – although I live on the Gold Coast.

I have a really blessed life where I get to do a couple of cool things. Number one, I teach on stage around the world with some pretty cool people. I teach onstage and run events with a guy called Tony Robbins. I think most people listening to this would probably know who Tony is. I first met Tony about 20 years ago, and for the last 15 years, I’ve been teaching and speaking on stage with him, which is pretty cool for a kid from Frankston.

Outside of that, I’ve got my own coaching company. I train people to become coaches and speakers, and we actually sell coaching as well. We’ve got hundreds of people around the country being coached by my team. So, coaches keeping people on track and accountable and that kind of cool stuff. We’ve got a financial services company, which we do some really cool stuff with – investing and taking care of people’s money. And, of course, I am married to an amazing, kind, clever, smart, talented woman. We’ve got 4 young children that kind of keeps things fun as well.

But, it all started here. I’m a Melbourne boy. I grew up in Frankston. I was so bad in high school that I was asked to leave. I had 3 dads before I was 10. 8 schools before I was 12 and out of home at 15. I did all the things that you are supposed to do – worked hard 50, 60, 70 hours a week. I was lucky enough to stumble across the opportunity to run some businesses when I was quite young – 18, 19, 20 years old.

Then, at an early age – around 23-24 – I stumbled across this thing called ‘personal development’. It wasn’t listening to podcasts, it was listening to a thing called a cassette - if anybody listening knows what that is - it was a clunky white thing that used to fit in a Sony Walkman. I would listen to cassettes, then I’d read books, and then I stumbled across this thing called ‘seminars’ and that really set me on a journey that completely, completely, completely transformed my life. So, if you’re listening to this, whatever you’re doing, whether you’re catching a train or going for a workout or walking your dog – this stuff works! It’s what did it for me. A kid from Frankston who was asked to leave high school and who managed to fail, not once, but 3 times from 3 different universities. I am a huge believer in education. Whether it’s tapes, books, CD’s, seminars, coaching, mentoring – all that stuff works!

I went to the second ever Tony Robbins seminar in Australia about 100 years ago (that’s what it feels like). I went because my mum had been the year before. I didn’t go because I wanted to transform my life. I didn’t go because I wanted to change my business. I didn’t go because I wanted to prove myself. I went because I already knew everything. Work 80 hours a week and you get a lot of money and you buy a big house. That’s what I was taught to do. I went because I thought my mum was crazy and had joined some crazy cult.

So, I went to my first thing and it slowly opened up for me. It didn’t happen immediately, but it opened up my eyes to, “Oh my gosh. Maybe all the things that I’ve indoctrinated with and learned about good education, good job, work hard – maybe those things aren’t true anymore in the 21st Century? Maybe there is a different way to create some success?

I went from my first event to being on stage because I was always a great student and always great at utilising the stuff, so I have always been very coachable. When I was an athlete for many years, doing Iron Man triathlons and representing my country at the world championships, I was always very coachable. When I was in business as a young man – 18, 19, 20 – I had some great mentors. And, I was always very good at learning from them. Not just learning, but putting the stuff into use. I think that knowledge isn’t powerful, action is powerful. That sounds trite to say that, but I was always very good at being told what to do by someone smarter than me, and then saying, “Ok. Well, they are smarter than me. I should probably go and do what they just said”, without really asking, “Why?”, too much. I think if you ask, “What for?”, or “Why?”, I think it can get in the way sometimes.

Assuming you trust the mentor - and I didn’t know that was the word back then. I just thought it was an old person because I was 20 years old and I thought 40 was old – or the person who is giving you the advice or the wisdom, just do it! I was always good at that.

I decided that my passion is really helping people wake up and live the life they want, not the life they don’t want. It probably took me until I was 28, 29, 30 to start living the life that I wanted to. Because, again, we are told by our parents, we are told by our environment, we are told by our education what we are supposed to do, that’s what my passion is. Helping people wake up from the slumber of their life in relation to their business, their job, their marriage, their health, and make them live deliberately. In fact, that’s our catch-phrase now, “Live deliberately”, and we’ve turned that into our business. Our business is either helping people to get coaching, so they can become better, or, helping people become a coach, so they can help other people. And, then, what to do with your life. Most people need some help. Whether that’s with their relationship, whether that’s in finances, just to live more consciously and deliberately.

The biggest challenge in the 21st Century is choice. There is too much choice. When I was a kid, going to school, if you went for an ice-cream, there were 3 flavours. Chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla. When you watched TV, there was Channel 7, Channel 9, and Channel 0 (then that became Channel 10), and there was this weird thing called the ABC. Today, it’s too confusing. One store has 31 flavours, plus there is yoghurt, plus there is Tofutti. It’s too confusing, and human beings don’t cope well with too many choices. What they do is they go into overwhelm, and, when they’re in overwhelm, they just get distracted and go and do Facebook.

So, I’d say, choice. The ability to make decisions about, “Where is my time and focus going to go?”, there’s no question. You can’t do everything. There are too many things to listen to. Too many books to read. Too many things you want to get done. Whether it’s take care of the trash, clean the house, renovate the back porch, go to the gym, go hiking, have a holiday, take care of your marriage, take care of your kids, advance your business, get some part-time education – there’s too much to do. So, the ability to make conscious choices about, “Where is my time going to go today? Or, this week? Or, this month? Where is my focus and energy going to go today? Or, this week? Or, this month?” And, the ability to consistently make great decisions about where to allocate those two things, your time and your energy, because both those things disappear really quickly.

All your time can be gone, and all your energy can be gone, and you’re still not happy or fulfilled because you’ve spent all your time and you’ve spent all your energy doing stuff that didn’t fulfil you. Doing this big, long list of stuff that you, quote, unquote, “Have to do. Or, are supposed to do. Or, meant to do. Or, got to do”. I’d say that’s always been my number one skillset gift. The ability to make great decisions on the allocation of my time and the allocation of my focus.

You read all these books, you go to all these seminars, and, in my day, you’d listen to all these cassettes and, now, you listen to podcasts, and you ask yourself, “Who am I? What do I value? And, what is the purpose of my life?”, and all those great big questions we ask ourselves when we meditate or journal or all those things that you do at seminars, where you walk on fire or whatever you do. And, I would always ask myself, “Great. Now, how do I live that? How do I get that into something tangible and make it real?” And, so, I would say, “Well, it has to get onto my schedule.” If I put all that stuff in my journal or put all that stuff on my vision board or put all that stuff on a bit of paper somewhere, “How do I make that real? How do I get that on my calendar on a Tuesday morning?”

So, I’ve just become great at time management. That sounds like such a trite thing to say, “Time management? I’m going to get a day planner and manage my day?” But, I think it is really important to say that, “Here is my values. Or, here is my purpose. Or, here is my vision. Or, here’s my goal”, whatever words you’re using from whoever your coach is. But, actually saying, “Great. How am I getting that into my day on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly basis so, when I get to Christmas, or Easter, or a birthday with a zero, I’ll look back and go, “Oh, cool! I actually did the things I said I was going to do. I achieved that goal. Or, I accomplished that task. Or, I had that trip. Or, I wrote that book. Or, I left that job. Or, I started that business”. Those things don’t happen accidentally. They happen with deliberate intention and lots and lots of foresight.

It’s called planning and it’s called scheduling – which doesn’t sound sexy – but, I think they are two of the sexiest words on the planet. Because, if I’m doing planning and scheduling, I need to be thinking about who I want to be, who I want to become, what needs to get done to make that happen, and then, how does it get into my schedule?

This isn’t just a weekly thing I do, it’s all the time. So, if you came into my office you would laugh - what are we in now? Late 2017 – I already have on my wall, all of 2018 mapped out and a good portion of 2019 mapped out. I am always looking ahead. 3 years, 5 years, as well. I am always looking at the year, and I am certainly always looking at the week. Planning your day can be a bit complex because days can be kind of crazy, but I think the more you get into consistently, certainly weekly – absolutely weekly - that’s the key to a great year.

The key to a great year is to have a really great week. We have 168 hours in a week. If you have a really effective week where you are on target about 80% of the time, 80% of your health goals met, 80% of your business goals met, 80% of your relationship goals met – that’s a pretty successful week. If you can put 3 or 4 of those together, that’s a pretty good month. All of a sudden, you get to the end of the month and say, “Gosh, we hit all our targets. We worked out at much as we thought we would. We did as much work at the office as we thought we did, we spent some time with the spouse or the kids, we read a book” – a pretty good month. Well, if you can string together 2 or 3 of those months, all of a sudden, well, that’s your great quarter! If you can string together 2 or 3 quarters, all of a sudden, you have a spectacular year.

I use the analogy of saying, “Your year is a bit like the back of your car if you’re a kid”. When I was a kid, we used to go all the way up to the Gold Coast, in the quintessential Australian driving holiday from Frankston, in the back of a Commodore stationwagon, with 4 kids on the back bench-seat of the car with no seat belt. And, there was only a certain amount of space in the back of the car. My dad (whichever dad at the time), would have to, very strategically pack the back of the car and make sure that 2 things happened. Number one, everything we needed was included in the trip, and nothing we didn’t need was taking up wasted space. So, I think about my year as the same thing. My year is 52 blocks of 168 hours. It is limited. There’s an unlimited number of things I want to do in the year. I want to travel. I want to build up my business. I want to hang out with my wife. I want to so something with my kids. I want to go hang out with Tony Robbins. There are so many things I want to go and do, but I can’t do them all. But, if I, strategically, at the start of the year go, “Great. What are the things that I want to take on this trip, called ‘my awesome year’? Where do they need to go? How to they strategically fit into this thing called ’52 times 168’?” I want to pack that really intelligently at the start of the year, so that, at the end of the year, I either, A, haven’t forgotten to take anything important – which means I missed out on something I really wanted to do – and, B, I didn’t fill part of my year up with stuff that didn’t count, that wasn’t important?”

So, certainly, it’s a yearly thing, it’s certainly a quarterly thing, it’s absolutely a monthly thing and, most urgently, it’s a weekly thing. I consistently, on a weekly basis, sit down for 30-40 minutes and say, “Great. What needs to happen this week? What do I want to have happen this week? And, what’s the dance between those two things?” Because the dance between what needs to happen and what I want to have happen – that’s the juggle and the dance between that.

My life is really about looking at people smarter than me. I consistently am looking for people who are further down the track than me. Further down the track in business. Further down the track in a successful marriage. Or, further down the track in health or what it happens to be. I’m always looking for mentors and coaches, which was why I was attracted to your channel and what you do. So, I got to go and hang out with Richard Branson. I got to go on a personal, private trip with Richard and his children and some of his nephews and 15 other guests. We went to Morocco and spent some time at his sister’s hotel and then we mountain-biked through the desert for a number of days and then we climbed the second highest mountain in Africa for a little bit of time. Then we spent some time at Richard’s hotel in Marrakesh, hanging out and talking about business and education and contribution and charity. A really cool event. It reminded me that I’m not in the shape that I’d like to be, to be climbing mountains, but, just loving it. Simon Sinek was there, who is the author of that amazing book, “Start With Why”, and there were some very successful business entrepreneurs there. I’ve always just loved hanging out with people that are conscious, they are awake, they are deliberate, and they are looking to live their life in a conscious and deliberate manner.

A trip like that really forces you to continually challenge yourself to reimagine how your life could be. To ask yourself, “Gosh, am I really playing at the highest level I can possibly be?” And, I want to balance that by saying - whenever I’m suggesting to my coaching clients or whenever I’m working with people about becoming more and being bigger and being bolder and all those things – it doesn’t necessarily mean doing more. I don’t do more. I’m only looking to make 5 or 7 decisions a day. I’m not looking to be busier. I’m looking to be more purposeful, and more on track, and more deliberate. So, I’m looking to get things off my calendar, not get things on my calendar (if that makes sense?). I think, the more you hang out with people that are further down the path than you if you can learn some strategies from them or some processes from them or some beliefs from them about what they are doing to make that happen, I think that’s pretty useful.

In Australia, we are right on the cusp of this thing called coaching, mentoring, consulting, and expert. I’ll give you an analogy. 20 years ago, if you said to somebody, “I’ve got a personal trainer” – and I used to be a personal trainer years ago – they’d say, “Really? What for? What do you need a personal trainer for? Just get up and go to the gym. Get up and run around the block”. Today, not only is it normal and commonplace to have a personal trainer, there is actually a bit of significance that goes with it. You might be at a party or a function and go, “Oh, I wouldn’t eat that. My trainer won’t allow me”. Or, “Oh, no. I can’t do that. My trainer has got me on a special program”. Or, “Oh, gosh. I had such a hard session at the gym this morning because my trainer has got me doing this special thing”. So, today, it’s very commonplace to say, “I’ve got my trainer”. That’s the phrase they use. “My PT. My trainer. My coach.”

I think that, in the 21st Century, having a coach to keep you, quote, unquote, “On track”, is going to become completely normal and commonplace. If you look at ANZ, one of the largest companies in Australia, in fact, globally, their entire advertising campaign now - for how to get a first home under your belt, to buy your first property – doesn’t talk about interest rates, doesn’t talk about the cost of their loan, doesn’t talk about the features and benefits of their service. It talks about, “Oh, you need a first home coach”.

There’s this great story where there was a man who became an Uber driver and realised that onboarding as an Uber driver is a complicated process and you can be an Uber driver and not actually make much money, and now he is an Uber driver coach. He coaches people how to become great Uber drivers. He’s making more money from being an Uber driver consultant than being an Uber driver. So, I think this space of coaching, speaking, and consulting is huge right now and it is huge for one reason. In the 21st Century – after the conversation we’ve just had about time – people are only interested in one question, “How fast and how quick can you solve my problem?”

“If you can do that quickly. If you can help me loose weight really quickly. If you can help me get 10 customers quickly. If you can help me get back on track quickly. I am going to pay you for that. That means you are my consultant. That means you are my coach. That means you are my expert. That means you are my whatever.” I don’t care what the word is. Different people sit with words differently. But, that’s what they want. They want faster results – quicker, better, and more immediately – and they will happily pay 5, 10, 20, 30, 50 … me, $95,000, for them to do that for them. So, I think the coaching, consulting, speaking space is phenomenally huge and it will be very commonplace, in the next 3-5 years, say, at a dinner party on a Friday night when you’re having a glass of wine with your family and friends, “Oh, yeah. My coach has got me working on my time management. My coach has got me working on my business plan. My coach has got me working on spending more time with the kids.” I think that is going to be completely normal and commonplace.

The biggest one would be, to be bigger and bolder. If I look back on my life and I think about all the great things that have happened and all the curious things that have happened, I’d say, every single person I’ve ever met is capable of greatness. Greatness - which means wealth. Greatness in relationships. Greatness in health – is not some special or magical stardust that’s sprinkled on certain people and not on other people. Literally, in the last month, I’ve spoken personally with Tony Robbins, Richard Branson, Gary V, Sarah Blakely (who is the billionaire who owns Spanx), Simon Sinek … I mean, just so many amazing, extraordinary people, and they are not any different to you and I. They are just making different decisions. So, I’d say, if there was any advice to anybody – whether it’s my son, who is 10 years old, or any of my clients – it would be that every single one of us is capable of greatness. That is going to require some boldness and some decision and some action. I feel like I’m a fortune cookie saying it, but whatever you are believing and dreaming, you can achieve. You really can.

If you are looking to write your book. If you are looking to quit your job and start your company. If you are looking to get married. If you are looking to start an investment portfolio. If you are looking to go and do an Iron Man. If you are looking to go and do something, the fact that you are actually thinking about it and feeling about it, literally tells me that at least part of you is capable of it. And, I’d say, go do it!

What holds us back from that is in our head. The fear, doubt, uncertainty, lack, scarcity, all those things. That gets in the way. So, that dance between your head and your heart, your heart or your soul, that says, “I want to do it. I can do it. I’d like to do it. I’d be awesome at it.” That dance between fear and certainty is the whole dance. Because your head is not designed to be successful. Your head is designed to keep you safe and your head is designed to look for what’s wrong. That’s what your brain is designed for. So, you want to not have your head be in charge. Your head is designed – it’s really important for people to get this because they think your head is the most important part of your body, but it’s not – to keep you safe and alive, which means it’s designed to look for what’s wrong.

Your heart – (and whether that’s your heart, your soul, your spirit, whatever word you want to use for that) that part of humanity that makes a building in Dubai be a kilometre and a half tall. That part of humanity that makes our iPods smaller, but they’ve got more stuff on them. That part of humanity that keeps inventing and creating new and amazing cool stuff - that part of you is the part that you want to have be in charge. So, sometimes, the dance between your head and your heart is the most important decision you need to make.

To reiterate the point of planning, I am always looking at my week. I am always looking at my month. Certainly, planning and scheduling is something I’m consistently doing.

Obviously, it sounds silly to say, but reading and – in the 21st Century, podcasting, and audiobooks. Continually feeding your mind and your brain with new stuff. People often ask me, “What’s the most important book I should read? What’s the best book? Which book should I read that’s going to change my life?”, and I’m like, “The answer is, all of them!” It sounds trite to say, but, “All of them!” Keep feeding your brain with what people are doing, with podcasts.

I still like reading old-fashioned books. I don’t have a Kindle. I know it’s crazy. I don’t have an iPad. I know. It’s crazy! It’s tactile. You get a little possessive. For me, once I’ve read a book, it becomes part of my life, and it’s a friend of mine. I like to see the broken back and the bent spine of a good book on the bookshelf in my study or in my library. I’m like, “That’s part of me. I remember reading that book”.

I think my favourite quotes is that quote that is often, mistakenly, given to Nelson Mandela, and it’s not. It’s from a really, really great lady called Marianne Williamson, that talks about our deepest fear.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” There is a whole bunch of stuff in the middle about this quote, but what I love is the back half of the quote where it says, “As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. And, as we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

When I think about that, I think, “That’s our job. That’s our responsibility.” Our responsibility is to be the biggest, best, boldest, happiest, most fulfilled version of ourselves that we can be. And, as we do that, hopefully, that provides some light, or the possibility for our children or our business partners or our spouses or our community, that, “Gosh. Maybe, if he can do it, the kid from Frankston who was asked to leave high school he was so bad, then maybe I can do it too.” I think that’s kind of our moral responsibility. I think, if you can, you should.

The one from the movie, ‘Dead Poet’s Society’ is, “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately”. Deliberate is a very important word for me. I like that word. It’s one of our catch phrases – “Live deliberately”. I’ve got a team I’m building called Team Deliberate. I think deliberate is a very important word.

Listeners can just go to scottharris.com.au and they can have a look there. And, they can go to coaching.com.au because we own that space as well. They can get themselves a free coaching session on either of those two pages.

But, as a gift for anybody listening – this is the thing I’m most passionate about, even though it’s not really sexy – is this thing called ‘Planning and scheduling and designing your life deliberately’. So, if you go to scottharris.com.au/thementorlist I’ve put a couple of things up there. I’ve put a great, hour-long video and an audio and a written document that I think are all really useful tools about, “How do I do this weekly planning, monthly planning, quarterly planning kind of process?” Click here for your special gift to all The Mentor List listeners.
www.scottharris.com.au/thementorlist/

The planning is part art and part science. So, I’ve given you the science by giving you this video and this audio and this document. The art is you then applying it to your own life because everyone’s life is a little bit different. Some of you will use technology to plan. Some will use a pen and paper. Some will use an integration of those two things. If you want that, go to scottharris.com.au/thementorlist and there are some cool resources there that can get you to have a bit more of a functional, an organised and, perhaps, prosperous, next couple of months.