This is a monthly update about my private and business life.

You’ll learn about a personal development program I went through for the third time, and I’ll share with you which training I enjoyed on Masterclass.com.

Hy, my name is Julian. I‘m a husband, dad and business owner from Berlin, Germany. On this website and corresponding YouTube channel, I‘ll share with you some proven strategies on how to live a rich and meaningful life. 

So, the sections of today’s blog post are Private, business, investing, a book, and a masterclass I enjoyed. As a special bonus, I’ll be sharing a powerful exercise from Tony Robbins.

Private

At our daycare center, it’s the flu season, so my wife and I were both a bit sick. For about one week, I was only working at 50% capacity. 

Luckily, my team has been performing super well, even doing strategy calls with prospects. At the same time, I felt a bit like a beaten dog. 

Also, I’ve been eating healthy meals and signed up for a local gym. Just like my office, it’s within 5 minutes distance from our daycare center and home. That one change has dramatically improved the frequency of my training sessions. 

The insights from my Oura ring have helped me tremendously with my health in October. It told me exactly on which days I should take it easy. Typically, those days were after a night with either an elevated heart rate, elevated body temperature, or both.

Suppose you want to know more about how an Oura ring can help you have a healthier life. In that case, I recommend you also read or watch my comprehensive Oura ring review. 

Also, I’ve worn these blue light-blocking glasses for a month now. I put these on every day when the sun goes down – and I also wear them early in the morning before sunrise. The last time my monthly sleep score average was as high as in October was April, so these new glasses helped me sleep better. 

I am still determining, though, because I also started weightlifting again in October. This probably also contributed to better sleep. 

How cooking is helping me get into the moment!

In previous months I struggled a bit with getting into the moment and not being present. In another blog post titled Do I have a mobile phone addiction, I talked about these things. 

One thing that has helped me get into the moment and be truly present is cooking healthy meals at home. There was a time when I didn’t particularly appreciate cooking. I’ve come to love it, though. 

What has helped is having the company HelloFresh deliver us all ingredients and recipes for 4 to 5 meals per week. Suppose you live in a country where HelloFresh is operating. In that case, you can order your meals from an App and have everything needed delivered to your home. It’s really as easy as that. 

With a business and two children at home, it can be challenging to find the time to watch a series.

However, on weekends, I’ve spent some time watching the Apple+ series Shantaram. I also read the book a long time ago. Shantaram is a story about an Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escapes from prison and arrives in Bombay with a fake passport. 

The story and the visuals are fantastic, with deep insights into how everyone is wired to take different actions and make other life choices. 

Watching that series made me realize that I like Apple TV the most of all video streaming services. The selection might be smaller than what you can get on Netflix, but I still like it better than Netflix and Amazon Prime. 

Business

Our total monthly revenue was 28.510 USD. It has been at this level for a year or even longer. 

I have plenty of excuses for not increasing that number, but let’s not get into those. 

However, I am confident I’ll be able to increase that number. The main reason is that I now work with an account manager who likes to sell and is quite good at it.

He helped me make several new offers for prospects in October, which is really lovely. What helps here is that I set up a bonus system where he gets to earn a bonus for each new client he lands.

One new thing is that we call up prospects the moment they sign up for our free guidebook. We then offer them a free strategy call which works quite well.  

Another thing I really enjoyed doing was helping my brother and someone else with their search engine optimization and not charging them for it. 

It reminded me of what I like about search engine optimization. I might do more of this as it opens the door for word-of-mouth recommendations. 

Finally, concerning my business, I decided to bring a new person in part-time. 

Investing

I bought more Apple and Volkswagen shares in the first half of October. I also bought Nubank shares, Occidental petroleum shares, more semiconductor ETFs, and some more Apple shares. 

I know from Warren Buffett that he invested one billion dollars in the Brazilian Nubank. I pride myself that I actually bought those Nubank shares at a much lower price than Warren Buffett did. 

In total, I bought new shares and one ETF worth approximately 12.000 € in September and October. I did this via a holding company that sits on top of my operating company. If you are a business owner interested in knowing more about why and how to set up a holding company, mainly to save taxes, then let me know in the comments below. 

I’d be happy to post an article about how it works.

A book I’ve read and enjoyed

I’ve read and enjoyed the book “University of Berkshire Hathaway” by Daniel Pecaut and Corey Wrenn. The book is basically a summary of all Berkshire shareholder meetings, beginning from the 1980ies. 

I reviewed the excellent book Richer, Wiser Happier by William Green in another blog post. I got some of the most helpful advice from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. 

That’s why it seemed logical to me to read the book the University of Berkshire Hathaway next. If you are a buy-and-hold investor or want to get started as an investor, I recommend you read both books. You could also start by watching my comprehensive review of Richer Wiser Happier on YouTube. 

A masterclass I enjoyed

In another blog post, I reviewed Masterclass. It’s a fantastic source to learn about business, communications, sales, cooking, and filmmaking, among many other things. 

Last month I was totally inspired by Chris Voss’s training about negotiation. Chris Voss used to be a hostage negotiator. It was a pleasure to learn from him how to deactivate other people’s defense mechanisms and how to win in negotiations. 

What makes this training fantastic are the role-plays he performs to show precisely how it all works. For example, he role-played a salary negotiation. Suppose I were ever to become an employee again. In that case, I’d sure use this information to successfully negotiate the best possible salary.

Personal Development

In October, I went through Tony Robbin’s Personal Power 2 program again. I keep coming back to Tony Robbin’s materials because those have helped me the most in the past. 

As promised at the beginning of this blog post, I’d like to share one exercise with you now that is quite powerful. According to Tony Robbins, most people don’t look at what they link pain and pleasure to. 

A big problem is when we associate both pain and pleasure with a goal we have. Here is an easy example that you can relate to.

For example, you say you want to double your income or revenue within 12 months.

On the one hand, you might see how you’d spend or invest all the extra cash you’d be making… and it might even give you some good feelings just thinking about it…

… but if, on the other hand, you also tell yourself: but wait, to double my income or revenue, I will get less sleep, I will be stressed, and it is making my life more complicated, then you will most likely NOT reach your goal… simply because you are sending mixed signals to your subconscious mind.

So what can we do to free ourselves from this evil trap that keeps us stuck at the current level?

With the help of a 4-step process, we can free ourselves from being trapped in whatever current circumstances we find ourselves in. 

Tony Robbins suggests listing 4 actions that will help us achieve our goals and that we have procrastinated with. Let’s assume the goal is to double our income. 

Step 1

So, as a business owner, I might come up with these 4 actions:

• become 100% better at sales and marketing
• start networking more and getting on the phone more often 
• spend at least 2-3 hours on sales and marketing-related activities per day 
• hire 1-2 new persons to help with fulfillment

Step 2

Next, we list some of the PAINS we have associated with those 4 actions. 

For example, if I do that and more clients sign up, the pain might be to deal with more demanding clients. Or the pain or fear that I might neglect other essential things over these 4 actions, like not spending enough time with my family or not getting everything done in time for existing clients. 

Step 3

After we’ve come up with a comprehensive list of pains associated with those 4 actions, we come up with a list of pleasures we have associated with not following through with those actions.

For example:

• It has felt comfortable to not do a lot and still be paid well based on current or pasts results OR
• It has felt comfortable to not talk to anyone and spend time behind the scenes instead of talking to prospects or networking more.

After that list, we come up with a list of what it will cost us if we don’t follow through on those actions. Here, the idea is to become all emotional about the price we pay for not taking action…

For example:

• I will not reap the rewards of a bigger business that includes happier clients, happier employees, more revenue, and more profit.
• I may have to stay in the same apartment, stuck somewhere while rents are getting more expensive around me. 
• I will have to explain to my two daughters why they can’t have a separate room.
• I will not be able to invest as much in the stock market as I’d like to

Step 4

Finally, we come up with a list of benefits if we follow through with our chosen list of actions, for example:

• I will get into this beautiful zone where I primarily work on marketing and sales-related activities, delegating all else to capable employees. That would probably make me really happy.
• When I reach that next level in revenue, I’ll have more options about what to do with that additional money.
• Suppose I work more ON my business instead of IN it. In that case, I will be able to work half-time, allowing my wife and me more time to do other things besides work. For example, we could travel the world and live in warm places during winter. And we’d have all the money to spend on excellent food and exceptional hotels in exotic locations.

This is to give you an idea of how this exercise works. Please go through this exercise to see how your association with pain and pleasure might have previously limited you.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s update.