Thrive on Life with CJ Finley

 You're listening to the Radcast, a top 25 worldwide business podcast.
 If it's radical, we cover it.
 Here's your host, Ryan Alford.
 Hey guys, what's up?
 Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast.
 I'm Ryan Alford your host.
 Today we'd like to say if it's radical, we cover it.
 And you know what?
 Who doesn't want to thrive on life?
 My friends, I do.
 I want to thrive on life every day.
 And that's what we got.
 CJ Finley, founder of thrive on life, entrepreneur speaker and health enthusiast when he's
 not tweaking his back a little bit.
 What's up CJ?
 Yeah.
 Thank you for that.
 No, just feeling great.
 Minus the back.
 I'm healing a little injury right here, but just happy to be here and excited for this
 conversation.
 Yeah, man.
 We were talking to pre-shows 300 episodes, congrats on that on thrive on life.
 That's quite an accomplishment.
 It's in the world of pod fade and come and going and people sticking with stuff.
 I know what that commitment looks like having been there myself.
 Congrats on that.
 Yeah, I appreciate it.
 It's something that I don't necessarily think everybody knows the grind behind the scenes
 that a podcast can be.
 You have the full team.
 I see behind you that that certainly helps, but over the years, I've had some couple
 people help me keep it going and now AI is a big thing to help me continue to put out
 valuable podcasts.
 And it's something that I'm very passionate about.
 So I think when you're passionate about anything, it doesn't feel like work and it's easy
 to continue to do it week over week and I'm excited to not only hit 300, but maybe 3,000
 one day.
 Yeah, man.
 That's great.
 And this is we just started there.
 We'll talk a little bit more about your background and a little baby at home.
 I know that fatherhood drive, but since we started there on the podcast, what just for
 listeners, what is drive on what describe the podcast and your 300 episodes now, like
 what's been the evolution of that?
 Yes.
 Drive on life itself started because my wife, her father died in a spin class of a heart
 attack.
 So if you're seeing the video right now, my brand has a little heartbeat in it and that's
 what it stems from and my wife and I go back to grade school.
 I've known her since I was 10 years old and when her father died, he actually unfortunately
 passed away on my mom's birthday.
 She gave me a call and we reconnected over his death.
 I just felt really bad and didn't know what to do.
 Aaron was in Texas.
 I was in New Jersey and long story short, we reconnected.
 I realized that this is the woman of my dreams.
 I want to marry her and at the time I was working in the corporate world and I just wanted
 something more.
 I just felt like there was more that I could give to this world and having someone that
 she loves so much, be taken way too soon.
 He was in really good shape and it was just a freak accident that made me realize at the
 time I was 25, holy shit, this could be the end at any time and I want to make every
 heartbeat count.
 That's really where we started thinking, what are some brand names?
 What are some things that we want to represent and we realized real quick, we don't want
 to just survive every day.
 I feel like so many people would just go through life surviving and then they don't really
 have this come to Jesus moment where they realize how precious life is and how much gratitude
 that they should have for every day and really attack every day and we started the brand
 thrive on life to really just attack the day and surround ourselves with other people
 like you who are helping other people.
 My slogan is with thrive on life, we help mission-based people, brands and businesses thrive.
 If you're somebody that's growing communities or looking to connect with other people that
 are looking for more from life than just a paycheck, they're looking to create things,
 build things, serve their community.
 I love to connect with those people and help them scale.
 I'm a systems engineer by my degree and I just mixed my corporate background with how
 do I help brands that are really making an impact scale and I realize really quickly
 when people started getting on the podcast, trained that the easiest way to help other
 scale is tell their story and connect people with them through the telling of that story.
 That's where the podcast came into the mix, but the brand itself really just represents
 helping and serving other people that would love to do great things in this world.
 I love that man, a lot to unpack there.
 He had told him thinking about your wife, father, how old was he?
 53.
 He was still playing soccer with 30-year-olds, he was in great shape and just had some
 genetic defect and unfortunately that can happen to any of us and it really shook us.
 I'm sure.
 How old was your wife at the time when this happened?
 20, I think she was 22 or 23, it was her first year out of college and how long ago was
 this?
 Let's see, 2014, so 10-year, 10-year, 10-year, next year, man, we talk about taking every
 day seriously and making the most of your life, but when you have something happen to
 you that dramatic, it's really telling, I think, because I think some people, it happens
 to them and they move on or whatever, but to really turn it into both a business and
 your focus and to create the purpose that really creates meaning behind his death that can't
 be, I don't know, take it too lightly.
 He and the other factor to it was I was dealing with my own illness at the time too and I
 think him passing away brought up some trauma I had because my cousins lost my aunt when
 she was 40 years old, a colon cancer and I remember being 10 years old and they were, I
 think, 9 and 12 at the time, them losing their mother and I started suffering in my mid-20s
 of similar issues that she was suffering with earlier on in her life and I've seen like
 disease and some other digestive stuff, so it brought trauma within me to see Aaron's
 father pass away and then I realized, holy crap, if I don't take care of myself, something
 bad could happen and I like, I want to live past 40, so really it was the culmination
 of all these things in my mid-20s and what it looked like externally, I was showing
 up to this corporate job and everybody else just seemed happy to make their paycheck,
 they're just like going through life and I was just miserable, couldn't like, why are
 we at this desk, why am I doing anything that I'm doing, why does any of this matter,
 that's what was going through my head, I think a lot earlier than other people and what's
 spurred out of that was five on life and it's just connecting me with so many awesome
 people and I'm just very grateful for life.
 I got to say this though, you said, I want to live past 40, brother, I want to live
 past 100, that's not said in these slow limitations here, you're going to get way past 40 and
 that you like your role on your way, so talk to me, so thrive on life, I heard you talking
 some of my business market bring at going, I'm hearing you describe the businesses and
 type people, are we talking about essentially like foundations, are we talking about like
 purpose-led brands maybe, it might be a corporate brand for profit, are we talking non-profit,
 because I was hearing you talk about it and I'm like, am I going as a non-profit or is
 this maybe Tom's brand, who gives every socket away, you might help a brand, obviously
 they're big, they have their purpose already set, but maybe working with paid brands
 versus non-profit, describe the, maybe the difference here, yeah, that's an amazing question
 and it's something I've had to think through over the years, I'm a people person, one
 of our slogans is like for the people, so it's even less about the brands and the businesses
 and like the people behind the brands and the businesses, so for instance a great company
 that I work with here in Austin is MSW Nutrition and they have a lounge where they do IVs,
 blood work and the founders of that, nurse Dosa and Baldo, were my friend because I was
 a customer first getting their IVs to help me and then I learned that their principles
 were education, can we educate, not only are customers on being healthier, but can
 we help other businesses grow as well, like they just had this infinite game, if you've
 ever read Simon Sinek's infinite game and the theory of we can all win, they brought
 this presence of we're all infinite, we can help each other no matter what, so I really
 look to surround myself with people that represent different principles that I agree
 with, which is like authenticity, grits, high ethics and morality and just like caring
 about other people and then when it comes to the businesses, I love the health and wellness
 space, so I have a mobile sauna that we use to partner with other people hosting retreats
 that are doing like breath work, ice, sauna, it could also be business retreats we've
 done where it's people educating on how to start your own business or build your own
 brand because in my mind mindset is like the number one thing, so how do we get more
 people creating their own wealth and then they create their own wealth, they're going
 to pass that down onto their kids and future generations and they're going to have more
 time freedom to spend with each other, so it's really just this holistic view of what
 is most meaningful in life and the people that represent that, that's how I get attached
 to their brands, but over the years I've worked with people in real estate, I've worked
 with people in tech, I've worked with people in the gym space, in like power lift, which
 is a drink brand, but they go to these different events and help people get healthier, so it's
 really just people by people based and then the brands that I actually attached to are
 built by people that I believe in, yeah, it's interesting in today like the marketing
 business space, a lot of brands have this purpose campaign, there's the brands that start
 fundamentally like I mentioned to Tom's, they started every pair of socks, they give
 a pair of socks, that was the foundation of the brand and there's brands that like you
 just described the nutrition company, like that sounds like it was like baked in to their
 purpose and be versus I'm not going to name names, but I'll just name a name since Pepsi
 started to get me on the counter, but I like Pepsi by the way and I have no problem with
 them. If Pepsi came out with a, we're trying to do this one campaign that's Heel America
 and it's a one off, it sounds like it's not that you wouldn't be involved with something
 like that, but generally speaking, it sounds like it's more, I don't know, baked in foundational
 in the company's organizations and the alignment between you and them and you getting involved
 that way, 100% and I forget who says this, but if you wouldn't work for somebody with
 a lifetime, why work for them for a day or work with them for a day, I think it's an
 overall romicon, but I try to live by that where I realize my time is of the essence and
 if I'm going to work on something, products are products, like I don't give a shit about
 the product, like really at the end of the day, all I need is my family and food and water
 and I'm good to go. So if you're going to be spending a lot of time with the people behind
 the products, like I want to enjoy those people and that's really where I dived a little
 bit deeper when I decided to go into the business world and marketing world of who do I want
 to work with on a daily basis, what are the principles they represent? Are they family
 oriented? Do they care more on the weekend to be with their family than they do me emailing
 and selling and doing these things that some businesses, that's what they do, and that's
 okay, like it's not going to be for everybody the way that I do something and what everybody
 else does isn't necessarily going to be for me, but I've loved every minute of saying
 no to brands or things that have reached out to me through social media that I can tell
 it's a one-off thing and it's nothing against them, but it's just an easy way for me to
 only spend time doing the things that I actually enjoy and typically when it's with other
 people, we enjoy being around, like life just solves itself. It's just fun every single
 day no matter what you're doing. It's really important and I want to do it's due credit
 because I've built an agency and we're not niche based and I often say we're based in
 a foundation of who we feel like we work best with and who we like and I've fired more
 clients than it fired us because of that misalignment. I'm blessed to have been in a position
 of that but I can tell you life is too short and your whole brand is based on that to work
 with people that you don't get along with just to collect the money. There's enough business
 out there. I think we're getting this scarcity mindset where you know I've got to have this
 or got to end, but it's funny how it takes care of itself when you start to have in your
 respect to people that are your clients that you work with and it's just super reported.
 I think some people either just don't instinctively get that or they haven't had the ability
 because maybe they don't run their own company. They work further people where they haven't
 gotten to experience that and once you get to experience it you will not go back the
 other way. Yeah, it's night and day working with somebody that you enjoy and then going
 to a client that there's friction. I think in the past I have let that bleed for too long
 and then it turns into a blowout like you get in a argument or you get in something that
 really ends it. Now I think for anybody listening out there, if you have any friction with your
 client, just have a conversation because if you bring to the table like, hey, I want you
 to succeed and I don't think you're going to be as successful with me as you would with
 maybe somebody else that aligns and you start the conversation like that then everybody
 wins and that's really where I sit today where if someone approaches me, even if I don't
 necessarily agree with their product or the brand, most of the time I still connect them
 with somebody I think that might work well with them compared to me. So if I feel misalignment,
 I still ask myself, okay, this brand or this product, usually this person's reaching out
 to me isn't the bad guy, which is what I used to think in the past. They're just doing
 their job. So how can I help this person because I do care about this person and want to
 serve them, but maybe I just don't align with the product or the brand or them as a client
 of mine, but I can still help the person behind that and maybe it's connecting them with
 somebody else, maybe it's giving them a tool or technology that might be helpful for them,
 so on and so forth. So you can live that infinite game like I was saying and even the people
 that you disagree with or don't necessarily align with, you can still be of service because
 if you bring to the table like you're in misalignment and maybe they would be aligned somewhere
 else better, that's only going to help them in the long run. And so you're only going
 to show up better if you do that. How's it been with Aaron and a baby at home? Congrats
 on that. Thank you. I think we always start with these moniker's entrepreneur founder.
 We'll say husband and daddy are officially at the forefront, been married for a bit, but
 now I got the baby. How's that going? Amazing. I found my true passion in life. I knew that
 it was going to be big for me. I always wanted kids and I love spending time with young minds
 and really just I think it's because they show up in the world with so much curiosity
 and I think adults lose that curiosity and almost have a pessimistic view and I love
 living in the world of optimism, of curiosity, of this world we can create into something
 beautiful and enjoy every day and kids just naturally do it and seeing my son every morning
 when I go to wake him up and he just smiles right back at me. That is the most fulfilling
 feeling in the world and it's something that I'll never take for granted. So when it comes
 to entrepreneurship and podcasting and everything, I think what I didn't really anticipate was how
 hard it would be because I do love my podcast and I love entrepreneurship. I didn't realize
 how hard it was going to be to continue to show up consistently in those areas even though
 I'm obsessed with them because I have this new thing that I'm obsessed with that like you
 just naturally have a pull towards it's I don't know how to describe it like even just being
 in the same room of room is him and he has a smell there's something I was talking to other
 people about when I first became a dad that I didn't realize like pheromones were a thing like
 you can your children have a certain pheromone you're like wow this is a powerful thing and I want
 to be the best for him and then you get up on your head of what is the best for him spending
 hours and hours editing my podcast and all these things I don't think is necessarily the best
 for him so how do I adjust my time and that's really where I'm at right now is how do I continue
 to thrive through my own obsessions because he's gonna see that and he's going to attach with oh how
 do I continue to be curious and solve problems and do things that I love but not over do it I think
 I've over done it in the past and now it's a really big shocker to the system of I have this
 little guy in front of me I really want to do well by him and my wife and that's going to take
 some sacrifice in other areas and I think just to be practical for anybody listening one of the
 areas is I've made from day one I'm going to be home for dinner like unless there's an
 extended circumstance where I'm traveling or like I have a one-off gig but not taking calls
 around dinner not doing any dinner meetings with anybody else I'm going to be here as a dad that
 is home at dinner time and I'm present and I'm not on my phone or laptop or anything like that and
 here's your time here's my I'm giving and serving and being there with my family during a special
 time every single day and not letting that go yeah balance is key man it's and I've
 said if these non-negotiables as well especially when it's starting your own company that I'm
 in every practice in every game and I think your clients and the people that start to gravitate
 towards you understand that and I think the world has gotten better about that in general for the
 most part but then I think it's also back to that alignment with working with the people that you
 want to work with and just setting that standard because I set that standard early with my company
 even early on before having that many employees and it stuck but I think you got to have that
 and then whether it's work life balance or just the reality is it can be anything that you want it
 to be when you're running your own show so you know you'll find the natural how much should I
 work or how much should I be in family and one of those feeds the other and unfortunately
 or fortunately on some level right there's bills all start coming so upcoming yeah but that's
 the tough thing is just once you get good at what you do the session it's like what is enough that
 is the question that comes up is just I'm obsessed with what I do I could literally work
 all day every day on it and that's not gonna get me what I want from life either so it's just
 it's gonna make me a lot of money but if my wife leaves me and my kid hates me what's the point
 exactly I haven't I've thought about that in the past because it's all been theory but now it's
 right in front of me and he has certain moments of the day where he's like gonna you have four sons
 so you know this there's seasons to it as well so like right now is the difference season
 then when he can run around is the difference season then when he's in school so I'm trying to map
 my life out where it's okay when he's in school like he's gonna be gone eight hours a day if I can't
 be super successful with eight hours working on my thing then I'm not worth my salt anyway but
 I'm never gonna get these moments back where he's at home with me so maybe I go a little bit slower
 now on the front end and spend a lot of time with him and then as soon as he's growing into his own
 human being and we have other kids that do the same then maybe it's time I'll push the gas
 a little bit harder because that schedule is almost built in because he's doing it too so it's just
 some things that I've been thinking about I'm really obsessed with time and time management and
 how to optimize clearly that's where the thrive on life comes from yeah open all years advice
 and tips and tricks and hearing that you're at the games and practices it I played sports on my
 life it does matter and kudos to you for making it a priority yeah I got a swim team match tonight
 that's oh yeah that's a lot special love right there swim swim is a not the best spectators
 for let's just say that the 30 seconds they're racing and it's an hour in between but no it's
 you just got to do it again you'll never regret it and you got you have these moments one time
 and so I think my parents probably pushed that in me a little bit and I pushed it like instilled it
 and then it's become natural to just prioritize that I can't I really have a I don't pretend to
 be the best with people that are just so different than me I don't have a hard time relating I
 don't judge them but I can't relate to the guy or girl that doesn't do that you like your kids
 like you want to be there like why would you want to be there like you know are you know what's more
 important than that and do you wrong if shit hit the fan and like I needed to be on the road selling
 I had no other option to feed the family of course I would do it but I control not letting it get
 to that point so thus I can do that like it's it all comes together but I don't know
 what would make anyone think something was more important than that I've all admit to a blind spot
 of relatability for those people yeah same I can only I try to come with empathy of usually it's
 out of a fear of something or scarcity so it was probably stemming from their own childhood of
 not having enough or wanting to over-provide or it stems from something I think to your point
 earlier of the world getting better at understanding people that want to balance their life more
 I think people are waking up to especially men I see a lot of men understanding that
 what's the point of the paycheck if you're not there what's the point of any of this if
 they're not going to be present and this is why I think we have really begins to mend mental
 health and mental health awareness where the more time you spend in your family you're never
 going to regret that I already feel that in the beginning and he can't even talk to me it's like
 just being with him sitting there eating dinner like like why did I care about all these other
 bullshit things prior to this so I think a lot of people are waking up to and I hope
 over the next decade two decades we see even more of that I think through conversations like
 this it also does helping empowers people to say you know what like I do want to be that guy
 or that girl that is at my kids games and is always there and maybe I sacrifice career growth but
 I can still crush it and still win in a lot of ways I could tell you it has impacted my bottom line
 one bit so it gives me my purpose yeah I mean to drive even more yeah like you just and look
 you can only get so much done in a day you talked about the eight hour thing it's like
 in a certain time there's diminishing returns like whether I was 20 or 46 your brain can only
 handle so much in a day and at a certain time you're like a hamster on a wheel okay I have just
 did something for an hour and I got nothing done because I met that point and some days it's
 eight hours some days at six hours depending on what it is if I have four interviews in a day
 done don't even other than being able to string a few sentences together when I'm at home in
 the presence of my kids like I'm mentally shot so in a good way but I think you know it's this
 badge or this like you said like the old school way and look I fall a little bit
 on the whole hustle hustle culture thing I don't like that it's gotten a black eye purely from
 the standpoint that I think that we need people that are driven and have grit and so when I think
 of hustling I think there's some of that but it doesn't mean necessarily overworking and getting
 diminishing returns and just sitting at the office at 10 p.m. to say I was at the office at 10 p.m.
 but so there's like this the balance of all that I love this conversation because a great example
 because I thought through this is the difference between hustling in sports and hustling like in
 life you're a great player if you hustle like coaches love players at hustle but the difference is
 in a game it's like constraints 60 minutes in the game and then even in the game if you're just
 running for no reason the coach is gonna be like what are you doing like they want you to hustle
 in certain moments that's the key and in life people I think because of social media they take
 hustle as I need to wake up at 5 a.m. hit the cold shower then work for five hours straight then do
 something else then like work 14 hour days but the reality is like the way that you utilize hustle
 is actually what matters more like you said if you got to put food on your table and you have this
 season of I need to be outselling that's a time to hustle right you're being intentional with that
 but most people take it out of context and are thinking like hustling is just gonna get me there
 but the reality is that just leads to burnout and most of the time if you've ever seen this before
 like if you're a ship and you have it pointed if two ships and one is one degree off the destination
 that it needs to be it ends up like a thousand miles away from where it's supposed to be and that's
 what a lot of people are doing they're going nowhere fast because all they were doing is relying on
 hustle rather than realizing like five sixty minutes constrained like I would in sports what moments
 do I need to be hustling and what moments do I need to be catching my breath and yeah that's I've
 had to learn that the hard way so many times there's I like I get this also this is a Ryan
 offer quote on a it's not even a quote there's a big difference between being busy and being
 effective effectiveness versus busyness one's greater than the other and it starts with the knee
 and so you can be busy all you want like I and even my people I don't want you working nine
 hours say I'd rather you be effective as shit for four hours than to work nine like big ideas big
 work get it done and I think the hamster on the wheel mentality of just okay I'm doing shit I'm
 pushing paper across or the pan across the it's I think that's perception versus reality of
 what it takes to make something happen that really matters where do you think it stems from I've
 thought about this I think it's in the culture it's like I host another show now I'm really trying
 to get the podcast like all out there called the vacay podcast it's a wellness show and we talked
 about this like the whole the culture of medicine and everything out because of this old school
 mentality of all that and when prescription drugs came out then alternative wellness and natural
 things got pushed to the back as being bad and we got this moniker and I think it's the same thing
 with the nine to five and men work hard and men work long and there's I think at least for
 minutes that that perception for one another that you have to I don't know if you're really
 getting after it you're really grinding and in New York I'll say this I'll use this example like
 I've written in the ad agency business for 22 years I worked on Madison Avenue and let me tell
 you nothing was more of a badge of honor than oh put an honor night or last night man working
 on the campaign till three a.m. and the best ideas came out of seven p.m. like they didn't get
 it any better it's like I've ever can you hear me now getting written on the board and I'm like
 that's the idea we pitch that I became fries as biggest campaign with largest but most
 recognized wide campaigns and history that we came up with and literally the it was like a nine
 a.m. thing we didn't get any better none of the ideas got any better at midnight but that was
 the badge of honor pulled a weekend or man. Oh, it was that thing in the ad agency business like how
 long it worked how many hours that and that was 10 15 years ago and definitely 20 30 years ago
 I think that was the culture of the ad agency business especially and don't give me wrong
 sometimes it takes some weekend hours and night hours and now but I think we figured out that
 workers that does have to be linear like I'll be honest like my days are weird like I get up
 I'm definitely like six a.m. till 8 a.m. I do a lot of work and then I go to the gym I don't go to
 the gym at six I actually do work my mind's like really the same sharpest then I go to the gym sometimes
 I go to gym eight nine 10 just depends then work more shows that I kind of think and then I might
 with kids everything else shut it down because I got to pick them up we've got to run errands so
 three thirty to six thirty I might be doing kids and family stuff or even later and then I get
 another two hours in of just not really my best thinking work but just task stuff probably from
 nine to ten thirty instead of seven shows on Netflix and sometimes we do the Netflix thing so
 it's a very non-linear approach now where I think that's changed a lot helps a lot
 yeah I think the opportunity I think comes from the internet and the difference in life now
 than 10 years ago or 20 years ago or 30 years ago and I think as human beings we resist change
 but the reality is the more that you can adapt to how the world is right now the more you're going
 to thrive so a great instance is we're here on a podcast I'm using three AI tools that literally
 compile probably two or three people's work for my podcast I'm putting three shows out a week now
 in less time than I was doing one like two years ago yeah and I don't even know what the future looks
 like but most people think that I'm hustling more they'll see it on the outside that it's more
 but the reality is it's less because I figured out how to use leverage and that's where
 you're just leveraging your time at your peak hours where if you feel and flow six to eight a.m
 I'm much the same I wake up and sit in front of my red light and then I start working and I'll go
 to ten or ten thirty go for a run go in the gym and then you launch and reset but that's my
 the way that I do things and I think really what people need to be doing is taking an
 and equals one approach you mentioned health and wellness like health and wellness is
 and equals one meaning we're each different we're all different we have some commonalities but
 if Ryan you eat something it's going to be absorbed differently than if I eat it and that's
 going to be differently than somebody else so at the end of the day it's the same way in business
 and in marketing and in careers in general it's you're going to work at peak times differently
 for different people and that's where I the nine to five I'm just like this is stupid
 because in general because if you're a programmer a lot of programmers like to work at night
 they're like night owls they're like gamers and stuff like that so I'm not going to wake make
 you wake up at six a.m 7 a.m 8 a.m come to the office or do whatever now a lot of people have
 started to adapt to that and a lot of businesses I've started to adapt to that and I think we're
 just on the front end of it I'm interested to see ten twenty thirty years out where we've allowed
 people to work at their peak times and then do what you're saying which is okay once I do my
 effective things for the day like I'm going to go on with my day and actually live I would love
 to get back to the living part because we're talking internet and we're talking today what if we
 went back fifty years like once it got dark at five p.m like nobody had cell phones nobody had
 an email like you were done work you were at home with your family doing the things that you
 enjoyed doing why don't we just go back to that and now you have the capability to utilize tools
 that could be working for you while you're doing that and scaling even more so it's like you have
 so much opportunity and I want people to understand that there is so much opportunity out there for
 you to maximize your time like Ryan is talking about yeah the tools are there and I think there's
 a couple things I want to hit on that you talked about the n equals one is really interesting because
 it's happened it's we've realized in marketing and business that there's not a audience group
 of media for each of frequency to audiences and it was mass media and one add to millions of
 people and now we've realized that okay we need personalization in marketing and media because
 but it's the same thing in life there's not a one size fits all and everyone has to make a decision
 and I think that's where and we've tried to do it here in our agency with being more flexible
 with hybrid hours and things like that there's some things that you just can't be flexible on
 the reality is we record three shows they happen during the day so somebody has to be here to manage
 that they're never different than a restaurant that serves these certain times and everything
 like that but there's a lot of what we do that doesn't really matter where people are and so we
 aren't sticklers about it for the most part and then there's some level of collaboration that
 happens so we want people together but I think the businesses that will succeed will recognize
 that level and need for personalization for people to thrive and get the best out of the team
 and so I think that's really interesting that I think the second part you mentioned with
 health and fitness I tell you what I don't know how the people that and you don't see many of them
 I've talked about the done some content on it like the fact that the most successful CEOs
 seem to be the most in shape now there's this one-to-one correlation you just don't see the heavy set
 woman or man that are just crushing it and look everyone it's not gonna have a healthy share
 something like that I'm not judging like a single like look I'm just like generally speaking
 there's some healthy fitness component to some of the most successful people and I don't know how
 people that don't have some amount of health fitness wellness baked into your life get it done
 yeah I can't we were talking right when we got on here my back is a little tweaked from over
 doing it oh you old man and I don't know how people deal with this every day because they're
 life like I I have to take one day off from not really being in my routine or being able to run
 or go to the gym or things like that and I'm just going crazy and I think that's what it stems
 from it's the mindset is fitness and focusing on your health and wellness creates such a mindset
 that parlays over into everything else in life and the people that aren't doing that frequently
 their mindset is just off and I think your mindset then leaves to I think there's just something
 to be said about vibe like one of my buddies his handle is called vibe police shut up to camp but
 he literally considers himself the vibe police when he goes into the room like into any room and I
 think if you are fit you're giving a great vibe you're usually you're smiling and you're happy and
 you're just like confident and courageous and you make people feel better about themselves if
 you're a great leader like obviously there's going back there's so many people in the world like
 there's people that are narcissistic and the opposite of this but generally people that take
 care of their own health and wellness usually start to overflow and want to help other people with
 their health and wellness versus the people that don't take care of their health usually are
 operating from the pleated mindset and can't really help anybody else around them so when it comes
 to business I'm not surprised to see that we have this trend of people taking care of themselves
 because then the businesses rely on numbers and metrics and are we succeeding and they're going to
 the people at the top are going to start questioning if the business needs to succeed who do I
 need to become for this business to succeed and we have it's like money ball like how baseball
 has changed into a sport where they're looking at analytics every sport has right but businesses
 in the same way we realize that the operator at the top of the business the CEO or the CEO
 and the executive team if they're healthier than the business is probably going to be healthier
 I think that's what we're starting to see which is exciting because I don't know what the
 I love to do the data on that the correlations like super high they just yeah I'm sorry it has to
 be I couldn't be convinced otherwise like I tell someone showed a data point that there's 100%
 correlation yeah and then it's how do you invest in that so that your company is healthier what
 I guess everything the other key he trigger word that people have used is not just like purpose
 campaigns but like culture campaigns so how do you instill a culture of health and wellness and
 taking care of yourself and your companies I think those that do invest in that like today over
 the next they want to be a hundred year company they are going to be the ones at the top
 I don't think they'd be 100% and I think there's a small business it's
 hard to know because you don't want to push any force it down I think the way we do it is
 flexibility probably we just don't yeah we give two flex days for people to work wherever they want
 and then we just are not if there's not something we have certain meetings certainly is going on
 but we just I think we give it a flexibility that if people want to get health and wellness baked in
 they can but I think that will be an evolution for us and I think for other businesses is how you
 can empower that even more and I think as much as I believe in it I don't have the solution but I
 think it starts with the flexibility on some level and certainly encouraging and rewarding healthy
 behaviors whatever that might look like I agree I think flexibility gives trust and freedom to
 people and if you hire good people they're going to use the flexibility and freedom in the right
 way in productive ways for themselves they're going to fill their cups so that then they can overflow
 I think the key there is just it comes down to the CEO and the executive team hiring great people
 if you hire great people it solves itself so any companies that are being more flexible and are
 seeing problems with their flexibility I think it's not necessarily flexibility that's a problem
 and you'll see a lot of companies are talking about bring everybody back to the office and this
 and that I come from the world of it's probably the company that just did it in the wrong way and
 they don't have a good hiring process or not vetting people that have the ability to be productive
 on their own time that's the cause of it it's not the flexibility or the work from home that's
 the issue it's the actual company not knowing how to operate in that way effectively to use your word
 yeah so it is what's maybe a project or something you got going on now that you're excited about
 or anything that you can talk about you're like thinking through the NDA agreements
 let me think about this now I'm trying to who would not get mad if I mentioned this on the show
 yeah and nobody like be going back to the work with I want to I wish I could just talk about
 everybody that's the thing everybody that I interact with I work with some amazing people but
 I think the thing that is that I'm most passionate about right now is my wife and I started a
 series on our podcast and for so long she's an engineer as well and she's on the corporate side
 corporate path and she went to the school she went to MBA engineering MBA and then I went to
 the school of hard knocks that's what we call it she got to go do that and then I went this
 opposite path and our ability to come together and work together has always been top of mind to us
 what could we work on what could we do and it's failed miserably in the past in certain ideas
 it's worked okay in certain ideas but the one that I felt the most I would say flexibility is a
 great word where we're just flowing like we're flexible with the podcast we're flexible when we
 record it but it always is like a good conversation we have fun we start thinking creatively with other
 business ideas that's what I'm really looking forward to now where I used to limit myself I
 released one podcast episode a week that was it and then it was with a guest and it was one hour long
 so having more conversations with her has opened up my eyes to how do I not focus on being the
 best but be the only and that's something I've been talking to myself a lot about in a different
 projects that I'm working on in other companies so the projects that I work on like I already
 mentioned MSW my buddy Mike Chavall started sphere which is a soccer inspired fitness company that
 they're they connect the path connect the world like one pass of the time is they're slogan and they
 basically help people get introduced to this for and they throw away games in these parties and it's
 a great time so check out that I'm affiliated with Squatch Frontier Fitness here in Austin Texas
 leading a men's group called men in the arena where we come together every other Friday to run
 workouts and talk about mental health and then we just started our social club to that so
 getting guys not just working out and becoming a man in the arena they're talking about what's going
 on behind the scenes and like we're helping each other there so a little bit of a lot across the
 board of the different things that I'm working on but it really fires me up right now and if
 somebody listened to this and what I'd love to support in is the podcast that I've already started
 with my wife we're releasing an episode every week now we've talked about her pregnancy we're talking
 about one of the fitness races that we're going to do together it's called high rocks which is mixed
 levels that's another thing that I'm working on that I love and put a lot of effort into my YouTube
 channel but at the end of the day the mission really is to improve myself and help myself get better
 and then have that bleed over into all the other projects that I'm working on.
 Hey man keep feeding your you got to take care of you so you can take care of others the old
 up airplane going down you got to put your oxygen mask on if you don't have air you can't give
 it to anybody else right preach. I will say this back to the college thing your wife getting the
 NBA and you doing your other stuff I like to say you were in the fraternity five beta me.
 I love that. I've never heard that. The school of hard knocks fraternity five beta me.
 I love that. This has been great CJ I know we could go on and on tell me and everybody else
 where they can keep up with all the great things we've been talking about.
 Yeah easiest way to find me or connect with me would love to chat in the DM's CJ.finley
 on Instagram so that's at CJ period F I N L E Y on Instagram and then you'll be able to see
 everything else that I'm doing just directly from there. Awesome man. I really appreciate
 you coming on the show. It's been a great discussion. I hope everyone enjoys this and thank you
 so much. Look forward to staying in touch and seeing how we can help one another. Likewise,
 I'm on you. Hey guys you'll find us the radcast.com search for CJ.finley you'll find all the content
 today or search for thrive on life. Hey if you need to thrive in on life baby you ain't living
 or to find me I'm at Ryan Alfredo and all the all the social media platforms. TikTok,
 Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and don't forget to leave a
 review about this podcast and any of our others. We'll see you next time on the radcast.
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