Embracing the Zen of Entrepreneurship | Mario Lanzarotti

Matt: [00:00:00] Well, hello and welcome to the Push To Be More podcast. I'm your host, Matt Edmundson, and it's great to be with you today. And we are going to get into all things push to be and more. Oh yes, that's what we're going to get into with our very special guest today, Mario Lanzarotti. Looking forward to this one, not going to lie, it's going to be a great conversation.

Mario is a fellow podcaster. And so yeah, we're going to be getting to all The stuff, his unique life experiences, the hurdles he's had to push through and the way. He recharges his batteries, all of that. Oh yes, now don't forget, you can find all the detailed show notes and the complete transcript of our conversation at pushtobemore.

com and hey, while you're there, why not sign up for the newsletter because each week we'll zip all of the show's insights Bye. Links, notes, goodies, etc. [00:01:00] Direct to your inbox. Absolutely free. Oh yes. Now this episode is proudly powered by Aurion Media. The magic behind the scenes that lets entrepreneurs and business leaders like you and me amplify our voices by hosting our own podcast.

Why on earth would you want to do that? That's a great question. Well, let me tell you, podcasting has been nothing short of transformational for my own business. I love it, it's a great marketing tool, but it's also about community, it's about connection, and it's about amplification. It's also about really cool theme tunes.

Oh yes, it's a platform I get to use to celebrate my customers, my team, my suppliers, and I've met some extraordinary people as a result. But I get it, the technical stuff can feel daunting, set up, distribution, getting the tech right, having a funky Tune like that, end at the perfect time. How does it all work?

Who knows? And who [00:02:00] even wants to think about production? Uh, I, I genuinely hate production. Uh, and this is where Aurion Media steps in. They are the backstage crew that makes sure your show goes flawlessly. You get to do what you love. Engaging with incredible people and Aurion Media takes care of all the nitty gritty details.

So if you've been wondering whether podcasting is the missing puzzle piece in your marketing strategy, and it probably is, uh, check them out at aurionmedia. com. That's a u r i o n media dot com. That is the awesome show sponsor, Aurion Media. Let's talk about the awesome show guest. Mario Lanzarotti is more.

More, I tell you, uh, more than just a TEDx speaker with over 1. 3 million views. He's the creator of the Zenpreneur Method, a high performance coach who challenges the hustle and grind culture that's prevalent in entrepreneurship. Through his company, Six Figure Zen, [00:03:00] he helps agency owners scale to multi six figure levels.

And check this out without the burnout. Oh yes, that sounds dreamlike, I'm not going to lie Mario, that just sounds awesome. Welcome to the show man, how are we doing today?

Mario: Matt, thank you, my friend, for having me on. I'm excited. That was a great introduction, um, that made me even more dive into this conversation. I'm speaking to you from the Big Apple, New York City. So I'm high on, high on energy and, uh, ready to dive in.

Matt: the New York Minute, oh definitely, it's great that you could join us actually, I just love the modern world, with the modern tech, which means we can, Beam you in from New York City, record it, live stream it, do all the things that we want to possibly do with it. It's just, it's remarkable and it's a wonderful thing.

Uh, but you are in fact, a fellow podcaster. You have the Zenpreneur podcast. How long have you been doing that?[00:04:00]

Mario: That is true. I have been podcasting for about two years. I went through a rebranding. I started out with the self doubt solution. Now it's called the Zenpreneur podcast, all in alignment with the Zenpreneur movement, which is amazing. You know, I totally agree with what you said early about podcasting.

It's a beautiful way to meet amazing people to make connections. Powerful connections, strategic relationships that you can use to amplify your business. Uh, you get to speak to some of the people that normally wouldn't necessarily speak to you right away. And it's also a great way of enhancing your communication skills and keeping them, you know, warmed up.

And so I recommend podcasting to everybody who is serious about having a personal brand.

Matt: Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. So two years ago, did you start that in the pandemic?

Mario: Oh, that's a good, that's a good question. I think I did. Yes, you're right

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. The

Mario: the middle of it.

Matt: podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Um, and, and, [00:05:00] and what, what made you? I'm curious, I'm genuinely curious, Mario, why did you start a podcast? Everyone's got a different reason, right? What's your raison d'etre?

Mario: I love speaking with people, you know, and if I can speak about these topics, personal development, spirituality, consciousness, business, money, wealth, if I can speak to people that are ahead of the game, which oftentimes my guests are, one, I can learn so many things that I would normally not learn, and two, I can make connections that lead to business partnerships, to deals, and I find it's just a very fun way of learning.

I like reading books. Sure, sometimes, but I love learning by doing more than anything else. And if I get to sit in front of somebody who's just has 20, 30 years of experience and shares that with me, I mean, what better way to learn, in my opinion?

Matt: Yeah. One of the interesting things, isn't it, you, I, I like you, I like to read, I like to read books. Um, and one [00:06:00] of the things that podcast en enables you to do is to read the book, contact the author and say, come on to the show. And usually they'll go, yes. 'cause they're an author and they've got to publish their, publicize their book.

Uh, and you get to speak to the author, especially if it was a good book. You'd write, I have a series of questions for you, Mr. Author, uh, or Mrs. Author. Uh, let's talk about those for the next day. And they're like. Awesome. Let's do that. And it's just an incredible way to get some incredible information from people.

Uh, and, uh, I, I do love that. So you've been going two years, Mario, the Zenpreneur, uh, podcast. Let me ask you this question. Um, I like to ask. This, all of my guests, you know, if you could have anybody on your show, if you could interview anybody, past or present, that's had a really massive impact on your life.

That's the only caveat, um, and who, maybe you've interviewed them already, I don't know, but who would you interview and why? Who would be on the Zenpreneur Podcast?[00:07:00]

Mario: Can I say more than one person?

Matt: Of course you can. Everybody does. Why not?

Mario: Okay, okay, good. So, first person I would bring on would be Tony Robbins.

Matt: Okay.

Mario: Because he was essentially the man who contributed to me not taking my life when I was at the lowest point in my life that I've ever been. I discovered Tony Robbins on YouTube and it was the pivotal voice that I needed to hear.

To get me onto this path that I'm now and to essentially muster up the courage to decide to reinvent myself and change my life dramatically. And it was the best thing that ever happened to me. And if it wasn't for Tony Robbins, I don't know where I would be, honestly.

Matt: Wow.

Mario: EP number one. And then later on in my development and in my learnings and then what I've, what I've went through also in spirituality, I'd say Jesus Christ.

Matt: Okay.

Mario: I [00:08:00] would, I would love to interview the man Jesus Christ because I would want to know where, how, how does he, how does he embody Love, Peace, Kindness on a day to day basis, because it's one thing, you know, sitting somewhere in a temple, in a church, on top of a mountain, and, you know, being all Zen and at peace all the time, but then you go into a city like New York, And it's like, you know, noise, chaos, people bumping into you, you know, it's a day to day life and obviously I have my approaches and my techniques, but I just want to, I would want to learn how to reach a lot deeper and I mean, who better to learn from than somebody like Jesus Christ.

Matt: Worked. You see, Mary, now we've started off with two massive figures right there, haven't we? Um, two very popular answers, actually, uh, Jesus, I think, is probably in the lead. A lot of people want to talk to Jesus, those with the Christian faith and those without, [00:09:00] um, just from some people from a historical perspective.

Some people, because they have a quite a strong Christian faith. Um, and Tony Robbins also, uh, because of his impact, his Especially around neurolinguistic programming and some of the stuff that he's done is, has been quite extraordinary, hasn't it? So let's start with Tony. Um, you said that, um, he, you sort of came across something of his on YouTube at quite a low point in your life.

Tell us about that. Where, what, where were you at in life and. What happened when you watched that video?

Mario: Yeah, I was, I was on my way to becoming a pilot for Lufthansa in Germany. So I was born and raised in Germany. I'm half Italian and after

Matt: say you've not got a German name. Hahaha

Mario: Sounds way better for branding.

Matt: Yeah, yeah yeah, absolutely.

Mario: Um, so I was in the middle of [00:10:00] a pilot trainee program, and the reason I chose this pilot trainee program is because I wanted to essentially find a way to prove myself.

I wanted to find just something that's really hard, that has a lot of recognition in society, in German society, and I didn't want to go study, so I came, I watched the movie Catch Me If You Can, and uh, I saw Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie. I was like, Pilot. I'm sold. That's what I'm going to do. I didn't want to become a trickster and scam people.

So I was like, I'll go for the second thing, uh, pilot. And yeah, just threw myself into this path and I worked incredibly hard to even make it through a ninety, I think like 96 percent of people fail that go through the, the, the tests and it took me one and a half years to get through the test. So the risk that I was taking on was crazy high.

The chance of making it were really slim, but then I did, did make it. And when I [00:11:00] was admitted to the pilot train, trainee program, I remember the first day I walked into the school, I had this gut wrenching feeling of that said, turn around and run.

Matt: Oh well

Mario: was like, you know, I, I sometimes, uh, say this, um, that I can be a little bit like that dog that barks at all these cars that are passing by, you know, the cars are passing the girls, but then one of the cars stops, somebody gets out and the dog goes.

Oh God, I didn't say anything. I was just joking. That was me. I was like, Oh shit, this is real. I made it. Oh my God, I'm actually here. And so I didn't want this, you know, I was like, I was just playing, you know, but I had obviously invested years of time, energy and money into becoming it. And then I was admitted.

And then I realized that I was living a life that wasn't authentically mine. I was lying to everybody, uh, when they asked me how am I doing, uh, on top of that, I developed a slipped disc in my [00:12:00] back at 21 years old, and I couldn't stand, sit, or sleep without pain medication. I was in constant pain, it was, it was horrifying, and, you know, part of, part of what my, uh, My recognition for myself, I drew from sports.

I've always been a super active person. And at that time I was working out like six, seven times a week, three types of sports. And then the doctors told me I must not do any type of sport because it's really dangerous to my, to my spine. And I was like, Sure. All right. So it all came together where I had this idea in the top of my mind that says, I cannot fail.

I cannot fail. I put this much in it. My family is so proud of me. I don't want to disappoint them. And so I put so much pressure on myself that it was, it was only two options for me. It was either I'm going to make it, I'm going to succeed at this pilot thing, or two, I'm going to fail. And if I fail, I'm essentially going to take my own life.[00:13:00]

Those were the two things in my, in my mind, and it brought me to this incredible low point where I was considering suicide for a couple weeks. I was, I was an absolute wreck. I remember, you know, one, one day I was so, I had such a panic moment where I drove to the hairdresser and I told the hairdresser, shave off all my hair.

Matt: wow,

Mario: I don't even know why I did that at the time, but it was such a reactive fear mode. There's just like something radical needs to happen and then. Through divine intervention, I remember going on YouTube, but I don't know what I typed into YouTube. I think I typed in motivation because I just felt like, ah, I'm just not motivated enough.

And then boom, Tony Robbins pops up. Now you have to understand where at the time where I was in Germany, things like that were just. You know, unheard of. Don't trust these people. This is just some mumbo jumbo from America. Salesman, you know, don't listen to that, any of that. So I had that [00:14:00] going on in my mind, but I also had another voice going on.

That voice kept saying, listen, keep listening. And I listened to his story of how he made his incredible comeback several times in his life. And on top of that, I listened to another man, Les Brown. Also about his comeback story. And so these two men, they have a similar story of hitting rock bottom. And then from, from rock bottom, using that story to inspire other people and also build wealth.

I was like, wait a minute. So you're telling me that if you hit rock bottom, you could actually use that as a comeback moment? I was like, okay. So that's when it started to shift inside of me, my mindset started to shift and I started to look at this from a place of well actually maybe this isn't the end of my life, maybe this is, I'm meant to go through this so I can do something else and that's when I, when I mustered up the courage to talk to my parents and everybody involved and said I don't want to do this anymore, I need to get out, [00:15:00] I'm, I'm in such a bad shape, this is not what I want to do with my life and that was the beginning of my personal development and inner healing path, and I remember when I, when I quit, I said to myself, one day I will do what Tony Robbins does, and look at me today.

That's exactly what I'm doing.

Matt: story, I, how, um. I'm curious actually, how did your parents react when you said, I'd say I'm, I'm flying away from flying school?

Mario: My mother had a nervous breakdown.

Matt: Okay.

Mario: She couldn't believe it. Uh, two reasons. One, she was so, so shocked that how I was really feeling and what I was really going through and that I didn't tell her that. And two, she was just. Like a mother, she's like, Oh my God, you're throwing away your future. What are you doing? You just, you made it through Lufthansa.

This is a gift from the gods. Why are you throwing that away? That kind of thing. [00:16:00] My, uh, my, my, my dad was, you know, I have two dads, a biological father and a stepfather, and I have a very great relationship with both of them. And both of them were like, you know what? I trust you. If you've, if you've thought this through and if you think this is not your path and this is not making you happy, then I trust you to find something else.

And yeah, I had, I remember I had people on Facebook that knew me from my hometown. They knew that I made it. And again, in Germany, this is a really big deal, I knew people that started posting about me quitting Lufthansa, saying how I would throw away this incredible opportunity, and they would make fun of me. And I saw that, I saw that, somebody shared it, showed it to me, and I was like, it actually hurt at the time that I saw it, but now I can look back and I say, well, I guess I made the right choice.

Matt: Yeah. Proof's in the pudding, right? Yeah, absolutely. It's interesting how that actually [00:17:00] motivates people quite often, you know, that I'm going to show you. You know, that, that, that criticism hurts because they, they do and I think we fool ourselves if we don't think they do, um, but you can turn that around and you can use it as a motivation and say, no, no, no, I'm now going to show you, this is, this is, uh, is that what happened to you?

Did you, was it, was that sort of part of the, your fuel of the fire?

Mario: Yes, so this is actually a really great intro to everything that I do and why I do it. This whole thing I will show you, was the leading narrative of my life. This whole thing of I got to prove people wrong was the, was the very reason why I ended up at rock bottom and why so many entrepreneurs burn out all the time.

It's because it's a, it's an identity that is conditioned into people and in this case into me. And what it did was it made me pursue a [00:18:00] path that is not authentically me. but a path that I think will give me the greatest amount of recognition and respect from people around me, right? So I will show you, I will show you how much of a badass, am I allowed to, to swear here?

Matt: Sure.

Mario: I will show you how much of a badass motherfucker I am. Like, you, you just watch. You just watch and sit back and you'll see me. And so what that does, it means I'm often creating from a place of, I'm not doing something that I really truly want to do. Something that Mario is in alignment with, but I'm looking for You know, the, the, the shiny object.

I'm looking for something that I can then take. And yes, it propelled me to also do what I am doing today. And I realized you can only take in so much toxic fuel because before your engine will. Burnout. That type of fuel is a toxic fuel, because it's coming from a place of [00:19:00] fear, and it's coming from a place of, I'm not enough, that's why I have to show you.

If you truly feel enough and complete within yourself, you don't have to show anything to anybody. You just know who you are. You just do your thing, and you're happy with that. And if people have an opinion about that, well, too bad. That's their opinion.

Matt: That's, um, that's one of those mindsets, uh, Mario, which is. In a lot of ways, it makes sense when you listen to it, it rolls off the tongue, but so many people struggle to get their heads around that and have it impact their life. I mean, was this, was this, um, was this a lesson that took you a while to learn, maybe?

Mario: A little bit. Yeah.

Matt: bit. Yeah. Yeah. So what was that process like? Yeah.

Mario: of the things that I've noticed about myself, I'm blessed with a gift of being a pretty [00:20:00] fast learner. Now, that gift often came with a lot of pain. So, I was the type that ran straight into the wall. Crack open his skull and said, okay, not the right way. Stitch it back together and said, let's sit down and learn.

Why did I do that? And part of the reason why I really appreciate it and I still do Tony Robbins so much is because of the ability that I got from it to really understand myself at a very deep level. I always ask myself, why do I do this? Why do I do this? Like, you know, why do you run your business always stressed?

Why is it that you keep having so many problems in your business? Why is it that you're always putting out fires? Why is that, does that keep happening? And I didn't just want to say, Oh well, that's just the way it is, that's just who I am, you know, it's just my personality. I was like, no, no, no, that's not true.

There's a program running in the back. And so for me, you know, I [00:21:00] then, later on, I went to New York City. And I co founded a startup, All Sundry, uh, uh, custom shoe brand, which we sold my partner and I in 2019 and we exited that and then I went into coaching. And so what I realized was I was chasing this entrepreneurial freedom dream that every entrepreneur has.

That's the number one reason why we become entrepreneurs because we want to be in charge of our time. We want to do what, uh, where we want to do it at what time we want to do it into the parameters that we want to do it. And obviously. We think that all these conditions will give us a sense of internal freedom, which is the real reason why we do what we do, and that's the sense of, ah, all is good, money's good, partner's good, kids are good, you know, my body's good, everything is in a good, alright, now I can relax, that's what we really want, but the thing was, when I was in New York and I was hitting all those [00:22:00] parameters, I was achieving my goal, essentially, that's what I'm saying, that's what I'm saying.

I was still stressed out. I was still anxious. I had a nervous breakdown at an event in New York. I remember that I was facilitating in the toilet. I was just like breathing and it's like blackening out. I was like, what the heck is going on here? And I'd already been meditating at the time. I told myself, Oh, as long as I meditate in the morning, you know, I'm good.

I got it all out, figured out, you know, I'm also following a plant based diet, so I'm super healthy. I got it. Right. But that was a tiny window of my day. The rest of the day was like, okay, fuck, okay, let's go, what's the next thing, okay, next goal, this, I gotta do, oh my, man, we're late on this, okay, we gotta do this, uh, meeting here, stressed out there, quick there, this constant rushing, and so, I realized that The key, one of the keys for me to become more peaceful, more aligned, more relaxed in the way that I was operating was how I was doing anything. [00:23:00] See, I'll give you an example. I used to just rush from one sales call to the next.

Matt: Okay.

Mario: No time, no time in between, not even a minute, just, and that was like sort of a badge of honor. Just one meeting after the next, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, one thing after the next, bop, bop, bop, it's like great, look how much I got done today. I recognized was, is that there's no awareness over how I was feeling. You are taking you into every single conversation, but have you ever stopped to ask yourself how am I feeling right now? Have you ever checked in on your breathing pattern? Are you breathing in your chest? Are you breathing through your mouth?

If you're doing, you're essentially accessing a level of anxiety. It's like when you're in fight or flight. That's the way that you usually breathe. But if you go drop deeper and you take a deeper breath in and out through the nose into the lower part of your diaphragm or like the belly, [00:24:00] your nervous system can relax. Or for those that don't, don't understand the nervous system, your, your, your whole system just relaxes. What happens when that is the case. Now your mind can actually catch up and you can actually ask yourself, is this really a wise decision that I'm about to make? Or am I just making that decision?

'cause I don't really have clarity over where I'm going and over the factors, uh, uh, relating to a decision that we yield in a high ROI. Most of us would just, nope, yep, left, right, up, down, yep, yep, nope, nope, just keep going. And so when you do that, you're in this reactive state. And when you're in a reactive state, here's another thing that is really important to understand.

I'm going to ask you, Matt, how many times have you asked, have you told yourself, okay, so I'm going to implement [00:25:00] this new habit in my business or in my personal life, right? I'm going to get up every day at this time and then I'm going to eat this way, I'm going to work out this way. Have you ever done that where you wanted to implement something new and then you did it for a little bit and then you were like, ah, whatever, screw it.

Have you ever

Matt: Oh, yeah, yeah, all the time. Yeah, yeah.

Mario: Right, so, the question is, why is it so hard to change? Why is it so hard to adapt new behaviors? Everybody wants that. And at the basis of it, new behaviors lead to new results. So if you want to double your business, triple your business, exit your business, there's a set of behaviors required to get you there.

But the reason we struggle to do that is because so often, we are in a fight or flight state. Because we live in this hyper, um, hyper stimulating environment, where the, the body is constantly is in this, in this stressed out state. So what happens when you're in the stressed out state? Your [00:26:00] mind, or your brain, really has one job only.

It has to help you survive. Helping you survive means energy conservation. When you do new things, you need more energy, because you need to break the habit of being you, essentially. So it takes you more energy. So when you're in a stressed state You already have less energy available, but here's the cat, here's the real, the real important point to understand.

When you're in a stressed state and your mind is, as it perceives danger, your mind will focus on what feels safe and what feels known, meaning it will bring you right back to doing the stuff you've always been doing. And so then, You are forced to repeat a past behavior. And what do most people do, especially high performers, when they do something that they told themselves they don't want to do?

Oh God, I'm so stupid. I, why can't I just get this right? Come on, man. Matt, just stop being so lazy. [00:27:00] Just do it, man. So we do that. So now we create even more burden and even more stress. And now we get to the point why most high performers, actually most people in the world, myself included, now it's shift, it's been shifting a lot more, is why we only change when we hit rock bottom.

Because then the pain of staying where we are becomes greater than the pain of changing. Or the pain of the unknown, or like, okay, if I keep waking up at 8am, my life is going to end. So I'm going to get up at 6am and come, you know, whatever happens, I will be waking up at 6am. Then you're going to make the change.

Now that's a way to change your behavior, but the problem is. It's really, really inefficient and it's super unsustainable because when you hit rock bottom, your wife might divorce you. [00:28:00] When you hit rock bottom, your partners might pull out their investment. When you hit rock bottom, might lose a leg. I'm going to stop there because I was sharing quite a lot.

Matt: Yeah. No, that's good. I've got lots of notes, Mario. I'm busy taking copious amounts of notes as I like to do with my guests. One of the things that you said, which I think resonates, uh, in the modern world, um, certainly something that I've caught myself doing in recent times. And it's one of those things I'm trying to Be more.

aware of, um, is using busyness as a badge of honor, I think you call it. And so, uh, you know, you, you see your mate down at the pub or, you know, wherever, um, you know, you catch up with somebody and it's like, hey, how you doing? Oh man, good, but life's busy. And it's like, we, [00:29:00] it's the standard default answer.

And so the person you're talking to says, yeah, my life's busy too, in a way that is, I think my life is busier than yours. And you're kind of like. No, no, no. My life is busy. And it becomes this, it becomes this, it's not something that we verbalise, it's not something that we say, but it is something that I think is intrinsically there at the moment.

Like, busyness is a badge of honour. You know, someone once said to me, you can work part time. You can work half days your whole life, it just doesn't matter which half of the day you work, the first half or the second half. And it's that kind of, I've got to work 12 hours, you know. And don't get me wrong, I think working hard is a good ethic to have, you know, but this, this sort of, um, This idea, this principle, this, uh, constraint of busyness is an [00:30:00] extraordinary thing.

And trying to, I just wonder, you know, if you could sit down and have a conversation with Jesus, uh, how stupid it would sound if you tried to say, I'm more busier than you. Do you know what I mean? It's that kind of, it's a bizarre thing, but it's something that we do in the West, right?

Mario: Yeah, yeah, that's a, that's a, that's a, you, you touched right on the, on the, on the hot point there. It's so important to dissect what you just said. So what I'm hearing is you're equating what sounded like you're equating hard work with, um, with long hours and busy doing lots of things.

Matt: Mm.

Mario: Now, what does hard work even mean? I want to, I want to, I want to open this up because this is such a go to thing in the entrepreneurial community. What we're saying with that is that hard work is necessary. What is hard work? Is it that you're sitting there and then you're just like, Oh my God, this is so [00:31:00] hard. It's like you're having constipations and you know, like you're trying to force something out.

What is that? See, to me, long hours doesn't have to be hard. Why? Why hard? The things that for me are hard are the things that are outside of my comfort zone. And those, I don't even look at them as hard, I look at them as challenging. I look at them as forthcalling, I look at them as an evolution of who I'm stepping into being.

But most of my days, I really am stressed, if ever. I'm way, because I tell myself I'm way too blessed to ever be stressed. And that's because I live in mostly in gratitude and I do a lot of practices on breath work and a lot of inner healing that also plays a big role in that. But this whole notion of hard work gets people this illusion of thinking that they have to create hardship where hardship is not necessarily required. [00:32:00] I'll give you an example. So I was having a coaching call with a client of mine, he's an agency owner, and so he wanted to double his revenue, right, take his business to a whole nother level. And so we talked about, you know, what gets in the way, and for him what got in the way was this notion of working really hard.

Because when you have this idea that you have to constantly work hard, exactly what you said happens. You fall into the notion of we gotta work very long hours. So there's an equation of hard work equals quantity. But if you want to double your business, you don't necessarily need more quantity, you need more quality.

You need quality decisions, you need quality people, you need quality products and services, all of these things. And so, we got down deeper and I asked him, you know, are you ready to let go of the idea that you have to work hard? I'm not saying there's going to be long hours and challenging moments for you, but just of this whole hard [00:33:00] thing.

He's like, are you ready to let go of that? He's like, yeah, yeah, but you know, and then I guided him into a meditative process to really get out the subconscious mind and what we came up with was fascinating because now we saw where hard work in his life was living and what it was doing for him. See, every time he went to visit his, his family and he got to sit down with his old man, he asked him, Hey dad, how are you?

How's business? His father is an entrepreneur as well. Oh man, working really hard, working so hard man, just busting my ass, you know, just grinding out. And then he would go, oh yeah, yeah, me too. And he would tell me, I noticed that, that I would do that, not because I'm actually working hard or I believe in it, but because I feel like if I said the opposite, it would create something weird with me and my dad. And that's exactly why this is so hard to let go of, in this case it is hard for people, because it [00:34:00] creates this whole community of oh man, you're hustling, grinding, yeah I'm about to burn out man, I didn't sleep at all these last few, oh me neither, high five bro, like it's this toxic culture. That keeps you locked in and what it does, it prevents you from even tapping into something that is way more effective.

You know what I encountered for so many years when I brought what I do forward first as a marketing, uh, messaging, um, communication tool. What I got often was, oh, this is fluff, uh, this is some soft shit. I don't need this stuff. I'll do this when I got my million, when I got my exit, da, da, da, da, all that stuff.

And then when I get people in to have a conversation or a session with me. I could transform their perspective in 30 minutes like, like they have never been transformed. Because these things are so simple. And when you work with just your breath, I promise you Matt, if you do, if you do this five times a day.

Just do this thing, forget everything I tell you, but five times a day, take a two [00:35:00] minute breath. That's ten minutes total. All you do is you sit, close your eyes, and you just breathe in through your nose, and you take long deep breaths into your belly. You do this five times a day, everything will shift for you, I promise you.

Because now you are slowing down in the way that you're acting. You're not taking out the speed from the entire process. of growing your business and running your business actually you're accelerating: by quite a lot, your taking out the speed internally in terms of this. phonetic way of constantly having to be busy.

okay what do I do next? what's the next thing so many people are scared of, of silence. Have you ever had a person that you're with and that person just constantly talks?

Matt: oh, yes,

Mario: It's like, oh, have you seen that? Oh, by the way, what's about, what about this? Did you see the last, uh, TV show? Did you see that? It's like constantly. And the reason that's happening is because so [00:36:00] many people are afraid to be silent. Because if they're silent, What comes up, all of the thoughts that they've been trying to push away.

And, you know, if you don't slow down, you take a step back and you actually take a look at what I am thinking when, what I am feeling, you'll always be in the, in the wheel and you'll always create the results that you've already been creating just a tiny bit of a different iteration. And there is no innovation.

There's no true transformation and the life that you really, really want will be really difficult to achieve.

Matt: Yeah, it's some powerful stuff, man, and it's interesting, isn't it? You know, the older I get Um, the less important the, um, the hours become. And so, what do I mean, I, so I, there's a friend of mine who I, uh, I sold my, I sold one of my businesses a couple of years ago and the guy I own the business with is a guy called Andy.

He's an absolute rock star, total [00:37:00] legend, I think he's a brilliant guy. And I remember when we got into business, um,

Mario: com

Matt: He would say to me Matt get out from the computer, stop sitting behind, because I was the guy behind the computer and, um, he would go surfing. I can't surf for toffee. I just want to point that out.

I would love to be able to surf. I can't. I'm just, I've not got the balance. Um, but I do like to get out and walk. I like to get out on my bike or, you know, do, I'd like to get in the workshop and do a whole bunch of stuff. And his whole thing was, um, if I'm facing something at work, I don't sit in front of the computer.

I go out on the surfboard because by the time I get back in. You know, he goes out, has a surf. He says, I'll have the answer. Um, and it was just this, it was just a really refreshing. I remember the conversation really well because it was a really refreshing conversation to hear from somebody in business who was just like, yeah, no, I'm not bothered by that.

I, I just, I'm just going to go [00:38:00] out and surf. I'm going to chill out. I'm going to slow down in a, you know, in effect, breathe. Um, and it's been a lesson, which I think. I, I think has really helped me in a lot of ways. So when COVID hit, we all started walking a lot around the park. Um, you know, our step counts went up and we're all walking around the park and it's like, well, actually I can do some of these calls while I'm walking around the park or I can.

Uh, you know, and in between calls, I'm just going to keep walking around, I'm going to have an ice cream and I'm going to walk around the park and it's, it's fascinating to me how quickly we've sprung back to, um, what's, uh, my friend Cesar, Cesar Kalinowski calls the do to be like, I've, I've got to do, do, do to be, um, rather than be and do.

And, um, so yeah, he calls it the do to be like, which I think is [00:39:00] quite. Insightful. But yeah, it's amazing. And I don't know if you've seen this. I don't know if this is a peculiar thing to my part of the world, but that sort of sense that the lessons we learned in COVID about slowing down, about doing things differently, all seem to be disappearing quite quickly right now.

Mario: Yeah, because things have returned to normal, or whatever, whatever you want to call normal. And people have, you know, people come back to their default always. Everybody always comes back to their default, which is why it's so crucial to raise your standard to quote Tony Robbins. And you've got to raise your standard.

And to also make your point, this is a brilliant point from doing to being. This is what I call the victim consciousness or the victim mindset. I gotta do to be. Now what does that mean, I gotta do to be? It means that I have to take an action, let's say I have to achieve a certain goal through my actions, and that goal often for entrepreneurs is money, [00:40:00] so I'm going to achieve that goal, that goal gives me the money, then through the achievement of the money, I get to be somebody, meaning I get to feel a certain way, because the being creates a feeling, and so being is how you think and how you feel.

And what that is, essentially, is that sense of what I said earlier, that freedom, that peace, that ah, good, everything is good, but what, that really makes us the victim of our environment, because what happens if you don't achieve the goal? You'll never have the freedom. And then also, often times, with high achievers, You hit the goal, and for 2.

5 seconds, you feel that way, and it's, ah, great, and then, yeah, um, what's next, um, not enough, and so you're constantly chasing feelings the whole time. Now, what I propose, which is what I use the model, is you turn that around. That's the creator consciousness of the creator mindset, where you choose your state of being.

The way you think and the way you feel, where you choose it consciously [00:41:00] and you condition yourself to feel and think the way you choose to feel and then from that state of being you take action. Now what happens? If you walk into an investor meeting looking to raise 10 million bucks and you already feel like you're powerful, like you are confident, like you are at ease within yourself, you walk into that room and people are like, damn, I can feel the energy of this man, I trust this person, so the likelihood of them investing in you just increase significantly.

Passion, energy, that creates a sense of trust. So, sales meeting, the same thing. Going on a date, the same thing. You know, what any interaction that involves another human being, if you have this level of energy inside of you that you're exuding to the outside, whatever you want, the likelihood of getting that is way higher.

Now here is why so many people will hear this and will say, yeah, cool, but nah. [00:42:00] Because they, their method of creating results is attached to burnout, chaos, and fear. They have to get themselves to a point where they're like so overwhelmed and so stressed out of not taking action, that they're like, okay, let's go now, now, with that sense of anger.

And that's just that whole grind and hustle mentality. It's a forceful energy.

Matt: yeah,

Mario: I say, just become way more effective, turn it around, cultivate your inner state of being the way you want to feel through meditation, through breath work, through going out into nature, so that you don't need the achievement.

You'll get it, it's more likely that you'll get it actually, but you don't need it. And that just makes you freaking unstoppable, so to your point, I think it's a brilliant point, focus on the being because it will create the doing that you need to create the result you want.

Matt: Have you ever seen the movie [00:43:00] Cool Runnings?

Mario: Cool runnings, cool runnings.

Matt: a, it's a sort of a, I don't know when it, maybe it was a 90s film, somewhere around there. It was about the Jamaican bobsled team.

Mario: Ah, yes,

Matt: John Candy in it, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, and great film, love the film, but there's this really poignant point in the movie where, um, John Candy, who's playing the coach, cheated, um, to try and win the gold medal.

And the, The new captain of the bobsled team, his training said to him, you know, why did you do it? Why did you cheat? And he was like, well, because I wasn't enough, you know, and I always needed more and I was willing to, to sacrifice. I'm willing to do whatever it took to get it, I suppose. And, um, he made this comment about the gold medal.

He said, if you're not enough without it. You'll never be enough with it. Uh, and I thought it was, that's exactly what it is. Isn't that's [00:44:00] what you're saying. It's that sort of the cool runnings moment. If you're not enough without it, you'll never be enough with it. Uh, and I, I know I've known over the years, quite a few, the billionaires, you know, a number of the, uh, the times Top 10 rich list.

I had their mobile numbers and was work, doing work with them and stuff. I, I can't tell you how many of them were actually happy, uh, it was, it was, part of me felt really bad, um, for them, um, and I've just come home at night and say to my wife, I'm really grateful for our life because actually, fundamentally, I'm quite a happy chap.

Do you know what I mean, and yeah, and it's, it's a fascinating place to be really, um, you talked about, um, living in gratitude. What does that look like? Yeah. Yeah.

Mario: question. Living in gratitude for me comes hand in hand with forgiveness [00:45:00] because unless, unless, unless I forgive somebody or myself, I can't be grateful. Cause the lack of forgiveness creates judgment and it creates that sense of bitterness and that poison that slowly, slowly seeps through every ounce of your being and that just corrupts everything.

So I forgive often and quickly. Sometimes it takes me a little while and then I get through it and I'm like, okay, now I forgive and I do it because it's a sense of liberation. And I do a lot of meditation now, uh, every day, I, I, Monday to Friday, I get up at 5 AM and then I meditate for like a good. Seven 70 minutes, sometimes 80 minutes, and it's often, it's focused on the heart and gr gratitude is something that energetically, if you focus on the heart, you feel a lot of gratitude.

You feel a lot of warmness and yeah, I've really learned to look at my life from this. I've conditioned myself to look at life and everybody in my life. [00:46:00] Sometimes it doesn't work out that way from a place of what if. This person or this event was actually a blessing sent to me by God. What if that was actually a blessing?

I was like, well, right now it feels like an absolute punishment. And I wish this person wasn't alive and I would just like to strangle them. All right.

Matt: yeah, we've

Mario: But a couple of, a couple of breaths later, I'm like, okay, what if, okay, let's, let's look at that. And every time I've done that and I've reflected on it over events that happened and that also didn't happen.

It's like, wow. Because of that, I'm now here. See, people ask me this question, I'm sure you've asked this, or have been asked the question, if you could go back in time, what would you do different, what would you tell your younger self, da da da da da da, and I, I jumped into that one early on, definitely, but now if you ask me that again, I wouldn't do anything different, nothing.

Zero, because everything is [00:47:00] perfect that happened. All of the pain, all of the suffering, all of the failures, all of the times I lost money, all of the times people left me or I left them or anything was exactly meant to happen that way. Why? Because it did. That's all the evidence I needed. It did happen the way that it happened.

And so, looking at it that way, I no longer have this sense of, Ah, but why did it happen and I didn't like it? I don't have the resistance. And the resistance is what activates the fear. So the more I have removed that, and I live in gratitude of it all, the lighter I am, the more peaceful I am, the swifter I am, the more agile I am, the easier I can tap into unlimited power state when I need to show up in that case, or I need to be vulnerable with my wife and say, hey, get your ego down, Mario, you just said something that really hurt her, you know, just Be quiet for a moment.

The easiest, it's that. So gratitude to me is one of the keys to becoming unstoppable in [00:48:00] life.

Matt: yeah. Now I would totally agree, um, it is, there's something quite powerful.

My kids and I are writing a journal at the moment, which we're going to put on Kindle Direct Publishing. It's the 100 Day Gratitude Journal, and I know there's some out there, but it's just really interesting doing it with my kids. My kids, I say kids, they're young adults now. There's something insanely powerful about being grateful at the start of the day.

At the end of the day, just, you know, sandwiching your day with gratitude, um, and, and, and in the middle choosing to grow through what you go through, right? Um, it's, it's, it's really, really beautiful when you, and the more I do it, the, the more consistent I am when I. [00:49:00] Journal in the morning about gratitude even if it's just 5 10 minutes the more it changes my life And I think it's like you say it's one of those things where if if if I could convince and everyone in the mr.

Putin, you know Russia, I'm not saying that the answer is this but please stop writing a gratitude journal Do you know what I mean? I think it might change your outlook on life slightly And it's just, it's just one of those things, isn't it? Donald Trump, interesting chap, but please start writing a gratitude journal, you know?

Biden, please start writing a gratitude journal and stop falling over. But it's, it's one of those things where you, you kind of go, I think it's It's one of those, it's one of those acts of humanity which I think separates us out and I, and I, I'm aware of its power.

Mario: Yeah, yeah, totally. I mean, think about the moment, I, I'm not a big [00:50:00] political person, but I will never forget this moment when Donald Trump was running against Hillary. These two were just going at Now imagine they would have to do that at every debate. They would have to find something positive about the other person's point of view and express gratitude for that. Just the dynamics and the way it shifts. You diffuse fights, conflicts. Cause you're like, well I appreciate you bringing this to my attention.

As opposed to saying like Really? How dare you say that?

Matt: Yeah.

Mario: Like, that, that changes everything. And with that, when you change those dynamics,

Matt: Yeah.

Mario: change the way people function together and work together. I mean, gratitude in teams, in, in the organizations and companies. Game changer.

Matt: Yeah.

Yeah. That really is. I'm, I'm with you 100%, my friend. Listen, Mario, I'm aware of time. Uh, and we have been chatting away, uh, as I got lost in the conversation as I so frequently do, because I'm such a professional podcaster. [00:51:00] Um, but let's, in closing, let's quickly do the question box, okay? So this is where I'm going to take out my random questions, I'm going to flick through, you're going to tell me when to stop,

Mario: Stop.

Matt: okay.

Uh, and the question is, I'd be interested in the answer actually, who has offered you the most useful career advice? Yeah.

Mario: Who has offered me the most useful career advice? Hmm. Oh, there's so many people. Ha, ha, ha. Okay. One of my mentors told me, and this has become a go to philosophy for my life, and I invite everybody to test this out. He said, before you ask yourself how you do something, ask [00:52:00] yourself who has already done it and can help me achieve this. That one thing. Boy, opened so many doors because whenever I see the biggest, one of the biggest challenges that I had, and I know a lot of entrepreneurs have the same, is asking for help. It's like, nah, I got this, I'll do it on my own. And ever since I turned that on its head and I said, who do I know? Now whenever I have anything, I reach out to my network. So I'm constantly expanding the network. Yeah, you should talk to Matt, right? You should talk to, uh, to Dean, talk to these people. So who before how?

Game Changer, and I will never forget that lesson. It was one of my coaches who shared this with me, uh, and

Matt: Top advice. I love that. And that ties it back into what we were talking about at the start, podcasting. Figure that out and go invite them on your podcast. It'd be a great way to meet them. Mario, listen, um, I honestly thoroughly enjoyed the conversation, bro. And I feel like we're just [00:53:00] starting to get into it.

So if people want to connect with you, if they want to reach out, uh, what is the best way to do that? Yeah.

Mario: Thank you, Matt. I had a wonderful time with you and I'm sure it won't be our last conversation. So I have created a special URL for your wonderful listeners. So if you go to my website, it's my full name, Mario Lanzarotti, so that's M A R I O L A N Z A R O T T I.com—welcome-bemore. And if you go onto that wonderful page, you will find a few gifts.

You can watch my TEDx talk, which has over 1. 3 million views on overcoming self doubt. There's also a free training on how to double your business with inner peace, where I go into more detail into some of the things that we talked about today. And if you want to, you know, connect with me on the social media channels, all the links are there.

I always [00:54:00] love to hear from people. What part of the conversation resonated the most and what part of the conversation didn't resonate at all?

Matt: Very, very good, yeah, yeah, very good, what was, what was good, what was not good, uh, it's uh, very good. We will of course link to all of that information in the show notes and I, I wish. Mario, I could pronounce your name as well as you do. It just sounds stunning when it rolls off your tongue and very dull and dreary when it comes off mine.

So my apologies for that, uh, but, uh, love the conversation, man. Thanks. Thanks again for joining us. Well, that's a wrap on another invigorating conversation. A massive round of applause to Mario for joining us today. Really, really loved that conversation, got a lot of notes and huge thanks also to today's champion sponsor, Aurion Media.

For all you change makers out there contemplating podcasting as your new vehicle of expression, check them out at [00:55:00] aurionmedia. com. Remember, keep pushing to be more, and don't forget to follow the show wherever you get your podcasts from, because we've got yet more seriously compelling conversations coming your way, and I don't want you to miss any of them.

And in case No one has told you yet today. Let me be the first person to tell you, you are awesome. Yes, you are. Created awesome. It's just a burden you have to bear. Mario has to bear it. I've got to bear it. You've got to bear it as well. Now, Push To Be More is produced by Aurion Media. For transcripts and show notes, swing on by the website PushToBeMore.

com and also big kudos to the team that makes this show possible, Sadaf Beynon and Tanya Hutsuliak, and also a shout out to Josh Edmundson for The fun, fantastic theme music. So from me and from Mario, thank you so much for joining us. Have a fantastic week wherever you are in the world. I'll catch you on the flip side.

Until then, keep pushing and bye for now. [00:56:00]