Thank you for listening to The Champion Forum Podcast with Jeff Hancher! If you want to be successful, you have to get around successful people. That’s why I’m excited to interview today’s guest, Michael Hyatt! Michael is an experienced book publisher, successful author, and award-winning coach for businesspeople. In today’s episode, we’ll talk about how he started as an author, one of his biggest failures, and why your mindset is the key to seeing real change in your life.
About
Michael Hyatt is the founder and chairman of Full Focus. He has scaled multiple companies, including a $250M publishing company with over 750 employees and his award-winning goal achievement and coaching company, Full Focus. Through his coaching program for small business owners and the bestselling Full Focus Planner, Michael has helped hundreds of thousands of people reach their biggest goals. He is also the author of several New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling books, including Platform, Living Forward, Your Best Year Ever, Free to Focus, The Vision Driven Leader, and Win at Work & Succeed at Life. Michael enjoys time with his wife of 40+ years, five daughters, and ten grandchildren.
Background
I intended to go into ministry, but after getting a job with a publishing company, I realized that I loved helping people achieve their dreams and impacting people’s lives. I spent most of my career in book publishing for that reason.
Failing Forward
I really believe in failing forward. You want to make your mistakes fast and then keep moving. I now make a living recounting all the stupid stuff I’ve done and what I learned. I hope to save business leaders tens of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in lost business and momentum. There’s no such thing as failure; it’s just feedback.
Mind Your Mindset Book
Mind Your Mindset is the prequel to everything we do at Full Focus. Entrepreneurs have an action bias. We think we can just work harder, apply brute force, and break through. The results you have come from your actions, and your actions come from your thinking. If you want to change your results, you must first change your thinking.
Identify the Story You Are Telling Yourself
We must tell ourselves stories to make sense of the information we are taking. Sometimes our stories are wrong, and sometimes they are right. You have to be self-aware enough to realize that the story you are telling yourself may not be “the truth,” and the first step to doing that is to identify what story you are telling yourself.
Interrogate The Story
Challenge the story you are telling yourself. I used to struggle with public speaking. Before I got up to speak, I would feel physically anxious and assumed it was because I wasn’t a good speaker. I finally realized that most of what I was experiencing was adrenaline. Adrenaline isn’t bad; it is a gift from God to help us perform at our peak. Instead of fearing it, I recognized my feelings of anxiety. I reminded myself that it was the way my body prepared me to perform my best.
Coach Yourself
It’s tough to challenge your own thinking, and most people need to find someone to help them with this. When you coach yourself, you stop being a victim and regain your power. Accessing powerful thinking will help you act like a better leader. The better you coach yourself, the more you can become aware of your thinking and self-correct in real-time.
Imagine a Better Story
When I became the CEO of Thomas Nelson, I thought it would only be a matter of time before they realized I had no idea what I was doing. This imposter syndrome is very common among leaders. One way to combat imposter syndrome is to take what you are not good at and realize you can learn it! Saying that you are good at something is not enough; you have to believe that you can grow and take action.
Speed Round:
What book has made the most significant impact on your life? The Bible and Franklin Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
If you could have one superpower what would it be? I’d like to fly.
What is your favorite question to ask someone that you admire? What’s the biggest failure you’ve ever experienced that you wouldn’t trade but wouldn’t want to repeat.
What are some of your daily disciplines that have changed your life? My morning routine. I pray, read the bible, read something else, journal, exercise for 30 min, shower, and then have breakfast.
What are some things that you do you continue to learn and improve? - Having a coach is enormously helpful, as is being around people who read a lot.
Application Activities:
1. Take some time to journal about the stories you are telling yourself. Use these questions to jumpstart the process:
What are your overall feelings toward your job? Boss? Co-workers?
Are there any areas where things don’t seem to work out? Why?
What frustrates you about your relationships? How are you contributing to the problem?
2. The best way to grow is to get around people who are where you want to be. Look at Michael Hyatt’s 20 Questions to Ask Other Leaders. What questions should you add to your list? Who can you try to talk to this week?
Connect with Michael Hyatt
Book: Mind Your Mindset
Website: fullfocus.co
Resources referenced