Top Takeaways & Recap From Brendon Burchard’s GrowthDay Event

Hey Friend!

It’s been a week since I returned from GrowthDay. It was a four-day event with Brendon Burchard, Jamie Kern Lima, Anthony Trucks, Lori Harder, Trent Shelton, and Ed Mylett. So many incredible speakers; it was amazing. 

I wanted to take today’s time with you to share what happened at this event. I want to share my main takeaways with you because these takeaways blessed me so much. They stretched and challenged me. I think they will truly be able to help you – and grow you – as well. 

We’re going to be going through my notes together today. I took 30 pages of notes, but I promise to only share the main heavy hitters from the event with you, but you’re definitely going to want a notebook and pen because we are going to get straight into the details and tactical takeaways.

The Power of Immersion

I’ve talked about the power of immersion before. Check out Episode 87, Episode 232, or Episode 233. You’ve got to get in a room. There is something extraordinary that happens when I get around this energy of creativity and motivated, inspired people pushing to pursue their dreams’ it unlocks something in my heart, a bigger vision of what I’m capable of doing.

As I look back on this journey of entrepreneurship, every time I get in a room, I have a breakthrough. It could be a peer-led mastermind, a small mastermind, or going somewhere with actual humans. At in-person events, you’re able to fully be present on another level. Being able to go and fully let go of all life is throwing at you, the tugging when you have children, the stuff that comes with taking care of your home, it’s all gone because you’re somewhere else. Being able to physically go somewhere – I know that’s not possible for all of you – but if you can budget for it and pray for the opportunity, it’s extraordinarily powerful.

My husband and I did Brendon’s last event. My husband’s in corporate and I’m an entrepreneur, so we try to find events that can fuel both of us. I love Brendon’s event because he takes a holistic approach to productivity, wellness, and growth in all aspects of your life. I think it’s possible to be our best in every area of our lives.

It exceeded all expectations and I was blessed. I’m excited to share my takeaways and some fun next steps I’m taking because of this incredible room. 

Grab your notebook and pen. Have an open mind and an open heart. Ask yourself, “How does this apply to me?” or “How can I implement this into my life?”

Brendon Burchard’s Nightly Routine

I’ve known this about Brendon for a long time, but before he goes to bed, he asks himself three questions. When we reflect, we can ask God, “Did I live today? Was I fully alive today?” These are his questions, so come up with your own three that really matter to you.

1. Did I live?
2. Did I love?
3. Did I matter?

He asks himself these three questions every day before bed. Not every day is “Yes, Yes, Yes,” but most days are because his decision is to live every day with absolute and complete fullness.

Come up with your three questions and begin asking yourself all three each evening.
Every single speaker spoke about how God has played a major role in getting them where they are and how He has redeemed them from something. God was mentioned by every speaker, Christianity was mentioned by a few speakers, and even Jesus was mentioned. To see these sprinkles of God in each and every speaker show up was confirmation for me that He was doing mighty works. He is working in secular areas and is deep in the personal development space right now. God is on the move and it was really incredible to see that.

Ed Mylett on Response-Ability

When Ed Mylett came out, I thought, “Seems like a bro, with his fancy cars and jet.” The first thing out of Ed’s mouth was, “I’m a Christian and everything I do is for my King.” He set this tone of faith from the get-go. 

Ed said, “You won’t know you’re doing something incredible when you’re doing it.” So many of us look for validation in the now. We look for the money to prove our course is successful. We look for the review that says we’re doing a good job. The truth is the incredible things we are doing right now, we’re not going to know about because it’s not about us. It’s about showing up, giving, and serving.

Then he said, “The extent you’re responding is the extent you’re alive.” Are you responding to every opportunity God puts in front of you? How are you responding when you feel the tug to pray for someone? Are you responding when God asks you to rest? Ed says, “response-ability = your responsibility.” It’s our responsibility to respond.

Ed’s book is called The Power of One More – so excited to read it. You are one away: one decision away from changing your life,  one event away from the connection that changes everything, one coach, or one conversation away. 

Look at your life through a lens of possibility and ‘response-ability.’ Ask yourself, “What’s one more thing I can do to be better? What’s one more episode I can record? What’s one more conversation I can have with my kid? One more way I can shepherd my home, one more thing I can do to feed my body healthy food?”

It’s looking at things in bite-sized pieces that allow you to move forward without overwhelm.

Brendon Burchard Asks How Comfortable Are You?

One of the things Brendon said that really hit for me in the positioning I’m in right now is, “You’re in one of three places:

• You’re caged (feel stuck).
• You feel comfortable. This is not a bad place to be, but you don’t want to stay there.
• You are charged. You are working on something incredible; pushing yourself to be better.”

 One thing that hit me about that is he said, “Successful people often fall into #2. They fall into comfort.”

People are often excited. They made it and they just want to sit there because it was so hard to get there. I feel like I’m kind of there. I’ve had success in the past three years and it’s feeling really great. I know what to do. I’ve got the team and I’ve got the systems. Everything’s fine. He says that’s exactly where you lose your magic. You forget that there’s a next level and you lose sight of the charged life. We are created to live the charged life and if we’re not living it, we’re going to feel a level of discontent even when we are successful.

Remember: you don’t want to drop into your comfort zone for too long.

What Brendon Burchard Believes About Successful People

Brendon says truly successful people all have meaningful pursuits; something they are striving toward. I know in the Christian world, striving can be a bad word, but the reality is there are seasons of striving. There are seasons of hustle and that’s okay. It’s okay to push forward with all that you have and all that you are to get where God’s trying to grow you. It’s not 100% balanced all the time. Being willing to have a meaningful pursuit you are chasing is healthy. Right now, I am chasing my health: I’m meal-prepping and cooking every meal. I have a meaningful pursuit in this area. 

They all have daily practices like a morning routine, morning intentions, evening questions, working out every day, or spending time connecting with their kids after school. What is your daily practice that keeps you from falling into stagnation, distraction, and your comfort zone?

What makes you fully alive? Is it when you’re speaking, writing, when you’re outside, cooking, or fully rested? When are you the most alive? Lean into that. Do more of that. I’m so alive when I’m mountain biking, speaking, podcasting, and coaching. That’s where I’m supposed to be! And we can do more of that. It creates more vibrancy in life.

Successful people are deeply connected with themselves, God, and other people. They have deep, real, meaningful relationships. 

What’s your meaningful pursuit right now? What do your daily practices look like? Are you leaning into the things that make you feel truly alive? Are you deeply connected with other people?

Jamie Kern Lima on What You Really Want

I highly recommend Jamie’s book, Believe It. She talked about hopes and dreams, growing into who you are, and out of self-doubt. 

What do you really want? Why do you want it? Are you taking action?

Believe it is possible for you and don’t forget about believing you’re worthy. She had us ask ourselves these questions.

After we discovered what we’re supposed to be working on, or what we’re avoiding, she asked what our lives looked like 5 years from now and how we’d feel if we didn’t do it. 10 years? 20 years? For me, it was the book. I’ve talked briefly about the call to write a book. I’ve written 15k words, but I still don’t know what it is. It’s a beautiful culmination of stories with some themes, but it’s still not clear, so I put it away.

I’ve made excuses: “It’s not the right time.” and “Maybe when the kids are older.” But what kept coming up was, “This book is not about you. This book is my contribution to the world through you.”

“Do it now,” was the consensus. Time is not promised. All of us have lost somebody that meant something to us. We know that time is not promised. Trent Shelton said, “You’re disrespecting time because you don’t know if you have one more day. How disrespectful to say you’ll do this later, not knowing if you even have later?”

How are you contributing to the world in the time you have – which is right now? Who am I to decide when to write this book God has asked me to write? Who am I to worry about the outcome of the story? It’s His story. My commitment is to work on 500 words/week. What’s one way to commit to moving forward?

Brendon Burchard and Inauthenticity

“Inauthenticity ensures you’re not successful.” Stand for something even if it’s not widely accepted, even if it’s against the masses. You guys know that I stand for not being a slave to social media because I know that it does not work. I stand for that for your guys. I have built this business without it, all the way to over $400K in revenue before we even spent $1 on any kind of paid advertising.

Pick your one thing, which for me is podcasting. I’m unapologetic about it What do you stand for? Go ahead and lean into that authenticity.

Rejection is God’s timing, His protection, or His redirection. Do not be afraid of rejection. 

Don’t be afraid of putting yourself in places that aren’t labeled Christian. You could be used in such a powerful way. Don’t be afraid of the spiritual seekers; they’re the ones who are most available for Jesus. For a time, I was afraid of being in the ‘wrong room’ or being in a room where someone would influence me. The reality is, “I’m in Christ.” Who’s going to influence whom? I am anointed by the King and if He wants to put me there, I’m going to open my mouth and He shall fill it.

Anthony Trucks and Dark Work

I had never heard Anthony before but was really impressed. He, too, talked about his faith quite a bit. He has this whole movement called “Dark Work.”

It feels super exciting when you consume something new and come up with this amazing idea, but you have to go dark and actually do the work when nobody’s looking.  In 12 years of being an entrepreneur, 80% of it is ‘dark work’ for me – I’m in the trenches, training my team, podcasting, journaling, writing content, or organizing – it’s stuff that is unseen. Especially in the beginning. You have to go harder as it gets harder. 

Anthony said, “I’ve done too much work in the dark to lose in the light. No one can put out the light if you do the work in the dark.”

He had us do a declaration: “I just did __________ and I will do __________ next.” Back to what I mentioned earlier you complete something and want to crawl into your comfort zone and live there. No. You did a thing – what was it? Now, what will you do next? That’s not to say you can’t rest and take a moment, but what’s the next thing? Because we don’t want to stay stagnant just because we find a bit of success. We need to continue to rise into more – more clients or a bigger podcast. There’s a level of ‘moreness’ in every single thing you do that glorifies God and the gift He’s given you. 

Brendon Burchard Asks About the Word ‘More’

Brendon Burchard, “Is ‘more’ a negative word for you?” If so, why do you think that? Who told you that? It’s not Biblical; the Bible talks about abundance, multiplication, growth, and stretching. We are called; we have work to do here. We are anointed, crowned, and chosen. It’s time to stop believing more is bad – worldly more, of course, that’s bad – but God-led more? I’m here for that. More connections, love, meaning, discernment, etc. I’m here for that kind of more! Are you?

Instead of using words like, “I’m not good at __________,” or “I’m scared to or can’t do __________,” say, “I’m going to get great at __________.”

For me, I’m terrified to do things alone. I don’t love doing masterminds by myself or events by myself. I don’t like to travel alone. My decision was, “I’m going to get great at traveling alone.” This year, I’ve already gone to a high-level mastermind retreat alone; flew alone, stayed in the hotel alone, and went to the thing alone. I made it and it was fantastic!  Then I wanted to go into my comfort zone. No, no. How do you get great at this thing that scares you? 

What is that thing for you? Is it podcasting? Speaking? Coaching? Is it eating healthy or working out? Where are you struggling? Start using the phrase, “I’m going to get great at __________.” Be unavailable for “I can’t,” “I should,” or “I’m bad at.” It’s not in our vocabulary anymore. 

Trent Shelton and Commitment

I love Trent. I’ve listened to his podcast for a long time. The first time I heard this man talk about protecting his peace in God, I was sold out. He’s got the Straight Up podcast and he talks about potential being pointless if you’re not in it. “You can have all the potential in the world, but until you’re going to tap into it and actually do something with it, it’s pointless. You’re a choice away from a new beginning. You’re a commitment away from a new life.”

We’re constantly led back to this concept of Do. The. Work. Rise up. Show up. Push yourself. Go. “Are you committed or are you interested?” I love this!

Committed people get the breakthrough. Committed people live a charged life and they do things of greatness. Interested people? They wish, they want, and they wallow because they don’t actually do anything about it. 

Trent also talked about disrespecting time – “Forever has an expiration date.” He said, “Faith is in your feet.” Another concept Trent talked about was being elite. Are you elite at what you do? You don’t need to be elite at everything, but at that thing you do, are you elite? If not, how do you become elite at what you do? “You need to be consistent with your effort, consistent with your execution, and consistent with your excellence.”

What is the Cost of Distraction?

The last session was all about distraction. I get super passionate about this concept because living a distracted life means death to your dreams. Brendon made this chart of his discoveries after working with hundreds, maybe thousands, of million and billion-dollar leaders. He found a consistent problem: our day is filled with open gaps. Those open gaps we then fill with distractions. The average person spends just an hour a day distracted, which equates to 30 hours a month or four workdays. Multiply that by 12, that’s 48 lost workdays a year. Forty-eight lost days each year that we are wasting by being distracted. Plus, the average person picks up their phone 100 times a day. 

What could you do with 48 extra workdays per year? What could you do if you stopped picking up your phone? Brendon talked about the fact that he constantly loses his phone. This is funny because my goal is to lose my phone multiple times a day! I want my phone to be the least important thing about me. I think that the phone is the number one distraction for people. If you have to pick something up 100 times a day, it should be your Bible. Are we picking up our phones more than we are picking up Scripture? Are we looking at our phones more than we are looking into the eyes of our kids or our spouses? We have a distraction problem!

Until we admit it, take back control, and take action against it, it takes over. How can you get an hour back per week? Begin to eliminate distractions in your life.

Tips for a Distraction-Free Life

Ask yourself if you are committed or if you are just interested.

1. Delete the social apps off your phone on the weekends. Ideally, you will delete them for perpetuity.
2. Get rid of notifications on your phone. All of them. 
3. Put phone baskets in each room of your home and put your phone away.
4. Close all the extra tabs on your computer when you’re working. Just have the one thing open that you are doing at that moment.
5. Use time blocks to know when you’re going to go work out or sit and have dinner with your family. You’re fully in it for the glory of God.

There are more, but it all comes down to a posture in your heart; a wanting and willingness to change, to get that time back so you can actually go dark and do the work.

Brendon Burchard GrowthDay Wrap-Up

A couple of cool things happened. First, I’m going to be working on the book. The second thing is I’m going to be doing a high-level mastermind with Brendon Burchard and some of the other coaches that were there, going to LA once a month to learn, and get coaching. In the middle of each month, I’ll be doing different trainings that have to do with health, high performance, and wealth management. I’m really excited and I’ll definitely be bringing you some takeaways that I learn along the way. It’s me, getting in the room, chasing that aliveness and the thing that unlocks what’s next for me.  I encourage you guys to do the exact same thing.

If you want to be part of a mastermind program, where you are around other Christ-centered podcasters just like you with bi-weekly coaching, powerful office hours with my team, and community with other believers who are running the same race, Podcast to Profit is completely available to you. Apply right away; we look at applications every other day. If accepted, you can start right now at podcasttoprofitmastermind.com

If there’s one thing I can promise you is that investing in you never returns void.  The return is always infinitely more than you ever expect to be possible because when you get in a room that stretches and grows you and gives you the tools you need to go to the next level, you can dig in, get committed, and actually do the work.

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

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