whoa, wait a minute. I, I'm not here to quit drinking. I'm perfectly happy with my alcohol consumption. I've been drinking 38 years and I have no intention to quit. Finally they cut me loose at 17, gave me a diploma and said, don't come back. There's nothing like sparring there, there's nothing that brings you so in the moment. I, I've not? Found another thing that I. Can do that makes me so focused. you, you're just right there. You have to be, there is not a choice, you know? Yeah. I've got lots of great memories now. If you can scrub away all the anxiety and everything else that we have that's just kind of layered up on top of us. once you clean that slate, you're left with happiness. And that's what we're trying to show wherever you are in life and whatever you've been through, it has nothing to do with where you're going. past has no bearing on your future, and you're free to change the direction you're headed at any time you want.

Hello listeners and welcome back Social Skills Coaching I'm your host Russell, and our guest today is Rick Culleton. Rick is an entrepreneur, an author, and a mindfulness advocate. And Rick, with just those three descriptors, introduce us to yourself and, tell us how each of those fit into your approach to, what we're gonna talk about today.

kind of all over the place. I started life as an entrepreneur. I'm working on my second book right now. I've got businesses in the US and Costa Rica, and I like to travel and find myself all over the world.

You have a book already out. Tell us about that.

my first book is Messed Up Like You, and it's, it's about, growing up and, and thriving with A DHD entering the world of entrepreneurship and of the pluses as well as the minuses of, of going through life with, with A DHD and, and the, you know, considering the, the way people look at it, and a lot of it focuses on childhood and what they try to do with you and then moves on to young adulthood and, and then having, a, an entrepreneur with A DHD and all the benefits that. go along with it. And it's a story that's framed around me getting my pilot's license, which was a pretty unusual thing to happen in the first place. it's got some great stories in it and it's inspirational probably to anybody who's trying to get by with a DHD.

So tell us what a DHD is and let's start with, as a child, because I don't think we have a real understanding of some of the struggles that, that, diagnosis brings, to, to children and their development.

you know, as a child, I think most of the problems I had was the way that I was looked at by, by others, by adults. I didn't really, I don't think I would've even realized that there was an issue if someone hadn't told me. But was younger, they called it. ED in the seventies and it was, I was attention deficit disorder with an emphasis on hyperactive. And I believe that for the most part, I am now technically diagnosed as a DHD, attention deficit, hyperactive disorder. and that is primarily what the diagnosis is across the board. there's, there's some different, you know, there's some varying degrees, but that's. Pretty much all encompassing today. And when I was a child, they were all over the place. should we medicate 'em? Should we not medicate 'em, put 'em in a special room. one point in the third grade, they moved me into an accelerated class and put me with third and fourth graders, the idea that I would skip the fourth grade and go right into the fifth grade, which didn't happen. And I went from that class to the fourth grade the next year where they thought they should hold me back and keep me there an extra year. And then finally they cut me loose at 17, gave me a diploma and said, don't come back. And so it was a bit of a rollercoaster ride. And, you know, again, I didn't really see I had a problem learning. I knew that I was all over the place, but as a kid you didn't know that everybody else wasn't too, so it didn't really seem to me to be unusual. I was just, I had a hard time focusing. I'd easily become bored in class. And the way this usually went was you'd walk into the classroom, the teacher would start to talk first day, first week. And you would, feel that you're above and beyond whatever It is they're teaching, and this is just not entertaining at all. And you zone out and then you tune back in either at the end of that class or a couple weeks from there, and you realize that you're completely lost and you have no idea what algebra's all about after all. And, you're struggling from there on out. And that happened a lot.

It is interesting that, you knew you were diagnosed. But it, I speak with people and you hear frequently, we grew up poor, but we didn't know we were poor. So you grew up a DHD and you knew, but it, it did wasn't really an impact on your life. I'm a, a late baby boomer, an early Gen Xer by appearances. so at that time it was very different than it is now with, diagnosis and medical treatment and, and schooling in particular.

Yeah,

accurate?

it was much different and you know, they were still learning how to deal with people like myself. And, you know, I might've been a little bit, the extreme end because I was one, you know, now I think there's a far greater percentage of people diagnosed earlier on. And at that point, I was in a school that our grade had about a hundred people in it maybe the only one. At that time, I don't remember anybody else being diagnosed, so it was a much smaller pool of diagnosis, and no real tools to deal with it. It was like you just kind of shuffle 'em around, give them to somebody else. The teachers in the beginning didn't put, I don't even know that when I was in that third, fourth grade situation that there was a label put on me. Yet it was just a problem kid. You know, this guy's troubled, you know, he's trouble in the hallways. He doesn't learn in school. He Is not living up to his potential. those were the early diagnosis as, troublemaker and, inattentive. I think the formal diagnosis came later on and suspicions arose. I was never offered medication or anything like that as a child I was probably nearly 40 years old before anyone ever suggested I start taking any type of medication and that was a very short-lived, trial.

Again, for our listeners that don't know and, and are interested, a diagnosis like this, at least now with the DSM five, I think is the current one. that diagnosis is a very specific, list of symptoms or activities that a person does. And it is very clinical, of course, by definition. at that time, was that how the diagnosis was made or was it just he's outta control. Let's call him a DD

of what I remember,

Or were you aware that

most of what I remember

Yeah.

have any type of label on at all. they were just trying to contain me, keep me from causing any problems or disrupting the rest of the school. That was a primary objective. They weren't really interested in diagnosing what could potentially be wrong.

I taught for 10 or 15 years. started teaching in 19 84, 85 school year. So that dates me. and I remember the first parent I had that came to me and said their child had a learning disability. And I was not schooled in any of that. Of course, my degree in secondary education, like many college degrees, doesn't prepare you for the occupation at all. I had no training in what to do with, anybody that had a learning disability, even what they were. So it took me completely by surprise, my lack of experience, So maybe that's why I'm hitting it a little more deeply than we need to, or that you'd like to at this point. So I appreciate your candor with that and sharing that information. you are an entrepreneur. You have several businesses, in several countries it sounds like. Are they related? Are they a wide variety of things? It sounds like you dabble into a lot of different areas.

very similar at all. And I deliberately look for things that are, different challenges to keep me entertained, you know, and I prevent the boredom. But my, oldest company I have is about 20 years, 28 years old now, and it's based in Texas. We sell refurbished computer equipment, a place called Discount electronics.com. we still have retail stores, as well as website sell online, and, I'm still involved with that company every day. I'm still the CEO and president, although I take more of a marketing role. That's the part that I enjoy the most. I'm web developer some days, firemen, others. and over the last 20 years or so, I've been investing in real estate and opened a company in Austin that does primarily, purchases, real estate, Fixes it up, rents it out. Commercial, residential, multifamily, single family. We've expanded that into Colorado and a little bit into Costa Rica where I got into the hotel business. started with vacation rentals down there, that I moved an operation from the states into Costa Rica, and then later changed the building type from homes and apartments and such into hotels.

are these businesses that you, I mean, you're involved daily in them it sounds like, are, these things you developed to try and get to a point where they would just go on their own and you're looking for something new, you find some reliable people to run that business, or are you working 27 hours a day to keep track of all these things?

I enjoy working, so it's, a labor of love I have great people, and I couldn't do this without them. that's a big part of being successful is to have the right team. we've got some of the most fantastic people both in the United States and in Costa Rica. the folks I work with, the discount electronics, many of 'em have been there decades. we're a family. It's a small company, 30 employees. we've all worked together for a long time and I think we all enjoy our jobs very much. I've still got, one employee who's about to hit the 10 year mark down there. the hotel manager's been there since the day we opened up one of the hotels is on the beach. It's a beautiful spot to be. I'm not such an awful boss. they've got a pretty good job and they enjoy life down there. And then the, the real estate company is more of, on demand type thing, where I'll, you know, we have tenants, we manage a lot of that with software. And then when we need people, we sub out, we have regulars that we sub to all the time. One who used to be an employee who now is a subcontractor that just does his own thing and works for me in a variety of other people. but that's pretty much my work. You know, my email is very interesting. WhatsApp, you never know what's coming in. You open that phone up and you don't know what language it's gonna be in, and you have absolutely no idea what it's gonna be about. But I guarantee every morning. It's interesting.

I imagine, so some two things come from that, those last few sentences. Obviously, you're not a terrible boss. If you've, if you've had people with that kind of tenure within your organizations, So two questions that may, I'm pretty sure they, they dovetail into one another. Building a team, finding the right members for a team has, has to be crucial. in any organization like that, you, we hear frequently, you know, surround yourself with the, the best people and then let them do their job. You know, hire the right person for the right job and let them do the job. how do you go about building that team? What do you look for? expand on that, and then when you have a team together, obviously you're doing some things very right that keeps that team together. Can you talk to both points?

to hiring, I, I really look for self-motivated people. I am not an over the shoulder kind of boss. I don't know where anybody is. I don't know what time they come to work, when they go home or where they're working from. And for that, you know, it just requires somebody that's got self-discipline that knows how to get the job done. I don't care if you work four hours or 12 hours. I prefer you don't have to work 12 hours and. It's just a matter of getting the job done, you figuring out how to do it and getting results. The hotel's a little bit different in that, you know, we have places there where people need to be, you know, somebody's gotta be sitting at reception, so there's a schedule and they need to be there to check people in. And, you know, it's a little bit different hiring there because you need somebody bilingual and there's a lot of other requirements, but this kinda electronics and most of the folks that have been there long time, have had varied positions. You know, they'll come in the door as one thing, you know, one of my favorite stories is a guy that we hired outta the Home Depot to lay bricks at the construction of a new store back in 2010 or 2011. And when we finished up, I gave everybody a little bit extra money, thanked them for the work, and said goodbye. And the next day I came in when the store opened and he was there. And I said, well, you know, Fernando, what are you doing here? And we're done. And he goes, no, I'm gonna work. And I'm like, any work for you. And he goes, I'll do whatever you need. I'm like, well, I don't need anything. He goes, you got this store. Somebody's gotta work here. Right? and he barely spoke English at the time. I'm like, you know, I, I'll find something for you for now, but you need to find a job It's now 2025. That was 2010. He is our number one computer technician. He, he's never left, got married, had some kids, and has turned out to be quite the employee.

Fantastic. That, that's incredible. From brick layer, to the computer technician all within the same company. That's a great story.

what anybody's capable of until you give them a chance.

that is exactly the truth. And it's seeing that obviously he had some tenacity to come back after the brick laying was done and to put himself in the open store, and ask for something. But, you were able to see that in a person and I find that, you kind of wanted. To give him the credit for it, but for someone to see that, to give them the chance to encourage them, there had to been some times where, you went an extra step to make sure he was educated or had the tools he needed or learned the things he needed to do. so developing an employee like that, is that a part of your process? Is that something you consciously do or look to do?

for that, but Fernando found his own way, and most of my employees do, I'll give them the way to make it on their own. but I'm not there for handholding and I'm not that type of leader. I give them the space. I tell them what's expected of them and oftentimes what it is that I tell them I'm expecting from them in the beginning is not what the job entails in just a few months or a year. Most of the people that work for me have had multiple jobs except for possibly my CFO. Just about everybody at that company has moved around. Oftentimes, we'll find someone in a retail store that looks to have promise. They'll be selling computers in one of the stores. And, I'll have some interaction with them and say, this is somebody I think we wanna bring in, move them over to the. main building, and what they're gonna do from there is anybody's guess. then they kind of find their own way, you like coding? Do you wanna be a salesperson? You know, what's your, what's your fancy.

I, I'm not, I don't wanna seem like I'm just flattering you, but the mindset there is the top 95 percentile of bosses I've had and seen. your employees obviously respond to that. They stay with you. they stick with an organization because you make expectations clear. You give them the room to do it, but you're also looking for, ways to enhance your organization by enhancing your employees. that's unusual. It's well above the curve in my experience. your bio talked about a journey through A DHD, which we've talked about, and then it mentions a phrase I've not seen before. Accidental sobriety. what does that refer to?

you know, that's an interesting story. I was on a path I was having a lot of anxiety, which I think is, Pretty typical for entrepreneurs. And, sometimes we don't even realize how much we're living with. And, mine had gotta the point where I'd wake up in the morning trembling, like literally shaking in bed and have to get outta bed quickly because it was just gonna get worse. when I'd stop and think about what was causing the problem, I really couldn't get to it. There were acute things every single day. It was something different. Or sometimes it would be the same things. It could be money, it could be this, it could be that. And you'd see a recurring theme, that once this problem left my mind, another one, fill it. and I knew that, these weren't really problems of the severity that I was giving them credit for. And I received an email one day from a woman by the name of Julie Hutchinson. it read, would you like to Wake Up Happy? And then the email proceeded to. Sound like she'd been peering through the windows and watching me because it was just very spot on. And I showed it to my wife and I said, this is just kind of crazy. And so I responded to the email. It turns out that Julie, was a family member of some people that I knew very well. two of her family members had worked for me. One of them, her niece and I had worked together very closely and had traveled together. And, so that there was a little bit of trust there. And, I started a course that she took, called Core Performance. And, was tricked a little bit, maybe outta my own naivety in, in a few ways. But the first one was that we started breathing exercises, which is a meditation practice that I still use every day. I do the same, meditation that we learned back then. Did it today, and I'll do it tomorrow. during this process, as we were getting in here through this, she told me about a month in, she said, Rick, you know, you're gonna find, when, when this anxiety leaves and you get all of this under control, you're probably not even gonna need the alcohol anymore. And I said, whoa, wait a minute. I, I'm not here to quit drinking. I'm perfectly happy with my alcohol consumption. I've been drinking 38 years and I have no intention to quit. And, a couple months went by and I was in Manhattan in my apartment one day and had gone to see an old friend. I bought a bunch of beer that morning and I loved, IPA still do. I just drink it without the non-alcoholic version now. And I, I bought some pretty expensive beer down the street from my apartment, brought it back, put it in the fridge, walked around town most of the day and came back at about five o'clock threw it and all the rest of the alcohol down the trash chute from the 45th floor, a hit the bottom and I never had a drink again. I'm sure I'm still not a hundred

Wow.

what caused that to be the day. I mean, it was something I contemplated before. You know, I always thought, you know, one day when the doctor tells me that my liver's gonna jump outta my body or something that I would quit, I drank every single day of my life for 38 years, except for two days when I took my son in a Boy Scout camp out. So it was a pretty major change.

And give us this person you mentioned Julie is in the business of, she offers seminars and that type of,

has a, she's got an ongoing business called Core Performance and runs an evergreen program where there's always folks coming in and out, and you've got people in all stages of, this runs About six months. there's a lot more to it than just the breathing exercises and meditation, but that seemed to be the part that I needed and really clung to. It's, you know, there's a gadget that hooks your ear and you measure your results in your phone. And I'm a data guy, so I just love making the bars move in the right direction. And it was pretty amazing to me that when I did it right and the things appeared on the screen the way they were supposed to in the amount of time they were supposed to, how good I felt. And cumulatively, you know, if I did this day after day, it got better and better and better until, you know, you have that same, I think a lot of us do this with almost everything. Like, you don't need the cure anymore because you're fixed. And I got to that point where I would skip once in a while. I'm like, you know, it very quickly realized that I needed that, that this was a going to have to be a forever thing if I was gonna be forever healthy.

About what year was that, that Julie got in touch with you?

at the end of the year.

Oh, okay.

Yes,

recently.

maybe 15 months

Okay. It just, it struck me with the mindfulness and the meditation, obviously in our podcast and in our books, there's a lot of emphasis on mindfulness and achieving that through meditation or through mindfulness practices and so forth. And you've mentioned an app and feedback and that brought to my mind, the whole biofeedback, fad that went through. I don't know if you ever had any dealings with that, but, I remember, popular mechanics or popular science. Had plans to build yourself a biofeedback machine so that you could monitor your breathing and your body temperature and learn to control them. And honestly, I haven't seen a meditation or mindfulness process that had the physical feedback that that has. Is that something of Julie's or is that, just a another product that she recommends?

It's, the app called Inner Balance that we use. the little gadget that hooks to my ear is made by a company called HeartMath. They have their own app. I think you can use either one of them and works on a point system. You work up through levels. I started at level one and you try to get to 400 points and then you'll move up to level two and level four is as high as it goes. these days I, get 600 points in as little time as I can. I stay there until I get 600 points. If it's a bad day, that might be 20 minutes. Uh, if it's a good day, it might be eight. And I, you know, as long I have found that if I stay the duration and get that much work done, that, that brings me where I need to be.

A completely different slant than anything I've heard on mindfulness. Uh. Uh, almost a mindfulness competition. I like that. I like keeping score and, and tracking the numbers and those kind of things. So it, it, it takes your daily steps, you know, 10,000 steps a day to a whole new level, kind of in the opposite direction.

I'm a

Uh, HeartMath was the name and what was the app it now? Uh,

Yes,

was the in ear piece and Inner Peace, inner Balance, inner Balance, and a HeartMath, uh, produced piece of hardware. Fantastic. Thanks for that. Um, I, sorry, just looking over my notes here. I want to phrase the next question correctly. Um, so your bio, again, your information, the journey through A DHD, we talked about at length, accidental sobriety, I. Thanks for that story and your own personal development. Uh, you now help others find true and lasting happiness. Does that relate to, another entrepreneurial adventure you have going is that personal relationships are, are you a coach or a, a counselor?

means of doing that right now is through the second book. but you can find out more about that1@mymorningstack.com. And then when I did it in the day seemed to really matter. And I learned within a couple months that the earlier in the day I did it, the better off I was. That became one of the first things I did. And then I, I, I took that piece that came from having done the meditation and thought, you know, I'm gonna make use for the, of this for a little while. And I developed a, morning stack that I follow. And the second piece of that is something I call techno fasting, which is where we, you just stay away from technology for as long as possible in the morning. You don't wake up with a cell phone. But this is where we're going with this, is to try to help people build their own morning stack and find That comfort zone, that peace, that can be there. I believe that we're all happy and peaceful. If you can scrub away all the anxiety and everything else that we have that's just kind of layered up on top of us. once you clean that slate, you're left with happiness. And that's what we're trying to show is that, you know, you can get to this with just a little bit of work, but it's a continuing effort. It's not, you know, the gym, you can't go to the gym for a month every other day and get done at the end of 30 days and go, look, I'm strong and fit and I'm gonna be great for the rest of my life. And, and. is the same way. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a lifelong practice. If you want to be mentally healthy, it's the same as being physically healthy. it's something you need to work at all the time. You can't eat good one day and then live on cotton candy and expect to maintain your health. So this is where we're going with this. it's a starter plan that it'll get you going with your stack and then instructions as to how you can develop your own.

Wow. I wanna make sure we have the books, distinguished and labeled for our listeners, your first book. So let's take a step back. I didn't get the, I didn't jot down the title for it. I'm not sure that we made it clear, what it is, what it's about, where it's available, those types of things.

book was messed up like You, and it's available on Amazon Barnes, anywhere.

Yes.

aimed at, people with a DHD, parents of people with a DHD, maybe someone who has a friend or relative. And it's interesting and funny at the same time. And I wrote that book aimed at maybe a younger version of myself, or maybe if I could go back in time and could have given it to my mother. You know, it's not for everybody, but if it does fit, I think you'll find it very useful. And the second book doesn't have a title yet. It will be out this year. but it's more of a guide. it's gonna be a very short, concise, pocket sized book that is meant to be there as a companion to help you get through the day, create this foundation, this morning, stack as you can, and adapt it as you need to, depending on seasons where you live, what you're doing. You know, mine is very involved. my stack today is daunting. And, I enjoy it very much, but it involves a lot. everything from running to going to the gym to cold plunge and, it, so it's, you know, it's, it's something that is obviously evolved over a long period of time for myself, and I'm trying to give everyone else kind of a starter. you don't need to, you can do 20% of what I do and get 80% of the results, and that's where we're gonna start.

We talk a lot on the podcast about an evening ritual, you know, a sleep ritual to get. Wound down from the day and get your mindset there. And we talk about morning routine, but this is morning routine on steroids. I mean, this is, take us through your, if you don't mind, what does your average day look like? What are some of these things that you're doing that you're willing to share?

I have a special stack that I brought with me because I'm traveling. I'm in Europe right now, so I don't have a cold plunge that could carry around with me. I'm working on that, but at the moment, I'm without. So, it starts out pretty easily. I get up very early, so I'm up at about normally five 30 in the morning and, one of the very first things I do, I drink a glass that's pretty much salt water, it's got magnesium in it and so forth to rehydrate. And then I head outside, not looking at light through the windows, but actually get out, get outdoors and help reinforce my circadian rhythm and make sure that, you know, I'm keeping my sleep cycle, in sync. And then I come back inside and, meditate for whatever amount of time it takes me to get my 600 points. And then I do 25 pushups and I stretch. I've been nursing an achilles tendon injury and I just started running again, so I'm being kind of cautious with that. I journal after I get done stretching. I have a quirky thing that I picked up about a year ago or a little less with my journal. For the first paragraph I write with my left hand. It's a neuroplasticity trick that, on top of, keeping all the neurons firing in my brain. enough, I've learned to write pretty well with my left hand, even in cursive. I'm impressed. I've even impressed myself. And so, you know, this is probably where I would leave most of the people is like, this is where, you know, if those things work for you, that's a great foundation for your day. You know, you're talking about 40 minutes or less. So, I think that's that type of stack. It doesn't need to be those things. And then where I go from there is, there's physical exercise every day. It's either gonna be running or the gym and I'll go back and forth, and then I take at least one day and sometimes two days a week. To recover. And I'm a gadget junkie, so I've got an aura ring on one hand and a Garmin watch on the other hand. And, you know, I'm always looking at the data and I listen to it too. So when it says, Hey, you need to back off, time to take it easy. I do. I learned, just recently how important the recovery part was. I was always go, go, go, go, go ignore, you know, they're, they're not talking to me when they say slow down. So I was pushing it and I started to see some data signs that looked really bad. Rate, my resting heart rate was going up, my heart rate variability was going down. And so since I've started to listen to these gadgets a little bit more closely, I'm doing better. So, you know, every other day I'll run, every other day I'll go to the gym. and then once I finish that routine, you know, it's then my workday really starts, you know, so when I get that stuff out of the way, that's when I, go and on the computer. and one thing I left out in that whole routine is the techno fasting. And that, you know, I stay away from the phone. So my phone stays and do not disturb all the time, every day, all day. But I do need to use it in the morning for the meditation. I have a tone that plays, so my breathing is, asynchronous. It's the same amount of time in and out, which has been a very important part for me. So I do need that gadget for that part. But, you know, I don't use it for anything else. When I'm done with the meditation, I put it down. and then, you know, it's usually at least two hours before I pick something up electronic or turn on anything where you've got any screen or any even audible. I don't even let the news play in the background or anything

So you're familiar with the Garmin, Your recovery today was delayed by an excessive amount of stress. you probably used to see that often, but maybe not so much anymore since you've gotten things, adjusted a little bit.

I still, I'm learning, I play with a lot of that stuff. I'm working now on closing that window of time that I eat, and I have found the data that comes out of that to be really interesting too. my resting heart rate is dropping earlier in the night. I still don't get the amount of deep sleep. I get enough that I feel very rested. I'm just not impressed with the numbers. I rarely get an hour of deep sleep, and that's a little troubling I can ask my eight sleep. I can ask my Aura ring or my Garmin. They're all gonna tell me I didn't have enough deep sleep, but. maybe I'm wired just a little bit. differently, but I do, I still play with a lot of that stuff and, you know, eat, stop eating earlier and earlier in the day and get that resting heart rate to drop earlier in the night. sleep's an incredibly important part of the day. You know, we can't even talk about a morning stack if you haven't had a good night's sleep. There's no point at all. Sometimes I'm just in it, you know, I go out and see the sun when it's setting as well as when it's rising. So you get some of that light, at sunset. It doesn't be right at sunset, but it's really important to send that signal to your brain that this is the end of the day, especially for someone who moves around. And it's not just about going from the states to Europe, but when I move from Colorado to New York, that two hours difference, it's really important that I get reset, stay reset, then, you know, if I need to at night, I use this little electronic gadget that makes you drowsy. It's got damp sponges. You put in your temples. It's called TDCS. Transcranial something. anyway, that along with Bin Beats and knock myself out in seconds. Literally, I mean, literally it's probably five minutes with that stuff and I'm, I'm out.

Okay. Yeah, binaural beats have come up a few times in the, in the podcast. I find those interesting. As you were running through your morning stack, I thought, wow, it, it's gotta be 10, 10 30, 11 o'clock in the morning before you're done with these things, but you're, you've accomplished that in 40 minutes because you're going outside. It sounds like this is not a 30 minute walk. It might be is that, you know, things you're doing 25 pushups can take, like, take me half an hour maybe to do. But your 25 pushups probably take you about two or three minutes. Your outside time is probably, I'm guessing, maybe five or 10 minutes. So when listeners say, I don't have time to do all those things in the morning, any of us can find, you know, a some amount of time. nobody has a schedule that's full on a regular basis. So to do all that in 40 minutes is great. it's kind of mind boggling, that you've perfected things to that point.

stay after myself. I mean, I'm no superhero. I get distracted, you know, I pet the cat. You can find a million excuses not to get into a cold plunge. I can tell you that firsthand. when I'm in Texas or almost everywhere. except on the road, cold plunge Is part of that too. But you can stack these in such a way that on a day that I run. I don't go outside to get the sunlight. As soon as I'm done meditating, I got the running shoes on and I'm out the door. So I've killed two birds with one stone. I don't wear my sunglasses. I'm getting the sunlight that I need to set my circadian rhythm. At the same time, I'm getting the cardio exercise that I need. Now, if it's a day that I go to the gym, I'm gonna go outside and walk around. And if it's bright out, five, seven minutes is enough for me and then I'm back inside to continue on with that. So I don't want to put off getting to work until too late in the day. for example, if I'm traveling and I sleep until eight o'clock, I know that, by 10 o'clock I need to be working because my brain is only gonna be, its best until noon, maybe one o'clock in the afternoon. And then you, you're diminishing returns for me anyway from that point forward. So I might break that up. And on a gym day, I might go to the gym later in the afternoon. That might be something is done later in the day. cause the reality is we all have to work right.

Is that that is true. you're like the, the rocky of self-help. Everything you say are things that are repeatedly given in our books. that habit stacking, getting, a new habit attached to an old habit. So one flows into another. Those set routines, a morning routine, an evening routine, the cold plunge, even those, the physicality of it, the mindfulness you're putting into practice. I'm gonna say 80% of some of the most common, self-improvement advice that's out there. And I find that quite admirable that you have the motivation and the determination even on a difficult day, to get yourself into the process because you know the payout, you know the benefit of doing that. And you know, the downside of not doing it possibly.

I learned a good lesson on this trip. I cold plunge all the time, and this is the longest trip I've taken in quite a while. it was an accidental kind of a funny mistake, but I went to fill the cold plunge one day, set the timer, said Google, tell me when, whatever time is up. And I go upstairs and I hear the timer go off and I run down and the tub had overflown. Luckily the floor, it was a place where it could get wet, it didn't matter. I'm like, Ugh. So I turned the hose off, let the chiller run. I just got back in town and I got in the cold plunge the next day. The water spills over the top. It's up to my chin. 43 degrees, 10 minutes. Couple days later, and I'm like, you know. My pinky and my right hand doesn't tingle anymore at all, and my shoulders feel so much better. I got here, I'm now 10 days without a cold plunge. My shoulders are killing me. I mean, I, I'm 58 years old. I've fought TaeKwonDo for a decade. I've been, I have put my body through some stuff and cold plunge makes me pain free. I forget about the endorphin release or the, the weight

Really.

the mental, I am pain free and it's. Without it, it came back quick. I think it was day seven without a cold bunch. Like here it comes. And, the same pain that I've probably been living with for decades in my shoulders and neck didn't bother me that much then, because I was accustomed to it when it came after. I've had relief for a while, and it comes back. It's just a reinforcer is, and the lesson behind all that is that, you know, once you learn the benefits to these things, to eating healthy, to going to the gym, to getting enough sleep, it's not hard to stay focused on them because it just, you know, do you want a great life? Do you want to be happy and healthy or do you not, you know, it's your choice.

So if you did TaeKwonDo for a decade, you're what? Second, third degree did you did?

I went to a very tough school, a very tough school. I'm a slow learner. It took me eight of those 10 years to get my first degree black belt, and then I enrolled in the second degree program and couldn't cut it. I stayed in the school and I taught a lot. I taught a lot of children. I really enjoyed that part of it. but as you, if you read my first book, it's about me getting my pilot's license. So to get a pilot's license is 40 hours of instruction. it takes more to become a yoga teacher than a pilot anyway. to become a pilot takes 40 hours of instruction. failed my test after two years and a hundred hours of instruction and had to go back to school. I am not the world's fastest learner, so, a decade to get my, eight of those 10 years just to get my first degree, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I love that school. It was Third Coast Martial Arts in Austin, You know, all of those programs probably worked pretty similarly in that you teach when you get to a certain level my wife and I taught Little Dragons together and I taught some older kids too. But that was a very enjoyable experience and a very enjoyable part of my life.

You learn a lot from that. My kids, all were involved in it, and then that dragged us into it. I did it for two or three years. Our dojo, our school was much more family oriented, so the testing process was, A 10th of what yours sounds like it was in the school you were at. And I, I'm kind of jealous because I wished we had been pushed, maybe not to the level that you were pushed, but, a little bit more. but I enjoyed that a lot of the benefits that you see in some of the things you're talking about with the mindfulness and the breathing and that kind of stuff can be learned in association with a martial art if your instructor, leans that way. So, a decade now you're having, on the physical side of it, you say you're, you still have continual pain from whatever activities, but these are things that are, your workouts are not inducing, are you working out at that level? You, you're not sparring or competing anymore, doesn't sound like, but are you working out the level that keeps the pains going? And that's where the cold plunge comes in.

the workouts are causing the pain. I fought a lot. I was in. the ring every weekend. I'd go to every tournament I could,

Yeah.

sparring night every night. And at the time I thought, you know, I'm loaded up with headgear. And it's, well, when I recently had a, a problem and they got in there about two years ago and took a look, and he's like, did you have, you had a really traumatic injury to the right side of your neck? No. Nothing at all. And he showed me the, the picture and I was like, I don't even really understand what I'm looking at. And he goes, well, this, this calcification on the right side. This is really bad. He goes, I, I don't know what happened here. I'm like, ah, you know, I did fight for a few years, but I, you know, I had headgear on. And he goes, yeah, that doesn't help your neck. So, you know, I'm always getting hit, with the right foot and The neck took a lot of the trauma but, it's very manageable. the cold pl does it. And I don't have any debilitating, you know, I've got mild pain and I'm not even sure that that's where it all came from. I've had motorcycle accidents and you name it, my body's been put through the ringer a few times.

The fifth or sixth decade things, have an cumulative effect as you go through and they build up over time. Yeah. The whole, the sparring thing is addictive, is it not?

you know, if there's anything I've given up in my life, you know, I was a cyclist for a long time and

I.

there are days that I miss that, but there's nothing, there's nothing like sparring there, there's nothing that brings you so in the moment. I, I've not? found another thing that I. can do that makes me so focused. you, you're just right there. You have to be, there is not a choice, you know? Yeah. I've got lots of great memories now.

I found myself one time in the preparing for a sparring class, and I thought as I'm getting ready, I thought, you know, when I started this, I came in with a GI and that was it. You know, I put on the uniform and went to class, and now here I am, I am armored up with soft padding everywhere. You know, I'm taping up toes. I've got, shin, any, everything from foot guard to shin guard, all the way up to the headgear, and you know, my finger, my hands are wrapped. It's like. Where did this evolve from a, a simple thing into this, this competition that I've made it. But yeah, it, it was fantastic. It was a lot of fun. and when you get the right instructor, amazing what they can do and what you can learn. We had, I'll indulge myself, myself with a short story on one of my instructors who was a third or fourth degree at the time. and this was in a, a large TaeKwonDo organization. So the, the testing was nowhere near, it was a family oriented, but he could do things sparring that just were superhuman to me. And I learned so much from him, the amount of ground he could cover, the control he had. And I found he could easily break a bone at any time he wanted with a kick or a punch, and he would hit you hard enough that you felt it, that you knew you got hit, but he would control it enough. Unless he needed to, that he wasn't gonna hurt you. So the right instructor in the right environment, can really change your life.

that is true.

Yeah. time has flown by. We're coming up on about 10 minutes left. I just want to scan the notes here 'cause I wanna make sure I didn't leave out anything. I think we've covered most of the things. one thing I did wanna say, mindfulness and meditation you talked about in a way that was similar to your morning routine. These are not things you start on the first day and go into a 45 minute process. your mindfulness built up from, I, I'm assuming if you're like. you're not like most people, I don't think, but if you went, maybe you had a quicker buildup into it than I would, than I've had when I've worked on it, but it's, you know, the first time if you get through two or three minutes, that's a bit of a victory. Or when you're building your morning stack if you get one or two habits and then you build, do you find it to be cumulative, something that you work on over a period of time and it becomes a big part? Or did you jump into a large part of it and just to maybe expand a little bit from there?

is something that I. had to work on. And like I say, I'm no different than anybody else. The meditation was on my list to do, and in the beginning it didn't get done in the morning, and it was oftentimes anxiety causing because it was on my list of things to do. And here it is, five o'clock and it hasn't been done yet, especially when I was still

I.

And six o'clock is right around the corner. So you, you know, that was a big, you know. I would do it, but it would be late in the day and it didn't have quite the same effect. I would find that, I wasn't getting the score that I needed. I wasn't getting the relief from the anxiety that I had gotten at other times. And then if we had a scheduled class or a meeting and I was doing it earlier in the day, I felt better. I didn't jump into it at all. I had no morning routine whatsoever other than, wiping off my hangover and heading for the espresso machine.

And what was the first thing that you started that started building your stack?

The very first thing that I did for my stack was pushups. and I don't even remember where that started. Probably inspired by somebody watching some YouTube video Almost immediately, within a couple days of starting with the pushups, I went into stretching, just because I was having so much flexibility, so many flexibility issues all the way around. And later on when I was having problems with my Achilles, they reinforce that thought with, you know, I don't really have it, and Achilles tendon injury, it's, the upper chain is just so tight. I was somebody who just went to the gym and just lifted all the time and didn't pay much attention to anything else other than that. So that was the next thing. It was pushups and stretching. And then I don't even remember What got put in there next. the abbreviated version of techno fasting came on pretty quickly. I knew the phone and the computer were big triggers for me. I would use them all day long to. Aggravate myself looking at things that I shouldn't be looking at, whether they were sales numbers or stock quotes. it's crazy how self-destructive. You can become with something like that. You know, your body's doing something that you know is gonna do all the wrong things, just screw up your endocrine system and send all these signals that you don't want yet. You do it anyway. You know, like putting your hand on a hot stove. And so I got to the point where I was laying back on the tech. and this is about maybe a couple weeks into having nothing more than push up, stretching and a limited amount of tech in the morning. I was starting to already feel better. it was kind of like, you know, I think there's something to this. let's see if it sticks. And I just stayed with that? for a couple weeks. And I think the next thing that I added to it was going outside. for a while I was standing outside because I was grounding naturally. Now, I put a grounding mat under the computer, and put my feet on it while I'm working on the computer just to kind of get one thing outta the way without, you know, even thinking about it. Um, but.

What is that? What is a grounding mat?

the, the frequency that your body's in, a lot of people believe, and there's some science behind it, that you need to put your feet on the earth for a certain amount of time, barefoot. Whether it's, it can even be concrete. It doesn't need to be dirt, you

Mm-hmm.

earth, wet is better, sand is fine, wet sand is great and just kind of, for lack of a better term, sync up with a planet. That might sound a little Okie-doke, but that's just kinda what you're doing is you're getting your body back. You know, we didn't wear shoes. I was at an island one time, and the natives didn't wear shoes. you could tell the people who had moved to the island versus the people who were born there, because the people born there didn't wear shoes and the, in the supermarket, in church anywhere, they never had shoes on. And I was going outdoors to ground for a while and get sun at the same time. and just slowly built it up. And my stack is ever changing, you know, it's always evolving. I've just started running again in the last month. So sometimes running and the sunlight exposure get combined. I think it's important to be disciplined, but at the same time, be sensibly flexible. If you can make this better and work more efficiently, make the changes needed, that doesn't mean get lazy and sit on the couch, watch Netflix and eat donuts. it's not something that needs to be terribly rigid.

I had one last, I wanna go back to the cold plunge thing about the, you have a dedicated pool, a cold plunge tub or whatever. What are some substitutes? If you, if our listeners wanted to get the advantages of a cold plunge, are there some things they can do without investing in the hardware there?

used cryotherapy for many years before I even got into cold plunge. affordable than cryo is because I don't have a hundred thousand dollars cryo chamber in my house. You can set up your own cold plunge now for under a thousand.

no you don't.

it is a more affordable, version. I. was paying

I.

every time I walked in there and getting cryotherapy three times a week and it made me feel good. The initial ones, you know, you didn't even get your head in them because they were all nitrous and you couldn't breathe it. And now, you know, with the, at the latest version, we're using electric chambers, which were a little more systemic. But, there's, in my opinion, and I, I don't have any data to back this up. The cold plunge is a much therapy than, than cryo. I feel much better using cold plunge, but there's other things to play. I use a cold plunge every day, and I was doing cryo three times a week, so, you know, there's half a dozen one. I don't know what's what, but I can tell you that if you take 10 minutes at 43 degrees every single day up to your chin, you're gonna feel amazing. and it only hurts the first couple times. it's amazing.

Interesting.

times were very difficult for me. You know, I, I one of the people

Oh, okay.

where I tried it

Okay.

was afraid I was gonna pass out in the thing or panic or whatever. And I, you know, my goal was to make it 45 seconds and I made it 30. And after a while you realize, look, it's the first 45 seconds that you feel anything at all. And when I get in there now, my, heart rate and my breathing are the lowest they are all day long while my respiratory rate and everything else is the lowest while I'm in that tub. So it's a relaxing, you know, something that, I use this as an example for a lot of things, but when you, when there's something that you don't want to do, the hardest part of the cold plunge is getting your first foot in there. and there's so much of life that's like that, you know, once you're in, it's over.

But isn't that, yeah, that's, that's 95% of the things that we dread going into. And once you get into it, it's like, oh, okay. I got this. I have a few questions that I say for the end for everybody. We've gone through one of them already, I think, but I've, I'm gonna give you a chance to add to this. I refer back to Stephen Covey's book, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. You've listed many things, and we appreciate that. The concrete actions that you do that are non-negotiable in your day. Is there anything, beyond the ones we've talked to that you'd like to add to that, that listeners should consider implementing?

you know, I'm a huge,

Maybe we've covered 'em all.

so I could go on for days. Um, you know, everything from Win-win to keeping it out of the urgent quadrant, you know, it's just, um, life's an ongoing.

Oh, that's, yeah, that's a whole episode in itself. I appreciate that.

life is, um, is one big lesson, you know? And if you're willing to, to, to pay attention and, and learn along the way, life becomes so much better. You know, I think when I was a young man, I looked to, to old age. What now where I am is what I thought was old age to, to be something, to dread and fear. And I'm so much happier today than I ever was in life. and it's because I've learned the way, you know, as you're going through life, you pay attention to what makes you feel good and What, you should do, what you shouldn't do, and then act accordingly. And it's a great lesson it's something that's just very, very enjoyable.

What, if you could list two or three of the most influential books, that you've read. can you give our listeners a rundown of your top recommended books that are out there in addition, of course, to messed up like you. what else would you recommend for our listeners, to implement into their lives?

that changed my life, um, were Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. seven by Dr. Covey and, uh, rich Dad, poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

Great. Yeah. Very well known, very popular and for good reason. Some excellent works there. do you think Napoleon Hill is still as widely regarded today as he might have been in previous decades? it is dated, but it is invaluable.

You know, I don't know whether you younger readers are, are, are, are reading Napoleon Hill or not. I, I found the stories ENC chanting, you know, not only with the lessons in there, but you know, as you're listening to these stories and you know, he's talking to Edison and Firestone and four, I mean, it was just, and the stories about those guys being together you know, I think about that time and those people at that moment and the people today, I don't wanna create any controversy in your podcast, but the people today to me represent. we have great things happening now that are gonna dwarf that. And that was an incredible time, you know, the stories of Edison and Ford and all of these guys it was just a magical time and a magical place to be. And to hear Napoleon Hill describe all these things and how he got himself through the door to talk to all these people was just as enchanting as the lessons that he had to give you. And his lessons are, so simple that they'll apply forever.

and, a last thing and then we'll use this as a sign off. I tend to think in conversations our guests have a question, maybe that is a favorite question. One, they look forward to answering or, something they hope to bring up in any podcast, that I might not have brought to the fore. Something you wanna mention, a plug you wanna make, or a final piece of advice that you would leave our listeners with. if you have something in mind there, we'd really appreciate you sharing that with us. And then, after that I think we'll sign off.

thing that I'd like to finish with is that, wherever you are in life and whatever you've been through, it has nothing to do with where you're going. past has no bearing on your future, and you're free to change the direction you're headed at any time you want.

Wow.

I.

Simple but amazingly powerful. that's great. Rick. Rick Coton with us today, author of Messed Up, like You Currently Available, and another book in the works entitled The Mornings Stack,

a website, my mornings stack.com

the website.

and,

Okay.

we're still working on the title. I think that'll be the last thing, the second to the last thing that happens right before, 'cause we need that for the cover, but be at the end.

Okay. All right. that works. a very YouTube approach, right? Get your content, then make your marketing material or make what's seen most. Rick, thank you very much. A fascinating, conversation. Thank you for your time. Listeners, thanks for joining us, and we'll see you again next week.