Janice Porter: Todd. Hi everyone. Welcome to
relationships rule. Joining me this week is Todd Burch, and
Todd is coming to us from now, I've forgotten Ohio,
Todd Bertsch: yeah, Akron, Ohio, lebronstown, there you go.
Janice Porter: And I'm hoping we're going to have an amazing
conversation about people, about relationships, because we both
care a lot about that. But I want to start first, actually,
you know where I want to start in a completely off the cuff
place. You love Jeopardy and a fortune, because those are my
things. And I want to start there, just completely off the
cuff, if you don't mind. No, I love it. Okay, so did I tell you
I was on Wheel of Fortune?
Todd Bertsch: Oh, my gosh. No, you did not. Oh, I did. I
Janice Porter: Yes, I was on it way back in the day, a long,
long time ago, but it was a great experience. And I remember
studying, you know, all the watching day after day after
day. And then I always wanted to be on Jeopardy, but I never
thought I was smart enough. And same. Here do you so now? Do you
still watch it every day?
Todd Bertsch: Oh, yeah. So, yeah. So obviously, yeah, you
read that my bio. So talking about relationships, yeah. So
I'm married. For my wife and I, we have a thing, and this has
been our thing since we've been married. So every day, nothing
happens between seven and eight o'clock, aside from sitting down
together and watching Wheel in jeopardy. My daughter knows the
dog doesn't, you know, get taken out at that time. Like it,
there's, it's just a thing, and we, we both love it. And the
funny thing is, like, I literally suck at wheel. It's so
good, and we've tried to get her on the show. And there was a
when the traveling van comes around to the bus, it was in our
area, or near Cleveland, and she was going to try out, but she
didn't. But she is so good, she'll, she'll get the questions
before anybody else, like, literally, she just needs a
couple letters. I just, my mind doesn't work like that. So I've,
I've kind of came to the conclusion I'm okay with it.
It's just not my thing. And then Jeopardy, I can compete a little
bit more with her. But, you know, for us, it's, it's it's
cool, because we've committed to at least one hour. You know how
quick the day goes by, for sure, especially during the week. We
both work. We have a young daughter, so we said, you know,
this is our time, and everybody knows it. And no calls that, you
know? We just put the phones down and we watch and enjoy it
together and laugh and compete and, you know, it's all good. So
that's funny that you picked that one. Oh no, no,
Janice Porter: that's special. It's our
Todd Bertsch: thing. And, like, it makes me seem old. But and
all the commercials are definitely not geared towards,
well,
Janice Porter: I don't even watch them. We record Joe, okay,
yeah, we watch it sort of a little bit later in the evening,
but we do watch it every night and wheel, I don't watch as much
anymore, but tell your wife that it's very different. When you're
on air. It's very different. You know, you can be the best
armchair quarterback in the world, right? And it's the same
with Wheel of Fortune. And I didn't win my fortune. I just to
give you the synopsis for your wife. I won the first puzzle.
There were only three puzzles and the bonus round when I was
on, that's how long ago it was. So I won the first puzzle. I
lost my turn on the second puzzle, even though I knew the
answer. And the third puzzle was very long, and it was a phrase,
and I got most of it going. And I got a lot of the letters and
whatever. And there was one word that was stumping as it was a
three or four letter word with an apostrophe in it, yeah, four
letters with an apostrophe in it. And it was killing me. And
we went to commercial in the middle, and I had, we had to
turn around and and not look at it. And I came back around and I
said a letter before, I was thinking, okay, and I lost my
turn, and the puzzle was and my mother was sitting in the
audience, and she knew it, and she was killing her, because
it's an old Jewish expression, and it was in the movie Fiddler
on the Roof, and it's called, it was from your mouth to God's
ears, which I'll never forget. Okay, right? Yeah, of course
not, yeah. So I didn't win my fortune, but I won a bunch of
stuff and everything, and cool
Todd Bertsch: experience. But it was a great story, right?
Janice Porter: Yeah, it was great. And the thing about
Jeopardy, I get so that when I when I really get into it I sit
now. For the last two weeks, I've been tallying the questions
I get right, and then there's usually two or three that I
can't get out fast enough because my brain isn't going to
right my mouth. So I give myself a little grace. But the other
day, the the i. Uh, Ken Jennings said something about the the new
champion got 25 questions, right the night before, and I thought,
Wow. Well, I get up to 23 I think I'm not good enough, but
that's not bad when I think about it. So, yeah, so I'm more.
I'm aiming for 25 but I'm
Todd Bertsch: not doing better than we are so
Janice Porter: but it's, it's, it's kind of fun anyway, but
that also makes me transition into a fun thing that you know
that I'm a LinkedIn trainer, and you know that we're talking,
we're going to talk about the power of relationships and
whatever, and something that I don't know if you do this on
LinkedIn or not, but I'm all about getting into the mailbox
and meeting new people and starting conversations. And I've
decided I haven't done this yet, but I have used my wheel of
fortune thing in a in an icebreaker kind of question to
people, and I've got it set out a certain way, but I was
thinking a new one could be, if you were on Jeopardy, what would
you use as your story to share with the audience? I love that.
That's good,
Todd Bertsch: right? I might feel that, can I steal
Janice Porter: it absolutely? Because I think it's good, and
it is a good
Todd Bertsch: icebreaker, right? Well, now it's on the show. It's
gonna, you know, once the this episode airs, then everyone will
be doing,
Janice Porter: yeah, you know what? It doesn't matter because
there's no competition. It's there for everybody. And yeah,
and although there is competition, I do like a good
competition, which is why I tallying. I
Todd Bertsch: was gonna, yep, that's exactly what I was
thinking, yeah. But it's
Janice Porter: not, it's not really, in that vein, I share
those things that I think you know people will be able to use.
So tell me about I don't need to go into your whole long story,
because I think that everyone you've got it on your website,
and it's a great story the way you've laid it out, but Oh,
thank you. You are into you have a holistic approach to personal
growth and sharing your insight through coaching. You're a life
coach. Correct your speaker, and you have a podcast also called
the bolt. The bolt, yes, talk to me about your work. Talk to me
about what lights you up right now.
Todd Bertsch: Oh, what lights me up? The Vault. Oh, yeah, yeah,
no, really, it's, it's, it's funny. Jess, I've been on this
holistic journey, this transformational journey, for a
long time, specifically the past four years. So COVID was a, you
know, a big, a big time for me to reflect. And during that
time, I met my life coach, or she's called a high performance
coach, and ironically, you'll love this through LinkedIn, ah,
so she Yes,
Janice Porter: she said that I started to listen to that
podcast episode, yes, yeah. She's
Todd Bertsch: amazing. That's a great episode. It just dropped
today. But she Yeah, so she noticed something interesting
about me on LinkedIn, and we're in the same same area, and,
yeah, we just connected, and right away there was a synergy
there. And I hired her as my life coach. She took me through
this program called Positive Intelligence, which changed my
life. And she's still my coach, and now we are like the best of
friends, and I've even coached her in some in some moments. So
it's, it's a great testament, I think, to circling back to
LinkedIn, how powerful social media and specifically LinkedIn
as a professional tool, what started off as a professional
relationship turned into, she is now part of my tribe. Yes, I
think we'll talk a little bit about how important a tribe is.
But she just ended up we're just we share the same core values.
We share an intimate passion for growth, personal growth,
holistic approach, mind, body, soul. That's what gets me juiced
every day to get up relationships, honestly, that's
that's what I love, and that's what was the biggest challenge
for me during COVID, was being a people person. Oh, yeah, you
know. And I had my wife and daughter, and we got a dog,
which helped, yeah, we had a COVID dog, and bought a camper,
and we had a neighbor, and we traveled around Ohio camping,
which was really cool, and it was better than just sitting at
the house, but, you know, not having that connection and and
being in person, you know, tried some zoom stuff and whatever,
play a card game. And, you know, happy hour over zoom. It's just
not the same, let's be honest, better than nothing, but not the
same. So anyhow, so yeah, lots of reflection. And yeah, so
that's when I kind of started my journey. And you know, it
November of last year. I had been feeling like there was a
something missing in my life. There was there was a gap, and I
have a i. A marketing agency called evolve marketing, and
I've been doing that for 15 years, and I got a, you know, a
small team, and, you know, we're doing well, but I just felt like
I've been called for something, something else, you know, I
don't say a higher purpose, but a different purpose. And I think
it, it's really important for people to be able to have that
self reflection and to be courageous enough to go after
it. And I'm, you know, I'm really blessed and fortunate to
be able to be in a position where I can go and try something
new. And, you know, I have a, I feel like a fairly interesting
story, and I'm doing the work, I've done the work, I'm still
doing the work. And I saw how powerful that was for me. And I
had one, one of my employees, go through it with me as well. And
I'm like, I just want to, I want to share this. I want to get
this out. I want to amplify this message. I, you know, it took me
a long time to find like, true happiness, and I've had bits and
pieces, you know, throughout the years. I'm 53 years 53 years old
right now, and it took me about 50 years to really just find
that peace and joy. And a lot of it was going through that self
reflection and going through Positive Intelligence, which is
primarily about turning a negative, shifting from a
negative to a positive, and just having seeing the the gift and
opportunity and everything in life, okay, so, and just
shifting that, that mindsets, you know, was huge,
Janice Porter: okay. So I want to go back then for a bit,
because you had you. You call it your dark path, where you got
into drugs and whatever when you're used. Now, some kids
would have stayed on that path and gone that to destruction.
You didn't. Now, you obviously had something in you way back
then that allowed you to come to the light and to fight for who
you are. So I don't think it just happened here. I think it's
it's in you, and it was in you right from then, right from the
beginning, to see that you were better than what you were doing.
Or was it a person, or was it a, you know, a mentor, or somebody
that brought you out? Or was it you getting over it, getting
stronger as you got older, you more mature and whatever. If you
don't mind me asking, because, no,
Todd Bertsch: no, I've been talking about a lot. No, it's an
open book. It's all out there. That's part of the journey,
right? Everybody's got a story to tell. Everybody's been
through some adversity, obviously, some some more
traumatic than others. There was a moment when I was about 21
years old where I was doing some things, you know, that's, you
know, not proud of and I got beat up pretty bad by a few
guys, real, real bad. And it was a it was a pivotal moment in my
life. And so you asked a good question to ask, what was it?
Who it wasn't anyone, specifically, it was myself, and
it was that moment. But it took something traumatic like that,
and I said, Look, I can't do this anymore. You know, I'm I
don't say I'm better than it, but I knew that I wanted to be
more, that I could do more. But I was in such a fog for so long
that I just wasn't really living in reality. And things were, you
know, I had a steady job. I was a janitor at a hospital, you
know, if I was doing my thing and having fun, partying all day
and night. But, you know, there really wasn't a path there to to
doing much else, or giving back to the community or being an
integral part of the community. So, so, yeah, it was that
moment. And then as I got into my career and into college,
there were definitely people, you know, who were in my life
that gave me the confidence, that gave me the boost that I
needed to continue on, you know, my journey. So, so, yeah, I
guess you're right. It's, it was built in. And, you know, you got
me thinking, Janice, like, really, where does that come
from? And I have to say, it comes back to childhood, you
know, your upbringing. And I always, even though I was doing
things that I knew I shouldn't have been doing, there was
always that little conscious, you know, that little guy right
on my shoulder, and I was always a guy that would tell others
like, I don't know if we should do that, you know, let's stay in
this kind of safe zone. So there was always a good conscious
there. Now, if that was my upbringing or my education, or,
you know, I was brought up in private and public schools and a
Catholic household, so maybe some of that was there, but so
there was always there, yeah, yeah. So you're right. I think
there, deep down, there was always something there. It's
just recognizing it and tapping into it, you know, even though I
didn't know really what it was, but it was something, and I'm
glad, you know, because, oh yeah, you know, I was able to
really turn things around. And it's funny, I was, I didn't
mention this on a show the other day, like I. I was addicted to,
you know, drugs, and now I'm addicted to growth and learning.
So you can have this kind of addiction or this obsession, you
know, of a trait, but then you can pivot it and turn it into
something really powerful. And I just can't get enough of growth
and learning and expanding my mind. And it's just amazing how
elastic and powerful the brain is. It's forgiving, although my
short term memory is not great. So I don't think I'm getting
that back and I am getting older, but hey, it is what it is
at this point. So I just, I just run with it and use, use my
sticky notes.
Janice Porter: Yeah, there you go. So the other thing that that
I wanted to ask about, or are mentioned from what you just
said about turning, you know, your early 50s and, and, you
know, I don't know, this isn't very old book back to when I was
young, and it's called passages by Gail. She, he, she was like a
psychologist. She probably, I don't know the book's still out
there, but passages was a book about you go through these
different stages each decade of your life. It might not hit
right on when you turn 40 or when you turn 50 or when you
turn 60, but in that realm, things start to change. And
that's exactly what I heard you say, is that even though COVID
was happening, you're coming into the next decade of your
life, and again, shit, things start to shift, and you change
what and and you notice that, usually, I see it going on
sometimes with my I have two girls with my daughters too, and
things shift around the decades. So I don't know. It's just some
I read the book many years ago.
Todd Bertsch: Yeah, no, thank you. Check it out. And it's
funny. We've been talking a lot about in recent conversations,
just about seasons in life. And I think that's kind of what
you're talking about, that season could be a decade, or it
could be a couple of years, you know, it's a mile in that
Janice Porter: though it's, it's because, see, I always think of
seasons. I think of, you know, you have friends for a season,
and friends for a reason, like, there's different kinds of
friends, that's how I see seasons. They come and they go.
But this is a little deeper than that, I think, in that, you
know? I mean, I notice it now with my work, because I'm
starting to think about not working as much, and I'm
noticing that I'm making changes without realizing it, you know,
I don't get up as early and I don't take appointments as late
and things like that, but it's just a natural progression, but
it's also the next phase of my life, right? Yeah, so I don't
know. Okay, the next thing I want to mention is a quote that
I saw on your website that says, and this is where we can maybe
get into talking about the importance of your tribe and
relationships. Because you say you're only as good as the
people, the people that you surround yourself with, or that
are around you, is the way you put it. But I totally I see it a
little bit differently, but I think that's a really good piece
to talk about relationships from. What do you think? Yeah,
Todd Bertsch: absolutely, yeah. You're only as good as people
around you, you know, in terms of So, like I said, I have my
own business 15 years and I'm a solopreneur, so I don't have a
partner or another founder, and for so many years I was on an
island, and it was very difficult. So one of my and I
would say this to any of your listeners who are entrepreneurs,
or they're just kind of starting out first second year into their
business, don't be afraid to get off that island. I didn't know
enough. That's one of my biggest mistakes. If I could go back,
you know, I had this, this attitude, and it's just kind of
how I was brought up. I've, I've always felt like I've had to
fight and scrap my way to get where I'm at nothing was given
to me blue collar hard work, you know, just work your tail off.
And that's nothing came easy, and that's okay, because I can
appreciate it. Help build resilience and grit. But you
know, when you when you get into, you know, building
relationships and finding the right people, right to surround
yourself with, it's important, it's important to invest, invest
that time, right? And finding those people not being afraid to
get help or to ask for help. And that's, you know, I feel like I
just needed to do it all on my own accord when I was just
Maverick, and even on my own team, it took me a lot of years
before, you know, my I ran my business flat for the first 10
years, and 10 people reporting to me is ridiculous. You know,
there's just no way in hell that I could, I could really do
anything else. And I'm working, you know, 60, 7080, hours a
week, and it's affecting, you know, my health and my
relationships, you know, my personal relationships, and it
just was no good. So. So once I realized that I could get off my
island and it was okay, it was okay to ask for help. You know,
it wasn't like I was failing or I, you know, cheating, and
that's kind of how I
Unknown: felt guilty. I felt like that's so common though,
with us, because I
Todd Bertsch: thought it was me. It bothered me for so long, and
when I had this epiphany, I was actually meeting with a guy who
was kind of my fractional cmo CFO, and and a good friend and
in my tribe. And he said, Look, man, it sounds like you have a
book here or something, because you keep saying you're on an
island and, and it's funny, I ended up like creating this peer
group for business owners, you know all about getting off your
island and having kind of a safe space to meet, talk vents, share
whatever it is, because, you know, maybe that first year you
can take that home to your spouse or your partner, but
after that, they don't want to hear it. You know, maybe
they'll, you know, they'll, they'll listen, but honestly,
they don't. And finally I just realized, like, I just needed
to, to find those people so, so, yeah, I have kind of went a long
way around. But, yeah, you know, it's all about finding and
building your tribe and and I think the first step is just
recognizing that we all need help, and it's okay. It's okay
to have help. And help could be just having a person that you
could talk to
Janice Porter: exactly but Okay, so there's two different sort of
things come to my mind here. One is, yes, having someone to talk
to, to be able to vent to and and share your frustrations and
and feel like you know, they'll guide you, or they'll they'll
support you, whichever way you go. And then there's those
people who you want to like. For me, sometimes I think I want to
do something new, because I'm an I'm a solo printer basically
too. I have a few couple of people that I get help from
occasionally on things. But if I have a new idea I want to move
forward with, I need to collaborate with someone. I
better when I work with somebody else. And so for me, that's
really where I find. I need that person, and I don't always have
the right person there. So I you know, I have to find that
person, I have a person that I can bounce things off most of
the time, but sometimes they don't quite see the same way I
do. So I think that's really important. The other piece to
that when we because I'm all about relationships, right? And
the other piece to that is, I think, and it kind of fits to
that old saying, which I'm actually trying to teach my
granddaughter, but she's a little bit young, and my one
daughter still has, well, her mom still has issues with that,
and that is and it goes with the word the phrases to to have a
friend, you need to Be a friend. Okay, now, if you just take that
friend word out and talk about it in a business setting, it's
the same thing. You have to nurture and care for those
relationships in order for them to you know, it's not one way,
and you can't just build that relationship and then stop it.
You have to nurture it. Do you want to speak to that too. Yeah,
Todd Bertsch: absolutely, yeah, that's it is. It's all about
nurturing and spending that time. And you know, the way to
build, to create and build a relationship, is to build trust.
Right? And trust and respect. Neither one of those happen
overnight, correct? Those need to be nurtured and watered, and
that takes time.
Janice Porter: That's probably the perfect spot where that
happens. It is,
Todd Bertsch: yeah, it is. And, you know, one of the biggest
challenges that that I'm running into now, especially now, is I'm
meeting, like, the, you know, I just multiplied the amount of
people I'm meeting by podcasting. And I'm sure, yeah,
you like, we just made a new connection. You and I, is that
connection going to turn into a relationship? Do you want it to
do? I wanted to. Is there something there? Because that
could be great, right? Yes, but I only have so much time, and I
think it's important for people understand you. You know, yes,
relationships are amazing. We need them. They are the key,
really, to to everything. But we only have so much time and be
intentional about the relationships you create and
that you want to nurture relationships that and not to be
selfish, that you're going to get something out of it, but
relationships that compliment you but also challenge you, that
reciprocate, right? And to your point, it's not a one way
street, but they also have their like minded right share the same
core values,
Janice Porter: definitely, definitely, they
Todd Bertsch: need to be an entrepreneur. Or anything like
that, but at least they can relate, right? They have a hard
work ethic, they're trustworthy, they're
Janice Porter: competitive on Jeopardy, competitive on
Todd Bertsch: Jeopardy. They're transparent, they're authentic.
You know, these are all. I mean, everyone knows these things,
right? But I think what a lot of people don't realize is, and I
just, you know, I'm making two, three new connections a week
through this new kind of ecosystem of this podcast and
coaching and speaking, and it's awesome. That's what I want.
That's what gets me up in the morning. Is I love people. I
love meeting people. I love hearing about their stories. I'm
a great listener, and I just take it in. And I want to help.
I want to I want to help people find happiness, find
fulfillment. But again, it goes back to just how many of those
relationships am I going to nurture grow
Janice Porter: right? Right? And that's fair. That's really fair.
I think though that also another side to that is that when we You
said something just recently about, you know, something that
we might get from a relationship. So, yes, it's a
two way street, but in some cases, with all these people
that we're meeting, if we just stay in touch on a sort of
consistent basis, and are in their world, not asking for
anything in return that can come back to you in in ways that you
don't expect from the law of reciprocity. So that's nice,
too. And so, you know, like one of the things I love to do is
because I'm almost at my 300th episode of my podcast, and
let's just Yeah, but
Todd Bertsch: let's just Yeah, but let's just take a moment to
say, wow. Well, it's a lot. It is. I've I'm on my 10th episode,
and it's been an incredible amount of work. Yeah,
Janice Porter: no, I get it. It is, but I want so when I look at
those people that I've talked to and Matt, some I knew before,
some I didn't know before. Most of them I didn't know. And some
of them I want to stay more connected to. But as you said,
it's really hard, so we have to, sort of, once in a while, you
know, stay around and see what happens and and that does, from
a business perspective, it that's actually really good,
because it brings people back into your world that maybe you
want to do, they want to do business with you. That didn't
happen back then. We just had this conversation, right? So you
never know. But yeah, I think I love it. Yeah, yeah. I love
Todd Bertsch: what you said there. And I have something to
add to that. I think it's, it's, I think what you're getting at,
and at least for me, is I've created these buckets of
relationships, or maybe, I guess, what is a relationship,
right? Is it a connection, or is it a relationship? Are the two
equal? Are they different?
Janice Porter: So what I've done, well, it's like saying,
Wait, that's like saying, acquaintances and friends,
right? Connections and relationships, right? They're
different, right? So,
Todd Bertsch: you know, you create that buckets and those
relationships, that that group of 12 that I would call my
tribe, right? Like I could call on them anytime I would do
anything for them. We definitely have a monthly meetup, breakfast
or drinks or, you know, whatever it is. But then I have, you're
right, those connections are really important. And I've spent
time, you know, creating those, and I want to nurture those. And
you do, you need to at least keep watering that seed, right?
So it doesn't need to be every day, but if i i see a mutual
connection, or I know something about them, or what their
services, that they provide, or an article or a book, you know,
just thought of you, thought of you, and that goes back to, I
love, I don't know if you're familiar with Bob Berg book, The
Go Giver, but he was
Janice Porter: on my podcast. Oh my
Todd Bertsch: gosh, I went on my mind, I give that book away more
than any other book, but, yeah, so being a servant leader,
right? And just he's amazing, not asking giving more than you
get back. Yeah. In return, give her skin, as they say, Yeah. And
there's a, there's actually another book. Since I'm on that,
yeah, topic, I'm not sure if you're familiar with it. Maybe
this would be something you would like to check out. It's
from the early 2000s think 2002 His name is Tim Sanders. It's
called Love is the killer app. Don't know that one? Oh yeah.
It's a it's a great book. He was a big, a big guy at Yahoo, I
believe in the think tank, but it's, it's, it's all about
sharing. You know, it's wrapped around love, but it's kind of
like Bob's book. It's all about servant leadership, sharing your
knowledge, sharing your network, sharing your compassion. It's,
it's the love, right? Just and he calls it being a love cat.
And I love that. So there's a few guys in my network that I
call them. They're my love cats. They know everybody, and they
don't care if you ask them, they will connect you. They will do
whatever they need to do to help you out right then and there,
and they don't expect anything in return. I'm like, Yeah,
that's awesome, man, as we need more people like that. So it's a
great book, and it's very similar to Bob's book The Go
Giver just, it's all about just being a servant lever. Yeah,
Janice Porter: there's so many grieving, just loving people
Todd Bertsch: and sharing and being compassionate. So yeah,
it's all good.
Janice Porter: Yeah, it's that's really cool. So you mentioned,
what's it called? Now, I just gone brain dead.
Todd Bertsch: The course that you took, Positive Intelligence.
Yes, Positive Intelligence.
Janice Porter: I heard about it when it was first happening. I
think it was early COVID times, maybe, I'm not sure. And and
then the people that got trained brought other people in, and
then they got went through the course. Is that how it still
operates?
Todd Bertsch: Yeah? You need to be a certified PQ coach, yeah,
and go through his program, and then you can offer it, and like
any coaching, you know, program. And then there's, there's a book
too, a New York Times best selling book that you can read.
And then there's also an account. Also an accompanying
app that you can, you can utilize.
Janice Porter: So can you give me a quick synopsis as to how
you would use that in your business? Well, you're a coach,
so I can see how you would do it. But well,
Todd Bertsch: even in my in any business, okay, I mean, really
it's, it's a, it's a personal characteristic for me as a
leader, right? So for me, what it did, I didn't have a pause
button. I was pretty short fused. I was a hot head. My
whole life. I would go from one to 10. There was no break, there
was no pause, there was no reflection. So what this did by
me, training my brain, rewiring my brain through basically
mental exercises, just like physical exercise, I'm doing
these things, rubbing my fingers, you know, recognizing
the areas my faults, you know, in the mice, he calls them
saboteurs. You know, the things that that really throw me off my
game, that put me into a negative mindset, doing the
reps, and then eventually I can just do that. I can just rub my
fingers. And honestly, it takes me to a whole different place.
It's crazy how it works, but you're building more gray
matter, and you're really just shifting from a negative to a
positive. It's, it's that, I don't want to say it's that
simple, you know, and I still have moments, but it took a year
to really build. It's a long process. It is a long process,
but it works and so, so how that has affected me as a leader, you
know, where you know, as especially a small business,
right? Every day there's something, there's a curve ball,
you know, put put COVID aside in the economy, but there's,
there's always something, you're a small team, and anything could
happen. It just throws you off your game. You know, I would get
so upset, and it would just throw me into a negative
mindset. My recovery time was like, two, three days, yeah, you
know. And I'm not getting anything done. I got a long
list. I wear 10 hats, just like probably most of your listeners,
but now I'm just Mr. Chill, nothing. It doesn't bother me.
I'm like, You know what? So this book, this teaches you not only
to pause and reflect, but to find the gift and opportunity.
So I look at I say, You know what? Okay, last week I come in,
our internet's down. Two days, our internet's down. I mean, I'm
freaking mad, yeah, but what the hell am I going to do about it?
It's down, so I'm at the mercy of AT and T so you say, what?
Where's the gift? Okay, we can't get to the server. What can we
do? So it forces us to have other conversations, or maybe we
plan. We didn't really have a game plan in place. So now let's
say, Okay, this is forcing us to have a game plan. So when this
happens again, you know, we're a billable service or a service
company, so if my people aren't working, they can't get to the
server, they're not billing, and I'm losing money, right? So
anyhow, so yeah, it's really, it's changed me as a leader. So
it's a personal growth trait, but that is trickling down. And
then my team sees that. Sure they've seen the changes that
are making, and they've also seen that I've I've made this an
important piece of my life that I want to grow. So I'm setting
the example for them. And I actually paid to have one of my
employees go through that program as well, and it's
changed her life.
Janice Porter: That's amazing. So it's,
Todd Bertsch: it's cool. So, yeah, it's, you know, it's, it
works, yeah, transcends down to me. I don't know if
Janice Porter: I can focus long enough anymore, but I do. I am
fascinated by it because it keeps coming back around. On to
me. So a little bit more. Unfortunately,
Todd Bertsch: a lot of people don't know about it, but just
recently, more people have noticed. So I'm feeling a little
bit better. I'm like, gosh, this is a New York Times bestseller,
yeah, came from Stanford, like, but
yeah, guys got, got the pedigree for sure. That's backed by
science,
yeah, which is great.
Janice Porter: Um, so let's just last couple of questions. One,
so, how do you absorb material best? Do you watch? Do you
listen? Do you read, still, real books, or what do you watch? TV?
Whatever?
Todd Bertsch: Yeah, that's a really good question. Like other
entrepreneurs, my time is very limited. And this is actually
interesting point. My commute is seven minutes, depending on how
many lights. And one of the benefits of being an
entrepreneur is I chose where the office was going to be
located, right to my house. Yeah, so I don't have that time
that I could leverage for a podcast, yeah. So I do, I do
love to read, and I love an old school book, hardback book. I
have 30 that are on my list, but and I do podcasts. So if I'm
cutting the grass, or if I'm doing something that's going to
be for a decent period of time, raking the leaves or whatever,
I'll put on a podcast. So I do love podcasts. I don't like
audio books. I know a lot of people do. It's just not tried
that yet. Not my stick. I love just sitting down with the book
in my hand, going to a quiet place when the family's asleep,
and just getting an hour of reading in. And then I take
notes on the book. So one of the things that I've shifted this
year was I was all about and you were probably like this too,
Janice, like I just wanted to check it off. I had this, this
list, you know, or this goal of 12 books, a book a month, and I
would, Gosh, darn, I'm going to check that off. And I'm, you
know, rushing through on like I'm not really taking it in.
Yeah, so I said, You know what? And I've heard a couple other
podcasts, and people say they're reading the same book, 234,
times. Don't get that? Okay, I don't either. It's like a movie,
but I do get it now, because, you know, you could read 30
books and maybe remember pieces and parts of them, or you could
know five of the best books like the back of your hand. Yeah,
Janice Porter: that's though. I do like that. You're right.
Because I always think, why would I want to watch that again
or read that again, because there's so much more out there.
But you're absolutely right. Yeah, I
Todd Bertsch: get caught up in FOMO honestly. Yes, I meet, you
know, I have these, these business meetings, you know,
with my tribe, and my buddy says, hey, oh, you should check
out Robin sharma's new book. And I'm like, oh, man, who's that?
Janice Porter: Then you got to go through the whole thing,
yeah? And
Todd Bertsch: then I got a stack of all those books. Yeah. Now,
you know, I'm depressed because I'm 30 deep and, but it's all,
it's all good. It's, you know, I love them. I give them away.
That's my favorite thing. If all my guests on my show get a book
nice, you know, young people that I meet and mentor and and
give advice to. I give them a book, just nothing better than a
book, you know. Okay,
Janice Porter: so that brings me to your last to my last
question, what's your best piece of advice you would put out
there for my audience? Yeah,
Todd Bertsch: the best piece I was thinking about this one
because you gave me a little heads up. Yeah,
Janice Porter: I didn't know I was going to ask that one, but
that's what I'm going to ask. Yeah,
Todd Bertsch: no. Best, the best piece of advice I would give
that's that's really related to this show, I think, is to get
off your island. And I just had this conversation with one of my
employees, literally 10 minutes ago. My My top, you know, key
employee, and I said, you need to, you need to get off. You
need you need to find that peer group, somebody that you know
you can have that conversation with, the open, transparent
conversation in a safe space. It's not the people that report
to you, even though they're friends and you're comfortable,
you need to find someone else. I can't be that person anymore.
Yeah, I'm the owner of the company. We can have
conversations that you, that you and others can have, but there's
going to be things that you just want to have, someone else that
you can talk to, that you can vet. Maybe it's about me, and
that's fine, like you just need to find your tribe. Find your
tribe, find that group of people that can be your board of
directors, so to speak, your cabinet, whatever you want to
call it. We all need help. We all need people to talk to.
Janice Porter: That's going to be this is going to be another
another session, another conversation. But I would love
to step into those young people. They're probably young people,
right? Ken. They see past doing it all on their phone to
actually having that physical connection with a group of
people and talk good question. I think I know we have to do that
next time. Yeah. I
Todd Bertsch: think, yeah. 30s, yeah, yes, when you get down to
20s and the teens, and they
Janice Porter: are not, my daughter's 12.
Todd Bertsch: I don't know. I do worry about that. I think we're
gonna, they're gonna be on the struggle bus in terms of
building, creating, nurturing relationships, because, yeah,
you have a relationship on a phone. I don't, I don't know.
It's not the same. I'm sorry. And just being able to talk,
communicate and and and really relate and feel and see
somebody's emotions as they're looking at you, and be able to
read the room. So yeah,
Janice Porter: oh, that was what I wanted to talk to you about.
I'm going to have to have you back, because that's the other
thing I wanted to talk to you about. You said something in
your website about being able to draw people out really quickly
and and, you know, get to know their life history and things
like that really quickly. That's me. I'm like that too. And
there's so many people who aren't like that that I find it,
it's very it's another whole socio it is sociological study.
You know, it
Todd Bertsch: is, and I don't think that's something that you
can learn. I know. I don't either. I know, you know. And
the people that you meet, a lot of more coaches, we just, I just
had a coach on the other day, my coach was on the show, and she
said the same thing. She's like, I'm in an airport, and someone
sits, sits next to me, a total stranger, and they're telling me
their whole life story.
Janice Porter: Yeah, it's a certain kind of person I know.
Yeah, thanks. It's cool,
Todd Bertsch: though. It's a great trait to have, right? Yes,
especially if you love people and you love learning about them
and you're just being open.
Janice Porter: Yeah, this is fun. Thank you, Todd, for being
on the show. Where can my people find you? I know they can put it
in the show notes, but yeah,
Todd Bertsch: they can find me on my website, Todd, burch.com,
or they can find me on all the social media platforms. The
bolts with Todd, sounds good, yep, yep. And then check out my
podcast. The bolt. You can find that on all the podcast
platforms as well. So yeah, thanks, Janice, this has been a
lot of fun. You know, I think you and I have are building a
relationship here. I think so too. Connection. I love it.
Thanks for having me
Janice Porter: so much. You're very welcome. Bye for now, and
thank you to my audience for being here, and remember to stay
connected and be remembered. You.