Cut The Tie | Own Your Success

“People Are Searching for You, They Just Don’t Know Your Name” Nate Woodbury on YouTube That Generates Referral-Quality Leads

• Thomas Helfrich

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Cut The Tie Podcast with Nate Woodbury

What happens when you stop chasing vanity metrics and start answering the exact questions your future clients type into Google, YouTube, and ChatGPT? In this episode of Cut The Tie, Thomas Helfrich talks with Nate Woodbury, a YouTube strategist and longtime entrepreneur who helps experts turn niche answers into qualified inbound demand. Nate explains his Leaf Strategy, why most B2B creators need a focused channel with clear intent, and how generosity builds trust that converts.

About Nate Woodbury:
Nate is a YouTube lead-generation strategist and creator who has spent 16 years building systems that help coaches, speakers, consultants, and course creators turn videos into referral-quality leads. After early years in web design and SEO, he pivoted fully to YouTube and now teaches the Leaf Strategy through weekly webinars, his “Nate Woodbury” channel, and his new “Nate the Producer” channel.

In this episode, Thomas and Nate discuss:
• Cutting ties with tactics that don’t move revenue
Why Nate left beautiful-but-barren websites and even classic SEO to pursue YouTube content that converts.
• The Leaf Strategy for precise demand
How “leaves and branches” map real questions to videos that rank on Google, YouTube, and now show in ChatGPT results.
• Two paths on YouTube and why B2B must choose
Lead-gen focus versus ad-revenue entertainment, and how mixing them can stall both.
• Give away the playbook, win the client
Why teaching everything builds trust and surfaces paid help where execution gets hard.
• Founder discipline and scheduling
How blocking time, tracking inputs, and measuring the right metrics sustain output and health in the long game.

Key Takeaways:
• Strategy beats hustle
Pick a lane, define the audience’s questions, then publish with intention.
• Your best leads arrive warm
Helpful videos create trust, so sales calls feel like referrals.
• One channel, one promise
B2B creators grow faster when a channel has a single clear purpose and offer.
• Education filters and qualifies
A webinar or book preps buyers, saves time, and improves close rates.
• Consistency is a system
Calendar blocks, repeatable workflows, and clear metrics keep you shipping.

Connect with Nate Woodbury:
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nate-woodbury/
🌐 The Leaf Strategy Webinar: https://theleafstrategy.com/
▶️ YouTube – Nate Woodbury: https://www.youtube.com/@NateWoodbury

Connect with Thomas Helfrich:
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelfrich
📘 Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cutthetie
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thelfrich/
🌐 Website: https://www.cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀 Instantly Relevant: https://instantlyrelevant.com

Support the show

Serious about LinkedIn Lead Generation? Stop Guessing what to do on LinkedIn and ignite revenue from relevance with Instantly Relevant Lead System

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Cut the Tie Podcast. Hello, I'm your host, Thomas Helfric, and I am on a mission to help you cut the tie to whatever it is holding you back from success. And you gotta define that success yourself because if you don't, you're chasing someone else's dream. And today we have a pretty successful person on. Nate Woodbury. How are you doing, Nate? Doing well. I think you pronounce it Woodbury. Right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, most of my most of my family calls Barry, but uh I I say Berry. It's from England, so that's how they pronounced it. I I lived over there for two years when I was a missionary. Well, take a moment, introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_01:

What did you do?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I um I'm Nate. I I grew up in Utah. Um I loved a mountain bike and I love entrepreneurship. So I've been an entrepreneur my whole life. Um didn't know it when I was younger, but um started this company 16 years ago and and jumped into the the web design and internet marketing space, um, and really discovered uh some unique approaches to leverage YouTube for lead generation. So that's what my company focuses on uh today and for the last 10 years is is using YouTube for lead generation. Um and you know, the the internet's changing and evolving. Um, there's a lot of improvements that have been made to Google, and now Google actually has a competitor in ChatGPT. Well, the strategy that I've been using for the last decade is just it's only gotten better. Um, we're finding that our YouTube videos are showing up in Chat GPT results. So yeah, it's a lot of fun. I just I work with a lot of coaches, speakers, consultants, uh course creators, and helping them really leverage their expertise to generate referral quality leads all through this magic tool of YouTube.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, you and I talked a little bit offline uh you know before you got on here. And you you I learned so much. So anybody listening, you should cry, you know, find time with them. Actually, I'll I've been doing this lately in these shows. This is for the ADHD or uh give someone a place to stalk so they can be distracted while you talk during this podcast. Where should somebody stalk you during during our conversation here today?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, my YouTube channel, you can find me at Nate Woodbury, and I'll I'll share a secret. I launched a brand new channel this year called Nate the Producer. So you'll you'll find a lot of uh answers and and secret strategies there. All right, you can't do that wireless on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

Just pause that idea. You see how Nate try to pull people away from our show. Oh no, no, actually you can't. That's the whole point. If they get to the over your show and they drop us, we're good. Uh but what I did learn in our short amount of time is kind of like you know, the different ideas around YouTube. And, you know, you're selling from stage, you're producing really good content. If you can push really good content and sell from stage, you got to kind of get nice mix. Uh and even I've done reflective some stuff back where I'm looking forward to some of our future conversations around well, if I really would have a conversation around lead generation, I got to get it off this cut the tie brand because we're talking about the journey. I actually need to probably spin up a new channel and start a whole very, very focused thing around that piece. So there is a strategy to it that I've seen that you know a lot of people just don't get that how specific you probably need to be and have a really good intention behind it and and around topics. Uh I don't you know I don't normally peel the onion back on you know what our guests do as much because it's more about your journey for the show. But I do want you to maybe just take a few moments to talk about that because it is so relevant and such a time waster. It's so valuable to hear to get the advice that you that you're going to share because that's what people do when they get on YouTube. They waste a lot of time. So take take a few moments and just talk about general strategies, what you know, learn, and have at it.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. Well, the the real secret is this there are people that are going to Google YouTube and Chat GPT right now searching for you. Except they don't search for you by name because they don't know you exist. What they're doing is they're typing in questions, really specific questions these days. Well, you are the perfect person to answer those questions. And so, what the leaf strategy is that I teach, I use a tree analogy, and so I talk about leaves and branches. The leaf strategy helps you hone in on what questions your target audience is asking, so it can totally direct everything else from there, what content you create and how you speak to them. And it's all about building a relationship. It's not a cold marketing approach where you're just pushing ads in front of people and then promoting to those people, but you're helping them. They're finding you. They see you as the hero you haven't uh been pitching to them so they don't feel like they've been sold to. And then um when they go to your website to get a lead magnet, that's when they explore your promo videos. They see your logo, they see your brand. When you have a conversation with these people, they they trust you. So it's like a referral quality lead. So um I do a one-hour webinar uh just about every week where I where I paint the whole picture. I show lots of examples, and so that webinar you can register for at theleafstrategy.com.

SPEAKER_01:

So I like that. And and and but when you're on YouTube, you're just giving away information, basically, like for the business side. Because you focus on business more B2B services. Is that the ideal client for you guys?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, for me, it's B2B, but I've got clients on both sides. So YouTube could be used for B2B and B2C.

SPEAKER_01:

You see, okay. Well, I absolutely so for you guys per per uh, you know, specifically though, you just give advice on doing YouTube on B2B. Like and then when someone kind of says, Oh, that's cool, then you get in, you take them through a whole course. Hey, do it yourself. You know there's a production challenge, you know there's like lots of nuance to it, and that's when they're gonna come find you and they're like, mine, mine suck. I'm doing it, but it doesn't look good. And if somebody can solve it without it, great. They give you views and everyone wins. You know, whatever. So I think that's where a lot of people struggle, is you can truly give away the keys to what you're doing. Because anything you can give away that people can leverage without help isn't valuable. It's just it's just knowledge, right? Like, so so you have to have a play. When you first started, though, you didn't realize that, did you? So you like you had to work through your own set of challenges to discover that. Maybe to start off your uh well, before we get into that part of your journey, just how do you currently define success?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's that's an interesting question. Um it's it's evolved. Um, it used to be based on financial numbers. And so, you know, I grew up in a in a neighborhood where everyone was an employee, and then one family moved in that was he was a newly uh graduated dentist, and he was a really good guy. Um, I loved his whole family. Um, but he he became my scout leader and he helped me become an Eagle Scout. Uh, just really admired the guy. I loved his freedom. I loved, I knew that he was making more money than most people in the neighborhood. And so I set that as a goal for myself. I want to be a dentist. And and uh I pursued that. I got a degree in human biology, but fortunately I I learned that it was entrepreneurship that I liked, not the medical side of things. But um, so for many, many years I had this goal of man, I want to be a six-figure earner. I want to be a six-figure earner. Uh, once I get there, my life will be amazing. And uh, you know, as you as you wear all the different hats of business and start to grow and create systems and build a team, and you know, I I got to a point where it's like, okay, I've got revenue that's you know, multiple six figures, but I wouldn't call myself a six-figure earner. I'm still, you know, payjack to payjack type of a thing here. Like, how am I going to survive? And it's um, I would say seven figures is kind of the new six figures. When I when I cross the seven-figure threshold, that's business revenue, not my own paycheck. That gave me enough like flexibility. It's like, all right, this is, you know, I I'm making uh I'm making more money now. I can I can give myself a decent paycheck. Um, but the fulfillment wasn't there. Um, money is a great tool, but that's it's not the end goal, it's just a a tool to get there. And of course, I I heard that. I've been taught that so many times, it's a cliche thing. Um, so I've I've looked back at at my career and I've made different pivots because there's ways that I could have made a lot more money sooner, but I wasn't fulfilled in in how I was doing it. Um for example, when I when I first launched my company 16 years ago, I offered a custom website design service, and I was just designing tons and tons of websites. But um, well, I before I say the word but I need to say what comes before it. That my clients loved it. My clients were happy. I I think over the years we designed 600 websites and I and they were happy, but I looked at their websites and thought, well, no one's visiting your website. So what what good does it do to have this beautiful website if only your mom and and your neighbor sees it, right? So then I thought, well, let's figure out how to get their websites ranked at the top of of Google. And I and I started launching that service, and that was working. Uh, and my clients were happy, but I wasn't because it's like, well, they're not buying anything. Yeah, you've got this number that says you've got visitors to your website, but they're not buying anything. So I'm like, we gotta we've got to figure out this promo video thing. Put a promo video on your page, give them a call to action so you're, you know, so they can schedule appointments or so they can purchase something. And and you know, so I would I I love getting results and helping my clients like actually succeed. That's what gives me fulfillment. Well, that's that's uh just one more tie-in to the YouTube side of things. That's when I discovered that these videos that we were putting on a webpage to get them ranked on the top of Google, they were actually getting more traffic on YouTube itself. So I just pivoted my business one more time to really focus on YouTube. And we stopped doing websites altogether because it was all about getting my clients' results. And and I love that. And I also, one other pivot I made is I I just get energized when I work with people that are purpose-driven. So uh when I I I actually, this is kind of a funny thing. I I used to rank at the top of Google for dentist website design and accountant website design. I ranked at the top. Um, but they they weren't really open to my strategies. They just wanted the pretty brochure website. They didn't, they weren't interested in YouTube and those things. And I found that when I worked with coaches or consultants or course creators, uh professional speakers, they got it. And so I just really enjoyed working with them. So and I could really help them get results. I guess the uh anyway, just to shorten this this uh explanation, I I made a lot of pivots in my business to really hone in on what brings me fulfillment. And and now I look back and you know, I've got I've got big goals, uh, financial and otherwise, and I'm at a point where, you know, if if my life ended today, I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished, not because I've achieved some benchmark or some finish line, but I I love the persistence or the pursuit of of just growth and figuring out I've made tons of mistakes, and it's through those mistakes that I've that I've learned and grown. And so I love the growth. I'm I'm happy with it, you know, and I'm excited. Like I just turned 47, so maybe I've got another 47 years on this earth. And if that's the case, it's like, all right, let's see, let's see what what success I can have in terms of of growth and fulfillment and and helping other people.

SPEAKER_01:

So I love the idea of the the the current you know strategy you see with lots of pivots. What's going to be like the biggest metaphoric tie though you've had to cut? The thing you had to stop or start doing.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, that's an interesting one. I and I I knew that you were gonna ask a question like that, and one um the the thought that comes to my mind, I don't know if it matches perfectly, but it goes back to the the neighborhood that I grew up in. Well, great neighborhood, great people, uh mate had lots of good childhood friends. Um, but it was a mindset of of an employee where um and there's it's not that there's nothing there's there's nothing wrong with being an employee. I just knew that that wasn't me, but I didn't know that because I didn't know any different. So when this this uh family moved into our neighborhood and he was a dentist, his name was Rob, I just saw, wow, he there were things about his career and his lifestyle and freedom of time or control of things and his finances. I'm just like, there's something there. There's something that that I that I want. I must be, I must need to be a dentist to get there. Well, as I was going to college, um, one of the biggest mindset shifts I had was when I read the book. It was actually an audio book series that combined to the books Rich Dead Poured Out and Cashflow Quadrant. That just really opened my my eyes to okay, there's a difference between somebody being self-employed and a business owner. A business owner I thought was somebody who carried around a briefcase. Um and so, you know, and then uh, you know, I realized, okay, yeah, I don't have to um go into dental school and take more of these classes that are torture, um, like biochemistry or pathophysiology and all this uh nonsense, not not nonsense, but stuff that it was nonsense in my brain because I couldn't I couldn't piece that together and I got barely passing grades on those classes. But um yeah, now I there was this whole new world to explore. And so um because I didn't get a degree in in business or entrepreneurship or or anything like that, it was just a big learning curve of experimenting. I first learned sales and figured out you know how that works and um read another book, The E Myth Revisited, which um that uh that book like really made sense in my brain. That's how my brain thinks. I'm very systems-oriented, and so to be taught that um through that book was a was a big deal. And it wasn't that I could uh implement it and perfect it easy, easily, but um I would implement some things and come back a year later and and listen to the audiobook again. And oh yeah, I forgot these things, but I I'm a couple steps ahead, so let me implement those. So anyway, though there's all those are a lot of the things that that I would I would attribute to like having big mindset shifts.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you uh do you remember the the YouTube video where you figured it out? I don't think so. Do you have like an aha moment, like, oh I thought that would work, it did work, and now I'm gonna go repeat it for like something else.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, I see what you're saying. So well, when I first discovered the YouTube strategy, um I I could see what could happen with it on a big scale. Um, because yeah, I could I could take this video. One of my dentist clients was one of the first ones. We he was uh your atypical dentist. We made some videos on oral health care and whatnot, and his videos were getting more views on YouTube than his website, which was ranking number one on Google. So I we I had these individual successes with with videos, and I started even putting on retreats and teaching people, look what you can do here. I started coaching people on on how you could leverage this, but in my mind, I'm like, if if a business owner or some type of expert went all in and and really started creating a lot of content, they could be the number one person in their industry. Um, and I believed this, but as I create as I tried to sell that, or as I tried to create a package to do that for somebody, nobody would buy it. I didn't have this track record. So I reached out to a handful of people that I thought, you know, I I see what what business they've built, I see the impact they're making. What if I'd partner with them? What if they're and and so I I made that offer to them, hey, I'll give you my service for free. This is where I'm gonna take this, and we'll share the future profits. So two people took me up on that offer, and those channels were a wild success. They're a they're a wild success today. Um, and and then maybe I mean that was an aha moment for me of just seeing like, I know the potential here. I can see this, no one else can see it, but I can. And then um, you know, down the road, other people had the aha was like, oh, Nate knew what he was talking about. Let's let's uh hey Nate, can we can you do that for me? Can you uh create a YouTube channel like that for for my business? And and so that that's where it got started. That's it's crazy to think that was like 12 years ago now, um, that I started both those channels. But um yeah, it's been a it's been a really fun journey.

SPEAKER_01:

It's funny that just a side note, I have the all these videos. I've done this to my kids for years since they're like four at a sh at like Costco or whatever. I put them in a shopping cart and I just push them. I hold the camera and I'm like, no. And it until they hit someone or something. And a friend was like, like, this is like 15 years ago when I started doing this, my daughter. Like, she was like like literally like an infant. And he was like, You should start a YouTube channel and only post that. And I was like, who the hell would watch that? The other day at Costco, my 15-year-old daughter with her Chick-fil-A outfit on, I did that and it got like a hundred thousand views. And I'm like, he was so right. He was so right. And it's like some people see stuff and you just dismiss it, right? Um and and what I'm getting to there is kind of like, you know, how not so much on you, I usually ask how you made the change, but how do you help some of your clients see the change? I know this is a little different path, but I think it's more relevant to our conversation. So how do you get them to see the change besides just this is what we've always done? Like, is there is there a method to that, or like you know, because that that's a hard belief that I can do it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's an interesting question. The um the challenge that that I've had in my business is it it's not easy to to see the picture that I see. And so I've I've tried for a long time to to really educate and explain things in a different way and and show different, like, okay, well, look at this example. Don't you want to get results like like this person? Um, I've I've found education uh is really the key. And so where I talk about uh Androduce that webinar that I do, that's been uh it's been a real game changer in that not everyone that attends the webinar becomes a client or anything like that. But I'm I'm um I just take an hour to explain. Starting out, look, there's two different paths to success on YouTube. You can go down this path, which works really well for lead generation, or you can go down this path that works really well for ad revenue and getting viral views, like you've talked about. And so when they understand that piece, it's like there's two different paths. So you got to know which path you're on, otherwise you can sabotage yourself by following some the wrong person's advice. And then painting the picture of look what happens when you create this type of content, look what happens on Google, look what happens now on ChatGPT, and and giving them clarity, then they can see themselves as like, okay, I can see how that would help my business. So people attending my webinar, some people will filter themselves out and say, Yeah, this makes sense. I get it, and it's not the right fit for me, but now I have more clarity on what is the right fit for me. Um, and so it it one, it saves me time from having conversations with people that aren't a fit because they filter themselves out. Um, but on the other hand, the the people that are a fit, it's a night and day difference in the conversations we have. Um and whether it's the webinar, I have a book as well. And some people will say, Yeah, I wanted to make sure I read your book before our call. I mean, that I'm flattered by that. That's an that's an honor. Or if people have watched a lot of my YouTube videos and so they have a good grasp of my my strategy. But one of those three ways, when they have real, when they really have a vision of the strategy, then we can really talk seriously, like look at their business, where are they at? What are their goals? What are they trying to accomplish? And how likely is it that this leaf strategy is going to help them get there? We can be realistic and look at proper expectations and say, do we want to commit to this much effort, time, you know, financial investment? Um, that's that's really fun to be able to get to that point. And it's um yeah, it's it's through that just the emphasis on, hey, before we chat, I want you to learn the strategy first. And I can give you another example of that. Back back when I started, I figured this out about a year in. So I was doing the the website design, and you know, I had a I had a five-minute video, I believe, that I made. And and back then I was really bad at making videos, but all I did was um I would I would do cold reach outs. Um, and I would just, you know, I at first I would call them and try to pitch them my my web design service. That doesn't work so well. But then what I did is I recorded this video explaining how this new system I created for designing websites and how affordable it was. And so then when I would do a cold call to somebody, I'd say, Hey, I found you here. This is who I am, and I created a video that explains what my service is. Can I send you the link to the video? And people would always say yes to something like that. Um, and then I would call them back later, hey, did you have a chance to watch that video? And those that had watched the video, we had a great conversation. It was uh a pretty cool approach. So that's that's kind of the the takeaways that I've had there is how can you how can you warm them up? How can you turn somebody that's cold into a warm lead, or how can you strengthen that relationship? And and true, it's worked really well.

SPEAKER_01:

I I mean I think that's wonderful too. It's uh you give the information away and knowing what to do. I think the value just to someone who has a channel and we've struggled with it, uh, because we've been podcast podcast first focused, which is uh to me, is a very honestly boring form of YouTube. I just listen to interviews, I don't typically watch two people talk, but some people do like it, and you have to, but it's good when you mix the shorts, whatever else. Having someone who knows a strategy, um you know, and like I and I actually took away from our first conversation, you know, several weeks ago. I said I thought, I actually don't have anything I sell, like I don't have a product. So we're on YouTube just being, and and that's great and all, but that doesn't help me make money. Uh it helps the you know the guests because they get exposures and things, but it doesn't help me like create anything outside the podcast itself. And and and it's Susan, I can't wait to catch up with you because I've we have you know, we have a lead magnet to do a 45-minute lead generation assessment, and it looks like you know, it's basically a representation of our um our methodology just to see because it's usually in one of these nine little boxes you have an issue. And and and now it's like I want to follow up with you. Like, how do I take that? What kind of channel would you do? You know, I went out and bought lead generation done right.com. Like I have a bunch of stuff set up that I think YouTube would be a really good place to start. Even have a radio show I'm gonna be on where we're gonna go talk about lead generation problems and call it lead generation done right radio, right? And then I can, you know, then the podcast works. Then I can bring people in real time and say, what's your problem? And what are you doing? We can go through each of the nine steps, and then you you know, it's anyway. That just by that one conversation with you, seriously, it that all happened. Isn't that crazy? And I'm like, damn, if I hired this guy full time, well what I did. Um that's how it works. It well, seriously, and it's like, you know, and at the same time, I have another brand, right? The sexy voice guy. I'm like, how can I make that more viral? So there's probably two projects we could work on just for fun. Like, how can we do one on ad revenue? So anyway, all right. Let's do let me let me change the subject just a little bit. I want to know what your current tie in your business you need to cut. Well, what's the one you're afraid to cut right now?

SPEAKER_00:

What's the thing you're trying to be like, uh, you know, that's that's interesting that you ask that because um, you know, there's several things that that I'm struggling with. One is is is food. I've been I've been working out more, I've got more muscle built, I'm getting back into mountain biking shape, and I uh it's like I start eating more and start eating more junk. The one the one thing that has um the one thing that I'm resisting the most, and and that's scheduling stuff. Um, and so what I did two days ago, uh, and it it made a world of difference in my day yesterday. So two days ago, I I just created a list of all the things that I want to do, uh, both in my business and uh personally. Like I'm working, I'm building a pizza oven in my backyard. Um and that's not gonna help your diet, just so you know, because yeah, that won't turn out as many pieces as possible. You get the cost per pizza. Building the pizza oven is working. I'm building this massive thing, and I've become a funny by the way.

SPEAKER_01:

But you really it does not help the calories. I'm okay. Well, I gotta get the cost per pizza down, guys, we're gonna have to make a few thousand of these.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, so I I listed out everything that I need to get done, and I've learned that I I don't need to like beat myself up if if I if my schedule changes along the way. But when I've you know, yesterday I didn't have anything planned on my my uh calendar. And and so typically, uh so where I'm at right now is my filming house. I live about eight minutes from here. So this the this room is my office. Well, if I leave home, I come to work ready to work right, but I've I don't have anything on my calendar, I don't have any appointments or anything. I just end up spending a lot of time using doing YouTube, and I'll I'll get work done, but um, I'll end up just uh I'm hungry and I'll I'll order something on DoorDash, you know, whatever. Um, but what I did, whatever, what uh happened instead yesterday is because I had this list of all the different things that I want to do, and all the things I'm all I'm excited about, all of them just by putting them on my calendar. All right, I'm gonna dedicate this chunk of two hours to explore this. I'm gonna dedicate this two hours to this. I ended up um working later than normal yesterday because I was having such great fun. I was uh I've been really getting good at Chat GPT, knowing how to use that tool to get great results. And the the more uh the more I say, well, hey, ask me some questions so you can give me a better response here. And it's just such a good tool. I created a a six email sequence that I've been trying to hire somebody to create for me for about a year and a half, and and I've jumped through hoops and we made some progress, but ultimately it's like it's gotta be easier than this. So, in a matter of a few hours uh having Chat GPT's help and really fine-tuning it and and whatnot, I I came away and I've got this email sequence, and I'm like, finally, I've got something that I I confident in. It's gonna accomplish my goals. So anyway, that's um that's the the biggest thing that that I want to continue. I want to, and and I did the same for today. Um and and by the way, I I would say I ate perfectly yesterday as well. I because and I've got I've got the My FitnessPal app or whatever, where if I track my calories and I track it, it makes such a difference. Yeah, it's huge. So yesterday I was productive all day long. I ate, I ate perfectly. Um, and so anyway, that that's the that's the biggest thing that I I need to cut is when when you're an entrepreneur and you have freedom of schedule, and I do, and I don't uh no one else dictates uh my schedule at all. I get to choose, well, that's the the drawback that I have is like leaving it open when um if I really want to accomplish the goals, and that there's I need to schedule in time to to play as well, mountain biking and time with my kids and uh and family and and stuff. But that's that's the one thing that I'm I'm hoping to stick to.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah I'll tell you so yeah, Alan Carr, I put some in private chat for you though. He he has a series of books, like they're they're you know, quitting easy. That's how I stopped drinking in a day. I wasn't an alcoholic, I just thought I'd have a healthier last 10 years of my life if I did that. You know, anyway, they have one on eating, emotional eating that's really good as well. Uh and what it does is a factor, it rechanges the reassociates the meaning you have with it. And it there, there it's just listen to it. I've I would just tell you like if it that will help. The other thing that's helped me, because I used to have the same challenge. Um, I stopped. This is relevant to business, too. I stopped focusing on the wrong metric. Uh, you're a big guy. I'm a big guy. I'm 6'2. Used to be 6'3, I've shrank, but 6'2, you know, I I've I've said I'm Is going to stay the same weight and only focus on muscle mass. So my only metric was muscle mass and staying at the same weight, but eating like 200 grams of protein a day. It's really hard to get 200 grams of protein and not be full, just put it that way. And when I did that, I'm still like 227, 228, 226 range, right? That depends how much water I've had. But I am down three sizes and I can do a lot more lifting a year than I could 15 months ago. So once I change the nature of the metric, 100%, you know, then I've been down the path of looking at men's hormones and so we can take that offline. But the point is, these are ties I've cut. Start with that book. Cool. Thank you. Change the metric you you follow because focusing on muscle mass makes you feel so much more better manly anyway. And you just and you're a big dude. Don't don't try to be a runaway model. You know, don't in your head like, I want to be one one day.

SPEAKER_00:

It's not gonna happen. That beard, oh, you good. See, my my uh boys, they do Ninja Warrior, and um my 12-year-old uh is just um he's he's moved to the top. Like we're going to world finals next week, and he should he should win it again, you know. He's again, again. Yeah. Um that's legit. I mean, that's a hard ass sport right there. It's it's so fun to to watch and support him in that. And I've got a desire to do it myself. I've I've gotten to the point where I can do things like monkey bars and not injure my shoulders. Uh I I have to hurt myself. I mean, just doing little little basic things. Um I would injure my my shoulder pretty easily, and I couldn't, you know, use my arm the right way for a week. So I just for a year, I decided, all right, I'm not gonna attempt any ninja obstacles or any anything like that. I'm just gonna work on strengthening my upper body because I'd always mountain biked, I had strong legs, and so I just focused on on strengthening my arms and uh I waited a full year, but then I I went back and I can do monkey bars and and stuff like that. Now, it still is extremely hard because I'm I'm overweight and I'm getting way too much weight to be able to do that at this point, but um that's another driver for me is I just want to be able to do some of the fun stuff that my my 12-year-old can do.

SPEAKER_01:

I used to be a like a nation ranked athlete, right, in high school, college. And I remember at 30, I was like, I would I would have bet money that we were in the park, and I was like, Oh, I can do monkey bars. And I fell. I went on it and I fat ass, I just I like I was like, it was the most embarrassing moment of my life. My wife's like, you cannot do monkey bars. And I'm like, holy shit, how out of shape have I gotten? And and I can never do pull-ups growing up and just never did them. And my neighbors like, oh, I do this thing called the Murph barrier. It's you know, it's a hundred pull-ups, 200 squats, 300 push-ups, and you wear a 40-pound weight pack. I'm like, excuse me? Wow, and you're running wild. And you and so it's a and I was like, all right, I'm gonna learn how to do a pull-up. So I could do like six pull-ups now. A year ago I couldn't do a pull-up, and I have an injury once again. But my point is, even later, I was 49, you can do these things, you just gotta do it. So I'm anyway. Uh tell me something. You know, just a little different kind of show today, which I I love it. Um if you could go back anywhere in your timeline though, and you could change one thing, when would you go back and what would you do differently?

SPEAKER_00:

You know, it's interesting. The first thing that comes to my mind is is as a dad, I I've always felt um being a dad and being a parent is it's been a high priority for me. Um, but it's it's been a learning journey. It's um, you know, no kids come with an owner's manual. And now that I've got uh my oldest is 19, I've got a 19-year-old, 17-year-old, and 12. And, you know, my my 17-year-old, we've we've been having some conflicts and he's going through a rebellious stage. And so when I think about, you know, if I could go back and change something, I I don't have the answer of what it would be exactly, of what I would change, but I would want to go back and like, how do I, how do I maintain the the positive relationship I had with with my 17-year-old. Um, you know, how how how could I figure that out? That's what I would want to to change if I could. And I I can't. That's not a reality. So I'm looking at it now of like, all right, well, how how can I be the best dad for him that I can be right now? You know, he doesn't want my advice. He doesn't um he doesn't want much. He's uh you know, without going into more detail on that, it's how can I just let him know that I've got his back? How can I say go make your decisions?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's um it's hard to do. I mean, I'm with it. I I don't mean to rupt you, just I'll be with it. Just I I feel your pain on this because uh I have a 13-year-old that is definitely going down that path of independence and like you know, and and uh and I'm thinking, you know what? Just try not to get arrested or hurt anyone or yourself. How about it? And like that is not gonna fly with my wife. But I think by the way, if you're there and you've always been there and you've been in the the confident dad, meaning like I have you, I'm firm, I disagree, but I'm here for you, they'll know that once they get out of the face. You know, just don't punch them to do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Don't remember that one. Uh if there's a question I should ask you today, though, and I didn't what was that question and how would you answer it?

SPEAKER_00:

What would be the question and how would I answer it? Um Lee never asked me what my favorite color was. It's it's blue. Is it this blue? Is it cyanon? Is it is it dark? No, no, that's that's a pretty good shade of blue, yeah. Um you could ask me also, uh, why do I like mountain biking so much? I don't know. I live right by the mountains, and getting up in the mountains is it's fun. I love the fitness of it. Um I uh I've I've always loved the uphill. Well, the downhill is the fun part. Downhill's like the roller coaster. But I love the I love it being a reward for the work that I've done to climb up the mountain. Um so I don't, I just I just love it getting up there. I love challenging myself. Because I've allowed myself to gain weight in recent years. I was looking, I just I went um two days ago and I look at Strava and it says, Oh yeah, um look, this one section here, you've you've got your personal record. And I'm like, ooh, is it the hill climb? Like, let's go see. It was on a flat stretch in between some trees, and I just happened to do that section faster. But I I looked at the hill, I'm like, okay, well, what about this mile-long stretch where I was climbing up 750 feet? And nope. Uh I uh back in 21, I think it was I had I was eight minutes faster. So I'm like, ugh.

SPEAKER_01:

You're also four four years older. So those things are you know, it's a combination. Don't beat yourself up too bad. You're putting in the time. Uh uh once again, how should somebody get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_00:

Who should get a hold of you? Well, if anything that that I talk about in terms of of leveraging YouTube for lead generation, if if any listener wants to learn more about that, um the the leaf strategy webinar is is highly um recommended. Um it people don't leave. I mean, you're welcome to if you start watching it and and it's not uh what what you're signed up for, then feel free to leave. But I notice when I look in the beginning how many people there are in attendance, and I get to the end and that same number's there, I'm like, this is pretty amazing. So plan on it being about 55 minutes to an hour, go to theleafstrategy.com and I look forward to seeing you there.

SPEAKER_01:

I think I had started at one point and got distracted. This is pre-ADHD medicine since I've talked to you so I've started doing ADHD medicine changer of the world, let me tell you right now. Um, also a hunger suppressant. Look into it. So the uh amphetamines, who would have known? Nate, thanks for coming along, man. That you're welcome. Hey, listen, anyone who's made at this point in the show, thank you for paying attention, listening. Check out uh theleafstrategy.com. Get out there, go cut a tie to something holding you back. Uh and you know, get out there, define your success, what that's gonna be for you. Because once you have that defined, it becomes really clear what's gonna hold you back from it.

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Thomas Helfrich

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