EP60: The Two Things I Bought That Changed My Life (Neither Cost More Than $50)

Two things changed my life. A fishing pole and a basketball. Neither cost more than $50. This episode is about why I bought them, what they reminded me of, and the friend I lost in his twenties who started all of it. If you've been grinding so long you forgot what it feels like to actually enjoy your life, this one's for you. Businesses don't grow. People do.

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Transcript

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This is the Austin Cohen Podcast where we talk real strategies for chiropractors ready to grow beyond the adjustment. If you're building a business, developing your leadership, and trying to build wealth without burning out, you are in the right place. Let's get to work Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. What's up, everybody? Welcome back, Austin Cohen Podcast. Welcome to episode 60. And the title of this one is just called The Fishing Pole and the Basketball. And if you're listening this to one tonight, I really have no idea how the acoustics are gonna sound on this one. I'm sitting in my sauna right now recording this. So I'm at my house right now in the basement, and man, I am sweating like crazy right now in this 130-degree temps. And I was like, "You know what? I have 20 minutes left in the sauna. Let's do my podcast episode right now." Hey, you know what? That's what I love about this podcast and doing the audio is that, we can do it at any place, any time, anywhere, which is great, and I appreciate all the feedback I've been getting from every one of you. Shout out to all the people joining me in Ascent who are basically about to go through a journey with me on transformation, not just in your business, but on you, which is gonna indirectly, and that is directly gonna lead to transformation of your business. We don't build people-- We don't build businesses, we build people. And today, many of you get to experience that, and I hope for those that are interested, you join me in the September cohort, which will be the next cohort that we take on. And you join me for that 'cause there is a lot of fun stuff that's about to happen in here. Now, tonight, what I wanna do is I wanna tell you about two things that I purchased, and I shared earlier, that completely changed my life. And this may surprise you and 'cause it was not a program or some course or mastermind event. It definitely wasn't something in the chiropractic space for sure. It was a fishing pole and a basketball. Less than $100 worth of product that completely changed my life, which I know sounds very simple, and I want you to stick with me on this one because this is something that I hope many of you will take to your team too as well. And this is actually something that we did on our doctors call recently, is talking about this concept. So I got into chiropractic because of my uncle Paul. Paul was somebody who I would fish with. I probably started fishing with Paul when I was maybe seven years old. We lived in the same neighborhood, and I'd ride my bike over to his house, and when I was a kid, we would go fishing together a lot in the mornings, and we would go on his little jon boat, and we would fish the lake in the neighborhood. And Paul was 100% the person where everything felt like an adventure. And when you're a kid, that's exactly what you're looking for, right? This is before iPads and technology, so really what we were looking for was all experiences. And he was somebody who you always wanted to be around. And honestly, for a long time, I'd argue he was probably one of the most important people in my life. We spent a lot of time together fishing. And when he was in his 20s unfortunately, he was dealing with a lot of serious back pain. A lot of people dealing with serious pain get introduced, unfortunately, to opioid medic- opioids. And unfortunately, it took him down a road that was very dark Struggled with addiction, mental health, and unfortunately, at some point, he just felt like there was no way out, and he took his life at my grandma's house. I was really young at the time, and I didn't really fully understand it at that time. But there was something about watching that happen somebody who I cared for, who I loved, who I looked up to, and when they go through that pain nobody helped him with, nobody healed, and nobody ever really saw it. I think for me, that planted a seed. And I would say that, for me, was probably a starting point of thinking of about a career in some form of medicine and biology, whatever that looks like. But I became a chiropractor because I wanted to help people who were hurting, and I wanted to be the person in the room who actually does something about the pain instead of just masking it. And that's who I was growing up to as well. For those that... when I was a kid, I remember eating spinach because my grandpa used to talk about eating spinach and Popeyes and what that would do for your muscles. And I remember thinking that milk was really good for you, and how much calcium could I drink? Yeah, I remember thinking eating carrots was gonna help my eyesight, so I would eat tons of carrots. I was really focused on health from such a young age. I'm not saying I was the healthiest person because my belief systems on health were very similar to many of you. I remember when I was in college thinking Diet Coke was better for me than regular Coke, and so I would drink Diet Coke because I thought it was good for me. Once again tried, but just didn't really know the truth and was uneducated too as well. That was why I became a chiropractor, and that was my Uncle Paul. And to me, that's where the fishing started. If you fast-forward two decades, here I am in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen. I've got multiple chiropractic locations. I've got other businesses that I've started too as well, the real estate porli- portfolio that I'm building. I've got my first child and I'm in that grind. If you know what I'm talking about, and many of you do I'm literally in this grind day in, day out, seven days a week. And it's the kind of grind when you look up one day, and you realize you really haven't done anything for yourself in a very long time. Not for the business, not to learn something new, not to network, because that's all my life was. It literally was just for me. I did nothing. I lost a lot of friends, a lot of relationships. I had no experience, and I got to a point in my life where something felt off. I'm not somebody who gets burnt out, but I felt very disconnected. And it was like I was going through the motions on the outside, but something inside of me went a little quiet. And many of you know that feeling, but you don't know how to name it. So what do we do? At least for me, I push harder. I will work twenty-four hours a day. What do I do? I s- I put more onto my schedule. I add another, KPI or metric to the board. I hire another consultant. This time I decided to do something different. I bought a fishing pole And what did I do? I went fishing in a lake by my neighborhood. And it wasn't some retreat that I paid for to go fishing or and it wasn't anything planned, wasn't anything that was, like, on my schedule. I just went fishing. And I still remember it to this day going out there 'cause it was something I didn't expect. When I was out there, it reminded me of why I was doing it and why I was out there. I was out there not thinking about revenue. I wasn't thinking about numbers or business. I literally was just sitting there, watching a bobber on the top of the water and just thinking about my uncle. And it wasn't in some somber heavy way. I think more so when I look back at that moment, when I was fishing on this lake, it was called Silver Lake, it was really just in a grateful way. And I thought about why I started, who I started for, what this whole thing is actually about. And for a few hours while I was out there, I just... I I wasn't the CEO of anything. I'm literally just some guy who loves fishing right now. And when I got home after that, I truly felt like myself again. Not like in a, "Oh, I come back from this retreat I'm healed, I'm fixed." No. It was more so from the feelings, I would say, would be more of a reconnected feeling. And that's when I started paying attention to what was actually happening because there's something about going back to the things you loved before all the pressure started that does something nothing else can do. It's not about the hobby. It's about who you were when you did it. 'Cause when I was fishing as a kid, I wasn't thinking about success. I wasn't thinking about what people thought of me. I wasn't performing for anybody. I wasn't watching highlight reels on social media. What was I? I was present, curious. I was very happy. And when I bought that fishing pole back in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, putting that line in the water, I would say that didn't just give me a few hours of peace, but that reminded me of that version of me that still exists. That guy who was, like, eight to fifteen years old fishing with his uncle that guy didn't disappear. He j- literally just got buried under a lot of responsibility. And I'm gonna assume right now that many of you know exactly what I'm describing right now and what I'm talking about. What did I do months after that? I bought a basketball. Why? Same concept, different memory. When I was growing up as a kid, my dad and I played horse on the driveway every single night. Doesn't matter the day either of us had, we got out there, we shot around, we talked. Obviously, he beat me every single time except for there was literally one time I did beat him, but that was our thing. I probably haven't touched a basketball, and before that time in 2017, I would bet it's been at least 10 years before I touched a basketball. So what did I do? I bought one, a basketball, and a hoop, and I went to the driveway. And I remember just standing there shooting free throws and just grinning because it felt like being 12 years old again, man. It felt like before I knew what stress even was, before I knew what payroll was, before I knew what it was like to carry a team. It just it wasn't nostalgia. It was more of like a reset for me. And, many of us are chiropractors listening to this, and like, when you think of the nervous system it's like reminding your nervous system like, "Hey life's allowed to feel good. Doesn't have to always be productive. It can be good." And I had a call with, m- my doctors today. We had our doctors' growth call. It's every other Tuesday. And I talked to them about that question. I asked them, when was the last time they did something because they loved it? Not for the business, not to improve, because they really loved it, and going back to things they enjoyed doing as a kid. And you could hear in the room for the first, probably 30 seconds, especially for those that are listening to this, they know, there was a pause. And there was a little bit of silence where, I think people are trying to remember, and they're realizing the answer is a longer time than they want to admit. One of our doctors talked about getting back to playing piano again. I thought it was awesome. She's been wanting to get back into doing piano. And another doctor talked about she was doing competitive dance growing up and how she's been looking to get back into competitive dance. Some of them reached back out to me and talked about, sports they would play in college that they just completely walked away from. But what was interesting was that as they talked about these things, you could feel the shift in the room. We're like 20 minutes into this 30-minute call, energy's changing, and they stop sounding like these clinic CEOs running the-- through problems, and they-- it started almost shift to humans who have something to live for outside of work. Like when I started Ascent Call today, I asked people, I said, their name, where you're from, and what's something about you outside of chiropractic? What are the things that nobody tells you that nobody knows? And we talk a lot in the space about growing your business. We talk about systems, hiring, marketing, cash flow, profit margins. All of that matters, and it matters a lot. And I'll talk about it constantly 'cause it's very important. But here's what I've learned, and I'm gonna say this till I'm blue in the face. Businesses don't grow. Finish my sentence if you know what I'm about to say. People do. When you grow as a person, what follows? The business. Is it immediate? Not always Not maybe always in the way you planned, but what does it do? It follows. And part of growing as a business is doing what? It's staying connected to who you are outside of what you're producing. Because if you lose that, and if you become nothing but the output you're creating, where everyone's all "Oh KPIs," you will run out of fuel. And not only will the business suffer when that happens, it will break down. Because who's holding it together? You. That can only last so long. The fishing pole I bought was not a vacation I went on. It was like a $50 maintenance thing for me. The basketball that I bought and the basketball hoop, that was purely like refueling my system. And I want to talk to the person who's listening to this right now and thinking about something they used to love that they've walked away from as well. Like maybe it's music, maybe it's a sport. Maybe it's painting, cooking, hiking, something you did before the business took over every hour you had. You didn't outgrow that thing, by the way. You just got busy. Like I didn't outgrow fishing. I didn't outgrow basketball. I just got busy. And here's what I know, that the thing you walked away from, it still has something to give you. And it still has a version of you inside of it. And that version, by the way, that existed before you knew what even a profit margin was. When you were 10, 11, 12 years old, think of the worries you had. Like you're over here worried about, maybe passing a spelling test. Go get it back. Not because it's gonna make you more productive or because successful people have hobbies. Go get it back because you miss it. And guess what? You deserve to have the things you miss. My uncle never got that chance. And I think about that a lot. And I think about how much of his pain came from losing connection to people who cared about him, to things that made him feel himself, to a future to hi- of his life that he felt was worth staying for. I became a chiropractor because of him. And I think the bigger lesson he taught me came later. It came from when I picked up that fishing pole about 10 years ago, and when I stood on my driveway and started shooting free throws until it was dark out. The lesson was not about the hobbies. What was it doing? It was about staying alive inside your own life, not just surviving it. And that's where I was in about 2015, 2016. I wanted to get to a point where I was actually living it. So here's what I want you to do this week. What's one thing you loved to do before the business existed? And maybe even before college. But it's one thing that had nothing to do with performance, KPIs, output, or what anyone else needed from you. Go do it. Not later. Do it this week. And I'm not saying it's gonna fix everything, and it's not a strategy. Do it because that version of you is worth showing up for Remember, businesses don't grow. People do. And I will sh-- I've shared this many times. You cannot grow into something you love if you've forgotten what loving something feels like. To me, that's the fishing pole, that's the basketball, that's playing baseball with my son, which is what I loved to do as a kid too as well. So that's what I've got for you today. Thanks for being here. And if you wouldn't mind, when you do find that thing that you love and you get back to that version of yourself and you remind yourself of who you were in that next level for you, I'd love for you to share that with me. What is that thing that you're about to unlock? Because you deserve it. Is it fishing? Is it basketball, baseball, softball, dance, painting, cooking? I don't know what it is, but I'd love for you to share that with me on Instagram. Hope you all have an awesome day, and I will talk to you all next week. To learn more about building your business, leadership, and life on purpose, visit chiro one eighty.com or follow Austin on Instagram at Dr. Austin Cohen.