EPISODE 20: You’re Not Stuck — You’re Undisciplined

"Let's be honest... you're not stuck."

In this episode of Business Cousins, we're having a real conversation about the difference between being stuck and being inconsistent.

Fresh off a family reunion, we started reflecting on something many of us experience: seeing relatives, friends, and loved ones after years apart and realizing just how quickly time passes. The differences we see in people's health, finances, careers, and overall quality of life often aren't the result of one big decision — they're the result of small decisions made consistently over time.

We're talking about:

Accountability vs. excuses
Why discipline creates freedom
The cost of constantly starting over
How consistency shapes your future
Why the fundamentals still work

Because most people don't need another strategy, another book, or another fresh start.

They need to follow through.

The truth is, your future isn't being built by what you know.
It's being built by what you repeatedly do.

💬 Let's Talk:

What's one habit your future self will thank you for starting today?

Have you ever had a family reunion or life event that reminded you how quickly time is moving?

🔥 Ready to stop starting over?

Start your 7-Day Free Trial inside the Power of HLS Community and get access to coaching, accountability, wellness resources, and a community committed to growth.

👉 Join the Power of HLS Community: https://powerofhls.hlsfit.com

🎙 Subscribe to Business Cousins on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

#BusinessCousins #Discipline #Consistency #Mindset #PersonalGrowth #Wellness #HLSCollective #FamilyReunion #Accountability #SuccessHabits

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Maybe yes. And we're back. Welcome, welcome, welcome to episode 20 of the Business Cousins Podcast, where we mix work and family and it goes great.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

And it goes amazing.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

And your co-host, Boost Better Questions Hill.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

And this is Tasha Cooper Ware from HLS Collective. Yeah, so y'all, we made it. Episode 20. And we put we set a plan. We said we're gonna do this. And we check, we've been checking these boxes, so we're excited to be here to finish out our season one with yes. Oh, the business has it.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

That's what I love. The title that you have is you're not stuck, you're in discipline. Um, I always now, whenever you're listening to this, maybe it's got five downloads, maybe it's got 500,000. Um, but this is the third podcast I've attempted. So the first one I had a good idea called it Business Church. I hosted it on Sundays, and um it was a solo podcast, and I have guests from time to time, and I made it to about six episodes.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Okay, that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Um there was another one, and what was it called? Um Blurts, Black Nerds. I said with some friends. I think we got about six episodes. Okay, everybody was busy, and that's when I realized the reason we didn't make progress wasn't because it was a bad idea, wasn't because we we didn't want to do it, right? It's voluntary, and it wasn't even because it was difficult, we just didn't have a plan. We didn't have a structure, so shout out to Tasha. She was like, All right, here's the plan, Bruce. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Yes, and here's some structure. We're gonna meet every week, regardless of whether we decide to do our podcast or not. How about that?

SPEAKER_01 1:57

And that's the difference. Some structure.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

So, this episode is dedicated to those who are feeling stuck, feeling like they're in place, uh, and they're trying to break through. We got some we got some some gems for you. I'm excited. Yeah, so let's start at the very top. Why do people get stuck?

SPEAKER_00 2:19

It's definitely inconsistency because you you know what to do. You know what to do, you know the answer to at least one of the questions that you have to move forward, whether it's in your business or whether it's it's in health, you're not, it's too, it's so much, it's almost information overload out here. So to say you don't know is just it's an excuse.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

So you have information overload. If you're doing more learning than you are executing, and you look up and you're in the same place a month from now, you were a month ago.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's the accountability part. Sometimes people just need a little bit more accountability.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Okay, I'm I'm hearing a theme. Yeah, so like if you listen to 20 episodes, at least four of them, what is that? At least what is that, 20? Cover like discipline, consistency, um, structure, resilience. Like, I'm I'm seeing a pattern.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Yeah, because you know, life happens, but patterns tell the truth, man. Like, you ever have those people around you, and you're like, okay, it's always something. Like, like I had to tell my husband, like, it's stuff just has to stop happening. Like, you something has to change because it can't just keep happening to you.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

We uh a good friend of mine, his uh his uh first wife and uh her cousin, maybe uh huh, all four of us would go to dinner, and we went out to dinner three separate times, and three separate times, her order was wrong, the service was terrible, the restaurant was terrible. And I was like, you know, my food was great, and my service was great. I was like, Maybe it's not the restaurant. And she says, What are you saying, Bruce? I said, Well, maybe it's you. They did not invite me out to dinner.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

They didn't invite you anymore.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

No, me and him are still great friends, but I think that you said something with the accountability. Sometimes you need somebody else to tell you what you are doing.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Yeah, because sometimes the excuse becomes like it's a habit. That's the part that becomes the habit. Is the excuse becomes the habit, and at some point you gotta own your choices. That like she probably chose wrong at the restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

You guys are gonna hear my mechanical keyboard. Um, your what'd you say? Your choices become the habit?

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Yeah, no, yeah. No, your excuses become the habit. Oh, your excuses become the habit, and you have to own your choices.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Yeah, I love it. I love it, I love it. Let's just put that in there for the notes, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

That's I think that's it. We get stuck. Here we go. Okay, I I see in a pattern, but it's not a good pattern, it's not a pattern that's helping us, it's not a pattern that's moving us forward.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

No, oh man, yeah, they make us excuses make us feel better, even though it's not fun, but the accountability makes us better. Like accountability is what makes us better.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

So let's talk about accountability, but if it's not fun, why do so many people just choose to say stuck?

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Because it's comfort. People choose it's it's comfortable to just make an excuse as opposed to change the choice.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

You can change the choice. You can you can make a change today. We talked about this last week. One would when you say better questions, you say one better change. One new skill will change your life. One better choice will change your life, and that can be the new habit.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

I give an example in the fitness side.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Yeah, yeah. I love a good example.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

I always say you gotta you're supposed to drink half your body weight and water.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

The excuse I get sometimes is oh, but then I have to keep using the restroom. Okay, you're supposed to use the restroom. That's how the fat cells come out. So it's like to hear that I have to have the answer to the excuse, so I can say, so you're telling me because you'll have to use the restroom, you won't say you won't drink what science says you should drink, which is half your body weight in water just to be well, to not have brain fall because the symptoms that you gave me, we probably can cure with something as simple as water that you don't you already paid for water, you know, buy a Britta filter, it's not even gonna cost you anything.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Man, she said you already paid for water.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

You already paid for no listen.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

I I had done a checkup, fellas. I'm gonna say this to the men go ahead and get that annual checkup, y'all. Don't don't avoid it. Um, best case scenario, nothing's wrong. You keep cooking. Worst case scenario, you find out early, you can do something about it. Um, so my blood pressure was high. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

It was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

They it was so high. How high was it?

SPEAKER_00 7:16

How high was it?

SPEAKER_01 7:18

They was like, we really want to send you to your emergency room. I was like, okay, really, and mind you, I'm not overweight. Um, it was stress. And I said, Well, hold on. I was like, before we do medication, which can help a lot of people in a lot of situations, but before we do that, what changes can we control? And that was the first one I did. I was drinking water, uh, I started going for walks regularly, and um, I added uh raw smoothies a couple times.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Next checkup, six months, they're like, Man, she looked fit as a fiddle, right? Healthy as a horse. Um, so it's not that I had some catastrophic event that happened, right? I had some excuses that became the habit. Yes, I'm gonna use that all the time. I just didn't even let you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

That's fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm here for it. I'm here for it.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

So we come on to this business because it's podcast. We talk about health and wealth. We're not talking about theory, we're not talking about something we read in the book, even though I do love to read. Here's my current book right here. I'm working on it's what we're doing on a day-to-day basis, it's real life. That was uh yeah, that was three months ago.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

See, and we were together three months ago, so maybe something rubbed off on you a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Maybe accountability, accountability, you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Your future health is being built on today's habits. So another channel, you know, the function is what is built on today's habits.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

We're not we gotta hold on, let that breathe. Yes, so listen, maybe you're listening to this is perfect time to shout out our sponsor, HLS Collective. Hey, if you want to take control of your health and wealth, tap into HLS Collective. Join the community, you can get the accountability, the right guidance, and help you get to your goals a little faster and a little easier. Click the link in the bio. Thank you to HLS Collective for sponsoring this episode.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Much appreciated.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

No, seriously, we we want to do what's best for y'all. We we have a lot of fun doing this, but um, there's other things we could be doing on a Tuesday afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Um the fundamentals work, you know, we just gotta stay in them longer, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

So let's talk about that. Accountability is for when you feel like giving up. It's that first week. Maybe you're sore from the gym, maybe it's the first months in business, maybe you're first filing quarterly taxes, and you're like, Oh, I gotta give Uncle Sam some more money, more money, uh, and you're thinking about quitting. What do we do in that moment? What do we tell ourselves?

SPEAKER_00 9:52

I like to just lean into again to the fundamentals, like whether I'm working with my clients or whether I'm working in business. To me, fundamentals are the of course the drink the water, take the walk, the things that you have control over that don't cost you money, so the rate of return should be high. They don't cost you anything. You're already paying for it.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

That's good. It doesn't cost you a lot of money. So say those again. And for anyone's like, well, I have a lot of money. Say those again.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Uh well, what drink your water, walking, do your stretches. The rate of return is high, and it won't cost you anything. You don't need a gym membership. I hope you pay your water bill, so you should have water.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

If you need help in your water bill, hop in the collective. We're gonna teach you how to make some money.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Oh, yeah, for sure. And we're gonna get you with Bruce ASAP and give you a business plan.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

But but you're right, there's so many excuses we can make, but they're really self-afflicted. Uh a lot of times. Yeah, other is gas five dollars a gallon, yeah, absolutely. But you can make a digital product for free.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Exactly. You can make those phone calls. Like I I I learned that from Bruce. The fundamentals are business. Uh, what did you do today to get more business?

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Oh, I'm glad you asked that. I gotta lead by example. So um, I'm gonna actually give you actual numbers. So give me just a few seconds here. Okay, I sent 200 invites to my workshop. If you're in Atlanta, July 11th, we're having an in-person workshop on turning conversations into clients. And then uh, what else did I do? I set up, I've got two screens going because I don't want to make this up. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine calls from LinkedIn. And what I did is I just asked, I said, Hey, I want to have a conversation about who's a referral for you, it makes sense to work together and make uh connections on LinkedIn valuable. So nine people said yes, they raised their hand and said, Hey, let's talk. Will those all of them convert? I never make that promise, but I know that zero of them convert if I talk to zero of them.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Exactly, exactly. And that to me, that is a fundamental and it works, you just have to stay in it longer.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

You just have to keep going. So, speaking of keeping going, I've got a LinkedIn page. Um in 2002, page one had more followers, but but I wasn't using wasn't consistent today. I decided to be consistent, so I went from 5,000 to 7,250 LinkedIn connections, just a few every day. Because if you send 10 every day, that's 300 in a month, that's 3,650 in a year. What do you think is gonna happen? Do you think you can accidentally find some business to find a client if you just send 10 LinkedIn connections daily? I think you can.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

If you're not stuck, like, oh I can't get to 10,000 followers, I can't get to whatever that number is. Are you stuck? Are you undisciplined?

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Exactly. So have you ever looked up in a year's past faster than you realize? And then when you hit that market, like the things like that, like all those connections have really like you hit 7,200 and the year hasn't even we're only at six-month mark.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Uh yeah, I think that was that was this week where um you know I'm sending out these connections, and I'm like, man, am I even making any progress? I had that moment. Listen, it's not it's not a bad thing to want to quit. I think sometimes you need to ask yourself a question. Um, but don't quit. Think about it, but don't do it. And I looked and I was like, wasn't that at like 5,000 a couple months ago?

SPEAKER_00 13:45

You were, that's what you told me.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Yeah, yeah. I I didn't realize though, like I didn't check, I was just being consistent. Um I catch myself scrolling, and I'm like, I'd head over to LinkedIn and I'll just send connections. Um, I'd catch myself playing a little mobile game, and I'd I'll be like, well, hold on. If I can play that, I go over, I send a couple messages or I comment on some posts.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

And it's time you already have. Yeah, it's time you're already using, maybe wasting. Yeah. Um, it's just what you do with it.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

And that is interesting. I tell my clients that because you know, obviously, HLS has an app and to track your data to keep it consistent. Yeah, we're official to track your water. And I tell my clients like it, you didn't have time, but did you scroll today? How much time did you scroll? Pull up, pull up, and I'll make them pull it up. I think you know you can see how much time you spent in each app. So they can't lie. How much time does it say? And I say, Okay, new rule. You can't get on there until you check my app. And they say things to do today.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

That's good. That's accountability, folks. Sometimes that's all you need. Yeah, sometimes that's all you need.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Structure, it gives you routine, and someone looking out to say, Hey, hey, hey, now look at this excuse slash habit. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Tell me to pull up my screen time. I'm like Wi-Fi's dismay.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

What it be the first time?

SPEAKER_01 15:14

I think that's what people need. I think that you know, if if I I probably could do a better job of tracking, which I love that you have to have built in because sometimes, actually, I know not sometimes, everybody experiences at some point. You just really ask yourself, man, is this working?

SPEAKER_00 15:32

And sometimes what happens, my clients will give me an excuse that's just not true based on data.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Oh, elaborate.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Perfect example. I gave a client a simple task. I said, Hey, just for seven days, not forever, just don't eat bread. No bread products, don't eat bread. But log your food so we can see I can see everything else you're eating. Just don't eat bread. Let's see what happens. Keep it simple. We have our meetup. I see toast, I see a croissant, I see a biscuit, um, and something else that was a bread product, but I can't wait on something. And I said, Hey, and she goes, Oh, I can't believe my weight stayed the same this week. And I said, Well, per the data, let me go back and look. I said, Oh, well, you ate bread. Last week we talked about no, I didn't. I don't have bread in my home. And I said, Well, I'll go, it says Saturday toast. Oh, I went to a diner.

unknown 16:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

So that's also why I like to have the data. People forget, but they are ready for it, especially really smart people. My clients are geniuses, really smart humans, and they can excuse their way out of anything, even when it's factually incorrect. And it's such a habit, you it you have it's like her brain didn't even tell her that it was bread.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Which that's when I knew I'm so glad I have data on people because through my entire training career, when I haven't been able to make movement, it's because the data is incorrect.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

And oh wow, that's good. So, how would you have someone track any business goals? So you got the app for the fitness, what about for the money?

SPEAKER_00 17:25

You know, so a couple of my clients did a challenge that they did a follow-up challenge.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Oh, that's a good one. Yes, I made some money with a follow-up other day, I'll tell you.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Yeah, so a follow-up challenge. Um, uh, use your CRM challenge. You have to log into your CRM every day, you have to do something in it.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Oh, I like that one. Yeah, I like that one.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

So those two I would say would be easy ones to track because I can put any habit I want in the training app. I could literally put any habit. We can I can say check CRM every day in my personal training app, and it will say that every day.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Oh what if y'all wanted to put in like I I post a YouTube daily?

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Yes, I can put literally I say Bruce's hat, Bruce's personal habits, and I just create your habits in my habit tracker for how many days, whatever days you can even individualize the day, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. You can yes to keep track. You could track all of it.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

And because, yeah, I might am I am I in the app?

SPEAKER_00 18:27

You can be in the app and output whatever you want in there because I need a tap in there.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

I got you because I noticed I was looking through my YouTube and seeing if I posted daily, and I missed like two days. And you don't know where you miss, and I was like, why did I miss those days? I went and looked, and there was stuff all over the calendar except for what post YouTube. Yes, yeah, um, so it were productive days, maybe they got a little busy, but I uh but I'm not tracking that, and I think it's an opportunity, yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

So that's that's the great thing about when you build a custom program for clients that are in business. We have to we gotta bring it all together sometimes. Some of my clients I have to say, you know, give yourself gratitude every day. You just depends. Everyone needs something a little bit different, but those are the changes that when you do it consistently with some structure, you don't see the change.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

So this whole time she was like, I'm not losing weight, it's not working, but she wasn't doing the work.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

No, not not not the task at hand, not yes, you're not what they what the kid said, you understood the assignment. Oh, wait, the assignment was not clearly not understood.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Okay, so one other thing I hear, and and you're right, I think we have said this before. None of these are expensive. You say most of these are free. Hope you're already paying the water bill, right? And none of these are really time consuming. Like, I haven't heard you say run a my marathon twice a week.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

No, I would never. That's a poor prescription, unless you come to me and say you want to run a marathon, then I will give you the program to do set. But yeah, no, I would never. Someone said Tasha said that, you could say that's a cap categorically false.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Are you ready here, folks? Do not run two marathons in a week.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

No, no, no, without proper coaching training.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Okay, don't go on there and be like, oh, the business cousins told us to do it. We did not.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

No, the opposite. We said the opposite.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

I think I think that's the beautiful thing. It's the easy thing, it's the difficult because it's just one YouTube video a day, it's just 10 um LinkedIn connections a day. It's not eating bread, right? So you don't even have to do anything extra. Yeah, and those little habits make such a big difference, getting you unstuck. People asking, like, man, how did you do it? People reach out to you, and it's like, man, you look good, but you've been doing different. Yeah. Um, I was at a conference this weekend. They said, Bruce, you've been working out. I was like, just maintaining.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Maintaining. That's what I would say. Just stay consistent, living my healthy lifestyle. That's what I said at the family reunion. They're like, Oh, they couldn't believe my age. I said, Yes, y'all, I'm you know, like y'all, yeah. Yeah, I come to all the family reunions.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Looking the same.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Looking the same.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Only reason anybody knows I got older is got my hair longer.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Exactly. And I show up with different hair, so I can't use that.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

It's that's it, though. That's it, and that's where I'm really excited because I know that this podcast is gonna change some lines and grow some businesses, not because fill in the blank, but because we're the most consistent.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

So here's what we're gonna do. Going into season two, you're gonna start seeing some guests, friends of ours, family of ours. Yeah, um, we want to encourage you. There's topics where there's health or wealth that you are curious about or struggling with, you can leave a comment under um the YouTube channel. It'll be under New Skills New You or the HLS Collective YouTube channel. Some people play this anywhere you listen to podcasts, and we would love to feature your topic so that we can make this valuable to you. Any last words of wisdom?

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Yes, I would say the question is whether you'll be different by design or by default. So stick to your habits, not your excuses.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

I love it. I've still got to find that bone. Thanks for tuning in. Tell the friend to tell a friend, and we'll see you next week on the Business Cousins podcast.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

See you next week.