Customizing your Personal Development using the 5AM Club Framework with Robin Sharma

One of world?s top leadership experts + Humanitarian + author of the #1 worldwide bestseller #The5amClub – Robin Sharma

Robin Sharma is a globally respected humanitarian, bestselling author and the founder of The Robin Sharma Foundation for Children, a not-for-profit venture that helps children in need lead better lives. His new book The 5AM Club is currently one of the bestselling books in the world.

Widely considered one of the world’s top leadership experts, this pathblazer’s clients include many Fortune 100 companies, famed billionaires, professional sports superstars, music icons and members of royalty. Robin Sharma’s books have sold over 15,000,000 copies in 92+ languages making him one of the most widely read authors alive.

Episode Highlights:

Learn the 20/20/20 formula that starts at 5:00 AM
How to figure out and customize your own personal development and self-mastery based on your preferences
What are the four interior empires of personal development
How to implement the twin cycles of elite performance for maximum productivity
Learn how to be the best leader for your people

Transcript: Download

Video Transcription?provided by?GMR Transcription Services.

Jaime: Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I am Jaime Masters, and I am so excited to have Robin Sharma on the show. I?ve heard his name for years and years. He has sold over 15 million books online, which is insane. His newest book is called The 5:00 a.m. Club. You can check it out on Amazon right now. I highly recommend you pick it up. Thanks so much for coming on the show today.

Robin: Thanks a lot, Jaime. Great to see you.

Jaime: Nice to see you. Now, it?s so funny, as my children woke up at 5:00 a.m. today and I woke up at 5:45. Is that okay, that my kids are now part of the 5:00 a.m. club, and I?m not?

Robin: I think one of the things that has set the book on fire around the world is that it offers a very specific methodology ? the 20/20/20 formula that starts at 5:00 a.m. If you want, we can get into it.

Jaime: Definitely.

Robin: But, it?s like any morning ritual. It?s like any nightly routine. Customize it and make it work for you. I think so many times, we almost need permission from someone to say, ?Yes, this is okay, yes, you can hack the morning routine so it works for you.? One of the things about personal development and self-mastery is it?s like a buffet, and I think the way to really make it work is customize it for your own lifestyle and your own way of being.

Jaime: Oh, I completely agree with you, especially from all the Millionaire interviews. There?s a million ways to do something, and knowing yourself is really important. I find, though, even with clients, the hard thing is knowing what you actually do like and don?t like. There?s so much testing that?s involved. So, how do you recommend people really figure out their custom routine?

Robin: I?m a huge fan of journaling. In The 5:00 a.m. Club, I?ve actually done something I call journaling deconstruction, where I actually speak to the profound benefits of journaling. Some of those include making the time in a world of business to contemplate so you get to know yourself. I think one of the greatest crimes of humanity, Jaime, is self-betrayal ? in other words, living society?s routines, living by society?s values, living by society?s definitions of success, and not figuring out what?s true to you.

And, to me, what a leader is and a game-changer is someone who says, ?You know what? Here?s the routine that feels best for me. Here?s how I wanna live. Here?s how I define success.? So, I think two specific tactics in order to get to know the routine that works best for you ? No. 1, journaling every morning while the rest of the world is asleep. That?ll promote massive amounts of clarity and self-awareness.

No. 2, what I do almost every morning, is a one-hour nature walk. A lot of the most creative artists, and writers, and business titans understood the power of getting up in the morning, getting out to nature, and walking so you can incubate ideas. When you get out there ? and, I encourage you not to bring your phone. I often carry a little Moleskine journal with a pen so I can get my downloads, but the point I?m trying to make is getting out on a solo nature walk will allow you that time to reflect on how you wanna live, the routines that are best for you, and the values that are closest to your heart.

Jaime: It?s so funny how business owners think that the more we pack into a certain amount of time means that we?re more productive or more efficient, but not necessarily more effective. I completely agree with you that letting our creative brain actually breathe can actually circumvent all sorts of other problems that we might be running into, though when you say an hour and journaling for how long, they go, ?I already have so much on my plate; I can?t imagine.? I?m sure that?s what you get all the time. What do you say to something like that?

Robin: The doorway to success swings inward, not outward. And, what I mean by that is in The 5:00 a.m. Club, there?s a profound, powerful, and actually disruptive model called the ?four interior empires.? There are so many people in the field right now of personal development saying everything is mindset, and with enormous respect to people evangelizing this message, I believe that mindset is only 25% of the personal mastery equation.

In the book, I get into heartset, healthset, and soulset, because we?re more than our mindset and our psychology; we are also our emotionality, which I call ?heartset.? And, we?re not must mindset and heartset, we?re healthset. We need energy, and vitality, and physicality. And, we?re not just mindset, heartset, and healthset, Jaime, we?re soulset. We are deep beings connected to a larger picture, and so, all four of those interior empires are important.

What?s my point? To any entrepreneur who wants to make $1 million, or dominate their domain, or elevate their lifestyle, work on your four interior empires, and that will activate all external empires, whether they are financial, artistic, lifestyle, or philanthropic.

Jaime: I?m bowing to you right now. I?m just so thankful that people are talking about this because even as a coach, I know that, yes, business is part of it, and tactics and strategy are amazing, and none of that matters if you don?t have the energy, if you?re already burnt out. As soon as you start stacking things up, you?re like, ?Oh, wait, I now have to focus on your health before we even get to what you really wanna accomplish because there?s no way you can actually do that.? So, thank you for bringing that up. Which one do they focus on ?first,? though?

Robin: Superb and thoughtful question. So, part of the value of the 20/20/20 formula that The 5:00 a.m. Club is based around is 20 minutes from 5:00 to 5:20 on exercise ? and, we can get into the neurobiological, cognitive benefits from that. It?s a complete game-changer ? morning exercise first thing in the morning.

Jaime: I?m gonna stop you on that because I wanna actually break this thing down. In the book, it says, ?And, you have to sweat.? So, it?s not like elliptical, 20 minutes, just chilling, doing the regular stuff. Sorry. So, why is that important?

Robin: Oh, don?t be sorry. I appreciate you leading me where your people wanna go. So, in the book, there?s actually a deconstruction of the 20/20/20 formula. It?s based on a morning routine I?ve taught to the billionaires I?ve coached, executives at Nike, IBM Watson, Starbucks, and Microsoft.

So, let?s get into that first pocket, which is about ?move.? So, I think that the starting point is anyone can be a morning person. You gotta do it for 66 days. University College of London has done research and found that through the power of neuroplasticity, which is our brain?s ability to adapt, any human being on the planet, by doing any new skill for 66 days, can wire it into automaticity. So, I would challenge with great love and respect every one of your many viewers to give this 66 days before you say, ?I can?t do this,? because it will revolutionize your productivity, your prosperity, and your impact.

So, once you?re in the process of wiring in The 5:00 a.m. Club method, the first 20 minutes, 5:00 to 5:20, just do one thing: Sweat. Because when you sweat, you will activate ? this is powerful ? BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which John Radiant Harvard said is like Miracle-Gro for your brain. You?re actually gonna promote neurogenesis, which means you?re gonna grow more brain cells, you?re gonna get more connections, which means you?re gonna be more creative, you?re gonna be able to process more quickly, you?re gonna activate your metabolism, which is gonna give you more energy.

And, for any entrepreneur and business-builder, energy is more valuable than intellect. And, I could go on and on-- you?re gonna release dopamine, the inspirational neurotransmitter, you?re gonna reduce cortisol, the fear hormone ? how much is that worth to an entrepreneur? ? And you?re gonna release serotonin, the pleasure, neurochemical.

Now, Jaime, it?s 5:20. Your competition is asleep, your family is asleep, the world is asleep. You are feeling on fire. Second pocket ? 5:20 to 5:40. This is reflection. This is where you pray, you visualize, you meditate, and you write in a journal. So, let?s not confuse ?busy? with ?productivity.? And, by this 20-minute pocket of reflecting on what you wanna stand for in the day, what you wanna do in the day, what your dreams are, you?re gonna lock and load on what?s most important so when you go out in the world, you?re not reactive, you?re monomaniacally focused.

Third pocket: Grow. The billionaires I coach, the titans of industry, all have one thing in common: Massive and freakish levels of curiosity. They are obsessive learners. You read a book, whether it?s The 5:00 a.m. Club, or The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, or Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, or Isaacson?s biography on Steve Jobs. For $20.00-30.00, you can get information that will make you $1 billion.

So, the final pocket of the 20/20/20 formula is where you read, where you study, where you listen to an audiobook, where you listen to a podcast, where you review your game charts ? I have game charts where I deconstruct in my Moleskines ? and now it?s 6:00, you have optimized your mindset, you have purified, your heartset, you have calibrated your healthset, you have escalated your soulset. Your days are fundamentally different, as I say in The 5:00 a.m. Club. The way you begin your days defines the ways unfold, and your days slip into weeks, months, and years. Get your mornings right ? pretty much guaranteed an amazing life.

Jaime: Okay. So, I love this, and what?s hilarious, though, is Hal Elrod, who wrote a book, Miracle Morning, is a good friend of mine, and years and years ago, he was like, ?You should do this,? and I was like, ?I?m not a morning person, not even close.? And then, my kids started going to school at such an early time, I had to wake up earlier now. And then, for summer, I just automatically ? and, I?m so annoyed that I kept going, ?But, I?m a night person. I?m supposed to be a night person.?

And, what I realized is that at the end of the day, my brain cognition ? when I thought I could be more creative after I put kids to bed, after I do all the things ? is still not as optimal as it is bright and early in the morning, which is annoying as all heck to me because I know how important it is to feel good in the morning. It?s just I was like, ?But, I?m a night owl.? So, nobody has any excuses, just so we?re clear. I said that beforehand; I am now changed. Go ahead.

Robin: I think a lot of Hal. He?s a student of mine, and I think he?s done very nice work in the world. There was a ? in the current issue of Success magazine, a gentleman by the name of Scott ? I believe he pronounces his name ?Bedgood? ? said exactly what you said, Jaime. He goes, ?I?m gonna interview Robin, I?m gonna read The 5:00 a.m. Club, I?m a night owl, I don?t think it?ll ever work, but let me try it with my wife.? And, as resistant as he was ? and, he tried to ? he wanted to say, ?The morning routine you?re teaching in The 5:00 a.m. Club method doesn?t work,? he found that it really transformed him, and the word that he used is in terms of his productivity, it actually became magical.

The larger point is simply this: There?s a reason why many of the great titans, saints, mystics, poets, and artists woke up between 4:00 and 6:00 in the morning, and there is ? it is a time of incredible tranquility in the world. You have just slept, your brain ? neuroscientists have realized there is a mechanism where the brain washes itself while you sleep.

You wake up in the morning, your brain is more pure. When you do that deep reading, that deep journaling, that prayer, that meditation, your brain and soul is much more receptive, so it has a deeper impact. 4:00 to 6:00 in The 5:00 a.m. Club is a complete game-changer for anyone who wants to do amazing things.

Jaime: Well, I just wanna give everyone the caveat ? it took me two years before I even got close, and it?s not perfect still, and I meditate every single day, but it?s still ? give yourself a break, also. Yes, 66 days, but it takes a little while, so just stick with it, and you?ll see the change evolutionary not only in your person, but on your routine. It gets way easier, just so you guys know, too. It?s hard at first to make actual change, or it feels hard to make change at first.

Robin: There?s what I call a brain tattoo in the book. The book is written as a story with these ?

Jaime: Which I love.

Robin: Yeah. There?s the quirky billionaire, Mr. Riley, that so many people are falling in love, there?s the entrepreneur female character, there?s the artist who is suffering from self-sabotage even though he has brilliant talents, and then there?s the spellbinder. And, one of the brain tattoos of the spellbinder is ?All change is hard at first.? It?s exactly what you said, Jaime. All change is hard at first, messy in the middle, gorgeous at the end.

If the change we?re trying to embrace was easy, it wouldn?t be real change. So, whether it?s trying to improve your relationship, trying to join the 5:00 a.m. club, trying to scale your business, any game-changing move is meant to terrify you and frighten you if it?s worth doing. Our society is like, ?Oh, everything has to be easy.? If I look at the billionaires, they understand the power of rigor, committing to grand commitments that terrify you, because that?s how you maximize and fully materialize your genius, not by walks in the park in terms of the way you live.

Jaime: Where is the line on that, though? Because sometimes ? when you start realizing risk is wonderful until you get so much that you feel like you can?t eat, or your children are gonna go homeless, or whatever ? there?s just lines of where that is. Where is the sweet spot of that?

Robin: Very intelligent question. I would say trust your instinct. There is a line in how rigidly you follow The 5:00 a.m. Club method. I live my life in seasons. There?s a model in The 5:00 a.m. Club that has been very helpful to my high-level clients, and it?s also a very disruptive model, and it?s called ?the twin cycles of elite performance.? What we?re hearing a lot of in society right now is ?Rigidly follow your routines. Don?t fall off the wagon. Do this relentlessly.? Well, we are human beings, not cyborgs ? at this point.

Jaime: Right, so far.
Robin: So, what I?m suggesting to you is whether it comes to a routine or building your business, have these periods where you?re a warrior and heroic, a risk-taker, on your ?A? game, up at 5:00 a.m., running the 20/20/20 formula that I teach in the book, and then pull back by this twin cycles of elite performance, and pull back, and shift from being a warrior to being a poet.

The past two months, I went into what I call my deep recovery cycle, and I spent more time resting, and more time in art galleries, and more time enjoying life, and more time reading the classics, and I?ve realized those periods are essential to incubate ideas and to refuel my five assets of creative genius so it can come back, and then run The 5:00 a.m. Club method and get into what I call in the book ?the high excellence cycle.?

Does that make sense? Nature runs by seasons; I think we should run by seasons, otherwise you?re gonna burn out.

Jaime: You went exactly where I was gonna go for the next question, so this is absolutely perfect, because I was gonna say that a lot of entrepreneurs are more all-or-nothing. ?If I can?t get it right, then I?m not doing it at all,? and it?s sort of this ?one or the other,? and that thinking of ?just one or the other? screws with us a lot of times because it feels like I?m a failure if I don?t.

But, what you?re saying is giving yourself permission to let go sometimes, and I?ve chatted with a bunch of Olympic athletes too ? they have to. Nobody can train that hard constantly, and entrepreneurs ? we don?t understand that that?s the exact same thing that we?re doing, so thank you for saying that. How do we implement that or know ? because it feels like it?s testing for you anyway ? how do you know two months of relaxing is what you needed?

Robin: Well? And, by the way, you?re absolutely right. If you look at elite athletes, they have their game season, and then they have the recovery breaks. That?s exactly what I?m teaching with that twin cycles of elite performance model. I read a great interview with Keanu Reeves.

Jaime: I love him.

Robin: He?s promoting John Wick 3, and he said he does his big movie, and then he takes the time ? what did he call it? It was a great term. Oh ? being a civilian. So, he does his movie, he gets into amazing, shredded shape, works his craft, inhabits the role, and then he says, ?Then, I get back to being a civilian. I drink more red wine, I eat more steak, and I ride my motorcycle.? Exact ? that?s how the A players hang.

So, how do we do it? The first thing is we start off with our own way of being. If I know your entrepreneurial audience as I believe I do, because I?ve worked with entrepreneurs for 23 years, most of us have a deep wound, and it often comes from a childhood where we weren?t enough. If you look at a lot of the billionaires and a lot of the great artists, a lot of the great musicians ? they had mommies who didn?t spend time with them or daddies who didn?t like them.

And so, we feel that if we?re not working 24/7 and producing, we feel shame and guilt. And so, that gets me back to the four interior empires, Jaime. The real work of a great entrepreneur is work on your mindset, heartset, healthset, and soulset, and especially heartset work, where you actually start to fill the hole in the wound of not being enough. Then, you actually go out in the world and understand, ?Oh, I need to take the time to recover,? because you?re not running this old wound of not being enough. Does that make sense?

Jaime: Oh, a million times yes, and bringing it to light, I think, is really important because it?s easy ? at least, it was for me ? to shove that down as much as humanly possible when you start doing personal inner work, and most of the time, you start doing personal inner work because there?s something in your business. I say it?s the best personal evolution ever because you?re like, ?Oh, shoot, I have to grow. Okay, well, because I want this in business, it?s worth it,? and then we start to go in, and it?s beliefs, patterns, and all sorts of crap that pulls up from behind that we don?t wanna admit is driving us, but is.

What do you recommend, though ? especially when it comes to this, there?s a million different avenues to go down. Because when you start opening that up, it can also be kind of insane as far as emotionally, or if you start going to therapy and you start opening that up, it can change you in a wonderful way, but it can also be taxing as far as energy goes. So, we?re spending a lot of time trying to go through past trauma or whatever it is, which, in the long run, will be wonderful, but in the short term, it?s not ?as productive? as we would like to be, specifically potentially in business.
Robin: Well, I have to honor and celebrate you in the most sincere way, and I wouldn?t do this if I didn?t believe it, and here?s why: We?re taking this conversation to a profound place that very few podcasters will take it to, and what you?re talking about is something extraordinarily profound for anyone who actually ? here?s the paradox. You?re talking about emotional healing. You?re talking about what I call ?mindset work.? You?re talking about healing the trauma that is repressed within every single human being on the planet. So few people are willing to have this conversation.

Now, for any one of your listeners and viewers who might say, ?Okay, Jaime and Robin just took me off what I was interested in ? making money, having a greater impact,? here?s what I would say with the greatest respect. The doorway into wealth is moving through your wounds. The doorway into impact is healing your self-identity. The reason why anyone who might be viewing this is not, let?s say, massively productive is not because of external things. It?s because of subconscious, repressed guilt, shame, anger, sadness that society has not taught us how to work through.

That creates what I call a ?field of hurt? that seeps into your thinking, that blocks you from seizing reality. So, in the book, I really get into this concept of ?everything is not mindset.? I think one of the reasons why books don?t work, a lot of courses don?t work, most change does not last, is people get it cognitively. ?Oh, I need to do this in terms of a morning routine. Oh, I need to do this in terms of growing my business. Thank you for that online course. Now, I have the strategy and tactics.?

What I?m sharing in The 5:00 a.m. Club is not only the morning routine I taught to billionaires, but marrying it with inner work of increasing your mindset through your psychology, but also, healing your heartset and your emotionality, and then, optimizing your physicality so you have energy, and then, getting very dangerous and deep and saying, ?Please don?t forget your soulset.? And, people might say, ?Well, I?m not a spiritualist, I?m not religious.? Your soulset is simply building intimacy with the ? your primary relationship, with your heroic, deepest, wisest self.

Jaime: I love all of this! Okay. The tough thing, to me, is ? especially working with someone ? and, I was agnostic, I thought we were computers, and when we die ? all this stuff on the soul side. But, once the awareness of how hurt both me as a human ? every human is hurt on some aspect ? the awareness of having it and logically knowing the correct thing to do ? it is the most annoying thing in the world when you realize that you?re running by patterns in the moment when you?re running them, right?

So, when you do that ? that?s why I was asking that question before ? how do we know which modality or which path can help with that? So, awareness is the first step, but after awareness, it?s really crappy until you figure out the right navigation setting, and I know it?s different for every person, but do you have any insight on that?

Robin: Yeah. The most honest thing I could say to you is the journey into your greatest, most powerful self ? and, in The 5:00 a.m. Club, there?s that character, Mr. Riley, the billionaire, and towards the end of the book, he shifts from morning routine and success-building mechanisms to the 11 letters that introduce people how to enter the magic.

Now, here?s my point: Learning how to enter the magic ? and, this is very real. It?s not some mystic ? the great poets, artists, business titans ? they entered an alternate orbit that the majority can enter, but has been blocked through. That?s the whole Matrix idea. Morpheus to Neo: ?Life has pulled the wool over your eyes.? So, those 11 letters at the end of the book explain how to enter the magic.

You enter the magic by having the bravery to do that deep interior work on your four interior empires, and I have to be honest: It is exhausting at times, it is messy at times, it is confusing at times, but it is the most valuable work a human being can do because when you do that work, here?s what happens: You release your wealth wounds, you release your ?not-enoughness,? you release your mentality of scarcity, you reconnect with your bravery and artistry, and then you go out in the world and say, ?I don?t care what anyone else is doing; here?s what I stand for, here?s my magic, here?s my art, here?s my ambition,? and that leads to all the external rewards we?re looking for, so the best work we can do is four interior empire work, as messy as it is.

Jaime: I love that you say ?bravery? because it really does take the ? and, I say this warrior-like. I feel like when you go inside, you have to really put on your armor because it?s in you, and it really touches to a point that a sword could never really get to, when we?re actually working on the inner side of things. The hard thing is that there?s also probably a million things that you can work on internally, so do we prioritize what we start with? ?Hey, I had money issues as a kid because my dad always said this,? or how do we start to understand what is the first type of thing to work on? Because there?s a million, and it?s gonna be cycles anyway.

Robin: Yes. The mother of all moves ? if you wanna do this work and materialize your primal genius ? is exactly what the book is all about, joining the 5:00 a.m. club. It really is. The mother of all habits is wiring in the waking up at 5:00 a.m., and then, not just checking your email. Actually, I say don?t do that. Check your email maybe at 8:00 or 9:00.

The game-changing move and the one habit that will lift every other habit is installing the 5:00 a.m. club method and running the 20/20/20 formula, and when you really understand it ? that morning pocket of movement, the second pocket of reflecting ? that?s where you pray, you meditate, you do the modalities we can talk about in that pocket ? prayer, meditation, journaling, processing through the repressed emotions; we can get into that, purifying your heartset ? and then, the third pocket from 5:40 to 6:00, growth ? that will take care of the four interior empire work that will lead to every other thing.

And then, if I could touch on it, you talked about cycles ? there?s a Buddhist monk, Pema Chodron, who said the whole path of self-excavation and exploiting your primal talent is a series of little deaths, and I just wanted to ? if I may ? offer that you?re absolutely right. If you really wanna play this game, and you wanna live a life that makes history, and you wanna live a life that brings you happiness and real joy ? not fake joy from getting likes on Instagram, even though they don?t show them anymore ? if you wanna really feel joy, if you really wanna live your heroism, please understand that you?ve gotta be willing to kill the old you to embrace the next level of you.

Richard Bach said it very well: What the caterpillar thinks is the end of the world, the butterfly knows is the beginning. So, it?s a messy journey, but the more you do it, the easier it gets, and it?s the most profound work any businessperson could ever do.

Jaime: I love how tactical ? when I heard the book the first time, just so you know, I was judgy. I was like, ?Oh, it?s another one of the morning book things.? And, what I love is it?s so much more than that. And, don?t get me wrong ? the tactical parts of it are freaking amazing, because I?m a tac ? tell me what to do, at least to get started, so I can finagle once we go through.

But, the fact that you?re leading on a journey that is spiritual, personal evolution is huge, and knowing what we can do in order to just take that is really important, especially for me, to add it to the leadership side of things. Because yes, money is great, and entrepreneurship is absolutely amazing, and building yourself into a leader ? and, I?d love to chat about some of this stuff ? starts with trying to get all of this crazy stuff working out.

So, I was chatting with one of my clients the other day; she just started journaling, having a heck of the time with it. She goes, ?I?m like this,? right? But, she?s really becoming an amazing leader. She started as solo-preneur. She has 20 or 30 people on her team right now. And, to grow into what that space looks like so far has been a crazy journey for her, but when we look forward to $3 million, what do you think pops up? Let?s pretend she?s doing the 5:00 a.m. club. I don?t know if she is right now, but let?s pretend she?s working through the 5:00 a.m. club. How can she really pay attention to be the best leader for her people that she can?

Robin: Well, I think there?s a whole bunch of things on leadership. The first thing I would say is the job of a leader is to shine a light on the talents of your people who have never caught a glimpse of their talents. If you?re not growing your people, then you?re following, you?re not leading.

The second thing ? you want a tactic? I would say you can?t build an A-level company with C-level people. Get to understand how to hire to talent. The third thing you wanna know about leadership that I?ve learned in the trenches for two decades, working with the Fortune 100? I would say ? again, the inner work is really important because the more you can turn down the voice of your own ego, and be a servant leader, and lift your people up, and deliver magical-grade value to your marketplace, the more you?re gonna win economically and in terms of applause.

The fourth thing I?d say is the best leaders lead by example. The fifth thing I would say is you cannot inspire other people if you are de-inspired to work on your levels of inspiration. Sixth thing I would say about leadership is you cannot energize your marketplace and produce fantastic products if you have no energy. So, get fit like a pro athlete, manage your energy nutritionally, et cetera. So, those would be some of the things I would say.

Jaime: You?ve never done this before at all. My goodness! I love all of those things, and so many things we can unpack. ?Magical-grade value? is what popped up to me. That?s insane. So, do you think a lot of companies have that, and if you don?t have it, how do you get it?

Robin: In The 5:00 a.m. Club ? I think I?ve got some remnants of my morning walk. It looks like a little green earthworm. You know those little green earthworms?

Jaime: No way! He was having fun.

Robin: I was out in the woods this morning. So, you talk about magical-grade ? I mentioned magical-grade products. Do most companies offer them? Absolutely not, and that?s why, in The 5:00 a.m. Club, there?s a term called ?GCA,? gargantuan competitive advantage. It?s never been so easy for an entrepreneur to own the field because so many businesses are card-carrying members of the cult of mediocrity.

You mentioned the morning routine books out there. Many of them are wonderful. You know, I haven?t worked on this for six months. I?ve been teaching the 5:00 a.m. club method for 23 years. I first mentioned the morning routine I?m teaching in a book I wrote called The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. I was a lone voice talking about 5:00 a.m. and morning routine when people said that made no sense, and I started teaching it to the billionaires I?ve coached for many years ? the NBA superstars, the movie stars that come to me for mentoring ? and it was the morning routine that I share in the book that was a game-changer for them.

Writing The 5:00 a.m. Club ? I didn?t write it in two months or three months, I wrote it over four years in Rome, and St. Petersburg, Russia, and Sao Paolo, Brazil, and Zurich, Switzerland. There?s art in the book. As you said, there?s tactics and models, but there?s also philosophy and spirituality. It?s a roller-coaster ride because I believe success without soulfulness is an empty victory. There?s a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of people with a lot of money who are incredibly empty. And so, what I?ve tried to do is produce a piece of magic that will really revolutionize people. It?s one of the best-selling books in the world right now for a reason.

What?s my point? We live in a world where people would rather put out a thousand pieces of mediocrity than take the time and painstaking care to release their magic. But, if you take the time to spend four years, eight years, or 10 years on your Sistine Chapel ceiling, you?ll release a piece of poetry to the world that would stand the test of time, and that?s how you build virality and create a movement.

Jaime: Okay. So, The Alchemist is one of my favorite books. I read it almost every year. I see a quote from him right here, and that?s what the book reminded me of, the fact that we can layer on so much more than just the tactics, but I appreciate the fact that you have tactics. I love The Alchemist, but the no tactics ? it?s amazing, and all of his work is absolutely amazing, but the blend of the two really makes a difference.

The question that I have for you in regards to creating your ? Leonardo da Vinci is one of my favorites ever, and to be able to go in a bubble, create what you have, and then ? and, I paint ? bring that out there is amazing. That being said, the market matters too, so I?ve seen people ? friends of mine ? go through painstaking creation and amazingness that they have, and the market?s like, ?Okay?great. Good job.? And, it?s a magnum opus, but the market doesn?t either ? maybe it?s not the right time, or whatever it is ? doesn?t totally resonate with it. Why do you think that happens?

Robin: That?s another great question, and what I would say is you can be like van Gogh ? in other words, there?s a great movie to watch if you?re interested, Jaime, and it?s called?something about eternity, and it?s about van Gogh and ? who?s that guy that was?? Not Tom Berenger ? he was in Platoon. What?s the actor?

Jaime: I don?t watch a lot of movies.

Robin: Just google ?eternity? and ?van Gogh? ?

Jaime: And, we?ll link it in the show notes.

Robin: Yeah, please do it. And, basically, it?s about the life of van Gogh. And, van Gogh ? it showed in the movie van Gogh was creating this disruptive art, and he actually was put in an insane asylum, and there?s a scene in the movie where the head of the insane asylum goes, ?Vincent, do you actually? ? and, he picked up a van Gogh masterpiece, a little drawing ? ?Vincent, do you actually think this is a piece of art??

And obviously, van Gogh was poor. He didn?t sell a painting in his lifetime. He died dirt poor. And, after he died, he?s revered as a great master. So, one way to do it is you trust your instinct ? because in The 5:00 a.m. Club, I say it?s wiser than your intellect ? and you have the artistic integrity not to follow commercialism, but to trust the whispers of your own heart. That is how the titans play.

But, there is a second route to take, which is understand what people want, pay attention to your marketplace, and then follow your instinct, but give people what they want. But, I have to say, Steve Jobs didn?t do tests ? what are they called? Test groups? Steve Jobs said, ?Here?s where the market?s going. I don?t care what people think. I?m gonna trust my instinct.? And, look what he produced.

Jaime: I was chatting with my mentor the other day, and he?s got a project that?s been going for 10 years because the technology hadn?t caught up yet, and I?m going ? I love the fact that you can bring that and not just forget that it?s not a right-now kind of problem. It?s still something that you can work with for 10 years, knowing that the technology?s gonna come out there, which is insane. Okay, but I appreciate the second piece because no one on the show wants to die penniless.

Sometimes it happens, but nobody really goes down that path, trying to do it. But, the fact that you said that the masterpiece is what matters, and being able to get that work out there, you don?t live a life that is uninspired ? or, I shouldn?t say that ? that is inspired to be able to create something that?s amazing regardless of whether people like it or not, which is an art ? I was an art major. As an artist, it?s hard to be like, ?Oh, look at me!?, like a kid. ?Look at me!? ?You suck.? ?Oh, wait, look at me!? ?You suck.? That creates trauma too, right? And then, we build from there.

Robin: But, what I would say ? I don?t like the word ?but,? so I say ?and yet,? and that?s another leadership thing, which is there?s a lot of people who are very loose with their language these days. There?s a lot of swearing, and ?I hate this,? and ?this is crazy and insane.? Our words form our psychology. If people say, ?Aw man, this project I?m working on is sick,? and we say that 10 times a day, that?s the kind of thing that affects our subconscious and creates illness.

I talk in the book about the power of words in one of the 11 letters, because the great mystics, the great creators, and the great artists were meticulous with their words. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, Mandela, Mother Teresa ? these people freed people?s spirits through the power of their words. Words are incredibly powerful.

But, what I wanted to say is on that point you brought up about should we follow commercialism or look at the marketplace, I hear you. No one wants to die penniless, and I don?t evangelize that at all. But, Jaime, the most truthful thing I can say is instinct is so much more powerful than reason. I?m no guru, but maybe my backstory could be of service to your listeners and viewers.

I used to be a litigation lawyer, and I was very unhappy. I was making excellent money, I was a success in the world, my parents were very proud of me, people said I was gonna be a judge, and I self-published a book in a Kinko?s copy shop, and people thought I was a fool. And, I actually then wrote a book called The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari that I self-published, and people thought I was a fool.

And, I was laughed at by radio show people, morning people made fun of me, I stood at the American Booksellers? Convention in Chicago at the top of the escalators with a copy of the cover around my neck with a little string, shaking hands of agents who mocked me, and security agents said, ?Leave,? and I?d come back. The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari has sold over 6 or 7 million copies.

So, it doesn?t ? I think the great masterpieces of your life?don?t make any sense, but that?s where you have to trust yourself, and sometimes, you?re gonna win, but what is winning? Is following your heart and doing you much more winning than being an accountant in a cubicle in a job you can?t stand, making $150,000.00 a year with a broken heart?

Jaime: We could chat about all this forever. I?m gonna ask you one question before the last question, but how did you build that? I?ve learned from almost 500 Millionaire interviews that instinct, intuition, whatever you wanna call it, really does help with reason, and I have a degree in computers, so I?m like the logic queen. So, I have a harder time listening to intuition, and my goal this whole past year was to try and tap into that more ? so, not only listen, but to actually trust and take action on it.

So, how did you build that muscle to go, ?I?m making this book work, I have to be brave and stand in front of a whole bunch of people that are gonna say no to me? ? how did you know that that was the right thing for you internally?

Robin: Well, it gets right back to the 5:00 a.m. club method, which I?ve practiced most of my adult life, and the 20/20/20 formula, which is 5:00 to 6:00, the 20-minute pocket I go very deep into in the book ? that will battle-proof your mindset and help you install the psychological belief system that translates into battle-proof behavior in the day.

And then, the second pocket, which is when you reflect ? I read biographies, autobiographies, I journal about the man I wanna be, about my top five values, I blueprint my ideal day, I pray ? that 20 minutes every single day battle-proofs and protects your emotional life. And then, the third pocket of growth ? that will give you acumen, knowledge, wisdom, understanding of how the great ones did it. You do that every single day for 60 minutes, running the 5:00 a.m. club method, you do that over days, weeks, months, and years, and what starts to happen is you develop an incredibly strong mindset, heartset, healthset, and soulset. That?s how you do it.

And then, also, in the book, I talk about the second wind workout. So, if you believe exercise is incredibly powerful for optimizing cognition, energy, happiness, then why would you only exercise once a day? So, at 4:00 or 5:00, go out and walk in the woods, listen to more audiobooks, keep on strengthening yourself, contemplating, and that will allow you to get to know yourself so that you don?t care what the world thinks, and you?re an army of one, monomaniacally focused on your priorities and mission.

Jaime: ?Monomaniacally? ? I love it. So, in meditation, I would have an idea, and an idea had popped up, and I?d ignore it, and then it?d pop up, and I?d ignore it, because I had plans, and we already had the team knowing what they?re wanting. So, to me, when we?re looking at the tactical arm, I hear you, and I won?t take action because of this, that, or the other thing ? where is that line for you? Do you put it in the plan for next year, and that way, at least, it gets done? How fast do we implement this stuff when we?re called?

Robin: I pay attention when something keeps on knocking at my door. For the past ? I run an event every year; it?s a four-day event called the Titan Summit. I?ve had Richard Branson, and Woz, and Shaq, et cetera, at the event. So, last year, I had ? just a tactical point ? I had Deepak Chopra at the event, and he was genius-grade. He took us through the galaxies, and epigenetics, and how to hack longevity, and it was amazing.

Well, over the past week, as I?m building out the faculty for this year?s event, I kept on getting ?Reach out to Deepak and connect with him,? and I kept on coming very ? it was like a ping, and a louder ping, and then a knock on the door. So, yesterday, I sent an email to him, and it ? I just follow those kinds of things, and I think if you get really clear on yourself? We could go so deep down the rabbit hole in the book. I talk about the tight bubble of total focus.

So, if you actually start to structure your days ? there?s a concept I talk about in the book called ?the five great hours.? If you really wanna do this, and you do the rituals and routines in the books, and what I call the ecosystem, you only have to work five hours a day because most people work a week to get five good hours in. So, why not just structure your life to get five hours in a day, and then go out and have fun mountain biking and hanging out in art galleries?

If you do that, you?ll get ? you?ll shift from business to productivity, and then you?ll start to be more clear versus full of psychic mess, and you?ll start to hear the things that are really important.

Jaime: So many things about that, too. I?m a single mom. I probably work five or six hours when the kiddos are at school anyway, and that?s all that I ? so, I?m optimized quite well when I need to be, but what?s so funny ? I love that you said it knocks, and then it knocks louder. I feel like, ?I can hear it ? shoot, I gotta?? And then, it keeps knocking louder. So, I love that you?re like, ?Okay, when it knocks loud enough, then I actually did something,? because I felt like?I felt bad that I wasn?t hearing it on the ? that I wasn?t doing anything on the first knock. But, it?s not like we have to, right? If it?s important, it?ll keep knocking.

Robin: Yeah, be gentle with it. I think we have to give ourselves permission to be human. I don?t wanna stand here and say ? even on The 5:00 a.m. Club ? I was allowed to fly a little plane for 10 minutes in South Africa a little while ago, and so, it was like ? what do they say? Level and flat. You have to look at the dial, and the wind blows you off course, and then you come back on course. In the whole 10 minutes, it was being blown off course and pulling the plane on course.

And, that?s how we all live. Let?s be honest. Some days, I don?t wanna do the 5:00 a.m. club method, and there?s times where I give myself permission to rest more. Some days, I have a game plan, and it falls apart, and that?s just called being human. I?m no guru. I think the key is with intentionality and the right rituals, the 5:00 a.m. club method locked in, you?re gonna be much more consistent than you would be if you were a leaf in the fall wind.

Jaime: Thank you for being honest, because everybody tries to hold themselves to a high standard, and they know ? you wrote the book on it, and you still give yourself a break once in a while. So, I know we have to wrap up. I could literally talk to you all day, but I won?t because I know you?ve got other things going on. What is one action ? besides getting the book, because everybody needs to get the book ? but, one action listeners can take this week to help move them forward towards their goal of $1 million?

Robin: Go out and? Okay, I would say three actions. No. 1, go out and buy a journal and a pen, and then go for a morning walk tomorrow morning while the rest of the world is asleep, and leave your phone in the glove compartment of your car. While you walk with nature ? maybe it?s a park ? start to walk for at least 60 minutes, and start to write the ideas that come to you, and start to pay attention to the ideas that speak to your morning routine ? how you?re starting your mornings ? because the way you begin your day is the way you live your day, and pay attention to your business ideas.

The second specific tactic I would say ? start your morning with some exercise, and do it for seven days in a row, and watch how you feel in terms of your productivity. Third thing I would say? Spend a day over the next seven days with zero technology. Put your phone in a baggie, and put the baggie in a locked treasure chest, if you know what I mean, and spend the day in nature with your family, sniffing the flowers, reading a good book, and then start doing that once every seven days if you wanna be much more creative and productive.

Jaime: We?re gonna write all those down so you guys have them and can knock them out. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. Where can we find more about you, follow you online, get the book, all that fun stuff?

Robin: Great. The 5:00 a.m. Club book ? this is what it looks here so people can see it ? is available at Amazon.com. The audiobook is awesome. It?s on Audible. Also, it?s in most good bookstores. Also, I do wanna mention at the end of the book is a link to a 66-day app ? so, it?s a free, digital, video-based mentoring program where after readers finish the book, I actually coach them and mentor them on how to install it, how to do a lot of the things we?ve talked about. No charge whatsoever because I want people to lock and load it and give them that support.

And finally, I wanna mention a portion of my royalties go to help children with leprosy. So, it?s my big cause. A lot of people don?t know that leprosy is a huge pain and suffering in the world right now, and so, I?m really on fire to help these children in need. So, your readers ? when they read the book, they?re not only gonna get massive value, but help children in need as well, so all of us win in the process.

Jaime: Magical-grade value, just like we talked about. Not only the price of the book, you?re helping other people, and you give them a free app. Guys, it?s a no-brainer. Thank you for taking the time to spend with us today. I so appreciate it.

Robin: Yeah, and I wanna just acknowledge you, Jaime, for the intelligence of your questions, the depth you took us all to, and your passion for all of this material. Thanks. It was really fun.

Jaime: Thank you. Have an amazing day.

Robin: You, too. Thanks.

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