Decoding AQ with Ross Thornley Feat. Anthony Kenneth Spark - Serial Entrepreneur, Money Coach, Philanthropist, Author, and Personal Development Specialist

Hi, and welcome to Decoding AQ, helping you to learn the tools, mindsets, and actions to thrive in an ever-changing world. Hi, and welcome to the next episode of Decoding AQ. With me today, I have Anthony Spark. He's joining us from a snowy New York. He's a serial entrepreneur. He's a money coach, a philanthropist, He's an author and a personal development specialist. So his life and business is best known for really helping people break financial ceilings, rewrite their limiting beliefs, and build a life that is aligned with their God-given purpose. So for the last, nee, almost two decades, he's been coaching individuals and families towards those goals of independence, of freedom, personal transformation, and no doubt has seen a lot of adaptation, a lot of change, not only in his own life, but in the life of those that he works alongside. So welcome to the show, Anthony. Oh, thanks for having me. Hopefully, we have a great time. I'm sure we will. And hopefully, more importantly, I get some actionable stuff that can make this 45 minutes worth you listening to while you're driving or working or working out. Nice. I love that straight out the gate. Let's focus with, right, what value are we gonna land in here? But so you started out, uh, correct me, uh, with this, in terms of in retail, customer service, store management, marketing, and then really finding maybe what is part of your purpose in helping others around coaching, building freedom. What was the shift and what was the sort of, uh, embryo to that happening for you, Anthony? Yeah, it was a, it was a chance meeting, if you want to call it chance or fate or destiny or God or however you're going to frame it. But I'll give you a little bit of my, my history, I think it'll inform our conversation. So I grew up with a really dysfunctional family background. My mom was a single mom. My dad ended up going to prison. Lots of just mental health issues, addiction issues. So I was working full-time at 15 in 9th grade. I was working 40 hours a week. I ride my bike back and forth. I was working at a TCBY Nathan's at the time, and I was working, you know. No one had any money to give me. I wanted to— I went to Europe twice. I bought my own clothes, bought my own car, helped my mom. So I worked. I was blessed with an aptitude, so I did very well in school. I wasn't working at it, but I was able— really good at learning, you know. So by the time I was graduating high school, 2006, I'm 37. This is pre-social media for anyone that's out there that's like late 30s beyond, you know. I grew up, I grew up much more similarly to people I find in their 50s and 60s than I do the people that were really even 30, because that social media shift happened. Instagram doesn't come out till 2 years after I graduate high school. So there's no gurus, there's no cryptocurrencies, no gig economies, no social medias, no influencers, no affiliate marketing. So I was told you go to college or you're going to be a hobo. So I figured I wasn't good at fistfights under a drawbridge, so I figured I'd go to college and graduating high school, I just knew two things. I knew number one, I want to make a lot of money. You know, we had no money. I'd been working full-time since I was young, so I knew I want to do something that was going to be financially rewarding. But I also knew number two, I want to do something that helped people, because I knew for me, being in an office and doing finance— and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that— I just knew for Anthony Spark, I was going to be unhappy. So I figured I'd go to the medical route. Now, I didn't want to be a doctor though. I want to make a lot of money and help people, and that was the best way I could figure it. And I think that's a very important distinction, because some people are like, everything in their life, they want to be a lawyer, they want to be doctor, they want to do finance. I just felt like that was the best way to get to the thing I wanted. I didn't really care what I was doing per se. So graduate in high school, I'm working 60 hours a week. I got great grades and all my, my stuff. But a friend of mine worked at a ski place and he told me he met someone there that said he was going to retire at 28. Now again, for timeframe perspective, because if you're younger, this, you know, it's like, oh, obviously you got MrBeast and all this stuff. I'd never heard of that before. I didn't grow up with entrepreneurship majors and financial freedom and hearing about this stuff. So I remember thinking to myself, like, uh, I was unaware that was an option because I thought you either were born rich or you worked your whole life. And I didn't realize retiring in your 20s was out there. So I said to my friend, I said, I'd do anything to do that. I gotta meet this guy. And as usual, and we'll probably get into limiting beliefs and sociology, but he's like, I don't know, man, what if it's like a pyramid or a scam? He's gonna get you. And I said, maybe it is, but first off, I got nothing to get. This guy's the worst scam artist ever. I'm 17. I got nothing. But second of all, what if it is for real? What if it is honest? Because if it's not legitimate, I'm not proud to say it, but my family are criminals. I, I'll be able to suss it out. But what if it is real? Because if it is, and there's any chance that I could put myself in a position to not have to work in a traditional sense and own my schedule and be with my future kids and family, for me, that was the dream. I mean, having money and watches and houses is nice, but for me, everything is about time with family, emotional margin to be with the people you love, doing the things you want to do in your life. All that other stuff is nice, but it doesn't— I knew that wasn't the most important to me. So I got to know him and he was in the network marketing industry, which was super scandalous. We can maybe talk about that. A lot of people hated it. And I said, but this guy's really successful and I'm not gonna compromise my integrity with the way I do things. Neither was he. So I said, and he agreed to help me. So I started working at that. And because of that, uh, by the time I was 25, I was able to leave my full-time job and just focus on building my companies and my businesses. My wife was able to leave her day job at 29 and became a really substantial income for us, gave us an amazing life. On the journey of that, I really— my passion wasn't network marketing, it wasn't products, it wasn't selling stuff, although every business has revenue. It was the coaching element. It was helping people improve their finances and their relationships and, you know, fix their habits and not smoke pot or drink every day where they're kind of running from themselves and their life and Through the process of it, we've helped about 13 people make a pretty substantial income in our industry doing this. And but the coaching was the key. So I also started a coaching brand because while I'm— network marketing is specifically where I started, all the principles are the same whether you're in HR or you are, you know, a coach or you're doing these different things. The leadership principle is the same, the personal development's the same, the overcoming your own limiting beliefs over helping other people overcome their limiting beliefs. So That was the genesis of Spark a Change Coaching, which is that brand. But anyway, that's a little bit of my origin story, how I got here. So it was an impetus of a chance meeting with somebody that my friends— that never even met, never even talked to them. And I'm still doing, working with those people today, some of my best friends. And I guess some of that that you've just woven in there has certain mindsets that you've cultivated and, uh, focused on over those years as you've evolved and learned. And something that you talk about of compassionate capitalism. Yeah. Can you tell me a little bit more about that, how it shows up for you and the type of work that you do to blend those things in from perhaps traditional, oh, you make it, then you do philanthropic work, or you do this. What's compassionate capitalism and the mindset of that, Anthony? Yeah, so I think that at its core, depending on a person's ethics, any system can become unethical depending on how they approach it, right? So if you just look at raw capitalism— and I'm a capitalist— but you look at raw capitalism, if there isn't any humanity and if there isn't any personal ethics, that's going to lead to exploitation. Now you could say the same thing with socialism, same thing with any ism or any belief system. So I have a personal belief that just because something is effective doesn't mean it's ethical. Just because it works doesn't mean we should do it. And you see a lot of these practices, whether it be corporate, it be business, it be in any of these different pla— in churches, at any place where if you don't respect the sanctity of the individual and you only look at what's best for the amoral company, or what's only best for me and my agenda, and you disregard what's best for the other people then we very often make decisions that help make money, help drive ROI, but have a net negative in the lives of other people. And I, I think it really requires a, a level of responsibility. So for me, when we talk about compassionate capitalism, it means that you have personal integrity, that you don't do things just for personal or corporate gain, that you consider what is the impact on other people. You know, you're a sales manager, you're in HR, you you can manipulate laws and rules to see— to, to serve you, but not serve the other people. And the reality is that just because something's a law doesn't mean it's ethical, and vice versa. So we need to be willing, if we're going to live a life— because my biggest thing is, yeah, you build a multi-million dollar company and you have all that stuff, that's nice, but that's a game. Money is a game. And when you have no money, we very often over-index how much money is going to help us. And that's the same thing with time, that's the same thing with everything in our life. But if we are not careful, we can get the trophy and lose the most important prize, which is the person we become in the process of it. So what we need to make sure that we do is we have to look in the mirror. And the most important thing, as I was saying before, is look in someone in the mirror that you respect and that you admire. And very often I've found in that journey of being authentic and being willing to be honest, there's personal cost. You're not being honest when you get the reward for being honest. You only know if you're willing to be honest and have integrity when having honesty and having integrity and speaking up against something that's happening or speaking up against something that's not popular that you might not agree with. When the, the honesty costs you something and the dishonesty doesn't— gains you something, that's the only time you know. But I think that is really that core where we focus on making sure that what we're doing is benefiting the other person first. And you may make a little bit less money in that instance, and you may make a little bit less money in that quarter, But what is the value of more money against your personal integrity and your soul and being somebody that can look yourself and your family in the face and know that what you're doing is making the world a net better place? And the funniest thing of all, of course, is when you do that in general, you end up being more financially successful in the long term anyway, because you end up serving people in the right way. There's a lot of people online that I see, you know, they, they use Lamborghinis and naked women. And it's effective for their advertising, but they wonder why they're bankrupt in their soul. Just because something gets views or clicks, and just because you can hard sell somebody a $10,000 program, doesn't mean it's right. Just because you say there's a refund policy and then you make people have to jump backwards through flaming hoops for 7 months to get it, that's not ethics. So we have to be very, very cautious to not get so blinded by the ambition, the production, the performance, where we lose humanity and our ethics and our personal integrity. I think just letting that land a little bit about, from a mindset and approach of how do we make decisions? How are we navigating this entire journey of the game of life? Yeah. And then when we bring it back to difficult situations and moments that many of our listeners are facing that are either going through uncertainty about my job. Am I going to be valued? Am I losing my job? Have I got to do a role that I'm not going to enjoy anymore? And at the other side, it might be, I've got to make some tough decisions here. We are, you know, there's pressure from this person, this department, shareholders, whatever it means, that are really testing those ethics, right? Of, 'Ah, AI, what a great opportunity for efficiency. I've now got to make loads of cuts of people,' can use the AI banner of that. But I feel unease of myself. Now, in those situations, the unease at what point, 'Oh, it will cost me something to say, you know, to stand up for it. It might cost me my job, my future.' And therefore, many end up in situations that are unhealthy because there's a compromise against their values or ethics, but they feel potentially trapped. I mean, a term you've used before about economic slavery. Yes. You know, this form of, ah, I have all these commitments, I've built this life up all around me, I can't lose that by maybe being really me, maybe being the authentic me, so I put up with it. And I'll put it further down the line. It might break called burnout. It might break, you know, in some point, but right now I have to look after my family, look after my kids, look after my job and role. When it's difficult, when it's in those moments, have you got any advice or thoughts with stories of clients that you've worked with? How do you think about those situations? Yeah. So I'll use a personal example to start. The challenge is when we don't either understand money or handle our finances, or there's been outside pressures that have put us in a precarious financial position, the thing becomes very difficult. Because what I just talked about, I believe to be very true, but it sometimes doesn't take into the pragmatic account of the responsibilities that we have. And then we have to make a decision— mortgage to pay, school bills to pay, right? I got my kids on the table, right? All of those things. Is this stand— is this stand worth me taking the personal financial hit that I may or may not be able to absorb? And then the, the rippling effect of other people. So I think that there's, there's 3 different points in there that are important to talk about pragmatically, actionably. The first thing, and Tony Robbins talks a lot about this, he's the GOAT: when you have 2 options, you're trapped. You always have to find a 3rd option. So we always want to look for what are creatively, what are the options that I can help that doesn't lose me my soul, doesn't lose me my integrity, but also doesn't disregard my financial responsibility to my life. So let's take that AI example as an example, and everyone has a unique situation. So hopefully these myopic examples you can extrapolate out into your personal situation, but you take the AI. So the thing I would immediately think is, okay, I have to serve my shareholders, right? So I have this tool that's going to be able to increase the efficiency. Okay, we can't just disregard that and say, no, I'm just going to do this old school because we're going to become competitively irrelevant. So that doesn't work. But we also have to keep in mind the human cost of that. So that becomes, all right, how much money are we saving, and how are we going to make sure that we honor and take care of those people? How much severance can I fight for? Can we do some type of job placement to help these people land on their feet? What's the longest amount of time that we can give them to be be able to re-find a new spot, to re— to relocate into a new position. So we can look at it with some type of compromise where if I was in that situation as an executive or as somebody that's making those decisions, there are hard decisions that need to be made, but how do we not disregard the other person's perspective in the humanity? Because you could do like, uh, you just walk in and be like, all right, everyone's fired, and that, that does one, and that's— that gets the AI implemented. Or you could take a little bit of higher cost and make sure that you implement these different programs and help people and to fight for that. And I think those are very often worthwhile fights. On the economics, I, I believe that people very often put themselves accidentally in a golden jewel embezzled prison of their own making. Money, when we look at it as a way to build our lifestyle, makes us imprisoned. And people, it typically, as they get a raise, they immediately raise their lifestyle. They get the new car, they get the new house, they do the new things. And now they become a prisoner, whether they're making $50 grand a year or half a million dollars a year. Because if your income is equivalent to your output, especially up to 80, 90, 100%, you're trapped. You can't make the calls you need to make because you financially haven't put yourself in a strong enough position. And it does become a luxury when we talk about responsibility to be able to sometimes take those stands full-throated. You know, compromise we can do, but to take a full-throated stance against something means we need to be in a position of strength financially. Because if you don't need the money now, the way you probably handle that situation changes than if you're behind on all your bills and you're in debt because you've spent everything. So I think taking ownership of our financial condition and not keeping up with the Joneses and being willing to, to cut back and to be financially responsible and conservative in our personal finances, to properly invest to properly save, to keep our income-to-our-expense ratio as low as possible, to leave margin. Because that also allows you to— let's say you get that quarter million dollar a year job and it's killing you, and you know it's killing you. If you only need $125,000 for your lifestyle, gives you flexibility, gives you options. You can afford to take a pay cut for your mental health and for your family's right and your ethics. Third is I think that psychology has really been hijacked, and I believe it has been absolutely manipulated to take advantage of people. And one of the biggest things I see done in corporate, or any place— and corporate specifically I'll talk about, but it's anywhere— is making people's identity and their quote-unquote family their job. And it's an illusion. No matter how good the people are at our job or at our business, they ultimately are serving a role. And I think when we cross these lines of saying we're like a family, you don't fire your brother if he embezzles funds. He's still your brother. You do fire an employee if they embezzle funds. So you're on a team, you can be part of a community. But I believe that when we plant our flag and our identity in our corporate identity, and I find this to be much more often a male problem, although it can happen across genders, when we get our affirmation and our respect and our feelings of worthiness from our position or our title or our function, we're planting our flag on some really, really uneasy sand. Because if our flag is planted in the job title or the role we're playing and the performance that we're doing, what's going to happen when and if you can't perform, or when and if that situation shifts? You're going to end up with an existential crisis because where you've planted your identity and where you're getting your needs fulfilled no longer is there. So I think that becomes a much deeper discussion, and that's probably a little bit of coaching, maybe even counseling, depending on where you're coming from, of where is your identity. Is my identity— I, I run a very big network marketing business. I'm not— that's not my identity. If I lose my entire business, sucks, but I'm not going to have an existential crisis. I'm just going to replace some income. My, my identity is being the best dad and the best husband I can be, being somebody that I look in the mirror that I respect, that's willing to speak out and do the right things. My identity is my willingness to perform and to serve other people and do things that I, I believe in. I have a sign in my office that says, 'Only do shit you believe in.' You know, that's, that's my identity. My role is in network marketing, and my role is as a coach, and I get tremendous fulfillment from that, but I can't make that my identity because that's a shifting plate. Yeah. So those are the three things I'd say from that. It's a great way of thinking about it, and I'll pick up on a few things that I heard there, Anthony, in terms of this— where do we anchor our identity? You know, what are we planted in from values, beliefs, core, that then has the flexibility for how it shows up, how it manifests in a given role, in a given career chapter, portfolio, whatever that may be. And things do change, right? Jobs change, family circumstances change, relationships change, all sorts of things. And so do we. Right? And that piece, and it might be values I had 20 years ago are different values than I have today. They might be the same. Absolutely. And that opportunity to check where you put only do things that you believe in. Sorry if I'm not supposed to curse on here. No, that's all good. That you believe in. Your beliefs might shift because you get new information, new data, new realisation, meet new country, meet new culture and go, ah, I now believe in it. I wasn't aware of that. I didn't know you could retire at 28. Yeah, at the beginning of your show. Oh, now I see it's possible. I can believe in that. I can take some actions. Something else that resonated really interestingly, and it links to a couple of other kind of stories we've had in episodes, and it's this thought around ethical redundancies. And you talked about fighting for during a compromise, those situations. And fighting to treat them as well as you do in onboarding as you do in offboarding. Absolutely. And often when we're onboarding, we're doing all these great things. Oh, your PERP kit comes with all the stuff, you know, and we, we look after them, we take them out, we introduce them to people, we want them to get on well. Oh, well, this is this person. We do internal networking, build up influence, give them training, give them skills. How much and how awesome would that be if we do the same in offboarding? Let's introduce them to our network. Let's fight for things. Let's give them some space in terms whether it's finance, whether it's coaching, whether it's counseling, whatever it may be. And I think there's a huge opportunity where that becomes way more accessible now with technology than it has done before, because previously that was linked to a lot of resources, money and time. So if those are scarce, therefore ones at the bottom don't get it. Sure, man, notice and hope for the best. Ones at the top, lots of notice, lots of money, maybe some coaching, and also, hey, let me call up my buddy over at this other, you know, high-rise and we'll get you another role in there type thing. So I think that is an interesting piece for many that are not entrepreneurial, that have lived a life inside organizations where the perception of change choosing me versus me choosing change is slightly different in the spectrum. So when it comes to perhaps things that light you up, Anthony, of the projects you're involved in, some of the challenges you're helping people face, some of the limiting beliefs that you're shifting, that they're adapting, they're becoming more mentally flexible, they're unlearning an old piece, they've got more resilience. Give me an example and a story of something you're working on right now that lights you up, that shows some of those transformations, shows some of those, um, phases of change and adaptation. Yeah, I'll get into that anecdote. I'll riff off a few of those things. On the offboarding, I think that's a really important discussion. I believe you show your hand when you treat people transactionally. So you want to lovey-dovey and introduce people and throw resources at your new hire, that's wonderful. You have something to gain from it. How you treat someone when you no longer have something to gain shows me your true character. And I see this in corporations, in the military, and network marketing. The person is at the office, you've known them for 10 years, and then they're fired and you're going to escort them out like they're going to wreck the place. It is unbelievably unethical in my, in my opinion. And yeah, once in a while you may rarely have someone disgruntled, but I do not believe you treat the 99.999% of people as criminals. For the fear of the 0.0001% that are going to do something wrong. I feel like that your risk mitigation is wrong. So I believe that how you treat the people that you don't have any financial interest in, that shows your humanity and shows who you are. When we talk about, um, you had asked about some anecdotes. So I believe that people are good enough. I believe that there's nothing wrong with them. I believe they need new skills. And I believe that people's failures become, I'm a failure, and that their lack of success or their, their failure to lose weight or their failure to manage their, their finances, they internalize it as their identity. So one of the things I'm most passionate about, and I have a guy I'm working with, it's gonna be a new dad. His name's Josh, one of my clients. I've been working with him for years. Amazingly talented. He's running a multimillion dollar company with a McDonald's group, general manager of a $5 to $7 million a year business in his early 20s. But his self-image and his limiting beliefs, he kept self-sabotaging down to the level of his self-image, and his abilities and his talent far exceeded. So it takes sometimes time to rehab. That's what I'm passionate about. And the reason I don't do— because I love executive coaching, and I've been paid very significant sums to speak at conferences, and very significant sums I could charge for personal coaching, but I keep my rates way lower than they should be, because I want it to be accessible. Because the key people that I like to work with are the people that have that ability, but they just haven't been able to get their self-image or get out of their own way or get the habits in their life instituted. So I'm passionate about helping people that have a vision, whether it be becoming, you know, financially independent in the industry that I'm in and building a multi-million dollar company there, which is atypical and rare, but maybe that's their vision. Or maybe their vision is to start a not-for-profit, or Maybe their vision is to grow, that go up the corporate ladder and get some equity stake. It's to help give people both the habits and the identity to be able to do that. You know, I, I'm working with a guy, Aaron, uh, he was in ministry, so he had a little bit of, you know, he, he had a desire to make money, but he had a little bit of a bad relationship with making money and charging what he's worth and all these different things. And he started a company this year. He wanted to start a company. He did it perfectly where he's transitioned out. And now his first year starting this company, we've taken him from $0 and an idea to $200,000 of revenue. I think his margins are up at 40 or so percent, projected to do $500,000 of revenue in his business. That's what I'm passionate about, helping people have their dreams come to pass, giving them the skills to support. And sometimes you just need one person in your corner that believes in you, and they got to be outside of your life. Sometimes family member can be great, you know, corporate people in the org structure could be great, but they have an invested interest in you and there's layered relationships. Sometimes having someone totally outside that just believes in your vision and walks you through it, there aren't any other personal entanglements, can sometimes be the impetus to be able to help to overcome those limiting beliefs. So that's what I'm passionate about. That's what I would say on that. If I missed any part of the question, let me know. That's perfect. And in terms of, you know, you have built up a portfolio around you of multiple ways you show up, from the network marketing business to your coaching to some charity work, philanthropic work, all of these things to family, you have a blended portfolio of that. How do you manage your own schedule? How do you manage your own decisions of how you deal with things? Because I think you've got some interesting, you know, opinions and viewpoints around that because we all have multifaceted lives, right? We do. Health, you know, food, got to get the shopping, got to deliver this report, got to think about that dream that Anthony's just inspired me about of, yeah, where do I want to be? I want that job or I want this, you know, new business. How do you deal with just the day-to-day scheduling in your own life? Yeah, a few principles. First off, I find a lot of people, they do this thing where they say, well, I should be better than that. But you're not. Some things we're weak at, some things we're strong at, and we have to build systems around that. So you can probably tell in talking to me, I'm a yes guy. You want to do a podcast? Yeah. You want to go to this? Yeah. You want to speak here? Yeah. You want to talk about this business? Yeah. I can't say yes to everything. And not have it have major implications to the rest of the areas of my life. So I had to build in mechanisms. I don't schedule anything without my wife approving it, because otherwise I'm going to become extremely unaccountable and I'm not going to have time with my family, right? I also had to shift my perspective that I used to say business comes first and then whatever's left over goes to my wife and my family. And I almost got divorced over it because there is nothing left. Business, vocational success It never ends. So if you say, when I'm finished with that, then I'll give what's left to my family, in my opinion, or at least in my experience, because maybe you're different, there's nothing left. And you might be there physically, but there is an emotional margin and energy to connect and do the things. What's it worth if you can't even play with your kids or be able to engage in a conversation, hear about your wife's day, if you're so exhausted that you left no margin? So I, I had to switch it. And a lot of people didn't like this. You know, I'm a performer and I perform well, and a lot of people want to be able to work together with that. So they have targets. My growth equals their growth and different things. And this isn't the same in any company, in any business, but I had to make a decision for me and my family, and I had to say, okay, my family and my wife are more important than vocational success. That has to come first. So when I talk about scheduling, I have a virtual assistant that helps I have my wife that runs my schedule. I have my leadership team that I don't make any decisions without running by them. So I have mechanisms that don't make me do this, that, this, that, this, that. Yes, yes, yes. Change here, change there. Cause I'm fast. I'm an entrepreneurial and that makes people, you know, gives them whiplash a lot of times, especially if someone's a slower processor, they're more corporate with structure. So I first put time in my family for my family and I, I have a limited amount of time. I do for business and I do for vocation. So I have to choose. It makes me have to be selective. So if I choose to do this podcast, that's gonna take an hour of that time, and I'm not just gonna add that on and add the next thing and add the next thing. So I have limited working hours and I have to be extremely efficient. Another tool which talks about a lot, and I'll give some books on the topic of identity, particularly people in their late 30s, early 40s, the mid, midlife passage. Um, I have to get the author, we'll put it in the notes, but it reframes a midlife crisis into a second adulthood. You talked a lot about changing values, changing perspectives. That's usually a— is it Chip who's written? I don't think it's Chip. Uh, I could, I could look it up quick for you, but while I'm talking, we'll get it, we'll get it on the show. Okay. Yeah, so anyway, Midlife Passage. Um, it's not Ernest Becker, he wrote Denial of Death, but anyway, we'll get it. So that's really good on identity. Um, The One Thing by Gary Keller, started Keller Williams Realty. What's the most important high leverage thing? Because in any agenda We have to look at— there's a few options and things we could do that are going to give most of the result. Pareto principles, classic personal development thing. One thing is the way Gary Keller talks about it, distilling it down to the one thing. We have to be careful that we don't get stuck being busy, and we need to not manage our life based on tasks. I personally use the RPM mentality, which also comes from Tony Robbins, where we— what's the result we want, what's the purpose that we're doing it in that area of our life, and then what's the massive action plan. And we organize the, the, the deliverables, what's going to be the most important? Because in your agenda, you can't get everything done. I got 4 kids, I got several companies, I got my investments, I got my charity work, I'm a runner, I gotta— I make content, I gotta spend— how do you do everything? Relentless and relentless intentionality. Yes, James Hollis, perfect, thank you. Relentless intentionality is really what it comes down to. And being willing to say, understand, every yes is opportunity cost where you have to say no to something else and you got to choose carefully. Yeah. It's interesting, you know, when you enter this world intentionally and you start to filter out people that resonate with you, you've mentioned Tony Robbins a few times, you know, other different ones that are doing work, you know, Joe Polish, you might have come across from Genius Network, Genius Recovery. Lots of interesting things. And this balance of, you know, it's the maybes that kill you. Nos are okay, you can deal with. And then it's got to be a hell yes, right? Yes. And for somebody whose default character is to help, to say yes, to do those things, they then need the systems, the protocols, the surrounding bits around us to protect ourselves, right, right, from that. Um, which is a great way of thinking about building an environment for optimal performance. And that environment is people, systems, tools, and those things. And I've noticed as well, the sort of transitions through often passages of time where those things shift and change, right? As, oh, I'm learning, I'm building, I'm then family, oh, my health, or if I have started to get health issues either from extended family or my own, right? Nothing functions without our health. And so from a, well, family, I need to be healthy to be good for my family. And that then starts to build shift into people's schedules. And I think it's okay for your intentionality and your prioritization to evolve, for that to adapt, for you to realize, okay, what's my phase right now? What is— just because I do this, I might have some stables. Like I mentioned when we were in the preparation, meditation for me, yeah, at this moment is a non-negotiable, right? Build that in whether I am flying somewhere in another country, doing things, that is a stable part. There might be a time in my future when it isn't, when there's something else, you know. And it's important to be I think give yourself compassion. Yes. You know, around, ah, I did that. I now know something new. Something has shifted and changed. I'm going to evolve that. You know, my relationships in this way, I've gone from no kids to one kid to three kids to four kids to— To seven grandkids. You know, to whatever it may be. Yep. Things shift, right? In our lives and we adapt around those. Right. And again, I mentioned this phrase I really like, you know, change happening for us versus change that, you know, that we choose. And we might feel very differently about those things. I've chosen this rather than, oh, that's happened, I didn't choose it, but I now have to respond. Do I react? Do I take a breath? What do I deal with? One of the other things that I, I, as we come to the sort of twilight period of the conversation and this episode, is in and around curiosity. So you will have, throughout your career, met all sorts of interesting people, done all sorts of interesting projects, got loads of ideas, enough ideas to, you know, sink a ship, as serial entrepreneurs do. And it's this double-edged sword of curiosity, always looking, reading what's going on, that then, ah, maybe that's the yes, maybe that's the yes, maybe that's it. Yeah. The curiosity side. When was the last time you did something for the first time? And what was it? I do things for the first time all the time. I'm a lifelong learner. And I teach my kids one of the affirmations that we say is when something's hard, we do it anyway. The only way you learn at something is by being bad at it. So I started this entire coaching brand, I don't know, 6 months ago.. This is probably my 15th or 20th podcast and I've been a speaker, but I hadn't been on other people's podcasts. I'm starting a new, I have a new idea that we're starting with some AI implementation of a business cuz these AI tools are so powerful. One of the other ways I do my schedule is I kind of look, I, I think it's like Mr., it's like Dr. Octopus or something. I think it's Batman with the guy, you know, whatever it is. I think you guys know what I'm talking about. A guy with all the mechanical arms, you know what I mean? And that's how I look at AI, where you use systems and tools to extend your reach. So that's a new thing that I'm, I'm learning about, and I'm not doing the tech implementation, but I'm doing the ideation and how it can interface with people that are coaches, consultants, network marketers, or anything along those lines, which is a cool new thing that we're doing. I'm always reading new books. We're always trying new things, new movies. We went to, I think it was probably a year ago, we went to like an experimental theater thing, which became pretty crazy. And based on me not being able to curse, I won't say some of the stuff that happened there that was quite jarring. Um, so, but you have to— I like to read the opposite belief of both philosophy and politics. I believe that if people are in an echo chamber and they're unwilling to read things that they might not inherently agree with or be willing to understand it enough to see where the other person's coming from, I think you're losing out tremendously. In your life and the, the, the perspective you can have and the change of mind. Changing your mind, I believe, to be a superpower. You know, a lot of people, they get calcified. They think the same way, they believe the same thing, they do the same thing. Now, on the other token, one of the rules I made for myself, being someone that's so idea-driven, it can be very easy to flip from one thing to the next and never do anything. So when I saw network marketing at my time, when I was just turning 18, 2006, right before my 18th birthday, I made a decision. I said, okay, This for me, best I can tell, is the best opportunity that I have. Not perfect, don't love everything about it, but the best opportunity I have to accomplish my goal. And I remained open to if I find something better that accomplishes that goal, then and only then will I consider shifting. But if my feelings are, are, I don't want to do it, it's not going as well, the question always came back, well, what am I going to do instead? Because if I, I'm open to finding something better, I'm not going to say, hey, I'm just going to do the one thing because I said so for my whole life. You know, now I have some life goals that I've made around this, but I was never like only going to do that one thing. It was what was better, cuz that's how you help to avoid the fear and the limiting beliefs and the quitting before the finish line. It's also important when you have a lot of ideas, you're an entrepreneur. If you try to chase two rabbits, you catch none. So there does need to be a singular focus when you're developing an area of your life or you're developing something. There's a period of your time that you need to put all of your focus and intentionality around it. Until you get that plane spinning. Maintenance energy is very, very different than building energy. And once you get the— like, when you have to— when you start meditating, you got to make sure you do it. But you go 670 days, that's autopilot for the most part. That's something's built in. So then you can build the next habit or skill. I find a lot of people, New Year's, they try to do like these 10 major life shifts at the same time. Can only really majorly impact one area of your life at a time. 30, 60, 90, 180 days. Once you have that going, keeping that plate spinning is very different than trying to spin 4 plates at the same time. So a lot of times people hear kind of all the things I'm talking about. I've been very intentional of, all right, what is the main focus right now? And I can keep that Amway spin plate spinning much easier now than I used to be able to, because I've been doing that for 20 years. Doesn't mean it doesn't require time and energy. But it doesn't require the unbelievable intentional focus of studying everything it did in the beginning. So then I can spin another plate, and once that plate's going, I can spin and I can keep a few more plates spinning. So it's important we don't bite off more than we can chew and we keep in mind that minimum viable thing, like Atomic Habits. And James Clear talks about building a habit, just getting the running shoes on, that's the start, and you just build that habit up. Yeah, it's lovely. And I think what you've talked about there in terms of the flexibility in how it's this challenge, right, when when do we grit and when do we quit? Sure. Things. And perhaps actually your ultimate goal was the freedom, financial freedom, those sorts of things. How you went about it, you were open to, whether that was network marketing or other things, but that remained and allowed flexibility here. Yes. And so for many people, they believe a goal is actually a sub-goal and therefore rigid to it. And, oh, if I quit that, that's not a good thing. I've got to grit. I've stick with it culturally, parents, whatever it might be of quitting's not good. Well, quitting something that's not working and not good for you is a great thing, right? Quit smoking, good. Quit your job, oh, maybe that's bad. It could be the best. It depends, right? It depends. So I think that's a really good framing of, you know, remaining curious, being open to things, balancing, you know, phases of focus. And so enable to go deep for a period and then look up rather than chasing two rabbits. I'll chase this one right now till I've not got it anymore, then I'll look up again to see things. And it's that nice phase and balance. And equally, as we're building teams and companies, is that we can spread the load. We can have different areas to work in different ways that it doesn't have to be singular, one individual, doing all of those things, right? We've got explore and transform happening whilst we're utilising and improving. We're not expecting that in one individual, right? Because that would be, you know, padded cells very quickly. Very true. If people want to get in touch with you, Anthony, because you've talked about, it's really resonated with them. It sparked a thought in their mind to think, hey, I'd like to have a conversation with you. I'd like to reach out, perhaps check out Anthony's book. Um, how do they get in touch with you, Anthony? Yeah, so easiest way that we can track it is I started a newsletter. I got a daily newsletter going out. I got my, you know, AI agents. I got my, my whole workflow. If anyone's interested, I can talk about that. So that goes out daily. So if you go to Spark a Change Coaching, you can sign up and get a free PDF of my book so you don't have to buy it on Amazon. Add you to the email list. Now that's the easiest way to track. That's primary so we can keep in touch. What I also do though, and this isn't for most people, but if it's for you, great. My personal cell phone I've given out for the last 20 years, cuz the reality is very few people are gonna take a step to reach out. So the traditional way, go on sparkachangecoaching.com, sign up for the newsletter. Love to add value for you. But if you wanna talk, you can also schedule a free discovery call. I only, um, it's a bespoke practice. I only got so much time. So we have to, just so you know, it's not gonna ever be a sales pitch cuz we gotta like each other. Gotta share similar values. I can only take on so many clients. It's a very direct time for money thing for coaching, but it's a passion of mine. So you can book a free discovery call, but you wanna text me, you wanna call me, this is my personal cell phone number. It's not a Google number. I'm not changing it, but my personal number is 631-327-2241. You could text me, you could WhatsApp me if you're in London. I usually check WhatsApps a little slower. I usually forget about 'em, but If I could serve and I can help, even if it's just the answer to a question, you want to have a conversation, I believe that no one is ever too busy to help someone who takes— has the guts to reach out and ask something. And not everything in life's about money. If I could answer a question or help you in some way and we never engage in some formal business financial way, that's worth 15 minutes of my time, and I'm happy to do that. The quantum karma. It's been a beautiful evening for me, afternoon for you. Oh, thanks. I'm filled with gratitude. What a great way to end my day. And thanks for everybody in tuning in and listening in. And I'm sure you'll feel the applause and gratitude and thanks from our listeners each time they listen to it. So thank you, Anthony. Well, thank you for having me. Thanks for listening. And I'm sure Ross can help an awful lot too. So very often, people do these podcasts and you send it out in the ether and a lot of people get impacted and a lot of people help. And very rarely does that bubble back. So I would strongly recommend reach out to Ross, let him know if this has impacted you, anything on any of his podcasts have impacted you, send him an email. You don't know how far it can go when you're sitting in a room by yourself and you got all these people listening. You don't see how a few emails or texts of what the impact's been for your life can help someone to go another 6 Thanks, Anthony. For sure. Do you have the level of adaptability to survive and thrive the rapid changes ahead? Has your resilience got more comeback than a yo-yo? Do you have the ability to unlearn in order to reskill, upskill, and breakthrough? Find out today and uncover your adaptability profile and score, your AQ. Visit aqai.com.au. Aqai.io to gain your personalised report across 15 scientifically validated dimensions of adaptability. AQ AI, transforming the way people, teams, and organisations navigate change. Thank you for listening to this episode of Decoding AQ. 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