Simon Severino 0:00 What if the week is super, super bad week? I just do my three habits. If the week is a wonderful week and I'm high and I think I'm am a genius, I stick to the practice. I just follow my three habits. And that's usually the best idea. And they try to live a very creative life that I would not be sad if if I die next week. I'm happy I, I gave it I gave it a shot. I really gave it a shot. I didn't miss a minute. Jerry Dugan 0:30 Welcome to another episode of beyond the rut, the podcast that shares encouraging stories and practical tools to help pull you out of your rut into a life worth living. I'm your host Jerry Dugan, and we're going to be joined by a special guest Simon Severino. He is the founder and CEO of the company called strategy sprints, where he helps companies businesses create accelerated agile growth, and they do it in strategy Sprint's now we're applying that concept to our personal lives. So how can we apply a strategy sprint, to live in Agile life in the areas of our faith, family, fitness, finances and future possibility, so that we're not living a vanilla life, we're not being basic, we're actually living something meaningful, meaningful to ourselves, as well as making an impact in the world around us. So that's what we're talking about. Now, Simon, by the way, he's not only a founder and CEO of his company, he's also a TEDx speaker. And he used to play soccer, probably because he's from Europe. But that's a generalization, and I'm wrong for that. But in any case, grab a notepad, grab a pen. Let's go. Here we go. All right. Hey, Simon, thanks for calling in from Vienna, Austria. How are you doing? Simon Severino 1:40 Hey, Jerry, thank you for having me excited to be here. Jerry Dugan 1:43 Oh, man, same here. You know, I got a chance to watch your TEDx talk. And I read through a good chunk of your book strategy Sprint's and something that really just surprised me is that you talk about when you're playing soccer. And you know, I guess the rest of the world calls it football. But as Americans, we got to call it soccer. I don't know why. I'll look it up one day when I get bored enough. But anyway, that's not the story. The story is that you were talking about you had this opportunity to score a goal, there was going to be like the winning goal, I believe. And you didn't want to take the shot, because you were scared of winning. And it was just like, wow, you know, I'm not the only person who experiences that where it's like, you get this opportunity to be successful in something. And then you will find yourself taking a step back. And he said something in that tech talk about this, because there's that fear of what if I do it, and I do it right. And I succeed? Well, now I got to deal with the unknown of what is the success? What made you kick off that TEDx talk with that story? And how do you run into that with the coaching that you do? Simon Severino 2:47 You know, when I got the chance to talk on TEDx, A, for the first time had a much broader audience than I usually have, I usually just talk to entrepreneurs about scaling their business. But now this was going to everybody. So I was what what is the message what is helpful to convey, and I felt that the most helpful thing is to remind people that they are infinite possibility, and that there is only one thing, actually stopping them right now from living their dream. And that is between their ears. It's just the mind, the mind limits what we think. And the mind is a terrible, terrible companion. It's it's plugged in, it's here, but it's not a good coach. So your mind, my mind, is right now focused on the negatives on the past on anxieties about the future, on guilt about the past, this is all absolutely not helpful. And we are doing this with ourselves without recognizing most of the time. So when I think what can I do? What can I accomplish? I'm so far away from from what I really can accomplish. So imagine, I don't know, I want to build a business because that's where I am good at. Yeah. So I could start one next week. And then every week just have one simple prospecting process of talking to people on LinkedIn about that. I just did a video on how to do that. And so if I just do that every day, after a couple of weeks, I will have one client after a couple of months, I will have three clients the year after I would have six clients. From there, I scale it 10 years later, I can have a global business that's creating wealth for me, for my family, for my kids, for my friends for multiple families around the globe. And that's just reality a I have experienced it I run a global business just by having started very, very humbly very simple here on my computer. And so everybody can do that. But right now, if if they feel inside was how can I build a global business in 10 years that there is something negative that the mind will tell you, whatever that is. It's not true. Because who knows, now we know nothing. We start things by doing. And then week by week we grow them. That's the only thing that's true. Everything else is just the fantasy. So there is only one thing stopping you from living your dream life, being it building a global business, or having 40 Adventure days per year with your friends, whatever your big thing is, or writing a book that is read all over the world, whatever it is, there is only one thing stopping you. And it's between your ears. You are infinite possibilities. Jerry Dugan 5:49 Yeah. I mean, we always hear that when we're growing up, like you are your own worst critic. You know, you're the one who's gonna tell yourself, you cannot do something. And a friend of mine, Brandon, he used to be the host of this show before I did a hostile takeover and kicked him out. No kidding. That's not how it went down. At least that's all we tell the public. No, I'm kidding. But Brandon used to say that if you if somebody else talked to you, the way you talk to yourself, you would kick your own butt. Yeah. And I thought no, that's well, actually, that's true. You know, it's, uh, my wife always tells me, you know, like, Jerry, you really get on yourself like you over little things. Like, you know, earlier this morning, I was trying to I took my hat off after I walked the dog, and I tossed it up on a shelf. And it kept rolling down back into my hand and like, toss it back up, roll back into my hand, toss it back up. And I was doing the same thing over and over and over. And it was like, That insanity thing like, you know, do the same exact thing over and over and expecting a different result. And finally, I had a snap myself out, it was like Jerry, you idiot, do something different, because you're just repeating the same action. I said it out loud. And so I physically just put the hat on the shelf. And my wife was like, Jerry, you're so hard on yourself. It was just a hat. You know, like, like, I yeah, I don't know, I, I justified it. I was like, you know, I got to step myself out of it. But at the same time, like you're talking about, somebody has a long term vision of maybe opening a global company. Or maybe they're just afraid of what if I get an actual client, and they're going to expect me to perform? Now what and what you're saying is also have those short term goals of, I need to get a client because that's what keeps me in business. Now. I've got one, okay, now serve today. Now, serve tomorrow, now serve the next day, and get that client taken care of. So you can get paid and get the next client. So it's that? What do they say? Like how do you finish 1000 mile journey, and it's by taking the first step. And I think this is Simon Severino 7:45 how the mind is a terrible companion. I hear once Simon, you're an idiot, I will repeat the mind will repeat that for me years later, decades later, and that will never stop, it will come in waves that will never stop. So that's why it's better to just let the mind really pass by. So yes, there are thoughts but I don't care about though. I care about my daily practice. So I have a daily habit, weekly habit and monthly habit. This is what I care about. So every day I do my daily habits, my weekly habit and my monthly habit. In some weeks. The thoughts that pass are Simon, you're an idiot, you will never achieve that. This is not gonna work. I don't care. I do my daily practice, weekly practice monthly practice some weeks, the same mind is telling me Wow, you're a genius. You're much faster than everybody else, you are much smarter than everybody else. Same thing, I don't care. This is just the mind, the mind is here to make tricks. You know, the Buddhists call it the monkey mind, because it's just monkeys tigrigna getting a degree, it's not helpful. So keep building, keep doing your stuff, keep creating, keep expressing yourself, that's much more important. Whatever the thoughts are, thoughts are not helpful. Stay with your body. So what I do everyday in the morning, I have three little kids. So I have to wake up very, very early if I want to have me time. And I do it. So the first two hours of the day before everybody wakes up here. It's my me time. And the third thing that I do, I do something that centers me in my body that pulls me away from the thoughts into the body. So first things at a workout, I will run for an hour in nature. Second thing I do my yoga sequence, a specific sequence that I learned from a yoga teacher, and then I go play with my kids and make them break first etc. This The day starts. This is really important. Don't live in the mind the mind is a terrible companion, leaving the body in the here and now. This is where your life happier your creativity. And in the body. Nothing is ever missing now nothing is ever criticized. So it's all fine. Yeah, if you just feel your body, it's all fine. Jerry Dugan 10:03 I've always been amazed at how just getting up and moving around, can get me out of a funk. It's, I like to do hiking. So getting out in nature, even that movement gets me to start sorting out the things in my head. Simon Severino 10:17 Yes, nature. And the elements, right? When in nature, you have the elements of the Earth, the water, the fire, the air, it's there, and it's working you if you just walk, and then come back, you are totally transformed. You're there is a reset. Jerry Dugan 10:33 Nice. And you're talking about like being present, like you physically you're you're running or physically you're doing yoga, and you're concentrating on what you're doing in that moment. What does that do for like, worry, you know, worrying about things? Yeah. Simon Severino 10:46 Yes, exactly. So worries in the mind. And, and it's not helpful. So I just don't care about worry, it is always there. Because if you give the power to the mind, it will worry all the time. So I don't want to worry. We are the sprint team. And so it's strategy sprint, in our team, we say we want to be fast like a cheetah and happy like a dog. Jerry Dugan 11:06 Love that. Simon Severino 11:10 And your spirit animal is a dog. So we have we have a similarity that and so fast, like a cheetah unhappy like a dog, you do that by being in the body, not in the mind. So every day, we create something like today, I have created three landing pages for sales emails, and two videos. So I've created a lot while I'm creating, I don't think much I do. So I'm in the flow. And remember, the first two hours we're running in yoga. So I start with not being in the mind, I'm really in the body. I come here and say alright, cool. What's what's coming out of my of my imagination today, I'm curious. And then something starts, and then I start writing is oh, this is good. Let's continue this, oh, my God, this should become a sales email. And then I send it over to the marketing team say, Hey, this is a sales email. And they go, Wow, that's cool. And then I continues, maybe I make out of that I make a video. So it's just flow. It's creative flow, but I am in the body, and present. And I'm using what's what's coming up, I just use it. Let's create a flow. That's how I wrote the whole book. And that's how we create our sales materials or marketing materials. And if you do it from this place, it's true. It's fresh, it doesn't feel like sales. It feels like Oh, Simon is sharing something cool. Jerry Dugan 12:32 Nice. Now, I guess I mean, I mentioned in the intro, which we haven't recorded yet, of course, but our listeners have already heard it. And we're like, hey, great intro. I don't know why that was funny to me. But it was. So you have a consulting company, a coaching company called strategy sprints. You've got the book with the same title. And you help business people entrepreneurs. Apply the idea of strategy Sprint's which we'll talk about in a moment. And it sounds like it's now a global company, you're you're helping people build billion dollar industries and companies and multimillion dollar companies. But where did you start? Before that? Like what what was your background in terms of business or career just to give our folks a sense of context of where we are today? Simon Severino 13:18 Yeah. So I come from a totally different background. In my 20s, I did study philosophy. Jerry Dugan 13:25 Oh, wow. Did not see that. Simon Severino 13:30 And psychology, so in my country in Austria, you would always have to top the major and a minor. And so I majored in philosophy. And the the reason was that I didn't see for me 18 years old, I didn't see a perfectly molded role that I would fit in. I was, I have no idea what I'm here to do. So give me time, give me a couple of years to understand this whole thing and where we come from, and what does it mean to be a human being? And what is our culture? And then maybe I will find my part in it. Because right now, I don't know, what is my superpower? What can I contribute here to the planet? I don't know. I just know, all the jobs that I'm seeing boring. It's not me. It's not me. And what is me? I don't know. I don't know. I need to find out. That was just a feeling right. So I had time. And then afterwards, I graduated with the best grades and I was of course, broke and had no job. So I was lucky. Yes, but I was lucky because in those days, those were the 90s where the big strategy advisories were looking for different kinds of people, people who are more. They are yes, they are problem solvers, and they have the best grades, but they they have a different angle, a different spin that they bring in. And so that was my chance. And just because the grades were great, they they took me and then I was flying around the world doing strategy advisory. And this is how you learn it by doing, I totally immersed myself into that I had great teachers, great bosses, great mentors. And from there, I learned it for many years, and then I went on my own Jerry Dugan 15:21 like that. Yeah, so at an early age, you found yourself kind of getting stuck, in a sense, like, you didn't have that direction, you didn't know what you're gonna do with your life. And you saw an opportunity, you just kind of jumped on it, like, hey, let's see where this goes. And I love it. So it sounds like that's pretty much what you've done ever since you got into the world of business strategy and consulting others, to where you now started your company. Simon Severino 15:41 Yes, I think there are two stages in in business and probably also in life. It's like surfing stage one, there is no wave. So just chill. Enjoy the moment and read a book, talk to people just chill. And then there is a second moment who there is something coming here. This might be a wave who that changes everything. And then arcane isn't, it wasn't a wave. Okay, let's chill again. But then again, whoo, I feel something is coming. Now the wave is coming. This is now this, which second stage is sprint. Now the next seven seconds, all in all, in stand up, paddle, go for it, rock that wave. And this is maximum intensity, then the wave is gone, you go back to chilling until the next wave comes. And you can apply this to life. For me the 20s were just chilling. And in the 30s, my wave started, and I've never stopped. So I'm still in those seven seconds and I'm rocking them. You don't really have to stop. You can ride that wave quite a long time. Nice if you stay with it. But in the sprint stage of life or business, focus is important. So in that first one, chilling is important, being open, being curious, just let yourself wander and be brought around, connecting, talking, thinking doing. But then stage tool when the wave is here. This is all about focus. This is obsession on one thing, so if you meet me, if you met me in my 20s you would say ma Simon is such a nice guy. He's always having fun. He's always has time he's living like a surfers life. If you meet me now I'm 42 is oh my god Simon is such an upset he's a machine. This guy wakes up five o'clock in the morning does his workout then he has the morning deep work scheduled no meetings, then the afternoon five interviews on podcast, this guy's a machine. Now you would think that I'm a totally structured discipline person? Well, I am because I am in this sprint phase of my life in the in and there are cycles, and I respect the cycles. Right now I'm riding the wave. That's my cycle in life, there will come another cycle where I chill again. So it's important to embrace the fact that life is made of cycles. Jerry Dugan 18:09 Yeah, yeah. What stood out to me as you're using that surfing analogy also is that, you know, I, I've known some folks who surf and the one thing when they describe surfing to me, is that when they're on that wave, they're focused on that wave, they're not looking at the next wave coming. Because if they do, they're gonna fall off their board, and they're gonna miss out on the wave they're on in the moment. And it sounds like it's the same thing when you're focused on that sprint you're on right now strategically, that's it, go forward, get it done, and get as much out of it as you can, while that energy in that wave is there. Then when that's done, take a look back and say, Ah, that was cool. That was fun. All right, what's next? Now, something you talk about a lot, especially early on in your book is being vanilla, you know, and my favorite ice cream is cookies and cookie dough, which is based in a vanilla ice cream. So when you talk about being vanilla in a negative context, I'm like, but I love vanilla. But what you're talking about is I guess my daughter would say it's like being basic you just like everybody else. And it kind of ties back into that idea of when you're playing soccer and you're afraid of winning. And so you kind of hold back and in a way vanilla is like in this fear of either failure or success. You hold back, you do what everybody else is doing. You just kind of blend in and stick with the status quo. Because even an ice cream vanilla is kind of like the bass flavor. And all the cool stuff kind of comes off of that. Talk to us a little bit more about like what's at risk if we stay vanilla? And how is it we find success by getting out of being vanilla. Simon Severino 19:44 It's avoiding showing yourself as you truly are. So you can sit in an office all day and do your work but never show who you really are. And in the end of the day, you're just tired, but you're not really fulfilled right because you didn't stretch yourself to the limit of what you can do, and then try a little bit more to express yourself. So you can write an email to somebody, or you can write an email, first in draft mode, and you go like fully like what you really want to say, still in draft mode than there is, oh, my god, can I say this? This way? No, no, let me let me try to refine it a little bit. And then you send it now at least you have stretched a little bit yourself, and you have expressed a little bit more. Next step is you can write a blog, or create a video, and then you stretch yourself a little bit more. Now, you're not just doing what everybody else does, and hiding, now you're moving towards expressing yourself a little bit more. And what is life if not becoming gradually becoming everyday a little bit more who you truly are? And we all don't know, we all don't really read Nietzsche said, Life is not being it's becoming who you are. That presupposes that you have no clue who you are. Because otherwise, there is no reason in becoming right just being. So we have no clue. And since we have no clue, it's an exploration. It's a process of gradually, like blossoming like a flower, gradually expressing yourself more. And by doing that, you find yourself more like you found yourself in a spirit animal. And now that's a moment where you move forward, you learning from that animal, and then you move forward. From there, you use that information, and that increases your vibration, your energy increases, also your willingness to grow and to share more. So this is the process of expressing more and more who you are. And it takes a little bit of courage every day. And so I remember totally the first time I sent an email to my email list, most people would call it a newsletter. I was totally afraid. I think I wrote it in for two weeks. I didn't send it. Oh, well, I was so afraid of pushing that button. What if there is a grammar error or a spelling error? What if somebody doesn't want to receive it, I had all the words in my head. And I remember so much. And MailChimp did a great job at that time. It had something like a monkey that told me it was a sweaty hand, like, Oh, I know how you're feeling. And then I pushed it. And it says congrats, US you set your first evil wall. That was exactly what I needed. It was so exciting. And I had to go out in nature for a run because it was so excited, I couldn't do anything else. I couldn't focus for an hour. And then the next day I sent an email, etc, then I went to a weekly cadence, and then a bi weekly cadence. And now I'm sending two emails per day to my email, but it's years later. So that's the process of you gradually growing to who, who you are, Jerry Dugan 22:58 I love that. And it's your time back in with, you know, if you wanted to launch a business, you know, you're not going to build this big global corporation on day one, you're probably going to have one specific product per one specific kind of client. If you have a day job and you're working in corporate America, you've got a job you show up to do. But we're also talking about, you know, to not be vanilla, be more than just the person who shows up clocks in does a task clocks out goes home, because you missed out on that opportunity, those eight hours or nine hours to really connect with people, build deep relationships, connect with your boss, connect with your customers connect with the co workers and have influenced that leaves a legacy. So whether you have a business that you've started, or a nine to five job, or a midnight to seven job for those who work the night shift, I'm mentioning y'all, you know, this is this is gold here that that Simon's talking about. And Simon Severino 23:53 I remember when I was an employee, which I was very fortunate to be and I had this full time job as a management consultant. And I was never in the office because I was always in planes. Always in the newest project. I was doing the strategy for BMW II and then flying to the next city to Paris to do the merger of Airbus. I was always raising hands. Yeah, yeah. Me, me, me, put me on the biggest project. And colleague of mine says, Simon, do you realize you're doing everything wrong? Wow, what's wrong? I'm on the top projects. I mean, the A team of this company, I'm crushing it and getting promoted every six months where the average is two and a half years. So what am I doing wrong? And he said, a healthy horse never jumps more than it needs to jump, you are jumping three times more. You are not earning three times more when you do that. And I realized either he is wrong in that role, or I am wrong in that role. He was right. Somebody was not getting it. And maybe it was me. And so Have, I let that sink in and went with it for a couple of weeks and was missed? It's true. It's true. I'm raising too much my hand because I could just do 40 hours a week. And that's it. Nothing would change, right? So why do I have this urge? Now, that was the moment when I realized there is something in me that is so passionate, that's not a 40 hours think that moment, I realized, there is something in me that wants to get out, I have to build something, because building something, that's a 24/7 thing you never stop. So I realized, I'm an entrepreneur, maybe this is a calling to do my own thing. And so turns out, he was totally right. And he gave me the right hint, which is you are not doing your minimum, you are growing out of this role. I mean, you can either lead this house, if you do this, or own this house, or build your own house, right? When you have this urge this passion, you are outgrowing your current situation, you are meant to take on a bigger, a bigger task. And so I created that bigger task for me. Jerry Dugan 26:10 It reminds me of a story of one of your clients in your book. So again, guys, the book is strategy sprints, and I believe his name is Hasan earning like 120,000 a month who doesn't like to earn that right guys? 120,000 a month, but he was working 80 hours a week. But this particular guy what stood out to me was that it was costing them things like time with his family. And that was probably the biggest thing. So it made him think you know, what do I do so that I am earning the income I want. And I have the time with my family and strategy Sprint's worked with him. His coach worked with him to help him I believe turned his side hustle. So he had a side hustle on top of this blew my mind 120k was not enough he had a side hustle on top of that, he wound up pouring into the side hustle. The side hustle replaced his income. He was able to leave the eight hour a week job and have the time with his family, the time for adventurers to have a life and you know that that to me is also important. Like if you want to get out of a vanilla life. It's not just about like standing out at work. It's like how do you stand out in life to live the life you want to live? Beyond your rut? It's like you're working long hours but not feeling the payoff. Are you just clocking in and out? Are you like passionate about something but not having that met at work? Are you finding the financial success, but you're missing out on the relationships that matter most and I feel like strategy Sprint's helps you hone in on the whole life, the whole person from what I've read so far what I've learned about you and the conversation we're having, but I mean since we're running out of time, tells us more about strategy sprints.com. So strategy Sprint's the company, tell us about that. Yeah, so Simon Severino 27:57 we help people realize their dreams, the business, so we help them run a business, that is fun, that helps them become who they truly are. So every day, it's a little bit of an exploration of an adventure into this creative endeavor that is being an entrepreneur, it's absolutely creative. And you know, you express love the via work. So whatever you do, if it's whatever role it is, that you have in work, working is an expression of love. And so when you're an entrepreneur, you, you are building something that's better than what is now here, because you care. And so when you do that, there are specific processes that can make your life easier. And these processes is what I have collected, because it's so hard to stay focused. And we discussed that it's important when you're on the wave, it's important that you don't distract yourself stay on the wave. But everybody who ever created an innovation project and innovation thing and you think knows that it's hard to stay focused consistently. So I collected all the processes, the marketing processes, the sales processes, the customer onboarding processes, hiring processes that help those entrepreneurs doing the creative work, and not burnout not distract, not lose the energy dissipates the energy in too many directions, because it's easy that it would happen without those processes. And so the book is like a cookbook. If somebody runs a business, that's literally they open it and say, Okay, what do I do for? How do I build my marketing systems? Oh, it's chapter two. How do I build my sales systems? Oh, it's chapter three. And it's literally I have it here on my desk, and I'm checking it this week. My marketing is not working so well. What's going on? I go through that. Oh, I was trying to skip steps. So as usual, Jerry Dugan 29:56 it's always a skip step. Yeah. So Simon Severino 29:59 I always think that I can outsmart myself or outpace myself. And it's usually not true. Again, the mind, not a great companion, the process trust the process, however you feel trust, just the process. That's what I've learned from yoga. However I feel I go on the mat, I do my process, my yoga process for that day, it's always a good idea. Same thing I do now, with marketing with sales with Client Onboarding, with hiring, I just trust the process, follow the process. And so in the book strategy sprints, people can find those processes. And they can also download some of them digitally, at strategy sprint.com. Jerry Dugan 30:38 Nice. And then of course, if they want some coaching, they can go to strategy sprints.com, and ask for that as well. So yeah, get a copy of his book strategy sprints, it's available on Amazon. If you have a podcast, he'll send you an Advanced Reader Copy. But you gotta have him on your show. We get a copy of that book, I'm reading through it. And it's timely for me because I just launched my own leadership development business. And, and I'm going to check out the website, check out the tools, you offer up some free tools with that book. And then of course, the coaching. Now, if anybody's visiting in Vienna, what's your home address? We can just pop in and say hello, I'm kidding. Brandon used to say that to our guests, like you can't ask that. And you're just doing it as a homage to Brandon. You're welcome, Brandon. But any final words of wisdom before we go, Simon? Simon Severino 31:27 Look, there is no wisdom. There is just the practice the practice of everyday showing up to your yoga mat, whatever it is, for me, it's my daily habit, weekly habit monthly habit, a share, demonstrate that is principle. What if the week is super, super bad week, I just do my three habits. If the week is a wonderful week, and I'm high and I think I'm I'm a genius. I stick to the practice. I just follow my three habits. And that's usually the best idea. And they try to live a very creative life that I would not be sad if if I die next week. I'm happy. I I gave it I gave it a shot. I really gave it a shot. I didn't miss a minute. So yeah, I think that's that's a good process. Jerry Dugan 32:13 That's perfect. Perfect. Simon, it was great to have you on the show. I'm glad we got connected through Michelle. And again, thanks for being on here. Simon Severino 32:21 Thank you for doing this showing up for your community with this consistency and bringing sharing knowledge sharing wisdom. Jerry Dugan 32:28 Now, I hope you got a lot out of that conversation I had with Simon just like I did. I took a lot of notes. I've got him right here in front of me in fact, now if you want to get those resources, get a copy of his book strategy Sprint's go to the shownotes at beyond the rut.com slash 3543. You'll find more information about Simon about strategy sprints, and also some more information about my book Beyond the rut. Create a life worth living in your faith, family and career where it's all about pulling you out of your rut. Recognizing the rut you're in understanding where you want to go and take action to get there. Once you've got that mindset clicked in you've created some goals, apply these strategy Sprint's to those goals and watch some agile growth happening in your own life. Now I'm glad you joined me for this episode and I look forward to joining with you again in the next episode. But until next time, go live life beyond the rut. Take care Transcribed by https://otter.ai