00:01 Michael Port: Todd Durkin coaches many NFL superstars, NBA superstars, not stupid stars [laughter] not stupid stars, superstars and Major League Baseball superstars, as well as everyday fitness enthusiasts striving for greatness in life. He has twice been honored in the top 100 most influential people in Health and Fitness magazine. Todd lives by the words passion, purpose, and impact, and all of his programs, his classes and sessions are designed to help people reach extraordinary success personally and professionally. Todd is married and has three children, and is a real family man. He also is the owner of Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, California, and he leads a team of 38 fitness professionals, and not only that, he has more energy than anyone I have ever met in my entire life, and that’s saying something. Todd, what’s up?

01:03 Todd Durkin: Hey Michael, how are yeah?

01:05 Michael Port: I’m fantastic now that I’m talking to you.

01:08 Todd Durkin: [chuckle] Love it.

01:08 Michael Port: So look everybody wants to start, everybody wants to know in your introduction, I said he works with professional athletes, NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, so they wanna start there. So talk to us a little bit about the professionals that you work with, and not just because it’s cool, but because I really wanna know what makes them better performers outside of the talent that they have?

01:36 Todd Durkin: Right, well that’s one of the things I do Michael, and for the last 13 years, I’ve been really in this industry, I have my gym in San Diego, and although I work with a lot of fitness enthusiasts, and weekend warriors, and executives, people always wanna know about the athletes. And I’ve got some of the top names in the NFL, and Major League Baseball, in the fight world in MMA. I love that aspect, I love being in the trenches training and coaching my people, ’cause these are the highest performers, they’re looking for world-class performance, they come and they tell me, “Hey Todd, I wanna be the best in the world at this. What’s it’s gonna take?” And from working with a lot of these guys and gals for so long, I realize much of it’s a mindset, Michael, it’s a mindset to have the discipline to do the little that it takes to be the best.

02:27 Todd Durkin: Of course, anyone can go out there and work out for 30, 40 minutes, an hour a day, but are you willing to do all the little things, I mean, the nutritional aspects, the mindset, I’m gonna get your mind right guy, I’m really big on the mindset. Are you willing to do everything I ask so that you’ll really get to that 1% of the population that could do what they love to do on the athletic pitch, or field, or court and love that? So the Drew Brees of the world, I’ve been working with Drew for 13 years, and I had an opportunity with Aaron Rodgers the year after, that when he won his Super Bowl, Darren Sproles, the list goes on and on of the athletes that I’ve worked with, and still work with, but there’s always a commonality with these guys, and it really is awesome to say, “Hey I wanna be the best in the world, I’m willing to do what it takes.” And then see if they have the commitment and discipline to do the little things.

03:21 Michael Port: It’s interesting, I was working with a client yesterday and he’s what you would consider an A-lister author, he’s sold about three and a half million books, he’s had three number one New York Times best sellers, so this is not a guy who has trouble going after what he wants. When we were working together yesterday, he was having some trouble making an adjustment in his style, and he really wanted to make the adjustment, and he wanted to talk about it a lot. And so I got to the point where I just said, “Listen, just do what I tell you, and you’ll see the change. I don’t wanna talk about it anymore.” And he did.

04:06 Michael Port: Do you find that very successful… Now obviously you work with the pros, but you also work with regular folks, very successful performers, and that’s what an athlete is to me, they’re performers. And very successful performers are the kind of people that will just do what their coaches tell them to do because they know that if, and I’m not just saying this because I want all my students to do what I tell them to do, but there is a reason I’m asking this question, is there a difference in how they respond to coaching, and how somebody who doesn’t perform at such a high level responds to coaching?

04:48 Todd Durkin: Well, it’s a great question, and I’d say this is, whenever I’m working with a client or an athlete, I ask myself, how coachable are they? Because when you take a successful athlete and if they’ve had success at the highest level in the pro ranks for years and years, those people do get stuck in the routine of, “Hey, it’s worked in the past why should I change?” And let’s say I have a new tweak, something with nutrition something with mindset, something with an exercise that I wanna add to the routine, some of those folks might be like, “We haven’t done that in the past and I had an MVP year last year.”

05:24 Todd Durkin: But I also believe is, we always have to continue evolving and changing. One of my favorite quotes comes from Coach Tom Landry, the legendary football coach of the Dallas Cowboys, some of our listeners today may remember him or not, but he said that, “Great coaches tell you things that you need to hear, not that you want to hear, so that you can be all that you’re meant to be.” So as a coach myself, that’s trying to get maximum performance out of my athletes. Hey, I lead a team of 38 trainers, and massage therapists, and pilates instructors here at my gym, and as a leader, how can I get the best out of them so they can be all they’re meant to be as well?

06:03 Todd Durkin: With the athletes and the best of the best, I also find it depends on where they’re at in their career. I have some young folks that come in here and they say they wanna be their best, and I’ll coach them, but they’re not really open to doing all of the little things that it takes to create the edge to be the best. Now, the best, I’m always like “Hey, if you can take some and incorporate some of the recovery aspects, the breath work… ” Breath work, it is important for an athlete, as it is in an actor, a speaker. The breathing techniques, the meditation, the breath work is critical for success. So these are some of the things that I find with our athlete, just like a performer you say, Mike.

06:44 Michael Port: Well, a performer is an athlete. Somebody who performs on the stage, whether they’re an actor, or dancer, or a public speaker, they are professional athletes.

06:55 Todd Durkin: No doubt.

06:55 Michael Port: And the body, the way you use your body, the way you treat your body, is gonna influence the way that you interact with an audience when you’re on stage. And for me, I don’t separate personal and professional. Often people say “Ah, I didn’t get the thing done. Life got in the way.” Well, to me, life cannot get in the way because it is the way. It is the only way. So, I mentioned in the introduction, your book, the WOW book: 52 Ways To Motivate Your Mind, Inspire Your Soul, And Create Wow In Your Life. And so, I would love to talk about some ways that you think we can motivate ourselves when we don’t feel like we wanna do the hard work that it takes to do the thing that we say we wanna do. We’re just like…

07:50 Michael Port: For example, I’ve gotta bring in more sponsorship right now for our upcoming Heroic Public Speaking live event, and I don’t love reaching out to people and, “Hey, we got the event. Do you wanna come and sponsor it?” It’s just not something I love to do. I’m generally a, ‘build relationships more slowly over time.’ But I gotta do it. I have to do it. And now, this is not an act… It’s not a physical feet where I’ve gotta pick up something heavy or run an extra mile, but it is a challenge nonetheless. And so, how does one motivate themselves to do that extra thing? ‘Cause it’s really that last 10%, isn’t it?

08:34 Todd Durkin: Oh, absolutely.

08:36 Michael Port: So what should we do? What are a few things we can do?

08:39 Todd Durkin: Well, I’m a big, “Hey, get your mind right. Get your mind right.” It’s something I’d say, “All right. Get your mind right. Get your mind right.” And you know what? It doesn’t matter what one does for a living, all of us have to get our mind right. Everyone’s busy. Last I checked, no one ever came into training and said, “You know what Todd? I’ve got all day to train. I’m not busy.” Even athletes are busy. You think, “Well, they get paid to do that.” Let me tell you something. Athletes have the same challenges that most other people have, and not all athletes come in that are “naturally motivated”. Motivation to me is in the mind and inspiration’s in the heart. And we’ve gotta have the daily motivation. I think it was Zig Ziglar that said, “Motivation is something that you have to do every day. It’s like showering or taking a bath or brushing your teeth. Do it every day.”

[chuckle]

09:28 Todd Durkin: Motivation’s no different. That’s getting your mind ready every day. So what are some of those things? Well, I think your morning routine is absolutely imperative. What you do in the first thing in the morning helps set your day on fire or eat you up. Now, I’m an early morning workout guy, but some are like, “Well, I don’t like to work out in the morning.” Okay, how about getting up and journaling? How about getting up and taking a gratitude walk? How about doing some breathing or meditation exercises? Because I believe one of the best things that someone could do is not get up and turn on your phone right away or go right to the computer and check your Facebook, or your Instagram, or your Twitter, or your emails and all of a sudden, your day is dominating you because you know what? All of a sudden your motivation gets zapped because the day is dominating you versus you dominating your day. So how do you get motivated? You get up and you set your morning routine in practice first.

10:21 Michael Port: Can I just say guilty as charged?

[chuckle]

10:23 Todd Durkin: I’m gonna start holding you accountable, Michael.

10:25 Michael Port: Oh man. Well, I’ll tell you. This is… I’m an early morning person and when you have three kids, often the morning is dominated by the kids. And I try to… I get up at about 4:30, 5:00 and I try to get working because then the day starts, and the calls, and then this, and then that. And I’ve developed a habit of as soon as I get up, I take my shower, I go down, I start work. Boom! Right there. Now, I don’t do Facebook and I don’t waste my time on all that kind of stuff in those morning times, and morning times are really for work, but it doesn’t… I don’t feel energized. By 9, 10, 11 o’clock, I feel already tired. And I think that’s not healthy. It’s not particularly productive. And I know it, yet I still do it. That’s the problem that we humans have. So if anybody for some reason has been listening to this podcast for some time and had this really stupid idea that I was somehow this perfect performer who did everything right, there’s your first introduction to the absurdity of that idea.

11:34 Todd Durkin: Yup, yup. Well, I think one way that anyone could increase and improve their performance is I have rules for my living. I have 13 rules for my life and I say, “If I do these things, I know my performance is going to be higher.” And I don’t think that Michael Port’s rules should be the exact same as mine or anyone else’s, but I know based on my past history, that when I do these things, I know I’m gonna be the best coach, teacher leader, father, husband, trainer that I could possibly be, so that if I do those things I do them and that helps with my motivation if I do them.

12:11 Todd Durkin: Now do you have the discipline to do them or not? And not everyone’s an early morning workout guy or girl. That just means, okay then you better get in later on today, and you better make sure that you eat right, better make sure you look at your sleep and recovery. Are you incorporating body work and massage, or meditation into your routine to help energize your spirit, because I can guarantee you when you do those things, you are a better author, you are a better speaker. When I go out and speak now I have a very specific, pre-game routine that I use the day I’m speaking, ’cause I know it’ll set my energy on fire if I do the things right before I talk. That includes a workout, what I’m gonna eat, and my mental visualization aspect as well.

12:53 Todd Durkin: That’s kind of what I get into the book. In my WOW book, I talk about… I have 52 stories, and they’re all personal stories. I know you’re a big story guy and I’ve learned a lot from you over the years, Michael. But sharing personal stories, and then having action steps with each of those stories can help set the whole day on fire, your week on fire, and your life on fire, but it takes a daily commitment, and that’s the purpose of The WOW Book, is to really get your mind right, discover your purpose, and live with passion and purpose.

13:24 Michael Port: Let’s talk about accountability, ’cause you mentioned accountability. Gosh, you know this accountability is something that often seems challenging to folks. They, and sometimes myself included, are less likely to be accountable to themselves as they are to other people. So people say, “Why don’t you self-publish your books now because you’d make even more money, because you already have readers?” I say, “Well, you know if I self-published my last book, I Steal the Show, I’m not sure it would be out right now.

[chuckle]

14:01 Michael Port: Because I run two businesses, I’m a dad of three, etcetera, etcetera. There are a lot of different things that require my attention. But if I sign a contract with a large publisher and they have given me a large advance on the book, I’ve got no choice, I’ve made a commitment, it’s gotta be on that day, and it will be in early, it will never be late. So how can we increase our accountability as it relates to health, as it relates to the rehearsal for our performances, the things that are actually important to us?

14:37 Todd Durkin: Yeah, find out, when it comes to those things hire a coach, find an accountability partner. The biggest reason why people come in to a coach, a trainer, a therapist, whatever may it be is, for me, it’s they need motivation, they need know-how, and they need accountability. A great coach is gonna help you when you sit down and say “Okay, here are my goals, Todd this is what I wanna do.” “Great. Now what I’m gonna ask you next is what are you willing to commit to to achieve those goals?” And it’s my job as a coach to help you do those things. So all of us as human beings, we all need accountability.

15:12 Todd Durkin: Hey, I’m no different. I’ve hired nutritionists in the past. I’ve hired other trainers to hold me accountable, and people are like, “Wait Todd, you’re a coach, you’re a trainer, why would you hire someone?” “‘Cause I’m no different than you, I need accountability.” People ask me all the time “Why would a pro athlete hire you when they have their own strength and conditioning coaches in a team?” I’m like “Well, because they go and they look for someone that’s gonna even hold them more accountable to really doing what they say they want to do outside of the team concept.” So when it comes to accountability there’s a lot of different specific things that I’ll do as a coach, but imagine you don’t have a coach. Well, you can always get one, whether it be a speaking coach, a life coach, a business coach. I have a mastermind group of business coaches in the fitness field and think about what you could do, everything from daily accountability on up to ongoing accountability, these are things that are really important.

16:13 Michael Port: When I saw you teach a class… So, many people probably don’t know that I was in the fitness industry for a while on the business side, and I ran group exercise for a company that had clubs throughout the country. And then after that I went and I built a club in New York for somebody, and ran it, but the thing that was so interesting to me when I first got in there and I started learning the business was that when people go to a group exercise class, they usually come first for the teacher, ’cause they hear the teacher’s really good, or they see the teacher, and the teacher inspires them, the teacher fires them up, teacher makes them feel good. But, what the studies showed was that the people keep coming back because of the other people in the room. Because if the class is Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 6:00, it’s Tuesday morning and you’re not there, Thursday you show up and Susan’s like, “Hey, Michael, where were you? I was here on Tuesday at 6:00, where were you?” And I was like, “Don’t you do that again, don’t you make me come here by myself.” So when I saw you teach a class, I’ve seen the best, of the best, of the best. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone teach a class with as much intensity as you.

[chuckle]

17:42 Michael Port: Oh my God. So A, who knows how the heck you’ve got that kind of energy, but number two, what you did in the class that I thought was brilliant is you had them doing partner exercises throughout. So it wasn’t just them on their own in the group, they were working with others. So talk to me about what you find, you get from putting people together to work together. What’s the value of that versus having you as the coach primarily connected to them?

18:18 Todd Durkin: It’s fun. And people wanna have fun when they’re learning. And when you’re working out, you have to have fun. Studies show that when you’re having a good time, when you’re working out, you’re gonna be more likely to do it again and it’s a more conducive environment to learning. And when I’m teaching a class, if I’m doing a presentation, I want high five, I want chest bumps, booty bumps, daddy bumps, I wanna have fun. And I want the people having fun, ’cause what do they do? That evokes an emotion where they’re like “Dang, I feel great. I haven’t felt like this in months before.” And then all of a sudden, they’re smiling, they’re sweating, and they have this endorphins release. They’re like “Wow! I can do this every day.” But what happens? Then the motivation wanes if they don’t do it every day and they don’t do it and they go back into the rut. So to me it’s like you gotta have a fun environment that is conducive. That includes music, that includes the way you put together your program, and when you talk about accountability, Michael, imagine this.

19:20 Todd Durkin: Imagine I said, “Michael, you know what? You have more in the tank than I think you even think. And if you do this, these five things, I promise you that you’re gonna get to another level in your performance.” And let’s say I challenge you and then I give you, including in that routine I say, “I want you to eat these following foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” and I give you a complete program. And now I start texting you. “Hey Michael, what did you have for breakfast this morning? Hey Michael, did you eat your chicken salad for lunch?” Now you’re being held accountable. Then you come to my Monday, Wednesday, Friday session, now all of a sudden, you’re like, “Darn! Todd’s all over me,” and I’m holding you accountable. I’m motivating you, and that’s what I have found in my coaching.

20:00 Todd Durkin: I did this with my athletes. I send them, I call ’em, ‘What are you doing right now?’ videos, and they’re really crazy. I wear a grey hoodie, I get nutty, and I basically, while I’m working out at the gym, I’ll talk smack to them and tell ’em “What are you doing right now?” And I’m working out, I have all these funny quotes I’ll share with them. I’m in their head. I hold them accountable.

20:21 Todd Durkin: But that’s what happens. In the work outs that I do and in the programs I offer, I want people to be pumped up, fired up because people are often lacking that motivation-ty, that fire-ty that the world needs. The world needs more fire-breathing dragons that are gonna go out there and put more positivity in the universe. And too many times, people are just like going through the motions, or showing up, and they’re not doing it all out. And that’s what I love, is I can go out and wow people. And all you do on stage, in the gym, go out there and be on fire. It starts with yourself and your best practices, and your personal routines.

21:00 Michael Port: So you’re now, from what I understand, a competitor on an NBC TV show called ‘Strong’ produced by David Broome and Sylvester Stallone. I think people are familiar with them. What is this show about and how has your experience as a competitor on the TV show affected your view or shaped your view of your role as a trainer or coach? If at all.

21:30 Todd Durkin: Yeah. Well, man, thanks for asking. Strong, season one aired earlier here this year and I was one of 10 trainers, 10 trainers were paired with 10 female regular contestants. All ages 25 up to I believe 43, and these women wanted to change their lives. They wanted to change their bodies, they wanna change their minds, and they were stuck in a rut. So they took 10 trainers, all of us with different methodologies, and we got assigned our trainees. Well, I was the only trainer that actually had two trainees, because what happened is I got eliminated in week three with my girl. I came back with an opportunity to get back in the game and I shocked the world as the oldest trainer at 44 years old, came in and shocked these other young trainers that were in the show and we competed physically against. Got back in the game, got paired up with a young gal school teacher, an incredible story, Brittany Harrell, just an incredible story, incredible woman who had overcome so much adversity and I made it all the way to the finals. Week six, seven, eight, nine and 10, we made it to the finals and my body was being held together by bubble gum at that point.

22:49 Todd Durkin: And we ended up losing in the finals, but it was an incredible, incredible show that Stallone and Broome put on. Because you know what I learned in that Michael? Was that even me, as a coach and as a high performer and someone that I viewed myself as a former athlete, now who coaches people to get in the best shape with their life, is I found out that I was way stronger than I even thought I was. Physically, as well as mentally. And there was a lot of challenges in that, and I believe all of us have more strength in us than you even know. But you have to go to places that you haven’t been to in a long time. You have to be challenged, you have to go outside the box. I left my family and my business for three months. I could have never imagined doing that. I’ve got 38 employees. I’m all over the world travelling, speaking. I never thought I could do that. I never thought I could do with three months without my phone. They take your phone, [23:46] ____ and that…

23:48 Michael Port: I was wondering why I didn’t hear from you.

23:49 Todd Durkin: Yeah, exactly. But you know what? When you’re all in and focused on doing one thing, you’re way stronger than you think and that’s what Strong revealed to me and I’m hoping if there’s a season two, there’s future opportunity. But it was a great, great part of my life. And as far as business, when you ask, “What it’s done to business?” It’s been awesome because I’ve connected with so many people, whether it be airports or around town in San Diego, or some other city that may have seen the show, and thank me, just thank me because it was an authentic view of what I do every day. And all of us are always looking at “What could we do to get better?” Someone’s listening to your podcast right now, it’s because maybe they wanna get better in speaking, or writing. Well, it’s the relentless pursuit of excellence and something I share on the show is being 1% better every day. What can I do today to get 1% better? That’s one of the chapters in my WOW book, 1% better and talking about progresses. What can we do today and take the action to make sure that I can personally or professionally improve my life or business?

24:56 Michael Port: So can people get that on iTunes? Do you know where they can get it if the first season’s already been shown?

25:04 Todd Durkin: Yep, they can go to nbc.com, and they could also go to Hulu. It’s on Hulu as well. So hulu.com, that’s all 10 episodes. I believe it might be on Netflix as well. But those are the some of the places that you can get Strong.

25:18 Michael Port: So you had to train your client and you competed against the other trainers you did physically?

25:25 Todd Durkin: Yes.

25:25 Michael Port: Wow!

25:26 Todd Durkin: Now, Michael, they never told me that going into it.

25:29 Michael Port: Really?

25:29 Todd Durkin: No. They said, “Hey, you’re gonna get paired with a girl. And what’s gonna happen is you’re gonna try to get this girl on the best shape and you’re gonna compete.” Now, I didn’t know going in that I was gonna be competing myself with my girl because…

25:41 Michael Port: Right. You just thought compete means, you’re gonna compete for her to get into best shape.

25:46 Todd Durkin: I probably wouldn’t have done it [laughter] if I had known was what I was going to be doing because I hadn’t competed at that level in about 20 years, at that really, really high level and, but that was…

25:58 Michael Port: But you just said something really interesting. You said, “I don’t know if I would have done it if I had known.”

26:03 Todd Durkin: Exactly.

26:04 Michael Port: And I find that all the time is that sometimes, it’s better not to know what’s coming.

26:10 Todd Durkin: That’s right, and that’s fear. Fear often holds people back.

26:14 Michael Port: Sure. We wanna know the unknown, we wanna know the future. We wanna predict a result, we wanna determine the result. We can’t always, we don’t know what’s gonna happen in the future and yet if we try to control it, we often say no to a lot of opportunities that could actually be really meaningful and allow us to do things we didn’t even realize we could do.

26:41 Todd Durkin: Absolutely, absolutely.

26:43 Michael Port: Sometimes people will go through our graduate program which is that kind of intensive training, and they’ll say, “My God! Honestly, I did not know that X was gonna happen. I had no idea that I was gonna experience Y. If I had known, I don’t know, maybe I wouldn’t have done it. ‘Cause that would have seem scary at the time. But thank God that I did because this is how it changed my life.”

27:09 Todd Durkin: Well, think about what you teach in all of the folks that you mentor, from an acting, from a speaking standpoint. You can go on to the graduate program and you can repeat the graduate program two or three times but if you never actually go up on stage and actually practiced in a live, then you’re never gonna really get to the point where you’re an A-list presenter, speaker, keynoter, whatever it is that you wanna do. It’s when you’re actually in the line of fire doing it, you don’t know and you can get paralysis by analysis of always just practicing. So it’s that fine line and balance of, for me, training. When I’m training, what are you training for? Why are you training? I guarantee if someone that’s listening to you, I’m gonna sign up for a 5k or a 10K or half-marathon or a marathon or an Ironman. Sometimes it scares you enough to say, “You know what? I have to train today. I need to get out there, lace up my shoes and get out there and hit the pavement because if I don’t, I’m gonna embarrass myself. And that was for me, I can’t embarrass myself on national TV in primetime. I gotta make sure I’m ready to go.”

28:11 Michael Port: Sure. It’s interesting. It often is surprising the things that motivate us to do something new. For example, my son is 11. And he’s become quite a tennis player. He loves it, loves it, loves it, loves it. And I am so proud of him that he has made this kind of commitment to the sport. It’s really just amazing to see. When he was younger, I wasn’t sure, he didn’t have his thing. And he start something and then stop and I was worried. I was like, “I don’t know. Is he not a finisher? What’s his personality like?” But then he found tennis, and he is all over it. Now, tennis is such a wonderful sport because you can play it when you’re travelling, you can find a court somewhere. And he wants me to play with him, but he’s getting better than I am. And I was never a serious tennis player but I could go hack the ball around.

29:05 Michael Port: So I started taking lessons and I started training again in tennis, so that I could play with him, so that he would enjoy it. Because when he becomes 15, 16, 17, obviously, he’s gonna be able to outrun me. He’s gonna be more talented. He is more talented than I am at it. He’s younger, he’s stronger and he’ll play a lot more, so he’ll get a lot better. But up until those days and maybe even in those days, I’ll still be able to play with him and make it worth his time and really enjoyable for me, too. And that’s what motivated me to do it. Outside of that, I wouldn’t go and start up training again in tennis and taking lessons, and going in on hitting the ball machine until my arm feels like it’s gonna fall off. But I’m doing it so I can keep up with him, not to compete with him. [chuckle] Let me be really clear about that, but so that he has someone to play with outside of people at his tennis club.

30:03 Todd Durkin: Well, think about what you said Michael. You said, “I wanted to get better at this, so I went out and hired a tennis instructor.”

30:10 Michael Port: Absolutely.

30:10 Todd Durkin: You hired a coach?

30:12 Michael Port: Yep.

30:12 Todd Durkin: So, it’s the same thing as what you do in the speaking world, like if you wanna get better at speaking, you can certainly read your book, but when you really have a coach, and if that coach holds you accountable, and gives you all the tips, gives you the game plan, gives you the play book and says, “Okay, here’s your play book, now let’s go out and practice it. We’re gonna breakdown video tape, we’re gonna watch the tape, you’re gonna get feedback on that.” It’s the same thing with tennis, or in training with exercise or with speaking. It’s the same type of work. Is that really, really professional guided coaching helps your performance at the highest level.

30:51 Michael Port: In your book, you wrote about a word of the weak every Sunday. What is it?

30:58 Todd Durkin: Well, that’s how the WOW book originated. I’ve been doing these wows for five years, and it started as, if I could just focus on one word this week, what’s it gonna be? So let’s say, we’ll take for example the word courage. And I would write a short story or parable about something in my family or something about one of my athletes or clients or something about spirituality and I would use the word courage. And I would do that, then have an action step. This week, this is how I am gonna be more courageous and I would have 10 or 15 examples of what I could do at the gym or in my relationship, in my marriage with writing a book or putting myself outside there. And that’s how it all started.

31:39 Todd Durkin: For the book, I wrote 52 wows and they could be done each week or they could be done every day but it’s a word, a word that resides deeply with your spirit. Let’s say, okay, could be wow, it could be love, it could be hustle, it could be cracklings and crawdads. I have all these fun aspects in different words, say okay, today it’s all about all in, or it’s all about MTXE, which is Mental Toughness Extra Effort. And that’s how it all originated and I found, although I started just writing it for a few people earlier on, I kept getting more and more request, “Oh, I love these wows, can you write more of them, can I share these with my friend or my colleagues at work,” and I say, “Sure, absolutely.”

32:22 Todd Durkin: Next thing I know, a couple of years later, I had thousands of people that were asking me to write more of the wows. And that was the idea in 2014, I was in Europe with my family, and my wife Melanie said, “Why don’t you write a book on this? And you have so many stories from your life with your different hats that you wear.” And that was the impetus for writing the WOW book: 52 Ways To Motivate Your Mind, Inspire Your Soul And Create Wow In Your Life. And I believe that when one reads this and actually takes these action steps and applies them to their life, that they will be more motivated, and they will be more inspired and they will create more wow in their relationships and all you do.

33:00 Michael Port: Brilliant, this is what I wanna do, am gonna ask you one more and I’m gonna let you to think about the answer, then I’m gonna tell everyone where they can find you, then I want you to give us the answer. Okay?

33:11 Todd Durkin: Okay. Got it.

33:12 Michael Port: All right. So what I want you to think of, I want you to… What’s a word that you would like my audience to think about this week as they perform in any high stake situation, and am gonna come back to you in a minute. Okay?

33:27 Michael Port: So, if you want more of Todd, you want another dose of Todd, you can go to Dose of Durkin. I love it, it’s fantastic, doseofdurkin.com, that’s D-O-S-E-O-F-D-U-R-K-I-N.com., doseofdurkin.com and he will text you every Monday, a free motivational video. Now if you’re not sure if you’re ready for that, just go to todddurkin.com, that’s T-O-D-D-D-U-R-K-I-N.com, T-O-D-D-D-U-R-K-I-N.com, you can find him on Twitter @todddurkin, Facebook fan page is @ToddDurkinFQ10 so that’s how you get in touch with Todd and, tell you what, I feel like we got…

34:14 Michael Port: I got my dose of Durkin, I’m all fired up, like I’m not usually this, excitable in the middle of the afternoon, you just have this effect on people. It’s really extraordinary, everybody I have seen around all over sudden, boom! They wake up, they have got a whole another energy level. So what’s the word.

34:31 Todd Durkin: The word is heart, heart. Like love, like heart. I’m gonna have more heart this week, more passion this week. When I think of the word heart, how can I live with more heart this week? I think of the word because it induces heart is love, heart is passion, and these are the things the world needs more of. When I talk about get your mind right, right? There is about 12 inches between your heart and your head. And you need to get your mind right, your head right or you need to get your heart right. And maybe there some things that some of our listeners are out there, they’re saying, “What can I do to be more passionate in my life? How can I be more all-in at work? How can I be more all-in with my relationships with my spouse?”

35:14 Todd Durkin: Well, I believe when you share your heart more, you communicate more of your feelings, I think that’s a really critical thing and I shared this in the WOW book, coach John Wooden, possibly the best coach of all time. Coach Wooden, was asked in his Pyramid of Success, a great book, hard work enthusiasm are the cornerstones of success. They said on his death bed, coach Wooden is 99 years old, they said, “Coach, if you would rewrite your book, The Pyramid To Success, are there any words you would change in the book?” And coach Wooden said, “No, I wouldn’t change any one of the words but I did leave one word out of the book. And it should have been smack in the middle of my pyramid and that word is love.” The word love 

35:56 Todd Durkin: Love more, you gotta love your athletes, you gotta love your clients, you gotta love all the people in your life, including strangers. So, this week my word would be heart. My friends, how can you share more of your heart, share more of your love, share more of your soul with people, so they can see the light that’s within you? In a world that’s often dark, I say be the light. Get out there and share your passion, share your impact with all that you do.

36:23 Michael Port: Beautiful. Fantastic. The WOW Book: 52 Ways to Motivate Your Mind, Inspire Your Soul And Create Impact in Your Life! Anywhere books are sold. Go pick up a copy on Amazon right now. And for more Todd Durkin, go to todddurkin.com or doseofdurkin.com. This is Michael Port, saying thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to be in service of you. We never take it for granted. I know I don’t take it for granted, Todd does not take it for granted, and keep thinking big about who you are and what you offer the world. Until next time, bye for now.