Balancing Branding, Health, and Family in the Modern World w/ Zach Colman

Zach Colman shares his journey of balancing branding, health, and family while running his creative marketing consulting firm, revealing how these three pillars intersect to create a meaningful life.

• Defining success beyond money and status—evolving from external validation to family fulfillment
• True branding means living your values, not just creating visual assets
• Mental fitness requires ongoing work like physical fitness—offloading regularly, not waiting for crisis
• Focus on micronutrients over macronutrients for better overall health
• Leadership at home translates to leadership in business
• Finding balance requires sacrifice and intentional boundaries around work
• Creating intentional family time by putting away devices and being fully present
• The biggest mistake in branding is not being authentic to yourself
• Family provides the sense of being seen and heard that many seek through career achievement

Subscribe to the Fit to Grit Cast at https://creatitive.com/fit-to-grit-cast/ to hear more from Zach Colman.

https://mindforcepodcast.buzzsprout.com

Chapters

• 0:49 Introduction to Zach and Creative
• 7:17 Redefining Personal Success
• 13:48 The Essence of True Branding
• 21:40 Mental Fitness and Mindful Growth
• 28:10 Health Beyond Macros and Metrics
• 34:35 Family Leadership and Intentional Living
• 41:19 Closing Thoughts and Contact Information

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:22

Hi everyone. It's Nate Shear and you're listening to Mindforce, a podcast where we push boundaries, spark curiosity and grow together. Today we'll be talking about branding, health and family, so let's start with the background. A quick introduction Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you, what do you do and what brings you here today?

Speaker 2: 0:43

bit about yourself. Who are you, what do you do and what brings you here today? Yeah, my name is Zach Coleman and I own a creative and marketing consulting firm called Creative, where we help brands find their why and implement their why through brand identity and digital experiences.

Speaker 1: 1:00

Nice, that is awesome. And just to set the scene, where are you calling from from today?

Speaker 2: 1:08

Well, I am in Arizona. We're going through the desert weather right now, so today it's a little bit chilly, but yesterday it was raining, Three days before that it was almost 90, so we're just kind of going back and forth and wearing clothes and not wearing clothes wearing clothes and not wearing clothes, jeez, yeah, I'm out in the UK and the UK can't figure out what it wants to do for spring.

Speaker 1: 1:29

So it's been interesting. One morning it was zero, which I'm still getting used to, celsius. You know, one of these days I'll figure out the double it plus third, whatever the thing is for it. But yeah, it was freezing one morning, literally freezing, and then the next day it was like 55, 60 and pretty nice out. So kind of confusing. I guess that's how it goes through spring. So we'll see how it goes. This is our first year. We got here about six, seven months ago, so it's been interesting. Well, for the warm up, let's go through a couple of fun questions. What inspired you to focus on branding health and family as key pillars in your life?

Speaker 2: 2:03

Well, that's a huge one. I think it's been a long time coming. Just continued growth in life, you know, but in kind of rebranding, my personal rebrand periods and evolution. But I'm just a builder at heart, I love building things and that's where the branding side really kind of came back and emphasized more heavily within the business growth of what I'm doing and really as I continue to grow as a person, I just realized, you know, my family.

Speaker 2: 2:32

Now I have three young boys. You know that my family means more to me than you know top line revenue does, right. So it's one of those situations where I'm kind of trying to be like, hey, it's not about you know, it's not really about hustle culture. It's not really about hustle To me, it's about perseverance and finding time for my family. And you know I've come to see that very heavily that a lot of people that become very successful in their lives they actually find great inspiration from taking personal time right, and so I've tended to try to acclimate more personal I'm not just for myself, but just be more present around my family. And the health side of it has always been kind of a huge thing for me.

Speaker 2: 3:18

I grew up in sports my whole life. I worked for the Phoenix Suns. I worked for professional athletes back in the day before we took our pivot. We tended to, you know, I tended to find and lose that as I was trying to grow my brand and grow my business and I came to realize that those are the things that I can, I have full control over and I can hold myself accountable to. So if I'm not able to keep myself top performance, how do I expect my team to perform and be able to perform for my family and my clients?

Speaker 1: 3:52

Yeah, that makes sense. I'm curious how do you define success? I always find it kind of an interesting thing, Like some people want, you know, money or the car or the house or things like that. But how do you personally define success?

Speaker 2: 4:04

You know, funny enough, I think that success is an ever-growing changing thing. I personally, you know, when I first started my business per se, you know I was one of those people that was like you know, success to me back then was like hey, I want to make a crap load of money, you know, and it was more from an internal perspective of like hey, like I want people to see that I can do my shit, I want people to see that I can do it right, I want to be seen and heard by people. And then I got to the point where the money wasn't necessarily as important. I kept telling myself back then that like, oh, I'm saving up, I'm saving up, I'm saving up, I'm saving up. And then I got to the point where I'm like, well, this isn't really gratifying. I am at a point where I have no longer scarcity mindset and I'm not going to say I'm in that top 1%. But I was at a good place where I was like I'm almost 40. And I don't need to grind for work my butt off for $1,000. Right, so I? That was part of my shit, one of my rebrand periods in life. I had to go back and be like why am I not happy? And I had to like look, and I think a lot of it came down to I was still putting too much emotions in the business and I continuing to try to find what success looks like for me, because I'm in a very pivotal stage in life with young kids and trying to be a good father, but as a man, also being like well, I have to support my family and I have to. I want them, I want to lead by example so they can see what it means to lead, but trying to do that in a way where I'm also not sacrificing my time with them. And so, at least right now, it's a continued battle on being like remember, success right now in my time frame of where I'm at in life is family and being able to be there for my kids, watch them grow up and see their dad making leadership-type decisions, so that my children can try to grow up and be have more of that leadership type mentality, and that's that's what. That's the stage I think that I'm just at right now. Is there growth involved in the business? Yeah, do I want to make more money? Of course, who doesn't, you know just part of growing a business in a life. I'm not necessarily like you know how do I put this. I'm one of those people that you see, you know you watch Dave. I don't know if you've ever watched Dave Ramsey. You've watched.

Speaker 2: 6:33

You know some of the people that talk about success, but I'm one of those people. Man Like I, I don't need a fancy car, like I don't need to show off, I don't have those types of insecurities, nor do I feel like it's necessary. But every once in a while I'm like I want to buy something for me. You know, buy something for me. And so I don't really need that stuff. And so that stuff kind of just the money, the money and the success of the cars and stuff just not needed. I don't need to be seen by other people anymore. Right, I have my family now, so it's kind of just fun just knowing that, if I wanted to, I could purchase stuff.

Speaker 1: 7:15

That makes sense. Did you have a key moment at all? Was there like a game you missed or like something for the kids where you're like, hey, I got a shift or what was was. Was there an eye-opening moment where you're like, hey, I'm just grinding and I got a, I got a step back.

Speaker 2: 7:31

I think it was funny enough. I don't think it was on the family side, I think it was because I was doing all that stuff. I've worked from home since I started my business, so before we had our first child I worked from home and my wife works from home and so we kind of have been in that spectrum. But I think I became less resentful, less resentful towards understanding, like I don't want that to sound negative, but I had to tell myself. I think it really came when I realized from the business side that I was putting all these emotions and wanted all this stuff with the business to give me the emotions that my family should be giving me, like I was falling. I was giving my cause, my business. I used to say back in the day, my business used to be my baby, like it was. It was what I had before I had kids, and so I had to come to the realization. And so it was a journey. You know when everyone goes oh, I had a light bulb go in my head. No, you know, that's not how it happens, I don't. I don't it because there's a lot of resistance there to like Are you sure, are you sure? And so I think it's an ever growing. It's still going to be an ever growing thing.

Speaker 2: 8:38

But I I did a TEDx last year and I think it was going through that journey because I was so tired and burnt out I just didn't want to run my business anymore.

Speaker 2: 8:49

I was like it's not growing the way I want it to, and so it was going through that period and journey of finding my values again and being like oh yeah, the gym, oh yeah, my family, oh yeah, I like to build things. For instance now a lot of people would say it's unproductive that are in the business world, but I think it's the exact opposite. I'll go out and work on like the playhouse and do arts and you know, like build for like two hours in the morning. Like I told you earlier, like I redid my podcast room a little bit and I built some things. I had my child help me and so like small things like that actually give me, I think, the energy and the purpose to like push forward with my vision within the business and my emotional ties of I need to help a client do this. I need a client kind of I'm not saying they go away, but I'm not. My identity isn't around that, but I'm not my identity isn't around.

Speaker 1: 9:45

That. That's interesting. Yeah, I remember I listened to the guided runs from Nike Run Club. I hate running but I love Coach Bennett.

Speaker 1: 9:52

He's in there and he jumps in your ear and he talks about the act of recharging, which I always love. He says the definition of recovery is to regain something that was lost or stolen. The definition of recovery is to regain something that was lost or stolen and I love that because I feel like a lot of times we see recharging or recovery as putting the phone on the charger and it's something where it requires nothing. You don't do anything and you just get recharged and that's how it works for the electronic. But I think for us we have to do things. So just vegging on the couch and watching TV like you don't feel better, unless it's like your favorite show.

Speaker 1: 10:26

You know I love the Office and that does bring me a little bit of recharging, a little bit of joy. But I think you need to seek out and do the things like being creative and spending time with the family and things like that. So I like how he says it's the act of going and you know, recovering it, taking it back, that's good stuff, you know, recovering it, taking it back. That's good stuff and I like how you transition from you know feeling that that completeness and whatnot from work and then that fulfillment from from the family. So that kind of leads me into the next question how does branding, health and family all intersect for you personally and professionally?

Speaker 2: 11:00

Well, to me, I take branding. Branding is really just defining who you are, how you differentiate yourself, if you're a corporation or you're a person, how you showcase yourself, communicate yourself to and we'll just use it from a corporate standpoint, then I'll show you how it kind of goes into personal want to differentiate ourselves. You do that through multiple forms of communication, like mission, vision, values, visual communications, the way it's represented out in the world, and I feel like all that really comes in based around the leadership of a corporation. Right, and a leadership isn't necessarily going to be. They're not going to be, they're really just the building and the communication of a business is really very similar to an individual. The individual is the one that starts it, the individual is the one that builds it up. They're the ones that put the communication, the message, out in the world. They're the CEO or they're the ones leading the organization. So, in a short answer, that's what you have to do as a person.

Speaker 2: 12:05

And so, for me, I find my values and I'm like huh, now that part of my success, which I didn't bring up earlier with which was, you know, I actually want to collaborate with people.

Speaker 2: 12:17

I don't want to just be a button pusher.

Speaker 2: 12:19

I want I don't want to just delegate workout, I want to help, contribute and teach people how to evolve in their career, bring them into the organization, have conversations, and I want to be able to do the same thing, you know, with my family. And so once I figured out my values and rebrought those back and was like what's my vision in life, like what is my vision in just life in general, then I was able to align that with what I wanted out of my business and it basically connected. Now I use my personal values as kind of my brand values. Right Now I'm like when I hire people, I'm like, well, I'm not going to bring some person onto my, into my business that doesn't value that sense of connection and relationship, because if they don't, then they're not going to enjoy the job and that's what I enjoy. And so I transition that stuff because a business is just really an evolution of really one person, we'll say, until it gets to the point where it's multiple billion and you have stockholders, but that's a whole different.

Speaker 1: 13:23

We'll avoid the boardroom that just gets to be a little more complicated. Well before we jump into your three main pillars, I wanted to see if you had a question for me.

Speaker 2: 13:32

Yeah, so tell me a little bit about why the theme of what you do is so important. You talk a lot about mind and body. I'd love to hear your story and how that kind of came about, to you evolving to the way you have.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Yeah, absolutely so. I think the most vital part of the show is probably the actual title or the name of it, and so mental fitness was kind of the big thing that drove it. I heard it on a Simon Sinek podcast episode of a bit of optimism and it was just hit me so hard because I feel like we just don't do a very good job of mental fitness, which to me is the ongoing work of your brain and improving and growing, and it's just really bizarre to me. If you look at the physical gym, somebody will go and you know, tell you about their three days a week on the cardio machine. They don't need it every day, but they know they're going to do it to maintain their cardiovascular and be able to breathe while they're going up the stairs. And we do these things along the way, but for some reason, when it gets to mental health, it's stigma. So I lost my grandma to mental health which is what kicked off the podcast to begin with and she wasn't able to talk to other people and she felt like she had to bury these things, and so I wanted to have conversations that are difficult or not fun potentially. I mean some of the episodes are pretty deep and pretty dark with suicide attempts and things like that.

Speaker 1: 15:02

But the whole part of the show is the ability to see the other side. I feel like we go to trainings and different stuff. Like I go to trainings at work. We have to do one once a year and we talk about the warning signs, all the bad things. We very rarely talk about the success, what happens after you go to the dark place, but then you know you have someone there to pick you up and and let's talk about the job they got and the. You know you have someone there to pick you up and let's talk about the job they got and you know the spouse they got afterwards and these things that lined up afterwards. We don't seem to really hone in on that and so when that person's at their darkest moment, they want to see the light at the end of the tunnel and I think they can't and they just start to spiral and that's the problem. So mental fitness is like the biggest part for me, like work on this all the time.

Speaker 1: 15:41

Offload things as you go. You shouldn't have to wait till mental health, which is why I didn't put mental health in the title, because it seems like it's a building and it's only a building. You go to on the worst day of your life. You wait for you know that bad day. You don't go and offload things like you would at the gym. So that fitness aspect is something you do all the time. You will talk to people about your workout routine. I'm doing buys and tries, I'm doing three by 10. I'm, you know, doing these types of sets but it's like, oh, I sat in the park and meditated Like no one. No one talks, like that'd be nice. You know I had mindfulness, I journaled, I things like that. So, just trying to get the word out, I'm hoping a story, a guest or whatever will help connect with somebody and you know, if it saves a single life out there from a permanent decision, I mean, all the work and effort is is worth it. So mental fitness I think that's the key for me.

Speaker 2: 16:30

That's. I love that you say that. I feel like we have very similar messages in some way. I feel like to grow a business. It's very similar, right, you have to, you have to, and even your podcast. Like you know, it's very easy to look at those numbers, right, like to go up and like, oh, how many downloads did we get this month? Or how many people do we get this month? There's so much there from a personal level that that push us to be like we have to kind of take a step back and kind of, like I said, I like to build things and so I love that you're working on the mental side. That's one of the reasons I go to the like. That's my main reason why I go work out now, like you said, is it's my mental, it's my mental clarity, it's my visionary and it's kind of one of the reasons I did my podcast. So we'll probably, we'll probably do a joint man. I'll have you on my podcast too. How does that sound?

Speaker 1: 17:19

Awesome. Yeah, it sounds great. Well, I'll come over and chat. So your first main pillar is branding. So how does branding, or what does branding mean beyond just logos and visuals?

Speaker 2: 17:32

Look, we create stunning visuals for people Like that's part of the job of branding, no-transcript. The logo, the tangibles, whatever you want to call them, the visuals, the messaging just none of it really matters. It really is how it's portrayed. Branding, at the end of the day, is really living by the messaging, living by everything that you're developing, living by them. For example, when I talked about my values, when I talked about my vision, what do I want out of the business? And as you continue to grow, as if you continue to grow as a brand, either personally or corporation, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to hire people. You're going to have to hire people there's a very few in between that make, you know, a million dollars a year, that that don't have any sort of team under them. And so many people look at personal branding and they're like. They're like oh, I get to just work for myself and make millions of dollars. It's like you wish it worked that way, but in reality, you should want to hire people, you know, and so that's really what branding means to me. It's really just the living component of living by living by your leadership, your leadership abilities, and communicating those leadership abilities amongst all of the stuff that you put out there. So if you create a logo, for instance, if you create a logo and it's just like this visual of like this thing that was made in clip art and it was like some let me put it this way If you're just opening up like a location, you're just starting, I'm not telling you have have to go spend $30,000 to $100,000 on a large brand identity.

Speaker 2: 19:16

One, you're not a large corporation. Two, you probably don't have $30,000 to spend on this, nor should you. If you're just starting out, yes, get something small, but make sure you're not just going out there and saying, hey, hire someone to create these values, for you Might be like, oh, write a list of values that I want to incorporate and say this is what my business is. It's like no, your business is an ecosystem of behavior and so you probably want to grow something that matches your behavior and what you want to grow. So, figure out your values. What is your mission in life? Like that will evolve it always does for all of us but at least have yourself, give yourself a starting point so that you can build like a system around around it as you continue to grow as a person, or as you continue to grow as a, as a company.

Speaker 1: 20:09

Yeah, that makes sense. It's really who you are. You know at a deeper level. What are some of the key mistakes people make when building their brand. What are some key mistakes people make when building their brand?

Speaker 2: 20:25

I would say part of it is that. Um, I'd say part of it is they're not living by their brand. They look at a lot of stuff as a tangible asset and not so as an intangible, because they don't understand that there is ROI connected to the brand. If it be abundance, if it be connection, if it be new relationships, if it be equity, if it be trust, there's so many different ways that your brand can grow and if it's misaligned with who you are I mean, we're in day and age of AI now, right, so everyone's going out there and the best way for anybody to make it be different and separate paths you could call them competitors or other people is just to be themselves. So people tend to follow too many people.

Speaker 1: 21:19

Yeah, it's interesting Earlier I was thinking about celebrities or athletes and whatnot and when they get in trouble for things they drop their deal or they get dropped. I guess Kind of makes me think of that same thing. When they're not living in line with their companies and whatnot, they kind of have to part ways because of that alignment of you know what they represent and things like that. And sometimes people are mad, oh, that's unfair and whatnot. But I think, like you're saying, if you're true to yourself, like hey, this is what we represent, and if you're not aligning with that, you know, it doesn't matter how many hoops you make or whatnot, it's just not right for us.

Speaker 2: 21:52

Yeah, when I look at it, it's funny, because we used to work with professional athletes quite a bit. I used to work with quite a bit of professional athletes and one of the biggest things I would always tell them is you just align with your values, right. Like we'd go through a value pyramid and I'd give them an exercise on if they were going to, let's say, sponsor Beats headphones, like what would what? How would you sponsor that, that post? And then I'd see other athletes online that would be like oh, we're promoting this tech company that does this.

Speaker 2: 22:23

And I'm like you have never once in the history of anything that you've ever written or talked about, mentioned anything about how you are techie. You know like nothing wrong with it if you have a discord and you're like playing video games all the time and you like start talking about promoting a certain game okay, fine, but you always see it. And that that's where that misalignment comes in, because people are like well, I don't see that. You like like what. You never talk about that stuff. You know like, why would you talk about it now?

Speaker 1: 22:55

I think disingenuine. Like cuts through pretty well. Like I think there are certain people that can read people better, but there's a few certain things, like you know, regardless of how well you read people, and I think not being genuine is one of those. Like that kind of cuts through pretty well. You're like I don't know if I really jive with that. That kind of cuts through pretty well. You're like I don't know if I really jive with that. If, yeah, you've never, you know, wanted to do anything in tech and now all of a sudden you're trying to back a motherboard or something.

Speaker 2: 23:20

Yeah, I know, right, I like to tell them a lot Like. I like to give them an example of, especially college athletes that are like I'm just going to get a communication degree. I always try to tell them, like no, find something that you're really passionate about now. And I like to always use the example even though they don't usually have these at large colleges of, like veterinarian, like if you love animals, like talk about it, work with it and work it into your content and you're like the people that you would have partnerships with, or the company you'd build, or what the vision you're going to continue to develop. I'm like, yeah, maybe you will travel the world and go to like africa, for instance, and help animals. Maybe you'll start a veterinarian service here. Maybe you'll create a non-profit like who knows? But at least for now, like if that's what you love, you love like, promote that. It's okay that you're, that you bring your, your labrador retriever in every single one of your posts right. Like people, like just knowing your life and knowing your, your failures and your accomplishments.

Speaker 1: 24:22

You got to learn anyway, you might as well learn something you like and I know that makes it even easier to be real and be genuine. I think a lot of us want to kind of pull a mask over and be a certain thing and fit a certain mold, but it's easier and less stress and energy to really be yourself. The last question I have in branding is what advice do you have for someone looking to refine or start a?

Speaker 2: 24:44

brand. So are we going to? Are we talking about on a personal level or on a business level?

Speaker 1: 24:49

We'll go personal.

Speaker 2: 24:51

Yeah. So I would say, really, if you're looking to refine I mean, like I said earlier, rebranding yourself is a common thing. I think we all go through stages in life You're not changing as a person, but you're refining what your vision, just like we talked about earlier, your vision, what you did, looks like and I always like to go back to. I always like to go back to values you know in general, like use those as your guide, like what are what in your life? What in your life and this could be refining. And or, you know, really, if you're just like my life sucks right now, like why is my life suck? Go back and be like huh, what are the things in my life that I enjoy, what are the things in my life that I've lost, that I don't do anymore, or maybe I've evolved, um, evolved in. Look at those and try to bring some of those back and then kind of come up with, kind of come up with a schedule for yourself that bring back those values into your life.

Speaker 2: 25:49

And it's crazy how fast you will turn from dislike to disliking yourself to positive outcomes and vision and figuring stuff out, and I think it's a great mind exercise to really just sit down and do that. We actually do an exercise with people. We kind of help them figure out their message, their values, through that same exercise that I told you. And if you're message their values through that same exercise that I told you, and if you're looking to start a brand, like, let's say, you want to start a personal brand and a personal business, it's a very similar concept because you're going to have to utilize those values to figure out what you want to talk about, like you did right, like you want to be, like what are my values, what am I passionate about? And be able to slowly bring those into your visuals and your messaging and all your communication. And so start there and then everything, build everything off of those.

Speaker 1: 26:41

Yeah, that makes sense. You got to start with that foundation. Your next pillar is health, the foundation of success. What are some of your non-negotiable habits for physical and mental well-being?

Speaker 2: 26:53

What are some of your non-negotiable habits for physical and mental well-being? Yeah, physical, physical. You know I do have three young kids right now, so I've had to. Actually, one of my non-negotiables is actually giving myself more leniency. I used to be like a seven day workout kind of guy, like I'd have to go for an hour every day. This was back like 15 years ago, right. But I've actually had to take a step back, especially when I brought it in and hold myself accountable to.

Speaker 2: 27:18

It's okay that you're only working out three to four days a week and allow it, but just making sure that I'm still getting those, those exercises in. So I definitely make sure that I have a non negotiable of that. And with my food to like, I think it's very easy, especially with me having three young kids where my kid doesn't eat his dinner, right. So I'm like well, I'm eating it right. Like getting back into a food regimen of making sure that I'm eating healthy and I'm staying, because that's like I said earlier, those are the things that hold yourself accountable, and if you can't hold yourself to the things that you do have control over, how are you going to have, how are you going to be able to get through those times for the things that you don't have control over, and so to me, it's just that's. That is my non-negotiable is like I have to hold myself accountable to those things for myself that I say that I'm going to do, because if I don't, then what else am I not holding myself accountable to?

Speaker 1: 28:16

And yeah, that's tough. I hate throwing stuff away those dino chicken nuggets that are still sitting there. I just try to blame my extra weight on the kids. You know it's probably unfair, but how do you stay consistent with health goals despite a busy schedule?

Speaker 2: 28:32

Yeah, that's a. I think that's tough for all of us, especially in different seasons of our life, and I think that I think it comes back to that last question. I just have to hold myself accountable, I think. I think if you have, if you have any sort of let's say, let's say you have worked out in the past or you've, you've, you've done, you know some things it's very easy to like. For instance, I know what the carbs are in an apple or a banana. That knowledge is already still in there, right, and so I really just make sure that and actually let me explain this a little bit differently Like right now, especially with the business, no-transcript, working on myself, building the playhouse, going out and going to the gym, going on runs when I don't have as much time, and that's been working out for me a lot better, because what ends up happening, I see, is when you have a busy schedule and you're so used to doing those things that you have to do, that you don't want to do, especially with a growing family and a growing business, is that the personal stuff falls to the wayside to get other things done.

Speaker 2: 30:11

So to me, I'm like I'd rather work on that first and then allow the other stuff to just be after I'm done, and so that's that. That, to me, is the best way I've seen for myself. It may be different for other people, but I try every time first.

Speaker 1: 30:28

Yeah, that makes sense. What are your thoughts on the term work-life balance?

Speaker 2: 30:34

yeah, it's funny you say that I look at people like alex hermosi who's always like oh, I I work if you love work. If you love work, um, you have to do it 18 hours a day if you love it. He's like I love it, I. I don't really vibe with the gary v stuff. Like I said, i'm'm not a I'm not a I'm not a hustle culture kind of guy Like I just don't feel like that's needed.

Speaker 2: 30:58

I am very big on the grit and perseverance style mindset. So, yeah, whatever I hear someone saying, there's always going to be sacrifice, no matter what. There is no such thing as balance. There really isn't. You're either going to be working a little bit more, spending more, more time with family, sacrificing business a little bit, but as long as you're able to try to find some balance of the things that you enjoy.

Speaker 2: 31:21

Yeah, I love being on these podcasts, for instance. Does it make me any money? No, you know, I just love being on them. Do they help build brand awareness? Yes, that's, you know part of it. But I also also know that like, hey, like, really, at the end of the day, I'm only going to be as strong as me, and so I believe that balance for me looks like just making sure I'm getting adequate time in for myself and spending a certain amount of time in the business that I feel adequate for the stage of life I'm at, knowing that, yeah, it's probably not going to go from a $400 to $10 million company tomorrow, but I don't want to miss my kids growing up, so I have to take that. That's the sacrifice I'm making to be balanced right now.

Speaker 1: 32:16

Yeah, I always find it interesting. I've heard harmony. I think I like harmony a little bit more. Balance is just always funny to me because it seems like there's a net zero. Like you count up all the minutes and it equals this 100% by the end of the day. Just always a little funny. But the last question on health. I was curious what's an underrated health tip that people often overlook?

Speaker 2: 32:37

Ooh, let me see if I can underrated health tip I'm gonna get a little technical on this one with you. I say underrated health tip is focusing more on the micros and not the macros of your eating habits. I'm very big. I remember when I was working out very heavily I literally the one time in my life that I had a six pack. You know I was very, I was very big into working out back in the day and I still love it. But I was very macro. I was like an 80 grams of carbs a day, 210 protein, 60 grams of fat.

Speaker 2: 33:10

And even though I still try to stick to that, there tended to be a situation where I was no longer eating vegetables. I was no longer eating the healthier, balanced type foods that actually give us our micros, like our vitamin D and our potassium. And that's why I stopped keto. Funny enough, because when I was on keto it was oh well, you have to take supplements for your potassium and magnesium. I'm like how is this a diet, how is this a healthy diet if you have to take supplements to get certain vitamins? So, even though it made me so ripped, I was like Nah. So I would say micros, focus on your micros more, focus more on the you know the intake of your vitamins and your nutrition that you need, more so than how many carbs am I getting, how much protein am I getting, and things of that nature.

Speaker 1: 33:58

That's interesting. I don't think many people think about vitamins and minerals. That's a good reminder. Your last pillar is family, so probably the most important. Maybe we should have started with it, but this is the core of a balanced life. How has your family shaped your values and approach to your business?

Speaker 2: 34:15

Oh, I think we kind of talked about this a little bit. You know, leadership, I think at the end of the day I get. I get so like here's a little inside vulnerable, like Encanto is like my favorite movie now. Like I watch Encanto, I have three young two. Three young boys, man, so like from one to five, and so Disney. Three young boys, man, so like from one to five, and so Disney. Disney is like our daily jam at this point and I still get a little bit. I still get butterflies every time I watch certain scenes.

Speaker 2: 34:41

Part of that is probably past trauma, but I self, but I, you know, I watch my kids grow up and I, and I'm like you know what, like their school. Right now, for instance, my five-year-old kid, he's going to school and they're doing this, this program. That's very based around leadership and I love it because it's it's like this is what I do for brands, but it's it's it's leadership, right, I want my kids to know that it's not just about work ethic, it's about leading a positive and making a difference in this world. And you're not going to do that through delegation, you're going to do that through leadership. How do you lead your other brothers? How do you, how do you lead with your friends, how do you not follow in other people's footsteps?

Speaker 2: 35:24

And being able to be, be okay with being different? Because that is, think about it as we get older like everything we've been preaching on this is everyone's so afraid. It's all about being different. Now, when you're older, it's like how do you separate yourself? You be different, you be yourself and as kids, they're not. You know, they're taught to fall in this mold. That's, that's what. How it shaped me. The business side has family side has shaped my business in a way where it's like I want to be a better leader to my team and I want to learn to be a great leader to what I do in the world. But it also shaped me to be like I want to teach my kids really good values and how to be. Just learn to be leaders and not not followers in today's society.

Speaker 1: 36:06

That's such an interesting concept. I've never really thought about it that much, but I remember growing up like I was always kind of weird and it was always kind of like looked down upon and things like that. And it wasn't until I got older and you kind of weird and it was always kind of like looked down upon and things like that. And it wasn't until I got older and you kind of struggle with it and then you finally embrace it at some point. And then people like, oh, that's so cool. You know, you know you don't worry about what people think. And I'm like, oh, I don't know, I've just been weird like this my whole life. Is this cool? Now this is cool because it seemed like for the longest time it wasn't.

Speaker 1: 36:41

And, like you said, you're supposed to kind of shut up and sit down and blend in and things like that. I guess it pays off at some point. But I mean, you can only be who you are, so that's interesting. I was curious earlier you were talking about balance and things like that. How do you create intentional time for loved ones while managing all those other responsibilities?

Speaker 2: 36:52

I'm just, you know, part of being a leader is you have to be straightforward, and that's not necessarily mean it's not necessarily nice, and I'm trying to be more. That's something that I've been really working on myself is just being more straight and I'm just straight with my team and I'm like I'm sorry, like we will work from this time. If you guys want to, you know, take time and do work here, do work here you can, but I will not be messaging you. Like I'm just very strict on that was like the first thing that I ever did within my business and to clients to like it's like, hey, most of our clients are pretty good at it. There's always the one outlier that tries to sneak in and contact you on a weekend here and there, but and I'm not saying I'm not friends with some of them, but we're work acquaintance friends and so it's one of those situations where I that's really the work life balance I need is I mean I don't, I don't check my DMS, I don't check my work stuff past work on the weekends. I don't even know if I look at my phone. I purposely put my phone away and I'm just like just do stuff.

Speaker 2: 37:56

I used to be what you said, and I used to be like I just love laying on the couch and doing nothing.

Speaker 2: 38:01

But now it's the exact opposite man, I lay on the couch for 10 minutes and I'm bored. It's so bored that I'm like I need to do something, you know, and so I think that that's that's something that was ingrained in me kind of early in life was like or in the business that is is I'm sorry I'm not working past this time and since I own a business, I have a little bit more flexibility than if you were in a corporate world. But damn well, I'm trying to teach my employees the same thing you know, like don't work during this time, be around your family, and so to me, that's probably how I try to balance the most. I stick away from phones, I stick away from instant messaging. My team are going back and forth as much as possible after, after about 4 pm on weekdays and weekends, like I said, unless I'm going to an event or I'm out of town, like yeah, I'm not, I'm not touching my phone.

Speaker 1: 38:54

Yeah, I find it just really interesting how different you know the recharging is, because you definitely feel better and relaxed, you know laying on the couch and whatnot, but there's just a different level, like you had mentioned. You know putting the play set together. You, you have purpose, you have belonging, you have, you know, something you accomplished, and so that's just a whole different level of you know getting recharged.

Speaker 2: 39:22

I was wondering what's one lesson your family has taught you.

Speaker 2: 39:25

That influences how you approach life today I'm going to go deep on this one. I've figured out that I finally have the people that help me feel seen and heard. My family sees me, my family hears me, my family needs me, and so all that past trauma of a personal level of, oh, I want the world to see me, for who I am doesn't matter anymore. I'm like I'm my family. Now that's who's important. You know, those are the people that care for me, and it goes vice versa too right for them, and I think that that's I think that's the biggest. The biggest thing for me is knowing that I have someone to feel seen and heard. My business, my business, is no longer my baby. It's just a thing. It doesn't it doesn't define who I am anymore.

Speaker 1: 40:10

That's interesting because you think it would be pretty easy and pretty clear cut. But it's just kind of bizarre Because I know at work, like you turn a project into the boss or something and he's like, thanks, you know, and that's pretty much all you get. But you get home and you come up the driveway and you know your son grabs your leg for a hug of like that's better than any. Like oh, thanks for the good PowerPoint. Or you know whatever. Any like oh, thanks for the good PowerPoint. Or you know whatever. Like you feel good for you know five seconds, but you know you'll feel good for the whole week when they're running down the driveway coming to greet you and, you know wanting to spend time with you, even if they're laying their head on you. That's just. Yeah. It seems obvious that I don't know, I guess.

Speaker 2: 40:49

Well, that's an interesting concept. I've never thought about that, the whole going in and going into the boss and being like, oh, here's my PowerPoint and him just going okay, thanks. I think there's a disconnect there because I, you know, I'm kind of I'm not going to say I own a business now so it's like I can see it from both sides. But now I'm like I knew in the past when I had, when I was in the career world, I probably would have came home and been all resentful for it, like he didn't even give me any credit, didn't even do this. But now I'm like he actually didn't have emotional connection to this stuff. And nor should you. Should you have passion and love what you do? Yeah, but remember, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, the job's only there to satisfy you know you, being able to go home and spend time with your family. So you should be grateful that he even said thank you.

Speaker 1: 41:38

Yeah, that's true, there's many ways to look at it. I always think retirement ceremonies are something that's really big in my world and people kind of make the joke and maybe it's not a very good joke, but they talk about I hope I have a front row at my retirement ceremony and the front row is supposed to be your family and your loved ones, and a lot of people get divorced and other things over their career and whatnot, so they don't have that and so it's like that's bizarre that you're, you know, kind of sad, that you're giving credit and all your time and effort to all these people over 20 years and the people you should have been giving it to are the ones that are with you, should be with you the whole time. So, yeah, definitely get it to that retirement ceremony and have that front row where you're giving out flowers and things like that.

Speaker 2: 42:22

Interesting. I like the, I like the whole. The one thing that comes up to me if you had one thing for someone to say for you at a ceremony when you passed away, like what would it? What would you want to be known for? That's a huge one for me.

Speaker 1: 42:36

What's on your tombstone? Yeah, yeah, this guy was cool or no? I hated that guy. Uh well, zach, let's try to bring it all together. What's one mindset shift that people can take to align their career, well-being and relationships?

Speaker 2: 42:56

yeah, don't let your, don't let your career define you only career to find who you are. I think that's really what it comes down to. It's very easy to get caught in the game of being a workaholic and do stuff which there's nothing wrong with being passionate like alex or homozy and doing your thing, but you know what are you doing it for? If it's not for it's not for you to spend time on yourself, you know and enjoy your life, and so I'm not saying go out there and spend all your money on things, but what I'm saying is just enjoy yourself, enjoy and let your let your life be your defining factor, who you are.

Speaker 1: 43:35

Absolutely Well. Thank you, zach, for coming out. Where can people connect with you and learn a little bit more?

Speaker 2: 43:41

Yeah, definitely. Well, like I said earlier, you know, we just we just relaunched our podcast. It's called the Fit to Grit Cast. It's where we come up with all those visionary ideas that come to us during our daily, daily, normal activities. And if anyone wants to subscribe, wants to subscribe to that or just watch it a little bit more, you can head over to creativecom slash fit to grit cast and of course, I'll give you that for the show notes. Come have a listen, to come listen to to our, to our podcast.

Speaker 1: 44:10

Absolutely, and I guess I'll have to jump on at some point. Well, that is a wrap. If today's episode sparks something in you, we'd love to hear about it. Reach out on Instagram, facebook, tiktok or YouTube. Please drop a review and we'll see you next time. I love you all. See ya, thank you.