Dan Miller - Living a Longer and Healthier Life (G0817)

This podcast is sponsored by TalkSpace. May is Mental Health Awareness Month. In TalkSpace, the leading virtual therapy provider is telling everyone, let's face it, in therapy, by talking or texting with a supportive licensed therapist at TalkSpace, you can face whatever is holding you back, whether it's mental health symptoms, relationship drama, past trauma, bad habits, or another challenge that you need support to work through. It's easy to sign up. Just go to Talkspace.com and you'll be paired with a provider typically within 48 hours. And because you'll meet your Therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule. Plus, TalkSpace is in-network with most major insurers, and most insured members have a $0 co-pay. Make your mental health a priority and start today. If you're not covered by insurance, get $80 off your first month with TalkSpace when you go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code S 80. That's SPA CE 80. To match with a licensed therapist today, go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code S80. Welcome to the Exit Coach Radio show, the show for baby boomer business owners who are looking for cutting edge information as they plan their 3 to 10 year business succession and exit. Every week we interview top professional advisors for their best tips, strategies, and precautions so you can be well planned. And don't miss our one minute exit coach tip of the day on. Coachradio.com. And now here's your host, the exit coach Bill Black. Welcome. Thanks so much for joining us today. Welcome to the show. You know, uh, are you an age 50 plus business owner? Are you looking for ideas, tips, precautions from advisors, authors, and thought leaders? Well, we've been interviewing now over 700. Advisors, authors, and thought leaders, you can find all of their content. It's all archived at exaoachradio.com in the audio library. There are over 40 topic file folders, everything from family business to retaining key employees to building the value of your business to life after exit, a lot of different topics. So please go to exitoachradio.com and visit our. library for some great interviews and information. My next guest is Daniel Miller, and he is joining us from Bismarck, North Dakota. Now. Daniel is a nutritionist and wellness coach, and he's going to talk about making a plan to live a longer and healthier life, which is something that we all want to do. If we're going to live longer, we might as well be healthier, right, Daniel? Welcome to the show. Absolutely. Hi Bill. How are you? Good. Nobody wants to live longer and be an unhealthy person. That's, that's, I can't imagine that's like a sentence, but a lot of people these days don't look their ages anymore, and they're at least like they used to, and they need to know that differences in how they manage themselves and their, their weight and their nutrition can make a big difference in their quality of life, right? Absolutely. I, I think more so than even how they look at it, how they feel, you know, in recent studies, they've shown that most of Americans over the age of 30 are telling the, the surveys that their best days are behind them. Well, imagine that when you're, you know, in your mid-fifties and you're getting ready to retire. And, uh, and you're, you're already thinking for the last 20 years, your best days were behind. That's not a good thought, but a lot of people would say life goes downhill from 40. That used to be the old, you know, the old halfway mark, I guess for a lot of people and it's not necessarily there anymore. Right, and it shouldn't be if, if it, yeah, I mean, in our way of thinking, if we think, hey, we shouldn't be halfway there until we're in our 70s or 80s. That's the way we should be thinking because the, the mindset is going to change what you do physically and, and what you do and how you handle stress and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, if you can set your mind right, and you can uh put yourself in a position where you're telling yourself you're healthy and you're going to live longer, you'll start making some of those changes to do so. You know, one of the problems that causes a lot of health issues is being overweight and a lot of Americans have a weight problem. Why does America have such a big weight problem? Well, if I were to have to guess, and, and I talk to groups all the time, every week I'm traveling somewhere new in the country, talk to a different group of executives about, about what our problem is and, and why we have it. The majority of us think that, that we can just uh out exercise or outeat or weight, and we don't realize that the effects of stress, stress plays a greater role in our weight and our health than anything that we eat. Uh, and that's why I usually address that subject first with uh with my executive groups is how are you handling stress and what are you doing to mitigate some of the stress that you're creating in your life? I mean, stress is a response to outside stimuli, but if we really break stress down, it's an inside job every time. Interesting and you know I'm looking out uh from my, from my studio here on the 20th floor. I'm looking at two freeways uh in Southern California, both flowing uh their little stretch machines themselves, stress is with us. It's how is it how we manage it and and how we look at it. How we manage it, how we respond to it is the big thing both physically and mentally, more so mentally how we're responding to stress, and that's where exercise plays a role in that physical response to stress. And I say that that's causing a greater weight problem with us because, you know, our medical system is telling us that if you have a problem, you go into the doctor, they write a prescription and that problem should go away, and that's obviously not happening. You know, and we're being told by, by all kinds of different organizations, there's science on every side of the argument. So I, I usually like to back what I say up with science, but we have to realize that some of the science out there is designed to get us to think a certain way. But a lot of us are being told to eat completely improperly from the time we're kids through the time we're an adult, and I think the problem is we, we just haven't been properly educated, and that's what I look at my role is, you know, I just want to educate folks on, on how to live a longer, healthier life. I'm 44. I'm in the best shape of my life, and I, you know, 11 years ago or 12 years ago it was now that I broke a Guinness World Record. So, and I'm 44 years old now and I'm in better shape than when I broker Dennis World record. What record did you break? I was on a treadmill for 2 straight days and I broke the world distance record. And most of it's because I couldn't find the off button. I'm just, I just Yeah, OK, well, uh, that's, that's, that's impressive, and how far did you go? Uh, just 140 miles out, well, 138.9. That's, that's very impressive. I mean, um, you know, here's the problem. A lot of people get up, they have too much on their plate figuratively with their activities. They don't have enough time. They figure, well, I'll drive through because that's what I've been trained to do. They end up getting, you know, something that's boiled in oil, which is, I don't know. that could ever be good for you, but I'm guilty of it as well. You know, we've built this convenience lifestyle because we don't emphasize, you know, eating as a priority. Eating is just something we do on the way to something else, it seems like these days. Is that, is that what you're seeing? 100% correct, Bill. There's a, there's a problem we have in our society and, and my, my good friend, Rex Crane, who lives out there in Southern California down in, in the LA area. He, uh, he said one time, most of us plan our vacations with more time and effort than we plan our lives. And I would like to extend that from the groups that I've spoken with and from what I see in society, most of us plan our vacations with more time and effort than we plan our health. So you're right, we don't think of the food that we eat or the exercise. We just, it, it's an afterthought. And really those decisions are determining our long-term success in life as far as how long we're going to live. Now, now I have heard from other nutritionists, and I kind of, I think I helped coin this phrase, but diabetes and heart disease are caused by your hands and your feet. Uh, and, and the reason I say that is your hands put the food in your mouth, you know, and your feet don't move enough. So, I would agree with you. But, but what I hear you saying is that your head is also a huge factor in this because Uh, you, how you think and how you deal with things that are going to happen anyways or or how you schedule things and how you schedule your life has an even greater impact on some of these things than diet and exercise, it sounds like. The three of them together are important. Well, absolutely, and your head is driving everything else that happens in your life. So if you don't have your head in the right spots, and if you don't love yourself enough to make a plan, you know, and, and I'll, I'll go further. If you don't love your family enough to make a plan to live longer to see your grandchildren. I watched my dad die in his mid-50s. He's never met, uh, most of his grandchildren, 3 of his grandchildren he never met. He was only able to meet one, and that was for less than a year before he passed away. And my dad died of lifestyle disease, and I watched it happen. Mm, that's, that's horrible. Sorry to hear that. Um, so, so the reason I do what I do today, Bill? Well, in, yeah, out of something, out of something tragic comes comes something uh a new tree is planted, a new flower is blooming, and that's, that's wonderful. How does the average person. Start to deal with stress in a positive way. What I mean, sure they can go, a lot of people say, yeah, well I could go meditate, but that's not really me. I don't understand that. Uh, give me another way that I can get started on um giving myself some, some stress management techniques. Well, there's a fantastic book that was written in the 80s, so it's a bit dated. It's, I would say it's more than a bit dated because he talks about cassette tapes in this book, but very, very relevant content to today. It was, it's a book called What to Say When You Talk to Yourself. And it's by Dr. Chad Helmstetter. Fantastic book. I would say that's probably the best place to start. And when people ask me what books should I read to continue the process after I've spoken to their groups, that is the number one book that I recommend, even though it's, it's absolutely ancient, but when we look at today's times with some of the technology he talks about, it's, you know, it's very hard to find. You won't find it in a bookstore. You have to find it somewhere on Amazon or eBay. So in other words, in other words, giving yourself a uh format for self talk that will lead you to a relaxed state instead of the frantic, what am I going to do next kind of thing that a lot of us, you know, are are are dealing with. So we need that format because we really haven't, that that would probably be in the owner's manual if there was one for a human being, it sounds like. Without a doubt. We have to reprogram all the negative stuff that we've been told our entire lives and, and realize that, that, hey, the fact that you woke up today, somebody needs you. So it's about going out and finding what your purpose is in life, and that helps a lot of stress melts away when you realize you have a strong purpose. Yeah, does it start the moment you open your eyes is are there uh very. Uh, great questions that you've found that when someone opens their eyes, the first, because I've heard that from some other people too, is that the first couple of minutes when you open your eyes, uh, set the tone for your day. Right, right, and I start my day with being thankful that I woke up. And that's a huge plus, and a lot of us forget that, you know, we think about what we're going to be late for and the fact that we didn't get to eat today and we don't get our first cup of coffee until after we get to work instead of grabbing it at, you know, Starbucks or or one of the other places on our way to work and, you know, we're thinking about all that stuff instead of realizing the fact that we're lucky that we even woke up. So an attitude of gratitude to start off the day is an important way of instead of, you know, launching out, I have so much to do today. I got to get going. I don't, there's things I don't want to do. It's starting off with that attitude of gratitude and how, what else are there other checkpoints during the day when people should be reminding themselves that this is a time to have some kind of a, a good healthy talk with yourself? Well, Bill, there's one question I like to continually ask myself when I, when I start feeling myself stressing myself out. And, and that question is, is this going to kill me? Because that's where the stress response comes from. That's where the fight or flight response originated from was when something, you know, back in our caveman days was going to kill us. We're stuck with that, with that today. The question you should ask is, is this going to kill me? And if the answer is no, then it's not that big a deal. No matter what we think, we've probably been through worse, so we have to ask ourselves why, why bother with it or why bother upsetting ourselves with it and try to think of a logical approach to fixing that problem. That's a great tip because it's that I've heard it called the lizard brain or, or, you know, our primary brain that is the fight or flight that controls a lot of emotion that we need to calm down sometimes and sometimes you need to do that with thoughts from your, your uh your reasoning brain. And I've heard in the past that the two brains don't work simultaneously. It's it's one or the other. So when you're in a thinking mode, you can't be feeling that stress emotion. So if you put yourself into that thinking mode to ask yourself that question, that's where that comes from the two brains kind of communicating with each other. Does that make, am I making any sense with that? You're making perfect sense, Bill, and that's exactly right. If you're being logical and you're leaving some of the emotion out of things. You won't tap into that reptilian brain and you won't go into a fight or flight response. So, so a lot of people might think maybe I'm going crazy, but I'm talking myself with we're really talking to ourselves from two parts of the brain, and that's where that calming we can calm ourselves down with that type of a of a talk and that by the way, that That works when you're in conflict with other people as well. If you can help them to think with their thought producing brain instead of their emotional brain, you can help them calm down too. So I've heard that's a great technique. So when people, you know, start thinking about, OK, how do I live longer? I understand I need to eat better. I need to schedule myself better. I need to think better, but what's the one thing that people should change today to live longer? Well, so here it is, and, and you have to get ready for this. It's, it's not necessarily an action, it's a realization. What we need to realize is the decisions, every decision I make today, right now, is going to do one of two things. It is either going to help me live longer. Or help me die sooner, one or the other. There is no neutral. If I have, I can kill myself with water today if I needed to. Water is essential. We need it. We have to have it. But if I drank 2 gallons while we're on the telephone today, I'm going to have a major, major problem. So we need to ask ourselves when we're eating. We need to ask ourselves when we're, when we feel ourselves becoming stressed out, is this helping me live longer or is this helping shorten my life? And if you just come to the realization and you can make some changes in your life that will help you live longer, and if you don't know what those changes are, there's plenty of there's unlimited amounts of resources out there. to help to help us realize what what those good good habits should be. That, that's a, that's a great question to have um at your ready, no matter what's going on, uh, is this, is this next decision going to uh help me live longer or is it going to help me die sooner? Um. Boy, that would steer a lot of people away from the drive-thru lane at a fast food place, hopefully, and I wish there were, you know, and there are healthy alternatives. So maybe it's, it's when you're sitting at that, when you're sitting at the menu board, um, ask yourself that question. When you're stressing out in traffic, ask yourself that question. When you're, when you're getting ready to do something difficult, how you handle it can make all the difference, it sounds like to me, Daniel, how you deal with it. Right. And Bill, that goes back to my original point of, of our conversation is I'm not going to be sitting in a fast food restaurant drive-through if I made a proper plan. I know what I'm having for lunch today. I planned this last week. I don't have to just wing it and get whatever's available because I made my plan. And it, it boils down to the executives that I talked to on a regular basis. They all have a goal for their business and they have an executable, very specific plan to get to that goal. But many, many, many of them, I would guess 95% have no such plan for their own health when it comes to exercise, uh, stress reduction, or nutrition. And of course a lot of our listeners, Daniel are business owners and they're goal oriented and they think about the goals for the next quarter for sales and revenues and and profits for their businesses and they might, they might think about what vacations they're going to take, but At the top of the list, as you're, you're saying is they should be thinking about their, their health, their diet, their, their how they deal with their, their mental health. And as we said, your hands, your head, and your feet are the things that are going to get, you know, get you there most easily. What you put in your mouth with your hands, uh, what you, how much you exercise with your feet and how you think with your head sounds like we've narrowed it down to a pretty good uh wellness program. Tell us about your services and how you help individuals on a one on one basis. Well, so I do everything from, from corporate wellness coaching, helping design corporate wellness programs to individual coaching, um, where I, where, and most of my clients are not in Bismarck, North Dakota. Believe it or not, Bill, I know what you're thinking. Bismarck, that's a huge metropolis, right? Uh, yeah, yeah, it's like most of my clients I, I do, uh, phone or Skype meetings with once a week, and we do everything. Most of my clients come to me for weight loss, but I have several that come to me that that just want to get healthier and and maybe drop that last 5 or 10 pounds because they know they can feel better. They've seen it. They've been there. Before they remember it and they want to get back to that point. And then I have a lot of my clients that come to me and ask me to design programs specifically for the workplace because, you know, if your workers are sick and they don't like their life and they don't like their job, they're not going to be as productive as if you could turn that around. And, and you know, I have programs that I can help them design that over the course of 1 to 2 years will turn that entire system around. So if you're an individual or a head of a corporation or you you want help for specific employees, maybe even people that you love and that are close to you, um, you can give Daniel a call and talk to him about what situations that you're you're facing, and he can give you some recommendations. Maybe he'll create a program, maybe he just has some good tips or ideas for you. And also if you run a vestige International business owner peer group or another group of business owners and you want an interesting, fascinating speaker about these issues that are really common to all of us human beings, give Daniel a call. Daniel, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you? I think the best way to get in touch with me, Bill, would be just to go to danmiller.tv. And I have all kinds of forms, contact forms that you can fill out on there that come directly to my email or my assistant's email, and then I will just contact you from that point. That's perfect. So go to dnmiller.tv. Learn more about what what Dan has to offer, and again, a very fascinating conversation. I love the topic. It's something our listeners need to hear over and over again so they can make the right choices and deal with stress and issues that they may be dealing with right now. So Dan, thanks very much for joining us. It's been a real pleasure. Hope you'll have a, uh, come back on the show at some point and um give us some more tips and ideas. Perfect. I appreciate you, Bill. Thank you. All right, thanks very much. We're gonna take a short break. We'll be right back after this. So please stay with us. Hi everybody, this is Spike Riel with the Exit coach. Business owners, can you name the eight key value drivers that you and your manager should be focusing on to increase the value of your business? Introducing the Sellability score Index. Visit our website and answer 25 questions about your business, and you will instantly receive your sellability score, showing you how well you stack up in the 8 value driver areas. It's a great management tool. It's absolutely free for our listeners. Just visit exitcoachradio.com and click Get My Sellability score. Just thinking about what will happen to your business if you're gone keep you awake at night? Will you get the price you need from your business to carry you through retirement? The BEI Network of Exit Planning Professions is the world's leading advisor network with the power to help business owners transition out of business on their own timeline and terms. Ask your most trusted advisor to create a BEI plan for you, or visit us at exitplanning.com. That's exitplanning.com. Thank you for listening to Exit Coach Radio. This podcast is sponsored by TalkSpace. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and TalkSpace, the leading virtual therapy provider is telling everyone, let's face it, in therapy by talking or texting with a supportive licensed therapist at TalkSpace, you can face whatever is holding you back, whether it's mental health symptoms, relationship drama, past trauma, bad habits, or another challenge that you need support to work through. It's easy to sign up. Just go to Talkspace.com and you'll be paired with a provider typically within 48 hours. And because you'll meet. Your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule. Plus, TalkSpace is in-network with most major insurers, and most insured members have a $0 co-pay. Make your mental health a priority and start today. If you're not covered by insurance, get $80 off your first month with TalkSpace when you go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code S space 80. That's SPA CE 80. To match with a licensed therapist today, go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code S80.