Wake Up Eager Workforce 
Episode 135 Transcript

Episode Preview:

In this episode of the Wake Up Eager Workforce podcast, host Suzie Price dives into the transformative power of living intentionally and how small, consistent actions can lead to massive success. Joined by Joe Gagnon, CEO, ultra-endurance athlete, and author of Living Intentionally, they discuss how purposeful decisions, aligned with core values, fuel both personal growth and professional performance.

Through candid stories and insightful advice, Suzie and Joe unpack the five pillars of intentional living—sleep, nutrition, exercise, mindset, and community—and how integrating these into daily life creates clarity, confidence, and long-term success.

You’ll hear why embracing discomfort is essential for growth, and how shifting from a reactive mindset to intentional living can help you build resilience, increase focus, and achieve your goals with intention.

Whether you’re looking to overcome obstacles, lead with clarity, or create more balance in your life, this episode offers actionable steps to design a life by intention, not by chance.

Read the transcript for Episode 135 below and discover how intentional living can elevate your success, confidence, and purpose.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Suzie Price : imagine a life where your actions match your purpose and your energy matches your ambitions that's the life our guest Joe Gagnon Gagnon has built as a CEO ultra endurance athlete and the author of a best seller Living Intentionally that was just released this month in 2025 this is August in this episode Joe Gagnon reveals a small consistent habits and mindset shifts that help him take on extreme challenges lead with focus and live each day with intention if you're ready to align your work your well being and your impact you're not gonna want to miss this conversation it's one that I really enjoyed I felt inspired by what he shared I loved his energy I love what he's about and his interest and his curiosity and his high standard and his compassion for others and I really resonated with his ideas I enjoyed reading his book and I like the way he showed up as you can tell so I know you're gonna love it I can't wait to share it with you Michael hit it

[00:00:59] intro : welcome to the wake up Eager Workforce podcast a show designed for leaders trainers and consultants who are responsible for employee selection and professional development each episode is packed full with insider tips best practices expert interviews and inspiration please welcome the host who is helping leaders trainers and consultants everywhere Suzie Price

[00:01:26] Suzie Price : welcome to the wake up easier Workforce podcast where we help leaders build a high commitment low drama workforce and a life you can't wait to wake up to I'm your host Suzie Price and in this episode is sponsored by my company Priceless Professional Development people hire us and has done so for the past 20 years to do four main things 1 to help people make better hiring decisions so they can reduce the risk put the right people in the right seats and we do that using the Trimetrix assessment and oftentimes people get so in in interested in and excited about the Trimetrix assessment that we've developed a whole training program everything from basic training to deeper dive training to certifications depending on you know where you want to be but to help people use the assessment on their own so they don't always have to have a consultant to help them they can learn to interpret the assessment we make it available to folks and they can use it throughout the employee life cycle so not only in hiring but we got all kinds of tools for onboarding and coaching and team building and leadership and so I just love doing all of that cause I love spreading the goodness of what the assessment helps us do which is is look for the strengths of people and and find matches at work and to learn how to work together and and know who we are and self awareness and all of those wonderful things so I love doing that part of our work the third thing we do is help leaders lead more effectively we have a wake up eager leader coaching program it's usually three coaching calls and it involves their manager gets involved in the process and it's really really effective it involves a tri metrics assessment as well we get a lot of good feedback um people coming back again and again and again putting people through these programs either to help high performers or help people who might be struggling get more clarity on exactly what they need to do to improve in their role and then the last is to help teams work better together so that's our work that's what we do over here at priceless professional development on the episodes and for wake up bigger workforce podcast would love it if you would follow and like and share our podcast episodes you can always find us on any podcast app that you use share the content that you like with your team with friends on your social media we do mostly social social media on LinkedIn and Facebook and my business page is there the big one is mostly LinkedIn so please comment please follow us there and share I love creating this this is one of my joys and I love people to get benefit from the information that we're sharing so if it resonates please do so the title for today's episode is Living Intentionally How to build a high Performance Life and it's with Joe Gagnon Gagnon it's episode No. 1 35 and we have detailed show notes with transcripts and links to everything we talk about at Priceless professional.comslashliving intentionally Priceless professional.com slash living intentionally for the show notes and spell it out all one word lower case living intentionally alright so let's give a do a little bit of an intro and then we're going to jump into this fun discussion that we had today we're diving into the art and science of living intentionally and it is an art and there is some science to it and it's with Joe Gagnon Gagnon who's a CEO coach mentor ultra endurance athlete and author of the book that we mentioned at the opening living intentionally and I found Joe Gagnon I generally on the podcast interview people that I already know I'm already familiar with that I have selected I don't normally take too much of hey I'd like to be on your podcast and Joe Gagnon didn't do that but Robert Cheek recommended Joe Gagnon to be on the podcast and Robert Cheek is a New York Times best selling author and he wrote a book that I have really enjoyed called The Plant Based Athlete read it years and years ago it's one of the first to ever come out about that you could build strength through a plant based diet and what I do in my life and amateur athlete in my own mind I'm an athlete but he's Robert Schuller has been inspiring to me and he recommended that I interview Joe Gagnon and I'm glad I did um I trusted Robert's endorsement a little bit of what he said he wrote the forward to Joe Gagnon's book the book Living Intentionally and here's what Robert said about Joe Gagnon Joe Gagnon is one of the most purpose driven hardest working and consistently optimistic people I've ever met and his example has changed how I see my own life and potential in his book Joe Gagnon offers more than a pursuit of happiness he gives us a blueprint for finding deeper meaning building a legacy and saying yes to what truly matters and and then he also adds this book will help you reframe failure be fully present and realize your hidden potential because your intentional life begins now so the book is very well written and there is meat and content in there that will be helpful you get to learn about some more about what his some of his adventures but here's what we get to talk about and what you'll you'll get a good understanding of him through our conversation but I'm gonna encourage you to also to go get his book but we'll talk about how starting out with one push up one short run you know how that changed his life and how it can all change our lives life changing transformation it's one thing at a time in over the years I've always said 1% a day and in 70 days you're twice improved the exponential growth principle which is 1% is 15 15 minutes during your day so one thing if you do it keep doing it it grows and that's how Joe Gagnon started and that's how we all start to big changes so you think about anything that you've excelled at maybe you know something as simple as I didn't know how to cook so I barely knew how to cook an egg and now I cook dinner every night I mean that started with learning how to cook an egg or boil some water same concept applies in everything so I think it's good to be reminded of that especially when you see someone who's gone as far as Joe Gagnon has gone in this ultramarathon world you won't believe some of the things he shares and he shares them very kind of not nonchalant he's obviously proud but it's not it's not about the thing it's about the experience of the thing is the way I think about it what he Learned from the thing which is the ultramarathon and some of these other things but it all starts with having started so I think that should uh help you begin to appreciate that small effort to add up and then he talks about five daily pillars and they really are important if we want to live a wake up eager life we want to be all that we can be we gotta pay attention to these five things sleep nutrition exercise mindset and community those are things that become our pillars or our foundation and what I find when somebody is doing a really good job at these five things if you think everything always goes back to try metrics for me right so if you're doing that your axiology scores for your self view on the part of the assessment that measures our horsepower if you're doing taking really good care of yourself and sleep nutrition exercise mindset

[00:08:27] Suzie Price : and you feel like you belong usually self view is high and what I always say is that you have a strong foundation so you're more sturdy and so I love how this ties into what we talk about all the time that these are pillars and then lastly he talks about building earned confidence earned confidence is when you keep showing up every day and you you become sturdy in what you know about yourself you don't make excuses you don't ask for forgiveness you just be who you be but earn confidence so you can pursue your goals without being thrown off by doubt from others and that is a thing you know people don't always feel comfortable if you're gonna try to stand out and do something different and so if you keep showing up for yourself and use Joe Gagnon as a role model their doubt will just get left behind and you'll become really strong in it so here's a quick bio of on Joe Gagnon and then we're going into the episode he again is the endurance athlete a CEO he's LED six companies as CEO the company he's running right now is Rainmaker and I think I saw where they had gotten a capital infusion maybe on LinkedIn but um he leads the development of an AI powered sales platform helping small businesses grow smarter and faster so I love small businesses and I love learning about AI so I think that's fascinating to be that he's doing that he coaches top performers he's pushed himself to extremes he's completed here's some of his extreme uh sporting things six Ironman races which if you hear some people they'll say I ran a Ironman race you don't you normally see or hear people say they did six hundred mile race ultra marathons and here's one big challenge he did I think it was in 2,017 or 18 he did six marathons on six continents in six days and he opens his book talking about that it's fascinating that he's done that and then he recently completed the legendary Bad Water 1:35 that's a a run through Death Valley and only 1,000 people have completed it many thousands have tried to complete it but they don't make it he talks a little bit about that there and again he talks about it but it's not like it's an end goal you can just tell he's got more on his mind that he's gonna do but he's fascinating and I know you're gonna enjoy it his book is Living Intentionally it was just released this month August 2025 or either July 2025 it's already in the top 15 on Amazon in three cateagerries a No. 5 in the work life balance cateagerry and No. 1 in the extreme sports cateagerry so very cool it's well written and you're gonna enjoy it I know you're gonna love our discussion let's go there now

[00:11:04] Suzie Price : Joe Gagnon it's so good to see you

[00:11:06] Joe Gagnon : Suzie it's so much fun to get on this with you I'm looking forward to it

[00:11:10] Suzie Price : I appreciate you taking the time and I love what you're doing the living intentionally is everything and your book is amazing and you're such a good writer I'm so impressed with how you write and everything was an underline moment or a oh let me copy that and reshare that so you have so many good things to share and say

[00:11:27] Joe Gagnon : and you know it's interesting because when I've been writing now for 13 years and I didn't start to become a writer I wrote so I could be a better thinker and it was really you know Learned early on you're mostly writing for yourself and if someone reads it and finds a benefit then you feel really blessed and when I did this book I probably rewrote it 3 or 4 times cause I kept wanting it to be good enough so I would want to read it and I think I have a pretty high bar having written for so long but it's nice to hear that other people feel that about it that I'm getting the message across I think that intentionality seems to be at the right point in time and sort of where we're on this sort of our our life journey that it's deeper than a habit it's more than a practice it's sort of a way of living and I don't know that I really fully embraced it or understood it until I started to think about you know what was it that got me further along on the path you know why did I feel so much more satisfied with life you know why do I think that every day feels like a vacation day and it comes down to have that alignment around your intentions which is the why and then the practices and then the foundation and then the living broadly within the context of the community that we're part of and and then the harmony that comes from that is just like it's just like a beautiful song to listen to

[00:12:53] Suzie Price : I love that you were on this journey and now you're reflecting back how can I capture this and figure out okay how did I get this far how did I get to feeling this good you know that's the wake up eager that we always talking about and that I'm personally always reaching for you know waking up every day eager for the life that I'm living that's a process and it it's so good that you've done a really good job in your book I highly recommend it there'll be links to it in the show notes but let's kind of start with about your awareness and living intentionally you talk about this in all areas of your life and you you seem to be just such a great role model for this what are some of the defining moments or maybe there was one on your journey either in business or as an athlete where yeah you know deciding to live intentionally changed everything

[00:13:37] Joe Gagnon : I always like to say that it's easy to look back and see how smart you were in the moment but I don't know that we really were but over time it builds to sort of that level of insight and so you know I was thinking about like my life I get childhood is you know sort of the entry point into being an adult in my adult life I have two halves the first half was this rather deliberate focus on work that was what I got good at I got at making money getting promotions having in the quote unquote power kind of world sort of establishment and as yourself in that world and I just after almost you know 20 years of it found that the making the money the thing that everyone told me was gonna be the goal started to be less and less satisfying and I found myself to be more and more sort of empty and single dimensional you know I literally lost my sense of humor I couldn't understand sort of the the happiness my my wife and kids would be you know kidding around and I'd be like you know isn't there a project plan inside that or something you know and I don't know that it was like oh my gosh all of a sudden from that you then become something else but then the second thing was that I got sort of pushed a little bit into trying to do some physical stuff and I just couldn't you know I couldn't really run a mile I couldn't do a push up and I just woke up one day and I said like this is what you turned into like and and by the way Susie like is this the next 50 years of your life if you haven't lived that long like yeah I was like oh my god no no no no that does not sound satisfying and so that was the beginning of the turning point and it became intentional later in the beginning it was establishing habits I do think habits matter I do think the consistency matters the accountability and that commitment I didn't have a why other than to start to build Joe Gagnon into something more than a person who could work and so I started with a push up and a mile and a paragraph I always say you know and then I became sort of like those are core to who I am you know I don't just eat and sleep I don't just you know work and do those things I do more every day and so but I had still at this time like over 25 years ago I was still eating meats I was still drinking alcohol I was being like what we would call normal and in fact it wasn't really giving me much and so then little by little and it became performance related in the beginning I think that was the motivation I could perform better as I found out if I stopped drinking I could perform better if I started eating differently and I started this journey of habits changing and you know the cute part about it was that in the beginning you know everyone was like oh wasn't that hard to do and I'm like not really cause if yeah you connect with the reason then I never missed having a drink ever I've never missed eating meat ever um and being plant based became you know for more than it can for me the first part of that was the nutrition part was so much better the digestive part was so much better I was so much healthier but then you have all the other reasons later on that you develop you know about the animals and the environment and everything so like oh my gosh it's like so many and and then why would I put poison in myself which is what alcohol ultimately is and so that first part was a lot of performance and it was learning how to perform at a higher level so this was like every human has massive potential and we sit on top of it all the time and we don't use it nothing against sitting on the couch and watching Netflix look I think that's fine but it doesn't use any of our potential I mean we're survival mode we are good at that but we're also should be good at thriving mode and that's what I started to find the more I did the better I got the better I got the more I could do the more I could do and it just like was like it's endless like it doesn't ever tap out I don't think in our lifetime any of us will ever find the peak of our potential and all of our neurobiology starts to work in our favor

[00:17:35] Joe Gagnon : all these things we hear about endorphin and serotonin and oxytocin and cortisol we start to manage them better now the system works so like I haven't been sick in 15 years I haven't taken a day off from exercise I haven't taken a day off from writing because my my system is adapted to this sort of escalating levels of performance and so then when you feel that good you know what people ask I'm sure the same of you is like why do you live this way and I my simple answer is if you could feel this good why wouldn't you you know and so yeah anyway I'll I'll stop there cause I could just keep going on but that's what sort of happened and I think that everyone goes through the same process no one starts on this inspired intentional life from day one I don't think it's possible the beginning of my life was pretty tough not impossibly tough but you know sort of bit broke bad job not much confidence but I turned it around and we all can and I believe deeply that we can even without a community but just look in the mirror are you like what you see and if you don't then let's do something about it because if you have the patience of 10 or 20 years anything's possible

[00:18:49] Suzie Price : I love the the picture that you just shared which was you were starting to feel dull and you didn't ignore it that's the what I kept hearing is the word dull I just felt dull everything's okay but I wasn't excited about things so then you just started looking for answers and and I think what you didn't did differently than some others is you didn't stop looking you kept looking no right and you were willing to do the one push up and the one run around the block eventually and tell the tell the group here a one couple of your feats that you that that so it starts you know what one thing we talk about is the exponential growth principle 1% a day and in 70 days you're twice improved and so a little bit matters and 1% by the way is 15 minutes yeah so if you just do something and you're an example of that that 15 minutes now it's like okay now that was easy I'm gonna do 30 minutes and then I'm gonna do it you know it takes time but we see people that where you are and then we say oh my gosh I don't know where to start but you just painted a great picture of to start

[00:19:47] Joe Gagnon : I know and I didn't believe the things that I have had the opportunity to do that were ever possible for me either Susie I mean if you would I I have this report card that I keep just for fun and I do it in keynote speeches and I show it and it's like there's literally nothing on that list that I thought I could have done 25 years ago I mean it would have been a story of someone else not of me and so I you know to anyone listening to this I am not particularly advantaged I just chose to use the resource I have called me and you have the same resource I like to say it's like your lottery ticket you should cash it it's in your pocket you were given it when you were born and you should just cash it don't look to buy another one you already are sitting on top of it and so you know what happened was I took the time to write down in a spreadsheet what I was doing every day as my accountability partner and so for 25 years I've tracked what I've done every day and so every year I would set the goals for the next year I would track it by day accountability it starts to build you know like now what is it twenty five years later I've run 55,000 miles I've cycled you know 100,000 miles I've worked out I don't know 20,000 hours you know I've written 4,600 blog posts I mean I keep track of all of this and so what happens then is though to your point you just get better and stronger and then you can add more load and you start realizing that the load isn't gonna be a burden at all it's this opportunity are you ready for it yes I had been in software most of my career in 2,017 I decided I would leave the software world and build a nutritional supplement company using plants to improve performance so roots mushrooms and herbs I mean they're magical oh my gosh these extracts that we powders we had and my friends kept telling me you should write a book so I decided I'm gonna write this book called living the High Performance Life so that was my first book and I thought I really need a way to end this book that's like really inspiring and so I concocted this idea to run a Marathon on six continents in six days and so turns out it's Sydney to Singapore to Johannesburg to London to SAO Paulo to LA it's 157 miles of running 30,000 miles of flying 14 hours of sleep but I was ready for this I had already flown 5 million miles I had already won at the time 40,000 miles I was more ready than anyone could be so when I set out to do it I wasn't like a a reach of deep level

[00:22:21] Suzie Price : it was the next step for you so we all have different next steps and yep that's where you landed but it was a lot of intention to lead up to that

[00:22:30] Joe Gagnon : that's right which gave me the confidence you know how many people told me all the things that would go wrong Susie oh my God it was crazy this isn't gonna work that's not gonna work and I just said you know what just let me go find out that's all I just wanna find out if you're right great I wanna learn I wanna feel and so I wrote a note to myself when I started that week that the lows would be the highs and I kept looking for this horribly low feeling of oh my god this is impossible and I ended the week and I was like I never found any lows and I realized and I wrote about this in the book that the mindset sets our context for how we feel and had such a context of like I was looking for it but it's not there'cause actually that's just our perception and so yeah it was hard I mean sure of course if you're gonna run and do that and like I didn't lay down for six days and I used you know airport bathrooms to brush my teeth and you know and all of this it which by the way all that's just like completely exciting if you wanna live a wild week I'm like I was so over the top the people you meet that ah the relationships that could created in a minute so but but I was ready for it and you're ready it turned out to be magical but it wasn't the end either you know like I've created more and bigger ideas in there and I think that the key is like that you don't have to actually have that as a goal but that can become something you do when you live intentionally you're building this power system you know like everyone always says to me Joe Gagnon what's next I said to continue to live the way I'm living that's what's next to live out of this ready state with a power system that most people don't use it's not don't have they don't use use it it's the F1 car sitting in your driveway

[00:24:17] Suzie Price : I think that we do all kinds of car analogies here my husband's a race car driver so it's all race car analogies when I heard the Formula 1 thing I'm like yes talk about that we are all a Formula 1 race car champion we are there we have to just tap into it and we're gonna do it our own way it's not gonna look like Joe Gagnon's way or Susie's way but we have it

[00:24:38] Joe Gagnon : here's the key like what are we looking for you know first stop looking for permission you don't need permission from anyone to live the life you want to live everybody in fact is gonna by the way

[00:24:47] Suzie Price : well meaning people did they're usually well meaning or they're just acting out of their own kind of unsure edness but I will say they're well meaning you shouldn't do that race you're gonna how are you gonna do it you're trying they feel so much doubt that they can't help but tell you what the doubt is and the only way to overcome that is to be so ready for it and so that's why I say if you're going to do something don't speak about it very much

[00:25:09] Joe Gagnon : yeah or be ready to be so ready accept that doesn't there yes that's right water off the duck's back right otherwise it'll plant seeds you know of doubt if you're not ready yet yeah and I I don't I don't take that anymore like I just finished a race called the Bad Water 1:35 so hundred thirty five miles through Death Valley and 120 degrees and three mountain passes and everyone's like you're gonna die you're gonna die I'm like I appreciate you I really do I know what I'm doing I have confidence I have prepared for this not just for my lifetime but even in the training leading up all of it is what you're ready you know like the con confidence isn't arrogance right if you went to my spreadsheet it is actually earned confidence this is what we all have the opportunity to do is to earn the confidence so that when someone says to you well I'm not sure you can do that you can actually if you really wanted to you could just say let me just show you the facts like let's just go into them I can yeah yeah and yeah look is there stuff we can control in this life sure you know I like the physical stuff is easy to understand it's like why we like racing analogies and all that cause it sports analogies they're easy to understand you know back in December of this past year 24 I wanted to figure out how many pull UPS I could do in a period of time cause I've been working on this and uh and so I did pull UPS are hard

[00:26:34] Suzie Price : yeah amen you did like how many thousands

[00:26:37] Joe Gagnon : 2 thousand pull UPS in 11 hours and 40 minutes and a lot of it was cause I just wanted to know what it felt like I wanted to know how much power I had inside me I've worked on it for a long time you know I do 100 pull UPS a day you know I've done tests before that but but all of that is the in this era of the possibility right this is and yeah what's the rush it took me 15 years to get there but I have like a lot of time and so do everyone and you don't have the same amount of hours in a day right I would say the hundred and sixty eight hours in a week you really want to know yeah how your life is going write down every day every hour and at the end of the week look at it and assess do you like the way you spent your time okay everybody that's your exercise because it isn't to guilt yourself but it is to heighten awareness you know

[00:27:24] Suzie Price : and and after this conversation you're gonna have the awareness hey wait a minute what if I really am a champion in a Formula 1 race car what if that really is true about me and am I using it am I using that talent and we and you you are that but seeing how you're not maybe living the fulfilling days the awareness

[00:27:47] Joe Gagnon : yeah yeah because then you can make a decision you know yeah I think here here's one of my other ones so first do the hundred and sixty eight hours I don't allow the word can't in anyone's vocabulary because like why would you decide before you start okay so let's just take that so then tell people and if you want to say I won't do that that's agency that's taking ownership then say I won't do it and then ask your question how does that make you feel

[00:28:11] Suzie Price : do you feel empowered or do you feel diminished

[00:28:14] Joe Gagnon : right and if it's diminished then there's probably something in there for that's right yeah so this combination this is how we don't need therapists we just need ourselves we need a few practices that we put ourselves through in the privacy of our own environment without any other people sometimes people are not always the best thing in our lives you know and so first we should of course be with people who are you know additive and complimentary and supportive I mean I've had the most supportive people in my life everyone's like here we're here to help you be who you are not change who you are not trying to become someone else but but when you you start to ask these questions and you realize that actually the minute you do you start to turn on the systems that work with inside us to make us feel better cortisol comes down that's the stress hormone this is making us feel bad you know it's turning our hair gray so to speak right but when we reduce cortisol because we're we're no longer anxious about a circumstance cause we're building like if we don't like the way we feel but we're on a path to improving that eating better exercising community living mindset all those things actually are better than taking any medication you ever could like this system is a self healing system and it always wants to actually improve that's the way it works it thrives right use it it works

[00:29:34] Suzie Price : everything else is a distraction you know really that's what I always feel like everybody's like chasing the supplement chasing this and that like why don't you um consider and I don't ever say it but I think it let's maybe drink a little less or maybe stop drinking maybe change your food you sleep better just I mean that's magic if you just do those things get to the pillars that you talk about your five pillars

[00:29:55] Joe Gagnon : yeah this is like simple models they're not complex yeah I don't have any sort of like deep level insight other than the acknowledgement of these very established frameworks that we can use I wrote about them in the book you know it starts with defining your why like you know yup what's your purpose and I go through a lot of examples and no one gives any perfect answer we're not telling anyone what it should be but and it can change throughout our lives as we go through but it is taking the time so that once you have that to find it's easier to defend in your own heart and your head right and then like I love discomfort I love suffering because I know their pathways to better to the best to the inspired to the intentional right and so I'm not afraid of it and the simplest one is the rain everyone's like so afraid of the rain oh my God what's gonna happen like just do me a favor like the next time it's pouring rain walk out of your house without an umbrella and just walk down the street you don't have to go for a run just get yourself soaking wet and just know wow this is an amazing feeling I'm getting to feel something that I wouldn't feel if I was sitting inside watching TV and it's making me alive it's turning on my senses it's making me feel something and every time we do that we wake up our system and our system wants to be awake and it can be you know some people do it with spirituality but we can do it with the physical we can do it with the food all of these things are a part of how we work and so like that F1 car if you put crummy gas in it it's not gonna drive as well right yeah if you don't know how to do it if you don't have a team if you don't actually think about the tires all these things then it won't work as well it's the same with us but sometimes we just get caught up in what we think is the rat race and we allow that that was where I was the first part of my life I was doing what I thought everyone else wanted me to do and then when I found it was like you can't look at your bank account or something else enough times to justify that life

[00:31:55] Suzie Price : and it doesn't how you were feeling about it it was not a match I wanna go back real quick on the why I like what you talk about in there and I think it's very important to highlight it and that is not the why you think other people want you to to say or do um you know or that sounds good or you're gonna read it off to the group and so that your mastermind group can all hear your why it's very personal right and so you know for me the wake up Eger is very personal to me people said oh that you shouldn't name your company what you named it you shouldn't be doing this you know it's all these things that people do they all have an opinion you know and unless you feel like it's your thing and like I got I get emotional just talking about why that matters to me yeah and it seems very personal and so anyway so just to highlight that I think it's right no I think Susie you're right and everything and it's not for other people you can later on share it for other people but initially you know what is it that you care about so much that you would defend it right you do it anyway whether everybody said it's wrong and I you know grew up as a I like to please people and I'm a very happy friendly optimistic person so I like everybody being optimistic and you know and I was a that kid you know that you know I was like that person so to to pick things that people aren't gonna understand immediately but you know it's right will allow you to keep going

[00:33:17] Joe Gagnon : yeah I think you know we're all in this generalized word smart you know I don't think yes we can't embrace these ideas I think yes what happens often is we take the context of some other person or the world you know like right now I would say we're seeing a lot of selfishness in the world you know we we are sort of losing our social contract the respect that we have for each other you know sort of both reason and the rule of law these are things that have always helped us as society and as people perform better so I would take and not role model after you know the billionaire mindset who thinks they need so much that they isolate themselves but more toward the world of sharing caring growing supporting you know being part of a community it actually feels way better and we will you know we'll find that people get attracted to you and will appreciate you for what you're doing and how you invest and that will make you feel better you know that that's classic back to my you know my biomedicine kind of idea but serotonin oxytocin levels go up and you just feel better and like there's reasons why we feel the way we do and so it is actually having this intentionality and then this sort of awareness of what's going on around us um but there's nothing wrong with defending the decisions you made like there that isn't off putting right this is we should have agency and we should feel confident about what we do

[00:34:54] Suzie Price : but why would say if people share too soon that's what shut shuts people down you know what I mean yeah I'm sure I agree and if you are of like my personality type you know how I built my identity early on it's like oh I didn't really like this approval now I don't matter now but I'm also 60 years old you know so it took me a long time to not worry and it's interesting you know what I so I think that that stops we'll see so why aren't more people going on to the edge of what they care about is because they I haven't built it up within themselves enough to withstand the criticism cause you will get it just for the simple fact of going plant based or being alcohol free it's something that I do I don't feel like I need to explain it to anybody and I don't really care what you think but that wouldn't have been an easy 20 years ago for me I think that's why I tapped into it a little bit you may be a little stronger than me earlier on

[00:35:47] Joe Gagnon : I think we all start down that path I think but that back to the if you have a good why then it's easier to defend but I do think that but there's a core question that we should ask which is why do we consider the input of others stronger than our own

[00:36:01] Suzie Price : exactly yes yes yes and I see it in the assessments a lot we see we measure this other tool that you didn't take but measures um how we see the world and how we see ourselves and a lot of times we see the world more clearly than we see ourselves so we value this opinion more than we value our own and that's a journey you know that's a journey for some of us

[00:36:22] Joe Gagnon : but it's a question we should ask ourselves often yeah and then if we're challenged on some of the decisions we make then we should have a very just sort of very dispassionate response which would say to someone why do you feel that way why do you think I should listen to you what is your fact based that would tell me that I should do something different or are you just trying to make me be like you and do what you do

[00:36:47] Suzie Price : channel Joe Gagnon when we're when we're question yeah so I when I was reading and seeing what you were doing so you know I get up early every day and I work out and when I go on when I travel I take my own food and when I'm with a huge group of people you know I'm the only one not drinking all of that stuff and it doesn't bother me at all but sometimes I think oh my gosh I'm so like different and then I'm like no I'm not that much different cause Joe Gagnon's a way lot different than me you know so I like I like that you're an example of that I don't mind being different now at this place that I'm in in my life but I think it's harder on some of us

[00:37:23] Joe Gagnon : I think so but okay so here's my example so I am I would put myself in the extreme cateagerry so that's fine and so I have a lot of people who then say to me you shouldn't live that way and so my yeah so here's my question back to them I say okay so let's go empirical for a second let's look at the facts and if you can tell me where the facts aren't working in my favor then I will listen so I'm married for 37 years I've kept one relationship going for all that time I have two very well adjusted very beautiful children who are adults now who

[00:37:56] Suzie Price : you know and who run with you I think I heard they do they support me you have this running relationship and they do some stuff with you around that which is cool that's right

[00:38:04] Joe Gagnon : they don't wanna they wanna be around they have a five they're both work for not for profits you know I have financial independence I'm still employed I have a lot of friends I'm a good writer my health by the way I haven't been sick in 15 years I never got Covid I've been capable of running every day like so what is it that I need to stop doing because something's broken like okay if they're all broken then I say I'm willing to listen so then we get to this fact which is that one I'm sorry to say this in public but most of the time it's people's insecurities that are driving me to stop because it's making them feel bad and I'm not here to make anyone feel bad Susie I'm living my life this is not about them and so I don't really I again back to I would accept if there was I was continually broken you know I was sick I was hurt I can't do it

[00:38:59] Suzie Price : there's some adjustments I need to make but that's not the case and you know what the key part of this is in my opinion is it's what you're doing and I am better and better at this now all the time better but you are reflecting on what you're doing you're tracking what you're doing and for me I make list of appreciation every day you know track I'm a big peloton bike cyclist and and runner so not a real runner but through them you know tracking it you know and I have the badges on my bike and every time I can get a sticker for another you know 950 rides I put it on there and I look at it and I smile at it like I'm marinating in what I'm doing and that's what you're doing you're doing a what is that like a catalogue of your life and saying hey and and celebrating it and you don't need to tell the world I don't I don't post on Facebook or anywhere that I'm doing all this stuff but I do it for myself and I tell my husband I tell my nephews and you know people who care you know so anyway so I think that's part of it too is just owning it oh yeah and then I'm like

[00:39:59] Joe Gagnon : I also on the work side I've been a CEO of a software company six times early stage startups I've raised a lot of money you know I've been on a team took a company public so I mean I've done it on both sides not like I became just an athlete right I think I've tried to become more of a complete person I do an extraordinary amount of coaching and support early stage entrepreneurs on their journey because I feel like I should be giving back you know I help people with Marathon plans I'm doing all of that gratis cause I wanna be in the cateagerry of helping and supporting people on their journey and giving them belief that there are people out there who care about them and love them for what they're trying to accomplish so it it isn't a totality so you know like where's the compromise that I make well I really don't know any shows on Netflix and I don't really watch television and sit around just consuming content and so that's a trade off on my time but I think that the the point of it is is that if we do this with the right level of patience and a plan and accountability you know uh we can get to this first order which for me was the first book was The High Performance Life and then if you think about the interesting part of what happened next the next eight years was moving to intentionality so it was from sort of low performance to high performance to intentionality and it was a pathway there you know because now I'm working on deeper questions I'm working on sort of understanding how the eager works and why do we have such attachment to the physical world and how are we trying to define ourselves you know accomplishment is not bad right it doesn't it isn't that it's about the application of our potential rather than the realization in data like oh you ran fast rather than you used the capability you have to keep moving and I think in that we become much more you know sort of centered and over time transcendent and that transcendence is when the eager is not driving us but you know how we use ourselves as beings is what really ends up being the most satisfying because then the system is optimized it's a long and hard path there but boy is it beautiful when you go on it

[00:42:15] Suzie Price : that's amazing yes I love the application of our potential using that and then your journey of it you've talked about the why you've talked about very quickly the five um pillars do you want to talk anymore about the five pillars

[00:42:32] Joe Gagnon : yeah they're simple I think this is like like when you think about your personal daily architecture you know the one funny thing is it over 10,000 years of evolution we haven't figured out how to live without sleeping right so this is the core process and so you have to sleep it's one of the five pillars the second and I love this Doctor B said you know you're gonna in your lifetime eat 88,000 pounds of food like if you don't think that matters you should really rethink what you're doing this is like your your energy is 88,000 pounds

[00:43:00] Suzie Price : is that butcher witch butcher witch yes doctor yes is that who that is he's a gut kind of expert for those that's right we can put a reference to him he's amazing and yes he is and so he's got a good program Zoe I think it is yeah

[00:43:15] Joe Gagnon : it's just oxygen and nutrition is what runs our system right that's what we become you know we rebuild ourselves every 90 220 days so it's never too late and it's what we do every day that matters and it's actually pretty simple so sleep and nutrition are primary right those are the starting points those are the foundation building blocks the third is exercise the body was made to move it's not made to sit it's made to move and the more we move it the better it works and if you wanna and and fitness can start at any point it's never too late you know we've both probably talked to people who had struggles in their lives and made the recovery cause they made the decision to change and let's be patient it's okay if we just walk one block if we just do 15 minutes that's it just start and continue we should do it every day we rebuild every day and then the next two are sort of in the you know sort of the mindset part which is like this is where you know back to my I don't need permission you know I have agency I am in charge of my own life I can be happy every day there is no reason why I can't be eager all these things that's up to us and the last is we are social creatures and community matters so if you took the five of those pillars and said what do I do about each of them every day even just a little bit back to sleep is it good is my exercise good is my nutrition good is my mindset good is my community and if you just think about it consciously intentionally every day life gets better over time so those are the pillars they're not fancy you don't need a coach you don't even need advice if you just thought about them like look ultra processed foods right if you pick up a package in a grocery store and you can't read the ingredients or figure out what they are if there's more than let's we would love it less than seven but at least 15 should be less than like what could you cook that had 15 ingredients nothing right so that means it's just do you really wanna put that in your body forget just plant based I'm just talking about anything

[00:45:22] Suzie Price : just try to be more nutritionally conscious and and it's so nice that that is happening more people are talking about it more and there's so many products I mean it is not hard for me to travel and eat exactly what I want now I'm crazy I'm where you are in ultramarathons around what I eat like in regard to I'm very specific I don't waver it makes such a difference for me and it's everything it's you know in my blood work and all that but anyway I'm just saying it's easier yeah and it's more aware it's on everybody's mind a little bit more and so that's a good thing

[00:45:54] Joe Gagnon : I would challenge us all on some of the concepts that we have in our head like like the idea of boredom um and so like when I was in my best Ironman days which is the Ironman Triathlon you know the 2.4 mile swim hundred 12 mile bike and then the to twenty Six Mile Run and I was eating peanut butter and jelly for lunch for five years straight every day because it was what I needed from you know fat and carbohydrates and it was doable I was never I was never bored I was always excited every day like oh my God I could have peanut butter and jelly and so but people be like oh I had that yesterday so like if you can find a nutritionally balanced breakfast lunch and dinner like you can eat the same thing every day there is nothing that would be bad about that you know start off with a protein shake you know have some fruit

[00:46:42] Suzie Price : it requires a little bit of a mindset shift too but like I don't think about food as recreation anymore no and I haven't for a long time so I don't recreate with food and I don't mind if other people are gonna do it because I'm not here to change them but I will go to dinner with them and I'll just nibble on something little you know just to be present and just say that's enough it's good but not recreating with food is huge yes and a lot of times I'm eating the exact same thing every day

[00:47:07] Joe Gagnon : I do the same I start every morning with a protein shake yeah 50 grams of protein starting the day plant based first of all it makes me not hungry for the next five or six hours and then I start with this foundation and it's easy I put water yeah and four scoops of protein like yeah and boom and there you go and there are so many good plant based choices now that taste great with just all natural you know it could have cacao pea quinoa barley like all these great ingredients with no chemicals like it's so simple to get it's no longer hard right and actually the price point on it actually ends up being reasonable as well if you pay attention to you know the cost of gram per protein so like there's yeah nothing really in our way on that so so those are these five pillars

[00:47:58] Suzie Price : and I would say the only thing that gets in the way is the people having a little bit of addiction to the other food and there's a little bit of withdrawal and and habit and the whole recreating with food I mean so I have a lot yeah yeah right right oh yes a lot of people retired and they like to have the whole you know we're going to dinner cause was we go that's what we do for recreation and so that's the challenge is that the social piece of it and the physiological addiction to the old the process stuff you know so I think that a modest

[00:48:27] Joe Gagnon : adjustment for people like if you really don't want to be extreme like maybe like me there's 21 meals in a week like eat well 16 of them seven oh I like that idea yeah you know yeah give yourself the Grace to have four or five the way you want like that's way better than having no plan exactly yeah so so then you can still have some fun and you can then enjoy your life but you've improved it right this is like we don't have to get to

[00:48:57] Suzie Price : we can go on levels of it a journey of that's right I didn't start out that way but I love like now I just love the way I feel I love the way I sleep I love my mood I love my energy I'm able to work out like a 20 years younger than I am I mean it's just the best I mean why would I trade that no you wouldn't but if you haven't done that past not there yet right you know exactly two meals a day or just a little bit of help yeah yeah and I'm always cooking two meals cause my husband's not really on the train a little bit too much but I don't care it's it's a little bit what I'm cooking is easier and it's you know better and it's to your point it's like everybody doesn't have to be where I'm I'm at

[00:49:34] Joe Gagnon : no no no I know this isn't a judgment the way you live or I live is not a judgment on anyone else it's only about opportunity and potential and whether one wants to use that but we all have a right to live the way we want as long as it's within the confines of our community rules and respect and all of that and if you were you know we always should just ask the question do we feel good about the decisions we're making do we want to improve if we do then there's a pathway there that's why I wrote the book I wanted to give people a framework for thinking if you didn't have it because you know look at the end of the day I sort of got a little bit lucky you know when I did sort of start to make the change I met some really interesting people who are good role models for me and then I did my own research and then I made some choices but if you don't have any resources in your local community then there are you know your podcast there's my book there are other sources of information your coaching right exactly and so that is part of like so none of us are trapped none of us you know are stuck unless that's what we want and really honestly if there's people in your lives who don't want you to live an intentional or inspired life then you should really question whether they should be in your life cause I don't know why we wouldn't want people just celebrating who we are and what we could become you know I family members included you know I uh you know my my mom is dementia now so we don't really have any conversations with her anymore but you know when I stopped eating meat because you know we from an Italian family that's what we did and yeah she would still say do you want chicken and I'm like no I'm sorry but I don't eat that and I was fine you know just doing that because I was making choices that worked for me and I had to just live with that I was doing something different it was okay but she never like went hard on it and so I think sometimes you know we don't need to give in even in that kind of familiar situation because they get to choose we get to choose and there we go I know that no one likes to be told what to do so don't tell others what to do

[00:51:43] Suzie Price : nope I don't tell anybody and and it's interesting the less I talk about it the more I just kind of exist the more people ask me yeah you know because now it's like I'm not I'm not really and truly don't I just know I feel good that's all I know

[00:51:56] Joe Gagnon : back to you know like in the book so that first part of the book was all about sorting establishing this foundation the second part is about this idea of discomfort and reframing and I love the idea that you know maybe our language is somewhat limiting you know the word failure like I've been an entrepreneur you're really good with language thanks and I love the idea that my failures have been my successes cause I Learned and in the entrepreneurial world that can be accepted at least in our culture maybe not around the world you know I love the idea that discomfort you know I talk a lot about Susie is the signal through the noise and so we often let the noise dictate what we do and don't look for the signal and so discomfort is the noise you know and so I'm in the middle of a race and I'm feeling crummy you know I'm tired I don't know maybe I got a rash you know I'm hot you know yeah everything is feeling bad that's noise and you know how you know it's noise if you were to stop right then within 30 minutes you'd feel fine you'd feel fine right right so we cannot I would like to say discomfort doesn't rise to the level of quit so I would say I'm very proud of I'm not a quitter that I have you know some of my examples are a bit extreme you know by crashes and continuing to race but for the bottom line is that like even when I did the bad water thing it's 120 degrees

[00:53:25] Suzie Price : how long ago was that was that recent two weeks ago oh wow okay keep talking I wanna hear more yeah

[00:53:31] Joe Gagnon : yes so that race you know only 1,000 people have ever completed it

[00:53:35] Suzie Price : less people was it David Scoggins who kind of made it a little bit David did yes listen to his book and was fascinating with his life military Yep Navy seal mm hmm yeah yeah amazing we often get compared in a funny way but yeah this race is

[00:53:51] joe : as you know extreme as you can get right you start in the hottest place at least in North America almost in the world and then you have 135 miles to go on this road and it only gets hotter and like the lowest temperature might be hundred ninety five degrees and and you have to go over three big mountain passes and you I have a limited amount of time 48 hours to do it and you I think I consumed 20 gallons of fluids during this period of time you know you don't sleep really you might take some five minute cat naps I had to work through how long did it take you to get through it took me 43 hours to finish okay and I worked through some hallucinations that I was having I worked through some sleep deprivation where I was having a hard time walking a straight line and I knew what was going on I had been in situations like it before and you know I just had forward progress in my head just keep moving forward just keep moving forward and OK you know the nutrition thing is very hard the hotter you get the less you want to eat the more you need to eat and so you know you suffer a little bit with food choices and resistance and my crew was great you know they forced me to eat my my super food for that race was mashed potatoes OK there you go you can make them with olive oil of course and they're beautiful yeah and high glycemic content and some salt cause like I was sweating we used ice bandanas around my neck to keep me cool yeah you wore long sleeves and you soaked your shirt all the time so that you would you know try and have some cooling and at the end of the race you have this 12 mile climb halfway up Mount Whitney and you know you just you know I had prepared I had been in sauna 20 times at 195 degrees I had been running in long sleeves and turtlenecks all year long I had embraced the discomfort and so when I finally got there I was like okay I'm ready for this I can do this yeah you made it it was a lifelong kind of you know amazing you know goal and then to accomplish it but I felt how many people have finished it only 1,000 people over the past 25 years oh my god you're one of a thousand yeah that's amazing man but that's what celebrate that you're amazing thank you I

[00:56:10] Joe Gagnon : I just feel like I've served myself very well and my accountability is high and my commitment to myself is high and my lack of attachment is high and so my recovery was amazing I've felt great

[00:56:24] Suzie Price : yeah I was gonna ask about that how soon did you feel better'cause Scoggins in his book like there's a couple of things that detail his recovery and it's like whoa it's extreme did you feel better I was

[00:56:34] Joe Gagnon : the next day I rode my stationary bike and the day after that I started running again wow I slept great started eating again not the gels and the potatoes but my regular food my my gosh my clarity thought was great I just got right back into what I was doing and so let's just stop and say you are superhuman

[00:56:55] Suzie Price : that's amazing oh yeah I know but if you

[00:57:02] Joe Gagnon : it just shows what we're capable of I love that you're out there blazing these trails cause it makes me you know work harder or think OK but you have to go back that Susie like I know people listening are gonna say it's not me that like the one minute you know I grew up in the Bronx just outside New York City a loving family you know my dad was a social worker my mother was a school teacher

[00:57:26] Suzie Price : we were had no money you know I went to high school was not really a good high school four years you know I was bullied and made fun of you know I worked through a lot of those issues I graduated college making $7 an hour you know completely broke with nothing but the basement of my parents house to live in you know and no wonder you took the career path that you took initially right I had to make money cause I gotta I gotta you know that was a that was right on track right and until it was

[00:57:55] Joe Gagnon : I was not an athlete in high school or college I was none of these things I was destined to just be just another number but then I made choices and I always had this mindset which is not gonna be the beginning not the end but the beginning always a new beginning and that look I have something me and I can go use it and it works and so then I just kept on challenging myself and you know so now yeah 30 years later it looks like oh my gosh wow but it it wasn't saying it was a journey here

[00:58:28] Suzie Price : and it was step by step one one tick Mark in my Excel spreadsheet at a time track it however you need to track it or for me my little badge on my bike you know that says you know 950 or whatever that's that's it just those little things and those aren't fancy and those aren't big awards and nobody sees them and there's a bit of a grind to it but boy is it a satisfying grind my little version of it

[00:58:53] Joe Gagnon : yeah yeah yeah and I think for all of us the power and that is a general word but like meaning like the the power of our system is so much higher so like the thing I said before you know our body will live in the survival mode or thriving mode so we go into sort of the biology so if we're thriving you know we're creating more neurons you know how our brain works we're creating more mitochondria which is the energy source inside our muscles we're creating more muscle fibers you know we're managing cortisol we are managing you know all of the biomechanical systems are working in our favor and so that's what we get to optimize so it's not like some random thing that happens it's actually the way the body works and so it wants to thrive it actually really does and it works best there yep and so and then when you're around people who are thriving you know it's also self reinforcing

[00:59:45] Suzie Price : push you forward and you know nowadays too like I just did in the spring I did a function health blood test you know so you can manage your own testing and then I did the dexofit and all that you know and it showed and it was exactly and there's all kinds of ways for us to take charge like it showed me okay showed my biological age 20 years younger it showed my elite cardio I didn't know any of that and I'm I was absolutely not any kind of athlete or anything and so it's like you start that's every little thing you do like that like you're tracking your spreadsheet or being around others starts to build that momentum or that confidence

[01:00:22] Joe Gagnon : yeah yeah and I think reframing the questions for people you know I start write this blog every day and often people say when are you gonna stop and I and I often like but that's not the right question you know no isn't the question like I'm not sure why you're asking that but let me say it this way I write for a different reason it's not to it's actually I'm living so I don't know when I'm gonna stop living I'm not sure that any of us know that but if I'm living this is how I live so there isn't a start or a stop this is how I live and I think all of these reframing ideas are what makes the difference to what the possibilities become in our life and that's what I would just offer to everyone you have that in you that potential is there the power is there you just have to decide

[01:01:09] Suzie Price : look ahead turn it on yeah tune in to what excites you and it's gonna be different from what you're doing or I'm doing and it might don't have to be planned but I mean that we're just happy to be excited about that what is it yeah and just whatever feels right your spirit within you that is knows when you're on track and there's a level of excitement or energy or interest or emotion related to that is what I think and if we won't turn that off you know we don't make that noise and we make sure that's the signal you know do your words maybe that's um

[01:01:40] Joe Gagnon : I think those things Susie just the last parts of the book you know like the ripple effect I think we all have a responsibility in our society to create role models that others should copy and I think this is about this social contract we have to each other it starts with respecting each other loving people being a good role model having a value system that we can count on you know role modeling the right behavior both in how we treat people and how we treat ourselves that ripple effect I mean the stories that I wrote about in the book sometimes I was shocked at what I did 15 years ago that people would remember today and come back to me and say you have no idea right so people are watching all the time so let's all take an aware you know a moment to say that what we do matters to the world not just to us right

[01:02:30] Suzie Price : yeah we're not doing it to be an influence but we are influencing by just being ourselves oh absolutely all the time look at me but I'm doing it and in hopes that someone else will feel inspired but with no attachment around it I think it's that's right

[01:02:44] Joe Gagnon : humans are great at copying so how why don't we have them copy what's good and then and then the idea is that that over time then we create a living legacy both in terms of the people that we're connected with and the way the world will remember us and you know when I wrote the book it was a little bit of saying to myself you know like I owe it back to the blessing that I've had in my lifetime to put something down on paper so that others could potentially benefit from it and taking the time to do that was a it was fun I actually really enjoyed the writing the process and just trying to see if you know you have something inside you that you could share and you know it's a process that just helps right and so that is I think what I feel giving back matters uh that's where I am in my life my whole why is about serving others and helping them achieve their potential and knowing that there is someone in this world who believes in you deeper than you could possibly imagine and that's me I believe in all of you and your potential and I wanna help you get to a place that you feel great about because then we have a much more beautiful world that we all live in

[01:03:54] Suzie Price : you have left some bread crumbs for sure big old ones hahaha awesome book I wanna we're gonna do a couple of things about wrapping up about you or wake a bigger strength segment but I I wrote down this statement from your book that I really like and I'm gonna revisit it in a world speeding forward living intentionally is the quiet revolution to be fully present fiercely intentional unapologetically human that's some good writing right there thanks be present you're present when you're on task you're much more present with people and that's an example just there people aren't always present with each other so just holding the space and then fiercely not just a little bit intentionally let's be fierce and we're gonna follow your example

[01:04:39] Joe Gagnon : yeah I like that cause I feel that's what I've I've grown into I would say yes you have you know yeah

[01:04:46] Suzie Price : some big old bread crumbs is what I would say my non fancy way of saying you're I like it so we always do the wake up your strength segment yeah and we had you take the Talent Insights assessment and this is for all we've gotten to know you and learn from you this way but let's also learn about you from some of your strengths in the assessment in the assessment it measures what puts gas in your tank and it's measures two areas what puts gas in your tank so not visible to others according to the assessment and then how you like to drive around and so the what puts gas in your tank I'll just say it real quick for those who are listening who are familiar with it is um you love according to the assessment knowledge being a thought leader sharing knowledge leading people being kind of the charismatic leader that comes natural to you and then focusing on the efficiency piece is also in the mix so a typical thing that we will see in the technology world and with executives and leaders we see that a lot and then your style is this kind of a sense of urgency a fast pace how you like to drive around sense of urgency a sense of friendliness and openness and then kind of not hindered by the process we'll make it up as you go but also not against the process either just good all the way around so we had you look at the strengths page which is kind of combining those things and said hey pick a couple of things that stand out for you and tell us what you picked out and why they stand out or are meaningful to you

[01:06:17] Joe Gagnon : you know I think that one of my strengths is curiosity this desperate need to know like I just wanna know like I

[01:06:26] Suzie Price : that's the theoretical knowledge you scored that yeah oh my gosh like everything that's like I have to sometimes it goes to the big

[01:06:32] joe : like the six continents I just wanna know what that'll be like to understanding that how artificial intelligence works and the more that I understand the better I feel about it and the more that I can apply it um you know I think one of my strengths is you know in being as a leader is decision making being able to make decisions without any hesitation I think the more confidence that we can bring to that

[01:07:00] Suzie Price : that more di style yep the more the people can act on it make a decision and take on a little bit of risk while I make the decision doesn't have to be all mapped out I'm willing I'll whatever information I got I'm willing to run with it

[01:07:11] Joe Gagnon : yeah I feel good about that and then you know the other part that I feel good about one of my strengths is that you know having this sort of confidence in who I am as a person yeah and in where I've ended up on this path and I don't like there's a sort of difference between someone being arrogant right and someone being confident and you know I have confidence because of the facts not because of some opinion that I have which then also lets me you know I'm also can be a very good listener with that Susie because I don't need to have my voice only the one heard and so like I like to say be a good leader and a good follower and you'll fit better into this world you know you just have to know when to be either one

[01:07:55] Suzie Price : it's interesting in the assessment a couple of things that are on your strengths page you know we're more than than just this tool but it's just a couple of things according to these areas demonstrates a forward looking approach to old questions yeah check yeah we'll be decided to make that right yeah there where we go that's technologist and then this a philosopher a little bit of philosophy in there and in fact our drivers are similar um we show up differently with them cause we have you know there's other aspects of us but that whole idea of philosophical ideas and then leading people through knowledge motivates others to continue education was one willing to make high risk decisions so you're you know like a high risk meaning well thought out decisions you know optimistic leader things outside of the box when gathering information so all of those I hopefully sound like you because earned yeah

[01:08:43] Joe Gagnon : they all do they feel good because I've worked on all of those they're not just sort of like oh my gosh check these points off I was told once I was too optimistic and I didn't know if that was possible but I'm like okay

[01:08:56] Suzie Price : we have to understand spoken by someone who wasn't optimistic I know right that was not their greatest strength which is okay but we do that a lot we tend to that's why I always focus on the strengths because we think well if I have this you should have it too and actually everybody has their own and they're different yeah and they're active and so we should kind of honor the differences

[01:09:16] Joe Gagnon : yeah and look I think that if that's what you wanna be then that's what you work on you know I think that the idea of risking that way you were meant to be the where you are I like this the risk thing for me you know visionary the two things I studied in college were philosophy and economics yes of course you did right and so I love the data but risk is about probability consequences are about the impact and so high risk doesn't mean bad impact it just means probability

[01:09:45] Suzie Price : so it's that well you're willing to that's one of your strengths you're willing to think of the probability and then go and where right other people are much more cautious and there's a place for that as well so ideal environment here's a couple things it said about you appreciation for a logical approach to problem solving I like yep I can see that and then the ability to be direct and pointed with the discovery of information needed to solve problems yeah

[01:10:08] Joe Gagnon : both of us you know it's this interesting thing which is like I always never want to be right I want to get it right and so in that please just give me a better argument like I'm happy to have the argument I love debate I did it in college but you have to give me a better argument than I have and then I'll listen but if you don't then I'm not gonna you know consider it and so that's where that logical part comes in

[01:10:32] Suzie Price : I like to what your journey where you ended up as an entrepreneur and the CEO of all these companies because here's one that says ideal environment freedom from controls supervision and details yeah that's an entrepreneur you know I know I know I mean not everybody can be an entrepreneur and they're not everybody needs to be but there's the CEO sitting right here um like okay just let me think of the new ways let me point the way to the future I've got it I'm we're gonna do it together

[01:10:58] Joe Gagnon : yeah yeah I think that the big bureaucracy and me don't really work well together cause I keep on questioning questioning and they're like you don't fit in here I'm like I know I gotta go it was meant to be to make the change

[01:11:09] Suzie Price : that's why that dullness when we can't use our talents naturally it doesn't feel good here's one an environment to express ideas to influence people

[01:11:19] Joe Gagnon : I think that that dialogue really matters if you if you believe sort of in either Socratic approach or sort of you know how you do creative thinking you need to set up that environment and in that you know there are no bad ideas and it's the process that gets you to good answers and I think that you have to work with people on it to understand that you're not arguing for a point you're working to improve the ideas and that takes time also but also needs to be in a trusting environment with people

[01:11:53] Suzie Price : who are not there people don't tell you what they really think that's right yeah and that's a journey as a good and that's what a great leader does is set that example alright last one about keys to motivating according to the assessment you can see what you think opportunity for rapid advancement love that new and difficult challenges that lead to prestige and status maybe I don't need the prestige status but if that's what pulls you forward you know prestige meant in a neutral way not like it's an arrogant yeah

[01:12:21] Joe Gagnon : I think it means like you know you're a thought leader can be perceived yeah bringing new ideas to people new ways to think about it work on that every day in with this AI world that we're sitting in the middle of it's about making that practical so that that's fascinating it is actually you know part of how we become even more than we are today

[01:12:43] Suzie Price : okay last one keys to motivating I have to say and then we'll move on to finish challenging problems where his knowledge and research capabilities can be tested and improved

[01:12:52] Joe Gagnon : when you try to like even in the beginning part of my career when I was doing a lot of innovation work and strategy work it was it was exactly that you know challenging problems the the dialogue and trying to get to something that everyone could understand when you were done with that process which is a hard you know it's like say common sense you know yeah common sense is actually taking complex problems and making me easier to understand

[01:13:15] Suzie Price : and so much that goes in to make things simple I mean really I mean you know you become an expert like some of the science that I work with is I'm an expert in it but it's very complex but you make it look simple but that's a lot of work goes into that just like all the work you've done with what you've been doing okay this is great okay what advice would you give your 25 year old self

[01:13:36] Joe Gagnon : you know I think maybe 26 26 no no just meaning you know just as a joke it's like well because I think in in men we our prefrontal cortex finally kicks in uh and we're starting to make judgments rather than 25 it sort of does happen 25 so when by the time I think I think then you're moving out of the amygdala sort of the primitive brain into the the judgment side but I think what I would do when I was 25 was to start earlier on a more complete self you know that it was I was applying myself to work and that's all I was doing and I think that if I had started like I don't have any regrets in my life at all but I think that was you know dedicate a little bit more time the priorities in life you have to be yourself first family second work third and when you put work first everything else gets compromised and that's what I would reorder the you know the priorities from work first family second me third because then you have this tendency to fall apart at some point cause you've never invested in yourself and you see that a lot mm hmm as you look around oh yeah

[01:14:56] Suzie Price : get older I see it um so if you could put one billboard anywhere put it anywhere to influence others what message would you want to share and where would you put it

[01:15:05] Joe Gagnon : well I mean of course I'd like the intentional life people sort of understand that but I think I would say just dedicate one hour a day to yourself you know I think that maybe it has to start with the 15 minutes kind of thing cause an hour seems too much yeah but I think 15 minutes a day 1% a day and 70 days or twice improved yeah but if you can get to one hour a day every day whatever it is writing reading exercising meditating mindfulness oh my gosh your life just changes that one hour is not much out of 24 and so that would be the billboard just give yourself one hour a day because then the world would be different cause that's a reset it's an ownership it's intention it's agency it's like it just shifts everything so start with the 15 minutes and have a goal of being up to an hour at some point in the next year to two and you will find that all of a sudden the currency got so high that you're not gonna even imagine how you could have ever lived without that

[01:16:10] Suzie Price : cause it'll give you time to think and feel and understand where you're coming from and it helps you reorient kind of what you were talking about with your 25 year old self put yourself up there a little bit higher a lot higher so we're not chasing everybody else we know it's coming from the inside out right start that okay if you could leave listeners with one last piece of advice you've given so much great advice so I don't know how you sum up all your wonderful insight but anyway here's your challenge and you're always up for a challenge what's something else that they could apply right away what would you say

[01:16:41] Joe Gagnon : don't wait for an invitation invite yourself everywhere oh I like it yeah and I don't care how many times people say no just keep inviting yourself there I mean I make so many offers Susie all the time like can I be your coach can I come there can I do this can I do that and you know most times people say no and I just keep asking and then they say yes and you're like all of a sudden you're in a place you never imagined you'd be and that could be with like amazing people who you could learn from environments you could go to work you could do I mean like it's nothing short of remarkable so invite yourself everywhere and your life changes

[01:17:18] Suzie Price : that involves seeing yourself as an explorer and open a new insight and that involves putting yourself first yeah a bit

[01:17:26] Joe Gagnon : I volunteered a lot in in my work life I'd be like I'll go do that I'm I'm a yes person put your hand up as yes yes stay away from the word no you know don't hold on to it too hard in your life there were a lot of nos that I had no longer exist and I'm like oh wow haha isn't that amazing like you know and so if you lead with yes and don't hold on to no invite yourself there boy all of a sudden everything starts to change

[01:17:53] Suzie Price : life's gonna be good and interesting yeah ever evolving and into new things well you have been wonderful today I so appreciate your time and your energy eager to continue to follow you and we'll make sure we have links to your website and all your programs and your book everyone should read your book it's so well written thank you for that and it's practical and applicable and you're a great role model so all in all thank you Susie well you know I love what you're doing and I appreciate you put me on with your community and so we'll just keep challenging each other to live this intentional life and I think we'll all be better for it yes we will thank you

[01:18:33] Suzie Price : I hope you enjoyed that episode as much as I did I want to share with you a few quotes just to restate some of the points there that I usually do start small and here's a quote from him I started with a push up a mile and a paragraph and I've never stopped building from there okay so we've talked about that a lot think about that keep that in your mind start today on something that matters to you you don't have to be an athlete you don't have to be an ultra endurance but there's something that you're interested in that maybe you wanna do more of you wanna do it a little differently or go toward what interests you and do it he says if you could feel this good why wouldn't you I think he's found of a new freedom you can hear it in his voice and he wants everyone else to find that for themselves their own version of that you know why does he do all this it just feels good to him it's his purpose you have your own purpose I love what he talks about confidence and confidence is really this feeling of readiness it's not arrogance so he says confidence isn't arrogance it's the result of preparation patience and showing up every day so that's what we do and and it's interesting that that feeling when you start feeling that you do those pillars and your self view on the Trimetrix goes up up up up up you just show up and you have this strong foundation and it isn't arrogance usually arrogance is somebody who isn't confident and they're trying to make up for the lack of confidence but you can just be be the strong person in the room without having to say much or act out or tell everybody who you are you just are who you are because you've prepared you've shown up every day so you have this knowing within yourself that you've been true to yourself and true to your intentions and I love this next thing that we talked about it's about our own potential every one of us has an F1 race car in the driveway the question is are you driving it so you know I love me some car analogies I use them all the time so you've got a race car in the driveway and that race car is you are you driving it to its potential are you doing all that you want to do that you care about you can look to your workplace motivators a lot of times there's insight there about what calls you what gives you energy I think some of the conversations that we've had with Douglas White here about how you feel you get guidance that is some guidance around what interests you what your path is and sometimes you don't know I think when Joe Gagnon started doing those running clubs or writing every day he didn't know he's gonna write two books and have this book be on a best seller list he didn't know he's gonna run all these marathons all those years ago follow the energy follow the string pay attention to what interests you and and you don't need anybody else's approval on it on intentional choices stop looking for permission to live the life you want you already have it we don't need permission so that's that whole idea follow what you're interested in I have had over the years many people say you know why do you do that podcast people who aren't in the podcast or years ago when nobody was doing podcast or people who say you know don't understand who pays for it do you have you know they a lot of questions and doubt I don't care I like doing it it's my thing to do in my work sometimes it's misunderstood or people don't quite get it as easily as you get some other type of roles I just know what's good and I just keep following it and that's what he's talking about we don't need permission we already have it to live the life we want and it's done little by little step by step and with self awareness and just moving ahead and paying attention and then he talked about discomfort is just noise it doesn't rise to the level of quit so to me what this means is not about being discomfort so you just do things to make yourself miserable it's about overcoming inertia overcoming fear it's about finding the time like I love doing this podcast there's something about it that gives me juice and I just do it and so I work on the weekends to do it I you know I just spend time thinking about it that is a little bit of discomfort but it's the discomfort I want because it gives me what I want to do and it doesn't rise to the level of quit there's another book out from years ago that really meant a lot to me and it's the war of art and it's about this idea of being a creator and that it's about not letting resistance stop you from moving forward and it's a bit what Joe Gagnon's talking about so sometimes we have resistance because we're doing something new we don't know how to do it yet we're unsure we have a little bit of fear but discomfort is just noise and it doesn't rise to the level of quit and in the art the war of art which is about being able to be creative and write and do things that matter to you you have to kind of become a pro and keep showing up so it's the same message and that book is by Steven Pressfield but discomfort is just noise it doesn't rise to the level of quit and I like the conversation where we talked about it kind of tied this I don't know if it was exact tie in but to the rain like we're afraid of rain like oh I can't get wet I gotta run in my car why don't we just walk in the rain and enjoy enjoy getting wet you know so sometimes we overcompensate on being uncomfortable and we miss out on the gifts or we miss out on doing something that matters to us so as we come to a close Joe Gagnon reminds us of course I've got to mention that car analogy again that every one of us has an F1 race car sitting in the driveway we just have to choose to get in and drive living intentionally isn't about perfection or extreme feats it's about aligning your daily choices with your deepest values and building confidence that comes from showing up for yourself day after day after day do that that's it almost gets me emotional saying that cause everything I care about is building your wake up eager life building a life that you feel good about that's right for you and that you have the power to do that so Joe Gagnon is just reminding us of all of that so what I'll say to you in Joe Gagnon's vernacular haha is what's your one push up what's your one run your one paragraph start there track it watch your life transform because if you can feel this good why wouldn't you so as we final close here remember how you lead matters lead with purpose reduce the drama and keep building your wake up bigger life one step at a time thank you for tuning in today thank you for being a wake up Eagle workforce listener and friend and colleague and and a client if you found value today please leave us a review on apple iTunes that'd be wonderful I'd appreciate it helps people find us be sure to follow like and share us any podcast app take it this episode if it meant something to you share it with someone share it on social media comment on our social media we're mostly on LinkedIn and you'll find my personal podcast page there and we have a wake up bigger War Force podcast page so check us out looking forward to the next episode and talking to you soon reach out to me if I can help you in any way and keep focusing on that wake up eager life one step at a time one choice at a time take care

[01:25:50] outro: this episode of the Wake Up Eager Workforce podcast was brought to you by Priceless Professional Development thank you for tuning in if you enjoyed today's show head over to Priceless professional.com to gain access to more professional development resources