The Remarkable Leadership Podcast

00:00:08:07 - 00:00:35:05
Kevin Eikenberry
How much urgency is in your life? Is it fueling you or is it driving you crazy? Have you even ever stopped to think about how much of the time you are living in the urgent, and whether you have or are just now thinking about that question for the first time? Is living in the urgent serving you? We're going to talk about undoing the urgency in your life and in your work today.

00:00:35:10 - 00:01:09:03
Kevin Eikenberry
But really, this episode is about a lot more than just that. Welcome to another episode of the Remarkable Leadership Podcast, where we are helping leaders grow personally and professionally to lead more effectively, to make a bigger, positive difference through their teams, organization and the world. If you are listening to this podcast, you could be with us live for future episodes on your favorite social channel just to get all the information about when will be live and all of those things so that you can interact with us and get this valuable, these valuable insights sooner.

00:01:09:05 - 00:01:36:05
Kevin Eikenberry
You can join our Facebook or LinkedIn groups. Just go to remarkable podcast.com/facebook or remarkable podcast.com/linkedin to do that. Today's episode is brought to you by my latest book, Flexible Leadership. Navigate Uncertainty and Lead with Confidence. It's time to realize that styles can get in our way, and that following our strengths might not always be the best approach in a world more complex and uncertain than ever.

00:01:36:09 - 00:01:59:15
Kevin Eikenberry
Leaders need a new perspective and a new set of tools to create great results for their organizations and team members. That's what flexible leadership provide you. Learn more and order your copy today at Remarkable Podcast. Com slash flexible. And with that I'm going to bring in my guest. And there he is. Mr. Matt Reynolds is joining us. And let me introduce him to you.

00:01:59:15 - 00:02:32:05
Kevin Eikenberry
And then we are going to dive right on in. Ryan Matt Reynolds is a strength and conditioning coach, a former professional strongman. You can tell by looking that he's stronger than me. And the author of the New book, Undoing Urgency Reclaim Your Life. Excuse me? Reclaim your time for the things that matter most. He is the founder, owner, and CEO of Barbell Logic, one of the largest online strength and nutrition coaching companies in the world, with 25 years of experience in the industry.

00:02:32:07 - 00:02:50:06
Kevin Eikenberry
His focus is on redefining traditional personal training by creating connections in the online space and increasing access to professional coaches. Matt, that's a wonderful goal. And you have got other goals related to this book, and I'm glad to have you here to talk about some of those. Welcome to the.

00:02:50:06 - 00:02:53:13
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Show. Hey, thank you so much for having me. Excited to be on.

00:02:53:15 - 00:02:56:03
Kevin Eikenberry
It's a pleasure to have you.

00:02:56:05 - 00:03:05:21
Ryan Matt Reynolds
You, by the way, I love all the. You got all the little sticky notes, the post-it notes in the book, which is I like. It means you actually read it. Yep, I saw those. That's great.

00:03:05:23 - 00:03:30:16
Kevin Eikenberry
Well, that's, that's what I do. If I'm. If someone's gonna be on the show, I will have read their book. Maybe not every single word, but. Sure. By and large, the large percentage. So. So, you open the book talking a little bit about your personal journey, and we don't need to go there. It's it's it's a it's a useful and interesting context, but I really want to talk about your journey to the book.

00:03:30:17 - 00:03:46:01
Kevin Eikenberry
Sure. Like what? You know, I've introduced you as a strength coach. I've introduced you in a lot of ways. And yet you've written this book about undoing urgency. So what's the journey to this book and and why this book, man?

00:03:46:03 - 00:04:05:19
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Yeah, it's a great question. So I'm approaching my coming up on my 17th, anniversary of being a business owner. And so nearly two decades at this point of being a business owner. And I've just learned so many things. I'm the I'm one of these guys that is in a never ending pursuit of knowledge. And I didn't go to school for business.

00:04:05:21 - 00:04:27:20
Ryan Matt Reynolds
I've got my my both my undergrad and my master's in education. I was a teacher in my in my early days. Love to teach, still get to teach. I just get to do it more in the in the private sector now. And so, love it. But, really, I think that there were so many lessons have been learned over the years in business ownership, and many of those lessons were learned really out of the failures, more than the successes.

00:04:27:20 - 00:04:41:08
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so the successes are great and we celebrate those. But if we don't learn from the failures, then I, I think we're destined to repeat those. And so, I think there's a lot of lessons to be learned. It was holding up a lot of bandwidth in my in my brain, taking up a lot of a brain space.

00:04:41:08 - 00:05:06:18
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so when Forbes approached me about writing a book, this is the topic that I wanted to to write on. And it was really what I recognized as lessons I've learned over the past two decades of really the book was written, written, probably primarily for myself as a, you know, I'm preaching to myself, in that I've been somebody who's drowned in urgency for many years and, and I live my life hyper efficient.

00:05:06:19 - 00:05:28:06
Ryan Matt Reynolds
I get up super early in the morning, I get work done, and I've just been a workhorse for for two decades or so. And, and yet if I'm not careful, my entire calendar will become full. And that seems good. And it seems like I'm getting a lot of accomplished from really what ends up happening is I spend all my time focused on the things that are less important and more urgent.

00:05:28:08 - 00:05:47:12
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so for me, it was about, you know, when we were kids, if somebody asked, like somebody asked my dad in the 80s, you know, how's it going? Or how are you doing? Which is the same question we asked today. The answer would often be good, good. And now if you ask anybody, how's it going? The answer is busy.

00:05:47:14 - 00:06:20:11
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so we're drowning and busy and we're drowning in urgency and trying to get our head above water. And so this is really a book about that. It's not a time hack book. There are certainly, very practical techniques that you can use that that will help you here. But it's not really about the time hack. It's more about understanding core values and living a life in congruence with those core values, which is I want to spend the time in my life as much time as possible on the things that are the most important to me, which for me are, you know, family and faith and health and fitness and being the CEO of my

00:06:20:11 - 00:06:38:17
Ryan Matt Reynolds
company and not not just working in the business but working on the business. And so those things become very important. And so I poured out everything I knew about it and, very, very proud of the book. The book's done very well here in the first few weeks of its launch. And so, really excited about how we got there and the process of writing the book.

00:06:38:17 - 00:06:56:11
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Honestly, I hear a lot of people saying writing a book is one of the hardest things they've ever done. It was difficult. I think the second book I write, if there is a second book, will be more difficult. I think this was 20 years of things. I had sort of pent up in my brain. And I've got a great, editor in chief that works for me.

00:06:56:11 - 00:07:13:15
Ryan Matt Reynolds
We've worked together for 20 years, and so he knows my voice, and we work together on the manuscript, and, and, it was a really smooth process of of writing the book. And then he's such a great copy editor that by the time we would send it off to Forbes, who's the publisher of the book, they they would come back and say, this is great.

00:07:13:15 - 00:07:31:19
Ryan Matt Reynolds
We know changes to be made. And so I think they also loved it that we had a great copy editor and someone who who, who is excellent in their in the writing ability to be able to really tighten up my language and my, my lingo in the, in the ideas in the book. And so it was a pretty smooth process.

00:07:31:19 - 00:07:49:03
Ryan Matt Reynolds
It was about a six month process from start to finish. But what it did for me is it allowed me to take all of those things that were sort of stuck in my brain and put them in writing so that I can pass them down to future generations of of Reynolds, of my my family and my community and my staff and the people that I've been able to connect with.

00:07:49:03 - 00:08:05:11
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so, that was a tremendous help for me. And so now it's allowed me to focus, to take some of that space that all of those things were taking up bandwidth in my brain, and focus more on the important things and in my life. So even the writing of the book was, you know, there's deadlines with turning in.

00:08:05:12 - 00:08:19:21
Ryan Matt Reynolds
You know, I think we had to do one third of the book deadlines for every third. And so you meet those deadlines, you you get it turned in, and then that is sort of off your plate and on to the next third. And then when you finally wrap up the book, you're like, okay, the book, the book is done, and I'm proud of it.

00:08:19:21 - 00:08:27:09
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And this is great. And, and now I can focus on other important things in my life. And so it's been that was really the journey of writing the book.

00:08:27:11 - 00:08:53:20
Kevin Eikenberry
So obviously you've you're in business for 17 years and lived longer than that. There's lots of lessons that you've learned, lots of things that you could write about. And you said this was sort of, a compilation of some of the most important things you learned. Why, of all the things that could be right. I mean, you could have written about, things you learned about coaching or things you've learned about any number of other things.

00:08:53:21 - 00:09:00:23
Kevin Eikenberry
Why? Why has overcoming urgency been so important for you personally?

00:09:01:01 - 00:09:19:13
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Yeah. Again, another great question. I, I think ultimately that the people who are most successful in the way we define success in the world, probably across the board, not just in not just financially, but, with happiness or joy in their life or those who can really focus in on the important things and move the ball down the field.

00:09:19:15 - 00:09:36:06
Ryan Matt Reynolds
I think many of us get stuck in the trenches of of the urgent and again, sort of drowning and trying to keep our head above water on a daily basis. And that might not just be work. It's often, you know, it's kids sports and it's community and it's church and it's family and it's all of the housework and all the things.

00:09:36:08 - 00:10:03:16
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so those things are necessary. Some of those are important and urgent. Some of them are not important and urgent. Some of them are not important, not urgent at all. And so I think for me, understanding that if when I looked at the most successful people in the world, that I would try to model myself after they have the ability to really focus and get stuff done, and for me, the focus had to be on the important things, not on the urgent things.

00:10:03:18 - 00:10:23:19
Ryan Matt Reynolds
The important things are the things that you think about. That is the legacy that you leave when you leave this earth is the legacy that you leave your children and grandchildren and great grandchildren and even those generations that you'll never meet. And so I want to focus on the important things, the important things we're always drawn back to or connected to my core values.

00:10:23:19 - 00:10:43:01
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so if I'm not living a life symbiotic of that, then I'm not really with my actions living a life that shows those core values. And so once I recognize what my core values were, I wanted to spend my time focused on those things and how to move the ball down the field. I think, you know, I've got great parents.

00:10:43:01 - 00:11:01:21
Ryan Matt Reynolds
They loved us well. But I was born the, you know, poor son of a Baptist preacher and, you know, raised in rural Arkansas for many years of my, my young life and, and I think my parents have very much prepared us from a work ethic standpoint, education standpoint, to move the ball down the field as as their children.

00:11:01:23 - 00:11:21:22
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And we've been able to do that. I want the same thing for my kids, and I want the same thing for my grandkids and great grandkids. I don't have an ounce of jealousy in me for I hope my kids surpass me. I hope my my grandkids. And that doesn't mean they have to be CEOs or founders of companies, but to be able to do the things that bring them joy and move the ball down the field, I think is really important.

00:11:21:22 - 00:11:47:19
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so so for me, that was the greatest lesson learned. And those lessons, again, are often most learned in the failures in the places that I failed. And so, you know, you mentioned this, but the book is very vulnerable and transparent, especially early on talking about my own struggles with these things. And so certainly I've learned lessons from the celebrations and in the mountaintops, but I think the lessons are better learned, in the valleys and in the struggles.

00:11:47:19 - 00:12:05:04
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so one of my favorite books I've ever read is, is a book called The Hard Thing About Hard Things by I, by Ben Horowitz, who is the one of the founders of Andreessen Horowitz, with Marc Andreessen, with the biggest venture capital firms in the world. And he's been a very successful guy because he owns one of the biggest venture capital firms in the world.

00:12:05:04 - 00:12:25:05
Ryan Matt Reynolds
But he tells a story of what it was like being a CEO as as an operator on a day to day basis and how painful it is. It is extremely painful and it's extremely stressful. But the lessons are in those failures. The lessons are in the struggle, the lessons are in the hardships. And so this is my story of the hardships and the struggle and the lessons I've learned.

00:12:25:05 - 00:12:42:01
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And I hope that people are able to take some of those lessons that I've learned the hard way and not have to learn it in such a such a difficult manner. They don't have to go through the federal lawsuits or the things that I've been through that were very, very difficult in my life or, or struggle with my family or my marriage or whatever the thing is.

00:12:42:01 - 00:13:08:14
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so there are lessons to be learned there. And, when I was able to refocus my life on the things that matter most to me on those core values, I that's when I really started to see success. And so we went from, again, certainly, you know, from living well below the poverty level, in the United States in the 80s to both my brother and I have built, you know, like eight figure businesses and, you know, really bootstrapped from nothing.

00:13:08:14 - 00:13:24:15
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so I think there are lessons to be learned there that I've been able to do that as an operator for the last 20 years. With those lessons learned, not everything is good. It's not always up into the right. It's not linear. It's much. There's so many ups and downs. And so, this is my story of those things.

00:13:24:15 - 00:13:27:19
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And I think that's incredibly important.

00:13:27:21 - 00:13:43:01
Kevin Eikenberry
Everybody I've read, probably thousands. Well, I know oh, well, more than a thousand books. And I have never read a book that opens with a dedication to the author's grandchildren and great grandchildren. So who don't think.

00:13:43:01 - 00:13:44:18
Ryan Matt Reynolds
That currently exists, by the way?

00:13:44:20 - 00:14:07:22
Kevin Eikenberry
Well, yeah, I, I gather that because I have a sense of how old your kids are. And so, I, I share that with all of you listening because I think it connects to what Matt saying. Excuse me about how this book, while it's about our time and dealing with things that are urgent in our lives, it's really, as I promised in the open about something more than that.

00:14:08:00 - 00:14:29:14
Kevin Eikenberry
I want to get to several things before we finish, Matt, but I want to go back to the word that you used earlier. I put it for those who are watching it, put it on the screen earlier, the word busy. Which I have said, Matt, is, with with, deference to my grandmother, I suppose, my dearly departed grandmother.

00:14:29:16 - 00:14:47:12
Kevin Eikenberry
That busy is the most dangerous four letter word in the English language, you know? And and and you said it. You know, we used to say, how are you? We're good. And now we say, oh, I'm busy. And it ends up being dangerous, in part because it gives everybody a pass. Oh, I'm busy too. Right. And so it's an excuse as much as anything.

00:14:47:12 - 00:15:05:22
Kevin Eikenberry
And so, because that is such an important, concept for me to help people get past and try to get past myself. I think it's one of the reasons I like the book so much. But again, there's more to the book than that, and it gets at some other really important things. There's about 3 or 4 things I'd like to talk about briefly before we finish.

00:15:05:22 - 00:15:28:15
Kevin Eikenberry
And the first one, maybe the thing I will remember the most, from the book. And that is the idea as humans, in life, we will have hardships. Like, no one's life is easy. Even if you look at someone's at a distance and it looks easy. We know it's not that sure. And you know yours is not as you're listening.

00:15:28:17 - 00:15:42:22
Kevin Eikenberry
And yet you're suggesting, and I think rightly so, that we need hardships in our life and in fact, we need a certain kind of hardships in our life. You want to talk about the idea of voluntary hardships? Sure.

00:15:43:00 - 00:15:57:22
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Yeah. So the concept of voluntary hardship, first off, it comes back, I think a great you laid a great foundation there is that we know that hardships are going to come. Involuntary hardship is going to come in our life. We don't know when what that's going to look like or when it's going to hit. But there will be tragedy.

00:15:57:22 - 00:16:22:15
Ryan Matt Reynolds
There will be death. There are losses of jobs and lawsuits and and divorces and whatever. And, those things, those that involuntary hardship is not guaranteed to refine. And we know this because, you know, guys go to prison in voluntary hardship and they often don't come out better. Most of the time they come out worse. They could you can come out better from involuntary hardship, but it is not guaranteed.

00:16:22:15 - 00:16:42:11
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so I think one of the primary core values of, of myself and my company is that we are we choose hard things that no one else is going to make us do. That's something that you have to decide to do as you mentioned, my background is in strength coaching and as a strength athlete and no one, you know, it's it's hard to put a heavy barbell on your back and squat.

00:16:42:12 - 00:17:05:16
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Nobody wants to do it at some people like going to the gym and exercising and getting hot, sweaty and feeling good. But there is something about choosing the hardest things in the gym. The hardest thing. And I certainly strength training is not the only voluntary hardship you can do. There's lots of voluntary hardships. There's sometimes it's having the awkward conversation you need to have with a friend or family member or staff member or whatever, and often people run from those things.

00:17:05:16 - 00:17:33:03
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And I'm, I'm saying in the book, we should run right towards them when there are necessary voluntary hardships and prepare us physically, emotionally, mentally, socially for when the involuntary hardship comes. We've been refined by the voluntary hardship. We know how to handle it. We know. We know the stress response that we get from it. We understand the, you know, the cortisol dump that we may get from a hormone perspective.

00:17:33:04 - 00:18:05:13
Ryan Matt Reynolds
All of those things. We can mimic involuntary hardship so that when involuntary hardship comes, when when the tragedy strikes, when somebody gets cancer, when when someone dies, when you lose your job, when you get divorced, when whatever the thing is and God forbid, any of those things happen, but you are better prepared to handle it. And so I think in today's age, where most of us sit at a desk all day and work often from home, including myself, there's not there's not a lot of baked in hardship in our day to day life.

00:18:05:13 - 00:18:24:17
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so one of the things I love to do, as a side note, just like going on YouTube is I love watching the lifestyle of people who live voluntarily hard, right? Like, I've been watching a series of videos on people who live in northern Siberia and the coldest city in the world, and what their life is like, and they've chosen to live there.

00:18:24:17 - 00:18:46:10
Ryan Matt Reynolds
They've chosen this life. And so when involuntary hardship strikes them, they they're like, well, every day is hard. We work hard and do hard things all the time. And so whether that's putting a bar on your back and squatting the heaviest you've ever squatted, even though you're terrified of it, whether that's running the five K or the half marathon you've never done, whether that's having the hard conversation, that awkward conversation that makes you better.

00:18:46:12 - 00:19:05:21
Ryan Matt Reynolds
You know, by the way, every awkward conversation I've ever had has made the next awkward conversation a little easier. And so certainly I'm yeah, certainly I still hate confrontation, and I don't enjoy those things at all. But there are times when those conversations are necessary and so, so choosing voluntary hardship refines us and makes us better and better prepares us for involuntary hardship.

00:19:05:21 - 00:19:25:16
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And then, I would say, also prepares us in a way to greatly improve the chances of involuntary hardship, also refining our lives. So when you live an easy life and you've sort of been handed everything, or you haven't really worked hard or taken yourself to a place that you didn't think you could go, where you were scared to go, or completely out of your comfort zone voluntarily.

00:19:25:18 - 00:19:29:04
Ryan Matt Reynolds
When it happens involuntarily, it often crushes you.

00:19:29:06 - 00:19:29:19
Kevin Eikenberry
Yeah.

00:19:29:21 - 00:19:31:19
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so that's why we do it.

00:19:31:21 - 00:19:51:21
Kevin Eikenberry
So all of the conversations and some of the I've been on the show in the past for hundreds of episodes, about resilience or grit or these sorts of things are all connected to this idea of how it what can we do to prepare ourselves for that better, on purpose. Right. Use wisely our power of choice, in order to make that happen.

00:19:52:02 - 00:20:16:04
Kevin Eikenberry
There's a couple of, of things that I think are directly related for us as leaders. And again, you're a, you're a business owner or your business operator, and, and you talk a lot in the book about, challenges that you had with delegating or really your, unwilling and at least at one point in time, your unwillingness to delegate.

00:20:16:04 - 00:20:36:04
Kevin Eikenberry
And by the way, that is not and you know this too. That is not an unusual story. It's an evergreen topic of, need for us as leaders to work on as being better at delegation. So. So, Matt, what's what are 1 or 2 things that you've learned that you think are universally helpful?

00:20:36:06 - 00:20:36:19
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Yeah.

00:20:36:21 - 00:20:41:10
Kevin Eikenberry
For us as leaders to get better at the practice of delegation.

00:20:41:10 - 00:21:10:08
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Yeah, that's great as well. And, you know, I think that often, you know, our, our greatest attributes as, as entrepreneurs and founders are often can be our greatest downfall as well. And you know, we know when we start a business that's going to be hard. We understand. And, but we don't really like there is a there is a superhero mentality that we have, I think, well, you know, it was really hard for those guys, but I'll figure it out and I'll make it work and we'll be successful.

00:21:10:08 - 00:21:31:08
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Right. And so in the beginning, you really when you're starting a new business, you are the owner, you're the manager, you're the technician, you're all of the things. One of my favorite books is the E-Myth. It talks about these things. And, you are probably better at every single job in your business than anyone. Anyone else could be at that moment.

00:21:31:10 - 00:21:52:03
Ryan Matt Reynolds
But the business can't grow if you can't delegate, right? Just, you know, imagine if, you know, you think about the the giant seven or whatever, you know, the the Facebook's or Meadow's and the Amazons and the apples and the Nvidia's and the Teslas. If that was an employee group of one and all you had was the founder that those companies would be minuscule.

00:21:52:04 - 00:22:20:20
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And until you learn how to delegate and how to train up other people to do a job that that you're doing, but you're maybe not specifically skilled at that, you cannot grow. This is the being able to free up your time to work on the business and not in the business. And so over time, I've hired, you know, I've got a, our head of HR, we call a CXO, a chief experience officer, CEO, a CMO, a CFO.

00:22:20:22 - 00:22:39:01
Ryan Matt Reynolds
I did all those things in the early years, and I was I was better at them than anyone else was in my company. But you hire often on potential and you train them up. And in the first few weeks, my experience is that they are often 75 or 80% of as effective as you are, which is pretty good.

00:22:39:03 - 00:23:04:07
Ryan Matt Reynolds
But now I can look at especially my executive team, my C-suite, my leadership. They are all far better at their job than I ever was at their job. And so that's allowed me to free up to be a true CEO. And so and that that term gets thrown around a lot. You know, we're a Delaware C Corp or I'm an actual CEO where we've got 100 plus staff members and I really have to be a CEO at this point.

00:23:04:07 - 00:23:22:06
Ryan Matt Reynolds
I can't be in the trenches constantly. I have to hire great people, train them up on their job and then let them do great work and and really mostly stay out of their way and let them kind of report up to me and ask questions is a is they have challenges and struggles. And so that delegation piece, you just have to understand that there's a there's a process there.

00:23:22:11 - 00:23:49:07
Ryan Matt Reynolds
If you hire somebody on day one and you expect them to be better than you, they won't be. No one is your business and no one is as deeply invested in it as you are. No one probably ever will be. And so yet if the day is going to come, if you're wired to grow a business to a point of seven, eight, nine figures plus, you have to be the type of person who understands how to delegate and how to train people and then give that away.

00:23:49:07 - 00:24:10:03
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so I spent a lot of time writing systems and standard operating procedures, which no one really wants to do that technical writing them, I'm sure there are some weirdos out there. They'll love it. I didn't, but I still did it. And that was my my SOP, my standard operating procedure. And then when I hired somebody, I would give them that SOP and I'd say, this is, this is your SOP.

00:24:10:03 - 00:24:28:14
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Now I want you to follow it step by step, exactly as I wrote it for the first few weeks. And over time, you'll start to see inefficiencies in my SOP because you you have the potential to be better at your position than I am. And so that SOP becomes theirs. They have ownership in it. And so you're not treating them like an owner.

00:24:28:16 - 00:24:50:02
Ryan Matt Reynolds
They are an owner. And on top of that, we've also and this is just as a side note, I, I think it's very important as a business owner, especially as a business grows to be to be generous with equity, with your great employees. And so that, again, they're not acting like an owner, but they actually have percentage ownership of the company so that they are actually invested in the growth of the company and the health of the company.

00:24:50:02 - 00:25:09:05
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so that I have a team of eight players, you know, it's my leadership team and executive team I trust completely. I could go on vacation for three months at this point, and I'm sure they would all say like, yeah, we need you to be here. But the company would do just fine for a quarter or more, without me being there.

00:25:09:05 - 00:25:43:23
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And the goal there eventually is to have a business that's not entirely reliant upon you if the business is relying upon you. And again, for some people, they may just want to to own a mom and pop own profitable business, make $100,000 a year plus and there's nothing wrong with that whatsoever. For me. I'm wired to grow the biggest business I possibly can, and if that is going to be the case or this scenario, I have to be able to delegate out to other great people and build a team of a players and then let them do what they do best, which is, you know, so my my SEO is he's incredible.

00:25:43:23 - 00:26:13:07
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And, it's from the Pacific Northwest and comes from lean manufacturing and in, sort of rocketry and airplanes and those like major, major multi-billion dollar companies and, and his applied lean manufacturing to online strength coaching, which no one's ever done. And so what we've been able to do is improve efficiency of our coaches dramatically. So the dollar per hour of our coaches have gone up 5 or 10 x with no loss in service to the clients, because he's great at what he does.

00:26:13:08 - 00:26:35:23
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Now, I'm not nearly as good of a CEO as I am a CEO. My CXO. She's incredible with people. She's a people person. And so, you know, I'm, you know, I'm service minded guy and and I love people. And yet there are times that I see those emails come in and I think, man, if I were if I were the head of CXO or HR, like they'd be, I'd be firing back an email that's sort of mean.

00:26:35:23 - 00:26:52:05
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And and don't put them in their place. And she just does it with grace and dignity and wisdom. And so all of these people are now better at their job than I could ever be at their job. They weren't on day one. But you have to trust them and trust your ability to hire great people. You hire great people.

00:26:52:07 - 00:27:10:09
Ryan Matt Reynolds
You put them in a in a place to succeed. You train them up to succeed, and then you let them go. You let them run. You let them run and get out of their way and do their job. And so, you know, we certainly we still have, checks and balances and they report to the rest of the leadership team and the rest of the executive team.

00:27:10:09 - 00:27:19:06
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And to me is a direct report. But for the most part, the answer is like, yes, everything's great. You're doing awesome. Keep, you know, stay the course.

00:27:19:08 - 00:27:42:06
Kevin Eikenberry
So I knew before we started, I'm talking with, Ryan. Matt Reynolds, the author of the book Undoing Urgency. And there's lots more. I knew that we would could talk to you to talk about. We would not get to. But there's something at the end and there's a whole like, we really haven't even talked about sort of the big chunk of the book, which is about your game plan approach to goals and and metrics, etc..

00:27:42:08 - 00:28:00:18
Kevin Eikenberry
And so we're gonna leave that for people to go buy a copy and get it, get into all that sort of very practical, and useful stuff about helping to move out of urgent and into important. But there's something at the end of the book that, I know that you want to talk about, and I wanted us to talk about as well.

00:28:00:20 - 00:28:25:18
Kevin Eikenberry
And it's sort of the ultimate purpose, I think, of everything we've talked about and everything in the book, and it's an insight that's worth us thinking about. And it's the difference between joy and happiness. And oftentimes people are are trying to create happiness. You know, our Constitution says the pursuit of happiness. And yet you say, not so fast, Kevin.

00:28:25:22 - 00:28:30:00
Kevin Eikenberry
Maybe there's something we should think about differently there. You want to share with that real quick?

00:28:30:02 - 00:28:53:17
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Sure. I you know, I just I think happiness is great. So the last thing I want to do is act as though happiness isn't. But happiness, in my experience, is fleeting. It is a it's a feeling. It's an emotion that you have for a short period of time. And when life is good, you feel happy. And, you know, my wife got diagnosed with cancer tomorrow and, you know, certainly.

00:28:53:17 - 00:29:19:16
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Knock on wood, that she doesn't, I won't be happy, but I can still have joy because I live a life that is founded in my core values. And so when we live a life that's that's again founded, synergistic and congruent with our core values, there is there is a we're playing the long game. Coming back to the beginning of the podcast, my the reason that I dedicated the book to my grandchildren and great grandchildren and great great grandchildren is because I'm playing the long game.

00:29:19:16 - 00:29:40:16
Ryan Matt Reynolds
There are generations of Reynolds at some point, probably my, you know, great great grandchildren who will not even know that I they won't know my name. They won't. I don't know the names of my great great grandchildren, I or grandparents. I know the names of my great grandparents. I don't know or remember much about them. They died when I was really young and I know my grandparents fairly well.

00:29:40:19 - 00:30:08:06
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And, but that is a moot point because when I'm playing the long game, what I'm trying to do is invest in the values of of my family and myself and the things that really matter. And the values can be passed down from generation to generation. So while I couldn't care less if my great great grandchildren know that Matt Reynolds, you know, wrote a book or were even more like, less importantly, I guess, was a CEO of this company called Barbara Logic.

00:30:08:08 - 00:30:37:06
Ryan Matt Reynolds
I hope that the values manifest itself to my children and then to their children and to their children. And so when we do that, I think we often find we're playing a long game and a long game is is what really joy is attached to. So it's, it's regardless of circumstance. And so I talk in the book some about, you know, the famous NBA players, you know, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, who I'm both fans of, albeit, you know, men who have made mistakes, certainly in their lives as have we all.

00:30:37:08 - 00:31:13:05
Ryan Matt Reynolds
My perception is that Michael Jordan really just pursued the goal, that the goal, the goal, which was the NBA championship, was the thing that brought him happiness. But once he reached the goal and got the championship, there was a short period of celebration. And then it was on to the next goal, which is the next championship. Kobe seemed to find a way to find joy in the work itself, in the voluntary hardship, and I think that joy is often built not in the achievement of the goal, but in the pursuit of the goal.

00:31:13:07 - 00:31:37:04
Ryan Matt Reynolds
It is the thing we're aiming for when we're 80 or whatever the ages and and we are if we are who we say we want to be. If I'm the old wise grandpa that's respected by others as and, you know, in different, different places in my life, that's great. But what really brings joy is the 60 years of work that went in before that, from 22 to 80.

00:31:37:06 - 00:32:07:23
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so while while with the game plan, the goals, actions, metrics, etc., there's a goal we're trying to achieve and the voluntary hardship and the work to get there is is explained in the book as a means to the end. I think the joy is actually found in the pursuit itself, not in the accomplishment of the goal. And so when we recognize that joy is found in the work, joy is found in the pursuit, joy is found in those things, not in the once you've arrived, which I don't think anybody ever gets.

00:32:07:23 - 00:32:28:18
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Nobody ever makes so much money or is so successful there, like I've found, you know, eternal joy in this. What really brings joy is the pursuit of those, a life focused on the pursuit that is again, symbiotic or in congruence with your with your core values. And so for me, I differentiate between happiness and joy. Happy is great.

00:32:28:19 - 00:32:48:13
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Like we just had a great rich, you know, recording this right after Christmas. We had a great Christmas holiday with my family. We're close to my family. It was a great few days, but then it's on to the next thing. And so for me it's it's less about those individual moments of happiness that then pass. And it's on to January and now our first quarter for the business.

00:32:48:13 - 00:33:12:17
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And we're focused on those sorts of things. And, and it's more about the long term pursuit, playing the long game that brings joy ultimately. And so I don't want to to pursue the goal at all costs, at the, at the cost of joy or happiness just to achieve the goal. But I recognize that the real joy is in the pursuit itself.

00:33:12:19 - 00:33:31:12
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And that's that's a tough lesson to teach, not just to your staff, but to your children. I mean, helping your kids understand that the work itself is not just a means to an end, but the work itself has incredible value in producing joy in your life long term. Those are the things we're trying to pass down.

00:33:31:14 - 00:33:49:06
Kevin Eikenberry
And to tie it back to the beginning, everybody, you're not going to get there if you're living in the urgent, that is for sure. So a couple of things, Matt, before we finish, shifting gears, I'd like to know what it is outside of your work and what are the other things that you do for fun or what are others?

00:33:49:11 - 00:33:52:08
Kevin Eikenberry
I'll just leave it there. What is it that you do for fun?

00:33:52:10 - 00:34:08:12
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Yeah, I, I, I love to train. I still love to exercise. I'm, you know, again, I was a professional strongman and and high level powerlifter in my 20s and 30s. Now I'm in my late 40s, so I'm not going to hit the numbers I used to hit. And yet I still get a lot of enjoyment out of training and being healthy.

00:34:08:12 - 00:34:28:00
Ryan Matt Reynolds
I've noticed that all of those other things that bring me joy are downstream from that. And so it's not that fitness and training are the most important thing in my life, but practically, I have to carve out that time, every day in my schedule. I'm sweating right now because I just finished a workout about 30 minutes ago, and so I'm still sweating from it.

00:34:28:01 - 00:34:46:23
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And, when I train and when I'm healthy, I'm a better husband. I'm a better father. I'm a better business leader, a better church leader. Like, those things are very important to me. And so certainly the other things are extremely important to me is family, which I think for those of you listening, who who have family, I would hope that that's towards the top of your list.

00:34:46:23 - 00:35:11:03
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Like good quality time with my family and investing in my family. We've had, tremendous conversations around the dinner table. We're very, intentional about eating dinner together at the actual dining room, you know, cooking meals together and having great conversations about culture or politics or religion or whatever. You know, the type of stuff that I stay away from on a practical basis on podcast, but that are great to talk to your kids about.

00:35:11:03 - 00:35:33:08
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so, to pass down those values, those things become very important. My faith is super important to me. I'm a leader in my church, and your core values don't have to be the same thing as my core values. That's fine. And Smurfette, we talked through this in the book. I give examples of what mine are. But I think living a life that is focused on where the majority of your time is spent on the most important things is really important.

00:35:33:08 - 00:36:04:22
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And then again, as a CEO of of my business, I want to do the things that only a CEO can do. And so if I'm drowning in the urgency of the in the trenches work, which is easy to do as a CEO, then I'm not really doing the things that only a CEO can do. And so figuring out how to delegate, well, how to executive assistants, you know, we do the same thing even at home, having someone to mow my lawn or, or a or a housekeeper to come keep the house on whatever regular interval that is that you can afford.

00:36:05:00 - 00:36:33:22
Ryan Matt Reynolds
I think those things are important because, it, it frees up that time for you. I, I'm not too good to clean toilets and baseboards and floors, but if I can hire somebody else as a, as a relatively successful CEO, then I can take that time and I can focus in on the things that are more important, which may be time with my family, you know, time of my spiritual disciplines, health, fitness, exercise, and then, of course, working as a CEO and and vision casting and thinking about the future.

00:36:33:22 - 00:36:54:03
Ryan Matt Reynolds
I mean, here we are, the beginning of the year of 2025, and we're thinking about what are our goals, actions, metrics, execution of everything we want to accomplish in the business for 2025. And again, if I'm just trying to keep my head above water and make payroll, then I don't ever get to do that. And so it's it's it's imperative that I focus on the things that are most important to me.

00:36:54:03 - 00:37:14:12
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so those are the big four. I think for me, and for others, they're going to have other things. I mean, there's people listening this that don't have they're not married, they don't have kids, they don't have family. Maybe they're not religious in any way. But you will recognize and I think what the book does, it starts at that kind of 30,000ft view helps you to identify the things are really important to you from a core value perspective.

00:37:14:14 - 00:37:31:03
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And then start to lay out goals in that game. Plan the goals that will help you reach the places you want to go on. The things are really most important, and then the actions just support those goals. The metrics are how we measure the execution is the day to day task list of what we do to make sure we're moving the ball down the field.

00:37:31:03 - 00:37:53:00
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so when my task list is 35 things long and I look at it, and 30 of the 35 are not important, they're just urgent that I know everything's out of whack. And so just having a full year calendar, one of the chapters in the book is called Your Talent. Your calendar is a truth teller, and it's a truth teller, because we can look at our calendars and see, like people can say what's important to them.

00:37:53:00 - 00:38:07:01
Ryan Matt Reynolds
But then we can look at your calendar, use Google Calendar or whatever the thing is, and we can see where your time is being filled. If your time is being filled on things that are actually urgent, not important, then you're not really doing the thing that you said you were going to do or that the life that you want to lead.

00:38:07:01 - 00:38:26:01
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so no one will remember the urgent work that I do. And this really comes from Eisenhower, who said, I have two types of problems urgent problems and important problems the urgent or never important and the important or almost never urgent. His goal was to free himself up from the urgent so he could focus on the important. And that's what we're trying to do.

00:38:26:01 - 00:38:39:14
Ryan Matt Reynolds
I think as as business owners, as founders, as successful business leaders, as husbands, as fathers, moms, wives, community leaders, church leaders, whatever that thing is. I think those things, that's what we're trying to focus on.

00:38:39:16 - 00:38:56:12
Kevin Eikenberry
I know because we talked before, and I know because I've read the book and and you've mentioned several books. Give us one more book. Maybe something you've read recently or just one thing beyond your own. And we'll talk about that a little bit more in one second. One more book that you might recommend to others.

00:38:56:14 - 00:39:17:14
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Yeah. I think one of my favorite books I've read this year is, it's a book called Never Enough by Andrew Wilkinson, and he's a multi-billionaire at this point. He started as a barista, and it's that concept of exactly what the book, the title, the book, Never enough. There's always this pursuit of the next goal. Can I make more money if I'm a millionaire?

00:39:17:14 - 00:39:42:00
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Can I become a ten millionaire or 100 millionaire or a billionaire or whatever? The thing is, and it was this he felt like he was stuck in a rat race to try to constantly accomplish this goal. When he recognized again, the value was actually in the pursuit was in the work, and to enjoy the work that he did, he he gained a tremendous amount of of calm.

00:39:42:02 - 00:40:00:08
Ryan Matt Reynolds
The anxiety goes away. You start to realize, like, I'm doing the thing, I love this life that I, you know, I became very addicted or obsessed with fitness and training and lifting weights when I was 18 or 19 years old. My parents thought, this is just a sort of a ridiculous phase that he's in as a hobby.

00:40:00:10 - 00:40:27:13
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And of course, as that turned into an eight figure business, mom and dad have become much more, much more proponents of, of what I do. And so I get to do the thing I love, but the thing I love now, while I still love to train, I still love to coach the real, the real challenge for me that I, that I love more than anything else, is actually in being a leader in the company, has been the CEO and and trying to lead well and be a great leader.

00:40:27:13 - 00:40:51:03
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so I, you know, I read a ton of biographies about great leaders and learn from them, learn from their mistakes, learn from where they did. Well, but the book Never Enough from Andrew Wilkinson is an excellent book. If you feel like you just can't ever not just get your head above water out of the urgency. But no matter how much you you are able to accomplish, it's never enough and there's always a pursuit for more.

00:40:51:05 - 00:41:20:01
Ryan Matt Reynolds
This is a great book to read, so if you're struggling to think like, I'm never satisfied with the accomplishments. This is a great book. And it's really, I think, comes back to that idea of finding joy in the work itself, not in just the accomplishment of the goal. It was very cathartic for me to read just just like the hard thing about Hard Things was, I love reading books about people and their struggles because I want to read books, especially for people who have gone through similar struggles than as I have.

00:41:20:03 - 00:41:36:07
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And, and come out on the other side and learn lessons from those things. I don't want to have to learn those same hard lessons he did. So in the same way that I hope people learn lessons from my book. And which is probably more for the up and coming, business owner, for those who are in the first five years of business ownership.

00:41:36:07 - 00:41:54:02
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And it I've had a ton of of stay at home moms reach out and write reviews for Amazon and say, this is great. Like their lives are drowning in urgency. And the, again, the schoolwork and the and the sports for the kids and the keeping the house and all those sort of things, whatever that thing is, I think there are lessons to be learned there.

00:41:54:02 - 00:42:11:18
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so, for me, I'm able I love to read books were where people they they get it, they understand me. And while he doesn't know me from Adam, I can read about his struggles and say, I've been right there and so, okay, there are lessons to be learned here that I don't have to learn. As hard as he did.

00:42:11:18 - 00:42:34:05
Ryan Matt Reynolds
I can take and learn. This is what's so great about books. I mean, you have these people who have who have accomplished so much and they take their entire life story and they put it in 250 pages and within two or 3 or 4 days, you can read the entire thing and take and glean all of this information from a life of work like this is this is what I love about reading, and being in a never ending pursuit of knowledge.

00:42:34:05 - 00:42:37:08
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And so, yeah, I love, love that book from Andrew Wilkinson.

00:42:37:10 - 00:42:56:03
Kevin Eikenberry
We will have links to all those books that we've mentioned in the show, in the show notes, as well as a link to, Matt's book in the, the title of the book is Undoing Urgency for purposes of being an author. Long story. It you will see this by Ryan Matt Reynolds. You know that. You can call him Matt.

00:42:56:03 - 00:43:05:13
Kevin Eikenberry
We've been talking, calling him Matt all day. Where can people learn more about the book? And where do you want to point people? Real quickly before we wrap?

00:43:05:15 - 00:43:22:21
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Yeah, they can go to my website, which is Ryan Matt reynolds.com. It talks about all about me in the book. Certainly Amazon is sort of king of the of the rankings at this point. So getting the book on Amazon is great. There's a great Amazon author page there that you'll find on Amazon if you just search Undoing Urgency as well.

00:43:22:21 - 00:43:43:07
Ryan Matt Reynolds
And then if you're interested in string coaching my my company is barbell logic. And go to barbell logic.com. You can follow barbell logic on social media there. Marble logic everywhere or follow me personally on social media at Reynolds Strong on all the social medias, Instagram and X and LinkedIn and all that stuff. And so would love to hear from you, especially if you get the book.

00:43:43:09 - 00:43:57:01
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Love some feedback. If you get the book and read the book, would love a review. Honest review. Not just asking for five star reviews, but honest review would be excellent. So Ryan, Matt reynolds.com is probably best place to go. And you can you can, fan out from there.

00:43:57:03 - 00:44:14:17
Kevin Eikenberry
Ryan Matt reynolds.com. So before we go everybody in before I think Matt for being here. The question that I ask all of you every single episode and none of this matters in the last 40 some minutes. If you haven't thought about this question and the question is now what? What action will you take as a result of being here?

00:44:14:17 - 00:44:34:10
Kevin Eikenberry
Because if you don't, what's the point? I mean, hopefully you found this entertaining and engaging and interesting, but it won't change anything unless you decide to do something. And so we hope that you will take action, not just in terms of buying a book, which we hope you do, but also what ideas did you take from this that you will apply immediately?

00:44:34:12 - 00:44:41:15
Kevin Eikenberry
Because it's when you do that that your life and your work will begin to change. Hope you'll do that. Matt, thanks for being here. It's a pleasure to have had you here.

00:44:41:17 - 00:44:44:12
Ryan Matt Reynolds
Thank you so much for having me. It was a great, conversation.

00:44:44:14 - 00:45:02:10
Kevin Eikenberry
And everybody, if you enjoyed this, make sure that you like and subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast, watching this podcast so you don't miss any future episodes, make sure to share it with someone else so that they can join us, too. And because we're here every week, and I hope you'll be back with me next week for another episode of the Remarkable Leadership Podcast.

00:45:02:13 - 00:45:03:04
Kevin Eikenberry
Thanks, everybody.