How Does Your Morning Routine Stack Up With Ryan Cote

On this episode of Chasing Financial Freedom Podcast, we welcome Ryan Cote. He is the owner of the Morning Upgrade, a business dedicated to increasing the awareness of personal development through a blog, podcast, book, and morning routine cards.

On this episode, Ryan will share his personal morning routine and how it has helped him achieve financial freedom. He’ll also reveal why he thinks self-care is so important for entrepreneurs and how you can implement it into your day.

If you’re looking for tips on making more money by caring for yourself at work, this podcast is for you!

Looking to Share Your Story? Be a Guest on the Show

Podcast Transcript

How Does Your Morning Routine Stack Up With Ryan Cote

[00:00:00] Ryan: Hey guys, Ryan DeMent from Chasing Happiness Podcast. I hope you guys are having a great day this week on the podcast. We have Ryan Cote entrepreneur. He has a marketing agency. He has a roofing company, but the biggest piece that we’re gonna talk about, and I know there’s a lot more to be discussed is he wants to raise awareness around morning routines and personal development.

[00:00:25] Ryan: Ryan, welcome to the

[00:00:29] Ryan C: hey, Ryan, have you to be here.

[00:00:30] Ryan: Cool. Excited. Yeah. I know Ryan to Ryan. Yes. That doesn’t happen very often, but that’s pretty cool. I love it.

[00:00:37] Ryan C: Yeah. I love it. I, I must mumble my words a lot because everyone always thinks I’m saying Brian or I’ve even gotten Ronnie for a short period of time.

[00:00:45] Ryan C: When I took karate, I was Ronnie at the dojo and just never corrected I did correct them, but it just Ronnie stuck. Yeah,

[00:00:51] Ryan: that’s my name. Okay, cool. So before we get into your journey, tell the listeners a little bit about who you are.

[00:00:59] Ryan C: Sure. [00:01:00] Yes. I’m from New Jersey married for close to 16 years.

[00:01:03] Ryan C: I have three daughters. They’re soon to be 12, soon to be 10, and then seven. So three daughters. Whoa, that’s me. And a personal note’s a lot of sports. Yeah. It’s a lot. It is. It sounds like a lot and I will confirm it is a lot but it’s a lot of fun too, a lot of sports. If you could think of any activity, there’s a good chance that we’re doing it with the exception of a couple of things between softball and dance and karate and gymnastics.

[00:01:24] Ryan C: But yeah it creates a lot of purposes around and structure around your life, which is nice, plus with three daughters I’m really set myself up for long-term healthcare. Like someone, one of them is gonna take care of me. ,

[00:01:33] Ryan: Good. Is it all joking aside? I know I asked this question to a lot of people, but people that have all daughters and they’re the only male in the house.

[00:01:43] Ryan: Is there a trick to that as in surviving it?

[00:01:47] Ryan C: Oh, a trick to surviving it. Yes. Patience and sense of humor. This too shall pass that mindset, when this gets crazy in the morning and they’re trying to all get ready. But it’s also a lot of fun too. They’re very affectionate and but yeah, it’s, I think having kids in [00:02:00] general is difficult, no matter what female or male, but even our cat’s female.

[00:02:04] Ryan C: So I don’t know. Wow. But

[00:02:05] Ryan: Hey man, as long as you’re happy, that’s all it counts.

[00:02:10] Ryan C: Yes, it does. As I said, it provides, creates a lot of purposes and a lot of structure around your life, which is nice and a lot of meetings, and so even the difficult times, it’s it makes you stronger as a person, stronger as a human stronger as a.

[00:02:20] Ryan C: And you just try to do your best. It’s at least my approach, trying to raise him the best I can, we’re all imperfect. So it’s like an imperfect human trying to raise a, raise, another human, but it’s really satisfying. So that’s me on a personal level business side. Yeah, a marketing agency with my family.

[00:02:36] Ryan C: It’s been in the family for 56 years. We recently just started a roofing business. I’m very lightly involved in that. I just do a little bit of sales networking. My brother and my cousin really are building that at least as of right now. And then I’ve got morning upgrade and that’s I started that two years ago.

[00:02:52] Ryan C: It started as a blog. It’s become a podcast. I added a podcast, wrote a book, and created a more routine product. [00:03:00] I’m not sure where I’m gonna go with it next, maybe a mastermind. I’m not like going down the journey. Just trying to follow my gut. But like you said, the mission is to raise awareness of morning routines and personal development.

[00:03:10] Ryan: And that’s a huge topic we can go into, but before you get back there, we’ll just back up just one or two. So I know when we had our print call and we discussed it, you were just at the time really getting the roofing company off the ground. How’s that going?

[00:03:24] Ryan C: it’s going, we have jobs all the time now.

[00:03:25] Ryan C: We’ve got a bunch of reviews on Google. Now I think we have eight or nine and we literally just got licensed in we’re recording this in June of 2022. We got licensed on February 20 and 22. And so it’s hard on the new guy in the block with no reviews. And so we’ve been doing like direct mail.

[00:03:41] Ryan C: We did a little bit of home advisor, but we stopped that and networking and just referrals. And when we’re doing a job networking with the homeowners around. So yeah, we have consistent jobs now for roofing. We’ve done a little bit of siding, a little bit of gutter. And so it’s been good.

[00:03:55] Ryan C: Yeah. It should only get at least our viewpoint. It should only get easier now because we’re fine [00:04:00] tuning the process. We’ve got good subs now that we can rely on the marketing seems to be starting to work. The reviews are coming in. And so it should in theory, just get a little bit easier. Cause now we have the social proof and the process down and that’s our theory at least.

[00:04:15] Ryan: That’s good. It’s tough to start a business one and two starting a construction business. I seem since I’ve had that experience, I think more than any other business, for some reason, construction has been my Babbo and it’s been the toughest to deal with. And it’s just.

[00:04:32] Ryan: There are so many different moving pieces, but like you said, having the right subs in place, and then if you’ve got trades that you’re gonna to have under your roof, there are just so many things to look at, and I’m talking from a general contractor perspective, so it’s a little bit different, but man, to this day, I still try to get our construction.

[00:04:48] Ryan: And it’s a struggle.

[00:04:51] Ryan C: There are so many pieces you don’t even think about too. And I’m like I said, I’m not very much involved in the business, but my brother Scott talks about it. And like when the dumpster’s coming for the roof, cuz you’re gonna take the stuff off and put it [00:05:00] into a dumpster.

[00:05:01] Ryan C: You depends how big the driveway is, but let’s say you have to put it in the street. okay. You need a dumpster there. And the dumpster needs to arrive at the house at a certain time. You need to go to the town and get the no parking signs, which you have to pay for. And they close at three o’clock.

[00:05:15] Ryan C: So you have to get there a certain time. There’s a lot of like moving pieces that you didn’t even think about until you’re in the business. But for us, it’s been just getting the right subs. We had a one sub who just wasn’t backing up his work and it just caused a lot of issues for us. And so we got rid of them.

[00:05:28] Ryan C: And now we have a good team. So it’s like just working through the challenges. Yeah. That’s awesome.

[00:05:32] Ryan: So talk a little bit about your family’s marketing company.

[00:05:38] Ryan C: Yeah, so that, that’s where I spent most of my time in that started in 66. I joined in 2003. I started off just doing the marketing for the business and we started off just printing, like direct mail with this stuff you get in your mailbox.

[00:05:50] Ryan C: I was the marketing director and. Eventually, I, we eventually added a digital division, like digital marketing, and that’s what I spearheaded. [00:06:00] And so that was just a slow, steady process of adding services. I still remember when we got our first big client that was gonna enable us to hire our first like official digital team member.

[00:06:08] Ryan C: That was a really exciting moment. We were like all hugging each other and whatnot as I still have, like that memory seared into my brain. And yeah. So over the years, this has been adding like slow and steady, just trying to do things better. And so I’m purely on the digital side right now.

[00:06:22] Ryan C: My other brother, Matt and uncle are on the print side and my cousin just sells for both sides. And so for us, it’s been just, and really the print side too, just the concept of Kaizen, like continuous improvement. We’ve never had like hockey stick growth has always been like trying to do each year a little bit better, a little better, a little bit better.

[00:06:39] Ryan C: And that’s worked for us, know that’s some people don’t like it that way, but it’s worked for us.

[00:06:44] Ryan: everybody runs diff you know, business differently and so forth. For marketing, especially for small business owners and entrepreneurs, I know it’s a struggle and understanding that how does your family agency company do they unwork with small business [00:07:00] owners and then how do you differentiate yourself in that space?

[00:07:03] Ryan C: So on the direct mail side, we do not, we have very large companies that do a lot of direct. Just to name companies, you would know, like rural, Caribbean Windham, just and they’re not all huge like that.

[00:07:12] Ryan C: So it sounds like I’m name dropping. I’m just trying to name ones that you would recognize. We have other smaller ones like nonprofits and we have a lot of nonprofits actually, probably 50 clients. And so no on the digital side, no, on the print side, but yes, on the digital side, our typical client is a small business manufacturer service business contractor.

[00:07:29] Ryan C: Software a little bit small meeting, like 10 to 30 ish employees is like our typical client. And so yeah, for us, we become like their outsource marketing team. And, we just try to do the best. We can really it’s setting expectations because sometimes clients will think digital means that things are gonna be instant and it’s not never like that usually.

[00:07:50] Ryan C: And so it’s more of just figuring out what they need. within their budget, set the expectations and they just really work hard for them and try to make it better. That’s been our, that’s been our

[00:07:57] Ryan: process. So do you think small [00:08:00] business owners and entrepreneurs don’t understand the marketing side of the business when it comes to digital?

[00:08:06] Ryan: And I say, not understand is, like you said, it’s not instant. It takes time. There’s consistency. You gotta do things to, to. Eyeballs on your marketing, pieces. Is that a big hurdle for you guys or is that a big hurdle for small business owners?

[00:08:20] Ryan C: Yeah, I think in general it is, they don’t understand cause the things they manufacture, for example, we don’t know that business, so we try to get into their world.

[00:08:28] Ryan C: It probably be the same thing. And so really it’s, cause in digital’s always changing and it’s like some of the stuff like search engine optimization, it’s like this black magic in some people’s minds. What are you really doing? And so it’s really our answer to that. Setting expectations, like I already mentioned, but also communication, making sure that they know what we’re doing, regular calls reporting, all that stuff.

[00:08:46] Ryan C: So if you’re listening and you are considering digital, make sure you’re getting those components, make sure you’re getting, there’s a clearly defined, like communication, cadence, the reporting. Know what they’re gonna be doing for you, don’t let anything be I think they’re doing this, be [00:09:00] crystal clear.

[00:09:01] Ryan C: Yeah.

[00:09:01] Ryan: And it’s the only way to do that. And it’s a struggle knowing that, from. from my side of the aisle, as I say, I’m a small business owner, entrepreneur and learning all those things is tough. And you have to go out there and partner with the right individuals to, get things done.

[00:09:16] Ryan: And that’s tough. You guys have been around for you say 56 years, 53 years, 50 seconds, 56. That’s amazing. Cuz that means you guys are doing it right. And you’re helping people get to where they need to go on the marketing.

[00:09:30] Ryan C: Yeah, no, it’s we try hard, we try our best, and it’s been fun. It’s it’s yeah. It’s hard to believe. 56 years, I always think back to like when my uncle great uncle started the company in 60. Obviously he wasn’t thinking, oh, this is gonna go 56 years, but it, he recently passed away, but I’m sure it was neat for him to be like, wow, the company’s still going and providing salaries for all these employees.

[00:09:48] Ryan C: And, the family’s still together must be pretty rewarding for him, when he was alive to see that.

[00:09:52] Ryan: Sorry to hear that, but that’s also gotta be legacy and generational, and it’s also proud too, that you’ve been able to [00:10:00] continue that process after he’s

[00:10:01] Ryan C: pass. Yeah. Yeah. Especially through COVID was no joke, like getting through that.

[00:10:06] Ryan C: Just like things we didn’t see coming, like everyone, not just us obviously, but yeah. Thank you. Thank you for saying thank you for saying that. Yeah. So

[00:10:13] Ryan: I’m gonna digress and get into more about what you’ve been doing last couple years. Talk about morning routines and in, personal development in that.

[00:10:23] Ryan C: Yeah. So I’ve always been like a personal growth junkie. And so maybe we can get into some of the strategies to give your audience some takeaways, but not that I have everything figured out by any means, but it’s just a, the journey I’m on. And I just try to share it with morning upgrade. It’s really my, I want to turn into a business.

[00:10:37] Ryan C: That means something, not that the marketing does not mean something. It does, but this has a different meaning to me. And so where I can really have this ripple effective impact that gets, that fills my cup. And I was writing about personal growth topics, like morning routines and cold showers and things like that.

[00:10:51] Ryan C: But I was putting on my LinkedIn and then April of 2020 when the world was shutting down, I just had more time to think. And I was like, I should try to turn this into a business and I could [00:11:00] not get the thought outta my. So that’s when I knew I had to kinda just investigate it. And I came up with the name morning upgrade.

[00:11:05] Ryan C: I liked it. It was easy to spell sound, sounded nice. It was available as a domain name. So I’m like, all right, this is it. And so I, I didn’t really have a vision of it beyond just like the blog, but I knew eventually I would just turn it into a resource that. Hopefully when someone reads, listens, whatever that it would teach them something and provide, impact.

[00:11:24] Ryan C: And so that’s where I, that’s a journey I’ve been going on. So I’m really big into morning routines. To me, that’s like my pillar habit. I have other habits too, but that’s like my pillar habit. And so it the blog goes beyond just morning routines. It goes across like all areas of personal growth and it’s really just things that I’ve learned.

[00:11:38] Ryan C: All the coaching programs, I’ve been part of the books that I read, the audio audible books. I listen to the podcast. It’s I just try to like, share what I’m learning and hope that it helps someone

[00:11:48] Ryan: that’s huge. Cuz sharing is truly about growth and I don’t know how to describe it other than I, if you’re not out there putting something, worth value, people don’t come back.

[00:11:57] Ryan: It boils down to this is we’re looking [00:12:00] for change. Change sometimes can be difficult, but if you provide that product or that service, or even a blog, like you started out with, that’s huge. That, that starts people thinking about it. And that’s more, and that’s in line with the listeners here and the listeners are looking for some change and help through it and inspiration.

[00:12:18] Ryan C: And I’ll say too, like touch upon happiness here. It’s a, it’s an interesting journey that I encourage everyone to go on, go down because it does take you into different areas. Like for example, I it’s very fulfilling, which feeds my happiness too. Just a podcast alone. I get to meet really interesting people that would never have met exactly.

[00:12:38] Ryan C: Writing the content, writing the book, producing the podcast content. It just forces me to grow as a person. So it helps me on my journey too. It’s just very, it’s just a very rewarding experience. It’s hard to describe, but I encourage every, like everyone has an interest passion. I encourage them to put it out there in the world and just try to figure it out.

[00:12:57] Ryan C: Don’t get a perfect, like the first site I threw up for morning [00:13:00] upgrade. It was a free template that didn’t look that great. It was okay. But I just wanted to get it up and not perfect it. Cause I knew eventually I was gonna redesign it, which I. And in two years, I’ll probably redesign it again. So just get started and let that momentum start to build.

[00:13:12] Ryan C: It’s a very interesting experience. Like some of the people that I’ve met and some of the it’s even forced me to join extra masterminds coaching program. Cause I want to learn more so that I can put more on the blog. And so you never know where the journey is gonna take it. And

[00:13:25] Ryan: it’s, that’s just all about is the change in where it goes and in how you actually.

[00:13:30] Ryan: Handle it. And I had somebody on the show about a month ago. He said, we’re all in. We tend to be into two categories. We’re either a camper where we’re comfortable in life, or we’re a climber where we’re embracing change in climbing out of that comfortable life. And. That stuck and resonated with me, cuz okay, I understand the comfortable, but I didn’t understand the camping.

[00:13:52] Ryan: So when he described something that he was doing with his speaking, was he asked people, is it more difficult to fix your [00:14:00] comfortable life or is it more difficult to take on change and go to that new world and be that climber? And I had to think about that and that was hard. And it’s after a while I thought about it, it’s it’s the.

[00:14:12] Ryan: You have to do the work to fix both. So why not put yourself in a better place to get that change, going to grow as a human being instead of staying in that same place and being stagnant and being that camper?

[00:14:25] Ryan C: Yeah I, that really resonates with me. I think as you go down more, the personal development journey, you start to be more in tune with how your feeling.

[00:14:32] Ryan C: And so I know me personally, about six months ago, I was failing kind. Complacent just, I guess the best way to describe it is blah, like things are okay, but, and so I actually enrolled myself. I was like, what? We really shake things up and I’ve always been into like martial arts, but I haven’t done it in a very long time.

[00:14:48] Ryan C: And I was like, Krav magac kept done coming up in my head, which is like the Israeli combat training. I was like, that feels pretty uncomfortable. And so I found I did a Google search and I found a class like literally 10 minutes from my house. They have lunch [00:15:00] classes, which are perfect for my schedule.

[00:15:01] Ryan C: And so I joined that and that continues to be a really pushing me outta my comfort zone because it’s just if you saw the class, you would like, it’s just very difficult and it’s intimidating. Honestly, it’s getting less, but it’s still, it’s challenging. So I knew I needed that and it really woke me up.

[00:15:15] Ryan C: Second example. Oh, you got question. No, go ahead. Second example is that came back from vacation a few weeks ago. The day I came back, my main person at on the digital side, who manages the team. She resigned. Oh boy, which is a great welcome home present. . But I’m very happy for her. I seriously am and she was managing a team and doing other stuff.

[00:15:35] Ryan C: And in that I was feeling like I was maybe a little bit too distant from the team. And I was like, you know what? Instead of replacing her, I’m gonna use this as an opportunity to push myself outta my comfort zone and force myself to get closer to the team, not use the word force because it sounds like I don’t wanna do it, but I knew it was an opportunity for me to shake things up and get closer to the team closer to the.

[00:15:55] Ryan C: And see what improvements I can make. And so it’s just keeping your antenna up, looking for [00:16:00] opportunities to push yourself outta your comfort zone. I think that’s really important and to

[00:16:03] Ryan: improve and always look at the changes as in the ch when change hits us. You don’t wanna look at as a four letter, where do you wanna look at it is okay.

[00:16:11] Ryan: I’m gonna, I’m trying, and I’m learning and that’s just life in general. And when. We discuss change, like from an entrepreneur standpoint or failure in that standpoint, a lot of people don’t think that entre they think entrepreneurship is glorified because of unfortunately social media. But when you back up , there’s that layer underneath, inside of the nights that I stayed up and worried about, all types of things and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

[00:16:41] Ryan: Making sure my bills got paid and employees got paid. Those are all the things that you worry about, but you don’t get to see that from the other side. And so you have, unfortunately I’m digressing. You have people that think entrepreneurship or leading a team. However you wanna look at that is just is glamorous.

[00:16:58] Ryan: And there’s a lot more work. And I like what you’re [00:17:00] doing is you’re stepping back in and saying, I’m I. Working to get myself in a better place, but also reconnecting myself to hone my skills. And you’re willing to take on the change.

[00:17:12] Ryan C: Yeah. I’ll be honest. I, wasn’t excited about it the first few days, but then the more I thought about it, I was like, no, this actually makes a lot of sense.

[00:17:19] Ryan C: and I can turn this into a huge win. And now that I’ve had that mindset shift, like where I’m actually bought into it now, I’m like, wow this is actually like to use an end Mylet phrase. This is happening for me, not to me. Yeah. And I fully believe that now. So now I’m like into it, my schedules all blown up, but I’m like into it.

[00:17:36] Ryan C: So like I had two check-ins with my team today, did them, while I walked outside to get my steps in, I, there were two great conversations. I just left them feeling very full and I’m like, okay, this is gonna be, of course, this is gonna. Obstacles and stuff like that, but I think this is gonna be a really good thing.

[00:17:51] Ryan C: And yeah, just don’t be afraid of challenges.

[00:17:53] Ryan: How do we take that into like your morning routines and personal development and kind of roll that all in, because I think there’s [00:18:00] a good segue, but also some good tips in there that you can share.

[00:18:04] Ryan C: Yeah, that was a great segue. I like that. I appreciate that.

[00:18:08] Ryan C: I like to think of the morning routine. So I had a this guy, Joe Evangel, I’m butchering his name, but he’s on my podcast, evangelistic, Joe evangelistic. And he was he’s owns like storage locations and he’s got some other things going on and he’s got a big morning routine and he put it perfectly, which is I’m gonna just steal what he said.

[00:18:26] Ryan C: He looks at his morning routine as creating like that mental armor. that you need to face the challenges, cuz it’s still uncomfortable and annoying to have to deal with some of these things. But you build the mental armor to be able to handle it better and it not affect you as much. So when my per, when my main person gave her notice, I wasn’t like destroyed.

[00:18:46] Ryan C: I was like, Ugh. Now what do I have to do here? But I wasn’t like, I wasn’t crawling into a corner. I was bothered, but I was able to handle it. And so he I think that’s the best way to describe it is like the mental armor. And so for me, My morning routine, it [00:19:00] cover, it goes through a few things. I read a little bit, I do meditation I gratitude practice.

[00:19:05] Ryan C: I celebrate a win. This is all in a little actually, see, I’m not, I actually do it. That’s from today. Cool. I write down who I’m gonna, who I’m gonna what’s, who I’m gonna reach out to today. And then I have a little journal spot where I’ll write down my intentions for the day. And then I meditate for six minutes.

[00:19:21] Ryan C: I exercise for five or six minutes. It’s not my only exercise. Of course I have to crop and God and I walk, but I’ll do like pullups and pushups and things like that. And so I do that in like a 25, 30 minute compacted routine, which works for me. You have to find out what works best for you. But to me, that just it’s just creating like that mental armor that helps me face the day.

[00:19:42] Ryan C: I wanna talk about masterminds, but I wanna pause there for a second, cuz I, I feel like I’m talking too much

[00:19:45] Ryan: here. No worries. I think we’re, that’s great that you shared your morning routine. I’m gonna back you up a couple steps. I’m just gonna, I’ll just use myself as an example and you can gimme, gimme the, I’ll be the Guinea pig.

[00:19:57] Ryan: So I’m trying to change. I [00:20:00] wanna start my morning routine. I need baby steps. How do I start that morning routine without throwing my world into chaos?

[00:20:08] Ryan C: And I think that’s why I have the 20 cause I had, I used to have a 90 minute routine hour and a half, sometimes two hours. A lot of my guests have some have three hour routines.

[00:20:16] Ryan C: Wow. It was too much for me. I had, if it, it started feel like friction. And so I was like, I need to get something under 30 minutes cuz I feel like everyone has, everyone can get up 30 minutes early. Like you just can. And for me, that’s like the sweet spot. If you’re, if you need it to be less then it’s just a matter of the way I came up with my morning routine, I was like, all right, I want it to be under 30 minutes.

[00:20:35] Ryan C: I know what I want in my morning routine. Cause I’ve been doing them for five years. So I had a sense as to what was important to me. Okay. And so I just started mapping it out. This would take a few minutes. This would take this many minutes and that came up to my 25 30 minute. I feel like that’s doable for most people, but if you want to keep it to 15, it’s more about like the atomic habit, that book atomic habit’s about starting super small.

[00:20:58] Ryan C: So small. can’t say no, like [00:21:00] five, 10 minutes. Yes. The question is, if you’re gonna do like a 10 minute routine, what are you gonna do? And that’s gonna you’re it’s gonna differ from person to person. If you ask them, if you’re asking me like gratitude practice is super important in me. Okay. I feel like those are two things that are non-negotiables since I probably do that.

[00:21:17] Ryan C: But then you could also argue journaling and exercise and all that, but I would just start super small, make it a habit and kind of build from

[00:21:23] Ryan: there. So we’re, I’m gonna break it down, even find more finite, cuz sometimes our listeners need it that in that way. So I’m gonna get there. I wanna do it, but how do I attack it?

[00:21:36] Ryan: And when I say attack it, as in, I have to figure out how do I determine what’s. My morning routine. I know you talked about gratitude in, in exerciser or whatever the case is. How do you get there? How do you really understand what you need to have to be in there? And I’m not saying your answer’s right for everybody, but can we give them a way to step through the process to be able to learn those two [00:22:00] or three things that

[00:22:00] Ryan C: they’re gonna start out with?

[00:22:01] Ryan C: Probably it’s a tough question. It’s a tough question. Because the reason I was able to create my motor routine is because I had been doing long ones for five years. So I. It’s like trying to create a dish. If you have no idea what to do, like how do you create chicken Parmesan? You have to have some experience to the recipe and all I have to know what goes in it.

[00:22:17] Ryan C: It’s the same thing with morning routines. So I would say expose yourself to the idea of morning routines. So on my blog, I’ve got, I just publish a blog post on 54 ideas for morning routines, like 54 things you can add to your routine. And that was from. All my guests, cuz a lot of them have overlap.

[00:22:36] Ryan C: And so I’ve had like a hundred guests on my podcast. And so we created a podcast. It’s I’m sorry, a blog post it’s 54 ideas for your morning routine gratitude practice journaling exercise down to the most. Niche things you would never even think of. So that’s a good starting point. I would also read miracle morning.

[00:22:54] Ryan C: That’s what started for me by Hal Elrod. He’s got his specific process for morning routines. There’s a 5:00 AM [00:23:00] club by Robin Sharma. So those three resources, my blog posts 5:00 AM club and miracle morning. Just read them, get exposed to what is possible for a morning routine. And then I think you’re in a position to craft what feels right.

[00:23:13] Ryan C: Knowing. that you’re probably gonna change it at least if you’re a crazy person like me 10 times until you like, really feel like it’s honed in.

[00:23:25] Ryan: And so I have a morning routine too. And it’s really personal, but how do you know that? Oh, I know how it feels, and I’m sure you do too, but how can we explain to the listeners that we can. Tune in or focus in on the things that are right for us. Is it a gut feeling?

[00:23:41] Ryan: Is it is it a, it gives me enough time or is it just overall it’s making it work for me in the morning. I wanna wake up early and do

[00:23:49] Ryan C: this, just build my answer. I was gonna say you have to try different things and then you’ll know when, it’s you get married when, it’s you know, even you look forward to it, like I get up and I don’t dread, I don’t dread my morning routine.

[00:23:59] Ryan C: I look forward to. So [00:24:00] you have to put in the reps and figure out what you like, if you don’t wanna do any of that. To me, it’s always mind mindset is the most important thing to me. It’s like the small hinge that swings the big door. And so I would, if you don’t wanna like experiment with all these different things, I would start off with like mindset activities, which would be journaling, meditation and gratitude practice.

[00:24:18] Ryan C: I think those are really good for mindset. And yeah, those are two, two ways I would approach it.

[00:24:26] Ryan: Where do you suggest someone does their morning routine at oh, good question or some ideas?

[00:24:30] Ryan C: I do the, I do it here in my office. That was in my kids’ playroom, but then after COVID it became my office. I do it here cause this is like my it’s like my little space, I like at my standup desk here, I was doing it in my backyard for a little while when it’s warm out, got like a little porch area connect with nature, the sounds of the birds.

[00:24:47] Ryan C: That was very rewarding. So I might go back to. And yeah, I think you have to have a space that’s distraction free that you can really just be by yourself. No, no distractions, no no distractions and or [00:25:00] outside of nature. Yes.

[00:25:01] Ryan: Yeah, those are some good spots. I typically get up in the morning and I’ll just, it’s just me and my dogs.

[00:25:08] Ryan: And I’ll just sit on the couch and I sit on the couch and I do my thing. No distractions read, do what I gotta do, but it’s hard when you’ve got other individuals in the house. Yeah. I guess I’m gonna get down to my next point or my next question. So I’m doing my morning routine. I’m going through that process.

[00:25:23] Ryan: How do I know if the morning routine is really working for me? Is it an internal thing, an external thing? How are you building? How are we building up those?

[00:25:31] Ryan C: Yeah. I’ll from my perspective, for what it’s worth. It’s how I feel. I feel like a different person when I do it. I think it’s because it changes your identity.

[00:25:39] Ryan C: If you’re the type of person that will wake up early to invest in yourself, you’re probably the type of person that exercises or challenges takes on challenges head on or. Whatever the way you speak to yourself, the way you speak to other people, it changes your identity into the kind of person that invests in yourself.

[00:25:54] Ryan C: And that does have a ripple effect. If you give it enough time to that ripple effect to happen. The second thing is for [00:26:00] me, it’s like really amazing how lucky I get when I’m consistent with my morning routine. Not that things are perfect of course, but I just feel like I have, I don’t know what it is.

[00:26:08] Ryan C: And maybe it’s just I’m seeing things differently, but I just feel like I, I, cause I started my morning routine back in 17 when I was going through some really hard things in the business, just things were not working out at all. And so I started to make some dramatic changes back then I started boxing cause it was like very uncomfortable for me.

[00:26:26] Ryan C: I stopped getting red meat. I did, I started a morning routine. I just start to really make some big changes and I’m not saying that changed it. It turned it around, but it was a big part. And I’ve just noticed in my life that when I’m consistent with my Mor routine, I just seem to get lucky more like I get more opportunities, just things happen.

[00:26:42] Ryan C: It’s hard to describe. I know that sounds like very vague and woo. But it’s, it becomes it comes down to a gut feeling and just how you see life and how you feel,

[00:26:51] Ryan: But it sounds like it’s setting you up for success for each day. You go in with a positive mindset and you’re ready to take it on.

[00:26:59] Ryan: [00:27:00] And with that, when you put out positivity, you’re always gonna get positivity back. And I think that’s a great way to describe, what you’re doing on a daily basis, especially after five years of doing it.

[00:27:09] Ryan C: And you made every single day, you made me think of something, Ryan, by saying that I heard this one’s on a podcast and it’s so true.

[00:27:14] Ryan C: And it just, it piggybacks what you said. If you if you smile at someone, they’re probably gonna smile back unless it’s like a creepy smile, but if you smile at someone get it somehow back. If you look angry at someone they’re probably gonna, and so it’s like sometimes what you’re seeing in your life is a reflection of what you’re putting out.

[00:27:29] Ryan C: What you’re seeing with your eyeballs is sometimes a reflection of what you’re putting out. And so I think that’s a good reminder about the positivity. If you’re investing in yourself and you’re showing up differently, You probably have a different vibrant, vibrant energy level or whatever the phrase is, and that does influence everything around you cuz really everything’s, everything is energy.

[00:27:48] Ryan C: And so it does have that ripple effect.

[00:27:51] Ryan: It’s energy. Yeah. And it sets your day up. I, and I’ve noticed if my days off, if I have time, I’ll set, I’ll come back [00:28:00] and sit down and. I say, tune out the day, but that’s not really what I’m doing. I’m just really just shutting my mind down for a moment to give myself that space so I can refocus and get myself back to that positivity.

[00:28:11] Ryan: Cuz ultimately if let’s say something goes wrong in the day, it can set you off and it leads you to negativity or negative thoughts. However, you wanna look at that, but if you reset yourself and say, okay, I’m learning, I’m out there doing my I’m doing. Yeah, things are gonna go bad.

[00:28:26] Ryan: You just, it’s just how you react to it. And if I can set myself back, if I have time and just shut it all off, move forward and say, okay, it’s a learning. And we keep going. It helps reset it, reenters myself and it’s been helpful. Otherwise I let it linger and I shut

[00:28:42] Ryan C: for a while reason. I didn’t do the Mor morning routine at all on the cruise because of just the small cabin and just a lot going on.

[00:28:50] Ryan C: And I came back whew. Isn’t a serious funk. Not that I’m complaining about the cruise. Of course, I’m very grateful to do that but the fact is I let myself not do the morning routine for a good nine [00:29:00] days. And I came back and it took me. I was very bad, like very big funk for three, four or five days.

[00:29:06] Ryan C: And then I was like, what’s wrong with me? Then I was like, I reminded my myself. I have to get back to my routines, my morning stuff. And now I’m in a much better mood fortunately this interview. And so it works.

[00:29:14] Ryan: That’s cool. It that’s just more affirmation and more re reassurance that morning routines work and it changes the way you do things and it just sets you up for

[00:29:24] Ryan C: success. Yeah. I’ve got a book to recommend that I’m two books I’m reading right now that right next to me that kind of talks a lot about what we’re going over.

[00:29:31] Ryan C: The first one is, and this is one I did not think I would like, cuz it just it’s called peace is every step. Pieces every step, the path of mindfulness and everyday life it’s very calming and it just teaches you to appreciate the small things. But then the other one is about, is from end Mylet. I sound like a fanboy, cause I’ve mentioned him twice now, but I am a fan, not a fanboy, but a fan

[00:29:53] Ryan C: I it’s the power of one more. This is a brand new book by him. And I’m only into page 53 right now, but he talks a lot [00:30:00] about Like really a lot, what a lot about what we’re talking about. And so they’re two good book recommendations in my opinion.

[00:30:04] Ryan: We’ll definitely put those in the show notes so people can, read ’em find them that type of stuff. I know we’re not promoting it, but if we can help that’s all we’re here for. So wrap this all up, tidy it all up. How can everybody get a hold of you? And. Where can they really get

[00:30:21] Ryan C: help when it comes to my site is morning, upgrade.com.

[00:30:24] Ryan C: Very easy to remember morning upgrade.com on there. You’ll have there’s my book. My book goes through the very short, 112 page, like book booklet. If you wanna call it that goes over morning, routines, health, and fitness mindset, adding wor personal growth into your workplace, into your family.

[00:30:40] Ryan C: A couple other things too, but it’s a really short, it’s a kinda like a compilation of everything I’ve learned and so recommend getting that. And so the blog and the podcast is there. Our marketing agency is valentine.com. Those are the two BA two best places to reach me. I’m also on LinkedIn as well.

[00:30:54] Ryan C: Pretty, pretty active there.

[00:30:59] Ryan: Okay. [00:31:00] So we’ll put both links in there so people can find you. Sure. Now I didn’t ask this, but I’m gonna ask, do you do any type of coaching or any type of

[00:31:08] Ryan C: assist to that extent? I technically, I guess I indirectly do, because I mentioned masterminds before. I’m part of three of them right now.

[00:31:13] Ryan C: I’m actually jumping on my, a session in 20 minutes. And so technically that’s coaching, cause we’re all coaching each. But I don’t do one OnOne coaching. I think that’s something I’ve been noodling around with the morning upgrade. I just don’t know. I just don’t know yet. I think I might take the mastermind route but to answer your question no, not right now.

[00:31:34] Ryan: Okay. And then from your blog post, are you consistently posting weekly

[00:31:39] Ryan C: podcast out every Sunday and I have not missed a Sunday since eight. Since when I started August of 20, 20, every Sunday, it comes. And my blog posts are a little bit less regular. It’s usually weekly, sometimes biweekly. I usually get out about three per month, but yeah, if you look at the blog, you’ll see, it’s very active.

[00:31:56] Ryan C: I’m also doing book summaries now, too. So basically reading a [00:32:00] book and summarizing them. I’ve got three up there now. I’ll probably will do these next ones next to me after I’m done. And so that’s like a new component of going back to what I said before. Just going down the journey.

[00:32:11] Ryan C: Trying to figure things out. Oh, book summaries would make sense around personal growth. And so now tho those are on there as well.

[00:32:20] Ryan: That’s cool. You keep on adding to it. That’s you’re growing and you’re changing. So that’s, sir. That’s a great thing to do my best.

[00:32:28] Ryan: That’s awesome. Ryan, thank you for coming on the show. Honored, great information you shared and will definitely be in contact. Yeah, you did a great job talk. Thanks for helping me

[00:32:36] Ryan C: out. This was a lot.

[00:32:41] Ryan: you’re welcome. bye.