Complimentary Analysis

Bryan Buckley

How to do more than survive a trade show on the road

One of the aspects of business travel for many road warriors is trade shows, events, conferences, etc.

Whether you’re working them or just attending them, they can be an absolute grind that becomes even more of a challenge.

Those very long days and sometimes even longer nights expose many of our already bad road habits on the first day let alone an entire event!

I remember my very 1st large trade show that I was “working the booth” as we often say.

It was in Orlando in the early spring so I was thrilled by the weather coming from Chicago. Silly me to think I would get to enjoy ANY of that Florida sunshine. The show hours were ridiculous, then the customer dinners and corporate events/parties at night.

I was young, ambitious, foolish, and did NOT know how to pace myself in those early days.

For someone who’s never worked or attended these type of events, they somehow seem more glamorous than the true reality.

I rarely saw the sun, ate whatever and whenever I could. I was unable able to enjoy the hotel except crash on the bed in a complete coma which seemed like a nap then wash-rinse-repeat.

My voice was shot, my feet hurt, I was tired of giving the same elevator pitch to people who too often could care less, and I had my fill.

And the more my role changed and my title increased, the more responsibilities I had on any given day of an event.

At one point, I was working the booth, in meeting rooms, hosting dinners, attending 2-3 corporate events into the wee hours of the morning, then having to get up early for key breakfast meetings.

Day after day after day after day.

I did NOT know what I didn’t know and just grinded myself through the trade show / conference season not knowing there was any other way.

Here are three of the Most Common Challenges I Faced

1. Food-Related = how do I find a decent place to eat on a trade show floor or conference? And it’s a challenge with going right to an event after the show to a corporate event that only serves appetizers.

2. Sleep-Related = I get more sleep at home with an infant than I do during the week of a trade show event or conference!

3. Health-Related = all I do is stand and I’m wiped out. No time to workout and even if i did, I wouldn’t have the energy.

But…

 

 What can you do to not only survive a trade show or event on the road but really thrive?

I mean the kind of thrive where you stand out as the show goes on while others are tanking big time?

Three Event Realities:

Reality Number One – Only you can take care of you – most barely do on a normal travel week but all the more the week of a trade show and/or conference

Reality Number Two – You don’t have to attend every event or be there every moment

Reality Number Three – Winging it is a horrible plan – too many business people just “go with the flow”

So, how do you do more than survive a trade show on the road…?

CREATE A PLAN…

Four Thrive Plan Essentials at an Event

1. Sleep Schedule

I start with this because on these grueling weeks, this is the 1st priority to go. You look at the average person on day two not to mention day three and they’re a walking coma.

Sleep is our biggest performance enhancer on the road but it seems to become even less of a priority with a brutal morning-to-night event schedule.

We MUST prioritize sleep and remember reality #1 – only you can take care of you I know the amount of sleep I need to be sharp – not just coherent – so I need to do whatever I can to guard that sleep time.

When you’re tired you make tired choices that are the path of least resistance and are only convenient, rarely healthy or the smartest choice.

Michael Hyatt often says, “the more tired I am, the dumber I get.”

I’m starting with the biggest ask in guarding your sleep, but it’s the biggest difference maker to your energy especially at a trade show or an event.

You need even more sleep at trade shows, conferences, events because you’re consuming far more of your energy so make sure you guard your sleep ESPECIALLY your 1st and last night.

Why those nights? Get your event off to a good start and the last night you want to start removing the sleep debt you put yourself in and you don’t want to be a complete train wreck and useless to those back home.

Event Tip – if you’re at an event, don’t make a HUGE DEAL when you decide to leave. No one ever really knows unless you make a huge deal that you’re taking off. I’ve found when I used to make this BIG ANNOUNCEMENT, this is when the peer-pressure came in full force – and… I often caved. But if you just slip out to go to the bathroom then head out the door instead of back into the madness, you’ve just pulled off a masterful escape.

An ERW (Elite Road Warrior) knows when it’s time to go and is shameless about it. They know who they need to see at a corporate event or party, they know the end goal of that conversation and when they’re just hanging around just to hang out. Look at the bigger picture and what an extra hour at a late night event will do for you in the long run compared to an hour of quality sleep.

2. Water

We normally don’t consume enough water on an average day, but Continually Hydrate is a key focus area.

You need to be responsible for your own water which starts with carrying your own water bottle. I don’t know, maybe an ERW branded water bottle with a slick handle? Just sayin.

You need to stay hydrated if you’re up on your feet and talking to people all day. There are often places to “fill up” water but rarely anything to put water in more than a toddler dixie cup so BYOWB (bring your own water bottle)

Also, for you “adult beverage drinkers”… you absolutely must join the free 1:1 Match Program – create a rule that you won’t have a 2nd drink until you finish your glass or bottle of water.

This alone is a game changer for those who decide to get the happy hour drink and I don’t know, 4pm when they start serving it, hit 1-3 corporate events/parties and a customer dinner!

And shockingly, you don’t have to drink everything offered to you. Often, I save it for the “better stuff” later – you can take a pass just don’t try and make it all up later.

Another tip, know when you’ve had enough and just switch to water. Nobody there knows and to be honest, nobody really cares. They may actually like you better if you stopped a beverage or three ago!

The point? Get watered down, man.

Have water be your companion all throughout the day but especially the last hour before bed.

3. Meal Planning

I used to consume the worst food that was so overpriced and did absolutely NOTHING for my energy.

I inhaled it and felt like I ate nothing, but was reminded a couple hours later when my body’s trying to process it. I’m stinking up the joint looking around like it was someone else.

Remember, Food is FUEL and FUEL is ENERGY.

When you don’t eat or you eat poorly, it’s a direct correlation to our energy and that’s exactly what we need to not just survive but thrive at an event.

As a result, control what you can control and that starts with breakfast. Make sure you’re taking time for a Clean and Green breakfast to at a bare minimum set up your day guaranteeing you have a strong base if you don’t know what will happen the rest of the day.

Do whatever you can to guard your lunch break. If you’re working a booth, you’ll get a lunch break. Maximize it.

I always and I mean always do intel on my options, how long it will take to get there and what food will be available for me.

If I’m not working a trade show floor, I have even more control and less excuses. Many conferences offer a lunch so MTHC (Make the Healthiest Choice).

Remember, food is fuel and fuel is energy. Where most people crash is in the mid-to-late afternoon depending on what they had for lunch.

Don’t be THAT guy or THAT girl.

Take control of your food because Food is Fuel and Fuel is Energy

4. Maximize Your Breaks

You have breaks at an event beyond your lunch break. Ask for them. Guard them.

Make the most of them – find or do something that brings you energy not consumes more energy

1. Snack
2. Go Outside
3. Watch or Read Something
4. Meditate

These sound crazy and require effort but remember, you’re NOT everyone else. You’re an Elite Road Warrior and your behavior is different as a result.

Here’s a Tip that combines #3 Meal Planning and this one, #4 Maximize Your Breaks:

Create a Snack Bag – I have a certain small lunch bag I carry with me to “Carry a Controlled Substance” and not be caught off guard. Normally I use these on the road but especially for the Trade Show / Conference / Event Week.

And even more so if I’m working a trade show. I’m a captive audience and that mid to late afternoon crash can be avoided and this is one of the biggest ways – having a healthy snack that is easily accessible.

You need to take control of your day. Let me give you a recent example.

I was in Vegas at a trade show after walking the show floor and had an event to attend in the early evening before a client dinner.

In the past, I talk myself out of going back to my hotel room due to all the effort and choose the path of least resistance and just stay at the event and drink cheap beer or wine and eat unhealthy appetizers.

This time, though, I choose to make the effort to go back to my room, workout for just 10 minutes in my room for some energy, FaceTimed with the fam, had a healthy snack (since I had a kitchen in my room and that was done on purpose!).

At that point I was more than ready for my evening with two corporate events and a dinner.

It can be done.

Let’s Land This Plane

There is a way to do more than survive a trade show and/or event whether your working or just attending it.

I want to challenge you. You have more choices than you realize when you’re at or working an event such as a trade show, conference, etc. Most “go with the flow and react” but not an ERW.

We have a THRIVE PLAN then execute it no matter what those around us are doing or not doing. If you can learn to take control in the toughies like an event, you’ve got this for the normal business travel trip.

Leverage that for road for YOU to become an ERW today.

You Got This!

How to Know If You’re Stuck in a Road Rut and How to Get Out of It

Energy Habit #4 is DEVELOP – and we develop on the road in three ways –
1. Sharpen the Mind
2. Process the Thoughts
3. Monitor the Heart

Sharpen the Mind – is what we put in to sharpen us in multiple ways
Process the Thoughts – is getting out of our head all that we put in
Monitor the Heart – is keeping a pulse on how we’re REALLY doing

One of the best ways to sharpen the mind is to read content that teaches and challenges you to develop personally and professionally.

And one of the most influential books I’ve read in the past year was written by someone I’ve interviewed before and followed his writing, James Clear.

His book, Atomic Habits, was pivotal in curating and translating my habits in helping business travelers and is the foundation of the content in this episode. So, all the content kudos goes to James Clear.

There are seemingly no bigger creatures of habits than someone who works on the road: aka – a Road Warrior.

We’re the essence of creatures of habits. We have our way of doing our “road thing.”

Habits make or break your ability to become an Elite Road Warrior. The irony about our habits is that if we have good habits at home, we’ll most likely have good habits on the road.

But….

If you don’t have good habits at home, the road will absolutely expose you.

Now, I’m not talking about taking a business trip once a twice a year and it feels like vacation but when the road is your vocation.

If you eat lousy at home, few turn it around on the road.
If you don’t sleep well at home, you rarely sleep more or better on the road.
If you don’t workout at home, you rarely turn into a gym rat on the road.
And I can go on and on and on.

According to researchers at Duke University, habits account for about 40 percent of our behaviors on any given day. [1]

Here’s the goal or the win of this episode – to get you to think about your Road Habits and find out where exactly you’re in a Road Rut with your habits.

I’m a psychology nerd and have the degree to prove it but it’s important to understand the process of building a habit to start the Road Habits conversation.

A habit is a behavior that is repeated enough times to become automatic.

It can be divided into four simple steps:

1. Cue. A piece of information that suggests there’s a reward to be found, like the smell of a cookie or a dark room waiting to light up.
2. Craving. The motivation to change something to get the reward, like tasting the delicious cookie or being able to see.
3. Response. Whatever thought or action you need to take to get to the reward.
4. Reward. The satisfying feeling you get from the change, along with the lesson whether to do it again or not.

The cue is about noticing the reward.
The craving is about wanting the reward.
The response is about obtaining the reward.

If a behavior is not sufficient in any of the four stages, it will not become a habit or automatic.

In summary, the CUE triggers a CRAVING, which motivates a RESPONSE, which provides a REWARD, which satisfies the craving, and, ultimately, becomes associated with the cue.

This is key: All behavior is driven by the desire to solve a problem.

Sometimes the problem is that you notice something good and you want to obtain it. Sometimes the problem is that you are experiencing pain and you want to relieve it.

Either way, the purpose of every habit is to solve the problems you face.

So, let’s get practical.

Many of my road habits are to relieve stress and make life on the road easier – not necessarily better.

  • I order what I want that I either can’t get at home, not willing to pay for on my own, or eat because it’s front of me.
  • I don’t drink on weeknights at home but I almost always do on the road.
  • I’m connected with my family more at home because they’re right there in front of me but on the road, I sadly find it a challenge to even text or call and it’s always on the time that is best for me.

Do you see what I mean?

Then, over weeks, months, and years of doing things that relieve my stress and make my life on the road easier, I develop certain habits that help me get by, not get better.

And this is why the Six Energy Habits are vitally important.

They challenge us in six key areas to leverage the road and what it can do for us, not look at only the limits and what it can’t do for us.

On the road, it is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment or massive change and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis.

Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action. And as a result, we do nothing.

Improving 1 percent isn’t particularly notable – sometimes it isn’t even noticeable – but it can be far more meaningful in the long run.

Unfortunately the slow pace of transformation also make it easy to let a bad habit slide.

  • If you eat an unhealthy meal today, the scale doesn’t move much.
  • If you work late tonight and ignore your family they will forgive you.
  • If you procrastinate and put your project off until tomorrow, there will usually be time to finish later. A single decision is easy to dismiss.

But when we repeat 1 percent errors, day after day, by replicating poor decisions, duplicating tiny mistakes, and rationalizing little excuses, our small choices compound into toxic results. It’s the accumulation of many missteps – a 1 percent decline here and there – that eventually leads to a problem. Over the span of moments that make up a lifetime these choices determine the difference between who you are and who you could be.

“Success is the product of daily habits – not once-in-a-lifetime transformation.” – James Clear

What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path toward success, and this is where most road warriors are wasting their years on the road.

They’re the most over-worked / stressed / burned-out / unhealthy / and disconnected they’ve EVER been in their lives.

I know because this was my Road Life for way too many years.

Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.

I love this quote by James Clear: “Few things can have a more powerful impact on your life than improving your daily habits.”

So, how do you know if you’re stuck in a road rut and how do you get out of it?

Maybe you’re saying right now in your head, “I definitely need to change some of my road habits and I’m in a road rut – thank you Dr. Obvious”

But how do you make those changes?

The book Atomic Habits offer Four Laws of Behavior Change:

1. Make it obvious. Don’t hide your fruits in your fridge, put them on display front and center.
2. Make it attractive. Start with the fruit you like the most, so you’ll actually want to eat one when you see it.
3. Make it easy. Don’t create needless friction by focusing on fruits that are hard to peel. Bananas and apples are super easy to eat, for example.
4. Make it satisfying. If you like the fruit you picked, you’ll love eating it and feel healthier as a result!

Sometimes a habit will be hard to remember and you’ll need to make it obvious. Other times you won’t feel like starting and you’ll need to make it attractive. In many cases, you may find that a habit will be too difficult and you’ll need to make it easy. And sometimes, you won’t feel like sticking with it and you’ll need to make it satisfying.

This is how I applied what I learned about the four laws of behavior change:

I used the statement: When I do _______, Then I’ll do ____________.

After (CURRENT HABIT), I will (NEW HABIT).

This required me to think about what I wanted to do and when I’m going to do it.

One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top ~ Habit Stacking

The key is to tie your desired behavior into something you already do each day. Once you have mastered this basic structure you can begin to create larger stacks by chaining small habits together. This allows you to take advantage of the natural momentum that comes from one behavior leading into the next.

Habit Stacking allows you to create a set of simple rules that guide your future behavior

Exercise Example: WHEN I see a set of stairs. THEN I will take them instead of using the elevator.

The secret to creating a successful habit stack is selecting the right cue to kick things off.

Habit Stacking works best when the cue is highly specific and immediately actionable.

The two most common CUES are time and location

Creating an Implementation Intention Strategy pairs a new habit with “I will (BEHAVIOR) at (TIME) in (LOCATION).”

With our bad habits, the immediate outcome usually feels good, but the ultimate outcome feels bad. With good habits, it is the reverse: the immediate outcome is unenjoyable but the ultimate outcome feels good.

“The cost of your good habits are in the present. The cost of your bad habits are in the future.”- James Clear

When the moment of decision arrives, instant gratification usually wins.

KEY: “The most effective form of motivation is progress”

The first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. Once is an accident. Twice is the start of a new (bad) habit.

Anyone can have a bad performance, a bad workout, or a bad day at work. But when successful people fail, they rebound quickly. The breaking of a habit doesn’t matter if the reclaiming of it is fast.

Too often, we fall into an all-or-nothing cycle with our habits. The problem is not slipping up; the problem is thinking that if you can’t do something perfectly, then you shouldn’t do it at all.

You don’t realize how valuable it is to just show up on your bad (or busy) days.

KEY: Lost days hurt you more than successful days help you.

Sluggish days and bad workouts maintain the compound gains you accrued from previous good days. Simply doing something – ten squats, five sprints, a push-up, anything really – is huge. Don’t put up a zero. Don’t let losses eat into your compounding.

It’s not always about what happens during the workout. It’s about being the type of person who doesn’t miss workouts. It’s easy to train when you feel good, but it’s crucial to show up when you don’t feel like it – even if you do less than you hope.

Atomic Habits gives five ways get out of road rut

1. Start with an incredibly small habit.

“Make it so easy you can’t say no.” —Leo Babauta

When most people struggle to stick with a new habit, they say something like, “I just need more motivation.” Or, “I wish I had as much willpower as you do.”

This is the wrong approach. Research shows that willpower is like a muscle. It gets fatigued as you use it throughout the day. Another way to think of this is that your motivation ebbs and flows. It rises and falls.  Stanford professor BJ Fogg calls this the “motivation wave.”

Solve this problem by picking a new habit that is easy enough that you don’t need motivation to do it.
Rather than starting with 50 pushups per day, start with 5 pushups per day. Rather than trying to meditate for 10 minutes per day, start by meditating for one minute per day. Make it easy enough that you can get it done without motivation.

2. Increase your habit in very small ways.

“Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.”—Jim Rohn

One percent improvements add up surprisingly fast. So do one percent declines. Rather than trying to do something amazing from the beginning, start small and gradually improve. Along the way, your willpower and motivation will increase, which will make it easier to stick to your habit for good.

3. As you build up, break habits into chunks.

If you continue adding one percent each day, then you’ll find yourself increasing very quickly within two or three months. It is important to keep each habit reasonable, so that you can maintain momentum and make the behavior as easy as possible to accomplish.

Building up to 20 minutes of meditation? Split it into two segments of 10 minutes at first or four segments of five minutes
Trying to do 50 pushups per day? Five sets of 10 might be much easier as you make your way there.

4. When you slip, get back on track quickly.

“The best way to improve your self-control is to see how and why you lose control.”—Kelly McGonigal

Top performers make mistakes, commit errors, and get off track just like everyone else. The difference is that they get back on track as quickly as possible.

Research has shown that missing your habit once, no matter when it occurs, has no measurable impact on your long-term progress. Rather than trying to be perfect, abandon your all-or-nothing mentality.
You shouldn’t expect to fail, but you should plan for failure. Take some time to consider what will prevent your habit from happening. What are some things that are likely to get in your way? What are some daily emergencies that are likely to pull you off course? How can you plan to work around these issues? Or, at least, how you can bounce back quickly from them and get back on track?
You just need to be consistent, not perfect. Focus on building the identity of someone who never misses a habit twice.

5. Be patient. Stick to a pace you can sustain.

Learning to be patient is perhaps the most critical skill of all. You can make incredible progress if you are consistent and patient.

If you are adding weight in the gym, you should probably go slower than you think. If you are adding daily sales calls to your business strategy, you should probably start with fewer than you expect to handle. Patience is everything. Do things you can sustain. New habits should feel easy, especially in the beginning. If you stay consistent and continue increasing your habit it will get hard enough, fast enough. It always does.

I want you to define Two MAJOR Categories of your habits:

Keystone Habit – this is the game-changer habit. When you do this habit, everything else gets better.

Tombstone Habit – this is the game-killer habit. When you do this habit, everything else gets worse.

Let me give you personal examples:

My Keystone Habit is SLEEP – when I sleep and really protect and optimize my sleep, it dramatically affects the following:

  • I make better food choices
  • I workout more consistently and have better workouts
  • My Energy Hour in the morning of reading
  • I’m more motivated to connect with those back home

My Tombstone Habit is DRINKING – when I drink without strict boundaries, it dramatically affects the following to the bad:

  • I stay up later and the quality of my sleep is affected big time
  • I make lousy food choices – usually ends in something sweet and I always overdo it since I don’t eat sweets much anymore
  • I’m sluggish in the morning and my workouts always suffer

So, what is your Keystone Habit? What is your Tombstone Habit?

 

What’s the difference between the best athletes or top performers and everyone else? What do the really successful people do that most don’t? – beyond genetics, luck, and talent, they must be able to handle the boredom of training every day, doing the same things over and over.

Really successful people feel the same lack of motivation as everyone else. The difference is that they still find a way to show up despite the feelings of boredom.

Mastery requires practice but the more you practice something, the more boring and routine it becomes.

The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. The outcome becomes expected. And as our habits become ordinary, we start derailing our progress to seek novelty.

On your next trip or possibly the one you’re on right now, observe your road habits. Do you have more good habits than bad? Which of your habits can improve?

Your Road Habits will make or absolutely break you on becoming an Elite Road Warrior. The best performers have the best habits. They know their Keystone and their Tombstone Habits. And so do you.

Now, wherever you are on the road, do something, anything, just not nothing to master the business travel life.

What Bo Jackson Taught me About Creating A New Road Secret Identity

For so long while business traveling, do you know what was ultimately my biggest problem?

I brought ME with me on the trip! I know, right?

The same bad habits I had at home went with me on the road. It’s like I packed them on my carry on along with that guy, Murphy, from Murphy’s Law.

And some of the those same habits were actually magnified on the road: I ate and drank more, and slept less. A sure-fire recipe for over-weight and exhaustion. Can I get an amen?

It was like I needed to become someone different in a good way on the road. But I wasn’t being different, I was way too much of the old me. The unaccountable, company credit card, and often too much free time me. I all too often was magnifying the bad parts, even the addictive parts of me on the road. Everything from working too much to drinking too much.

Then I heard an interesting backstory of someone I watched growing up.

I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him when he played sports. He was a highlight reel before ESPN SportCenter highlights really caught on like it is today.

It was Bo Jackson’s Story.

For those of you who don’t know that name, he’s the only athlete in the major four North American professional sports to be an all-star in two of them (baseball and football). Even Deon Sanders couldn’t pull this off. Sorry, Show Time.

Bo was a highlight waiting to happen in the 1980s who absolutely transcended sports. When you saw what he did you said “No Way. That’s not possible. Play it again!”

The greats in college have to choose between two sports – not Bo Jackson. He took on two major sports and excelled in both. Simply amazing.

He even had a popular string of Nike commercials called “Bo Knows.”

But most don’t know his backstory. As a kid, Bo had big time challenges containing his emotions and would get into a ton of trouble because of his outbursts of anger.

Often, he’d get caught up in the competition, and he’d retaliate against even the smallest perceived slights. The result? He would get hit with unnecessary penalties.

One day as Bo was watching a movie, he became fascinated by the unemotional, cold, and relentless nature of Jason. Does that name ring a bell? Jason was the hockey mask-wearing killer in the Friday the 13th movies.

At that moment during this particular movie, something in Bo absolutely changed. He had a breakthrough, soon-to-be light bulb moment.

He resolved to stop being Bo Jackson on the football field, leaving his uncontrollable rage on the sidelines.

And this is the key part of the story. To Bo, Jason only lived on the field. And when he walked out of the locker room and reached the football field, Jason would enter his body and take over.

Then suddenly, this hotheaded, penalty-prone, easy-to-provoke Bo Jackson transformed into a relentless, cold, and disciplined destroyer on the football field.

As Todd Herman puts it, Bo was channeling a “different” identity that helped him focus every ounce of talent and skill, and enabled him to show up on the field, without any emotional issues interfering with his performance.

Here’s the point: It was his “phone booth moment” just like Clark Kent transforming into Superman, Bo Jackson did the same thing when he transformed into his alter ego, Jason.

This story clicked for me as well. Fast forward to many years later, I realized I was still existing road warrior Bryan or exhausted road warrior Bryan on the road.

Nothing changed. I went on my next trip “thinking and acting” exactly the same. And as a result, I got the same results – imagine that. The only thing I gained was weight!

And I was tired of it both physically and mentally not to mention my wife and kids had had their fill of it as well.

I was also sick of looking into hundreds of hotel bathroom mirrors seeing the same former athlete looking like, well, I’ll let you finish my sentence.

My first problem is I was looking at the road and it’s limitations or how it enabled me, not how I could potentially leverage the road to become who I ultimately wanted to be in every area of my life.

Somehow I needed to figure out my Bo Jackson transformation when I hit the road.

I wanted to become Elite Road Warrior Bryan but something had to change in more than just my willpower and attempted behavioral change.

I needed what Todd Herman wrote on, an alter ego.

Now, I want you to stick with me because this alter ego jargon may seem a little weird but you’d be shocked at the thousands of athletes, performers, and business people who leverage the power of an alter ego.

I’ve been following Todd Herman for years from his blog post to his course, The 90-Day Year.

Then he came out with the book that I had heard him reference this concept for years, The Alter Ego Effect.

This is how he defines an Alter Ego Effect – assuming a different identity that allows you to embody a set of traits that you admire or wish to have. This new set of traits is what you then use to push yourself forward to success.

The problem is we live in the ordinary world where your enemy (inner conflict / resistance) prevents your Heroic Self from stepping up.

The enemy is there to cause you to stumble and not become your heroic self. It causes you to hesitate, overthink, and doubt yourself. Sound familiar?

It may sound like the following:

  • Things are just fine as they are
  • The road is too hard to change
  • I’ve been doing it the same way for too long
  • I’ve tried to change but keep coming back to the way things used to be

And this is what happened to me.

I put little to no thought into any other world except the ordinary world (aka: business as usual or in this case business travel as usual)

But Todd Herman challenges you to create an alter ego to fight this Enemy of mediocrity who fights change to ultimately embrace life in an Extraordinary world where you succeed at the highest level.

Your Alter Ego is the key to unlocking your Heroic Self.

Your Heroic Self embodies the three key focus areas of an Elite Road Warrior:
1. Your Work
2. Your Health
3. Your Home Life

An Alter Ego allows you to embody your Heroic Self whenever you need to perform at a higher level and I wanted to perform at the highest level with not only my work but also my health and home life and knew I had this gear in me that needed to be unlocked to come out consistently.

Todd Herman talks about your…

Field of Play – this is your place of performance. For an athlete, it’s the field or the court. For a musician, it’s the stage, For a business traveler, this is “the road.”

2nd – your Moment of Impact – also called “your moment of truth” – in sports, it’s the big shot; in sales, it’s your close; in a presentation, it’s your conclusion.

And here’s the point: Your Field of Play and your Moment of Impact is when you need your Heroic Self or your Alter Ego to show up.

James Clear in his book, Atomic Habits, says “true behavior change is identity change.”

You might start a habit because of motivation, but the only reason you’ll stick with one is that it becomes part of your identity. Who you are or who you’re wanting to become.

When your behavior and your identity are fully aligned, you are no longer pursuing behavior change. You’re simply acting like the type of person you already believe yourself to be.

Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.

Identity Change is the North Star of habit change.

Are you becoming the type of person you want to become? The first step is not what or how, but who.

I wanted to change more than just a “few things here and there” – I wanted to become, in this case, an Elite Road Warrior.

And this is where the Alter Ego Effect becomes not only necessary but incredibly valuable.

The theme quote for the Elite Road Warrior book: If you want to do something, you’ll find a way, if you don’t you’ll find an excuse. – Jim Rohn

You have to want to create an Alter Ego and embody it for all it’s worth for it to work. Otherwise, you’ll find an excuse NOT to make it work.

So, what exactly did Bo Jackson Teach Me About Creating a New Road Identity?

I need to create one that allows me to transform from Existing or Exhausted Road Warrior Bryan to Elite Road Warrior Bryan!

There are Three Transformational Ways to Change Your Road Identity

I’ll give you the three then I’ll be vulnerable and share with you my Alter Ego but you have to keep it between us girls – deal?

1. Decide the type of person you want to be

  •  Someone you know or admire
  • TV personality or athlete or CEO or musician or entrepreneur or historical figure or super hero

2. Define their “superpowers” or actions that sets them apart

  • Strong
  • Confident
  • Powerful
  • Calm
  • Smooth
  • Determined
  • Resilient
  • Overcomer
  • Brave
  • Consistent

3. Find a Totem or Artifact – why? It activates your Alter Ego or reminds you the Alter Ego needs to show back up

  • Something you wear
  • Something you carry with you
  • Something connected to the Field of Play

Examples:

  • MLK
  • Winston Churchill
  • Athletes – certain shirt / chain

Key Side Notes:
1. the totem or artifact must symbolize something to you – it must have meaning and really work for you.
2. don’t wear, carry, or use it all the time (it’s meant to be intentional) and don’t give it away (Churchill only wore his hat in public / athletes wear “that shirt” only during the game)
3. Choose something you’ll enjoy wearing or carry with you

My Personal Alter Ego:

1. I want to be an Elite Road Warrior who has the Alter Ego of Jason Bourne

I absolutely loved the Jason Bourne series and this character is who I chose.

2. Define their super powers – if you remember the movie, Jason Bourne was transformed from David Webb and was always and I mean always…

  • Calm
  • Calculated
  • Highly trained and skilled
  • Prepared
  • Aware and Adaptive
  • Maximized what was available
  • One step ahead

3. Find an artifact or totem

I had to try a few things until I found out what worked and really worked for me.

I chose an aluminum water bottle – why?

My Elite Road Warrior branded black water bottle only comes with me on the road.

I can bring it with me wherever I am on the road – in a meeting, for example, and it’s not awkward or odd.

And when I drink the water, it reminds me I’m ERW Jason Bourne on the road who is highly trained and skilled as a road warrior. I’m always thinking one step ahead, aware, adaptive, and calculated. I don’t do things like the average road warrior because I’m no longer average.

How does the Alter Ego come to life for me on the road?

Through the Six Energy Habits

1. How I Move
2. How I Fuel
3. How I Rest
4. How I Perform
5. How I Develop
6. How I Connect

In my moment of temptation of doing something, I ask myself: Would ERW Jason Bourne do this or how would he respond? it actually works if you do this process correctly.

So, are you willing to create an Alter Ego for you to become an ERW?

1. Who is that person you will become?
2. What are their characteristics?
3. What will you carry with you to activate and remind you?

I challenge you to really consider this exercise.

If you pick an Alter Ego, reach out to me via email: Bryan@EliteRoadWarrior.com to let me know. I’d be honored to hear from you.

You Got This!

How I’m Learning How to Do Keto On the Road in Five Challenging Ways

One of the biggest challenges we hear from Elite Road Warrior Group research is how hard or challenging or impossible it is to eat healthy on the road.

A theme quote from my book: If you want to do something you’ll find a way – if you don’t you’ll find an excuse. – Jim Rohn

My self-identified role is to push you, challenge you, and hopefully motivate you to move beyond the average. From the existing or exhausted road warrior to an elite road warrior. This is my Master Evil Plan.

One of the biggest challenges on the road – eating healthy.

How you eat affects so many aspects of your road life:

  • How you feel about yourself – confidence, disappointment or even shame in how you look (I remember those days trying to escape that overweight guy who kept following me to each hotel bathroom mirror – hated that guy)
  • Your energy levels – Food is Fuel and Fuel is Energy

 

I’ve always been a bigger guy since my college days of lifting and eating a ton.

In college, there’s the freshman 15 and
For the business traveler, there’s the Travel 20. And I was such an over-achiever I hit 40 pounds overweight to prove it.

If you want to see that picture, check out eliteroadwarrior.com and watch the video on the top header.

I loved eating the best of the king’s food and drinking the best of the king’s wine and have more than enough opportunity on the road.

Here’s one sad, revealing true story: I was at a large dinner party of 12 and someone after dinner challenged to pay money to anyone who would finish the table’s dessert.

Now, this wasn’t some dainty-cute dessert. This was one pound of brownie and a gallon of ice cream. Topped with a mountain of whipped cream.

Once they started throwing out large bills, I was in. I milked the experience acting like I was done so they would throw more money down.

I finished every last bite and did my “victory lick” with my finger of the last piece of chocolate.

I won.

Or so I thought.

I didn’t sleep for one second that night. I could not digest what I had just eaten mind you after appetizers, a Porterhouse Steak, and serious Vino.

I couldn’t even lay down. I was miserable for 72 hours.

Brutal. Stupid.

 

Once I dropped the weight, I would add 10 then lose it. Add 15 then lose it.

I didn’t look bad. I just didn’t feel my best. I felt it the most around my stomach.

Many of you can relate.

Then my wife got involved – that always changes, well, about everything!

She wanted to lose the weight from the last child. But although she’s in good shape, she just struggled to lose that last 15-20 pounds.

I’ve found myself there again minus giving birth.  My wife’s friends had been doing Keto but we were a little concerned about the quality of food they were eating, getting the Keto flu, with symptoms such as low energy/ nausea, hunger cravings, brain fog, constipation, bad breath, difficulty sleeping, etc.

My wife was wanting the same weight loss results they had, but we just left the whole Keto-thing alone for awhile.

We’ve been following Dr. Axe for awhile now and you can at DrAxe.com

He has his own practice and started seeing a number of patients doing Keto but had a similar experience as my wife’s friends. But it got personal when his own mother became very sick with cancer and he encouraged her to go on a certain type of Keto Diet which he tweaked with his paleo spin.

The results were amazing. Her cancer was gone and her health bounced back incredibly.

Dr. Axe saw similar results with a ton of his patients and ended up writing a book, ironically called Keto Diet by Dr. Josh Axe.

Since we follow and trust him, we picked up the book and the audiobook versions.

I listened to the audiobook on the road during a ton of drive time visiting California in early May. My wife listened to it on her commute to and from her elementary school as a 2nd grade teacher.

We were hooked on his style of Keto and were willing to try it.

But.. here’s the catch:

My wife didn’t want to start the Keto30 without a long ramp-up plan.

So, we used May to integrate the full-on Keto30 on June 1st.

Keto30 is a 30-day focus to jumpstart the Keto program.

Now, I’ll get into the weeds of how we’re doing it and how it’s going but I wanted to give you the backstory up front.

The first thought that came to my mind when my wife wanted/demanded I do this with her was:

“I can’t possibly do this on the road. Eating healthy is already hard enough but going Keto style is just not possible.”

Couldn’t or wouldn’t?

That was my first reaction and I do this for a living! The reality is if you want to do something you’ll find a way and I wanted to find a way.

And the 1st level of being an Elite Road Warrior is becoming an Experimental Road Warrior.

You’ll go back to Experimental Road Warrior time and time again, to try new things and this is exactly what I needed to do.

Our family is primarily Paleo which means we seek to eat foods that are Whole Foods.

Megan Blacksmith defines a whole food as “something that eats a plant, grows on a plant, but is never manufactured in a plant.”

In short: No label and/or fewer ingredients the better

Here’s the Keto Way

1. Limit the Carbs (focus on getting your carbs through vegetables and certain fruits)

2. Organic Protein (grass-fed meat and wild-caught fish)

3. Increase the Healthy Fats (avocados / nuts / coconut, MCT oil, Ghee butter, raw cheese, healthy oils, even dark chocolate, etc)

4. Quality Supplements (collagen / bone broth protein)

Ironically, grass-fed meat and wild-caught fish are high-fat as well.

The overall point of Keto is most of your food intake is high quality fats and proteins and selective, quality carbs that are at a minimum.

 

Now, at the time of this recording, at halfway through the Keto30 and our May ramp-up time, I’m down 17 pounds.

My wife doesn’t know that and she doesn’t want to ask since she’s not seeing it on the scale as much but I can sure tell.

You can see it all over on her and especially with her clothes. I’m so proud of her! We’re both having success. And the 1st week of June I wasn’t traveling which helped. The 2nd week was two days of travel and this past week was the entire week.

Here are the five challenging ways I’m Learning to do Keto on the Road

1. Hotels with Kitchens

My success starts with where I stay – normally my hotels have at least have a mini-fridge which is the bare minimum but when trying to do Keto I look for:

  • A large fridge
  • Oven
  • Stove

I want to prepare and cook my own meals

A question came to me from a Road Warrior: what if you can’t find a hotel with a kitchen that is near you?

Answer: leverage every square inch of your mini fridge and see if you can find a Whole Foods near you to eat their hot dinner

I’m willing to do the extra driving if a hotel with a kitchen is in striking distance. If I can pull it off on the Las Vegas strip finding a full kitchen, I can most places.

2. Grocery Stores

This is an absolute must – but my 1st day I BRING my own food depending how busy my 1st day would look like especially if I couldn’t get to the grocery store until Day Two of my business trip. I usually do this anyway on my 1st day of my trip but especially doing Keto and 100% of the time on Keto30.

Make sure you set up your business trip for the highest chance of success but ESPECIALLY on Keto30.

Another question that came in was: What do you purchase at the grocery store?

I try to shop at Whole Foods and/or Trader Joe’s every chance I get, even an Aldi which is owned by TJs has enough for me for a business trip. A regional chain grocery store will do if needed but read the label and ask questions, especially on the meat!

1st of all, I shop the perimeter which means the fresh stuff not the box stuff (remember the definition of a whole food – doesn’t have a box)

  • Greens – spinach / kale / Swiss chard / cilantro
  • Meat – beef / chicken / fish
  • Veggies – organic broccoli / cauliflower / green beans
  • Berries – blueberries / strawberries / blackberries / raspberries
  • Grass-fed butter to cook with
  • Mixed nuts
  • Avocados and olives
  • Almond Milk for smoothies
  • Grass-fed Yogurt
  • Matcha Tea

I know, it sounds like a week’s worth of groceries but I buy ONLY for my trip and IF there are any leftovers, I bring them home and if non-perishable, I’ll save them for my next trip.

Note: I cook most of meat at one time if possible: I’ll bake all three chicken breasts at the same time or all three pieces of salmon so I have it ready in case the next night I’m not in a hotel or it’s my last day of the trip

3. Add the Highest Quality Supplements

Dr. Axe teamed up with one of my all-time favorites Dr. Jordan Rubin to create an incredible supplement line: Ancient Nutrition.

  • Collagen
  • Bone Broth Protein
  • Digestive Enzymes
  • MCT Oil

I interview Dr. Jordan Rubin on Keto, supplements, etc. on my ERW podcast episode 032 for those of you who want the science behind Keto and the supplements.

4. Intermittent Fasting

This is not required but definitely a kickstarter to Keto.

Intermittent Fasting (IF) – eating within tighter windows within your day to give your digestive system a break and allow your body to burn more fat for longer periods of time.

Dr. Axe suggests 8 hour / 7 hour / or 6 hour fasting options.

My road experience when I don’t have control of my time as much. I’ll eat hotel hard-boiled eggs or make a smoothie in the morning to eat later, or whatever is easiest between meetings to try and keep on schedule.

5. Stop Drinking on the Road

To some of you, this is the easiest one of all because you’re not a drinker of the alcohol-variety.

But most road warriors are drinkers in some form. Statistically, road warriors drink over 30% more on business trips and too many are functioning alcoholics. Don’t believe me? Stop for 30 days on the road or how about just one business trip. Or just one night? See how THAT goes and let me know.

But what if you’re at at social event or client dinner?

This is for 30 days – it revealed to me my habit of how often, not necessarily how much I drink on the road.

Flights / evening after a long day / nice restaurant with a great wine list / corporate credit card where the shelf of the liquor is easily upgraded or doubled for that matter.

It’s been a challenge but good for me to take a 30-day break from any and all alcohol

If you’re going to do Keto30 and really see results, alcohol must go. It has so much sugar which Keto30 avoids except a limited amount of allowed berries.

Bonus Recommendations

1. My Life Saver Item – Lunch Box to Carry a Controlled Substance – I bought good quality Tupperware in different sizes that fit exactly in my travel snack box to maximize space along with a Spoon/Knife/Fork All-in-One.

2. BYOB – bring your own blender

This content is not for the faint of heart. You have to want to it to do it otherwise you’ll find an excuse, a whole bunch of people to side with you (who are most likely overweight and not self-disciplined).

I wanted to do something difficult, under he Energy Habit: FUEL,  and that’s doing not only Keto Diet but Keto30.

If you are serious about dropping some weight and getting control of your food and alcohol intake, hopefully I’ve proven this is a viable and possible option even on the road.

So, wherever you are on the road, do something, anything, just not nothing to master the business travel life.

Go and get your girlish figure back and leverage the road to get it.

You Got This!

Why Meditation Didn’t Work for Me on the Road

I’m at a place where I don’t just get by on the road, I’m always seeking to get better while leveraging the road to do it.

But even though I’m an optimist, I’m also a skeptic on sadly too many things that can actually be transferred to Road Life. Now, I’m not Donny Downer (Debbie Downer’s older brother version) but certain things raise my Skeptic Radar.

One no greater than the practice of Meditation.

Why Meditation Didn’t Work for Me on the Road

I grew up in a very very strict religious home and even though my parents were people filled with grace and acceptance, my environment was not – at – all.

My assumption is that this is where my judgmental, skeptical, even cynical side can rear its ugly head if I’m not careful. To be clear, I detest this side of me and have to watch for it with hopes I catch it before it infects someone else.

I’ve had a lot of life happen since that point, but knowing this about myself has put perspective and grace into my life big time.

Before I understood anything about meditation, I just assumed I knew what it was and how it worked. It had something to do with Buddhism which is not the Christian God so I immediately dismissed it.

Prayer was all I needed. But was it really a replacement for prayer?

Not at all – naive, assumptive, and just plain ignorant.

Then I thought you had to be in a certain “HMMMMMM Pose” sitting in the Lotus Position for hours at a time and somehow tied to Yoga or silent trips at a monastery.

I know, I didn’t know what I was talking about. Clearly.

Once I started reading and hearing so much about the benefits of meditation I was more accepting of the idea but still nowhere close to trying it.

Here were my Excuses:
1. It’s a waste of time – what benefits does it REALLY give to me?
2. I don’t have time for this – I barely have time for the important things on a business travel day, how do I have time for meditation?
3. I can’t do this – the only letters behind my name are not MD or PHD but ADHD – not a chance I can calm this brain so why even try?
4. It’s self-indulgent – IF I have a few minutes to myself, seems a little selfish to spend it on meditating…

Then one day on one of my Downtime practices (remember, downtime is part of Energy Habit #3: REST. Downtime is defined as Time to BE, NOT to be on).

I was doing my Road Thing of Barnes-N-Noble and I came across a title that just jumped out at me:

Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics.

Out of complete curiosity, I picked up the book from Dan Harris and the intro hooked me:

“If you had told me as recently as a few years ago that I would someday become the traveling evangelist for meditation, I would have coughed beer up through my nose.

In 2004, I had a panic attack while delivering the news, like, on ABC’s Good Morning America. Being a masochist, I asked our research department to tell me exactly how many people were watching. They came back with… 5.019 (pause) million.

In the wake of my nationally televised freakout, I learned something even more embarrassing – this entire episode had been caused by my stupid behavior in my personal life.

You can watch his response to this attack here.

I was fidgety and a skeptic and the excuses of why I was not doing or even willing to try meditation were listed in the table of contents.

Even after reading many pages and given opportunities to “try a short meditation”, I have to be honest, I didn’t do it. I just kept reading the book.

Then I picked up the audiobook so I could consume the content quicker (which I have a habit of doing). In the audio version, I was actually walked through what is called a Guided Meditation and I finally gave it a shot.

The biggest aha moment I learned was I had the goal of meditation completely wrong.

I thought it was to clear your mind and if you only knew what goes on in my mind, that sure wasn’t going to happen!

The goal of meditation is not to clear your mind but to focus your mind – for a few seconds then whenever you become distracted, just start again. Getting lost and starting over is not failing at meditation, it is succeeding.

Did you catch that?

This was a game-changer for me. I wanted to be more focused and if this couple-minute practice could help, I should consider giving it a real shot.

Do you know why meditation didn’t work for me on the road at first?

I didn’t understand it and what I don’t understand, I avoid, then discount, and all too often, dismiss and mock.

But that doesn’t make me right or the practice of meditation wrong.

It just makes me stubborn, close-minded, and not willing to experiment in something that could actually help me.

So, how did I eventually make meditation work on the road for me?

And with any new practice, you must experiment.

I love how Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky in the book, Make Time call meditation “just a breather for the brain.”

They say “for human beings, thinking is the default position. Most of the time this is a good thing. But constant thinking means your brain never gets rest. When you meditate, instead of possibly going along with the thoughts, you stay quiet and NOTICE the thoughts, and that slows them down and gives your brain a break.”

But meditation is also an exercise for the brain. Staying quiet and noticing your thoughts is refreshing but also hard work.

I wanted and even needed to become aware of certain thoughts and behaviors of mine on the road that meditation could potentially reveal:

  • Tension from stress
  • Restlessness
  • Randomness
  • Distraction
  • Sometimes I just need to be made aware of what’s going on in my mind and body (without being told by someone else)

These were instant wins for me with meditation.

I didn’t have to go to some silent retreat center, give up a full or half-day, or even sit in the lotus position humming MMMMMM……

Here was my insight:
I underestimated the power of just slowing down and concentrating on my breathing and focusing my mind not trying to clear it of all thoughts.

So, let’s get practical and personal….

Here are questions I’ve received on how I now meditate on business travel:

Where I meditate on the road:

Travel Day:

  • Drive to airport
  • Delays
  • On the flight
  • Before bed

Normal Road Day:

  • Part of my Energy Hour
  • Drive to a meeting
  • Before connecting with the family

How long I meditate on the road: 1 to 10 minutes

Not impressive and maybe a little embarrassing.

But sometimes I’ll do it 2 or 3 times a day.

My purpose at this point is to Focus my Mind and get a hold of what’s going on in my head and body.

Here’s how to implement meditation on the road (kudos from the Make Time book)

1. Start with a Guided Meditation App

Recommended:

1. Headspace
2. Calm
3. The Mindfulness App
4. Buddhify
5. Sattva
6. Stop, Breathe & Think
7. Insight Timer
8. Breethe
9. Omvana
10. Simple Habit
11. Meditation and Relaxation Pro
12. Aura

2. Aim LOW (start with 1-3 min) I often land in the 5-10 min range on the road.

3. No Lotus Position Required – My key was learning how to meditate wherever I was – driving / walking / during stress or anxiety / before bed

4. If the word MEDITATION freaks or creeps you out, change it!

5. Give this a REAL SHOT – it took me many weeks to find my groove meaning what app I liked / how long / adding in change of locations / even remembering to do it!

6. FOCUS is the key – focus on your breathing, focus on the road in front of you, focus on the sounds around you, focus on the scents – the key is focusing your mind for a string of consecutive seconds

My GoTo App: 10% Happier

Key Links for Reviews on Recommended Apps:

https://www.prevention.com/health/g27241883/best-meditation-apps/

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/top-meditation-iphone-android-apps#meditation-amp;-relaxation-pro

https://blog.bulletproof.com/best-meditation-apps/

The 10 Best Meditation Apps of 2019

14 meditation & relaxation apps reviewed

 

 

So, why did meditation not work for me on the road at first?

I didn’t really understand it and give it a real shot.

But that’s NOT the mindset of an Elite Road Warrior who experiments – Choose / Try / Evaluate / Adjust and this process is necessary to make meditation work, especially on the road

So, wherever you are on the road, do something, anything, just not nothing to master the business travel life.

Go and get your Meditation Groove on. You Got This!

HMMMMMM……