309 - Practical Advice for Managing Stress and Productivity w/ Eric Partaker
Unlock transformative wisdom from Eric Partaker, a CEO who's not just about the boardroom but about reaching the pinnacle of personal potential. In a delightful blend of humor and profound insights, we traverse the landscape of productivity, from the pitfalls of procrastination to the strategies that power successful leaders. Hear how a chance encounter at a dinner table with some of the brightest minds sparked a conversation that's about to change the way you approach your daily grind and life's grand ambitions.
From a high-flying consultant to the maverick behind the UK's fastest-growing burrito empire, my own odyssey has been anything but conventional. Now, echoing from the serene backdrop of Portugal, I'm dishing out stories that pivot from the laugh-out-loud to life-saving revelations at 35,000 feet. Join us as we chart the course from relentless workaholism to a life rich with health, family, and a work-life symmetry that's no longer a myth. Get ready for an episode that promises not mere productivity tips but a blueprint for a life well-lived and a legacy cherished.
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Hey everyone, welcome back to Private Club Radio, where we go over any and all topics private club related, city club, country club, golf club, yacht club, athletic club, all the clubs. Whether you're a professional with your CCM or you are brand new and just learning about the industry, welcome, you're in the right place. I'm your host, denny Corby, and one of my favorite things to do is link people up. I have met so many people over my many years a lot. I've met many people. I love interacting with people and, from where my career has taken me, I've met people in all industries and all positions and all areas. And I love linking people up because to me that's where innovation comes from, that's where fun things come from, that's where new ideas come from. So this episode is about that. I'm bringing in somebody who's not from the private club world but from the business world and he and I met in a really cool story. I explain it in the episode, but if you happen to know Vern Harnish in the book Scaling Up or Gazelles or anything like that EO Entrepreneurs Organization, anyway, he's big into that. I was fortunate enough to close out the one conference and Eric sat next to me at a speaker dinner and we were just dying laughing the entire time because we were looking at the room and I know for myself I was far from the smartest person there and he and I were just laughing the whole time because of just like the amount of power in the room and we're just like, who are we? It was really funny. I explained the story in there, but he is very accomplished himself and he's been doing a lot of cool things the past couple of years and one of his competencies is productivity and maximum peak performance and leadership. And where else do we want that more than in our clubs and for ourselves, for our members, for our employees always want to be the best we can be and the best we can be for our people and our performance, both mentally and physically. So I'm bringing on my friend actual friend. Eric Partaker went to school in Chicago, but Eric has been named CEO of the year at the 2019 Business Excellence Forum, one of the top 30 entrepreneurs in the UK, 35 and under, by Startups Magazine and among Britain's most disruptive entrepreneurs by Telegraph Magazine. His work has been featured on seven major TV stations, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist and has also appeared as a guest judge on the Apprentice with Lord Alan Sugar. He helped build Skype's multi-million dollar business, founded several businesses and nowadays coaches big time CEOs and thought leaders about how to reach maximum peak levels of performance, and he very graciously said he would love to come on here, private club radio, share with all of us how we can all become better at our performance mentally, physically and be more productive, get more done and become better humans. So this is a very fun chat, very smart dude. Please welcome to private club radio our new friend, eric Partaker. All right, so why don't you? Because I could talk about you, but why don't you give me, like the 30,000 foot background? Because you came from Burritos, right, chicago, burritos.
Speaker 2:I was yeah, I'm actually, I'm half taco, half burrito.
Speaker 1:That's what I thought. That's what I thought and that's why you and I got along so well at the scaling up conference, which I think about that moment too many times. Going back just because I was so dumb, like I had the best opportunity in the world and because it was Vern, so he has all those people in that dinner and I don't know how you and I connected or sat next to each other, but I remember Vern goes hey, we're going to ask everybody to stand up, tell us their name, who they are, kind of like what they and just like what they're like working on what's like the next thing. So all these people are going around and I remember there's that one quote you should never be the smartest person in the room. That definitely was not the. I think I said that when I stood up. Like, hi, my name is Denny. They always said you should never be the smartest person in the room. Definitely not going to have a problem with that here. What am I working on? Like, what's in my head? Is a hotdog, a sandwich? Is cereal soup? It's like, looking back, I had so many people in there. I could have been like this thought provoking thing and I was like, let me try and be funny as a hotdog, a sandwich.
Speaker 2:I probably laughed really hard, but that was probably like silence.
Speaker 1:Well, it was like the, it was, it was me, you. I can see, like I can see all the speakers like their names, like the people, and they were talking about AI before AI was even being talked about, like if yeah, okay, we're when it's said for something else. So I wanted to bring you on because I love what you do and you've grown and and you work so hard and I know between performance, work life balance and productivity, that's a lot of what our people deal with. So I thought maybe we can talk a little bit about productivity, because then I think productivity leads to a better work life balance and a better work life balance leads to peakery performance. I don't know if that's a word, but yeah, why don't we start off with productivity? What are some maybe like misconceptions, like what are some of your hacks?
Speaker 2:Hmm, yeah, I mean well. So, first off, it's like where's pointing out that I bought a set of books on overcoming procrastination in the year 2000. And I didn't read them until 2001. So I can definitely talk about this because I come from the depths of like anti productivity. I was like the literally, though like the world's worst procrastinator, I think. So there's a few things. One is people forget what productivity is like, about. Like a lot of a lot of people think it's it's about doing you know more things more quickly. And it's not about that. It's about doing the right things in the most efficient way possible. One of the perfect principles for people to really embrace is the 80-20 rule and like, if you think about like your life, if you think about the results you achieve, it's not, it's never linear, you know it's. It's it's always a minority of things that lead to the majority of results. Like if you look at a business, for example, and if you look at the revenues in that business, it's not going to be very rarely is it like a perfectly even distribution of revenues from 100 customers. There will be 20% of the customers that account for 80% of the revenues and then that, also conceptually like, applies to productivity. You have to ask yourself well, what is it that I'm trying to achieve? What am I trying to be productive towards? You know it's not like productivity for productivity sake. It's like you know what's your big goal, what's going to like change your life or change your business if you achieve it. And then it's asking yourself what truly will move the needle towards that goal versus is just me keeping me myself busy. Like you know, out of the 10 things that you could do to progress you towards whatever your goal is, what are the two which truly matter that will create 80% of your movement towards that goal? So I think like 80-20 rule, just as a concept, is like the first port of call for people making themselves more productive, like what are the right things to focus on, rather than what are all the things that you could do.
Speaker 1:Oh, I thought that you were going to keep going. You had that like rhythm. I was like, oh, here we go.
Speaker 2:And then it was like right after your joke at the conference oh wow, wow, wow, wow this assignment.
Speaker 1:Now, you didn't stay for that last day, right? I think you did.
Speaker 2:I can't remember.
Speaker 1:Because, not to break it back, not to break the rhythm here, but Jesse Itzler ended up being like a last minute throw in. So I was closing out the conference and then Vern comes. Hey, by the way, we're going to run a little bit behind. Jesse Itzler is going to go on before you and I was like oh great, like fantastic, this is going to be a walk in the park now. He's like amazing, such a good speaker. So he goes up. And he was talking about how, because we were in Atlanta and how one of his first gigs was at the arena in Atlanta and it was when he was doing his music and he goes. They thought it would be great to bring all the inner city kids from Atlanta into the arena and do a big concert. He's like there was LL Cool J, salt and Pepper. He's like I was on the bill, he goes. Nobody cared about any of the acts, there was just fights, it was chaos, people were getting like boot off the stage and he's like I'm not going to get boot off. He's like this is like the worst gig ever. So he goes. I was backstage and there was a bunch of free t-shirts, like a bunch of t-shirts, so I grabbed a bunch. I ran. They were like ladies and gentlemen, jesse Itzler. So I ran on stage and he said who wants some free t-shirts? Everyone went wild. I threw out the t-shirts and went good night, I'm Jesse Itzler, perfect. So, as he's telling this story and killing it on stage, I'm backstage and there's catering back there and there's not t-shirts, but there's a bunch of silverware and cutlery wrapped up in black napkins. So I took out all the silverware and just had all the black napkins. And after he went off stage and Vern introduced me, I ran out and said who wants some free shirts? And just throughout the napkins I went I'm Danny Corby, good night. And just walked off. Not no, I asked and that was weird. No, I actually like, did like, like, like performer stuff. That was my like, uh, uh intro.
Speaker 2:And that must be it, because then you walked into a perfectly primed audience for that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that was funny. So 80, 20, that's Prado's rule or Prado's law, right, I think yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, prado principle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you get down to that 20%. You find those high, you know high value activities. What's the next step then? Like, is it a prioritization? Like, what's the next step to making, like, the most and maximum value from your time? So, once you're?
Speaker 2:you're, you're figuring out, you know, like what you should be working on. But the next thing that I recommend that people do to set up like a few routines in your day. So you know the the first is recognizing that a productive day rarely begins the day of. It begins the night before and it's nice to have like a simple evening routine. So this idea comes from a guy named Cal Newport. He wrote a book called Deep Work and he has his practice that he does. He calls it, I think, a shutdown routine or a shutdown ritual, and basically it's a static like meeting with himself. You know, I always say do it like you know, 30 minutes before you'd like your day to end, where you're doing a final check of your email, you know, final look at your to-do list, looking at your next day and then deciding you know what are the top three things that you want to work on and then scheduling them into your calendar as appointments with yourself, you know, at the following day, so that you go into the evening like when you actually do shut down. It's like you know you can properly, you can relax, you can go to bed like not thinking about work because you know what you're going to do and what you know the next day. So like that's the first thing. And then the second thing is, when you do start your day, start it creative before reactive. And so what I mean is don't start like in your inbox or on social media or like reading some news feed, because it's you know, I equate it to like it's like you you're dropping your brain into a pinball machine to be bounced from like one person's agenda to the next and it's like totally fragments your attention and destroys your brain. So if you, if you just focus, at least for the first 60 minutes of the day, working on whatever that number one project was or tasks that you decided that you know the night before, at the end of the day, day before, you just feel like it's just like a massive difference. It's like the difference to like it feels like you're driving the train rather than hanging onto the back of it. If you just start your first 60 minutes that way, like huge difference. And then the last thing would be and this applies to like how you work in that first hour as well as you know, anytime you're trying to do focus, work throughout the day is really focus on like single tasking, and so what I mean is the average person jumps around. There's some research from Stanford University. The average person jumps around about 37 times an hour, and what I mean by jumping around is like you start working on a presentation and five minutes later you're I don't know on some social media feed and then backs the presentation and then it's like oh shit, my coffee's cold. 37 times 37.
Speaker 1:37. 37 times in an hour.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And it could just be mentally as well. It's like I'm working on this but not at day gym and thinking about that, and so that's so. All these like microstops make it really difficult to be productive on anything, of course.
Speaker 1:So what time do you wake up?
Speaker 2:that.
Speaker 1:What do you mean? So like, if you're starting like an hour, you're not doing email or anything, so what time do you wake up then?
Speaker 2:I usually go to bed around 10 lately, wake up around 6, 6.30. So like I'm talking about like the first hour of the day, like working so 9 to 10.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. Oh, okay, I gotcha, that makes. That makes a lot more sense.
Speaker 2:I was like man, you just I'm not talking about yeah, I'm not talking about waking up super early and doing all this stuff before your work day starts.
Speaker 1:I gotcha.
Speaker 2:I've done that before. I've gone through like phases of like trying to do a ton of stuff like super early in the morning. It just that's just not very compatible with like having a family.
Speaker 1:That was going to be like. The next question is then like so how do you? I was trying to dig down and think about the audience, and people who have family are like, how do you just wake up and just go to work? But no, that makes total sense. You had the fastest growing burrito. What was that?
Speaker 2:Okay, so I've done like a bunch of. In hindsight they look like quite random things. So I started off as a consultant with McKinsey. I was there for a few years. Then I was part of the early team at Skype. So back like when we used to use Skype, so help build that. And then we had a big exit to eBay and then I built a chain of Mexican restaurants after that in the UK and that became like the most popular burrito place in the UK and you crowd-funded that right. Yeah, we did crowd-funding for that as well.
Speaker 1:That was one of the things I remember. Is you crowd-funded, and then was it? You had like a, so people could buy in, and if you bought in for 10 grand, you get unlimited burritos. You get like the burrito black card or something. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:And you get, like, free burritos for a certain X number of years or whatever. Yeah, that was super fun. That was super fun.
Speaker 1:This is like back before. A lot of people were doing that, that sort of stuff also.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I know we were at the forefront, for sure, and now living. So we live in Portugal, now have our own CEO advisory and investment. So basically I coach and mentor CEOs, help them scale their companies and do it without like imploding. And then we invest in some of the companies too, and three dogs and Jerry and Cream, and you know. You guys don't like guys bright and you're pretty.
Speaker 1:Lactose intolerant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very. It gives me horrible, horrible gas.
Speaker 1:So when you're you've done a lot, how did you balance work-life balance with all of that? Because we're going from productivity, which then you know, I think you have productivity it goes to work-life balance. How did you I?
Speaker 2:didn't balance at all no. I was like the king of imbalance. I had to go deep on all this stuff because I needed all this stuff. I didn't have all this stuff dialed in. I was like the anti-phesis of all of these things. You know, it's like a massive, massive workaholic. Was this before?
Speaker 1:you had kids During or after?
Speaker 2:Before.
Speaker 1:What's the after? Are you done having kids? Yeah, like I don't. This is out questioning me.
Speaker 2:Like don't Did during, like the actual moment, or like what do you?
Speaker 1:No, like so, like so with the work-life balance and things like that.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, no work-life balance. I was over tracked on work like most of my life. Then I nearly died from like a heart attack what 10 years ago, yeah? And then that was a big wake-up call and so then I started to become a lot more focused on, obviously, my health and a lot more focused on spending time with my, because when I was the bass goes and I was on a plane 35,000 feet in the air and then nearly died and then the emergency landed the plane, doc, there happened to be a doctor. I'm serious. I actually wrote a book called the Three Alarms and this whole story is in the book, so it's a spoiler.
Speaker 1:I didn't read it, I meant to. I bought it, but I haven't had any alarms yet that have made me.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, needless to say, I was the king of imbalance, like I was just working all the time way too hard. I remember they took me off of the plane and into an ambulance that was on the runway and they administered nitrates right there to kind of like open up the blood flow to the heart and all that. And I remember looking up into the eyes of the paramedic, looking down at me, and I said please don't let me die. I have a five-year-old son. And he said just relax, you're okay. Now. I wasn't okay, but he's like just calm down, everything's You're in safe hands. You're in a safe hands. That was in 2011. So that was like 12 years ago and that prompted a lot of changes. So it's like okay, I'm not a machine. I do need to watch what I'm eating, drinking, I do need to exercise and you need to look after my sleep. And the change didn't happen in an instant. I remember it's like a couple of years later, I woke up one morning and my wife has like tears in her eyes and she's like I'm leaving you and I'm like oh, like you know, this keeps happening. Like what's going on? You know what's up, why is this happening? Sort of thing in disbelief and she said, well, because you're here, but you're not really here. And so I realized that, you know, I had started to dial in my health a lot better, but I actually wasn't like paying enough attention and helping out enough at home and there was no way I was going to let her like she had done so much for me. So I was like, no, no, no, you don't need to do that, like I'll make all the final changes that you need. Now we've been married, you know, for like 10 years. We're business partners. Now as well, I'm having an amazing family. She literally, quite literally saved my life, you know, by helping me make all these changes. And so the work, life balancing was something that was quite literally forced upon me. You know, when you kind of consider it from the perspective of, well, if I didn't do it, I literally would have died right. And the good news on the flip side is when I've obviously had to see a cardiologist for years and like the cardiologist said to me years ago, he said, like Eric, if I refer you to another cardiologist and didn't share your history, they wouldn't be able to find any evidence of trauma you know, to your heart. So like, whatever you're doing, he's like just keep doing it because it's working. So I mean I, you know, there's like what I have basically in my heart, you know, is what could naturally occur in the population from like a diagnostic point of view, like what they would see right, so they wouldn't be able to associate that with any trauma and not only that, we'll have a reduced life expectancy because of those things. So got lucky, and of course I look at stuff and everything. Yeah, so I did. You know, I got lucky. I definitely lucky, because it was definitely lights out in the tarmac.
Speaker 1:Good thing your wife wasn't with you. Don't let me die. Well, he doesn't need those nitrates, save them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's been a crazy up and down journey and you know.
Speaker 1:So what would you say are some of like your you know, so now you really help people with. You know all of this the productivity, the work-life balance. One of the things I really enjoyed watching you, you know, speak about and stuff is peak performance. Can you talk a little bit to that?
Speaker 2:So the way I define it is not trying to turn you into a Ferrari, because obviously that doesn't work, as I, like you know, found out, but it's more like I define peak performance as if you perform. It's basically closing the gap between your current and best self. So it's like you've led the life that you're capable of living. Or, to think of it another way, you get to the end of your life and you look back and you don't have any regrets. You're like I did my best for my health. I did my best, you know, for my family, you know, and friends. I did my best, you know, on the work front, because I think if you actually do that, then it'll be, you know, life well lived. So you know my approach was it all is just to, very, quite simply, at the start of each day, just ask yourself in those three domains on the health front, work and home front like what is the best version of you you know? Look like on those fronts and then ask yourself if you had evidence, that best version of you in the context of that day, like what's? Just one thing, one in each category, so three things total that, if done, represent you at your best and it could be something super simple, like you know, like today, for example, on the home front. You know, I'm just going to do a ping pong competition with my 10 year old. That's like super, super simple thing, right. But it's just like being more intentional, as all it is, because often we just kind of drift through life and we don't like think with intention. You know, what should I do today, which, if done, is like a life well lived, and it's not like none of this is meant to be exhausting or like in a constant pursuit of you have to be your best at all times. It's just like no, it's just being a little bit more intentional. That's for me, that's like a peak performing life and then laughing as hard as possible along the way.
Speaker 1:True, that true that insert.
Speaker 2:After Anyway, what about you, man? What's like what's what's a, what's a life? I'm sure you know, I know you're Mr Jokes and a comedian and all that, but I'm sure you have like deep reflective kind of moments as well, like what's a life well lived for you.
Speaker 1:Currently doing it. I'm very fortunate I made it through. The pandemic 2019 was bonkers, you know, from scale up summit I was that was a unreal gig. I've been a fin of Verne's for years. I just love, like the business, sales market, I love all that stuff. So being able to close out that I was coming off of Penn and Teller Fula, so it was all this stuff. And then the pandemic hit and I remember I was flying home from a gig, from Vegas and everything was shutting down, like all the gigs were canceling and I was like this, this is it Actually not not immediately, because I was like, oh, you know, this whole thing's happening. It's like, oh, me, would be like a month or two. And then I was like, oh, I don't know about this and I'm a big fan of commit. First, figure the rest out later. So I figured out how to do virtual shows, did my first one, ironically, or my first three, on April 1st so they go if they're bad, april fools, which they all went pretty well, but then that I think I did like 50 virtual shows in April of 2020. So I think it's just, you know, just figuring out. There's always going to be a way, you know, hopefully figure it out and, you know, just rolling with it, seeing what opportunities come. And you know I'm trying to be the best human I can for my dogs and wife.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hey do you have kids or no? Our dogs in the car.
Speaker 1:No, it's easy boy, now no, yeah.
Speaker 2:I have a few sets of friends who same thing it's like if it happens and it works out, then you find a way to make it work out. But I know loads of people who don't go that route too.
Speaker 1:The dogs have a lot of conversation about how people treat that Like how they start just getting really deep in questions. So when I was like what time do you wake up? That's nothing compared to like when people are like oh, how come you're not having kids. It's a very personal thing to. So I've just been telling people like, oh, I got that thing and there is no thing. But they, oh my God, I'm so sorry Like if I, oh, I got that thing. Really, that thing is, I just don't want them.
Speaker 2:But yeah, Well, I had kids pretty early. I was like 29 when I had my first one, so he's 18 now. And then we have one other boy, leo, who's 10, but they are blessed to do like all the Having boys too. It's like go do paintball together, do go karting, ping pong, like all the boys stuff. So it is a lot of fun, you bring your 10-year-old paintballing. Oh, he loves it, he loves it, savit, savit, it is pretty.
Speaker 1:Let him up the first day, get used to it, bud. But Awesome.
Speaker 2:So what are you going to be out here in Portugal so we can shoot you at the paintball?
Speaker 1:I love paintball, though, so I'm the mistake. So my little brother's. So I'm 34. My little brother's 18. So, like four years ago, five years ago they were, like you know, 11, 12, whatever. However, I can do math and there's like a really big paintball place by me and the Pocono that's called Skirmish. I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but it's like an amazing paintball facility and it was like me and like all my brother's friends and my parents had to like sit me down before the game. It was like listen, these are kids.
Speaker 2:No easy on them.
Speaker 1:But they were savages, man they are. They don't care if they get hit, they just keep running.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is probably one of the most enjoyable things to do. Paintball or have kids, Bull Right. So we're going to take the conversation now.
Speaker 1:This is it. No, I'm going to edit this down. It's going to be like five minutes. It's going to be awesome. No, I actually took notes. There's a really there's like a lot of good nuggets that I got from this and you are very generous because you are giving away your book free to all of the listeners.
Speaker 2:Yep, so if you just head out, head over to my website. So, eric Eric, with AC Ericpartakercom, yeah, you can get a free copy of the book the Three Alarms. It's a digital copy, I'm not going to mall it to your home address, but, yeah, pick up a free copy and then I talk about the whole life story in there and like a tons of stuff that you can do to create better work-life balance, to become more productive and just get a lot better at handling stress and things that don't go your way in work or life or whatever. Often, often Like every day.
Speaker 1:Yep, see you. Thank you, sir, I appreciate you being on here.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I'll get a beer.
Speaker 1:You're in Portugal. I can't Hope. You all enjoyed that episode. Eric, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you being on here. He's so fun and funny. Make sure you link up with him. He's over on LinkedIn. I believe he's one of the top 10 or top five LinkedIn influencers. Pretty cool stuff. If you want a free copy of his book, highly suggest you go get it. We'll put it in the show notes below, so check it out. As always, thank you so much for your support. A like, share, comment, some stars. Anything you can do to help us move the needle forward means the world. Thank you all so much. Until next time, catch on the flip, flip, flip.