Show Notes: JamesSwanwick.com/278

Have you ever been a bartender? Or have you ever ordered a drink from a bartender? If so, have you ever received advice from a bartender? Have you ever interacted with a bartender that you found particularly interesting. To some surprise, most bartenders have other jobs, side hustles, where they are also generating profit. They work tirelessly to live their lives according to their standards, and feelings of motivation and inspiration play a large role in this. On today’s episode of the James Swanwick Show, James talks to a bartender about the good, the bad, and the lessons learned from bartending.

Grab a stool, as the author of The Bartending Therapist, Jason Herald, talks about society from a bartender's perspective. Jason lives by the motto, “the bar is a metaphor for life, it is a place that provides good times, memories, and life lessons.” Jason realized this when he started to bartend after leaving a career in sportscasting. When Jason entered the bartending scene, he did not realize that one day he would have a book all about his adventures with bartending, and life in general. Listen to this week's episode, as Jason explains valuable life lessons he picked up while behind the bar.

Key Points

• Jason talks about life, and the lessons he has learned throughout, while hoping others can learn from them as well.
• People need to be motivated, but more than just motivation, they need action.
• Motivation without action results in nothing.
• A sense of motivation and inspiration can be seen throughout Jason’s book, which persuade the reader to jump into action.
• Often times people will ridicule Jason for being a bartender, and claim he does not have the authority to give advice on life.
• His advice? People will always say “you are just a...” Do not let their negativity affect you.
• Things Jason has learned from bartending:
• • One of the highlights is the people you get to meet.
  • For the most part, at the root of humanity, people are good. Sometimes people just chose to do shitty things.
  • Learn to maximize your time. Bartending allows you to work flexible hours, so you can work multiple jobs.
  • Take advantage of the diverse crowd and take time to network.

• Moving moments: Big family get togethers, parties
• Negative moments: Seeing teenagers have to pick up their intoxicated parents from the bar.

• Different types of people that come in:
• • Drunk girl: An attention seeker, who will stand up on the bar, also known as the ‘hot mess.’
  • Drunk guy: Belts a very off-key “Don’t Stop Believing,” often having an alpha personality, yet still gets all the girls.
  • The wallflower: Comes in frequently, but does not say a word to others.
  • The creeper: Enters the bar, sits somewhere quietly, gets drunk, and then proceeds to make a move on the prettiest girl at the bar.
  • The regular: Comes into the bar frequently, where the bartender knows your order. Two types follow,
  • • Prophets: people that are there every night that discuss what they are going to do.
    • Warriors: people that come in, eat, grab a beer, talk a bit, but are there an hour tops.
• For bartenders it’s easy to break a conversation because they can simply say they have things to do, like cleaning.
• If someone is bothering girls, Jason says he often times tries to get, said creeper, distracted enough to leave others alone.
• Interesting fact about Jason:  He does not look at tips until after the customers leave because he does not want it to effect his work ethic.
• Overall lessons learned:
• • Don’t have a preconceived notion on a person, nix the stereotypes.
  • Constantly calculating moves, trying to do tasks to save just a few minutes.
  • Always look to optimize time.
  • People come into your life, sometimes only for a moment, and once you can recognize that, you can witness something special.

For Jason’s Book: The Bartending Therapist

For signed copies of the book you can contact Jason here.

Show Notes: JamesSwanwick.com/278

Show notes: JamesSwanwick.com/277

Do you spend copious amounts of time on your phone every day? Are you addicted to your cell phone? I know at times I feel like I am, finding myself on my phone for hours at a time.

There are many positives to the cell phone, as it makes things so much easier for us to complete things, as well as making things more accessible for us. There is a negative side to the ever advancing technology, though. The phone distracts you.  When you are constantly checking your phone, it lessens your focus, in turn, lessening your productivity. Not only does it lessen your productivity, but it also It lessons the substance within the relationships you have with people. If you are constantly checking your phone, instead of focusing on the person you are with, then the relationship will also be affected negatively.

On this episode, James is joined by Dr. Josh Davis, who is the director of research and lead professor at the NeuroLeadership Institute. Davis explains the importance of limiting the amount of time spent on your phone, and the increase in productivity that will follow this practice. He also talks about his book, Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done, which explains strategies to get the most out of your day.

Key Points

• Dr. Josh Davis joins James to discuss how to break your cell phone addiction and, in turn, create 2 extra hours of productivity to your day
• Going to help us today to curb our cellphone addiction, and strategies that can help us do so.

• If something is getting in the way of life, we need to pause and realize what we are doing is not healthy for us.
• The average person checks their phone 100 times a day. Imagine what you could do with your time if you lessened that.
• Number of hours range, but if you spend more than 2 hours a day on your cellphone then chances on there are things you are missing out on.

• Your cell phone brings about a loss for productivity.

• Phones allow space for flexibility with scheduling, but create less productive days, as people can constantly change things.
• It makes it harder to make decisions and can derail our entire days due to a loss of productive time.

Steps to be less addictive:

1. Do not use your cell phone as an alarm clock. Starting the day off with a real alarm clock, not your phone. Leads you to look at your notifications, and then you begin your morning on your phone.
2. Do not allow notifications to pop up.
3. Do have some spaces in your house for no phone zones

• It’s not enough to just stop these habits, you must attack them, and replace them with something.
• Due to the dopamine system in your brain, you need to learn to retrain your system.
• The dopamine neurons become active when we are expecting a reward. Can be a vicious cycle when you are trying to find this with notifications on your phone. Retrain this system so, instead, you get excited for something else.

• No phone zones in the house is a great way to train yourself, as it changes mindset through behavior.
• Examples include full rooms, or even just spots in a room.
• As a result of being in a no phone zone room, then you are forced to discover what you are going to do in that moment. After doing this for a period of time, you will start finding other things to do in general, creating new habits.
• It is incredibly hard for people to use their phone for the sole purpose of completing one task.

5 steps to maximize productivity

1. Recognize your decision points
2. Learn to manage your mental energy
3. Stop fighting distractions
4. Leveraging your mind and body
5. Learn to manage the workspace you are in

Check out Josh’s book, Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done

Also check out James’s 47 Day Hacker Habits to learn how to make your days more productive.

Show notes: JamesSwanwick.com/277

Show notes: JamesSwanwick.com/277

Do you spend copious amounts of time on your phone every day? Are you addicted to your cell phone? I know at times I feel like I am, finding myself on my phone for hours at a time.

There are many positives to the cell phone, as it makes things so much easier for us to complete things, as well as making things more accessible for us. There is a negative side to the ever advancing technology, though. The phone distracts you.  When you are constantly checking your phone, it lessens your focus, in turn, lessening your productivity. Not only does it lessen your productivity, but it also It lessons the substance within the relationships you have with people. If you are constantly checking your phone, instead of focusing on the person you are with, then the relationship will also be affected negatively.

On this episode, James is joined by Dr. Josh Davis, who is the director of research and lead professor at the NeuroLeadership Institute. Davis explains the importance of limiting the amount of time spent on your phone, and the increase in productivity that will follow this practice. He also talks about his book, Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done, which explains strategies to get the most out of your day.

Key Points

• Dr. Josh Davis joins James to discuss how to break your cell phone addiction and, in turn, create 2 extra hours of productivity to your day
• Going to help us today to curb our cellphone addiction, and strategies that can help us do so.

• If something is getting in the way of life, we need to pause and realize what we are doing is not healthy for us.
• The average person checks their phone 100 times a day. Imagine what you could do with your time if you lessened that.
• Number of hours range, but if you spend more than 2 hours a day on your cellphone then chances on there are things you are missing out on.

• Your cell phone brings about a loss for productivity.

• Phones allow space for flexibility with scheduling, but create less productive days, as people can constantly change things.
• It makes it harder to make decisions and can derail our entire days due to a loss of productive time.

Steps to be less addictive:

1. Do not use your cell phone as an alarm clock. Starting the day off with a real alarm clock, not your phone. Leads you to look at your notifications, and then you begin your morning on your phone.
2. Do not allow notifications to pop up.
3. Do have some spaces in your house for no phone zones

• It’s not enough to just stop these habits, you must attack them, and replace them with something.
• Due to the dopamine system in your brain, you need to learn to retrain your system.
• The dopamine neurons become active when we are expecting a reward. Can be a vicious cycle when you are trying to find this with notifications on your phone. Retrain this system so, instead, you get excited for something else.

• No phone zones in the house is a great way to train yourself, as it changes mindset through behavior.
• Examples include full rooms, or even just spots in a room.
• As a result of being in a no phone zone room, then you are forced to discover what you are going to do in that moment. After doing this for a period of time, you will start finding other things to do in general, creating new habits.
• It is incredibly hard for people to use their phone for the sole purpose of completing one task.

5 steps to maximize productivity

1. Recognize your decision points
2. Learn to manage your mental energy
3. Stop fighting distractions
4. Leveraging your mind and body
5. Learn to manage the workspace you are in

Check out Josh’s book, Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done

Also check out James’s 47 Day Hacker Habits to learn how to make your days more productive.

Show notes: JamesSwanwick.com/277