How to Read 100 Books with Nick Hutchison

On this episode of Circuit of Success, host Brett Gilliland interviews Nick Hutchison about his approach to reading, goal planning, and daily routines. Nick explains his SMART goal framework and how he quantifies his goals in an activity tracker. He also emphasizes the importance of failure and iteration in achieving success and recommends three books that have had a major impact on his life. Join Nick’s active community on Instagram, Book Thinkers, and learn how to choose, take notes, retain, and implement the knowledge from books.

https://youtu.be/5OG1lzj4-GA

Speaker Brett Gilliland: Welcome to the Circuit of Success. I am your host, Brett Gilliland. I’ve got Nick Hutchison with me, Nick. What’s going on? Speaker Nick Hutchison: Brett, I’m excited for the conversation. Can I ask you question number one? Speaker Brett Gilliland: You may. Speaker Nick Hutchison: What is your favorite book of all time? Speaker Brett Gilliland: Oh, what is my favorite book of all time? I always tell people the rhythm of life by Matthew Kelly. That is my favorite book and, it was book I got recommended gash probably twelve years ago, maybe. And, it was a game changer for me. So that would be it. The rhythm of life of Matthew Kelly. What do you think? Speaker Nick Hutchison: I love it. Here we just. We just Oh, I haven’t I haven’t read that book yet. I do own a Matthew Kelly book. It’s not that one. And it was a book that I had read a number of years ago, but, I love to hear it. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Awesome. Yeah. It’s a great book, man. So check it out. So you are, the force behind book thinkers people that listen to podcasts, they hear me talk about, you know, every day reading ten pages minimally. That’ll get me around twenty four to twenty five books a year. Which I know I just interviewed somebody yesterday and he had read eighty five books. I’m like, okay, I feel like a total schmuck now. But anyway, twenty four to twenty five books a year is pretty good for me, but Anyway, that’s what I like to do. Our people connected with your people, and, now here we are. So if we can, but we dive into all this great stuff, Nick, I always ask the question is, what has made you the man you are today? Speaker Nick Hutchison: Well, I was not much of a reader growing up with would super they can see the background. So I’ve got, like, a thousand books behind me, and I read about a hundred books a year. Wow. When I was going into my senior year of college, I took an internship at a local software company, and My boss at the time, he recognized that I had about a one hour commute each way. And he said to me something like, Nick, listening to the same playlist the same music for the one thousandth time. Like, it’s not gonna get you closer to where you wanna be in life. But the right, personal development podcast might And so that’s how I started. I started by listening to podcasts. And what I noticed was that so many of the successful people being interviewed, they gave at least some credit for their success to the books that they were reading. And so that’s what made me the man I am today. I started consuming personal development books. I started reading about every problem I had, every skill I wanted to develop, I started reading about the world’s best at everything, health, wealth, in Gilliland I started to input something from Ren. Here I am about ten years later, five hundred books in and You can’t stop me now. Speaker Brett Gilliland: That’s awesome, man. It’s true. I I call it windshield university. It’s, you know, we have so much time in our cars whether you’re commuting or driving you know, whatever you’re doing. You know, let’s let’s get another university. Let’s get another degree. Right? And so I think it’s it’s huge. So here’s my question for you on the, you know, read a hundred books already this year, I think you said, is how, like, how are you doing that number one and how are you committing the time to it with a, you know, with a busy schedule? Speaker Nick Hutchison: Well, I like to start by asking people this. So sometimes people will tell me, like, hey, I can’t read. And I love to say, If I paid you ten thousand dollars to read a book by the end of the month, do you think you could do it? And they’re like, Yes. Well, I could read five in that case. And so it’s not a question of whether or not we can read. It’s a question of whether or not we value it enough to prioritize it in our calendar. So for me, not only is it my full time job now, which helps me to promote books for authors. But I value it. I value it more than Netflix, more than social media. I value it more than a lot of things that other people spend their time doing. I’m always looking to serve my future self. I’m always looking to remove pain and solve problems. I’m looking to develop skills and get closer to my potential. So that’s how I’m able to prioritize it and find so much time. And just like you talked about, ten to twenty pages a day, that’s twenty five books a year, even for beginner. So, yeah, it’s it’s a great way to make it happen. Yeah. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Because I, you know, I hear people all the time when I talk about my ten pages thing. Like, oh, I don’t have time, and and but I think you’re right. It’s a priority. You know, so I I have it whether it’s in the middle of the day I gotta get it in. It’s usually it’s first thing in the morning. It’s about one of the first things I do. And so I’ve just made it a habit. I think that we’ve got to. And the things that I’ve learned and even the thoughts that come into my mind about something, whatever’s going on in my life in that situation, this thing I’m reading over here will help fertilize that. Right? And you just add some water to it and then that thing starts to grow. And for me, it’s thinking it’s journaling and spending time on it. So I’m curious because one of your passions and one of the things I wrote down in here is your new book rise of the reader, which comes out November first. Plug intended. We’ll talk about that later, but you you really dive in the strategies for mastering your reading habits. But then also applying what you learn. So I’m curious on how we do that. How do we apply what we’ve learned when we read every day? Speaker Nick Hutchison: There are so many different strategies for application that we can talk about, but I think it all starts in the in the early stages of your reading process. So for me, one of the things that I found myself doing that most other people don’t do is I set an intention for each book that I read. And my intention follows the smart goal framework. So it’s specific. It’s measurable. It’s attainable. It’s irrelevant to my life. To my lips, I’m emotionally connected, and it’s time bound. So one of the books that A lot of people are reading right now in the world of business is titled hundred million dollar leads, by Alex or Mozy. And they’re it’s a book on lead generation and they’re just hoping that it’s going to change their life. And so instead, I say set a smart goal. Set an intention for the book, something like find and implement at least two lead generation strategies for my business by the end of October. And then review that intention each time you read a few more pages so that you can tell your brain what to filter for. Find and implement at least two lead generation strategies. Now you’ll be able to accurately identify them within the book, and the book can help you solve your problems. I think it all starts with setting an intention and have that attention based on taking action. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. I love that because that’s what we do with our clients. You know, we’re in a wealth management space, and it’s it’s they’d be like us saying, hey, just come in, and we’re just gonna start saving money with no intention on where going and no goal, that would be crazy. Right? And so I’ve never really thought of it that way as to have an intention for the book. I’m a big highlighter. Right? Like, to highlight the books. I like to read the actual book, not, you know, on my iPad or something like that. And so so how do you for people that maybe don’t have that discipline built today, they’re not doing the ten pages, they’re not reading a hundred books a year. What advice would you have for them to take action and start making it part of their life. Speaker Nick Hutchison: Yeah. I would say pause for five minutes before you start the book. And at this point, you should know what the book is about and set a goal set a goal to implement at least one thing from the book. So by the time you’re finished with the book, you’ve highlighted a few potential actions that you can take with your highlighter just like you talk about. And look at those actions, write them down rewriting your favorite takeaways as a form of repetition Gilliland repetition leads to our attention. So look at these potential takeaways and say, which one of these is going to lead to most of the change that I’m looking at create. Take action on it. There’s a Napoleon Hill quote that I love. It says action is the real measure of intelligence. It’s not sitting back and debating things and having a great vocabulary. It’s the person who chooses to implement what they have learned creates a behavior change, turns it into a habit, and then wakes up as a wildly different person ten years from now. And so that’s it. Just one thing from every single book that you read. Speaker Brett Gilliland: And are you writing those down? Are you are you a writer downer guy? Are you a journal guy? Like, how are you how are you doing that? Speaker Nick Hutchison: Yeah. So, typically, I will let’s say I read a book on lead generation using that example, and I’ve set an intention to find and implement at least two things. I’ll probably fifteen potentials. So at the end of the book, I go through and I reread those fifteen things that I highlight. And I will rewrite all of them into a list. And I’ll say, here are the potential actions that I can take. What twenty percent of these will create eighty percent the change that I’m looking for. The highest leveraged activities, not every activity is created equal. And then I I mean, and I detail all this in the book. It would get a little bit complicated to try to explain about. I have an activity tracker that I will plug those activities in And I’ll set a goal to implement that by the end of the week or in the next two weeks or three weeks. And so it gets rewritten into a second place But, yeah, I think that writing with the pen in your hand, it’s multi sensory. It’s visual. You can feel it happening. And again, repetition leads to retention. So you wanna rewrite it a couple of times once on paper, second time into my tracker. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yep. So if we’re not reading, are you would you call yourself a big goal planner? Just again, eliminate the reading side of this thing. Are you a huge, huge goal planner? Speaker Nick Hutchison: I would say, yes. I have been over the last ten years. I’m probably a little bit less today than I was. No. You know what? No. Scratch that. Yes. I am. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Let’s define that. How are you a huge gold planner? Speaker Nick Hutchison: Well, everything’s quantified in my life. And I I will say, that doesn’t sound fun, but Jocko Willink said it best. Gilliland creates freedom. Discipline equals freedom. And so by defining my goals in my activity tracker for every week, and my goals are related to everything, not just business. So goals around Gilliland the gym and fitness and diet, goals around my relationship, certain number of date nights every week, etcetera. Goals around my business and my personal finances and things like that. Everything’s quantified because without measurement, you don’t know if you’re making progress. I see you have to stand your and where you’re at. And so I set goals, incremental improvements. I set annual goals for my business and we track against them. I mean, I have all sorts of goals. So, yeah, I’m definitely a goal planner. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. I love it. What what what have you learned about a disappointment slash failure slash you know, swinging and missing all that stuff from the business world. Talk you know, we talk about success all the time on the circuit of success, but let’s talk about this circuit of failure too because I know for me some of my toughest times have been my best learnings. So what what are some of those that you feel like sharing today? Speaker Nick Hutchison: Well, I’ve learned that the US public education system has it backwards because when I was younger, I was taught that failure was a bad thing. I was taught to avoid failure, avoid criticism, and I was never really coached. Right? But then I started playing sports. And in sports, when you make an error, or you have an issue, or you miss a block or whatever, your coach comes over and tells you how to handle it better next time. And I think that’s what happens in business. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Right. Speaker Nick Hutchison: Fail and you and you iterate, you make progress. And so I’ve learned that failure’s the best. Failure’s amazing. If you feel fast and you feel a hard at full speed, and you’re always changing direction and iterating. Like, that’s where the magic happens. And, you know, that’s why my business has grown so much over the last couple of years. Speaker Brett Gilliland: When you look at your growth and you look at the talking about the funnels and the leads and and all that stuff, I mean, one branding’s important. But number two, how are you getting out there and making sure people are seeing your stuff? Like, what what’s the secret sauce in there, if you will, to help people learn from you and and how you’ve grown your business. Speaker Nick Hutchison: Yeah. We do about a million organic impressions a month on Instagram right now. And it’s because we create valuable content. I think that’s the hack. I you you have to be of service and you have to provide value to your audience. I mean, on top of that, at, I’m network with a lot of names in the space. And so I sort of borrow their credibility, and I display that in front of my community, and you know, they’re re sharing content and we’re providing value to them. So that kinda helps a lot. You know, getting in front of an audience that’s already been created that sort of mirrors your audiences is a good way to make that happen too. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. I saw that. You had, people on your podcast, Grant Cardone Lewis House, Alex Armozy. I mean, those are some big names. Speaker Nick Hutchison: Yeah. Absolutely. So we just try to provide value to those guys and then in return, try to get in front of their audience a little bit. As a result. And, they all have big audiences, and they spend a lot of money to build those audiences. So it’s a great way to get in front of more people. Speaker Brett Gilliland: So what you asked me about my favorite book? I’ll I’ll ask you that question here in a second, but I find myself if I’m not engaged in a book, I I I committed in April two thousand sixteen to start reading cover to cover because I was the guy that had the book on the nightstand I’d read twenty, thirty pages. It’s kinda bored, and then it would stay the nightstand for a while, then it goes in the drawer, and then you never see the book again. Right? I’m like, I’m done with this. I gotta read cover to cover. So I find myself sometimes struggling with reading a full book if I’m not totally engaged with it. And I still do it, but it takes me longer than I should, and that’s probably why I don’t read more books. So what is your process like with that? If you’re forty pages in and the book sucks in your opinion, what are you doing with it? Speaker Nick Hutchison: There’s a a great rule called the rule of one hundred. So it says, take the number one hundred, subtract your age, And that’s how many pages you have to read before you can put down a book. So for me, I’m twenty nine. I have to read at least seventy one pages before I can put down a bad book. It’s just a rule of framework to make sure that you kinda stay consistent. The older you get, the less you have to read because the wiser you have become. So I think about it like that. I think life is too short to read a bad book and to force yourself all the way through it. I used to read cover to cover every single word, realize, like, I’m not optimizing for finishing a book. That’s not the goal. The goal is to implement something. And if this book isn’t gonna be it for me, like, I thought it was gonna solve a problem, and it’s clearly not going to. Like, I’ve given my my self the space to move on these days. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yep. I like that. So I gotta read fifty five pages in a book basically before I give up on it. Yep. Speaker Nick Hutchison: There you go. Speaker Brett Gilliland: It’s about where I’m at anyway. I’m forty five. So fifty five. We’re good to go. Yeah, but it’s in this, like, man, it sucks. I want that book. I, you know, I put them all in my bookshelf I’ve got them labeled to the year they are, and, you know, I wanna read it cover to cover, and now I gotta do I just wasted my time. You know, it’s I’m competitive, and I like to check the box that I’ve read that book. Any good apps, any good apps Speaker Nick Hutchison: that you recommend people use to help with reading or like meeting Speaker Brett Gilliland: tracking it and and keeping score? Speaker Nick Hutchison: You know, I’ve actually tried to build some, in the past because I don’t love any of the ones that are currently out there. Better. I’m not a fan of good reads, not a fan of, any of the book summary applications. But I for note taking, I do use Evernote. So I think Evernote’s a great platform for categorizing my favorite takeaways from some of the books that I’ve read. My use of the platform has gone up and down over time, but, yeah, that’s that’s a great app. And then, you know, for for, in general, for making sure that you read, just set a daily reminder. Like, if you’re waking up at seven and you wanna get your ten pages done in the morning, just Hey, Siri. Set a goal for reading ten pages every morning and remind me at 7AM or whatever. And, like, those little nudges will help you will help you be consistent. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yep. I use the app Basmo. Have you heard of that one? No. Yeah. So I think it’s let me confirm that. That’s what it is in my phone here. So it is called, yeah, Basmo, b a s m o. It’s like a yearly fee, but you put all your books in that you’re reading, and it’ll tell you what percentage you’re at, having it done, it’ll you you basically set your timer when you start, when you finish, you just talk about what page you’re on, and it will tell you, you know, how many words per minute you’re reading, how many pages per minute you’re reading, tell me, Hey, based on this speed of reading, you’ll finish this book in, whatever, two hours and seventeen minutes, and then it’s just got a library all the books I’ve read this year, which has been kinda cool as you can look back on it, and you can take pictures, you can write notes. So I found that to be pretty helpful. I like that. So maybe could just take that idea and then, build your own, and then we’ll, we’ll sell it on here. Everybody, everybody will use it. Sound good? Speaker Nick Hutchison: Yeah. That sounds good. I’m I’ll look that up Basmo. I’m surprised that I’ve heard of it before. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. I don’t even know where I heard about it, but, I I’ve been using it for probably six months, and I really like it. What what are the habits? If I would follow you besides again reading, if I follow you around with the camera every day, what am I gonna see the no miss a successful business owner impacting a lot of people. What are you doing day in and day out? First thing I do when I wake up is Speaker Nick Hutchison: outside, and I get some sight. And that’s with my dog. So we go on a walk. Most mornings, it’s forty five minute walk. There’s a trail near my house, and we get some fresh air. We get the blood moving. We drink water, and we get sunlight before caffeine. Then we go home, he gets fed and we go to the gym. So my wife is with me too. We go to the gym. We exercise And, I think it’s important to get those exercise endorphins flowing before your day gets kicked off. So I focus a lot on strength and mobility right now. Flexibility has been important for me. And then I come home, do a twenty minute transcendental meditation, front of my red light. Like, it all sounds kind of funny, but I’m one of those guys that’s really into biohacking and routines and everything like that. Shower, caffeine, reading, and then my day starts around 10AM, with a with a hold that I have with my team every days. So the things that I don’t miss every single day of the week, and they’re all the they’re all the the kind of like foundation things for my energy. I also don’t eat until 12:00. So I practice intermittent fasting normally once a week or couple times a month, I’ll do a longer fast as well. So I’m into all of that stuff. I think energy preservation, energy optimization, those are some of the things that I focus on with my routines. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. So what are you what are you learning about the red light? I’ve been debating on one of those. I I’ve got a sauna at home and I was thinking about putting one of those in my sauna. I’ve got the lights and all that stuff, but it’s not the true red light therapy. So, Speaker Nick Hutchison: What are what Speaker Brett Gilliland: are you liking about that? And do you actually feel any different? Are you seeing anything different with that? Speaker Nick Hutchison: I’ve been using it daily for about six Hutchison. And I can’t I I will say that I’ve you know, I’m in the gym every day. Sometimes they’ll tweak something or a muscle. Is slightly fast. Some benefits as far as skin and stuff like that. Like, it’ll it’ll stimulate collagen production. I haven’t noticed anything with my skin, but that’s supposed to be a long term benefit. And, yeah, I have a sauna in my house too. We’re not as good at getting the sauna session in every day as we could be. We normally sauna on the weekends, but you know, I and then during certain seasons, more winter than anything, we’re cold plunging. So, yeah, I do all that kind of stuff. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Yeah. Cold punching never gets easy, man. It’s freaking terrible, wouldn’t it? Speaker Nick Hutchison: It is. Yeah. And I’ll tell you what, though. Like, I I enjoy cold punching. So I just have a tub outside, and I fill it with ebbs, some salt water, and and we clean the water every so often. And in Boston, it gets really cold. So there’s a great period of time for, like, three months where the water sits at thirty three degrees. There’s a layer of ice on top and you gotta get in for a few minutes and, like, I I love it. I I really do love it. Speaker Brett Gilliland: I love that you love it because it’s like, I I love it too. Like once I get out and once the initial shock, and I don’t know if you I’m sure you’ve done this, but I actually videotate myself getting in at one time and just I’ve never I never thought I could make facial expressions like debt my life. I’m like, this is hell. This is exactly what hell has to be like other than it’s hot, not cold, but it’s just brutal. But but again, it is the one thing I was just having this conversation with somebody there today. It is the one thing where I feel drastically different when I’m done. Would you agree with that? Speaker Nick Hutchison: Oh, yeah. Your endorphins are through the roof, and you’re just your dopamine spikes and it lasts for a while. Like, feel like a million bucks. I agree. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Yeah. It’s amazing. What what is the thing if I if I were to steal your cell phone from you? Is there anything in there that, you know, besides the normal music, email, stuff like that calendar, Is there anything app or any kind of hack thing that you use to be productive and live your best life on your phone that you wouldn’t want me to delete? Speaker Nick Hutchison: Yes. I have an app called Onesec. Have you heard of this? Speaker Brett Gilliland: I have not. Speaker Nick Hutchison: Okay. So I’ll I’ll demonstrate it live for you. So it it basically stops any impulse use of social media. So when I click Instagram, up on the screen here. Watch what happens. It says, oh, it’s time to take a deep breath. It makes me breathe in. Speaker Brett Gilliland: And it Speaker Nick Hutchison: makes me breathe out. And it says, Hey, you’ve tried to access Instagram nineteen times in the last twenty four hours. And then it makes you press the button. Do you actually wanna use Instagram or do you not need it right now? And so it stops the impulsivity. Like, oftentimes, I’ll click it when I’m just waiting in line for something, and then I’ll be like, you know what? No. I don’t need Instagram right now. And so that saved me a heck of a lot of time. Speaker Brett Gilliland: So on one sec, so that is, like, basically an overlay on your phone. So if it is it any app, or is it just the ones you kinda pick and choose which one to do? Speaker Nick Hutchison: Yeah. It’s any app on your phone, and there’s tons of other rules. So there’s actually an app, that comes pre installed with iPhone, but most people delete it. Let’s see. It’s called I forget where I tucked this thing. It’s Gilliland, and shortcuts. And so the app Oh, yeah. That integrates with shortcuts. And it you can you can integrate one sec with any other app. So, like, and then you can determine how long the break is, and there’s all sorts of rules. So, the one sec app has a tutorial in it about how to set it up with any app, and that’s what I do. Speaker Brett Gilliland: I love that. That’s a game changer, man. I’m gonna get that. And, the Gilliland boys are gonna get a new app installed their phone. And so when they see they’ve tried to get on TikTok for the nine hundredth time in the last twenty four hours, right, that this will make them take a deep breath and and rethink if they actually wanna do that. So, that’s awesome, man. What, talk to us about the journey, the grind. I mean, what what do you love about it? What do you dislike about it? What can you share with our listeners there? Speaker Nick Hutchison: Well, I love everything about it. I really do. I mean, failure is part of the process struggle as part of the process. And when you expect it to happen, it doesn’t surprise you. So I I what do I try to optimize for? I want to enjoy the passage of time. And for me, part of that is failure, part of it is growth, part of it is It’s being uncomfortable. And so I enjoy it. Like, I expect it. And as a result, it happens. And and it doesn’t surprise I’m just out here loving my life. I’m out here, build having fun and positively impacting people, and those are the things that I’m optimizing for. So, you know, I use these books like a cheat code, like a shortcut. I mean, they condensed decades of somebody else’s lived experience in two days of consumption. And, you know, I joke around. I’m not twenty nine years old. I’m thousands of years old if you include all the books that I’ve read. So, yeah, that’s the magic. Speaker Brett Gilliland: So talk about this book rise of the reader, man. It’s coming out November first two thousand twenty three. Talk to our listeners about this book. It’s gonna be awesome. Speaker Nick Hutchison: Yeah. I just over the years of building my community on social media, I’ve received the same questions thousands of times. Like, how do I choose the right book? How do I take great notes? How do I retain more from the books? How do I implement more from the books? And so what I did was I documented my entire process every little detail, from how do I choose these books to how do they implement it? How do I track? That behavior. So it’s all in the book, Rise of Reader. And again, if you choose to read this, you’ll get more from the other books that you’re reading. That’s the promise. Speaker Brett Gilliland: I like that. And, working our listeners find more of it. Speaker Nick Hutchison: Yeah. If you go to book thinkers, so spell just like it sounds book thinkers on Instagram, That’s for most active community. Like I said, we do about impressions a month over there, and and that’s where you can connect with a ton of cool people. And then from there, there are links in the bio to the book and to our websites and everything else. Speaker Brett Gilliland: So book thinkers, Go on there now. We’re gonna Speaker Nick Hutchison: do a little. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yep. We have a little fun. There we are. Alright. We’re gonna play a little game here. Pick a number between one and ten. Speaker Nick Hutchison: Seven. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Alright. Now between one and three, Speaker Nick Hutchison: two. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Alright. Since this books help you this book helps you develop and implement and it’s atomic habits by, James Clear. So talk to us about that. What made you make that post right there? Speaker Nick Hutchison: Well, I don’t manage our Instagram channel anymore, but atomic habits has has told atomic habits has sold ten million copies since it came out. Clearly, people have an issue controlling their own behavior. And so they’re looking for habit creation, how to undo bad habits, how to install good habits, And atomic habits is the best. I mean, James Clear wrote a very simple actionable book. Almost everybody that reads it finds something of value in it. And I think, like, there’s a great quote from the book that I’ve I’ve always remembered. James says something like, every action you take today is a vote for the person you’re becoming. And so if you want if you want a different to take different actions today. You have to change your votes, and that book will help you do it. Speaker Brett Gilliland: That. I mean, you got a lot of people I follow on here. You got like twenty seven, mutual followers. So that’s, it’s good stuff. I like this. Talk about fears, man. How many of the, I mean, the fears you’ve put in your mind have actually blown up to the magnitude you put them in your mind to be? Speaker Nick Hutchison: None of them. I think, we spend a lot of time. Yeah. We spend a lot of time. We spend a lot of time creating fake stories and amplifying fake situations that never come to fruition, and that holds us back in a big way. So Yeah. I when I was younger, I had a lot of social anxiety. I had a lot of fear. I even had fear in sports when I was growing Gilliland none of it ever came to fruition. But, the more you grow and the more uncomfortable you are, the the less uncomfortable you become, I think. Like, through exposure, you become desensitized to things that previously created fear. So Yeah. And again, I think I just failure is part of the process. So you can’t let it surprise you. You can’t and failure is so beautiful. Like, so optimistic because it teaches you what not to do and that gets you what a little bit closer to what to do. So yeah. Speaker Brett Gilliland: How do you so how what do you say to that person that’s listening this right now? And they’re like, whatever, man. You’re full of, you know, whatever, Nick. It’s not beautiful. It it it sucks. You know, I don’t know if I’m gonna make, you know, I I just had this happen today, a business owner. It’s like, man, I laid in bed all night last night, you know, I’m in this spot. Know, he’s stressed. He’s thinking about some stuff financially. Gilliland, you know, so that guy probably isn’t gonna agree in that moment when you’re up all night and you’re stressed out it’s beautiful. It’s easy to say and I agree with you. So I’m not I’m not saying I don’t agree with you, but but but how? How does it become beautiful? How do you when it does suck really bad in the moment? How do you get out of it and try to spend that thinking to where it’s beautiful? I Speaker Nick Hutchison: say a couple of things. Oftentimes, we think that our pain is unique to us. But the reality is about a hundred billion people have lived before us. A hundred billion history of humanity. Millions of those people have documented their life experience in the form of a book. So they’ve condensed to decades of lived experience, everything they did to overcome their problems, and they put it all in the book right there for you. Thousands of those books are probably related to the same problems that that person is facing today, your client. Yeah. And so if you can slow things down, realize that it’s not unique to anybody goes through this. But the road map, there is a solution. Other people have found a way to solve this same problem, the financial anxiety, the scarcity mindset, whatever it is. And if you can spend twenty dollars in a few hours of your time and slow things down, you can avoid dealing with that for the rest of your life by reading and implementing the right book. Set another way, if you deal with something on a daily basis, over the next thirty years, you’ll deal with it eleven thousand times, three hundred and sixty five times thirty. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Mhmm. Speaker Nick Hutchison: So spend the next hundred days figuring it out so that the next ten thousand nine hundred days, you don’t have to deal with it. I would I would say be more logical, less emotional, like, talk about these facts. Yeah, it does stink. Like, I’ve been in a lot of bad situations with business where I didn’t know if I was gonna make payroll or or whatever. Now I think when those situations pop up, I just have the experience of having gone I’m through it so many that it’s just like, this is part of the pro. Other people have it worse. Like, they say comparison is the thief of joy. I think comparison creates joy when you look at people that are in worse circumstances. So I use that tool a lot as well to kinda slow things down. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. I think that’s great perspective, man, and great wisdom, actually. It it because I agree. When I started this podcast six and a half years ago, I asked that I’ve asked that question to three hundred plus people. Right? I mean, the fears you put in your mind blow up to the magnitude you put them in your mind would be. Most of them do exactly what you did. You smile, you say zero. And for me, that’s built this massive belief that the fears I’ve put in my mind over my lifetime, I can say none of them have come true. Right? And I can also say the three hundred plus people, the the hundreds of books I’ve read, you’re learning from that, man. So like the podcast you read, the people you surround yourself with, the books you read. Those Speaker Nick Hutchison: Yeah. Absolutely. Sorry. I know our internet connection is going in just a little bit. But Yes. Speaker Brett Gilliland: It is. Sorry. I don’t know why that is. Speaker Nick Hutchison: I mean, yes. All good. Yes. Absolutely. And I read a book a number of years ago called The Top Five Regrets of The Dying by Bronnie Ware. And she was an end of life is an end of life palliative care nurse. Meaning, she would spend the last couple of weeks or maybe days with somebody before they passed away talking with them. Helping them transition. And she realized that everybody dies with a ton of regret. And the number one regret is essentially living a life based on other people’s expectations of them instead of their own, like playing smaller game, not taking risk, ending up wishing they’d and I just won’t accept that for myself. Like, I think the pain of regret hurts a lot more than the pain of fear or or being uncomfortable in the short term. Right? Like, in order to to to live my dream life, that’s just that it’s part of the process. Like, it happens. Everybody faces it. So for me, it’s I would rather avoid regret but be uncomfortable in the short term than, like, have this permanent regret of not doing more with my life. You know? Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yep. Yep. But I I’ve said this for years too is regret weighs tons, Gilliland weighs ounces. You know? Exactly. It, you know, I also talk about our attitude defines where we go. Our discipline decides how fast we get there. And so the and you mentioned it earlier about discipline. Right? So, however, how much more discipline we can get. I don’t know, man, but it it’s for me, it’s put it on your calendar, schedule it, make things happen, take action, but also be clear about where you’re going. Right? Have clarity about your plans and your future. And, sometimes it’s easier to find that discipline. So, again, you asked me this question to start with, but I’ll ask you now. So what are your favorite books. Top one, two, three books you’d recommend for people. Speaker Nick Hutchison: The book that said the biggest impact on the life that I live today and the joy that I experience on a daily basis is the four hour work week by Tim Farris. That book helped me really design my lifestyle. I have a remote business. I travel internationally a lot. I’ve spent time in twenty five different countries over the last five years with my wife. Sometimes for up to a few months at a time. I have a remote business that has ten people on the team, but everybody’s in a different location, and it’s all a result of that book. Book number two, hundred million dollar offers by Alex or Mozy added an additional six figures of revenue to my small business, which is pretty significant. You mowing it. And it’s all offer creation and, sales essentially. And then the compound effect by Darren Hardy is book number three. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Speaker Nick Hutchison: Small steps in the right direction over a long period of time. That’s the name of the game. So when you talk about fear, like, I there were a couple points where I wanted to maybe mention just bite size. Like, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? No matter how many times you read ASAP’s fable, the tortoise in the air, the tortoise always like small steps. And small steps create less fear than big steps do. So I don’t have huge goals. But I have manageable steps in the right direction in front of me, and that’s where I find most success. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. You know, it’s funny you say that at twenty nine, here I am forty five. And so I was in my twenties, I was, you know, I was I had these huge big goals, and I was always chasing them, and it was funny because then I found Sometimes when I hit those goals, I’m thinking the bells and whistles and the confetti’s gonna fly down and it and it doesn’t happen. Right? And I found that I would beat myself up if I didn’t do that one thing, even though it was a massive, massive deal, and I would end up still having a great year and a great success. And and have built a good life. And so I found as I’ve aged and you’re doing it now at twenty nine. So I applaud you for that is, is taking the baby steps. You know, I’d be like, alright, I’m gonna go from zero workouts to seven workouts a week. I’m gonna do that. And then I would do like three and then I’d beat myself up over it. Right? And just constant struggle. So I applaud you on that, man. And for our listeners, I would agree. It’s it’s find that bite sized deal that you can accomplish and do and feel good about your success. Speaker Nick Hutchison: Yeah. I didn’t process matters so much more than outcome. And so I just want to enjoy the process and make sure it’s sustainable. Gilliland I know that it will compound into exactly what I’m looking for in the future anyway. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. I love it. So where do our listeners find more of Nick Hutchison, man? Speaker Nick Hutchison: The best place to go is at book fingers on Instagram, which we highlighted once before. And from there, there are link and our bio. It’s everything that you’re gonna need. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Awesome. Well, we will put this in the show notes, and it’s been awesome having you on the circuit of success, my man. Stay with while I hit end here, but this thanks for joining us. Sorry about the internet connection today. I don’t know what’s going on there, but, I love the stuff. I had a page of notes here, man. I loved it.