#TBT Hal Elrod: What Cancer Taught Me About Money, Business, and Freedom

Ryan talks with Hal Elrod about what life after cancer taught him and how we can all adopt these learnings, ensuring we focus on what’s important to us.

Key Takeaways

[:43] Ryan introduces his guest, Hal Elrod as well as why he thinks it’s important to hear his insights on life, success, money and how his battle with Cancer taught him.

 

[4:27] A year ago, Hal Elrod was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a rare cancer with a 10% survival rate. He emerged on the other side of his worst and best year with a clean bill of health, and a fresh perspective on what is important.

[11:00] Hal shares a key aspect of what his brushes with death have taught him: if you cannot change something, there is no sense in wishing you could, or laying blame. The only thing you can do when you encounter a tragedy is to grieve but never to extend that to where it becomes detrimental to your mental and physical well being. Only you have power over your emotional states.

[13:10] Hal’s perception of life has changed through this experience with Cancer and the things you have to do to live your best life are as follows:

1. 1. Identify what matters most to you and be clear on it
2. 2. Evaluate how you are living in regards to what matters most
3. 3. Commit to changing the things that don’t align (baby steps!)
4. Hal shares his Unbearable, Uncomfortable, Unstoppable strategy for changing habits that don’t align, a bit later in the podcast.
5. [14:40] Hal share the 2 things that matter most to him: health and relationships. He also dives deep into the evolution of his diet in the face of both his Cancer and new evidence from plant based to keto. Ryan and Hal discuss smoothie recipes!
6. [20:00] Most entrepreneurs get their emotional needs met through money and work, especially when you love your work. During his time in the hospital, unable to work for weeks at a time, Hal realised that the most important thing for your family is your passive source of income. So to establish financial security, two things are important:

1. 1. Have multiple sources of income. This means you have a contingency plan and financial security. If one stream of income crashes you have one to fall back on. What’s more, you are in a position to transition into that secondary income stream on a full-time basis.
2. 2. Have a team in place who continues to drive your business ventures and ensures that income and revenue continues to go up.
3. [28:22] Success if the freedom to do what you love with the people that you love. How do you get there? You give, for real. Hal shares a personal and very emotional story of how his perspective changed and how his son showed him the importance of being with the people you love in the way they need.
4. [35:07] So how do you change the habits that don’t align with what matters most to you? The most effective way to change habits is to commit for 30 days and look at these 30 days as three 10 day phases. If you’re making a change that is going to be a game changer, can you bear anything for 10 days? The answer is always yes.
5. Phase 1 (Days 1-10) Unbearable, this phase is is self explanatory, but you have to muscle through, sometimes though, the excitement will make it easier.
6. Phase 2 (Days 11-20) Uncomfortable, The second 10 days are the transition phase where you’d rather do the old thing but have made the commitment.
7. Phase 3 (Days 21-30) Unstoppable, The final 10 days are where the magic happens. Somewhere in those 10 days, you’ll go to do the new habit and it will be effortless. You won’t even think about it. There’s no resistance and you don’t have to overcome anything.
8. [41:37] Ryan asks what Hal would tell his younger self:

1. 1. You mean more than you think to your family
2. 2. Look through the eyes of other people and be a better, father, husband, friend, boss, man.
3. [47:10] Ryan reflects on what this conversation with Hal has brought him in terms of how he wants to show up in his own life and how his use of Tribe 5 has helped him grow.
4. Mentioned in this episode
5. The Miracle Morning
6. Healing Cancer from Inside Out: A Practical Guide to Healing Cancer With the Rave Diet and Lifestyle by Mike Anderson
7. Designs for Health
8. Julian Bakery
9. Psycho-Cybernetics: Updated and Expanded by Maxwell Maltz
10. The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
11. Eben Pagan Training
12. Tribe 5