Transcript for this weeks message

Shane Jacob

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this episode of The Horsemanship Journey Podcast. I'm Shane Jacob, your host. Today we have a special guest, Mark Struczewski, okay. Mark is the productivity coach, which seems to be a little bit easier for me to say than his last name. Mark is also the voice behind the Mr. Productivity podcast. Mark has a profound understanding of the challenges and triumphs in mastering one's daily life and tasks. His story from overwhelm to clarity began in corporate America where he witnessed the impact of overwhelm. His experience led him to realize that productivity is not just about doing more, it's about doing what matters most. It's about transforming chaos into clarity, and overwhelm into achievable action. Sounds pretty powerful. Mark, we appreciate you taking your time to be with us today. Welcome.

Mark Struczewski

Thank you, Shane. I'm glad to be here, Shane. Thank you for inviting me on the show.

Shane Jacob

Right on. Well, tell us about you. Tell us where your story began. Tell us about Mark. How did you get to be where you are?

Mark Struczewski

Well, I used to tell people it started when I got fired back in 2005, but it actually goes back to my childhood. So, I was an only child, and I was a product of 1965. And back then kids had to do what their parents told them to do. Chores had to be done not only correctly, they had to be done in the right order before you went outside, and played same with homework. And so, I have to give my late parents credit for who I am today. Now we didn't know that there was going to be a Mr. Productivity in 2024, actually, you know, a number of years before that. But my parents raised me very structured, and I was the last key kid. If your audience is not familiar with that, I used to have a key to the house, come home, my parents were still at work. And that's just the way things were. There was no social media. There was no streaming. There was no cable or satellite. You had over-the-air TV stations and no computers. And so that's how I grew up. And I grew up in an era that I was very appreciative of. I didn't think at the time I thought I was missing out on a lot, but now I reflect back on it, the 1960s, 1970s, early 1980s, goodtime to grow up in this world on.

Shane Jacob

Right on. So what did, what inspired you? How did you come to start a podcast on productivity and overwhelm? What was that all about? What inspired it?

Mark Struczewski

Well, as most people can relate, it took another coach to see that in me. So I, after I got fired in 2005, I tried to figure out what I wanted to do. I tried a wedding and portrait photography business, that failed. And I was just kind of like out in the Atlantic Ocean in a canoe without an ore or a boat, or I'm sorry, without a motor. And then I had a coach that saw something in me. And one day I was on a call with him, and I normally identify as Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, but I was having an Eeyore moment, and he goes, “What's going on?” I'm like, “Yeah, I really, I want to help serve the world, and I don't know what I should do.” And he goes, “Well, why don't you be a productivity guy?” I'm like, “What is, I don't, what is that? I don't know.” He goes, “I know a lot of people are naturally gifted at productivity, but you, like, are better than they are. And you need to share your gift with the world.”

And so, I started coaching people on how to be more productive. And then in the spring of 2017, I heard Gary Vaynerchuk talk on a video, I think it was on YouTube or something. And he said, “The future is voice and audio, and everybody needs to have a podcast.” So July 2017, I started my podcast. At first, I called it the Mark Stuczewski podcast, which obviously people couldn't find because they couldn't spell my last name. But in December 2022, I rebranded it to the Mr. Productivity podcast, and it just took off from there. So, I'm passionate about helping people untangle the overwhelm of their lives.

Shane Jacob

Tell us about that. Tell us about overwhelm. I mean, people kind of know what it is, we get lost and kind of feel like we're drowning in it. But, dig in a little bit to overwhelm; tell us about that and maybe how to move away from it.

Mark Struczewski

Well, no one has ever come to me ever in all the years I've been a productivity coach, no one's ever come to me and says, “You know what? I need to be more productive.” What they come to me is they say I'm overwhelmed by their to-do lists, or calendars, life in general, whether family or work. And so, what I helped them with is the first step is always clarity. Most people have no idea what they want. They think they do until we get on a call and I'm like, okay, what do you want out of life? And they're like, wow, I never thought about that before. And so, we really, really, really drill down into it because we all get one life. And if you're not clear, you may be like the hamster on the wheel. And the thing I like about my job, Shane, is everyone's story is different. Everyone has a different challenge of being productive. Everyone has different things that overwhelm them. And so, I like the fact that every person's different. It keeps me sharp.

And so, I could coach you, and I can coach like a friend of yours, and I would coach you totally different because you are different states of your life and you have different issues. So, I like the variety. And because I'm actually always learning how to deal with people's unique situations, the people that are hiring me down the road are getting a better version of me because now I've learned more things as I come along through life.

Shane Jacob

Do you find that people get kind of, lose hope or get depressed and just kind of fall aside? Because maybe you'll set a goal, right? And you've got the, you know, I'll use maybe the first of the year as an example. We'll set a goal, we'll be like, we're motivated, let's do this, we're ready to rock and roll. And then over a short period of time, we feel, you know, these things, the outside forces start hitting us we begin to feel more overwhelmed, and then kind of our mind takes over. Tell us a little bit about the process and then maybe some, you know, how to mitigate that.

Mark Struczewski

Yeah, that's when you said January 1st, I had goosebumps on my skin because it's just a date in the calendar. So, we're recording this on June 13th. Let's say, for example, it was released on June 13^th, and you say, I don't have any goals. Well, don't wait till January 1st, create goals today, and start working on today, not tomorrow today, unless you're listening to it before bed. A lot of people are procrastinating because they're like, well, I'm not ready yet. I don't have the right training, or I haven't read the right books. I didn't know what I was doing. When it came to podcasting back in 2017. I went to Google and typed out, “How do you start a podcast?” And so there's so much information out there now that if you want to correct the situation you're dealing with, there is a ton of information out there. And I just want to encourage your audience to stop making excuses because excuses are a form of procrastination.

So if I tell someone, “Hey, you should journal.” The first question they ask is not how do I journal? They're like, okay, what journal do you use? What journal do you recommend? That's the wrong question. So what I wanna encourage your listeners to do is step back and go, okay, what is my biggest issue? So we all have issues. I don't care if your name is Tony Robbins or Elon Musk or Bill Gates. We all have issues. What is the one that is bothering you the most? What is the biggest thorn in your side? Then go to figure out. How can I get better at this? And I would start with Google, “How do I get better at blank?” Maybe you have to go read a book. Maybe you have to take a course. Maybe you have to go to a conference. Maybe you have to look into hiring a coach. Whatever it is, you need to figure out how to take care of that challenge one step at a time.

Too many people are looking at, I got a big challenge, man, that's a big mountain. Well, I'm going to go to the next thing. No, don't go to the next thing. Don't go to the easiest thing. Go to the most difficult thing. Will it take you a while? Of course it's going to take you a while, but you starting already puts you way ahead of anybody else because most people would give up. But if you don't give up, if you say, I'm going to stay committed until I get this challenge to a level I'm accepting, then move on to the next one, you're going to be so much farther ahead than the people who don't even bother to start.

Shane Jacob

That's awesome. You know, you said a couple of things there that are really interesting, and that is, is like you started to list the reasons why we don't do things. I hear this a lot, and I sometimes I catch myself doing it. You know, I want the perfect setup before I begin. I mean, I want every single thing to be laid out and in perfect order so therefore I can begin my perfect plan. And I think there's a lot of value because what I heard you say, I think there's a lot of value in just taking the first step, not waiting. Because the thing of it is, you also mentioned a piece of this is doing the difficult rather than… I mean, you kind of alluded that the reason that we're procrastinating is we're avoiding this something that may be difficult for us. Talk a little more about that.

‍

Mark Struczewski

Mm -hmm. I'll give you an example. I have a friend of mine, this is a number of years ago before I started my podcast, and he kept saying, “I'm going to start a podcast. I'm going to start a podcast.” And every time I see him, a couple of times a month, I'm like, “How's the podcast coming?” “Well, I haven't started that yet.” I'm like, “Why?” “Well, I got to find an editor, and I got to find a producer.” I'm like, “Dude, just start. It's going to suck in the beginning, but just start.” He was trying to, like you said, put all the ducks in a row. No, just start. “I don't know how to get on camera”. Just start recording yourself and post it on social media, 99% of the people aren't going to see it anyways. But, we are getting in our own way.

When people ask me, what's the number one obstacle in our way, it's us. We are in our own way. We're making excuses. I can't because of the– I don't want to hear excuses. Okay, I don't like excuses. When people say, well, “Mark, you get up at 4:30 every morning, I can’t.” Don't start with, I can't. Maybe you can't get up at 4:30 in the morning. Let's say you wanted to get up at 4:30 in the morning, maybe it's because you go into bed at one o'clock in the morning. I go to bed at 8:30pm. Now it's just my wife and myself and our two dogs, so I can have a different dynamic than most people. But if you have four kids, you have to get up for school. Well, maybe you get up 30minutes before the rest of the house gets up so you can do your own thing. There's ways to work it around whatever situation you're in, but excuses are preventing people from living the life that blows their socks off.

People are more concerned with, “What if I don't do it right?” I got news for you, Joe Rogan didn't do it right the first time he started his podcast. Any influencer on social media, didn't do it right the first time. It's called life, and it's called life lessons. You just got to put yourself out there. And I think if no one gets anything else out of anything else you or I say in the show, just get out of your own way, just start doing something. It's better than sitting there dwelling and saying, well, look at all these other people on social media, man, they're killing it, man. I wish I could be them. No one knew who Gary Vaynerchuk was until he started putting out content.

So stop, get out of your own way, stop making excuses. And I'm not saying you're going to become the next Elon Musk or the next Gary Vaynerchuk, but you're going to be further along than if you just stay where you are now.

Shane Jacob

Yeah, awesome, super powerful. Appreciate your energy, man. I can feel it, soaking our listeners.

Mark Struczewski

Well, identify as Tigger. So.

Shane Jacob

Tell us about that.

Mark Struczewski

Well, I love life. And when I got fired for my job in July 2005, I went through the typical emotion of anger, and how dare they fire me, and my gosh this is the horrible thing. But then, as the days and weeks went past that time, I looked back and I'm like, you know what? That was really mama bird kicking me out of the nest because I cringe to think about this, Shane, what ifI wasn't fired? Would I still be at that job? Would I be Mr. Productivity? Would I have my podcasts? I don't know, and it terrifies me to think about that. So, I think that was life saying, “Hey, you have more to offer this world. So, we're going to fire you.” And I wasn't fired for like embezzling or something like that. But the point is that changed the trajectory of my life. So many people need something like that to happen to their lives.

I had a conversation with someone just this morning because they've been procrastinating about moving on, not dying, but moving on. And I'm like, maybe you need to quit your job. And they were terrified to like, “Quit my job?” Because when you have a job in the corporate world, you've got benefits, you've got time off and all those other perks. But are you happy? Now, if you're happy, if that's what you want to do and that satisfies, great, stay there. But if you want to do something else, maybe you need to burn the boats, burn the bridges and just say, listen, I'm going to take a leap and hopefully, like in with the Indiana Jones, hopefully the bridge will appear. But you don't know. I mean, I could have gone back to corporate world when I got fired, but I didn't. I went out on my own, and it's scary. And guess what? I didn't make a lot of money for many years because I didn't know what I was doing. But I had a supportive wife, and I just kept on keeping up.

Now I don't have a private jet and I don’t have a private Island. I don't have mansions all over the country, but I'm happy. And I think people need to stop looking at success and wealth as money, and look at your happiness. I am Tigger-like happy, so I think I'm very wealthy. Now you don't have to be a Tigger like me, but be a Christopher Robin or be a Winnie the Pooh– just wear pants – or be a Piglet or an owl. Just stay away from Eeyore's, and do not be the Eeyore of your life.

Shane Jacob

Right on, all right. Mark, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about… You talk about physical fitness and how it relates to productivity. Tell us about, you know, really about that because a lot of times I really don't think we're focusing, a lot of us, maybe on that.

Mark Struczewski

Healthy people are productive people. If you are metabolically unhealthy, in other words, you're overweight, you're smoking, you're drinking too much, you're taking drugs, and you're just not taking care of your body, you can't be productive. You can't because you need energy to be productive. So, if you're overweight and you're like, I don't know what to do. Well, I don't know, start taking a walk. I'm not saying… I run every day, I'm not saying you have to run. Not saying you need to be Michael Phelps and hit the pool or be like Greg Lamont and go on a bike ride every day for 30, 40miles and do a Tour de France or whatever, like that. But maybe start taking walks. Maybe you start instead of having 13 cokes a day, maybe you go down to six cokes a day. Instead of going out to eat every day for lunch, maybe you go out to eat two times a week. You're not cutting it out completely, but you're starting to go in the right direction.

Too many people are like, I can eat whatever I want to eat. Yeah, you can, but how's that making you feel? I mean, I don't know about you, Shane, but if you go and eat a bunch of bad food, like donuts and cookies and ice cream and cake, you feel good in the moment as you're eating it. But after like 10, 15 minutes, you're like, man, I wish I wouldn't have eaten all that stuff. But if you go eat a salad, or if you go eat like some chicken or stuff that's good for you, you probably don't feel that way because now you're giving your body fuel.

And I just encourage people to take a self-assessment. How healthy are you? You don't need to go to a doctor. You know, you don't need to go read a book; you don't need to go see a specialist. Just ask yourself, how do I feel? Look at yourself naked in the mirror. Are you happy with what you see? So, a lot of people would be like, well, I don't have money to go to the doctor. Well, okay. If you're 300 pounds overweight, you know you're metabolically unhealthy. I mean, it's not that big of a secret, but I just go back to the statement I said at the beginning, healthy people are productive people. So, if you wanna be more productive, take care of your health.

Shane Jacob

Right on, right on. Super important point. Mark, I was wondering if you could talk about how important do you think the morning, like beginning of the day and a morning routine? Talk to us about the importance or not importance of the morning routine.

Mark Struczewski

I think morning routines are really important, but I think even more important than morning routine is a bedtime routine. A lot of people don't even talk about the bedtime routine. They're all focused on the morning routine. Now don't get me wrong, you should have a morning routine, but I think it all starts the night before. So, for me, I'm in bed at 8:30 every night. So, I stopped eating by 5:30. I stopped drinking water by 6:30. I stopped watching TV and being on my phone by 7:30. I'm not 100 % there, sometimes I do cheat. And then I go to my bedroom, and I'll journal in a print journal, and I'll read a print book until about 8:30 and I go to sleep. I'm usually up between 4:30and five o 'clock. Then I do my morning routine.

Now, my morning routine, remember I said earlier, you have to adapt everything I'm saying to your situation. It's just my wife and I and my two dogs. So, I wake up at 4:30 in the morning, there's certain things I do. Like I do a single pushup, I do squats. I would do weightlifting every other day. I walk in my house, and as soon as it gets light outside I go for my daily run. But everyone needs to have an intentional morning routine.

See, we all have routines. Everybody's got a routine. It's just, it's one routine on Monday, another routine on Tuesday, another routine on Wednesday. What I want people to do is look at their situation and go, okay, what can I create for myself for a morning routine that is going to help me serve the people I have to serve that day. Whether it's your family, whether it's your corporate job, whether it's your clients, doesn't matter, but it all starts with the morning. It starts with the day. So if you start the day waking up after you hit snooze alarm for six, seven times, now you're rushing. That's going to set the tone for the whole day. You're going to be hurried. You're going to be frustrated. You're going to be angry. But if you start it like, I'm going to start it on my terms. And I'm going to start the day calm, whether that's meditating, praying, reading, walking, whatever it is, always start the day on your terms.

Shane Jacob

Cool, right on. All right, well, I wanted to ask you about, you know, you take a look at Mark Struczewski and you say, wow, what a motivated guy, super energetic. I mean, you're hitting the day, you got your routines down. And I mean, this guy is, he's on fire, and he's making it happen. But I'm kind of over here. And so, the question I'm asking you to comment on is, how do you keep yourself motivated? You know, how do you maintain that? You talked about being physically fit to maintain energy, but how do you mentally maintain that motivation to press forward and be productive?

Mark Struczewski

This is going to seem so simple. The people are going to say, is that really it? You got to choose. You got to choose. I'm going to wakeup every day and you can either say, “It's another day.” Or, “It's another day!” Same words, different emotion. Now studies have shown that if you act excited, Tony Robbins talks a lot about this, you change your state. So, you can wake up and go, “Oh my gosh, it's morning already?” Or, “Oh my gosh, it's morning already!” I wake up every day like I did on Christmas morning when I was a child. I couldn't wait to see what Santa Claus brought me for Christmas. Okay. You need to wake up that way.

Now if you say, well, I can't because– let's not go to excuses, but maybe you're doing something you hate to do. Maybe you hate your job. Not saying quit your job today. I'm saying, can you look at your job a different way? Or maybe you get a transfer within your job. Or maybe, on night sand weekends, you learn a new skill so you can go do something you like to do. But you got to choose to wake up that way.

I was a type of person… When I started waking up before 5 o'clock, someone first told me about this years ago, I'm like, I'm not getting up that early. What are you…? There's a reason why it's still dark out. But now I wake up, I'll be 59 in a week, on purpose and I don't even have an alarm. I wake up that time naturally because I go to bed at 8:30.

But I think it comes down to two things, choosing to be happy and doing things you love to do. And if you're not doing things you love to do, well you can make a decision as a result of listening to this podcast today, what is something I can do starting today that's going to change the trajectory of my life so I wake up excited instead of dreading today?

Shane Jacob

Right on, right on, that's super powerful. I appreciate that. I think sometimes if we're not careful, we just look at what's happening to us and we're not even really thinking about the idea that we have a choice. You know, these things sometimes hit us like, for example, I don't feel like I have any energy. And I feel like that feeling is just what's happening to me rather than what you're describing. And what you described, what I heard was ,is when I feel that way just to recognize that first of all that I have the choice, that I have the choice to be able to choose to do something different. Yeah?

Mark Struczewski

Mm-hmm. I just had this thought back in the day. I used to watch wrestling, the World Wrestling, they used to call it the World Wrestling Federation. Now they call it World Wrestling Entertainment. And there was this guy, Rick Fair, and he used to go, “Woo!” And, it's silly, but maybe when you're not feeling Tigger-ish or Winnie the Pooh-ish, maybe you just go look at yourself in the mirror, or if you're at work and you just go, “Woo!” You can't feel sad when you go, “Woo!” So maybe you need to do more wooing in your life.

It's silly. But maybe you go to your coworkers and everybody's like all down in the dumps like you are, and you just walk in the break and go, “Woo!” even though you don't feel like doing it. And people are like, what is wrong with you? And then people go… I'm like, “Hey, let's all do ‘Woo!’ together.” “What are you, what are you crazy?” “No, come on, come on. We're all, we're all acting like Eeyore. Let's all get together and the count of three will go, ‘Woo!’” That's going to change people's state.

When I first heard Tony Robbins talk about that, like changing your state. But let me tell you something. People ask me, when you come on these podcasts, you're so full of energy. Because I want to be here. I'm not like, I got to go on Shane’s podcast... I want to be here. So, do something to change your state. Maybe you run up the flight of stairs, do something to change your state. Because when you're in a more positive or Tigger-like state, you're going to be way more productive than if you're like Eeyore.

Shane Jacob

Love it. Right on. Mark, I was hoping, I was wanting you to talk about a growth mindset. Could you just talk about, tell us about your take on a growth mindset?

Mark Struczewski

If you're not growing, you're dying. And so, one of my known non-negotiables is to read a book one hour a day minimum. No excuses. I read a book an hour a day, and I'm constantly reading. Actually, I shouldn't say reading a book, I study books now. Because one of my favorite authors, Robin Sharma, said instead of reading 52 books a year, study 10 to 15 books a year. And so, I spend a lot of time reading.

Later on today, I'm going to go to some live training from Tony Robbins. I just, you got to keep wanting to learn. And I don't mean learning on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook. I mean, invest in courses, invest in books, invest in listening to a podcast such as yours, and don't just listen to them as a passive listener or a passive viewer. Say, “Wow, how could I… What I just watched or what I read, how can I apply that to my life today?” Because a lot of people, what they do, they go from book to book to book, from video to video to video, from course to course to course, and they're not implementing anything. Well, just reading a book is not going to help you. Just watching a video or going to a conference, it's not going to help you. It's the implementation of the knowledge you learn that's going to change your life.

Shane Jacob

Right on. Mark, appreciate your passion and your energy that you bring, and the tips for today. What would you like to leave us with today? Last thoughts for The Horsemanship Journey podcast this morning?

Mark Struczewski

You get one life, and this is not my original thought, but Gary Vaynerchuk said it. You're going to die at some point. I hope it's not for many, many, many years. When you die, you want to say on your final breath, not, I wish I went to more meetings, or I wish I had more client calls. You're going to wish, man, I wasn't really happy with my life. I didn't really live my life for all it's worth. And, you're going to want to feel like you gave it ally ou can. Well, here's the good news, Shane, and for your audience, you can choose today that that's how I want to end my life. What can I do today to end there instead of going, well, I hope I'm happy with my life. Go ahead and start changing now. Make those small changes now instead of when you're on your deathbed.

Shane Jacob

Perfect. Mark, thank you so much. Mr. Productivity, where can people find out about Mr. Productivity? Tell us more, where we can reach you and find out about what you offer and more about you.

Mark Struczewski

One place, misterproductivity.com. You can sign up for my email newsletter. When you do, you can get a free, no obligation, 45 minute coaching call with me. I call it a personal productivity evaluation, or not. You can sign up for my podcast, or not. I don't want to be another obstacle in people's lives. I want you to have the best life possible. So, if I can help people do that, great. If I can't, or you don't think we're fit, you don't like bald guys, you know, I'm bald. That's okay too. But everything you want to know about me is at misterproductivity.com.

Shane Jacob

Awesome. Mark, thank you for bringing your passion, your energy to our audience today. We appreciate you taking your time to be with us. Mark Struczewski, Mr. Productivity, I'm going to give you a little Tigger TTFN. That's “Ta-Ta For Now,” for a Tigger. Talk to you soon, thank you very much.

Mark Struczewski

Thank you.

‍