We dive into the morning routine for entrepreneurs by Chris Badgett, and LifterLMS Black Friday 2020 in this episode of the LMScast podcast. This episode is a solo show with Chris where he talks about the powerful, personal productivity strategy he uses, and how course creators and WordPress professionals can use it to get more clarity and focus when operating in the mindset of making content and working online.
As we approach the end of 2020 with the global pandemic going on and a high-stress environment, Chris shares some strategies for finishing up your projects before the end of the year, along with strategies to start out 2021 strong.
Mastering the morning routine has been a key part of Chris’s success as an entrepreneur over the past 10 years. As someone who needs to get a lot done efficiently while balancing being a father, the morning routine has been key for maintaining stable growth.
The best way to start a morning routine is to start small and get the basics down. Many people try out a morning routine that is overly complex, and they don’t end up being able to stick with it. Trying things out and sticking to what works for you is the key to making your morning routine something that can boost your productivity.
Chris started out with just drinking a glass of water, and over time he’s experimented with adding a daily walk and podcasts/audiobooks into his routine to get his mind activated and ready to go for the day with business.
LifterLMS is currently running a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale all November where you can use the code BlackFriday20 at checkout for 20% off your order. It’s the largest sale we do all year! If you’re already a LifterLMS customer and you’d like to upgrade to a bundle, send our team an email to [email protected] and ask for an upgrade with the BlackFriday20 code and they’ll send you a custom coupon code with the Black Friday deal and proration for any products you already own.
If you purchase any products from LifterLMS during the month of November, you’ll get $2,400 worth of bonuses, so be sure to check that out. It doesn’t matter if you purchase a $99 extension or the full $999 Infinity Bundle; any LifterLMS product during November qualifies.
At LifterLMS.com you can learn more about new developments and how you can use LifterLMS to build online courses and membership sites. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates, developments, and future episodes of LMScast. If you like this episode of LMScast, you can browse more episodes here. Thank you for joining us!
Episode Transcript
Chris:
You’ve come to the right place if you’re looking to create, launch, and scale a high-value online training program. I’m your guide, Chris Badgett. I’m the co-founder of LifterLMS, the most powerful learning management system for WordPress. Stay to the end. I’ve got something special for you. Enjoy the show.
Chris:
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of LMScast. My name is Chris Badgett, and today in this special episode I’m doing a solo show about a couple of things. We’re going to get into a very powerful personal productivity strategy for course creators and WordPress professionals. I’m also going to cover the LifterLMS Black Friday, Cyber Monday deal that’s going on. Welcome to this solo episode. I’m Chris Badgett. I’m the CEO and co-founder of LifterLMS, which is the most customizable, powerful learning management system for WordPress. Go check it out at Lifterlms.com.
Chris:
Before you go there, if you are listening to this in your earbuds, or watching this on YouTube, we do have a special Black Friday, Cyber Monday sale. If you go to Lifterlms.com before the end of November 2020, you can get Lifter LMS, or upgrade from where you’re at right now with a 20% discount. Use the coupon code, BlackFriday20, that’s BlackFriday, all one word, and then the number 20 as a coupon code at checkout. If you’re already a Lifter LMS customer, and you want to upgrade to a bigger bundle like the Universe bundle or the Infinity bundle, just shoot us an email, put upgrade in the subject line, and we’ll get your license prorated.
Chris:
One more thing before I get to the personal productivity power masterclass that we’re going to go over today is that any purchase of the Lifter LMS that happens in November, you’re also going to get every purchase, no matter if you just get something small like the Stripe add on, or you get something big like the Infinity bundle and everything in between, you’re going to get $2,400 worth of bonuses, so check those out. If you want to look into those, just go to blog.lifterlms.com. That’s our blog. Over there, you’ll see the post we have about the Lifter LMS Black Friday Sales Extravaganza 2020. We go into detail about the bonuses and all that stuff. Go check that out. You’re probably getting bombarded with a lot of Black Friday, Cyber Monday stuff, so I’m just going to keep it short and sweet. That’s all I’m going to say about that. Go to lifterlms.com. Use coupon code blackfriday20 before November ends.
Chris:
In this special solo show, as we get to the end of the year, there’s a couple of things going on. One, we’re in the middle of a global pandemic. Number two, we have one more month to finish some projects we have or get some things moved forward. Then we’re also entering to the period where we’re going to start planning for 2021. All these factors come together in a high-stress environment where having some strategies around personal productivity that can keep you solid and strong can really help you with whatever you’re trying to wrap up for 2020. As you project your future vision for 2021 out into the future, I’m going to give you the most powerful tool that I have that has supported me in the past 10 years as an entrepreneur, and as somebody who just needs to get a lot done quickly efficiently, and who, just like you, only has so much willpower and lots of things competing for my attention.
Chris:
I happen to be a father. I’ve got two wonderful daughters. I’m married. I like to exercise and get outside and do stuff. I’ve got a lot going on, so productivity is everything to me, but I also have a successful business. If I had to trace it all down to what is the most important thing that has supported me as an entrepreneur, it’s this morning routine. I’m going to go over this for you, what I do, and just the general principles that help me as an online business owner and entrepreneur. Now, to be frank with you, I’ve been developing this system for over 10 years, so it’s very detailed, and it’s also always evolving, and changing, and adapting a little bit. You don’t have to do everything I’m about to tell you on your first try. Start small, and install a component in your morning routine, and then build on top of that. You don’t have to go big and copy everything that I do.
Chris:
By the way, I’m different. I’m wired different. I’m 42 years old. I have my personality type. You have your personality type. I have my business. You have your business. Your life is different from my life, so it’s not a one size fits all. It’s a living document, or a living routine, that is constantly evolving, so just keep that in mind as I go through this.
Chris:
What does it look like? What are the main things with a functioning high-powered morning routine? The first thing I’m going to say is that there are some components that are really important. A lot of it has to do with the trinity between the body, the mind, and your spirit, or whatever you want to call it. We want to do things to support all that. I honestly believe that I get more done than most people before the work day starts, and I’m not in a competition. The only person I’m in a competition with is myself. The reason I’m able to get so much done, and I happen to be a super early morning person. If you’re not, that’s cool. I’m going to help you get more done before noon, or whatever, or before 2:00 PM, whatever works for you. Every day when I come in to start my work day, which is, this is actually early in the morning, right now. I’m just starting this up. I’ve already accomplished quite a bit so far.
Chris:
When I step into my office I have already done a tremendous amount of my morning routine. The first thing is taking care of the body. When I get up in the morning, the first thing I do, and I wake up without an alarm clock. If you can do that, I highly, highly recommend that. It’s so much better and less stressful to not start literally with an alarm going off. If you can’t do that, maybe it’s something to aspire to. The first thing I do is I get up. I go get a glass of water. I actually drink a lot of water, so about 32 ounces of water, like a big Mason jar. Then I make my morning tea is what I drink, which for me is Yerba Mati. Whatever you like to do. I’m hydrating the body, and then I go into a guilty pleasure of mine, and really it’s a mind time, so we hydrate the body, then we go into our mind.
Chris:
What do I like to do? I like to listen to podcasts, audio books, my YouTube subscriptions. I’m not looking for entertainment. I’m looking for knowledge, whatever I’m into. It could be, but it’s likely business related. It could have to do with something about marketing, or I’m watching some of my business coaches material, or I’m reading about technology or macroeconomics, or something about product creation, or digital entrepreneurship, team-building, all these topics that we as entrepreneurs really need to know and master. I feed my brain for an hour, sometimes longer. Sometimes I wake up at 4:30 and start doing that stuff. If I wake up early, I just go with it, and I expand the learning time. What I found is if I didn’t put that time in the morning when nobody else is up, that’s like personal Chris time that just gets pushed and doesn’t happen. I prioritize me and feeding my brain, no distractions. Nobody’s up.
Chris:
I live in the country. I light a fire in the wood stove. I’ve got my tea. I’m sitting there. I’m just activating my brain. Then I head out for at least a three-mile walk or run, sometimes five. I’m getting outside. The sun’s activating through my eyes and my skin, really waking me up. I’m continuing to learn, so I’ve got podcasts or audio book going while I’m doing that. I’m also getting out with my dogs and connecting with nature. Most of my stuff is in the woods and that gets me going. Then when I get back from that, I do a combination of stretching and yoga. Then I get into my big breakfast, spend some time with my family, and then I get dressed for the day or whatever. I pretty much wear almost the same thing. If you’re watching this video, you can see I have a white western collared shirt on. It’s my work uniform, if you will.
Chris:
I go to the office. I write down the three most important things I’m going to get done today. It’s called the five-minute journal. It’s a couple of things I’m grateful for. I have a guided meditation that I do, five-minute meditation. I have a visualization exercise that I do across eight different categories of life. If we can’t visualize what we want, it’s really hard to get there. One of the biggest takeaways I want to share with you that you hopefully take is get clear on what you want. What is the purpose? What are you striving for? What’s the goal? Not just making money or getting some material possession, but across all categories of life, what do you want? What’s the outcome? Once you select it, your subconscious mind, your brain, your dreams, they can all drive towards this. If you don’t have a destination, you’re just fluttering in the wind. I’ve learned that lesson a long time ago.
Chris:
After that, that’s pretty much it as I ease into my work day. There’s a lot of nuances and small points out there that I’ll just leave out of that. Then, as I ease into the work, I immediately go into the number one most important thing for the day. I don’t like to do meetings in the morning. Those get pushed out to the afternoon. I get my highest priority stuff done. Then for me, the time zone we have that’s best for our global team is 11:30 AM my time. By the time I get to that morning meeting, I’ve done this huge, massive routine to take care of my body, mind, and spirit. I have set my business priorities for the day and likely already accomplished them. Then I meet with my team who I work with. They’re amazing people. We do just a quick daily stand-up meeting. Most of the work we do is asynchronous and happens separately. Then I go on into my work day.
Chris:
There’s other rituals and patterns that I have, but in terms of that morning routine, that has been mission critical for my success. If I had to trace it back to one thing, it’s 100% the most important thing that has supported me. A lot of it has to do with, it doesn’t take willpower for me to do that routine anymore because I’ve done it for so long. I actually feel more stress and discomfort if I don’t do it, like if I’m traveling or something like that, and I don’t get everything in. That’s actually more stressful than actually doing it. I’ve built a ritual that on autopilot I go through that helps support me, not just in business life, but in life to take care of my mind, body, and spirit, and really let the ritual of the morning routine do the heavy lifting. As we head into this challenging winter, as you set your goals to get a bunch done before the end of the year, and as you plan 2021, if I could give you one gift, it would be to do a morning routine and set it out.
Chris:
For me, it just started with the glass of water, walking to the end of the driveway, and then doing 10 pages of nonfiction reading, and that was it. Then over time I built onto it. Don’t feel like you have to do everything that I said. I’m Chris Badgett from Lifter LMS. Thanks for checking out this solo episode about the morning routine. If you’re looking for a learning management system for your business, or your company, so that you can create, launch, and scale-high value online training, like online courses, coaching programs, or building out a remote school, or training playbooks to document inside of your company, however you’re looking to leverage a learning management system, we’ve got a great tool at Lifter LMS. If you take action before the end of November here, you can get a big discount with the coupon code, blackfriday20. There’s a bunch of bonuses you can get with that. Head on over to the Lifter LMS blog. Just go to blog.lifterLMS, or look for Lifter LMS blog Black Friday 2020. You’ll find it goes into all the bonuses and everything.
Chris:
My personal mission, and our company mission, is to lift up others through education. I hope this message has served you in some way. I wish you all the best in your productivity. If you’re ever out walking or doing one of these components in your morning, tag me on Twitter @ChrisBadgett. I’d love to hear that you’re working on developing your own morning routine. That would really inspire me to know that I’m helping you find that. It’s the biggest gift I could give somebody who’s ambitious, and has goals, and wants to live an integrative life. That’s it for this episode. I hope you have a great rest of your day. Take care.
Chris:
That’s a wrap for this episode of LMScast. Did you enjoy that episode? Tell your friends, and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode. I’ve got a gift for you over at lifterlms.com/gift. Go to lifterlms.com/gift. Keep learning. Keep taking action, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
