My Idiot Mentality: Recent Episodes
Andy Sulhoff
If you've ever felt like the biggest idiot in the room, you and I have something in common. I'm easily the biggest idiot I know and somehow I've managed to become a partner at an advertising agency and started another company. I have business partners who are accomplished and well respected individuals. How did I, the biggest idiot I know, become a business owner and partner? My Idiot Mentality is a podcast dedicated to the mentality of a self-described idiot. It's recommended that you do not listen to this podcast but if you do, we cannot be held responsible if you turn into an idiot too.
Happy Monday! I had a great Thanksgiving weekend with friends and family.
Topics covered
1) Thanksgiving - it's ok to fill your dessert plate every now and again. One day doesn't define who you are. Your daily habits do.
2) Focus & Control - Focus on the things you can control. Things you can't control are a waste of your energy.
3) Discipline - Iowa 28 Nebraska 21 - People would rather have a "sexy" brand of football and lose than have a "boring" (read disciplined and fundamentally sound) football team and win. Just silliness.
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Happy Wednesday! I've got a couple lessons from my wife's school/interaction
1) Applebee's - Walker Hayes - How a little girl's goal to eat at Applebee's was a humbling moment.
2) Mental Health - Life of an elementary classroom teacher and perspective on how my day to day workload isn't all that bad.
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Happy Monday!
Quote from my notebook today:
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
- Maya Angelou
Topics covered
1) Enjoying the wait
2) Saw a friend from high school
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Hello! Happy Friday!
Today's episode is all about how I work my way through business/marketing planning.
1) Review current results and previous year's history
2) Identify trends/anomalies
3) Set upcoming year targets
4) Define incremental steps necessary to hit targets
5) Identify assumptions/stress test your plan
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Happy Tuesday - posting this episode from Tuesday November 9th, 2021
1) Mental toughness as an asset
2) Preparedness = power
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Happy Monday! Getting back going after an up and down week last week.
Topics discussed
1) Ebbs & Flows - embrace it and make the most of it
2) The Jason Experience - it's good to take it up a notch every now and again
3) Gratitude and being grateful - a daily practice
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Good morning! I hope you're having a great day so far. It's a Thursday morning. Back at the podcast after a couple days off taking care of my kids.
Topics covered
1) Understanding your personal why and they why behind your business
2) Positivity and fun - reminder that positivity and fun need to be an emphasis for business leaders. People don't want to work at places that are negative and no fun.
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Happy November! It's November 1st and getting cold. Had a great Halloween last night with my kids and neighbors.
Topics covered
1) My 3 year old was more excited to give out candy than to get it for himself
2) What got you here you, won't get you there. How to know when your mentality/approach needs to change.
Happy Friday! It's a great day and looking like a fun weekend ahead. Hope you have a wonderful day and weekend!
Topic covered
1) Compliment, appearances & balance - I got a compliment at the gym, and apparently I look more in shape than I feel and it brings up the awareness that because of my workout routine I'm in better balance with my nutrition and exercise. Are there other areas of my life where I'm living in excess that's not good for me long term?
Special guest appearance from my 9 month old at ~5 minute mark :)
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Happy Thursday! It's a dreary and rainy day outside but all positive vibes on the inside. Let's have ourselves a day!
Topics Covered
1) The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
2) My Ideal Day - a vision exercise
3) Don't get caught up in appearances. Know that appearances are your assumptions.
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Good morning! Another beautiful sunrise in Iowa this morning. Bringing all the positive and happy vibes into work and life today!
Topics covered
1) The life of Matthew Manuel - a reminder to check yourself. Are you leading the life you want to live?
2) My son is like his dad. How can I help him be better and a reminder for me to be better
3) Warren Buffet quote - "Successful people say no to almost everything"
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Hello!!! It's a beautiful Tuesday morning and I'm getting things kicked off with a couple topics on my mind.
1) Teaching cycle applied to business - teach, do, feedback, repeat - How can I apply this to the training I'm doing for my team?
2) Lowering expectations - can't lower expectations around quality, but absolutely should plan for lower expectations rather than planning for high expectations
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
I recorded using my laptop microphone so the audio quality is crap on this episode, but the topic is a good one for me to review on a semi-regular basis.
My mentality towards my work over the past several months hasn't been where it needs to be for me to be successful. It certainly wasn't where it could have been to drive the best results for my clients because I was focused too much on the behavior of others. I was letting the actions of my clients impact my attitude and effort towards their businesses.
Starting today, I'm focusing on me. What can I do to help make my clients successful. I cannot control the behaviors of others, but I can bring good energy and effort to each of my clients. With that, I'll bring more success to my clients' businesses.
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Happy Friday! Bringing positivity and good energy into this beautiful day.
Topics covered:
1) Having an inward mindset - forget everyone else, focus on my behavior and my actions. Bring the best to the table every day in every way possible.
2) Know thyself - be aware of who I am and what that means for my relationships so I CAN bring my best to the table every day in every way
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
It's a beautiful day in Iowa. Bringing positive thoughts and energy into this Wednesday morning.
Topics covered:
1) Appreciating the little things
2) Top 5 Life Goals - what are yours?
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Wow! 30 Episodes in and it feels GREAT! Getting better every day by talking out my thoughts and doing a daily podcast journal session.
Topics covered:
1) How would you describe yourself non-relationally?
2) Self assessment vs public perception alignment
3) Avoiding negativity - when is it good and bad?
Have Fun! Get Better. Love Life.
Happy Monday morning friends! Hope you had a great weekend. Korver has hand, foot & mouth - a virus that's not terribly fun for him, but he's getting better and happy in general so it's all good.
Topics covered:
1) Leadership & Self-Deception - your self talk can mislead you to believing that other people are the problem. This self-deception is a big issue and I need to be better
2) Understanding discontent - what specifically is causing dissatisfaction or discontent and is that thing valid?
3) Perspective at different stages of life - Will I still have dissatisfaction/discontent in my life at 75? If so, then I just need to appreciate everything I have and not worry about what I don't.
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Happy Friday! I missed the podcast yesterday due to a sick kid. Feeling good to be back and recording this morning. Weather is cooling off in Eastern Iowa but it should be a beautiful weekend.
Topics covered:
- Out with a sick kid
- Very appreciative that my job is flexible enough to allow me to be home with kids when they're sick
- I would not have thought I'd have wanted to miss work to be home with a sick kid before I had kids. My values have changed and that should be expected
- Mission, Vision & Values
- Vision = where you're going
- Mission = the plan to get there
- Values = how you behave on your way there
- Business Books - a few of my favorites (in no particular order)
- Power of Habit - Charles Duhig
- Good to Great - Jim Collins
- Leadership & Self Deception - The Arbinger Institute
- 5 Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni
- Extreme Ownership - Jacko & Willinik
- Emyth - Michael Gerber
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - Carol Dweck
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki
- MONEY Master the Game - Tony Robbins
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Hello and happy Wednesday! It's a rainy day but that's not stopping me from bringing positive energy to the day. Was walking in this morning and I got to think of a few slogans that are important to my mentality.
Topics covered
1) Being prepared
2) Buy it nice, or buy it twice, but never pay full price.
3) GBED - Get. Better. Every. Day.
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Not a great episode but that's ok.
Topics covered.
1) In a world of abundance, focus is key
2) Seasonality for everything
3) Getting taken advantage of and jumbled thoughts on that topic
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Releasing this episode from Friday. Must have gotten busy and didn't upload. Bonus! You get two episodes today.
Topics covered.
1) Passion and energy
2) Conquering your environment
3) Addicted to work
Have fun! Get Better. Love Life.
Happy Monday! It's a rainy Monday morning but I'm bringing the positive energy to get the week started off right!
1) There's no one event that brings sustained happiness
2) There's no event that says you're ready for ________
3) Life gives you all you need to be successful if you're bold enough to put yourself out there
Have fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Happy Thursday! Trying to bring the energy with less caffeine today.
Topics covered:
1) Growth Mindset - you can get better at anything if you try. You may not be the best, but you can always get better if you put in effort.
2) Addiction & being bored - people are more bored now than any other time in history
3) Balancing doing things and not doing things - should I tailgate and be social? or enjoy some down time this weekend?
Have Fun! Get Better. Love Life.
Carol Dweck - Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Psychology-Carol-S-Dweck/dp/0345472322
Huberman Labs Podcast with Dr. Anna Lembke - https://open.spotify.com/episode/3SLviVTlj9FtwgU0S7IQEy?si=70c2f612655c4857
Good episode today! Not every day is a great day, but today I felt really good about my thoughts and generally about how I articulated my mentality.
Topics covered:
1) Self doubts and weaknesses - everyone has them, are my weaknesses a strength? Is it a good thing to be an idiot?
2) Standards - if you're going to do anything great in life, you're going to have to set and meet high standards
3) Attitude reflect leadership - a reminder that I need to bring positivity and fun energy into work every day AND set an example for being energized by challenges. I want people who work for me to have that attitude, so I have to be the leader and set that example every day.
Have Fun! Get Better. Love Life.
It's Tuesday and I'm working from the office today. A little cloudy but should be a nice day in Eastern Iowa!
Topics covered
1) Balancing self talk - I'm an idiot and I'm not an idiot. I don't know anything and I know some stuff. I'm not 100% an idiot and I have to find a way to balance those self talk narratives so I don't undermine growth/success opportunities
2) Time is going faster - When you're busy, time seems to go faster. Life is busier with 2 kids than with 1 so it seems like my kids are growing up faster now than when I just had 1 child
3) Budgeting and planning - I'm planning out budgets for 2022. Is it excessive for me to do that far out? Maybe, but I enjoy it and the budgeting/planning process is helpful to me so I'll keep doing it.
Have fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Good morning! Back at it after a couple days off.
1) Holocaust Museum - those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it
2) Understanding different world views - it's a blessing to grow up in Iowa
3) Appreciation - spending time with great friends is great and happens too infrequently
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Hump Day! This is the last day of the podcast this week. I'm traveling the rest of the week so will save up my idiotic thoughts and mentality for Monday!
Topics covered this week are related to starting a business. I'm looking to articulate my own beliefs around creating a business. Today I cover the following at a very high level. I'd like to dive deeper into these in future episodes.
1) Product
2) Process
3) Pricing
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Happy Tuesday! It's my dad's birthday today. Happy Birthday Dad
Topics covered
1) Experimentation - don't let unrealistic expectations keep you from experimenting
2) Finding joy in life - because of this podcast, I'm seeing more joy in life.
3) Seriousness - how can I be not so serious all the time?
Have fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Happy Monday! Bringing good vibes and energy this morning!
1) Control the things I can control
2) Positivity & fun - be relentless about being positive and fun
3) Daycare is closed so I'm home with my boys - being appreciative/grateful
Happy Friday! I'm upright and above ground so it's a great day!
Topics covered
1) Anyone from anywhere can do great things
2) I'm an idiot, but my mentality is the difference maker in the long term
3) Family time - How can I understand the perspective of older/wiser generation and apply that to my daily life
Happy Thursday! Working with some new equipment and figuring it all out.
Topics covered:
- I'm an idiot
- What am I not doing well
- How do I create systems in my business to make my business more systems dependent and less people dependent
Have Fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Recording in the office again this morning. Feeling a bit self conscious in this space. It was outside my comfort zone to record this podcast and publish it. It's even further outside my comfort zone to think someone might actually be listening as I'm recording.
As I listened to this episode I made mention that agency life is difficult and filled with challenges. That reality is not unique to people who work at agencies. Each workplace has it's own difficulties and challenges. Not more or less difficult than what I experience, just different.
Topics covered
- How to behave in the absence of clarity of direction - how do I behave when I don't feel like I can move forward at the pace I'd like to move?
- Systems - how can you make your business more SYSTEMS dependent and less PEOPLE dependent
- My values - how to create a culture of people who are invigorated by challenges. Energized when things go poorly.
I kinda stunk it up yesterday, but today is new day. I'm bringing good energy into the podcast this morning. Small setback where the studio was locked so I'm recording this from a regular desk using my laptop this morning.
I woke up knowing I needed to bring better positivity and energy into my day. I have no doubt that perspective helped me better cope with the change of venue and challenges of getting the podcast recorded this morning. I was actually excited/energized by the challenge of figuring out the solution of how I was going to get the podcast recorded.
Topics covered
1) Yesterday was not so good. Today will be better.
2) Positivity and/or fun are essential traits of a good leader
3) E-Myth - duality - I'm a technician AND an entrepreneur - I will bring both of those perspectives to my day and business so I need to be aware of how that impacts my perspective.
First episode from my home office. Video quality is pretty bad. Lighting is poor. Audio quality is not great. The content is just meh (at best). I almost didn't upload this because the quality is so bad across the board. How's that for selling you on an episode?
The show must go on, as they say, so I'll publish this episode anyway!
The My Idiot Mentality Podcast is a selfish session where I share my mentality going into the work day.
Topics covered
1) Learning - understanding how you learn
2) Telling people know - be honest and proactive when you have to tell people no
3) My time is my greatest asset - how I choose to spend my time is very important
Happy Friday! It's been a good week. Have fun. Get Better. Love Life.
Topics discussed:
1) E-Myth Quote - Your business is a reflection of who you are as a person
2) I can't learn things for other people
3) I can't change other people
Episode 10 is a quick one. Thought about skipping but the My Idiot Mentality podcast is a great mental exercise so I'm going to record and publish.
- Parker moving
- Once in a lifetime...
- Just laugh
Feeling great this morning. Weather is starting to be cooler in the mornings and feeling more like fall. Great energy and loving this routine of recording this podcast every day!
Topics discussed
- A student of the game, what games are we playing and how can I be a better student of those games?
- What metrics do we have to evaluate ourselves individually, our business and ourselves as individuals in our businesses?
- Can’t have the good without the bad- taking off of the technician, manager and entrepreneur
Sometimes you get into a flow and other times things seem to drag. I felt like this episode wasn't as clearly thought out as some others. That's not like me. I'll be better tomorrow!
Topics discussed
- E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber - conflict between the technician, manager and entrepreneur applied to a group of owners
- Awareness & constant evolution - have to be aware and constantly evolving
- Client mentality - what does it mean for me to win? Am I winning by getting offended by my client's behavior and telling them to take a hike?
Happy Monday! Bringing the positive energy this morning.
Topics discussed
- Choose your mentality
- What do you want out of life
- Improving my work mentality
It's Friday and I'm feeling good energy today. Looking forward to a weekend with friends for the Iowa v Iowa State football game.
Topics discussed
1) Bringing the energy when you don't really feel like it
2) Dealing with poor leadership or behavior I disagree with
3) Speako app to improve public speaking - only 35 filler words in this podcast!
No coffee this morning. Beautiful day as it starts to feel more like fall in Iowa.
Topics covered
1) Appreciating the good times - don't wait for the bad times to appreciate the good times
2) Affirmations - find clarity, then create affirmations
3) Daily habits - our daily habits are one of the most important things in our lives
Quick episode today under a bit of a time crunch to get recorded and out of the studio in time for someone else to use it.
Topics discussed
- Leadership perspective - have a feedback loop on leadership
- Be the best version of myself - control my self talk and understand the context of my self talk. don't let self talk from emotional settings drive the ship
- Affirmations - how to evolve into the new version of yourself using affirmations
This is my Idiot Mentality Podcast with Andy Sulhoff. Touching on 3 topics today
1) Mr. Big - there's no such thing as an original thought
2) I'll never be the best and what's the point
3) Being less selfish
There's no bigger idiot in the world than the person I was yesterday. Today on the My Idiot Mentality podcast I discuss
1) Learning to become a better human from my son's behavior
2) Learning to become a better leader from previous leaders I've worked with
3) Learning to be better about assuming positive intent and NOT assuming thoughts, feelings or opinions from others
Cheers!
Let's get this thing started. I'll be honest and say, you do not want to listen to this episode. If you do, I discuss the my thoughts on enjoying life through challenges and getting out of my comfort zone to get to where I want to go in life.
This is My Idiot Mentality for September 2, 2021